climate, and in the course of the year 1809 he took up his abode in
England, as tenant of Deptford Farm, in the parish of Wily, in
Wiltshire, an estate belonging to the Duke of Somerset. His Grace had
expressed himself as being very desirous of improving the condition of
the English farming community, and had for several years made pressing
overtures to Mr. Gourlay to settle in Wiltshire, and to give him the
benefit of his knowledge and experience. There can be no doubt that Mr.
Gourlay was actuated at least as much by philanthropy as by selfish
motives in becoming the Duke's tenant. It may be said, indeed, that
throughout the whole of his life he was singularly indifferent to mere
gain. He had a bee in his bonnet which was constantly stinging him to
set himself up in opposition to those in authority, but he was
thoroughly honest in his views, and would suffer any trial or indignity
rather than sacrifice what he regarded as a righteous principle. In his
inability to see any side of a question but his own, he was undoubtedly
a consummate egotist, but his egotism was of the intellect only, and a
more honourable and single-minded man in all his pecuniary transactions
never lived. In almost every battle which he fought with the world he
had right on his side, but he had the unfortunate faculty of always
putting himself in the wrong. He was critical without discrimination,
and though naturally frank and open in his disposition, was morbidly
suspicious of the motives of others. He was also infected by an itch for
notoriety. It was sweet to him to know that people were talking about
him, even if they were speaking to his disadvantage. He was often guided
by petulance and passion; seldom or never by sober judgment. His mission
in life seemed to be that of a grievance-monger, and no occupation was
so gratifying to him as the hunting-up and exposure of abuses. Had his
just and liberal principles been allied to a calm intellect and a
patient temper, he would have accomplished much good for his
fellow-creatures, and might have lived a happy and useful life. But his
cantankerous temper and irritable nerves were constantly placing him at
a disadvantage. He had not been long settled at Deptford Farm ere he
began to agitate for a reform of the poor-laws. It was no secret that
the poor-laws were in a most unsatisfactory state, and needed
reformation, but Mr. Gourlay's method of advocacy was ill calculated
either to produce the desired end or to elevate him in public esteem. He
wrote column after column in the form of letters to the local
newspapers, in which the most sweeping and impracticable measures were
suggested as proper subjects for legislation, and in which the magnates
of the county of Wilts were referred to in the most violent and
opprobrious language. When the papers refused to publish his
communications any longer he issued them in pamphlet form, and
circulated them broadcast through the land at his own expense. He got
together considerable bodies of the labouring classes, and harangued
them with scurrilous volubility about the oppressions to which they were
subjected by the "landed oligarchy." He declaimed violently against the
Government, which permitted such "reptiles" to "grind the faces of God's
poor." He drew up petition after petition to Parliament, in which the
landlords were denounced as tyrants, bloodsuckers, and monsters of
selfish greed.
This course of procedure could have but one result. It influenced the
poor against their landlords, who looked upon Gourlay as a visionary and
mischievous demagogue. The Duke of Somerset's ardour for improving the
condition of his tenants suddenly cooled, and he began to regret that he
had imported this pestilent Scotchman, whom he stigmatized as a
"republican firebrand," into the hitherto quiet vales of Wiltshire. The
pestilent Scotchman, however, had an agreement for a lease of his farm
for twenty-one years, drawn up by the Duke's own solicitor, and had
expended several thousands of pounds in improvements and farm-stock. He
had faithfully performed all the conditions on his part, and his farm
was a model throughout the county. He gained premiums from various
agricultural societies for the best ploughing and the best crops. No
matter; it was necessary that he should be got rid of, at any cost. A
cunning solicitor found a pretext for filing a bill in Chancery against
him, and he was thus involved in a protracted and ruinous litigation,
whereby it was sought to avoid the agreement on certain technical
grounds into which it is unnecessary to enter. After much delay a decree
was pronounced in his favour; whereupon he filed a bill against the Duke
for specific performance of the agreement. This occasioned further delay
and expense, for the Duke's solicitors fought every inch of ground, and
resorted to every conceivable means to embarrass the plaintiff. When the
suit was finally decided in the latter's favour, he was a ruined man.
His farming operations had never been profitable, for his object had
been to carry on a model farm rather than to make money. The lawsuits
had been attended with great expense, his mode of living had been suited
to his condition and expectations, and his charities to the poor had
been abundant. Worse, however, remained behind. His father had become
bankrupt, and his own expectations of succeeding to an ample fortune
were at an end.
The bankruptcy of the elder Gourlay was due to various causes. The close
of the war between Great Britain and France had produced a great fall in
the price of real estate throughout the United Kingdom. Mr. Gourlay's
property consisted chiefly of land, and he was thus shorn of much of his
wealth. This might have been borne up against, but he had unfortunately
engaged in some injudicious speculations which collapsed at this time,
and rendered it necessary that he should pay a large sum of money. His
only means of obtaining the requisite amount was by sale of his real
estate, and the small prices realized for the latter were absolutely
ruinous to the seller. So far as can be judged, he seems to have been an
honourable, high-minded man, but--at any rate in his declining
years--with little capacity for business. There is no doubt that his
affairs were wofully mismanaged, and that a man of more tact and
experience might have steered clear of insolvency. The crash came,
however, and he was reduced to ruin. This was in 1815. He survived his
reverse of fortune about four years, and died towards the close of the
year 1819.
Meantime five children--a son and four daughters--had been born to
Robert Gourlay, and his wife was in delicate health. After casting about
in his mind what to do, he resolved to visit Canada, where he owned some
land in right of his wife, and also a block in the township of Dereham,
in the county of Oxford, which he had purchased on his own account in
1810. He looked across the Atlantic with wistful eyes, and thought it
possible that he might to some extent retrieve his broken fortunes
there. Leaving his family on the farm in Wiltshire, where he had then
resided for more than seven years, he sailed from Liverpool in the month
of April, 1817. The expedition was intended to be merely experimental.
In the event of his prospects in Canada turning out equal to his
anticipations he purposed to remove his family thither. In any case he
did not intend to fight the Duke of Somerset any longer, and before his
departure he offered to surrender his tenancy of Deptford Farm, upon
terms to be settled by mutual arbitrators. The offer was declined, the
Duke foreseeing that he would be able to get rid of his refractory
tenant upon his, the Duke's, own terms. Such was the state of affairs at
the time of Mr. Gourlay's departure from England.
He arrived in Upper Canada early in June. He was delighted with the
appearance of the country, and pronounced it "the most desirable place
of refuge for the redundant population of Britain." A man with an eye
for abuses, however, could not be long in Upper Canada in those days
without being greatly dissatisfied with the management of public
affairs. He formed the acquaintance of Mr. Barnabas Bidwell, the father
of Marshall Spring Bidwell, and received from that gentleman a great
deal of valuable information respecting Canadian history and statistics.
He also derived from him a tolerably accurate notion of the evils
arising from an irresponsible Executive and the domination of the Family
Compact. He found the management of the Crown Lands and the Clergy
Reserves in the hands of a selfish and grasping oligarchy, who cared
very little for the advancement of the country, and whose attention was
chiefly directed to enriching themselves at the public expense. There
was corruption everywhere, and some of the officials did not even deem
it necessary to veil their unscrupulousness. With such grievances as
points of attack, Robert Gourlay was in his element, and he soon began
to make his presence felt. He determined to engage in business as a
land-agent, and to set on foot a gigantic scheme of emigration from
Great Britain to Canada. As we have seen, he had obtained much
statistical information from Mr. Bidwell. With a view to supplementing
this knowledge, and making the condition of the Upper Province known to
the world, he addressed a series of thirty-one questions to the
principal inhabitants of each township. Looking over these questions at
this distance of time, the reader, unless he be minutely acquainted with
the state of affairs in Upper Canada in 1817, will be amazed to think
that the seeking for such information should have been regarded by any
one as criminal or objectionable. Not one of the questions is
unimportant, and the answers, taken collectively, form a photographic
representation of the condition of the country which could not readily
have been obtained by any other means. They relate to the date of
settlement of the various townships; the number of people and inhabited
houses; the number of churches, meeting houses, schools, stores, and
mills; the general character of the soil and surface; the various kinds
and quantities of timber and minerals; the rate of wages; the cost of
clearing the land; the ordinary time of ploughing and reaping; quality
of pasture; average crops; state of public highways; quantity and
condition of wild lands; etc., etc., etc. It will be observed that
information relating to such matters was of the utmost importance to the
public, and more especially to persons in Great Britain who were
desirous of emigrating to Canada. It is also apparent that the
particular questions propounded by Mr. Gourlay had no direct bearing
upon politics. The stinger, however, was the thirty-first question,
which was in the following words: "What, in your opinion, retards the
improvement of your township in particular, or the Province in general,
and what would most contribute to the same?" In the phraseology of this
momentous question, it is not difficult, we think, to detect the cunning
hand of Barnabas Bidwell.
Readers of "Little Dorrit" cannot have forgotten the dread and horror of
the brilliant young gentleman of the Circumlocution Office, when Mr.
Arthur Clennam "wanted to know, you know." He regarded the querist as a
dangerous, revolutionary fellow. The horror of Barnacle Junior, however,
was not one whit more pronounced than was that of the ruling faction in
Upper Canada when this other dangerous, revolutionary customer put forth
his famous thirty-one queries. "Upon my soul, you mustn't come into the
place saying you want to know, you know. You have no right to come this
sort of move." Such was the language of the heir of Mr. Tite Barnacle,
and it faithfully mirrors the sentiments of the Canadian oligarchy and
their hangers-on towards Mr. Gourlay in the year of grace 1817. Most of
them had a pecuniary interest in preserving the existing state of things
undisturbed. No taxes were imposed on unsettled lands, and a goodly
portion of the Upper Canadian domain was in the hands of members of the
Compact and their favourites. Being exempt from taxation, these lands
were no expense to the proprietors, and could be held year after year,
until the inevitable progress of the country and the labours of
surrounding settlers converted the pathless wilds into a valuable
estate. If this man Gourlay were allowed to go on unchecked, they would
be compelled either to pay taxes or to throw their lands into the
market. It was imperative for their selfish interests that he should be
silenced. Strenuous exertions were made to prevent the persons applied
to from furnishing any answers to the thirty-one queries. In many cases
the exertions were successful, for the faction had various means of
bringing influence to bear, and were not backward in employing them. The
Home District, including the counties of York and Simcoe, contained
numerous large tracts of land forming what is now the most valuable part
of the Province, but which were then lying waste for want of settlement.
The owners were in nearly every instance subject to Compact influence.
They would not sell at any price, and the country was kept back. Owing
chiefly to the efforts of Dr.--afterwards Bishop--Strachan, not a single
reply was received by Mr. Gourlay from this District. Many replies came
in from other parts of the Province, but in a few instances the stinging
thirty-first question was ignored or left unanswered. In cases where it
was replied to, the almost invariable tenor of the reply attributed the
slow development of the townships to the Crown and Clergy Reserves, and
to the immense tracts of land held by non-residents. A reply received
from Kingston may be taken as a sample of the prevalent sentiment in the
frontier townships wherein public opinion was unshackled. It says: "The
same cause which has surrounded Little York with a desert creates gloom
and desolation about Kingston, otherwise most beautifully situated; I
mean the seizure and monopoly of the land by people in office and
favour. On the east side, particularly, you may travel miles together
without passing a human dwelling. The roads are accordingly most
abominable to the very gates of this, the largest town in the Province;
and its market is supplied with vegetables from the United States, where
property is less hampered, and the exertions of cultivators more free."
But at this juncture, Mr. Gourlay's unfortunate faculty for putting
himself in the wrong asserted itself, and seriously retarded his efforts
for the public good. His pugnacity, querulousness and egotism displayed
themselves in various ways, and rendered him offensive even to many
persons who would willingly have been his friends. He wrote violent
letters to the newspapers, wherein Dr. Strachan and everybody else
connected with the Executive were stigmatized in terms of which no
sober-minded citizen could approve. The Reverend Doctor was referred to
as "a lying little fool of a renegade Presbyterian." Other prominent
personages came in for scurrility equally coarse. This sort of writing,
however, was not without its effect upon a certain class of minds, more
especially as the grievances complained of were patent to all the world.
A feeling of hostility against those in authority began to make itself
apparent throughout the Province, and at the next meeting of the
Legislature the Assembly passed a vote in favour of a commission of
inquiry into the state of public affairs. The Family Compact were
alarmed, and before any steps could be taken towards entering upon the
proposed inquiry they prevailed upon the Governor, Francis Gore, to
prorogue the House. For this prorogation there was not the slightest
legitimate ground, as a great deal of the public business was
necessarily left unfinished. The alleged pretext for the step--a dispute
with the Legislative Council--was not looked upon with more favour than
the act itself, for the dispute was believed to have been artificially
fermented with a view to lending some sort of colour to the prorogation.
The popular discontent was very great, and made itself heard in
unexpected quarters. Mr. Gourlay eagerly availed himself of this
discontent, and suggested through the public press that a convention
should be held at York, for the purpose of drafting a petition to the
Imperial authorities. He himself drafted a petition to the Prince Regent
as a basis, to be approved of by the proposed convention. The manuscript
was submitted to a meeting of sixteen respectable persons, among whom
were six magistrates. These gentlemen approved of the contents, and had
the entire petition printed in pamphlet form. Several thousand copies of
it were gratuitously circulated throughout the Province, and it was also
placed on sale in book-stores in the various towns and villages. Its
contents produced considerable effect on the public mind, which had
become thoroughly aroused. The people caught at the suggestion of a
convention, which was in due course held; but in the meantime the
Executive had also become thoroughly alarmed, and they now determined
that this interloping Mr. Gourlay should be silenced or got rid of. They
bestirred themselves to such good purpose that the action of the
convention came to nothing, it being arranged that the subject-matter
of the petition should be inquired into by the Lieutenant-Governor and
the House of Assembly. The Executive next instituted proceedings against
Mr. Gourlay. In the draft petition published by him, there was a passage
which reflected very strongly upon the way in which the Crown Lands were
administered. As there is no more faithful picture of the state of the
Province to be found, and as the work containing it has long been
practically unprocurable for general readers, we reproduce the passage
entire: "The lands of the Crown in Upper Canada are of immense extent,
not only stretching far and wide into the wilderness, but scattered over
the Province, and intermixed with private property, already cultivated.
The disposal of this land is left to Ministers at home, who are palpably
ignorant of existing circumstances; and to a Council of men resident in
the Province, who, it is believed, have long converted the trust reposed
in them to purposes of selfishness. The scandalous abuses in this
department came some years ago to such a pitch of monstrous magnitude
that the Home Ministers wisely imposed restrictions on the Land Council
of Upper Canada. These, however, have by no means removed the evil; and
a system of patronage and favouritism, in the disposal of the Crown
lands, still exists, altogether destructive of moral rectitude, and
virtuous feeling, in the management of public affairs. Corruption,
indeed, has reached such a height in this Province, that it is thought
no other part of the British Empire witnesses the like; and it is vain
to look for improvement till a radical change is effected. It matters
not what characters fill situations of public trust at present--all sink
beneath the dignity of men--become vitiated and weak, as soon as they
are placed within the vortex of destruction. Confusion on confusion has
grown out of this unhappy system; and the very lands of the Crown, the
giving away of which has created such mischief and iniquity, have
ultimately come to little value from abuse. The poor subjects of His
Majesty, driven from home by distress, to whom portions of land are
granted, can now find in the grant no benefit; and Loyalists of the
United Empire--the descendants of those who sacrificed their all in
America in behalf of British rule--men whose names were ordered on
record for their virtuous adherence to your Royal Father--the
descendants of these men find now no favour in their destined rewards;
nay, these rewards, when granted, have, in many cases, been rendered
worse than nothing; for the legal rights in the enjoyment of them have
been held at nought; their land has been rendered unsaleable, and, in
some cases, only a source of distraction and care. Under this system of
internal management, and weakened from other evil influences, Upper
Canada now pines in comparative decay; discontent and poverty are
experienced in a land supremely blessed with the gifts of nature; dread
of arbitrary power wars, here, against the free exercise of reason and
manly sentiment; laws have been set aside; legislators have come into
derision; and contempt from the mother country seems fast gathering
strength to disunite the people of Canada from their friends at home."