insurrection broke out in the lower province; and Sir Francis being
requested to state what force he could spare, his answer was, “_All._”
He considered it not only practicable, but desirable, that every soldier
should be removed out of his district, and a full display thus made of
its loyal and peaceful condition. He caused the arms to be deposited in
the city-hall of Toronto, under charge of the mayor, declining even to
place a guard over them to prevent sudden capture. In this state of
things, Mackenzie determined to make an attempt upon the capital. Having
a number of small detached parties throughout the province, who were
ready to obey his mandate, and had even been trained to the use of
weapons, he ordered them to assemble on the 4th of December, on the
great road, called Yonge-street, leading to Lake Simcoe. Hurrying by
cross-paths through the forest, they mustered at Montgomerie’s Tavern,
about four miles from Toronto. Their numbers, at first estimated at
3,000, are not supposed to have exceeded 500. With the view of effecting
a surprise, they attacked every one going to the city; among whom, Col.
Moodie, a distinguished officer, was wounded, and died in a few hours.
Alderman Powell, however, having shot one of his assailants, escaped,
roused the governor, and gave the alarm; upon which Sir Francis ran to
the town-hall, where he found the chief-justice with a musket on his
shoulder, surrounded by a band of brave men, who had hastily assembled.
The arms being unpacked and placed in their hands, they posted
themselves in a defensive attitude at the windows of the building, and
of others flanking it. But Mackenzie, presuming that Powell would
instantly give notice, did not venture to advance—a pusillanimous
resolution, assuredly, since he could never again expect so favourable
an opportunity. By morning 300 royalists were mustered; and in the
course of the day Mr. Allan M^{c}Nab, speaker of the House of Assembly,
arrived with sixty from the Gore District, and others from different
quarters raised the number to 500. On the 6th, the force was considered
sufficient for offensive operations; but the governor, anxious to avoid
the effusion of blood, sent a message to the insurgents, inviting them
to lay down their arms. Mackenzie offered to comply, on condition that a
national convention should be called, allowing till two o’clock for the
answer; but as no reply could be given to this proposition, arrangements
were immediately made for an attack on the following day.
On the 7th of December, at noon, the whole force marched out. In this
civic array, principal commands were held by Col. M^{c}Nab, the present,
and Mr. Justice M^{c}Lean, the late speaker of the Assembly; while the
clerk of the House officiated as adjutant-general. The rebels had
occupied an elevated position in the front of the tavern, where, being
in some degree protected by houses, they endeavoured to make a stand;
but the militia advancing to the charge, with the utmost enthusiasm,
soon broke the whole corps, which dispersed in every direction,
Mackenzie himself escaping with extreme precipitation. They were pursued
four miles; two of the chiefs were taken; the tavern was burnt to the
ground; and the revolt was so completely quashed, that Sir Francis
considered he might safely exercise the attribute of mercy, by
dismissing the greater part of the misguided prisoners.
[Illustration: _Fish Market, Toronto._]
The militia, meantime, had been marching toward Toronto in vast numbers;
2,600 from the Newcastle district; and in all upwards of 10,000.
Immediate notice was now issued, that they might return to their homes;
and those of the eastern districts were authorized to give their aid to
Lower Canada. As it was understood, however, that Duncombe had assembled
a corps in the London district, which had been a main seat of faction,
Col. M^{c}Nab was sent thither with a sufficient force. On its approach,
the chiefs disappeared, and about 300 of their followers laid down their
arms, expressing deep regret, and even a readiness to serve in the royal
army.
The insurrection had thus been entirely put down, and Upper Canada was
everywhere completely tranquil, when a sudden danger arose, which
threatened to become very serious. Mackenzie fled to the town of
Buffalo, in which he held crowded meetings, and kindled a considerable
enthusiasm in his cause. Besides the prevalent democratic feeling,
commercial distress had thrown numbers out of employment, who were ready
to engage in any desperate enterprise. Some of a more opulent class
furnished resources; while Van Rensselaer, Sutherland, and other
individuals acquainted with military service, presented themselves as
leaders of the armament. Thus, a small corps was quickly assembled,
which took possession of Navy Island, situated in the Niagara channel,
between Grand Island and the British shore, which they fortified with
thirteen pieces of cannon. Hence Mackenzie issued a proclamation, in the
assumed name of the Provisional Government of Upper Canada. Volunteers
were invited from that country, and from the States; being assured, that
out of the ten millions of acres which victory would place at their
disposal, each should receive 300 in full property. There was to be no
more dependence on Downing-street; the Assembly, council, governor, and
officers were all to be elected by the people. Trade was to be freed
from all restraints; and, in a strain of rhodomontade, it was added,
that the largest vessels would be able to ascend to Lake Superior.
Recruits continued flocking to this post, till their numbers amounted to
about a thousand. Col. M^{c}Nab soon arrived with double that number of
militia; but he wanted materials for crossing the channel, and forcing
the strong position held by the rebels.
All eyes were now turned to the government of the United States, on
which the question of peace or war evidently depended. As soon as the
first notice was received, there was displayed the most sincere
determination to maintain a strict neutrality. Van Buren, the president,
issued two successive proclamations, warning the people of the penalties
to which they would become liable by engaging in hostilities with a
friendly power; and the debates in congress displayed the most complete
unanimity against any measure which might commit the American government
in such a contest. Clay, Davis, Benton, Calhoun, leaders of opposite
parties, united with one voice in this sentiment. The last of these
declared, that, “of all calamities which could befall the civilized
world, a war with Great Britain would, at this moment, be the most to be
deplored.” There was scarcely time for a legislative enactment; but the
president appointed General Scott, a veteran officer of energetic and
decisive character, to take the command of the disturbed frontier.
Meantime, an event occurred, which, while it weakened the insurgents,
excited a strong fermentation among their adherents. A small steamer,
named the Caroline, had been purchased, or at least was regularly
employed by them, between Fort Schlosser, on the American shore, and
Navy Island, conveying to the latter troops and stores. Capt. Drew was
instructed by Col. M^{c}Nab to intercept her return. He did not succeed;
but seeing her in the channel, moored to the American shore, determined
to attack her. He approached undiscovered to within twenty yards; and
being then asked the countersign, promised to show it when on deck. The
Caroline immediately opened a fire, but the British boarded, and in two
minutes were masters of her. Those who resisted were killed or made
prisoners; while others, who appeared to be peaceable citizens, were put
on shore. The vessel itself, which the strength of the current made it
inconvenient to tow across, was set on fire and abandoned, when the
stream hurried it rapidly to the brink of the great cataract, down which
the flaming mass was precipitated. The wild and picturesque character of
this scene acted strongly on the imagination, and the Americans
resolutely, though, it would appear, without reason, asserted that
unoffending persons had been involved in the massacre, and several even
hurried down the awful abyss.
The loss of the Caroline was soon followed by the arrival of General
Scott, who took vigorous and effective measures to prevent any supplies
or recruits from reaching Navy Island. Meantime, the force of the
assailants was continually augmented; two companies of regulars, with a
train of artillery, had been sent from Lower Canada, and a tremendous
cannonade was commenced. The insurgents, seeing their position become
every day more desperate, determined to evacuate it—an object which
they effected on the 14th of January. Van Rensselaer and Mackenzie were
arrested by the American authorities, but admitted to bail.
Sutherland, with a party of the fugitives, hastened to the extreme west,
where, being reinforced by some adventurers in that quarter, they
attempted an establishment on Bois Blanc, an island in the Detroit
channel. A body of troops, however, was soon despatched against them;
and a vessel, containing not only supplies, but several chiefs dignified
with high military titles, was captured. Finding it impossible to
maintain themselves there, they sought an asylum on Sugar Island, which
belongs to the United States. General Scott, meanwhile, was hastening to
the place; but Mason, the local commander, addressed the refugees, and
by mere dint of remonstrance prevailed upon them to disperse. Attempts
were made at other points to form tumultuary assemblages for invading
Canada; but, under the altered circumstances, these did not excite any
serious alarm.
[Illustration: _Navy Island_
(from the Canada side.)]
Meantime, intelligence of the first insurrectionary movements reached
Britain, where it excited the strongest sensation. A few of the popular
leaders exulted in the event itself, and in the anticipation of its
triumphant issue; but the nation, in general, by no means shared this
sentiment. The Tories, though they accused government of having, by want
of energy, prepared this convulsion, expressed their cordial concurrence
in all the means suggested for its suppression. As the house was about
to rise for the Christmas holidays, ministers proposed, that, instead of
postponing their meeting, as usual, till the beginning of February, they
should fix it for the 16th of January, when, according to the course of
events, suitable resolutions might be adopted.
Parliament had no sooner reassembled, than information arrived, which
left no room to doubt that the rebellion would be suppressed without
having assumed any formidable character. The aims of the government were
therefore directed towards reorganizing the executive on such a footing
as, without suppressing Canadian liberty, might secure future
tranquillity. But it was considered indispensable, for the present at
least, to suspend the constitution of the lower province. A council was
to be named by the Queen, which, with the governor, might exercise the
functions now performed by the two legislative bodies; but their powers
were not to last beyond the 1st of November, 1840, nor were any of their
enactments, unless continued by the proper authority, to be valid beyond
the 1st of November, 1842.
Sir John Colborne, then acting as provisional governor of Lower Canada,
was instructed to carry these measures into immediate execution. The
ministry, however, had determined upon a farther step, with a view to
the ultimate settlement of the province. The Earl of Durham was
solicited and prevailed upon to undertake its government, as well as
that of all British America; and also to turn his attention towards an
improved plan for its future management. His lordship’s high reputation
as a statesman, and the liberality of his views on political subjects,
seemed to afford a security that he would act with vigour, and at the
same time with a strict regard to national freedom. He was empowered to
form a species of representative council, composed of thirteen members
from each province, but to use them merely as advisers, and to call and
dismiss them at pleasure.
On the 29th of May, 1838, his lordship arrived at Quebec, where he was
received in the most cordial manner, for all parties seemed to unite in
expecting from him a settlement of those dissensions which had so
greatly distracted the country. In his subsequent progress to other
districts, and to Upper Canada, as far as Niagara, he met similar
expressions of confidence and congratulation. He was soon, however,
called to decide upon a delicate and difficult question, which Sir John
Colborne had thought it expedient to reserve for his determination.
Wolfred, Neilson, Bouchette, Viger, and other individuals of some
distinction, were lying in the jail of Montreal, charged with high
treason. Some strong punishment was necessary to mark their crime, and
deter from its repetition; yet an impartial jury could not be expected
for their trial, which besides would have reopened all those party
animosities which it was the object of his lordship to appease. Under
this view, he adopted the following course: the prisoners, having been
induced to make a confession of guilt, were sentenced to be deported to
Bermuda, and to be there kept in strict surveillance. If they should
ever return to Canada, without leave from the governor, they were to
suffer the penalty of death. The same was awarded to Papineau and others
implicated in the late rebellion, but who, after its disastrous issue,
had fled the country.
As soon as this ordinance was known in Britain, it created an unusual
excitement in the legislature. Lord Brougham, in the House of Peers,
made a motion, declaring it illegal, as condemning to death without
trial, and to transportation to a colony which was not within the
jurisdiction of the governor-general; but, under the peculiar
circumstances of the case, he proposed a grant of indemnity. This vote,
though strenuously opposed by Lord Melbourne, was carried in the Upper
House by a considerable majority. Ministers then, having received from
the law-officers of the crown an unfavourable report, at least as to the
last particular, considered it impossible to make any farther
resistance. They annulled the ordinance, but at the same time conveyed
to Lord Durham expressions of their regret, of their general approbation
of his measures, and of the unaltered confidence with which they
regarded his administration.
His lordship, however, was not of a character to brook this
interposition. He had, it is true, passed the limits of strict law; but
he maintained that these were scarcely applicable in the critical and
convulsed state of the province; that the sentence was lenient; and, on
the principle of _volenti nulla fit injuria_, the parties concerned
could not be wronged by a decision in which they had cheerfully
acquiesced. In short, there being no substantial injustice inflicted,
Lord Durham thought he had reason to complain that his scheme was not
allowed a fair trial. He had, perhaps, an equal ground of
dissatisfaction in reference to the hostile interference of the
opposition lords, and more especially because the ministers, his
employers, did not resist it to the utmost. Yet it would certainly have
been more magnanimous on his part, had he endeavoured, under every
discouragement, to have done his best to accomplish his undertaking. He
yielded too far to passion and pride, when, even before receiving the
official accounts, he publicly announced his intention of throwing up
the administration. He did not even follow the established course, of
requesting her Majesty’s permission to resign, and waiting till he
received it. In announcing, too, the disallowance of the ordinance, he
commented on the decision with a severity which was considered
irregular, and tending to compromise the royal authority. On the 1st of
November his lordship set sail from Quebec, and on the 26th arrived at
Plymouth.
Meantime, a fresh storm of rebellion brooded over the province. In the
course of the summer, even amid apparent quiet, the burning of a
steam-vessel, called the Sir Robert Peel, in the St. Lawrence, and the
acquittal of the murderers of Chartraud in the face of the clearest
evidence, showed that the spirit of disaffection was still deeply
cherished. By the beginning of winter, arrangements had been made for a
general rising of the _habitans_, supported by a numerous body of
American citizens, who, under the title of _sympathizers_, had
vehemently espoused their cause. Arms and ammunition had been
clandestinely introduced; and a species of association, bound by secret
oaths and signs, had been formed along the whole frontier. Lord Durham
imputes this movement to the proceedings at home, which had shaken the
confidence in his authority, and raised the hopes of the disaffected;
but Sir John Colborne considers that those preparations had been
actively pursued ever since the preceding June. The government of the
United States, though they had no adequate power to prevent the part
taken by their subjects, showed a good disposition, by giving the first
intimation of what was going on to Mr. Fox, the British ambassador at
Washington. The tidings were soon confirmed from other quarters; and Sir
John Colborne lost no time in putting the province in a state of
defence, and procuring an additional force from Nova Scotia.
On the night of the 3d of November, a concerted rising took place in all
the southern counties of Montreal District; but, owing to some failure
of arrangement, the stations along the Richelieu were not found supplied
with arms according to appointment, so that most of the inhabitants
there dispersed and returned to their homes. The chief seat of
insurrection was now farther west, between that river and the St.
Lawrence. There three arch-rebels, Dr. Robert Nelson, Côte, and Gagnon,
had collected about 4,000 men, and established their head-quarters at
Napierville. Their first object was to open a communication with their
friends in the States, for which purpose 400 men were detached to the
frontier. There a body of British volunteers, as brave as loyal, had
stationed themselves, by whom the rebels were attacked, and obliged to
retreat with great loss. To retrieve this disaster, Dr. Nelson, with
upwards of 900 men, marched against the loyalists. The latter, only 200
strong, took post in Odelltown chapel, on which the enemy commenced a
brisk attack; but, after two hours and a half, were obliged to retreat,
with the loss of one hundred killed and wounded. The defenders had an
officer and five men killed, and nine wounded.
Meantime, Major-General Sir James M^{c}Donnell, under orders from the
governor, with seven regiments of the line, crossed the St. Lawrence,
and marched upon Napierville. The rebels, discouraged by former losses,
after a vain attempt to unite their forces, dispersed in every direction
without firing a shot. They still retained a post at Beauharnois; but
Col. Carmichael, with a detachment of regulars, and 1,000 Glengary
militia, drove them out, though with the loss of two men killed and the
same number wounded. Mr. Ellice, and a party of friends, who had been
made prisoners by them at the outset, were allowed to return to
Montreal. On the 11th, a week only after the first movement,
M^{c}Donnell could announce that the insurrection was completely at an
end, without the rebels having been able to open any communication with
their supporters beyond the frontier.
We must now turn to Upper Canada, where, even before the former
outbreak, Sir Francis Head had resigned. The immediate cause was the
disapprobation expressed by Lord Glenelg for his removing Judge Ridout,
on account of his democratical principles, and his refusing to obey an
order to raise to the bench Mr. Bidwell, late speaker of the Assembly,
and an opposition leader. He at the same time, in no measured terms,
condemned the system of conciliation hitherto pursued in the Colonial
Office, whose members he even branded as republicans; insisting that a
stern uncompromising maintenance of the monarchical principle, and the
exclusion from office of all opposed to it, was the only basis on which
Canada could be governed. Ministers unwillingly accepted his
resignation; while the loyal inhabitants, among whom he had rendered
himself highly popular, expressed on the occasion deep regret and
disgust. Col. Sir George Arthur, who had previously held a similar
situation in Van Dieman’s Land, was appointed to succeed him.
The new governor soon found himself involved in difficult circumstances;
for, early in June, bands to the number of 1,000 or 1,200 Americans
crossed the Niagara channel, and endeavoured to excite the people to
insurrection. They attacked a party of fourteen lancers posted in an
inn, and, by setting it on fire, obliged them to surrender. But no
sooner did they learn that Sir George had arrived at Niagara, and that
the country was rising against them, than they hastily recrossed the
frontier, leaving about forty prisoners, among whom were Morrow and
Waite, the first and second in command. In the end of June, a smaller
party passed the St. Clair, and invaded the Western District; but
finding themselves unsupported, and the militia advancing, they
returned, after losing a few of their number, who fell into the hands of
the pursuers.
[Illustration: _The Banks of the River Niagara_
(below the falls.)]
[Illustration: _Quebec._]
The summer now passed in comparative quietness, though the great
movement at the beginning of November continued to be deeply felt along
the upper frontier. Almost simultaneously with the rising in Montreal
District, a body of about 400 sailed from the vicinity of Sackett’s
Harbour, and landed at Prescott. On the 13th, Col. Young, with what
force he could muster, and aided by Capt. Sandom, with an armed steamer,
compelled a large proportion of them to disperse, while the rest took
refuge in a windmill and an adjacent house built of stone, whence they
could not be dislodged. Eighteen British were here killed and wounded.
In the course of the day, Colonel Dundas arrived with four companies
from Kingston, but considered the buildings, the walls of which were
three or four feet thick, too strong to be reduced without cannon. A few
guns and some additional troops being brought up, an attack was
commenced on the 16th, when the party within the stone building, after
some stand, sought to escape among the brushwood, but were all captured;
upon which those in the mill displayed a white flag, and surrendered at
discretion. The whole number of prisoners was 159. The militia, among
whom some lukewarmness had been suspected, showed the utmost zeal, and
mustered to the extent of 5,000.
The Niagara frontier was found by the enemy so well guarded, that no
attempt was made there. But early in the morning of the 4th of December,
about 350 organized at Detroit landed near Sandwich, set fire to a
steamer and to the barracks, and killed several individuals in cold
blood. Being as cowardly as cruel, they were no sooner attacked by a
party of militia, than they fled either to the woods or to the American
shore, leaving twenty-six killed and twenty-five prisoners.
The captives, on the former occasion, had been treated with
extraordinary lenity; but this forbearance not having produced its due
effect, and being loudly complained of by the inhabitants, it was judged
necessary to exercise greater rigour on the present occasion. A
considerable number of the ringleaders were accordingly put to death,
and the rest condemned to severe or ignominious punishments.
-----
[4] I extract the chief part of this _resumée_ of Canadian history from
the very clever work before mentioned, written for the Edinburgh Cabinet
Library, by Hugh Murray, Esq. F.R.S.E. It is on the whole the best work
on the subject that I can find, though, as the reader will doubtless
see, it is written with a very strong national bias. With the reserve of
my own opinion as to his _colouring_, I take the liberty to make use of
the statements of Mr. Murray with little alteration, quite sure that no
where else is to be found so able and enlarged a view of the period of
history in question.
CHAP. IV
CONDITION OF THE INHABITANTS OF CANADA.
* * * * *
We have now brought the historical part of our labours to a close, and
proceed to what is more interesting to the general reader—the social
and moral condition of this interesting people.
The inhabitants of Canada are divided into three classes, among which no
complete amalgamation has yet been formed. These are, the original
French colonists, commonly called _habitans_, the British settlers, and
the Indian tribes.