CHAPTER XIV

LETTER OF DE LORIMIER (1812)LETTER OF DE LORIMIER (1812)A call to arms

LETTER OF DE LORIMIER (1812)

A call to arms

While, therefore, the struggle was in the Upper Province, the attack on Montreal was, however, reserved for the next year and the Montreal militia, with men like Lieut. Col. Charles de Salaberry, Lieutenant McDonell, Captains Jean Baptiste and Jucherau Duchesnay, Daly and Ferguson, Bruyère and la Motte, with adjutants O’Sullivan and Hedder—all to be mentioned in despatches—were to give the Americans no cause to doubt either British or French Canadian loyalty to the British flag.

The chance came to save Montreal in 1813, on October 21st, when the militia battalions of Montreal and the district took the field at Chateauguay to prevent the advance on the city by the American army under General Hampton. It was a glorious victory for the militia.

The attack on Montreal was planned by Major-General Wilkinson, who had arrived about the end of August, 1813, in Sacketts Harbour to take charge of the troops of the North American frontier. There in his council of officers it was determined: “To rendezvous the whole of the troops on the lake in the vicinity4and in cooperation with our squadron to make a bold feint upon Kingston; step down the St. Lawrence; lock up the enemy in our rear to starve or surrender; or oblige him to follow us without artillery, baggage or provisions, or eventually to lay down his arms; to sweep the St. Lawrence of armed craft; and in concert with the division of Major-General Hampton to take Montreal.”5

Montreal was therefore the main object of attack. “Montreal is the safer and greater object,” wrote Armstrong to the Secretary of War, fearing hard blows at Kingston, the weaker place, “and you will find there a small force to encounter.” Montreal offered no terrors for there were “no fortifications at that city, or in advance of it,” and only “200 sailors and 400 marines with the militia, number unknown,” but there were, to be sure, “2,500 regular troops expected daily from Quebec.”

Yet the American force which made its way under Major-General Hampton from Burlington was a powerful army. It arrived on October 8th at Chateauguay Four Corners, a small settlement distant five miles from the national boundary, about forty-six from Montreal, and about forty-five from the proposed junction of Hampton’s force with Major-General Wilkinson’s.

William James, who published in London in 1818, “a full and correct account of the military occurrences of the late war between Great Britain and the United States of America,” says of General Hampton’s force, now prepared against Montreal, that it “has been stated at 7,000 infantry and 200 cavalry,” but we have no American authority for supposing that the latter exceeded 180 or the former 5,520, making a total of 5,700 men accompanied by ten pieces of cannon.This army, except the small militia force attached to it, was the same that, with General Dearborn at its head, paraded across the line and back to Plattsburg in the autumn of 1812. During the twelve months that had since elapsed, the men had been drilled under an officer, Major-General Izard, who had served one or two campaigns in the French army. Troops were all in uniform, well clothed and equipped; in short, General Hampton commanded, if not the most numerous, certainly the most effective regular army which the United States were able to send into the field during the war.

At Montreal there was bustle and stir in getting the additional forces out which were to join Lieutenant-Colonel Salaberry of the Canadian Fencibles, who commenced operations to check the American advance as soon as he had learned that the Americans had crossed the lines. But the whole of the force that went to meet Hampton between October 21st and 29th was only about eight hundred rank and file, with 172 Indians under Captain Lamotte at the settlements of Chateauguay. The battle of Chateauguay and its results may now be told by Sir George Prevost in his dispatch from Montreal to Earl Bathurst.

“Headquarters, Montreal, October 30, 1813.“My Lord:“On the 8th instant I had the honour to report to Your Lordship that Major-General Hampton had occupied with a considerable force of regulars and militia a portion of the Chateauguay River, near the settlement of the Four Corners. Early on the 21st the American army crossed the line of separation between Lower Canada and the United States, surprised the small party of Indian warriors and drove in a picket of sedentary militia posted at the junction of the Outard and Chateauguay Rivers, where it encamped, and proceeded in establishing a road of communication with its last position for the purpose of bringing forward its artillery. Major-General Hampton having completed his arrangements on the 24th, commenced on the following day his operations against my advanced posts. At about 11 o’clock in the forenoon of the 26th his cavalry and light troops were discovered advancing on both banks of the Chateauguay by a detachment covering a working party of habitants employed in felling timber for the purpose of constructingabattis.6Lieutenant-Colonel de Saluberry (sic), who had the command of the advanced piquets composed of the light infantry company of the Canadian Fencibles and two companies of Voltigeurs on the north side of the river, made so excellent a disposition of his little band that he checked the advance of the enemy’s principal column led by Major-General Hampton in person and accompanied by Brigadier-General Izard; while the American Light Brigade under Colonel McCarty was in like manner repulsed in its progress on the south side of the river by the spirited advance of the right flank company of the Third Battalion of the embodied militia under Captain Daly, supported by Captain Bruyer’s Company of Chateauguay Chasseurs; Captains Daly and Bruyers being both wounded and their companies having sustained some loss, their position was immediately taken up by a flank companyof the first battalion of embodied militia; the enemy rallied and repeatedly returned to the attack, which terminated only with the day in his complete disgrace and defeat; being foiled at all points by a handful of men who, by their determined bravery, maintained their position and screened from insult the working parties who continued their labours unconcerned. Having fortunately arrived at the scene of action shortly after its commencement, I witnessed the conduct of the troops on this glorious occasion, and it was a great satisfaction to me to render on the spot that praise which had become so justly their due. I thanked Major-General De Watteville for the wise measures taken by him for the defense of this position and lieutenant-Colonel de Saluberry for the judgment displayed by him in the choice of his ground and the bravery and skill with which he maintained it; I acknowledged the highest praise to belong to the officers and men engaged that morning for their gallantry and readiness, and I called upon all the troops in advance as well for a continuance of that zeal, steadiness and discipline as for that patient endurance of hardship and privations which they hitherto evinced; and I particularly noticed the able support lieutenant-Colonel de Saluberry received from Captain Ferguson in command of the Canadian Fencibles and from Capt. J.B. Duchesnay and Capt. J. Duchesnay and adjutant Hedder, of the Voltigeurs, and also from adjutant O’Sullivan of the sedentary militia and from Captain La Motte, belonging to the Indian warriors.“Almost the whole of the British troops being pushed forward for the defence of Upper Canada, that of the lower province must depend in a great degree on the valour and continued exertion of its incorporated battalions and its sedentary militia until the Seventieth Regiment and the two battalions of marines daily expected should arrive.“It is therefore highly satisfactory to state to Your Lordship that there appears a determination among all classes of His Majesty’s Canadian subjects to persevere in a loyal and honourable line of conduct. By a report of the prisoners taken from the enemy in the affair on the Chateauguay, the American force is stated at 7,000 infantry and 200 cavalry, with 10 field pieces. The British advanced force actually engaged did not exceed 300. The enemy suffered severely from our fire and from their own; some detached corps in the woods fired on each other.“I have the honour to transmit to your Lordship a return of the killed and wounded on the 26th. I avail myself of this opportunity to solicit from his royal highness, the prince regent, as a mark of his gracious approbation of the conduct of the embodied battalions of the Canadian Militia five pair of colours for the first, second, third, fourth and fifth battalions.“I have the honour to be, etc.,“George Prevost.

“Headquarters, Montreal, October 30, 1813.

“My Lord:

“On the 8th instant I had the honour to report to Your Lordship that Major-General Hampton had occupied with a considerable force of regulars and militia a portion of the Chateauguay River, near the settlement of the Four Corners. Early on the 21st the American army crossed the line of separation between Lower Canada and the United States, surprised the small party of Indian warriors and drove in a picket of sedentary militia posted at the junction of the Outard and Chateauguay Rivers, where it encamped, and proceeded in establishing a road of communication with its last position for the purpose of bringing forward its artillery. Major-General Hampton having completed his arrangements on the 24th, commenced on the following day his operations against my advanced posts. At about 11 o’clock in the forenoon of the 26th his cavalry and light troops were discovered advancing on both banks of the Chateauguay by a detachment covering a working party of habitants employed in felling timber for the purpose of constructingabattis.6Lieutenant-Colonel de Saluberry (sic), who had the command of the advanced piquets composed of the light infantry company of the Canadian Fencibles and two companies of Voltigeurs on the north side of the river, made so excellent a disposition of his little band that he checked the advance of the enemy’s principal column led by Major-General Hampton in person and accompanied by Brigadier-General Izard; while the American Light Brigade under Colonel McCarty was in like manner repulsed in its progress on the south side of the river by the spirited advance of the right flank company of the Third Battalion of the embodied militia under Captain Daly, supported by Captain Bruyer’s Company of Chateauguay Chasseurs; Captains Daly and Bruyers being both wounded and their companies having sustained some loss, their position was immediately taken up by a flank companyof the first battalion of embodied militia; the enemy rallied and repeatedly returned to the attack, which terminated only with the day in his complete disgrace and defeat; being foiled at all points by a handful of men who, by their determined bravery, maintained their position and screened from insult the working parties who continued their labours unconcerned. Having fortunately arrived at the scene of action shortly after its commencement, I witnessed the conduct of the troops on this glorious occasion, and it was a great satisfaction to me to render on the spot that praise which had become so justly their due. I thanked Major-General De Watteville for the wise measures taken by him for the defense of this position and lieutenant-Colonel de Saluberry for the judgment displayed by him in the choice of his ground and the bravery and skill with which he maintained it; I acknowledged the highest praise to belong to the officers and men engaged that morning for their gallantry and readiness, and I called upon all the troops in advance as well for a continuance of that zeal, steadiness and discipline as for that patient endurance of hardship and privations which they hitherto evinced; and I particularly noticed the able support lieutenant-Colonel de Saluberry received from Captain Ferguson in command of the Canadian Fencibles and from Capt. J.B. Duchesnay and Capt. J. Duchesnay and adjutant Hedder, of the Voltigeurs, and also from adjutant O’Sullivan of the sedentary militia and from Captain La Motte, belonging to the Indian warriors.

“Almost the whole of the British troops being pushed forward for the defence of Upper Canada, that of the lower province must depend in a great degree on the valour and continued exertion of its incorporated battalions and its sedentary militia until the Seventieth Regiment and the two battalions of marines daily expected should arrive.

“It is therefore highly satisfactory to state to Your Lordship that there appears a determination among all classes of His Majesty’s Canadian subjects to persevere in a loyal and honourable line of conduct. By a report of the prisoners taken from the enemy in the affair on the Chateauguay, the American force is stated at 7,000 infantry and 200 cavalry, with 10 field pieces. The British advanced force actually engaged did not exceed 300. The enemy suffered severely from our fire and from their own; some detached corps in the woods fired on each other.

“I have the honour to transmit to your Lordship a return of the killed and wounded on the 26th. I avail myself of this opportunity to solicit from his royal highness, the prince regent, as a mark of his gracious approbation of the conduct of the embodied battalions of the Canadian Militia five pair of colours for the first, second, third, fourth and fifth battalions.

“I have the honour to be, etc.,

“George Prevost.

“Return of killed, wounded and missing of his Majesty’s forces in the action of the enemy in the advance on Chateauguay on the 26th of October, 1813.

“Canadian fencible infantry, light Company; three rank and file killed; one sergeant, three rank and file wounded.“Third battalion embodied militia, flank company; two rank and file killed; one captain, six rank and file wounded; four rank and file missing.“Chateauguay Chasseurs; one captain wounded.“Total: Five rank and file killed, two captains, one sergeant, thirteen rank and file wounded; four rank and file missing.“Names of officers wounded: Third battalion embodied militia—Captain Daly twice wounded, severely. Chateauguay Chasseurs: Captain Bruyers, slightly.“Edward Baynes, Adjutant-General.Right Hon. Earl Bathurst.”

“Canadian fencible infantry, light Company; three rank and file killed; one sergeant, three rank and file wounded.

“Third battalion embodied militia, flank company; two rank and file killed; one captain, six rank and file wounded; four rank and file missing.

“Chateauguay Chasseurs; one captain wounded.

“Total: Five rank and file killed, two captains, one sergeant, thirteen rank and file wounded; four rank and file missing.

“Names of officers wounded: Third battalion embodied militia—Captain Daly twice wounded, severely. Chateauguay Chasseurs: Captain Bruyers, slightly.

“Edward Baynes, Adjutant-General.

Right Hon. Earl Bathurst.”

The slight number of the British forces opposed to the Americans could hardly be believed after the disorganization of the latter. When Captain Debartzch of the militia was sent to the headquarters of General Hampton with a flag and announced the number of the opposing force, Hampton, scarcely able to keep his temper, insisted that the British force amounted to 7,000 men for he asked, “What, then, made the woods ring with rifles?”

This incident must be told. In the early course of the fight the Americans opened a spirited fight upon the Canadians and drove the skirmishers stationed near the left behind the front edge of theabattis. “The Americans,” says William James, already quoted, “Although they did not occupy one foot of the abattis nor lieutenant-colonel de Saluberry retire one inch from the ground on which he had been standing, celebrated this partial retiring as a retreat. They were not a little surprised, however, to hear their Huzzas repeated by the Canadians, accompanied by a noise ten times more terrific than even ‘Colonel Boerstler’s stentorian voice.’ By way of animating his little band when thus momentarily pressed, colonel de Saluberry ordered his bugle men to sound the advance. This was heard by lieutenant-colonel McDonell, who, thinking that the colonel was in want of support, caused his own bugler to answer, and immediately advanced with two of his companies. He at the same time sent ten or twelve bugle men into the adjoining woods with orders to separate and blow with all their might. This littleruse de guerreled the Americans to believe that they had more thousands than hundreds to contend with and deterred them from even attempting to penetrate theabattis. They contented themselves with a long shot warfare in which, from the nature of the defences, they were almost the only sufferers.”

The Americans, after bungling the battle, delayed at Four Corners, but on November 11th Hampton, feeling himself unsafe, broke up his encampment and retreated to Plattsburg.

Chateauguay had served Montreal well and the tide of war again rolled away from its gates.

FOOTNOTES:

1Cf. Withrow “History of Canada,” pp. 301-302.

2William Hull was born in Derby, Connecticut, on June 24, 1753. He graduated with honors from Yale at the age of nineteen, studied law and was admitted to practice. He allied himself with the Revolutionary party and obtained a commission from Congress eventually rising to the rank of a colonel. At the conclusion of peace he held a judicial office in Massachusetts and served for eight years as a senator. In 1805 he was appointed the first governor of the territory of Michigan and was commissioned a brigadier general in the army of the United States on April 8, 1812. He was court-martialed for his surrender of Detroit in 1814 and after a trial of three months he was ordered to be shot, but President Madison remitted his sentence in consideration of his services in the Revolutionary war. His name was, however, dropped from the army lists. He died at Newton, Massachusetts, in November, 1825.

3Their arrival at Quebec is thus described by A.W. Cochran, assistant civil secretary to the governor general in a letter to his mother: “Both men and officers are a shabby looking set as ever you set your eyes on, and reminded me of Falstaff’s men very forcibly. Some of the officers talked very big and assured us that before long there would be 100,000 men in Canada and that they soon would have Quebec from us.” Later on, writing to his father from Montreal on October 10th he further expresses his views on the Americans: “The Americans, I think, bid fair to rival and surpass the French in gasconading as well as in everything that is dishonorable, base and contemptible.* * *Yankees cannot tell a plain story like other folks; they cannot help ‘immersing the wig in the ocean’ as Sterne says of the Frenchmen.”

4The spot chosen was Grenadier Island, eighteen miles from Sacketts Harbour.

5“Wilkinson’s Memoirs,” Vol. III, Appendix No. 1.

6Abattis. These were obstructions made by felled timber which served as a succession of breastworks.

SIDE LIGHTS OF SOCIAL PROGRESS

1776-1825

THE “GAZETTE DU COMMERCE ET LITTERAIRE”—A RUNAWAY SLAVE—GUY CARLETON’S DEPARTURE—GENERAL HALDIMAND IN MONTREAL—MESPLET’S PAPER SUSPENDED—POET’S CORNER—THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY DISCUSSED—FIRST THEATRICAL COMPANY: THE “BUSY BODY”—LORD NELSON’S MONUMENT—A RUNAWAY, RED CURLY HAIRED AND BANDY LEGGED APPRENTICE—LAMBERT’S PICTURE OF THE PERIOD—MINE HOST OF THE “MONTREAL HOTEL”—THE “CANADIAN COURANT”—AMERICAN INFLUENCE—THE “HERALD”—WILLIAM GRAY AND ALEXANDER SKAKEL—BEGINNINGS OF COMMERCIAL LIFE—DOIGE’S DIRECTORY—MUNGO KAY—LITERARY CELEBRITIES—HERALD “EXTRAS”—WATERLOO—POLITICAL PSEUDONYMS—NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION—THE ABORTIVE “SUN”—A PICTURE OF THE CITY IN 1818—THE BLACK RAIN OF 1819—OFFICIAL, MILITARY AND ECCLESIASTICAL LIFE—ORIGIN OF ART, MUSIC, ETC.

Colonel Moses Hazen, who took command of Montreal, on April 1, 1776, for the congressional cause, was shrewd when in order to strengthen their position he wrote to General Schuyler for a printer, and Benjamin Franklin did a good thing for Montreal when he brought Fleury Mesplet, the French printer, and his plant with him, to the Château de Ramezay as an adjunct to the commission which was to seduce the French Canadians from their allegiance. Though this aim failed Mesplet remained behind on his own account after the commissioners had returned on their bootless quest and after publishing two works he started the “Gazette du Commerce et Littéraire Pour Le Ville et District de Montreal” which first saw light in French on Wednesday, June 3, 1778. His previous address to the public announced that the subscription was to be two and a half Spanish dollars per annum. Subscribers would pay one Spanish dollar for every advertisement inserted in the said paper during three weeks successively, non-subscribers one and one-half Spanish dollars, and the paper was to be a quarter sheet. The first number was rather literary than commercial. Advertisements came with the second number. Jean Bernard exhorts the public not to throw their wood-fuel ashes away. He would buy them at ten coppers a bushel. In number four occurs the advertisement: “Ran away on the 14th instant, a slave belonging to the widow Dufy Desaulnier, aged about thirty-five years, dressed in striped calico, of medium height and tolerable stoutness. Whoever will bring her back will receive a reward of $6, and will be repaid any costs that may be proved to have been incurred in finding her.”

The Gazette du Commerce did not realize its name for some time, there being in the small community a dearth of such, as Mesplet deplored in the first paragraph of No. 1. Very little political news ever filtered through the Gazette, but the arrival and departure of governors was safe; consequently he printed the address of Colonel Sevestre commanding the militia at Montreal to Sir Guy Carleton, who finished his term of office in July, 1778; and the reply commending the virtues and experience of his successor, General Haldimand.

The issue of August 12, 1778, records the latter’s visit thus:

“On the 8th instant at 6 P.M. General Haldimand made his entrance into the town amid discharges of artillery from the citadel and the vessels in the harbour. The English merchants were in the front, followed by the Canadian Militia and the regulars, the whole forming a line from the Quebec gate to the Company’s house, where His Excellency now resides. A band of 600 Indians, with Messrs. St. Luc de la Corne and Campbell, their officers and interpreters at the head, came out of the town and welcomed the new Governor with cries which proclaimed the joy they felt at his arrival. The citizens of the two nations proved their gratification by their enthusiasm and cheerful countenances.”

The next number does not appear, apparently being suppressed by the new Governor, but in the succeeding week it again was issued through the good graces of certain leading citizens who had procured him this liberty. He promises gratitude to the Governor and the succeeding numbers are strictly literary subjects, such as discussions on the opinions of Voltaire and the utility of the establishment of an Academy of Science.

In April, 1779, Mesplet invited criticism on a recent judicial decision, for which he was summoned to court and reprimanded against any repetition of the offence. But he was recalcitrant and in the fall he was arrested and taken to Quebec, the paper being suspended apparently till 1785.

By 1788 Mesplet’s paper was enlarged from quarter to foolscap four pages, printed in double columns in French and English. It seems to have become more of a newspaper and news a month old was served up to eager Montrealers. In 1789 there was still little commercial news, but there was a “Poet’s Corner” and several poems of Robert Burns, then rising to fame, are honoured there. In this year political discussion, a subject in the early days tabooed, appears in the Gazette. A correspondent discussing the burning question of a House of Assembly sums up thus:

“We are all Canadians and subjects of Great Britain. The distinction of old and new subjects ought to have been done away with long since. The prosperity of this country must depend on the unanimity that prevails amongst us. I am of the opinion that much good may be derived from a House of Assembly. Yet I fear the consequent evils, one of which is taxing a country unable to support the dignity of a House. The peasantry would not easily digest what that House of Assembly might impose and few, if any, of their class would be able to share in the legislation. It will, therefore, be the policy of Government to procrastinate this event until the province is really and fully Anglified, when, perhaps, a House of Assembly may be better known and received with the united voice of approbation.”

Up to this year the paper was published by F. Mesplet, 40 Notre Dame Street. In 1795 it passed into the hands of Thomas A. Turner and was issued from anoffice on the corner of Notre Dame Street and St. Jean Baptiste. By 1804 it had passed over to E. Edward, 135 St. Paul Street.

The date of November 10, 1804, records the movement for the first theatre in Montreal.

“Mr. Ormsby from the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, respectfully informs the ladies and gentlemen of Montreal that he intends, with their approbation, establishing a company of comedians in Canada, to perform in Montreal and Quebec alternately. The theatre in this city is fitted up in that large and commodious house next door to the Post Office, where will be presented on Monday evening, 19th inst., a comedy in five acts called ‘The Busy Body,’ to which will be added the much admired farce called ‘The Sultan.’

“N.B. Particulars in advertisement for the evening: Boxes, 5s; gallery, 2s. 6d. Tickets to be had at Mr. Hamilton’s Tavern, the Montreal Hotel and at the theatre where places for the boxes may be taken.”

The news of the death and victory of Lord Nelson at Trafalgar on October 21, 1805, reached Montreal in the winter of 1805-6 and was the occasion of great activity among the inhabitants, so that immediately a subscription was taken up to raise their first monument. A committee was appointed and these in conjunction with Six Alexander Mackenzie, Thomas Forsyth and John Gillespie, then in London, took steps to raise it. The Governor-General, Sir J. Craig, having given the magistrates a piece of ground for general improvement, these granted a portion of it, at the upper end of the new market place, as a site for the intended column. The foundation stone was laid on August 17, 1809, and the monument was built of grey compact limestone of the district.

The four panel ornaments were of artificial stone invented by Coade & Seeley, of London. The battle of the Nile is represented on the north side. That on the east represents the interview between Lord Nelson and the Prince Regent of Denmark on the landing of Lord Nelson after the engagement off Copenhagen. The panel on the south side facing the river commemorates the battle of Trafalgar. The west side has the neatest panel, being ornamented with cannon, anchors and other appropriate naval trophies with a circular wreath surrounding the whole inscription:

In Memory ofThe Right Honorable Vice-Admiral Lord Viscount NelsonDuke of BrontéWho terminated his career of Naval glory in the memorableBattle of TrafalgarOn the 21st of October, 1805,After inculcating by SignalThis SentimentNever to be forgotten by his Country,“ENGLAND EXPECTS EVERY MAN WILL DO HIS DUTY.”This monumental column was erected by theInhabitants of MontrealIn the year 1808.

The expense of this column when complete with the iron railing was £1,300. In the first cut stone at the east corner of the base, a plate of lead was deposited bearing the following inscription:

“In memory of the Right Honourable Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson, Duke of Bronté, who terminated his career of naval glory on the 21st of October, 1805, this monumental pillar was erected by a subscription of the inhabitants of Montreal, whereof the Hon. Sir John Johnston, Knight and Baronet, the Hon. James Monk, Chief Justice of Montreal, John Richardson, John Ogilvie and Louis Chaboillez, Esquires, were a committee appointed for carrying it into execution, and the same was erected under the direction of William Gilmore, stone cutter and mason, from designs obtained from Mitchell, an architect in London.—17th August, 1809.”

Returning to the Gazette, a sidelight of 1806 thrown by an advertisement of William Gilmore, dated 7th June, reveals to us the apprenticeship system as then in vogue. It may seem to some an industrial tyranny.

“Ran away from the subscriber: Alexander Thompson, an indentured apprentice, about 22 years of age, 5 ft. 5 in. in height, red curly hair and bandy legs. All persons are hereby forbid hiring him under penalty of law. Any person who will bring him back shall receive three pence reward, no charges paid.”

Thus far the Gazette. The history of the Gazette of today, its successor, may be found in “Montreal, the Commercial Metropolis of Canada,” 1907.

Let us now present a side light of about this period.

At this time the Montreal Hotel was one of the chief hotels and it was kept by a Mr. Dillon who had some reputation as a water colourist of local scenes.

John Lambert, who visited the United States and Canada in 1806, 1807 and 1808, has the following picture: “The only open place or square in the town,” he says in his account of Montreal, “except the two markets, under the French Government was the place where the garrison troops were paraded. The French Catholic church occupies the whole of the east side of this square; and on the south side, adjoining some private houses, is a very good tavern, called the Montreal Hotel, kept by Mr. Dillon. During my stay in this city I lodged at his house and found it superior to any in Canada; everything in it is neat, cleanly and well conducted.” From his characterization of the landlord, one is somewhat disappointed that he does not mention his artistic gift. “The old gentleman,” he says, “came out in the retinue of Lord Dorchester; he is a very ingenious character.” But then, instead of commending his water colors, as one would naturally expect, Lambert concludes his notice of Dillon in these words: “and fond of expressing his attachment to his King and country by illuminations and firing his pedereroes off in the square.” Lambert also refers to the new parade ground. “At the back of the town, just behind the new courthouse, is the parade ground where the troops are exercised.” And, after some further words of description, he proceeds to suggest a truly attractive picture of suburban Montreal in the early nineteenth century. “Here,” he says, “the inhabitants walk of an evening and enjoy a beautiful view of the suburbs of St. Lawrence and St. Antoine, and the numerous gardens, orchards and plantations of the gentry, adorned with neat and handsome dwelling houses.” These, with green fields interspersed, lead up to the mountain from which the island and the city have taken the name of Montreal.

We will now turn to a new literary venture.

NELSON’S MONUMENTAbout 1875NELSON’S MONUMENTThe building on the left is the house originally built in 1720 by Baron de Becancourt. It became the store of the Campagnie des Indes, which in the French times answered to the Hudson’s Bay Company. This was also the residence of the Hon. James McGill, founder of McGill University. It was demolished in 1903.

About 1875

NELSON’S MONUMENT

The building on the left is the house originally built in 1720 by Baron de Becancourt. It became the store of the Campagnie des Indes, which in the French times answered to the Hudson’s Bay Company. This was also the residence of the Hon. James McGill, founder of McGill University. It was demolished in 1903.

After the Gazette there came the “Canadian Courant” founded at Montreal in 1807 by Nahum Mower, a native of Worcester, Massachusetts. There came with him Stephen Mills, who was born in Rozalton, Vermont. The latter remained at Montreal till 1810, when he went to Kingston, where he founded the Kingston Gazette. He became a minister in 1835. These two New Englanders placed a distinctly American stamp on the new paper. The name “Canadian” was revolutionary to the old British colonists, but it pleased the French. The “Courant” lasted until between 1835 and 1840. That it should have continued its existence so long, looked on with suspicion by the chief English residents as democratic and revolutionary, would suggest that it was subsidized either by American merchants, for the trade relations now between the two countries were becoming intimate and profitable, or by the government of the United States, who, baulked in their revolutionary designs hitherto, were still desirous of seducing the neighbouring “Fourteenth” colony from its allegiance.

Nahum Mower left in 1829, and in his valedictory he claims to have made good his pledge in the first number that he “should make it his duty to become a good subject and endeavour others to continue so.” He worshiped, till 1813, when he sold his pew, in St. Gabriel’s Church, the only non-Anglican church then in existence, and the temporary home of all English-speaking non-conformists. Still he was accused of undue intimacy with the enemies of the British Connexion in Canada, especially during the troublous times of 1812 and the years of apprehension after.

The Canadian Courant had an early rival in the Montreal Herald, which published its first number on Saturday, October 19, 1811. Its first printer and founder was a young Scotchman, William Gray, of Huntly, Aberdeenshire, born on August 12, 1789. He arrived in Montreal in June, 1811. In 1812, May 25th, he was married to Agnes Smith, of Aberdeen, by the Reverend Mr. Somerville. William Gray, as surmised by Doctor Campbell in his “History of St. Gabriel’s Church,” seems to have been related in some degree of cousinship to Alexander Skakel, the most noted of the Montreal early British schoolmasters. He died at the early age of thirty-three, on February 28, 1822, having caught a cold on a journey in a Durham boat on his way from Toronto to attend to his business affairs, on hearing that in his absence his office had been mobbed by a crowd of French-Canadians, displeased with the tone of some of his articles. This young editor has left behind him a record of personal probity, good discernment and strong personal courage. His task in 1811 was no easy one—to establish an independent and unsubsidized paper in a small town.

The files of the early Herald give a contemporary picture of life of the community. Canada then had about four hundred thousand inhabitants, of whom most were in the Lower province; about four thousand five hundred regular British troops were mostly stationed there, also. Upper Canada consisted of only a few settlements, scattered here and there on the highways. Fur trading was the basic industry of the colony and its headquarters was at Montreal, the home and storage centre of the wealthy fur traders of the Beaver Hall Club. Agriculture was neglected till after the War of 1812, when it became realized that farming should be the staple industry of the colony. Unskilled labour was then performed by French Canadians, for there was yet no British immigrant labouring class. The skilled artisans came mostly from across the border, but the lesserstorekeepers and merchants, chiefly Scotch, with an admixture of English and Yankees, were beginning to build up the permanent commerce of the city that was not always to be exclusively that of the fur trade. Among the business men then building up Montreal trade who were already well established before the war of 1812 were Alexander Henry, auctioneer; Benaiah Gibb, merchant; John Dillon, lumber merchant; James Brown, book-seller and owner of the Gazette; Peter McCutcheon, merchant; James and Andrew McGill, Forsyth, Richardson & Company, Maitland, Garden & Auldjo, Woolrich & Cooper, John Shuter, Samuel Gerrard, John Molson & Son, brewers and steamboat proprietors; Daniel Arnoldi, surgeon, and others.

The first home of the Herald, as far as ascertainable, was the 23 St. Paul Street given in Doige’s Directory of Montreal in 1819, the first systematic list of Montreal addresses. There is no proof of its having moved from elsewhere since 1811. On either side of it were two taverns, the Montreal Academy, a famous school kept by William Ryan, the residence of Joseph Papineau, eminent notary and public notary and father of the famous Louis Joseph, who was to become the “patriot” leader, and a small bookshop kept by a J. Russell. Near at hand, following Doige’s numbering, was the commissariat office and the residence of Colonel McKey, of the Indian Department, while a few doors away was the house of Peter McCutcheon, the famous merchant who afterward took the name of McGill. The “Canadian Courant” was established at 92 St. Paul Street, barely thirty doors from the Herald, and shared its premises with Daniel Campbell, a grocer. William Gray lived above his printing premises, as did his editor in 1819, Doctor Christie, and probably the latter’s predecessor, Mungo Kay, who was a Montreal merchant before he took to the journalist’s pen. At that date, and indeed for many long years, most of the storekeepers on St. Paul Street lived over their places of business. St. Paul Street was then the chief retail street; it ran the southern length of the town from the eastern fortifications of the Quebec suburbs to the western ones, ending at the present McGill Street. At either end there was a generous supply of taverns to meet the needs of those coming in from the country. In between them was a close succession of groceries, tailor shops, dry goods houses, hardware stores, druggists, bootmakers, glaziers, plumbers and the like. The Gazette at this period had its home on St. François Xavier Street.

The newspapers of the period received an addition by the advent of the first French-Canadian paper issued in Montreal, the “Spectateur.” They frequently had “brushes” with one another. In 1814, on July 2, a writer for the Herald, probably Mungo Kay, addressed an ode to a French-Canadian writer in the Spectator whom he calls “a certain gros bourgeois” and rallying him concerning a story, evidently known, of his efforts to cozen a certain negro:

See, wrapt in whirlwinds, from his standOn leathern wings he takes his flight,And on fell Mungo, with unequal handSped rancorous the rodures of the night;In deeds of darkness are their chief delight.And see, advancing ’thwart the stormDeception with his blotted form;Who tried the sable African to charm,But failed in his attempt to make him green,Albeit he the Justice did alarm,Who quaked with fear that he ’mong Truth’s friends should be seen.

THE PRESS BUILDINGS: The HeraldTHE PRESS BUILDINGS: The Herald

THE PRESS BUILDINGS: The Herald

THE PRESS BUILDINGS: La PresseTHE PRESS BUILDINGS: La Presse

THE PRESS BUILDINGS: La Presse

THE PRESS BUILDINGS: The StarTHE PRESS BUILDINGS: The Star

THE PRESS BUILDINGS: The Star

THE PRESS BUILDINGS: La PatrieTHE PRESS BUILDINGS: La Patrie

THE PRESS BUILDINGS: La Patrie

Next week another satiric poem was addressed to certain “Spectators” who had two urns.

“One flows for B. and M——r warm with praise,And one for M——o bitter gall displays.”

For B. read Brown (John), the owner of the Gazette; for M——r, Mower (Nahum), the proprietor of the Courant; and M——o for Mungo Kay. Mungo Kay is credited by the Gazette in an obituary notice of him in 1813 on his death on September 18th, as having as editor for nearly seven years justified his choice of motto: “Aninos Novitate Tenebo”—“I will hold attention by means of novelty.” This was not meant to be satire but a tribute to his efforts to obtain the earliest intelligence. The Herald early began its “extra special additions.” In 1812, before it had been a year in existence, the Quebec Gazette reprinted such a special edition with the following acknowledgment:

“We beg the editors of the Herald to accept our thanks for their attention in transmitting the intelligence of the surrender of General Hull. This is not the first time that the public has been indebted to them for early intelligence.”

News in those days was hard to obtain, but even if a month late it was read with avidity, for the Napoleonic wars, involving the peace and security of the mother country and their own colony, which became involved in all British quarrels, found a passionate source of interest in the truly colonial loyalists of Montreal, who were surrounded by ill-wishers, secret or open, on all sides. It is amusing, however, to read the account of the Battle of Waterloo under the single line caption “Highly Interesting Intelligence,” the art of display headlines not then having become so pronounced.

The news of the victory of Waterloo reached Montreal in July, 1815. Montreal in its joy bethought itself of the widows and children of those who fell in the fateful battle and in consequence of a meeting called in the courthouse an amount of £2,717 16s 8d was soon raised, which was later added to largely.

Of local or colonial news, there being little or none, there was scant supply. But after 1815 the Montreal papers begin to have criticisms on matters nearer home. A class of writers now arose, especially in the Herald, the most daring unofficial paper of the period, who dealt ably and trenchantly on questions of policy and administration in Canada. These were written mostly under mythological pseudonyms to avoid personal responsibility and attack. This continued for many years. The anonymity of many has not yet been disclosed in literature, although there must have been many at Montreal to whom the real authorship was an open secret. “Nerva,” who wrote in the Herald much to inflame public opinion, has been disclosed later by the Montreal Gazette in an obituary notice, to have been the Hon. Samuel Gale, afterwards a famous justice of the superior court. Others, like “Aristides,” an early critic of the House of Assembly; “A true Jacobin,” a violent satirist of abuses in the police administration;“Observer,” complaining of extortion and sale of justice by police court officials; “Alfred,” with his suggestion that a strip of land ten miles wide should be laid and kept absolutely waste along the American frontiers as the only real safeguard against renewed invasion after the peace of 1814 (this same writer also protests earnestly against the insidious effects of Webster’s republican spelling book); “Veritas,” with his crushing exposure of the incapacity of Sir George Prevost—these contributed letters, together with outspoken editorial utterances written by Gray or Skakel, causing a fluttering in the dovecots of officialdom.

In 1815 bills of indictment were found against the editor and printer of the Herald for libel on the commander in chief, but as Sir George Prevost was recalled the case never came to trial.

The earliest extant copy known of the Herald is dated March 2, 1812. It was a paper 13 inches by 20½ inches, and contained four pages of four columns, which latter, in 1814, was changed to five. It started with a circulation of 170 subscribers, 150 being Montrealers. On its third anniversary the statement was given in the paper that the “weekly distribution rather exceeds one thousand impressions.” The price was $4.00 per annum. In August a larger sheet appeared, 15 inches wide by 21½ inches deep, and was divided into five columns, the editor calling his paper “a quarter larger than our former or any other paper published in North America,” and adding “The Herald has more circulation, probably by some hundred, than any other paper in Canada.” The enlargement of the sheet, which was followed by frequent supplementary sheets on a Wednesday, indicate the growth of advertising and commercial correspondence, and the immense increase of commerce after the peace. Indeed, at the time an attempt was made to establish a fourth Montreal paper, “The Sun.” Its promoters were Lane, a printer on St. Paul Street, and Bowman, a stationer on St. François Xavier Street. It only lasted a few issues.

Anti-American animadversions, however, still survived. The democratic leaders of the time were accused of being supplied with Yankee money and Yankee ideals. Samuel Sherwood, an American by birth and an early leader for popular government, was accused by the Herald of having given traitorous support and advice to the Americans during the War of 1812 and of keeping the “Sun” and the Canadian Courant supplied with “Jacobin” information from American sources.

A picture of the pigmy city of the period, written in 1870 by Mr. T.S. Brown in a small, forgotten pamphlet entitled “Montreal Fifty Years Ago”, may fitly help to illustrate this period:

“On the 28th of May, 1818, I first landed at Montreal. On my left was a dirty creek running down inside of a warehouse, being the outlet of a ditch, now tunnelled, that then, as a part of the old fortifications, ran around the city, westerly from the Champ de Mars through Craig street, with dilapidated banks, the receptacle of all sorts of filth. Above and below there was a revetment of a few hundred feet; except this, the beach and river bank were in their natural state. Just above the Grey Nunnery there was a cottage with a garden running down to the river, and adjoining this a ship yard where vessels continued to be built for some years later. Further on, the place of the Lachine Canal was a common with three windmills and the graves of three soldiers shot for desertion. The Island Wharf was then a little island, far off and alone.“The city gates and fortifications, such as they were, had been removed some time previous. A remnant of walls remained at the corner of McGill and Commissioners streets, and between Bonsecours street and Dalhousie Square there was a mound of earth 55 feet high, called the ‘citadel.’ The old rampart on Great St. James street had been levelled, butthere was no building on the west side between St. François Xavier and McGill streets. The northern portion had been a cemetery and an old powder magazine still stood in the middle of the street.... I came into the city through a narrow passage leading to the Custom House Square, then the ‘Old Market,’ a low, wooden shed-like building; and along the south side of the square was a row of old women seated at tables with eatables for sale. Capital street was a succession of drinking houses carrying on an active business from morning until night.... The largest was that of Thomas l’Italien (Thomas Delvecchio), facing the Market with a clock, on which small figures came out to strike the hours, to the continued wonderment of all, and next came Les trois Rois, of Joseph Donegani. This was the center of trade. A new market of similar construction had been erected on the present Jacques Cartier Square, running from Nelson’s monument (opposite to which was the guard house, jail, pillory and courthouse) to St. Paul street, but it was not liked. Everybody crowded to the little space of the Old Market and habitant vehicles so filled St. Paul street in each direction that constables were often sent to drive them down to the new market....“Along the beach were moored several small ships and brigs, constituting the spring fleet.... The city was bounded by the river on the east, by Bonsecours street and the Citadel on the north, Craig street on the west, and McGill street on the south; within which limits all the ‘respectable’ people with few exceptions resided. The population in it was nearly as great as today—the upper part of nearly every store being occupied as a dwelling. All the houses in Notre Dame street were dwellings—in its whole length there were but two shops and three auction rooms. The cross streets’ buildings were nearly all dwellings and commercial business was almost confined to St. Paul street. Wholesale stores, except the establishment of Gillespie, Moffat & Company, were small indeed compared to the growth of after years.... There were numerous shops for country trade, all doors and no windows, always open winter and summer, with a goodly portion of the stock displayed outside, where salesmen without number were stationed to accost and bring in customers, who were often dragged forcibly....“Nunneries occupied more space than now—the Hotel Dieu making an ugly break in St. Paul street. Of churches there were few.... The city was composed of one and two story houses, very few of three stories, built, with very few exceptions, of rubble stone, plastered over. All the stores and many of the houses had iron doors and shutters; many buildings had vaulted cellars and many had the garret floored with heavy logs, covered with several inches of earth, and flat paving stones, with a stone staircase outside, so that a roof might burn without doing other damage....“Four streets leading to the country—St. Mary’s, St. Laurent, St. Joseph and St. Antoine—were bordered by houses, mostly of wood—one story, but intervening streets were short and vacant ground extensive. Log fences divided fields on the west of Craig street as far as Beaver Hall Hill, which was a grassy lawn with a long, one-story wooden building across the summit and a garden behind. All to the west of this was open fields where now stands the city of our richest people....“Village primitiveness had not disappeared in Montreal fifty years ago. Old men sat out on the doorsteps to gossip with passing friends and often the family would be found there of an evening. In the suburbs neighbours would collect for a dance in the largest house and any respectable passer-by was welcomed if he chose to step in.... Business relations were more intimate between French and English fifty years ago than now, and I think there was more kindly feeling.... But social relations were much as they are now, the races keeping separate in their charities, their amusements and their gatherings. The English were more dominant—they were more generally the employers, the French the employed.”

“The city gates and fortifications, such as they were, had been removed some time previous. A remnant of walls remained at the corner of McGill and Commissioners streets, and between Bonsecours street and Dalhousie Square there was a mound of earth 55 feet high, called the ‘citadel.’ The old rampart on Great St. James street had been levelled, butthere was no building on the west side between St. François Xavier and McGill streets. The northern portion had been a cemetery and an old powder magazine still stood in the middle of the street.... I came into the city through a narrow passage leading to the Custom House Square, then the ‘Old Market,’ a low, wooden shed-like building; and along the south side of the square was a row of old women seated at tables with eatables for sale. Capital street was a succession of drinking houses carrying on an active business from morning until night.... The largest was that of Thomas l’Italien (Thomas Delvecchio), facing the Market with a clock, on which small figures came out to strike the hours, to the continued wonderment of all, and next came Les trois Rois, of Joseph Donegani. This was the center of trade. A new market of similar construction had been erected on the present Jacques Cartier Square, running from Nelson’s monument (opposite to which was the guard house, jail, pillory and courthouse) to St. Paul street, but it was not liked. Everybody crowded to the little space of the Old Market and habitant vehicles so filled St. Paul street in each direction that constables were often sent to drive them down to the new market....

“Along the beach were moored several small ships and brigs, constituting the spring fleet.... The city was bounded by the river on the east, by Bonsecours street and the Citadel on the north, Craig street on the west, and McGill street on the south; within which limits all the ‘respectable’ people with few exceptions resided. The population in it was nearly as great as today—the upper part of nearly every store being occupied as a dwelling. All the houses in Notre Dame street were dwellings—in its whole length there were but two shops and three auction rooms. The cross streets’ buildings were nearly all dwellings and commercial business was almost confined to St. Paul street. Wholesale stores, except the establishment of Gillespie, Moffat & Company, were small indeed compared to the growth of after years.... There were numerous shops for country trade, all doors and no windows, always open winter and summer, with a goodly portion of the stock displayed outside, where salesmen without number were stationed to accost and bring in customers, who were often dragged forcibly....

“Nunneries occupied more space than now—the Hotel Dieu making an ugly break in St. Paul street. Of churches there were few.... The city was composed of one and two story houses, very few of three stories, built, with very few exceptions, of rubble stone, plastered over. All the stores and many of the houses had iron doors and shutters; many buildings had vaulted cellars and many had the garret floored with heavy logs, covered with several inches of earth, and flat paving stones, with a stone staircase outside, so that a roof might burn without doing other damage....

“Four streets leading to the country—St. Mary’s, St. Laurent, St. Joseph and St. Antoine—were bordered by houses, mostly of wood—one story, but intervening streets were short and vacant ground extensive. Log fences divided fields on the west of Craig street as far as Beaver Hall Hill, which was a grassy lawn with a long, one-story wooden building across the summit and a garden behind. All to the west of this was open fields where now stands the city of our richest people....

“Village primitiveness had not disappeared in Montreal fifty years ago. Old men sat out on the doorsteps to gossip with passing friends and often the family would be found there of an evening. In the suburbs neighbours would collect for a dance in the largest house and any respectable passer-by was welcomed if he chose to step in.... Business relations were more intimate between French and English fifty years ago than now, and I think there was more kindly feeling.... But social relations were much as they are now, the races keeping separate in their charities, their amusements and their gatherings. The English were more dominant—they were more generally the employers, the French the employed.”

November of 1819 was marked by an alarming natural phenomenon. On Sunday the 9th a dense black rain descended, depositing a substance which to the eye and taste resembled common soot. On the following Tuesday, after a dark morning of gloom, with the sun clouds at times greenish black, pitch black, dingy orange colour and blood red, so that some thought that the history of Pompeii or Herculaneum was to be repeated, and feared that Mount Royal,reported already to be the extinct crater of a volcano, was again in activity. At 3 o’clock in the afternoon rain fell again of the same sooty character mid fearful lightning and thunder. At 4 o’clock the summit of the steeple of Notre Dame Church was struck with lightning. The tocsin sounded a fire alarm; the steeple was on fire. The people gathered on Place d’Armes and before the conflagration was extinguished, the great cross fell with a crash, breaking into many pieces. The rain had deposited greater quantities of the sooty substance than on the Sunday preceding and “as it flowed through the streets it carried on its surface a dense foam resembling soapsuds. The evening again became darker and thus ended a day which may be classed among thedies atriof Montreal.”

At this time there was a certain official society life in the city which was fostered by the young military officers from the old country, to whom, apart from their extravagances, the colony is largely indebted for its heritage of culture, literature and art. The religious situation was filled by three Catholic churches, the Notre Dame parish church, built in 1672; the Bonsecours Chapel, rebuilt in 1771, and the “Recollets,” built in 1695, and loaned at different periods to the Anglicans and Presbyterians till they had their own temples. There were two Protestant churches, the Anglican Christ Church, which was the old disused Jesuit church till 1803, but which was now in its own edifice on Notre Dame Street in 1814, and the Presbyterian or Scotch chapel on St. Gabriel’s Street, built in 1792. The religious horizon was not clear. The Catholics and Presbyterians, or non-Conformist group, both had grudges against the Anglicans, arising from the question of the clergy reserves by which, according to the Constitutional Act of 1791, the Anglicans were the established church and reserves of land were provided for their growth and expansion to the exclusion of other Protestant denominations, who resented this privilege in a new country, especially by the “Church of Scotland,” who claimed equal rights to establishment, and the Catholics who had become civilly crippled and disestablished since the conquest, when they came under the same condition of the civil disabilities meted out to the Catholics in the old country.

The government officials and most of the British military officers therefore attended the Anglican services, while the fur lords and the traders, those of St. Gabriel’s church. The newspapers took sides. The Gazette followed the government party, while the Courant and the Herald voiced the views of the dissentients. In 1825 the Herald was bought by Archibald Ferguson, a rich merchant of Montreal, for the express purpose of upholding the rights of the Presbyterian church to a share in the clergy reserves, on the ground that the Scottish Church in Canada should be considered as much an established church as that of the Anglicans. Eventually it gradually came to be recognized in the courts that there were three “established” churches in Canada, the Anglicans, the Scottish and the Catholics.1But the increasing number of non-conformist bodies arising could not brook this, and so the old opposition against the “clergy reserves” was renewed and it was not till 1854 that this long burning question was settled by total diversion of the reserves from all religious purposes.

We may now return to the story of the Constitutional struggles again about to commence and in which Montreal was to take a leading part.

FOOTNOTES:

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