DEPARTURE FROM QUEBEC.
I suppose it is in the very nature of an autobiography to be
egotistical, a fault which I have desired to avoid; but find that my own
personal affairs have been often so strangely interwoven with public
events, that I could not make the one intelligible without describing
the other. My departure from Quebec, for instance, was caused by
circumstances which involved many public men of that day, and made me an
involuntary party to important political movements.
I have mentioned that, with the sanction of the Upper Canadian section
of the Ministry, I had commenced the publication in Quebec of a daily
newspaper with an evening edition, under the title of the _Advertiser_.
I strove to make it an improvement upon the style of then existing
Quebec journals, but without any attempt at business rivalry, devoting
my attention chiefly to the mercantile interests of the city, including
its important lumber trade. I wrote articles describing the various
qualities of Upper Canadian timber, which I thought should be made known
in the British market. This was to some degree successful, and as a
consequence I gained the friendship of several influential men of
business. But I did not suspect upon how inflammable a mine I was
standing. A discourteous remark in a morning contemporary, upon some
observations in the _Courrier du Canada_, in which the ground was taken
by the latter that French institutions in Europe exceeded in liberality,
and ensured greater personal freedom than those of Great Britain, and by
consequence of Canada, induced me to enter into an amicable controversy
with the _Courrier_ as to the relative merits of French imperial and
British monarchical government. About the same time, I gave publicity to
some complaints of injustice suffered by Protestant--I think
Orange--workmen who had been dismissed from employment under a local
contractor on one of the wharves, owing as was asserted to their
religious creed. Just then a French journalist, the editor of the
_Courrier de Paris_, was expelled by the Emperor Louis Napoleon for some
critique on "my policy." This afforded so pungent an opportunity for
retort upon my Quebec friend, that I could not resist the temptation to
use it. From that moment, it appears, I was considered an enemy of
French Canadians and a hater of Roman Catholics, to whom in truth I
never felt the least antipathy, and never even dreamt of enquiring
either the religious or political principles of men in my employment.
I was informed, that the Hon. Mr. Cartier desired that I should
discontinue the _Advertiser_. Astonished at this, I spoke to one of his
colleagues on the subject. He said I had been quite in the right; that
the editor of the _Courrier_ was a d--d fool; but I had better see
Cartier. I did so; pointed out that I had no idea of having offended any
man's prejudices; and could not understand why my paper should be
objectionable. He vouchsafed no argument; said curtly that his friends
were annoyed; and that I had better give up the paper. I declined to do
so, and left him.
This was subsequent to the events related in Chapter xlix. I spoke to
others of the Ministers. One of them--he is still living--said that I
was getting too old [I was fifty], and it was time I was
superannuated--but that--they could not go against Cartier! My pride was
not then subdued, and revolted against such treatment. I was under no
obligations to the Ministry; on the contrary, I felt they were heavily
indebted to me. I waited on the Hon. L. V. Sicotte, who was on neutral
terms with the government, placed my columns at his disposal, and
shortly afterwards, on the conclusion of an understanding between him
and the Hon. J. Sandfield Macdonald, to which the Hon. A. A. Dorion was
a party, I published an article prepared by them, temperately but
strongly opposed to the policy of the existing government. This
combination ultimately resulted in the formation of the
Macdonald-Sicotte Ministry in 1862.
But this was not all. The French local press took up the quarrel
respecting French institutions--told me plainly that Quebec was a
"Catholic city," and that I would not be allowed to insult their
institutions with impunity--hinted at mob-chastisement, and other
consequences. I knew that years before, the printing office of a friend
of my own--since high in the public service--had been burnt in Quebec
under similar circumstances. I could not expose my partners to absolute
ruin by provoking a similar fate. The Protestants of the city were quite
willing to make my cause a religious and national feud, and told me so.
There was no knowing where the consequences might end. For myself, I had
really no interest in the dispute; no prejudices to gratify; no love of
fighting for its own sake, although I had willingly borne arms for my
Queen; so I gave up the dispute; sold out my interest in the printing
contract to my partners for a small sum, which I handed to the rightful
owner of the materials, and left Quebec with little more than means
enough to pay my way to Toronto.