Colonel Talbot--His slanderous utterances with regard to
Canadians--The beaver--Salmon in Canadian streams--U. E. Loyalists
have to take the oath of allegiance--Titles of land in
Canada--Clergy Reserve lands--University of Toronto lands--Canada
Company lands.
Thomas Talbot, to whom the Government gave--presumably for
settlement--518,000 acres near London, Ont., began to reside on the
tract soon after the emigrant whose fortunes we are following arrived in
Upper Canada, in 1792. Talbot had previously been Secretary to Governor
Simcoe, and was consequently stationed at Newark, the capital, where the
settlers were seen as they came into the country from the United States.
Why so great a grant was made to him is inexplicable. But it was
nevertheless made, and the author proposes to tell how he repaid it. He
appeared all the time he was alive, and living in Upper Canada, to
thoroughly despise us. Among the other utterances which he sent from
Canada to Great Britain was that concerning the origin of Canadians, and
although his words are calumniatory, we must have them, for he
incorporated them in his book about Canada. Thus he speaks of us: “Most
Canadians are descended from private soldiers or settlers, or the
illegitimate offspring of some gentlemen or their servants.” He penned
these words somewhere about the year 1800. They cannot refer to persons
of United States origin--the incomers from the thirteen revolted
colonies, which were now independent--because these were not born in
Canada. He must therefore have referred to those Canadians and their
descendants who were living in Canada in 1792, when he was the Secretary
of Governor Simcoe. It is not within the province of the author to
defend from Talbot’s calumnies that portion of our fellow-Canadian
subjects. His calumny is foul, mean, untrue, and very unjust. Of New
England origin himself, the author leaves this insult to be avenged by
the pen of some fellow-Canadian who claims descent from old Canadians
who were in the country when the war of the Revolution was about
closing. So foul an aspersion should never have been passed over in
silence.
[Illustration: COLONEL TALBOT’S ARMCHAIR.
From the J. Ross Robertson collection.]
The foregoing is, however, by the way. We are pursuing the fortunes of
Roger Conant, and we find him from 1792 to 1812 struggling among the
forest trees to gain a livelihood, or his labors on land occasionally
diversified by his work on the lake, the waters of which, perhaps,
yielded the most easily obtainable food. Mention has been made of the
beaver meadow, and at this date the settler would often come across the
traces of this industrious animal. The beaver is the typical unit or
emblem of the furs of Canada. All other values of furs were made by
comparison with the value of a beaver skin. In intelligence the beaver
surpasses any of the fur-bearing animals. In the quality of his
workmanship he is the mechanic of the animal tribe, and easily and
far-away outstrips all his fellow-brutes, domestic or wild. He can fell
a tree in any desired direction, and within half a foot of the spot on
which he requires it to fall. One beaver is always on guard and vigilant
while the others work. A single blow of the tail of the watching beaver
upon the water will cause every other of his fellows to plump into the
water and disappear. To carry earth to their dam they place it upon
their broad, flat tails and draw it to the spot. While his home is
always in close proximity of water he is sometimes caught on land, while
proceeding from one body of water to another. Should you meet him thus
at disadvantage upon the land, he does not even attempt to run away, nor
to defend himself, for he well knows that both attempts would be utterly
useless. Another defence is his; he appeals to one’s sympathy by
crying--crying indeed so very naturally, while big tears roll from his
eyes, with so close an imitation of the human, that it startles even the
hunter himself. Many a beaver has been magnanimously given his life out
of pure sympathy for the poor defenceless brute when caught at an unfair
advantage away from his habitable element of water.
Salt-water salmon, too, swarmed at that date in our Canadian streams in
countless myriads. In the month of November of each year they ascended
the streams for spawning, after which they were seen no more until the
summer of the following year. While we have no positive evidence that
they return to the salt water, we know they must do so, because they are
so very different from land-locked salmon or ouananiche. They were never
caught in Lake Ontario after spawning in the streams in November, until
June of the next year. Nor were they found above Niagara Falls, being
unable to ascend that mighty cataract. Roger Conant said that his first
food in Upper Canada came from the salmon taken in the creek beside his
hastily built log-house. To help to realize how plentiful these fish
were at the annual spawning time, we may adduce Roger Conant’s endeavor
to paddle his canoe across the stream in Port Oshawa in 1805, when the
salmon partly raised his boat out of the water, and were so close
together that it was difficult for him to get his paddle below the
surface. A farm of 150 acres on the Lake Ontario shore, that he acquired
just previous to the War of 1812, he paid for by sending salmon in
barrels to the United States ports, where they brought a fair cash
price. Increasing population, no close seasons by law, nor any
restrictions whatever, have been the causes which have resulted in
almost destroying
[Illustration: SHOAL OF SALMON, NEAR OSHAWA, 1792.]
these kings of fish that once came in uncountable swarms.
It will be gathered that up to the War of 1812, the settler, homely
clad, axe in hand, subdued the forest, and spent happy, even if
wearisome, days, with his dog generally as his only companion. It was
during these years that he exhibited that skill in wielding the axe of
which mention has been made. To-day, our few remaining woods being more
open, and the timber being smaller, such feats would be impossible.
The first beginnings of public utilities were being made. Roads were
being cut out of the forest. Some of these grew into forest again so
little were they used.
In the last chapter it was noted that Roger Conant lost all his lands in
New England by expropriation after the war of 1776. On arriving in Upper
Canada he felt the great necessity of bestirring himself to make a
fortune again here. Side by side with his clearing operations he carried
on his fur-trading, and soon his desires in regard to wealth were
gratified, but he never reconciled himself to being so far from his
_Alma Mater_, Yale University (New Haven, Conn.), from which he had been
graduated (in Arts and Law) in 1765.
Notwithstanding all the sacrifices made by the United Empire Loyalists
to maintain British connections, many of them were asked to take the
oath of allegiance on reaching their respective localities when they
sought to make their home in Canada. Annexed is a photographic document
of evidence, being a copy of the certificate of the oath of allegiance
taken by one of the author’s relatives before the famed Robert Baldwin.
One of the very earliest court summonses of Upper Canada is also
reproduced (page 35) and it will be found very interesting. The reader
will notice the absence of all printing on this document.
Obviously the title to all lands in Canada, after the conquest of 1759,
and not previously granted by the king of France, was vested in the
British Crown. There were a few lots of land so granted by the king of
France in Upper Canada, but only a few. In Quebec, or Lower Canada, much
of the land had already been so granted along the St. Lawrence River.
These grants had, as a matter of course, to be respected by Great
Britain. The French grants in Upper Canada were only a few along the
Detroit River and at the extreme western boundary of the province. The
easy accessibility of the lands by water will no doubt account for these
grants having been located so remote from all neighbors, the nearest
being those in Lower Canada from whence these grants came. Certain lands
were also set apart for the Protestant clergy, viz., one-seventh of all
lands granted. After a time, instead of taking the one-seventh of each
lot granted, they were all added together and formed a whole lot--the
“Clergy Reserve” lands, which became afterwards such a bone of
contention. In these deeds gold and silver is reserved for the Crown.
All white pine trees, too, are reserved, because naval officers had
passed along the shore of
[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF CERTIFICATE OF OATH OF ALLEGIANCE.
I CERTIFY that [signature] has taken and subscrbed the Oath of
Allegiance as required by Law, before me, this 15 day of Jan___ in the
year of our Lord 1801 [signature]]
Lake Ontario, about the time of the war of the Revolution, and saw the
magnificent white pines. These officers were all searching for suitable
trees to make masts for the Royal navy, and here they found them; hence
the reservation of these trees in all Crown deeds. All deeds of realty
to-day in Upper Canada make the same reservations, viz., “Subject
nevertheless to the reservations, limitations and provisions expressed
in the original grant thereof from the Crown.”
In Australia and New Zealand the governments make reservations so very
binding that they can resume possession of lands at any time, as the
author found when travelling there in 1898. Our antipodes have not deeds
in fee simple as we have. No instance has ever been known in the
locality of middle Ontario, in which the author’s home is, and that of
his forefathers since 1792, of the Crown ever exercising its right to
make use of the reservations.
Time-honored big wax seals were attached to all Crown grants. These
seals were quite four inches in diameter, one-third of an inch thick,
and secured to the parchment by a ribbon, while the Royal coat-of-arms
was impressed on either side of the seal. To the honor and respect of
the Crown, be it said, its treatment of the struggling settler was
always generous and fair.
The Clergy Reserve lands, which, we have seen, were set apart, soon
began to command purchasers, being mainly along the waters of Lake
Ontario, as were the other patented lands. In the Act creating
[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF COURT SUMMONS, 1803.]
the Clergy Reserve Trust, gold and silver were reserved, but not white
pine, because there simply was none there to reserve.
The University of Toronto received odd lots here and there in Upper
Canada for its support. This created another source from which tithes
came. There were no reservations in the University deeds of 1866. They
cited the Act which gave the University these lands.
Lastly came the Canada Company, the last remaining source of tithes.
While the Crown, the Clergy Reserves and the University of Toronto were
always fair and considerate to the settler, this company always demanded
its full “pound of flesh,” and got it, too. It may be observed that the
arrangements with regard to these deeds were made by the Imperial
Government at home wholly. We were not consulted. By virtue of the
Canada Company’s grant, thousands and thousands of acres of lands in
Upper Canada were withheld from settlement for many years. To-day the
grievance has passed, because they have next to no lands remaining.
Perhaps, as Upper Canada has nearly three millions of population now
(from 12,000 in 1792), we ought not to grieve. It did us harm, it is
true, but it was no doubt unthinkingly originated in London, in 1826,
and without sufficient consideration.