Chapter XXVII: Section 4 (3)

"The treasonable attempt of the French party to carry its political objects into effect by an appeal to arms, brought these hostile races into general and armed collision. I will not dwell on the melancholy scenes exhibited in the progress of the contest, or the fierce passions which held an unchecked sway during the insurrection, or immediately after its suppression. It is not difficult to conceive how greatly the evils, which I have described as previously existing, have been aggravated by the war; how terror and revenge nourished, in each portion of the population, a bitter and irreconcilable hatred to each other, and to the institutions of the country. The French population, who had for some time exercised a great and increasing power through the medium of the House of Assembly, found their hopes unexpectedly prostrated in the dust. The physical force which they had vaunted was called into action, and proved to be utterly inefficient. The hope of recovering their previous ascendancy under a constitution similar to that suspended, almost ceased to exist. Removed from all actual share in the government of their smaller country, they brood in silence over the memory of their fallen countrymen, of their burnt villages, of their ruined property, of their extinguished ascendancy, and of their humbled nationality. To the Government and the English they ascribe these wrongs, and nourish against both an indiscriminating and eternal animosity. Nor have the English inhabitants forgotten in their triumph, the terror with which they suddenly saw themselves surrounded by an insurgent majority, and the incidents which alone appeared to save them from the unchecked domination of their antagonists. They find themselves still a minority in the midst of a hostile and organised people; apprehensions of secret conspiracies and sanguinary designs haunt them unceasingly, and their only hope of safety is supposed to rest on systematically terrifying and disabling the French, and in preventing a majority of that race from ever and again being predominant in any portion of the legislature of the province. I describe in strong terms the feelings which appear to me to animate each portion of the population; and the picture which I draw represents a state of things so little familiar to the personal experience of the people of this country, that many will probably regard it as the work of mere imagination; but I feel confident that the accuracy and moderation of my description will be acknowledged by all who have seen the state of society in Lower Canada during the last year. Nor do I exaggerate the inevitable constancy, any more than the intensity of this animosity. Never again will the present generation of French Canadians yield a loyal submission to a British Government; never again will the English population tolerate the authority of a House of Assembly in which the French shall possess or even approximate to a majority."

Although M. Papineau and his party were very willing to fraternise with the discontented party in Upper Canada, and to call forth the sympathy and the assistance of the Americans, their real intentions and wishes were to have made the Canadas an independent French province, in strict alliance with France. [See Note 2.] The assistance of the Upper Canada party would have been accepted until they were no longer required, and then there would have been an attempt, and very probably a successful one, to drive away by every means in their power the English settlers in Upper Canada to the United States. The Americans, on the other hand, cared nothing about the French or English grievances; their sympathy arose from nothing less than a wish to add the Canadas to their already vast territories, and to drive the English from their last possessions in America; but they also knew how to wear the cloak as well as M. Papineau, and had the insurrection been successful, both French and English would by this time have been subjected to their control, and M. Papineau would have found that he had only been a tool in the hands of the more astute and ambitious Americans. Such is my conviction: but this is certain, that whatever may have been the result of the former insurrection, or whatever may be the result of any future one (for the troubles are not yet over), the English in Upper Canada must fall a sacrifice to either one party or the other, unless they can succeed (which, with their present numbers and situation, will be difficult) in overpowering them both.

It may be inquired, what were the causes of discontent which occasioned the partial rising in Upper Canada. Strange to say, although Mackenzie and his party were in concert and correspondence with M. Papineau, the chief cause of discontent arose from the partiality shown by the English government to the French Canadians in Lower Canada; their grievances were their own, and they had no fellow-feeling with the French Canadians. If they had any prepossession at all, it was in favour of joining the American States, and to this they were instigated by the number of Americans who had settled in Upper Canada. There were several minor causes of discontent: the Scotch emigrants were displeased because the Government had decided that the clergy revenues were to be allotted only for the support of the Episcopal church, and not for the Presbyterian. But the great discontent was because the English settlers considered that they had been unfairly treated, and sacrificed by the government at home. But although discontent was general, a wish to rebel was not so, and here it was that Mackenzie found himself in error, and M. Papineau was deceived; instead of being joined by thousands, as they expected, from the Upper Province, they could only muster a few hundreds, who were easily dispersed: the feelings of loyalty prevailed, and those whom the rebel-leaders expected would have joined the standard of insurrection, enrolled themselves to trample it tinder foot. The behaviour of the settlers in Upper Canada was worthy of all praise; they had just grounds of complaint; they had been opposed and sacrificed to a malevolent and ungrateful French party in the Lower Province; yet when the question arose as to whether they should assist, or put down the insurrection, they immediately forgot their own wrongs, and proved their loyalty to their country.

The party who adhered to Mackenzie may well be considered as an American party; for Upper Canada had been so neglected and uncared for, that the Americans had already obtained great influence there. Indeed, when it is stated that Mathews and Lount, the two _members of the Upper House of Assembly_ who were executed for treason, were both _Americans_, it is evident that the Americans had even obtained a share in the legislation of the province. When I passed through the Upper Province, I remarked that, independently of some of the best land being held by Americans, the landlords of the inns, the contractors for transporting the mails, and drivers of coaches, were almost without exception, Americans.

One cause of the Americans wishing that the Canadas should be wrested from the English was that, by an Act of the Legislature, they were not able to hold lands in the province. It is true that they could purchase them, but if they wished to sell them, the title was not valid. Colonel Prince, whose name was so conspicuous during the late troubles, brought in a bill to allow Americans to hold land in Upper Canada, but the bill was thrown out. It scarcely need be observed that Colonel Prince is now as violent an opponent to the bill. See Note 3. He has had quite enough of Americans in Upper Canada.

It was fortunate for the country that there was such a man as Sir John Colborne, and aided by Sir Francis Head, at that period in the command of the two provinces. Of the first it is not necessary that I should add my tribute of admiration to that which Sir John Colborne has already so unanimously received. Sir Francis Head has not been quite so fortunate, and has been accused (most unjustly) of rashness and want of due precaution. Now the only grounds upon which this charge can be preferred is, his sending down to Sir John Colborne all the regular troops, when he was requested if possible so to do. I was at this period at Toronto, and as I had the pleasure of being intimate with Sir Francis, I had fell knowledge of the causes of this decision. Sir Francis said, "I have but two hundred regular troops; they will be of great service in the Lower Province, when added to those which Sir John Colborne already has under his command. Here they are not sufficient to stem an insurrection if it be formidable. I do not know what may be the strength of the rebels until they show themselves, but I think I do know the number who will support me. Should the rebels prove in great three, these two companies of regular troops will be overwhelmed, and what I consider is, not any partial success of the rebel party, but the moral effect which success over regular troops will create. There are, I am sure, thousands who are at present undecided, who, if they heard that the _regular troops_, of whom they have such dread, were overcome, would join the rebel cause. This is what I fear; as for any advantage gained over me, when I have only _militia_ to oppose to them, that is of little consequence. When Sir John Colborne has defeated them in Lower Canada, he can then come up here, with the regular troops."

I believe these to be the very words used by Sir Francis Head when he asked my opinion on the subject, and I agreed with him most cordially; but if any one is inclined to suppose, from the light, playful, and I must say, undiplomatic style of Sir Francis's despatches, that he had not calculated every chance, and made every disposition which prudence and foresight could suggest, they are very much mistaken. The most perfect confidence was reposed in him by all parties; and the event proved that he was not out in his calculations, for with the militia alone he put down the rebellion. During the short time from Sir Francis Head's going out, until he requested to be recalled, he did more good to that province, and more to secure the English dominion than could be imagined, and had he not been governor of the province for some time previous to the rebellion, I strongly surmise that it would have been lost to this country.

The events of the rebellion are too fresh in the reader's memory to be mentioned here. It is, however, necessary to examine into the present state of affairs, for it must not be supposed that the troubles have yet ceased.

First, as to the French Canadian party. If I am not very much mistaken, this may be considered as broken up; the severe lesson received from the English troops, and the want of confidence in their leaders from their cowardice and inability, will prevent the French Canadians from again taking up arms. They are naturally a peaceable, inoffensive, good-tempered people, and nothing but the earnest instigation of a portion of their priests, the notaries, and the doctors, (the three parties who most mix with the _habitants_), would have ever roused them to rebellion. As it is, I consider that they are efficiently quelled, and will be quiet, at least for one generation, if the measures of the government at home are judicious. The cause of the great influence obtained by the people I have specified over the _habitants_ is well explained in Lord Durham's Report. Speaking of the public seminaries, he says:--

"The education given in these establishments greatly resembles the kind given in the English public schools, though it is rather more varied. It is entirely in the hands of the Catholic clergy. The number of pupils in these establishments is estimated altogether at about a thousand; and they turn out every year, as far as I could ascertain, between two and three hundred young men thus educated. Almost all of these are members of the family of some habitant, whom the possession of greater quickness than his brothers has induced the father or the curate of the parish to select and send to the seminary. These young men, possessing a degree of information immeasurably superior to that of their families, are naturally averse to what they regard as descending to the humble occupations of their parents. A few become priests; but as the military and naval professions are closed against the colonist, the greater part can only find a position suited to their notions of their own qualifications in the learned professions of advocate, notary, and surgeon. As from this cause these professions are greatly overstocked, we find every village in Lower Canada filled with notaries and surgeons, with little practice to occupy their attention, and living among their own families, or at any rate among exactly the same class. Thus the persons of most education in every village belong to the same families, and the same original station in life, as the illiterate _habitants_ whom I have described. They are connected with them by all the associations of early youth, and the ties of blood. The most perfect equality always marks their intercourse, and the superior in education is separated by no barrier of manners, or pride, or distinct interests, from the singularly ignorant peasantry by which he is surrounded. He combines, therefore, the influences of superior knowledge, and social equality, and wields a power over the mass, which I do not believe that the educated class of any other portion of the world possess."

The second party, which are the discontented, yet loyal English of Upper Canada, are entitled to, and it is hoped will receive the justice they claim they well deserve it. It is the duty, as well as the interest of the mother country to foster loyalty, enterprise, and activity, and it is chiefly in Upper Canada that it is to be found. One great advantage has arisen from the late troubles, which is, that they have driven most of the Americans out of the province, and have created such a feeling of indignation and hatred towards them in the breasts of the Upper Canadians, that there is no chance of their fraternising for at least another half century. Nothing could have proved more unfortunate to the American desire of obtaining the Canadas than the result of the late rebellions. Should the Upper Canadians, from any continued injustice and misrule on the part of the mother country, be determined to separate, at all events it will not be to ally themselves with the Americans. In Lord Durham's Report we have the following remarks:--

"I have, in despatches of a later date than that to which I have had occasion so frequently to refer, called the attention of the Home Government to the growth of this alarming state of feeling among the English population. The course of the late troubles, and the assistance which the French insurgents derived from some citizens of the United States, have caused a most intense exasperation among the Canadian loyalists against the American government and people. Their papers have teemed with the most unmeasured denunciations of the good faith of the authorities, of the character and morality of the people, and of the political institutions of the United States. Yet, under this surface of hostility, it is easy to detect a strong under-current of an exactly contrary feeling. As the general opinion of the American people became more and more apparent during the course of the last year, the English of Lower Canada were surprised to find how strong, in spite of the first burst of sympathy, with a people supposed to be struggling for independence, was the real sympathy of their republican neighbours with the great objects of the minority. Without abandoning their attachment to their mother country, they have begun, as men in a state of uncertainty are apt to do, to calculate the probable consequences of a separation, if it should unfortunately occur, and be followed by an incorporation with the United States. In spite of the shock which it would occasion their feelings, they undoubtedly think that they should find some compensation in the promotion of their interests; they believe that the influx of American emigration would speedily place the English race in a majority; they talk frequently and loudly of what has occurred in Louisiana, where, by means which they utterly misrepresent, the end nevertheless of securing an English predominance over a French population has undoubtedly been attained; they assert very confidently, that the Americans would make a very speedy and decisive settlement of the pretensions of the French; and they believe that, after the first shock of an entirely new political state had been got over, they and their posterity would share in that amazing progress, and that great material prosperity, which every day's experience shows them is the lot of the people of the United States. I do not believe that such a feeling has yet sapped their strong allegiance to the British empire; but their allegiance is founded on their deep-rooted attachment to British, as distinguished from French institutions. And if they find that that authority which they have maintained against its recent assailants, is to be exerted in such a manner as to subject them to what they call a French dominion, I feel perfectly confident that they would attempt to avert the result, by courting, on any terms, an union with an Anglo-Saxon people."

Here I do not agree with his lordship. That such was the feeling previous to the insurrection I believe, and notwithstanding the defeat of the insurgents, would have remained so, had it not been for the piratical attacks of the Americans, which their own government could not control. This was a lesson to the Upper Canadians. They perceived that there was no security for life or property--no law to check outrage--and they felt severely the consequences of this state of things in the destruction of their property and the attempts upon their lives by a nation professing to be in amity with them. Fraternise with the Americans the Upper Canadians will not. They may be subdued by them if they throw off the allegiance and protection of the mother-country, as they would be hemmed in between two hostile parties, and find it almost impossible, with their present population, to withstand their united efforts. But should a conflict of this kind take place, and the Upper Canadians be allowed but a short period of repose, or could they hold the Americans in check for a time, they would sweep the whole race of the Lower Canadians from the face of the earth. Their feelings towards the Lower Canadians are well explained in Lord Durham's Report:--

"In the despatch above referred to I also described the state of feeling among the English population, nor can I encourage a hope that that portion of the community is at all more inclined to any settlement of the present quarrel that would leave any share of power to the hostile race. Circumstances having thrown the English into the ranks of the government, and the folly of their opponents having placed them, on the other hand, in a state of permanent collision with it, the former possess the advantage of having the force of government, and the authority of the laws on their side in the present state of the contest. Their exertions during the recent troubles have contributed to maintain the supremacy of the law, and the continuance of the connexion with Great Britain; but it would, in my opinion, be dangerous to rely on the continuance of such a state of feeling, as now prevails among them, in the event of a different policy being adopted by the Imperial government. Indeed the prevalent sentiment among them is one of any thing but satisfaction with the course which has been long pursued, with reference td Lower Canada, by the British legislature and executive. The calmer view, which distant spectators are enabled to take of the conduct of the two parties, and the disposition which is evinced to make a fair adjustment of the contending claims, appear iniquitous and injurious in the eyes of men who think that they alone have any claim to the favour of that government, by which they alone have stood fast. They complain loudly and bitterly of the whole course pursued by the Imperial Government, with respect to the quarrel of the two races, as having been rounded on an utter ignorance of, or disregard to the real question at issue, as having fostered the mischievous pretensions of French nationality, and as having, by the vacillation and inconsistency which marked it, discouraged loyalty and fomented rebellion. Every measure of clemency, or even justice, towards their opponents, they regard with jealousy, as indicating a disposition towards that conciliatory policy which is the subject of their angry recollection; for they feel that being a minority, any return to the due course of constitutional government would again subject them to a French majority: and to this I am persuaded they would never peaceably submit. They do not hesitate to say that they will not tolerate much longer the being made the sport of parties at home, and that if the mother country forgets what is due to the loyal and enterprising men of her own race, they must protect themselves. In the significant language of one of their own ablest advocates, they assert that `Lower Canada must be _English_, at the expense, if necessary, of not being _British_.'"

The third party, which is the American, is the only one at present inclined to move, and in all probability they will commence as soon as the winter sets in; for however opposed to this shameful violation of the laws of nations the President, officers, and respectable portion of the American Union may be, it is certain that the _majority_ are represented by these marauders, and the removal of our troops would be a signal for immediate aggression.

The Americans will tell you that the sympathy, as they term it, only exists on the borders of the lakes; that it extends no further, and that they are all opposed to it, etcetera. Such is not the case. The greatest excitement which was shown any where was perhaps at Albany, the capital of the State of New York, on the Hudson river, and two hundred miles at least from the boundary; but not only there, but even on the Mississippi the feeling was the same; in fact, it was the feeling of the majority. In a letter I received the other day from a friend in New York, there is the following remark:--

"Bill Johnson (the pirate on lake Ontario) _held his levees_ here during the winter. They were _thronged_ with all the _best people_ of the city."

Now, the quarter from whence I received this intelligence is to be relied upon; and that it was the case I have no doubt. And why should they feel such interest about a pirate like Bill Johnson? Simply because he had assailed the English. This may appear a trifle; but a straw thrown up shows in what direction the wind blows.

At present there is no want of troops to defend the Canadas against a foreign attack, and little inclination to rebel in the provinces themselves. That now required is, that the legislature should be improved so as to do justice to all parties, and such an encouragement given to enterprise and industry as to induce a more extended emigration.

Lord Durham has very correctly observed, that it is not now a conflict of principles between the English and French, but a conflict of the two races. He says:--

"I expected to find a contest between a government and a people: I found two nations warring in the bosom of a single state: I found a struggle, not of principles, but of races; and I perceived that it would be idle to attempt any amelioration of laws or institutions until we could first succeed in terminating a deadly animosity that now separates the inhabitants of Lower Canada into the hostile divisions of French and English."

But why should this conflict between the two races have taken place? Firstly, because the French, by the injudicious generosity of our Government in allowing them to retain their language in public affairs, with all their customs and usages, were allowed to remain a French colony, instead of amalgamating them with the English, as might have been done. Subsequently, because the interests of the English colonists have been sacrificed to the French, who, nevertheless, became disaffected, and would have thrown off the English dominion. Lord Durham very correctly adds:--

"Such is the lamentable and hazardous state of things produced by the conflict of races which has so long divided the province of Lower Canada, and which has assumed the formidable and irreconcilable character which I have depicted. In describing the nature of this conflict, I have specified the causes in which it originated; and though I have mentioned the conduct and constitution of the colonial government, as modifying the character of the struggle, I have not attributed to political causes a state of things which would, I believe, tinder any political institutions have resulted from the very composition of society. A jealousy between two races, so long habituated to regard each other with hereditary enmity, and so differing in habits, in language, and in laws, would have been inevitable under any form of government. That liberal institutions and prudent policy might have changed the character of the struggle, I have no doubt; but they could not have prevented it; they could only have softened its character, and brought it more speedily to a more decisive and peaceful conclusion. Unhappily, however, the system of government pursued in Lower Canada has been based on the policy of perpetuating that very separation of the races, and encouraging these very notions of conflicting nationalities which it ought to have been the first and chief care of Government to check and extinguish. From the period of the conquest to the present time, the conduct has aggravated the evil, and the origin of the present extreme disorder may be found in the institutions by which the character of the colony was determined."

We have, therefore, to legislate between the two parties, and let us, previous to entering upon the question, examine into their respective merits. On the one hand we have a French population who, after having received every favour which could be granted with a due regard to freedom, have insisted upon, and have obtained much more, and who in return for all the kindness heaped upon them, excited by envy and jealousy of an energy and enterprise of which they were incapable, have risen in rebellion, with the hopes of making themselves an independent nation.

On the other hand we have a generous, high-spirited race of our own blood, and migrating from our own soil, who having been unfairly treated, and _having just grounds_ of complaint against the mother-country, have nevertheless forgotten their own wrongs, and, to a mail, flown to arms, willing to shed their blood in defence of the mother-country.

Add to this, we have the French inhabiting a comparatively sterile country, without activity or enterprise; the English, in a country fertile to excess, possessing most of the capital, and the only portion of the colonists to whom we can safely confide the defence of that which I trust I have proved to the reader to be the most important outpost in the English dominions. Bearing all this in mind, and also remembering that if the emigration to Upper Canada again revive, that this latter population will in a few years be an immense majority, and will ultimately wholly swallow up all the former, we may now proceed to consider what should be the policy of the mother-country.

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Note 1. It was not long after the conquest, that another and larger class of English settlers began to enter the province. English capital was attracted to Canada by the vast quantity and valuable nature of the exportable produce of the country, and the great facilities for commerce, presented by the natural means of internal intercourse. The ancient trade of the country was conducted on a much larger and more profitable scale; and new branches of industry were explored. The active and regular habits of the English capitalist drove out of all the more profitable kinds of industry their inert and careless competitors of the French race; but in respect of the greater part (almost the whole) of the commerce and manufactures of the country, the English cannot be said to have encroached on the French; for, in fact, they created employments and profits which had not previously existed. A few of the ancient race smarted under the loss occasioned by the success of English competition; but all felt yet more acutely the gradual increase of a class of strangers in whose hands the wealth of the country appeared to centre, and whose expenditure and influence eclipsed those of the class which had previously occupied the first position in the country. Nor was the intrusion of the English limited to commercial enterprises. By degrees, large portions of land were occupied by them; nor did they confine themselves to the unsettled and distant country of the townships. The wealthy capitalist invested his money in the purchase of seignorial properties; and it is estimated, that at the present moment full half of the more valuable seignories are actually owned by English proprietors. The seignorial tenure is one so little adapted to our notions of proprietary rights, that the new seigneur, without any consciousness or intention to injustice, in many instances exercised his rights in a manner which would appear perfectly fair in this country, but which the Canadian settler reasonably regarded as oppressive. The English purchaser found an equally unexpected and just cause of complaint in that uncertainty of the laws, which rendered his possession of property precarious, and in those incidents of the tenure which rendered its alienation or improvement difficult. But an irritation, greater than that occasioned by the transfer of the large properties, was caused by the competition of the English with the French farmer. The English farmer carried with him the experience and habits of the most improved agriculture in the world. He settled himself in the townships bordering on the seignories, and brought a fresh soil and improved cultivation to compete with the worn-out and slovenly farm of the _habitant_. He often took the very farm which the Canadian settler had abandoned, and, by superior management, made that a source of profit which had only impoverished his predecessor. The ascendancy which an unjust favouritism had contributed to give to the English race in the government and the legal profession, their own superior energy, skill and capital secured to them in every branch of industry. They have developed the resources of the country; they have constructed or improved its means of communication; they have created its internal and foreign commerce. The entire wholesale, and a large portion of the retail trade of the province, with the most profitable and flourishing farms, are now in the hands of this numerical minority of the population.

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Note 2. "Nor does there appear to be the slightest chance of putting an end to this animosity during the present generation. Passions inflamed during so long a period, cannot speedily be calmed. The state of education which I have previously described as placing the peasantry entirely at the mercy of agitators, the total absence of any class of persons, or any organisation of authority that could counteract this mischievous influence, and the serious decline in the district of Montreal of the influence of the clergy, concur in rendering it absolutely impossible for the Government to produce any better state of feeling among the French population. It is even impossible to impress on a people so circumstanced the salutary dread of the power of Great Britain, which the presence of a large military force in the province might be expected to produce. I have been informed, by witnesses so numerous and trustworthy that I cannot doubt the correctness of their statements, that the peasantry were generally ignorant of the large amount of force which was sent into their country last year. The newspapers that circulate among them had informed them that Great Britain had no troops to send out; that in order to produce an impression on the minds of the country-people, the same regiments were marched backwards and forwards in different directions, and represented as additional arrivals from home. This explanation was promulgated among the people by the agitators of each village; and I have no doubt that the mass of the inhabitants really believed that the government was endeavouring to impose on them by this species of fraud. It is a population with whom authority has no means of contact or explanation. It is difficult even to ascertain what amount of influence the ancient leaders of the French party continue to possess. [The name of M. Papineau is still cherished by the people; and the idea is current that, at the appointed time, he will return, at the head of an immense army, and re-establish "La Nation Canadienne."] But there is great reason to doubt whether his name be not used as a mere watchword; whether the people are not in fact running entirely counter to his councils and policy; and whether they are not really under the guidance of separate petty agitators, who have no plan but that of a senseless and reckless determination to show in every way their hostility to the British Government and English race. Their ultimate designs and hopes are equally unintelligible. Some vague expectation of absolute independence still seems to delude them. The national vanity, which is a remarkable ingredient in their character, induces many to flatter themselves with the idea of a Canadian Republic; the sounder information of others has led them to perceive that a separation from Great Britain must be followed by a junction with the great confederation on their southern frontier. But they seem apparently reckless of the consequences, provided they can wreak their vengeance on the English. There is no people against which early associations and every conceivable difference of manners and opinions have implanted in the Canadian mind a more ancient and rooted national antipathy than that which they feel against the people of the United States. Their more discerning leaders feel that their chances of preserving their nationality would be greatly diminished by an incorporation with the United States; and recent symptoms of Anti-Catholic feeling in New England, well known to the Canadian population, have generated a very general belief that their religion, which even they do not accuse the British party of assailing, would find little favour or respect from their neighbours. Yet none even of these considerations weigh against their present all-absorbing hatred of the English; and I am persuaded that they would purchase vengeance and a momentary triumph by the aid of any enemies, or submission to any yoke. This provisional but complete cessation of their ancient antipathy to the Americans, is now admitted even by those who most strongly denied it during the last spring, and who then asserted that an American war would as completely unite the whole population against the common enemy, as it did in 1813. My subsequent experience leaves no doubt in my mind that the views which were contained in my despatch on the 9th of August are perfectly correct; and that an invading American army might rely on the co-operation of almost the entire French population of Lower Canada."

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Note 3. Colonel Prince is the gentleman who took with his own hands General Sutherland and his aide-de-camp, and who ordered the Yankee pirates to be shot. Mr Hume has thought proper to make a motion in the House of Commons, reprobating this act as one of murder. I believe there is little difference whether a man breaks into your house, and steals your money; or burns your house, and robs you of your cattle and other property. One is as much a case of burglary as the other. In the first instance you are justified in taking the robber's life, and why not in the second? Those people who attacked the inhabitants of a country with whom they were in profound peace, were disowned by their own government, consequently they were outlaws and pirates, and it is a pity that Sutherland and every other prisoner taken had not been immediately shot. Mr Hume may flare up in the House of Commons, but I should like to know what Mr Hume's opinion would be if he was the party who had all his property stolen and his house burnt over his head, in the depth of a Canadian winter. I suspect he would say a very different say, as he has no small respect for the _meum_; indeed, I should be sorry to be the party to be sentenced by Mr Hume, if I had stolen a few ducks out of the honourable gentleman's duck decoys near Yarmouth.

VOLUME THREE, CHAPTER FIVE.

THE CANADAS, CONTINUED.

In the last chapter I pointed out that in our future legislation for these provinces, we had to decide between the English and French inhabitants; up to the present the French have been in power, and have been invariably favoured by the Government, much to the injury of the English population. Before I offer any opinion on this question, let us inquire what has been the conduct of the French in their exercise of their rights as a Legislative Assembly, and what security they offer us, to incline us again to put confidence in them. In examining into this question, I prefer, as a basis, the Report of Lord Durham, made to the English Parliament. His lordship, adverting to the state of hostility between the representative and executive powers in our colonies, prefaces with a remark relative to our own country, which I think late events do not fully bear out; he says:--

"However partial the monarch might be to particular ministers, or however he might have personally committed himself to their policy, he has been _invariably_ constrained to abandon both, as soon as the opinion of the people has been irrevocably pronounced against them, through the medium of the House of Commons."

This he repeats in an after part of the Report:--

"When a ministry ceases to command a majority in Parliament on great questions of policy, its doom is immediately sealed; and it would appear to us as strange to attempt, for any time, to carry on a Government by means of ministers perpetually in a minority, as it would be to pass laws with a majority of votes against them."

If such be an essential part of our constitution, as his lordship asserts, surely we have suffered an inroad into it lately.

That the system of Colonial Government is defective, I grant, but it is not so much from the check which the Legislative Council puts upon the Representative Assembly, as from the secrecy of the acts and decisions of that council. This, indeed, his lordship admits in some cases, and I think that I can fully establish that, without this salutary check, the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada would have soon voted themselves Free and Independent States. Lord Durham observes:--

"I am far from concurring in the censure which the Assembly and its advocates have attempted to cast on the acts of the Legislative Council. I have no hesitation in saying that many of the bills which it is most severely blamed for rejecting, were bills which it could not have passed without a dereliction of its duty to the constitution, the connexion with Great Britain, and the whole English population of the colony. If there is any censure to be passed on its general conduct, it is for having confined itself to the merely negative and defensive duties of a legislative body; for having too frequently contented itself with merely defeating objectionable methods of obtaining desirable ends, without completing its duty by proposing measures, which would have achieved the good in view without the mixture of evil. The national animosities which pervaded the legislation of the Assembly, and its thorough want of legislative skill or respect for constitutional principles, rendered almost all its bills obnoxious to the objections made by the Legislative Council; and the serious evil which their enactment would have occasioned, convinces me that the colony has reason to congratulate itself on the existence of an institution which possessed and used the power of stopping a course of legislation that, if successful, would have _sacrificed every British interest_, and _overthrown every guarantee of order and national liberty_."

Again:--

"One glaring attempt which was made directly and openly to _subvert the constitution of the country, was_, by passing a bill for the formal repeal of those parts of the 31 Geo. 3, c. 31, commonly called the Constitutional Act, by which the constitution and powers of the Legislative Council were established. It can hardly be supposed that the framers of this bill were unaware, or hoped to make any concealment of the obvious illegality of a measure, which, commencing as all Canadian Acts do, by a recital of the 31 Geo. 3, as the foundation of the legislative authority of the Assembly, proceeded immediately to infringe some of the most important provisions of that very statute; nor can it be supposed that the Assembly hoped really to carry into effect, this extraordinary assumption of power, inasmuch as the bill could derive no legal effect from passing the Lower House, unless it should subsequently receive the assent of the very body which it purported to annihilate."

Take again the following observations of his lordship:--

"But the evils resulting from such open attempts to dispense with the constitution were small, in comparison with the disturbance of the regular course of legislation by systematic abuse of constitutional forms, for the purpose of depriving the other branches of the legislature of all real legislative authority.

"It remained, however, for the Assembly of Lower Canada to reduce the practice to a regular system, in order that it might have the most important institutions of the province periodically at its mercy, and use the necessities of the government and the community for the purpose of extorting the concession of whatever demands it might choose to make. Objectionable in itself, on account of the uncertainty and continual changes which it tended to introduce into legislation, this system of temporary laws derived its worst character from the facilities which it afforded to the practice of `tacking' together various legislative measures.

"A singular instance of this occurred in 1836, with respect to the renewal of the jury law, to which the Assembly attached great importance, and to which the Legislative Council felt a strong repugnance, on account of its having in effect placed the juries entirely in the hands of the French portion of the population. In order to secure the renewal of this law, the Assembly coupled it in the same bill by which it renewed the tolls of the Lachine Canal, calculating on the Council not venturing to defeat a measure of so much importance to the revenue as the latter by resisting the former. The council, however, rejected the bill; and thus the canal remained toll-free for a whole season, because the two Houses differed about a jury law."

So much for their attempts to subvert the constitution. Now let us inquire how far these patriots were disinterested in their enactments. First, as to grants for local improvements, how were they applied? His lordship observes:--

The great business of the Assemblies is, literally, parish business; the making parish roads and parish bridges. There are in none of these provinces any local bodies possessing authority to impose local assessments, for the management of local affairs. To do these things is the business of the Assembly; and to induce the Assembly to attend to the particular interests of each county, is the especial business of its county member. The surplus revenue of the province is swelled to as large an amount as possible, by cutting down the payment of public services to as low a scale as possible; and the real duties of government are, sometimes, insufficiently provided for, in order that more may be left to be divided among the constituent bodies. `When we want a bridge, we take a judge to build it,' was the quaint and forcible way in which a member of a provincial legislature described the tendency to retrench, in the most necessary departments of the public service, in order to satisfy the demands for local works. This fund is voted by the Assembly on the motion of its members; the necessity of obtaining the previous consent of the Crown to money votes never having been adopted by the Colonial Legislatures from the practice of the British House of Commons. There is a perfect scramble among the whole body to get as much as possible of this fund for their respective constituents; cabals are formed, by which the different members mutually play into each other's hands; general politics are made to bear on private business, and private business on general politics; and at the close of the Parliament, the member who has succeeded in securing the largest portion of the prize for his constituents, renders an easy account of his stewardship, with confident assurance of his re-election.

"Not only did the leaders of the Lower Canadian Assembly avail themselves of the patronage thus afforded, by the large surplus revenue of the province, but they turned this system to much greater account, by _using it to obtain influence over the constituencies_.

"The majority of the Assembly of Lower Canada is accused by its opponents of having, in the most systematic and persevering manner, employed this means of corrupting the electoral bodies. The adherents of M. Papineau are said to have been lavish in their promises of the benefits which they could obtain from the Assembly for the county, whose suffrages they solicited. By such representations, the return of members of opposition politics is asserted, in many instances, to have been secured; and obstinate counties are alleged to have been sometimes starved into submission, by an entire withdrawal of grants, until they returned members favourable to the majority. Some of the English members who voted with M. Papineau, excused themselves to their countrymen by alleging that they were compelled to do so, in order to get a road or a bridge, which their constituents desired. Whether it be true or false, that the abuse was ever carried to such a pitch, it is obviously one, which might have been easily and safely perpetrated by a person possessing M. Papineau's influence in the Assembly."

Next for the grants for public education.

"But the most bold and extensive attempt for erecting a system of patronage, wholly independent of the Government, was that which was, for some time, carried into effect by the grants for education made by the Assembly, and regulated by the Act, which the Legislative Council has been most bitterly reproached with refusing to renew. It has been stated, as a proof of the deliberate intention of the Legislative Council to crush every attempt to civilise and elevate the great mass of the people, that it thus stopped at once the working of about 1,000 schools, and deprived of education no less than 40,000 scholars, who were actually profiting by the means of instruction thus placed within their reach. But the reasons which induced, or rather compelled, the Legislative Council to stop this system, are clearly stated in the Report of that body, which contains the most unanswerable justification of the course which it pursued. By that it appears, that the whole superintendence and patronage of these schools had, by the expired law, been vested in the hands of the county members; and they had been allowed to manage the funds, without even the semblance of sufficient accountability. The Members of the Assembly had thus a patronage, in this single department, of about 25,000 pounds per annum, an amount equal to half of the whole ordinary civil expenditure of the Province. They were not slow in profiting by the occasion thus placed in their hands; and as there existed in the Province no sufficient supply of competent schoolmasters and mistresses, they nevertheless immediately filled up the appointments with persons who were _utterly and obviously incompetent. A great proportion of the teachers could neither read nor write_. The gentleman whom I directed to inquire into the state of education in the Province, showed me a petition from certain schoolmasters, which had come into his hands; and the majority of the signatures were those of _marks-men_. These ignorant teachers could convey no useful instruction to their pupils; the utmost amount which they taught them was to say the Catechism by rote. Even within seven miles of Montreal, there was a schoolmistress thus unqualified. These appointments were, as might have been expected, jobbed by the members among the political partisans; nor were the funds _very honestly_ managed. In many cases the members were suspected, or accused, of misapplying them to their own use; and in the case of Beauharnois, where the seigneur, Mr Ellice, has, in the same spirit of judicious liberality by which his whole management of that extensive property has been marked, contributed most largely towards the education of his tenants, the school funds were proved to have been misappropriated by the county member. The whole system was a gross political abuse; and, however laudable we must hold the exertions of those who really laboured to relieve their country from the reproach of being the least furnished with the means of education of any on the North American continent, the more severely must we condemn those who sacrificed this noble end, and perverted ample means to serve the purposes of party."

We will now claim the support of his lordship upon another question, which is, how far is it likely that the law will be duly administered if the power is to remain in the hands of the French Canadian population? Speaking of the Commissioners of Small Causes, his lordship observes:--

"I shall only add, that some time previous to my leaving the Province, I was very warmly and forcibly urged, by the highest legal authorities in the country, to abolish all these tribunals at once, on the ground that a great many of them, being composed entirely of disaffected French Canadians, were busily occupied in harassing loyal subjects, by entertaining actions against them on account of the part they had taken in the late insurrection. There is no appeal from their decision; and it was stated that they had in the most barefaced manner given damages against loyal persons for acts done in the discharge of their duty, and judgments by default against persons who were absent, as volunteers in the service of the Queen, and enforced their judgment by levying distresses on their property."

Relative to the greatest prerogative of an Englishman, the trial by jury, his lordship observes:--