Chapter XIII: The Two-Crossed Jack in Canada

Although the Union Jack has been built up on the local Jacks of the three island kingdoms, its greatest glories have been won in expeditions sent far across the seas to other lands. The people of the parent isles have never needed to raise it as their signal in driving invaders from their own shores, and in this way it does not bear that added vitality to them which it bears to the resident Canadian, that of being associated with brave defence of home and native land. To the Englishman, Irishman or Scotsman, in his own island home, it is an emblem of foreign conquest; to the immigrant and to the Canadian-born it is much more, as being the patriot signal of his national defence.

After the events of 1759 and of 1760, when Levis at St. Foy nearly won back Quebec, and the cession of the rule of France in Canada had been agreed upon, Canada had settled down into the paths of peace; soldier and _habitant_ vied in binding up one another's wounds, and evidencing all the pleasantries of reconciliation.[67]

[67] The nuns of the convents of Quebec sewed together blankets to make trousers for the 78th Fraser Highlanders, who otherwise would have had no protection against the snows during the first winter of their occupation of the citadel of Quebec. The soldiers of this regiment were given grants of land, and settled on the north shore of the St. Lawrence, below Quebec, where they intermarried with the French Canadians. It is a striking instance of the amalgamating influence of the _habitant_ that the descendants of the Frasers are now _Frasiers_, and speak French as their native tongue.

A memorial, the like of which has never been known elsewhere, either in history or the world, has been erected in the square of "The Governor's Garden," at Quebec, to the two heroes, Montcalm and Wolfe, equal in valour, equal in fame. A united sentiment raised this single monument to their united memory, bearing upon it the noble inscription:

MORTEM, VIRTUS, COMMUNEM FAMAM, HISTORIA MONUMENTUM, POSTERITAS DEDIT.

"Valour gave them a common death, history a common fame, posterity a common monument."

As the glory of their champions was thus intertwined, so the patriotism of the old French occupants and of the newcomers to Canada began from this splendid example to blend more closely in fraternal union.

The Treaty of Paris, in 1763, confirmed the Union Jack in its position of being the successor to the _fleur-de-lis_ of France and the three castles of Castile of Spain over all the territory on the continent of America, stretching from Labrador along the Atlantic coast southward to Florida, and inland westward as far as the waters of the Mississippi from their highest sources to its mouth on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.[68]

[68] The Treaty of Paris was concluded at Paris, 10th February, 1763, by George III. of Great Britain, Louis XV. of France, Charles III. of Spain, and Joseph of Portugal. France ceded to Britain all countries east of the Mississippi except the town of New Orleans; and Spain, in consideration of the return to her of Havana and the Island of Cuba--which had been captured during the war by the English--ceded Florida with the Bay of Pensacola and all her territories in North America to the east or south-east of the Mississippi.

In pursuance of this treaty, King George III. issued his proclamation (October, 1763) creating four provinces and governments, named Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and Granada, this last consisting of the islands of the West Indies. Of these four the Province of Quebec comprised the territory lying adjacent to the St. Lawrence River system, along its whole length to the head waters on the watersheds of the farthest inland lakes.

By this proclamation French Canada ceased to be a conquered country, and became a fully established colony of the British King. It was to be governed by a governor and an assembly, entitled to arrange its own taxation, have control of its own internal welfare and local government, and empowered to institute its own courts of law; but to every subject, new or old, of the King, there was reserved the right of appeal to the foot of the throne itself in the Privy Council of Great Britain, should any person think himself aggrieved by the decision of his own locally appointed courts.[69]

[69] Royal Proclamation under Treaty of Paris, 1763.

The French Canadian subject soon began to find for himself the beneficent character of British rule. He was no longer harried by an irresponsible governor nor a grasping "intendant" for the enrichment of a far-distant court, but was assisted in every way in the local development of his country. His personal property was assured, and he soon became sensible of the certainty of English law.

An Act of Parliament followed, formally and still further guaranteeing to the French-speaking subjects the quiet continuance of their most cherished customs.[70]

[70] Quebec Act, 1774, Section 11.

The Quebec Act of 1774 confirmed the _habitant_ in the free exercise of his Roman Catholic religion, and restored to him his old French civil law (_Code Civile_), but provided that in all criminal matters the law of England, which had been found so satisfactory, was to remain in force.

Content with his lot, secure in his home, and sure that good faith would ever be kept with him and his descendants, the French Canadian proved loyal to the trust which was now confided to him.

After having been for sixteen years an English colony, Canada was invaded in 1775 by the forces of the thirteen older English colonies to the south, which, after a series of altercations and misunderstandings, due largely to their refusal in the past days to contribute toward the expense of the military forces which had been maintained on their frontiers "at England's cost to defend her American children against the French and their Indian allies",[71] had consorted together in revolution against their parent State. After entering Montreal, which had been abandoned to them, the Revolutionary forces concentrated around the walls of Quebec for an assault upon the citadel. Below were the rebels against the British crown; above, upon the King's bastion on Cape Diamond, flew the two-crossed Union Jack, and within the fortress, under Sir Guy Carleton, the friend and fellow-soldier of Wolfe, was a garrison of 1,800 men, one-third of whom were French Canadian militia, headed by Colonel Lecompte Dupré. The invaders from New York were, however, reckoning without their host. They had expected to find the French Canadians dissatisfied with their lot; but, instead, they found them standing side by side with their British friends, and joining with them in common defence of their native Canadian land.

[71] Goldwin Smith: "The United States' Political History."

The assault commenced on the night of December 31st, 1775. At the point of attack at Près-de-Ville, in lower town, the guard was under the command of Captain Chabot and Lieutenant Picard, of the French Canadian militia, and the guns were served by sailors from the British ships, with Sergeant Hugh McQuarters, of the Royal Artillery, in charge. The attack was boldly met. General Montgomery, the leader of the United States forces, was killed; General Arnold, his second in command, wounded, and the whole invading force was put to rout.

Thus were the historic heights and ramparts of old Quebec again crowned with a British victory, but this time with one in which the French Canadians were themselves the brave defenders of the Union Jack.

No wonder the French-speaking Canadian looks upon his British flag with pride, and, as one of his compatriots, Sir Adolphe Chapleau, the Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec in 1897, has so well said, "is French in nationality, but British in patriotism"--for beneath the Union Jack he dwells secure in possession of his dearest rights, and under it has victoriously driven the United States invaders back each time they have ventured to attack his loved Canadian soil.

While such loyalty to the national flag was shown in Eastern Canada, so was it also displayed later on in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and in the country of Canada yet farther to the West.

The thirteen southern colonies had completed their revolution in 1783. Immediately thereafter the "coming of the Loyalists" had commenced to the districts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but was principally directed to the Western Province of Upper Canada, all three of these Provinces being now in the Dominion, or Union, of Canada.

These western lands were then uninhabited save by the native Indian tribes and a few white settlers who had been attracted to the districts by the chances of trapping for furs or of trading with the Indians.

The gallantry of the French-speaking Britons at Quebec, in 1775, had kept the Union Jack flying above Canadian soil, and to Canada's unbroken forests the English-speaking Loyalists therefore came, leaving the old colonies because they would have their loved flag once more float above them.

Never does history relate such devoted loyalty to a flag as was shown by this migration of the U. E. Loyalists[72]--men giving up homes, farms, companionship and wealth, and with their wives and little ones following a flag for conscience' sake into an undeveloped and almost unknown land.

[72] "United Empire Loyalists," so called because they preferred to remain united with the parent Empire rather than become citizens of another State.

"Right staunch and true to the ties of old,
They sacrificed their all,
And into the wilderness set out,
Led on by duty's call.
The aged were there with their snow-white hair,
And their life-course nearly run,
And the tender, laughing little ones
Whose race had just begun."[73]

[73] Jakeway: "The Lion and the Lilies."

It was enough for them that the Union Jack was the flag of Canada; so they followed it to the far north. Here they lived out the balance of their days, and, dying, have been buried in the sacred soil beneath its folds. Certain it is that their descendants will ever prove true to their loyal faith, that no other realm shall possess their bones nor other nation's flag fly above their graves.

Such, then, was the esteem in which Canadians of both races held the two-crossed Union Jack. Before the century of 1800 had commenced, the French-speaking Loyalist of Quebec had laid down his life in its defence; and having, by this loyalty, preserved it to the country, the English-speaking Loyalist here sought a new home in the far-off forests of Canada, so that he and his loved ones might continue to live again beneath its sway.

Truly was this two-crossed Union Jack the flag of Canada and the Canadians, and as truly is its three-crossed successor, our present Union Jack, the native birthright of the sons of its defenders and the successors of those patriot pioneers.