Extent of Canada--The Lakes--Canadian Wealth--Early History--
Jacques Cartier--English and French Colonists--Colonial
and Acadian Troubles--La Salle--Border Conflicts--Early
Expeditions--Invasions from New England--Louisburgh and
Ticonderoga--The Colonial Insurrection --Partition of
Canada--Progress of Upper Canada--France and Canada--The American
Invasion--Winter Campaign--New Orleans and Plattsburgh--Peace of
Ghent--Political Controversies--Winter Communication--Sentiments
of Hon. Joseph Howe--General view of Imperial and Colonial
relations.
A victory won not a century ago gratified the animosities of
the American colonies, and added to the countries ruled by the
Sovereign of Great Britain a tract of territory thrice the size of
his kingdom. From Labrador to the western limit of Lake Superior,
a line drawn east and west within the boundaries of Canada, is
1600 miles long; but the breadth of the country from its Southern
frontiers to the ill-defined boundary on the North, is but 225
miles. This vast region is divided into Upper and Lower Canada.
The former lies between long. 40° and 49° N., and lat. 74° and
117° W. The latter lies between 45° and 50° North and 57° and 80°
W. The three hundred and forty thousand square miles thus bounded
present every variety of scenery and of soil. The climate is mainly
influenced by the relations of the land to the enormous inland
seas and great rivers which occupy such a space in the map of
British North America. From Lake Superior, which is larger than
all Ireland, flows the mighty stream which feeds Lake Huron by
the River St. Mary. Huron is nearly 250 miles long and 221 miles
broad. From Lake Huron the river and lake of St. Clair lead the
flood into Lake Erie, which is 280 miles long and 63 miles broad.
From Lake Erie the current runs with quickening pace, till it
rushes in ceaseless flight into the fathomless depths of Niagara,
and whirls onward to melt into the waters of Lake Ontario. The
last and smallest of these seas, Ontario, is 180 miles long and
50 miles broad. The St. Lawrence, winding through many islands,
emerges from its eastern extremity and commences its uninterrupted
career of 700 miles to the Atlantic. The land of this northern
continent in fact reverses the part of Ocean, and enfolds sea after
sea within its arms. The water blesses the land for its protection;
it yields an easy way to the progress of civilisation; transports
the produce of the settler’s labour to distant markets, and lays
open to his enterprise the wide-spreading forests and plains which,
but for them, would still be the heritage of the Indian and of his
prey. Among the greatest proofs of enterprise in the world are the
canals by which the people living on the shores of the lakes have
rendered navigation practicable from the sea to Lake Superior. The
display of the natural and artificial products of the far-reaching
lands watered by the giant St. Lawrence at the Great Exhibition
of 1862, came to the eyes of most of us with a sort of shock. It
was surprising indeed to behold such evidences of wealth given by
a dependency which was associated in the popular mind with frost
and snow, with Niagara, Labrador, and French insurrection--Moose,
moccasins, and Indians. There we saw an exuberance and excellence
of growth in timber and in cereals--in all kinds of agricultural
produce, combined with prodigious mineral riches. Sir William
Logan, assisted by the zealous, skilful, and indefatigable staff of
Canadian geologists, showed what a future Canada may expect when
capital and population combine to disinter the treasures which now
lie hid within its rocky ribs.
According to Jesuit Hennepin, the name of Canada furnishes a proof
of an ignorance and deficient appreciation of the true value of
the country that still mark the workings of the European mind in
reference to the resources of Canada. According to him, the word
Canada was derived from a corruption of the Spanish words Capo da
Nada, or Cape of Nothing, which they gave to the scene of their
early discoveries when, under a conviction of its utter barrenness
and inutility, they were about abandoning it in disgust. The
derivation may be well doubted, but the implication may be true
enough. The mainspring of Spanish, and indeed of all European
enterprise in those days, was the hope of gold, and although there
is reason to know that the precious metal is associated with others
scarcely less valuable in Canada, of course it was not found lying
in heaps and blocks on the sea-shore, and therefore the Spaniards
concluded that it did not exist. It has been conjectured, with
greater appearance of probability, that Canada is a modification
of the Spanish word signifying “a passage;” because the Spaniards
thought they could find a passage to India through Canada; as
others, with greater reason, believe there may yet be found a
permanent practicable way to the shores of the Pacific through its
wide expanse of lake and mountain.
The accounts of the first discovery of Canada, meagre as they are,
possess a romantic interest which is never likely to assume any
very precise or substantial form. Although Cabot, who discovered
Labrador and Hudson’s Bay, was the first person who suggested or
projected the establishment of colonies or settlements in these
newly-found regions, and English merchants actually established
some small colonies there, it is to Jacques Cartier, of St. Malo,
that the credit of the first real establishment of Europeans in
Canada must be assigned. Cabot discovered the Gulf of St. Lawrence:
it was Cartier who found that the Gulf was but the mouth of a vast
river; and who urged his little craft among its unknown dangers
till he came to the site of Quebec. It was no ordinary man who,
having accomplished thus much, pressed onwards till he reached
Hochelaga, the site of Montreal. He was impelled by the love of
gold and precious stones, and believed that here he had found them,
but they were indeed only Lagenian mines. Cartier, and many another
gallant sailor, found glittering mica and crystals on the shores of
their new found lands, which in their innocent faith they believed
to be gold and diamonds, and so filled ship and were off to sea
again. The failure of these early adventures cast Canada into
disfavour with those who led the enterprise of the East. Whilst
the English merchants and navigators were, with uncertain steps,
seeking some solid resting-place on the eastern shores of America
below the St. Lawrence, Canada was left in the possession of the
Indians--not a peaceable possession, because the great Tribes were
as irreclaimably belligerent as the Highland Clans or the Irish
Septs. It is curious to reflect on the fact, indeed, that little
more than two hundred years ago the whole of the vast region
between Massachusetts and Hudson’s Bay was in the hands of the Red
Man. But he was then yielding ground rapidly before the imperious
strangers who had seized his shore farther south. The merchants of
Bristol and of London turned their attention to Virginia before the
French of St. Malo had well established themselves on the shores
of the St. Lawrence. Both English and French alike were encouraged
and stimulated in these early efforts by the Crown. About the
time that James the First was granting charters and framing
corporations for colonies in Virginia, Champlain was establishing
French settlements at Tadousac and Quebec, in Nouvelle France.
The early dealings of English and French with the natives are
discreditable to both nations; both fomented or availed themselves
of dissensions among the Tribes, and when hostilities broke out,
threw their weight on one side or the other. Whilst the New England
Puritans were encouraging themselves in the work of destroying
the Red Man by quoting passages from the Old Testament, which
clearly showed how they the chosen people of God were called upon
to slay the Canaanite, Champlain, with his Roman Catholic priests,
was quite as busy in rooting out Iroquois in the name of Heaven
and of the Church. Of the two invading races, indeed, the French
were the least exclusive, for they neither burned nor banished
Dissenters. So great was the liberality of France in those days,
that Protestant and Roman Catholic emigrants shared in the same
enterprise, and abode in the same settlements. But the Brethren of
New Plymouth took a very limited view of Christian fraternisation,
and at the very outset the colonists of the Northern and of the
Southern States were animated by principles so opposed that even
in the grub state they bit and stung each other.
English and French colonists were alike undergoing the spasmodic
influences of the jealousy and intrigue which usually preside over
the birthplace of colonies, when the operations of the war which
broke out between France and England in 1628, were extended to
those distant regions. The growing power of England at sea enabled
her to strike a tremendous blow at New France. Champlain, with all
his garrison, was starved into capitulation by Sir David Kirke;
but on the restoration of peace and of the colony to France, in
1633, he returned to Canada, where he died two years afterwards.
Champlain, with all his faults, was undoubtedly a man noteworthy,
politic, and valuable in his time and generation, and his name
will ever be associated with the early history of the continent.
Priests and nuns and missionaries after his death swooped down on
the Indians, who began to hate each other worse than ever they had
done before, whilst at the same time they learned to entertain
a savage dislike for the race which they had welcomed to their
shores so courteously and gently. Thousands of Indians were indeed
converted, as it was called, to Christianity; but it was only
that they might rage with greater cruelty and fierceness against
their brethren. Massacres of Christians and of converts by furious
savages fanned these unholy flames. Little is left of either the
Indians or of their Christianity now. A common animosity to the
aborigines brought about the first “rapprochement” between the
French and British colonists. The New English and the New French
first met in America to consider the propriety of an alliance
against their Indian enemies, which should not be broken by war
between the parent countries, but the status of the two offshoots
of the great European rivals was very different. The French in
Canada at one time displayed a wonderful amount of enterprise,
energy, and perseverance in their dealings with the savages,
which can only be appreciated by those who have studied their
early records, but it contrasts strongly with the quiescence and
political folly of their descendants. Their early explorations were
characterised by a spirit worthy of the countrymen of Cartier.
Among these, the voyage of La Salle from Niagara deserves to be
mentioned, as indicative of the highest qualities of a traveller.
In a little craft of some sixty tons, he ascended the rapid river
above the Falls of Niagara, amidst difficulties which we can but
little understand, and gained the broad expanse of Lake Erie;
thence boldly steering westward, he came upon the narrow river or
strait of Detroit, crossed the lucid waters of Lake St. Clair, and
was at last rewarded by the grand discovery of Lake Huron. Still
boldly pursuing his course westward, La Salle at last came to
Lake Michigan, whence in company with Father Hennepin, his jesuit
historian, he undertook the feat of penetrating to the head waters
of the Mississippi. Nor did he stop when he reached the mystic
stream; he trusted himself to the mighty flood, and never turned
round or bated breath till he floated out, 2000 miles below, on the
turbid waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Whilst the hierarchy of France
were busy founding bishoprics, building churches, and establishing
seminaries, the English, distracted by internal convulsions, left
their American colonies pretty much to themselves. France sent
out governors, councillors, and bishops to New France; England
dispatched her Puritans, adventurers, younger sons, Catholic
cavaliers, and Nonconformists; but the natives were sure to suffer,
no matter in what form the colony was ruled, or of what Europeans
it was composed. Terrible diseases, although known in Europe for
two hundred years previously, according to contemporary writers,
appeared suddenly, and without European communication, among the
indigenes, and ravaged the miserable tribes, already decimated by
intestine war and ruin. Christians were naturally held accountable
for all the evil; and for a large part indeed they were.
Whilst James the Second was making a last stand for his Crown
against the victorious Dutchman, La Salle, with a patent of
Governor, was sailing from La Rochelle, for the dependency of
Louisiana, which now completed the vast semicircle over which
the King of France claimed authority, and which enclosing the
British settlements in a belt from Newfoundland through the
lakes, swept thence by the Ohio down to the Gulf of Mexico, far
away to the _terra incognita_ under the setting sun. The superior
trading resources of the Indians of the South, the favourable
conditions for the expansion of trade possessed by the British
on the Hudson over the French, who had to struggle with longer
frost, and the wintry storms of the St. Lawrence, and the greater
commercial enterprise of the English colonists, nullified that
vast territorial superiority. The French governors thought, by
displays of vigour and violence towards the natives, to alter the
course of trade; but they could not compete with their neighbours,
and quarrels and petty wars vexed the life of both colonial
systems. In 1690, M. de Frontenac launched three little corps
of invading savages, aided and led by French troops, against the
British settlements in the New England Colonies. Schenectady in
New York, Salmon Falls in New Hampshire, Casco in Maine, were
surprised and burned, and the colonists were given to the sword
and the scalping-knife. For a time the survivors of the massacre
had something else to do besides persecuting each other to death
for witchcraft or torturing their heretics. They set to work to
avenge their slaughtered saints. Sir William Phipps, a native
of Massachusetts, led his Puritan hosts to Port Royal in Nova
Scotia, but was obliged to retreat ingloriously from an attempt
against Montreal. His rival, de Frontenac, had no better fortune
in a projected attack by land and sea against New York. The war
which raged between the colonists was terminated by the Peace
of Ryswick; but peace did not last long, and the declaration of
war by Great Britain against France and Spain revived the bloody
contests between the borderers. The British Government sent out
Marlborough’s veterans, and those sailors who had swept the seas
of every enemy, to aid the colonists. An immense expedition, which
seemed capable of destroying any trace of French rule in Canada,
sailed from Boston in 1710, against Quebec, but failed miserably
at sea and in the St. Lawrence ere it reached the city. The Peace
of Utrecht, in 1713, brought about a cessation of hostilities, but
not of jealousies, or of Indian wars and massacres. By that time
the predominance of the white man was well established, and the
faces of the Indians were turned steadily towards the setting sun,
and their footsteps followed his course towards the forests of the
west. Fort after fort encroached on their decreasing domain, and
Englishman and Frenchman, each after his kind, sought to reproduce
in the New World those features of the mother country which he
loved or admired or respected most.
In the period which elapsed between the Treaty of Utrecht and
the declaration of war in 1745, both the Colonies and Canada
prospered, but the increase of the former was to that of the
latter as the increase of grain compared with that of moss. The
people of Massachusetts, led by their colonial chief, Pepperell,
with contingents from Rhode Island, Vermont, and Connecticut,
were joined by the British fleet under Warren, and set out on
them darling project of reducing Louisburg, the great French
arsenal and station at Cape Breton. On the 17th of August, 1746,
after a siege of two months, the place surrendered with all its
stores to the victorious Colonists. It was with difficulty that
France could communicate with her menaced dependency, for the
sea was nearly controlled by the British fleets, but her pride
was aroused, and great armaments were prepared and dispatched to
Canada. _Afflavit Deus et hostes dissipantur._ Two expeditions were
nigh lost altogether on the waves. A third was destroyed by the
fleet under Warren and Anson. The Peace of Rochelle put an end to
the passionate efforts of France to retrieve her disasters, but
the rivalries and excesses of the British and French fur-traders
continued the strife between the Colonies and New France. The
latter claiming the whole course of the Ohio, as it appears with
some reason, forbade our traders to resort there. Forts were built
to enable the French to exercise their jurisdiction and authority
on ground which was regarded by the British Colonists as their
own, and it is a remarkable fact, that George Washington’s first
military service was in command of an expedition of Virginians
to capture the works erected by the French, and that he was
compelled to lay down his arms by De Villiers, after a brief and
inglorious--not to say very badly-managed campaign. Although Great
Britain made considerable efforts to aid the colonists in their
wars, she could not very well continue to do so when she was at
peace with France, if her distant subjects chose to carry on
hostilities on their own account. The King’s Government gave advice
to the Colonies to unite for self-defence, which led in 1754 to
the assemblage of a convention at Albany, at which Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland,
and New York were represented. The delegates drew up a plan for
what was in effect a Federal Union, but the plan fell to the
ground. The Home Government refused to adopt it, because of certain
encroachments which it contained on the prerogatives of the Crown;
and the colonial assemblies, which had already exhibited a sturdy
self-reliance and independence worthy of attention at home, were
equally dissatisfied with the proposal. But the seed had been
sown--the idea of Federal Union, of self-taxation, of levying
troops and regulating trade, was busy in men’s minds. In the
same year the Colonists were preparing for their great attack on
Canada--an attack which was made, not because France was the enemy
of England, but because Frenchmen in Canada were rivals of the
American colonists.
The lines of invasion of French Canada marked out by the American
subjects of the British Crown, were very much the same as those
of the American rebels against the Crown, when some twenty odd
years afterwards they prepared to invade British Canada. It is
singular that the men who, under the authority of the Crown of
England, or using at least the pretext of a state of war between
the home countries, waged war against the subjects of France
in Canada, should have been foremost in the rebellion against
England, and that, in the invasion of Canada, which was one of
their first undertakings in pursuance of their rebellion, they
should have found neither sympathy nor aid amongst the French
Canadians, whose allegiance had been so recently transferred to
the King of England. More singular still is it that France, which
had received so many tremendous blows from these very colonists,
and which suffered so much in her efforts to defend her Canadian
dependencies from these inveterate assailants, should have been
mainly instrumental in establishing their independence, and in
leading their great revolution to a successful issue. The condition
of the Scottish borders in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
furnishes but a very poor parallel to the state of the debateable
land which spread from the banks of the Ohio, by the great lakes,
down to the Atlantic. Constant aggressions took place from one
side or the other by trading parties, bands of Indians, or by
armed parties with larger purposes of occupation or vengeance.
Whilst the English colonies were enjoying the full fruit of the
principles on which they had been founded, Canada, regarded as a
mere dependency of the French Crown, vexed with the complicated
and inconsistent form of government, was daily losing ground.
The ill-paid governors were corrupt, or at all events exacting:
the Intendants ground the province to powder to make the most
of their office, and beneath each of these officers was an army
of ecclesiastics, bent on appropriating, for that incarnation of
the Church which appeared in their proper persons, the best of
the land and the great tithes of all trade and commerce. Of the
many encounters which took place on the borders, there are few
authentic records: it is sufficient to know that neither the French
nor the English succeeded at the period in effecting a permanent
lodgment within the frontiers of the enemy. The Governors of Canada
commemorated their victory, “_Rebellibus Novæ Angliæ Incolis_,” on
medals and brasses, and Great Britain rewarded by various honours
the colonial generals and governors who were supposed to have
attained advantages over their Canadian neighbours. In 1756 war was
again declared by Great Britain against France. Montcalm, availing
himself of the utter imbecility of Lord Loudon, who commanded the
British troops, speedily fell upon the important post of Oswego, on
Lake Ontario, and captured it with its garrison, guns, flotilla,
and stores. He followed up that great success in the following
year, by the capture of Fort Edward, which surrendered, with its
garrison of 8000 men under Monroe, who were massacred by the
Indian auxiliaries. The officers who were sent from England to
command the troops, and their continental allies at this period,
must have inspired the American continentals with a feeling of
profound contempt: but Lord Chatham, perceiving that the Colonists
must be the mainstay of military operations, aroused the various
New England settlements, by spirited despatches and promises of
help, to make strenuous efforts against the enemy. Once more a
British fleet under Admiral Boscawen appeared upon the scene,
and a force of 14,000 men, under Lord Amherst, was covered by its
guns in the operations which led to the surrender of Louisburgh on
the 26th of July, 1756. This success was tarnished by the defeat
of a powerful army under Abercrombie, in an ill-judged assault
against Ticonderoga, where 16,000 men were beaten back by the
French garrison, which numbered only 3000; but Kingston, on Lake
Ontario, surrendered to the British-American troops, and Fort du
Quesne--in the advance against which Braddock lost his life in the
former war--was abandoned without a blow by its French garrison,
who would be somewhat astounded, if, revisiting the glimpses of the
moon, they could gaze upon the Pittsburgh of the present day on the
site of their ancient post. In July, 1759, three great expeditions
were directed against Canada. The Ministry resolved at any cost to
trample under foot every trace of French dominion on the American
continent, and in that resolution they were mainly sustained by
the passion and animosity of the New England colonists. A powerful
corps under Lord Amherst was directed against Ticonderoga. Another
corps, under Sir William Johnson, mainly composed of continentals
and Indians, advanced against Fort Niagara, whilst an army
commanded by General Wolfe, covered by the fleet, made an attack
from the St. Lawrence against Quebec. Ticonderoga and Crown Point
were abandoned by the French, and Fort Niagara was taken after an
engagement with the enemy. How Wolfe fared all the world knows:
an elaborate account of the great victory which gave Canada to
the Crown would be out of place in this volume, but elsewhere I
have made a few remarks concerning the events of that memorable
battle. On the 18th of September the British standard floated from
the citadel of Quebec. Ever since that time the country, handed
over four years afterwards by the Treaty of Paris to the British,
has remained under the protection of England, acquiring year by
year a greater measure of freedom and self-government, till, at
this moment, it may be considered as attached to the Empire solely
by what Mr. O’Connell called “the golden link of the Crown.” The
whole population of the country then ceded was under 70,000. The
population of the British colonies in America was at least twenty
times as numerous. The American Colonists were at last gratified by
a conquest which relieved them from a dangerous neighbour, who was
backed by the power of France, and which opened to their enterprise
not only the lakes and rivers of Canada, but Nova Scotia, Cape
Breton, the St. Lawrence, and all the valuable fisheries of the
seaboard. It was unfortunate that no attempt was made to define the
exact boundary line between the Colonies and the new territory,
although the Proclamation of 1763 no doubt was supposed at the
time to be sufficiently accurate; but we shall see hereafter that
the neglect proved very damaging to the interests of Canada. The
Americans, perhaps, would have resented any attempt to define very
nicely the frontier between the new conquest of England and the
territories of the colonists who had contributed to some extent in
effecting it; and there were not many who foresaw the rupture which
divided the mother-country and her dependencies for ever.
For fifteen years Canada, content with the preservation of her
ecclesiastical establishments, of freedom of religion, and of the
“Custom of Paris,” seemed perfectly indifferent to the transfer
of her allegiance from one king to another, the change, perhaps,
being more in the language of her rulers, and the blazon of her
standard, than in the mode of government. In fact the British
military governors were singularly like the French military
governors; but it was felt at home, as soon as the difficulties
with the colonies began, that Canada could not continue to be
like a mere military division of a conquered country. In 1774,
the Quebec Act was passed, which created a council to aid in the
administration of the province, guaranteed the freedom of the
Roman Catholic Church, and abrogated the Royal Proclamation of
1763. In lieu of the administration of a military pro-consulate,
there was established a settled government, with some show of a
representative basis. The American colonists were then upon the
verge of the great rebellion, and as a proof of the spirit in
which they acted, it may be remarked that the Continental Congress
made a most violent remonstrance against the toleration of Roman
Catholicism in Canada, guaranteed by the Quebec Act. The very next
year the rebellious colonists captured Ticonderoga and Crown Point,
and Montreal; and had their enterprise against Quebec succeeded,
Canada might have become included in the territory which eventually
became portion of the United States. So bent were the colonists on
including Canada in the scope of their great design, that in 1776,
immediately after their unsuccessful invasion, Franklin, who was
one of the main movers of Wolfe’s expedition, and two gentlemen,
were sent by Congress to offer the Canadians a free press and
State rights, and the free exercise of the faith which but two
years before they had so bitterly denounced the British Government
for guaranteeing, if they would but join in the revolt against
Great Britain. In the war which followed between the British and
the American colonists, Canada was made the base of operations
against the colonies, which generally terminated in disasters, such
as that of Burgoyne, though, in pitched battles, the British were
almost invariably victorious. The habitans took little or no part
in the contest, but on the Declaration of Independence, a number
of Royalists emigrated from the States and settled in the country,
in very much the same way as the Southern Americans are now taking
refuge in Canada from the persecution of their Northern neighbours.
The wish to give, in their new country, these devoted men some
equivalent for that which they had lost, suggested a course which
has been condemned by subsequent events. The Home Government
resolved upon the unfortunate step of dividing the province into
Upper and Lower Canada, with a governor-in-chief in Lower, and a
lieutenant-governor in Upper Canada, so that the Royalists might
not be quite swamped by the French element. The governors selected
were often men without particular aptitude for administration,
certainly destitute of the ability needed in dealing with the very
peculiar state of society, trade, and interests prevailing in the
provinces.
Although the legislative council and assembly of Upper Canada had
equal privileges with that of Lower Canada, the condition of the
people was very different, principally owing to the paucity of
population. Governor Simcoe, to whom the care of Upper Canada was
first confided, ruled over a wilderness, in which a few clearings
around the trading stations on the lakes and rivers, and some huts
gathered about the military posts, were the sole vestiges of the
white man and civilisation. As the English colonists gained the
upper hand in the constant strife which raged during the latter
period of the French occupation, the habitans of the remoter
settlements had gradually withdrawn towards Lower Canada, and
had concentrated in the neighbourhood of the towns on the St.
Lawrence, where they could find safety in case of danger, and
transport should their friends be unable to protect them. It was
not surprising that the whole French population flocked into the
lower province; for under a foreign rule they gained confidence and
ease by the contemplation of their numbers and the concentration
of their masses. Although many American Royalists came into the
lake country so abandoned, they were not equal in number to the
population that fled. It required no small amount of courage and
perseverance in Governor Simcoe to conduct the affairs of his
little government, from the site which his sagacity pointed out to
him as the most favourable for the development of his province.
The Red Man’s wigwam still clung to the border of the British
posts, and the few intrepid men who ventured to fix their homes
along the shore of the Upper St. Lawrence, found themselves amidst
an uncongenial population of half-breeds and Indians, accustomed
indeed to the chase, and to the rude barter which represented the
only trade of those vast regions, but utterly averse to settled
life and agricultural labour; obnoxious also to handicraft-men,
mechanics, and the followers of the peaceful, regular pursuits
which are the handmaidens of civilisation. Under these
circumstances the advance of Upper Canada, slow as it was for some
years, is surprising, and the rapidity of her subsequent progress
is certainly worthy of admiration. In 1793 the revenue of Upper
Canada was less than 1000_l._ a-year; and although the machinery
of carrying on government and law existed, it was but imperfectly,
if at all, worked. In theory the English law prevailed, and one
cannot but admit, if we are to judge by its fruits, that it was far
better calculated to promote the security and prosperity of the
country, than the Custom of Paris, to which the French Canadians
clung in virtue of the capitulation of Quebec. Even thus early
the militia occupied the attention of the legislature, although
they were obliged to do battle against the denizens of the forest,
and to encourage the hunter by rewards for the destruction of
bears and wolves. The regulation of trade between the provinces
and the United States--the establishment of ports of entry--the
adjustment of land titles, and other useful matters of the kind,
were not neglected by the earliest Parliaments. Unhappily religious
questions arose soon after the close of the last century in Lower
Canada. The national feeling became associated with the ancient
religion in opposition to the aims of the British Government and
of the Protestant clergy. Whilst Dissenters and Presbyterians
and other schismatics from the Church of England were allowed
free scope in Upper Canada, the Government set itself to work to
give to the Protestant Church in Lower Canada the prestige which
belonged to the Catholic Church. The Canadians raised the cry--_Nos
institutions! notre langue! et nos lois!_
When hostilities with America seemed imminent in 1807, the militia
nevertheless responded to the call with enthusiasm in Lower Canada,
and Acts were passed in Upper Canada for raising, training and
billeting the force in case of need. Although the language for
which the Lower Canadians cried out was that of France Acadianised,
the institutions and the laws in which they took pride belonged
only to a France of the past. The Republic had placed between
Canada and France a barrier which the priesthood declared to be
impassable. What had they to do with the Goddess of Reason and a
calendar without a saint? What had a people steeped in feudalism,
or the Custom of Paris, to do with the Code Napoleon? Nevertheless
the rulers of Canada suspected the habitans of treason, whilst
the habitans suspected the rulers of designs upon their faith;
and so it was that want of confidence, one of the most formidable
impediments to the good understanding between governor and governed
which can exist, took root and grew apace. The second war with the
United States was at hand. The animosity of the Americans of the
Southern and Middle States against England was much augmented by
the discovery of a project of the Canadian Secretary, Ryland, to
detach the New England States from the Union, and to annex them to
Canada. The bitter feelings which the old New England Colonists
had entertained towards their French neighbours had been mitigated
by the influence of a common language and the congenial religion
and laws of the English rulers of Canada. Certain it is that the
New England delegates opposed the war which was declared against
Great Britain by the Government of Washington by every means in
their power, though they were by no means complimentary to Canada,
which they supposed it to be one of the objects of the war party in
America to annex. On the declaration of war in 1812, the Canadians,
with the exception of the inhabitants of one parish, turned out
with the greatest alacrity, and in considerable force, to defend
their country. General Hall, the American Governor of Michigan,
seized upon Sandwich in July in the same year; but he was soon very
glad to cross over to Detroit again, where he very ingloriously
capitulated soon afterwards to General Brock, with 2500 men and 33
pieces of cannon, thus surrendering the whole State of Michigan to
Great Britain.
The Americans, elated by their naval successes however, resolved
to conquer Canada, although Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New
York opposed the war with so much determination, that it seemed
very probable the Union would be broken up by the persistence of
the Southern statesmen in their policy. A corps under Colonel Van
Rensselaer attacked the British and the Colonists under Brock at
Queenstown, near Niagara, and although that gallant, intrepid, and
able officer fell at the head of the 49th regiment, the British,
aided by Canadians and Indians, captured or slew nearly the whole
of the American invading force, under the eyes of a large number
of American militia, at the other side of the river, who refused
to cross to the aid of their countrymen. The Americans demanded an
armistice, which was most injudiciously granted by General Sheaffe.
The American General Dearborn, meantime, with a force varying, it
is said, from 8000 to 10,000 men, invaded Lower Canada, but after
some unsuccessful skirmishes retreated to Plattsburgh. A few days
afterwards the American General Smith made an attack on Fort Erie,
which was characterised by pusillanimity, and ended in disgraceful
failure. When the campaign opened in January, 1813, it was not
auspicious for the invading Americans. General Winchester’s force
was defeated by Colonel Proctor, near Frenchtown; Ogdensburg was
taken; but the Americans, nevertheless, continued the war with
characteristic perseverance and foresight, and set to work to use
the water communications which we had neglected, and thus gained an
assured advantage. General Sheaffe was driven out of Toronto by an
expedition which landed under the guns of a newly-created American
lake fleet, commanded by an experienced and brave sailor, Commodore
Chancey. The capture of Fort George followed; but an attempt to
overrun Lower Canada ended in utter defeat, Prevost, however, being
beaten back in an attack upon Sackett’s Harbour, and Proctor being
repulsed in an assault on Sanduskey, so as to moderate any undue
exultation on the side of the British on account of their success.
This war excited little attention in England, where men thought
only of their great naval victories, in which their ships
captured, sunk, or dispersed whole fleets of the enemy, or of
the grand operations in Spain, where Wellington was worsting in
succession the best generals of the Empire. All the strength of
the United States was put forth in their war against Canada, and
it is only astonishing that the Americans did so little with the
means at their disposal. In July a British expedition, covered
by two sloops of war, destroyed stores, barracks, and property
at Plattsburgh, Burlington, and Swanton, whilst the Americans
burned the British stores at York. It must be remembered that
the Americans had every facility in the command of the lakes,
and in the command of the waters. The connection between Lower
and Upper Canada was carried on by rapid and dangerous rivers,
and by lakes which were constantly patrolled by the Americans,
the roads being simply tracks through a forest, or causeways of
a most rudimentary character. For some time both sides contended
for the supremacy of the Lakes. On the 31st of July the British,
under Sir J. Yeo, captured two of Commodore Chancey’s squadron,
which was further reduced by the loss of two gunboats, which
capsized in trying to escape from the victorious English. But
Chancey repaired damages in Sackett’s Harbour, and on the 28th of
September attacked the British flotilla, which eventually retreated
under the guns of Burlington Heights. For the time, therefore,
the Americans were masters of Lake Ontario, and they used their
advantages in capturing British stores and reinforcements. On
the 10th of September the British lost the command of Lake Erie
also. An American squadron of nine vessels under Perry, far
superior in size, number of men, and in calibre of guns, defeated
a British squadron of six vessels under Barclay. The result of
this defeat was that the British under Proctor had to evacuate
Detroit and Amherstburg, and fall back to open communication with
their base of supplies. On the river Thames the pursuit became so
severe, that Proctor turned to bay, but he was overwhelmed by the
Americans under Harrison, who numbered 3500, whilst the British
did not exceed a third of that strength, Michigan was lost to
us, and the only port retained by the British west of Burlington
was Michilimacinac, which they had taken early in the war.
Nothing less than the conquest of Lower Canada would now satisfy
the Americans. A force of 12,000 men was assembled to operate
against Montreal. On the 20th of September, Colonel de Salaberry,
a Canadian in command of a post of militia, and a few Indians,
checked the advance of the enemy, and fell back to Chateaugay,
where in a most creditable and gallant action he defeated an
American column under Hampton, which was intended to co-operate
with an expedition down the St. Lawrence, against Montreal.
Another portion of the force was defeated at Chrystler’s Farm,
with some loss, by a body of British regulars, Canadian militia,
and Indians. The attack on Montreal was precipitately abandoned,
and the Canadians, who had done so well, were sent back to their
homes. But winter did not put an end to the war. The British
determined to drive the enemy out of Canada, and the Americans
retired before them. On the 10th of December the enemy abandoned
and burned the town of Newark. On the 18th of December the British
surprised Fort Niagara with all its garrison, and gave Lewiston and
Manchester to the flames. Buffalo and Black Rock were captured and
destroyed by the British under Riall, and the whole country-side
was laid waste in retaliation for the burning of Newark. Sir George
Prevost was able to meet the Canadian Parliament with pride, and
to congratulate it on the conduct of the provincial militia in
the field, and the loyalty of the people. Before the coming of
spring had loosed the lakes and rivers, the Americans returned
to the attack on Canada, and in March, 1814, Macomb crossed Lake
Champlain; but a part of his force was repulsed in an attack on
Lacolle, and he retired to Plattsburgh. In May, Sir J. Yeo fitted
out an expedition from Kingston, which sailed on the 4th of May,
captured Oswego, and destroyed some military stores, but did not
succeed in a similar attempt against Sackett’s Harbour. On the
3rd of July a strong force of Americans landed near Chippewa, and
defeated a body of British, Canadians, and Indians, of inferior
numbers, under Riall. A very bloody and determined contest ensued
on the 25th, near the same place, in which the Americans made
repeated efforts to break the British, but were repulsed, and
finally retired to their camp, whence they retreated towards Fort
Erie, destroying their baggage and stores. The British followed,
and were beaten in a desperate attack to storm the fort. Whilst
these small yet sanguinary actions were breaking out sporadically
along the Canadian frontier, the Government at home made use of a
part of the forces liberated by the peace with France, and resolved
on giving the Americans a little diversion from their pursuit of
glory and conquest in Canada. A British force under Ross defeated
the American army at the Races of Bladensburg, captured Washington,
and destroyed public buildings and property of all kinds. A
demonstration against Baltimore did not succeed because the fleet
could not co-operate, although the British troops routed the
American covering army with the utmost ease, and at New Orleans our
troops endured a humiliating repulse. The war did not languish in
Canada. The British took Prairie du Chien in the west, and seized
on all the country between the river Penobscot and New Brunswick.
The most important part of the State of Maine thus fell into
British possession, and a provisional government was established
over it till the end of the war, when Maine was restored to the
United State. To compensate for these successes, the British
flotilla was beaten by the Americans under McDonough, and Sir
George Prevost sustained a discreditable defeat at the hands of a
very inferior force under General Macomb, on the 8th of September,
at Plattsburgh. The Americans, however, abandoned Fort Erie on the
5th of November, which was the last vestige of their great plans
for the conquest of Canada. The Peace of Ghent put an end to a
contest in which the United States would have soon found itself
opposed to the whole power of Great Britain. The conditions of that
Treaty were disastrous for Canada, as they shut her out from any
seaport for several months of the year. In fact, Admiral Gambier,
Mr. Goulburn, and Mr. Adams, knew nothing at all about their
business, and exercised neither diligence, research, nor caution,
in examining the stipulations of the treaty. They accepted all the
American conditions and statements without inquiry or hesitation.
They never bestowed a thought on the effect of such observations
as “the high lands lying due north from the source of the river
St. Croix, and the head of the Connecticut river not having been
ascertained;” “part of the boundary between the two powers not
having been surveyed,” and the like, which many years after became
essential and powerful arguments in the discussion. In the war the
Canadians had displayed courage and spirit, and the best American
generals and statesmen were very speedily satisfied that they
could effect very little in the way of conquest. They were but too
glad to make peace. The war had not only damaged their resources,
but threatened the very existence of the Union. The northern
delegates at the Hartford Convention had not merely objected to
the proceedings of the Federal Government, but had entered upon
the discussion of fundamental changes in the constitution. In the
Treaty of Ghent no concession was made on any of the points on
which the declaration of war was made. In some respects the contest
with the United States proved of decided benefit to Canada; the
money spent by the army enriched the country, and the incidents
of the campaign tended to raise the reputation of the Canadians
in England, and elevated the sentiment of self-respect among
the people. Roads were made or projected for military purposes.
Canals were discussed and planned, and steam began to contend with
currents and rapids. The revenue exceeded the expenditure, although
nearly 27,000_l._ figured as an item for militia services the first
year after the war.
Had it not been for political and civil complications, the progress
of Canada would have been still more rapid; but truth to say,
progress encountered a considerable obstacle in the character of
the people of Lower Canada. Probably not less than 35,000 of the
whole population were of French descent, strongly attached to their
institutions, and therefore indisposed to change--influenced by
traditions of a most conservative character, and by territorial
arrangements which perpetuated the very essence of feudalism.
Nevertheless, emigration was encouraged, free passages were given
to some immigrants, food to others, one hundred acres of land to
all. Banks were established; but through all the extent of the
upper province in 1817, there were not quite seven persons to the
square mile. In some instances injudicious governors exercised
their power to counteract the good disposition of the House of
Parliament, and occasionally Parliament marred the excellent
intentions of the representatives of the Crown. Impeachment of
judges, imprisonment of journalists, questions of privilege and
the like arose, which interrupted the good feeling so necessary to
the progress of colonial life. Constant fears of sedition, privy
conspiracy, and rebellion, haunted the minds of governors, whilst
the colonists and the habitans struggled for greater freedom of
action. Although the Canadians had resisted the Americans with
the greatest energy, they were suspected of a desire to coalesce
with, or to imitate the institutions of, the enemy. England at this
time was agitated by aspirations for reform, and those who led the
masses certainly justified the suspicion with which their designs
were regarded, by intemperance of language. Among the emigrants
who flocked to Canada were men who were tinged deeply with the dye
of dangerous democratic doctrine, and notwithstanding the great
gulf fixed between the new comers and the French habitans, it was
feared that the two parties would unite in founding a government
which could not be congenial to one or the other. When Lord
Dalhousie came out in 1820, he found however a tolerably prosperous
community. The dissensions respecting the civil list which had
occurred for several years previously, inaugurated Lord Dalhousie’s
administration. The Assembly would not grant a permanent civil
list, and took the extraordinary step of appointing an agent,
who was a member of the British Parliament, to represent them in
England. The impolicy of dividing the country into two provinces
became more apparent as questions connected with revenue arose,
and the discussion of these questions was embittered by deficient
harvests and commercial distress. Now it was seen how injuriously
the want of a port open all the year affected the interests of
Canada, which for five or six months was denied all access to
the sea, unless through the United States. The union of the two
provinces was agitated, but the French population did not support
the project. They believed they would lose by amalgamation; that
they would forfeit their privileges, and be deprived of the
advantages they enjoyed in the free import of American produce.
When it became known that the Government really had a project
for the union of the provinces, Mr. Papineau, the Speaker of the
Assembly, was dispatched to England with a petition against the
proposed amalgamation, and it was deferred for a time. Financial
difficulties increased the ill-temper of the governed, and the
harshness and resolution of the Government widened the breach
between them. Squabbles and ill-blood sprang up with greater
vehemence and animosity every day, and the seeds of the evil
which came to maturity in 1837, if not then first planted, were
certainly invigorated. The energies of the English, Scotch, and
Irish emigrants who flocked into the north were not to be repressed
by these malign influences. The citizens of the old world pushed
their way into Upper Canada, and finding lakes and rivers unfit for
navigation, projected and carried out canals, and already grasped
the probability of landing cargoes of Canadian wheat in Liverpool,
from vessels loaded at Kingston and Montreal.
The Imperial negotiators who renounced all the claims which they
might have preferred in behalf of Canada on the peace of 1815,
would probably have failed to secure for the province a port on
the sea, although the British, who held so large a portion of
the State of Maine, might have fairly sought some equivalent for
it. At all events no strenuous effort was made to obtain such an
advantage--nor was there any attempt on our part to ascertain what
the precise boundaries were which the Americans claimed. We will
just see how a British negotiator many years later consented to
draw a line which placed the land communications of the mother
country with the provinces in war time at the mercy of an enemy
for many miles of its course--Canadian interests and Imperial
considerations being alike neglected--peace and war alike hampered,
by want of foresight, prudence, or statesmanlike consideration. The
increasing prosperity of Canada forced her to enter into closer
relations with the United States, and to accede to arrangements
with the Federal Government, which were of course regulated by
Imperial agency, and which were not always characterised by wisdom.
But there was no alternative--at least not one which could then
be adopted. The idea of a great confederation of the British
Provinces, which would enable Canada to avail herself of the ports
of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, if it presented itself at all,
was seen to be surrounded by embarrassing obstacles and conflicting
sentiments. The skill in the conception, and the energy displayed
in the execution, of the canal system, which is the grandest and
most extensive in the world, have made a practicable passage of
more than 2000 miles from Anticosti up to Superior City; and works
proposed or in progress by land and water attest the enterprise
and resolution with which the Canadians contended against the only
impediments in the way of their prosperity and greatness. The
claims of Canada to Imperial aid against invasion are strengthened
by concessions made by the Imperial agents, which clear away the
path of the invaders. Although all the border States had their
representatives and champions, the voice of Canada was not heard
in the deliberations of the Commission. It was British territory
which was in debate--there are some who hold that Canada is alone
called upon to defend it. Although the land may be invaded because
it belongs to Great Britain, so far that Great Britain is actually
attacked by aggression upon it, Canada, involved in war because
of its dependency on the British Crown, must bear the brunt of
defending that which British diplomacy has rendered peculiarly
liable to invasion. It is plain that those who insist on leaving
Canada to defend herself, are advocating a policy which tends to
separate Canada from the British Crown. The provinces are ruled by
a British viceroy, and are under the British flag, which would be
the cause of an American attack. Canada can do nothing to provoke
hostility, but the English may be struck with effect as long as the
provinces are ruled by the Crown, and contain a company of British
soldiers.
It would be interesting to inquire whether the Canadians would
be better off by themselves than they are at present, supposing
always that the new theories are likely to prevail, in case of
war. Notwithstanding the violence and exaggerated language of the
American press, it is only right to conclude that Canada is far
less liable to insult and aggression under British protection than
she would be without it. But that remark can only hold good in
cases where the Americans do not feel more than usual irritation
against Great Britain. The Canadians must feel that if they stood
alone, pretexts would not long be wanting to treat the provinces
as Texas was served. Canada has at present the power of England at
her back, and the threat to deprive her of it by no means implies
that she will be left to fight single-handed in the day of need.
On the whole, balancing the chances of aggression on account of
England against the chances of aggression if she stood alone, it
is certain that Canada gains more than she loses by her present
connection. The growth of great states along her frontier, and the
excessive weakness of a water boundary in face of a maritime power,
have caused us at home to insist on the engineering impossibility
of defending the whole of the land and lake boundaries, but
it by no means follows that the conquest of the country would
be equally easy. With the full command of the sea and all its
advantages--with commerce free--with a wonderful unanimity in
the object of the war--with immense exaltation of spirit, and
unparalleled expenditure of money, the Northern Americans have not
yet subdued the Southern States, though they have more than tested
the quality of their inner armour. Canada, with its narrow belt
of inhabited territory, flanked by inland seas and vast rivers,
offers no resemblance, it is true, to the South, but aided by Great
Britain and her army, her fleet, and her purse, she might defy
subjugation if she could not escape invasion. It must be noted that
the Americans frequently dwell on ideas for a long time ere they
attempt to carry them out, but that generally they do make an
effort to give practical effect to those theories which have taken
hold of the popular mind. For many years before the annexation of
Texas and the war with Mexico took place, the people were prepared
for both by the constant inculcation of their necessity. It is only
justice to the Government of the United States to declare that
their action has been generally restrictive, and that it has acted
as a drag on the wheels of the popular chariot. There is in fact
a great people standing between the fringe of the noisy democracy
and the highlands of Federal authority, which breaks the force of
the popular wave, and hears unmovedly the beatings of the turbulent
press, and raging voices of the Cleons of the hour. Shame it is
indeed to them that they so often permit the worth, and sense, and
honour of the nation to be represented by the worthless, foolish,
degraded scum that simmers in its noisy ebullitions on the surface
of the social system. We cannot be sure how far the Americans
are actuated by the feelings which find expression in the most
scandalous public paper of New York, but we do know that the paper
in question is largely read, and that its favourite topic, when
there is a lack of subjects for abuse or menace, is the forthcoming
doom of Canada, “When this weary war is over.”
In case of an invasion caused by any quarrel with Great Britain,
or by any policy for which the Canadians are not responsible, what
ought they to expect from us? Everything but impossibilities. Among
the greatest of impossibilities would be protection of the whole
of the frontier, with all the aid they could give us. The greatest
would be the defence of their territories without all the aid they
could afford. The Canadians tell us that in the hour of danger
they will be ready, but as yet they have fallen short of that
degree of preparation which we have a right to expect. If the blow
falls at all it will come swift and strong, but if they do their
duty to us there can be no fear of our failing them in the time of
peril.
The Honourable Joseph Howe has vindicated the claims of the
colonies to the care, protection, and assistance of the mother
country. He has pointed out the defects in our system, from
which the inevitable necessity arises, that the colony shall
become detached from the mother country, to become its rival, or
probably its enemy at some future stage of its existence. Though
California--3000 miles away--is represented at Washington; “though
Algeria is represented at Paris;” the provinces of North America
have no representation in London.
“Our columns of gold,” he exclaims, “and our pyramids of
timber, may rise in your Crystal Palaces, but our statesmen in
the great council of the empire never. Saxony or Wirtemberg
are treated with a deference never accorded to Canada, though
they are peopled by foreigners. The war of 1812-15 was neither
sought nor provoked by the British Americans. It grew out of the
continental wars, with which we certainly had as little to do.
Whether a Bourbon or a Bonaparte sat upon the throne of France,
was a matter of perfect indifference to us. We were pursuing our
lawful avocations--clearing up our country, opening roads into
the wilderness, bridging the streams, and organising society as
we best could, trading with our neighbours, and wishing them
no harm. In the meantime British cruisers were visiting and
searching American vessels on the sea. Then shots were fired,
and, before we had time to recall our vessels engaged in foreign
commerce, or to make the slightest preparation for defence, our
coasts were infested by American cruisers and privateers, and our
whole frontier was in a blaze.
“You count the cost of war by the army and navy estimates, but
who can ever count the cost of that war to us? A war, let it
be borne in mind, into which we were precipitated without our
knowledge or consent. Let the coasts of England be invaded by
powerful armies for three summers in succession; let the whole
Channel from Falmouth to the Nore be menaced, let Southampton be
taken and burnt, let the South-downs be swept from the Hampshire
hills, and the rich pastures of Devonshire supply fat beeves
to the enemy encamped in the western counties, or marching on
Manchester and London; let the youth of England be drawn from
profitable labour to defend these great centres of industry,
the extremities of the island being given up to rapine and to
plunder; fancy the women of England living for three years with
the sound of artillery occasionally in their ears, and the
thoughts of something worse than death ever present to their
imaginations; fancy the children of England, with wonder and
alarm on their pretty faces, asking for three years when their
fathers would come home; fancy, in fact, the wars of the Roses
or the civil wars back again, and then you can understand what
we suffered from 1812 to 1815. Talk of the cost of war at a
distance; let your country be made its theatre, and then you will
understand how unfair is your mode of calculation when you charge
us with the army estimates, and give us no credit for what we
have done and suffered in your wars.
“Though involved in the war of 1812 by no interest or fault of
our own; though our population was scattered, and our coasts and
frontiers almost defenceless; the moment it came, we prepared for
combat without a murmur. I am just old enough to remember that
war. The commerce of the Maritime Provinces was not a twentieth
part of what it is now, but what we had was almost annihilated.
Our mariners, debarred from lawful trade, took to privateering,
and made reprisals on the enemy. Our Liverpool ‘clippers’ fought
some gallant actions, and did some service in those days. The
war expenditure gave to Halifax an unhealthy excitement, but
improvement was stopped in all other parts of the province; and,
when peace came, the collapse was fearful even in that city.
Ten years elapsed before it recovered from the derangement of
industry, and the extravagant habits fostered by the war.
“A few regiments were raised in the Maritime Provinces, their
militia was organised, and some drafts from the interior were
brought in to defend Halifax, whence the expeditions against the
French Islands and the State of Maine were fitted out. Canada
alone was invaded in force.
“General Smith describes the conduct of the Canadian militia
in the few but weighty words that become a sagacious military
chieftain pronouncing a judgment on the facts of history.
“In 1812 the Republicans attacked Canada with two corps,
amounting in the whole to 13,300 men. The British troops in the
Province were but 4500, of which 3000 were in garrison at Quebec
and Montreal. But 1500 could be spared for the defence of Upper
Canada. From the capture of Michilimacinac, the first blow of
the campaign, down to its close, the Canadian Militia took their
share in every military operation. French and English vied with
each other in loyalty, steadiness, and discipline.
“Of the force that captured Detroit, defended by 2500 men, but
a few hundreds were regular troops. Brock had but 1200 men to
oppose 6300 on the Niagara frontier. Half his force were Canadian
Militia, yet he confronted the enemy, and, in the gallant action
in which he lost his life, left an imperishable record of the
steady discipline with which Canadians can defend their country.
“The invading army of yeomen sent to attack Montreal were as
stoutly opposed by a single brigade of British troops, aided by
the militia. In the only action which took place the Canadians
alone were engaged. The enemy was beaten back, and went into
winter quarters.
“In 1813, Canada was menaced by three separate corps. The Niagara
district was for a time overrun, and York, the capital of the
Upper Province, was taken and burnt. The handful of British
troops that could be spared from England’s European wars, were
inadequate to its defence; but in every struggle of the campaign,
disastrous or triumphant, the Canadian Militia had their share.
The French fought with equal gallantry in the Lower Province. At
Chateaugay, Colonel de Salaberry showed what could be done with
those poor, undisciplined colonists, who, it is now the fashion
to tell us, can only be made good for anything by withdrawing
them from their farms and turning them into regular soldiers. The
American general had a force of 7000 infantry, 10 field pieces,
and 250 cavalry. De Salaberry disputed their passage into the
country he loved, with 1000 bayonets, beat them back, and has
left behind a record of more value in this argument than a dozen
pamphlets or ill-natured speeches in parliament.
“When the independence of the United States was established in
1783, they were left with one half of the continent, and you with
the other. You had much accumulated wealth and an overflowing
population. They were three millions of people, poor, in debt,
with their country ravaged and their commerce disorganised. By
the slightest effort of statesmanship you could have planted your
surplus population in your own provinces, and, in five years, the
stream of emigration would have been flowing the right way. In
twenty years the British and Republican forces would have been
equalised. But you did nothing, or often worse than nothing.
From 1784 to 1841, we were ruled by little paternal despotisms
established in this country. We could not change an officer,
reduce a salary, or impose a duty, without the permission of
Downing Street. For all that dreary period of sixty years, the
Republicans governed themselves, and you governed us. They had
uniform duties and free trade with each other. We always had
separate tariffs, and have them to this day. They controlled
their foreign relations--you controlled ours. They had their
ministers and consuls all over the world, to open new markets,
and secure commercial advantages. Your ministers and consuls knew
little of British America, and rarely consulted its interests.
Till the advent of Huskisson, our commerce was cramped by all
the vices of the old colonial system. The Republicans could open
mines in any part of their country. Our mines were locked up,
until seven years ago, by a close monopoly held in this country
by the creditors of the Duke of York. How few of the hundreds of
thousands of Englishmen, who gazed at Nova Scotia’s marvellous
column of coal in the Exhibition, this summer, but would have
blushed had they known that for half a century the Nova Scotians
could not dig a ton of their own coal without asking permission
of half a dozen English capitalists in the city of London.
How few Englishmen now reflect, when riding over the rich and
populous states of Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, and Arkansas,
that had they not locked up their great west, and turned it into
a hunting ground, which it is now, we might have had behind
Canada, three or four magnificent provinces, enlivened by the
industry of millions of British subjects, toasting the Queen’s
health on their holidays, and making the vexed question of the
defence of our frontiers one of very easy solution.
“When the Trent affair aroused the indignant feeling of the
empire last autumn, we were--as we were in 1812--utterly
unprepared. The war again was none of our seeking.
“Nova Scotia and New Brunswick had thousands of vessels upon
the sea, scattered all over the world. Canada had her thousand
miles of frontier unprotected. Had war come, we knew that our
money losses would have been fearful, and the scenes upon our
sea-coasts and our frontiers, sternly painted as they must occur,
without any stretch of the imagination, might well bid the
‘boldest hold his breath for a time.’ But, did a single man in
all those noble provinces falter? No! Every man, ay, every woman
accepted the necessity, and prepared for war.
“Again it was a question of honour, and not of interest. In a
week we could have arranged, by negociation, for peace with the
United States, and have kept out of the quarrel. But who thought
of such a thing? Your homesteads were safe; ours in peril. A
British--not a colonial ship--had been boarded: but what then?
The old flag that had floated over our fathers’ heads, and droops
over their graves, had been insulted; and our British blood was
stirred--without our ever thinking of our pockets. The spirit
and unanimity of the provinces, no less than the fine troops
and war material shipped from this country, worked like a charm
at Washington. President Lincoln, like Governor Fairfield, saw
clearly that he was to be confronted not only by the finest
soldiers in the world, but by a united and high-spirited
population. The effect was sedative; the captives were given up.
And the provincials--as is their habit, when there is no danger
to confront--returned to their peaceful avocations.”
It may be necessary to make some allowance for the tinge of
colonial patriotism in this passage, but after all the Hon. J.
Howe is a transplanted Englishman. He speaks with the voice of
some millions of people, and we must listen to it, or be prepared
for a good deal of lukewarmness or “disloyalty.” I have avoided
any reference to the disputes which broke out into rebellion in
1837, because no useful end would be gained by an account of an
unfortunate schism which was produced by want of judgment on the
part of the Government at home, and by the extreme fanaticism of a
party in the province. But the fanaticism has in no small degree
been justified by what has since taken place. When “rebels” are
pardoned, it may be a proof that the government which pardons is
strong and generous. When “rebels” are not only restored to civic
rights, but are invested with office, it is almost a demonstration
that the government which permits them to exercise important
functions under it, was in error in the contest which drove
these men to resistance. The rebellion in Canada had, however,
nothing to do with the great question we are now discussing.
We are approaching the larger subject, which is opened by the
consideration of the arguments which are used by Imperialists
and Colonists in their controversy respecting the magnitude and
relation of the empire and the colony in war.
It becomes of high practical value to consider what Canada can
do, and what Canada has done in the direction of self-defence,
should she be threatened with war, either from imperial or
colonial causes. It can be no satisfaction to Canada to become a
fief of the new Federal _quasi_-republic because Great Britain
failed in her duty; and all the references to the patriotism and
exertions of valour of Canadians in past times, would reflect all
the greater discredit on them now, when they enjoy rights and
privileges unknown to their hardy ancestors. Let us first see what
her resources and defensive powers are, and then cast a glance at
what Canada and the British Provinces in North America have got to
defend. The only military force Canada can employ is the militia.
Her present proud position should induce the people of Canada to
make every effort to preserve the conditions under which they enjoy
so much liberty, happiness, and prosperity; but she has in the
future a heritage of priceless value, which she holds in trust for
the great nation that must yet sit enthroned on the Lakes and the
St. Lawrence, and rule from Labrador to Columbia.