Serious apprehensions of a war between England and the United States

now began to be entertained. American commercial interests were

grievously affected by the war in Europe, and a kind of spurious

activity, in the hostile preparations which would surely follow a

declaration of war against England, on which country in peace the

merchants of New York, Boston, and the other seaports of the United

States principally depend, seemed to be the only incentive for such a

war. But while the filibusters of "the greatest nation in creation,"

were looking for any cause of war, a good cause, in American eyes,

arose. The American ships of war were mostly manned by British seamen.

Men were greatly in demand for British war vessels, and it was

conceived that the right to impress a British sailor anywhere on land

or water belonged to His Majesty's naval officers. It having reached

the ears of Admiral Berkeley, the Naval Commander in Chief, on the

Halifax Station, that the American frigate "Chesapeake," was partly

manned by British seamen, the Admiral, unthinkingly ordered Captain

Humphreys, of the "Leopard," to recover them. The men on board of the

"Chesapeake" were indeed known to be deserters from H.M.S. "Melampus."

William Ware, Daniel Martin, John Strachan and John Little, British

seamen, within a month after their desertion, had offered themselves as

able seamen at Norfolk, in Virginia. Their services were accepted, and

the "Chesapeake," on board of which they were sent, prepared for sea.

Being made aware of the enlistment of these men, the British Consul at

Norfolk, formally demanded their surrender by the Captain of the

"Chesapeake." Their surrender was refused. Application for them was

then made to the American Secretary of the navy. But he did not

consider it expedient to give them up. Three of the men were natives

of America, two had protection, and the other had merely lost his

protection. The "Chesapeake" sailed on the 22nd of June, and on the

same day was intercepted by the British frigate "Leopard," of 50 guns,

off Cape Henry. Captain Humphreys, of the "Leopard," stepping on board

of the "Chesapeake," demanded the muster of the crew of the American

frigate. Captain Barron, in command of the American frigate, refused

compliance. The British Commander returned and both vessels got ready

for action, the American frigate only, it is said, anticipating

hostilities. Then the Leopard fired upon the Chesapeake and, in thirty

minutes, so disabled her that she struck, when Captain Humphreys

boarded her and took, from among her crew, Ware, Martin, and Strachan,

together with one John Wilson, a deserter from a British merchant ship.

The United States now burned with indignation. Their outraged

nationality could never brook such an insult. Every British armed

vessel was ordered to leave the waters of the United States by the

President. A special meeting of Congress was held. And the American

Minister at the Court of St. James was ordered to demand satisfaction.

He did do so. Mr. Canning, the British Minister, at once offered

reparation, but he objected to any reference to the general question of

impressments from neutral vessels being mixed up with an affair so

unfortunate. Mr. Munroe was not authorized to treat these subjects

separately, and further negotiation between the two ministers was

suspended. Great Britain then sent a special minister to the United

States, empowered to treat concerning the special injury complained of.

Before he arrived most ample preparations were being made in the United

States for war. Millions of dollars were appropriated towards the

construction of 188 gun-boats, and the raising of horse, foot, and

artillery. It was not until 1811 that this huge mistake was settled,

when the British Minister communicated to the American Secretary of

State that the attack on the Chesapeake was unauthorized by His

Majesty's government; that Admiral Berkeley was recalled; that the men,

taken from the Chesapeake, should be restored; and that suitable

provision for the families of the six American seamen killed in the

fight should be made. But, settled as this gross and deplorable mistake

was to the perfect satisfaction of the President, the trading community

of the United States were every day becoming more dissatisfied with the

state of affairs in Europe and the consequent state of affairs at home.

The situation of affairs, on this side of the Atlantic, was indeed

gloomy and critical. France and England were fiercely at war, and were

arraying against each other the most violent commercial edicts to the

destruction of the commerce of neutral nations. There was the British

blockade from the Elbe to Brest; Napoleon's Berlin decree; the British

Order in Council prohibiting the coasting trade; the celebrated Milan

decree; and the no less celebrated British Orders in Council, of

November the 11th, 1807, together with the American Government's edicts

respecting non-intercourse with Great Britain and France to set on edge

the teeth of a people now little scrupulous as to what they did,

provided money could be made, or power be obtained. Strife had

introduced a disposition to intrigue; political cunning had become

fashionable; and political duplicity had lost much of its deformity in

the United States. The finger of derision was no longer pointed at

meannesses; the love of honor, and manliness of conduct, was blunted;

cunning began to take the place of wisdom; professions took the place

of deeds, and duplicity stalked forth with the boldness of integrity.

The American people wanted a quarrel that the whole boundless continent

might be theirs. They had badgered France out of Louisiana, and they

would badger England out of Canada and the West Indies. In New York and

Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore, it was customary to talk of walking

into Canada and squat a conquest, as was afterwards carried into effect

with regard to Texas. Mr. Dunn, the President of the Canadian

government, looked upon the state of feeling in the adjoining republic

with suspicion. He conceived it expedient to feel the public pulse in

Canada. Like a skilful physician he approached the patient cautiously

and good humouredly, to prevent flurry or agitation, and in putting his

hand on the pulse of public opinion, he found it to be healthily strong

and regular. He prescribed only a draft of one-fifth part of the whole

militia of the province. The draft was taken immediately. The Roman

Catholic Bishop of Quebec, or rather the yet only Superintendent of the

Romish Church in Quebec, Mr. Plessis, now rapidly rising into favor

with the Colonial Court, promptly issued a _mandement_ to the faithful,

concerning the war, and a "_Te Deum_" was sung in all of the churches

under his control in Lower Canada. The Canadians turned out with great

alacrity. His Honor the President and Commander-in-Chief expressed his

satisfaction in general orders. Burn's artillery company volunteered.

In ballotting, young bachelors procured the prize tickets of the

married men. Some that were not drawn purchased tickets from some that

were drawn, and there were not a few married people who refused to sell

out, if all that is stated in a Quebec paper of that period can be

credited. No doubt the glories of war were uppermost in men's minds. It

is possible to make war popular and the braggart tone of the Americans

had doubtless contributed considerably to its popularity with the

Canadians.

Colonel Brock was then Commandant at Quebec. He was a man of much

decision of character and of strong natural sense. With the President

he made the most vigorous exertions to discipline the militia and to

put the fortifications of Quebec into a good state of defence. Night

and day men labored at the fortifications. Every addition that

"science, judgment and prudence could suggest," was made.

The income this year was £36,417, and the civil expenditure £36,213.

In Upper Canada, Francis Gore, Esquire, it has been previously

intimated, was Lieutenant-Governor. He first met Parliament on the 2nd

of February, 1807. Twelve Acts were passed, the most remarkable of

which were the Act to establish Public Schools in every district of

the Province, £800 having been appropriated for that purpose, with the

view of giving to each of the eight districts of the Province, a

schoolmaster having a salary of £100 a year; the Act imposing licenses

on Hawkers, Pedlars, and Petty Chapmen,--to the amount of three pounds

for every pedlar, with twenty shillings additional for a hawker with a

horse; eight pounds for every chapman sailing with a decked vessel

and selling goods on board;--five pounds for the same description

of traders sailing in an open boat; and eight pounds on transient

merchants; and the Act for the Preservation of Salmon, which permitted

that fish to be taken with a spear or hook, but prohibited the use of a

net in the Newcastle and Home Districts.

When next the Parliament met, on the 20th January, 1808, the same fears

that were felt in Lower Canada, being felt in Upper Canada, an Act was

passed to raise and train the Militia; £1,600 was granted towards the

construction of roads and bridges; £200 of yearly salary was granted to

an Adjutant-General of Militia; £75 additional was given to the Clerks

of the Assembly; £62 10s. per ton was to be the price of hemp purchased

under an Act of Parliament for the encouragement of its growth in the

Province; an Act for the more equal representation of the Commons was

passed; and Collectors of Rates were to enter into bonds of £200

security.

On the 2nd February, 1809, the Parliament of Upper Canada was again

convened. An Act was adopted for quartering and billeting the Militia

and His Majesty's troops on certain occasions. Householders were to

furnish them with house-room, fire, and utensils for cooking. Officers,

in case of an invasion, having a warrant from a Justice of the Peace,

could impress horses, carriages, and oxen, on regulated hire. Upper

Canada was evidently preparing for an expected struggle, as well as

Lower Canada. £1,045 was this session granted for the Clerks of

Parliament and contingencies, including the erection of a Light House

on Gibraltar Point; Menonists and Tunkers were permitted to affirm in

Courts of Justice; £250 was appropriated for a bridge across the Grand

River; and £1,600 was granted for bridges and highways. In the next

session of the Fifth Parliament, which Governor Gore assembled at York,

on the 1st of February, 1810, £2,000 were granted for the roads and

bridges; the Common Gaols were declared to be Houses of Correction for

some purposes; a duty of £40 a year was set upon a Billiard Table set

up for hire or gain; £606 were applied to printing Journals, Clerks of

Parliament, and building Light Houses. The Act establishing a Superior

Court of Criminal and Civil jurisdiction, and regulating a Court of

Appeals, was repealed; and £250 additional was granted for the erection

of a bridge across the Grand River.

To return to Lower Canada, Lieutenant-General Sir James Henry Craig

arrived at Quebec in the capacity of Governor General, on the 18th

October, 1807, in the frigate Horatio, and relieved Mr. President Dunn

of the government, on the 24th of October. Mr. Secretary Ryland was

very busy at the time. He was flattering himself, he told the Bishop of

Quebec, that the Secretary of State would have received from him a

series of despatches which would "give that functionary a general and

useful knowledge of the state of things in Lower Canada." There were

some who had exerted themselves to defame and injure the President,

with a view to their own private interests. He particularly alluded to

that contemptible animal, Chief Justice Alcock; to his worthy friend

and coadjutor, of whose treacherous, plausible, and selfish character,

he had never entertained a doubt; and to that smoothfaced swindler,

whom the Lieutenant-Governor had taken so affectionately by the hand,

as the man, who, of all others, came nearest in point of knowledge,

virtue, and ability, to the great Tom of Boston. He would add to these

worthies a pudding-headed commanding officer (General Brock!) who, if

the President had given in to all his idle "Camelian" projects, would

have introduced utter confusion into the whole system, civil and

military. He anxiously expected Sir James Craig, whose established fame

assured him that a better choice could not have been made. And he

thought it probable that if his dear, dear Lordship, should not have

had an opportunity of honoring him with a recommendation to His

Excellency of established fame, his services would be dispensed with,

and then he could join his family in England. But should he remain as

Secretary to General Craig, he had it in contemplation to lay before

him a copy of his letter to Lord S., concerning ecclesiastical affairs,

though it would not be prudent to do so until he had ascertained how

far the General's sentiments accorded with his own. In a postscript to

his letter to the dear Lord Bishop, Mr. Ryland goes into raptures. He

had just received a message from Mr. Dunn, telling him that the

Governor General had arrived. He dressed himself immediately and got on

board the frigate with Mr. Dunn's answer to the General's despatch,

before the ship cast anchor, and before any of the other functionaries

knew even that the Governor General was at hand. He found the General

ill in bed, but was so politely received, that the General begged that

he would do him the favor to continue his secretary. He never was so

pleased with any person at first sight. Although he saw him to every

disadvantage, the General appeared to be a most amiable, a most

intelligent, and a most decided character. He, (the General,) landed

about one o'clock, but was so unwell that he begged to be left alone,

and Mr. Ryland only saw him for an instant. But that curious beast, the

Chief Justice, after intruding himself with unparalleled assurance,

upon the General, before he landed, forced himself again upon him, at

the Chateau, when every body but the President had withdrawn, and most

impudently sat out the latter. He did so for the purpose of recommending

as secretaries, his father-in-law, and a young man named _Brazenson_,

or some such name, whom he had brought out with him from England, but

his scheme entirely failed, and his folly would fall upon his own pate!

Mr. Ryland had transacted business with the Governor every day since

he had landed, and had even drawn up a codicil to his will, the poor,

decided Governor, who had adopted Mr. Ryland, was so ill. Nay, Mr.

Ryland, for the love of this one honorable and just man, could have

almost forgotten that he was surrounded by scoundrels, and would bury

in oblivion the mean jealousies of a contemptible self-sufficiency, and

the false professions of smiling deceit. But should it please Almighty

God to remove the incomparable man, and should there be a chance that

the civil government of the province should be again disunited from the

military command, he did hope that the dear, dear Lord, would favor him

with his utmost interest towards enabling him to make the exchange

which Mrs. Ryland would tell his dear Lordship, the Bishop, her husband

had in contemplation.

Sir James Craig was an officer of good family. He was one of the Craigs

of Dalnair and Costarton, in Scotland, but was born in Gibraltar, where

his father had the appointment of Civil and Military Judge. He had seen

much service in the camp and in the field. In 1770 he was appointed

Aid-de-Camp to General Sir Robert Boyd, then Governor of Gibraltar, and

obtained a Company in the 47th Regiment of the line. Having gone to

America, with his regiment, in 1774, he was present at the battle of

Bunker's Hill, where he was severely wounded. In 1776, he accompanied

his regiment to Canada, commanding his company at the action at Trois

Rivières, and he afterwards commanded the advanced guard in the

expulsion of Arnold and his "rebels." He was wounded at Hubertown, in

1777, and was present at Ticonderoga in the same year. He was wounded

again at Freeman's Farm, and was at Saratoga with Burgoyne, and after

that disastrous affair was selected to carry home the despatches. On

his arrival in England, he was promoted to a majority in the 82nd

Regiment, which he accompanied to Nova Scotia, in 1778, to Penobscot,

in 1779, and to North Carolina, in 1781, where he was engaged in a

continued scene of active service. He was promoted to the rank of Major

General, in 1794, and the following year was sent on the expedition to

the Cape of Good Hope, where, in the reduction and conquest of that

most important settlement, with the co-operation of Admiral Sir G. K.

Elphinstone and Major General Clarke, he attained to the highest pitch

of military reputation. Nor were his merits less conspicuous, it is

said, in the admirable plans of civil regulation, introduced by him in

that hostile quarter, when invested with the chief authority, civil and

military, till succeeded in that position by the Earl of Macartney, who

was deputed by the King to invest General Craig with the Red Ribbon, as

a mark of his sovereign's sense of his distinguished services. Sir

James served, subsequently, in India and in the Mediterranean, where he

contracted a dropsy, the result of an affection of the liver. This was

the officer, of an agreeable but impressive presence, stout, and rather

below the middle stature, manly and dignified in deportment, positive

in his opinions, and decisive in his measures, though social, polite,

and affable, who was sent out to govern Canada because a rupture with

the United States was considered probable. Sir James on arrival at

Quebec did not, however, consider hostilities imminent. Nor did he

immediately organize the militia. But he lauded the Canadians for the

heroic spirit which they had manifested. One of his first acts was to

release from prison a number of persons convicted of insubordination,

and sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment in the gaol of Montreal.

The militia of the parish of L'Assomption, in the district of Montreal,

had formed a painful exception in the spirit which they exhibited on

being called upon to enrol for service, to that which had been

exhibited everywhere else. But the rioting had been immediately

suppressed, and the rioters punished by the ordinary Courts at

Montreal. In gaol the rioters manifested contrition, promised good

behaviour for the future, and Sir James, overlooking the faults of the

few in consideration of the general merit, set the prisoners free. On

the 29th of January, 1808, he convened the Legislature. He regretted,

in his opening speech, that there was little probability of a speedy

cessation of hostilities, in Europe. He congratulated the "honorable

gentlemen," and "gentlemen," on the capture of Copenhagen and the

Danish fleet, defending the morality of the offensive measures against

Denmark. He lamented the discussions that had taken place between His

Majesty's government and that of America. He hoped that the differences

would be so accommodated as to avert the calamities of war between two

nations of the same blood. He intended that no means should be

neglected to prepare for the worst. Though the militia had been

selected, he did not think it necessary to call them together, no

immediate circumstance seeming to require it. He had appointed

commissioners for the erection of new gaols in Quebec and Montreal. And

he expected perfect harmony and co-operation between the legislative

bodies and himself, as the representative of the sovereign. All that

Sir James wished to be done the Assembly promised to do.

In those days not only was the Chief Justice a member of the Upper

House, but the Judges of the King's Bench were not ineligible for

election to the Lower House, and some, or all of them, contrived to get

seats there. It does not appear that the Chief Justice was in the Upper

House a mere government tool, for Sir Robert Milnes most bitterly

complained to the Duke of Portland, of the opposition to certain

measures, which he had met with, from Chief Justice Osgoode, who, even

in public, treated him contemptuously. But it is yet probable that some

of the judges in the Assembly, were less the representatives of the

people who had elected them, than the mouth-pieces of the government,

to whom they were indebted for their appointments to the Bench, and on

whose good pleasure, their continuance on the judgment seat, depended.

Be that as it may, the Assembly were jealous of their presence in the

House, and accordingly, this session of Parliament, a motion was

introduced into the Assembly, declaring it to be expedient that the

Judges of the Court of King's Bench, the Provincial Judges of the

Districts of Three Rivers and Gaspé, and all Commissioned Judges of any

Courts that might afterwards be established, should be incapable of

being elected, or of sitting, or of voting in the House of Assembly.

The motion was adopted, and a bill framed upon the resolution, passed

the Assembly. Unfortunately, heedless of the pressure of public

opinion, the Legislative Council threw out the bill! The Assembly were

greatly incensed, and the idea of expelling the judges was entertained;

but for a while relinquished.

Mr. Ezekiel Hart appeared at the Bar of the House to take his seat for

Three Rivers, Mr. Lee, the previous representative of that town, had

died in the course of the previous session, and Mr. Hart had been

elected to succeed him. Mr. Hart was a merchant of good standing. Of

the most spotless private character, he stood in high esteem with his

neighbours and fellow townsmen. But Mr. Hart was not faultless. He was,

by birth, education, and religion, a Jew. When he prayed, he placed the

ten commandments next his heart. In him, those devoted members of the

Society of Jesus, found neither a sympathizer nor a persecutor. A

Christian Legislative Assembly, like that of Canada, of which Sir James

Craig afterwards privately expressed an opinion so ludicrously high,

could not be contaminated with the presence of a Jew. By a vote of

twenty-one to five, it was resolved:--"That Ezekiel Hart, Esquire,

professing the Jewish religion, cannot take a seat, nor sit, nor vote

in this House." Ezekiel departed. The word "_baruch_," was on his

tongue, the signification of which, like that of the French word

"_sacré_," may signify, according to the humour of the utterer, either

an anathema or a blessing. The Assembly being, however, ignorant of the

Hebrew tongue, Mr. Hart was not sent to gaol for breach of privilege,

nor was he even required to apologize. These were the chief topics of

debate, and much time was occupied with them. A sum was voted to repair

the Castle of St. Louis then tottering to decay. The Militia and the

Alien Acts were continued for another year. A bill for the trial of

controverted elections was passed, and in all thirty-five bills were

carried through, all of which His Excellency, the Governor, sanctioned,

except that relative to gaols in Gaspé, which, though afterwards

sanctioned, was reserved for the pleasure of the King to be expressed

on it. On the 14th of April the Parliament was prorogued. The speech

was somewhat lengthy, and on the whole, it was a good one. Sir James

was induced to put a period to the session that he might be enabled to

issue writs for a new House. The critical situation of affairs made him

anxious for legislative assistance, under circumstances, that would not

be liable to interruption from the expiration of the period, for which

one of the branches was chosen. He was glad that so much attention had

been paid to business. He was very much pleased to find that a sum of

money had been granted for the repair of the Chateau. Events of great

magnitude had taken place in Europe. Napoleon had succeeded in exciting

Russia, Austria, and Prussia, to hostilities, against England, and the

Ministers of those Courts had demanded their passports to retire from

the Court of St. James. Napoleon had done more than that. The disturber

of mankind had subverted the government of Portugal, but that

magnanimous Prince, Don Pedro, had emigrated with his Court to the

Brazils, rather than submit to the degrading chains of such a master.

His Majesty, the King of Great Britain, had offered the Americans

reparation, immediately and spontaneously, for the unauthorised attack

upon the _Chesapeake_, but the American government taking advantage of

the state of affairs in Europe, were endeavoring to complicate the

difficulty, to the injury of that power which alone stood between it

and an inevitable doom to the worst of tyranny. And in conclusion, he

begged the representatives of the people to instruct their

constituents, by the influence of their education and knowledge; to

point out to them a sense of their duties in due subordination to the

laws; to advise them to be faithfully attached to the Crown; to let

them into the knowledge of their true situation; to conceal not the

difficulties by which the empire was surrounded, but, at the same time,

to point out the miseries Britain was combatting to avoid; and to

assure them that while Britons were united among themselves, there was

no dread of the result of the present struggle between liberty and

despotism.

The war had had its effect upon the trade of the country. The revenue

had fallen off nearly £1,000, being only £35,943, while the civil

expenditure had increased to £47,231.

In May the general election took place. The contests were not marked by

much bitterness. As before, in the larger towns, the two origins were

equally represented. Even in the counties, several gentlemen of English

extraction, were returned to the Assembly. Mr. James Stuart, the

Solicitor General, now no friend to the Governor nor to his _sub rosa_

adviser, Mr. Ryland, was returned for the East Ward of Montreal. Mr.

Stuart, a lawyer of excellent acquirements, of great independence of

spirit, and of extraordinary mental capacity, instead of being raised

to the Attorney-Generalship, on the elevation of Mr. Sewell to the

Chief Justiceship, in the room of Mr. Chief Justice Alcock, who had

died in August, had been superseded by Mr. Edward Bowen, a barrister

of very limited acquirements, and, being then only a young man,

professionally, very inexperienced. Nay, he was soon afterwards

dismissed from the Solicitor-Generalship, by the Governor, to whom he

had, in some mysterious way, given offence. The Honorable Mr. Panet,

Speaker of the Assembly for the four previous parliaments, was

nominated for the Upper Town of Quebec, and went to the hustings. He

presided at an election meeting, at which there was something like

plain-speaking, a particular kind of speaking most distasteful to the

Acting Paymaster General of Burgoyne's army, an army with which even

Sir James Craig had himself served. All the official class of the city,

"including the resident military officers, and _dependents_ upon the

Commissariat, Ordnance, and other departments in the garrison,"

entitled to vote, voted in favor of another French gentleman, more

acceptable to the government. The _Quebec Mercury_ was strongly opposed

to the Speaker, who, by his plainspeaking, had become offensive to Mr.

Ryland, the _confidant_ of Sir James Craig. Mr. Panet lost his election

for Quebec, but was returned to the Assembly for Huntingdon. The

Governor and his Secretary were very much displeased, and the _Mercury_

was inspired to speak against the bilious spleen of the triumphant

Panet, who was connected with that vile print, the _Canadien_. During

the election for Quebec, a handbill had appeared, calling the

government feeble. Those who issued that handbill, the _Mercury_

exultingly remarked, would have felt that they were not quite under the

government of King Log. The _Canadien_ was, in abuse, the freest of any

paper in the province. It was licentious. It no more consulted that

which it was expedient for a free press to do, than did the House of

Assembly consider that which was suitable to it, a few years past, on

the article of privilege. Mr. Ex-Speaker Panet was connected with the

_Canadien_. He was also a Colonel of Militia. It occurred to Mr. Ryland

that the position of a militia officer was incompatible with the

proprietorship of a newspaper. Accordingly, a few days after the return

of Mr. Panet for Huntingdon, Mr. "H. W. R." the Private Secretary of

the Governor General, was directed to inform Messrs. J. H. Panet,

Lieutenant-Colonel, P. Bedard, Captain, J. T. Taschereau, Captain and

Aid-Major, J. L. Borgia, Lieutenant, and F. Blanchet, Surgeon,

proprietors of the _Canadien_, that the Governor-in-Chief considered

it necessary for His Majesty's service to dismiss them from their

situations as Colonel, Captain, Aid-Major, Lieutenant, and Surgeon, of

the Militia. With regard to the Honorable Mr. Panet, in particular, His

Excellency could place no confidence in the services of a person whom

he had good reason for considering as one of the proprietors of a

seditious and libellous publication, disseminated through the province,

with great industry, to vilify His Majesty's government, to create a

spirit of dissatisfaction and discontent among his subjects, and to

breed disunion and animosity between two races. Had it been the purpose

of the _Canadien_ and of its proprietors to breed discord between the

two races of settled inhabitants, the censure of Sir James Craig would

have been deserved. But that was not its purpose. It aimed only at

equality of privileges, and complained of the sway of officials having

no abiding interest in the country. It was a war between the imported

official class and the native-born or naturalized classes which the

_Canadien_ waged. Doubtless, it went, occasionally, too far. Doubtless,

it forgot to make such distinctions between the officials and the

traders or agriculturists of British origin. Doubtless, it did remember

that the French Canadians had been captives at the conquest, and their

souls revolted at the idea of being lorded over still, though no longer

captives, but British subjects, anxious for the honour of their King,

and ready to defend him from his enemies.

The new Parliament met on the 9th of April, 1809. The Assembly were

directed to choose a Speaker. Out of doors and indoors, in the

Governor's Castle, at the official desk, in the merchant's counting

room, in the baker's shop, in the Council, and in the Assembly itself,

the choice of a Speaker by the Assembly, was a matter of interest. It

was whispered that Mr. Panet had incurred the Governor's displeasure,

and that all the toadies would vote against him. It was blandly hinted

that Mr. Panet having been dismissed from the Militia, the House,

having, regard to its own dignity, could not call him to the Chair. It

was said in conversation that Mr. Panet was an excellent and most

impartial Speaker, and it was a pity that he had suffered himself to

have been connected with the seditious and libellous _Canadien_. Only

for Mr. Panet's unfortunate position, no more suitable person, for the

highly honorable office of Speaker, could have been thought of. But he

must not be Speaker under present circumstances. The Assembly thought

otherwise and, acting independently and fearlessly, elected Mr. Panet

as their Speaker. His Excellency the Governor did not much relish the

choice. He did not, however, refuse to confirm Mr. Panet as Speaker of

the Assembly. It was thought that he would be refused confirmation. But

when he appeared at the Bar, with the House at his heels, and supported

by the Mace, the Honorable the Speaker of the Legislative Council was

only commanded to tell Mr. Panet, that having filled the Chair of

Speaker, during four successive Parliaments, it was not on the score of

insufficiency that he would admit an excuse on Mr. Panet's part, nor

form objections on his own part. He had no reason to doubt the

discretion and moderation of the present House of Assembly, and as he

was, at all times, desirous of meeting their wishes, so he would be

particularly unwilling not to do so, on an occasion, in which they were

themselves principally interested. He, therefore, allowed and confirmed

Mr. Panet to be Speaker. His Excellency, though somewhat ironical in

his mode of confirmation, acted liberally and prudently. In His

Excellency's speech from the throne, allusion was made to the

unfavourable posture of affairs with America; to the revolution in

Spain and to the generous assistance afforded that country by Great

Britain; again to the emigration of the Royal Family of Portugal to

Brazil; to Wellington's victory at Vimeira, by which Portugal had been

rescued from the French; he cautioned the members of the Legislature

against jealousies among themselves, or of the government, which could

have no other object in view than the general welfare; and alluded to

the non-intercourse and embargo policy of the United States, which, so

far, had operated favourably for the Canadian trade, particularly in

the article of lumber, which, owing to the exclusion of British

shipping from the Baltic, had become a staple export. The House was not

pleased at the hints about jealousies, nor very much pleased with His

Excellency's remarks in confirming their Speaker. The reply was not

quite an echo of the speech. It was more. It was a quiet remonstrance

against governmental insinuation. On proceeding to business, the

propriety of expelling the judges was again discussed. A motion to

expel them was even made, but it was negatived. Some even who were

averse to the judges having seats in the Assembly were not prepared to

go the length of expelling them from the House. All that was wanted was

that, in future, judges should be ineligible for seats in the Assembly.

To this end, a committee was appointed to inquire into the

inconvenience resulting from the elections of judges to the Assembly,

with orders to report to the House. The committee inquired and

reported, and of course, reported unfavourably to the judges. A bill to

disqualify the judges was re-introduced and read a first time. Mr. Hart

again appeared at the Bar to take his seat for Three Rivers. He had

been re-elected. He was still a Jew, and showed no disposition to

recant his error. Nor would the House recant their error. The

resolution which had been adopted against Mr. Hart's taking his seat in

the previous Parliament was repeated in this. The House of Assembly

went still farther. A bill to disqualify all Jews from being eligible

to seats in the Assembly, was introduced and read twice. Five weeks had

elapsed and the public business had not begun. The Governor was very

much annoyed. The refractory spirit of the House, as regarded the

judges, was most distasteful to him. Suddenly, on the 15th of May, he

went down to the Legislative Council, assented to five bills, and

summoned the attendance of the Commons. "When I met you, said the now

irate Sir James, at the commencement of the present session, I had no

reason to doubt your moderation or your prudence, and I therefore

willingly relied upon both. I expected from you a manly sacrifice of

all personal animosities. I hoped for a zealous dispatch of your public

duty. I looked for earnest endeavours to promote the general harmony. I

looked for due and indispensable attention to the other branches of the

Legislature. It was your constitutional duty. It was due to the

critical juncture of the times. I have been disappointed in every hope

on which I relied. You have wasted in frivolous debates, or by

frivolous contests on matters of form, that time and those talents to

which the public have an exclusive title. You have abused your

functions. In five weeks, you have only passed five bills. You have

been so intemperate in debate that moderation and forbearance is

scarcely to be looked for without a new Assembly. Gentlemen, Parliament

is dissolved. A new Parliament will be convened as soon as convenience

will permit. My object in thus acting, _is to preserve the true

principles of the free and happy constitution of the Province_." He

turned with peculiar satisfaction from lecturing to the Assembly, to

offer his acknowledgements to the gentlemen of the Legislative Council,

for their unanimity, zeal, and unremitting attention to the public

business, manifested in their proceedings. They were not to blame for

the waste of time and for the little that had been done for the public

good. The Assembly were surprised. It never entered the head of a

single member that Sir James Craig, who, on first meeting a Canadian

Parliament, had been so courteous, would have been so abruptly

censorious. A prorogation was anticipated, when the Usher of the Black

Rod commanded, by order of His Excellency, their presence at the Bar of

the Upper House, but the possibility of a dissolution of Parliament

never occurred to any one. The constitution, boasted so much of, was

certainly a happy one. The representatives of the people were suddenly

sent back to their constituents as unfitted for their business. And for

some time, the country, tickled with the bluntness of the Governor,

applauded the act. Had Sir James desired to be absolute, the country,

before it had had time to consider, would have assisted His Excellency

in a _coup d'état_. It was not until the _Canadien_ had taken the

matter up energetically that any of the discarded legislative materials

could obtain a hearing from their constituents. After the _Canadien_

had criticised the speech from the throne, and had commented on the

Bill of Rights, in allusion to the Governor's measures, with respect to

the Assembly, and as applicable to the existing circumstances of the

Province--"_Nos institutions_, _notre langue_, _et nos lois_,"--public

opinion gradually turned round in favor of the Assembly.

Sir James Craig's opinion of the Canadians had undergone a very

considerable change for the worse. In a despatch to Lord Liverpool,

some short time afterwards, on the state of affairs in Canada, which

Mr. Ryland was sent to London with, Sir James speaks of Canada as

_being a conquered country_, a fact _never to be put out of view_. He

spoke of a colony usually estimated to contain a population of 300,000

souls. Of these, 20,000, or 25,000 only, might have been English or

Americans, and the remainder were French. They were in language,

religion, in manners, and in attachment, French. They were bound to the

English (officials) by no tie, but that of a common government. They

looked upon the government of the province with mistrust, jealousy,

envy, and hatred. He was certain his opinion of them was well founded.

There were very few French Canadians in the country who were not

tainted with the sentiments he had imputed to them generally. Common

intercourse hardly existed between the French and English. The lower

class, to strengthen a word of contempt, added the word _Anglais_ to

it. The upper classes, who formerly associated with the English upper

classes, had entirely withdrawn themselves. The Canadians, generally,

were ignorant, credulous, and superstitious. He did not perceive that

they had any great vice except one. Drunkenness was the prevailing

vice. When drunk they were brutal and quarrelsome. Like other people,

suddenly freed from a state of extreme subjection, they were apt to be

insolent to their superiors. They were totally unwarlike and averse to

arms or military habits, though vain to an excess, and possessing a

high opinion of their prowess. They had been so flattered and cajoled

about their conduct, in the year 1775, that they really believed they

stood as heroes, in history, whereas no people, with the exception of a

very few individuals, behaved worse than they did on that occasion. Now

came the teachings of Mr. Secretary Ryland, which that gentleman did

not think it prudent to bore Sir James with until he had ascertained

how far the incomparable man's sentiments accorded with his own. The

Superintendent of the Church of Rome in Canada, had been designated

Roman Catholic Bishop, by other Governors, which was both dangerous and

wrong, in view of the Queen's supremacy. The Bishop did as he pleased,

in the appointment of curés. His patronage was at least equal to that

of the government. The Bishop was cautious not to perform any act that

might be construed into an acknowledgement of His Majesty's rights. He

would not obey a Proclamation of the King for a fast or thanksgiving,

but issued a "_mandat_," of his own, to the same effect, but without

the least allusion to His Majesty's authority. The arms of Great

Britain were nowhere put up in the churches. With the curés no direct

communication with the government existed. The church selected its

ecclesiastics, the Governor knew not why, from the lower orders. The

Bishop was the son of a blacksmith. The Coadjutor was brother to a

demagogue, the Speaker of the Assembly, an "avocat." The curés saw in

Buonaparte the restorer of the Catholic religion. The Legislative

Council, an object of jealousy to the Lower House, was composed of

everything that was respectable in the Province. There were about

300,000 French inhabitants to 25,000 English and American, yet there

never had exceeded fourteen or fifteen English members in the House of

Assembly, while then there were only ten, and it was desired to get rid

of the judges! The interests of certainly not an unimportant colony,

was in the hands of six petty shopkeepers, a blacksmith, a miller, and

fifteen ignorant peasants, a doctor or apothecary, twelve Canadian

"avocats" and notaries, and four people respectable so far as that they

did not keep shops, together with the ten Englishmen, who composed the

Legislative Assembly. Some of the _habitants_ could neither read nor

write. Two members of a preceding Parliament had actually signed the

roll by marks, and there were five more whose signatures were scarcely

legible, and were such as to show that to be the extent of their

writing. Debate was out of the question. A Canadian Parliament did not

understand it. The _habitant_ M.P., openly avowed that the matter,

whatever it was, had been explained to him. The "moutons" were crammed

at meetings held nightly for the purpose. There was one singular

instance, of a _habitant_, who, in every instance, voted against the

prevailing party. But that was the solitary exception to a general

rule. The Canadians voted _en masse_, as directed--not by the

government. The government was entirely without influence. The Assembly

was the most independent in the world, for the government could not

obtain even that influence which might arise from personal intercourse.

He could not be expected to associate with blacksmiths, millers, and

shopkeepers. Even the _avocats_ and notaries he could nowhere meet,

except during the actual sitting of Parliament, when he had a day in

the week expressly appropriated to receiving a large portion of them at

dinner. The leaders in the House were mostly a set of unprincipled

_avocats_ and notaries, totally uninformed as to the principles of the

British constitution, or parliamentary proceedings, which they,

nevertheless, professed to take for their model. Without property to

lose, these men had gradually advanced in audacity, in proportion as

they had considered the power of France as more firmly established by

the successes of Buonaparte in Europe. They were obviously paving the

way for a change of dominion. Without one act by which to point out

either injury or oppression, the people of the Province had been taught

to look upon His Majesty's government with distrust, and they publicly

declared, while avowing such distrust, that no officer of the Crown was

to be elected into the House. The English in general and their own

seigneurs were entirely proscribed. Except in the boroughs or cities

these classes had no chance of election. A paper called the _Canadien_,

had been published, and industriously circulated in the country, for

three or four years, to degrade and vilify the officers of government,

under the title of _gens en place_; and to bring the government itself

into contempt, by alluding to the Governor as a _ministère_, open to

their animadversions. Nothing calculated to mislead the people had been

omitted in this vile print. The various circumstances that brought

about the abdication of James the Second, had been pointed out, with

allusions, as applicable to the government here. "_La nation

Canadienne_," was their constant theme. Religious prejudices, jealousy,

and extreme ignorance, forbade the expectation of any improvement in

the Assembly. Questions before the Houses were always viewed as

affecting or otherwise some temporal right of their clergy, or having

some remote tendency to promote the establishment of the Protestant

interest. How the Act for the establishment of Public Schools had

passed had always been matter of surprise to him. There was much

jealousy at the progress of the Eastern Townships, which were settled

by American loyalists. The country was beginning to look up to the

members of the Assembly as the governors of the country. Formerly the

cry was--"_La Chambre_ to the devil!" He thought that the only remedy

for the state of things which he had described was to deprive the

province of its constitution, as the provincialists termed their

charter. The people were unfitted for liberty. And here are the

Governor's reasons for saying that a people were incapable of free

institutions. "That spirit of independence, that total insubordination

among them, that freedom of conversation, by which they communicate

their ideas of government, as they imbibe them from their leaders, all

which have increased wonderfully within these five or six years, owe

their origin entirely to the House of Assembly and to the intrigues

incident to elections. They were never thought of before." One really

wonders that even a general officer could have ventured upon sending to

England such trash, a country which had produced a Charles Fox, who

took at the passing of the Separation Act so opposite a view of human

nature. Doubtless, the _habitants_ are precisely, even at this day, as

Sir James represented them to be. But it was superlative impudence in a

man of plebeian extraction to say that he could not associate with

members of Parliament, who followed the occupation of shopkeeping for a

living. It surely was enough for Buonaparte to have stigmatized England

as a nation of shopkeepers. Sir James might have left it alone, after

having experienced the independent energies of a nation of wooden clock

and wooden nutmeg makers. The "_gens en place_" had badly advised him,

and he was too blind to see it. Sir James was an Indian Governor with a

vengeance.

The fortifications of the City of Quebec had been much improved during

the summer of 1808, and the foundations of the four martello towers,

which now stand outside of the fortifications, on the land side, at the

distance of nearly a mile, were laid.

After the dissolution of the Parliament, about the middle of June, the

Governor set out on a tour through the Province. He was attended by a

numerous suite, travelled in great state, and was well received

wherever he halted. At Three Rivers, Montreal, St. Johns, and William

Henry, addresses were presented to him. He was applauded and even

thanked for having stretched the royal prerogative so far as to

dissolve the House without any sufficient reason. What was gained by

the fulsome adulation is not particularly apparent, unless it be that

the _Canadien_ had an opportunity afforded it for not very flattering

criticisms. The opportunity was not by any means lost. The _Canadien_

grinned at the _gens en place_, and even ventured to laugh at the royal

prerogative himself. But the _gens en place_ were not to be laughed out

of countenance by a vile print, which only could appeal to French

passions and Romish prejudices. They only waited until His Excellency

returned to Quebec, to renew their congratulations. The citizens of

Quebec, on Sir James' return to the Chateau, waited upon him with an

address. They approved of his judicious and firm administration. Sir

James, perfectly elated, expressed, in a particular manner, his

satisfaction. It was most gratifying to have received such an address

from those whose "situations" afforded them the more immediate

opportunity of judging of the motives by which he might be actuated on

particular occasions.

In November of this year, the first steamer was seen on the St.

Lawrence. At 8 o'clock on the 6th of that month, the steamboat

_Accommodation_ arrived at Quebec, with ten passengers from Montreal.

She made the passage (180 miles) in sixty-six hours, having been thirty

hours at anchor. In twenty hours, after leaving Montreal, she arrived

at Three Rivers. The passage money was only eight dollars for the

downward trip and nine dollars for the trip upward. Neither wind nor

tide could stop the _Accommodation_, and the _Accommodation_ was

eighty-two feet long on deck. The accommodation afforded to passengers

was not, however, very great. Twenty berths were all that cabin

passengers could be accommodated with. Great crowds visited her

saloons. The _Mercury_ told its readers that the steamboat received her

impulse from an open, double-spoked perpendicular wheel, on either

side, without any circular band or rim. To the end of each

double-spoke, a square board was fixed, which entered the water, and by

the rotatory motion, acted like a paddle. The wheels were put and kept

in motion by steam, which operated in the vessel. And a mast was to be

fixed in her for the purpose of using a sail, when the wind was

favourable, which would occasionally accelerate her headway. After the

_Accommodation_ had made several trips, Upper Canada began to "guess"

about the expediency of having "Walks-in-the-Water." The

_Accommodation_ was built by Mr. John Molson, of Montreal, an

exceedingly enterprising man of business, and for a number of years,

his enterprise secured to him a monopoly of the steam navigation of the

lower St. Lawrence. He died an "honorable," only a few years ago.

During 1808, 334 vessels, or according to the Harbour Master's

statement, 440 vessels, arrived at Quebec from sea, making up 66,373

tons of shipping, in addition to which, 2,902 tons of shipping were

built at the port. The revenue was £40,608, and the civil expenditure

£1,251 sterling. The salaries and contingencies of the Legislature

amounted to £3,077. The salary of the Governor-in-Chief was £4,500

sterling, and that of the Lieutenant-Governor, who had been three years

absent in England, £1,500. On the 28th of November, in this year, Sir

Francis Nathaniel Burton, whose brother was Marquis of Cunningham,

succeeded Sir Robert Shore Milnes, in the now sinecure office of

Lieutenant-Governor, where he remained to enjoy the _otium sine

dignitate_.

A continuance of the peace between His Majesty's government and that of

the United States was, in the beginning of 1810, considered less

probable than ever. After the death of Washington, which occurred on

the 4th December, 1799, during the Presidency of Mr. Adams, political

excitement ran high in the United States. At the expiration of Mr.

Adams' term of office, there were, as candidates for the Chief

Magistracy of the Union, and for the Vice-Presidency:--Mr. Jefferson

and Mr. Burr, on the one side, and Mr. Adams and Mr. C. D. Pinckney, on

the other. Mr. Adams, elected by the Federalist or Tory party, had

given much offence to the Democratic party, by his law against

sedition, designed to punish the abuse of speech and of the press. By

this law a heavy fine was to be imposed, together with an imprisonment

for a term of years, upon such as should combine or conspire together,

to "oppose _any_ measure of the government." No one, on any pretence,

under pain of similar punishment, was to write or print, utter or

publish, any malicious writing against the government of the United

States, or against either House of the Congress, or against the

President. In a word, the liberty of discussion was annihilated. A more

extraordinary law could not possibly have been put upon the Statute

Books of a country, where every official, being elective by the people,

his conduct, while in office was, in a common sense point of view, open

to popular animadversion. As far as producing the effect contemplated

was concerned, the law was altogether inefficacious. The people met and

talked together against their President, the Senate, and the House of

Representatives. Nay, Mr. Adams lost what he designed to secure, his

re-election, by it. The Democrats were furiously opposed to him. While

Messrs. Jefferson and Burr got each seventy-three votes, the opposition

candidates for President and Vice-President, Messrs. Adams and Pinckney

only got, for the former, sixty-five votes, and for the latter,

sixty-four. Messrs. Burr and Jefferson having each an equal number of

votes, it became the duty of the House of Representatives, voting by

States, to decide between these pretenders to the chief power in the

State. The constitution provided that the person having the greatest

number of votes should be President, and that the person having the

next highest number of votes should be Vice-President. For several days

the ballot was taken. The Federalists or Tories supported Mr. Burr, and

the Democrats Mr. Jefferson. At last the choice fell upon the latter,

and Mr. Burr was elected to the Vice-Presidency. It is well to know

these circumstances in connection with subsequent events. Mr. Jefferson

annihilated the minority of the republic. He had as much contempt for

them as Sir James Craig or Mr. Ryland could have had for the conquered

Canadians. He swept them from every office of profit or emolument under

the State. When remonstrated with, by the merchants of New Haven,

respecting the removal of the Collector of Customs at that port, merely

because he was a Federalist or tory, the President quietly replied,

that time and accident would give the Tories their just share. Had he

found a moderate participation of office in the hands of the Democratic

party with whom he acted, his removals and substitutions would have

been less sweeping. But their total exclusion called for a more prompt

corrective. And he would correct the error. When the error was fully

corrected then he would only ask himself concerning an applicant for

office, these questions:--"Is he honest?" "Is he capable?" and "Is he

faithful to the Constitution?" The Tories were almost inclined to burn

the White House.

Ohio was admitted into the Union in 1802; in 1804, Colonel Burr, the

Vice-President of the United States, killed General Hamilton in a duel;

Mr. Jefferson was re-elected President in 1804, and Mr. George Clinton,

of New York, instead of Burr, now deservedly unpopular with all but the

filibustering classes, Vice-President; in 1805, Michigan became a

territorial government of the United States; and in the autumn of 1805

the outcast President Burr was detected at the head of a project for

revolutionizing the territory west of the Alleghanies, and of

establishing an independent empire there, of which New Orleans was to

be the capital, and himself the chief. To the accomplishment of this

scheme, Burr brought into play all the skill and cunning of which he

was possessed. And it was not a little. He had his design long in

contemplation. He pretended to have purchased a large tract of

territory, of which he conceded to his adherents considerable slices.

He collected together, from all quarters where either he himself, or

his agents, possessed influence, the ardent, the restless, and the

desperate, persons ready for any enterprise analogous to their

characters. He also seduced good and well-meaning citizens, by

assurances that he possessed the confidence of the government, and was

acting under its secret patronage. He had another project, in case of

the failure of the first. He designed to make an attack upon Mexico and

to establish an empire there. He failed. Before his standard was

raised, the government was made aware of his designs, and he was

brought to trial, at Richmond, on a charge of treason, committed within

the district of Virginia. It was not proved, however, that he had been

guilty of any overt act, within the State, and he was released. It was

probably to find employment for that restless and desperate class of

persons, with which the United States even then abounded, that the

government of America sought cause of quarrel with Great Britain, as

well as to produce that spurious activity among the industrial classes,

which is ever the result of warlike preparations.

In 1809, Mr. James Madison was elected President of the United States.

During Mr. Jefferson's administration, commercial intercourse with

France and Great Britain had been interdicted. When, however, Mr.

Madison was fairly established in the Presidency, he showed a

disposition to renew intercourse, and was seconded in his endeavours by

Mr. Erskine, then British Minister at Washington. Mr. Erskine

non-officially intimated to the American Secretary of State, that if

the President would issue a Proclamation for the renewal of intercourse

with Great Britain, that it was probable the proposal would be readily

accepted. It was done. But the British government refused to rescind

the Orders in Council of January and November 1807, so far as the

United States were concerned, which would have given the benefit of the

coasting trade of France to the Americans, recalled Mr. Erskine for

having exceeded his instructions, and sent Mr. Jackson to Washington in

his stead. A correspondence was immediately after Mr. Jackson's arrival

at the American seat of government, opened with Mr. Madison's Secretary

of State, and was as suddenly closed. Mr. Jackson was, as a

diplomatist, rather blunt. Repeatedly, he asserted that the American

Executive could not but have known from the powers exhibited by Mr.

Erskine, that in stipulating, as he had done, he had transcended those

powers, and was, therefore, acting without the authority of his

government. The American Executive deemed such an assertion equivalent

to a declaration that the American government did know that Mr. Erskine

had exceeded his instructions. Mr. Jackson denied that his language

could be so interpreted. The American Executive at once replied that

Mr. Jackson's tone and language could not but be looked upon as

reflecting upon the honor and integrity of the American government, and

the correspondence was closed. The British government, not considering

Mr. Jackson's diplomatic efforts as particularly happy, recalled him.

He escaped, however, more direct censure.

These events had just occurred, across the line '45, when Sir James

Craig, now more anxious than ever, to obtain legislative assistance,

under circumstances that would not be liable to interruption from the

expiration of the period for which one of the branches was chosen,

ordered the writs to be issued for a new general election. The

elections took place in October, 1809, when, contrary to the

expectation of His Excellency, most of the gentlemen who held seats in

the parliament which, in the previous May, had been so unexpectedly

dissolved, were again returned. There were some substitutions. But

those only who halted between two opinions, in fearing the government,

while representing the people, were supplanted by men who would echo

the _vox (populi) et preterea nihil_, in the Chamber of Deputies. They

were called together on the 29th of January, 1810. They were told to

elect a Speaker, which they did, by selecting the former Speaker, Mr.

Panet. They were told to appear at the Bar of the Upper House. And they

did appear in the confusion usual on all similar occasions. The

Governor, graciously confirmed their choice of a Speaker, and Mr. Panet

having bowed his acknowledgments, His Excellency expressed his concern

that, far from an amicable settlement of the existing differences,

between the British and American governments, as was anticipated from

the arrangement agreed upon by His Majesty's Minister at Washington,

circumstances had occurred that seemed to have widened the breach, and

to have removed that desirable event to a period scarcely to be

foreseen by human sagacity; the extraordinary cavils made with a

succeeding minister; the eager research to discover an insult which

defied the detection of "all other penetration;" the consequent

rejection of further communication with that minister, and indeed every

step of intercourse, the particulars of which were known by authentic

documents, evinced so little of a conciliatory disposition, and so much

of a disinclination to meet the honorable advances made by His

Majesty's government, while these had been further manifested in such

terms, and by such conduct, that the continuance of peace seemed to

depend less on the high sounded resentment of America, than on the

moderation with which His Majesty might be disposed to view the

treatment he had met with; he felt it to be unnecessary to urge

preparation for any event that might arise from such a condition of

things; he persuaded himself that in the great points of security and

defence one mind would actuate all; he assured the country of the

necessary support of regular troops should hostilities ensue, which

with the "interior" force of the country would be found equal to any

attack that could be made upon the province; the militia would not be

unmindful of the courage which they had displayed in former days,

(when, of course, they behaved worse, with the exception of a few

individuals, than any people ever did![12]) the bravery of His

Majesty's arms had never been called in question; he congratulated the

legislature on the capture of Martinique, and triumphantly alluded to

the battle of Talavera, which had torn from the French that character

of invincibility which they had imagined themselves to have possessed

in the eyes of the world. He recommended the renewal of those Acts

which were designed to enable the Executive to discharge its duty

against dangers, which could not be remedied by the course of common

law; he drew attention to the numerous forgeries of foreign bank notes,

and recommended a penal statute for their suppression; and he remarked

that the question of the expediency of excluding the Judges of the

King's Bench from the House of Representatives had been, during the two

last sessions, much agitated, and that, although he would not have

himself interdicted the judges from being selected by the people to

represent them in the Assembly, had the question ever come before him,

he had been ordered by His Majesty to give his assent to any proper

bill, concurred in by the two Houses, for rendering the judges

ineligible to a seat in the Assembly.

[12] Sir James' letter to Lord Liverpool.

The Assembly, very naturally, entertained the opinion that the Imperial

government had not approved of the conduct of Sir James Craig in

dissolving the previous Parliament. Indeed, even before taking the

speech from the throne into consideration, the Assembly resolved that

every attempt of the executive government and of the other branches of

the legislature against the House of Assembly, whether in dictating or

censuring its proceedings, or in approving the conduct of one part of

its members, and disapproving that of others, was a violation of the

statute by which the House was constituted; was a breach of the

privileges of the House, which it could not forbear objecting to; and

was a dangerous attack upon the rights and liberties of His Majesty's

subjects in Canada. There were, not ten only, but thirteen members of

British origin now in the House of Assembly, and the vote, for the

adoption of the resolution, exhibited a wonderful degree of unanimity

of opinion with regard to the right of freedom of opinion and the

freedom of debate. There were twenty-four affirmative to eleven adverse

votes, and, among those who voted with the minority, were some

officials of French origin. In reply to the address from the throne,

the House expressed its unalterable attachment to Great Britain, they

were grateful and would be faithful to that sovereign and nation which

respected their rights and liberties; it was unnecessary to urge them

to prepare for any event that might arise, they would be prepared; and

the militia, not unmindful of the courage which they had, in former

days, displayed, would endeavour to emulate that bravery, natural to

His Majesty's arms, which had never been called in question. Nay, the

House was exuberant with loyalty. No sooner was the address in reply

presented to the Governor than an address, congratulating the King on

the happy event of having entered upon the fiftieth year of his reign,

was unanimously adopted, and transmitted to the Governor for

transmission to England. The expediency of relieving the Imperial

government of the burthen of providing for the civil list of Canada was

next discussed. It was considered that the sooner the payment of its

own government officers devolved upon the province, the better it would

be for all classes inhabiting it. Ultimately, the province would be

required to defray the expenses of its own government, and the sooner

it did so the less weighty would the civil list be. The minority were

very much opposed to the proposed change. Some, who, twenty-seven years

before, were most anxious to present £20,000 to the King, by a tax on

goods, wares, and merchandise, to assist in enabling His Majesty to

prosecute the war against France vigorously, now that the province was

more than paying her expenses, could not see the necessity of saddling

the country with a burthen which would make it, as they alleged,

necessary to impose duties to the amount of fifty thousand pounds a

year. At first, the very ignorant[13] country people, not knowing that

which was going on, became alarmed at the startling information

conveyed to them by the majority. They expressed their fears that their

friends were betraying them. They were soon pacified. Their members

informed them, or they were informed by the _Canadien_, that when the

House of Assembly had the entire management of the civil list, they

would not fail to reduce the sum necessary to keep up the hospitality

of Government House, and only, _consequently_, consideration for the

Governor-in-Chief; nor would they fail to retrench the several

pensions, reduce the heavier salaries of the employees, cut off the

sinecurists, and, in a variety of ways, lessen the public burthens. The

habitants were no longer alarmed at the additional taxation of £50,000

a year, with which they were threatened. A series of resolutions passed

the Assembly, intimating that the province was able to supply funds for

the payment of the civil list. The province was able to pay all the

civil expenses of its government. The House of Assembly ought "this

session" to vote the sums necessary for defraying the expenses of the

civil list. The House _will_ vote such necessary sums. And the King,

Lords, and Commons of England, were to be informed that the Commons of

Canada had taken upon itself the payment of the government of the

province and that they were exceedingly grateful to England for the

assistance hitherto afforded, and for the happy constitution, which had

raised the province to a pitch of prosperity so high that it was now

able and willing to support itself. Ten gentlemen of British extraction

voted against these resolutions and only one Canadian. The address to

the King, pursuant to the resolutions, was carried by a vote of

thirteen to three. Many members appear to have been afraid of

themselves or rather of the consequences to be apprehended from the

offence which the adoption of such resolutions was calculated to give

the Imperial advisers of the representative of the King in a colony.

Nay, the Governor-in-Chief did not much relish the resolutions. He

turned them over in his mind, again and again. There was something more

than appeared upon the surface. He disrelished the idea of getting his

meat poisoned by its passage through Canadian fingers. He was sure the

King, his master, would pay him well, but, as for the Canadians, they

might stop the supplies. The Assembly waited upon His Excellency with

their addresses. They requested that His Excellency would be pleased to

lay them before His Majesty's ministers for presentation. Sir James

hesitated. The addresses were so peculiarly novel as to require a

considerable degree of reflection. The constitutional usage of

Parliament, recognised by the wisdom of the House of Commons of the

United Kingdom, forbade all steps on the part of the people towards

grants of money which were not recommended by the Crown, and although

by the same parliamentary usage all grants originated in the Lower

House, they were ineffectual without the concurrence of the Upper

House. There was no precedent of addresses to the House of Lords, or

Commons, separately, by a single branch of the Colonial Legislature. He

conceived the addresses to be unprecedented, imperfect in form, and

founded upon a resolution of the House of Assembly, which, until

sanctioned by the Legislative Council, must be ineffectual, except as a

spontaneous offer on the part of the Commons of Canada. The resolutions

were premature. He regretted that he could not take it upon himself to

transmit these addresses to His Majesty's ministers. In his refusal he

was impressed by a sense of duty. But, besides the sense of duty, His

Majesty's ministers, unless commanded by His Majesty, were not the

regular organs of communication with the House of Commons. Even were he

to transmit those addresses, he could not pledge himself for their

delivery, through that channel. He would have felt himself bound upon

ordinary occasions to have declined any addresses similar to those then

before him, under similar circumstances. He would on the present

occasion transmit to the King his own testimony of the good

disposition, gratitude, and generous intentions of his subjects. He

thought it right that His Majesty, "by their own act," should be

formally apprised of the ability and of the voluntary pledge and

promise of the province to pay the civil expenditure of the province

_when required_. He then engaged to transmit the King's address to His

Majesty, with the understanding that no act of his should be considered

as compromising the rights of His Majesty, of his Colonial

Representative, or of the Legislative Council. He significantly hoped

that the House of Assembly might not suppose that he had expressed

himself in a way that might carry with it an appearance of checking the

manifestation of sentiments under which the House had acted. A

committee of seven members were, on the receipt of His Excellency's

answer, appointed to search for the precedents and parliamentary usages

alluded to by the Governor-in-Chief, with instructions to report

speedily. And, that there might be no excuse, with regard to the

improper introduction of a money matter, for a refusal to sanction any

bill that the Assembly might think proper to pass, a resolution was

adopted by the Assembly to the effect that the House had resolved to

vote, in the then session, the sums necessary for paying all the civil

expenses of the government of the province, and to beseech that His

Excellency would be pleased to order the proper officer to lay before

the House an estimate of the said civil expenses. The practice of these

_avocats_, shopkeepers, apothecaries, doctors, and notaries, was

tolerably sharp. The House went again to work upon the expediency of

appointing a Colonial Agent in England, and introduced a bill with that

object, which was read. A bill to render the judges ineligible to sit

in the Assembly passed the Assembly; but the Council amended the bill,

by postponing the period at which the ineligibility was to have effect,

to the expiration of the parliament then in being, and sent it back to

the Assembly for concurrence. Indignant at this amendment, the Assembly

adopted a resolution to the effect that P. A. DeBonne, being one of the

Judges of the King's Bench, could neither sit nor vote in the House,

and his seat for Quebec was declared to be vacant. The vote was

decisive. There were eighteen votes in favor of the resolution and only

six against it, the six being all English names. McCord, Ross,

Cuthbert, Gugy, and such like. If the practice of the _avocats_ was

sharp, the practice of the Governor was yet sharper. Down came the

Governor-in-Chief in two days after the search for precedents had begun

in the Assembly, in not the best of humour, to the Legislative Council

Chamber. On the 26th of February, the uncontrollable Assembly were

summoned before the representative of royalty. He informed the two

Houses that he had come to prorogue the legislature, having again

determined to appeal to the people by an immediate dissolution. It had

been rendered impossible for him to act otherwise. Without the

participation of the other branches of the Legislature the Assembly had

taken upon themselves to vote that a judge could not sit nor vote in

their House. It was impossible for him to consider what had been done

in any other light than as a direct violation of an Act of the Imperial

Parliament. He considered that the House of Assembly had

unconstitutionally disfranchised a large portion of His Majesty's

subjects, and rendered ineligible, by an authority they did not

possess, another, and not inconsiderable class of the community. By

every tie of duty, he was bound to oppose such an assumption. In

consequence of the expulsion of the member for Quebec, a vacancy in the

representation of that county had been declared. It would be necessary

to issue a writ for a new election, and that writ was to be signed by

him. He would not render himself a partaker in the violation of an Act

of the Imperial Parliament, and to avoid becoming so he had no other

recourse but that which he was pursuing. He felt much satisfaction

when the Parliament met, in having taken such steps as he thought

most likely to facilitate a measure that seemed to be wished for, and

that, in itself, met his concurrence; but as, in his opinion, the

only ineligibility of a judge to sit in Parliament arose from the

circumstance of his having to ask the electors for their votes, he

could not conceive that there could be any well founded objection to

his possession of a seat in the Assembly, when he was elected. He

believed that the talents and superior knowledge of the judges, to say

nothing of other considerations, made them highly useful. He lamented

that a measure, which he considered would have been beneficial to the

country, should not have taken effect. But he trusted that the people,

in the disappointment of their expectations, would do him justice, and

acquit him of being the cause that so little business had been done.

[13] Sir James' letter to Lord Liverpool, accompanied by the

explanatory Mr. Ryland.

Such is human nature, that, on leaving the Council Room, Sir James

Craig was loudly cheered. His manliness, combined with stupidity, and

his real honesty of purpose, had its temporary effect upon those who

admire pluck as much in a Governor as in a game cock. Not only was His

Excellency cheered on leaving the Parliament buildings, addresses

poured in upon him from all quarters. Quebec, Montreal, Terrebonne,

Three Rivers, Sorel, Warwick, and Orleans, complimented Sir James. A

more cunning man would have flattered himself that he had acted

rightly. But there was to be a day of retribution. The late members of

the late House of Assembly were not idle. Nor was the _Canadien_

silent. Every means that prudence could dictate, and malevolence

suggest, were resorted to, with a view to the re-election of the

dismissed representatives. The "friends" of the government suggested

that there were plans of insurrection and rebellion. It was insinuated

that the French Minister at Washington, had supplied the seditious in

Canada with money. It was even broadly stated that the plenipotentiary's

correspondence had been intercepted by the agents of the government.

And that which was not said is more difficult of conjecture than that

which was said.

The revenue was this year £70,356, and the expenditure £49,347

sterling; 635 vessels, consisting of 138,057 tons, had arrived from

sea; and 26 vessels had been built and cleared at the port.

At this time there were five papers in Lower Canada. The _Quebec

Gazette_, the _Quebec Mercury_, _Le Canadien_, the _Montreal Gazette_,

and the _Courant_. The three former were published in Quebec, the other

two in Montreal. The _Gazettes_ were organs of the government, the

_Mercury_ and _Courant_ were "namby-pamby," and the _Canadien_ was as

the voice of _le peuple_.

The elections were, in the month of March, again about to take place,

and the government conceived the magnificent idea of carrying a

printing office by assault. When everything was prepared, then was the

time to act. Headed by a magistrate, a party of soldiers rushed up the

stairs leading to the _Canadien_ printing office. The proprietor

received them with a low bow, and much annoyance was felt that no

opposition was offered. The premises were searched. Some manuscripts

were found, and, "under the sanction of the Executive," the whole

press, and the whole papers of every description, were forcibly seized,

and conveyed as booty to the vaults of the Court House. In this action

one prisoner was made. The printer was seized, and "after examination,"

was committed to prison. And, as if an insurrection were expected, the

guards at the gates were strengthened, and patrols sent in every

direction. The public looked amazed, as well it might. The _Mercury_

did not know whether most to admire the tyrannical spirit or the

consummate vanity of the Canadians, and of No. 15, of the _Canadien_,

which contended that the Canadians had rights. As a striking proof of

Canadian tyranny, the _Canadien_ would not allow any but the members of

the Assembly to be a judge of the expediency of expelling Judge

DeBonne! and it was even said that of all those who signed the address

to His Excellency, presented in the name of Quebec, not one was capable

of understanding the nature of the question. In a _dependence_, such as

Canada, was the government to be daily flouted, bearded, and treated

with the utmost disrespect and contumely? "He" expected nothing less

than that its patience would be exhausted, and _energetic measures_

resorted to, as the only efficient ones. From any part of a people

conquered from wretchedness into every _indulgence_, and the _height of

prosperity_, such treatment, as the government daily received was far

different from that which ought to have been expected. But there were

characters in the world on whom benefits have no other effect than to

produce _insolence_ and _insult_. The stroke was struck, the _Mercury_

would say no more. The greatest misfortune that can ever happen to the

press is for it to be in the possession of invisible and licentious

hands. It said no more, because "the war was with the dead!"

Sir James was not very sure that he had acted either wisely or well. He

thought it necessary to explain. Divers wicked and seditious writings

had been printed. Divers wicked and seditious writings had been

dispersed throughout the province. Divers writings were calculated to

mislead divers of His Majesty's subjects. Divers wicked and traitorous

persons had endeavoured to bring into contempt and had vilified the

administration, and divers persons had invented wicked falsehoods, with

the view of alienating the affections of His Majesty's subjects from

the respect which was due to His Majesty's person. It was impossible

for His Majesty's representative longer to disregard or suffer

practices so directly tending to subvert His Majesty's government, and

to destroy the happiness of His Majesty's subjects. He, therefore,

announced, that with the advice and concurrence of the Executive

Council, and due information having been given to three of His

Majesty's Executive Councillors, warrants, as by law authorised, had

been issued, under which, some of the authors, printers, and publishers

of the aforesaid traitorous and seditious writings had been apprehended

and secured. Deeply impressed with a desire to promote, in all

respects, the welfare and happiness of the most benevolent of

sovereigns, whose servant he had been for as long a period as the

oldest inhabitant had been his subject, and whose highest displeasure

he should incur if the acts of these designing men had produced any

effect, he trusted that neither doubts nor jealousies had crept into

the public mind. He would recall to the deluded, if there were any, the

history of the whole period during which they had been under His

Majesty's government. It was for them to recollect the progressive

advances they had made in the wealth, happiness, and unbounded liberty

which they then enjoyed. Where was the act of oppression--where was the

instance of arbitrary imprisonment--or where was the violation of

property of which they had to complain? Had there been an instance in

which the uncontrolled enjoyment of their religion had been disturbed?

While other countries and other colonies had been deluged in blood,

during the prevalent war, had they not enjoyed the most perfect

security and tranquillity? What, then, could be the means by which the

traitorous would effect their wicked purposes? What arguments dare they

use? For what reason was happiness to be laid aside and treason

embraced? What persuasion could induce the loyal to abandon loyalty and

become monsters of ingratitude? The traitorous had said that he desired

to embody and make soldiers of twelve thousand of the people, and

because the Assembly would not consent, that he had dissolved the

Parliament? It was monstrously untrue, and it was particularly

atrocious in being advanced by persons who might have been supposed to

have spoken with certainty on the subject. It had been said that he

wanted to tax the lands of the country people, that the House would

only consent to tax wine, and that for such perverseness he had

dissolved the Assembly. Inhabitants of St. Denis! the Governor General

never had the most distant idea of taxing the people at all. The

assertion was directly false. When the House offered to pay the civil

list, he could not move without the King's instructions. But in despair

of producing instances from what he had done, the traitorous had spoken

of that which he intended to do. It was boldly said that Sir James

Craig intended to oppress the Canadians. Base and daring fabricators of

falsehood! on what part of his life did they found such assertions?

What did the inhabitants of St. Denis know of him or of his intentions?

Let Canadians inquire concerning him of the heads of their church. The

heads of the church were men of knowledge, honor, and learning, who had

had opportunities of knowing him, and they ought to be looked to for

advice and information. The leaders of faction and the demagogues of a

party associated not with him, and could not know him. Why should he be

an oppressor? Was it to serve the King, the whole tenor of whose life

had been honorable and virtuous? Was it for himself that he should

practice oppression? For what should he be an oppressor? Ambition could

not prompt him, with a life ebbing slowly to a close, under the

pressure of a disease acquired in the service of his country. He only

looked forward to pass the remaining period of his life in the comfort

of retirement, among his friends. He remained in Canada simply in

obedience to the commands of his King. What power could he desire? For

what wealth would he be an oppressor? Those who knew him, knew that he

had never regarded wealth, and then, he could not enjoy it. He cared

not for the value of the country laid at his feet. He would prefer to

power and wealth a single instance of having contributed to the

happiness and prosperity of the people whom he had been sent to govern.

He warned all to be on their guard against the artful suggestions of

wicked and designing men. He begged that all would use their best

endeavours to prevent the evil effects of incendiary and traitorous

doings. And he strictly charged and commanded all magistrates, captains

of militia, peace officers, and others, of His Majesty's good subjects

to bring to punishment such as circulated false news, tending, in any

manner, to inflame the public mind and to disturb the public peace and

tranquillity.

Could anything have been more pitiable than such a proclamation? The

existence of a conspiracy on the part of some disaffected persons to

overthrow the King's government was made to appear with the view of

covering a mistake. The proclamation was the apology for the illegal

seizure of a press and types used in the publication of a newspaper, in

which nothing seditious or treasonable had in reality been published.

It was true that the _Canadien_ upheld the Assembly and criticised the

conduct of the Executive, with great severity. It was true that the

_Canadien_ complained of the tyranny of "_les Anglais_." It was true

that the _Canadien_ strenuously supported the idea of the expenses of

the civil list being defrayed by the province and not by the Imperial

government. And it was true that it contended for "_nos institutions_,

_notre langue_, _et nos lois_." It did nothing more. No hint was thrown

out that Canada would be more prosperous under the American, than under

the English dominion. It was not even insinuated that Canada should be

wholly governed by Canadians. All that was claimed for French Canadians

was a fair share in the official spoils of the land they lived in,

freedom of speech, and liberty of conscience. Governor Craig asked the

inhabitants of St. Denis or any of the other inhabitants of the

province to remind him of any one act of oppression or of arbitrary

imprisonment. And at that very moment the printer of the _Canadien_ was

in prison. Nor was he there alone, there were Messrs. Bedard, Blanchet,

and Taschereau, members of the recently dissolved House of Assembly,

together with Messrs. Pierre Laforce, Pierre Papineau, of Chambly, and

François Corbeille, of Isle Jésus, to keep him company, on charges of

treasonable practices, concerning which there was not, and never had

been, even the shadow of proof, on charges which the government did not

attempt even to prove, and on charges which were withdrawn without the

accused having ever been confronted with their accusers. Base and

daring fabricators of falsehood! François Corbeille, an innocent man,

the victim only of unjust suspicions, on the one hand, and of

diabolical selfishness, on the other, died in consequence of the injury

his health received in that prison where tyranny had placed him. But he

could issue no proclamation. His voice was not loud enough in the tomb

to reach the Court of St. James, surrounded as that Court was, by an

impenetrable phalanx of Downing Street Red-tapists. Canada was only

mis-governed because England was deceived, through the instrumentality

of Governors, honorable enough as men, but so wanting in administrative

capacity, as to be open to the vile flattery and base insinuations of

those who were, or rather should have been at once the faithful

servants of the Crown and of that people who upheld it, who were

virtually taken possession of, on arrival, by the "_gens en place_,"

and held safely in custody, until their nominal power had ceased. And

when power had passed away, then only did many of them perceive, as Sir

James Craig is reported to have done, the deception, the ingratitude,

and the almost inhumanity of man. There is some excuse to be offered

for the extraordinary course of policy pursued by Sir James Craig; and

an apology even can be made for the crooked policy of those voluntary

advisers who had hedged him in. Great Britain was at war with France.

The name of a Frenchman was unmusical in the ears of any Englishman of

that period, and it sounded harshly in the ears of the British soldier.

It was France that had prostituted liberty to lust. It was France that

had dragged public opinion to the scaffold and the guillotine. It was

France that held the axe uplifted over all that was good and holy. It

was France that was making all Europe a charnel-house. It was General

Buonaparte of France, who only sought to subdue England, the more

easily to conquer the world. Many an English hearth had cursed his

name. Many a widow had he made desolate, and many an orphan fatherless.

The "conquered subjects" of King George spoke and thought in French.

They held French traditions in veneration. There could only be a

jealousy, a hatred, a contempt entertained of everything seeming to be

French, in the heart of an Englishman. And these sentiments were

doubtless reciprocated. But, still the French of Canada, were only,

now, French by extraction. They had long lost that love of the land of

their origin, which belongs to nativity. Few men in the province had

been born in France. Few Canadians knew anything about the new regime,

or took any interest in the "_Code Napoléon_." And few even cherished

flattering recollections of Bourbon rule. The Canadians wanted English

liberty, not French republicanism. The Canadians wanted to have for

themselves so much liberty as a Scotchman might enjoy at John O'Groats,

or an Englishman obtain at Land's-End. And for so desiring liberty they

were misrepresented, because of English colonial prejudices, and

because of official dislikes and selfishness. When the first

Attorney-General of Canada, Mr. Mazzeres, afterwards Cursitor Baron of

the Exchequer, in England, of whom Mr. Ryland was but a pious follower,

proposed to convert the Canadians to Anglicism in religion, in manners,

and in law, assuredly little opposition could have been made to the

scheme. Then, the pursuance of Cardinal Richelieu's policy would, in

after ages, have exemplified that the pen had been mightier than the

sword. Then the whole population of the province could have been housed

in one of the larger cities of the present time. But when the province

had increased in numbers to 300,000, partially schooled in English

legislation, the exercise of despotism was only as impolitic as it was

obviously unjust. It was feared by the officers of the civil government

of Canada, when this despotism was practised, that the legislature

might have the power, which has since been conceded, of dispensing with

the services of merely imperial officers, and of filling, with natives

to the manor born, every office of profit or emolument in the province.

It was feared if the exclusive power were granted to the Colonial

Legislature of appropriating all the sums necessary for the civil

expenditure of the province, that it would give the Legislature

absolute control over the officers of the empire and of the colony, and

annihilate, if not actually, potentially, the _imperium_ of Great

Britain over her colony. A distinction was drawn between the privileges

of a colonist and of the resident of the United Kingdom. While every

municipality in the latter was permitted to pay and control its own

officers, the voice of a colonist was to be unheard in the councils of

the nation to which he was attached, and he was to have no control over

the actions of those who were to make or administer the laws, under

which he lived. He was patiently to submit to the overbearing

assumptions of some plebeian Viceroy, accidentally raised to a

quasi-level with the great potentates of the earth, and inclined to

ride with his temporary and borrowed power, after that great

impersonage of evil, which, it is alleged, the beggar always attempts

to overtake when, having thrown off his rags and poverty, he has been

mounted on horseback. It is admitted that at this time the province was

controlled by a few rapacious, overbearing, and irresponsible

officials, without stake or other connection with the country, than

their offices,[14] having no sympathy with the mass of the inhabitants.

It is admitted that these officials lorded it over the people, upon

whose substance they existed, and that they were not confided in, but

hated. It is admitted that their influence with the English inhabitants

arose from the command of the treasury. And it is admitted that, though

only the servants of the government, they acted as if they had been

princes among the natives and inhabitants of the province, upon whom

they affected to look down, estranging them from all direct

intercourse, or intimacy, with the Governor, whose confidence, no less

than the control of the treasury, it was their policy to monopolise. To

the candidates for vice-regal favors, their smiles were fortune, and

their frowns were fate. The Governor was a hostage in the keeping of

the bureaucracy, and the people were but serfs.

[14] Christie's History of Lower Canada, vol. 1, page 347.

Nothing has been left on record to show that when Sir James Craig

issued his absurd proclamation, treason was to have been feared, unless

it be that the clergy were required to read the proclamation from the

pulpits of the parish churches, that Chief Justice Sewell read it from

the Bench, that the Grand Jury drew up an address to the Court and

strongly animadverted upon the dangerous productions of the _Canadien_,

and that the _Quebec Mercury_ expressed its abhorrence of sedition, and

chronicled the fact that 671 _habitants_ had expressed their gratitude

to the Governor, for his "truly paternal proclamation."

In the April term of the Court of King's Bench, the release of Mr.

Bedard from gaol, was attempted, by an attempt to obtain a writ of

_Habeas Corpus_. But the Bench was not sufficiently independent of the

Crown. The writ was refused. The State prisoners were compelled to

remain in prison, indulging the hope that whatever charges could be

preferred against them would be reduced to writing, and a trial be

obtained. It was hoping against hope. Some of the imprisoned fell sick,

among whom was the printer of the _Canadien_, and all in the gaol of

Quebec, with the exception of Mr. Bedard, were turned out of prison.

Mr. Bedard refused to be set at liberty without having had the

opportunity of vindicating his reputation by the verdict of a jury.

Conscious of the integrity of his conduct, and of the legality of his

expressed political opinions, he solicited trial, but the September

session of the Criminal Term of the King's Bench was suffered to elapse

without any attention having been paid to him. Three of the prisoners

were imprisoned in the gaol of Montreal, and were not only subjected to

the inconveniences and discomforts of a damp and unhealthy prison, but

to the petty persecutions of a relentless gaoler. They were one after

the other enlarged without trial, Mr. Corbeil only to die.

In the course of the summer the government had been occupied with the

regulation and establishment of a system of police, in Montreal and

Quebec, and, with that view, salaried chairmen were appointed to

preside over the Courts of Quarter Sessions. The government also

determined upon opening up a road to the Eastern Townships, which would

afford a direct land communication between Quebec and Boston.

Commencing at St. Giles, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, that

road to the township of Shipton, which still bears the name of Governor

Craig, was completed by a detachment of troops.

On the 10th of December, Parliament again met. The House of Assembly

re-elected Mr. Panet to the Speakership, and the Governor approved of

his election. In his speech from the throne, Governor Craig had never

doubted the loyalty and zeal of the parliaments which had met since he

had assumed the administration of affairs. He was confident that they

were animated by the best intentions to promote the interests of the

King's government and the welfare of the people. He looked for such a

disposition in the tenor of their deliberations. He called their

attention to the temporary Act for the better preservation of His

Majesty's government, and for establishing regulations respecting

aliens or certain subjects of His Majesty, who had resided in France.

No change had taken place in the state of public affairs, that would

warrant a departure from those precautions which made the Act

necessary. He did not mean that it should be supposed that he meant to

divide the interests of His Majesty's government from the interests of

the public, for they were inseparable. But the preservation of His

Majesty's government was the safety of the province, and its security

was the only safeguard to the public tranquillity. He therefore

recommended those considerations together with the Act making temporary

provision for the regulation of trade between Canada and the United

States to their first and immediate consideration. He entreated them to

believe that he should have great satisfaction in cultivating that

harmony and good understanding which must be so conducive to the

prosperity and happiness of the colony, and that he should most readily

and cheerfully concur, in every measure, which they might propose,

tending to promote those important objects. And he further intimated

that the rule of his conduct was to discharge his duty to his

sovereign, by a constant attention to the welfare of his subjects, who

were committed to his charge, and these objects he felt to be promoted

by a strict adherence to the laws and principles of the constitution,

and by maintaining in their just balance the rights and privileges of

every branch of the legislature. Sir James Craig's attempts at

maintaining a balance of power were the chief causes of all his

blundering. He did not himself know the proper balance of power between

himself and the governed. He could not possibly perceive when his

balance-beam was out of its centre, and if he had seen a slight leaning

to one side, and that side not his own, he could not have conceived

that the scales of justice would have been very much affected. It never

occurred to him that the displacement of it, only to the extent of

one-sixteenth half of an inch, on the side of Government and Council,

would weigh a quarter of a century against the Assembly, the people and

progress. But so it was. The beam with which Sir James Craig would have

and did weigh out justice, was one-sided, and, to make matters still

worse, the Governor threw into the adverse scale a host of his own

prejudices, and of the prejudices of his secret councillors. He would

have been glad, had the House expelled Mr. Bedard, one of its members,

on the plea that it was prejudicial to its dignity that a

representative of the people should be kept in durance, while the House

was in session, and still more discreditable that that member should be

charged with treason. Hardly had he delivered his speech, and the

Assembly returned to their chamber, when the Governor sent a message to

the House intimating that Mr. Bedard, who had been returned to

Parliament, as the representative of Surrey, was detained in the common

gaol of Quebec, under the "Preservation Act," charged with treasonable

practices. The House most politely thanked the Governor-in-Chief for

the information. The House resolved that Mr. Bedard was in the common

gaol of Quebec. The House resolved that Pierre Bedard was, on the 27th

day of March, returned to Parliament, as one of the Knights

Representative of Surrey. The House resolved that Pierre Bedard, was

then one of the members of the Assembly, for the existing Parliament.

The House resolved that the simple arrest of any one of His Majesty's

subjects did not render him incapable of election to the Assembly. The

House resolved that the Government Preserves Act, guaranteed to the

said Pierre Bedard, Esquire, the right of sitting in the Assembly. And

the House resolved to present a humble address to His Excellency,

informing him that his message had been seriously considered, that

several resolutions had been passed, which they conceived it to be

their duty to submit to His Excellency, and that it was the wish of the

House that Pierre Bedard, Esquire, Knight Representative for the County

of Surrey, might take his seat in the House. The vote in favor of the

resolutions was expressively large. There were twenty-five members

present, and twenty voted for the resolutions. Messrs. Bourdages,

Papineau, senior, Bellet, Papineau, junior, Debartch, Viger, Lee, and

Bruneau, were named a committee to present an address to the Governor,

founded on the resolutions, but they managed to escape that honor. When

it was moved to resolve that an enquiry be made as to the causes which

had prevented the messengers from presenting the address, as ordered by

the House, Mr. Papineau, senior, moved that nothing more should be said

about the address, and the motion was carried. Nor was anything more

said about the unfortunate gentleman who was imprisoned, as the

Governor himself afterwards stated, only as a measure of precaution,

not of punishment, until the close of the session, when he was

released. He was kept in Ham because he might have done mischief, on

the principle that prevention is better than cure, and, when Mr. Bedard

desired to know what was expected of him, the Governor sent for his

brother, the curé, and authorized him to tell Mr. Bedard that he had

been confined by government, "only looking to its security and the

public tranquillity," and that when Mr. Bedard expressed a sense of

that error, of which he was ignorant, he would be immediately enlarged.

Mr. Bedard replied courteously, but declined admitting any error, which

he had not made, or of confessing to any crime of which he was not

guilty. The Governor had heard of the resolutions of the House, and

expected the presentation of the address embodying them, when he

received an application from the elder Papineau, one of the committee,

requesting a private conference on the subject of the resolutions. That

conference only drew from His Excellency the remark that:--"No

consideration, Sir, shall induce me to consent to the liberation of Mr.

Bedard, at the instance of the House of Assembly, either as a matter of

right, or as a favor, nor will I now consent to his being enlarged on

any terms during the sitting of the present session, and I will not

hesitate to inform you of the motives by which I have been induced to

come to this resolution. I know that the general language of the

members, has encouraged the idea which universally prevails, that the

House of Assembly will release Mr. Bedard; an idea so firmly

established that there is not a doubt entertained upon it in the

province. The time is therefore come, when I feel that the security as

well as the dignity of the King's government, imperiously require that

the people should be made to understand the true limits of the rights

of the respective parts of the government, and that it is not that of

the House of Assembly to rule the country." And Mr. Bedard, sensible of

having done no wrong, remained in gaol until the Parliament was

prorogued, as an example to the people that there was no public opinion

worth heeding, in the province, and that the power of the Governor was

something superior to that of the Assembly. The Assembly went to work

after having made the fruitless attempt to liberate Mr. Bedard, and

passed as many bills as were required. The "gaols" bill was temporarily

continued: the repairs of the Castle of St. Lewis having cost £14,980,

instead of £7,000, as contemplated, the additional outlay was voted;

£50,000 were voted towards the erection of suitable parliament

buildings. The Alien Act and that for the Preservation of the

Government were continued, together with the Militia Act, to March

1813; the bill to disqualify judges from being elected to the Assembly

passed both Houses, and to these the Governor assented, proroguing the

Parliament afterwards with great pleasure. Communication with Europe

had been difficult during the winter, on account of the impediments

thrown in the way of American commerce. The Princess Charlotte had

died, and the sovereign himself had become alarmingly indisposed. A new

Act of non-intercourse had been passed in the American Congress. He had

seen among the Acts passed, and to which he had just declared His

Majesty's assent, with peculiar satisfaction, the Act disqualifying the

judges from holding a seat in the House of Assembly. It was not only

that he thought the measure right in itself, but that he considered the

passing of an Act for the purpose, as a complete renunciation of the

_erroneous principle_, the acting upon which put him under the

necessity of dissolving the last parliament. The country was becoming

luxuriantly rich, and he hoped that all would be harmony and tolerance.

He would be a proud man who could say to his sovereign that he found

the Canadians divided and left them united.

On the 19th of June, 1811, Lieut.-General Sir James Craig embarked for

England, in H.M.S. _Amelia_. Previous to his departure he received

addresses from Quebec, Montreal, Three Rivers, Warwick, and Terrebonne,

and when he was about to leave the Chateau St. Louis, the British

population, who admired the old General more perhaps than they did the

constitutional ruler, exhibited considerable feeling. The multitude

took the place of His Excellency's carriage horses and popularly

carried away, to the Queen's wharf, His Majesty's representative. Nay,

the old soldier, who really had a heart, almost wept as he bade

farewell to men, some of whom he had first met with in the battle

field, and had since known for nearly half a century. Sir James too was

ill. It was not indeed expected that he would have lived long enough to

reach England. His dropsy was becoming not only troublesome but

dangerous.[15]

[15] Sir James did reach England, but died shortly afterwards.

He expired in January 1812, aged 62.

Sir James was succeeded in the administration of the government of

Canada by Mr. Dunn.

The Canadians had, during the administration of Governor Craig,

earnestly pursued Junius' advice to the English nation. They had never,

under the most trying circumstances, suffered any invasion of their

political constitution to pass by, without a determined and persevering

resistance. They practically exhibited their belief in the doctrine

that, one precedent creates another; that precedents soon accumulate

and constitute law; that what was yesterday fact becomes to-day

doctrine; that examples are supposed to justify the most dangerous

measures, and that where they do not suit exactly, the defect is

supplied by analogy. They felt confident that the laws which were to

protect their civil rights were to grow out of their constitution, and

that with it the country was to fall or flourish. They believed in the

right of the people to choose their own representatives. They were

sensibly impressed with the idea that the liberty of the press is the

palladium of the civil, political, and religious rights of a British

subject, and that the right of juries to return a general verdict, in

all cases whatsoever, is an essential part of the British constitution,

not to be controlled, or limited, by the judges, nor in any shape to be

questionable by the legislature. And they believed that the power of

the King, Lords, and Commons, was not an arbitrary power, but one which

they themselves could regulate. In a word, they believed that, whatever

form of government might be necessary for the maintenance of order, and

for putting all men on an equality in the eye of the law, the people

themselves were the source of all power, and they acted accordingly.

Mr. Peel, (afterwards Sir Robert Peel,) Under Secretary of State,

condemned the conduct of Sir James Craig, as Governor of Canada. Mr.

Ryland, himself, informed Sir James, by letter, from London, whither he

had been sent with despatches, that when he observed to Mr. Peel that

Sir James Craig had all the English inhabitants with him, and,

consequently, all the commercial interest of the country, Mr. Peel

remarked that the Canadians were much more _numerous_, and he

repeated the same remark more than once, in a way that indicated a fear

of doing anything that might clash with the prejudices of the _more

numerous_ part of the community. And when Mr. Ryland ventured to

suggest that the decided approbation of the Governor's conduct could

not fail to have a _desirable_ effect on the minds of the

Canadians, and that the best way of expressing such approbation, was by

suspending the constitution, as Sir James Craig had recommended, Mr.

Peel thought that a reunion of the provinces would be better than a

suspension of the constitution of Lower Canada. Lord Liverpool thought

that it was not very necessary to imprison the editors of the

_Canadien_. He quietly asked if they could not have been brought

over to the government? Mr. Ryland said that it was not possible, that

Mr. Bedard's motive for opposing the government, was possibly to obtain

office, but he had acted in such a way as to make that impossible. At

dinner with the Earl of Liverpool, at Coombe Wood, Mr. Ryland seems to

have had a combing from Mr. Peel. He writes to Sir James Craig that, in

a conversation with Mr. Peel, before dinner, concerning the state of

things in Canada, he was mortified to find that he had but an imperfect

idea of the subject. He expressed himself as though he had thought that

Sir James Craig had dissolved the House of Assembly on account of their

having passed a bill for excluding the judges. He endeavored to give

Mr. Peel a clear and correct conception of these matters, but God knew

with what success! He recollected Governor Craig's advice, and kept his

temper, but it was really very provoking to see men of fine endowments

and excellent natural understanding, too inattentive to make themselves

masters of a very important subject, which had been placed before them,

in an intelligible manner. When Mr. Peel asked him if the English

members of the House were always with the government, Mr. Ryland said

that in every case of importance, with the exception of Mr. James

Stuart, formerly Solicitor-General, the English members always

supported the views of the government. And, indeed, the

Attorney-General of England, Sir Vicary Gibbs, reported against the

despotic intentions of Sir James Craig, and, at the suggestion of his

secretary, further expressed his official opinion that the paper

published in the _Canadien_, and upon which the proceedings of the

Executive Council of Canada had been founded, was not such as to fix

upon the publishers, the charge of treasonable practices, and that it

was only the apprehensions that had been in Canada entertained, of the

effects of the publication of the paper in the _Canadien_, that

might have made it excusable to resort to means, not strictly

justifiable in law, for suppressing anticipated mischief. The truth was

simply that a stupid old man, filled with the most violent prejudices,

against change of any sort, had been sent to govern a new and rapidly

rising country, and knew not how success was to be obtained. His mind

was full of conspiracies, rebellions, and revolutions, and nothing

else. When he retired to rest, and had drawn the curtains of his bed,

there sat upon him, night after night, three horrible spectres:--the

Rebellion in Ireland, the Reign of Terror in France, and the American

revolution. He slept only to dream of foul conspiracies, and he was

dreaming how they best could be avoided, when in broad daylight he was

most awake.

Upper Canada had not yet become sufficiently populous to require much

legislation. Indeed, the legislature of that province hardly transacted

any business more important than now devolves upon some insignificant

county municipality. There was as yet no party. There were as yet no

grievances. Parliament was annually assembled by Governor Gore, rather

because it was a rule to which he was bound to attend, than because it

was required. He met his parliament again, on the 1st of February,

1811, and business having been rapidly transacted, the royal assent was

given to nine Acts, relative to the erection and repair of roads and

bridges, to the licensing of petty chapmen, to the payment of

parliamentary contingencies, to the regulation of duties, to the

further regulation of the proceedings of sheriffs, in the sale of goods

and chattels, taken by them in execution, to assessments, to bills of

exchange, and to the raising and training of the militia.

On the 30th of September, in the same year, Lieutenant-Governor Francis

Gore resigned the government into the hands of Major-General, Sir Isaac

Brocke, and returned to England, Mr. Dunn, having, on the 14th of the

same month, been relieved of the government of Lower Canada, by

Lieutenant-General Sir George Prevost, Baronet, the Lieutenant-Governor

of Nova Scotia, and now appointed Governor General of British North

America, in consideration as well of his administrative ability, as of

his distinguished reputation as an officer in the army. No sooner had

Sir George arrived at Quebec, than he set out on a tour of military

observation. War was now more than ever imminent. Another difficulty

had occurred at sea. A British sloop of war, the _Little Belt_,

had been fired into by the American frigate, _President_, and, in

the rencontre which followed, had suffered greatly in her men and

rigging. The British Orders in Council had not been rescinded, American

commerce was crippled, the revenue was falling off, and there was that

general quarrelsomeness of spirit which, sooner or later, must be

satisfied, pervading the middle States of the American Union. Congress

was assembled by proclamation, on the 5th of November, and the

President of the United States indicated future events by a shadow in

his opening "Message." Mr. Madison found that he must "add" that the

period had arrived which claimed from the legislative guardians of the

national rights, a system of more ample provision for maintaining them.

There was full evidence of the hostile inflexibility of Great Britain.

She had trampled on rights, which no independent nation could

relinquish, and Congress would feel the duty of putting the United

States into an armour and an attitude, demanded by the crisis, and

corresponding with the national spirit and expectation. Congress did as

they were recommended to do. Bills were passed having reference to

probable hostilities, one of which authorized the President to raise,

with as little delay as possible, twenty-five thousand men.

In Canada every man held his breath for a time.