“Our columns of gold,” he exclaims, “and our pyramids of timber, may rise in your Crystal Palaces, but our statesmen in the great council of the empire never. Saxony or Wirtemberg are treated with a deference never accorded to Canada, though they are peopled by foreigners. The war of 1812-15 was neither sought nor provoked by the British Americans. It grew out of the continental wars, with which we certainly had as little to do. Whether a Bourbon or a Bonaparte sat upon the throne of France, was a matter of perfect indifference to us. We were pursuing our lawful avocations—clearing up our country, opening roads into the wilderness, bridging the streams, and organising society as we best could, trading with our neighbours, and wishing them no harm. In the meantime British cruisers were visiting and searching American vesselson the sea. Then shots were fired, and, before we had time to recall our vessels engaged in foreign commerce, or to make the slightest preparation for defence, our coasts were infested by American cruisers and privateers, and our whole frontier was in a blaze.“You count the cost of war by the army and navy estimates, but who can ever count the cost of that war to us? A war, let it be borne in mind, into which we were precipitated without our knowledge or consent. Let the coasts of England be invaded by powerful armies for three summers in succession; let the whole Channel from Falmouth to the Nore be menaced, let Southampton be taken and burnt, let the South-downs be swept from the Hampshire hills, and the rich pastures of Devonshire supply fat beeves to the enemy encamped in the western counties, or marching on Manchester and London; let the youth of England be drawn from profitable labour to defend these great centres of industry, the extremities of the island being given up to rapine and to plunder; fancy the women of England living for three years with the sound of artillery occasionally in their ears, and the thoughts of something worse than death ever present to their imaginations; fancy the children of England, with wonder and alarm on their pretty faces, asking for three years when their fathers would come home; fancy, in fact, the wars of the Roses or the civil wars back again, and then you can understand what we suffered from 1812 to 1815. Talk of the cost of war at a distance; let your country be made its theatre, and then you will understand how unfair is your mode of calculation when you charge us with the army estimates, and giveus no credit for what we have done and suffered in your wars.“Though involved in the war of 1812 by no interest or fault of our own; though our population was scattered, and our coasts and frontiers almost defenceless; the moment it came, we prepared for combat without a murmur. I am just old enough to remember that war. The commerce of the Maritime Provinces was not a twentieth part of what it is now, but what we had was almost annihilated. Our mariners, debarred from lawful trade, took to privateering, and made reprisals on the enemy. Our Liverpool ‘clippers’ fought some gallant actions, and did some service in those days. The war expenditure gave to Halifax an unhealthy excitement, but improvement was stopped in all other parts of the province; and, when peace came, the collapse was fearful even in that city. Ten years elapsed before it recovered from the derangement of industry, and the extravagant habits fostered by the war.“A few regiments were raised in the Maritime Provinces, their militia was organised, and some drafts from the interior were brought in to defend Halifax, whence the expeditions against the French Islands and the State of Maine were fitted out. Canada alone was invaded in force.“General Smith describes the conduct of the Canadian militia in the few but weighty words that become a sagacious military chieftain pronouncing a judgment on the facts of history.“In 1812 the Republicans attacked Canada with two corps, amounting in the whole to 13,300 men. The British troops in the Province were but 4500, of which3000 were in garrison at Quebec and Montreal. But 1500 could be spared for the defence of Upper Canada. From the capture of Michilimacinac, the first blow of the campaign, down to its close, the Canadian Militia took their share in every military operation. French and English vied with each other in loyalty, steadiness, and discipline.“Of the force that captured Detroit, defended by 2500 men, but a few hundreds were regular troops. Brock had but 1200 men to oppose 6300 on the Niagara frontier. Half his force were Canadian Militia, yet he confronted the enemy, and, in the gallant action in which he lost his life, left an imperishable record of the steady discipline with which Canadians can defend their country.“The invading army of yeomen sent to attack Montreal were as stoutly opposed by a single brigade of British troops, aided by the militia. In the only action which took place the Canadians alone were engaged. The enemy was beaten back, and went into winter quarters.“In 1813, Canada was menaced by three separate corps. The Niagara district was for a time overrun, and York, the capital of the Upper Province, was taken and burnt. The handful of British troops that could be spared from England’s European wars, were inadequate to its defence; but in every struggle of the campaign, disastrous or triumphant, the Canadian Militia had their share. The French fought with equal gallantry in the Lower Province. At Chateaugay, Colonel de Salaberry showed what could be done with those poor, undisciplined colonists, who, it is now the fashion to tell us, can only be made good for anything bywithdrawing them from their farms and turning them into regular soldiers. The American general had a force of 7000 infantry, 10 field pieces, and 250 cavalry. De Salaberry disputed their passage into the country he loved, with 1000 bayonets, beat them back, and has left behind a record of more value in this argument than a dozen pamphlets or ill-natured speeches in parliament.“When the independence of the United States was established in 1783, they were left with one half of the continent, and you with the other. You had much accumulated wealth and an overflowing population. They were three millions of people, poor, in debt, with their country ravaged and their commerce disorganised. By the slightest effort of statesmanship you could have planted your surplus population in your own provinces, and, in five years, the stream of emigration would have been flowing the right way. In twenty years the British and Republican forces would have been equalised. But you did nothing, or often worse than nothing. From 1784 to 1841, we were ruled by little paternal despotisms established in this country. We could not change an officer, reduce a salary, or impose a duty, without the permission of Downing Street. For all that dreary period of sixty years, the Republicans governed themselves, and you governed us. They had uniform duties and free trade with each other. We always had separate tariffs, and have them to this day. They controlled their foreign relations—you controlled ours. They had their ministers and consuls all over the world, to open new markets, and secure commercial advantages. Your ministers and consuls knew little of British America, and rarely consultedits interests. Till the advent of Huskisson, our commerce was cramped by all the vices of the old colonial system. The Republicans could open mines in any part of their country. Our mines were locked up, until seven years ago, by a close monopoly held in this country by the creditors of the Duke of York. How few of the hundreds of thousands of Englishmen, who gazed at Nova Scotia’s marvellous column of coal in the Exhibition, this summer, but would have blushed had they known that for half a century the Nova Scotians could not dig a ton of their own coal without asking permission of half a dozen English capitalists in the city of London. How few Englishmen now reflect, when riding over the rich and populous states of Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, and Arkansas, that had they not locked up their great west, and turned it into a hunting ground, which it is now, we might have had behind Canada, three or four magnificent provinces, enlivened by the industry of millions of British subjects, toasting the Queen’s health on their holidays, and making the vexed question of the defence of our frontiers one of very easy solution.“When the Trent affair aroused the indignant feeling of the empire last autumn, we were—as we were in 1812—utterly unprepared. The war again was none of our seeking.“Nova Scotia and New Brunswick had thousands of vessels upon the sea, scattered all over the world. Canada had her thousand miles of frontier unprotected. Had war come, we knew that our money losses would have been fearful, and the scenes upon our sea-coasts and our frontiers, sternly painted as they must occur, without any stretch of the imagination, might well bidthe ‘boldest hold his breath for a time.’ But, did a single man in all those noble provinces falter? No! Every man, ay, every woman accepted the necessity, and prepared for war.“Again it was a question of honour, and not of interest. In a week we could have arranged, by negociation, for peace with the United States, and have kept out of the quarrel. But who thought of such a thing? Your homesteads were safe; ours in peril. A British—not a colonial ship—had been boarded: but what then? The old flag that had floated over our fathers’ heads, and droops over their graves, had been insulted; and our British blood was stirred—without our ever thinking of our pockets. The spirit and unanimity of the provinces, no less than the fine troops and war material shipped from this country, worked like a charm at Washington. President Lincoln, like Governor Fairfield, saw clearly that he was to be confronted not only by the finest soldiers in the world, but by a united and high-spirited population. The effect was sedative; the captives were given up. And the provincials—as is their habit, when there is no danger to confront—returned to their peaceful avocations.”
“Our columns of gold,” he exclaims, “and our pyramids of timber, may rise in your Crystal Palaces, but our statesmen in the great council of the empire never. Saxony or Wirtemberg are treated with a deference never accorded to Canada, though they are peopled by foreigners. The war of 1812-15 was neither sought nor provoked by the British Americans. It grew out of the continental wars, with which we certainly had as little to do. Whether a Bourbon or a Bonaparte sat upon the throne of France, was a matter of perfect indifference to us. We were pursuing our lawful avocations—clearing up our country, opening roads into the wilderness, bridging the streams, and organising society as we best could, trading with our neighbours, and wishing them no harm. In the meantime British cruisers were visiting and searching American vesselson the sea. Then shots were fired, and, before we had time to recall our vessels engaged in foreign commerce, or to make the slightest preparation for defence, our coasts were infested by American cruisers and privateers, and our whole frontier was in a blaze.
“You count the cost of war by the army and navy estimates, but who can ever count the cost of that war to us? A war, let it be borne in mind, into which we were precipitated without our knowledge or consent. Let the coasts of England be invaded by powerful armies for three summers in succession; let the whole Channel from Falmouth to the Nore be menaced, let Southampton be taken and burnt, let the South-downs be swept from the Hampshire hills, and the rich pastures of Devonshire supply fat beeves to the enemy encamped in the western counties, or marching on Manchester and London; let the youth of England be drawn from profitable labour to defend these great centres of industry, the extremities of the island being given up to rapine and to plunder; fancy the women of England living for three years with the sound of artillery occasionally in their ears, and the thoughts of something worse than death ever present to their imaginations; fancy the children of England, with wonder and alarm on their pretty faces, asking for three years when their fathers would come home; fancy, in fact, the wars of the Roses or the civil wars back again, and then you can understand what we suffered from 1812 to 1815. Talk of the cost of war at a distance; let your country be made its theatre, and then you will understand how unfair is your mode of calculation when you charge us with the army estimates, and giveus no credit for what we have done and suffered in your wars.
“Though involved in the war of 1812 by no interest or fault of our own; though our population was scattered, and our coasts and frontiers almost defenceless; the moment it came, we prepared for combat without a murmur. I am just old enough to remember that war. The commerce of the Maritime Provinces was not a twentieth part of what it is now, but what we had was almost annihilated. Our mariners, debarred from lawful trade, took to privateering, and made reprisals on the enemy. Our Liverpool ‘clippers’ fought some gallant actions, and did some service in those days. The war expenditure gave to Halifax an unhealthy excitement, but improvement was stopped in all other parts of the province; and, when peace came, the collapse was fearful even in that city. Ten years elapsed before it recovered from the derangement of industry, and the extravagant habits fostered by the war.
“A few regiments were raised in the Maritime Provinces, their militia was organised, and some drafts from the interior were brought in to defend Halifax, whence the expeditions against the French Islands and the State of Maine were fitted out. Canada alone was invaded in force.
“General Smith describes the conduct of the Canadian militia in the few but weighty words that become a sagacious military chieftain pronouncing a judgment on the facts of history.
“In 1812 the Republicans attacked Canada with two corps, amounting in the whole to 13,300 men. The British troops in the Province were but 4500, of which3000 were in garrison at Quebec and Montreal. But 1500 could be spared for the defence of Upper Canada. From the capture of Michilimacinac, the first blow of the campaign, down to its close, the Canadian Militia took their share in every military operation. French and English vied with each other in loyalty, steadiness, and discipline.
“Of the force that captured Detroit, defended by 2500 men, but a few hundreds were regular troops. Brock had but 1200 men to oppose 6300 on the Niagara frontier. Half his force were Canadian Militia, yet he confronted the enemy, and, in the gallant action in which he lost his life, left an imperishable record of the steady discipline with which Canadians can defend their country.
“The invading army of yeomen sent to attack Montreal were as stoutly opposed by a single brigade of British troops, aided by the militia. In the only action which took place the Canadians alone were engaged. The enemy was beaten back, and went into winter quarters.
“In 1813, Canada was menaced by three separate corps. The Niagara district was for a time overrun, and York, the capital of the Upper Province, was taken and burnt. The handful of British troops that could be spared from England’s European wars, were inadequate to its defence; but in every struggle of the campaign, disastrous or triumphant, the Canadian Militia had their share. The French fought with equal gallantry in the Lower Province. At Chateaugay, Colonel de Salaberry showed what could be done with those poor, undisciplined colonists, who, it is now the fashion to tell us, can only be made good for anything bywithdrawing them from their farms and turning them into regular soldiers. The American general had a force of 7000 infantry, 10 field pieces, and 250 cavalry. De Salaberry disputed their passage into the country he loved, with 1000 bayonets, beat them back, and has left behind a record of more value in this argument than a dozen pamphlets or ill-natured speeches in parliament.
“When the independence of the United States was established in 1783, they were left with one half of the continent, and you with the other. You had much accumulated wealth and an overflowing population. They were three millions of people, poor, in debt, with their country ravaged and their commerce disorganised. By the slightest effort of statesmanship you could have planted your surplus population in your own provinces, and, in five years, the stream of emigration would have been flowing the right way. In twenty years the British and Republican forces would have been equalised. But you did nothing, or often worse than nothing. From 1784 to 1841, we were ruled by little paternal despotisms established in this country. We could not change an officer, reduce a salary, or impose a duty, without the permission of Downing Street. For all that dreary period of sixty years, the Republicans governed themselves, and you governed us. They had uniform duties and free trade with each other. We always had separate tariffs, and have them to this day. They controlled their foreign relations—you controlled ours. They had their ministers and consuls all over the world, to open new markets, and secure commercial advantages. Your ministers and consuls knew little of British America, and rarely consultedits interests. Till the advent of Huskisson, our commerce was cramped by all the vices of the old colonial system. The Republicans could open mines in any part of their country. Our mines were locked up, until seven years ago, by a close monopoly held in this country by the creditors of the Duke of York. How few of the hundreds of thousands of Englishmen, who gazed at Nova Scotia’s marvellous column of coal in the Exhibition, this summer, but would have blushed had they known that for half a century the Nova Scotians could not dig a ton of their own coal without asking permission of half a dozen English capitalists in the city of London. How few Englishmen now reflect, when riding over the rich and populous states of Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, and Arkansas, that had they not locked up their great west, and turned it into a hunting ground, which it is now, we might have had behind Canada, three or four magnificent provinces, enlivened by the industry of millions of British subjects, toasting the Queen’s health on their holidays, and making the vexed question of the defence of our frontiers one of very easy solution.
“When the Trent affair aroused the indignant feeling of the empire last autumn, we were—as we were in 1812—utterly unprepared. The war again was none of our seeking.
“Nova Scotia and New Brunswick had thousands of vessels upon the sea, scattered all over the world. Canada had her thousand miles of frontier unprotected. Had war come, we knew that our money losses would have been fearful, and the scenes upon our sea-coasts and our frontiers, sternly painted as they must occur, without any stretch of the imagination, might well bidthe ‘boldest hold his breath for a time.’ But, did a single man in all those noble provinces falter? No! Every man, ay, every woman accepted the necessity, and prepared for war.
“Again it was a question of honour, and not of interest. In a week we could have arranged, by negociation, for peace with the United States, and have kept out of the quarrel. But who thought of such a thing? Your homesteads were safe; ours in peril. A British—not a colonial ship—had been boarded: but what then? The old flag that had floated over our fathers’ heads, and droops over their graves, had been insulted; and our British blood was stirred—without our ever thinking of our pockets. The spirit and unanimity of the provinces, no less than the fine troops and war material shipped from this country, worked like a charm at Washington. President Lincoln, like Governor Fairfield, saw clearly that he was to be confronted not only by the finest soldiers in the world, but by a united and high-spirited population. The effect was sedative; the captives were given up. And the provincials—as is their habit, when there is no danger to confront—returned to their peaceful avocations.”
It may be necessary to make some allowance for the tinge of colonial patriotism in this passage, but after all the Hon. J. Howe is a transplanted Englishman. He speaks with the voice of some millions of people, and we must listen to it, or be prepared for a good deal of lukewarmness or “disloyalty.” I have avoided any reference to the disputes which broke out into rebellion in 1837, because no useful end would be gained by an account of an unfortunate schism which was producedby want of judgment on the part of the Government at home, and by the extreme fanaticism of a party in the province. But the fanaticism has in no small degree been justified by what has since taken place. When “rebels” are pardoned, it may be a proof that the government which pardons is strong and generous. When “rebels” are not only restored to civic rights, but are invested with office, it is almost a demonstration that the government which permits them to exercise important functions under it, was in error in the contest which drove these men to resistance. The rebellion in Canada had, however, nothing to do with the great question we are now discussing. We are approaching the larger subject, which is opened by the consideration of the arguments which are used by Imperialists and Colonists in their controversy respecting the magnitude and relation of the empire and the colony in war.
It becomes of high practical value to consider what Canada can do, and what Canada has done in the direction of self-defence, should she be threatened with war, either from imperial or colonial causes. It can be no satisfaction to Canada to become a fief of the new Federalquasi-republic because Great Britain failed in her duty; and all the references to the patriotism and exertions of valour of Canadians in past times, would reflect all the greater discredit on them now, when they enjoy rights and privileges unknown to their hardy ancestors. Let us first see what her resources and defensive powers are, and then cast a glance at what Canada and the British Provinces in North America have got to defend. The only military force Canada can employ is the militia. Herpresent proud position should induce the people of Canada to make every effort to preserve the conditions under which they enjoy so much liberty, happiness, and prosperity; but she has in the future a heritage of priceless value, which she holds in trust for the great nation that must yet sit enthroned on the Lakes and the St. Lawrence, and rule from Labrador to Columbia.