THE CASE OF CAPTAIN MATTHEWS.
Captain Matthews, who, it will be remembered, had been returned to the
Assembly for the County of Middlesex, gave great umbrage to the official
party by allying himself with the Opposition. His birth and social
standing, it was said, unfitted him for such companionship. The Captain
himself was apparently conscious of no incongruity, and bent all his
energies to the advancement of the Reform cause. Upon his first arrival
in the country he could not be said to have had any political
convictions at all. He had been bred a Tory, and his military career had
been such as might naturally have led him to seek his allies in the
ranks of those in authority. But his own experience of the abuses in the
Land Office had impelled him to consider the political situation of
affairs in Upper Canada generally, and the upshot of his deliberations
had been his alliance with the new movement in the direction of Reform.
Being a man of much local influence, his example had won to his side a
number of the Middlesex farmers, more especially in the Township of
Lobo, in which he resided. During his first session in Parliament he
attracted considerable attention to himself, for he spoke frequently and
well, and generally with a humorous eloquence which made him a favourite
with those who were not bitter partisans on the other side.
It was to be expected that Captain Matthew's defection from the
political faith of his ancestors would render him specially odious to
the High Tories of Upper Canada. It was shameful, they thought, that an
officer deriving an income from His Majesty's Government should
entertain, much less give utterance to, such vile democratic opinions as
were constantly heard from his lips. The Captain was indiscreet, and
became more and more outspoken the oftener he was charged with
radicalism; but on no occasion did he utter anything savouring of
disloyalty, for the very sufficient reason that there was no disloyalty
in his heart. It was apparent to the Compact that his influence was most
pernicious to them; yet no feasible plan for getting rid of him
presented itself. Would it not be possible, by a little extra exertion,
to deprive him of his pension? Could this laudable object be
accomplished, the obnoxious Captain, who was of an impetuous
temperament, would probably be goaded into saying or doing something
really culpable--something which would place weapons in the hands of his
enemies whereby he might be effectually silenced. The plan was at any
rate worth trying. A system of espionage was accordingly adopted towards
him.[86] During the sitting of the Legislature, myrmidons of the
Executive dogged his footsteps wherever he went, in order to obtain some
grounds for a hostile accusation against him.
The spies did not have long to wait, for any shallow pretext was
sufficient to serve as a peg upon which to hang an imputation of
disloyalty, and the doomed man himself was unsuspicious of any design
against him. The pretext actually resorted to was so utterly
contemptible that one feels almost ashamed to record the attendant
circumstances.
A company of theatrical performers from the United States visited York
during the session which assembled in the autumn of 1825. The actors met
with little encouragement, and became, in stage parlance, "stranded."
Being reduced to extremity, they resolved upon giving a special
performance for the delectation of the members of the Legislature, whose
patronage was solicited for the occasion. Sixteen or eighteen of the
members--among whom was Captain Matthews--complied with the
solicitation, and the performance took place at the little York theatre
on the night of December 31st. During the intervals between the acts the
orchestra played the national airs, "God Save the King," "Rule
Britannia," and "The British Grenadiers." Several persons in the
audience--Captain Matthews among the number[87]--apparently out of
compliment to the actors, all of whom were from across the lines, called
out for "Yankee Doodle" and "Hail Columbia." The demand was complied
with, at least in part. The orchestra were unable to play "Hail
Columbia," but the audience were regaled with the lively strains of
"Yankee Doodle." Captain Matthews joined in the applause which followed,
and removed his hat, calling upon others to do the same. The weight of
evidence would seem to favour the idea that he was not the first to
raise his hat, or to request the removal of the hats of his
fellow-members. At all events the request was generally complied with.
And this was the gist of the story. Captain Matthews's share in the
events of the evening was the having joined in the demand for the two
objectionable airs, in the applause which ensued upon the rendering of
one of them, and in the request for the uncovering of heads. These dire
offences sealed the doom of a gallant officer who had served his king
for more than a quarter of a century, and whose acquiescence in the call
for the national airs of the republic was probably due, at least in
part, to the effervescence of feeling begotten of a good dinner.
It is difficult to trace, step by step, the progress of the measures
adopted against him. Distorted and exaggerated accounts appeared in _The
Kingston Chronicle_ and _The Quebec Mercury_. But it is hardly likely
that any _ex officio_ notice would have been taken of the affair if the
newspaper reports had not been backed by a specific charge. Captain
Matthews appears to have been secretly accused to the military
authorities. He soon afterwards received a letter from the military
secretary to the Earl of Dalhousie, Commander of the Forces in Lower
Canada, stating that that dignitary's attention had been attracted by a
report in the public prints of a representation that Captain Matthews
had, in a riotous and outrageous manner, in the theatre at York, called
for the national airs and tunes of the United States, "urging the
audience there assembled to take off their hats, as is usual in the
British Dominions in honour of 'God Save the King.'" The letter went on
to say that "finding the statement corroborated, upon inquiry," the
Commander of the Forces called upon Captain Matthews to explain conduct
which was pronounced to be "utterly disloyal and disgraceful." Even this
was not all. By a subsequent letter, received from the Board of
Ordnance, the Captain was directed to repair forthwith to Quebec, and
there remain until he could, by the first vessel in the spring, proceed
to England, there to give an account of his conduct. This order was
stated to have been made in consequence of a communication from the
authorities in Canada to Lord Bathurst, the Colonial Secretary, and by
him transmitted to the Master-General and Board of Ordnance.
Mr. Mackenzie asserts that the object of the authorities was to get the
Captain out of the Province, and thus deprive the Opposition of his
vote, "in order to give the local Government a preponderance in the
Legislature against the people's rights."[88] This, however, can hardly
be accepted as a full or true explanation, as the Captain's absence at
the time would not have given such a preponderance to the Government on
any test vote. The weakening of the Opposition may or may not have been
one of the objects sought to be achieved by the Captain's accusers. If
so, it signally failed. Captain Matthews, be it understood, was not in
receipt of half-pay, but of a pension. He had served twenty-seven years,
and, on his corps being totally disbanded, he had settled in Upper
Canada with the approbation of the Government. Having since been elected
a member of the Provincial Assembly, his first duty was to that body,
and it was necessary that he should obtain its leave before proceeding
to obey the order of the Master-General. Accordingly, on Thursday, the
28th of December, 1826, he rose in his place and made a motion involving
an application for leave of absence. He explained the circumstances,
and, in the course of the debate which ensued, expressly stated that he
asked for leave, not with any desire of its being granted, but merely in
order that the House might do its duty. The Opposition stood faithfully
by him in this emergency. The House felt that the honour of one of its
members was concerned. It refused the application for leave, and, on
motion of Mr. Rolph, set on foot an inquiry into the circumstances on
its own behalf.
The inquiry was searching and minute, and the witnesses were not
examined in presence of each other. Much of the evidence was beyond
measure ludicrous and absurd. The scene at the theatre was described by
one witness after another in endless variety. The merits of "Yankee
Doodle" and "Hail Columbia," philologically and aesthetically, were made
the subjects of the gravest investigation. It appeared that with the
exception of Mr. John Beikie, Clerk of the Executive Council, and a very
few of the townspeople, the audience was entirely made up of members of
the Legislature. There were no ladies present, and, as it was New Year's
Eve, the audience generally felt a considerable freedom from restraint.
Many of the members had partaken freely of the cup that
cheers--assuredly not the cup indicated by Cowper--and were in the
blissful condition of Tam O'Shanter upon a certain memorable occasion to
which no more specific reference is necessary. In plain English, some of
them were so drunk as to be unable to recall anything that occurred. All
were full of mirth and jollity, and the scene enacted was of the most
uproarious description. Three grave legislators "danced while 'Yankee
Doodle' was played." Several others had reached the quarrelsome stage of
inebriety, and, in the language of one of the witnesses, "showed fight."
Mr. Philip Vankoughnet, one of the members for Stormont, was constrained
to admit that he had stripped off his coat, and threatened to knock
somebody down. Captain Matthews, among others, called for "Hail
Columbia" and "Yankee Doodle," but the general opinion among the more
sober of the party appeared to be that he had done so "in derision." It
was a bibulous age, and sobriety was the exception rather than the
rule. The whole affair was little better than a bar-room orgy, and
could properly be regarded in no other light.
When the Assembly's report made its appearance, early in 1827, Captain
Matthews was fully exonerated, so far as that body was concerned, from
everything savouring of disloyalty. "The circumstances of the
transaction"--thus ran the report--"as they are related without the
contradiction of a single witness, irresistibly bespeak the absence of
that disloyalty with which it has been basely attempted to sully the
character of a most honourable man." The report moreover read a sharp
lesson to the promoters of the accusation against him. It declared that
"If every effervescence of feeling upon every jovial or innocent
occasion is, in these Provinces, to be magnified into crime by the
testimony of secret informers--if there can longer exist a political
inquisition which shall scan the motives of every faithful servant of
the public--if the authorities in Canada shall humble the independence
of the Legislature by scandalizing its members and causing them to be
ordered to Quebec, and thence to England, to sustain a fate which, under
such corroboration as Lord Dalhousie received, might cover them with
ignominy, or bring them, however innocent, to the block--or if the
members of our community shall be awed into political subserviency by
fear of oppression, or lured by the corrupt hope of participating guilty
favours, then, indeed, will the prospect before us four, and this fine
Province become a distant appendage of a mighty empire, ruled by a few
aspiring men with the scourge of power."[89]
The Committee professed their inability to learn by whom the pernicious
representations had been made to the newspapers, or to the authorities
in Canada, or from what source Lord Dalhousie had obtained his
"corroboration." They expressed their conviction that there was no
ground for the charge preferred against Captain Matthews, the malignity
and falsity of which they believed to have derived their origin and
support from political hostility towards him.
The United States press was loud in its expressions of contempt. "Behold
how great a matter a little fire kindleth;" said _The New York
Enquirer_--"truly, there is something very undignified in such
vexatious stretches of authority"--referring, of course, to the attempt
to drag Captain Matthews across the Atlantic on a charge depending on
such ridiculous evidence. Attention was drawn to the fact that the
national airs of Great Britain, "God Save the Queen," and "Rule
Britannia," are often heard at theatres and elsewhere in the republic
without any such momentous consequences, and without being received
either with laughter, dancing or contempt. "The evidence," continued the
_Enquirer_, "does not speak very strongly in favour of the amenity and
decorum of the M. P.'s of Upper Canada. If calling for one of our
national airs, in a time of profound peace, within a few miles of the
frontiers, is regarded as an unpardonable crime by the British
Government, who shall wonder or complain that the British people are
full of prejudice against us." The Liberal press of the Maritime
Provinces harped to the same tune. "Really," remarked _The Halifax
Recorder_, "we think people must have their wits about them now-a-days,
if such things as these are to be construed into disaffection."
But though Captain Matthews had been cleared by the Legislature, he had
still to run the gauntlet of the military inquisition. They could not
compel his attendance during the existence of the Parliament then in
being, but they possessed an effectual means of reducing him to ultimate
submission. This power they exercised. His pension was stopped--a very
serious matter to a man with a large family and many responsibilities.
He continued to fight the battles of Reform with dogged courage and
pertinacity as long as his means admitted of his doing so, but he was
soon reduced to a condition of great pecuniary distress, and was
compelled to succumb. Broken-hearted and worn out, he resigned his seat
in the Assembly, and returned to England, where, after grievous delays,
he succeeded in getting his pension restored. He never returned to
Canada, and survived the restoration of his pension but a short time.
Thus, through the malignity of a selfish and secret cabal, was Upper
Canada deprived of the services of a zealous and useful citizen and
legislator, whose residence among us, had it been continued, could not
have failed to advance the cause of freedom and justice.
FOOTNOTES:
[86] That spies were employed by Sir Peregrine Maitland and his Council,
and that certain Government officials were encouraged to act in that
capacity, are facts which will be denied by no one who familiarizes
himself with the local legislative, official and newspaper literature of
the time. An apparently well-informed contributor to _Blackwood's
Magazine_ for September, 1829, in an article headed "Colonial
Discontent," comments on this retrograde system in the following
terms:--"A system of espionage assumes that there is something which
ought to be watched and to be prevented; and as the existence of such a
system probably did exist in Upper Canada during the administration of
Sir Peregrine Maitland, it may be said that so far his Government was
led to act on false principles.... We do not suppose that there was
anything like an organized system, but only that tales to the personal
disadvantage of the Anti-Ministerial party were too readily listened to.
No doubt the members of that party were as credulous in listening to
tales to the prejudice of the adherents of Government, but then they had
it not in their power, like them, to inflict punishment. It is
unnecessary to explain in what manner a system of espionage begets
heart-burnings. It is to the public what tattle and malicious gossip are
to private society, with this essential difference, however, that the
tale of the slanderer is in time forgotten or refuted, whereas the
report of the spy is received in secret, placed in the confidential
archives of office, and referred to as a testimonial of character, in
which such set of testimonials can be applied with effect when the
occasion arises."
[87] Mr. Mackenzie, in his _Sketches of Canada and the United States_,
p. 419, denies that Captain Matthews called for these airs, as stated in
the text. But anyone who carefully examines into the Provincial events
of those times will not be long in arriving at the conclusion that Mr.
Mackenzie's unsupported testimony, more especially as to matters in any
way coming within the scope of politics, is of very little value. The
evidence as to the Captain's having called for "Yankee Doodle" is
conclusive. That his doing so constituted a serious offence is another
matter, as to which there will, at the present day, be very little
difference of opinion.
[88] _Sketches of Canada_, etc., p. 419.
[89] See Journal of Assembly for 1826-7, Appendix P. See also Journal
for 1828, p. 122.