In November of this year, the first steamer was seen on the St. Lawrence. At 8 o'clock on the 6th of that month, the steamboatAccommodationarrived at Quebec, with ten passengers from Montreal. She made the passage (180 miles) in sixty-six hours, having been thirty hours at anchor. In twenty hours, after leaving Montreal, she arrived at Three Rivers. The passage money was only eight dollars for the downward trip and nine dollars for the trip upward. Neither wind nor tide could stop theAccommodation, and theAccommodationwas eighty-two feet long on deck. The accommodation afforded to passengers was not, however, very great. Twenty berths were all that cabin passengers could be accommodated with. Great crowds visited her saloons. TheMercurytold its readers that the steamboat received her impulse from an open, double-spoked perpendicular wheel, on either side, without any circular band or rim. To the end of each double-spoke, a square board was fixed, which entered the water, and by the rotatory motion, acted like a paddle. The wheels were put and kept in motion by steam, which operated in the vessel. And a mast was to be fixed in her for the purpose of using a sail, when the wind was favourable, which would occasionally accelerate her headway. After theAccommodationhad made several trips, Upper Canada began to "guess" about the expediency of having "Walks-in-the-Water." TheAccommodationwas built by Mr. John Molson, of Montreal, an exceedingly enterprising man of business, and for a number of years, his enterprise secured to him a monopoly of the steam navigation of the lower St. Lawrence. He died an "honorable," only a few years ago.
During 1808, 334 vessels, or according to the Harbour Master's statement, 440 vessels, arrived at Quebec from sea, making up 66,373 tons of shipping, in addition to which, 2,902 tons of shipping were built at the port. The revenue was £40,608, and the civil expenditure £1,251 sterling. The salaries and contingencies of the Legislature amounted to £3,077. The salary of the Governor-in-Chief was £4,500 sterling, and that of the Lieutenant-Governor, who had been three years absent in England, £1,500. On the 28th of November, in this year, Sir Francis Nathaniel Burton, whose brother was Marquis of Cunningham, succeeded Sir Robert Shore Milnes, in the now sinecure office of Lieutenant-Governor, where he remained to enjoy theotium sine dignitate.
A continuance of the peace between His Majesty's government and that of the United States was, in the beginning of 1810, considered less probable than ever. After the death of Washington, which occurred on the 4th December, 1799, during the Presidency of Mr. Adams, political excitement ran high in the United States. At the expiration of Mr. Adams' term of office, there were, as candidates for the Chief Magistracy of the Union, and for the Vice-Presidency:—Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Burr, on the one side, and Mr. Adams and Mr. C. D. Pinckney, on the other. Mr. Adams, elected by the Federalist or Tory party, had given much offence to the Democratic party, by his law against sedition, designed to punish the abuse of speech and of the press. By this law a heavy fine was to be imposed, together with an imprisonment for a term of years, upon such as should combine or conspire together, to "opposeanymeasure of the government." No one, on any pretence, under pain of similar punishment, was to write or print, utter or publish, any malicious writing against the government of the United States, or against either House of the Congress, or against the President. In a word, the liberty of discussion was annihilated. A more extraordinary law could not possibly have been put upon the Statute Books of a country, where every official, being elective by the people, his conduct, while in office was, in a common sense point of view, open to popular animadversion. As far as producing the effect contemplated was concerned, the law was altogether inefficacious. The people met and talked together against their President, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. Nay, Mr. Adams lost what he designed to secure, his re-election, by it. The Democrats were furiously opposed to him. While Messrs. Jefferson and Burr got each seventy-three votes, the opposition candidates for President and Vice-President, Messrs. Adams and Pinckney only got, for the former, sixty-five votes, and for the latter, sixty-four. Messrs. Burr and Jefferson having each an equal number of votes, it became the duty of the House of Representatives, voting by States, to decide between these pretenders to the chief power in the State. The constitution provided that the person having the greatest number of votes should be President, and that the person having the next highest number of votes should be Vice-President. For several days the ballot was taken. The Federalists or Tories supported Mr. Burr, and the Democrats Mr. Jefferson. At last the choice fell upon the latter, and Mr. Burr was elected to the Vice-Presidency. It is well to know these circumstances in connection with subsequent events. Mr. Jefferson annihilated the minority of the republic. He had as much contempt for them as Sir James Craig or Mr. Ryland could have had for the conquered Canadians. He swept them from every office of profit or emolument under the State. When remonstrated with, by the merchants of New Haven, respecting the removal of the Collector of Customs at that port, merely because he was a Federalist or tory, the President quietly replied, that time and accident would give the Tories their just share. Had he found a moderate participation of office in the hands of the Democratic party with whom he acted, his removals and substitutions would have been less sweeping. But their total exclusion called for a more prompt corrective. And he would correct the error. When the error was fully corrected then he would only ask himself concerning an applicant for office, these questions:—"Is he honest?" "Is he capable?" and "Is he faithful to the Constitution?" The Tories were almost inclined to burn the White House.
Ohio was admitted into the Union in 1802; in 1804, Colonel Burr, the Vice-President of the United States, killed General Hamilton in a duel; Mr. Jefferson was re-elected President in 1804, and Mr. George Clinton, of New York, instead of Burr, now deservedly unpopular with all but the filibustering classes, Vice-President; in 1805, Michigan became a territorial government of the United States; and in the autumn of 1805 the outcast President Burr was detected at the head of a project for revolutionizing the territory west of the Alleghanies, and of establishing an independent empire there, of which New Orleans was to be the capital, and himself the chief. To the accomplishment of this scheme, Burr brought into play all the skill and cunning of which he was possessed. And it was not a little. He had his design long in contemplation. He pretended to have purchased a large tract of territory, of which he conceded to his adherents considerable slices. He collected together, from all quarters where either he himself, or his agents, possessed influence, the ardent, the restless, and the desperate, persons ready for any enterprise analogous to their characters. He also seduced good and well-meaning citizens, by assurances that he possessed the confidence of the government, and was acting under its secret patronage. He had another project, in case of the failure of the first. He designed to make an attack upon Mexico and to establish an empire there. He failed. Before his standard was raised, the government was made aware of his designs, and he was brought to trial, at Richmond, on a charge of treason, committed within the district of Virginia. It was not proved, however, that he had been guilty of any overt act, within the State, and he was released. It was probably to find employment for that restless and desperate class of persons, with which the United States even then abounded, that the government of America sought cause of quarrel with Great Britain, as well as to produce that spurious activity among the industrial classes, which is ever the result of warlike preparations.
In 1809, Mr. James Madison was elected President of the United States. During Mr. Jefferson's administration, commercial intercourse with France and Great Britain had been interdicted. When, however, Mr. Madison was fairly established in the Presidency, he showed a disposition to renew intercourse, and was seconded in his endeavours by Mr. Erskine, then British Minister at Washington. Mr. Erskine non-officially intimated to the American Secretary of State, that if the President would issue a Proclamation for the renewal of intercourse with Great Britain, that it was probable the proposal would be readily accepted. It was done. But the British government refused to rescind the Orders in Council of January and November 1807, so far as the United States were concerned, which would have given the benefit of the coasting trade of France to the Americans, recalled Mr. Erskine for having exceeded his instructions, and sent Mr. Jackson to Washington in his stead. A correspondence was immediately after Mr. Jackson's arrival at the American seat of government, opened with Mr. Madison's Secretary of State, and was as suddenly closed. Mr. Jackson was, as a diplomatist, rather blunt. Repeatedly, he asserted that the American Executive could not but have known from the powers exhibited by Mr. Erskine, that in stipulating, as he had done, he had transcended those powers, and was, therefore, acting without the authority of his government. The American Executive deemed such an assertion equivalent to a declaration that the American government did know that Mr. Erskine had exceeded his instructions. Mr. Jackson denied that his language could be so interpreted. The American Executive at once replied that Mr. Jackson's tone and language could not but be looked upon as reflecting upon the honor and integrity of the American government, and the correspondence was closed. The British government, not considering Mr. Jackson's diplomatic efforts as particularly happy, recalled him. He escaped, however, more direct censure.
These events had just occurred, across the line '45, when Sir James Craig, now more anxious than ever, to obtain legislative assistance, under circumstances that would not be liable to interruption from the expiration of the period for which one of the branches was chosen, ordered the writs to be issued for a new general election. The elections took place in October, 1809, when, contrary to the expectation of His Excellency, most of the gentlemen who held seats in the parliament which, in the previous May, had been so unexpectedly dissolved, were again returned. There were some substitutions. But those only who halted between two opinions, in fearing the government, while representing the people, were supplanted by men who would echo thevox (populi) et preterea nihil, in the Chamber of Deputies. They were called together on the 29th of January, 1810. They were told to elect a Speaker, which they did, by selecting the former Speaker, Mr. Panet. They were told to appear at the Bar of the Upper House. And they did appear in the confusion usual on all similar occasions. The Governor, graciously confirmed their choice of a Speaker, and Mr. Panet having bowed his acknowledgments, His Excellency expressed his concern that, far from an amicable settlement of the existing differences, between the British and American governments, as was anticipated from the arrangement agreed upon by His Majesty's Minister at Washington, circumstances had occurred that seemed to have widened the breach, and to have removed that desirable event to a period scarcely to be foreseen by human sagacity; the extraordinary cavils made with a succeeding minister; the eager research to discover an insult which defied the detection of "all other penetration;" the consequent rejection of further communication with that minister, and indeed every step of intercourse, the particulars of which were known by authentic documents, evinced so little of a conciliatory disposition, and so much of a disinclination to meet the honorable advances made by His Majesty's government, while these had been further manifested in such terms, and by such conduct, that the continuance of peace seemed to depend less on the high sounded resentment of America, than on the moderation with which His Majesty might be disposed to view the treatment he had met with; he felt it to be unnecessary to urge preparation for any event that might arise from such a condition of things; he persuaded himself that in the great points of security and defence one mind would actuate all; he assured the country of the necessary support of regular troops should hostilities ensue, which with the "interior" force of the country would be found equal to any attack that could be made upon the province; the militia would not be unmindful of the courage which they had displayed in former days, (when, of course, they behaved worse, with the exception of a few individuals, than any people ever did![12]) the bravery of His Majesty's arms had never been called in question; he congratulated the legislature on the capture of Martinique, and triumphantly alluded to the battle of Talavera, which had torn from the French that character of invincibility which they had imagined themselves to have possessed in the eyes of the world. He recommended the renewal of those Acts which were designed to enable the Executive to discharge its duty against dangers, which could not be remedied by the course of common law; he drew attention to the numerous forgeries of foreign bank notes, and recommended a penal statute for their suppression; and he remarked that the question of the expediency of excluding the Judges of the King's Bench from the House of Representatives had been, during the two last sessions, much agitated, and that, although he would not have himself interdicted the judges from being selected by the people to represent them in the Assembly, had the question ever come before him, he had been ordered by His Majesty to give his assent to any proper bill, concurred in by the two Houses, for rendering the judges ineligible to a seat in the Assembly.
The Assembly, very naturally, entertained the opinion that the Imperial government had not approved of the conduct of Sir James Craig in dissolving the previous Parliament. Indeed, even before taking the speech from the throne into consideration, the Assembly resolved that every attempt of the executive government and of the other branches of the legislature against the House of Assembly, whether in dictating or censuring its proceedings, or in approving the conduct of one part of its members, and disapproving that of others, was a violation of the statute by which the House was constituted; was a breach of the privileges of the House, which it could not forbear objecting to; and was a dangerous attack upon the rights and liberties of His Majesty's subjects in Canada. There were, not ten only, but thirteen members of British origin now in the House of Assembly, and the vote, for the adoption of the resolution, exhibited a wonderful degree of unanimity of opinion with regard to the right of freedom of opinion and the freedom of debate. There were twenty-four affirmative to eleven adverse votes, and, among those who voted with the minority, were some officials of French origin. In reply to the address from the throne, the House expressed its unalterable attachment to Great Britain, they were grateful and would be faithful to that sovereign and nation which respected their rights and liberties; it was unnecessary to urge them to prepare for any event that might arise, they would be prepared; and the militia, not unmindful of the courage which they had, in former days, displayed, would endeavour to emulate that bravery, natural to His Majesty's arms, which had never been called in question. Nay, the House was exuberant with loyalty. No sooner was the address in reply presented to the Governor than an address, congratulating the King on the happy event of having entered upon the fiftieth year of his reign, was unanimously adopted, and transmitted to the Governor for transmission to England. The expediency of relieving the Imperial government of the burthen of providing for the civil list of Canada was next discussed. It was considered that the sooner the payment of its own government officers devolved upon the province, the better it would be for all classes inhabiting it. Ultimately, the province would be required to defray the expenses of its own government, and the sooner it did so the less weighty would the civil list be. The minority were very much opposed to the proposed change. Some, who, twenty-seven years before, were most anxious to present £20,000 to the King, by a tax on goods, wares, and merchandise, to assist in enabling His Majesty to prosecute the war against France vigorously, now that the province was more than paying her expenses, could not see the necessity of saddling the country with a burthen which would make it, as they alleged, necessary to impose duties to the amount of fifty thousand pounds a year. At first, the very ignorant[13]country people, not knowing that which was going on, became alarmed at the startling information conveyed to them by the majority. They expressed their fears that their friends were betraying them. They were soon pacified. Their members informed them, or they were informed by theCanadien, that when the House of Assembly had the entire management of the civil list, they would not fail to reduce the sum necessary to keep up the hospitality of Government House, and only,consequently, consideration for the Governor-in-Chief; nor would they fail to retrench the several pensions, reduce the heavier salaries of the employees, cut off the sinecurists, and, in a variety of ways, lessen the public burthens. The habitants were no longer alarmed at the additional taxation of £50,000 a year, with which they were threatened. A series of resolutions passed the Assembly, intimating that the province was able to supply funds for the payment of the civil list. The province was able to pay all the civil expenses of its government. The House of Assembly ought "this session" to vote the sums necessary for defraying the expenses of the civil list. The Housewillvote such necessary sums. And the King, Lords, and Commons of England, were to be informed that the Commons of Canada had taken upon itself the payment of the government of the province and that they were exceedingly grateful to England for the assistance hitherto afforded, and for the happy constitution, which had raised the province to a pitch of prosperity so high that it was now able and willing to support itself. Ten gentlemen of British extraction voted against these resolutions and only one Canadian. The address to the King, pursuant to the resolutions, was carried by a vote of thirteen to three. Many members appear to have been afraid of themselves or rather of the consequences to be apprehended from the offence which the adoption of such resolutions was calculated to give the Imperial advisers of the representative of the King in a colony. Nay, the Governor-in-Chief did not much relish the resolutions. He turned them over in his mind, again and again. There was something more than appeared upon the surface. He disrelished the idea of getting his meat poisoned by its passage through Canadian fingers. He was sure the King, his master, would pay him well, but, as for the Canadians, they might stop the supplies. The Assembly waited upon His Excellency with their addresses. They requested that His Excellency would be pleased to lay them before His Majesty's ministers for presentation. Sir James hesitated. The addresses were so peculiarly novel as to require a considerable degree of reflection. The constitutional usage of Parliament, recognised by the wisdom of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, forbade all steps on the part of the people towards grants of money which were not recommended by the Crown, and although by the same parliamentary usage all grants originated in the Lower House, they were ineffectual without the concurrence of the Upper House. There was no precedent of addresses to the House of Lords, or Commons, separately, by a single branch of the Colonial Legislature. He conceived the addresses to be unprecedented, imperfect in form, and founded upon a resolution of the House of Assembly, which, until sanctioned by the Legislative Council, must be ineffectual, except as a spontaneous offer on the part of the Commons of Canada. The resolutions were premature. He regretted that he could not take it upon himself to transmit these addresses to His Majesty's ministers. In his refusal he was impressed by a sense of duty. But, besides the sense of duty, His Majesty's ministers, unless commanded by His Majesty, were not the regular organs of communication with the House of Commons. Even were he to transmit those addresses, he could not pledge himself for their delivery, through that channel. He would have felt himself bound upon ordinary occasions to have declined any addresses similar to those then before him, under similar circumstances. He would on the present occasion transmit to the King his own testimony of the good disposition, gratitude, and generous intentions of his subjects. He thought it right that His Majesty, "by their own act," should be formally apprised of the ability and of the voluntary pledge and promise of the province to pay the civil expenditure of the provincewhen required. He then engaged to transmit the King's address to His Majesty, with the understanding that no act of his should be considered as compromising the rights of His Majesty, of his Colonial Representative, or of the Legislative Council. He significantly hoped that the House of Assembly might not suppose that he had expressed himself in a way that might carry with it an appearance of checking the manifestation of sentiments under which the House had acted. A committee of seven members were, on the receipt of His Excellency's answer, appointed to search for the precedents and parliamentary usages alluded to by the Governor-in-Chief, with instructions to report speedily. And, that there might be no excuse, with regard to the improper introduction of a money matter, for a refusal to sanction any bill that the Assembly might think proper to pass, a resolution was adopted by the Assembly to the effect that the House had resolved to vote, in the then session, the sums necessary for paying all the civil expenses of the government of the province, and to beseech that His Excellency would be pleased to order the proper officer to lay before the House an estimate of the said civil expenses. The practice of theseavocats, shopkeepers, apothecaries, doctors, and notaries, was tolerably sharp. The House went again to work upon the expediency of appointing a Colonial Agent in England, and introduced a bill with that object, which was read. A bill to render the judges ineligible to sit in the Assembly passed the Assembly; but the Council amended the bill, by postponing the period at which the ineligibility was to have effect, to the expiration of the parliament then in being, and sent it back to the Assembly for concurrence. Indignant at this amendment, the Assembly adopted a resolution to the effect that P. A. DeBonne, being one of the Judges of the King's Bench, could neither sit nor vote in the House, and his seat for Quebec was declared to be vacant. The vote was decisive. There were eighteen votes in favor of the resolution and only six against it, the six being all English names. McCord, Ross, Cuthbert, Gugy, and such like. If the practice of theavocatswas sharp, the practice of the Governor was yet sharper. Down came the Governor-in-Chief in two days after the search for precedents had begun in the Assembly, in not the best of humour, to the Legislative Council Chamber. On the 26th of February, the uncontrollable Assembly were summoned before the representative of royalty. He informed the two Houses that he had come to prorogue the legislature, having again determined to appeal to the people by an immediate dissolution. It had been rendered impossible for him to act otherwise. Without the participation of the other branches of the Legislature the Assembly had taken upon themselves to vote that a judge could not sit nor vote in their House. It was impossible for him to consider what had been done in any other light than as a direct violation of an Act of the Imperial Parliament. He considered that the House of Assembly had unconstitutionally disfranchised a large portion of His Majesty's subjects, and rendered ineligible, by an authority they did not possess, another, and not inconsiderable class of the community. By every tie of duty, he was bound to oppose such an assumption. In consequence of the expulsion of the member for Quebec, a vacancy in the representation of that county had been declared. It would be necessary to issue a writ for a new election, and that writ was to be signed by him. He would not render himself a partaker in the violation of an Act of the Imperial Parliament, and to avoid becoming so he had no other recourse but that which he was pursuing. He felt much satisfaction when the Parliament met, in having taken such steps as he thought most likely to facilitate a measure that seemed to be wished for, and that, in itself, met his concurrence; but as, in his opinion, the only ineligibility of a judge to sit in Parliament arose from the circumstance of his having to ask the electors for their votes, he could not conceive that there could be any well founded objection to his possession of a seat in the Assembly, when he was elected. He believed that the talents and superior knowledge of the judges, to say nothing of other considerations, made them highly useful. He lamented that a measure, which he considered would have been beneficial to the country, should not have taken effect. But he trusted that the people, in the disappointment of their expectations, would do him justice, and acquit him of being the cause that so little business had been done.
Such is human nature, that, on leaving the Council Room, Sir James Craig was loudly cheered. His manliness, combined with stupidity, and his real honesty of purpose, had its temporary effect upon those who admire pluck as much in a Governor as in a game cock. Not only was His Excellency cheered on leaving the Parliament buildings, addresses poured in upon him from all quarters. Quebec, Montreal, Terrebonne, Three Rivers, Sorel, Warwick, and Orleans, complimented Sir James. A more cunning man would have flattered himself that he had acted rightly. But there was to be a day of retribution. The late members of the late House of Assembly were not idle. Nor was theCanadiensilent. Every means that prudence could dictate, and malevolence suggest, were resorted to, with a view to the re-election of the dismissed representatives. The "friends" of the government suggested that there were plans of insurrection and rebellion. It was insinuated that the French Minister at Washington, had supplied the seditious in Canada with money. It was even broadly stated that the plenipotentiary's correspondence had been intercepted by the agents of the government. And that which was not said is more difficult of conjecture than that which was said.
The revenue was this year £70,356, and the expenditure £49,347 sterling; 635 vessels, consisting of 138,057 tons, had arrived from sea; and 26 vessels had been built and cleared at the port.
At this time there were five papers in Lower Canada. TheQuebec Gazette, theQuebec Mercury, Le Canadien, theMontreal Gazette, and theCourant. The three former were published in Quebec, the other two in Montreal. TheGazetteswere organs of the government, theMercuryandCourantwere "namby-pamby," and theCanadienwas as the voice ofle peuple.
The elections were, in the month of March, again about to take place, and the government conceived the magnificent idea of carrying a printing office by assault. When everything was prepared, then was the time to act. Headed by a magistrate, a party of soldiers rushed up the stairs leading to theCanadienprinting office. The proprietor received them with a low bow, and much annoyance was felt that no opposition was offered. The premises were searched. Some manuscripts were found, and, "under the sanction of the Executive," the whole press, and the whole papers of every description, were forcibly seized, and conveyed as booty to the vaults of the Court House. In this action one prisoner was made. The printer was seized, and "after examination," was committed to prison. And, as if an insurrection were expected, the guards at the gates were strengthened, and patrols sent in every direction. The public looked amazed, as well it might. TheMercurydid not know whether most to admire the tyrannical spirit or the consummate vanity of the Canadians, and of No. 15, of theCanadien, which contended that the Canadians had rights. As a striking proof of Canadian tyranny, theCanadienwould not allow any but the members of the Assembly to be a judge of the expediency of expelling Judge DeBonne! and it was even said that of all those who signed the address to His Excellency, presented in the name of Quebec, not one was capable of understanding the nature of the question. In adependence, such as Canada, was the government to be daily flouted, bearded, and treated with the utmost disrespect and contumely? "He" expected nothing less than that its patience would be exhausted, andenergetic measuresresorted to, as the only efficient ones. From any part of a people conquered from wretchedness into everyindulgence, and theheight of prosperity, such treatment, as the government daily received was far different from that which ought to have been expected. But there were characters in the world on whom benefits have no other effect than to produceinsolenceandinsult. The stroke was struck, theMercurywould say no more. The greatest misfortune that can ever happen to the press is for it to be in the possession of invisible and licentious hands. It said no more, because "the war was with the dead!"
Sir James was not very sure that he had acted either wisely or well. He thought it necessary to explain. Divers wicked and seditious writings had been printed. Divers wicked and seditious writings had been dispersed throughout the province. Divers writings were calculated to mislead divers of His Majesty's subjects. Divers wicked and traitorous persons had endeavoured to bring into contempt and had vilified the administration, and divers persons had invented wicked falsehoods, with the view of alienating the affections of His Majesty's subjects from the respect which was due to His Majesty's person. It was impossible for His Majesty's representative longer to disregard or suffer practices so directly tending to subvert His Majesty's government, and to destroy the happiness of His Majesty's subjects. He, therefore, announced, that with the advice and concurrence of the Executive Council, and due information having been given to three of His Majesty's Executive Councillors, warrants, as by law authorised, had been issued, under which, some of the authors, printers, and publishers of the aforesaid traitorous and seditious writings had been apprehended and secured. Deeply impressed with a desire to promote, in all respects, the welfare and happiness of the most benevolent of sovereigns, whose servant he had been for as long a period as the oldest inhabitant had been his subject, and whose highest displeasure he should incur if the acts of these designing men had produced any effect, he trusted that neither doubts nor jealousies had crept into the public mind. He would recall to the deluded, if there were any, the history of the whole period during which they had been under His Majesty's government. It was for them to recollect the progressive advances they had made in the wealth, happiness, and unbounded liberty which they then enjoyed. Where was the act of oppression—where was the instance of arbitrary imprisonment—or where was the violation of property of which they had to complain? Had there been an instance in which the uncontrolled enjoyment of their religion had been disturbed? While other countries and other colonies had been deluged in blood, during the prevalent war, had they not enjoyed the most perfect security and tranquillity? What, then, could be the means by which the traitorous would effect their wicked purposes? What arguments dare they use? For what reason was happiness to be laid aside and treason embraced? What persuasion could induce the loyal to abandon loyalty and become monsters of ingratitude? The traitorous had said that he desired to embody and make soldiers of twelve thousand of the people, and because the Assembly would not consent, that he had dissolved the Parliament? It was monstrously untrue, and it was particularly atrocious in being advanced by persons who might have been supposed to have spoken with certainty on the subject. It had been said that he wanted to tax the lands of the country people, that the House would only consent to tax wine, and that for such perverseness he had dissolved the Assembly. Inhabitants of St. Denis! the Governor General never had the most distant idea of taxing the people at all. The assertion was directly false. When the House offered to pay the civil list, he could not move without the King's instructions. But in despair of producing instances from what he had done, the traitorous had spoken of that which he intended to do. It was boldly said that Sir James Craig intended to oppress the Canadians. Base and daring fabricators of falsehood! on what part of his life did they found such assertions? What did the inhabitants of St. Denis know of him or of his intentions? Let Canadians inquire concerning him of the heads of their church. The heads of the church were men of knowledge, honor, and learning, who had had opportunities of knowing him, and they ought to be looked to for advice and information. The leaders of faction and the demagogues of a party associated not with him, and could not know him. Why should he be an oppressor? Was it to serve the King, the whole tenor of whose life had been honorable and virtuous? Was it for himself that he should practice oppression? For what should he be an oppressor? Ambition could not prompt him, with a life ebbing slowly to a close, under the pressure of a disease acquired in the service of his country. He only looked forward to pass the remaining period of his life in the comfort of retirement, among his friends. He remained in Canada simply in obedience to the commands of his King. What power could he desire? For what wealth would he be an oppressor? Those who knew him, knew that he had never regarded wealth, and then, he could not enjoy it. He cared not for the value of the country laid at his feet. He would prefer to power and wealth a single instance of having contributed to the happiness and prosperity of the people whom he had been sent to govern. He warned all to be on their guard against the artful suggestions of wicked and designing men. He begged that all would use their best endeavours to prevent the evil effects of incendiary and traitorous doings. And he strictly charged and commanded all magistrates, captains of militia, peace officers, and others, of His Majesty's good subjects to bring to punishment such as circulated false news, tending, in any manner, to inflame the public mind and to disturb the public peace and tranquillity.
Could anything have been more pitiable than such a proclamation? The existence of a conspiracy on the part of some disaffected persons to overthrow the King's government was made to appear with the view of covering a mistake. The proclamation was the apology for the illegal seizure of a press and types used in the publication of a newspaper, in which nothing seditious or treasonable had in reality been published. It was true that theCanadienupheld the Assembly and criticised the conduct of the Executive, with great severity. It was true that theCanadiencomplained of the tyranny of "les Anglais." It was true that theCanadienstrenuously supported the idea of the expenses of the civil list being defrayed by the province and not by the Imperial government. And it was true that it contended for "nos institutions, notre langue, et nos lois." It did nothing more. No hint was thrown out that Canada would be more prosperous under the American, than under the English dominion. It was not even insinuated that Canada should be wholly governed by Canadians. All that was claimed for French Canadians was a fair share in the official spoils of the land they lived in, freedom of speech, and liberty of conscience. Governor Craig asked the inhabitants of St. Denis or any of the other inhabitants of the province to remind him of any one act of oppression or of arbitrary imprisonment. And at that very moment the printer of theCanadienwas in prison. Nor was he there alone, there were Messrs. Bedard, Blanchet, and Taschereau, members of the recently dissolved House of Assembly, together with Messrs. Pierre Laforce, Pierre Papineau, of Chambly, and François Corbeille, of Isle Jésus, to keep him company, on charges of treasonable practices, concerning which there was not, and never had been, even the shadow of proof, on charges which the government did not attempt even to prove, and on charges which were withdrawn without the accused having ever been confronted with their accusers. Base and daring fabricators of falsehood! François Corbeille, an innocent man, the victim only of unjust suspicions, on the one hand, and of diabolical selfishness, on the other, died in consequence of the injury his health received in that prison where tyranny had placed him. But he could issue no proclamation. His voice was not loud enough in the tomb to reach the Court of St. James, surrounded as that Court was, by an impenetrable phalanx of Downing Street Red-tapists. Canada was only mis-governed because England was deceived, through the instrumentality of Governors, honorable enough as men, but so wanting in administrative capacity, as to be open to the vile flattery and base insinuations of those who were, or rather should have been at once the faithful servants of the Crown and of that people who upheld it, who were virtually taken possession of, on arrival, by the "gens en place," and held safely in custody, until their nominal power had ceased. And when power had passed away, then only did many of them perceive, as Sir James Craig is reported to have done, the deception, the ingratitude, and the almost inhumanity of man. There is some excuse to be offered for the extraordinary course of policy pursued by Sir James Craig; and an apology even can be made for the crooked policy of those voluntary advisers who had hedged him in. Great Britain was at war with France. The name of a Frenchman was unmusical in the ears of any Englishman of that period, and it sounded harshly in the ears of the British soldier. It was France that had prostituted liberty to lust. It was France that had dragged public opinion to the scaffold and the guillotine. It was France that held the axe uplifted over all that was good and holy. It was France that was making all Europe a charnel-house. It was General Buonaparte of France, who only sought to subdue England, the more easily to conquer the world. Many an English hearth had cursed his name. Many a widow had he made desolate, and many an orphan fatherless. The "conquered subjects" of King George spoke and thought in French. They held French traditions in veneration. There could only be a jealousy, a hatred, a contempt entertained of everything seeming to be French, in the heart of an Englishman. And these sentiments were doubtless reciprocated. But, still the French of Canada, were only, now, French by extraction. They had long lost that love of the land of their origin, which belongs to nativity. Few men in the province had been born in France. Few Canadians knew anything about the new regime, or took any interest in the "Code Napoléon." And few even cherished flattering recollections of Bourbon rule. The Canadians wanted English liberty, not French republicanism. The Canadians wanted to have for themselves so much liberty as a Scotchman might enjoy at John O'Groats, or an Englishman obtain at Land's-End. And for so desiring liberty they were misrepresented, because of English colonial prejudices, and because of official dislikes and selfishness. When the first Attorney-General of Canada, Mr. Mazzeres, afterwards Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer, in England, of whom Mr. Ryland was but a pious follower, proposed to convert the Canadians to Anglicism in religion, in manners, and in law, assuredly little opposition could have been made to the scheme. Then, the pursuance of Cardinal Richelieu's policy would, in after ages, have exemplified that the pen had been mightier than the sword. Then the whole population of the province could have been housed in one of the larger cities of the present time. But when the province had increased in numbers to 300,000, partially schooled in English legislation, the exercise of despotism was only as impolitic as it was obviously unjust. It was feared by the officers of the civil government of Canada, when this despotism was practised, that the legislature might have the power, which has since been conceded, of dispensing with the services of merely imperial officers, and of filling, with natives to the manor born, every office of profit or emolument in the province. It was feared if the exclusive power were granted to the Colonial Legislature of appropriating all the sums necessary for the civil expenditure of the province, that it would give the Legislature absolute control over the officers of the empire and of the colony, and annihilate, if not actually, potentially, theimperiumof Great Britain over her colony. A distinction was drawn between the privileges of a colonist and of the resident of the United Kingdom. While every municipality in the latter was permitted to pay and control its own officers, the voice of a colonist was to be unheard in the councils of the nation to which he was attached, and he was to have no control over the actions of those who were to make or administer the laws, under which he lived. He was patiently to submit to the overbearing assumptions of some plebeian Viceroy, accidentally raised to a quasi-level with the great potentates of the earth, and inclined to ride with his temporary and borrowed power, after that great impersonage of evil, which, it is alleged, the beggar always attempts to overtake when, having thrown off his rags and poverty, he has been mounted on horseback. It is admitted that at this time the province was controlled by a few rapacious, overbearing, and irresponsible officials, without stake or other connection with the country, than their offices,[14]having no sympathy with the mass of the inhabitants. It is admitted that these officials lorded it over the people, upon whose substance they existed, and that they were not confided in, but hated. It is admitted that their influence with the English inhabitants arose from the command of the treasury. And it is admitted that, though only the servants of the government, they acted as if they had been princes among the natives and inhabitants of the province, upon whom they affected to look down, estranging them from all direct intercourse, or intimacy, with the Governor, whose confidence, no less than the control of the treasury, it was their policy to monopolise. To the candidates for vice-regal favors, their smiles were fortune, and their frowns were fate. The Governor was a hostage in the keeping of the bureaucracy, and the people were but serfs.
Nothing has been left on record to show that when Sir James Craig issued his absurd proclamation, treason was to have been feared, unless it be that the clergy were required to read the proclamation from the pulpits of the parish churches, that Chief Justice Sewell read it from the Bench, that the Grand Jury drew up an address to the Court and strongly animadverted upon the dangerous productions of theCanadien, and that theQuebec Mercuryexpressed its abhorrence of sedition, and chronicled the fact that 671habitantshad expressed their gratitude to the Governor, for his "truly paternal proclamation."
In the April term of the Court of King's Bench, the release of Mr. Bedard from gaol, was attempted, by an attempt to obtain a writ ofHabeas Corpus. But the Bench was not sufficiently independent of the Crown. The writ was refused. The State prisoners were compelled to remain in prison, indulging the hope that whatever charges could be preferred against them would be reduced to writing, and a trial be obtained. It was hoping against hope. Some of the imprisoned fell sick, among whom was the printer of theCanadien, and all in the gaol of Quebec, with the exception of Mr. Bedard, were turned out of prison. Mr. Bedard refused to be set at liberty without having had the opportunity of vindicating his reputation by the verdict of a jury. Conscious of the integrity of his conduct, and of the legality of his expressed political opinions, he solicited trial, but the September session of the Criminal Term of the King's Bench was suffered to elapse without any attention having been paid to him. Three of the prisoners were imprisoned in the gaol of Montreal, and were not only subjected to the inconveniences and discomforts of a damp and unhealthy prison, but to the petty persecutions of a relentless gaoler. They were one after the other enlarged without trial, Mr. Corbeil only to die.
In the course of the summer the government had been occupied with the regulation and establishment of a system of police, in Montreal and Quebec, and, with that view, salaried chairmen were appointed to preside over the Courts of Quarter Sessions. The government also determined upon opening up a road to the Eastern Townships, which would afford a direct land communication between Quebec and Boston. Commencing at St. Giles, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, that road to the township of Shipton, which still bears the name of Governor Craig, was completed by a detachment of troops.
On the 10th of December, Parliament again met. The House of Assembly re-elected Mr. Panet to the Speakership, and the Governor approved of his election. In his speech from the throne, Governor Craig had never doubted the loyalty and zeal of the parliaments which had met since he had assumed the administration of affairs. He was confident that they were animated by the best intentions to promote the interests of the King's government and the welfare of the people. He looked for such a disposition in the tenor of their deliberations. He called their attention to the temporary Act for the better preservation of His Majesty's government, and for establishing regulations respecting aliens or certain subjects of His Majesty, who had resided in France. No change had taken place in the state of public affairs, that would warrant a departure from those precautions which made the Act necessary. He did not mean that it should be supposed that he meant to divide the interests of His Majesty's government from the interests of the public, for they were inseparable. But the preservation of His Majesty's government was the safety of the province, and its security was the only safeguard to the public tranquillity. He therefore recommended those considerations together with the Act making temporary provision for the regulation of trade between Canada and the United States to their first and immediate consideration. He entreated them to believe that he should have great satisfaction in cultivating that harmony and good understanding which must be so conducive to the prosperity and happiness of the colony, and that he should most readily and cheerfully concur, in every measure, which they might propose, tending to promote those important objects. And he further intimated that the rule of his conduct was to discharge his duty to his sovereign, by a constant attention to the welfare of his subjects, who were committed to his charge, and these objects he felt to be promoted by a strict adherence to the laws and principles of the constitution, and by maintaining in their just balance the rights and privileges of every branch of the legislature. Sir James Craig's attempts at maintaining a balance of power were the chief causes of all his blundering. He did not himself know the proper balance of power between himself and the governed. He could not possibly perceive when his balance-beam was out of its centre, and if he had seen a slight leaning to one side, and that side not his own, he could not have conceived that the scales of justice would have been very much affected. It never occurred to him that the displacement of it, only to the extent of one-sixteenth half of an inch, on the side of Government and Council, would weigh a quarter of a century against the Assembly, the people and progress. But so it was. The beam with which Sir James Craig would have and did weigh out justice, was one-sided, and, to make matters still worse, the Governor threw into the adverse scale a host of his own prejudices, and of the prejudices of his secret councillors. He would have been glad, had the House expelled Mr. Bedard, one of its members, on the plea that it was prejudicial to its dignity that a representative of the people should be kept in durance, while the House was in session, and still more discreditable that that member should be charged with treason. Hardly had he delivered his speech, and the Assembly returned to their chamber, when the Governor sent a message to the House intimating that Mr. Bedard, who had been returned to Parliament, as the representative of Surrey, was detained in the common gaol of Quebec, under the "Preservation Act," charged with treasonable practices. The House most politely thanked the Governor-in-Chief for the information. The House resolved that Mr. Bedard was in the common gaol of Quebec. The House resolved that Pierre Bedard was, on the 27th day of March, returned to Parliament, as one of the Knights Representative of Surrey. The House resolved that Pierre Bedard, was then one of the members of the Assembly, for the existing Parliament. The House resolved that the simple arrest of any one of His Majesty's subjects did not render him incapable of election to the Assembly. The House resolved that the Government Preserves Act, guaranteed to the said Pierre Bedard, Esquire, the right of sitting in the Assembly. And the House resolved to present a humble address to His Excellency, informing him that his message had been seriously considered, that several resolutions had been passed, which they conceived it to be their duty to submit to His Excellency, and that it was the wish of the House that Pierre Bedard, Esquire, Knight Representative for the County of Surrey, might take his seat in the House. The vote in favor of the resolutions was expressively large. There were twenty-five members present, and twenty voted for the resolutions. Messrs. Bourdages, Papineau, senior, Bellet, Papineau, junior, Debartch, Viger, Lee, and Bruneau, were named a committee to present an address to the Governor, founded on the resolutions, but they managed to escape that honor. When it was moved to resolve that an enquiry be made as to the causes which had prevented the messengers from presenting the address, as ordered by the House, Mr. Papineau, senior, moved that nothing more should be said about the address, and the motion was carried. Nor was anything more said about the unfortunate gentleman who was imprisoned, as the Governor himself afterwards stated, only as a measure of precaution, not of punishment, until the close of the session, when he was released. He was kept in Ham because he might have done mischief, on the principle that prevention is better than cure, and, when Mr. Bedard desired to know what was expected of him, the Governor sent for his brother, the curé, and authorized him to tell Mr. Bedard that he had been confined by government, "only looking to its security and the public tranquillity," and that when Mr. Bedard expressed a sense of that error, of which he was ignorant, he would be immediately enlarged. Mr. Bedard replied courteously, but declined admitting any error, which he had not made, or of confessing to any crime of which he was not guilty. The Governor had heard of the resolutions of the House, and expected the presentation of the address embodying them, when he received an application from the elder Papineau, one of the committee, requesting a private conference on the subject of the resolutions. That conference only drew from His Excellency the remark that:—"No consideration, Sir, shall induce me to consent to the liberation of Mr. Bedard, at the instance of the House of Assembly, either as a matter of right, or as a favor, nor will I now consent to his being enlarged on any terms during the sitting of the present session, and I will not hesitate to inform you of the motives by which I have been induced to come to this resolution. I know that the general language of the members, has encouraged the idea which universally prevails, that the House of Assembly will release Mr. Bedard; an idea so firmly established that there is not a doubt entertained upon it in the province. The time is therefore come, when I feel that the security as well as the dignity of the King's government, imperiously require that the people should be made to understand the true limits of the rights of the respective parts of the government, and that it is not that of the House of Assembly to rule the country." And Mr. Bedard, sensible of having done no wrong, remained in gaol until the Parliament was prorogued, as an example to the people that there was no public opinion worth heeding, in the province, and that the power of the Governor was something superior to that of the Assembly. The Assembly went to work after having made the fruitless attempt to liberate Mr. Bedard, and passed as many bills as were required. The "gaols" bill was temporarily continued: the repairs of the Castle of St. Lewis having cost £14,980, instead of £7,000, as contemplated, the additional outlay was voted; £50,000 were voted towards the erection of suitable parliament buildings. The Alien Act and that for the Preservation of the Government were continued, together with the Militia Act, to March 1813; the bill to disqualify judges from being elected to the Assembly passed both Houses, and to these the Governor assented, proroguing the Parliament afterwards with great pleasure. Communication with Europe had been difficult during the winter, on account of the impediments thrown in the way of American commerce. The Princess Charlotte had died, and the sovereign himself had become alarmingly indisposed. A new Act of non-intercourse had been passed in the American Congress. He had seen among the Acts passed, and to which he had just declared His Majesty's assent, with peculiar satisfaction, the Act disqualifying the judges from holding a seat in the House of Assembly. It was not only that he thought the measure right in itself, but that he considered the passing of an Act for the purpose, as a complete renunciation of theerroneous principle, the acting upon which put him under the necessity of dissolving the last parliament. The country was becoming luxuriantly rich, and he hoped that all would be harmony and tolerance. He would be a proud man who could say to his sovereign that he found the Canadians divided and left them united.
On the 19th of June, 1811, Lieut.-General Sir James Craig embarked for England, in H.M.S.Amelia. Previous to his departure he received addresses from Quebec, Montreal, Three Rivers, Warwick, and Terrebonne, and when he was about to leave the Chateau St. Louis, the British population, who admired the old General more perhaps than they did the constitutional ruler, exhibited considerable feeling. The multitude took the place of His Excellency's carriage horses and popularly carried away, to the Queen's wharf, His Majesty's representative. Nay, the old soldier, who really had a heart, almost wept as he bade farewell to men, some of whom he had first met with in the battle field, and had since known for nearly half a century. Sir James too was ill. It was not indeed expected that he would have lived long enough to reach England. His dropsy was becoming not only troublesome but dangerous.[15]
Sir James was succeeded in the administration of the government of Canada by Mr. Dunn.
The Canadians had, during the administration of Governor Craig, earnestly pursued Junius' advice to the English nation. They had never, under the most trying circumstances, suffered any invasion of their political constitution to pass by, without a determined and persevering resistance. They practically exhibited their belief in the doctrine that, one precedent creates another; that precedents soon accumulate and constitute law; that what was yesterday fact becomes to-day doctrine; that examples are supposed to justify the most dangerous measures, and that where they do not suit exactly, the defect is supplied by analogy. They felt confident that the laws which were to protect their civil rights were to grow out of their constitution, and that with it the country was to fall or flourish. They believed in the right of the people to choose their own representatives. They were sensibly impressed with the idea that the liberty of the press is the palladium of the civil, political, and religious rights of a British subject, and that the right of juries to return a general verdict, in all cases whatsoever, is an essential part of the British constitution, not to be controlled, or limited, by the judges, nor in any shape to be questionable by the legislature. And they believed that the power of the King, Lords, and Commons, was not an arbitrary power, but one which they themselves could regulate. In a word, they believed that, whatever form of government might be necessary for the maintenance of order, and for putting all men on an equality in the eye of the law, the people themselves were the source of all power, and they acted accordingly.
Mr. Peel, (afterwards Sir Robert Peel,) Under Secretary of State, condemned the conduct of Sir James Craig, as Governor of Canada. Mr. Ryland, himself, informed Sir James, by letter, from London, whither he had been sent with despatches, that when he observed to Mr. Peel that Sir James Craig had all the English inhabitants with him, and, consequently, all the commercial interest of the country, Mr. Peel remarked that the Canadians were much morenumerous, and he repeated the same remark more than once, in a way that indicated a fear of doing anything that might clash with the prejudices of themore numerouspart of the community. And when Mr. Ryland ventured to suggest that the decided approbation of the Governor's conduct could not fail to have adesirableeffect on the minds of the Canadians, and that the best way of expressing such approbation, was by suspending the constitution, as Sir James Craig had recommended, Mr. Peel thought that a reunion of the provinces would be better than a suspension of the constitution of Lower Canada. Lord Liverpool thought that it was not very necessary to imprison the editors of theCanadien. He quietly asked if they could not have been brought over to the government? Mr. Ryland said that it was not possible, that Mr. Bedard's motive for opposing the government, was possibly to obtain office, but he had acted in such a way as to make that impossible. At dinner with the Earl of Liverpool, at Coombe Wood, Mr. Ryland seems to have had a combing from Mr. Peel. He writes to Sir James Craig that, in a conversation with Mr. Peel, before dinner, concerning the state of things in Canada, he was mortified to find that he had but an imperfect idea of the subject. He expressed himself as though he had thought that Sir James Craig had dissolved the House of Assembly on account of their having passed a bill for excluding the judges. He endeavored to give Mr. Peel a clear and correct conception of these matters, but God knew with what success! He recollected Governor Craig's advice, and kept his temper, but it was really very provoking to see men of fine endowments and excellent natural understanding, too inattentive to make themselves masters of a very important subject, which had been placed before them, in an intelligible manner. When Mr. Peel asked him if the English members of the House were always with the government, Mr. Ryland said that in every case of importance, with the exception of Mr. James Stuart, formerly Solicitor-General, the English members always supported the views of the government. And, indeed, the Attorney-General of England, Sir Vicary Gibbs, reported against the despotic intentions of Sir James Craig, and, at the suggestion of his secretary, further expressed his official opinion that the paper published in theCanadien, and upon which the proceedings of the Executive Council of Canada had been founded, was not such as to fix upon the publishers, the charge of treasonable practices, and that it was only the apprehensions that had been in Canada entertained, of the effects of the publication of the paper in theCanadien, that might have made it excusable to resort to means, not strictly justifiable in law, for suppressing anticipated mischief. The truth was simply that a stupid old man, filled with the most violent prejudices, against change of any sort, had been sent to govern a new and rapidly rising country, and knew not how success was to be obtained. His mind was full of conspiracies, rebellions, and revolutions, and nothing else. When he retired to rest, and had drawn the curtains of his bed, there sat upon him, night after night, three horrible spectres:—the Rebellion in Ireland, the Reign of Terror in France, and the American revolution. He slept only to dream of foul conspiracies, and he was dreaming how they best could be avoided, when in broad daylight he was most awake.
Upper Canada had not yet become sufficiently populous to require much legislation. Indeed, the legislature of that province hardly transacted any business more important than now devolves upon some insignificant county municipality. There was as yet no party. There were as yet no grievances. Parliament was annually assembled by Governor Gore, rather because it was a rule to which he was bound to attend, than because it was required. He met his parliament again, on the 1st of February, 1811, and business having been rapidly transacted, the royal assent was given to nine Acts, relative to the erection and repair of roads and bridges, to the licensing of petty chapmen, to the payment of parliamentary contingencies, to the regulation of duties, to the further regulation of the proceedings of sheriffs, in the sale of goods and chattels, taken by them in execution, to assessments, to bills of exchange, and to the raising and training of the militia.
On the 30th of September, in the same year, Lieutenant-Governor Francis Gore resigned the government into the hands of Major-General, Sir Isaac Brocke, and returned to England, Mr. Dunn, having, on the 14th of the same month, been relieved of the government of Lower Canada, by Lieutenant-General Sir George Prevost, Baronet, the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, and now appointed Governor General of British North America, in consideration as well of his administrative ability, as of his distinguished reputation as an officer in the army. No sooner had Sir George arrived at Quebec, than he set out on a tour of military observation. War was now more than ever imminent. Another difficulty had occurred at sea. A British sloop of war, theLittle Belt, had been fired into by the American frigate,President, and, in the rencontre which followed, had suffered greatly in her men and rigging. The British Orders in Council had not been rescinded, American commerce was crippled, the revenue was falling off, and there was that general quarrelsomeness of spirit which, sooner or later, must be satisfied, pervading the middle States of the American Union. Congress was assembled by proclamation, on the 5th of November, and the President of the United States indicated future events by a shadow in his opening "Message." Mr. Madison found that he must "add" that the period had arrived which claimed from the legislative guardians of the national rights, a system of more ample provision for maintaining them. There was full evidence of the hostile inflexibility of Great Britain. She had trampled on rights, which no independent nation could relinquish, and Congress would feel the duty of putting the United States into an armour and an attitude, demanded by the crisis, and corresponding with the national spirit and expectation. Congress did as they were recommended to do. Bills were passed having reference to probable hostilities, one of which authorized the President to raise, with as little delay as possible, twenty-five thousand men.
In Canada every man held his breath for a time.