SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PROGRESS
Quebec had passed through her last ordeal of fire and sword, and for
many years the 31st of December was celebrated with enthusiasm as the
anniversary of the victory. But although the effort to detach the
French Canadians from their allegiance to Great Britain resulted
miserably in the defeat of Montgomery and Arnold, the Thirteen
Colonies did not quite relinquish the hope of accomplishing their end.
Instead of an army, Congress now despatched commissioners to Canada,
Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton
being of the number. The mission, however, was without success; for
the ancient capital, although the most foreign in speech and custom of
all places in British North America, remained steadfast under the
temptation to swerve from her allegiance. Franklin, indeed, added
nothing to his reputation by his general relations with the
settlements on the St. Lawrence. For twenty-four years he had held the
position of Deputy-Postmaster General for the English colonies, Quebec
being regarded as in some sense within his jurisdiction; and the
unsatisfactory monthly service between Quebec and Montreal as well as
the absence of intermediate post-offices, had made him unpopular along
the Canadian river. It is not surprising, therefore, that he failed to
arouse the enthusiasm of the French, especially for a cause which
their strong monarchical principles failed to approve.
[Illustration: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
(One of the four American Commissioners to Canada in 1776)]
It is estimated that more than twenty-five thousand United Empire
Loyalists crossed the border at the end of the American Revolutionary
War to live under the British flag. These, for the most part, went to
Upper Canada, the settlements along Lake Ontario and the Bay of
Quinte, being centres of vigorous life and progress; while not a few
settled in Quebec, adding to the sound character of its sturdy
population.
A further accession, moreover, was made by the arrival of two
regiments of Hessians and Brunswickers, who came out to garrison the
citadel. Many of these presently obtained their discharge in order to
marry and settle down in Quebec. The current directory discloses many
names of German origin, names now high up in the roll of citizenship,
but once in the books of the Hanoverian regiments of George III.
A memorable figure passes across the stage of Quebec history just at
this time. In 1782 the frigate _Albemarle_, twenty-eight guns, lay in
the harbour, and her brilliant, handsome commander was Horatio Nelson.
This paragon of fortune had entered His Majesty's Navy as a child of
twelve; at fourteen he was captain's coxswain on the expedition of the
_Carcass_ to the North Pole; and now, with an astonishing experience
crowded into a life of twenty-four years, he dropped anchor before the
rock of Quebec.
[Illustration: CHARLES CARROLL OF CARROLLTON
(One of the four American Commissioners to Canada in 1776)]
The sober Haldimand was Governor, and the _Sturm und Drang_ of the
American Revolution had cast a cloud upon the social life of Canada.
For if Quebec was not what it had been in the days of Sir Guy and
Lady Carleton, the sterner _régime_ of Haldimand had deeper influences
behind it than the militarism of a rigid soldier. Nevertheless, Nelson
and his gay company helped to lighten the heavy cloud, and for the
space of a few weeks dinners and dances, on shore and on board the
_Albemarle_, enlivened the autumn season in the capital. Southey's
_Life of Nelson_ contains rather a quaint picture of the commander of
the _Albemarle_ about this time. Prince William Henry, then known as
the Duke of Clarence, regarded him as the merest boy of a captain he
had ever seen. Dressed in a full-laced uniform, an old-fashioned
waistcoat with long flaps, and his lank, unpowdered hair tied in a
stiff Hessian tail of extraordinary length, he made altogether so
remarkable a figure that, to use the Prince's own words, "I had never
seen anything like it before, nor could I imagine who he was nor what
he came about. But his address and conversation were irresistibly
pleasing; and when he spoke on professional subjects, it was with an
enthusiasm which showed he was no common being."
[Illustration: The Fourth Duke of Richmond.
Governor General of Canada 1818-1819.]
Freemasons' Hall, at the top of Mountain Hill, was the fashionable
rendezvous ashore, and not since the days of Murray's garrison had the
old stone hostel been so merrily possessed. One Miss Mary Simpson
appears to have been a _belle_ of the period; and Sir James Le Moine,
the antiquary, has identified her as the lady whose charms might have
changed the course of history. "At Quebec," writes his biographer,
"Nelson became acquainted with Alexander Davison, by whose
interference he was prevented from making what would have been called
an imprudent marriage. The _Albemarle_ was about to leave the
station, her captain had taken leave of his friends, and was gone down
the river to the place of anchorage, when, the next morning, as
Davison was walking on the beach, to his surprise he saw Nelson coming
back in his boat. Upon inquiring the cause of his reappearance, Nelson
took his arm to walk towards the town, and told him he found it
utterly impossible to leave Quebec without again seeing the woman
whose society contributed so much to his happiness, and then and there
offering her his hand. 'If you do,' said his friend, 'your utter ruin
must inevitably follow.' 'Then let it follow,' cried Nelson; 'for I am
resolved to do it.' 'And I,' replied Davison, 'am resolved you shall
not.' Nelson, however, on this occasion was less resolved than his
friend, and suffered himself to be led back to the boat."[37]
[Illustration: SAMUEL CHASE
(One of the four American Commissioners to Canada in 1776)]
It is not clear why Nelson's utter ruin should "inevitably follow" his
marriage with Mary Simpson. Was it on account of his youth? Or was the
statement due to Davison's distrust of marriage in general? If this
was the reason, it is evident that Nelson was not greatly moved by his
friend's pessimism; for not much more than a year later we find him
making an unsuccessful proposal of marriage to Miss Andrews, the
daughter of an English clergy-man at St. Omer, France, a rebuff for
which, in the following year, he found consolation in an alliance with
Mrs. Nesbit.
[Footnote 37: Southey's _Life of Nelson_, chap. i.]
[Illustration: BREAKNECK STEPS TO-DAY]
The settlement of the United Empire Loyalists in Canada greatly
altered the political complexion of the conquered country. The terms
of the Quebec Act of 1774, though necessary in the circumstances,
were distinctly opposed to the views of the English minority, who
strongly resented the employment of French civil law. And now these
newcomers greatly increased the strength of this English faction, the
peculiar conditions under which they chose to throw in their lot with
Canada giving them a claim upon the Home government which could not be
disregarded. The continuous agitation for parliamentary government
which marked the years from 1783 to 1790, was not confined to the
English section of the population. With the English, however, it took
the special form of a demand for a separate province west of the river
Beaudette, the capital of which should be Cataraqui,[38] "with the
blessings of British laws, and of British Government, and an exemption
from French tenures."
In the midst of this political turmoil, Sir Guy Carleton, who, for his
distinguished services, had been raised to the peerage with the title
of Lord Dorchester, returned to Canada as Governor-General; and on the
23rd of October, 1786, Quebec welcomed her former deliverer at the
landing-stage, the whole population, French and English, uniting to
give him an honourable and joyous reception. Every one felt indeed
that Dorchester was the man to solve the political difficulty of the
period; and with these omens of success he set to work forthwith,
dividing the province into four administrative districts on an
English pattern, and preparing for the English government a careful
report on the social, political, and judicial conditions of his
province, to facilitate remedial legislation.
[Footnote 38: Now the City of Kingston, Ontario.]
[Illustration: Admiral Viscount Nelson]
In the spring of 1791 the younger Pitt introduced into the British
House of Commons a Bill providing for the political needs of Canada.
It proposed the division of the country into two provinces, the
special character of each being preserved through the medium of an
elective assembly. This naturally raised strenuous opposition among
the English minority whom this division would still leave in the
province of Lower Canada. It was all very well, they declared, for the
English of Upper Canada to be accorded representative government, but
for themselves this measure would mean a further decrease of influence
in Quebec. On behalf of the English section of the population, Adam
Lymburner, an influential merchant of the city, proceeded to England,
and was heard at the bar of the House of Commons. The debate was keen
and fierce. Pitt supported the Bill in its original form, contending
that the territorial separation would put an end to the strife between
the old French inhabitants and the new settlers from Britain and the
New England colonies. Edmund Burke, whose speech related mainly to the
French Revolution, was of opinion that "to attempt to amalgamate
two populations composed of races of men diverse in language, laws,
and customs, was a complete absurdity." Fox, opposing the division of
the province, accused Burke of irrelevancy in his address, and made a
speech which provoked a memorable quarrel and brought to an end the
friendship of the two greatest Parliamentary orators of the century.
At last, however, the Bill became law under the title of the
Constitutional Act; and on the 17th of December, 1792, the first
legislature of Lower Canada assembled in the chapel of the Bishop's
Palace, which had been fitted up as a council chamber. From the
seventeenth century this hoary structure of stone had overlooked the
Grand Battery from the top of Mountain Hill, commanding a view of the
basin and the attenuated Côte de Beaupré, of which from the time of
Laval it had been the seigneurial manor-house. In appropriating the
episcopal palace for legislative purposes, the Imperial government
recompensed the Catholic see of Quebec by an annuity. The old French
building was demolished in 1834, and the new House of Parliament, soon
afterwards erected on the same site, served to indicate the wonderful
political development of the French province as an integral part of
the British Empire.
The proclamation of the Constitutional Act, on the 26th of December,
1791, was the signal for great public rejoicings in Quebec. During the
day the regimental bands played to the trooping of the colours on the
Esplanade, and in the evening the streets were ablaze with lights and
torches, while fountains of fireworks broke from the high bastions of
the citadel. A public dinner, attended by one hundred and sixty
gentlemen, brought the _fête_ to a close.
[Illustration: Lord Dalhousie.
Governor General of Canada 1820-1828.]
[Illustration: OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE, QUEBEC]
An unusual feature of these celebrations was the presence of His Royal
Highness Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, son of George III., who had come
to Quebec in the preceding summer as colonel of the Seventh Fusiliers.
The transfer of this gay regiment from the Gibraltar of the Old World
to the Gibraltar of the New did more than merely decorate the social
annals of Quebec; for the visible presence of a prince of the blood
contributed not a little to crystallise the loyalty of a French
province not quite beyond the influence of the great revolutionary
fires of Europe. Although he was but twenty-five, Prince Edward had
the tact and _savoir faire_ of riper years; and during his three
years' residence in the garrison, exerted a great and far-reaching
influence on the fidelity of French Canada. The reception of the
gallant Prince when he landed at the head of his regiment in August
1791 was marked by all that enthusiasm which the Gallic city had
learned of old. Long since, in 1665, the Marquis de Tracy had
schooled her in these august pageants, and now when Commodore Sawyer's
squadron, consisting of the _Leander_, the _Resource_, the _Ariadne_,
the _Thisbe_, the _Ulysses_, and the _Resistance_, dropped anchor in
the basin, Quebec was streaming with flags and bunting and resounding
with music. Next day his Royal Highness held a _levée_ at Château St.
Louis, where the civic authorities assembled to do him honour.
[Illustration: HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF KENT, K.B.]
Prince Edward established himself at Kent House, the sombre mansion in
St. Louis Street, which Bigot had built for the fascinating Angélique
des Meloises almost half a century before. Here he held his court; but
his heart was in the country, and except upon public occasions, he
preferred the stately retirement of Haldimand House, a rustic retreat
still standing near the brink of Montmorency Falls. Gaily he made his
promenade along the Beauport Road, or shot over the marshes of La
Carnardière; and at his own or the neighbouring homestead of M. de
Salaberry, the genial company whiled away many an evening with whist.
Frequent balls and receptions in the old Château recalled the days of
Frontenac's merry court; or, still further back, that night of
Canada's first ball, the 4th of February, 1667, when the courtly
soldiers of the Carignan-Salières regiment led the grand dames of New
France through the mazes of a Versailles quadrille. From a child,
indeed, Quebec had conned the worldly wisdom of Fontainebleau. Her
wholesome reputation for the social graces is reflected in the
compliment paid by George III. to the first Canadian lady who had the
honour to be presented at the Court of St. James's: "Madame, if the
ladies of Canada are at all like you, I have indeed made a conquest!"
[Illustration: ST. LAWRENCE RIVER FROM THE CITADEL]
It was among these gracious spirits that Prince Edward's lines were
fallen; and within the space of three years the large-hearted Duke had
bound the hearts of French Canada more firmly to the throne upon which
his own daughter was to sit as Queen Victoria.
* * * * *
Meanwhile, in Europe, the feudalism which had lost Canada to France
was in its mortal throes. The shock of the French Revolution was
quivering through the hemisphere, and the convulsion was felt heavily
in the New World. In the United States, Washington was President,
Hamilton was at the Treasury, and Jefferson was Secretary of State,
with Madison as a colleague in the Cabinet. In the early stages of the
Revolution the United States had given enthusiastic sympathy to the
movement; but as it grew in violence, all but the mob and Jefferson
and Madison were alienated. No degree of tyranny appeared to offend
the sensibilities of these latter statesmen; and when the French
Convention declared war against England, their approval of that
measure all but committed the United States to the principles of red
republicanism. Genet, the French Ambassador to the United States, with
an insolence that defeated itself, carried on unblushing intrigues
until his recall was requested. For a time, moreover, the populace
cried out for war with England, and only the calm resolution of
Washington averted such a catastrophe. John Jay was presently
despatched to England to negotiate the "Treaty of Amity and Commerce,"
but it required all the weight of the sober-minded portion of the
population to secure its final ratification.
This, however, did not prevent M. Adet, the new French Ambassador to
the United States, from sending an address to the French Canadians,
informing them of the success of the arms of France against the allied
powers of Europe, and calling upon them to rally round the standard of
the Republic. The response to this appeal in the Province of Lower
Canada was absurdly feeble. The greatest power in all Canada--the
Church--shrank in horror from the blood-stained banner of regicide
France; and zealous always for the monarchy, the Catholic hierarchy
indignantly spurned the overtures of a republic whose most cherished
principle was atheism--which had abandoned the worship of God for the
cult of Reason. "For God and the King" had been the priestly motto
from time immemorial, and the new Republic repudiated obligation not
to one only but to both. Accordingly, the vast influence of the Church
was exerted on the side of loyalty to Great Britain.
It must not be assumed, however, that the intrigues which the French
Republic carried on by way of the United States, found no response
whatever in Lower Canada; for naturally enough there were some whose
habitual discontent made them ready for treasonable enterprise. Yet
the promoters of disaffection miscalculated the numbers and strength
of their party, and the resulting demonstration was factitious and
puerile.
Lord Dorchester was withdrawn from Canada in the midst of this small
and abortive mutiny. For sixteen years, all told, this gallant soldier
of Wolfe's army had administered the country he helped to conquer, and
no Governor before or since has earned a more deserving fame. Quebec
and Montreal strove to outdo each other in the protestations of
loyalty and regret marking their valedictory addresses. On the 9th of
July, 1796, the frigate _Active_ embarked the veteran Governor, and
sailed for England. The vessel was wrecked, however, off the island of
Anticosti, fortunately without loss of life; and in small boats Lord
Dorchester and his companions reached Isle Percée, where they were
afterwards picked up by a ship from Halifax and conveyed to England.
General Prescott, who succeeded to the governorship, was a man of
harsher temperament. But although his anxiety for the loyalty of the
French province was much increased by the intrigues of revolutionary
agents, he soon perceived their plans to be fatuous and their
enterprise devoid of importance. While the forward spirits in Quebec
were leavening the mass of the _habitants_ with specious reports of a
French fleet ready to co-operate with them, a force composed for the
most part of ill-disposed Americans was to percolate into Canada from
Vermont. This so-called fleet consisted of a ship, ironically called
the _Olive Branch_, which had sailed from Ostend bound for Vermont
with twenty thousand stand of arms, several pieces of artillery, and a
quantity of ammunition. She had not got far on her way, however,
before a British cruiser seized her and bore her into Portsmouth
harbour.
Meanwhile, Du Millière, an alleged French General, was scattering
money about on the borders of Vermont, while a plausible American was
intriguing at Quebec. With timber cutters and the simplest of artisans
as his confederates, this misguided revolutionist hatched his
theatrical conspiracy in the neighbouring woods. He proposed to
overcome the city-guard with laudanum; and fifteen thousand men were
only awaiting the uplifting of his hand! These and similar illusions
possessed a poor dupe named M'Lane, until the Government having
decided upon the apprehension of the leading conspirators, M'Lane was
arrested and charged with high treason. Chief Justice Osgoode
presided at the trial, and a jury condemned him to death.
[Illustration: PERCÉE ROCK]
On the 21st of July, 1797, above two thousand troops were drawn up in
the streets of Quebec as the chief conspirator was led forth to his
execution on the _glacis_ just outside St. John's Gate. "I saw M'Lane
conducted to the place of execution," writes De Gaspé excitedly. "He
was seated with his back to the horse on a wood-sleigh whose runners
grated on the bare ground and stones. An axe and a block were on the
front part of the conveyance. He looked at the spectators in a calm,
confident manner, but without the least effrontery. He was a tall and
remarkably handsome man. I heard some women of the lower class
exclaim, whilst deploring his sad fate, 'Ah, if it were only as in
old times, that handsome man would not have to die! There would be
plenty of girls ready to marry him in order to save his life!' And
even several days after the execution I heard the same thing repeated.
This belief, then universal among the lower class, must, I suppose,
have arisen from the fact that many French prisoners, condemned to the
stake by the savages, had owed their lives to the Indian women who had
married them. The sentence on M'Lane, however, was executed in all its
barbarity. I saw all with my own eyes, a big student named Boudrault
lifting me up from time to time in his arms so that I might lose
nothing of the horrible butchery. Old Dr. Duvert was near us, and he
drew out his watch as soon as Ward the hangman threw down the ladder
upon which M'Lane was stretched on his back, with the cord round his
neck made fast to the beam of the gallows....'He is quite dead,' said
Dr. Duvert, when the hangman cut down the body at the end of about
twenty-five minutes....The spectators who were nearest to the scaffold
say that the hangman then refused to proceed further with the
execution...and it was only after a good supply of guineas that the
sheriff succeeded in making him execute all the sentence, and that
after each act of the fearful drama his demands became more and more
exorbitant. Certain it is that after that time Mr. Ward became quite
a personage, never walking in the streets except with silk stockings,
a three-cornered hat, and a sword at his side. Two watches, one in his
breeches pocket and the other hanging from his neck by a silver chain,
completed his toilet."
[Illustration: HON. WILLIAM OSGOODE
(First Chief Justice of Upper Canada)]
With Black, the ship-carpenter who turned king's evidence against
M'Lane, the reward was far different. Blood-money failed to solace him
for the contumely heaped upon him; and, according to the historian
Garneau, he was so overcome by public contempt that after some years
he was reduced to begging his bread in the streets of Quebec.
[Illustration: NEW ST. LOUIS GATE]
Since the enactment of this gruesome tragedy more than a century ago,
the steep declivity which joins the Lower to the Upper Town, just
outside St. John's Gate, has retained the name of Gallows Hill. No
other executions appear to have taken place upon the spot, a
well-known hillock upon the Plains of Abraham having been for many
years the Golgotha of Quebec, while Gallows Hill only served this
purpose during a transition period. By 1814 we find an execution
taking place from the gaol erected four years before in St. Stanislaus
Street within the walls. On the 20th of May in this year, Patrick
Murphy paid the extreme penalty of the law for the wilful murder of
Marie Anne Dussault of the Parish of Les Escuriels. Four years later
Charles Alarie and Thomas Thomas were executed at the same place, "for
stealing to the value of forty shillings in a vessel on a navigable
river." The same register chronicles the dire fate of John Hart, a
Nova Scotian who, for larceny, was sentenced to six months'
imprisonment, and to be publicly "whipt between ten and twelve in the
market-place." Hart had no stomach for this ignominy, and escaped from
gaol on the 14th of February, 1826. Having been recaptured three days
later, in November of that year he stood with the noose about his neck
upon the fatal door.
[Illustration: OLD MARKET SQUARE, UPPER TOWN]
It is doubtful, indeed, whether the unfortunate creatures behind those
stout walls on the Côte St. Stanislaus ever breathed the prayer
contained in a quaint inscription which till lately survived upon the
lintel of their prison-house: "_Carcer iste bonos a pravis vindicare
possit._"[39] To-day the building itself serves a more kindly purpose,
though the pious legend over the doorway might need but slight
revision. Morrin College occupies one wing, and the other contains the
well-stocked library of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec.
Valuable manuscripts have taken the place of useless malefactors in
the donjon keep, and the vaults are full of the gold and myrrh of
history.
[Illustration: FRONTENAC TERRACE TO-DAY]
[Footnote 39: "May this prison cause the wicked to bear testimony to
the just."]
The punishment of crime undoubtedly underwent more change in the last
half of the nineteenth century than during several of the preceding
centuries. There is, for instance, a striking resemblance between the
public whipping of John Hart and the chastisement of offenders so long
before as the time of Frontenac. In the year 1681, one Jean Rattier
was condemned to death, but his sentence was commuted on condition of
accepting the post of public executioner. Fourteen years afterwards
Rattier's own wife was apprehended for theft, and according to her
sentence, she was publicly whipped in the Lower Town Market-place by
the dutiful husband.