and Lower Canada, caused much discussion in the British Parliament and in
Canada, where the principal opposition came from the English inhabitants
of the French province. These opponents of the act even sent Mr. Adam
{304} Lymburner, a Quebec merchant of high standing, to express their
opinions at the bar of the English House of Commons. The advocates of
the new scheme of government, however, believed that the division of
Canada into two provinces would have the effect of creating harmony,
since the French would be left in the majority in one section, and the
British in the other. The Quebec Act, it was generally admitted, had not
promoted the prosperity or happiness of the people at large. Great
uncertainty still existed as to the laws actually in force under the act.
In not a few cases the judges were confessedly ignorant--Chief Justice
Livius, for instance--of French Canadian jurisprudence. The increase of
the English population was a strong argument for a grant of
representative institutions. Accordingly the constitutional act provided
for an assembly, elected by the people on a limited franchise, in each
province, and for a legislative council, appointed by the Crown. The
sovereign might annex hereditary letters of honour to the right of
summons to the legislative council, but no attempt was ever made to
create a Canadian aristocracy, or distinct class, under the authority of
this section of the act. The British Government reserved the right of
imposing, levying, and collecting duties of customs, and of appointing or
directing their payment, though it left the exclusive apportionment of
all moneys levied in this way to legislature. The free exercise of the
Roman Catholic religion was permanently guaranteed. A seventh part of
all uncleared Crown lands was reserved for the use of the Protestant
clergy--a {305} provision that caused much trouble in the future. The
civil law of French Canada was to regulate property and civil rights in
that province. English criminal law was to prevail in both the Canadas.
The Governor-General of Quebec and Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada
were each assisted by an executive council chosen by those functionaries,
and having a right to sit also in the legislative council. Lord
Dorchester was the first governor-general, not only of Canada, but
likewise of the other provinces by virtue of separate commissions to that
effect. The heads of the executive in all the provinces except Quebec
were called lieutenant-governors, but they became only directly
subordinate to the governor-general when he was present in a province in
his official capacity.
The city where the first assembly of Lower Canada met in 1792 was one of
great historic interest. The very buildings in which the government
transacted its business had echoed to the tread of statesmen, warriors,
and priests of the old régime. The civil and military branches of the
government then occupied apartments in the old Château St. Louis,
elevated on the brink of an inaccessible precipice. On a rocky eminence,
in the vicinity of a battery close to Prescott Gate, erected in 1797, was
an old stone building, generally known as the Bishop's Palace. Like all
the ancient structures of Quebec, this building had no claims to elegance
of form, although much labour and expense had been bestowed on its
construction. The chapel of this building, situated near the
communication with the lower {306} town, was converted into a chamber, in
which were held the first meetings of the representatives of Lower Canada.
On the 17th of December, the two houses assembled in their respective
chambers in the old palace, in obedience to the proclamation of
Major-General Alured Clarke, who acted as lieutenant-governor in the
absence of the governor-general, Lord Dorchester. Among the officers who
surrounded the throne on that occasion, was probably his Royal Highness
the Duke of Kent, who was in command of the 7th Royal Fusiliers, then
stationed in the old capital. On so momentous an occasion, the
assemblage was large, and comprised all the notabilities of English and
French society. In the legislature were not a few men whose families had
long been associated with the fortunes of the colony. Chaussegros de
Léry, St. Ours, Longueuil, Lanaudière, Rouville, Boucherville, Salaberry,
and Lotbinière, were among the names that told of the old régime, and
gave a guaranty to the French Canadians that their race and institutions
were at last protected in the legislative halls of their country. M.
Panet, a distinguished French Canadian, was unanimously elected the
speaker of the first assembly of French Canada.
[Illustration: Prescott Gate and Bishop's palace at Quebec in 1830.]
Now let us leave the Bishop's Palace, among the rocks of old Quebec, and
visit the humble village of Newark, where Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe
opened his first legislature under the new constitution in the autumn of
1792. Across the rapid river was the territory of the Republic, which
was engaged in a grand experiment of government. The roar of the {308}
mighty cataract of Niagara could be heard in calm summer days. On the
banks of this picturesque river was the residence of the
lieutenant-governor, known as Navy Hall, where the legislators of Upper
Canada probably met. This was but a mean parliament house, compared with
the massive pile which was chosen for a similar purpose in Quebec; and
yet each was appropriate in its way. The Bishop's Palace illustrated an
old community, which had aimed at the conquest of the larger part of
America, and had actually laid the foundations of an empire; the
legislative cabin of Newark was a fit type of the ruggedness and newness
of western colonial life. The axe was whirring amid the forests, and
only here and there, through a vast wilderness, could be seen the humble
clearings of the pioneers.
The session was opened with the usual speech, which was duly reported to
the house of assembly by the speaker, Mr. McDonnell of Glengarry, and
immediately taken into consideration by the representatives of the
yeomanry of the western province. It is said that on more than one
occasion, the representatives were forced to leave their confined chamber
and finish their work under the trees before the door. If the attendance
was small on this occasion, it must be remembered that there were many
difficulties to overcome before the two Houses could assemble in
obedience to the governor's proclamation. The seven legislative
councillors and sixteen members who represented a population of only
25,000 souls, were scattered at very remote points, {309} and could only
find their way at times in canoes and slow sailing craft. Nor must it be
forgotten that in those early days of colonisation men had the stern
necessities of existence to consider before all things else. However
urgent the call to public duty, the harvest must be gathered in before
laws could be made.
Such were the circumstances under which the legislatures were opened in
the two provinces, representing the two distinct races of the population.
Humble as were the beginnings in the little parliament house of Newark,
yet we can see from their proceedings that the men, then called to do the
public business, were of practical habits and fully alive to the value of
time in a new country, as they sat for only five weeks and passed the
same number of bills that it took seven months at Quebec to pass.
The history of Canada, during the twenty years that elapsed between the
inauguration of the constitution of 1792 and the war of 1812, does not
require any extended space in this work. Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe, who
had distinguished himself during the war for independence as a commander
of the Queen's Rangers, was a skilful and able administrator, who did his
best to develop the country. It was during his régime that Toronto,
under the name of York, was chosen, by the influence of Lord Dorchester,
as the capital in place of Newark, which was too close to the American
frontier, although the Lieutenant-Governor would have preferred the site
of the present city of London, on the River {310} Thames, then known as
La Tranche. Mainly through his efforts a considerable immigration was
attracted from the United States. Many of the new settlers were loyal
and favourable to British institutions, but in the course of time there
came into the country not a few discontented, restless persons, having
radical and republican tendencies. Among the important measures of his
administration was an act preventing the future introduction of slaves,
and providing for the freedom of children of slaves then in the province.
Governor Simcoe devoted his energy not only to the peopling of the
province, but to the opening up of arteries of communication, of which
Yonge and Dundas Streets--still well-known names--were the most noted.
The founder of an important settlement in the west, an eccentric Irishman
of noble ancestry, Colonel Thomas Talbot, was a member of the
Lieutenant-Governor's staff, and eventually made his home in the western
part of the province, where he became a useful and influential pioneer.
Among the most desirable immigrants were the Scotch Highlanders, who
settled and named the county of Glengarry, and came to the country by the
advice of the energetic and able priest, Macdonell, afterwards the first
Roman Catholic bishop of Upper Canada. In Nova Scotia a number of Scotch
settled in Pictou county as early as 1773, and were followed in later
years by many others who found homes in the same district, in Antigonishe
and Cape Breton, where their descendants are still greatly in the
majority. In Prince Edward Island, Lord Selkirk, the founder of the
{311} Red River settlement, to whose history I shall refer in a later
chapter, established a colony of thrifty Scotch in one of the deserted
settlements of the French. Charlottetown was founded in those days on
the bay first known as Port La Joye, and is now a pleasing example of the
placid dignity and rural tranquillity that a capital may attain even in
these restless modern times. In this island, the seeds of {312}
discontent were planted at a very early time by the transfer of nearly
all its lands in one day by ballot to a few English landlords, whose
absenteeism long retarded its advancement, and whose claims of
proprietorship were not settled until after the confederation of the
provinces.
[Illustration: Lieutenant-General Simcoe.]
The political condition of the provinces from the beginning of the
nineteenth century began to assume considerable importance according as
the assemblies became discontented with their relatively small share in
the government of the country. In all the provinces there was a
persistent contest between the popular assemblies and prerogative, as
represented by the governors, and upper houses appointed by the same
authority. Charles the First, with all his arrogance, never treated his
parliament with greater superciliousness than did Sir James Craig, when
governor-general, on more than one occasion when the assembly had crossed
his wishes. In the absence of a ministry responsible to the assembly, a
conflict was always going on between that body and the representative of
the Crown. The assembly began now to claim full control over the taxes
and revenues which belonged to the people of the provinces. The presence
of judges in the legislature was a just cause for public discontent for
years, and although these high functionaries were eventually removed from
the assembly they continued to sit in the upper house until 1840. The
constant interference of the Imperial Government in matters of purely
local concern also led to many unfortunate misunderstandings.
{313}
In Lower Canada, where the population was the largest, and the racial
distinctions strongly accentuated, the political conflict was, from the
outset, more bitter than in other sections. The official class, a little
oligarchy composed exclusively of persons brought from the British Isles,
treated the French Canadians with a studied superciliousness, and
arrogated to themselves all the important functions of government. This
element dominated the executive and legislative councils, and practically
the governors, who, generally speaking, had extreme views of their
prerogative, and were cognisant of the fact that the colonial office in
England had no desire to entrust the Canadian Government with much larger
powers than those possessed by a municipal organisation. In the assembly
the French Canadians were largely in the majority--the English element
had frequently not more than one-fifth of the total representation of
fifty members. The assembly too often exhibited a very domineering
spirit, and attempted to punish all those who ventured to criticise,
however moderately, their proceedings. The editor of the _Quebec
Mercury_, an organ of the British minority, was arrested on this ground.
_Le Canadien_ was established as an organ of the French Canadian majority
with the motto, _Nos institutions, notre langue, et nos lois_. By its
constant attacks on the government and the English governing class it did
much harm by creating and perpetuating racial antagonisms and by
eventually precipitating civil strife. As a result of its attacks on the
government, the paper was seized, and the printer, as well as {314} M.
Bedard and several other members of the assembly who were understood to
be contributors to its pages, or to control its opinions, were summarily
arrested by the orders of Sir James Craig. Though some of these persons
obtained their release by an expression of regret for their conduct, M.
Bedard would not yield, and was not released until the Governor-General
himself gave up the fight and retired to England where he died soon
afterwards, with the consciousness that his conduct with respect to
Bedard, and other members of the assembly, had not met with the approval
of the Imperial authorities, although he had placed the whole case before
them by the able agency of Mr. Ryland, who had been secretary for years
to successive governors-general, and represented the opinions of the
ruling official class.
In Upper Canada there were no national or racial antipathies and
rivalries to stimulate political differences. In the course of time,
however, antagonisms grew up between the Tories, chiefly old U. E.
Loyalists, the official class, and the restless, radical element, which
had more recently come into the country, and now desired to exercise
political influence. Lieutenant-governors, like Sir Francis Gore,
sympathised with the official class, and often with reason, as the
so-called radical leaders were not always deserving of the sympathy of
reasonable men. One of these leaders was Joseph Willcocks, for some time
sheriff of the Home district--one of the four judicial divisions of the
province--and also the proprietor and editor of the _Upper Canada
Guardian_, {315} the second paper printed in Upper Canada--the first
having been the _Upper Canada Gazette_, or the _American Oracle_, which
appeared at Newark on the 18th April, 1793. He was a dangerous agitator,
not worthy of public confidence, but he was able to evoke some sympathy,
and pose as a political martyr, on account of the ill-advised conduct of
the majority of the assembly ordering his arrest for expressing some
unfavourable opinion of their proceedings in his paper.
In the maritime provinces the conflict between the executive and the
assemblies was less aggravated than in the St. Lawrence country, although
Sir John Wentworth, the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, who had been
a governor of New Hampshire before the revolution, had a very exalted
idea of the prerogative, and succeeded in having an acrimonious
controversy with Mr. Cottnam Tonge, the leader of the popular party, and
the predecessor of a far greater man, Joseph Howe, the father of
responsible government.
Such, briefly, was the political condition of the several provinces of
British North America when events occurred to stifle discontent and
develop a broader patriotism on all sides. The War of 1812 was to prove
the fidelity of the Canadian people to the British Crown and stimulate a
new spirit of self-reliance among French as well as English Canadians,
who were to win victories which are among the most brilliant episodes of
Canadian history.
{316}
XXIII.
THE WAR OF 1812-1815--PATRIOTISM OF THE CANADIANS.
At the outbreak of the unfortunate War of 1812 the United States
embraced an immense territory extending from the St. Lawrence valley to
Mexico, excepting Florida--which remained in the possession of Spain
until 1819--and from the Atlantic indefinitely westward to the Spanish
possessions on the Pacific coast, afterwards acquired by the United
States. The total population of the Union was upwards of eight million
souls, of whom a million and a half were negro slaves in the south.
Large wastes of wild land lay between the Canadian settlements and the
thickly populated sections of New England, New York, and Ohio. It was
only with great difficulty and expense that men, munitions of war, and
provisions could be brought to the frontier during the contest.
The principal causes of the war are quite intelligible to the
historical student. Great Britain was engaged in a great conflict not
only for her own national security but also for the integrity of {317}
Europe, then dominated by the insatiable ambition of Bonaparte. It was
on the sea that her strength mainly lay. To ensure her maritime
supremacy, she found it necessary, in the course of events, to seize
and condemn neutral American vessels whenever there was conclusive
evidence that their cargoes were not the produce of the United States,
but had been actually bought in an enemy's colony and were on their way
to the mother country. But such an interruption of a commerce, which
had been carried on for years at a great profit by American merchants,
was by no means so serious an affair as the stoppage of American
vessels on the high seas, and the forcible abduction and impressment,
by British naval officers, of sailors who were claimed as British
subjects, even when they had been naturalised in the United States. To
such an extent did Great Britain assert her pretensions, that one of
her frigates, the _Leopard_, actually fired into the American cruiser
_Chesapeake_, off the coast of the bay of the same name, and made
prisoners of several men who were claimed as deserters from an English
man-of-war--a national outrage for which Great Britain subsequently
made an apology and gave a measure of reparation. Then came the
British orders in council which forbade American trade with any country
from which the British flag was excluded, allowed direct trade from the
United States to Sweden only in American products, and permitted
American trade with other parts of Europe only on condition of touching
at English ports and paying duties. Napoleon retaliated with decrees
which {318} were practically futile while England was victorious on the
ocean, but which nevertheless threw additional difficulties in the way
of the commerce of a country like the United States, which possessed
such exceptional facilities for its development from its position as a
neutral nation, and its great maritime and mercantile enterprise. The
British measures meant the ruin of an American commerce which had
become very profitable, and the Washington government attempted to
retaliate by declaring an embargo in their own ports, which had only
the result of still further embarrassing American trade. In place of
this injudicious measure a system of non-intercourse with both England
and France was substituted as long as either should continue its
restrictive measures against the United States. The Democratic
governing party practically fell under the influence of France, and
believed, or at least professed to believe, that Napoleon had abandoned
his repressive system, when, as a matter of fact, as the English
ministry declared, it still existed to all intents and purposes. The
Democratic leaders, anxious to keep in power, fanned the flame against
England, whose naval superiority enabled her to inflict an injury on
American commercial interests, which France was entirely powerless to
do. The Democrats looked to the South and West for their principal
support in holding power. In these sections the interests were
exclusively agricultural, while in New England, where the
Federalists--the peace party--were in the majority--and the war was
very unpopular--the commercial and maritime {319} element largely
prevailed. In the West there had been for years an intense feeling
against England on account of the fact that after the definitive treaty
of peace in 1783, the English Government continued to occupy the
Western posts and dependent territory for thirteen years, nominally on
the ground of the harsh treatment meted out to the loyalists in
violation of its terms, and of the non-payment of debts due to English
creditors, but probably also with the view of keeping control of the
fur trade. The feeling prevailed among the western frontiersmen that
the English secretly instigated Indian attacks on the new settlements,
a belief proved by recent investigations to be groundless. Even after
the victories of Mayne in 1794, and of Harrison in 1811, when the
Indian power was effectively broken, this bitter sentiment still
existed in the West against English and Canadians, and had much
influence with the politicians who favoured the war.
The Southern leaders, Clay of Kentucky and Calhoun of South Carolina,
were most inimical to England, and succeeded in forcing Madison to
agree to a declaration of war, as a condition to his re-election to the
presidency. The consequence of this successful bargain was the passage
of a war measure by Congress as soon as Madison issued his message, and
the formal declaration of hostilities on the 18th of June, 1812. On
the previous day, England had actually repealed the obnoxious orders in
council, but it was too late to induce the war party in the United
States to recede and stop the progress of the forces, which were
already near the western {320} Canadian frontier when the
governor-general of Canada, Sir George Prevost, a military man, heard
the news of the actual declaration of hostilities.
With the causes of the War of 1812 the Canadian people had nothing
whatever to do; it was quite sufficient for them to know that it was
their duty to assist England with all their might and submit to any
sacrifices which the fortunes of war might necessarily bring to a
country which became the principal scene of conflict. Ontario, then
Upper Canada, with a population of about eighty thousand souls, was the
only province that really suffered from the war. From the beginning to
the end its soil was the scene of the principal battles, and a great
amount of valuable property destroyed by the invading forces. "On to
Canada" had been the cry of the war party in the United States for
years; and there was a general feeling that the upper province could be
easily taken and held until the close of the struggle, when it could be
used as a lever to bring England to satisfactory terms or else be
united to the Federal Union. The result of the war showed, however,
that the people of the United States had entirely mistaken the spirit
of Canadians, and that the small population scattered over a large
region--not more than four hundred thousand souls from Sydney to
Sandwich--was animated by a stern determination to remain faithful to
England.