man less abundant in energy and less fertile of resource. It only
spurred him on to increased exertion. His two small regiments were
divided between Montreal and Quebec. The colonists, both British and
French, had refused to assist him, and it was doubtful if many of them
would not join the ranks of the invaders. Having proclaimed martial law,
he invoked ecclesiastical aid. The priests were believed to be
all-powerful with the French Canadian population, and he knew that he
could count upon the coöperation of the priesthood. He appealed to De
Briand, Bishop of Quebec, to rouse the peasantry of his diocese. The
Bishop complied with his wishes, and put forth an encyclical letter
enjoining the people to bestir themselves in defence of their country
and their religion. Even this appeal was in vain. The French Canadians
still remained apathetic. Many of the British colonists openly professed
their sympathy with the Americans. The Governor then sought to raise a
militia by offering liberal land-bounties. This appeal to the cupidity
of the colonists was more effectual than the appeals of a more
sentimental nature had been, inasmuch as a few volunteers promptly
enrolled themselves. Valuable assistance also came in from another
quarter. The Province of New York had by this time become an unsafe
place of residence for persons of British proclivities. Colonel Guy
Johnson, who had just succeeded to the position of British Colonial
Agent for Indian Affairs in North America, was compelled to seek safety
in Canada. He was accompanied by Joseph Brant and the principal
warriors of the Six Nations, who had resolved to "sink or swim with the
English." These warriors, with Brant at their head, formed themselves
into a Confederacy, and rallied to the side of Governor Carleton. The
American armaments were meanwhile steadily advancing to the attack.
Early in September the forces under Schuyler and Montgomery reached
Isle-aux-Noix. Proclamations were sown broadcast among the Canadians, in
which it was stated that the invaders had no design whatever on the
lives, the properties, or the religion of the inhabitants, and that
their operations were directed against the British only. General
Schuyler having returned to Albany, the chief command devolved on
Montgomery, who invested Fort St. John, and sent a detachment of troops
to attack the fort at Chambly, while Ethan Allen was despatched with a
reconnoitring party towards Montreal. Allen being informed that the town
was weakly defended, and believing the inhabitants to be favourable to
the American cause, resolved to attempt a capture. Carleton had already
arrived at Montreal to make dispositions for the protection of the
frontier. Learning, on the night of the 24th, that a party of Americans
had crossed the river, and were marching on the town, he despatched all
his available force, consisting of about 275 men, nearly all of whom
were volunteers, against the enemy. The American force, which was only
about 250 strong, was compelled to surrender. Allen and his detachment
thus became prisoners of war. They were at once sent over to England,
where they were confined in Pendennis Castle. Meanwhile General
Montgomery was besieging forts St. John and Chambly. Both these
fortresses, after a brief and ineffectual resistance, were compelled to
surrender. Nearly all the regulars in Canada thus became prisoners of
war, and there was nothing to prevent the Americans from advancing upon
Montreal, which they at once proceeded to do. To defend it with any hope
of success was utterly out of the question, and Carleton, anticipating
Montgomery's intention, burned and destroyed all the public stores, and
left the town by one way just as the Americans entered at the other.
During the night he had a narrow escape from the enemy, who were
encamped at Sorel, and whose sentinels he had to pass in an open boat.
This he successfully accomplished, and arrived at Quebec on the 19th of
November. He hastily made the most judicious arrangements in his power
for the defence of the place. He expelled from the city all those who
were disaffected. Arnold had meanwhile made his desolate march through
the wilderness, and though his forces had suffered terrible privations,
and had been greatly reduced in number by starvation and other perils of
the march, he was now in a position to coöperate with Montgomery. The
united forces succeeded in gaining the city on the 4th of December, and
after concocting their plans, they divided their strength, so as to
attack the city in several places. The siege lasted throughout the
month. Montgomery waited for a night of unusual darkness to make a
daring attempt upon the city from the south. Arnold entrenched himself
on the opposite side of the city. The provisions of the besiegers began
to fail, their regiments were being depleted by sickness, and their
light guns made but little impression on the massive walls. At last an
assault was ordered. It took place before dawn on the 31st of December
(1775). In the midst of a heavy snow storm Arnold advanced through the
Lower Town from his quarters near the St. Charles River, and led his 800
New Englanders and Virginians over two or three barricades. The Montreal
Bank and several other massive stone houses were filled with British
regulars, who guarded the approaches with such a deadly fire that
Arnold's men were forced to take refuge in the adjoining houses, while
Arnold himself was badly wounded and carried to the rear. Meanwhile
Montgomery was leading his New Yorkers and Continentals north along
Champlain Street by the river side. The intention was for the two
attacking columns, after driving the enemy from the Lower Town, to unite
before the Prescott Gate, and carry it by storm. A strong barricade was
stretched across Champlain Street from the cliff to the river; but when
its guards saw the great masses of the attacking column advancing
through the twilight, they fled. In all probability Montgomery would
have crossed the barricade, delivered Arnold's men by attacking the
enemy in the rear, escaladed Prescott Gate, and gained temporary
possession of the place, but that one of the fleeing Canadians, impelled
by a strange caprice, turned quickly back and fired the cannon which
stood loaded on the barricade. Montgomery and many of his officers and
men were struck down by the shot, and the column broke up in panic and
fled. The British forces were now concentrated on Arnold's men, who were
hemmed in by a sortie from the Palace Gate, and 426 officers and men
were made prisoners. The remnant of the American army was compelled to
retreat to some distance from the city. On being reinforced, however,
during the winter, they made a stand for another attack on Quebec, but
disease and famine at last compelled them to retreat. In the spring,
reinforcements arrived from England, and Carleton having first possessed
himself of Crown Point, launched a fleet on Lake Champlain, which, after
several actions, completely annihilated that of the Americans. Further
reinforcements soon afterwards arrived from England under the command of
Major-General Burgoyne, who thenceforward took the military command. He
succeeded in gaining some rather unimportant victories, but was finally
compelled to surrender at Saratoga, with his force of 6,000 men. This
may be said to have put an end to the war. The French Government
recognized the new Republic as an independent nation, and all hope of
keeping the latter under British subjection was abandoned.
Governor Carleton, who had done so much to preserve Canada from falling
into the hands of the Americans, and whose efforts, considering his
limited resources, had been almost incredibly successful, was not a
little chagrined at being superseded in his military command. He
considered that he had been slighted by the Government, and that his
brilliant successes had merited a different reward. And he was right. To
him, more than to any other man, is due the praise of having prevented
Canada from becoming, at least for the time, a part of the American
Republic. Mr. J. M. Lemoine, the historian of Quebec, pays a
well-merited compliment to his memory. "Had the fate of Canada on that
occasion," says Mr. Lemoine, "been confided to a Governor less wise,
less conciliating than Guy Carleton, doubtless the 'brightest gem in the
colonial Crown of Britain' would have been one of the stars of
Columbia's banner; the star-spangled banner would now be floating on the
summit of Cape Diamond."
With a heart smarting under a keen, if not loudly-expressed sense of
injustice, Carleton demanded his recall. His successor, Major-General
Haldimand, having arrived in Canada in July, 1778, Carleton surrendered
the reins of Government to him and proceeded to England. The ministry of
the day, however, mollified his resentment, and paid assiduous court to
him. Various honours and substantial emoluments were conferred upon him.
In 1786 he was raised to the peerage of Great Britain, by the title of
Baron Dorchester of Dorchester, in the County of Oxford--a title still
borne by his descendant, the fourth Baron. During the same year he was
requested to once more take charge of the Canadian Administration. He
consented, and came over to this country as Governor-General and
Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's forces in America. He retained both
these positions for ten years--a period marked by many important civil
reforms, and by the passing of the Constitutional Act of 1791, whereby
Canada was divided into two separate Provinces. Lord Dorchester's tenure
of office tended to still further endear him to the Canadian people, and
to this day his name is held in affectionate remembrance by the
inhabitants of the Lower Province where he resided. He took his final
departure from our shores in the summer of 1796, amid the heartfelt
regret of the people over whose affairs he had so long presided. Upon
reaching England he retired to private life, and did not again take any
prominent part in public affairs. His old age, like that of King Lear,
was "frosty, but kindly," and for twelve years he lived a life of
cheerful and dignified repose. He continued to correspond with friends
in Canada, and in one of his letters, still extant, expresses a wish to
revisit the scenes of his past achievements, and mayhap to lay his bones
among them. The wish, however, was not gratified. He died, after a brief
illness, on the 10th of November, 1808, in his 83rd year.
He married, on the 22nd of May, 1772, Maria, daughter of Thomas, second
Earl of Effingham, by whom he had a family of seven children. His three
eldest sons died in his lifetime. He was succeeded by his grandson,
Arthur Henry, son of his third son, Christopher.
THE HON. WILLIAM PEARCE HOWLAND,
_C.B., K.C.M.G._
Among the hundred passengers who landed from the _Mayflower_ at Plymouth
Rock, on the 22nd of December, 1620, was a God-fearing Quaker named John
Howland. He seems to have been unmarried at the time of his emigration;
or at any rate his wife, if he had one, did not accompany him on the
expedition. He settled in the colony of Massachusetts Bay, and left
behind him a numerous progeny, whose descendants are to be found at the
present day in nearly every State of the Union. From him, we understand,
the subject of this sketch claims descent. The father of Sir William was
Mr. Jonathan Howland, a resident of Dutchess County, in the State of New
York. The latter was in early life a farmer, but subsequently engaged in
commercial pursuits at Greenbush, in Rensselaer County, on the west bank
of the Hudson River. He died at Cape Vincent, Jefferson County, in the
year 1842. The maiden name of Sir William's mother was Lydia Pearce. Her
family resided in Dutchess County, and were well-known and influential
citizens. This lady still survives, and has attained the great age of
ninety-four years. Soon after the death of her husband she took up her
abode in Toronto, where she has ever since resided.
The subject of this sketch, who was the eldest son of his parents, was
born at the town of Paulings, Dutchess County, New York, on the 29th of
May, 1811. He was brought up to farm work, but early displayed an
aptitude for commercial life. After attending at a public school, and
afterwards for a short time at the Kinderhook Academy, he determined to
embark in a mercantile career. In the autumn of the year 1830, when he
was barely nineteen years of age, he came to Canada, and settled in the
village of Cooksville, on Dundas Street, in the township of Toronto.
Here he obtained a situation as assistant in a country store of the
period. In this store was kept the post-office for the village, the
management of which largely devolved upon his own shoulders. The postal
system in this Province had not then been very elaborately systematized.
The mails for the whole of the western part of the Province passed over
this route. The mail-matter for the different offices was not
classified, but thrown into a bag, from which each successive postmaster
selected such matter as was addressed to his office. The state of the
roads was generally such that the mails had to be carried on horseback.
Young Mr. Howland's duties required him to get up at one o'clock in the
morning to receive the mail, which arrived at Cooksville at that hour.
He was accustomed to select the mail-matter himself from the bag, after
which he would hand the outgoing mail to the carrier, who then passed on
westwardly to Dundas and Hamilton. Such was the primitive method of
handling His Majesty's mail in Upper Canada in the year of grace 1830.
It is scarcely to be wondered at that Mr. Howland, after such practical
experience of the necessity for reform, should have allied himself with
the Reform Party when he began to take a share in the politics of the
country.
His share in politics, however, lay as yet far distant. For some years
he devoted himself exclusively to laying the foundation of the princely
fortune which he subsequently realized. A man with such a remarkable
faculty for success in mercantile life was not likely to remain long an
assistant in a country store. Erelong we find him embarked in business
on his own account, in partnership with his younger brother, Mr. P.
Howland, now of Lambton Mills. Their operations were conducted with the
most careful circumspection, and were so successful that they soon had
several establishments in the townships of Toronto and Chinguacousy. In
addition to a general commercial business they engaged in lumbering,
rafting, the manufacture of potash, and other pursuits incident to
pioneer mercantile life. Their operations increased in volume yearly,
and they became, both commercially and otherwise, men of mark in their
district. The subject of this sketch for some time kept the post office
at Stanley's Mills. Although the quantity of matter distributed by the
mails was infinitesimal in those days as compared with the present, a
country postmaster had no sinecure. The greatest difficulty he had to
encounter was the collection of postage on letters. Those, be it
remembered were the days of high postage. The rate on a single-weight
letter from Great Britain to Upper Canada was 5_s._ 9_d._
sterling--equal, in round numbers, to about $1.50. From Quebec, the rate
was 1_s._ 6_d._ sterling; and the rates from other places were
proportionate. There was little money in the Province, and commercial
transactions largely took the form of barter. The postmaster was
constantly compelled to give credit, for it was an altogether
exceptional thing for a settler to have so large a sum as 5_s._ 9_d._ in
ready money; and to refuse to deliver mail-matter to a poor but
deserving settler would have been neither gracious nor politic for a man
keeping a country store. In this way the postmaster was frequently
compelled to wait for his money for a year, and he was fortunate if he
was not then compelled to receive payment in ashes or produce.
At the time of the rebellion Mr. Howland had become a prosperous man,
and his operations were still extending. There was a good deal of
feeling in his neighbourhood that Mr. Mackenzie had been badly used by
the Family Compact Party, and that many reforms were needed in the body
politic. A deputation of these malcontents waited upon Mr. Howland, and
endeavoured to enlist him in the insurrection which broke out in
December, 1837. Mr. Howland, however, was too wise to connect himself
with an enterprise which never had any chance of being permanently
successful. Moreover, he had not then been naturalized, and as an alien,
he did not deem that he had any right to engage in political contests of
any kind. His naturalization took place soon after the Union of the
Provinces. He did not, however, take any very active part in the
periodical election contests until the general election of 1848, when
Mr. James Hervey Price successfully opposed the Conservative candidate
in the West Riding of the county of York, just prior to the formation of
the second Baldwin-Lafontaine Administration. Mr. Howland's sympathies
were with the Reform Party, and he worked hard to secure Mr. Price's
return. He thenceforward took a not inactive part in all the election
contests, and always on the side of the Reform Party, with which he
became identified. He had meanwhile removed to Toronto, and had embarked
in a large wholesale business, with large interests in the produce,
milling, and other branches of trade. Among his commercial friends he
enjoyed a high reputation for capacity and genuine business worth. He
became a magnate among the wholesale merchants of Toronto, and amassed a
fine fortune which has steadily augmented. His political views became
more pronounced, and he supported the wing of the Reform Party led by
Mr. Brown after the disruption in its ranks. He soon came to be looked
upon as an eligible candidate for Parliament. His eligibility was proved
at the general elections of 1857, when he was returned to the Assembly
by the constituency of West York, in which he had resided for many
years. He continued to sit for that constituency during the whole of his
Parliamentary career, which was terminated by his acceptance, in 1868,
of the Lieutenant-Governorship of Ontario.
In Parliament, though a steady supporter of the Reform Party, Mr.
Howland was by no means demonstrative in enforcing his views, and was
doubtless valued as a party man chiefly because of his respectability
and personal influence. When the Reform Party came into power in April,
1862, under the leadership of the Hon. John Sandfield Macdonald and
Louis Victor Sicotte, Mr. Howland was offered the post of Minister of
Finance, which he accepted and held for a year, when he was succeeded by
the Hon. Luther H. Holton in the Macdonald-Dorion Cabinet, which was
then formed. In that Cabinet Mr. Howland was assigned the office of
Receiver-General. He held this position until the defeat of the
Government in 1864. He was not a member of the Coalition Government as
formed in June of that year, and consequently was not present either at
the Charlottetown Convention, which assembled on the 1st of September,
or at the famous Quebec Conference that met on the 10th of the following
month, at which, during eighteen days' deliberation, the "Seventy-two
resolutions" were agreed to. He was, however, an active and most
influential supporter of the Reform wing of the Coalition; and on the
elevation of the Hon. Mr. Mowat to the Bench in November, 1864, he
succeeded that gentleman as Postmaster-General, and became a member of
the Executive Council. He continued to be Postmaster-General until the
retirement of the Hon. Alexander T. Galt in August, 1866, when he
succeeded the latter as Finance Minister. This office he held till the
Union, when, on the formation of the first Dominion Government, on the
1st of July, 1867, he was appointed a member of the Privy Council, and
Minister of Inland Revenue.
In the discharge of his public duties while a Minister of the Crown, Mr.
Howland accompanied Mr. Galt on the mission to Washington, in 1865,
concerning the then proposed renewal of the Reciprocity Treaty. This
mission is memorable for its political rather than its commercial
results, for while with respect to the latter it merely taught Canada
that she must rely upon herself, with respect to the former it almost
led to the breaking up of the Coalition, and to the indefinite
postponement of Confederation. That these grave political results were
merely threatened, instead of having become realities, was largely due
to Mr. Howland, who, considering the gravity of the situation, and
endorsing, also, the Cabinet policy on the Reciprocity question, refused
to follow his leader out of the Government. He accepted instead a
commission to fill up the vacancy created by Mr. Brown's resignation
with an Upper Canada Reformer, thereby preserving the balance of parties
as established in 1864. Mr. Howland was one of the three delegates
representing Upper Canada at the London Conference at which the Union
Act was framed; and for his services there, as well as generally for the
prominent part he had taken in promoting Confederation, he was one of
the two Upper Canada Ministers decorated with the Order of the
Companionship of the Bath, on the 1st of July, 1867.
There was another conference which Mr. Howland attended in 1867, and one
of much political significance--the great Reform Convention held at
Toronto in June, for the purpose of reuniting the Reform Party and
abolishing the alliance with the Conservatives. Messrs. Howland and
McDougall were both present, and vigorously contended against the
restoration of party lines on the old basis; and their course there and
subsequently at political gatherings throughout the country no doubt did
much towards determining the result of the general election held during
the summer of that year.
The work of confederating the British American Provinces was one of
compromise among the statesmen, the political parties and the people
concerned. Nobody, perhaps, got exactly what he wanted; no Province
secured the full realization of its own views; no political party was
able to put its hand upon the scheme, as first framed at Quebec in 1864,
or as subsequently re-modelled in London in 1866-67, and say, "this is
exactly what we wanted." Concessions were made to Conservative opinion
and to Reform opinion; to Protestant feeling and to Catholic feeling; to
the necessities of the several Provinces according to geographical or
other reasons; and in a great degree to the divergent views on
constitutional government held by the representative men who took part
in the negotiations. When, therefore, Mr. Howland, who had been a
leading spirit at the inception of the scheme, claimed that those who
had so far matured it as to fit it for the consideration and judgment of
the Canadian Legislature had deserved well of their country for the
political and personal sacrifices they had made in the cause of general
harmony, he claimed no more than was due to him and his colleagues, and
no more than was, at the time, freely accorded by their supporters.
Mr. Howland's health, which had not been very robust for several years,
became so enfeebled that he desired to retire from the double drudgery
of Parliamentary and Ministerial life; and in July, 1868, he was
appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Ontario, which position
had been, from the Union up to that time, held by Major-General Stisted,
under an _ad interim_ appointment similar to that which had been
conferred on the first Lieutenant-Governors of New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia. Concerning Mr. Howland's tenure of office as Lieutenant-Governor
there is nothing to be said except that he discharged his duties with
ability, and with acceptance to the people. He continued to be
Lieutenant-Governor until the month of November, 1873. In 1875 his
services were again called into requisition by the Government of the day
to report on the route of the Baie Verte Canal.
On the 24th of May, 1879, Mr. Howland was created a Knight of the Order
of St. Michael and St. George, by the present Governor-General, acting
on behalf of the Sovereign.
He still continues to superintend the most important details of his
great wholesale commercial business in Toronto, and in his seventieth
year preserves a physical and intellectual vigour such as is seldom
found in persons who have passed middle age. He is President of the
Ontario Bank, and of various prosperous mercantile and insurance
companies. He has been twice married. His first wife, whom he married in
1843, was formerly a Mrs. Webb, of Toronto. She survived her marriage
about six years. By this lady he has several children, one of whom is a
partner in the business, which is carried on under the style of Sir
William P. Howland & Co. Sir William's second wife, whom he married in
1866, was the widow of the late Captain Hunt, of Toronto.
THE MOST REV. MICHAEL HANNAN, D.D.,
_R. C. ARCHBISHOP OF HALIFAX._
The successor of the late Archbishop Connolly was born at Kilmallock, in
the county of Limerick, Ireland, on the 21st of July, 1821. He received
his education at various schools in his native land, and in 1840, when
he was nineteen years of age, he emigrated to the Province of Nova
Scotia, where he has ever since resided. Soon after arriving in the
Province he was appointed a teacher in St. Mary's College, which had
then recently been established in Halifax by Dean O'Brien. While holding
that position he studied theology, and in 1845 was ordained to the
priesthood. He has ever since been an assiduous promoter of education,
and of the interests of the faith which he professes. His labours have
been conducted with a quiet energy which has been productive of not
unimportant results, but which has not been the means of making him
widely known, as his distinguished predecessor was, beyond the limits of
Nova Scotia. In or about the year 1853 he founded a Society of St.
Vincent de Paul in Halifax, over which he thenceforward exercised a
personal supervision. He subsequently became Vicar-General of the
Diocese of Halifax, an office which he held for some years, and in the
exercise of which he displayed the same quiet zeal which characterizes
all his public actions. Upon his retirement he was presented with an
address, numerously signed by Protestants, as well as by the adherents
of his own faith, expressive of strong regret for his resignation, and
of appreciation of his services.
[Illustration: MICHAEL HANNAN, signed as M. HANNAN ALY. OF HALIFAX]
Upon the death of Archbishop Connolly, on the 27th of July, 1876, all
the Roman Catholic bishops of the Province united in signing a
recommendation to His Holiness in favour of Dr. Hannan's appointment to
the Archiepiscopal See of Halifax. The recommendation was acted upon,
and on the morning of Sunday, the 20th of May, 1877, he was consecrated
and installed at St. Mary's Cathedral, Halifax, with imposing
ceremonies, Bishop Conroy, Papal delegate, acting as consecrating
bishop. His tenure of office has not been marked by any event of special
interest to the public. He devotes himself to the duties pertaining to
his high office, is kind and benevolent to the suffering poor among his
flock, and continues to interest himself in the cause of education,
though, unlike his predecessor, he is in favour of separate educational
training for Protestants and Roman Catholics. "Dr. Hannan's mind," says
a contemporary writer, "is of a different stamp from that of his
illustrious predecessor--not different in degree, but in mould.
Archbishop Connolly was emotional and impetuous, fervid and eloquent,
with a clear head and a warm Irish heart, which sometimes carried him
away. Dr. Hannan, on the other hand, is calm and equable, with a
judgment naturally sound and solid, a temper not easily ruffled, and a
sagacity seldom at fault."
GEORGE PAXTON YOUNG, M.A.
The life of Professor Young has been even less eventful than commonly
falls to the lot of persons of purely scholastic pursuits. He was born
on the 28th of November, 1818, at the border town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed--one of the few walled towns to be found in Great
Britain at the present day. In his boyhood he attended the schools of
his native town, whence he passed to the High School of Edinburgh. He
subsequently entered the Edinburgh University, and attended the lectures
of Professor Wilson--the "Christopher North" of _Blackwood's
Magazine_--who then occupied the Chair of Moral Philosophy there. During
his early years he was an industrious student, and displayed that great
aptitude for mathematical and philosophical inquiry by which his
subsequent career has been distinguished. After obtaining his degree he
was for some time employed as a mathematical teacher in the Dollar
Academy, Clackmannanshire. After the Disruption of the Scottish National
Church, in 1843, he entered the Theological Hall of the Free Church,
which had just been opened at Edinburgh, and became a candidate for the
ministry, attending the lectures of the late Dr. Chalmers and other
eminent divines. After his admission to the ministry he was placed in
charge of the Martyr's Church, Paisley, but remained there only a few
months, having resolved to emigrate to Canada where he had many friends
among the ministers and members of the Presbyterian Church. This
resolution was carried out in 1848. Immediately upon his arrival in this
country he was inducted into the pastorate of Knox Church, Hamilton,
where he remained three years, at the expiration of which he resigned
his charge, and accepted the Professorship of Mental and Moral
Philosophy in Knox College, Toronto. His fondness for philosophical
studies, and his wide acquaintance with philosophical literature, marked
him out as peculiarly fitted for such a position. The sphere of his
duties gradually widened, and in addition to Mental and Moral Philosophy
and Logic, he soon had under his charge Exegetical Theology and the
Evidences of Christianity--departments which are now in charge of
Principal Caven and Professor Gregg.