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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmds d des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clichd, il est filmd & partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche it droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 I ^p ^ / j£^,^ a^ TIE CANADIAN QUESTION. ':?'«. T THE CANADIAN QUESTION. BY G. A. YOUNG, ESQ., OF LINCOLN S INN, RARIlI8'r£R AT LAW. If we were able to go back to the elements of States, &nd to examine the oldest monuments of their history, I doubt not that we should discover the primal cause of the prejudices, the habits, the ruling passions, and, in short, of all that con- stitutes what is called the national character. De ToCaUEVILLE. LONDON : JAMES RIDGWAVr AND SONS, 169, PICCADILLY. 1839. Printed sir Richard and john e. taylor, HED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. ■4^ i P R E F A C E. The following observations have already appeared in the July Number for 1838, and the January Number for 1839, of the British and Foreign Review. They are offered to the public, in their present form, at the request of several private friends who take an inte- rest in the Canadian question, and to whom it ap-^ peared that the republication of two separate essays in one pamphlet, might tend to diffuse mformation on a subject confessedly but little understood. It will be observed, that the form of constitutional government best adapted to the position, the man- ners, and usages, of the people of Canada, is the prin- cipal subject attempted to be discussed in these pages. To encumber that inquiry with details of a local na- ture would, it was conceived, have only diverted the attention of the reader from the first and most im- portant consideration which claims his attention, to questions of a secondary interest. The more promi- VI rU EFACK. ncnt of those secondary questions may, however, be ('hissed under tlie following lieads. 1st. The right claimed by the late House of As- sembly to appropriate the provincial revenue, by annual votes, to the payment of the officers and other expenses of the Colonial Government. 2nd. The conflicting claims of the Imperial Go- vermnent and the Colonial Assembly, with respect to the disposal of the waste lands of the Province. 3rd. The commutation of the French feudal te- nures, into the tenure of free and common soccage. 4th. The establishment of offices for the regis- tration of mortgages and other incumbrances, and the introduction of a reformed system of Trial by Jury. The first two are in the nature of mixed or inter- national questions, — if the term international may be properly used between a province and the parent state, — for it concerns the empire as well as the colony, that the administration of justice should be amply provided for, and that the officers of government should be adequately and regularly paid for the ser- vices they perform. So long as the Canadas continue a dependency, it must also be a right inherent in the Imperial Go- vernment, to participate in the disposal of the waste T I'llEKACK. VII lands of the Province ; and it is not only a right, but a duty incumbent upon the members of that Govern- ment, to give to British subjects, desirous of emi- grating, every facility to do so, with as much se- curity to person and property as they possess in England. In any Bill that may be proposed to Par- liament, it would seem desirable, therefore, to in- troduce declaratory clauses by which the just claims of the parent state on these points might be asserted, without invading the constitutional privilege of the Colonial Assembly, to prevent an extravagant expen- diture of the provincial revenue, and to check lar"-e and improvident grants of the public lands. The other questions obviously partake of a local rather than of a general character, and sound policy would seem to dictate, that they be left for adjustment to the Canadians themselves. Should the union of the two provinces take place, that event would secure a due regard for the rights of the Anglo-Canadians ; and the only hope of an amicable and satisfactory arrangement of these and similar points in dispute, is to be found in that union. I have also purposely abstained from all inquiry into the merits of Lord Durham's government, and the propriety of his resignation. The noble Earl and the ministry who appointed him are doubtless deeply interested in both these occurrences, but to the Canadian people they are comparatively of little im- portance ; and they may, with reason, protest against VIM FUKFACE. tlieir riglits beinj^ sacrificed to secure a party triumph, or to prevent a party defeat. A writer in the Quarterly Review for December 18M8 declares, that at this moment it would be in vain to solicit adecp'ate attention to the " great Canadian question," and that *' the public mind seems solely intent on what it ex- " pects to be a tournament in the Tilt-yard at West- '• minster, between, as of old, two distinguished cham- " pions, whom, " face to face, " And frowning, l)row to brow, they hope to hear, " The accuser and the accused." This writer, by a violent attack on Lord Durham, before his defence has been beard, does all he can to produce the state of public feehng he affects to de- plore. It is to be hoped, however, that his efforts will be unsuccessful. The Anglo-Canadians have ever proved themselves faithful subjects of the empire in times of difficulty and danger. Are they doomed, in return for this conduct, to behold themselves used as the mere tools of able and ambitious men, and to witness, in times to come, as they have dunng the past, session after session wear away, marked only, so far as they are concerned, by inefficient measures? — and is it seriously supposed that this unmerited dis- regard of their interests can be safely persevered in ? 2, Upper Portland Place, 1 February, 1839- i Tin: CVNAIMAN dUESTION. (MIAPTKR I. Lower Ciinadd. Ft is (liilintilt, within the limi s wo have prcsrrihcd to our- selves, to touch upon the C.iiiiuliuii (piestioa in a iniuniev siitisf'actory to those who are !ic(|uainte(l with the eo\nitry, and inteHi'r0' \. and about '}?>° \\. lonsimde. I'nuu its source, the general direction of the St. Ijawrence, ttirougli Lake.^ >upf rior and II r I C) LOWER CANADA. tildes, in a portion of the <^lobe richly stored with niinevjd wealth, and marked by every uivcrsity of climate that pre- vails between Sweden and central France, — where, in fact, Provuience seems to have decreed .hat mrai shall reap an ample return for his industry, imless man himself shall mar the benetieent intentions of Providciice. Let it not, however, [)e sui)posed that we mean to descrilje Canada as possessino- all the advantas. Shljis of 600 tons burthen can ascend with very little ditHculty to Montreal, which is 580 miles from the Gulf. — Jiou- c/i( ftp's Hriiinh Dominions in j-tnurica. I.OWRn CANADA. / rians in the more contracted meaning of the word ; and tliis will be the case until the rough and angular points of their social position are rounded by time, and the general diffusion of refinement shall call for those mental enjoyments which are sought for and produced in the later years of national existence. Deeply and broadly, in the mean time, have the Anglo- Saxon race laid the foundations of freedom and civilization m the Northern American continent. Useful though common education is more generally diffused than in Europe. Christ- ianity has taken dec[) root. The ])rinciples of self-govern- ment in local and in general affairs have trained men in the exercise of their public duties, have taught ihem the value of social order, and given security to person and to property.* Cold, then, must be the heart, and narrow and selfish the mind, that can look with indilTerence onacoiuitry, "in which one of the greatest political experiments in the history of the world is now performing." — Hypercritical and fastidious the taste, that can record the Backwoodsman eating his fish with a knife instead of a silver fork, or hel])ing himself unceremo- niously to the wing of a chicken ; and yet fail to draw a com- parison between the security and freedom he enjoys, and is the means of extending to others, with the violence and bar- barism that have distinguished the infancy of other states. " The national churacter is yet in a state of fermentation ; it may have its froth iness and sediment, but its ingredients are sound and wholesome; it has given proofs of powerful and generous qualities ; and the whole promises to settle dow". into something substantially excellent. But the causes which are operating to strengthen and ennoble it, and its daily in- dications of admirable properties, are all lost upon these purblind ob- servers, who are only affected by the little asperities incident to its present situation. They are capable of judging only of the surface of things; of those matters which come in contact with their private interests and per- sonal gratifications. They miss some of the snug conveniences and petty comforts which belong to an old, highly finished and over-populous state * The abolition riots, the piratical incursions on the Canadian frontier, and the occasijnal infliction of " Lynch-law," seem to militate against this opinion ; and, unless a moral or physical power be found to prevent the recurrence of sucli events, they will, undoubtedly, seriously affect the peace and security of American society. We believe that such a controling power will be found if the evil con- tinue ; while up to the present time these disgraceful occurrences, though too frequent to be jjassed over in silence, cannot in justice be considered as more than exceptions to the general good order that prevails. A 2 8 .OVVEU CANADA. of society, whrro the ranks of useful labour ai c crowded, and many earn a painful and servile subsistence, by studying the very caprices and appe- tite of self-indulgence. These minor comforts, however, are all-importiUit in the estimation of narrow minds, which either do not ])erceive or will not acknowledge that they arc more than counterbalanced by great and generally diffused blessings." — IVunhitiyton Irving' s Sketch- Jinjk. Such is independent America ; and, following in the same path, though with imequal steps, and marked by some tm- lavourable peculiarities, such is the state to which Canada is approximating. With these preliminary remarks, we «hall proceed with the difficult task of tracing to their true source the unhappy events which have lately taken place in Canada. " How in- " adequate and unsuccessful," says Lord Bacon,* " th.it hu- " man know ledge is, w hich we have at present in use, may " appear from things commonly asserted. It is certain that " the true knowledge of things is the knowledge of causes." — It is the absence of this " knowledge of causes " which has, in our opinion, contributed so much to perplex the dis- cussions on Canada, and which lias exercised so baneful an influence over the welfare of our Canadian provinces. Mr. Roebuck, with the zeal of an advocate, exclaims, — "The officials of that country I am about to speak of; — a party, which, backed by the powers of the Colonial Office, have been the cause of all the dissensions and difficulties that have arisen f." And again we find him stating at the Bar of the House of Lords, " It is the fashion, my Lords, to talk of the ignorance of the Canadian people ; and assertions are recklessly hazarded, which greater knowledge of that people, and of their actual condition, and also of the true criterion of education, would altogether have prevented " America, at this moment, is governed by habits of thought and feel- ing, — fostered, perpetuated and extended by that remarkable band of re- ligious and political enthusiasts who originally settled New-England, and whose sons now swarm in every part of the great federal Union of the United States. The political creed of these men has in fact become the po- litfcal creed of the whole Continent, and is entertained as well by the descend- ants of the French Colonists on the banks of the St. Lawrence and the Mig- sissippi, as by the immediate heirs of those emigrants of Enylish descent icho took possession of the lands bordering on the Hudson and Connecticut I." * Nov. Organam, vol. i. p. 150. t Speech at the liar of the House of Coinmoiis, 22nd January, 18.38. j Speech at the Bar of the House of Lords. T I i i I LOWER CANADA. » Similar opinions were cxijrcssed during tlie debates on the Canadian question by Mr. Leader, Mr. Hume, Mr. War- burton and Mr. Grote. Against the correctness of these opinions we beg leave to enter a most em[)hatic j)rotest ; and jejune and imperfect will any legislative measure be which assumes them to i)e soimd, or deals with the administrative errors of the colonial govern- ment of Quebec, and the abuses of the colonial oifice in Downing Street, as the only difficulties to be overcome. We seek not, however, to defend or palliate the errors of the one, or the abuses of the other. W^e believe, on the v^jntrary, that they have produced disastrous etfects on the public mind, and have loosened the links which bind the colony to the parent state ; but to refer to them as the cause of all the difficulties that have arisen, betrays either a lamentable absence of the " knowledge of causes," or a want of can- dour, still less excusable, on a question of national im- portance. Admitting, then, the existence and deprecating the con- tinuance of these abuses, it shall be our endeavour to show- that they ought to be classed rather as effects than causes ; and that the peculiarity of the Canadian question, as well as the essential diflference between it and the disputes with our former American colonies, consists in this — that the people of the New-England provinces were of one race, while in Canada the Anglo-Saxon and the Norman*, in every condi- tion of life, at the bar and in other professions, in the pur- suits of commerce and of agriculture, in the struggle for po- litical power, have revived — on a small scale indeed, and in a remote province, but still with much excitement of feeling — the national jealousy and the personal rivalship which marked the collision of the two races in England at the time of the Conquest. As we consider this an important view of the question, it shall be our endeavour, by a few brief notices of the early history of New-England and of Canada, to show that there is evidence of its being a true one ; and it will, we hope, be 1 838. * The Canadians, for the most part, came from Normandy, and bear a striking resemblance to the people of Normandy of the present day. fl T 10 LOWER CANADA. t; nuide obvious to our readers, that widely ditferent must be the manners, the customs, and the prejudices of the two races in Canada at this day, when he bears in mind that the effect of every legislative measure passed by us has been to sharpen and give an edge to points of difference — to prevent amalga- mation, not to promote union. The majority of our colonies have been first inhabited by men without education, driven by poverty or misconduct from their native land, or by adventurers anxious to improve their fortune; but the settlement of New England was distinguivsh- ed by peculiar circumstances, and all the events attending it were novel and unprecedented. The settlers belonged to the more independent classes in their native land. Their union on the soil of America presented the singular phenomenon of a society containing neither lords nor common people, neither rich nor poor ; and they possessed, in proportion to their numbers, a greater amount of intelligence than was to be found in any European nation of their time. The emigrants, or as they deservedly styled themselves, " the Pilgrims," belonged also to that sect, the austerity of whose principles had acquired for them the name of Puritans. But puritanism corresponded in many points with the most absolute democratic theories. It was this tendency which had excited its most dangerous adversaries; and persecuted by the Government of the parent state, — disgusted by the usages of a society opposed to the rigour of their own principles, — the puritans went forth to seek some rude and unfrequented part of the world, where they could express their opinions w ith freedom, and worship God in their own manner. The emigrants were about 150 in number, including the w omen and the children. Their object was to plant a colony on the shores of the Hudson ; but after having been driven about for some time in the Atlantic ocean, they were forced to land on that arid coast of New England which is now the site of the town of Plymouth. The rock is f,till shown on which the pilgrims disembarked.* Nathaniel Morton, the historian of the first years of the * This rock is become an object of veneration in tlie United States. Bits of it are carefully preserved in several towns of the union. LOWER CANADA. 11 list be races i effect harpen malga- ited by ct from /e their nguish- iding it 1 to the r union lenon of , neither to their s to be tnselves, terity of *uritans. he most y which uted by e usages pies, — quented opinions iing the a colony n driven re forced now the tiown on rs of the settlement of New England,* thus describes the situation of the " Pilgrims " : " Let the reader with me make a pause, and seriously consider this poor people's present condition, the more to be raised up to admiration of God's goodness towards them in their pieservation : for being now passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before them in expectation, they had now no friends to welcome them, no inns to entertain or refresh them, no houses, or much less towns to repair unto to seek for succour : and for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of the country know them to be sharp and violent, subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search unknown coasts, liesides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wilde beasts and wilde men ? and what multitudes of them there were they then knew not; for which way soever they turned their eyes (save up- ward to Heaven) they could have but little solace or content in respect of any outward object ; for summer being ended, all things stand, in appear- ance, with a weather-beaten face, and the whole country full of woods and thickets represented a wilde and savage hew ; if they looked behind them, there was the mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as a main bar or gulph to separate them from all the civil parts of the world." This state things, it must be admitted, was sufficiently discouraging, and such as would have reduced ordinary minds to despair, or have urged the mere enthusiast to deeds of ex- travagance that would have led to his destruction. But the piety of puritanism was not altogether of a speculative cha- racter ; it took cognizance of worldly affairs ; and, as the re- cords of our civil wai's and of the commonwealth abundantly show, it was scarcely less a political than a religious doctrine. No sooner, therefore, had the emigrants landed on the barren coast described by Nathaniel Morton, than they formed themselves into a society by the following instrument : " In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, &c. &c.. Having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christ- ian faith, and the honour of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia ; Do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politick, for our better (vdering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid ; and by virtue hereof do enact, constitute and frame such just and equal laws, or- dinances, acts, constitutions, and officers, from time to time, as shall be . Bits of it * Nev; England's Memoriiil. Boston, 182(i. 12 LOWER CANADA. tluniglit most meet and convc'iiiunt for the gcnerul good of tlic Colony : unti) which \vi; jiroiuiso all dm- submission and obedicnco." This was in the your 1G20, und from that time the colony rapidly advanced. In study in;;- the hiws, says M. de Toecjuevillej which were promul^^ated at the first era of the American rcpubUcs, it is impossible n>t to be struck by the remarkable ac(piaintance M ith the science of government and the advanced theory of legislation which they display. The ideas there formed of the duties of society towards its members are evidently much loftier and more comprehensive than those of the European legislators at that time : obligations were there imposed which were elsewhere slighted. In the states of New England, from the lirst, the condition of the poor was provided for*; strict measures were taken for the maintenance of roads, and sur- veyors were a[)pointed to attend themf; registers were esta- blished In every parish, in which the results of public deli- berations, and the births, deaths and marriages of the citizens Avcre entered X ; clerks were directed to keep these registers § ; officers were charged with the administration of vacant inhe- ritances, and with the arbitration of litigated land-marks ; and many others were created, whose chief functions were the maintenance of public order in the community 1|. The law enters into a thousand useful provisions for a munber of so- cial wants which are, at present, very inadequately felt in France. But it is by the attention it pays to public education that the original character of American civilization is at once placed in the clearest light. " It being," says the law, " one " chief object of Satan to kc.^p men from the knowledge of " the Scripture, by persuading from the use of tongues, to " the end that learning may not be buried in the graves of " our forefathers, in church and counnonwealth, the Lord " assisting our endeavours**." Here follow clauses establishing schools in every township, and obliging the inhabitants, luic'er i)ain of heavy fines, to support them. Schools of a superior kind were founded in * Codeof lf.50, p. 78. t Hutchiiisou's IJistory, vol. i. j). 435. II Ibid., p. 40. t Ibid., p. J9. § Code of 1650, p. 8C. ** Ibid., p. 90. LOVVKR CANADA. 13 the same manner in the more |)n])nlous ilistrirts. 1'lic mu- nicipal authorities ^vere bound to enforce the sendinu; of" eliil- dren to school by tiieir parents ; they were cmi)o\vered to in- flict fines upon all who refused coni])liance ; and, in cases of continued resistance, society assumed tlu place of the parent, took possess' •! of the child, sintl deprived the fatlicr of those natural rights which he used to so bad a purj)ose*. Wc have thou<^-ht it necessary to trespass with these notices of the early settlement of New England ; l)ut it w oidd exceed our limits, to trace the rise and progress of the colony from the year 1G2(), when the emigrants landed at Plymouth, to the year I77^j when, increased in power, in wealth and ])o- pul.ition, their descendants declared themselves "free and in- dependent. Nor is it necessary to repeat here \\ hat history has recorded of the Anglo-American people, after the last hostile soldier had quitted their shores. It is sufficient to observe, that although most of their cities were desolate , their commerce crippled, their agriculture neglected or destroyed, they neither disgraced the cause of freedom by relaj)sing into anarchy, as their South American neighbovu's have done, nor, like the French, sought refuge from disordir under a military despot. But, f(»llowing the example of their })ilgrim ances- tors, they again formed themselves into a " civil body ])olitick," and founded a federate empire, which seems destined to spread over a vast continent, and to hand down to posterity the name, the language and the laws of England. We point, nevertheless, to these events as the legitimate consequences of the principles asserted and promulgated at the first settle- ment of the country — we refer to them as the practical re- sults of self-government, whether under a limited monarchy or in a republic, where men are sufficiently intelligent to un- derstand the foundation on which that system can alone be securely based, and sufficiently energetic to defend it, when once established. We shall now endeavour to show, by a sketch of the early settlement of Lower Canada, by a reference to the laws and usages which France introduced, and by the comparison we * See Mr. Reeve's translation of M. dc Tocqueville's Democracy in America, vol. i. 14 LOWER CANADA. W invite hi'twccMi the |)riiu'ij)les of centralization whicli di- stinj^uished her colonial government and the st;li-j;oveniment of the Anf^lo- Americans ; — 1. That the habits, the manners, the moral edncation and the prejudices of a people trained under the French admini- strative system, must be totally ditl'erent from those of the Anglo-Saxon race. 2. That the geographical position of the provinces, arid the necessity of p^-omoting the amalgamation of the two races, as the only means of securing the permanent welfare of both, demand that Upper and Lower Canada should be united un- der one executive government, and that the representatives of the English and French populations should meet in the same legislative chamber. The first authentic record of any attem])t made by the French to form a settlement in Canada, mav be traced to the year 1540. A commission, dated the 17th of October in that year, was granted by Francis I. to Jacques Quurtier, "poin* I'etablissement du Canada," and as a ti'anslation of this docu- ment would very inadequately represent the quaint expres- sions and obsolete dialect of the original, we quote in French an extract from the recital it contains of the grounds and reasons which moved the royal Francis to send his faithful subject on so hazardous an expedition. " Francois, par la grace de Dieu lloi de France : A tous ceux qui ces presentcs lettres verront ; Salut. Comme pour le desir d'entendre et avoir connoissance de plusieurs pays qu'on dit inhabites, et autres etre possedes par Gens Sauvages, vivans sans connoissance de Dieu, et sans usage dc raison, eussions des pie-^a, h grands frais et mises, envoye de- couvrir les dits pays par plusieurs bons pilotes, et autres nos sujets de bon entendement ; et entre autres y eussions cnvoyc notre cher et bien ame Jacques Qnarder, lequel aurait decouvcrt grands pays dcs ierres de Canada et Hochelaga faisant un hout de I'Asie du cdte de I'Occident ; les- quels pays il a trouves (ainsi qu'il nous a rapporte) garnis de plusieurs bonnes conimodltes, et les peuplcs d'iceux hiensfournis de corps et de mem- hres, et bien disposes d'esprit et entendement ; en consideration de quoi et de leur bonne inclination nous avons avise et delibere de renvoyer le dit Quartier," &c. &c. Commissions des Gouverneurs et Intendants, &c. &c., servant en Canada, tome ii. pp. 1 & 2 *. * See also " Histoire de la Nouvolle France," par I'Escarljot, and " Memoircs sur les Possessions en Anieritjue," tome iii. LOWEU CAN AHA. IT) It (Iocs not appear, however, that the exertions of Jucf/ucti Carlier, thonj^h clothed with the title of *' Captain-(jeneral and Master-Pilot," were attended with nmch snccess ; and we refer to his expedition rather because his name is associ- ated with the earliest records of the colony, than on acconnt of any importaiu resnlt.s by which it was immediately follow- ed. Up to the year 1027, 'i miserable establishment of only forty or fifty persons had been form.ed, and such was the destitute condition and want of resources of these early colo- nists, that they were dependent, even for their existence, on the supplies sent annually from France for their maintenance. In this year* the attention of Richelieu appears to have been directed to the new colony ; and the powerful mind that could control, if not subdue, the jarring elements of civil and reli- gious strife in the parent state, did not overlook the difficul- ties which retard the progress of an infant settlement. Under the auspices of the Cardinal t^ at that time " Superintendant- General of the Navigation and Commerce of France," a com- pany of merchants, consisting of one hundred associates or partners, was formed to promote the commerce and coloniza- tion of Canada ; but their efforts were unsuccessful, and the Province was finally surrendered to the French government by this company in the year 166.3 J. An ordinance was then passed by Louis XIII. establishing a superior coimcil for the government of the country called " New France." It con- sisted of five§ persons, nominated annually by the governor and the bishop or principal ecclesiastic of the Province ; and to this council was given not only a legislative power, sub- ject to the idtimate control of the parent state, but also a supreme jurisdiction in civil and criminal cases ; it being or- * In 1G29 Canad.1 was taken by the English iiiider Kirk, l)iit was then hehl in so little estimation, as to be returned to its former owners in three years after- wards. Le Conseil de Louis XIII. tenait aussi si pen acet etablissement, qu'il opinait a ne pas en demander la restitution ; inais Richelieu, qui avait fondc la derniere com- pagnie, fit changer d'avis. On anna six vaisseaux pour soutenir cette deniande, et la Cour d'Angleterre, d'aprcs le conseil de Lord Montague, rendit le Canada aux Franyais en 1G31. — Bi'aules de I' Histoire du Canada, p. 84. t Acte pour I'etablissement de la Compagnie des Cent Assocics. — Edits et Ordonriances, tome i. p. 1. X Arrets du Conseil d'Etat du Roi, &c. 1663. — Edits et Ordtmnances, tome i. p. 21. § The number was increased to seven in 1675, and certain public oflicers were made oflicidl members. ir. l.OWEIl CANADA. d, as nearly as jjOHsihlc, in the manner and form prescribed by llie usages of the |)arliament of Paris. As this ordinance was of ^reat importance, not only to the oxistinij; state of the colony but to its future welfare, and ns it in fact introduced a system of jurisprudence, which to this day is the conunon law of Canada in civil matters, its provisions demand some attention, and invite a comi)arison be- tween their character and tendency, and the social and political rc-ulations of the pilfxrims of New Enfi;land. The EngUsh emi<;rants ./brmt'rf Ihemsolvcs into a " Civil body politick," and mntualhj covenanted to observe such laws and regulations as the maintenance of social order and the security of their little commonwealth demanded. In the French colony the crown and the church combined to select five fit and proper persons, who held their office for one year, to assist the governor Jind principal ecclesiastic in the performance of their legislative functions ; and the ordinances passed by this body were sub- ject to ultimate revision by the central authority of the king's government in Paris. M. de Tocqueville* has borne testimony to the astonishing fact, that many of the laws of the " Pilgrim Fathers " provided for social wants but imper- fectly understood and a])preciated in France at the present time. The laws introduced into Canada by the ordinance of 1 G()3 were the feudal customs and usages of the Coutume de Paris. We will not inflict upon our readers a minute investigation of the usages w hich prevailed in the " Viscomtc de Paris," and which were thus introduced into Canada. The juridical division of France in the year 16G3 is well known. In the " Pays du Droit Ecrit," the Roman law, w ith some modifica- tions, may be said to have been the common law of the di- strict. In the " Pays (Jontumier" the feudal customs of the Franks, and of the other northern tribes that oven'an France, supplanted almost entirely the Roman civil code. The col- lection of usages known by the name of the Customary Law of Paris, partook largely of the feudal character, and was less intermixed with the Roman Law than the local customs of * Tocqueville's Democracy in America, vol. i. p. 11. LOWRU CANADA. 17 ihr more southorn j)rnvinpea of the kinj^doin*. All lands \vcro in coiisccnicnce }j;riint('(l citlier " en fivfT — ns manors, rlotlicd with most of the rights and [)rivil(gt's of fcudahty ; or " en roturv,^'' — by a villanage tciuu'c, sidyect to the " ser- vitudes," whether honorary or beneficial, which the law ex- acted from the vassal to his lord paramount ; and now here did the ancient feudal maxim — " nu(/e terre sans ticiyneur" — ])revail more decidedly than in the colony of New France. The mutation fines payable to the lord on the sale of inherit- ances, and the right of pre-emj)tion reserved in certain cases to the lord and to the relations of the vendor, are among the incidents to this tenure which have produced im[)ortant re- sults in Canada. Their obvious and inevitable etfcct has been, to check the transfer of jjroperty in a new country ; to retard improvement ; to prevent the development of natural re- sources, by confining the settler to the farm which was first granted to him ; aiul, as a more remote result, to produce that condensed agricultural population — unnatural amidst boiuid- less tracts of luicultivatcd land — which is so remarkable in Lower Canada, and w hich contrasts so unfavourably with the stirring character of the Anglo-Saxon jjopulation in the United States. A system of mortgages, or hypothecations t> was also intro- duced into the province by the Customary Law of Paris, the very reverse of that which obtained in the New-England set- tlement. In the latter, registration offices were established, by means of which the incumbrances on an estate might be immediately ascertained. In the Canadian province, no re- gistration of deeds was required, although hypothecary obli- gations — whether created by mere operation of law, as the legal or tacit mortgage, by which the rights of a minor or of a married woman are secured u})on the estate of the husband or guardian, or the conventional mortgage, created by the act of the parties themselves — aflccted not only the whole of the mortgagor's immoveable property in possession, but all that he might afterwards acquire. This law of mortgages, * See Coutuiiie tie Paris — Titre, Des Fiefs. Art. 1. to Art. 72. Titre, Des Cen- sivcs et Droits Seigneiirianx. Art. 73 to Art. 87. t Coutuine de Paris — Titre, Des Actions iiersoimelles et (rilypothoqi'es. Arti 99 to Art. 112. B u 18 LOWER CAVA HA. J<' even at the present dny, renders it almost imposaihie to ob- tain n }:joo(l title to an estate in Lower Canada. The etU-ct on the soeial eondition of the inhabitants has been, to fetter industry; to prodnee foreed sales of |)roperty for the payment of debts of comparatively small amotnit; and to elofjf and em- barrass the exertions of the settler in his attempts to subdue the natural dithculties of his position. The matrimonial eommiuuty of property*, by which one half of the earnings of the husband during covtnlure may, after the death of his wife without children, be clainu'd by her next of kin in his lifetime, might also be mentioned, with other usages of the " Custom of Paris," not oidy as instances of n\\- just laws in the abstract, but as regulations pregnant with mischief to the moral and social condition of a people. There is no trace in the French colonial annals of the establishment of parochial schools, nor of any general system of education, supported either by local rates, or from the taxes levied by the supreme council. Education, such as it was, fell almost as a necessary consequence imder the exclusive control of the church ; and its pious exertions were directed rather to instruct fit persons for the j)riesthood, than to ex- tend general information amongst the colonistsf. By a united effort of M. de Petree, bishop of Canada, and of the King of France at Paris, the seminary J of Quebec was established on the 2Gth of March 106,3. The following extract from the letters patent promulgated by his lordship the bishop on that occasion, will clearly show the principal object for which this college was founded. " In which" (the new seminary) " shall be educated and trained young clerks, who shall app°ar fit for the service of God, and to whom, for this purpose, shall be taught the manner of administering the sacraments ; the method of cathechising, and of preaching moral theology, according to apostolical doctrines ; the ceremonies of the church ; the full Gregorian * Coiittnnt de Paris, — Titre De Coinnmnaute de Riens. Art. 220 to Art. 216. t We are aware that this remark does not apply, at the present day, to the Ro- man Catholic seminaries of Quebec and Montreal, where many students receive an excellent education. lUit this is a comparatively modern jiractice, and even now these seminaries are attended, almost exclusively, '>y the towii population, or by the sons of the wealthier seigneurs and merchants. An Act of tlie Ptovineial Legis- lature was necessary to ititroduce parochial schools a few years since — a sufficient proof that no /uca/ provisions e.visted for their maintenance. X Edits et Ordonnances, tome i. pp. 2't ct 2(j. T hOW'UU CANADA. 19 chnunt ; ami other ninttor», appi'itaininK to tin- duties of tho ^ooil pcrl". Hiastic."* A seminary 111" t'{'cl(,';siastics, (if a similar charait-T, was cs* t- blislicd in the vi-ar l(>77t in Montreal, anil the whole; of the island and Sciy neurit' of that name .vere granted to this esta- blishment in mortmain. It was 8 disctinently united to the seminary of St. Sulpice at Paris :f, uud a supply of priests for relij^ious and educational purpc^r.-tvas periodically sent from France, and has with some interruption been continued to the present time. These, we believe, were the only provisions for education made by the French f^overnment ; and it nnist be obvious, that in a new country, w ith few roads and a scattered population, they could but imperfectly supply the absence of parochial schools. The indefatigable Jesuits were not slow in introducing themselves into the colony, and it is scarcely an exaggeration to say, that the (piadrangular college they built m the Upper Town of Quebec was sufficiently spacious to contain the whole population of the colony at the time of its construc- tion. Extensive tracts of land were granted to them in mortmain §, which, upon the extinction of the order in 17fil> w ere claimed by the Crow n of England. The " Jesuits' es- tates" have, however, been a fruitful smirce of contention between the Government and the House of Assembly, and they have of late years been surrendered to the provincial legislature for purposes of education. There was also an establishment of Recollet Monks of the order of St. Francis || ; and convents of nuns, and hospitals for the relief of the sick, under the care and superintendence of religious persons, were, according to the Roman Catholic usages in the 17th cen.ary, introduced, on a scale that strikes the inquirer into the early records of the province as strange- ly dis{)roportionc(l to the i.nmbcn- of its inhabitants and their probable necessities. A parochial clergy^ was also o^ r- * Edits et Ordonnances, tome i. p. 80. f Ibid., tome i. p. 20. X Ibid., tome i. p. 304. § Amoitissement eii faveur dos li. R. P. V. Jcsuites. — Edits et Ordonnances, tome i. p. 90. II The Recollets were one of the four hranches of the " Seraphic order of St. Francis." See 'listoire des Ordres Monasticjues, tome iii. p. 205, ^ Edits et Ordonnances, tome i. pp. 243-314. B 2 i!0 LOWER CANADA. '■ I it!' blishod, and their supi)ort was provided for in their respect- ive ])arishcs by a contriljution of one twenty-sixth of all the grain i)roducc'd ; the parishioners bein<^ further subject to occasional assessments for building and repairing churches and parsonage-houses. he i)atronage of these churches was given to the bishop*. It is impossible not to be struck with the contrast afforded by the system of government — civil and rehgious — we have thus imperfectly shadowed out, when compared with the democratic princij)les of the Pilgrims of New England; and imless we assume that human nattirc is governed by laws and subject to im£)ulses in Canada different from those which in- fluence it in other countries, the conviction is forced upon us, tliat these institutions must have produced their ordinary and legitimate effect in moulding tlie character and forming the opinions of the people. In dealing with the Canadian ques- tion, we fiu'ther infer from these premises that an anomalous state of society is brought under our notice, which can find no parallel in the condition of our former American colonies, at the time oi their separation from England. The facts whereby we can judge of the correctness of these o})inions, and form an estimate of the habits and manners of a people placed in a distant colony in America in the 17th and 18th centuries, must necessarily be scanty, but they are i:ot altogether w anting. The history of Father Charlevoix the Jesuit treats of the material wants of the colonists, of the vicissitudes that attended their wars w ith the English and the Indians, and of their exertions to bring the new settlement into cultivation, rather than of their social habits and cha- racter. AVe turn, therefore, to their own records — to the ordinances that were promulgated, and the decrees that were pronounced by their supreme council ; and there we find abmidant evidence to show, that the absohite government under which they lived, the temporal and spiritual power of their ecclesiastical establishments, the feudal privileges of the " Seiyneurs," though modified by local circumstances, were actively producing the same results as in other countries. * Arret (111 Couscil d'Etat du Roi qui accorde le patronage des Eglises k Mon- seigneur TEveque. — Edits et Ordoimances, tome i. p. 292. LOWER CANADA. 21 The legislator and the jurist, ^ho dive into these sourcca of information, will be convinced of the truth of this proposition ; bi't for the general reader we shall end' .ivour to select an example, which will place in strong relief the lights and shadows of social life in the early settlemjut of Canada, and will tend to illustrate the important matters which challenged and received the attention of the French king's government, both in the colony and in France. Various discussions and heart-burnings had evidently arisen in the new colony, on that most delicate and exciting of all subjects in provincial society — rank and precedence ; and the honours to be conferred by the appropriation of seats, or by other marks of distinction in chuiv.aes, seem more particu- larly to have engaged the attention of the inhabitants. The supreme council at Quebec appears to have found this too dif- ficult a matter to deal with, and the authority of the central government in France being invoked, a regulation was pro- mulgated by the Duke of Orleans, at that time regent of France, not unworthy of the future court of Louis XIV. We give the following extract. BY THE KING. " His Majesty having caused all the ordinances and regulations that have been promulgated on the subject of honorary distinctions in the churches of New France to be communicated to him, and being desirous to prevent the contests which daily arise on this account, with the advice of His Royal Highness the Duke of Orleans his Uncle Regent, has resolved and ordered as follows : — " 1. The Governor-general and Intcndant of New France shall each httVe a pew in the cathedral church of Quebec, and in the parish church of Montreal ,; that is to say, the Governor-general on the right of the choir and the Intt'ulant on the left, both being placed on the same straight lino. " 2. The King's Lieutenant for the city of Quebec shall have a bench in the cathedral next behind the pew of the Governor-general. " 3. In the other churcher of New France, the Governor-general and the Intendant shall not have pews, but shall only be entitled to cause their chairs or seats to be carried to such churches, which they shall also cause to be placed in the most distinguished position — that of the Governor- general to the right, and that of the Intendant to the left. " 4. Incense shall be offered only to the Governor-general, and that immediately after the IJishop, and before the Chapter. " 5. In the absence of the Governo: general from any District Govern- 22 LOWER CANADA. mtnt, in which the InteiidaiU shall be present, the District Governor, or in his absence, the King's Lieutenant, sliall Imve the first place in all Pub- lic Ceremonies, and the Intendant shall have only the second; but when the Governor-general shall be within the limits of the District Government, and shall be prevented from assisting at Public Ceremonies, from what- ever cause this may happen, the Intendant shall have the first place, and the District Governor and the King's Lieutenant shall only rank after him. " 6. In Processions at which the Council shall be present, the Governor shall march at the head of Council, and the Intendant on the left. Then the Councillors and the Attorney-general, and after him the Officers of the Jurisdiction ; and the line of march thus regulated shall be in the order of two and two. " 7. His Majesty desires that in the event of the Governor-general's absence, or illness, the Intendant alone shall march at the head of the Council; and if the Intendant shall be absent, the Senior Councillor shall take precedence. " 12. At Salutes fired on the occasion of public rejoicings, three Torches shall be presented to the Governor-general, one to the Intendant, and a third to the King's Lieutenant. When the Governor-genenil shall be absent from the District Government of Quebec, only two Torches shall be presented to the King's Lieutenant, or to the officer commanding in the Town, and the other to the Intendant. " Orders and commands his Majesty to the Sieur Maupnx tic Vaudreiiil, Governor and Lieuienant-gencral in New France, and to tlie Sievr Began, Intendant, and to all their Officers, to conform to the present regulation, which he desires may be enregistered in his Superior Council of Quebec, and executed according to its form and tenor. Done at Paris this 27th of April, one thousand seven hundred and sixteen. (Signed) LOUIS."* i But, it may be urged, tho Elective House of Assembly established after the conquest of the colony, a""! the trial by jury which has followed the introduction of the English criminal law, and has obtained a partial footing even in civil causes, as well as the opportunity of intercourse with the English, must have produced a change in the habits and manners of the people. In the educated classes — a small minority — a change has undoubtedly taken place, though we question their fitness for the duties and responsibihties of self-government, unassisted by their Anglo-Canadian bre- thren • 'vhile the great body of the French population, which * Edits et Ordonnanccs, tonic i. )). 3.'i4. LOWER CANADA. 23 has increased under our sway from 65,000* to nearly half a million, in their prejudices, customs and opinions, are essen- tially the same as at the time of the conquest of the colony. In support of this opinion we shall violate the chronological order of our remarks, by quoting the description given by a modern French-Canadian, an authority above suspicion, of his ow^n countrymen : a description gi*aphically true at the present day, but which, we are persuaded, would appear not less true if the ancestors of this unchanged race had sat for the por- trait. It will at all events be sufficiently apparent, that what- ever alteration may have taken place, we have failed to con- vert the French-Canadian either into an EngUshman or an Anglo-Canadian. " The most important and marked distinction existing in the country is of French and English; meaning by French all such as were originally, or have, by long dwelling in the country or otherwise, become attached to -lie French-Canadian habits and language; meaning by English such as are really English, or have, in spite of their continuance in the country, retained a decided predilection for what they believe to be English manners, language, tastes, &c. " Among the people of the United States, there exists a roving disposi- tion, that leads them in multitudes to make New Settlements in the wild lands, and thus rapidly to spread civilization over the immense unreclaimed territories they possess. This feeling exists not in Canada : the inhabitants, generally, arc far from adventurous ; they cling with pertinacity to the spot which gave them birth, and cultivate, with contentedness, the little piece of land which in the division of the family property has fallen to their share. * Population of Lower Canada, at various times, from the year 1676 to 1825 inclusive, as taken from the aaihority of Charlevoix, La Potheraye, and of public documents. — Bouchette's British Dominions in America. Year. 1676 1688 Increase in 12 yrs. 1700 Increase in 12 yrs. 1706 Increase in 12 yrs. 1417 Souls. 8,415 .11,249 2,834 15,000 3,751 20,000 5,000 26.904 Year. Increase in 8 jTS. 1759 Increase in 45 yrs. 1784 Increase in 25 yrs. 1825 Increase in 41 yrs. Souls. 6,904 65,000 38,096 113,000 48,000 450,000 337,000 The Anglo-Canadian as well as the French-Canadian jjopulation is included in this Table since the year 1759. But the French-Canadian population alone is not much if at all under half a million at the present day. 24 LOWER CANADA. n One great reason for this sedentary disposition is their peculiar situation as regards religion. In Canada, as in all (Catholic countries, many of the people's enjoyments are connected with their religious ceremonies; the Sunday is to them their day of gaiety ; there is then an assemhlage of friends and relations ; the parish church collects together all whom they know, with whom they have relations of husiness or pleasure, the young and old ; — men and women clad in their best garments, riding their best horses, driving their gayest caliches, — meet there for purposes of business, love and pleasure. The young habitant, decked out in his most splendid finery, makes c^urt to the maiden whom he has singled out as the object of his affections ; the maiden, exhibiting in her adornment every colour of the rainbow, there hopes to meet son chevalier ; the bold rider descants upon, and gives evidence of the merits of his unrivalled pacer; and in winter the power of the various horses is tried in sleiyh anAcariole racmg. In short, Sunday is the grand fete, it forms the most pleasurable part of the habitant's lift' : rob him of his Sunday, you rob him of what, in his eyes, renders life most worthy of possession. Moreover, the people are a pious people, and set an extraordinary value on the rites of their relig'on. Take them where they may be unable to participate in these observances, and you render them fearful and unhappy. The consequence of all these cir- cumstances is, that the Canadian will never go out singly to settle in a wild territory ; neither will he go where his own religious brethren are not. " The comforts of the people, if compared with any other nation, are wonderfully great ; their food, from their French habits, consists not of animal food to the same extent as that of the richer English, but is, never- theless, nourishing and abundant. No griping penury here stints the meal of the labourer ; no wan and haggard countenances bear testimony to the want and wretchedness of the people. " While the Canadians are thus well supplied with food, they are equally fortunate as to their clothing and their habitations. Till lately, the chief clothing of the population was wholly of their own manufacture ; but the cheapness of English goods has, in some degree, induced a partial use thereof. Canadian cloth is, however, still almost universally used ; and the grey capot of the habitant is the characteristic costume of the country. The capot is a large coat reaching to the knee, and is bound round the waist by a sash ; which sash is usually the gayest part of the Canadian's dress, exhibiting every possible colour within the power of the dyer. The women are usually clothed nearly after the fashion of a French pea- sant. On the Sunday they are gaily attired, chiefly after the English fashion, with only this difference, — where the English wears one, the Ca- nadian girl wears half a dozen colours. Here, as in tlie case of food, no penury is manifest ; an exceeding neatness of person and cleanliness, that first requisite to comfort, mark the people to be above the influence of want, and to be in that state of ease which permits them to ray due atten- tion to the decency of external appearance. " It is impossible — perhaps it would also be unnecessary — to give a mi- nute description of the sort of houses which the funning population usudly LOWER CANADA. 25 inhabit ; sufflco it to say that they are generally constructed of wood tliough, as the farmer becomes rich, lie almost invariably changes his wooden for a stone house. For the number of inhabitants they arc unusually large and conmiodious. In the summer, from being low, they are generally uncomfortably warm ; and in winter, by the aid of a stove, they are rendered completely uninhabitable by a Europefin. The excessive heat in which the Canadian lives, within doors, is suihcient to kill any one not from his infancy accustomed to that temperatm-e. Without doors, how- ever, the habitant bears with ease the piercing cold of the winter blasts, — ' Breasts the keen air, and carols as he goes,' — when any one, not a Canadian, would be compelled to take < ry possible precaution against its painful influence. " Free from the pressure of want, and unexposed to the temptations created by surrounding affluence, they are free from the vices which po- verty and temptation engender. Property is perfectly safe both from petty pilfering and open attacks. " In the country the doors of (he houses are never fastened, and all sorts of property are openly and carelessly exposed. In the social rela- tions, also, the same circumstance of ease induces, to a great degree, honesty in dealing. *' In the kindlier affections, they, like all happy people, are enn'nently conspicuous ; though, from being less rich, they are, perhaps, less remark- able in this particular than the people of the United States. " The people are, for the most part, of a mild disposition ; a broil or a fight at their meetings of pleasure seldom occurs, and the more fierce and deadly passions of our nature are never roused by the pressure of famine. The habit of settling differences by personal collision does not exist among them ; the law affords the only remedy, which they willingly adopt, and they consequently seem, and are, iu fact, litigious. Being principally of Norman descent, what William the Conqueror said of the Normans may, perhaps, be applicable to them. ' Foler et plaidier lors convint.' " Education, among the people of Lower Canada, and particularly in the country, having made but little progress as compared with (hat of the people of the United States, the Roman Catholic clergy have been consi- dered the cause of this want of advance, and accused of a desire to keep the people in ignorance, inasmuch as they hope, thereby, to maintain a command over their opinions and conduct. Nothing, however, can bo more false, either as regards the cause of the little progress of education among us, or as regards the feelings of the priesthood ; it being indubitable, that had it not been for the arduous endeavours of the Roman Catholic clergy, the people uwild haoe been far more ignorant th ,n Iheg are at pre- sent. To their active personal exertions, — to the seminaries which they 26 LOWER CANADA. ii liave built and 8U])eriiitende(l, is owing whatever knowledye is spread among the various ranks of Canadian society*." The preceding extracts apply almost exclusively to the rural French population of Lower Canada. The educated classes are neither so simple in their manners, so unambitious in their views, nor so contented with iheir position. They constitute, in fact, the "movement party t" of their race; but although they have generally discarded the opinions of their ancestors in political matters, they retain their social usages and customs, and they have, with few exceptions, failed, in our opinion, to acquire any well-defined pi-inciples of public liberty. The Canadian Seigneurs or feudal proprietors may be mentioned as the highest in rank. They are, however, * A Political and Historical Account of L.owor-Canada, by a Canadian. Lon- don, 1830. t The feelings and wishes of that portion of the population who desire a French Canadian republic, or an independent " nation Canadienne" are or rather were not unfaithfully represented by the following lines : Sol Canadien ! terre cherie ! Par des braves tu fus peuple ; lis cherchaient loin de leur patrie Une terre de libertt^. Nos pcres, sortis de la France, Etaient I'elite des gnerriers ; Et leurs enfants de leur vaillance N'ont jamais flctri les lauriers. Qu'elles sont belles, nos campagnes ; En Canada qu'on vit content! Salut, o sublimes inontagnes, Hords du superbe Saint Lauren ! Habitant de cette contree. Que nature veut embcllir, Tu peux marcher tete levee. Ton pays doit t'enorguellir. Respecte la main protectrice D'Albion, ton digne soutien ; Mais fait echouer la malice D'enneniis nourris dans ton sein. Ne flechis jamais dans I'orage ; Tu n'as pour maitre que tes lois ; Tu n'es pas fait pour I'esclavage : Albion veille sur tes droits. Si d' Albion la main cherie Cesse un jour de te proteger, Soiitiens-toi seule, 6 ma jwtrie ! Mc'prise un secours etranger. Nos percs, sortis de la France, Etaient I'elite des gnerriers ; Et leurs enfants de leur vaillance Ne fletiront pas les lauriers. LOWErt CANADA. 27 scarcely entitled to be considered as a distinct " order." Their number is small, and although some possess not only an in- dependent but affluent income for so economical a country, the majority are engaged in the active business of life. Amongst them the descendants of ancient French families are to be met with, and traces of their aristocratic lineage linger in the habits they preserve in their domestic circles, and the manners by which they are distinguished in society. The French-Canadian advocates of the Quebec and Mon- treal bar claim also a distinct notice. They arc, for the most part, educated at the Roman Catholic seminaries we have before alluded to. Many of them possess considerable professional skill, and have obtained a great and predomi- nating influence over the minds of their uneducated country- men ; but they are not in general very remarkable either for enlarged views, or for general information. The leaders of the House of Assembly belong, for the most part, to this class. M. Papineau, whose name has become so well known, is a member of the Monti'eal Bar. He was educated, we be- lieve, at the Roman Catholic seminary of St. Sulpice at Montreal, but devoted himself to politics. Not deficient in attainments, he possesses abilities above mediocrity; is an able and ready debater, and speaks English fluently — a quali- fication not universal with French-Canadians. The almost unlimited influence he exercised has been frequently and dexterously used to defeat the schemes of the executive go- vernment, and to maintain what, we have no doubt he con- sidered in many instances, the just privileges of the House of Assembly. On the other hand, the experience he and his countrymen have acquired has been in too confined an arena to allow them to form just and enlarged opinions of public aifairs, and throughout their proceedings niay be traced that unequal course of action, and those fretful and discontented ebullitions of feeling, which in all ages have marked the con- duct of a high-spirited and conquered people. Of the French Canadian clergy it is impossible to speak in terms of respect higher than their merits deserve. As a body, they are singularly free from sectarian prejudices, and the manner in which they discharge their pastoral functions, and the kindly feeling they have fostered in their parishioners, have 28 LOWER CANADA. I i justly endeared them to the wh(de i« rench-Canadian popu- lation, and secured the friendship of their English fellow- countrymen. In enumerating the various classes of French provincial society, it would be very unjust to i)ass over in silence the " Notary-Public," as he is called. He is a very different per- sonage from the English notary ; for as almost every specialty must be a notarial deed, which is prepared by him, the ori- ginal being deposited in his office, and an examined copy only given out to the parties, he combines, within himself, many of the attributes of the country attorney and the pro- vincial conveyancer in England. Thus, in some Canadian parishes, the Seigneur, the notary-public and the priest, occupy positions by no means dissimilar to the country squire, the attorney and the curate, in the parent state. Many of the shop-keepers, both in Quebec and Montreal, are French Canadians ; but in the higher departments of com- merce, comparatively few are to be met with, and they, in general, either from education or by family connexion, have adopted, in a great measure, the habits and opinions of the English. The export and import trade of the province is in the hands of the British and Anglo-Canadian merchants. We have thus, so far as our limits would permit, endea- voured to give some account of the rise and progress of the former French colony of Lower Canada, and of the manners and customs of the people. We now leave our readers to de- termine whether we have or not established our first proposi- tion — " that the habits, the maimers, the moral education *' and the prejudices of a people trained under the French " administrative system, must be totally different from those " of the Anglo-Saxon race." In the next chapter we shall endeavour to prove our second proposition, and to show that the geographical po- sition and the social and political welfare of the two j)ro- vinces require that they should be united under one colonial government; and we close th^jse remarks with a few brief notices of the circumstances under which Canada became a British province. The long-disputed province of Nova Scotia had been formally ceded to Great Britain by the treaty of Utrecht, but * I.OWKU CANADA. 29 after the peace of Aix-la-C'lia|)(lle serious dispiites arose be- tween France and ICnf^land rcspeetinjj; the limits of the newly acquired territory. More inij)ortant disputes also occurred with regard to the southern provinces, the i)lan of the French heiti}^ to unite Louisiana and (Canada by a chain of forts, and to confine the Enj^lish colonies between the Alleghany moiui- tains and the sea. A series of these forts was accordingly commenced along tlic lakes on the one side, and on the Mis- sissippi and the Ohio on the other. The vast chain was nearly completed, when, the jealousy of the court of En- gland being efl(!ctually roused, the conferences respecting Nova Scotia were abrujjtly broken off. A desultory warfiirc then commenced in America, the English colonists contend- ing that the forts were erected within their boundaries, and the French stimulating the Indians and the " Neutrals," as the French colonists in Nova Scotia were termed, to attack the English settlements. Hostilities between the two coim- tries soon became inevitable. The war of posts continued with various success ; the defeat of General Braddock at Fort du Quesne, and of General Webb at Fort William Henry, being counterbalanced by the success of the British arms in the attack on Louisbourg. It was at last, however, deter- mined to make a general attack on the French settlements, and General Wolfe, who had distinguished himself at Louis- bourg, was directed to proceed up the St. Lavn-ence and be- siege Quebec. Wolfe sailed from Portsmouth on the 14th of March 1759, with a fleet of seventy-four vessels, transports and men of war, commanded by Admiral Holmes. The fleet reached Louisbourg in straggling detachments, having encountered a severe storm. In the beginning of June Wolfe again sailed. On the 27th he landed on the Island of Orleans, a few miles below duebec; and on the 3 1st of July he was repulsed in an attack on the entrenched camp of the French near the village of Beauport, between the rivers St. Charles and Mont- morenci. It being determined to carry on opirations above, or to the westward of the town, notwithstanding the great natural advantages the enemy derived from the steep banks of the St. Law rence, which were supposed to be inaccessible to troops, the men of war and trans})orts w^rc moved up the n so LOWER CANADA. river. The dispatch of General Townsend ♦, gives so able a statement of the niiUtary events which snhaeqnently took pkce, that we offer no apolofj^y to onr readers for inserting extracts from it here. " It being (Ictcrmined to carry the operations above the town.tlio posts at Point Levi and I'lslo Orleans being secured, the t;eneral nwirched with the remainder of his forces from Point Levi on the 5th and (ith, ami cm- barked them in transports, which had passed the town for that purpose, on the 7th, 8th and 9th. A movement of the ships was made by Admiral Holmes, in order to amuse the enemy, now posted along the shore. " The light infantry, commanded by Colonel Howe, the regiment of Braggs (28), Kennedy (43), La.scelles (97), and Anstruther (58), with a detachment of Highlanders, and the American grenadiers, the whole being under the command of Brigadiers Monkton and Murray, were put into flat-bottomed boats ; and, after some movement of the ships, made by Ad- miral Holmes to draw the attention of the enemy above, the boats fell down with the tide, and landed on the north shore, within a league of Cape Diamond, an hour before daybreak. The rapidity of the tide of ebb carried them a little below the place of attack, which obliged the light infantry to scramble up a woody precipice, in order to secure the landing of the troops, by dislodging a captain's post which defended the small entrenched path the troops were to ascend. " After a little firing, the light infantry gained the top of the pnc ipice, and dispersed the captain's post ; by which means, the troops, with very little loss from a few Canadians and Indians in the wood, got up and were immediately formed. The boats as they emptied were sent back for the second disembarkation, which I immediately made. Brigadier Mur- ray being detached with Anstruther's battalion to attack the four-gun bat- tery upon the left, was recalled by the general, who now saw the French army crossing the river St. Charles. General Wolfe thereupon began to form his line, having his right covered by the Louisbourg grenadiers. On the right of these again, he afterwards brought Otway's (35) : to the left of the grenadiers were Braggs', Kennedy's, Lascellcs', Highlanders, and Anstruther's. ITie right of this body was commanded by Brigadier Monkton, the left by Brigadier Murray. His rear and left were pro- tected by Colonel Howe's light infantry, who was returned from the bat- tery just mentioned, which was soon abandoned to him, and where he found four guns. " General Montcalm, having collected the whole of his force from the Beauport side, and advancing upon us, showed his intention to flank our left, which I was immediately ordered to protect with General Amherst's battalion (15), which I formed en potence. My numbers were soon after- * This dispatch has been lately pubUshed in " Chelsea IIosi>ital and its Tradi- tions," vol. iii. p. 305. l.OWEll CANADA. .11 wards inrrcaspd by tlic nrrivul of tlie two l)nttftlions, Royal Ann'rirnns (GO). W-I)b's (18) was drawn up by tlu' Rcnfral as a reserve, in eigbt subdivisions witb hir)>;e intervals. " Tbe enemy lined the bushes in their front with fifteen hundred Cana- dians and Indians, and I dare say had |)!aced some of their best marks- men there, who kept up a very ijallini;, though irregular fire, upon our whole line, who bore it with the greatest patience and good order, re- serving their fire for the main body now advancing. This fire of the enemy was, however, checked by our posts in our front, whicli protected the forming of our own line. " The right of the enemy was formed of half of the troops of the colonv, the battalions of La Sarrc, Languedoc, &c. ; the remainder of fhem Ca- nadians and Indians. Their centre was a column, and formed by the battalions of Beam and Guyenne ; their left was composed of the re- mainder of the troops of the colony, and the battalion of Royal Russillons, This was, as near as I can guess, their line of battle. They brought up two pieces of small artillery against us ; and we had been able to bring up only one gun, which, being admirably well served, galled their column exceedingly. " My attention to the left will not permit me to be very exact with re- gard to every circumstance which passed in the centre, much less to the right ; but it is most certain that the enemy formed in good order, and that their attack was very brisk and animated on that side. Our troops reserved their fire till within forty yards, which was so well continued, that the enemy everywhere gave way. It was there our general fell, at the head of Braggs' and of the Ljuisbourg grenadiers, advancing with their bayonets. About the same time Brigadier-general Monkton re- ceived his wound at the head of Lascelles'. In the front of the opposite battalions fell also Monsieur Montcalm ; his second in command has since died of his wounds on board our fleet. Part of the enemy made a second faint attack ; part took to some thick ropse-wood, and seemed to make a stand. " It was at this moment that each corps seemed to exert itself with a view to its own particular character. The grenadiers, Braggs', Lascelles', pressed on with their bayonets. Brigadier Murray, advancing the tro()])s under his command briskly, completed the rout on his side ; when the Highlanders, supported by Anstruther's, took to their broad-swords and drove part into the town, part to their works at the bridge on the river St. Chales." Quebec capitulated a few days after this victory. In the subsequent year the Marquis de Vaudreuil surrendered with the remainder of the French army at Montreal, and Canada became an English colony. 32 TIIK CAN ADAH. CIIAFriCR II. Tho Catwdas. I', t In tho first cliaptcr wo fiuIciivouiTd to show that Mr. Iloo- buck, and the mcnibers of parliament who adopted his opi- nions, wort: ill error, when thoy assorted the sinnhu-ity of thoiiji;lit and feeling of the Freneh Cana(Han on the banks of the St. Lawrenee, and of the An<2;lo-An\eri('an on the Ilndson and Conneeticut. It w as not, liowever, onr intention, to lead our readers to infer, that a perfect resendilanee existed between the Puritans of New England and the first Hritish colonists in C'anada. They were of the same race, spoke the same lan- guage, and had a common love of constitutional liberty; but years had rolled on since the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Ply- mouth, and those years were fraught w ith mighty changes in the social and i)olitical state of the mother country. The doctrines of the Commonwealth had been discarded, as false maxims condemned by experience, — the despotic government of Cromwell was referred to only as another example, aflbrded by history, of the inevitable fate of democracies, and the in- efficiency of popular power to give security to rational free- dom, — the constitutional principles of the revolution of 1(588, loyalty to the House of Ilauover, and liostility to the exiled royal family, had become the received and orthodox opinions of the majority, — the people cheerfidly submitted to the real power of an aristocracy, sufWciently identified with them to promote the leading interests of the country, while the na- tional pride was soothed v» ith the theory of a mixed form of government, and the n-it'onal vanity gratified with the discovery of a constitution, assumed to be as nearly perfect as the imperfection of iuiman institutions would permit. Considered, therefore, as social beings, the Englishmen who landed on the shores of Massachussets in the year 1620, .and the IJrltish settlers in Canada, after the conquest of the col differed in many important attributes. )lony. The first British settlers whose gallantry the enemy had been defeated on the plains of IS were a portion of the army by TIIK CANAIIAS. .U Ahrahum. The military appoint nicnts of the nfaly-uccpiircil colony were open to the oflicers ; otliLMs pi-cli'iTod thn nu\o, bnt easy and independent lilu of a (laniidian proprietor, to the partial patronaf>-e and doublfid pinmotion of the royal army; and instances ^vere not wantinjjj of individuals who discovered a charm in the life of a Backwoodsman, which neither the force of habit, nor the allurenuiuts of society, nor all the ties and feelin}2;s associated with the name of Home, could '>reak. Independently of these, a supply of civil servants, ju•»<-' " Loyalists" from the United States, attached by interest or principle to the British government, 8ouj;ht a refuj^e in th m !• E theless possessed sources of wealth tha*^^ might almost rival the mines of Mexico and Peru. The Indians, unacquainted with the artificial value r^^'en to some descriptions of furs in European society, bai.v^red away quantities for trinkets and cheap commodities ; immense profits were thus made by the early Frencn traders, and the traffic was pursued with avidity. After the conquest thin trade was cor tracted within very narrow limits ; it was soon, however, revived with much emulation oy individual merchants and adventurers. To put an e.'d to the ruinous jealousies and rivalships which ne- cesso'"./ ensued, several of the principal merchants of Mon- treri entered into a partnership, in the year 1783, which was augmented by am..iganiation with a rival company in 1787« We borrow a notice of their extensive confederation from the introduction to the romantic history of Astoria. " Thus was created the famous 'North-west Company,' which for a time held a lordly swuy over the wintry lakes and boundless *", rests of the Canadas, almost equal to that of the East India Company over the voluptuous climes, and magnificent realms of the Orient. The com- pany consisted of twenty-three shareholders or partners ; but held in its employ about two thousand persons as clerks, guides, interpreters, and ' voyageurs * or boatmen. These were distributed at various trading- ports, established far and wide in the interior lakes and rivers, at im- mense distances from each other, and in tlie heart of trackless countries and savage tribes. " As to the principal partners or agents, who resided in Montreal and Quebec, they formed a kind of commercial aristocracy, living in lordly and hospitable style. Their early associations, when clerks at the remote trading ports, and the pleasures, dangers, adventures, and mishaps which they had shared together in their wild wood life, had linked them heartily to each other, so that they formed a convivial fraternity. Few travellers that visited Canada some thirty years since, in the days of the M'Tavishes, the M'Gillivrays, the MKenzies, the Frobi&hers, and the other magiiates of the North- West, when the Company was in al! ts glory, but must remember the round of feasting and revelry kept up amongst these hyperborean nrbobs. Sometimes one or two partners, recently from the interior ports, would make their appearance in New \ ork in the course of a t~-ir of pleasure and curiosity. On thes»> occasions there was always a degree of magnificence of the purse about them, and a peculiar propensity to expenditure at the goldsmiths and jewellers for rings, chains, brooches, necklaces, jewelled wscches, and other rich trinkets, partly for their owr; wear, and partly for presents to their female acquaintances ; u gorgeous prodigality, such as was often noticed in former times in Southern Planters and Y\ est Indian Creoles, when flush with the profits of their THE CAN AD AS. 35 plantations. To behold the North-West Company in all its state and grandeur, however, it was necessary to witness an aiinual gathering at the great interior place of conference established at Fort-William, near to what is called the Grand Portage, on Lake Superior. " On these occrisions might bv> seen the change since the unceremonious times of the old French '^'•aders • how the aristocrr'irn' character of the Briton shone forth n agniticenti", or rather the feudal spirit of the High- lander. " Thd partners from Montreal, however, were the lords of the ascend- arl; coming from the midst of luxurious and ostentatious life, they quite eclipsed their compeers from the woods, whose forms and faces had bei^n battered and hardened by hard living and hard service, and whose gar- ments and equipments were all the worse for wear. Indeed, the partner'* from belotv considered the whole dignity of the Company as represented in their persons, and conducted themselves in suitable style. They ascended the rivers in great state, like sovereigns making a progress, or rather like Highland chieftains navig^iting their subject lakes. They were wrapped in ricU furs, their huge canoes freighted with every con- venience and luxury, and manned by Canadian ' voyageurs' as obedient as Highland clansmen. They carried up with them cooks and bakers, together with delicacies of every kind, and abundance of choi'je wines for the banquet which attended this great convocation. Happy were they, too, if they could meet with some distinguished stranger, — above all, some titled member of the British nobility, — to accompany them on this stately occasion, and grace their high solemnities. Fort William, the scene of this important annual meeting, was a considerable village on the banks of Lake Superior. Here, in an immense wooden building, was the great Council Hall, as also the banqueting chamber, decorated with Indian arms and accoutrements, and the trophies ol the fui -trade. " These grave and weighty councils W( 'e alternated by huge feasts and rcvels, like some of the old feasts described in Highland castles. The tables in the great banqueting rooms groan?d under the weight of game of all kinds ; of venison from the woods ; of fish from the lakes, with hunters' delicacies, such as buffaloes' tongues and beavers' tails, and various luxuries from Montreal, M served up by experienced cooks brought up for the purpose. There was no stint of generous wine, for it was a hard drinking period, — a time of loyal toasts and bacchanalian songs, and brimming bumpers. " Such was the North-West Company in its powerful and prosperous days, when it held a kind of feudo' sway over a vast domain of lake and forest ! We are dwelling too long, perhaps, upon these individual pic- tures, endeared to us by the associations of early life, when, as yet a stripling youth, we have sat at the Ouard of the ' Mighty North-Westers,' then lords of the ascendant at Montrepl, and gazer* with wondering and inexperienced eye at their baronial wassailing, and listened with asto- nished ear to their tales of hardships and adventures. It is one object of our task, however, to present the scenes of the rough life of the wilder- ness, and we are tempted to fir these few memorials of a transient state C 2 w J 36 THE CAXADAS. n ,1 r i;ii; of things, fast passing into oblivion : — for the feudal state of Fort William is at an end : its council chamber is silent and deserted : its banquet hall no longer echoes to the burst of loyalty, or the ' auld warld ' ditty : the lords of the lakes and the forests have passed away ; and the hospitable Magnates of ?tlontreal — where are they* ?" Wc cannot close this brief record of the " Great North- Westers" without a passing notice of a class of persons who were almost called into existence by their commercial enter- prise. We quote again the graphic words of Washington Irving, who writes of the Land of Lake and Forest with an accuracy of description and a truth of feeling, which proclaim him native-born. "The ' Voyageurs' form a kind of confraternity in the Canadas, like the arrieros or carriers of Spain, and like them are employed in long in- ternal expeditions of travel and traffics. " The dress of these people is generally half civilized, half savage. They wear a capot or surcoat, made of a blanket, a striped cotton shirt, cloth trousers, or leather legging, and a belt of variegated worsted, from which are suspended the knife, tobacco-pouch, and other implemenlv Their language is of the same pie-bald character, being a French patoif embroidered with Indian and English words and phrases. " No men arc more submissive to their leaders and employers, more capable of enduring hardship, or more submissive under privations. Never are they so happy as when on long and rough expeditions, toiling up rivers, and coasting lakes; encamping at night on the borders, gossip- ing round their fires, and bivouacking in the open air. They are dexte- rous boatmer., vigorous and adroit with the oar and paddle, and will row from morning until night without a murmur. The steersman often sings an old traditionary French song, with some regular burden in which they all join, keeping tiwie with their oars ; if at any time they flag in spirits or relax in execution, it is only necessary to strike up a song of the kind, to put them all in fresh spirits and activity. The Canadian >vaters arc vocal v/ith these little French ch(inso7is, that have been echoed Crom mouth to mouth, and transmitted from father to son, from the earliest days of * The competition and success of tlieNortli-West Company roused the dormant energies of the Hudson's Bay Company. The conflicting interests and pretensions of the two companies were naturally ])roductive of much ill-will. Under the auspices of the late Ear', of Selkirk, who was, for a considerable period, at tlie head of the Hudson's Bay Company, a colony was projectei and formed on the Red River, which runs into Lake Winuipec. The Noith-West Coii'pany regarded tills establishmen* as an encroachment upon their pecidiar rights ; and the ani- mosities thence arising led to the most violent proceedings on the part of the servants of both companies. At length, however, the more moderate individuals of each party began to perceive that their interests were not materially different ; and the rival companies, wearied and imi)overished by their dissensions, ultimately united under tlie name of the " Hudson's Bay Company," wliich at present en- grosses most of the fur trade of British North America. — M'Culloch's Dictionary ((/■ Commerce, Art. Fur Trade. St THE CANADAS. 37 the colony ; and it has a ploasing effect in a still, golden, summer even- ing, to see a ' hattcau' gliding across the bosom of a lake, and dipping its oars to the cadence of the^s quaint old ditties, or sweeping in full chorus on a bright sunny morning down the transparent current of one of tho Canadian rivers. " But we art talking of things that are fast fading away ! The march of mechanical invention is driving everytliing poetical before it. The steamboats which are fast dispelling the wildness and romance of our lakes and rivers, and aiding to subdue the world into common-place, are proving as fatal to the race of Canadian ' voyayeurs ' as they have been to that of the boatmen on the Mississippi. Their glory is departed. They are no longer the lords of our internal seas, and the great navigators of the wild- erness. Some of them may still occasionally be seen, coasting the lower lakes with their frail barks, and pitching their car; ps and lighting their fires on the shores ; but their i mge is fast contracting to those remote waters, and shallow and ob tructed rivers, unvisited by the steamboat. " In the course of years they will gradually disappear ; their songs will die away like the echoes they once awakened, and the Canadian ' voyayeurs ' will become a forgotten race, or be remembered like their associates, the Indians, among the poetical images of past times, and as themes for local and romantic associations." The merchants engaged in the timber trade constitute the other great commercial interest in the colony. It was sub- sequently to 1808, when events seriously threatened our re- lations with the Baltic, that J/lr. Vansittart, in pursuance of his favourite policy, imposed the present heavy duties on European timber ; and the following comparative table will show to what an extent a preference for our colonies has been carried. An Account of' the rates of Duty payable in Great Britain on the principal Articles of Wood^. Timber, JjATTENS, 6, not exceeding 6 feet long, and not exceeding 24 inches thick, per 120 16, and not exceeding 21 feet long, and not exceeding 2^ inches thick, per 120 Exceeding 21 feet loug, or if exceeding 2i inches thick, per 120 Deals, 8, and not above 10 feet long, and not If inches thick, per 120 Of Foreign Countries. £. s. d. 10 11 10 20 8 2 6 Of the British Plantations in America. £. s. d. 1 1 3 2 1^^ * M'Ci'lioch's Commercial Dictionary, Art. Timber Trade, p. 1154. IF li 38 TilB CANA1)A«. r. m \h Timber. 6, and not above IG feet long, and not exceed- ing 3i inches thici«, j)cr )'2() 16, and not exceeding 21 feet long, and not exceeding 3\ inches thiclc, per 1*20 21, and not 43 feet long, and not exceeding 3i inches thick, per 120 Exceedinii 45 feet long, or above 3^ inches thick, (not being timber 8 inches square or upwards,) the load containing 50 cubic feet , And further, the 120 N.B. — ^There is no class of deals brought from the colonies of the same dimensions as the two previous classes ; but the pre- ference of those that do come corresponds to its amount on other articles. (See Tariff.) Deal-Endsj I - "^ feet long, and not exceed- ing A^ inch^ ., per 120 And exceeding o» ches thick, per 120 , . . . Lathwood, in pieces under ,'> feet long, per fathom 5, and under 8 feet long 8, and under 12 feet long 12 feet long and upwards Masts, 6 and under 8 inches in diameter, each 8 and under 12 inches in diameter, each . . . . 12 inches in diameter and upwards, per load . Oak plank, 2 inches thick or upwards Spaes, under 4 inches in diameter, and under 22 feet long, per 120 And 22 feet long or upwards, per 120 4 and under 6 inches in diameter Staves, not exceeding 36 inches long Above 36 and not exceeding 50 inches long, per 120 Above 50 and not exceeding 60 inches long, per 120 Above 60, and not exceeding 72 inches long, per 120 Above 72 inches long N.B. — Staves of the United States of America, of Florida, of the Ionian Isles, or of the Bri- tish Colonies, and not exceeding li inch in thickness, are chargeable with one-third part only of the above rates. Fir, 8 inches square or upwards, per load . . . Oak, ditto ditto Unenumerated Wajnscot-Logs, 8 inches square or upwards, per load Of Foreign Coinitries. Of the nritish I'lantatioiis in America. 19 22 44 2 10 6 2 15 2 15 1 8 3 15 2 2 10 6 15 12 1 10 4 5 15 6 Id 1 iO 4 1 5 13 12 J 8 1 6 1 2 4 2 1.5 10 4 15 2 8 9 4 5 16 9 1 15 1 3 2 2 6 4 3 6 4 4 8 4 16 JO 10 10 5 12 THE CAXAUAS. 39 It is well observed by Mr. M'Culloeh, that " so long as a " foreigner can lay his finger on such a table as this, it will not " be easy to convince him that our commercial syotem has " lost much of its exclusive character." But we insert this table for other purposes. It is obvious that the excessive advantages secured to our colonial timber,* must attract a * It is not witliin the scope of this article to discuss tlie question of the timber trade ; but tlie following observations by Mr. M'Cuiloch will not, we are per- suaded, be considered impertinent, when we are touching upon this branch of the subject. " It is objected to the abolition of the discriminating duties on timber, that it would be injurious to Canada and the shipping interest. We believe, however, that the injury would not be nearly so great as has been represented ; that it would in fact be quite inconsiderable. So far from the ' lumber trade,' or the trade of felling wood, squaring it, and floating it down the rivers to the shipping ports, being advantageous to a colony, it is quite the reverse. The habits which it generates are quite subversive of that sober, steady spirit of industrj- so essen- tial to a settler in a rude country ; to such a df-gree, indeed, is this the case, that lumberers have been described as the pests of the colony, ' made and kept vicious by the very trade on which they live.' " " Mr. Richards, who was sent out l)y government tr report on the influence of the lumber trade, represents it as most unfavourable ; p.nd observes, ' that when time or chance shall compel the inhabitants to desist fr:>m this employment, agriculture will begin to raise its head.' p. 52. The statements of Captain Moorsoom, in his Letters from Novoscotia, are exactly similar. lie considers the depression of the timber market, although a severe loss to individuals, a 'decided gain to the colony,' from the check it has given to the ' lumbering mania.' " " The ship-owners would undoubtedly have more cause to complain of injury from the equalization of the duties ; but even as respects them, it would not l)e nearly so great as is commonly supposed. The statement usmdly put forth by those who represent the timber trade to North America as of vital importance to the shipping interest, is that it employs 1800 ships of 470,000 tons, navigated by 20,000 sailors. The entries inwards of British sliips, from our possessions in North America, correspond with the sums now stated; but at an average every ship employed in the trade makes \\ voyages a year, so that in point of fact only 1028 ships, of 2/0,000 tons and 11,127 men, are employed in the trade. From this latter number must, however, be struck off ships employed in other branches of trade ; for no one prelends that the only trade we carry on with North America is in the importation of timl)er. We believe that tiie nimibcr so to be struck off may be estimated at 200 ships of .') 4,000 tons, and 2200 men, leaving about 800 ships of 216,000 tons and 9200 men to be affected by the change. Inasmucli, however, as about one-tliird part of the timber now bro\ight from Canada would continue to be brought, for the purposes already referred to, were the duties equal- ized, only 544 ships of 144,000 tons and 0134 men would be forceil to change their employments. Now of these at least a half would be employed in bringing from the Baltic the same quantity of timber that is brought from America ; and as the price of timber would be materially lowered by the reduction of the duty, the demand for H would no doubt materially increase ; so that it is abundantly plain that very few if any r lips would be thrown out of employment by the abo- lition of the discriminating duties. It is material to observe, too, that whatever temporary inconvenience the shipping interest might sustain from the change, its future consequences would be singularly advantageous to it. The high price of timber employed in building ships is, at present, the heaviest draw])ack on the British ship-owners ; but the equalizatio'i of tiic duties would materially reduce this price ; and we have the authority o; the Lest practical judges for affirming, that were the duty, as it ought to be, entirely repealed, ships would be built de- cidedly cheaper in England than in any part of the world." — M'Culloch's Com- mercial Diet., Art. Timf/er Trade, p[). 1155 — 1157. 40 THE CANADAS. r. It ill m a Avealthy class of individtialsto the colony, M'liose power, both in Canada .and in England, cannot fail to exercise a con- siderable inflnence on its welfare; and, if any ])ortion of the Anglo-Canadian population could, with an approach to truth, be said to atfbrd materials for the formation of a local aristocracy, such an aristocracy would be found in the com- mercial circles of the fur and timber trade. It would, how- ever, be hypercritical, if not invidious, to inquire what attri- butes — be3rond the possession of comparative wealth in a poor country, or the skill and industry necessary to acquire it — these individuals possess, to entitle them to a social distinction over their fellow-citizens ; and a fatal objection to such a plan exists in the fact, that they are not, for the most part, identi- fied with the permanent interests of the colony. A fcAV mem- bers of the North-West Company, from a long residence in the interior, have imbibed an attachment to Canadian habits, which has induced them to become landed proprietors ; but the vast majority of the " mercantile interest," look upon the Canadian ])rovinces, merely as a place where, by act of ])arliament, an opportunity has been aftbrdcd them of amass- ing money. No feelings of Anglo-Canadian nationality ever obtrude themselves upon their utilitarian projects. The huge mis-shapen raft of wood, dotted over with temporary huts, and impelled by a motley dis])lay of canvass, of various hues and of eveiy imaginable shape, excites an interest in their minds paramount to every other consideration, as it floats heavily down the St. Lawrence, towards the vessels that are destined to bear it to the max'kets of England. The gains of each year ai-e anxiously counted, as the only means hy which a painful pei'iod of banishment can be shortened ; and the hoped-for retirement of Harley Street, or of a " fashionable watering-place," possesses a charm in the distance, which the wild beauties of the surrounding lakes and rivers cannot break. Assuming, therefore, that the manners and customs which must necessarily prevail in a new country, as yet unsubdued by the industry of man, did not militate against such a scheme, — that the rooted prejudices of the people in favour of an equal partition of landed property did not forbid it, — that the example of the neighbouring United States did not render it impracticable, — ^^the establishment of a colonial aristocracy. Tllli CANADAS. 41 i( Avhether social or politiciil, from the liigher commercial classes, would afford at best but the mockery of such an estate, in any Canadian constitution that could be framed. With these lew remarks on the various classes which, in their aggregate, constitute what is called the " British party" in Canada, we shall now attempt, hy resuming our chronolo- gical notices, to establish our second proposition, and to prove, — " That the geographical position of the two provinces, and " the necessity of jjromoting the amalgamation of the two races, as the only means of securing tlie permanent welfare of both, demand that Ui)i)er and Lower Canada shoidd be '' united under one executive government ; and that the re- " presentatives of the English and French populations should " meet in the same Legislative Chamber." The treaty of Paris, by which the possession of the Canadas Avas secured to Great Britain, was signed on the 10th Feb. 1 7G.3, and a proclamation was issued by the king on the 7th of October, in the same year, providing for the government of his newly -acquired dominions, including " East Florida, *^ West Florida, and Grenada, as well as the province of Quc- " bee." By this proclamation the governors were directed to " summon and call General Assemblies, within the said go- " vernments respectively, in such manner and form as is used " and directed in those colonies and provinces in America, " which are under our immediate government" ; and until such assemblies should be summoned, all persons resorting to these colonies, were directed to confide in the royal protec- tion, "for the enjoyment of the benefit of the laws of our realm of England P As representative assemblies were never con- vened in Canada, under the authority of this proclamation, the laws of England were, in fact, introduced by it, and con- tinued in full force, till the passing of the " Quebec Act," (14 Geo. in. c. 83.). — English courts of justice were esta- blished, trial by jury was introduced, and the French laws, both in civil and criminal causes, in matters rehiting to real as well as personal property, were at once and somewhat abruptly superseded. The French Canadians complained that a violent and un- necessary revolution A\as thus brought about, and that these regulations were passed in defiance of treaties, of justice, and 42 TUU CANADAS. I*! I? ! i ■ * i humanity. Their alleged grievances ^vere also embodied in a petition to the King, which \\c insert, as a proof, amongst many others, that the disputes in Canada are between two rival races, and may be traced even to the first years of our government of that country. " Au Roy. " Sire, " Vos tres-sofimia et tr^s-fidelcs nouveaux sujets de la province dft Canada prennent la liberty de se prosterner au pied du trone, pour y porter les sen- timents de respect, d'amour, et de soumission dont leurs coeurs sont remplis envers votre augustc perscnne, et pour lui rendre de tres-huniblcs actions de grace de ses soins paternels. " Not.e rcconnoissance nous force d'avouer (iup le spectacle effiayont d'avoir 6t6 conquis par les armes victorieuses de voire MiijesK; n'a pas long- tems excit6 nos regrets et nos larmes. lis se sont dissip/:s d, mesure que nous avons appris combien il est doux de vivre sous les constitutions sages de I'em- pire Brilannique. En effet, loin de resaeniir au moment de la conqu^te les tristes efl^ts de la g6ne et de la captivity, Ic sage et vertueux General qui uou? a conquis, digne image du Souverain glorieux qui lui confia le com- mandement de ses arm6es, nous laissa en possession de nos loix et de nos coiHtumes. Le libre exercice de n6tre religion nous filt conserve, et con- firm^ par le traite de paix : et nos ancicns citoyens furent 6tablis les juges de nos causes civiles. Nous n'oublirons jamais cet cxces de bont^ : ces traits g^n^reux d'un si doux vainqueur seront conserves precieusement dans nos fastes ; et nous les transmettrons d'&ge en ftge ii nos dei nicrs neveux. — Tels sont, Sire, les doux liens qui dans le prineipe nous out si fortement at- taches k v6tre Majesty : liens indissolubles, et qui se resserreront de plus en plus. " Dans I'annee 17G4, votre Majeste daigna faire cesser le gouvernement militqire Jans cette colonie, pour y introduire le gouvernement civil. Et des I'epoque de ce cliangement nous commen^ames a nous oppercevoir des in- convenienfs qui resultoient des loix Brilanniques, qui nous etoient jusqu alors iuconnues. Nos anciens citoyens, qui avoient r^gle sans fruis nos difiicult^s, furent remercies: cette inilice, qui se faisoit ime gloire de porter ce beau nom sous votre empire, fut supprim^e. On nous accorda a la verite le droit d'Hre jures : mats, en mhne terns, on nous Jit eprouver qu'il y avoit des ob- stacles pour nous a la possession des emplois. On parla d'introduire les loix d'Angleterre, infniment sages et utiles pour la mere-pairie, mais qui ne pourroient s'allier avec nos coiilumes sans renverser nos fortunes et detruire entierement nos possessions. Tels out cte depiiis ce tenis, et tels sont en- core, nos justes sujets de crainte ; temperes n^anmoins par la dou9eur du gouvernement de votre Majeste. " Daignez, illuslre et gen&reux Monarque, dissiper ces craintes, en nous accordant nos anciennes loix, privileges, et coutumes, avec les limites du Canada, telles qu'elles itoient ci-devant. Daignez r^pandre ^galement vos bontes sur tons vos sujets sans distinction. Conservcz Ic litre glorieux de souverain d'un peuple libre. Eh ! ne seroit-ce pas y donncr attcinte, si THE CANADAS. 43 plut de cent millei nouveaux aujets, soainii a v6tre empire, ^toient exclua de vdtre service, et priv6i des avantages inestimablea dont jouiwent vos an- ciens sujets ? — Puisse le cicl, sensible a nos priercs et nos vocux, accorder k v6tre Majesty un r&gne aiissi glorieux que durable ! Puisse cette angusto famille d'Hanovre, k laquelle nous avons pr£t^ les sermens de fidelitd lea plus solemnels, continuer a rcgner sur nous k jamais ! " Nous finissons en suppliant v6tre Majesty de nous accorder, en com- mun avec ses autres sujets, les droits et privileges de citoyens Anglois. Alors nos craintes seront dissip^es ; nous filerons des jours s6rcins et tran- qiulles ; et nous serons toujours pifits k les sacrifier, pour la gloire de ndtre Prince et le bien de ndtre Patrie !" • In considering whether the complaints of the French Ca- nadians, at this period, were justified by the course of policy adopted towards them, it is desirable to inquire, in the first place, whether the faith of any treaty was violated by the acts of the British government. We distinctly deny the charge. The following are extracts from the articles of capitulation signed at Montreal, on the Hth September, 1 760, by General Amherst and the Marquis de Vaudreuil, by which not only that city but the remainder of the province was in fact sur- rendered. Article 41. (Proposed by the Marquis de Vaudreuil.) "The French Canadians and Acadians, of what state and condition so- ever, who shall remain in the colony, shall not be forced to take arms against his most christian Majesty or his allies, directly or indirectly, on any occasion whatever ; the British Government shall only require of them a strict neutrality." Answer of General Amherst. "they become subjects of the king." Article 42. (Proposed by the Marquis de Vaudreuil.J " The French and Canadians shall continue to be governed according to the custom of Paris, and the laws and usages established for this country, and they shall not be subject to any other imposts than those which were established under the French dominion." Answer of General Amherst, "answered by the preceding articles, and particularly by the last." The only other treaty applicable to the qiiestion is the treaty of Paris ; but it contains no reservation in favour of * A petition of divers inhabitants of the province of Quebec to the King's Ma- jesty, transmitted to the Earl of Dartmouth, His Majesty's Secretary of State for America, in the month of December, 1773, and presented to His Majesty in the month of February, 1774. II 44 THE CAN ADAS. M tlie I'^rciK.'li laws and tisai^t's ; on the contiary, l)y that treaty, " the s()verei*:;nty, jjioperty, possession, and all ri<^hts, acquired " by treaty or otherwise, which the most Christian Kin^ and " the Crown of France*" then possessed over Canada were ceded to the Kin<^ of England. The French Canadians, therefore, became " subjects of the king," by right of concpiest and by the very words of the treaties made in pursuance of that right, v ithoiit reservation or condition of any kind — " A right"' (says IJlackstone, quoting Putiendorf) "allowed by the law ot nati(»ns, if not by that of " nature; but which in reason and policy can mean nothing " more than that, in order to put an end to hostilities, a com- " j)act is cither exjjressly or tacitly made between the con- " ([ueror and conquered, that if t/wij will acknowledge the " victor as their Master, he will treat them for the future as " subjects, and not as enemies f." If, then, the Anglo-Canadian is asked, by what title he claims the establishment of an English nationality in prefer- ence to a French ? his answer is, that his ancestors won it, when f e bayonets of Wolfe's grenadiers bristled on the plains of Abraham, — when the claymores of the Highlanders drove the French battalions "' partly behind their fortifications in Quebec, and partly into the St. Charles^." The right was then sealed with the blood of brave men, whose graves have not yet mouldered away, and will be defended with his own, if necessfiry. May he not further declare, that he disclaims the arbitrary and impolitic dismembennent of his native country by the Act of 1791; that in Upper find Lower Canada united, the British even now all but equal in number the French inhabitants, and that after the lapse of a few brief years, the Anglo-Saxon race is destined, beyond the possi- bility of a doubt, to constitute the immense majority; th.it this question of nationality must be decided, whether the Canadas remain under the dominion of England, or become * Uh Article of the detinitive Treaty of Peace, concluded at Paris the 10th Feb. 1703. t Commentaries, vol. i. p. 103., ed. 1809. + The war was defensive not aggressive on our part. It was occasioned by the iiml)itioiis designs of the court of France, and more particularly by the attempt of M. de la (ialissionicre, the governor of New France, to surround our colonies with an extensive cliain of forts. British and Foreign Review, No. xiii. p. 220, and )). 29. iii/ra. m Tine CANADAS. incorporated in the Americnn Union*, or be tlcvaftd to the rank of independent stiiti's? The dehided peasant who fought at St. Charles and St. Denis, can excite no other feeling bnt one of sympathy for his own sntfcrings, and contempt and indignation for some of his leaders ; bnt the real traitor is he, who for personal and party pnrposes, to promote some selfish interest, or to gratify a miserable vanity, seeks to keep alive the embers of dissension and strife, which in generations yet unborn and in ages untold, may again kindle into anarchy and civil war. The humJinity and justice with which a conciuered people are treated, are obviously, however, questions totally distinct /rom the right to deal with them as subjects. It is e([ually obvious that there are inconveniences, and even hardships, incident to the very ])osition of a j)eople so circumstanced, fnmi which they cannot be relieved without inflicting e(iual, if not greater inconveniences on the members of the new- national family into which they have been received, and of which they are destined to form a part. We contend, that the laws and usages of the victors, in the particular in- stance of Canada, were an inconvenience, not a hardship, of the kind we refer to. Why did we conquer the Canadas? If the object was merely to call into existence a jjcople on * What aays tlic C'.ockniaker? "Tliinks I to myself, this is a good tinif to broach our intere>ts ; and if there is to he a hreak-up here, to put a spoke in the wheel for our folks — a stitch in time saves nine. So says I, you needn't flatter yourselves, Doctor ; you can't he a distinct nation ; it ain't ))ossil)le, in tlie natur' o' things. You may jine us, if you like, and there would he some sense In that move, — that's a fact ; hut you never can stand alone here — no more than a lame man can without crutches, or a child of six days old. No, not if all the colonies were to unite, you couhlu't , i I Hi li for a definite period — and the privile{;c of usin;; hereditary titles of honour. It is iinnecessai*y to inquire how they first acquired these or siniihir poAvers ; we all know that it was by violence in a remote age, which cannot be attemptetl at the l)resent time w'th a shadow of success ; l)ut few will deny that the privileges we have enumerated, strengthened by the manners, usages, and [)rejudices to which those very ])rivileges have given birth, are the main supporters of our nobility as a distinct class. In touching upon this question, with reference to America, and in endeavouring to illustrate the relation it bears to the two countries, by placing in juxtaposition the peculiarities of each, we quote the opinions of writers who cannot be su[)- posed to be influenced by any extraordinary bias in favour of our aristocracy * ; but although experience may have taught them, that democratic institutions are the best suited — or rather the only institutions suited — to the actual condition of America, yet their writings sho\\, that this conviction is not inconsistent with a capacity to appreciate, and a willingness to {idmit, the advantages which arc secured in a diftercnt state of society by different means. "Well, the next link in the chain," (says the Clockmaker,) "(chains enough, poor 'vretchcs ! says father ; but it 's good enough for them tho' I guess) — Well, the next link in the chain is the nobility, independent of the crown on the one side, and the people on the other ; a body distin- guished for its wealth, its larnin', its munilicence, its high honour, and all the great and good qualities that ennoble the human heart. Yes, says fa- ther, and they can sally out o' their castles, seize travellers, and rob 'em of all they have ; hav'n't they got ihe whole country enslaved ? — the de- bauched, profligate, effeminate tyrannical gang as they be. " I tell you these are mere lies, sayc iiiinister, got up here by a party to influence us ag'in the British. "Then there i'^ the gentry, and a fine honourable manly race they be, all on 'em suns in their little spheres, illuminatin', warrain', and cheerin' all within their reach. Old families atta( iicd to all around them, and all at- tached to them, both them and tjie people recollectin' that there have been twenty generations of 'em kind landlords, good neighbours, liberal patrons, indulgent masters ; or if any of 'em went abroad, heroes by field and by flood. Yes, says father, and they carried back somethin' to brag on from Bunker's Hill, I guess, didn't they ? We spoilt the pretty faces of some of tlieir landlords, that hitch, any how, ay, and their tenants too ; hang me if we didn't ! Then there is the professional men, rich marchants, and * This was written previously to the pubUcation of the " Bubbles from Canada." THE CAXADA8. 53 opulent factorists, all so many out-works to the king, and all to be beat down afore you can get to the throne. Well, all these blend and mix, and are entwined and interwoven together, and make that great, har- monious, beautiful, social and political machine called the British Con- stitution. " Well, you see by the House of Lords getting recruits from able Com- moners, and the Commoners getting recruits from the young nobility by intermarriages — and by the gradual branchin' off of the young people of both sexes, it becomes the peojile's nobility, and not the King's nobility, sympathisin' with both, but independent of either. That 's gisi the dif- ference 'atween them and foreigners on the continent ; that's the secret cl" their power, popularity, and strength : the king leans on 'em, and the people leans on 'em. Tkey don't stand alone, a hiyh cold snowy jteak, a' over- loohin' of the world brneath, and athrowin' a dark deep shadow o'er the rich and fertile regions below it. They ain't like the cornish of a room, pretty to look at, but of no airthly use whatever ; a thing you could pull away and leave the room standin', gist as well without ; but they are the pillars of the state, — the flooted and grooved, and carved, and ornamental, but solid pillars. — You can't cut away the pillars, or the state comes down. — You can't cut out the flootin', groovin', or carvin', for it is in so deep you'd have to cut the pillars away to nothin' a' most to get it out. " Well, says minister, gist see here, Colonel ; instead of all these grada- tions and circles, and what not, they're got in England— each havin' its own principle of action, harmonizin' with one another, yet essentially independent — we have got but one class, one mass, one people. Some Natur' has made a little smarter than others, and some education has distinguished ; some are a little richer, some a little poorer — but still we have nothin' but a mass, a populace, a people j all alike in great essen- tials, all havin' the same power, same rights, same privileges, and of course same feelin's ; — Call it what you will it 's a populace in fact." — The Clockmakei', or Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick ; Second Series, pp. 218-221. " America," says M. de Tocqu ville, " is the only country in which it has been possible to witness the natural and tranquil growth of society, and where the influence exercised on the future condition of states, by their origin, is clearly distinguishable. " America, consequently, exhibits in the broad light of day, the phajno- mena which the ignorance or rudeness of earlier ages conceals from our researches. Near enough to the time when the states of America were founded, to be accurately acquainted with their elements, and sufficiently removed from that period to judge of their results, the men of our own day seem destined to see further than their predecessors into the series of human events. Providence has given us a torch which our forefathers did not possess, and has allowed us to discern fundamental causes in the history of the world, which the obscurity of the past concealed from them. " Another remark is applicable not only to the English, but to the French, the Spaniards, and all the Europeans who successively established 54 THE CANAUAS. themselves in the New World. All these European colonies contained the elements, if not the development, of a complete democracy. Two causca led to this result. It may safely be advanced that, or. leaving the m^ ther country, the emigran*-8 had in general no notion of superiority over one another. The ha])py and the powerful do not go into exile, and there are ni» surer guarantees of equality among men, than poverty and misfortune. It happened, however, on several occasions, that persons of rank were driven to America, by political and religious quarrels. Laws were made to esta- blish a gradation of ranks ; but it was soon found that the soil of America was opposed to a territorial aristocracy. To bring that refractory land into cultivation, the constant and interested exertions of the owner himself were necessary ; and when the ground was prepared, its produce was found to be insufficient to enrich a master and a farmer at the same time. The land was then naturally broken up into small portions, which the pro- ])j ietor cultivated for himself. Land is the basis of aristocracy, which clings to the soil that supports it ; for it is not by privilpijos alone, nor by birth, but by landed property, ha^'ded down from generation to generation, that an ari- stocracy is constituted. " All the British colonies had then a great degree of similarity at the epoch of their settlement. All ofthcni, from their first beginning, seemed destined to witness the growth, not of the aristocratic liberty of their ..lother country, but of that freedom of the middle and lower orders, of which the history of the world had as yet furnished no complete example.*" The question, then, as to the policy of establishing an aristocratic lej^ishitive chamber in Canada, resolves itself into this. Are there any circumstances in the state of society, in the laws, in the usages of the j)eople, or in the condition of the country, which make it an exception to other American settlements, and peculiarly point it out as the only place in the New World, where the principle of European aristocracy can take root ? In a previous chapter, we endeavoured to show that the Canadian "Seigneurs^' were neither sufficiently numerous, wealthy, or powerful, to form a distinct political estate in the government ; and our remarks in this article on the mercantile society of Canada, may have convinced our readers, that for such a purpose, it would be in vain to look for materials amongst them. Where, then, are the Canadian "nobility and gentry" to be sought for? Every impartial person who has visited the country, and ob- sers'ed the manners and condition of the people, will not De Tocqueville's Democfacy in Aiiierica, vol. i. pp. 18, 20, 21, THE CAXAUAS. le >a T e t en elf id hesitate to declare that no such classes exist — that in Canada, as in other parts of America, it seems to be incident to the actual state of the country and the condition of its inha- bitants, that there shall be, for the present, and even for an indefinite period to come, but " one class, one mass, one people." The French Canadian is too ignorant for self-government, — too indolent for commercial enterprise, — and too contented with his lot to display any extraordinary energy when the consequence would be a change in his j)osition; though he will fight, as we have cseen, and fight bravely too, in de- fence of what he considers his nationality. The Anglo- American inherits also the courage of his ancestors ; but he is comparatively well educated — intelligent in matters atFecting the public interests — enterprising in commercial pursuits, and restless and migratory in his habits. On these points the races differ, yet the elements of an aristocracy are to be found in neither. It only remains, therefore, to inquire whether the laws actually in force in Canada are likely to create a landed ari- stocracy. In that portion of Lower Canada settled by the French, inheritances are divided into two kinds*. In the first are included all lands held by a title of nobility {noble- ment), such as Fiejs and the Franc-alleu noble ; — in the se- cond are included inheritances held by an ignoble title, such as vassal-lands in the Seigneuries, and the Franc-alleu simple, without the privileges of nobility being annexed to it. The precise operation of these laws, which are extremely com- plicated, was well explained by Mr. Gale, an advocate of the Canadian bar, before the Committee of the House •'^f Com- mons in 1828. " Supposing a person possessed of real property in the Seigneuries were to die intestate, what would happen then ? " His real property would, if it was ignoble property, be equally divided amongst his children ; if it were noble, that is, if it were a Fief or Seig- neurie (or Franc-alleu noble) it would not be divided quite equally ; but the eldest son would have an extra portion ; that is, he would have two- thirds if there were only one child besides himself, and he would have one- half if there were several children. * Coutiime dc I'aris. — Titre des Fiefs. w 56 THK (PANADAS. •'iM " What power has a [wrson over Ills real property to settle by will in both these cases? " It would depend in a good measure upon the precaution he had taken before he married. " Supposing he dies without being marritd ? " If he dies without being married, he may do as he likes with his pro- perty, he may bequeath it all ; but if he dies, being married, the right he has over his property depends u[)on his having taken the precaution, pre- vious to his marriage, to establish his right by contract or not. If under the CO tract he his reserved to himself a perfect and entire control, and disposiJ over all his property, in that case he has a right to bequeath it all by will. If he has not taken this step, then he cannot dispose of a very considerable portion of it, " What proporticm.' " He could not dispose of that which would be liable to nt privileged class can arise. But it may be asked, what has been the prjictical etfcct of the attempt made by Mr. Pitt to introduce an aristocratic chamber into such a state of society ? The answer is given by Mr. Nelson, then a mem- ber of the House of Assembly, in his examination before the committee of 1828. These are the frank revelations he makes, with something, it must be admitted, of the bluntncss of a backwoodsman. " Will you describe the constitution of the Legislative Council? " When I left the province there were resident in it twenty-seven legislative counsellors ; Jonathan Sewell, Speaker, with a salary of 900/. a year ; President of the Executive Council and Court of Appeals, with a salary of 100/. ; Chief Justice of the province and of the district of Quebec, with a salary of 1500/. besides about 150/. (or circuits, making altogether •iG'iOl. sterling. The Rev. C. J. Stewart, Lord Bishop of Quebec, salary and allowances as Bishop, p:iid by Great Britain, about 3000/. ; Sir John Jolinson, Indian Department, paid by Great Britain, it is supposed 1000/. a year ; I cannot say whether this is correct or not. " What is the Indian Department } " There is a department in Canada called the Indian Department ; it is a department that was established during the American War, for the direction of Indian affairs. John Richardson, an executive counsellor, 100/. a yt-ar ; Charles St. Ours, half-pay captain, paid by Great Britain; THE CAN ADAS. 59 John Hale, appuinteil by Lord Dalhousie to act as receiver-general, with a salary of 900/. u year, as executive couasfllor 100/., making togothiT 1000/. a-year. " Have all the executive counaellors 100/. a year in that capacity ? " They have j John Caldwell, the late receiver-general, is now paying by agreement for holding his estates, 2000/. per annum, which are sup- posed to be worth much more. That is the only thing that places him in dependence upon the governor. IT. W. Ryland, Clerk of the Kxecutive Council, salary and allowances G50/., pension :$()()/. ; Clerk of the Oown in Chancery, no salary is mentioned, fets of office unknown; total known 950/. a ye.r. James Cuthbert is said to be a half-pay captain on the establishment, but I do not know whether he is or not. Charles William Grant, seigneur proprietor, and late of Isle St. Helen, whicii he has exchanged with the government. P. D. Debart/ch, n landed proprietor, supposed to be worth nt present 1500/. per annum ; James Irvine, late executive counsellor, merchant. M. H. Perceval, collector of the customs and executive counsellor, in the receipt for the lust ten years it is supposed of upwards of 3000/. |)cr annum ; as executive counsellor, 100/. L. De Salaberry, captain, half-pay, and ii Indian Department, Avith a provincial pension of 200/. " Is that for life or during pleasure ? " The pension has been stated to be instead of an office by the Legis- lature, and I should suppose he holds it indtpendentiy of any one ; but I have heard that he is dead since I left the j.rovince. " Are the pensions you mentioned before granted by the executive government ? " The pension to Mr. Ryland was granted by the executive, but that has been voted several times by the assembly. Mr. De Salaberry is stated to have been replaced by Mr. Taschereau, a judge in the King's Bench at Quebec ; William Burns, late the king's auctioneer, a wealthy retired merchant ; Thomas Coffin, chairman of the Quarter Sessions for Three Rivers, with a salary of 250/. ; Roderick M'Kcnzie, a retired jerchant ; L. P. C. Delery, grand voyer (road surveyor) of the district of Montreal, with a salary of 150/., and fees unknown; Louis Gugy, late sheriff of Three Rivers, promoted to Montreal, office supposed worth, per annum, 1800/. ; Charles De Salaberry, seigneur ; James Ker, judge. King's Bench, Quebec, 900/. a year; executive counsellor, 100/. a year; judge of Vice Admiralty Court, 200/. a year, besides fees for circuits, 150/., making together 1350/. Edward Bowen. judge of King's Bench, Quebec, 950/. a year, and circuits 150/. making 1050/. Matthew Bell, merchant, lessee of the King's Forges ; William B. Felton, agent for Crown lands, supposed 500/. a year. Toussaint Pothier, seigneur ; John Stewart, late merchant, and sole commissioner of the Jesuits' estates, and executive counsellor, salary supposed to be GOO/, a year ; John Forsyth, merchant. The total amount of the sums received by difterent members of the Legis- lative Council from the public is 17,700/. " How much of the 17>700/. is paid by the province .' T - ■)i (•>{) TIIK CANADAS. 1 " I Huppunc iil)()ut 5()(K)/. or ti(HX)/. uf the 17.0(M)/. arc paid l)y Orvat liiitain. Of tlu- twerity-gi'ven meiiilii'rH of the Lcxittlutivi- Council, tlu're iiro fourU'ca who rocfivi! payment ( ut of provincial funds, four out of ItritiHh funds, nnd nine receiving no pay ; nine of them are natives of Lower Canada ; and of the eighteen above mentioned who receive pay from the public, seven are also executive counsellors. " Are not all the commisHions in the colonies during pleasure? " All commissions are T THK (AX ADAS. r..? various ranks, but the spirit of democratic equality wliich reigns throughout the constituencies will infuse itself into the body they elect; and its members, raised above the broad level of democracy, only by the suffrages of their equals, will iden- tify themselves with the opinions of those by whom they are called into public life. These are the characteristics of the representative assemblies in our colonies generally, and they seem to be a condition of their existence ; but in Lower Canada peculiarities exist, which demand special attention. In this then, as in other colonies, there is but " one mass," but the French portion of that mass had never, when Mr. Pitt's bill passed, been accxistomcd to the possession of political rights, and the most illiterate people, w ithin the pale of civil- ization, have been slow to learn the duties of freemen. 'I'he members returned by them to the House of Assembly have, therefore, been clothed with the outward trappings of represen- tatives of the people, and important constitutional privileges have been conferred upon them ; but the total absence of an in- telligent, vigilant, and jealous constituent body, has left society without the best guarantee of good government; and enjoying all the weight and authority associated with popular favour and support, these pseudo-representatives could, in the very name of the people, exercise irresponsible power. It was soon, in consequence, obsei'ved at elections, that the feeling upj)crmost in men's minds, and the one most successfully appealed to, was not M hether the candidate was a Tory, a Whig, or a Demo- crat, but whether he w as English or French ; and the contest of nationality, wliich had its birth at the conquest, has been renewed again and again on the hustings of the province. We are aware that this is denied by Mr. Roebuck, but we will venture to assert that our opportunities of studying the French Canadian character have been equal to his, and our testimony — we say it not offensively — is we hope as disinterested. Nor have we any prejudices to overcome, for we entertain a lively recollection of the frank, warm-hearted, but ignorant Habitans, however indignant we may feel at the " leaders" (?) who have consigned them to an ignominious death on the scaffold, or have exposed them [not themselves) \\\ the field, to the rifles of their English fellow-countrymen, and the bayonets of tiie Queen's troops. RP" 64 THE CAN A DAS. • I, ) ,1 I!' ( vi lit:, I* W^ ^:v What resemblance then can be traced between the House of Assembly of Lower Cijjiiada, and the British House of Commons ? Let it not be supposed however that we desire to see elect- ive institutions abolished in Lower Canada ; on the contr.iry, we think that there, as elsewhere, they are the only secure basis on which political freedom can rest; but we do wish our readers to infer from what we have written, that it would have been sound policy never to have divided the province of Quebec into the two provinces of Upper and Lower Ca- nada, and that it would be equally sound policy now, to endeavour to promote the amalgamation of the two races by their union under one constitutional government. These views are strongly sujjported by the authority of Mr. James Stuart's Evidence, taken before the Committee of the House of Commons in 1834. Mr. Stuart was then Attorney-Ge- neral of the province, but has lately, we believe, been aj)- pointcd Chief Justice, and his testimony Avill have due weight with every person to whom his talents and experience are known. " To what causes do you ascribe the dissatisfaction which has pro- vailed in Lower Canada, and what remedies would you suggest? " The question is complicated, and not to be answered otherwise than by referring to general permanent causes, though these no doubt have been recently rendered more injurious in their operation by temporary circumstances, to which it is not necessary to advert. The political dis- order and the consequent dissatisfaction which now prevail in Lower Canada, I conceive, are mainly ascribablc to the composition of the House of Assembly, in which a few individuals are enabled to exercise a power and influence inconsistent with the rights of their fellow-subjects and with good government, and over which there is not that check and control, on the part of the constituent body, which ought to be found in a repre- sentative government. " Do they not represent the opinions of the people ? " In the present state of Lower Canada, the opinions by which the As- sembly are governed can hardly be said to be those of the people. They are the opinions of a few people, possessing uncontrolled power in the As- sembly, which they disseminate with unceasing activity among the people, and call their opinions. The people are possessed of excellent natural in- telligence, and of the best qualities and intentions; but they are without the advantage of education, and are not conversant with the political subjects on which they are called to decide ; they are tlierefore liable to be de- ceived. THE CAN A DAS. G5 " You have stated tliat you think the great b\)lk of the popidation of Lower Canada hardly competent to form an opinion upon political subjects / but do tliey not feel very great confidence in those whom thej send to re- present their interest in the Assembly? " The fitness of that confidence would depend upon the qualifications and ch.iractcr of the individuals in whom it is reposed ; in many cases the greater the confidence the greater the evil, whore confidence may have been misplaced. " Do you mean to say that the political education of the people of Canada is in so very backward a state, that they can hardly he competent to enjoy, with advantage to themselves, the right of a free constitution ? " I mean to say tliat practically the mass of electors in Lower Canada, in the present conditicm of the country, do not exercise over their represent- atives the control which is essential to check excess in the popular branch of the governn»ent; and that this is a main cause of the misgovernment under which the province labours. " How would you suggest that the Assembly should be composed? " I am not aware that any effectual remedy for the existing composition of the Assembly can be found, otherwise than by an union of Upper and Lower Canada under one legislature. As lesser but jjermanent causes con- tributing to the misgovernment of Lower Canada, I would mention the vicious system of judicature which is now in force, ami the conse(iuent de- fective and unsatisfactory administration of justice which it causes through- out the province. I would mention also the defective composition of the Kxccu'ive Council, which, as a court of justice in the last res(nt, and aa being charged with important duties in the government of the country, it is essential, in my opinion, should be placed on a footing of efficiency and re- spectability. For these causes of misgovernment, if found to exist, the re- medies are of course, a new system of judicature, adapted co the present state of the country, and a re-construction of the Executive Council by which its composition may be improved*.' The geographical situation of Lower Canada indicates even more urgently than the considerations we have thus stated, the necessity of ])ronioting the amalgamation of the trt'o races. The French Canadians, amounting from 4()(!,0(H) to 500,000 persons, occupy narrow strips of land on the banks of the St. Lawrence and its tributary streams, comnu^ncing 150 miles below Quebec, and extending about 200 miles beyond that city. A glance at the map will show, that the districts they occupy are not a distinct and isolated jwrtion of the country, but such as are destined, from their position, to be- come the highway by Avhich the produce of the fertile terri- tories bordering on lakes Erie and Ontario, will be exchanged * Minutes of Evidence taken before a Comuuttec of the House on Lower Ca- nada in 1834, p. 18L E w i: fifi THE CANAOAS. I in 1 1 1 1 ■ I P i r 1 ^ ■ t i'i \ for the manufactures of Rurope and the commodities of other countries. This traffic too will be canied on by a people of a ditlercnt race, ah-eady exceeding them in numbers in Bri- tish America, and far excelling them in all the qualifications that crcfite the jjowcr and prosperity of states. Towards the Atlantic Ocean are the provinces of Nova Scotia, Cape Hreton, New Brunswick, Prince Edward's Island ami Newfoundland, w ith an English pojjulation estimated at upwards of 400,000. The population of British origin in Lower Canada itself is not less than 150,000 at the present time*, and in Upper Can.ida the official returns made to the Huuse of Assembly in 183.3 state the ])opulation in that province to be 29G,544t, while the neighbouring American states of Maine, New Hampsliire, Vermont, and New York, possess an aggregate population of English descent^ of between three and four milHonsJ. The mere statement of these facts is, we con- ceive, sufficient to show how futile every attempt must eventually be which seeks to preserve the manners, the lan- guage, and customs — the nationality, in fact — of the French Canadians ; but it does more ; it casts upon us the duty of encouraging their amalgamation with the British population by all lawful means ; for if a heavy responsibility already attaches to us for the policy we have pursued towards these provinces, a heavier still will be incurred by measures intro- duced now, which leave either partially or altogether untouched the causes which have produced the late disastrous events. Thus we have endeavoured to establish our second proposition, in favour of a union of the provinces and an amalgamation of the two races. IV. The Church. To perfect the resemblance in Church and State between the British and Canadian Constitutions, it was provided by the 36th Section of Mr. Pitt's Bill, that when any appro- priation of land should take place in an unsettled parish or township, one-seventh should be reserved for the support * It is estimated by Mr. Montgomery Martin in a recent work as high as 210,000. — History and Statistics of Upper and Lower Canada. London. 1838. t Ibid. t By the censns of 1830, the population of these states amounted to 2,808,030. THE CANADAS. 67 ■ and maintenance of a Protestant clergy. The words " Pro- testant Clergy " are used in this section, but it is apparent, from the subsequent provisions, that the clergy of the Church of England uere contemplated. At the time when this en- actment was proposed and passed, the great majority of the inhabitants of Canada were French Canadians, professing the Roman Catholic religion. Even amongst the British popu- lation, the members of the Church of England were a small minority ; the larger portion consisting of Presbyterians of the Kirk of Scotland, or of dissenters from that church and from the Church of England. It is not our intention to discuss this portion of Mr. Pitt's Bill ; every impartial person, to whatever j)ersuasion he be- longs, admits its impolicy ; and its practical eftect on the prosperity of the provmce is recorded in the following recital of the Act of Parliament (7th and 8th Geo. IV. c. 62.) i)ro- viding for the sale of these *' clergy reserves " : — " Whereas, by an Act passed in the Thirty-first Year of the Reign of his late Majesty King George the Third, it is amongst other things enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for His Majesty, his heirs or successors, to authorize the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor of each of the provinces of Upper Canada and Low-er Canada respectively, or the person administering the government therein, to make, from and out of the lands of the Crow^n within such provinces, such allotment and appropriation of lands as are therein mentioned, for the support and maintenance of a Protestant clergy within the same; and it was further enacted, that all and every the rents, profits or emoluments which might at any time arise from such lands, so allotted and appropriated as aforesaid, should be applicable solely for the maintenance and support of a Protestant clergy within the province in which the same should be situated, and to no other purpose whatever : And whereas, in pursuance of the said Act, such allotments and appro- priation of land as aforesaid, have from time to time been reserved for the purposes therein mentioned ; which lands are known within th • said pro- vince by the name of the CI eryy Reserves : and whereas the said Clergy Re- sents have in yreat part remained waste and unproductive, from the want of capital to be employed in the culiivntiun thereof, and it is expedient to au- thorize the sale of certain parts of such Ctrrgy Reserves, to the intent that the monies arising from such sale may be emphjyed in the improvement' of the remaining part of the said Reserves, or otherwise for the purposes for which the said lands arc so reserved as aforesaid, lie it therefuie en- acted " — (Here follow provisions for the sale of the C I n-gy Reserves, and the investment of the proceeds of such sale.) We cannot, however, touch upon this important subject, without expressing our belief, that the bitterness of religious K 2 V ^ iU ;f'i ■f J 68 TlIK CAN ADAS. dissension has been to a a ciy sliglit degree, if at all, mixed np with the late unfortunate events in Canada ; but if this element of discord is to be excluded for the future, it will be by the rejection of every proposal for the establishment of a dominant church in connexion with the government. The members of the Church of England, even now, form but a minority of the Canadian comm\uiity, and the other sects in the province will demand perfect religious and civil equality. Without, therefore, stating reasons which would far exceed the space which remains to us, we reluctantly dismiss this momentous part of the question, by recording our deliberate opinion, that if charity and good-will are hereafter to be maintained in Canada, it will be by the equal payment of all persuasions of Christians under the authority of the law, or by the introduction of the voluntary system. It is not our intention to inquire minutely into the strug- gles which took place between the House of Assembly and the colonial executive government. It would indeed have been strange, if such an incongruous mass of legislation as Mr. Pitt's Bill had produced any other result than confusion. But we charge the imperial government, and this without re- ference to a Tory or a Whig administration, with a culpable neglect of these provinces. Every one connected with the country has known for years, that the business of government was practically suspended, and that a crisis was gradually but surely ajjproaching, which might involve the descendants of two high-spirited nations in bloodshed and civil war- What, we ask, was done to avert this approaching catastrophe? Committees of the House of Commons sat, inquired, and reported. An extravagantly-paid Commission proceeded to Canada, made further inquiries, and in due time produced further reports upon matters which every person of ordinary industry could make himself acquainted with, from sources of information already in existence. The only approxi- mation to an enlarged and enlightened legislation, suited to the pressing exigencies of the province, was made by Sir Robert Wilmot Horton in 1822, when he introduced his Union Bill — a bill which failed, however, under the assaults of party in the House of Commons. In contrast with this attempt stand out in strong relief the resolutions of Lord THE CAN'AUAS. 69 John Russell in 1837 — nu'inorable examples of the hard measure of justice dealt out by England to her colonial subjects, for a state of things jiroduced by her own mis- government. The facts recorded in these resolutions are an historical epitome of this misgovernment — a condensed re- cord of the practical results of Mr. Pitt's Bill — the Whig commentary of 1837 on the Tory policy of 1791? ind as such we insert them here. " ' The Reaolutinns' proposed by Lord John RatsaeU and carried in the Parliament of 1827. 1. " That, since the 31st day of October, in the year 1832, no provi- sion has been made by the Legislature of the province of Lower Canada, for defraying the charges of the administration ot justice, and for the support of the civil government within tlie said jjrovince, and that on the 10th day of April, 1837, there was retjuired for defraying in full the charges aforesaid to that day the sum of 142, IGO/. 14s. 6d. 2. " That at a Session of the Legislature of Lower Canada, holden at the city of Quebec, in the said province, in the months of September and October, 183G, the Governor of the said province, in compliance with his Majesty's commands, recommended to the attention of the House of As- sembly thereof the estimates for the current year, and also the accounts, showing the arrears due in respect of the Civil Government, and signified to the said House his Majesty's confidence, that they would accede to the application which he had been commanded to renew for payment of the arrears due on account of the public service, and for the funds necessary to carry on the Civil Government of the province. 3. " That the said House of Assembly, on the 3rd day of October, 1836, by an Address to the Governor of the said province, declined to vote a supply for the purposes aforesaid, and by the said Address, after referring to a former Address of the said House to the Governor of the said province, declared that the said House persisted, amongst other things, in the demand of an elective Legislative Council, and in demand- ing the repeal of a certain Act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in favour of the North American Land Company ; and by the said Address the said House of Assembly further adverted to the demand made by that House of the free exercise of its control over all the branches of the Executive Government; and by the said Address the said House of Assembly further declared, ' That it was incumbent on them, in the pre- sent conjuncture, to adjourn their deliberations until his Majesty's Go- vernment should by its Acts, especially by rendering the second branch of the Legislature conformable to the wishes and wants of the people, have commenced the great work of justice and reform, and created a confidence which alone could crown it with suice^^.' 4. " That in the existing state of Lower Canada, it is unadvisubic to make the Legislative Council of that province an elective body ; hiil thai ■f i;- I I 70 THE CANAUAS. i;'i i I Hi i i ' 1 fk !■ !' it ia expedient that meaturea he adopted for apcuriny to that branch nf the Leijialaturv a yreuter dcyree of public confidence. 5. " That w'AiVp it ia expedient to improve the composition of the Exe- cutive Council in Lower Canada, it ia unadviaable to subject it to the re- sponsibility demanded by the ll^use of Assembly of that province. 6. " That the legal title of the North American Land Company to the land holden by the said Company, by virtue of a grant from his Majesty, under the public seal of the said province, and to the privileges conferred on the said Company by the Act for that purpose made in the fourth year of his Majesty's reign, ought to be maintained inviolate. 7. " That it is expedient, that s ) soon as provision shall have been made by law, to be passed by the Legislature of the said province of Lower Canada, for the discharge of lands therein from feudal dues and services, and for removing any doubts as to the incidents of the tenure of land in free and common soccage in the said province, a certain Act made and passed in the sixth year of the reign of his late Majesty King George IV., commonly called ' The Canada Tenures Act ;' and so much of another Act passed in the third year of his said late Majesty's reign, commonly called ' The Canada Trade Act,' as relates to the tenures of land in the said province, should be repealed ; saving, nevertheless, to all persons, all rights in them vested under or by virtue of the said recited Acts. 8. " That for defraying the arrears due on account of the estal)lished and customary charges of the administration of justice and of the civil government of the said province, it is expedient that, after applying for that purpose such balance as shall, on the said 10th day of April, 1837, be in the hands of the Receiver-General of the said province, arising from his Majesty's hereditary, territorial, and casual revenues, the Governor of the said province be empowered to issue from and out of any other part of his Majesty's revenues in the hands of the Receiver- General of the said province, such further sums as shall be necessary to effect the payment of the before-mentioned sum of 142,160/. 14». 6c/. 9. " That it is expedient that his Majesty be authorized to place at the disposal of the Legislature of the said province the net proceeds of his Majesty's hereditary, territorial, and casual revenue, arising within the same, in case the said Legislature shall see fit to grant to his Majesty a Civil List for defraying the necessary charges of the administration of justice, and for the maintenance and unavoidable expenses of certaia of the principal officers of the civil government of the said province. 10. " That great inconvenience has been sustained by his Majesty's subjects, inhabiting the provinces of Lower Canada and Upper Canada, from the want of some adequate means for regulating and adjusting ques- tions respecting the trado and commerce of the said provinces, and divers other questions wherein the said provincis have a common interest ; and it is expedient that the Legislatures of the said provinces respectively be authorized to make provision for the joint regulation and adjustment of such their common interests." These decisive proceedings, on the part of the ministry, pro- duced a strong effect upon the pubUc mind in Canada, and THE CANAUA8. 7» ' the resolutions are entitled to the equivocul merit, of having occasioned, in some instances, a kind of riattion aniontrst individuals of the " British party," by several of whom they were as severely condemned as by the French Canadians. A striking illustration of their operation, even upon the most loyal of the Anglo-Canadians, is atlbrded by the Report of a Committee of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada, on the state of the province after the first outbreak in 183H. The following is the emphatic language the Committee use : — " It h impossible, in the opinion of your Committee, that any one con- versant in the affairs of Lower Canada, can look upon the resolutions referred to as pointing out a satisfactory course. They provide but for the present moment, and that in a manner most liable to excep- tion ; for clearly the govcrnnlent has no right, and none can be given to it, to take from the provincial Treasury monies paid into it under acts of the local Legislature, which acts expressly reserve to that Legislature the exclusive right of appropriation. " The constitutional charter, under which the Colonial Legislature acts, may undoubtedly be rescinded by Parliament ; but while it in svjfWva to stand in farce, it ought not to he violated. The case is not such as to re- quire so desperate a remedy, and it is hardly possible — perhaps not pos- sible — to conceive any case that would warrant it." The " Constitution" of Lower Canada had, in truth, j)rac- tically ceased to exist before these resolutions were passed, but their eiFect upon it was something like the action of gal- vanism on the natural body after death. A violent distortion was produced, and the minister availing himself of the un- natural vitality he had infused into his victim, perpetrated his unconstitutional attack on the political rights of the Cana- dians. This was the principal and proximate cause of their rebellion, and it afforded them the best, perhaps the only plea for resistance they possessed. We are sensible, that in the observations we have thus of- fered, we may be reproached with pointing out the defects of the late Canadian ccustitution, and the errors committed by successive administrations at home, without suggesting any remedies for existing and pressing evils. We will therefore, even at the hazard of subjecting ourselves to a charge of i)re- sumption, venture to submit a few suggestions, fairly, we be- lieve, deducible from the facts we have stated, but offered with unfeigned diffidence, rather as points for discussion than as propositions free from all possible objection. W^e request our f /' 72 TIIK ("AXAIIA.I. n hi 11 rcmlers at the same time to bear in niind^M ithM.de Tucqueville, that in the constitutions of r.ll nations, of wliatcvcr kind they be, a certain point exists, at which the legislator is ohhged to have recourse to the good sense and virtue of his fellow citi- zens ; and that there is no country in the world, in ■which •verj'thing can be provided for by the laws, or in which ])o- litical institutions can prove a substitute for common sense and public nu)rality. We wou" 1 suggest then, in the first place, the xniion of the two provinces, and of the representati\ es of the two races in the same elective chambers. We should hesitate, we confess, in giving our assent to any extensive j)lan of confederation of the whole of our North American provinces, if, by such a plan, a separate elective assembly were conferretl u})on Lower Caiuuh'i, or any portion of it. To such an assendjly a preponderating French ma- jority would inevitably be returned, and it w ould, as inevitably, form the nucleus of a future contest for nationality. We woidd surround the king's repn sentative w ith an execu- tive council, chosen by the crown and disr issible at plctisure. To such a council, we would call all pcr.>- who, from talents, station, and pro; 'rty, enjoyed in a pre-eminent degree the confidence of t„e community in which they lived ; carefully excluding the judicial power, but freely admitting members of the two legislative chambers, the heads of departments, and other officers of government. From this council it might be the prerogative of the governor to summon, from time to time, such a cabinet as he should deem best calculated to assist him in carrying on the ordinary business of the government, pnd on great emergencies the whole of its members might be convened. It will be inferred from our remarks, that we w ould make the upper chamber or legislative council elective. It w ould not, however, necessarily follow that it should in all respects resemble the lower house ; though it would be difii(;ult, we confess, in such a community as the Canadian, to ^ary the constituency by which the two chambers would be chosen, if both were elected by the people ; but if, as we trust will be the case in any new- scheme of government that may be pro- posed, elective municipalities be established in the rural di- / THE CANAUAS. ^.J stricts, unci corporations, popularly chosen, in the towns, it would deserve consideration, w hetlier the right of returning members to the legislative council might not be advantageously conceded, either altogether or in part, to those bodies. Other points of diflterence might also be introduced. If the lower chamber sat for three or four years, the upper might sit for six or seven ; and to render it, during the j)eriod of its session, independent both of the pow er of the crown and of the im- mediate action of the popular will, it might be constituted a fixed and ])ermanent body, notwithstanding the dissolution of the lower house by the governor. The possession of a certain amount of j)roperty, and a more advanced age than twent \ -one years, might also be recpiired as qualifications in its members. A legislative council so formed would, we be- lieve, be as aristocratic* as the country could produce, or as the people would cheerfully submit to ; and it would, we also believe, be composed of respectable and intelligent men. To if, therefore, we would yield the much-contested right of trying impeachments preferred by the House of Assembly, subject to an appeal to the House of Lords, or to the judicial committee of the Privy Council. The only change of importance that would take place in the constitution of the House of Assembly would be consequent uj)on the union of the two provinces. A numerous Anglo- Canadian minority — or it might be an actual majority — would be returned ; and the executive government, instead of being in open hostility with the representatives of the peo- ple, would at once be placed in the more advantageous posi- tion, of holding the scales between two powerful and contend- ing parties. We w ould also claim for our North American Colonies generally, that direct representation in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, to which their importance justly entitles them. The objection formerly urged by Mr. Burke to a si- milar scheme cannot now be maintained. The pow er of steam has bridged the Atlantic, and the length and uncertainty of voyages to and from America are already matters of history. Thus the member for the district of Toronto, Montreal, (iue- * Connei'tioui and Uliode Island, tlir most democratic of our former American colonies, were among the last to rebel. )) . 71 TIIK CAN ADAH. H i ' t i •i bee, or IliilifUx, would rv(|iiirt' l)ut little more time to rfucli tin- capital of the cinpire than the r('|»rcs(iitativc of the Orkneys, We believe too that thi^* clireet representation would be u powcrfnl link to bind the eolonies to the parent state ; but we MJiouhl very seriously doubt, whether n federal union of all the colonies in British America woidd tend to preserve and streuf^theu the integrity of the empire. The (piestions of in- ternational law, if we may be permitted to apply the term to Huch a state of things, which woulil arise between a colonial federal government and the imperial government, would be dangerous and eomi)lieated. The claim to tax our former co- lonies was such a (piestion, and it severed the empire. We would rather, therefore, consider the government at home as the central j)owcr, presiding over both the United Kingdom and the Colonies ; but by giving our American fellow-subjects a voice in the Imperial Legislature, and a free system of local government, we w ould, at the same time, protect them against the exercise of that power in a manner prejudicial to their interests. We repeat, that we offer these suggestions with diffi- dence and distrust ; for the more the subject is considered, the more w ill it appear surrounded by difficulties — difficulties which are much increased by the disturbed state of these provinces. Nor can we claim for our plan any very striking resemblance to the British Constitution ; but as the at- tempt to confer that constitution on the Canadians is now an acknowledged failure, they msiy perhajis not unreasonably expect institutions to be given to them, moulded on no theo- retical model of perfection, but such as are sanctioned by experience and analogy, and are demanded by the manners and the customs of the people, and the actual condition of their country. i' !■ 75 The Montrvat Petition in I H'J'J. TiiK following is the Petition of the British Inhahitants of Montreal to the House of ConinionH, in December IHJ'J, Ji{;r(!e(l to atler the news of the defeat of the Union Hill jiacl reached Canada. From this (h)cunient, it will be seen that it is now sixteen years since the anoniah)iis state of Lower Canada, and the consecjuences to be apprehended from that state, were pointed out to the Imperial Parliament. Petition of the British Inhabitants of Montreal, in 1H22, prayiny for a Leijislative Union of the Provinces of Lower and Upper Canada. To the Honourable the Knights, Citizens, and Jlurgesses re- 1>resenting the Commons of the Ujiited Kingdom of Great Britain a :d Ireland, in Parliament assembled, The Petition of the Subscribers, his Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, of British birth or descent, inha- bitants of the city and county of Montreal, in the province of Lower Canada, Humbly showeth — That your petitioners learnt with the most lively satisfaction, that the measure of uniting the pro- vinces of Upper and Lower Canada under one Legislature, had been submitted to the consideration of your honourable house in the last session of the Imperial i*arliament, and have been impressed with sentiments of the most respectful gratitude, for the attention which you have been pleased to bestow on this measure, of vital importance to both provinces. Under the agreeable anticipation that the evident pohcy and urgent necessity of ?> union of the provinces, w ill induce a renewal of the measures in the next session, your petitioners most respectfully beg leave to submit toyour honourable house, the principal considerations that render them in the highest degree anxious for the adoption of the proposed luiion. Your petitioners in all humility represent, that the divisioii of the late province of Quebec into two provinces, must be referred to as a measure w hich has been most prolific of evil. At the time the division took place, upwards of thirty years had elapsed from the conquest of the country by his Majesty's arms ; and notwithstanding the unlimited generosity which had been displayed towards the corujuered, by conlirming to them their laws and their religion, by admitting them to a f if i I ) 1! , / i n i\ \ \ N W \ /<» THE MONTUEAL I'liTlTION IN 18'2'J. participation in the government and in all the rights of Bri- tish snhjccts, and by continued demonstrations of kindness to\\ar(Ks them, no sxdvanccs hud been made in etJecting a (hange in tlie principles, language, habits, and manners which cliaracterized them as a foreign ])eo])le. Such change, as well from past exj)erience as fnmi the known operation of the feelings common to mankind, could not be expected while the c*)nquered people were j)ermitted exclusively to regulate their own government, and thus cherish and maintain the Ufitionvl peculiariLies, which it was ecpialiy the interest of the parent state and of the colony should be gradually etfaced by an intimate union with their fellow-subjects of British origin. On this account it seemed evidently necessary, in framing a new constitut'on of government, that the re})rescntation should be so regulated as to ensure a lit and reasonable inlluence of British feelings and principles on the conduct of the Colonial Legislature. The measures for this purpose were at the time facilitated by the increase of the British po})ulation which had taken place, and by the settlements which had been formed by American loyalists in the upper tlistricts of the late province of Quebec ; in consequence of which a suthci- ently numerous body of pei'sons of liritish origin might, un- der a proper system of representation, have been introchiced into the Colonial legislature witiiout oticnding against any jirinciple of justice, and ceitainly in strict conformity with the dictates of sound policy. Had thi course, which was anticipated at the time by the French C'anadian population, and would then have been i;hecrfully acquies( ed in by them, been pursued, your petitioners are contident that the province M ould now have been, in all essential particulars, an Knglish })rovince. Uni'ortuuately, your petitioners, in common with their fellow-sid)jccts of British origin, have to lament that, instead of adopting the policy which has been mentioned, the measure of dividing the jn'ovince was nnexpictedly, and to the utter surprise of the persons who had petitioned for a change in the constitution, without imagining that it A\as to l)c accompanied by any such measure, resolved on ; by which the English ])oj)ulation in Treference must have been given to persons of that description. The composition of a legislative body, such as that which has been described, under the ini'uence of the prejudices of a foreign people, without the requisite ability for the dis- charge of its functions, and from which persons who, by their knowledge, their property, and their respectability and in- fluence in society, would constitute its most eligible members, stand exchided, certaiidy cannot be deemed fit for regulating the concerns of a British province of so much importance as Lower Canadii, consistently with the interests of the province itself or those of the mother country. And if to those causes of disqualification be added the most marked repugnance to excry measvu'e calculated to assimilate the inhabitants of the country with their fellow-subjects in other parts of the em- pire, and to promote its commercial prosjierity, it is impossi- 1': 78 THE MONTREAL PETITION IN 1R22. fr n li ble not to observe in the constitution of the Assembly of Lower Canada the fertile sources of all the evils coui])laine{l of. Hence it is, indeed, that the evcr-recurrinn: differences bet\\een the several brandies of the Legislature have princi- pally arisen. Hence it is that the ])o\vers of the executive government for the improvement and advancement of the co- lony have, in a great measure, become ])araly/,ed and utterly inefficient. Hence it is that the extension of l^ritish settle- ments has been impeded, and the increase of British ])opula- tion, by the tide of emigration which for some years past has flowed so copiously iuto this province, been prevented. Hence it is, in fine, that all commercial enter[)rise and improvement have been crippled and ol)structed, and the coiintry remains with all the foreign characteristics which it jiossessed at the time of the conquest; that is, in all particulars, French. The experience which your petitioners have had of these evils, and the prospect of still greater, if an effectual remedy be not applied, have rendered the proposed union of the pro- vinces, to them, a matter of the most intense interent. They will, therefore, it is hoped, stand excused if, on a ijuestion involving their dearest interests, as well as those of their posterity, as British subjects, they s[)eak the IanMth the e\^*eption of an inconsiderable number, born umkr the English dominion, is as strongly marked bv the characteristics of their forcisi-n oriji-in, as to language, manners, hal>its, and dispositions, as they were at the time of the conquest. Without a union this population must retain its present ascentlancy in the government of the country, ?>nd ^ill not of course, of its oA\n accord, cease to be Freuv h. Its progres>sivc increase, under the fostering pmtection of (.ireat Biitain, would therel'ore necessarily lead to the result which, without a union, is anticijiated. And your petioners cannot omit to notice that the unreasonable! extent of political rights which has been conceded to this popvdution, K> the prejudice of their fellow- subjects of British 4 THE MONTRRAI. PETITION IN 1822. o)If>;in, togotlipr \vitli n sense (>f llieir fxrowiiig stren{>;th, huA already luul the effect of veaiiziiifr, in the iuiaj!;inati()us of many of them, their fan( led iMstenee as a separate nation, under the name of the ^'Nation Caiiadienne" ; ini])lyinther countries : it is only through Lower Canada that the u})per province can I'cceive its .supplies or export its surplus corn- novli'.cs. Tie port of (ciuel)ec is the entrance common to both. This being situated in Lower Csmada, the inhabitants of Upper Canada can have neither free ingress into nor egress from their country, except in sfi far as it may be permitted by the government of Lower Canada. This your petitioners humbly represent is a cause for the union of the provinces ])ci*petual in its operation, and which cannot be coiuiteracteil without a long series of incon%(miences and disasters to both. If, while it may still be done, the population of the t\^o pro- vinces be not gradually assimilati-d and identified iu their in- terests by a union, the differences between them, from the causes m)w in operation, and the (ollisions to which tliey will give rise, must have the effect of rendering the inhabitants of each a separate and distinct people, with the most hostile feelings towards each othei", requiring only a fit occasion to urf'e them into measures of actual violence. In the progress of things, towards this conclusion, the inhal>itants of Upper Canada woidd imperceptibly be induced to form connections 80 THE MON'IHKAI, IM'/nilON IN 1 III « I i 1 r Avith their American neighbours ; and being unnaturally dis- joined from Lower Canada, would seek to diminish tlie in- conveniences thence arising, by a more intimate intercourse with the adjoining states, leading inevitably to a union with that country. I'he natural tendency of things to this result, Avhile the provinces continue under scj)arate liCgislaturcs, it is to be observed is likely to be nuich |)romoted by the artifi- cial means of communication by canals, which have been lately formed, at immense expense, in the state of New York, affording to Upper Canada, if the outlet by the jjort of Quebec should be rendered inconvenient \o her, an easy communi- cation to American sea-ports. And her disj)osition to avail herself of this communication will obviously be increased, w bile the lower province continues in its charactc r to be French, Some of the inconveniences arising from the division of countries thus united by nature, your petitioners beg leave to represent, have been practically exhibited in the disputes respecting revenue between the two ])ro\ inces. Upper Ca- nada relies on the revenue to be derived from import duties for the payment of her civil expenditure. The nature of her local situation prechulcs her from conveniently or etFectually levying these duties w ithin her ow n limits ; it is at the port of Quebec only she can levy them : but this is in another pro\ ince ; and while she has a separate Legislature, beyond the authority of her government. The couseiiuence has been, that, till the recent interposition of the power of the Imperial Parhament, she lias been dependent on the good will of the Legislature of Low er Canada for a proportion of the duties levied at the port ol "^uebec, and lias been virtually subjected to taxation by the L ,(slaturc of another province, without her concurrence or consent. It is in the nature of things im- possible to determine what projjortioii of the duties in (|ues- tion ought to be allowed to I'ppcr Canada, regard being had to strict justice between the provinces ; and it has been urged that the claims of natural justice, on the part of Ujjper Ca- nada, would only require for her either a free transit for goods imported for that province, or the ])ayment to her of the duties actually levied on such importations at the port of Quebec. Your petitioners w ill not, on this occasion, presume to canvas the merits of the conflicting rights of the two pro- vinces on this subject, but w ill only observe, that if the |)ro- vinces be not united under one Legislature, no system which human ingenuity can devise will be found etlectual or satis- factoiy in obviating this grouiul of ditiercnce between them, or exchule just cause of complaint by one or other of the parties concerned. 1-^ THE MONTIiKAl, I'KTITIOX J\ 1822. 81 In wliiit res[)L'cts tlic rcji-ulations, rofcntly cstiiblislicil by an act of'tlie Imperial Parliament, for settling the ditlerences now rctlrred to, your petitioners, while they aeknoM ledge the beneticent views which have dictated them, feel it incumbent on them res{)ectfully to state that those reguhitions, if con- Bidered in any otiier Ught than a temporary expedient, would not be found rcconeihible with the just rights of the lower province or of its Legislature, and would be productive of great evils. Your ])etitioners cannot omit to observe, that the proportion of duties allowed to Upper Canada is greater than, if regard weie had to her present consumption of dutia- ble articles imported at Quebec, she could be considered fairly entitled to; nor can they pass over in silence the ex- treme inconveniences and injury that would be occasioned by the restrictions imposed on the power of the Legislature of Lower Canada, as a permanent measure, nor the inadecpiacy of arbitration to regulate, as proposed, the imj)ortant interests in question. AVith the most perfect submission, your peti- tioners beg leave to express their beli"f that neither of the provinces would be satisfied, for any length of time, with the arrangement referred to ; and that the advancement and im- provement of both would be most injuriously retarded l)ythe inca[)acity under which the Legislature of each would labour to provide, by its own authority, a revenue adequate to its wants. AVhilc your petitioners thus humbly represent the convic- tion they feel that the regulations above referred to must create dissatisfaction, and be found inadc(iuate for the pur- I)oses intended, they cannot but observe in this inadequacy the strongest reason tor adopting the ivnudy of a union, by which the evil intended to be palliated by those n -ulations \\ould not only, by the removal of its cause, be extniguished for ever, but a midtitude of itther evils be removed and pre- vented. In adverting to the injurious consequences arising from the division of the late province of (Quebec, your ix-titioners cannot omit to notice moi'e particularly the elfect that mea- sure has had in preventing the increase of the British popu- lation in Lower Canada, and the development of its resources. The predominance of the French po{)uiation in the Legislature has occasioned obstacles to the settlement of British emi- g. ^nts that have not been surn)ounted — so that the vast increase of British population to have been expected from this cause has been in a great degree prevented. The injiuy sustained in this particular may be easily appreciated when It is observed that, since the late American war, upwards of f ih Ui f t h 82 THE MONTIIKAI, IM'", TniON 1 N 1 M '_''_*. H(),()()() souls (that is, ji number c(jual to one-fourth of the actual Frcncli ])opulation) have found their way to this province from Great Britain and Ireland ; and of these scarcely ono-tweiitieth part remain within its limits ; the rest, with the exception of a small number who have settled in Upper Canada, havin;^ been indiaced by the foreign cha- racter of the country in which they had sought an asylum, and the discourauenients they e\i)erienced, to try their for- tvme in the United States. The loss tluis sustained is not contined to those who left tlie country, but compriscKS their connections and friends who would have followed them. In the same propoilitju as the increase of British population has been prevented ins the agricultural and conunercial prospe- rity of the country been retarded and obstructed, as it is to the enterprise, intelligence, and })ersevering intlustry of that ])opidation that botli agriculture and commerce must be principally indebted for their advancement. On this he.'xd it may be fairly advanced that, had not the impolitic division of the late province of Quebec taken place, and had a tit plan of re})resentation been adopted, the British population would now exceed the French, and the imj.orts and exports of the country be greatly beyond their present amount. The injury thus ])roduced to the interests of tlie mother comitry, and those of the colony, by the French character which now belongs to this country, and the predominance of French principles, your petitioners humbly represent, w ith- out a union of the provinces, must be aggravated by the aug- mented influence of those causes, arising even from a recent act of liberality on the jjart of the mother country towards her colonies. According to the colonial system recently adopted, a direct intercourse between Lower Canada and France is now permitted, the immediate effects of which \\ ill un(piestionably be to give increased strength to those na- tional feelings and prejudices, which, during 00 years of inttrdirti'd commiuucation with France, have remained un- abated, and to render more inveterate the causes of disunion between his Majesty's subjects in Lower Canada ; w hich effects, as \\ ell as others more remote, atfecting the stability of his Majesty's government, can only be counteracted by the proposed union of the provinces under one Legislature. Your petitioners, without trespassing on the patience of your honourable house by a longer detail of the injurious consequences produced by the division, will beg leave to specify succinctly the benctits to be expected from a miion of the prminces. By this measure the [)olitical evils com- plained of in both provinces would be removed. The French u III ■^ TIIK MONTUKAL M'/riTlON IN 1822. H.} pnpuliition of Tiowcr ('aiiiula, now dividod from their fellow- subjects by their luitional pcculiarilies aiul i)rejiulices, and with ,in evident disposition, under the present system, to become a separate people, woulil he gradually assimilated to the liritish population ol" both i)rovinces, and with it moulded into one peo|)le of liritish character, and with liritish feel- in. -m, Each Part will contain 96 pages of Letter Press,i : and a highly finished Engraving: in addition to whicJh, numerous Illustrations, Plans, Diagrams, &c., (Wood- Cuts), will be interspersed through the work. Part 11. will be published on or before the 1st of April ; and the succeeding Parts, one on the first of each montii afterwards. ' ■ .. •....,:. ,'!..;.' .. ''A3 .1 -',. u X^^:i*^. mr /•va 7i1