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Title: The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation
Volume 1
Author: Charles Roger
Release Date: February 8, 2008 [EBook #24550]
Language: English
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"Entered according to Act of the Provincial Legislature, for the
Protection of Copy-rights, in the year one thousand eight hundred and
fifty-six, by P. SINCLAIR, Quebec, in the Office of the Registrar of
the Province of Canada."
THE RISE
OF
CANADA,
FROM
BARBARISM
TO
WEALTH AND CIVILISATION.
BY
CHARLES ROGER,
QUEBEC.
Una manus calamum teneat, manus altera ferrum,
Sic sis nominibus dignus utrinque tuis.
VOLUME I.
QUEBEC: PETER SINCLAIR.
Montreal, H. Ramsay and B. Dawson; Toronto, A. H. Armour & Co.; London,
C. W., Andrews & Coombe; Port Hope, James Ainsley; New York, H. Long &
Brothers, D. Appleton & Co., J. C. Francis; Boston, Little & Brown;
Philadelphia, Lindsay & Blakiston; London, Trubner & Co.
1856.
ST. MICHEL & DARVEAU, JOB PRINTERS,
No. 3, Mountain Street.
TO
JOSEPH MORRIN, ESQUIRE, M. D.,
MAYOR OF QUEBEC,
This Volume
IS DEDICATED, AS THE ONLY MONUMENT, WHICH CAN BE RAISED
TO ACKNOWLEDGED WORTH,
BY HIS OBLIGED AND FAITHFUL
FRIEND AND SERVANT,
THE AUTHOR.
Quebec, December, 1855.
INDEX.
PAGE.
CHAPTER I.
Canada Discovered 4
Cartier's Arrival in the St. Lawrence 5
Commencement of the Fur Trade 6
Quebec Founded 7
Exploration of the Ottawa 8
The Cold--Lake Huron 9
Sixty White Inhabitants 10
The First Franco-Canadian 11
The Colonists Dissatisfied 12
The Hundred Associates 13
Quebec Surrendered to the English 14
The Restoration--Death of Champlain 15
The Massacre at Sillery 16
The Effect of Rum upon the Iroquois 17
Arrival of Troops--A Moon-Light Flitting 18
Swearing and Blasphemy--The Earthquake 19
The Physical Features of the Country 20
The First Governor and Council 21
First Settlement of old Soldiers 22
The Canada Company 23
Kingston Founded 24
The Small Pox--De Frontenac--Sale of Spirits 25
Marquette--Jollyet--The Sieur La Salle 26
The First Vessel Built in Canada 27
Voyage of the Cataraqui--Tempest on Lake Erie 28
Mouths of the Mississippi--Murder of La Salle 29
Indian Difficulties--Fort Niagara 30
Deception and its Results 31
Massacre of Schenectady 32
Education--Witchcraft 33
Port Royal reduced by Phipps 34
De Frontenac's Penobscot Expedition 35
Trade--War--Population 36
New England Expedition to Canada 37
Gen. Nicholson--Peace of Utrecht 38
Social Condition and Progress 39
Louisbourg--Shirley's Expedition 40
Siege of Louisbourg 41
Surrender of Louisbourg 42
A French Fleet Intercepted 43
The New Englanders' Convention 44
Surprise and Defeat of Braddock 45
Avariciousness of Bigot 46
Capture of Oswego by Montcalm 47
Incompetent Generals--Change of Ministry 48
Abercrombie's attack on Ticonderoga 49
Surrender of Fort Frontenac 50
Wolfe's Invasion 51
The Repulse at Montmorenci 52
The Battle of Quebec 53
Death of Wolfe 54
Death of Montcalm 55
Canada ceded to England 56
Canada and New England 57
Quebec Act--Taxation without Representation 58
CHAPTER II.
Representation in the Imperial Parliament 59
Montgomery's Invasion 60
Arnold--Montgomery--Allen 61
The American Siege--Death of Montgomery 62
Independence Refused by the Catholic Clergy 63
The American Siege Raised 64
Independence--Defeat of Baum 65
The Surrender of Burgoyne 66
Western Canada divided into Districts 67
Divisions of the Province of Quebec 68
Lord Dorchester 69
Governor-General Prescott 70
Governor Milnes 71
The Royal Institution Founded 72
Cultivation of Hemp--Land Jobbing 73
The Lachine Canal--The Gaols Act 74
Trinity Houses Established--An Antagonism 75
Mr. Dunn, Administrator 76
Upper Canada--The Separation Act 77
Debate on the Separation Act 78
Mr. Fox's Speech 79
Mr. Chancellor Pitt's Speech 81
Mr. Burke's Speech 82
Governor Simcoe and his Parliament 83
Parliamentary Proceedings 84
Simcoe's Character 85
London Founded--Simcoe's Prejudices 86
Selection of a Seat of Government 87
Simcoe and the Hon. John Young 88
The Newark Spectator 89
First Parliament of Upper Canada 90
The Hon. Peter Russell 91
General Hunter, Governor 92
Hunter--New Ports of Entry 93
Collectors of Customs appointed 94
Parliamentary Business 95
Grant and Gore 96
Lower Canada--Importance of Parliament 97
Parliament Libelled 98
The Honorable Herman Ryland 99
Mr. Ryland's hatred of Papacy 100
Romanism seriously threatened 101
No Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec 102
Mr. Plessis and Mr. Att'y. Gen'l.--Explanation 103
A New Bishop Made--Ryland Angry 104
Churches and Education 105
Lord Bishop Strachan 106
The Church of England 107
The Dissenters and Episcopacy 108
Gift of £20,000 to the King--Spencer Wood, &c. 109
Garrison Pipeclay--the Habitants 110
A Provincial Agent in London 111
A Speck of War 112
The Chesapeake Difficulty Settled 113
Feeling in the United States 114
War Preparations in Canada 115
Upper Canada--The Parliament 116
Governor General Sir James Craig 117
Ryland's Love for the New Governor 118
Services of Sir James Craig 119
Meeting of Parliament 120
The Judges in Parliament 121
Expulsion of Mr. Hart 122
Prorogation of Parliament 123
Mr. Parent and "The Canadien" 124
Dismissals from the Militia 125
Mr. Panet re-elected Speaker 126
The War--The Judges--Mr. Hart 127
Parliament Angrily Dissolved 128
French Hatred of the British Officials 129
Craig's Opinion of the French Canadians 130
Composition of the Assembly 131
Vilification of the "Gens en Place" 132
The Martello Towers 133
The First Steamboat on the St. Lawrence 134
Death of Washington 135
No Liberty of Discussion in the United States 136
President Burr's Conspiracy 137
Madison--Erskine--and Jackson 138
Washington Diplomacy--A new Parliament 139
The Speech from the Throne 140
The Address in Reply 141
The Civil List 142
Civil List Resolutions 143
The Resolutions Premature 144
Mr. Justice De Bonne 145
An Antagonism--Parliament Dissolved 146
Rumors of Rebellion 147
Seizure of the "Canadien" 148
Sir James' upon Obnoxious Writings 149
A Proclamation 150
A Warning 151
Misgovernment of the Country 152
An Apology for Misgovernment 153
The Red-Tapist and the Colonist 154
Arrogance of the Officials 155
The Craig Road completed 156
Meeting of a New Parliament 157
Mr. Bedard, M.P., in prison 158
Why Mr. Bedard was not liberated 159
Disqualification of the Judges 160
Departure of Sir James Craig 161
Mr. Peel on Canadian Affairs 162
Mr. Peel--Sir Vicary Gibbs 163
Legislation in Upper Canada 164
Brocke--Prevost--The "Little Belt" 165
CHAPTER III.
Sir George Prevost 166
Opening of Parliament 167
Embodiment of the Militia 168
Declaration of War by the United States 169
The Henry Plot 170
Henry's Treachery 171
The American Minority's Fears 172
United States unprepared for War 173
The Feeling in Canada 174
Army Bills--Prorogation of Parliament 175
The Ste. Claire Riot 176
The Commencement of Hostilities 177
Surrender of Michillimackinac 178
General Hull.--Proclamation--Amherstburgh 179
Offensive operations by the British 180
The Battle of Maguago 181
Bombardment of Detroit 182
Surrender of General Hull 183
Hull in Montreal--His Excuse 184
Surrender of H.M.S. "Guerrière"--The Fight 185
The "Guerrière" a wreck 186
Abandonment of the "Guerrière" 187
The Northern States clamorous for peace 188
The Battle of Queenston--Death of Brocke 189
The Victory--The Burial of Brocke 190
The "President" and "Belvidera" 191
The "Frolic" and the "Wasp" 192
The "Macedonian" and "United States" 193
The Lords of the Admiralty 194
The "Constitution" and the "Java" 195
Capture of the "Java"--Spirit of "The Times" 196
Generals Sheaffe and Smyth 197
The Fleets on the Lakes 198
De Salaberry--Lacolle 199
Dearborn's Retreat 200
Smyth's Attempt at Erie 201
Meeting of the Lower Canadian Parliament 202
The Prevalent Feeling--Mr. Jas. Stuart 203
Proceedings of Parliament 204
Mr. Ryland on the Press 205
The "Mercury" upon Mr. Stuart 206
Opening of the next Campaign 207
Battle at the River Raisin 208
Great Exertions on both sides 209
Imperial Misapprehension of Canadian Resources 210
Assault at Ogdensburgh 211
Capture of Toronto 212
Fort George Blown up 213
The Americans Surprised 214
Black Rock--Sacketts Harbour 215
The Affair of Sacketts Harbour 216
Indecision of Sir George Prevost 217
Unsuccessful Assault upon Sandusky 218
Stupidity of the English Military Departments 219
Capture of two War Vessels at Isle Aux Noix 220
Plattsburgh Captured 221
Wisdom thrust upon the Admiralty 222
The "Shannon" and "Chesapeake" 223
The Fight--The Triumph 224
"Argus" & "Pelican"--"Boxer" & "Enterprise" 225
Travelling--The Thousand Islands 226
Goose Creek--The Attack 227
York--Capture of the "Julia" & "Growler" 228
Engagement on Lake Ontario--The Mishap 229
Barclay and Perry 230
The Battle--The Americans victorious 231
Proctor's Retreat-Kentucky Mounted Rifles 232
Death of Tecumseh--Flight of Proctor 233
General Proctor reprimanded and suspended 234
The intended attack upon Montreal 235
De Salaberry and his Voltigeurs 236
The Battle of Chateauguay 237
Excellent effect of music 238
The Canadians Victorious 239
Wilkinson's Descent of the Rapids 240
Chrystler's Farm 241
The Attack on Montreal abandoned 242
Gen. Drummond--Upper Canada 243
Assault and Capture of fort Niagara 244
Nocturnal Attack on Black Rock 245
The Retreat of the Americans 246
Termination of the Campaign 247
Prosperity of Canada during the War 248
Parliament--Upper Canada 249
The Parliament of Lower Canada 250
The Speech and The Reply 251
Proposed Income Tax 252
Mr. Ryland and the Provincial Secretary 253
Mr. James Stuart and Chief Justice Sewell 254
The Rules of Practice 255
Resolutions aimed at Jonathan Sewell 256
The Impeachment 257
An Unpleasant Position 258
Chief Justices Sewell and Monk 259
London Agents of the Province 260
The Prorogation--Russian Mediation 261
Capture of the "Essex" 262
"Frolic" & "Orpheus"--"Epervier" & "Peacock" 263
The "Reindeer" and "Wasp" 264
Prisoners--8th Regt.--Indians 265
The Attack upon Lacolle 266
The Killed and Wounded--Plunder 267
Recaptures of Plunder at Madrid 268
Capture of Oswego 269
The Sandy Creek Business 270
Riall's Defeat 271
The Battle of Chippewa 272
The Battle continued 273
Siege of Fort Erie 274
The Assault 275
A British Fleet on the American Coast 276
Admiral Cockburn & General Ross 277
The Legislative Capital of the U.S. captured 278
The Destruction of the Libraries 279
Capitulation of Alexandria 280
Death of General Ross 281
The Attack on Baltimore 282
Prairie Du Chien and Ste. Marie 283
Moose Island taken possession of 284
The Penobscot Expedition 285
Invasion of the United States 286
The British Fleet defeated in Lake Champlain 287
The Fight & the Surrender 288
The Retreat--Sir George Prevost 289
Character of Sir George Prevost 290
Accusation of Prevost by Sir Jas. Yeo 291
Fort Erie Blown up 292
New Orleans--General Jackson 293
Nature of the Defences of New Orleans 294
Pakenham--The Assault 295
Gallantry of the 93rd Regiment 296
The Defeat--Thornton Successful 297
Capture of Fort Boyer--The Peace 298
Defence of Pakenham's conduct 299
The Hartford Convention 300
Consequences of the War 301
The Canada Militia Disbanded 302
Meeting of Parliament in Lower Canada 303
An Agent--Public Opinion 304
Service of Plate to Sir George Prevost 305
Character of Prevost as a Governor 306
Close of the Session--the Lachine Canal 307
Progress--Recall of Sir George Prevost 308
Legislation in Upper Canada 309
State of Parties in Upper Canada 310
The Newspaper a Pestilence in the Land 311
The Brock Monument--Gore's Return 312
CHAPTER IV.
Drummond Administrator-in-chief 313
The Roads--The Inhabitants 314
The French Canadian character 315
Parliament--Waterloo 316
"My Native City" 317
The Assembly Censured 318
Dissolution of Parliament 319
General Wilson Administrator 320
Information for the Colonial Secretary 321
Sir John Sherbrooke's Notions 322
The New Parliament 323
Suspension of Mr. Justice Foucher 324
The Chief Justice of Montreal 325
"Sub Rosa" Negociation 326
Management of the Commons 327
The Banks of Quebec and Montreal 328
York and Kingston 329
First Steamers on the Lakes 330
Government of Upper Canada 331
Persecutions for Opinion's sake 332
Joseph Wilcocks, M.P.P. 333
Acts of the Upper Canada Legislature 334
The Prorogation 336
Foreign Protestants--Prorogation 337
Durand's Parliamentary Libel 338
Durand Imprisoned--Wyatt _vs._ Gore 339
Lower Canada Civil List 340
The Instructions--Foucher 341
Adjudication of Impeachments 342
Mr. Ryland's Opinion 343
The Chambly Canal 344
The Estimates--St. Peter Street, Quebec 345
Disinterment of Montgomery--Richmond 346
His Grace the Duke of Richmond's Speech 347
Rejection of the Civil List--Lachine Canal 348
Additional Impeachments 349
Some Feeling evinced by the Legislative Council 350
A Paul, Strahan, and Bate's Case 351
A Testy Speech from the Throne 352
Rideau Canal--Population--Banks 353
Upper Canada--Mr. Gourlay 354
Mr. Gourlay's schemes 355
Gourlay arrested 356
Gourlay's ejectment--Parliament 357
Governor Maitland and the Convention 358
Death of the Duke of Richmond 359
Antagonism--Maitland and the L.C. Assembly 360
Arrival of Lord Dalhousie 361
Papineau's speech at Montreal 362
Dalhousie's opening parliamentary speech 363
Facilities for manufacturing in Lower Canada 364
Honorable John Neilson--Appearance and Character 365
Quarrel of the Houses about the Civil List 366
Mr. Andrew Stuart--The Supplies, &c. 367
The Lachine Canal--Sinecure Offices 368
Additions to the Executive Council 369
The Civil List--Antagonism 370
Mr. Marryatt, M.P.--Stoppage of the Supplies 371
The Honorable John Richardson 372
Message from the Governor 373
Despotic conduct of the Assembly 374
Effect of cutting off the supplies 375
The Prorogation--Ryland's Advice 376
Legislative Union of the Provinces 377
Agriculture and commerce in distress 378
The Union Bill 379
The Church--Political Rights 380
Antipathies--Increasing Difficulties 381
Parliament again in session 382
Sir F. Burton--District of St. Francis 383
The Civil List 384
"Times" Libel--Emptiness of the Public Chest 385
The Finances--the Receiver General 386
The Lachine and Chambly Canals 387
The prorogation--Union of the Provinces 388
The Public Accounts of Upper Canada 389
Gourlay's Enlightened Views 390
Construction of Ship Canals recommended 391
Realization of a Dream--Mr. Merritt 392
John Charlton Fisher, LL.D., King's Printer 393
Suspension of Mr. Caldwell 394
Lord Dalhousie's Explanation 395
The defalcation--Tea Smuggling 396
Free navigation of the St. Lawrence demanded 397
Pettishness of the Lower Canada Assembly 398
Occupations Taxed in Upper Canada 399
Drawbacks on Importations 400
The Clergy Reserves 401
Parliament Closed--Tyranny of Maitland 402
The Bidwells and Brodeurs of U.C. 403
W. L. Mackenzie--Appearance and Character 404
Mackenzie Persecuted 405
Press Muzzlings 406
Sir J. Robinson--Patience and Oppression 407
Recall of Sir P. Maitland 408
Matthews--Willis--Robinson 409
The Gentry of Canada 410
The Literary and Historical Society 411
Departure of Lord Dalhousie 412
PREFACE.
The beauty of a book, as of a picture, consists in the grouping of
images and in the arrangement of details. Not only has attitude and
grouping to be attended to by the painter, and by the narrator of
events, but attention must be paid to light and shade; and the same
subject is susceptible of being treated in many ways. When the idea
occurred to me of offering to the public of Canada a history of the
province, I was not ignorant of the existence of other histories.
Smith, Christie, Garneau, Gourlay, Martin and Murray, the narratives
of the Jesuit Fathers, Charlevoix, the Journals of Knox, and many
other histories and books, were more or less familiar to me; but there
was then no history, of _all_ Canada from the earliest period to
the present day so concisely written, and the various events and
personages, of which it is composed, so grouped together, as to
present an attractive and striking picture to the mind of every
reader. It was that want which I determined to supply, and with some
degree of earnestness the self-imposed task was undertaken. My plan
was _faintly_ to imitate the simple narrative style, the
conciseness, the picturesqueness, the eloquence, the poetry, and the
philosophic spirit of a history, the most remarkable of any
extant--that of the world. As Moses graphically and philosophically
has sketched the peopling of the earth; painted the beauties of
dawning nature; shown the origin of agriculture and the arts;
described the social advancement of families, tribes and nations;
exhibited the short-comings and the excellencies of patriarchal and of
monarchical forms of government; exposed the warrings and bickerings
among men; told of the manner in which a people escaped from bondage
and raised themselves on the wreck of thrones, principalities, and
powers, to greatness; published the laws by which that most chosen
people were governed; and dwelt upon the perversity of human nature;
and as other men, divinely inspired, have sublimely represented the
highest stages of Jewish civilisation, so did I propose to myself to
exhibit the rise of Canada from a primitive condition to its present
state of advancement. My first great difficulty was to obtain a
publisher. There could only be a very few persons who would run the
risk of publishing a mere history of Canada, even with all these
fanciful excellencies, produced by one unknown to fame. But "where
there is a will, there is a way," and about the middle of the month of
June last, I had succeeded in disposing of a book, then scarcely
begun, to Mr. Peter Sinclair, Bookseller, John Street, in the City of
Quebec. That gentleman, with characteristic spirit and liberality,
agreed to become my publisher, and until the 17th day of September, I
read and wrote diligently, having written, in round numbers, about a
thousand pages of foolscap and brought to a conclusion the first
rebellion. Then the work of printing was begun, and the correction of
all the proofs together with the editorial management of a newspaper,
have since afforded me sufficient occupation. Mr. McMullen, of
Brockville, has, however, produced a history of this country from its
discovery to the present time, almost as if he had been influenced by
motives similar to those which have influenced me. His pictures,
however, are not my pictures, nor his sentiments my sentiments. The
books--although the facts are the same and necessarily derived from
the same sources--are essentially different. He is most elaborate in
the beginning, I become more and more particular with regard to
details towards the close--I expand with the expansion of the country.
In the first chapter of this first volume, the history of the province
while under French rule is rapidly traced, and the history of the New
England Colonies dipped into, with the view of showing the
progressional resemblance between that country which is now the United
States and our own; in the second chapter the reader obtains only a
glance, as it were, at the American war of independence, when he is
carried again into Canada and made acquainted with the many
difficulties in spite of which Upper and Lower Canada continued to
advance in wealth and civilisation; in the third chapter a history of
the war between England and the United States is given with
considerable minuteness; and the fourth chapter brings the reader up
to the termination of that extraordinary period of mis-government,
subsequent to the American war, which continued until the Rebellion,
and has not even yet been altogether got rid of. There are without
doubt, errors, exceptions, and omissions enough to be found--an island
may have been inadvertently placed in a wrong lake, a date or figure
may be incorrect, words may have been misprinted, and, in some parts,
the sense a little interfered with--but I have set down nothing in
malice, having had a strict regard for truth. I have creamed Gourlay,
Christie, Murray, Alison, Wells, and Henry, and taken whatever I
deemed essential from a history of the United States, without a title
page, and from Jared Sparks and other authors; but for the history of
Lower Canada my chief reliance has been upon the valuable volumes,
compiled with so much care, by Mr. Christie, and I have put the
essence of his sixth volume of revelations in its fitting place.
For valuable assistance in the way of information, I am indebted to
Mr. Christie personally, to the Honble. Henry Black, to the Librarians
of the Legislative Assembly--the Reverend Dr. Adamson and Dr.
Winder--and to Daniel Wilkie, Esquire, one of the teachers of the High
School of Quebec.
C. ROGER.
Quebec, 31st December, 1855.
THE RISE
OF
CANADA
FROM
BARBARISM TO CIVILISATION.
CHAPTER I.
There have been many attempts to discover a northwest passage to the
East Indies or China. Some of these attempts have been disastrous, but
none fruitless. They have all led to other discoveries of scarcely
inferior importance, and so recently as within the past twelve months
the discovery of a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans has
been made. It was in the attempt to find a new passage from Europe to
Asia that this country was discovered. In one of these exploring
expeditions, England, four centuries ago, employed John Cabot. This
Italian navigator, a man of great intrepidity, courage, and nautical
skill, discovered Newfoundland, saw Labrador, (only previously known to
the Danes) and entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence. To Labrador he gave,
it is alleged, the name of Primavista. But that he so designated that
still rugged and inhospitable, but not unimprovable, region, is less
than probable. The name was more applicable to the gulf which,
doubtless, appeared to Cabot to be a first glimpse of the grand marine
highway of which he was in quest, and with which he was so content that
he returned to England and was knighted by Henry the Seventh. Sebastian
Cabot made the next attempt to reach China by sailing northwest. He
penetrated to Hudson's Bay, never even got a glimpse of the St.
Lawrence, and returned to England. Fifty years afterwards, Cotereal
left Portugal, with the view of following the course of the elder
Cabot. He reached Labrador, returned to Portugal, was lost on a second
voyage, and was the first subject of a "searching expedition," three
vessels having been fitted out with that view by the King of Portugal.
Several other attempts at discovery were subsequently made. Two
merchants of Bristol, in England, obtained a patent to establish
colonies in Newfoundland and Labrador, and in 1527, Henry the Seventh,
for the last time, despatched a northwest passage discovery fleet. The
formation of English settlements, and the exploration were equally
unsuccessful. These facts I allude to, rather with the object of
accounting for the name of "Canada," applied to the country through
which the St. Lawrence flows, than for any other purpose. In the
"_Relations des Jesuits_," Father Henepin states that the Spaniards
first discovered Canada while in search, not of a northwest passage,
but of gold, which they could not find, and therefore called the land,
so valueless in their eyes, _El Capo di Nada_--"The Cape of Nothing."
But, the Spaniards, who possibly did visit Canada two years before
Cabot, whatever the object of their voyage may have been, could not
have done anything so absurd. Quebec, not Canada, may have been to them
Cape Nothing, and doubtless was. It was the _way_ they looked for. That
was as visible to them as to Cabot, and a passage, strath, or way is
signified in Spanish by the word Canada. It was not gold but a way to
gold that English, Spaniards, Italians, and French sought. It was the
cashmeres, the pearls, and the gold of India that were wanted. It was a
short way to wealth that all hoped for. And the St. Lawrence has,
indeed, been a short way to wealth, if not to China, as will afterwards
be shown.[1]
[1] The title of Henepin's book is "Nouveau Voyage d'un païs plus
grand que l'Europe, avec les réflections des enterprises du Sieur
de la Salle, sur les Mines de Ste. Barbe, &c., * * * et des
avantages qu'on peut retirer du chemin racourci de la Chine et du
Japon, par le moyen de tant de vastes contrées et de nouvelles
colonies," (published at Utrecht in 1698.)
In the commissions granted to Champlain, on the 15th October,
1612, and 15th February, 1625, the same objects are adverted
to:--"_pour essayer de trouver le chemin faite pour aller par de
dans le dit pays au pays de la Chine et Indes Orientales_."
Passing over the exploration of what is now the Coast of the United
States, by Verrazzano, I come to the discovery of Gaspé Basin and the
River St. Lawrence, by Jacques Cartier, of St. Malo, in France. With
ships of one hundred and twenty tons, and forty tons, Cartier arrived
in the St. Lawrence--as some spring traders of the present day
occasionally do--before the ice had broken up, and found it necessary
to go back and seek shelter in some of the lower bays or harbours. He
left St. Malo in April, 1534, and arrived in the St. Lawrence early in
May. Returning to Gaspé, he entered the Bay Chaleur, remained there
until the 25th July, and returned to France. Next year, Cartier arrived
in the St. Lawrence, after various disasters to his three vessels, and
viewed and named Anticosti, which he called L'Isle de L'Assomption;
explored the River Saguenay; landed on, and named the Isle aux Coudres,
or Island of Filberts; passed the Isle of Bacchus, now Island of
Orleans; and at length came to anchor on the "Little River" St. Croix,
the St. Charles of these times, on which stood the huts of Stadacona.
Cartier chatted with the Indians for a season. He found them an
exceedingly good tempered and very communicative people. They told him
that there was another town higher up the river, and Cartier determined
upon visiting that congregation of birch bark tents or huts, pitched on
a spot of land called Hochelaga, now the site of Montreal. At Hochelaga
the "new Governor" met with a magnificent reception. A thousand natives
assembled to meet him on the shore, and the compliment was returned by
presents of "tin" beads, and other trifles. Hochelaga was the chief
Indian Emporium of Canada; it was ever a first class city--in Canada.
Charlevoix says, even in those days this (Hochelaga) was a place of
considerable importance, as the capital of a great extent of country.
Eight or ten villages were subject to its sway. Jacques Cartier
returned to Quebec, loaded his vessels with supposed gold ore, and Cape
Diamonds, which he supposed were brilliants of the first water, and
then went home to France, where he told a truly magnificent tale
concerning a truly magnificent country. Expeditions for Canada were
everywhere set afoot. Even Queen Elizabeth, of England, sent Frobisher
on a voyage of discovery, but he only discovered a foreland and tons of
mica, which he mistook for golden ore. Martin Frobisher was ruined. His
was a ruinous speculation. Talc or mica did not pay the expense of a
nine month's voyage with fifteen ships. But all that was then sought
for is now found in Canada--and more. To obtain much gold, however, the
settlement of a country is necessary. It is the wants of the settlers
which extract gold from the ground for the benefit of the trader. The
only occupiers of Canada, no farther back than two hundred years, were
Indians. The Montagnais, the Hurons, the Algonquins, the Iroquois, the
Outagomies, the Mohawks, the Senecas, the Sioux, the Blackfeet, and the
Crowfeet red-faces, were the undisputed possessors of the soil. They
held the mine, the lake, the river, the forest, and the township in
free and common soccage. They were sometimes merchants and sometimes
soldiers. They were all ready to trade with their white invaders, all
prone to quarrel among themselves. The Iroquois and Hurons were ever at
war with each other. When not smoking they were sure to be fighting.
The first white man who opened up the trade of the St. Lawrence was M.
Pontgrave, of St. Malo. He made several voyages in search of furs to
Tadousac, and the wealthy merchant was successful. With the aid of a
Captain Chauvin, of the French navy, whom he induced to join him,
Pontgrave attempted to establish a trading post at Tadousac. He was,
however, unsuccessful. Chauvin died in 1603, leaving a stone house for
his monument, then the only one in Canada.
It was now determined by the French government to form settlements in
Canada. And the military mind of France attempted to carry into effect
a plan not dissimilar to that recommended a few years ago by Major
Carmychael Smyth, the making of a road to the Pacific through the
wilderness by means of convicts. The plan, however, failed, though
attempted by the Marquis De la Roche, who actually left on Sable Island
forty convicts drawn from the French prisons. A company of merchants
having been formed for the purpose of making settlements, Champlain
accepted the command of an expedition, and accompanied by Pontgrave,
sailed for the St. Lawrence in 1603. They arrived safely at Tadousac,
and proceeded in open boats up the St. Lawrence; but did nothing. The
effort at settlement was subsequently renewed. In 1608, Champlain, a
second time, reached Stadacona or Quebec, on the 3rd July, and struck
by the commanding position of Cape Diamond, selected the base of the
promontory as the site of a town. He erected huts for shelter;
established a magazine for stores and provisions; and formed barracks
for the soldiery, not on the highest point of the headland, but on the
site of the recently destroyed parliament buildings. There were then a
few, and only a few, Indians in Stadacona, that Indian town being
situated rather on the St. Charles than on the St. Lawrence. Few as
they were, famine reduced them to the necessity of supplicating food
from the strangers. The strangers themselves suffered much from scurvy,
and after an exploration of the lake which yet bears the name of its
discoverer, Champlain returned to France. Two years later the intrepid
sailor set out for Tadousac and Quebec with artisans, laborers, and
supplies for Nouvelle France, the name then given to Canada, or the
Great "Pass" to China. He arrived at the mouth of the Saguenay on the
26th of April, after a remarkably short passage of eighteen days. He
found his first settlers contented and prosperous. They had cultivated
the ground successfully, and were on good terms with the natives.
Champlain, however, desirous of annexing more of the territory of the
Indians, stirred them up to strife. He himself joined an hostile
expedition of the Algonquins and Montagnais against the Iroquois. What
success he met with is not now to be ascertained. Deficient in
resources, he again returned to France, and found a partner able and
willing to assist the Colony in the person of the Count de Soisson, who
had been appointed Viceroy of the new country--a sinecure appointment
which the Count did not long enjoy, inasmuch as death took possession
of him shortly afterwards. The honorary office of Viceroy, which more
resembled an English Colonial Secretaryship of the present day, than a
viceroyalty, was, on the death of Soisson, conferred on the Prince de
Condé, who sent Champlain from St. Malo for the Colonial Seat of
Government, on the 6th March, 1613, as Deputy Governor. Champlain
arrived at Quebec on the 7th of May. The infant colony was quiet and
contented. Furs were easily obtained for clothing in winter, and in
summer very little clothing of any kind was necessary. The chief
business of the then colonial merchants was the collection of furs for
exportation. There were, properly speaking, no merchants in the
country, but only factors, and other servants of the home Fur Company.
The country was no more independently peopled than the Hudson's Bay
Territory now is. The actual presence of either governor or
sub-governor was unnecessary. Champlain only made an official tour of
inspection to Mount Royal, explored the Ottawa, and returned to France.
He was dissatisfied with the appearance of affairs, and persuaded the
Prince of Condé, his chief, to really settle the country. The prince
consented. A new company was formed through his influence, and, with
some Roman Catholic Missionaries, Champlain again sailed for Canada,
arriving at Quebec early in April, 1615--a proof that the winters were
not more intense when Canada was first settled than at present. Indeed
the intense cold of Lower Canada, compared with other countries in the
same latitude, is not so much attributable to the want of cultivation
as to the height of the land, and the immense gully formed by the St.
Lawrence, and the great lakes which receive the cold blasts of the
mountainous region which constitutes the Arctic highlands, and from
which the rivers running to the northward into Hudson's Bay, and to the
southward into the great lakes and the St. Lawrence, take their rise.
The icy breath of the distant north and northwest sweeps down such
rivers as the Ottawa, the St. Maurice, and the Saguenay, to be gathered
into one vast channel, extending throughout Canada's whole extent. And,
clear the forest as we may, Canada will always be the same cold,
healthy country that it now is. Lower or rather Highland Canada, will
be especially so, without, however, the general commercial prosperity
of the country suffering much on that account. There are lowlands
enough for a population far exceeding that now occupying the United
States. But this is a digression. Champlain's Missionaries set
themselves vigorously to the work of christianizing the heathen, while
Champlain himself industriously began to fight them. He extended the
olive branch from his left hand, and stabbed vigorously with a sword in
his right hand. The Missionaries established churches, or rather the
cross, from the head waters of the Saguenay to Lake Nepissing.
Champlain battled the Iroquois from Mont Royal to Nepissing. Rather he
_would_ have done so. He did not find them until he reached, overland
and in canoes, Lake Huron, the superior character of the land in that
neighbourhood attracting his particular attention. He found his "enemy"
entrenched by "four successive palisades of fallen trees," says Smith,
"enclosing a piece of ground containing a pond, with every other
requisite for Indian warfare"--a very Sebastopol, upon which Champlain
discharged his fire-arms, driving the Iroquois back to their camp. The
place was, however, impregnable, and the siege was reluctantly raised.
The Algonquins would only fight as they pleased. They were sadly in
want of a head. They would not use fire-arms, but "preferred firing
their arrows against the strong wooden defences." Champlain was twice
wounded in the leg, and his allies, making the non-arrival of
reinforcements an excuse, retreated. Champlain insisted upon going
home, but transport was wanting, and he was compelled to winter, as
best he could, in a desolate region, with his discomfitted allies. In
the following year he got away, and made haste down his Black Sea of
Ontario, to his Golden Horn at Tadousac, from thence, on the 10th of
Sept., 1616, returning to his native country to find his partner, the
Prince of Condé, in disgrace and in confinement, for what the historian
knows not. The Prince had possibly been playing Hudson, for we find
that the Marshal de Themines was prevailed upon to accept the office,
on condition of sharing the emoluments. But he too became involved in
"controversy with the merchants," and after only two years presidency
of the Company, resigned, when the Duke de Montmorenci obtained the
Viceroyalty from Condé, for eleven thousand crowns. The Duke was Lord
High Admiral of France, and Champlain was exceedingly glad. Another new
colonizing company was formed. Seventy-seven artisans, farmers,
physicians, or gentlemen, three friars, horses, cows, sheep, seed-corn,
and arms were collected at Rochelle for exportation in 1619. But the
laymen, partly Protestants and partly Roman Catholics, began to
squabble about the immaculate conception, or something else, equally
stupid and unimportant, until Champlain himself got into trouble and
nearly lost his Deputy Governorship, and the expedition was delayed. In
1620, Champlain, however, set sail, and on his arrival at his capital,
in July, was agreeably surprised to find that a missionary, named
Duplessis, had got so far into the good graces of the Hurons, at Trois
Rivieres, that he had discovered and frustrated a plan for the massacre
of the French colonists. At Tadousac affairs were not at all
flattering. The colonists had neglected cultivation. Only sixty white
people remained, ten of whom were religiously engaged in keeping
school, or were engaged in keeping a religious school. At this period
of time it is difficult to say which. Worse than this scurvily
decimated condition of the people, was the intrusion of some
unprincipled and unprivileged adventurers from Rochelle, who had been
bartering fire-arms with the Indians for the Company's furs. Champlain
was very wroth, but moderated his anger somewhat on ascertaining that
an _enfant du sol_--a real French-Canadian baby was in the land of the
living. Who was the father of the child or who the mother, is neither
mentioned by Hennepin nor Charlevoix, and the office of Prothonotary,
or Registrar of Births, Marriages, and Deaths had not been instituted.
It is not even in the chronicles that Champlain was at the christening,
nor is the ceremony alluded to at all. This great, and most interesting
event happened on some hour of some unmentioned day in the year 1621.
It is possible the mother was of a distinguished Huron family. It is
certain that the Hurons were about that time in close alliance with the
French, for the Iroquois began to be jealous of the alliance between
the Hurons, Algonquins, and the French, and declared war with the view
of destroying the settlements. The Iroquois succeeded in burning some
Huron villages, but were repulsed by the French both at the Sault St.
Louis and at Quebec. Quebec was now a fortified town. There were
wooden, but not very extensive, walls around the barracks and the huts.
Champlain had, on the whole, great reason to be thankful. His power and
authority seemed to be undisputed. He had seen the first of a new world
generation, and the means of wealth were seemingly at his feet. But he
met with disappointment. The association of merchants who had fitted
out his expedition, and from whom he obtained his supplies, were
suddenly deprived of all their privileges of trade and colonization, by
Montmorenci. The Duke, determined on doing as he pleased with his own,
transferred the supremacy of the colonists to the Sieurs de Caen, uncle
and nephew. The one de Caen was a merchant, the other a sailor. The
sailor was soon at Tadousac. Before Champlain had well known, by a
letter of thanks for past services, that he was re-called, or rather
superseded, his successor had arrived at the head quarters of Nouvelle
France--Tadousac. De Caen solicited an interview with Champlain, which
was conceded. Smarting with indignation, Champlain was too polite. His
courtesy was so excessive, that De Caen became exacting as if to show
who he was. He wanted to seize all Champlain's trading vessels. They
belonged, he said, to a company whose privileges had been transferred
to him as the representative of another company. The furs with which
they were laden belonged to Montmorenci and the De Caens, as his
Grace's agents. Champlain demurred, and Captain De Caen peremptorily
demanded Du Pont's vessel. Champlain, no longer courteous, flew into a
violent passion. Du Pont was the favourite agent of his company, and
his own particular friend. Champlain's rage was of no avail. Nor was
the sympathy of the colonists of any value. De Caen was supreme, and
did as he pleased. The colonists, however, excessively indignant,
resolved to leave in a body, unless their opinions were allowed some
weight, and a number did take their departure. Although De Caen had
brought eighteen new settlers, the colony was reduced to only
forty-eight. Champlain, however, remained in Canada. He felt himself to
be the chief colonist, and only removed to Quebec, where he erected a
stone fort. The fort was partly on that part of the present city on
which the old Church of Notre Dame stands, in the Lower Town, and
partly where the former Palace of the Roman Catholic Archbishop stood.
Champlain pitched his tent outside the walls, which were almost
rectangular, under the shadow of a tree, which, until six years ago,
threw its leafy arms over St. Anne Street, from the Anglican Cathedral
Church yard. While this fort-building, vessel seizing, and unchristian
feeling were rending the infant colony to pieces, interfering with
trade, and proving vexatious to all, a union had been formed in France
between the old and new companies. The coalition was not productive of
good. There was so little cordiality and so much contention between the
parties, that Montmorenci threw up his viceroyalty in disgust, that is
to say, he sold out to the Duke de Ventadour. Ventadour was in a world
of difficulties. France was then half Protestant and half Catholic.
Ventadour's chief object in purchasing Canada was to diffuse the
Catholic Religion throughout the new world. With much energy of
character, he was singularly pious. He attended mass regularly at an
early hour every morning. His bedroom was religiously fitted up; the
symbol of redemption hung constantly over the head of his bed. He was
no bigot. He was thoroughly in earnest. He was only not wise. The man
who had caused Champlain so much annoyance was himself a Huguenot, and
not that only,--to the Duke's mortification, he had taken to Canada
chiefly Protestants, and had even caused the Roman Catholic emigrants
to attend Protestant worship on shipboard. Two thirds of the crews of
his ships were Protestants. They sang psalms on the St. Lawrence. The
new viceroy was much annoyed on ascertaining that De Caen had permitted
such a state of things. The exercise of the Protestant religion, he had
given orders, should be barely tolerated, and he had been disobeyed.
Champlain did not trouble himself about religious squabbles. He made
himself difficulties with the Indians, leaving religious dissensions to
be made by his would be superior. Amid all these difficulties the fur
trade languished, and the celebrated Cardinal Richelieu, who knew the
advantages to be derived from Ventadour's pious missionary effort,
revoked the privileges of De Caen's new company, and established a
newer company called the Hundred Associates. The associates were not
only to colonize, but they were amply to supply necessaries to the
colonists. They were to send out a large number of clergymen. Those
clergymen were to create churches and erect parsonages. They were to be
supported by the Associates for fifteen years. They were to have
glebes, or reserved lands, assigned to them for their sufficient
support. At a blow the wily cardinal had extinguished psalm singing on
the St. Lawrence for at least a century. In 1627 the Hundred Associates
were formed. But plans cannot be always carried into effect as soon as
determined upon. War was proclaimed by England against France in the
following year, 1628. The weakest and the meanest of English kings had
caused the Puritans, previously persecuted by Elizabeth, to leave their
country. The Puritans, in November, 1607, had settled in New England.
The year in which the first Franco-Canadian saw the light of day,
Governor Carver, of Plymouth Colony, had entered into a league of
friendship, commerce, and mutual defence with Massassoit, the great
Sachem of the neighbouring Indians. Some years previously (1619) the
Colony of Virginia had received her first Governor General from
England, who had instructions to convoke a general legislature. With
all his impotent stammering, slobbering, weeping, buffoonery, and
pedagoguism, James had an indistinct idea that it was as necessary to
hear the voice of the people as the voice of the king. He chose rather
to direct than to suppress the expression of opinion. But the Governor
General of Virginia was appointed by the London Company, whose
privileges were taken away by James on the year preceding his death,
which occurred in March, 1625, after the company had expended £100,000
in the first attempt to colonize America. James appointed a viceroy or
governor and directed him how to govern. New France, at the breaking
out of such a war, had something to dread from New England, so much
further advanced in colonization. Cardinal Richelieu's plan of Canadian
settlement was roughly interfered with, by the capture of his first
emigrant ships by Sir David Kerk, who afterwards proceeded to Tadousac,
burned the village, and proceeded to Quebec to summon Champlain to
surrender. The brave Frenchman refused and Kerk retreated. But Kerk
came back again. He again appeared before the walls of Fort Quebec, and
summoned it to surrender. Reduced to great distress by famine,
Champlain surrendered, and the whole settlement was taken captive to
England. With the exception of a few houses, a barrack, and a fort at
Quebec, and a few huts at Tadousac, Trois Rivieres, and Mont Royal,
Canada was again as much a wilderness as it ever had been since the
Asiatics had stepped across Behring's Straits to replenish the western
hemisphere. The great curiosity, the first Franco-Canadian baby, now
eight years old, was doubtless carried to the tower, and caged as a
curiosity, near the other lions and tigers of London. It was not until
the restoration of peace in 1633, that Champlain was reappointed
Governor of Canada, which, by the treaty of 1632, was surrendered back
to France, on the supposition that it was almost worthless. This time
colonization was systematically undertaken by the Jesuits, who only
arrived in Canada in time to supply the loss of Champlain, a man of
exemplary perseverance, of ambitious views, and of wonderful
administrative capacity, for a layman of that day, who died in
December, 1635. The foundation of a seminary was laid at Quebec. Monks,
Priests, and Nuns were sent out from France. The Church was to settle
in the wilderness to be encircled by the godly. If Admiral Kerk had
carried off a settlement, Mother Church was to produce other
settlements. A new governor was named--Montmagny. Business, however,
began to languish. The Indians became exceedingly troublesome. And the
Iroquois had subdued the Algonquins, and had nearly vanquished the
Hurons. To defend the settlement from these fierce warriors, Montmagny
built a fort at Sorel, at the mouth of the Richelieu, down which river
the savage enemy usually came. The construction of the fort had the
desired effect. Peace with the Indians soon followed, and the colony
became happy and contented. The effect of Jesuitical tact and judgment
soon began to exhibit itself. An Ursuline Nunnery and a Seminary were
established at Quebec, through the instrumentality of the Duchess
d'Aiguillon. The religious order of St. Sulpice, at the head of which
was the Abbé Olivier, proposed to the King of France to establish a new
colony and a seminary at Mont Royal, bearing the name of the order and
composed of its members. The proposal was entertained, and the Island
of Montreal conceded to the religionists for their support. The Sieur
Maisonneuve--a name admirably chosen--was placed at the head of the
faithful emigrants, and invested with its government. The third regular
governor of Canada was M. d'Aillebout. He succeeded Montmagny, whose
term of office had expired. On the death of Champlain, no Governor of
Canada was to hold the reins of government longer than three years.
D'Aillebout was an exceedingly able man. He was firm, and, on the
whole, just. He was left entirely to himself in the management of
affairs, and he left the conversion of the Indians to peace and
Christianity, to the missionaries, who labored well and earnestly,
establishing the Hurons, and even the Iroquois, in villages. The
latter, who were never to be trusted, only feigned semi-civilization,
and unexpectedly renewing the war, they fell upon their old enemies,
the Hurons, with diabolical fury. In the Indian village of Sillery,
while a missionary was celebrating mass in the Catholic Church, and
none but old men, women, and children were present, a terrible and foul
massacre occurred. The Iroquois rushed into the chapel with tomahawk
and scalping knife, murdering all the congregation, nor stayed their
hands until upwards of four hundred families, being every soul in the
village, were slain. About this time our friends south of the line 45°,
first began to dream of the annexation of Canada. An envoy from New
England visited Quebec, and proposed to the French governor the
establishment of a peace between the two colonies of New France and New
England, which was not to be broken even should the parent states go to
war. Governor Montmagny consented, on condition that the Iroquois were
to be put down. He was so willing that he sent an envoy to Boston to
ratify a treaty. But the New Englanders would not quarrel with the
Iroquois, and no treaty was effected. A more hopeful international
commercial alliance, of which the Boston Jubilee of 1851 was
indicative, has lately been entertained. Compared to the Iroquois, or
even the Algonquins, the Huron tribe of Indians were mild in
disposition and peaceably disposed. The French missionaries obtained a
powerful hold over them. Great numbers became christianized, and even,
to some extent, civilized. Descendants of Nimrod though they were,
their wandering habits were partially subdued, and very many began to
cultivate the ground. As if there was something in the climate of
Quebec to produce such an effect, they were naturally inclined to be
supremely tranquil. And notwithstanding the recent horrible massacre
they soon sank back into their ordinary state of lethargy. They were
fearfully aroused from their lethargy, however, by another series of
attacks on the part of the Iroquois. The latter ferocious red men made
a descent upon the village of St. Ignace, killing and capturing all the
Hurons there. They next attacked St. Louis, and though some women and
children managed to escape, both missionaries and Hurons were carried
off for the torture. The Huron nation, terribly damaged, seemed to be
at the mercy of their more savage enemies. They scattered in every
direction. Their settlements were altogether abandoned. Some sought
refuge with the Ottawas, some with the Eries, and not a few attached
themselves to missionaries, who formed them into settlements on the
Island of St. Joseph, in Lake Ontario. Unable, however, to find
sufficient subsistence on the island, they were compelled to form
villages on the main land, where they were again slaughtered by the
Iroquois. So inferior had they become, physically and intellectually,
if not numerically, to the Iroquois, that they resolved to put
themselves altogether under French protection. This protection the
missionaries procured for them, and a new settlement was formed at
Sillery. The Iroquois now did what they pleased. They were in full
possession of the whole country. The French were literally confined to
Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal. But that which neither French nor
Hurons could do by force, they were made to do themselves. They were
destroyed in hundreds by rum. The French appealed to their appetites.
Iroquois independence was broken in upon by a mere artifice of taste.
Furs were now bought, not with pieces of tin and strings of beads, but
with plugs of tobacco and bottles of spirits. Intoxication had its
ordinary effect. It caused these naturally hot-blooded, quarrelsome,
freemen to butcher each other, and it made them the slaves of the fur
trader, whose exertions increased as the favorite narcotic lessened the
exertions and weakened the energies of the hunter. So injurious was the
effect of the "fire water," and so obvious was the injury to the
Indians themselves, that the Chief of the domesticated Indians
petitioned the Governor, their great Father, to imprison all drunkards.
Whether or no D'Aillebout granted the request is not recorded. Probably
it was not then granted. Among the _Edits, Ordonnances Royaux,
declarations, et arrêts du Counsel d'etat Roi concernant le Canada_,
nothing concerning Indian intoxication is to be found. D'Aillebout
ceased not long afterwards to be governor. In 1650 he was succeeded by
Monsieur de Lauzon. So hostile, however, had the feelings of the
Iroquois now become, that M. de Lauzon returned to France for a
detachment of soldiers. He brought out 100 men in 1653. Then the
Iroquois were disposed for peace. They begged for it. Might is right.
The power of the new Governor was acknowledged by the Iroquois. One
hundred muskets was a powerful argument against even 6,000 bows and
arrows. Frenchmen were sent among them. An Iroquois Roman Catholic
Church was founded. For two years all was tolerably quiet, but at the
end of that time the spirit of insubordination was so great that the
French, anticipating massacre, made a moon-light flitting to Quebec.
M. Lauzon was superseded as Governor of Canada, in 1658, by the
Viscompte d'Argenson. On the very morning of his arrival a large party
of Algonquins were menaced under the very guns of Quebec by the
Iroquois, who were driven off, but not captured, by a _posse_ of French
troops. In the following year Monseigneur l'Eveque de Petree, arrived
at Quebec, to preside over the Catholic Church. François de Petree, a
shrewd, energetic, learned prelate, was not, however, appointed to the
See of Quebec, by "Notre Saint Pére le Pape Clément X," as he himself
tells us, until the 1st October, 1664. In 1663 he established the
Seminary of Quebec, and united it with that of the du Bac, in Paris, in
1676. The education of young men for the ministry seemed to be his
great object. Trade would develop itself in time. The country could not
fail to become great with so much deep water flowing through it. But
religion must be provided for, and the Catholic, the most consistent,
if not the most enlightened, of any system of Christianity existing,
was his religion, and he paved the way for its extension. Four hundred
more soldiers had been added to the garrison before François de Laval
was even Bishop of Quebec, and they accompanied de Monts, as the Guards
did Lord Durham, who was also sent out to enquire into the condition of
Canada. In de Mont's time, Canada must have been in a very
extraordinary state. In 1668, an edict of the king prohibited swearing
and blasphemy. The king ruled that officers of the army had no
acknowledged rank in the Church. And in 1670, an arrêt du Conseil
encouraged "_les marriages des garçons et des filles du Canada_."
One of the most remarkable earthquakes of which we have read occurred
in Canada, soon after the arrival of the Bishop of Petrea. It happened,
too, in winter. On the 5th of February, 1663, at half-past five o'clock
in the evening, the earth began to heave so violently, that people
rushed in terror into the streets, only to be terrified the more. The
roofs of the buildings bent down, first on one side, then on the other.
The walls reeled backward and forward, the stones moving as if they
were detached from each other. The church bells rang. Wild and domestic
animals were flying in every direction. Fountains were thrown up.
Mountains were split in twain. Rivers changed their beds or were
totally lost. Huge capes or promontories tumbled into the St. Lawrence
and became islands. The convulsion lasted for six months, or from
February to August, in paroxysms of half an hour each, and although it
extended over a range of country, 600 miles in length by 300 in
breadth, not a single human being was destroyed. Beyond question this
earthquake altered entirely the features of the country from Montreal
to the sea; but, that it did not produce that rent, as some will have
it, through which the Saguenay flows, is evident from the fact that the
Saguenay existed on Cartier's first visit. It did not even produce
those numerous islands with which the Lower St. Lawrence is studded,
for some of them are also mentioned by the same daring and skilful
navigator. But for the sake of science it is to be regretted that the
particular rivers, whose beds were changed or which were entirely
obliterated, have not been mentioned. The greater depth of the Saguenay
than the St. Lawrence is easily accounted for by the greater height of
the banks of the one river than of the other. In the St. Lawrence a
large body of water finds an outlet through a chain of mountains
forming the banks of a river which is the outlet of a series of lakes
or inland seas, in which the rains or snows of a great part of North
America are collected, as the Caspian, the Sea of Azof, and the Euxine
are the rain basins of Europe and of Asia, and which spreads its waters
over breadths of land, great or small, as its shores are steep or
otherwise. If Canada is high above the ocean, and on that, as well as
on other accounts, intensely cold in winter, it is some consolation to
know that that latitude, which is in some sense to be regretted, has
produced a river and lake navigation for sea-going ships of upwards of
a thousand miles, more valuable than ten thousands of miles of
prairie-land. A prairie country might have produced a Mississippi
filled with snags, but only a mountainous country could produce such
rivers for navigation as the Saguenay and St. Lawrence, and such rivers
for manufacturing purposes as the St. Maurice and the Ottawa. But
Canada is not all mountainous. There are vast steppes, extensive
plains, through which numerous streams roll sluggishly into the great
lakes. There are tracts of country of extraordinary extent capable of
producing the heaviest crops. There are garden lands around most of the
western cities, on which these cities of yesterday subsist and have
arisen. And even in Lower Canada there are straths of wonderful
fertility. Canada, with any government which will permit trade, cannot
fail to become pecuniarily rich, even with the drawback of the towns of
Lower Canada being rendered inland for half the year by means of ice.
Lower Canada has been crippled by the policy of Cardinal Richelieu,
who, by that policy, paradoxical as it may appear, was her first
benefactor. A theocratic government, no doubt excellent for the taming
of Indians, is not by any means well adapted for an intelligent people.
So long as the trade of Canada was confined to furs the Jesuitical
policy of Richelieu was advantageous, but now that the Indians are
nearly exterminated--two millions of acres under cultivation--millions
of feet of pine, birch, oak and other timber used or exported
annually--and manufactures abounding--a somewhat more self reliant
spirit is requisite than the establishment of Churches under the
extraordinary control of a single mitred head will permit. Such a
spirit is being gradually aroused, and the more gradual the more
permanent will it be. Violence begets violence. Example is more
persuasive than force.
De Monts, or rather de Lauzon, was succeeded by the Baron D'Avaugour,
the last of the Fur Governors, a weak, stupid man, who had almost by
his imbecility and vacillation suffered the business of his employers
to be extinguished. The Iroquois most vigorously waged war during his
time upon every other tribe of Indians. They altogether exterminated
the Eries, and in their very wickedness, did good in rendering their
country more susceptible to colonization by Europeans. D'Avaugour was
recalled. The Hundred Associates resigned their charter into the hands
of the French king, who transferred the company's privileges to the
West India Company. M. de Mesy was appointed governor by the Crown, and
for a council of advice he had a Vicar Apostolic and five others, one
of whom was a kind of Inspector General, and another a Receiver
General. To this Governor and Council the power of establishing Courts
of Justice, at Three Rivers and Montreal, was confided. Courts of Law
were established soon after De Mesy's arrival, and four hundred
soldiers were obtained from France to enable His Excellency to cause
the law to be respected. De Mesy, of a proud and unbending temper,
quarrelled with his Council, sneered at the settlers, and governed with
a rod of iron. He cared neither for Vicar Apostolic, nor for Finance
Ministers. Nay, he went so far, after quarrelling with the Jesuits, as
to send two members of the Company to France, a mistake for which he
paid the penalty by being himself recalled. De Mesy was succeeded by
the Marquis de Tracy and was the second Chief Crown Governor, or
Viceroy. He was not fettered with a Council of Advice, but he was more
absurdly hampered with almost co-equals in the shape of assistants. The
Seigneur de Courcelles was appointed Governor of the Colony, and Mon.
De Talon, Intendant. De Tracy brought with him as settlers the then
newly disbanded regiment of Carignan-Sallières, which had returned from
fighting, not for the Turks in Hungary, but against them. They had been
extraordinarily successful. And France had acquired great influence by
her successful efforts to stay Mahometan encroachment. The Turks were
then the oppressors not the oppressed. But France then, as now, was
playing the balance of power game. The men of the Carignan-Sallières
Regiment were admirably adapted for settlement in a country in which
constant fighting was being carried on. They were to have a deep
interest in subduing the Iroquois. They were some protection against
the Round-Heads of Massachusetts. Sixteen hundred and sixty-five other
settlers, including many artisans, accompanied them. Cattle, sheep, and
horses were for the first time sent to Canada. More priests were sent
out, for whom the West India Company were, by their charter, bound to
provide churches and houses. The most Christian king had determined
upon at least christianizing the country, and upon so retaining it.
Without priests and churches the Hungarian Heroes would have been of as
little value to France as the cattle, sheep, and horses which
accompanied them to Canada. It was a condition of the West India
Company's Charter that priests were to be carried out, and parsonages
and churches erected. Like most companies chartered for similar
purposes, the stock of this company was transferable, but only the
revenue, or profits of the revenue could be attached for the debts of
the stockholders. The company had a monopoly of the territory, and the
trade of the Colony for forty years. Nor was this all. His most
Christian Majesty conferred a bounty of thirty livres on every ton of
goods imported to France, a kind of protection similar to that still
extended by the French government to the Newfoundland fisheries. The
company had the right to all mines and minerals--had the power of
levying and recruiting soldiers in France--had the power of
manufacturing arms and ammunition--had the power of building forts in
Canada--and had the power of declaring and carrying on war against the
American Indians, or, in case of insult, the Colonial Englishmen of New
England, or the Manhattanese Dutch. Justice was to be administered
according to the Custom of Paris. All Colonists of, and converts to the
Roman Catholic faith, had the same rights in France as Frenchmen born
and resident in France had. And for four years the king himself agreed
to advance a tenth of the whole stock of the company, without interest,
and to bear a corresponding proportion of any loss which the company,
in the course of four years, might sustain. These were certainly
liberal and prudent privileges, but more ultimate good, or in other
words, good would have been sooner realized had the conditions been
less liberal and less prudent. These conditions were of too liberal a
nature to cause any desire for change to be entertained for a great
length of time, and the consequence is that even now Lower Canada is
governed according to the "Cotume de Paris," and cultivated as France
was cultivated two hundred years back. A year after the Marquis'
arrival, the Council of State granted to the Canadian Company the trade
in furs on payment of a subsidy of one fourth of all beaver skins, and
of one tenth of all Buffalo skins. The trade of Tadousac was excepted.
Fort building and church building went on vigorously. The fur trade was
easily attended to. Three forts were erected at the mouth of the
Richelieu-Sorel. The Indians made sorties repeatedly down this river,
always doing much mischief, and the forts were intended to prevent the
mischief. But the Iroquois were not to be foiled. They found means to
reach the settlements by other roads. Nor was De Tracy to be annoyed.
He sent out war parties who did not, however, effect much. The Viceroy,
an old man of some seventy summers, took the field himself. With the
view of exterminating the Indians, he set out on the 14th Sept., 1666,
with a considerable force consisting of regular troops, militia, and
friendly Indians. Unfortunately the Commissariat Department was badly
conducted, and the exterminating force were nearly themselves
exterminated by starvation. They had to pass through a large tract of
forest land to meet their foes, and they frequently lost their way. The
haversack was soon emptied, and the starving army was only too happy to
breakfast, dine, and sup on chestnuts gathered in the bush, until some
Indian settlements were reached. They came upon almost a forest of
chestnut-trees, and fell upon them like locusts. They ate and filled
their haversacks, and it was well that they did so, for the Iroquois
had adopted the Russian expedient of abandoning their villages, and
suffering the enemy to march through a country altogether wanting in
the bare necessaries of life. M. De Tracy marched and countermarched
without effecting anything beyond capturing some old men, and one or
two women with their children. Luckily he fell in with supplies of corn
in one of the abandoned settlements which he took possession of for the
benefit of his army. Still more luckily he got to Quebec again safely,
but so thoroughly disgusted with the state of affairs, that he resigned
his government into De Courcelle's hands, and returned to France. De
Courcelle was a man of some address. He cajoled the Iroquois and
prevented war. He was the founder, but not the builder of Fort
Cataraqui or Kingston, on Lake Ontario. He settled Hurons at
Michillimacinac. Both fort and settlement were intended to benefit the
fur trade. The new settlement was in fact a new hunting ground, and the
new fort was for the protection of the hunters. De Courcelle visited
personally Cataraqui. He was dragged up the Lachine, the Cedars, and
other rapids of the St. Lawrence, in an open boat, but suffered from
moisture and exposure to such an extent that, on returning to Montreal,
he solicited his recall to France, and was recalled accordingly.
In 1669, the Indians encountered, in the shape of smallpox, a more
terrible foe than the musket, the sword, the arrow, or the "firewater."
Whole tribes were exterminated by this loathsome disease, which appears
not to have been imported, inasmuch as the most distant and least
civilized tribes were first attacked and most severely suffered. The
Atlikamegues were completely exterminated. Tadousac and Trois Rivieres
were abandoned by all the Indians. Fifteen hundred Hurons died at
Sillery, and yet the Huron suffered less than any other nation. The
remnant of the tribe was collected by Father Chamounat, who established
them at Lorette, where some half-breeds are yet to be found.
The Count de Frontenac was the third Viceroy of Canada. He succeeded De
Courcelle in 1692, and soon after his arrival erected the fort which
his predecessor had decided upon erecting at Cataraqui, giving it his
own name--a name which still distinguishes the County, the chief town
in which Kingston or Catarqui is. De Frontenac was a man of astonishing
energy. His self will and self esteem were only compensated for by
ability and a spirit of independence and honesty. It was not to be
supposed that such a man could long submit to the whims of his
co-equals, as far as governing was concerned. Nor did he. The
triumvirate--the Viceroy, the Bishop, and the Intendant--each with an
equal vote, were soon at loggerheads. Chesnau, the Intendant, without
Frontenac's ability, had all his bad qualities. The Intendant and
Viceroy were soon violently opposed to each other, and to make matters
worse, the Bishop, supported by his clergy, was annoyed with both. The
Bishop considered the sale of spirits to the Indians abominable; De
Frontenac thought it profitable; and Chesnau did not think at all. An
appeal was made by the clergy to the home government, and both De
Frontenac and Chesnau were re-called with censure, and the profitable
sale of spirits to the Indians was prohibited by a royal edict. De
Frontenac ruled Canada for ten years, and during his administration La
Salle discovered the mouths of the Mississippi. Only the year after De
Frontenac's arrival in Canada, the Indians reported that there was a
large river flowing out to the Atlantic, to the southwest of the
colony, and the Reverend Messire Marquette[2] and a merchant of Quebec,
were sent on an exploring expedition. Starting in two canoes, with only
a crew of six men for both, they found themselves, after an exceedingly
tedious voyage, on the Mississippi, and, rejoicing at their success,
returned back immediately to report progress. At Chicago, Marquette
separated from his companion. In that Indian village of Lake Michigan,
now a populous commercial town, the missionary remained with the Miami
Indians, while Jollyet went back to Quebec for further instructions. Of
course Jollyet was highly communicative at Quebec. The multitude could
not travel by steam in those days from Gaspé to Lake Michigan. It was
no easy matter at that period to paddle over those great seas, the
inland lakes, in a birch-bark canoe. Jollyet had much to boast of and
might, without chance of detection, boast of more than either his
experience or a strict adherence to truth could warrant. Jollyet was a
curiosity. Jollyet was the lion of Quebec, and he was toasted and
boasted accordingly. The Sieur La Salle was in Quebec when Jollyet
returned. He heard of the merchant's adventures with deep interest. La
Salle, a young man of good family, and of sufficient fortune, had
emigrated to Canada in search of fame, and with the further view of
increasing his pecuniary resources. He expected, like Cabot and some
others, to find a passage through Canada, by water, to China, imagining
that the Missouri emptied itself into the north Pacific. The narrative
of Jollyet made La Salle more sanguinely credulous, that he had the
"way" before him. First he gained the sanction of the governor to
explore the course of that river, and then he returned to France for
support in his enterprise. So plausible a story did he relate, that
means were soon forthcoming. The Prince of Conti most liberally entered
into La Salle's views, and assisted him to prepare an expedition. The
Chevalier de Tonti, an army officer, with one arm, joined him, and on
the 14th July, 1678, De La Salle, and De Tonti sailed for Quebec from
France, with thirty men. It was two months before they reached Quebec;
but no sooner did they arrive than they hastened to the great lakes,
accompanied by Father Hennepin. Father Hennepin was the historian of
the voyage. He tells a wonderfully interesting story. La Salle built a
vessel of 60 tons, and carrying 7 guns, above the Falls of Niagara,
having laid the keel in July, 1679. There are always difficulties
attending new enterprises, and La Salle's shipbuilding operations were
frequently and annoyingly interfered with. The carpenter was an
Italian, named Tuti, and he occupied seven months in building the
craft. One day, an Indian, pretending to be drunk, attempted to stab
the blacksmith, but that worthy son of Vulcan, like Bailie Nicol
Jarvie, successfully defended himself with a red hot bar of iron. Again
the savages tried to burn the ship, but were prevented by a woman. A
squaw gave La Salle's people warning of the Indian's intention. Alarms
were frequent, and only for Father Hennepin's exhortations,
shipbuilding would have been abandoned to a later period, on the lake.
But carpenter Tuti persevered, and amid enthusiastic cheering, the
chanting of a _Te Deum_, and the firing of guns, she was safely
launched. The "Cataraqui" was square rigged. She was a kind of
brigantine, not unlike a Dutch galliot of the present day, with a broad
elevated bow and a broad elevated stern. Very flat in the bottom, she
looked much larger than she really was, and when her "great" guns were
fired off, the Indians stared marvellously at the floating fort. With
the aid of tow-lines and sails the Niagara River was with difficulty
ascended, and on the 7th of August, 1679, the first vessel that ever
sat upon the lakes entered Lake Erie. The day was beautifully calm, and
the explorers chanted _Te Deums_, and fired off guns, to the no small
consternation, perhaps amusement, of the Senecas. In four days they
sailed through the lake, and entering the River Detroit they sailed up
it to Lake St. Clair, and in twelve days more Lake Huron was entered.
In that lake storms and calms were alternately encountered. On one
occasion the wind blew so strongly, that La Salle's man of war was
driven across to Saginaw Bay. But worse weather was yet in store for La
Salle. A tempest swept over the lake, and topmasts and yards were let
go by the run. There was neither anchorage nor shelter, and La Salle
and all his crew, now terribly frightened, prayed and prepared for
death. Only the pilot swore. He anathematized the fresh water. It was
bad enough to perish in the open ocean, but something terrible to be
drowned in a nasty fresh water lake, to be devoured, perhaps, by an
ichthyosaurus. Prayers and curses seemingly had produced the desired
effect; indeed, the pilot's anathematizing was prayer; but such prayer
is not by any means to be recommended. It would be as well to curse as
only to pray when fear is excited. Prayer, doubtless, often is, but
never ought to be, the effect of fear. Prayer should be the holy
offering up of reasonable desires to the Creator, and in times of
danger there should be confidence in the Creator as all powerful, and
in ourselves as the instruments of the Creator. However, favored with
less adverse winds, the exploring expedition reached Michillimacinac,
and anchored in 60 fathoms, living on delicious trout, white fish, and
sturgeon. From thence entering Lake Michigan, they proceeded to an
Island at the mouth of Green Bay, where La Salle loaded his ship with
furs and sent her back to Niagara. The cargo was rich. It was valued at
50,000 livres. The blaspheming pilot and five men were sent off with
the vessel, but whether the craft foundered in Lake Huron or was
piratically visited by the Indians, she was no more heard of. Two years
elapsed before La Salle or Father Hennepin learned the fate of the
"Cataraqui" and her blasphemous pilot. They perseveringly pushed their
way down the Mississippi and reached the Atlantic, thus discovering the
mouths of a stream which has been a great source of wealth to our
enterprising neighbours. In two years he turned his steps to Quebec,
and going home to France was appointed Governor of the territory he had
discovered. He was the first Governor of Louisiana, a territory ceded
by Napoleon I. to the United States, in 1803. The unlucky Governor was
not destined to reach his government. La Salle, in command of four
ships, with settlers, sailed from Rochelle, on the 24th of July, 1689.
He was ignorant of the exact geographical situation of the mouths of
the Mississippi, but passing through the Antilles, reached Florida,
where he was murdered by his own people--a melancholy and lamentable
fate for one of whom all Frenchmen may justly boast. Canada now
numbered 8,000 souls, including converted Indians; and French America
extended from Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia through the St. Lawrence
and the great lakes to the Pacific, and from the great lakes again to
the ocean through the Mississippi, all the westward of even that stream
being French soil. Yet it was only nominally so. The Indians were
virtually the owners of the soil, those spots on which forts or trading
posts had been erected or established, only excepted.
[2] The able American Historian, Jared Sparks, in a letter to a
friend at Quebec, speaking of the early missions in Canada,
says;--"For heroic struggles and great sacrifices, the world
affords few examples to be compared with those of the early
Missionaries in Canada."
M. De La Barre now (1682) succeeded Frontenac as Viceroy. The new
Governor was of a restless and overbearing disposition. He required, or
supposed that he required, a strong government. He certainly needed an
able one. The idea of drawing off the trade of the St. Lawrence had
first occurred to the English colonists on the Hudson. The Iroquois
preferred trading with the "down south" English to trading with the
French. Their furs were chiefly carried down the Hudson, to the no
small annoyance of the French exporter. De La Barre had no idea of
tolerating such a mode of doing business. The furs of Canada were
French furs. The Indians were merely hunters for the French, and had no
right whatever to dispose of their goods in the dearest market, and buy
their necessaries in the cheapest market. De La Barre, weakened though
he was in the number of his troops, many men having converted their
swords into ploughshares, and their guns into reaping hooks, resolved
upon punishing the free-trading children of the woods. He obtained two
hundred additional soldiers from France, and proceeded up the St.
Lawrence on his labor of love. The Indians only laughed at him. They
thought he was in a dream when he pompously required them not to war
upon each other, or permit the English to come among them. His troops
were sick and starving, and were at the mercy rather of the Indians
than the Indians at their mercy. M. De La Barre was compelled to
withdraw his troops. The blustering, pompous, mischief-loving De La
Barre was recalled by his government, for incompetency, and in 1685 was
succeeded by Denonville.
The Marquis Denonville was only more cunning than his predecessor, and
perhaps more decided. No sooner had he set foot in the colony, than,
with the assistance of the missionaries, he persuaded the Iroquois
chiefs to meet him on the banks of Lake Ontario. Denonville and the
Indians did meet, and no sooner had they met, than Denonville
treacherously caused a number of them to be seized and put in irons, to
be sent as prisoners to the King of France, for service in his gallies.
Denonville erected a fort at Niagara, became more violent and
overbearing to the Indians, treated the remonstrances of the English of
New York, concerning the erection of Fort Niagara, with contempt, and
at last brought upon himself, as the arrogant generally do, defeat and
disgrace. This fort, to which the North West Fur Company of Quebec had
offered to contribute 30,000 livres annually, in consideration of a
monopoly of the fur trade, was destroyed by the Iroquois, who followed
the now retreating French to Cataraqui, made themselves masters of the
whole country west of Montreal, and, to crown all, appeared before that
city with proposals of peace. Denonville was required to restore the
chiefs who had been sent to France, and he was either in a position not
to resist, or wished to gain time. He consented to negotiate. The
Hurons, his allies, were not now so peaceably disposed. For the first
time, they seem to have evinced a warlike spirit. They attacked the
deputies, and insinuated to their prisoners that the French Governor
had instigated them to do so. The prisoners were allowed to depart; a
large party of the Five Nations heard their tale, descended upon
Montreal, carried off two hundred of the inhabitants, and retired
unmolested. The fort at Cataraqui was blown up, and for a time of
course abandoned. Thus, in 1686, French Canada was again virtually
reduced to Montreal, Three Rivers, Quebec, and Tadousac.
It was in 1689 that the Count de Frontenac returned to Canada a second
time, as Viceroy, to succeed the incompetent Denonville. He took out
the captured chiefs, and attempted to conciliate the Iroquois. But the
Indians had been too frequently deceived by his immediate predecessors.
They would have nothing to do with him, unless he restored, without
stipulation, their captured chiefs. De Frontenac complied. He complied
the more readily because he feared an alliance between the Ottawas and
the Iroquois. The Ottawas were quite indifferent to French friendship,
because the gain, in their estimation, was altogether in favor of the
French, whose protectors the Ottawas considered themselves to be. So
far from provocation being now given to the Indians, a policy extremely
opposite was pursued. The English and Dutch of the New England
settlements coveted the Indian trade in furs, and the Indians were more
favorably disposed towards the English and Dutch traders than towards
the French, because from the former a larger consideration was
received. It was De Frontenac's policy to prevent such a union, which
would, as he conceived, have injured the trade of the St. Lawrence, and
have injured the revenue of the Fur Company. De Frontenac induced the
Ottawas to assist him against the English of New England, whom he had
resolved to attack, France and England being then at war. He fitted out
three expeditions, one against New York, a second against New
Hampshire, and a third against the Province of Maine. The party against
New York fell upon Schenectady, in February, 1690. The weather was
exceedingly cold, and the ground deeply covered with snow. It was never
even suspected, that, at such a season, a campaign would be begun. Yet,
at the dead of night, while the inhabitants of Schenectady were asleep,
and not a sentinel was awake to announce the danger, the war-whoop was
raised, every house in the village was simultaneously attacked,
buildings were broken into and set on fire, men and women were dragged
from their beds, and even mothers, with their sleeping infants at their
breasts, were inhumanly murdered. Sixty persons were massacred; thirty
were made prisoners, and such as escaped, almost naked, fled through
the deep snow, many perishing with the extreme cold, and the most
fortunate being terribly frost bitten. At Salmon Falls, the party sent
by Frontenac against New Hampshire, killed thirty of the inhabitants,
took fifty-four prisoners, and burned the village. At Casco, in Maine,
the third party killed and captured one hundred persons. Such was the
business of colonists in those days. In Canada the majority had no
voice in popular affairs. Governors, Intendants, Seigniors, and
Priests, controlled the colonists as they willed. However much the
Governor may have despised the Intendant, the Intendant the Seignior,
or the Priest all put together, the merchant, artisan, and peasant
were of no account. Wealth without title was only a bait for extortion.
The peasantry were serfs, and the nobles uneducated despots. Education
was in the hands of the clergy, while power was solely vested in the
Heads of Military Departments. But if ignorance was particularly
characteristic of the Canadians, the New Englanders could lay little
claim to superior enlightenment. Harvard's College, in Massachusetts,
had apparently done no more for the New Englanders, in 1692, than the
Seminary of Quebec, in the way of diffusing a knowledge of letters
among the people, from which the desire for freedom invariably springs,
had done for Canada. The people of Salem, Andover, Ipswich, Gloucester,
and even Boston, were accusing each other of witchcraft. A "contagious"
malady, which affected children of ten, twelve or fifteen years of age,
it was, oddly enough, said by the learned physicians of the period, was
the result of witchcraft. A respectable merchant of Salem, and his
wife, were accused of bewitching children; the sons of Governor
Bradstreet were implicated in the divinations; and the wife of Sir
William Phipps was not above suspicion. One man, for refusing to put
himself on trial by jury, was pressed to death. Nor was Giles Correy
the only sufferer:--nineteen persons, "members of the Church", were
executed, and one hundred and fifty persons were put in prison. It was
sometime before the conviction began to spread, that even men of sense,
education, and fervent piety could entertain the madness and
infatuation of the weak, illiterate, and unprincipled. A disbeliever in
witchcraft was an 'obdurate sadducee.' That conviction did at last
possess men. The disease which affected the supposed bewitched children
somewhat resembled St. Vitus' Dance. It was an involuntary motion of
the muscles. The affected were sometimes deaf, sometimes dumb,
sometimes blind. Oftentimes, they were at once deaf, dumb, and blind.
Their tongues were drawn down their throats, and then pulled out upon
their chins to a prodigious length. Their mouths were forced open to
such a wideness, that their jaws went out of joint, only to clap again
together, with a force like that of a spring lock. Shoulder-blades,
elbows, wrists, and knees were similarly affected. Sometimes the
sufferer was benumbed, or drawn violently together, and immediately
afterwards stretched out and drawn back.
De Frontenac set earnestly to work to pacify his old enemies of the
Five Nations. A new and more dreaded enemy had to be encountered. The
Puritans of Massachusetts, provoked by De Frontenac's aggressions,
resolved to attack Canada, in self-defence. Sir William Phipps,
afterwards the first Captain General of Massachusetts, born on the
River Kennebec, a man of extraordinary firmness and great energy, who
had raised himself to eminence by honesty of purpose, a strong will,
and good natural ability, was appointed to the command of an
expedition, consisting of seven vessels and eight hundred men. The
object of the expedition was the reduction of Port Royal, or Annapolis,
in Nova Scotia, which Sir William speedily and easily accomplished. A
second expedition, under Sir William, was resolved upon, for the
reduction of Montreal and Quebec. Two thousand men were to penetrate
into Canada by Lake Champlain, to attack Montreal, at the same time
that the naval armament, consisting of between thirty and forty ships,
should invest Quebec. The expedition failed. The Commissariat and
Pontoon Departments of the land expedition, were sadly deficient, and
the naval expedition did not reach Quebec until late in October. The
weather became tempestuous, and scattered the fleet, while the land
force to Montreal mutinied through hunger. Sir William, on the 22nd of
October, re-embarked the soldiers which he had landed, and sailed,
without carrying with him his field pieces or ammunition waggons.
Humiliating as the repulse was to Massachusetts, it was highly
creditable to De Frontenac, who now easily succeeded in winning over
the Five Nation Indians. Indeed, matters had so very much changed, that
these enemies of his most Christian Majesty solicited the Governor to
rebuild the fort at Cataraqui, which was accordingly done. The Indians
were not, however, unanimous in their desire for peace. There was a war
and a peace party. To show his power, De Frontenac conceived the idea
of a great expedition against the Indians. He collected regulars,
militia, and all the friendly Indians to be procured, and, marching to
Cataraqui, passed into the country of the Onondagos. On entering a
lake, it was ascertained by the symbol of two bundles of rushes, that
1,434 fighting men were in readiness to receive them. De Frontenac
threw up an earthwork, or log fort, to fall back upon, and proceeded.
De Callières, Governor of Montreal, commanded the left wing; De
Vaudreuil the right; and De Frontenac, now 76 years of age, was
carried, like Menschikoff at Alma, in the centre, in an elbow chair.
The Indians fell back, and as they did so, pursued the Russian policy
of destroying their own forts by fire. The French never came up with
the Onondagos or Oneidas, but contented themselves with destroying
grain, and returned to Montreal.
De Frontenac's next expedition was to join Admiral, the Marquis
Nesmond,--who had been despatched with ten ships of the line, a
galliot, and two frigates,--with a force of 1,500 men at Penobscot,
with the view of making a descent on Boston; to range the coast of
Newfoundland; and to take New York, from whence the troops were to
return overland to Canada, by the side of the River Hudson and Lake
Champlain. The junction was not effected, and the expedition failed. A
treaty of peace, on the 10th of December, 1697, concluded between
France and England, at Ryswick, in Germany, put an end to colonial
contention for a short time. By that peace, all the countries, forts,
and colonies taken by each party during the war, were mutually given
back. De Frontenac, an exceedingly courageous and skilful officer, now
became involved with his government at home. The French government
began to perceive that advanced posts for the purpose of trading with
the Indians for furs, were of little, if, indeed, they were of any
advantage, while they were a continued source of war. It was proposed
to abolish these stations, so that the Indians might, to the great
saving of transport, bring in their furs themselves, to Montreal. De
Frontenac demurred. These forts were the sign of power, as they were a
source of patronage. The fur trade was a monopoly, carried on by
licenses granted to old officers and favorites, which were sold to the
inland traders as timber limits are now disposed of. Profits of 400 per
cent were made on successful fur adventures, under a license to trade
to the extent of 10,000 crowns on the merchandize and 600 crowns to
each of the canoemen. Beaver skins, at Montreal, were then worth 2s.
3d. sterling a pound weight. The first fishery was formed at Mount
Louis, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, about half way between
the mouth of the Gulf and Quebec, in 1697. A company formed by the
Sieur de Reverin, was tolerably successful. Canada was even now
beginning to look up, in a commercial point of view. De Frontenac died
in November following, in the 78th year of his age, and the Governor of
Montreal, De Callières, succeeded him. De Callières died suddenly, a
few years after his elevation, (1703) when the people of Canada
petitioned for the appointment of the Marquis De Vaudreuil to the
Viceroyalty, and the king granted their prayer. The death of De
Callières occurred one year after a new declaration of war between
France and England. This war was the result of unsettled boundaries, by
the peace of Ryswick. England declared war against both France and
Spain. Again Canadians and New Englanders suffered severely. The French
of Canada, especially, allowed their Indians to perpetrate the most
horrible atrocities. Women prisoners were inhumanly butchered in cold
blood, before the very eyes of their husbands, only because they were
unable to keep pace with other prisoners, or their captors. Both the
French and the English colonists were permitted by the parent states to
fight almost unaided, to fight on imperial account, at colonial expense
of blood and treasure. To Canada, nearly altogether a military colony,
fighting was particularly agreeable, and yet the population had not
reached 15,000, while Massachusetts contained 70,000 souls;
Connecticut, 30,000: Rhode Island, 10,000; New Hampshire, 10,000; New
York, 30,000; New Jersey, 15,000; Pennsylvania, 20,000; Maryland,
25,000; North Carolina, 5,000; South Carolina, 7,000, and in all
142,000 souls. The difficulty of land transport confined hostilities to
the border States, and preserved a balance of power between the
contending colonists. Indeed, the St. Lawrence afforded a comparatively
easy means of communication for the French to that afforded by the
mountain passes of Vermont to the New Englanders. The French could more
easily pounce upon the outposts of Lake Champlain than the New
Englanders could march to defend them. The English colonists resolved
upon making a great effort. Massachusetts petitioned Queen Anne for
assistance, who promised to send five regiments of regular troops,
which, with 1,200 men, raised in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, were
to sail from Boston for Quebec. The fleet, with the five regiments on
board, never came to hand, having been sent to Portugal; but 1,800
colonists marched against Montreal, by way of Lake Champlain, and
penetrated as far as Wood Creek, where the news of the altered
destination of the fleet reached them and caused them to return. The
French Governor acted on the defensive. He made extraordinary
preparations for defence, which were needless, as the Iroquois Indians,
having quarrelled with the English, on the ground that Iroquois safety
consisted in the jealousies of the French and English, would not fight,
and the invaders retreated. Another application being made to the Queen
of England for protection, on the part of the New Englanders, Colonel
Nicholson came over with five frigates and a bomb ketch, and having
been joined by five regiments of troops from New England, he sailed
with the frigates and about twenty transports, from Boston, on the 18th
September, for Port Royal, which he captured and called, in honor of
his Queen, Annapolis. Animated with his success, Nicholson sailed for
England, to solicit another expedition to Canada. His request was
granted. Orders were immediately sent to the colonies to prepare their
quotas of men, and only sixteen days after the orders to that effect
were received, a fleet of men of war and transports, under Sir Hovenden
Walker, with seven regiments of the Duke of Marlborough's troops, and a
battalion of marines, under Brigadier General Hill, arrived at Boston.
The fleet had neither provisions nor pilots, but by the prompt
exertions of the colonists, 15 men of war, 40 transports, and 6
storeships, with nearly 7,000 men, sailed from Boston for Canada, while
Colonel, now General Nicholson, marched at the head of 4,000
provincialists, from Albany towards Canada. The fleet arrived in the
St. Lawrence on the 14th of August, (1710) but in proceeding up the
river the whole fleet was nearly destroyed. The pilots were ignorant of
the channels, and the winds were contrary and strong. About midnight of
the 22nd, a part of the fleet were driven among islands and rocks on
the north shore, eight or nine transports were cast away, and nearly
1,000 soldiers were drowned. The attempt to take Quebec was again
abandoned. The ships of war sailed directly for England, and the
transports, having provincial troops on board, returned to Boston.
General Nicholson remained at Fort George until he heard of the
miscarriage of the St. Lawrence expedition, when he retraced his steps
to Albany. The Canadians had made extensive preparations for defence.
The greatest possible enthusiasm prevailed in Quebec. The merchants of
Quebec, in 1712, raised a subscription and presented the Governor with
50,000 crowns, for the purpose of strengthening the fortifications of
the town. The peace of Utrecht was, however, concluded, in 1713, and
Canada was left to contend only with the Outagamis, a new Indian enemy,
who, in conjunction with the Iroquois, had determined upon burning
Detroit, the limit of civilisation to the north west. The French soon
caused their Indian enemies to bury their hatchets.
At the peace, Quebec had 7,000 inhabitants, and the population of all
Canada amounted to 25,000, of whom 5,000 were capable of bearing arms.
Already the banks of the St. Lawrence below Quebec were laid out in
seigniories, and the farms were tolerably well cultivated. Some farmers
were in easier circumstances than their seigneurs. The imported
nobility had dwindled down to the condition of placemen or traders. The
Baron Beçancour held the office of Inspector of Highways, and Count
Blumhart made ginger beer. Three Rivers contained 800 inhabitants. A
few farmers lived in the neighbourhood of the mouth of the St. Francis.
Montreal was rising rapidly into importance, having obtained the fur
trade of Three Rivers, in addition to its own, and the island having
been carefully cultivated, through the well directed efforts of the
Jesuits. Above Montreal there was nothing but forts--Fort Kingston or
Cataraqui, Fort Niagara, Fort Detroit, and Fort Machillimakinac.
The Marquis de Vaudreuil having ruled Canada for twenty-one years, died
on the 10th of April, 1725. He was succeeded by the Marquis de
Beauharnois, under whose judicious management of affairs, the province
became prosperous. Cultivation was extended. The Indians were so much
conciliated, that intermarriages between the French and Indians were
frequent. And there was nothing to excite alarm but the growing
importance and grasping disposition of the New Englanders and New
Anglo-Hollanders. The Governor of New York had erected a fort and
trading post at Oswego, on Lake Ontario, with the view of monopolizing
the trade of the Lakes. Beauharnois followed the English Governor's
example, by building an opposition fort in the neighbourhood of
Niagara. Another fort was erected by the Marquis, at Crown Point, on
Lake Champlain, and yet another at Ticonderoga. The English very soon
had a more reasonable pretext than a monopoly of the fur traffic, for
more active demonstrations against the French. War was again declared
in 1745, between France and England, by George II.; and Governor
Shirley, of Massachusetts, without waiting for instructions from
England, determined upon attacking Louisbourg, then considered to be
the "Gibraltar of America." Louisbourg, on Cape Breton, was fortified
by the French, after the peace of Utrecht, at an expense of $5,500,000.
The fortifications consisted of a rampart of stone, nearly 36 feet in
height, and a ditch eighty feet wide. There were six bastions, and
three batteries, with embrasures for 148 cannon and 6 mortars. On an
island at the entrance of the harbor was another battery of 30 cannon,
carrying 28 pound shot, and at the bottom of the harbour, opposite the
entrance, was situated the royal battery of twenty-eight forty-two
pounders, and two eighteen pounders. The entrance of the town, on the
land side, was at the west, over a draw-bridge, near which was a
circular battery, mounting 16 guns of 24 pounds shot. And these works
had been 25 years in building. Louisbourg was a place of much
importance to the French. It was a convenient retreat to such
privateers as always annoyed and sometimes captured the New England
fishing vessels. And the manner of this attack upon it is exceedingly
interesting. It was determined on in January, 1745. Massachusetts
furnished 3,250 men; Connecticut, 510; Rhode Island and New Hampshire,
each 300. The naval force consisted of twelve ships, and in two months
the army was enlisted, victualled, and equipped for service. On the
23rd of March, an express boat, which had been sent to Commodore
Warren, the Naval Commander in Chief in the West Indies, to invite his
co-operation, returned to Boston with the information, that without
orders from England he could take no share in a purely colonial
expedition. Governor Shirley and General Pepperell nevertheless
embarked the army, and the colonial fleet sailed the next morning. The
expedition arrived at Canso on the 4th of April, where the troops from
New Hampshire and Connecticut joined it. Here, Commodore Warren, with
his fleet, very unexpectedly joined the expedition. Shortly after his
refusal to join, instructions which had been sent off from the British
Government, approving of the attack upon Louisbourg, as proposed by
Governor Shirley, and which Pepperell had gone to attack, without
waiting for Imperial approval, had reached Commodore Warren, and
without loss of time he proceeded direct to Canso, whither it was
reported the Colonial fleet had gone. His arrival was the cause of
great joy among the colonists. After a short consultation with General
Pepperell, the Commodore sailed to cruise before Louisbourg, and was
soon followed by the colonial fleet and army, which, on the 30th April,
arrived in Cap Rouge Bay. It was not until then that the French were
aware that an attack upon them was meditated. Every attempt was made to
oppose the landing. They sent detachments to the landing places. But
General Pepperell deceived them. He made a feint of landing at one
point, and actually landed at another. The story reminds us of
Sebastopol. Next morning 400 of the English marched round behind the
hills, to the north west of the harbour, setting fire to all the houses
and stores, till they came within a mile of the Royal Battery. The
conflagration of the stores, in which was a considerable quantity of
tar, while it concealed the English troops, increased the alarm of the
French so greatly, that they precipitately abandoned the Royal battery.
Upon their flight, the English troops took possession of it, and by
means of a well directed fire from it, seriously damaged the town. The
main body of the army now commenced the siege. For fourteen nights they
were occupied in drawing cannon towards the town, over a morass, in
which oxen and horses could not be used. The toil was incredible, but
men accustomed to draw the pines of the forests, for masts, could
accomplish anything. By the 20th of May, several fascine batteries had
been erected, one of which mounted five forty-pounders. These
batteries, on being opened, did immense execution. While the siege was
being proceeded with, Commodore Warren captured the French ship of war
"Vigilant," of 74 guns, with her 560 men, and a great quantity of
military stores. This capture was of very great consequence, as it not
only increased the English force and added to their military supplies,
but seriously lessened the strength of the enemy. Shortly after this
important capture, the English fleet was considerably augmented by the
arrival of several men of war. A combined attack by sea and land was
now determined on, and fixed for the 18th of June. Already the inland
battery had been silenced; the western gate of the town was beaten
down, and a breach effected in the wall; the circular battery of
sixteen guns was nearly ruined; and the western flank of the King's
bastion was nearly demolished. The besieged were in no condition to
resist a joint attack by sea and land. The preparations for such an
attack altogether dispirited them. A cessation of hostilities was asked
for, on the 15th, and obtained. On the 17th, after a siege of
forty-nine days, Louisbourg and the Island of Cap Breton surrendered.
Stores and prizes to the amount of nearly a million sterling fell into
the hands of the conquerors. Nor was this the only advantage. Security
was given to the colonies in their fisheries; Nova Scotia was preserved
to England; and the trade and fisheries of France were nearly ruined.
The successful General, a New Englander by birth, was created a baronet
of Great Britain, in recognition of his important services to the
State. Sir William Pepper(w)ell rose on the ruins of Louisbourg. On
France the blow fell with great severity. The court, aroused to
vengeance, sent the Duke D'Anville, a nobleman of great courage, in
1746, at the head of an armament of forty ships of war, fifty-six
transports, with three thousand five hundred men, and forty thousand
stand of arms for the use of the French and Indians in Canada, to
recover possession of Cape Breton, and to attack the colonies. Four
vessels of the line, forming the West India squadron, were to join the
expedition, and Canada sent off 1,700 men with the same view. The
greatest consternation possessed the English colonists, as part of this
immense fleet neared the American coast. But there was, in reality, no
cause for fear. The tempest had blasted the hopes of France. Only two
or three of the ships, with a few transports, reached Chebucto Bay, in
Nova Scotia. Many of the ships of this once formidable expedition were
seriously damaged by storms, others were lost, and one was forced to
return to Brest, on account of cholera among her crew. On arrival at
Chebucto, where Halifax is now situated, the Admiral became so
despondent that he poisoned himself, and the Vice Admiral, no more a
Roman than his superior, ran himself through the body with his sword.
So died both these gallant but unfortunate men, whose moral courage
quailed before what they knew must be public opinion in France. Nor
were the disasters of the Duke d'Anville's armament yet over. That part
of the fleet which had arrived in America, sailed for the purpose of
attacking Annapolis, only to be dispersed by a storm, in the Bay of
Fundy, and to return to France crest-fallen. Another expedition was
however, determined upon. Six men of war, of the largest class, six
frigates, and four East Indiamen, with a convoy of thirty merchant
vessels, set sail from France, with the Admiral de la Jonquiere
appointed to succeed de Beauharnois as Governor of Canada. But a
British fleet, under Admiral Anson and Rear Admiral Warren, dispatched
to watch, and, if possible, intercept it, fell in with the French fleet
on the 3rd of May, and before night all the battle ships had
surrendered. The new Governor of Canada found himself a prisoner. The
disagreeable intelligence of this second failure reached France on the
somewhat sudden and unexpected return of a part of the convoy, which
had escaped capture, as night fell, on the day of the surrender of the
fleet. Another Governor for Canada was appointed, the Count de la
Gallisonière, who arrived safely. De la Gallisonière took an
intelligent view of the position of affairs. He saw the folly, in a
military point of view, of keeping the frontier a wilderness, and
recommended that a large number of settlers should be sent from France,
who, by being located on the frontier, would act as a check upon the
British. His advice was, however, unheeded, and de la Jonquière having
been released from captivity and conveyed to Canada, the Count resigned
his trust to the Admiral, and returned to France. De la Jonquière was
exceedingly active and able. Shortly after, or about the time of his
release from captivity, the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed, and
all conquests--Louisbourg included--made during the war, were mutually
restored. But de la Jonquière hated the English cordially, and by his
hostile acts against the English fur traders, of the Ohio Company, he
brought on that war between France and England, known as "The French
and Indian War." Several English traders were seized and carried to a
French port, on the south of Lake Erie, and fortifications, at
convenient distances, were erected and occupied by French troops,
between Fort Presqu'isle and the Ohio. War was ultimately declared, and
Colonel George Washington, afterwards President of the United States,
was sent, at the head of a regiment of Virginians, by the British
Governor Dinwiddie, to put a stop to the fort building, which, although
joined by nearly 400 men from New York and South Carolina, he failed to
accomplish, having been compelled by De Villiers, at the head of a
force of 1,500 French soldiers, to capitulate, with the privilege of
marching back to Virginia unmolested. In Canada, De la Jonquière was by
no means a favorite. Terribly avaricious, while the Intendant sold
licenses to trade, the Governor and his Secretary sold brandy to the
Indians. De la Jonquière became enormously wealthy, but his grasping
disposition so annoyed the people of Quebec and Montreal, that
complaints against him were loudly made, and he was recalled. He died,
however, at Quebec, before his successor, the Marquis du Quesne de
Menneville, was appointed. The Anglo-Indian French War now raged
furiously. The English colonists were recommended by the British
Government to unite together in some scheme for their common defence. A
convention of delegates from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode
Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, with the Lieut.
Governor and Council of New York, was accordingly held at Albany, in
1754, and a plan of a federal union adopted. The plan was simply
this:--a Grand Council, to be formed of members chosen by the
provincial assemblies, and sent from all the colonies; which Grand
Council, with a Governor General appointed by the Crown, having a
negative voice, should be empowered to make general laws, to raise
money in all the colonies, for their defence, to call forth troops,
regulate trade, lay duties, &c. It met, however, neither with the
approbation of the Provincial Assemblies nor the King's Council. The
Assemblies rejected it because it gave too much power to the Crown, and
the King's Council rejected it because it gave too much power to the
people. Nevertheless, the Assemblies unreservedl declared, that, if it
were adopted, they would undertake to defend themselves from the
French, without any assistance from Great Britain. The mother country
refused to sanction it. Another plan was proposed, which met with
universal disapprobation. A convention was to be formed by the
Governors, with one or more of their Council to concert measures for
the general defence, to erect fortifications, to raise men, &c., with
power to draw upon the British Treasury to defray all charges, which
charges were to be reimbursed by taxes upon the colonies, imposed by
Acts of Parliament. The English colonies, however, vigorously attempted
to repel the encroachments of the French from Canada, and ultimately
succeeded, notwithstanding the blundering incompetency of General
Braddock and Colonel Dunbar, the afterwards celebrated Washington being
Aid-de-Camp to the former on the Ohio. Braddock, in proceeding against
Fort du Quesne,[3] with upwards of 2,200 men, one thousand of which
were regulars, suffered himself to be surprised by only five hundred
French and Indians, had five horses killed under him, was himself
mortally wounded, and his troops were defeated. Nay, out of sixty-five
officers, sixty-four were killed and wounded, and of the troops
engaged, one half were made prisoners, through the ungovernable folly
of a man, who advanced without caution, and attempted to form a line
when surrounded in a thicket. It was at this time, when the English
colonists, not only contemplated a federal union, but had determined
upon expeditions--one against the French in Nova Scotia, which
completely succeeded; a second against the French on the Ohio; a third
against Crown Point; and a fourth against Niagara. The Marquis du
Quesne organized the militia of Quebec and Montreal; minutely inspected
and disciplined the militia of the seigneuries; and attached
considerable bodies of regular artillery to every garrison. Tired of
the continual fighting between Canada and the English colonies, the
Marquis du Quesne solicited his recall. His request was conceded. His
most Christian Majesty appointed the Marquis de Vaudreuil de Cavagnac,
son of a former Governor to succeed him. De Vaudreuil de Cavagnac
sailed for the seat of his government with Admiral La Mothe, who was in
command of a fleet newly fitted out, at considerable cost, at Brest.
The sailing was not unnoticed by the English Channel fleet. Admiral
Boscawen gave chase. He had eleven ships of the line, and with these he
came up with the French fleet off Newfoundland. A battle ensued, and
two French vessels fell into the hands of the British, the remainder of
the French ships escaping under cover of a fog. Quebec was reached
without further molestation, and Governor De Vaudreuil de Cavagnac was
installed. All Canada was, on his arrival, in arms. Every parish was a
garrison, commanded by a captain, whose authority was not only
acknowledged, but rigidly sustained. Agriculture was, consequently,
entirely neglected. Provisions were scarce; the price of food was
enormously high; and the fur trade was rapidly declining.
Notwithstanding this, the Intendant, Bigot, shipped off large
quantities of wheat to the West Indies, on his own account. The Marquis
de Vaudreuil de Cavagnac sanctioned the avaricious exactions and
dealings of Bigot. Practices the most dishonest and demoralizing were
winked at or excused. The Governors positively enriched themselves on
the miseries of the governed. A high standard value was given to grain
in store. It was studiously reported that the farmers were hoarding up
their stocks, and prejudice was so excited against them, that it was no
difficult matter to confiscate their corn, on pretence that it was
absolutely necessary for the city and the troops. De Cavagnac and Bigot
bought cheaply and sold extravagantly dear. As the Russian officials
cheat the Russian government, so did the French officials cheat both
the people and the government of France. But it was little wonder. The
Governor had only a salary of £272 sterling, out of which he was
expected to clothe, maintain, and pay a guard for himself, consisting
of two sergeants and twenty-five soldiers, furnishing them with firing
in winter, and other necessary articles. A Governor was compelled to
trade to be on a pecuniary level with the merchant.
[3] Now called Pittsburg, and the chief manufacturing town in the
United States.
The hostilities between the colonists of English and French extraction
for the two preceding years had been carried on, without any formal
declaration of war. It was not until June, 1756, that war was declared
by Great Britain against France, and operations were determined upon on
a large scale. Lord Loudon was appointed Commander in Chief of the
English forces in America, and General the Marquis de Montcalm was
appointed Generalissimo in Canada, in room of Dieskau, who was disabled
at Lake George. The English commander matured a plan of campaign,
formed by his _locum tenens_, General Abercrombie, which embraced an
attack upon Niagara and Crown Point, still in possession of the French,
the former being the connecting link in the line of fortifications
between Canada and Louisiana, and the latter commanding Lake Champlain,
and guarding the only passage at that time to Canada. Loudon was as
hesitating and shiftless, as Abercrombie had been an improvident
commander. The expedition against Crown Point was unaccountably
delayed. General Winslow, at the head of 700 men, was not permitted to
advance. Montcalm, as energetic, able, and enterprising as his
opponents were indecisive, with 8,000 regulars, Canadians, and Indians,
made a rapid descent upon Oswego, at the south-east side of Lake
Ontario, and captured it. Sixteen hundred men, one hundred and twenty
pieces of cannon, fourteen mortars, two ships of war, and two hundred
boats and batteaux, fell into the conqueror's hands. Lord Loudon, prone
to inactivity, instead of vigorously pushing forward upon Crown Point,
to retrieve this great disaster, made the disaster an excuse for
relinquishing the enterprise. The failure of the campaign of '56 much
annoyed the British Parliament and people, and great preparations were
made in the following year to prosecute the war to a successful issue.
It was in vain, while Lord Loudon was in command of the colonial army.
A fleet of eleven ships of the line, and fifty transports, with more
than six thousand troops, arrived at Halifax, for the reduction of
Louisbourg, and Lord Loudon ordered a large body of troops, designed to
march upon Ticonderoga and Crown Point, to co-operate. But so dilatory
was his Lordship, that before the expedition from Halifax was ready to
sail, a French fleet of 17 sail had arrived at Louisbourg, with
reinforcements, making the garrison nine thousand strong--and this fine
specimen of a hereditary commander deemed it inexpedient to proceed,
and abandoned the expedition. Montcalm, again profitting by the
weakness and indecision of his adversaries, made a descent on Fort
William Henry, situated on the north shore of Lake George, with nine
thousand men. The fort, garrisoned by three thousand men, was commanded
by Colonel Munroe, who obstinately defended it. Nay, had it not been
for the silly indifference of General Webb, who was in command of Fort
Edward, which was within only fifteen miles of Fort William Henry, and
was garrisoned by 4,000 men, the French General might have been unable
to make any impression upon it. But Webb, although solicited by his
second in command, Sir William Johnston, to suffer his troops to march
to the rescue, first hesitated, next granted permission, and then drew
back. In six days the garrison surrendered, Munroe and his troops being
admitted to an honorable capitulation. Reverses such as these,
involving great misery, inasmuch as the Indians too frequently
butchered their prisoners in cold blood, could not fail to have an
effect upon a ministry which had appointed such incapables to command.
A change of ministry was loudly demanded, and most fortunately for
the honor of the British arms, and for the salvation of the colonies,
there was a change. The great Pitt, afterwards Lord Chatham, was the
Palmerston of that day. Placed at the head of the administration,
he breathed into the British Councils a new soul. He revived the
energies of the colonies. He gave new life to dependencies, whose
loyalty was weakened, and whose means were exhausted by a series of as
ill-contrived and unfortunate expeditions as were ever attempted. He
addressed circulars to the colonial Governors, assuring them of the
determination of the ministry to send a large force to America, and
called upon the colonies to raise as many troops as possible, and to
act promptly and liberally in furnishing the requisite supplies. The
colonies nobly responded. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New England
unitedly raised 15,000 men, who were ready to take the field in May. An
expedition to Louisbourg, a second to Ticonderoga, and a third against
Fort du Quesne were determined upon. The tide of success was on the
turn. Admiral Boscawen, with a fleet of twenty ships of the line,
eighteen frigates, and an army of fourteen thousand men, under the
command of General Amherst, his second in command being General Wolfe,
sailed from Halifax, for Louisbourg, on the 28th of May. Louisbourg
resisted vigorously, but on the 26th of July this important fortress
was a second time in the possession of Great Britain. 5,735 men, 120
cannon, 5 ships of the line, and 4 frigates were captured. Isle Royal
and St. John's, with Cape Breton, fell, also, into the hands of the
English. Against Ticonderoga the English were not so successful. This
central expedition was conducted by General Abercrombie, who had
succeeded Lord Loudon as Commander-in-Chief in America, that nobleman
having returned home. He had with him 16,000 men and a formidable train
of artillery. Ticonderoga was only garrisoned by 3,000 French. The
passage of Abercrombie across Lake Champlain was only a little less
splendid than that of the British and French armies over the Black Sea,
from Varna to Eupatoria, in September, 1854. The morning was remarkably
bright and beautiful, and the fleet moved with exact regularity, to the
sound of fine martial music. The ensigns waved and glittered in the
sunbeams, and the anticipation of future triumphs shone in every eye.
Above, beneath, around, the scenery was that of enchantment. It was a
complication of beauty and magnificence, on which the sun rarely
shines. But General Abercrombie was unequal to the command of such an
army. He left to incompetent Aides-de-Camp the task of reconnoitering
the ground and entrenchments, and without a knowledge of the strength
of the place, or of the points proper for attack, and without bringing
up a single piece of artillery, he issued his orders to attempt the
lines. The army advanced with the greatest intrepidity, and for upwards
of four hours (the duration of the battle of the Alma) maintained the
attack with incredible obstinacy. Nearly two thousand of the English
were killed or wounded, and a retreat was ordered. On reaching Lake
George, his former quarters, the defeated and mortified Abercrombie
yielded to the solicitations of Colonel Bradstreet, who desired to be
sent against Fort Frontenac, (now Kingston) on Lake Ontario. Three
thousand provincials were detached on this expedition, and in two days
the fortress had surrendered, and 9 armed vessels, 60 cannon, and
sixteen mortars, and a vast quantity of ammunition were taken
possession of. Fort du Quesne was evacuated on the approach of General
Forbes, with 8,000 men, and was re-named Pittsburg, in honor of the
Prime Minister of England, Mr. Pitt.
Elated by success, the entire conquest of Canada was now determined
upon by the English. Three powerful armies were simultaneously to enter
the French Province by three different routes--Ticonderoga and Crown
Point, Niagara and Quebec were to be attacked as nearly as possible at
the same time. On the 22nd of July, 1759, the successor of Abercrombie,
General Amherst, attacked, first, Ticonderoga, and then Crown Point,
both places being evacuated on his approach, the French retiring to
Isle Aux Noix, where General Amherst could not follow them, for want of
a naval armament. On the 6th of the same month, Fort Niagara was
invested by Sir William Johnston, who succeeded to the command of the
Niagara division of the army on the death of General Prideaux, an able
and distinguished officer, unfortunately killed, four days previously,
by the bursting of a cohorn. A general battle took place on the 24th,
which decided the fate of Niagara, by placing it in the hands of the
invaders.
The intended campaign of 1759, was early made known to General
Montcalm: that on Quebec was made known to him on the 14th of May, by
M. de Bougainville, appointed on the Marquis' staff, as Aid-de-Camp. In
January, a census of those capable of bearing arms in Canada was taken,
when 15,229 were reported as available for service. Montcalm went
energetically to work to preserve the country to France. A council of
war was held at Montreal, and it was decided that a body of troops,
under Montcalm, the Marquis de Levi, and M. de Jennezergus, should be
posted at Quebec; that M. de Bourlemaque should hasten to Ticonderoga,
blow up the works at the approach of the English, retire by the Lake to
Isle-aux-Noix, and there stubbornly resist. With 800 regulars and
militia, the Chevalier de la Corne was directed to hold the rapids
above Montreal, to entrench himself in a strong position, and hold out
to the last. It is, therefore, obvious, that the evacuation of
Ticonderoga was determined upon; and that the retention of Niagara was
not much desired. The intended march upon Quebec, by a large force from
England, caused the greatest uneasiness. Montcalm, hastening to Quebec,
pushed on the defences of the city and its outposts vigorously. The
buoys, and other marks for the safe navigation of the St. Lawrence were
removed. Proclamations, calling upon the people to make a determined
resistance, were issued. The people were reminded that they were about
to contest with a powerful and ruthless enemy of their religion and
their homes. The Church urged the faithful to resist the heretical
invaders.
General Wolfe was in the harbour of Quebec before either Ticonderoga or
Niagara had fallen. Eight thousand men had been embarked at Louisbourg,
under convoy of Admirals Saunders and Holmes. The expedition arrived
without accident off the Island of Orleans, where the troops were
disembarked, on the 25th of June. General Wolfe, three days afterwards,
issued an address to the colonists. He appealed to their fears. General
Amherst was approaching in one direction, Sir W. Johnston in another,
and he (Wolfe) was at their very doors. Succour from France was
unobtainable. To the peasantry he, therefore, offered the sweets of
peace, amid the horrors of war. The French colonists, however, were
ignorant of the English language as of English customs. They saw no
sign of fine feeling towards themselves in so large a fleet and so
considerable an army. Every obstacle that could be placed in the way of
an invading force, the French colonists patriotically placed in the way
of General Wolfe. They readily formed themselves into battalions for
defence. They hung about the skirts of that part of the army which had
been landed, cutting off foraging parties, and otherwise harassing it.
They prayed in the churches for the preservation of their country. The
most noble spirit animated the Canadians. General Monckton was sent to
drive the French off Point Levi, opposite Quebec, and take possession
of the post. He succeeded. Batteries were thrown up and unceasingly
worked. The firing was, but however, of little use, only the houses of
the town being injured. The fortifications were not only uninjured,
they were being rapidly strengthened. More energetic measures were
determined upon. Wolfe crossed the river and attacked the enemy in
their entrenchments, at Montmorenci. But, some of the boats in which
the soldiers had crossed, unluckily grounded, and the attacking party
did not all land together. The grenadiers rushed impetuously forward,
without even waiting to form, and were mowed down by the enemy's close,
steady, and well directed fire. Montcalm's force now advanced to the
beach, and the contest waxed hotter. A thunder storm was approaching,
and the tide was setting in. Wolfe, fearing the consequences of delay,
ordered a retreat, and returned to his quarters, on the Island of
Orleans. He lost six hundred of the flower of his army in this unhappy
encounter, and left behind him some of his largest boats. The condition
of the invaders was far from enviable. Sickness prevailed to an
alarming extent in the camp. They had been already five weeks before
the city, and many lives had been lost, not only in skirmishes, but by
dysentery. Wolfe himself fell sick. Depressed in spirits by the
disastrous attempt to land on the Beauport shoals, and worn down with
fatigue and watching, he was compelled to take to his bed. It was while
lying ill that the plan occurred to him of proceeding up the river,
scaling the heights by night, and forcing Montcalm to a general
engagement. On his recovery he proceeded to carry his plan into
execution. A feint of landing again at Beauport was made. The boats of
the fleet, filled with sailors and marines, apparently made for the
shore, covered by a part of the fleet, the other part having gone
higher up the river. At one hour after midnight, on the 12th September,
the fleet being now at anchor at the narrows of Carouge, the first
division of the army, consisting of 1,600 men, were placed in flat
bottomed boats, which silently dropped down the current. It was
intended to land three miles above Cape Diamond, and then ascend to the
high grounds above. The current, however, carried the boats down to
within a mile and a half of the city. The night was dismally dark, the
bank seemed more than ordinarily steep and lofty, and the French were
on the _qui vive_. A sentinel bawled out, "_Que vive_," who goes there?
"_La France_," was the quick reply. Captain Macdonald, of the 78th
Highlanders, had served in Holland, and knew the proper reply to the
challenge of a French sentry. "A quel regiment?" asked the sentry, "De
la Reine" was the response. "Passe" said the soldier, who made the
darkness vibrate as he brought his musket to the carry. Other sentinels
were similarly deceived. One was more particularly curious than the
others. Something in the voice of the passing friend did not please his
ear. Running down to the water's edge, he called "Pour quoi est-ce que
vous ne parlez plus haut," why don't you speak louder? "Tais toi, nous
serons entendu!" Hush, we shall be overheard and discovered, said the
cunning highlander, still more softly. It was enough, the boats passed.
Within one hour of daylight a landing was effected, and the British
army began to scale the heights, the base of which was then washed by
the St. Lawrence. By daylight, the army was drawn up in battle array,
on the "Plains of Abraham." The ground was somewhat undulating, and
well calculated for manoeuvring. Every knoll was taken advantage of.
Every little hillock served the purpose of an earthwork. For the
invaders it was victory or death. To retreat was impossible. The
position of the British army was speedily made known to Montcalm. There
was not a moment to be lost. The French General rapidly crossed the St.
Charles, and advanced with his whole army, to meet that of Wolfe.
Fifteen hundred Indians first ascended the hill, from the valley of the
St. Charles, and stationing themselves in cornfields and bushes, fired
upon the English, who took no notice of their fire. Between nine and
ten o'clock, the two armies met, face to face, and when the main body
of the French, advancing rapidly, were within forty yards, the English
opened their fire, and the carnage was terrible. The French fought
gallantly, but under a galling and well directed fire, they fell, in
spite of the exertions of their officers, into disorder. The British
Grenadiers charged at this critical moment. The Highlanders rushing
forward, with the claymore, hewed down every opponent, and the fate of
the battle was no longer doubtful--the French retreated. Wolfe had just
been carried to the rear, mortally wounded in the groin. Early in the
battle, a ball struck him in the wrist, but binding his handkerchief
around it, he continued to encourage his men. It was while in the
agonies of death, that he heard the cry of "they flee," "they flee,"
and on being told that it was the French who fled, exclaimed, "Then I
die happy." His second in command, General Monckton, was wounded and
conveyed away, shortly after assuming the direction of affairs, when
the command devolved upon General Townshend who followed up the
victory, rendered the more telling by the death of the brave Montcalm,
who fell, mortally wounded, in front of his battalion, and that of his
second in command, General Jennezergus, who fell near him. Wolfe's army
consisted of only 4,828 men, Montcalm's of 7,520 men, exclusive of
Indians. The English loss amounted to 55 killed and 607 wounded, that
of the French to nearly a thousand killed and wounded; and a thousand
made prisoners. Montcalm was carried to the city; his last moments were
employed in writing to the English general, recommending the French
prisoners to his care and humanity; and when informed that his wound
was mortal, he sublimely remarked:--"I shall not then live to see the
surrender of Quebec." On the 14th he died, and on the evening of the
18th the keys of Quebec were delivered up to his conquerors, and the
British flag was hoisted on the citadel. French imperial rule had
virtually ended in Canada. Not so, French customs. By the capitulation,
which suffered the garrison to march out with the honors of war, the
inhabitants of the country were permitted the free exercise of their
religion; and, afterwards, in 1774, the Roman Catholic Church
establishment was recognized; and disputes concerning landed and real
property were to be settled by the _Coutume de Paris_. In criminal
cases only was the law of England to apply.
Admiral Saunders, with all the fleet, except two ships, sailed for
England, on the 18th of October, Quebec being left to the care of
General Murray and about 3,000 men. After the fleet had sailed, several
attempts were made upon the British outposts at Point Levi, Cape Rouge,
and St. Foy, unsuccessfully. Winter came, and the sufferings of the
conquerors and the conquered were dreadful. The Frazer Highlanders wore
their kilts, notwithstanding the extreme cold, and provisions were so
scarce and dear, that many of the inhabitants died of starvation. The
Marquis de Vaudreuil, the Governor General of His Most Christian
Majesty, busied himself, at Montreal, with preparations for the
recovery of Quebec, in the spring. In April, he sent the General De
Levi, with an army of 10,000 men, to effect that object. De Levi
arrived within three miles of Quebec, on the 28th, and defeated General
Murray's force of 2,200 men, imprudently sent to meet him. The city was
again besieged, but this time by the French. Indeed, it was only on the
appearance of the British ships, about the middle of May, that the
siege was raised. De Levi retreated to Jacques Cartier. The tide of
fortune was again turning. General Amherst was advancing from New York
upon Montreal. By the middle of May, that city, and with it the whole
of Canada, including a population, exclusive of Indians, of 69,275
souls, was surrendered to England.
Montcalm, who was not only a general, but a statesman, is said to have
expressed himself to the effect, that the conquest of Canada by England
would endanger her retention of the New England colonies, and
ultimately prove injurious to her interests on this continent. Canada,
not subject to France, would be no source of uneasiness or annoyance to
the English colonists, who already were becoming politically important,
and somewhat impatient of restraint. How far such an opinion was
justifiable, is to be gathered from the condition of Canada and the
colonies of Great Britain in America, at this hour.
Canada was, in 1763, ceded by His Most Christian Majesty, the King of
France, to His Britannic Majesty King George the Second. Emigration
from the United Kingdom to Canada was encouraged--not to Canada only,
but to Nova Scotia, which then included the present Province of New
Brunswick. By the treaty of 1763, signed at Paris, Nova Scotia, Canada,
the Isle of Cape Breton, and all the other Islands in the Gulf and
River St. Lawrence, were ceded to the British Crown. Britain, not only
powerful in arms, but, even at this period, great in commerce, was
about to change, though almost imperceptibly, the feelings of her new
subjects. The old or New England colonies, which had so largely
contributed to the subjugation of Canada, were already largely engaged
in trade. They had not made much progress in agriculture. They had made
no progress in manufactures. It was six years later before their first
collegiate institution, at Hanover, New Hampshire, was founded. But,
while Canada, perhaps, only loaded a couple of vessels with the skins
of the bear, the beaver, the buffalo, the fox, the lynx, the martin,
the minx, and the wolf, to prevent the total evaporation of heat from
the shoulders of the gentler sex in Paris or London, or to fringe the
velvet robes of the courtiers of St. James and the Tuileries, the New
Englanders employed, annually, about one thousand and seventy-eight
British vessels, manned by twenty-eight thousand nine hundred seamen,
while their whale and other fisheries had become of great
importance.[4] To change the military character of the sixty-nine
thousand inhabitants of Canada ceded by France to England, could not be
done immediately. That was as impossible as to make them abjure by
proclamation, their religion. All changes, to be lasting, must be
gradual, and the government of Great Britain only contemplated a
lasting change, by the introduction into Canada of her own people,
imbued with somewhat different ideas, religiously, legally, and
commercially, from those which actuated the conquered population.
[4] In 1771, however, 471,000 bushels of wheat were exported from
Canada, of which two-thirds, it was computed, were made in the
Sorel District. _See the Journal of Charles Carroll, of
Carollton, page 77._
CHAPTER II.
For some years after the conquest, the form of government was purely
military. It was, indeed, only in 1774, that two Acts were passed by
the British government, one with the view of providing a revenue for
the civil government of the Province of Quebec, as the whole of Canada
was then termed, the other, called "The Quebec Act," defining the
boundaries of the Province, setting aside all the provisions of the
Royal proclamation, of 1763, and appointing a governing Council of not
more than twenty-three, nor less than seventeen persons. And whatever
may have been the motive for this almost unlooked for liberality on the
part of the mother country, it is not a little singular that only a
year later, England's great difficulty with her old colonies occurred.
The Parliament of Great Britain had imposed, without even consulting
the colonists, a tax for the defence and protection of the colonies, on
clayed sugar, indigo, coffee, &c., and the colonists resisted. The
American colonies contended that taxation and representation were
inseparable, and that having no voice in the administration of affairs,
they were free from any taxation, but that which was self-imposed, for
local purposes. So far, however, from paying any heed to the
remonstrances of the colonists, the Imperial Parliament became more
exacting and tyrannical. Not only were the necessaries of life taxed in
America, for the benefit of the red-tapists and other place-holders of
the Imperial government, but a stamp Act was passed through the
Imperial Parliament, ordaining that instruments of writing--bonds,
deeds, and notes--executed in the colonies, should be null and void,
unless executed upon paper stamped by the London Stamp Office. It was
then that a coffin, inscribed with the word "_Liberty_" was carried to
the grave, in Portsmouth, Massachusetts, and buried with military
honours! Had the views of Governor Pownall, of Massachusetts, with
regard to the representation of the colonies in the British Parliament,
been adopted, no umbrage could have been taken at the imposition of
taxes, because the colonies would have been open to civil and military
preferment in the state equally with the residents of the United
Kingdom. It was, and is, an unfortunate mistake to look upon colonists
with contempt. Colonists, more even than the inhabitants of old
countries, inhale a spirit of independence. Often, lords of all they
survey, they call no man lord. They are the pioneers of their own
fortunes. They make glad the wilderness. They produce more than they
themselves require. But Great Britain was, at the time of which we
speak, perfectly infatuated. On the 4th of Sept. of the very year in
which the Quebec Act was granted, 1774, a Continental Congress was
held, of which Peter Randolph, of Virginia, was President, to
sympathize with the people of Boston, on account of their disabilities,
by reason of the tea riot.[5] But such Congresses produced no effect in
England. On the contrary, Massachusetts was more rigorously punished,
and was prevented from fishing on the Banks of Newfoundland. Is it
wonderful that the battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker's Hill
followed? Is it wonderful that those who had assisted Wolfe in taking
Canada from the French, should have afterwards attempted to conquer
Canada for themselves? Is it wonderful that, on the 3rd of November,
1775, one of Washington's Brigadier Generals, Montgomery, should have
received the surrender of 500 regular British troops, at St. John's,
Canada East; the surrender of one hundred Canadians, of thirty-nine
pieces of cannon, of seven mortars, and of five hundred stand of arms?
Is it wonderful that Montreal, then so thinly inhabited and
indifferently garrisoned, should have capitulated, or that Quebec
should have been invested by Arnold, who sailed down the Chaudiere on
rafts, and by Montgomery, to whom Montreal had capitulated? It is only
wonderful that Quebec was successfully defended, and that General
Montgomery perished under her walls. Canada, notwithstanding the
temporary annexation of Montreal, was true to Great Britain, feeling
that whatever might have been the injustice of Britain to the old
Colonies, Canada had nothing then of which to complain. Indeed, the
attack upon the newly ceded province of Canada, was amongst the
earliest demonstrations of a disposition on the part of the old
Colonies to resort to violence. "The Quebec Act" was in itself a cause
of offence to them. On the 21st of October, 1774, the following
language was made use of by the Congress, in reference to that Act, in
an Address to the people of Great Britain:--"Nor can we suppress our
astonishment, that a British Parliament should ever consent to
establish in that country, a religion that has deluged your Island in
blood, and dispersed impiety, bigotry, persecution, murder, and
rebellion through every part of the world." And "That we think the
Legislature of Great Britain is not authorized by the Constitution to
establish a religion fraught with sanguinary and impious tenets." The
attack was of a two-fold nature. Both the sword and the pen were
brought into requisition. It was supposed by the discontented old
colonists, that the boundary of the lakes and rivers which emptied
themselves into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and had formed the natural
barrier between two nations, until the peace of Paris, in 1763, when
Canada passed from the dominion of France to that of the British Crown,
formed no boundary to British rule, as the sway of the Anglo-Saxon race
was now fully established over the whole of the northern part of the
continent; and it was further supposed, that it was, therefore, proper
to detract, if possible, from the power of Great Britain, to harm the
revolutionary colonists on the great watery highway of the lakes and
rivers, or to prevent such a united force of Colonial and Provincial
inhabitants as might counterbalance, in a great measure, the
pertinacious loyalists who were to discountenance American appeals for
justice,--the warfare, before the declaration of American Independence,
being "neither against the throne nor the laws of England, but against
a reckless and oppressive ministry."[6] Efforts were, for such reasons,
made to obtain possession of the keys of the Lakes and of the St.
Lawrence at Quebec and Montreal. The old colonists were to make a war
of political propagandism on Canada and they resolved upon the
employment of both force and persuasion. Generals Montgomery, Arnold,
and Allen invaded Canada, and, to a certain point, with complete
success. After the successes of the two latter officers at Ticonderoga
and Crown Point, Arnold pushed on towards Quebec, through the
wilderness, and had ascended the heights of Abraham before Montgomery,
who had proceeded towards Quebec from Montreal, had arrived. Under
these circumstances, Arnold retired about twenty miles above Quebec, to
wait for Montgomery. Meanwhile, the Governor of Canada, Sir Guy
Carleton, had escaped, through Montgomery's army, in the dead of night,
in an open boat, rowed with muffled oars, and guided by Captain
Bouchette, of the Royal Navy, and was now safely lodged in the chief
fortress of America. On the 1st of December, Montgomery effected a
junction with Arnold, and the siege of Quebec was commenced, although
the besiegers were most indifferently provided with camp equipage, and
were poorly clad. Their cannon, too, was of so small a description, as
to be almost useless. The design evidently was to carry the town, which
was not then nearly as strongly fortified as now, and was only
garrisoned by a few troops, militia, and seamen, by assault, in the
full persuasion that the Canadians would be only most happy to be
identified with the American struggle for liberty, or by being neutral,
would show to the ministry of England the formidable animosity of a
united continent, by which the ends of the old colonists would be
gained, and the war nipped in its ripening bud.[7] This, Generals
Montgomery and Arnold were unable to do. The attempt was made on the
31st December, but signally failed. Arnold proceeded with one division
towards Sault-au-Matelot Street, by way of St. Roch's, and succeeded in
establishing himself in some houses at the eastern extremity of that
street, but being attacked in the rear, by a part of the garrison,
directed by General Carleton to make a sortie from Palace Gate, only
a remnant of the assailants, with considerable difficulty, managed
to get back to camp. Montgomery approached by the road under the Cape,
called Près-de-Ville, with another division, but was stoutly resisted,
and fell mortally wounded. After the attack, Montgomery's body was
found embedded in the snow, together with the bodies of his two
Aides-de-Camp, Captain McPherson and Captain Cheeseman. Arnold now
retired about three miles from Quebec, where he encamped during the
winter.
[5] People are sometimes in the habit of making light of a
tempest in a tea pot. This tea tempest was no laughing matter.
[6] See the Journal of Charles Carroll, of Carollton, published
by the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore--page 6.
[7] U.S. Catholic Magazine, vol. 4, p. 251, and Brent's Biography
of Archbishop Carroll, p. 69.
On the 15th of February, 1776, the American Congress appointed Dr.
Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll, of
Carrollton--the last mentioned gentleman being requested to prevail
upon his brother, the Revd. John Carroll, a Jesuit of distinguished
theological attainments, and celebrated for his amiable manners and
polished address, to accompany them--to proceed to Canada with the view
of representing to the Canadians that the Americans south of the St.
Lawrence, "had no apprehension that the French would take any part with
Great Britain; but that it was their interest, and, the Americans had
reason to believe, their inclination, to cultivate a friendly
intercourse with the colonies." They were to have religious freedom,
and have the power of self-government, while a free press was to be
established, to reform all abuses.[8] The Committee, or, more properly
speaking, the Commission, were, however, far from being successful in
their attempt to negotiate Canada into revolt. The clergy of Canada
could not be persuaded that, as Roman Catholics, they would be better
treated by the Revolutionary colonists than they had been under the
British government, after the expression of such sentiments as those
addressed to the people of Great Britain, on the 21st of October, 1774.
The Americans, uncouth in manners, were, in truth, most intolerant of
papacy. In the "Cradle of American Liberty," a dancing school was not
permitted. While in Boston a fencing school was allowed, there were no
musicians permitted to exist, and the anti-papal character of the
people was even more evident from the fact, that the first thing
printed in New England was the Freeman's Oath! the second an almanac;
and the third an edition of the psalms.
[8] It is not a little odd, that Franklin should have been a
member of this Committee, seeing that he was the very man who
urged upon the British Minister, in 1759, the expediency of
reducing Canada, as the most serious blow which could be
inflicted on French power in America.
On the day after the Reverend Mr. Carroll had failed in his part of the
mission, joined Dr. Franklin, and returned to the South, Chase and
Carroll of Carrollton had been busy with the military part of their
embassy. At a council of war held in Montreal, it was resolved to
fortify Jacques Cartier--the Richelieu Rapids, between Quebec and Three
Rivers--and to build six gondolas at Chambly, of a proper size to carry
heavy cannon, and to be under the direction of Arnold. But disasters
thickened around the insurgents. The small pox had broken out among the
troops, and was making deep inroads upon their scanty numbers. To crown
the whole, the worst news was received from the besiegers at Quebec,
for out of 1,900 men, there were not more than 1,000 fit for duty, all
the rest being invalids, chiefly afflicted with the small-pox. On the
5th of May, 1776, a council of war was held at Quebec, and it was
resolved to remove the invalids, artillery, batteaux, and stores higher
up the river; but, on the evening of that day, intelligence was
received in the American camp, that fifteen ships were within forty
leagues of Quebec, hastening up the river; and early next morning, five
of them hove in sight. General Thomas immediately gave orders to embark
the sick and the artillery in the batteaux, whilst the enemy began to
land their troops. About noon, a body of the British, a thousand
strong, formed into two divisions, in columns of six deep, and
supported with a train of six pieces of cannon, attacked the American
sentinels and main guard. The Americans stood for a moment on the
plains, with about 250 men and _one_ field piece only, when the order
for retreat was given, and the encampment was precipitately deserted.
In the confusion, all the cannon of the besiegers fell into the hands
of the British, and about 200 invalids were made prisoners. Following
the course of the river, the broken army of the Americans fled towards
Montreal, and halting for a while at Deschambault, finally retreated
along the St. Lawrence, until they made a stand at Sorel, with the view
to an "orderly retreat out of Canada."[9] By the 18th of June, the
British General, Burgoyne, was close behind Arnold, who now, with the
whole of the American army, had quitted Canadian soil, and was
proceeding somewhat rapidly up the Richelieu, into Lake Champlain.
[9] Carroll's visit to Canada, p. 27.
In the very year that Arnold retired from Quebec, on the 4th of July,
1776, the thirteen now confederated colonies, on the report of Thomas
Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Phillip
Livingston, dissolved their allegiance to the British Crown, declaring
themselves to be free and independent. The lions, sceptres, crowns, and
other paraphernalia of royalty were now rudely trampled on, in both
Boston and Virginia. Massachusetts, and, shortly afterwards, New York,
were, indeed, in the possession of rebels, commanded by Washington. It
was then that, in 1777, the execution of a plan of attacking the New
Englanders, by way of Canada, was entrusted to General Burgoyne, who,
with some thousands of troops, a powerful train of artillery, and
several tribes of Indians, proceeded down Lake Champlain, to cut
off the northern from the southern colonies of the rebellious
confederation. Burgoyne chased the American General St. Clair out of
Ticonderoga; hunted Schuyler to Saratoga; destroyed the American
flotilla on Lake Champlain; demolished bridges, and reduced forts. He,
nevertheless, met with a severe check at Bennington, Vermont. Being at
Fort Edward, he sent Colonel Baum, with a detachment of the army to
seize a magazine of stores at Bennington. When within a few miles of
that place, however, Baum learned that the Americans were strongly
entrenched. He, therefore, halted, and sent to Burgoyne for a
reinforcement. But the American General Stark, who had a large body of
Vermont Militia under his command, in addition to his ordinary New
Hampshire corps, now determined to be the assailant. With only 500
regulars and 100 Indians, Colonel Baum did not consider it prudent to
fight a body vastly superior in numbers, and he retreated. Assistance
reached him at this critical moment, which seemed to make a battle, if
not expedient, a point of honour. Unfortunately the sense of honour
prevailed, Baum gave battle, and was himself slain and his men
defeated, the British loss being 700 in killed and wounded, while that
of the Americans was only about 100. It was a pity that Baum had not
the moral courage to retire, even when reinforced, for his defeat much
embarrassed Burgoyne, and made an attempt at a general retreat even
necessary, as the courage of the enemy had so increased by the moral
effect of a victory, that Burgoyne was in danger of being surrounded by
the hordes of State Militiamen who, on all sides of him, were taking
the field. Burgoyne was, nevertheless, still on the advance, with the
main body of his army, and was approaching Saratoga, when he heard of
the defeat of Baum. Unwilling to retreat, and yet unable to advance, he
hesitated, but ultimately decided upon returning. That, however, was
now impossible. He had hardly turned his face towards the place from
whence he came, than he fell in with General Gates, losing about 600
men; and he had hardly realized his loss, when he learned that Fort
Edward, which stood between him and Canada, was in the possession of
the enemy. No avenue of escape appeared open, and this fine army from
Canada, consisting of five thousand seven hundred effective men, with
General Burgoyne at their head, laid down their arms to the American
General Gates, at Saratoga. Even according to the testimony of Lady
Harriet Ackland, Burgoyne, though sufficiently brave for anything, was
quite incompetent for command. He had neither resources nor strategy.
He knew neither what to do nor what he was doing. He neither knew when
to advance nor when to retreat. It was all haphazard with him. Through
his very stupidity an army was positively sacrificed. Lord Cornwallis,
afterwards, easily defeated Gates. And in the campaign of 1780,
Washington was himself in straits. His commissariat was wretchedly bad.
For days the medical department of his army had neither sugar, coffee,
tea, chocolate, wine, nor spirituous liquors of any kind; and the army
had not seen the shadow of money for five months. A junction cleverly
effected between the two British armies might have changed, or rather
checked the destinies of the Confederated Colonies. But, by the
awkwardness, carelessness, and want of prudence of Burgoyne, in the
first place, Cornwallis got also hemmed in, being intercepted on one
side by the French fleet, and on the other by the army commanded by
Washington, and he capitulated after his defeat at Yorktown, in
September, 1781. Had a line of communication northward been maintained
for the British army, even seven thousand men might have escaped the
blockade of the sixteen thousand militia, under Washington, to whom the
conqueror of Charleston was compelled, by the fortune of war, to
present his sword. The stupidity of the British Generals, combined with
the previous stupidity of the Imperial administrations, led to the
evacuation of those colonies by Great Britain, to which she was in a
great measure indebted for the acquisition of Port Royal and Louisbourg
in Nova Scotia, and for Niagara, Frontenac, Montreal, and Quebec in
Canada. The prediction of Montcalm had come to pass. The United States
were independent. But, however much the war in America, between Great
Britain and her own old colonies, had temporarily interfered with, it
had paved the way for a more extended, commerce in Canada. There were
men in New England who would not, on any account, be rebels. Many of
these, with their families, sought an asylum in Canada, and the
advancement of the Far West, on the British side of the lines, is, in
no small degree, to be attributed to the integrity and energy of those
highly honourable men. Canada was then entirely, or almost entirely,
under military rule. It could not well be otherwise. The necessities of
the times required unity of action. There was no room for party
squabbling, nor were there numbers sufficient to squabble. The
province, the population of which did not extend beyond Detroit, a mere
Indian trading post, and beyond which it was expected civilisation
could not be extended for ages, was divided into two sections, the
western and the eastern. Sir Guy Carleton, afterwards Lord Dorchester,
had divided all west of the monument of St. Regis into four districts,
after the manner of ancient Gaul, which he termed Lunenburg,
Mecklenburg, Nassau, and Hesse; and the Seminary of Quebec had cut up
the eastern section into parishes, distinguished by cross roads. In the
lower section of the province, the _bonnets rouges_ and _bonnets bleus_
were on the increase, but the increase was like that of the frogs: it
was multiplying in the same puddle, with the same unchanging and
unchangeable habits. The peaweeting, the whistling, the purring, and
the whizzing, were only the louder, as the inhabitants became more
numerous. There was no idea of change of any kind. Language, manners,
and knowledge were the same as they ever had been: only the pomp of the
church had succeeded to the pomp and circumstance of war. There was no
more industry, no more energy, no more scientific cravings, and no
earnest pursuit of wealth. All was contentment. Even by the
authorities, no desire to awaken the Franco-Canadian from his slumber,
was entertained. On the contrary, the restless United Empire loyalists
were to be separated from them. The isolation of Lower Canada from the
rest of the world was to be as complete as possible.
Not very long after the declaration of American Independence, Canada
was divided, by Act of the Imperial Parliament, into two distinct
provinces, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada. Mr. Adam Lymburner, a
merchant of Quebec, not being particularly anxious for isolation,
appeared at the bar of the House of Commons on behalf of himself and
others. He was against the separation. The united province was not even
in a condition to maintain a good system of government. Oppressed by
the tyranny of officials, industry and improvement had been neglected,
and a state of languor and depression prevailed. The public buildings
were even falling into a state of ruin and decay. There was not a Court
House in the province, nor a sufficient prison nor house of correction.
Nor was there a school house between Tadousac and Niagara. The country
upon the Great Lakes was a wilderness. Lymburner did not, however,
prevail. The British government desired to put the United Empire
loyalists upon the same footing with regard to constitutional
government as they had previously enjoyed before the independence of
the United States in that country, a condition about which a certain
class of merchants in Quebec have always been indifferent. Lord
Dorchester was appointed Governor-in-Chief in Canada, and administrator
in Lower Canada, while General Simcoe was named Lieutenant Governor of
Upper Canada. General Simcoe selected for his capital Niagara,[10] and
resided there at Navy Hall. On the site of Toronto, in 1793, there was
a solitary wigwam. That tongue of land called the peninsula, which is
the protection wall of the harbour, was the resort only of wildfowl.
The margin of the lake was lined with nothing else but dense and
trackless forests. Two families of Massassagas had squatted somewhere
in the neighbourhood of the present St. Lawrence Hall when General
Simcoe removed to little York with his canvass palace, and drew around
him the incipient features of a Court. The progress in material
improvement in this country may be guessed at from the then condition
and the present state and appearance of Toronto. The revenue of the
country between 1775, and 1778, was not over £10,000. The salary of the
Governor-in-Chief was only £2,500.
[10] Then called Newark.
During the American War, the Canadians, though they exhibited no signs
of disaffection to Great Britain, did not ardently lend a helping hand
against the enemy. Being appealed to by Middleton, the President of the
Provisional Congress of Rebel States,--who told them that their Judges
and Legislative Council were dependent on the Governor, and their
Governor himself on the servant of the Crown in Great Britain; that the
executive, legislative, and judging powers were all moved by nods from
the Court of St. James; and that the Confederated States would receive
their ancient and brave enemies on terms of equality--the Canadians
stood firm in their new allegiance. It is more than probable, indeed,
that the bombastic state paper never reached the ears of those for whom
it was intended. There was no press in Canada at that period, and only
one newspaper, the "Quebec Gazette," established by one Gilmore, in
1764. Unable, as the majority of the French were, to read their own
language, it was not to be expected that they could read English. Still
less is it to be supposed that His Excellency Lord Dorchester
circulated it in French. Lord Dorchester was exceedingly prudent in his
administration of affairs, and,--unlike Governor Murray, who, by the
way, was succeeded in the administration of the Government by Paulus
Æmilius Irving, Esquire, with Brigadier General Carleton for Lieutenant
Governor, obtained the affection of one race and the resentment of the
other,--conciliated both races. His lordship, in one of his speeches
"from the throne," tells us that he "eschewed political hypocrisy,
which renders people the instruments of their own misery and
destruction." There was, in truth, no Parliament, in the proper sense
of the term, then. Such artifices as are now necessary for good
legislation, had not therefore to be resorted to.
On the political separation of the two sections of Canada, it was
agreed that Lower Canada should be permitted to levy the duties on
imports. Of all imports, Lower Canada was to receive seven-eighths, and
Upper Canada one eighth, and the revenue for the year following the
separation was £24,000, including £1,205, the proportion of the duties
belonging to Upper Canada. In those days, a week was consumed in the
transport of the mail from Burlington in Vermont, via Montreal, to
Quebec; but yet there must have been wonderful progress from Governor
Murray's time,--during which a Mr. Walker, of Montreal, having caused
the military much displeasure, by the imprisonment of a captain for
some offence, was assailed by a number of assassins of respectability,
with blackened faces, who entered his house at night, cut off his right
ear, slashed him across the forehead with a sword, and attempted and
would have succeeded in cutting his throat, but for his most manly and
determined resistance--for on surrendering the government of Lower
Canada into the hands of General Prescott, previously to going home to
England, in the frigate "Active," in which he was afterwards wrecked on
Anticosti, he was lauded in a most obsequious address, by the
inhabitants both of Quebec and Montreal, the latter place then
numbering a little more than 7,000 inhabitants, for his "auspicious
administration of affairs, the happiness and prosperity of the province
having increased in a degree almost unequalled." General Prescott, not
long after Lord Dorchester's return home, in a frigate from Halifax,
after the wreck of the "Active," was raised to the Governor
Generalship. During the three years of this Governor's rule, nothing,
politically or otherwise, important occurred in Canada. Great Britain
was successfully engaged in war with both France and Spain, and in the
former country a revolution had occurred which preceded one of the most
terrible periods on the page of history. In Quebec, a madman named
McLane, a native of Rhode Island, fancying himself to be a French
General, conceived the project of upsetting British authority in
Canada. He intended, with the co-operation of the French Canadians, to
make a rush upon the garrison of Quebec. His imaginary followers were
to be armed with spears, and he dreamed of distributing laudanum to the
troops. Unfortunately for himself, he made known his plans to all and
sundry, and was rewarded for his indiscretion by being hanged on
Gallows Hill, as an example to other fools.
The next Governor of Lower Canada was Robert S. Milnes, Esquire. Under
his sway, something akin to public opinion sprang up. So soon as the
last of the Jesuits had been gathered to his fathers, it was the
purpose of the Imperial government to seize upon the estates of "The
Order." Mr. Young, one of the Executive Council, had, however, no
sooner informed the House of Assembly that His Excellency had given
orders to take possession of these estates as the property of George
the Third, than the House went into Committee and expressed a desire to
investigate the pretensions or claims which the province might have on
the college of Quebec. The Governor was quite willing to suffer the
Assembly to have copies of all documents, deeds, and titles having
reference to the estates, if insisted upon, but considered it scarcely
consistent with the respect which the Commons of Canada had ever
manifested towards their sovereign, to press the matter, as the Privy
Council had issued an order to take the whole property into the hands
of the Crown. The House considered His Excellency's reply, and
postponed the inquiry into the rights and pretensions alluded to. The
next thing which this slightly independently disposed Assembly
undertook, was the expulsion of one of its members, a Mr. Bouc, who had
been convicted of a conspiracy to defraud a person named Drouin, with
whom he had had some commercial transactions, of a considerable sum of
money. He was heard by Counsel at the Bar of the House, but was
believed to have been justly convicted, and was expelled. Again and
again he was re-elected, and as often was he expelled, and at last he
was, by special Act of Parliament, disqualified. Whether or not he was
the object of unjust persecution by the government, the moral effect
upon the country of the expulsion and disqualification of a person in
the position of Mr. Bouc, cannot be doubted. The number of bills passed
during a parliamentary session in those days, was not considerable.
Five, six, or eight appear to have been the average. The income of the
province was about £20,000, and the expenditure about £39,000. Under
such circumstances, corruption was nearly impossible.
In the next session of parliament an attempt was made to establish free
schools, and the Royal Institution, for the advancement of learning was
founded. Nor was this all, an Act was passed for the demolition of the
walls that encircled Montreal, on the plea that such demolition was
necessary to the salubrity, convenience and embellishment of the city.
They were thrown down, and in seventeen years after it was impossible
to have shown where they stood. The parliament did more. At the
dictation of the Governor, it assigned three townships for the benefit
of the officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates, who had
served during the blockade of Quebec, in 1775-6. Field officers were to
be entitled to 1,000 acres; captains to 700 acres, lieutenants and
ensigns to 500 acres, and non-commissioned officers and privates to 400
acres each. Still another bill, of no mean importance, was carried
through the three branches of the Legislature, the second branch being
positively a House of Lords, composed, as it was, of Lord Chief
Justices and Lord Bishops,--the mind, capacity, and education of the
country. No picture of the legislature of this time can be made. There
were no reporters nor any publication of debates. Newspapers were in
their infancy. Radicalism had not got hold of its fulcrum, and the
lever of public opinion was, consequently useless. Nay, in
anticipation, as it were, of the unruliness that afterwards exhibited
itself, the Governor, now Sir Robert Milnes, recommended the culture of
hemp in the province, and the Assembly voted £1,200 for the experiment.
An Agricultural Bureau, of which the Governor was himself the
President, was established, but the cultivation of hemp was not more
agreeable to the farmer of Lower Canada then than it is now. The
experiment did not succeed. Jean Baptiste would raise wheat, which he
knew would pay, and would not raise hemp, which might or might not pay.
He was a practical, not a theoretical farmer. Like the "regular"
physicians of every period, and in every country, he practised
_secundum artem_, and eschewed dangerous theories and unprofitable
innovations.
About this period, 1802, land jobbing began. Vast grants of territory
were made to favourites and speculators, only to lie waste, unless
improved by the squatter. To obtain a princely inheritance, it was only
necessary to have a princely acquaintance with the government, and, in
some cases, the Governor's servants. Land was not put up to public
competition, but handsomely bestowed upon the needy and penniless Court
attendant. A Governor's Secretary, a Judge's nephew, or some Clerk of
Records was entitled to at least a thousand acres; the Governor's cook
to 700 arpents. There was no stint, and no income or land tax.
In 1803, Parliament "better regulated" the militia; the revenue had
increased to £31,000; the expenditure had increased to £37,000, and the
two Governors' salaries to £6,000; war re-broke out with France; the
feeling of loyalty throughout the province was enthusiastic; and offers
to raise volunteer corps were freely made.
During the next Session of Parliament, measures of some importance
occupied the attention of the Legislature. A bill was passed, making
provision for the relief of the insane and for the support of
foundlings. In all thirteen bills were passed, and the revenue had
increased one thousand pounds. It was the last session of the third
Parliament. In July the election of members for the fourth Parliament
took place. They were conducted, on the whole, quietly, but were,
nevertheless, vigorously contested. Strong party feeling did not then
run high, and there were no prejudices against persons of respectable
standing in society, whatever might be their origin. Quebec had four
representatives, two of whom were of French extraction and two,
apparently of Scottish descent. Montreal was similarly represented. If
there were as representatives of Quebec a Grant and a Panet, a Young
and a De Salaberry, Montreal was represented by a Richardson and a
Mondelet, a McGill and a Chaboillez. The Parliament was convened for
the despatch of business on the 9th, and having disposed of some
contested elections proceeded energetically to work. The idea of a
Canal to overcome the difficulties of the Lachine Rapids or Sault St.
Louis suggested itself; and the consideration of the expediency of its
construction engaged the attention of the House. The construction of a
canal was not considered within the means of the province, and a sum of
only £1,000 pounds was voted for the removal of impediments in the
rapids. A Seigniorial Tenure Bill, not dissimilar in character to that
which so very recently has become law, was introduced, but fell
through. The Gaols Act, imposing a duty of two and a half per cent on
imports, for the erection of common gaols at Quebec and Montreal, was
adopted. The trade was dissatisfied, and, as has been too frequently
the case, when the merchants of this province have been dissatisfied
with the Acts of a Legislature, of whose acts, unless in so far as
their own business interests have been concerned, they have been
altogether indifferent, the trade petitioned the Imperial authorities
against the Act, representing with all the force of which they were
capable, the serious injury inflicted by it upon bohea, souchong,
hyson, spirits, wane, and molasses. The gaols were, however, built,
without direct taxation having been resorted to. Another act of very
considerable importance became law: that for the better regulation of
pilots and shipping, and for the improvement of the navigation of the
River St. Lawrence between Montreal and the sea. By this Act the
Trinity Houses were established, the abolition of which has lately
engaged the serious attention of the Hon. William Hamilton Merritt. The
fourth Parliament, like its predecessors, possessed within itself, some
men of enterprize, energy, and independence. However willing it might
have been to treat the Governor with respectful consideration, there
was no disposition in it to become a mere tool in the hands of those
who took upon themselves to guide His Excellency. They conceived that
they had the power of appropriating the revenue, of voting the
supplies, and of paying their own officers such salaries as they
pleased. The French Translator to the Assembly having applied for an
increase of salary, it occurred to the Assembly that the translator,
Mr. P. E. Desbarats, was a very efficient officer and worthy man, and
that it was within their province to pay him such a sum as they
estimated his services to be worth. But they did not arbitrarily do
that which it seemed to them they might have done. With extreme
courtesy, they addressed the Governor, begging that His Excellency
would make such addition to the salary of this officer as to His
Excellency might seem fit. So far, however, from complying with a very
reasonable request, Sir Robert regretted the absence of some
observances, the nature of which was never ascertained, and felt
compelled to resist a precedent which might lead to injurious
consequences. The Assembly were staggered. With very considerable
reason they were offended at the Executive, who pretended to the right
of money grants in the Assembly. The House went into committee, by a
majority of one, and were about to consider His Excellency's
considerate message, when the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod
appearing at the Bar, commanded the attendance of the Commons at the
Bar of the Upper House, where His Excellency, somewhat bombastically
prorogued the Parliament. About to return to England, he was perfectly
indifferent to the censure of the Commons of Canada. He cared nothing
for the effect of a _coup d'etat_. He never dreamed of the possibility
of a misunderstanding between a Governor and his Legislature. It was
the first of the kind that he had known, and it was a duty which he
owed to his sovereign to nip it in the bud. Sir Robert, Mr. Christie
says, was not a popular Governor. Had that been his only misfortune, it
would have been well. He was, evidently, something worse, in being only
that which might emphatically be expressed in a single word. A few
grains of common sense in one or two Governors of colonies would have
saved England some millions of pounds. Sir Robert Shore Milnes having
ruled, or having been ruled, for a period of six years, set sail for
England, on the 5th of August, in H.M.S. Uranie, leaving Mr. Dunn, the
Senior Executive Councillor of Canada, to administer the government.
Lower Canada, however politically insignificant, with only some £47,000
of revenue, was yet gradually rising into something like commercial
importance. In the course of 1805, one hundred and forty-six merchant
vessels had been loaded at Quebec, and another newspaper, the _Quebec
Mercury_, still existing, and published in the English language, was
established by Mr. Thomas Cary. Montreal, only second in commercial
importance to Quebec, had also its newspapers, and already began to
exhibit that energy for which it is now preeminently conspicuous.
Toronto, the present "Queen City of the West," was yet only surrounded
by the primeval forest, and thirty years later could boast of but four
thousand inhabitants, although, in 1822, "Muddy Little York" was not a
little proud of its "Upper Canada Gazette," and Niagara of its
"Spectator." Kingston had only twenty wooden houses, while Detroit was
the residence of but a dozen French families. Upper Canada, indeed,
contained scarcely a cultivated farm, or even a white inhabitant, sixty
or seventy years ago.
Allusion has already been made to the division of Canada into two
provinces. A more particular allusion to that circumstance will not be
out of place. Already, General Simcoe, the Hon. Peter Russell, and
Lieut. General Hunter have ruled over the Upper, and not the least
interesting of the two provinces. The object of the separation may have
been to keep the Lower Province French as long as possible, to prevent
the consummation devoutly anticipated by Montcalm, and the Duc de
Choiseul, and to raise up a conservative English colony in the Far
West, to counteract the growing power of the now United States. By the
Union, constitutions very distantly related to the British constitution
were conferred upon the two provinces. The 31st Act of George the Third
constituted a Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly for each
province. The Council was to be composed of at least seven members,
appointed by writ of summons, issued pursuant to a mandamus under the
sign manual of the Sovereign. The tenure of appointment was for life,
to be forfeited for treason or vacated by swearing allegiance to a
foreign power, or by two years continual absence from the province
without the Governor's permission, or four years of such absence
without permission of the Sovereign. The King could grant hereditary
titles of honor, rank or dignity. The Speaker of the Council was to be
appointed by the Sovereign or his representative. The Assembly was to
be elected by persons over twenty one years of age, subjects of the
British Crown, by birth or naturalization, possessing property of the
yearly value of forty shillings sterling, over and above all rents and
charges, or paying rent at the rate of ten pounds sterling per annum.
Here were, undoubtedly, three legislative branches; but as the
Legislative Assembly could, at the most, only be composed of thirty
members, many of whom would be half pay officers, the Crown, through
its representative, had a direct and overwhelming preponderance. Yet,
however unsuited such a Parliament would be for the present time,
however uncongenial it might have been to the feelings of a Cobbett or
Hunt-man, escaped from Spa Felds ten or twenty years afterwards, it
undoubtedly well represented the conservative, semi-despotic feelings
of the military settler, or United Empire loyalist, a kind of
privileged being, whose very descendants were entitled to a free grant
of two hundred acres of land. When the Separation Act was before the
British Parliament, the public mind in England was to some not
altogether inconsiderable extent contaminated by the spurious
liberty-feeling of the French Revolution, and by the consequences of
the American strike for independence. "The Rights of Man," as
enunciated by Paine, had infected many among the lower orders in
society, and not a few among the higher orders. Edmund Burke, Mr.
Chancellor Pitt, and Charles Fox, were members of the British
Parliament. By the Act, a provision for a Protestant Clergy, in both
divisions of the province, was made, in addition to an allotment of
lands already granted. The tenures in Lower Canada, which had been the
subject of dispute, were to be settled by the local legislature. In
Upper Canada the tenures were to be in free and common soccage. No
taxes were to be imposed by the Imperial Parliament, unless such as
were necessary for the regulation of trade and commerce, to be levied
and to be disposed of by the legislature of each division of the former
Province of Quebec. On the 9th of April, 1791, the Separation Bill was
somewhat unexpectedly offered for the acceptance of the House of
Commons. Mr. Fox declared that he had not had time to read it, and felt
unwilling to express an opinion upon its merits. On a motion by Mr.
Hussey, "that the Bill be recommitted," Mr. Fox, however, remarked,
that many clauses were unexceptionable. The number of representatives,
in his opinion, were not sufficient. An assembly to consist of 16 or 30
members seemed to him to give a free constitution in appearance, while,
in fact, such a constitution was withheld. The goodness of a bill,
making the duration of Parliaments seven years, unless dissolved
previously by the Governor, might be considered doubtful. In Great
Britain, general elections were attended with inconveniences, but in
Canada, where, for many years, elections were not likely to be attended
with the consequences which ministers dreaded, he could not conceive
why they should make such assemblies, not annual or triennial, but
septennial. In a new country the representatives of the people would,
for the most part, be persons engaged in trade, who might be unable to
attend Parliament for seven consecutive years. The qualifications
necessary for electors in towns and counties were much too high. It
seemed to him that ministers intended to prevent the introduction of
popular government into Canada. While the number of the members of the
Assembly were limited, the numbers of the Council, although they could
not be less than seven members, were unlimited. He saw nothing so good
in hereditary powers or honours as to justify their introduction into a
country where they were unknown. They tended rather to make a good
constitution worse, than better. If a Council were wholly hereditary,
it could only be the tool of the King and the Governor, as the Governor
himself would only be the tool of the King. The accumulation of power,
confirmed by wealth, would be a perpetual source of oppression and
neglect to the mass of mankind. He did not understand the provision
made by the Bill for the Protestant clergy. By Protestant clergy, he
understood not only the clergy of the Church of England, but all
descriptions of Protestants. He totally disapproved of the clause which
enacted that, "whenever the King shall make grants of lands, one
seventh part of those lands shall be appropriated to the Protestant
Clergy." In all grants of lands made to Catholics, and a majority of
the inhabitants of Canada were of that persuasion, one seventh part of
those grants was to be appropriated to the Protestant clergy, although
they might not have any congregation to instruct, nor any cure of
souls. If the Protestant clergy of Canada were all of the Church of
England, he would not be reconciled to the measure, but the greatest
part of the Protestant clergy in Canada were Protestant dissenters, and
to them one seventh part of all the lands in the province was to be
granted. A provision of that kind, in his opinion, would rather tend to
corrupt than to benefit the Protestant clergy of Canada. The Bill,
while it stated that one seventh of the land of Canada should be
reserved for the maintenance of a Protestant clergy, did not state how
the land so set aside should be applied. With regard to the Bill, as it
related to the regulation of Appeals, he was not satisfied. Suitors
were, in the first instance, to carry their complaints before the
Courts of Common Law in Canada, to appeal, if dissatisfied, to the
Governor and Council, to appeal from their decision to the King in
Council, and to appeal from His Majesty's decision to the House of
Lords. If the Lords were a better Court of Appeal than the King, the
Lords ought to be at once appealed to. By such a plan of appealing,
lawsuits would be rendered exceedingly expensive, and exceedingly
vexatious. He did not like the division of the Province. It seemed to
him inexpedient to distinguish between the English and French
inhabitants of the province. It was desirable that they should unite
and coalesce, and that such distinctions of the people should be
extinguished for ever, so that the English laws might soon universally
prevail throughout Canada, not from force but from choice, and a
conviction of their superiority. The inhabitants of Lower Canada had
not the laws of France. The commercial code of laws of the French
nation had never been given to them. They stood upon the exceedingly
inconvenient "_Coutume de Paris_." Canada, unlike the West Indies, was
a growing country. It did not consist of only a few white inhabitants
and a large number of slaves. It was a country increasing in
population, likely still more to increase, and capable of enjoying as
much political freedom, in its utmost extent, as any other country on
the face of the globe. It was situated near a country ready to receive,
with open arms, into a participation of her democratic privileges,
every person belonging to Great Britain. It was material that a colony,
capable of freedom, and capable of a great increase of people, should
have nothing to look to among their neighbours to excite their envy.
Canada should be preserved to Great Britain by the choice of her
inhabitants, and there was nothing else to look to. The Legislative
Councils ought to be totally free, and repeatedly chosen, in a manner
as much independent of the Governor as the nature of a colony would
admit. He was perfectly desirous of establishing a permanent provision
for the clergy, but could not think of making for them a provision so
considerable as was unknown in any country of Europe, where the species
of religion to be provided for prevailed.
It is impossible to do other than admire the farsightedness of that
great statesman, Charles Fox, with his blue coat and yellow waistcoat,
in this manly, sensible, and telling address. Time has nearly brought
round the state of things that he desired to see, and if disembodied
spirits can take an interest in things earthly, it will be no small
addition to his present state of bliss to discover almost the
realization of suggestions made sixty years ago, before the Browns of
this period were conceived, and while the Rolphs were puling infants.
Mr. Chancellor Pitt did not join issue with Mr. Fox, but did not
consider it expedient to flash legislative freedom upon a people. He
thought that if the Assembly were not rightly consolidated by the Bill,
little harm was done, because there was nothing to hinder the
Parliament of Great Britain from correcting any point which might
hereafter appear to want correction. He did not like the elective
principle of democratic governments, and with respect to the land
appropriated to the clergy, like every thing else provided by the bill,
it was subject to revision. Where land had been given in commutation of
tithes, the proportion of one seventh had grown into an established
custom. The Bill was re-committed. Next day the clauses of the Bill
being put, paragraph by paragraph, Mr. Burke eloquently defended its
provisions, ridiculed the "Rights of Man," and almost extinguished the
light of the new lantern, which exhibited in the academies of Paris and
the club-rooms of London, the constitutions of America and France as so
much superior to that of Great Britain. The distinguished orator was
certainly more declamatory than argumentative, and he was repeatedly
called to order. It was alleged that Mr. Burke had no right to abuse
the governments of France and America, as the "Quebec Bill" only was
before the House. Nay, there was something like a scene. Mr. Burke
complained of having been deserted by those, with whom he formerly
acted, in his old age, and Mr. Fox, with tears in his eyes and strong
emotion, declared that he would esteem and venerate Burke to the end of
time. The same cries of "order," "order," "chair," "chair," "go on,"
"go on," that are heard in our most tumultuous debates, in the
Assembly, were frequent in the course of the debate, and Mr. Burke was
unable, on account of the tumult, to proceed with his account of "the
horrible and nefarious consequences flowing from the French idea of the
rights of man." The debating continued for a number of days, and the
Bill was read a third time on the 18th of May. When the report of the
Bill in Committee was brought up, on the 16th of May, the House divided
upon an amendment by Mr. Fox, to leave out the clause of hereditary
nobility, which amendment was lost by an adverse majority of
forty-nine. It was then moved, in amendment to the Bill, by Mr.
Chancellor Pitt, that the number of representatives in the Assemblies
should be fifty instead of thirty, but that motion was also lost by an
adverse majority of fifty-one.
The government of Upper Canada was assumed by General Simcoe, on the
8th of July, 1792. He carried out with him to Upper Canada the Act
constituting it into a province, and on the 18th of September he was
enabled to meet his Parliament. The capital of the Province was at
Newark, now Niagara. The seat of Government, according to the Duke de
la Rochefoucault Liancourt, who visited it in 1795, consisted of about
a hundred houses, "mostly very fine structures." Governor Simcoe
apparently did not occupy one of them, but a "miserable wooden
house,"--formerly occupied by the Commissaries, who resided there on
account of the navigation of the lake,--his guard consisting of four
soldiers, who every morning came from the fort, to which they returned
in the evening. It is difficult even to guess at the appearance of the
Parliament building. Assuredly it did not require to be of great size.
When the time arrived for opening the Session, only two, instead of
seven members of the Legislative Council were present. No Chief Justice
appeared to fill the office of Speaker of the Council. Instead of
sixteen members of the Legislative Assembly, five only attended. What
was still more embarrassing, no more could be collected. The House was,
nevertheless, opened. A guard of honour, consisting of fifty soldiers
from the fort, were in attendance. Dressed in silk, Governor Simcoe
entered the hall, with his hat on his head, attended by his Adjutant
and two Secretaries. The two members of the Council gave notice of his
presence in the Upper House to the Legislative Assembly, and the five
members of the latter having appeared at the Bar of the two Lords, His
Excellency read his speech from the throne. He informed the honorable
gentlemen of the Legislative Council and the gentlemen of the House of
Assembly, that he had summoned them together under the authority of an
Act of Parliament of Great Britain, which had established the British
constitution, and all that secured and maintained it to Upper Canada;
that the wisdom and beneficence of the sovereign had been eminently
proved by many provisions in the memorable Act of Separation, which
would extend to the remotest posterity the invaluable blessings of that
constitution; that great and momentous trusts and duties had been
committed to the representatives of the province, infinitely beyond
whatever had distinguished any other British Colony; that they were
called upon to exercise, with due deliberation and foresight, various
offices of civil administration, with a view of laying the foundation
of that union of industry and wealth, of commerce and power, which may
last through all succeeding ages; that the natural advantages of the
new province were inferior to none on this side of the Atlantic; that
the British government had paved the way for its speedy colonization;
and that a numerous and agricultural people would speedily take
possession of the soil and climate. To this speech the replies of the
Council and Assembly were but an echo. The seven gentlemen legislators
proceeded actively to business. An Act was passed to repeal the Quebec
Act, and to introduce the English law as the rule of decision in all
matters of controversy relative to property and civil right; an Act to
establish trials by jury; an Act to abolish the summary proceedings of
the Court of Common Pleas in actions under ten pounds sterling; an Act
to prevent accidents by fire; an Act for the more easy recovery of
small debts; an Act to regulate the tolls to be taken in mills (not
more than a twelfth for grinding and bolting); and an Act for building
a Gaol and Court House in every district within the province, and for
altering the names of the said districts, the district of Lunenburg to
be called the Eastern District; that of Mecklenburg, the Midland
District; that of Nassau, the Home District; and that of Hesse, the
Western District.
Parliament was about a month in session, when it was prorogued by His
Excellency. On the 15th of October he gave the assent of the Crown to
the Bills passed, and in the prorogation speech, made on the same day,
he intimated his intention of taking such measures as he deemed prudent
to reserve to the Crown, for the public benefit, a seventh of all lands
granted or to be granted; and he begged the popular representatives to
explain to their constituents, that the province was singularly blest
with a constitution the very image and transcript of the British
Constitution! There being only thirty thousand inhabitants in the whole
province, small as the Parliament was, the people, if not fairly, were
at least sufficiently represented. It is somewhat doubtful,
nevertheless, that a constitution which gave only a quasi-sovereign to
Upper Canada, neither directly, nor, as the Governors of Canada now
are, indirectly responsible to the people, could have been the very
image and transcript of the British Constitution. There was a misty
resemblance to that celebrated and unwritten form of government, in the
erection of three estates--King, Lords, and Commons--and no more. But,
as it is sometimes expedient to be thankful for small favors, it may
have appeared to Governor Simcoe that the new constitution of the
colony was superior to that of England before _magna charta_.
Undoubtedly the Governor was an honest man, a good soldier, a prudent
ruler, liberally educated, and of considerable mental capacity. He
appears to have been a member of the Imperial Parliament at the time of
the passage of the Separation Act, for when the report of the Bill was
brought up in the Commons, on the 16th of May, 1791, it appears by the
debate, that a Colonel Simcoe spoke in favor of the adoption of the
report, pronounced a panegyric on the British Constitution, and wished
it to be adopted in the present instance, as far as circumstances would
admit. Aware of the advantages which such a colony as Upper Canada, if
it attained perfection, might bring to the mother country, he accepted
the government of a mere wilderness, to adopt means adequate for that
purpose. Independent in means, high in rank, possessed of large and
beautiful estates in England, Governor Simcoe, in the opinion of the
Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, could have had no motive of
personal aggrandizement in view when he accepted the government of
Upper Canada. The General, however, loathed the Americans of the United
States. He had been with Burgoyne. He had tasted of that officer's
humiliation. It was impossible for General Simcoe to speak of the
"rebels" calmly. A zealous promoter of the American war, as well as
participator in it, the calamitous issue of that unfortunate and most
deplorable struggle increased the intensity of his bitterness. Although
he did not hope for a renewal of the strife, he trusted that if it were
renewed, he might have the opportunity of laying the country in waste,
and of exterminating the canting, hypocritical, puritanical,
independents. He soon perceived the folly of the Seat of Government
being situated on the very frontier, the more especially as Detroit was
to be surrendered to the very people whom he most detested. York, from
its security, situation and extent, seemed, at first glance, to be the
most desirable place. Determined, however, to do nothing rashly,
General Simcoe weighed the matter well in his mind. It seemed to him
that a town might be founded on the Thames, a river previously called
De La Trenche, which rises in the high lands, between Lakes Ontario,
Huron, and Erie, and flows into Lake St. Clair, which would be most
suitable, and in process of time, most central. He even selected the
site of a town upon the river, which he had named the Thames, and
called the site London. Indeed it is somewhat astonishing that this
excellent Anglo-tory, as the Americans, south of 45°, doubtless,
esteemed him, did not call Sandwich, Dover; Detroit, Calais; and the
then Western and Home Districts of the western section of the Province,
which is almost an Island, England. The garden of Upper Canada, almost
surrounded by water, Governor Simcoe did intend, that as England is
mistress of the seas, so her offshoot, Canada, should be Queen of the
Lakes. Whatever might have been, or may yet be the natural advantages
of London, Canada West, for a seat of government, the Governor General
of British North America, Lord Dorchester, not then on the best
possible terms with General Simcoe, would not hear of it, and he,
notwithstanding the boast of the Lieutenant Governor that Upper Canada
had obtained the exact image and transcript of the British
Constitution, exercised a powerful influence in the state. Lord
Dorchester insisted that Kingston should be the capital of the Upper
Province. He was determined, moreover, that if he could not prevail on
the Imperial Government to convert Kingston into the provincial
capital, that the seat of government should not be at the London of
General Simcoe. He was not favorable to York. A muddy, marshy,
unhealthy spot, it was unfitted for a city. Lord Dorchester, peevish
from age, was, to some extent, under the influence of the Kingston
merchants, and was inclined, by a feeling of gratitude, to grant the
wishes of Commodore Bouchette, who resided at Kingston, with his
family, and to whom Lord Dorchester was indebted for safe conduct
through the American camp, after Montreal had fallen into the hands of
Montgomery. Kingston, as a town, was then inferior even to Newark, but
the back country was in a more advanced state, as far as cultivation
was concerned. The number of houses in the two towns was nearly equal,
but the houses in Kingston were neither as large nor so good as those
of Newark. Many of the houses in Kingston were merely log-houses, and
those which consisted of joiners work were badly constructed and
painted. There was no Town Hall, no Court House, and no Prison. The
trade consisted chiefly in furs, brought down the Lake, and in
provisions brought from Europe. There were only three merchant ships,
that made eleven voyages in the year. In the district, three or four
thousand bushels of corn were raised, and the surplus of that required
for the feeding of the troops and inhabitants was exported to England,
the price of flour being six dollars per barrel. In 1791, a thousand
barrels of salt pork were sent from Kingston to Quebec, at a price of
eighteen dollars a barrel. In selecting a site for the seat of
government, then, as now, local interests were brought into play, but
General Simcoe ultimately succeeded in obtaining the permission of the
Imperial authorities to fix it at York.
The revenue of Upper Canada, in 1793, was only £900, and the pay of the
members of Assembly was $2 a day. There was a Chief Justice and two
Puisne Judges, the members of the Executive Council, five in number,
being a Court of Appeal; and the Governor, with an assistant, formed a
Court of Chancery. Murders were of more frequent occurrence than other
crimes, and were rarely punished. There were Quakers, Baptists,
Tunkers, Presbyterians, and Roman Catholics without places of worship.
The ministers of the Episcopal Church in connection with the Church of
England, were the only clergymen paid by government.
Governor Simcoe's schemes for the improvement of the country and the
development of its resources, are worthy of notice, as being "extremely
wise and well arranged." The central point of the settlements he
designed to be between the Detroit River and the plantations previously
established in Lower Canada, within a square formed by Lake Ontario,
Lake Erie, Detroit River, and Lake Huron. He conceived that Upper
Canada was not only capable of satisfying all the wants of its
inhabitants, but also of becoming a granary for England. He did not
doubt but that the activity of Upper Canada, in agricultural pursuits,
would operate as a powerful example in regard to Lower Canada, and
arouse it from its then supineness and indolence. He conceived that the
vast quantities of sturgeons in Lake Ontario would afford a successful
competition with Russia in the manufacture of isinglass or fish-glue.
The corn trade was, in his opinion, preferable to the fur trade, which
threw the whole trade of a large tract of territory into the hands of a
few. He detested military government without the walls of the forts. To
the Lieutenants of each county he deputed the right of nominating the
magistracy and officers of militia. A justice of the peace could
assign, in the King's name, two hundred acres of land to every settler,
with whose principles and conduct he was acquainted. The Surveyor of
the District was to point out to the settler the land allotted to him
by the magistrate. He did not care to enlarge his territory at the
expense of the Indians. It appeared to him that a communication between
Lakes Huron and Ontario might be opened, by means of the St. Joseph's
river, which would relieve the fur traders of the Far West from the
navigation of the Detroit River, of Lake Erie, of the Niagara River,
and of a great part of Lake Ontario, and would disappoint the United
States in their hope of receiving, in future, any articles across the
Lakes, situated above Lake Huron. He was further of opinion, that a
direct communication, the idea now entertained by the Honble. John
Young, of Montreal, might be established between Lake Huron and the
River St. Lawrence. Unfortunately for the Province, Governor Simcoe did
not remain long enough in it to put his admirably conceived projects
into execution. These schemes when conceived, could not be very easily
brought under public notice. There was in all Upper Canada only one
newspaper, and that very far from being an organ of public opinion. The
Newark Spectator, or Mercury, or Chronicle, or whatever else it may
have been, was but a loose observer of men and manners, printed weekly.
Had it not been supported by the government, not a fourth part of the
expenses of the proprietor would have been refunded to him by the sale
of his newspaper. It was a short abstract of the newspapers of New York
and Albany, "accommodated" to the anti-American principles of the
Governor, with an epitome of the _Quebec Gazette_. It was the medium
through which the Acts of the Legislature, and the Governor's notices
and orders were communicated to the people. It was _par excellence_ the
government organ.
The Second Session of the First Provincial Parliament of Upper Canada
was held at Niagara, on the 31st of May, 1793. There is no copy of the
speech from the throne to be found, unless it may have been in the
Newark _Spectator_, which is not within reach. Its contents may be
gleaned from the nature of the Bills passed during the Session, and
assented to by the Lieutenant Governor. An Act was passed for the
better regulation of the militia; the nomination and appointment of
parish and town officers were provided for; the payment of wages to the
members of the House of Assembly, at a rate not exceeding ten shillings
per diem, was authorized and provided for; the laying out, amending,
and keeping in repair the public high roads was regulated, the roads
not to be less than thirty nor more than sixty feet wide; marriages
solemnized by justices of the peace, before the separation, were to be
valid, and in future justices of the peace were empowered to marry
persons not living within eighteen miles of a parson of the Church of
England, the form of the Church of England to be followed; the times
and places of holding Courts of Quarter Sessions were fixed; the
further introduction of slaves was prevented, and the term of contracts
for servitude limited; a Court of Probate was established in the
Province, and a Surrogate Court in every district; Commissioners were
appointed to meet Commissioners from the Lower Province, to regulate
the duties on commodities, passing from one Province to the other; a
fund for paying the salaries of the officers of the Legislative
Council, and for defraying the contingent expenses thereof, by a duty
of four pence a gallon on Madeira, and two pence on all other wines
imported into the Province was established; the destruction of wolves
and bears was encouraged by a reward of twenty shillings for a wolf's
head, and of ten shillings for a bear's head; returning officers were
appointed for the several counties; and a further fund for the payment
of the House of Assembly and its officers was created, by an
"additional" duty of twenty shillings to be levied on all licenses for
the retail of wines or spirituous liquors. In the third Session of the
Parliament, convened on the 2nd June, 1794, an Act was passed for the
regulation of juries; a Superior Court of Civil and Criminal
Jurisdiction was established, and a Court of Appeal regulated; a Court
was established for the cognizance of small causes in every district;
the Lieutenant Governor was empowered to license practitioners in the
law; fines and forfeitures reserved to His Majesty for the use of the
Province were to be accounted for; the Assessment Act for the payment
of wages to the Assembly was amended; the militia was further
regulated; horned cattle, horses, sheep, and swine were not to run at
large; the Gaols and Court Houses Act was amended; a duty of one
shilling and three pence per gallon was laid upon stills, and the
manner of licensing public houses was regulated.
The Fourth Session of the First Parliament of Upper Canada having met
for the despatch of business, on the 6th July, 1795, the practice of
physic and surgery was regulated; an Act was passed to ascertain the
eligibility of persons to be returned to the House of Assembly; the
agreement between Upper Canada and Lower Canada, by which the latter
were to collect all the duties on goods, wares and merchandize arriving
at Quebec, giving the former one eighth of their nett produce, was
ratified, approved, and confirmed; the Superior Court Act of the
previous Session was amended and explained; and Registry Offices were
established for the enregistering of deeds, lands and tenements. There
were no private Bills. The measures for Parliamentary consideration
were all of a public nature, and the legislation was eminently
judicious and peremptory. Mr. Attorney General White was the great man
in the Commons, and Mr. Speaker Chief Justice Powell in the Lords. The
first Parliament died a natural death, and the members of it went
quietly to their respective places of abode.
The second Parliament met at Newark, after a general election not
productive of any very great degree of excitement, on the 16th of May,
1796, opened by the Governor in person, with the usual formalities.
Certain coins were better regulated; the juries Act was amended; the
Quarter Sessions Act was amended; the public houses Act was amended;
the wolves and bears destruction Act was partially repealed, by the
rewards for killing bears being withdrawn; the Lieutenant Governor was
authorized to appoint Commissioners to meet others from the Lower
Province, about duties and drawbacks on goods passing from one Province
to the other; and the assessment Act was amended.
This Session of the second Parliament was hardly concluded, when
Governor Simcoe was required to relinquish his Government and proceed
to St. Domingo, in a similar capacity, the government of Upper Canada,
until the arrival of a regularly appointed successor, devolving upon
the Hon. P. Russell, President of the Council. Mr. Russell convened the
second Session of the Provincial Parliament, at the new capital of
York, selected by his predecessor, and in which a gubernatorial
residence of canvass had been erected. The first Act passed during his
very quiet reign of only three years, was one for the better security
of the Province against the King's enemies. It provided that no person
professing to owe allegiance to any country at war against the King,
should be permitted to enter, remain, reside, or dwell in the province.
The second Act was one to enable the inhabitants of the township of
York to assemble for the purpose of choosing and nominating parish and
township officers; an Act for securing the titles to lands; an Act for
the regulation of ferries; an Act to incorporate the legal profession;
the word "clergyman" in land grants to signify clergy; felons from
other Provinces to be apprehended, and the trade between the United
States and the Province to be temporarily provided for, by the
suspension of an Act repugnant to the free intercourse with the United
States, established by treaty of 1794. Several amendments to Acts and
other Acts were passed, when the Session was prorogued in due form.
On the 5th of June, 1798, the third Session of the second Provincial
Parliament met, and seven Acts received the gubernatorial assent. Among
other things, the boundary lines of the different townships were to be
determined, the ministers of the Church of Scotland, Lutherans or
Calvinists, were authorized to celebrate marriage; and the method of
performing statute labor on the roads was altered.
The fourth and last Session of this second Parliament of Upper Canada
met at York, on the 12th June, 1799, and six Acts were assented to,
among which was one providing for the education and support of orphan
children; and another enabling persons holding the office of Registrar
to be elected members of the House of Assembly, a member of which body
accepting the office to vacate his seat, with the privilege, however,
of being re-elected.
On the 17th August, 1799, General Hunter appeared and assumed the
Lieutenant Governorship to which he had been appointed by the King. He
was not, however, simply Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada; but also
the Lieutenant, General commanding-in-chief, in both of the Canadas. He
took possession of the Government of Upper Canada about a fortnight
after the general government of British North America had been
entrusted to His Excellency Robert Shore Milnes, Esquire. The
Lieutenant General was well advanced in years. He had seen fifty-three
summers, and it was not to be expected that his previous education and
habits would give way to the new ideas of younger men in a new country.
General Hunter was, nevertheless, connected with a highly talented
family, his brother being the celebrated Dr. Hunter of London, and his
talents for government were possibly better than the bills passed
during his reign would indicate. There was, indeed, little, if any,
advance in legislation. The Acts of former Sessions, relative to
duties, the administration of justice, and to the militia, were patched
and repatched, made more stringent, less liberal, and more complicated.
In the first Session of the third Parliament, which met at York, on the
2nd June, 1800, six Acts of revival, regulation, or amendment were
assented to, one of which, making a temporary provision for the
regulation of trade between Upper Canada and the United States,
established ports of entry. The second Session of the third Parliament
was held on the 28th of May, 1801, at the now established capital. The
Parliament, as usual, was recommended to look after the King's enemies,
the militia, the Quarter Sessions, the Customs Duties, the Roads, and
the payment of the Assembly and its officers. There was no change in
the matters legislated upon, worthy of note, with the exception that
Cornwall, Johnstown, Newcastle, York, Niagara, Queenston, Fort Erie
Passage, Turkey Point, Amherstburgh, and Sandwich were declared to be
Ports of Entry, collectors being appointed by the Governor to receive a
salary of £50 per cent on duties, till the same amounted to £100, above
which sum there was to be no advance, and having the privilege of
appointing their own deputies; the Governor was authorized to appoint
Flour and Ashes Inspectors, who were to receive three pence for every
barrel of flour they inspected, and one shilling for every cask of pot
and pearl ashes; and an Act was passed preventing the sale of
spirituous or intoxicating drinks to the Moravian Indians, on the River
Thames. The third Session of the third Parliament met on the 25th of
May, 1802, when five Acts only were passed. Titles of lands were to be
better ascertained and secured; the administration of justice in the
Newcastle District was provided for; the rates which the Receiver
General should take and retain for his own use out of the monies
passing through his hands, subject to the disposition of the Province,
was to be declared and ascertained; one or more ports of entry were
established, and one or more collectors of Customs appointed; and an
Act for applying £750 to encourage the growth of hemp, and £84 0s. 8d.
for stationery for the Clerks of Parliament was adopted. On the 24th of
January, 1803, the Parliament being again assembled for the despatch of
business, an Act was passed, allowing time for the sale of lands and
tenements by the Sheriff; a fund was established for the erection and
repair of light-houses; the rights of certain grantees of the waste
lands of the Crown were declared; married women were enabled to convey
and alienate their real estate; attornies were enabled to take two
clerks and "no more," the Attorney and Solicitor General excepted, as
they could take three each, and "no more;" the swine and horned cattle
restraint Act was extended; members of Parliament, having a warrant
from the Speaker of attendance, were, for their own convenience,
enabled to demand from justices of the peace, ten shillings a day, to
be levied by assessment. After this, Parliament was prorogued, unless
it be that a second fourth Session of the Parliament was held, which is
not very probable, although Mr. Gourlay, in his account of Canada,
gives two fourth Sessions to the third Parliament, and afterwards
complains that the business of the first Session of the sixth
Provincial Parliament was nowhere to be found.
Parliament next assembled on the 1st of February, 1804. Sedition was
provided against; persons who should seduce soldiers into desertion
were to be exemplarily punished; fees, costs, and charges were to be
regulated by the Court of Kings Bench; the swine Act was amended, so
that sheep might run at large, and rams only be restrained between the
1st December and 20th December; £300 was appropriated to the printing
of all the Acts of the Province, and £80 a year was allowed for the
annual printing of the laws, which were to be distributed among members
of Parliament, judges, and militia officers; £100 was granted for the
building of bridges and repairing old roads and laying out new ones;
the Customs Act was explained; £175 was granted for the purchase of the
Statute Laws of England; £400 per annum was granted to be applied in
the erection of Parliament Buildings; £303 11s. 10-1/2d. was voted for
the clerks and officers of the Parliament, including stationary, and to
the government commissioners appointed to adopt means to encourage the
growth of hemp a sum of £1,000 was granted. The Session of the fourth
Parliament, next bent on the despatch of business, came together on the
1st February, 1805. It altered the time of issuing tavern and still
licenses; afforded relief to heirs or devizees of the nominees of the
Crown, entitled to claim lands in cases where no patent had issued for
such lands; regulated the trial of contested elections; continued the
Duty-Commissioners Act for four years; altered certain parts of the
Newcastle-District administration of justice Bill; made provision for
the further appointment of parish and town officers; relieved insolvent
debtors, by an Act which enabled a debtor in prison to receive five
shillings weekly from his creditor during his detention, if the
prisoner were not worth five pounds, worthlessness being, in this
instance, to a man's advantage; the curing, packing and inspection of
pork was regulated by the appointment of inspectors, whose fees were to
be one shilling and six pence per barrel, exclusive of cooperage, with
six pence a mile to the Inspector, for every mile he had to travel; £45
9s. 8d., advanced by His Majesty, through the Lieutenant Governor, for
the purchase of hemp seed, and £229 8s. 6d., advanced for
contingencies, clerks of Parliament and so forth, were to be made good
out of a certain sum applied to that purpose; and for the further
encouragement of the growth and cultivation of hemp, and for the
exportation thereof, it was by law determined that £50 per ton should
be paid for hemp.
Lieutenant General Hunter died at Quebec on the 21st August of the same
year, (1805) at the age of 59, and was buried in the English Cathedral
at Quebec, where a monument in marble has been erected to his memory,
by his brother, the physician. It is recorded on his tombstone, that
General Hunter's life was spent in the service of his King and country,
and that of the various stations, both civil and military, which he
filled, he discharged the duties with spotless integrity, unwearied
zeal, and successful abilities.
The Honorable Alexander Grant, as President of the Council, succeeded
General Hunter in the administration of affairs. Mr. Grant reigned only
one year, when he was succeeded by His Excellency Sir Francis Gore.
During Mr. Grant's short rule, £50 a year each, was provided for eight
years, to six Sheriffs; an Act was passed to regulate the practice of
physic and surgery; £490 was appointed for the purchase of instruments
to illustrate the principles of natural philosophy, to be deposited in
the hands of a person employed in the education of youth; £1,600 was
granted for public roads and bridges; the Acts for the appointment of
Parish officers, for the collection of assessments, and for the payment
of the wages of the House of Assembly were altered and amended; the
Custom Duties' Act was continued; and £498 8s. 5d. was made good to the
Commissioners treating with Lower Canada, and to the Clerks of
Parliament.
The Governments, of both Upper and Lower Canada, were administered by
residents of the country at the same period of time. While Mr. Grant,
the administrator of Upper Canada, had convened the parliament of the
province on the 4th of February, 1806, Mr. Dunn had convoked the
parliament of Lower Canada for the 22nd of the same month in the same
year. On opening the parliament of Lower Canada Mr. Dunn tellingly
alluded to the important victory of Lord Nelson at Trafalgar and to the
subsequent action off Ferrol, recommending the renewal of the acts
deemed expedient during the previous war for the preservation of His
Majesty's government and for the internal tranquillity of the province.
By the address, in reply, he was assured that these acts would be
renewed. Shortly after the assembly had met it occurred to them that
their peculiar privileges, as an offshoot of the Commons of England,
had been assailed. The proceedings of a dinner party given to the
representatives of Montreal in that city had been printed and
circulated in the Montreal _Gazette_ of the 1st April, 1805. The dinner
was given in Dillon's tavern, and the party were particularly merry
with the abundant supply of wines. Mr. Isaac Todd, merchant, presided.
After the customary toasts on all such occasions had been given, the
president proposed:--"The honorable members of the Legislative Council,
who were friendly to constitutional taxation as proposed by our worthy
members in the House of Assembly;"--"Our representatives in parliament,
who proposed a constitutional and proper mode of taxation, for building
gaols, and who opposed a tax on commerce for that purpose, as contrary
to the sound practice of the parent state;"--"May our representatives
be actuated by a patriotic spirit, for the good of the province, as
dependent on the British empire, and be divested of local
prejudices;"--"Prosperity to the agriculture and commerce of Canada,
and may they aid each other, as their true interest dictates, by
sharing a due proportion of advantages and burthens;"--"The city and
county of Montreal and the grand juries of the district, who
recommended local assessments for local purposes;"--"May the city of
Montreal be enabled to support a newspaper, though deprived of its
natural and useful advantages, apparently, for the benefit of an
individual." It is difficult to perceive where any breach of privilege
was involved, but the assembly looked upon these aspirations and upon
the compliments to the Montreal representatives as a false and
scandalous and malicious libel, highly and unjustly reflecting upon His
Majesty's representative and on both Houses of the Provincial
Parliament, and tending to lessen the affections of His Majesty's
subjects towards the government of the province. A committee of inquiry
was appointed, and reported that the libellers were the printer of the
_Gazette_, Edward Edwards, and the president of the dinner party, Isaac
Todd. Nay, the libel was reported to be a "high" breach of the
privileges of the Assembly and Messrs. Todd and Edwards were ordered to
be taken into custody. But the Serjeant-at-Arms, or his deputy, could
not lay his hands upon these gentlemen and the matter was no more
thought of until the editor of the Quebec _Mercury_ ridiculed the whole
proceedings, when it was ordered that Mr. Cary should be arrested. Mr.
Cary was afraid that such unpleasant investigations might give rise to
other unpleasant investigations with regard to the powers of the House.
He intimated that in France it was customary to tie up the tongue and
lock up the press, and for so doing he was compelled either to submit
to be himself locked up or apologize. On being arrested he apologized
at the Bar of the House and was released. The time of the House was
frittered away by empty discussions and wordy addresses upon the gaol
tax, previously mentioned, which the king did not disallow as required
by the mercantile community. Indeed the administrator of the government
in his prorogation speech remonstrated with the Assembly for the
non-completion of the necessary business. The civil expenditure of the
year came to £35,469 sterling, including £2,000 to General Prescott,
who was then in England, and £3,406 to Sir Robert Shore Milnes, with
the addition of £2,604 currency, for salaries to the officers of the
Legislature, the expenditure exceeding the revenue by £869.
General Prescott, the Governor General, absent in England, was yet in
the receipt of £2,000 a year, and the year before he had £4,000; Sir
Robert Milnes, the Lieutenant Governor, also absent, had received the
salary above mentioned, while Mr. Dunn received £750, as a judge of the
King's Bench, £100 for his services as administrator of the government,
a pension of £500 sterling a year, on relinquishing the administration,
and an additional allowance of £1,500 a year while he had administered
the government. Beyond question their "Excellencies" and "His Honor,"
were amply remunerated. The Governor General and his Lieutenant were
absent on business. Indeed, while the Legislative Assembly, in defence
of imaginary privileges, were cutting such fantastic capers before high
heaven, the confidential secretary of Lord Dorchester and of his
successors so far, the Honorable Herman Witsius Ryland,--who, having
been Acting Paymaster General to His Majesty's Forces captured by the
Americans, went to England, when His Lordship, then General Sir Guy
Carleton, evacuated New York, and returned with him to Canada, when
that officer was appointed Governor-in-Chief in 1793, full of the
sympathies, antipathies, prepossessions, and prejudices of the English
conservative of that day,--had devised a scheme, which, had it been
carried out, would have rendered their privileges not very valuable. He
only designed to "anglify" the French-Canadians by compulsion. Before
the separation of the province into Upper Canada and Lower Canada it
was a matter of consideration whether all the Roman Catholic churches
in the Province could not be converted into Reformed Anglo-Episcopal
churches. The contemplated plan of doing so was to take from the
"Vicaire du Saint Siége Apostolique" the power of nominating and
appointing the parish priests; the appointment of subsequent bishops
was to be given to the king; and the Popish Bishop then living, was to
be succeeded by a Protestant Bishop, who would find an easy method of
turning Cardinal Richelieu's church extension schemes to excellent
account in a new mode of ordaining new "catholic" priests, who might be
disposed to abandon, at least, some of the doctrines of Rome and
embrace, at least, some of those of the Protestant religion. The
religious principle involved in this interesting scheme would have done
credit to the eighth Henry. It would have had the effect of erecting on
a Popish foundation, of building up on the sainted Rock, a church
militant as a more powerful safeguard to English influence and power in
Canada than the citadel of Quebec has been. Together with the creation
of a Provincial Baronetage, in the persons of the members of the Upper
House, the honor being descendible to their eldest sons in lineal
succession, and the raising of the most considerable of these eldest
sons at a future period to a higher degree of honor, as the province
increased in wealth, together with the recognition of Mr.
DeBoucherville's old noblesse, it would have most certainly much sooner
produced that state of things which Sir Francis Bond Head and the
"family compact" so ably brought to a crisis. The secretary of all the
governors Lower Canada had yet had, corresponded, most confidentially,
with his home masters, somewhat, perhaps, to the prejudice of his honor
the administrator. As general Simcoe loathed the nasal twang,
attenuated appearance, and the vulgar republicanism of a downeast
American, so Mr. Witsius Ryland abominated Romanism. Speaking of the
Roman Catholic clergy of Canada, he says:--"I call them Popish to
distinguish them from the clergy of the Established Church and to
express my contempt and detestation of a religion, which sinks and
debases the human mind, and which is a curse to every country where it
prevails." Nay, he laid it down, as a principle, to undermine the
authority and influence of the Roman Catholic Priests. It was or should
be the highest object of a governor to crush every papist scoundrel.
Following the line of conduct which had so widely established the
authority of the Popes of Rome, it was the duty of governors to avail
themselves of every possible advantage, and never to give up an inch
but with the certainty of gaining an ell. He lamented that the seminary
and perhaps some other estates had not been taken possession of by the
crown, incorporated, and trustees appointed, out of which incorporated
estates a handsome salary might have been paid to the King's
Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent of the Romish Church! but the
proceeds of which should principally have been applied to the purposes
of public education. And he was deeply mortified that "a company of
French rascals" had momentarily deprived the country of any hope of
such a destiny of these estates. The private and confidential remarks
of the secretary were not altogether without effect. His Grace of
Portland, then His Majesty's Secretary for the Colonies, peremptorily
ordered Governor Milnes to resume and exercise that part of the king's
instructions requiring that no person whatever was to have holy orders
conferred upon him, or to have cure of souls, without license, first
had and obtained from the Governor, and Lord Hobart, the Duke's
successor in the Colonial Department, intimated to Sir Robert Milnes
that it was highly proper that he should signify to the Catholic Bishop
the impropriety of his assuming any new titles or exercising any
additional powers to those which he had as the Vicar of the Holy
Apostolic See. The French Priests were also to be reminded that their
residence in Canada was merely on sufferance, and that it was necessary
for them to behave circumspectly, else even that indulgence would be
withdrawn. Greatly alarmed at these proceedings the Bishop of Rome
respectfully remonstrated. He humbly reminded His Most Excellent
Majesty, the King, that nineteen-twentieths of the population were of
the Roman Catholic religion; that the humble remonstrant was himself
the fourteenth bishop who had managed the church since Canada had
happily passed into the hands of the Crown of Great Britain; that the
extension of the province was prodigious, requiring more than ever that
the superintending bishop should retain all the rights and dignities
which His Majesty had found it convenient to suffer the bishops to have
at the conquest; and that in the Courts of Justice there should be no
room to doubt their powers. It was indeed no wonder that the
superintendent of the Church of Rome was alarmed at the aspect of
affairs. The Attorney-General Sewell reported with regard to the
nomination of Laurent Bertrand to be curé of Saint Léon-le-Grand, by
the titular Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec, in the case of one
Lavergne, who having refused to furnish the _pain béni_, was prosecuted
in the Court of King's Bench, that it was a usurpation in the bishop to
erect parishes and appoint curés. He went farther and said that there
was no such person as the Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec. The title,
rights, and powers of that office had been destroyed by the conquest.
Nay, there could not, legally, be any such character, as, if he
existed, the King's supremacy would be interfered with, contrary to the
Statutes of Henry the Eighth and of Elizabeth. Not only was there a
quiet but arbitrary denial of the right of the Roman Catholic Bishop to
manage the affairs of his diocese, the possibility of negotiating the
Reverend Coadjutor Plessis out of his influence was entertained. Mr.
Attorney-General ultimately waited upon that ecclesiastic to explain
his own private sentiments to him. The bishop was studiously guarded
and significantly polite. The Attorney-General thought that a good
understanding ought to exist between the government and the ministers
of religion. Mr. Plessis was quite of that opinion. Mr.
Attorney-General thought the free exercise of the Roman Catholic
religion having been permitted the government ought to avow its
officers, but not at the expense of the Established Church. Mr.
Coadjutor Plessis said that position might be correct. Mr.
Attorney-General thought that the government could not allow to Mr.
Plessis that which it denied to the Church of England. Mr. Plessis saw
that the government thought that the bishop should act under the King's
commission, and could see no objection to it. The Attorney-General was
strongly of opinion that the right of appointing to curés, which no
bishop of the Church of England had, must be abandoned. Mr. Plessis
thought that even Buonaparte and the Pope had effected a compromise on
that matter. Mr. Attorney-General had no faith in Buonaparte and was
but an indifferent Catholic, but the Crown only could select from a
Bishop's own Priesthood, and a Bishop, once acknowledged, would be the
head of a department. That said Mr. Plessis would be a departure from
the Romish doctrine of church discipline. To some extent it would, but
your clergy would be officers of the Crown, and you would obtain the
means of living in splendour, said the Attorney-General. Splendour,
said Mr. Plessis, is not suitable to the condition of a bishop;
ecclesiastical rank and a sufficient maintenance is all he needs. The
Attorney-General meant that a bishop should have the income of a
gentleman. Mr. Plessis meant the same thing, but it was a delicate
matter to pension a bishop, for relinquishing his right of nominating
to the cures, as the public would not hesitate to say he had sold his
church. Never mind, said the Attorney-General, if the matter is viewed
aright, you have none to relinquish. I do not know, replied Mr.
Plessis. Whatever is to be done must now be done, intimated the
Attorney-General. You speak truly, was the modest reply, something must
be done, and though we may differ in detail, I hope we shall not in the
outline.
Not very long after this conversation Bishop Denaud died. Now was the
time for Mr. Witsius Ryland to act or never. He did act most
energetically. He ear-wigged Mr. President Dunn, concerning his proper
line of conduct on the occasion. He attempted to dissuade Mr. Dunn from
a formal acknowledgement of Mr. Plessis, as Superintendent of the
Romish Church, till His Majesty's pleasure should be declared. He
thought an order should be immediately issued from home, prohibiting
the assumption, by a Roman Catholic prelate, of the title of Bishop of
Quebec. It occurred to him that a French emigrant bishop, if one could
be found, would be more easily managed than Mr. Plessis. But Mr.
Plessis was too much for Mr. Ryland, and found favor in the President's
sight. Mr. Dunn would not listen to the representations of his
secretary, and the wrath of his secretary was kindled. He wrote to Sir
Robert Milnes on the subject, and to "My dear Lord," the Right Reverend
Jacob Mountain, D.D. Not only was Mr. Dunn determined upon formally
recognizing the new Roman Catholic Bishop but he was determined to
suffer the Reverend Mr. Panet to take the oath as Coadjutor, without
either waiting for His Majesty's pleasure, or for any other sanction
whatever. It was most distressing, but "where was the layman, free from
vanity, who, at seventy-three years of age, would let slip an
opportunity of making a bishop?" It was dreadful. His contempt and
indignation rose to a height that nearly choked him. As an apology for
the recognition of Mr. Panet, it was all very well to say that his
brother was a mighty good sort of a man. A mighty good sort of a man!
How devoted were such mighty good sort of men, those very loyal
subjects, to His Majesty! From the Speaker himself, down to the
"fellow" who held a lucrative office in the Court of King's Bench, and
who had sent his son to join the banditties of Mr. Buonaparte, who was
not, to suit his purpose, brimfull of loyalty! Things were wretchedly
managed, but the wisest thing to be done under present circumstances
was nothing.
The Home Government anxious to build up in some manner a Protestant
Church establishment had appointed the Right Reverend Jacob Mountain,
Doctor in Divinity, to the Diocese of Quebec. At the expense of the
Imperial Government, a Cathedral was built in Quebec, which was
consecrated in 1804, on the ruins of the Recollet Church of the
Jesuits. To this day it is possibly the most symmetrical in appearance
of any church of the Church of England in Canada. Exteriorly, it is 135
feet in length and 73 in breadth, while the height of the spire above
the ground is 152 feet, the height from the floor to the centre arch,
within, being 41 feet. The communion plate, together with the altar
cloth, hangings of the desk and pulpit of crimson velvet and cloth of
gold, and the books for divine service, was a private present from
George the Third. There was then also a Rector of Quebec, having a
salary, from the British Government, of £200 a year, such a sum as,
Bishop Mountain reported to His Excellency the Governor, no gentleman
could possibly live upon! a Rector of Montreal with the same salary,
and £80 additional per annum made up by subscription from the parish; a
Rector of Three Rivers with a like salary of £200 from home; a Rector
of William Henry receiving £100 from home and £50 from the Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel; an evening lecturer at Quebec, receiving
£100 from the Imperial Treasury; the incumbent of Missisquoi Bay,
obtaining £100 from government, £50 from the Propagation Society, and
£30 from the inhabitants; and two vacancies in the "new settlements,"
requiring £150 to be paid to each. The building of a stone church in
Montreal was commenced, but the structure which promised to be "one of
the handsomest specimens of modern architecture in the province," was
not finished, for want of funds, ten years afterwards. In Upper Canada,
so late as 1795, no church had been built. Even in Newark, it is
quaintly added by the Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, in the same
halls where the Legislative and Executive Councils held their sittings,
jugglers would have been permitted to display their tricks, if any
should have ever strayed to a country so remote. His Grace, quite
correct with regard to Newark, was at fault in speaking of the whole
province. At Stamford there was a Presbyterian Church, built in 1791,
and another church built for the use of all persuasions, a kind of free
and common soccage church, in 1795, which was destroyed in the
subsequent war. It was in this year that one of the most remarkable
men, and one of the most able and indefatigable of the colonial clergy,
was strolling about Marischal College, in Aberdeen, studying
philosophy. He was a very plain-looking Scotch lad and very cannie.
Altogether wanting in that oratorical brilliancy so necessary for an
efficient preacher of the great truths of Christianity, Mr. John
Strachan had diligently acquired a dry knowledge of the humanities, to
fit himself for a teacher of youth. He was, in a limited sense, a
classical scholar. Greek and Latin, Hebrew and the Mathematics, were at
his fingers' ends. Not long after leaving college, he obtained the
place of a preceptor to the children of a farmer in Angus-shire. The
situation of schoolmaster of Dunino, a parish situated foury miles
south of St. Andrews, in Fifeshire, and six miles north of Anstruther,
the school taught by Tennant, the orientalist, professor of Hebrew and
other oriental languages in St. Mary's College, St. Andrews, and the
author of the Poem of Anster Fair, became vacant, when Mr. John
Strachan made application for the fat berth, the salary being nearly
£30 a year, and obtained it. Mr. Strachan taught quietly at Dunino,
attending St. Andrews College, in the winter, until he received the
offer of £50 a year, as tutor to the family of a gentleman living in
Upper Canada. He accepted it, left Dunino, and went to the wilderness.
Mr. Strachan taught as a private tutor for some time and subsequently
established a school for himself, when he married a widow possessed of
cash and respectably connected. The Church of Scotland, in Canada, was
then at a very low ebb. Even in Quebec, although there had been a
regularly ordained clergyman of the church officiating since 1759,
there was only, from 1767 to 1807, an apartment assigned to the Scotch
Church for the purpose of divine worship, by the King's representative,
in the Jesuits' College. Nay, in 1807, the Scotch Church was entirely
sent adrift by Colonel Brock, to be afterwards permitted to meet in a
room in the Court House. Until 1810 there was no Scotch Church in
Quebec. What inducement was there for a progressive Scotchman to remain
in connection with such a church? Mr. Strachan clearly perceived that
the road to worldly preferment ran through the Church of England, and,
having a wife, and the expectation of a family, he recognised the
expediency of obtaining orders as a descendant of the apostles. It was
not long before he obtained permission to officiate as a minister of
the Church of England, and he abandoned the birch for the surplice. Mr.
Strachan justified every expectation that may have been formed of him.
He became a most zealous churchman, and a very short time elapsed until
the Scotch schoolmaster was the Hon. and Revd. Dr. Strachan, Rector of
York, now Bishop of Toronto, and he may go to the grave satisfied that
he has done more to build up the Church of England in Canada, by his
zeal, devotion, diplomatic talent, and business energy, than all the
other bishops and priests of that church put together.
Some idea will now have been formed of the state of the Church of
England "establishment," in Canada, about a time, when it was intended
to amalgamate with it the fabrics of Rome. Bishop Mountain had a seat
it in the Legislative Councils of both provinces. He only was the
embodiment of Church and State.
Mr. Secretary Ryland, anxiously active against the Church of Rome, was
very favorably disposed towards the Church of England. His creed with
regard to the "Protestant Church Establishment," in the provinces, was
for it to have as much splendour and as little power as possible. His
chief desire was to make episcopalianism fashionable. He would have
given to the Bishopric of Quebec a Dean, a Chapter, and all the other
ecclesiastical dignitaries necessary for show, and he would have
endowed the See with sufficient lands to support the establishment in
the most liberal manner. But not a grain of civil power beyond their
churches and churchyards was he inclined to give to the clergy. He even
thought that in regard to the particular case at Montreal, and in any
other case where a church should be, or was about to be built by
private contribution, the bishop would exhibit infinite discretion, if
he did not do more than wish to advise and to consecrate. The same
rights, privileges, prerogatives and authority as bishops enjoy under
the common Law of England could not safely be given to colonial
bishops, nor could it be possible to obtain them. A more worldly view
of church extension could not well be conceived, but the suggestion was
not by any means an imprudent one. Bishops, being but men, are too apt
to abuse power, and it is surely well that too much of it should not be
granted to experiment upon.
While all this was quietly going on, _sub rosa_, in Lower Canada, the
Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians, were quietly taking hold of
the public mind in Upper Canada. Although the meeting houses were only
few and far between, and churches and chapels were extremely rare, the
most illiterate of the sects were itinerating, hither and thither, with
wonderful success.
About this time there was also a disposition to diffuse education. His
Majesty, the King, gave directions to establish a competent number of
free schools in the different parishes, to be under the control of the
Executive, but the project was strenuously opposed by the Roman
Catholic clergy, and only grammar schools in Montreal and Quebec were
provided for, which have languished and died. It was feared by Bishop
Mountain that the want of colleges and good public schools would render
it necessary for parents to send their children to the United States,
to imbibe, with their letters and philosophy, republican principles. It
was at his suggestion also that the idea of free schools was
entertained. The Canadians were deplorably ignorant, and their
children, it was designed, should be free from that reproach. It is
only now, however, that they are emerging from the most debasing state
of mental darkness, into something like enlightenment. Example has done
that which force would have failed to accomplish.
As illustrative of the saying "there is nothing new under the sun," it
is worthy of remark here that upon the arrival of the intelligence in
Canada, respecting the breaking out of the war with France, in 1798,
some of the leading members of the House of Assembly, which was then
sitting, proposed to levy the sum of £20,000 sterling, by a tax on
goods, wares, and merchandize, to be applied, as a voluntary gift to
His Majesty, from the province, to enable the King the more effectually
to prosecute the war. This was proposed by Mr. Attorney-General, Mr.
Young, and Mr. Grant, and as far as the House was concerned, the
measure was found practicable. But General Prescott, the Governor,
having been informed of the matter, did not think it expedient to
encourage a scheme which Lord Elgin would have jumped at.
In 1805, the whole revenue of the province was only £37,000, yet, it
appears that Sir Robert Milnes, the Governor, did not think that he
could sufficiently entertain to gain a due consideration from the
principal persons in the province, on £4,000 a year. He sent a whining
letter to Lord Hobart on the subject, begging for an increase of
salary. £5,000 was not a sufficient sum to keep up the hospitality of
Government House. It would hardly support the summer residence at
Spencer Wood. He had said nothing about so delicate a matter, while the
war lasted, though he had expended £1,000 a year out of his own private
income. And he would rather resign than sacrifice the comforts and
waste the means of his family.
Canada, now, continued steadily to advance, both politically and
commercially. Neither her political advancement nor the extent of her
commerce was great, but both were yearly becoming greater. During the
summer of 1806, one hundred and ninety-one vessels, 33,474 tons of
shipping, entered at Quebec. Coasters were in full and active
employment, and shipbuilding was to some considerable extent carried
on. The military of the garrison were still antiquated. The army made
no perceptible progress, soldiers still plastered their hair, or if
they had none, their heads, with a thick white mortar, which they laid
on with a brush, afterwards raked, like a garden bed, with an iron
comb; and then fastening on their heads a piece of wood, as large as
the palm of the hand, and shaped like the bottom of an artichoke, they
made a _cadogan_, which they filled with the same white mortar, and
raked in the same manner, as the rest of the head dress.[11] The army
wore cocked hats, knee breeches and gaiters. The _habitants_, or
peasantry, had retrograded, and Volney found that, in general, they had
no clear and precise ideas: that they received sensations without
reflecting on them; and that they could not make any calculation that
was ever so little complicated. If asked how far the distance from this
place to that was; a French-Canadian peasant would reply:--"it is one
or two pipes of tobacco off," or "you cannot reach it between sunrise
and sunset." But the better classes, in close contact with the upper
classes among the English, were rapidly improving, and began to
entertain the idea that they had political rights. They even started
a newspaper called "_Le Canadien_" and began most vigorously to
abuse "les Anglais" and the government. The "_Canadien_" published
entirely in French, first appeared in November 1806. Had it been less
anti-British, possibly, it would have been less disagreeable; but
the idea had strongly taken possession of its supporters that
French-Canadians were looked upon, by the government and its
satellites, as mere serfs, and they agitated accordingly. Not only
that. They began to exhibit some sparks of independence. Their
watchword became:--"_Nos institutions_, _notre langue_, _et nos lois_."
They branded the British immigrants and the British population as
"_étrangers et intrus_." Mr. Crapaud's temper was fairly up. There was
cause. The worm will bite when trodden upon. Unless there had been
substantial grievances, the _Canadien_ could not by any possibility
have become so popular as to have given not only umbrage, but
uneasiness to the government. Yet it did cause such uneasiness and
was peremptorily checked. It was impossible then for a native-born
Canadian, whether of English or French extraction, to look a
home-appointed government official in the face. "_Tempora mutantur et
nos mutamur in illis._"
[11] See Duke de la Rochefoucault's Liancourt's travels through
North America.
On the 21st January, 1807, Mr. President Dunn again met the Legislature
of Lower Canada. That invaluable constitution enjoining on the ruler to
meet his parliament once a year, rendered it imperative upon him to
summon the Council and Assembly for the despatch of business. He
recommended to the assembled wisdom before him the propriety of
continuing several temporary acts then in force; congratulated them on
the brilliant success of His Majesty's arms; alluded with pride to the
conquest of the Cape of Good Hope; and touched upon the repeated
victories obtained by Sir John Stuart in Calabria. The Assembly replied
in terms most flattering to the President personally, promising to do
as he required. On proceeding to business, the first subject which
engaged the attention of the House was the propriety of defraying the
expenses of members of the House residing at a distance from Quebec.
The House was disposed to defray such expenses, but nevertheless, the
further consideration of the matter was postponed by a majority of two.
The expediency of having a Provincial Agent or Ambassador, resident in
London, to look after the interests of the province at the metropolis
of the empire was discussed, and it was resolved in the affirmative.
The Alien Act was passed, and that for the better preservation of His
Majesty's government continued for another year, together with several
other acts, and on the 16th of April, the parliament was prorogued.
Serious apprehensions of a war between England and the United States
now began to be entertained. American commercial interests were
grievously affected by the war in Europe, and a kind of spurious
activity, in the hostile preparations which would surely follow a
declaration of war against England, on which country in peace the
merchants of New York, Boston, and the other seaports of the United
States principally depend, seemed to be the only incentive for such a
war. But while the filibusters of "the greatest nation in creation,"
were looking for any cause of war, a good cause, in American eyes,
arose. The American ships of war were mostly manned by British seamen.
Men were greatly in demand for British war vessels, and it was
conceived that the right to impress a British sailor anywhere on land
or water belonged to His Majesty's naval officers. It having reached
the ears of Admiral Berkeley, the Naval Commander in Chief, on the
Halifax Station, that the American frigate "Chesapeake," was partly
manned by British seamen, the Admiral, unthinkingly ordered Captain
Humphreys, of the "Leopard," to recover them. The men on board of the
"Chesapeake" were indeed known to be deserters from H.M.S. "Melampus."
William Ware, Daniel Martin, John Strachan and John Little, British
seamen, within a month after their desertion, had offered themselves as
able seamen at Norfolk, in Virginia. Their services were accepted, and
the "Chesapeake," on board of which they were sent, prepared for sea.
Being made aware of the enlistment of these men, the British Consul at
Norfolk, formally demanded their surrender by the Captain of the
"Chesapeake." Their surrender was refused. Application for them was
then made to the American Secretary of the navy. But he did not
consider it expedient to give them up. Three of the men were natives
of America, two had protection, and the other had merely lost his
protection. The "Chesapeake" sailed on the 22nd of June, and on the
same day was intercepted by the British frigate "Leopard," of 50 guns,
off Cape Henry. Captain Humphreys, of the "Leopard," stepping on board
of the "Chesapeake," demanded the muster of the crew of the American
frigate. Captain Barron, in command of the American frigate, refused
compliance. The British Commander returned and both vessels got ready
for action, the American frigate only, it is said, anticipating
hostilities. Then the Leopard fired upon the Chesapeake and, in thirty
minutes, so disabled her that she struck, when Captain Humphreys
boarded her and took, from among her crew, Ware, Martin, and Strachan,
together with one John Wilson, a deserter from a British merchant ship.
The United States now burned with indignation. Their outraged
nationality could never brook such an insult. Every British armed
vessel was ordered to leave the waters of the United States by the
President. A special meeting of Congress was held. And the American
Minister at the Court of St. James was ordered to demand satisfaction.
He did do so. Mr. Canning, the British Minister, at once offered
reparation, but he objected to any reference to the general question of
impressments from neutral vessels being mixed up with an affair so
unfortunate. Mr. Munroe was not authorized to treat these subjects
separately, and further negotiation between the two ministers was
suspended. Great Britain then sent a special minister to the United
States, empowered to treat concerning the special injury complained of.
Before he arrived most ample preparations were being made in the United
States for war. Millions of dollars were appropriated towards the
construction of 188 gun-boats, and the raising of horse, foot, and
artillery. It was not until 1811 that this huge mistake was settled,
when the British Minister communicated to the American Secretary of
State that the attack on the Chesapeake was unauthorized by His
Majesty's government; that Admiral Berkeley was recalled; that the men,
taken from the Chesapeake, should be restored; and that suitable
provision for the families of the six American seamen killed in the
fight should be made. But, settled as this gross and deplorable mistake
was to the perfect satisfaction of the President, the trading community
of the United States were every day becoming more dissatisfied with the
state of affairs in Europe and the consequent state of affairs at home.
The situation of affairs, on this side of the Atlantic, was indeed
gloomy and critical. France and England were fiercely at war, and were
arraying against each other the most violent commercial edicts to the
destruction of the commerce of neutral nations. There was the British
blockade from the Elbe to Brest; Napoleon's Berlin decree; the British
Order in Council prohibiting the coasting trade; the celebrated Milan
decree; and the no less celebrated British Orders in Council, of
November the 11th, 1807, together with the American Government's edicts
respecting non-intercourse with Great Britain and France to set on edge
the teeth of a people now little scrupulous as to what they did,
provided money could be made, or power be obtained. Strife had
introduced a disposition to intrigue; political cunning had become
fashionable; and political duplicity had lost much of its deformity in
the United States. The finger of derision was no longer pointed at
meannesses; the love of honor, and manliness of conduct, was blunted;
cunning began to take the place of wisdom; professions took the place
of deeds, and duplicity stalked forth with the boldness of integrity.
The American people wanted a quarrel that the whole boundless continent
might be theirs. They had badgered France out of Louisiana, and they
would badger England out of Canada and the West Indies. In New York and
Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore, it was customary to talk of walking
into Canada and squat a conquest, as was afterwards carried into effect
with regard to Texas. Mr. Dunn, the President of the Canadian
government, looked upon the state of feeling in the adjoining republic
with suspicion. He conceived it expedient to feel the public pulse in
Canada. Like a skilful physician he approached the patient cautiously
and good humouredly, to prevent flurry or agitation, and in putting his
hand on the pulse of public opinion, he found it to be healthily strong
and regular. He prescribed only a draft of one-fifth part of the whole
militia of the province. The draft was taken immediately. The Roman
Catholic Bishop of Quebec, or rather the yet only Superintendent of the
Romish Church in Quebec, Mr. Plessis, now rapidly rising into favor
with the Colonial Court, promptly issued a _mandement_ to the faithful,
concerning the war, and a "_Te Deum_" was sung in all of the churches
under his control in Lower Canada. The Canadians turned out with great
alacrity. His Honor the President and Commander-in-Chief expressed his
satisfaction in general orders. Burn's artillery company volunteered.
In ballotting, young bachelors procured the prize tickets of the
married men. Some that were not drawn purchased tickets from some that
were drawn, and there were not a few married people who refused to sell
out, if all that is stated in a Quebec paper of that period can be
credited. No doubt the glories of war were uppermost in men's minds. It
is possible to make war popular and the braggart tone of the Americans
had doubtless contributed considerably to its popularity with the
Canadians.
Colonel Brock was then Commandant at Quebec. He was a man of much
decision of character and of strong natural sense. With the President
he made the most vigorous exertions to discipline the militia and to
put the fortifications of Quebec into a good state of defence. Night
and day men labored at the fortifications. Every addition that
"science, judgment and prudence could suggest," was made.
The income this year was £36,417, and the civil expenditure £36,213.
In Upper Canada, Francis Gore, Esquire, it has been previously
intimated, was Lieutenant-Governor. He first met Parliament on the 2nd
of February, 1807. Twelve Acts were passed, the most remarkable of
which were the Act to establish Public Schools in every district of
the Province, £800 having been appropriated for that purpose, with the
view of giving to each of the eight districts of the Province, a
schoolmaster having a salary of £100 a year; the Act imposing licenses
on Hawkers, Pedlars, and Petty Chapmen,--to the amount of three pounds
for every pedlar, with twenty shillings additional for a hawker with a
horse; eight pounds for every chapman sailing with a decked vessel
and selling goods on board;--five pounds for the same description
of traders sailing in an open boat; and eight pounds on transient
merchants; and the Act for the Preservation of Salmon, which permitted
that fish to be taken with a spear or hook, but prohibited the use of a
net in the Newcastle and Home Districts.
When next the Parliament met, on the 20th January, 1808, the same fears
that were felt in Lower Canada, being felt in Upper Canada, an Act was
passed to raise and train the Militia; £1,600 was granted towards the
construction of roads and bridges; £200 of yearly salary was granted to
an Adjutant-General of Militia; £75 additional was given to the Clerks
of the Assembly; £62 10s. per ton was to be the price of hemp purchased
under an Act of Parliament for the encouragement of its growth in the
Province; an Act for the more equal representation of the Commons was
passed; and Collectors of Rates were to enter into bonds of £200
security.
On the 2nd February, 1809, the Parliament of Upper Canada was again
convened. An Act was adopted for quartering and billeting the Militia
and His Majesty's troops on certain occasions. Householders were to
furnish them with house-room, fire, and utensils for cooking. Officers,
in case of an invasion, having a warrant from a Justice of the Peace,
could impress horses, carriages, and oxen, on regulated hire. Upper
Canada was evidently preparing for an expected struggle, as well as
Lower Canada. £1,045 was this session granted for the Clerks of
Parliament and contingencies, including the erection of a Light House
on Gibraltar Point; Menonists and Tunkers were permitted to affirm in
Courts of Justice; £250 was appropriated for a bridge across the Grand
River; and £1,600 was granted for bridges and highways. In the next
session of the Fifth Parliament, which Governor Gore assembled at York,
on the 1st of February, 1810, £2,000 were granted for the roads and
bridges; the Common Gaols were declared to be Houses of Correction for
some purposes; a duty of £40 a year was set upon a Billiard Table set
up for hire or gain; £606 were applied to printing Journals, Clerks of
Parliament, and building Light Houses. The Act establishing a Superior
Court of Criminal and Civil jurisdiction, and regulating a Court of
Appeals, was repealed; and £250 additional was granted for the erection
of a bridge across the Grand River.
To return to Lower Canada, Lieutenant-General Sir James Henry Craig
arrived at Quebec in the capacity of Governor General, on the 18th
October, 1807, in the frigate Horatio, and relieved Mr. President Dunn
of the government, on the 24th of October. Mr. Secretary Ryland was
very busy at the time. He was flattering himself, he told the Bishop of
Quebec, that the Secretary of State would have received from him a
series of despatches which would "give that functionary a general and
useful knowledge of the state of things in Lower Canada." There were
some who had exerted themselves to defame and injure the President,
with a view to their own private interests. He particularly alluded to
that contemptible animal, Chief Justice Alcock; to his worthy friend
and coadjutor, of whose treacherous, plausible, and selfish character,
he had never entertained a doubt; and to that smoothfaced swindler,
whom the Lieutenant-Governor had taken so affectionately by the hand,
as the man, who, of all others, came nearest in point of knowledge,
virtue, and ability, to the great Tom of Boston. He would add to these
worthies a pudding-headed commanding officer (General Brock!) who, if
the President had given in to all his idle "Camelian" projects, would
have introduced utter confusion into the whole system, civil and
military. He anxiously expected Sir James Craig, whose established fame
assured him that a better choice could not have been made. And he
thought it probable that if his dear, dear Lordship, should not have
had an opportunity of honoring him with a recommendation to His
Excellency of established fame, his services would be dispensed with,
and then he could join his family in England. But should he remain as
Secretary to General Craig, he had it in contemplation to lay before
him a copy of his letter to Lord S., concerning ecclesiastical affairs,
though it would not be prudent to do so until he had ascertained how
far the General's sentiments accorded with his own. In a postscript to
his letter to the dear Lord Bishop, Mr. Ryland goes into raptures. He
had just received a message from Mr. Dunn, telling him that the
Governor General had arrived. He dressed himself immediately and got on
board the frigate with Mr. Dunn's answer to the General's despatch,
before the ship cast anchor, and before any of the other functionaries
knew even that the Governor General was at hand. He found the General
ill in bed, but was so politely received, that the General begged that
he would do him the favor to continue his secretary. He never was so
pleased with any person at first sight. Although he saw him to every
disadvantage, the General appeared to be a most amiable, a most
intelligent, and a most decided character. He, (the General,) landed
about one o'clock, but was so unwell that he begged to be left alone,
and Mr. Ryland only saw him for an instant. But that curious beast, the
Chief Justice, after intruding himself with unparalleled assurance,
upon the General, before he landed, forced himself again upon him, at
the Chateau, when every body but the President had withdrawn, and most
impudently sat out the latter. He did so for the purpose of recommending
as secretaries, his father-in-law, and a young man named _Brazenson_,
or some such name, whom he had brought out with him from England, but
his scheme entirely failed, and his folly would fall upon his own pate!
Mr. Ryland had transacted business with the Governor every day since
he had landed, and had even drawn up a codicil to his will, the poor,
decided Governor, who had adopted Mr. Ryland, was so ill. Nay, Mr.
Ryland, for the love of this one honorable and just man, could have
almost forgotten that he was surrounded by scoundrels, and would bury
in oblivion the mean jealousies of a contemptible self-sufficiency, and
the false professions of smiling deceit. But should it please Almighty
God to remove the incomparable man, and should there be a chance that
the civil government of the province should be again disunited from the
military command, he did hope that the dear, dear Lord, would favor him
with his utmost interest towards enabling him to make the exchange
which Mrs. Ryland would tell his dear Lordship, the Bishop, her husband
had in contemplation.
Sir James Craig was an officer of good family. He was one of the Craigs
of Dalnair and Costarton, in Scotland, but was born in Gibraltar, where
his father had the appointment of Civil and Military Judge. He had seen
much service in the camp and in the field. In 1770 he was appointed
Aid-de-Camp to General Sir Robert Boyd, then Governor of Gibraltar, and
obtained a Company in the 47th Regiment of the line. Having gone to
America, with his regiment, in 1774, he was present at the battle of
Bunker's Hill, where he was severely wounded. In 1776, he accompanied
his regiment to Canada, commanding his company at the action at Trois
Rivières, and he afterwards commanded the advanced guard in the
expulsion of Arnold and his "rebels." He was wounded at Hubertown, in
1777, and was present at Ticonderoga in the same year. He was wounded
again at Freeman's Farm, and was at Saratoga with Burgoyne, and after
that disastrous affair was selected to carry home the despatches. On
his arrival in England, he was promoted to a majority in the 82nd
Regiment, which he accompanied to Nova Scotia, in 1778, to Penobscot,
in 1779, and to North Carolina, in 1781, where he was engaged in a
continued scene of active service. He was promoted to the rank of Major
General, in 1794, and the following year was sent on the expedition to
the Cape of Good Hope, where, in the reduction and conquest of that
most important settlement, with the co-operation of Admiral Sir G. K.
Elphinstone and Major General Clarke, he attained to the highest pitch
of military reputation. Nor were his merits less conspicuous, it is
said, in the admirable plans of civil regulation, introduced by him in
that hostile quarter, when invested with the chief authority, civil and
military, till succeeded in that position by the Earl of Macartney, who
was deputed by the King to invest General Craig with the Red Ribbon, as
a mark of his sovereign's sense of his distinguished services. Sir
James served, subsequently, in India and in the Mediterranean, where he
contracted a dropsy, the result of an affection of the liver. This was
the officer, of an agreeable but impressive presence, stout, and rather
below the middle stature, manly and dignified in deportment, positive
in his opinions, and decisive in his measures, though social, polite,
and affable, who was sent out to govern Canada because a rupture with
the United States was considered probable. Sir James on arrival at
Quebec did not, however, consider hostilities imminent. Nor did he
immediately organize the militia. But he lauded the Canadians for the
heroic spirit which they had manifested. One of his first acts was to
release from prison a number of persons convicted of insubordination,
and sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment in the gaol of Montreal.
The militia of the parish of L'Assomption, in the district of Montreal,
had formed a painful exception in the spirit which they exhibited on
being called upon to enrol for service, to that which had been
exhibited everywhere else. But the rioting had been immediately
suppressed, and the rioters punished by the ordinary Courts at
Montreal. In gaol the rioters manifested contrition, promised good
behaviour for the future, and Sir James, overlooking the faults of the
few in consideration of the general merit, set the prisoners free. On
the 29th of January, 1808, he convened the Legislature. He regretted,
in his opening speech, that there was little probability of a speedy
cessation of hostilities, in Europe. He congratulated the "honorable
gentlemen," and "gentlemen," on the capture of Copenhagen and the
Danish fleet, defending the morality of the offensive measures against
Denmark. He lamented the discussions that had taken place between His
Majesty's government and that of America. He hoped that the differences
would be so accommodated as to avert the calamities of war between two
nations of the same blood. He intended that no means should be
neglected to prepare for the worst. Though the militia had been
selected, he did not think it necessary to call them together, no
immediate circumstance seeming to require it. He had appointed
commissioners for the erection of new gaols in Quebec and Montreal. And
he expected perfect harmony and co-operation between the legislative
bodies and himself, as the representative of the sovereign. All that
Sir James wished to be done the Assembly promised to do.
In those days not only was the Chief Justice a member of the Upper
House, but the Judges of the King's Bench were not ineligible for
election to the Lower House, and some, or all of them, contrived to get
seats there. It does not appear that the Chief Justice was in the Upper
House a mere government tool, for Sir Robert Milnes most bitterly
complained to the Duke of Portland, of the opposition to certain
measures, which he had met with, from Chief Justice Osgoode, who, even
in public, treated him contemptuously. But it is yet probable that some
of the judges in the Assembly, were less the representatives of the
people who had elected them, than the mouth-pieces of the government,
to whom they were indebted for their appointments to the Bench, and on
whose good pleasure, their continuance on the judgment seat, depended.
Be that as it may, the Assembly were jealous of their presence in the
House, and accordingly, this session of Parliament, a motion was
introduced into the Assembly, declaring it to be expedient that the
Judges of the Court of King's Bench, the Provincial Judges of the
Districts of Three Rivers and Gaspé, and all Commissioned Judges of any
Courts that might afterwards be established, should be incapable of
being elected, or of sitting, or of voting in the House of Assembly.
The motion was adopted, and a bill framed upon the resolution, passed
the Assembly. Unfortunately, heedless of the pressure of public
opinion, the Legislative Council threw out the bill! The Assembly were
greatly incensed, and the idea of expelling the judges was entertained;
but for a while relinquished.
Mr. Ezekiel Hart appeared at the Bar of the House to take his seat for
Three Rivers, Mr. Lee, the previous representative of that town, had
died in the course of the previous session, and Mr. Hart had been
elected to succeed him. Mr. Hart was a merchant of good standing. Of
the most spotless private character, he stood in high esteem with his
neighbours and fellow townsmen. But Mr. Hart was not faultless. He was,
by birth, education, and religion, a Jew. When he prayed, he placed the
ten commandments next his heart. In him, those devoted members of the
Society of Jesus, found neither a sympathizer nor a persecutor. A
Christian Legislative Assembly, like that of Canada, of which Sir James
Craig afterwards privately expressed an opinion so ludicrously high,
could not be contaminated with the presence of a Jew. By a vote of
twenty-one to five, it was resolved:--"That Ezekiel Hart, Esquire,
professing the Jewish religion, cannot take a seat, nor sit, nor vote
in this House." Ezekiel departed. The word "_baruch_," was on his
tongue, the signification of which, like that of the French word
"_sacré_," may signify, according to the humour of the utterer, either
an anathema or a blessing. The Assembly being, however, ignorant of the
Hebrew tongue, Mr. Hart was not sent to gaol for breach of privilege,
nor was he even required to apologize. These were the chief topics of
debate, and much time was occupied with them. A sum was voted to repair
the Castle of St. Louis then tottering to decay. The Militia and the
Alien Acts were continued for another year. A bill for the trial of
controverted elections was passed, and in all thirty-five bills were
carried through, all of which His Excellency, the Governor, sanctioned,
except that relative to gaols in Gaspé, which, though afterwards
sanctioned, was reserved for the pleasure of the King to be expressed
on it. On the 14th of April the Parliament was prorogued. The speech
was somewhat lengthy, and on the whole, it was a good one. Sir James
was induced to put a period to the session that he might be enabled to
issue writs for a new House. The critical situation of affairs made him
anxious for legislative assistance, under circumstances, that would not
be liable to interruption from the expiration of the period, for which
one of the branches was chosen. He was glad that so much attention had
been paid to business. He was very much pleased to find that a sum of
money had been granted for the repair of the Chateau. Events of great
magnitude had taken place in Europe. Napoleon had succeeded in exciting
Russia, Austria, and Prussia, to hostilities, against England, and the
Ministers of those Courts had demanded their passports to retire from
the Court of St. James. Napoleon had done more than that. The disturber
of mankind had subverted the government of Portugal, but that
magnanimous Prince, Don Pedro, had emigrated with his Court to the
Brazils, rather than submit to the degrading chains of such a master.
His Majesty, the King of Great Britain, had offered the Americans
reparation, immediately and spontaneously, for the unauthorised attack
upon the _Chesapeake_, but the American government taking advantage of
the state of affairs in Europe, were endeavoring to complicate the
difficulty, to the injury of that power which alone stood between it
and an inevitable doom to the worst of tyranny. And in conclusion, he
begged the representatives of the people to instruct their
constituents, by the influence of their education and knowledge; to
point out to them a sense of their duties in due subordination to the
laws; to advise them to be faithfully attached to the Crown; to let
them into the knowledge of their true situation; to conceal not the
difficulties by which the empire was surrounded, but, at the same time,
to point out the miseries Britain was combatting to avoid; and to
assure them that while Britons were united among themselves, there was
no dread of the result of the present struggle between liberty and
despotism.
The war had had its effect upon the trade of the country. The revenue
had fallen off nearly £1,000, being only £35,943, while the civil
expenditure had increased to £47,231.
In May the general election took place. The contests were not marked by
much bitterness. As before, in the larger towns, the two origins were
equally represented. Even in the counties, several gentlemen of English
extraction, were returned to the Assembly. Mr. James Stuart, the
Solicitor General, now no friend to the Governor nor to his _sub rosa_
adviser, Mr. Ryland, was returned for the East Ward of Montreal. Mr.
Stuart, a lawyer of excellent acquirements, of great independence of
spirit, and of extraordinary mental capacity, instead of being raised
to the Attorney-Generalship, on the elevation of Mr. Sewell to the
Chief Justiceship, in the room of Mr. Chief Justice Alcock, who had
died in August, had been superseded by Mr. Edward Bowen, a barrister
of very limited acquirements, and, being then only a young man,
professionally, very inexperienced. Nay, he was soon afterwards
dismissed from the Solicitor-Generalship, by the Governor, to whom he
had, in some mysterious way, given offence. The Honorable Mr. Panet,
Speaker of the Assembly for the four previous parliaments, was
nominated for the Upper Town of Quebec, and went to the hustings. He
presided at an election meeting, at which there was something like
plain-speaking, a particular kind of speaking most distasteful to the
Acting Paymaster General of Burgoyne's army, an army with which even
Sir James Craig had himself served. All the official class of the city,
"including the resident military officers, and _dependents_ upon the
Commissariat, Ordnance, and other departments in the garrison,"
entitled to vote, voted in favor of another French gentleman, more
acceptable to the government. The _Quebec Mercury_ was strongly opposed
to the Speaker, who, by his plainspeaking, had become offensive to Mr.
Ryland, the _confidant_ of Sir James Craig. Mr. Panet lost his election
for Quebec, but was returned to the Assembly for Huntingdon. The
Governor and his Secretary were very much displeased, and the _Mercury_
was inspired to speak against the bilious spleen of the triumphant
Panet, who was connected with that vile print, the _Canadien_. During
the election for Quebec, a handbill had appeared, calling the
government feeble. Those who issued that handbill, the _Mercury_
exultingly remarked, would have felt that they were not quite under the
government of King Log. The _Canadien_ was, in abuse, the freest of any
paper in the province. It was licentious. It no more consulted that
which it was expedient for a free press to do, than did the House of
Assembly consider that which was suitable to it, a few years past, on
the article of privilege. Mr. Ex-Speaker Panet was connected with the
_Canadien_. He was also a Colonel of Militia. It occurred to Mr. Ryland
that the position of a militia officer was incompatible with the
proprietorship of a newspaper. Accordingly, a few days after the return
of Mr. Panet for Huntingdon, Mr. "H. W. R." the Private Secretary of
the Governor General, was directed to inform Messrs. J. H. Panet,
Lieutenant-Colonel, P. Bedard, Captain, J. T. Taschereau, Captain and
Aid-Major, J. L. Borgia, Lieutenant, and F. Blanchet, Surgeon,
proprietors of the _Canadien_, that the Governor-in-Chief considered
it necessary for His Majesty's service to dismiss them from their
situations as Colonel, Captain, Aid-Major, Lieutenant, and Surgeon, of
the Militia. With regard to the Honorable Mr. Panet, in particular, His
Excellency could place no confidence in the services of a person whom
he had good reason for considering as one of the proprietors of a
seditious and libellous publication, disseminated through the province,
with great industry, to vilify His Majesty's government, to create a
spirit of dissatisfaction and discontent among his subjects, and to
breed disunion and animosity between two races. Had it been the purpose
of the _Canadien_ and of its proprietors to breed discord between the
two races of settled inhabitants, the censure of Sir James Craig would
have been deserved. But that was not its purpose. It aimed only at
equality of privileges, and complained of the sway of officials having
no abiding interest in the country. It was a war between the imported
official class and the native-born or naturalized classes which the
_Canadien_ waged. Doubtless, it went, occasionally, too far. Doubtless,
it forgot to make such distinctions between the officials and the
traders or agriculturists of British origin. Doubtless, it did remember
that the French Canadians had been captives at the conquest, and their
souls revolted at the idea of being lorded over still, though no longer
captives, but British subjects, anxious for the honour of their King,
and ready to defend him from his enemies.
The new Parliament met on the 9th of April, 1809. The Assembly were
directed to choose a Speaker. Out of doors and indoors, in the
Governor's Castle, at the official desk, in the merchant's counting
room, in the baker's shop, in the Council, and in the Assembly itself,
the choice of a Speaker by the Assembly, was a matter of interest. It
was whispered that Mr. Panet had incurred the Governor's displeasure,
and that all the toadies would vote against him. It was blandly hinted
that Mr. Panet having been dismissed from the Militia, the House,
having, regard to its own dignity, could not call him to the Chair. It
was said in conversation that Mr. Panet was an excellent and most
impartial Speaker, and it was a pity that he had suffered himself to
have been connected with the seditious and libellous _Canadien_. Only
for Mr. Panet's unfortunate position, no more suitable person, for the
highly honorable office of Speaker, could have been thought of. But he
must not be Speaker under present circumstances. The Assembly thought
otherwise and, acting independently and fearlessly, elected Mr. Panet
as their Speaker. His Excellency the Governor did not much relish the
choice. He did not, however, refuse to confirm Mr. Panet as Speaker of
the Assembly. It was thought that he would be refused confirmation. But
when he appeared at the Bar, with the House at his heels, and supported
by the Mace, the Honorable the Speaker of the Legislative Council was
only commanded to tell Mr. Panet, that having filled the Chair of
Speaker, during four successive Parliaments, it was not on the score of
insufficiency that he would admit an excuse on Mr. Panet's part, nor
form objections on his own part. He had no reason to doubt the
discretion and moderation of the present House of Assembly, and as he
was, at all times, desirous of meeting their wishes, so he would be
particularly unwilling not to do so, on an occasion, in which they were
themselves principally interested. He, therefore, allowed and confirmed
Mr. Panet to be Speaker. His Excellency, though somewhat ironical in
his mode of confirmation, acted liberally and prudently. In His
Excellency's speech from the throne, allusion was made to the
unfavourable posture of affairs with America; to the revolution in
Spain and to the generous assistance afforded that country by Great
Britain; again to the emigration of the Royal Family of Portugal to
Brazil; to Wellington's victory at Vimeira, by which Portugal had been
rescued from the French; he cautioned the members of the Legislature
against jealousies among themselves, or of the government, which could
have no other object in view than the general welfare; and alluded to
the non-intercourse and embargo policy of the United States, which, so
far, had operated favourably for the Canadian trade, particularly in
the article of lumber, which, owing to the exclusion of British
shipping from the Baltic, had become a staple export. The House was not
pleased at the hints about jealousies, nor very much pleased with His
Excellency's remarks in confirming their Speaker. The reply was not
quite an echo of the speech. It was more. It was a quiet remonstrance
against governmental insinuation. On proceeding to business, the
propriety of expelling the judges was again discussed. A motion to
expel them was even made, but it was negatived. Some even who were
averse to the judges having seats in the Assembly were not prepared to
go the length of expelling them from the House. All that was wanted was
that, in future, judges should be ineligible for seats in the Assembly.
To this end, a committee was appointed to inquire into the
inconvenience resulting from the elections of judges to the Assembly,
with orders to report to the House. The committee inquired and
reported, and of course, reported unfavourably to the judges. A bill to
disqualify the judges was re-introduced and read a first time. Mr. Hart
again appeared at the Bar to take his seat for Three Rivers. He had
been re-elected. He was still a Jew, and showed no disposition to
recant his error. Nor would the House recant their error. The
resolution which had been adopted against Mr. Hart's taking his seat in
the previous Parliament was repeated in this. The House of Assembly
went still farther. A bill to disqualify all Jews from being eligible
to seats in the Assembly, was introduced and read twice. Five weeks had
elapsed and the public business had not begun. The Governor was very
much annoyed. The refractory spirit of the House, as regarded the
judges, was most distasteful to him. Suddenly, on the 15th of May, he
went down to the Legislative Council, assented to five bills, and
summoned the attendance of the Commons. "When I met you, said the now
irate Sir James, at the commencement of the present session, I had no
reason to doubt your moderation or your prudence, and I therefore
willingly relied upon both. I expected from you a manly sacrifice of
all personal animosities. I hoped for a zealous dispatch of your public
duty. I looked for earnest endeavours to promote the general harmony. I
looked for due and indispensable attention to the other branches of the
Legislature. It was your constitutional duty. It was due to the
critical juncture of the times. I have been disappointed in every hope
on which I relied. You have wasted in frivolous debates, or by
frivolous contests on matters of form, that time and those talents to
which the public have an exclusive title. You have abused your
functions. In five weeks, you have only passed five bills. You have
been so intemperate in debate that moderation and forbearance is
scarcely to be looked for without a new Assembly. Gentlemen, Parliament
is dissolved. A new Parliament will be convened as soon as convenience
will permit. My object in thus acting, _is to preserve the true
principles of the free and happy constitution of the Province_." He
turned with peculiar satisfaction from lecturing to the Assembly, to
offer his acknowledgements to the gentlemen of the Legislative Council,
for their unanimity, zeal, and unremitting attention to the public
business, manifested in their proceedings. They were not to blame for
the waste of time and for the little that had been done for the public
good. The Assembly were surprised. It never entered the head of a
single member that Sir James Craig, who, on first meeting a Canadian
Parliament, had been so courteous, would have been so abruptly
censorious. A prorogation was anticipated, when the Usher of the Black
Rod commanded, by order of His Excellency, their presence at the Bar of
the Upper House, but the possibility of a dissolution of Parliament
never occurred to any one. The constitution, boasted so much of, was
certainly a happy one. The representatives of the people were suddenly
sent back to their constituents as unfitted for their business. And for
some time, the country, tickled with the bluntness of the Governor,
applauded the act. Had Sir James desired to be absolute, the country,
before it had had time to consider, would have assisted His Excellency
in a _coup d'état_. It was not until the _Canadien_ had taken the
matter up energetically that any of the discarded legislative materials
could obtain a hearing from their constituents. After the _Canadien_
had criticised the speech from the throne, and had commented on the
Bill of Rights, in allusion to the Governor's measures, with respect to
the Assembly, and as applicable to the existing circumstances of the
Province--"_Nos institutions_, _notre langue_, _et nos lois_,"--public
opinion gradually turned round in favor of the Assembly.
Sir James Craig's opinion of the Canadians had undergone a very
considerable change for the worse. In a despatch to Lord Liverpool,
some short time afterwards, on the state of affairs in Canada, which
Mr. Ryland was sent to London with, Sir James speaks of Canada as
_being a conquered country_, a fact _never to be put out of view_. He
spoke of a colony usually estimated to contain a population of 300,000
souls. Of these, 20,000, or 25,000 only, might have been English or
Americans, and the remainder were French. They were in language,
religion, in manners, and in attachment, French. They were bound to the
English (officials) by no tie, but that of a common government. They
looked upon the government of the province with mistrust, jealousy,
envy, and hatred. He was certain his opinion of them was well founded.
There were very few French Canadians in the country who were not
tainted with the sentiments he had imputed to them generally. Common
intercourse hardly existed between the French and English. The lower
class, to strengthen a word of contempt, added the word _Anglais_ to
it. The upper classes, who formerly associated with the English upper
classes, had entirely withdrawn themselves. The Canadians, generally,
were ignorant, credulous, and superstitious. He did not perceive that
they had any great vice except one. Drunkenness was the prevailing
vice. When drunk they were brutal and quarrelsome. Like other people,
suddenly freed from a state of extreme subjection, they were apt to be
insolent to their superiors. They were totally unwarlike and averse to
arms or military habits, though vain to an excess, and possessing a
high opinion of their prowess. They had been so flattered and cajoled
about their conduct, in the year 1775, that they really believed they
stood as heroes, in history, whereas no people, with the exception of a
very few individuals, behaved worse than they did on that occasion. Now
came the teachings of Mr. Secretary Ryland, which that gentleman did
not think it prudent to bore Sir James with until he had ascertained
how far the incomparable man's sentiments accorded with his own. The
Superintendent of the Church of Rome in Canada, had been designated
Roman Catholic Bishop, by other Governors, which was both dangerous and
wrong, in view of the Queen's supremacy. The Bishop did as he pleased,
in the appointment of curés. His patronage was at least equal to that
of the government. The Bishop was cautious not to perform any act that
might be construed into an acknowledgement of His Majesty's rights. He
would not obey a Proclamation of the King for a fast or thanksgiving,
but issued a "_mandat_," of his own, to the same effect, but without
the least allusion to His Majesty's authority. The arms of Great
Britain were nowhere put up in the churches. With the curés no direct
communication with the government existed. The church selected its
ecclesiastics, the Governor knew not why, from the lower orders. The
Bishop was the son of a blacksmith. The Coadjutor was brother to a
demagogue, the Speaker of the Assembly, an "avocat." The curés saw in
Buonaparte the restorer of the Catholic religion. The Legislative
Council, an object of jealousy to the Lower House, was composed of
everything that was respectable in the Province. There were about
300,000 French inhabitants to 25,000 English and American, yet there
never had exceeded fourteen or fifteen English members in the House of
Assembly, while then there were only ten, and it was desired to get rid
of the judges! The interests of certainly not an unimportant colony,
was in the hands of six petty shopkeepers, a blacksmith, a miller, and
fifteen ignorant peasants, a doctor or apothecary, twelve Canadian
"avocats" and notaries, and four people respectable so far as that they
did not keep shops, together with the ten Englishmen, who composed the
Legislative Assembly. Some of the _habitants_ could neither read nor
write. Two members of a preceding Parliament had actually signed the
roll by marks, and there were five more whose signatures were scarcely
legible, and were such as to show that to be the extent of their
writing. Debate was out of the question. A Canadian Parliament did not
understand it. The _habitant_ M.P., openly avowed that the matter,
whatever it was, had been explained to him. The "moutons" were crammed
at meetings held nightly for the purpose. There was one singular
instance, of a _habitant_, who, in every instance, voted against the
prevailing party. But that was the solitary exception to a general
rule. The Canadians voted _en masse_, as directed--not by the
government. The government was entirely without influence. The Assembly
was the most independent in the world, for the government could not
obtain even that influence which might arise from personal intercourse.
He could not be expected to associate with blacksmiths, millers, and
shopkeepers. Even the _avocats_ and notaries he could nowhere meet,
except during the actual sitting of Parliament, when he had a day in
the week expressly appropriated to receiving a large portion of them at
dinner. The leaders in the House were mostly a set of unprincipled
_avocats_ and notaries, totally uninformed as to the principles of the
British constitution, or parliamentary proceedings, which they,
nevertheless, professed to take for their model. Without property to
lose, these men had gradually advanced in audacity, in proportion as
they had considered the power of France as more firmly established by
the successes of Buonaparte in Europe. They were obviously paving the
way for a change of dominion. Without one act by which to point out
either injury or oppression, the people of the Province had been taught
to look upon His Majesty's government with distrust, and they publicly
declared, while avowing such distrust, that no officer of the Crown was
to be elected into the House. The English in general and their own
seigneurs were entirely proscribed. Except in the boroughs or cities
these classes had no chance of election. A paper called the _Canadien_,
had been published, and industriously circulated in the country, for
three or four years, to degrade and vilify the officers of government,
under the title of _gens en place_; and to bring the government itself
into contempt, by alluding to the Governor as a _ministère_, open to
their animadversions. Nothing calculated to mislead the people had been
omitted in this vile print. The various circumstances that brought
about the abdication of James the Second, had been pointed out, with
allusions, as applicable to the government here. "_La nation
Canadienne_," was their constant theme. Religious prejudices, jealousy,
and extreme ignorance, forbade the expectation of any improvement in
the Assembly. Questions before the Houses were always viewed as
affecting or otherwise some temporal right of their clergy, or having
some remote tendency to promote the establishment of the Protestant
interest. How the Act for the establishment of Public Schools had
passed had always been matter of surprise to him. There was much
jealousy at the progress of the Eastern Townships, which were settled
by American loyalists. The country was beginning to look up to the
members of the Assembly as the governors of the country. Formerly the
cry was--"_La Chambre_ to the devil!" He thought that the only remedy
for the state of things which he had described was to deprive the
province of its constitution, as the provincialists termed their
charter. The people were unfitted for liberty. And here are the
Governor's reasons for saying that a people were incapable of free
institutions. "That spirit of independence, that total insubordination
among them, that freedom of conversation, by which they communicate
their ideas of government, as they imbibe them from their leaders, all
which have increased wonderfully within these five or six years, owe
their origin entirely to the House of Assembly and to the intrigues
incident to elections. They were never thought of before." One really
wonders that even a general officer could have ventured upon sending to
England such trash, a country which had produced a Charles Fox, who
took at the passing of the Separation Act so opposite a view of human
nature. Doubtless, the _habitants_ are precisely, even at this day, as
Sir James represented them to be. But it was superlative impudence in a
man of plebeian extraction to say that he could not associate with
members of Parliament, who followed the occupation of shopkeeping for a
living. It surely was enough for Buonaparte to have stigmatized England
as a nation of shopkeepers. Sir James might have left it alone, after
having experienced the independent energies of a nation of wooden clock
and wooden nutmeg makers. The "_gens en place_" had badly advised him,
and he was too blind to see it. Sir James was an Indian Governor with a
vengeance.
The fortifications of the City of Quebec had been much improved during
the summer of 1808, and the foundations of the four martello towers,
which now stand outside of the fortifications, on the land side, at the
distance of nearly a mile, were laid.
After the dissolution of the Parliament, about the middle of June, the
Governor set out on a tour through the Province. He was attended by a
numerous suite, travelled in great state, and was well received
wherever he halted. At Three Rivers, Montreal, St. Johns, and William
Henry, addresses were presented to him. He was applauded and even
thanked for having stretched the royal prerogative so far as to
dissolve the House without any sufficient reason. What was gained by
the fulsome adulation is not particularly apparent, unless it be that
the _Canadien_ had an opportunity afforded it for not very flattering
criticisms. The opportunity was not by any means lost. The _Canadien_
grinned at the _gens en place_, and even ventured to laugh at the royal
prerogative himself. But the _gens en place_ were not to be laughed out
of countenance by a vile print, which only could appeal to French
passions and Romish prejudices. They only waited until His Excellency
returned to Quebec, to renew their congratulations. The citizens of
Quebec, on Sir James' return to the Chateau, waited upon him with an
address. They approved of his judicious and firm administration. Sir
James, perfectly elated, expressed, in a particular manner, his
satisfaction. It was most gratifying to have received such an address
from those whose "situations" afforded them the more immediate
opportunity of judging of the motives by which he might be actuated on
particular occasions.
In November of this year, the first steamer was seen on the St.
Lawrence. At 8 o'clock on the 6th of that month, the steamboat
_Accommodation_ arrived at Quebec, with ten passengers from Montreal.
She made the passage (180 miles) in sixty-six hours, having been thirty
hours at anchor. In twenty hours, after leaving Montreal, she arrived
at Three Rivers. The passage money was only eight dollars for the
downward trip and nine dollars for the trip upward. Neither wind nor
tide could stop the _Accommodation_, and the _Accommodation_ was
eighty-two feet long on deck. The accommodation afforded to passengers
was not, however, very great. Twenty berths were all that cabin
passengers could be accommodated with. Great crowds visited her
saloons. The _Mercury_ told its readers that the steamboat received her
impulse from an open, double-spoked perpendicular wheel, on either
side, without any circular band or rim. To the end of each
double-spoke, a square board was fixed, which entered the water, and by
the rotatory motion, acted like a paddle. The wheels were put and kept
in motion by steam, which operated in the vessel. And a mast was to be
fixed in her for the purpose of using a sail, when the wind was
favourable, which would occasionally accelerate her headway. After the
_Accommodation_ had made several trips, Upper Canada began to "guess"
about the expediency of having "Walks-in-the-Water." The
_Accommodation_ was built by Mr. John Molson, of Montreal, an
exceedingly enterprising man of business, and for a number of years,
his enterprise secured to him a monopoly of the steam navigation of the
lower St. Lawrence. He died an "honorable," only a few years ago.
During 1808, 334 vessels, or according to the Harbour Master's
statement, 440 vessels, arrived at Quebec from sea, making up 66,373
tons of shipping, in addition to which, 2,902 tons of shipping were
built at the port. The revenue was £40,608, and the civil expenditure
£1,251 sterling. The salaries and contingencies of the Legislature
amounted to £3,077. The salary of the Governor-in-Chief was £4,500
sterling, and that of the Lieutenant-Governor, who had been three years
absent in England, £1,500. On the 28th of November, in this year, Sir
Francis Nathaniel Burton, whose brother was Marquis of Cunningham,
succeeded Sir Robert Shore Milnes, in the now sinecure office of
Lieutenant-Governor, where he remained to enjoy the _otium sine
dignitate_.
A continuance of the peace between His Majesty's government and that of
the United States was, in the beginning of 1810, considered less
probable than ever. After the death of Washington, which occurred on
the 4th December, 1799, during the Presidency of Mr. Adams, political
excitement ran high in the United States. At the expiration of Mr.
Adams' term of office, there were, as candidates for the Chief
Magistracy of the Union, and for the Vice-Presidency:--Mr. Jefferson
and Mr. Burr, on the one side, and Mr. Adams and Mr. C. D. Pinckney, on
the other. Mr. Adams, elected by the Federalist or Tory party, had
given much offence to the Democratic party, by his law against
sedition, designed to punish the abuse of speech and of the press. By
this law a heavy fine was to be imposed, together with an imprisonment
for a term of years, upon such as should combine or conspire together,
to "oppose _any_ measure of the government." No one, on any pretence,
under pain of similar punishment, was to write or print, utter or
publish, any malicious writing against the government of the United
States, or against either House of the Congress, or against the
President. In a word, the liberty of discussion was annihilated. A more
extraordinary law could not possibly have been put upon the Statute
Books of a country, where every official, being elective by the people,
his conduct, while in office was, in a common sense point of view, open
to popular animadversion. As far as producing the effect contemplated
was concerned, the law was altogether inefficacious. The people met and
talked together against their President, the Senate, and the House of
Representatives. Nay, Mr. Adams lost what he designed to secure, his
re-election, by it. The Democrats were furiously opposed to him. While
Messrs. Jefferson and Burr got each seventy-three votes, the opposition
candidates for President and Vice-President, Messrs. Adams and Pinckney
only got, for the former, sixty-five votes, and for the latter,
sixty-four. Messrs. Burr and Jefferson having each an equal number of
votes, it became the duty of the House of Representatives, voting by
States, to decide between these pretenders to the chief power in the
State. The constitution provided that the person having the greatest
number of votes should be President, and that the person having the
next highest number of votes should be Vice-President. For several days
the ballot was taken. The Federalists or Tories supported Mr. Burr, and
the Democrats Mr. Jefferson. At last the choice fell upon the latter,
and Mr. Burr was elected to the Vice-Presidency. It is well to know
these circumstances in connection with subsequent events. Mr. Jefferson
annihilated the minority of the republic. He had as much contempt for
them as Sir James Craig or Mr. Ryland could have had for the conquered
Canadians. He swept them from every office of profit or emolument under
the State. When remonstrated with, by the merchants of New Haven,
respecting the removal of the Collector of Customs at that port, merely
because he was a Federalist or tory, the President quietly replied,
that time and accident would give the Tories their just share. Had he
found a moderate participation of office in the hands of the Democratic
party with whom he acted, his removals and substitutions would have
been less sweeping. But their total exclusion called for a more prompt
corrective. And he would correct the error. When the error was fully
corrected then he would only ask himself concerning an applicant for
office, these questions:--"Is he honest?" "Is he capable?" and "Is he
faithful to the Constitution?" The Tories were almost inclined to burn
the White House.
Ohio was admitted into the Union in 1802; in 1804, Colonel Burr, the
Vice-President of the United States, killed General Hamilton in a duel;
Mr. Jefferson was re-elected President in 1804, and Mr. George Clinton,
of New York, instead of Burr, now deservedly unpopular with all but the
filibustering classes, Vice-President; in 1805, Michigan became a
territorial government of the United States; and in the autumn of 1805
the outcast President Burr was detected at the head of a project for
revolutionizing the territory west of the Alleghanies, and of
establishing an independent empire there, of which New Orleans was to
be the capital, and himself the chief. To the accomplishment of this
scheme, Burr brought into play all the skill and cunning of which he
was possessed. And it was not a little. He had his design long in
contemplation. He pretended to have purchased a large tract of
territory, of which he conceded to his adherents considerable slices.
He collected together, from all quarters where either he himself, or
his agents, possessed influence, the ardent, the restless, and the
desperate, persons ready for any enterprise analogous to their
characters. He also seduced good and well-meaning citizens, by
assurances that he possessed the confidence of the government, and was
acting under its secret patronage. He had another project, in case of
the failure of the first. He designed to make an attack upon Mexico and
to establish an empire there. He failed. Before his standard was
raised, the government was made aware of his designs, and he was
brought to trial, at Richmond, on a charge of treason, committed within
the district of Virginia. It was not proved, however, that he had been
guilty of any overt act, within the State, and he was released. It was
probably to find employment for that restless and desperate class of
persons, with which the United States even then abounded, that the
government of America sought cause of quarrel with Great Britain, as
well as to produce that spurious activity among the industrial classes,
which is ever the result of warlike preparations.
In 1809, Mr. James Madison was elected President of the United States.
During Mr. Jefferson's administration, commercial intercourse with
France and Great Britain had been interdicted. When, however, Mr.
Madison was fairly established in the Presidency, he showed a
disposition to renew intercourse, and was seconded in his endeavours by
Mr. Erskine, then British Minister at Washington. Mr. Erskine
non-officially intimated to the American Secretary of State, that if
the President would issue a Proclamation for the renewal of intercourse
with Great Britain, that it was probable the proposal would be readily
accepted. It was done. But the British government refused to rescind
the Orders in Council of January and November 1807, so far as the
United States were concerned, which would have given the benefit of the
coasting trade of France to the Americans, recalled Mr. Erskine for
having exceeded his instructions, and sent Mr. Jackson to Washington in
his stead. A correspondence was immediately after Mr. Jackson's arrival
at the American seat of government, opened with Mr. Madison's Secretary
of State, and was as suddenly closed. Mr. Jackson was, as a
diplomatist, rather blunt. Repeatedly, he asserted that the American
Executive could not but have known from the powers exhibited by Mr.
Erskine, that in stipulating, as he had done, he had transcended those
powers, and was, therefore, acting without the authority of his
government. The American Executive deemed such an assertion equivalent
to a declaration that the American government did know that Mr. Erskine
had exceeded his instructions. Mr. Jackson denied that his language
could be so interpreted. The American Executive at once replied that
Mr. Jackson's tone and language could not but be looked upon as
reflecting upon the honor and integrity of the American government, and
the correspondence was closed. The British government, not considering
Mr. Jackson's diplomatic efforts as particularly happy, recalled him.
He escaped, however, more direct censure.
These events had just occurred, across the line '45, when Sir James
Craig, now more anxious than ever, to obtain legislative assistance,
under circumstances that would not be liable to interruption from the
expiration of the period for which one of the branches was chosen,
ordered the writs to be issued for a new general election. The
elections took place in October, 1809, when, contrary to the
expectation of His Excellency, most of the gentlemen who held seats in
the parliament which, in the previous May, had been so unexpectedly
dissolved, were again returned. There were some substitutions. But
those only who halted between two opinions, in fearing the government,
while representing the people, were supplanted by men who would echo
the _vox (populi) et preterea nihil_, in the Chamber of Deputies. They
were called together on the 29th of January, 1810. They were told to
elect a Speaker, which they did, by selecting the former Speaker, Mr.
Panet. They were told to appear at the Bar of the Upper House. And they
did appear in the confusion usual on all similar occasions. The
Governor, graciously confirmed their choice of a Speaker, and Mr. Panet
having bowed his acknowledgments, His Excellency expressed his concern
that, far from an amicable settlement of the existing differences,
between the British and American governments, as was anticipated from
the arrangement agreed upon by His Majesty's Minister at Washington,
circumstances had occurred that seemed to have widened the breach, and
to have removed that desirable event to a period scarcely to be
foreseen by human sagacity; the extraordinary cavils made with a
succeeding minister; the eager research to discover an insult which
defied the detection of "all other penetration;" the consequent
rejection of further communication with that minister, and indeed every
step of intercourse, the particulars of which were known by authentic
documents, evinced so little of a conciliatory disposition, and so much
of a disinclination to meet the honorable advances made by His
Majesty's government, while these had been further manifested in such
terms, and by such conduct, that the continuance of peace seemed to
depend less on the high sounded resentment of America, than on the
moderation with which His Majesty might be disposed to view the
treatment he had met with; he felt it to be unnecessary to urge
preparation for any event that might arise from such a condition of
things; he persuaded himself that in the great points of security and
defence one mind would actuate all; he assured the country of the
necessary support of regular troops should hostilities ensue, which
with the "interior" force of the country would be found equal to any
attack that could be made upon the province; the militia would not be
unmindful of the courage which they had displayed in former days,
(when, of course, they behaved worse, with the exception of a few
individuals, than any people ever did![12]) the bravery of His
Majesty's arms had never been called in question; he congratulated the
legislature on the capture of Martinique, and triumphantly alluded to
the battle of Talavera, which had torn from the French that character
of invincibility which they had imagined themselves to have possessed
in the eyes of the world. He recommended the renewal of those Acts
which were designed to enable the Executive to discharge its duty
against dangers, which could not be remedied by the course of common
law; he drew attention to the numerous forgeries of foreign bank notes,
and recommended a penal statute for their suppression; and he remarked
that the question of the expediency of excluding the Judges of the
King's Bench from the House of Representatives had been, during the two
last sessions, much agitated, and that, although he would not have
himself interdicted the judges from being selected by the people to
represent them in the Assembly, had the question ever come before him,
he had been ordered by His Majesty to give his assent to any proper
bill, concurred in by the two Houses, for rendering the judges
ineligible to a seat in the Assembly.
[12] Sir James' letter to Lord Liverpool.
The Assembly, very naturally, entertained the opinion that the Imperial
government had not approved of the conduct of Sir James Craig in
dissolving the previous Parliament. Indeed, even before taking the
speech from the throne into consideration, the Assembly resolved that
every attempt of the executive government and of the other branches of
the legislature against the House of Assembly, whether in dictating or
censuring its proceedings, or in approving the conduct of one part of
its members, and disapproving that of others, was a violation of the
statute by which the House was constituted; was a breach of the
privileges of the House, which it could not forbear objecting to; and
was a dangerous attack upon the rights and liberties of His Majesty's
subjects in Canada. There were, not ten only, but thirteen members of
British origin now in the House of Assembly, and the vote, for the
adoption of the resolution, exhibited a wonderful degree of unanimity
of opinion with regard to the right of freedom of opinion and the
freedom of debate. There were twenty-four affirmative to eleven adverse
votes, and, among those who voted with the minority, were some
officials of French origin. In reply to the address from the throne,
the House expressed its unalterable attachment to Great Britain, they
were grateful and would be faithful to that sovereign and nation which
respected their rights and liberties; it was unnecessary to urge them
to prepare for any event that might arise, they would be prepared; and
the militia, not unmindful of the courage which they had, in former
days, displayed, would endeavour to emulate that bravery, natural to
His Majesty's arms, which had never been called in question. Nay, the
House was exuberant with loyalty. No sooner was the address in reply
presented to the Governor than an address, congratulating the King on
the happy event of having entered upon the fiftieth year of his reign,
was unanimously adopted, and transmitted to the Governor for
transmission to England. The expediency of relieving the Imperial
government of the burthen of providing for the civil list of Canada was
next discussed. It was considered that the sooner the payment of its
own government officers devolved upon the province, the better it would
be for all classes inhabiting it. Ultimately, the province would be
required to defray the expenses of its own government, and the sooner
it did so the less weighty would the civil list be. The minority were
very much opposed to the proposed change. Some, who, twenty-seven years
before, were most anxious to present £20,000 to the King, by a tax on
goods, wares, and merchandise, to assist in enabling His Majesty to
prosecute the war against France vigorously, now that the province was
more than paying her expenses, could not see the necessity of saddling
the country with a burthen which would make it, as they alleged,
necessary to impose duties to the amount of fifty thousand pounds a
year. At first, the very ignorant[13] country people, not knowing that
which was going on, became alarmed at the startling information
conveyed to them by the majority. They expressed their fears that their
friends were betraying them. They were soon pacified. Their members
informed them, or they were informed by the _Canadien_, that when the
House of Assembly had the entire management of the civil list, they
would not fail to reduce the sum necessary to keep up the hospitality
of Government House, and only, _consequently_, consideration for the
Governor-in-Chief; nor would they fail to retrench the several
pensions, reduce the heavier salaries of the employees, cut off the
sinecurists, and, in a variety of ways, lessen the public burthens. The
habitants were no longer alarmed at the additional taxation of £50,000
a year, with which they were threatened. A series of resolutions passed
the Assembly, intimating that the province was able to supply funds for
the payment of the civil list. The province was able to pay all the
civil expenses of its government. The House of Assembly ought "this
session" to vote the sums necessary for defraying the expenses of the
civil list. The House _will_ vote such necessary sums. And the King,
Lords, and Commons of England, were to be informed that the Commons of
Canada had taken upon itself the payment of the government of the
province and that they were exceedingly grateful to England for the
assistance hitherto afforded, and for the happy constitution, which had
raised the province to a pitch of prosperity so high that it was now
able and willing to support itself. Ten gentlemen of British extraction
voted against these resolutions and only one Canadian. The address to
the King, pursuant to the resolutions, was carried by a vote of
thirteen to three. Many members appear to have been afraid of
themselves or rather of the consequences to be apprehended from the
offence which the adoption of such resolutions was calculated to give
the Imperial advisers of the representative of the King in a colony.
Nay, the Governor-in-Chief did not much relish the resolutions. He
turned them over in his mind, again and again. There was something more
than appeared upon the surface. He disrelished the idea of getting his
meat poisoned by its passage through Canadian fingers. He was sure the
King, his master, would pay him well, but, as for the Canadians, they
might stop the supplies. The Assembly waited upon His Excellency with
their addresses. They requested that His Excellency would be pleased to
lay them before His Majesty's ministers for presentation. Sir James
hesitated. The addresses were so peculiarly novel as to require a
considerable degree of reflection. The constitutional usage of
Parliament, recognised by the wisdom of the House of Commons of the
United Kingdom, forbade all steps on the part of the people towards
grants of money which were not recommended by the Crown, and although
by the same parliamentary usage all grants originated in the Lower
House, they were ineffectual without the concurrence of the Upper
House. There was no precedent of addresses to the House of Lords, or
Commons, separately, by a single branch of the Colonial Legislature. He
conceived the addresses to be unprecedented, imperfect in form, and
founded upon a resolution of the House of Assembly, which, until
sanctioned by the Legislative Council, must be ineffectual, except as a
spontaneous offer on the part of the Commons of Canada. The resolutions
were premature. He regretted that he could not take it upon himself to
transmit these addresses to His Majesty's ministers. In his refusal he
was impressed by a sense of duty. But, besides the sense of duty, His
Majesty's ministers, unless commanded by His Majesty, were not the
regular organs of communication with the House of Commons. Even were he
to transmit those addresses, he could not pledge himself for their
delivery, through that channel. He would have felt himself bound upon
ordinary occasions to have declined any addresses similar to those then
before him, under similar circumstances. He would on the present
occasion transmit to the King his own testimony of the good
disposition, gratitude, and generous intentions of his subjects. He
thought it right that His Majesty, "by their own act," should be
formally apprised of the ability and of the voluntary pledge and
promise of the province to pay the civil expenditure of the province
_when required_. He then engaged to transmit the King's address to His
Majesty, with the understanding that no act of his should be considered
as compromising the rights of His Majesty, of his Colonial
Representative, or of the Legislative Council. He significantly hoped
that the House of Assembly might not suppose that he had expressed
himself in a way that might carry with it an appearance of checking the
manifestation of sentiments under which the House had acted. A
committee of seven members were, on the receipt of His Excellency's
answer, appointed to search for the precedents and parliamentary usages
alluded to by the Governor-in-Chief, with instructions to report
speedily. And, that there might be no excuse, with regard to the
improper introduction of a money matter, for a refusal to sanction any
bill that the Assembly might think proper to pass, a resolution was
adopted by the Assembly to the effect that the House had resolved to
vote, in the then session, the sums necessary for paying all the civil
expenses of the government of the province, and to beseech that His
Excellency would be pleased to order the proper officer to lay before
the House an estimate of the said civil expenses. The practice of these
_avocats_, shopkeepers, apothecaries, doctors, and notaries, was
tolerably sharp. The House went again to work upon the expediency of
appointing a Colonial Agent in England, and introduced a bill with that
object, which was read. A bill to render the judges ineligible to sit
in the Assembly passed the Assembly; but the Council amended the bill,
by postponing the period at which the ineligibility was to have effect,
to the expiration of the parliament then in being, and sent it back to
the Assembly for concurrence. Indignant at this amendment, the Assembly
adopted a resolution to the effect that P. A. DeBonne, being one of the
Judges of the King's Bench, could neither sit nor vote in the House,
and his seat for Quebec was declared to be vacant. The vote was
decisive. There were eighteen votes in favor of the resolution and only
six against it, the six being all English names. McCord, Ross,
Cuthbert, Gugy, and such like. If the practice of the _avocats_ was
sharp, the practice of the Governor was yet sharper. Down came the
Governor-in-Chief in two days after the search for precedents had begun
in the Assembly, in not the best of humour, to the Legislative Council
Chamber. On the 26th of February, the uncontrollable Assembly were
summoned before the representative of royalty. He informed the two
Houses that he had come to prorogue the legislature, having again
determined to appeal to the people by an immediate dissolution. It had
been rendered impossible for him to act otherwise. Without the
participation of the other branches of the Legislature the Assembly had
taken upon themselves to vote that a judge could not sit nor vote in
their House. It was impossible for him to consider what had been done
in any other light than as a direct violation of an Act of the Imperial
Parliament. He considered that the House of Assembly had
unconstitutionally disfranchised a large portion of His Majesty's
subjects, and rendered ineligible, by an authority they did not
possess, another, and not inconsiderable class of the community. By
every tie of duty, he was bound to oppose such an assumption. In
consequence of the expulsion of the member for Quebec, a vacancy in the
representation of that county had been declared. It would be necessary
to issue a writ for a new election, and that writ was to be signed by
him. He would not render himself a partaker in the violation of an Act
of the Imperial Parliament, and to avoid becoming so he had no other
recourse but that which he was pursuing. He felt much satisfaction
when the Parliament met, in having taken such steps as he thought
most likely to facilitate a measure that seemed to be wished for, and
that, in itself, met his concurrence; but as, in his opinion, the
only ineligibility of a judge to sit in Parliament arose from the
circumstance of his having to ask the electors for their votes, he
could not conceive that there could be any well founded objection to
his possession of a seat in the Assembly, when he was elected. He
believed that the talents and superior knowledge of the judges, to say
nothing of other considerations, made them highly useful. He lamented
that a measure, which he considered would have been beneficial to the
country, should not have taken effect. But he trusted that the people,
in the disappointment of their expectations, would do him justice, and
acquit him of being the cause that so little business had been done.
[13] Sir James' letter to Lord Liverpool, accompanied by the
explanatory Mr. Ryland.
Such is human nature, that, on leaving the Council Room, Sir James
Craig was loudly cheered. His manliness, combined with stupidity, and
his real honesty of purpose, had its temporary effect upon those who
admire pluck as much in a Governor as in a game cock. Not only was His
Excellency cheered on leaving the Parliament buildings, addresses
poured in upon him from all quarters. Quebec, Montreal, Terrebonne,
Three Rivers, Sorel, Warwick, and Orleans, complimented Sir James. A
more cunning man would have flattered himself that he had acted
rightly. But there was to be a day of retribution. The late members of
the late House of Assembly were not idle. Nor was the _Canadien_
silent. Every means that prudence could dictate, and malevolence
suggest, were resorted to, with a view to the re-election of the
dismissed representatives. The "friends" of the government suggested
that there were plans of insurrection and rebellion. It was insinuated
that the French Minister at Washington, had supplied the seditious in
Canada with money. It was even broadly stated that the plenipotentiary's
correspondence had been intercepted by the agents of the government.
And that which was not said is more difficult of conjecture than that
which was said.
The revenue was this year £70,356, and the expenditure £49,347
sterling; 635 vessels, consisting of 138,057 tons, had arrived from
sea; and 26 vessels had been built and cleared at the port.
At this time there were five papers in Lower Canada. The _Quebec
Gazette_, the _Quebec Mercury_, _Le Canadien_, the _Montreal Gazette_,
and the _Courant_. The three former were published in Quebec, the other
two in Montreal. The _Gazettes_ were organs of the government, the
_Mercury_ and _Courant_ were "namby-pamby," and the _Canadien_ was as
the voice of _le peuple_.
The elections were, in the month of March, again about to take place,
and the government conceived the magnificent idea of carrying a
printing office by assault. When everything was prepared, then was the
time to act. Headed by a magistrate, a party of soldiers rushed up the
stairs leading to the _Canadien_ printing office. The proprietor
received them with a low bow, and much annoyance was felt that no
opposition was offered. The premises were searched. Some manuscripts
were found, and, "under the sanction of the Executive," the whole
press, and the whole papers of every description, were forcibly seized,
and conveyed as booty to the vaults of the Court House. In this action
one prisoner was made. The printer was seized, and "after examination,"
was committed to prison. And, as if an insurrection were expected, the
guards at the gates were strengthened, and patrols sent in every
direction. The public looked amazed, as well it might. The _Mercury_
did not know whether most to admire the tyrannical spirit or the
consummate vanity of the Canadians, and of No. 15, of the _Canadien_,
which contended that the Canadians had rights. As a striking proof of
Canadian tyranny, the _Canadien_ would not allow any but the members of
the Assembly to be a judge of the expediency of expelling Judge
DeBonne! and it was even said that of all those who signed the address
to His Excellency, presented in the name of Quebec, not one was capable
of understanding the nature of the question. In a _dependence_, such as
Canada, was the government to be daily flouted, bearded, and treated
with the utmost disrespect and contumely? "He" expected nothing less
than that its patience would be exhausted, and _energetic measures_
resorted to, as the only efficient ones. From any part of a people
conquered from wretchedness into every _indulgence_, and the _height of
prosperity_, such treatment, as the government daily received was far
different from that which ought to have been expected. But there were
characters in the world on whom benefits have no other effect than to
produce _insolence_ and _insult_. The stroke was struck, the _Mercury_
would say no more. The greatest misfortune that can ever happen to the
press is for it to be in the possession of invisible and licentious
hands. It said no more, because "the war was with the dead!"
Sir James was not very sure that he had acted either wisely or well. He
thought it necessary to explain. Divers wicked and seditious writings
had been printed. Divers wicked and seditious writings had been
dispersed throughout the province. Divers writings were calculated to
mislead divers of His Majesty's subjects. Divers wicked and traitorous
persons had endeavoured to bring into contempt and had vilified the
administration, and divers persons had invented wicked falsehoods, with
the view of alienating the affections of His Majesty's subjects from
the respect which was due to His Majesty's person. It was impossible
for His Majesty's representative longer to disregard or suffer
practices so directly tending to subvert His Majesty's government, and
to destroy the happiness of His Majesty's subjects. He, therefore,
announced, that with the advice and concurrence of the Executive
Council, and due information having been given to three of His
Majesty's Executive Councillors, warrants, as by law authorised, had
been issued, under which, some of the authors, printers, and publishers
of the aforesaid traitorous and seditious writings had been apprehended
and secured. Deeply impressed with a desire to promote, in all
respects, the welfare and happiness of the most benevolent of
sovereigns, whose servant he had been for as long a period as the
oldest inhabitant had been his subject, and whose highest displeasure
he should incur if the acts of these designing men had produced any
effect, he trusted that neither doubts nor jealousies had crept into
the public mind. He would recall to the deluded, if there were any, the
history of the whole period during which they had been under His
Majesty's government. It was for them to recollect the progressive
advances they had made in the wealth, happiness, and unbounded liberty
which they then enjoyed. Where was the act of oppression--where was the
instance of arbitrary imprisonment--or where was the violation of
property of which they had to complain? Had there been an instance in
which the uncontrolled enjoyment of their religion had been disturbed?
While other countries and other colonies had been deluged in blood,
during the prevalent war, had they not enjoyed the most perfect
security and tranquillity? What, then, could be the means by which the
traitorous would effect their wicked purposes? What arguments dare they
use? For what reason was happiness to be laid aside and treason
embraced? What persuasion could induce the loyal to abandon loyalty and
become monsters of ingratitude? The traitorous had said that he desired
to embody and make soldiers of twelve thousand of the people, and
because the Assembly would not consent, that he had dissolved the
Parliament? It was monstrously untrue, and it was particularly
atrocious in being advanced by persons who might have been supposed to
have spoken with certainty on the subject. It had been said that he
wanted to tax the lands of the country people, that the House would
only consent to tax wine, and that for such perverseness he had
dissolved the Assembly. Inhabitants of St. Denis! the Governor General
never had the most distant idea of taxing the people at all. The
assertion was directly false. When the House offered to pay the civil
list, he could not move without the King's instructions. But in despair
of producing instances from what he had done, the traitorous had spoken
of that which he intended to do. It was boldly said that Sir James
Craig intended to oppress the Canadians. Base and daring fabricators of
falsehood! on what part of his life did they found such assertions?
What did the inhabitants of St. Denis know of him or of his intentions?
Let Canadians inquire concerning him of the heads of their church. The
heads of the church were men of knowledge, honor, and learning, who had
had opportunities of knowing him, and they ought to be looked to for
advice and information. The leaders of faction and the demagogues of a
party associated not with him, and could not know him. Why should he be
an oppressor? Was it to serve the King, the whole tenor of whose life
had been honorable and virtuous? Was it for himself that he should
practice oppression? For what should he be an oppressor? Ambition could
not prompt him, with a life ebbing slowly to a close, under the
pressure of a disease acquired in the service of his country. He only
looked forward to pass the remaining period of his life in the comfort
of retirement, among his friends. He remained in Canada simply in
obedience to the commands of his King. What power could he desire? For
what wealth would he be an oppressor? Those who knew him, knew that he
had never regarded wealth, and then, he could not enjoy it. He cared
not for the value of the country laid at his feet. He would prefer to
power and wealth a single instance of having contributed to the
happiness and prosperity of the people whom he had been sent to govern.
He warned all to be on their guard against the artful suggestions of
wicked and designing men. He begged that all would use their best
endeavours to prevent the evil effects of incendiary and traitorous
doings. And he strictly charged and commanded all magistrates, captains
of militia, peace officers, and others, of His Majesty's good subjects
to bring to punishment such as circulated false news, tending, in any
manner, to inflame the public mind and to disturb the public peace and
tranquillity.
Could anything have been more pitiable than such a proclamation? The
existence of a conspiracy on the part of some disaffected persons to
overthrow the King's government was made to appear with the view of
covering a mistake. The proclamation was the apology for the illegal
seizure of a press and types used in the publication of a newspaper, in
which nothing seditious or treasonable had in reality been published.
It was true that the _Canadien_ upheld the Assembly and criticised the
conduct of the Executive, with great severity. It was true that the
_Canadien_ complained of the tyranny of "_les Anglais_." It was true
that the _Canadien_ strenuously supported the idea of the expenses of
the civil list being defrayed by the province and not by the Imperial
government. And it was true that it contended for "_nos institutions_,
_notre langue_, _et nos lois_." It did nothing more. No hint was thrown
out that Canada would be more prosperous under the American, than under
the English dominion. It was not even insinuated that Canada should be
wholly governed by Canadians. All that was claimed for French Canadians
was a fair share in the official spoils of the land they lived in,
freedom of speech, and liberty of conscience. Governor Craig asked the
inhabitants of St. Denis or any of the other inhabitants of the
province to remind him of any one act of oppression or of arbitrary
imprisonment. And at that very moment the printer of the _Canadien_ was
in prison. Nor was he there alone, there were Messrs. Bedard, Blanchet,
and Taschereau, members of the recently dissolved House of Assembly,
together with Messrs. Pierre Laforce, Pierre Papineau, of Chambly, and
François Corbeille, of Isle Jésus, to keep him company, on charges of
treasonable practices, concerning which there was not, and never had
been, even the shadow of proof, on charges which the government did not
attempt even to prove, and on charges which were withdrawn without the
accused having ever been confronted with their accusers. Base and
daring fabricators of falsehood! François Corbeille, an innocent man,
the victim only of unjust suspicions, on the one hand, and of
diabolical selfishness, on the other, died in consequence of the injury
his health received in that prison where tyranny had placed him. But he
could issue no proclamation. His voice was not loud enough in the tomb
to reach the Court of St. James, surrounded as that Court was, by an
impenetrable phalanx of Downing Street Red-tapists. Canada was only
mis-governed because England was deceived, through the instrumentality
of Governors, honorable enough as men, but so wanting in administrative
capacity, as to be open to the vile flattery and base insinuations of
those who were, or rather should have been at once the faithful
servants of the Crown and of that people who upheld it, who were
virtually taken possession of, on arrival, by the "_gens en place_,"
and held safely in custody, until their nominal power had ceased. And
when power had passed away, then only did many of them perceive, as Sir
James Craig is reported to have done, the deception, the ingratitude,
and the almost inhumanity of man. There is some excuse to be offered
for the extraordinary course of policy pursued by Sir James Craig; and
an apology even can be made for the crooked policy of those voluntary
advisers who had hedged him in. Great Britain was at war with France.
The name of a Frenchman was unmusical in the ears of any Englishman of
that period, and it sounded harshly in the ears of the British soldier.
It was France that had prostituted liberty to lust. It was France that
had dragged public opinion to the scaffold and the guillotine. It was
France that held the axe uplifted over all that was good and holy. It
was France that was making all Europe a charnel-house. It was General
Buonaparte of France, who only sought to subdue England, the more
easily to conquer the world. Many an English hearth had cursed his
name. Many a widow had he made desolate, and many an orphan fatherless.
The "conquered subjects" of King George spoke and thought in French.
They held French traditions in veneration. There could only be a
jealousy, a hatred, a contempt entertained of everything seeming to be
French, in the heart of an Englishman. And these sentiments were
doubtless reciprocated. But, still the French of Canada, were only,
now, French by extraction. They had long lost that love of the land of
their origin, which belongs to nativity. Few men in the province had
been born in France. Few Canadians knew anything about the new regime,
or took any interest in the "_Code Napoléon_." And few even cherished
flattering recollections of Bourbon rule. The Canadians wanted English
liberty, not French republicanism. The Canadians wanted to have for
themselves so much liberty as a Scotchman might enjoy at John O'Groats,
or an Englishman obtain at Land's-End. And for so desiring liberty they
were misrepresented, because of English colonial prejudices, and
because of official dislikes and selfishness. When the first
Attorney-General of Canada, Mr. Mazzeres, afterwards Cursitor Baron of
the Exchequer, in England, of whom Mr. Ryland was but a pious follower,
proposed to convert the Canadians to Anglicism in religion, in manners,
and in law, assuredly little opposition could have been made to the
scheme. Then, the pursuance of Cardinal Richelieu's policy would, in
after ages, have exemplified that the pen had been mightier than the
sword. Then the whole population of the province could have been housed
in one of the larger cities of the present time. But when the province
had increased in numbers to 300,000, partially schooled in English
legislation, the exercise of despotism was only as impolitic as it was
obviously unjust. It was feared by the officers of the civil government
of Canada, when this despotism was practised, that the legislature
might have the power, which has since been conceded, of dispensing with
the services of merely imperial officers, and of filling, with natives
to the manor born, every office of profit or emolument in the province.
It was feared if the exclusive power were granted to the Colonial
Legislature of appropriating all the sums necessary for the civil
expenditure of the province, that it would give the Legislature
absolute control over the officers of the empire and of the colony, and
annihilate, if not actually, potentially, the _imperium_ of Great
Britain over her colony. A distinction was drawn between the privileges
of a colonist and of the resident of the United Kingdom. While every
municipality in the latter was permitted to pay and control its own
officers, the voice of a colonist was to be unheard in the councils of
the nation to which he was attached, and he was to have no control over
the actions of those who were to make or administer the laws, under
which he lived. He was patiently to submit to the overbearing
assumptions of some plebeian Viceroy, accidentally raised to a
quasi-level with the great potentates of the earth, and inclined to
ride with his temporary and borrowed power, after that great
impersonage of evil, which, it is alleged, the beggar always attempts
to overtake when, having thrown off his rags and poverty, he has been
mounted on horseback. It is admitted that at this time the province was
controlled by a few rapacious, overbearing, and irresponsible
officials, without stake or other connection with the country, than
their offices,[14] having no sympathy with the mass of the inhabitants.
It is admitted that these officials lorded it over the people, upon
whose substance they existed, and that they were not confided in, but
hated. It is admitted that their influence with the English inhabitants
arose from the command of the treasury. And it is admitted that, though
only the servants of the government, they acted as if they had been
princes among the natives and inhabitants of the province, upon whom
they affected to look down, estranging them from all direct
intercourse, or intimacy, with the Governor, whose confidence, no less
than the control of the treasury, it was their policy to monopolise. To
the candidates for vice-regal favors, their smiles were fortune, and
their frowns were fate. The Governor was a hostage in the keeping of
the bureaucracy, and the people were but serfs.
[14] Christie's History of Lower Canada, vol. 1, page 347.
Nothing has been left on record to show that when Sir James Craig
issued his absurd proclamation, treason was to have been feared, unless
it be that the clergy were required to read the proclamation from the
pulpits of the parish churches, that Chief Justice Sewell read it from
the Bench, that the Grand Jury drew up an address to the Court and
strongly animadverted upon the dangerous productions of the _Canadien_,
and that the _Quebec Mercury_ expressed its abhorrence of sedition, and
chronicled the fact that 671 _habitants_ had expressed their gratitude
to the Governor, for his "truly paternal proclamation."
In the April term of the Court of King's Bench, the release of Mr.
Bedard from gaol, was attempted, by an attempt to obtain a writ of
_Habeas Corpus_. But the Bench was not sufficiently independent of the
Crown. The writ was refused. The State prisoners were compelled to
remain in prison, indulging the hope that whatever charges could be
preferred against them would be reduced to writing, and a trial be
obtained. It was hoping against hope. Some of the imprisoned fell sick,
among whom was the printer of the _Canadien_, and all in the gaol of
Quebec, with the exception of Mr. Bedard, were turned out of prison.
Mr. Bedard refused to be set at liberty without having had the
opportunity of vindicating his reputation by the verdict of a jury.
Conscious of the integrity of his conduct, and of the legality of his
expressed political opinions, he solicited trial, but the September
session of the Criminal Term of the King's Bench was suffered to elapse
without any attention having been paid to him. Three of the prisoners
were imprisoned in the gaol of Montreal, and were not only subjected to
the inconveniences and discomforts of a damp and unhealthy prison, but
to the petty persecutions of a relentless gaoler. They were one after
the other enlarged without trial, Mr. Corbeil only to die.
In the course of the summer the government had been occupied with the
regulation and establishment of a system of police, in Montreal and
Quebec, and, with that view, salaried chairmen were appointed to
preside over the Courts of Quarter Sessions. The government also
determined upon opening up a road to the Eastern Townships, which would
afford a direct land communication between Quebec and Boston.
Commencing at St. Giles, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, that
road to the township of Shipton, which still bears the name of Governor
Craig, was completed by a detachment of troops.
On the 10th of December, Parliament again met. The House of Assembly
re-elected Mr. Panet to the Speakership, and the Governor approved of
his election. In his speech from the throne, Governor Craig had never
doubted the loyalty and zeal of the parliaments which had met since he
had assumed the administration of affairs. He was confident that they
were animated by the best intentions to promote the interests of the
King's government and the welfare of the people. He looked for such a
disposition in the tenor of their deliberations. He called their
attention to the temporary Act for the better preservation of His
Majesty's government, and for establishing regulations respecting
aliens or certain subjects of His Majesty, who had resided in France.
No change had taken place in the state of public affairs, that would
warrant a departure from those precautions which made the Act
necessary. He did not mean that it should be supposed that he meant to
divide the interests of His Majesty's government from the interests of
the public, for they were inseparable. But the preservation of His
Majesty's government was the safety of the province, and its security
was the only safeguard to the public tranquillity. He therefore
recommended those considerations together with the Act making temporary
provision for the regulation of trade between Canada and the United
States to their first and immediate consideration. He entreated them to
believe that he should have great satisfaction in cultivating that
harmony and good understanding which must be so conducive to the
prosperity and happiness of the colony, and that he should most readily
and cheerfully concur, in every measure, which they might propose,
tending to promote those important objects. And he further intimated
that the rule of his conduct was to discharge his duty to his
sovereign, by a constant attention to the welfare of his subjects, who
were committed to his charge, and these objects he felt to be promoted
by a strict adherence to the laws and principles of the constitution,
and by maintaining in their just balance the rights and privileges of
every branch of the legislature. Sir James Craig's attempts at
maintaining a balance of power were the chief causes of all his
blundering. He did not himself know the proper balance of power between
himself and the governed. He could not possibly perceive when his
balance-beam was out of its centre, and if he had seen a slight leaning
to one side, and that side not his own, he could not have conceived
that the scales of justice would have been very much affected. It never
occurred to him that the displacement of it, only to the extent of
one-sixteenth half of an inch, on the side of Government and Council,
would weigh a quarter of a century against the Assembly, the people and
progress. But so it was. The beam with which Sir James Craig would have
and did weigh out justice, was one-sided, and, to make matters still
worse, the Governor threw into the adverse scale a host of his own
prejudices, and of the prejudices of his secret councillors. He would
have been glad, had the House expelled Mr. Bedard, one of its members,
on the plea that it was prejudicial to its dignity that a
representative of the people should be kept in durance, while the House
was in session, and still more discreditable that that member should be
charged with treason. Hardly had he delivered his speech, and the
Assembly returned to their chamber, when the Governor sent a message to
the House intimating that Mr. Bedard, who had been returned to
Parliament, as the representative of Surrey, was detained in the common
gaol of Quebec, under the "Preservation Act," charged with treasonable
practices. The House most politely thanked the Governor-in-Chief for
the information. The House resolved that Mr. Bedard was in the common
gaol of Quebec. The House resolved that Pierre Bedard was, on the 27th
day of March, returned to Parliament, as one of the Knights
Representative of Surrey. The House resolved that Pierre Bedard, was
then one of the members of the Assembly, for the existing Parliament.
The House resolved that the simple arrest of any one of His Majesty's
subjects did not render him incapable of election to the Assembly. The
House resolved that the Government Preserves Act, guaranteed to the
said Pierre Bedard, Esquire, the right of sitting in the Assembly. And
the House resolved to present a humble address to His Excellency,
informing him that his message had been seriously considered, that
several resolutions had been passed, which they conceived it to be
their duty to submit to His Excellency, and that it was the wish of the
House that Pierre Bedard, Esquire, Knight Representative for the County
of Surrey, might take his seat in the House. The vote in favor of the
resolutions was expressively large. There were twenty-five members
present, and twenty voted for the resolutions. Messrs. Bourdages,
Papineau, senior, Bellet, Papineau, junior, Debartch, Viger, Lee, and
Bruneau, were named a committee to present an address to the Governor,
founded on the resolutions, but they managed to escape that honor. When
it was moved to resolve that an enquiry be made as to the causes which
had prevented the messengers from presenting the address, as ordered by
the House, Mr. Papineau, senior, moved that nothing more should be said
about the address, and the motion was carried. Nor was anything more
said about the unfortunate gentleman who was imprisoned, as the
Governor himself afterwards stated, only as a measure of precaution,
not of punishment, until the close of the session, when he was
released. He was kept in Ham because he might have done mischief, on
the principle that prevention is better than cure, and, when Mr. Bedard
desired to know what was expected of him, the Governor sent for his
brother, the curé, and authorized him to tell Mr. Bedard that he had
been confined by government, "only looking to its security and the
public tranquillity," and that when Mr. Bedard expressed a sense of
that error, of which he was ignorant, he would be immediately enlarged.
Mr. Bedard replied courteously, but declined admitting any error, which
he had not made, or of confessing to any crime of which he was not
guilty. The Governor had heard of the resolutions of the House, and
expected the presentation of the address embodying them, when he
received an application from the elder Papineau, one of the committee,
requesting a private conference on the subject of the resolutions. That
conference only drew from His Excellency the remark that:--"No
consideration, Sir, shall induce me to consent to the liberation of Mr.
Bedard, at the instance of the House of Assembly, either as a matter of
right, or as a favor, nor will I now consent to his being enlarged on
any terms during the sitting of the present session, and I will not
hesitate to inform you of the motives by which I have been induced to
come to this resolution. I know that the general language of the
members, has encouraged the idea which universally prevails, that the
House of Assembly will release Mr. Bedard; an idea so firmly
established that there is not a doubt entertained upon it in the
province. The time is therefore come, when I feel that the security as
well as the dignity of the King's government, imperiously require that
the people should be made to understand the true limits of the rights
of the respective parts of the government, and that it is not that of
the House of Assembly to rule the country." And Mr. Bedard, sensible of
having done no wrong, remained in gaol until the Parliament was
prorogued, as an example to the people that there was no public opinion
worth heeding, in the province, and that the power of the Governor was
something superior to that of the Assembly. The Assembly went to work
after having made the fruitless attempt to liberate Mr. Bedard, and
passed as many bills as were required. The "gaols" bill was temporarily
continued: the repairs of the Castle of St. Lewis having cost £14,980,
instead of £7,000, as contemplated, the additional outlay was voted;
£50,000 were voted towards the erection of suitable parliament
buildings. The Alien Act and that for the Preservation of the
Government were continued, together with the Militia Act, to March
1813; the bill to disqualify judges from being elected to the Assembly
passed both Houses, and to these the Governor assented, proroguing the
Parliament afterwards with great pleasure. Communication with Europe
had been difficult during the winter, on account of the impediments
thrown in the way of American commerce. The Princess Charlotte had
died, and the sovereign himself had become alarmingly indisposed. A new
Act of non-intercourse had been passed in the American Congress. He had
seen among the Acts passed, and to which he had just declared His
Majesty's assent, with peculiar satisfaction, the Act disqualifying the
judges from holding a seat in the House of Assembly. It was not only
that he thought the measure right in itself, but that he considered the
passing of an Act for the purpose, as a complete renunciation of the
_erroneous principle_, the acting upon which put him under the
necessity of dissolving the last parliament. The country was becoming
luxuriantly rich, and he hoped that all would be harmony and tolerance.
He would be a proud man who could say to his sovereign that he found
the Canadians divided and left them united.
On the 19th of June, 1811, Lieut.-General Sir James Craig embarked for
England, in H.M.S. _Amelia_. Previous to his departure he received
addresses from Quebec, Montreal, Three Rivers, Warwick, and Terrebonne,
and when he was about to leave the Chateau St. Louis, the British
population, who admired the old General more perhaps than they did the
constitutional ruler, exhibited considerable feeling. The multitude
took the place of His Excellency's carriage horses and popularly
carried away, to the Queen's wharf, His Majesty's representative. Nay,
the old soldier, who really had a heart, almost wept as he bade
farewell to men, some of whom he had first met with in the battle
field, and had since known for nearly half a century. Sir James too was
ill. It was not indeed expected that he would have lived long enough to
reach England. His dropsy was becoming not only troublesome but
dangerous.[15]
[15] Sir James did reach England, but died shortly afterwards.
He expired in January 1812, aged 62.
Sir James was succeeded in the administration of the government of
Canada by Mr. Dunn.
The Canadians had, during the administration of Governor Craig,
earnestly pursued Junius' advice to the English nation. They had never,
under the most trying circumstances, suffered any invasion of their
political constitution to pass by, without a determined and persevering
resistance. They practically exhibited their belief in the doctrine
that, one precedent creates another; that precedents soon accumulate
and constitute law; that what was yesterday fact becomes to-day
doctrine; that examples are supposed to justify the most dangerous
measures, and that where they do not suit exactly, the defect is
supplied by analogy. They felt confident that the laws which were to
protect their civil rights were to grow out of their constitution, and
that with it the country was to fall or flourish. They believed in the
right of the people to choose their own representatives. They were
sensibly impressed with the idea that the liberty of the press is the
palladium of the civil, political, and religious rights of a British
subject, and that the right of juries to return a general verdict, in
all cases whatsoever, is an essential part of the British constitution,
not to be controlled, or limited, by the judges, nor in any shape to be
questionable by the legislature. And they believed that the power of
the King, Lords, and Commons, was not an arbitrary power, but one which
they themselves could regulate. In a word, they believed that, whatever
form of government might be necessary for the maintenance of order, and
for putting all men on an equality in the eye of the law, the people
themselves were the source of all power, and they acted accordingly.
Mr. Peel, (afterwards Sir Robert Peel,) Under Secretary of State,
condemned the conduct of Sir James Craig, as Governor of Canada. Mr.
Ryland, himself, informed Sir James, by letter, from London, whither he
had been sent with despatches, that when he observed to Mr. Peel that
Sir James Craig had all the English inhabitants with him, and,
consequently, all the commercial interest of the country, Mr. Peel
remarked that the Canadians were much more _numerous_, and he
repeated the same remark more than once, in a way that indicated a fear
of doing anything that might clash with the prejudices of the _more
numerous_ part of the community. And when Mr. Ryland ventured to
suggest that the decided approbation of the Governor's conduct could
not fail to have a _desirable_ effect on the minds of the
Canadians, and that the best way of expressing such approbation, was by
suspending the constitution, as Sir James Craig had recommended, Mr.
Peel thought that a reunion of the provinces would be better than a
suspension of the constitution of Lower Canada. Lord Liverpool thought
that it was not very necessary to imprison the editors of the
_Canadien_. He quietly asked if they could not have been brought
over to the government? Mr. Ryland said that it was not possible, that
Mr. Bedard's motive for opposing the government, was possibly to obtain
office, but he had acted in such a way as to make that impossible. At
dinner with the Earl of Liverpool, at Coombe Wood, Mr. Ryland seems to
have had a combing from Mr. Peel. He writes to Sir James Craig that, in
a conversation with Mr. Peel, before dinner, concerning the state of
things in Canada, he was mortified to find that he had but an imperfect
idea of the subject. He expressed himself as though he had thought that
Sir James Craig had dissolved the House of Assembly on account of their
having passed a bill for excluding the judges. He endeavored to give
Mr. Peel a clear and correct conception of these matters, but God knew
with what success! He recollected Governor Craig's advice, and kept his
temper, but it was really very provoking to see men of fine endowments
and excellent natural understanding, too inattentive to make themselves
masters of a very important subject, which had been placed before them,
in an intelligible manner. When Mr. Peel asked him if the English
members of the House were always with the government, Mr. Ryland said
that in every case of importance, with the exception of Mr. James
Stuart, formerly Solicitor-General, the English members always
supported the views of the government. And, indeed, the
Attorney-General of England, Sir Vicary Gibbs, reported against the
despotic intentions of Sir James Craig, and, at the suggestion of his
secretary, further expressed his official opinion that the paper
published in the _Canadien_, and upon which the proceedings of the
Executive Council of Canada had been founded, was not such as to fix
upon the publishers, the charge of treasonable practices, and that it
was only the apprehensions that had been in Canada entertained, of the
effects of the publication of the paper in the _Canadien_, that
might have made it excusable to resort to means, not strictly
justifiable in law, for suppressing anticipated mischief. The truth was
simply that a stupid old man, filled with the most violent prejudices,
against change of any sort, had been sent to govern a new and rapidly
rising country, and knew not how success was to be obtained. His mind
was full of conspiracies, rebellions, and revolutions, and nothing
else. When he retired to rest, and had drawn the curtains of his bed,
there sat upon him, night after night, three horrible spectres:--the
Rebellion in Ireland, the Reign of Terror in France, and the American
revolution. He slept only to dream of foul conspiracies, and he was
dreaming how they best could be avoided, when in broad daylight he was
most awake.
Upper Canada had not yet become sufficiently populous to require much
legislation. Indeed, the legislature of that province hardly transacted
any business more important than now devolves upon some insignificant
county municipality. There was as yet no party. There were as yet no
grievances. Parliament was annually assembled by Governor Gore, rather
because it was a rule to which he was bound to attend, than because it
was required. He met his parliament again, on the 1st of February,
1811, and business having been rapidly transacted, the royal assent was
given to nine Acts, relative to the erection and repair of roads and
bridges, to the licensing of petty chapmen, to the payment of
parliamentary contingencies, to the regulation of duties, to the
further regulation of the proceedings of sheriffs, in the sale of goods
and chattels, taken by them in execution, to assessments, to bills of
exchange, and to the raising and training of the militia.
On the 30th of September, in the same year, Lieutenant-Governor Francis
Gore resigned the government into the hands of Major-General, Sir Isaac
Brocke, and returned to England, Mr. Dunn, having, on the 14th of the
same month, been relieved of the government of Lower Canada, by
Lieutenant-General Sir George Prevost, Baronet, the Lieutenant-Governor
of Nova Scotia, and now appointed Governor General of British North
America, in consideration as well of his administrative ability, as of
his distinguished reputation as an officer in the army. No sooner had
Sir George arrived at Quebec, than he set out on a tour of military
observation. War was now more than ever imminent. Another difficulty
had occurred at sea. A British sloop of war, the _Little Belt_,
had been fired into by the American frigate, _President_, and, in
the rencontre which followed, had suffered greatly in her men and
rigging. The British Orders in Council had not been rescinded, American
commerce was crippled, the revenue was falling off, and there was that
general quarrelsomeness of spirit which, sooner or later, must be
satisfied, pervading the middle States of the American Union. Congress
was assembled by proclamation, on the 5th of November, and the
President of the United States indicated future events by a shadow in
his opening "Message." Mr. Madison found that he must "add" that the
period had arrived which claimed from the legislative guardians of the
national rights, a system of more ample provision for maintaining them.
There was full evidence of the hostile inflexibility of Great Britain.
She had trampled on rights, which no independent nation could
relinquish, and Congress would feel the duty of putting the United
States into an armour and an attitude, demanded by the crisis, and
corresponding with the national spirit and expectation. Congress did as
they were recommended to do. Bills were passed having reference to
probable hostilities, one of which authorized the President to raise,
with as little delay as possible, twenty-five thousand men.
In Canada every man held his breath for a time.
CHAPTER III.
General Prevost was the very opposite of Sir James Craig. While the
latter considered force the only practical persuasive, the former
looked upon persuasion as more practicable than force. He was
determined to be conciliatory, to throw aside unjust suspicions, to
listen to no tales from interested parties, to redress such grievances
as existed, and to create no new causes of discontent if he could avoid
it. He was made acquainted with all the steps that had been taken by
his predecessor, and he entered on the administration of the government
of Lower Canada, with a determination to pursue a very opposite policy.
A few weeks after his assumption of office he remodelled, or rather
recommended to the Imperial ministry, the expediency of remodelling the
Executive Council. He caused seven new members to be added to it, and
he further offended the officers of the principalities or departments,
by preferring to places of trust and emolument, some of the demagogues
persecuted by Sir James Craig. Sir George Prevost met the parliament on
the 21st of February, 1812. He congratulated the country on the
brilliant achievements of Wellington, in the deliverance of Portugal
and the rescue of Spain from France. Notwithstanding the changes, so
astonishing, which marked the age, the inhabitants of Canada had
witnessed but as remote spectators the awful scenes which had desolated
Europe. While Britain, built by nature against the contagious breath of
war, had had her political existence involved in the fate of
neighboring nations, Canada had hitherto viewed without alarm a distant
storm. The storm was now approaching her. The mutterings of the thunder
were already within hearing. All was gloomy, still, and lurid. It was
necessary to be vigilant. To preserve the province from the dangers of
invasion it would be necessary to renew those Acts which experience had
proved essential for the preservation of His Majesty's government, and
to hold the militia in readiness to repel aggression. The renewal of
the "Preservation Acts," was not that which the Assembly very much
desired. They had had enough of such "Preservation" of government Acts
already. They would much rather have been preserved from them than be
preserved with them. On the principle of self preservation, the
Assembly would rather be excused from continuing any such Act as that
which had been so abused as to have afforded a licence for the
imprisonment of three members of the Assembly, on vague charges, which
the ingenuity of the public prosecutor could not reduce to particulars.
Had it not been from a conviction of the goodness of the new Governor,
the Assembly would not have renewed any such Act. Sir George regretted
that the Parliament had thought it necessary to revert to any of the
proceedings of his predecessor, under one of the "Preservation Acts,"
and he earnestly advised the gentlemen of the House of Assembly to
evince their zeal for the public good, by confining their attention
solely to the present situation of affairs. But the House thought it
due to the good character of His Majesty's subjects that some measure
should be adopted by the House, with the view of acquainting His
Majesty of the events which had taken place under the administration of
Sir James Craig, its late Governor, together with the causes which such
events had originated, so that His Majesty might take such steps as
would prevent the recurrence of a similar administration, an
administration which tended to misrepresent the good and faithful
people of the province, and to deprive them of the confidence and
affection of His Majesty, and from feeling the good effects of his
government, in the ample manner provided for by law. Nay, this was not
all. It was moved that an enquiry be made into the state of the
province, under the administration of Sir James Craig, and into the
causes that gave rise to it, and the resolution was carried, two
members only voting against it. A committee was appointed, but no
report was made. The bill for the better preservation of His Majesty's
government, and the Alien bill were both lost, not by ill intention,
but by awkward management. But the loss of these bills was amply
compensated by the militia bill, authorizing the Governor to embody two
thousand young, unmarried men, for three months in the year, who, in
case of invasion, were to be retained in service for a whole year, when
one-half of the embodied would be relieved by fresh drafts. In the
event of imminent danger, he was empowered to embody the whole militia
force of the country, but no militiaman was to be enlisted into the
regular forces. For drilling, training, and other purposes of the
militia service, £12,000 were voted, and a further sum of £30,000 was
placed at the disposal of the Governor-in-Chief, to be used in the
event of a war arising between Great Britain and the United States.
Sir George Prevost prorogued Parliament on the 19th of May, well
satisfied with the proofs which had been exhibited to him, of the
loyalty of the parliament and people of a country so very shortly
before represented to be treasonable, seditious, disaffected, and
thoroughly imbued with hatred towards Great Britain. He shortly
afterwards re-instated, in their respective ranks in the militia, such
officers as had been set aside by Sir James Craig, without just cause,
and indeed spared no exertion to make the people his friends, well
judging that the office, or place men would, of necessity be so. On the
28th of May, he levied and organised four battalions of embodied
militia; and a regiment of voltigeurs was raised, the latter being
placed under the command of Major De Salaberry, a French-Canadian, who
had served in the 60th regiment of foot.
There was need for this embodiment of troops. Already, dating from the
3rd of April, the American Congress had passed an Act laying an embargo
for ninety days on all vessels within the jurisdiction of the United
States. The President, Mr. Jefferson, had recommended the embargo. He
had long intended to gratify the lower appetites of the worst class of
the American people, who were now more numerous than that respectable
class of republicans of which that great man, Washington, was himself
the type. The measure was preparatory to a war with Great Britain. And
war was very soon afterwards declared. On the 4th of June, a bill
declaring that war existed between Great Britain and the United States
passed the House of Representatives by a majority of seventy-nine to
forty-nine. The bill was taken to the Senate, and there it passed only
by the narrow majority of six. The vote was nineteen voices in the
affirmative and thirteen in the negative. Mr. Jefferson assented to the
bill on the 18th of June. The grounds of war were set forth in a
message of the President to Congress, on the 1st of June. The
impressment of American seamen by British naval officers; the blockade
of the ports of the enemies of Great Britain, supported by no adequate
force, in consequence of which American commerce had been plundered in
every sea, and the great staples of the country cut off from their
legitimate markets; and on account of the British Orders in Council.
The Committee on Foreign relations believed that the freeborn sons of
America were worthy to enjoy the liberty which their fathers had
purchased at the price of much blood and treasure. They saw by the
measures adopted by Great Britain, a course commenced and persisted in,
which might lead to a loss of national character and independence, and
they felt no hesitation in advising resistance by force, in which the
Americans of that day would prove to the enemy and the world, that they
had not only inherited that liberty which their fathers had given them,
but had also the will and the power to maintain it. They relied on the
patriotism of the nation, and confidently trusted that the Lord of
Hosts would go down with the United States to battle, in a righteous
cause, and crown American efforts with success. The committee
recommended an immediate appeal to arms. The confidential secretary of
Sir James Craig was not a little to blame for the terrible state of
fermentation into which the representatives of the sovereign people of
America had wrought themselves. Without the knowledge of the Imperial
government, Mr. Secretary Ryland had received the concurrence of Sir
James Craig to a scheme for the annexation of the New England States to
Canada. A young man named Henry, of Irish parentage, and a captain in
the militia of the American States had come to Montreal with the view
of remaining in Canada. He studied law and made considerable
proficiency. Indeed, he was a young man possessed of some talent and of
great assurance. And as there was another suspicion haunting the minds
of Sir James Craig and of Mr. Secretary Ryland, Mr. John Henry, late
captain in the American service, and now Barrister-at-law, was
introduced to Governor Craig, as a gentleman likely to inform the
government of Canada, whether or not, the suspicions of the Governor
and of the Governor's Secretary, were correct, these suspicions being
that the North Eastern States of the American Republic desired to form
a political connection with Great Britain. Mr. Henry appeared to be the
very man for such a mission. He was immediately employed as a spy, and
went to Boston, where he did endeavour to ascertain the public mind, in
those places in which it is most frequently spoken. He lingered about
hotels and news rooms. He visited the parks and the saloons. He went to
church, or wherever else information was to be obtained, and he sent
his experiences regularly to Mr. Ryland, who furnished him with
instructions. But Captain Henry required to be paid for all this
trouble. He applied to Governor Craig to find that excellent gentleman
had no idea of their value. He then memorialized Lord Liverpool, asking
for his services only the appointment of Judge Advocate of Lower
Canada, to which the salary of £500 a year was attached. The noble
Lord, at the head of the government, knew nothing about Captain Henry,
and recommended him, if he had any claim upon Canada, to apply to Sir
George Prevost, the Governor General. Captain Henry would do no such
thing. He went to the United States, and, for the sum of fifty thousand
dollars, gave up to the American government a very interesting
correspondence between the Secretary of the Governor General of Canada,
Mr. Ryland, and himself. Congress was so transported with rage, at the
attempted annexation, that a bill was brought into the House of
Representatives, and seriously entertained, the object of which was to
declare every person a pirate, and punishable with death, who, under a
pretence of a commission from any foreign power, should impress upon
the high seas any native of the United States; and gave every such
impressed seaman a right to attach, in the hands of any British
subject, or of any debtor to any British subject, a sum equal to thirty
dollars a month, during the whole period of his detention.[16] The
federalist Americans were somewhat favourably disposed towards England.
The minority in the House of Representatives, among which were found
the principal part of the delegation from New England, in an address to
their constituents, solemnly protested, on the ground that the wrongs
of which the United States complained, although in some respects,
grievous, were not of a nature, in the then state of the world, to
justify war, nor were they such as war would be likely to remedy. On
the subject of impressment they urged that the question between the two
countries had once been honorably and satisfactorily settled, in the
treaty negotiated with the British Court by Messrs. Monroe and
Pinckney, and that although that treaty had not been ratified by Mr.
Jefferson, arrangements might probably again be made. In relation to
the second cause of war--the blockade of her enemies' ports, without an
adequate force, the minority replied that it was not designed to injure
the commerce of the United States, but was retaliatory upon France,
which had taken the lead in aggressions upon neutral rights. In
addition it was said, that as the repeal of the French decrees had been
officially announced, it was to be expected that a revocation of the
Orders in Council would follow. They could not refrain from asking what
the United States were to gain from war? Would the gratification of
some privateers-men compensate the nation for that sweep of American
legitimate commerce, by the extended marine of Great Britain, which the
desperate act of declaring war invited? Would Canada compensate the
middle States for New York, or the Western States for New Orleans? They
would not be deceived! A war of invasion might invite a retort of
invasion. When Americans visited the peaceable, and, to Americans, the
innocent colonies of Great Britain, with the horrors of war, could
Americans be assured that their own coast would not be visited with
like horrors. At such a crisis of the world, and under impressions such
as these, the minority could not consider the war into which the United
States had, in secret, been precipitated, as necessary, or required by
any moral duty, or any political expediency. The country was divided in
opinion, respecting either the propriety or the expediency of the war.
The friends of the administration were universally in favor of it.
[16] Allison, page 656.
That there was no just cause for a declaration of war on the part of
the United States, it may be sufficient to state that the news of the
repeal of the obnoxious Order in Council, reached the United States
before England was aware of the declaration of war. But the American
government wanted a war as an excuse for a filibustering expedition to
Canada, which was to be peaceably separated from Great Britain, and
quietly annexed to the United States. Then existing differences would
have been speedily patched up to the satisfaction of all parties, the
Lower Canadians being, in the language of Sir James Craig, treasonable,
seditious, and attached to the country with which the United States was
in alliance, France. The United States were not prepared for war. While
Great Britain had a hundred sail of the line in commission, and a
thousand ships of war bore the royal flag, the Americans had only four
frigates and eight sloops in commission, and their whole naval force
afloat in ordinary, and building for the Ocean and the Canadian Lakes,
was eight frigates and twelve sloops. Their military force only
amounted to twenty-five thousand men, to be enlisted for the most part,
but the President was authorised to call out one hundred thousand
militia, for the purpose of defending the sea coast and the Canadian
frontiers. The greatest want of all was proper officers. The ablest of
the revolutionary heroes had paid the debt of nature, and there was no
military officer to whom fame could point as the man fitted for
command. With means so lamentably inconsiderable had America declared
war against a country whose arms were sweeping from the Spanish
Peninsula the disciplined and veteran troops of France. It was
marvellous audacity. And it was a marvellous mistake. Canada, it is
true, had only 5,454 men of all arms, who could be accounted soldiers,
445 artillery, 3,783 infantry of the line, and 1,226 fencibles. She had
only one or two armed brigs and a few gun-boats on the lakes, but the
Upper Canadians were not prepared to exchange their dependency on Great
Britain for the paltry consideration of being erected into a territory
of the United States, and the Superintendent of the Church of Rome, in
Lower Canada, hardly thought it possible that a new conquest of Canada
would make her peculiar institutions more secure than they were. The
militia of both sections of Canada were loyal. They felt that they
could, as their enemies had done before, at least defend their own
firesides. There was no sympathy with the American character, nor any
regard for American institutions then. Those feelings were to be
brought about by that commercial selfishness which time was to develop.
The declaration of war by the United States was only known in Quebec on
the 24th of June. A notification was immediately given by the police
authorities to all American citizens then in Canada, requiring them to
leave the province on or before the third of July. But Sir George
Prevost afterwards extended the time to fourteen days longer, to suffer
American merchants to conclude their business arrangements.
Proclamations were issued, imposing an embargo on the shipping in the
port of Quebec, and calling the legislature together, for the despatch
of business. Parliament met on the 16th of July. The Governor-in-Chief
announced the declaration of war, expressed his reliance upon the
spirit, the determination, the loyalty and the zeal of the country.
With the aid of the militia, His Majesty's regular troops, few in
number, as they were, would yet gallantly repel any hostile attempt
that might be made upon the colony. It was with concern that he saw the
expense to which the organization and drilling of the militia would put
the province. But battles must be fought, campaigning had to be
endured, and true and lasting liberty was cheap at any cost of life or
treasure. The reply was all that could be desired. While the House
deplored the hostile declaration that had been made against Great
Britain, and seemed to shrink from the miseries which war entails, they
assured the Governor that threats would not intimidate, nor persuasions
allure them from their duty to their God, to their country, and to
their king. They were convinced that the Canadian militia would fight
with spirit and determination, against the enemy, and would, with the
aid of the tried soldiers of the king, sternly defend the province
against any hostile attack. As far as spirit went there was no
deficiency, but Canada was worse off for money than the United States
was for soldiery. There were forty thousand militia about to rise in
arms, but where was the money to come from necessary to keep them
moving? Congress intended to raise an immediate loan of ten millions of
dollars. It was essential Canada should immediately replenish her
exchequer, as those not being the days of steamships, funds from
England could not be soon obtained. Sir George Prevost resolved to
issue army bills, payable either in cash, or in government bills of
exchange, on London. The House of Assembly assented to the circulation
of any bills, and granted fifteen thousand pounds annually for five
years, to pay the interest that would accrue upon them. Bills to the
value of two hundred and fifty thousand were authorised to be put in
circulation; they were to be received in the payment of duties; they
were to be a legal tender in the market; and they were to be redeemed
at the army bill office, in any way, whether in cash or bills, the
Governor-in-Chief might signify. Nothing could have been more
satisfactory to Sir George Prevost. He prorogued the Parliament on the
1st of August, with every expression of satisfaction. And well he might
be satisfied. The men who were, according to the representations of his
predecessor, not at all to be depended upon, in a case of emergency,
had most readily, liberally, and loyally, met the demands of the public
service. The men who feared martial law, and could not tolerate the
withholding of the Habeas Corpus, came forward nobly to defend from
outward attack the dominions of their king. The whole province was
bursting with warlike zeal. A military epidemic seized old and young,
carrying off the latter in extraordinary numbers. Montreal, Quebec, and
even Kingston and Toronto teemed with men in uniform and in arms. The
regular troops were moved to Montreal, and Quebec was garrisoned by the
militia. At Montreal, even the militia turned out for garrison duty.
And on the 6th of August, the whole militia were commanded to hold
themselves in readiness for embodiment. A little of the zeal now began
to ooze out. There never yet was a rule without an exception. In the
Parish of Ste. Claire, some young men, who had been drafted into the
embodied militia, refused to join their battalion. Of these, four were
apprehended, but one was rescued, and it was determined by the
able-bodied men of Pointe Claire to liberate such others of their
friends as had already joined the depot of the embodied militia at
Laprairie. Accordingly, on the following day, some three or four
hundred persons assembled at Lachine. They had not assembled to pass a
series of resolutions censuring the government for illegally and
wantonly carrying off some of the best men of the Parish of Pointe
Claire, nor did they express any opinion favorable to Mr. Madison and
the Americans, but they had assembled to obtain, by force, the liberty
of their friends about to be subjected to military discipline. It
seemed to have been a misunderstanding, however. The infuriated
parishioners of Pointe Claire, who would not be comforted, on being
appealed to, to go to their homes, frequently raised the cry of "Vive
le Roi." It might be supposed that the Ste. Claire people meant to wish
a long and happy reign to His Imperial Majesty Napoleon, as Mr. Ryland
shrewdly suspected. But that supposition was not entertainable for any
considerable length of time, inasmuch as the people without any
prompting intimated that they had been informed that the militia law
had not been put into force, but that if the Governor should call for
their services they were ready to obey him. The magistrates assured the
people that the militia law was really to be enforced, and advised them
to disperse. They refused to budge. Two pieces of artillery and a
company of the 49th regiment, which had been sent for, to Montreal, now
appeared at Lachine. Still the mob would not disperse. Accordingly, the
Riot Act was read, and the artillery fired a ball high over the heads
of the stubborn crowd, which, of course, whizzing harmlessly along,
produced no effect upon the crowd, except that the eighty, who were
armed with fusils and fowling pieces, somewhat smartly returned the
compliment, proving to the satisfaction of the soldiers the possession
of highly military qualities, in a quarter where it was least expected.
In reply, the troops fired grape and small arms, but without any
intention of doing mischief. The rioters again fired at the troops, but
not the slightest harm resulted to the troops. It was a kind of sham
battle. The military authorities began, however, to tire of it, and the
mob was fired into, when one man having been killed, and another having
been dangerously wounded, the mutineers dispersed, leaving some of the
most daring among them, to keep up a straggling fire from the bushes!
The military made thirteen prisoners and, as night was setting in, left
for Montreal. Next day, four hundred and fifty of the Montreal militia
marched to Pointe Claire, and from thence to St. Laurent, which is
situated in the rear of the Island of Montreal. There, they captured
twenty-four of the culprits, and brought them to head quarters. Thus,
there were thirty-seven rebels, prisoners in Montreal, when the United
States had declared war against Britain, and the first blood shed, in
consequence of the declaration of war in Canada, by the troops, was,
unfortunately, that of Canadians. But the Pointe Claire
_habitants_ bitterly repented the resistance which they had made
to the militia law, and many of them came to Montreal, craving the
forgiveness of the Governor, which they readily obtained. The
ringleaders alone were punished.
Hostilities were commenced in Upper Canada. No sooner had General
Brocke learned that war was proclaimed, than he conceived a project of
attack. He did not mean to penetrate into the enemy's country, but for
the better protection of his own, to secure the enemy's outposts. On
the 26th of June, he sent orders to Captain Roberts, who was at St.
Joseph's, a small post, or block house, situated on an island in Lake
Huron, maintained by thirty soldiers of the line and two artillerymen,
in charge of a serjeant of that corps, under the command of the gallant
captain, to attack Michillimackinac, an American fort defended by
seventy-five men, also under the command of a captain. He was further
instructed to retreat upon St. Mary's, one of the trading posts
belonging to the North West Fur Company, in the event of St. Joseph's
being attacked by the Americans. General Brocke's instructions reached
Captain Roberts on the eighth of July, and he lost no time in carrying
the first part of them into execution. Communicating the design, the
execution of which he had been entrusted with, to Mr. Pothier, in
charge of the Company's Post, at St. Joseph's, that gentleman
patriotically tendered his services. Mr. Pothier, attended by about a
hundred and sixty voyageurs, the greater part of whom were armed with
muskets and fowling pieces, joined Captain Roberts with his detachment
of three artillerymen and thirty soldiers of the line, and in a
flotilla of boats and canoes, accompanied by the North West Company's
brig _Caledonia_, laden with stores and provisions, a descent was
made upon Michillimackinac. They arrived at the enemy's fort, without
having met with the slightest opposition, and summoned it to surrender.
The officer in command of the American fort at once complied. He had
indeed received no certain information that war had been declared. Very
shortly afterwards two vessels, laden with furs, came into the harbour,
ignorant of the capture of the fort, and were taken possession of,
though subsequently restored to their proprietors, by Major-General
DeRottenburgh, the President of the Board of Claims. Unimportant as
this achievement was, it yet had the effect of establishing confidence
in Upper Canada. It had an excellent effect upon the Indian tribes,
with whose aid the struggle with the Americans, was afterwards
efficiently maintained.
Upon the declaration of war, the government of the United States
despatched as skilful an officer, as they had, to arm the American
vessels on Lake Erie, and on Lake Ontario, with the view of gaining,
if possible, the ascendancy on those great inland waters, which
separate a great portion of Canada from the United States. The
American army was distributed in three divisions:--one under General
Harrison called "The North Western Army," a second under General
Stephen Van Rensellaer, at Lewiston, called "The Army of the Centre,"
and a third under the Commander-in-Chief, General Dearborn, in the
neighbourhood of Plattsburgh and Greenbush. As yet the armies had not
been put in motion, but on the 12th of July, General Hull, the
Governor of Michigan, who had been sent, at the head of two thousand
five hundred men, to Detroit, with the view of putting an end to the
hostilities of the Indians in that section of the country, crossed
to Sandwich, established his head-quarters there, and issued a
proclamation to the inhabitants of Canada. He expressed the most
entire confidence of success. The standard of union, he alleged, waved
over the territory of Canada. He tendered the invaluable blessings of
liberty, civil, political, and religious, to an oppressed people,
separated from, and having no share in the Councils of Britain, or
interests in her conduct. And he threatened a war of extermination if
the Indians were employed in resisting the invasion.
General Brocke met the Parliament of Upper Canada, at York, on the 28th
of the same month, and issued a proclamation to the people, in which he
ridiculed General Hull's fears of the Indians. He then despatched
Colonel Proctor to assume the command at Amherstburgh, from Fort St.
George.
So confident was the American General of success that, as yet, he had
not a single cannon or mortar mounted, and he did not consider it
expedient to attempt to carry Amherstburgh, which was only situated
eighteen miles below, by assault. But, as his situation, at Sandwich,
became more and more precarious, he, at length, did resolve upon
attacking Amherstburgh, if he could get there. He sent detachment after
detachment, to cross the Canard, the river on which Amherstburgh
stands. The Americans attempted thrice to cross the bridge, situated
three miles above Amherstburgh, in vain. Some of the 41st regiment and
a few Indians drove them back as often as they tried it. Another rush
was made a little higher up. But the attempt to ford the stream was as
unsuccessful as the attempts to cross the bridge. Near the ford, some
of those Indians, so much dreaded by General Hull, lay concealed in the
grass. Not a blade stirred until the whole of the Americans were well
in the stream, and some had gained the bank, on the Canadian side, when
eighteen or twenty of the red children of the forest, sprang to their
feet, and gave a yell, so hideous, that the Americans, stricken with
panic, fled with almost ludicrous precipitancy. So terror-stricken,
indeed, were the valiant host, that they left arms, accoutrements, and
haversacks, behind them. No further attempt was made by General Hull,
on Amherstburgh. It would have been captured with great difficulty, if
it could have been captured at all. At the mouth of the river Canard, a
small tributary of the Detroit, the _Queen Charlotte_, a sloop of
war, armed with eighteen twenty-four pounders, lay at anchor, watching
every manoeuvre.
On the 3rd of July, Lieutenant Rolette, commanding the armed brig
_Hunter_, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, succeeded in capturing
the _Cayuga_ packet, bound from the Miami river to Detroit, with
troops, and laden with the baggage and hospital stores of the American
army. He made a dash at the _Cayuga_ in his barge, and, with only
six men, secured her.
Colonel Proctor now assumed the offensive. He sent Captain Tallon, on
the 5th of August, with an inconsiderable detachment of the 41st
regiment, and a few of the many Indians, who were flocking to his
standard, to Brownstown, a village opposite Amherstburgh. Captain
Tallon energetically carried out his instructions, by surprising and
routing more than two hundred of the Americans, who were under the
command of Major Vanhorne. The captured detachment were on their way
from Detroit to the river Raisin, in the expectation of meeting there a
detachment of volunteers, from Ohio, under Captain Burr, with a convoy
of provisions for the army. General Hull's despatches fell into the
hands of the captors. The deplorable state of the American army was
disclosed, and, without loss of time, Colonel Proctor sent over a
reinforcement, consisting of one hundred men, of the 41st regiment,
with some militia and four hundred Indians, under the command of Major
Muir, their landing being protected by the brig _Hunter_. Nor were
the American General's misfortunes yet to be ameliorated. While these
things were taking place, a despatch reached him from the officer
commanding the Niagara frontier, intimating that his expected
co-operation was impossible. On every side, General Hull was being
hemmed in. His supplies had been cut off. Defeat had befallen him so
far and death, sickness, fatigue and discomfiture had its depressing
effect upon his soldiery. There was no insurrection in Canada. The
people of the backwoods had not the slightest desire to be territorially
annexed to that country over which the standard of union had waved for
thirty years. On the contrary, they were bent upon doing it as much
mischief as possible. They had no idea of transferring their allegiance
to a power who had visited them with the miseries of war, for no fault
of theirs. Hull was dismayed. When it was announced that General Brocke
was advancing against him, he sounded a retreat. Unwilling that his
fears should be communicated to the troops under him, General Hull
retreated ostensibly with the view of concentrating the army. After he
had re-opened his communications with the rivers Raisin and Miami,
through which the whole of his supplies came, he was to resume
offensive operations. That time never came. On the 8th of August,
Sandwich was evacuated. Two hundred and fifty men only were left
behind, in charge of a small fortress, a little below Detroit. When
again in Detroit, General Hull sent six hundred men under Colonel
Miller, to dislodge the British from Brownston. Major Muir, who
commanded at Brownston, instead of waiting for the attack, quixotically
went out to meet his adversaries. The two opposing detachments met at
Maguago, a kind of half way place, where a fight began. It was of short
duration, but, considering the numbers engaged, was sanguinary.
Seventy-five of the Americans fell, and the British were compelled,
though with inconsiderable loss, to retreat. On the water as on the
land, the chief mischief fell upon the Americans. Lieutenant Rolette,
with the boats of the _Queen Charlotte_ and _Hunter_, intercepted,
attacked, and captured eleven American batteaux and boats, which were
_en route_ for Detroit, under the escort of two hundred and fifty
American soldiers, marching along the shore, the boats and batteaux
having on board fifty-six wounded Americans and two English prisoners.
General Brocke, who had prorogued his Parliament, now appeared at the
seat of war. He had collected together a force of seven hundred of
British regulars and militia and six hundred auxiliary Indians. And he
very coolly determined upon obtaining the surrender of His Excellency,
General Hull, and his whole force. Knowing from his absurd proclamation,
how much in dread he stood of the Indians, General Brocke intimated
that if an attack were made, the Indians would be beyond his control;
that if Detroit were instantly surrendered, he would enter into
conditions such as would satisfy the most scrupulous sense of honor;
and that he had sent Lieutenant-Colonel McDonnell and Major Glegg with
full authority to conclude any arrangement that might prevent the
unnecessary effusion of blood. General Hull replied very courteously in
the negative. Captain Dixon, of the Royal Engineers, had thrown up a
battery in Sandwich, on the very ground so recently occupied by the
Americans, to act upon Detroit. In this battery there were two five and
a half inch mortars, and one eighteen and two twelve pounder guns, and
it was manned by sailors under the command of Captain Hull. For upwards
of an hour the cannonade was terrific, the fire of the enemy being very
feebly maintained, from two twenty-four pounders. On the morning of the
eighteenth, the cannonade recommenced, and General Brocke crossed the
river with his little army, unopposed, at the Spring Wells, three miles
below Detroit, the landing being effected under cover of the guns of
the _Queen Charlotte_ and _Hunter_. General Brocke formed his troops
upon the beach, into four deep, and flanked by the Indians, advanced
for about a mile, when he formed this miniature army into line, with
its right resting on the river Detroit, and the left supported by the
Indians. He then made preparations for assault, and was about to
attack, when to the surprise as much, it is said, of the American as of
the British regiments, a flag of truce was displayed upon the walls of
the fort, and a messenger was seen approaching. It was an intimation
that General Hull would capitulate. Lieutenant-Colonel McDonnell and
Major Glegg were accordingly sent over to the American General's tent
where, in a few minutes, the terms of capitulation were signed, sealed,
and delivered in duplicate, one copy for the information of His
Britannic Majesty, and the other for that of Mr. President Madison, the
chief of the authors of the war. To Mr. Madison, the information that
General Hull had capitulated to the Governor of Upper Canada, with two
thousand five hundred men, and thirty-three pieces of cannon, and that,
in consequence, the whole territory of Michigan had been ceded to Great
Britain, could only have been as disagreeable as it was animating to
the people of Canada. So entirely indeed were the Americans unprepared
for a blow of such extraordinary severity, that no one could be brought
to believe in it. It seemed an impossible circumstance. It was felt to
be a delusion. It seemed as if some one had practised a terrible hoax
upon the nation. Until officially made known to the sovereign people,
the disaster was looked upon as a lying rumour of the enemy. Another
Henry had been at work, tampering with the New England States, or the
federalist minority had set it afloat. True it could not be. It was
indeed something to excite surprise. The trophy of a British force,
consisting of no more than seven hundred men, including militia, and
six hundred Indians was the cession of a territory and the surrender of
a General-in-Chief, a strong fort, the armed brig _John Adams_, and the
two thousand five hundred men, who were designed not to defend their
country only, but to wrest Upper Canada from the Crown of Great
Britain. To General Hull's fears of the savage ferocity of the Indians,
this bloodless victory must, to some extent, however trifling, be
attributed. General Hull was evidently superstitiously afraid of an
Indian. While asking the inhabitants of Upper Canada to come to him for
protection, he could not help entreating, as it were, protection for
himself against the Indians. If you will not accept my offer, the
General seemed to say, either remain at home or cross bayonets with
American soldiers, but turn into the field one of the scalping savages
of your forests, and we shall kill, burn and destroy, everything that
comes before us. With his regular troops, the unfortunate man was sent
a prisoner to Montreal. He was led into that city, at the head of his
officers and men, and was at once an object of pity and derision. But
the Commander-in-Chief received his prisoner with the courtesy of a
gentleman, and with every honor due to his rank. Nay, he even suffered
him to return to the United States on parole, without solicitation.
In his official despatch, to the American government, Hull took pains
to free his conduct from censure. His reasons for surrender, were the
want of provisions to maintain the siege, the expected reinforcements
of the enemy, and "the savage ferocity of the Indians," should he
ultimately be compelled to capitulate. But the federal government so
far from being satisfied with these excuses, ordered a Court Martial to
assemble, before which General Hull was tried, on the charges of
treason, cowardice, and unofficerlike conduct. On the last charge only
was he found guilty and sentenced to death. The Court, nevertheless,
strongly recommended him to mercy. He was an old man, and one who, in
other times, had done the State some service. He had served honorably
during the revolutionary war. The sentence of death was accordingly
remitted by the President, but his name was struck off the army list,
and this republican hero, who had forgotten the art of war, went in his
old age, broken-hearted and disgraced, to a living grave, with a worm
in his vitals, gnawing and torturing him, more terribly than thousands
of Indians, practising the most unheard of cruelties could have done,
until death, so long denied, came to him, naturally, as a relief.
The circumstance is not a little curious that only three days after
General Hull had surrendered to Governor Brocke, Captain Dacres,
commanding H.M.S. _Guerrière_, had surrendered to Captain Isaac Hull,
after a most severe action with the American frigate _Constitution_.
The _Constitution_ was most heavily armed for a vessel of that period.
On her main deck she carried no less than 30 twenty-four pounders,
while on her upper deck she had 24 thirty-two pounders, and two
eighteens. In addition to this, for a frigate, unusually heavy
armament, there was a piece mounted, under her capstan, resembling
seven musket barrels, fixed together with iron bands, the odd concern
being discharged by a lock--each barrel threw twenty-five balls, within
a few seconds of each other, making 145 from the piece within two
minutes. And she was well manned. Her crew consisted of 476 men. The
_Guerrière_ mounted only 49 carriage guns, and was manned by only 244
men, and 19 boys. On the 19th of August, the look-out of the
_Guerrière_ noticed a sail on the weather beam. The ship was in
latitude 40°., 20 N., and in longitude 55°. W., and was steering under
a moderate breeze on the starboard tack. The strange sail seemed to be
bearing down upon the _Guerrière_, and it was not long before the
discovery was made that the stranger was a man-of-war, of great size
and largely masted. Her sailing qualities, under the circumstances,
were considerably superior to those of the _Guerrière_, and it became
consequently necessary to prepare for an action, which it was
impossible to avoid. At three o'clock, in the afternoon, Captain
Dacres, the commander of the British frigate, beat to quarters. An hour
later and the enemy was close at hand. She seemed to stand across the
_Guerrière's_ bows and Captain Dacres wore ship to avoid a raking fire.
No sooner had this manoeuvre been executed than the _Guerrière_ ran up
her colours and fired several shots at her opponent, but they fell
short. The stranger soon followed the example set to him, and, hoisting
American colours, fired in return. Captain Dacres now fully aware of
the size, armament and sailing powers of his opponent, wore repeatedly,
broadsides being as repeatedly exchanged. While both ships were keeping
up a heavy fire, and steering free, the _Constitution_, at five
o'clock, closed on the _Guerrière's_ starboard beam, when the battle
raged furiously. Twenty minutes had hardly elapsed when the mizen mast
of the _Guerrière_ was shot away, bringing the ship up into the wind,
and the carnage on board became terrific. The _Constitution_, during
the confusion, caused by the loss of the _Guerrière's_ mast, was laid
across the British frigate's bow, and while one or two of the bow guns
of the _Guerrière_ could only be brought to bear upon the _Constitution_,
that vessel scoured the decks of the British ship, with a stream of
metal. "At five minutes before six o'clock, says Captain Hull, when
within half pistol shot, we commenced a heavy fire from all our guns,
double shotted with round and grape." On board the _Guerrière_, Mr.
Grant, who commanded the forecastle, was carried below, the master was
shot through the knee; and I, says Captain Dacres, was shot in the
back. At twenty minutes past six the fore and mainmasts of the
_Guerrière_ went over the side, leaving her an unmanageable wreck. The
_Constitution_ ceased firing and shot a-head, her cabin having taken
fire from the _Guerrière's_ guns. The _Guerrière_ would have renewed
the action, but the wreck of the masts had no sooner been cleared than
the spritsail yard went, and the _Constitution_ having no new braces,
wore round within pistol shot again to rake her opponent. The crippled
ship lay in the trough of the sea, rolling her main deck guns under
water. Thirty shots had taken effect in her hull, about five sheets of
copper down; the mizen mast, after it fell, had knocked a large hole
under her starboard quarter, and she was so completely shattered as to
be in a sinking state. The decks were swimming with blood. Fifteen men
had been killed and sixty-three had been severely wounded, when Captain
Dacres called his officers together and consulted them. Farther waste
of life was useless, and the British colours were dropped in submission
to those of America. But the result of the contest, though it could not
fail to cause great exultation in the United States, reflected no
dishonor upon the flag of Britain. A more unequal contest had never
before been maintained with such spirit, zeal, skill, or bravery. The
battle had lasted for nearly three hours and a half, and the result was
the sure effect of size, as all things being otherwise equal, the
heavier must overcome the lighter body. When the _Guerrière_
surrendered, it was only to permit her gallant commander, her other
officers, and the men, the wounded and the untouched, to be transferred
for safety from a watery grave to the _Constitution_. Captain Hull, the
conqueror, told his government that the _Guerrière_ had been totally
dismasted and otherwise cut to pieces, so as to make her not worth
towing into port. With four feet of water in her hold, she was
abandoned and blown up. The _Constitution_ had only the Lieutenant of
Marines and six seamen killed, and two officers, four seamen, and one
marine wounded.
On each side there was now something to be proud of and something to
regret. If the British exulted over the fall of Detroit and the
surrender of General Hull, and the United States viewed these
occurrences with indescribable pain and a sense of humiliation, the
Americans could now boast of the success of their arms at sea, while
Britain regretted a disaster upon that element, on which she had long
held and yet holds the undisputed mastery. There was now no room for
the American government, on the ground of having been too much
humiliated, to refuse peace if it were offered to her. Yet peace was
refused. Soon after these occurrences the news of the repeal of the
Orders in Council reached this continent, and the ground of quarrel
being removed, peace was expected, and an armistice was agreed to
between the British Governor of Canada, Sir George Prevost and General
Dearborn, the American commander-in-chief, on the northern frontier.
But the American government, bent upon the conquest of this province,
disavowed the armistice and determined upon the vigorous prosecution of
the contest. It was then that the Northern States of the American
Union, who were the most likely to suffer by the war became clamorous
for peace. The whole brunt of the battle, by land, was necessarily to
be borne by the State of New York, and the interruption of the
transatlantic traffic was to fall with overwhelmingly disastrous
pressure upon Massachusetts and Connecticut. Addresses to the President
were sent in, one after another, from the Northeastern States,
expressing dissatisfaction with the war and the utmost abhorrence of
the alliance between imperial France and republican America. They would
have none of it, and if French troops were introduced into their
States, as auxiliaries, New England would look upon them and would
treat them as enemies. Nay, the Northern States went still further. Two
of the States, Connecticut and Massachusetts, openly refused to send
their contingents or to impose the taxes which had been voted by
Congress, and "symptoms of a decided intention to break off from the
confederacy were already evinced in the four Northern States,
comprising New York, and the most opulent and powerful portions of the
Union."[17]
[17] Alison's History of Europe, page 662, vol. 10.
General Brocke, ignorant of the armistice, and indeed it did not affect
him, for General Hull had acted under the immediate orders of the
American Secretary at War, and was consequently irresponsible to
General Dearborn, with the aid of the Lilliputian navy of the Lakes,
was maintaining the ascendancy of Great Britain in Upper Canada and
Michigan. He was about indeed to make an attempt upon Niagara, to be
followed by another upon Sackett's Harbour, with that daring,
promptitude and judgment, which was characteristic of the man, when he
received instructions from the Governor General to rest a little.
Following the advice of the Duke of Wellington, Sir George Prevost had
wisely determined not to make a war of aggression with the only handful
of troops that could be spared to him from the scene of prouder
triumphs and of harder and more important struggles. But the American
government, indifferent to the menaces of the Northern Provinces of the
Union, and mistaking for weakness the conciliatory advances of Sir
George Prevost, soon disturbed the rest of the gallant Brocke. Early on
the morning of the 13th of October, a detachment of between a thousand
and thirteen hundred men, from the American army of the centre, under
the immediate command of Colonel Solomon Van Rensellaer,[18] crossed
the river Niagara, and attacked the British position of Queenstown. It
was when Van Rensellaer having himself crossed, and the British had
been driven from their position, that General Brocke, and about six
hundred of the 49th regiment, in the grey of the morning, arrived at
the scene of conflict. The Americans being about the same time
reinforced by the addition of regulars and militia. General Brocke put
himself at the head of the 49th's Grenadiers, and while gallantly
cheering them on, he fell mortally wounded, and soon after died. His
trusty aid-de-camp, the brave Colonel McDonell, fell beside him, almost
at the same moment, never again to rise in life. The 49th fought
stoutly for a time, but, discouraged by the loss of the General, they
fell back and the position was lost. But the fortune of the day was not
yet decided, although Van Rensellaer, with the aid of Mr. Totter, his
Lieutenant of Engineers, had somewhat strengthened the recently
captured position on the heights. Reinforcements, consisting partly of
regular troops, partly of militia, and partly of Chippewa Indians, in
all about eight or nine hundred men, came up about three in the
afternoon, to strengthen and encourage the discomfitted 49th, under
General Roger Sheaffe, who now assumed the command. A combined attack
was made on the Americans by the English troops and artillery, in front
and flank, while Norton, with a considerable body of Indians, menaced
their other extremity. It was entirely successful. The Americans were
totally defeated, and one General Officer, (Wadsworth, commanding in
the room of General Van Rensellaer, who had re-crossed the river to
accelerate the embarkation of the militia, which, though urged,
entreated, and commanded to embark, remained idle spectators, while
their countrymen were, as the American accounts say, struggling for
victory,) two Lieutenant-Colonels, five Majors, and a corresponding
number of Captains and subalterns, with nine hundred men, were made
prisoners; one gun and two colours were taken; and there were four
hundred killed and wounded, while the loss on the side of the British
did not exceed seventy men. Thus was the battle won. It had cost
England an excellent soldier, a man who thoroughly understood his duty,
and felt his position in whatever capacity he was placed. He died at
the age of 42, and the remains of this gallant defender of Upper Canada
were buried at Fort George, together with those of his aid-de-camp,
Colonel McDonell. One grave contained both. General Brocke was buried
amidst the tears of those whom he had often led to victory, and amidst
the sympathetic sorrowing of even those who had caused his death.
Minute guns were fired during the funeral, alike from the American as
from the British batteries. Thus it was with the Americans on land. It
was, as has been seen, very different on the sea. And the first
rencontre took place on the latter element. When war was declared it
was with the intention of intercepting the homeward bound West India
fleet of British merchantmen. Three frigates, one sloop, and one brig
of war, under the command of Captain Rogers, of the American frigate
_President_, were despatched on that errand. It was about three on
the morning of the 23rd of June, that Captain Rogers was informed, by
an American brig, bound from Madeira to New York, that four days before
a fleet of British merchantmen, were seen under convoy of a frigate and
a brig, steering to the eastward. Captain Rogers accordingly shaped his
course in pursuit of them. At six o'clock in the morning, a sail was
descried, which was soon discovered to be a frigate. The signal was
made for a chase, and the squadron made all sail on the starboard tack.
This being perceived by Captain Byrn, who commanded the British frigate
_Belvidera_, protecting the convoy, he tacked and made all sail,
steering northeast by east. It was now eight o'clock in the morning,
and the _President_ seemed to be gaining on the _Belvidera_,
leaving her consorts, however, far behind her. About half past three in
the afternoon, the _President_ fired three guns, the shot from one
of which was terribly destructive. Two men were killed, and Lieutenant
Bruce and four men were more or less severely wounded. Broadside after
broadside was fired by both vessels soon afterwards, and the
_President_ at last bore off. Each party lost about twenty-two
men, but the British frigate had the advantage. Her guns were pointed
with great skill, and produced a surprising effect, as the American
squadron failed in taking the single English frigate, and the whole
merchantmen escaped untouched. Indeed after a cruise of twenty days and
before the declaration of hostilities was known at sea, the American
squadron returned to port, having only captured seven merchantmen.
[18] Alison says under the command of General Wadsworth, but
Christie speaks of Brigadier-General Van Rensellaer, while the
American accounts speak of Colonel Solomon Van Rensellaer. In
this case Mr. Christie and the Americans are to be preferred to
Alison.
The action between the _Constitution_ and the _Guerrière_ occurred
after this event, the result of which has been already stated, somewhat
out of place, it is true, but, with the design of exhibiting how a
peace might have been effected, had it been desired by the Americans,
without loss of honor on either side. The simultaneousness of the
advantages gained by the British on the land, and of the advantages
gained by the Americans on the sea, is not a little remarkable, nor is
it less remarkable that after the tide of battle had slightly turned
with the British on land, towards the close of the war, the naval
actions at sea were nearly all to the disadvantage of the Americans. It
would seem that providence had designed to humble the pride of the
unnatural combatants.
About the exact time of the surrender of General Wadsworth, at
Queenston, an engagement occurred between the English sloop of war
_Frolic_, and the American brig of war _Wasp_, which proved disastrous
to the former. As far as the number of guns went, both vessels were
equal. Each had eighteen guns, nine to a broadside, but while the sloop
had only 92 men and measured only 384 tons, the brig had 135 men and
measured 434 tons. The _Frolic_, on the night of the 17th of October,
had been overtaken by a most violent gale of wind, in which she carried
away her mainyard, lost her topsails, and sprung her maintopmast. It
was, while repairing damages, on the morning of the 18th, that Captain
Whinyates, of the _Frolic_, was made aware of the presence of a
suspicious looking vessel, in chase of the convoy, which the _Frolic_
had in charge. The merchant ships continued their voyage with all sails
set, and the _Frolic_, dropping astern, hoisted Spanish colours to
decoy the stranger under her guns and give time for the convoy to
escape. The vessels soon approached sufficiently to exchange
broadsides, and the firing of the _Frolic_ was admirable. But the
vessel could not be worked easily, and the gaff braces being shot away,
while no sail could be or was placed upon the mainmast, her opponent
easily got the advantage of position. To be brief, the storm of the
night before had given the _Wasp_ an advantage which, neither nautical
skill, nor undaunted resolution could counteract, and the _Frolic_, an
unmanageable log upon the ocean, was compelled to strike. Undoubtedly
this was another triumph to the United States, although, materially
considered, the gain was not much. In only a few hours after this
action, both the _Wasp_ and the _Frolic_ were surrendered to H.M.S.
_Poictiers_, of seventy-four guns.
Seven days afterwards, another naval engagement occurred, more
tellingly disastrous to Great Britain. The _United States_, a frigate
of fifteen hundred tons burthen, carrying 30 long 24-pounders, on her
main deck, and 22 42-pounders, with two long 24-pounders, on quarter
deck and forecastle, howitzer guns in her tops, and a travelling
carronade on her deck, with a complement of 478 picked men,[19] was
perceived by H.M. frigate _Macedonian_, of 1081 tons, carrying 49 guns,
and manned by 254 men and 35 boys. The _Macedonian_ approached the
enemy and the enemy backed her sails, awaiting the attack, after the
firing had continued for about an hour, at long range. When in close
battle, Captain Carden perceived that he had no chance of success, but
he was determined to fight his ship while she floated and was
manageable, hoping for, rather than expecting, some lucky hit, which
would so cripple the enemy as to permit the _Macedonian_, if no more
could be done, to bear off with honor. But the fortune of war was
adverse. Every shot told with deadly and destructive effect upon the
_Macedonian_, and even yet, with nearly a hundred shots in her hull,
her lower guns under water, in a tempestuous sea, and a third of her
crew either killed or wounded, Captain Carden fought his ship. To
"conquer or die," was his motto, and the motto of a brave crew, some of
whom even stood on deck, after having paid a visit to the cockpit, and
submitted to the amputation of an arm, grinning defiance, and anxious
to be permitted the chance of boarding with their fellows, when Captain
Carden called up his boarders as a _dernier resort_. But boarding was
rendered impossible, as the fore brace was shot away, and the yard
swinging round, the vessel was thrown upon the wind. The _United
States_ made sail ahead and the crew of the _Macedonian_ fancying that
she was taking her leave cheered lustily. They were not long deceived.
Having refilled her cartridges, the _United States_, at a convenient
distance, stood across the bows of her disabled antagonist, and soon
compelled her to strike. While the _Macedonian_ had thirty-six killed
and sixty-eight wounded, the _United States_ had only five killed and
seven _hors de combat_.
It was such advantages as these that induced the Americans to continue
the war. The Americans were inflated with pride. In their own
estimation they had become a first rate maritime power, and even in the
eyes of Europe, it seemed that they were destined to become so. The
disparity in force was justly less considered than the result. However
bravely the British commanders had fought their ships, the disasters
were no less distressing, politically considered, than if they had been
the result of positive weakness or of lamentable cowardice. These
advantages even compensated in glory to the Northeastern States for the
losses which their commerce had sustained, and would, had they
continued very much longer, have stimulated them to forget their
selfishness, their bankruptcies, and their privations, though perhaps
they tended on the other hand, to cause less vigorous efforts to be
made for the acquisition of Canada, than otherwise would have been the
case, by rivetting the public attention of America more on the
successful operations by sea than on their own disastrous operations by
land. There was yet another disaster to overtake Great Britain. And it
was little wonder. The Lords of the Admiralty, wedded to old notions,
unlike the Heads of the Naval Department of the United States, were
slow to alter the build or armament of the national ships. They seemed
to think that success must ultimately be dependent upon pluck, and that
there could be again few instances in which a sloop could be so
disabled by a storm as to be unable to cope with a brig, better manned,
better armed, and in good sailing trim. They continued to send
slow-sailing brigs and ill-armed sloops-of-war, for the protection of
large fleets of merchantmen, with valuable cargoes, while the frigates
of the enemy, in search of them, whether in the calm or in the storm,
were faster than British seventy-fours, and were equal to British ships
of the line in armament. It was after the loss of the _Macedonian_ that
the British Admiralty commissioned and sent to sea the frigate _Java_,
of the same tonnage, with the same deficiency of men, and, worse than
all, half of whom were landsmen, and of exactly the same armament as
the _Macedonian_, only that her weight of metal was less, to cope with
such frigates as the _United States_, the _President_, and the
_Constitution_. On the 12th of November, the _Java_ sailed from
Spithead, the remonstrances of Captain Lambert against the inadequacy
and inexperience of his crew being of no avail with the authorities. He
was told, when he insisted that he was no match for an American, even
of equal size, that "a voyage to the East Indies and back would make a
good crew." The difficulties in the way of getting to the East Indies,
to say nothing of coming back again, never entered into the heads of
men, who had long been laid up in ordinary, and were dry-rotting to
decay. These were the men who sent the water casks to contain the fresh
water of His Majesty's vessels afloat on our fresh water lakes. Then,
as now, were the wrong men in the wrong places. Men, who should have
been in Greenwich Hospital, talking of times gone by, or living in
dignified retirement, were entrusted with the management of affairs in
a new age, the country rather losing than gaining by their individual
experiences. And the British public stung to the quick, were aware of
it. The correctness of Captain Lambert's judgment was too soon brought
to the test. The _Java_ fell in with the _Constitution_ on the 28th of
December, when the latter stood off as the former approached, to gain a
first advantage by firing at long range. But as the _Java_ was fast
gaining upon her, the _Constitution_ made a virtue of necessity, and
shortened sail, placing herself under the lee bow of the _Java_, so
that in close action, the crew of the _Constitution_ might fight like
men behind a rampart, while the crew of the _Java_ stood at their guns
_en barbette_. The action immediately commenced, and the effect of the
_Java's_ first broadside, on the enemy's hull, was such that the
American wore to get away. Captain Lambert also wore his ship, and a
running fight was kept up with great spirit for forty minutes. The
_Java_ had, as yet, suffered little, but the vessels coming within
pistol shot, a determined action ensued. Captain Lambert had resolved
upon boarding his enemy, if it were possible in any measure to effect
it. With that view he was closing upon his antagonist, when the
foremast of the _Java_ fell suddenly and with a crash so tremendous as
to break in the forecastle and cover the deck with the wreck. Only a
moment later and the main topmast also fell upon the deck, while
Captain Lambert lay weltering in his blood, mortally wounded.
Lieutenant Chads, on whom the command now devolved, found the _Java_
perfectly unmanageable. The wreck of the masts hung over the side, next
to the enemy, and every discharge of the _Java's_ own guns set her on
fire. Yet, Lieutenant Chads continued the action for three hours and a
half, until the _Java_ was felt to be going down. It was then that the
_Constitution_ assumed a raking position, and it was then only that
Lieutenant Chads struck. The _Java_ was no prize to the victors of
great value, for her crew were no sooner taken out than the American
commander blew her up. In this desperate engagement the _Java_ had
twenty-two killed and one hundred and two wounded; the _Constitution_
had ten killed and forty wounded. Captain Lambert's worst fears had
been realised, and the death of that gallant and skilful sailor aroused
a tongue which, in Great Britain, has a potency and influence, such as
official insolence cannot withstand, nor official incapacity escape
from. The spirit of the "Times" was up. The voice of the many loudly
condemned the incompetency of the few. The conduct of the war had now
become a matter of moment, and reforms, in the marine department at
least, were imperative.
[19] Captain Carden's despatch to Mr. Croker.
By the fall of Gen'l. Brocke, the civil governorship of the Upper
province devolved upon Major Gen'l. Roger Sheaffe, the senior military
officer there, and to him, Gen'l. Smyth, the new American commander at
Niagara, applied for an armistice, which was granted, and which lasted
from the battle of Queenston until the 20th of November. Nothing could
have been more silly than this consent to an armistice on the part of a
general so very fortunate as General Sheaffe had been. He needed no
rest. He could gain nothing by inactivity. Delay necessary to the enemy
was of course injurious to him. Without any molestation whatever the
Americans were enabled to forward their naval stores from Black Rock to
Presque Isle, by water, which, had hostilities been active, would have
been impossible. This truce, not to bury the dead, or preparatory to
submission, was obtained with the view of gaining time, so that a fleet
might be equipped to co-operate with the army, by wresting from the
British their previous superiority on the lakes. General Smyth had,
with the true trickery of the diplomatist, rather than with the blunt
honesty of the soldier, exerted himself during the armistice, in the
preparation of boats for another attempt to invade Upper Canada.
Alexander Smyth, Brigadier-General, in command of the American army of
the centre, though a rogue, in a diplomatic point of view, was not
necessarily a fool. He had shrewd notions in a small way. Like a true
downeast Yankee, he knew the effect of soft sawder upon human nature.
Like the unfortunate Hull, before taking possession of a territory so
extensive as Upper Canada, he thought it necessary to assure the
stranger that he was, on submitting to be conquered, to become "a
fellow citizen." He proclaimed this interesting fact to his own
companions in arms. If the stranger citizens behaved peaceably, they
were to be secure in their persons, as a matter of course, but only in
their properties so far as Alexander's imperious necessities would
admit, and how far that would have been, time was to unfold. He
strictly forbade private plundering, but whatever was "booty,"
according to the usages of war--"booty and beauty," doubtless
combined,--Alexander's soldiery were to have. Appealing to the
trader-instincts of his hordes, he offered two hundred dollars a head
for artillery horses, of the enemy, and forty dollars for the arms and
spoils of each savage warrior, who should be killed, and every man, who
should shrink, in the moment of trial, was to be consigned to "eternal
infamy." The watchword of the "patriots," was to be "the cannon lost at
Detroit or death."
During the truce, in Upper Canada, there was some skirmishing in Lower
Canada. At St. Régis, four hundred Americans surprised the Indian
village. Twenty-three men were made prisoners, and Lieutenant Rolette,
with Serjeant McGillivray, and six men were slain. But to
counterbalance this affair, a month later, some detachments of the 49th
regiment, a few artillery, and seventy militiamen from Cornwall and
Glengary, surrounded a block house at the Salmon River, and made
prisoners of a Captain, two subalterns and forty men; four batteaux and
fifty-seven stand of arms, falling also into the hands of the captors.
In no way discouraged, however much they may have been irritated by
these repeated failures, which had not even the excuse of inferiority
in numbers, or in any want of the materials of war, if the want of
vessels on the lake be not considered, the American government
energetically exerted itself to augment their naval forces on the lakes
and to reinforce General Dearborn. Indeed, that officer was now at the
head of ten thousand men, at Plattsburgh, and the American fleet on
Lake Ontario was already so much superior to that of the British, as to
make it necessary for the latter to remain inactive in harbour. The
British ship _Royal George_, was actually chased into Kingston channel,
and was there cannonaded for some time. It was only when the American
fleet came within range of the Kingston forts that they hauled off to
Four Mile Point, and anchored, the commander taking time to reflect
upon the expediency of bombarding Kingston. Next morning, having come
to an opposite conclusion, he stood out with his fleet into the open
lake and fell in with the _Governor Simcoe_. A chase was commenced, and
the _Governor Simcoe_ narrowly escaped by running over a reef of rocks,
and making for Kingston, which, like the _Royal George_, she reached
more hotly pursued than she had bargained for. It was late in the
season, and the weather becoming more and more boisterous, the
Americans bore away for Sackett's Harbour, in making for which they
captured two British schooners, taking from one of them, Captain
Brocke, the paymaster of the 49th regiment of the line, who had with
him the plate which had belonged to his gallant deceased brother, the
late Governor of Upper Canada. But the American Commodore Chancey,
generously paroled him, and suffered him to retain the plate.
Unable to remain longer inactive, General Dearborn, in command of the
American army of the north, approached Lower Canada. On the 17th of
November, Major DeSalaberry, commanding the Canadian Cordon and
advanced posts, on the line, received intelligence of Lieutenant
Phillips, that the enemy, ten thousand strong, were rapidly advancing
upon Odelltown. There was no time to be lost and he set about
strengthening his position as speedily as he could. Two companies of
Canadian Voltigeurs, three hundred Indians, and a few militia
volunteers were obtained from the neighboring parishes, and there was
every disposition manifested to give the intruders a warm reception.
The enemy, however, halted at the town of Champlain, and nothing of
moment occurred until the 20th of November, when the Captain of the
day, or rather of the night, as it was only three in the morning,
noticed the enemy fording the river Lacolle. Retracing his steps, he
had only time to warn the piquet of their danger, when a volley was
fired by the Americans, who had surrounded the log guard-house, at so
inconsiderable a distance that the burning wads set fire to the birch
covering of the roof, until the guard-house was consumed. But long
before that happened, the militia and Indians had discharged their
guns, and dashed through the enemy's ranks. It was dark, and the
position which the Americans had taken, with the view of surrounding
the guard-house, contributed somewhat to their own destruction. In a
circle, face to face, they mistook each other in the darkness, and
fought gallantly and with undoubted obstinacy. Neither side of the
circle seemed willing to yield. For half an hour a brisk fire was kept
up, men fell, and groaned, and died; and the consequences might have
been yet more dreadful had not the moon, hidden until now by clouds,
revealed herself to the astonished combatants. The victors and the
vanquished returned together to Champlain, leaving behind four killed
and five wounded. From the wounded prisoners, whom, with the dead, the
Indians picked off the battle field, it was learned that the
unsuccessful invaders consisted of fourteen hundred men and a troop of
dragoons, commanded by Colonels Pyke and Clarke.
Unfortunate to the Americans as this night attack had been, it was
sufficient to lead the Governor General of Canada to the conclusion
that it would not be the last. Nay, he was persuaded that a most
vigorous attempt at invasion would be made, and having no Parliament to
consult, nor any public opinion to fear, he turned out the whole
militia of the province for active service, and ordered them to be in
readiness to march to the frontier. Lieutenant-Colonel Deschambault was
directed to cross the St. Lawrence at Lachine, and from Caughnawaga, to
march to the Pointe Claire, Rivière-du-Chène, Vaudreuil, and Longue
Pointe. Battalions upon L'Acadie, and volunteers from the foot
battalions, with the flank companies of the second and third battalions
of the Montreal militia, and a troop of militia dragoons, crossed to
Longueil and to Laprairie. Indeed the whole district of Montreal, armed
to the teeth, and filled with enthusiasm, simultaneously moved in the
direction from whence danger was expected. General Dearborn quietly
retreated upon Plattsburgh and Burlington, and, like a sensible man, as
he undoubtedly was, abandoned for the winter, all idea of taking
possession of Lower Canada.
On the 28th of November, the armistice being at end, General Smyth
invaded Upper Canada, at the foot of Lake Erie. With a division of
fourteen boats, each containing thirty men, a landing was effected
between Fort Erie and Chippewa, not however unopposed. Lieutenant King,
of the Royal Artillery, and Lieutenants Lamont and Bartley, each in
command of thirty men of the gallant 49th, gave the enemy a reception
more warm than welcome. Overwhelmed, however, by numbers, the artillery
and the detachment of the 49th, under Lamont gave way, when Lieutenant
King had succeeded in spiking his guns. Lamont and King were both
wounded, and with thirty men, were overtaken by the enemy and made
prisoners. Bartley fought steadily and fiercely. His gallant band was
reduced to seventeen, before he even thought of a retreat, which his
gallantry and tact enabled him to effect. The American boats had, while
Bartley was keeping up the fight, returned to the American shore with
the prisoners, and as many Americans as could crowd into them, leaving
Captain King, General Smyth's aid-de-camp, to find his way back, as
best he might. He moved down the river shore with a few officers and
forty men, followed, from Fort Erie, by Major Ormsby, who made them all
prisoners with exceedingly little trouble. Unconscious of any disaster,
another division of Americans, in eighteen boats, made for the Canada
shore. Colonel Bishop had now arrived from Chippewa, and had formed a
junction with Major Ormsby, the Commandant of Fort Erie, and with
Colonel Clarke and Major Hall, of the militia. There were collected
together, under this excellent officer, about eleven hundred men,
taking into account detachments of the 41st, 49th, and Royal
Newfoundland regiments, and in addition, some Indians. The near
approach of the Americans was calmly waited for. A cheer at last burst
from the British ranks and a steady and deadly fire of artillery and
musketry was opened upon the enemy. The six-pounder, in charge of
Captain Kirby, of the Royal Artillery, destroyed two of the boats. The
enemy were thrown into confusion, and retired.
General Smyth again tried the effect of diplomacy upon the stubborn
British. He displayed his whole force of full six thousand men, upon
his own side of the river. Colonel Bishop ordered the guns which had
been spiked to be rendered serviceable, and the spikes having been
withdrawn, the guns were remounted and about to open fire, with the
view of scattering the valiant enemy, when a flag of truce brought a
note from General Smyth. It was simply a summons to surrender Fort
Erie, with a view of saving the further effusion of blood. He was
requested to "come and take it," but did not make another attempt until
the 1st of December, when the American troops embarked merely again to
disembark and go into winter quarters. Murmur and discontent filled the
American camp, disease and death were now so common, and General
Smyth's self-confidence was so inconsiderable that the literary hero,
who had spoken of the "eternal infamy" that awaits him who "basely
shrinks in the moment of trial," literally fled from his own camp,
afraid of his own soldiery, who were exasperated at his incapacity.
Thus ended the first year of the invasion. The Americans had learned,
the not unimportant lesson, that, as a general rule, it is so much more
easy successfully to resist aggression, than, as the aggressor, to be
successful. The invasion of any country, if only occupied by savages,
requires more means than is generally supposed.
Sir George Prevost, somewhat relieved from the anxiety attendant upon
anticipated and actual invasions, now summoned his Parliament of Lower
Canada, to meet for the despatch of business. He opened the session on
the 29th of December, and in his speech from the throne, alluded to the
honorable termination of the campaign, without much effusion of blood,
any loss of territory, or recourse having been had to martial law. He
proudly alluded to the achievements in Upper Canada, and feelingly
alluded to the loss sustained by the country, in the death of General
Brocke. He spoke of the recent advantages gained over the enemy in both
provinces, and recommended fervent acknowledgements to the ruler of the
universe, without whose aid the battle is not to the strong nor the
race to the swift. And it was not alone for such advantages, great as
they were, that the country had to be thankful; the Marquis of
Wellington had gained a series of splendid victories in Spain and
Portugal. In Spain and Portugal British valour had appeared in its
native vigour, encouraging the expectation that these countries would
soon be relieved from the miseries which had desolated them. His Royal
Highness, the Prince Regent, had directed him to thank the House for
their loyalty and attachment. His Royal Highness felt not the slightest
apprehension of insidious attacks upon the loyalty of a people who had
acted so liberally and loyally as the Canadians had done. Sir George
spoke of the beneficial effects arising from the Army Bill Act, and
recommended it to their further consideration. The militia had been
called out and had given him the cheering satisfaction of having been a
witness of a public spiritedness, and of a love of country, religion,
and the laws, which elsewhere might have been equalled, but could not
be anywhere excelled. He recommended a revision of the militia law and
urged upon the legislature the expediency of concluding the public
business with dispatch.
Sir George had aroused the better feelings of the country. His words
fell gratefully upon the ear. The Canadian people and their
representatives felt that they were treated with respect and were proud
in the knowledge of deserving it. All that the Assembly wanted was the
confidence and affection of their sovereign. No longer treated with
suspicion and looked upon with aversion they were ready to sacrifice
everything for their country, and the reply of the House of Assembly
was an assent to his every wish.
As soon as the House had proceeded to business, Mr. James Stuart, one
of the members for Montreal, with the view of embarrassing the
government, and with no purpose of creating uneasiness in England,
moved for an enquiry into the causes and injurious consequences that
might have resulted from the delay incurred in the publication of the
laws of the Provincial Parliament, passed in the previous session. His
assigned object in making the motion was to palliate the conduct of the
Pointe Claire rioters. The motion carried and the Clerks and other
officers of the Upper House were summoned to attend at the Bar of the
Assembly. The Upper House, seemingly, considered that their officers
had equal privileges with themselves, and at first refused to allow
these gentlemen to attend, but, seeing the Assembly resolute, and being
anxious not to throw any obstacle in the way of the speedy despatch of
the public business, they permitted their attendance under protest. The
result of the enquiry amounted to nothing, and the House proceeded to
other business. The subject of appointing an agent to England was again
considered, but postponed until a more suiting time, when the propriety
of an income tax was discussed. It was indeed resolved in the Assembly
to impose a tax upon persons enjoying salaries from the government, of
fifteen per cent upon such as had £1,500 a year, twelve per cent upon
such as had £1,000 and upwards, ten per cent upon £500 and upwards, and
five per cent upon every £250 and upwards. The bill was, of course,
rejected by the Council. The Assembly, however, firmly convinced of the
loyalty of the people, were neither to be cajoled nor brow-beaten out
of their rights, and they proceeded to other business of a singularly
unpleasant character to the higher powers. Mr. Stuart, the leader of
the opposition, was a man of extraordinary capacity and of great
firmness of purpose. Those who had made Sir James Craig do him an
injustice still held their appointments, and he was determined to bring
about a change without the slightest regard whatever to the
consequences of change. He moved for an enquiry into the power and
authority exercised by His Majesty's Courts of Law, with a view to put
a stop to such trifling with justice as had been exhibited in the
arrest and imprisonment of Mr. Bedard and others. It was asserted by
Mr. Stuart that under the name of Rules of Practice, the Chief Justice,
in league with the government, had subverted the laws of the province,
and had assumed legislative authority, to impose illegal burthens and
restraints upon His Majesty's subjects, in the exercise of their legal
rights, which were altogether inconsistent with the duties of a Court
and subversive of the rights and liberties of the subject. The House
granted the enquiry sought for, and proceeded to other business. But it
is here worthy of note that Mr. Bedard, who had been so unjustly
treated by Sir James Craig, in virtue of these Rules of Practice, had
now triumphed over his enemies. He, who only two years back, had been
presented, at the instance of the government, by the Grand Juries of
Quebec and Montreal, was now seated upon the Bench as Provincial Judge
for the District of Three Rivers, and thus, says his secret enemy, Mr.
Ryland, is he associated with the Chief Justice of the province, who,
in his capacity of Executive Councillor, had concurred in his
commitment to the gaol of Quebec, on treasonable practices. It was to
secure the independence of the judges by freeing them from executive
trammels, that Mr. James Stuart himself, afterwards Chief Justice of
the province, and a Baronet of the United Kingdom, moved for an enquiry
concerning their Rules of Practice, rules obviously incompatible with
the liberty of speech and with the freedom of the press. The enquiry
had an excellent indirect effect. It seemed to some extent, to have
secured the liberty of the press. From the time, says Mr. Ryland, that
the Assembly began its attacks on the Courts of Justice, the
licentiousness of a press, (the _Gazette_,) recently established at
Montreal, has appeared to have no bounds. Every odium that can be
imagined, is attempted in that publication, to be thrown on the memory
of the late Governor-in-Chief, on the principal officers of government,
and on the Legislative Council. The people's minds are poisoned and the
disorganizing party encouraged to proceed. Thus is it led to hope that
any future Governor may be deterred from exercising that vigor, which
the preservation of His Majesty's government may require. A higher
tribute to a free press no man ever paid than that. The hope has been
realised, the trials have all been passed through, and persecutions for
opinion's sake must now be cloaked, at least, by something more than
expediency.
The Assembly next proceeded to the consideration of the expediency of
legally enlarging the limits and operation of martial law, as
recommended in the speech from the throne, and reported that such
enlargement was inexpedient. The House then renewed the Army Bill Act,
authorised the sum of five hundred pounds to be put in circulation, and
commissioners were appointed to ascertain the current rate of exchange
on London, which holders were entitled to recover from government.
Fifteen thousand pounds were granted for the equipment of the militia,
and £1,000 additional for military hospital. Towards the support of the
war £25,000 were granted. £400 were granted for the improvement of the
communication between Upper and Lower Canada. A duty of two and a half
per cent, for the further support of the war was placed upon all
imported merchandize, with the exception of provisions, and two and a
half per cent additional on imports by merchants or others not having
been six months resident. A motion was made by one of the most
independent members of the Assembly, for a committee of the whole, to
enquire whether or not it was necessary to adopt an address to the King
concerning the impropriety of the judges being members of the
Legislative Council. But the motion was not pressed. This gentleman,
though very desirous of as much liberty as it was possible to obtain
for himself, was not particularly disposed to give an undue share to
others. He took umbrage at an article communicated to the _Mercury_,
ably written, and perhaps, at the time, strikingly true, relative to
the conduct which Mr. Stuart had been and was pursuing, since he had
been stript of his official situation by the late Governor. It was
hinted that the discontented legislator was actuated in his opposition
to the government by no unfriendly feeling to the United States. It was
asked if he were not determined to be somebody. He was a man not unlike
him who fired the temple of Ephesus. He was sowing seeds of
embarrassment and delay, and picking out flaws, with the microscope of
a lawyer, in the proceedings of the government. And he was prostituting
his talents and perverting his energies. The House resolved that the
letter of "Juniolus Canadensis," was a libel, and perhaps it was, but
if so, Mr. Stuart had the Courts of Law open to him, and therefore the
interference of the House was as silly as it was tyrannical. Mr. Cary,
the publisher of the _Mercury_, evaded the Sergeant-at-Arms, and
laughed at the silliness of the collective wisdom afterwards. The House
was prorogued on the 15th of February. The war had not so far produced
any injurious effect on the commerce of the country The revenue was
£61,193 currency, and the expenditure, which included the extraordinary
amount of £55,000 granted towards the support of the militia, was only
£98,777. The arrivals at Quebec numbered 399 vessels of 86,437 tons,
and in 1812, twenty vessels were built at the port of Quebec.
The first operations of the next campaign, in 1813, were favorable to
the British. On the 22nd of January, a severe action was fought at the
River Raisin, about twenty-six miles from Detroit, between a detachment
from the north-eastern army of the United States, exceeding seven
hundred and fifty men, under General Winchester, and a combined force
of eleven hundred British and Indians, under Colonel Proctor. General
Harrison, in command of the north western army of the United States,
was stationed at Franklintown. Anxious, at any cost, to afford the
discontented and sickly troops under him, active employment, he
detached General Winchester with his seven or eight hundred, or, as it
is even said, a thousand men, to take possession of Frenchtown. This,
General Winchester had little difficulty in doing, as he was only
opposed by a few militiamen and some Indians, under Major Reynolds. The
intelligence of the capture of Frenchtown had, however, no sooner
reached Colonel Proctor than he collected his men together and marched
with great celerity from Brownston to Stoney Creek. Next morning, at
the break of day, he resolutely attacked the enemy's camp and a bloody
engagement ensued. General Winchester fell into the hands of the chief
of the Wyandot Indians, soon after the action began, and was sent a
prisoner to Colonel Proctor. The Americans soon retreated, taking
refuge behind houses and fences, and, terribly afraid of the Indians,
determinedly resisted. The Americans blazed away; every fence and
window of the village vomited a flame of fire; but the British, with
their auxiliary Indians, were still driving in the enemy, and about to
set the houses on fire, when the captured General Winchester,
stipulated for a surrender. On condition of being protected from the
Indians, he assured Colonel Proctor that the Americans would yield, and
this assurance being given, General Winchester caused a flag of truce
to be sent to his men, calling upon them to lay down their arms, which
they were only too glad to do. The Americans lost between three and
four hundred in killed alone; while one brigadier-general, three field
officers, nine captains, twenty subalterns, and upwards of five hundred
rank and file, were taken prisoners.[20] Comparatively considered, the
British loss was trifling. Twenty-four men were killed, and one hundred
and fifty-eight were wounded. Colonel Proctor was raised to the rank of
Brigadier-General, in reward for his successful gallantry.
[20] Alison mixes up Colonel McDonell's capture of Ogdensburgh,
which is below Kingston, and opposite Prescott, the scene of the
Wind Mill fight in '37.
As if to counterbalance the effect of this success, another naval
engagement occurred at sea, on the 14th of February, between the
British sloop of war _Peacock_ and the American brig _Hornet_. The
fight was long continued, bloody and destructive. The _Peacock_, after
an hour and a half of hard fighting was in a sinking state. The effect
of the enemy's fire was tremendous, but the men of the _Peacock_
behaved nobly. Mr. Humble, the boatswain, having had his hand shot
away, went to the cockpit, underwent amputation at the wrist, and again
voluntarily came upon deck to pipe the boarders. The _Peacock_ was now
rapidly settling down, and a signal of distress was consequently
hoisted. The signal was at once humanely answered. The firing ceased
immediately, the American's boats were launched, and every effort
praiseworthily made to save the sinking crew. All were not, however,
saved. Three of the _Hornet's_ men and thirteen of the crew of the
_Peacock_ went down in the latter vessel together. The _Hornet_ carried
twenty guns, while the _Peacock_ had only eighteen, and the tonnage of
the former exceeded, by seventy-four tons, that of the latter.
The Americans now gathering up their strength, irritated by their
repeated failures on the land, and disheartened, but yet not
discouraged by their original weakness on the lakes, were about, in
some degree, to be compensated more suitably for their inland losses
than by the capture or rather by the negative kind of advantage of
destroying at considerable cost and risk, frigates and sloops of war at
sea, inferior in every respect, the bravery of the sailors and the
skill of the officers excepted, to the huge and properly much esteemed
American double-banked frigates and long-gunned brigs. The command of
Lake Ontario had devolved on the Americans. New ships of considerable
size, and well armed, under the superintendence of experienced naval
officers, were built and launched day after day. Troops were being
collected at every point for an attack, by sea and land, upon either
York or Kingston. It was now exceedingly necessary that some activity
of a similar kind should be displayed by the British. The forests
abounded in the very best timber; there were able shipbuilders at
Quebec; the Canadian naval commanders had distinguished themselves
frequently; there was a secure dockyard at Kingston; and, indeed, there
existed no reason whatever, for the absence of that industry on the
Canadian side of the rivers and lakes, dividing the two countries, but
one, and a more fatal one could not have been listened to. It was
simply that the British had been hitherto able to repel the invader
wherever he had effected a landing, and would be, under any
circumstances, quite able, as they were willing, to repel him again.
And there was an ignorance about Canada, on the part of both the heads
of the naval and of the military departments in England, as
disgraceful, as it was inexcusable. It was believed that there were
neither artisans to be found in the country nor wood. It seemed to be a
prevalent opinion that the country was peopled only by French farmers,
a few French gentlemen, and some hundreds of discharged soldiers, with
a few lawyers and landed proprietors, styled U.E. Loyalists, besides
the few naval officers resident at Kingston, and the troops in the
different garrisons. In Upper Canada, during the winter, nothing, or
almost nothing, was done in the way of building ships for the lakes.
Sir George Prevost, it is true, made a hurried visit to Upper Canada,
after having prorogued the Parliament. He was a man admirably adapted
for the civil ruler of a country having such an elastic and very
acceptable constitution as that which Canada has now had for some years
past. He was one of those undecided kind of non-progressive beings, who
are always inclined to let well alone. He was well meaning, and he was
able too, in some sense. He was cautious to such a degree that caution
was a fault. He was not, by any means, deficient in personal courage,
but his mind always hovered on worst consequences. If he had hope in
him at all, it was the hope that providence, without the aid of
Governor Prevost, would order all things for the best. He had a strict
sense of duty and a nice sense of honor, but he always considered that
it was his duty not to risk much the loss of anything, which he had
been charged to keep, and his moral was so much superior to his
physical courage, that he never considered it dishonorable to retreat
without a struggle, if the resistance promised to be very great. An
instance of this occurred while Sir George was on his way to Upper
Canada. On the 17th of February, Lieutenant-Colonel Pearson, commanding
at Prescott, proposed to him an attack upon Ogdensburgh, which was then
slightly fortified, and was a rallying point for the enemy. Indeed, an
attack had some days previously been made upon Brockville, by General
Brown, at the head of some militia from Ogdensburgh, and Colonel
Pearson thought that the sooner an enemy was dislodged from a position
exactly opposite his own and only separated by a frozen river, three
quarters of a mile in width, the more secure he would have felt himself
to be, and the less danger would there have been of the communication
between the Upper and Lower provinces of Canada, being interrupted.
General Prevost would not consent to an attack, but he allowed a
demonstration to be made by Colonel McDonnell, the second in command at
Prescott, so that the enemy might exhibit his strength, and his
attention be so much engaged that no attempt would be made to waylay
the Governor General, on the information of two deserters from
Prescott, who would, doubtless, have informed the commandant, at
Ogdensburgh, of Sir George's arrival and of his chief errand. Colonel
McDonell moved rapidly across the river, and on landing, was met by
Captain Forsyth and the American forces under him. A movement designed
for a feint, was now converted into a real attack. Colonel McDonell, as
he perceived the enemy, still more rapidly pushed forward, and, in a
few minutes, was hotly engaged. The Americans were driven from the
village, leaving behind them twenty killed and a considerable number
wounded. On the side of the British, the loss of Colonel McDonell,
seven other officers and seven rank and file had to be deplored, while
forty-one men were wounded. The attack was most successful however.
Eleven cannons, several hundred stands of arms, and a considerable
quantity of stores fell into the hands of the victors, while two small
schooners and two gun-boats were destroyed in winter quarters.
Recruiting and drilling were being briskly carried on about Quebec and
Montreal. Some troops began to arrive, about the beginning of March,
from the Lower Provinces. The 104th regiment had arrived overland from
Fredericton, in New Brunswick, by the valley of the St. Johns River,
through an impenetrable forest, for hundreds of miles, to Lake
Temiscouata, and from thence to River-du-Loup, proceeding upwards along
the south shore of the St. Lawrence.
A month later and the Americans were ready to resume the offensive in
Upper Canada. The American fleet, consisting of 14 vessels, equipped at
Sackett's Harbour, situated at the foot of the lake, and not very far
from Kingston, in a direct line across, sailed from the harbour under
Commodore Chancey, with seventeen hundred men, commanded by Generals
Dearborn and Pike, to attack York, (now Toronto.) In two days the fleet
was close in shore, a little to the westward of Gibraltar Strait. A
landing was soon effected at the French fort of Toronto, about three
miles below York, under cover of the guns of the fleet, but the enemy's
advance was afterwards stoutly opposed. Six hundred militia men
altogether, including the grenadiers of the 8th regiment of the line,
could not long withstand seventeen hundred trained troops. They
withdrew and the schooners of the fleet approaching close to the fort,
commenced a heavy cannonade, while General Pike pushed forward to the
main works, which he intended to carry by storm, through a little wood.
As General Sheaffe, in command of the British, retired, and as General
Pike, in command of the Americans, advanced, a powder magazine exploded
which blew two hundred of the Americans into the air, and killed Pike.
Of the British, fully one hundred men were killed, and the walls of the
fort were thrown down. The Commodore was now in the harbour. And
General Sheaffe seeing that not the remotest chance of saving the
capital of Upper Canada, now existed, most wisely determined to retreat
upon Kingston. He accordingly directed Colonel Chewett, of the militia,
to make arrangement for a capitulation, and set off with his four
hundred regulars for Kingston. By the capitulation, private property
was to be respected, and public property only surrendered. The gain was
not great, if the moral effect of victory be not considered. The
victors carried off three hundred prisoners, and the British, before
retreating, had considered it expedient to burn a large armed ship upon
the stocks, and extensive naval stores.
The Clerk of the House of Assembly of Upper Canada, a volunteer, fell
during the struggle. In all, the British loss was one hundred and
thirty killed and wounded.
It is said that General Sheaffe suffered severely in the public
estimation, because he retreated. The public had forgotten that he had
killed and destroyed more Americans than had fallen on the side of the
British. Nor did it occur to them that had their general not retreated,
and capitulated, an armed fleet was in the harbour, which it was
impossible to drive out, even had the fort been standing, or had there
been great guns, with which earth batteries could have been formed. It
had not occurred to the public of Lower Canada that if York had been
burned, Sheaffe's retreat to Kingston, would have been no less
imperative than it was. He was, however, superseded in the command in
chief of Upper Canada by Major General De Rottenburgh.
The American fleet landed the troops at Niagara after this success, and
then sailed for Sackett's Harbour for reinforcements. The Commodore, an
energetic, clearheaded sailor, sent two of his vessels to cruise off
the harbour of Kingston, vigilantly, and then sent vessel after vessel,
at his convenience, with troops, up the lake to Michigan. There he
concentrated the whole of his ships, including his Kingston cruisers,
for an attack upon Fort George, in combination with the land force
under General Dearborn. The British were under the command of General
Vincent, who could not muster above nine hundred soldiers. It was early
on the morning of the 27th of May, that the enemy began the attack. The
fort was briskly cannonaded, and during the fire, Colonel Scott, with a
body of eight hundred American riflemen, effected a landing. But they
were promptly met by the British and compelled to give way, in
disorder. The Americans retreated to the beach and crept under cover of
the bank, from whence they kept up a galling fire, the British troops
being unable to dislodge them, on account of the heavy broadsides of
the American fleet, formed in Crescent shape, to protect their
soldiers. Indeed, under cover of this fire from the fleet, another body
of the enemy, numbering ten thousand men, effected a landing, and the
British were reluctantly compelled to retire. General Vincent blew up
the fort and fell back upon Burlington Heights, every inch of ground
being stoutly contested. Flushed with success, Dearborn, the American
General-in-Chief, now confidently anticipated the conquest of the whole
of Upper Canada, and pushed forward a body of three thousand infantry,
two hundred and fifty horse, and nine guns. But General Vincent having
learned of the enemy's advance, sent Colonel Harvey, with eight hundred
men, to impede their progress. Harvey, an experienced and brave
officer, was not long in discovering that the enemy kept a bad look
out. He resolved upon surprising them. Accordingly, he waited for the
darkness of night, under cover of which, a sudden attack was made so
successfully, that he made prisoners of two generals and a hundred and
fifty men, besides capturing four guns. It was now the enemy's turn to
retreat, and they did so in admirable confusion. Arrived at Fort George
a halt took place, but a fortnight elapsed before General Dearborn had
sufficiently recovered from the effect of this surprise to send out an
expedition of six hundred men to dislodge a British picquet, posted at
Beaver's Dam, near Queenstown. The dislodgement was most indifferently
effected, inasmuch as the expedition was waylaid on their passage
through the woods, by Captain Kerr, with a few Indians, and by
Lieutenant Fitzgibbons, at the head of forty-six of the 49th regiment,
in all, less than two hundred men, but so judiciously disposed as to
make the Americans believe that they were the light troops of a very
superior army, the approach of which was expected, and they, to the
number of five hundred, surrendered, with two guns and two standards.
It now became the turn of the British to invade, and early in July,
Colonel Bishop set out on an expedition to Black Rock, at the head of a
party of militia, aided by detachments of the 8th, 41st, and 49th
regiments of the line. He was perfectly successful. The enemies'
block-houses, stores, barracks, and dockyard were burned, and seven
pieces of ordnance, two hundred stand of arms, and a great quantity of
stores were brought away. But it was at great cost. While employed in
securing the stores, the British were fired upon, from the woods, by
some American militia and Indians, and while Captain Saunders, of the
41st, dropped, severely wounded, Colonel Bishop, who had planned, and
so gallantly executed the assault, was killed.
While these things were happening in the Far-Civilised-West of that
day, the British flotilla on Lake Champlain, had captured two American
schooners, the _Growler_ and _Eagle_, of eleven guns each, off
Isle-aux-Noix.
After it had become apparent that the Americans had the command of Lake
Ontario, and could visit to burn and destroy every village or
unfortified town, held by the British, some slight and very inadequate
exertion was made to remedy so distressing a state of affairs. In May,
Sir James L. Yeo, with several other naval officers and 450 seamen
arrived at Quebec, _en route_ for the lakes. Captains Barclay, Pring,
and Finnis, had been some time at Kingston, and were doing something in
the way of preparing for service the few, vessels at Kingston, by
courtesy called a fleet. Sir George Prevost and Sir James L. Yeo lost
little time in reaching Kingston together. The American fleet was off
Niagara, bombarding Fort George. It occurred to the two commanders that
an attack upon their naval station at Sackett's Harbour would not be
amiss, and it was resolved upon. About a thousand men were embarked on
board of the _Wolfe_, of 24 guns, the _Royal George_, of 24 guns, the
_Earl of Moira_, of 18 guns, and four armed schooners, each carrying
from ten to twelve guns, with a number of batteaux. The weather was
very fine. Everything was got in readiness for an expeditious landing.
The soldiers were transferred from the armed vessels to the batteaux,
so that no time might be lost in the debarkation. Two gun-boats were
placed in readiness, as a landing escort, The boats were under the
direction of Captain Mulcaster, of the Royal Navy, and the landing
under the immediate supervision of Sir George Prevost and Sir James L.
Yeo. It was expected that, in the absence of the American fleet and
army, the growing and formidable naval establishment of the enemy would
be temporarily rendered worthless. And the expectation was not an
unnatural one. It was, indeed, in a trifling degree, realised. There
was some injury done to Sackett's Harbor, but not of such a nature as
to produce a strong effect upon either Canadian minds or American
nerves. A number of boats, containing troops, from Oswego, were
dispersed, while doubling Stoney Point, and twelve of them, with 150
men on board, captured. But the loss to the British was the delay
caused by such an unlucky acquisition. The landing was deferred by it.
General Brown was put on the alert. He had time to make arrangements
and to collect troops. He planted 500 militia on the peninsula of Horse
Island, which is a sort of protection wall for the harbour. He ordered
them to be still and close, keep their powder dry, and reserve their
fire. And they did their best, in accordance with these instructions,
until the fleet opened a heavy cannonade to cover the landing of the
invaders, when General Brown's militiamen quaked exceedingly. When the
troops had landed, and the American militia had lost, by death, their
immediate commander, Colonel Mills, they fled with the utmost
precipitation. But it was the conduct of these very cowards that
afterwards alarmed, the ever suspicious Sir George Prevost, and caused,
to a very considerable extent, the almost failure of the expedition.
The British columns were advancing somewhat rapidly towards Fort
Tomkins, when they were met by Colonel Backus, at the head of 400
regulars, and some militia, hastily assembled from the neighboring
towns. A sharp contest ensued. Colonel Backus was mortally wounded. His
regulars still maintained their ground, but a serious impression had
been made upon his line. On the militia, so strong an impression had
been made that before General Brown could bring up, to the assistance
of Backus, 100 of the party dispersed at the landing, these irregulars
fled by a road leading south westwardly, through a wood. The regulars
stood firm. Captain Gray, commanding the British advanced corps fell,
and the suspicious mind of Prevost fancied a snare. He saw the regular
soldiery of the enemy standing unmoved; he had learned that a regiment
of American regulars, under Colonel Tutle, were marching at double
step, to the scene of action; and he fancied that the retreating
militia were not at all afraid, but brilliantly executing a circuitous
march to gain the rear of the British line, and cut off their retreat.
It was true Fort Tomkins was about to fall into British hands. Already
the officer in charge of Navy Point, agreeably to orders, and supposing
the fort to be lost, had set on fire the naval magazine, containing all
the stores captured at York; the hospital and barracks were
illuminating the lake by their grand conflagration; and a frigate on
the stocks had been set on fire, only to be extinguished, when Sir
George Prevost's mind became unsettled, concerning the ulterior designs
of the enemy. In the very moment of fully accomplishing the purpose of
the expedition, he ordered a retreat; the troops were re-embarked
without annoyance; the fleet returned safely to Kingston, and the
Canadian public suspected that Sir George Prevost, as a military
commander, had been weighed in the balance and found wanting. They
felt, indeed, most acutely, that Major General Isaac Brock was dead,
and that he was not replaced by Sir George Prevost.
In the west, the Americans, under Harrison, exerted themselves to
recover Michigan. They were blockaded, it is true, and inactive within
Fort George, but, on Lake Erie, the war was vigorously prosecuted.
General Proctor was kept particularly busy. The Americans were
inconveniently near. They showed no disposition to move. They had
settled down and were practicing masterly inactivity at Sandusky.
Proctor determined upon disturbing them. He moved rapidly upon Lower
Sandusky, and invested it with five hundred regulars and militia, and
upwards of three thousand Indians. The Indians were commanded by
Tecumseh. Having battered the fort well and made a breach Proctor
determined upon carrying the place by assault. The Indians, however,
were worthless for the assault of a fortified place. Concealed in the
grass of the prairie, or hidden in the trees of the forest, they could
fire steadily and watch their opportunity to rush upon the foe, but
they had a horror of great guns and stone walls. They kept out of range
of the American cannon. Nothing could induce them to consent even to
follow their British allies up to the breach. The assault was,
nevertheless, determined upon, and Colonel Short led the storming party
of regulars and militia. Under cover of the fire of cannon the gallant
band reached the summit of the glacis and stood with only the ditch
between them and the fort. The heavy fire of the enemy upon men in a
position so exposed at first produced some confusion; but the storming
party soon rallied and leaped into the ditch. It was then that they
were smitten with such a fire of grape and musketry as no men could
long withstand. The assailants retreated, leaving Colonel Short, three
officers, and fifty-two men dead in the ditch, and having forty-one of
their number wounded.
General Proctor, finding his force inadequate to carry the fort by
assault, raised the siege and retired to Amherstburgh.
Although it was all important to have and maintain the command of the
lakes, very little was done by the British with that view. It was
especially necessary to obtain the command of Lakes Erie, Ontario and
Champlain. No great aggressive movement could have been easily effected
while the British had the command of the lakes. But on Lake Ontario the
British fleet was inferior to that of the American, the American
Captain Perry had almost established himself on Lake Erie, and on Lake
Champlain the British had not a single vessel larger than a gun-boat,
and very few of them. The excuse was that every vessel cost a thousand
pounds a ton; that timber, nor iron, nor anything required for
shipbuilding was obtainable in a province which was even then
compensating for the check in the Baltic timber trade, in a province
which abounds in iron, and was then quite capable of building large
sea-going craft at Quebec. While it was in truth no more difficult for
England to cover the lakes with cannon than it was for the United
States to do so, England kept sending out, at great expense, timber,
pitch, materials in iron, water casks, and such like to Quebec and
Kingston, with some thirty or forty shipwrights, and less than a
hundred sailors to man the flotillas of three lakes. Neither the
Admiralty nor the Ordnance had time to make enquiries concerning
Canada, or even to think of the American war. All eyes were upon
Wellington in Spain. The attention of the people of England was not
directed towards Canada. A wide sea rolled between the two countries,
and, besides, there was an indistinct notion that Canada was wholly
inhabited by Frenchmen, who might take care of themselves or not, as
they pleased. The two first vessels belonging to the British on Lake
Champlain, were built by the Americans. The British were contented with
their fort at Isle-aux-Noix, and rejoiced in the luxury of two
gun-boats. It was on a lovely morning very early in June, that a sail
was seen stretching over a point of land, formed by a bed in the river
Chambly, and about six miles distant from the fort. Another sail
followed closely, and the shrewd suspicion seized upon Colonel Taylor,
of the 100th foot, commanding the garrison, that the visitants were
vessels of war. He determined to war with the two strangers, _per mare
et terram_. He converted some of his soldiery into marines, manned his
three gun-boats, and placing three artillerymen in each boat, proceeded
towards the enemy. But he took the additional precaution of sending
down both shores of the river a few detachments from the fort. The
sloops of war came up majestically, the star-spangled banner waved
gracefully in the gentle morning air, and the American commanders were
guessing the effect of their first broadside upon Isle-aux-Noix, when
they were met by a heavy and well directed fire of grape from the
gun-boats, and by a steady torrent of bullets from the shore. Still
they tacked shortly from shore to shore, and every time they were in
stays, a shower of bullets swept the decks, while the grape of the
gun-boats whistled through the rigging. From half past four in the
morning until half past eight, the battle raged, but then it was
necessary to run one of the sloops ashore, to prevent her from sinking,
and both surrendered. The _Growler_ and the _Eagle_ were worth the
trouble incurred in capturing them. Each mounted eleven guns. They had
long eighteens upon their forecastles, and their broadside guns were
composed of twelves and sixes. The crew of each vessel consisted of
thirty-five men and between the two vessels there was a company of
marines, who embarked on the previous evening at Champlain. Nor was the
cost to the captors very great. No one was killed and only three men
were severely wounded, while the enemy suffered severely in killed and
wounded, and a hundred men were made prisoners.
These vessels now called the _Shannon_ and the _Blake_, as
forget-me-nots of an action recently fought, but not yet noticed, in
Chesapeake Bay, were speedily turned to excellent use. It was conceived
expedient to destroy the barracks, hospitals and stores at Plattsburgh,
Burlington, Champlain, and Swanton, if possible, and an expedition was
accordingly fitted out at Isle-aux-Noix. The two captured sloops of war
were repaired and made ready for the lake. Captain Pring, from Lake
Ontario, was promoted to the rank of commander and sent to take
command, but the sloop of war _Wasp_, having shortly afterwards arrived
at Quebec, Captain Everard, with his whole crew, were sent to
Isle-aux-Noix, and as senior officer assumed the command of the two
vessels and the three gun-boats. The squadron sailed on the 29th of
July, with about nine hundred men on board, consisting of detachments
of the 13th, 100th, and 103rd regiments of the line, under Lieutenants
Colonel Taylor and Smelt, some royal artillery under Captain Gordon,
and a few militia, as batteaux men, under Colonel Murray. The
expedition was altogether successful. At Plattsburgh, the American
General, Moore, made no opposition to the landing of the British, but
retired with fifteen hundred soldiers, Murray, meanwhile, destroying
the arsenal, public buildings, commissariat stores, and the new
barracks, capable of accommodating five thousand men. Neither did the
squadron lie idly by. Captains Everard and Pring, in the _Growler_ and
_Eagle_, proceeded to Burlington, and threw the place into the utmost
consternation. Gen'l. Hampton, who was encamped there with four
thousand men, was unable to prevent the capture and destruction of four
vessels. And the two ships did not linger there either unnecessarily.
They went back to Plattsburgh, re-embarked the troops, and proceeded to
Swanton, Colonel Murray sending a detachment to Champlain to destroy
the barracks and blockhouse. At Swanton the object of the expedition
was accomplished, and the expedition returned without casualty.
Public opinion had its effect upon the Admiralty, notwithstanding the
stubborn resistance of the old Lords, who still privately persisted in
the notion that an old tub, manned by monkeys, if commanded by an
officer in the royal navy, was a match for the best American frigate
that ever floated. There had for some time back been considerable
activity in the English dockyards. Several vessels were commenced on
the model of the American frigates, and the commanders of frigates and
sloops of war, on the American coast, were cautioned not to expose
themselves to certain destruction by attacking large and heavily armed
vessels, only nominally of the same rank or class as themselves. There
was to be a real, not an apparent equality. There was to be an equality
in tonnage, an equality in the number of guns, an equality in the
weight of metal, an equality in the thickness of a ship's sides, and
above all an equality in men, so far as such equality could be
ascertained. Equality in sailing power was of great importance, but
where it was wanting, the superior sailor, if superior in metal and men
had an advantage which nothing but a calm or a lucky hit aloft could
destroy. The crews of every ship on the North American Station were to
be exercised in gunnery. Wisdom had been luckily forced upon the
Admiralty. And the result was good. Sir John Borlase, the naval
commander, in North America, blockaded every harbour in the United
States. American commerce was ruined. The carrying trade of the
Atlantic was no longer in American hands. The public revenue sank from
twenty-four millions of dollars annually, to eight millions. Even had
the Americans possessed the means of building new frigates, the
expenditure would have been useless, while Sir John Borlase had the
command of the sea. Congress did authorise the commencement of four new
seventy-fours, and of four forty-four gun frigates, with six new sloops
for the ocean, and as many vessels of every description, as
circumstances would show the necessity for, on the lakes.
Admiral Cockburn, at the head of a light squadron, was most annoying to
the Americans. Not only did he blockade the Chesapeake and Delaware
inlets, but he scoured every creek and river. Every now and then
gun-boats were sent on excursions, and marines landed to damage naval
stores and arsenals. He was a kind of legalized pirate, who darted in
to a harbour, bay, or port, doing every imaginable kind of mischief and
running off.
About this time there were cruising off Boston two ships of equal
strength, the _Shannon_ and the _Tenedos_. Captain Broke, the commander
of the _Shannon_, was the senior officer, and having determined upon a
combat, if it were possible to effect it, between the American frigate
_Chesapeake_, then in Boston harbour, where she had passed the winter,
and his own vessel, he sent the _Tenedos_ to sea, with instructions not
to return for three weeks. Captain Broke had laboriously and anxiously
drilled his men. He had sighted his guns and used them often. In a
word, he had by long continued training brought his crew to the highest
state of discipline and subordination. They could fire ball to a
nicety. At sea and in harbour he had kept his men at great gun
practice. He was in a position to cope with any forty-four gun frigate,
belonging to the United States, for, though the _Shannon_ was only
pierced for 38 guns, she carried 52. When the _Tenedos_ had put to sea,
Captain Broke sent in a challenge to Captain Lawrence, of the
_Chesapeake_, entreating him to try the fortunes of their respective
flags in _even combat_. The _Chesapeake_ had 49 guns. Captain Broke
immediately lay close into Boston Light House, and the _Chesapeake_ was
quickly under weigh. It is said that Captain Lawrence had not received
the challenge of his opponent when he stood out of the harbour, but,
however that may be, the _Chesapeake_ was escorted to sea by a flotilla
of barges and pleasure boats. Victory, indeed, was considered certain
by the Americans. Nay, so very certain were the inhabitants of Boston
that the _Shannon_ would either be sunk or towed into port that,
counting their chickens before they were hatched, they prepared a
public supper to greet the victors on their return to the harbour, with
their prisoners. It was otherwise. Captain Broke saw with delight, from
the masthead of the _Shannon_, that his challenge was to be satisfactorily
replied to. The _Shannon_ was cleared for action, and waited for the
_Chesapeake_. She had not long to wait. The _Chesapeake_ came bowling
along with three flags flying, on which were inscribed--"Sailors,
rights and free trade." The _Shannon_ had her union jack at the
foremast, and a somewhat faded blue ensign at the mizen peak. There
were two other ensigns rolled into a ball ready to be fastened to the
haulyard and hoisted in case of need. But her guns were well loaded,
alternately with two round shot and a hundred and fifty musket balls,
and with one round and one double-headed shot in each gun. The enemy
hauled up within two hundred yards of the mizen beam and cheered. The
_Shannon_ cheered in return, and then the bravest held his breath for a
time. A moment more and the _Shannon's_ decks flashed fire. With
deliberate aim each gun along her sides was discharged, and the enemy,
in passing, fired with good effect his whole broadside. The _Shannon's_
shot, however, told upon the rigging of the _Chesapeake_, and upon her
men, and after two or three broad sides, the _Chesapeake_ in attempting
to haul her foresail up fell on board the _Shannon_, whose starboard
bower anchor locked with the _Shannon's_ mizen chains. The great guns,
with the exception of the _Shannon's_ two aftermost guns ceased firing.
The _Chesapeake's_ stern was beaten in, and her decks swept. There was
now a sharp fire of musketry from both sides, but Captain Broke
perceiving that the _Chesapeake's_ men had left their guns, called up
his boarders, at the same time ordering the two ships to be lashed
together. And Mr. Stevens, the _Shannon's_ boatswain, set about the
execution of the latter order. His left arm was hacked off by the
enemy's marines, and he was mortally wounded by a shot from the
_Chesapeake's_ tops. He proceeded, nevertheless, in fastening the two
ships together, and then dropped in death between the vessels. Captain
Lawrence was wounded and carried below, when Captain Broke, at the head
of his boarders, leapt upon the _Chesapeake's_ quarter-deck. The
enemy's crew were soon overpowered and driven below. Forcing his way
forward, the _Shannon's_ men shut down the _Chesapeake's_ hatches and
kept up a fire on the men in the tops, while the _Shannon's_ men at the
same time, under Mr. Smith, forced their way from the foreyard to the
_Chesapeake's_ mainyard, and soon cleared the tops. Captain Broke was
at this time assailed furiously by three American sailors, who had
previously submitted, and was knocked down by the butt end of a musket,
but as he rose he had the satisfaction of seeing the American flag
hauled down and the proud old British union floating over it in
triumph. Fifteen minutes had only elapsed and the _Chesapeake_ was
entirely in the hands of the British. There was one lamentable mishap.
Lieutenant Watt, who hauled down the enemy's colours was, with two of
his men, killed by a discharge of musketry from the _Shannon's_
marines, in the belief that the conflict still continued. The
_Chesapeake_ had forty-seven killed and ninety-eight wounded, and the
_Shannon_ lost in killed twenty-four, while fifty-nine had been
wounded. It was so ascertained that on equal terms England still held
the supremacy of the seas, and the exultation in England was so great
that every right-minded man went with the government when they made
Captain Broke a baronet. The broadside guns of the _Shannon_ were 25,
of the _Chesapeake_ 25; the weight of metal in the former was 538 lbs.,
and of the latter 590 lbs.; while the _Shannon_ had 306 and the
_Chesapeake_ 376 men.
The _Chesapeake_ was carried into Halifax, where her gallant,
gentlemanly, and ill-starred commander died and was buried, with full
military honors, in the presence of all the British officers on the
station, who uncovered themselves as they laid into the grave all that
was earthly of their noble foe.
The tide of fortune on the sea had now turned in favor of Great
Britain. On the 14th of August, the _Argus_, of twenty guns, employed
in carrying out Mr. Crawford, the American Minister to France, was met
after having landed the minister off St. David's, at the mouth of the
Irish channel, by the British brig _Pelican_, of eighteen guns, more
heavily armed, though carrying fewer guns, and better manned than the
_Argus_, so that, everything considered, the vessels were tolerably
well matched. As a matter of course they fought, and the _Pelican_, one
of the improved brigs, soon out-manoeuvred and raked her antagonist.
Captain Allen, of the _Argus_, fell at the first broadside. The _Argus_
was ultimately obliged to surrender with a loss of six killed and
seventeen wounded, her opponent having only three killed and five
wounded.
It was not long after this that the British brig _Boxer_, of only
fourteen guns and sixty-six men, fell a prize to the American brig
_Enterprise_, of sixteen guns and one hundred and twenty men, but
afterwards, throughout the war, single combats, where there was even an
approach to equality, terminated in favor of the British. Captain
Blythe, of the _Boxer_, and the commander of the _Enterprise_,
Lieutenant Burrows, were buried in one grave, at Portland in Maine,
with military honors.
Thus were the favors of Mars still balanced with tolerable fairness
between the combatants.
Between Upper and Lower Canada the communication by either land or
water, in summer, was very imperfect, during the war. There was then no
Rideau Canal, connecting Kingston with the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence.
And there was neither the Lachine, the Beauharnois, the Cornwall nor
any other canal by which the dangers and difficulties of the St.
Lawrence rapids might be avoided. Only batteaux and canoes plied
between Upper and Lower Canada. A kind of flat-bottomed boat, of from
35 to 40 feet in length, and about six feet beam in the centre,
carrying from four to four and a half tons, was only available for the
transport of passengers, goods, wares, and merchandise. The boat was
worked by oars, a mast and sail, drag-ropes for towing, and long poles
for pushing them through the rapids, while the bow was kept towards the
shore by a tow line held by the boat's crew or attached to horses. From
ten to twelve days were occupied in the voyage from Montreal or Lachine
to Kingston. To convey stores from Lachine to Kingston, during the war,
required some tact. On one side of the river were the British
batteries, while exactly opposite was an American fort or earthwork,
which as the batteaux poled past Prescott or Brockville, could throw a
round shot or two in their immediate vicinity without very much
trouble. Indeed the Americans did very quietly send one or two cruisers
and privateers to dodge about that marine paradise, the Thousand
Islands, forming the delta of Lake Ontario, and covered to this day
with timber to the water's edge, islands of all sizes and of all forms,
gently rising out of the limpid rippling stream, or boldly standing
forth from the deep blue water, presenting a rugged, rocky moss-clad
front to the wonderstruck beholder. On the 20th of July, some cruisers
from Sackett's Harbour, succeeded in surprising and capturing, at
daybreak, a brigade of batteaux laden with provisions, under convoy of
a gun-boat. They made off with their prize to Goose Creek, which is not
far from Gananoque. At Kingston the loss of the supplies was soon
ascertained, and Lieutenant Scott, of the Royal Navy, was despatched
with a detachment of the 100th regiment, in gun-boats, to intercept the
plunderers. At the lower end of Long Island, he ascertained the retreat
of the enemy, and waited patiently for the morning. In the evening,
still later, a fourth gun-boat with a detachment of the 41st regiment
came up, and having passed the night in bright anticipations of glory,
the rescuing gun-boats proceeded at three in the morning to Goose
Creek. The enemy had gone well up and had judiciously entrenched
themselves behind logs, while they had adopted the Russian plan of
blocking up the entrance to their harbor where the Creek became so
narrow that the attacking gun-boats found it necessary to pole up even
that far. Lieutenant Scott set his men to work, to remove the barriers
to his ingress, but a brisk fire soon caused him to desist, and indeed
he was very nearly disabled. The only gun-boat that could be brought to
bear upon the enemy was already disabled, and the consequences might
have been disastrous but for the gallant conduct of the soldiers, who
leaped from the sternmost boats, up to their necks, carrying their
muskets high overhead, and charged the enemy on landing, causing them
to retreat with precipitation behind their entrenchment. While this was
being done, the gun-boats were got afloat and put to rights, and the
soldiers expeditiously re-embarking the re-capture of the provisions
was abandoned. Captain Milnes, a volunteer aid-de-camp to the Commander
of the Forces, was killed.
A second boat expedition from Kingston failed, Sir James Yeo, conceived
that he might out cut of Sackett's Harbour the new American ship
_Pike_, the equipment of which Commodore Chancey was superintending. He
arrived at the mouth of the harbor, but the enemy having accidentally
heard of his errand, Sir James abandoned a scheme that could only have
been effected by surprise. In July, the American fleet appeared on the
lake with augmented force. Colonel Scott, with a company of artillery
and a considerable number of other soldiers was on board, _en route_
for Burlington Heights. He was most anxious to destroy the British
stores there, the more especially as the place was only occupied by
Major Maule, at the head of a small detachment of regulars.
Lieutenant-Colonel Harvey, the Deputy Adjutant-General of the army,
shrewdly suspecting the design of the enemy, despatched Colonel
Battersby from York, who arrived in time to re-inforce Maule. Scott
made no attack, but with the advice, or at all events, the concurrence
of the commodore, did a much wiser thing. The expedition sailed upon
York, which Lieutenant-Colonel Battersby had evacuated to save
Burlington. A landing was effected at York, of course, without
opposition; the storehouses, barracks, and public buildings were
burned, and such stores as were worth carrying away, taken. In Lake
Champlain, on the same afternoon, Colonel Murray and Captains Everard
and Pringle were retaliating at Plattsburgh, Burlington, Champlain, and
Swanton. Commodore Chancey having effected his purpose sailed for
Niagara, whither he was followed by Sir James Yeo, and looked in upon
on the 31st of July. Chancey, without loss of time, raised his anchors
and stood out of the bay, bearing down upon the British squadron. Sir
James manoeuvred, keeping out of range, and indeed coquetted with the
enemy, until he had an opportunity of pouncing upon two of his vessels,
the _Julia_ and _Growler_, which he cut off and captured. He still
pursued the same tantalizing course of action, and Commodore Chancey
became completely disheartened, when the _Scourge_ of eight, and the
_Hamilton_ of nine guns, in endeavouring to escape from the British,
capsized under a press of sail, and went down, all hands perishing,
except sixteen who were picked up by the boats of the opposing
squadron. Immediately after this disaster he stood off for Sackett's
Harbour, and arrived there on the 13th of August. He merely took in
provisions, however, and again sailed for Niagara, arriving there early
in September. On the 7th the British fleet appeared off the harbour,
and Chancey stood out into the lake. The two fleets manoeuvred as
before, avoiding close quarters, and indeed, for full five days, hardly
exchanged a shot. But on the 28th of September, the fleets approached
each other, and a sharp engagement ensued between the two flag ships.
The _Wolfe_, in which Sir James Yeo's pendant was hoisted, lost her
main and mizen topmasts, and only that the _Royal George_ ran in
between the _Wolfe_ and the _Pike_, enabling the former to haul off and
repair, the British flag ship would have been captured. As it was, Sir
James Yeo made off with his fleet to take refuge under Burlington
Heights.[21] Soon after, the American fleet took troops from Fort
George to Sackett's Harbour, from whence an expedition was being fitted
out, in the way, capturing five out of seven small vessels, from York,
containing 250 men of DeWatteville's regiment, intended to reinforce
the garrison at Kingston.
[21] The fleet consisted of the _Wolfe_ 23; the _Royal
George_ 22; the _Melville_ 14; the _Earl Moira_ 14;
the _Sir Sydney Smith_ 12; and the _Beresford_ 12.
On the lakes of Upper Canada, the fair face of fortune was turned away
from the British. As yet the capricious lady had only frowned, but now
she was positively sulky. A serious and indeed dreadful disaster, which
could not be afterwards repaired, but entailed loss upon loss to the
British, occurred on Lake Erie. The British provinces were indeed
exposed by it to the most imminent danger. At one blow all the
advantages gained by Brocke were lost. On Lake Erie as on Lake Ontario,
both the British and the Americans exerted themselves in the
construction of war vessels. The great drawback to the British was the
want of seamen. Captain Barclay, when appointed to the command on Lake
Erie, in May, took with him fifty English seamen, to man two ships, two
schooners, a brig and a sloop, the rest of the crews being made up of
240 soldiers and 80 Canadians. Captain Perry, the American commander,
had two more vessels, an equal number of guns, double the weight of
metal, and was fully manned by experienced seamen. Captain Barclay
sailed from Amherstburgh and stretched his little squadron across the
entrance to Presque Isle. The American squadron, under Perry, was
riding at anchor, unable to put out, because the bar at the entrance of
the harbour prevented it from crossing, except with the guns out, an
operation not considered perfectly safe when done in the face of an
enemy. Captain Barclay was under the necessity of momentarily leaving
his station, and his opponent, Perry, crossed the bar. Barclay in turn
became the blockaded party. He made with all haste for Amherstburgh and
was shut in by Perry. Barclay practiced his soldiers at the guns, and
learned his Canadians how to handle the ropes. He was indefatigable in
his exertions to render his crew as efficient as such a crew could be
made on shipboard. He yet feared to meet Perry and his picked crews,
but his provisions fell short, and he was compelled to put out. The
result was a battle, the last thing to have been desired, where so much
depended on the issue. Victory was stoutly contested for on both sides.
At 11 o'clock, on the forenoon of the 10th of September, the American
squadron, consisting of nine vessels, and the British squadron,
consisting of six vessels, formed in lines of battle. At a quarter
before 12, Captain Barclay's ship, the _Queen Charlotte_, opened a
tremendous fire upon the _Lawrence_, the flag ship of Commodore Perry.
The _Lawrence_ was torn to pieces. She became unmanageable. Except the
Commodore and four or five others, every man on board was either killed
or wounded. Perry abandoned her, and the colours were hauled down; but
he only left one ship to rehoist his flag in another, as yet untouched.
He boarded the _Niagara_, of twenty guns, and a breeze springing up
behind his ships, which as yet had not been in action, he obtained the
weather gage of the British, and made it necessary for them to wear
round. It was in the endeavour to execute this manoeuvre that Barclay
lost the advantage. His inexperienced and, therefore, somewhat awkward
sailors, became flurried, and the vessels fell foul of each other. They
were for the most part jammed together, with their bows facing the
enemy's broadside. Captain Perry saw his advantage and raked the
_Detroit_, the _Queen Charlotte_, and _Lady Prevost_, at pleasure. The
_Chippewa_ and _Little Belt_ had been separated from the other ships,
and were hotly engaged by the Americans. The British line was, in a
word, broken. The carnage was now dreadful, and the result awfully
disastrous to the British. Barclay fell, severely wounded. Every
officer was either killed or wounded. And two hundred out of three
hundred and forty-five men were in a like condition. For three hours
the battle raged, but at the end of that time the British squadron was
capsized, and Perry, in imitation of Julius Cæsar, sent the message to
Washington:--"We have met the enemy, and they are ours." Of the
Americans, twenty-seven were killed and ninety-six wounded.
This was a sore blow and terrible discouragement to Canada. Supplies of
provisions were no longer obtainable by General Proctor from Kingston,
and Michigan was, consequently, untenable. The speedy evacuation of
Detroit, and a retreat towards the head of Lake Ontario, became
inevitable. Commodore Perry could, at any moment, land a force in
General Proctor's rear, and entirely cut him off from Kingston and
York, and the lower part of Upper Canada. General Proctor at once
retreated, abandoning and destroying all his fortified posts, beyond
the Grand River. He dismantled first Detroit and then Amherstburgh,
setting fire to the navy yard, barracks, and public stores, of the
latter place. And he had just done so in time. As soon after the
destruction of the British fleet, as circumstances would permit,
Commodore Perry transported the American forces, under General
Harrison, from Portage River and Fort Meigs, to Put-in-Bay, from whence
they were conveyed to Amherstburgh, which they occupied on the 23rd of
December. Proctor retreated through woods and morasses, upon the
Thames, hotly pursued by Harrison. The brave Tecumseh, at the head of
the Indians, endeavored to cover his retreat. But on the 4th of
October, the enemy came so close upon the British rear as to succeed in
capturing all their stores and ammunition. Destitute of the means of
subsistence, worn down with fatigue, and low-spirited by misfortune,
Proctor came to the determination of staking all on the hazard of a
die. He resolved upon bringing the enemy to an engagement, and took up
a position near the Moravian village upon the Thames. Tecumseh and his
Indians assumed a position, well to the British right, in a thicket.
Prescott drew out his right in line on a swamp, and supported it by a
field piece, while his left stretched along, towards the Thames,
supported by another field piece. The ground was not well chosen.
Between Proctor and his enemy there was a dry or rather elevated piece
of ground, covered with lofty trees, without underbrush. On the
following day the enemy came up. Harrison drew up his army in two
lines, the cavalry in front, and ordered the Kentucky Riflemen,
commanded by Colonel Johnson, to charge the British, which they could
not so easily or effectually have done, had the British been either on
the summit of the wooded knoll or some distance behind the swamp. The
Kentuckians slowly advanced through the wood, receiving two vollies
from the British line, before they were out of it. It was then that
they dashed forward at full speed, broke the British ranks, and wheeled
about. Taken, as it were, suddenly, in the rear, Proctor's men became
confused. To resist or to retreat was equally impossible. They could
only retreat by forcing the American infantry, in front, and they could
only resist by facing the Kentucky Riflemen in the rear, who had
already ridden through them and had now raised their rifles to decimate
them. The British threw down their arms and the Indians, with the
exception of Tecumseh and a chosen few fled, yelling, through the
woods. Tecumseh fought desperately, even with the mounted rifles. He
sprang upon their leader, Colonel Johnson, wounded him and pulled him
to the earth. But, at this moment, Johnson's faithful dragoons spurred
to his rescue. Tecumseh was surrounded and pierced with bullets.
Raising his hands aloft, to the great Father of all, this faithful ally
and courageous savage, gave one last, stern, defiant look, at the foe,
and breathed no more. General Proctor and his personal staff, with a
few men, had previously sought safety by flight to Ancaster. And this
remnant of the right division, including Proctor and seventeen
officers, amounting to only two hundred and forty-six men, arrived at
Ancaster on the 17th of October.
Harrison was greatly superior in numbers, and had cavalry, which
Proctor was entirely without. The Kentucky cavalry were accustomed to
fighting in the forest, and were expressly armed for it. Proctor did
not exhibit ordinary judgment in his selection of ground. He had hardly
time to cut down trees and to entrench himself, and the probability is
that he was not aware of the enemy's possession of cavalry, and
therefore was less prudent in his choice of ground than otherwise he
would have been. Harrison, the American commander, had no less than
3,500 men with him, and as he captured only 25 British officers and 609
rank and file, all that surrendered, while two hundred and forty-six in
all only escaped, the mishap to Proctor who was personally a brave
officer, as he had repeatedly proved, ought not to have excited
surprise. But the disaster following as it did, and as should have been
expected, the calamity on Lake Erie, the Governor-in-Chief was highly
incensed, and nearly sacrificed Proctor to public opinion. He abused
him and his army in no measured terms, in general orders. He contrasted
the conduct of the soldiery with that of Tecumseh and his Indians. He
charged the Adjutant-General Reiffenstein with gross prevarication. He
sneered at the captured, few of whom had been rescued by an honorable
death from the ignominy of passing under the American yoke, and whose
wounds pleaded little in mitigation of the reproach. The officers in
retreating from Detroit, Sandwich and Malden, seemed to have been more
anxious about their baggage than they had afterwards been about their
honor. The enemy had attacked and defeated Proctor and his right
division without a struggle. He could not indeed fully disclose to the
British army the full extent of disgrace which had fallen upon a
formerly deserving portion of the army. Sir George Prevost who had
himself behaved so well at Sackett's Harbour, and who afterwards acted
so honorably towards Commodore Downie, at Plattsburgh, did not spare an
officer whom he had himself raised to the rank of Brigadier-General for
previous gallantry in the field, and for distinguished success. Nay, he
brought him to a Court Martial. The Court found that he had not
retreated with judgment and had not judiciously disposed of his force,
considering the extraordinary difficulties of his situation; but it
further found that his personal conduct was neither defective nor
reproachable. He was sentenced to be suspended from rank and pay for
six months. George the Fourth, then Prince Regent, was still more
severe upon the unfortunate Proctor. He confirmed the sentence and
censured the Court for mistaken lenity.
There was this difference between Sir George Prevost and General
Proctor:--Prevost was excessively cautious: Proctor was incautious to
excess.
All Western Canada, with the exception of Michillimackinac, was now
lost to the British. The Americans had not only recaptured Michigan,
but the issue of one battle had given them a long lost territory, and
the garden of Upper Canada. Harrison did not move against
Michillimackinac, being persuaded that it would fall for want of
provisions, but went to Buffalo and from there went to Niagara and Fort
George, abandoned by General Vincent, who had fallen back, on hearing
of Proctor's discomfiture, on Burlington Heights. In retreating,
Vincent sent his baggage on before him, followed by the main body of
his army, some three or four thousand sickly men, and kept his picquets
in front of Fort George to deceive the enemy: seven companies of the
100th and the light company of the 8th regiment, and a few Indians,
more men than Proctor had altogether, constituted the rear guard, and
covered the retreat. The guard was closely pressed by 1,500 of the
enemy, under Generals McClure and Porter, from Fort George, but the
guard managed to keep them in check and enabled Vincent and Proctor to
effect a junction at the heights of Burlington. The rear guard halted
at Stoney Creek, but the enemy refused to give battle.
The result of these operations, in the northwest, so flattered the
Americans as to induce the government at Washington to attempt a more
effectual invasion of Canada. General Dearborn had been replaced, on
account of ill-health, in the chief command of the army of the north,
by General Wilkinson. The force intended for the contemplated invasion
of Canada amounted to twelve thousand men. There were eight thousand
stationed at Niagara and four thousand at Plattsburgh, commanded by
Hampton, in addition to which, the forces under Harrison, were expected
to arrive in time to furnish important assistance. It was in pursuance
of this policy that Harrison suddenly left Fort George for Sackett's
Harbour. General Wilkinson was concentrating his forces at Grenadier's
Island, which is situated between Sackett's Harbour and Kingston, at
the foot of Lake Ontario, and the plan was to descend the St. Lawrence,
in batteaux and gun-boats, passing by the forts and forming a junction
with Hampton, to proceed to the Island of Montreal. The plan was not by
any means an injudicious one, and its failure was almost marvellous.
The expeditions were checked, and indeed annihilated by petty
skirmishes, and that lack of decision, so fatal to military commanders.
Hampton advanced on the 20th of September. At Odelltown he surprised
the British picquet, and from thence he took the road leading to
L'Acadie. He had, therefore, to pass through a swamp, covered with
wood, for upwards of five leagues, before reaching the open country.
Colonel DeSalaberry had done his best with the aid of his Voltigeurs to
make the road a bad one to travel on. In the preceding campaign he had
felled trees and laid them across it, and he had dug holes here and
there, which soon contained the desired quantity of swampish water and
kept the road as moist as could be wished. It was on the advance of
Hampton, guarded by a few of the Frontier Light Infantry and some
Indians, under the direction of Captain Mailloux. To strengthen
Mailloux, Colonel DeSalaberry with his Voltigeurs and the flank
companies of a battalion of militia, under Major Perrault, took up a
position on both sides of the road among the trees, after the manner of
the Indians. Hampton did not like the general appearance of matters and
turned off the road, moving with his whole force towards the head of
the river Chateauguay. DeSalaberry, with his Voltigeurs, also moved
upon the Chateauguay. He was ordered, by the Commander of the Forces,
to proceed to the enemy's camp at Four Corners, at the head of
Chateauguay, create an alarm, and, if possible, surprise and dislodge
him. He had only with him one hundred and fifty Voltigeurs, the light
company of the Canadian Fencibles, and a hundred Indians, in charge of
Mr. Gaucher. The Four Corners were reached unobserved. But an alarm was
instantly given to the camp by the forwardness of an Indian, who
discharged his musket without necessity, and without orders.
DeSalaberry could now only close up his men and push forward. In a few
minutes his brave band were in the midst of the enemy, numbering about
four hundred, whom they drove before them, like sheep. His weakness, in
numbers, for only fifty men and a few Indians had come up, was,
however, soon apparent, and the enemy came to a halt, and another
section of the foe made a movement with the view of out-flanking the
assailants. DeSalaberry wisely fell back upon the position, from which
he had emerged, upon the camp, at the skirt of the wood, and shortly
afterwards the Indians having all fallen back, he retired altogether.
The loss was very trifling, but the effect was excellent, both upon the
enemy and upon the hitherto untried Voltigeurs. The enemy perceived or
supposed that he perceived great preparations made to dispute his
advance, inch by inch, while the Voltigeurs perceived that men are
hardly aware of how much they are capable of doing until they try.
DeSalaberry returned to Chateauguay, breaking up the road in his rear,
and having ascertained the road by which Hampton was determined to
advance, he judiciously took up a position in a thick wood, on the left
bank of the river Chateauguay, two leagues above its confluence with
English river. Here, he threw up breastworks of logs, and his front and
right flanks were covered by extended abattis. His left rested on the
river. In his rear the river being fordable, he covered the ford with a
strong breastwork, defended by a guard, and kept a strong picquet of
Beauharnois militia in advance on the right bank of the river, lest, by
any chance, the enemy should mistake the road which DeSalaberry
designed him to take, and crossing the ford, under cover of the forest,
should dislodge him from his excellent position. Fortune favors the
brave, when judicious. Hampton, having detached Colonel Clarke to
devastate Missisquoi Bay, prepared to advance. He sent General Izzard,
with the light troops and a regiment of the line, to force a militia
picquet at the junction of the rivers Outaite and Chateauguay, and
there the main body of the Americans arrived on the 22nd. Two days
later the enemy repaired DeSalaberry's road and brought forward his ten
pieces of artillery to within seven miles of DeSalaberry's position. He
had discovered the ford, and the light brigade, and a strong body of
infantry of the line, under Colonel Purdy, were sent forward on the
evening of the 25th, to fall upon DeSalaberry's rear, while the main
body were to assail in front. Purdy's brigade lost themselves in the
woods. But Hampton himself appeared in front, with his brigadier,
Izzard, and about 3,500 men. A picquet of twenty-five was driven in,
but it only fell back upon a second picquet, when a most resolute stand
was made. Colonel DeSalaberry heard the firing and advanced to the
rescue. He had with him, Ferguson's company of Fencibles, and Chevalier
Duchesnay's and Juchereau Duchesnay's companies of Voltigeurs. He
posted the Fencibles, in extended order, every man being at an arm's
length from his neighbor, in the night, in front of the abattis, the
right touching the adjoining woods in which some Abenaquis Indians had
distributed themselves. Chevalier Duchesnay's company, in skirmishing
order, in line extended from the left of the Fencibles to Chateauguay,
and Juchereau Duchesnay's company, and thirty-five militia, under
Captain Longtain, were ranged, in close order, along the margin of the
river, to prevent a flank fire from the enemy. The Americans advanced
steadily, in sections, to within musket shot, and DeSalaberry commenced
the action by discharging his rifle. The greatest possible noise was
purposely made by buglers, stationed here and there,--on the wings, in
the centre, and in the rear. It was indeed difficult to say whether the
noise of the bugles or of the firing was the most terrific. The enemy
wheeled into line and began to fire in vollies, but threw away their
bullets, as the battalions were not fronting the Voltigeurs or
Fencibles, but firing needless vollies into the woods, much to their
right where they suspected men to be. So hot was the fire of the
Voltigeurs, however, that the enemy soon found out his mistake, and
brought his vollies to bear, as well as he could, in the right
direction. Now, some of the skirmishers, under DeSalaberry retreated,
and the enemy cheered and advanced. Again the buglers sounded the
advance, and the sound of martial music echoed through the woods, so
that it seemed as if 200,000 men were being marshalled for the fight.
It was at this crisis that Colonel McDonell arrived with
reinforcements, and the ardour of the enemy was checked. Purdy, long
lost in the woods, was now guided towards the ford by the firing and
the music. He drove in Captain Brugueire's picquet, which was on the
opposite side of the river, and was pushing for the ford. DeSalaberry
sent Captain Daly with the light company of the 3rd battalion of the
embodied militia to cross the river and take up the ground abandoned by
the picquet. He did so gallantly, driving back the American advanced
guard, but was afterwards compelled to retreat. The enemy, as Daly
retreated, appeared on the verge of the river. DeSalaberry gave the
word to Juchereau Duchesnay to up and at them, and his men, rising from
their place of concealment, poured in a fire upon Purdy's Americans,
which was as unexpected as it was effectual. The Americans reeled back
and then turned and ran. Hampton seeing Purdy's discomfiture, slowly
withdrew, leaving Colonel DeSalaberry, with less than three hundred
Canadians, in possession of his position, and with all the honors of
victory. The loss was not great on either side. Of the Americans, forty
were found dead. The Canadians lost five killed and twenty wounded. For
this nicely managed skirmish DeSalaberry was justly loaded with honors,
his officers and men were publicly thanked, and five pairs of colours
were presented to the five battalions of Canadian embodied militia, by
the Prince Regent.
Hampton retired upon Four Corners, and afterwards retreated to
Plattsburgh, instead of co-operating with Wilkinson, as intended.
Simultaneously with Hampton's advance upon Chateauguay, or nearly so,
Wilkinson proceeded down the St. Lawrence, with a flotilla of upwards
of three hundred boats, protected by a division of gun-boats, until he
was within three miles of Prescott, when he landed his troops, and
marched down with them, by land, to a cove two miles below Fort
Prescott, so as to avoid the British batteries. The boats having past
during the night, without suffering any material injury from the
cannonading of the fort.
So soon as the American movement was ascertained at Kingston, General
DeRottenburg sent the 49th regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel
Prenderleath, the 89th regiment and some Voltigeurs after them. At
Prescott, they were reinforced by a party of Canadian Fencibles, and
the whole amounting to about eight hundred rank and file, was commanded
by Colonel Morrison, of the 49th regiment, aided by the Deputy Adjutant
General. Colonel Harvey, Under the escort of a small division of
gun-boats, commanded by Captain Mulcaster, R.N. This corps of
observation continued in pursuit of the enemy, and on the 8th of
November, came up with them at Point Iroquois. Twelve hundred of the
enemy, under Colonel Macomb, had landed on the previous day on the
British side of the river to drive off the Canadian militia, who were
collecting together in considerable numbers, at the head of the Long
Sault. On the 18th, General Browne's brigade, with a body of dragoons,
also landed on the British shore; and the remainder of Wilkinson's
troops were landed at the head of the Sault, under the command of
Brigadier-General Boyd.
Colonel Morrison, of the 8th British regiment, had landed at Hamilton,
on the American side, on the 10th, took possession of a quantity of
provisions and stores for the American army, and also of two field
pieces. Nor was Colonel Harvey idle. He kept close upon the heels of
the enemy. Seeing them one evening emerging from a wood, he tried the
effect of round shot upon them. They did not at all relish it, and went
back again. On the same evening, the opposing gun-boats came into
collision and some rounds were fired without any important result. Next
day Colonel Morrison pressed the American General Boyd, so closely that
he was compelled to stand and give battle. Boyd's brigade consisted of
between three and four thousand men, and a regiment of cavalry,
Morrison's entire force only numbered eight hundred rank and file. At
two in the afternoon, the Americans moving from Chrystler's Point,
attacked the British advance. The British retired slowly and orderly
upon the position which had been marked out for them. The flank
companies of the 49th, the detachment of the Canadian with one field
piece, somewhat in advance on the road, were on the right; the
companies of the 89th, under Captain Barnes, with a gun formed in
echelon, with the advance on its left supporting it; the 49th and the
89th thrown more to the rear, with a gun, formed the main body and
reserve, extending to the woods, on the left, which were occupied by
Voltigeurs and Indians. In half an hour the battle became general. The
artillery behaved nobly. They kept up a most steady and destructive
fire, and when the American cavalry attempted to charge, they were
literally mowed down and were compelled to wheel about. The infantry
charged the enemy's guns and captured one at the point of the bayonet.
The Americans had not, apparently, room to act. They were too much
cooped up. They attempted to turn the British flank, but the Voltigeurs
and Indians, secure behind the trees, poured forth a deadly fire and
drove them back. The enemy then concentrated his forces with the view
of pushing forward in close column, but the royal artillery,
concentrating their fire upon the solid mass, the Americans retreated,
leaving the British to pass the night without molestation, on
Chrystler's Farm. Indeed, the American infantry, after leaving the
field, re-embarked in great haste, while the dragoons trotted after
General Browne, who was on his way to Cornwall, entirely unconscious of
disaster. At the battle of Chrystler's Farm, the enemy lost in killed,
Brigadier-General Carrington, who fell at the head of his men, and
three other officers, and ninety-nine men, and they had one hundred and
twenty-one men wounded.
On the side of the British, Captain Nairne, of the 49th regiment,
Lieutenants Lorimier and Armstrong, and twenty-one men were killed, and
eight officers and one hundred and thirty-seven men were wounded, while
twelve men were missing.
General Wilkinson proceeded down the Sault and joined Browne, near
Cornwall. Hampton was confidently expected. The commander-in-chief had
positively instructed his general of division to form a junction with
the army from Sackett's Harbour at Cornwall, and he had not come.
Wilkinson, sick in body, and not a little mortified by the late defeat,
did not know very well what to do. To retreat by the way he came was
not quite so easy as to advance. The rapids presented innumerable
difficulties in the way of ascent, with an enemy lining the banks of
the river. And that which was more annoying forced itself strongly upon
his mind--the Canadians were both loyal and brave. His agony was most
excruciating when he received a letter from Hampton to the effect that
the Plattsburgh-Grand-Junction-Invading-Army was marching as
expeditiously as circumstances would allow out of Canada; that, in a
word it had been defeated and was in full retreat upon Champlain. An
anathema was about to be coupled by the worthy and much irritated
commander-in-chief with the name of Hampton, when Wilkinson recollected
that he too had been checked in the most extraordinary way, in the very
outset of a scheme so well calculated to subdue a country, only
occupied by three thousand soldiers, scattered over a frontier of
upwards of a thousand miles, and numbers of militia, formidable enough
in the woods, but no match for a well disciplined, well provided, and
numerous army, in the open field. The British regulars, elated with
their late success, were in his rear. A kind of highland glen was not
far in advance. He was fairly puzzled, and altogether wanting in that
energy and decision so necessary for success in war. He called a
council of his officers and communicated to them his fears. It was
unanimously resolved that, for the present season, the attack on
Montreal should be abandoned and that the army should cross the river
to the American side and go into winter quarters. And accordingly the
attack was abandoned. The Americans embarked again, and were taken to
Salmon River. The boats and batteaux were immediately scuttled; the
troops were made comfortable in long log huts or barracks, with
astonishing celerity, and the camp, at French Mills, was as speedily as
possible entrenched. Thus ended a campaign for which the Americans had
made extraordinary preparations, and of the success of which high
expectations had consequently been formed. The failures of Hampton and
Wilkinson were indeed so disgraceful and so humiliating to the
Americans that they were only compensated for, in kind, by the no less
stupid, disgraceful, and humiliating failures of the British at
Plattsburgh and New Orleans, with which the American war was, for both
Americans and British, unfortunately concluded. All chance of invasion,
on a grand scale, being now completely gone, the Canadian militia were
disbanded for the winter.
In December, Lieutenant-General Drummond assumed the command of Upper
Canada. He at once proceeded to the head of Ontario, with the view of
regaining possession of Fort George. He ordered Colonel Murray to
advance, which the gallant colonel did, and the American General,
McClure, prepared to evacuate the fort. McClure set the village of
Newark, the ancient capital of Upper Canada, on fire, agreeably to his
instructions from the American Secretary at War, with the view of
depriving the British army of comfortable winter quarters. He was
indeed ordered to lay waste the country as he retreated, if retreat
became necessary. It was on the 10th of December, a bleak, cold winter
day, that McClure fulfilled his instructions. One hundred and fifty
houses, composing the flourishing village of Newark, were reduced to
ashes, and four hundred women and children were left to wander in the
snow or seek the temporary shelter of some Indian wigwam in the woods.
On the 12th of December, the British troops occupied Fort George, there
being only five hundred men in all, militia and Indians, and not long
afterwards the gratification of revenge presented itself to the British
and vengeance was taken accordingly. General Drummond followed up the
occupancy of Fort George by an attack upon the American fort at
Niagara. On the night of the 18th of December, a detachment of the
royal artillery, the grenadier company of the 1st Royals, and the flank
companies of the 41st and 100th regiments, under Colonel Murray,
crossed the river Niagara, and were very quietly put on shore at the
Five Mile Meadows, the name of the landing place indicating the
distance from the fort. All was still. Every order was conveyed in a
whisper. Neither musket clattered nor sabre clinked. The 100th regiment
went off in two divisions, one under Captain Fawcett,[22] and the
other, under Lieutenant Dawson, stealthily. They seemed to be creeping
past the trees, with the softness of a tiger's tread. The wormlike
thread of men wound round picquet after picquet, and throttled the
sentries on the glacis, and at the gate. The hearts of the sentries
sank within them. They had hardly breath enough left, so
terror-stricken were they, to reveal the watch-word, or nerve enough to
point out the entrance to the fort. But the watch-word was obtained;
the entrance was pointed out; and the 100th regiment were inside of
Fort Niagara before a single drum had rolled or a bugle sounded. By the
time indeed that the garrison were alarmed the whole British force were
in the fort, and, after a show of resistance, the Americans
surrendered. Only one officer and five men on the part of the British
were killed and two officers and three men were wounded in this
adroitly managed assault. The enemy lost in killed two officers and
sixty-five men, and twelve rank and file were wounded. Three hundred
men were made prisoners. In this affair the colonel of the 100th
regiment, Hamilton, behaved with distinguished gallantry.
[22] A rather interesting anecdote is told of Captain Fawcett.
About the end of the war he had been wounded in the heel, and was
staying, in 1815, at Mrs. Matthew's boarding house, in Montreal.
At the table d'hôte there was a raw-boned young English merchant,
who remarked that Fawcett, to have been wounded in the heel, must
have been running away. Fawcett's Irish blood rose to his
forehead, and on the spur of the moment he felled the thoughtless
Englishman with his crutch.
The rule of General Drummond in Upper Canada had auspiciously
commenced. This affair was not only brilliant but well managed. The
fort was a prize of no ordinary worth. It contained an immense quantity
of commissariat stores, three thousand stand of arms, a number of
rifles and several pieces of dismounted ordnance. On the works were
twenty-seven heavy guns.
The greatest possible precautions were adopted to secure success.
Major-General Riall followed Colonel Murray, with the whole body of
Western Indians, stout, athletic, brave men, inured to fighting, the
1st battalion of the Royals, and the 41st regiment to support him, in
case of need. Success had been achieved without the general's aid; but
instead of resting satisfied with that which had been already
accomplished, Riall wisely pushed on before the news of the capture of
the fort could be spread about, on Lewiston, where the enemy, in some
force, had erected batteries, with the view of destroying Queenston.
Seeing Riall coming up in their rear, the enemy were compelled to
retreat, and they abandoned their position with such precipitation,
that two field pieces, with some small arms and stores fell into the
hands of the British. It was now that the burning of Newark was to be
revenged. The Indians and the troops were let loose upon the enemy's
frontiers and Lewiston, Manchester, and the country around were laid in
ruins. Determined to follow up his success, Drummond proceeded to
Chippewa. He fixed his head-quarters there on the 28th of December, and
on the morning after was within two miles of Fort Erie. Without loss of
time, he reconnoitred, and finding the enemy's position at Black Rock
assailable, he determined upon a second nocturnal attack. General Riall
accordingly crossed the river, with four companies of the King's
regiment and the light company of the 89th, under Colonel Ogilvy, and
two hundred and fifty men of the 41st regiment, and the grenadiers of
the 100th regiment, under Major Frend, together with about fifty
militia volunteers and a body of Indians. The landing was effected
about midnight. As before the advanced guard proceeded cautiously but
were not quite so successful as before in preventing alarm. They
surprised a picquet and captured not the whole, but the greater part of
it. They did still more. The bridge over the Conguichity Creek was
secured in spite of the repeated efforts of the enemy to dislodge the
assailants. But all did not yet go well with the British. The boats
required to bring over a second division had necessarily to be tracked
up the river as high as the foot of the rapids below Fort Erie.
Unfortunately they took the ground and could not be got off for a long
time. Indeed, morning had dawned before the royals, intended to turn
the enemy's position by attacking above Black Rock, while Riall's
division attacked below, suffered so severely from the fire of the
enemy that a landing was not effected in sufficient time for the full
accomplishment of General Drummond's purpose. Riall, nevertheless,
moved forward and attacked the Americans. They were strongly posted and
in considerable force, but Riall drove them out of their batteries at
the point of the bayonet, turning the enemy's one twenty-four, three
twelves, and a nine pounder upon the now retreating foe. Riall,
following up his successes, pursued the fleeing enemy into Buffalo.
There they rallied, but it was only for a moment. They drew out a large
body of fresh infantry, exhibited some cavalry, and fired a few rounds
from a field piece, unlimbered on a height commanding the road. The
British still pushed on and the enemy again gave way. They retreated
notwithstanding their reinforcement so hurriedly that the six pounder
brass gun on the height, an iron eighteen, and an iron six pounder were
left behind. At last they reached the woods and Riall considered that
for one day he had done enough, on land. But not yet fully satisfied,
he detached Captain Robinson with two companies of the King's regiment
to destroy three armed vessels, part of Perry's squadron, and their
stores, if it were possible to do so. These vessels were at anchor a
short distance below Buffalo, and Captain Robinson did as he was
ordered to the letter.
From the time of the landing at Black Rock until the full
accomplishment of the object of the expedition, with one, not
unimportant, exception, the Americans lost from three to four hundred
men in killed and wounded, and one hundred and thirty men taken
prisoners, while the British loss was thirty-one men killed, and four
officers, sixty-eight men wounded, and nine men missing.
The exception to the full accomplishment of the object of the
expedition, that is to say, the burning of private property, was an
exception to the general rule of the British army. But as evil, in some
cases, must be done that good may follow, the rule, now laid down by
General Drummond, was to pillage, burn, and lay waste, in retaliation
for Newark. In accordance with this new rule, therefore, General Riall
set about doing the only thing which he had left unaccomplished; the
destruction of private property. Buffalo and Black Rock, previously
deserted by their inhabitants, were set on fire and entirely consumed.
Clothing, spirits, flour, public stores, and, indeed, everything which
could not be conveniently carried off, fell a prey to the flames.
Thus was the campaign of 1813 terminated.
It might not unnaturally be supposed that during all this fighting,
business would have been nearly at a stand. But so far from such being
the case, the war had contributed in no small degree to bring Canada
and its capabilities into notice. And it could not be otherwise. So
large an expenditure as that required for the maintenance of the
regular soldiery and militia must have made money plentiful, and such
as were engaged in trade, whether in Quebec or Montreal, undoubtedly
profitted by an expenditure almost necessarily profligate. On account
of the militia alone, the province expended £121,366, and the
expenditure of the commissariat department must have been enormous. But
the grand source of wealth was the establishment of a kind of National
Bank, with specie, to redeem its paper, in the vaults of the Bank of
England. The circulation of fifteen hundred thousand pounds worth of
army bills, all redeemable in cash, with interest, could not have
failed to enrich a country in which there were not more than 350,000
inhabitants, the greater number of whom were actually in the pay of
Great Britain, while they had the privilege of attending, unless in
extraordinary cases, to their private pursuits. That Canada prospered
during the war is undeniable. There was a considerable falling off in
the number of vessels cleared at Quebec in 1813, in comparison with the
previous year, and which was in some degree attributable to the risk
attendant upon crossing the Atlantic, while the great frigates of the
United States were permitted to prowl about, but the provincial revenue
had, nevertheless, increased in the course of one year to the amount of
£30,006, while the provincial expenditure alone was nearly £200,000.
Indeed, Montreal, the temporary head-quarters of the commander-in-chief,
and literally alive with troops, who all ate and drank heartily, was
making rapid progress in the way of commercial advancement. Mr. Molson
gave some indication of the general prosperity by placing upon the St.
Lawrence a second steamer. On the 4th of May, 1813, the arrival of the
_Swiftsure_ is noticed by the Quebec newspapers. The _Swiftsure_ had
twenty-eight passengers, besides a serjeant with six privates of the
royals, having three Americans, prisoners of war, four deserters from
the 100th regiment, and one deserter from the American army, in charge,
on board, and had been twenty-two hours and a half in running down. She
had a good engine with a safety valve for blowing off surplus steam.
The ladies' cabin had eight reposing berths. The gentlemen's cabin was
thirty feet in length by twenty-three in breadth, and contained ten
berths on each side, and two "forming an angle with the larboard side."
The cabin was capable of lodging forty-four persons, and the steerage
could accommodate about 150. The _Swiftsure_ was in length of keel 130
feet, her length upon deck was 140 feet, and her breadth of beam was 24
feet.
Lower Canada was then a wheat growing and even wheat exporting country.
So early as 1802, Lower Canada exported 1,010,033 bushels of wheat,
besides 28,301 barrels of flour, and 22,051 cwt. of biscuit. In 1810,
the value of the exports from the St. Lawrence was £1,200,000 sterling.
And the farmer of Lower Canada profitted in 1814 by the presence of the
floating army population almost to as great an extent as the merchant.
Both animal and vegetable foods were largely in demand.
Sir George Prevost, as soon as the temporary cessation of active
hostilities, in his immediate neighbourhood, would permit, called a
meeting of the Parliament of Lower Canada, for the despatch of
business. Two sessions of parliament had been held in Upper Canada,
since the commencement of the war, one was opened by Major General
Brock, on the 3rd of February, 1812, when eleven Acts were passed, and
the other by Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe, during which other
eleven Acts became law. They show the temper of the times. An Act was
passed in General Brock's ruleship, granting a bounty for the
apprehension of deserters from the regular forces; another granted
£2,000 for the repair of roads and bridges; a third amended the militia
law; a fourth regulated the meeting of sleds on the public roads; a
fifth allowed £502 for clerks and the contingent expenses of
parliament; a sixth granted £5,000 for the purpose of training the
militia; a seventh extended an Act granting a certain sum of money to
His Majesty; an eighth granted £1,000 for the purchase, sale, and
exportation of hemp, and £423 for the purchase of hemp seed and payment
of bounties; a ninth afforded relief to certain persons entitled to
claim lands; a tenth amended an Act for the laying out of highways; and
an eleventh provided for the appointment of returning officers. While
General Sheaffe was President of Upper Canada, an Act was passed to
facilitate the circulation of the Lower Province Army Bills. They were
to be received in payment of duties and at the office of the Receiver
General. A second Act was passed to empower Justices of the Peace to
fine and, in the event of non-payment, to distress the properties of
persons offending against the militia laws; a third Act prohibited the
exportation of grain and other provisions and restrained the
distillation of spirituous liquors from grain; a fourth gave a pension
of £20 a year to such persons disabled in the war, as had wife or
child, to be continued to the widow or the fatherless, in the event of
the death of such disabled persons, and disabled bachelors were to
obtain, so long as they were unable to earn a livelihood, £12 a year; a
fifth prevented the sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians; a sixth
continued the Act to provide means for the defence of the province; a
seventh repealed the Hemp Encouragement Acts; an eighth continued the
Duties Agreement Act; a ninth amended an Act for the better regulation
of town and parish officers; a tenth amended and repealed in part the
Act for quartering and billetting the soldiery; and the eleventh
granted for the clerks of parliament £88 1s. 9d. The debates of course
were neither animated nor of particular interest.
In 1814, the parliament of Lower Canada was opened by the Governor
General, on the 13th of January. Sir George could meet the legislature
with heartfelt satisfaction and pride. The Canadians had acted nobly,
both in the field and out of it, while they entertained for himself,
personally, a feeling of respect, which he had done his utmost to win,
and which it was his aim to preserve. In the speech from the throne, he
congratulated parliament, particularly on the defeat of the enemy at
Chateauguay. He alluded triumphantly to the brilliant victory over
Wilkinson at Chrystler's Farm. He rejoiced that, notwithstanding the
various events of the past summer, by which the enemy had gained a
footing in the Upper province, the theatre of war had recently been
transferred to American soil, and that Niagara, Black Rock, and Buffalo
had been wrested from the enemy by British enterprise and valour. He
was proud beyond expression, at the determination manifested by the
Canadians to defend to the last extremity one of the most valuable
portions of His Majesty's dominions. He trusted to Canadian loyalty and
patriotism in the expectation that the sacrifices which the war might
yet require would be patiently submitted to. And he would faithfully
represent to His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, the loyalty, zeal,
and unanimity of His Canadian subjects. The Houses trembled with
emotion. A thrill of intense satisfaction ran through every vein. Sir
George had touched that chord in the human heart, which was never
touched in vain. He had spoken of patriotism; he had acknowledged that
the brave were brave indeed; and he had admitted that those who had
been represented as treasonable were loyal to the core. The House of
Assembly expressed their sincere acknowledgements. They felt themselves
to have been rescued from most unfounded imputations that had been
industriously attempted to be fixed upon them. They were grateful to
His Excellency for the good opinion he had formed of them. They would
cheerfully co-operate with His Excellency in maintaining the honor and
promoting the service of their gracious sovereign. And they further
gratefully acknowledged that His Excellency, in his anxious desire to
forward the prosperity and to preserve the integrity of the province,
had been guided by a just and liberal policy towards His Majesty's
Canadian subjects, by which their loyalty, zeal, and unanimity had been
cherished and promoted, and they were so impressed with the sense of it
that, when His Excellency should withdraw, which they hoped would never
be, from the administration of the government of Lower Canada, he would
carry with him the good opinion and affection of the people over whom
he had ruled so conscientiously, so honorably, and so justly. Sir
George Prevost could not be otherwise than well satisfied with the
address in reply to his speech. Kindness and conciliation had not been
thrown away, but had been met with respect and affectionate regard.
The House proceeded almost immediately to business, and had not been
long so employed, when His Excellency sent a secret message, asking for
an increased issue of army bills, to meet the public requirements. The
House at once authorised an issue to the extent of fifteen hundred
thousand pounds. Afterwards the Assembly adopted a bill to amend the
militia laws, which the Legislative Council refused to concur in; then
a bill was passed to disqualify the judges for sitting or voting in the
Legislative Council, which the Council also refused to concur in, on
the plea that the bill was an interference with the Prerogative of the
Crown, and with their privileges; next a bill was passed in the
Assembly and negatived by the Council, to grant His Majesty a duty on
the income arising from civil offices, and on pensions, to be applied
for the defence of the province, in the war with the United States;
again the Assembly adopted a bill for the appointment of a provincial
agent in Great Britain, which the Council also set aside. Surprising as
so obvious an antagonism between the Legislative Council and
Legislative Assembly may seem, it is easily accounted for. The Council
were, many of them, placemen, and indeed the immaculate and
confidential secretary to Sir James Craig, Mr. Witsius Ryland, also
Clerk of the Executive Council, had himself a seat in the Upper House,
although Mr. Robert Peel, differing in opinion with Sir James Craig,
did not think that the situation which Mr. Ryland held was quite
compatible with a seat in the Legislative Council. Mr. Ryland has
favored the present generation, through the instrumentality of a near
relative, with a brief review of the political state of the province of
Lower Canada, from which some interesting facts can be gathered. He
states that the Assembly knew that their bill for disqualifying the
Chief Justice and Justices of the Court of King's Bench from being
summoned to the Legislative Council, would be thrown out in the Upper
House, but that the introduction of such a bill in the Assembly served
the purpose which the party who introduced it had in view: it impressed
the mass of the people with a disrespectful idea of the judges,
preparatory to a grand attack upon the whole judicature of the
province. In the bill for appointing an agent to Great Britain, Mr.
Bedard, the person who had been under confinement on a _charge_ of
treasonable practices, had been named as such agent, and a salary of
£2,000 per annum assigned him. Mr. Ryland knew that the Council would
throw out the bill. But, says that gentleman, the Council were
thwarted, as Sir George Prevost acceded to a request of the Assembly
for the appointment of two such agents, whom he accredited to His Royal
Highness, the Prince Regent, and the Legislative Council passed several
resolves expressive of their astonishment. The Council humbly
considered His Excellency's acquiescence with the wishes of the
Assembly to be an unequivocal abandonment of the "Rights" of the
Legislative Council, and a fatal dereliction of the first principles of
the constitution. And with regard to the income tax, proposed by the
Assembly, Mr. Ryland states that the whole saving that would have been
effected by it, would only have been £2,500 a year, and that the
officers of the government who had the utmost difficulty in subsisting
on their salaries, would have been, by such a measure, reduced to
extreme distress! Now, it is a noticeable fact, in connection with this
matter, that the Provincial Secretary, at the period alluded to, was an
official in the Colonial Office, and had never seen Canada, although he
afterwards received from the province a pension of £400 a year, in
consideration of his long and valuable services; and it is in a high
degree amusing to find Mr. Ryland informing this functionary
"decidedly" and "frankly", that he had acted wisely in not asking for
an increase of salary, although it was a different thing to solicit
additional assistance in an office where the public business was
constantly increasing! Mr. Ryland and a few other such cormorants could
not tolerate the impertinent interference of the House of Assembly with
their means of subsistence. Nay, it will even appear that Mr. Ryland
took it upon himself to privately lecture Sir George Prevost's
successor upon the impropriety of following a certain course of action,
and that he actually succeeded in dissuading the Governor from his
original purpose.
The Assembly, thwarted as it had been by the Council, still pursued its
reformatory course. Much time, indeed, did not elapse until Mr. Stuart
again brought forward his motion to take into consideration the power
and authority exercised by the Provincial Courts of Justice, under the
denomination of Rules of Practice. His motion was almost unanimously
carried. And who this Mr. Stuart was, Mr. Ryland tells. About 1813,
says the Clerk of the Executive Council, "Mr. Bedard, the judge, came
to Quebec, for the purpose of advising the measures to be pursued, but
not having a seat in the Assembly, the principal management was left to
an Anglo-American Barrister, named Stuart, who had been a pupil of the
present Chief Justice, (Sewell) when he held the situation of
Attorney-General. This gentleman obtained from Lieutenant-Governor
Milnes the appointment of Solicitor-General, from which he was
dismissed by Sir James Craig, in consequence of his pursuing a line of
conduct, which the latter considered utterly inconsistent with his duty
as a servant of the Crown." What the particular line of conduct pursued
by Mr. Stuart was, that so much offended Sir James Craig, even time and
Mr. Ryland have not yet revealed. Perhaps "the Anglo-American
Barrister" did not bow sufficiently low to confidential Secretaries and
Executive Clerks. He would have found such obsequiousness difficult.
Mr. Stuart was both vigorous in mind and body, and was very far from
being a common man. He stood more than six feet high, and was built in
proportion. His shoulders were broad, his chest ample, and his arms
long. His head was immoderately large. His countenance was commanding
and his bearing dignified. He spoke with great fluency and with
astonishing conciseness. His eye was large, his forehead prominent,
lofty and broad, with great depth between the brow and the occiput, his
nose was long and aquiline, with the nostrils open; his mouth was
large, but the lips were thin; and the chin was square and somewhat
prominent; viewed, in profile, the whole head was wall-sided. He was no
man to be trifled with, and none other than a fool would at any time,
have thought of doing so. The Chief Justice Sewell, also an
Anglo-American, was also an exceedingly talented man, but still a man
quite of another stamp of mind, to that of Mr. Stuart. Mr. Sewell was
thoroughly polished. No man could so well bow to power or so well bend
an inferior to his will as Mr. Chief Justice Sewell. To see him in the
street was to see him in the least, the lowest, and, consequently, the
worst point of view. He was knowing, well read, and well bred. He could
become sarcastic, but never condescended to be furious. If he was at
all sycophantic, it was his will rather than his nature to be so. On
the bench, he loomed large, being long in body, and looked stately and
agreeable. He could be stern, but sternness was less natural to him
than concealment. He never told all he knew, nor did his face ever
betray the innermost recesses of his heart. On the whole, Mr. Sewell
was a good man, and he was an excellent Chief Justice. Such are the
characters of the complainant and the defendant in this cause. Mr.
Stuart carried great weight, when on the right side, in a House of
Assembly, steadily bent upon fair legislation. Not only did he carry
his motion about taking into consideration the power and authority
exercised by the Courts of Justice, through the medium of Rules of
Practice, at variance with the law and the liberty of the subject, but
the House ordered the Clerk of the Court of Appeals, and the
Prothonotaries of the Courts to produce the Rules of Practice, or
certified copies of them, for the immediate use of members. The House
went into committee and talked the matter over, then rose, and reported
progress. The Rules of Practice had not been very long in use. They
were made for the Court of Appeals so recently as 1809, and the example
was so excellent that the Court of King's Bench followed it. The
Legislative Assembly not only considered the rules an infringement upon
their privilege of law-making but an infringement upon the civil rights
of His Majesty's subjects and subversive of the laws of the province,
rendering the enjoyment of liberty and property altogether insecure and
precarious, and giving to the judges an arbitrary authority. And the
Assembly without further ceremony proceeded to impeach the Chief
Justices of Quebec and Montreal, at the instance of Mr. Stuart, the
Anglo-American Barrister. It was said that Jonathan Sewell, Chief
Justice, had traitorously and wickedly endeavored to subvert the
constitution by the introduction of an arbitrary, tyrannical government
against law; that the said Jonathan Sewell had disregarded the
authority of Parliament, and usurped its powers by making regulations
subversive of the constitution and the laws; that Jonathan Sewell had
libellously published such Rules of Practice; that Jonathan Sewell had
substituted his own will for the will of the legislature; that Jonathan
Sewell being Chief Justice, Speaker of the Legislative Council, and
Chairman of the Executive Council, had maliciously slandered the
Canadian subjects of the King and the House of Assembly, and had
poisoned and incensed the mind of Sir James H. Craig, the
Governor-in-Chief, and had so misled and deceived him that he did on
the 15th of May, 1809, dissolve the parliament, without any cause
whatever to palliate or excuse the measure, the said Governor-in-Chief
having been at the same time advised to make a speech in gross
violation of the rights of the Assembly, grossly insulting to its
members, and misrepresenting their conduct; that to prevent opposition
to his tyrannical views the said Jonathan Sewell had counselled and
advised Sir James Henry Craig to remove and dismiss divers loyal and
deserving subjects, from offices of profit and emolument--now the head
and front of Mr. Sewell's offending has come nebulously to
light--without the semblance of reason to justify it; that to mark his
contempt for the representatives of the people and for the
constitution, he had procured the dismissal of Jean Antoine Panet,
Esquire, who then was, and for fifteen years preceding had been Speaker
of the Assembly, from his rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the militia,
without any reason to palliate or excuse the injustice; that he had
induced P. E. Desbarats, the law printer, to establish a newspaper
styled the "Vrai Canadien," for the purpose of vilifying such members
of the Assembly as were obnoxious to him; that with the view of
extinguishing the liberty of the press, and destroying, therefore,
effectually, the rights, liberty, and security of His Majesty's
subjects in the province, and suppressing all complaint of oppression,
he had, in March, 1810, advised and approved the sending of an armed
force to break open the dwelling house and printing office of one
Charles Lefrançois, there to arrest and imprison him, and seize and
bring away a printing press, with various private papers, which measure
of lawless violence was accordingly executed, the said press and papers
being then in the Court House of Quebec, with the knowledge and
approbation of the said Jonathan Sewell; that Jonathan Sewell had
advised the arrest of Messrs. Bedard, Blanchet and Taschereau, upon an
unfounded pretext; that Jonathan Sewell had instigated the oppression
of the old and infirm François Corbeil, by which the old man lost his
life; that Jonathan Sewell had instigated Sir James Henry Craig to
issue a proclamation causing the public to believe that Mr. Bedard had
been guilty of treason, and that the province was in a state
approaching to open rebellion; that Jonathan Sewell had read the wicked
proclamation in the Court House, to influence the Grand and Petty
Juries; that Jonathan Sewell had abused his powers simply with the view
of paving the way for American predominance in Canada; that with the
view of annexing Canada to the United States he had entered into a base
and wicked conspiracy with one John Henry, an adventurer of suspicious
character, for the purpose of sowing dissension among the subjects of
the government of the United States, and producing a dismemberment of
the Union; and had given artful advice to Sir James Craig, inducing him
to send Henry, the adventurer, on a secret mission, which had exposed
His Majesty's government to imputations reflecting on its honor, and
that he had labored to promote disunion between the legislative Council
and Legislative Assembly, and had fomented dissensions in the province
to prevent a reliance on the loyalty and bravery of His Majesty's
Canadian subjects. Mr. Chief Justice Monk was impeached as an
accessory.
With the view of effectually prosecuting the impeachment, the House
appointed Mr. Stuart its agent, and directed him to proceed to England,
to press upon His Majesty's ministers the necessity of giving heed to
the business. £2,000 were awarded for the payment of the expenses of
Mr. Stuart, but the Council expunged the award from the revenue bill,
and there was no more about it, until the House went to the Castle with
their Speaker, who presented an address to the Governor General,
requesting him to transmit the impeachments, and suggested the
propriety of the Chief Justices being suspended from the exercise of
their powers until the pleasure of the Prince Regent could be
ascertained. Sir George Prevost was somewhat taken by surprise. He was
in an exceedingly delicate or rather interesting situation. It was an
unpleasant, if not a disagreeable part, which he was required to play.
It was, in a word, to make complaint to the Prince Regent of his
predecessor. Sir George, however, blandly said that he would take an
early opportunity of transmitting the address, with the articles of
accusation against the Chief Justices, to His Majesty. With regard to
the suggestion of the Honorable House of Assembly, concerning the
suspension of the Chief Justices, he did not consider it necessary to
go to that extreme. The Legislative Council had not even been consulted
with regard to the articles of accusation; and he could not think of
suspending two officers of such rank, on the complaint of only the
third branch of the legislature.
In the Assembly, when the Speaker had returned to the chair, there were
murmurs, both loud and deep. Mr. James Stuart, seconded by Louis Joseph
Papineau, both determined men, and of consummate ability, moved that
the charges exhibited by the Assembly against Jonathan Sewell and James
Monk, Esquires, were rightly denominated, Heads of Impeachment; that
the House had the right to advise the Governor General without the
concurrence of the Legislative Council; that the House in pointing out
the existence of gross abuses, had performed the first and most
essential of its duties; that in framing and exhibiting the heads of
impeachment referred to in the address to His Excellency, the House had
exercised a salutary power, vested in it by the constitution; and that
His Excellency, the Governor-in-Chief, had violated the constitutional
rights and privileges of the House, by his answer to the address. But
afterwards, to show that a feeling of respect was yet felt for His
Excellency, greater than any of his predecessors had ever experienced,
the House resolved, notwithstanding the wicked and perverse advice
which he had received, that His Majesty's faithful Commons of Canada
had not, in any respect, altered the opinion they had ever entertained
of the wisdom of His Excellency's administration, and they were
determined to adopt the measures deemed necessary for the support of
the government and the defence of the province.
The Governor-in-Chief was, however, not by any means pleased with the
pertinacity of the Assembly. There were evidently men in the House, who
would neither be forced nor persuaded out of certain measures. He
hardly knew how to act in the emergency, and with his usual caution he
did nothing. The Chief Justice Sewell went to England for the purpose
of repelling the accusations against him, and as he was only the
instrument of, not under any circumstance the author of a wrong,
English public opinion, of course, went strongly with him. The
Executive Councillors, the merchants, and the other principal
inhabitants of Quebec presented addresses to His Honor, intimating the
high opinion in which he was held, and alluding to his conspicuous
ability, comprehensive knowledge, patient candour, liberal respect for
the opinion of others, and his equality and gentleness of temper,
pointedly and flatteringly. Mr. Chief Justice Monk was similarly
treated by the influential inhabitants. The Assembly continued,
notwithstanding the war exigencies of the times, in their factiousness,
as their persistence in some measures was considered. They again passed
a bill appointing a provincial agent to Great Britain, who was to
reside in London, after the manner of an ambassador. Mr. Bedard, the
Judge of Three Rivers, who had figured somewhat conspicuously in Sir
James Craig's time, was named as the agent in the bill. It was sent up
to the Legislative Council for concurrence. And it had not been long
there when it occurred to the House of Assembly that two agents would
be better than one, as the Council, desirous of sending one of their
own members to England, would thereby be induced to concur in the
expediency of despatching agents to London. But the Council begged that
the Assembly would mind its own business and not interfere with any
bill before the Upper House, unless a conference was officially asked
for by the Legislative Council, when any suggestion from the Assembly
would be attended to. The Upper House never encroached upon the
privileges of the Lower House. The agent was not appointed. The Houses
could not agree upon a messenger, and although the Governor promised to
send two messengers to London, at the public expense, if the Assembly
desired it, no one is to this hour very certain whether the address of
the Legislative Assembly, to the Prince Regent, ever reached his royal
fingers. These were the principal matters with which the time of the
House was occupied, but the opportunity was not overlooked of voting
the thanks of the House to Colonel DeSalaberry and his officers and men
under him, for their distinguished conduct at Chateauguay, and to
Colonel Morrison, of the 89th regiment, and to the officers and men
under him, for their exertions at Chrystler's Farm, in the defeat of
Wilkinson.
On the 17th of March, the parliament was prorogued, and so ended the
seventh parliament of Lower Canada. Sir George Prevost in his closing
speech, was not so flattering in his allusions as in opening the
session. He had seen with regret a want of unanimity and despatch, and
a want of confidence in himself, which had been attended with serious
inconveniences to the public service, in both Houses. He lamented the
course of proceeding adopted by the Assembly, which had occasioned the
loss of a productive revenue bill, to wit, tacking to the bill the
clause for the payment of a London agent, which had caused its
rejection by the Upper House, and a consequent misunderstanding by
which the bill had been lost. He regretted that in sacrificing the
liberal appropriations for the defence of the province they had been
swayed by any considerations, which seemed to them of higher importance
than the immediate security of the province or the comfort of those
engaged in its protection. He earnestly entreated the gentlemen of the
Legislative Council, as peace was not obtained, to impress on all
around them, by precept and example, a respect for the laws by which
they were governed, as well as a just confidence in those who
administered them, and to cherish and encourage that spirit which had
hitherto proved the firmest barrier against all the attempts of the
enemy. And as the parliament was about to expire, and he should avail
himself of an early opportunity of appealing to the sense of the people
for the election of a new Assembly, he recommended the honorable
gentlemen and gentlemen to give the inhabitants of the province a true
idea of the nature and value of the constitution which they possessed,
so that their choice of representatives might fall on those who would
endeavour faithfully to uphold it, and so promote the safety, welfare,
and prosperity of the province.
Sir George Prevost evidently threw out some hints to the Legislative
Council, which could not have been particularly palatable.
In Sir George's speech there was an allusion to peace not being at
hand. Sir George made that reference doubtless in connection with the
fact that Russia had offered to mediate between the contending powers,
with reference to an amicable settlement of their differences. Indeed
commissioners were appointed to negotiate, by the United States.
Messrs. Gallatin, Adams, and Bayard were named. But Great Britain
declined the proposal, though the Prince Regent offered a direct
negotiation either at London or Gottenburg. The offer was accepted, and
Messrs. Henry Clay, Jonathan Russell, and Albert Gallatin, were added
to the commissioners already in Europe, and sailed soon after for
Gottenburg. Lord Gambier, Henry Goulburn, and William Adams were
appointed on the part of the Court of St. James, to meet them. The
place of meeting was subsequently changed to Ghent, in Flanders, and
the conference met in August. But while the conference sat the war was
carried on.
The first fight of moment in 1814, occurred on the Pacific Coast. The
American Commodore Porter had been cruising in the frigate _Essex_, for
some time, in the Pacific, with wonderful success. He had with him as a
consort, a captured whaleship, which he had armed with twenty guns, and
named the _Essex, junior_. Captain Hillyard, in the British frigate
_Phoebe_, accompanied by the sloop of war _Cherub_, had been sent in
search of the successful cruiser, and on the 9th of February, gained
intelligence to the effect that with two of her prizes she had put into
Valparaiso. The American was no match, even with the aid of the whale
ship, for two such vessels, and kept in port, the British vessels
keeping up a strict blockade for six weeks.[23] At length, on the 28th
of March, tired of the blockade, Porter attempted to escape, when
Captain Hillyard succeeded in bringing her to action, in the roads of
Valparaiso, before she could get back, and without the aid of her
lesser consort. The American ship, in the hurry to escape, had spread
every stitch of canvas, to run past the _Phoebe_, and as she was
doubling the point a squall struck her, carrying away the main topmast.
Both ships immediately gave chase, and being unable to escape in his
crippled state, Porter attempted to regain the harbor. Finding this to
be impracticable, he ran into a small bay and anchored within pistol
shot of the shore. The contest, which was a most unequal one, now
commenced. Both the attacking vessels at first got into raking
positions, and did great execution. Nevertheless, Captain Porter fought
gallantly. Hillyard's ship having sustained serious damage in her
rigging, and having become almost unmanageable, on that account, hauled
off to repair damages, leaving the _Cherub_ to continue the action.
Hillyard manoeuvred deliberately and warily. He knew that his
antagonist was in his power, and his only concern was to succeed with
as little loss to himself as possible. Hillyard again attacked, and the
_Essex_ hoisting her foresail and lifting her anchor, managed] to run
alongside of the _Phoebe_. The firing was now tremendous, and the
_Essex's_ decks were strewed with dead. Both attacking ships then edged
off, and fired into the _Essex_, at convenient range, until she struck.
The _Cherub_ raked the _Essex_, while the _Phoebe_ exchanged broadsides
with her. The _Essex_ had twice taken fire during the action. The loss
on board the _Essex_ was fifty-eight killed, thirty-nine wounded
severely, twenty-seven slightly, and thirty-one missing. On board both
British vessels only five were killed and ten wounded. It is said that
there were nearly a hundred sailors on board the _Essex_, when the
engagement commenced, who jumped overboard, when it was likely she
would be taken; that of these forty reached the shore, while thirty-one
were drowned, and sixteen picked up when on the point of drowning, by
the British. On the other hand it is alleged that when the _Essex_ took
fire aft, a quantity of powder exploded, and word was given that the
fire was near her magazine. It was then that Captain Porter advised as
many as could swim to make for the shore, which they did, or tried to
do, while those who could not swim exerted themselves to extinguish the
flames, which having done, the action was renewed, until fighting was
impossible. When Porter summoned a consultation of his officers, only
one appeared--Acting Lieutenant McNight.
[23] So say the Americans. Mr. Alison says three weeks.
Early in February, the American sloop of war _Frolic_, of 22 guns, was
captured by the British frigate _Orpheus_, after two shots had been
fired. But by way of compensation, the British brig _Epervier_, of 18
guns, towards the close of April, surrendered to the American sloop of
war _Peacock_, of 22 guns, and on the 28th of June, a most desperate
encounter took place between the British sloop of war _Reindeer_,[24]
of 18 guns, and the American sloop, _Wasp_. The preponderance of force
was here, in a most extraordinary degree, in favor of the Americans,
but, notwithstanding this advantage, Captain Manners, of the
_Reindeer_, one of the bravest officers who ever trod a quarter deck,
the moment he got sight of the American vessel gave chase, and as soon
as it was evident to the American captain that he was pursued by the
_Reindeer_ alone, he hove to and the action commenced. Never were
vessels more gallantly commanded and fought on both sides. The
engagement lasted, yard arm to yard arm, for half an hour, at the end
of which time the _Reindeer_ was so disabled, that she fell with her
bow against the larboard quarter of the _Wasp_. The latter instantly
raked her with dreadful effect; and the American rifles, from the tops,
picked off almost all the officers and men on the British deck. But
Captain Manners then showed himself indeed a hero. Early in the action
the calves of his legs had been shot away, but he still kept the deck;
at this time a grape shot passed through his thighs, but though brought
for a moment on his knees, he instantly sprang up, and though bleeding
profusely, not only refused to quit the deck, but exclaiming, "Follow
me, my boys; we must board!" sprang into the rigging of the _Reindeer_,
intending to leap into that of the _Wasp_. At this moment two balls
from the American tops pierced his skull, and came out below his chin.
With dying hand he waved his sword above his head, and exclaiming, "Oh
God!" fell lifeless on the deck. The Americans immediately after
carried the British vessel by boarding, where hardly an unwounded man
remained, and so shattered was she in her hull, that she was
immediately after burned by the captors. Never, says Alison, will the
British empire be endangered while the spirit of Captain Manners
survives in its defenders.
[24] Taken verbatim from Alison. The _Wasp_, whose Captain,
Blakeley, was an Irishman, was lost in the same year, during a
cruise, and no trace of her gallant captain or crew was ever
obtained.
There was some correspondence in the early part of 1814, relative to
the prisoners captured at Queenston, supposed to be British subjects,
and therefore sent to England to be tried for treason. The American
government confined an equal number of British prisoners, who were to
be retaliated upon, unless the British government consented to exchange
them the same as other prisoners, and the Canadian government confined
General Winder and a number of other officers and men, as hostages for
the forthcoming of the British prisoners, and in retaliation for their
confinement. The whole matter ended in smoke. The traitors were not
made examples of, and negotiations and retaliations ceased. During the
winter, stores of every kind were forwarded to Kingston, from Quebec
and Montreal. In February, the 8th regiment, and two hundred and twenty
seamen, arrived overland from Fredericton, New Brunswick. The Indians,
Ottawas, Chippewas, Shawnees, Delawares, Mohawks, Saiks, Foxes,
Kickapoos, and Winebagoes, came to Quebec to inform the Governor
General that they were poor and needed arms, but would fight to the
last drop of blood for the British against the Americans, who had taken
away their lands, General Prevost was, of course, exceedingly glad to
hear it, and having expressed his regret for the death of Tecumseh, he
loaded them with presents, entertained them for two days, and then sent
them off to prepare for the campaign.
The Americans had not by any means been idle during the winter. They
too had been making preparations, and when General Macomb crossed Lake
Champlain on the ice, with his division, from Plattsburgh, about the
end of March, serious doubts began to be entertained in Canada, with
regard to the probability of another invasion. The general soon removed
all doubts. He crossed to St. Armand and remained there unmolested,
while General Wilkinson prepared to assault Odelltown and Lacolle
Mills. As soon as Wilkinson was fully prepared for the assault, Macomb
joined him, and the Americans, numbering about five thousand men,
entered Odelltown. Despatches were immediately sent off by the officer
in command of the stone mills at Lacolle, to Isle-aux-Noix for aid, and
Captain Broke with a picquet of the 13th regiment, was sent to him.
Major Handcock set about making such preparations as he could for the
defence of his temporary block-house, or rather stone tower, at
Lacolle. Wilkinson did not immediately advance, but halted to
reconnoitre. He made a feint too, upon Burtonville, which he suffered a
few grenadiers and some light infantry to check. He wanted possession
of Lacolle town, and accordingly, early in the afternoon, he determined
upon taking it by assault. The Americans got into the woods with the
view of surrounding the blockhouse and of simultaneously assaulting it
on all sides. Lacolle opened fire, but the Americans only replied by a
cheer, and continued to advance. But the cheering was not of long
duration, as the effect of Major Handcock's fire was not by any means
elevating to the Americans. It was so heavy and so hot, and so well
directed that the effect was most depressing, and the enemy retreated,
in some confusion, back to the woods, from which they had emerged. Thus
repulsed the gallant Americans thought of battering a breach in the
tower of Lacolle, with the aid of a naked 12-pounder, or battering gun,
unprotected by an earthwork. The result was that the artillerymen being
within musket range, were picked off with great facility, and with such
marvellous rapidity, that it was no easy matter for the enemy to load
and fire. The cannonading was, nevertheless, kept up for two hours and
a half, but as little attention was paid to aim, under the exciting
circumstances, only four round shot struck the mill, doing no harm at
all. It would have been prudent for the gallant Handcock to have kept
the enemy for some time longer, in the snow and cold, keeping up so
harmless a fire of artillery. But it occurred to him that the gun might
be spiked, and he ordered the flank companies of the 13th regiment to
charge the enemy, in front. The trees stood still, and the Americans
retired a little, pouring a deadly fire upon the 13th, as they advanced
in line through deep snow, as well as they could, which was not by any
means very well. As the Americans still pertinaciously kept in the
woods, the 13th could not, by any possibility, charge. They might have
pursued the enemy individually, and the dodging and twining and
twirling of the combatants would have been something extraordinary. But
the 13th thought better of it and wisely retired, in good order, upon
the mill. At this moment, however, the grenadiers of the Fencibles and
a company of the Voltigeurs, arrived from Burtonville, and were ordered
by Major Handcock to support the retiring 13th, and charge again. The
whole now advanced in columns of sections upon the gun, which the
Americans had spiked during the first charge, and on which the
Americans in the woods were ready to concentrate their fire. The enemy
did not pull a trigger until the 13th, Voltigeurs, and Fencibles were
within twenty-five yards of their centre, when the further advance of
the sortie was checked by the fire of musketry so hotly poured in upon
them on all sides. They were instantly recalled. But the Americans
being by this time wearied, cold, and hungry, and now deficient in
artillery, while they were as unable to carry the mill by storm, as the
British were to charge in the woods, retreated about five in the
afternoon, unmolested, and afterwards fell back upon Champlain and
Plattsburgh. The Americans lost in this attempt to carry a stone tower,
bravely defended, 13 in killed, 123 in wounded, and in missing 30. The
British lost 10 killed, 4 missing, and 2 officers and 44 men wounded.
The Americans, while they were near Cornwall, under Generals Brown and
Boyd, in the autumn previously to re-crossing the river, plundered some
merchants of all their goods, wares, and merchandise, found _en route_
for Upper Canada. But the American government had stipulated for their
restitution with Colonel Morrison, of the 89th, and Captain Mulcaster,
of the Royal Navy. Whether the repeated checks that they had lately
received from the British, in consideration of their unwelcome, but not
looked for, visits, had soured the authorities, south of 45°., or no,
it was now intended to sell the plunder for the benefit of the
government of the United States, as British goods being rare in the
American market, high prices would undoubtedly have been obtained. To
prevent a consummation, not in the least devoutly wished for by the
British merchants, Captain Sherwood, of the Quarter Master General's
Department, suggested the idea of plundering them back again.
Accordingly, Captain Kerr, with a subaltern, twenty rank and file of
the marines, and ten militiamen, crossed the ice on the 6th of
February, during the night, from Cornwall to Madrid, on Grass River,
with horses and sleighs innumerable. The merchandise, or a great part
of it, was secured, packed in the sleighs, and carried off. Indeed the
inhabitants of Madrid made no opposition to Captain Kerr, but on the
contrary, looking upon the expedition as rather smart, were
considerably tickled, and positively helped the British to load their
sleighs and be gone. Jonathan, fully alive to the ludicrous, chuckled
as he thought upon the astonished countenances of the United States'
officers, who were charged with the sale of the goods, when they should
have ascertained their unlooked for disappearance. The inhabitants
were, of course, not molested, and indeed living but a few hundred
yards from the British shore, were only very moderate Americans.
There was also, during the winter, a skirmish at Longwood, in which the
British, who were the assailants, retired with a loss of two officers
and twelve men killed.
The campaign opened with the opening of the navigation, in May. Sir
James Yeo, with the co-operation of that talented, skilful, and
excellent officer, General Drummond, planned an attack upon Oswego,
with the view of destroying the naval stores, sent by way of that town
for the equipment of the American fleet in Sackett's Harbour. The
British fleet having been strengthened by two additional ships, the
_Prince Regent_ and the _Princess Charlotte_, General Drummond sent on
board of it six companies of DeWatteville's regiment, the light
companies of the Glengary militia, and the second battalion of the
Royal Marines, with a detachment of Royal Artillery, and two field
pieces, a detachment of a rocket company, and some sappers and miners.
This expedition left Kingston on the 4th of May, and arrived off Oswego
about noon on the day following. It was then however, blowing a gale of
wind, from the northwest, and it was considered expedient to keep off
and on the port, until the weather calmed. It was the morning of the
6th, before a landing could be effected, when about one hundred and
forty men, under Colonel Fischer, and two hundred seamen, under Captain
Mulcaster, Royal Navy, were sent ashore, in the face of a heavy fire of
grape and round shot from the enemies' batteries, and of musketry from
a detachment of the American army, posted on the brow of a hill and
partially sheltered by an adjoining wood. The British, nevertheless,
charged the battery and captured it, the enemy leaving about sixty
wounded men behind them, in their hurried retreat. The stores in the
fort were taken possession of, the fort itself dismantled, and the
barracks were destroyed. In this successful assault, Captain Holtaway,
of the Marines, was killed, Captain Mulcaster was severely and
dangerously wounded in the head, and Captain Popham was wounded
severely, two officers of the line and two other naval officers were
wounded. Eighteen rank and file of the army and marines were killed,
and sixty wounded, and three sailors were killed and seven wounded. The
naval stores, however, were not captured, as they had been deposited at
the Falls of the Onondago, some miles above Oswego. The troops were
re-embarked and the fleet sailed for Kingston on the 7th of May.
Sir James Yeo being still very anxious about the naval stores which the
enemy were so industriously collecting at Sackett's Harbour, determined
to try if possession of at least a part of them could not be obtained.
Accordingly, he blockaded Sackett's Harbour, and on the morning of the
29th of May, a boat belonging to the enemy, laden with a cable large
enough for a ship of war, and with two twenty-four pounders, forming
one of a flotilla of sixteen boats from Oswego, containing naval and
military stores, was intercepted and captured. Captains Popham and
Spilsbury, having with them two gun-boats and five barges, were
immediately sent in search of the other boats. They soon learned where
the missing boats were. Fearing capture, the Americans had taken
shelter in Sandy Creek. It was resolved to root them out, if possible,
and accordingly the British gun-boats and barges entered the Creek.
Captains Popham and Spilsbury immediately looked about them, and found
the enterprise to be rather hazardous. The creek was narrow and
winding. An attack was, nevertheless, determined upon. For about half a
mile the assailants proceeded cautiously up the creek, when, as they
turned its elbow, the enemy's boats were in full view. The troops
immediately landed on both banks and were advancing when the
sixty-eight pounder carronade in the foremost boat was disabled, and it
was necessary to bring the twenty-four pounder in the stern of the boat
to bear upon the enemy. But no sooner had an effort been made to get
the boat round than the enemy took it into their heads that the
attacking party designed to make off, and advancing hastily in
considerable numbers, rifles, militia, cavalry, regular infantry, and
Indians, the British, unable to retreat, were overpowered, the captured
being with difficulty rescued by their humane American enemies, from
the tomahawks and scalping knives of the Indians.
On Lake Champlain an attempt was made on the 14th of May, to capture or
destroy two new American vessels building at Vergennes, by Captain
Pring, of the Royal Navy, but finding the enemy prepared to receive him
more warmly than courteously, Captain Pring desisted and returned to
Isle-aux-Noix.
About the end of June, the Americans concentrated at Buffalo, Black
Rock, and other places, on the Niagara frontier, for the invasion of
Upper Canada, only waited for the co-operation of the fleet, which had
not, as yet, come out of Sackett's Harbour. The army was commanded by
General Brown, however, an officer, of considerable judgment, and now
not by any means inexperienced in the art of war, who could not remain
long inactive. On the 3rd of July, he despatched Brigadiers Scott and
Ripley, with their two strong brigades, to effect a landing on the
Canada shore. They landed from boats and batteaux, at two different
points. One brigadier landed above Fort Erie, and the other below it,
the brigades being two miles apart, and the fort in the centre. Captain
Buck, of the 8th regiment, was in command of Fort Erie, and, oddly
enough, although he had put it in a tolerably good state for defence,
he at once surrendered it, and his garrison of seventy men, to the
enemy. Scott and Ripley now marched on Chippewa, and were making
preparations to carry that post when they were met by General Riall,
with fifteen hundred regular troops, and a thousand Indians and
militia, and offered battle. The offer was no sooner made than
accepted, and at five in the afternoon, a battle was commenced, which
proved disastrous to Riall. The enemy were overwhelmingly numerous.
Riall's militia and Indians attacked the American light troops
vigorously, but they were unable to cope with Kentucky riflemen,
sheltered behind trees. Death came with every rifle flash, and the
militia and Indians must have given way, had not the light companies of
the Royal Scotts and 100th regiments come to their relief. Now came the
main and, on the part of Riall, ill-judged attack. He concentrated his
whole force, while the Americans stretched out in line. He approached
in column, attempting to deploy under a most galling fire, and the
result was, as might have been anticipated, fearfully disastrous. With
151 men killed and 320 wounded, among whom was Lieutenant-Colonel, the
Marquis of Tweedale, the British were compelled to retire. Riall's
object in retiring was to gain his intrenched camp, but General Brown,
who now commanded the Americans, discovered a cross road, and Riall,
abandoning Queenston, fell back to Twenty Mile Creek. The loss of the
Americans was 70 killed and 9 officers and 240 men wounded. This was
the most sanguinary of any battle that had been fought during the war,
and the enemy, gaining courage, advanced gradually, and made
demonstrations upon Forts George and Mississaga. On the 25th of July,
Brown, not considering it expedient to advance and, unsafe to stand
still, retreated upon Chippewa, the village of St. David's having been
previously set on fire, by a Lieutenant-Colonel Stone, whom Brown
compelled to retire from the army for his barbarity. General Riall now
again advanced, when the enemy wheeled about and endeavoured to cut him
off from his expected reinforcement. But he failed in doing so, General
Drummond having come up with about three thousand men, of whom eighteen
hundred were regulars. The enemy was five thousand strong, but General
Drummond seized a commanding eminence which swept the whole field of
battle. Nothing daunted, however, by this superiority of position, the
Americans resolutely advanced to the charge, and the action, which
commenced about six in the evening, soon became general along the whole
line, the brunt of the battle falling, nevertheless, upon the British
centre and left. General Riall, who commanded the left division of the
army was forced back with his division, wounded, and made prisoner. The
centre firmly maintained their ground. It was composed of the 89th, the
Royals, and the King's regiment, well supported by the artillery, whose
guns, worked with prodigious activity, carried great havoc in the
enemy's ranks. Brown soon perceived that unless the guns were captured,
the battle was lost; and he consequently bent all his energies to the
accomplishment of that object. He ordered General Millar to charge up
the hill and take the guns. The order was vigorously obeyed and five
guns fell into the hands of the Americans, the British artillerymen
being positively bayoneted in the act of loading, while the muzzles of
the American guns were within a few yards of the English battery. It
was now night and extremely dark. During the darkness some
extraordinary incidents occurred. The British having, for a moment,
been thrust back, some of the British guns remained for a few minutes
in the enemy's hands. They were, however, not only quickly recovered,
but the two pieces, a six pounder and a five and a half inch howitzer,
which the enemy had brought up, were captured by the British, together
with several tumbrils; and in limbering up the British guns, at one
period, one of the enemy's six-pounders was put, by mistake, upon a
British limber, and one of the British six-pounders was limbered on one
of the enemy's. So that although American guns had been captured, yet
as the Americans had captured one of the British guns, the British only
gained, by the dark transaction, one gun. It was now 9 o'clock, and
there was a short intermission of firing. Apparently the combatants
sank to rest from pure exhaustion. It was a terrible repose. The din of
battle had ceased, to be succeeded by the monotonous roar of the Great
Falls. The moon had risen and at intervals glanced out of the angry
blackish looking clouds, to reveal the pale faces of the dead, with
still unrelaxed features, and some even yet, as it were, in an attitude
of defiance. The field of strife was one sea of blood, and the groans
of the wounded and the dying sent a shudder through the boldest.
Occasionally the flash of a gun or a few bright flashes of musketry
revealed more strikingly than even the moon's pale rays, the living,
the dying, and the dead. Short as was the respite, the enemy was not
idle while it lasted. Brown was busily employed in bringing up the
whole of his remaining force, and he afterwards renewed the attack with
fresh troops, to be everywhere repulsed, with equal gallantry and
success. Drummond had not neglected to bring up Riall's wing which had
been previously ordered to retire. He placed them in a second line,
with the exception of the Royal Scots, with which he prolonged his
front line, on the right, where he was apprehensive of being outflanked
by the enemy. The enemy's efforts to carry the hill were continued
until about midnight, when he had suffered so severely from the
superior steadiness and discipline of the British that he gave up the
contest and retreated with great precipitation to his camp, beyond the
Chippewa, which he abandoned on the following day, throwing the
greatest part of his baggage, camp equipage, and provisions, into the
rapids. He then set fire to Street's Mills, destroyed the bridge at
Chippewa, and, in great disorder, continued his retreat towards Fort
Erie. General Drummond detached his light troops, cavalry, and Indians,
in pursuit, to harass his rear.
The Americans lost, in this fiercely contested struggle, at least 1,500
men, in killed, wounded, and prisoners: among the wounded were the two
generals commanding, Brown and Scott. There were 5,000 Americans
engaged, and only 2,800 British. General Drummond received a musket
ball in the neck, but, concealing the circumstance from his troops, he
remained on the ground until the close of the action. Lieutenant-Colonel
Morrison, of the 89th regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Pearson, Captain
Robinson, of the King's regiment, in command of the militia, and
several other officers were severely wounded. The British loss, in all,
was eight hundred and seventy men, including forty-two made prisoners,
among whom were General Riall and his staff.
The Americans, now under the command of General Ripley, retreated upon
Fort Erie, and intrenched themselves in its neighborhood. Gen'l. Gaines
then assumed the command at Fort Erie, having come from Sackett's
Harbour, in the fleet which was to have co-operated with the army, now
cooped up in Fort Erie and altogether indifferent to such co-operation.
The fleet went back again.
Still following up his successes, General Drummond laid siege to Fort
Erie and the intrenched camp near it, and while he was doing so, three
armed schooners, anchored off the fort, were captured by a body of
marines, who pushed off in boats during the night, under Captain Dobbs,
of the Royal Navy. General Drummond did not simply sit down before Fort
Erie and the entrenchment, he did his best to effect a breach, and with
that view kept up a constant fire from the two 24-pounder field guns
which had proved more than ordinarily useful at the battle of Chippewa.
It was not long indeed before he considered an assault practicable. He
made the necessary preparations, and on the fourteenth, three columns,
one under Colonel Fischer, consisting of the 8th and DeWatteville's
regiment, and the flank companies of the 89th and 100th regiments, with
a detachment of artillery, a second under Colonel Drummond, of the
104th regiment, made up of the flank companies of the 41st and 104th
regiments, with a few seamen and marines, in charge of Captain Dobbs,
and the other under Colonel Scott, consisting of his own regiment, the
103rd, and two companies of the royals. Colonel Fischer's column gained
possession of the enemy's batteries at the point assigned for its
attack, two hours before daylight, but the other columns were behind
time, having got entangled by marching too near the lake, between the
rocks and the water, and the enemy being now on the alert, opened a
heavy fire upon the leading column of the second division which threw
it into confusion. Fischer's column had in the meanwhile almost
succeeded in capturing the fort. They had actually crept into the main
fort through the embrasures, in spite of every effort to prevent them.
Nay, they turned the guns of the fort upon its defenders, who took
refuge in a stone building, in the interior, and continued to resist.
This desperate work continued for nearly an hour, when a magazine blew
up, mangling most horribly nearly all the assailants within the fort.
Of course there was a panic. The living, surrounded by the dying and
the dead, the victims of accident, believed that they stood upon an
infernal machine, to which the match had only to be placed. No effort
could rally men impressed with such an idea. There was a rush, as it
were, from inevitable death. Persuasion fell on the ears of men who
could not hear. Persuasion fell upon the senses of men transfixed with
one idea. Persuasion would have been as effectual in moving yonder
blackened corpse into healthy life, as in moving to a sense of duty to
themselves, men who could see nothing but the deadness around them, and
whose minds saw only, under all, the blackness of immediate
destruction. Those who were victors, until now, literally rushed from
the fort. The reinforcements of the British soon arrived, but the
explosion had again given the defenders heart, and they too, having
received reinforcements, after some additional straggling, for the
mastery, the British withdrew. The British loss amounted to 157 killed,
308 wounded, and 186 prisoners, among the killed being Colonels Scott
and Drummond. The American loss was 84 in killed, wounded and missing.
A reinforcement was shortly afterwards obtained from Lower Canada. The
6th and the 82nd regiments came in time to compensate for previous
losses, but General Drummond did not consider it expedient to make
another attack. His purpose was equally well, and perhaps better
obtained by keeping the whole American army of invasion prisoners in a
prison selected by themselves, on British territory, and from which it
was impossible to escape.
While these things were transpiring in Upper Canada, public attention
was irresistibly drawn in another direction. About the middle of
August, between fifty and sixty sail of British vessels of war arrived
in the Chesapeake, with troops destined for the attack on Washington,
the capital of the United States, Britain having now come to the
determination of more vigorously prosecuting the war. Three regiments
of Wellington's army, the 4th, 44th and 85th, were embarked at Bordeaux
on the 2nd of June, on board the _Royal Oak_ seventy-four, and
_Dictator_ and _Diadem_, of sixty-four guns each, and, having arrived
at Bermuda on the 24th, they were there joined by the fusiliers, and by
three regiments, from the Mediterranean, in six frigates, forming
altogether a force of three thousand five hundred men. General Ross
commanded the troops; Admiral Cockburn the fleet. Tangier's Island was
first taken possession of, fortifications being erected, structures
built, and the British flag hoisted. The negroes on the plantations
adjoining were promised emancipation if they revolted, and fifteen
hundred did revolt, were drilled, and formed into a regiment. They were
useful but exceedingly costly, for on the conclusion of peace the
proprietors of the negroes were indemnified, and His Imperial Majesty
the Emperor of Russia, than whom no one better knew the value of a
serf, being the referee, awarded the enormous sum of £250,000, or
nearly £150 for each negro that had gained his freedom, as the
compensation adequate to the injury which the urgency of war made it
necessary to inflict upon the cultivators of human farm stock.
The troops under General Ross were landed at Benedict, on the Pawtuxet
river, forty-seven miles from Washington. On the 21st they moved
towards Nottingham, and on the following day they reached Marlborough.
A flotilla of launches and barges, commanded by Admiral Cockburn,
ascended the river at the same time, keeping on the right flank of the
army. There are two rivers by which Washington may be approached--the
Potomac, which discharges itself into the upper extremity of the bay of
Chesapeake, and the Pawtuxet. The object which the British military and
naval commanders had in view when the Pawtuxet was decided on for the
route by which a dash was to be made on the capital city of the
American republic, was greater facility of access, and the destruction
of Commodore Barney's powerful flotilla of gun-boats, which had taken
refuge in its creeks. This flotilla, snugly moored in a situation only
twelve miles from Washington, was fallen in with by Admiral Cockburn,
on the 23rd. The Americans then seeing that it must be captured set
fire to it and fled. Out of sixteen fine gun-boats, fifteen were
totally consumed, but one gun-boat missed destruction and it, with
thirteen merchant schooners, was made a prize of. The troops now
marched rapidly forward. There were about 3,500 men, with 200 sailors
to drag the guns, to oppose General Winder, who, with 16,600 men, had,
on the faith of a hint received from Ghent, taken measures to protect
the capital. When the British approached, however, General Winder had
only 6,500 infantry, 300 cavalry, and 600 sailors to work the guns,
which were twenty-six in number, while the British had only two. He
took up a position at Bladensburg, six miles from Washington, so as to
command the only bridge over the little Potomac, by which it could be
crossed, and the highway to Washington being directly through his
centre. He directed all his artillery upon the bridge. But the men now
opposed to the Americans knew well how to carry bridges. General Ross,
having formed his troops into two columns, the one under Colonel
Thornton, and the other under Colonel Brooke, ordered the bridge to be
crossed. Hardly was the order given, when in spite of artillery and
musketry, Thornton's column had dashed across, carried a fortified
house at the opposite side, and being quickly followed by the other
division, had spread out sharpshooters on either flank. The militia of
the United States soon got into confusion, and soon after fled. Indeed
Commodore Barney and his sailors made the most gallant resistance, but
he was soon overpowered, wounded, and with a great part of the seamen
under him fell into the hands of the British. Ten guns were taken, the
whole army was totally routed; and the enemy were fleeing past
Washington, to the heights of Georgetown, horse and foot, as fast as
fear could carry them. The day was oppressively hot, and the British
army uninfluenced by fear were not able to continue their advance until
the cool of the evening. They had not "suffered" at all. The entire
loss was only 61 killed and 185 wounded. By eight at night they were
within a mile of Washington, and the main body halted. With only seven
hundred men General Ross and Admiral Cockburn were in the capital of a
republic numbering eight millions of inhabitants, and proud of having
in arms the inconsiderable number of eight hundred thousand men, to do
with it as Commodore Chantey and General Dearborn had done to York, the
capital of a territory containing ninety-five thousand inhabitants,
man, woman, and child! half an hour afterwards, or pay a ransom. The
ransom was refused and the torch was applied to arsenals, store-houses,
senate house, house of representatives, dockyard, treasury, war office,
president's palace, rope walk, and the great bridge across the Potomac.
In the arsenal 20,000 stand of arms were consumed. A frigate and a
sloop of war, afloat, were burnt, 206 cannon and 100,000 rounds of ball
cartridge were taken and destroyed, and General Ross and Admiral
Cockburn went back at their leisure to Benedict. In connection with
this most extraordinarily successful enterprise reflecting the highest
credit on General Ross, there had been some outcry about extending the
ravages of war to pacific public buildings. Indeed the barbarity of
destroying the legislative buildings, the White House and the public
libraries of Washington has been harped upon most sentimentally and
injudiciously. The destruction of some books, scraped together by a new
country and, therefore, of no very great intrinsic value, is looked
upon by the literati of this and of a past age, as a crime, and one of
greater magnitude than the destruction of a village in Canada, on the
20th of December, with the thermometer at zero, and the snow two feet
in depth upon the ground, women and children even being left to gather
food and gather warmth where best they might. It is not considered that
a palace or even a church or parliament building may be converted into
a barrack or that, in some cases, even the destruction of a city may be
necessary. The Americans had burglariously entered upon a war with the
view of stealing Canada from its lawful owner, and being caught and
stayed in the act, were fined, but refusing to pay, were distressed by
the loss of public goods. The Americans, who were the sufferers, very
naturally represented an act, which had so humiliated them, as
barbarous, but how any other person could object to such a proceeding
on the score that it was only worthy of a Goth, is difficult of
conjecture. It is certainly a pity that fine edifices should be
destroyed, and it is no less a pity that thousands of young men should
be destroyed or mutilated, and that hundreds of thousands of their
relatives should mourn because of war; but so long as war is possible,
and possible it ever will be, until the amalgamation of the different
species of the different nations, of the different tribes, and of the
different tongues who inhabit the earth takes place, at the millennium;
soon after which this great globe itself is to be dissolved with
fervent heat, and all its magnificent palaces, gorgeous temples, and
stupendous towers are to pass away for ever, will there be a waste and
destruction of life and property at which extreme civilisation
shudders. Educated men will doubtless mourn the loss of fine libraries
and of grand cathedrals. English taste doubtless regrets that churches,
the remains of which are yet so striking, should have been destroyed by
indiscriminating fanaticism, but the man of sense will recollect the
idolatry that has passed away with them, as with the Parthenon, and he
will weigh the gain to a people with the loss sustained by merely men
of taste. And, beyond question, men of peace can paint the horrors of
war vividly, and deny its necessity, but the man of ordinary
understanding will not scruple to say that as war in the elements is
sometimes necessary for a healthy atmosphere, so war among men is
needful for the preservation of even a shadow of liberty to the
individual, and that injury to public buildings, to trade and commerce,
must result from it, for a time.
Immediately after the capture of Washington, Captain Gordon, in the
frigate _Seahorse_, accompanied by the brig _Euryalus_, and several
bomb-vessels, entered the Potomac. Without much difficulty he overcame
the intricacies of the passage leading by that river to the metropolis,
and on the evening of the 27th, the expedition arrived abreast of Fort
Washington. The Fort which had been constructed so as to command the
river was immediately bombarded, and the powder magazine having
exploded, the place was abandoned, and with all its guns, taken
possession of by the British. Proceeding next to Alexandria, the
bomb-vessels assumed a position which effectually commanded the
shipping in the port, and the enemy were compelled to capitulate, when
two and twenty vessels, including several armed schooners, fell into
the hands of the British, and were brought away in triumph. There was
some difficulty, however, in bringing off the prizes. To cut off the
retreat of the British squadron, several batteries had been erected by
the Americans, and these, now manned by the crews of the Baltimore
flotilla, opened fire upon Captain Gordon and his prizes. The
expeditionary and the captured vessels were, nevertheless, so skilfully
navigated, and the fire from the bomb-vessels was so well directed that
not a single ship took the ground, and the Americans were driven from
their guns, the whole squadron being thus permitted to emerge from the
Potomac, with its prizes, in safety.
An expedition was next fitted out against Baltimore, and the fleet
moved in that direction, reaching the mouth of the Patapsco on the 11th
September. The troops were landed on the day following the arrival of
the fleet, and, while the ships moved up the river, marched upon
Baltimore. For the first six miles no opposition was offered, but as
Baltimore was approached a detachment of light troops were noticed
occupying a thick wood through which the road passed. Impelled by the
daring for which he was distinguished, General Ross immediately
advanced with the skirmishers to the front, and it was not long before
the general received a wound, which so soon proved fatal that he had
barely time to recommend his wife and family to the protection of his
king and country before he breathed his last. The command, on the death
of this energetic officer, devolved upon Colonel Brooke. The British
light troops continued to come up and the enemy fell back, still
skirmishing from behind the trees, to a fortified position stretching
across a narrow neck of land, which separated the Patapsco and the Back
Rivers. Here, six thousand infantry, four hundred horse, and six guns
were drawn up in line, across the road, with either flank placed in a
thick wood, and a strong wooden paling covering their front. The
British, however, immediately attacked and with such vigour that in
less than fifteen minutes the enemy were routed, and fled in every
direction, leaving six hundred killed and wounded on the field of
battle, besides three hundred prisoners, and two guns, in the hands of
the British. On the following morning, the British were within a mile
and a half of Baltimore. There he found fifteen thousand Americans,
with a large train of artillery, manned by the crews of the frigates
lying at Baltimore, strongly posted on a series of fortified heights
which encircle the town. To charge a force of such magnitude with three
thousand men would have been extremely hazardous, and Colonel Brooke
determined upon a night attack; but, as the night fell, and Brooke was
arranging his men for the contemplated assault, he received a letter
from Admiral Cockburn, informing him that the enemy, by sinking twenty
vessels in the river, (a mode of defence since adopted by Russia,) had
prevented all further access to the ships, and rendered naval
co-operation impossible. Under such circumstances, Brooke withdrew,
without molestation, to his ships.
To the British, the operations on the seaboard, so far, had been as
eminently successful as the operations in Upper Canada had been. In the
northwest, there was one post which did not fall, and the fall of which
was looked upon with indifference by the Americans when Michigan was
recovered, after the defeat of the British fleet on Lake Erie. Contrary
to the expectation of the enemy, that post, which was at
Michillimackinac, had been reinforced early in the spring. Colonel
McDonell, with a detachment of troops, arrived there on the 18th of
May, with provisions and stores for the relief of the garrison. He did
not remain idle when his chief errand was accomplished. In July he sent
off Colonel McKay, of the Indian Department, with 650 men, Michigan
Fencibles, Canadian Volunteers, Officers of the Indian Department, and
Indians, to reduce _Prairie-du-Chien_, on the Mississippi. On the 17th
of July, McKay arrived there. The enemy were in possession of a small
fort, and two block-houses, armed with six guns, while in front of the
fort, in the middle of the river, there was a gun-boat of considerable
size, in which there were no less than fourteen pieces of ordnance.
McKay was superlatively polite. He sent a message to the commander of
the fort, recommending an immediate surrender. But, as McKay had only
one gun, the American promptly refused, and was not a little ironical
in his refusal. McKay, highlander as he was, could stand anything but
irony, and he opened fire with his solitary gun upon the gunboat, by
way of returning the compliment. With this only iron in the fire, he
soon gave such proof of metal that the gun-boat cut her cable and ran
down stream. McKay now threw up a mud battery, and on the evening of
the 19th, he was prepared with his one gun to bombard the fort. The
enemy seeing the earthworks doubtless imagined that McKay's park of
artillery was more considerable than it was, and without waiting for a
single round he hoisted a white flag in token of submission, when McKay
took possession of the fort. It contained only three officers and
seventy-one men, but the exploit was a gallant one, nevertheless, and
of essential service in securing British influence over the Indian
tribes.
The Americans on being informed that Michillimackinac had been
reinforced, and perhaps anticipating that further mischief to them
might ensue, sent Colonel Croghan without loss of time to capture it.
Croghan dispatched Major Holmes upon Ste. Marie to plunder the North
West Company of their stores. The miscreant was only too successful.
Not content with plunder only, he set fire to the buildings and reduced
them to ashes. He gave further proof of the possession of a cruel and
barbarous disposition, by enjoying the unavailing efforts of a poor
horse to extricate itself from a burning building to which it had been
inhumanly attached, to be burnt to death, after having been employed
the greater part of the day in carrying off the plunder from the
stores. This wretch, accompanied by nine hundred men, of a stamp
similar to himself, effected a landing near Michillimackinac, on the
4th of August. But the reception given to him was of such a nature that
he speedily re-embarked, leaving seventeen dead men, besides his own
inanimate remains, to be buried by the people in the fort.
Michillimackinac was not yet, however, quite safe. There were on the
lake two American armed vessels, the _Tigress_ and _Scorpion_, each
carrying a long twenty-four pounder gun, on a pivot, and manned by
thirty-two men, which intercepted the supplies intended for the
garrison. It was most necessary to destroy or get hold of them, and
this not unimportant business was entrusted to Lieutenant Worsley, of
the Royal Navy, and Lieutenant Bulger, of the Royal Newfoundland
Regiment. These two gallant officers proceeded to the despatch of
business with praiseworthy alacrity. On the evening of the 3rd of
September, one vessel was boarded and captured, and on the morning of
the 5th the other craft was captured. Michillimackinac was now
sufficiently safe.
The war, which was no longer, on the part of the British, a merely
defensive one, was now being offensively prosecuted with vigour in
several quarters, almost simultaneously. Washington had been taken and
Baltimore assailed on one side; and Fort Erie, containing the American
army of the West, was closely invested. It was now determined to
prosecute hostilities from Nova Scotia, which then included New
Brunswick, upon the northeastern States of the American Union. With
this view, Sir John Sherbrooke sent Colonel Pilkington in the
_Ramilies_, commanded by Sir Thomas Hardy, to take possession of Moose
Island, the chief town of which is Eastport, commanded by a strongly
situated fort, on an overhanging hill, called Fort Sullivan. The fort
was, however, only occupied by Major Putnam, six other officers, and
eighty men, and was taken possession of on the 11th of July, without
resistance, the garrison being made prisoners of war. As soon as the
news of this successful enterprise reached the ears of Sherbrooke, he
determined upon personally undertaking another expedition. On the 26th
of August, he, accordingly, embarked, at Halifax, the whole of the
troops at his disposal, in ten transports, and in company with the
squadron, commanded by Admiral Griffiths, sailed for the river
Penobscot, on the 1st of September, when the fort at Castine,
commanding the entrance to the river, was evacuated and blown up. The
American frigate _John Adams_, was in the river and, on the approach of
the fleet, she was run up the river as high as Hampden. The better to
protect her from capture her guns were taken out and, at some distance
below Hampden, batteries or earthworks were erected, in which all the
guns of the frigate were placed. The capture or destruction of the
_John Adams_ was, however, determined upon, and Captain Barrie, of the
_Dragon_, with a party of seamen, accompanied by Colonel John, at the
head of six hundred of the 60th regiment, was sent off to effect it.
For a short time the batteries resisted, but the attack being well
managed the Americans gave way, and, having set fire to the frigate,
fled in all directions. The expedition pushed on to Bangor, which
surrendered without resistance; and from thence they went to Machias,
which surrendered by capitulation, the whole militia of the county of
Washington being put on their parole not to serve again during the war.
The whole country between the Penobscot and the frontier of that part
of Nova Scotia, which is now New Brunswick, was then formally taken
possession of, and a provisional government established, to rule it
while the war continued.
About this time, the army in Canada was re-inforced by the arrival of
several generals and officers who had acquired distinction in Spain,
and by the successive arrival of frigates from the army which had been
so successfully commanded by the illustrious Wellington, and with which
he had invaded France. In August, Sir George Prevost had been
re-inforced with sixteen thousand men from the Garonne. There were,
consequently, great anticipations. Even General Sir George Prevost
dreamed of doing something worthy of immortality. And such expectations
were natural. With a mere handful of troops, General Drummond had
proved how much an intelligent and decided commander can do, and Sir
George Prevost, with some of the best troops in the world, was about to
prove, to all the nations in it, how good blood may be spilled, and
material and treasure wasted by a commander inadequate to the task
either of leading men to victory or of securing their retreat until
victory be afterwards obtained. Sir George Prevost determined upon the
invasion of the State of New York, and as if naval co-operation was
absolutely necessary to transport his troops to Plattsburgh, Sir George
Prevost urged upon Commodore Sir James Yeo to equip the Lake Champlain
fleet with the greatest expedition. The commodore replied that the
squadron was completely equipped and had more than ninety men over the
number required to man it. And under the supposition that Captain
Fischer, who had prepared the flotilla for active service, had not
acted with promptitude in giving the Commander-in-Chief such
information as he desired, Sir James sent Captain Downie to supersede
him. Sir George, who seemed to have some misgivings about this fleet,
and was still most anxious to bring it into active service, finding Sir
James Yeo, who knew His Excellency well, quite impracticable, applied
to Admiral Otway, who, with the _Ajax_ and _Warspite_, was then in the
port of Quebec, for a re-inforcement of sailors from these vessels for
the Lake Champlain flotilla. Admiral Otway did as he was requested to
do. A large re-inforcement of sailors were immediately sent off to Lake
Champlain, and Sir George having sent Major-General Sir James Kempt to
Upper Canada, to make an attack upon Sackett's Harbour, if practicable,
concentrated his own army, under the immediate command of General
DeRottenburg, between Laprairie and Chambly. He then moved forward,
towards the United States frontier, with about 11,000 men to oppose
1,500 American regulars and as many militia, under General Macomb,
whose force had been weakened by 4,000 men, sent off under General
Izzard, from Sackett's Harbour, to re-inforce the troops at Fort Erie.
Prevost, who had with him Generals Power, Robinson, and Brisbane, in
command of divisions, men inured to fighting, and well accustomed to
command, met with so inconsiderable an opposition from the Americans,
that General Macomb admits that the invaders "did not deign to fire
upon them." His powerful army was before Plattsburgh, only defended by
three redoubts and two block-houses; he had been permitted, for three
days, to bring up his heavy artillery; he had a force with him ten
times greater than that which, under Colonel Murray, took possession of
it, in 1813; and yet Sir George Prevost hesitated to attack
Plattsburgh, until he could obtain the co-operation of Commodore
Downie, commanding the _Confiance_, of 36 guns, the _Linnet_, of 18
guns, the _Chubb_, of 10 guns, the _Finch_, of 10 guns, and 12
gun-boats, containing 16 guns! because the enemy had a squadron
consisting of the ship _Saratoga_, of 26 guns, the brig _Eagle_, of 20
guns, the schooner _Ticonderoga_, of 17 guns, and the cutter _Preble_,
of 7 guns. The British Commodore Downie was not quite ready for sea.
His largest vessel, the _Confiance_, had been recently launched, and
was not finished. He could not perceive either the necessity for such
excessive haste. He would have taken time and gone coolly into action,
but he had received a letter from the Commander of the Forces which
made the blood tingle in his cheeks. Sir George Prevost had been in
readiness for Commodore Downie's expected arrival all morning, and he
hoped that the wind only had delayed the approach of the squadron. The
anchors of the _Confiance_ were immediately raised, and with the
carpenters still on board, Commodore Downie made all sail. Nay, he
seemed to have forgotten that he had a fleet of brigs and boats to
manage, so terribly was he excited by Sir George's unfortunate
expression in connection with the wind. The _Confiance_ announced her
approach on rounding Cumberland Head, by discharging all her guns one
after the other. The other vessels were hardly visible in her wake, and
still Captain Downie bore down upon the enemy's line, to within two
cable's length, without firing a shot, when the _Confiance_ came to
anchor, and opened fire upon the enemy. General Prevost had promised to
attack the fort as soon as the fleet appeared, but instead of doing so,
Sir George very deliberately ordered the army to cook their breakfasts.
The troops cooked away while Downie fought desperately with a fleet
which, as a whole, was superior in strength to his, and which was
rendered eminently superior by the shameful defection of the gun-boats
manned by Canadian militia and soldiers of the 39th regiment. Downie
kept up a terrific fire, with only his own frigate, a brig and sloop,
wholly surrounded as he was, by the American fleet. The brig _Finch_
had taken the ground out of range, and the whole of the gun-boats,
except three and one cutter, had deserted him. He was, nevertheless, on
the very point of breaking the enemy's line, when the wind failed. As
before stated, he cast anchor, and with his first broadside had laid
half the crew of the _Saratoga_ low. The _Chubb_ was soon, however,
crippled and became unmanageable. She drifted within the enemy's lines
and was compelled to surrender. The whole fire of the enemy was now
concentrated upon the _Confiance_, and still the latter fired broadside
after broadside with much precision and so rapidly that every gun on
board of the _Saratoga_ on one side was disabled and silenced, although
she lay at such a distance that she could not be taken possession of.
But Captain Downie had fallen. The _Confiance_ was now commanded by
Lieutenant Robertson, who was entirely surrounded and raked by the
brigs and gun-boats of the enemy, while the _Saratoga_, out of range,
had cut her cable and wound round so as to bring a new broadside, as it
were, to bear upon the _Confiance_. It was in vain that the _Confiance_
attempted to do as the _Saratoga_ had done. Three officers and
thirty-eight of her men had been killed, and one officer and
thirty-nine men had been wounded. Lieutenant Robertson was at last
compelled to strike his colours, and Captain Pring, of the _Linnet_,
was reluctantly obliged to follow the example. In all one hundred and
twenty men had fallen, and the cheering of the enemy informed the
British army that the fleet for the co-operation of which Sir George
Prevost had so unnecessarily waited, was annihilated. "You owe it, Sir,
to the shameful conduct of your gun-boats and cutters, said the
magnanimous American Commodore, McDonough, to Lieutenant Robertson,
when that officer was in the act of presenting his sword to him, that
you arc performing this office to me; for, had they done their duty,
you must have perceived from the situation of the _Saratoga_ that I
could hold out no longer; and, indeed, nothing induced me to keep up
her colours but my seeing, from the united fire of all the rest of my
squadron on the _Confiance_, and her unsupported situation, that she
must ultimately surrender." Sir George Prevost had by this time
swallowed his breakfast. He had directed the guns of the batteries to
open on the American squadron, but ineffectually, as they were too far
off. Orders were at length given to attack the fort. General Robinson
advanced with the view of fording the Saranac, and attacking the works
in front, and General Brisbane had made a circuit for the purpose of
attacking the enemy in the rear. Robinson's troops, led astray by the
guides, were delayed, and had but reached the point of attack when the
shouts from the American works intimated the surrender of the fleet. To
have carried the fort would have been a work of easy accomplishment,
but the signal for retreat was given; Robinson was ordered to return
with his column; and Prevost soon afterwards commenced a retrograde
movement, which admits barely of excuse and could not be justified. So
indignant indeed was the gallant General Robinson that it is asserted
he broke his sword, declaring that he could never serve again. The army
indeed went leisurely away in mournful submission to the orders of a
superior on whom they could but look with feelings akin to shame. Four
hundred men, ashamed to be known at home, in connection with a retreat
so unlooked for and so degrading, deserted to the enemy. And it is
little to be wondered at, that murmurs in connection with the name of
Prevost and Plattsburgh, were long, loud, and deep. Sir George felt the
weight of public opinion and was crushed under it. He resigned the
government of Canada and demanded a Court Martial, but he had a judge
within himself, from whom he could not escape, and whose judgment
weighed upon "a mind diseased," in the broad noonday and at the
midnight hour, with such overpowering weight that the nervous system
became relaxed, and death at last relieved a man, who, only that he
wanted decision of purpose, was amiable, kind, well intentioned, and
honest, of a load of grief, before even the sentence of a Court Martial
could intervene to ameliorate his sorrows. It is extremely to be
regretted indeed that so excellent a Civil Governor should have been so
indifferent a military commander. But, entirely different
qualifications are required in the civilian and in the soldier. It is
indeed on record that the Great Duke, who was the idol of the British
people as a soldier, was the reverse of being popular as a statesman.
He was ever clear-headed and sensible; but his will would never bend to
that of the many. Desirous of human applause, he could not court it,
though he was yet vain of his celebrity, and studied to be celebrated,
knowing the value that attaches to position and to fame. Sir George
Prevost was a man of exactly an opposite disposition to that of the
Great Duke. To be great, he flattered little prejudices and weak
conceits. He never forced any measure or any opinion down another
person's throat. He was content to retain his own opinion and ever
doubted its correctness. Personally, he was brave, but he was ever
apprehensive.
In defence of the retreat of Sir George Prevost, the opinion expressed
by Lord Wellington to Lord Bathurst, in 1813, is quoted. Wellington
advised the pursuance of a defensive policy, knowing that there were
not then men sufficient in Canada for offensive warfare, and because by
pursuing a defensive system, the difficulties and risk of offensive
operations would be thrown upon the enemy, who would most probably be
foiled. This opinion was verified to the letter. On the other hand, the
authority of Wellington, who says to Sir George Murray, that after the
destruction of the fleet on Lake Champlain, Prevost must have returned
to Kingston, sooner or later, is valueless, inasmuch as His Grace in
naming Kingston, had evidently mistaken the locality of the disaster,
and must have fancied that Plattsburgh was Sackett's Harbour. He says
that a naval superiority on the Canadian lakes is a _sine qua non_ in
war on the frontier of Canada, even should it be defensive. But Lake
Champlain is not one of the Canadian lakes, and, therefore, this
justification of a military mistake is somewhat far-fetched. Sir George
Prevost failed because he feared to meet the fate of Burgoyne, and he
incurred deep and lasting censure because, when it was in his power, he
did nothing to retrieve it. Historic truth, says the historian of
Europe, compels the expression of an opinion that though proceeding
from a laudable motive--the desire of preventing a needless effusion of
human blood--the measures of Sir George Prevost were ill-judged and
calamitous.
Sir James Yeo accused Sir George Prevost of having unduly hurried the
squadron on the lake into action, at a time when the _Confiance_ was
unprepared for it; and when the combat did begin, of having neglected
to storm the batteries, as had been agreed on, so as to have occasioned
the destruction of the flotilla and caused the failure of the
expedition.
The result of the Plattsburgh expedition was exhilarating to the
Americans. It seemed to be compensation for the misfortunes and
disasters of Hull, of Hampton, and of Wilkinson. In the interior of
Fort Erie even a kind of contempt was entertained for the British. In
their joy at the discomfiture of Downie and the catastrophe of Prevost,
they began to look with contempt even upon General Drummond, who had
cooped them up where they were. Hardly had the news reached these
unfortunate besieged people than a sortie was determined upon, and such
is the effect of good fortune that it infuses new spirit, and generally
insures further success. In the onset the Americans gained some
advantages. During a thick mist and heavy rain, they succeeded in
turning the right of the British picquets, and made themselves masters
of the batteries, doing great damage to the British works. But no
sooner was the alarm given than re-inforcements were obtained, and the
besiegers drove the besieged back again into their works, with great
slaughter. The loss on each side was about equal. The Americans lost
509 men in killed, wounded, and missing, including 11 officers killed
and 23 wounded, while the British loss was 3 officers and 112 men
killed, 17 officers and 161 men wounded, and 13 officers and 303 men
missing. On the 21st of September, General Drummond, finding the low
situation in which his troops were engaged very unhealthy, by reason of
continued rain, shifted his quarters to the neighborhood of Chippewa,
after in vain endeavoring to provoke the American General to battle.
General Izzard had, meanwhile, arrived from Sackett's Harbour with
4,000 troops from Plattsburgh, but General Brown, having heard that Sir
James Yeo had completed a new ship, the _St. Lawrence_, of 100 guns,
and had sailed from Kingston for the head of the lake, with a
re-inforcement of troops and supplies for the army, Commodore Chauncey
having previously retired to Sackett's Harbour, instead of prosecuting
the advantages which the addition of 4,000 men promised, blew up Fort
Erie and withdrew with his whole troops into American territory,
realizing the prediction of General Izzard, that his expedition would
terminate in disappointment and disgrace.
It indeed seems quite evident that the supremacy, which Sir James Yeo,
an officer at once brave, prudent, and persevering, had obtained upon
the lakes, contributed, in some measure, to the total evacuation of
Upper Canada by the Americans. He did not conceive that with a couple
or more of armed schooners he could sail hither and thither, and effect
daring feats, but carefully husbanded the means at his disposal, took
advantage of circumstances, and obtained the construction of vessels so
much superior to those of the Americans that it needed not the test of
a battle to decide upon superiority. Indeed had he been afforded
sufficient time, two or more such vessels, and even larger, would have
been placed on Lake Champlain, and Sir George Prevost might have made
such progress in subduing New York that peace might have been dictated
on more flattering terms to Great Britain than they were.
The fleet and army, which had been baffled at Baltimore, by the sinking
of twenty ships in the Patapsco, to obstruct the navigation of the
river, sailed for New Orleans. The squadron arrived off the shoals of
the Mississippi on the 8th of December. Six gun-boats of the enemy,
manned by two hundred and forty men, were prepared to dispute with the
boats of the fleet, the landing of the troops. To settle this
difficulty, Admiral Cockburn put a detachment of seamen and marines,
under the command of Captain Lockyer, who succeeded in destroying the
whole six, after a chase of thirty-six hours. The pursuit, however, had
taken the boats thirty miles from their ships; their return was impeded
by intricate shoals and a tempestuous sea, and it was not until the
12th that they could get back. It was only on the 15th that the landing
of the troops commenced under adverse circumstances. The weather, how
extraordinary soever it may seem, was excessively cold and damp, and
the troops, the blacks more especially, suffered severely. Four
thousand five hundred combatants, and a considerable quantity of heavy
guns and stores were landed, and on the same evening an attack, by the
American militia, was repulsed. Sir Edward Pakenham arrived next day,
when the army advanced to within six miles of New Orleans. New Orleans
was then, as it now is, the emporium of the cotton trade of the United
States. Comparatively with the present day, the population was
inconsiderable. There were not more than 17,000 inhabitants. But it was
a place sure to become of importance, from its situation, and was even
then a place of considerable wealth, and, from the nature of its chief
export, was one of the principal sources of revenue to the American
government, in the Union. The defence of this town was entrusted to
General Jackson, afterwards President of the United States, and whose
elevation to the chief magistracy is as much to be attributed to the
skill and heroism displayed by him in the defence of the chief cotton
mart as to any other cause. Jackson was a shrewd, obstinate, and
energetic man. On ascertaining that the British had landed, he threw
every possible obstacle in the way of their advance. The weather was
cold and damp, and the soil was low, and wet, and muddy. A few days'
delay in such a situation would make nearly one half of an invading
force ill and dispirit the other half. Jackson sent out a few hundreds
of militia, every now and then, to harass his enemies, and in the
meanwhile he stirred up the 12,000 troops under him, to work vigorously
in the erection of lines of defence for the city. Indeed, in a short
time, he awaited an attack, with confidence, in a fortified position,
all but impregnable. His front was a straight line of upwards of a
thousand yards, defended by upwards of three thousand infantry and
artillery, and stretching from the Mississippi on the right, to a dense
and impassable wood on the left. Along the whole front of this
fortified line there was a ditch which contained five feet of water,
and which was defended by flank bastions, on which a heavy array of
cannon was placed. There were also eight distinct batteries,
judiciously disposed, mounting in all twelve guns of different
calibres, while on the opposite side of the river, about eight hundred
yards across, there was a battery of twenty guns, which also flanked
the whole of the parapet. The great strength of the American position
was strikingly apparent to General Pakenham. It seemed so very strong
indeed that he contemplated a siege. But then the ground was so cold
and damp, and the climate so unhealthy, that he could not sit very long
before a town, likely to be reinforced, and capable of being
strengthened by the construction of lines of defence, within lines of
defence, to almost any extent, if not completely invested. And more,
Pakenham had not guns sufficient for regular approaches. Pakenham was,
however, a good officer, a man of energy, judgment, and decision. He
set all hands instantly to work to deepen a canal, in the rear of the
British position, by which boats might be brought up to the
Mississippi, and troops ferried across to carry the battery on the
right bank of the river, a work of extraordinary labour, which was not
accomplished until the evening of the 6th of January. The boats were
immediately brought up and secreted near the river, and dispositions
made for an assault at five o'clock on the morning of the 8th of
January. Colonel Thornton was to cross the river, in the night, storm
the battery, and advance up the right bank till he came abreast of New
Orleans; while the main attack, on the intrenchments in front, was to
be made in two columns--the first under General Gibbs, the second led
by General Keane. There were, in all, about six thousand combatants,
including seamen and marines, to attack double their number, intrenched
to the teeth, in works bristling with bayonets, and loaded with heavy
artillery.[25] When Thornton would have crossed, the downward current
of the Mississippi was very strong, so strong indeed that the fifty
boats, in which his division was embarked, were prevented from reaching
their destination at the hour appointed for a simultaneous attack upon
New Orleans, in front and rear. Pakenham, as the day began to dawn,
grew exceedingly impatient, and, at last, having lost all patience, as
it was now light, revealing to the enemy, in some degree, his plans, he
ordered Gibbs' column to advance. A solemn silence pervaded the
American lines. There was indeed nothing to be heard but the measured
tread of the column, advancing over the plain, in front of the
intrenchments. But when the dark mass was perceived to be within range
of the American batteries, a tremendous fire of grape and round shot
was opened upon it from the bastions at both ends of the long
intrenchment, and from the long intrenchment itself. Gibbs' column,
however, moved steadily on. The 4th, 21st, and 44th regiments closed up
their ranks as fast as they were opened by the fire of the Americans.
On the brow of the glacis, these intrepid men stood as erectly and as
firmly as if they had been on parade. But, through the carelessness of
the colonel commanding the 44th regiment, the scaling ladders had been
forgotten, and it was impossible to mount the parapet. The ladders and
fascines were sent for, in all haste, but the men, on the summit of the
glacis, were, meanwhile, as targets to the enemy. They stood until
riddled through and through, when they fell back in disorder. Pakenham,
unconscious that Colonel Mullens, of the 44th, had neglected his
orders, and only fancying that the troops being fairly in for it, were
staggering only under the heaviness of the enemies' fire, rode to the
front, rallied the troops again, led them to the slope of the glacis,
and was in the act, with his hat off, of cheering on his followers,
when he fell mortally wounded, pierced, at the same moment, by two
balls. General Gibbs and General Keane also fell. Keane led on the
reserve, at the head of which was the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders, a
thousand strong. Undaunted by the carnage, that noble regiment dashed
through the disordered throng, in front, and with such fury pressed the
leading files on, that without either fascines or ladders, they fairly
found their way by mounting on each other's shoulders into the work.
But they were then cut down to a man. The fire from the enemy's rifles
was terrific. It was almost at the same moment that Colonel Ranney
penetrated the intrenchments on the left only to be mowed down by grape
shot. An unforeseen circumstance had too long delayed an attack which
could only have been successfully made in the dark, and General
Lambert, who had succeeded to the command by the death of Pakenham and
the wounds of Gibbs and Keane, finding it impossible to carry the
works, and that the slaughter was tremendous, drew off his troops.
Thornton had been altogether successful on the left bank of the
Mississippi. With fourteen hundred men this able and gallant officer
repaired to the point assigned to him on the evening of the 7th, but it
was nearly midnight before even such a number of the boats as would
suffice to transport a third part of his troops across, were brought
up. Anxious to co-operate at the time appointed, he, nevertheless,
moved over with a third of his men, and, by a sudden charge, at the
head of part of the 85th regiment and a body of seamen, on the flank of
the works, he succeeded in making himself master of the redoubt with
very little loss, though it was defended by twenty-two guns and
seventeen hundred men, and amply provided with supplies. And when
daylight broke, he was preparing to turn the guns of the captured
battery on the enemy's flank, which lay entirely exposed to their fire,
when advices were received from General Lambert of the repulse on the
left bank of the river. Thornton was unwilling to retire from the
battery, but Colonel Dixon, who had been sent by General Lambert to
examine it and report whether it was tenable, having reported that it
was untenable unless with a larger force than Lambert could spare, he
was required to return to the left bank of the river, and the troops at
all points withdrew to their camp.
[25] Alison's History of Europe.
Defeated, far advanced into the enemy's country, an army flushed with
success, double their strength in front, and with fifteen miles of
desert between the British army and their ships, it was not long before
General Lambert came to the conclusion that instead of renewing the
attack, retreat was now desirable, and that the sooner he retreated the
more safely could it be done. For this, under the circumstances,
inevitable retreat, Lambert gathered himself up. He sent forward,
during the early part of the night of the 18th, the whole of the field
artillery, the ammunition, and the stores of every kind, excepting
eight heavy guns, which were destroyed. With the exception of eighty of
the worst cases, whom he left to the humanity of General Jackson, who
discharged that duty with a zeal and attention worthy of the man, he
also removed the whole of the wounded; and, indeed, accomplished his
retreat under the most trying circumstances, with such consummate
ability, that the whole force under his command, were safely
re-embarked on the 27th.
The defeat, which was neither attributable to want of foresight, to
incapacity, of any sort, or to lack of bravery, however humiliating it
was, but entirely to the accident which delayed a night attack until
daybreak, was in some degree compensated for by the capture of Fort
Boyer, near Mobile, commanding one of the mouths of the Mississippi.
Fort Boyer was attacked by the land and sea forces on the 12th of
February, and, with its garrison of 360 men and 22 guns, was compelled
to yield, when further operations were stayed by the receipt, on the
very next day, of intelligence that peace between Great Britain and the
United States had been concluded at Ghent.
It is asserted, with regard to the storming of New Orleans, that
Pakenham displayed imprudent hardihood, in the attempt to achieve by
force, what might have been gained by combination; and that the whole
mischief might have been avoided by throwing the whole troops instead
of only Thornton's division, on the right bank of the river, and so
have rendered unavailing all Jackson's formidable arrangements.
Pakenham's disaster was, however, not the result of imprudent
hardihood, but purely the result of accident in the time of attack, and
in the neglect of Colonel Mullens, to whom the duty of bringing up the
fascines and ladders was entrusted. Pakenham well considered the
difficulties which he had to encounter. He would have carried the
American entrenchments by a _coup de main_, had he not perceived that
the operation would have been extremely hazardous. He would have sat
down before the city and have advanced under cover of first one
parallel and then another, had he not perceived that as he approached
so the enemy could have retired within successive lines of
entrenchment. Nay, he saw that the most probable mode of speedy and
successful assault was by a simultaneous attack upon the enemy during
the night, in the front and in the rear of their intrenched lines. He
further knew that the attack in rear would depend for success, in a
very great measure, upon the skill and intrepidity of the officer
entrusted with its execution, and he accordingly selected an officer
possessed of both these essentials in the person of Colonel Thornton.
And with respect to the effect of having landed his whole force, on the
right bank of the river, where success, though too late, did attend the
efforts of Thornton, it is to be remembered that Colonel Dixon reported
to General Lambert, when the battery on that side was in Thornton's
possession, that it could not be retained even, without more men than
Lambert could spare to re-inforce him. The defeat at New Orleans was
only humiliating to Great Britain in the result, not in the conception,
and it cannot fairly be laid to the charge of Pakenham that he only
exhibited heroic valour, coupled with imprudent hardihood, or that he
despised his enemy.
However the heroic defence of New Orleans and the disastrous retreat
from Plattsburgh may have elated the Americans and may yet gratify
their natural vanity, there are men in the United States, fully alive
to the consequences which could not have failed to have resulted from
the defeat of Pakenham, had the war continued. The British government
had able generals without number, well-trained and experienced
soldiers, and ships also without number, to bring to bear upon a
country almost pecuniarily exhausted, and suffering from internal
dissensions, on the conclusion of a war which had, as it were, brought
out the immense resources for war, which were almost latent in England
during the American war of independence. That the United States was on
the very verge of destruction is evident from the fact that during the
continuance of the war, the general government of the United States and
the States governments were at variance. There was an apprehension that
the affairs of the general government were mismanaged, and, to many, it
appeared that a crisis was forming, which, unless seasonably provided
against, would involve the country in ruin. That apprehension
particularly prevailed throughout New England. Indeed, Massachusetts
proposed that measures should be taken for procuring a convention of
delegates from all the United States to revise the constitution, and
more effectually to secure the support and attachment of all the
people, by placing all upon the basis of fair representation. Such a
convention actually did meet at Hartford. After a session of three
weeks, a report in which several alterations of the federal
constitution were suggested, was adopted. Representatives and direct
taxes were to be apportioned to the number of free persons; no new
State was to be admitted into the Union without the concurrence of
two-thirds of both houses; Congress was not to have the power of laying
an embargo for more than sixty days; Congress was not to interdict
commercial intercourse, without the concurrence of two-thirds of both
houses; war was not to be declared without the concurrence of a similar
majority; no person to be thereafter naturalised was to be eligible as
a member of the Senate or House of Representatives, or hold any civil
office under the authority of the United States; and no person was to
be twice elected to the presidency, nor was the President to be elected
from the same State two terms in succession. The report was a direct
censure of the government, who with the alliance of France only
contemplated to annex Canada to the United States. It was so
understood. The Hartford convention was looked upon by the democrats of
the Union as a treasonable combination of ambitious individuals, who
sought to sever the Union, and were only prevented from doing so by the
somewhat unexpected conclusion of peace, which disembarrassed the
administration, and swept away all grounds upon which to prosecute
their designs. But the positive truth was that the public mind was
excited to a pitch bordering on insurrection by the situation of the
country. The war had been singularly disastrous; the recruiting service
languished; the national treasury was almost penniless; the national
credit was shaken, and loans were effected at a ruinous discount; the
New England seaboard was left exposed to the enemy; and the officers
under the general government, both civil and military, were filled by
men contemned by a vast majority of the people in the north eastern
States. Before the war, the foreign trade of the United States was
flourishing. The exports amounted to £22,000,000, and the imports to
£28,000,000, carried on in 1,300,000 tons of shipping. After the war,
the exports had sunk to £1,000,000, and the imports to less than
£3,000,000, to say nothing of the losses by capture. This too was the
case in America, while the sinews of war were increasing instead of
drying up in Great Britain. Yet England was not wholly unaffected by
the war. There were great distresses in England, consequent upon the
American Embargo Act, in 1811, and it was not until commerce had
discovered some new channels in the markets of Russia, Germany, and
Italy, that these great distresses were fully abated, while the war had
the further and lasting effect of producing manufactures in the United
States, to permanently compete with those of Birmingham and Manchester.
The treaty of peace which was signed at Ghent, on the 24th of December,
1814, was ratified by the President and Senate of the United States, on
the 17th of February, 1815. It was silent upon the subject for which
the war had "professedly" been declared. It provided only for the
suspension of hostilities; for the exchange of prisoners; for the
restoration of territories and possessions obtained by the contending
powers, during the war; for the adjustment of unsettled boundaries and
for _a combined effort to effect the entire abolition of the traffic in
slaves_.
All parties in the United States, welcomed the return of peace. It was
somewhat otherwise in Canada. The army bills had enriched the latter
country; and the expenditure of the military departments had benefitted
both town and country, without cost. When peace came, this extra
expenditure rapidly declined. But the war had further and permanently
proved of advantage to Canada, inasmuch as it drew public attention in
Europe, to the country, and showed to the residents of the United
Kingdom that there was still in America a considerable spot of earth,
possessed of at least semi-monarchical institutions, with a good soil
and great growing capacity, which could be defended and preserved, as
British property, for a time, notwithstanding the assertions made,
previous to the war, that the country was in a state of dormant
insurrection. The war restored confidence and promoted emigration to
Canada.
The Canadian Militia, Voltigeurs, Chasseurs, Drivers, Voyageurs,
Dorchester Dragoons, and the Battalion Militia, in both provinces,
were, by a General Order, issued on the 1st of March, to be disbanded
on the 24th of that month, not a little proud of Detroit and the River
Raisin exploits, of the battles of Queenston, Stoney Creek,
Chateauguay, Chrystler's Farm, Lacolle, and Lundy's Lane, and of the
capture of Michillimackinac, Ogdensburgh, Oswego, and Niagara, by
assault.
The eighth parliament of Lower Canada was summoned for the despatch of
business, on the 21st of January. In this new parliament, there were
James and Andrew Stuart, and for the county of Gaspé, a George
Brown,[26] and in all there were fifteen members of British
extraction--not much less than one half of the entire House, which, in
all, numbered fifty members. After the opening speech from the throne,
the House proceeded to the election of a Speaker. The Honorable Jean
Antoine Panet, was no longer eligible for election, having been removed
to the Legislative Council, and the chair of the Assembly fell upon
Louis Joseph Papineau, a man of superior manners, of considerable
independence of character, of fluent tongue and impassioned utterance,
of extraordinary persuasive powers, and of commanding aspect. He was
accepted by Sir Gorge Prevost, and business began. A vote of thanks was
unanimously accorded to Mr. Panet for his steady, impartial, and
faithful discharge of the speakership for twenty-two years, during the
whole of which time he had upheld the honor and dignity of the House,
and the rights and privileges of the people. One of the first measures
which occupied attention was the militia law. An Act was introduced by
which it was so far amended and revised that substitutes were permitted
to persons drafted for service. A grant of new duties upon tea,
spirits, and on goods, sold at auction, was made; one thousand pounds
granted for the promotion of vaccination as a preventative of small
pox; £25,000 was granted for the construction of a canal between
Montreal and Lachine; a bill was introduced granting the Speaker of the
House an annual salary of £1,000; and another was passed granting a
similar salary to the Speaker of the Upper House. Of these bills all
were finally adopted or sanctioned with the exception of those granting
salaries to the two Speakers. That conferring a salary upon the Speaker
of the Legislative Assembly, was reserved for the royal sanction, but
was afterwards confirmed, while that conferring a salary upon the
Speaker of the Upper House, was lost in the Legislative Council,
because the members of that body considered it _infra dignitate_, to
receive any direct remuneration for their legislative services, the
more especially as, with few exceptions, the Speaker and members were
already salaried, either as Judges, Bishops, or Clerks of the Executive
Council. In the course of the session the expediency of sending to
London a kind of agent or ambassador for the country, was again
discussed, and its expediency determined upon by the Assembly, but the
Legislative Council impressed with the idea that the Governor General
should be the only channel of communication with the imperial
authorities, refused to concur in any bill framed with the view of
securing the services of any such agent, who could not be more than a
delegate from the Assembly, and whose acts could not be considered
binding on the government of the province. The matter was then referred
to a select committee of the Assembly, who reported that the necessity
for an agent appeared evident, each branch of the legislature having a
right to petition the King, the Lords, and the Commons of England; that
although the Governor could transmit such petitions to the foot of the
throne, he could neither transmit nor support such petitions when
transmitted before the House of Lords or before the House of Commons,
solicit the passing of laws, nor conduct many affairs which might be
conducted by a person resident in Great Britain. Without an agent the
Assembly would be deprived of the right of petition. An agent was
especially necessary to the people of the province, because endeavours
were even then being made to prejudice the imperial government, and the
British nation against Canada, and endeavours were being made to effect
a change in the free constitution which had been conferred upon Lower
Canada, by means of a union of the two Canadas, the language, laws, and
usages of the two provinces being entirely distinct. It was further
urged that uneasiness would cease whenever a resident agent was
appointed, and as an additional reason for the appointment of such an
agent, accredited to the Court of St. James by the province. Such an
agent would have all the weight of a foreign ambassador, and his
representations could not fail to meet with attention. But the agent to
have such weight could not merely have been the representative of one
branch of the legislature, but of the three branches. He must have been
the authorised governmental agent of the province, the government of
the province being in the confidence of the country. Unfortunately such
a state of things did not prevail. The colonists had neither voice nor
shared in the government of the country. The Legislative Assembly
nearly compensated for the lack of newspapers. It poured into the ear
of the governing party the complaints of the people, suggested reforms,
and insisted upon the obtainment of them. And the Assembly might have
better obtained a hearing for themselves in England, by the
establishment and maintenance of a single newspaper in London, than by
the nomination either of a Hume or a Roebuck, to represent Canadian
grievances to the representatives of a people who were ignorant of the
exact nature of such grievances, and could not, therefore, press them
upon parliamentary attention. The pertinacity with which the House of
Assembly of Lower Canada adhered to the idea of an agent for the people
of Lower Canada, is not matter of surprise, for, it is beyond all
dispute that the government of the province stood between the people of
Canada and the people and government of England, to the great prejudice
and injury of the country. In this case, an address, founded on the
Assembly's report, was drawn up to be transmitted by the
Governor-in-Chief to the Prince Regent, praying that His Royal Highness
might give instructions to his Governor of Canada to recommend the
appointment of a provincial agent to the imperial legislature. The
Assembly persisted in the heads of impeachment exhibited by the Commons
of Canada against the Chief Justices Sewell and Monk, and persisted in
nominating James Stuart, Esquire, one of the members of the House, to
be the agent of the House, in conducting and managing the prosecutions
to be instituted against them, if His Royal Highness the Prince Regent
permitted these impeachments to be submitted to a tribunal, competent
to adjudge upon them, after hearing the matter on the part of the
impeachments, and on the part of the accused. It was while these things
were being done in the Assembly that the treaty of peace was officially
announced to the House. The Assembly granted eight days' pay to the
officers of the militia, after the time already noticed as determined
upon for the disbandment of the provincial corps; an annuity of six
pounds was provided for such rank and file as had been rendered
incapable of earning a living; a gratuity was made to the widow and the
orphan; and it was recommended that grants of land should be made by
His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, to such militiamen as had served
in defence of the province during the war. And more, the House,
entertaining the highest veneration and respect for the character of
His Excellency, Sir George Prevost, whose administration, under
circumstances of peculiar novelty and difficulty, stood highly
distinguished for energy, wisdom and ability, and who had rescued the
province from the danger of subjugation to her implacable foe,
unanimously granted and gave a service of plate not exceeding £5,000
sterling value, to His Excellency, in testimony of the country's sense
of distinguished talents, wisdom, and ability. Sir George Prevost felt
strongly the high compliment which had been paid to him as a civil
ruler. And he deserved it. Surrounded as he was by the selfishness of
officials, the sycophants of the colonial office, and the scandalizers
of himself and the country, and tormented by the suspicions of the
Assembly, which were the result of such sycophancy and scandal, Sir
George pursued a most straightforward and honorable course as a
Governor-in-Chief, expressed his gratitude, and would transmit the
address to the Prince Regent, to be governed by His commands. The
Regent approved of the donation and was rejoiced that Sir George had
deserved it; but the Legislative Council would not assent to the
bill![27] The House afterwards resolved that on the opening of the next
session of parliament it would take into consideration the expediency
of granting a pecuniary compensation to the Honorable Jean Antoine
Panet, for his long and meritorious services as Speaker; and an Act was
passed granting £500 to the Surveyor General, Joseph Bouchette,
Esquire, to assist him in publishing his geographical and topographical
maps of Upper and Lower Canada. At the prorogation, Mr. Speaker
Papineau intimated to the Governor that the House had bestowed their
most serious attention on the recommendations submitted to them. A
great part of the expenses occasioned by a state of war had been
continued by the Revenue Act which they had adopted. They had
indemnified such of the citizens whom the love of their king and
country had induced to accept commissions in the provincial corps,
until they should be advantageously enabled to resume their civil
professions, which they had abandoned on the declaration of war. They
had afforded relief to the families of such of their countrymen as had
fallen, and to those whose sufferings for life, from honorable wounds,
furnished living evidence of the zeal which had animated His Majesty's
Canadian subjects, in the defence of the rights of that empire to which
it was their glory to belong. The events of the war had drawn closer
the bonds which connected Great Britain with the Canadas. Although at
the epoch of the declaration of war the country was destitute both of
troops and money, yet from the devotion of a brave and loyal, yet
unjustly calumniated people, resources sufficient for disconcerting the
plans of conquest devised by a foe, at once numerous and elate with
confidence, had been derived. The blood of the sons of Canada had
flowed mingled with that of the brave soldiers sent for its defence,
when re-inforcements were afterwards received. The multiplied proofs of
the efficacious and powerful protection of the mother country and of
the inviolable loyalty of the people of Canada strengthened their claim
to the free exercise and preservation of all the benefits secured to
them by their existing constitution and laws. The pursuits of war were
about to be succeeded by those of peace, and it was by the increase of
population, agriculture and commerce, that the possession of the colony
might become of importance to Great Britain. It was with lively
satisfaction, therefore, that the House heard His Excellency recommend
to their consideration the improvement of internal communications, and
they were only too proud to second His Excellency's enlightened views
by large appropriations to facilitate the opening of a canal from
Montreal to Lachine, to assist in the opening up of new roads, and to
acquire such information as might enable them afterwards to follow up
and extend that plan of improvement.
[26] This was the father of the celebrated Felicia Hemans.
[27] It is here worthy of note that the late Lord Raglan, then
Fitzroy Somerset--sometime between the abdication of Napoleon
and Waterloo, and before his lordship had lost his arm--was in
Quebec, having been sent to Canada, it was supposed, privately to
ascertain how matters were, and especially as a spy upon Sir
George Prevost, against whom many complaints had been made by the
_reigning_ officials.
A lady, still living, well remembers the late Commander-in-Chief,
of the British army in the Crimea, being in Quebec. She saw him
in Mountain street, and the object of his visit was no secret.
Sir George Prevost then closed the session. He praised the liberality
with which the public service had been provided for; alluded to the
benefits promised by peace; informed parliament that he had been
summoned to return to England for the purpose of repelling accusations
affecting his military character, which had been preferred by the late
naval commander-in-chief, on the lakes, in Canada, and while he would
leave the province with regret, he eagerly embraced the opportunity
afforded him of justifying his reputation; and yet, however intent he
might be on the subject which so unexpectedly summoned his attention,
he would bear with him a lively recollection of the firm support he had
derived from the Legislature of Canada, and should be gratified to
represent personally to His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, the zeal
and loyalty evinced by every class of His Majesty's subjects in British
America, during his administration.
There were one or two measures introduced into the Assembly during the
session just closed worth mentioning, _en passant_; as showing the
progress really made by a "factious" Assembly. A bill was introduced,
by Mr. Lee, for the appointment of commissioners to examine the
accounts of the Receiver General, though, apparently, because Mr.
Caldwell presented a petition to the Assembly, complaining of the
insufficiency of his salary. Mr. Lee also introduced a bill to
establish turnpike roads in the vicinity of Quebec, but was unable to
carry it because of the outcry made by the farmers and the population
of the parishes around Quebec.
There were 1,727 marriages, 7,707 baptisms, and 4,601 burials in
Montreal; 653 marriages, 4,045 baptisms, and 2,318 burials in Quebec;
and 260 marriages, 1,565 baptisms, and 976 burials in Three Rivers,
during the year 1814. The revenue amounted to £204,550 currency, the
expenditure to £162,125 sterling; and 184 vessels were cleared at
Quebec.
On the 3rd of April, Sir George Prevost left Canada for England,
through New Brunswick, by way of the River St. John. He received
several valedictory addresses speaking of him in the highest terms,
from the French Canadian population, but the British who were annoyed
about Plattsburgh stood aloof, while the office holders secretly
rejoiced that his rule had terminated. Lieut.-General Sir Gordon
Drummond succeeded Sir George Prevost in the government of Lower
Canada, the Lieutenant-Governorship of Upper Canada being again in the
hands of His Excellency, Francis Gore, Esquire. General Drummond
convened the parliament of Upper Canada on the 15th of February, 1814.
The first Act of that parliament was one to repeal part of the laws in
force for raising and training the militia. All the male inhabitants of
the province, from 16 to 60 years of age, were liable to militia duty,
but no person over 50 years of age was to be called out except on
occasions of emergency. The militia were not to be ordered out of the
province unless for the assistance of Lower Canada, when actually
invaded, or in a state of insurrection, or except in pursuit of an
enemy who had invaded the province, or for the destruction of any
vessel either built or building, or for the destruction of any depot or
magazine, formed or forming, or for the attack of any enemy invading
the province, or for the attack of any fortress in the course of
erection or already erected, to cover such invasion of the province.
Justices of the Peace were authorised to impress carriages and horses;
twenty shillings a day to be paid for every carriage with two horses,
or oxen with a driver; fifteen shillings to be paid for every carriage
and two horses or oxen; and for every horse employed singly, seven
shillings and six pence was to be paid a day, on a certificate from the
officer employing them, to the Collector of Customs, and received by
the Receiver General of the province. A penalty was imposed on persons
using traitorous or disrespectful words against His Majesty or against
any member of the royal family, or for behaving with contempt or
disrespect to the Governor while on duty. Death was to be the
punishment for exciting to sedition or mutiny; and either death or such
other punishment as a Court Martial might award, was the punishment to
be awarded for being present at any meeting without endeavoring to
suppress it, or give information, or for deserting to the enemy. And
Quakers, Menonists, and Tunkers, were to pay £10 for their exemption
from militia servitude, the Act to be continued until the next session
of parliament. An Act was passed providing for the circulation of army
bills; £6,000 was appropriated for the construction and repair of roads
and bridges; an Act was passed to ascertain the eligibility of persons
to be returned to the House of Assembly; an Act was passed to continue
the Act granting to His Majesty duties on licenses to hawkers, pedlars,
petty chapmen, and other trading persons; every traveller on foot was
to pay £5 for his license, and for every boat £2 10s.; for every decked
vessel £25 was to be paid; for every boat £10; and for every
non-resident £20; the Act to be in force for two years; an Act was
passed to detain such persons as might be suspected of a treasonable
adherence to the enemy; an Act was passed imposing a duty of 3s. 9d.
per gallon on the contents of licensed stills; and the Act to prohibit
the exportation of grain and restraining the distillation of grain from
spirits was continued.
General Drummond again met the parliament of Upper Canada, on the 1st
of February, 1815. There were much the same kind of wranglings in the
Assembly of Upper Canada that distinguished the parliament of Lower
Canada. There were two parties, one highly conservative and another
violently radical. In Upper Canada the conservatives had the majority.
In 1808, Mr. Joseph Wilcocks, a member of the Assembly, was imprisoned
for having libellously alleged that every member of the first
provincial parliament had received a bribe of twelve hundred acres of
land. The "slanderous" accusation first appeared in a newspaper styled
the _Upper Canada Guardian_ or _Freeman's Journal_, edited by the
Joseph Wilcocks, who was a member of the Assembly. Mr. Wilcocks
grievously complained of the Messrs. Boulton and Sherwood, who were
ever on the watch to prevent any questions being put that would draw
forth either inaccuracy or inconsistency from the witnesses. Mr.
Sherwood attacked that great blessing of the people, the freedom of the
press and, being a good tory, called it, to the great horror of Mr.
Wilcocks, a pestilence in the land. Indeed, Mr. Wilcocks was deeply and
painfully sensible that Little York abounded in meanness, corruption,
and sycophancy, and notified his constituents accordingly. Such a
condition of things was only natural in a small community, having all
the paraphernalia of "constitutional" government.
In 1815, the progress of Upper Canada is indicated by the first bill of
the session--an Act granting £25,000 for amending and repairing the
public highways of the province, and awarding £25 to each road
commissioner in compensation for his services. There were in all
eighteen Acts passed. Provision was made for proceeding to outlawry in
certain cases. An Act was passed for the relief of Barristers and
Attornies, and to provide for the admission of Law Students within the
Province; £100 was granted to Mr. Sheriff Merritt, of the Niagara
District; a new Assessment Act was passed; the Act to provide for the
maintenance of persons disabled, and for the widows and children of
persons killed in action was explained and amended. Isaac Swayze,
Esquire, having been robbed of £178 5s. 8d., was exonerated from the
payment of it; £6,000 was granted for the rebuilding and repair of
gaols and Court Houses in the Western, London and Niagara Districts,
each £2,000; an Act was passed to remove doubts with respect to the
authority under which the Courts of General Quarter Sessions had been
erected and holden; an Act to license practitioners in physic and
surgery throughout the province, providing for the appointment of a
Board of Surgeons to examine applicants, and imposing a penalty of £100
for practicing without license, but excepting from the application of
the Act such as had taken a degree at any University in His Majesty's
dominions, was passed; £292 was granted to repay advances on team-work,
and for the apprehension of deserters by certain Inspectors of
Districts; £1,500 was granted to provide for the accommodation of the
legislature at its next session; £6,090 was granted for the uses of the
incorporated militia; £111 11s. 7d. was granted for the Clerks of
Parliament; £1,700 was appropriated to the erection of a monument to
the memory of the late Major-General Sir Isaac Brock; the Quarter
Sessions Act was again amended; £400 was repaid to the Honorable James
Bayley, which he had paid for hemp delivered to him as a commissioner
for the purchase of that commodity; and an Act incorporating the
Midland District School Society. On the 25th of April, Lieutenant-General
Sir George Murray, Baronet, superseded Sir Gordon Drummond, K.C.B., in
the command, civil and military, of Upper Canada, and on the 1st of
July, in the same year, the civil and military command of the Upper
Province devolved upon Major-General Sir Frederick P. Robinson, K.C.B.,
who held the reins of government until the return of His Excellency
Francis Gore, who had been absent in England during the war, on the
25th of September, 1815.
CHAPTER IV.
It was in the character of Administrator-in-Chief that
Lieutenant-General Sir Gordon Drummond assumed the government of Lower
Canada, on the 5th of April, 1816. The army bills were called in and
honorably redeemed in cash, at the army bill office, in Quebec, and as
if to show how beneficial the war had been to the country, first one
new steamer arrived at Quebec, and then another from the already
flourishing city of Montreal. The _Malshane_, built by Mr. John Molson,
of Montreal, at that port, appeared at Quebec on the opening of the
navigation, and was speedily followed by an opposition steamer built by
an association of merchants in Montreal, and named:--The _Car of
Commerce_. The inhabitants of Canada were, at this time, under 400,000
in number. About seven-eighths were of French descent, and the other
eighth was composed of English, Irish, Scotch, Germans, Americans, and
their descendants. Of the latter, the Scotch were the most numerous,
and in their hands nearly the whole external trade of the country was
placed. The French Canadians were chiefly agriculturists, but they had
also a large share in the retail and internal trade. There was, at this
period, no manufactories of note in the province. The manufacture of
leather, hats, and paper, had been introduced, and _étoffe du pays_,
manufactured by the farmers, constituted the garb of the Canadians
generally. There were two iron works in the vicinity of Three Rivers.
There was nothing more. It is said, not without reason, that one of the
first improvements in any country should be the making of roads, and
the speedy making of roads, both in Upper and Lower Canada, was one of
the good effects of the war. Already there was a road from Point Levi
across the portage of Temiscouata, from thence to the forks of the
Madawaska, from thence to the Great Falls, from thence to Fredericton,
in New Brunswick, from thence to St. Johns, on the Bay of Fundy, and
from thence to Halifax, which was 618 miles long; there was a road from
Quebec to Montreal, 180 miles in length, from thence to the
Coteau-du-Lac, 225 miles, from thence to Cornwall, 226 miles, from
thence to Matilda, 301 miles, from thence to Augusta, 335 miles, from
thence to Kingston, 385 miles, from thence to York, 525 miles, from
thence to Fort Erie, 560 miles, from thence to Detroit, 790 miles, and
from thence to Michillimackinac, 1,107 miles; there was a road _en
route_ to Boston, _via_ St. Giles, Ireland, Shipton, St. François, and
the Forks of the Ascot, to the lines, 146 miles long; and there was a
road from Laprairie, opposite Montreal, to Isle-aux-Noix, which was 28
miles long. Canals were contemplated to overcome the difficulties of
the Lachine, Cedars, and Long Sault rapids, and indeed there was an eye
to those improvements which never fail to develop the riches of a
country. The landholders at this time were mostly French Canadians.
There were some thousands of acres, however, which had been granted to
the British population since 1796, occupied or settled upon by
Americans, that is to say, former residents of the United States. Land
was not by any means valuable, on account of the great distances from
convenient markets, and the consequent length of time which it took the
distant farmer to bring his produce to market. It was this drawback
that produced in the Canadian the pernicious habit of merely producing
enough for the consumption of his own family, and for the keep of his
own farm stock. Farm lands were seldom held upon lease. The cultivators
were the _bona fide_ proprietors of the soil, subject to a very
inconsiderable annual rent to the seigneur and to a fine of a twelfth
upon a change of proprietor by sale, a condition which, as a matter of
course, would in time become intolerable and demand that remedy which
has since been applied. In Lower Canada, the lands held by Roman
Catholics, were subject to the payment of a tythe or a twenty-sixth
part of all grain for the use of the curate, and to assessments for the
building and repair of churches. Now with regard to the character of a
people, who, not long after this period, exhibited an intolerance of
tyranny and injustice, it may fairly be said that the French Canadians
are naturally of a cheerful and lively disposition, but very
conservative in their ideas. Outwardly polite, they are not
unfrequently coarse in conversation. If the Canadian evinces respect,
it is expected that he will be treated with respect in consideration
therefor. His chief shortcoming is excessive sociability. When once
settled among friends and relatives he cannot leave them--absence from
home does in truth only make the heart grow fonder of home
associations. He is active, compactly made, but generally below rather
than above the middle size. His natural capacity is excellent, but when
the mind is unimproved and no opportunity has been afforded for the
acquisition of new ideas, little can be expected from even the most
fertile understanding. All improvements have been the result of
observation, there being nothing original in any one, nor an iota new
under the sun. It is in the application of the natural elements only in
which one individual excels another, his capacity for excellence, of
course, favoring observation. As the bee sips honey from the flower, so
does man inhale the poetry of nature, daguerreotyping it upon his
understanding, either from the mountain's top, from the summit of the
ocean wave, or from the wreck of battle; so does the astronomer learn
from the firmament itself the relative proportions and distances, the
transits, eclipses, and periodical appearances of other worlds, than
that in which he lives, moves, and has his being; and so the man of
science collects and combines the very elements themselves, either to
purposes of destruction or towards the progress, improvement, and
almost perfection of human nature. The Canadian could only reason from
his own experience, and that was so exceedingly limited, that his
backwardness in enterprise is less to be wondered at than the eagerness
with which he copies the enterprise of others. The Canadian, like the
native of old France, is a thinking animal. He is ever doubting, ever
mistrustful. In spiritual matters, he is guided by his curate, who, if
he wishes to stand well with him, must meddle with nothing else. And
who will say that such a people are incapable of improvement?
Railroads, intercourse with others, and time, will yet make the
Canadian think for himself much sooner than they will influence others,
more naturally confiding, generous, and credulous than he is, but whose
very energy and bravery only cover a multitude of sins.
Lieutenant-General Sir Gordon Drummond met the parliament of Lower
Canada on the 26th of January, 1816. He informed the two Houses that
the Regent had committed to him the administration of the government of
Lower Canada, that he had entered on the duties of his trust with a
deep sense of their importance and with a more earnest desire to
discharge them for the general advantage of a province in the capital
of which he had been born; the King was no better in health, but had no
corporeal suffering and only continued in a state of undisturbed
tranquillity; Buonaparte had been exiled and the family of Bourbon
restored to the throne of their ancestors; Waterloo had consummated the
high distinction obtained by the British forces under Wellington. He
recommended the renewal of the Militia Act, and in consequence of many
discontented adventurers, and mischievous agitators, from the continent
of Europe, having thrown themselves into the neighbouring States, he
strongly recommended the immediate revival of the Act for establishing
regulations respecting aliens, with such modifications as circumstances
might render it proper to adopt; the executive government had redeemed
its pledge by calling in and paying with cash the army bills which were
in circulation; a statement of the revenue and expenditure of the past
year would be laid before the Assembly; the Prince Regent viewed with
much pleasure the additional proof of patriotism afforded by the sum
voted towards the completion of a proposed canal from Montreal to
Lachine; His Majesty's government duly appreciating the many important
objects with which the canal was connected, were interested in its
early execution; and he awaited only further instructions upon the
subject to carry it into effect. He pressed upon the attention of both
Houses the importance of further promoting the internal improvements of
the province. He trusted that this session of parliament would be
distinguished for accordant exertion and for efficient dispatch in
conducting the public business; and for his own part, he could assure
honorable gentlemen that he would most cordially co-operate in every
measure which might tend to advance the interests and promote the
welfare of the province. His Excellency the Administrator-in-Chief made
allusion to his native city after the manner of a somewhat notorious,
if not a celebrated judge of the present time, who was accustomed to
boast in the Assembly of being the representative of his native city.
Sir Gordon, however, only meant to be conciliatory, and indeed there
was no objectionable egotism in a governor putting himself forth as a
colonist by birth, or in one sense placing himself on a level with the
governed. The pity is that so few governors had even that interest in
Canada which, to however limited a degree, must have weighed with Sir
Gordon Drummond. The House was glad that a native of Quebec had so
distinguished himself as a soldier, and indeed in all else, echoed His
Excellency's speech.
The transaction of business had hardly begun when a message was
received from the Administrator-in-chief. His Royal Highness, the
Regent, had commanded His Excellency to make known his pleasure to the
House of Assembly on the subject of certain charges preferred by the
House against the Chief Justices of the province and of Montreal, in
connection with certain charges against a former governor, Sir James
Craig. The Regent was pleased to say that the acts of a former governor
could not be a subject of enquiry, whether legal or illegal, as it
would involve the principle that a governor might divest himself of all
responsibility on points of political government; the charge referred
by the Regent to the Privy Council, was only such as related to the
Rules of Practice, established by the Judges, in their respective
Courts, and for which the Judges were themselves solely responsible;
and the Report of the Privy Council was that the Rules of Practice
complained of were made not by the Chief Justices alone, but in
conjunction with the other Judges of the respective Courts, as rules
for the regulation and practice of their respective Courts, and that
neither the Chief Justices, nor had the Courts in which they presided,
exceeded their authority in making such rules, nor had they been guilty
of any assumption of legislative power. Further, His Excellency was
commanded to express the regret with which the Regent had viewed the
late proceedings of the House of Assembly against two persons who had
so ably filled the highest judicial offices in the colony, a
circumstance calculated to disparage their character and services, in
the eyes of the inconsiderate and ignorant, and so diminish the
influence which a judge ought to possess. The other charges with regard
to the refusal of a writ of _Habeas Corpus_, by Mr. Chief Justice Monk,
of Montreal, were considered to be totally unsupported by any evidence
whatever. The message from the administrator, by order of the Regent,
had been somewhat too soon communicated to the Assembly for "accordant
exertion" in legislation. A call of the House was ordered for the 14th
of February, and the message was to be referred to a committee of the
whole on that day. That day came and the committee of the whole
referred the message to be reported upon by a select committee of nine
members, and the report of the committee was to the effect that a
humble representation and petition to the Regent must be prepared, and
that before doing so, the sense of the House, as expressed in a
committee of the whole, should be obtained. Accordingly, the House
again resolved itself into committee, on the 24th, when it was reported
that the House in impeaching the Chief Justices was influenced by a
sense of duty, by a desire to maintain the laws and constitution, and
by a regard for the public interest, and for the honor of His Majesty's
government; that the House was entitled to be heard, and to have an
opportunity of adducing evidence in support of the impeachments; that
the opposition and resistance of the Legislative Council prevented the
appointment of an agent from the Assembly, to maintain and support the
charges; and that a petition should be presented to the Regent,
appealing to the justice of His Majesty's government and praying that
an opportunity might be afforded to the Commons of Canada to be heard
and to maintain their charges. The resolutions were adopted by a very
large majority of the House, and a special committee was appointed to
prepare an address in accordance with the resolutions. But before this
could be done, Sir Gordon Drummond, in accordance with his
instructions, dissolved the House. He prorogued the parliament on the
26th, because his reasonable expectations, with regard to their
diligent application to the business which he had recommended to their
attention had been disappointed; because the Assembly had again entered
upon the discussion of a subject on which the pleasure of the Regent
had been communicated to them; and because, he, therefore, felt it to
be his duty to prorogue the present parliament, and to resort to the
sense of the people by an immediate dissolution. Only one Act received
the royal assent, that to regulate the trial of controverted elections.
The writs for the new elections were issued in haste. Indeed so early
as the month of March, they were completed, the greater number of the
members of the previous Assembly having been re-elected. But before
even the elections had been completed, General Drummond was notified of
the appointment of Sir John Sherbrooke, the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova
Scotia, to the Governor-Generalship of British North America, and
leaving Major-General Wilson in temporary charge of the government, he
sailed for England on the 1st of May.
It is impossible to speak of Sir Gordon Drummond's civil government.
The measures which he proposed were well calculated to benefit the
country. He was thwarted, possibly in good intentions, by the commands
of the imperial government, requiring him imperatively to obtain the
submission of the colonial legislature to Downing-street dictation,
without remonstrance. A colonial legislature, tethered as it is, and
ever will be, until the Governor is elected by the people, to English
administrative incapacity might, with no lack of prudence, have been
permitted rope enough to wander round the tethering post, so that it
would only have been at considerable intervals that the effect of the
tethers would have been in any degree galling or even felt.
In 1815, the revenue of Lower Canada amounted to £150,273 currency, the
expenditure to £125,218 sterling, in which was included £16,555 for the
erection of the gaol in Quebec; £26,439 for militia services; and
£35,325, the proportion of duties to Upper Canada. Only 194 vessels of
37,382 tons, were cleared at Quebec, not taking into account ten new
vessels of only 1,462 tons altogether, hardly equal to the tonnage of a
single vessel of the present day.
Sir John Sherbrooke did not arrive at Quebec until the 21st of July. He
was then received with all the honors due to his rank and station.
Every body was as obsequious as any body could be, and great things
were, of course, expected from the new man. Nor was Sir John deficient
in ability. He had been most successful in his government of Nova
Scotia, and he had been most prudent in his negotiations with the
people of Maine. He had too an opportunity for acquiring popularity
immediately on his arrival, and he did not suffer the opportunity to
escape him. The wheat crop had failed in the lower part of the district
of Quebec. The days though warm as usual were succeeded by cold frosty
nights, which killed the wheat. There was indeed a prospect of a
famine. Representations of anticipated distress, came pouring in upon
him from first one parish and then another. A less decided man would
have called upon the provincial parliament to have acted as became the
emergency. Sir John threw open the King's stores, and on his own
responsibility, advanced a large sum of money from the public treasury,
for the purchase of such supplies as the imperial store-houses did not
afford. The season, in Lower Canada, he knew was a short one, and to
have procrastinated would have been fatal to the farmer.
Nor was Sir John less prudent in other matters. He saw the mistake
committed by his predecessor with regard to the impeachments and he
endeavored to avoid any similar mistake. He wrote to England for
instructions, taking care to inform the Minister of State for the
Colonies of the true state of public opinion in the province. He
represented that the appeal to the people by Sir Gordon Drummond had
entirely failed; the people were irritated at the appeal to them under
such circumstances; the dissolution of a parliament was not, in his
opinion, at any time calculated to do much good, but was often
seriously productive of evil; in a small community it was more
difficult to correct public opinion than in a larger one; he would
carry out whatever instructions should be given to him; but these were
his views and he would await an answer. He went still further. He
informed the Colonial Secretary that Chief Justice Sewell was
unpopular, not with the Assembly alone, but with all classes of the
people. No matter whether the feeling proceeded from the acts and
calumnies of designing demagogues, it existed. It was indeed believed
in the Palace of the Roman Catholic Bishop, and in the cottage of the
humblest peasant, that Chief Justice Sewell had outraged their feelings
of loyalty and religion. When Attorney-General, Mr. Sewell had
maintained doctrines and supported measures that clashed with the
religious opinions of the Canadians. A dislike, amounting to
infatuation, had been confirmed by the part which he was supposed to
have taken in the government after his promotion. It was this gradually
increasing dislike which had led to his impeachment. Sir John believed
that a hearing to both parties, on the impeachment, even had the
decision been the same, would have been conducive to the peace of the
province, as it would have deprived the party hostile to the Chief
Justice of a pretext of complaint, by which, in a free country, the
people will always be interested. The impression was that the
government of England had come to a decision on an _exparte_ hearing.
Chief Justice Sewell should have been permitted to retire on a pension.
That step would have had the effect of getting rid of a grievance.
Agreeably to his instructions, he would support the Chief Justice even
should the wrath of the Clergy be the result. He would also cultivate a
good understanding with the Roman Catholic Bishop, but neither argument
nor coercion could destroy public opinion. Prorogation might succeed
prorogation, and dissolution, but there would be a revolution in the
country sooner than a change in the feelings of its inhabitants with
regard to Chief Justice Sewell. He would suggest the appointment of an
agent in England, as had long been desired, and as had been effected in
almost every other colony. The opposition to this measure was even
ascribed to the Chief Justice. He would further suggest that Mr. Stuart
should be detached by motives of self-interest, from the party with
whom he acted, and which it was supposed, would dwindle into
insignificance without him. If the Attorney-Generalship should become
vacant, it might be offered to him. The most fruitful source of all the
dissensions in Canada was, nevertheless, according to Sir John
Sherbrooke, the want of confidence in its executive government,[28] not
so much in the personal character of the Governor as in the Executive
Council, who have come to be considered the Governor's advisers, and
who are watched with a jealousy that hampered every governmental
operation. To remove the distrust, the Speaker of the Legislative
Assembly should, _ex officio_, be a member of the Executive Council.
[28] True, and which an elective government will altogether
remove, to the great advantage and enduring honor of Great
Britain.
Sir John had stated a series of truths, since made apparent, by the
disclosures of Mr. Ryland.
The new parliament was convened for the dispatch of business, on the
15th of January, 1817, when Mr. Papineau was re-elected Speaker. The
Governor then formally opened the business of the session, by stating
that having ascertained that the crops had failed in several parts of
the province, he had taken steps to prevent the mischief that
threatened the country, the particulars of which should be laid before
the parliament; that he relied upon the liberality of the Assembly to
make the necessary provision for defraying the expenses already
incurred; that he felt assured such further aid would be granted as
necessity might require; that he would lay before the House a statement
of the revenue and expenditure of the province: that he felt it to be
his duty to call early attention to the renewal of the militia and
several other Acts, which either had expired or were about to expire;
and he intimated that the advantages to result from every improvement
calculated to open up the commerce of the country and encourage
agriculture were of themselves sufficient to recommend that matter to
their attention. The Assembly replied in the usual way and immediately
afterwards appointed the committees. There was a grand committee of
grievances, a committee on courts of justice, a committee on
agriculture and commerce, and a special committee of five members to
keep up a good understanding between the two Houses, hitherto
antagonistic. Immediately after these committees had been named, a
message was received from the Governor, intimating that the Regent of
the United Kingdom and of the Empire had been pleased to assent to the
bill granting a salary of £1,000 a year to the Speaker of the Assembly.
The House then voted £14,216 to relieve the distressed parishes, with
the view of making good the advances made by the Governor, and also
voted the additional sum of £15,500, with the same view, and £20,600
more, for the purchase of seed grain, for distribution among such as
could not otherwise procure it, to be repaid at the convenience of the
recipients. This business being settled, Mr. Cuvillier presented to the
House articles of impeachment against Mr. Foucher, a Judge of the
King's Bench, at Montreal, for malversation, corrupt practices, and
injustice. A committee was appointed to examine into these charges, and
having reported adversely to the judge, the House prepared and adopted
an address to the Regent, asking for Mr. Foucher's removal from office,
and that justice should otherwise be done. The House further requested
the Governor-in-Chief to suspend Mr. Foucher, while the charges made
against him were pending. The Governor complied with the request of the
House, by desiring Mr. Foucher to abstain from taking his seat upon the
Bench, until the will of the Regent should have been ascertained. The
Legislative Council were most indignant. They remonstrated against the
suspension of Mr. Foucher. Every public officer was by the assent given
to the act of the Assembly, liable to be put to the expense of going to
England before he could even get a hearing, if at the mere dictation of
the Assembly, a public officer was to be suspended. The Assembly
replied that, if suspension could not take place, offenders, out of the
reach of ordinary courts of justice, could not be brought to trial, and
that an illegal, arbitrary, tyrannical, and oppressive power, over the
people of the province, would be perpetuated. And so the suspension did
take place. The judges were in very bad odour in those days. They were
between two fires. If they thwarted the government, they were
dismissed, and if they annoyed the people they were impeached. Another
complaint was made against Mr. Chief Justice Monk. He, it was alleged
by the family of the late François Corbeil, had exceeded his authority,
by issuing a warrant for the arrest and imprisonment of Corbeil, on a
charge of treasonable practices, well knowing that such changes were
notoriously false, and, by so doing, had accelerated or caused the
death of Corbeil, the disease of which he died having been contracted
while in prison. Mr. Samuel Sherwood also complained, on his own
behalf, against the Chief Justice of Montreal. It appeared that he had
been prosecuted and imprisoned for libel, in having burlesqued the
pamphlet published and circulated by the Chief Justices in Montreal and
Quebec, to show to the public and their friends that the impeachments
against them had fallen through. At the trial for the libel, Mr. Chief
Justice Monk presided. He seemed to be both prosecutor and judge. The
jury box was packed. The court was specially held. The indictment
against Sherwood had been framed on suspicion. In the pretended libel
the name of James Monk was thirty times mentioned, and yet James Monk,
in the character of Chief Justice, sat upon the Bench. He took a lively
interest in the prosecution. He had fiercely assailed a member of the
Bar, who had smiled during the reading of the indictment, and
threatened to remember the smile in his address to the jury. Such an
example of a judge, sitting in his own cause, was not even afforded by
Scraggs or Jefferies. Mr. Sherwood had been falsely imprisoned,
arbitrarily held to excessive bail, his liberties, as a British
subject, violated, and his privileges as a member of the Assembly had
been set at nought. The petition was referred to a select committee,
and no more heard of. Yet it had an effect. Chief Justice Monk was
compelled to explain and to defend himself.
There was yet another similar matter to be proceeded with. There was
the revival of the impeachments to be taken in hand. The House had been
clumsily baulked in their attempt to remonstrate with the Regent
concerning his will and pleasure, as far as his royal will and pleasure
related to the impeachments of Chief Justices Sewell and Monk, and
there seemed to be a _sub rosa_ disposition to get rid of the
disagreeable affair by management. Mr. Stuart, keen-sighted as he was,
both saw and felt that the tools, with which he worked, required
sharpening up. They had been handled. They had been in other hands than
his. They had apparently been rendered almost unfit for use. He would,
however, move for a call of the House, on the 21st of February. The
cards had been admirably shuffled. The Panets, Vanfelsons, Gugys,
Ogdens, Vezinas, Taschereaus, Malhiots, Cherriers, were all wonderfully
intermingled in an adverse vote. The motion was rejected by a vote of
23 nays to 10 yeas. Mr. Stuart tried the 20th of February. Still it
would not do. The Assembly had become suddenly tired of impeachments.
Again, the matter was tried on the following day, when the House
consented not to revive the impeachments but to reconsider the message
addressed to the Assembly on the 2nd of February last, by the late
Administrator-in-Chief. Mr. Stuart had some business to transact in
Montreal, and he left Quebec to attend to it. During his absence the
impeachments were forgotten; his measures were paralysed by _sub rosa_
negociation; Mr. Sewell was recompensed for the ill-treatment he had
experienced, and the government was relieved of anxiety. The Speaker of
the Assembly was informed that for this parliament as well as for the
last parliament he would be permitted to receive £1,000 a year, and
that Mr. Sewell, who, as Chief Justice, was Speaker of the Upper House,
might be recompensed for his ill-treatment, by the attachment of a
salary of £1,000 to an office which it was designed he should hold for
life. The Assembly, accordingly, applied to His Excellency to _allow_
their Speaker £1,000 a year, and to confer some signal mark of the
Royal favor on Dame Louise Philippe Badelard, widow of Mr. Speaker
Panet. His Excellency, the Governor, unhesitatingly complied with the
request of the Assembly, the more especially as on the request of the
Council he had consented to a similar salary being paid to their
Speaker, and he had further pleasure in authorising the payment of a
pension of £300 a year, to Dame Louise Philippe Badelard. The whole was
most cheerfully agreed to by all the parties interested, and thus was
the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada betrayed and dealt with for
the consideration of a few thousand pieces of silver. On the 17th of
March, Sir John Sherbrooke intimated by message that he had conferred
upon the two honorable Speakers the salaries of £1,000 each per annum.
Two days afterwards, Mr. Sherwood moved that the message of the late
Administrator-in-Chief should not be considered until the 27th of
March, and that a call of the House should be made for that day. Mr.
Ogden, however, bluntly moved for the discharge of the order of the
day, and that the subject should not be taken into consideration at all
during the session. The debate was loud and long continued. James
Stuart and Andrew Stuart were brilliant; the Gugys, the McCords, and
the Ogdens, were dumb. The Vezinas, the Vigers, the Panets, the
Languedocs, and the Badeaux, had changed sides. Night came and still
the debate continued, the midnight hour was passed and yet the war of
words was fiercely going on, and morning came only to find the
impeachments, which the Assembly had so long cherished, finally buried
in oblivion, by 22 votes in favor of the abrupt motion of Mr. Ogden,
while there were only 10 votes against it. Mr. Stuart was abandoned.
There was now a greater than he to lead the Assembly. Sir John Coape
Sherbrooke thoroughly understood the materials with which he had to
deal, and he dealt with them accordingly. The Assembly had no longer
independence: spirit, self-respect, power was sacrificed for that which
gives wisdom to the foolish and judgment to the weak. The sum of
£55,000 was appropriated for the improvement of roads, canals, and
bridges; £2,000 was voted for the encouragement of inoculation with
vaccine virus as a preventative of small pox; the revenue for 1816 was
£144,625; the expenditure £75,638, less £24,495, the proportion of
duties payable to Upper Canada for 1815; the expenses of the
legislature for the same period were £3,203 currency; the salaries of
the judges were now £1,000 currency per annum each, and yet at the
disposal of the legislature there was the sum of £140,153.[29] The
session was closed on the 22nd of March, by receiving the thanks of the
Governor General for the extraordinary application to business which
had distinguished this session from any preceding session of the
parliament of Lower Canada.
[29] Christie's History, page 290.
In the course of the summer (1817) three hundred and three vessels with
five thousand three hundred and seventy-five new settlers had arrived
at Quebec, and banks were established both in Montreal and Quebec,
named after the cities in which they were set afloat. About the 15th of
November it was remarked that the Montreal Bank had commenced with
quite an unexpected confidence from every part of the community, so
much so that the merchants were realising more convenience from it than
they ever anticipated; and that since it had commenced business, the
profits were reported to have been immense.
In 1816, a settlement of emigrants was begun, under the direction of
the military, in Bathurst, Drummond, Beckwith and Golbourne. The first
settlers of Canada had a free passage afforded them from the United
Kingdom, and were provided with rations and tools on their arrival in
the colony. In 1816, rations and tools were furnished to 2,000
emigrants, who came out at their own expense, and in 1817 multitudes
came out in the expectation of being favored in the same way, but were
disappointed, nothing having been given to them but 100 acres of land
each, which many of them were too poor to occupy.[30] There were not
yet seven persons to the square mile, in the Upper Province. There were
only twenty places of worship and thirty-five resident preachers:--fifteen
methodists, five baptists, four quakers, three presbyterians, three
Roman Catholics, three episcopalians, one tunker and one menonist--in
the Western, London, Gore, and Niagara districts, with a population of
26,977 souls; and there were for the same population, 20 medical
practitioners, 132 schools, 114 taverns, 130 stores, 79 grist-mills,
and 116 saw-mills. The Home district contained 7,700 people; the
Newcastle, 5,000; the Midland, 14,853; the Johnstown, 9,200; the
Eastern, 12,700; and the Ottawa, 1,500; the total population of Upper
Canada being then estimated at 83,250 souls. York, the capital of the
Upper Province, situated on a beautiful plain, in a rich soil, and
temperate climate, was, at this period, more than a mile and a half in
length. It was laid out in regular streets, lots, and squares, having
the garrison, and the site of the parliament house on its two wings,
and a market near the centre. There was a public square open to the
water. Many neat and some elegant houses had been erected. The town had
a mixed appearance of city and country. Kingston was yet the town of
most note and indeed, in every respect, the most entitled to civic
consideration of any town then in the province. Parallel with its
spacious and convenient harbour were the streets, at convenient
distances from each other, and intersected, at right angles, by cross
streets, dividing the town into squares. One square was an open public
area in front of the Court House, and gaol, and episcopal church. The
market was held in that area. But there were other public buildings in
Kingston, besides the Court House, gaol, and episcopal church. There
was a new catholic church, a barracks for the troops in garrison, an
hospital, and a residence for the commandant. The town consisted of 300
private dwelling houses, a number of warehouses and stores, about 50
shops, in which goods were sold, several public offices, a respectable
district school, a valuable library, mechanics' shops &c. The Court
House, gaol, Catholic Church, and the principal dwelling houses were
built of the bluish limestone obtained in large quantities in the
middle of the town; but were more substantial than elegant in design.
Kingston wanted a populous back country then, and still wants it
because the soil is stoney and not therefore so well adapted for
agricultural operations as the soils of other parts of the province.
The Upper, as well as the Lower province had profitted by the
circulation of army bills and by the requirements of the troops.
Government transactions had given a spirit to trade and industry, and
only for a system of government, which, as far as any government can
do, crushed enterprise and fettered trade, both provinces would have so
flourished immediately after the war that the reaction which the
withdrawal of a few troops produced would scarcely have been felt. As
matters stood the provinces were already flourishing, and schemes of
improvement were everywhere in contemplation. Steam navigation, which
had proved so useful on the St. Lawrence, and had, as it were, drawn,
the two chief cities of the Lower Province more closely together, was
about to be attempted on Lake Ontario. Already the keel of a steamboat,
to be 170 feet on deck, was in process of construction at the village
of Ernest-town, for certain gentlemen resident in Kingston. If
possible, the new boat was to transport both goods and passengers for
the whole extent between Queenston and Prescott. It was, however,
feared that the rough water of the lake would be too much for any
steamer to contend against. The Americans were also building a smaller
steamboat at Sackett's Harbour. A year later and the steamboat
_Walk-in-the-Water_, plied between Black Rock, near Buffalo and
Detroit, on Lake Erie, occasionally to Michillimackinac.
[30] Gourlay's Canada, page 523. vol. 1.
The legislative affairs of the Upper Province have as yet hardly
warranted comment. There were so very few people in the province for
whom legislation was necessary, and there was so much sameness about
the business transacted in parliament that comment was barely needful.
At first sight it seems that all went smoothly. There could not have
been factionists where there were no French people entertaining
seditious ideas and cherishing revolutionary projects. But red-tapism
is every where the same. In Upper as in Lower Canada, there were only
two legislative branches, a Lower, or People's House, a Crown, or Upper
House. There was also a certain amount of Crown influence in the Lower
House, which made constitutional government a sham. The freedom of
speech was not even permitted to some members of the Assembly; and it
was quite impossible to hint at corruption in those times, far less to
insist upon the nomination of a corruption committee. There was a
continued interruption of harmonious intercourse between the
Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly. As the Assembly of
Lower Canada had done and had been treated with regard to an offer to
defray the expenses of the civil list, so precisely had the Assembly of
Upper Canada acted, and so had they been treated, when an exactly
similar offer was made. And why? Because the legislative and executive
functions were united in the same persons. His Majesty's Executive
Council was almost wholly composed of the members of the Legislative
Council. Both Councils then consisted of the Deputy Superintendent
General of the Indian Department, the Receiver General, the Inspector
General, the Chief Justice, the Speaker of the Legislative Council, and
the Honorable and Reverend Chaplain of the Legislative Council. The
Upper House was the mere instrument of some designing confidential
secretary to a weak-minded or, at least, credulous governor. Nay, it
was said that "ruffian magistrates" abounded in those days along the
banks of the St. Lawrence, from Brockville to Cornwall, inclusive, the
Lieutenant-Governor being held in leading strings, by the Honorable and
Reverend Chaplain of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada and one of
His Majesty's Executive Councillors for that province.[31] It is indeed
asserted that after the passage of the Sedition Act of 1804, the
misrule of Upper Canada came to a pitch so extraordinary, that it was
exclaimed against from the Bench, while a jury applauded. Governor Gore
appeared to have been creating at the same time, and with the same
effect, those treasonable practices which were so pleasing to Mr.
Witsius Ryland, in Lower Canada, and which had evidently been stirred
up, by the men-in-office, with the view of depriving both provinces of
the "exact image and transcript of the British constitution," with
which the Canadas had been favored in 1791. Until the invasion, in
1811, political discontent was loud and incessant, as well in Upper as
in Lower Canada; and it was the misrepresentations of the governing
party and the outcries of the governed in both provinces, that induced
the government of the United States to make war, on false pretences,
upon the government of Great Britain. There were persecutions for
opinion's sake in Upper as in Lower Canada. The newspaper was as odious
to the government in one province as in the other. In 1806, a sheriff
of the Home District, in opposition to the will of the Governor, voted
at an election. He lost the shrievalty for his stubborn independence.
Thrown upon his own resources, he established a newspaper, which he
called _The Upper Canada Guardian, or Freeman's Journal_. He spoke with
considerable freedom of the governor. He attacked the ministerial
party. He exhibited abuses with wonderful dexterity and skill. The
ex-sheriff, Joseph Wilcocks, was rapidly rising into note. It was time
to restrain him. A Captain Cowan was induced to be his persecutor. The
truth rapidly becoming dangerous to those whose business consists in
concealing the truth, cannot always be told with safety. Wilcocks
alleged that the Governor or his Executive Council had bribed several
members of the Assembly with land, to induce them to vote against the
interests of their constituents. Captain Cowan knew that the assertion
was without foundation. Wilcocks was prosecuted but was acquitted,
gained popularity in return for his persecution, and ultimately
obtained a seat in parliament. There was no more freedom for Wilcocks
in parliament than out of it. For some extra freedom of speech on the
floor of the House, he was thrust into prison. Nevertheless, he
acquired an ascendancy in the Assembly, to the great regret of the
ministerialists. He became still more the object of governmental wrath,
and when the war broke out, he was deprived of his paper. In 1812, he
fought as a volunteer against the Americans. He was present at the
battle of Queenston. He did all that within him lay, for his country
and for his king; but the government of the province hated and
persecuted him, so that starving and exasperated,[32] he deserted to
the enemy, carrying with him a corps of Canadians. Joseph Wilcocks, who
was an Irishman of good family, and who was persecuted by the
office-men of Upper Canada, to the prejudice and without the knowledge
of the British government, was driven into hostile opposition to
Britain by the most petty and contemptible tyranny of a few fellow
colonists holding office, and was killed during the siege of Fort Erie.
Had war occurred while Sir James Craig held Bedard in gaol and kept the
_Canadien_ printing press in the vaults of the Court House, at Quebec,
it is difficult to say whether a feeling very different to that
elicited by the prudent management of Sir George Prevost, might or
might not have been exhibited. The government of the province should
from the very outset have been only responsible to the people of the
province, and Great Britain have only maintained in acknowledgement of
her supremacy a military protectorate of British North America. But
Francis Gore, Esquire, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, again met
the parliament of that province, on the 6th of January, 1816. The
business done consisted in an Act to alter the time of holding Courts
of Quarter Sessions in the London and Johnstown districts, an Act to
repeal part of the Act constituting the counties of Prescott and
Russell a separate district, under the name of the District of Ottawa;
an Act to make more effectual provision for the collection of the
revenue; an Act to provide for the appointment of Returning Officers;
an Act to extend the jurisdiction of the Court of Requests; an Act to
provide, for a limited time, for the appointment of a Provincial
Aid-de-Camp, to be appointed by the Governor, and to have ten shillings
a day in war, and five shillings a day in peace; an Act to provide £165
a year for the Adjutant-General of Militia; an Act to enable the
Governor to establish one or more additional ports of entry; an Act to
remunerate William Dummer Powell, Esquire, in the sum of £1,000, for
his services in ascertaining titles to land; an Act repealing part of
an Act for granting to His Majesty an additional duty on shop and
tavern licences; an Act to amend an Act to prevent damage to travellers
on the highways; an Act to grant relief to Catherine McLeod, whose son
was killed in war; an Act to relieve Charlotte Overholt whose husband
had been peculiarly killed; an Act to extend the limits of the town of
Niagara; an Act granting £799, as a provision for the contingent
expenses of both Houses of Parliament; an Act to relieve persons
holding lands in the district of Niagara, whose title deeds,
conveyances, or wills, had been destroyed when the enemy burnt the
town; an Act to continue the Act for the appointment of Returning
Officers; an Act to alter and extend the provisions of the Act granting
pensions to the widows and children of persons killed in the king's
service; an Act authorising the construction of a gaol and Court House
in the town of York; an Act to erect the District of Gore out of
certain parts of the Home and Niagara Districts; an Act granting £425
4s. 6d. to several inspectors who disbursed that amount for teamwork
and the apprehension of deserters; an Act to revive the Act affording
relief to persons entitled to claim lands in the province, as heirs or
devisees of the nominees of the Crown, in cases where no patent had
issued; an Act to grant annually, for four years, £470, as an increase
to the salaries of certain officers of the Council and Assembly; an Act
granting, £513 for the repair of certain highways; an Act appropriating
£800 for the purchase of books for the formation of a library for the
use of both Houses; an Act to continue an Act to facilitate the
circulation of Lower Canada army bills; an Act appropriating £2,500
annually for defraying the expenses of the civil administration of the
government; an Act to increase the salary of the present Speaker of the
Assembly, and to remunerate the present Speaker for past services,
granting £800 as four years' additional salary, and, in future, £200 to
be paid annually, in addition to the former annual payment of £200; an
Act regulating the trade between the United States and the province,
permitting the Governor to make regulations as to duties, but not
prohibiting the admission of wheat, flour, peas, beans, oats, barley,
and all other articles of provision and travellers' baggage; an Act to
continue for a limited time the provisional agreement entered into
between Upper and Lower Canada, relative to duties; an Act
appropriating £155 7s. 3d., to remunerate Elizabeth Wright, whose
husband was a tailor, for militia clothing; an Act appropriating £1,000
as an encouragement for the cultivation of hemp; an Act regulating the
police within the town of Kingston; an Act granting to His Majesty
duties on licences to hawkers, pedlars, and petty chapmen, and other
trading persons; £10 to be the cost of a license to a person travelling
on foot; £10 for every horse, ass, mule, or other beast of burden; £5
for every other beast; £50 for a decked vessel; £40 for every boat; and
for every non-resident of the province £50 a year; an Act providing a
salary of £500 a year for a Provincial Agent in Great Britain, to
correspond with the Governor and with the Speakers of the Legislative
Assembly and Legislative Council, who was to be removed on addresses
from the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly; an Act granting
£6,000 to His Majesty for the use of common schools; to the Home
District £600 annually; to the District of Newcastle £400; to the
Midland District £1,000; to the District of Johnstown £600; to the
Eastern District £800; to the London District £600; to the Gore
District £600; to the Niagara District £600; to the Western District
£600; and to the Ottawa District £200; an Act granting £21,000 for the
building and repairing of bridges and for the repairing of highways; an
Act granting £1,000 to defray the expenses of any commission for
ascertaining titles to lands in the Niagara District; and an Act to
repeal and amend part of an Act for laying out and repairing the public
highways.
[31] Gourlay, page 512, vol. 2.
[32] Gourlay, page 316, vol. 2.
Parliament was again assembled on the 4th of February, 1817, by
Governor Gore, during the session of which an Act was passed providing
for the representation of the commons of the counties of Wentworth and
Halton in parliament; also an Act to establish a police in the towns of
York, Sandwich, and Amherstburgh; an Act granting to His Majesty £2,578
for the administration of justice; £900 for the Lieutenant-Governor's
Office; £737 for the Office of the Receiver General; £2,300 for the
Surveyor General's Department; £650 for the Executive Council Office;
£36 for the Crown Office; £90 for the Attorney General's Office; £400
for the Secretary's Office; £200 for the Registrar of the Province;
£620 for the Inspector General's Office; £620 for pensions to wounded
officers; £400 for four clergymen; £50 for one minister of the Gospel;
£200 for repairs to Government House; and £500 for casual and
incidental expenses; an Act to establish a market in the town of
Niagara; an Act to repeal, amend and extend the Act granting pensions
to persons disabled in the service, and to the widows and children of
persons killed in war; an Act granting £1,576 0s. 8d. for the clerks
and for the contingencies of the last session of parliament; an Act in
part repealing and in part altering and amending an Act providing for
the appointment of parish and town officers; an Act to continue the Act
making provision for certain sheriffs; and an Act to enable the
commissioner of gaol delivery and Oyer and Terminer to proceed,
although the Court of King's Bench be sitting in the Home District, for
which they are commissioned.
This parliament was prorogued suddenly and unexpectedly, on the 7th of
April, 1817. The sudden prorogation was resorted to because the
Assembly had, on the 3rd of April, resolved itself into a committee of
the whole to take into consideration the state of the province. The
propriety or expediency of preventing immigration from the United
States, was to be discussed; the management of the Post Office
establishment was to be examined into; the manner of the disposal of
the Crown and Clergy Reserves was to be looked at; and the granting
lands to the volunteer flank companies, and the incorporated militia
who served during the late war, was to be investigated. It was resolved
to present an address to the Lieutenant-Governor, requesting him to
inform the Assembly, whether any orders had been received from England,
making an allotment of lands to the volunteer and incorporated militia,
who served during the war. The Assembly further resolved that an Act
had been passed in the reign of George the Second, for naturalizing
such foreign protestants as were then or should thereafter be settled
in any of His Majesty's colonies in North America; that an Act had been
passed in the thirtieth year of the reign of George the Third, for
encouraging new settlers in His Majesty's North American colonies; and
that these Acts were expressly enacted for facilitating and encouraging
the settlement of His Majesty's American dominions.
The good resolutions of the Assembly were, however, frustrated by His
Excellency the Governor, who, having assented to several bills, and
reserved for His Majesty's pleasure, a bill for a Bank and another to
enable creditors to sue joint debtors separately, summoned the Commons
to the Bar of the Legislative Council, and thus addressed the
Parliament:--The session of the legislature has been protracted by an
unusual interruption of business at its commencement and your longer
absence from your respective avocations must be too great a sacrifice
for the objects which may remain to occupy your attention. I come to
close the session and so permit you to return home. In accepting the
supply for defraying the deficiency of the funds which have hitherto
served to meet the charges of the administration of justice, and
support of the civil government of this province, I have great
satisfaction in acknowledging the readiness manifested to meet this
exigence.
In this session of parliament, Mr. James Durand, a member of the
Assembly, for Wentworth, was accused of having issued an address to his
free and independent electors, which was a libel upon the
Lieutenant-Governor, and a gross, false, and malicious libel on the
members of the late House of Assembly. Mr. Durand admitted the
publication of the address, but denied that he had spoken
disrespectfully of the Governor, and asserted, on his honor, that he
never had any intention of doing so. If any gentleman, however,
believed that he had abused him, whether intentionally or
unintentionally, he was prepared to give him that satisfaction which
was due from one gentleman to another. Mr. Nichol was surprised that
any gentleman should have made an appeal to the laws of honor. The
people of Wentworth had sent Mr. Durand to parliament to be their
legislator, not their gladiator. Mr. Jones adduced authority from
Blackstone to prove the right of the House to enquire into the
libel--to prevent bloodshed. Mr. Durand contended that the House had no
authority to try him, and even if it had, the jury should be impartial,
whereas several members of the House felt themselves to be implicated
in the charge against him. Mr. Nichol considered that honour demanded
that all the members should remain to decide the question. Mr. Durand
protested against his accuser, and spoke flatteringly of the Governor,
whom he had not calumniated. Mr. Speaker rose to say that no
explanation to the House would do away with the malice of the
publication. The paper was before the world, which would draw its own
inferences. He thought there was no doubt about its being a libel on
the Lieutenant-Governor and the Honorable the Legislative Council, but
he was not prepared to say how far the House could take cognizance of a
libel against any former House of Parliament. A false, scandalous and
malicious libel was accordingly reported. Mr. Nichol moved for Mr.
Durand's committal to gaol. Mr. McNabb moved in amendment, that Mr.
Durand be required to appear at the Bar of the House and apologize, the
apology to be published in the _Upper Canada Gazette_, _St. Catherines
Spectator_, and the _Montreal Herald_, which amendment was lost by a
majority of three against it. The original motion was carried by the
same majority, when Mr. Nichol moved for the commitment of James
Durand, Esquire, to the common gaol of the district, during the
session, which was carried in the affirmative, by a majority of four!
His Excellency, Francis Gore, soon after this returned to England, and
was prosecuted in London, by the Surveyor-General of Upper Canada, whom
he had deprived of office maliciously and without cause. The Court in
London gave Mr. Wyatt, as plaintiff, damages to the amount of
£300.[33]. Governor Gore was succeeded in the administration of Upper
Canada, by the Honorable Samuel Smith, on the 11th of June, 1817. The
Little Pedlington proceedings of the Upper Canada parliament, during
this reign, are hardly worthy of remark. The same spirit still
continued to actuate both Council and Assembly, and the Governor lorded
it over both. The voice of the people was remarkable for nothing but
its weakness.
[33] It is not a little curious that the judge in summing up the
evidence in this case speaks of Upper Canada being an island.
Sir John Sherbrooke met the parliament of Lower Canada again on the 7th
of January, 1818. He informed the Houses that he had distributed the
seed wheat and other grain, for which a large sum had been voted during
the previous session, so immediately that the relief had been attended
with the happiest consequences. He had been commanded by the Regent to
call upon the provincial legislature to vote the sums necessary for the
ordinary expenditure of the province. He would lay before the Assembly
an estimate of the sums required. He would also submit the accounts of
the revenue and expenditure for the past year. And he anticipated a
continuance of that loyalty and zeal which had prompted the Assembly to
offer to meet the expenses of the government. The Assembly were proud
that their offer had been accepted. The public was satisfied that the
settlement of the civil list, and the control of the public
expenditure, should rest with the Assembly, and the reply to the speech
from the throne was a simple affirmative. Sir John Sherbrooke had
informed Lord Bathurst that the permanent expenditure actually exceeded
the revenue by nearly the sum of £19,000 a year; and that there was a
debt due to the provincial chest from the imperial treasury of
£120,000. The salaries of the clergy and pensioners never had been laid
before the Assembly, but had been thrown into a separate list, and
although paid in the first instance out of the civil chest had,
nevertheless, invariably been provided for out of the extraordinaries
of the army. He further informed the secretary for the colonies that,
in his opinion, it was desirable that the civil list should be wholly
provided for by the province. Lord Bathurst did not fail to take into
consideration the accumulation, during four years, of the annual excess
of the actual expenditure, beyond the appropriated revenue of each
year. He quite concurred in the opinion expressed by Sir John
Sherbrooke, that the annual settlement of the accounts of the province
and the government at home would have been at once the most expedient
course and most likely to prevent any interruption of a mutual good
understanding. Short accounts make long friends. As related to the
past, it was a question whether the legislature might not fairly be
considered as having sanctioned the appropriation, the extra
appropriation of the funds, by not objecting to it, when submitted to
their notice, or whether any further measures were required for
legalizing the appropriation itself, or for repaying the debt, which,
under other circumstances, might be considered due to the province.
With respect to some part of the expenditure, the silence of the
legislature must be interpreted into an approbation of it, for they
could not but think themselves bound to make good the deficiency of the
funds appropriated by themselves to specific objects, such as the
charge for the Trinity House, and the payment of the officers of the
legislature, which had uniformly exceeded the funds raised under the
Imperial Acts. He saw no objection to considering the silent admission
of the accounts, submitted to them, as an implied approbation of the
accounts themselves, and of the manner in which they had been
discharged. But with respect to the future, he considered it advisable
that the legislature should be annually called upon to vote all the
sums required for the annual expenditure of the province. The House was
to be prepared for the probable contingency of voting that part of the
civil list which provided for the stipends of the Roman Catholic
Clergy, and omitting the other part which had reference to the
Protestant establishment. The Governor in such case was to use every
means in his power to prevent a partial provision from passing the
Upper House, and if it did pass there, he was to withhold his assent.
He called the Governor's attention to the necessity of vigilantly
watching and guarding against any assumption, on the part of the
Legislative Assembly, of a power to dispose of money, without the
concurrence of the other branch of the legislature. This great
concession, with which every body was so pleased, was due to the
sagacity of Sir John Sherbrooke. He saw how easily it was to be turned
to favorable account. He saw that the Assembly would be extraordinarily
well pleased; and he further saw that the full power of the public
chest was all that the Assembly required to be fully in the power of
the government. In a word, they only needed the money power to corrupt
and to be corrupted.
An address to the Governor was next adopted, requesting His Excellency
to state whether or not the Prince Regent had forwarded to him
instructions concerning the impeachment of the Honorable Louis Charles
Foucher, one of the Judges of the King's Bench. Sir John Sherbrooke had
had a conversation with Mr. Ryland on the subject. The Clerk of the
Executive Council, and member of the Legislative Council, had even put
his opinion in writing, respecting the mode in which it might be most
advisable to carry into execution the instructions contained in the
despatch of Lord Bathurst, dated on the 5th of July, 1817. He was
strongly of opinion that the advice given to Sir John to convey a
judicial power to the Legislative Council, by commission, was founded
in error. The House of Assembly had acquired, by dint of perseverance,
and a gradual exercise of privilege, during a period of six and twenty
years, some of the most important privileges that attached to the House
of Commons, one of which was the power of preferring impeachments
against such public officers of the Crown in the colony as they might
deem deserving of punishment or removal from office; and, as a
counterbalancing influence, in the case of Mr. Justice Foucher, and in
all similar cases of impeachment by the Assembly, the adjudication of
the charges preferred against the party accused was to be left to the
Legislative Council, it being added to the instruction, as a reason for
the concession, that the party accused could sustain but little injury
from a temporary suspension, while, if ultimately pronounced guilty,
the advantage of an immediate suspension was unquestionable. Mr. Ryland
conceived that no other power or privilege was, however, intended to be
conveyed by the despatch to the Legislative Council than that of
sitting, as grand jurors of the province, upon accusations brought by
the Assembly against the public servants of the Crown, and that if the
charges brought by the Lower House were considered by the Council as
valid, His Majesty would then exercise the Royal Prerogative, either by
suspending from office or dismissing from his service the party
accused. He was strongly of opinion that a communication of the
substance of that despatch by a _solemn_ message to both Houses of
the Provincial Parliament, would be the utmost that either House could
reasonably require to enable them to proceed to a final adjudication,
as far as the Crown intended they should proceed, upon accusations
preferred against individuals by the Assembly. He was astonished at the
line of argument adopted before His Excellency for the purpose of
forcing an analogy between the Court of the Lord High Steward of
England and that which it was proposed to establish in Canada. The High
Court of Parliament took cognizance only of crimes committed by Peers
of the realm, upon indictments previously found in the inferior Courts.
He contended that Sir John Sherbrooke was not empowered to constitute
any tribunal but for the trial of offences recognised as such by
statute or common Law. If Mr. Justice Foucher was accused of any such
offence, the ordinary tribunals of the country could take cognizance of
it and inflict punishment. Mr. Ryland was deeply impressed with the
idea that the longer or shorter continuance of the province as an
appendage to the British empire would be dependent on the events of the
present or coming session of parliament. Mr. Ryland did not relish the
idea of the Legislative Council being deprived of its _constitutional
character_ by the supposition even that it might be compelled to
adopt a course of proceeding contrary to its own judgment. He thought
that the Legislative Council ought to be made parties to any accusation
adduced against a public officer by arrangement. There was no precedent
for a commission, and indeed, Mr. Ryland was in every way opposed to
the plan of leaving to the Legislative Council the adjudication of
charges preferred against public officers by the Assembly. Sir John
Sherbrooke could not understand the reasoning of Mr. Ryland. He agreed
with the Clerk of the Executive Council that a great change was to be
brought about in the system of the provincial government, especially
with respect to its finance; but, when it was considered that the
mother country was "at present" struggling with pecuniary
embarrassments, it was not surprising that ministers should call upon
the colonies to contribute to their own support. It was very obvious
that, ever since the present constitution had been given to Lower
Canada, the House of Assembly had been gradually obtaining an increase
of power, whilst the Legislative Council remained in _statu quo_.
The proper balance had consequently been lost and he knew of no better
mode of giving new weight and importance to the Upper House than the
measure devised by the Prince Regent that as often as the House of
Assembly should impeach, the Legislative Council should adjudicate upon
the case, and the Council having declared that they had not the power
to do so, some more formal instrument than a letter from the Secretary
of State to the Governor, to invest the Council with the necessary
authority to act, would be required. To the address of the Assembly an
answer was given in a message to both Houses. The message intimated
that the adjudication of impeachments by the Assembly was to rest with
the Legislative Council; that the Regent trusted that the Council would
discharge the important duties which thus devolved upon them in such a
manner as to give satisfaction to all classes of people in the
province; and that the Governor, not having had instructions, as to the
manner in which the adjudications were to be conducted, would apply to
the Regent for instructions and communicate them as soon as obtained.
The House of Assembly did nothing, as the wisest course to be pursued,
and the Council, now almost raised to a level with the House of Lords,
in its own estimation, expressed its thanks in a series of resolutions
offered by Mr. Ryland, for the confidence which His Royal Highness had
reposed in it. Mr. Ryland and some other members of the Council were
most anxious to adjudicate upon Mr. Foucher's impeachment at once; but,
says the Clerk of the Council, in a letter written subsequently to
Colonel Ready, the resolutions offered by me, which would have been
adopted by a majority of the legislature, were stifled or repressed by
artful and solemn asseverations made in the House for the purpose of
inducing a belief that the state of the Governor's health was such that
a further agitation of the business might endanger his life! And so
ended the Foucher impeachment matter for a time. An Act was passed for
the incorporation of a company to construct a navigable canal, on the
Richelieu, from Chambly to St. Johns, a work subsequently undertaken
and completed by the province, on a very inadequate scale, inasmuch as
the canal was only sufficiently large for batteaux, instead of being of
a size which would have permitted steamboat communication between
Quebec, _via_ Sorel, and the towns on Lake Champlain. The
estimates for the civil list amounting to £73,646, were voted after a
debate of a week; a night watch and night lights were provided for in
Montreal and Quebec; an Act was passed for the encouragement of
agriculture, and commissioners appointed to improve the communication,
by water, between Upper and Lower Canada; an attempt was made to
indemnify the members of the Assembly; and the public accounts being
submitted, the revenue for 1817 appeared to have been £108,925
currency, and the expenditure £116,920 sterling, including £19,426
owing to Upper Canada for duties in 1816. The expenses of the
legislature amounted to £16,173, including £3,945 for books purchased
for the library of the Assembly.
Sir John Sherbrooke, was so very ill that he found himself unable to go
down to the Council Chamber to prorogue the parliament. He was,
therefore, waited upon by the members of both Houses, at the Castle of
St. Lewis, and there the prorogation took place _sans cérémonie_.
Business had been rather brisk this year, but out of parliament, and
away from St. Peter street, there was no stir of any kind. The
newspapers contented themselves with retailing news from the continent
of Europe, six months old, and the inhabitants of town and country
unconcernedly watched the rising and the setting of the sun, or
endeavored, as an antidote to the _tedium vitæ_, to count the
number of the stars at night. Three hundred and thirty-four vessels of
76,559 tons burthen, including one vessel built at Quebec, cleared at
the port, and a duty of 2-1/2 per centum was levied on goods, wares,
and merchandise, amounting to £672,876. There was one matter, which,
however, created a little talk about town. Mrs. Montgomery, widow of
the late General Montgomery, who fell on the night of the 31st of
December, 1775, while leading on a storming party of Americans at the
_Près-de-Ville_, Quebec, applied to Sir John Sherbrooke for the
remains of her husband, which had been buried somewhere in the
neighborhood of a powder magazine. The request was complied with. On
the 16th of June, the exhumation of the body, in the presence of Major
Freer, who was on the staff of the Governor, of Major Livingston, a
near relative to Mrs. Montgomery, and of some other spectators, took
place under the direction of Mr. James Thomson, of the Royal Engineer
Department, one of the followers of General Wolfe, who forty-two years
previously to the application for the body had buried the General with
his two Aides-de-Camp, Cheeseman and McPherson, beside him, where the
military prison, near St. Lewis Gate, now stands.
Sir John Sherbrooke was, at his own request, recalled. His health had
been indifferent for some time. He was relieved of his government soon
after he had requested to be so by His Grace the Duke of Richmond. Sir
John sailed for England on the 12th of August, with his character
either in a military or civil point of view untarnished. Richmond,
Lennox and Aubigny, the new Governor-in-Chief, had been Lord Lieutenant
General of Ireland. His hereditary rank, his previous position, as well
as his present station obtained for him a consideration greater than
any mere military knight could reasonably look for. He was accompanied
by Major-General Sir Peregrine Maitland, K.C.B., his son-in-law
appointed to the Lieutenant-Governorship of Upper Canada. His Grace was
looked upon indeed as a semi-deity. But the Duke was exceedingly poor,
and perhaps owed his own appointment as well as that of his son-in-law,
as much to the influence of the Duke of Wellington, who was his friend,
as to his own. He summoned the legislature of Canada together on the
12th of January, 1819, but merely intimated that the Queen had died,
and adjourned the public business, out of respect to Her Majesty's
memory, until the 22nd of the month. The opening speech on that day was
a wretched affair. The Duke did not recommend anything beyond a
provision for the expenses of the civil government, which the illness
of Sir John Sherbrooke had prevented him from completing; and the reply
to his Grace was as tame as His Grace's speech. It was very like two
individuals in meeting, saluting each other with the words--"good
morning, Sir,"--"a good morning to you, Sir,"--"_shalom elachem_,"
as the Jew has it, to be returned with "_alaichem shalom_," "peace
be unto you,"--"with you be peace." His Grace was not slow in
submitting the estimates of the expenses of the civil government for
the year 1819. Instead of £73,646 currency, as before, the estimate was
now £81,432. The House could not understand the sudden increase. Was it
necessary to pay £15,000 extra for a Duke? That was gracious goodness
to an appreciable extent! The estimate was referred to a select
committee, who were to make as ostensible as possible the necessity for
the increased demand, and if that could not be done, to say why not.
The committee reported that the interests of the country would best be
served by making an unqualified reduction of those sinecures and
pensions, which, in all countries had been considered the reward of
iniquities, and the encouragement of vice, and which had been and still
were subjects of complaint in England, and would, in Canada, lead to
corruption, and that too while the estimates contained the item of
£8,000 sterling a year, to be placed at the disposal of His Majesty's
representative, for rewarding provincial services, and for providing
for old and reduced servants of the government and others. Mr. Ryland
had already been in correspondence with the Duke's Secretary, Colonel
Ready, and hence the provision in the civil list for decayed servants
of the government. When this manoeuvre failed, an attempt was made to
obtain a permanent provision for the civil government of the province,
during the reign of the sovereign, and that failing, another was made
to vote the civil list money _en bloc_; but the Assembly would
only listen to one proposition, however democratic it might be, and
that was to vote the civil list annually, item by item, so that the
House might increase or diminish particular salaries at will. The
Assembly then went through the civil list, affixing to each office a
salary, and passing over without any appropriation such offices as were
either positive sinecures or little else. A bill was introduced and
carried through the third reading, granting to offices particularly
specified, particular salaries. It was sent to the Legislative Council
for concurrence, and was there at once rejected. The Council looked
upon the mode adopted by the bill of granting a supply to His Majesty
as unprecedented and unconstitutional, as an assumption of the
prerogative of the Crown, as calculated to prescribe to the Crown the
number and description of its servants, and as certain to make the
Crown officers dependent on an elective body, whereby they might be
made instrumental in overthrowing the Crown itself. Thus was the civil
list bill lost. A company was incorporated to construct a canal between
Montreal and Lachine. £3,000 was appropriated towards the apportionment
of lands to the militia who had served during the war; and Pierre
Bedard, Esquire, Judge for the District of Three Rivers, was impeached
by Mr. C. R. Ogden. Mr. Ogden accused Bedard of prostituting his
judicial authority to the gratification of personal malice; of tyranny;
of imposing fines upon his enemies on pretence of punishing contempts
of Courts; of uttering expressions derogatory to the other judges of
the Court in which he sat; of having accused the barristers of Three
Rivers frequently of high breaches of moral and professional rectitude;
of having wickedly imprisoned in the common gaol of Three Rivers,
Charles Richard Ogden, Esquire, then and still being His Majesty's
Counsel for the said district, for an alleged libel and contempt
against the provincial Court, in which Mr. Bedard was the judge; for
having illegally fined Pierre Vezina, Esquire, an advocate practicing
in Court, ten shillings, for pretended contemptuous conduct; and for
having grossly and unjustifiably attacked the character of Joseph de
Tonnancour, a barrister. The articles of impeachment were referred to a
committee which reported in favor of the judge, and the House did not,
therefore, impeach him.
While this was going on a message was received from His Grace the
Governor-in-Chief, acquainting the members of the Legislative Council
that the commands of the Prince Regent had been received respecting the
proceedings of the Assembly against Mr. Foucher. The Regent directed
that the Assembly, previous to any ulterior proceeding, should lay
before the Governor-in-Chief such documentary evidence as they might
consider adequate to support the charges which they had brought against
Mr. Justice Foucher, and that copies of such charges, of such
documentary evidence, and of the examination already taken and annexed
to the charges should be then transmitted by His Grace the
Governor-in-Chief to Mr. Justice Foucher for his answer and defence,
which answer and defence would be submitted to the Assembly for their
reply, when the whole of the documents would be submitted to the Regent
for such further course as the case might require. The Legislative
Council were quite shocked at this message. They had been told that
they might adjudicate upon cases of impeachment, and now it was
commanded that they should gather evidence and send it to the Regent
for adjudication. The Council dutifully remonstrated, feeling it due to
itself to state to His Grace that at the time of receiving the late
Governor's message it was prevented from taking more upon itself than
to return its humble thanks for the "decision" of His Royal Highness
the Prince Regent, on the subject of its address of the 3rd of March,
1817, by representations made in the Council, that the state of His
Excellency's health was such that a further agitation of the business
at the moment might endanger his life. But the House confidently relied
on the communication, contained in the message, that the "arrangement"
therein announced with respect to the adjudication of impeachments by
the Council was _final_. If representations had subsequently been
made tending to withdraw from the Council the favor and confidence of
the Crown, all doubt would be removed by the communication which they
solicited from His Excellency as to the Royal intervention, and the
House would finally be able, with His Grace's powerful support, to
secure the full and free exercise of a privilege, without which the
balance of an admirable constitution would be destroyed, and the second
estate of the provincial legislature be reduced to insignificance and
contempt. The answer to this address was most emphatic. Mr. Justice
Foucher was ordered to resume his functions as a Judge of the Court of
King's Bench, at Montreal; and the Duke turning from the Council, drew
the attention of the Assembly to the necessity which existed for a
reform in the judicature. The Assembly had indeed already expressed an
opinion to the effect that it was necessary for the independence of the
judges that they should not be withdrawn from their judicial duties by
holding any other offices in the civil administration of the
government. The House of Assembly paid very little heed, however, to
the recommendation of the Duke. There was, indeed, no ministry in the
confidence of the majority to originate any business in the Lower
House, and for one of a minority, the creature of the government in the
Assembly, and without the shadow of influence in it, to take the matter
up, would have been worse than useless. The Lower House was, indeed,
like a ship without a helm. It was uncontrollable. All that a governor
could do was to look upon the most popular man in the Assembly, as if
he were a minister of State, and govern in such a manner as to suit his
views. The expediency of erecting the Eastern Townships into a judicial
district had been represented to the Assembly at its previous session.
It was considered a denial of justice to require people situated as the
Eastern Township farmers were, in a new and rather far off country,
when the want of good roads is considered, to sue and be sued in the
Courts of Montreal, Three Rivers, or Quebec. But they stirred not. They
merely appointed a committee to draw up a statement of the receipts of
the provincial revenue of the Crown, and of the disbursements by the
Receiver General from the date of the constitution to 1819; and also a
statement of all the appropriations made by the legislature, and of the
amount paid upon each of them by the Receiver General, the balance to
be stated and the monies to be counted. There was evidently a suspicion
in the minds of some of the members of the Assembly that the National
Bank had been paying interest out of the new deposits and that the
managers were living in the same style of novelty. However that may
have been, the business of legislation was now concluded, and His Grace
the Duke of Richmond, Lennox and Aubigny, Governor-in-Chief of Canada,
and Captain General of British North America, came down to the
Legislative Chambers in State. He took his seat upon the throne
quickly. He seemed to speak to his attendants testily. He sent for the
Commons impatiently. And he looked sternly. Colonel Ready, as soon as
the Commons had appeared, handed His Excellency, who was not
particularly gracious, a paper to read. "Gentlemen of the Legislative
Council," were the first words uttered, and all eyes were upon the
Duke. "_You_ have not disappointed my hopes. I thank you for your
zeal and alacrity. Gentlemen of the Assembly:--It is with deep concern
that I cannot thank you in connection with the result of your labors
and of the principles upon which they rest. You proceeded to vote a
part of the sum required for the expenses of 1819, but the bill of
appropriation which you prepared was founded upon such principles that
it had been most constitutionally rejected by the Upper House, and so
the government has been left without the supplies necessary for the
support of the civil administration for the ensuing year,
notwithstanding the voluntary offer given to the King in 1810." His
Grace had recommended by special message the consideration of the
Judicature Act so that it might be amended, and the Assembly had not
even proceeded with it so far as to enable the Governor-in-Chief to
transmit the result of the parliamentary proceedings to the King's
ministers, with the view of obtaining the opinions and assistance of
the law officers of the Crown in England. He did trust, therefore, that
at an early day in the next session the matter would be proceeded with.
He had assented to the militia bill with reluctance. It was not
necessary that the officers should be natives of the province. There
were many half-pay officers of the army who were much better fitted for
holding commissions in the militia than wealthy _habitants_ were;
and there were clerks, and other enterprising young men about cities
and towns, who, on any emergency, were equally as well adapted for
officers of militia as any _seigneur_ whatever. The population of
the province afforded excellent materials for a defensive army, but a
general and proper selection of officers was necessary to make it
formidable to an active and enterprising enemy. The selection of
officers must only belong to the executive power. This speech did not
raise the Duke of Richmond in the estimation of the Commons of Canada.
Some were inclined to laugh at His Excellency, while not a few were
offended. His Grace had been evidently tampered with. He was not looked
upon as a free agent. While perfectly willing to defray the expenses of
the civil administration, the Commons felt no disposition to build up a
pension list or to be in any way burthened with life annuities to
officers of the imperial army, for whom the imperial government was
bound to provide. All the officers required in the civil government of
the country, the Commons were prepared amply to remunerate, but they
were not at all prepared to award salaries for the perpetuation of
sinecure offices, the holders of which had never set a foot in the
country. The Commons, in a word, desired to have some control over the
government itself, as, in a free country all power should proceed from
the people. This was denied to them. They were required to do whatever
the government desired, and refusing obedience, they were castigated,
castigated by the representative of the sovereign of a free country, of
which Canada formed a part. In spite of this rugged mode of governing,
the country was nevertheless, making progress. Business was brisk. The
population was rapidly increasing. A steamer had been placed on the
Ottawa. The Rideau Canal to connect the Ottawa with Lake Ontario, at
Kingston, had been commenced, at the expense of the imperial
government, as a military work. Quebec contained 2,008 houses, and a
population of 15,257 souls, of whom 11,991 were Roman Catholics, and
3,266 were Protestants. Four new vessels had been built at Quebec in
the course of the past year, and 409 vessels of 94,657 tons of shipping
had been cleared at the port of Quebec, while merchandise to the amount
of £772,373 had been imported. The gross revenue amounted to £58,332
sterling for Lower Canada, and £18,673 sterling for Upper Canada. The
expenditure amounted to £127,379 sterling, including £9,720 for the
purchase of seed wheat in 1817; £45,270 in payment of army bills:
£14,988, the fifth of the whole duties collected for 1817 and due to
Upper Canada, by agreement. The cost of mere legislation was this year
£13,420 currency. In 1819, from the opening of the navigation to the
12th of October, 612 vessels had arrived, and 12,434 immigrants had
come to enrich the country by their labor and benefit trade by their
necessities.
In the Lower Province two Banks had already been established; there was
now one in operation at Kingston, in Upper Canada. It is not a little
curious, however, that when efforts were first made to establish the
Kingston Bank the current of public opinion set so strongly against the
measure, that although supported by men of intelligence and
respectability, it was abandoned without the presentation of petitions
to the legislature. A bill, as may have already been perceived, was,
nevertheless, passed, for the incorporation of the bank, but reserved
for His Majesty's pleasure by Governor Gore. The roads, in Upper
Canada, were at this period so indifferent that there were but few
common carriages, while the inns were so indifferent that in the summer
season travelling was for the most part accomplished by water. Indeed
the facilities afforded by water for travelling in some very
considerable degree impeded the improvement of the roads, between towns
situated very far apart.
Sir Peregrine Maitland having assumed the government of Upper Canada,
met the parliament of that province, for the first time, on the 12th of
October, 1818. His "maiden" speech from the throne was noticeable for
the remark that parliament would feel a just indignation at the
attempts which had been made to excite discontent and to organize
sedition, accompanied by the hint and suggestion that should it appear
to parliament that a convention of delegates could not exist without
danger to the constitution, in framing a law of prevention,
parliamentary wisdom would be careful that it should not unwarily
trespass on that sacred right of the subject to seek a redress of his
grievances by petition. Mr. Robert Gourlay, of Craigrothie, Fifeshire,
in Scotland, had emigrated to Upper Canada, with the view of settling
himself and family and indeed of making a settlement in some suitable
spot. Mr. Guthrie had peculiar ideas with regard to emigration, free
trade, and liberty of speech. He was a democrat, but not, by any means,
a republican. He was not politically connected with either Cobbett or
Hunt, although he seems to have known both of these gentlemen. He was
not in the habit of attending such meetings as those that were held at
Spa-fields and were then termed "radical" meetings, although he had
been at a meeting in Spa-fields. He had been both in Ireland and in the
United States, but he was neither an Irish rebel nor an American
revolutionist. He had only a bee in his bonnet, which has since buzzed
in the bonnets of a very great number of men, whose loyalty or
patriotism has not been even doubted, and, who, consequently, have
never been marked "dangerous" by a colonial Justice of the Peace. Mr.
Guthrie conceived that Canada was capable of absorbing about 50,000 of
the poor of England, Ireland, and Scotland, annually; that a land tax
was preferable to taxes on trade and manufactures, especially in a new
country; that there should be three description of roads--provincial,
district, and township; that it would be advantageous to connect the
lakes of the St. Lawrence together, and permit the free navigation of
the Canadian inland waters from Lake Superior to the sea; that free
trade should exist; and that there should be no hindrance to the
expression of public opinion, however offensive to the authorities such
public opinion might be. Mr. Guthrie arrived in Canada in the summer of
1817, and after looking around him, determined upon establishing
himself as a land agent. He had, in truth, conceived schemes for a
grand system of emigration, and set about obtaining statistics with the
view of setting forth the capabilities of the country to the people of
England. He addressed the landowners of Upper Canada for information.
He sent circulars to the people, but unfortunately made allusion to the
able resolutions brought forward at the close of the last session of
the provincial parliament. He brought the matter before the parliament
itself, but that body having been suddenly prorogued, by Governor Gore,
the idea of a convention suggested itself to Mr. Gourlay. The Executive
of Upper Canada took alarm. The desire, for a knowledge of the
condition, circumstances, and requirements of the townships and
districts, was in connection with some radical schemes for upsetting
British authority in the Canadas. Mr. Guthrie was misrepresented and,
with the view of creating a general panic, he was arrested.
Nevertheless, deputies were chosen and a convention was held at York.
In this convention the political restraints to which the colonists were
liable were fully discussed. There was undoubted mismanagement on the
part of the executive government, and Gourlay advised a petition to the
Prince Regent, soliciting the appointment of a commission from England
to make enquiries. Such a proposal could not fail to give offence.
Gourlay was arrested and carried before the most virulent of his
political enemies. He was tried and twice acquitted, but the _London
Courier_, of the 8th of July, 1818, arrived, in which he was alluded
to as "one of the worthies, who had _escaped_ after the
disgraceful proceedings of Spa-fields." That was enough. Mr. Gourlay
was brought before a magistrate, Mr. Dickson, M.P. "Do you know Mr.
Cobbett?" asked the magistrate. "Yes," answered the culprit. "Do you
know Mr. Hunt?" "Yes." "Were you at Spa-fields?" "Yes." "Were you ever
in Ireland?" "Yes." "Were you lately in the Lower Province?" "Yes."
"Were you lately in the United States?" "Yes." "Was it you that wrote
the article in the _Spectator_, headed "Gagged, gagged by jingo?""
"It was." "Then," said Mr. Dickson to his fellow magistrates, "it is my
opinion that Mr. Gourlay is a man of desperate fortune, and would stick
at nothing to raise insurrection in the province." He was committed to
gaol charged with treasonable practices! There was then, indeed, no
real liberty in the province, and Mr. Gourlay had made use of words
which only could be used safely in England. The magistracy were
completely in the hands of the Executive Council, and a considerable
number of both Houses were inclined to do whatever they were ordered.
Indeed there were few politicians in the country, politics not having
yet become a trade. The Commons replied to Sir Peregrine Maitland just
as he wished. They were convinced that a convention of delegates could
not exist without danger to the constitution. Nay, they even went
further, and on the 19th of October, presented an address expressing
just indignation at the systematic attempts that had been made to
excite discontent and organize sedition in the province, and they
deeply regretted that the designs of one man should have succeeded in
drawing into the support of his vile machinations so many honest men,
and loyal subjects of His Majesty. A bill was passed indeed to prevent
the organization of persons, who might degrade the character of the
province, and after assenting to several bills Sir Peregrine Maitland
closed the session by thanking parliament for the seasonable aid of "An
Act for preventing certain meetings within the province." He conceived
that if the people were aggrieved they could send a petition to the
foot of the throne. The Surveyor General's Department was to be
abolished. He was proud of the sentiments expressed by the House of
Assembly and would send them to His Majesty's government. Had the
public mind been tranquil, he would have brought before the Houses a
few objects of general importance, one of which was a remedy for the
unequal pressure of the road laws. Mr. Gourlay was retained in gaol,
then ordered to leave the province, and, on refusing to go, was tried
for disobeying an Act of parliament. He was forcibly ejected from the
province, and it was not until 1847 that the province of Canada offered
him redress in the shape of a pension of some fifty pounds a year, Mr.
Gourlay being then resident in Scotland. Governor Maitland again met
the parliament of Upper Canada on the 7th of June, 1819. He informed
the parliament that the Queen had closed a long life, illustrious for
the exemplary discharge of every public and private duty; that the
Regent had authorised the governors of both Canadas to bestow lands on
certain of the provincial army and militia, "which served" during the
late war; that recent purchases from the natives had been so far
effected, as would enable him to set apart tracts in the several
districts, to accommodate such of their respective inhabitants as were
within the limits of the royal instruction; but that he (Governor
Maitland) did not consider himself justified in extending that mark of
approbation to any of the individuals, who composed the late convention
of delegates, the proceedings of which were properly the subject of
very severe parliamentary animadversion. The royal assent had been
given to the bill for the establishment of a provincial bank, but, from
some delay, it did not arrive in time for promulgation, within the
period limited by law; the form of an enactment would, therefore, be
necessary to render it available. He was deeply impressed with the
necessity of an amendment to the road law; neglected grants of an early
day were becoming a serious evil. The exemption of any land belonging
to individuals, from the operation of the assessment law, was found to
be detrimental: a new bill so modified as to protect the land from sale
by distress until due notice could be given to the proprietors would
receive His Majesty's assent. The public accounts would be laid before
the House of Assembly with the estimates for the ensuing year. The
growth of the province in population and wealth, justified a reasonable
expectation that the measures adopted to encourage it would receive the
fullest support: and the expediency of affording the new settlers,
situated remotely from the great lakes and rivers, an easy approach to
market was apparent, and with other matters would, he hoped, be
attended to. The speech in reply was satisfactory, but there was an
under current of public opinion, not quite so satisfactory. It was
considered that Governor Maitland had exceeded his authority in
withholding in part that which the Regent had instructed him not to
withhold at all. Conventions were not illegal. The right to meet and
discuss public measures had never been called in question. The
convention was composed of men who were altogether loyal. To upset the
government of the province or to get rid of imperial authority was
never contemplated. All that the members of convention desired was the
repeal of several grievances, and they meant only to petition the
Regent for their removal. The executive influence in the legislature
was overwhelming and mischievous. The governor had not only the
disposal of every civil office, and of every civil and military
commission, but of land to a boundless extent. That influence had been
repeatedly misapplied. The lamentable effects of such a misapplication
of influence had been too frequently witnessed. Public duty was
neglected. The whole face of the country was pining with disease.
Nature was everywhere struggling with misrule. And civilization itself
was on the decline. In Upper Canada the image and transcript of the
British constitution was now only reflected by Major-General Sir
Peregrine Maitland, and five executive councillors. Legislation was
embraced in a governor's speech from the throne.
About the time of the prorogation of the session, His Grace, the Duke
of Richmond, came to Upper Canada, on a tour of inspection. His Grace
and his son-in-law went to Niagara together. Important internal
improvements were contemplated, and the two governors were desirous of
ascertaining how they might be effected. The Duke, after a short stay
in Upper Canada, bade farewell to his relative, and, with Colonel
Ready, his secretary, was on his way to Quebec, when, somewhere between
Kingston and Montreal, he became seriously ill. It is not very certain
what ailed him. He was said to have been bitten by a fox. However, he
died, in a few hours, of excruciating suffering. He supported, for the
brief period, a disease, supposed to be hydrophobia, with undaunted
constancy, and yielded up his spirit on the 28th of August, 1819. His
remains were brought to Quebec, and there interred with great pomp and
ceremony, beneath the altar of the Church of England Cathedral, but as
yet no monument has been erected to his memory.
The administration of the government of the province of Lower Canada
was, on the death of the Duke of Richmond, assumed by the senior member
of the Executive Council, Mr. Monk, and President Monk issued his
proclamation to that effect, on the 20th of September. He summoned the
legislature to meet for the despatch of business on the 21st of
February, 1820. Mr. Monk had, however, hardly assumed the government
when Sir Peregrine Maitland arrived in Quebec, from Upper Canada, to
take the administration of affairs into his hands, according to
instructions which, on his appointment to the Lieutenant-Governorship
of Upper Canada, he had received from the imperial government. He did
not stay long. He merely advised Mr. Monk, whom he left in charge of
the government, and on the 9th of February he set out again for Upper
Canada, to dissolve the parliament. The existing parliament had been
very refractory and had been admonished even by the late
Governor-in-Chief. The Parliament was dissolved and writs for an
election, returnable on the 11th of April, issued. Gaspé being very
remotely situated was an exception. The Gaspé writ was not returnable
until the 1st of June. Nothing was gained to the administration by the
resort to dissolution. The new parliament was even more hostile to the
government than the old one. The people approved of the course pursued
by the late Assembly in the matter of the civil list and indeed
approved of their proceedings generally. Sir Peregrine returned to
Quebec on the 17th of March, after he had prorogued the parliament of
Upper Canada, and having assumed the management of the public business,
he convened the parliament on the 11th of April, the very day on which
the writs were returnable, Gaspé only excepted. He opened the House
with a speech remarkable for nothing but its brevity. Mr. Papineau was
re-elected Speaker and the choice approved of. But this was no sooner
done than the Assembly found themselves incompetent for the transaction
of business. The House must, by law, consist of fifty members, and only
forty-nine had been returned. The Gaspé writ was not returnable until
the 1st of June. There was no House. Business could not legally be
carried on. A message came down from the Governor recommending the
renewal of certain Acts of the legislature. The House paid no attention
to the message. The House at last resolved that it could do no
business. The twelve months within which a session was necessary would
expire on the 24th of April, and there could be no return of the Gaspé
writ until the 1st of June. The Governor was informed of his "fix," but
was by no means pleased. He did not believe in such nonsense as the
unavoidable non-return of a single member being a matter of such
importance as the Assembly alleged. He begged that they would go on
with the public business. The House would not budge. A message came
from the Legislative Council, and the messenger knocked, but the door
of the Assembly remained closed. The government had dissolved the
parliament stupidly and the parliament meant stupidly to dissolve the
government. It was the 24th of April when the news of the death of King
George the Third reached Quebec, by way of New York, when the
Administrator was offered an excuse for another dissolution, by which
the accident threatened by the previous dissolution could be escaped.
Parliament was dissolved, during the firing of minute guns and the
tolling of bells; and a new king was proclaimed by the sheriff, after a
salute of 100 guns had been fired, on the Place d'Armes, in presence of
the Governor, the heads of departments, the troops and a crowd of
people. There was no other occurrence of moment until the arrival of
the new Governor General, the Earl of Dalhousie, who arrived from
Halifax, where he had administered the government of Nova Scotia, on
the 18th of June, in H.M.S. _Newcastle_. Lord Dalhousie was a
soldier. He had been altogether educated in the camp. To the trickery
of diplomacy he was quite a stranger. He had not long arrived when the
general elections took place. Mr. Papineau, the Speaker of the late
Assembly, was at the hustings addressing a Montreal constituency. How
strong the feeling was in favor of British constitutional rule in
comparison with the Bourbon fashion of ruling colonies, the Earl of
Dalhousie learned from Mr. Papineau's own lips. A great national
calamity had made it imperative upon Mr. Papineau to court the favor of
his constituents a second time in one year. A sovereign who had reigned
over the inhabitants of Canada since the day in which they had become
British subjects, had ceased to breathe. To express the feeling of
gratitude which was due to him, or to say how much his loss was mourned
would be impossible. Each year of his long reign had been marked by new
favors bestowed on the country. A comparison between the happy
situation of Canada at present, with the situation of Canada under
"our" fore-fathers, when George the Third became their legitimate
monarch, would sufficiently indicate the extent of the calamity which
Canada had sustained in the death of the good old king. Under the
French government the rule was arbitrary and oppressive. Canada had
been neglected by the French Court, and mal-administered by the French
Viceroys. The fertility of the soil, the salubrity of the climate, and
the extent of territory which might even then have been the peaceful
abode of a numerous and happy population was not considered. Canada was
looked upon as a mere military post. The people were compelled to live
in perpetual warfare and insecurity. There was no general trade. Trade
was in the hands of companies. Famine was of frequent occurrence.
Public and private property were insecure. Personal liberty was daily
violated. Year after year the inhabitants of Canada were dragged from
their homes and families to shed their blood, and carry murder and
havoc from the shores of the great lakes and the banks of the
Mississippi and Ohio, to the coasts of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and
Hudson's Bay. And now, how changed! The reign of law has succeeded to
that of violence. Religious toleration; trial by jury; the Habeas
Corpus; and the right to obey no other laws than those of our own
making, have taken the place of perpetual warfare and perpetual
insecurity. Such was the news received by Lord Dalhousie, on his
arrival, and that too immediately preceding a deplorable period of
agricultural distress in both of the Canadas; when the absence of all
demand for wheat had compelled several farmers in the district of
Montreal to send hay, oats, and vegetables, in boats, down the river,
for the chance of a market at Quebec; when in some of the parishes of
Montreal, which formerly sold great quantities of wheat for
exportation, farms partly cleared, with a log house and barn, had been
sold at sheriff's sales, for less than the usual law expenses incurred
to effect the sale; and when one immediate consequence of this distress
was expected to be on the part of the farmers a compulsory resort to
family manufactures for their supply of clothing, as they must soon
otherwise have been without the means of protecting their bodies
against the inclemency of the seasons. Commercial operations had,
however, been tolerably brisk. 585 vessels of 147,754 tons had arrived
from sea, in 1820, and 7 new vessels had been built at Quebec. £674,556
worth of merchandise had been imported.
Lord Dalhousie met the legislature of Lower Canada on the 14th of
December. Mr. Papineau was re-elected Speaker and approved of when the
Governor-in-Chief opened the business of the session. His Lordship made
a semi-theatrical allusion to the death of the late king; mixing it up
with the death of the Duke of Richmond, whom he had known and honored
during thirty years, when he immediately descended to pounds, shillings
and pence. He called attention to the accounts of the general
expenditure for the past two years; he would lay before the Assembly
the accounts of the expense annually incurred in the administration of
the government, and he would add a statement of the annual product of
the permanent taxes, and hereditary territorial revenues of the Crown.
By these documents the Assembly would perceive that the annual
permanent revenue of the province was not equal to the amount of annual
permanent charges upon the provincial civil list, but was deficient in
about £22,000. The king had commanded him to say that having, from past
experience, the fullest confidence in the loyalty and sense of duty of
the Canadian people, he expected that a proper and permanent provision
would be made to supply the deficiency, so that the civil government of
the province might be sustained with honor and advantage to his
subjects. He had made a tour of the province, but could not take upon
himself to point out with confidence those measures of improvement
which would prove of the most advantage to the country. He concurred,
however, in all that had been said on the subject by the late Duke of
Richmond, and the Duke's recommendations were worthy of consideration
by the parliament. A permanent revenue law or a revenue law not liable
to be suddenly changed, would benefit trade. Agriculture should be
encouraged. The militia laws should be renewed. The waste lands should
be settled. A tide of immigration had set in, which promised to
continue. Many of the new comers were poor, and some had been
grievously afflicted with sickness. Not a few had abundant means. The
settlement of these immigrants should not have been impeded by the want
of legislative aid. There were great advantages to be derived from a
new population. Lower Canada, he was aware, had a population
sufficiently numerous to settle the waste lands. There were,
undoubtedly, prejudices against the introduction of strangers to be
overcome, and there were also prejudices in the minds of strangers,
affecting their settlement in Lower Canada, fertile as it was, offering
as it undeniably did, so many facilities for manufacturing operations,
and presenting, as was apparent, so wide a field for internal trade.
Inducements should be held out to new comers, with the view of making
them spread more widely. Parochial churches should be erected. Roads
affording access to distant woodlands should be laid out. For himself,
he would assure the Assembly that he had no object in view but the good
of the country. The Assembly liked the frankness of the
Governor-in-Chief. They had no idea, however, of permanently
appropriating, in the then uncertain state of trade, an amount for the
civil list, exceeding half the usual amount of the whole revenue. They
would vote annually, in accordance with their promise to Sir John
Sherbrooke, all the necessary expenses of the government if His
Excellency pleased, and no more. With regard to permanent taxes they
believed such a mode of taxation to be impracticable. They would,
however, investigate the effects that might result from a long duration
of the revenue laws. They would, if it were possible, inspire the
commercial classes with confidence. Legislation was then proceeded
with. The civil list was first considered. The estimate divided the
list into classes. There was the Governor-in-Chief and his staff; the
Legislature and its officers; the Executive Council and its officers;
the Judges, Sheriffs, Clerks of Courts, and Tipstaffs; the Secretary
and Registrar of the Province; the Receiver General and his clerk; the
Surveyor General and clerks; the Surveyor of Woods; the Auditor of Land
Patents; the Inspector General and clerks; and the contingencies of the
whole. The estimate amounted to £44,877. The Assembly proceeded to the
discussion of the items _con amore_. Item after item was read over
and commented upon, much after the present fashion. John Neilson was
then a member of the Assembly. Mr. Neilson was then as much an
economist as Mr. Mackenzie is or pretends to be now. He was wisely
jealous of the government. Mr. Neilson, the editor of the _Quebec
Gazette_, was in the highest degree intelligent. He was honest and,
consequently independent. He could say more in a sentence than Charles
Richard Ogden could combat in a speech. He was a tall, spare man, with
rugged, but yet prepossessing features. He had always two black eyes,
overshadowed by a low protruding forehead. From the occiput to the
_os frontis_, his head was quite level and extraordinarily long.
It was possibly due to Mr. Neilson's intelligence that, after some
reductions had been made, the required supply was voted, not in a bill,
providing for the payment of stipulated sums to certain individuals,
but in a bill in which allowances were made for six different
departments and a supply voted for the whole. The sum voted,
notwithstanding certain reductions was more than the estimate. £46,000
sterling was appropriated towards defraying the expenses of the civil
government. £3,083, the charge upon the pension list, and £1,543, the
annual cost of the militia staff were added to the civil list. The
supply was voted _en bloc_, or almost so, with the view of
reconciling the Legislative Council to an annual appropriation, and
because that House had objected to the previous supply bill in which
certain sums were appropriated for the payment of certain
functionaries. Nevertheless, the bill was rejected by the Legislative
Council. The bill had not made a permanent provision for the civil
list, and it interfered with monies already appropriated. The Council
resolved that it would not proceed upon any bill of supply, which
should not have been applied for by the king's representative; the
Council would not proceed upon any bill appropriating public money that
should not have been recommended by the king's representative; the
Council would not proceed upon any bill of appropriation, for money
issued, in consequence of an address of the Assembly to the king's
representative, unless upon some extraordinary emergency; the Council
would not proceed upon any appropriation of public money for any salary
or pension hereafter to be created, unless the _quantum_ of such
salary or pension had been recommended by the king's representative;
and the Council would not proceed upon any bill of appropriation for
the civil list, which should contain specifications therein, by
chapters or items, nor unless the same should be granted during the
life of the king. The Assembly were also quite resolved as to the
course to be pursued by them. They would pass no bill of supply without
specifications, nor for any period longer than a year. They would not
pass any bill at all for the purposes of defraying the expenses of the
government, unless the right of applying and apportioning by vote, the
monies previously appropriated towards the support of the civil
government, was also conceded to them. This quarrel between the two
Houses was an exceedingly interesting one. The members of the Upper
House, or the majority of them, felt themselves to be personally
interested--and were uneasy, while the Assembly, having no other
interest in the matter, than principle and a sense of expediency, could
maintain their position, without flinching, for almost any length of
time. Nay, the Assembly were positively generous. As the rejection of
the supply bill had left the Executive without the means of defraying
the civil expenditure for the year, the Assembly tendered the sum of
£46,060 sterling to His Excellency, pledging themselves to make good
the amount by a bill at the ensuing session. But His Excellency would
not have it. He was of opinion that the grant, now proposed, was wholly
ineffectual without the concurrence of the Legislative Council. There
was no answer. Mr. Neilson moved, and the Assembly resolved that, the
speech of His Grace the Governor-in-Chief, on the 24th of April, 1819,
contained a censure of the proceedings of the Assembly; that all
censure of any proceeding of the Assembly, by either of the branches of
the legislature, was an assumption and exercise of power contrary to
law, a breach of the undoubted rights and privileges of the House of
Assembly, and subversive of the constitution of the government, as by
law established in the province; and that it was the undoubted right of
the Assembly, in voting aids or supplies, or offering money bills for
the consent of the other branches of the legislature, to adopt such
order or mode of proceedings, as it might find conformable to its
rules, and to propound such matter as in its judgment should seem
fitted and most conducive to the peace, welfare, and good government of
the province.
Mr. Andrew Stuart, a man of brilliant attainments, was busily engaged
in the exposure of the enormous abuses that had prevailed in the
improvident and prodigal grants of the Crown lands. A bill was brought
forward in the Assembly for more effectually ascertaining the state of
the public funds in the hands of the Receiver General. The Receiver
General was to account annually to the legislature for his
expenditures, and he was to tell over, for its disposal by the
Assembly, the balance which he should have remaining in hand. He was to
be allowed a commission on all monies paid into his hands, in lieu of a
salary. And he was not to be engaged in trade. The bill did not,
however, receive a third reading, and the Receiver General still
continued to carry on the business of a lumber merchant. A bill was
also introduced for the trial of impeachments by the Legislative
Council, but was afterwards relinquished. An effort was made to obtain
a per diem allowance for the members of the Assembly, but it was not
successful. Mr. James Stuart was named agent for the province in
London, and the sum of £2,000 was voted to defray his expenses in that
capacity; but the appointment was set aside by the Council, because a
Mr. Gordon, who held a situation in the Colonial Office, had been
previously appointed agent for the province by the Executive
government, with a salary of £200 a year. Several messages, relative to
public improvements were sent down to the Assembly in the course of the
session, but the House only promised to consider them next session. One
bill, of great importance, was, however, passed:--that to open a canal
between Montreal and Lachine, at the public expense. Before the close
of the session the House represented that if a Lieutenant-Governor of
the Province, with a salary of £1,500 a year, was necessary, he should
be resident in the province; that the Lieutenant-Governorship of Gaspé,
to which a salary of £300 a year was attached, was a sinecure; that the
Secretary of the Province, with a salary of £400 a year, resided in
London, while his duties were performed by a deputy, who only received
the fees incidental to the office; that the agent of the province, who
received £200 a year, did nothing for his salary, and had no services
to perform, being merely the agent of the Executive; and that it was
the opinion of the Assembly that no salary should be allowed to any of
the members of the Executive Council, non-resident in the province. It
was further represented that the offices of Judge of the Vice-Admiralty
and Judge of the Court of King's Bench were incompatible, and that the
offices of Judge of the King's Bench and of French Translator to the
Court could not be held by the same person. The exaction of fees, too,
by the Judge of the Vice-Admiralty, while he received a salary of £200
a year, in lieu of fees, was improper and contrary to law. And the
Governor-in-Chief was requested to effect remedies. On the 17th of
March, the session was prorogued. Lord Dalhousie could not express his
satisfaction at the general result of the Assembly's deliberations. He
regretted that the expectations of His Majesty, with respect to the
civil list, had not been realised. He was disappointed. The
administration of the civil government had been left without any
pecuniary means, but what he should advance upon his own personal
responsibility. Individuals would suffer under severe and unmerited
hardships, caused by the want of that constitutional authority
necessary for the payment of the expenses of the civil government; the
improvements of the country were nearly at a stand; and the executive
government was palsied and powerless. When parliament should be again
summoned for legislation, it would be summoned to decide whether
government should be restored to its constitutional energy, or whether
the prospect of lasting misfortune was to be deplored by a continuance
of the present state of things. The Assembly inwardly chuckled as the
Governor concluded his speech. All that they wanted had been in part
effected. The government had acknowledged itself to be constitutionally
dependent on the Assembly for its energy and for its pecuniary means.
It was hoped, indeed, that sooner or later, the propriety of permitting
the Assembly to vote the supplies, after its own fashion, would be
conceded.
Shortly after the prorogation, Mr. Papineau, the Speaker of the
Assembly, Mr. Hale, a member of the Legislative Council, and Colonel
Ready, Civil Secretary, were added to the Executive Council.
On the 7th of July, the construction of the Lachine Canal was
commenced.
In the course of the summer, Lord Dalhousie proceeded on a tour to
Upper Canada, returning by the Ottawa, in August.
The legislature of Lower Canada was again opened by the
Governor-in-Chief, on the 11th of December. He brought under the
consideration of parliament the state of the province, recommending
immediate attention to its financial affairs, with the view of making a
suitable provision for the support of the civil government. He had
adopted a course for the payment of the current expenses of government
as consistent as possible with the existing laws. He had been commanded
to recommend that a provision for the civil list should be granted
permanently, during His Majesty's life. He felt assured that the
Council would attend to the recommendation, and he would not advert to
topics of far inferior importance, for the present. The Council
considered it to be their paramount duty to adopt what had been
established in the British parliament, as a constitutional principle,
the granting of the civil list during the life of the king. The
Assembly were not so submissive. They requested His Excellency, the
Governor, to convey to the king that they had received with all due
humility the communication of His Majesty's recommendation that such
provision, as should appear necessary for the payment of the expenses
of the civil list should be granted permanently, during His Majesty's
life, as well as the information that such was the practice of the
British parliament, and that the recommendation would have due weight
with them. The Governor on receiving the address of the Commons, in
reply to his speech from the throne, was not particularly well pleased.
He assured the Assembly that until the expenses of the government were
provided for, in the manner he had indicated, that there would be
neither harmony, union, nor cordial co-operation in the three branches
of the legislature, and that the real prosperity of the province would
be decidedly arrested. The Assembly were quite indifferent as to
consequences. They had a duty to perform to their constituents, and
meant to perform it. The estimates of the civil list were sent down.
The House asked the Governor to lay before it his instructions. The
Governor refused. His instructions were confidential and he would not
suffer any part of them to become the subject of discussion by the
House. A motion to grant a permanent civil list was made and negatived.
There were only five ayes to thirty-one nays. The House adhered to the
opinion that the supplies ought to be voted and appropriated annually,
and not otherwise. The Governor was requested to mention the
circumstance to the King, and he promised to do so. The Assembly
proceeded to the transaction of other business. The expediency of
having an agent to represent the interests of the people, not the
Executive of Canada only, in England, was next considered. It occurred
to the House that some member of the imperial parliament might be
induced to accept the agency, and it was resolved that Joseph Marryatt,
Esquire, M.P., should be requested to act as such agent. The
resolution of the Assembly was transmitted to Mr. Marryatt, who was
also put in possession of the civil list difficulty, with instructions
relative to the course of action which it was expected he would adopt.
The Council felt annoyed. They looked upon the appointment of Mr.
Marryatt as a dangerous assumption of legislative power by the Assembly
alone. They considered it a breach of the constitution, a breach of the
king's prerogative, a breach of the privileges of the Legislative
Council, and as a something which tended to subvert the constitution of
the province. This protest had the effect desired by the Council. Mr.
Marryatt would not act. Unless the Council concurred in his appointment
he could have no weight with the government in England, nor would he be
even acknowledged. There was nothing now to be done but to starve the
government into submission. The government was not to be conquered by
assault. The Assembly determined upon cutting off the supplies
entirely. The revenue Acts were, one after the other, suffered to
expire. No appropriation was made even for the current expenses of the
year. A revenue of thirty thousand pounds a year, or more, part of
which belonged to Upper Canada, was sacrificed. The Governor might make
advances to the officers of the government, on his own responsibility,
or not, as he pleased. But the House would hold the Receiver General
personally responsible for all monies levied on His Majesty's subjects,
paid over by him on any authority whatever, unless such payments should
be authorised by an express provision of law. If anything could arrest
the real prosperity of the province, it was now arrested. Some members
of the Legislative Council took alarm. Afraid that their resolutions of
the previous session interfered with the privileges of the Assembly,
they wished to rescind them. The Assembly, in the opinion of a section
even of the Council, ought not to be dictated to. The Commons had
exclusively the right of dictating their own terms and conditions, with
regard to all aids to the Crown. And the object, for which such aids
were sought, was of no consequence, as far as their right was
concerned. The majority of the Council took quite another view of the
matter. One member was particularly severe on the Assembly. The
Honorable John Richardson, considered the course pursued by the
Assembly, as unconstitutional and overbearing. He characterised their
pretensions as subversive of the prerogatives of the Crown, and
indicative of a desire to have the absolute control of the government.
Their proceedings were revolutionary. From day to day secret committees
were in session. Grievances were mischievously hunted up. Their
measures were precisely similar to those which preceded the fall of
Charles the First, and the French revolution. And, at that very moment,
there was a committee of the Assembly sitting, the members of which
were in consultation, about replacing the distinguished personage who
resided at the Castle of St. Lewis. Mr. Richardson was being quietly
listened to by several members of the Assembly. They resolved to move
in the matter. The sayings and doings of Mr. Richardson were
accordingly brought under the notice of the Assembly. Mr. Quirouet
informed the Lower House that he had heard the Honorable John
Richardson, one of the members of the Legislative Council say, in reply
to the Honorable Mr. Debartzch, who had moved for the rescission of the
rules relating to the civil list, that there was a secret committee
sitting in the House of Assembly, deliberating on the appointment of a
governor of their choice, and on the removal of the person now in the
castle; and that the committee, which was, perhaps, one of public
safety, sat without the knowledge of several members of the House, a
thing without example in England, except in the time of Charles the
First. A committee of five members was appointed to obtain further
information. The committee ascertained that everything reported by Mr.
Quirouet was true. A spirited debate ensued. The conduct of Mr.
Richardson was looked upon as atrocious. Mr. Richardson too was the
senior member of the Executive Council, and on him the government of
the province might devolve. He was entirely unworthy of confidence. He
was the enemy of his country. It was resolved that his language was
false, scandalous, and malicious; that he had been guilty of a high
contempt of the Assembly; that he had made an odious attempt to destroy
His Majesty's confidence in the fidelity and loyalty of the Assembly,
and of the people of the province, and that he had been guilty of a
breach of the rights and privileges of one branch of the legislature.
It was further resolved to inform the Legislative Council of the
Assembly's opinion of the discourse of the Honorable John Richardson,
with the request that the Council would inquire into the charge which
they preferred against him and were prepared to substantiate, so that
the Honorable John Richardson might be adequately punished. And it was
still further resolved that the Governor General should be informed of
the libelous language of the Honorable John Richardson, and of the
desire of the Assembly that he should be removed and dismissed from
every place of honor, trust, or profit, which he might hold under the
Crown. These resolutions of the Assembly, respecting the conduct of the
Honorable John Richardson were taken by special messengers to the
Governor and to the Legislative Council. The Governor considered the
resolutions undignified. They were as much a breach of the privileges
of the Council as the remarks of Mr. Richardson would have been a
breach of the privileges of the Assembly if uttered anywhere else than
in the Council. Mr. Richardson had a perfect right to express himself
freely in parliament. Freedom of debate was as necessary to the Upper
as it was to the Lower House. He distinctly refused to dismiss Mr.
Richardson from any office of honor, trust, or profit, which he might
hold. The Council, so far from proceeding to punish Mr. Richardson for
his outspokenness, looked upon the resolutions of the Assembly as a
flagrant breach of its privileges, and would take no measures with
regard to the language made use of towards the Assembly, by Mr.
Richardson, until the Assembly apologised to the Council for its
interference with the rights of the Legislative Council. Mr. Richardson
even repeated the substance of his observations in the debate which had
given offence, in still stronger language. He had little to fear, and
he knew that the Assembly had taken a position which they could not
sustain. He held no office under the Crown. He was a legislator and
Executive Councillor, but not a placeman. Indeed the Assembly were
becoming ashamed of themselves. Instead of attacking the Council in
return for the attack made upon them, they had taken it for granted
that their proceedings were not liable to be commented upon at all.
They pretended to represent public opinion and yet would not tolerate
the expression of any opinion adverse to themselves. But public opinion
prevailed. They were compelled to edge out of their difficulty by
representing in a resolution that it was the incontestable right of the
Assembly to prevent any breach of their privileges, by every
constitutional means in their power. So the matter rested.
A message came to the Assembly from the Governor. It had reference to
certain grievances submitted by the Assembly to the King. The Governor
had been commanded to inform the Assembly that the Lieutenant-Governor
had been ordered to repair to Quebec, and to reside in the province
during his tenure of office; that a Lieutenant-Governor for Gaspé was
necessary and should be provided for; that the successor to the
Provincial Secretary should be a resident officer, but that the present
absent incumbent was not to be dispossessed without adequate
compensation; and that the present agent of the province, in the
colonial office, had not been guilty of misconduct, and the office of
agent which he held was not to be abolished. The message was anything
but satisfactory, and the Assembly grumbled audibly.
Another message was sent to the Assembly informing the House that the
Governor intended to apply the territorial and casual revenues, fines,
rents, and profits, which were reserved to the French King, at the
conquest, and belonged to the King of Great Britain on the surrender of
the country, the monies raised by statutes of the imperial parliament,
and the sum of £5,000 sterling raised by the provincial statute 35th
George the Third, chapter 9, towards the support of the civil
government and the administration of justice. And he called upon the
Assembly, as they had refused the civil list, to defray the cost of
certain local establishments, the expenses of the legislature and the
necessary expense of collecting the revenue. The Assembly assured the
Governor of their great satisfaction that he had not questioned the
constitutional doctrine which they had enunciated, that the public
money should only be applied conformably to law. They were indeed sorry
that the standing rules of the Council prevented their House from
entertaining even the hope that its invariable disposition to provide
for the necessary expenses of the civil government could have its
proper and legal effect. But they would grant no supplies whatever.
This manoeuvre might have been most successfully practised upon the
government of Lower Canada, if it had not also affected Upper Canada.
The supplies of Upper, as well as of Lower Canada, were cut off. Quebec
was the only seaport the two provinces had. It was in Lower Canada that
the duties on imports were levied. Of these import duties Upper Canada
was now entitled to a fifth, instead of an eighth, as at first agreed
upon. And if the whole was sacrificed, the value of a fifth of the
whole would not amount to much. The government, and, indeed, the whole
people of Upper Canada were annoyed at the loss of revenue inflicted
upon the country, for the sake merely of principle. But that was not
all. Upper Canada was already so rapidly increasing in population that
a fifth of the whole duties collected was not looked upon as her fair
share of receipts. Her commissioners desired a larger share of the
incomings. Lower Canada would not grant the increase and there was
another difficulty between the provinces. The subject was brought under
the consideration of the imperial parliament, by Upper Canada, through
the instrumentality of an agent, in London, appointed to communicate
with the government at home. The parliament of Lower Canada was
prorogued on the 18th of February. Lord Dalhousie was satisfied that no
benefit to the public could be expected from a continuance of the
session, and had come to prorogue the parliament. He regretted that the
supplies had been withheld, but neither the civil government, nor the
officers of justice, nor any of the officers of the government or of
the courts would be at all affected. The mischievous effects of their
proceeding would fall upon trade and of course be highly injurious to
His Majesty's loyal and faithful subjects, who should know how to bring
about a remedy. He was much pleased with the conduct of the Council.
The Governor General had received an idea from Mr. Ryland, with which
he was quite delighted. It now seemed to His Excellency that he would
soon bring the Commons of Canada to their senses. Had Mr. Ryland been
called upon to point out a remedy for the existing difficulties in the
government, he would have said to lord Dalhousie:--either unite the
legislatures of Upper and Lower Canada, or, by giving a fair
representation to the townships, secure an English influence in the
House of Assembly. Perfect the constitution by creating an hereditary
aristocracy, for which the Crown Reserves were originally set apart,
and make the Legislative Council so respectable as to render a seat
therein an object of ambition to every man of character and talent.
Exercise decidedly the patronage of the Romish Church, and give the
Romish Bishop clearly to understand that the slightest opposition on
his part to this regulation would put an end to his allowance of £1,500
sterling per annum. Admit no more coadjutors, secure a permanent
revenue, adequate or nearly adequate to the expenses of the civil
government. Ascertain to a farthing the monies that actually are or
ought to be in the Receiver General's chest. Give to that officer an
adequate salary, and take effectual means to prevent one shilling of
the public monies from being employed by him in future in commercial
speculations. Accomplish these objects, as you easily may, and be
assured that good sense and upright intentions, on the part of His
Majesty's representative, will thereafter be fully adequate to get the
better of every difficulty that has hitherto attended the provincial
government. This scheme of a remedy for existing difficulties was
submitted by the Earl of Dalhousie to the government of England. A bill
was indeed introduced into the imperial parliament, for a legislative
union of the two provinces, and for the regulation of trade in Canada.
A majority of the Commons of England would not, however, listen to the
proposal for a legislative union of the provinces, for which no desire
had been expressed by either Upper or Lower Canada. The sense of the
inhabitants of the Canadas should first have been obtained. To this
opposition the imperial ministry were compelled to yield, and therefore
that part of the bill which related to the union was relinquished. The
other part of the bill, afterwards known as "The Canada Trade Act,"
became law. By it the claims of Upper Canada were recognised, and to
guard that province against the caprice of the lower province, all the
duties payable under Acts of the legislature of Lower Canada, on
imports, were to be permanently continued, according to the latest
agreement, in July, 1819. The two temporary provincial Acts, 53 and 55,
George III, chapter 2, and 85, George III, chapter 3, including that
which had been suffered to expire were revived, and became permanent
Acts, only liable to repeal or alteration, by Lower Canada, with the
concurrence of Upper Canada. New duties on imports by sea could not be
imposed by Lower Canada without the consent of Upper Canada, without
the special interference of the imperial parliament. It was no wonder
that Lord Dalhousie spoke ironically of the effect to be produced by
the stoppage of the supplies. The measure was not, however, judicious.
It was in the highest degree irritating to Lower Canada. It was a
positive grievance, and indeed it was a partial destruction of the
constitution, at the instance of a placeman. There was one good thing
in the Act. The power of commuting the seigniorial or feudal tenure
into free and common soccage was given to the censitaire in
transactions with the crown.
This rude assault upon the Commons of Lower Canada came at an
unfortunate period. Both provinces were suffering. Agriculture and
commerce were in distress. Agricultural and commercial distress had
also afflicted the mother country. People were unwillingly idle, and
consequently, discontented. The regulations then existing in Great
Britain, with respect to the importation of grain and flour from the
Canadas were alleged to amount almost to a prohibition. To the
operation of these regulations Canadian distress was attributed. Unless
relief were speedily obtained, the certain ruin of the entire farming
and commercial interests was expected to ensue. The difficulties
occasioned by the obstruction to Canadian navigation, in winter,
rendered it impossible for the Canadian farmer to compete fairly or
with a reasonable chance of success, in the English markets, with the
United States. American produce was admitted into Lower Canada, for
consumption, free of duty, to the prejudice of Upper Canada, and was a
direct violation of the reciprocity which ought to exist between the
two provinces, as it depressed the price of Upper Canada produce, and
rendered nugatory the laws existing for its protection. And unless the
flour of Upper Canada should be admitted into the English market on
terms of greater favor, the imports from Great Britain would entirely
cease. The Upper Canadians wished the repeal of the corn bill. They
wanted the monopoly of the supply of the West Indies. They desired a
corn bill for themselves. And they did not know precisely what they
desired for the riddance of their distress. It was at this season that
the "Canada Trade Act" came into force, and that the propriety of
uniting the two provinces was to be considered by the people. In Lower
Canada the contemplated re-union of the provinces was not relished.
Upper Canada was indifferent and perhaps rather in favor than opposed
to the scheme. To Lower Canada it forboded the loss of caste, usages,
and religion, while to Upper Canada it indicated only a more extended
sphere of legislative action, and the direct control of the general
revenue for improvements. The Union Bill was well conceived. The
Governor was to have erected the townships, previously unrepresented,
into counties, of six townships each, with a member for every county.
The qualification for a seat in the Assembly was to be the unincumbered
possession of landed property to the value of £500 sterling. The House
was to consist of not more than one hundred and twenty members, and of
not more than sixty members for either province. Four ministers were to
have seats in the House and to have the liberty of speech without the
right of votes, in the shape of two members from each of the Executive
Councils of Upper Canada and of Lower Canada. The duration of the
parliament was to be five years. There was to be no power of
imprisonment for alleged contempts given to either House. The
proceedings of both Houses were to be recorded in the English language,
and in fifteen years afterwards, the English language only was to be
made use of in debate. The free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion
was to be respected, subject to the king's supremacy, and to the
collation or induction into cures--a privilege until then enjoyed by
the Bishop superintending the Romish Church in Canada. Here was Mr.
Ryland's scheme to the letter. It gave evidence of some ability. It was
the scheme of a lifetime, of one zealous in the cause of the Church of
England. How the Lower Canadians were to have been induced to consent,
is not easily guessed at. It is true Mr. Ryland intimates that the
Bishop's salary could be withdrawn, and that no more coadjutors should
be allowed. But the Bishop was not the only clergyman of the Church of
Rome in the province, and the See of Rome has its instruments in every
ecclesiastical grade. The priests, as a body were very much annoyed at
the Union Bill. They did not fail to declaim against it. Nor were they
to be blamed. The French Canadians were indeed, to a man, opposed to
the union. The English population were, of course, in favor of the
scheme. Horrified at popery, an Englishman honestly believed that
popery had no rights in a country possessed by a protestant king. It
could be tolerated but not legally maintained. Of course when the King
became Bishop of the Church in Canada, the Pope was virtually deposed,
and the deposition of the Pope in England is indeed the most essential
difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome. The
people of Montreal were most actively in favor of Mr. Ryland's
admirable scheme of religious conversion. Of 80,000 people who had come
into the province since the American war scarcely a twentieth part had
remained within the limits of the province, the rest having been
induced by the foreign character of the country in which they had
sought an asylum, and the discouragements they experienced, to try
their fortune in the United States. The division of the Province of
Quebec, into Upper and Lower Canada, had been impolitic. Had a fit plan
of representation been adopted the British population would have now
exceeded the French, and the imports and exports of the country have
been greatly beyond their present amount.[34] It is not a little
extraordinary to find that the English speaking inhabitants of the
province complained of the unreasonable extent of political rights
which had been conceded to Lower Canada. Mr. Neilson was not of these
complainants. Mr. James Stuart was. The Canadians had deserted Mr.
Stuart and he now deserted them. Mr. Neilson had not been yet deserted
by those whom he had served, and he had not therefore cause for
desertion. Messrs. Neilson and Papineau went home in charge of
petitions against the contemplated union of the provinces, while Mr.
Stuart went to London with the petition of the unionists in his pocket.
The mob was merely prejudiced. There was no politics in the heads of
the ordinary people, whether of French or English extraction. But the
English hated the French, and the French disliked the English, because
neither understood the other. It was enough for the English speaking
population that the government was English, to secure their sympathies
to the government, and it was enough for the French speaking part of
the population to know that the Assembly was chiefly Franco-Canadian to
secure their sympathies to the Assembly. Lord Dalhousie and the
red-tape-nobility looked upon both only as _canaille_. His
lordship was the emperor; the judges, the bishops, and the secretaries,
were the marshals and princes of an empire of serfs--of crown serfs and
of serfs of the soil. But, however that may have been, two events of
some importance had occurred. The Lieutenant-Governor of the province,
Sir Francis Burton, had arrived at the scene of his labors, and Sir
John Caldwell, the Receiver General, had become insolvent towards the
province, in the sum of £100,000. The difficulties of Lord Dalhousie's
reign were on the increase. The union and intended extinction of Lower
Canadian nationality was not a matter to be so easily effected as at
first anticipated. His lordship again assembled parliament on the 10th
of January, 1823. The Clerk of the Assembly informed the noble Earl, at
the head of the government, that the Speaker, Mr. Papineau, had gone to
England. The Governor ordered the Assembly to elect another Speaker in
his stead. They did so, and their choice fell upon Mr. Vallières de St.
Réal. The choice was approved of. Lord Dalhousie thereupon opened the
session. He told the Houses that an Act had been passed regulating the
trade of Lower Canada with the United States of America, and the
intercourse between Upper and Lower Canada, an adjustment of the
differences subsisting between the two provinces being provided for. He
further intimated that the imperial government contemplated the union
of the two provinces, but had withdrawn the measure until the next
session of the imperial legislature, with the view of ascertaining the
sentiments of the Canadian people on the matter. He hoped that the
subject would receive attention, and the deliberations of the
parliament be distinguished for moderation. He had been somewhat
embarrassed by the stoppage of the supplies, but had done as much as he
could to avert inconvenience, by paying up the usual expenses for the
half year then current, though he had not felt himself justified in
doing so beyond that period, and there consequently remained a very
considerable arrear due to the public servants. A full statement of the
receipts and expenditures for the year would be laid before the
Assembly, together with an estimate of the probable expense in the
present year of those local establishments for which the Assembly were
bound in duty to provide. He trusted that the whole financial accounts
would be brought to a clear and final arrangement. He was convinced
that the Assembly regretted that the progress of the public interests
had been interrupted. And without dwelling upon the past, he would
earnestly recommend them to consider the incalculable injuries which
had been accumulated on the province, while the executive branch of the
constitution remained disabled from exercising its just and legitimate
and most useful powers. The Assembly were pleased to learn that the
imperial parliament had suffered the measure for the union of the two
provinces to lie over until the opinion of the Canadian people had been
ascertained, and indeed they fairly echoed in their reply the speech
from the throne. A call of the Assembly was ordered for the 21st of
January, to consider the union question. The Upper House, with the
exception of the Honorables John Richardson, Herman W. Ryland, Charles
W. Grant, James Irvine, Roderick McKenzie, and Wm. B. Felton, were
decidedly opposed to the contemplated union. The Assembly believed that
the union of two provinces, having laws, civil and religious
institutions, and usages essentially different, would endanger the laws
and institutions of either province; and that there would thence result
well-founded apprehensions respecting the stability of those laws and
institutions, fatal doubts of the future lot of these colonies, and a
relaxation of the energy and confidence of the people, and of the bonds
which so strongly attached them to the mother country. The resolutions
of both Houses were embodied in addresses to the King and Parliament of
Great Britain. Those to the King the Governor was requested to
transmit, and those to the two Imperial Houses of legislation were
forwarded to the delegates of the anti-unionists, Messrs. Neilson and
Papineau.
[34] To-day an agitation has begun for a repeal of the present
Act of Union.
A message was sent to the Assembly, officially informing the House of
the arrival of Lieutenant-Governor Sir Francis Burton. The message
contained another bit of information to the effect that it was
necessary that a residence should be provided for His Excellency. It
stated still further that a furnished House had been taken for His
Excellency, at a yearly rent of £500, for which it was desirable that
the Assembly should provide. And the message concluded by recommending
the addition of £1,000 a year to the salary of His Excellency, which
was then only £1,500, so that with £2,500 a year, and house rent free,
he might live in becoming style. The Assembly cheerfully voted these
extra allowances to the Lieutenant-Governor. A bill was this session
passed, erecting, for judicial purposes, the Eastern Townships into the
Inferior District of St. Francis. There was to be a provincial court in
the district, and a resident judge, who was to have jurisdiction in
personal actions of £20 sterling. A Court of Quarter Sessions in the
district was also established. The bill was introduced into the
Assembly, and passed, to increase the representation, by giving the
Eastern Townships a representation precisely as recommended in the
contemplated Act of Union; but the Assembly, to counterbalance the
effect which might result from the introduction of six new members into
the Assembly, also created an overbalancing number of new French
constituencies. The Council consequently rejected the representation
bill. Then the estimates of supply were submitted by message. They had
been classed into two schedules. One comprehending the Governor,
Lieutenant-Governor, certain officers attached to the Governor-in-Chief,
including the provincial agent in London, the Surveyor General and
contingencies of his department; the judges and officers of the Courts;
the Executive Councillors (£100 a year each); the Clerk of the Council,
and the contingencies of his office and of the committee of audit;
the Inspector General of Accounts; the Receiver General's department;
and the Clerk of the Terrars, the whole sum to be supplied being
£32,083 11s. 3d. sterling. The second schedule included the local
establishments--the legislature and its officers; the cost of printing
the laws; the salaries to public schoolmasters; the pension list; rents
and repairs of public buildings, and the salaries and disbursements in
connection with such buildings; the expense of collecting the revenues:
the expenses of the Trinity House; the militia staff and contingencies;
the expenses for criminals and houses of correction; and miscellaneous
expenses, such as the salaries of the Grand Voyer and others, the
grants to residents on Anticosti, for the assistance of shipwrecked
seamen; and the assessments on public buildings, in all amounting to
£30,225 sterling. The Assembly voted the local schedule but not the
other. Indeed they protested against being required to do so in the
particular manner required. The Assembly next passed bills to reimburse
and indemnify His Majesty for monies expended without the sanction of
the legislature. The Council did not think it decorous to speak of
"indemnifying" the King and rejected the bills. There was yet another
money bill to pass the Council. A bill to defray the expenses of the
local establishments, in which the different items of expenditure were
specified, was sent up for concurrence and was only not rejected on
account of the distress to individuals which its rejection would have
caused. The Assembly had appropriated monies for the payment of the
local establishments, which was to be taken from the general funds of
the province. The Council passed the bill under protest because by the
term "general," appropriated as well as unappropriated monies might be
indicated as under the control of the Assembly. An attempt was made to
induce the Council to agree to the nomination of Mr. Marryatt as agent
for the province, but the Council refused, and the Assembly allowed the
matter to drop. To render the proceedings of the Assembly still more
attractive, a breach of privilege case occurred again this session. The
_Montreal Times_, a stiffishly unionist paper, had dealt harshly both
with the Assembly and Council, in speaking of these two august bodies,
as anti-British. The Council was quite indifferent to the imputation,
but the Assembly pronounced the assertion of the _Times_ to be a false
and scandalous libel upon the House, and a breach of its privileges. In
accordance with this judgment, Mr. Speaker was instructed to issue
warrants for the arrests of the editor and publishers of the _Times_.
One offender, Mr. Ariel Bowman, was taken into custody, but Mr. Edward
Sparhawk, the other offender, could not be found. Mr. Bowman was not
long a prisoner. He escaped from custody soon after being taken, and
neither of the offenders were subsequently caught during the session,
so that both eluded the punishment due to an offence which was very
heinous only in the sight of the Assembly. After this important matter
was disposed of, the Governor General intimated that he had advanced
£30,000 to the Receiver General, out of the military chest, to enable
him to pay the expenses of the civil government, for the half year
ending in May, 1822. He called upon the House for re-payment. The reply
was pertinent. The House would at once have authorised the Receiver
General to return the money out of the sum of £100,000, the balance of
the public money which should have been in his hands, if it could have
been done, but a balance being due to the province, the Assembly could
only look upon the accommodation afforded to the Receiver General as a
personal favor to that officer. Indeed the Assembly voted all the sums
required for other public purposes, without taking into any account
whatever the emptiness of the public chest. The financial affairs of
the province were in a curious condition. "My earnest entreaties," says
Lord Dalhousie to Mr. Vallières de St. Réal, "to ascertain the state of
our finances, have been unavailing. Whilst the legislature has been
contending about forms, the substance of the treasury has been used,
and the province now stands without any funds which can be called its
own, or, worse than that, it has incurred a debt to the military chest
of £30,000, advanced in 1822, and £30,000 more advanced this summer of
1823, to which must be added the amount of all unpaid appropriations in
last session, a sum not less than £240,000, exclusive of the grant of
the Chambly Canal:
Our debt contracted is £ 60,000
Appropriations of 1823 unpaid 24,000
Our necessary expenses for 1824 70,000
Our probable appropriation, including the
award to Upper Canada 25,000
---------
£179,000
And our revenue to meet this 90,000."
The recent declaration and exposure of the Receiver General undoubtedly
did shew the evils arising from not annually settling the public
accounts. The Receiver General had not, however, positively wasted the
public revenue. Largely engaged in business he had built sawmills,
dammed rivers, and constructed viaducts. He was an enterprising man of
business, and doubtless his enterprise had indirectly enriched the
province, although as far as the immediate recovery of the money was
concerned, for the payment of the civil expenses of the government, the
investments had been somewhat selfish and rather injudicious. The
Receiver Generalship should not have been in the hands of a person
engaged in trade. That was the mistake, and it was one, which the
Assembly even had endeavored to remedy when perhaps it was too late.
There were still some other matters of finance meriting legislative
attention. The "Canada Trade Act" of the imperial parliament had
wonderfully deranged the siege operations of the House. The Assembly
was now on the defensive, the governor of the province having been very
considerably re-inforced by the energetic measures of the imperial
authorities. It was not even considered prudent to make further zigzag
approaches. The Assembly resolved upon keeping within their own lines
and to defend themselves as well as they could from the vigorous
sorties of the enemy, led on by Mr. Ryland. They requested that copies
of any addresses to His Majesty by the Legislative Council of Lower
Canada or by the Parliament of Upper Canada to the King, or his
representative in Lower Canada, might be laid before them. The Governor
sent to them an able report of a joint committee of the Legislative
Council and Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, alluding to the
fruitless negotiations, which had been carried on between the duties'
commissioners of the two provinces, a document which had had such
weight with the imperial parliament as to have led to the passage of
the Canada Trade Act. The Assembly scanned the paper carefully but did
nothing. They only said that the Act would receive their most serious
attention in the next session of the parliament. They were rather
inclined to do business on a more liberal scale than they had
manifested at the previous session. An Act was passed to enable the
province to commence the construction of a canal between the town of
St. Johns, in Canada East, and the village of Chambly, which the
company, incorporated in 1818, had been unable, for want of funds to
commence. Fifty thousand pounds were appropriated for this purpose.
They voted also twelve thousands pounds as an additional appropriation
towards the construction of the Lachine Canal; two thousand one hundred
pounds for the encouragement of agriculture; eight hundred and fifty
pounds were granted to the Montreal General Hospital Society; two
hundred pounds were awarded to the Education Society of Quebec; Chief
Justice Monk was pensioned in the sum of five hundred and fifty pounds
sterling a year; and Mr. Justice Ogden was voted a retiring annual
pension of four hundred and fifty pounds sterling. The House then
applied to the Governor for a copy of his instructions relative to the
application of the Jesuits' Estates Revenues for educational purposes;
but the Governor refused to comply with the Assembly's request, because
he had not been specially permitted to lay his instructions before the
Assembly. The business of the session was concluded, and Lord Dalhousie
went down in State to the Legislative Council Chamber, to prorogue the
parliament. In his closing speech he expressed the satisfaction with
which he had witnessed so much diligence and attention to the business
of the country. He was exceedingly well pleased to have had to give the
royal assent to the Acts passed to facilitate the administration of
justice, to encourage agriculture, to construct canals, to assist
trade, and to aid charitable and educational institutions. He thanked
the Assembly for the supplies. He regretted that offices for the
enregistration of property had not been established. He had transmitted
the addresses of both Houses on the subject of the union of the
provinces to the king. And he assured the Houses that he esteemed the
result of the session at once honorable to parliament and useful to the
country.
There was still much anxiety in the country about the contemplated
union. Messrs. Neilson and Papineau had not, however, been idle in
London. They had strongly pointed out to the imperial government the
probability of a relaxation of the energy and confidence of the people
of Lower Canada and of the bonds which so strongly attached them to the
mother country, if the union was consummated, and their representations
weighed with the government, for not long after the prorogation of the
Lower Canada parliament it was officially announced by Lord Dalhousie
that His Majesty's government had, for the present, determined to
relinquish the proposed measure for the legislative union of the
provinces.
The parliament of Upper Canada was opened on the 23rd of March.
Governor Maitland, in his opening address, spoke of the temporary
diminution of receipts from Quebec, as having interfered with the
prosperity of the province. He recommended the establishment of an
additional circuit and of a second assize. He probably addressed the
House for the last time, and he took the opportunity of remarking that
he had ever found them guided in their deliberations by a scrupulous
attention to the interests of the people as by a proper regard for the
honorable support of His Majesty's government. And he concluded by
alluding to the contemplated union of the two provinces which, if
effected, would extend the field of legislation. In the course of the
session, the Assembly represented to the Lieutenant-Governor that they
found the travelling expenses of the Judges too high, and that the
salaries of all the officers of the government and of the courts were
too high. It was recommended that there should be retrenchment, and it
was suggested that the scale of remuneration, which existed previous to
1796, was sufficient. The Governor would not hear of a retrenchment,
which could only have the effect of placing respectable men in the
situation of struggling against actual penury, with the gloomy prospect
of starving in old age. A second representation was made by the
Assembly, to the effect that confusion resulted from the manner in
which the public accounts were kept. There was a want of detail which
should be obviated. Sir Peregrine Maitland was quite indignant at this
representation. He was answerable for the necessities of the public,
and the House of Assembly approached him with the deliberate intention
of misrepresenting his administration. Any information, solicited by
the Assembly, to be afforded by him, as an act of courtesy, would have
been most cheerfully afforded. He did not care for secrecy, and any
information desired concerning the public accounts he would, at any
time, on a proper application, afford. The House respectfully informed
His Excellency that they had not the slightest intention of
misrepresenting his administration, but merely ventured to suggest an
improvement in the mode of keeping the accounts. So the matter ended.
The parliamentary session was rather a protracted one. The Kingston
Bank Bill had been a long time before the House, and almost at the
close of the session some amendments were made to it. An Orange Society
Bill was thrown out of the House, by the casting vote of the Speaker.
Mr. Gourlay, when in Upper Canada, in 1819, strongly recommended, in a
letter to the _Niagara Spectator_, the advisability of constructing
canals for the improvement of the navigation of the great lakes and the
St. Lawrence. His views were most enlightened. He advised the
construction of canals on a scale to admit vessels of 200 tons burthen,
large enough to brave the ocean, and not inconveniently large for
internal navigation. Should it be deemed advisable, says Mr. Gourlay,
to have larger vessels in the trade, any additional expense should not
for a moment be thought of as an objection. The Lachine Canal is to
admit only of boats. This may suit the merchant of Montreal, but will
not do for Upper Canada. Indeed I am doubtful if our great navigation
should at all touch Montreal, and rather think it should be carried to
the northward. As to the line within the province, my mind is made up,
not only from inquiries commenced on my first arrival here, but from
considerable personal inspection of the ground, as well between Lake
Ontario and Lake Erie, as below. My opinion is that the navigation
ought to be taken out of the river St. Lawrence, near the village of
Johnstown, in Edwardsburgh, and let into the Ottawa, somewhere below
the Hawkesbury Rapids; probably in that part of the river called the
Lake of Two Mountains. By a bold cut, of a few miles, at the first
mentioned place, the waters of the St. Lawrence might be conducted to a
command of level, which would make the rest of the way practicable,
with very ordinary exertion. The idea which has been started by some of
raising the navigation by two stages, first into Lake St. Francis, and
thence to the higher level, may do for boat navigation; but, for
vessels of a large scale it is greatly objectionable. Any benefit to be
gained from the lake considered as part of the canal already formed,
would be quite overbalanced by the want of a good towing path. A boat
navigation may, I think, with benefit to the parts adjoining, be
brought up so far as Milrush, through Lake St. Francis, and thence be
taken into the line of the grand canal. The advantages to Upper Canada
from a navigation on a large scale would be infinite. Only think of the
difference of having goods brought here from England, in the same
bottoms to which they were first committed, instead of being unshipped
at Quebec, unboated and warehoused in Montreal, carted to the ditch
canal, and there parcelled out, among petty craft for forwarding to
Kingston. Then again at Kingston tumbled about for transport across
Lake Ontario; and again, if Amherstburgh is the destination, a third
time boated, unboated, and reshipped. Think of the difference in point
of comfort and convenience to the merchants here. Think of the greater
despatch. Think of the saving of trouble and risk. Think of being
unburdened of immediate commissions and profits. Think of the closer
connexion which it would form between this province and England. Think
of the greater comfort it would afford to emigrants, and how much it
would facilitate and encourage emigration. With navigation on a large
scale, shipbuilding would become an object of great importance here,
and new vessels might be ready loaded with produce to depart with the
first opening in the spring. There are but few vessels trading from
England to Quebec, which make two voyages in a season, and then it is
with increase of risk that the second voyage is performed. Every vessel
could leave England, proceed to the extremities of Lakes Michigan or
Superior, and get back with ease in a season, or every vessel could
leave Lakes Erie or Ontario in the spring, proceed to England, get back
here, and again take home a second cargo of produce. In time of war
what security would such a scale of navigation yield. It would put all
competition on the lakes out of the question. Upper Canada would then
possess a vast body of thorough bred seamen and ship carpenters, with
abundance of vessels fit to mount guns, not only for their own
individual defence, but to constitute a navy at a moment's notice. In a
commercial competition too, the Great Western Canal of the States would
be quite outrivalled by such a superior navigation. Upwards, except at
the Falls of St. Mary, where a very short canal would give a free
passage, navigation is clear for more than a thousand miles, and when
population thickens on the wide-extended shores of the Upper Lakes,
only think how the importance increases of having the transport of
goods and produce uninterrupted by transhipment. Such was Mr. Gourlay's
dream in the jail of Niagara. It is now reality. Ships of war, American
and British, have passed from Lake Ontario down the St. Lawrence to the
ocean, the ship _Eureka_ embarked passengers for California, at
Cleveland, in Ohio, and passed down the St. Lawrence to sea, safely
reaching her destination on the Pacific, and sea-going vessels have
been built in Kingston to ply between that port and Liverpool direct.
Steamships pass up the St. Lawrence canals and down the St. Lawrence
rapids. Canada is advancing with giant strides, small as her beginning
was. It was in November, 1823, that George Keefer, J. Northrop, Thomas
Merritt, William Chisholm, Joseph Smith, Paul Shipman, George Adams,
John Decoes, and William Hamilton Merritt, advertised in the _Upper
Canada Gazette_ that, as freeholders of the district of Niagara, they
intended to petition the legislature at the next session of parliament,
to incorporate a company for the purpose of connecting the Lakes Erie
and Ontario, by a canal capable of carrying boats of from twenty to
forty tons burthen, by the following route:--To commence at Chippewa,
ten miles above the mouth of that creek, on the farm of John Brown,
from thence to the head of the middle branch of the twelve mile creek,
at G. Vanderbarrack's, from thence to John Decoes, passing over to the
west branch of the twelve mile creek, on the farm of Adam Brown, and
continuing along the said stream to Lake Ontario. From the Chippewa to
Grand River, either from the forks of the Chippewa, through the marsh,
or from Oswego, whichever may prove most advantageous,--and for the
erection of machinery for hydraulic purposes, on the entire route.
There was a beginning by men whose names are familiar to the Canadians.
These were some of the pioneers of improvement, and some of them yet
living have to combat the vulgar or interested reproach of being
possessed with ideas of utopian schemes. But it is time to turn again
to the baser things of Lower Canada. Lord Dalhousie, who had paid a
visit to Nova Scotia, immediately after the prorogation of the
parliament of Lower Canada, returned to Quebec in August. In October he
established a new official Gazette. The commission of King's Printer
given to Mr. Samuel Neilson, in 1812, was revoked, and Dr. John
Charlton Fisher, who had been the editor of the _Albion_,
published in New York, was commissioned as the printer in Canada, to
the King's Most Excellent Majesty. Dr. Fisher was a man of
gentlemanlike exterior, of good address, of superior educational
acquirements, of fair mental capacity, and, in a word, a gentleman and
a scholar. He was an Englishman, and passionately loyal. But he was no
match in shrewdness for Mr. Neilson, who was now more bitterly opposed
to the government than ever. Dr. Fisher was, however, beyond any
question, better suited for the management of a court journal than Mr.
Neilson could have been. Mr. Neilson was a colonist and deeply imbued
with that spirit of independence which is natural to the resident of a
country far removed from the extremes of majesty and misery. Dr. Fisher
had been the resident of a town in England, an officer of the English
militia, and having had long to live on smiles, he smiled again to
live. He was a courtier.
There was a considerable immigration both in 1822 and 1823. In 1822,
10,465 immigrants had arrived at Quebec. This year 10,188 immigrants
had arrived. Nearly 60 families, consisting of 200 persons, the
majority of whom were Quakers, had come from Bristol, in England to
settle in Upper Canada.
The legislature of Lower Canada was again summoned to meet for the
despatch of business, on the 25th of November. It was the last session
of the parliament. Lord Dalhousie in opening the session apologised for
the statements about financial difficulties, which he was obliged to
make so frequently. He entreated the House to proceed with the public
business harmoniously. He recommended the further consideration of the
judicature bill, and his message of the 4th of February, calling
attention to the expediency of enacting a law for the public registry
of instruments conveying, changing, or affecting real property, with a
view to give greater security to the possession and transfer of such
property, and to commercial transactions in general, which had been
overlooked in the previous session. And the Assembly proceeded to
business. Thereupon Lord Dalhousie officially informed the House that
he had suspended the Receiver General from the performance of the
duties of his office. The Governor had directed his attention after the
close of the previous session, to ascertain the state of the funds upon
which large appropriations had been granted, and there appeared to be
£96,000 in the hands of the Receiver General. But when His Excellency
had called upon that officer to declare whether he was prepared to meet
warrants to that amount, various accounts and statements shewing claims
on the part of the province, on the imperial treasury, and the military
chest, the payment of which into his hands would enable him to meet the
demands of the government and, in time, to pay up the actual balance of
his accounts with the public men, were submitted to him. He was not
then prepared with the balance required to meet the warrants for the
public salaries, and he requested that the warrants might not be issued
until the 1st of July, when the revenue of the current year would place
funds in the chest. Lord Dalhousie agreed to the Receiver General's
request, concerning the time of issuing the warrants; but the question
as to the repayment of the sums claimed by the Receiver General as due
to the province, being one on which His Majesty's government alone
could decide, Mr. Davidson was sent to England, on the part both of the
government and of the Receiver General, with voluminous papers to be
submitted to the Lords of the Treasury. When, however, Lord Dalhousie
returned to Quebec from Nova Scotia, he was informed by the Receiver
General that he was unable to meet any further warrants to be drawn
upon him. Under such circumstances it only remained for the
Governor-in-Chief to appoint a commission of two gentlemen to inspect
and control the operations of the Receiver General; and he took upon
himself the responsibility of granting loans from the military chest,
to meet the urgent necessities of the civil government. But two days
before the House had been assembled, no intimation having been received
from the imperial authorities, that the claims advanced by the Receiver
General, on the part of the province, would be admitted, he had been
compelled to suspend the Receiver General until the pleasure of the
king should be known with regard to him, or, at least, until
arrangements should be made for replacing the deficient balance in the
public chest. Mr. Caldwell was to be pitied, if not excused. His
father, his predecessor in the Receiver Generalship, had left him a
defalcation of £40,000 to be made good from a salary of £500 a year.
Mr. Caldwell was compelled to engage in trade, and he did engage in
trade successfully. He acquired large property. His estate at Lauzon
was worth £1,500 a year, but then he bought his estate, to make good
his father's deficiencies, by trading on the public monies, and he
entailed the estate on his son, to prevent its falling into the hands
of the province, with whose means he had improved it, previously to
announcing that he was a defaulter towards the province to the extent
of £96,117. This was not honorable and deserves neither pity nor
excuse. The courts of law would not countenance the entail. The
pretended entail was dismissed in the Canadian courts and dismissed in
the courts of law in England. It was not to be supposed that Mr.
Caldwell could keep an estate improved at the public expense, on the
condition only of paying, during his life, £1,500 a year, out of it, to
government. But Mr. Caldwell had a claim upon the province. He had paid
out large sums of money, for which he was as much entitled to 3 per
cent as was the Receiver General of Upper Canada. He and his father had
received a million and a half, the per centage on which, at 3 per cent,
was £45,471, which ought in equity to be allowed him. He would pay,
moreover, £1,000 a year, in the event of his restoration to office,
with a provision, by the legislature, suited to its responsibility. Now
it does seem that if Mr. Caldwell was prepared to pay so many thousands
a year, on certain conditions, there was no necessity for his default.
The House would have nothing whatever to do with Mr. Caldwell. He was
not their officer, and he was a defaulter. The imperial government were
bound to make good the Receiver General's defalcation, and they would
address His Majesty on the subject. They did so. It was alleged that
Mr. Caldwell was an officer of the imperial government, over whom the
provincial government had no control, and that he had lost to the
province £96,117 13s. and one farthing, which it was right that the
government of England should make good to the government of Canada. The
Assembly proceeded to another matter. On the motion of Mr. Bourdages a
committee was appointed to consider the propriety of erecting an
equestrian statue "_in memoriam illustrissimi viri D. Georgii
Prevost, Baroneti, Hujusce Provinciæ, Gubernatoris, Atque Copiarum
Ducis Canadarum Servatoris_." The statue was never erected, the
excuse being simply "no funds." The subject of tea smuggling was
brought before the House. The revenue had been seriously affected by
the illicit importation of Bohay, Souchong, and Oolong, from the United
States. Canada was desirous of obtaining "Gunpowder" from other and
more profitable sources, and addressed the king to know if tea could
not be obtained direct, either by some arrangement with the East India
Company, for an annual supply, or by granting to His Majesty's subjects
the benefit of direct importation. The king's ministers advised the
East India Company to have no more colonial tea difficulties, and tea
sufficient for the consumption of the province of Canada was annually
sent to Quebec, in the company's ships, until the company ceased to be
concerned in the tea trade. Messrs. Neilson and Papineau had returned
to Quebec from London, and had reported that the consideration of the
union of the provinces would not be resumed without previous notice
being given to the inhabitants of the province. The Canada Trade Act
was discussed and defended by Mr. Papineau on the plea of necessity.
The supplies were then considered, voted as before, _item_ by
_item_, and twenty-five per cent discounted on every salary, to
make up for the Receiver General's defalcation. The Legislative Council
rejected the supply bill as soon as it appeared in their chamber, and
implored His Majesty to consider the state of the province, out of
tenderness to his loyal subjects in Lower Canada, and to grant a remedy
for the withholding of the supplies. But there was a subject of
somewhat greater importance brought to the attention of the parliament
in a message to Congress by the President of the United States. The
American government claimed the right of freely navigating the St.
Lawrence from their territories, in the west, to the sea. It certainly
was a pity that the right was not conceded. The whole province of
Canada would have gained by the increase of shipping to its waters. The
Council were, however, much alarmed and addressed the Governor,
deprecating such a concession, as contrary to the law of nations, in
similar cases; dangerously calculated to affect the dependence of the
colony, on the parent state; as having a tendency to systematize
smuggling and as pernicious to British interests, in a variety of ways.
They had further learned that Barnharts' Island, in the St. Lawrence,
situated above Cornwall, in the Upper Province, was to be conceded to
the Americans. They were apprehensive that the navigation of the St.
Lawrence, between Upper and Lower Canada, was to be impeded or placed
at the mercy of the States, and they suggested a reciprocal right of
navigation, during peace, of the several channels of the St. Lawrence,
south of the forty-fifth degree of north latitude, although they had
prayed the king not to grant the reciprocal right of navigation in the
St. Lawrence, north of that latitude, in time of peace. The Assembly
paid no attention to the matter.
The Lower House, however, was beginning to be, on the whole, somewhat
factiously disposed. For the most part, the positions assumed by the
Commons of Canada, were correct positions, but they were not incapable
of doing mischievously silly things. Indeed, while jealous to an
extreme, of power in others, they claimed extraordinary powers, rights,
and privileges for themselves. They would not have their proceedings
commented upon either by the Governor, the Legislative Council, or the
press. The slightest attempt to curb them was a breach of privilege, a
simple remonstrance was something malicious, false, or libellous. They
were occasionally pettish. A war losses Act had been passed in Upper
Canada. The brunt of the war of 1812, had fallen upon the inhabitants
of the Upper Province. There, whole villages, had been burned, by the
enemy, and grain fields laid waste. It was only right to indemnify the
sufferers. Upper Canada was, however, totally destitute of means. The
cost of her civil government had been altogether defrayed out of the
imperial treasury, until very recently. She only received, for all
purposes, a fifth of the duties on imports collected at Quebec. To
enable the government of Upper Canada to carry out the objects sought
to be attained by the passage of the War Losses Act, the British
government had consented to a loan of £100,000, the interest on one
half of which the British government guaranteed. The other half,
£2,500, was to be provided for by Upper Canada. How to manage it was
the difficulty. Already the government had been compelled to resort to
the miserable stratagem of heavily taxing traders, so that any dumb
inhabitant of the province, and every implement of trade appeared to be
the absolute property of the government, distributed among the people
for a consideration. Neither a man's ox nor ass was his own. He paid to
government a consideration, not for the land on which the cattle
grazed, nor on the profits which they yielded, but for using them. It
was a similar kind of stupidity to that which in Scotland and England
refused to permit a man to make a pair of trowsers, sole a boot, or set
up types, however capable he might have been, unless he had served an
apprenticeship to the craft of seven years. It was not considered that
while the horses of a pleasure carriage would be a proper source of
revenue to a government, a carter's horse is not a proper subject for
taxation. It was not considered that the laborer should give of the
fruits of his labor an offering to the State which countenances and
protects him, while labor is not to be prevented by taxation. It was
not considered that while manufactured goods are properly dutiable, it
is unwise to tax the raw material. An occupation ought not to be taxed.
It is a wrong policy to tax an auctioneer, a pedlar, a carter, a
merchant, a tavern keeper, or an editor, because of his occupation; but
the stuffs which are traded in may very properly be taxed. Yet
occupations were taxed in Upper Canada, and, of course, rather to the
disadvantage than advantage of the province. It would not do to
increase the taxation on inn keepers, pedlars, hawkers, boatmen, and on
public carriages on land or water. The only way in which money could be
raised was by the imposition of higher duties on imported goods, and
the Upper Canada Assembly therefore requested the Assembly of Lower
Canada to impose new duties on imports sufficient to make up the annual
interest on the war losses loan, required from Upper Canada. But the
Lower Canadian Assembly would not impose new taxes upon imports for any
such purpose. They sympathised with the sufferers, but as all the
disposable resources of both provinces had been employed in resisting
the unjust charges of the war, it was not now expedient to increase the
taxation on imported goods, such as wines, refined sugar, muscovado
sugar, or by so much per cent, according to value, on merchandise. The
Assembly of Lower Canada would not do anything in furtherance of the
views of those who had made such representations to England as had led
to the "Canada Trade Act." They did not of course say so. They,
however, immediately afterwards, passed a vote of thanks to Sir James
Mackintosh and some other members of the House of Commons, who had
succeeded in persuading His Majesty's ministers to relinquish their
support of a bill introduced into the imperial parliament in 1822, with
the view of altering the established constitution of Canada, and the
remains of which bill was the "Canada Trade Act." Upper Canada had
another way to obtain money from Lower Canada. The Upper had a claim
upon the Lower province. There were arrears of drawbacks due by Lower
Canada upon importations into Upper Canada during the war, of which no
exact entries had been made at the Custom House. The "Canada Trade Act"
had provided that the amount due was to be decided by arbitration, and
arbitrators appointed, in 1823, had awarded to Upper Canada £12,220.
Upper Canada applied to Lord Dalhousie for the money, but his lordship
was so embarrassed with financial difficulties that he was compelled to
refer the matter to the Assembly. The Assembly would not pay the same
sum twice. The Governor had used the money in paying the public
officers of Lower Canada, inasmuch as the award had been made in 1823,
and from the time of the award the amount due to Upper Canada was not
at the disposal either of the government or of the Assembly, but should
have been paid to Upper Canada. The Governor had virtually suspended
the execution of the Canada Trade Act and had, in consequence, exposed
Lower Canada to the misfortune of a renewal of the difficulties with
Upper Canada. Lord Dalhousie was pestered with considerable ingenuity.
The Assembly of Lower Canada were rapidly becoming conservative or
non-progressive. They reported against any attempt being made to
abolish the seigniorial tenure, or change any of the institutions of
the country, the continuance of which was granted by the capitulations
of the colony. They were liberal enough in matters which did not
peculiarly interest the French-Canadian population. The Church of
Scotland, in Canada, having applied for a proportion of the lands
reserved for the clergy of the protestant churches, which had hitherto
been exclusively claimed by the clergy of the Church of England, in
Canada, the Assembly at once consented and addressed the king on the
subject. They were strongly of opinion that even protestant dissenters,
from the Churches of England and Scotland had an equitable claim, if
not an equal right to enjoy the advantages and revenues to arise from
the reserves in proportion to their numbers and their usefulness. The
Church of England, in Canada was wroth. It was a pretty thing, indeed,
for a Roman Catholic House of Assembly, to presume to represent to the
King of Great Britain, and the head of their church, that the word
"Protestant" was not exclusively the property of the Church of England.
It was high time to close the session, and accordingly, the
Governor-in-Chief went down to the Council Chamber, on the 9th of
March. He was not pleased. He said, in his prorogation speech, that he
did not think the session would prove of much advantage to the public.
He would most respectfully tell both Houses his sentiments upon the
general result of their proceedings. A claim had been made to an
unlimited right, in one branch of the legislature, to appropriate the
whole revenue of the province according to its pleasure. Even that
portion of the revenue raised by the authority of the imperial
parliament and directed by an Act of that parliament to be applied to
the payment of the expenses of the administration of justice, and of
the civil government of the province, the Assembly claimed the control
of. By the other two branches of the legislature that claim had been
denied, but it had, nevertheless, been persisted in by the Assembly,
and recourse had been had to the unusual course of withholding the
supplies, except on conditions, which would amount to an acknowledgment
of its constitutional validity. The stoppage of the supplies had caused
incalculable mischief to the province; but the country was,
nevertheless, powerfully advancing in improvement. The people,
generally, were contented. He had hitherto averted the unhappy
consequences of the stoppage of the supplies, by taking upon himself
certain responsibilities, but as his advice with regard to the payment
of the civil list, had been, even yet, unavailing, he would in future
guide the measures of the government by the strict letter of the law.
He thanked the Council for the calm, firm, and dignified character of
their deliberations. And he fervently prayed that the wisdom of the
proceedings of the Legislative Council would make a just impression
upon the loyal inhabitants of the province and lead them to that
temperate and conciliating disposition which is always best calculated
to give energy to public spirit, to promote public harmony, and ensure
public happiness, the great advantages which resulted from a wise
exercise of the powers and privileges of parliament. The
Governor-in-Chief of Lower Canada was on his knees fervently praying
for that which was not very likely to happen. Energy or public spirit
does not ordinarily spring from the temperate and conciliatory tone of
such inhabitants of a province as Lord Dalhousie would have considered
loyal.
It is desirable to know what Sir Peregrine Maitland was about in Upper
Canada. He had made a speech to parliament which he considered to be
his last. It was little wonder--Sir Peregrine Maitland was intolerably
tyrannical. He had gagged Mr. Gourlay. He had destroyed conventions. He
had suppressed public meetings. And he had been censured for it by Sir
George Murray. In 1822 the Honorable Barnabas Bidwell was returned to
the Upper Canada Assembly as a reformer. Mr. Bidwell was a man of very
considerable ability. He was eloquent, and his ideas of civil and
religious liberty were liberal. Born a British subject, during the
period of the revolution, but too young to take a part in it, he
remained in the United States, after the declaration of independence.
It was not long before he attained an elevated station in Congress. His
talents, however, coupled with his independence of spirit and love of
truth made him enemies. A hostility so vindictive was raised against
him by his political enemies, that he removed to Upper Canada, in
disgust, there only to meet with similar treatment, the result of
similar causes. No sooner did the people of Upper Canada begin to show
an appreciation of his talents, than the Upper Canadian oligarchy saw
in him a formidable rival to be got rid of by any means. A special Act
was passed to incapacitate Mr. Bidwell from holding a seat in the
Assembly. He was to be considered an alien and to be treated as an
alien as the Act directed. Mr. Barnabas Bidwell was expelled. The
spirit of opposition to a bad government was not, however, lessened by
such a course of action. New champions of the people's privileges
arose. Colonial red-tapism and colonial empiric aristocracy could with
difficulty sustain itself. Mr. Bidwell's son was brought to the
hustings by the supporters of his father. He was not, without
difficulty to obtain a seat. At the first election, the returning
officer, one of the original Timothy Brodeurs, contrived to give his
adversary a majority. A protest was entered, however, and after
distinguishing himself in an able defence of his rights at the Bar of
the House, the return was set aside.[35] Another election ensued, and
the returning officer refused to receive any votes for Mr. Bidwell, on
the ground of his being an alien. The return was again protested
against, and the election again set aside. At last a fair election was
allowed, when Mr. Bidwell, junior, was triumphantly returned to
parliament. In 1824, many other reform members were elected to
parliament, and on several questions, there was a decided majority
against the faction. A new expedient was hit upon to get rid of these
intruders. An "Alien Bill," to make aliens of those who had taken
advantage of the various proclamations to United Empire loyalists to
enter and settle in the province was attempted to be carried. Sir
Peregrine Maitland and his advisers were not content with interdicting
liberty of speech and liberty of action. They attempted to seize the
property and very means of those to whom the faith of the government
was pledged for protection. They attempted to sweep out of the country
those who had received their titles to lands, thirty years back, and
had, for that length of time occupied their farms. And they,
consequently, attempted to alienate, and so get rid of men who had
enjoyed, for a great length of time, the full privileges of British
subjects, and who were British subjects in sympathy and in reality as
in law. Indeed it was only by the united exertions of the people that
the calamity was turned aside. The concoctors of the scheme took
nothing by their motion. Had they succeeded, the advantage would only
have been temporary, and the reaction more terrible than it was. Having
failed in a design, which the word iniquitous is scarcely sufficient to
characterise, the House of Assembly decidedly assumed a progressive or
reform character. It was while this silly, as well as unjust measure
was being attempted to be carried that an attack of a novel kind was
made upon Mr. William Lyon Mackenzie. Mr. Mackenzie had some years
previously emigrated to Toronto, from Dundee, in Scotland, where he had
been engaged in business, as a merchant's clerk. An excellent
accountant, he was probably instrumental in causing it to be pointed
out to Sir Peregrine Maitland that the public accounts of Upper Canada
were not properly kept. He would have had at any rate no hesitation in
doing so. Very small in stature, he had a large head, ornamented with a
moderately sized and sparkling light blue eye, and with a nose
peculiarly short, and in comparison with his other features, altogether
ridiculously small. His nose was in wonderful contrast with a massive
fore-head and well-shaped mouth, which even when his tongue stood
still, rare as that occurrence was, ever moved. He was peculiarly
thin-skinned. The blue veins of his fair face made him seem to have
been tatooed. Mr. Mackenzie was then astonishingly active, persevering,
and intelligent, as he still is. A more able or a more indefatigable
exposer of colonial abuses could not have appeared at a more fitting
time. He was undoubtedly the right man in the right place. He had
engaged in business, and prospered, in York. He was, at this period,
the proprietor of a periodical called the _Colonial Advocate_,
wherein the corruptionists of the period were unmasked with very little
ceremony or consideration. The "corruptionists," very naturally,
desired to put him down. It was a matter, however, daily becoming more
difficult to put a man in prison and toss him out of the country on the
plea that he entertained opinions which he might give expression to,
and revolutionize the country. It was suspected, indeed, by the
magnates, that the state of feeling in the country was such that
prosecutions could not be maintained against Mr. Mackenzie. It was even
believed that they would increase his popularity. Mr. Mackenzie
travelled often to pick up information. He went about not so much to
create a public opinion as to ascertain it. He was at Niagara with this
view when a mob of "gentlemen" stormed his printing office in York.
Like all other assaults of the kind, it was, of course, a night attack,
and being well managed was quite successful! It was not. In the broad
light of day, the press was captured and destroyed, and the type of the
_Colonial Advocate_ seized and thrown into Lake Ontario. Nor was
this all. Mr. Mackenzie's family and his infirm old mother received the
most brutal treatment.[36] The authorities took very little notice of
the occurrence. But Mr. Mackenzie appealed to a jury, who, "to the no
small discomfiture of the tories, from Sir Peregrine Maitland, down to
the lowest menial employed in the political shambles," gave exemplary
damages. This had some effect, but not the weight which punishment for
the crime would have produced. The risk of having to pay for damages
would certainly not have prevented similar violence. The employees or
relatives of the Executive Councillors, the Judges, the Attornies, and
Solicitors General, and of such distinguished families at home would
have continued to destroy presses to this day, gaining more by the
suppression of truth and the prevention of free discussion, than they
lost in damages, had not an obstacle stood in their way, which it was
dangerous to encounter. The liberal press took up a bold position. The
speeches in the Assembly, by the leading independents, told upon the
country. A spirit of retributive justice had been stirred up, which
awed and intimidated the ruling compact. Open violence could not again
be resorted to. The subtleties of the law were, however, brought into
requisition. Under a show of justice and a pretended bridling of
licentiousness, the press might be muzzled or compelled to play one
monotonous hymn of praise to the powers above. The libel laws were
sufficiently odious to accomplish anything. Mr. Mackenzie was
prosecuted for libel. Prosecution followed prosecution, and where truth
constitutes a libel, it is surprising how he escaped. The juries would
not convict. The eyes of the whole country had been opened, and the
conspiracies against the public liberties were observable. Besides, Mr.
Mackenzie defended himself, and gave his persecutors nothing to boast
of in the rencontres. He never failed to improve these occasions. He
entered into every swindling transaction with greater severity than he
could have done in his newspaper. Mackenzie always succeeded in an
appeal to the people. There were others of his class not so fortunate.
A gentleman named Francis Collins, lately arrived in the country, from
Ireland, with a small competency, established a newspaper which he
called _The Canadian Freeman_. Mr. Collins commented on the
ruinous policy of the administration. But he did it too fervently for
the tories. Sir Peregrine Maitland, the Governor, ordered him to be
prosecuted, and upon what grounds may be gained from the fact of the
trial being put off, and the proceedings afterwards discontinued. The
end was answered. Smarting under a sense of ill-usage, he became more
severe upon the government, and perhaps did ascribe to them more than
was true. He was prosecuted by Mr. Attorney General Robinson, a
wonderfully able man then, and now Sir John Beverly Robinson, and Chief
Justice in Canada West, and with the aid of Messrs. Justices Hagerman
and Sherwood, a verdict of guilty was brought in against him. According
to a "resolution" of the House of Assembly an "oppressive and
unwarrantable sentence" was passed upon him. Whether or no, he was
thrust into prison. The House of Assembly applied to the Governor for
his release in vain. It was not until the king came to hear of his
situation that he was released, with a broken constitution, which
brought him to the grave in the flower of his manhood. It was so that
Sir Peregrine Maitland and the clique who surrounded him persecuted the
press, with the view of concealing from England the true state of
public opinion, in the colony. Men submit to terrible injustice before
they rebel. An able despot might so manage as to inflict almost unheard
of cruelties upon individuals without driving a population to arms. Men
with wives and families and properties, however inconsiderable in value
such properties may be, are unwilling to risk their all, at the tap of
the drum, until wrought up to it by desperation. There is a feeling of
respect for authority, a regard for that which is believed to be law, a
peculiar sense of duty towards the State in most men, which prevents
them from assuming a position even of firmness in the assertion of
their rights. In a colony there are thousands who bring with them
recollections of home and of home institutions, and who cannot be
brought to believe that an English gentleman will pursue a course of
policy, as the governor of a colony, which the Queen of England has too
much good sense to assume, even if she could do it, in the United
Kingdom. Indeed, if a glance is taken behind the curtain, English
statesmen will be noticed to have been liberal and well inclined
towards the colonists, and have only erred when purposely misled by
those whom they had appointed to places of which it was and is a
serious mistake for any ministry to have the patronage. Sir Peregrine
Maitland did not confine his persecuting operations to gentlemen who
gathered statistics, or printed newspapers, and wrote political
articles, commenting on an administration for which he only was
responsible to the Secretary of State for the colonies. He was not
satisfied with having seen a printing press destroyed and the types of
a newspaper office sunk in Ontario, but must needs throw a building
belonging to a private gentleman over the Falls of Niagara. He was
recalled because, in the supposition that the law was too slow for
redress, and impatient of contradiction, as some military men are, he
caused an armed force to trespass on the property of a gentleman named
Forsyth, on the plea that his land belonged to the Crown. The property
was situated at the Falls of Niagara. A building stood upon a part of
the land claimed for the Crown by Sir Peregrine. The soldiery tumbled
the building over the precipice, and the land was free of all
incumbrances. The House of Assembly interfered in this matter too. They
attempted to obtain the evidence of the officers engaged in the
business, but the government would not permit them to testify, the
consequence of which was that the Assembly imprisoned them for
contempt. So far was their reluctance to give evidence carried, that
the Serjeant-at-Arms was compelled to enter by force the house in which
they had barricaded themselves. The king was made aware of the whole
proceedings, Mr. Forsyth's claim for redress acknowledged, and Sir
Peregrine Maitland recalled. It was not too soon. Before this, His
Excellency managed to juggle Mr. Robert Randall, the agent of the
people to England, against the alien bill, and who was, therefore, one
of the proscribed, out of his ample estates on the Niagara frontier,
and out of his valuable mill privileges on the Ottawa, by the formality
of law, so that he was left bankrupt and penniless, and died in sorrow.
Indeed anything in the semblance of a liberal was in those days
proscribed in a country possessed of the image and transcript of the
British constitution. A peninsular officer, Captain Matthew, a member
of the Assembly, who would not receive "new light" at command was set
upon by spies. The object was the contemptible one of robbing him of
his half-pay. A spy declared that he had once heard him call for
"Yankee Doodle," at a play in the metropolis. It was a grievous
offence, certainly, even had it been true. But it was enough to deprive
a man who had served his country in battle of his half-pay. Indeed, he
only could get it back again on condition of repairing to England. He
went there to seek redress and died. There were yet other sufferers.
Mr. Justice Willis had been elevated from the English bar to the Bench
of Upper Canada. There were but three Judges of the King's Bench, in
the country, the Chief Justice Campbell and two Puisne Judges. The
Chief Justice went to England in search of a knighthood. Mr. Willis was
not in favor at Court. He had studiously abstained from mixing himself
up with politics. He had indeed refused to be an obsequious Jefferies,
and was looked upon, therefore, as opposed to the administration. When
term time came, the Chief Justice being in England, Mr. Willis refused
to go on with the business of the Court, because there was no one to
decide in case of a difference of opinion between him and his brother
Justice. It was enough. Sir Peregrine Maitland dismissed him, and
appointed Mr. Hagerman, _pro tempore_, in his stead. The newly
appointed Judge must have been surprised at his elevation. He was at
the very moment of his appointment discharging the onerous and
important duties of an officer of the Customs at Kingston. Mr. Willis
appealed to the English government and was sustained in the position
which he had assumed, but instead of being reinstated in Canada,
another office was provided for him in Demerara. The Chief Justice
shortly afterwards returned from England as Sir William Campbell, and
resigned to make way for the election of Mr. Attorney General Robinson.
Hagerman was succeeded by Mr. M'Aulay, a barrister of six years
standing, and very cheerfully accepted the humbler office of Solicitor
General. Again the House of Assembly interfered with Sir Peregrine
Maitland. They represented that Willis had been grossly ill-used, and
explained the cause. It was without effect. The beauties of colonial
irresponsible government were as discernible in Upper Canada, where
there were no seditious, English-hating, Frenchmen, as in Lower Canada.
A private gentleman, two editors of newspapers, a member of parliament,
a captain in the army, and a judge had experienced some of the benefits
derivable from a constitution, the very transcript and image of that of
Great Britain, managed by a General of Division and a clique of
placemen. The clique were, on the whole, men of genteel education and
refined tastes. They formed an exclusive circle of associates. Officers
of the army, on full pay, were admitted to the society of their wives
and daughters, and no one else but one of themselves, and indeed the
gentry of the country consisted of the Governor, the Bishop, a Chief
Justice, the Clerk of the Executive Council, a few of the leading
merchants, who were members of the Legislative Council, or who were the
descendants of an Executive Councillor, or of an Aid-de-Camp, the
Colonels of Engineers and Artillery, with such of the other officers of
these corps who cared for the society of an honorable possessor of
waste lands or Timber Broker, and the officers of the regiments of the
line. In the principal towns the clergy of the Church of Scotland were
sometimes looked upon as gentlemen. Elsewhere, in common with the
clergy of dissenting congregations, they were only on a footing with
those many respectable people who cultivated farms, kept shops, or
owned steamboats. The banker had not even yet reached that scale of
importance which would have entitled him to be considered one of the
gentry. Among Governors, Bishops, Chief Justices, Clerks of Council,
and officers of the army, it would have been wonderful had there not
been men of literary tastes. These tastes did prevail and required
gratification. In Lower Canada, it was suggested to Lord Dalhousie that
it would do him honor were he to be the founder of a Literary and
Historical Society. Lord Dalhousie--who was a really excellent
man--although a blundering governor in Lower Canada, where he had such
men as Neilson, Stuart, Papineau and even the supple Vallières to
thwart him--and anxious to benefit the colony as much as he could at
once took the hint. He founded it in Quebec, and became its patron. It
was founded for the purpose of investigating points of history,
immediately connected with the Canadas; to discover and rescue from the
unsparing hand of time the records which remained of the earliest
history of New France; to preserve such documents as might be found
amid the dust of unexplored depositories, and which might prove
important to general history and to the particular history of the
province. The Society has not been unproductive of good. Indeed it
acquired at one time even a distant reputation. There have been both
able and educated men connected with it. The Reverend Daniel Wilkie,
LL.D., one of the most eminent teachers of youth, which the country
has yet known, a man of great learning, and capable of profound
thought, contributed many valuable papers to it. The Honorable Andrew
William Cochran, an accomplished scholar, was its President. The Skeys,
the Badgleys, the Fishers, the Sewells, the Vallières, the Stuarts, the
Blacks, the Sheppards, the Morrins, the Doluglasses, the Reverend Dr.
Cook, the Bishops Mountain, the Greens, the Faribaults, and indeed all
the men of learning and note in the country were associated with it.
But it is decaying. The men, a greater part of whom were, in a
political sense, injurious to the country, who were capable of holding
up such a society, are being supplanted by more practicable men of
inferior literary acquirements, such as the Camerons, the Richards, the
Smiths, or the Browns. The literature of the country is increasing in
quantity and diminishing in quality, and so it will continue to do
until the wealth of the country becomes more considerable. The means
for the obtainment of a simply classical education are now at the very
door. There are universities in Quebec, Montreal, Kingston, and
Toronto, but there are yet only a very few men with time sufficient at
their disposal, even in winter, to become Icelandically learned. The
society should, however, be maintained, and it would reflect credit on
any government to vote it a yearly grant of at least £300. Lord
Dalhousie was a benevolent and personally upright man. Among other good
things which he did, unconnected with politics, was the gift from the
Jesuits' Estates Fund of £300, and a large donation out of his privy
purse to assist in the enlargement of St. Andrew's Church; which at an
expense of £2,300 was completed in 1824. As a gentleman, no man could
have been more respected than the Earl of Dalhousie was. There was
nothing despicably mean about him. He was liable to be deceived by
others. He never intentionally deceived himself or others. He did not
like the French. He did not like diplomacy. The trickeries of the
hustings were distasteful to him. He rejoiced in being a good soldier
and an honest man, and he would have been glad had all the world been
as he was. He should not, however, have been the Governor of Canada, or
the Governor of any colony with a constitution, which could only be
successfully worked by the most skilful manoeuvring and adroit
trickery. His Lordship sailed for England on the 6th of June, 1824, and
the government of Lower Canada devolved on the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir
Francis Nathaniel Burton.
[35] Well's Canadiana, page 162.
[36] Well's Canadiana, page 164.
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