In the Lower Province two Banks had already been established; there was now one in operation at Kingston, in Upper Canada. It is not a little curious, however, that when efforts were first made to establish the Kingston Bank the current of public opinion set so strongly against the measure, that although supported by men of intelligence and respectability, it was abandoned without the presentation of petitions to the legislature. A bill, as may have already been perceived, was, nevertheless, passed, for the incorporation of the bank, but reserved for His Majesty's pleasure by Governor Gore. The roads, in Upper Canada, were at this period so indifferent that there were but few common carriages, while the inns were so indifferent that in the summer season travelling was for the most part accomplished by water. Indeed the facilities afforded by water for travelling in some very considerable degree impeded the improvement of the roads, between towns situated very far apart.
Sir Peregrine Maitland having assumed the government of Upper Canada, met the parliament of that province, for the first time, on the 12th of October, 1818. His "maiden" speech from the throne was noticeable for the remark that parliament would feel a just indignation at the attempts which had been made to excite discontent and to organize sedition, accompanied by the hint and suggestion that should it appear to parliament that a convention of delegates could not exist without danger to the constitution, in framing a law of prevention, parliamentary wisdom would be careful that it should not unwarily trespass on that sacred right of the subject to seek a redress of his grievances by petition. Mr. Robert Gourlay, of Craigrothie, Fifeshire, in Scotland, had emigrated to Upper Canada, with the view of settling himself and family and indeed of making a settlement in some suitable spot. Mr. Guthrie had peculiar ideas with regard to emigration, free trade, and liberty of speech. He was a democrat, but not, by any means, a republican. He was not politically connected with either Cobbett or Hunt, although he seems to have known both of these gentlemen. He was not in the habit of attending such meetings as those that were held at Spa-fields and were then termed "radical" meetings, although he had been at a meeting in Spa-fields. He had been both in Ireland and in the United States, but he was neither an Irish rebel nor an American revolutionist. He had only a bee in his bonnet, which has since buzzed in the bonnets of a very great number of men, whose loyalty or patriotism has not been even doubted, and, who, consequently, have never been marked "dangerous" by a colonial Justice of the Peace. Mr. Guthrie conceived that Canada was capable of absorbing about 50,000 of the poor of England, Ireland, and Scotland, annually; that a land tax was preferable to taxes on trade and manufactures, especially in a new country; that there should be three description of roads—provincial, district, and township; that it would be advantageous to connect the lakes of the St. Lawrence together, and permit the free navigation of the Canadian inland waters from Lake Superior to the sea; that free trade should exist; and that there should be no hindrance to the expression of public opinion, however offensive to the authorities such public opinion might be. Mr. Guthrie arrived in Canada in the summer of 1817, and after looking around him, determined upon establishing himself as a land agent. He had, in truth, conceived schemes for a grand system of emigration, and set about obtaining statistics with the view of setting forth the capabilities of the country to the people of England. He addressed the landowners of Upper Canada for information. He sent circulars to the people, but unfortunately made allusion to the able resolutions brought forward at the close of the last session of the provincial parliament. He brought the matter before the parliament itself, but that body having been suddenly prorogued, by Governor Gore, the idea of a convention suggested itself to Mr. Gourlay. The Executive of Upper Canada took alarm. The desire, for a knowledge of the condition, circumstances, and requirements of the townships and districts, was in connection with some radical schemes for upsetting British authority in the Canadas. Mr. Guthrie was misrepresented and, with the view of creating a general panic, he was arrested. Nevertheless, deputies were chosen and a convention was held at York. In this convention the political restraints to which the colonists were liable were fully discussed. There was undoubted mismanagement on the part of the executive government, and Gourlay advised a petition to the Prince Regent, soliciting the appointment of a commission from England to make enquiries. Such a proposal could not fail to give offence. Gourlay was arrested and carried before the most virulent of his political enemies. He was tried and twice acquitted, but theLondon Courier, of the 8th of July, 1818, arrived, in which he was alluded to as "one of the worthies, who hadescapedafter the disgraceful proceedings of Spa-fields." That was enough. Mr. Gourlay was brought before a magistrate, Mr. Dickson, M.P. "Do you know Mr. Cobbett?" asked the magistrate. "Yes," answered the culprit. "Do you know Mr. Hunt?" "Yes." "Were you at Spa-fields?" "Yes." "Were you ever in Ireland?" "Yes." "Were you lately in the Lower Province?" "Yes." "Were you lately in the United States?" "Yes." "Was it you that wrote the article in theSpectator, headed "Gagged, gagged by jingo?"" "It was." "Then," said Mr. Dickson to his fellow magistrates, "it is my opinion that Mr. Gourlay is a man of desperate fortune, and would stick at nothing to raise insurrection in the province." He was committed to gaol charged with treasonable practices! There was then, indeed, no real liberty in the province, and Mr. Gourlay had made use of words which only could be used safely in England. The magistracy were completely in the hands of the Executive Council, and a considerable number of both Houses were inclined to do whatever they were ordered. Indeed there were few politicians in the country, politics not having yet become a trade. The Commons replied to Sir Peregrine Maitland just as he wished. They were convinced that a convention of delegates could not exist without danger to the constitution. Nay, they even went further, and on the 19th of October, presented an address expressing just indignation at the systematic attempts that had been made to excite discontent and organize sedition in the province, and they deeply regretted that the designs of one man should have succeeded in drawing into the support of his vile machinations so many honest men, and loyal subjects of His Majesty. A bill was passed indeed to prevent the organization of persons, who might degrade the character of the province, and after assenting to several bills Sir Peregrine Maitland closed the session by thanking parliament for the seasonable aid of "An Act for preventing certain meetings within the province." He conceived that if the people were aggrieved they could send a petition to the foot of the throne. The Surveyor General's Department was to be abolished. He was proud of the sentiments expressed by the House of Assembly and would send them to His Majesty's government. Had the public mind been tranquil, he would have brought before the Houses a few objects of general importance, one of which was a remedy for the unequal pressure of the road laws. Mr. Gourlay was retained in gaol, then ordered to leave the province, and, on refusing to go, was tried for disobeying an Act of parliament. He was forcibly ejected from the province, and it was not until 1847 that the province of Canada offered him redress in the shape of a pension of some fifty pounds a year, Mr. Gourlay being then resident in Scotland. Governor Maitland again met the parliament of Upper Canada on the 7th of June, 1819. He informed the parliament that the Queen had closed a long life, illustrious for the exemplary discharge of every public and private duty; that the Regent had authorised the governors of both Canadas to bestow lands on certain of the provincial army and militia, "which served" during the late war; that recent purchases from the natives had been so far effected, as would enable him to set apart tracts in the several districts, to accommodate such of their respective inhabitants as were within the limits of the royal instruction; but that he (Governor Maitland) did not consider himself justified in extending that mark of approbation to any of the individuals, who composed the late convention of delegates, the proceedings of which were properly the subject of very severe parliamentary animadversion. The royal assent had been given to the bill for the establishment of a provincial bank, but, from some delay, it did not arrive in time for promulgation, within the period limited by law; the form of an enactment would, therefore, be necessary to render it available. He was deeply impressed with the necessity of an amendment to the road law; neglected grants of an early day were becoming a serious evil. The exemption of any land belonging to individuals, from the operation of the assessment law, was found to be detrimental: a new bill so modified as to protect the land from sale by distress until due notice could be given to the proprietors would receive His Majesty's assent. The public accounts would be laid before the House of Assembly with the estimates for the ensuing year. The growth of the province in population and wealth, justified a reasonable expectation that the measures adopted to encourage it would receive the fullest support: and the expediency of affording the new settlers, situated remotely from the great lakes and rivers, an easy approach to market was apparent, and with other matters would, he hoped, be attended to. The speech in reply was satisfactory, but there was an under current of public opinion, not quite so satisfactory. It was considered that Governor Maitland had exceeded his authority in withholding in part that which the Regent had instructed him not to withhold at all. Conventions were not illegal. The right to meet and discuss public measures had never been called in question. The convention was composed of men who were altogether loyal. To upset the government of the province or to get rid of imperial authority was never contemplated. All that the members of convention desired was the repeal of several grievances, and they meant only to petition the Regent for their removal. The executive influence in the legislature was overwhelming and mischievous. The governor had not only the disposal of every civil office, and of every civil and military commission, but of land to a boundless extent. That influence had been repeatedly misapplied. The lamentable effects of such a misapplication of influence had been too frequently witnessed. Public duty was neglected. The whole face of the country was pining with disease. Nature was everywhere struggling with misrule. And civilization itself was on the decline. In Upper Canada the image and transcript of the British constitution was now only reflected by Major-General Sir Peregrine Maitland, and five executive councillors. Legislation was embraced in a governor's speech from the throne.
About the time of the prorogation of the session, His Grace, the Duke of Richmond, came to Upper Canada, on a tour of inspection. His Grace and his son-in-law went to Niagara together. Important internal improvements were contemplated, and the two governors were desirous of ascertaining how they might be effected. The Duke, after a short stay in Upper Canada, bade farewell to his relative, and, with Colonel Ready, his secretary, was on his way to Quebec, when, somewhere between Kingston and Montreal, he became seriously ill. It is not very certain what ailed him. He was said to have been bitten by a fox. However, he died, in a few hours, of excruciating suffering. He supported, for the brief period, a disease, supposed to be hydrophobia, with undaunted constancy, and yielded up his spirit on the 28th of August, 1819. His remains were brought to Quebec, and there interred with great pomp and ceremony, beneath the altar of the Church of England Cathedral, but as yet no monument has been erected to his memory.
The administration of the government of the province of Lower Canada was, on the death of the Duke of Richmond, assumed by the senior member of the Executive Council, Mr. Monk, and President Monk issued his proclamation to that effect, on the 20th of September. He summoned the legislature to meet for the despatch of business on the 21st of February, 1820. Mr. Monk had, however, hardly assumed the government when Sir Peregrine Maitland arrived in Quebec, from Upper Canada, to take the administration of affairs into his hands, according to instructions which, on his appointment to the Lieutenant-Governorship of Upper Canada, he had received from the imperial government. He did not stay long. He merely advised Mr. Monk, whom he left in charge of the government, and on the 9th of February he set out again for Upper Canada, to dissolve the parliament. The existing parliament had been very refractory and had been admonished even by the late Governor-in-Chief. The Parliament was dissolved and writs for an election, returnable on the 11th of April, issued. Gaspé being very remotely situated was an exception. The Gaspé writ was not returnable until the 1st of June. Nothing was gained to the administration by the resort to dissolution. The new parliament was even more hostile to the government than the old one. The people approved of the course pursued by the late Assembly in the matter of the civil list and indeed approved of their proceedings generally. Sir Peregrine returned to Quebec on the 17th of March, after he had prorogued the parliament of Upper Canada, and having assumed the management of the public business, he convened the parliament on the 11th of April, the very day on which the writs were returnable, Gaspé only excepted. He opened the House with a speech remarkable for nothing but its brevity. Mr. Papineau was re-elected Speaker and the choice approved of. But this was no sooner done than the Assembly found themselves incompetent for the transaction of business. The House must, by law, consist of fifty members, and only forty-nine had been returned. The Gaspé writ was not returnable until the 1st of June. There was no House. Business could not legally be carried on. A message came down from the Governor recommending the renewal of certain Acts of the legislature. The House paid no attention to the message. The House at last resolved that it could do no business. The twelve months within which a session was necessary would expire on the 24th of April, and there could be no return of the Gaspé writ until the 1st of June. The Governor was informed of his "fix," but was by no means pleased. He did not believe in such nonsense as the unavoidable non-return of a single member being a matter of such importance as the Assembly alleged. He begged that they would go on with the public business. The House would not budge. A message came from the Legislative Council, and the messenger knocked, but the door of the Assembly remained closed. The government had dissolved the parliament stupidly and the parliament meant stupidly to dissolve the government. It was the 24th of April when the news of the death of King George the Third reached Quebec, by way of New York, when the Administrator was offered an excuse for another dissolution, by which the accident threatened by the previous dissolution could be escaped. Parliament was dissolved, during the firing of minute guns and the tolling of bells; and a new king was proclaimed by the sheriff, after a salute of 100 guns had been fired, on the Place d'Armes, in presence of the Governor, the heads of departments, the troops and a crowd of people. There was no other occurrence of moment until the arrival of the new Governor General, the Earl of Dalhousie, who arrived from Halifax, where he had administered the government of Nova Scotia, on the 18th of June, in H.M.S.Newcastle. Lord Dalhousie was a soldier. He had been altogether educated in the camp. To the trickery of diplomacy he was quite a stranger. He had not long arrived when the general elections took place. Mr. Papineau, the Speaker of the late Assembly, was at the hustings addressing a Montreal constituency. How strong the feeling was in favor of British constitutional rule in comparison with the Bourbon fashion of ruling colonies, the Earl of Dalhousie learned from Mr. Papineau's own lips. A great national calamity had made it imperative upon Mr. Papineau to court the favor of his constituents a second time in one year. A sovereign who had reigned over the inhabitants of Canada since the day in which they had become British subjects, had ceased to breathe. To express the feeling of gratitude which was due to him, or to say how much his loss was mourned would be impossible. Each year of his long reign had been marked by new favors bestowed on the country. A comparison between the happy situation of Canada at present, with the situation of Canada under "our" fore-fathers, when George the Third became their legitimate monarch, would sufficiently indicate the extent of the calamity which Canada had sustained in the death of the good old king. Under the French government the rule was arbitrary and oppressive. Canada had been neglected by the French Court, and mal-administered by the French Viceroys. The fertility of the soil, the salubrity of the climate, and the extent of territory which might even then have been the peaceful abode of a numerous and happy population was not considered. Canada was looked upon as a mere military post. The people were compelled to live in perpetual warfare and insecurity. There was no general trade. Trade was in the hands of companies. Famine was of frequent occurrence. Public and private property were insecure. Personal liberty was daily violated. Year after year the inhabitants of Canada were dragged from their homes and families to shed their blood, and carry murder and havoc from the shores of the great lakes and the banks of the Mississippi and Ohio, to the coasts of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Hudson's Bay. And now, how changed! The reign of law has succeeded to that of violence. Religious toleration; trial by jury; the Habeas Corpus; and the right to obey no other laws than those of our own making, have taken the place of perpetual warfare and perpetual insecurity. Such was the news received by Lord Dalhousie, on his arrival, and that too immediately preceding a deplorable period of agricultural distress in both of the Canadas; when the absence of all demand for wheat had compelled several farmers in the district of Montreal to send hay, oats, and vegetables, in boats, down the river, for the chance of a market at Quebec; when in some of the parishes of Montreal, which formerly sold great quantities of wheat for exportation, farms partly cleared, with a log house and barn, had been sold at sheriff's sales, for less than the usual law expenses incurred to effect the sale; and when one immediate consequence of this distress was expected to be on the part of the farmers a compulsory resort to family manufactures for their supply of clothing, as they must soon otherwise have been without the means of protecting their bodies against the inclemency of the seasons. Commercial operations had, however, been tolerably brisk. 585 vessels of 147,754 tons had arrived from sea, in 1820, and 7 new vessels had been built at Quebec. £674,556 worth of merchandise had been imported.
Lord Dalhousie met the legislature of Lower Canada on the 14th of December. Mr. Papineau was re-elected Speaker and approved of when the Governor-in-Chief opened the business of the session. His Lordship made a semi-theatrical allusion to the death of the late king; mixing it up with the death of the Duke of Richmond, whom he had known and honored during thirty years, when he immediately descended to pounds, shillings and pence. He called attention to the accounts of the general expenditure for the past two years; he would lay before the Assembly the accounts of the expense annually incurred in the administration of the government, and he would add a statement of the annual product of the permanent taxes, and hereditary territorial revenues of the Crown. By these documents the Assembly would perceive that the annual permanent revenue of the province was not equal to the amount of annual permanent charges upon the provincial civil list, but was deficient in about £22,000. The king had commanded him to say that having, from past experience, the fullest confidence in the loyalty and sense of duty of the Canadian people, he expected that a proper and permanent provision would be made to supply the deficiency, so that the civil government of the province might be sustained with honor and advantage to his subjects. He had made a tour of the province, but could not take upon himself to point out with confidence those measures of improvement which would prove of the most advantage to the country. He concurred, however, in all that had been said on the subject by the late Duke of Richmond, and the Duke's recommendations were worthy of consideration by the parliament. A permanent revenue law or a revenue law not liable to be suddenly changed, would benefit trade. Agriculture should be encouraged. The militia laws should be renewed. The waste lands should be settled. A tide of immigration had set in, which promised to continue. Many of the new comers were poor, and some had been grievously afflicted with sickness. Not a few had abundant means. The settlement of these immigrants should not have been impeded by the want of legislative aid. There were great advantages to be derived from a new population. Lower Canada, he was aware, had a population sufficiently numerous to settle the waste lands. There were, undoubtedly, prejudices against the introduction of strangers to be overcome, and there were also prejudices in the minds of strangers, affecting their settlement in Lower Canada, fertile as it was, offering as it undeniably did, so many facilities for manufacturing operations, and presenting, as was apparent, so wide a field for internal trade. Inducements should be held out to new comers, with the view of making them spread more widely. Parochial churches should be erected. Roads affording access to distant woodlands should be laid out. For himself, he would assure the Assembly that he had no object in view but the good of the country. The Assembly liked the frankness of the Governor-in-Chief. They had no idea, however, of permanently appropriating, in the then uncertain state of trade, an amount for the civil list, exceeding half the usual amount of the whole revenue. They would vote annually, in accordance with their promise to Sir John Sherbrooke, all the necessary expenses of the government if His Excellency pleased, and no more. With regard to permanent taxes they believed such a mode of taxation to be impracticable. They would, however, investigate the effects that might result from a long duration of the revenue laws. They would, if it were possible, inspire the commercial classes with confidence. Legislation was then proceeded with. The civil list was first considered. The estimate divided the list into classes. There was the Governor-in-Chief and his staff; the Legislature and its officers; the Executive Council and its officers; the Judges, Sheriffs, Clerks of Courts, and Tipstaffs; the Secretary and Registrar of the Province; the Receiver General and his clerk; the Surveyor General and clerks; the Surveyor of Woods; the Auditor of Land Patents; the Inspector General and clerks; and the contingencies of the whole. The estimate amounted to £44,877. The Assembly proceeded to the discussion of the itemscon amore. Item after item was read over and commented upon, much after the present fashion. John Neilson was then a member of the Assembly. Mr. Neilson was then as much an economist as Mr. Mackenzie is or pretends to be now. He was wisely jealous of the government. Mr. Neilson, the editor of theQuebec Gazette, was in the highest degree intelligent. He was honest and, consequently independent. He could say more in a sentence than Charles Richard Ogden could combat in a speech. He was a tall, spare man, with rugged, but yet prepossessing features. He had always two black eyes, overshadowed by a low protruding forehead. From the occiput to theos frontis, his head was quite level and extraordinarily long. It was possibly due to Mr. Neilson's intelligence that, after some reductions had been made, the required supply was voted, not in a bill, providing for the payment of stipulated sums to certain individuals, but in a bill in which allowances were made for six different departments and a supply voted for the whole. The sum voted, notwithstanding certain reductions was more than the estimate. £46,000 sterling was appropriated towards defraying the expenses of the civil government. £3,083, the charge upon the pension list, and £1,543, the annual cost of the militia staff were added to the civil list. The supply was voteden bloc, or almost so, with the view of reconciling the Legislative Council to an annual appropriation, and because that House had objected to the previous supply bill in which certain sums were appropriated for the payment of certain functionaries. Nevertheless, the bill was rejected by the Legislative Council. The bill had not made a permanent provision for the civil list, and it interfered with monies already appropriated. The Council resolved that it would not proceed upon any bill of supply, which should not have been applied for by the king's representative; the Council would not proceed upon any bill appropriating public money that should not have been recommended by the king's representative; the Council would not proceed upon any bill of appropriation, for money issued, in consequence of an address of the Assembly to the king's representative, unless upon some extraordinary emergency; the Council would not proceed upon any appropriation of public money for any salary or pension hereafter to be created, unless thequantumof such salary or pension had been recommended by the king's representative; and the Council would not proceed upon any bill of appropriation for the civil list, which should contain specifications therein, by chapters or items, nor unless the same should be granted during the life of the king. The Assembly were also quite resolved as to the course to be pursued by them. They would pass no bill of supply without specifications, nor for any period longer than a year. They would not pass any bill at all for the purposes of defraying the expenses of the government, unless the right of applying and apportioning by vote, the monies previously appropriated towards the support of the civil government, was also conceded to them. This quarrel between the two Houses was an exceedingly interesting one. The members of the Upper House, or the majority of them, felt themselves to be personally interested—and were uneasy, while the Assembly, having no other interest in the matter, than principle and a sense of expediency, could maintain their position, without flinching, for almost any length of time. Nay, the Assembly were positively generous. As the rejection of the supply bill had left the Executive without the means of defraying the civil expenditure for the year, the Assembly tendered the sum of £46,060 sterling to His Excellency, pledging themselves to make good the amount by a bill at the ensuing session. But His Excellency would not have it. He was of opinion that the grant, now proposed, was wholly ineffectual without the concurrence of the Legislative Council. There was no answer. Mr. Neilson moved, and the Assembly resolved that, the speech of His Grace the Governor-in-Chief, on the 24th of April, 1819, contained a censure of the proceedings of the Assembly; that all censure of any proceeding of the Assembly, by either of the branches of the legislature, was an assumption and exercise of power contrary to law, a breach of the undoubted rights and privileges of the House of Assembly, and subversive of the constitution of the government, as by law established in the province; and that it was the undoubted right of the Assembly, in voting aids or supplies, or offering money bills for the consent of the other branches of the legislature, to adopt such order or mode of proceedings, as it might find conformable to its rules, and to propound such matter as in its judgment should seem fitted and most conducive to the peace, welfare, and good government of the province.
Mr. Andrew Stuart, a man of brilliant attainments, was busily engaged in the exposure of the enormous abuses that had prevailed in the improvident and prodigal grants of the Crown lands. A bill was brought forward in the Assembly for more effectually ascertaining the state of the public funds in the hands of the Receiver General. The Receiver General was to account annually to the legislature for his expenditures, and he was to tell over, for its disposal by the Assembly, the balance which he should have remaining in hand. He was to be allowed a commission on all monies paid into his hands, in lieu of a salary. And he was not to be engaged in trade. The bill did not, however, receive a third reading, and the Receiver General still continued to carry on the business of a lumber merchant. A bill was also introduced for the trial of impeachments by the Legislative Council, but was afterwards relinquished. An effort was made to obtain a per diem allowance for the members of the Assembly, but it was not successful. Mr. James Stuart was named agent for the province in London, and the sum of £2,000 was voted to defray his expenses in that capacity; but the appointment was set aside by the Council, because a Mr. Gordon, who held a situation in the Colonial Office, had been previously appointed agent for the province by the Executive government, with a salary of £200 a year. Several messages, relative to public improvements were sent down to the Assembly in the course of the session, but the House only promised to consider them next session. One bill, of great importance, was, however, passed:—that to open a canal between Montreal and Lachine, at the public expense. Before the close of the session the House represented that if a Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, with a salary of £1,500 a year, was necessary, he should be resident in the province; that the Lieutenant-Governorship of Gaspé, to which a salary of £300 a year was attached, was a sinecure; that the Secretary of the Province, with a salary of £400 a year, resided in London, while his duties were performed by a deputy, who only received the fees incidental to the office; that the agent of the province, who received £200 a year, did nothing for his salary, and had no services to perform, being merely the agent of the Executive; and that it was the opinion of the Assembly that no salary should be allowed to any of the members of the Executive Council, non-resident in the province. It was further represented that the offices of Judge of the Vice-Admiralty and Judge of the Court of King's Bench were incompatible, and that the offices of Judge of the King's Bench and of French Translator to the Court could not be held by the same person. The exaction of fees, too, by the Judge of the Vice-Admiralty, while he received a salary of £200 a year, in lieu of fees, was improper and contrary to law. And the Governor-in-Chief was requested to effect remedies. On the 17th of March, the session was prorogued. Lord Dalhousie could not express his satisfaction at the general result of the Assembly's deliberations. He regretted that the expectations of His Majesty, with respect to the civil list, had not been realised. He was disappointed. The administration of the civil government had been left without any pecuniary means, but what he should advance upon his own personal responsibility. Individuals would suffer under severe and unmerited hardships, caused by the want of that constitutional authority necessary for the payment of the expenses of the civil government; the improvements of the country were nearly at a stand; and the executive government was palsied and powerless. When parliament should be again summoned for legislation, it would be summoned to decide whether government should be restored to its constitutional energy, or whether the prospect of lasting misfortune was to be deplored by a continuance of the present state of things. The Assembly inwardly chuckled as the Governor concluded his speech. All that they wanted had been in part effected. The government had acknowledged itself to be constitutionally dependent on the Assembly for its energy and for its pecuniary means. It was hoped, indeed, that sooner or later, the propriety of permitting the Assembly to vote the supplies, after its own fashion, would be conceded.
Shortly after the prorogation, Mr. Papineau, the Speaker of the Assembly, Mr. Hale, a member of the Legislative Council, and Colonel Ready, Civil Secretary, were added to the Executive Council.
On the 7th of July, the construction of the Lachine Canal was commenced.
In the course of the summer, Lord Dalhousie proceeded on a tour to Upper Canada, returning by the Ottawa, in August.
The legislature of Lower Canada was again opened by the Governor-in-Chief, on the 11th of December. He brought under the consideration of parliament the state of the province, recommending immediate attention to its financial affairs, with the view of making a suitable provision for the support of the civil government. He had adopted a course for the payment of the current expenses of government as consistent as possible with the existing laws. He had been commanded to recommend that a provision for the civil list should be granted permanently, during His Majesty's life. He felt assured that the Council would attend to the recommendation, and he would not advert to topics of far inferior importance, for the present. The Council considered it to be their paramount duty to adopt what had been established in the British parliament, as a constitutional principle, the granting of the civil list during the life of the king. The Assembly were not so submissive. They requested His Excellency, the Governor, to convey to the king that they had received with all due humility the communication of His Majesty's recommendation that such provision, as should appear necessary for the payment of the expenses of the civil list should be granted permanently, during His Majesty's life, as well as the information that such was the practice of the British parliament, and that the recommendation would have due weight with them. The Governor on receiving the address of the Commons, in reply to his speech from the throne, was not particularly well pleased. He assured the Assembly that until the expenses of the government were provided for, in the manner he had indicated, that there would be neither harmony, union, nor cordial co-operation in the three branches of the legislature, and that the real prosperity of the province would be decidedly arrested. The Assembly were quite indifferent as to consequences. They had a duty to perform to their constituents, and meant to perform it. The estimates of the civil list were sent down. The House asked the Governor to lay before it his instructions. The Governor refused. His instructions were confidential and he would not suffer any part of them to become the subject of discussion by the House. A motion to grant a permanent civil list was made and negatived. There were only five ayes to thirty-one nays. The House adhered to the opinion that the supplies ought to be voted and appropriated annually, and not otherwise. The Governor was requested to mention the circumstance to the King, and he promised to do so. The Assembly proceeded to the transaction of other business. The expediency of having an agent to represent the interests of the people, not the Executive of Canada only, in England, was next considered. It occurred to the House that some member of the imperial parliament might be induced to accept the agency, and it was resolved that Joseph Marryatt, Esquire, M.P., should be requested to act as such agent. The resolution of the Assembly was transmitted to Mr. Marryatt, who was also put in possession of the civil list difficulty, with instructions relative to the course of action which it was expected he would adopt. The Council felt annoyed. They looked upon the appointment of Mr. Marryatt as a dangerous assumption of legislative power by the Assembly alone. They considered it a breach of the constitution, a breach of the king's prerogative, a breach of the privileges of the Legislative Council, and as a something which tended to subvert the constitution of the province. This protest had the effect desired by the Council. Mr. Marryatt would not act. Unless the Council concurred in his appointment he could have no weight with the government in England, nor would he be even acknowledged. There was nothing now to be done but to starve the government into submission. The government was not to be conquered by assault. The Assembly determined upon cutting off the supplies entirely. The revenue Acts were, one after the other, suffered to expire. No appropriation was made even for the current expenses of the year. A revenue of thirty thousand pounds a year, or more, part of which belonged to Upper Canada, was sacrificed. The Governor might make advances to the officers of the government, on his own responsibility, or not, as he pleased. But the House would hold the Receiver General personally responsible for all monies levied on His Majesty's subjects, paid over by him on any authority whatever, unless such payments should be authorised by an express provision of law. If anything could arrest the real prosperity of the province, it was now arrested. Some members of the Legislative Council took alarm. Afraid that their resolutions of the previous session interfered with the privileges of the Assembly, they wished to rescind them. The Assembly, in the opinion of a section even of the Council, ought not to be dictated to. The Commons had exclusively the right of dictating their own terms and conditions, with regard to all aids to the Crown. And the object, for which such aids were sought, was of no consequence, as far as their right was concerned. The majority of the Council took quite another view of the matter. One member was particularly severe on the Assembly. The Honorable John Richardson, considered the course pursued by the Assembly, as unconstitutional and overbearing. He characterised their pretensions as subversive of the prerogatives of the Crown, and indicative of a desire to have the absolute control of the government. Their proceedings were revolutionary. From day to day secret committees were in session. Grievances were mischievously hunted up. Their measures were precisely similar to those which preceded the fall of Charles the First, and the French revolution. And, at that very moment, there was a committee of the Assembly sitting, the members of which were in consultation, about replacing the distinguished personage who resided at the Castle of St. Lewis. Mr. Richardson was being quietly listened to by several members of the Assembly. They resolved to move in the matter. The sayings and doings of Mr. Richardson were accordingly brought under the notice of the Assembly. Mr. Quirouet informed the Lower House that he had heard the Honorable John Richardson, one of the members of the Legislative Council say, in reply to the Honorable Mr. Debartzch, who had moved for the rescission of the rules relating to the civil list, that there was a secret committee sitting in the House of Assembly, deliberating on the appointment of a governor of their choice, and on the removal of the person now in the castle; and that the committee, which was, perhaps, one of public safety, sat without the knowledge of several members of the House, a thing without example in England, except in the time of Charles the First. A committee of five members was appointed to obtain further information. The committee ascertained that everything reported by Mr. Quirouet was true. A spirited debate ensued. The conduct of Mr. Richardson was looked upon as atrocious. Mr. Richardson too was the senior member of the Executive Council, and on him the government of the province might devolve. He was entirely unworthy of confidence. He was the enemy of his country. It was resolved that his language was false, scandalous, and malicious; that he had been guilty of a high contempt of the Assembly; that he had made an odious attempt to destroy His Majesty's confidence in the fidelity and loyalty of the Assembly, and of the people of the province, and that he had been guilty of a breach of the rights and privileges of one branch of the legislature. It was further resolved to inform the Legislative Council of the Assembly's opinion of the discourse of the Honorable John Richardson, with the request that the Council would inquire into the charge which they preferred against him and were prepared to substantiate, so that the Honorable John Richardson might be adequately punished. And it was still further resolved that the Governor General should be informed of the libelous language of the Honorable John Richardson, and of the desire of the Assembly that he should be removed and dismissed from every place of honor, trust, or profit, which he might hold under the Crown. These resolutions of the Assembly, respecting the conduct of the Honorable John Richardson were taken by special messengers to the Governor and to the Legislative Council. The Governor considered the resolutions undignified. They were as much a breach of the privileges of the Council as the remarks of Mr. Richardson would have been a breach of the privileges of the Assembly if uttered anywhere else than in the Council. Mr. Richardson had a perfect right to express himself freely in parliament. Freedom of debate was as necessary to the Upper as it was to the Lower House. He distinctly refused to dismiss Mr. Richardson from any office of honor, trust, or profit, which he might hold. The Council, so far from proceeding to punish Mr. Richardson for his outspokenness, looked upon the resolutions of the Assembly as a flagrant breach of its privileges, and would take no measures with regard to the language made use of towards the Assembly, by Mr. Richardson, until the Assembly apologised to the Council for its interference with the rights of the Legislative Council. Mr. Richardson even repeated the substance of his observations in the debate which had given offence, in still stronger language. He had little to fear, and he knew that the Assembly had taken a position which they could not sustain. He held no office under the Crown. He was a legislator and Executive Councillor, but not a placeman. Indeed the Assembly were becoming ashamed of themselves. Instead of attacking the Council in return for the attack made upon them, they had taken it for granted that their proceedings were not liable to be commented upon at all. They pretended to represent public opinion and yet would not tolerate the expression of any opinion adverse to themselves. But public opinion prevailed. They were compelled to edge out of their difficulty by representing in a resolution that it was the incontestable right of the Assembly to prevent any breach of their privileges, by every constitutional means in their power. So the matter rested.
A message came to the Assembly from the Governor. It had reference to certain grievances submitted by the Assembly to the King. The Governor had been commanded to inform the Assembly that the Lieutenant-Governor had been ordered to repair to Quebec, and to reside in the province during his tenure of office; that a Lieutenant-Governor for Gaspé was necessary and should be provided for; that the successor to the Provincial Secretary should be a resident officer, but that the present absent incumbent was not to be dispossessed without adequate compensation; and that the present agent of the province, in the colonial office, had not been guilty of misconduct, and the office of agent which he held was not to be abolished. The message was anything but satisfactory, and the Assembly grumbled audibly.
Another message was sent to the Assembly informing the House that the Governor intended to apply the territorial and casual revenues, fines, rents, and profits, which were reserved to the French King, at the conquest, and belonged to the King of Great Britain on the surrender of the country, the monies raised by statutes of the imperial parliament, and the sum of £5,000 sterling raised by the provincial statute 35th George the Third, chapter 9, towards the support of the civil government and the administration of justice. And he called upon the Assembly, as they had refused the civil list, to defray the cost of certain local establishments, the expenses of the legislature and the necessary expense of collecting the revenue. The Assembly assured the Governor of their great satisfaction that he had not questioned the constitutional doctrine which they had enunciated, that the public money should only be applied conformably to law. They were indeed sorry that the standing rules of the Council prevented their House from entertaining even the hope that its invariable disposition to provide for the necessary expenses of the civil government could have its proper and legal effect. But they would grant no supplies whatever. This manœuvre might have been most successfully practised upon the government of Lower Canada, if it had not also affected Upper Canada. The supplies of Upper, as well as of Lower Canada, were cut off. Quebec was the only seaport the two provinces had. It was in Lower Canada that the duties on imports were levied. Of these import duties Upper Canada was now entitled to a fifth, instead of an eighth, as at first agreed upon. And if the whole was sacrificed, the value of a fifth of the whole would not amount to much. The government, and, indeed, the whole people of Upper Canada were annoyed at the loss of revenue inflicted upon the country, for the sake merely of principle. But that was not all. Upper Canada was already so rapidly increasing in population that a fifth of the whole duties collected was not looked upon as her fair share of receipts. Her commissioners desired a larger share of the incomings. Lower Canada would not grant the increase and there was another difficulty between the provinces. The subject was brought under the consideration of the imperial parliament, by Upper Canada, through the instrumentality of an agent, in London, appointed to communicate with the government at home. The parliament of Lower Canada was prorogued on the 18th of February. Lord Dalhousie was satisfied that no benefit to the public could be expected from a continuance of the session, and had come to prorogue the parliament. He regretted that the supplies had been withheld, but neither the civil government, nor the officers of justice, nor any of the officers of the government or of the courts would be at all affected. The mischievous effects of their proceeding would fall upon trade and of course be highly injurious to His Majesty's loyal and faithful subjects, who should know how to bring about a remedy. He was much pleased with the conduct of the Council. The Governor General had received an idea from Mr. Ryland, with which he was quite delighted. It now seemed to His Excellency that he would soon bring the Commons of Canada to their senses. Had Mr. Ryland been called upon to point out a remedy for the existing difficulties in the government, he would have said to lord Dalhousie:—either unite the legislatures of Upper and Lower Canada, or, by giving a fair representation to the townships, secure an English influence in the House of Assembly. Perfect the constitution by creating an hereditary aristocracy, for which the Crown Reserves were originally set apart, and make the Legislative Council so respectable as to render a seat therein an object of ambition to every man of character and talent. Exercise decidedly the patronage of the Romish Church, and give the Romish Bishop clearly to understand that the slightest opposition on his part to this regulation would put an end to his allowance of £1,500 sterling per annum. Admit no more coadjutors, secure a permanent revenue, adequate or nearly adequate to the expenses of the civil government. Ascertain to a farthing the monies that actually are or ought to be in the Receiver General's chest. Give to that officer an adequate salary, and take effectual means to prevent one shilling of the public monies from being employed by him in future in commercial speculations. Accomplish these objects, as you easily may, and be assured that good sense and upright intentions, on the part of His Majesty's representative, will thereafter be fully adequate to get the better of every difficulty that has hitherto attended the provincial government. This scheme of a remedy for existing difficulties was submitted by the Earl of Dalhousie to the government of England. A bill was indeed introduced into the imperial parliament, for a legislative union of the two provinces, and for the regulation of trade in Canada. A majority of the Commons of England would not, however, listen to the proposal for a legislative union of the provinces, for which no desire had been expressed by either Upper or Lower Canada. The sense of the inhabitants of the Canadas should first have been obtained. To this opposition the imperial ministry were compelled to yield, and therefore that part of the bill which related to the union was relinquished. The other part of the bill, afterwards known as "The Canada Trade Act," became law. By it the claims of Upper Canada were recognised, and to guard that province against the caprice of the lower province, all the duties payable under Acts of the legislature of Lower Canada, on imports, were to be permanently continued, according to the latest agreement, in July, 1819. The two temporary provincial Acts, 53 and 55, George III, chapter 2, and 85, George III, chapter 3, including that which had been suffered to expire were revived, and became permanent Acts, only liable to repeal or alteration, by Lower Canada, with the concurrence of Upper Canada. New duties on imports by sea could not be imposed by Lower Canada without the consent of Upper Canada, without the special interference of the imperial parliament. It was no wonder that Lord Dalhousie spoke ironically of the effect to be produced by the stoppage of the supplies. The measure was not, however, judicious. It was in the highest degree irritating to Lower Canada. It was a positive grievance, and indeed it was a partial destruction of the constitution, at the instance of a placeman. There was one good thing in the Act. The power of commuting the seigniorial or feudal tenure into free and common soccage was given to the censitaire in transactions with the crown.
This rude assault upon the Commons of Lower Canada came at an unfortunate period. Both provinces were suffering. Agriculture and commerce were in distress. Agricultural and commercial distress had also afflicted the mother country. People were unwillingly idle, and consequently, discontented. The regulations then existing in Great Britain, with respect to the importation of grain and flour from the Canadas were alleged to amount almost to a prohibition. To the operation of these regulations Canadian distress was attributed. Unless relief were speedily obtained, the certain ruin of the entire farming and commercial interests was expected to ensue. The difficulties occasioned by the obstruction to Canadian navigation, in winter, rendered it impossible for the Canadian farmer to compete fairly or with a reasonable chance of success, in the English markets, with the United States. American produce was admitted into Lower Canada, for consumption, free of duty, to the prejudice of Upper Canada, and was a direct violation of the reciprocity which ought to exist between the two provinces, as it depressed the price of Upper Canada produce, and rendered nugatory the laws existing for its protection. And unless the flour of Upper Canada should be admitted into the English market on terms of greater favor, the imports from Great Britain would entirely cease. The Upper Canadians wished the repeal of the corn bill. They wanted the monopoly of the supply of the West Indies. They desired a corn bill for themselves. And they did not know precisely what they desired for the riddance of their distress. It was at this season that the "Canada Trade Act" came into force, and that the propriety of uniting the two provinces was to be considered by the people. In Lower Canada the contemplated re-union of the provinces was not relished. Upper Canada was indifferent and perhaps rather in favor than opposed to the scheme. To Lower Canada it forboded the loss of caste, usages, and religion, while to Upper Canada it indicated only a more extended sphere of legislative action, and the direct control of the general revenue for improvements. The Union Bill was well conceived. The Governor was to have erected the townships, previously unrepresented, into counties, of six townships each, with a member for every county. The qualification for a seat in the Assembly was to be the unincumbered possession of landed property to the value of £500 sterling. The House was to consist of not more than one hundred and twenty members, and of not more than sixty members for either province. Four ministers were to have seats in the House and to have the liberty of speech without the right of votes, in the shape of two members from each of the Executive Councils of Upper Canada and of Lower Canada. The duration of the parliament was to be five years. There was to be no power of imprisonment for alleged contempts given to either House. The proceedings of both Houses were to be recorded in the English language, and in fifteen years afterwards, the English language only was to be made use of in debate. The free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion was to be respected, subject to the king's supremacy, and to the collation or induction into cures—a privilege until then enjoyed by the Bishop superintending the Romish Church in Canada. Here was Mr. Ryland's scheme to the letter. It gave evidence of some ability. It was the scheme of a lifetime, of one zealous in the cause of the Church of England. How the Lower Canadians were to have been induced to consent, is not easily guessed at. It is true Mr. Ryland intimates that the Bishop's salary could be withdrawn, and that no more coadjutors should be allowed. But the Bishop was not the only clergyman of the Church of Rome in the province, and the See of Rome has its instruments in every ecclesiastical grade. The priests, as a body were very much annoyed at the Union Bill. They did not fail to declaim against it. Nor were they to be blamed. The French Canadians were indeed, to a man, opposed to the union. The English population were, of course, in favor of the scheme. Horrified at popery, an Englishman honestly believed that popery had no rights in a country possessed by a protestant king. It could be tolerated but not legally maintained. Of course when the King became Bishop of the Church in Canada, the Pope was virtually deposed, and the deposition of the Pope in England is indeed the most essential difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome. The people of Montreal were most actively in favor of Mr. Ryland's admirable scheme of religious conversion. Of 80,000 people who had come into the province since the American war scarcely a twentieth part had remained within the limits of the province, the rest having been induced by the foreign character of the country in which they had sought an asylum, and the discouragements they experienced, to try their fortune in the United States. The division of the Province of Quebec, into Upper and Lower Canada, had been impolitic. Had a fit plan of representation been adopted the British population would have now exceeded the French, and the imports and exports of the country have been greatly beyond their present amount.[34]It is not a little extraordinary to find that the English speaking inhabitants of the province complained of the unreasonable extent of political rights which had been conceded to Lower Canada. Mr. Neilson was not of these complainants. Mr. James Stuart was. The Canadians had deserted Mr. Stuart and he now deserted them. Mr. Neilson had not been yet deserted by those whom he had served, and he had not therefore cause for desertion. Messrs. Neilson and Papineau went home in charge of petitions against the contemplated union of the provinces, while Mr. Stuart went to London with the petition of the unionists in his pocket. The mob was merely prejudiced. There was no politics in the heads of the ordinary people, whether of French or English extraction. But the English hated the French, and the French disliked the English, because neither understood the other. It was enough for the English speaking population that the government was English, to secure their sympathies to the government, and it was enough for the French speaking part of the population to know that the Assembly was chiefly Franco-Canadian to secure their sympathies to the Assembly. Lord Dalhousie and the red-tape-nobility looked upon both only ascanaille. His lordship was the emperor; the judges, the bishops, and the secretaries, were the marshals and princes of an empire of serfs—of crown serfs and of serfs of the soil. But, however that may have been, two events of some importance had occurred. The Lieutenant-Governor of the province, Sir Francis Burton, had arrived at the scene of his labors, and Sir John Caldwell, the Receiver General, had become insolvent towards the province, in the sum of £100,000. The difficulties of Lord Dalhousie's reign were on the increase. The union and intended extinction of Lower Canadian nationality was not a matter to be so easily effected as at first anticipated. His lordship again assembled parliament on the 10th of January, 1823. The Clerk of the Assembly informed the noble Earl, at the head of the government, that the Speaker, Mr. Papineau, had gone to England. The Governor ordered the Assembly to elect another Speaker in his stead. They did so, and their choice fell upon Mr. Vallières de St. Réal. The choice was approved of. Lord Dalhousie thereupon opened the session. He told the Houses that an Act had been passed regulating the trade of Lower Canada with the United States of America, and the intercourse between Upper and Lower Canada, an adjustment of the differences subsisting between the two provinces being provided for. He further intimated that the imperial government contemplated the union of the two provinces, but had withdrawn the measure until the next session of the imperial legislature, with the view of ascertaining the sentiments of the Canadian people on the matter. He hoped that the subject would receive attention, and the deliberations of the parliament be distinguished for moderation. He had been somewhat embarrassed by the stoppage of the supplies, but had done as much as he could to avert inconvenience, by paying up the usual expenses for the half year then current, though he had not felt himself justified in doing so beyond that period, and there consequently remained a very considerable arrear due to the public servants. A full statement of the receipts and expenditures for the year would be laid before the Assembly, together with an estimate of the probable expense in the present year of those local establishments for which the Assembly were bound in duty to provide. He trusted that the whole financial accounts would be brought to a clear and final arrangement. He was convinced that the Assembly regretted that the progress of the public interests had been interrupted. And without dwelling upon the past, he would earnestly recommend them to consider the incalculable injuries which had been accumulated on the province, while the executive branch of the constitution remained disabled from exercising its just and legitimate and most useful powers. The Assembly were pleased to learn that the imperial parliament had suffered the measure for the union of the two provinces to lie over until the opinion of the Canadian people had been ascertained, and indeed they fairly echoed in their reply the speech from the throne. A call of the Assembly was ordered for the 21st of January, to consider the union question. The Upper House, with the exception of the Honorables John Richardson, Herman W. Ryland, Charles W. Grant, James Irvine, Roderick McKenzie, and Wm. B. Felton, were decidedly opposed to the contemplated union. The Assembly believed that the union of two provinces, having laws, civil and religious institutions, and usages essentially different, would endanger the laws and institutions of either province; and that there would thence result well-founded apprehensions respecting the stability of those laws and institutions, fatal doubts of the future lot of these colonies, and a relaxation of the energy and confidence of the people, and of the bonds which so strongly attached them to the mother country. The resolutions of both Houses were embodied in addresses to the King and Parliament of Great Britain. Those to the King the Governor was requested to transmit, and those to the two Imperial Houses of legislation were forwarded to the delegates of the anti-unionists, Messrs. Neilson and Papineau.
A message was sent to the Assembly, officially informing the House of the arrival of Lieutenant-Governor Sir Francis Burton. The message contained another bit of information to the effect that it was necessary that a residence should be provided for His Excellency. It stated still further that a furnished House had been taken for His Excellency, at a yearly rent of £500, for which it was desirable that the Assembly should provide. And the message concluded by recommending the addition of £1,000 a year to the salary of His Excellency, which was then only £1,500, so that with £2,500 a year, and house rent free, he might live in becoming style. The Assembly cheerfully voted these extra allowances to the Lieutenant-Governor. A bill was this session passed, erecting, for judicial purposes, the Eastern Townships into the Inferior District of St. Francis. There was to be a provincial court in the district, and a resident judge, who was to have jurisdiction in personal actions of £20 sterling. A Court of Quarter Sessions in the district was also established. The bill was introduced into the Assembly, and passed, to increase the representation, by giving the Eastern Townships a representation precisely as recommended in the contemplated Act of Union; but the Assembly, to counterbalance the effect which might result from the introduction of six new members into the Assembly, also created an overbalancing number of new French constituencies. The Council consequently rejected the representation bill. Then the estimates of supply were submitted by message. They had been classed into two schedules. One comprehending the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, certain officers attached to the Governor-in-Chief, including the provincial agent in London, the Surveyor General and contingencies of his department; the judges and officers of the Courts; the Executive Councillors (£100 a year each); the Clerk of the Council, and the contingencies of his office and of the committee of audit; the Inspector General of Accounts; the Receiver General's department; and the Clerk of the Terrars, the whole sum to be supplied being £32,083 11s. 3d. sterling. The second schedule included the local establishments—the legislature and its officers; the cost of printing the laws; the salaries to public schoolmasters; the pension list; rents and repairs of public buildings, and the salaries and disbursements in connection with such buildings; the expense of collecting the revenues: the expenses of the Trinity House; the militia staff and contingencies; the expenses for criminals and houses of correction; and miscellaneous expenses, such as the salaries of the Grand Voyer and others, the grants to residents on Anticosti, for the assistance of shipwrecked seamen; and the assessments on public buildings, in all amounting to £30,225 sterling. The Assembly voted the local schedule but not the other. Indeed they protested against being required to do so in the particular manner required. The Assembly next passed bills to reimburse and indemnify His Majesty for monies expended without the sanction of the legislature. The Council did not think it decorous to speak of "indemnifying" the King and rejected the bills. There was yet another money bill to pass the Council. A bill to defray the expenses of the local establishments, in which the different items of expenditure were specified, was sent up for concurrence and was only not rejected on account of the distress to individuals which its rejection would have caused. The Assembly had appropriated monies for the payment of the local establishments, which was to be taken from the general funds of the province. The Council passed the bill under protest because by the term "general," appropriated as well as unappropriated monies might be indicated as under the control of the Assembly. An attempt was made to induce the Council to agree to the nomination of Mr. Marryatt as agent for the province, but the Council refused, and the Assembly allowed the matter to drop. To render the proceedings of the Assembly still more attractive, a breach of privilege case occurred again this session. TheMontreal Times, a stiffishly unionist paper, had dealt harshly both with the Assembly and Council, in speaking of these two august bodies, as anti-British. The Council was quite indifferent to the imputation, but the Assembly pronounced the assertion of theTimesto be a false and scandalous libel upon the House, and a breach of its privileges. In accordance with this judgment, Mr. Speaker was instructed to issue warrants for the arrests of the editor and publishers of theTimes. One offender, Mr. Ariel Bowman, was taken into custody, but Mr. Edward Sparhawk, the other offender, could not be found. Mr. Bowman was not long a prisoner. He escaped from custody soon after being taken, and neither of the offenders were subsequently caught during the session, so that both eluded the punishment due to an offence which was very heinous only in the sight of the Assembly. After this important matter was disposed of, the Governor General intimated that he had advanced £30,000 to the Receiver General, out of the military chest, to enable him to pay the expenses of the civil government, for the half year ending in May, 1822. He called upon the House for re-payment. The reply was pertinent. The House would at once have authorised the Receiver General to return the money out of the sum of £100,000, the balance of the public money which should have been in his hands, if it could have been done, but a balance being due to the province, the Assembly could only look upon the accommodation afforded to the Receiver General as a personal favor to that officer. Indeed the Assembly voted all the sums required for other public purposes, without taking into any account whatever the emptiness of the public chest. The financial affairs of the province were in a curious condition. "My earnest entreaties," says Lord Dalhousie to Mr. Vallières de St. Réal, "to ascertain the state of our finances, have been unavailing. Whilst the legislature has been contending about forms, the substance of the treasury has been used, and the province now stands without any funds which can be called its own, or, worse than that, it has incurred a debt to the military chest of £30,000, advanced in 1822, and £30,000 more advanced this summer of 1823, to which must be added the amount of all unpaid appropriations in last session, a sum not less than £240,000, exclusive of the grant of the Chambly Canal:
The recent declaration and exposure of the Receiver General undoubtedly did shew the evils arising from not annually settling the public accounts. The Receiver General had not, however, positively wasted the public revenue. Largely engaged in business he had built sawmills, dammed rivers, and constructed viaducts. He was an enterprising man of business, and doubtless his enterprise had indirectly enriched the province, although as far as the immediate recovery of the money was concerned, for the payment of the civil expenses of the government, the investments had been somewhat selfish and rather injudicious. The Receiver Generalship should not have been in the hands of a person engaged in trade. That was the mistake, and it was one, which the Assembly even had endeavored to remedy when perhaps it was too late.
There were still some other matters of finance meriting legislative attention. The "Canada Trade Act" of the imperial parliament had wonderfully deranged the siege operations of the House. The Assembly was now on the defensive, the governor of the province having been very considerably re-inforced by the energetic measures of the imperial authorities. It was not even considered prudent to make further zigzag approaches. The Assembly resolved upon keeping within their own lines and to defend themselves as well as they could from the vigorous sorties of the enemy, led on by Mr. Ryland. They requested that copies of any addresses to His Majesty by the Legislative Council of Lower Canada or by the Parliament of Upper Canada to the King, or his representative in Lower Canada, might be laid before them. The Governor sent to them an able report of a joint committee of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, alluding to the fruitless negotiations, which had been carried on between the duties' commissioners of the two provinces, a document which had had such weight with the imperial parliament as to have led to the passage of the Canada Trade Act. The Assembly scanned the paper carefully but did nothing. They only said that the Act would receive their most serious attention in the next session of the parliament. They were rather inclined to do business on a more liberal scale than they had manifested at the previous session. An Act was passed to enable the province to commence the construction of a canal between the town of St. Johns, in Canada East, and the village of Chambly, which the company, incorporated in 1818, had been unable, for want of funds to commence. Fifty thousand pounds were appropriated for this purpose. They voted also twelve thousands pounds as an additional appropriation towards the construction of the Lachine Canal; two thousand one hundred pounds for the encouragement of agriculture; eight hundred and fifty pounds were granted to the Montreal General Hospital Society; two hundred pounds were awarded to the Education Society of Quebec; Chief Justice Monk was pensioned in the sum of five hundred and fifty pounds sterling a year; and Mr. Justice Ogden was voted a retiring annual pension of four hundred and fifty pounds sterling. The House then applied to the Governor for a copy of his instructions relative to the application of the Jesuits' Estates Revenues for educational purposes; but the Governor refused to comply with the Assembly's request, because he had not been specially permitted to lay his instructions before the Assembly. The business of the session was concluded, and Lord Dalhousie went down in State to the Legislative Council Chamber, to prorogue the parliament. In his closing speech he expressed the satisfaction with which he had witnessed so much diligence and attention to the business of the country. He was exceedingly well pleased to have had to give the royal assent to the Acts passed to facilitate the administration of justice, to encourage agriculture, to construct canals, to assist trade, and to aid charitable and educational institutions. He thanked the Assembly for the supplies. He regretted that offices for the enregistration of property had not been established. He had transmitted the addresses of both Houses on the subject of the union of the provinces to the king. And he assured the Houses that he esteemed the result of the session at once honorable to parliament and useful to the country.
There was still much anxiety in the country about the contemplated union. Messrs. Neilson and Papineau had not, however, been idle in London. They had strongly pointed out to the imperial government the probability of a relaxation of the energy and confidence of the people of Lower Canada and of the bonds which so strongly attached them to the mother country, if the union was consummated, and their representations weighed with the government, for not long after the prorogation of the Lower Canada parliament it was officially announced by Lord Dalhousie that His Majesty's government had, for the present, determined to relinquish the proposed measure for the legislative union of the provinces.
The parliament of Upper Canada was opened on the 23rd of March. Governor Maitland, in his opening address, spoke of the temporary diminution of receipts from Quebec, as having interfered with the prosperity of the province. He recommended the establishment of an additional circuit and of a second assize. He probably addressed the House for the last time, and he took the opportunity of remarking that he had ever found them guided in their deliberations by a scrupulous attention to the interests of the people as by a proper regard for the honorable support of His Majesty's government. And he concluded by alluding to the contemplated union of the two provinces which, if effected, would extend the field of legislation. In the course of the session, the Assembly represented to the Lieutenant-Governor that they found the travelling expenses of the Judges too high, and that the salaries of all the officers of the government and of the courts were too high. It was recommended that there should be retrenchment, and it was suggested that the scale of remuneration, which existed previous to 1796, was sufficient. The Governor would not hear of a retrenchment, which could only have the effect of placing respectable men in the situation of struggling against actual penury, with the gloomy prospect of starving in old age. A second representation was made by the Assembly, to the effect that confusion resulted from the manner in which the public accounts were kept. There was a want of detail which should be obviated. Sir Peregrine Maitland was quite indignant at this representation. He was answerable for the necessities of the public, and the House of Assembly approached him with the deliberate intention of misrepresenting his administration. Any information, solicited by the Assembly, to be afforded by him, as an act of courtesy, would have been most cheerfully afforded. He did not care for secrecy, and any information desired concerning the public accounts he would, at any time, on a proper application, afford. The House respectfully informed His Excellency that they had not the slightest intention of misrepresenting his administration, but merely ventured to suggest an improvement in the mode of keeping the accounts. So the matter ended. The parliamentary session was rather a protracted one. The Kingston Bank Bill had been a long time before the House, and almost at the close of the session some amendments were made to it. An Orange Society Bill was thrown out of the House, by the casting vote of the Speaker.
Mr. Gourlay, when in Upper Canada, in 1819, strongly recommended, in a letter to theNiagara Spectator, the advisability of constructing canals for the improvement of the navigation of the great lakes and the St. Lawrence. His views were most enlightened. He advised the construction of canals on a scale to admit vessels of 200 tons burthen, large enough to brave the ocean, and not inconveniently large for internal navigation. Should it be deemed advisable, says Mr. Gourlay, to have larger vessels in the trade, any additional expense should not for a moment be thought of as an objection. The Lachine Canal is to admit only of boats. This may suit the merchant of Montreal, but will not do for Upper Canada. Indeed I am doubtful if our great navigation should at all touch Montreal, and rather think it should be carried to the northward. As to the line within the province, my mind is made up, not only from inquiries commenced on my first arrival here, but from considerable personal inspection of the ground, as well between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, as below. My opinion is that the navigation ought to be taken out of the river St. Lawrence, near the village of Johnstown, in Edwardsburgh, and let into the Ottawa, somewhere below the Hawkesbury Rapids; probably in that part of the river called the Lake of Two Mountains. By a bold cut, of a few miles, at the first mentioned place, the waters of the St. Lawrence might be conducted to a command of level, which would make the rest of the way practicable, with very ordinary exertion. The idea which has been started by some of raising the navigation by two stages, first into Lake St. Francis, and thence to the higher level, may do for boat navigation; but, for vessels of a large scale it is greatly objectionable. Any benefit to be gained from the lake considered as part of the canal already formed, would be quite overbalanced by the want of a good towing path. A boat navigation may, I think, with benefit to the parts adjoining, be brought up so far as Milrush, through Lake St. Francis, and thence be taken into the line of the grand canal. The advantages to Upper Canada from a navigation on a large scale would be infinite. Only think of the difference of having goods brought here from England, in the same bottoms to which they were first committed, instead of being unshipped at Quebec, unboated and warehoused in Montreal, carted to the ditch canal, and there parcelled out, among petty craft for forwarding to Kingston. Then again at Kingston tumbled about for transport across Lake Ontario; and again, if Amherstburgh is the destination, a third time boated, unboated, and reshipped. Think of the difference in point of comfort and convenience to the merchants here. Think of the greater despatch. Think of the saving of trouble and risk. Think of being unburdened of immediate commissions and profits. Think of the closer connexion which it would form between this province and England. Think of the greater comfort it would afford to emigrants, and how much it would facilitate and encourage emigration. With navigation on a large scale, shipbuilding would become an object of great importance here, and new vessels might be ready loaded with produce to depart with the first opening in the spring. There are but few vessels trading from England to Quebec, which make two voyages in a season, and then it is with increase of risk that the second voyage is performed. Every vessel could leave England, proceed to the extremities of Lakes Michigan or Superior, and get back with ease in a season, or every vessel could leave Lakes Erie or Ontario in the spring, proceed to England, get back here, and again take home a second cargo of produce. In time of war what security would such a scale of navigation yield. It would put all competition on the lakes out of the question. Upper Canada would then possess a vast body of thorough bred seamen and ship carpenters, with abundance of vessels fit to mount guns, not only for their own individual defence, but to constitute a navy at a moment's notice. In a commercial competition too, the Great Western Canal of the States would be quite outrivalled by such a superior navigation. Upwards, except at the Falls of St. Mary, where a very short canal would give a free passage, navigation is clear for more than a thousand miles, and when population thickens on the wide-extended shores of the Upper Lakes, only think how the importance increases of having the transport of goods and produce uninterrupted by transhipment. Such was Mr. Gourlay's dream in the jail of Niagara. It is now reality. Ships of war, American and British, have passed from Lake Ontario down the St. Lawrence to the ocean, the shipEurekaembarked passengers for California, at Cleveland, in Ohio, and passed down the St. Lawrence to sea, safely reaching her destination on the Pacific, and sea-going vessels have been built in Kingston to ply between that port and Liverpool direct. Steamships pass up the St. Lawrence canals and down the St. Lawrence rapids. Canada is advancing with giant strides, small as her beginning was. It was in November, 1823, that George Keefer, J. Northrop, Thomas Merritt, William Chisholm, Joseph Smith, Paul Shipman, George Adams, John Decoes, and William Hamilton Merritt, advertised in theUpper Canada Gazettethat, as freeholders of the district of Niagara, they intended to petition the legislature at the next session of parliament, to incorporate a company for the purpose of connecting the Lakes Erie and Ontario, by a canal capable of carrying boats of from twenty to forty tons burthen, by the following route:—To commence at Chippewa, ten miles above the mouth of that creek, on the farm of John Brown, from thence to the head of the middle branch of the twelve mile creek, at G. Vanderbarrack's, from thence to John Decoes, passing over to the west branch of the twelve mile creek, on the farm of Adam Brown, and continuing along the said stream to Lake Ontario. From the Chippewa to Grand River, either from the forks of the Chippewa, through the marsh, or from Oswego, whichever may prove most advantageous,—and for the erection of machinery for hydraulic purposes, on the entire route.