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.