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' We found lier (America) a sound, an active, a vigorous member of tlie empire. I hope — under wise management — she will again become so ; but one of our capital present misfortunes is hor discotitenland disobedience. It would be a dismul event if this foundation of security, and indeed of all our public strength, sliould, in reality, become our weakness, and if all the powersof this einjiire, w'.iich ouglit to fail with a compacted weight on the liead of our cnemie-i, should be dissipated and protracted by a jealous vi>;ilanco, and by hostile attempts upon one another." — Burke. From the Portfolio fo?' September, 184-1, LONDON: JOHN OLLIVIER, 59, PALL MALL. 1845. 1 i i I CANADA, FA'C. KTC. Part I. Contrast between the Doctrines and Parties in 1778 AND 1836 — Recall of Sir J. Colborne — Appointment OF Sir Francis Head — Lord Durham — His Report — Mr. p. Thompson — Sir C. Bagot. In the causes that in 1778 led to the insurrection of the United Colonies, there was on their part no pre-medi- tated design. In England there was no thought— far less any desire, to promote dismemberment. Whoever will place himself back, and view with a mind unprejudiced by the results, the heroic courage and daring that were requisite in that fragment of a popula- tion, to dare and achieve so mighty an enterprise, must rest satisfied that something better and nobler inspired and sustained the injured in that struggle than visionary pro- jects as to form of government or accidents of sovereignty. The colonists took up arms against usurpalipn ; th^r aim waTright, their strength the law. " On the"~other~hand, there were in England some who demanded justice for the colonies ; there were others, and they were the strong and the ruling party, who sought to coerce them. Where justice was required — it was justice to our fellow-citizens ; and where coercion was planned, it was, according to the views of those who urged it, to make them more fully citizens and subjects. At that ^ CANADA UNUFJl time to have coiiciMvcd on llio part, of I'jjjjjliind, or of any I'.ngHshnian, the idea of separation, would liave been to piisli hypothesis into the region of ronianeo. In fact, »he (piestion pending in Aineriea was so cornjdetely an internal one, that it was debated on either side as affectinj^' t!ic government at home; and this is testified by the Mi- nister of the (lav in most reumrkable words. Auainst Lord North the clmrgc had been made— tlie vulgar charge of recent times — that the measures against the colonies were prosecuted to increase the prerogative of the Crown, and extend its power, that Minister replied — " Had that been their object, they had thrown away and rejected the opportunity. It was not the prerogative of the Crown, but the claim of Par liament, that America had resisted. It was, therefore, to preserve the supremacy of Parliament, and to maintain its just rights and privileges, that they had engaged in the war, and forborne the offer of advancing one branch of the Legislature to the dominion of America, independent of the other two."* It was not the prerogative of the Crown, but the crim es of Parliament , that America had resisted. It was there- fore to preserve, or to advance the unjust pretensions of Parliament that they had engaged in the war. The re- markable words, " The offer of advancing one branch of the Legislature to the dominion of America, independent of the other two," shew that the violence used against America, had for its object the destruction of the preroga- tive of the British Crown. There had yet been no instance of severinent from the British sovereignty, no instance of tyranny forced to humiliating surrender, or of revolt attaining to honourable success. When this lamentable event occurred a great fall * Speech on the Address, 27th Nov. 1781. SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. 5 »' or any III Tacf, Plcly nn ill't'cting- the Mi- vdlgar list the c of the 1— thrown ot the nment, reserve ts just le war, of the lent of crim es there- ons of he re- ich of ndent i^ainst roga- 11 the J to 'able tfall ill our state was cviilciiced, ami a new and a false hasis laid for future acts and judgment. Now new dangers were to be guarded against, increased vigilance was reiiuisite — new laches for negligence, new snares for pre- sumption—while to meet them there was less wisdom, patriotism and vigilance. All things were thrown out of joint by the first error, and subsecjuently there was adjustment without rectiHcation. When the colonists were loyal, we treated them not as citiz-ens — it therefore fol- lowed that when they were rebellious, we treated them only as foes.* When they had achieved an independent existence, we treated them not as strangers, and we oftered in our falsely reawakened sympathies the hand of fellow-citizenship when they had become alien. We took * " Indeed, the whole period of the American war is fruitful in. instances of dispensation with laws ;— practised at '.east and con- nived at, but not openly acknowledged. Every prisoner of war, made by our troops, before American independency was established by the treaty of 1782, was, in the eye of the law, a felon; whom, not to bring to justice was a heinous offence, second only in cha- racter to his own. Yet not one American rebel, as such, was brought to justice, nor, save in the field, was the life of one for- feited. Cartels were regularly exchanged ; flags mutually respected ; passports reciprocally given ; the rights of lawful belligerents, on both sides, acknowledged and enforced ; and all this, without one Act of Parliament. How came it then, that Ministers were not impeached for so criminal a neglect of duty ? for criminal and neg- lectful must their conduct have appeared, to those who were sincere in the assertion of the supremacy of Parliament, over the constitu- tion, and over the Law. Yet no man impeached them. During the Nine Years' War, no man questioned, in their case, the lawful- ness of transactions, which, were the actors private men, would have confessedly deserved, and drawn down, animadversion and heavy chastisement." — Port/olio, Vol. II. p. 292-3. 6 CANADA UNDEll as the nvowocl duclarutioii of our policy towards thcin as a stranger state, to make them forget that " they liad ceased to he stjparated from the suhjects of the Uritiuh Crown."* Extravagant and profuse, after heing niggardly and avaricious, we granted them every thing that could facilitate future demands, and shewed to them every disposition that could invite to unjust pretensions. Supposing that our colonists had associated themselves with France, as the colonists of France had done with England, and that Washington had stood in relation to the Government of Paris, as Quehec stood to that of England, witli what care should we not have defined our frontier — with what alertness should we not have watched our Indian allies, securing their rights, and freeing their intercourse— how carefully have prevented the entrance of French population into our possessions, or the contagion of their thoughts amongst our suhjects ; and were thry less dangerous because they were Republicans and not Loyalists, and because they spoke the English and not the French tongue? On the declaration of the Independence of the United Colonies, the loyalists, and between whom and those who constituted tlie Independent States, the most marked line of separation was drawn, and the most hostile feelings engendered, emigrated, and were settled in New Bruns- wick and Nova Scotia. Their enemies were treated by us with equal favour. The men who had fought against us during the whole of the revolutionary war, and their children in whom had been instilled the most unconquer- able hatred for us, — were freely admitted into the fertile soil of Uj)p(3r Canada — American citizens were settled in the centre of our still remaining best possessions. Such recklessness, but for the continuation of such like ■, * Lord Towiiseiul. SUCCESSrVE ADMINISTRATIONS. acts, tluriiigmorc than hnlf a century, nuist have hcen sot down to tlu! .account of sonic transient and inconiprchcn • sihlc hallucination. The effect appeared in the war with America of 1812. Kngland was at that time unable to afford any military support to her Colonies, and depended entirely upon the fidelity of her subjects of French origin ; and while the militia and volunteers of Lower Canada were triumphantly engaged in arresting the encroachments and discomfitting the forces of the United States, Upper Canada was en- dangered by the treachery and machinations of its settled American population, and it was only by the most decided measures and severest example, that the consequences were arrested. On the termination of the war an alien bill was introduced into the province of Upper Canada, the object being to enforce upon the settlers the oath of allegiance, and the resistance that was manifested, shewed its necessity. It was at the hazard of a rebellion that it was carried into operation. A large stream of emigra- tion, now directing itself from England, soon overbalanced the previous preponderance of American feeling, and though the new colonists were imlued with a spirit peculiarly loyal, still those who left the shores of Eng- land in the course of the present century, were very different men from those who had colonized the Southern States two centuries before ; and from the amalgama- tion of British faction and American republicanism, re- sulted the idea, the doctrine, the project, the hope, of independence, or annexation to the United States. There was formed a determined purpose of taking ad- vantage of all occasions of agitation — a looking to public wrongs and calamities as the food and the nourishment of their .reasonable purposes. Of this we have seen the practical operation. Rebellion broke out in Upper Ca- ■! 8 CANADA UNDER nada, * with the avowed purpose, not of redressing wrong8, or of asserting rights, but of dismembering the empire. With such m?';erials to work upon, and such leaven fomenting in this disturbed mass, what would be the effect of encouragement offered to it from foreign powers? Suppose that the representative of a European Govern- ment should pronounce and publish such words as these. " It could not be expected that Canada would remain long under the reproach oy being the ONLY PORTION OF THE WeSTERN HEMISPHERE DEPENDENT ON A FOREIGN Power." Suppose that clandestine communications were carried on with the disaffected in Canada, by members of the Senate of that same foreign power, directing them — '* To imitate the conduct of the Americans in 1770." Telling them — *' To bear in mind the efforts of the Americans at that period, and their results'' Could the effect be other than the most disastrous and alarming, smiting the Parent State with contempt, while in the province unsettling all men's minds, if not bringing immediate revolt, and presenting at once the encourage- ment to treason of direct invitation, and that invitation held out by the apparently inevitable consequence of war between England and the power that dared thus to threaten her with dismemberment? ' * " I confess, that whatever apprehensions I have had with regard to Lower Canada, I fear much more disastrous consequences from what has occurred in the Upper Province. There are a great number of discontented spirits there ; first, the settlers from the United States, who keep up a connection with it, and whose views are always directed to a connection with it."— Zorrf WharncliJ^e, on the Second Reading of the Canada Bill SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. 9 The words we have quoted did not proceed from any foreign government, they proceeded from England ! They proceeded from the very department charged with the administration of the Colonics, aud from the most influ- ential individual in that department, the Undersecretary of State. From the government of England emanated doctrines that it would constitute a traitor, if a subject, to avow, and maxims which would render the foreign state that proclaimed them, an enemy. The treason and the enemy was therefore within ourselves, which not only we had no power of punishing, but did not even com- prehend. Thus is completed the contrast between ourselves and ourselves, — 1771 and 1836. This is not a conspiracy endured after it has been suc- cessful — this is a bolstering of it up after it has been put down— after tlie full villany of its purposes has been re- vealed, and the utter baselessness of its power. It is a blow struck at the preponderant party in its triumph ; therefore here is no weakness, no possible mistake. There can be no clearer case of a determined will — working its way against all facts, all results, all consequences, to a purpose — the purpose of separation — that is, treason and rebellion. The acts then of the Government were the full realization of the words of the Under Secretary, nay, they Were more — the Under Secretary only asserted a falsehood — the Government undertook by deeds to make that falsehood true. The Under Secretary only niisrepr'j- seiited the dispositions of the Canadians, when he said that they would not remain true to the British Crown, and that they held it to be shameful to be subject tu this foreign domination — the English Government undertook to change the dispositions of tho Canadians, by making its domination too alien and too shameful to be endured. 10 CANADA UNDER ii And wliile the English Government prompts rebellion, it comes forward to remove all danger from inefficient expe- riments. All parties— Lord J. Russell— Lord Aberdeen — Sir R. Peel— Lord Stanley-— Lord Palmerston— speak of dismemberment as the natural course of things ; portions of an Empire, because they are called Colonies, may at plea- sure revolt, and this is only emancipation, and the en- couragement given to revolt is thus only loyal service. It is only those who know what the feelings of a colonist are, what their affection for England, what their dread of abandonment, what their measure of protection and alle- giance, that can understand the sickening of heart, that the words of profligates su-^h as these can inflict on honest men. The colonist has either to accept England's wis- dom, or to understand her folly. In either case the result is the same— he must hold it to be wise, if swayed by her judgment, and necessary if conscious of her madness, to trample upon his faith and loyalty. He must consider of the terms to make with the United States. We have heard with our ears colonist after colonist, of the highest nanies, and of the most respected character, after coming to England, and understanding what she was, declare that they saw no course open to them, save timely sepa- ration ; yet these men would have perilled their lives and sacrificed their fortunes for England in a question of right and honour. But are they to see their fields ravaged, and their homes become smoking ashes in the cause of a coun- try that has done what has been done in Canada within the lasl eight years, and for which the history of human baseness finds no parallel — as the utmost extent of human ingenuity can find no solution ? When examining any doubtful act of an individual, we turn to his conduct in other transactions, to ascer- tain his character, and so of nations. The conduct of SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. 11 England in Canada is incomprohensible — facts substan- tiale conclusions which so revolt our nature, that we are inclined to throw the evidence away, or to shut our eyes to it. Let us look elsewhere, to see if any thing similar has been by her committed. What have we done in Cen- tral Asia ? What have we done in Spain ? Can there be more atrocious crimes than those we have committed in both these countries, or more lamentable results ? They too severally were incomprehensible, ""hey have crushed the reasoning faculties of the nation, as in the case of Canada, by conclusions too appalling to accept, and evidence too damning to reject. Look again at our in- tercourse with France. There has been, as it now ap- pears, a plot to separate England and France. This again is incomprehensible by itself; but all these separately in- credible and incomprehensible, become collectively, not only credible but intelligible. Speaking of the windings and turnings of Sir R. Walpole, Bolingbroke says, " If all our negotiations, till the clue is found that holds them together, appears to be unaccountable, inconsistent, and a series of blunders; there can be no question, if, when we view them in another light, the concatenation appears, and they are all manifestly directed to one end, there can be no question, I say, but we are then come at the truth." Since we have seen that the Cabinet has it in its power to engage in schemes without the assent or the knowledge of the Parliament or the nation, so may the Cabinet itself be equally worked upon by the leaders of separate de- partments — indeed it is habitual to speak of the Govern- ment of England as a Government of Departments. For- merly these departments were separate, and responsiole as such, now they are conjoint in responsibility, but de- partmental in action. As the power of the nation can be used without its reason having been exerted, so may the B 2 12 CANADA UNDER I'll Departments of the Executive act without a common concurrence in the Cabinet, and yet the Cabinet will be brought, in its collective capacity, to be responsible for, or rather to screen from responsibility the actors who have deceived it, and the acts it has not sanctioned. We have seen on other fields the departments of the Govern- ment at direct variance, as for instance in Persia the Foreign Office was acting in one way, the Indian Govern- ment in another ; they were sending opposite instructions to the same representative, the one to do a thing, and the other not to do the same thing : our representative had to reveal that he was acting under the instructions of one and not of the other department ; for instance, Mr. Ellis in Persia, in resisting Russia had to account for his doing so, by his having been a member of the Board of Control, and therefore acquainted with the sentiments entertained by that department of the British Government ; but his remonstrance was futile, seeing, by his own statement, that the chief department, the Foreign Office, did not concur with the Board of Control. Having thus ascertained from anterior acts, and more especially from an exposed and concluded transaction, the manner in which public business can be carried on in England, let us return to Canada. The internal condition of Canada was interwoven with, and was absolutely dependent upon, our relations with the United States ; these relations, in consequence of a pending diplomatic question, involving disputed rights, possessions, jurisdictions and property : the dispute entailed hostile decisions of the Legislatures of the adjoining provinces, armaments, expenditure of money, violations of territory, and invasioas. Consequently the affairs of Canada were brought under the Foreign as well as the Colonial Department. Now the whole SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. 13 of those border difHcuIties had been created by the Foreign Office. In 1831 the dispute had been closed by an award— that award was set aside by the Chief of the Foreign Department. Never was a case more completely established by direct and cumulative evidence. It was no accidental mismanagement. From the origin there is fraud and suppression. The Foreign Office thus succes- sively continued the whole troubles of Canada, and found in the Colonial Office a docile instrument, whether merely by the doctrines of Colonial emancipation, or by other means it is needless to inquire.* The functionaries, however, to whom was delegated the vice-regal powers in the Colo- nies, were at the time this process commenced, all men of dignity and of honour ; they were not sharers in these plots, they exerted themselves manfully to resist the evils whether springing from the provinces, or proceeding from England. They ventured even to denounce the home authorities; and it is on record that they have declared both external troubles, and internal disturbances, to have l>een alike produced by the members of the Cabinet in England.f Who it was that was at the bottom of this plot, may be gathered from the following passage from the Times of the 11 th Dec. 1838:— * Lord Stanley, in reference to false statsments respecting the Boundary difference, made while Colonial Minister, subsequently coiifessed that Lord Palmerston made his colleagues ** tell lies for him." t All the Governors, and all the legislative bodies, have protested agftinst the legislative measures suggested by the Government and the administrative steps of the Government. The border troubles, the American usurpations have been attributed by Sir John Harvey, Sir Howard Douglas, Sir Francis Head, and to these we may add Mr. Fox, to Lord Palmerston's acts, and to his " wortis in the House of Commons." '^mmtm u CANADA UNDER '* The rebellion in Canada occupied on Sunday as much of the attention of our Paris contemporaries as on the preceding day. They contain, in addition to a mass of speculation and commentary on the subject, a paragraph which reminds us of an assurance we long since received, that Russia is not a quiescent spectator of the troubles in our Canadian colonies. The paragraph in question purports to be founded on letters from St. Petersburgh, which state that — "at the late celebration of the Emperor's birth-day at New Archangel (the capital of the Russian colonies in North America), Admiral Count Kupreseman, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian naval forces on that station, gave a splendid banquet, at the close of which a collection tvas made for 'the unfortunate Patriots of Canada.' This collection wbich," as Le Commerce observes, ** was in some sort official, and to which every body pre- sent, without exception, eagerly contributed, produced nearly 2,800f. (^"112. sterling), and was forwarded to its destination by Ad- miral Kupreseman himself." A Russian official, far less a Commander-in-Chief, does not act, save by instruction. About the same time. Lord Durham publishing to the world what a Russian agent would have confined to a despatch, speaks of the loyalty of the Governors of Canada as being •* the most trouble- some thing with which Government had to deal :" thus shewing the identity of the position of the diplomatic de- partment of England with the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh. Here is a conspiracy of the Foreign Office, the Colonial Department, the rebels in Canada, tlie Russian Cabinet, and the border sympathizers in the State of Maine, against Governors in Canada, the Legislative Assemblies, and the great body of the population ; and in this co.itest in which were involved all that could be dear to Englishmen, Eng- land was a spectator only, and an indifferent one — no even a spectator, but a mere trifling listener to and re- tailer of the news of the day. y-' SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. 15 The letter of the Member of Middlesex to the cliicf of the Canadian rebels, respecting the '* baneful domi- nation of the mother country," was tlie first public inti- mation to our North American fellow-citizens, of the existence of such atrocious characters in the British nation. It fell like a stunning blow. It was harvest- time, the people quitted their fields, and hastened to Toronto to give vent to their aborrence and indignation. The plans of the rebellious were discomfited by the f^ud- den exposure, and they were repressed by the fear of the effect in England of the publication that had been made. But both parties were soon undeceived; Mr. Hume was neither sent to the Tower, nor trodden down in the streets — his representative trust was not even withdrawn — the meaning of his words was vanished in England, for Eng- land was composed of such traitors as he. The Go- vernor, Sir John Colborne, became the confidant of the grief and the indignation of the loyal colonists. It was he that was punished, and his disgrace was taken as the clear indication that the English Go- vernment had thrown its weight into the scale of re- bellion, and had used its power to break down obedi- ence. Through each township as he passed, the popula- tion flocked by thousands to present to him addresses of condolence, viewing his recall as another manifestation of that project of the English Government, that seemed too insane to be believed, and yet too well substantiated to be doubted. The appointment of Sir F. Head was re- ceived as the complement to the recall of Sir J. Colborne, and so it was intended to be. His first act shewed what his instructions were, and what was expected from him. He appointed as his council the chief rebels, namely Dr. John Rolph and Mr. Robert Baldwin. Mackenzie addressed the electors of tlie Second Riding of Toronto, as fol- lows:— 10 CANADA UNDER |t|' I'; !■ *• 1 am highly gratified to learn from some of you, that there is an intention in several of your townships to cheer and encourage his Excellency, in the good work in which he is so sincerely and arduously engaged, by addresses expressive of that sincere attach- ment which I know you all feel to the person and Government of our benevolent Monarch, and with an hearty and affectionate welcome to that Lieutenant Governor, who has so wisely exercised the royal prerogative amongst us, in the manner the best calculated to promote our happiness and prosperity. In the person of Sir Francis Head, a messenger of joy and gladness has at length come amongst us. Cheer and encourage him then, brother Reformers, by your warm and most affectionate gratulations." Sir F. Head, however, began to think for himself. He was startled at finding that he and the Earl of Gos- ford had received different sets of instructions. He dis- missed his council, and appealed to the people of the province, and signally was exposed the utter nullity of the faction that the Home Government liad raised into office, either in the belief that they were powerful, or with the knowledge that they were not. A House was re- turned, in which there was an overwhelming majority in favour of the Lieutenant-Governor. The republican members did not exceed nine; and that party were almost universally driven from the hustings with ignominy where- ever they dared to appear. Sir F. Head thus speaks himself: — •' I had the honour to succeed Sir John Colbome, and, though it would of course give me pleasure to be enabled to assert the con- trary, it is my duty to admit that it was as much as I could do to contend with Mr. Bidwell and his republican adherents. Driven at last by the stoppage of the supplies to appeal to the loyalty and good sense of the people, the province supported me, or rather con- stitutional principles, in a manner unexampled in colonial history." But though beaten thus on the hustings, and the Go- SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. 17 vernor perfectly triumphant in the province, it was not to be concealed that his struggle lay not there, hut with the Government at home. This was known to the adverse party, and in the midst of the troubles which, from other causes, came upon Lower Canada, they, too, for their special purposes, unfurled the flag of rebellion. At that time every British soldier was absent, and little was the energy or decision of the loyal population to be relied upon after the chill and doubt thus spread amongst them. The people, however, again responded to the appeal of their Governor; the invasion from without was repelled, and the rebellion within crushed. Thus, on the field of battle, or on the recently more estimated field of registration, had the people of Upper Canada equally established their claim to respect, to confidence and favour from the Crown of England and its Ministers. They had shewn that so far from hatching plots, or entertaining desires which could in any shape have justified the determination to throw them ofF, they were ardently attached to the mother state, and dutiful to their Sovereign. By severe trials and great difficulties their loyalty had been proved as well as their strength ; and so far from requiring a force to overawe or even to defend them, they could them- selves supply force in the weakness of the Government alike against external and internal danger. Of this body of men, the great majority possessed every claim upon Eng- land ; yet the Government's neglect, disapprobation, or punishment, awaited every man that had taken a part in its service ,* and its patronage was for the small knot of rebels and traitors* who had armed to overthrow it. * There is an exact counterpart to this eventful history, in Greece. The Nappist, or Capodistrian faction were discomfited, but en- couraged and supported by autograph letters of the Czar, and twice forced back into power by — England! 18 CANADA UNDER The followiii«5 passiige from Colonel Bonnycastle will corroborate our statement, while it preserves somewhat of the spirit of these transactions : — *' Nothing could exceed the patient forbearance of people called from their homes in the dead of a Canadian winter, to work at the construction uf batteries, and be prepared hourly for invasion ; and, without intending the slightest disparagement to their brave leader, whose zeal, energy and tact kept this vast body together un- der the most unfavourable circumstances, had they been commanded, as they afterwards usually were, by officers of the regular army, the result must have been different ; for I am certain he will allow that nothing is more difficult than to be called upon, after a quarter of a century of the most profound peace, when the sword had literally been turned into a reaping-hook, to act at a moment of alarm and dismay, as a General in whose person is combined the adjutant and quarter-master, the artilleryman and the engineer, as well as the leader of wholly uninstructed thousands. " The policy of Sir Francis Head in removing the regular troops, and In throwing himself upon the patriotism and loyalty of the people was noble, and nobly was he responded to. No sooner had the ruffian Mackenzie (for it is useless to palter about words in reference to such an outcast) unfurled the Bidwell flag at Montgo- mery's tavern, and assumed Gallows-hill as his rendezvous, than 10,000 farmers and farm -labourers rushed to the capital to support the inhabitants in arms there. I actually believe there were, at one period of the outbreak, no fewer than 40,000 militia in the field throughout the upper provuice. The alacrity with which these brave men rushed to the defence of their country may be surmised from the fact, that at Kingston, when the first despatch was received by me from the seat of Government, it arrived at night. Before daybreak there was an organized guard for the town, and next day the forts and batteries were occupied, and in the course of a day or two more, many had actually to be sent back for want of accommo- dation for them in the barracks and town. Loyal and brave men I long may Sir Allan M'Nab enjoy the satisfaction of having led you in the career of glory and of honour. For my own part, being SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. 19 separated from you, I can do no more to shew how I appreciate your excellence than dedicate this humhic work to such of you us served with me; and I am persuaded that every British officer whose lot was in the course of duty mingled with yours, will record, when- ever he may have an opportunity, a sense of your merits." The internal rebellion was succeeded by invasions from the United States, by a declaration and coninienceinent of war on the part of the State of Maine. All this was as yet insufficient seriously to compromise the peace, or to shake the loyalty of the province — the association of Messrs. Stephen, Joseph Hume, Admiral Kupreseman, Governor Fairfield, Lord Palmerston, Messrs. McKenzie, Bid well, Morrison, Rolph, &c. now obtained the assistance of the paramount powers of disturbance which the British Par- liament is proud to possess, and ever read}' to exercise. From the moment that Parliament was thought of, the plan was clear. Concentration, that is, destruction of rights and functions, is the simple, manifest, infallible mode of ruining the sense and the tranquillity of nations; but this is the history, the very existence of Parliaments. What simpler method of convulsing the Canadas than uniting them — one race preponderated in the one, another in the other; one religion preponderated in the one, another in the other; differences between race therefore, existed not; differences between religion existed not — but unite these two provinces, and instantaneously must arise conflict of race and faith. Parliament, however, had to be prepared by the ordinary process of Commission and Report. A report was presented on the 3rd March, 1837, on the affairs of the Canadas, under the signatures of Gosford, Gipps, and Grey. Knowing the object, which the Commissioners did not, we need not trouble ourselves with its contents, but that it was for the intended purpose was evidenced by the cry of alarm which it called forth from the Upper !■ i'< 'iO CANADA UNDER Canadian Legislature in tlic form of an address to the King of England : — •t Most Gracious Sovereign, " We, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Legis- lative Council and Commons of Upper Canada in Provincial Parlia- ment assembled, humbly beg leave to address your Majesty for tlie purpose of stating to your Majesty our apprehension that a mistaken view of the condition and interests of the people of Upper and Lower Canada may prompt some persons inconsiderately to press upon your Majesty's Government the measure of uniting these pro- vinces as a remedy for existing evils. " We are of opinion that such a change would expose us to the danger of consequences certainly inconvenient, and possibly most ruinous to the peace and welfare of this country, and destructive of its connexions with the parent state. " This province we believe to be quite as large as can be cfFec- tively and conveniently ruled by one executive government : united with Lower Canada it would form a territory of which the settled parts from east to west would cover an extent of eleven hundred miles, which, for nearly half the year, can only be traversed by land ; the opposite territory of the United States, along the same extent of frontier, being divided into six states, having each an independent government. *' The population which Upper Canada contains is almost with- out exception of British descent. They speak the same language, and have the same laws, and it is their pride that these laws are derived from their mother-country, and are unmixed with rules and customs of foreign origin. " Wholly and happily free from those causes of difficulty which are found so embarrassing in the adjoining province, we cannot but most earnestly hope that we shall be suffered to continue so ; and that your Majesty's paternal regard for your numerous and loyal subjects in this colony will not sufFer a doubtful experiment to be hazarded, which may be attended with consequences most detri- SUCCESSIVE ADMINIBTRATIONS. tl mental to tlicir peace, aiul injuriuus to ihu best intorcats of tlicm- selves and tliuir posterity. (Signed) •' John B. Robinson, Speaker, L.C. " Archidald IV1*Lea\, Speaker, fl J.*' As a preliminary step to centrulizin<^ the representation of the provinces, they concentrated the executive powers by appointing; one Governor-General for the whole of North America, whijh further gave them the advantage of superseding the obstacles which they had found in the intractableness of the separate Governors, while one pre- eminently fltted person might be found for this high oflice. Thus were the refractory superseded, no extended confi- dence required, and the chances of exposure, as well as of resistance, saved ; while the increase of weight and autho- rity given to this functionary would subsequently tell on the Report. To fill this office they had a man, as if pur- posely framed by the combination in his own person of every possible misqualification ; besides being possessed of wealth and party influence, he was obnoxious at home. If it were a&ked what service Lord Durham was peculiarly fitted to perform, it might have been answered, to be the abject dupe of an artful despot, or the haughty tyrant of a docile people. For the one service Lord Durham was pre- pared by performing the other ; he was transferred from the Neva to the St. Lawrence. He was surrounded by men of capacity ; and they did not hesitate to give him, as prompters for his political schemes, nor he to accept as associates for his domestic circle, the most reckless adven- turers, and the basest profligates. He understo^ or at least performed, the task for which he was sent, brought the Crown into contempt, disgusted the loyal, encouraged the factious, became himself the author of acts pro- claimed by the highest authorities illegal and criminal, excited rebellion, and — prepared materials for his Report. 22 CANADA UNDER He was not recalled of course, but lie had not courage to stay to complete his work, and fiUiny; up by cowardice the measure of his infamy, he absconded — absconded on the eve of a second rebellion — absconded after the news hud reached him of its having broken out — absconded from the consequences of a » :bellion, whica he had himself created. Every step is of so monstrous a character, so unlike any thing that has ever been heard of in this or in any other country, that vre are glad to seize and present the details of the successive events as represented by others, or as set down i *)d published at the time of their occurrence; and therefore we quote from the Quarterly Review the description of his demeanour on his return to England : — " On his arrival at his residence, his Lordship haughtily forbore personal communication with her Majesty's Ministers — his noble consort resigned her appointment in the Queen's household — and these notes of war having been sounded, his Lordship appeared to expect Parliament would immediately be convened to receive him. Many concurred in this opinion ; indeed, such was the excitement in the mother country, as well as in the colonies, that the Queen's proclamation, appointing the meeting of Parliament at the usual period, was treated by the newspapers as an affected calmness on the part of the Cabinet, strangely contrasted with the fearful tempest which raged with hi. " Now, if at this awful moment any man had dnred to prophesy that on the meeting of Parliament a single day would be permitted to elapse without her Majesty's Ministers arraigning Lord Durham for the serious consequences of the insults which from the Castle of Quebec he had, under her Majesty's great seal, offered to the Queen's authority, to the authority of Parliament, and to them- selves, would even their enemies have credited so extraordinary a prediction ? Would any one but a maniac have ventured to foretell (hat Parliament, taking its regular holidays at Easter and Whitsun- t'de, would remain in session seven months wittiout a single member SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTUATIONS. 23 demanding of Lord Durham by wliat authority he had re-appeared among them — by what authority he had abandoned his post in the hour of danger, and in virtue of what clause of his commission he had presumed to appeal to " the people" of the Canadas against a solemn act of the Imperial Parliament ? *• When Lord Durham, on the very first day of the session, with unexampled recklessness obtruding himself upon notice, interrupteu the grave consideration of the Queen's address by claiming the previous attention of the House to his own persoii>il case ; when on following nights his Lordship again and again reiterated the same demand for precedence, with what breathless attention would the House of Peers have listened, with what feelings would Lord Durham have shrunk for ever into retirement, had the veteran leader of the House — that soldier of our empire who has ever yet faced with triumph the enemies of his Sovereign —risen from his seat but calmly to exclaim — '^ Quousque tandem abut^re, Catilina, patientia nostra ?*' But neither by her Majesty's Ministers, nor by their opponents, nor by either house of the Imperial Parliament, was Lord Durham thus arraigned or conjured : on the contrary, in the face of all parties, and in flagrant violation of public pride and public principle, a deed (the adoption of his report), was imagined and perpetrated by her Majesty's Ministers, which we venture to assert stands un- paralleled in the history of the world." The Quarterly Review did not know that Lord Durham had been sent to insurrectionize the Colonies, and that the measure apparently adopted from him by the Government to their own disgrace, was the measure to prepare for which he bad been sent out. It was the triumph of the Government that the Quarterly Review should abuse them for accepting the Report from Lord Durham; and \i ihe Quarterly Review isastouudedat*' the soldier of our Empire;" *' the opponents of the Government ;" and " either House of the Imperial Parliament;" acquiescing in doings so base and con- 24 CANADA UNDER temptible, t>- Quarterly Review has obtained the rneana of estimating the real worth of that " soldier of our Em- pire," and of those " opponents of the Government," and of either " House of the Imperial Parliament." Now comes the celebrated Report, comprising the object shadowed forth by the three Commissioners; and now there was a case to go to Parliament. Such a project was altogether in a Parliamentarian sense ; it presented the double temptation of overthrowing that which was constituted, and destroying local legislatures. The House of Commons was too happy to have such a task given to it. The only question was, as in the union of Scotland and of Ireland, how to have a decent pre- text to obtain the concurrence of the lejiislatures who were to be annihilated. This delicate commission was to be entrusted to a new Governor-General, and again to be admired was the tact and judgment in his selection. They found a vain presumptuous man— if not as rash, as unscrupulous, ac his predecessor — if not as ostensibly, more desperately, a Russian agent — obnoxious by opinion, character, and association — almost to the extent of Lord Durham — to the Colonies — and far more so to those who had commercial transactions with them. For the first time in the history of England, addresses to the Crown ind petitions to the Parliament, were presented against the appointment of a Governor. He, like his predecessor, understood and performed the task assigned to him, and carried the union through the local legislatures by the exercise of fraud, deceit, and violence, hitherto unpa- ralleled in the parliamentary history of the provinces. One of tLo means used to pass the Union Bill, is of such a character that we must dwell on it for a moment. It was a threat ! Not a threat to one or more individuals to withdraw patronage^but a threat directed against the SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. community— a threat of practical measures against the colony to overawe the Legislature into the surrender of its rights and functions ! What could be the coercion thus threatened ? It would puzzle an Englishman to discover it. No additional tribute could be demanded . no embargo could be laid upon their vessels. There could be no quar- tering troops upon the villages or the cities. There could be no blockading their coasts ; no stationing of a corporal's guard in the House of Assembly. What other species of coercion could have been imagined, for none of these could have been threatened ? What he thr. atened was not coercion, but abandonment— ahandonment of a colony reproached for disaffection, and disfranchised for rebellion ! What more glorious tribute could have been paid to the loyalty of Canada ; what more signal brand upon tlie traitor himself? " The troops shall be with- drawn." Such were his words, not published in the Gazette : No — but whispered in the ear. We quote the following evidence to the fact from the Report of the House of Assembly, where the charge was made, and where it was substantiated by the explanation offered on the part of the Governor: — '* The Hon. W. Elmsleyy — Here, in his place, did he tax her Majesty's Ministers as the great moving cause of the late rebellion, and its train uf blighting and withering consequences. By their short-sighted policy were the seeds of rebellion sown, and by their encouragement had they germinated. It had leaked out, he had heard, what the intentions of her Majesty's Government were, if this union question was not carried ; and he had understood that on our assent or dissent depended the continuance of protection. It had been reported, that, if the union were opposed, the forces would be withdrawn. Yes, honourable gentlemen would be sur- prised, but he had heard out of doors, that a member of the other branch of the Legislature had been told in a conversation with the Governor-General on the subject of this union, • that if the resolu- C 26 CANADA UNDER tions of the union were not passed, the troops would be with- drawn.' " The Hon. Mr. Sullivan— rose for the purpose of correcting a mistake the honourable member had fallen into. He was happy to inform honourable gentlemen, and he did so from authority, that no such threat had ever been expressed or iiitended. His Excellency the Governor-General had only put a case thus, that ' if the people of England, hearing always of our discontent, and of our applica- tions for assistance, and if they also heard of our rejection of the only remedy that seemed open for our relief, might they not say, why should we any longer trouble ourselves rrith a people who will not hear reason ? ' " We have seen in Canada exactly what happened in Ireland. Pitt desired the suppression of the Parliament of Ireland because it had defied his supremacy. Rebel- lion was fomented to prepare the Union Bill. But weigh the contrast between Canada and Ireland. The threat in Ireland was to send troops, in Canada it is to withdraw them ! All this time all the poisons instilled vreve at work, the provinces were agitated to their centre with the atro- cious report of Lord Durham, and yet there was no revolt. The statements of these things were poured in on England, and yet there was no redress, no relaxation in her delirious course. We quote the following from the contemporary press : — " Besides the testimony of the provincial press, we have before us many letters from persons in Canada, some connected with the Government and Legislature, others not so circumstanced, but feel- ing and possessing a deep interest in the colony, stating in the strongest language the incalculable injury which Lord Durham's Report is doing in the hands of the more notorious enemies of the Crown. ** One gentleman (a Canadian) says : — " ' Lord Durham's name is used as a cloak for the most treasonable designs ; indeed, anything may now be attempted under the pretext SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. 27 of sustaining the plans proposed in the " Report." The progress of the party who rally under the Durham flag is becoming alarming, and, unless the British Government screws up its courage to the point of immediately, firmly, and broadly denouncing the mischievous doctrines of the report, you may rely on it, ere long, we shall become as a colony ungovernable. There is much ihat tickles the fancy of ambitious men in the idea of introducing the English plan of a go- vernment by the majority of the popular branch of the Legislature. It has been well explained in the April Quarterly how irreconcilable this principle is with a state of colonial subordination, and you may rely on it, that if the British Government should [& way in the least to this notion, and admit of any experiments of this novel and hazardous character, the charm of British connexion will be done away in the eyes of that great loyal body, which, through evil report and good report, has hitherto sustained the Royal cause in Canada. I can assure you that among that class I have found it dis- cussed, and not many minutes since it was a subject of conversation with me, whether the time might not be near when the men of pro- perty in this country should have to decide between a hopeless and destructive struggle for a Government by which they would not be supported, and a proposition of terms with the republican nation at our doors. They seem to think it would be more prudent to take the lead in what may be an inevitable change, tlian to immolate themselves and families in the cause of a Government which may secretly wish to get rid of them, and, under any circumstances, they feel that they could have no prospect of quiet under the Durham system of colonial government. A very intelligent and loyal indi- vidual (a Canadian), whose faith in England has hitherto resisted every shock, has told me that he now feels his situation to be one of great peril," &c. Il * A single man guilty of such acts, ^^onld be judged in- capable of managing his affairs, and would be placed in confinement for his own security and that of others. Is the case less grave, or more safe, when the insanity has spread to twenty-six millions ? and it is not a single nation that is thus perilled, but an age. c 2 28 CANADA UNDER I : '■■ I I, f At I he very moment of writing these lines we have perused tlie report of the transactions of the French in the Island of Ilayti. The French Consul there has addressed a communication to the Junta of the Spanish portion of the island, urging upon them the necessity of accept- ing the protectorate of France. On its rejection, it was re-urged with threats. These two constitutional Govern- ments are ready with their threats; the one threatens to abandon her own subjects, the other to coerce the subjects «)f other Powers. But this is not the only siiuile of dis- similitude, for " after all this it, turned out that the treaty of protection produced by the French Consul was a pro- ject which had not obtained the sanction of his Government.*^ Thus the two nations called free are bearded, misled, be- leagured, and befooled, by their agents and servants, consuls, Cabinet Ministers, or Under Secretaries. Poulett Thompson died, and the field was again left open ; at the same time this nest of conspirators was expel led from Downing-street, and a new set of men came into power. They, however, reverse none of the measures against which they protested in opposition, and sent out as Governor-General, a man agnin, as if carefully selected, to elfect their predecessors' purposes. The part of evil energy had been performed, now the part remained for pusilla- nimity.* Sir C. Bagot, like his predecessor, died overwhelmed with the toil and anguish of his situation, and left to his successor a distracted colony, and a council of traitors. Pressed now by difficulties, the Government did look * On the accession of the present Ministry the Ambassador of Russia immediately applied to the Government to recommend ear- nestly, in the name of his master. Sir C. Bagot. He did not, of course, recommend him for the Government of Canada, but for the embassy at St. Petersburgh, and of course, the Government shewed its independence by not appointing him to— St. Petersburgh. SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. 29 about for a proper man to send to meet them. The only fortunate event in the series of these himentable transac- tions wsis the selection of Sir C. Metcalfe ; but the die had already been cast, and he had to meet the Parliament of United Canada! The union of the provinces is the great question, and we must shew how it was estimated in our provinces, and by the chief authorities of the Government itself. It was based on the report of the Earl of Durham, drawn up Vy Messrs. Duller, Turton, Anson, and Wakefield ; this mea- sure is thus spoken of by the latter : — *' Though neglected grievances had ripened, in all our North American provinces, into general discontent ; and though, in two of them, ill-managed and tardy concessions had even forced the discon- tent into premature rebellion ; yet for the other provinces the con- cessions had been made in time ; in Canada, the miniature civil war which broke out, had been successfully put down ; the danger, for the moment imminent, of a war with the United States, had been averted ; and last, and best, the Union of the two Canadas had re- stored them a free Constitution, their House of Assembly had tried its powers, the Executive had placed itself in harmony with the public voice, and the colony, so long the most trouble- some (I) of our dependencies,yor thejirst time boasted a provincial Government as strong as it was possible for popularity to make it. The experiment had been made, and was successful.** It is a proof of not ordinary ingenuity to condense so many falsehoods in so few lines. Instead of restoring a Constitution, the Union annulled two ; —instead of the Executive being in harmony with the public voice, the elections after the Unions were carried by open violence, and most disgusting fraud : — instead of the colony being the most troublesome, except on the Durham view, that loyalty was troublesome, never was there a colony that evinced so many and such fervent demonstra- i ■1 30 CANADA UNDER 13 II, I ■ V b i! I tions of attacbnient to the parent State— never was there a colony that received its ** surplus populaiion" with more avidity— that purchased its manufactured goods and stutFs with more alacrity — that made more sacrifices to sustain its endearing affinity— or felt more proud and honoured in the mutual relationship. The first time it boasted a provincial Government as strong as it was possible ! Why the provincial Government had been always strong in Upper Canada, and might have been so in Lower Ca- nada, but it was reserved for Mr. Thompson, Sir Charles Ragot, and Sir Charles Metcalfe, to discover that it was as weak as it was possible^ and that this experiment, said by the author of Lord Durham's report to have been so successful, has been indeed successful, as it was both wished, anticipated, and designed,— to rend asunder. Lord Durham's report was thus dealt with by Sir F. Head, in as far as its allegations affected himself — " With respect to Lord Durliam*s report to the Queen, that my Executive Council ' seem to have taken ofEce almost on the express condition of being mere cyphers,' I beg leave most solemnly to declare that such a condition was neither expressed nor un- derstood. ** With respect to the allegation affecting my own character — namely, that ' the elections were carried by the unscrupulous exer- cise of the influence of the Government,' I beg leave calmly, but unequivocally, to deny it. *' It would not be di£Bcult to proceed with the whole of Lord Durham's report on Upper Canada as I have commenced, but, as I have no desire unnecessarily to hurt his Lordship, I have suffi- ciently shown its inaccuracy to vindicate my own character from its attacks," &c. Sir George Arthur referred the report to the House of Assembly of Upper Canada ; he thus refers to the report of the Committee of that House — "They regard the Earl of Durham's scheme for the future government of Canada as essentially the same as that which wa» SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. 31 adijocated by Mr. Bidwell, Dr. Rolph, and Mr. M'Kenzie^ and to which the great majority of the people of this province ex- pressed their unequivocal dissent : that in fact it was on this point that the elections to the present House of Assembly turned." Again, Sir George Arthur, in his published despatch to the Marquis of Normanby, No. 107, dated Toronto, Idth May, 1839, after complaining against certain allega- tions in Lord Durham's report, has stated — ** His Lordship has evidently regarded the party whose practical loyalty has been so warmly eulogised by Her Majesty's Government to be politically the most culpable, and the unsuccessful faction to be the injured party . ** Of the Earl of Durham's report in other respects I will only state that on many important points he has been much misinformed." In two subsequent despatches addressed to Lord Nor- manby on the 2nd July and Slst August, 1839, Sir George Arthur has stated : — ** There is a considerable section of persons who are disloyal to the core: reform is on their lips, but separation is in tlicir hearts : these people, having for the last two or three years made * responsible government' their watchword, are now extrava- gantly elated because the Earl of Durham, has recommended that measure." Again, ** Far more to be lamented than any of the circumstances to which I have referred are the eiFects of Lord Durham's report. " The bait of * responsible government' has been eagerly taken, und its poison is working most mischievously. It was Mr. M'ICenzie's scheme for getting rid of what Mr. Hume called ' the baneful domination of the mother-country ;' and never was any better devised to bring about such an end speedily." Here follow further observations, the publication of which Government have deemed it proper to guppre8!i>. The Committee of the House of Assembly conclude their report with the following observations — 32 CANADA UNliER A ! " If, in the course of their remarks they have been betrayed into too strong an expression of reproach or indignant refutation, they trust that it will not be ascribed to a wanton inditTerencc to that courtesy and respectful dercrence that should mark the proceedings of a public body towards those of high rank and station, and, on the other bund, they trust that they will not be denied the credit of having forborne to apply animadversions of far greater severity than they have used to many parts of a report which they can truly affirm, and which they believe they have clearly proved, to be most unjust and unfounded, and which are calculated to have a most mischievous influence on the future destinies of these colonies." A report from the I^egislative Council of Upper Ca- nada states— " After an attentive and disinterested consideration of this sub- ject, your committee are led to the conclusion, that the adoption of ihe plan proposed by the Earl of Durham must lead to the over- throw of the great colonial empire of England. " Your committee regret that his Lordship should have confided the task of collecting information to a person who, be he whom he may, has evidently entered on his task with the desire to exalt the opponents of the colonial Government in the estimation of the High Commissioner, and to throw discredit on the statements of the supporters of British influence and British connection." Chief Justice Robinson, the Speaker of the Upper House, and for twenty-seven years a servant of the Crown, in his published communication to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, has stated : — " Another object desirable to be accomplished for promoting the security and welfare of Canada is the counteracting, by whatever measure may seem most effectual, the injurious tendency of the report which was presented to her Majesty by Lord Durham during the last session of Parliament. " In thus referring to Lord Durham, I would unwillingly fail to speak of him with the respect due to his rank and the station which he lately filled. " All was done that could be done in this country, by persons \ i SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. 33 connected witli tlic colony, fur lessening the force of a blow unin* tcntionnlly niineil (1 trust) at the trunquillity of u distant possession, which, for the common good of ull its inhabitants, wanted nothing 80 much as the restoration of internal peace. The lute Lieutenant- Governor of Upper Canada showed, in the clearest manner, how strangely inaccurate the statements were which relnted to his public measures ; the merchants of London connected with the colonics felt themselves called upon to wait in a body on her Majesty's Cio« vernment, with a public expression of their conviction that that part of the report which respected Upper Canada was founded in error, and was likely to bo productive of injurious consequences ; and, as an inhabitant of Upper Canada, I did not hesitate to state officially to her Majesty's Secretary of State, immediately upon its appear- ance, that I was ready, in any place and at any time, to show that it was utterly unsafe to be relied upon as the foundation of Parlia- mentary proceedings. / knew then, and I know vow, that the means of refuting the most important statements and conclusions contained in it must exist in the office of the Colonial Depart- ment, and could not require even a reference to the colony.** Chief Justice Robinson was ordered to return to Ca- nada, and not trouble himself about Colonial matters. The grand jury of the Newcastle district (which con- tains two counties, forming one of the most valuable sec- tions of Upper Canada), unanimously adopted a present- ment, of which the following is an extract : — ** District of Newcastle to wit. — The jurors of our Lady the Queen, upon their oaths present, that a printed book or pamphlet, entitled Report on the Affairs of British North America, from the Earl of Durham, her Majesty's High Commissioner, ^'r., has been brought under their notice, and the jurors aforesaid, upon their oaths aforesaid, further present, that they have carefully ex- amined the said book or pamphlet ; and the jurors aforesaid, upon their oaths aforesaid, further present, that the said book or pam- phlet is calculated to excite public contempt and odium against the Government and Magistracy of this province ; and the jurors afore- said, upon their oaths aforesaid, • further present, that the said book 34 CANADA UNDER I I ( or pamphlet is also calculated moat injuriously to mialead tlic mem* b«rs of the Imperial Parliament and the Britiuli public, by creatiny; in their minds erroneous and false opinions relative to the statu and condition of this province, and with respect to the wants, feelings, sentiments, and wishes of a very large majority of the inhabitants thereof ; to disseminate and perpetuate, in this province, principles of democracy wholly incompatible with monarchical institutions ; to loosen the bonds of affection which unite us to our gracious Sove- reign, to the British empire, and to the venerated constitution of our ancestors ; to resuscitate and foment that factious discontent and disorder which produced deplorable and disastrous consequences, but which, though not extinguished, had in a great measure sub- sided ; and generally to endanger the peace, happiness, and pros- perity of this province, against the peace of our said Sovereign Lady the Queen, her Crown, and dignity. *' QrandJury Room, May 15, 1839." Whilst the Union Bill was under discussion, Sir F. B. Head thus addressed the House of Peers : — " By the unexpected removal of Sir John Colbornc — by the extraordinary suspension of Sir George Arthur — by the unworthy intimidation of the public servants -by the appeal that was made to them by the Governor-General to obey the recommendation of their Sovereign — by the allurement of pecuniary assistance — by the significant observations respecting the removal of the troops — by the countenance shown to the republican party — by the astounding declaration " that Sir Robert Peel was in favour of the union," — and above all, by the malign and withering influence of Lord Dur- ham's report, the legislature of Upper Canada, which for upwards of half a century had given such noble proofs of its attachment to British institutions, and of its deliberate detestation of the tyranny of mob-government, finally surrendered at discretion ; that is to say, they consented to the union, throwing themselves upon their Sovereign, and upon the Imperial Parliament, for conditions which they were told ' it would be better for them not to prescribe,' and which, when subsequently embodied by them in an address to the Queen, were declared by Mr. Thompson in his dispatch to Lord John SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. 3/j nui8«ll, dated 18th .inntmry, 1840, * to be considered as mere nug- gcstion*/ of which, it may be observed, lie disapproved. " For many years in vain had the thunder of the Colonial OHice rolled above these stauiiuh adherents of the British monarchy. In vain had its lightning stricken to the ground every lieutenant-governor and public officer who had endeavoured to defend them. The militia, unassisted by troops, had supprensed rebellion; in every direction they had driven the American invaders from their soil ; and, regard- less of the storm which still assailed them, Mr. Thompson'*' had found them upon the sparkling snow, and under the bright sun of heaven, glorying in the name of Britons, and ready to die in defence of British institutions ; nevertheless, overpowered and disheartened, they at last yielded to necessity." After Sir Charles Baj^ot had uurrendered his power to the traitors comprising his Council, many meetings took place throughout Canada: we subjoin some of their resolutions. Moved by Dr. Boyer, seconded by Dr. Austin : — ** That the present state of Canada, is such as to excite in every loyal breast feelings of the deepest sorrow, mingled with astonishment, at the unexampled elevation to power of men, who only five years since were proclaimed traitors to the British Crown ; and at the persecution and dismissal from office of those loyalists who within the same space of time, suppressed by arms, with the approbation of the Crown, an insurrection, incited and headed by the men whose principles were then treason, but who are now placed in authority over the colony they sought to wrest from Briti^ih rule." Moved by W. Lawson, Esq., seconded by A. Gordon, Esq. *• That it is the duty of every loyal subject to come forward at the present time, and record his sentiments in the face of bis country, so that if Great Britain be disposed to retrace * For a description of the means used by this Governor, see Portfolio, No. X. 36 canad;«. ONDrR the fatal steps which have been taken, she may know on how much assistance she may reckon from tlie loyal inhabitants of Canada ; and that, shouhl Great Britain persevere in a course which history and experience clearly pr "'? lead to separation, we may not have the reproach of apathetic indifference, or be chargeable with concealing our views, and thereby mislead the parent state ; but that we may be enabled to state, in the fearful struggle which niust then ensue, the crime is not ours, we pointed out the danger and the remedy, but both were disregarded." At another meeting, the three following resolutions were passed : Resolved : — " 1. That the Union of the Provinces, — the politics and report of the late Lord Durham, — and the politics and acts of the late Lord Sydenham have beei the cause of the great preponderance of the friei.ds of Republican Government in all the colonial offic?. *'2. That in the opinion of this meeting, the recent changes in the Governnent, and in the Magistracy of the country, by which the traitors of 1837, and the advocates of extreme republicanism, of responsible government, and of the separa- tion of these Colonies from England^ have been intrusted with the legislative and executive authority, at the seat of govern- ment, and throughout the whole province, are full of danger to the connexion with Great Britain. " 3. That the anti-British policy pursued by our late and pres-^nt Governmen*, has niaiorially tended to weaken the attachment of those, who, from education, feeling, and prin- ciple, are attached to the institutions of the Mother country ; a policy which, while it never succeeds in gaining over one enemy of the Government, inevitably tends to render the real friends of that Government less ardent and disinterested in its support." . . i The unicn of the provinces was not demanded by the population of either of the Canada*, but steadily resisted by both . it was dreaded and hated by the Frerch ; fronn I SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. 37 the English it was extorted bycujolery, fraud, and intimida- tion. It was the project of the British Government; it was the direct recommendation of the crown ; and it was two men known to lean to fi foreign influence that were se- lected as proper instruments to consummate this national crime. It appears, however, that they differed between themselves. '•The 'Bill for Re-uniting the Provinces of Lower and Upper Canada, and for the Government of the United Province,' as brought in by Lord John Russell and Mr. Laboucbere, and ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, on the 20th of June, 1839, was framed by Her Majesty's Government on the basis of Lord Durham's Report ; and in 1 840 the said bill was cancelled and a different bill substituted, based on the report of Governor Thompson. " Now can anything be more discreditable to the government of the most powerful empire on the globe than the puerile authority on which the first bill was framed, and the equally inexperienced i.uthority on which it has been condemned ? For, first it was framed on the re- commendation of a nobleman, whose summer state- tour to the Falls of Niagara formed^ t'.ie whole of his personal knowledge of two vast provinces each bigger than England and Wales ; and, secondly, it has been overturned by the winter journey of Governor Thompson, who, travelling very nearly over the f ime line, in one v^eek after his arrival at Toronto, saw, and very nobly reported to Her Majesty's Government {vide his despatch to Lord John Russell, dated 24th December, 1 839) the errors of his predecessor. *' Though her Majesty's ministers may mathematically argue that, inasmuch a. two halves make a whole, so the summer excursion of one governor added to the winter journey of another form a political tour-book, sufficiently authentic to authorize Parliament to alter the solemn Act of 1791 j yet, to common minds, can anything be more ■idiculous than the very idea of a meeting at this moment between the two governors in question ; one of whom, as far as his own simple experience could go, would declare Canada to be a country as hot as India ; while the other would just as stoutly maintain that it was as cold as Caucasus ? I ' 1 i I 38 CANADA UNDER " Mr. Thompson's bill for settling for ever the long disputed qur-^tion of the Clergy Reseives, like Lord Durham's ordinances, has been declared by the highest authority in this country to be illegnl. And with the rocks of ignorance, upon which these two Governor- Generals have foundered, protruding from the surface, surely, instead of following in their wake, they should be beacons to warn the Im- perial Parliament of the imminent danger of legislating upon their ephemeral recommendations!"* The Union i8 at length carried, and a Parliament con- voked in such a manner as was one never convoked before. Within two years from its becoming law, we find every leadings rebel thrust into power, and every leading defender of the empire thrust out. B. hold a statement from a con- temporary Colonial journal: — "THE REWARD OF REBELLIO.N." "Dr. John Rolph, the late M.P.P. for Norfolk. the President of the Rebel Executive, and the priiimm mobile of our insu 'lections ; Dr. Charles Duncombe, late M.P.P. for Oxford, and Ger ^ralissimo of the Rebel forces in the London district; David Gibson, late ^i.P.P. for the first Riding of York, and General of the advanced Guard, at the Battle of Gallows Hill; Dr. Thomas D. Morrison, late M.P.P. for the thira Riding of York, and one of the Treason Committee which met at Doel's Brewery : Nelson Gorham, one of the Provisional Government, established by Mackenzie, at Navy Island: and John Montgomery, at whose house the rebel head quarters were established, and who escaped <'rom Fort Henry Gaol, have all received pardon, and have been called ba-k to Canada, by the present Provincial Government I ! Drs. Rolph, Duncombe, and Morrison, have all three returr^ed to this city, where they were for a few days, * fraternising with their friends in the council I' Gibson and Montgomery have returned tc Toronto, and Gorham is at New- market. There is one circu>Tistance connected with Dr. Duncombe's return, which we deem it but right lo state for the public informa- tion. On the Grand River, in the Township of Brantford, were * Rolph on Colonization, pp. 39, 40. n SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. % some valuable lots of Indian land, which Duncombe had bargained for; and on some of which he paid one instalment. When he fled the Province in 1 337, and was outlawed by Royal Proclamation for High Treason, several persons residing in the vicinity of the said lands, finding them vacant, entered upon them as * squatters,' believ- ing that they would be entitled tc ,he pre-emption, usually allowed by Government in favor of actual occupants desiring to purchase. After they had so entered on the lands, they petitioned the Government, set- ting forth what they had done, and praying to be allowed to purchac?. To their petitions, no answers, either negative or affirmative were re- turned. Some of the lands have been since purchased at Sheriffs sah, for the arrears of taxes due upon them. The occupants, sup- posing that they would be permitted to purchase, like all others similarly situated, went on to clear, fence and improve the lands, and in some cases, excellent houses, barns, and outoffices, &c. have been erected. Since Dr. Duncombe*s return, an order in Council has been issued, depriving these poor, but honest and loyal people of their homes and possessions, and handing over the result of all their labour, industry and improvements to the Rebel General I Who would not abscond to be so rewarded ? Dr. Rolph is a Can- didate for the Counties of Lenox and Addington at the next elec- tion ! His particular friend, (should he escape the gallows or the penitentiary) Augustus Thibodc, is to offer for the Metropolitan County (Frontenac.) In the Lower Province, Dr. Wolfred Neilson, Generalissimo of the Rebel forces at the Battle of St. Dennis, is now a leading cha- racter at Montreal ; while free pardons have just been proclaimed for ^('uis Joseph Papineau, of rebel notoriety! for Edmund Burk '>J'( allaghan, another proscribed Rebel, at one time worth £5001 Sixvl ^'or Thomas Sterrow Brown, who plundered the Boats and Bat- teaux, for provisions for the Rebel army, and who was Commander in Chief of the InsuTectionary Forces at the battle of St. Charles ! " The inhabitants of New Brunswick saw rq excellent Governor, Sir Howard Douglas, displaced, because he defended their trade in preference to the Baltic;— the 4.0 CANADA UNDER I V, :ii Canadian Provinces saw tlie successive recall of Lords Dalhousie and Aylmer — Sir John Colborno, and Sir F. B. Head, for their troublesome loyalty ;— they see a Secretary for Foreign Affairs, continuii?g year after year to postpone the settlement of their boundary, involving insults, aggres- sions, and even war:— they behold a Metropolitan Mem- ber, and an under Secretary of State for the Colonies, boldly inciting to rebellion: — they witness a Durham deserting a country in rebellion: — they find a Thompson created a peer, and honoured wilh the Grand Cross of the Bath : — they hear Sir Charles Bagot extolled for filling his council-chamber with truitors, and dismissing every loyalist from his presence: — they find Chief Justice Ro- binson removed from t I -• ■ ^"d of the Legislative Council ; — all those whodistinguishe> amselves in subduing rebellion or resisting invasion unrewarded or persecuted ; — Colonel Fitzgibbon, the Defender of Toronto, robbed of the recom- pence conferred by the grateful colony, by a special inter- dict of the Home Government ;— we finally witness the crowning indignity of the Lockport gaol.* Is it possible, that they can witness all these things, and not conclude that the British Government is engaged in a conspiracy to efiect a separation ? In addition to all other villany, we have had the Foreign Office policy o( suppression^ in reference to the war in the disputed territory, the invasions into Canada, the destruc- tion of the Caroline, the arrest and trial of M'Leod : their falsehoods, tergiversations, denials, evasions, and submis- sions followed in rapid and uninterrupted succession, until an Ashburton was sent to appease by concession, and even this was not the climax. It further .'-equired the announcement of Sir Robert Peel, that" We have made * Sir Allan M'Nab was knighted, and Mr. M'Leod tried as a felon, for the same act I ! SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. 41 SOME ADVANCE TOWARDS THE SYSTEM OP TREATING OUR COLONIES AS INTEGRAL PARTS OF THE EMPIRE." Such was the state of affairs when Sir Charles Met- calfe was sent out to govern it, alas, no I but to aban- don all hope of its government in despair. It was neces- sary before approaching his present embarrassments and future prospects, that we should thus review the past. We conclude in the words of Dr. Thomas Rolph :— « The loss of the United Colonies was a deep dishon- our, whilst it was a grave misfortune ; and the deepest part of the misfortune is, that it is not considered as a dis- honour. It is by learning that it was a dishonour, because our fault, that the same, though reiterated disgrace, and a similar, but far greater danger may be prevented,— the loss of our still remaining possessions in North America, These possessions are not more difficult to keep, nor more easy to lose, than the former. I pray God that England may be instructed by the results of her own conduct in 1770, and that it ma^ not be the task of history to place the present administration on a parallel with that of Lord North. It is to prevent this calamity I give utterance to the expression of alarm which I cannot exclude, but which will cease when the nation has shared it." * !■'( Rolph on Emigration and Colonization, page 374. I CASE OF COLONEL FITZGIBBON. ** Nobilltas, opes, oinissi gestique honores pro criminc, ct ob virtutcs certisslmum exitium." — Tacitus. The following extract from a letter from Colonel Fitz- Gibbon presents a good appendix to the case of Canada as presented in our last number, and an introduction to our article on the same subject in the present number. We have before alluded to this case. Colonel FitzGibbon was raised from the ranks by his exemplary conduct ; he was subse- quently settled in the vicinity of Toronto. At the time that the rebellion broke out he armed his family and servants and his neighbours, and in the absence of the troops of the Province, it was roimd this nucleus that the royalists rallied and succeeded in crushing the attempt at its ' origin. This service was acknowledged by a grant of 6000 acres of land from the local government, — thrice made, and thrice disallowed at home. Colonel FitzGibbon has suffered severely in his pecuniary circumstances by his efforts upon that occasion. He is not rewarded, he is not compensated, — he is punished. When a reward is assigned him by bis local compatriots, he is deprived of the benefit by the exercise of the royal prerogative I The case will be read in his own touching words. Some time ago we, in like manner, inserted an exposition of his case by Alexander McLeod. These are not the only ones. Privates, sergeants, mariners, as well as commissioned officers — there is not a man connected with our North American possessions, that has distinguished himself in the support of his mother country, that has not been marked by neglect when not smitten by persecution. D 2 111 I u CASE OF COLONEL FITZOIBBON. This is the corollary to advancing to posts of honour and distinction disreputable men and positive rebels. But let no man read these statements as mere matters of idle curiosity, and cast them upon this man's shoulders or that ; they a: j the acts of England, and if England, that is to say, each man cannot attend to see justice done — if his pulse does nut beat quicker, if his abhorrence is not aroused by such facts as these — then indeed conclamatum est — the rot has reached the core — the gangrene the heart. Kingston, Canada, lOth August, 1844. Sir C. Metcalfe recommended a memorial of mine to the Queen, in February last. Could I have doubted but that her Majesty would have graciously ordered ntie immediate relief, upon the recommenda- tion of this, the most excellent of all her Representatives? But I have just learned by a letter from the Secretary of his Royal High- ness Prince Albert, that her Majesty can do nothing but through the recommendation of the Colonial Secretary. Thus, my Sovereign proves to me, in this my great extremity, and into which my services to her Majesty have brought me, an abstraction, a nonentity. Would that I had never known this fact. It has scattered irrevoc- ably from me half the cherished visions of my long erring imagination. I have hitherto regarded with enthusiasm, the vision of this young Sovereign, as not only having the high will and chivalrous mind of a Monarch of our great people ; but also the power to act where her judgment or even her feelings might prompt her to exercise the Royal authority, even in great matters. But that, an humble, suf- fering, and successful servant of her Crown and Empire, should be turned over to a haughty and unfeeling statesman who had already twice misconstrued his case and disregarded his most plain state< ments, I did not imagine it possible, for this young Queen to do. On receiving Mr. Secretary Higginson's letter in April, conveying Lord Stanley's answer to my memorial, denying all claim of mine on the Imperial Government, but admitting that I have an " indisput- able'* claim upon the Province, I addressed a letter to his Lord- CASE OP COLONEL FITZOIBBON. 45 ship, expressing my surprise at this denial, and affirming that the same service which gave me an indisputable claim upon the Pro- vince, gave me the like claims upon the British Government. Had Toronto been taken in December 1 837 — and that I saved it, abun- dant proof thereof has long been deposited in the Colonial Office — the Upper Province would undoubtedly have been overrun by rebels, and hordes of ruffians from the neighbouring states would have desolated it — the other North American Provinces would have been placed in great jeopardy — our affairs with France relative to Egypt and Syria — in the North of India, and with China, would have been most seriously, if not dangerously, affected— still more so the Boundary Question and our relations with the United States :^ and yet Lord Stanley denies my claim on the British Government ! How to account for this, I am wholly at a loss. I am equally at a loss to account for the continued, the obstinate resistance to the prayers of the two Houses of Parliament of Upper Canada, TiiRBB SEVERAL YEAns REPEATED AND PRESSED — the Commons having added the word " unanimously" to their Resolutions in my behalf. The whole appears to me incomprehensible. Unless, indeed, that Mr. Stephen exercise^ an influence against me, or that I have emerged from the condition of an uneducated private soldier into the public service, until I have worn a silk gown in that service fur seventeen years, that I am held to be too insignificant for further notice ? The Colonial Ministers have repeatedly and loudly proclaimed to the people of Canada that her Majesty desires to govern them, ac- cording to their well understood wishes, expressed through their Legislature— yet there is a Legislature who have three times prayed of her Majetsy — ** unanimously" prayed, that I should be rewarded for positive services rendered by me to the Empire, and to the province, and nearly seven years are permitted to elapse, and I am left to suffer from the interposition of the very Ministers who have so often declared that the will of this Parliament was to be their guide ! The kindhearted Sir Charles Bagot, on reading my petition and papers annexed, immediately called the Executive Council together, saying, that he, being then recently arrived, thought me an extremely ill-used man ; they passed an order to recommend my case ■p"«n iO CASE OF COLONEL FITZGIDBON. rfi " to the most favourable consideration of the two houses" — but durirg the following Session those very men refused their assent to the sending down the promised message, as His Excellency himself told me after the Session was ended I— Then came the excellent Sir Charles Metcalfe, who inquired minutely into my case, and finding that no relief could be afforded mo by Parliament, before the next Session, he said to me that he would not let me suffer so severely any longer, and desired that I would name a sum sufficient to relieve me from my present necessities, and he would advance it to me out of his own funds. I said, that not at all expecting such an offer, I for the moment knew not what sum to name — but that, though humilia- ting to confess it, I would state that a baker had stopped his issue of bread to my family because I could not pay him punctually for it — that my only daughter would not accept from me suitable dress to appear in at the Government House while I suffered so much from debt, and that for five years she had declined all invitations to it — that, therefore, any sum, however small, would afford me relief. I then named ;£ 100. as prob-^bly sufficient to keep me from actual distress until the meeting of Parliament, when his Excellency said, " From the view I have taken of your affairs, that sum is not enough I" Still more surprised, I again paused and said, " Then, Sir, I will go as far as ^200. ; but I will not go any further,"— and on the following morning I received a cheque for ^200. Here, then, are some of the many humiliations and mortifications to which I have been exposed : — and so it has been since the year 1806, when his Majesty Geoige the Third promoted me from Serjeant- Major to an Ensigncy in the 18th regiment, when I had not a shilling, nor could have had a shilling — and therefore had to con- tract a debt of ;£150. to equip myself as an Acting-Adjutant, with horse, &c. &c. ; and yet when I had the fortune to render an import- ant service to my Sovereign and my country, I am treated with the most heartless and cruel neglect by those whose holy duty it has been, and is, to do me justice. I am truly sick at heart, and cannot now possibly write any more. Your injunction shall be attended to. I will write you some account of the Province by the next mail if I can. At present M CASE OF COLONEL FITZOIDBON. 47 I will only say, if ever man deserved success, Sir Charles Metcalfe docs— and it is my opinion that he will succeed — although two to one of those who speak to me think otherwise. I am not able to perform my duty — now after forty-eight years service, and ncur tiio end of my sixty-fourth year. I have therefore applied for and obtained leave of absence, and continue to live here. I have not money to enable me to go to Montreal. Is it not a pity to paralyze me in times like these? Instead of doing good to the province hereafter as heretofore, my case is likely to produce much evil, by the example which, I fear, must be shewn in me of the reward that awaits those who do their duty. James FitzGibdon. P.S. — Small though this matter be now, it may bring about evils very much disproportionate to its present dimensions. Has any man born of a woman a right to subject me to this great suffering, and to destroy me ? Is not wrong done under the colour of authority or law, the most grievous of all wrongs ? I\ . /: CANADA UNDER SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. No. II. (The Beauiiarnois Jod.) In our last article we classed under two heads the dan- gers affecting our possessions in North America, and therein the general strength and stability of the empire. The first, FALSE MAXIMS— the sccond, SECRET PRACTICES — falsc con- clusions of the man, not from the will to do wrong — false measut 3S of he nation suffered because concealed. The maxim, h opposed to the judgment of the nation from which it proceeds, as the practice to the will of the nation by whose power it is enforced. But in these two points are summed up the causes of every people's decay. First there comes a doubt, then an error, then a misjudgment -on the mismanaged fact, then is instituted a ** Principle," which becomes the rule of conduct, and the mould for subsequent eventa. An illustration of this " progress" is presented to our hand in a periodical of intelligence and independence, the Examiner: taking a review of the highest matters of internal and external right, it introduces North America thus :— *' If we turn to the Western Continent, the result is still more striking and instructive. The Colonies, now the United States, took us a century and a half to establish, and all this long while they cost some portion of their civil charges, and all their military and naval charges, while a commercial monopoly was caused by their possession, more oppressive to parent and offspring than needless fleets and armies. Then we lost them, and the struggle t-i hold an unprofitable dominion cost us one hundred and thirty mMions** We lost the Colonies because of criminal acts, for which justice had to be done upon the perpetrators. These acts were so denounced at that time in this land by one fraction ,1 ^i 50 CANADA UNDER I it I- 1 of its people. For that same fraction of the people (the extreme liberal party) the same acis are now merely —a condition of things. We were involved in the sacrifice of treasure and blood, together with the srovincti OB •• an enormous nuisance," '• ii war fomenting pest," " an onihodied provocation for war;*' iho British Ruhjcets wlio enrolled themselves to defend tlie province against internal commotion and foreign aggrctision, he compliments as the ** huso and hrutul Uritish," and this h the person who puts in the jewel into Lord Durham's Report, and reconi' mends the union of the Provinces I This is the man who speaks of the " confidence repc'^ed in him" hy Lords John Russell and Stanley, wito parades his " eniploy> ment hy Lord Durham," his ** reconciliation with Lord Sydenham," his dictation to Sir Charles Bagot, and his satisfaction with Sir C. Metcalfe! Whence this terrible power in an individual thus branded on the forehead ? Is it transcendent genius ? No— it is the verdict of an Old Bailey jury that has conferred it upon him ! By it he works. By it he makes his own whoever holds intercourse with him. Thev have to lie for him that they may not be infamous. Here, then, is the real antagonist of Sir C. Metcalfe ; and on the contest be- tween them depends the dismemberment of the British Empire— all other powers are obstructed, and they com- bat, as it were, in vacuo. There is nothing around to grapple with, or even comprehend, the faculties of the one, or the villany of the other. "Government has made SirC. Metcalfe," exclaims Mr. G. Wakefield, "greater than the Colonial Office." He exalts him already. The man is confident of success. But whatever the result, Mr. Gibbon Wakefield could not have been there to main- tain this contest had it not been for the Beauharnois speculation ;— and again, bed it not been that a succession of corruptible men were found in the Colony and in the Cabinet ; — and again, had not the British nation become itself indifierent to character. Mr. Ellice is son-in-law to Lord Grey, brother-in-law 64 CANADA UNDER ii to Lord Durham He has had the co-operation of Lord Sydenham and Lord Palmerston. The Beauhar.^ois plot, In so far as it was tbe means of convulsing Canada, was an essential object to Russia. Lord Durham was the factious partisan of the Emperor, Lord Sydenham and Lord Palmerston, were his intelligent coadjutors. Here then were family ties and influence affecting some— con- currence of objects presentins: themselves to the rest. Such was the Beauharnois job, the pivot upon which have hinged the events in Canada. It was necessary to expose it thus in detail before proceeding to the diffi- culties with which the present Governor-General is now surrounded, ind we close these remarks by quoting the words addressed to the writer of this article by a British functionary on meeting Mr. Edward Ellice in the streets of London in 1837, *' If evei Canada is lost to Britain it will be through the machinations of that man." There are periods in the history of nations which in after times are looked back to with dismay and abhor- rence. When the secret memoirs of the present times are made known, Lnd when the motives of the actors are made clear by the results, there will be presented a picture as much at least calculated to excite incredulity and ab- horrence, as any thing which we find in the mysterious records of Poland before her fall. Sir Charles Metcalfe has succeeded at last in form- ing a Council, — which event we deplore. Sir Charles Metcalfe was, in as far as the real business of the Colony was going on, so well managing, so much better without than with a Cabinet (!), that we were in hopes that the light might break in on some, and the great truth be made manifest, that their schemes for governing were the sole embarrassments or obstacles to Government. The Morning SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. 65 Herald recently commented, as follows, on Sir Charles Metcalfe's mode of ruling : — " Nor have the interests ot the Province in the least suffered by the temporary vacancy of some of the executive offices ; its business has been as efficiently performed, and its most minute affairs have been as promptly administered, as if every post had been filled. Though harassed and weakened by a most painful complaint, and compelled to undergo a hazardous surgical operation, Sir Charles Metcalfe has continued to indulge — for labour with him is pleasure — without relaxation in hard work ; the difficulties of his position have excited him to still greater exertions ; by his own indefatigable labour the duties of the whole Government have been carried on — not negligently, or imperfectly, or hurriedly — but completely, cautiously, and righteously. Neither political disappointment nor personal suffering has disturbed the soundness of his judgment, or interrupted the even tenor of his honest in- dustry ; neither unscrupulous misrepresentation nor uninten- tional misconception of his motives or conduct by others, has fretted his quiet endurance and good-humoured cheerfulness | into one angry remark, or excited him into a single act for i which an excuse need be offered. At this moment he is, if i pot ble, less a partisan than when he disembarked at Quebec ; and he will meet the next Session of the Parliament as free I from personal feeling as he did the last. If the force of his i great example be lost on the Canadian Parliament, then must Canada, to use the language of a member of that Parliament, who has just given us his views of Sir Charles Metcalfe's government, * take the consequences of a revolutionary struggle.' " Thus is Canada doomed to the ingenious torture of inge- nuous men, and is menaced and buiiied because at last she happens to have a good governor. Sir C. Metcalfe, on goin^ out to Canada, could not have put himself under the i I F 66 CANADA UNDER i 1 yi,. command of such men as form the Government of Eng- land, in the exercise of any duty of his own, or of any service to the State. He had on a former occasion, in assuming the Governorship of Jamaica, told the represen- tatives of the opposite factions, when they met to do him honour, that he should equally obey the constituted autho- rity, and equally disregard the party opinions of those in or out of office. So far there was good conduct, so far there was courageous avowal. But Sir C. Metcalfe has gone further, he has recently directed against the head of the Government in England, and consequently against the whole nation (for of course the chief of a nation is the worthy representative of the people) one of the bitterest of reproofs and most biting of satires. In speaking of the quarrel with the Council , he says : — " I am required to give myself up entirely to the Council ; to submit absolutely to their dictation ; to have no judgment of my own ; to bestow the patronage of the Government exclusively on their partisans ; to proscribe their opponents ; and to make some public and unequivocal declaration of my adhesion to those conditions, involving the complete nullifica- tion of Her Majesty's Government." What is here required from Sir C. Metcalfe that is not required by Sir R. Peel from the Queen ? — what is the question in Canada ? — is it not to cut the provincial Govern- ment, according to the pattern of the Home Government? — that is, to effect the same degradation in the colonies that has heen effected at home. The previous practice of the English Government, was to make responsible those who had to execute the Law. You have overthrown the Law in England, you now proceed to overthrow it in the colonies. You introduce faction and party in lieu of examination of facts and judgment thereupon. The administration of affairs is rendered entirely subordinate SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. 67 to the possession of power. The new Laws are fri^rnGd, not for the purpose of preventing wrong, but for the pur- pose of distributing checks, influence, and patronage. The absurdity now smites you in th**. face, and there is now clearly before you one of two courses to take, — either to understand your folly and to remedy it — either to restore proper, fitting, sensible rule of government at home, or to declare that Canada is not governable, and to cast her otf; and having done this with respect to Canada, you must go on dealing in like manner with all similar incidents. The following extract from a speech made seven years ago, may suggest some reflections not inapplicable to the present times— may awaken some sense of that alarm, by which at times nations are saved from great dangers. ** Another fallacy, far more common and far more inju- rious!, is the idea of the valuelessness of colonies, and the ad- vantage of their separation from the mother country. This opinion is supported by the assertion that the United States of America have been more advantageous as a free people to Great Britain than as a colony. If the assertion were true, the inference would only be, that the unjust and impolitic acts which gave rise to their separavion were justifiable, or that the governing principles of Great Britain arc such, that a dependent state can neither benefit England, nor be bene- fited itself by the connexion ; and this doctrine must conse- quently corae to justify misgovernment on the one hand, and to sanction rebellion on the other. But it is not true that the separation of America has been beneficial to England. The act which led to it was a violation of her own principles — the opposition which it raised, lacerated the fondest ties of her colonies and her subjects. The blood of thousands flowed in the unnatural struggle, and millions of treasure were ex- pended in the untoward contest ; above one hundred millions of debt were heaped on future ages, and the seeds of deso- lating war scattered over the continent of Europe. Had the war with America never taken place, or the separation of the i: 68 CANADA UNDER i ! colonies not been effected, the subsequent wars in Europe would probably have been avoided, and England would stand at this moment safe and pre-eminent. The commencing of troubles in our colonies in 1772 was the cause of the first par- tition of Poland, because England, endangered in the West, could not venture to defy the policy of Russia. Our embar- rassments in our North American colonies rendered us indif- ferent to the regenerated movement of Poland in ] 791 , and must have led, in 1792, to the loss of Constantinople, had a statesman and a warrior — the sovereign of Prussia — not felt the danger to Europe, and prepared to attack at once Austria and Russia, in defence of the Dardanelles. At this present hour, the few ships that England can spare, instead of being anchored in the Bosphorus, are despatched to the St. Law- rence ; and, as the most fatal blow that Russia could aim at the existence of England would be the convulsion of her colonies, so is the man who speaks of the benefit that would accrue to England from her colonial loss, the worst enemy of his country." Alas! it is our doctrines that have brought the evil for which Canada will not have alone to suffer. The conse- quences will be to them a gratuitous infliction, to us a just punishment. It seems that the maleficent individual whose conduct has occupied already several pages of this number, is not unconnected with the new Ministerial arrangement in Canada. The following extract is from a Canadian Correspon- dent : — •• I believe Wakefield is plotting to destroy the character of Sir Charles Metcalfe. It was he that forced the rebel council on Sir C. Bagot — he framed Lord Durham's report to get the Beauharnois Seigniory for his schemes — he managed by his stratagems to get the Beauharnois Canal for the use of the Americans, instead of being on the North side of iho SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. 69 St. Lawrence, within our dominions— .he quarrelled with the traitor Council for purposes of his own — and it is a singular fact that the only loyal portion of Sir C. Metcalfe's present Council are men who have disgraced and degraded themselves by asso- ciating with this ******* and who, from that circumstance, never will command the confidence and respect of the loyal community of Canada. I see nothing but strife, contention, concession, disruption, and disgrace in store for the North American Colonies." '* Wakefield was driven from Canada by the public indig- nation ; he is now the Champion of Sir Charles Metcalfe and the framer of his Council." K I P. S. The following we received too late for insertion. To make the Beauharnois matter clear, I thus enumerate the leading facts. 1. Ellice got the Seigniory cheap, sold it to a Company, immoderately dear. 2. Wakefield and BuUer were sent out by Ellice, in Lord Durham's suite. 3. Wakefield was sent back from Canada, in conse- quence of the extreme indignation, excited by the appoint- ment of one standing branded in a special and express statute of the realm, as " convicted of fraud, forgery, and conspiracy." 4. He (Wakefield) made up Lord Durham's report, and having his eye on the Seigniory of Beauharnois, and the construction of the Canal through it, eulogised the United States, and vilified the Canadas on the score of apathy and indifference to public improvement. 70 CANADA UNDER 5. Having oft'ended Poulett Thompson, he managed to get up a meeting of all the Land Companies to appoint him agent, and send him to Canada. 6. In ♦his he failed, but Ellice's Company gave him £12,500. to go out to Canada to patch up a truce with Poulett Thompson, and to do their jobbing. 7. He went to Canada, and joined in common cause with Thompson, who had before denounced the Beauhar- nois Company as infamous, and then (Wakefield) com- menced his speculations with the Members of the Parlia- ment, to get a Canal constructed round the St. Lawrence, without reference to which side of the river it was to be made. 8. He succeeded ; and then again he renewed his poli- tical movements, No. 1, being the Durham Report. 9. He induces the Board of Works to allow him to have the Canal commenced in its centre, through the Beauhar- nois Seigniory, on the south or (American) side of the river, in opposition to the warmest remonstrances of all friends to British connection in the Province. 10. He managed, immediately after Lord Sydenham's death, before Sir C. Bagot's arrival, to have that portion of the St. Lawrence Canal, called the Beauharnois Canal, commenced and contracted for. 11. To appease French Canadian hostility to Ellice's Company, he commenced tampering with some of the principal rebels. 12. On SirC. Bagot's arrival, he obtains the appoint- ment of a leading rebel to office. 13. He causes such division and distractions in the Council, and produces such disgust amongst the loyal population, that a rebel council was appointed by Sir C. Bagot, and the Parliament continued only 14 days in Session. .< SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. 7* 14. Before its close, he induces the then Member for Beauharnois to resign his seat, and gets elected himself: solicits the snff rages of the electors on two grounds : 1st, the Beauharnois Canal ; 2nd, the promise to get Montreal made the seat of Government. 15. The Council left by Sir C. Bagot quarrel with Sir C. Metcalfe, and also with Mr. Wakefield — they are dismissed by Sir Charles ; Daley, Wakefield's friend, the only ONE retained. Wakefield becomes the warm defender and supporter of Sir C. Metcalfe. During this time the following occurrences take place — Baldwin, the rebel Attorney-General, twice defeated in his attempt to get into Parliament for Upper Canada. Murney, a loyal Canadian, dismissed from a situation, for offering himself as a candidate in opposition to Baldwin. Sherwood, a loyal Canadian, dismissed from the office of Solicitor-General. Ogden, a loyal Canadian, Attorney-General, dismissed from office. FitzGibbon, defrauded. McLeod, unrv.munerated. Montreal made the seat of Government, in defiance of a pledge. Leading rebels promoted to offices of Sheriff's, Magis- trates, Dictrict Judges, &c. &c. Every one who defended the Colony proscribed, insulted, degraded. * # # # * 7^ CANADA, &C. Traitors Rewarded. Rolph, (John) Duncombe. Morrison. Hincks. Baldwin. La Fontaine. Lossing. Gibson. Governors Rewarded with Peerages, &c, Gosford, (upright indeed in purpose.) Durham. Sydenham. Loyalists Insulted, Pro- scribed, Injured. Chief Justice Robinson. Bishop of Toronto. Colonel FitzGibbon. McL'jod. Murney. Prince, &c. &c. Faithful GovEnNORs Recal- led and Disgraced. Sir F. Head Sir J. Colborno. Lord Aylmer. Lord Dalhousie, &c. hi I \i FURTHER ELUCIDATION or the BEAUHARNOIS JOB. The Article in our last Number, has given rise to various objections and questions, which in order to be able to reply to distinctly, we distribute under the four following heads. First. What connexion is there between the sale of a property in Canada to a Land Company, and the Insur- rection of the Canadian people ? Secondly. What makes the Saint Lawrence Canal so improper an undertaking as to have rendered corruption necessary for carrying it ? Thirdly. What has Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield been guilty of? Fourthly. How is it possible, that a man, such as Mr. Edward EUice, could associate with persons, or engage in purposes of the alleged description ? To the first question we answer : — This was no ordinary sale of property. Had the pro- perty been disposed of on the ordinary conditions, no injury could have resulted to the Canadians, and no commotion from its sale ; but it was not so disposed of. The price at which it was sold was manifold the price at which it had been purchased, and this advance of price was fictitiously raised by connecting it with schemes of emigration, and with land jobbing in England. The contributors of the money in England had to be deceived in order that they should contribute. Then a project of emigration had to be worked up to carry out these representations ; and then the introduction of these emigrants into the Canadian settlements alarmed the population, by the intrusion of a new and distinct, and, as it stood, hostile race, and this was to be connected also with an overthrow of their usages^ F I! P (■; i:. I'i I? V, 74 FURTHER ELUCIDATION 'Hie next steps were, the political convulsion of the province, to mask the causes of this local evil, and then further corruption again of the administration, to bring into operation a falsely planned public work, that would give employment to the emigrants, and would be a bribe to the native population upon the Beauharnois and surrounding properties. This took place in the very region that had hitherto been kept free from British settlers. — It was the frontier, an open frontier, exposed to the '.iroads of the Americans ; and there- fore was it made the fundamental object of the settlement in 1794, to leave it in undisturbed possession of the French Canadians, in order that their consequent attachment to England, should be England's defence. The laws, manners, and customs of the Canadians, were thus preserved to them, and the wisdom of such conduct was proved by the results. And by this alone has Canada remained British. Judge then of the effect of an extensive project in ' ^^land, to colonize with British and Irish the Canadian Seigniories ! — this imitation by a son-ir-law of the then Prime Mi- nister of England, of the Texan speculations of the Free- booters of the South I We have already shewn that the Report of Lord Durham, was one of the instruments of these speculators ~as distract- ing with political agitation the Provinces, and keeping from observation their own acts, and as subservient to a higher game that was playing by some of these persons, in connexion with a foreign power, and as being in the sense of the Parliamentarian usurpations of the day. But the report of Lord Durham was a volume, not a proposition ; it con- tained many propositions, a whole fabric of propositions — it was a battery, the pieces of which were pointed against every face of Heaven : and worked to level whatever stood pre-eminent by worth, or man's respect; all things were shaken by it in the Colonies ; and after a time the Home OF THE OEAUHARNOIS JOB. 75 Government of the one party after the other, adopted it as a piece of tatesmanship,— played with it as a toy,— or wore it as a mill-stone. This Report, then, proceeded to propound novel theories on the constitution, not of Government only, but of society, under the form of a Theory of Emigration ; proposing the experiment and application to Canada of that theory, worked out by Mr. (Gibbon Wakefield during his three years impri- sonment in Newgate. This theory happened to be at total variance with all those things which existed amongst the French settlers in Canada, and in opposition to all that they desired, or felt; this experiment was suggested to be first tried in the Seigniory of Beauhamois. Here then is the connexion of the Durham plot with the Land Company for the purchase of the Seigniory, based in common upon the obtruding of the stranger population upon the Canadians, and the alarming that people with a general overthrow of their rights and a general assumption of their territory. The Report was drawn up not indeed by Mr. E. G. Wakefield alone. Three were engaged in it. Were the others calculated to counteract the villany, the opinions, or the pecuniary interests of Mr. Gibbon Wakefield? No. The others were Mr. EUice's son, who had an in- terest in the principal, five per cent, upon which amounted for Mr. Wakefield to ^612,500., and Mr. Charles Duller, who might have had a percentage, just as much as Mr. Wakefield, since he was that individuars associate, and moreover the sycophant of Durham — ^the "protege of the Ellices, and a clever party journeyman. Hke first resistance to the law occurred in the Chateau-' gay river, which runs through the Beauhamois Seigniory. The inhabitants of that Seigniory stopped a steamboat with Mr. Edward Ellice,and seized him and the persons with him. Mr. Edward Ellice had been guilty of no act personally and directly offensive; there was no local commotion. In this F 2 i! . r l( 76 FURTHER ELUCIDAnON seizure, tliercfore, is represented t!ie clear appreciation by the Canadians of the source from which evil threatened. The lives of these persons were saved only by the intervention of the priest, who kept them in his house, and who secretly gave notice to a body of Glengarry Highlanders who has- tened to the rescue. Wo trust we have thus supplied the deficiency of our former number, and made it apparent how the Beauharnois speculation of Mr. Edward Ellice was the source of the commotion in Canada, of the infamous Durham Report which inflicted the Union upon the Provinces, and infested them with Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield. We now come to the second question. — In what consists that inexpediency of the Saint Lawrence Canal, which has required the employment of corrupt and infamous means to cause it to be adopted ? Answer. There are rapids in the Saint Lawrence, and it was an object of public utility to cut a canal so as to avoid these rapids. The country south of the Saint Law- rence is open Lo the United States, and every arrangement, or work undertaken, has reference to the liability to invasion from the United States. To cut a canal south of the Saint Lawrence would be to throw that important communication in advance of your defences, — cutting to the north of the Saint Lawrence, places that defence in advance. Were there obstacles to overcome to the north, and an open country to the south, it still would have been essential to conquer the obstacles, and neglect the facilities presented on the more exposed side. Now there were no obstacles in carrying the canal to the north. There were greater facilities than for carrying it to the south. Yet the canal was made to the south and not to the north. Instead of being confined to the limits absolutely necessary to overcome the difficulties of the rapids, it is far extended, and converted into a work requiring the expenditure of half a million OF TIIL; UEAUIIAUNOI8 JOB. 77 Btorling. It is carrioil directly through tho Boauharnoiii property ; it is made to bo commencod in the middle and not at tho extromities, so as at onco to bo of service to tho Beuuhurnois speculators. It wan to obtain tho8c ends, tho reports had to bo uianufuctured— tho Government officers rendered favourable — tho House of Assembly to bo convulsed and disturbed to prevent attention being given — the Governors to bo rendered favourable— the Press to be rendered favourable ; and the public to be mystified and confused. Tho attempts of those who saw and endeavoured to bring those designs and guilty deeds to light, had to bo counteracted and put down ; and all this necessitated large corruption, and contributed effectually to that general end. This very canal scheme has been rendered the moans of returning to Parliament in Canada, the man whom Lord Melbourne required Lord Durham to dismiss from Canada, because of the infamy of his character.* Having got, through the commencement of the canal and tho profits thereby accruing, the means of coming forward as a candidate upon the hustings, he then offers, as a condition of his being returned to Parliament, the causing to be reversed in favour of Montreal, the pledge of the Government to make Kingston the capital of the United Provinces. In this, too, he has succeeded. Now this case, (of the canal) was prepared for in the Dur- ham Report. The United States were there artfully ex- tolled for their efforts in public improvements, and falsely and malignantly was apathy and indifference imputed to the Canadians. We have already shewn how the Beauharnois Company in London, converted this imputation to their own purposes, explained the superior attractions of the United ♦ It is singular that the known author of this Report of Lord Durham, should be the man whom Lord Durham's chief required him to send out of the colonv. I! 'I III- 78 FURTHER ELUCIDATION States ta our emigrants to Canada, the fact being falsely stated ; and then liuw all these conclusions were brought to bear upon the necessity of making the Saint Lawrence canal through the Beauharnois estate. Whichever part you take up, it is like taking up the parts of a net, every mesh is connected, and every knot is tightened, and with it they have caw-ght many fish — the smallest have been taken, and we Tere going to say, the largest have not been able to break through ; — but we will wait the result of Sir Charles Metcalfe's struggle. We now come to the third question ; namely — Of what has Mr. E. G. Wakefield been guilty ? Edward Gibbon Wakefield, attempted, in concert with some infamous associates, to get possession of a young lady's fortune, by carrying her offand marrying her — forgery was had recourse to, and the crime was branded as a new one. A century before a case in some degree resembling it, had occurred, but without the aggravating circumstances of this. The law was deemed inefficient to meet it. He was, however, sentenced to three years' imprisonment in the felon's ward of Newgate, and Sir R. Peel regretted that the punishment of death could not be applied to so atrocious a case. Sir R. then Mr. Peel, has expressed himself as follows in the House of Commons: — "The circumstances of the case were so notorious, that it would be unnecessary to enter into a detail of the arts, the fraud, the forgery, and the villany, which had been practised. This, it was well known to most who heard him, had not been done to gratify ar other passion than avarice— to gratify the basest avarice by the basest meand, Tlie chief agent in this detestable offence, was then enduring a punishment by no way adequate — entirely disproportionate — to his offence. The sentence which had been pronounced on him, was a strong proof of the imperfection of human legislation. Three years im- prisonment fell very short indeed, of the punishment which OF THE BEAUHARNOIS JOB. 7^ ought to follow such a crime. Hundreds of delinquents, much less guilty than Wakefield— without the advantages of education which he possessed—had been convicted of capital felonies, and had forfeited their lives. If the marriace had been completed in England, Wakefield would have been ex- posed to capital punishment."* To the fourth question — How such a person as Mr. Edward EUice could lend himself to such projects, and link himself with such characters ? We answer : The French proverb, Dis moi qui tu hantes, je te dirai qui tu es, is of universal authority and application. He who does not know what Mr. Edward Ellice is, does know, at least, what Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield is. If men are known by their associates, so also are they by their acts. We have before us the Beauharnois job. We cannot have clearer means of knowing any man : — infamous associates,— nefarious acts. But the knowledge of other men is dependent upon the standard in each man of his own morality. That standard Tuctuates greatly in a nation, and it varies in a nation as an aggregate standard, from century to century, and from year to year. In 1837, Mr. Edward Gibbon Wake- field had to be sent out of Canada, because of character. The standard of morality of the nation must have been changed before he could go back ; still further changed before he could be a member of its senate ; still further changed before he could come to be the chief authority in the province, and the most influential pereon in England in respect to it. Nations rise in honour, they sink in corruption ; and the circle is completed more or less rapidly, as the standard of iLvrality more rapidly changes. An Eastern proverb says, '' the fish stinks by the head," that is, the leading men mislead and pervert the people, because the people are in ignorance of what their leaders are, and so first endure what they would have repudiated, if known ; and * Speech in the House of Commons, June 6, 1827. !i I f 80 FURTHER ELUCIDATION when they have come to know it, they justify it, because they have endured it. By making that which is base known in time, it is prevented. When it comes to be known after- wards, the baseness is confirmed, and its venom scattered throughout the whole race. They pass from believmg such things impossible, to supposing that they cannot be prevented. It is then considered the ordinary course of nature. Men have been always base and corrupt ; and a shrug of the shoulder — a faint muscular or verbal expression of disgust, — is all that is left to mark the relationship of this English people, of the 19th century, with predecessors who were, upon earth, the race most indignant against, and most impatient of, public wrongs ; most sensitive to private honour, most instant in requiring proof where doubts arose, and punishment where proof had been given ; and who, passing the mere limits of virtuous vigilance, had ranged to the extremest verge of turbulence as directed against pretension and usurpation. Such acts as those that we have described are as yet inconceiveable to the mass of the nation. Common men in capacity or station are not corrupt enough to do the like, but they are sufficiently corrupt to endure them. It will enter into the heart of no existing Englishman to feel indignation — his blood will not circulate more quickly, nor his breath be more heavily drawn, nor his nerves writhe under the infliction of that which, though the scourge of ttie freeman, brings us no pain — dishonour. We imagine we have now pro>^ c-: "^vV .^ 'V > .0* w '> ^ ■''# y Photegraphic SdentBS Corpordiior .n V ^ V '^ <> rv 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 145C0 (716) 872-4503 C^ ^ [' 90 FACTS AND ASSERTIONS REGARDING m ■:'1 !!,* ■I h I ■i r I i J on any point in opposition to his views. His skill in using the wand was much admired, but less remarkable, it struck maoy, than the adroitness with which he averted the appearance of defeat by yielding with the air of having his own way. Of his proficiency in the latter art a good example is furnished by what occurred with respect to the Resolutions of the House of Assembly of September 1841, declaratory of responsible government, of which so much use has been made in the present controversy. These resolutions were proposed by Mr. Baldwin. Lord Sydenham's strong dislike to them is un- questionable. When he found that the Assembly was disposed to adopt them, he sent one of his Councillors down to the House with orders to move as an amendment, Rebolutions somewhat different in form and words, but preciselythe same in substance. Responsible government was affirmed by ac- clamation, the Representative of the Crown shouting aye with the loudest of them." '* The passing of these Resolutions by the Assembly was an act cut of the course of ordinary government. It was a revolu- tionary act, like the establishment of Magna Charta or the Bill of Rights (I). The passing of such Resolutions, moreover, was an act at variance with the British Constitution, which nowhere declares the responsibility of Ministers, but secures it by a tacit understanding between the Crown and the House of Commons (!). If, therefore, those Resolutions had been opposed by Lord Sydenham, and passed by the Assembly notwith- standing, Canada would have been in a revolutionary state, aud the Union would have been deemed a failure. Lord Sydenham's whole policy at the time may be described as consisting of a determination to make the Union succeed, or appear successful. Hence his ready and apparently self- satisfied assent to what he would have resolutely opposed, if successful opposition had been possible." ** By means of such concessions as this, added to the other means before named. Lord Sydenham got through the session in triumph. But it was fortunate for his Councillors or Ministers that the session ended with his life. If they had )< CANADIAN GOVERNMENT. 91 continued to meet the Assembly unsupported by his wits and will, their majority would soon have disappeared ; and re- sponsible government, as set forth by the ResoluMons of September 1841, would have been brought to a practical test. As it was, tha Ministry which Lord Sydenham bequeathed to his successor, had only the easy task of conducting the business of the Departments during a long recess of Parliament." After Lord Sydenham's death, until the period of Sir C. Bagot's arrival in January 1842, the Canadian press from Quebec to Sandwich, protested against the indecency of the insolent intrusion of Mr. Wakefield into all the political movements of the Province. His trial — the cotemporary comments of the Metropolitan press— the withering speech of Sir R. Peel — and the preamble of the statute, branding him •with " fraud, forgery, and conspiracy," were all republished, but with an effrontery as unparalleled and matchless as his crime, he was the only individual unmoved by the recital of these revolting atrocities. On the 20th of August 1842, Mr. Wakefield writes a letter to Mr. Girouard, in his own peculiar style of falsehood and insolence. As throwing, however, much light on the sub- sequent movements in Canada, I extract some passages from it :— ** But it yet remains for me to apologise for intruding upon you anything in the shape of suggestion or advice. * * * * j am a disinterested ohserver a\so, you will perceive, when I add, that I declined the offer of valuable appointments under Govern- ment, both from Lord Durham and Lord Sydenham ; that circumstances exist which entirely preclude me from incurring any obligation to the Oovernmenty either in England or in this province; and that I shall certainly return home in November next, with but little prospect of ever seeing Canada ac^ain. It is oii this complete personal independence, that I chiefly rest a claim to your attention. " It appears to me that in less than a month from the present time, the representatives of your countrymen in the Provincial Parliament will have a choice presented them not 92 FACTS AND ASSERTIONS REGARDING I ^1 li) ' I: less important than that which the Canadian leaders made, when they refused Lord Gosford a Civil List in return for the concession of nearly all their demands, or when they virtually declined Lord Durham's proposal of a Federal Government for British North America." ** I cannot help, therefore, fully expecting that there will be a good deal of confusion at the opening of this session, and then a new ranging or settlemeat of parties, which will determine the character of the Government for years to come. I say, " years to come," because the permanent settlement of parties which ought to have taken place when the United Parliament first met, was staved off by the determination of the bulk of the Upper Canada Reformers to put political principles aside for the time.'* •* The choice which they will soon have to make, is between a junction with the Upper Canada Tories, and a junction with the Upper Canada Reformers. '• With respect to the former course, I have two confessions to make. In the first place, my own opinions and feelings are all engaged against a union of the Canadians with that party in Upper Canada which caused the rebellion there by its mode of governing against the wishes of the majority ; and, secondly, I think that the gross and cruel injustice under which theCunadians labour, would excuse them, if they could find relief in no other way, for allying themselves with their old enemies of the Family Compact, or with the Enemy of Mankind. And, further, it appears to me, that such an alliance holds out temptations to the Canadians, which it will require great manliness and sobriety of judgment to resist. It is a practicable alliance ; for if the Governor- General were to adopt this project as cordially as it is entertained by some of the most able of the Upper Canada Tory leaders, a general election would give the combined parties a working majority in the Assembly. It is for many reasons a tempting alliance for both parties; because, first, it would lead to a Government policy exactly the reverse of that of Lord Sydenham, tvhose very name both parties hate ; secondly, because the new policy CANADIAN GOVERNMENT. 93 must be founded on a bargain belvveen the two parties accord- ing to which each of them would have its own way in its own division of the province ; and, lastly, because this bargain would virtually almost set aside the Union, which the Upper Canada Tories dislike, as having deprived them of power, and which the French Canadians dislike still more on account of the injustice which they suffer under it. As respects the Canadians alone, this alliance would admit them to more than an equal share in the government of the only part of the province which they deem their country, and would gratify in a high degree their natural feelings of resentment. If they love power and revenge as much as we Anglo' Saxons doy they must have a keen desire for the Upper Canada Tory alliance.** " In as much as under the Union every Governor must get a majority somehorv, the present Governor-General would be driven to the necessity of interpreting ' Responsible Govern- ment' into the purchase of more than half the assembly, and M'ould very likely find more than half the assembly ready to adopt that interpretation: for corruption begets corruption. But what a prospect for the Canadians and for the country ! But has not the plan of buying for a majority been carried too far already ? For my part, though I can see that in the case supposed, the Governor could hardly be blamed for getting his majority any how, and though I can conceive that the plan of buying for a majority might be worked successfully for some time longer, yet I do believe that public opinion in the Province is growing sick of that demoralizing and debasing method of government, and that its days are numbered. If it lasted only for another session, the evil would be great enough. Surely the Canadian leaders will not help to preserve it, by refusing, under all circumstances, to co-operate with any party with a view to office. I repeat that the Governor-General must try to get a majority by one means or other : who would like to bear the responsibility of compelling his reluctant resort to the worst of all means? " Recurring to the scheme of a union between the Cana- dians and the Upper Canada Reformers, with a view to office M 94 i. FACTS AND ASSERTIONS REGARDING for the leaders of both parties, it becomes a question whether this should be attempted before or after the opening of the session. My own opinion inclines altogether to the earlier step. The Governor-General cannot afford to wait for what might turn up from out of the chapter of accidents ; he is bound to try hard for a majority before the time should come when he would perhaps be unable to get one j and he might, therefore, in the absence of the supposed understanding, be driven to the bw/ing process. The circumstance which most recommends the plan of acting without delay, is the Governor-General's freedom from pledges or any sort of committal, which cannot well last beyond the day of opening the session. I understand, of course, that it would be necessary for the Canadian leaders to hold some communication with his Excellency, and with the leaders of the Upper Canada Reformers." ■:'i ^ W i! ■ i Previously to the meeting of the Canadian Parliament, Mr. Hincks had been added by Sir C. Bagot to his council, on which account, Mr. Cartwright, to whom was offered the office of Solicitor- General, and a seat in the council, declined reeivi ng either appointment. In the letter to Sir C. Bagot, in which he declined the offer, he stated that he did not conceive that he could serve the crown by uniting in the same council with Mr. Hincks, but being himself a Canadian, it was his earnest desire that the representatives and leaders of such portion of the French Canadians as were untainted with rebellion, and whose proceedings had not been those of factious opposition to the former Governors of the colony should be introduced into Sir Charles's council and cabinet. The parliament assembled in September, the arrangement had not been completed, a disruption took place, and Messrs. Baldwin and La Fontaine were called to the council of Sir C. Bagot. Mr. Baldwin was defeated in two several attempts to wwrepresent Upper Canada, and at length took refuge in Rimouski. The parliament remained in session but a fort- night, a time quite insufficient to complete the investigation relating to the Beauharnois Canal. Before its close, it was bruited abroad, that Mr. Wakefield was to offer himself for CANADIAN GOVERNMENT. 95 Beauhamois, and this report was further strengthened by the surrender of his seat for that county by the respectable gen- tleman who then represented it. Mr. Wakefield, who daily presented himself at the Bar of the House duiing its sitting, was denounced pointedly by Dr. Dunlop, the Member for Huron, and Mr. Johnson, the Member for Carleton. Mr. Wakefield thus assigns the reason for his election for Beauharnois. " It is here necessary for me to state, that having taken a very active part in promoting that change under Sir Charles Bagot which admitted French-Canadians to a share of power, I was elected a Member of the Assembly by an important county of Lower Canada, in which the two races are mixed in nearly equal proportions, for the purpose of showing to the Colonial Office, as well as a single election could show it, that Sir Charles Bagot's policy of 'justice to the French Cana- dians' was approved by the constituencies as well as by the Assemblv." The two signal defeats of Mr. Baldwin might also have shown the iM-policy of admitting Upper Canadian rebels to a share of power. During this short session, the only subjects of interest that were discussed, were " the formation of Sir C. Bagot's Council" — " the seat of Government" — and " the Beauharnois canal." It was then evident that the same meddlesome and mischievous activity that Mr. Wakefield had exercised about " the Council," and " the Canal," he was also exercising about " the seat of Government;" and I well remember stating to the Mayor of Kingston, who implicitly relied on Lord Sydenham's pledge for its continuance in Kingston, that Mr. Wakefield having determined on its re- moval to Montreal, to Montreal it would go. Of Sir C. Bagot and his Council, and of his illness, Mr. Wakefield thus speaks : " His Excellency fell into severe illness almost immediately after the formation of the Lafontaine-Baldwln Council, and became incapable of exercising the functions of Governor. 96 FACTS AND ASSERTIONS REOARDTNG l.\ i n bI V .1 ': The Now Council or Ministry, therefore, had in truth no relations with the Governor, but ruled the Province execu- tively without the participation or knowledge of any repre- sentative of the Crown. This state of things lasted until the arrival of Sir Charles Metcalfe.'* In September, 1843, Mr. Wakefield returns to Canada ; and although the members of the Colonial Society had resolved to exclude Mr. Wakefield from the farewell dinner which they gave to Sir Charles Metcalfe before he quitted the English shores, he says, that all the members of the Provincial Ministry **were aware that I had come out to Canada with a very high opinion of Sir Charles Metcalfe's character;" that was of great importance to bo sure, — but they, as well as the public, had been made so aware by his usual organ The Colonial Gazette, 5* At the end of September last, I reached Kingston for the purpose of taking my seat in the Assembly, and voting in sup' port of the Provincial Ministry/ which, as the Letter in the Appendix partly shows, I had been much concerned informing." See then what follows : "The only question, as far as I can see, at all likely to embarrass the Government, is that of the Seat of Government. Lord Stanley, instead of making the Queen decide that pre- rogative question, as the local Government and nearly the whole Province desired, has submitted it to the decision of the local Legislature, and in such a form as to enable the Oppo- sition to exert themselves with efiect, in converting it into a question between the two Provinces, Upper and Lower Canada. The government goes for Montreal, and stakes Its existence on carrying the point. If you were aware of the extreme general inconveniences and gross injustice towards the French-Canadians, in keeping the Government in a sort of banishment at this village, you would see that they have only done their duty in committing themselves as they have done on the subject. I have no doubt they will carry their point, it other things go well." 1^ CANADIAN GOVERNMENT. 97 After vvrltiiH' to " Dear Maiin-los" timt iib Imd set i]is mind on Sir C. Metcalfe being the man to establish constitutional Government; and how disappointed he shall bo if Sir C. Metcalfe fails; that he longed to go and plead with him on the subject, but dared not ; on the i7th of October, he writes again to " Dear Mangles," telling him, that the very Council he had been so '* much concerned in forming, — have denied to the Governor-General that degree of partici|)ation in public affairs which belongs to every ('ouncillor ; that they have net only not treated the Governor-General as the head of the Council, but have also denied hiin the equal position of a Councillor. For example, I imagine that they never really consult him, but always make up their own minds on a point before speaking to him, and then speak to him only for the purpose of urging their own preconcerted notion. This will never do ; this is not responsible government, but sheer folly exhibiting itself in the form of vnlgar assumption. I take the state of the case to be about this— He, from long habit, desires to exercise his own mind upon every thing; they, from stupidity, desire to prevent him from having any voice in any thing : and thus he is provoked into wishing for more control than would satisfy him if they left him a reasonable share. The fault is clearly all on their side." On the 11th of November, he again wrote to " Dear Mangles" : — <' I now know that Messrs. Lafontaine and Baldwin have got thoroughly into the Governor General's bad graces. So they have into mine, by reason of various follies, and above all, by a course of treachery towards a colleague who greatly lielped to bring them into power. If the Governor chooses his ground well, and acts promptly, I shall be able to serve him. Your friend behaves with entire propriety towards them, having even abstained from giving any answer to an offer which I made him the other day, to render him any service in my power. I expected that he would so receive it, but thought myself not the less bound to make the offer. It was limited to the brief space of rny stay here." u 98 FACTS AND ASSERTIONS REGARDING I !i ■I I I On the 25ili of November, he again writes to "Dear Mangles," and willi the extract from this letter, I conclude my extracts from his correspondence : — ** It will annoy me to declare piihlicly that I can no longer support Sir Charles Metcalfe's Administration ; because I am sure that he differs quite as much as I do with his Ministers with respect to their presumptuous and intolerant spirit (nay» is probably himself its victim) ; but come wliat may, I must so far speak out as to escape the responsibility of appearing to support what I cordially disai)prove." Well, indeed, have you described the influence and success of this man, '♦ the consciousness with which he plays with his victims, the security he feels in his knowledge of those WHO BECOME HIS TOOLS MY BBING HIS ASSOCIATES." It was the Honorable Mr. Sullivan who first warmed him into existence — it was Mr. Sullivan that submitted to the in- dignity of having his speech in favour of the removal of the Stat of Government from Kingston tc Montreal, revised, improved, and corrected; and hcv powerless the same Mr. Sullivan has now become, in his vindication of himself and the Council, that Mr. Wakefield was so "much concerned in forming," from this very man's attack. It is much to be dreaded that the high character wliich both Mr. Draper and Mr. Sherwood have always, and most deservedly held in the province, will be seriously tarnished* by the same fatal mis- take, committed by Mr. Sullivan, that of associating with Mr. Wakefield, for most assuredly, " those who become his associates will become his tools." The unfaithfulness of Wakefield's representation of his cause of quarrel with the Council, may be gathered from one of themselves. In a statement which appeared in the Morning Chronicle, Mr. Hincks says, " I presume you will * We cannot insert this passage without protest. Most ardently is it to be desired, that any so base as to associate with this man should bear the penalty. Lost, indeed, is the people who do not inflict it. — Ed. P. / • CANADIAN GOVERNMENT. 09 agree with me, that the ex-Ministors were not bound to con- sult the Governor with regard to 8chen)es of Mr. WaUeHeld, which they had no intention of recommending. The nego- tiation consisted in Mr. Wakefield having applied to some members of the Government to know whether the motion for a Committee would be opposed, which led to a meeting be- tween himself and Mr. Sherwood on one side, and Messrs. Morin and Hincks on the other, the latter merely wishing to ascertain th views of the parties, and the proposed com- position of the Committee. The conditions alluded to, must have been that the Committee should bo impartially selected from the house, and not pached with persons friendly to Mr. Wakefield's scheme. You will at once perceive, that before applying to the Governor for his sanction to the appointment of the Committee, it was absolutely necessary to make these preliminary inquiries. His Excellency was then constilted, and with his concurrence the motion for a Committee was agreed to ; 7iot being, however, the Committee desired or contemplated by the Beauharnois agent in his opposition to the Council — his fulsome panegyric — and his obtrusive support of Sir Charles Metcalfe." I have thus exposed, not only the utter groundlessness of the assumed pretext for destroying the Canadian legislatures and constitution, but also the intentional falsehood of those pretexts. I have shown that the facts of Mr, Wakefield are invented or perverted. Yet this is the man who has done with the Canadas, their Governors, the Cabinets at home, the Par- ties, and the Parliament, Avhat he listed. His acts have been in accordance with his statements. With the tissue of specious though contemptible, argumentation I will not deal. I shall not enter on this mist of " responsible Government," or the other snares that surround Sir C. Metcalfe, as you have pro- mised us your views on that subject ; and knowing the deep attention paid throughout Canada to every thing which ema- nates from you, I am sure that your views and advice will be looked forward to with anxiety, and be received with gratitude. THOMAS ROLPH. 100 TACTS AND ASSIillTroNS. r .^i' P.S. — Tlif>r(! is nnn vicvof r('sj)()nsil)l(' ^ovonimcnt !ilto|.r('tli('r lost si;j;lit of I»y \\-< ndvocntcs, to wif, i!io rcfiionsihilily of tlic Colonial Miiii^trr. To iiitikc myscH' midcistooil, I will fiiniisli tsvo ('Ximi]»l('> of* tliis \\i\u\ of rcsi|)on.sil)iliiy. Sir R. Pi'<>l, in tjjo (Icliiitc ill 18."W. in (Ic-ciibini; Mr. Iliinio's lollcr to Muok- nizic, Hiiiil, lliiit it w.-is iiiipo'-fsihlo to cont'oivo tin,' intense indiirnulion (Wtn'tcd in tlie colony l)V tlint dotestiiblc cointnn- iiicntion — tliiit it wns a direct incitement to revolt uiid treason, &.c. &c. The Governor of the province laid these f'actH before tlie Colotiial Secretary— lie (the Lieut. -Governor) was punished ! Iliime and Mackenzie were unnoticed. It woidd have been the same Inid Sir It. Peel been premier iiislead of Lord Melbourne, and Lord Stanley. Colonial Secre- tary instead of Sprin{^ Hkic. Why was not I^Ir. Ilumu in- dicted for hi<^h treason ? Ls thi; Colonial Minisler to be irre- sponsible for this criminal participation? Again, when Lord Durliani, tramjdingall law, all forms of law, nil decency under foot, sent French Canadians to Bermuda, without bringing tlieni to trial, was it sufficient in the Colonial Sccretarv to reproce the act, permit the men to rcttirn from transportation, and not proceed to impeach Lord Durham ? Did not tlie Colonial Minister deserve imj)eaclnnent himself? To whom then is iiE responsible ? Again, wlien Lord Durham abandoned his post whilst in a state of rebellion, did he not commit an enormous crime ? Was the Colonial Minister freed from the responsibility of bringing him to account? Lord Durham's actswere those of the Colonial Minister, unless that minister brought Lord Durham to trial. I need not pursue the subject farther. r. ?if ■■ (