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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 '^^^ a*-' '^^^- ^^€. T! <- ;?--2- y A FEW MORE WORDS UPON ■h CANADA. . BY CHARLES CLARK, Esq. BARRISTER AT LAW; AUTHOR OF " A KEW WORDS ON THE SUBJECT OF CANADA ." '.y^^_ LONDON : LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 1838. W.tSON AND SON, PR.NTBRB. 67. SKINNKB-STRKT. LONDON. A FEW MORE WORDS, ^c. tVc The French Canadians have erected the standard of revolt^ and troops have heen ordered to the province to reduce them to submission. The " earnest anxiety and unremitting- endeavours of the Home Government" to carry into execution the suggestions of the Select Committee of 1828* have failed of their intended effect. Con- < * See the Report of the Select Committee of 1834, ap- pointed on the motion of Mr. Roebuck. Mr. Hume was at first named a member, but declined serving, on the ground that he was already on seven committees. Among the meio- bers who did serve on the Committee were Mr. Roebuck, Mr. Warburton, Mr. O'Connell, and Sir W. Molesworth. The Committee of 1828 had made a great many suggestions for the redress of the grievances of which the Canadians then complained. That Committee was described by the Lower House of Assembly in the strongfst terms of praise, and its cession ami rijisoiiing; have alike been unsuc- cessful, and the Canadians have put the English siig2,esli()ns were referred to as tlie stiindard of what ought to be done to satisfy the Canadians. The Committee of 1834 was directed to incjuire how far the recommendation of the Committee of 1S2S had been comphed with, and to inquire into certaiti (tfher grievances aince brought under the consi- deration of the House. The Committee of 1834 reported thus: — " Your Committee consider it their duty to declare their opinion, that a most earnest anxiety has existed on the part of the Home Government to carry into execution the suggestions of the Select Committee of 1828, and that the endeavours of the Government to that end have been unremit- ting, and guided by the desire, in all cases, to promote the interests of the Cohtny ; and your Committee have observed, with much satisfat tion, that in several important particulars their endeavours have been completely successful." — "Your Committee believe that they will best discharge their duty by withholding any further opinion on the points still in dispute. It has appeared to them that some mutual misconception has prevailed, and when your Committee consider the extreme im- portance that a perfect reconcilement of these differences shoidd take place, they express their earnest hope that these misconceptions being removed, many of the present difficidties will no longer exist, or may be amicably adjusted. Your Committee are also induced to take this course by their per- suasion, that the practical measures for the future administra- tion of Lower Canada may best be left to the mature consi- deration of the Government, responsible for their adoption and execution." In a debate upon a petition from Canada, presented by Mr Hume, after this Report had been laid on the table of the House, Mr. Hume, in his usual manner, made a sweeping assertion. He said — " In 1828 this House re- commended certain measures to be carried into eifect ; but six p 5 Government upon tlie hard, but inevitable, ne- cessity of conquering them by force. Their revolt has converted the dispute from a purely Colonial into a European question ; and if the Englisb Government wishes to maintain the respect now felt by other nations for England's power and authority, both must be effectively vindicated in the rebellious province, whatever may be the course ultimately intended to be pursued with regard to that province itself. But in order to act with vigour there, the Govern- ment ought to feel that it is cordially supported at home. Does it deserve to be so supported? Let us look a little into the history of this matter. When General Wolfe conquered Canada, there were found in the province certain laws years have passed over without any thing being done with that view." The same assertion has been made lately. Yet there stands the Report of the Committee of 1834, and Mr. Secretary Rice, when calling Mr. Hume's attention to that Report, caid, and said it without being contradicted — " It is the verdict of an impartial Committee unanimously agreed to, and especially supported by the hon. and learned gentleman who moved for the appointment of that Committee." — Mirror of Parliament /or 1834, p. 3199. a ; f i c ii i and customs, the relics of the ancient times of France. These Uiws and customs prevailed among" a popubition descended from the French, sj)eak- ing the French huiguage, and distinguished by French habits. At that time no Republic existed on the Continent of America, and the French Revolution had not come to sweep away the old forms of French despotism. The American Re- volution broke out about twelve years after the conquest of Canada, and the French Canadians, viewing with horror the republican notions of the day, fought most cordially on the side of the British. The French Revolution followed. The French Canadians were imbued with the spirit of a bitter hostility to the men who had effected, and to the country which had adopted that revolution. Lower Canada was the La Vendee of America, and if distance had not forbidden it, the French Canadians would have been found under the banners of La Roche Jacquelin, fighting for the ancient regime of France, and against any asser- tion of popular, in opposition to kingly and the British sove- ights. loyalty reign, when engaged in the last war with the United States, was another result of this feeling. It was a sentiment with them to be loyal to a Monarch, for they hated Republicans and Re- publicanism; nor is their present conduct a disproof of this fact. The real contest between them and the English Government is a bigoted struggle, on their parts, for the maintenance and supremacy of the feudal oligarchy of certain families in the province, the existence of that oligarchy being now endangered by the progress of free English institutions and habits. It is, in fact, a contest between the ancient and bar- barous reofime of France and all modern im- provements — improvements very temperately introduced by England, and, in themselves, far less extensive and summary than those adopted in that very France to which Canada once be- longed. It is a violent effort, on the part of feudal seigneurs, to perpetuate worn-out cus- toms, in the continuance of which they have a pecuniary and personal interest opposed to the* mass of the people ; and it is not the less so because, in order to secure this object, these seigneurs adopted, at one time, a popular and constitutional mode of proceeding, invented and II! practised in Fiiit»hind*. The English method of stoppinj*' the Supplies — (a metiiod tsilked of here and in tlio United States, hut for the sake of public convenience not enforced, and only talked i r I I I I- * This iiit'tliod is Ntoppin^ the Supplies. Mr. Hoebiir.k, in n new piiblication just started by iiiin, ealled " Tlie Caiia(baii Portfolio," says, " Ueineinber that in every case the real rel'iisul of the Supplies eanie from the Lei;islative Council." In this, as in many other instances, Mr. Uoebuck eneficial, and to grant or refuse any institutions whatever. When this province was formally ceded, no restriction as to matters of government was attempted by the King of ■mp 13 France, either in the preliminary articles or in the definitive treaty, to be placed upon the autho- rity of the King of England ; nor was any pro- mise of a restrictive nature given by the latter to the former.* That was the true period at which to change the institutions and customs of Lowt» Canada ; and if the change had then been made, it would have been looked upon by the people of the province as a matter of course — as a change to be expected upon conquest; and by this time they would have been so amply satisfied with the wisdom of the change, and the benefits it had secured to them, that no attempts of their now feudal superiors would ever have been suffi- cient to create among them the expression of a wish to revert to the old system. It has been so ♦ The second section of the Preliminary Articles, and the fourth section of the Definitive Treaty of Peace, correspond with each other. Tliey relate to Canada. The cession is full and complete, and the only limitation introduced into it of any sort relates to religion. " His Britannic Majesty agrees to grant the liberty of the Catholic religion to the inhabitants of Canada. He will, in consequence, give the most precise and effec- tual orders that his new Roman Catholic subjects may profess the worship of their religion according to the rites of the Ro- mish church, as far as the laws of Great Britain permit." — There never has been a pretence that this stipulation has not been exactly performed. Indeed, it will presently be seen that the Lower Canadians were altogether free from the restric- •Il ?!/ 11 ;■ r' t>: :f : f >l ;i /I 'i 1 U^ k 4 'i th H¥> 1 f ! 1 ill France itself, where the complete ubolitiuii of old tenures, and the institution of a perfectly new mode of holding and transmitting land, are in themselves considered as a compensation for the fearful evils which France suffered in attaining them. But we proceeded upon a wrong course at first. Our colonies were treated in a most un- statesmanlike manner.* The Canadians had been the subjects, it might be said the slaves, of a despotic Government. Interest and influence combined to make the chief men among them the supporters of the forms of that despotism, to which also long habit had so inured the people, that they came at length to regard these very forms with a certain degree of afiection ; like the farmer in the fable, who quarrelled with his partner, and threatened a dissolution of the partnership, be- cause a piece of noisome marsh land, on which he had been accustomed from his infancy to see tions which the laws of Great Britain imposed on British subjects. — See post, p. 21. * This was observable even in the mode in which, by the act of 1791, we divided the provinces. We gave the only ports to Lower Canada, so that if that province should become independent, or join the American Union, Upper Canada would be, like Poland, an isolated province, without communication with the sea except through an enemy's territory. The evils which Poland snfiers from this circumstance must teach us to protect Upper Canada from such inflictions. 15 pools stagnate and reeds flourish, had heen care- fully drained and put under tlie plough. Long association had rendered the plashy marsh not only familiar, but pleasing in his eyes. Instead of changing these old forms of despotism, (in them- selves quite incompatible with the existence of a free Government,) at the moment when the power and the right to change them would have been fully acknowledged, and instead of giving the Canadians institutions that would have fitted them for the proper exercise of political rights, we conferred those rights upon them at once, and conferred them even in a more ample manner than they had been enjoyed in colonies of British origin. This was our first grievous error, and we are now foolish enough to be astonished at the consequences. We are sur- prised that the leading men of the province, finding their individual wealth and importance attacked by the improvements going on around them, and made by men of another class and tinder another system, should convert the very power we have bestowed into the means of checking or destroying that system itself. That the injury to the personal interests and influence ( /I 16 of the Canadian Lords, is the real though not the avowed g-round of complaint, appears not only from the statement of Mr. Neilson's feelings, and from the description given of Mr. Papineau's sentiments, hut from a complaint which Mr. Roebuck made on moving for the Committee in 1834*. What is it of which the Lower Canadians now complain ? The Morning Chronicle of Wednes- day (January 3), contains the " Address of the ."..■ i h )' t i * On that occasion, Mr. Roebuck, in the course of his speech, said., " In the discharge of a great duty I solemnly charge the Executive Government (of the province), for the last twenty years, with disgracefully and corruptly endeavour- ing to create and perpetuate national discord and religious hatred among bis Majesty's Canadian subjects, to serve their own private and paltry purposes. It is now seen and known that the French Canadians are, one and all, excluded from the society of the Chateau : every mark of degradation is cast upon them, and it is endeavoured to make them feel, in all respects, that they are an inferior class. The people have a right to feel and express their indignation at this attempt to degrade them, and they do feel and express it." — Mirror of Parliament for 1834, p. 1262. In justice to Mr. Roebuck it ought to be remembered that this speech was made on moving for the Committee of 1834, and consequently before he was really acquainted with the matter about whic' he was speaking, and before he " especially supported" the Report of that Committee. 17 * Sons of Liberty of JMontreal' to the young- Men of the North American Colonies," published in the Vindicator, on the 4th of October last, and therefore justly to be considered as the latest ma- nifesto of g-rievances put forth by the Canadians. The document is too long* to be transcribed at full length here, but it concludes with an exhortation to the young" men to unite, in order " to procure for this province a reformed system of govern- ment, based upon the elective principle ; a responsible executive; the control by the repre- sentative branch of the Legislature of all public revenues, from whatever source derived; the re- peal of all laws and charters passed by foreign authority, encroaching upon the rights of the people and their representatives, especially those relating to the proprietorship and tenures of land, whether belonging to the public or to indivi- duals ; an improved system of selling public lands, whereby those who wish to become actual settlers thereon may be able to do so at a small expense ; the abolition of pluralities and irrespon- sibility of office, and an equality, before the law, for all classes, without distinction of origin, lan- guage, or religion ; and depending on God, and c Hiiif if 18 strong' ill our right, we liertby invite the youno- men of these provinces to form associations in their several localities, for the attainment of good, cheap, responsible government, and for the se- curity, defence, and extension of our common liberties." It i ii III Every one of these objects was made matter of consideration before the Committee of 1828, and again before that of 1834. The first of these Committees made certain recommendations; the last of them, as we have seen, reported that there had been, on the part of the Home Government, an " earnest anxiety" to carry these recommen- dations into effect, and that it had used " unre- mitting efforts for that purpose, and that in many respects those efforts had been " completely successful." Let us for a moment refer to the matters contained in this manifesto itself. First, the demand is for " a reformed system of govern- ment based upon the elective principle, and a responsible executive." The demand here is more speciously than truly described. The Canadians really want something which no protecting state can allow its province to have. This demand 19 liasalreatly been ciiscussetl, and the impossibility of fully coinplyinjr with it, while England holds with respect to Canada the relation of a protect- ing state, sufficiently shewn*. The next is, " the control by the represen- tative branch of the Legislature, of all revenues, from whatever source derived." This has been conceded in the most generous manner, by an act of the Imperial Parliament; and the present interference of the Parliament, with the exercise of the right conceded, by means of the Reso- lutions moved by Lord John Russell, in March last, was rendered not only necessary, but un- avoidable, by the conduct of the Canadians them- selvesf. Then comes a demand for " the repeal of all laws and charters passed by foreign authority" [that is, the English Parliament], "encroaching upon the rights of the people and their representa- tives, especially those relating to the proprietor- ship and tenures of land," " and an improved sys- tem of selling public lands.*' The first portion of ♦ See •' A Few Words upon Canada," p. 13, et seq. f Ibid. p. 42, et seq. mm ■ t i ? i f'lii' m 'i f * •20 this (lemaiul is one wliich it would hetiie i»Tcatest injustice and dishonour on tlie part of Kn«rhind to concede in the nnmner required by the Canadians. Settlers have been allured to Canada from all ranks of society in the British Isles, under the belief that when there they should enjoy their own laws and customs in another part of our empire, and that the oidy substantive change in their condition would be that ol' livini^ almost free from taxation. That chanjj^e, fortu- nately for the "oppressed Canadians," they do njoy, and it is the chief compensation they have received for quittin kil 1 30 • . J Ik their faults in their virtues. If they are deter- mined to separate from i^s, there is no desire (after vindicating our authority, and protecting the British settlers, to vi^hom we are bound by every feeling of sympathy, and every principle of honour,) but so to behave towards them, as to make even them sensible of what other men have long ago admitted, that in attempting to quit our connexion, they have endeavoured to break with their best friends, whose motives they have long and unjustly mistaken, but whose conduct has assisted in raising them from the condition of neglected and oppressed Colonists, into a state so much superior as to make them, however mistakingly, believe themselves capable of maintaining the burden and the glory of inde- pendence. THE END. f • : ■ ( ! t ! 1 LONDON : Frintbo by Wilson and Son, t)7, Skinner Street. h •e S J le 18 n to to es se le Is, n, le e- if I r ■.:. if ^i f