1Mr. Kingsford published, after twelve years of labour the last of his ten volumes of the “History of Canada,†in 1898. The preface was signed “Ottawa, 24th of May, 1898.†He died on September 29, 1898. His work is that of a conscientious historian and the facts he has marshalled together are invaluable to students.
1Mr. Kingsford published, after twelve years of labour the last of his ten volumes of the “History of Canada,†in 1898. The preface was signed “Ottawa, 24th of May, 1898.†He died on September 29, 1898. His work is that of a conscientious historian and the facts he has marshalled together are invaluable to students.
RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT UNDER THE UNION
KINGSTON THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT—THE RACE CRY RESUSCITATED—LAFONTAINE—RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT—MONTREAL ELECTIONS—RESTRICTION REMOVED ON FRENCH LANGUAGE IN PARLIAMENT—FREE TRADE MOVEMENT—FINANCIAL DEPRESSION—GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER—REBELLION LOSSES BILL—THE BURNING OF THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE—THE MONTREAL MOVEMENT FOR ANNEXATION WITH THE STATES—“CLEAR GRITS†AND THE “PARTI ROUGEâ€â€”THE RAILWAY AND SHIPPING ERA—THE GAVAZZI RIOT—THE RECIPROCITY TREATY—EXIT THE OLD TORYISM—CLERGY RESERVES AND SEIGNEURIAL TENURE ACTS—THE MILITIA ACT—MONTREALERS ON THE ELECTED COUNCIL—THEAnnée TerribeOF 1857—THOMAS D’ARCY MC GEE—QUEBEC TEMPORARY SEAT OF GOVERNMENT—PROTECTION FOR HOME INDUSTRIES—CONFEDERATION BROACHED IN MONTREAL—THE TRENT AFFAIR—ST. ALBAN RAID PROSECUTIONS—THE REMODIFIED CIVIL CODE—FENIAN RAID EXCITEMENT IN MONTREAL—OTTAWA SEAT OF GOVERNMENT—THE BRITISH NORTH AMERICAN ACT—CONFEDERATION.
The seat of the new parliament was chosen for Kingston. This was naturally regarded jealously by Montreal and Quebec. The Montreal elections resulted in the sending thither of Mr. Benjamin Holmes and the Hon. George Moffatt to represent the city at the first session, which opened for the dispatch of business on the 14th of June, 1841. Mr. D.B. Viger was elected for the Richelieu district. Another well known at Montreal, one who had there conducted the “Minerve,†Mr. Augustus Norbert Morin, sat for Nicolet.
The language of the house was English. This, together with the absence of any French name from the new cabinet ministry was a natural grievance which was seized upon by a part of the French press and race hatred seemed in danger of being renewed. The following extract from a British Montreal paper of the day adverts to this:
“It is but a few weeks since the olive branch has been frankly and honorably extended, since several English journals earnestly advocated an oblivion of the past and a reconciliation of the future. We must own that, however much we respect the attempt, we never anticipated that it would be successful, and we daily find in the pages of the Canadien, the French Gazette, the Aurora and the other small fry, the proof of our prognostication. It is the truth, a truth boldly and continually proclaimed by the above mentioned public journals printed in the French language, that the Canadian leaders and all who aspire to lead this class of the population, now, as heretofore, must base their only pretentions to popular support on their utter and entire abhorrence of everything that is English. The word ‘anti-British’ is the type of their political existence, the only true passports to the affections of a French constituency. They hate us not because we are unionists or anti-unionists, whigs, tories, radicals or conservatives, but because we are British. They hate us not because we are Catholics, Protestants, Presbyterians or Methodists, but because we are British. They hate us because we speak English, because we love English laws, because we admire English constitutions, because we would introduce English improvements, because we have given them two or three good English drubbings and are ready to give them again if provoked. First they hate the Briton, secondly the American and lastly their seigneurs and clergy are included in the same category, and if they could only accomplish what they never will, get rid of the Briton, they would be rapidly ‘used up’ by the Americans, who would rob their seigneurs, discard their priests and improve the ‘nation Canadienne’ off the face of the earth.â€
“It is but a few weeks since the olive branch has been frankly and honorably extended, since several English journals earnestly advocated an oblivion of the past and a reconciliation of the future. We must own that, however much we respect the attempt, we never anticipated that it would be successful, and we daily find in the pages of the Canadien, the French Gazette, the Aurora and the other small fry, the proof of our prognostication. It is the truth, a truth boldly and continually proclaimed by the above mentioned public journals printed in the French language, that the Canadian leaders and all who aspire to lead this class of the population, now, as heretofore, must base their only pretentions to popular support on their utter and entire abhorrence of everything that is English. The word ‘anti-British’ is the type of their political existence, the only true passports to the affections of a French constituency. They hate us not because we are unionists or anti-unionists, whigs, tories, radicals or conservatives, but because we are British. They hate us not because we are Catholics, Protestants, Presbyterians or Methodists, but because we are British. They hate us because we speak English, because we love English laws, because we admire English constitutions, because we would introduce English improvements, because we have given them two or three good English drubbings and are ready to give them again if provoked. First they hate the Briton, secondly the American and lastly their seigneurs and clergy are included in the same category, and if they could only accomplish what they never will, get rid of the Briton, they would be rapidly ‘used up’ by the Americans, who would rob their seigneurs, discard their priests and improve the ‘nation Canadienne’ off the face of the earth.â€
It is pleasing to find that our newspapers of today do not reflect a like jarring exchange of bitterness. Montreal has learned that its “salvation lies in harmony,†according to the city’s motto, “Concordia Salus.â€
The session passed without any hitch. The Union act had stood its test. The advent of Sir Charles Bagot as governor-general with his policy of reconciliation saw M. Joseph Remi Vallières appointed chief justice of the district of Montreal and Dr. Jean Baptiste Meilleur the superintendent of public instruction for Lower Canada. When parliament met on September 8, 1842, Montreal looked with interest for the development likely to follow on the entrance into the House of Mr. Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine, an able lawyer who had practiced at Montreal and who was known to be a born leader of men and to have succeeded to the position of M. Papineau in popular estimation. His short imprisonment as a rebel in 1838 added to his prestige. He was an old parliamentarian, having been in 1830, when only twenty-three years of age, elected to the assembly of Lower Canada. On October 12th the reconstructed government1saw the Hon. L.H. Lafontaine as attorney-general for Lower Canada (his friend, the Hon. Robert Baldwin, held the same office for Upper Canada) and the Hon. A.N. Morin, commissioner of crown lands. These appointments made the Union more palatable to French-Canadians and it began to appear that out of evil good was to come.
During the next session of 1843 question of the future location of the parliament was settled by the choice of Montreal, on the motion of Mr. Baldwin, seconded by Mr. Lafontaine.
The full signification of the term “Responsible Government†now began to be tested. The new governor, Sir Charles Metcalfe, who had been sworn in on March 29, 1843, had come from Bengal with Indian ideas of dictatorship and he acted now independently of his ministers, making appointments without consultation with them, so that nine out of ten of the ministers resigned on November 26th on the ground that by the system of responsible government adopted in the resolutions of the house in September, 1841, to carry on a government the ministry must not only have the confidence of the house and through it of the people, but also of the head of the government. For nine months, therefore, the country was without a ministry, Sir Charles Metcalfe being unable to construct one.
At this point Mr. D.B. Viger came into prominence as a supporter of thegovernor and it was his efforts to win over the French-Canadians. Accordingly he visited Montreal and Lower Canada to be followed by Mr. Draper, but Lafontaine’s hold was too great. The hold-up of government created much anxiety, and trade and industry were affected. After great efforts a partial ministry was formed, the post of attorney-general for Lower Canada being accepted by Mr. James Smith, of Montreal, Mr. Denis Benjamin Papineau, a brother of Louis Joseph, becoming commissioner of lands. Other offices were filled but the completion of the names was left until after the election.
These were held over the country mid scenes of riot and even bloodshed. At no place was the party strife more keenly shown than at Montreal. By an election scheme it is said, to the surprise of the opposition who ought to have commanded a majority, the Hon. George Moffatt and Charles Clement Sabrevois de Bleury, supporters of the newly formed ministry, were elected against Mr. Lewis Thomas Drummond, a lawyer of Irish Catholic origin, afterwards a well known judge, and Doctor Beaubien. Mr. Drummond was returned, however, for Port Neuf. Among the new members of other constituencies Dr. Wolfred Nelson was returned for Richelieu against D.B. Viger, the president of the new council, who found a seat, however, elsewhere. John Alexander Macdonald was returned for Kingston as a supporter of the government. The new government entered into power with a small majority. Early in 1844 the government moved from Kingston to Montreal and Monklands became the home of the governor-general. On July 1st the Parliament met in Montreal, being dissolved on September 23d.
On November 12th the general elections began, the like of which had never been seen in Canada. The voting in these times was open, lasting for days. Citizens were keen politicians; axe handles were in readiness; heads were broken and the “claret†flowed. Party spirit ran high and men were kept drunk in the taverns so as not to allow them to reach the polls. In this election at Montreal, Drummond was opposed to Molson, who was beaten. On November 28th parliament met and was prorogued on March 29th of the following year.
The removal of the restrictions on the French language in parliament took place on January 31, 1845. Mr. Lafontaine had desired to make the motion, but his plan, having become known to the new government, desirous of furthering a popular move, he was anticipated by Mr. D.B. Papineau, seconded by the Hon. George Moffatt of Montreal.
In 1846 the merchants of Montreal held meetings to protest against the Free Trade movement, then being promoted in England by Cobden. On January 30, 1847, Lord Elgin, the successor of Sir Charles Metcalfe, proceeded from Monklands, the home of the governor-general of Montreal, to be sworn in at Government House. On May 31st Mr. Peter McGill became speaker of the legislative council, with a seat in the cabinet of the reconstructed cabinet, known as the Sherwood-Daly ministry. Mr. D.B. Papineau was the only French-Canadian in it. Parliamentary life this year was affected by the evils of the “ship fever†brought over by the Irish emigrants who had made their exodus after the failure of the potato crop. The opposition made political capital out of the event by making the government responsible for the emigration laws of the country.
On Friday, the 25th of February, 1848, the new parliament was held at Montreal. Messrs. L.H. Lafontaine and Benjamin Holmes were returned forthe city. On the occasion Mr. L.J. Papineau, who had been in pleasant exile so long in Paris, although he could have returned in 1843, found himself elected in the Union parliament. He was little changed, but his star had waned, while that of Lafontaine was in the ascendant. On March 10th Mr. Lafontaine accepted office as Premier and attorney-general and with his friend Baldwin formed the Lafontaine-Baldwin ministry. During this year the Canadian merchants suffered great commercial depression, owing to the working out of the free trade act of 1846. “Three-fourths of the merchants were bankrupt and real estate was practically unmarketable.â€
The session of 1849 saw the advent into political life of George Etienne Cartier, the erstwhile rebel. He was born in Verchères county, at St. Antoine, but was educated at the college of St. Sulpice at Montreal. His early law studies were in the office of M. Edouard Rodier and he was called to the bar and began practice in Montreal in 1835. He came early under the magnetic influence of Mr. Papineau and we find him a member of the “Fils de Liberté†and engaged in the fight under Doctor Nelson at St. Denis, thence flying as a proscribed man to the States. He quietly returned later, when the embargo was raised, and settled down again to practice law at Montreal, but still keeping his attention on politics.
An important bill came up this session entitled “an act to provide for the indemnification of parties in Lower Canada whose property was destroyed during the rebellion in the years 1837 and 1838.†It was called the Rebellion Losses Bill. It would seem rather belatedly brought in but it had been promised in some form during the past ten years as a means of indemnifying those who had suffered from the very great destruction of property during that agitated period. In 1845 the rebellion losses committee first sat. On April 18th the commissioners reported that they recognized 2,276 claims, amounting in the aggregate to £241,965, and were of the opinion that £100,000 would be sufficient to pay all real losses. On January 18, 1849, Mr. Lafontaine moved the belated bill. It made provision for the appointment of five commissioners to carry out the act and a sum of £100,000 was appropriated to pay the claims. Those, however, who had been convicted of treason during the rebellion and who had been sent to Bermuda, were excepted from claiming any share in the grant. This, it will be seen, allowed “rebels†who had not been convicted, an equal right to compensation with the “loyalists.†Consequently a storm broke out in parliament and in the country, but especially in Montreal. Various pamphlets appeared in Montreal at this time, indicating opposition, such as that entitled “The Question Answered; Did the Ministry intend to pay Rebels? Montreal, 1849,†supposed to have been written by the Hon. Alexander Morris, then a law student, and a young tory journalist, Hugh E. Montgomerie. Yet the government was right in their inclusion of “rebels†for it would have been very unwise at that period to reopen the question as to who had been rebels and who had not. Besides the amnesty granted long since had plastered over all differences.
Yet, within and without Parliament the opposition was loud, fierce and tumultuous. The bill, however, passed the third reading in both houses. For some time previously petitions from the tories of the opposition body had been pouring in to Lord Elgin, praying that the bill should either be reserved for Imperial sanction, or that parliament should be dissolved. Lord Elgin, who personallydid not approve of the diversion of so much public money from more useful objects, feeling, however, that while no imperial interests were at stake, that the principle of responsible government was assented to the bill when it had passed both houses. This he did on Wednesday afternoon, the 25th of April, 1849. On this occasion the galleries of the house were packed with “loyalist†opponents to the bill, and a tumult immediately arose which was continued as the crowd went out down the stairs to await Lord Elgin’s departure. When the governor-general, having finished his business, reached the front door, a hostile crowd had gathered and the fury of the opponents to the bill visited itself on him in oppobrious epithets. Groans, hisses, mud and addled eggs brought for the purpose were hurled at him. Some say also stones were added and in the midst of this hostile demonstration he drove off to Monklands, surrounded by the military, by a long detour east and round the mountain to his home. Three days afterwards at a special meeting of the Scotch National Association, the “St. Andrew’s Society,†a resolution was passed, erasing his name as a patron and an honorary member of that body.
AUGUSTIN-NORBERT MORINAUGUSTIN-NORBERT MORIN
AUGUSTIN-NORBERT MORIN
GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIERGEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER
GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER
ROBERT BALDWINROBERT BALDWIN
ROBERT BALDWIN
LOUIS-JOSEPH PAPINEAULOUIS-JOSEPH PAPINEAU
LOUIS-JOSEPH PAPINEAU
SIR LOUIS-HIPPOLYTE LAFONTAINESIR LOUIS-HIPPOLYTE LAFONTAINE
SIR LOUIS-HIPPOLYTE LAFONTAINE
A.A. DORIONA.A. DORION
A.A. DORION
That night about 8 o’clock the parliament buildings were burned by an angry mob. It was not unpremeditated, for the day previously even some of the soldiers were warned to shut their eyes next day if anything happened, and many did. After the signing of the bill a meeting was held on Champ de Mars as the result of printed notices, at which inflammatory speeches were made. One of the leaders was a Fred Perry, who lived to be sorry for his deed. “We are not in ’37,†he cried. “If you are men follow me to the parliament house!†and he drove in a buggy, surrounded by a sympathetic crowd, some carrying lighted torches and crying, “To the parliament house.†The parliament building which had been built as St. Ann’s market and leased to the government, was a two-story building, the bottom floor of which was remodeled to contain the government offices, while upstairs, at the head of a broad staircase, leading off a wide passage, were two halls, one that of the legislative assembly, a room 342 by 50 feet, and the other of the legislative council. Meanwhile the house of assembly was discussing the judicature bill, and it was warned by the noise of the advancing mob. When the crowd reached the building, at a given signal stones crashed through the windows like hail. A rush was made by some of the crowd into the assembly hall from which the members had retreated. One of the mob named Courtney sat boldly in the Speaker’s chair and muttered threats about dissolving the parliament. The work of demolition was begun, sticks being thrown at the glass globes on the gaseliers that were out of reach. Then there was raised the cry of “fire!†The gas pipes in the building had been cut and a light applied. An explosion followed and a blinding sheet of flame lit up the scene. Then ensued a mad rush of the members and their friends and enemies to get out of the building. The mob made no attempt to save it. The fire engines were only used upon the surrounding property and an eye witness relates that the soldiers who were ordered to fire on the mob discharged their shots in the air. In half an hour the whole building was wrapped in one sheet of flame. The valuable library containing the archives and records of the colony was destroyed. In the beginning of the incendiarism lighted torches thrown through the window began the sad work of destruction. Little was saved but the mace and the picture of Queen Victoria with the gilt crown surmounting it. A newspaper account of two days later stated in effect“that the Queen’s picture was carried away by four scoundrels.†These have lately been identified as Colonel Wiley, formerly chief of police, a Scotchman of the name of McGillivray, from the eastern townships, an employee of the parliament, the uncle of Mr. Todd, of the Library of Parliament, and Mr. Sanford Fleming (afterwards Sir).
The latter in reply to the historian, Henry J. Morgan, wrote in 1901:
“Having spent a number of days previously in examining rare books, I felt I should try to save some of them. I gained an entrance but the fire had taken possession of the library and I could do nothing. Turning to the legislative hall I saw the Queen’s picture. With three other men (then) unknown to me I made an effort to save it, but it was no easy matter. It was in a massive gilt frame, firmly bolted to the wall. We at last put our shoulders underneath and raised the whole, little by little, allowing it to fall down each time. This was repeated many times till at last the fastenings gave way and all came down. We laid it on its face and, not being able to carry very easily the heavy frame, removed the canvas on its stretching frame and the four of us carried it out in a horizontal position, a shoulder under each corner. With difficulty we got it downstairs on account of the flames passing overhead, but each stooped and covered the picture to prevent it getting scorched and thus got it to the open door. Having done so, I left it to be taken to a place of safety by others, some of whom were connected with the House. I thought I would return to the chamber to try to save something else, but I saw nothing of much value which I could myself remove. I did, however, carry out the gilded crown which had been over the picture, carrying it to Mack’s Hotel, where I was stopping, and afterwards took it with me in a tea chest to Toronto, where it remained in my possession for some years. What afterwards became of it I am not aware.†The picture of Queen Victoria is in the House of Commons at Ottawa.
The most unpopular man of the hour after Lord Elgin was Mr. L.H. Lafontaine, who was in charge of the bill. His stables were burnt and his house ransacked. There were no proceedings taken against the rioters and incendiarists, this being an evident sign that many of those in power secretly sympathized with the movement. The house of Mr. Hays, on Dalhousie Square, was leased for a temporary parliament house, but shortly afterwards government moved to Toronto and Montreal lost its position as the political capital of Canada.
In August, 1849, the British American League was formed in Montreal with branches at Toronton, Kingston and elsewhere in Upper Canada. It had various aims—the chief planks being opposition to the existing government, a return to a protective policy, the election of members of the legislative council, and most important of all, a general union of the British North American provinces. A meeting was held in Kingston towards the end of July. Among the chief speakers were George Moffatt and Hugh E. Montgomerie, of Montreal, John A. Macdonald, of Kingston, also spoke. The League did not hold together, but the extreme party soon banded together and in consequence during the month of October a manifesto “to the people of Canada,†advocating the annexation of Canada to the United States, appeared in Montreal, signed by many leading citizens, including the Torrances, the Redpaths, the Molsons, the Workmans, the Dorions, Luther Hamilton Holton, Benjamin Holmes, David Lewis Macpherson, Jacob de Witt, Edward Goff Penny, D. Lorn Macdougall and John Ross—325signatures in all. L.J. Papineau threw in his weight to the movement. Among the subscribers to the manifesto were justices of the peace, officers of the militia, Queen’s counsels and others holding commissions at the pleasure of the crown. Men of different political parties forgot their differences to promote the scheme. The ebullition was the outcome of the commercial depression and unpromising outlook then prevailing. The manifesto, after pointing out the deplorable state of the country, proceeded to suggest the remedies: the revival of protection in the markets of the United Kingdom; the protection of home manufactures; a federal union of the British American colonies as a federal republic and reciprocal free trade with the United States. But the most sweeping remedy of all was the last one suggested, namely, a “friendly and peaceful separation from British connection; a union upon equitable terms with the great North American Confederacy of Sovereign States,†in brief,annexation.2The movement was known in England and the Morning Advertiser of London of the period said in comment that England would be no loser were the Canadas to carry their threat of annexation into effect; indeed, England would gain.
“The result,†it says, “of careful examination of the Canadian connection in all its aspects, is, that so far from England being a sufferer from the renunciation of their allegiance to the British Crown on the part of the Canadas, she would be an actual gainer. It is a well ascertained fact that the expenses of the connection have more than counterbalanced its advantages. The maintenance of that part of our colonial possessions subjects us to a yearly expenditure of £800,000 hard cash. Will any one tell us that the Canadas confer on us benefits at all equivalent to this? It may, indeed, be debated whether our exports to the Canadas would not be as great as they have been at any former period. At any rate we speak advisedly when we say that this country would be no loser by the secession of the Canadas. That is certainly the conclusion at which ministers have arrived after the most able and careful consideration. On that conclusion they have determined to act. When the session meets we shall see the fact brought fully before the public, with the ground on which the cabinet has come to the conclusion at which it arrived.â€
Such a statement, from a responsible English journal, sounds strangely to us even today—but it is of value in reminding us that at that time Britain was spending some four millions of dollars annually on the Canadas. Four years later, in 1854, the annexation movement received its quietus at the hands of Lord Elgin, when he secured the passage of the Reciprocity Treaty.
As there was no very general support in Canada, the movement soon collapsed. It was begotten of temporary gloom and despair. Annexation was thought by serious and well meaning men to be the necessary remedy—if it could come peaceably. Hence it was not rebellion. The annexation movement was communicated to the Upper Province, but it never had as great a hold anywhere as in Montreal. There was little aftermath beyond the cancelling of the commissions of those who held them at pleasure, a course deemed necessary as a protest by the governor general, Lord Elgin.
In the beginning of November of this year, 1849, the government offices were removed to Toronto. In the early part of 1850 a party known as the“Clear grits,†composed of the more progressive of the reform party in Upper Canada, and dissatisfied with the slowness of ministry, elaborated a programme which, among other heads, advocated, first, the complete application of the elective principle from the highest to the lowest member of the government, and, secondly, universal suffrage. A corresponding but more radical movement was organized at Montreal for Lower Canada by L.J. Papineau, under the title of “La Parti Rouge.†Its members were mostly young French-Canadians, although a number of British radicals were with them, such as L.H. Holton, and others. The “Parti Rouge†pronounced in favour of the repeal of the Union, of a republican form of government and of annexation to the States. “La Parti Rouge,†says La Minerve, the organ of the “bleus,†“has been formed at Montreal under the auspices of Mr. Papineau in hatred of English institutions, of our constitution, declared to be vicious, and above all, of responsible government which is regarded as a takein, with ideas of innovation in religion and in politics, accompanied by a profound hatred for the clergy and with the very formal and very pronounced intention of annexing Canada to the United States.†By the end of the year the prospects of trade had so brightened that with this annexation and other desperate remedies were forgotten. In October the first provincial exhibition of agricultural and industrial products was held at Montreal.
During the session of 1851, the legislation for railways was of primary importance to Montreal; if it was to keep its place as the center of transportation by land as it had been by water it would now enter into its new railroad era forced by the competing enterprises of the adjoining republics. In October the great Lafontaine-Baldwin ministry resigned. Mr. Lafontaine resumed his law practice at Montreal. In the month of August, 1853, he became chief justice of Lower Canada and held that position to his death, February 26, 1864. Ten years previously, in 1854, he was created a baronet. Sir L. Hippolyte Lafontaine’s name and fame stand high in the remembrance of Montreal.
On the 6th of November the existing parliament was dissolved. In the following elections Mr. John Young was returned from Montreal and was given a place in the Hincks-Morin cabinet as commissioner of public works. Mr. Papineau was defeated in Montreal, but found a seat for the county of Two Mountains. In the early part of 1852 Mr. Hincks visited England and arranged for the capitalizing of the Grand Trunk Railway to proceed westward from Montreal. Consequently during the fourth parliament’s first session at Quebec, which opened on August 19th, conspicuous among the acts passed was one to incorporate the Grand Trunk Railway. Other acts interesting to Montrealers were the municipal loan fund act to enable municipalities to borrow money on the credit of the province for local improvement, an act for the establishment of a trans-Atlantic line of steamers and the appropriating of £19,000 sterling per annum for the purpose. The contract was secured by McKean, McLarty & Company, of Liverpool, and steamers began to run during the following spring. Two years later the contract was annulled and an arrangement was made with Messrs. Edmonstone, Allan & Company, of Montreal. The small fleet of the last named company has since developed into the well known Allan line of trans-Atlantic steamships. On October 23d Mr. Charles Wilson, mayor of Montreal, was added to the legislative council. Before the session ended there occurred the famous Gavazzi riots in Quebec and Montreal, the latter place especially maintainingits reputation for mob violence. As the government was afterwards attacked for delay in ordering an unavoidable and searching investigation into the perpetrators of the fatal disaster at Montreal the story may be told here rather than in the ecclesiastical history of the city. During the spring of 1853 Alessandro Gavazzi, an ex-monk, had been giving a course of lectures in the States, mostly against Romanism. He had previously been received with success in England. Posing as an Italian patriot of liberty, with the reputation for impassioned and eloquent oratory and the added piquancy of being an ex-priest, he had attracted elsewhere a favourable hearing. But on his entrance to Lower Canada, at Quebec, he received a check on June 6th when delivering a lecture on the Inquisition in the Free Church on St. Ursule Street. A scene of disorder occurred in the church. The lecturer was attacked in the pulpit, and though he defended himself right valiantly with a stool, knocking down some sixteen of his assailants, he was overmastered and thrown on to the heads of the people below. Confusion reigned. The military were providentially soon on the scene and quiet obtained. The proceedings were sufficient to warrant an informal discussion in the House next day. On the night of the 9th of June Gavazzi was in Montreal, lecturing in Zion Church on the Haymarket square, now Victoria Square. Without, to prevent a recurrence of the Quebec assault, a posse of police was placed opposite the church, another in the Square and a small body of military, hard by, in concealment. These were the “Cameronians†but recently arrived in the city. There was an attempt of a body of Catholic Irishmen to break a way into the church, but they were repulsed. On retreating the second time a shot was fired by one of the intruders who was immediately shot down by a Protestant. Other shots followed. Confusion reigned. The lecture was hurriedly concluded and the people made for home. On the church being attacked the Gavazzi called for three cheers for the Queen and congratulated his hearers on freedom of speech being maintained. On their way through the streets shots were fired at them by the military. Who gave the order to fire has never been discovered. The mayor, the Hon. Charles Wilson, who had read the riot act, was accused and denied it. So also did Colonel Hogarth, of the Twenty-sixth Cameronian Rifles, also accused. It is said that the soldiers fired, at the order of some one in the crowd, but over the heads of the people, so that those making their way up Beaver Hall Hill received the shots. The Cameronians were very unpopular for a time. About forty were killed or wounded, of whom many were injured by stones and other missiles. Two women were struck down and almost trampled to death. The scene was one of frenzied riot, heightened by the screams of women. Gavazzi made his way between two clergymen to St. James street, narrowly escaping with his life. He afterwards escaped from St. Lawrence Hall in an inclosed cab to the wharf, where the Iron Duke took him to La Prairie. Thus his career ended in Canada. On June 26th an investigation was held into the causes of the riot, but nothing was the outcome and there were no apprehensions, at which there was much disapproval, as it was thought the affair was being hushed up as a political move. It is for this reason that the story has been inserted in this portion. The occasion was made an occasion ofodium theologicum. At that time the St. Patrick’s Society, founded in 1834, was composed of Irishmen of different religions, but as Mr. Hincks and the mayor, the Hon. Charles Wilson, were both prominent members, Mr. Hincks was accused of being under the influence of theRoman Catholic majority for political purposes. Mr. Drummond, the attorney-general for Lower Canada, being a Catholic, was also accused in being dilatory in bringing the rioters to justice.
L.H. HOLTONL.H. HOLTON
L.H. HOLTON
SIR FRANCIS HINCKSSIR FRANCIS HINCKS
SIR FRANCIS HINCKS
D’ARCY McGEED’ARCY McGEE
D’ARCY McGEE
Parliament adjourned on the 14th of June. It did not meet again till June 13, 1854, just a day within the limit allowed by the thirty-first clause of the Union act. The chief reason for this was the absence of the governor and the premier in England and at Washington, at which latter place, on June 15th, the treaty of reciprocity was signed between the United States and Canada. The parliament was dissolved in view of the general elections to come in July and August, when the attitude of the people on the two great questions so long postponed, the clergy reserves and the seigneurial tenure was to be taken as an index of confidence and trust in the government. Mr. L.H. Holton and Mr. (afterwards Sir) A.A. Dorion, the leader of the “Parti Rouge,†since Mr. Papineau did not seek reelection, were returned for Montreal. The country as a whole had pronounced in favour of the abolition of the seigneurial tenure and the secularization of the clergy reserves. The parliament met on the 5th of September. The rejection of the ministerial candidate, George Etienne Cartier, for speaker in the assembly, in favour of Mr. Sicotte, indicated to Mr. Hincks and Mr. Morin that they could not carry on the administration against the combined opposition of the conservative, clear grits and the “Parti Rouge.†This was confirmed on September 7th when, on a question of privilege, the opposition carried it. On September 8th the resignation of the Hincks-Morin ministry was accepted by Lord Elgin. The government fell without dishonour. It had obtained the imperial acts enabling the Canadian parliament to deal with the clergy reserves and the application of the elective principle to the legislative council. It had completed the reciprocity treaty with the States and had inaugurated the era of Canadian railway. Montreal largely shared in the prosperity which prevailed in its term. The task of forming a new ministry was entrusted by Lord Elgin to Sir Allan MacNab. With the concurrence of Mr. Morin, Sir Allan effected a coalition between his own conservative following and the late liberal government resulting in the liberal-conservative alliance as the only method possible of obtaining a majority in the assembly capable of conducting the administration in accordance with the now accepted principle of responsible government. The death knell of the old toryism had been sounded. It also marked the virtual extinction of the British party in Lower Canada as a separate political body. Since that date there may be traced the growth of a more united policy in Montreal in the common welfare.
A bill giving effect to the reciprocity treaty with the United States was introduced by attorney-general (East), Hon. L.T. Drummond. The long delayed bill for secularizing the clergy reserves was introduced by Attorney-General (West), Hon. John A. Macdonald, and that abolishing the seigneurial tenure originally introduced by Mr. L.T. Drummond became law. By the former not only the Anglican establishment, but all churches were deprived of any participation in the funds accruing from the reserved lands granted for the support of the Anglican communion since the commencement of the British régime, a privilege that had been all along keenly contested by other denominations. It was now enacted that all proceeds arising from the sale of these lands should be placed into the hands of the receiver-general, by whom, after expenses were paid, theywere to be apportioned equally among the several county and city municipalities in proportion to population.
The Seigneurial Tenure Act while abolishing the system of feudal rights and duties so long prevailing in Lower Canada, authorized the governor to provide commissioners to appropriate indemnifications for the despoiled seigneurs. Thus the two great questions which had long been exercising Montreal politicians were at last solved. Parliament was prorogued on the 18th of December and Lord Elgin concluded his office as governor-general with credit and honour.
Parliament opened on February 23, 1855. It was marked by the retirement of Mr. Morin from the ministry. The McNab-Taché administration was therefore formed. The Crimean war was now on, and as it became necessary to remove the Imperial Troops from Canada “a militia act was passed, which was the first step toward the modern organization of a regular volunteer force in Canada.â€
The fifth parliament was opened at Toronto on the 15th of February, 1856. On Her Majesty’s birthday, May 24th, through the resignation of Sir Allan McNab, the Taché-Macdonald ministry assumed the reins, in which John A. Macdonald held the whip hand. In this session the postponed elective legislative council act was passed for which imperial authority had already been given. While those already in the legislative council were to retain their seats for life, every future member was to be elected by the people for a term of eight years. This continued till confederation, in 1867, when the system of appointment for life was reverted to. The Montreal members in the legislative council for 1856 were the Honourables Peter McGill, William Morris, Adam Ferrie, James Ferrier, Denis B. Viger, James Leslie, Frederic A. Quesnel, Joseph Bourret and Charles Wilson. This year the stringency in the money market was felt as the result of the Crimean war.
The year of 1857 is spoken of asl’année terrible. The toll of death was exacted as the price of advancing civilization. Near Hamilton seventy lives were lost by a train crashing through a bridge spanning the Desjardins canal. The steamer Montreal which plied between Montreal and Quebec, was burned so rapidly near Cape Rouge that about two hundred and fifty emigrants lost their lives. The harvest was a failure. By the beginning of winter trade had become almost stagnant. Mercantile disaster which was to last for a long time stared the wholesale and retail merchants in the face. Mercantile credit collapsed and every industry was crippled. Agriculture also shared in the general paralysis. The cause of this disastrous state was the public extravagance in that era of public works and railway development. The whirlwind was being reaped. During the year the Taché-Macdonald government had sat continuously from February 26th to June 10th. The premier, Colonel Taché, resigned on November 25th and thereupon the Hon. John A. Macdonald and the Hon. George Etienne Cartier formed their administration. At the general elections held in consequence at Montreal, Mr. A.A. Dorion, leader of the “Rouge Party,†was one of the few of his party returned, but Mr. Holton was defeated by the new attorney-general.
A new member for the city was the brilliant young Irishman, Thomas D’Arcy McGee, who had only been a year in Canada. He was, however, well known in the United States as a powerful journalist and public speaker imbued with Irish-American ideas. He was born in Carlingford, County Louth, in Ireland, in 1825. In his seventeenth year he went to the States and began journalism.In 1845 he undertook the editorship of the “Freeman’s Journal†in Dublin. Becoming identified with the New Ireland party and involved with Charles Gavan Duffy in the Smith-O’Brien’s insurrection, he escaped to New York, where he started the “New York Nation,†which was suppressed by Bishop Hughes for the attacks on the Irish hierarchy. At Boston he founded the “American Celt†and continued it at Buffalo for five years. Gradually he became reconciled to the hierarchy and received their support, so that his paper was the exponent in America of Irish Catholic opinions. In 1857 he accepted an invitation from the Irish party in Montreal to settle here. After having fulfilled the necessary period of “domicile†he was soon nominated for parliament, as we have seen.
The new parliament assembled on February 25th. It had become known after the election that Her Majesty had fixed upon Ottawa as the permanent seat of government. Parliament had ratified the choice and a sum of money had been appropriated for the erection of buildings. But there was serious opposition in many quarters. It broke out in the House on July 28th, when Mr. Dunkin moved an address to the Queen, praying Her Majesty to reconsider the decision and have Montreal named instead of Ottawa. Mr. Brown moved for an amendment for delay in the erection of buildings and the removal of government offices to Ottawa, and Mr. Piché moved as a further amendment that “in the opinion of this house Ottawa ought not to be the permanent government for the province.†The amendment was carried, supported by the opposition, and being considered by the minority equivalent to a vote of censure on Her Majesty, the government resigned on the following day. Mr. George Brown was put in charge of forming a ministry which was announced on Monday, August 2d. At once a vote of want of confidence in the new Brown-Dorion government, moved by Mr. Hector Langevin, was passed in the Assembly and in the Upper House. On Wednesday afternoon after having been in office for forty-eight hours and without having initiated a single act, parliamentary or administrative, the short-lived administration was forced to resign. On August 6th George Cartier becoming prime minister, the Cartier-Macdonald ministry virtually resumed the situation of the Macdonald-Cartier government of a few days ago. The portfolios, however, were exchanged and thus, by making use of a statute of 1857 there was avoided the necessity of the ministers going to the people for reelection. This was known as the “Double Shuffle.†The reconstructed government found themselves with a strong majority. During the session of this year the question of “protection to home industries,†a live subject at Montreal, came up for legislation and was followed by the protective tariff of the following year.
The government offices having been removed from Toronto, parliament met at Quebec on January 29th, for the government offices were not removed to Ottawa till 1865, where the first session was held in 1866. During this year the principle of Confederation began to be broached tentatively but surely, by the opposition party led by Mr. George Brown. A reform convention in Toronto held in November drew up a series of resolutions which, when compared with the British North American act of 1867, show a clear family likeness. At Montreal similar meetings were held under the auspices of Messrs. Dorion, Drummond, McGee and others for the same purpose of approving a federal union, but as yet the movement was weak in Lower Canada.
The sixth parliament met at Quebec for its fourth and last session on the 16th of March, 1861. By a proclamation of the governor-general on the 10th of June it came to an end.
On the 8th of November there occurred in mid-ocean, during the Civil war in the States between the North and South, the “Trent Incident,†which caused a commotion at Montreal and throughout Canada. The British Mail steamer Trent had on board the Confederate envoys, Messrs. Mason and Slidell, when they were forcibly taken prisoners by Captain Wilkes of the United States sloop of war San Jacinto. War looked inevitable and the Canadian Volunteers were augmented, drilled and ready for war. Regular military troops arrived also from England. The first day of the new year, 1862, saw the envoys delivered back to England and the danger of war was over. One result of the “Trent†affair was a great deepening of the Canadian sympathy, especially at Montreal, with the southern Confederacy.
In 1862 the Cartier-Macdonald government fell, on the occasion of their “Militia Bill,†on May 21st, and on the 24th the Macdonald (J.S.)-Sicotte ministry was sworn in, being succeeded on May 26, 1863, by the Macdonald (J.S.)-Dorion combination, which only lasted till the 2d of March, 1864, when the Taché-Macdonald (J.A.) again came into power. It was agreed upon, that the government should be pledged to introduce the federal principle into Canada and to aim at a confederation in which all British America should be “united under a general legislature based upon the federal principle.â€
The idea of confederation as a remedy for government ills had occupied attention at intervals with increasing acuteness even before the Union of 1841. It had not been confined to Upper and Lower Canada, for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island had long discussed the idea of a union among themselves. Various political dreamers had forecasted it, no doubt following the lead of the United States. A meeting for the purpose being called at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, the coalition government of Canada sent eight ministers3to confer with their representatives on the merits of a larger scheme of union between all the provinces with the result that by agreement a further convention was to be held at Quebec on a day named by the governor general. His excellency fixed upon October 10th and notified the respective lieutenant governors of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. The result was the pledge to promote the projected confederation.
During the fall of this year, 1864, Montreal was the scene of the St. Alban’s Raid prosecutions. As already said, Canada and Montreal especially had sympathized with the Southerners. Many refugees had found a home here. Canada being so close to the frontier was, therefore, frequently used as the basis of southern plots. In the summer two vessels plying on Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, belonging to American merchants, had been seized and partially plundered by the southern refugees. In September St. Albans, a little town in Vermont,on the frontier, was raided by twenty-three southerners from Canada under the command of Bennett H. Young, an ex-Confederate soldier, who escaped to Canada on captured horses with $223,000 booty, after having plundered three local banks and shot one of the cashiers. Their excuse was that they were representatives of the Confederate States of America and they were there to retaliate the outrages committed by General Sherman. In November the trial of the captured rioters took place at Montreal and on March 30th they were discharged.
Parliament met on the 19th of January. It was prorogued on the 18th of March. During the following month four of the administration, J.A. Macdonald, Cartier, Brown and Galt, proceeded to England to discuss with the imperial government the scheme of confederation. The delegates returned in time for the opening of the last session of the Canadian legislature at Quebec on the 8th of August. The premier, Sir E.P. Taché, had died full of honours on the 30th of July. He was succeeded by Sir N.F. Belleau. During this session the bill was passed to carry out the recommendation of the commissioners appointed in 1857 “to reduce into one code to be called the civil code of Lower Canada those provisions of the laws of Lower Canada which relate to civil matters and are of a general and permanent character.†Attorney-General Cartier who had introduced the bill appointing the commission in 1857 had the satisfaction of seeing its labours adopted in 1865. The code came into operation in 1866. This was welcomed by the jurists of Montreal and Quebec, as it simplified the law, reducing order out of chaos; the abolition of the seigneurial tenure act of 1854 had rendered the codification very necessary. Parliament closed on the 18th of September. The public offices were removed to Ottawa during the autumn, but for a time the cabinet meetings were held at Montreal.
In the beginning of 1866 a delegation was sent by the government to Washington to obtain a renewal of the reciprocity treaty which came to an end this year. The mission was a failure. St. Patrick’s day, March 17th, was looked forward to in Canada by more than those of Irish nationality. For although during the year 1865 rumours had gone around that the Fenian Brotherhood of the States, organized about this time with a branch in Ireland to liberate Ireland, had determined to invade Canada as a base of their operations against England, they were not taken very seriously. But in 1866 the announcement of combined movements upon Canada to commence on St. Patrick’s day forced serious preparation for their reception and caused great anxiety over the country and much recruiting in volunteer circles. St. Patrick’s day passed and nothing happened. Beginning, however, in April and gaining strength in May and June, the filibustering Fenians massed their forces at various points, such as that marked by the raid under O’Neill upon the Niagara frontier in June, that of Ogdensburg, menacing a march upon Ottawa, and that at St. Albans on the Vermont frontier, where 1,800 men had collected on June 7th to pass over into Canada. In Montreal doubtless they hoped to find some sympathizers. None of these movements met eventual success and quiet was successfully maintained on the frontier by both governments. But these were the occasion of military ardour, shown by the enrollments of the militia and of general patriotism.
The parliament met at Ottawa on the 8th of June in the midst of the Fenian excitement. The address of His Excellency, the governor general, forecasted the hope that the next time parliament met at Ottawa it would be under the confederationof Province. It lasted to the 15th of August. About three months later a joint delegation of the representatives of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick met on December 4th in London at the Westminster Palace Hotel and a conference was held. Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland had seceded from the project. The upshot of the negotiations was such that on the 22d of May, 1867, the Confederation Act, technically known as “the British North American Act, 1867,†was proclaimed at Windsor Castle by Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, appointing the 1st of July following as the date upon which it should come into force. This act joined Canada (Upper and Lower), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick into one Dominion, under the name of CANADA. There should be one federal parliament, consisting of the Queen, represented by the governor general, anupper houseconsisting of seventy-twolifemembers appointed by the Crown, and a House of Commonselectedon the principle of representation by population. Its jurisdiction was to affect matters concerning the Dominion at large. Each of the four provinces of Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick was to have a provincial legislature to manage its internal affairs. Each was to have a lieutenant governor. In Ontario the legislature consisted only of a house of assembly. In the other three provinces a council was added.