FATHERS OF REFORM.
The history of Upper Canada, from the time of Mr. Gourlay's banishment,
in 1819, down to the actual outbreak of rebellion, is largely made up of
a succession of abuses on the part of the Executive, and of more or less
passive endurance on the part of the great body of the people. As has
been intimated, the Gourlay prosecutions and their attendant
circumstances aroused much popular indignation, and led to the formation
of an organized Opposition. During the session of 1820 the "Gagging
Bill," as it was called, which had been introduced and carried through
the Assembly under the auspices of Mr. Jonas Jones[57] two years before,
was repealed,[58] and the holding of conventions was no longer
prohibited by law. It is a fact worth mentioning that Attorney-General
Robinson was the only member who recorded his vote against the repealing
statute, whereas at the time of the enactment of the original repressive
law in 1818 only one vote had been given against it. Such a change of
opinion among the members of the Assembly within so brief a space of
time is in itself significant of the progress of liberal views among the
people generally.
The vote on this repealing statute was somewhat of a surprise to the
authorities. It was evident that Reform sentiment was growing, and that
many persons who had never been classed as Reformers were weary of the
long reign of tyranny. It was not the policy of the Compact, however, to
yield anything to popular demands, and they held on their course with
dogged pertinacity, as though animated by a fixed resolve that the
public indignation which had been aroused by the Gourlay prosecutions
should not be permitted to subside. Erelong a new opportunity for
applying the thumb-screw presented itself, and it was taken advantage of
to the fullest practicable extent. During the recess following the close
of the first session of the Eighth Provincial Parliament, which was
prorogued on the 14th of April, 1821, a vacancy occurred in the
representation of the constituency of the United Counties of Lennox and
Addington. The local Reformers took advantage of the opportunity thus
afforded of bringing out a candidate who had rendered much service to
Liberal principles in Upper Canada, and who was eminently fitted to
impart strength to the Opposition in the Assembly. His name was Barnabas
Bidwell, and he was known far and wide as one of the keenest intellects
and as one of the best public speakers in the country. His past history
had been unfortunate, and as it was soon to be made the subject of
strict Parliamentary enquiry, a few leading facts in connection with it
may as well be set down here.
He was a native of Massachusetts, where he was born in the old colonial
days before the Revolution. He came of a Whig family which espoused the
colonial cause with ardour, but he was himself too young to take any
part in the great struggle which gave birth to the United States. Having
completed his education at Yale College, he studied law, and at an early
age rose to eminence at the Massachusetts bar. He became
Attorney-General of the State, and, though he had for his rivals some of
the ablest men known to American history, he was regarded by his
countrymen as one whose future was in his own hands. His manners were
courtly and refined, and his scholastic attainments wide and various. He
soon found his way to Congress, where his brilliant eloquence caused him
to be listened to with attention and respect.
Up to this time his career had been an uninterrupted success. But in
achieving his political eminence he had been unfortunate enough to make
for himself a good many bitter enemies. His political course seems to
have been somewhat arbitrary and uncompromising, insomuch that his
opponents regarded him with more rancorous feelings than are commonly
entertained among public men where there are no personal grounds for
enmity. Whether such personal grounds existed in the case of Barnabas
Bidwell cannot now be readily ascertained. It is however certain that he
was regarded by a host of clever and unscrupulous persons with a
bitterness of enmity almost amounting to ferocity. He seems to have made
no attempt to conciliate his foes, but treated them with a sort of
haughty contempt. In the year 1810 the weight of their anger descended
upon him like an avalanche. He was then, and he for some years
previously had been, Treasurer of the County of Berkshire,
Massachusetts. An accusation of a very serious nature was brought
against him. He was charged with having applied the public funds to his
own use, and with having falsified entries in his books in order to
cover up his malversations. It is difficult to get at the exact truth in
the matter. Mr. Bidwell's attention to public affairs had caused him to
neglect his private and professional business, which consequently had
not flourished. He was far from wealthy, and it is not improbable that
he was sometimes financially embarrassed. Whether he succumbed to
temptation, and dipped his hands into the treasury without leave, cannot
now be certainly declared. His own version of the matter was that he was
entirely free from blame, but that his enemies had deliberately woven a
subtle web about him from which he was unable to extricate himself, as
it would have been impossible for him, under the existing state of
things, to obtain justice. At all events, he seems to have felt himself
to be unable to face the situation. Learning that an indictment had been
laid, and that a warrant had been issued for his apprehension, he fled
from his native country, and took refuge in Upper Canada.
Accompanied by his family, consisting of a son and daughter, he settled
at the village of Bath, in the County of Addington, on the Bay of
Quinte. He soon obtained employment as a school teacher, and encountered
no difficulty in gaining a livelihood, though the humble role he was
compelled to play comported ill with his past experience and present
ambition. There is little doubt that he was an admirer of republican
institutions, and that he so remained to the end of his life, though his
admiration was thrown away in this country, and it was impossible for
him to return to his own. He was a useful man in the little community
where he resided, and his education and intelligence caused him to be
looked up to by people of all classes. He did not intrude his political
views further than to proclaim himself an advocate of Liberal ideas, and
upon the breaking out of the War of 1812 he took the oath of allegiance
to His Majesty. His ordinary pursuits were altogether insufficient for
his enthusiastic nature, and after the lapse of several years he removed
to Kingston, and took up his abode there. He found an outlet for his
superabundant energy through the medium of frequent contributions to the
press. Among the best known of his writings are a series of letters on
practical agriculture and political economy, originally contributed to a
Kingston newspaper, and subsequently republished in pamphlet form under
the title of "The Prompter." The series of historical and topographical
sketches forming the first half of the first volume of Gourlay's
"Statistical Account of Upper Canada" are also from Mr. Bidwell's pen,
and they are upon the whole the most valuable portion of the entire
work. He espoused Mr. Gourlay's cause with great fervour, and by his
written and spoken words did much to arouse public sympathy for that
unfortunate man, as well as to awaken abhorrence for the cruelty and
selfishness of his persecutors. From that time forward he began to take
a more conspicuous part in politics than he had been accustomed to take
since his arrival in Canada. From the hustings and elsewhere he
thundered against the Compact domination with an eloquence which
thrilled his audiences. He soon made himself felt as a power in the
land, and as one from whom the ruling faction had good reason to
apprehend more serious antagonism than they had ever had to encounter.
Such was the man chosen by the Reform element in Lennox and Addington,
during the summer of 1821, to represent its interests in the Provincial
Assembly. The ensuing campaign was an exciting one, but at its close
Barnabas Bidwell was the undoubted choice of a large majority of the
electors. This was a heavy blow to the Executive party. The Reformers
would now have a representative in the House who could not be cajoled or
bullied. His eloquence, aggressiveness, intelligence and shrewdness
could not fail to produce a decided impression on the House and on the
country. Would it not be well if he could be got rid of, as Thorpe and
Gourlay had been got rid of before him?
During the progress of the election campaign, some of the main facts
connected with Mr. Bidwell's migration from Massachusetts to Upper
Canada had become known to his opponents. The pretext afforded by these
disclosures was too good to be neglected. An emissary was despatched to
Berkshire County, where there was no difficulty in ascertaining that he
had been Treasurer of the municipality; that he had been indicted for
misapplying public funds; that a warrant had thereupon been issued for
his apprehension; and that he had then fled beyond the jurisdiction.
Certified copies of the indictment and of several other important
documents bearing on the matter were obtained by the agent, and by him
brought over to Upper Canada. On the strength of the information and
documents thus obtained a petition was filed against the election of Mr.
Bidwell, upon the ground that he was an alien and a fugitive from
justice, who had moreover taken an oath of allegiance to the Government
of the United States. The accused notwithstanding appeared in his place
in the Assembly upon the opening of the session, and when the matter of
the petition came up for discussion he defended himself before the House
with an eloquence and pathos which stirred every heart. He declared, in
language and tones which left no doubt of his sincerity, that he was
guiltless of the embezzlement with which he had been charged, and that
the accusation had been solely due to the machinations of a powerful
clique of enemies. He further urged that, whatever might be the facts as
to the charge, he had never been tried or convicted, and that the
Assembly had no right to assume his guilt in the absence of positive
proof. He admitted having taken the oath of allegiance to the Government
of the United States, but urged that such an oath was required of every
man assuming a public office in all civilized countries; that it applied
only to the period of his actual residence, and was no legitimate bar to
his advancement in another country. Since his arrival in Canada he had
taken an oath of allegiance to the King of Great Britain. That his
loyalty was not open to suspicion was sufficiently manifest from the
mere fact of his having been returned to Parliament by a constituency
the inhabitants whereof were largely composed of United Empire Loyalists
and their immediate descendants. Such was the course of his argument,
which from beginning to end was singularly lucid and clear. But all was
unavailing. He was assailed by the Government party in language such as
is rarely to be met with in the annals of Parliamentary debate in this
country. Mr. Attorney-General Robinson went beyond any former effort of
his life in the way of vituperation, and overleapt the bounds of the
commonest decency. He proclaimed himself to be the son of a United
Empire Loyalist who had fought and bled for his country, and as
therefore being no fit company for runaway felons and pickpockets. His
sympathy with himself was so great that the tears chased one another
down his cheeks as he was speaking. All the amiability which commonly
marked his intercourse with his fellowmen seemed to have utterly
departed from him, and he towered above his seat in a perfect whirlwind
of rage and fiery indignation. Mr. Bidwell's calm and temperate reply
was in striking contrast to the levin bolts which had been hurled at
him, and produced a marked effect upon his hearers. But the Compact
commanded a majority in the Assembly,[59] which sustained a motion for
his expulsion. And as it was well known that the electors of Lennox and
Addington would again return him, and that he could not be permanently
excluded by any ordinary means, it was determined to disqualify him by
special legislation. An Act was accordingly passed intituled "An Act to
render ineligible to a seat in the Commons House of Assembly of this
Province certain descriptions of persons therein mentioned."[60] Among
the persons declared ineligible were those who had held any of the
principal public offices in a foreign country, which was of course an
effectual disqualification for Barnabas Bidwell, who, as already
mentioned, had been Attorney-General of Massachusetts. It was a
veritable Act of Exclusion, aimed at a particular person, and it served
its purpose by keeping the obnoxious individual perpetually out of
public life.[61]
In consequence of Mr. Bidwell's expulsion a new election for Lennox and
Addington became necessary. The writ was issued, and, to the chagrin and
disgust of the supporters of the Government, a new champion of popular
rights appeared in the field in the person of Marshall Spring Bidwell,
the only son of the recently-expelled member. The new candidate was a
young man of twenty-three years of age. He was a native of
Massachusetts, and had accompanied his parents to Canada at the time of
their migration in 1810. At an early age he had given proofs of the
possession of splendid abilities. His father, who was exceedingly proud
of the bright boy, had cultivated his faculties to the utmost, and by
the time that Marshall Spring Bidwell had attained his majority he was
regarded by all who knew him as having a brilliant future before him. A
year before his candidature he had been called to the Provincial bar. He
now presented himself before the electors of Lennox and Addington in
opposition to the Tory candidate, a gentleman named Clark. The combined
modesty and assurance displayed by young Bidwell throughout the contest
gained for him many warm friends, while at the same time his earnestness
and flowing eloquence proved that he was a true son of his father. He
conducted the campaign with signal ability, and laid the foundation of a
lasting reputation in the constituency. At the close of the poll the
returning-officer declared Mr. Clark to have been duly elected, but, as
it was notorious that corrupt practices had been resorted to, a protest
was entered by the friends of the Reform candidate, who himself appeared
in person at the bar of the House to conduct the argument. The result of
the enquiry was that the return was set aside and a new election
ordered. Young Bidwell so distinguished himself by his argument before
the House that the official party perceived that he was likely to be no
less formidable as an opponent than his father would have been. When the
new election was held he again presented himself as a candidate, but
found that the returning-officer had received instructions to accept no
votes for him, upon the ground that he was an alien. The Tory candidate,
Mr. Ham, was accordingly returned; but another protest was filed, with a
similar result. The election was once more set aside, and Lennox and
Addington still remained without a Parliamentary representative. It had
by this time become notorious that the whole power of the Executive was
exerted to keep the Bidwells out of public life, and the conviction that
such was the fact gave rise to a counter-movement on the part of the
victims. The friends of Reform bestirred themselves to such purpose that
during the session of 1823-24 an Act was passed[62] repealing the
measure of two years before, and relaxing the conditions under which
persons who had resided in or taken the oath of allegiance to a foreign
state should be eligible for election to the Provincial Parliament. It
was provided that a residence in the Province of seven years next before
election should render such persons eligible for membership in the
Assembly. This clause removed all existing disqualifications from young
Mr. Bidwell; but his father still remained disqualified, for it was
expressly re-enacted that no person who had been a member of the Senate
or House of Representatives of the United States, or who had held office
in any of the executive departments of "the United States of America, or
any one of the said United States," should be capable of being elected
to the Assembly. Under this clause the elder Bidwell was doubly
disqualified, for he had not only been Attorney-General of
Massachusetts, but had also sat in Congress. It was much, however, that
the son was rendered eligible. A general election took place during the
summer of 1824, at which he was returned for the constituency which he
then contested for the third time. He continued to sit in Parliament
for eleven successive years. He is properly regarded as one of the
founders of the Reform party in Upper Canada, and by his eloquence, tact
and discretion, no less than by the high respect in which his character
was held, he did much to advance the progress of Reform principles.
The general election of 1824 resulted in the return of a number of
prominent Reformers who now for the first time came forward to take part
in public affairs. It was evident that a spirit of Reform had been
awakened, and that from this time forward every important public
question was likely to have two sides to it.
The most conspicuous of all the new members was Mr. John Rolph, who had
been returned as one of the representatives for the County of Middlesex.
As he played an important part in the event which forms the subject of
this work, and as he was one of the ablest men who have ever taken part
in public affairs in this country, it is desirable to give some fuller
account of him than is to be found in the various books relating to the
place and times in which he lived.
John Rolph was unquestionably one of the most extraordinary
personalities who have ever figured in the annals of Upper Canada. He
possessed talents which, under favouring circumstances, would have made
him a marked man in either professional or public life in any country.
Chief among his qualifications may be mentioned a comprehensive, subtle
intellect, high scholastic and professional attainments, a style of
eloquence which was at once ornate and logical, a noble and handsome
countenance, a voice of silvery sweetness and great power of modulation,
and an address at once impressive, dignified and ingratiating. His
keenness of perception and his faculty for detecting the weak point in
an argument were almost abnormal, while his power of eloquent and subtle
exposition had no rival among the Canadian public men of those times.
His famous speech--to be hereafter more particularly referred
to--delivered in the Assembly, in 1836, on the subject of the Clergy
Reserves, was one of the most powerful indictments ever heard within the
walls of a Canadian Parliament. His arraignment of Sir Francis Bond Head
before the same body early in the following year was hardly less
impressive. He was of a full habit of body, even in comparative youth,
and though he was rather under than above the middle height, there was
a dignity and even majesty in his presence that gave the world assurance
of a strong man, while it at the same time effectually repelled unseemly
familiarity. A pair of deep clear blue eyes, surmounted by rather heavy
eyebrows, glanced out from beneath his smooth and expansive forehead. He
had light brown hair, a well-moulded chin, a firmly-set nose, and a
somewhat large and flexible mouth, capable of imparting to the
countenance great variety of expression. Such, according to the
universal testimony of those who knew him, and according to portraits
painted from life and preserved in his family, was the John Rolph of
fifty to sixty years ago.
There was unquestionably a _per contra_. Though he was a man of many
friends, and was the repository of many familiar confidences, there was
probably no human being--not even the wife of his bosom--who ever
possessed John Rolph's entire confidence. There was about him no such
thing as self-abandonment. This was not because he was devoid of natural
passions or affections, or even of warm friendship, for he was a kind,
if not a tender husband and father, and there were many persons whom he
held in very high esteem, and for whom he cheerfully made great
sacrifices. But the quality of caution seems to have been
preternaturally developed within his breast. No man was ever less open
to the imputation of wearing his heart upon his sleeve. He had a
temperament of great equableness, and doubtless felt much more deeply
than was suspected, even by those who were constantly about him. To the
outer world he was ever self-possessed, calm and dignified, of pleasant
and amiable manners, and not deficient in good-fellowship, but seldom or
never abandoning himself to frolicsomeness or fun. His smile had a
winsome sweetness about it, but it was a very rare occurrence indeed for
him to indulge in anything approaching to hearty laughter. His
self-control was marvellous. He was never surprised or startled, never
dismayed by unexpected intelligence, never taken off his guard. Yet he
possessed great dramatic talent, and in his addresses to juries and
public audiences could successfully simulate the most contradictory
feelings and emotions. One who judged him simply from such exhibitions
as these might well have set him down for an emotional and impetuous
man, apt to be led away by the fleeting passions and weaknesses of the
moment. Yet no one coming to such a conclusion would have had any
conception of his real character and idiosyncrasies. He certainly never
acted without motive, but his motives were sometimes dark and
unfathomable to everyone but himself. Not one among his contemporaries
was able to take his moral and intellectual measure with anything
approaching to completeness; and throughout the entire length and
breadth of Canadian biography there is no man of equal eminence
respecting whose real individuality so little is known.
Mr. Rolph's peculiarities were probably inherent, for the facts of his
early life, so far as known, afford no clue to the reading of the
riddle. He was the second son in a family consisting of eighteen
children, and was born at Grovesend, in the market town of Thornbury,
Gloucestershire, England, on the 4th of March, 1793. His father, Thomas
Rolph, was a physician of some local repute, who seems to have been
impelled to emigrate in consequence of the impossibility of making any
suitable provision in England for so numerous a progeny. The ascertained
facts with reference to John Rolph's early life in England are
singularly meagre. He accompanied his parents to Canada some time prior
to the War of 1812, for he served as a volunteer during the early part
of that conflict, and was for some months a paymaster of militia. During
the progress of the war he was taken prisoner by the enemy, and was
detained in custody for a short time at Batavia, in the State of New
York. An exchange of prisoners having been effected, he was set at
liberty. After his liberation he returned to England, where he entered
one of the colleges of the University of Cambridge; and, though he seems
to have left there without taking a degree, he was recognized as a young
man of very remarkable and precocious intellectual powers, likely to
become conspicuous in after-life. He absorbed knowledge with marvellous
facility, and never forgot anything he had learned. After leaving
college he repaired to London, where he was entered as a student-at-law,
and was in due time called to the bar of the Inner Temple. Like Bacon,
he seems to have taken all knowledge to be his province, for, not
satisfied with having acquired what, in so young a man, was accounted a
wide knowledge of jurisprudence, he studied for some time under Sir
Astley Cooper, and was enrolled as a member of the Royal College of
Surgeons. He soon afterwards returned to Canada, and took up his abode
on a lot of land in the Township of Charlotteville, about midway between
the villages of Turkey Point and Vittoria, in what is now the County of
Norfolk, but which then and for long afterwards formed part of the
Talbot District. In Michaelmas Term of 1821 he was called to the bar of
Upper Canada, and for some years thereafter he appears to have practised
the two professions of law and medicine concurrently. His great
acquirements and pleasant manners made him a favourite with all classes
of the people, and caused him to be regarded as a genuine acquisition to
the district in which he resided. He became the professional adviser and
familiar friend of Colonel Thomas Talbot, founder of the Talbot
Settlement, and was one of the originators of the Talbot Anniversary,
established in 1817, and kept up for more than twenty years thereafter,
in honour of the day of the Colonel's arrival at Port Talbot--the 21st
of May, 1803. The Colonel was not, in the strict sense of the term, a
politician, but he was a member of the Legislative Council, and
naturally supported the official party; whereas Rolph, though a man of
equable mind, and by no means constitutionally inclined towards
Radicalism, had much better opportunities for mixing with the people
than had Colonel Talbot, and his keen eye revealed to him many official
abuses which did not commend themselves to his sense of justice. It is
probable that differences of opinion on public questions led to their
ultimate estrangement. At all events, Rolph espoused the side of the
people, and declared himself a foe to the Family Compact policy, and
from that time forward the intimacy between him and Colonel Talbot seems
to have grown less and less. The Gourlay prosecutions aroused Rolph's
hot indignation, which he did not hesitate to express with much freedom
whithersoever he went. Being a brilliant and eloquent talker, strong in
opinion and logical in argument, he made many converts to his views, the
number of whom was not lessened by the course of treatment adopted
towards the Bidwells. It seems to have been about this time that he took
up his abode at Dundas, where he subsequently resided for many years.
When the general elections of 1824 took place the Reformers of Middlesex
brought out John Rolph and Captain John Matthews, both of whom were
returned at the head of the poll.
Rolph made his presence felt in the Assembly from the time of taking his
seat there. He was then thirty-one years of age, and of a compact,
well-built figure, inclining to portliness. His face was at once
handsome and intellectual, and his presence carried with it a suggestion
of undoubted power. He spoke comparatively seldom during his early
Parliamentary sessions, but when he did speak it was always with effect.
His diction was singularly luminous and expressive, and would have
attracted attention in any public assembly in the world. There was a
clear metallic ring in his voice which did full justice to the language
employed, and there were few empty benches in the House when it was
known that Rolph was to speak.
His colleague from Middlesex, though a staunch Reformer, was a man of
very different cast. Captain Matthews was a retired officer of the royal
artillery, who had seen twenty-seven years' service. At a very early
period of his residence in Upper Canada he had become disgusted with
Family Compact rule, and had spoken his mind on the subject with much
freedom. Being a resident of the County of Middlesex, and being held in
much esteem there among the adherents of Liberal principles, he was
induced to offer himself along with Dr. Rolph at the general election of
1824 as one of the candidates for the county. His candidature was
successful, and he became very popular in the House, though the texture
of his mind was somewhat light and airy, and he was not well fitted,
either by nature or by training, to deal with such grave constitutional
questions as were continually forcing themselves upon public attention.
Another prominent Reformer who now took his seat in Parliament for the
first time was Peter Perry, who had been returned as young Marshall
Bidwell's colleague in the representation of Lennox and Addington.
Although thirty-four years have elapsed since his death, Mr. Perry is
still well remembered by the older generation of our politicians. During
the twelve years succeeding his entry into public life he was one of the
most conspicuous Reformers in the Province. Though not possessed of a
liberal education, and though his demeanour and address were marred by a
sort of impetuous coarseness, he was master of a rude, vigorous
eloquence which under certain conditions was far more effective than the
most polished oratory would have been. He was certainly the ablest stump
orator of his time in this country, and there was no man in the Reform
ranks who could so effectively conduct a difficult election campaign.
No man was more dreaded by his opponents, more especially by those who
had to encounter him while a contest was pending. It may here be added
that he continued to take an active part in politics down to a short
time before his death in 1851, and that he rendered great services to
the cause of Reform, but in the years following the Union of the
Provinces he was overshadowed by Robert Baldwin, whose social position,
spotless reputation and disinterestedness of purpose combined to place
him on a pedestal beyond the reach of ordinary politicians. Peter Perry,
however, while yielding a loyal support to Mr. Baldwin, continued to the
end of his life to fight his political battles in his own way. The
sincerity of his convictions was beyond any sort of question, and his
shrewdness, experience and hard common sense caused his opinions to be
regarded with respect, even by such men as Rolph, Baldwin and the
Bidwells.
Mr. Perry was a native Upper Canadian, having been born at Ernestown in
1793, during the early part of Governor Simcoe's administration of
affairs. He was the son of a U. E. Loyalist, and was brought up on a
farm, at a time when public schools were few and far between in the
rural districts. He grew to manhood without having acquired much in the
way of education, but the quickness of his parts and the soundness of
his judgment did much to atone for his want of regular school training.
He began to take an active interest in public affairs at an early age,
and before he was thirty he had acquired wide notoriety as a
strongly-pronounced Reformer. Living in the same part of the country as
the Bidwells, he took a warm interest in their candidature. As his
political ideas coincided with theirs, and as his rough eloquence had
already made him well known throughout the constituency, he espoused
their side in the successive election contests, and at the general
election of 1824 was himself returned to the Assembly as the colleague
of the brilliant young lawyer.
In addition to John Rolph, Marshall Spring Bidwell, Captain John
Matthews and Peter Perry, a number of other advocates of Reform
principles were returned at the general election of 1824. For the first
time in Upper Canadian annals, it was manifest not only that the
Reformers had a majority in point of numbers in the Assembly, but that
they had a decided preponderance of ability. No adherent of the official
party--not even the Attorney-General, John Beverley Robinson--was a
match for Rolph or Bidwell, to say nothing of Perry, whose oratory was
of an altogether different complexion, though scarcely less effective.
Upon the meeting of the Houses the numerical strength of the respective
parties was fairly tested by the vote on the Speakership. The Reformers
nominated as their candidate John Willson, one of the members for
Wentworth. Mr. Willson was an unpretending farmer, of strong political
convictions, but of good sense and calm judgment, who had allied himself
with the Reformers, and who might safely be depended upon to discharge
the duties incidental to the Speakership with judicial impartiality. The
vote stood twenty-one to nineteen, the majority of two being in Mr.
Willson's favour. The Reformers felt that they had achieved a triumph,
and were accordingly jubilant; but they soon found that the mere control
of the Assembly signified very little in the absence of Executive
responsibility. The Legislative Council interposed its dead weight, and
vetoed one bill after another sent up by the Assembly.
The Reform preponderance in the Assembly, however, and the bringing
together of the leading supporters of Liberal principles, led to the
establishment of an organized body of Reformers, which from that time
forward made its existence felt throughout the constituencies, and
presented an obstacle to the continued rule of the Compact. Conspicuous
among the Fathers of Reform, in addition to John Rolph, Peter Perry,
Captain Matthews and the two Bidwells, were Doctor William Warren
Baldwin, his son Robert, and William Lyon Mackenzie. None of the three
last-named gentlemen was at this time in Parliament, but they were
nevertheless all able to render very valuable services to Reform
principles--the first two by reason of their wealth and high social
position, and the third from the fact that he was the publisher of a
newspaper, and that he was a man of strong opinions and superabundant
energy in giving expression to them.
The elder Baldwin was a gentleman of high character and social position,
resident at York. He had emigrated from Ireland to Canada towards the
close of the last century, and, like Mr. Rolph, had for some time
practised law and medicine concurrently. He achieved considerable
success, both pecuniarily and otherwise, and, notwithstanding his
political principles, which were of a decidedly advanced character, he
was respected by the entire community of the little Provincial capital.
The family to which he belonged were well known in Ireland for their
adherence to advanced political doctrines, and he himself remained true
to family traditions. At a time when it required no slight courage to
espouse the Liberal side in York, Dr. Baldwin was always to be found in
the ranks of Reform. He was wealthy, as, in addition to the property
which he had personally accumulated, he had succeeded, by bequest, to
the bulk of the large possessions of the Honourable Peter Russell--whose
method of doing good unto himself has already been glanced at--and of
that gentleman's maiden sister Elizabeth. Miss Russell resided in Dr.
Baldwin's family during the last few years of her life, and survived
until 1822. The Russells and the Baldwins were remotely connected by
ties of relationship, and as neither the Administrator nor his sister
ever married, there was nothing strange in the disposition made by them
of their property.
High as Dr. Baldwin stood in the Reform ranks, however, he was destined
to be eclipsed by his more distinguished son. It is safe to say that no
public man in Canada has ever gained so enviable a reputation as
attaches to the name of Robert Baldwin. As was intimated two or three
pages back, he stood upon a lofty pedestal, and was a very man _per se_.
And this high position he attained, not by means of brilliant oratory,
keenness of perception, or subtle comprehensiveness of judgment. No one
has ever pretended to claim for him any special intellectual greatness
of any kind. He was a plain man, of abilities not much above the
average, who possessed strong convictions, and whose high principles,
sterling honesty and disinterestedness of purpose were unimpeachable.
Had he been a member of the British House of Commons during Sir Robert
Walpole's regime, the proverbial dictum of that high priest of
corruption would never have been uttered, for certainly no man would
ever have dreamed of offering a bribe to Robert Baldwin. He has been in
his grave for more than a quarter of a century; thirty-four years have
elapsed since his withdrawal from public life; yet he is still referred
to by adherents of both political parties in Canada as a statesman of
unblemished integrity, whose character was without spot, and in whose
bosom was no guile. He more than once occupied the foremost position in
the public eye. During much of his career a fierce light beat upon him,
yet failed to disclose anything whereof the most august character in
history would have had any cause for feeling ashamed. As I have said
elsewhere: "We can still point to him with the admiration due to a man
who, during a time of the grossest political corruption, took a foremost
part in our public affairs, and who yet preserved his integrity
untarnished. We can point to him as the man who, if not the actual
author of Responsible Government in Canada, yet spent the best years of
his life in contending for it, and who contributed more than any other
person to make that project an accomplished fact. We can point to him as
one who, though a politician by predilection and by profession, never
stooped to disreputable practices, either to win votes or to maintain
himself in office. Robert Baldwin was a man who was not only incapable
of falsehood or meanness to gain his ends, but who was to the last
degree intolerant of such practices on the part of his warmest
supporters. If intellectual greatness cannot be claimed for him, moral
greatness was most indisputably his. Every action of his life was marked
by sincerity and good faith, alike toward friend and foe. He was not
only true to others, but was from first to last true to himself....
Robert Baldwin was neither a bigot nor a fanatic, but he was in the best
and truest sense of the word a Christian. He was strict in his
observance of religious duties, and brought up his children to seek
those things which make for righteousness, rather than the things of
this world. His piety was an ever-present influence in his life, and was
practically manifested in his daily walk and conversation. As we
contemplate the fifty-four years which made up the measure of his
earthly span, we cannot fail to be impressed by its uniform consistency,
its thorough conscientiousness, its devotion to high and noble objects.
It is a grand thing to acquire a famous name, but it is a much grander
thing to live a pure and noble life; and in estimating the character of
Robert Baldwin it should be remembered that he was not merely a
statesman and a lawyer, but was, over and above all else, a man and a
Christian."[63]
The foregoing account, be it understood, applies to a later period. At
the date of the general election in 1824 Robert Baldwin was still a
young man, whose reputation, professional and political, was yet to be
made. He had not even been called to the bar, and was still a student in
his father's office. Notwithstanding his youth, however--he was only in
his twenty-first year--he had given some thought to the political
questions of the time, and had even begun to look forward to the
possibility of an ultimate political career. His father, from whom he
had learned many political lessons, had recently become very wealthy
through the death of Miss Russell, as already mentioned. Much of his
wealth consisted of landed property. Robert was the first-born child of
his parents, and, as the law of primogeniture was then in force in Upper
Canada,[64] it was to be anticipated that he would succeed to large
possessions, and would be independent of any income arising from his own
exertions. He bore an honoured name, and it was tolerably certain that,
under such a combination of circumstances, he would sooner or later find
his way to Parliament. He had already imbibed what were in those days
considered as advanced Liberal views, and was in full accord with his
father, who had to a large extent moulded his opinions. He was present
at the meetings of the Reform members held during the first session
following the elections of 1824, for the purpose of organization. It was
then that a distinct Reform Party, with common objects and a specific
policy, may be said to have been formed in this Province. There had been
Upper Canadian Reformers from the very foundation of the Province, but
no Reform Party can strictly be said to have had an existence prior to
the latter part of the year 1824.
No man was more conspicuous in contributing to the founding of the
Reform Party than was William Lyon Mackenzie, whose personality yet
remains to be considered. Owing in some measure to the force of
circumstances, but chiefly to his own energy, impulsiveness and love of
notoriety, Mr. Mackenzie's name and achievements have become more widely
known than have those of many abler and wiser men. He was the only
child of humble parents, and was born at Springfield, a suburb of
Dundee, in Forfarshire, Scotland, on the 12th of March, 1795. When he
was four weeks old his father died, leaving him and his mother wholly
unprovided for, insomuch that they were dependent upon the bounty of
relatives. To adopt his own language, poverty and adversity were his
nurses, and want and misery were his familiar friends. "It is among the
earliest of my recollections," wrote he in 1824, "that I lay in bed one
morning during the grievous famine in Britain in 1800-1, while my poor
mother took from our large kist the handsome plaid of the tartan of our
clan, which in her early life her own hands had spun, and went and sold
it for a trifle, to obtain for us a little coarse barley meal, whereof
to make our scanty breakfast; and of another time during the same famine
when she left me at home crying from hunger, and for (I think) eight
shillings sold a handsome and hitherto carefully preserved priest-gray
coat of my father's, to get us a little food." His mother, from whom he
inherited his most salient peculiarities, was a woman of strongly-marked
character. She was endowed by nature with a high temper, and with a
tendency to act from impulse rather than from reason. To these qualities
were added great energy and strength of will. She brought up her son in
the straitest of theological creeds, which left a certain permanent
mental impress upon him, though during the last quarter of a century of
his life he wandered far afield from the religious teachings of his
childhood. He seems to have been born with a genuine love for knowledge,
for, notwithstanding the inauspicious surroundings of his youth, he
contrived to acquire a better education than was commonly obtainable by
lads in his rank of life in Scotland in those times. The education thus
acquired was almost to the end of his days supplemented by reading and
study. As soon as he was old enough to enter upon employment he became
an assistant in a draper's shop, after which he filled various temporary
situations which led to nothing. When only nineteen he opened a small
store on his own account at Alyth, a village about twenty miles from
Dundee. This he conducted for about three years, by which time it had
become apparent that the business could not be successfully carried on,
so he abandoned it and removed to England. There he spent more than two
years, during some part of which he acted as clerk to a coal company.
In the spring of 1820 he sailed for Canada, where he was destined to
gain great notoriety, and to become an important factor in the moulding
of public opinion.
In a new country like Canada a young man of Mackenzie's energy was soon
able to make his presence felt. After being employed for a short time on
the survey of the Lachine Canal, he opened a store at York, whence he
removed to Dundas, and entered on a more extensive mercantile business
in partnership with Mr. John Lesslie, the style of the firm being
"Mackenzie & Lesslie." His mercantile venture in Dundas was fairly
successful. During his residence there he married Miss Isabel Baxter, a
native of Dundee, after a brief courtship of three weeks. In the spring
of 1823 the firm of Mackenzie & Lesslie was dissolved, and for a few
months thereafter the senior partner carried on business by himself. In
the autumn of the same year he removed to Queenston, where he embarked
in business by opening a general store. The store had not been many
months in operation before its proprietor abandoned commercial pursuits
and embraced the life of a journalist. This change seems to have been
the result of some deliberation, and it must be admitted that Mr.
Mackenzie possessed considerable aptitude for the new field of labour
which he had chosen. His writing, though very unequal, and sometimes
exceedingly verbose and amateurish in point of style, was almost always
direct and easy to understand. His observation was keen, and he had
taken a warm interest in politics ever since his arrival in the country.
Though many of his views were what would now be considered Toryish and
out of date, they were then classed by the Compact and their adherents
as ultra-Radical and revolutionary. He had formed the acquaintance of
Rolph, Perry, the Bidwells, and other prominent Reformers, by all of
whom the sincerity of his political professions were regarded as being
beyond question. The first number of his newspaper, which was christened
_The Colonial Advocate_, made its appearance on the 18th of May, 1824.
It consisted of thirty-two pages, and, although its owner had neither
received nor sought a single subscriber, he issued an edition of twelve
hundred copies. Whether he embarked in newspaper life at this particular
time with a view to influencing votes during the impending general
election cannot now be known with certainty. Probably enough this may
have been one of his motives, which were doubtless of a mixed nature.
That he was sincere in his advocacy of Reform must in all fairness be
conceded, though his itch for notoriety must always be considered in
reviewing and estimating his actions. This tendency of his mind would
readily lead him to select journalism as his vocation in life, more
especially as he found that his opinions were regarded as having some
value. As compared with his life in Britain, his career in Canada had
been an undoubted success. He had acquired some property, and was in
fair pecuniary circumstances. From the inner side of his counter he had
been in the habit of holding forth to his customers on the political and
other questions of the day, and had found that his arguments were
accepted by a majority of the unlettered yeomen of Wentworth as being
unanswerable. He was looked up to as a man of weight and influence in
the community, and the consciousness of this was naturally gratifying to
the whilom shop-boy of Dumfries. He felt incited to address larger
audiences than any which had hitherto listened to him. The time seemed
propitious for the establishment of a Reform newspaper. There was a
general awakening in the direction of Reform, extending over the greater
part of the Province. There could be no sort of doubt that public
opinion was in a state of transition: that many people had begun to look
forward to a time when Responsible Government would be conceded, and
when the domination of the Compact would be no more. When that
much-wished-for epoch should arrive, those who had been the means of
bringing it about, or of hastening its advent, would stand high among
the Reformers of Upper Canada. Who would be likely to stand higher than
a clever and aspiring man who was at once editor and proprietor of the
leading organ of Liberal opinion in the Province? Such a personage might
command anything within the power of his party to grant. That he would
soon be able to write his way into Parliament was a foregone conclusion;
and a seat in Parliament appeared a very proud distinction in the eyes
of one whose past surroundings had been so far removed from such a
sphere.
That these, or something like these, were among the chief motives
whereby Mr. Mackenzie was actuated in establishing _The Colonial
Advocate_ seems tolerably certain. Nor is there anything unusual or
censurable in such an ambition. The labourer is worthy of his hire, and
no labourer is better entitled to a full recompense than is the man who,
through long and weary years, struggles to win success for a depressed
and righteous cause. That he was not devoid of a spirit of sincere
patriotism is evident, alike from his words and his deeds. He had
amassed a few hundreds of pounds, and was in no dread of poverty, being
sanguine and self-confident to an uncommon degree. He ardently longed to
see this fair colony rescued from the thraldom under which it groaned.
In a letter[65] written many years afterwards, when he was an outlaw and
an exile, he gives his own version of the motives which impelled him to
embark upon what he calls "the stormy sea of politics." "I had long," he
writes, "seen the country in the hands of a few shrewd, crafty, covetous
men, under whose management one of the most lovely and desirable
sections of America remained a comparative desert. The most obvious
public improvements were stayed; dissension was created among classes;
citizens were banished and imprisoned in defiance of all law; the people
had been long forbidden, under severe pains and penalties, from meeting
anywhere to petition for justice; large estates were wrested from their
owners in utter contempt of even the forms of the courts; the Church of
England, the adherents of which were few, monopolized as much of the
lands of the colony as all the religious houses and dignitaries of the
Roman Catholic Church had had the control of in Scotland at the era of
the Reformation; other sects were treated with contempt and scarcely
tolerated; a sordid band of land-jobbers grasped the soil as their
patrimony, and with a few leading officials, who divided the public
revenue among themselves, formed the Family Compact, and were the avowed
enemies of common schools, of civil and religious liberty, of all
legislative or other checks to their own will. Other men had opposed,
and been converted by them. At nine-and-twenty I might have united with
them, but chose rather to join the oppressed, nor have I ever regretted
that choice, or wavered from the object of my early pursuit."
A man entertaining such views as these, more especially a man of energy
and intelligence, with a newspaper at his back, could not fail to be
acceptable to the little knot of politicians who formed the nucleus of
the Reform Party of Upper Canada. Mr. Mackenzie was cordially welcomed
into the ranks, and was soon recognized as a most useful and valuable
acquisition thereto. He could make no pretence to the various learning,
fine presence, subtle intellect or polished eloquence of Rolph, nor even
to the high but less marked qualities of the Bidwells, but the time was
at hand when he was to prove that he possessed the power to move
audiences, by his voice as well as by his pen. In person he would have
been pronounced by a casual passer-by to be rather insignificant, being
exceedingly short in stature, and not well proportioned as to his
figure, which was slight, wiry, and--owing to a restless habit and a
highly-strung nervous system--seldom in repose. Still, no one who
contemplated his features with attention would ever have dreamed of
pronouncing him commonplace. His intellectual vigour and determination
were attested by his large head, massive brow, keen, light-blue eyes and
firmly-set mouth. His physical energy was placed equally beyond doubt by
the nervous activity above mentioned. Until he was long past the prime
of his manhood he was never still for many consecutive moments during
his waking hours. When labouring under any unusual excitement his frame
seemed to be set on steel springs. As his temper was easily aroused, it
was no uncommon thing to see him in one of these phases of excitement.
But though he was thus quickly moved to anger, it could not with justice
be said that his temper was bad, for, so far from being implacable, he
was readily appeased, and always quick to forget and forgive.
Altogether, he had an active but ill-balanced organization. His
sympathies were too quick and strong for his judgment, and he frequently
acted from impulse and hot blood. From his cradle to his grave he was
never fit to walk alone and without guidance through any great
emergency.
No two human beings could well be more unlike than were William Lyon
Mackenzie and John Rolph. They were compelled to work together in a
common cause for many years, but the two entities were thoroughly
antagonistic, and there was never much personal liking between them. The
structure of their bodies was not more dissimilar than was that of their
minds. The one, slight, wiry, and ever in motion, seemed as though it
might be blown hither and thither by any strong current. The other,
solid almost to portliness, was suggestive of fixity--of
self-dependence, and unsusceptibility to outside influences. The one was
suggestive of being in a great measure the creature of circumstances;
the other of being a law unto himself--one who would be more likely to
influence circumstances than to be influenced by them. Mackenzie's
nature, though it could not strictly be called a shallow one, at any
rate lay near the surface, and its characters were not hard to decipher,
even upon a brief acquaintance. There were depths in Rolph's nature
which were never fathomed by those nearest and dearest to him--possibly
not even by himself. Mackenzie seems to have long regarded Rolph with a
sort of distant awe--as a Sphinx, close, oracular, inscrutable. Rolph
evidently estimated Mackenzie correctly, as one whose politics were
founded upon deeply-rooted convictions, and not upon mere opinions,
although he would probably have found it difficult to subject those
opinions to a rigid analysis; as one whose energy and journalistic
resources might be turned to good account in the cause of Reform, but
whose discretion was not always to be relied on. This estimate, indeed,
was sufficiently obvious to any one who maintained frequent or familiar
relations with Mackenzie, and was concurred in by most, if not all, of
his friends. His earnestness and good faith, however, were manifest to
all who knew him, and these were sufficient to cover much more culpable
weaknesses than any which he had hitherto displayed.
Having now become acquainted with some of the FATHERS of Reform, it is
desirable to cast a momentary glance at the material which went to the
composition of the Reform Party generally. That material was of the most
heterogeneous character imaginable. It included a few U. E. Loyalists of
advanced opinions, and their descendants; but the bone and sinew were
made up of more recent immigrants from Great Britain and the United
States. The organization of the party, such as it was, was of too recent
a date at this time to admit of any absolute unanimity of opinion on all
questions of public policy having been arrived at among so numerous a
body. On one cardinal point, however, all were agreed: it was in the
highest degree desirable that the Canadian constitution should be more
closely assimilated to that of the mother-country, and that the
Executive Council should be made responsible to the popular branch of
the Legislature. True, there was a small element--almost entirely made
up of immigrants from across the border--who held republican theories,
but no class of the community clamoured more loudly for Responsible
Government than did the advocates of republicanism, very few of whom
regarded their opinions as coming within the domain of practical
politics in Upper Canada. On the question of the Clergy Reserves there
was less uniformity of sentiment. Many sincere Reformers disapproved of
the voluntary principle, and believed in a State provision for the
Clergy,[66] though very few of them went so far in that direction as to
defend the exclusive pretensions of the Church of England. On this and
other important public questions, however, the diversity of opinion
henceforth became less and leas from year to year. In point of numbers
the adherents of Reform principles constituted a majority of the
inhabitants of the Province.
The _Advocate_ was only six months old when its proprietor removed to
York. If any good service was to be done to Reform by his means it was
clear that the Provincial capital must be the seat of his operations.
The removal took place in November, 1824, and in the following January
the new Parliament met for the first time. Much of the interval was
spent by the Reformers in preparations for organization. In all these
proceedings Mr. Mackenzie took an active and prominent part. He also
assumed, to a greater extent than he had previously done, the _role_ of
a public censor, and, in the columns of his paper, opened a hot fire
upon the official party and their myrmidons. His writing was "personal
journalism," with a vengeance, for he usually expressed himself in the
first person singular, and directed his animadversions against any one
who, for the time being, happened to have attracted his notice. He wrote
very erratically, and from the impulse of the moment; in one number
lauding some particular personage in extravagant terms, and in
subsequent numbers assailing the self-same individual in language which
certainly reflected no credit upon the writer. Sometimes he even
extended his attacks to the friends and relatives of those who had
become obnoxious to him. In all this he merely followed the example of
his opponents, from whom better things might have been expected, but he
certainly lessened his influence, even among his friends and
fellow-labourers, by his onslaughts upon particular individuals. There
can be no manner of doubt, however, that he achieved his object of
holding some of his opponents up to public ridicule, and that in at
least one or two instances he was the means of affecting votes in the
Assembly thereby. To what extent, if at all, his efforts in this
direction contributed to the election of Mr. Willson, the Reform
candidate for the Speakership in the Assembly, already referred to, is
not easy to say. That his deliverances may have produced an effect upon
one or two waverers, and thereby have brought about the desired
result--the vote, it will be remembered, was a close one, standing
twenty-one to nineteen[67]--is possible enough. It is at all events
certain that the combined action of the Reform Party in and out of
Parliament produced early and specific consequences. On a number of
questions the Government found themselves confronted by a hostile
majority considerably greater than they had encountered on the
Speakership. But these seeming triumphs were of no immediate advantage
to the Opposition. Let the majority against the Government be ever so
great in the Assembly, the official policy remained the same. The Upper
House rejected Bill after Bill which had been passed by the Lower, and
the Executive clung to their places in undisturbed serenity.
FOOTNOTES:
[57] _Ante_, p. 44.
[58] The repealing statute is 1 Geo. IV. chapter 4. The statute repealed
is 59 Geo. III., sess. 1, chapter 2.
[59] It was however a bare majority, the vote standing 17 to 16.
[60] See Stat. 2 Geo. IV. chapter 4, passed 17th January, 1822.
[61] Six years later Francis Collins, editor of _The Canadian Freeman_,
lay in York jail for having charged Attorney-General Robinson with
"native malignancy." During his incarceration he addressed several open
letters to his prosecutor, in one of which may be found the following
comments upon the episode referred to in the text:--
"In the next place, a most respectable portion of the colony returned
the venerable Mr. Bidwell, Sen., to Parliament, and upon this occasion I
think you displayed more 'native malignancy' than I ever witnessed, in a
political way, in the colony. A hired pimp was despatched to Boston to
hunt up slanders, originating in political feuds there. Mr. Bidwell was
put on his trial before a corrupt House, and when thus you saw your
innocent victim within your reach, then it was you lifted up the
flood-gates of your loyal wrath, and let your vengeance fall upon his
devoted head. Then it was that the overflowings of your 'native
malignancy' hurled the tears of loyalty down your pallid cheeks. Then it
was that your natural flippancy gave rapid birth to the most gross,
unqualified and unjustifiable abuse I ever heard heaped, not only upon a
member of Parliament, but even upon the commonest member of society. 'Am
I,' said you, 'the son of a U. E. Loyalist, who fought and bled for his
country, to sit within these walls with disloyal runaway felons,
pickpockets and murderers from the United States?'--(the loyal tears
flowing.) Yes, Sir, you coaxed, you threatened, you argued, you wept,
until you prevailed upon a corrupt and cringing House, as I have before
remarked, to turn Mr. Bidwell out of his seat, unconstitutionally,
illegally and unjustly; and the next day you were obliged to get one of
your tools to bring in a Bill to cover this illegal proceeding, and
prevent his re-election, thus forever depriving the country of the
valuable services of a man better qualified for a legislator, in point
of learning, talent and experience than yourself, or any other man,
perhaps, in Upper Canada. Now, Sir, if you viewed it as a disgrace to
sit in the same House with the father, although in every respect your
superior, how will it suit you to bend your outrageously loyal neck to
his son in the Speaker's chair, who, it is my opinion, is the most fit
person in the new House to fill it, and who, I doubt not, will be
elected?"
The letter from which the foregoing extract is taken bears date December
25th, and appears in the _Freeman_ of that date. The prediction in the
concluding sentence was verified. Mr. M. S. Bidwell was elected Speaker
at the opening of the session in January, 1829.
[62] See 4 Geo. IV., sess. 2, chapter 3, passed 19th January, 1824.
[63] _Canadian Portrait Gallery_, Vol. I., pp. 17, 46.
[64] It is to the exertions of Robert Baldwin himself that we owe the
abolition of the doctrine of primogeniture as applied to real estate in
Upper Canada. He it was who, while Attorney-General for the Western
Province, introduced and carried through the measure of 1851.
[65] Quoted by Mr. Lindsey, in his _Life and Times of William Lyon
Mackenzie_, Vol. I., pp. 40, 41.
[66] Among those who approved of such a provision no one was more
outspoken than was Mr. Mackenzie himself. In the very first number of
the _Advocate_ he clearly laid down his platform on this question. "In
no part of the constitution of the Canadas," he writes, "is the wisdom
of the British Legislature more apparent than in its setting apart a
portion of the country, while yet it remained it wilderness, for the
support of religion." He expressed himself in favour of a law whereby
the ministers of every body of professing Christians, being British
subjects, should receive equal benefits from the Reserves. On this, as
on many other subjects, however, the editor of the _Advocate_
subsequently saw fit to alter his opinions. The instability of his
opinions, indeed, was one of his most dangerous characteristics, and
this alone marked him out as unfit to be trusted with the guidance of
others.
[67] _Ante_, p. 110.