Chapter II (1)

For some years after the conquest, the form of government was purely military. It was, indeed, only in 1774, that two Acts were passed by the British government, one with the view of providing a revenue for the civil government of the Province of Quebec, as the whole of Canada was then termed, the other, called "The Quebec Act," defining the boundaries of the Province, setting aside all the provisions of the Royal proclamation, of 1763, and appointing a governing Council of not more than twenty-three, nor less than seventeen persons. And whatever may have been the motive for this almost unlooked for liberality on the part of the mother country, it is not a little singular that only a year later, England's great difficulty with her old colonies occurred. The Parliament of Great Britain had imposed, without even consulting the colonists, a tax for the defence and protection of the colonies, on clayed sugar, indigo, coffee, &c., and the colonists resisted. The American colonies contended that taxation and representation were inseparable, and that having no voice in the administration of affairs, they were free from any taxation, but that which was self-imposed, for local purposes. So far, however, from paying any heed to the remonstrances of the colonists, the Imperial Parliament became more exacting and tyrannical. Not only were the necessaries of life taxed in America, for the benefit of the red-tapists and other place-holders of the Imperial government, but a stamp Act was passed through the Imperial Parliament, ordaining that instruments of writing--bonds, deeds, and notes--executed in the colonies, should be null and void, unless executed upon paper stamped by the London Stamp Office. It was then that a coffin, inscribed with the word "_Liberty_" was carried to the grave, in Portsmouth, Massachusetts, and buried with military honours! Had the views of Governor Pownall, of Massachusetts, with regard to the representation of the colonies in the British Parliament, been adopted, no umbrage could have been taken at the imposition of taxes, because the colonies would have been open to civil and military preferment in the state equally with the residents of the United Kingdom. It was, and is, an unfortunate mistake to look upon colonists with contempt. Colonists, more even than the inhabitants of old countries, inhale a spirit of independence. Often, lords of all they survey, they call no man lord. They are the pioneers of their own fortunes. They make glad the wilderness. They produce more than they themselves require. But Great Britain was, at the time of which we speak, perfectly infatuated. On the 4th of Sept. of the very year in which the Quebec Act was granted, 1774, a Continental Congress was held, of which Peter Randolph, of Virginia, was President, to sympathize with the people of Boston, on account of their disabilities, by reason of the tea riot.[5] But such Congresses produced no effect in England. On the contrary, Massachusetts was more rigorously punished, and was prevented from fishing on the Banks of Newfoundland. Is it wonderful that the battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker's Hill followed? Is it wonderful that those who had assisted Wolfe in taking Canada from the French, should have afterwards attempted to conquer Canada for themselves? Is it wonderful that, on the 3rd of November, 1775, one of Washington's Brigadier Generals, Montgomery, should have received the surrender of 500 regular British troops, at St. John's, Canada East; the surrender of one hundred Canadians, of thirty-nine pieces of cannon, of seven mortars, and of five hundred stand of arms? Is it wonderful that Montreal, then so thinly inhabited and indifferently garrisoned, should have capitulated, or that Quebec should have been invested by Arnold, who sailed down the Chaudiere on rafts, and by Montgomery, to whom Montreal had capitulated? It is only wonderful that Quebec was successfully defended, and that General Montgomery perished under her walls. Canada, notwithstanding the temporary annexation of Montreal, was true to Great Britain, feeling that whatever might have been the injustice of Britain to the old Colonies, Canada had nothing then of which to complain. Indeed, the attack upon the newly ceded province of Canada, was amongst the earliest demonstrations of a disposition on the part of the old Colonies to resort to violence. "The Quebec Act" was in itself a cause of offence to them. On the 21st of October, 1774, the following language was made use of by the Congress, in reference to that Act, in an Address to the people of Great Britain:--"Nor can we suppress our astonishment, that a British Parliament should ever consent to establish in that country, a religion that has deluged your Island in blood, and dispersed impiety, bigotry, persecution, murder, and rebellion through every part of the world." And "That we think the Legislature of Great Britain is not authorized by the Constitution to establish a religion fraught with sanguinary and impious tenets." The attack was of a two-fold nature. Both the sword and the pen were brought into requisition. It was supposed by the discontented old colonists, that the boundary of the lakes and rivers which emptied themselves into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and had formed the natural barrier between two nations, until the peace of Paris, in 1763, when Canada passed from the dominion of France to that of the British Crown, formed no boundary to British rule, as the sway of the Anglo-Saxon race was now fully established over the whole of the northern part of the continent; and it was further supposed, that it was, therefore, proper to detract, if possible, from the power of Great Britain, to harm the revolutionary colonists on the great watery highway of the lakes and rivers, or to prevent such a united force of Colonial and Provincial inhabitants as might counterbalance, in a great measure, the pertinacious loyalists who were to discountenance American appeals for justice,--the warfare, before the declaration of American Independence, being "neither against the throne nor the laws of England, but against a reckless and oppressive ministry."[6] Efforts were, for such reasons, made to obtain possession of the keys of the Lakes and of the St. Lawrence at Quebec and Montreal. The old colonists were to make a war of political propagandism on Canada and they resolved upon the employment of both force and persuasion. Generals Montgomery, Arnold, and Allen invaded Canada, and, to a certain point, with complete success. After the successes of the two latter officers at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, Arnold pushed on towards Quebec, through the wilderness, and had ascended the heights of Abraham before Montgomery, who had proceeded towards Quebec from Montreal, had arrived. Under these circumstances, Arnold retired about twenty miles above Quebec, to wait for Montgomery. Meanwhile, the Governor of Canada, Sir Guy Carleton, had escaped, through Montgomery's army, in the dead of night, in an open boat, rowed with muffled oars, and guided by Captain Bouchette, of the Royal Navy, and was now safely lodged in the chief fortress of America. On the 1st of December, Montgomery effected a junction with Arnold, and the siege of Quebec was commenced, although the besiegers were most indifferently provided with camp equipage, and were poorly clad. Their cannon, too, was of so small a description, as to be almost useless. The design evidently was to carry the town, which was not then nearly as strongly fortified as now, and was only garrisoned by a few troops, militia, and seamen, by assault, in the full persuasion that the Canadians would be only most happy to be identified with the American struggle for liberty, or by being neutral, would show to the ministry of England the formidable animosity of a united continent, by which the ends of the old colonists would be gained, and the war nipped in its ripening bud.[7] This, Generals Montgomery and Arnold were unable to do. The attempt was made on the 31st December, but signally failed. Arnold proceeded with one division towards Sault-au-Matelot Street, by way of St. Roch's, and succeeded in establishing himself in some houses at the eastern extremity of that street, but being attacked in the rear, by a part of the garrison, directed by General Carleton to make a sortie from Palace Gate, only a remnant of the assailants, with considerable difficulty, managed to get back to camp. Montgomery approached by the road under the Cape, called Près-de-Ville, with another division, but was stoutly resisted, and fell mortally wounded. After the attack, Montgomery's body was found embedded in the snow, together with the bodies of his two Aides-de-Camp, Captain McPherson and Captain Cheeseman. Arnold now retired about three miles from Quebec, where he encamped during the winter.

[5] People are sometimes in the habit of making light of a
tempest in a tea pot. This tea tempest was no laughing matter.

[6] See the Journal of Charles Carroll, of Carollton, published
by the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore--page 6.

[7] U.S. Catholic Magazine, vol. 4, p. 251, and Brent's Biography
of Archbishop Carroll, p. 69.

On the 15th of February, 1776, the American Congress appointed Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll, of Carrollton--the last mentioned gentleman being requested to prevail upon his brother, the Revd. John Carroll, a Jesuit of distinguished theological attainments, and celebrated for his amiable manners and polished address, to accompany them--to proceed to Canada with the view of representing to the Canadians that the Americans south of the St. Lawrence, "had no apprehension that the French would take any part with Great Britain; but that it was their interest, and, the Americans had reason to believe, their inclination, to cultivate a friendly intercourse with the colonies." They were to have religious freedom, and have the power of self-government, while a free press was to be established, to reform all abuses.[8] The Committee, or, more properly speaking, the Commission, were, however, far from being successful in their attempt to negotiate Canada into revolt. The clergy of Canada could not be persuaded that, as Roman Catholics, they would be better treated by the Revolutionary colonists than they had been under the British government, after the expression of such sentiments as those addressed to the people of Great Britain, on the 21st of October, 1774. The Americans, uncouth in manners, were, in truth, most intolerant of papacy. In the "Cradle of American Liberty," a dancing school was not permitted. While in Boston a fencing school was allowed, there were no musicians permitted to exist, and the anti-papal character of the people was even more evident from the fact, that the first thing printed in New England was the Freeman's Oath! the second an almanac; and the third an edition of the psalms.

[8] It is not a little odd, that Franklin should have been a
member of this Committee, seeing that he was the very man who
urged upon the British Minister, in 1759, the expediency of
reducing Canada, as the most serious blow which could be
inflicted on French power in America.

On the day after the Reverend Mr. Carroll had failed in his part of the mission, joined Dr. Franklin, and returned to the South, Chase and Carroll of Carrollton had been busy with the military part of their embassy. At a council of war held in Montreal, it was resolved to fortify Jacques Cartier--the Richelieu Rapids, between Quebec and Three Rivers--and to build six gondolas at Chambly, of a proper size to carry heavy cannon, and to be under the direction of Arnold. But disasters thickened around the insurgents. The small pox had broken out among the troops, and was making deep inroads upon their scanty numbers. To crown the whole, the worst news was received from the besiegers at Quebec, for out of 1,900 men, there were not more than 1,000 fit for duty, all the rest being invalids, chiefly afflicted with the small-pox. On the 5th of May, 1776, a council of war was held at Quebec, and it was resolved to remove the invalids, artillery, batteaux, and stores higher up the river; but, on the evening of that day, intelligence was received in the American camp, that fifteen ships were within forty leagues of Quebec, hastening up the river; and early next morning, five of them hove in sight. General Thomas immediately gave orders to embark the sick and the artillery in the batteaux, whilst the enemy began to land their troops. About noon, a body of the British, a thousand strong, formed into two divisions, in columns of six deep, and supported with a train of six pieces of cannon, attacked the American sentinels and main guard. The Americans stood for a moment on the plains, with about 250 men and _one_ field piece only, when the order for retreat was given, and the encampment was precipitately deserted. In the confusion, all the cannon of the besiegers fell into the hands of the British, and about 200 invalids were made prisoners. Following the course of the river, the broken army of the Americans fled towards Montreal, and halting for a while at Deschambault, finally retreated along the St. Lawrence, until they made a stand at Sorel, with the view to an "orderly retreat out of Canada."[9] By the 18th of June, the British General, Burgoyne, was close behind Arnold, who now, with the whole of the American army, had quitted Canadian soil, and was proceeding somewhat rapidly up the Richelieu, into Lake Champlain.

[9] Carroll's visit to Canada, p. 27.

In the very year that Arnold retired from Quebec, on the 4th of July, 1776, the thirteen now confederated colonies, on the report of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Phillip Livingston, dissolved their allegiance to the British Crown, declaring themselves to be free and independent. The lions, sceptres, crowns, and other paraphernalia of royalty were now rudely trampled on, in both Boston and Virginia. Massachusetts, and, shortly afterwards, New York, were, indeed, in the possession of rebels, commanded by Washington. It was then that, in 1777, the execution of a plan of attacking the New Englanders, by way of Canada, was entrusted to General Burgoyne, who, with some thousands of troops, a powerful train of artillery, and several tribes of Indians, proceeded down Lake Champlain, to cut off the northern from the southern colonies of the rebellious confederation. Burgoyne chased the American General St. Clair out of Ticonderoga; hunted Schuyler to Saratoga; destroyed the American flotilla on Lake Champlain; demolished bridges, and reduced forts. He, nevertheless, met with a severe check at Bennington, Vermont. Being at Fort Edward, he sent Colonel Baum, with a detachment of the army to seize a magazine of stores at Bennington. When within a few miles of that place, however, Baum learned that the Americans were strongly entrenched. He, therefore, halted, and sent to Burgoyne for a reinforcement. But the American General Stark, who had a large body of Vermont Militia under his command, in addition to his ordinary New Hampshire corps, now determined to be the assailant. With only 500 regulars and 100 Indians, Colonel Baum did not consider it prudent to fight a body vastly superior in numbers, and he retreated. Assistance reached him at this critical moment, which seemed to make a battle, if not expedient, a point of honour. Unfortunately the sense of honour prevailed, Baum gave battle, and was himself slain and his men defeated, the British loss being 700 in killed and wounded, while that of the Americans was only about 100. It was a pity that Baum had not the moral courage to retire, even when reinforced, for his defeat much embarrassed Burgoyne, and made an attempt at a general retreat even necessary, as the courage of the enemy had so increased by the moral effect of a victory, that Burgoyne was in danger of being surrounded by the hordes of State Militiamen who, on all sides of him, were taking the field. Burgoyne was, nevertheless, still on the advance, with the main body of his army, and was approaching Saratoga, when he heard of the defeat of Baum. Unwilling to retreat, and yet unable to advance, he hesitated, but ultimately decided upon returning. That, however, was now impossible. He had hardly turned his face towards the place from whence he came, than he fell in with General Gates, losing about 600 men; and he had hardly realized his loss, when he learned that Fort Edward, which stood between him and Canada, was in the possession of the enemy. No avenue of escape appeared open, and this fine army from Canada, consisting of five thousand seven hundred effective men, with General Burgoyne at their head, laid down their arms to the American General Gates, at Saratoga. Even according to the testimony of Lady Harriet Ackland, Burgoyne, though sufficiently brave for anything, was quite incompetent for command. He had neither resources nor strategy. He knew neither what to do nor what he was doing. He neither knew when to advance nor when to retreat. It was all haphazard with him. Through his very stupidity an army was positively sacrificed. Lord Cornwallis, afterwards, easily defeated Gates. And in the campaign of 1780, Washington was himself in straits. His commissariat was wretchedly bad. For days the medical department of his army had neither sugar, coffee, tea, chocolate, wine, nor spirituous liquors of any kind; and the army had not seen the shadow of money for five months. A junction cleverly effected between the two British armies might have changed, or rather checked the destinies of the Confederated Colonies. But, by the awkwardness, carelessness, and want of prudence of Burgoyne, in the first place, Cornwallis got also hemmed in, being intercepted on one side by the French fleet, and on the other by the army commanded by Washington, and he capitulated after his defeat at Yorktown, in September, 1781. Had a line of communication northward been maintained for the British army, even seven thousand men might have escaped the blockade of the sixteen thousand militia, under Washington, to whom the conqueror of Charleston was compelled, by the fortune of war, to present his sword. The stupidity of the British Generals, combined with the previous stupidity of the Imperial administrations, led to the evacuation of those colonies by Great Britain, to which she was in a great measure indebted for the acquisition of Port Royal and Louisbourg in Nova Scotia, and for Niagara, Frontenac, Montreal, and Quebec in Canada. The prediction of Montcalm had come to pass. The United States were independent. But, however much the war in America, between Great Britain and her own old colonies, had temporarily interfered with, it had paved the way for a more extended, commerce in Canada. There were men in New England who would not, on any account, be rebels. Many of these, with their families, sought an asylum in Canada, and the advancement of the Far West, on the British side of the lines, is, in no small degree, to be attributed to the integrity and energy of those highly honourable men. Canada was then entirely, or almost entirely, under military rule. It could not well be otherwise. The necessities of the times required unity of action. There was no room for party squabbling, nor were there numbers sufficient to squabble. The province, the population of which did not extend beyond Detroit, a mere Indian trading post, and beyond which it was expected civilisation could not be extended for ages, was divided into two sections, the western and the eastern. Sir Guy Carleton, afterwards Lord Dorchester, had divided all west of the monument of St. Regis into four districts, after the manner of ancient Gaul, which he termed Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Nassau, and Hesse; and the Seminary of Quebec had cut up the eastern section into parishes, distinguished by cross roads. In the lower section of the province, the _bonnets rouges_ and _bonnets bleus_ were on the increase, but the increase was like that of the frogs: it was multiplying in the same puddle, with the same unchanging and unchangeable habits. The peaweeting, the whistling, the purring, and the whizzing, were only the louder, as the inhabitants became more numerous. There was no idea of change of any kind. Language, manners, and knowledge were the same as they ever had been: only the pomp of the church had succeeded to the pomp and circumstance of war. There was no more industry, no more energy, no more scientific cravings, and no earnest pursuit of wealth. All was contentment. Even by the authorities, no desire to awaken the Franco-Canadian from his slumber, was entertained. On the contrary, the restless United Empire loyalists were to be separated from them. The isolation of Lower Canada from the rest of the world was to be as complete as possible.

Not very long after the declaration of American Independence, Canada was divided, by Act of the Imperial Parliament, into two distinct provinces, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada. Mr. Adam Lymburner, a merchant of Quebec, not being particularly anxious for isolation, appeared at the bar of the House of Commons on behalf of himself and others. He was against the separation. The united province was not even in a condition to maintain a good system of government. Oppressed by the tyranny of officials, industry and improvement had been neglected, and a state of languor and depression prevailed. The public buildings were even falling into a state of ruin and decay. There was not a Court House in the province, nor a sufficient prison nor house of correction. Nor was there a school house between Tadousac and Niagara. The country upon the Great Lakes was a wilderness. Lymburner did not, however, prevail. The British government desired to put the United Empire loyalists upon the same footing with regard to constitutional government as they had previously enjoyed before the independence of the United States in that country, a condition about which a certain class of merchants in Quebec have always been indifferent. Lord Dorchester was appointed Governor-in-Chief in Canada, and administrator in Lower Canada, while General Simcoe was named Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada. General Simcoe selected for his capital Niagara,[10] and resided there at Navy Hall. On the site of Toronto, in 1793, there was a solitary wigwam. That tongue of land called the peninsula, which is the protection wall of the harbour, was the resort only of wildfowl. The margin of the lake was lined with nothing else but dense and trackless forests. Two families of Massassagas had squatted somewhere in the neighbourhood of the present St. Lawrence Hall when General Simcoe removed to little York with his canvass palace, and drew around him the incipient features of a Court. The progress in material improvement in this country may be guessed at from the then condition and the present state and appearance of Toronto. The revenue of the country between 1775, and 1778, was not over £10,000. The salary of the Governor-in-Chief was only £2,500.

[10] Then called Newark.

During the American War, the Canadians, though they exhibited no signs of disaffection to Great Britain, did not ardently lend a helping hand against the enemy. Being appealed to by Middleton, the President of the Provisional Congress of Rebel States,--who told them that their Judges and Legislative Council were dependent on the Governor, and their Governor himself on the servant of the Crown in Great Britain; that the executive, legislative, and judging powers were all moved by nods from the Court of St. James; and that the Confederated States would receive their ancient and brave enemies on terms of equality--the Canadians stood firm in their new allegiance. It is more than probable, indeed, that the bombastic state paper never reached the ears of those for whom it was intended. There was no press in Canada at that period, and only one newspaper, the "Quebec Gazette," established by one Gilmore, in 1764. Unable, as the majority of the French were, to read their own language, it was not to be expected that they could read English. Still less is it to be supposed that His Excellency Lord Dorchester circulated it in French. Lord Dorchester was exceedingly prudent in his administration of affairs, and,--unlike Governor Murray, who, by the way, was succeeded in the administration of the Government by Paulus Æmilius Irving, Esquire, with Brigadier General Carleton for Lieutenant Governor, obtained the affection of one race and the resentment of the other,--conciliated both races. His lordship, in one of his speeches "from the throne," tells us that he "eschewed political hypocrisy, which renders people the instruments of their own misery and destruction." There was, in truth, no Parliament, in the proper sense of the term, then. Such artifices as are now necessary for good legislation, had not therefore to be resorted to.

On the political separation of the two sections of Canada, it was agreed that Lower Canada should be permitted to levy the duties on imports. Of all imports, Lower Canada was to receive seven-eighths, and Upper Canada one eighth, and the revenue for the year following the separation was £24,000, including £1,205, the proportion of the duties belonging to Upper Canada. In those days, a week was consumed in the transport of the mail from Burlington in Vermont, via Montreal, to Quebec; but yet there must have been wonderful progress from Governor Murray's time,--during which a Mr. Walker, of Montreal, having caused the military much displeasure, by the imprisonment of a captain for some offence, was assailed by a number of assassins of respectability, with blackened faces, who entered his house at night, cut off his right ear, slashed him across the forehead with a sword, and attempted and would have succeeded in cutting his throat, but for his most manly and determined resistance--for on surrendering the government of Lower Canada into the hands of General Prescott, previously to going home to England, in the frigate "Active," in which he was afterwards wrecked on Anticosti, he was lauded in a most obsequious address, by the inhabitants both of Quebec and Montreal, the latter place then numbering a little more than 7,000 inhabitants, for his "auspicious administration of affairs, the happiness and prosperity of the province having increased in a degree almost unequalled." General Prescott, not long after Lord Dorchester's return home, in a frigate from Halifax, after the wreck of the "Active," was raised to the Governor Generalship. During the three years of this Governor's rule, nothing, politically or otherwise, important occurred in Canada. Great Britain was successfully engaged in war with both France and Spain, and in the former country a revolution had occurred which preceded one of the most terrible periods on the page of history. In Quebec, a madman named McLane, a native of Rhode Island, fancying himself to be a French General, conceived the project of upsetting British authority in Canada. He intended, with the co-operation of the French Canadians, to make a rush upon the garrison of Quebec. His imaginary followers were to be armed with spears, and he dreamed of distributing laudanum to the troops. Unfortunately for himself, he made known his plans to all and sundry, and was rewarded for his indiscretion by being hanged on Gallows Hill, as an example to other fools.

The next Governor of Lower Canada was Robert S. Milnes, Esquire. Under his sway, something akin to public opinion sprang up. So soon as the last of the Jesuits had been gathered to his fathers, it was the purpose of the Imperial government to seize upon the estates of "The Order." Mr. Young, one of the Executive Council, had, however, no sooner informed the House of Assembly that His Excellency had given orders to take possession of these estates as the property of George the Third, than the House went into Committee and expressed a desire to investigate the pretensions or claims which the province might have on the college of Quebec. The Governor was quite willing to suffer the Assembly to have copies of all documents, deeds, and titles having reference to the estates, if insisted upon, but considered it scarcely consistent with the respect which the Commons of Canada had ever manifested towards their sovereign, to press the matter, as the Privy Council had issued an order to take the whole property into the hands of the Crown. The House considered His Excellency's reply, and postponed the inquiry into the rights and pretensions alluded to. The next thing which this slightly independently disposed Assembly undertook, was the expulsion of one of its members, a Mr. Bouc, who had been convicted of a conspiracy to defraud a person named Drouin, with whom he had had some commercial transactions, of a considerable sum of money. He was heard by Counsel at the Bar of the House, but was believed to have been justly convicted, and was expelled. Again and again he was re-elected, and as often was he expelled, and at last he was, by special Act of Parliament, disqualified. Whether or not he was the object of unjust persecution by the government, the moral effect upon the country of the expulsion and disqualification of a person in the position of Mr. Bouc, cannot be doubted. The number of bills passed during a parliamentary session in those days, was not considerable. Five, six, or eight appear to have been the average. The income of the province was about £20,000, and the expenditure about £39,000. Under such circumstances, corruption was nearly impossible.

In the next session of parliament an attempt was made to establish free schools, and the Royal Institution, for the advancement of learning was founded. Nor was this all, an Act was passed for the demolition of the walls that encircled Montreal, on the plea that such demolition was necessary to the salubrity, convenience and embellishment of the city. They were thrown down, and in seventeen years after it was impossible to have shown where they stood. The parliament did more. At the dictation of the Governor, it assigned three townships for the benefit of the officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates, who had served during the blockade of Quebec, in 1775-6. Field officers were to be entitled to 1,000 acres; captains to 700 acres, lieutenants and ensigns to 500 acres, and non-commissioned officers and privates to 400 acres each. Still another bill, of no mean importance, was carried through the three branches of the Legislature, the second branch being positively a House of Lords, composed, as it was, of Lord Chief Justices and Lord Bishops,--the mind, capacity, and education of the country. No picture of the legislature of this time can be made. There were no reporters nor any publication of debates. Newspapers were in their infancy. Radicalism had not got hold of its fulcrum, and the lever of public opinion was, consequently useless. Nay, in anticipation, as it were, of the unruliness that afterwards exhibited itself, the Governor, now Sir Robert Milnes, recommended the culture of hemp in the province, and the Assembly voted £1,200 for the experiment. An Agricultural Bureau, of which the Governor was himself the President, was established, but the cultivation of hemp was not more agreeable to the farmer of Lower Canada then than it is now. The experiment did not succeed. Jean Baptiste would raise wheat, which he knew would pay, and would not raise hemp, which might or might not pay. He was a practical, not a theoretical farmer. Like the "regular" physicians of every period, and in every country, he practised _secundum artem_, and eschewed dangerous theories and unprofitable innovations.

About this period, 1802, land jobbing began. Vast grants of territory were made to favourites and speculators, only to lie waste, unless improved by the squatter. To obtain a princely inheritance, it was only necessary to have a princely acquaintance with the government, and, in some cases, the Governor's servants. Land was not put up to public competition, but handsomely bestowed upon the needy and penniless Court attendant. A Governor's Secretary, a Judge's nephew, or some Clerk of Records was entitled to at least a thousand acres; the Governor's cook to 700 arpents. There was no stint, and no income or land tax.

In 1803, Parliament "better regulated" the militia; the revenue had increased to £31,000; the expenditure had increased to £37,000, and the two Governors' salaries to £6,000; war re-broke out with France; the feeling of loyalty throughout the province was enthusiastic; and offers to raise volunteer corps were freely made.

During the next Session of Parliament, measures of some importance occupied the attention of the Legislature. A bill was passed, making provision for the relief of the insane and for the support of foundlings. In all thirteen bills were passed, and the revenue had increased one thousand pounds. It was the last session of the third Parliament. In July the election of members for the fourth Parliament took place. They were conducted, on the whole, quietly, but were, nevertheless, vigorously contested. Strong party feeling did not then run high, and there were no prejudices against persons of respectable standing in society, whatever might be their origin. Quebec had four representatives, two of whom were of French extraction and two, apparently of Scottish descent. Montreal was similarly represented. If there were as representatives of Quebec a Grant and a Panet, a Young and a De Salaberry, Montreal was represented by a Richardson and a Mondelet, a McGill and a Chaboillez. The Parliament was convened for the despatch of business on the 9th, and having disposed of some contested elections proceeded energetically to work. The idea of a Canal to overcome the difficulties of the Lachine Rapids or Sault St. Louis suggested itself; and the consideration of the expediency of its construction engaged the attention of the House. The construction of a canal was not considered within the means of the province, and a sum of only £1,000 pounds was voted for the removal of impediments in the rapids. A Seigniorial Tenure Bill, not dissimilar in character to that which so very recently has become law, was introduced, but fell through. The Gaols Act, imposing a duty of two and a half per cent on imports, for the erection of common gaols at Quebec and Montreal, was adopted. The trade was dissatisfied, and, as has been too frequently the case, when the merchants of this province have been dissatisfied with the Acts of a Legislature, of whose acts, unless in so far as their own business interests have been concerned, they have been altogether indifferent, the trade petitioned the Imperial authorities against the Act, representing with all the force of which they were capable, the serious injury inflicted by it upon bohea, souchong, hyson, spirits, wane, and molasses. The gaols were, however, built, without direct taxation having been resorted to. Another act of very considerable importance became law: that for the better regulation of pilots and shipping, and for the improvement of the navigation of the River St. Lawrence between Montreal and the sea. By this Act the Trinity Houses were established, the abolition of which has lately engaged the serious attention of the Hon. William Hamilton Merritt. The fourth Parliament, like its predecessors, possessed within itself, some men of enterprize, energy, and independence. However willing it might have been to treat the Governor with respectful consideration, there was no disposition in it to become a mere tool in the hands of those who took upon themselves to guide His Excellency. They conceived that they had the power of appropriating the revenue, of voting the supplies, and of paying their own officers such salaries as they pleased. The French Translator to the Assembly having applied for an increase of salary, it occurred to the Assembly that the translator, Mr. P. E. Desbarats, was a very efficient officer and worthy man, and that it was within their province to pay him such a sum as they estimated his services to be worth. But they did not arbitrarily do that which it seemed to them they might have done. With extreme courtesy, they addressed the Governor, begging that His Excellency would make such addition to the salary of this officer as to His Excellency might seem fit. So far, however, from complying with a very reasonable request, Sir Robert regretted the absence of some observances, the nature of which was never ascertained, and felt compelled to resist a precedent which might lead to injurious consequences. The Assembly were staggered. With very considerable reason they were offended at the Executive, who pretended to the right of money grants in the Assembly. The House went into committee, by a majority of one, and were about to consider His Excellency's considerate message, when the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod appearing at the Bar, commanded the attendance of the Commons at the Bar of the Upper House, where His Excellency, somewhat bombastically prorogued the Parliament. About to return to England, he was perfectly indifferent to the censure of the Commons of Canada. He cared nothing for the effect of a _coup d'etat_. He never dreamed of the possibility of a misunderstanding between a Governor and his Legislature. It was the first of the kind that he had known, and it was a duty which he owed to his sovereign to nip it in the bud. Sir Robert, Mr. Christie says, was not a popular Governor. Had that been his only misfortune, it would have been well. He was, evidently, something worse, in being only that which might emphatically be expressed in a single word. A few grains of common sense in one or two Governors of colonies would have saved England some millions of pounds. Sir Robert Shore Milnes having ruled, or having been ruled, for a period of six years, set sail for England, on the 5th of August, in H.M.S. Uranie, leaving Mr. Dunn, the Senior Executive Councillor of Canada, to administer the government.

Lower Canada, however politically insignificant, with only some £47,000 of revenue, was yet gradually rising into something like commercial importance. In the course of 1805, one hundred and forty-six merchant vessels had been loaded at Quebec, and another newspaper, the _Quebec Mercury_, still existing, and published in the English language, was established by Mr. Thomas Cary. Montreal, only second in commercial importance to Quebec, had also its newspapers, and already began to exhibit that energy for which it is now preeminently conspicuous. Toronto, the present "Queen City of the West," was yet only surrounded by the primeval forest, and thirty years later could boast of but four thousand inhabitants, although, in 1822, "Muddy Little York" was not a little proud of its "Upper Canada Gazette," and Niagara of its "Spectator." Kingston had only twenty wooden houses, while Detroit was the residence of but a dozen French families. Upper Canada, indeed, contained scarcely a cultivated farm, or even a white inhabitant, sixty or seventy years ago.

Allusion has already been made to the division of Canada into two provinces. A more particular allusion to that circumstance will not be out of place. Already, General Simcoe, the Hon. Peter Russell, and Lieut. General Hunter have ruled over the Upper, and not the least interesting of the two provinces. The object of the separation may have been to keep the Lower Province French as long as possible, to prevent the consummation devoutly anticipated by Montcalm, and the Duc de Choiseul, and to raise up a conservative English colony in the Far West, to counteract the growing power of the now United States. By the Union, constitutions very distantly related to the British constitution were conferred upon the two provinces. The 31st Act of George the Third constituted a Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly for each province. The Council was to be composed of at least seven members, appointed by writ of summons, issued pursuant to a mandamus under the sign manual of the Sovereign. The tenure of appointment was for life, to be forfeited for treason or vacated by swearing allegiance to a foreign power, or by two years continual absence from the province without the Governor's permission, or four years of such absence without permission of the Sovereign. The King could grant hereditary titles of honor, rank or dignity. The Speaker of the Council was to be appointed by the Sovereign or his representative. The Assembly was to be elected by persons over twenty one years of age, subjects of the British Crown, by birth or naturalization, possessing property of the yearly value of forty shillings sterling, over and above all rents and charges, or paying rent at the rate of ten pounds sterling per annum. Here were, undoubtedly, three legislative branches; but as the Legislative Assembly could, at the most, only be composed of thirty members, many of whom would be half pay officers, the Crown, through its representative, had a direct and overwhelming preponderance. Yet, however unsuited such a Parliament would be for the present time, however uncongenial it might have been to the feelings of a Cobbett or Hunt-man, escaped from Spa Felds ten or twenty years afterwards, it undoubtedly well represented the conservative, semi-despotic feelings of the military settler, or United Empire loyalist, a kind of privileged being, whose very descendants were entitled to a free grant of two hundred acres of land. When the Separation Act was before the British Parliament, the public mind in England was to some not altogether inconsiderable extent contaminated by the spurious liberty-feeling of the French Revolution, and by the consequences of the American strike for independence. "The Rights of Man," as enunciated by Paine, had infected many among the lower orders in society, and not a few among the higher orders. Edmund Burke, Mr. Chancellor Pitt, and Charles Fox, were members of the British Parliament. By the Act, a provision for a Protestant Clergy, in both divisions of the province, was made, in addition to an allotment of lands already granted. The tenures in Lower Canada, which had been the subject of dispute, were to be settled by the local legislature. In Upper Canada the tenures were to be in free and common soccage. No taxes were to be imposed by the Imperial Parliament, unless such as were necessary for the regulation of trade and commerce, to be levied and to be disposed of by the legislature of each division of the former Province of Quebec. On the 9th of April, 1791, the Separation Bill was somewhat unexpectedly offered for the acceptance of the House of Commons. Mr. Fox declared that he had not had time to read it, and felt unwilling to express an opinion upon its merits. On a motion by Mr. Hussey, "that the Bill be recommitted," Mr. Fox, however, remarked, that many clauses were unexceptionable. The number of representatives, in his opinion, were not sufficient. An assembly to consist of 16 or 30 members seemed to him to give a free constitution in appearance, while, in fact, such a constitution was withheld. The goodness of a bill, making the duration of Parliaments seven years, unless dissolved previously by the Governor, might be considered doubtful. In Great Britain, general elections were attended with inconveniences, but in Canada, where, for many years, elections were not likely to be attended with the consequences which ministers dreaded, he could not conceive why they should make such assemblies, not annual or triennial, but septennial. In a new country the representatives of the people would, for the most part, be persons engaged in trade, who might be unable to attend Parliament for seven consecutive years. The qualifications necessary for electors in towns and counties were much too high. It seemed to him that ministers intended to prevent the introduction of popular government into Canada. While the number of the members of the Assembly were limited, the numbers of the Council, although they could not be less than seven members, were unlimited. He saw nothing so good in hereditary powers or honours as to justify their introduction into a country where they were unknown. They tended rather to make a good constitution worse, than better. If a Council were wholly hereditary, it could only be the tool of the King and the Governor, as the Governor himself would only be the tool of the King. The accumulation of power, confirmed by wealth, would be a perpetual source of oppression and neglect to the mass of mankind. He did not understand the provision made by the Bill for the Protestant clergy. By Protestant clergy, he understood not only the clergy of the Church of England, but all descriptions of Protestants. He totally disapproved of the clause which enacted that, "whenever the King shall make grants of lands, one seventh part of those lands shall be appropriated to the Protestant Clergy." In all grants of lands made to Catholics, and a majority of the inhabitants of Canada were of that persuasion, one seventh part of those grants was to be appropriated to the Protestant clergy, although they might not have any congregation to instruct, nor any cure of souls. If the Protestant clergy of Canada were all of the Church of England, he would not be reconciled to the measure, but the greatest part of the Protestant clergy in Canada were Protestant dissenters, and to them one seventh part of all the lands in the province was to be granted. A provision of that kind, in his opinion, would rather tend to corrupt than to benefit the Protestant clergy of Canada. The Bill, while it stated that one seventh of the land of Canada should be reserved for the maintenance of a Protestant clergy, did not state how the land so set aside should be applied. With regard to the Bill, as it related to the regulation of Appeals, he was not satisfied. Suitors were, in the first instance, to carry their complaints before the Courts of Common Law in Canada, to appeal, if dissatisfied, to the Governor and Council, to appeal from their decision to the King in Council, and to appeal from His Majesty's decision to the House of Lords. If the Lords were a better Court of Appeal than the King, the Lords ought to be at once appealed to. By such a plan of appealing, lawsuits would be rendered exceedingly expensive, and exceedingly vexatious. He did not like the division of the Province. It seemed to him inexpedient to distinguish between the English and French inhabitants of the province. It was desirable that they should unite and coalesce, and that such distinctions of the people should be extinguished for ever, so that the English laws might soon universally prevail throughout Canada, not from force but from choice, and a conviction of their superiority. The inhabitants of Lower Canada had not the laws of France. The commercial code of laws of the French nation had never been given to them. They stood upon the exceedingly inconvenient "_Coutume de Paris_." Canada, unlike the West Indies, was a growing country. It did not consist of only a few white inhabitants and a large number of slaves. It was a country increasing in population, likely still more to increase, and capable of enjoying as much political freedom, in its utmost extent, as any other country on the face of the globe. It was situated near a country ready to receive, with open arms, into a participation of her democratic privileges, every person belonging to Great Britain. It was material that a colony, capable of freedom, and capable of a great increase of people, should have nothing to look to among their neighbours to excite their envy. Canada should be preserved to Great Britain by the choice of her inhabitants, and there was nothing else to look to. The Legislative Councils ought to be totally free, and repeatedly chosen, in a manner as much independent of the Governor as the nature of a colony would admit. He was perfectly desirous of establishing a permanent provision for the clergy, but could not think of making for them a provision so considerable as was unknown in any country of Europe, where the species of religion to be provided for prevailed.

It is impossible to do other than admire the farsightedness of that great statesman, Charles Fox, with his blue coat and yellow waistcoat, in this manly, sensible, and telling address. Time has nearly brought round the state of things that he desired to see, and if disembodied spirits can take an interest in things earthly, it will be no small addition to his present state of bliss to discover almost the realization of suggestions made sixty years ago, before the Browns of this period were conceived, and while the Rolphs were puling infants.

Mr. Chancellor Pitt did not join issue with Mr. Fox, but did not consider it expedient to flash legislative freedom upon a people. He thought that if the Assembly were not rightly consolidated by the Bill, little harm was done, because there was nothing to hinder the Parliament of Great Britain from correcting any point which might hereafter appear to want correction. He did not like the elective principle of democratic governments, and with respect to the land appropriated to the clergy, like every thing else provided by the bill, it was subject to revision. Where land had been given in commutation of tithes, the proportion of one seventh had grown into an established custom. The Bill was re-committed. Next day the clauses of the Bill being put, paragraph by paragraph, Mr. Burke eloquently defended its provisions, ridiculed the "Rights of Man," and almost extinguished the light of the new lantern, which exhibited in the academies of Paris and the club-rooms of London, the constitutions of America and France as so much superior to that of Great Britain. The distinguished orator was certainly more declamatory than argumentative, and he was repeatedly called to order. It was alleged that Mr. Burke had no right to abuse the governments of France and America, as the "Quebec Bill" only was before the House. Nay, there was something like a scene. Mr. Burke complained of having been deserted by those, with whom he formerly acted, in his old age, and Mr. Fox, with tears in his eyes and strong emotion, declared that he would esteem and venerate Burke to the end of time. The same cries of "order," "order," "chair," "chair," "go on," "go on," that are heard in our most tumultuous debates, in the Assembly, were frequent in the course of the debate, and Mr. Burke was unable, on account of the tumult, to proceed with his account of "the horrible and nefarious consequences flowing from the French idea of the rights of man." The debating continued for a number of days, and the Bill was read a third time on the 18th of May. When the report of the Bill in Committee was brought up, on the 16th of May, the House divided upon an amendment by Mr. Fox, to leave out the clause of hereditary nobility, which amendment was lost by an adverse majority of forty-nine. It was then moved, in amendment to the Bill, by Mr. Chancellor Pitt, that the number of representatives in the Assemblies should be fifty instead of thirty, but that motion was also lost by an adverse majority of fifty-one.