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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mithode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 I T u**- 1 1% THOUGHTS ON THE T^mfiu of tjif Irifoji Snjalritanb f C0MP08IN0 THE MINORITY IN LOWER CANADA, BROUGHT ABOUT BT THE MALADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE, •<>• ^M AND THE TYBANSY OF THE MAJORITY IN THAT PROYXNCE; AND LEREFOR. jij* BY JOHN HENRY WJLLAN, BAaBISTBIt, AWD ConM8BI.LOB AT LAW. rr^% QUEBEP : ^TPN*JNTBD AT THE MllOtrEY OFPIOll 5? iB59. ^' yjA PRErACE. \ It may not be out of place here, to remark that the following papers written by the author in his capacity of journalist, were published in the Quebec Mercury during a late crisis at Que- jec in connection with that right cherished by every freeman, **ie " liberty of speech.'* As will be patent to the reader, -hey were (with the exception of the first) mainly suggested by he inquisitorial action of several Members at their seats in .he Town Council, in calling to account the Chief Magistrate jfthe City for his action in a matter wherein he will undoubted- ly be approved and sustained by all who know and appreciate the spirit of British institutions. The manner in which this seemingly local topic concerns the British Inhabitants throughout Lower Canada, will readily occur to the reflective mind on ccfnnecting the actijpn of these worthy councilmen with several notorious events of preceding years, on record in the Courts of Quebec and Montreal, ^ind which have from time to time been freely commented on by the Press of the entire coun- try, but the gravity of v/hose bearing, — taken into considera- tion along with the action of various officials at different pe- riods, — cannot allow the occurrences in question to be sunk in obliv'on by the true politician and lover of his fellow countrymen. At the earnest and repeated solicitation of a few leading citizens, these papers are noN^ brought together and printed in pamplet form for more extended circulation, to the end that the rights of the sufferers may be vindicated and, if need be, that attention be directed to the subject in the mother country where with shame be it acknowleged, our real position is sadly ignored by those who call themselves our rulers. J. H. WILLAN. Jr fc: '* -.<■♦ %. ,^^ |5» «4 5 ■». '■ THOUGHTS ON THH POSITION OF THE BRITISH INHABITANTS in. COMPOSING THE iniNORITT IN LOWER CANADA. {Fro/nth* Quebec Mercury, February 8 , 1859.) TYRANNY OF THE MAJORITY. Our readers are aware that an upplication fur the use oi' the Jacques Cartier Market Hall, was made to the city coun- cil at its last session, by Messrs. Healey and Lesueur, on the part of the temperance societies, and was refused under the following circumstances. Mr. Rheaume asserted that the lec- turer on tlie occasion was to be the Reverend Mr. Chiniquy. We are informed that he added Mr. Chiniquy should be chased oiit of St. Rochs, and looking at Councillor Hearn, chairman of the Police Committee, significantly added " Those who put downGavazzi, will put down Chiniquy." On this, we are informed Councillor Robertson, a great stickler for private judgment in private life, where it is a safe and convenient pro- fe89ion, rose and stated that if the application were made for the person mentioned by Mr. Rheaume, it ought to be rejected withjeorn. On which Mr. Hall, pro-Mayor, another pro- feosed stickler for private judgnment, confirmed the declaration of Councillor Rheaume, who was loudly supported by Mr. Audette, and received the following edifying remark from Councillor Rousseau : ** In 1837, Father Chiniquy, when I wsRited on him on behalf of my distressed compatriots, called me 'a rebel to the Queen, and showed me to the door, now I'll pay him for it," Messrs. Eadon, Shaw and Irvine, all hono- inble- men, enthusiastic loyalists, unswerving champions of private judgment,^-people who believe that the conversion of r Lower Co2)«da^ \i it would not bring about tho tjjiller.ium, would at least doubltt the revenue, — quietly concurred in the rejection of the application, on the grounds thfit Father Chiniquy was a loyali$t,and that Father Chiniquy was under the censure of the Roman Catholic ecclesiastics, and finally that Messrt. Rheaumc, Audette and Hall had said Father Chiniquy was going to give n temperance lecture. For the full significance of the action of the Council to be understood, it is necessary to point out to strangers to our local affairs and (o the public history of this Province for some years past, that the reverend gentleman in question stands in the following position. Some years ago his services as temperance lecturer were acknowledged and rewarded by £500, from tht Parliament uf Canada. The thanks of the people in Parlia- ment have been voted to Chiniquy, and that vote has never been reversed. Since then, Mr. Chiniquy has fallen under the censure of his ecclesiastical superiors, on no question of reli- gious opinion or private morality, but on a mere question of church discipline. Now it was not pretended that the lecture to be given by him was to differ in any respect, from those already so highly acknowledged by Parliament. The preten- sion was simply that Mr. Chiniquy should not be permitted tO' speak in public, on any subject, or under any circumstnncfW) merely because he had incurred ecclesiastical censures frofft the dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church, on a quetticm of temporal possessions and sacerdotal subordination, in refe- rence to which Mr. Chiniquy argued that he was right by the canon law of his church, and his superiors judged that he Wai wrong. Thus the City Council of Quebec have decided that the Parliament of the Canadian people is inferior in authority to the Roman Catholic sect. And the Protestant membera of the Council, whose Protestant constituents should never forget or forgive them, have declared that a sentenee by Romish Bishops is to carry with it moral infamy and soomtL OUTLAWRY. ?*^ * If these men are consistent in the doctrine they have jttiM laid down in the case of Chiniquy, were the Inquisition eate- blished to-morrow, Hall, Robertson, Shaw, Cadon and tftiti^ would apply to be admitted amongst its guards, and suffered t^ enforce its decrees against their fellow citizens. As for the Catholic members of the Council, we confine oitf ,'*' ' V - cciifcturoof iliem (o the t»)llo\ving remark ; — Sdhiu years ago. Mr. BroNvnson came to Quebec. 11»! gave avoweilly theologi- cal lectures. .Ue made the most wholesale aud the most unsparing attacks on the moral character of Protestants through- out the world. He was also what the Roman Catholics delight to call a " renegade and an apostate," — that is to say one who chose to leave his father's faith, and adopt one for himself ; with this important difference that, unlike Chiniquy, instead of having been turned outol a church apropos of the title deeds of a house, he had deliberately professed all kinds of religions in succession, and finally settled down into a Roman Catholic, and in that capacity, brought wholesale charges of nameless crimes against all bis fellow countrymen who persevered in those opinions which he had professed quite long enough to include himself in his animadversions ! To this lecturer the public property was ^''^i^itously lent, at the public e.\pense. Mr. Chiniquy is to be denied its use, even on payment for it. lie must not speak one w^ord, even on temperance, because he did not choose to give his private house to a Mr. O'Regan, a private American citizen of Chicago, who had undertaken to denationalize the French Canadian settlements of Illinois, in the nam.e of the Catholic Church, anil in the interest of some American land speculators. We will conclude by these general remarks. The conduct of the Protestant members of the Council can only be regarded with regret and with apprehension. For years past the pre- tension has been put up, that the voice of a majority is supreme upon every possible subject. Latterly too many of the British population hnve appeared to acquiesce in this opinion. It is now officially declared by their elected municipal representa- tives. Nevertheless this doctrine is as un English as it is false. The British constitution acknowledges rights of the majority, it also acknowledges rights of the minority, and finally it recognizes rights of the individual, which no majority can affect. Of the second description of right, is that of the temperance people to the use of the Market Hall of St. Roch's ward. The Market Hall is held by the citizens of Quebec in common, and a majority of the citizens can no more prohibit its use to a minority, than two joint tenants can vote a third joint tenant out of his house and lands. 8 Of tlio last of the above rights, it is Mr. Cliiniquy's per- sonally ami exclusively. Liberty of speech is a liberty which no vote can take away, no numbers can destroy. The Englishman ftpeaks on his own responsibility before God nnd the law. There is no power in the Empire to restrain his voice. Even where liis words are criminal he may be puni- shed but can not be silenced, — ho may not be restrained. Now those principles are the glory of the English name, their maintenance ihe duty of the English race. Wherever three Englisiinien stand on any portion of the habitable globe, there should be found three missionaries of the natural rights of man and foremost amongst them the liberty of speech. Let them remember that they cannot divest the "nselves of the res- ponsibility of this attitude, though they may prove recreant to its duties. Jftherebea power in this country, which will ostracise a man because a sect has denounced him, it is in vain for Englishmen, men associated by their blood and their nationality with the cause of freedom, to suppose they can con- ciliate that power by any subserviency however base. If they submit to the tyranny of a majority, sooner or later tlie iron of a many headed despotism will enter into tiieir souls. If under any pretext they permit the Government of Canada to become a theocracy, they will find that, that tlieocracy, do what they will, will regard them as heretics and as aliens. It is time that the British of Lower Canada should learn that they have posterity as well as ancestry ; that they have duties to discharge as well as traditions to remember ; that they should provide for the future instead of eternally harping on the past ; and that the future for them will be the propagation of freedom or the endurance of slavery, — according as they acknowledge the Despotism of Majorities or as they vindicate and uphold the eternal principles of the Rights of the individual and the just and lawful liberties of man. ;!' {From the Quebec Mercury, February 17, 1859.) The Courrier du Canada blames Mr. Hall the pro-Mayor, not for refusing the Market House of St. Rochs, tor a tempe- ranee lect' e even if Mr. Chiniquy were the lecturer, but for escorting him when threatened with or anticipating violence 1 9 on the highwn} (o the Lecture Room in Ann street, and there- bj preventing private citizens from guarding Chiniquy as they formerly did Gavftzzi, with perhaps a similar result. The Courrier complains of abuses of the liberty of speech, and of the danger i>f incendiary proceedings. The Courrier Id the avowed organ of the Roman Catholic Priesthood. In that capacity he pronounced the lynch process of Monday a chastisement merited by Mr. Chiniquy, and gloried in the disgracefid imitation by native Canadians of the favorite remedy of the Soulliern slaveholders in dealing with the advocates of "abolition": in the same capacity, he doubtless approves of the denunciation levelled at Father Chiniquy in all the Catholic Churches on Sunday last. We think a precise definition of the liberty of speech, by the Courtier, would be interesting if not instructive. Does it mean that the laity have no right to speak on certain sub- jects without the consent of their pastors, or of all men claiming to be ministers of religion ? And that the ministers of all de- nominations have an unlimited license to say what they will, with the permission of iheir superiors from the pulpit ? Or linally is the privilege confined to the clergy of one sect, and that the Koman Catholic ? We will ask yet another question, Is it, or is it nol true, that one of the highest Roman Catholio authorities in this district asked the people of St. Rochs, after Mr. Chiniquy's lecture on Sunday last, ** how it was they could permit a man like that to live amongst them ?" The system of pulpit and altar denunciation has ahistory of itsown, and that history is written in letters of blood. We need not travel far to find instances of altar de- nunciations and their effects. In 1853, the people were warned not to go near GavMZ>;i, in precisely the same terms as were asedon Sunday last. This is something more than liberty of speech ; it Is judicial authority exer"' ed by one out of many tolerated sects ; it is the right of issuin.^ mandates of exile and of death, — the priest commands, the parishioners obey. We now appeal to these gentlemen through their organ the Courrier ; we do so at every hazard of misrepre- sentation and misconception, but we do so notwithstanding, in the best possible spirit. The Catholic laity are many, but their clergy are few ; the Cattiolic laity are poor but their clergy Avc. rich, pven in the rirhcf of this world. Do thrv forget in B ft It r 'li 10 what part of the earth ti.ey live, from what nationality the great body of their parishioners derive their origin I The state of society which surrounds them, the country which adjoins them, and t'le political condition of the country in which they dwell, — we had almost written in which they rule 9 Do they not know that Canada, (in the words of the late Sir Janes Stuart,) is in a transition state, that is to say it is undergoing a peaceful revolution, negatively assisted by British troops, who it seems are shortly to be withdrawn "in order to the com- pletion of the revolutionary process ? Let them look for ex- amples of the progress of political independence in other lands, and see how it has hitherto affected the Church of Rome. If they take America as their example, they find Mexico torn by parties whose real watchwords are the sovereignty of the people and the power and wealth of the church. If they look across the Atlantic, Belgium and Piedmont have shown what free monarchical liberal constitutions amongst Catholic popula- tions, have done for Catholic Priests. The mob outrages of the one and the Governmental action of the other, are commenta- ries on the workings of free constitutions, which he who runs may read. Let them look at Portugal and Spain, the sackings of convents, the murders of Priests an. I Nuns, the executions a'^d confiscations suffered by the Clergy, the wholesale devas- thii'-n of Church properties by professing Catliolic constitutiona- lists and tliey will see, (even if they ever doubted, )^that political liberty and the Church are incompatible terms, that democra- cy and theocracy in Free States must ever be opposing ele- ments, and that wherever political freedom is granted to the people, the liberals must destroy the Church or the Church will put down the liberals. We have not named France, — there however, is the greatest example they can turn to. Their flocks are the descendants of those who in 1750 tore men to death by tortures for failing to honor processions, and in 1792 murdered the Priesthood in thousands. Are they blinder than Belshazzar to the writing on the wall ? Do they not perceive that Rouge and Bleu are but the types of those parties which in Mexico carry on the internecine war which must ever exist between the State and the Church, where the first is Popular, the second that of Rome ; Do they not see that in adopting Italian predilections they fasten themselves to the damaged and doomed c?4' of the European Priesthoods, and )1 their people to that communism, or nt least somi-communism which the masses of Italy and France are pledged to^ and which is fatal to the wealth and power of the Hierarchy ? Do tiiey not see that the fraternization of the Canadian with the modern Frenchman is a fatal omea to them? The only France which consorts with ilieir pretentions, is that of the past. A moral and intellectual connection with the France of the present, pledges the Canadian people to one with the France of the future, and that future is Jacobin. What! Would a Revolution in Paris awake no echo in St. Rochs ! Where will the tythes go to, when the Canadian looks up tiot to the evanescent Emperor, whose decade is nearly run, but to the republic *' one and indivisible" whose reign however short is ever too long for the interests of Rome. — Oh ! *' These are distant speculations." — Are they so ? For how many years was it that the peasantry of the six counties, when contempla- ting Rebellion, avoided the Confessional, despite the terrors of the Church and the tradition of the loup garou'? How often were Church temporalities doomed by Papineau's majo- rity in tho house o{ Assembly, and how often were they saved by the Protestant vote in the Legislative Council ? Has the position of parties been changed by the Union ? The votes and proceedings of the Assembly shew that the ecclesiastical incorporations owe their existence, not to the Catholic, but to the Orange vote ! We need go no further, than instance the last election for the City of Quebec. The priestly candi- dates were returned by Orange help. The voice of the pastor at St. Sulpice was unheard by those to whom it was ad- dressed ; those appeals, so potent to exile or to slay, could not secure submission rt'hen they cried out " peace." At their altars, and before their flocks, the Priests were fallen from the Catholic to the demagjgical standard : all potent to arouse the passions they were impotent to appease them. On the second day of the election, the Priesthood was driven to use the temporal arm, and in whose hand was the weapon } The Ribbonman, sworn " all enemies of his Lord the Pope to per- secute and destroy ?" The Canadian Bleus, the beloved of the Church ? No, it was with " Orange powder" the Priest- hood met the serried bands of the dauntless Rouges. The day may yet come, when they will need such protection. Before many years are over, those who now talk of the Emperor, will 1^ I be speaking of ihe Republic in the s&me tone of unbounded adhesion which Englishmen new to Canada are 6o apt to find offensive. With Ledru Rollin or some similar spirit, and a provisional Government at the Hotel de Ville, the British troops in Canada, (obedient to Reform,) withdrawn in favor of a native force, the abolition of tythes and surrender of Church properties, might be demanded by the same people who have thrown off the feudal tenure, and the demand be advanced with red bonnet, pike and carmaj^nole. As the Abbes of France, in the last generation, fled for safety to Protestant England, so may the Priesthood of Canada yet fly for protec- tion to her Protestant Sons. It is not impossible that the members of the Orange Institution may be asked to protect a Catholic Bishop from the violence of his flock, and that Jacobinism may yet force the now triumphant Priesthood to take refuge with those who would not suffer them to lynch Gavazzi, and to silence Chiniquy. {From the Qusbec Mercury^ February 19, 1859.) THE LIBERTY OF SPEECH, AND THE APPEAL TO ENGLAND ! Last evening, at the meeting of the City Council, Mr. Audette took advantage of a desultory discussion to illustrate and exemplify the liberty of speech as understood by himself. It appeared, according to the Councillor for Palace Ward, that the majority should decide who should speak in public, and who not ; who should reside in a city and who should leave it ; and finally announced that a Magistrate had no right to protect any person to whom the majority might chance to be !iostile ! — that Responsible Government, (or Provincial Inde- pendence) as comprehended by Councillor Audette, means that the British principle of individual action and personal freedom has been abolished in Canada under sanction of the Queen and the Empire, and the old French despotism restored, .with this difference that the majority are to exercise absolute power, instead of the Sovereign ! How would Mr. Audette like the application of his principle to himself ? He says the majority of Quebec were insulted (not by the usa of any harsh or acrimonious language by Mr. 13 Chiniquy, for there was nothing ot the sort, hnt .simply) by his daring to exercise the right of locomotion ; by his venturing to enter this city at all ! Are not the English speaking inha- bitants of Quebec far more insulted by Mr. Audette, who tells them, they, being the minority, have no right to speak or even to live in Quebec, and are here only on suffrance (for that was his doctrine last night,) than any human being could have been by the perfectly polite and passionless addresses of Mr. Chiniquy in Anne street- Are not the people Mr. Audetle despises, the majority of St. Peter Street, where Mr. Audette keeps a leather store ? Is not his leather store just as much at the mercy of the Bri- tish whose rights he has questioned, whose principles he has outraged, whom he has affronted, menaced, and threatened to treat as slaves and bondsmen, — as was that house in which Chiniquy sojourned, at the mercy of the St. Rochs rabble ? Mr. Audette, having claimed for majorities the exercise of censorship, the right of imposing silence, as well as that of deportation — only exerted even by French Prefets pending an ^tat de siege — exemplified the liberty of speech allowed to the majority by calling Chiniquy a criminal, an infamous man, a wretch (tin snelarat) and a robber ! Mr. Audette's despotism of the majority not yet being law, we trust Father Chiniquy will sue him in a few thousand pounds damages, and, if he fails to obtain a sufficient verdict, carry the case to England wliere justice will be done. Some time ago Mr. Quin, an Irish Catholic, feeling Aggrieved in a case which affected his private interests, got up a Petition for the abolition of the Appeal to England in civil cases. This has been long desired by the Roman Catholic Clergy, wha believe that with a Court of Appeals in Canada filled with their devotees, and no Appeal to law in Protestant Fingland, every cause involving either property or reputation would be decided in their favor, and they would be exempted from all control save that of their own well known moderation. The Protestants, especially the Merchants, generally signed this Petition. Englishmen in their characteristic proselytising zeal for the propagation of their own institutions all over the globe, seldom take the pains to enquire what kind of people are to adaiinister them, and what sort of fruit they would bear if inten- tionally or ignorantly perverted to objects the very opposite of t Ji i 14 tliOso they are inteiKled to promote. Henco the question '' why shouldn't we here dispose of our own cases just as the people of England do ?" proved quite irresistible, there was was something so beautifully John Bull-ish and independent about it, the bait prepared in the Archeveche took at once and was swallowed hook and all. Fortunately the unreflecting Protestants have not yet torn away the last remnant of British protection enjoyed in Canada. The appeal in civil cases, over £500, yet exists, and the church of Rome is not that wholly absolute Despot, Mr. Audette conceives her to be. If the Protestants are not smitten with lunacy, they will preserve this appeal ; it is almost the last of their civil rights, and a very significant one, involving a principle which may be extended, which moreover is based on majorities and ought therefore to be grateful to Mr. Audette. It is virtually an appeal from the majority of professed Christians in Lower Canada who are Catholic, to the majority of professed Christians throughout the British Empire who are Protestant. What would Mr. Audette say to such an appeal in its most extended form ? What would he say to a Petition to the British Parliament from every man, woman and child, of the Lower Canadian Protestants, complaining that political liberty in Canada, meant the religious persecution of the Protestants, — and that checks and guarantees must be imposed on a people who, exulting in the safeguard of being nominally British Colonists, used En- glishmen in a way which no foreign power on earth would dare to imitate ? It is little matter what Mr. Audette would say ? it is more material to ask what his masters would say. Are they aware of the consequences of such an appeal ? Do they sup- pose for an instant that if the details of the Queen vs, Kelly & ai, for the murder of Corrigan were known, a criminal appeal would not be added to the present civil appeal, with a re-trial at Westminster, where they could not protect their obedient Parishioneifs ? Do they suppose the sympathies of Protestant America would not be enlisted in favor of the Protestant Petitioners for Imperial Protection when the Protestant press made it understood ^that the interference of Britain with Res- ponsible Government had been solicited not as against " sub- iugated Frenchmen " but " persecuting Papists ?'* The time may yet come that the movement we have sug- gested will be equally necessary and irresistible. There is no part of the world, in which an Englishman occupies an abject it I 15 and degraded position excepl in Lower Canada. And why is he so situated here ? Because he is the victim of an ex-* perimept in liberal government, made by Britain at the expense of her sons. The whole politicrl power of Britain is transferred to the Catholic majority of Canada East, and the Military power of the Empire is placed at their disposal, ready at their command to crush any interference with their sway, whether from within or from without. It is true that Britain did not foresee this, but it was the necessary result of her example- Her Statesmen said in effect let us leave the Canadian people collectively to discharge the duties of the Colonial office, and manage their own af!airs, or (what official indolence pleases to call such) English and French, Protestant and Catholic are prettv fairly matched, with both Provinces made one : let them " fight dog, fight badger," and kill each other like the Kilkenny Cats, and whoever is uppermost for the time being, may have the use of the troops, to keep the Yankees from interfering to spoil a " tarnation fine fight." This being the ratiocination of Downing Street, Upper Canada as usual made a fair copy of it, and adopted the principle of non-inter- vention in Lower Canadian affairs. The result is this, that England and Upper Canada, in imitation of her,leave the Bri- tish of Lower Canada at the absolute mercy of the Roman Catholic population. They are told by Britain " you are Canadians, subject to the Provincial Government in your person and liberties." In Canada they are told " you are aliens and heretics, and we the majority are your foreign and Catholic rulers." Such is their position that, were Quebec a foreign port they would be better of! and better respected, thejr Consul would secure their rights, and the men of Downing Street, instead of referring complainants to the Provincial Government, would investigate their grievances, and put out the whole force of the Empi-e to secure redress for them. As it is, they are enslaved by Canada and outlawed by En- gland. As for the religio'is aspect of the question, it is so Irightful that their position would- be ameliorated by an enact- ment that the Roman Catholic should be the national Church, of Lower Canada, -ard that no other should be tolerated. The first proposition would place that Church somewhat under th& control of the State, the last would substitute judges for mobs, and diminish the ferocity of existing intolerance. 16 II I I I il To exemplify. By French law, extant herei pulpit denun- ciations like those directed against Chiniquy and his hearers are highly actionable. The Catholic kings of France would not suffer the Priesthood to encroach on the Royal authority by unauthorised proscriptions and exiles enforced from the altar and pulpit; that Arch-Bishops and Bishops should turn the parish priests into ciphers and slaves, the bound servants of an Italian Priest ; like England's Catholic Plantagenets, they thought the Ultramontanists of France, too much like foreign emissaries to be endured by them. Protestant England, not recognising the Catholic Church, leaves its Bishops to establish what despotism they will, and exercise it as they will. The Catholic Kings of France, enlightened voluptnaries, by their arbitrary power relieved the Priesthood from the necessity of courting the ignorant masses, and made them the courtiers of the most refined and enlightened Court in Europe. Protestant England, by giving power to numbers in Ca- nada and numbers alone, has made lithe interest of the Priest to court the populace by pandering to their basest passions^ and by the ill-judged expedient of boundless political freedom, has done her best to brutalise both the priesthood and (he peo- ple. Catholic France, while she encouraged learning among the noble and enlightened, left the body of the people unlettered, and therefore tolerant in their ignorance, when not stimulated to lury by Church and Stale. The Protestants of Canada, obedient t ) an impulse received from Britain, have succeeded ia forcing education on the people, and thereby forced the priest- hood of Canada to make bigots of their flocks lest they should become either infidels or Protestants. All powerful to irritate, alarm, and excite Rome, they have proved themselves unequal to the task of resisting her. Old France by her very Catho- licity, kept her Protestant subjects alive to the necessity of self protection. Whenever the State refused to miligate the rigors of the Church they intrigued \\ ith foreign powers, and pur- chased their lives from their tyrants. Protestant England, by her profession of Protestantism, deceives and disarms her sons. The policy of Downing Street (a policy the people of England will repudiate whenever the Canadian Protcbtants ask them to do so) is to foster Romanism for the purpose of pre- venting Annexation. With exquisite skill the Orange Associa- ijon in Canada is bpnt to the very san;o political purpose ns lh« ' ,. II kl Pf ler of isk )re- na- ir Roman Cutholic Churcli. Tlie obligation oi" the Orangeman of Canada is to profess Protestantism and support British con* nection unconditionally. According to this obligation England may become a Koman Catholic power and still Orangemen must support her, she may order martyrdoms, they must be perjured, or they must obey, in Ireland the government being Protestant and the majority of the people opposed to it, the Orange institution was Protestant in action as well as theory. In Canada the reverse of this is the case, both in the premises and the consequence, and it is not to Ireland but to France, under the influence of the Medici, that Protestants must look for any thing like a parallel to their present most lamentable case. So well do the Parliamentary Chiefs of the Orangemen know this that with consummate tact, they have succeeded in confining politial discussion almost exclusively to the Lodge rooms of Upper Canada. By this meatis the Orangemen of L. Canada are kept ignorant of the fact which could not otherwise be concealed from them, that they are at present the dupes of the Priesthood whose refractory parishioners they assist to chastise, whose nominees they assist to elect and whose favorite mea- sures they indirectly advance. This union however, of Britain, Rome, Catholicity and Orangeism is unnatural, let it be but investigated and it will fade like a vision of the night before the rising sun. Let the Protestants oease to say they follow private judgment and think for ihemselves, and instead of saying it^ let them do it, and neither symbols nor watchwords will longer blind them to their position and its duties. We do not recommend our persecuted co-religionists to take refuge in violence, or in secresy, or in discontent. We do recommend them to appeal as one man to the English Government to accord them ihe same protection they would enjoy under their Consular flag if situated in a foreign country ; let them call on Britain either to modify Responsible Government or to in- stitute a Supreme Court in London for the control of hostile Provincial Courts, and if necessary the correction of every outrage committed in Canada against the liberties^ the lives, the honor, or the rights of Englishmen. Such a Court has been proposed for the protection of the semi-independent princes of India ; what its effect might be, can be appreciated by those who know the effect on a powerful Hierarchy, of the existing ap- peal to England in civil cases ; the events which followed the . c I! I i 1 !) 18 great case of the Fargues estate, nnd the organization of the Court of Appeals in cnnttequence, and the many instances in which property has escaped the sacerdnlal grasp only because it ex- ceeded .^500, and was(»ther\vise likely to prove p-fitting subject for aj)peal in the legal opinion of Churchmen's professional ad- visers. L st, and not least, it and it alone keeps the altars and pulpits of Lower Canada from ringing with the denunciation of every citizen Protestant or English or not, who dares offend the Church. (From the Quebec Mercury, March 10, 1859.) All THAT A, B., SOLEMNLY AND VOLUNTARILY SWEARS, OR AN Orangrman's oblioaiion. — Events such as the expulsion of Chiniquy from Quebec, have usually the effect of sending large numbers of Protestants, especially of the more spirited and vigorous youth of the Protestant population into the ranks of Orangeism. We therefore publish the following oath in full, and [ ropose to make some reflections upon this very remarkable document. , ^ . ,, , OBLIGATION OF AN ORANGEMAN. I, Ai B.t do solemnly and voluntarily swear, That I will be fdithful, and bear true allegiance to ller Majesty GLueen V ctc^ia, and to her Inwful Heirs and Successors, in the Sovereignty of Gre^.t Britain and Ireland, and of thede Provinces dependent on, and beloauiitg to, the said Kingd-ioa ; so long as 6he nr they shall maintain the Protestant Religion and Laws of this Country ; that 1 will, to (he utmost of my power, defend them against all traitorous conspimc es and attempts, which 1 shall know to be against her, or any uf them ; th4l I will steadily maintain the connexion between the Colonies of British America nod the Mother Country and be ever ready to resistall attempts loweaken Rritishi* flience, or dismember the British Empire: bit I will be true and faithful o every brother Orangeman in all just actions, neither wronging hint, nor knowi(!g him to be wronged or iujured without t:iving him due notice there f, and preventing it, if ini^y power. I swear that I will erer hold sacred (he name of our Glorious Deliverer King William the Third, Prince of Orange ; in grateful remembrance of whom, I solemnly promise (if in my power,) to celebiaie his victory over James at the Boyne, in Ireland, by assembling with my Bre hren, in their Lodge Room, on the 12th day of July, in every year *. I swear that I am not, nor ever will be, a Roman Catholic or Papist ; that I never was, to my knowledge or beliefj rejected in, or expelled from, any Orange Lodi>e : 1 further declare, that I will do my utmost, to support and maintain the Loyal Orange Institution; obey all regular summonses; and pay all just dues, (if in my power), and ob- serve and obey (he Oonstitution and Laws of the same : and, laatly, I swear that I will always conceal, and never in any way whatsoever, disclose or reveal, the whole, or any part of the signs, words, or tokens, (hat are now about to be 19 and and he^e e iir th&t Hc es will «1 ihe lence, other to be it, if orious jrance f over Lodge or eter dge or e, that ution > nd ob- sviear refealt il 10 bi) privafelf comMiuiticaie') to •■ e, unlets 1 iha I le duly nuthorizei] s* ta du by ihe proper Aiitliuritiks lit (he Orange Inmilu'ljii, uf whici) I am now hbi ui lo le« cotn« a Member. So help ine G id, and keep me iieadfa^it, in diia my Orangf ii.mn\ Obli&aii n. We would now claim the earnest attention of the reader (especially if an Orangeman or intending to become one) to the foregoing oaih. The only portions of the obligation of public interest, consist of two ; the one conditional, to bear allegiiince to the Queen, her heirs and successors so long as they maintain the Protestant religion and the Laws of Cana- da ; the other unconditional, to steadily maintain the connection between British America and the Mother Country and resist the weakening of British influence. It is to observed that the loyalty of the Orangeman to the Crown depends upon two conditions, of whicii we sliall treat presently ; but the main- tenance of connection is irrespective of all considerations. Thus if the Rnglish nation turn Roman Catholic and light Smith- field fires again, A. B., is sworn to support connection ; if the English nation behead ihe Sovereign and become a Repu- blic, A. B., is still sworn to connection, if the English nation are subdued by foreigners, A. B., is sworn to deliver Canada to the same foreigners, and not to resist them. England made Russian for instance, Canada must be made Russian too, in order to maintan connection, and A. B., will be fore-sworn if he has not endeavoured his best to bring about that result. It is to be observed that we do not state these suppositious events as probabilities, their improbability is of no consi- quence, all we want to do is to leave no doubt as to the tenor of A. B 's oath. Clear, however, as that oath is, we have been informed by a number of Orangemen that we misstated the oath in a late issue of this paper* Having published it, we now leave the world to judge whether our interpretation ol it is right or wrong. But it has been sug- gested to us that after a man becomes an Orangeman, he may get further and better explanations about the oath he has solemnly and voluntarily sworn ! ! We are sure the Orange Institution would repudiate such a suggestion as this. For it is perfectly clear that an oath must be interpreted according to the words in which it is conceived, and in no other way, and that A. B. ought to understand what he swears before he swears it, and not at an indefinite period of time subsequent to his oath. Thus a full explanation of an oath already taken 20 1., m means, if it means nnylhing, cither that the Orange Lodge claims the llomun Catholic power of absolution and discharges A. B of his oath, or that it teaciies the alleged llomun Catho< lie doctrine of mental reservation and the acceptance of words in a " non natural sense." But A. B., is a Protestant, he sol.3mnly and voluntarily swears and is bound by his reli- gion to interpret his oath for himself by his own judgment, that oath moreover is in the ** vulgar tongue" or Queen's En- glish, and he who esteems it a privilege to read and under- stand for himself the most sacred passages of Scripture when translated into that tongue, cannot for a moment attempt to fence and palter with the responsibility of interpreting his oath, and delegate this personal duty in the name of explanation to an older brother, a brother in longer standing or in a higher degree, or to an officer of the Institution, or anybody else. The oath must stahd on its own merits, and be interpreted by its own obvious meaning, according to the ordinary construc- tion of the English language in which it is couched, and by that rule the obligation of maintaining connection, is as inde- pendent of the religion of the Queen and Royal family, as is the obligation to aid a brother, &c., or to meet on the 12th of July. Reversing the order of precedence in the oath, we now take up the Orangeman's allegiance, not to British connection but to his Sovereign. A. B, is to bear true allegiance to the Queen, &c., so long as she or thev shall maintain the Protes- tant Religion and the laws of tfiis country, (i. e. Canada.) Let us see what the latter are, and how far the ctmdition in their favor is compatible with that support of Protestantism by the Sovereign, which Orangeism exacts as the primary condition ol allegiance. The Laws of Canada are made by the Parliament of Canada, the majority of whose members, if not professed Romanists are at least under Roman Catholic influence. " Oh !" says A, B., who voluntarily swears, "the Pope's Bulls cannot come as law into Canada." — Canada might be less under Italian sway, even if they could, than it now is. "Why, the Legislature is the obedient creature of an Ultramontane Clergy : the majority of Lower Canada is Roman Catholic, the majority of Upper Canada leaves Lower Canada to be represented and governed by it« local majority, while that majority in return interposes its whole 21 might in favor of its co-religionists in the Upper Province. The Houso so composeil, virtually selects the Ministry from those men most pleasing to the Priest party of Lower Canada. The laws of this country are hut another name for Responsible Government, which the Orangemen in 1837 waded through bloDd to put down, and which A. B. now solemnly swears to support ! Nor is this all. The Roman Catholic Church can sue for and collect tvthes from its members ; no other Church can do the same. It is free even from the protection given to private property in England, under Roman Catholic Princes, and no legislative provision hinders the enormous power of accumulating temporal richts, which the Roman Catholic Church enjoys. It demands and will shortly obtain the aboli- tion of the last restraint (that of the appeal to England) which defends the property of the citizen from the pretensions of the Church. Is it possible that A. B. can condescend to quibble about a vague distinction between laws and their execution which must depend upon the will and consent of the Roman Catholic population and above all of the Roman Catholic Clergy, it is perfectly obvious that neither A. B., nor his Sovereign can maintain those Laws and maintain the Protestant Rtligion at the same time. Oh ! says A. B., " but 1 do not desire more than liberty for myself, and am willing that every man shall have the same," &c. That is to say, the Orangemen of Canada renounce the principle of Pro- testant ascendancy, which was always (at least till 1829,) the cardinal point with the Order at home. But the question is not that of Protestant ascendancy, it is whether the laws of this country, amounting to a virtual Roman Catholic ascendancy, ouaht to be maintained or reformed ? And whether a Pro- testant should swear to do the first, or should strive to effect the last. The laws of Canada mean Responsible Government and Roman Catholic ascendancy ; they mean the supremacy of the priesthood, and the degradation of the people. Yet A. B. swears to maintain them ! — that is, to maintain a Roman Catho- lic government and the Protestant religion in the same breath ! It is true King William said at Torbay, " I will maintain the Protestant Religion and the Laws of England," and the phrase therefore is grateful to the ears of the Monarch's ad- mirers. But William spoke these words on entering a country where the people were Protestant, while the sovereign was t n III' '. ill t Catholic. James finding Parliaments refractory had been dispensing with them ; the Statutes of the land were there- fore still Protestant, though the power of the Crown kept them in abeyance. The two things therefore to be maintained were consistent with each other. But what if William, on landing in Ireland, just after the sitting of TyrconelPs Parliament, who legislated for the whole- sale confiscation of Protestant property, had promised to main- tain the Protestant Religion, and the laws of Ireland ? Would the Protestants of Uerry have held out lor.a Prince who promised Responsible Government to Ireland ; who engaged to acknowledge James' Parliament, to accept any Ministry agreeable to that Parliament; whether it consisted of convicted Jacobites or no ; to give a nominal eqi .lity to all men, and to acknowledge the voice of the majority without reference to its religion or its fidelity ; and finally acknowledge the Church of Rome as the true Church, by giving its clergy the sole right to sue their parishioners for tythes', while putting oil other religions on the voluntary system ? Yet, these terms, which the Protestants of Derry would not have accepted, are precise- ly those which the Orangemen of Canada are sworn to main- tain. Equality between different and conflicting races and creeds, in a country possessing widely different nationalities and Re- presentative institutions, means a tyranny of the majority. That very system which the first Orangemen were sworn to resist, is the system which the present generation of Orange- men in Canada are sworn to maintain ! The real rulers of Canada are the Provincial Ministry or Executive Council chosen by the Canadian people under the secret influence of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. The Parliament of Canada is the form or function through which that Hierarchy expresses its will, and the majority of the members there- fore are its delegates and agents, and that without re- ference to the form of worship they may prefer or neglect as private men. The laws of Canada are made by the Canadian people, and the Royal assent is invariably given them, as a mere matter of form, never refused or with- held, just as the laws of England are made by the English people ; and the one is as[ purely a representative government / 23 il as the oth»'r. H«»w docs this government woik ? Would it have been en(lur«Ml b) tho men who brought William the Third into Ireland ? By the laws of this country, arc chicHy in- tended the elective principle and tho nomination of Couiuillors who may bo ngreoable to tho Assembly (by a pleasant fiction called kcsponsible.) Tho whole coercive and controlling power is in the House of Assembly : thus tho entire Huthority of the country is under the purview of a body which itsulf is under the purview of the Priesthood. Thus the administrators of the laws are necessarily anti-Frutestant in action if not in faith. Thus tho public prosecutor, the Queen's Counsel for instance, be his religion what it may, will put forth the whole power of the country to vindicate the Ribbonman or misma- nage his case to procure his acquittal. Thus tho law blows an anti-" Protestant wind." ♦ Will A. B. dispute these facts? Let him consider the shooting of tho Protestants at their Church door at Montreal, in 1853, by their preten led protectors. Let him look at Corrigan's murder and the long list of outrages, and the invariable defeat of justice to which the Protestants of Lower Canada have been subjected, and let him, if he can, find even any parallel to them in Ireland on the part of James, his Generals, and his Rapparees. Yet these are the laws A. B. is sworn to maintain I Not only this, but if the Queen subverts this system, he declares that he is absolved from his allegiance, because she returns to her duty and engages to protect him against foes thirsting for his des- truction ! We are aware that there are men who do not, even yet, believe in Responsible Government ; who seem to think it is all an Imperial and Royal joke, that the real power resides in England after all, and Canada is as much a Colony as it was under Haldimand, or Dalhousie, or Sir James Henry Craig. Yet, not only is Canada under a virtually Indepen- dent constitution, but the degradation and bondage of the Lower Canadian Protestants beneath the yoke of political and religious enemies, is directly due to British policy. From 1776 up to the discovery of gold on Frazer River, the real use of British America to Britain, has been the power * Many exanplei have prof ed this — a ne or two iniianeei of pretended ftvour in functionaries more than repaid at Parliamentary Election', no more make a food exception to the aboTe rule than a " lingle swallow makes a summer." 24 i' II I it gave her of confining ihe Americans to tiie South of the line '45. The cheapest, the least onerous, and the most unpre- tending way of doing this, is the encouragement of the Roman Catholic faith and the concession of Responsible Government. With the populations of British America pretty equuliy divided between Catholics and Protestants, and bGindless liberty afforded them all, it is perfectly clear that Britain possesses the best of all guarantees against " traitorous conspiracies" — a better one even than A. B.'s oath — viz : the impossibility of a people so divided agreeing to sever a connection which self- government indeed renders worthless but for the one great object of limiting American progress. At the same time, the wealth and power given to the Roman Catholic Church by the English Colonial system, make the Clergy of that Church the most anti American, anti-annexa- tionist race, in the Empire. The priest, with his law- protected tythes and his boundless freedom from state control or Imperial Acts of Parliament, has a solid pounds, shillings and pence interest with Britain as against America, worth, in the eyes of a Downing street statesman, all the protestations, obligations, and principles in +he world.f |: As for the Orange oath in Canada, in 'ts present form, had a college of Jesuits composed it, it could scarcely be more per- fect than it is, as a means of inducing Protestants to bow their necks to the yoke of a Roman Catholic Government and con- sent to be sacrificed to all time and all eternity, — .not that Britain may rule a great territory, not that the sun may never set upon the British Empire, but that British statesmen may leave the Canadian people to self-government or total anarchy, permit and encourage a Romanist ascendancy, yet keep Canada from the Union, and still be able to turn to their con- stituents in Britain and say, "We have not played Lord North with the Colonies ; we have not driven them into revolt or caused them to cut the connection. Oh dear no, they are loy»l f It is said Upper Canada U. E. Loralist influpnee was brought to bear on Orangeiam at its introduction into Canada, and thai the Roman Catholic Bisliop McDonald said some 8Ugi;estion of his as to aupport of British connccti'>n " would make an Orangeman almost as good as a Catholic Highlander." We eannot vouch for this. X In ihcs above somewhat strong expressions no irstention whatever is conceived of refleciing un ihe motives of the Oranjte body, on the contrary no citizens are more respected by us than those "loyal breilircn." t^i ,,Ui.l ,_.-,. 25 to a man, cutting each others throats, enslaving the minority, persecuting Protestantism, and blessing the British standard dail/ as the ensign of Celtic domination and Roman Catholic ascendancy." i .;^ . ^^From the Quebec Mercury, March 22, 1859.) We beg to'acknowledge the receipt, from the Semeur Canadiertf of Mr. Chiniquy'a Farewell address to his countrymen and friends at Quebec, on his departure from Canada ; and hope, in tu-day's number of the Mercurj/^ to complete the extended comments which we have thought fit from lime to time to apply to thai gentleman's expulsion from his residence, and the incidents connected with it. The conduct pursued towards Mr. Chiniquy failed to cause efTu- sion of blood; no thanks to those who instigated it and approved it. It nevertheless i)resented features more formidable than any of the similar outrMges which preceded it. There was not the pretence of verbal insult, nor of any cause beside the real ground of the attack, nor was there the excuse of excilibility or impulsiveness in the people. No, the only " insult" as it was called, offered by Mr. Chiniquy, consisted in his daring to reside for any time however short, and to speak on any theme however inoffensive, in language however courteous and considerate, in the City of Quebec, in which he had been denounced from Roman Catholic altars. The *' insult" was thr contumacy of refusing to submit lo the mandate of a power which a portion of the people acknowledged as superior to the law. Torquemeda, Grand Inquisitor, being dead. Judge Lynch reigned in his stead, and would endure no contempt within the verge of his Supreme Court at Quebec. This event involved in itself no question of national origin ; but the state of society it discloses the principles it has placed in anta- gonism to each other, lead to reflections from which considerations of a national nature cannot be excluded. The treatment experienced by Mr. Chiniquy is of direct interest to all those who are separated from the Communion, or exposed to the displeasure of the Roman Catholic Church ; but independent of the interest taken in this case by the British inhabitants, as the only Protestant community in the city, there has been naturally a dis- position on the pari of that section of the people to maintain the noblest heritage of their race, the " freedom of the individual," from all coercion saving that of the law, and their most conspicuous right, as the manifestation of that freedom, the ** liberty of speech." f I: I S "'■] This freedom is not a mere right of the citizen, vested as much in the minority as in the majority, residing as much in one man though he stand alune, as in the whole people collectively j it is something more, it is the pride and glory of the English race, and its mainte- nance is felt by that rase, not only as a public duty, but as forming a part of the persona! honor of each mau of them. Some sentiment so tenacious as to attach itself to each mind in the race, and form part of the individuality of each man of the people, U perhaps common to all nations. Such asentimant, when outraged, shocks the entire people with the sense ot national degradation and dishonor. In this order of sentiments, so exclusively national, as to amount to Institution^^ we may reckon the sanctity of the Mosque with the Musulman, the purity of ca^te with the Hindoo, and liberty of speech with the (englishman. IJence is it, the outrage on Father Chiniquy (himself a French Canadian) has excited in English hearts a depth of indignation which even the concession of Responsible government — that transfer of the fruits of conquest from the conquerors to the conquered, has failed to elicit. But, indignation is not tha only emotion wliich the attitude of the Komish Hierarchy has called forth ; there is another, that of apprehension. The Protestant may naturally ask.— " What ! are we menaced with a St. Bariholemew's day, beneath the British Standard 1 Is the assassin to be supported by the soldier^ as at Montreal in 1853 ? Are we told, the majority may murder the minority at will, but if the minority resist it is 'Ir^son ; their Bre- thren shall be made their butchers ; they shall be assailed by a mob whom Responsible Government fosters ; the Queen's troops, can act only at the word of authorities Responsible Government ap- points; the assassin is also the juroi and the elector, and the power which clothes itself in the garb of British rule,is the assassin's slave and njinion, the creature o' his vote, which lives or dies at his will, or rather at his masters'. Is it come to this, that thw Queen's autho- rity is a name, the Pope's, oi at least his Priests, a fact 1 Are the British garrisons tools and instruments in the hands of on ami-British power ? The MHwilling but not less obedient guards of a Popular Inquisition 1 And the whole government of the Country the breath and emanation of ihe Church of Rome 1 ' — The answer to these questions is, that the will to thus use Responsible Govern- ment, is not wanting, and power to resist its abuse is to be found only in the Protestants of Lower Canada themselves^ and the exercise of their constitutional rights, and especially that of petition. Now, we knovp perfectly vi'ell there are a great number of professed Protestants who will laugh ?♦ the idea of |.etitioning Britain, or expecting to find justice or reason in her inhabitants : and these are the men of the most loud and blatant loyalty and pretended admira- 11 27 M re m lof tion of the British character and institution!). We regret to say, but we do it as a stern duly, that for years post there have been men amongst the Protestant population vvlio have steadily discouraged every proposal for an attempt to obtain legal redress for their brethren. While overflowing wiih lip loyalty, they have unceasingly taught their co-religionis«l8 that all appeals to the British nation were in vain, that " England cared nothing about the country," &c. &c. The fact of tha matter being this, that the Protestants of Lower Canada have gone on boasting of their loyally, |)romising future and eternal fidelity, going into wild estacies every time the Queen's birthday come round, and into severe fits of enthusiasm at all wars and rumors of wars, in which the Mother Country has had an interest, until they have created an impression in England that thei/ are the men who wanted Kesponsible Government, and are over- joyed at having po; it. If, (.f course, Englishmen in Canada choose when misgoverned and discontented, to use what Englishmen in every other part of the world, consider expressions ci confidence in the Government of the day, it is their own fault if Englishmen at home, giving them credit fur consistency and sincerity, suppose they are delighted with the way they are ruled. As for nice dis- tinctions between the Provincial Government, the only Government — with which Britons in Canada have anything to do, which (through their Parliament) taxes them and rules them and is for them the only government in the Province — and the British Government, which exercises no more real and active power over civlians in Cimada than in Tartary, no Englishmen of the IV1 other Country will ever comprehend them. When an English mob cheers the Sovereign, it means to express its approval of the measures of government ; when it groans the So- vereign.il means disapproval of the Ministry. In either case it regards Royalty only as the outward sign and symbol of that real power which the leaders of Parliamentary majorities wield ; hence loyal demonstrations here are naturally understood as meaning tha^ the course of the leaders of Parliamentary majaritiea in the Legisla- ture of Canada is acceptable to the Protestant inhabitants of the Province. Why is it that Englislimenin Canada have adopted a course appa- rently so disinfj^nuous and inconsistent 1 Simply because *hey have hitherto placed an unbounded reliance on the Protestants of Upper Canada. They have reasoned thus :— " Upper Canada is Protestant and grows rapidly in population. England foresaw, when she granted Responsible Government, ihat in the course of years, we should outnumber our opponents; let us, therefore, by the loyalty of our conduct and our patient submission in our present lowly estate, do b1| M 28 IH we can to aid the working of that L/'nion which, disadvantageous to us for the present moment, will in the future work our deliverance.'* Thiti calculation, however, contains two important errors. It omita the fact that a great proportion of the emigration is Roman Catholic ; and the equally important fact that the people of Upper Canada only do, and under our system of government only can, recognise J-ower Canada through its majority. The emigration we have men- tioned threatens all Canada, sooner or later, with that same yoke of Rome which crushes the freedom, not less than the struggling Protestantism, of Lower Canada. The latter fact makes, and always will make, the Upper Canadian Protestant a more terrible enemy to his Lower Canadian brother than even his Uoman Catholic neigh- bour. So far, every act which could curb the majority of Lower Canada in their persecution of the minority, has been steadily opposed by the Protestants of Upper ('nnada. The excitement which followed the commission of the Coirigan murder, the expense that event engendered, and the disgrace it brought on thie country, induced the prebent government to insert a clause in a Bill brought to Parliament, which deprived men accused of unlawful woundings and injuries to the person, of trial by jury when prosecuted according to the Act. Six months with hard labor, ^20 fine, and binding to the peace, were the penalties given by the Act. The Bill included all offences graver than a common assault and less grave than an undoubted felony. In fact, the exact class of offences, of which the Protestants of Lower Canada have most often to complain, and for which they find it impossible to obtain justice. — Had this Bill, as proposed by Ministers, been law at the time of those events which disgraced the Province, a portion of justice would have been procured in the following way : Most of the Gavazzi rioters would have fallen within its provisions ; the mur- derers of Corrigan, acquitted of that crime, might have "got six months" for the simultaneous assault on Peter Stocking. The cases of the Ilevd. Mr. Papin, and of Mr. Lamb, the f.rst beaten by a mob, as a Protestant Missionary, the latter as a Free Mason, and landlord of a Hotel, at which Free Masons dined, would have been also within its provisions. This change in the Act was brought in by a Ministry who commanded the Roman Catholic majority of Lower Canada; it was opposed by an opposition con- taining the Protestant majority of Upper Canada ! Now the piece of legislation here alluded to, is a most important fact. Ii shews that the Protestant minority of Lower Canada, had power enough to obtain from the Lower Canadian Roman Catholics the concession of an Act for their protection against partizan aggravated assaults, and partizan verdicts from adverse juries ; but > S0 e." .nly ' lise len- oUe rling vays I y lo jigh- awer >osed rigan ce H ert a cused yjury labor, en by mmon ;t, the Lower find it itne of IjusUce of the le mur- gOl BIX The [alen by [MaBon, [\ii have ct was lalhoVic lion con- iportant )da, had Catholics I partizan ries *, but they had not power to overcome the maaa of Upper Canadian votes* the voters being professed Protestants. If this instance were the onlj/ one^ it would Oe enough tjjustij'if a demand fur the dissulu' lion of the Union, on the part of the Protestants of Lower Canada. Connor, Foley and lirown, were the men who headed the defeat of the bill. Doubtless they calculated that if the Govern- ment explained the reason for the bill they would lose Catholic support. Thus they sacrificed the Protestants, to, embarrass the government ! While securing trial by jury to slabbers and ruffians, on the ground that the penalty was too great for one man to inflict at will ; in the face of their own declarntions that justice could not be obtained from juries in Lower Canada, they delibera- tely imposed the very same penalty uoon persons guilty of no legal oiTence save that created by the inuane oulio^e on law, reason, and the liberty of the subject, in another portion of the same Act. They were willing lo take away trial by jury for the sake of economy, for every case except those which, as explained by Dr. Connor, might be committed at elections, and chletly for that very reason those which the Protestants of Lower Canada have an interest in seeinglried without jury. It may be suggested that judges, magistrates, and oiher officers of the law may be as untrustworthy in such . as the jurymen the mselves. We reply that the power whiC' .>)4f i obtain such an act as this, could also obtain the degradation t any official who migh) •pervert it; that there are means of punishing functionaries, but no means of punislting jurors ; that in pomt lact, Judge Duval, of the Queen's Bench, was obliged to answer tiie charges preferred against him by Lower Canadian Protestants, to a Commission, two-thirds of whom were Protestant, and Mr laquct, ofSt. Sylvester, Justice of the Peace, was dismissed from the Commission on similar com- plaints. What else did the Protestants of UpperCanada, in ParPiament assembled, do in reference U> t'.<* crimes perpetrated against their Lower Canadian brethrer. ' They complained of the expense of trying them ! they got the subservient ministry to bring in a Bill which retrenches expenses by taking away all funds to defray the admins- tration of justice, and totally paralysing the law throughout Eastern Canada. What did the Protestants out of Parliament do ? They said (the Globe loudest of all in the cry) that such events proved that Quebec was a very improper place to send the Seat of Government to:— -that is to say, inasmuch as the Protestants of Que- bec were suffering from persecution, it was not the duty of the Protestants of Upper Canada to send their deputies there to see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and learn for themselves what measures were necessary to emancipate their brethren from zo m i iJ oppression ! No, ihe Protestant cause was quite inferior to two, three, or four years official patronage to the retail trade of 'J'oronto ! And what did the Upper Canadian Orangemen do I The men who vote for the men who vote for the Catholic faiih. The Upper Canadian Orangemen, called on the Governor General on the 12ih of July, 1856, and told the (lovernor General that in no part of the world was religions freedom so unbounded as in Canada, and that in no part of llie world was the administration of justice more immaculate and pure ! 'Ihus the Ornnge institution deliberately condemned the action of the house on Mr. Cameron's motion, and declared that there had beers no failure of justice in the case of the Queen against Kelly and others, for the murder of Hoberl Corrigan, — and that in the face of a pending Commission of Inquiry. We were told this was a great triumph of the Order ; it may have been ; but it was certainly ihe most effectual means of silencing the complaints of the Protestants of Lower Canada. If the official recognition of the Orangemen on the condition ihat they become one of the pillars of the Church of Rome, be a triumph of Protes- tantism ; then this was one! To declare ihat the Protestants of Lower Canada have nothing to complain of, that justice is done them, and freedom of conscience enjoyed by them, — what more could be done than this by Bishop Charbonnel at the head of his clergy ? The P^btestants of Lower Canada complain of per- secution and oppression ; the Protestants of Upper Canada stifle their cries with the tune of " LillibuUeroy The gi-oans of their martyrs and the wails of their widows ascend from the l^^ast of the Ottawa ; they are drowned in a roaring"" Rule Britannia" from the West. Kelly is acquitted and carried in triumph through the old British conquest of well garrisoned Quebec, murdered Corrigan is buried ; and the Upper Canadian orchestra plays " God save the Qjijeen" on his grave. We care not what may have been the cause of this monslrcus exhibition. It matters not whether it is that while the Protestants of Upper Canada are allowed to do what I hey please to the west of the Ottawa, they care not who rules, or who dies, to the east of it ;— or whether the address was framed in accordance with the wishes, and through the intrigues of" Brother John A.Macdonald," an Orangeman in full standing, who contrived that Orangeism should be officially recogr/ized on condition that the Orangemen should retract all charges against the criminal justice of Lower Canada, — for the private and personal purpose of *' whitewashing" a personal friend. It is to be observed that no pains have been spared to make the people of Upper Canada, as well as their legislators, completely understand the condition of Lower Canada. The press on both or B If fui wh anj trul frf Bu Ca[ go\ sillJ 31 J) \d lid for lal >ly e'uies of ihe Ottawa, of every shade of opiniun, had fully instructed tho public mind upon the events we have referred to. The presis of Upper Canada had been all h\it unanimous upon the subject of tho Lower Canadian injustice and violence to Protestants, and in their conduct towards their brethren in this section of the Province, the Protestants of Upper Canada cannot pretend to have ginned without knowledge. It is then clear that no deliverance of the Lower Canadian Protes- tants can be effected under the existing act of Union. Would it be found in the extension of that union to any or all of the easiern provinces? In no one of those provinces, is there any really large nunnerical majority of the Protestants. In Nova Scotia the Catholics are a formidable minority, apparently holding the balance of power in their hands. In the others they are the strongest party in poli- tics, and statistically amount to half or nearly one half ot the people. New Brunswick, Prince Edward's island^ and Newfoundland would only tend by their accession (o increase our ditHculties. They would probably give a small majority of votes to the Catholic party, with th* accession to the Assembly of a bitternes-s of spirit which its Canadian members have never yet exhibited. The only accession of strength to protestantism, even in numbers, would be from Nova Scotia. The population of that Province is insigni- ficant as compared with the rest of British America, and its intro- duction into a Legislative Union with Ciinada, would bring a most formidable element into play. The Acadian French, few in numbers are distinct in nationality : they are the decendanta of men who have suffered wrongs almost unparnlleled in history ; and we are assured by good authority, that they cherish, and not unnaturally, implacable hatred against everything which is Pro- testant and English. The annexation of Canada to Nova Scoiia once effected, the virus of the Acadian would be transferred to the French Canadian mind j one of the very firs' measures of the United British American Parliament would be a Bill for compensation to the descendants of the " neutrals" whose perfidious and barbarous expulsion blacketis the page of colonial history ; and, possibly, the riots of Montreal in IS^Q, would be tranferred to Halifax in some future year. The fact of the matter is, British America, as a whole, is pretty evenly divided between Protestants and Catholics, and the " Unity of the Church " whatever it may do for religious truth gives an immeasurable advantage to the Catholics in a strife f r political power. What then remains'? Annexation? No. Buchanan's election to the Presidency has settled that. The Catholic vote now rules the Union, and the power of the American government and the strongest party in the nation isbenf on the acqui- sition of Cuba, and the Northern provinces of Mexico, which will 32 -if il I i \ make thai vole iiresislible, liiilepentlence ? So. P«)litical liberty for ill Canada has already made the Protentant of Eastern Cana- da a slave, an increa.se of that liberty for all, would but be an increase of that slavery for him. Where then is the remedy 1 Why, where it should have been Kought long ag*, and whsie alone it can be found available— in ihe subject's Rioht of 1*etition and remonstrance against misgovernment and oppression. Of course this remedy is not very expeditious in its nature. Those who seek justice must be content to suffer its delays. Evils of enormous magnitude and slow, though now rapidly augmenting growth, are not to be cured in a day by a single " round robin'' to Downing street. The minority of Lower Canada must be content to feel, to speak, and to work like the minority of other portions of the empire. How many years was it before the Catholics of Ireland, a minority of three kirgdoms, by agitation gained Kmancipa'on ? How many years was it before the Ridicals of Canada, an inconsiderable iVaclion of the British empire, gained responsible government? The British party have been always called on to net when they ought to deliberate, and to wait when they ought to act. The Anglo Lower Canadians are a people who, until a few years ago, from their position, had but one interest and one idea of duty, that of submitting to the constituted authorities and perpetually pre- senting themselves as the exclusive and enthusiastic loyalists of a rebellions Province. Responsible government has changed their interests and their duties, but not their tactics. A cry of loyalty from Englishmen always means a cry of gratitude for the way in which they are being governed. That way, under the old colonial system, was by an executive, powerful enough and willing enough, to protect them against a hostile legislative majority. Then the cry of loyalty from the British minority, strengthened the British executive against the hostile French popu- lation. This position of affairs is now reversed; but theory of loyalty still continues, yet its every utterance has the efTect of a vote of confidence in the working of a system under which the British in Lower ('anada are little better than murdered men. Every mail which crosses the Atlantic carries with it the expression of unbounded contentment and satisfaction, the glad and grateful rejoicings of the Lower Canadian Protestants. Even when they complain of the Roman Catholics, it is more often as rebels to Britain than as the tyrants and oppressors of themselves. What is more natural than for a British minister so treated to say " Responsible *' Government is the finest thing in the world « for the Colonies, we have bought up the Catholics, and though '« they hate us like poison ihey can't quarrel with their own bread 33 y le re ist lOt be nd in 'he * ak, lire, irity any able entl vhen years duly, pre- Us of their tilude under nough sialive noriiy» popu- cry ol X of a lich the Every (ion of [grateful n they Britain [ated to le world though bread (I (t " nriil butler, nn 1 as for ihe Protestants they are quite delighted " with it, the more wo neglect then), the more ihey sing Cod save •' the Queon, are never so loud in their loyalty as just after a " good Ribbon murder or so ; a volley from the 26ih is acknovv- " ledged with thanks ; they are never sick of submitting to op- preasion ; they complain of their tyrants for not loving England, and reward imperial neglect by unbounded affection and obstre- *' perous fidelity." Whence comes it that everywhere else in the world, the English- man, the moment he feels himself aggrieved by authority, cries out nnd tells all England, with all his lungs, thot he does not like it at all ; and in Lower Canada he reverses this, tells England in effect, that he is governed to his contentment by men whom he really believes intend to cut his throut, and really thinks, last and least, if at all, of that Appeal to Britain, " to home," to England, which is ilie first recourse of John Bull in any other part of the world? Is this tl>e. product of perfidy? Is the Anglo Lower Canadian n northern Nana Sahib, who carries discontent in his heart, and hip loy^l flattery on his tongue 1 No. The cause is as simple as the etfect is grievous. The British population of Canada is too English in feeling not to respect fortune,or to escape believing that he, who is the shrewdest manager of his own affairs, is most likely to be the best judge of those of the public. At the same time it is a popuation of private enterprise and not private wealth. Its wealthy men are self-made men. Its youth have, with rare excep- tions, to work for independence. Hence its influential men are old men, and age is unteachable. The man who was in the vigor of life, when Dalhousle was Governor, will make the same loyal demonstrations to-day, that formed the staple of Tory tactics then ; and so long as he sees a British flag on Cape Diamond will be incapable of understanding that the country has been subjected to a revolution, and is ruled by the men he wanted to hang in '37. No power of reasoning will persuade him that the Kule Bri- tannia of to-day, is in effect a new version of the ** Vive Papineauy a bas le ConseW* of thirty years ago. When the British party cannot gain the services of a man of this type, they are forced to put up with a mere professed politician, a man who goes into politics, not possessed of a competency but hoping to gain one. In British opinion such a man has no social position ; he is tolerated only as a pis alter ; he is a political salesman without capital, his wares are h\< opinions — he must make a quick sale or starve. Thus two orders of men have been constantly interested in inducing the British Lower Canadian party to endure their grie- vances, and to suppress their complaints ; — the one, the old men with a position derived from their social standing which they would lose E m i 1 1 34 by agitation, who feel that agilatioii would open a career for)oulh- t'ul energy and tulent, vvhicli their age, their habits of purely private business, and, in many cases, their early education would wholly preclude their entering on j the other, the professed poiiticiuns, who intending sales would only deal in conitnodities which are saleable. A little Orange or other Protestant inOuencc, which can be easily thrown into the balance of a contested election, has its price in the market, and is an excellent thing in its way when nothing more advantageous oflers. Far r lived, and is not yet born, who dare resist the demand. England would send forth from her heart of hearts, one cry for the revision of the Union Act, and the reconsideration of a constitution for Canada. The men who tell the Protestants of Lower Canada lo doubt this, '^ have an axe to grind," they dread an agitation amongst the'>r brethren, which would expose their imbecility, or prove profitless to their pockets. Some suggest that a Protestant agitation from Lower Canada would induce Britain to sever connection with the colony. Bui who can believe it seriously ? What Minister in the World would propose to give the St. Lawrence to France or America, for that's what the suggestion amounts to ? Who for a moment would suppose that the English, of all nations upon earth, would give up even the bare prestige of possessing half a continent? Above all, who can believe that the Protestants of England, — who went nearly frantic some years Ago about two bible readers in Tuscany, and are now busy with the boy Mortara — would give up the Colonies that tens oi thousands of loyal Englishmen might be exterminated, merely for asking their brethren '^ at home" for that protection to which they are entitled by all laws, divine and human, and more especially by the statute law of England ?