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A»-

^ THE CRISIS IN CANAIKA;

"U.

VIiNDICATION

•J

;i-

LORD ELGIK AND HIS CABINET

AS TO

THE COURSE IMJRSUED BY THEM

IN' REFBKKNCE TO

THE EEBELLION LOSSES BILL,

ALEXANDER MACKAY, Es(j.

tl^f ii)t 0iimt JCmpIc, iiavvistfr al=2.aU).

Aulbor of " The Western Wurli!, " and '• luxury into dm working oi' tlio IJerorni Bill."

jlontrou:
jamp:s ridgway, N' kw, Piccadilly.

MDCCCXLIX.

LONDON ;
rUINTKl) HV i. HUr.iiKLl., KLIBUT STBEKT. fliVMAIlKEr.

THE CRISIS IN CANADA,

^c. Sfc.

Since the rebellion in 1837-38, no feature in the
history of Canada has elicited such general attention
in this country, as the Rebellion Losses Bill, "vvhich,
having passed all the branches of the Provincial Legis-
lature now awaits the action of the Queen's govern-
ment at home. Laying out of sight the supposition
indulged in by some, that the question involved is
one of imperial import, the excitement to which the
measure has given rise in the Province is, of itself,
sufficient to account for the unusual degree of
interest, which, as a colonial subject, it has evoked
in the mother country.

As the whole matter is likely very soon to un-
dergo discussion in Parliament, it is desirable that
the public should be made sufficiently acquainted
with the leading features of the case, to enable them
to pronounce an independent judgment upon it,
instead of being led away by those, who, in dealing
with it, will be biassed by their pre-conceptions, or
swayed by their prejudices. This is all the more
desirable, inasmuch as the view which Parliament

mny take of tlio subject will have an important
bearing upon the immcxliate future of Canada.
We have every interest in averting, if 2)0ssible, a
hasty and hap-hazai'd decision, if we attach any
value to the magnificent section of our colonial
em})ire, irrigated by the St. Lawrence and its tri-
butaries. There is danger of such a decision being
arrived at, unless the question be discussed upon its
naked merits, and the public refuse to be swayed, as
in judging between parties in Canada, they have
always heretofore been by those interested in mis-
leading them, in favour of one party and against the
|0ther. Most, if not all tlie political (nils of Canada,
are traceable to the fatal blun<ier, into which the
Colonial Depaitnient was betrayed, of" always treat-
ing the one party with confidence, and constantly
'regarding the other with suspicion. The depart-
ment havmg had no check in public opinion, was
enabled to perpetuate this blunder to a ^•ery recent
period. The error was being rapidly repaired, wlu^n
the present question arose ; a question which has
not only rekindled in the Province the party ani-
mosities, which so long impeded its progress,
but which has also revived, in certain quarters
here, the narrow spirit in which Canadian questions
were formerly entertained and disposed of. The
press is, in some instances, zealous in rousing this
spirit into action ; but it is of the last importance
to the Empire and the Province that it should not
be permitted to influence either the views of
Parliament or the judgment of the public. To

1
1

prevent, as far as possible, such a calamity, is my
sole object in v(!nturing to explain the scope and
character of the measure, which has given rise to
the present controversy ; and, in dohig so, I shall
deal with the Rebellion Losses Bill in the double
aspect of the relation of parties to it, and its own
intrinsic merits.

To enable the reader thoroughly to appreciate
the question at' issue between parties in Canada, a
brief recapitulation is necessary of some of those
events, which serve more prominently to illustrate
the political history of the Province.

In 1792, the Province of Quebec was divided
into the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada.
To each was assigned a separate governmental
system, involving, to some extent, theoretically at
least, the principles of constitutionalism. Both
provinces then started upon separate political
careers; their paths, which then diverged, being
destined to re-unite about half a century afterwards.
It was not long ere considerable discrepancy existed
as to the details of their political history ; but, as
regarded the main principle on which thoy were
governed, the experience of the one was uu'tappily
but too coincident with that of the other. At the
time of the separation of the two provinces, our
colonial system was rapidly maturing the vices,
Avhicli have since disfigured it ; and, unfortunately
for them, the Canadas were destined, at a very early
period, to afford a striking illustration of the
faulty principles upon whicli rested our new

system of administration for the outposts of the
Empire.

At the time of the conquest, with the exception
of those occupying the few military establishments,
which were situated far apart from each other, in
the neighbourhood of the great lakes, there were no
Europeans in Canada, west of the Ottawa. Its
population, which was exclusively of French origin,
was in the occupation of settlements, which stretched
eastward of the Ottawa, and along both shores
of the St. Lp.wrence to the gulf The province
underwent very little change in this respect until
the breaking out of the American war, when many
loyalists, outraged by the revolutionary aspect of the
struggle, abandoned their homes and emigrated to
Canada, settling themselves chiefly in that portion of
the province, which became afterwards known as
Upper Canada. A nucleus having been thus formed
for an Anglo-Canadian population, accessions were
yearly made to it, both from the Republic and the
Mother Country. Such as emigrated from the
Mother Country generally proceeded by the way of
the St. Lawrence, the bulk of them ascending to the
upper settlements, but some remaining behind and
obtaining employment in the ports of Quebec and
Montreal. At the same time Americans were
penetrating from the more inhospitable districts of
Maine and New Hampshire into the rich agricul-
tural belt in Lower Canada, since known as the
Eastern Townships, where their descendants are to
be found to this day, the wealthiest and most

thrifty farmers in the province?. Tims, whilst the
wilds of Upper Canada were being rapidly appro-
priated by energetic English settlers, the Anglo-
Saxon element had established itself in the popu-
lation of the Lower Province.

Such was the state of things, as regards popula-
tion, when partition was made of the province of
Quebec. The difficulties in the way of colonial
administration, at all times great, were considerably
enhanced in the case of Lower Canada. It is bad
enough when a Government has either two races
or two creeds to deal with ; but its task becomes
infinitely more difficult, when, within the same
territory, it has to manage both two races and two
creeds. Such was the task which the Govern-
ment of Lower Canada devolved upon the Colonial
Department. In fulfilling it, the department was
eminently unsuccessful. The difficulties with which
it had to contend, have been made its excuse. But
this excuse will not hold, when it is considered that
the department, by ignorance and mismanagement,
immeasurably aggravated the difficulties. Tlieir
obvious existence should have led to the greatest
caution and delicacy in the management of the
province, whereas the course pursued was such as
would have created them, had they not existed.
From the very first, the French Canadians were
undisguisedly treated as an alien race. Their
submission to the British Crown had savoured more
of capitulation than conquest, their laws, manners,
and customs, having been guaranteed to them under
the walls of Quebec*. When a constitutional Go-

vcrnmcnt was conferred upon the province, they
had a rif^ht to expect that, as Britisli subjects, their
vveiglit in the constitutional scheme would have
been in proportion to their numbers and influence.
But in this they were bitterly disappointed, and
their disappointment in this respect was the fun-
damental error committed by the Colonial Depart-
ment. If it was the intention of the Imperial
Government to extinguish the political influence of
tlie French race, nothing could have been more
absurd than to confer upon them the semblance
of a constitution. But having conferred upon them
a constitution, the wisest course would have been
to have carried it out, both in its spirit and its letter.
This, however, was not done, and the Canadians
soon perceived tliat, for them, the constitution ex-
isted only in name ; that it was a cloak which
covered, on the part of their rulers, either a deli-
berate intention to crush them, or a callous indif-
ference to their fate. This policy, under any cir-
cumstances unjust, might have savoured more of
worldly wisdom, had there been reason to suppose
that the Anglo-Saxon element of the population
would have speedily preponderated numerically in
the province. But the proofs of a contrary result
were made manifest by the emigration of each year,
nine-tenths of the emigrants making their way to
tlie U^jper Province ; and even to this day, the
French is, to the English population of the pro-
^ ince, as four to one. The disproportion was, of
course, much greater, Avhen the blundering expe-
dient Ava.s resorted to, of governing the colony

e^
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fa
an
vii
so

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exclusively through its British population. It was
not long ere the Scotch party, so known from the
fact of its principal leaders being Scotchmen, arose,
and monopolised the political influence of the pro-
vinces. Almost every office of trust or emolument
soon passed into the hands of the British popu-
lation. The executive Government was at its
beck, and the legislation of the colony was either
moulded to meet its views, or impeded in obedience
to its caprices. In fact a little Ireland was esta-
blished on the banks of the St. Lawrence. And all
this with a constitutional form of Government in
the province, which placed one chamber at least
of the legislature at the disposal of the proscribed
race. The other, the Upper Chamber, like the
executive Government, was in the hands of the
English race. Here then were sedulously fulfilled
all the conditions to a hopeless political antagonism.
In the hands of the favoured minority were the
executive Government, two branches of the legis-
lature, and almost all the patronage of the province.
In that of the proscribed majority was the popular
branch of the legislature. It would have done vio-
lence to the established relation between cause and
effect, had any other result ensued than that which
followed this state of things. The two races soon
came into collision with each other and made the
capital their battle-ground. The breach once esta-
blished, it was obvious that it must soon become
incurable. The error was in permitting it to take
place. The majority pressed with the strength of

I'f

;i 1 1

numbers upon the minority; and the minority, backed
by the Colonial Office, upon the majority. A
chronic antagonism soon ripened into enmity and
hatred, and the rebellion of 1837 was the result.
The responsibility of that event rests with the Im-
perial Government. It was not the necessary con-
sequence of a diversity of race and creed in Lower
Canada, but of the deliberate aggravation, by the
Colonial Office, of the administrative difficulties
incident to such a diversitv.

The story of the Upper Province differs from
that of the Lower, less in its outline than in its
details, whilst it tends still more forcibly to illus-
fitrate the shortcomings of the Colonial Department.
There it had no excuse for mal-administration,
founded on diversity of race or creed. Its diffi-
culties were of its own sowing, and it has since
reaped a plentiful harvest of them. Even were it
possible for it thorouglily to acquaint itself with
the wants and wishes of all the colonies under its
control, the multiplicity of its duties almost ne-
cessitates the department to throw itself in conduct-
ing the domestic affairs of a colony into the hands
of a local clique. This was the error committed in
Upper Canada. When it was constituted into a
separate Government, its inhabitants were promised
a constitution which was to be the image and tran-
script of that of the Mother Country. In other
words, they were promised Parliamentary Govern-
ment, instead of obtaining which, they were almost
immediately handed over to the tender mercies of a

local oligarchy. A party was speedily organised in
the colony — the native Canadian party — which, from
the intermarriages which took place in the families
of its leaders, obtained a designation, which had, at
one time, an important European significance.
The Family Compact was to Upper, what the Scotch
party was to Lower Canada. It soon appropriated
to itself all the power and all the influence of the
government. To strengthen itself and perpetuate its
power, it conferred upon itself vast territorial pos-
sessions ; almost every branch, limb, and twig of
the great family tree acquiring immense tracts of
wild land ; and lest the estates thus acquired should
be a burden to their possessors in the then existing
generation, care was taken not to impose a tax
upon unreclaimed land. It set its face against
emigration, not that it was insensible to the advan-
tage of having capital and labour introduced into
the Province, but that it feared the emigration of
talent and influence from the Mother Country,
which might oust it of its authority. It created
present bickerings, and laid the foundation for
future dissensions, by embarking on a system of
religious persecution, and appropriating for the
endowment of the Episcopal Church one-seventh of
the surveyed lands of the province, although it was
obvious to every sane man, that an established
Church would be as much an exotic in America,
as a palm-tree would be in Nova Zembla. It also
in the same spirit misappropriated the lands set
apart for the purposes of education, by applying a

large proportion of them to the endowment of a
magnificent University, as sectarian in its constitu-
tion as are our own Universities. It monopolised
every office, and dispensed all the patronage of the
government. It was, in short, the all and in all,
wielding the government as its privilege, and mana-
ging the colony as its patrimony. As might have
been expected, under such a system, a multiplicity
of abuses soon sprung up. As population increased,
these abuses were challenged, and the spirit of
party soon developed itself in its most virulent
form. The party in opposition, smarting under a
sense of systematic and unmerited exclusion, and
alarmed at the mal-administration of everv de-
partment of the public service, attacked the
party in power, by assailing the corruptions
which it bad engendered. But supported as the
latter was by the home authorities, its opponents
could make but little headway against it. Their
policy, therefore, was to influence, if possible, the
Colonial Department in their favour. But here
again they found insuperable obstacles in their way.
Their remonstrances could only reach the depart-
ment through the hands of the local government,
that is to say, their complaints could only be pre-
sented to the home authorities, by the very parties
complained against. The consequence was, that,
however well founded, their complaints were long
unheard, and of all the departments of the govern-
ment, the Colonial Office was the most uninformed,
as to the real state of feeling and of parties in

Canada. This state of things gave rise to the
establishment of parliamentary agencies, through
which alone the case of the opposition in the two
provinces was made known to the public and the
government at home. Grievance accumulated upon
grievance without redress, until at length the very
hope of redress through constitutional means be-
came extinguished in the breasts of many of the
liberals. Thus stood matters in Upper Canada,
when, in 1836, the reins of government were re-
signed by Sir John Colborne into the hands of Sir
F. B. Head. The times were critical. The political
horizon of Lower Canada was becoming daily more
tempestuous, and affairs in the Upper Province
were tending towards a crisis. It was obvious then
that much depended upon the character of the
new Governor. Who was he] Whence had he
come ? What were the antecedents which had
qualified him for a charge so critical, both as to
time and circumstance 1 The liberals waited, in
almost breathless suspense for his first move. It
was conciliatory. Tliree of the liberal leaders, Mr.
Dunn, Dr. Rolph, and Mr. Baldwin, were added to
the Tory cabinet, which had been left him as a legacy
by his predecessor. But the hopes thus kindled
were shortlived, for, a few days afterwards, Toronto
was thrown into a state of consternation by the retire-
ment of the liberals from the council. The point
upon which they retired produced the issue which
soon afterwards provoked the contending parties to
an armed collision.

'!■■
ii i

The issue thus raised was that of responsible
government. Sir Francis wished to make puppets
of his cabinet. Its liberal members contended that
they were responsible to the people for the acts of
the government, and that the executive should not
act without their consent. In the Governor's esti-
mation, he alone was responsible, and maintained
that his responsibility lay not to the people of
Canada, but to the Imperial Government. In
other words, the people of Canada were informed
that no department of their government was directly
responsible to them. Common sense was outraged
by this declaration, and the capital was in commo-
tion. The excitement soon extended itself through-
out the province. Parliament was dissolved, and a
general election ensued. By dint of intimidation
and corruption, and by putting a false issue to the
country, the government managed to secure a ma-
jority in the new assembly.

And here let me pause for a moment in this
rapid narrative, to advert to the gross and syste-
matic injustice, with which, up to this period, the
liberal party in Canada had been treated by the
Imperial Government. Having put itself entirely
into the hands of the dominant clique in the two
provinces, the views of the Colonial department

1' were shaped by the representations of those who
alone had its confidence. In Upper Canada par-
ticularly was the evil of this policy soon made ap-
parent. Every movement made by the liberals
against existing abuses was stigmatized by their

local detractors as movements towards rebellion
and separation. The reformer was identified with
the rebel, and to such gross and unfounded calum-
nies, the Colonial Department lent too facile an ear.
Long before the most ultra-reformer meditated trea-
son, the whole body of the liberals were proscribed,
and treated as rebels in disguise. Governor after
Governor w^as sent to the colony, the spirit if not
the letter of the instructions fiu*nished to each being,
to treat one party as a connectionist, and the other
as a separatist party. These instructions were but
too punctually obeyed. The family compact, into
whose hands the Governor unreservedly threw him-
self as soon as he arrived, not content with the
monopoly of power, arrogated to themselves also
the monopoly of loyalty. Appropriating to them-
selves the term loyalists, they branded their oppo-
nents as rebels. With less profession of loyalty on
their lips, there was in the ranks of the liberals,
as much devotion to British connection as was to
be found amongst those constituting the antagonist
party. Yet, the calumnies of that party were
suffered to prevail; and strong in the support which
they received from home, the ruling faction heaped
insult and contumely upon those who were but
honestly bent upon a reform of local abuses. Un-
merited suspicion, if long persisted in, is very apt
to beget in its victim the very vices with which it
charges him. But although thus placed beyond
the pale of imperial sympathies, and insulted from
year to year by the dominant oligarchy in the

•if

province, the Canadian liberals forgot neither
their loyalty to the Crown nor their attach-
ment to the empire. A few of them were driven
into a rebellion, in which the great body
of them abstained from taking any share ; and
if the loyalty of one party in the province is
to be cherished more than that of another by
the Mother Country, it ought to be that of those
whose allegiance has been put to the severest
tests, by long years of neglect, contumely, and
oppression. In proof of the injustice thus
wrought to the liberals, in furtherance of the selfish
views of a dominant and insolent clique, we find
that it is now to this very liberal party, so long
charged with disaffection and disloyalty, that the
Mother Country has mainly to look for the main-
tenance of her authority in Canada.

It was on this principle that Sir F. B. Head went
to the country on the occasion referred to. The
only real issue between the parties was whether or
not the colony was to have the Parliamentary
government which was promised it. But the false
issue raised was whether the colony was to re-
main connected with the Mother Country or
not. " No separation" was emblazoned on the
electioneering banners of the Tories, and " no sepa-
" ration" was the cryattheir electioneering meetings.
But all this time, no one talked of separation but
themselves. By means of this cry, however, and by
other acts, the liberals were overborne, and the
British government and people were cheated into

the belief that a great service had been rendered
them by those, who were working only for them-
selves. The triumph which ensued elated the
Tories, and exasperated the liberals. Never had the
family compact been apparently so secure in its
tenure of power, as during the session of parliament
which followed, and during that of the subsequent
year 1837. But the Scotch party in Lower Canada
were now driving the French Canadians to despe-
ration. In November 1837, it drove them to
rebellion, and, in about a month afterwards, the
flame of insurrection had spread to the Upper
Province.

It is not my intention here to dwell upon this
deplorable event ; I shall have occasion, by and bye,
to refer to the parties who really participated in
it. My object in the foregoing recapitulation of
events has been to trace the rebellion in the
colonies to its right source — the systematic misgo-
vernment of the provinces. In Lower Canada, it
was not the diversity of race which produced the
catastrophe, but the deliberate aggravation of the
difficulties incident to government, when different
races have to be reconciled. In Upper Canada the
difficulty of race did not exist ; and the mismanage-
ment, which there characterised our colonial policy,
was consequently all the more glaring. The case
of Upper Canada illustrates that of the sister pro-
vince. In both, the great bulk of the population
were driven into a state of antagonism witli the
Colonial Department, by findng it the chief support

of the dominant and insolent faction, which in each
trampled, with impunity, on every constitutional
principle, and which continued to govern in de-
fiance of parliamentary majorities, communities
on whom had been conferred at least the semblance
of parliamentary government.

It required some startling event, like the rebel-
lion, to arouse the Colonial Office from its long
dream of negligent security. There might be
grievances to redress after all, and it was high time
to inquire into the matter. The Earl of Durham
was accordingly dispatched as Lord High Commis-
sioner to Canada. The main object of his mission
was to inquire into and report upon the real state
of the provinces. It was then that, for the first
time, was brought to liglit a mass of administrative
corruption and iniquity, so enormous, and so aggra-
vated, as to constitute it a virtue in any people to
rebel against it. Those w^ho applaud the resist-
ance which wa? ofiered to the payment of ship
money, and who justify the revolutionary attitude
of the American colonies in 1776, could not have
reasonably found fault witli the Canadian people,
had they risen, ew masse from Gaspe to Amherst-
burg against their oppressors. Perhaps the most
damning commentary of all, on the system which
had been pursued is to be found in the fact, that
one of the first of Lord Durham's many valuable
recommendations was the concession to the Cana-
dian people of that, the denial of which had
been the proximate cause of the rebellion. The

concession, which he thus recommended, was that
of responsible government.

It was well, perhaps, for Canada that it was
reserved to another to carry out the recommenda-
tions contained in the report, to which Lord
Durham's name was appended. The High Com-
missioner, for reasons not yet satisfactorily explained,
suddenly relinquished his post, and the difficult
task of Canadian administration was confided to
the Right Hon. C. Poulett Thomson, afterwards
Lord Sydenham. Possessed of great administrative
abilities, of strong powers of discrimination, of quick
perceptions, and of an indomitable will, a better
selection, as Governor-General, could not have been
made by the Colonial Office at so critical a junc-
ture in Canadian affairs. Arrived in the Colony, he
took at a glance the exact measure of his position,
and, without delay, addressed himself to the great
objects of his mission. In Lower Canada, the
Constitution had been suspended since the outbreak
of the rebellion, and the province was governed by
the governor and his council. In Upper Canada, the
family compact as usual endeavoured to possess
themselves of the new executive ; but they soon
found that they had no longer to deal with a Gore,
a Maitland, a Colborne, a Head, or an Arthur. For
the first time, since the separation of the provinces,
the protegh of the Colonial Office found their services
dispensed with by the local executive. They were
ignominiously dismissed as unfaithful stewards, and
the Governor-General called to his comicil a new

set of men possessing the conjidence of the people.
It was then that the new party was originated,
wliich, during the administration of Lord Sydenham,
was known as the Governor-General's party. It
comprised all the moderate supporters of both the
extreme parties, receiving a qualified support from
the most ultra reformers, whilst it enjoyed tlio
unqualified liostility of the family compact, and the
rump which still adhered to it. Having taken his
measures in both provinces, Lord Sydenham next
addressed himself to the great object of his govern-
ment — the legislative union of the two. The diffi-
culties in the way were great, and tlie means resorted
to for their removal not the most scrupulous. But
if ever the end justified the means, it did so in this
instance. The task was accomplished, and on the
same day on which was celebrated the union of Her
Majesty with Prince Albert, was announced by
proclamation from the capital of United Canada,
the re-union of the two provinces, after nearly fifty
years of political separation.

It is not my purpose here to comment upon the
subsequent administration of Lord Sydenham. In
some of its details, it gave umbrage to the more
liberal section of his party ; but, in its spirit and
outline, his policy was great, comprehensive, and
salutary. In all that he did, he had the good of
the Province at heart, and he demonstrated his
earnestness in his work by enjoining tliose around
him, as his life was drawing prematurely to a close,
to bury his remains in its soil. A plain stone

the
In
lore
and
and

Id of
his

lund
^ose,
tone

slab, in front of the altar in St. George's Chnrch,
Kingston, marks whore he lies ; and I am not
ashamed to confess that 1 have shed tears of honest
emotion over the grave of this truly noble character,
and great benefactor to Canada.

On the death of Lord Sydenham, the adminis-
tration of affairs devolved ad interim on Sir Richard
Jackson. During the brief period for which he
administered the affairs of the province, parties
gradually underwent a new evolution. During
Lord Sydenham's government, the discomfited
(actions in the two sections of the* Province had
been in a state of restless activity, and they
gained fresh strength by the dissolution, on his
death, of the party which he had rallied around
him. They cajoled many of his conservative
followers back into their ranks, and by the arrival
of Sir Charles Bagot, as Governor-General, they
constituted a compact and somewhat formidable
opposition, under the leadership of one, whose
opposition would be of more value to any party
than his support, the notorious Sir Allan M^Nab.
From the date of the Union, the more liberal wing
of the reform party in Canada "West (as Upper
Canada was now called, Canada East being the new
designation of the Lower Province), made common
cause with the Lower Canadian liberals, the latter
being chiefly composed of the French Canadians.
The result of the new combination, on Lord
Sydenham's death, was that this party soon attached
to itself such of the Ciovernor-General's party as

luid not gone over to the Tories, that is to say, the
great bulk of that party. Thus matters stood
when Sir C. Bagot was inaugurated Governor of
the Province.

It was during the government of this honest
and straightforward administrator, that the liberals,
for the first time, acceded to uncontrolled power
in the province. Proscribed and insulted, as they
had been for half a century, stigmatised as rebels,
branded as traitors, and accused of disloyalty and of
every species of political crime by their opponents,
a noble opportunity was thus afforded them of
practically giving the lie to the multiplied calum-
nies and aspersions disseminated against them in
the province, and too readily credited at home.
And how did they use it? This, the result of
their government will show. Never was Canada
more tranquil, more contented, more flourishing,
more loyal, more devoted to British connection and
institutions, than under this liberal administration.
Responsibility was the practice, and no longer the
mere theory of the government. The province at
length enjoyed and appreciated the advantages
of parliamentary government, and the voice of
complaint was unheard, save from those who had
nothing to hope from the development of par-
liamentary institutions. Delightful to him who
descends the St. Lawrence, is the sensation of
quiet and repose which he experiences when he
enters upon the still waters at the foot of one of
the rapids ; and equally delightful is it to the

', the
stood
or of

onest
crals,
)ower
they
cbels,
mdof
nents,
3m of
lalum-
em in
home,
ult of
!anada
shing,
)n and
ation.
er the
ice at
ntages
ice of
o had
par-
who
ion of
ten he
one of
;o the

student of Canadian liistory, to contemplate this
tranquil episode in its turgid annals. It would
have been well for the province, had it lasted
longer. The Governor'^, health failed him, but he
stuck, to the last, to his j)ost. Sir Charles Bagot
left England a Viceroy and returned to it a corpse.

Lord Metcalfe succeeded him. It is difficult to
say what are the positive instnirtions with uliicli
a Governor leaves Downing Street for his post.
Lord Stanley best knows with what precise intent
Lord Metcalfe was despatched to Canada. This,
at least, is known, that, from the moment of his
arrival in the Canadian capital, the reign of re-
action commenced. The Tories were (piick in
perceiving and availing themselves of their oppor-
tunity. Prostrate, beyond all hope of recovery,
so long as responsible government had fair play,
they rallied with renewed hopes the moment they
perceived that the local Executive, backed by
J)owning Street, was inclined to favour them.
The old regime was once more possible, and they
made a bold push for the recovery of their lost
privileges. By means of artifices, similar to those
formerly used, they succeeded in their attempt,
and the astounding spectacle was once more ex-
liibited in Canada, of a party, having the sympathies
of the great bulk of the people, being dispossessed
of power by a faction having no real hold on the
country, but sustained by extraneous aid.

For a time, Lord Metcalfe went on with the
liberal Cabinet of his predecessor. But it soon

became manifest that there could be no cordial
co-operation between the Governor and his council.
It was afterwards evident that, from the very first,
he was determined to displace them. With this
intent, he first fostered petty disagreements between
his cabinet and himself, and having thus established
between them a habit of quarrelling, it was easy
for him, at any moment, to precipitate an open
rupture. Nor was this long delayed. Following
in the footsteps of the notable Sir F. B. Head, the
Governor at length ventured upon the unconstitu-
tional ground of making important local appoint-
ments, without consulting his council. Against
this they remonstrated, both as indecorous, and as
plainly incompatible with their position as respon-
sible ministers. But it v/as the policy of the
Governor to drive them from power, and their
remonstrances were, of course, unattended to. Mr.
Baldwin, the head of the Cabinet, w^as one day
accosted by a gentleman, in the streets of King-
ston, and thanked for an important appointment,
which had just been conferred upon him by the
Executive. The astonished minister frankly con-
fessed that he had not only not recommended him,
but that he had not been consulted in the matter.
This produced a crisis, and the ministry retired.

The Tories were now masters of the Government.
A new administration was formed, the head and
guiding spirit of which was William Henry Draper,
now a Judge in Canada West, A dissolution of
course took place, and the new Government ap-

pealed to the country. The old cry of "no separation"
was again raised, by the aid of which, together
with an unscrupulous use of Government influence,
the Cabinet met Parliament with a small majority
in their favour. To check as much as possible his
aptitude for mischief, Sir Allan was made Speaker
of the House. Although thus kept out of the
Cabinet, he was, nevertheless, a confidential adviser
of the party. It was not long, however, ere the
new Government developed, in all their intensity
and magnitude, the venality and corruption which
characterised it. Its majority became smaller and
smaller by degrees, until it at length found itself
in a minority in its own Parliament. There
were, then, but two constitutional courses open to
the Ministers, either to retire, or to dissolve Par-
liament, and appeal again to the people. But what
cared they for Parliamentary majorities, so long as
they had the local Executive and the authorities in
Downing Street to sustain them 1 They, therefore,
held on long after it was obvious that they had lost
the confidence of the country. Nay more, their
conduct became so outrageously indefensible, that
they found it impossible, when some of its mem-
bers retired, to complete the Cabinet, although
they left no artifice untried to fill the vacant
places. For nearly two years was the scandalous
spectacle exhibited to the world of the mere
fragment of a Cabinet governing, in the teeth
of a hostile Parliament, a colony on which a
constitutional Government had been conferred.

Such was the state of things when Lord Metcalfe
relmquished his post, and returned home to
die.

At this juncture the Oregon controversy was
pending, and the relations between England and
the United States were of a critical description. It
was, therefore, thought advisable to nominate, as
Lord Metcalfe's successor, a military Governor.
The Earl of Cathcart was appointed to the vacant
post. The storm, however, passed without bursting.
As he was appointed with a view to a crisis, of
which there was no longer any apprehension,
he petitioned to be relieved. Regarding himself
merely in the light of an ad interim administrator,
he abstained as much as possible from mixing him-
self up in political affairs, and left parties precisely
as he found them.

Such was the position of affairs in Canada when
the arduous duties of Governor-General were de-
volved upon Lord Elgin. On arriving at Montreal
he found the fragment of the Tory Cabinet still in
office. His instructions were evidently the reverse
of those given to Lord Metcalfe ; and he proceeded
to carry them out with a zeal and in a spirit which
reflect honour alike upon himself and those who
appointed him.

He soon found it impossible to carry on the
Government by means of the Ministry bequeathed
to him. At the close of 1847 he dissolved Par-
liament, and made a hondjide appeal to the people.
They responded to him with enthusiasm, and re-

turned an overwhelming liberal majority. Not
only was the entire French representation adverse
to the Ministry, but so also was that of Canada
West, the population of which is exclusively Anglo-
Saxon. The emasculated Draper ministry at length
retired, and the present, the Baldwin-Lafontaine ,
Cabinet acceded to power.

To the general reader much of the foregoing
may appear uninteresting ; but it was necessary, to
enable him thoroughly to understand the present
views and distribution of parties. It will help him
to appreciate the exact position of the faction in
opposition, and the objects of, as well as the mate-
rials of which is composed, the great united liberal
party in power.

To place in its true light the question raised by
the Rebellion Losses Bill, it will be necessary again
to go back a little, with a view to taking up a new
thread of the narrative.

The insurrection in both provinces was speedily
crushed, the number in arms being insignificant.
The country, however, was kept in a state of feverish
excitement for some months afterwards by the
piratical incursions of American sympathizers. The
bandits were repelled, and some of their leaders
captured and hanged. Both the rebellion and the
piratical expeditions which followed it occasioned,
with considerable loss of life, no little destruction of
property. In Lower Canada, where the insurrec-
tionary movement was most fomiidable, the loss
was greatest, both of life and property ; but, in
both provinces, the destruction of the latter was, to

i;!

a great extent, wanton and unnecessary. In Upper
Canada, the loyalists celebrated their first triumph
by a conflagration ; but the burning of Mont-
gomery's tavern was, as compared with other
incidents in the drama, an excusable event. Situ-
ated within four miles of the capital, it was, for
four days, the head-quarters of the rebels. When
the loyalists at length sallied forth and dispersed
them, it is no wonder that they revenged themselves
for their fright, for the trouble to which they were
put, and the risks to which they were subjected, by
firing the obnoxious caravansera. But nothing can
justify subsequent burnings, such, for instance, as
that of Mr. Gibson's house, four miles further back.
The owner was, no doubt, implicated in the re-
bellion ; but his house had neither been made a
fortress, nor a rallying-point for the insurgents ; yet
it was wantonly burnt to the ground by the express
order of Sir Francis Head. So unnecessary was
this act of sheer vengeance, that the Governor more
than once countermanded his own order for its
commission. The commanding officer of the day,
Colonel Fitzgibbon, remonstrated with him against
it ; and when at length the final order was given
liim, he was obliged to superintend its execution
himself the militia officers under his command
wctually refusing to carry it into effect. I mention
this, not as an isolated case, but as indicating the
manner in which, in the hour of their triumph, the
family compact gratified their vengeance, and gave
expression to a superfluous zeal, by the unnecessary
destruction of property.

The destruction of property which occurred both
necessary and wanton, fell not alone upon the rebels.
Numbers who took no part in the rebellion, as well
as some who were actively engaged in suppressing
it, suffered in this manner. Very little time was
permitted to elapse after its suppression, ere steps
were taken in both provinces for the indemnifi-
cation of the sufferers. In Lower Canada, where
the constitution was still suspended, an ordinance
was issued in 1838 by the Governor and Council
appointing Commissioners to inquire into and
report upon the losses sustained by the loyal inha-
bitants of the province during the rebellion. Con-
sidering in whose hands the province still was, it
is evident that by the loyal sufferers was meant
those attached to the dominant clique, who had
suffered. The Commissioners, in their fourth and
fifth Reports, return as good claims not amounting
in all to £.10,000. By a subsequent Act, pro-
vision was made for the payment of these claims.
In Upper Canada similar measures were taken, but
through more constitutional channels. On the 6th
of March, 1838, an Act was passed authorising
the appointment of Commissioners " to investigate
the claims of certain inhabitants of this province
for losses sustained during the late unnatural
rebellion." However deplorable — the rebellion,
considering the circumstances of the case, was
quite natural. In its first enacting clause, the Act
thus specifies the main duty of the Commissioners
— " to inquire into the losses so sustained by Her

((

I :

((

" Majesty's subjects during the late unnatural
" rebellion." How sustained? The j)reamble
will explain. " Whereas, during the late unna-
" tural rebellion, certain inhabitants of this pro-
" vince sustained much loss and damage by the
destruction of their dwellings and other buildings
by the rebels," &c. This Act was introduced
but a few months after the suppression of the insur-
rection, and was at the time regarded as having in
view the indemnification of some loyalists par ex-
cellence, in other words, of some Tory partisans,
whose property had been either wholly or partially
destroyed by the rebels. The Commission was
appointed, and claims were entered and adjudi-
cated upon.

It was whilst the Commission was in progress
that the House of Assembly hit upon the notable de-
vice of throwing, if possible, the burden of the losses
upon the Imperial Treasury. It will be recollected
tliat this was the House, which was elected in 1836
under the auspices of Sir F. B. Head, and which re-
presented, not the country, but the compact. It passed
a very loyal and dutiful address, praying Her M a-
jesty to make the people of England pay for losses
which were the consequences of its own misdeeds.
In reply to the despatch from Sir G. Arthur,
transmitting him this address. Lord Normanby,
then Colonial Secretary, expressed Her Majesty's
regret that she could " hold out no hope " that so
notable a proposition would be complied with.
Lord John Eussell, subsequently in a despatch to

((

the Right Hon. C. P. Thomson, Governor-General ,
alluding to the address in question, observes, that
the Lords of the Treasury, after considering the
matter, had decided " that the circumstances under
which the losses in question had been incurred,
are not such as to warrant an application to
Parliament for the indemnity prayed for."
The Commission in question having been em-
powered simply to inquire into losses sustained
by the rebellion, it became necessary in 1840, to
pass another Act, enabling the Governor to ap-
point Commissioners in each district, to inquire
into such losses as were entailed upon various par-
ties, by the piratical incursions of the American
sympathisers. These Commissioners were em-
powered to inquire into the " losses sustained by
" Her Majesty's subjects, and other residents
" within this province." At the same time, a
sum not exceeding £.40,000 was granted to defray
these losses, when made good. The Act is inti-
tuled, " An Act to ascertain and provide for the
payment of all just claims arising from the late
rebellion and invasion of this province." Here
no discrimination was made other than that be-
tween the actual rebels and those who were not in
arms against the Government. There is no attempt
made to exclude those from the benefit of the Act,
whom the soi-disant loyalists might choose to sus-
pect of having been implicated in the rebellion, or
of having had political sympathies with those who
had rebelled. But if such a distinction was in-

((

;^2

tended to be taken by the framers of the Act, we
find it rendered impossible by the letter and spirit
of a subsequent Act passed on the 17th of August,
1841, by the legislature of United Canada, for the
purpose of extending and enlarging the last-men-
tioned Act. Much of the damage incurred in both
provinces, particularly in Lower Canada, was the
wanton work, not of the rebels, but of the loyalists,
who, in wreaking their vengeance upon the rebels,
destroyed the property of many Liberals, whom
they suspected of having political sympathies with
them. To meet such cases, this Act further em-
powered the Commissioners to inquire into the
validity of " claims and demands which have ac-
crued to any such persons (Her l^.Iajesty's sub-
jects and other residents) by such losses, in
respect of any loss, destruction, or damage of
property occasioned by violence on the part of
persons in Her Majesty's service, or by violence
on the part of persons acting or assuming to act
on behalf of Her Majesty," &c. The Commis-
sioners thus empowered proceeded with the inquiry,
and thus matters stood until 1845, when, during
the government of Lord Metcalfe, and when the
present Canadian opposition were in power, another
Act was passed authorising the issue of debentures
for the final settlement of the claims.

This recapitulation of the course of legislation
with regard to Upper Canada, was necessary to
show the precise character of the present Bill, and
the exact position of parties with respect to it. It

((

tof

nee

act

mis-

livy,
•ing
the
ther
lures

tioii

y to

and

is a course of legislation which was both initiated
and completed by the Tories. Viewed apart from
all consideration of motive, it reflects the reverse of
discredit upon them. It enabled all who had
suffered by the rebellion, except such as were taken
in arms, or convicted of treason, or who had con-
fessed their guilt, to claim compensation for their
losses. Not a voice was raised against it, and no
one dreamt of objecting to it, as discouraging
loyalty and rewarding rebellion.

We have already seen that, at a very early
period, a movement of a similar nature, but to a
limited extent, had been made in Lower Canada.
It was obvious, however, that strict justice required
that both provinces should be dealt with alike.
hKT-^"[But no matter what might be the justice of his
^l- ' claim, the bare idea of compensating a French
Canadian was distasteful to the British faction in
Lower Canada, particularly the clique, which
ruled it in Montreal. It was not long, however,
after their accession to power, as already explained,
under Lord Metcalfe, ere they and their Upper
Canada allies began to feel the want of Parlia-
mentary support. Their majority was dwindling
away, and the disagreeable alternative was pre-
sented to them of a speedy retirement from office,
or a violation of the Constitution. They had but
two sources whence to recruit their failing strength,
— either from the Anglo-Saxon population of th(^
Upper, or the French Canadians of the Lower
Provhice. From the former, for the time being at

Hi:

least, they could expect no support whatever. In
this emergency they did not scruple to lay regular
siege to the latter.

How to huy them over was the difficulty. They
are accused of having, for tliis purpose, recalled
Papineau, the " arch-traitor," from Paris. If they
did, they reckoned without their host, for his
influence with his countrymen was gone. His
mantle had fallen on Lafontaine ; and, judging
of the corruptihiUty of others from their knowledge
of themselves, they even attempted to gain him
over. With this view, they went so far even as to
meditate a virtual repeal of the Union. They con-
templated a system of double majorities in a united
Cabinet, by which the English Members should
rule the Upper, and the French the Lower
Province. It was, of course, with the Upper
Canada Tories that this scheme chiefly found
favour. They failed, however, in their object. The
French were true to their liberal instincts, and
remained faithful to their Upper Canada allies. If
the Tories could not attach to themselves the whole
French interest, they thought they could divide it ;
and with this view conferred upon M. Vigor the
Presidency of the Council. But he had no weight
in the scale against Lafontaine, and here, too, they
were foiled. It was for the same object, to acquire
popularity and support amongst the French, that
they at length hit upon the device of indemnifying
the sufferers by the rebellion in Lower, as they had
already compensated those in Upper Canada. The

reader may be surprised at finding that this \vt)
measure of indemnification, which is now exciting
such a ferment in the Province, was originated by
those who are at present so violently opposed to it.
How far that which they proposed was identical
with that which the Liberals have since carried
out, will be seen by still further pursuing the
narrative.

The measure was one of justice ; but it was
notorious that with them it was one of policy. The
first step taken towards it, was on the 28th of
February, 1845, when an address to Lord Metcalfe
was moved by them, and unanimously adopted by
the Legislative Assembly, praying that His Excel-
lency would be pleased " to secure proj)er measures
to be taken, in order to ensure to the inhabitants
of that part of the Province, formerly Lower
Canada, indemnity for just losses by them
sustained during the rebellions of 1837-38."
This was precisely the object contemplated, as
regarded the Upper Canadian sufferers, by the Act
introduced, as already alluded to, by the family
compact into the Parliament of Upper Canada in
October 1840, and extended and enlarged by the
Act of the subsequent year, passed by the legislature
of the United Provinces. We have already seen
that the former Act, as extended and enlarged by
the subsequent one, w^as, in its scope and object,
just and reasonable — those only being excluded
from the benefits of its operation, who were either
convicted of treason, or notoriously or confessedly

traitors. Tluit, tluMcforo, wliicli was contomplated
by this address, voted to Lord ^Ictcalfe under the
auspices of his Tory Cabinet, with respect to tlie
liower Canadian sufferers, was identical with that
which had been done by the same parties in reii:ard
to tlie sufferers in the U])per l*rovince. No one
raised a word against a proposal which was both
reasonable and just, and had the sanction of a
])recedent. If then; was any difference of opinion
respecting it, it concerned, not the proposition itself,
but tlie motives in wliich it had originated.

The next step taken was on the 2'4th November,
1845, when a Commission of five was appointed, to
carry out the prayer of the Address. On the 18th
of April, 184G, the Commissioners report " that
the want of power to proceed to a strict and
regular investigation of the claims in question,
" left them no other resource than to trust to the
" allegations of the claimants as to the amount and
" nature of their claims." Previously to this, how-
ever, that is to say, on the 27th February, 1846,
the Earl of Cathcart then administering the affairs
of the Province, the provincial secretary informed
the Commissioners " that the object of the Execu-
" tive Government in appointing them was merely
" to obtain a general estimate of the rebellion
" losses, the particulars of which should form the
" subject of more minute inquiry hereafter^ under
" legislative authoriti/y Claims to the amount of
upwards of £.200,000 were preferred to the Com-
mission. Of these a large proportion was declared

((

i.i

to be spcciihitivc; ujkI iiuidinissiblc. The rest were
rc^ceived, iiiid a round sum was niuncd by tlie Com-
missioners as their " general estimate" of the extent
of the losses, for which indemnity might be
claimed. In the Report of the 16th of April, 184(),
in wlucli they allude to the limited nature of their
powers, they say, inter alia, that they " are of
opinion that the sum of JtM()0,()()() would be
nearly equivalent to the losses suffered, and
'' sufficient to meet the amount of such claims as
" shall have been made the object of a closer
" examination."

It is desirable that the reader should bear in
mind that, so far, the matter proceeded under the
sole auspices of the Draper Government, — tliat is
to say, of the party now headed by the IM^Nabs,
the Sherwoods, the Cayleys, and other political
characters equally respectable. But they were again
baffled in their great object, that of obtaining
French-Canadian support. That they wxn'e impelled
by this motive to what they did, and not by a sense
of justice, is obvious from the fact that tlie matter
was dropi)ed the moment that its party inutility
was put beyond a doubt, no further steps being
taken in it, although the Tory Cabinet remained
(or nearly two years longer in power. AV'lien the
Liberals acceded to office, then, matters stood thus.
The sufferers in Upper Canada had been indemni-
fied on a principle, and to an extent of which no
one thought of complaining. Steps w^ere afterwards
taken by the Tories to indemnify the sufferers in
Lo^vcr Canada, on the same principle, and to the

same extent ; but this second measure of indemni-
iicationjust though it was admitted to be, was sus-
pended, ere it was matured, and simply because it
became obvious that its completion would fail in
effecting the sinister object for which it had been
undertaken.

Lord Elgin was not long in discovering the ano-
malous position of the Cabinet which had been
bequeathed to him by his predecessor. Its exist-
ence, long: after it had lost the confidence of the
country, was a scandal on the Constitution.
Desirous of carrying honestly out the principle of
responsible Government to which he was instructed
to adhere, Lord Elgin, about the close of 1847,
gave it an opportunity, by dissolving Parliament,
of strengthening its position, if it had any hold
whatever upon the country. The election which
ensued was conducted under the auspices of the
Tory Government ; and yet, as Lord Elgin remarks
in his admirable despatch, on the first vote raising
a question of confidence in them, they were de-
feated in the new Parliament by two to one.
Their consequent retirement was welcomed by one
universal shout of satisfaction, from Lake Huron to
the Gulf.

The Baldwin-Lafontaine cabinet succeeded, and
Lord Elgin found himself, at length, surrounded
by men sustained by a working parliamentary
majority. They had much to do ; for two years of
irresponsible rule had left the business of the
Province greatly in arrear. Even had they been
disposed to shrink from it, it is not likely that they

could long have postponed caiTying into eftect the
pledge of indemnity given by the preceding Govern-
ment to the Lower Canadians. But they were not
so disposed, and took the earliest opportunity that
offered for providing for their indemnification. In
doing this, did they start any new project of their
own, based upon a new principle of compensation ?
So far from this, they simply took ttp the measure
of the Tories, just where the Tories had dropped it.

The first public step was taken by them in
Parliament on the 27 th of February last. On that
day was submitted to the House a series of resolu-
tions, preparatory to the introduction oi a bill, the
submission of which was the signal for the ini-
quitous agitation which has since disturbed the
tranquillity of the Province. To judge aught of the
conduct of the opposition, a brief consideration is
necessary of the nature of the resolutions.

They were seven in number. The first four
merely recapitulated the steps already described,
as having been taken by the Tories for the indemni-
fication of the sufferers in Lower Canada, from the
address voted by them to the Governor, to the final
report and recommendation of the Commissioners.
The sixth provides for the means of paying the
indemnity ; the seventh having reference to deben-
tures issued under a former Act. The fifth and
main resolution was as follows : —

Resolved, — " That in order to redeem the pledge
given to the sufferers of such losses, or their bond
fide creditors, assigns, or ay ant droit, as well
by the said Address of the said Legislative

: i

Assembly, and the appointment of the said Com-
mission, as by the said letter so addressed by the
Honourable the said Provincial vSecretary, it is
necessary and just tliat the particulars of such
losses not yet paid and satisfied, should form the
subject of more minute inquiry under Legislative
authority; and that the said losses so far only as
they have arisen from the total or partial unjust,
unnecessary or wanton destruction of the dwell-
ings, bidldings, pro})erty and effects of the said
inliabitants, and by the seizure, taking or carry-
ing away of their property and effects, should be
paid and satisfied : Provided, that none of the
persons who have been convicted of high treason
alleged to have been committed in that part of
this Province formerly liOwer Canada, since the
first day of November, 1837, or who, having
been charged with high treason, or other offences
of a treasonable nature, and having been com-
mitted to the custody of the Sheriff in the Gaol
" of Montreal, submitted themselves to the will and
pleasure of 11 er Majesty, and were thereupon
transported to Pier Majesty's Island of Bermuda —
shall be entitled to any indemnity for losses sus-
tained during or after the said llebellion, or
in consequence thereof"
If what has just been related be correct, and it
cannot be disputed, it is evident that had the
Ministry anticipated any resistance to the course
which they were taking, the Opposition must have
been the last source whence they could have
e\})ected it to emanate. It was the measure con-

((

(,i

((

(;

templated, and partly executed by themselves when
in power, and taken up by their successors at the
point where they had dropped it. Instead of
resistance, the Ministry had every reason to look
for the most strenous support from the occupants
of the opposition benches. Yet no sooner did
they move in the matter, than the opposition
adopted a line of conduct, without a parallel even
in the most discreditable annals of party. The
most violent resistance was at once offered to the
resolutions ; and not only this, but from the very
first the most menacing language was resorted to,
accompanied by a degree of ferocity and a reckless-
ness of consequences, which would have been
disgraceful to a horde of savages.

As the first four resolutions merely affirmed a
series of occurrences, yet fresh in the recollection of
all, it was natural to suppose that they, at least,
would ha'se passed unresisted. But not so ; for on
the first resolution being put, an endeavour was
made to falsify the whole. Mr. Cayley moved
an amendment to the effect, that it was in order
to ascertain the losses suffered by the loyal inhabi-
tants of the i'rovince, that the Address alluded to
had been voted to the Governor. As it never was
. in the contemplation of any one to indemnify actual
rebels, the scope of this amendment finds its only
illustration in the spirit of the mover and his
clique, Mr. Cayley being one of those who confine
loyalty in Upper Canada to the adherents of the
Family Compact, and to those of the Scotch party
in the Lower Province. This being well under-

stood by the House, the amendment was rejected
by a vote of fifty-two to twenty ; its object being to
exclude from the indemnity a large body of French
Canadians, against whom no treasonable charge had
been, or could be preferred. The amendment having
been negatived, the first four resolutions were
agreed to, the vote, as before, being fifty-two to
twenty. The great battle was of course on the
|/(fifth resolution. Notwithstanding that its object
was to redeem the jiledge given by themselves,
and to subject, as contemplated by themselves, to
" more minute Legislative inquiry," those claims,
of which their own Commission was empowered to
make but a " general estimate," it was resisted in a
manner, which argued that the opposition had
either lost their memories, or had become callous
to all sense of shame or decency. An amendment
was moved to it by the same Mr. Cayley, similar in
spirit to the other amendment, which was also
rejected by the House, the vote being fifty-one to
twenty-one. Mr. Robinson, brother to the Chief
Justice of Upper Canada, the root and trunk
of the family tree, then moved an amendment,
to exclude from indemnity any person " in
" any manner implicated in the said rebellion,"
&c. This, Mr. Robinson and his party being
the interpreters, would have embraced all those
Avho had had political sympathies with the rebels
previous to the outbreak. This amendment was
also rejected, by a vote of forty-six to twenty-six.
Another amendment was moved, excluding all who
" aided, assisted, or abetted the said rebellion."

This was also levelled against the whole body of
the French Canadians, and like its predecessors,
was rejected — the vote in this instance being
forty-four to twenty-eight. Colonel Prince then
moved an amendment, limiting the indemnity to
loyalists -'and none others." The whole object
of the bill would have been lost were the task
of distinguishing the loyalists from the " none
" others," to have devolved on this quondam Chel-
tenham attorney. The amendment was negatived
by a vote of fifty-two to seventeen. No further im-
pediment was offered, and the fifth resolution was
finally agreed to by a vote of forty-eight to twenty-
three. The sixth and seventh were afterwards
agreed to, whereupon Mr. Lafontaine introduced a
bill founded upon the resolutions.

Nothing can be more unreasonable than the
charge preferred against the Cabinet and their par-
liamentary majority, by the local opposition and
their abettors at home, that, by resisting these
amendments, they evidenced their determination to
extend the indemnity to those who had actually
been guilty of treason. It must be borne in mind
that, if their opponents objected to the resolutions
because they might include the fjuilty, they resisted
the amendments, because their object and tendency
was to exclude the innocent. It was during the
discussion on those amendments that Mr. Blake,
the Solicitor-General for Canada West, made that
powerful, eloquent, and convincing speech, which
exposed the selfish and unscrupulous conduct of the
opposition in a manner which well nigh drove

\i i

-ifp'

lfB«

them to desperation. But, independently of the
reasons which existed for opposing the amendments,
a sufficient refutation of the calumny alluded to is
to be found in the very terms of the fifth resolution.
By the last section of it two classes of persons are
expressly excluded — those who were convicted of
treason, and those who, having confessed their
guilt, were sent temporarily to the Island of Ber-
muda, by Lord Durham. The Government contem-
plated nothing more than compensation for just
losses, sustained during the rebellion. Such was the
compensation given in Upper Canada, under the
auspices of the opposition, when in power, none
having been excluded then, but such as had been
actually guilty of treason. Such, also, was the
compensation contemplated by the same opposition
when in power, for the sufferers in Lower Canada,
their intention having been to exclude none but
such as had been actually guilty of treason. But
they were not now satisfied that their own pre-
cedent should be followed out, or their own inten-
tions carried into effect by their opponents. They
could not urge that either the precedent or the in-
tention had been departed from. Their alternative
was to imagine a sinister motive on the part of
the Cabinet, and ostensibly to base their opposition
upon their own disinterested suspicions. " Look,"
cried they, " not to the measure itself, but to those
" who propose it." They alleged that the Cabinet
was French Canadian, and rebel, and that its
object was to tax the loyalists for the benefit of
French Canadian rebels. How far thcv were

correct in saying that the Cabinet was French will
be afterwards considered. And wlio were the
rebels which this French Cabinet was thus accused
of favouring'? In the estimation of the Tories,
every French Canadian claiming indemnity was
prima facie a rebel. They, therefore, insisted that
before receiving indemnity his conduct, for the last
twelve years, should be inquired into, a course which,
if pursued, would have infused additional acerbity
into the rekindled political animosities of 1837.
No such odious inquisition was made a condition
to indemnity in Upper Canada ; nor was such con-
templated for the Lower Province, by the opposi-
tion, when they originated the present measure.
They acted in the one case, and proposed to act in
the other, on the prudent principle of letting
by-gones be by-gones, and of excluding from the
indemnity only those who had been shown to have
been actually guilty of treason, either by conviction
or confession. They would not, however, permit
their opponents thus to act, but recklessly urged
them to a course, which, if pursued, would have
been perilous to the peace of the Province. As the
bill progressed through its different stages the
conduct of the opposition became more and more
outrageous, and the agitaticn which they ex-
cited was sustained by riots and monster meet-
ings. But, notwithstanding the resistance offered
in parliament and out of doors, the bill passed by
large majorities, whereupon it Avas sent to the
Governor-CTeneral for approval. It was evident
tliat, Ill's KxrolJeiiCY hnfi. iirKlf]* tIh^ rirrumstances.

•I

but one course to take ; and the excitement was
kept up, not so much to dissuade him from appro-
ving of the measure, as, if possible, to lioodwink the
British Government and public. The lloyal assent
was given to the bill by the Governor-General on
the 25th of April, when the English rabble of
Montreal were incited by their leaders first to insult
the Queen's representative, and afterwards to the
commission of those acts of riot, pillage and arson,
Avhich appropriately consummated an agitation
iniquitous in its conception, treasonable in its ten-
dencies, and reckless in its conduct.

The reader will here pause to observe that con-
duct so extraordinary on the part of a set of men
affecting to have the slightest regard for the decen-
cies of political warfare, must have been prompted
by some extraordinary motive, which requires ex-
planation. To those acquainted with the position
of the faction, and the character of those who lead
it, the explanation is an easy one. From first to
last, their whole conduct resolves itself into a reck-
less attempt at regaining power.

It may be mortifying to many in this country,
who have been led away by the pretence that the
question was one of imperial concern, to find that,
after all, they have been but betrayed, more or less,
into playing the game of a despicable and despe-
rate provincial faction. But so it is, nevertheless —
the whole affair on the part of the Canadian Tories
having been neither more nor less than a reckless
party evolution. The illustration of their tactics is
to be found in the explanation, which has already

been given of the conduct and relative positions of
Canadian pai'ties. Most of the Tory leaders being
needy, penniless opposition was found to be exces-
sively inconvenient. But Lord Elgin's evident
determination to adhere strictly to the principle of
responsible Government, had postponed, indefinitely,
their prospects of a return to power. Having but
little chance with the new principle of Government,
their only resource was to endeavour to revert to
the old — in other words, the unjust, odious, and
exploded principle of enabling the minority, backed
by the Colonial Office at home, to override the
majority in the province. This, whilst the true,
is also the most respectable explanation that can
be given of their conduct. It was for this, and
this alone, that they endeavoured by seeking to in-
vest the question with an imperial character, to
excite sympathies favourable to them in the
Mother Country. At first they were not altogether
unsuccessful, but the tide has now turned hope-
lessly against them.

The Morning Chronicle was the first to sound the
tocsin at home. That journal, usually so discriminat-
ing, either could not or would not see that rebels
being expressly excluded from the proposed indem-
nity, the question resolved itself into one of mere
local import, and thatin dealing with it, the Canadian
people should be left entirely to themselves. Nor
would it admit the mere party character and
objects of the agitation, which the question had
excited, although it was notorious, from first to
last, that the line of demarcation between the

>''

I „

two parties, was singularly coincident with that
which separated them at the last general election.
It, at once, took up the question, as an imperial
one, and in contending for the dignity of the Crown
and the integrity of the l^lmpire, neither of which
were in the slightest degree compromised, warmly
espoused the cause of the soi-disant imperialists in
tlic province, with " annexation " on their lips.

But on wliat ground is this assumed to be an
imperial question? The bill merely contemplates
the appropriation of local funds for a local purpose.
If treason were to be rewarded bv it, the case
would be different. But as the proposed compen-
sation, like that given in Upper Canada, is only
to embrace just losses, it cannot be said that treason
is to be rewarded by it. Besides, the time for
taking exception to it, as an imperial question,, is past.
If there is anything, cither in the principle or in
the objects of this bill, incompatible with the dig-
nity of the Crown or the interests of the Empire,
so also was there that which was equally exception-
able in the Upper Canada Bill passed by the Tories,
and likewise in the course which they after-
wards pursued, in initiating the measure for the
Lower Province. How was it that objection was not
then taken "? Simply because no good ground for
objection existed. And if none existed then, none
exist now. To oppose this bill on the ground of
its being objectionable, in an imperial point of
view, is only on the part of the abettors of Canadian
Toryism at home, to stultify and inculpate their
pro^inci^l proteges. But it may be said that an

ir in

cion-

ries,

heir
an

oversight committed in the one case does not jus-
tify its repetition in the other. But there was no
oversight. In the former, as in the present case,
the question was simply a local one, and it was
treated as such, both in the colony and the ^lother
Country. And this would have been similarly
viewed by all parties; but for the exigencies of a
desperate faction, and it is of the last importance
that the imperial authorities should refuse to fur-
ther the views of that faction, by recognising a
difference between the two cases, a difference,
which, if it have any foundation on which to rest,
must solely rest upon the dangerous one of distinc-
tions of race.

It would be amusing, were it not also somewhat
painful to witness the readiness with which many
here, who have aided and abetted the factious
movement in the province, fell into the trap there
laid for them, by the cry of " No compensation to
" French rebels." The object of this cry was two-
fold, to rouse, if possible, a hostile feeling between
the two races in the province by which the Tories
might profit, and ride into power, and to secure
for them, in case the first object should fail, the
support of the home authorities, by exciting the
sympathies of their kindred in the Mother Country.
They are now as likely to fail here, as they have
already done in the province ; although the public
mind here seemed for a moment to be favourably
disposed tow^ards them. Such of their organs as
were carried awav bv the " French -Ilebel" cry,

accused the present cabinet of being a French
Canadian Cabinet. This was tantamount, in tlieir
estimation, and it was meant as such, to designate
them a rebel cabinet. The sequitiir here is neither
complimentary nor logical. But what is meant by
the assertion that the cabinet is French Canadian t
If it mean that the cabinet has the support of the
great body of the French Canadian population, it
may be so — but if it mean that the men composing
the cabinet, or the majority of them, are French
Canadians, or that it has no support but that which
the French Canadians give it, the assertion is utterly
groimdless. The cabinet, as will presently be
shown, commands the confidence, not only of the
French Canadians, but also of the bulk of the
Anglo-Saxon population of the province, whilst a
large majority of those composing it are of Anglo-
Saxon origin, representing Anglo-Saxon consti-
tuencies. The supposed taint arises from their
being some French Canadians in the cabinet, and
from its being supported, out of doors, by the
French Canadian people. But if this constitutes it
a conclave of rebels, wliat are we to say of the
cabinet which preceded it ? If Baldwin is asso-
ciated with liafontaine, so was Draper with
Vigor. This last named gentleman was not only
suspected of being a traitor, but was actually in
gaol as such, and with the exception of Papineau,
who had fled, there was no man, for whose blood
the loyalists imr cjccellencc of Lower Canada, so
much thirsted as for Viger's. Yet this man was

)nly
in
au,
ood
so
I was

President of tlic Council, during the Draper ad-
ministration. Nor was lie tlie only Frenchman
associated with the British Tories. So far, then, as
the mixed constitution of the Cabinet went, that of
Mr. Draper was as much a rebel Cabinet as is that
of Mr. Baldwin. If it was not so much so as regards
the sources of its support out of doors, it was not for
want of the will, but of the ability to complete its
infamy. I have already drawn attention to some of
its devices, for the purpose of conciliating tlu^
French population. From whatever motive Pa-
pineau was recalled, certain it is that, after his
return to the province, the Tories lavished every
favour upon him, in order to secure the support of
his countrymen. The worst case that the Chronicle
could make against the proceedings of the present
Government was that, under them, such men as
Papineau and M'Kenzie could receive compen-
sation. Even wev(^ there grounds for such an
allegation, it came but ill from a quarter in which
the battl') of Canadian toryism had been so ob-
stinately fought. Papineau fled, a proclaimed
traitor, from Canada. He was recalled by Lord
Metcalfe's Government — the present opposition.
On his return, he entered into the quiet enjoyment
of his property, which had never been confiscated.
He was also restored to all political rights, forfeited
by treason, and is now, once more, a representative
of the people. Nor was this all. As Speaker of
the House of Assembly, his salary had, previously
to the rebellion, got considerably into arrcar. At

tlie time of the outbreak, tlie Government wliich
proclaimed him a traitor, owed him, in this respect,
iup wards of £.4000. Of course this little account
was also forfeited by treason ; yet it was paid to
jhim nevertheless, and by the Chronicles proteges
in Canada. And whilst this was the manner in
wliich tliey treated the " arch traitor," in other
words, him who had excited the insurrection in
Lower Canada, how did they act by Colonel Fitz-
gibbon, who, by dispersing the insurgents at Mont-
gomery's hill, crushed the rebellion in the Upper
Proviii'"e \ They paid him exactly one-half the sum
previously voted him by the Liberals, whom they
now stigmatize as rebels. Dr. Wolfred Nelson
who has been held up as such an ogre, has also
come witliin the sunshine of their favours. It is
true that they did not indemnify him for his dis-
mantled house, but they conferred official appoint-
ments both on him and on his friends. His claim
for £.23,000 was, as he himself explains, simply
put in, not in the expectation of its being allowed,
but to vindicate the rights of others. When he saw
that persisting in it w^ould damage the cause of many
innocent sufferers, he himself seconded an amend-
ment in the committee, in which the resolutions
Avere first considered, excluding himself and others
similarly situated from the indemnity. I am aware
that all this is aside of the main issue, which has
reference only to the merits of the present Bill ; but
I mention it as illustrating how ill it becomes the
Canadian Tories and their advocates at home to

ions
lers
are
has
but
the
'. to

denounce the measure as one under wliich such
men as Papmeau could claim compensation, seeing
that they themselves have compensated Papineau
for all his losses. It also shows the inconsistency,
to say nothing of the dishonesty, of those who now
seek to calumniate the present Cabinet for being-
successful in conciliating those whose support they
themselves resorted to every trick, but in vain to
secure. Many talk here as if responsible and con-
stitutional Government could be conducted in
Canada, with the French left entirely out of sight.
This is impossible. The population is a mixed one
of English and French, and no Government can
stand unless they have the support of the majority.
To denounce, then, as a rebel Cabinet, that which
has acquired this support of the majority is an
ineffable absurdity. The two races are now, for
good or for evil, politically speaking, in the same
boat; and that which is regarded as just or expe-
dient for one cannot safely be withheld from the
other.

But both here and in the Province there are
those who believe, or affect to believe, that the two
races can and should be differently dealt with.
They regard the fact that the money is, in this
case, to go into French pockets, whereas, in
the other, it went into those of Anglo-Saxons, as
drawing a broad line of demarcation between the
two measures. The Bill for Upper Canada, they
argue, was unexceptionable, inasmuch as it was to
apply to that section of the United Province in

which the rebels were few and the loyalists
numerous ; whilst that for Lower Canada applies to
that section of the United Province in which the
loyalists w^erc few and the rebels numerous. In
the one case they think that there was but little
probability of any but loyalists being indemnified,
whereas in the other, it is assumed that all, or the
majority of those, who are to receive indemnity were
rebels. But this species of self-deception, I cannot
call it reasoning, is founded upon the gratuitous
assumption, that the whole French Canidian popu-
lation was tainted with rebellion, whilst but few of
the inhabitants of Upper Canada were so. Let us
see what grounds there are for this assumption.
Proscribed, insulted, and oppressed as the French
Canadians were anterior to 1837, it was no wonder
that they rallied almost to a man around leaders
wlio, whatever might have been their objects at a
later stage of their political action, commenced
their career with the honest desire of improving
the social and political position of their countrymen.
It is not to be denied that, linked together as they
were by ties of blood and creed, and by a sense of
common injustice and oppression, they had common
sympathies, which permeated the whole body of the
French Canadian population. In 1837, a few of
them, and but a few of them, rebelled ; but more
than nine-tenths of them remained quiescent, and
took no part whatever in the treasonable projects
of those who were in arms. Their political sym-
pathies were with them up to the rebellion, but by

?cts

no overt act did they prove that their sympathies
embraced the rebelUon itself within their range.
Certainly by no overt act did they either aid or
abet it. In Upper Canada precisely the same
occurred. There, too, but a few of the Liberals
Avere in arms. But it would be a great mistake to
suppose that the political sympathies of the great
body of the Liberal party were with the family
compact, or the loyalists j'ar excellence. On the
contrary, they were with those who had rebelled
up to the point of the rebellion. That they sym-
pathised with, or aided or abetted the movement in
any way, w^as proved by no overt act on their part.
Under these circumstances no one has been hardy
enough to accuse the great bulk of the Liberal
party in Ur for Canada of having been rebels.
How, then. ,)arallel being complete between

their conduct tind that of the great bulk of the
Liberal party in Lower Canada, can the latter be,
with any decency, accused of treason ? Such an
accusation is as malicious as it is absurd. Begotten
in malice, it has been propagated by selfishness,
prejudice, and ignorance. The fault of a few
Liberals in Upper Canada, is not magnified into
the crime of all, but the fault of a few Liberals in
Lower Canada is magnified into the crime of all.
And whilst the fault of a few of their number is
thus tenaciously remembered, and all are unjustly
involved in it, their loyalty, sacrifices, and services
during the revolutionary war and the war with
\merica in 1812, as well as at several intervening

Mi;

I:;

% .'

periods, when their defection would have been most
disastrous, are carefully forgotten. Is this just — is it
generous] During the brief period of the insur-
rection, the destruction of property, as in Upper
Canada, fell, but to a much greater extent, upon
the innocent, as well as upon the guilty in the
Lower Province. It was also, in many instances,
as wanton as in the upper country, whilst, in some,
it was accompanied with a peculiar degree of
ferocity. In one case a body of transplanted is-
landers, equipped and organised, in a border county,
made a descent upon a Canadian village. They
left their homes a body of infantry, and returned
to them a body of cavalry. They carried dismay
and devastation wherever they went, extorting,
under an extemporised gibbet, from the terrified
inhabitants, such secrets, with respect to the insur-
gents, as they might possess. It was thus that the
loyalty of Glengarry was established, beyond a
doubt in Beauharnois. It is for such wanton and
unnecessary destruction that compensation is now
sought to be given, and it is for such that compen-
sation would be withheld by the M'^Nab party, if
there was reason to suspect that the sufferers were
implicated (how vague the word), in the rebellion.
The Chronicle would throw upon them the onus of
proving their loyalty, ere they could establish a
title to compensation. But not so. Deprivation
of property is part of the varied penalties of un-
successful treason. A large class of persons have
been deprived, in whole or in part, of their

property, without having been even charged with
treason, and so long as they are not even charged
wdth treason, it is inconsistent to call upon them to
prove their loyalty. View the matter which way
you will, there is not the shadow of a reason for
withholding this indemnity, unless the re-instating
of a minority in power, or the fact that the recipients
of the indemnity will be British subjects having
French instead of Anglo-Saxon blood in their
veins, be good reasons for withholding it.

And this brings me to consider the point, in
reference to which the most groundless fallacies have
been propagated, that the question as raised by
the Bill, involves a ivar of races. Many have
been led to believe that the two parties confronting
each other are French Canadians on the one side, and
British Canadians on the other. The population
of United Canada is at this moment about 1,500,000
souls. Of these there are about 780,000 in Lower
and about 720,000 in Upper Canada. In the latter
the population is exclusively Anglo-Saxon, whereas
in the former the Anglo-Saxons do not much exceed
130,000. This leaves 650,000 as the French Cana-
dian population, and 850,000 as the combined
British population of the two provinces. It follows
that, if parties were arrayed against each other in
the manner above indicated, that is to say, the
Cabinet and the French Canadians on the one side,
and M'^Nab and the Anglo-Saxons on the other,
the Cabinet would be in a very decided minority.
How comes it, then, that they command so large a

majority ; the average majority cu all the divisions
on the bill having been from 30 to 32. This, in a
House of 84, is equivalent to a majority of 242 in
a House of 658. It arises simply from this — That
there is no such division of parties as is alleged ; in
other words that the bill has not given rise to a war
of races. If it had, the M^Nab party would com-
mand a large majority, whereas, in fact, it musters
only a small minority. It is when it has put forth its
greatest strength that it has most completely shown
its utter weakness. And what has come of that
portion of the Anglo-Saxon population, which de-
clines the leadership of M^'Nab and his instruments'?
The simple answer is that it is in harmonious action
with the French. It is from the fusion and good
understanding of the two that the cabinet derives
its strength. Nor is it a portion only, but the
greater portion of the Anglo-Saxons, who are thus
in harmony with their French-Canadian fellow
subjects. The present government, with all the
French, carries with it the majority of the Anglo-
Saxon constituencies. It has the support of the
majority of the representatives from Upper Canada.
At the same time it must be borne in mind that
all the Liberal members from the Anglo-Saxon
portion of the province represent counties and large
constituencies, whilst most, if not all, on the other
side, represent small constituencies and rotten
boroughs, — the Horshams^ and Yarmouths of
Canada. Thus, with the majority of all the con-
stituencies, they may be said to have the support

of all the large ones in Upper Canada. The
M^'Nab-Sherwood clique cannot at this n^jment
muster 250,000 supporters in all Upper Canada.
Giving them the whole of the British population of
Lower Canada, the aggregate number of their
followers will not exceed 380,000. They have
this number to set off against the remaining 470,000
in Upper Canada. Setting the French, therefore,
aside, and leaving the Anglo-Saxons to fight the
matter out amongst themselves, the turbulent
clique in opposition would have but little chance
of success. But when to this Anglo-Saxon majority
is added the whole body of the French Canadians,
it gives a strength to the Government which their
opponents are maddened to contemplate. Let us
hear no more, then, of the bill giving rise to a war
of races. The division of parties upon it, instead
of proving the existence of such a war, affords
cheering indications of the fusion, and not the
disruption of races. As divided upon it, the parties
stand thus: 650,000 French Canadians, plus
470,000 Anglo-Saxons, versus 380,000 Anglo-
Saxons. As to this cry, the boot is on quite the
other leg, for it is they who are inciting to a war of
races, who would interpose, as a wedge, the mino-
rity of the Anglo-Saxons between the French
Canadians and the majority of the Anglo-Saxons,
who are now acting in harmony with them.

Let this be well pondered upon. If anything is
calculated to excite a war of races in the Province
it is the establishment of a different measure of

i.'. I

justice, as respects tlic two races inhabiting it. It
is this that the opposition arc bent upon effecting —
it is this that Lord Elgin and liis Cabinet are bent
upon preventing. The object of the Bill is simply
to do for the French Canadians that which has
already been done without a murmur for their
Anglo-Saxon fellow-subjects. The powers vested
by it in the Commission of Inquiry are identical
with those vested in the Upper Canadian Commis-
sion by the Act of 1840, as extended and enlarged
by the subsequent Act of 1841. This being so, if
the Bill is rejected, the French Canadians will be
thereby taught that the great barrier to their ob-
taining justice is to be found in their descent.
Could anything be more calculated than this to
give rise to a war of races ]

But it is urged by the provincial Tories, and
reiterated by their advocates here, that, even ad-
mitting the Government to possess a Parliamentary
majority, representing the bulk not only of the
whole people, but also of the Anglo-Saxons them-
selves, inasmuch as the present House was not
elected in contemplation of such a measure. Lord
Elgin should, in deference to the feeling of hostility
which had been manifested to it, have dissolved
Parliament and appealed to the people. But why
resort to a dissolution, when there was no antagonism
between Parliament and the Cabinet ? " Because,"
say those who urge it, " both Parliament and the
Cabinet are, in this matter, in antagonism with
the people." But it is for the people to show

((

this. Have they done so ? 80 far from this, they
have sustained their representatives in all that they
done ; not one Liberal Member from either section
of the Province having received the slightest indi-
cation from his constituents that they disapproved
of his conduct. Lord Elgin has very properly
refused to treat the noisy ravings of a faction as the
exponent of public sentiment on the subject ; and
nothing can be more preposterous than for a
minority to call for a dissolution, when the Cabinet,
Parliament, and the public, are in harmony with
each other. In proof of the true state of public
feeling we now find, as was expected, that meetings
are being held everywhere in Upper (Anglo-Saxon)
Canada, to express their confidence in Lord Elgin,
and testify their abhorrence of the late frantic and /
atrocious proceedings in jNIontreal. If they were
confident that the people were really with them,
the course of the Tories was to have persisted in
demanding a dissolution. But, by shifting their
ground, as they have latterly done, and petitioning
the Home Government for the recal of Lord Elgin,
they virtually acknowledge themselves the minority.
To demand the recal of the Go>'ernor-Gencral,
because, in shaping his local policy, he has deferred
to the opinions of the great body of the people,
expressed through the constitutional channel of
Parliament, is in wonderful keeping with the whole
conduct of those who have just been signalizing
their loyalty by tumult and arson.

Again, it is charged against the Government

^^y

■<i

that the Upper House was packed, in order to
secure the passage of the measure. This, however,
is but one of the many points raised by the local
opposition, less with a view to local effect, than to
influencing, in their favour, the Government and
people at home, who are presumed to be ignorant
of the real state of the case. Nearly six months
before a single step had been taken in reference
to the Rebellion Losses Bill, that is to say, in
September last, some additional members were
nominated to the Legislative Council. The addition
was necessary to save the upper branch of tlio
Legislature from falling into utter contempt. Its
number had somewhat decreased, and its delibera-
tions were very irregularly attended. It was thus
to rescue it from the disrepute into which it had
fallen, and not with a view to the success of any
particular measure, that new blood was infused
into it, at the time alluded to.

The Bill having passed through all its provincial
stages, the scene of action is now changed from
Montreal to London. Will the Colonial Depart-
ment support Lord Elgin ? Has it in reality any
alternative ? We have heard much of the insult
which the Bill heaps on the Crown, of the dangers
to which it exposes the empire, and of the risks to
which it subjects the repose of the Province. It
requires, however, but little reflection to see that
the honour of the Crown, the integrity of the em-
pire, and the repose of Canada demand the ready
sanction of the measure by the Imperial Govern-
ment.

It can add neither to the honor nor the dij^^nity of
the Crown to draw a line of groundless distinction
between different classes of its subjects. The
French-Canadian and the Anglo-Canadian are
equally its subjects. From both it exacts the same
allegiance — and both it professes at least to treat
alike. It has now a noble opportunity of showing
that it will deal, with even-handed justice, between
the two. It cannot, with either decency or justice,
refuse that to its French subjects which it has
already done for its subjects of English extraction,
even though the whole of the latter were opposed
to its so doing, much less can it do so at the bidding
of a mere minority of them.

It is equally evident that considerations connected
with the integrity of the empire call for the allow-
rmce of the Bill. Responsible Government has at
length been conceded to Canada. If that concession
mean anything, it means this, — that in all local
matters the Canadian people are to be left entirely
to themselves. In other words, local affairs in
Canada are henceforth to be regulated by local
Parliamentary majorities. I have already shown
that the Ilebellion Losses Bill is a local measure.
The people of Canada have emphatically pro-
nounced in its favour, and the Colonial Department
cannot disallow it, without virtually abrogating
responsible Government in the province. Judging
from his whole conduct with respect to Canada
since he came into office, Earl Grey is not the
minister to propose or even contemplate such a

()4

course. In Mr. Haives, too, as responsible Under
Secretary, we have an additional guarantee tliat
none such will be adopted. To disidlow the Bill
would be to revert to the old system of governing
the province — a system which palliated, if it did
not wholly justify, the rebellion. Can any states-
man be found in England who, at this time of day,
will propose to support in power, by extraneous
aid, a faction in the province, in direct opposition
to the will of the great body of tlie people I Yet
this is what the provincial opposition are bent on
achieving. Let them neither be encouraged nor
deceived. Let them be given to understand that
if they would return to power, they must make
themselves acceptable to their countrymen — that
the source cf their authority must be the popular
suffrages — and not the mere countenance of any
department of the Imperial Government. It is
because they fear that they will be thus perpetually
condemned to compete witli their political opponents
for popular support, that they have lately raised
the treasonable cry of " annexation." We have
heard much of late of the loyalty of Ulster being
a sixpenny loyalty ; but that of Canadian Toryism
has proved itself to be so. The whole moral of
the Tory cry is that if the Home Ciovernmcnt will
not keep them in power in opposition to the people,
they cannot remain loyal subjects of the Crown.
Yet such is the party whom the Chronicle
sustains, to whom Mr. Gladstone, despite his con-
victions, appears to incline, whom Lord Stanley

icle
on-
ley

favours, and whom Lord Brougham, with his new-
born zeal for Imperial Toryism seems disposed to
take into his patronage. But like the Papineau
party of 1837, the Tory party of 1849 is now de-
funct. It sacrificed itself for the good of its
country, amid the fires which it kindled in Mon-
treal. Another consideration which should induce
English Statesmen to let the principle of respon-
sible government have its full sway in Canada, is
the danger to which the Empire is exposed, by
mixing up the Imperial Government in the local
party broils of the province. As regards local
matters, policy suggests that its weight should be
felt in neither scale, for nothing could serve more
speedily or more completely to alienate from the
Mother Country the affections of the Canadian
people, than for either party to find, on questions
of purely provincial import, the Imperial Govern-
ment the ally of its antagonist. It was this fatal
policy which well nigh brought about a dismem-
berment of the Empire about twelve years ago.
To revert to it now would be but to precipitate
another successful revolution in America.

We are told from many quarters that the recent
disturbances of the public peace in Canada should
have been foreseen, and indeed w^ere foretold, as
the necessary result of the sanctioning by the
Governor-General of the bill. But that is not the
light through which to view the matter. The
question is what would have been the present con-
dition of the Province had the bill been rejected ^

The ministry would have retired, and a sanguinary
election would have ensued, out of which the
popular party would have again come triumphant.
The Cabinet would then be reinstated, and the bill
reintroduced, and again forced upon the government.
But, at the same time, the confidence of four-fifths
of the Canadian people in the honesty of the impe-
rial government would have been shaken, and
their views would be directed to a new state of
political existence. If annexation is ever to be
brought about, it will not be by the miserable frac-
tion of a party wrapped in the mantle of the rampant
Toryism of former days, bi.it by the great body of
an alienated and oftended people. Let the Indem-
nity Bill be allowed, and let responsible govern-
ment have fair play in the Province, and Canada
will long remain the most prosperous, the most
peaceable, and the most respectable dependency
of the Empire.

I now bring this examination to a close, having,
I think, fulfilled the pledge given at its commence-
ment, that I should show this Bill, both as regarded
its own intrinsic merits and the relation of parties
t^ it, to be an unexceptionable measure. I have shown
it to be in strict conformity with the measure passed
for Upper Canada by the Tories, a measure against
which not a voice was raised, either in the Province
or the Mother Country. I have also shown it to
be but the completion of a measure initiated by the
same Tories for Lower Canada, in conformity with
their own precedent for the Upper Province — in

other words, that the Liberals have only done that
which the Tories intended to do. I have shown,
therefore, that, even were the measure in itself
objectionable, it is not for the opposition in Canada,
or their abettors at home, to take exception to it.
But as the measure is not in itself objectionable,
they stand accused of resisting a measure, unexcep-
tionable in itself, and which is not only of their
own originating, but is in strict accordance with an
unexceptionable precedent established by them-
sehes. I have also shown that it has excited no
war of races, but that its disallowance would give
rise to such a contest, that it is entirely a local
matter, and that it should, therefore, be left to the
exclusive arbitrament of the Canadian people, and
that the honour of the Crown, the integrity of the
Empire, and the repose of the Province, would be
alike compromised by its rejection. Having shown
this, I leave the matter in the hands of the depart-
ment, convinced that Lord Grey will justify the
confidence reposed in him by the Canadian people,
by sustaining in this case, the firm, the manly,
and the noble conduct of the Governor-General.

FIMS.

LONDON :
rniNTED BY T. liRETTELL, KUmRT STREET, HAVMAR^ET.