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CANADA
AND
THE CANADIANS.
BY
SIR RICHARD HENRY BONNYCASTLE, KT.,
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL ROYAL ENGINEERS AND MILITIA OF CANADA WEST.
NEW EDITION.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON:
HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER,
GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.
1849.
Frederick Shoberl, Junior, Printer to His Royal Highness Prince Albert,
51, Rupert Street, Haymarket, London.
CONTENTS
OF
THE SECOND VOLUME.
CHAPTER X.
Return to Toronto, after a flight to Lake Superior--Loons natural
Diving Bells--Birds caught with hooks at the bottom of Niagara
River--Ice-jam--Affecting story--Trust well placed--Fast Steamer--Trip
to Hamilton--Kékéquawkonnaby, alias Peter Jones--John Bull and the
Ojibbeways--Port Credit, Oakville, Bronte, Wellington
Square--Burlington Bay and Canal--Hamilton--Ancaster--Immense
expenditure on Public Works--Value of the Union of Canada with
Britain, not likely to lead to a Repeal--Mackenzie's fate--Family
Compact--Church and Kirk--Free Church and High Church--The Vital
Principle--The University--President Polk, Oregon, and
Canada Page 1
CHAPTER XI.
Ekfrid and Saxonisms--Greek _unde derivaturs_--The Grand
River--Brantford--Plaster of Paris--Mohawks--Dutch
forgetfulness--George the Third, a Republican King--Church of the
Indians--The Five Nations--A good Samaritan denies a drop of
water--Loafers--Keep your Temper, a story of the Army of
Occupation--Tortoise in trouble--Burford 51
CHAPTER XII.
Woodstock--Brock District--Little England--Aristocratic Society in the
Bush--How to settle in Canada as a Gentleman should do--Reader, did
you ever Log?--Life in the Bush--The true Backwoods 75
CHAPTER XIII.
Beachville--Ingersoll--Dorchester--Plank road--Westminster
Hall--London--The great Fire of London--Longwoods--Delaware--The
Pious, glorious, and immortal Memory--Moncey--The German
Flats--Tecumseh--Moravian settlement--Thamesville--The Mourning
Dove--The War, the War--Might against Right--Cigar-smoking and all
sorts of curiosity--Young Thames--The Albion--The loyal Western
District--America as it now is 95
CHAPTER XIV.
Intense Heat--Pigs, the Scavengers of Canada--Dutch Country--Moravian
Indians--Young Father Thames--Ague, a cure for Consumption--Wild
Horses--Immense Marsh 125
CHAPTER XV.
Why Engineer-officers have little leisure for Book-making--Caution
against iced water--Lake St. Clair in a Thunderstorm--A Steaming
Dinner--Detroit river and town--Windsor--Sandwich--Yankee
Driver--Amherstburgh--French Canadian Politeness--Courtesy not
costly--Good effects of the practice of it illustrated--Naked
Indians--Origin of the Indians derived from Asia--Piratical attempt
and Monument at Amherstburgh--Canadians not disposed to turn
Yankees--Present state of public opinion in those Provinces--Policy of
the Government--Loyalty of the People 132
CHAPTER XVI.
The Thames Steamer--Torrid Night--"The Lady that helped" and her
Stays--Port Stanley--Buffalo City--Its Commercial
Prosperity--Newspaper Advertisements--Hatred to England and
encouragement of Desertion--General Crispianus--Lake Erie in a
rage--Benjamin Lett--Auburn Penitentiary--Crime and Vice in the
Canadas--Independence of Servants--Penitentiaries unfit for juvenile
offenders--Inefficiency of the Police--Insolence of Cabmen--Carters
--English rule of the road reversed--Return to Toronto 168
CHAPTER XVII.
Equipage for a Canadian Gentleman Farmer--Superiority of certain iron
tools made in the United States to English--Prices of Farming
Implements and Stock--Prices of Produce--Local and Municipal
Administration--Courts of Law--Excursion to the River Trent--Bay of
Quinte--Prince Edward's Island--Belleville--Political Parsons--A
Democratic Bible needed--Arrogance of American politicians--Trent
Port--Brighton--Murray Canal in embryo--Trent River--Percy and Percy
Landing--Forest Road--A Neck-or-nothing Leap--Another perilous leap,
and advice about leaping--Life in the Bush exemplified in the History
of a Settler--Seymour West--Prices of Land near the Trent--System of
Barter--Crow Bay--Wild Rice--Healy's
Falls--Forsaken Dwellings 205
CHAPTER XVIII.
Prospects of the Emigrant in Canada--Caution against ardent spirits
and excessive smoking--Militia of Canada--Population--The mass of the
Canadians soundly British--Rapidly increasing Prosperity of the North
American Colonies, compared with the United States--Kingston--Its
Commercial Importance--Conclusion 260
CANADA
AND
THE CANADIANS.
CHAPTER X.
Return to Toronto, after a flight to Lake Superior--Loons natural
Diving Bells--Birds caught with hooks at the bottom of Niagara
River--Ice-jam--Affecting story--Trust well placed--Fast Steamer--Trip
to Hamilton--Kékéquawkonnaby, alias Peter Jones--John Bull and the
Ojibbeways--Port Credit, Oakville, Bronte, Wellington
Square--Burlington Bay and Canal--Hamilton--Ancaster--Immense
expenditure on Public Works--Value of the Union of Canada with
Britain, not likely to lead to a Repeal--Mackenzie's fate--Family
compact--Church and Kirk--Free Church and High Church--The vital
principle--The University--President Polk, Oregon, and Canada.
After a ramble in this very desultory manner, which the reader has, no
doubt, now become accustomed to, I returned to Toronto, having first
observed that the harvest looked very ill on the Niagara frontier;
that the peaches had entirely failed, and that the grass was destroyed
by a long drought; that the Indian corn was sickly, and the potatoes
very bad. Cherries alone seemed plentiful; the caterpillars had
destroyed the apples--nay, to such an extent had these insects ravaged
the whole province, that many fruit-trees had few or no leaves upon
them. A remarkable frost on the 30th of May had also passed over all
Upper Canada, and had so injured the woods and orchards, that, in
July, the trees in exposed places, instead of being in full vigour,
were crisped, brown, and blasted, and getting a renewal of foliage
very slowly.
My return to Toronto was caused by duty, as well as by a desire to
visit as many of the districts as I possibly could, in order to
observe the progress they had made since 1837, as well as to employ
the mind actively, to prevent the reaction which threatened to assail
it from the occurrence of a severe dispensation.
I heard a very curious fact in natural history, whilst at Niagara, in
company with a medical friend, who took much interest in such matters.
I had often remarked, when in the habit of shooting, the very great
length of time that the loon, or northern diver, (_colymbus
glacialis_,) remained under water after being fired at, and fancied he
must be a living diving-bell, endued with some peculiar functions
which enabled him to obtain a supply of air at great depth; but I was
not prepared for the circumstance that the fishermen actually catch
them on the hooks of their deepest lines in the Niagara river, when
fishing at the bottom for salmon-trout, &c. Such is, however, the
fact.
An affecting incident at Queenston, whilst we were waiting for the
Transit to take us to Toronto, must be related. I have mentioned that,
in the spring of 1845, an ice-jam, as it is called here, occurred,
which suddenly raised the level of the Niagara between thirty and
forty feet above its ordinary floods, and overset or beat down, by
the grinding of mountain masses of ice, all the wharfs and buildings
on the adjacent banks.
The barrack of the Royal Canadian Rifles at Queenston was thus
assailed in the darkest hours of the night, and the soldiers had
barely time to escape, before the strong stone building they inhabited
was crushed. The next to it, but on higher ground, more than thirty
feet above the natural level of the river, was a neat wooden cottage,
inhabited by a very aged man and his helpless imbecile wife, equally
aged with himself. This man, formerly a soldier, was a cabinet-maker,
and amused his declining years by forming very ingenious articles in
his line of business; his house was a model of curious nick-nackeries,
and thus he picked up just barely enough in the retrograding village
to keep the wolf from the door; whilst the soldiers helped him out, by
sparing from their messes occasionally a little nourishing food.
That night, the dreadful darkness, the elemental warnings, the
soul-sickening rush of the river, the groaning and grinding of the
ice, piling itself, layer after layer, upon the banks of the river,
assailed the old man with horrors, to which all his ancient campaigns
had afforded no parallel.
He heard the irresistible enemy, slowly, deliberately, and
determinedly advancing to bury his house in its cold embrace. He
hurried the unmindful sharer of his destiny from her bed, gathered the
most precious of his household goods, and knew not how or where to
fly. Loudly and oft the angry spirit of the water shrieked: Niagara
was mounting the hill.
The soldiers, perceiving his imminent peril, ventured down the bank,
and shouted to him to fly to them. He moved not; they entreated him,
and, knowing his great age and infirmity, and the utter imbecility of
the poor old dame, insisted upon taking them out.
But the man withstood them. He looked abroad, and the glimmering night
showed him nothing but ruin around.
"I put my trust in Him who never fails," said the veteran. "He will
not suffer me to perish."
The soldiers, awed by the wreck of nature, rushed forward, and took
the ancient pair out by strength of arms; and, no sooner had they done
so, than the waters, which had been so eager for their prey, reached
the lower floor, and a large wooden building near them was toppled
over by waves of solid ice. Much of the poor man's ingeniously-wrought
furniture was injured; but, although the neighbouring buildings were
crushed, cracked, rent, and turned over, the old man's habitation was
spared, and he still dwells there, waiting in the sunshine for his
appointed time, with the same faith as he displayed in the utter
darkness of the storm.
He had built his cottage on land belonging to the Crown; and, in
consequence of an act recently passed, he, with many others who had
thus taken possession, had been ordered to remove. But his affecting
history had gained him friends, and he has now permission to dwell
thereon, until he shall be summoned away by another and a higher
authority, by that Power in whom he has his being, and in whom he put
his trust.
We landed once more at Toronto, at present "The City" of Upper Canada,
on the 7th of July, and left it again on the 8th, in the fine and very
fast steamer Eclipse for Hamilton, in the Gore district, at three
o'clock, p.m. The day was fine; and thus we saw to advantage the whole
shore of Ontario, from Toronto to Burlington.
Our first stopping place was Port Credit, a place remarkable for the
settlement near it of an Indian tribe, to which the half-bred Peter
Jones, or Kékéquawkonnaby, as he is called, belongs.
This man, or, rather, this somewhat remarkable person, and, I think,
missionary teacher of the Wesleyan Methodists, attained a share of
notoriety in England a few years ago, by marrying a young English
woman of respectable connections, and passed with most people in
wonder-loving London as a great Indian Chief, and a remarkable
instance of the development of the Indian mind. He was, or rather is,
for I believe he is living, a clever fellow, and had taken some pains
with himself; but, like most of the Canadian lions in London, does not
pass in his own country for any thing more than what he is known to be
there, and that is, like the village he lives near, of credit enough.
It answers certain purposes every now and then to send people to
represent particular interests to England; and, in nearly all these
cases, John Bull receives them with open arms, and, with his national
gullibility, is often apt to overrate them.
The O-jibbeway or Chippewa Indians, so lately in vogue, were a
pleasant instance, and we could name other more important personages
who have made dukes, and lords, and knights of the shire, esquires of
the body, and simple citizens pay pretty dearly for having confided
their consciences or their purse-strings to their keeping.
Beware, dear brother John Bull, of those who announce their coming
with flourishes of trumpet, and who, when they arrive on your warm
hearths, fill every newspaper with your banquetings, addresses, and
talks, not to honour _you_, but to tell the Canadian public what
extraordinary mistakes they have made in not having so readily, as you
have done, found out their superexcellencies.
These are the men who sometimes, however, find a rotten rung in
Fortune's ladder, and thus are suddenly hurled to the earth, but who,
if they succeed and return safely, become the picked men of company,
forget men's names, and, though you be called John, call you Peter.
The mouth of the little river Credit is called Port Credit, the port
being made by the parallel piers run out into deep water on cribs, or
frames of timber filled with stones, the usual mode of forming piers
in Canada West. It is a small place, with some trade, but the Indians
complain sadly that the mills and encroachments of the Whites have
destroyed their salmon-fishery, which was their chief resource. Where
do the Whites come in contact with the Red without destroying their
chief resource? Echo answers, Where?
Sixteen miles farther on we touched at Oakville, or Sixteen Mile
Creek, where again the parallel piers were brought into use, to form a
harbour. Oakville is a very pretty little village, exhibiting much
industry.
Bronte, or Twelve Mile Creek, is the next village, very small indeed,
with a pier, and then Port Milford, which is one mile from Wellington
Square, a place of greater importance, with parallel piers, a
steam-mill, and thriving settlement; near it is the residence of the
celebrated Indian chief Brant, who so distinguished himself in the war
of 1812. Here also is still living another chief, who bears the
commission of major in the British army, and is still acknowledged as
captain and leader of the Five Nations; his name is John Norton, or,
more properly, Tey-on-in-ho, ka-ra-wen.
That which I wished particularly, however, to see, was now close to
us, the Canal into Burlington Bay.
Burlington Bay is a little lake of itself, surrounded by high land in
the richest portion of Canada, and completely enclosed by a bar of
broad sand and alluvial matter, which runs across its entrance. In
driving along this belt, you are much reminded of England: the oaks
stand park-like wide asunder, and here, on tall blasted trees, you may
frequently see the bald eagle sitting as if asleep, but really
watching when he can rob the fish-hawk of the fruits of his piscatory
toils.
The bald eagle is a cunning, bold, bad bird, and does not inspire one
with the respect which his European congeners, the golden or the brown
eagle, do. He is the vulture of North America rather than the king of
birds. Why did Franklin,[1] or whoever else did the deed, make him the
national emblem of power? He is decidedly a _mauvais sujet_.
[Footnote 1: I think, however, I have read that the philosophic
printer gave him a very bad character.]
The Canal of Burlington Bay is an arduous and very expensive
undertaking. The opening from Lake Ontario was formerly liable to
great changes and fluctuations, and the provincial work, originally
undertaken to _fix_ the entrance more permanently, was soon found
inadequate to the rapid commercial undertakings of the country.
Accordingly, a very large sum was granted by the Parliament for
rendering it stable and increasing the width, which is now 180 feet,
between substantial parallel piers.
There is a lighthouse at each end on the left side going in, but the
work still requires a good deal of dredging, and the steamboat,
although passing slowly and steadily, made a very great surge. In
fact, it requires good steerage-way and a careful hand at the helm in
rough weather.
The contractors made a railroad for five miles to the mountain, to
fetch the stone for filling-in the piers.
The voyage across Burlington Bay is very pleasant and picturesque, the
land being more broken, elevated, and diversified than in the lower
portions of Canada West; and the Burlington Heights, so important a
position in the war of 1812, show to great advantage. Here is one of
the few attempts at castle-building in Canada called Dundurn Castle,
the residence of Sir Allan Macnab. It is beautifully situated, and,
although not perhaps very suitable to a new country, it is a great
ornament to the vicinity of Hamilton, embowered as it is in the
natural forest. Near it, however, is a vast swamp, in which is Coot's
Paradise, so named, it is said, from a gentleman, who was fond of
duck-shooting, or perhaps from the coot or water-hen being there in
bliss.
Hamilton is a thriving town, exhibiting the rapid progress which a
good location, as the Americans call it, ensures. The other day it was
in the forest, to-day it is advancing to a city. It has, however, one
disadvantage, and that is the very great distance from its port, which
puts both the traveller and the merchant to inconvenience, causing
expense and delay. How they manage, of a dark night, on the wharf to
thread the narrow passage lined with fuel-wood for the steamboat I
cannot tell; but, in the open daylight of summer, I saw a vehicle
overturned and sent into the mud below. There is barely room for the
stage or omnibus; and thus you must wait your turn amidst all the
jostling, swearing, and contention, of cads, runners, agents, drivers,
and porters; a very pleasant situation for a female or an invalid, and
expecting every moment to have the pole of some lumber-waggon driven
through your body.
Private interest here, as well as in so many other new places and
projects in Canada, has evidently been at work, and a city a mile or
two from its harbour, without sufficient reason, has been the result.
But that will change, and the city will come to the port, for it is
extending rapidly. The distance now is one mile and a quarter.
After great delay and a sharp look-out for carpet-bags and leather
trunks, we arrived at Young's Hotel, a very substantial stone
building, on a large scale, where civility and comfort made up for
delay. It was English.
As it was night before we got settled, although a very fine night, and
knowing that I should start before "Charles's Wain was over the new
chimney," I sallied forth, with a very obliging guide, who acted as
representative of the commissariat department, to examine the town.
The streets are at present straggling, but, as in most Canadian new
towns, laid out wide and at right angles. The main street is so wide
that it would be quite impracticable to do as they do in Holland,
namely, sit at the door and converse, not _sotto voce_, with your
opposite neighbour. It is in fact more like a Mall than a street, and
should be planted with a double row of trees, for it requires a
telescope to discover the numbers and signs from one row of houses and
shops to the other.
Here the American custom of selling after dark by lamplight was
everywhere visible, and everywhere new stone houses were building. I
went into Peest's Hotel, now Weeks's, the American Tavern, and there
saw indubitable signs that the men of yore had a pretty sprinkling of
Yankees among them.
Hamilton has 4500 inhabitants, and is a surprising place, which will
reach 10,000 people before two or three years more pass. It has
already broad plank-walks, but they are not kept in very good repair;
in fact, it cannot escape the notice of a traveller from the Old World
that there is too magnificent a spirit at work in the commencement of
this place, and that utility is sacrificed to enlargement.
Hamilton is beautifully situated on a sloping plane, at the foot of a
wooded range of hills, called mountains, whence fine stone of very
white colour in immense blocks is easily procured and brought; and it
is very surprising that more of this stone has not been used in
Toronto, instead of wood. Brick-clay is also plentiful, and excellent
white and red bricks are made; but, such is the rage for building,
that the largest portion of this embryo city is of combustible
pine-wood.
I left Hamilton in a light waggon on the 9th of July, at half-past
five o'clock, a.m., having been detained for horses, and rolled
along very much at my ease, compared to what the travelling on this
route was seven years ago--I was going to say, on this road, but it
would have been a misnomer, for there was nothing but a miry, muddy,
track then: now, there is a fine, but too narrow, macadamized highway,
turnpiked--that is to say, having real turnpike gates.
The view from "the mountain" is exceedingly fine, almost as fine as
that from Queenston heights, embracing a richly-cultivated fruit and
grain country, a splendid succession of wooded heights, and a long,
rolling, ridgy vista of forest, field, and fertility, ending in Lake
Ontario, blue and beautiful.
We arrived, at a quarter past seven, at Ancaster, a very pretty little
village, with two churches, and composed principally of wooden houses.
The Half-way House is then gained, being about half a mile from the
end of the macadamized road, and thirteen and a half from Hamilton.
Good bridges, culverts, and cutting, are seen on this section of the
line to London. We got to Ancaster at half-past eight, or in about two
hours and three quarters, and thence over the line of new road which
was, what is called in America, graded, that is, ploughed, ditched,
and levelled, preparatory to putting on the broken stone, and which
graded road, in spring and autumn, must be very like the Slough of
Despond.
At eleven, we reached Maloney's Tavern--most of the taverns on the
Canadian new roads are kept by Irish folks--four miles from Brentford.
The Board of Works have been busily employed here, for a great portion
of the road is across a swamp, which has been long known as _the_
swamp. This is a pine-country, soil, hard clay or mud, and no stone;
and the route is a very expensive one to form, requiring great
bridging and straightening.
I observe that the estimate for 1845, for Public Works on this road,
in the Gore District, for finishing it, is as high as £10,000
currency, and it is to be all planked, and that, to continue it to
London, £36,182 15s. 8d. had been expended up to July, 1844.
The immense expenditure, since 1839, upon internal improvements in
Canada, in canals, harbours, lighthouses, roads, &c., is almost
incredible, as the subjoined list will show:--
REPORT OF THE BOARD OF WORKS,
SHOWING THE MONEYS EXPENDED UPON EACH OF THE PUBLIC WORKS, FROM THE
COMMENCEMENT OF THE WORK, UP TO THE 1ST JULY, 1844.
Welland Canal £238,995 14 10
ST. LAWRENCE CANALS, VIZ.:
Prescott to Dickenson's landing 13,490 19 4
Cornwall (to the time of opening the Canal
in June, 1843) 57,110 4 2
Cornwall (to repair breaks in the banks
since the above period) 9,925 16 4
Beauharnois 162,281 19 5
Lachine 45,410 11 2
Expenditure on dredge, outfit, &c., applicable
to the foregoing in common 4,462 16 3
Lake St. Peter 32,893 19 3
Burlington Bay Canal 18,539 11 2
Hamilton and Dover Road 30,044 16 5
NEWCASTLE DISTRICT, VIZ.:
Scugog Lock and Dam 6,645 8 1
Whitlas Lock and Dam 6,101 7 11
Crook's Lock and Dam 7,849 9 6
Heely's Falls 8,191 5 1
Middle Falls 219 2 8
Ranney's Falls 228 6 8
Chisholm's Rapids 7,599 14 0
Harris's Rapids 1,591 9 6
Removing sundry impediments in the River 185 17 0
Port Hope and Rice Lake Road 1,439 16 4
Bobcaygean, Buckhorn, and Crook's Rapids 12 0 0
Applicable to the foregoing works generally 6,674 1 2
HARBOURS, AND LIGHTHOUSES, AND ROADS LEADING THERETO.
Windsor Harbour 15,355 18 3
Cobourg Harbour 10,381 6 3
Port Dover 3,121 10 4
Long Point Lighthouse and Light-ship 2,163 8 5
Burwell Harbour and Road 136 10 0
Scugog Road 1,202 6 3
Port Stanley 16,242 10 10
Rondeau Harbour, Road and Lighthouse 60 4 2
Port Stanley Road 24,385 13 5
Expenditure on outfit, &c. applicable to the
foregoing in common 2,328 13 7
River Ottawa 35,603 16 3
Bay of Chaleurs Road 15,726 16 11
Gosford Road 10,801 10 10
Main North Toronto Road 686 19 4
Bridges between Montreal and Quebec 20,860 19 11
Cascades Road 13,287 19 6
London and Sarnia Road 19,837 5 11
London and Brantford Road 36,182 18 5
London and Chatham, Sandwich and
Amherstburgh Road 12,789 0 1
River Richelieu 92 4 0
--------------
Certified to be a true abstract of the accounts of the
Board of Works.
Thomas A. Begly,
Sec. Board of Works.
Hamilton H. Killarly,
President Board of Works.
* * * * *
The estimate for 1845 was 125,200, as may be seen by the following
report of the Inspector General of Canada, as laid before
Parliament:--
PUBLIC WORKS.
CANADA WEST.
For present repairs to the Chatham Bridge £100
For improving the Grand River Swamp Road--total
10,000--required this year 9,000
For improving Rouge Hill and Bridge, also another
bridge and hill east of the former--total £6,500--
required this year 5,000
For Belleville Bridge 1,500
For the completion of the Dover Road over the
mountain, to the limits of the town of Hamilton, and
erection of toll-gates 5,500
For the improvement of the road from L'Original
to Bytown, by Hattfield, Gifford, Buckworth, and
Green's Creeks, as surveyed and estimated, together
with the building of a bridge across the narrow
channel, at the mouth of the Rideau, on the line of
the road from Gattineau Ferry to Bytown--total
cost, £5,930--required this year £3,000
Owen's Sound Road, comprehending the line from
Dundas by Guelph, to Owen's Sound direct (this
sum being for the chopping, clearing, drawing, and
forming of the portion not yet opened, and towards
the lowering of hills, or otherwise improving such
bad parts of the line between Nicolet and Dundas
as most require it) 4,000
For opening the road throughout from Lake Ontario,
at Windsor Harbour, to Georgius Bay, on
Lake Huron, this sum being for the opening of the
road from the head of Scugog Road to the Narrow's
bridge 2,000
For improving Queenston and Grimsby Road,
for laying on the metal already delivered, and completing
such parts left unfinished as are most advanced,
and establishing gates 8,000
(To finish the remainder of this communication
within the Niagara district will cost £16,000, and
that within the Gore district £10,000.)
For improving the Trent navigation, towards the
completion of the works now in progress £12,000--for
this year 6,000
To cover expense of surveys, examination, preparation
of estimates of the cost of improving the Main
Province Road across the ravines of the Twelve and
Sixteen Mile Creeks between Toronto and Hamilton;
opening a road from the main road to Port Credit;
opening and completing a road from the Ottawa at
Bytown, to the St. Lawrence in the most direct line;
of opening a road between Kingstown and the Lake
des Allumettes on the Ottawa, with a branch towards
the head of the Bay of Quinte; of opening a
road from the Rideau, thence by Perth, Bellamy's
Mills, Wabe Lake, to fall in with the road proposed
from Bytown to Sydenham; of completing
the Desjardin's Canal; of constructing the Murray
Canal; of overcoming the impediments to the navigation
of the river Trent, between Heely's Falls and
the Bay of Quinte, and also for a survey of the
road from Barrie to Lake Huron, through the
townships of Sunindale and Nottawasaga 2,000
For improving the Amherstburgh and Sandwich
road 1,000
For the Cornwall and L'Original road 900
--------
£47,000
WORKS OF A GENERAL CHARACTER, AS CONNECTED WITH
THE COMMERCE OR REVENUE OF THE COUNTRY.
To forming a dam across the branch of the Mississisqui,
and forming a portage road at the Chats 1,250
For works upon the Ottawa and roads connected
therewith, as detailed in the Report of the Board
of Works of 3rd February, 1845, laid before the
legislature--total £21,600--required this year 8,500
For building a landing-wharf, with stairs and approaches
at the Quarantine Station, Grosse Isle 2,750
For the extension of piers, and opening inner
basin at Port Stanley harbour--total £6,000--required
this year 1,200
For dredging at Cobourg harbour 500
For expenses of piers and dredging at Windsor
harbour 2,000
For repairs and erection of Lighthouses--total
£7,900--this year 5,000
For the formation of a deep water-basin, at the
entrance of the Lachine Canal, in the harbour of
Montreal, to admit vessels from sea 15,000
For the erection of a Custom House at Toronto 2,500
-------
£39,700
--------
Total currency £125,200
--------
W. B. Robinson,
Inspector General.
Thus, from the commencement of the operations of the Board of Works in
the Canadas, or in about six years, there will have been no less an
amount than a million and a half expended in opening the resources of
that "noble province," as Lord Metcalfe styled it, in his valedictory
address.
This, with the enormous outlay of nearly two millions during the
revolt, the cost of the Rideau Canal and fortifications, and the
money spent by an army of from 8 to 10,000 men, has thrown capital
into Canada which has caused it to assume a position which the most
sanguine of its well-wishers could never have anticipated ten years
ago.
Its connection with England, therefore, instead of being a "baneful"
one, as a misinformed partizan stated, has been truly a blessing to
it, and proves also, beyond a doubt, that, now it is about to have an
uninterrupted water-communication from the oceans of Europe, Asia, and
Africa, to the fresh-water seas of Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan, and
Superior, its resources will speedily develop themselves; and that its
people are too wise to throw away the advantages they possess, of
being an integral portion of the greatest empire the world ever had,
for the very uncertain prospects of a union with their unsettled
neighbours, although incessant underhand attempts to persuade them to
join the Union are going on.
Taxation in Canada is as yet a name, and a hardship seldom heard of
and never felt. Perfect freedom of thought in all the various
relations of life exists; there is no ecclesiastical domination; no
tithes. The people know all this, and are not misled by the furious
rhodomontades of party-spirit about rectories, inquisitorial powers,
family compacts, and a universal desire for democratic fraternization;
got up by persons who, with considerable talents, great perseverance
and ingenuity, ring the changes upon all these subjects, in hopes that
any alteration of the form of government will place them nearer the
loaves and fishes, although I verily believe that many of the most
untiring of them would valiantly fight in case of a war against the
United States.
A more remarkable example, I believe, has never been recorded in
history than the fate of William Lyon Mackenzie, a man possessing an
acuteness of mind, powers of reasoning, and great persuasiveness, with
indefatigable research and industry, such as rarely fall to obscure
and ill-educated men.
Involving Canada in a civil war, which he basely fled before, as soon
as he had lighted its horrid torch; as soon, in fact, as he had
murdered an old officer, whose services had extended over the world,
and who was just on the verge of what he hoped would be a peaceful
termination of his toils in his country's cause; as soon as he had
burned the houses of a widow who had never offended him, and of a
worthy citizen, whose only crime in his eyes was his loyalty; and as
soon as he had robbed the mail, and a poor maidservant travelling in
it, of her wages. This man fled to the United States, was received
with open arms, got a ragged army to invade Canada, then in profound
peace with the citizens, who protected him.
His failure at Navy Island is known too well to need repeating. He
wandered from place to place, sometimes self-created President or
Dictator of the Republic of Canada, sometimes a stump orator,
sometimes in prison, sometimes a printer, sometimes an editor,
abusing England, abusing Canada, abusing the United States; then a
Custom-house officer in the service of that Republic; then again a
robber, a plunderer of private letters, left by accident in his
office, which he, without scruple, read, and without scruple, for
political purposes, published.
Reader, mark his end. It teaches so strong a lesson to tread in the
right path that it shall be given in his own words, in a letter which
he wrote, on the 11th of November last year, to the "New York Express"
newspaper.
He would be pitied, indeed, were it not that the widow and the orphan,
the houseless and the maimed, cry aloud against the remorseless one.
How many there are now living in Canada, whose lives have been
rendered miserable, from their losses, or from injured health, during
the watchings and wardings of 1837, 1838, 1839, during the long winter
nights of such a climate, during the rains and damps of the spring and
of the fall time of the year, and during the heats of an almost
tropical summer. Heat, wet, and cold, in all their most terrible
forms, were they exposed to. The young became prematurely old. The old
died. Peace to their souls! _Requiescant in pace!_
In the "New York Express" of the 11th November, we find a letter
signed by Mr. Mackenzie, in which he endeavours to justify himself.
What has particularly engaged our attention are the following
paragraphs:--
"If an angel from heaven had told me, eight years ago, that the time
would come in which I would find myself an exile, in a foreign
land--poor, and with few friends--calumniated, falsely accused, and
the feelings of honest, faithful Republicans artfully excited against
me--and that among the foremost of my traducers and slanderers would
be found Edwin Croswell and the 'Argus,' Thomas Ritchie and his
journal, Green and the 'Boston Post,' with the Pennsylvanian and other
newspapers called Democratic; and that these presses and their editors
would eagerly retail any and every untruth that could operate to my
prejudice, but be dumb to any explanation I might offer, I could not
have believed it. But if a pamphlet (like mine) had been then written,
exhibiting, with unerring accuracy, the true characters of the
combination of unprincipled political managers, among whom you have
long acted a conspicuous part; if a Jesse Hoyt had come forward as
state's evidence to swear to the truth of the pamphlet, while the
parties implicated remained silent; and if you and your afflicted
presses had, as you do now with the letters in my pamphlets, _defended
the real criminals_, declared solemnly that you could see nothing
wrong in what they had done, and directed the whole force of your
widely circulated journal against the innocent person who had warned
his countrymen against a most dangerous cabal of political hypocrites
of the basest class--in other words, had I known you and your
partnership as well in October, 1837, as I do, by dear-bought
experience, in November, 1845, I would have hesitated very long
indeed, before assuming any share whatever in that responsibility
which _might have given you the Canadas_, as an additional theatre for
the exhibition of those peculiar talents, by which this State and
Union, and thousands in other lands, have so severely suffered. While
reproving gambling and speculation in others, you and your brother
wire-pullers have made the property, the manufactures, the commerce of
America, your tributaries--even the bench of justice, with its awful
solemnities and responsibilities, has been so prostituted by your
friends that, when at sea and about to launch three of his
fellow-creatures into eternity, a captain in the American navy
hesitated not to avow that he had told one of them 'that for those who
had money and friends in America there was no punishment for the worst
of crimes.'--Nor did the court-martial before whom that avowal was
freely made censure him.
"Observe how Mr. and Mrs. Butler sneer at poor judges, corrupt judges,
pauper judges, partial chancellors, and at the administration of
American justice, though by their own party--and how their leader
pities Marcy, throws him on the Supreme Court bench as a stopping
place, to save him from ruin.--Look at the bankrupt returns of this
district alone--one hundred and twenty millions of dollars in debt,
very little paid or to be paid, many of the creditors beggared, many
of the debtors astonishing the fashionable with their magnificent
carriages and costly horses. No felony in you and your friends, who
brought about the times of 1837-8. Oh, no! All the felony consists in
exposing you. Two hundred years ago it was a felony to read the Bible
in English. Truth will prevail yet.
"I confess my fears that, as I have now no press of my own, nor the
means to get one, and am persecuted, calumniated, harassed with
lawsuits, threatened with personal violence, saying nothing of the
steady vindictiveness of your artful colleague, nor of the judges
chosen by Mr. Van Buren and his friends, whom the 'Globe Democratic
Review' and 'Evening Post' denounced in 1840, and declared to be
independent of common justice and honesty, you may succeed in
embittering the cup of misery I have drunk almost to the dregs. The
Swedish Chancellor, Count Axel Oxenstiern, wrote to one of his
children, 'You do not know yet, my son, how little wisdom is
exhibited in ruling mankind.' I think that Mr. Butler cannot be a
pure politician, and yet the corrupt individual whose dishonesty I
have so clearly shown.--Perhaps the United States government may
justify him, and the laws punish me for exhibiting him in his true
colours. Be it so--I had for many years an overflow of popularity;
and if it is now to be my lot to be overwhelmed with obloquy,
hatred, and ceaseless slander, I am quite prepared for it, or even
for worse treatment. Being old, and not likely at any future time to
be a candidate for office, it is of very little consequence to
society what may become of me--but I have a lively satisfaction that
I was an humble instrument selected, at a fortunate moment, to
prove, by their own admission in 1845, every charge I had made
against you and your friends through the 'New York Examiner,' before
I left the service of the Mechanics' Institute here, in 1845.
"W. L. Mackenzie."
The Upper Canadians should follow the example of the good people of
Amherstburgh, and erect a monument in the capital of Upper Canada to
the memory of those who died in consequence of the folly, the
hardihood, and the presumption of this man.
There may have been some excuse pleaded for the Canadian French.
Misled by designing men, these excellent people of course fancied
that, contrary to all possible reason and analogy, a population of
about half a million was strong enough to combat with British
dominion. Their language, laws, and religion, they were told, were in
danger.
But what excuse could the Upper Canadians have--men of British birth,
or direct descent, who had grievances, to be sure, but which
grievances resolved themselves into the narrow compass of the Family
Compact and the thirty-seven Rectories? Quiet farmers, reposing in
perfect security under the Ægis of Britain, were the mass of Upper
Canadians.
The "Family Compact" is still the war-cry of a party in Upper Canada;
and one person of respectability has published a letter to Sir Allan
Macnab, in which he states that, so long as the Chief Justice and the
Bishop of Toronto continue to force Episcopalianism down the throats
of the people, so long will Canada be in danger. This gentleman, an
influential Scotch merchant of Toronto, in his letter dated Hamilton,
C. West, 18th November, 1846, says, that the Family Compact, or Church
of England tory faction, whose usurpations were the cause of the last
rebellion, will be the cause of a future and more successful one, "if
they are not checked;" and, while he fears rebellion, he dreads that,
in case of a war, his countrymen, "the Scotch, could not, on their
principles, defend the British government, which suffers their
degradation in the colony."
This plainly shows to what an extent party spirit is carried in
Canada, when it suffers a man of respectability and loyalty coolly to
look rebellion in the face as an alternative between his own church
and another.
A Church of England man, totally unconnected with colonial interests
and with colonial parties, is a better judge of these matters than a
Church of Scotland man, or a Free Church man, who believes, with his
eyes shut, that Calvinism is to be thrust bodily out of the land by
the influence of Dr. Strachan or Chief Justice Robinson.
It is obvious to common sense that any attempt on the part of the
clergy or the laity of Upper Canada to crush the free exercise of
religious belief, would be met not only with difficulties absolutely
insurmountable, but by the withdrawal of all support from the home
government; for, as the Queen of England is alike queen of the
Presbyterian and of the Churchman, and is forbidden by the
constitution to exercise power over the consciences of her subjects
throughout her vast dominions; so it would be absurd to suppose for a
moment that the limited influence in a small portion of Canada of a
chief justice or a bishop, even supposing them mad or foolish enough
to urge it, could plunge their country into a war for the purposes of
rendering one creed dominant.
The Church of England is, moreover, not by any means the strongest, in
a physical sense, in Upper Canada, neither is the Church of Scotland;
nor is it likely, as the writer quoted observes, that it would be at
length necessary to sweep the former off the face of the country, in
order to secure freedom for the latter.
The Kirk itself is wofully divided, in Canada, by the late wide-spread
dissent, under the somewhat novel designation of the Free Church. One
need but visit any large town or village to observe this; for it would
seem usually that the Free Church minister has a larger congregation
than the regularly-called minister of the ancient faith of Caledonia.
Now, the members of the Free Church have no such holy horror of Dr.
Strachan, Chief Justice Robinson, or Sir Allan Macnab, as that
exhibited in the above-mentioned letter; nor is it believed that the
Church of England would presume to denounce and wage internecional war
against their popular institution. But a person who has lived a great
part of his life in Canada will take all this _cum grano salis_.
The Scotch in Upper Canada are not and will not be disloyal. On the
contrary, if I held a militia command again, I should be very glad, as
an Englishman, that it should consist of a very fair proportion of
Highlanders and of Lowlanders.
The British public must not be misled by the hard-sounding language
and the vast expenditure of words it may have to receive, in the
perusal of either the High Church, or the Presbyterian fulminators in
Canada West.
The whole hinges on what the writer calls "the vital question,"
namely, upon the university of Canada at Toronto being a free or a
close borough.
The High Church party contend that this institution was formed for the
Church of England only, and endowed with an immense resource in lands
accordingly.
The Church of Scotland, "as by law established," for I do not include
the Free Church, has strenuously opposed this for a long series of
years, and contends that it has equal rights and equal privileges in
the institution.[1]
It would consume too much space to enter into argument upon argument
anent a question which, ever since the rebellion, has grown from the
seeds so profusely scattered in the grounds of dispute on both sides.
The home government, foreseeing clearly that this vexed question is
one of paramount importance, has declared itself not neuter, but
passive; has given at large its opinion, favourable to general
education, conducted upon the most liberal acceptance of the charter;
and has left it to the wisdom of the Canadian Parliament to decide.
[Footnote 1: A large public meeting of Roman Catholics upon the
subject of the University question took place lately at Toronto, where
a temperate spirit prevailed.]
An eminent lawyer was employed to carry out Lord Metcalfe's
conciliatory views, in accordance with the spirit of the instructions
from the queen. This gentleman, who had previously been accused by the
reform party of belonging to the Family Compact before he accepted
high legal office under the colonial government, had been employed
also on the part of the Church of England as counsel before the bar of
the House, to advocate its claims, and in a singularly clever and
lucid speech, of immense length, certainly made the cause a most
excellent one. But
"how chances mock,
And changes fill the cup of alteration!"
He was lauded to the skies, and deemed to have achieved the great end
sought by the High Church party.
Mark the reverse:
They forgot wholly that, in his capacity of barrister, he did, as
every barrister is bound to do, his very best for his employers, and
no doubt conscientiously desiring that the rights of the Church of
England should be upheld; but no sooner was he employed as a minister
of the Crown to pacify the discontent which the Presbyterians, the
Methodists, and the Roman Catholics had expressed very openly, and no
sooner did he, by an equal exertion of his intellect, point put the
most feasible method of solving the difficulty, than a storm of abuse
most lavishly bespattered him, and he was called a seceder from the
High Church principles, an abandoner of the High Canadian Tory ranks,
or anything else the reader may fancy. Now, those who know this
gentleman best are of opinion that he never was a very violent
partizan either in politics or in religious matters, and that to his
moderation much of the good that has unquestionably resulted from Lord
Metcalfe's government may be ascribed.
The chief justice and the bishop, against whom the tirade of the
revolutionary press is constantly aimed, may both have once, by their
position in the Upper House, had much to do with political matters,
but that either of them has ever had in view so absurd a notion as
that of governing Canada by their local influence, and of thus
overawing the Crown, is too ridiculous to be believed.
The chief justices and the bishops, in all our colonial possessions,
are now most wisely debarred from exercising political sway in the
legislative council, over which, some years ago, they no doubt
possessed very great influence in many of the colonies.
In Canada, where one half and even more of the population is Roman
Catholic, it cannot be believed that a Protestant bishop, or a
Protestant head of the civil law, can exercise any other powers than
those which their offices permit them to do; and by the British
constitution it is very clear that any attempts to subvert the
established order of things on their parts would inevitably lead to
deprivation and impeachment.
If, therefore, they were really guilty of an endeavour to rule by
their family connections, is it probable that 600,000 Roman Catholics,
and a vastly preponderating mass of Presbyterians, Methodists,
Unitarians, and the endless roll of Canadian dissenters from the
Church, would permit it?
That the bishop and the chief justice possess a considerable share of
personal influence in Upper Canada, there can be no question whatever;
but, after the statement of the former, in his annual visitation
published in 1841, that out of a population of half a million there
were only ninety-five clergymen and missionaries, where there should
be six hundred and thirty-six, if the country was fully settled, it is
a fanciful picture that the reformers have drawn of their power and
resources--power which is really derived only from intermarriages
among the few remnants of the earliest loyalist settlers, or from
admiration of their private conduct and abilities. In short, "the
family compact" is a useful bugbear; it is kept up constantly before
the Canadians, to deter them from looking too closely into other
compacts, which, to say the truth, are sometimes neither so national,
so loyal, nor so easily explained.
Canada is, at this juncture, without question, the most free and the
happiest country in the whole world; not that it resembles Utopia, or
the happy valley of Rasselas, but because it has no grievances that
may not be remedied by its own parliament--because it has no
taxation--because its government is busied in developing its splendid
internal resources--and because the Mother Country expends annually
enormous sums within its boundaries or in protecting its commerce.
Why does England desire that the banner of the Three Crosses shall
float on the citadels of Quebec and Kingston? why does she desire to
see that flag pre-eminent on the waters of Lake Superior or in the
ports of Oregon? Is it because Canada is better governed as an
appanage of the Crown of Victoria than it possibly could be by Mr.
Polk? Is it from a mere desire for territory that the mistress of the
seas throws her broad shield over the northern portion of North
America? or is it because the treasury of England has millions of bars
of gold and of silver, deposited in its vaults by the subjects of
Canada?
No, it is from none of these motives: Canada is a burthen rather than
a mine of wealth to England, which has flourished a thousand-fold
more since Washington was the first president, than she ever did with
the thirteen colonies of the West.
Is it because the St. Lawrence trade affords a nursery for her seamen,
or that Newfoundland is the naval school? No; about three or four
British vessels now fish on the grand banks, where hundreds once cast
anchor. The fisheries are boat-fisheries on the shores instead of at
sea, and the timber trade would engage British shipping and British
sailors just as largely if Quebec had the beaver emblazoned on the
flag of its fortress as if the flag of a thousand years floated over
its walls.
The resources of England are inconceivable; if one source dries up,
another opens. China is replacing Africa.
The London Economist estimates the increase of capital in England from
1834, or just before the troubles in Canada, which cost her two
millions sterling, to 1844, in ten years only, at the rate of
forty-five millions sterling annually--four-hundred and fifty
millions, in ten years, in personal property only! What was the
increase in real estate during those ten years? and what empire, or
what combination of empires, can show such wealth?
Thus, while Canada has been a drag-chain upon the chariot-wheel of
British accumulation, did the prosperity of the empire suffer, or is
it likely to suffer, by war with the United States, or by separation
from England?
The interests of the United States and the interests of England would
no doubt mutually suffer, but the former power, if it annexed Canada,
would most severely feel the result. England would then close the
ports of the St. Lawrence, as well as those of the seaboard from
Quebec to Galveston; nor would the Nova Scotian and New Brunswick
provinces be conquered until after a bloody and most costly struggle;
for they, being essentially maritime, would the less readily abandon
the connexion with that power which must for ages yet to come be
preponderant at sea. The Ocean is the real English colony. By similar
natural laws, the United States has other advantages and other matters
to control in its vast interior.
I forget what writer it is who says--perhaps it was Burke--that any
nation which can bring 50,000 men in arms into the field, whatever may
be its local disadvantages of position, can never be conquered, if its
sons are warlike and courageous.
Canada can bring double that number with ease; and whilst its
interests are as inseparable from those of England as they now are, it
is not to be supposed that a Texian annexation will dissolve the bond.
We have been greatly amused in Canada during the winter of 1845, after
Mr. Polk's "all Oregon or none of it," to find in the neighbouring
republic a force of brave militia-men or volunteers turn out for a
field day with CANADA and OREGON painted on their
cartouche-boxes.--Mr. Polk did not go quite so far, it is true; but a
great mass of the people in the United States prophesy that, if war
lasts, all the North American Continent, from the Polar seas to the
Isthmus of Darien, will have the tricoloured stripes and the galaxy of
stars for its national flag.
This is all-natural enough; no one blames the people of the republic
for desiring extended fame and empire; but is it to be extended by the
Cæsaric mode, _Veni, vidi, vici_, or by deluging two-thirds of that
continent with the blood of man?
A calm view of antecedent human affairs tells us another tale.
A black population in the south and in the vast Island of Hayti, in
Jamaica and in the West Indies; a brave and enterprising mixed race in
Cuba; the remorseless Indian of the West, whose tribes are countless
and driven to desperation; the multitudinous Irish, equally ready for
fighting as for vengeance for their insulted church; the Anglo-Saxon
blood on the northern borders, combined with the Norman Catholics of
the St. Lawrence; innumerable steam-vessels pouring from every part
of Europe and of Asia--are these nothing in the scale? Are the
feelings of the wealthy, the intelligent, and the peaceful in the
United States not to be taken into account?
Is the total annihilation for a long period of all external commerce
nothing? Are blazing cities, beleaguered harbours, internal
discontent, servile war, nothing in the scale of aggrandizement? Is
the great possibility of the European powers interfering as nothing?
Will not Russia, aware now of the value of her North American
possessions, look with a jealous eye upon the Bald Eagle's attempt at
a too close investigation of her eaglets' nest in the north? Would not
France, just beginning to colonize largely, like a share in the
spoils?
To avoid all this, is the reason that England clings to Canada, that
Canada _must not_ be sold or given away. Canada is in short the
important State which holds the balance of power on the North American
Continent; and, when her Eagle is strong enough to fly alone, it will
not be either from having false wings, or without the previous
nursing and tender care of her European mother, who will launch her
safely from the pinnacle of glory into the clear sky of powers and
principalities.