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All rightt ofnhridgm.ttU and oth«rieia^ vfMrvtd, F s:t:'::C lo!M07 \C n": uci-/s- /v- ^z^s; y ^ A- //?/). 1.6 Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety -one, in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture. PREFACE. The long period of thirty-six years has passed away, since the author of these volumes completed his first History of Canada. It was written under circumstances of considerable difficulty. In the first place, the author had then only resided for a few years in this country, and knew very little, comparatively speaking, of its political or social life. In the second place, while en- deavouring to supply a much-felt want, there bemg at that time no complete history of Canada in existence, he had none of that real leisure so requisite for good literary work. In the third place, the materials then available for the history of Upper Canada were exceed- ingly scanty and fragmentary; the burning of the Parlia- ment buildings having made sad havoc with the public records of every description. After spending over two years in collecting every work of any value bearing on the annals of this country, which came to his notice, he found that there were still large gaps left, as regarded the requisite historical material, which had to be filled in order to enable him to construct a consecutive nar- rative. These gaps he was eventuallv able to bridge over by aid from local sources. Brockville had been settled at an early period of the U. E. Loyalist immi- gration, and among its original inhabitants were several persons of education and literary tastes, who soon commenced to form libraries of their own, and to collect IV PREFACE. every book and pamphlet throwing- liij;-hton the earlier settlement of this country that came in their way. — Several of these collections were courteously ijlaced at the autlior's service. The hies j( the iirockville Weekly Rccordc}', from the date of its first publication in iiily speakinj,' of a KL'iKsral HiHt I'moii in 1840, although writti^n from a Kr«ii(.'h-(.'aiiadian .stand [joint, and very iiiae- i urate and iniHleadim,' at tiniea. is an excidlent work on the whole, rarkinan's adthirable series, based ahuost c.xeiusively on rei.'ords from the areliive.s of France, or on tlie authority of Fri'iidi writers, coin])l'telv exhaust all the ijjore (Iraniatie and romantic episodes of the Canada of the Old H(ijinif\ and (dearly prove how fref|ueutly wrong and partial Uarneau i.s. > fj. ▼1 PREFACE. so full, in all essential detail, as to leave no important occurrence untouched ; so condensed as not to weary or confuse the reader with tedious description, or un- profitable narrative. While telling the truth to the best of his ability, without fear, favour or affection, his desire is to make these volumes as easy and as pleasant reading as possible, and thus win his countiymen to a better acquaintance with their own history as a people — a history most prolific of interesting episode, of romance in war and peace, of moving incident by flood and field. In addition to writing what he hopes will be con- sidered an impartial, and. for all practical pilrposes, a sufficiently extended History of Canada, the author designs that his work should be also a History of the Canadian people, — of their fortunes and misfortunes ; of their past difficulties ; of their present success. Since 1853, when he commenced to work on the first edition, the changes in this country have been very great. — The vast Province of Ontario had then within its borders only two miles of railway, which constituted a horse-tramway extending from the village of Chippewa to Niagara Falls ; and during the winter season, with all its water-ways frozen over, it was virtually shut out from the rest of the world, so far as commerce and ordinary travel were concerned, for almost six months in the year. To-day all Canada is in touch with the whole civilized world, by railway, by steamship, by telegraph, from January to December. Her iron roads stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and traverse a greater extent of empire than Imperial Rome could boast of in its palmiest days. Practically independent ; collecting and expending her own revenue ; making her own laws ; at liberty to raise armies and construct fleets, if she will, it is scarcely necessary to say that the future of Canada rests largely with her own people. They have all the elements of solid and secure success within themselves, if they only use them courageously and wisely. To do this, however, race pre for ,l' ", 5 i PREFACE vn prejudices, race differences, and an unhealthy seeking for race ascendency, must be laid aside, and the whole people learn to act harmoniously together for the general good. " A house divided against itself cannot stand," and neither can a nation. Canada owns millions of acres of fertile land, for the present and coming generations to go in and possess, and if her people are only true to themselves, true to their best interests, her future lot should be one of great expansion and prosperity. Her principal national sin in the past has been the long struggle for race supremacy. — It is her principal sin now ! National sins are sure to bring down, sooner or later, national punishments ; and the people of Canada cannot look to be exempt from the immutable law taught by all history, ancient and modern — sacred and profane. The author's first work, despite its short-comings, did much, in one way or another, to develop a more national spirit. He trusts that the present work, so much fuller, and more carefully prepared for the press, will foster anew the same spirit, and thus prove of real value to the Canadian people, and the best legacy an old friend and ardent well-wisher could leave them. THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. Social condition of the Canadian Aborigines, Extent of their territory, Their want of historical records, Their agricultural condition. Their religious belief, Political condition, . . . . CHAPTER I. Discovery of America by Columbus, .... Cabot visits the Gulf of St. La\v rence, .... Verazzano, a Florentine navigato' explores the American coast, Cartier proceeds to Canada, ...... Visits Hochelaga, - - - - - . •• . Cartier makes another voyage to Canada, . . . . Expedition of Roberval to the St. Lawrence, .... De la Roche proceeds to Canada, ..... Champlain's first expedition to the St. Lawrence, He forms a settlement at Quebec, - ... Assists the Canadian Indians against the Iroquois, Ascends the Ottawa River, ...... Accompanies an Algonquin war party to Lake St. Clair, Engagement with the Iroquois, ..... Illiberal policy of the Duke de Ventadour, .... The Jesuits' arrive in Canada, ...... Cardinal Richelieu's '/anadian policy — Formation of the company of " One Hundred Associates," ..... War between England and France — Capture of Quebec by Kirk, Death and character of Champlain, .... |l Ooverno 9 setl ^ War wit H Firfit pe H Aillebou H Conversj 9 Incursioi I of t B _L war b ■j De Laus( H into H Jesuits e fl Iroquois ■ to D ■ Total de! H The Fren PAGE. H Governor xvii H the xix H VHeroism xxiii H ' Avaugoui xxiv ^1 colon XX vi H Earthqua xxix I H Mezy app 1 2 H color H Mezy qua M ^1 Oovernm 3 ^^1 3 ^B Governor 4 ^1 agait 6 7 8 9 ■ The Moh H The Frei H Small-po: H Count de H He build 10 12 14 ^1 Discover ^1 Expediti 16 ^1 He is mu 17 I 19 B 20 ^1 Frontena H The Iroq 22 ^B La Barre %\ ^B ^^^ 24 ^1 Number CONTENTS. tx CHAPTER II. Oovernor Montniagny arrives in Cftiiuda, 1637 — Island of Montreal settled, ......-- War with the Iroquois, ..-.-- First peace with the Iroijuois, ..... Ailleboust appointed Governor, 1347, - - • - - C'onver.sion of the Indians to Christianity, .... Incursions of the Iroquois — Massacres of Sillery and St. Louis— Flight of the Huron Indians, ...... .i war between Nova Scotia Fur Traders, .... De Lausou appointed CJovernor, ItJol — Iroquois make fierce inroads into Canada and attack the Eriez or Cat Tribe, Jesuits establish themselves among the Onondaga Irociuois, Iroquois make a descent on the isle of Orleans — Their haughty tone to De Lauson, ....... Total destruction of the Eriez by the Irocjuois, The French flight f ron Onondaga, ..... (Jovernor de Argenson arrives at Quebec, 1658 — Fresh irruption of the Iroquois, ....... ] Heroism of Daulac and his band, ..... 'Avaugour appointed Governor, 1660 — Deplorable condition of the colony — Quarrel with Laval, - - - - 43 Earthquake in Canada, 5th Feb., 1663, . . . . PAGE. 26 26 27 28 28 29 31 33 34 35 36 37 37 41 and 44 45 CHAPTER III. Mezy appointed Governor, 1663 — The Crown assumes control of the colony, ......... 47 Mezy quarrels with the Jesuits and the Bishop and is recalled and dies 50 Government of the Marquis de Tracy, - - • • 51 Governor Courcelles arrives in Canada, 1664— Leads an expedition against the Mohawks. ... . - - 53 The Mohawk villages destroyed by the French, ■ - • 55 The French West India Company receives Canada, - - - 56 Small-pox appears among the Indians, - - - - 57 Count de Frontenac appoint -d Governor, 1672, - - - 58 He builds Fort Frontenac at Cataraqui, - - • - 60 Discovery of the Mississippi, - - - - - - 61 Expedition of La Salle, ...... (J4 Ho is murdered by his followers, - - • - - 66 CHAPTER IV. Frontenac recalled and La Barre appointed as his successor, 1682, - 69 The Iroquois again commence hostilities, - - - - 70 La Barre makes a disgraceful peace with tliem, and is superseded in the government by Denonville, 1684, - - - - 72 Number of Iroquois warriors, ----- . 75 CONTENTS. PAOE. Governor Dongan of New York interferes between the Irociuois and the French, .--..-.. 75 French retaliate by capturing the British posts on Hudson's Bay, - 76 Invasion of the Seneca country by the French, - - - 77 Denonville makes a humiliating peace with the Iroquois, - • 79 Iroquois lay waste the Island of Montreal — Frontenac again appoint- ed Governor, 1689, - - - - - - 81 French and Indians destroy Schenectady and massacre the inhabitants, 85 Massacre of Salmon Falls, - - .... 85 The British colonies determine to invade Canada, - • - 87 Winthrop retreats from Lake Chaniplain, • - . . 88 Admiral Phipps is defeated at Quebec, and retreats down the St. Law^ rence with his fleet, ...... 90 Iroquois renew their incursions, ----- 91 De Frontenac marches against the Iroquois, and attacks the Onondagas and the Oneidas, ------. 93 Death of De Frontenac — His character, - - - - 94 CHAPTER V. Chevalier de Callieres appointed Governor, 1699, - ■ - 96 Peace established with the Iroquois, - • - • - 97 Settlement of Detroit— Death of Callieres, - - - ■ 98 The Marquis de Vaudreuil becomes Governor, 1703, - • - 98 Massacre of Haverhill by the French, - - . . . ]00 Queen Anne determines on the conquest of Canada, - - - 101 Capture of Port Royal in Nova Scotia, .... 102 Admiral Walker and General Hill leave England to capture Quebec, 103 A part of the English fleet lost in the St. Lawrence : the remainder returns to England, ...... 104 Treaty of Utrecht— Newfoundland and Nova Scotia ceded to Great Britain— Death of Louis XIV., 171.3, - - - - 105 Charlevoix comes to Canada — His account of the country 1721, - 107 War with the Abenaki Indians — The Jesuit Rasles slain, - - 110 Death of Governor Vaudreuil — Beauharnois appointed Governor, 1726, 1 1 1 Social condition of Canada — The Indian trade, • - - 1 13 Capture of Louisburg by tlie militia of Masaachusetts, led by William Pepperell, ....... 117 CHAPTER VI. Count de la Galiaaoniere becomes Governor— His public meaaurea, 1774, De la Jonquiere aaaumes the Government of Canada, 1749, The French encroachments in Nova Scotia, The tirat settlement of Ogdensburg, Abuaea in the Government, 120 123 125 128 120 CONTENTS. XI ■1. PAOE. 75 76 77 79 81 85 85 87 88 90 91 PAGE. The Marquis du Quesne appointed Governor— F lepares for war with Great Britain, 1752, - - - - ■ 131 Virginia claims the valley of the Ohio : ia resisted by the French, 1 33 Washington proceeds to the Ohio valley to prevent French occupation of it — His tirst battle, his surrender, - - - - 135 Measures of the British Government, - • • - 136 Marquis de Vaiidreuil appointed Governor, 1755, - - - 137 Degraded condition of the Inhabitants of Canada, - - 138 Braddock marches to attack. Fort du Quesne : is attacked by the French and defeated, - - - - . - 139 The British drive the French from the Acadian Isthmus, - - 141 The Acadians forcbd to leave their country, - - - 143 Dieskau attacks Sir Willi? m Johnson at Lake George, and is defeated, 146 French and Indians harass the frontier auttlementa of Pennsylvania, 147 93 94 96 97 98 98 100 101 102 103 104 CHAPTER VII. France and England declare war against each other— Condition of Canada, ........ 149 Historical periods of French Protestantism, - - - 151 Arrival in Canada of Montcalm — He prepares for war, - . 154 De Villier attacks Bradstreet near Oswego, and is defeated, - 155 Montcalm besieges and takes Oswego, .... 155 Lord Loudon prepares to besiege Louisburg, . - - 157 Montcalm invests Fort William Henry, .... 158 Colonel Munroe surrenders, ...... 159 Massacru of the Hritifeh garrison by the Indians, - - . 160 Pitt ap^joints new general officers, - - . - 161 Amh'^rst proceeds to capture Louisburg — Wolfe effects a landing with his brigade, - . - - • • - 162 Siege and capture of Louisburg, ..... 163 Abercromby moves against Ticonderoga, • - - - 164 Defeat of the British by Montcalm : their retreat, - • - 165 Bradstreet besieges and captures Fort Frontenac, • - - 168 Forbes marches against Fort du Quesne, and captures it, • ■ 170 Andierst appointed coraraander-inchief in America by Pitt, - 170 CHAPTER VIII. Plan of the c; aipaign for 1759, ■ • • • '171 Deplorable condition of Canada — It:: population, - • - 172 General Prideaux. advances against Niagara. He is killed, and Hir William Johnson assumes the command, • • - 174 The French under De Aubrey attempt to raise the siege, and are de- feated, - ....... 176 Pouchot surrenders Fort Niagara, .... 177 Amherst moves down Lake Champlain, .... 175 xu CONTENTS. The French abandon Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and retreat to the Isle-aux-Noix, Amherst places his army in winter quarters, Wolfe arrives before Quebec, Establishes his liead-quarters at the Montmorency, Endeavours to force Montcalm's lines below the town : ia repulsed The British ascend to the Plains of Abraham, Montcalm begins the battle, The French are defeated, Death of Wolfe, .... Death of Montcalm and his burial, Surrender of Quebec, Sept. 18th, 1759, Great rejoicing in the British colonies, PAUE. 179 179 Ifil 183 186 190 192 194 195 196 198 198 CHAPTER IX. Condition of the French in Canada, - - . - • • 200 Do Levis moves from Montreal to besiege Quebec, . • - - 201 The British, under Murray, are defeated, .... 202 De Levis commences the siege ; the arrival of reinforcement to the Brit- ish comijel his retreat, - - - - . 203 Amherst captures the French Fort at Ogdensburg, - - - 204 Capitulation of Montre.il, and surrender of Canada to Great Britain, 205 The British nation are divided with reganl to retaining Canada, 207 Death of George II. — George TIT. desires peace, - • - 208 Vast territory ceded to Great Britain, .... 209 The Canada of the I'^ronch period : its political, social and religious condition, ....... 210 !}■ CHAPTER X. The conspiracy of Pontiac, ..... Pontiac besieges Detroit, .... The Indians capture a number of posts, Major Ecuyer besiegeil in Fort Pitt, Defeat and Death of Major Dalzell at Detroit, The battle of Busliy Run, .... Colonel Bouquet's march into the Indian country. The Peace and Assassination of Pontiac, General MuiTay becomes Governor of Canada, 1763, Goveruuumt of Canada settled by proclamation ; introduction of English laws : colonial abuses, Sir Guy Carleton appointed (iovornor, 1768 Groat fire in Montreal The British inhabitants desire a House of Assembly, Passa^"' of the Quebec Bill, .... Comnuiicement of the American War of ludopendeuce, The Inhabitants refuse to serve as militia Tlie Auierioans advance towards Montreal, ...... 222 227 229 232 234 237 241 242 243 243 246 249 250 252 254 CONTENTS. xiii PAGE. Montgomery captures Fort St. John, .... 255 Marches on Montreal : General Carleton retreats to Quebec, - 255 Montgomery besieges Quebec : his death, - • ■ 256 Succour arrives and the Americans retreat, - • - 258 They are driven out of Canada, .... 259 CHAPTER XI. General Haldimnnd becomes Governor : his administration is unpopu- lar, 1778, ........ 261 First settlement of Upper Canada. (1784.) - ■ • 204 Mr. Hamilton becomes Governor, 1785, • - - 268 Lord Dorchester again appointed Governor, 1786, • • 269 Canada at length gets a constitution and is divided into two provinces 270 Condition of the country, ..... 273 General Prescott appointed Governor, 1796, - • - 275 McLean, an American executed for high treason, • • 277 The Government of Sir Robert S. Milnes, - - • 278 Land grants ,o the Jesuits and other religious bodies, • - 280 First dispute over the Jesuits' Estates, .... 281 Opposition to Free Schools, - • • - - 282 Government of the Hon. Thomas Dunn, - - - 283 The Assembly of l^ower Canada assails the Press, • • 284 The Assembly expels a Jew for his creed alone, - • 286 Sir James H. Craig assumes the government, 1807, • • 287 The Canadien newspaper is suppressed and persons imprisoned, - 290 Disagreement between the Executive and the Assembly, • - 291 Death of Governor Craig : his character, • • • 292 i\ CHAPTER XII. Upper Canada from 1791 to 1811— Governor Simcoe's administration begins — Sketch of his life. ..... 293 First House Assembly meets : its acts, 1792, • - • 298 Simcoe's policy : selects Toronto for his capital, • • 801 Method taken to abolish slavery by the Assembly, • • 302 The Government of Peter Russell, 1796, • . -305 The immigration from Ireland. • - • . • 308 Administration of Major-General Hunter, 1799, • • 309 Social, commercial and political condition of the province, ■ 309 Tlie beginning of the Family Compact : political parties in Upper Canada in 1805, • ■ • - . -314 Death of General Hunter at Quebec, - • • "315 Administration of Mr. Gore, 18U6— He attaches himself to the Family Compact, ■ • • - - -316 The case of Judge Thorpe — Another newspaper, • • 317 Light Taxation— Population, &C., .... 320 General Brock assumes temporary charge of the government, 1811, 320 XIV CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIII. Causes learling to the second American invasion of Canada, The Indians and Tecumseth range chemselves on the British side, Sir George Prevost becomes Govemor-in-chief , War declared by the United States : hostilities commenoe, Capture of Mackinaw, Hull is defeated and retires on Detroit, Surrenders to General Brock, The Americans carry Queenston Heights, Death of General Brock, Defeat and surrender of Scott to Sheaffe, The Americans defeated : close of the campaign of 1812, Naval operations and British losses, PAGE. 321 332 334 .%35 336 337 337 340 340 341 344 345 CHAPTER XIV. War measures of the Canadian Legislatures, Proctor defeats the Americans at Frenchtown. Ogdensburg captured by the British, Toronto is captured for the first time by the Americans, Fort George captured by the Americans, Proctor defeats the Americans in Ohio, ' Expedition against Sackett's Harbour, The American camp at Stony Creek attacked at night. Operations on the Niagara Frontier : Boeratler's force is captured Black Rock is captured, Operations of the fleets on Lake Ontario, • Plattsburg captured : events on Lake Champlain, British fleet captured on Lake Erie by Perry, Defeat of Proctor : death of Tecumseth, Americans defeated at Chrysler's Farm, Americans defeated at Chateauguay by Canadians, Americans burn the town of Niagara and retreat, Indignation of the Canadian people, Americans defeated along the Niagara frontier : their towns burned Naval operations during 1813, Close of the campaign of 1813, 347 349 350 351 353 354 355 357 358 359 361 363 364 305 367 368 368 371 372 373 CHAPTER XV. War and other measures of the Canadian Legislatures, American losses at sea, British blockade Chesapeivke Bay, Defeat of the Americans and the capture of Washington, Defeat of the British at New Orleans, Naval operations of 1814, The Americans are defeated at LacoUe Mill, 374 378 378 380 381 382 3S4 CONTENTS. Naval operations on Lake Ontario : Oswego taken, Battle of Chippewa : the British defeated, Battle of Lundy's Lane : Americana defeated, The British under Drummond besiege Fort Erie, Abortive attempt of the Americans to re-capture Mackinaw, A large part of Maine captured by the British, Defeat of the British fleet on Lake Champlain, Termination of the War, Depressed condition of the United States, XV FAOK. 384 386 388 391 392 392 394 395 395 ' !■ CHAPTER XVI. Lower Canada from from 1815 to 1828, . - - 396 Meeting of Legislature, Papineau first chosen Speaker of Assi ably, 397 General Drummoud's government, 1815, - - • 399 Sir John Sherbrooke becomes Governor-General, 1816, - - 401 The Home Government instructs Sherbrooke to conciliate the clergy, 402 Government of the Duke of Richmond : his difficulties with the Assembly, 1818, ...... 406 The Duke's tour in Upper Canada and tragic death, . - 409 The "strike" of the House of Assembly, ... 411 Lord Dalhousie becomes Governor-General, 1820, - • 412 Differences between the two Houses of the Legislature, - - 413 Project of the Union causes public dissatisfaction, - - 415 Antagonism between British and French inhabitants of Lower Canada, 416 False colonial policy of British ministers, - • - 421 The French-Canadians petition the Crown, - - - 422 Prayer of petition sustained by British Commons, - • 424 CHAPTER XVIL Upper Canada from 1815 to 1825, - . . General condition of the Province, First agitation against the Clergy Reserves, 1817, Robert Crourlay icomes to Canada : his character, • Arbitrary conduct of the Executive, Sir Peregrine Maitland becomes Lieutenant-Governor, 1818, Robert Gourlay is tried for libel and aoqUitt<>d, He is driven out of the Province, Trial and sentence of Ferguson, ... Bishop Strachan enters politico 1 life, - . - Biographical sketch of Bishop Strachan, His position as a clergyman and ])olitician, Barnabas BidwoU elected for Lennox and Addington : his biography is expelled the House, - - - - Plan of the Welland Canal by William H. Merritt, First agitation against Orange processions : Ogle R. Gowan, 425 426 427 428 432 433 433 439 440 441 442 445 450 453 454 X\l CONTENTS. The new Assembly— Sketch of Rolph, Wm. L. Mackenzie enters public life— f'^irst Reform Agitation on the Alien Bill, Mackenzie's Printing Office wrecked, Presbyterians claim a share of the Clergy Reserves. Singular proceedings on the Forsyth iffair, The case of Francis Collins, - . _ Progress of Upper Canada. Its social condition, Judge Willis is suspended by the Lieutenant-Governor, Death of William Hamilton Merritt, 455 456 459 461 462 463 464 466 466 470 INTRODUCTION. ' t- ''•'•1.; , ' ' ! rriHE discovery of America revealed to the wondering gaze of -*- civilised humanity a people in the rudest and most primitive condition.* The annals of the Old World had no corresponding spectacle to present. Even the earliest historians of Greece and Rome had not left a single fact on record, as evidence of an ac- quaintance with any portion of the human family in the primal stages of existence. In every region within the sphere of their observation society had already made considerable progress ; and the several nations of their day had long before emerged from the social dimness and historical uncertainties which belong to a first condition. The Scythians and Germans, the barbarians of antiquity, were acquainted with the useful metals ; possessed flocks and herds and other property of various descriptions ; and, when compared with the aborigines of this continent, had already attained to a high degree of civilisation. In some instances the red man appeared in the rudest state in which it is possible for our species to exist. Accompanied solely by his wife and children, he roamed, like a beast of prey, through * In the New World the state of mankind was ruder and the aspect of nature extremely diflferent. Throughout all its vast regions there were only two monarchies remarkable for extent of territory, or distinguished by any progress in improvement. The rest of this continent was possessed by small independent tribes, destitute of arts and industry, and neither capable to correct the defects nor desirous to meliorate the condition of that part of the earth allotted to them for their habitation. Countries occupied by such people were almost in the same state a.s if they had been without inhabitants, Hobertaon'/t Avicr. vol. i. p. 126. } ' \ xvm INTRODUCTION. I the forests and over the savannas of South America, subjected to no restraints but those imposed by the imperious necessities of his condition, or the caprices of his own will ; and revelling in that primeval simplicity which, in the other continents, was known only by the imaginary descriptions of the poet.* In other instances his wants were compelling him to seek a closer union with his fellow- man, and accordingly communities were beheld in the first process of formation. In Brazil, in Tierra Firme and Paraguay, many of the ruder tribes were unacquainted with every description of culti- vation. They neither sowed nor reaped ; and lived upon the spontaneous productions of the soil, the fruits and berries which they found in the woods, the products of their teeming rivers, and the lizards and other reptiles so numerous in those warm and prolific regions. The Iroquois, the^ Algonquins, the Hurons, and the other prin- cipal North American tribes, occupied a point in social progress as far in advance of these barbarous natives of the south as it was inferior to the condition of the Mexicans and Peruvians. They cultivated maize and a few vegetables, lived in villages, had made some progress in two or three of the more necessary arts of life, and recognised c Lu-tain fixed principles of public policy in their in- tercourse with other tribes. When Canada was first discovered by the French, the Algonquins and Huronst held chief sway within its limits. The territory of the former extended along both banks of the St. Lawrence as high as Cornwall, and also embraced the district watered by the Lower Ottawa, while kindred tribes occupied the New England States and the country along the southern and eastern shores of the upper lakes. They were a bold and warlike race, subsisting principally by the chase, for which the vast forests of the north afforded the most ample scope, and were reputed to be more advanced in their * Man, in some parts of America, appears in a form so rude that we can discover no effects of his activity, and the principle of understanding, which should direct it, seems hardly to be unfolded. Like all other animals, he has no fixed residence ; he has erected no habitation to shelter him from the inclemency of the weather ; he has taken no measures for securing certain subsistence ; he neither sows nor reaps ; but roams about as led in search of the plants and fruits which the earth brings forth in succession ; and in quest of game which he kills in the forest, or of the fish which he catches in rivers. — Rob. Amer. vol. i. p. 152. + This tribe were frequently called Wyaudots. . (f. INTRODUCTION. XIX public policy and general intelligence than any of the neighbouring tribes.* The Hurons occupied the left bank of the Upper St. Lawrence, the northern shore of Lake Ontario, the district lying around Georgian Bay and Lake Sinicoe, and the eastern extremity of Lake Huron where their more populous settlements existed, and which the Jesuits, in the middle of the seventeenth century, estimated at twenty thousand souls, resident in thirty-two villages containing some seven hundred dwellings. Their close alliance, however, with the Algonijuins, induced them frequently to establish themselves lower down the 8t. Lawrence ; and in 15,34, Cartiermet with them at Anticosti and the B ./ of Chaleur.f At Hochelaga he found them occupying a well-defended and populous village. Regarding the chase as a precarious mode of subsistence* they did not, like the Algontjuins, disdain the cultivation of the soil, and partially devoted themselves to agricultural pursuits, from which, imperfect as their mode of tillage was, the fertile glebe and favourable climate of their country usually enabled them to reap a most abundant return.]: A few unimportant tribes, or I'ather * Golden, t When the tribes were all settled, the Wyandots were placed at the head. They lived in the interior, at the mountains east, about the St. Lawrence. — They were the first tribe of old, and had the first chioftainship. Tlieir chief said to their nephew, the Lenapees, go down to the sea-coast and look, and if you see anything, bring me word. They had a village near the sea-side, and often looked, but saw nothing except birds. At length they espied an object, which seemed to grow, and come nearer and nearer. When it came near the land it stopped, but all the people were afraid, and fled to the woods. Tile next day two of their number ventured out to look. It was lying quietly on the water. A smaller object of the same sort came out of it, and walked with long legs (oars) over the water. When it came to land two men came out of it. They were different from us, and made signs for the others to come out of the woods. A conference ensued. Presents wei-e exchanged. They gave presents to the Lenapees, and the latter gave them their skin clothes as curiosities. — Schoolcraft, p, 199. X As the country was thinly inhabited, and by a people of little industry, who had none of the domestic animals which civilised nations rear in such vast numbers, the earth was not exhausted by their con8umi)tion. The vegetable productions, to which the fertility~of the soil gave l)irth, often re- mained untouched, and being suffered to corrupt on its surface, returned with increase into its bosom. As trees and jjlants derive a great part of their nourishment from air and water, if they were not destroyed by man or other animals, they would render to the earth more, perhaps, than they take from it, and feed rather than impoverish it. Thus the unoccupied soil of America may have gone on enriching for many ages. The vast number, as XX INTRODUCTION. clans, were scattered over the remaining portions of the country ; but all these, like the Nipissings, were merely off-shoots of the Algonquin and Huron races, and spoke their language. No data exist on which to base anything approximating to a correct esti- mate of the population of Canada at this period ; but it certainly did not exceed fifty thousand souls. These were scattered here and there over the vast area extending from Gaspe to Goderich, which could easily sustain a population of many millions.* The Iroquois were a separate people, and spoke a language of their own. Their territory proper lay wholly within the present State of New York, from above the Highlands of the Hudson River to Lake Erie. The Irovjuois' confederacy originally embraced five tribes, the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga and the Seneca, which were again sub-divided into clans. The homes of the Mohawks were made in the pleasant and fertile valley, through which winds the river that beai's their name ; the Oneidas the Onondagas and the Cayugas occupied the centre of the well as enormoi' '.ize, of the trees in America, indicate the extraordinary vigour of the soil in its native state. When the Europeans first began to cultivate the New World, they were astonished at the luxuriant power of vegetation in its virgin mould ; and in several places the ingenuity of the planter is still employed in diminishing and wasting its superfluous fertility, in order to bring it down to a fit state for profitable culture. — Bob. vol. i. p. 129. Charlevoix, History New France, vol, iii. p, 405. * While hunting is the chief source of subsistence, a vast extent of terri- tory is requisite for supporting a small number of people. In proportion as men multiply and unite, the wild animals on which they depend for food diminish, or fly to a greater distance from the haunts of the enemy. The increase of a society in this state is limited by its own nature, and the mem- bers of it must either disperse, like the game which they pursue, or fall upon some better method of procuring food than by hunting. Beasts of prey are by nature solitary and unsocial ; they go not forth to the chase in herds, but delight in those recesses of the forest where they can roam and destroy undisturbed. A nation of hunters resembles them both in occupation and in genius. They cannot form into large communities, because it would be im- possible to find subsistence ; and they must drive to a distance every rival who may encroach on those domains, which they consider as their own. This was the state of all the American tribes ; the numbers in each were incon- siderable, though scattered over countries of great extent ; they were far removed from one another, and engaged in perpetual hostilities or rivalship. In America, the word nation is not of the same import as in other parts of the globe. It is applied to small societies, not exceeding, perhaps, two or three hundred persons, but occupying provinces greater than some kir.gdoms in Europe. — Maresfa Letters, vol. ii. p. 360, INTRODUCTION. XXI State ; and the Senecas, the most numerous of them all, built their villages in the Genesee country. It was thus grouped that authentic history first found the Five Nations, as they were termed, when Samuel Champlain penetrated into their country with the war-parties of the Algonquins and the Hurons. At a later period, when the Tuscar.yras, a kindred southern tribe, enter- ed the confederacy, and found a new home near the Oneidas, the Iroquois became the Six Nation Indians, a name they have contin- ued to bear from thati day to this. Each tribe had a separate organisation of its own, {i.nd was subdivided into totemic clans which had a distinguishing " totem " or mark, representing some bird, or beast, or reptile. In its sachem it had a hereditary adviser, whose assistants were the inferior chiefs, and principal men of the tribe. But when foreign powers had to be treated with, or grave questions of general policy determined, an assembly of delegates convened at the great central council hous>c in the Onondaga Valley, ambassadors were received, alliances entered into, and 'l>^iness^ transacted for the whole confederacy. Time-honoured u^ge gov- erned the rules of procedure in this Indian Parliament, a^d du>4ng ^i the fiercest debates it maintained its dignity and self-don^roO"— f- p< Intellectually the Iroquois stood at the head of all the redimte of <^| North America ; while in courage, endurance and firmness o^ur- fy pose, they had no superior. There is no evidence that Cartiei'^vep;^ met with any of the confederates, who, in his time, do not appesH^ to have penetrated as far as the St. Lawrence ; and the Algonqim and Hurons were still in secure possession of their ancient hunting grounds. But when Champlain came to Canada, some sixty years after Cartier's death, he found the Iroquois engaged in active hostilities with the northern tribes, to whom he rendered important aid in repelling the invaders, an occurrence that the latter never forgot nor forgave. During the seventeenth century the Iroquois ascended to the zenith of their power, and dominated, either by force or policy, over all the surrounding tribes. Their war-parties roamed over half of North America, from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi ; from the tide waters of the Atlantic to the head- streams of the Illinois, and left death and desolation behind them wherever they turned tlieir steps. Amid the hills of New England the war-cry of the Mohawks tilled its Indians with dismay, until at last they abandoned altogether the shores of Lake Champlain, > .. . ' Parkman's Jesuits, Intro, p. 59. xxu INTRODUCTION. and retirefl into the recesses of the forests of the State of Maine, or towards the sea-coast, to escape from their formidable foes. In Pennsylvania the Dehiwares, anfl its otlier kindred Algonquin tribes, unconditionally sul)iuitted to the Iroquois, became their tributaries, and wei-o not even permitted to bear arras ; so that Penn and his Quakers, when they came to make treaties with them, found a people to deal with almost as peaceably inclined as them- selves. But Penn had to pay twice for his purchase — tirst to the Delawares, and afterwards to their confederate masters. It is amazinj^ that the Iroquois, a comparatively small nation, whose fighting strength never much exceeded three thousand warriors, could dominate over almost half a continent. Around them, in every direction, were either tribes who had submitted completely to their sway, or vast tracts of desolate wilderness, from which they had swept the original inhabitants, who had preferred death or banish- ment to tame submission to their implacable enemy. During the seventeentii century the Canadian tribes, from Quebec to Lake Huron, were almost wholly destroyed, the wretched remnant iieoing for their lives to the fastnesses north of the great lakes, and their country converted into a vast wilderness, and game preserve, for the benelit of the hunting parties of the Iroquois who, from time to time, chose to frequent it. All Indian title to the soil was thus violently extinguished, and the land left vacant, to be afterwards occupied without dispute by another and more fortunate people. The national pride of the Irot^uois was as intolerant and un- bounded as their lust for power. Masterful as they were, as regarded the native races, they did not hesitate to assail the French of Canada, whom they soon came to look upon as their mortal foes, in order to compel them to abandon the country altogether, and almost succeeded in the attempt. But, in this direction, they at last found the most formidable of all their antagonists. As time mt . ed onwards, and the French obtained a more solid and secure hold on the country beyond the Alleghany Mountains, one western tribe after another became their allies, and under their protection were at last able to safely set the Iroquois at defiance. Even their subjects the Delawares, crowded at length out of eastern Pennsyl- vania, by the advancing waves of white settlement, after crossing the Alleghany Mountains into the Ohio Valley, again resumed arms, and asserted their independence. About the same time, the Ottawas and other fugitive Canadian tribes, expelled from their coun- try by the Iroquois, descended from their fastnesses beyond Lake INTKODUCTION. xxiii •>.^" Huron, whither thoy had fled for refuge, and made new homes for themselves around the pleasant waters of Lak(5 St. Clair, along the Detroit River and the southern shore of Lake Erie, once the undis- puted territory of their ancient foes. Gradually, in this way, and mainly owing to French support, tribe after tribe, at the north and west, threw off the galling yoke of the Froquois, who had now to recede from one vantage point after another, until at length they were finally compelled to restrict themselves to their original territoi-y within the bounds of the State of New York, where we find them, still a formidable confederacy, at the com- mencement of the seven years' war which gave Canada to Great Britain. Nor had they lost much of their strength when the War of Independence broke out. That war utterly shattered the confederacy. The jVIohawks, the Oneidas and the Onondagas were especially active in l)ehalf of the Crown, which led to their settle- ments being utterly destroyed by a strong force of American troops, under General Sullivan, and they had finally to retire to Canada with the other U. E. Loyalists. The Senecas were permitted to reir/^an, and eventually placed on a reservation in western New- York, where they now reside in undiminished numbers. The history of the Canadian Indians, prior to the arrival of the French amongst them, is shrouded in the deepest obscurity. In this respect they resembled the other northern tribes, whose nuuierous wars and frequent migrations had effectually neutralised whatever benefits, in a historical point of view, they might have derived from their knowledge of pictorial writing.* Unlike the Aztecs and Peruvians, who, from memorials of this kind, could give a correct outline of their histories for several centuries, the Cana- dian Indians possessed only a few meagre traditions and crude reminiscences of the past, equally unreliable and unworthy of serious attsntion. Their social condition was in accordance with the rude state of mental culture which these facts bespeak. Their weapons of wnr and of .the chase were a hatchet of stone, a knife of bone, the bow and its flint-headed arrow. Their culinary utensils were restricted to a coarse description of pottery, and rough wooden vessels, which, on the arrival of the French traders, were speedily superseded by the more portable and convenient brass or Vi-' '•> Wh i * 'Che Irotiuois and Hurons made hieroglyphic paintings on wood, which bear a strong resemblance to those of the Mexicans. — La Hinton, p. 193. Schoolcraft also alludes to the pictorial writing of the Canadian Indians. XXIV- INTRODUCTION. iron kettle. Their agricultural implements were equally primitive. Patches of forest were occasionally cleared by the united efforts of a tribe or clan, who felled the trees with their light stone hatchets, At an enormous sacrifice of time and labour ;* and months passed over in producing results, which are now exceeded by a single backwoodsman in as many days. This duty devolved on the men, who only performed it when absolutely necessary to their subsis- tence, and after they had exhausted the open glades of the forest by continual cropping. To the women and children the proud and indolent savage left the labour of slightly loosening the rich loam with hoes roughly made of wood, or stakes hardened in the tire ; of sowing the crop of maize, and the few vegetables with which th(>y were acquainted ; of freeing these from weeds ; of harvesting and storing them in pits dug in the earth, to protect them from the winter frosts, the wild animals of the forest, and, not infrec^uently, from their own improvident husbands or fathers.! With wheat, • All the savage tribes, scattered over the continent and islands, were totally unacquainted with the metals, which their soil produces in great abundance, if we except some trifling (quantity of gold which they picked up in the torrents that descended from their mountains, and formed into ornaments. Their devices to supply this want of the serviceable metals were extremely rude and awkward. The most simple operation was to them an undertaking of immense difficulty and labour. To fell a tree with no other instruments than hatchets of stone was employment for a month. To form a canoe into shape, and to hollow it, consumed years, and it frequently began to rot before they were able to finish it. Their operations in agiiculture were equally slow and defective. In a country covered with woods of the hardest timber, the clearing of a small field destined for culture required the united oH'orts of a tribe, and was a work of much time and great toil. This was the business of the men, and their iny hand. This act of piety was per- form«d by his daughter, then a young woman. She carried him on her back from their camp to the lake shore, where they erected their lodge and passed the spring, and where he eventually died and was buried, — School, p. 191. ■ -k. %■;= I ' ? xxxu INTRODUCTION. industrial life, or the blithesome whistle of the ploughman. A poor and thinly-scattered community of improvident savages has been succeeded by an orderly, industrious, and enterprising people, whose genius and resources embody all the germs of a great nation, and there is thus little room for regret that the possession of the soil has been transferred to another race, and that the rule of the fierce Indian has for ever passed away. THE HISTORY OF CANADA :t-.. ,1 t'l- i: 'i .■■>! i CHAPTER I. "VT"EARLY four centuries have passed away since the discovery •i-^ of America constituted a new epoch in the annals of civilisa- tion. The vague ideas of unknown climes indulged in by Strabo,- the dim prophecies of Seneca,! the romantic theories of Plato, J the philosophic speculations of the middle ages,55 had all pointed to an actual reality, however obscurely ; and the return of Columbus to Spain, on the 4th of January, 1493, after an absence of seven months, dispelled every doubt regarding the existence of hitherto unknown regions avnid the waters of the western Atlantic. The wise and politic Henry VII., who then sat upon the throne *" It is very posnilile that in the same temperate zone, and almost in the same latitude as Athens, there are inhabited worlds distinct from that in which we dwell." Strabo, lib. 1. p. (55. t " Seneca held that a vast country was originally situated in the Atlantic Ocean, and rent asunder by a violent earthquake. The portion which still re- mained unsubmerged by the ocean, would one day be discovered. Malte Brun. + Buffon quoting Plato's Timneus, relative to the destruction of Atalantis, says, it is not devoid of probability. The land swallowed up by the waters wcie perhaps those which united Ireland to the Azores, and the Azores to the continent of America ; for in Ire'and there are the same fossils, the same shells, and the same sea-bodies as appear in America : and some of which are found in no other parts of Eiirooe. Buffon's Natural History, vol. 1. p. 30G. § In the middle ages, the prevalent opinion was, that the sea covered but onf -seventh of the Globe, an opinion which Cardinal d'AUy founded on the book of Ezra. Columbus, who always derived much of his cosmological knowledge from the cardinal's work, was much interfisted in supporting this opinion of the smallness of the sea. He also use to cite Aristotle, Seneca, ivnd St. Augustine in its support. — Humboldt, .. . ' 2 THE HT8T0RY OF CANADA. [149: of England, was not a little moved by the intelligence which so profoundly agitated the maritime nations of Europe. The mere accident of tlie capture, by pirates, of the brother of Columbus when on his way to tue English court, had in all probability robbed that king of the glory of the great navigator's discoveries being made under his auspices, and deprived the nation at large of the vast commercial benefits which he foresaw they must sooner or later produce. Henry, however, was not discouraged. Wisely judging that other countries were yet to be discovered, he eventually fitted out a small fleet, and placing it under the command of John Cabot, a celebrated Venetian navigator, sent him forth in quest of new climes, as well as of a north-west passage to the Indies and China, then sought after as earnestly as it has been in our own times. Cabot sailed from the port of Bristol about the nuddltt of May, 1497 ; and following very nearly the same course now pur- 1497 sued by vessels making the voyage from Great Britain to North America, discovered, on the 26th of June, the Island of Newfoundland, %.'hich he named 8t. John's Island in honour of the saint. After a brief stay there he continued his westerly course, and, on the 3rd of July, iirrived off the coast of Labrador. He had, therefore, the credit of being the first discoverer of the Continent of America, which was not seen by Columbus until some thirteen months afterwards. Having made a partial survey of Hudson's Bay, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, he sailed south as far as Vii'ginia ; when, being anxious to announce his success to Henry, he returned to England ; where, shortly after his arj>a], he receiv- ed the honour of knighthood, -r At this period Britain j >ssessed no royal navy, and in cases of emergency the crown hr d to arm merchant vessels. Encouraged by the success of Cabot, Henry determined that this condition of affairs should no longer continue, and promptly applied himself to the construction of a national fleet ; on one large ship of which he expended the immense sura, ^.»r those times, of fourteen thous^-t/^0 ^>~t> f, s^o~^ V. . THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1535. approach ; and to tlie fact, that they were well acquainted with the circumstance of his visit to Gaspe in the previous year, and the outrage he had theio perpetrated on their countrymen. Tliis knowledge led t\w inhabitants of Stadacona to resolve on a wary intercourse with the strangers. Their chief, Donacona, approached the vessels with a lleet of twelve canoes tilled with his armed fol- lowers. Ten of these canoes remained at a short distance, while he proceeded with the other two to ascertain the purport of the visit — whether it was for peace or war. With this object in view he com- menced an oration. Cartier heard the chief patiently, and with the aid of the two Gaspe Indians, now tolerable proficients in the French language, was enabled to open a conversation with him, and allay his apprehensions. An amicable understanding having thus been established, Cartier moored his vessels safely in the river St. Charles, where, shortly afterwards, he received a second visit from Donacona, who this time came accompanied by five hundred vvarrioi's of his tribe. Having thoroughly rested and refreshed himself and his men, Cartier determined to explore the river to Hochelaga, another Indian town, which he learned was situated several days' journey up its course. With the view of impressing the Indians with the superiority of the white man, he caused, prior to his departure, several cannon shots to be discharged, which produced the desired results. Like their countrymen of the south, on the arrival of Columbu.s, the red men of the St. Lawrence were alarmed by the firing of ai'tillery ; and, as its thunders reverberated among the surrounding hills, a feeling of mingled terror and astonishment took complete possession of their minds. Leaving his other ships safely at anchor, Cartier, on the 19th of September, proceeded up the river with the Hermerillon (which owing to the shallowness of the water he had to leave in Lake St. Peter) and two boats ; and frequently came into contact with ^^^W parties of the natives, who treated him in the most friendly man- ner. Bold, and loving adventure for its own sake, and at the same time strongly imbued with religious enthusiasm, Cartier watched the shifting landscape hour after hour, as he ascended the river, with feelings of the deepest gratification, which were heightened by the reflection that he was the pioneer of civilisation and of Christianity in that unknown clime. Nature presented itself in all its primitive grandeur to his view. The noble river on whose broad bosom he floated onwards day after day, disturbing vast flocks of water fowl ; the primeval forests of the north, which here and there presented, amid the luxuriance of their foliage, the parasai- tical vine loaded with ripe clusters of grapes, the strange notes of the whip-poor-will and other birds of varied tone and plumage, such as he had never before seen or heard ; the bright sunshine of a Canadian autumn ; the unclouded moonlight of its calm and plea- sant nights ; and the other novel accessories of the occasion, made a most profound impression upon the mind of the adventurer, 1535.J CARTIER'S VOYAGES. Delighted with his journey, Cartier arrived on the 2nd of October opposite the Huron village of Hochelaga, the inhabitants of which lined the shore on his appro.n h, and made the most friendly signs for him to land. Supplies of tish and maize were freely tendered by the Indians, in return for which they received knives and beads. Despite this friendly conduct, however, Cartier and his companions deemed it most prudent to pass the night on board their boats. — On the following day, headed by their leader dresse*^' in the most imposing costume at his command, the exploring party went in procession to the village. At a short distance from its environs they were met by a sachem, who received them with that solemn courtesy so peculiar to the aborigines of America. Cartier made him several presents, among which was a cross, which he hung around his neck, and directed him to kiss. Patches of ripe corn encircled the village, which consisted of fifty substantially built huts, secured from attack by three lines of stout palisades.* Like the natives of Mexico and Peru the Hochelagans regarded the white men as a superior race of beings, who came among them as friends and benefactors.! Impressed with this idea they conducted them in state to their council lodge, end brought their sick to be healed. Cartier was at once too completely in their power, and too politic, to undeceive them. It is recorded that " he did everything he could to soothe their minds : that he even prayed with these idolators, and distributed crosses and other symbols of the Roman Catholic faith amongst them." The introductory ceremonies concluded, Cartier ascended the mountain behind Hochelaga, to which he gave the name of Mont Royal, subsequently corrupted into Montreal. From a point near its summit a noble prospect met his view. Interminable forests stretched on every side ; their deep gloom broken at harmonious intervals by hills, and rivers, and island-studded lakes. Simple as were the natives of Hochelaga, they appeared to ha'-e some knowledge of the geography of their country. From them Cartier learned that it would take three months to sail in their canoes up the course of the majestic river which flowed beneath him, and that it ran through several great lakes, the farthest one of which was like a vast sea. Beyond this lake was another large river, (the Mississippi) which pursued a southerly course through a region free from ice and snow. With the precious metals they appeared but very partially acquainted. Of copper they had a better knowledge, and stated that it was found at the Saguenay. Favourably as Cartier had been received, the lateness of the season compelled his immediate return to Stadacona. The Indians * There is no doubt that Cartier gave a somewhat exaggerated description of Hoclielaga, being desirous that his discoveries should bear some resemblance to those of Cortes and Pizarro. Hochelaga was simply an ordinary Indian village, surrounded by wooden palisades, and containing probably seven or eight hundred inhabitants. t Jesuits' Journal. » • ■ • t«"j 1 :• •.l- ' t , THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1536. If 1 1 expressed their regret at the shortness of the visit, and accom- panied the French to their boats, which they folkwed for some time, making signs of farewell. The expedition did not, however, find all the natives equally friendly. While bivouacking one night on the bank of the river, they would probably have all been massa- cred but for a timely retreat to their boats. Cartier had a narrow escape, and owed his life to the intrepidity of his boatswain, an Englishman. The adventurers wintered in the St. Charles River, and continu- ed to be treated with kindness aiid hospitality by the Stadaconians, who had fortunately laid up abundant stores of provisions. Unac- customed, however, to the rigours of a Canadian winter, and scantily supplied with warm clothing, Cartier and his companions suffered severely from the cold. To add to their other misfortunes scurvy, the terror of the seaman in those days, made its appearance ; and, in conjunction wi a a disease produced by a licentious inter- course with the natives, speedily carried off twenty-tive of their number. To a decoction from tiie bark of the spruce fir, taken on the recommendation of \,\\(i Indians, the remainder ascribed their restoration to health. The long winter at length drew to a close ; the ice broke up, and although the voyage had produced no gold discoveries, or 1536. profitable returns from a mercantile point of view, the expe- dition prepared to return home. Like other adventurers of that age they requited the kindnt'ss and hospitality of the aborigines with the bftsest ingratitude. The^'' compelled Donacona, with two other chiefs and eight warriors, to bon,r tiiem company to France, where the greater part of these unfortcuate men died soon after their arrival. Disappointed in its expectations of di covering the precious metals in the regions explored by Cartier, t.'ie French nation, for the ensuing four years, gave no adventurers \o the New World. — That navigator's favourable representations of the valley of the St. Lawrence, however, still continued to attract a large portion of attention. In 1540 a new expedition was organized under 1540. the direction of the Sieurde lloberval, an opulent nobleman ^ of Picardy, to procee(i to Canada, as it now began to be called from the Indian word Kanata, (a collection of huts,) which had been mistaken for the native name of the country. In con- sideration of his bearing the expenses of the expedition, and effect- ing a penn-oput settlement on the St. Lawrence, or in the adjacent districts, Hi.'"^rval was created lieuteiumt-general, and appointed viceroy of all the territories claimed by France in the New World. Circumstances having arisen which prevented him from proceeding with the expedition, which embraced five ships, ho, transferred its command to Cartier, who accordingly sailed the third time to New France, and arrived safely at iiis old ancliorage in t\i -•^igh- bourhood of Stadacona. He was at first received with every appear- ance of kindness by the Indians, who expected that he had brought « t : 1 1542.] UARTIER'S DEATH. ' 1- back their chief Donacona, as well as the other chiefs and warriors who had been taken to France. On learning that some of these were dead, and that ncjne of them would return, they showed themselves averse to any further intercourse, and to the formation of a settlement in their neighbourhood. Finding his position with the inhabitants of Stadacona becoming daily more and more unpleasant, Cartier moved higher up the river to Cape Rouge, where he laid up three of his vessels, and sent the other two back to France with letters to the king and Roberval, stating the success of his voyage and asking for sup- plies. His next proceeding was to erect a fort, which he called Charlesbourg. Here, after an unsuccessful attempt to navigate the rapids above Hochelaga, he passed a most uncomfortable winter. — During the ensuing summer, he occupied himself in examining the country in every direction, and in searching for gold, but of which he only procured a few trifling specimens in the beds of some dried rivulets. A few small diamonds were discovered in a headland near Htadacona, which was therefore called Cape Diamond, a name it still retains. The promised supplies not having arrived, another severe winter completely disheartened Cartier, and he accordingly i-esolved to re- turn home. Putting into the harbour of Ht. John, Newfoundland, he encountered Roberval on his way to Canada with a new company of adventurers, and abundance of stores and pro- 1542. visions. The viceroy endeavored to persuade Cartier to return with him, but without success. He and his companions were alike disheu' ' ened with the extreme cold and prolonged dura- tion of a Canadian winter ; and this circumstance, in connection with the other hardships to which they had been exposed, caused them to long earnestly to return t») Fiance. To avoid further im- portunity, a possible quai'rel, and perhaps forcible detention, Car- tier caused his sailors to weigh anchor during the night. After a tolerably quick passage he arrived safely in his native country, where he died shortly after his return, having, like many others, sacrificed health and fortune to a passion for discovery, and a desire to acfjuire gold. Roberval sailed up the St. Lawience to Charlesbourg, which lu; strengthened by additional foititications, and heri^ passed the ensuing winter. Leaving a gaj-i-ison of thii'ty men behind, he )"eturned in the following spring to France, where he was 1543. detained by his sovereign to assist in the war against Charlies V. The peace of Cressy eventually terminated hostilities ; but, although six years had elapsed in the inttM-VMl, liobeival had not forgotten Canada. Tn company with his brothei- Archille, and a numerous train of adyentur(*rs, he again proceeded to this country. His flvict was never heard of after it had put to sea, and was supposed to have foundered, to the regi-et of tiie people of France, who greatly admired the Brothers Robei-val for the gallant man- ner in which they luul borne themselves in the war. Their loss \i 8 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1598. completely discouraged Henry II., now king of France, who made no further attempts to effect a settlement in Canada. The distract- ed state of France, occasioned by the religious wars, tended like- wise to withdraw, during the succeeding half century, the attention of its government from projects of transatlantic colonisation. During the latter part of the fifteenth century, the idea of dis- covering a north-west passage still occupied the attention of many persons in Europe. England, now rapidly rising in maritime im- portance, sent out several expeditions to the northern coasts of America to search for this passage. None of these, however, had any connection with Canada, the first colonisation of vhich was reserved for France ; the private enterprise of whose r»ierchants was already accomplishing what the countenance and decrees of royalty had failed to effect. The discovery that a lucrative trade in furs could be prosecuted with the Indians, led to the formation of trading posts on the St. Lawrence, the principal of which was at Tadousac, near the mouth of the Saguenay River. The fact, thus established, that a profitable connection with Canada could be maintained, and tranquillity having been restored in France by the accessiim of Henry IV. to the throne, the atten- tion of its government was again turned to founding a 1598. colony in this country. In 1598 the Marquis de la Roche, a nobleman of Brittany, encouraged by Henry, fitted out a large expedition, which convicts were permitted to join, as it was found difttcult to procure voluntary adventurers owing to former disasters. Armed with the most ample governmental p-^wers, the marquis departed for the New World under the guidance of Chedotel, a pilot of Normandy. But he lacked the requisite quali- ties to insure success, and little is recorded of his voyage with the exception that he left forty convicts on Sable Island, a barren spot off the coast of Nova Scotia. Owing to the failure of this adven- tui'e, and his earnest attempts to equip another being thwarted at court, the marquis fell sick, and literally died of chagrin. The unfortunate convicts whom he had left behind were completely for- gotten for years, and suffered the most intense hardships. Their clothes were soon worn out, their provisions exhausted. Clad in the skins of the sea wolf, subsisting upon the precarious supplies af- forded by fishing, and living in rude huts formed from the planks of a wrecked vessel, famine and cold gradually reduced their number to a dozen. After a residence of twelve years on the island, tliese wretched men were found in the most deplorable condition, by a vessel sent out by the Parliament of Rouen to ascertain their fate. On their return to France they were brought before Henry, who pardoned their crimes in consideiation of the great hardships they had undergone, and gave them a liberal donation in money.* The unsatisfactory result of the expedition under De la Roche, had not the effect of seriously checking French enterj)rise. In the * Champlain's Voyages. 1599.] CHAUVIN'8 VOYAGES. 9 following year another expedition was resolved on by Chauvin, of Rouen, a naval officer of reputation, and Pontgrave, a sailor merchant of St. Malo, who, in consideration of a monopoly 1599. of the fur trade, granted them by Henry, undertook to establish a colony of five hundred persons in Canada. This mon- opoly once secured, Chauvin displayed very little energy in ful- filling his engagements. In order to save appearances, however, he equipped two vessels in the spring of 1600, and taking out a party of settlers with him .safely arrived at Tadousac. 1600. Here, contrary t(^ the representations of some of his com- panions, who stated that much more desirable locations for a settlement might be found higher up the river, he erected a small fort. During the summer he obtained, for the most trilling consid- ei'ation, a large quantity of very valuable furs. Being anxious to dispose of these to advantage, he returned to France on the ap- proach of winter, leaving behind him sixteen settlers, who were but slenderly provided with provisions and clothing, and in the cold weather were reduced to such distress, that they had to thro>.' themselves completely on the hospitality of the natives. From these tli(\y experienced much kindness ; yet so great were the hardships endured that several of them died before the arrival of succour from France. Chauvin made a second voyage to Tadousac, and obtain- ed another valuable cargo of furs, but failed to establish a perma- nent settlement. During a third voyage. he was taken ill and died. The death of Chauvin did not damp the spirit of enterprise, which had now taken firm hold of the jnore adventurous among the French people. The fur trade held out a certain and lucrative reward to perseverance and courage, and, in 1003, De Chaste, the Governor of Dieppe, organized a company to conduct it. 1603. He prevailed upon several wealthy merchants, to second his views, and made a most valuable auxiliary, at the same time, in Sanmel Champlain, who had just retuiiied from the West Indies, and was destined to be tlie founder of the French Colony of Canada. Accompanied by Pontgrave, the former associate of Chauvin, who had made several voyages to the St. Lawience, Champlain pro- ceeded to that river, with instructions from the French court to ascend it as far as possible, and make a survey of the country to- wards its source. He traversed its course to the Sault St. Louis, but, effectually stopped by these rapids, had to content himself with an observation made from the summit of Mont Royal.* On his return to France Champlain found Chaste had died voked, and Champlain was obliged to return home to give an account oi his conduct, which the king listened to with apparent satisfaction. All attempts, however, to procure a renewal of the monopoly j)roved abortive. Still Monts determined, even without royal patronage, to continue the settlement. To lighten the expenses, he made an arrangement with some traders at Rochelle to give them the use of his buildings at Quebec, as a depot for their goods, while they in return engaged to assist him in his IGlO. plans of colonisation. He was thus enabled to fit out an- other expedition for liis lieutenant, and to furnish him with considerable supplies and a respi^ctable reinforcement. On Champlain's return to the St. Lsiwrence, he received a fresh application from the Algimquins to aid them in another war. — Undeterred alike by fear or principle he accepted the proposal ; but, upon his arrival at the mouth of the Richelieu, found affairs more urgent than h(« had anticipatetl. An Indian brought the intelligence that one hundred of the enemy were so strongly entrenched in the neighbourhood, that without the aid of the French it must be impossible to dislodge them. The Algonqkiins imprudently advanc- ing to the attack unsupported were repulsed with loss ; and had to fall back an up he proceeded to reconnoitre the Irt)quois' position. He found it very strong, and formed of large trees placed close together in a circle. Thus protected they continu- ed to pour forth showers of arrows, one of which wounded him in the neck. His amnmnition soon began to fail, and he urged the Algonquins to greater exertions in forcing a way into the barricade. He made them fasten ropes round the trunks ot single trees, and apply all their strength to drag them out, while he undertook to protect then with his fire. Fortunately at this crisis a party of French traders, instigated by martial ardour, made their appear- ance. Under cover of their fire the Algonquins pulled so stoutly, that a sufficient opening was soon effected, when they leaped in and lf)ll.] CHAMPLAIN'S VOYAOEK. 13 completely routed the enemy, most of wliom wen* either killed or drowned while seeking to escape, or taken piisonerH. Of the; assail- ants three w(M'e killed and fifty wounded. Champlain before taking leave of his allies, who were too w(!ll pleased to refuse his retjuest, readily prevaihid on them to allow one of his people to remain with their tribe in order to learn their Ianguag(i; while he, at their re(juest, took a native youth with him to France, whither he went soon after. The assassination of Henry [Y., the Hugutmot king of France, on the 1 4th of May, and the accession of his son, a boy of nine years of age, as Louis XIIT., to the throne, while it destroyed the project of making Canada a refuge for French Protestants, did not affect Champlain's plans. Early in IGll he again 1611. returned to Canada, bringing the young Algoncjuin with him ; and, on the 28th of May, proceeded in search of his allies, wh6m he was to meet by appointment. Not finding them he em- ployed himself, in the interval of their arrival, in choosing a site for a new settlement at some point higher up the river than Quebec. — After a careful survey, he finally fixed upon an eligible spot in the vicinity of Mont Royal. His choice has been amply justified by the great prosperity to which this place, under the name of Montreal, has since attained. Here he cleared a considerable space of ground, fenced it in with an earthen ditch, and planted grain in the en- closure. At length, on the 13th of June, three weeks after the time appointed, a party of his Indian friends appeared. They evinced great pleasure at meeting their countryman, who gave a most fav- ourable report of the treatment he had niceived in France ; and after a liberal present to Champlain the cause of their long delay was unfolded. It was altogether owing to a prisoner, who had escaped the previous year, spreading a report that the French, having resolved to espouse the cause of the Iroijuois, were coming in great force to destroy their nation, Champlain complained of their having paid attention to such an idle rumour, the truth of which all his actions belied. They protested that it had not been credited by themselves, and was believed by those only of their ti'ibe who never had an opportunity of becoming personally ac- quainted with the French. Ilaving now received solemn protesta- tions of friendship, and being satisfied with Champlain's sincerity, they declared their firm determination of adhering to his alliance ; and promoting, to the best of their ability, his projects of penetrat- ing into the interior. As an evidence of their good will they im- parted much valuable information respecting the geography of the northern part of this continent, with which they seemed tolerably well acquainted as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. They also readily agreed to permit him to return, as soon as he pleased, with forty or fifty of his own people, in onler to prosecute discoveries, and form settlements in their country if he found it advisable to do so. They even made a request that a French youth should accompany them to their village, and make observations upon their territory and tribe. 't I I U THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1612. 1^' f" Champlain again returned to France with a view of making ar- rangements for more extensive operations ; but this object was now of very difficult accomplishment. Monts, who had been appointed governor of Saintonge, was no longer inclined to take tlie lead in measures of this kind, and excused himself fro)u going to court by stating the urgency of his own affairs. He therefore committed the whole conduct of the settlement to Champlain, advising liim, at the same time, to seek some powerful protector, whose influence would overcome any opposftion which might be made to his plans. The latter was so fortunate as to win over, almost immediately, the Count de Soissons to aid him in his designs. This nobleman obtain- ed the title of lieutenant-general of New France ; and by a formal agreement transferred to Champlain all the functions of that 1612. office. The Count died soon after, but Champlain found a still more influential friend in the Prince of Conde, who succeeded to all the privileges of the deceased, and transferred them to him in a manner equally ample. These privileges, includ- ing a monopoly of the fur trade, gave great dissatisfaction to the interested merchants ; but Champlain endeavoured to remove their hostility by permitting as many of them as desired to do so to accompany him to the New World, and engage in this traffic. In consequence of this permission three merchants from Normandy, one from Uochelle, and one from St. Malo, accompanied him. They were allowed the privilei'^s of a free trade in furs on the conditions of contributing six men each to assist in projects of discovery, and giving one-twen eth of their profits towards defraying the expenses of the settlement. In the beginning of March, the expedition sailed from Harfleur, and on the 7th of May arrived at Quebec. Champlain now 1613. engaged in a new project. A person named Vignau had ~" accompanied him on several visits to the Indians of the lower Ottawa region, and spent a winter amongst them. He reported that the river of the Algonciuins (the Ottawa) issued from a lake connected with the North Sea, that he had visited the shores of this sea, and there witnessed the wreck of an English vessel. The crew, eighty in number, had reached the shore, where they had all been killed .nd scalped by the natives, with the exception of a boy, whom they had offered to give up to him as well as other trophies of their victory. Wishing to have this narrative as well authenti- cated as possilDle, Champlain caused a declaration to be signed be- fore two notaries, warning Vignau that if it were false he would be exposing himself to capital punishment. Finding that the man per- severed in his statements, and having learned that some English vessels had really been wrecked on the coast of Labrador, his doubts were at length removed, and he determined to devote a season to the prosecution of discoveries in the Nipissing country. Having this object in view he did not remain long at Quebec, and on the 21st of May arrived at the Lachine Rapids. With two canoes, and accompanied by four of his own countrymen and one 1614.] CHAMPLAIN'S VOYAGES. 15 Indian, he proceeded on his voyage up the Ottawa, during the pro- secution of which he experienccil much severe hardship, and encoun- tered numerous ditftculties. The adventurers met with a succession of cataracts and rapids, which they couUl only avoid by carrying the canoes and stores overland. In some instances, the woods were so dense rtiat this laborious plan could not be adopted ; and their only alternative then was to drag their frail craft through the foaming current, exposed to the danger of being themselves en- gulfed. Another danger arose from the wandering bands of Iro- ({uois, who, if they had the French in their power, would doubtless have treated them in the same cruel manner as they did their Algonquin captives. The difficulties of navigation increasing as they ascended the river, they were eventually compelled to leave their supplies behind, and trust entirely to their guns and nets for provisions. At length the party reached the abode of Tessonant, a friendly chief, whose country was eight days' journey from that of the Nipissings, where the shipwreck was said to have occurred. — He received them courteously, and agreed to admit their leader to ii solemn council. Champlain having explained the object of his visit, requested that four canoes escort him into the country of the Nipissings, which he earnestly desired to explore. The Indians were averse to granting his request, and only promised compliance on the most earnest entreaty. The council having broken up, he ascertained that his wishes were still regarded unfavourably, and that none of the natives were willing to accompany him. He, therefore, demanded another meeting, in which he reproached them with their breach of faith ; and to convince theni that the fears which they expressed were groundless, referred to the fact of one of his own people having spent some time among the Nipisssings without injury. Vignau was then called upon to state whether he had made such a voyage, and after some hesitation replied in the atftrraative, when the Indians declared, in tiie stronsrest terms, that he had uttered a falsehood, having never passed t' .juits of their own country, and that he deserved to be tortured for is dishonesty. After a close examination of Vignau, Champlain was obliged to acknowledge that they were I'ight ; and that he had been egregiously deceived. He had not only encountered a lon^ series of labours and fatigues in vain, but the whole season had b ;en spent withe xi promoting objects which he had much at heart. Leaving Vignau with the Indians, as a punishment, he returne Huence at court, and no difficulty was consequently found in equipping a small fleet to carry out settlers and supplies from Rouen and St. Malo. On board of this fleet came out four fathers of the order of the Recollets, whose religious zeal led them to desire the conversion of the Indians to Christianity. These were the first priests who settled in Canada. » !■ \*-\ f ' 16 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1615. h * Chainplaiii arrived sjiiely, on the 25th of May, at Tadousac, >vhence he immediately pushed forward to Quebec, and sub- 1615. sequently to the usual place of Indian rendezvous at the Lachine Rapids. Here he found his Algoncjuin and Huron allies full of projecto of war against the Iroquois, whom they now proposed to assail, among the hikes to the westwaiTl, with a force of 2,000 fighting men. Always desirous to embark in .any enter- prise which promised to make him better acquainted with the country, Champlain at once resolved to accompany this expedition, and hiid down a plan of operations which he offered to aid the Algonquins in carrying out, at which they expressed the utmost satisfaction. He accompanied them in a long journey, first up the Ottawa river, and afterwards over small lakes and portages leading to Lake Nipissing. The Indians, abou^^ 800 in number, who inhabit- ed the shores of this lake, received the expedition in a friendly manner. Having remained with them two days, the Algonquins resumed their journey along the course of French River to Geor- gian Bay, which they crossed, and, near the Great Manitoulin Island, entered Lake Huron, which Champlain describes in his travels as a great fresh-water sea.'*' After coasting this lake for .several leagues, they turned a point near its extremity, and struck into the interior v/ith a view of reaching Cahiagua, where they were to be reinforced by a detachment of western Algonquins, and some other friendly Indians. On arrival at this place a large body of their friends were found collected, who gave them a joyful welcome, and stated that they expected 500 additional warriors of other tribes, who also considered the Iroquois as their enemies, to join them. While awaiting the arrival of these war- riors, several days were spent in dancing and festivity, the usual prelude to Indian expeditions. But the expected allies not arriv- ing acconling to promise, they again set out, and occasionally employed them.selves in hunting until they came to Lake St. Clair, where they at length descried the Iroquois fort, which, in expecta- tion of an attack, had been rendered unusually strong. It was defended by four rows of wooden palisades, with strong parapets at top, and enclosed a pond whence water was conducted to the different quarters, to extinguish any fires that might occur. The Iroquois advanced from this fort, and skirmished successfully against their assailants for some time until the fire-arms were discharged, when they retreated precipitately. They fought bravely, however, behind their defences, and poured forth showers of arrows and stones, which compelled the assailants to retreat, despite the exhor- tations and reproaches of Champlain. He now taught them to construct an enclosure of planks called a cavalier, which would com- mand the enemy's intr'>nchment. The discharges from this machine were meant to drive the latter from the parapet, and afford the assailants an opportunity of setting fire to the defences. The Indians showed the utmost activity in c^mstructing this work, * Champlain, Book ix, chap. vi. 1^ r • * 1G15.] WAR WITH THE IROQUOIS. 17 which thoy finishixl in a fow hours, when 200 of tho -^r^est movofl it closo to tho pali.sado. Tho shot from it (h'ovo tli.? » is into tho intorior of their stronghokl, whonco, however, they coiii.111- ued to (lischarf^e missiles of various kinds. Tho fort mij^ht now, witli tlie "greatest ease, have been set on tire, but Champlain found to his mortification that he had to deal with men who would make war only as they pleased. Instead of following,' his directions, they profoci-ed to pour out execrations upon the enemy, and to shoot arrows against the strong wooden defences. At length they com- menced throwing pieces of burning timber, but so carelessly as to pioduce very little effect, while the voices of their white friends, in- structing them how to proceed, were lost amid the tunmlt. The li-oquois, meanwhile, drew water from their reservoir so copiously, that streams flowed through every part of the fortress, and the fires wore speiodily (juonched ; when, taking advantage of the disord(;r in the adverse ranks, they killen of the Duke do Montmorency, high admiral of France, who purchased his viceroy- alty from Conde for 11,000 crowns. The merchants, however, still continued to make every effort to deprive Champlain of the 1019. governorship of Canada ; but the protection of the new viceroy enabled him to overcome all opposition. A hot dis- pute was also waged between the different commei'cial cities, as to the respective shares tbey ought to have in the new expedition ; which was still further delayed by difHculties which arose between the Huguenots and Roman Catholics connected with it. After a tedious voyage Champlain arrived at Quebec in the month of July, bringing his childless wife out with him for the 1620. first time, and found that his long absence had been of the greatest injury to the Colony ; which, after all he had done for it, numbered, or the approach of winter, only sixtj^ouls, ten of whom were engaged in establishing a seminary. In the follow- ing year the Iroquois made a descent upon Quebec, and caused considerable alarm, although they were easily repulsed. Owing to the representations of Champlain, that they had neglected to furnish supplies, the associated merchants, who had fitted out the last expedition, were deprived of all their privileges by Montmo- rency, who g.ave the superintendence of the Colony to William and Emeric de Caen, uncle and nepliew, both Huguenots. — 1621. William proceeded to Canada during the summer, and had an interview with Champlain. He was disposed to act in a very arbitrary manner ; and claimed the right of seizing the ves- Heriot's His. Can, p. 29. Champlain 's Voyages. (If lonth tlio the ono ton low- used igto to the tnio- iiTid ts. — had in a ves- 1623.] CHAMPLAIN IN CANADA. 19 sols of the associated merchants, then in the river. Tliis conduct had the cfTect of furtlier weal- ling the Colony. Several quit it in ilisgust ; and towards tluj close of the year tlie European population of Canaelonged to the reformed faith, and that few Roman Catholics were willing to pro- ceed to Canada either as settlers or as sailors. After much enquiry he found capt>ii'«s of his own ff jth to command his vessels ; but he could not present the major part of the crews being Huguenots. To satisfy his religious scruples,* he directed that the means of exercising their religion should be restricted as much us possible ; and, in particular, that they should not sing psalms on the St. Ldiwrenc/^ The mariners, who hud been freely permitted to perform inis act of worship on the open sea, remonstrated in the strongest t^rias against the illiberal restriction ; but the duke's orders had to b(; obeytid, and the captains, by way of compromise, .lUowod them greater latitude in other parts of their religious duties. The conversion of the Indians, as well as the establishment of his own faith in Canada jn a secure and dominant basis, was a favourite project with the new viceroy. It had already '^ngaged his attention for years, and arme^ as he was now with tae most ample powsrs, find possessed of the greatest possible facilities to carry out his views, he resolved to make every exertion for its ac- complishment. In common with many others of the French nobil- ity, at this period, the Jesuits had acquired a complete control over him. The order supplied him with a confessor, and was well ac- quainted with his views, which it readily entered into. Three Jesuit fathers and two lay brothers, charged with the con- 1625. version of the Indians, «> coi-dingly embarked for Canada j where, on their arrival, they were comfortably lodged by the RccoUets, now ten years in the country, despite an attempt by the Huguenot settlers to create a prejudice against the order. Considering Champlain sufficiently orthodox to carry out his views as to religious matters ; and satisfied, also, that no person could better direct the temporal affairs of the Colony, 1626. Ventadour continued him in all his powers as Governor of New France. From one cause or another, however, over two years elapsed before Champlain returned to Canaila, where he found matters in an equally unsatisfactoiy condition as after his former absence. The fort was in the same unfinished state as he had left it, and the population of Quebec numbered only 55 persons, of whom but 24 were fit for labour. Shortly after his return he found that i hostile spirit was brewing among the Indians ; and * Champlain, who was also a strict Roman Catholic, uoustnnt]^ cvproBscd a pious horror cf tho Huguenots, and granted them as low privilugos an posaiblo. — He aicatosiu his memoirs that two 'thirds of the shijis crows wcro usually i'rv.^testantB. lony, Lor of over re he his as he sons, ho ami n CSBCd 08 a8 wore 1625.] CHAMPLAIN IN CANADA. 21 that a fresh war might soon be looked for between the Innjuois on the one hand, and the Algonquins and Hurons on the other. — Champlain made the most strenuous efforts to preserve peace, and strongly n-d vised that several captive Inxjuois, about to be tortured, should be restore in iliicMce with his m;\ creiiiii. t'ouiid leisnie to liini his attention * HcriotV Hiti. ('an. i». ID. Soc jiImo (Jimrlevoix, I :• '•! * 4 • ; i'\ * I- 22 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1627. It •1 1627. to New France, and to listen to tlie representations of its viceroy, whom Chaniplain had already accjuainted with the condition of aifairs. Apart from the suggestions of the Duke de Ventadour, the cardinal had the desire of crushing the Huguenots too closely at heart, to mi.ss any opportunity of doing them an injury. He accoi-dingly revoked the exclusive privileges which had been granted to the Caens ; and at the same time, with the view of placing the Colony in a more prosperous condition, encouraged the formation of a new company, composed of men of inllu- 1628. ence and wealth, to which a charter was granted under the title of " The One Hundred Associates." To this company, of which the cardin.al himself was a member, Louis XIII. made over the fort and settleuuMit at Quebec, and all the territory of New France, iiicluding Florida ; with power to appoint judges, build fortresses, cast cannon, confer titles, import and export French g(X)ds free of all restrictions, and take whatever other steps it might think proper for the protection of the Colony, .and the fostering of conunerce. He granted it, at the same time, a complete moiiopoly of the fur tratle, and only reserved to himself and his heirs supremacy in matters of faith, fealty, and homage, as sovereigns of New France, .and the presentation of a crown of gold at every new accession to the throne. He also reserved, for the benefit of his other subjects, the cod and whale fisheries in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In return for these privileges this comp.any engaged, first, to supply all its settlers with lodging, food, clothing, and farm imple- ments for three veal's ; after which it would allow them si llicient Land cleared to a certain extent, with the gniin necessary for sowing it, to supj)ort themselves ; secondly, that the emigrants should be njitive Frenchmen and Roman Catholics, and that no strangei" or heretic should l)e introduced into the country ; aner.ality, was equally able .and adapted to the necessities of Canada ; and had it been carried out as In; proposed, would, no doubt, have placed it at the head of the North American cohmies. 13ut a storm was now brewing in Europe^ which threatened serious interruption, if not total destruction, to his plans. The inrjrudent zeal of the Roman Catholic attendants of the French Queen of Charles I., Henrietta Maria, with Richelieu's persecutif)'i of the Huguenots, had aroused the hostility of the English people ; and tlu» Duke of iiuckingham, to gratify a privates piipie against tlm cardinal, in- volved his country in a war with France. The comjuest of Canada was at once resolved ujjon at the Ri-itish court : and Ch.arles grant- ed a commission for that purpose to Sir David Kirke, »ui Englishman «t «i' . • 1G29.] CAPTURE OF QUEBPX. 23 (»f Jill ancient family, but born in France during the temporary residence, owing to commercial engagements, of his parents at Dieppe. ^Vided l)y his two brothers, Lewis and Thomas, and the younger Caen, who vowed vengeance against his native country for the loss of his exclusive pi'i\ilege, Kiike speedily efjuipped a sijuadron, and sailed for the 8t. Lawrence. On arrival at Tadousac he sent a formal suinmons to Que})ec, demanding its surrender. Champlain immediately called a meeting of the inhabitants to consult on what was best to be done. On learning their determination to support him, he I'eturned so spirited an answer, that Kirke, ignorant of the weak state of the defences, gave up his intention 'A capturing the town, and contented himself with seizing a convoy on its way tliither with settlers and supplies. But Champlain and his companions gained only the brief respite of a few months by their courage. The following summer, in the numth of July, the Englisii fleet again ascended the 1G29. St. Lawrence. A portion of it under Admiral Kirke re- mained at Tadousac, while the vessels commanded by his brothers sjiiled up to Quebec to demand its surrender. Champlain, distressed l)y fann'ne, owing to the capture of his supplies, and the settlement Ix'ing severely harassed by the hostile incursions of the Iroijuois, at once re.solved to comply with tlu^ summons, and accordingly, on the following day. surrcMidered the town and fort. The terms granted liim were of tlic most hoiKmrable character. The inhabitants were allowed to march out with theii' arms and baggage, and were to be conveyed to France if they desired it ; but, owing to the kind treatment they experienced from the English, very few of them left the country. Leaving his brother Lewis in c^)nnnand of QuebU(>('ii's* marriage portion still i-eniaining due. The establishment of peace ]>lac('d the Compa)\y of Oim Hundred •Vssociates in possession of all its foi-mer i)ri\ ileges. It i""omptly I/. . ••. *. tt "•*' • t .'? •■•' %.Aki ., . , ■A i , , Letter of ('harlon I, to tho British Ambassador to Franoe. Juno 12th, 1631. 24 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1G35. |i * reinstated Chaniplfiin na Governor of Canada, and commenced ox- tensive preparations for a fresh expedition, which several Protes- tants offered to join. Tliis the company would not permit, and stringent measures were resolved on to prevent tlic spread of heresy in its transatlantic possessions. From various causes Champlain was detained in France until the spring of 1633, when he arrived once more at Quebec with 1.033. considerable supplies, and several new settlers. He found tilt Colony in nearly the same state as he had left it, both as regarded numbers and poverty. His first care was to place its affairs in a more prosperous condition, and establish a better under- stiinding with the Indians, and was tolerably successful in both respects. He next directed his attention U) the esttiblishment of a college, or seminary, for the education of the youths of the Colony, agreeable to a scheme proposed by the Jesuits, one of whon (a noble who i?ad latelv entered the order) gave 6000 crowns in r,old to aid m .irrying it out. The foundation of the seminary was laid 1635. in the autunm of 1635, to the great gratification of the in- habitants. Champlain, however, was not destined to see its completion. He died in the following December, on Christmas day, deeply regretted by the colonists, and by his numerous friends in France. Possessed of great experience of human nature — of enei'gy, perseverance, {enterprise, and courage, he was eminently fitted to be the founder of a new and prosperous colony. The tenacity with which he clung to his projects, and the earnestness with which he sought to carry them out, prove that he anticipated, in some mea- sure at least, the future greatness of Canada, and that he was creating for himself an imperishable place in its history. His memoirs afford the most ample testimony of his extensive profes- sional knowledge, and prove him to have been a faithful writer, a most intelligej^t ti'avell(M", an acute geometrician, and a skilful navi- gator. They also prove, that tlie eiroi's of his eai'ly colonial policy were principally owing to the novelty of his })osition, and his want of ex})erie!»ce in Indian affaii's. Whih' the pen <»f the iiistoi'ian can record his cheiiueicd fortunes, Champlain will never be forgotten ; and the watiirs of t u; beautiful lake that bears his name chant the most fitting reijuiem to his menu»ry ; as they break in perpetuiil muniiuringson their shores. ■*•■ * Ciiuinplaiii waa born at Brouago, in Franco, as nonrly as cau itc ascer- tained, in 1575, HO that ho was about sixty years of age at tlie time of his death, which resulted from paralysis. He left no children behind him. His wife returned to France in 1()''4, and never afterwards came to Canada. Siie had bceK bred a Huguenot, but conformed to her husband's faith after her marriage. After Champlaiu's death slie founded a convent of Ursulines at Moaux, and died there in 1(554. Champlai.i, like so nuvny of his sueocssoi-s. was greatly opposed to the Jesuits, who soon solidly established theuiHelvcs in Uanaila to the total exclusion of the llecollets, whom despite their hosintable treatment of them, on their tirst ai rival in 1<)'25, they wjuHMlily su]iplanti'd. and had even got .sent buck to Krancc 'I'lic liciMillcts rcpcatclly pi'titioiicil tlie Fient'li Court to lu' allowed to return tn Ciiniula, but owing try opportunity, capturing tli(;ir canoes, laden with furs, as they descended to Quebec. Tiiey also thr(;ate)ied tlu; settlement at Tiu'ee Hivecs, and their scouting jiarties occasionally apju-ared almost undei- tlie vei-y guns of its fort. NN'hile m.itto's remained in this condition Muntniagny very i-eadily tho Uecfdlots, waa much disturbed by the had treatniunt thuy rcccivod from tliu Ju8uit8. Hc3 disliked the latter, niso, for the arlntrnry manner they had acted towards Poutrincourt, who founded, in 1(507, a flourishing settlement at Piiel)i'i' at the time of ( 'luimplain's liratli. Shortly l)el'urt' his ilcatli they ^ut him In cNcciitr ii will Icaviii'i lliem some pi'opfily, and lioni tiiis tad eiiiJi'Mvoiir tn make it i(p|H'.ir tli.it ill' iiad Iteconic tiiih' rci'iMiciled tn tlieii' cii'iliT \"kI' << .. ' I ' • ■*. • ' • 20 THF HISTORY OF CANADA. [1638. Ir 1^' ■1 1 entered into a plan for the coniplct;nt of tlu; island on behalf of that order : and on the 17th of May, in the following year, tlie site of the town and fort was solenndy consecrated by the Jesuit fathers. Apart from this event, the zeal jind entei-prisc; of the religi<)us orders made up, to a very great extent, for tlu; supineness of the company. They organised a mission at Sillery, four miles above Quebec, for the con\(!rsion (»f the Indians, where ]3i'ubart de Sillery, a knight of the grand cross of St. John of Jerusalem, and once the magnifi- cent and >assador of Marie de Medicis, but who subsequently as- sumed the fi'iar's cowl, built a fort, a church, and dwellings 1031). for tiie natives. The Jesuits founded, shoi'tly afterwards, the Hotel Dieu at Quebec as an hospital for the sick, and also an UrsulLne Convent with a view to the education of female children. The audacity which the Iroquois had shown, in appearing in arms before Three Rivers, and the insolence of their conduct g(Mi(!raily, rendtn-ed it necessary for Montmagny to guard against a surprise. However desirous he might be to punish them for the injuries they had inflicted on the French and their allies, and to com})el tlier.i to abate the arrogance of their preten.sions, (tiieir aim now being evidently to give law, either by policy or force, to the whole country,) the want (.)f resources compelled him to act on the (U^fensive. He accordingly determined to erect a fort at 1012. the entrance of the River Richelieu, l)y which the Iroquois usually made thiiir descents, after having first nmstered their forces on Lake Champlain. The latter quickly perceived the important advantages this fort would give the French, and in order to pi-event its ei'ection detached a body of .sevcsn hundred wai-riors, rapidly drawn together, who made repeated assaults to ell'ect their object, but were always gaHantly'repulsed. The Richelieu fort was soon conijjleted, and supplied with as sti'ong a garrison as the means of the Colony would jM-rmit, The courag(! and address displayed by the (iJoAernor on this oc- casion, as well as some I'ecent def(!ats they had su.stained, made a s.ilutary impression on tlie lro(|Uois, who fc^lt that they were not sulliciently sti'ong to cope; (itl'ectually with the French. Althttugh apparently disposed to curry on the war with \igour, tliey ijidicat- ed, at the same time, an inclination for peace, now earm^stly desir- ed by the colonists, who were in a poor condition to continue hostilities from which th(>y couhl not hope for any solid advantages, rhe native allies of tlu^ h'reiich being ('(pially solicitous ft>r p(!ace, it was finally ai'rangeurnjd we learn that wood for fuel was this year publicly sold at Quebec for one and three-pence currency per cord, and uhe pric(; of bread fixed at seven-pence half-penny for the six- pound loaf. Labourers received one shilling and three-pence (equal o'> ^wo iir.d sixpence al present) per day and their board : oerv ants' wages by the year averaged four poui ds. Eels, continued this journal, wore sold in the market for one shilling per hundred, forty thousand liaviug been taken at Killerj from August to November. The long peace had enabled the missionaries to make consider- able progress in the conversion of the Indians, nong whom they found the Hurons the most tractable and docile. Previous habits had partially trained them to agricultural pursuits ; and at the suggestion of the missionaries they "'^adily formed themselves into villag(!S. At Sillery four hundred families, embracing in all nearly twt) thousand souLi, wt^re congregated, and several of their other settlements were liKewise very populous. Of this people alone it was estimated that fully ten thou.sand had placed themselves under the guidance of the missionaries, who, it was said, baptized ovv^r three thousand of their number on one occasion.* The Algon- quins were found much less trai^taljle, and less willing to receive; religious instruction. Yet even amoiig these fierce hunters the missionaries made considerai>le progress. Nor were they wholly unsuccessful nrnoiig the Ii'(.quois, over many f)f whom they (vxercised so great an infhuuice as to induce them to settle within the limits of Canada ; and even, ;io a hiter period, to turn their anns against their own relations. Missionaries also penetrated to the great lakes, and formed floui'ishing and populous settlements on Lake Huron, and especially on St. Joseph's Island ; V»ut these were all soon (h^stroyed, owing to the hostility of the Iroqviois. Ailleboust well aware, from personal experience, of the miseries atendant on Indian warfare, and desirous to nreservo the 1048. (ixisting comnaratively happy state of things, sought to sLii'Dgtlien the position of himself and his Indifin allies, by forming a ])erpetual alliance with the New England colonies. To * Charlevoix and the .le.sii it records ^ay three thousaml ; but probably tw: thousand wore nearer the mark. Tlie Kreneh Uiifsionaries usually reciuircl ordy a siinple assent U< th'' truths of Clnistiiunty to qualify f'l verts for b;i|i- lism. The Maui" system was ]inrsiiey Xavi<'r ii: llimhistan. Heuce the ,ureat number of couvtirts Itapti/cil in hotii cases. I'lMtestantisiii rc«juirc.* lliat eoiiverts be more t'ully instiueted before baptism. (l . I'- ll' 1648.] MASSACRE OF THE HURONS. 29 offect this object he de8patchefc^nd their- country, the Hurons felt a deep reluctance to remove to such a distance from it. They preferred the insulai' situation of Amherst Island, in Lake Ontario, which it was hopeti would secure tliem against ■ ' . I I- I. i ■: ' '■» !• ■ '•A •4' ■ t MO THE HKSTORY oF CANADA. [1649. V'* tlioir (Iroadod foo. Tlion^ ^'I'^y fiijoyod roposo for sniiio timo, l)ut worn ohli <,'('(! l)y tlio diHuiulty f)f ol)t;iiiiin,i( suhsistonco, a terribio f.iniiiic, lia\in^" jipjKiaiiMl aiiidii^' tlicm, to form .st;iii(»ns on ihv oppo- .sitt! co,'is(.. It \v;i.s lioped that ou any •liarm ihM inhabitants could I1(m; to tlio island for safety ; l)Ut the li'o(|Uois, on hiarning the oxis- tonco of thnsn posts, canic^ upoc them suocossivoly with such suddenness and fatal pi'ocision, that it soeincid as if a destroying ani,'(!l had i^uidiMl tlieii' steps. One jxtstafttu- anotiier was sui'prised and d(^str'<>ved, until out of many hundr(!ds only a singhj individual esoapcid to tell thft story of thi^ir mas.sacre. The unliMppy remnant of the Huron nation, now reduced to 300, renounced all hope of nMuainin^ in their native country. One of tlunr chiefs addr(!ss(Ml the missionary, represeiatin*^ the extremity to which they wovo rculuced, beint,' ghosts rather than men, and that th(^y could now only hope to preserve their wretched existence l)y a speedy High t. "If llu; l<\i,th(!r chose to i-eniain where he w;is," continued the chic^f, " he would have trees an'l rctcks alone to in- struct, asthe (h^plorable remnant of his flock must .soon be scattered in eveiy direction ))y famine and the foe. ' He concluded })y i-e- (piesting the missionaiy to conduct them to Quel)ec, and place them iinder tlu^ immediate protection of its inhabitants. After mature consideration this course was considered the most advisable, and every necessary preparation for de|)arture was spe(>flily made. Fugitives in the laml wher(! they had so long Ixsen sovereigns, the Hurons pursued tlusir way in silence, feirful of being interc(>pt- nd by .some .scouting party of Iro{juois. Thcnr path lay through scene after scene of desolation, tei-rible (iven to tlie .savage although so familiaris(Ml M'ilii ra))iiu! and I'uin. As this'famine-strickenb/md occasionally (nnerged from tlu; gloom of the forest into the dealings where populous \illag(!s had been so recently situated, the charred ruins and traces of havoc and slaughter mutely, yet forcibly, pro- claimed the almost general dcstrU(;tion of the Huron race. Worn out with fatigue the fugitiv(^s finally ari'ived at (Quebec, where their r(Ke})tion presented a moi'tifying contrast to that which they would have met among the fi'lendly tribes of their own I'ace. The latter would have welcomed them as countrymen and equals, and supplied theii- wants to the l)e.st of their ability ; but now they wer(> merely regarded as objcicts of chai-ity. Ove hundred of the most destitute found refuge among the different religious houses. — The remaiii.'ler were thrown u}>on the compassion of the connnunity at large ; and although considerable ex(M'tions were; made to sustain them, they had well-nigh pei'ishetl from cold and hung(!r in the in- terval of a station, whli^h was named Hilleiy after their former chief .settlement, being established for them.* Fiut a more deadly foe than even the Troquois began at this period to decimate the unfortunate Indians of (Janada. The French traders had alnvidy discovertMl the fondness of the; red man for * Murray's Rri. Ainer. vol. i, pp. 107, 170, 171- • :*■ l()oO.] CIVIL WA}{ FN ACADIA. 31 fonnentod liquor, ami now introiluord it /is nn avtielr of commrToo ;ii)i(mi( ilio, Mont.'it^mv-, a small tiilu' nccupyini; tlm iicij^hhoiiihocxl of Tadousac, ;nu\ the otlun- Indians who fr\'tju(!iit(!d that pt>st.* — Drunkennesss, and tin? malignant j)assions in its train, apart from tli(( diseases it orij^inated, soon pr-odueed the ijfreatest disor.lers among the impulsive natives. The cha.se was forgotten for the time : tlu^y had other excitement. Like the lunne of the white incsbriate the liMlge of the Endiau drunk.ird was .soon visited by poverty and vant. Soci(^ty was disquietiMl, rude as were the re- stniuits it impo.st;d among the al; ■:igines of tlu* St. Lawrence, and the Montagnez chii^fs solicited tin; governor to (M-ect a pris(»n to re- strain the disordei'ly and the criminal. Much to their cnulit the clcM'ical onlei' steadily si^t their faces against the introduction of li(|Uor among tlu^ Indians; but the tratl^ic soon became too lucrative to l)e .seriously int(;rrupt(!d by their endeavours, and its his headquarters. The latter protest(!d against being thus assailed by the subjects of a fri(Midly state, and Winthrop, to settle all difliculties, now propos(!d to iiiak(i a treaty of amity and trade between Acadiji and New England, which was agreinl 1644. to. This treaty w.'vs signed at Boston, on October Hth, by Charnisey on one hand, and comniissi^Sners from Ma.ssachu- Hotts, Connecticut, N(!w Haven and Plymouth, on the other. — Charnisey now re-investijd Fort St. John. Ljitour was absent, but the place was vigorously clefended by his wife, who repulsed the assailants with a lo.ss to tliem of thirty-thn^e men. iiut the defenders having been weakemid l)y the return home of the New England men it was again l)esieg«l, and this time captured, tjie .>^wifety of the .small garrison being first stipulated. But Charnisey bascOy hung'every man ; and oven compelled Madam do Lsitour to be present at the execution with a halter rountl her neck. The unfortunate lady was soafTi^cted by her family's misfortunes, that she f(ill into a decline, and diful shortly aftisrwai'ds. Latour came to Quebec in 1646, and with tho aid of sonu; New England friend-s resumed his peltry business in the Hudson's Bay country. — News of the death of oharnisey led Latour to return to 16r)l. Acadia, where he married his old enemy's widow, and took possession of his property. But Cardinal Mazarin doub* ag his loyalty empowered Le Bi)rgne, a creditor of Charnisey, to take pos.session of certain of his properties in Acadi;). Le Borgne, giv- ing a large interpretation to his commission, determined to 1654. po.ssess himself of the entire provinc(\ The establishment of Denis, at Cape Breton, was first captured. He next got pos.session of the settlement at La Hove, and was preparing to attack Latour, in Fort St. John, but was compelled to retreat by a body of troops sent by Cromwell to take possession of Acadia. — At the same time a force of Massachu.setts' men cap'^ured La Heve. Acadia now r > ' 1 1 ■ * \ • . • • ■ 1 \"\ \ 1 :'.''^. i , 1 34 THE HISTOKY OF CANADA. [1655. h '- Huron captives, " who received him with joy." On the 10th of August he met, in council, the deputies of the Cayugas, the Senecas, the Oneidas, and the Onondagas, whom he astonished by the knowledge he had of their language and of the principal men of their nation. The council term''nated satisfactorily, the various deputies ex- pressing themselves disposed to form a lasting peace with the French, and treating the father with the greatest considers ion. — The Mohawks, the most hostile of the confederates, whose country lay nearest to Montreal and Quebec, had no representative at this council, and consequently did not indorse the peaceable professions it originated. Subsequent events proved that, in making these pro- fessions the Onondagas alone were sincere, and that the object of the other tribes was merely to amuse Lauson, and so prevent him from assisting the Cats, who were a brave people, and had prepar- ed for a most vigorous defence of their country. The Mohawks, especially, never for a moment abated their hostility to th*i French, and irritated by the attempt to separate the confederates, and divert the trade of the western tribes from passing through their p%- country to Albany and New York, resolved on wreaking their vengeance upon Canada the moment the destruction of the Cats enabled them to turn their arms in that direction. Father Le Moyne arrived safely at Quebec in the month of Sep- tember, and influenced by the gratifying statement he made of his success, and the favourable report of the other missionaries, 1655. the Governor detennined to comply with the solicitations of the Onondagas to establish a settlement in their country. — Fifty men were chosen for this purpose, tlie command of whom was entrusted to Dupuys, a clever officer of the Quebec garrison. Four Jesuit fathers, one of whom was the Canadian superior, ac- companied the expedition, which their order aided most liberally to equip, to found the first Iroquois church. On the 7th of May Dupuys put his little band in motion for their destination. The Mohawks were fully apprised of the ob- • jects of the expedition, and had already made preparations 1656. for its destruction. Four hundred warriors of their tribe proceeded to intercept it, but failing in their object they avenged themselves by pillaging some canoes whicli had dropped behind the main body, and were insufficiently guarded. It was not deemed expedient by Lauson to make this insult a ground of quarrel, as hopes were entertained that the influence of the western Iroquois would be sufficiently strong to compel the Mohawks to make reparation. But the latter soon showed that no concesaions need be looked for at their hands. Presuming on the vacillating conduct of the Go\ernor, whom no doubt they despiaeof Orleans, one mori sexes carri bold] sonei the ho no ho led sir >ut nc 1656.] THE IROQUOIS RAIDS. 35 morning before sunrise, fell upon a party of ninety Hurons of both sexes who were in the fields, killed six of these helpless people, and carried off the rest. As the Iroquois returned homewards they boldly passetl up the river befoi'e Quebec, au I compelled their pri- soners to sing psalms, when opposite the fort, as if to challenge the Governor to attempt their rescue. On arrival in their own country the Huron chiefs were tortured to death, and the other prisoners held in severe captivity.* The remainder of the Hurons on the Isle of Orleans, considering themselves no longer in security there, took refuge in Quebec. — Having found the French unable to protect them, they now secret- ly sent a proposal to the Mohawks, offering to unite with them, and become one people. To this arrangement the latter promptly acceded, and finding that the Hurons after a while regretted their offer, took prompt measures to compel them tt> fulfil it. Scouting parties were spread around Quebec in every direction, which mas- sacred or carried into captivity every Huron encountered ; and when they liad, as they supposed, sufficiently humbled this unfor- tunate people the Iroquois sent thirby deputies to Lauson, to demand the surrender of those who still remained under his pro- tection. Nothing could equal the haughtiness with which these ileputies acquitted themselves. They demanded to be heard in an assembly of the French and Hurons, to which the Governor pusillanimously acceded, and was most deservedly punished by the insolence of their language. " Lift up thy arm, Ononthio," said their spokes- man, " and allow tliy children whom thou boldest pressed to thy bosom to depart ; for, if they are guilty of any imprudence, havo' reason to dread, lest in coming to chastise them, my blows fnay fall on thy head. I know," continued he, after presenting a belt of wampum, '* that the Huron is fond of prayers : that ho confesses and adores the Author of all things, to whom in his distress he has recourse for succour. It is my desire to do the same. Permit the missionary, therefore, whf> ci[uitted me to return with the Hurons ; and as I have not a sufficient number of canoes to carry so large a body of people, do me the favour to lend me thine." The council broke up without the Hurons having come to any definite conclusion as to their future course. One clan alone finally determined to keep their promise to the Mohawks, and departe*! with them to their country, accompanied by Father Lo Moyne. The Governor was severely censured by the public for ihe want of courage he had displayed throughout the entire transaction, and it was generally supposed that had he pursued a contrary course the Mohawks would not have dared, engaged as the confederacy was in a war with the Cats, to press their demands in the insolent man- ner they had done. Lauson finding that his pacific policy was disliked by the colonists, and tired of a government which he now *'Horiot'B His. Can. p. 75. Murray's Bri. Amer. vol. i, p. I79. > , > \ I •J ' II- 51 1 i ■ 36 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1657. felt sensible required the energy of a military man to 1657. control with effect, quit his post w ohout waiting to be re- called, and returned to France in disgust, leaving Ailleboust in temporary charge of the government. Meanwhile, the Iroquois had pursued the war against the Cats with the utmost vigour, the possession of fire-arms giving them a groat superiority in the contest. Out-post after out-post was cap- tured and broken up, and 700 warriors of the confederates finally stormed the principal stronghold of the enemy, although defended by 1500 fighting men. This success completely annihilated the Er.ez, or Cats, as a distinct tribe. Those who were not killed or adopted into their tribes by the victors fled westward and north- wani ; and were it not that the lake lying along the southern boixlers of their country |still retains their name, every memorial of their existence would have passed into oblivion. The Iroquois, about this period, likewise turned their arms against the Outawas or Ottawas, a branch of the great Algonquin race, whose hunting-grounds lay along the Ottawa, from Ottawa city upwards. This tribe did not make the slightest resistance, and sought shelter amid the marshes along their river, or fled to the islands of Lake Huron, whence a portion of them subsequently penetrated to the south-west, where they joined the Sioux. A great part of the present Province of Quebec, and all Ontario, were now completely in the possession of the Iroquois, who had become the terror of all the Indian tribes of the north and west ; and even on the side of New England, the cry of " a Mohawk," echoed from hill to hill, caused general consternation and flight.* Th^ Iroquois having attained to this formidable position among the native tribes, and esteeming the neutrality of the French as now no longer of any value, the destruction of the settlement in the Onondaga country was resolved upon. The Christian Hurons were first massacred, some of them in the very arms of the Jesuit mis- sionaries ; and Dupuys, who still continued to command this post, saw at once that unless he and his people made a timely flight they must shortly expect to share the same fate, an opinion in which he was confirmed by the secret warnings of some native converts. — Day after day the position of this little band became more and critical. Luckily for it three Frenchmen had been scalped and murdered near Montreal by the Oneidas, which was promptly avenged by Ailleboust seizing a dozen Iroquois, ar.d placing them in irons. This proceeding, although it added to the irritation of the confederates, now compelled them to proceed more cautiously, and so as not to endanger the lives of these prisoners. Dupuys was destitute of canoes and other means of transport, but he remedied this want by having several light batteaux con- structed in the garret of the Jesuits' dwelling, which stood apart * Colden'i His. Five Nations, vol. i. pp. 3, 1669, 1660, p. 34. 4. MisiioiM to New France in 1658.] THE PLIGHT OP DUPUYS. 37 from the other buildings. A day at length was appointed for de- parture, and every preparation made so secretly that the Indians knew nothing of what was going forward. To conceal the launch- ing of the batteaux a great feast was given them at which as much noise as possible was made. The boats were speedily launched in silence. Grorged with food and drugged with brandy the Iroquois slept heavily, and awoke to find the dwellings of the Frenchmen tenantless, and their occupants spirited away in a most mysterious manner.* After a dangerous journey of fifteen days' duration, Dupuys con- ducted his detachment in safety to Montreal. But his gra- tification at this fortunate occurrence was diminished by the 1658. reflection, that his precipitate flight was highly discreuitable to his country, and that had he been properly supported, he could have maintained his position among a people who largely derived their power from the weakness of the French. He found the in- habitants of the Island of Montreal in a state of great alarm, owing to the appearance of parties of Iroquois, who, although they did not openly proclaim themselves enemies, were evidently there for some hostile purpose. Towards the end of May, the Mohawks, having first conducted Father Le Moyne to Montreal, agreeable to their promise to place him in a place of safety in case of hostilities, which they thus honourably redeemed, threw oif the mask in conjunction with the other confederate tribes, and openly declared their determination to drive the French from the country ; a purpose their ignorance of siege operations alone prevented thera from accomplishing. THE GOVERNMENT OP OE ARGENSON. Meanwhile the Viscount de Argenson, a brave and pious young soldier, had been appointed governor of Canada, and landed at Quebec on the 11th of July. On the day after his arrival he was startled by the cry to arms, in consequence of the appearance of the Iroquois almost under the cannon of the fort. In fact bhey were so near that their war-whoops, and the cries of their unfortunate Indian victims, could be plainly heard. — Argenson pursued with such force as he could muster at the moment, but the foe was too nimble for him, and escap- ed into the forest.* He ascended the St. Lawrence shortly afterwards in pursuit, with two hundred Canadians and In- dians, the Iroquois retreating before him up the Richelieu river. His return to Quebec, however, left the way open for a fresh ad- vance ; and a strong body of Mohawks descended from Lake Champlain with the view of surprising Three Rivers. Under pretence of holding a council with the commandant, they sent eight men to ascertain the condition of the garrison ; but these, instead of being treated as legitimate deputies, were regarded as spies and ♦ • i ■ s' *• . ' . * Smith'iHis. Can. voL 1, p. 20. 38 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1658. held fts prisoners. Disiippointod in their object, and not wifihing to endanger tlieir captive bretliren, tli(5 Moliawks now retreate(l from the Colony, which for a bri(^f spac«^ enjoyed repose. Of this the Jesuit nnssionaries promptly avaihul themselves to prosecute their labors among tlu^ trib(\s of the north-west, and now discovered several routes to Hudson's Hay. Tint, the dilHculties which arose from Iroquois invasion and inas.s}icrc, wore not the only ones which beset Canada jit this periml. Limitev' as her population was it might naturally be sup- posed, that the inuninent and peipetual danger from a relentless heathen foe would knit the small Christian conmmnity more closely together. Yet such was not the case. Her domestic (juair'^lu wei*e alike nun;erous tiud bitter. Th(M'e was a standing -jaarrel between Montreal and Quebec over the fur trade and other matters. Priests ijuarreled among themselves or with the Governor ; the latter was rarely at peaces with the intendant ; and ceaseh^ss wranglings an 'S(> between rival traders and rival peculators. The Sulpitians rul(>d supreme^ at Montreal, the fFesuits at Quebec ; and presently a bitter (luari-cl a!'os<« between the two as to which should have the nomination of a bishop, whose appointnuMit was now deemed necessaiy for the spiritual welfare of the Colony. The Sulpitians put forward Queylus, o'le of their own order, for the jiosition ; but the Jesuits objected, and he was set a.side. The Archbishop of Rouen, hovvever, who had hitherto (>xerciseuebec, announced his new dignity, and assumed charge of the pai-ish. The Sulpitians were under no vow of po^•erty, and v,«'re i-ich ; so Queylus was generous to the poor, and stx)n stood .veil with the community. Hut the .Jesuits, whih^ ou' • wardly c«mrteous, kept their partisans fr(>m listening to tlu! scmnons of the vicar geneiai, who tinding how things stood launched .'vo angry discourses at his opponents, wht>m he likened v\'enth year, a seion of one of the noblest houses in France, trained under Jesuit influences, and thoroughly opposed bo the .lansenist doctriiu's of election and salvation by grace, then held by a large number of the trench clergy. Two great parties now divided the church of France. One, i/he Gallican, resting on the scriptui'al injunction " to render to Ciesar the things that bo Ottsar's," held that to the king belonged the temporal, and to the lo59.] THE BISHOPRIC QU^iiiRELS. 39 • ' '' ' •] t « : .f (I n n church tho spiritual power ; ami that the laws of their country could not bo l)rok«m at tho hidwever, came from another and unlooked-for direction. In the month of May the Algonquins captured a Mohican Indian, adopted by the Iroquois, who after being first baptized by the Jesuits, and so prepared for heaven, was afterwards tortured out of existence. But before he died he requited their spiritual care with a startling secret. He told them that eight hundred Iroquois warriors were encamped at the Richelieu, waiting for four hundred more, who had wintered up the Ottawa River, to join them; and that the united force would sweep the French from the country. A few days afterwards eight Hurons, who had been adopted by the Iroquois, seized a mother and her four children, some twenty miles below Quebec, and while trying to pass Point Levi in the night three of these Hurons were shot dead and the rest captured. The prison- ers were taken to Quebec, and there tortured by the Canadian Indians with even more ferocity than the Mohican. Before their * a«niMtt Yoli i, p. MS. ruu Alio P*»kitt«a'i Old lUgtiM of 0*aAd». comman 1660.] THE HEROIC DAULAC. 41 deaths they confirmed his story. All was now alarm in the Colony, but still the Iroquois did not make their appearance. They had their hands full elsewhere. Daulac, a gallant young officer, commandant of Montreal, had already determined to wage often- sive warfare against the Iroquois, and not wait to be attacked as heretofore. In company with sixteen other youn^ men, and some forty Huron warriors, he took post, in April, at the foot of the Long Sault, on the Ottawa River, in an old Indian fort, and there waited for the Iroquois to appear. Daulac was a religious enthu- siast as well as a soldier ; and his white comrades were animated with the same feeling of devout zeal. The Iroquois were regarded in the Colony as the incarnate embodiment of the evil one ; and in lighting them they would not only be benefitting their country, but also combatting Satan himself. To accomplish this double purpose Daulac and his men were willing to brave even death itself, and so make their little post in the Ottawa wilderness the ThermopylsB of Canada. They had not long to wait for the fray. Two canoes, with five Iroquois on board, approached the landing near the fort. Four of the foe were shot down, but one escaped to tell the story of this unlooked-for attack to the main body of his countrymen a little way behind. Presently a fieet of canoes, filled with warriors eager to avenge the deaths of their comrades, came rushing down the rapids. Daulac's force had barely time to 3ain the shelter of the fort when the Iroquois were upon then , to be quickly repulsed. They then commenced a parley ; but finding nothing was to be gained from this they built a rude fort of their own a short distance away. Daulac, who was provided with in- trenching tools, improved this breathing time by strengthening his fort, and carefully loopholing it. This work was not quite finished when the Iroquois again attacked, and now endeavored to set fire to the fort, but were beaten back a second time with loss. Two other furious assaults were also repulsed ; and the Iroquois now con- tented themselves with establishing a blockade, and sent a canoe to summon their friends, waiting for them at the Richelieu, to come and help them. Five weary days, for Daulac and his little band, now passed away, during which they suffered severely from the want of water, a hole dug within the fort yielding only a muddy and scanty supply. After a time their food also began to run short, although nearly all the Hurons had deserted to the enemy, won over by their own renegade countrymen in the Iroquois ranks. By noon of the fifth day the Richelieu force had arrived, the war-whoop of seven hundred savages filled the air, and warne -<]>>'« i^ng afterwards, the tragic but glorious fate of Daulac -auu , ^ nei ">' band became known. — For that year the Colony had repose Tuo j "oquois had got enough of fighting for one Summer, and returned to their villages, dejected and amazed, to howl over their losses, and to plan a future revenge. On the fourth of July Argenson wrote a letter to the minister, telling invasion. hovv Daulac solemn ance. regarded had saved Canada from a disastrous 7'e Deuni for the marvellous deliver- as a direct interposition from heaven, was chanted in the churches ; and the people felt devoutly thank- ful. But despite this deliverance, and as no succour came from France during the summer, a feeling of despondency gradually arose ; and many of the colonists made preparations to return to their native country with the autumn fleet. Argenson, too, was dissatiisfied. Apart from his difficulties with Bishop Laval he found his pay would not support him. " The cost of living here is horrible," he writes. " I have otily two thousand crowns a year for all my expenses, and I have been forced to run into debt. When I came to this country I hoped to enjoy a little repose ; but I am doubly deprived of it ; on one hand, by enemies without and incessant petty disputes within ; and on the other, by the difficulty I find in subsisting. The profits of the fur trade have been so reduced that all the inhabitants are in the greatest poverty. They are all insolvent, and cannot pay the merchants their advances." Such was the condition of matters when the ensuing year dawn- ed upon the Colony. With the milder weather came the 1661. annual summer plague — the Iroquois, who swept like a sirocco over the open country ; but they had not forgotten Daulac, and so avoided the fortified posts. Towards midsummer, however, they retired, satisfied for t'.ie present with the injuries they had inflicted ; and, in the month of July, sent two canoes to Montreal, with a flag of truce, to demand an exchange of prisoners, as well as to signify that they were not indisposed to peace. After some consideration the governor acceded to the proposed exchange, which Father Le Moyne was deputed to arrange, as well as to as* i561.J GOVERNOR DE AVAUGOUR. 48 certain whether an honourable peace could not be effected. With these objects in view the father accompanied the deputies, who belonged to the Onondaga and Cayuga tribes, on their return home. Tiili ClOVERNML'Ni OF DE AVAUGO'TR. The poor hx ;: ,th of Vrgenson, idded to the chagrin he had exper- ienced at the '.fineness of the Conipjiny oi One Hundred, and his private d'scoiitents, had, durinjr he preceding year, induced him to request his recall. Liival had .vritten the president of the company urging his removal ; but whether that had any effect or otherwise it is certain that the bishop was not .sorry to get rid of him. During the latter part of the summer the Baron de Avaugour, an horest, energetic, blunt and obstinate old soldier, of forty years' service, came out to take charge of the government. He had heard in France of the bishop's treatment of Argenson ; and while he called upon the Jesuits, and appeared desirous to stand well with them, he rather ignored their spiritual superior. He began by placing some of them on the council, while he overlooked the bishop, but they and Laval were too closely united, and if Avaugour dei igiied to separate them he signally failed. The new ^ iovernor had served in Hungary with distinction, was possessed alike of great integrity and resolution of purpose, and entered upon his government with the full intention to administer it to the advantage of the colonists. One of his first measures, ac- cordingly, was to make himself more fully acquainted with the condition of the Colony, and for this purpose he soon set out on a tour of observation as far as Montreal. He was delighted with the country, and the magnificence of the St. Lawrence ; and wrote to Colbert, now the king's ministei", in high praise of what he had seen. But he was astonished at the deplorable condition of affairs, and despairing of relief from the Company of One Hundred, now niduced to forty -five members, promptly complied with the solici- tations of many of the iniiabitants to request the king to take Canada under his immediate pfrotection, and to pre.sent him with a petition to that effect from themselves. Bou.iier, 1662. connnandant of Three Rivers, was sent to France to lay this petition before Louis, and >/^as graciously received by his young sovereign, who was much sui irised to learn the deplorable stjite of affan's in a country naturall) so fruitful of resources. He prompt- ly ordered M. de Monts to f 'occed to Canada, as his commissioner to inquire into and report uji >n its condition, and whether it would be desirable to annul the com pany's charter. He directed, at the same time, that four hundred soldiers should hold themselves in readiness to reinforce the posts most ex posed to the assaults of the Iroquois.* Father Le Moyne still remained with the Onondagas, and had * Smith's His. Cau, vol. 1, p. 35. Charlevoix vol. 2, p. 120> ^ '», 44 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1662. already induced the Iroquois to agree to an exchange of prisoners. The central tribes of the confederacy had become greatly attached to him personally, and listened attentively to his religious instruc- tions, but did not appear disposed to go beyond that point, despite his solicitations, as regarded the French. He eventually, however, induced the Onondagas, the Cayugas and the Oneidas, to meet him in council, and there presented the gifts that Argenson had sent for their chief men. After deliberating for several days they agreed to make peace, and sent a deputation to Canada for that purpose. But the Mohawks and the Senecas still held aloof, and during the latter part of the summer made a descent on the island of Montreal, where they attacked the habitants at work in the fields, and after a sanguinary conflict, which lasted nearly a whole day, killed the town major and a party of twenty-six soldiers, sent out to protect them. Meanwhile the proud and unbending Avaugour had become in- volved in a serious controversy with the clergy, whom he had already learned to dislike, owing to the great influence they had acquired in the Colony, an influence that not infrequently clashed with his own authority. Not content with the exercise of their sacerdotal functions, the Jesuits frequently assumed the office ot the civil magistrate, and thus made themselves the objects of much jealousy and dislike.^ Laval had not forgotten the curt manner in which he had been treated by Avaugour on his arrival, and now stood ready to exercise his power against him at the first opportunity, - That opportunity came in connection with the liquor traffic. It was not a new question by any means. It had agitated the Colony for years in the past, and was destined to agitate it for many years in the future. The Indians' inordinate passion for strong drink of every sort, had long been the source of the most excessive disorders. They drank to get drunk, and when drunk they were worse than wild beasts. Crime and violence of all sorts ensued, and the priests saw their teaching despised, and their flocks demoralised. On the other hand, the sale of brandy was the chief source of profit to those interested in the fur trade, who included the principal persons in the Colony. And, then, if the French did not supply liquor to the Indians, the latter would sell their furs to the heretic English, r difliculty to be solved in some way. In Argenson's time Laval had launched an excommunication against those engaged in the liquor traffic with the Indians ; and besides the spiritual penalty he anfl the Jesuits demanded that the offender should be put to death. — And the death penalty was accordingly decreed in solemn council. Tliis decree was in full force when Avaugour arrived, and di8pose ■'•*• *3'i'.- • .; -if •• •» . » J Smith's His. Can. vol. i, p. 33. Heriot's His. Can, p. 160. 46 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1663. their places, their broken fragments flamming up the courses of rivers, and inundating the neighbouring districts, liut derange- ments of this kind could only have been of a temporary or minor character, for at the present moment the physical features of this country present the same general aspect as they did to Jacques Cartier.* • The first shwk continued without intermission for half an hour. Three hours afterwards another violent shock was felt, and during the night no less than thirty shocks took place. Slighter shocks were subsequently experienced at intervals till the month of August. This earthquake extended throughout Canada, Nova Scotia, and New England. There can be no doubt that its effects were much exaggerated, owing to the novelty of the occurrence, ami the extreme terror it produced. The Jesuits' Journal, which .supplies very full details of the event, does not stiite that any buildings were destroyed, and it says that no person perished, a proof of itself that the danger was not very innninent. The geo- logical fomiiitions in many parts of Canada, and particularly the islands of the St. Lawrence, prove the occurrence of severe earth- quakes and volcanic eruptions at some very remote period, but there is no just grounds to suppose that the causes which produced these now exist, or that this country will ever again be subjectetl to severe visitations of this kind. • rfesuits' Jour. 1C63. » , < \ > i.-'i CHAPTER III. THE GOVERNMENT OF DE MEZY. . ./W THE representations of his commissioner, M. de Monts, as well as those of Bishop Laval, who strongly advocated the mea- sure, induced the king to demand its charter frrmi the Company of One Hundred, and to place the Colony in imme- 1663. diate connection with the crown. The profits of the fur trade having been greatly diminished by the hostilities of the Iroquois, the company readily surrendered its privileges ; and thus a new and better state of things was now inaugurated. As soon as the transfer was fully completed, M. de Mezy was appointed governor for three years, and an edict published which defined the powers of the principal officers of the Colony. Hitherto, with the excep- tion of a tribunal for the decision of small causes, no court of law or equity had existed in Canada ; and the governors, or intendants, decided according to their pleasure. But provision was now made for the regular administration of justice, in conformity with the laws of France, and a sovereign council, or court of appeal, created. It consisted of the governor, the bishop, five others to be annually selected by them conjointly, the intendant, an attorney-general, and a secretary or clerk.* The new Governor and the bishop sailerium in imjterw — a wheel within a wheel. Its governor was the appointee of the Sulpitians, the seigniors of the island ; and Maisonneuve, an able and judicious man, had held the post for twenty-five years. — He was now removed by Mezy, with the concurrence of the bishop, and his successor appointed. Ljival eflfectually backed by the civil power at Montreal would now be as potent there as at Quebec, should any case like that of Queylus again arise. In any event it was a movement in the interest of centralised power ; and, there- fore, met with the cordial approval of Laval and the Jesuits. But Mezy, to the surprise of the bishop and his clergy, very soon gave evidence of a strong will of his own. On the occasion of an embassy of Iroquois, on whom the arrival of the soldiers had ex- ercised a stilutary effect, he cowed the savages by the decisive and haughty manner in which he rated them for their past duplicity, and not a little astonished the listening ecclesiastics. The town major of Caen gradually began to realise that he represented the I'oyal authority in a domain many times lai'ger than France ; and that it was, ' lerefore, not fitting that he should be the mere agent of those who had procured for him his new \ • .i • .. i 1.1 50 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1664. would not reinstate Bourdon and his two allies. The people began to clamour at the interruption of justice, and blamed Laval, whom a recent levy of tithes had made unpopular. Mezy thereupon issued a proclamation stating, that in accordance with the petition of the people, he had appointed the Sieur de Chartier attorney- general, in place of Bourdon. A new ground of cjuarre) presently arose touching the election of a "deacon of habitations," a town officer whose duty it was to note any infraction of public rights, and to be generally careful of the connnon weal. The votes were cast in presence of the council, when the clioice fell on a supporter of the Governor, and the Laval party protested, but in vain. September liad again ct)me round, and it was now a year since the council had been formed, and a new one had to be appointed. Liival re-nominated his four former partisans, but Mersy refused his assent ; and on the 18th of the month reconstructed the council by his own authority — an illegal proceeding. Laval protested, but Mezy proclaimed his choice by beat of drum ; and was now excluded from confession and absolution. On the following Sunday the pulpits of Quebec resounded with denunciations of the Govei'nor, who presently fell into a fresh indiscretion, and ordered Bourdon and Villeray, his two great opponents, home to France. They carried with them the instruments of their revenge, in the charges made by Laval and the Jesuits against the author of their new woes. The king and Colbert busy in carrying out the autocratic policy of Richelieu, dear to their hearts as ii, was to his, could not brook the idea of Mezy's lishing for popular support ; and inde- pendent of his illegal conduct, in selecting the council, this act alone was sufficient to condemn him. He had no powerful friends at court to stand up for him, his dismissal was ordered, and Laval tiiumphed. The bishop had become the foremost power in Canada, and had already made one governor and unmade two. Colbert had secretly instructed former governors and intendants to watch Laval, and prevent liim from assuming powers which did not be- long to him. Mezy, no doubt, had received the same orders, but he blundered sadly in carrying them out ; and destitute alike of rank and influence was at once sacrificed, without compunction, to placate the church.* An inquiry was ordered into his conduct, and if found necessiiry he waiS to be put on his trial, and sent a prisoner to France. But a voice more potent than that of the king soon called him before a higher tribunal. He was struck with a 1665. morta.1 disease, partly the result of mental worry, and died on the night of the 5th of May, before he even heard of his recall, or it had arrived ; and thus escaped the mortifications to which he must otherwise have been subjected.! But, although he made peace with the bishop before his death, and died in full communion with the church, clerical vengeance followed him into * VUle Parkinan'a Old Regime and Oarneaii. t Jesuit's Jourqal. Couruollo's ooiiunission was dated 23rd M:«rch. 1605. sors. 1665. J DE MEZY'S DEATH. 51 the grave. •' God," said the dean of Quebec, " had ah'oady luckily made nugatory, by the death oi the culprit in penitence, the pro- cess (trial) U) be entered upon."* Thus Mezy's career was ended, md his brief reign of authority in New France suddeidy set aside. But his representations in liis own defence, following so closely upon those of his two prech^cos- sors, had considerable weight at the French court, and led to the conclusion that the bishop and the Jesuits had attained to gi'o -tor influence in the Colony than was consistent with the inteivsts of the crown, and also to a resolve to abate tliat inHuence at a fitting opportunity. THE GOVERNMENT OP THE MARQUIS DE TRACY. Colbcijrt, now the minister of Louis, and foinierly intendant of Mazarin's household, was a man yof talent and energy, who had preserved a character for rectitude in an age of corruption and vermlity. He did much for France, liglitened the bunlens of thu working classes, reformed the laws, restrained feudal tyranny, still existing here and there, and prevented the plunder of the )ul)lic exchequer with a strong hand. But, nevertheless, his cf)ninhM'cial and colonial system was largely based on erroneous principles of political economy, and repressed that individual freedom so neces- sary to success. It was a system of monopoly and exclusion, in which the government and not the individual acted always the foremost part. Arrogant and domineering he sought to drixc France into paths of prosperity, and create colonies by the enei'gy of an imperial will ; and acct)rdingly established great trading cor- porations, in which the principles of privilege and exclusion were pushed to their \itmost limits. Among these corporations was the West India Company, the edict creating which was signed by the king on the 24th of March, 1664. To this company was trans- ferred, for forty years, all the territ<»ry of New France, .loni the Hudson's Bay to the Mississippi, and tie West India Islands; with power to build forts, wage war, make peace, estal)lish courts, appoint judges, and to act as sovereign within its own domains. — Canada once more was surrendered, liound hand an king's viceroy for all the territories of France in the new world, directed to make an inspection of St. Doniinf^o an the Cohmy, and on the .'iOth of IGOo, .lune liinded at Quebec in great state, surrounded by a crowd «>f young French nobles, bewigged and gorgeous in lace ami ribbons. The Quebeckers cheered, and the Indians stolidly gazed in amazement :it the grand procession, as it wound its way through Lower Town, and then to tiie top of the rock above, where a dilapi- dated fort of stone, and sheds iuilf wood, half masonry, bore tlui gran«lilo(iuent title of the Castle t>f St. Louis. L^ival, in full Montiticals, surrounded by his seminary priests and Jesuits, was \ iting at the cathedral door iv receive the repre.sentative of his soxereign ; .and as he greeted Tnicy looked anxiously intt» his fac(i to see what manner of man he was. The signs were iiuspicious ; the procession passetl into the cathedral ; 7V Deum was sung ; and a day of rejoicing follow(Ml. Meanwhile the Si(Hir «lci Courci'Ues, a gallant soldier, had receiv- ed his commission as lieuten.ant-general and Governor of New France, ;ind on tiie siime day, the 'J.'Jrd of March, Jean tJaptiste TaK)n, afterwards the Baron deOnnale, an able man and jin honest one, was created intendant. From tirst to last he provetl himself a vigorous and prudent executive otHcer ;a true disciple of Colbert, formed in his scIuh)!, and animated by his spirit. Judging solely from the usual terms of theii* conuni-ssions the intendants were the rulivsg power in the Colony. They ci)ntrolled all the expenditure of the public money, and tlumgh ranking after the governor and the bishop, presided at the sessions of the council, as the chief legal authority ; took the votes, pr«)nounced judgment, signed procedure papers, and called special meetings. But they often laet with ob- structions, and wen^ not infi-eijuently set at detiance by the governor, the Judges, or the council ; or by all three combined, Jind did not always rest upon a bed of rosea. Tn those days of one-man power in France -of imperial despotism — so demoralising in its essence, th 'Canadian intendant, whinner he chanced t«) be, was in rwility a . ; » u' n tiie governor, as well us upon all the principle men ol the CoIv.m, *vho • anie within his sphere ; and a part of his duty was to mane iv)n'^ remirts about them, and t)f everything else of cojise .. .-it'i i.i* » und' r hi: observatiiui, to the king or to his un.u>- e'*. T»i,]i.n '.\.ts <• ipeciaii^^ charged to hM)k sluup after T^ival, and :-i'ep boOi hrni and the J '• uits within prescribed bounds. Courcelles r!> ' T.\loi> sailed tog' ther for Canada, bringing the ' t . 1665.] COURCELLES AND TALON. 53 I '.' * • J rumaining companies of tho regiment of Carignan with them, as well as guards, valets, and much ^nery otherwise ; for Talon 1ov(mI splendour, and so a sunbeiiiri from the dazzling court of L>»uis le (Jrand fell upon the dull grey rock at Quehec. Hut there was a background of suffering and sa(hiess to Talon's bright [)ageant.— The voyage out had Yteen a tedious onis of ovi*r a hundred days' duration. Disease and death had made sad havoc among the [>as- sengers and crews of the Heet, and the hospitals, the churches, and the neighlxmring houses were soon overflowing with the numerous sick. During the summer over two thousand immigrants landed at Quebec, at the royal charge, and the Colony now began to grow apace. The viceroy promptly applied himself to fulfil his in&tru(!tions with respect to the Irixjuois. The force at his command readily enabled him to repel their usual sunmier forays, an their country, and afford a secure base for <»ffensiv« operations against theni at any time, forts were erectetl on the river Richelieu at Sorel, at Chambly, and at a point above its rapids. Tin; vigonms manniM' in which these forts were constructed, as well as the boldei* front now assumed by the French and their jillies, discouraged the Iroquois foi' the time. The Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas, sent deputies to Quebec, to assure the Governoi- of their peaceable bruary. Fn the evening some Indians making their appear- ance he detached sixty of his best marksmen in pursuit. Theses Wiire UhI into an ambuscade^ and had an olKcer and ten men slain and .seven wounded. lutc^Uigcnce of the aj)proacli of the Canadians sptfedily reaclu^d * For full ilotails of this cxpoditioii hoc llolation, &u. la Nt uvelle Franco, 1GG5. 1G6G. 54 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1586. Albany, three of whose principal inhabitants were despatched to iufjuire the cause of the invasion of English territory. Courcelles stated, that he was not aware of being on ground belonging to Etigland, that he had come solely to seek out and punish the Mohawks for the numerous injuries they had done to the people of 'Canada, declared himself willing to pay in money for provisions, and retiuested- that his wounded men might be taken to Albany and attended to, which was done. Much to his chagrin, however, ho learned that he was still three days' march from the villages of the Mohawks, which were well fortified after the usual Indian man- ner, and would be resolutely defended. Under these circumstances ho resolved upon a retreat, and on the 12th of February put his little army in motion on its return. The Mohawks despatched a bixly of wjirriors in pursuit, but so rapidly did the French retire, that they had to rest satisfied with the capture of three stragglers from the main bs of the Mohawks. The latter were speedily acquainted with this iiu>\ ('iiKMit, and feeling themselves unable singly to oppose the French, r(vsolvcd upon sulmiission. Two deputies were despatched to meet Sorel. These took the prisoners with them, and were in- structed to ofl''er leparation for the niurder of the three officers. — The deputies met the French while still distant sixty miles from * Doc. Hist. New York, vol. i, p, 71. Heriot'!? Hia, Can, p. 117. 1666.] THE MOHAWKS PUNISHED. 55 their villages, and their protestations so appeased Sorel that he returned, and had them conducted to Quebec, Here they were treatiid with no small consideration, and the second day after their arrivaJ were invited to dinner with the viceroy. The conversation chancing to turn on one of the murdered officers, a Mohawk warrior boasted that it was he who had killed him. In a trans- port of rage Tracy told him he should never kill another, and, forgetful of his character as an ambassador, ordered him to be immediately strangled. There was no course now left open to the viceroy but that of a prompt and vigorous invasion of the Mohawks in their own coun- try. The death of their chief could only strengthen their enmity towards the French, and Tracy's policy was, therefore, to extirpate them if possible, or, at all events, to so weaken their power that thbir hostility in future would not endanger the repose of the Colony. Preparations for an expedition into the Mohawk country, (m a larger scale than ever, were at once undertaken, and so vigorously were they prosecuted, that by the end of Septem- 1666. ber a force of 1200 soldiers and militia, and IOC Indians, rendezvoused at Fort Anne. The main body of this force was commanded by Tracy in person, although he was now sixty-seven years of age : Courcelles led the vanguard. During the march provisions fell so short tlin t) . troops were on the eve of mutiny ; but fortunately a chesnut «.• o/e enabled them to appease their hunger, and tha descsrted villages of the enemy, who fled at their approach, soon after supplied them with abundance of food. Hitherto the Mohawks had waged war for many years without h iviiig liad their villages s ainoiig the other InK[Uois to obtain sust«Miance during the coming wiiit«'r. In both cas(\s they would be powerless for offensive operations : so Ti'tiey, satisfied with the success he had achic\ed, put his troops in motion on their * L)oo. Hist. Now York York, vol. i. \). 70. Smith's His. Can. vol. i. p. 53. '■ '. i .■-,. 1- .i if 56 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1667. return. After suffering from a storm on Lake Champlain, in which eight men were drowned, they arrived in Canada, where they were welcomed by the acclamations of a grateful people and a Te Deuvi in the cathedral of Quebec. The 'viceroy now strengthened the settlements on the St. Law- rence, as the surest way to repress the future incursions of the Iroquois. At the same time an attempt was made to carry out a royal edict, directing the inhabitants to collect as much as possible in villages, so as to act in concert in case of attack. This was, 1667. however, found to be impracticable, owing to the scattered manner in which the clearings had already been made. One of the last acts of the viceroy, before his departure, was to confirm the West India Company in all the privileges previously appertain- ing to the Company of One Hundred Asst jiates ; and thus Canada was again subjected to a monopoly, which operated most injurious- ly to its prosperity. THE GOVERNMENT OF DE COURCELLES. The departure of 1 . u,cy placed the chief authority of the Colony in the hands of Courcelles under most favourable circumstances. — The Iroquois earnestly sued for peace, which was now U»'J8. established with better prospects of continuance than ever l^ofrre. In civil affairs the Governor had an able coadjutor in Talon, who Jost no opportunity to serve the Cohmy, and develop its resources. This prosperous condition of matters induced the great- er part of the officers and men of the regiment of Carignan 1669. to settle in the country. To supply the latter with wives the governnci t sent out several hundred women from France. Many of the^ were not of the purest reputation, yet so g. at was the matrimonial demand that the whole cai-go was dis- posed f)f in a fortnight after its arrival. In 1670 the peace which had so happily been estiiblishet' was seriously menaced. The robbery and murder of an Indian chief, while on his way to dispose of his furs, by three French 1670. .'■■^ildiers, ;i,nd some ([uarrels between the Senecas and Ottawas, threatened to again deluge the Colony wrth all the Imrroi-s of warfare. The (rovernor promptly proceeded to Mon- treal, and there had the soldiers triew exercised by the Jesuits; and he complains to CoUx'rt " that they hold all the other clergy in complete dependence ; tliat they had spies in town and country ; that they abused the confessional, intermeddled in !» !■ ••• 1 IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1^121 |2.5 |5o ■^" H^H Hi tm ^ US, 12.0 11.25 III 1.4 12.2 m m. 71 ^% ^i /A '^ '/ Photographic Sciences Corporation 33 WIST MAIN STRUT WHSTIR.N.Y. USSO (716) S73-4S03 ^ 60 THE HISTORY OP CANADA, [1673. Il t.. I families, set husbands against wives, and parents against children ; and all as they say for the greater glory of God. And," hs added, " they will not even civilise the Indians, so as to keep them in per- petual wardship, think more of beaver skins than of souls, and their missions are pure mockeries." The Jesuits soon acquired a knowledge of these despatches, and determined to be revenged ; but found it necessary to proceed with the utmost caution owing to Frontenac's great influence at court. A bitter war was now fairly in embryo. Courcelles' plan for the erection of a fort at Cataraqui was favourably regarded by Frontenac, and the more so as La Salle, and other friends of his, pointed out to him that it would be an admirable point for conducting the fur trade with the western tribes ; while, at the same time, it must prove a valuable restraint on the Iroquois in tlie event of war. The merchants of Quebec, Three Rivers and Monti-eal, were much opposed to the project, as it would divert a large amount of the fur trade from themselves ; but their objections had little weight with Frontenac. In the month of June he collected, at Montreal, a force of four hundred Canadians and Christian Indians, with a hundred and twenty canoes, and two large batteaux armed with cannon ; and after a two weeks' journey up the St. Lawrence found himself on Lake Ontario. He had previously sent La Salle to Onondaga to ask that Iroquois deputies meet him at Cataraqui, and found a number of them awaiting his arrival. On the following morn- ing, amid the beating of drums, presenting of arms, and all the other military pomp and ceremony possible, Frontenac and his staflF, arrayed in their most brilliant uniforms, held a grand council with the Iroquois. Declining to address them as brothers, the usual Indian formula on these state occasions, Frontenac called them his children, stated that he was glad to see them ; that they did well to obey his commands to come to meet him, and that his words to them would be full of peace and tenderness. And he then magnified the power of the French, pointed to his cannon ami gaily painted batteaux, as part of its emblems, and told the benefit they would derive from the establishment of a trading post on Lake Ontario. Although the pride of the Iroquois was touched by Frontenac's commanding demeanor and language, they were awed into silence by his imperious bearing, and the splendor, to them, of his surroundings, and so gave their consent to have the fort built. Presents were then given, and a grand feast followed, which lasted for days. Meanwhile the construction of the fort went on. In less than a fortnight it was almost completed ; and, leaving a force under La Salle to garrison it, Frontenac descended to Montreal, which he reached on the 1st of August. He had accomplished two important objects in the most masterful way. He had taught the Iroquois to regard him with mingled fear and respect ; and had formed the connecting link with the great lakes. Being well aware of Frontenac's love for personal power and au- 1674.] thority, ' the Color liis influe before th king to r more pe sovereign newed ex Father IV for the gr flowing t men, thes ill bark a sippi in 4 until they Mexico, a decided tc but Joliel gratifying the intend While i tween Fro married a he owed h independer and having to utilise it a large par among the soldiers ; w 'le bois, or 1 and shared tor of fores as they tur those days, for its acco supreme au loyal comm ot}>pr persor ■sfife in his ] liis protectic disorders th men, waited a torrent of inonstrate v "thers of a s * During thi "wiag to war concessions to 1674.] THE MISSISSIPPI DISCOVERED. 61 thority, Talon, who had directed the whole civil administration of the Colony during Courcelles' governnsent, was unwilling to have liis influence diminished, and had requested his recall some time before the Grovernor's arrival, but had been prevailed on by the king to remain at his post until its affairs should be placed on a more permanent footing. Flattered by the compliment his sovereign had paid him, the zeal of Talon was stimulated to re- newed exertion in his service ; and early in 1673 he despatched Father Maixjuette, and Joliet, a geographer of Quebec, to search for the great river which the Indians had so often described as flowing towards the south. Accompanied by six Canadian boat- men, these adventurous discoverers boldly navigated Lake Michigan in bark canoes, ascended Fox River, and finally struck the Missis- sippi in 42, 30 north latitude. They descended the great river until they fully satisfied themselves that it flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, and then retraced their course. Marquette subsequently decided to remain fo" a time among the western Indians, * but Joliet descended to Quebec to inform Talon of the 1674. gratifying result of their arduous journey ; but found that the intendant had already departed for France. While these events were in progress a bitter quarrel arose be- tween Frontenac and Perrot, the governor of Montreal, who had inarrie ... i'^l •I- ■» , .■ ', » 4 . f ! M 62 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1674. tion to his plans to enrich himself. And the priests of St. Sulpice, who now also received their full share of abuse, bitterly repented of haviag chosen him as their governor. Frontenac was soon apprised of what had taken place at Mon- treal ; and rendered sore by the manner in which Perrot had diverted the fur trade from Quebec, and so diminished the profits of his own friends, now determined on active interference. He had received strict orders from the king to arrest all the bush rangers ; but as he had scarcely a soldier at his command outside of his own body guard, he found this most difficult of accomplishment. Now, however, his zeal to capture them promised to surmount every obstacle, and he sent orders to the judge at Montreal to seize all the coureurs de hois he could lay hands upon. The judge learning that two of these, leaders among their fellows, were stay- ing with a lieutenant named Caron, sent a constable to arrest them. But Caron refused to give them up, assisted them to escape, and raaltreiited the constable. Perrot took the part of his lieutenant, and told the judge that he would put him in prison, in spite of Frontenac, if he ever attempted such an arrest again. Frontenac sent a lieutenant and three of his guardsmen to arrest Caron, and bring him to Quebec. But Perrot turned the tables on the Governor by arresting his deputy, and incarcerating him in gaol. — But getting alarmed, however, at his own illegal proceedings, he afterwards consented, on the advice of a young priest named Fenelon, to comply with Frontenac's order to proceed to Quebec to answer for his conduct ; and there speedily found himself a prisoner closely guarded. A new governor was appointed for Montreal, who soon changed the aspect of affairs, and captured several of the bush rangers, one of whom was sent to Quebec, and hung there as an example to the others ; and Perrot's fur trade disappeared down the river for the benefit, as their enemies asserted, of Fron- tenac and his friends. But the Sulpitians were far from being satisfied at the turn matters had taken. Frontenac had appointed a governor of Montreal without their consent ; and Fenelon now complained that the conditions on which he had induced Perrot to go to Quebec, had been violated by his imprisonment, and ill- treatment otherwise. High words had already passed between the fiery young priest and the fiery Frontenac on this head ; and when the former returned to Montreal he vented his feelings in a sharp sermon plainly levelled against the count. Fenelon was accordingly summoned to Quebec, and there arraigned before the council, at the he again resumed by tlie Sietir de La Salle, a young man of good family, who had come to Canada a few years before to discover, if possible, some route to China and Japan ; or, in other words, a north-west pjissage by land so long fruitlessly sought after at sea. With the aid of Courcelles and Talon he had established a post for the fur trade at Lachine, near Montreal. He soon won his way into the favor of Frontenac, who found in him a kindred spirit ; • and gave him the command of the fort at Cataraqui, which he had called after himself. La Salle visited France, and laid his plans before the king, with the strong recommendations to royal favour which he had received from Frontenac ; and met with the greatest success. The king ennobled him ; bestowed on him the seigniory of Catara- qui, including Fort Frontenac, of which he was made proprietor, on the single condition that he rebuilt it with stone ; invested hira with the privilege of carrying on a free commerce ; and authorised him to resume the discoveries on the Mississippi. Open alike to schemes of adventure and profit, the representations of Joliet fired his imagination, and La Salle now resolved to explore the great river to its mouth. After several months passed in preparation he again sailed for Canada, bringing out with him thirty workmen 1678. and pilocs, and arrived at Quebec on the 15th of September. After a brief stay there he ascended to Fort Frontenac, which he promptly rebuilt with stone. Among his followers were Henri de Tonti, an Italian oflicer of resolution and fidelity ; Father Hennepin, a courageous Recollet friar, filled with an ardent pas- sion for travel and adventure ; and the Sieur de Lamotte, a man of intelligence and ability. While building the fort La Salle had two barques of ten tons each also constructed, on one of which Lamotte, Hennepin, and sixteen others, sailed, on the 18th of November, for Niagara, which was reached on the 6th December. Hennepin afterwards wrote a graphic, though somewhat exaggerated, account of the wonderful Falls, which he now saw for the first time. La Salle had sailed a few days after Lamotte in another vessel, but was wrecked a short distance from the Niagara River. During the winter, amid the greatest suffering and privation, the Griffin, of forty-five tons burthen, was constructed above the Falls, and armed with five small cannon. In this vessel, on the opening of navigation, 1679. La Salle sailed to Mackinaw, where a Jesuit mission had already been established. On the return voyage down the lakes, with a cargo of furs, the Griffin must have foundered, in an autumnal storm, as she was never heard of afterwards. — Wearied of waiting for her return La Salle resolved to explore the iriterio ; and finally, after suiFering many hardships, gained Lake Peoria, in the heart of the country of the Illinois Indians, then very numerous. Here, despite the mutiny and desertion of a part of his followers, be built a fort, and commenced the construction of a vessel, of forty tons burthen, in which to descend the Illinois 1680. River, and afterwards the Mississippi. Leaving Tonti in 1681.] LA SALLE'S ADVENTURES. 66 command of the fort, and accompanied by three of his own men and one Indian, he set out on foot, on the 2nd of March, on his journey homewards to Fort Frontenac, which he reached about the middle of April, after having suffered the most intense hard- ships. Bad news awaited him. His agents had plundered him in his absence, his property had been seized for debt, and a ship from France, laden with a valuable cargo of goods consigned to him, had been lost in the St. Lawrence. Still his courage rose above his many misfortunes, and obtaining fresh supplies and help from Montreal he prepared to return to Illinois. But on the eve of his departure he was again fated to hear bad news. Two voyageurs reached Fort Frontenac, who brought a letter from Tonti telling him that his garrison had mutinied, plundered the stores, destroyed the fort, threw the arms and other effects they could not carry away into the river, and then made their way to Mackinjiw. There they seized La Salle's furs, and afterwards plundered his posts on Lake Michigan and the Niagara river. Part of the mutineers deserted to the English at Albany, while the remainder, twelve in number, were advancing towards Foi't Frontenac with the object of capturing it and murdering its owner. With nine trusty men La Salle inter- cepted the latter, killed two of their number, and brought the remainder prisoners to the Fort. La Salle's prospects of discovery in the Mississippi seemed to be now hopelessly destroyed under the avalanche of ruin and misfor- tune which had so pitilessly descended upon his fortunes. His wonderful resolution and courage did not, however, desert him ; and with twenty-five men he set out, on the 10th of August, to seek Tonti. On reaching Lake Peoria he found that his fort no longer existed ; and that the large Illinois town in its neighbourhood, con- taining several thousand inhabitants, had been wholly destroyed by the Iroquois, and was now a scene of horrid desolation, ruin, and massacre, almost impossible to describe. Men, women and children, had been slaughtered by the ruthless Iroquois ; and Tonti and his little band of five men had escaped with difficulty to Lake Michigan, and were there found, at the post of St. Joseph, by La Salle on his return from Illinois. While these events were in progress, Father Hennepin, with two men, descended the Illinois River to its junction with the Mississippi, and then turned up the course of the latter river, pursuant to the instructions of La Salle, in oixier to explore it towaMs its source. — He ascended it far above the Falls of Minnehaha, which he named after Saint Anthony of Padua, and was eventually captured by the Sioux Indians. After many adventures, and suffering much hard- ship, he and his companions made their escape, and returned safely to Quebec to tell the story of their important discoveries. La Salle spent the ensuing winter in Illinois, organising a con- federacy of the western tribes as a barrier against the Iro- quois ; and in the spring descended to Fort Frontenac to 1681. complete his final arrangements for exploring the Mississippi. I J. • • ; 'i H • , / , I 1 \ :■■ I ! 6G THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1682. By mortgaging anew his seigniory of Cataraqui, he obtained fresh supplies of goods, arms and ammunition. Accompanied by Tonti, twenty-three Canadians, and eighteen Indians, he commenc- 1682. ed his voyage, in canoes, down the tranquil current of the Illinois, and on the 6th of February reached the Mississippi. The savage tribes along its course were either awed by tha white men or conciliated with gifts ; and on the 6th of April the heaving billows of the Gulf of Mexico met the enraptured view of La Salle. He had won a new empire for the king, his master, and with all the pomp and religious ceremony at his command, pro- claimed the sovereignty of Louis XIV over the vast country of Louisiana, extending from the sources of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico — from the Rocky Mountains to the Alleghanies. La Salle returned to Canada to find that fresh misfortunes await- ed him. His fast friend Frontenac had been recalled, and 1683. the new Governor, La Barre, instigated by his rivals in the fur trade, had seized his seigniory, superseded his authority, and summoned him to Quebec to answer charges which had been preferred against him. He hastened to France to defend himself ; and easily convinced his soviereign of his innocence. He had wholly wasted his fortune by his various expeditions, but still his love of adventure impelled him to fresh hazard. He now 1684. dazzled the king by a gigantic scheme. It was to erect a fort at the mouth of the Mississippi, organise a strong force of savages, attack the Spaniai-ds, and seize the rich mines of Mexico. Louis weakly yielded to the temptation ; placed four ships at La Salle's disposal ; and on the 1st of August the ill-starred 1685. expedition, numbering two hundred and eighty souls in all — soldiers, sailors and settlers, set sail from the port of Rochelle. After a tedious voyage, during which many became sick, the expedition reached St. Domingo, to remain there a month, owing to La Salle being delirious from fever. Unfortunately the latitude of the Mississippi had not been correctly ascertained, the little fleet sailed some three hundred miles too far southward, and in attempting to enter Matagorda Bay, on the Texan coast, his principal storeship, the Aimable, was lost on a sand-bar. A rude redoubt and a few wretched hovels were built upon the inhospit- able shore. After a miserable residence there for months, and a vain endeavour to discover the Mississippi, La Salle, as his last resort, determined on an overland journey to Canada. But 1686. his followers, now growing mutinous, resolved to murder him and his nephew, and join some of the neighbouring Indian tribes ; and succeeded in accomplishing the crime. La Salle's naked body was basely left to become the prey of the wolf and bmzard. His tragic death wholly ended the settlement. 1687. Hig assassins perished by mutual slaughter, or by the hostile Indians, or were encountered by the Spaniards and sent to iabour in the mines. Out of tlie whole expedition only a Recollet friar, Jean Cavalier ; a priest. La Salle's oldest brother ; 1687.] LA SALLE'8 ADVENTURES. 67 and five men, seven in all, made their way back to Canada by the Mississippi, the Illinois and the lakes, to tell the stoiy of their terrible hardships and misfortunes. At a later period the Spaniards of Mexico got tidings of the expedition, and sent a force to drive out the French intruders from their territory. They discovered the fort, but no sentry challenged their approach. The solemn silence of death was everywhere. From a soldier of La Salle, who had been adopted into a neighbouring tribe, they learned how the wre'tched colonists, after being firat wasted by small-pox and famine,, had been massacred by the Indians. And thus ended the chequered and pitiful career of La Salle, abounding with ex- traordinary and unusual misfortunes, and a courage and resolution, under repeated calamity, which have never been surpassed. His brave lieutenant, Tonti, in command of Fort St. Louis, in Illinois, made an earnest attempt to succour his commander. But the desertion and mutiny of his followers baffled his generous efforts, and, after being deprived of his position by L»i Barre, he died in obscurity. ■ < « i. "'■}■■■% s ,* ■>. *A CHAPTER IV. I I AlTE have now to turn the dial-hand of our history backwards VV for half a decade, to the summer of 1682. Nearly ten years had elapsed since Prontenac's accession to the govem- 1682. ment of New France. Still the lapse of time had not diminished his failings, and he was as haughty and un- bending as ever. Between him and Duchesneau there had been no cessation of hostilities ; and they bitterly hated one another. Both had their partisans at the French court ; and while the numerous complaints against the Governor had weakened the hands of his friends, the active intrigues of the Jesuits gradually placed Duches- neau in the better position, till he came to be regarded as the aggrieved party. With the returning ships of the autumn of the preceding year, Duchesneau had sent specific charges against Fron- tenac, La Salle, Perrot and others ; and they also carried home the usual budget of the count's complaints of the intendant, and that official's particular friends, the Jesuits, whom he accuses of seeking to grasp all temporal as well as spiritual power, and even of trading with the heretic English of New York, contrary to the express commands of the king.* Frontenac also declared that between the Jesuits, the Sulpitians, the Seminary, and the bishop, the religious orders held two-thirds of all the best land in the settled parts of the Colony, and waxed rich while the people remained poor. Wearied with these continual complaints, the king at last de- termined to carry out his repeated threats, and so both Frontenac and Duchesneau received their recall. When the Governor sailed fbr I^nce it was a day of rejoicing to half the fur traders of Canada, who were delighted to get rid of one who had so largely interfered with their business, and their profits. Among the clerical orders the Recollets were Frontenac's only friends ; while the Jesuits greatly rejoiced over his fall as being largely of their own procuring, and as a long step for themselves in the ascending * The Jesuits enf^aged in the fur trade of the Colony at an early period. La^ Salle states that at Mackinaw they had a large stock of beaver skins.— They also entered into other branches of trade, and were exempted from the payment of duty. In 1674 they were allowed to build mills, and keep uaves, apprentices, and hired servants, — Parkman's Old Regime, p. 32S. lackwards early ten le govern- had not and un- had been } another, numerous nds of his d Duches- sd as the ttn of the inst Fron- home the and that of seeking of trading le express tween the 3 religious d parts of K)r. last de- i'rontenac lor sailed raders of so largely long the is ; while of their iscending Irly period, er skins.— from the and keep 328. 1682.] GOVERNOR DF LA BARRE. 69 ladder of colonial influence. Frontenac, however, had one consola* tion. He did not leave Canada quite as poor a man as he had come to it. THE GOVERNMENT OF DE LA BABRE. Frontenac's successor, Lefebvre de La Barre, a marine officer of some merit, accompanied by De Meules, the new intendant, arrived at Quebec in the month of August. Misfortune stared them in the face as they landed from their ship. With the exception of a solitary house all the Lower Town was in ashes, owing to a furious fire which had taken place a few days before, and which destroyed fifty-iive buildings, and an amount of merchandise, greater in vsAxxe than all that remained in Canada. In other respects, too, La Barre entered upon the duties of his government at a critical period. — The transfer of the Dutch settlements in the State of New York to Great Britain, had placed a powerful and energetic rival in imme- diate communication with the Iroquois and the other Indian tribes. Trade had already taught the red man, who had intercourse with Europeans, to discriminate between the relative values of similar merchandise, and he soon discovered that the English traders sold much cheaper than the French. The Iroquois, who still cordially disliked the latter, were not slow to avail themselves of this cir- cumstance to their disadvantage, and endeavoured to divert the current of trade from Canada to their own country. Nor were these politic people, who at this period scarcely merit the name of savages, by any means unsuccessful. They introduced the English traders among the western tribes, weakened French influence with the Ottawas and others of the north-west Indians, and thus gave a serious blow to the Canadian fur-trade at its very source. The murder of a missionary friar by the Senecas, isolated collisions with French trappers, and occasional forays into the hunting- grounds of tribes friendly to France, displayed additional ill-feeling on the part of the Iroquois. Time had weakened their dread of " Ononthio," and although they were still unwilling to come to an open rupture, but little provocation was necessary to rekindle the flame of savage warfare along the St. Lawrence.^ In pursuance of his instructions from the king,t La Barre prompt- ly applied himself to place public matters in a better position. He summoned a council of the chief men of the Colony, whom he in- structed to report on the causes which had produced the existing condition of aflairs, and to state the remedies necessary to restore prosperity. This report, after showing the crafty and selfish policy of the Iroquois, proved the necessity of additional reinforcements of troops and emigrants before offensive operations could be under- taken against them with any prospect of success ; and that money * Doc. Hi«. New York, vol. i. p. %. t Ueriot's Hist. Can. pp. 161, 162. Smith's Hist, Can. vol. i, pp. 93. 64. .■ » • • i ' ■: ■■•. I s . .. ' ' ^ , ■ 70 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1682. ■■J also was wanting to build vessels to navigate Lake Ontario, to erect magazines for provisions, and to cover the general expenses of a new war, for which the resources of the Colony were wholly in- adequate. The report met the approval of La Barre, who promptly forward- ed it to France. Louis, now awai'e of the critical condition of hi.s Canadian possessions, obtained, as a first step in their favour, an order from Charles II. to Colonel Thomas Dongan, governor of New York, to maintain a friendly understanding with La Barre. The good offices of the Duke of York, aftei-wards James IL, and the patron of the colony which bore his name, were also solicited to make matters more pleasant for New France. Dongan was an Irish Roman Catholic, nephew to the famous Earl of Tyrconnell, and presumptive heir to the earldom of Limerick. He had served in France, spoke its language fluently, and thought well of its king. But he thought more of the interests of his own colony, and did not feel disposed to jeopardise them to any serious extent. A correspondence ensued between the two governors ; which, apart from courteous professions of mutual good-will, did not lead to any very amicable results. Dongan was too desirous to retain th(! western fur traffic, now very lucrative, at New York, to pay much attention to the orders even of his sovereign. Meanwhile La Barre, who designed to enrich himself as soon as possible, and so make hay while the sun shone, had become associat- ed with a special partner, and vigorously embarked in the fur trade. He had allied himself, soon after his arrival, with the enemies of Frontenac ; whose friends were dismissed from their posts, under one pretext or another, to make room for his own favourites. La Salle, by his newly built fort at St. Louis, had established a most profitable fur trade with the Miamis and all the Illinois tribes ; and had united them in a strong confederacy 1683. against the Iroquois. In the spring La Barre despatched the Chevalier de Bangis, lieutenant of his guard, with a considerable number of canoes and men to seize La Salle's fort ; and later in the season sent an expedition of lus own consisting of fourteen voyageurs, with a valuable supply of goods, to trade with the Indians of that region. La Barre had told some chiefs of the Iroquois that they were welcome to plunder the canoes of La SaHc, as he was engaged in an unlawful trade ; and they finished by seizing his own, to his infinite disgust. The intendant Meules, wJio now became cognisant of La Barre's plans to enrich himself, mainly through his trade partner, La Chesnaye, waxed indignant over the situation, and made a full report of the condition of affairs to tlie home government. He accused the Governor of building lake vessels for his own trade at the king's expense ; and of using his position, in every possible way otherwise, for his personal profit. But not content with seizing La Barre's canoes, distributing their valuable contents among themselves, and making prisoners of his men, the Iroquois attacked Fort St. Louis. Perche * Doc. Hist. Now York, v«»I. i. p. 231. 70 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1687. ■ • ' wher^ the waters of Lake Michigan mingle with Lake Huron ; to recall the Christians of their people living at Caughnawaga ; to compel the Jesuits to withdraw from amongst them ; and to receive the missionaries he would send them. If they complied with these demands, and were attacked by the French, Dongan promised his assistance. The politic chiefs did not entirely commit themselves to these measures. They were loath, as yet, to break wholly with the French ; but, at the same time, they fully satisfied the English governor of their desire to aid him in the greater part of his plans. The return of the Onondaga chiefs from this council put Father Lamberville, a Jesuit missionary to their tribe, in full possession of the demands of Dongan, which he promptly communicated to Denonville. The latter was thoroughly incensed, and prosecuted his preparations for war with additional vigour, being resolved to prove to the British, that even their support would not prevent him from punishing the Iroquois. By way of retaliation, 1687. one of his first operations, in the spring, was the capture of nearly all the English trading posts at Hudson's Bay^ with the exception of Port Nelson.* 'J'his act of hostility was perpetrat- ed in open violation of a treaty, just then entered into between the French and English governments, to the eflFect " that whatevex might occur between the mother countries vhe American colonies should always remain at peace." Unfortunately the force of national prejudices, and the clashing of mutual interests, rendered this enlightened provision totally fruitless, f Having received the expected reinforcements from France, and made every necessary preparation for war, Denonville was guilty of an act of treachery which places his character in a* very unfa- vourable light. Availing himself of the influence of Father Lamberville with the Onondagas, and that of the Jesuit missionary to the Oneidas, he induced several chiefs of these tribes and their immediate followers, to meet him at Fort Frontenac to settle all disputes by a peaceable conference. These, on their arrival, to their utter astonishment, he caused to be seized, put in irons, and forwarded to Queljec, together with a number of other Iroquois, who lived a little way from the fort, and had supplied the garrison with game, who had also been made prisoners, with orders to the commandant there to ship them all to France to labour in the galleys, in obedience to the wishes of his sovereign. The rage and indignation of the Iroquois, when thev heard of this outrage, were without bounds. The Oneidas seized their missionary, and con- demned him to expiate his own presumed treachery, and that of his * The English recovered their factories seven years afterwards ; but the French soon got possession of them again. In 1696, two English men-of- war re-took them. In Queen Anue's war they were again taken by the French ; but by the peace of Utrecht were ceded to the Bntinh.— am' th' a IIU. Can, vol. ». p. 76. t Her. His. Can. p. 207. Conquest of Can. vol. i. p. 311. mgs, show( than 1687.] THE SENEGAS ATTACKED. 77 nation, in the flames. He was saved at the last moment by a Christian matron who adopted him as her son. The chiefs of the Onondagas hastily assembled in council, and summoned Lamber- ville before them. When he saw the intense rage that was piotur- ed in their faces, he thought his doom was sealed. But these red men of the forest, rude and uncultivated as were their understand- ings, proved themselves superior to the passions of the hour, and showed by their conduct, how much more nobly they could act than the pious, courtly and polished Denonville. " There can be no question," said a chief, addressing himself to the terrifiedimis- sionary, " that we are now in every respect authorised to treat thee as an enemy ; but we cannot resolve to do so. We know thee too well not to be persuaded that thy heart had no share in this treason, of which thou hast in some degree been the cause ; and are not so unjust as to punish thee for a crime of which we believe thee innocent." Apprehensive lest some of their warriors, in a moment of excitement, might do him injury, they compelled the Jesuit to depart immediat>ely, directing the guides, whom they gave him, to conduct him by unfrequented paths, and not to leave him till. he was out of all danger. Having collected his force, composed of 2,000 regular troops and militia and 600 Indians, at Montreal, Denonville pursued his march westward on the 11th of June. His principal object was to crush the power of the Senecas, and embarking his army in boats. and canoes, in two divisions, at Fort Prontenac, arrived safely at the Genesee River, where he was joined by Durantaye with five hur • dred western Indians and coureurs de hois. Here, an intrenchment was hastily constructed to protect the stores and provisions, and a detachment of 440 men left to garrison it. From this point the French and their Indian allies, with a supply of provisions for fifteen days, marched forward on the 12tn July towards the Seneca villages. During the first day the march was pursued, without interruption, through a comparatively open country. On the succeeding day they were not so fortunate. After being per- mitted to pass through two defiles in safety, the vanguard was vigorously attacked, while marching through a third, by a strong body of the Senecas ; three hundred of whom boldly held the French in check, and threw their best troops into disorder, while 200 others, after delivering their fire, took them rapidly in flank. The Indian allies of the French, however, promptly checked this move- ment, and the Senecas were finally repulsed with a loss of forty- five killed and sixty wounded. On the side of the French six were killed and twenty-five wounded. In this engagement the Iroquois Christians particularly distinguished themselves, and were it not for them and their other Indian allies, who restored the battle in their favour, it must have gone much harder with the French, as they were completely taken by surprise. A few of the north-west Indians from Mackinaw, who had effected a junction with the invading force, proved themselves genuine i . ' • . .* » 1. •i • I 78 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [168< I'i i. I . savages, by devouring, after the battle, the bodies of the slain Iroquois. Finding themselves unable to offer further opposition to the French, the Senecas, after destroying their villages, withdrew into the recesses of the forest. The greatest injury that could now be inflicted on them was the destruction of their crop of growing corn, and this Denonville caused to be done in the most effectual manner. He likewise directed the destruction of a large number oi hogs which the Senecas possessed. Having thus accomplished, as far as possible, the objects of the campaign, the Governor proceeded to the Niagara, where lie erected a wooden fort, in which he left a garrison of 100 men, under the command of the Chevalier de La Troye. Scarcely, however, had the army disappeared when this post was blockaded by the Senecas, who, thoroughly enraged at the losses they had sustained, missed no opportunity of revenge. Incessantly harassed by the enemy, the garrison had to keep themselves behind their defences, or run the risk of being murdered. Continual watching and fatigue produced disease, to which was soon added the horrors of famine, with abundance of fish in the waters near them, and the forests abounding with game. Ten men alone of the 100 survived ; hunger and sickness carried off the remainder in a few brief months, and the post had to be abandoned.* Governor Dongan was soon made aware of the disa^ :;rs suffered by the Senecas, and an angry correspondence ensued between him and Denonville. He assured the latter that the Five Nations would never make peace with the French, save on condition that the Indians sent to the galleys, and the Caughnawaga proselytes, were restored to their tribes, the forts at Niagara and Frontenac demolished, and the Senecas compensated for the damage they had sustained.! Nor was Dongan content with simple remonstrances. He clearly foresaw from the formal manner in which the French had taken possession of the territory of the Senecas, that they sought to create a claim to its permanent sovereignty, while their acts otherwise taught him that they only wanted the power, not the will, to establish their supremacy throughout the whole coun- try. He felt that the time had now come for the British coi^nies in the north to strike for their very existence. His assurances of support raised the drooping spirits of the Iroquois j and, after sup- plying them abundantly with arms and ammunition, he incited them to /evenge the injuries they had sustained. Dongan's hands were presently strengthened by the assumption by James II. of the Iroquois as his subjects, and directing that for the future they should be protected by force of ai'ras if necessary. Meanwhile, a terrible tfialady swept over Canada, and carried * Doc. His. New YorkJvol. i. pp. 2.17-277. pp. 79, 80. ' t Smith's Hist. Can. vol. I, p. 80. t Smith's His Cm- vol. i. 1688.] DENONVILLE HUMBLED. 79 death and mourning in its train. It prevented the Governor from making, during the summer, a second expedition against the Senecas, which he had planned; and compelled him to remain nearly inactive, while he felt that a dangerous crisis was rapidly approach- ing. In November the Mohawks appeared before Fort Chambly ; and, although the garrison beat them off, they could not prevent them from burning the farm-houses in the neighbourhood, and carrying the inmates into captivity. The French blamed Dongan for causing this inroad. No sooner had the latter learned their suspicions than, dreading reprisals, he caused Albany to be put in a better state of defence, and retained, during the winter, a strong body of Indians in the neighbourhood to cover it from attack. The following spring found the confederates thoroughly united in their hostility to the French. Still, they determined that if peace could be procured on the terms proposed by Governor 1688. Dongan, of which they highly approved, they would not reject it. The mistaken policy of tfames II., who was anxious to conciliate Louis, compelled Dongan himself, at this time, to seek a peacet,ble result to the quarrel, if at all practicable ; and, in obedi- ence to the orders of his sovereign, he now counselled the Iroquois to come to terms with the French, provided they could do so with justice to themselves. They accordingly proceeded to Canada, prepared alike for peace or war. One thousand v/arriors establish- ed themselves at Lake St. Francis, within two days' march of Montreal, whence they sent deputies to demand an audience of Denonville, and to oflfer peace on the conditions proposed by Don- gan, for the consideration of which four days only were allowed. The Iroquois backed this high-handed diplomacy by warlike demonstrations of the most formidable description. Besides the force at Lake St. Francis, whose neighbourhood filled the colonists with the direst apprehensions, a body of 500 men swept the open country around Fort Frontenac, burned the farm-stores with flaming arrows, killed the cattle of the settlers, and finally closely blockaded the garrison. The French bowed before the storm they were unable to resist. The humiliating terms offered by the Iro- quois were accepted, and Denonville was under the necessity of expiating his treachery, by requesting the authorities in France to return the captives, sent to labour in the galleys, to Canada, that they might be restored to their friends. Deputies from all the Iroquois tribes were to ratify this treaty, which, it was stipulated by Denonville, should also secure peace to the Indian allies of the French. A cessation of hostilities immediately took place, and the Iro- quois consented to leave five hostages at Montreal, to insure the safe arrival of a convoy of provisions at Fort Frontenac, the garri- son of which were already threatened with famine. It was further agreed upon, that if any hostile skirmishes should occur during the progress of the pending negotiations, no change, nevertheless, should be made in the conditions which had been stipulated. — » • i * \ . i » J. - "> ;. S ■V ■• ,' 1 ."' 80 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1688. < ■ Meanwhile Louis had demanded Dongan's recall, and king James weakly yielded. Dongan got a regiment of cavalry, and was creat- ed major-general by way of consolation, and Sir Edmund Andros ruled in his stead. Denonville found him equally intractable. The Abenaki, who inhabited part of the present state of Maine, and the most inveterate of all the enemies of the Iroquois, refused to be a party to this truce. While the Governor was busy in his pacific projects, they advanced to the River Richelieu, surprised and defeated a body of Iroquois and their Mohigan allies, and push- ed on to the English settlements, where they killed and scalped several of the inhabitants and burned their homesteads. But of all the Indian allies of the French, the western Ilurons were the most indisposed to a peace with the Iroquois. They had engaged in the war on the condition that it should not terminate until the total destruction of the Five Nations had been effected ; and now when they found that a peace was about to be accomplished with- out even consulting them, they were indignant in the extreme. — Their principal chief, Kondiaronk, was not slow to perceive that his nation, left to themselves, must feel the full revenge of the Iroquois, and be thus sacrificed to benefit F^'ench interests. He pr(»nptly resolved to interrupt the negotiations, and secure the continuance of the war, and took the most effectual measures to accomplish his object. About thirty miles above Montreal, he awaited the arrival of the Iroquois deputies, at a point where the rapids would compel them to land. Here their party, consisting of forty warriors, were either killed or captured on disembarking from their canoes. When his prisoners were all secured, Kondiaronk infonned them that it was the French Governor who had ordered their attack. The Iroquois, shocked at this supposed second act of perfidy on the part of Denonville, stated the object of their mission to the Huron, who then craftily expressed his regret for the |ict of turpitude of which he had been made the instrument. Releasing his prisoners, he supplied them with arms and ammunition, and bade them return and infonn their countrymen of the perfidy which had been committed. One prisoner alone he retained to re- place a Huron warrior who had been killed. This man, on his return home, he handed over to the French commandant at Macki- naw, who, ignorant of the truce, ordered him to be put to death ; a fact of which the Huron chief caused the Iroquois to be apprised, in order to inflame their hostility still more. No sooner had Denonville been informed of the manner in which the deputies of the Iroquois had been treated, than he disclaimed all participation in the act, and assured the confederates that he would hang the Huron chief the moment he laid hands upon him. He expressed a hope, at the same time, that what had occurred would not prevent the progress of negotiations, and that they would send other deputies to conclude a peace. Meanwhile, the success of the revolution which placed William III. upon the throne of England, had released the governor of New York from 1689.J DENONVILLE RECALLED. 81 the unwise restrictions imposed upon him by James, and he now instigated the Iroquois, the majority df whom were only too willing of themselves to avenge their injuries, to retaliate on 1689. the French. On the 26th of July 1,000 of their warriors landed on the Island of Montreal, and dividing into small parties hiid waste the country in every direction. Men, women, and children were ruthlesfjly massacred ; a detachment of one hundred soldiers and fifty Indians, sent to attack them, were nearly all killed or captured ; houses were burhed ; every possible injury per- petrated ; and they finally quit the island laden with plunder, and carrying away many captives, having sustained in this successful irruption a loss of only three men. This terrible catastrophe tiUed the minds of the colonists with the great' ^t terror, a feeling which extended itself to the garrison at Fort 1? rontenac, who hastily de- serted their post, and lost several of their number in shooting the rapids of the St, Lawrence, their precipitate retreat preventing them from taking the proper precautions to avoid accidents. — The Iroquois promptly seized the deserted fort. Thus closed in disaster and disgrace the government of Denon- ville. Its commencement was signalised by an act of perfidy and partial victory ; its termination by misfortune and certain defeat. His sovereign, who had looked for the complete subjection of the Iroquois, and expected to see his galleys manned by their chivalry, chafed at his want of success, directed him to be recalled, and cast about him for a suitable ofiicer to succeed him. '•'• . .• * • i' * ■■: . ■• /4' 1 1. ; • i • H > II THE SECOND GOVERNMENT OP THE COUNT DE PRONTENAC. The increasing influence of the British colonists with the Iro- quois, became at this period a source of considerable alarm to the Canadian authorities. The revolution in England, which placed that country in a hostile position to France and her colonies, added not a little to this feeling. The Chevalier de Callieres, who com- manded at Montreal, had long been convinced that the security and tranquillity of Canada could only be preserved by crushing the power of the Five Nations ; and as the English of New York openly avowed their alliance with them, he conceived the idea of first capturing their settlements. The chevalier departed for France in the fall of 1688, to lay his plans before its government, by whom they were approved, and instructions given by the king to carry them out. Callieres proposed that he should have the command of 2,000 regular troops, with whom he would march, by the Richelieu River and Lake Champlain, into the country of the Iroquois, with the apparent purpose of attacking them, until he arrived in the neighbourhood of Albany, when he would suddenly assault and capture that place. He stated that Albany was about the same size as Montreal, and, in addition to a garrison of 150 men, had 300 inhabitants able to bear arms. It contained about 150 houses, and was defended by an earthen fort, mounting a few pieces of ■* . . *^ ■ 1 i- « ■«. " J i '■ I > 82 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1689. cannon, and wooden palisading. After capturing Albany, tlie chevalier pniposed to descend the Hudson and possess himself of New York, which he described as an open town, defended by iv fort, and containing about 200 houses, with 400 men capable of liearing arms. As an additional inducement to the adoption of his plan, Callieres urged that it would put the French in possession of the finest harbour in America ; that it would prevent the Iroqu(jia from getting further supplies of arms and ammunition, and thus effectually cripple them ; and that, although a treaty of neutrality as far as n^garded the colonies existed, the fact of the settlements in ({uestion being chiefly Dutch and Protestant would lead them to join the Prince of Orange. He added, that if the present favour- able opportunity were neglected, the Iroquois would soon destroy Canada, which must entail the loss of the posts at Hudson's Bay, the beaver and peltry trade, Acadia, and the Gulf and Newfound- land fisheries, which produced several millions of livres annually to France.* The flight of James, and his subsequent determination to make a final effort in Ireland for the throne he had so cowardly abandon- ed, speedily involved England and France in a war, which removed whatever scruples might have been entertained by Louis and his ministers relative to the capture of Albany and New York.— The prospective control of these settlements was given to Callieres, to reward him for his plan of their capture, and his meritorious ser- vice otherwise. He was directed, when established in his new government, to allow the English Roman Catholics to remain, and to banish the other English and Dutch inhabitants to Pennsylvania and New England, and in such a manner that they could not combine to recover their property or their country, whiK the French refugee Huguenots were to be sent to France. That tht conquest might be made as secure as possible, the nearest settlemeni s of New England were to be destroyed, and a wide swathe of ruin o; eated to bar future atta.ck from that side. And thus Louis XIV. deliberately, and without compunction, ordered that some eighteen thousand unof- fending people should be stripped of all they possessed, and driven from country and from home. But his commands had neither suflicient ships nor men behind them ; and the impracticable pro- ject could only be entertained by a man blinded by a long course of success, and a lust for despotic power. Carried into effect his project would have been a fitting sequel to the burning of the Palati- nate, and his persecution of the unfortunate Huguenots, the founda- tion of so many future woes for France — of so much prosperity for England and every other country which gave refuge to these afflicted people. But the sun of Louis had already reached its meridian, and its noon-day splendour was even now on the decline. The mortal enemy of Prance sat upon the throne of England, and there his pp. Doc. Hist. New York, vol. 84-85. i, pp. 285-2S1, Smith's Hist. Can. vol. i. Ih' 1689.] FRONTENAC AND LOUTS. h:\ unconquerable genius fouml new ami moi*e potent elements for its destruction. Richelieu ha, • -T 90 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1690. 1691. ■ 4 . ^1 " Defeated by land and water — damaged in fortune and reputation, the British chief returned homewards. But disaster had not yet ceased to follow him. The dangerous shoals of the St. Lawrence and the storms of the Gulf wrecked nine of his ships. With the remainder shattered and weather-beaten, and his men almost muti- nous from want of pay, he arrived at Boston, on the 19th of November, to find an empty public treasury, and to cause the first issue of colonial paper money.* Thus ended in disaster and defeat a well-planned scheme, which only required energy, ability, and military discipline in its execu- tion to be successful. Had Winthrop's corps been led by a more skilful ofiicer, or had the force which appeared before Quebec been directed by wiser heads and stouter hearts, the results must have been very diiferent, and Wolfe would never have created for him- self an imperishable memorial on the heights of Abraham. Great were the rejoicings at Quebec when the British fleet dis- appeared from before it. With a proud heart the haughty old Governor penned the despatch which told his sovereign of the vic- tory he had achieved, and of the gallant bearing of the colonial militia. In the Lower Town a church was built by the inhabitants, and an annual festival established, to celebrate their deliverance ; while in France a medal commemorated the success of Louis XIV. in the valley of the St. Lawrence. To add to the rejoicing, vessels expected from France reached Quebec on the 12th November, hav- ing ascended the Saguenay, and thus escaped the British fleet. — Their arrival, however, with slender stores of provisions only tended ^;o increase the scarcity, now pressing upon the Colony from an insufficient harvest, caused principally by the incursions of the Iroquois. This state of things necessitated, during the winter months, the distribution of the troops in those districts where food could be most easily procured. The inhabitants, however, grateful for the valour which had saved them from the dominion of the English, met this new burden on their slender resources with the utmost cheerfulness. While the resuH of the movement against Canada was still unde- cided, and a probability existed that the British would obtain possession of the French colonies, the Iroquois warily held aloof, or only gave sufficient assistance to save appearances, which was one reason why Winthrop had retreated, eighty of their warriors only having joined him instead of the promised 500. The politic con- federates, much as they hated the French, did not desire to see their power entirely crushed, as they began, at this period, to entertain apprehensions of the rapidily increasing population and strength of the British colonies. But the cowardly retreat of Winthrop, and the defeat of the expedition under Phips, convinc- ed them that the French had really little to apprehend from the * Smith's Hist, Can. vol. i. pp. 91-108. Ban, Hist. United States, vol. ii. p. 831. Heriot's Hie Can. pp. 266-262. 1691.J IROQUOIS' RAIDS. 91 raw militia and ill-directed efforts of the provincials. According- ly, in May, several hundred of their warriors again poured down upon the settlements near Montreal, and marked their 1691. progress with devastation and massacre. Smaller parties spread themselves along the fertile banks of the River Richelieu, burning the homesteads, and murdering the inhabitants. To repel these attacks the militia were hastily drawn together. One de- tachment of 120 men surprised a party of Iroquois on the Richelieu, and slew them without mercy, with the exception of twelve, who escaped into a farm-house. These defended themselves with the greatest courage, killed an officer, and wounded several of thio militia ; and for a time it seemed as if the latter would be beaten by a few Indians posted in a ruinous dwelling. At length the building was set on fire, and the Iroquois as a last resource fiercely burst upon their enemies, and endeavoured to cut their way with their tomahawks, which five of them succeeded in doing. Of the remainder, two were killed and five taken prisoners. The latter were tortured after their own cruel manner in order to restrain the incursions of their nation in the future. But this slight check only stayed the hostilities of the Iroquois for a brief period. In the latter part of July a strong body oi their warriors, accompanied by some English militia and Mohican Indians, advanced upon Montreal with the intention of destroying the crops, the loss of which must have inflicted famine upon the Colony. After capturing an important post ji*^ Laprairie, by a sudden and unexpected assault, and slaying several of the defenders, they fell back into the forest, where they met and destroyed a small French detachment, and shortly after boldly faced a strong force under command of De Vairenes. For the full space of an hour and a half did these formidfible warriors withstand the fire, and repel the charges, of the Canadian troops, on whom, although ulti- mately compelled to retire, they inflicted a loss of 1 20 men in killed and wounded. No sooner had Frontenac received intelligence of this alarming iiu'oad, than he promptly hastened to Montreal, where he found a despatch from the governor of New York, offering an exchange of prisoners, and proposing a treaty of neutrality, notwithstanding the war between France and Great Britain. But Frontenac mis- trusting these proposals they were not productive of any beneficial results, and he shortly afterwards returned to Quebec, having first, however, witnessed the gathering of the harvest in safety. Although the Iroquois had been forced to retreat, yet fully sensible of the heavy loss they had inflicted upon the French, they were not by any means . i ll '*. ll .^1 ■• . . :■ i^l h ■' ^ 5. 92 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1693. Canadians ; while detachments of troops swept the favourite hunting-grounds of the Iroquois along the beautiful Bay of Quinte, and an expedition from Montreal, led by Mantel, did con- siderable injury to the Mohawks in their own country, but 1693. was severely harassed by the latter during its retreat. At the same time the coast swarmed with French privateers, which captured a large number of craft of all kinds, and even cut out vessels in Boston harbour. This fierce and desultory contest rendered seed-time and harvest in Canada alike unsafe. Stone walls and armed fortresses alone gave security to the habitants, and the Iroquois' boast that 1694. " their enemy should have no rest but in their graves," was almost literally carried out. In the following year, how- ever, these warriors appeared to grow weary of the long contest and to desire peace. The Onondagas, as usual, appeared most prominent- ly in this friendly movement, and sent messengers to Montreal to ask Callieres, still commanding there, whether deputies from the Five Nations bearing pacific overtures would be received. These messengers got a favourable answer and' returned home ; but the deputies did not make their appearance until the beginning of August, when little was effected towards the establishment of peace, owing to the intrigues of the Abenaki, and the desire of Frontenac, himself, to use his increasing power in crushing the Iro- quois more effectually. The latter were not slow to comprehend the turn matters were taking, and endeav.oured, by way of retalia- tion, to weaken French influence among their Christian countrymen of Caughnawaga, and partially succeeded. Hostilities were again resumed. The Iroquois once more ravag- ed the open country at every undefended point, and when 1695. asked to renew their propositions for peace, haughtily de- manded that the French, in turn, should now send deputies to treat at their villages, and cease hostilities in the meantime, not only against themselves, but with respect also to the English. — Frontenac resolved to repair and garrison the fort at Cataraqui, as the best means to curb the Iroquois of the Lake, and to form a securo base for the offensive operations he had planned against them. He adopted this course contrary to the express commands of his sovereign, and the advice of some of his principal officers, who represented the great expense this fort had formerly entailed upon the crown, and the disasters it had originated. But to these repre- sentations the obstinate old count paid very little attention, and in the latter part of July despatched 600 men, one-third of whom were Indians, under the command of the Chevalier Crisasy, to Cata- raqui, to rebuild the fort. They fulfilled his orders with energy and skill, and Fort Frontenac once more menaced the Oneidas and Onondagas. The Iroquois retaliated by a descent upon the Island of Montreal, where, this time, owing to a timely warning of their approach, they found the inhabitants fully prepared to receive them, and were very roughly handled. Nor were they more a 1696.J THE IROQUOIS INVADED. 93 •• % ■ ■ successful towards the west. Cadillac, the commandant at Macki- naw, had induced the Ottawas and Hurons to make an irruption into the Seneca country, whence they brought a number of pri- soners. In that direction, also, the Five Nations sustained a severe defeat from a body of Miamis and French. On the other hand they formed a peace with the Ottawas and Hurons, who had be- come much dissatisfied with the high prices of French merchandise, and desired to participate in the benefits of English commerce. This conduct on the part of his western allies was a source of consitierable uneasiness to Frontenac, who used every endeavour to detach them from the Iroquois. His efforts met with only very questionable success, and to check this formidable disaffection he now resolved to carry out his project of invading the territory of the Five Nations, for which he directed immediate preparations to be made. While these were in progress, during the winter, a detachment was about to be marched into the Mohawks' 1696. country ; but intelligence was received that this tribe, aided by their white neighbours, had placed their Uages in a thorough state of defence, and the design was abandoned. In the month of July, every preparation having been completed, Frontenac moved up the St. Lawrence, from Montreal, with a force of 1,500 regular troops, militia and Indians, en route for Cataraqui, where he arrived on the 18th. The army rested at this place until the 26th, when it departed for Oswego, which it reached on the 28th. Dragging its canoes and batteaux up the Oswego river, it finally launched them on the Onondaga Lake, on the shores of which two bundles of cut rushes informed it that the Iroquois knew its number to be 1,434, so vigilant were their scouts. The army landed on the southern side of the lake, and an intrench- ment, of felled trees and earth, was at once constructed, to protect the baggage and provisions, which 140 men were left to guard. — This duty finished, the Fremh proceeded cautiously towards the fortified villages of the Onondagas and Oneidas, their centre led by Frontenac, now seventy-six years of age, who was carried in an arm-chair, while Callieres commanded the left wing, and Vaudreuil the right. But the Onondagas, satisfied that the invaders could not make a permanent conquest of their country, pursued their old policy of burning their villages on the approach of the enemy, and retreated into the recesses of the forest, whither they could not be pursued, leaving their crops of corn to be destroyed. A lame girl, found concealed under a tree, and a feeble old chief, whose infirmi- ties prevented him from retreating with his tribe, were the only Onondaga captives made by the French. This gray-haired roan, whom his own advanced years should have taught him to spare, Frontenac handed over to be tortured by his Indians. Bravely did the withered sachem suffer, and fierce were the epithets he hurled at his tormentors, whom he derided, amid his sufferings, *' as the slaves of a contemptible race of foreigners." The French were more fortunate among the Oneidas, of whom they captured ' I. •i .'i ■M < • ..' -.<; . I •''■ \i * ^ . 94 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1697 I h :., thirty-five prisoners. But beyond the destruction of their crops and dwellings, very little injury was inflicted on either them or the Onondagas. Their loss in men was trifling, and the Cayugas and Senecas remained wholly undisturbed. On the 12tA of August the array returned to Oswego, and on the 16th arrived at Fort Frontenac, whence it shortly after descended to Montreal, while bands of the Iroquois hung on its rear, and cut off stragglers whenever an opportunity presented itself. Nor did these tribes afterwards cease their incursions into the French settlements, till they found the frontier so strongly guarded that they could not carry off any important plunder. Unlike 1697. former times, they were now unable to make any serious im- pression upon Canada ; and appeared disposed for peace, the negotiations for which were opened through Oureouhare, still faithful to Frontenac, whose death, however, interrupted them. While these events were in progress at the west the French carried on the war with the greatest vigour and success on the sea board. A strong fort at Pemaquid, built for the protection of New England by Phips, mounting sixteen guns, and garrisoned by nearly a hundred men, under the command of Captain Chubb, was captured, by a force led by Iberville, after a brief siege, and levelled to the ground ; while a counter attack on a French post on the St. John ended in failure. Having procured reinforcements at Quebec Iberville sailed for Newfoundland, where he captured a number of fishing craft, destroyed several small posts, and finally took St. John and reduced it to ashes. But the treaty of Ryswick now terminated the war, in which Great Britain had engaged without policy and came oflF without advantage, and removed every difii- culty in the establishment of peace between the French and English colonies and their ailies. The English were the first who received intelligence of the treaty, and at once sent a deputation to Quebec to propose an exchange of prisoners, both as regarded themselves and the Iroc|uois. The Governor, however, preferred to negotiate separately with the latter, and thus impugn their assumed sovereignty by the British. Of this sovereignty he found the Iroquois to be not a little jealous, and did everything in his power to improve this feeling to the advantage of his country- men. While busily engaged in these transactions, and in taking mea- sures otherwise for the benefit of the Colony, Frontenac died in the seventy-eighth year of his age, having to the last 1698. preserved the great energy of character which had enablei ■,.. .■ k ! I| •V • I'J 98 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1701. in ■ , happiiiesH of his uhiMreii." The Iruquuis were fain to be content with thin answer, and in tiie month of June Cadillac, acconipanitMt by a Jesuit missionary and one hundred Frenchmen, was despatched to commence a settlement at Detroit. Thus Michigan is the olde.sl of all the inland American States, with the exception of Illinois, whose colonisation had already been commencetl by the unfortunate La Salle. While France was thus grasping a firm hold of the west, and establishing her supremacy more securely on the great lakes, events were in progress in Europe which threatened to defeat her plans. James II. had died at St. Germans, and Louis XIV. raised the ire of the British nation by recognising his son as the legitimate sovereign of the " three kingdoms." William III., although on his death-bed, was still true to his ruling passion of hostility t«) France, and formed new alliances, governed the policy of 1702. Europe, and shaped the territorial destinies of America. — His death in March, 1 702, did not interrupt the execution of his plans, which the ministers of Anne ably carried out. War was declared between England and her continental allies, on one hand, and Prance and Spain, on the other. From the pinnacle of power, and with every prospect of giving law to all Europe, the exploits of Marlborough and Eugene, the bloody fields of Blenheim and Ramillies, reduced Louis to the lowest condition, and at one time even seemed to place his very crown in peril. But the gallant and prudent Callieres was not fated to witness the reverses of his royal master, nor see French influence 1 703. weakened in America. He died on the 26th of May, to the great regret of the people of Canada. Their sorrow for his loss was the best tribute they could pay to his worth. Although, probably, inferior to his predecessor in brilliancy of talent, his sound common sense, greater freedom from passion, honourable conduct, and chivalric courage, gave him great influence with the Indian tribes, as well as with his own peopL While far from being their tool, he wisely preserved a good understanding with the religious orders, now becoming formidable in the Colony from their wealth and numbers. To him, however, they chiefly owed an edict from the crown, which limited their acquisition of real estate to a certain amount. This measure was rendered necessary by the rapid manner in which they were acquiring landed property by purchase, as well as by grants from private individuals. THE GOVERNMENT OP THE MARQUIS DE VAUDREUIL. The Marquis de Vaudreuil, who had succeeded Callieres as com- mandant of Montreal, became also his successor in the government of the Colony, agreeable to the earnest petition of its inhabitants, with whom he had become a great favourite. He began his gov- ernment at a hazardous period, nor did he prove himself unworthy of the occasion. The authorities of New York had no sooner learn- 1703.] GOVERNOR DE VAUDREUIL. 99 ed the revival of hostilities in Europe, than they endeavoured to persuade the Iroquois to resume their ravages in Canada. This they flatly refused to do, and avowed their intention of respecting the peace they had entered into. Vaudreuil promptly met these intrigues by despat/ching the Sieur Joncaire, a half-breed, long a i«;sident among the Senecas, who had adopted him into their tribe, M\d was much respected by all the Iroquois, to the Onondagas, tu confirm them in their alliance. He succeeded so well in hiH mission, that this tribe not only declared their intention of main- taining a strict neutrality, and retaining the Jesuit Fathers among them, but also conceiied the sovereignty of their country to the French. The English, on the other hand, were less successful in securing the neutrality of the Abenaki. This fierce tribe, instigated by the Jesuit missionaries, who made no scruple of their hostility against neretic Massachusetts, and aided by a detachment of French troops, again swept the more exposed frontier settlements, and carried death and mourning into many a New England home. — The whole country from Casco Bay to Wells, was. ravaged in every direction, and its inhabitants, without distinction, 1704. scalped and murdered. In the month of February, Hertel de Rouville, with two hundred French and one hundred and fifty Indians, burst upon the settlement at Deerfield, crossed the palisades on the snov7, which had rendered them useless, and mas- sacred or carried off the inhabitants into captivity. New England sought to avenge these misfortunes by the attempted capture of Acadia, and the French posts on the lower St. Lawrence, but only ■net with i'^sh disaster and defeat. But while these terrible irruptions brought sorrow to the hearths of New England, Canada enjoyed profound repose, and was left to develop her resources as best she might. Freed from the ap- prehensions of Indian warfare, many of her inhabitants 1705. showed a greater disposition to ruin themselves in law-suits, than enrich themselves by attending to their occupations. The intendant, Baudot, wisely applied himself to diminish this evil by promoting amicable arbitrations between parties at variance, and succeeded beyond his expectations. Nor was this the only benefit he conferred upon the colonists. They annually grew con- siderable quantities of flax and hemp, but were prevent^ by the most stringent laws from engaging even in the coarsest manufac- tures, which were jealously reserved to the mother country, whither they were also obliged to send their wool, to be re-shipped to them again in the shape of poor and costly fabrics. Baudot now proposed to the French ministry, that the hahitcmU 1706. should be permitted to manufacture coarse stuffs for their own consumption. He stated the prices of clothing had become so very high, owing to the loss of a vessel laden with goods for Quebec, and the risk of capture at sea, that the poor were utterly unable to provide themselves with even the coarsest apparel, and • i. Xy'n i ' H . ^ >. '"] 100 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1707 I J . were almost in a state of nakedness. This appeal was irresistible, and from thenceforth the people of Canada were allowed " to mfiii- ufacture in their houses home-made linens and druggets for their own use " — a liberty they gladly availed themselves of. Trouble was in the meantime brewing among the western In- dians, and hostilities at length broke out between the 1707. Illinois and Ottawas at Detroit, which occasioned Vandreuil considerable trouble. A vigorous inroad into the country of the Illinois by Cadillac at the head of 400 men, speedily brought those savages to reason, and restored peace among the western tribes. During these difficulties the Iroquois observed a strict neutrality, to which the efforts of the Jesuit missionaries somewhat contributed. But to Joncaire this desirable result was principally owing. His knowledge of their language, which he spoke as well as themselves, his daring courage, his liberality and affable man- ners, rendered him exceetiingly popular with the Iroquois, whojn he gradually induced to regard the French with favour. But if the British lost ground in this direction, they succeeded in de- bauching the loyalty of the Christian Iroquois in Canada, numbers of whom by this time had become confirmed drunkards, the sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians having been revived in the most shameless manner. Vaudreuil, in order to prevent the further spread of disaffection, determined to assail the British colonies. In the spring, at 1 708. a war council held in Montreal, an expedition was resolved on against New England, to be composed of Indians and one hundred chosen Canadian militia volunteers. After numerous delays these began their march, led by De Chailloris and Hertel de Rouville, the destroyer of Deerfield, who had not yet wearied of slaying women and children. The Iroquois and Hurons soon de- aerted the expedition and returned home, and the Abenaki failed to join it at the appointed place. The design was to capture Portsmouth ; but De Chaillons and Rouville finding their force unequal to the enterprise, descended the Merrimac to Haverhill, resolving to attack a remote village rather than return to Canada as they came. At sunrise, on the 29th August, they moved for- ward to storm the fort, garrisoned by a few soldiers, which was carried after a fierce assault, while their Indians scattered them- selves among the houses, and commenced their horrid work of plunder and death. The sharp and constant ring of the musket and the smoke of the burning village alarmed the surrounding country, and the inhabitants boldly gathered to the rescue. Tlu^ French now beat a hasty retreat, but had scarcely proceeded a league when they fell into an ambush. By a rapid charge they dispersed their antagonists, yet with a loss to themselves of nearly thirty men. They left Haverhill, so recently a peaceful and happy village, a mass of smoking ruins, and its green-sv/ard red with the blood of its pastor and brave men, of a* ome.i and mangled babes. New England bewailed this savage act ; nor did it go unreproved, I ' 1709.J MASSACRE OF HAVERHILL. 101 " My heart swells with indigiiation," wrote honest Peter Schuyler, of Albany, to Vaudreuil, "when I think that a war between Christian princes is degenerating into a savage and boundless butchery." During this season of trial and disaster to the people of New England, many a wish was uttered for the conquest of Canada, as the only means of removing the danger that 1709. lio\ere(l perpetually over their more exposed settlements. — Queen Anne was not insensible to the sufferings of her colonial subjects, and readily listened to a plan by Colonel Vetch, who was well acquainted with the St. Lawrence, for the capture of Montreal and Quebec. Vetch landed in New York on the 3rd of May, and at once commenced preparations for an invasion of Canada, by way of the Richelieu, to be supported by an English fleet in the St. Lawrence. Vaudreuil received early intelligence of the threatened danger, and resolved to dissipate it by a counter-movement against the British colonies. C^n the 28th of July, Ramsay, governor of Montreal, proceeded with a strong force towards the British en- campment near Lake Champlain. The French scouts brought intelligence that the enemy, amounting to 5,000 men, was strongly intrenched. The Indians quailed at this news, refused to advance fai'ther, and the amiy retreated to Montreal. Nor were the pre- parations of the British colonies productive of more important results. Towards the end of September Vaudreuil learned that their forces had retired from the lake, owing to sickness and the non-arrival from the mother country of the promised aid. The fleet destined for the attack of Quebec never crossed the Atlantic ; it was sent to Lisbon instead, to support the waning fortunes of Portugal against the triumphant arms of Spain. The Iroquois also had played their English allies false. No sooner had they joined the British army, than perceiving it was sufficiently strong to take Montreal, they resolved, with their usual cautious policy, to main- t.ain the strength of the European rivals, and thus preserve their own importance, and perhaps their very existence, as a people. A siuall stream trickled by the camp ; into this they flung the skins of tlie animals they killed. These under a burning sun soon in- fected the water, and many o'f the militia died from its use, while not tlie slightest suspicion was entertained of the true cause of the mortality. But Britain had not abandoned the design of aiding weeping Massachusetts, and humbling the pride of Louis the magiii- ticont in the New World as well as in the Old. In September 1710. six Englisli-men-of-war, and thirty armed vessels and trans- ports of New England, with fov;r militia regiments under the c(jmmand of General Nicholson, sailed from Boston for the conquest of N(.)va Scotia. In six days this fleet cast anchor in the jioble harbour of Port Royal. With a garrison suffering from famine, and reduced by casualties and desertion to 156 men, Subercase, the French commandant, wtis sp'^edily forced to surrender, and marched .- .% '? • i • I. .• t w ^ ' U •• ' I ll •• . 1 • •» .' •I 11 104 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1711. admiral at least to come on deck ; but the self-willed man laughed at his fears and refused. A second time Goddard returned ; " Foi- the Lord's sake come on deck," cried he, " or we shall certainly bo lost ; I see breakers all around us." Walker came on deck and found he had spoken the truth ; " But still," the admiral exclaim- ed, " I see no land to the leeward." Just then the moon brok Xl '' I r Louis outlived his heirs of two generations, and his throne descend- ed to his great-grandson, a child of five years old, with the Duke of Orleans as regent, and Cardinal Fleury as the first minister of the crown. The war had scarcely terminated when the active mind of the Canadian Grovemor began to devise means for strengthen- 1714. ing the defences and peopling the Colony, which instead of increasing, was actually decreasing in population. He stated to the French minister that Canada possessed only 4,480 inhabitants, between fourteen and sixty years, able to carry arms, while the regular soldiers barely amounted to 628. This small number of persons was spread over a country 100 leagues in extent. He added that the English colonies had 60,000men able to bear arms, and that on the first rupture they would make a powerful e£fort to get possession of Canada. He proposed that additional troops should be sent out, and that 150 convicts should be shipped annual- ly to this country, to aid in the labours of agriculture. Fortunately for Camada the latter proposition was never carried out, and she escaped the indignity and difficulty of becoming a penal settlement. The bitter lesson which the Foxes had received at Detroit, instead of making the remainder of their tribe more peacefully in- 1715. clined, thoroughly exasperated them against the French. — Not only did they interrupt the trappers in Michigan, their native country, but they infested the routes leading to the distant posts of the Colony, and inflicted all the injury possible upon the Indian allies of the French. The Governor at length detached a strong force to bring them to reason. Shut up in their fort, against which two field-pieces wer^s brought to bear, they finally offered favourable terms of accommodation, which were accepted. 1 716. But they soon evinced little respect for the treaty they had been forced to enter into, and, though greatly reduced in numbers, rendered the routes towards Louisiana unsafe, and ever after remained the deadliest enemies of the French. The success of the expedition against the Foxes established peace in all the borders of Canada, and for many years it present- 1717. ed few events of importance to record. The attention of the Governor was now turned to the careless and improper man- ner in which notaries frequently performed their duties, and stringent regulations were made to correct this abuse. In 1718 considerable excitement was caused in the Colony by the 1718. discovery, in the forests, of ginseng, a plant highly esteemed by the Chinese, which for a time promised to be a valuable article of commerce. But the Canadians were unacquainted with its proper mode of preservation, and it soon became unsaleable. The three succeeding years were alike barren of events. In 1721 the first mail was established between Montreal and Quebec, of which Lanouiller got a monopoly for twenty years. Letters were charged for according to distance, and a fixed table of rates. Charle- voix, one of the early historians of Canada, came out from France 1721.J CHARLEVOIX IN CANADA 107 » I. in 1720, remained here during the ensuing year, and visited the principal settlements, which he describes in his journal. — Quebec embraced even then an Upper and Lower Town, 1721. and contained about 7,000 inhabitants. Its best society, composed of military officers and nobles, was extremely agreeable, and he states that nowhere was the French language spoken in greater purity. Under a gay exterio; was concealed a very general poverty. " The English," the Canadians said, " knew better how to accumulate wealth, but they alone were acquainted with the most agreeable way of spending it." The only employment suited to their taste was the fur-trade, the roving and adventurous habits of which they especially liked. They made money by it occasion- ally, which was usually soon squandered again in pleasure and display. Many who had made a handsome figure in society were now suffering pecuniary distress ; still, while they curtailed the luxuries of their tables, they continued as long as possible to be nchly dressed. Agriculture received very little attention, and the timber trade was yet in its infancy. The banks of the St. Lawrence for some distance below Quebec were already laid out in seigniories and partially cultivated. Some of the farmers were in easy circumstances, and richer than their landlords, whose necessities compelled them to let their land at very low rents. At one point Charlevoix found a baron, holding the office of inspector of highways, who lived in the forest, and de- rived his support from a traffic with the neighbouring Indians. — Three Rivers was an agreeable place, containing 800 inhabitants, and surrounded by well-cultivated fields. Its fur-trade had been in a great measure transferred to Montreal, and the iron mines had not yet been worked. He found the country thinly peopled as he ascended the river till he arrived at the Island of Montreal, the beauties of which he describes in glowing terms. He does not state the population of the town. The census of 1721 made the whole white population 25,000, of which 7,000 were in Quebec, and 3,000 in Montreal. After leaving Montreal, he only met detached posts, established solely for defence or trade. Passing up the river, in bark canoes, he reached Fort Frontenac, which he describes as merely a small military station. After a tedious voyage along the shores of the lake, he came to a log block-house, on the Niagara river, occupied by Joncaire pnd a few officers and troops, but saw neither a village nor cultivated fields. Passing up Lake Erie he visited Detroit and several of the stations on the upper lakes, but beyond small trad- ing posts, encountered nothing >vorthy of the name of settlement. 8uch was Canada 1 TO years ago: what a different aspect does it now present. Hitherto the fortifications of Quebec had been very incomplete, but the French ministry now resolved to strengthen and extend them, agreeable to the plan of Lery. Montreal was 1720. defended by wooden works, which were in a most dilapidated .• \ . v.. . ■ . I r '«,' 108 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1722. juebec, a distance in some cases so great as to involve a full month's travel. In accordance with their usual policy, so disliked by Prontenac and other governors of Canada, the Jesuits made no effort to teach the Abenaki the French language. Their constant aim was to keep the Indians as separate as possible from the whites, and thus Smith's Hist. Can. vol. i. pp. 1S5, 186. 1723.J WAR WITH THE ABENAKI. 109 \ » I. preserve their own influence and importance witli both races. — Altliough prof«.sis6dly Christian their Abenaki converts retained all the ferocity and warlike traits of the savage, and remained as cruel and vindictive as ever. The Jesuit mission Christians, of every Indian tribe, were always as fully disposed to scalp and tomahawk as their heathen brethren. On the side of the Mew England frontier the nearest Abenaki village was Nanrantsouak, on the Kennebec river, some eighty miles from the sea, where the little Maine town of Norridgewock now stands. It had a population of several hundred Indians ; and here Father Rasles, their Jesuit missionary, had erected a handsome church, and trained forty choir boys to assist in its services, to attend which came the Abenaki from far and near.* Two other Jesuit missionaries ministered also to the Abenaki : one at Lorette, eight miles from Quebec, where a remnant of this tribe still exists ; and the other many leagues away on the Penobscot river. But Kasles residing nearer to the English settlements, and from one cause or another being frequently brought into contact with them, became a special object of dislike to the New England people ; and was held personally responsible for much of the trouble tliat arose, from time to time, with the Abenaki. But for him, they asserted, they could win the hostile savages over to their side ; and in this respect they were right. The same inexorable fate which threatened the tribes of the west, was also actively operating against the Abenaki. After the Treaty of Utrecht had come into force, and danger was no longer to be apprehended from the French, the New England backwoods- men pushed their settlements farther and farther into the forest wilderness, until at length the Abenaki became seriously alarmed at seeing their hunting grounds encroached upon along the whole frontier line. Their remonstrances produced the answer that the French had given the country to the English. The Abenaki sent a deputation to Quebec to ask 'Govei-nor Vaudreuil if this were true, and were told that the Treaty of Ut*" 't did not cover their ter- ritory. Then other troubles arose. Fou stages of their tribe were seized and taken to Boston, to be held as p^nsoners there until some settlers' cattle, alleged to have been killed by them, were paid for. The Abenaki paid the price demanded, two hundred pounds of beaver skins, but the hostages were not relef ,sed. Then, again, their great chief. Baron St. Castine, was captured by a ruse, and 'inprisoned at Boston ; and no reply had been rec jived to their demands that tiie recent white settlers should depart from their territory. And to make matters still worse, two hundred New Englf>nd militia, under Colonel Westbrook, penetrated through the forest to Nanrantsouak, in the last days of January, with the view 1722. of capturing Rasles. But he managed to escape into the wooils, and so eluded his would-be captors, who only retired from ' ii » ^ '. f-.l .•.. j.,| * Vide Rasles' letter to his nephew, Oct. I5th, 1722. f . 110 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. ■• *■ I if' |"1722. the village after they had pillaged his church and his dwelling. — The Abenaki now prepared for war, and presently commenced hostilities by capturing several small vessels lying at the mouth of the Kennebec, burning the dwellings of the recent settlers on theii- lands, and taking five prisoners to hold as hostages for the safety of their friends at Boston. The New Englanders retaliated by attacking, on a coast island, a party of sixteen Abenaki, and eithei' killing or wounding half their number. The war soon came to be a bitter one at both sides, and was waged with varying fortunes. The New England people, enraged by the remembrance of tlie butchery of their friends during Queen Anne's war, pressed hostil- ities against the Abenaki with the utmost vigour, and offered four hundred dollars for every Indian scalp, and four thousand 1723. dollars for the capture of Rasles. The Abenaki retaliated by burning the to /n of Brunswick, and desolating tlie entire frontier ; and were in turn hunted down like wolves, and had their villages destroyed. In the month of August a New England ex^^edition, consisting of 220 men, under the command of Major Moulton, ascend- 1724. ed to Nanrantsouak, which they completely surprised, and the Indians had to fly for their lives with a loss of thirty killed and a number wounded. Moulton gave orders that Rasles should be made a prisoner, and in no way injured. Father Chasse, the Jesuit superior at Quebec, speaking from hearsay only, states that the missionary was shot dead at the foot of a large cross he had erected in the centre of the village.* On the other hand the New England historian, Hutcheson, on the authority of information gathered from persons who were in the action, gives quite a differ- ent version of the affair. He states that Rasles shut himself up in his dwelling, from which he tired upon the attacking party, one of whom he wounded. This so enraged a lieutenant, named Jacques, that he burst in the door and shot him dead. Having set fire to the village, burned down the church, and ac- complished otherwise all the injury possible, Moulton, fearing u general Indian attack, hastily retired. On the following day the Abenaki returned to their ruined village to find the body of Rasles cruelly scalped and mutilated, and buried it reverently where the church altar had stood. In 1833, one hundred and nine years afterwards, an acre of land, on which was the site of Rasles' dwelling, was purchased by the Jesuits of New England, and a granite monument, surmounted by an iron cross, erected to his memory. The foundation stone was laid, with imposing religious ceremonies, on the anniversary of his death, or, as his eulogists will have it, his martyrdom. But one point relating to Rasles is pei*- fectly clear, and that is, he was not by any means a peacemaker. — Even his own narrative, as embodied in his letters to his friends, does not claim that he did anything to hinder the war which cost Vide Chaasfl's letter, Quebec, 29th Oct., 1724. THE 1725.] NEW ENGLAND WANTS PEACE. Ill him his life. The Abenaki were his crusaders. He shrived them tor the battle field, and then sent them forth, wi ^ing, to tight for their country and their creed.* New England was the first to sue for peace ; and Colonel Schuyler and three other deputies proceeded to Montreal to meet the Abenaki chiefs, and ascertain what could be done towards ter- 1725. minating hostilities. The conference took place in the presence of Vaudreuil, to whom the delegates complained of the support given by Canada, in time of peace, to the Abenaki, and demanded the release of the English prisoners held within its borders. The Abenaki, on the other hand, secretly urged on by Vaudreuil, made demands to remain masters in the wide stretch of country between Saco and Port Royal, and, also, that the killing of Pere Rasles, and the damage inflicted on them during the war, should be compensat- k1 for by presents. These conditions were rejected, and hostilities resumed. But, worn out with fighting and hardship, the Abenaki eventually tired of a war which brought them no benefit. Two years later a peace was concluded at Kaskeba, 1727. without French intervention, which gave New England the land up to the Kennebec, and left the Abena^ki masters beyond that river. The news of this peace a good deal disturbed Maurepas, now French minister of marine, as it increased the risk of Canada in the event of a future war with England. The conditions of the treaty appear to have been fairly well observed on both sides. — There were no more Abenaki raids on the borders, and peace at last reigned along the northern frontier of lacerated and bleeding New England. On the 10th of October, 1725, the Marquis de Vaudreuil closed his useful career. The sorrow manifested by the people for this event, was proportionate to the satisfaction they had 1725. displayed when he was first appointed Governor. For the long period of one-ai^d-twenty years had he discharged his import- ant duties vrith great loyalty, ability, and courage. His vigilance, firmness, and good conduct, had preserved Canada to France through a disastrous war, and he went to rest from his labours with the blessings and regrets of a grateful people, who had enjoyec. all the peace and prosperity possible under his rule. .'. * ' .- A ■ « . , ' I , •'• 1 < • .' .'I 14 . i-.. ' ; f I l| THE GOVERNMENT OP THE MARQUIS DE BEAUHARNOIS. When the death of Vaudreuil became kno^'Ti in France, the Marquis de Beauharnois, a natural son of Louis XIV., received the appointment of governor. He arrived in Canada early in May, and was almost immediately engaged in a warm 1726. controversy with Governor Burnet, of New York, relative to a fort and trading establishment which the latter was construct- ing at Oswego, with the view of diverting still more of the Indian * Vide Rasles' letter to his brother, Oct. 12th, 1723. •». "' '' 'I i 11^ THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1720, V ' ■a " Mi ■■■'> II V trade from the St. Lawrence route. To prevent this result, the Governoi- despatched M. de Longueil to the Onondagas to ask ppi-. mission to erect a store-house and fort at Niagara. The persuasi(»iis of their Jesuit missionaries readily induced them to give a favourable reply, and the French promptly applied themselves to profit by the privilege. Burnet, on the other hand, persuaded the Senecas u> hinder the proceedings of the French, and this tribe at once sent ;i messenger to Niagara to require them immediately to desist, as the country where they were belonged to them and not to tlie Onondii- gas. Regardless of this demand the works were pushed forwaid. Joncaire's great influence with the Senecas prevented their demo- lition, and Anally reconciled them t(» French occupatitm of tluMi- territory. Burnet finding himself unable to dispossess the French at Niagara, strengthened the fort at Oswego, which so enraged B'iauharnois, that in the month of July he sent a written summons to th(! officer in connnand there to abandon it 'vithin fifteen days. He wrote to Burnet, six days afterwards, remonstrating with him on the erection of this fort as being contrary tt) the Ti-eaty of Utretlit, which provided that the boundary lines of the British and Frencli colonies sliould be settled by commissioners, and claiming the land on either side of Lake Ontario as l>elonging to his nation. The English governor replied in a polite but resolute manner, conjplete- ly refuted his arguments, and presented counter- remonstrances against the proceedings at Niagara. Beauharnois retorted by a fresh summons to the officer commanding at Oswego, and anotlier message to Burnet, stating that hostile measures would be adopted if the fort were not abandoned and destroyed. The lattei" upon this threat coolly reinforced the garrison, to secure it in the event of attack ; and so the matter terminated for the time. Louis X\'. approved of the action of Beauharnois, and ordered that a stone fort should be built at Frc)nteriac. At the same time he gave his sanction to the liijuor traffic with the Indians, each trader to pay 250 livres for his license. Aliens were prohibited from settling in Canada under any pretence, and several English residents of Mon- treal were compelled to leave at two days' notice. Four years elapsed yet the Union Jack, at the Oswego fort, still floated on the bracing breezes of the lake. Beauharnois had 1731. not carried out his threat of attack, but in order to repress the growins energies of the British colonies, he now resoKed on the erection of a fort at Crown Point, on Lake Champlam.— Sliould a war again occur he saw clearly that a military post there would place the French troops in such close proximity to the frontier settlements on the Hudson and Connecticut rivers, that great injury could be easily inflicted on them. At the same time it was an important step towards carrying out the plan, already conceived, of restricting the British colonies to the sea-board. The government of Massachusetts speedily became alarmed.— Belcher, who was now at its head, sent a letter to Vandain, 1732.] CROWN POINT FORT 113 1732. the governor of New York, oflfering to bear one-half the ex- pense of an embassy t^ Canada to forbid the construction of tiiis fort, and pressing nim to engage the opposition of the Troquois, HOW beginning to be known as the '* Six Nations." Vandam laid the letter before his council ; but a long peace had blunted its vigi- lance ; no action was taken thereon, and the French retained peaceable possession of Crown Point. Snjoying profound repose, year after year now passed over the Colony without producing scarcely a single event of importance. The laws ol France, with trifling modifications by royal decrees, were the laws of C;mada ; which, unlike the Canada of the present day, was never disturbed by the quarrels of a local Parliament. — The torpid repose, which it gained in this way, repressed the ener- gies of its inhabitants, and perpetuated their natural easy and indolent manners, which over a century of British freedom has not sufficed to remove. An old writer^ on Canada fills up the historical blank that now intervenes, by detailing how the nuns of the General Hospi- tal of Quebec began to adopt the lax manners 6f the Colony, 1 733. and mix in society contrary to their vows ; and how Cardinal Fleury reproved them therefor, and compelled them to pursue a more decorous behaviour. There was, then, the difficulty about the fiishop's palace, which these nuns claimed as their pro- perty ; but royalty discountenanced their pretensions, and 1736. they had to succumb. Meanwhile, Beauharnois diligently applied himself to forward the interests of the Colony, which now made rapid strides, in proportion to its former progress, in popula- titii and wealth. Cultivated farms gradually appeared along the St. Lawrence from Quebec to Montreal, as well as upon the banks of several of its tributary streams. The absence of roads prevent- ed settlement in the interior, and water was accordingly the only highway of the fanner. This led to the system, the evils of which is stiil felt in the Province of Quebec, of cutting up the farms into long narrow strips, having from one to three acres' frontage on the rivers, and extending inland from forty to eighty acres. The Canadians during this prolonged interval of peace, . appear to have entirely overcome the enmity against them, so long trea- sured up by a few of the principal tribes. Their pliant and courteous manners ; their cheerful disposition ; their frequent intermarriages with the natives ; and, in many instances, their actual adoption of the wild and stirring life of the Indian, render- ed them far better fitted to secure his* confidence than the staid British colonist. A very favourable change took place, also, as regarded the fur-trade, in which the British merchants had so long had the advantage. The French government adopted a more liberal and equitable system of Indian traffic, which was now re- leased in a great measure from the licensed monopolies, which had * William Smith, a Master in Chancery after the Conquest, • |. » <« > 'V • i I . lU THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1736. hitlierto so injuriously affected it. A large annual fair was opened at Montreal, to which the Indians were invited to resort, and whither many of them came to dispose of their furs in preference to going to Albany. The French traders also penetrated in eveiy direction, and posts were fom 3d at the head waters of the Missouri, on Lake Winnipeg, and r loo where ; and the Rocky Mountains were reached in 1743. Still, the progress of Canada was far inferior to that of its self- governed Anglo-Saxon neighbours. This was owing to a variety of c:jtu!,ies, among the chief of which may be reckoned the absence of local legislation, the seignorial tenure and tithe systems, the want of schools, the gay and indolent habits of the people themselves, their numerous religious festivals, and the equal partition of lands among the children of deceased parents, without regard to primo- geniture. Not only were the lands of the seigniors divided in this w^ay, but also the farms of their tenants, which were usually barely large enough for the support of a single family. This system, which did not even permit of alteration by will, proved a most eflfectual bar to the clearing of wild lands. The children, contented and indo- lent as their parents, instead of going forth to provide for themselves in new districts, settled down on the paternal 1744. farms, which were divided and subdivided amongst them to no end. The king sought to correct these abuses, by direct- ing the Bishop of Quebec to suppress a number of holidays, which, instead of being religiously observed, only led to drunkenness and disorder, and by issuing, an edict preventing in future the erection of dwelling-houses on ti-acts less than one and a-half acres 1745.* in front by forty in depth, I'lider the penalty of one hun'^red livrec, and the demolition jf the buildings, f Other causes which seriously militated against the greater progress of Canada, at this period, were found in the lax morals of its better classes, and in its official corruption. Low as the standard of morality had been at the French court during the reign of Louis XIV., it was a model of propriety when compared with the state of things which set in there during the minority of his successor. The vices of the regent, the Duke of Orleans, soon reacted on the king ; and Louis XV. while still a young man be- came notorious for his gross sensuality, his selfishness, and his baseness. At twenty-three he surrounded himself with r^he vilest society, soon separated from his young queen, and lived, as he con- tinued to do until the end of his life, in the most extreme and shameless debauchery. It \#as only natural to expect that the vices and the infidelity of the French court should extend their blighting influence to Canada, and find their reflex, to a greater or * During the preceding twenty-Bve years the Colony had increased from twenty-two to fifty thousand souls, and the value of its exports had grown to nearly two and three quarter million francs. t Smith's Ifiat. C^q, yol. i. pp IG9-2 < > i » J. ■ .' * ^ • ..1. • "I 1 \ t • ; • » • . :i ■ .:■'•,]■ • ■■•! « 118 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1746. « ■' It a 1! ,-r The news of the capture of Louisburg created not a little annoy- ance at the French court, which for the moment vented its 1746. spleen by the recall of Beauharnois, and the appointment of his successor in the Admiranjsi Jonquiere, an old man of sixty years of age. Orders, at the same time, were given for the equipment of an extensive armament to recapture Louisburg, and lay waste the British colonies. This fleet, consisting of eleven ships of the line and thirty smaller vessels, was ready for sea by the beginning of May ; but contrary winds detained it in the harbour of Rochelle till the 22nd of .June, when it sailed for Nova 8cotia. It was expected that the French inhabitants of that pro- vince, now amounting to 14,000, would declare for the expedition on its arrival, which De Ramsay, with 700 Canadians from Quebec, anxiously awaited on its boi'ders. The fleet was, however, but a short time at sea when it was sep- arated by storms, and only a few of the ships arrived together at Chebucco harbour, which had been appointed as the ren- dezvous. Here, on the 16th of September, four days after his arrival, the Admiral of the fleet, the Duke de Anville, died of apoplexy. A council of war was now called, at which the Vice- Admiral proposed returning to France, as only seven ships remain- ed, and the gi-eater part of the troops were on board the missing vessels. . Governor La Jonquiere, who was with the fleet, on his way to Canada, opposed this course, and proposed an attack on Annapolis, to which the majority of the council agreed. The Vice- Admiral, whose health was already failing, was so disturbed by tlu; determination of the council that he was thrown into a fever attended with delirium, and ran himself through with his sword.— Irfi Jonquiere succeeded to the command, and sailed out to attack Annapolis ; but a violent storm separating his ships, he was com- 'lelled to return to Francev These disasters did not, however, discouiage the French court, and a fresh armament was directed to be ecjuipped for the 1747. attack of the British colonies, the command of which was intrusted to La Jonquiere. With this fleet sailed another from Bresti, which was to act against the British settlements in India. The English ministry, apprised of these measures, despatch- ed Admirals Anson and Warren to intercept both fleets. This they eftectually accomplished off Cape Finisterre, on the Galician coast, where they captured all the (Miemy's line-of-battle ships, and nine of the convoy. A considerable quantity of bullion fell into the hands t)f the victors, and the gratitude of their sovereign raised Anson to the peei-agC) and decorated Warren with the ribbon of the Bath. — As Admiral La Jonquiere was among the numerous captives who graced the victory of the British fleet, the Count de la Galissonierc was appointed Governor of Canada until his e^tchange could be effected. Meanwhile a bitter frontier war continued to be waged. The force from Quebec, under Ramsay, disembarked at Beaubassin, in .•T 1747.J A NEW BORDER WAR. 119 the Bay of Fundy, and was heartily welcomed by the Acadians. A despatch from the Duke de Anville led Ramsay to invest Anna- polis, but the news of the disasters to the French fleet caused him to retire to Beaubassin, where he took up his winter quarters. — Shirley sent a force of 500 militia to hold him in check, and hinder the Acadians from joining him, which took post at Grand Pre, on the opposite side of the bay. In the following February Ramsay sur- prised the New England men in their camp ; and either killed or captured their ent'ro force. Beginning with the autumn of 174.^, the Canadians and their Indian allies, in twenty-seven successive raids, cruelly ravaged the frontiers of New England and New York. Rigaud captured Fort Massachu-setts, and devastated the country for fifty miles beyond. St. Luc won an iraportant victory at Clinton ; Saratoga was captured and its people massacred ; and the frontier line from New England to Albany was entirely aban- doned by its inhabitants, who had to flee for their lives to the larger settlements in the interior. Meanwhile Europe had grown weary of the bloody struggle, and n(!gotiation8 for peace were opened in the autumn of 1748, at Aix- la-Chapelle. They were unusually tedious ; but the treaty was nt last signed on the 7th of October. The chief parties to it were Great Britain, Holland and Austria, on one hand ; and France and Spain, on the other. All the preceding great treaties, from that of Westphalia in 1648, to the treaty of Vienna in 1738, were renewed find confirmed. In accordance with its stipulations all , territory (iaptured by the British and French during the wa^ was surrender- ed. To the disgust of the New Englanders Cape Breton again became French territory, and their fisheries and border settlements, on the coast, were now as unprotected as ever. France had suffer- (m1 severely, however, in the contest. Her land forces were greatly weakened, her fleets destroyed, and her finances reduced to a most unsatisfactory state. The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was merely a t ruce, and especially so as regarded North America, where hostil- ities only ceased for a brief space. » i. « I :•:•:•■■ .1- ■| n • ( . i .■ -vi. f •.. r • ^- > 1 .+ CHAPTER VI THE GOVERNMENT OF THE COUNT DE LA GALISSONIERE. x, " "^TATURE denied to Count de la Galissoniere a commanding -i-^ stature, or a handsome person, but in lieu of these it had given him abilities of a high order. No sooner had he establish- ed himself in his government, than his active mind led him 1747. to acquire a just knowledge of the climate of the Colony — of its population, its agriculture, and its commerce. He quickly perceived the advantages France must derive from the continued possession and extension of Canada, and proposed the adoption of a system, which, if properly carried out, must have prevented for many years, at all events, its conquest by the British. He urged the French court to send out a good engineer to construct fortifications from Detroit to the Mississippi, and to colonise the west with ten thousand of the peasantry of France. This course would have effectually restricted the British colonies to the sea- board eastward of the Alleghany mountains. Its partial adoption only awakened their jealousy, and paved the way for the conquest of Canada. Galissoniere judging that a peace would soon be established, and sensible of the importance, in the meantime, of giving well-defined boundaries *^^o Canada, with the view to prevent future disputes and support the pretensions of France, despatched an intelligent officer, and a force of three hundred men, to take possession of the vabt country west of the Alleghany Mountains, which he desired to establish as the boundary of the Anglo-American plantations, and beyond which he denied their having just claims. This officer was also directed to use his influence with the western Indian allies of the French to induce them to accompany him, in order to give a colour of justice, so far as they were concerned, to his conduct ; and further, to get them to promise, if possible, not to admit any English traders in future into their country. Leaden plates, on which the arms of France were stamped, were ordered to be buried at diflferent points, as evidence that the district had been duly taken possession of, while notarial documents were to be drawn up ••if' 1747.] THE AOADIANS. 121 ♦ I. on each occasion, to record, beyond dispute, the priority of French sovereignty. The count sent a letter to Hamilton, the governor of Pennsylvania, apprising him of these measures, and requesting him in future tojprevent his people from passing beyond the Alleghanies, as he had received orders from his government to seize any British merchants found trading in a region incontestably belonging to France, and to confiscate their goods. The Treaty of Utrecht confirmed Acadia, or Nova Scotia, to Great Britain ; and, as it was supposed at the time, New Bruns- wick and part of the present State of Maine as well ; an interpre- tation, however, to which France, on second thought, demurred, and thus laid the foundation for a serious boundary dispute. That treaty, also, provided that such of the French inhabitants as were c'.airous to remain in the country were to be allowed the free ex- drcise of their religion ; and that those who wished to leave it within a year, should be permitted to carry their personal property with them. At the end of that term, all those who had decided to remain must take the oath of allegiance to the British crown. The Acadians, who had made a pleasant country for themselves, especi- ally along the Bay of Fundy, and the wilderness to blossom as the rose, declined, as a rule, to leave their homes ; and, if left to them- selves, would have made good and honest subjects of their new sovereign. But the French authorities were most desirous to prevent this result, with the view of ulterior advantages in the event of another war with England ; and found willing agents to further their plans in the priests, mostly Jesuits, sent down to the Acadiaps from Quebec. These priests soon filled the minds of their flocks, who were alike simple and ignorant, with bitterness and disaffection ; aud thus made them unwilling to take the oath of allegiance, without qualifications which in reality rendered it worthless. The British authorities at Annapolis, as well as the Hone Government, were extremely anxious to treat the Acadians with every indulgence, although holding them in some nieasure responsible for the repeated attacks, which had been made on the recent English settlements by the Micmac and Abenaki Indians, urged on by French political agents. After the long period of seventeen years had elapsed the Acadians were, with much diffi- culty, at last induced to sign an oath recognising George II. as their sovereign, and promising him fidelity and obedience. But they were even then as illiterate as they were simple, and as few of them could write they affixed their crosses to the affidavit of allegiance. But despite this pledge of fealty, many of the Acadians still remained French at heart, hated the heretic English, as they had been taught to do by their priests ; and when the war of 1 745 broke out, these malcontents either openly took up arms against their sovereign, or actively aided the enemy with information and supplies. Still, as a large part of the Acadians had remaippd neutral during that war, they were not, as a community, subjected to any punishment, and were left in undisturbed possession of their M 1 . ' ;' h it I .'>:; J • «n *' 122 THE HISTORY OF CANAi:)A. [1748. farms. In 1748 they numbered in all nearly thirteen thousand souls, divided into six parishes, of which Annap(»lis was the i^Tgest and most important. Their priests were wholly under the control of the French Bishop of Quebec, and were, nevertheless, generous- ly permitted by the British authorities to assume the magisterial as well as the spiritual function — ^^^o rule their flocks for this world as well as the hextl When it is recollected that, at this time, the British population in all Nova Scotia only embraced the garrisons of Annapolis and some seven small detached posts, with a few settlers and traders, and scarcely numbering twelve hundred souls all told, the great difficulty of their position will be best understood. They had, on the one hand, to watch the Acadians, largely tainted with disaffec- tion, and, on the other, to keep the pro'vling bands of hostile savages, I'eady to rob and ev^en murder at evory opportunity, at bay. Sue) . was the unsatisfactory condition of affairs in Nova Scotia when Galissoniere, disappointed in procuri'.ig an extensive 1748. emigration from France (ionceived the design of withdraAv- ing the Acadiaus from n^der British rule, and forming then into a new colony on the ir,tbn\as conuectii./ Nova Scotia with New Brunswick. Knowing the at^f<.chment of many of these people to their priests, he considered the latter the proper in&cruments to effect his object, and readily induced Le Loutre, the Bishop of < Quebec's vicar general of Acadia, and several others, to persuade them to quit Britij.h territory. The Governor had soon the satis- faction of learning the success of his plans. Appealing to them as Frenchmen and Catholics, Le Loutre speedily induced several families to quit their Acadian homes, and join a settlement near the Bay Verte,, which his zeal had already established. He found a willing assistant ir^ Bigct, the 14th and last intendant of Canada, who this year came out from France. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle restored Louisburg to Franoe, which speedily commenced preparations to make it stronger .'.nd more formidable than ever. The British government accordingly determined to secure its position in Nova Scotia, by creating, 1749. on its southern coast, at Chebucto, a strong military station ; and thither, in the month of June, came a fleet of transports, laden with immigrants represening various irdustrial classes, uul not a few half -pay officers and discharged soldiers ; all alike Lempt- ed by offers of free land and a home of their own in the Nev World. Including women and children they counted in all some twenty-five hundred souls, In the same fleet, also, came out Colonel Edward Cornwallis, a brave and prudent young officer, who had been appointed governor iind commander-in-chief of Nova Scotia. Under his directions the wcrk of settlement was commenced in the moso vigorous manner. Before sunmier had ended the streets of the new Halif ; x, looking forth on one of tlie finest harbours in the world, were laid out, and the building lots 1749.] SETTLEMENT OF HALIFAX. 123 « )• surveyed and assigned to their owners ; and when winter set in the inhabitants were all under comfortable though rude shelter. — The little town was securely protected by stout wooden palisades and redoubts, with the troops withdrawn from Louisburg, on its surrender, to garrison the works. France regarded with a jealous eye this new and formidable British station, founded so rapidly and successfully ; but Galis- soniere vainly hoped that the colony of Acadian i-efugees he was funning would lessen the danger of its neighbourhood. He laid his plans before the French ministry, who warmly indorsed them, ami readily responded to his demand for a fund to enable him to carry them out, by an annual grant of eight hundred thousand livres. But while busily engaged in the execution of these schemes, the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle had restored La Jonquiere to liberty, when, by virtue of his commission, he proceeded to Canada to take possession of its government. Before Galissoniere sailed for France he furnished his successoi" with thvi fullest infor- • ..ition respecting the Colony, and minutely detailed the plans wliich he conceived to be most beneficial for its advancement and prosperity. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE MAKIiULS DE LA JONQUIERE. La Joncjuiere did not pursue the course adopted by his predeces- sor, in reference to the Acadians, as he considered it would most conduce to the benefit of the Colony to avoid any act which might lead to a new war. He supposed, too, that the limits of Nova Scotia, left unsettled by the recent peace, jvnd still a source of gi-ave dispute, would be duly arranged by the commissioners to be appointed for Vhat purpose. This moderate course ought to hnve met with general approval ; yet so little was it relished by the ministers of Louis, that the Governor was reprimanded for not cairying out the plans of his predecessor, which he was now direct- ed to pursue forthwith, In addition, he was instructed to take immediate possession of the Acadian isthmus with a sufficient body of troops, to build forts at the most favourable points, and to give every a.ssistar:ce to the Abbe Le Loutre in winning o\,;r the -Vcadians, and inducing them to again place themselves and their fortunes under the French flag. Coi'nwallis sjiw clearly the adverse direction that matters were ;iow assuming, as regarded the Acadians, and that prompt measuues wei-e necessary to preserve oheni in their allegiHnce. Nearly twenty-two years had elapsed since they had sworn fealty to the British Crown, and, in the meantime, a new genei-ation had grown up to manhood, and in many cases had even reached to middle a<;e, .vho had assumed no legal citizen responsibility, and who had learned to regard the authorities with such scant respect, that they i'efused to pay their moderate grain rents, or to take titles for the ! ' • .«* ! .'l » ^■■.^ ■.i .1 124 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. additional lands, which, from time to time, they saw fit to occupy. Coriiwaliis accordingly determined that a new state of things should now be inaugurated ; ard. on the 10th of August, issued an order to the effect, that if the Acadians remained faithful subjects of Great Britain they would still be guaranteed the free exercise of their religion. Their priests, before exercising their functions, must swear fidelity to the crown. The Acadians would have to pledge themselves, the order continued, to defend their homes, their lands, and the government ; and take the oath of allegiance before officers to be sent to them for that purpose. The response to this order was a document, signed with the marks of over a thousand persons, stating that they would not accept the required oath, unless themselves and their heirs were exempted from taking up arms either against the French or the Indians. La Jonquiere promptly apprised the French government of this condition of matters, and declared that every effort wotild now be made by him to carry out his instructions, to get the Acadians out of the hands of the English, and to disgust and tire out the latter by constant Indian attacks, secretly directed so as not to com- promise himself or his officers in any way. Bigot also wrote to the French minister, telling how effectually Le Loutre was using the Micmacs of his missionary charge in harassing the new settlement at Halifax ; and tha.t he, himself, was sending these Indians powder, lead and presents, " to conHnu them in their good designs."* And the French minister in response writes to Desherbiers, commanding at Louisburg, that his master, the king, was well satisfied with what had been done, and urging him to do all tlie secret mischief possible to the English ; but, at the same time, " to treat their au- thorities with the greatest politeness." But the most active and unscrupulous of all the secret foes of the British, at this period, was the Jesuit father, Le Loutre, a man full of a boundless egotism, and an insatiiihje ambition to dominate over his fellow men. His fanaticism stopped at nothing. With him " the end justified the means," in the most extreme sense ; and to crown all he bitterly hated the English. Ho ruled the Acadians with a rod of iron ; and this simple and superstitious people, be- lieving he held the keys of heaven and hell in his hand, and that opposition to him could only peril their souls, trembled before him. At the same time, his position as the bishop's vicar general, inde- pendent of his great influence with the French minister, enabled him to effectually bully the parish priests into adopting his methods ; while the alternative of removal, should they refuse to carry them out, was used as as an additional lever to compel their obedience. Not content with exercising a spirit''.al tyranny, of the most exacting kind, over the unfortunate Acadians, and even threaten- ing, at times, to consign them to perdition by refusing them the sacraments of their faith, Le Loutre terrified them into obedience, * Farkman's, Montcalm and Wolf vol. i. p. 100. THE JESUIT LE LOUTRE. 125 from a temporal stand-point, by declaring that he would 8ef.t his laclians (whom he held like bloodhounds in a leash) upon them, to burn and murder, should they refuse submission to his will. No wonder that with all these sinister influences, operating against them and upon them, the Acadians refused to take the oath of allegiance, that they became largely tainted with disloyalty;, that they presently flocked in crowds to place themselves under the French flag, and that, disguised as Indians, at the instigation of La Joiiq'iiere and his subordinates, they frequently led bands of savages to murder, and burn, and plunder, in the English settle- ments. Coniwallis soon discovered that it was the clergy who chiefly stirred up their flocks to revolt, and to refuse the oath of allegiance. " Was it you," he angrily wrote the Bishop of Quebec, " who sent Le Loutre as a missionary to the Micmacs, and is it for their good that he excites these wretches to practise cruelty against those who have shown them every kindness. The conduct of the priests of Acadia has been such, that by command of his majesty I have published an order, declaring that if any of them presumes to exercise his functions without my express permission, he shall be dealt with according to the laws of England."* To remedy the disorder caused by the French priests in Acadia, the idea was now conceived of replacing them by others to be named by the Pope, at the request of the British government, which greatly alarmed Le Loutre and his friends. Such was the unsettled state of affairs on the Canadian seaboard, when La Tonquiere, in pursuance of the orders from his govern- ment, (lespirtched the Chevalier de la Come to Acadia to choose a site for a fon . He fixed on Chedia^c as being advantageously situat- ed for receivi ig supplies from Canada, as well as from France. — The Goven r and Le Loutre, however, disapproved of this location as being too distant from the Acadian settlements ; and it was resolved to erect one fort near the mouth of the St. John, and .mother on the north side of the Messagouche, opposite the village of Chignecto, now called Fort Lawrence. Cornwallis had already made repeated remonstrances, to the Canadian Governor, respecting the course pursued by Le Loutre towards the Acadians, and the occupation of the isthmus, to which very little attention was paid. Believing that the boundaries would be amicably defined, he was loath to proceed to extremit' and the abbe had accordingly been allowed to pursue his insi^A'\.s course without interruption. No sooner, however, had La Come appeared on the isthmus with a force of 1,100 French and Indians, and avowed his intention of erecting a fort on the Messagouche, than Cornwallis resolutely determined to maintain the boundaries of Nova Scotia intact. The French, at the beginning of winter, had occupied the village of Chignecto, and compelled the inhabi- tants to take the oath of allegiance to their king, but still nothing * Cornwallis to Bishop of Quebec, Dec. Ist, 1749, 'V^ « I. M ■ r:i ■ ■ t. . . ,.l »'.i • ril ♦ . »■ • . I t » • >l *' I't ':* ; 126 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. flT.-iU. These aniveil off the April. I^i Corne had river, aiter inducing threats and promises, could be done towards expelling them till spring. Cornwallis was not idle in the interval. The Home Government was duly 1 750. advised of what had occurred, and he solicited Massachusetts for aid to expel the intruders, but met with an unfavouriiljlc answer. Thrown upon his own resources, he could only muster four hundred men to check French aggression on liis government. — Messagouche on the evening of the 2Utli already withdrawn to the north side of the as many as possible of the Acadians, by to accompany him. Still, .several of the inhabitants of Chignecto clung to tlieir homes, and refused to leave their fertile farms. The French officer, the man of blood, pitied and allowed them to remain. Not so with the Abbe Le Loutre.- No sooner had the British appeared in the oftiug, than with his own hands he sacrilegiously applied the torch to the village cluiicli, and the flames rapidly spreading from liouse to house with the aid of his fellow-incendiaries, the homeless and desponding people had no alternative but to proceed to the French camp ; and thus by one artifice or another, some four thousimd of the Acadians were led t(( place themselves under the French flag, and suffered no small hardship, and in some cases the greatest misery, in consequence.* Major Lawrence, who commanded the force from Halifax, had an interview as speedily as possible with La Corne, and found him resolutely res ived to retain possession of every post, north of the Messagouche, until the boundaries of the two countries should i)e arranged by commissioners. The French } Id a strong position; the small British force was far too weak to aislodge them ; so Law- rence had no course open but to return. From Halifax news soon spread that the French held possession of British soil, that they had burned a British town, and had incited the Acadians to acts of treason. The New England colonies heard the news with little emotion, but in England it awoke some angry feeling, and the Earl of Halifax eflectually insisted that Cornwallis should receive aid. In August a second expedition let't Halifax to retake Chignecto. Le Loutre exerted his influence with the Indians and the Acadian refugees to oppose its landing, and La Corne covertly supplied theiu with arms and ammunition. Strongly intrenched they swept the beach with a steady fire as the British landed, and six of the latter killed and twelve wounded, proved, although few in number, how resolutely they fought. The French had erected forts at the Bay Verte, at St. John's River, and at Beau-Sejour. At the latter fort was La Corne's head-quarters, and here he had a fresh interview with Lawrence. " My orders," said the French officer, " do not permit of my crossing the river, and there is plenty of room at the otlier side for you." The English officer took the hint, and Fort • Smith's Hist. Can. vol. i. p. 214. Bancroft's Hist, U. S. (Lo'. ) vol, iii. p. 48. 1750.] BEFORE THE WAR. 127 opposite bank of the Messagouche, both in peaceable possession of their- respt'ctive Lawrence arose on the commanders remaining posts till the next war. But these were not the only events which bred bad blood between the British and French in this part of the world. An armed sloop was despatched from Quebec to St. John's River, with stores fop the garrison there, the captain of which was ordered to avoid all British vessels, but if attacked to defend himself to the last ex- tremity. Rouse, in the Albany, encountered the French vessel off Cape Sable, captured her after a short action, and took her into Halifax, where she was condemned by the admiralty court, on the ground that she was taking supplies to an unlawful military post. French anger knew no bounds at this indignity, and the small cloud of war, already rising on the horizon, began to expand. In the far west occurrences were also transpiring which threaten- ed the renewal of hostilities. Despite the claims so posit- ively asserted by Galissoniere, with respect to French 1751. sovereignty beyond the Alleghanies, the governors of the British colonies continued to gmnt permission to their merchants to trade with the Indians of the Ohio. This trade La Jonquiere was instructed to interrupt as far as possible, and he accoi-dingly had three of these merchants seized, and brought prisoners to Mon- treal, whither also their goods were forwarded. They were examined by a commissioner, and closely questioned as to their commerce with the western Indians, when they were discharged. This high-handed exercise of authority created considerable sur- prise and indignation among the British colonists, and was looked upon by them as being still more hostile, from the fact that com- missioners had already been appointed by the French and English governments to settle the boundary disputes. But these function- aries had scarcely commenced their duties at Paris, when they perceived there was little prospect of an amicable arrangement of the questions at issue, and that the sword alone could decide them. The Canadian Governor saw clearly that if a new war occurred the principal struggle would be in America, and he promptly represent- ed to his government, that if it desired to retain the French possessions on the St. Lawrence, troops and warlike stores must be speedily sent out. Nor even with the limited means at liis com- mand, was Jonquiere entirely negligent of placing the defences of the Colony in a better position. A French schooner once more clave the waters of Ontario, and he endeavoured, so far as his insatiable avarice would permi, to have the forts at Frontenac, Toronto and Niagara keptr in repair. He endeavoured, also, to weaken the attachment of the Iroquois to the British ; and, through the Jesuit missionaries, always ready and eager to become political agents, tampered so successfully with the Mohawks, that it requir- ad all the influence of Sir William Johnson to prevent them from openly attaching ttiemselves to the French. In order to still more effectually weaken the influence of the • I. ' : .■ 'i ' • ..* A-:\ :' k I ■ * * 128 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1751. British authorities with the Oneida aud Onondaga tribes, it was now determined to erect a military post and a mission station on the south side of the St. Lawrence, some sixty miles below Fort Frontenac. Here the La Presentation, or the Oswegatchie as it is now called, flowed into the St. Law^rence ; ana a bold head- Ian i, at the junction of the two rivers, presented a most admirable site for a fort. The Oswegatchie had long been a favourite route for the Iroquois when descending from their 1 unting grounds amid the upper Adirondacks to the Lake of the Thousand Islands, and' to the country beyond it then, as now, remarkable for its beautiful lakelets, its teeming fishing grounds, and its game. A post, ac- cordingly, at its mouth would form a most convenient rende^ous for the central Iroquois tribes when passing to and from the valley of the St. Lawrence. At the same time, the situation could not be better for an agricultural settlement ; while abundance of oak and other large timber, r«ndered it a most favourable point for the construction of lake vessels and batteaux. There the tranquil current of i/he mighty St. Lawrence, over a mile in width, flowed gently by, to fret and foam in the rapids a league or so farther on. Westward, towards Fort Frontenac, the Lake of the Thousand Islands slumbered in the resplendent sunshine of a Canadian summer, and presented a primeval scene of marvellous natural beauty on which even the stolid Indian gazed with rapture. To the Abbe Picquet, a Sulpitian father, and the kings' missionary and prefect apostolic to Canada, was due the credit of selecting this admirable site for a new settlement. He was at heart almost as much a soldier as a monk ; and had been among the first to foresee the war with the English which began in 1744. By way of prepara- tion to meet its requirements, he had already organised a half military mission station, composed principally of Indian converts, at the Lake of the Two Mountains. He was thus in a position to give most important aid to his government, in planning, organ- ising and directing various successful military operations on the shores of Lakes George and Champlain. In 1749 he proposed tu Galissoniere to found a military post and mission station at the mouth of the Oswegatchie ; and supported his offer by such cogent reasons for its adoption as to strongly influence the Governor in its fpiour. The king eventually approved of the project ; and, in the month of May, Bouille, the minister of marine, gave La Jonquiere the necessary instructions for its being carried out. The Governor, the inv.endant, and the bishop left the arrangement of all the details, as well as their execution, to Picquet, who after procuring, from the engineer Lery, a plan of the fort and other buildings, proceeded, on the 4th of May, to the Oswegatchie, ac- companied by twenty-five Frenchmen and four Indians. He was soon visited by a number of Iroquois, to whom he explained his plans, of which they highly approved, and agreed to assist him in their execution as soon as they had procured their provisions. Picquet and his men toiled early and late ; and laboured so eflec- 1761.] FORT LA PRESENTATION. 129f tually, that by the 20th of October they had built a palicaded fort covered by a substantial redoubt, a bam, a stable and an oven ', and had also cleared a considerable quantity of land for fanning purposes. The abbe soon had the siitisfaction of seeing his settle- ment rapidly increase. It began, in 1749, with six heads of Iroquois families ; in the following year it had eighty-seven ; and three hundred and ninety-six in 1751. Two years afterwards it had become the most important Indian settlement in Canada ; and the villages which sheltered themselves under the guns of Fort La Presentation embraced a population of over three th'^URand souls, nearly all of whom were Iroquois. In the meantime the fort itself had been greatly strengthened, and now mounted eleven guns. — Such was the first settlement of Ogdensburg. From Fort La Presentation Picquet made excursions, in every direction, into the Iroquois country ; established the most friendly relations with the several tribes, and succeeded in turning a con- siderable amount of their trade down the St. Lawrence. He also visited the northern shore of Lake Ontario, and speaks, in his journal, of the considerable traffic which had grown up at Toronto, as it was even then called. But he complains bitterly of the greater cheapness of English goods when compared with those of French manufacture ; and how the Oswego silver bracelets, the product of Huguenot skill, which were sold to the Indians for two beaver skins, were weighed by the Iroquois, and found j ust as heavy as those offered at thb king's posts for ten, while the metal was purer. French brandy, he said, was preferred to the English article ; but that did not prevent the Indians from still trading largely at Oswego. So Picquet longed for the day when the English should be driven from their vantage ground there ; and it came to him at last. But while Jonquiere was thus careful to provide for the military protection of the Colony, he permitted the grossest abuses to exist in its civil administration. Like the first servants of the English East India Company, the principal officials came to Canada, at this period, to amass fortunes, if possible, and then return home to enjoy them. This they could never accomplish from their salaries ajone, which were ridiculously small, and justified in some measure the wholesale peculation so unblushingly practised. An extensive mercantile firm of the present day would pay larger salaries to its confidential assistants than were paid to the dignitsuries of Canada at this period. The Qovemor received for his services an annual stipend of some $1300 ; out of which he was expected to clothe and pay a guard of twenty-seven soldiers ; while the salaries of the whole civil .Hst did not amount to $20,000 por annum.* This publio parsimony p%ved the way for the grossest abust^."" La, Jonquiere, nim- self, being oi a narrow and excessively avaricious disposition, set the example of official peculation. He kept the nefarious traffic of supplying the Indians with brandy ahiiost wholly in his own handai * Heriot's Traveh in Can. p. 78. Smith's Hiat. Can. vol i. p. 219. ■A ' • J. ''-il ' •. .* r t » ^ .:-V|ii *4 r'*'-' j« 130 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1751. II ' > r I ■ III * and belonged to a company, consisting chiefly of the higher officials, which monopoli> )d nearly the entire trade of the Colony ; while Bigot, imitating che example of his superior, soon became rich by farming out the principal posts in the Indian country, and by still more questionable inethods. All the government officials at this time appear to have been ac- tuated by the same sordid motives, and we search in vain for puritv of public conduct, or honesty of intention. The corrupt morals ot the corrupt court of Louis tainted Canadian society to the core, and the condition of things generally offered the most fitting com- mentary on the evils of unrestrained power, and the blessings of popular constitutional liberty. The Jesuit Le Loutre even went so far, in his greedy thirst for gain, as to commit a cowardly murder to obtain the contract for supplying the post at St. John's river with provisions ; a service he subsequently performed in such a manner as to yield him an enormous percentage, while the supplies were far less than they should be, and of the most inferior quality.* La Jonquiere, while subserving his own interests, was not by any means unmindful of those of his blood relations ; and did not hesitate to use his position for their benefit as well as his own. — He caused several of his nephews to come out to Canada, in order- that they might enrich themselves under his protection ; and to one of them he gave a seigniory and a monopoly of the fur trade at theSault St. Marie, while the others were placed in profitable government posts. His grasping disposition, and his nepotism, made him many enemies in the Colony ; among whom were the Jesuits, and with them he presently had a bitter quarrel. Despite repeated royal commands to the contrary, that order still continued, although secretly and in other people's names, to carry on the fur trade ; on the principle, it may be supposed, that evil could be done that good might come. Their object being to make money for the furtherance of their order, and of religion, the end must justify the means ; and so under the name of some elderly maiden ladies, called Desauniers, they bought and sold furs at their Caughna- waga, or Sault St. Louis, mission. From thence, with the aid of their Iroquois converts, familiar with the trade and the road, they shipped, in considerable quantities, beaver skins to Albany, which had been, or were to be, sold to the English merchants there. La Jonquiere, on learning of this illicit traffic, which clashed with his own personal interests, reported the matter to the minister, with the result that a prohibitory royal order was issued, and in obedi- ence therei o he shut up the Desauniers fur concern. The Jesuits were furious, soon learned the true author of their new woes, and La Jonquiere was speedily made to feel the effects of their resent- ment. They forthwith denounced him to the Home Government ; accusing him of largely monopolising the fur trade of the north- west, and of tyrannising over the traders through his secretary, * Smith's Hist. Can., vol. i. p, 217. 1752.] DEATH OF LA JONQUIERE. 131 whom he also permitted to grant licenses to sell liquor to the Indians. They also charged him with giving the most lucrative posts in the Colony to his own relations and personal friends. At the samoi " " ' ' other 1 iime, they sent the minister the names of traders and en, who were prepared to prove the truth of all their 8. La Jonquiere was made aware of these charges, and n for his defence. His answer was a pompous enumera- s many public services, which he averred had been poorly and a demand for his recall. Short as his term of gov- had been, he had added to his already large fortune, from e alone, over a million francs. When too late he saw his in having meddled with the Jesuits, and I hat he had better im in the full and peaceable enjoyment of their illicit peltry Svith the Albany people. Their triumpt. over him was com- plete'; and he felt it keenly. Between the mortification, and the mental worry, he soon became dangerously ill ; and 1752. died at Quebec, on the 17th of May, in the the sixty-seventh year of his age, before the arrival of his successor. During his last illness his ruling passion of avarice was as strong as ever. He grudged himself the ordinary necessaries of life, and on one occa- sion ordered the wax tapers burning in his bedroom to be ohanged'/j for tallow candles, '* as they were less expensive, an^-^ould answer ' every purpose equally as well." He was buri^ in the RecoUet church, where those of his predecessors who had l^ied in ni^'^Aijt Y likewise r .'Ml % • i » J. ,!«' • ■M o m ^ -^\.1P^ tO- THE GOVERNMENT OP THE MARQUIS DUQUESNE, On the death of La Jonq liere, the Baron de Longueil, as the senior officer in the Colony, assumed the reins of government for a brief space till the arrival of the Marquis Duquesne, who ht a1 been appointed, on the 1st March, Governor of Canada, Louisiana, Cape Breton, St. John's, and their dependencies. The marquis was a captain in the French navy, major of Toulon, and possessed con- siderable ability ; but his manners were austere and haughty, and promised little for his colonial popularity. The Count do Galis- soniere, who had procured his appointment, furnished him with the fullest information relative to his duties, and the territorial claims of France ; and thus instructed he landed in August at Quebec, where he was received with the usual honours. Duquesne's instructions, with respect to the disputed boundaries, were of so positive and aggressive a character, as to leave little room to hope for the continuance of peace. One of his first mea- sures, therefore, was to prepare for war. He formed the militia of Montreal and Quebec into companies, and had them carefully drilled. The militia of the country parishes were likewise organised in the best manner possible, and the regular troops thoroughly dis- ciplined. • . 132 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1752. «i " While matters on the Nova Scotian frontier gradually assumed a somewhat more peaceable appearance, they became more and more disturbed in the west. Virginia assumed the right to appropriate to her jurisdiction the country extending from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, and the Ohio Company, with her express sanction, was already forming a settlement beyond the mountains. The commandant of Detroit promptly determined on the expulsion of the settlers, and two hundred and forty Indians and thirty French soldiers pushed up the Ohio to capture the company's traders. Six of these had taken refuge among the Indians of a Mianiis village, who resolutely refused to give them up. An action at once ensu»d, iix which one Englishman and fourteen Miamis were killed. Intelligence of this affair alarmed Virginia, and T>-'nwiddie, its governor, made an elaborate report of the aggrrT.ijn to the British Board of Trade, and asked specific instructions to regulate his con- duct in resisting the French. George II., thought much mpre of Hanover than America, and his family had not yet learned to value the colonies ; but the Lords of Trade resolved to sustaim t he claims of Virginia to the valley of the Ohio, and determined on the immediate occupation of the eastern bank of its river. In- fluenced by their representations, the king, in council, decided that the valley of the Ohio was in the western part of the colony of Virginia, and that the settlement of the French in that quarter was to be resisted as jtn act of hostility. Still little or nothing was done to place the British colonies in a position to sustain the war, in which it was plain this policy must speedily eventuate. — The mother country was unwilling to incur expenses in extending the possessions of colonists, who, while they already resisted the royal prerogative on many grounds, were perfectly disposed to i/hrow the burden of their defence upon the crown. Each colony, too, was a distinct government, and if its own borders were safe from attack, it gave itself as little trouble as possible about its neighbours. A few guns from tlie English ordnanc stores was all the aid that Virginia received in her present p aergency, and the English ministry, reminding her governor of the numerous militia of his province, left to herself the conquest of the ,. 3st. But there were many astute minds in the British colonies which saw clearly the impending contest, and were desirous to prepare for any emergency. Kennedy, the receiver-general of New York, urged through the press the tiocessity of an annual meeting at Albany, or some other central point, of commissioners from all the colonies, to adopt measures for the general welfare. From up- wards of forty years' observation of the conduct of provincial assemblies, and the little regard paid by them to instructions from their governors, he inferred that the British Parliament must com- pel them to pursue this course, and to contribute for the common defence. The clear-headed Franklin, on the other hand, advocated a federal union, voluntarily entered into by the colonists them- selves, as preferable to one imposed by Patliament, " It will not 1753.] THE FRENCH OCCUPY OHIO. 133 be more difficult to bring about," said he, and " can be more easily altered and improved as circumstances mf.y require and ex- perience direct. It would be a strange thing if six nations of ignorant savages should be capable of forming a scheme for such a union, and be able to execute it in such a manner that it has sub- sisted for ages, and appears indissoluble ; and yet that a like union should be impracticable for ten or a dozen English colonies, to whom it is more necessary, and must be more atlvantageous."* Such was the unsatisfactory state of aifairs in North America, when the government of Canada was assumed by Duquesne, whose promptitude in carrying out his instructions speedily caused a hostile collision in the west between the British and 1753. French. In 1753 the Ohio Company opened a road from Virginia into the Ohio valley, asserted claims to its possession, and established a plantation on Shurtee's Creek, but left it exposed to the wavering jealousy of the red men, and without protection against French encroachment. Duquesne had already been inform- ed of the designs of the Ohio Company, and promptly resolved to anticipate and frustrate them. Early in the spring a strong body of troops and Indians passed upwards from Montreal to reinforce the western posts, and establish forts in the valley of the Ohio. — A hunting party of the Iroquois, on the St. Lawrence, speedily con- veyed intelligence of this occurrence to their grand council at Onondaga. The Six Nation.s were opposed to the French occupa- tion oi Ohio, which this force evidently was intended to effect. In eight-find-forty hours relays of Indian runners conveyed the intel- ligence to Sir William Johnson, and urged him to protect their western allies, the Miu,mis and the tribes of the Ohio. These were also speedily informed of the approach of danger, and in April their envoy met the French at Niagara, and warned them to turn back. At Erie a fresh messenger desiretl them to withdraw, but the French commander threw back his belt of wHmpv.m in contempt, and told the astonished chief " that the land was his, and that he would have it, let who would stand up against it." True to his word, fortified posts were established at Erie, at Waterford, and at Venango, and preparations maclo to occupy the banks of the Monongahela and the Ohio. Dinwiddle now felt that the time had come for decisive action, ami he resolved to send " a pei'son of distinction to the commander iif the Fre»ich forces on the Ohio, to know his reasons for invading the British dominions while a solid peace subsisted." The envoy whom he selected for this mission was George Washingtcm, then just twenty-one years of age, who promptly set out on his perilous winter's journey, guided by Christopher Gist, the agent of the Ohio Company, and accompanied by an iiiteipretor and four attendants. On the 29th of November he was present at a council of the * The British Parliament subaeciuently rejected a union nf tbU form, an teading to inore&Bo the power of the colonies too much. ♦ i. ■ t 1 ■' i '■'■'.■.. ■•v1 1 'V • . 134 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1753. n " Delawares and Shawnees, at which it was agreed to give a third warning to the French to quit their country, and, if they refused, to solicit the aid of the Iroquois to expel them. Washington then proceeded to Venango with the deputies of the Ohio Indians. The French officers there made no secret of the intention to take pos- session of the Ohio, and intimidated the envoys of the Delawares by boasting of their forts at Waterford ard ISrie, at Niagara, Toronto, and Cataraqui. From Venango Washington proceeded to Waterford, where he found iort Le Bceuf defended by cannon. Around it stood rude log cabins which served as barracks for '^be soldiers, and close by were fifty bark canoes, and one hundred and seventy boats of pine, prepared for the expedition to the Ohio. The commander, St. Pierre, distinguished for his courage and resolution, refused to dis- cuss the question of the French right of possession. " I am here," said he, " by the orders of my general, to which I shall conform with exactness and resolution. He has ordered me to seize every Englishman in the Ohio valley, and I will do it." Washington now "turned his face homewards towards Virginia. Passing down French Creek, he reached Venango to find his horses weak ind unfit to travel. Heedless of a driving storm he pressed forw ird on lOot, and with gun in hand and a pack on his back, and Gist for his sole companion, quitted the usual path the day after Christmas, and steered, with the aid of a compass, the nearest way across the country for tl:e Fork. An Indian, who had waylaid him, fired at him from the distance of fifteen paces, missed him, and became his prisoner. Gist would have killed the assassin, but Washington spared and dismissed him. They travelled all that night and the next day, and not till dark did they think themselves safe enough to sleep. Clearing away the snow the weary wanderers' now built a camp tire, and laid down to repose with no shelter but the leafless forest tree. Arrived at the Alleghany they endeavour- ed to cross its waters on a raft, the result of a day's labour ; but before they were half way over, they were caught in the running ice, and carried down the stream. Washington putting out a setting pole to stop the raft, was jerked into the deep water, when they were compelled to make for an island, where they built a fire and dried themselves. The night was intensely cold, so in the morning they crossed the river on the ice ; but not till they reached the settlement on Shurtee's Creek were their hardships terminated. Washington's report was followed by immediate action. The Ohio Company made preparations to build a fort at the Fork, and he was sent to Alexandria to enlist recruits. Governor 1754. Dinwiddle, in the meantime, applied to England and the adjoining colonies for assistance, but received very little help from either one or the other. He persevered in his plans, nevertheless, and sent Washington, now a lieutenant-colonel, to finish the fort begun at the Fork of the Ohio, and to hold it to the last extremity. But while Washington was still on his way 1754.J WASHINGTON BEGINS THE WAR. 135 thither, the French, led by Contrecour, came down from Venango, drove thirty-three Englishmen, who were working on the fort, away, finished what they had begun, and named it Fort Duquesne. The nearest forest trees were felled and burned ; log cabins covered with bark were built to shelter the troops ; and wheat and maize planted to supply them with food. An Indian scout of the . Mingpes soon apprised Washington of these occurrences, and implored his assistance to expel the French. But his raw recruits had their few cannon to bring on, deep streams to ford, and could only advance very slowly. On the 25th of June another scout brought the intelligence that a party of French were advancing towards them, and advised them to beware. That night this party concealed themselves among rocks, but the sharp eyes of the Mingoes discovered their trail, and brought Washington upon them. They saw the English approach, and sprang to their arms. " Fire," said Washington ; and he raised his own musket to his shoulder and showed his men how to obey the order. An action of about a quarter of an hour's duration ensued, in which ten of the French were killed, and twenty-one taken prisoners. — And thus George Washington struck the first blow in a war which led to the expulsion of France from North America, and paved the way for the independence of the United States. From first to last he was the most conspicuous actor in the drama which altered the relations of civilised humanity. Contrecour, who still commanded at Fort ])uquesne, was no .sooner made aware of the fate which had befallen his detachment, tliau he at once assembled his garrison and Indian allies, and in- cited them to revenge. Washington had already constructed a stockade at Great Meadows, which he called Fort Necessity, and which he had unwisely placed between two eminences covered with trees. Here he was besieged, on the 3rd of July, by six hundred French and one hundred Indians, who, posted securely behind the trees on the heights, fired from their shelter on the troops beneath. For nine hours, however, did Washington animate his raw recruits to resistance ; nor did he surrender till he had thirty men killed H.id several woundwd, while the French had only lost three of their number. On the 4th of July the English garrison, retaining all their effects, withdrew from the basin of the Ohio ; and westward of the AUeghanies no flag floated but that of France. Meanwhile, commissioners had assembled at Albany from the colonies north of the Potomac, to adopt measures for the general safety in the appr()aching war. To this congress were admitted the deputies of the Six Nations, who, indignant at the unseemly squabbles whicli had so long prevailed, recommended union and action. " Look at the French," bitterly said a Mohawk chief ; " they are fortifying everywhere. I^dt we are ashamed to say you ar(! like women without any fortifications. It is but one step from Canada hither, and the French may easily come and turn you out of doors." The cautious Iroquois strongly distrusted the result of •; . ' I t J. I J \\\ .■v1. •1*. ' • . '*. II . < THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1754. «i " the approMhing struggle, and fully one hall of the Onondagas had alt«ady withdrawn and joined the French settlement at Ogdensburg b :. inifcyry were apprised of the capture of Fort Necessity, anr- c. h ov; rrences which had preceded it, they were extremely unaeci.; whf't course to pursue. Newcastle, the premier, sent pacific assure r:,c^ to the French ministers, who were now very unwUling to enter into a new war, owing to the raipty condition of the treasury, and left the entire conduct of American affairs to the Duke of Cumberland, the commander-in-chief of the British army.* Fond of war, and covetous of military renown, the latter entered on his new career with eager ostentation. One of his first measures was to appoint Edward Braddook, a major- general, to the chief command of the American army. It proved an unfortunate choice. A martinet in matters of discipline. Brad- dock was far from being a skilful general ; and being of rough manners and despotic temper was wholly unsuited to conciliate the colonists. Nor did the duke apply himself in the least to cultivate their good graces. The idea was foreign to him of a people accus- tomed to wield fire'arms from boyhood, and he committed the mistake of comparing the backwoodsmen of Virginia and Pennsyl- vania with the peasantry of England. " He had only confidence," he said, " in regular troops," and directed that the generals and field-officers of the provincial forces should be ranked beneath the royal subalterns. Disgusted at being thus arrogantly spumed Washington retired from the service, and his regiment was broken up.t Braddock arrived ip New York towards the end of February, and one of his first measures was to summon the governors 1755. of the different British colonies to meet him at Alexandria, in Virginia, on the 14th of April, to concert a plan of operations. Four expeditions, as already recommended by the Duke of Cumberland, were there determined on, yet not with the view, it was alleged, of making war on France, but solely to establish the British interpretation of the boundary disputes. Lawrence, * Lord Mahon's Hist, of England, vol iv. p. 72. t From the positions subsequently held bjr many of the colonial officers, and by Washii^gton among the rest, it is evident that this order was never striotfy carried out. Even Braddook saw its folly, and gave Washington a pMl 6a his own staff. ■A 1756.] ARRIVAL OP DE VAUDRBUIL. 137 now lienteDant-govenuMr of Nova-Scotia, was to drive the French from the Isthmus and St. John's River ; William Johnson was to conduct an army of provincial militia and Indians against Crown Y'-nt ; (General Shirley, stil! governor of Massachusetts, proposed t m laurels by tba capture of Niagara, while Braddock, himself, w - to recover tht< Ohio valley and the north-west. ' he departure ov Braddock from Eng' >nd with two regiments of t'. line alarmea the French court, deSjiite the pacific assurances of ^v 7castie, and it was determined to send out additional <,. oops to Canada. The French fleet sailed from Brest in the month of April, Mid th E^^iish ministry, although no declaration of war had lyet taken place, resolved to have its motions watched by a competent force For this purpose Admiral Boscawen sailed from Plymouth with eleven sail of the line, and encountered three of the French fleet off the Banks of Newfoundland, two of which, the Alcide and the Lt/8y were captured ; the third, being a good sailer, made her escape. The remainder of the French fleet, favoured b^ a fog, arrived in due time at Quebec. It brought out a new gov- ernor , in the person of the Marquis de Vaudreuil, the son of t : former governor of that name, and a Canadian by birth, who \. >» well acquainted with the Colony, where he had serve i.i the army for several years. Duquesne had already resigned, bein^ desirous to resume his post in the navy. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE MARQUIS DE VAUDREUIL. The arrival of Vaudreuil was gladly hailed by the Canadian people, who hoped to enjoy under his rule the same prosperity and peace which had characterised his father's government. But in this respect they were sadly deceived. The new Governor was too familiar with the corrupt manners of the day, to resist the sinister influences by which he was speedily surrounded on his arrival. For the preceding two years many of the inhabitants had been engaged in military expeditions in various quarters, their lands had, there- fore, been left uncultivated, and they were now threatened vrith famine. The company which had monopolised the trade of the Colony during La Jonquiere's government was still in existence, and had Bigot for its chief shareholder and manager. His official position made him almost the superior of the Governor, whose princi- pal functions wc^e to represent the king and command the troops ; whereas the int ^ idant* directed financial and trade affairs, the de* partment of jus ce, and the other branches of the civil administra- tion. It will tl IS be seen, at a glance, that his power was very great, and, in i country where no public press existed, almost without restraii. b. Of easy and agreeable manners ; of great official experience, imi^strious, energetic, generous to his friends, free- handed, fond oi social enjoyment, and exceedingly hospitable, Bigot won supporters for himself in every direction, thus secured his posi- tion from assau It, and made his astounding peculacions and official r I ■». ' 4 138 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1755. ■> 4 > 'U knavery possible. He lived in great state in Quebec, the social centre of its lax and gay society, where he usually entertained a score of persons every day to dinner, gave numerous balls, and indulged in the most desperate gambling— the scourge of the Colony. But while he kept on the best possible terms with Vaudreuil and his immediate subordinates. Bigot also managed to secure, at the French court, sdlid support for himself among influ- ential persons, with whom he shared the nefarious profits of his company. To make himself certain that all was safe in that quarter, he visited France in 1755, returned to Canada with the assurance that no danger need be apprehended, and then proceed- ed to plunder the crown with more audacity than ever. Under the name of Claverie, a trader, he established huge stores at Quebec and Montreal, where he sold goods at retail to the citizens at enormous profits, aiid supplied his Own favourites and the king at wholesale. Rich furs belonging to his master were disposed of at low prices to his friends ; and every other fraud possible was unblushingly practised. Foremost among his agents for cheating the crown was Joseph Cadet, the son of a Quebec butcher, who after various adventures by sea and land, in the humblest positions, took up his father'?, trade with success. Bigot found in him Ji ready and expert instrument of plunder ; got him appointed, in 1756, commissary general, and then made a contract with him fcjr government supplies, which presented every facility for fraud. In the next two years Cadet and his associates sold to the king, for twenty-three million francs, provisions that had o':>st them only eleven millions. At the same time the most astounding frauds were practised, with regard to the supplies issued to the various military posts, whose commanding officers were frequently bribed to give receipts for articles which had never been received. A great part of the supplies granted for the use of the Indians never reached them, being stolen on the way, so that many officers com- manding frontier posts speedily amassed fortunes by this descrip- tion of fraud. ** Why is it," asked Bougainville, " that of all which the king sends to the Indians two-thirds are stolen, and the rest sold to them instead of being given." And at a later pericxl (April 12th, 1759) Montcalm wrote to the minister of war, Marshall de Belle-Isle, complaining bitterly of the universal cor- ruption that prevailed. " It would seem," he said, '* that every one is in hot haste to realise a fortune before the Colony is quite lost to France. Several perhaps wish that the ruin may be total, so that all recorded evidence of their peculations may be covered up by its wrecks." But not content with robbing the government in every possible way, and on every favourable occasion. Bigot and his company now proceeded to plunder the people. Perceiving the likelihood of a scarcity, this company had bought up large quantities of floui'. which they sold back to the people again at an immense advance, and even sought to increase the price of food, jtnd consequently s-41 1755.] DEFEAT OF BRADDOCK. 139 « J. their own profits, by procuring the shipment of wheat to the West Inilia Islands. Nor was this the only way in which the people sutfered Bigot also connived at the robbery of fanners in the most shameful manner. He issued an ordinance to compel them to sell their grain at a low fixed price, under the pretence that they had caused the scarcity, and then sent his creature, Cadet. through the country to enforce it. The latter scoured the settle- ments in every direction, and took the grain by force when the inhabitants declined to sell it. Numerous complaints were made against him ; but the intendant refused to hear them, and referred the parties to a member of the company, who threatened them with imprisonment if they did not keep quiet ; which the helpless people were thus compelled to do.* Such was the degrading and unfor- tunate condition of the inhabitants of Canada at this period. With famine already afflicting them, tuey were now threatened with the miseries of war, and suffered, in addition, all the evils of a most corrupt administration. On the 5th of May, Braddock joined the main body of his army neai- Fort Cumberland, and found himself at the head of a force of two thousand three hundred men, which embraced the 44th and 48th; regiments of the line, with twelve pieces of artillery. Here, owing to the want of carriages, horses and provisions, he was de- tained till the 10th of June, when he pushed forward towards Fort Duquesne. Learning on the way that its garrison expected speedy reinforcements, he selected twelve hundred men and ten guns, and pushed boldly on through the solitudes of the Alleghanies. Colonel Dunbar, with ihe rest of the army and the heavy baggage, follow- ed as he best might. Braddock's march was conducted in the most careless manner, and the remonstrances of his officers only made him the more obstinate. Washington, who commanded some com- panies of Virginian militia, and acted as his aid-de-camp, pressed his objections to this course so warmly, that the irritated chief ordered him and his men to undertake the inglorious duties of the rear-guard. Contrecour, who still commanded at Fort Duquesne, had receiv- ed early information of all Braddock's movements from his faithful Indian scouts, and detached Beaujeau, on the morning of the 9th of July, with two hundred and fifty soldiers and six hundred Indians, to occupy a defile six miles distant. Before, however, Beaujeau had fully completed the disposition oi his force, the ap- pearance of the British vanguard brought on an engagement. Its flanking parties were speedily driven in by a deadly fire from an almost unseen enemy. Braddock promptly advanced the 44th regiment to succour the front, and endeavoured to deploy that corps upon the open ground ; but a deadly tire from the thick covert swept away the head of every formation. Panic-stricken by the wild war-whoop of the Indians, which they had never before , I f • ^•••.^ r *l "v Smith's Hist. Can., vol. i. p. 235-231). 140 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1755. W ' «l •• heftrd, and the disorder in their front, the 44th staggered and hesitated. Its colonel, Sir Peter Halket, and his son, a lieutenant, were now shot dead, side by side, while cheering them on. Mean- time, the artillery instinctively pushed forward without any orden, and plied the thickets in front with grape and canister, but inafev minutes all the officers and most of the gunners were lying killed or wounded. The broken remnant of the advanced guard now fell back upon the disordered line of the 44th, and threw it into utter confusion. Again and again did Braddock, with useless courage, endeavour to induce the 44th to present a firm front to the enemy ; but this luckless corps, fated to be massacred at a subse- quent period in Affghanistan, were seized with uncontrollable terror, lost all order, and fell back in a crowd on the 48th, now advancing to their aid under Colonel Burton. With these fresh troops Braddock endeavoured to restore the battle, and made several desperate efforts to get possession of a hill, from whence a body of French poured down a most destructive fire ; but trees and rocks disordered his well drilled ranks, which were also cut up repeatedly by the flanking fire of the Indians. Lacking the qualities of the general, his valour was useless ; the carnage in- creased, and after having five horses shot under him, a bullet shattered his arm, and passed through his lungs. He felt his defeat keenly, and desired to be left to perish on the field ; but Colonel Gage placed him in a waggon, and hurried him to the rear. The remnant of the 44th and 48th now broke and fled in the utmost disorder, leaving the artillery and baggage in the hands of the French, and, what was still worse, their wounded to be scalped and murdered by the Indians. Washington, with his Virginian companies, who had borne but little share in the action, held the banks of the Monongahela till the fugitives had crossed over, and retired himself in tolerable order. All night did that panic-stricken army fly, and the following evening joined the force which had been left behind under Colonel Dunbar, full fifty miles from the scene of the action. Still the retreat was continued, Braddock's sufferings hourly increasing till his death, which took place on the third day from his defeat. Shortly before he expired he dictated a despatch, assuming full responsibility for his disaster, acquitting his officers from all blame, and recommending them to the favour of his country. FuUy three-fourths of the small army Braddock had taken into action were killed, wounded, or missing, including sixtyrfour officers. Fifty-four women had accompanied the troops, and of these only four escaped alive from the dangers and hardships of the expedi- tion. The French, on the other hand, only lost their conomander, De Beaujeau, and sixty men, in this astonishing vict( ry, while the loss of their Indian allies was still less in proportion.* * RoBsell's Modem Europe, vol. ii. pp. 444, 446. States, vol. iii. pp. 129-136. Bancroft's Hist. United Til B Hist. United 1755.J WAR IN NOVA SCOTIA. 141 On Braddock's death Colonel Dunbar assumed the chief com> mond, and continued the retreat in the most disgraceful haste upon Fort Cumberland. Leaving two militia companies to strengthen [ its garrison, he pursued his march to Philadelphia, despite the earnest entreaties of the governors of Virginiaj Maryland, and Pennsylvania, not to leave their western frontiers unprotected. — From Philadelphia, the remains of the army, sixteen hundred strong, were shipped to Albany by the order of General Shirley, of I Massachusetts, now commander-in-chief. While these disastrous events, which left the French flag floating I triumphantly in the valley of the Ohio, were in progress. Governor I Lawrence, of Nova Scotia, was busily engaged in making prepara- rations to drive the enemy from his province. Nine thousand I Acadians still remained at their old homes, where they had been permitted to stay notwithstanding their persistent refusal to fAke the oath of allegiance. But, from the causes already pointed out, they were all more or less tainted ' with disa£feotion, refused to sell the English garrisons provisions unless at the most exorbitant prices, and constantly smuggled supplies to the French posts I across the line. Disguised as Micmacs some of the more hostile I amongst them, on several recent occasions, had robbed and even mur- I dered English settlers. And now that a new war was sure to come, a French invasion of Nova Scotia was more than likely ; and there could be little doubt that should a hostile squadron appear in the Bay of Fundy, with a sufficient force of troops on boan), all I the Acadians along its shores would rise in arms. In that event their emigrant relations, now clust€ring around Beau-Sejbur, and the other adjacent French posts, and who had recently been well I drilled and armed, would speedily re-cross the Messagouche to their aid. Louisburg now growing stronger than ever was close at hand ; help also could soon come down the St. Lawrence from I Quebec ; and the English, under a combined movement of this formidable character, must be driven out of Nova Scotia. Duquesne, before he surrendered the government of the Colony, had consider^ ed a project of this description ; and wrote to Le Loutre to disvise ! with De Vergor, commanding at Beau-Sejour, some plan for a vigorous attack on the English posts. The British authorities I guaged the danger of the situation correctly. " We should antici- I pate them," said General Shirley, in a letter from Boston, to I the governor at Halifax ; " and strike the first blow." And pre- sently lie and Lawrence pk med how they should strike it. Two ! regiments of volunteers were ^ipeedily raised in New England, and their commands given to Winslow and Scott, militia officers. On the 22nd of May a fleet, consisting of forty sloops and schooners, I sailed out of Boston harbour with these regiments and some other I troops on board. A favourable voyage of four days' duration [brought the expedition safely to Annapolis ; and, after some necessary delay there, it found itself, on the 1st of June, within I five miles of the hill of Beau-Sejour ; and there cast anohor. At » J. '■ •ti ' 'I * H « i ., ti 'V 142 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1755. |i ' « ». I ' two o'clock, next morning, Vergor first heard the news of the near approach of danger from some peasants, and in great alarm sent a messenger to Louisburg for help, and ordered all the fighting men of the Acadians and the Indians in the neighborhood, w umbering altogether about thirteen hundred, to repair at once to the fort, already garrisoned by one hundred and sixty regulars. On the morning of the 2nd, Monckton, commanding the expedition, landefl his force without opposition, and went into camp at Fort Lawrence. Two days afterwards the regular troops of its garrison marched out to join the New England men ; and tbo united force after a sharp and successful action with a strong body of the enemy, securely posted in a blockhouse, and also behind a breast- work formed of felled trees, crossed the Messagouche, and en- camped on a hilly range half a league from Beau-Sejour. After several days had been passed in making preparations for the siege, Scott, on the morning of the 12th, seized a hill within easy range of the works ; and two days afterwards four small mortars were firing on the fort, the reply from its guns doing very little harm. Vergor had been too busy, during the preceding winter, assisting Le Loutre in plundering the Acadians of the . allowances given them by the king, and in enriching himself otherwise, by making fraudulent returns of firewood, and other articles recjuired by the garrison, to be now prepared to defend his post with resolu- tion and eflfect. Three hundred Acadians were taken into the fort, to assist the troops already there. The remainder of the Acadians, as well as Le Loutre's Micmacs, scattered into the surrounding woods, to keep up a guerilla warfare against the besiegers. Within the fort there was much discouragement and dismay, when it was learned that the harbour of Louisburg was closely blockaded by two English frigates, and help from thence thus I'endered impossible. Four days were passed by the besiegers in mortar tiring, and they had not yet got a single cannon in position. On the morning of the 16th a large shell fell through a casemate supposed to !» bomb proof, and killed seven ofticers who were there at breakfast, and wounded some others. Vergor ajid several of his ofticers were iiso at breakfast in the opposite casemate, and were greatly alarm- ed. A surrender was at once determined on. Presently a white flag was raised above the fort, and after some haggling the terms of capitulation were agreed to. The garrison was to march out with all the honours of war, and be conveyed to Louisburg ; but neither officers nor men were to serve for six months. The Acadians were pardoned, as they stated they had served against their will, to which Vergor falsely certified, and went home laden with plunder. In the evening Scott marched into Beau-Sejour, raised the British flag upon the ramparts, and saluted it with all the guns of the fort, which was re-christened Fort Cumberland.— Search was promptly njade for Le Louti-e, but he was not to be found. He liad escaped in disguise ; and finally made his way to Quebec, where the bishop received him with reproaches. Finding 1755.] THE ACADIANS EXILED. 143 that his Canadian career had come to an inglorious end, he soon after sailed for France. Misfortune followed liim. The English captur- ed him on the way, and kept him a prisoner for eight years in Eli7iibeth Cas*:le. There he was recognised by a sentry, who had known him in Acadia, and came near being scalped by his orders. The soldier became furious at seeing his former unscrupulous foe ; and would have run him through with his bayonet had not an officer prevented him. With Beau-Sejour fell the other French posts on the Acadian peninsula. The little fortress at the Bay Verte, garrisonec} by only twenty soldiers and some Acadianie, surrendered after a brief defence ; and the French, themselves, burned the fort at St. John, and retreated to Louisburg. These important results were cheaply purchased by the British with the loss of some twenty killed, and about the same number wounded. These successes, however, brought with them a new and dit&cult question, namely, what should be done with the Acadians ? Governor Lawrence considered that the best way was to have them take the oath of allegiance. A few complied with the demand, but the great majority absolutely refused to take the oath ; and even behui'ed with no small insolence to the authorities ; and it was eventually resolved to solve the difficulty by removing them altogether from tlie country. During the autumn six thousand of these unfortu- nate people, men, women and children, were forced to lea'/e their once happy homes ; and were scattered through the various English colonies, often in a most destitute condition. Many of the Acadians escaped to the wo'jds, thence to wage a guerilla warfare against the English ; but their power was now effectually broken, and they were no longer a source of dangerous menace to the province. Some of the fugitives eventually reached Lousiana, where their descendants to this day remain a primitive and separate people. History records no sadder spectacle than that presented by the forcible removal of the Aoadians from their homes, made so plea- sivnt by many years of industry ; and the gifted pen of Longfellow has surrounded the painful incident with the halo of charming poetic sympathy. But sober truth, and a careful analysis of all the facts of the case, must lead to the conclusion that the British authorities were most unwillingly forced, by untoward circum- stances, to pursue harsh measures with the Acadians. The persons who were really responsible iur their misfortunes were the French authorities, from the selfish and deceitful Louis downwards, who (lid everything in their power to hinder them from becoming honest subjects of the British crown, and ro make and keep them traitors at heart to their lawful sovei'cign.* The British author- ities treated them with long and patient indulgence, and only resorted to extreme measures as a last and painful resort. Had * Ciarneau vql. i. p. 450. 8co alao Parkman'a Montcalm and Wolfe. «!■• • I . I t 1. •• 1 • * ^! ■ • » • •; I- 1' I I* " >l 144 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1755. t « the Aoadians been left to themselves, their forcible expatriation would never have taken place. But they were not left to them- selves ; and every device that could be thought of was resorted to in order to hold them fast to French interests. To this end their love of country, their simplicity, their ignorance, their religion, ^heir instinct of self-preservation, were all in turn worked upon, in one way or another, with the most unsi rupulous and persistent ingenuity. They were thus virtually betrayed by their own countrymen, and helplessly driven by them to their ultimate ruin. Even some of their priests, led by Le Loutre, betrayed their flocks ; for they must have well known what their donble^lealing would sooner or later lead to in that period of strained relations, and frequently recurring wars, between England and France. General Shirley organised the third expedition determined on by the council of Alexandria, and marched westward from Albany, in the beginning of July, to capture the French fort at Niagara. But the news of Braddock's defeat and death soon reached his troops, and disheartened the provincials, who deserted their colours by squads. Shirley, nevertheless, vigorously pushed forward with all the troops he could keep together, relying on the aid of the Iroquois. But these had also heard of the French victory at Fort Duquesne, and hesitated to commit themselves to the doubtful fortunes of the British. They even remonstrated against the passage of their territory by an army, alleging, at the same time, that the fort at Oswego was only tolerated by them as a trading post. The middle of August was past when the <;eneral, after a toilsome march, arriv- ed at Lake Ontario, and the want of supplies and lateness of the season prevented him from attacking Niagara. Leaving seven hundred men under Colonel Mercer to strengthen and occupy the defences at Oswego, he commenced, on the 24th of October, to re- trace his difficult route from Albany. To William Johnson was due the honour of redeeming, in some measure, the reputation of the British arms, so seriously tarnished by the defeat of Braddock, and the fruitless marches of Shirley. — An Irishman by birth, he had followed when a youth the example of numbers of his countrymen, even at that early day, and sought to better his fortunes in the New World.* Here, like Oobbett, and Ledyard, and Coleridge, and East Indian Thompson, " who died a Major-General," in the Old World, he began his career as a private soldier. But Johnson was moulded in no ordinary stamp. Possessed of a noble form, of strong perceptive powers, and influ- enced by an honourable ambition, he gradually worked his way * Evan in the Utter part of tho seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century, the emigration from Ireland to the American plantations was very extensive in proportion to its population. At one period this em- gration was a source or much a*iirm, as lands in many parts of Ireland were untenanted. There is not the smallest doubt, that at the present day Irish* men, or their descendants, form the largest portion of the people of the United SHMtes. Vide Russell's Modern Europe, vol. iii. p. 1. 1 H 1755.J JOHNSON'S CAMPAIGN. 145 upwards to wealth and public consideration. A settler for many years on the fertile banks of the Mohawk, his manly bearing, social habits, and Irish hospitality, had rendered him exceedingly popular with the aborigines of New York, and he might justly be termed tlie " Tribune of the Six Nations."* Not a single Iroquois had joined the ill-fated Braddock, or the tedious Shirley ; but the entire Mohawk tribe attached themselves to the fortunes of Johnson ; and Hendrick, their bravest chief, led three hundred of their warriors to his camp. Early in July the militia of Massachusetts and Connecticut, with a few men from the other New England states and New York, as- sembled at Albany, to the number of five thousand, preparatory to moving upon Crown Point. General Lyman led this force to the portage between the Hudson and the head-springs of the Sorel, where they constructed Fort Edward to serve as a safe depot for provisions, and to secure a point of support in case of defeat. Here Johnson came in the last days of August, and leaving a garrison of three hundred men in the newly-built fort, conducted his army to tlie southern shore of the lake, which the French called the Lake of the Holy Sacrament, but which he now named Lake George. " I found," he said " a mere wilderness ; nevei was house or fort erected here before." Johnson had never seen a campaign, yet his position for his camp was chosen with much more judgment than Washington had displayed in the site for Fort Necessity. On the north lay Lake George, his flanks were protected by wooded swamps, and behind him was the secure post of Fort Edward. Tidings of the danger which threatened Crown Point speedily reached Vaudreuil, and abamloning the plan of an attack upon Oswego he despatched BaionDieskau, a lirave and experienced officer, with seven hundred veteran troops, fifteen hundred of the militia of Montreal, and seven hundred Indians, to its succour. Dividing his army at Crown Point, and eager for distinction, Dieskau, tak- ing twelve hundred Indians and Canadians, and three hundred regulars, pushed forward to assault Fort Edwanl. 0' the evening of the 7th of September he found himself within four miles of this post ; but the Indians now refused to attack it, stating, at the same tune, that they were willing to go against the army on the lake, whicli was thought to have neither artillery nor intrenchraents. Late tliat night it was told, in the camp at Lake George, that a strong body of French and Indians had landed from South Bay and marched towards Fort Edward. Next morning one thousand men, under CoU)nel Williams, and two hundred Mohawks, led by Ht'udrick, were despatched by a council of war to its relief. — Dieskau's scouts warned him of their approach, and posting his forcft among the brushwood and rocks t>f a defile, he soon had the satisfaction of seeing the enemy rashly advance. But at % - < • : •' '» '.'^;-1' • . ' t i ! »' t^l 'v' * Memoirs of an Amerioan Lady, vol. ii. p, (51. vol. ii, p, 446. RuBSoH's Modern Europe, 146 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. fl7 55 I) 1^ ' MBS the critical moment the Christiai\ Iroquois of Caughnawaga hesi- tated U) ♦ire upon their kindred, and showed themselves to apprise them of i;he ambush. This movement saved the detachment from being entirely cut off. Put on their guard they fought bravely, and, although Williams and Hendrick were killed, made goofl their retreat to the camp, which was only three miles from the defile. The close roll of musketry ^'ondered J ohnson aware that a sharp engagement was in progress, and as yet ignorant of the strength of the enemy he refeolved to prepare for the worst. His camp had still no intrenchments. The New England militia were armetl with rifles and fowling-pieces, without a bayonet amongst them ; trees, therefore, were now mpidly felled by the stalwart backwoods- men, and waggons and baggage placed along the front of their line to fonn a breastxyork. Behind this they could take deadly aim in comparative safety, and were perfectly at home. Dieskau designed to enter the camp with the fugitives, but Johnson had brought up three a[uns from the lake, and the moment the Canadians and Indians found themselves under their fire, and in front of an intrenched line, their courage failed ; and they in- clined to the right and left, contenting themselves with keeping up a harmless fire on the flanks of the British. Dieskau, although surprised at the strength of the position he had to assault, boldly pushed forward with his regulars' to break Johnson's line in the centre, which he assailed at a distance of one hundred and fifty paces by a heavy platoon firing. The action soon became general, and although the French troops stood their ground stoutly, they melted rapidly away under the well-directed and deadly fire of the New England men. Dieskau finding, after the action had lasted four hours, that he could make no impression on the centre of ';heir line, directed a movement against its right flank, and was now supported by the Canadian militia. Johnson had been wounded in the beginning of the action, but Lyman ably supplied his place, and soon checked the flank movement of the French. They wavered and gave way, when the New England men, leaping over their slight defences, drove them into rapid and disordered flight. Nearly all the French regulars perished, and their gallant leader, Dieskau, was wounded incurably and remained a prisoner. The entire British loss, in the different actions during the day, was two hundred and sixteen killed and ninety-six wounded. The Fien^'' lo8H has been variously estimated, but it could s(!arcely be less tnan seven hundred in killed and wounded.* The Canadian militia and Indians, who had suffered comparft- fcively little in the engagement, finding themselves unpursued, •lab >d at the scene uf Williams' defeat to plunder and scalp the * Bancroft and Parkmon say their loss was not much greater than that of t**^ "^litirh ; but in thie estimate they are evidently mistaken. Smith rates i,iiC' i^ii' ■■': on'' thoir .nd killed, wounded and missing, and Warburton «»•'<.,!•' I MMudred. 1 aeir entire loss throughot^t the day was probably .\\-oai ; . van nnndred. M I » . i 1755.J PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 147 dead. Here they were suddenly encountered by a body of New Hampshire militia, under Captain Macginnis, who were marching to aid Johnson's force, and a fresh engagement immediately ensu- ed. It lasted two hours, and resulted completely to the advantage of the New Hampshire men, who lost their brave leader, however, ill the moment of victory. Thus defeated a second time the rem- nant of the French broke up in disorder, and made the best of their way to Ticonderoga, where a portion of the force left behind by Dieskau had intrenched themselves. Johnson has been severely censured for not following up his vic- tory by a movement on Ticonderoga and Crown Point, which was recommended by his own council of war, and also by the New England governors. But his military experience, brief as it was, had already taught him that however bravely raw militia, armed with rifles and fowling-pieces, might fight behind an intrenched position, where they had no evolutions to perfonn, and where all that was necessary was swift and well-aimed firing, they were total- ly uiiequal to contend on a fair field against veteran French troops, armed with musket and bayonet, and still less fitted to attack for- titled positions. Johnson, under these circumstances, felt that he liad done sufficient in saving the frontiers of the New England colonies, and that his wisdom was not to risk a defeat by facing trained troops behind intrenchments. He accordingly contented himself with erecting Fort William Henry on the battle-field, and (letacliing Captain Rogers, a daring and active officer, to obtain correct intelligence of the enemy's movements. Rogers performed this duty in the most satisfactory manner, cut oflF several of the detached parties of the French, and ascertained that two thousand men, with a proportion of artillery, were securely posted at Ticonderoga. Having strengthened Forts Edward and William Henry, which he garrisoned with a regiment of militia, Johnson, on the 24th of December, fell back to Albany with the remainder of his forces who from thence returned to their respective provinces. Althougl the victory he had won, with untrained and imperfectly arm* troops, was not productive of any brilliant results, England w i,'rat(?ful for what he had accomplished, and rewarded him by a baronetcy, and a parliamentary grant of £5,000.* While Johnson and his raw militia were winning laurels at Late Gborge, the frontier settlements of Pennsylvania, Maryland :um1 Virginia, hitherto so peaceful, and therefore left without any irta of refuge, felt the full effects of Braddock's defeat, and the cowardly flight of Dunbar. The French of Fort Duquesne, and their Tntliau allies, among whom the Delewares and Shawnees, old friends of the English, but now turned against them, were the lenders, swept the open country in every direction for five hundred miles in width, burning the farm-houses and barns, and plundering * Con(|ue8t of Can., vol. ii. p. 85. Smith's Hist. Can., vol. i, p, 235. » !. '• t I .! H 148 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1755. and murdering the unfortunate inhabitants, whose only safety lay in flight. Crowds of fugitive settlers, deserting their farms and grow- ing crops, and leaving, in numberless cases, even their cattle behind them, fled for their lives to the towns and villages, their first impulse being to put their wives anJ little ones beyond the reach of the cruel tomahav/k. As autumn advanced the invading bands became more numerous and aggressive, as they now easily crossed the Alleghany mountains by the wide road already opened for them by the axe-men of Braddock. " Every day," writes Washington, " we have accounts of such cruelties and barbarities as are shocking to human nature. It is not possible to conceive the situation and danger of this miserable country. Such numben of French and Indians are around that no road is safe. The sup- plicating tears of the women, and moving petitions of the men, melt one into such deadly sorrow, that I solemnly declare, if I know my own mind, I coulfl offer myself as a willing sacrifice to the butchering enemy, prov.ded that would contribute to the people's safety." Washingtop with his badly disciplined and badly equipped Virginia militia regiment, half mutinous, from one untoward cause or another, all the time, could give but a small measure of protec- tion to the long frontier line, broken by hills, and covered by dense forests, from whence the Indian bands appeared when least ex- pedited, and swept down in a sirocco of murder and rapine upon the settlements beyond. Language is almost inadequate to describe the cruelties. practised. Even helpless women and children were scalped aliv;\ " They kill all they meet," writes a French priest, " and after having abused the women and maidens, they slaughter or burn them. * The Quaker legislature of Pemisylvania refused assistance to repel these aggressions, and not till- the clamours of hundreds of fugitives proclaimed that fifteen hundred French and Indinns had mustered on the Susquehanna, onlyeiglity miles from Philadelphia, did these men of peace respond to the importunities of their govei-nor, by calling out the militia and ap- propriating j662,000 for the expenses of the war. The othei colonies, whosp frontiers were also exposed, became more and more alarmed, and, on the 1 2th of December, a grand council-of-war was held at New York, composed of several of the governors and superior officers, to deliberate on measures for the common safety. A splendid campaign was now planned for the following year ; Quebec was to be menaced by the Kennebec and the Chaudiere ; vessels were to bo launched on Lake Ontario from Oswego, and Frontenac, Niagani and Toronto to be captured ; and then Fort Duquesne, Detroit and Mackinaw, deprived of their communica- tions with Montreal, must surrender. A strong force at the same time was to carry Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and to threat 1 CHAPTER VII. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE MARQUIS DE VAUDREUIL,-contfnued. DESPITE the hostile conflicts in the New World, France and England were still nominally at peace. Contrary to all po- litical conjecture, France made no reprisals for the capture of the Alcide and the Lys, the two men-of-war take i off the St. Lawrence by Boscawen, and tamely saw three hundred of her trading vessels, Iftden in many cases with valuable cargoes of West India produce, and manned by eight thousand seamen, captured and carried into the ports of England. France felt her inferiority at sea, and had flattered herself that the anxiety of George II. for the sr > 1; of his German dominions, would prevent him from adopting an; ■ igorous measures, notwithstanding her encroachments in America. But the numerous captures of French vessels soon taught Louis XV. that no dependence need be placed on the p"omises and peaceable pritfcssions of the British ministry, and he unwillingly prepared for w;ii'. Both Great Britain and France now sought to strengthen th(!in>«-hes by new alliances, and to make preparation other- wise for the approaching contest, which threatened to in- 1756. vitlve all Europe. Fruiice began hostilities by the invasion of Minorca, anil war was soon after formally declared by both countries.* It was now plain, to the observant mind, that one of the most uiomeiitous struggles for mastery wliich the worUi hail ever seen had commenced. For this struggle England was almost wholly unprepared. So far as the royal family and its &iai$ters were con- cerned, there was not a man amongst them equMil to the emergency. George II., now almost in his dotage, dull, pompous ano irascible, had two ruling passions in ins lovt; of money and his Hanoverian kingdom, and cimld see only a sliort way beyond them His eldest son, tlie Prince of Wales, and thi^ father of (ioorge II [., had died in 17-il, the victim of an accident. His younger scm, the Duke of Cunil)(!rland, now comniaufler-iii-chief, who had gained the day at Culloden, and lost it at Fontenoy, and had since grown corpulent ' 1 1 •■■ i? •■' 1. m ■ » 1 ' I tl ' . ■ :' ^i\ Ruiwoiru Moilcni Euroijc, vol. ii. p. 447. 160 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1756. and unfit for active service, was brave and bold like all the Guelphs, but no genius. The prime minister, the Duke of Newcastle, had won his way to power by exalted rank and influential connections ; loved office for its own sake, and stooped to practise the most unscrupulous corruption to retain it, but he was unequal to the occasion ; and his colleagues were no better than himself. All these people stood on' the same mediocre plane, and lacked the great ability needed to guide the ship of state safely through the gathering storm. Fortunately for England at this juncture (as in all other times of extreme peril) she had still, in reserve, the right man for the crisis in William Pitt, and whom bitter disaster at length taught her to estimate at his true value. Nor was England better prepared for the coming conflict in other and even more important direc- tions. After the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle the army had been reduced to less than twen jy-five thousand men ; and only seventeen thousand sailors manned the royal navy. On the other hand, France, although weakened by the loss of her industrious ancl brave Huguenot population, the increasing poverty of her working classes, and the tyranny and corruption of her aristocracy, and even then drifting towards revolution, still stood in the front rank of cc.^tinental powers ; while in her vast colonial possessions she ranked after Spain. At the same time, the House of Bourbon reigned in France, Spain and Naples ; and now appeare\erned British colonies were pitted against the ancient civilization of France, which completely broke down in this contest of the old against the new ; of despotism, clerical find political, against religious and political freedom. Jesuit in- tiigue had largely led to the repeal oi the Edict of Nantes.* That lepeal laid the foundation »v£ the ' ;^ai ^. ^ ▼' «o. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) /. 4is 1.0 Ik ■SO 02 112,2 £«*■ 1.1 f.-^l 2.0 ^lll'-^ ' ^ 6" ► m /a Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716)873-4903 4 •SJ <^ & ^r^^ ^ iV 154 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1756. pursue this course, they departed homewards laden with rich presents. No sooner had Vaudreuil dismissed the Iroquois deputies than he took prompt measures to strengthen the detachment under Villier, and also for the capture of the British armed vessels which now began to appear on Lake Ontario. While thus engaged a large body of troops arrived from France under the command of Major General de Montcalm, the Chevalier de Levis, and Colonel de Bourlemaque, three brave and experienced officers. After remain- ing a few days at Quebec, to make himself acquainted with the condition of matters there, Montcalm directed three regiments of regular troops to proceed to Montreal, whither he departed in ad- vance to confer with the Governor. He highly approved of the measures the latter had taken with respect to Oswego, and directed Bourlemaque to push forward to Villier's camp with a reinforce- ment, and take the chief command. Having completed these ar- rangements he proceeded to Ticonderoga, on the 27th of June. — Here he remained making preparations for the defence of the frontier, and endeavouring to procure accurate intelligence of the movements of the British at Albany, till the 1 5th of July, when he set out on his return to Montreal. To Levis and three thousand men he left the protection of Crown Point and Ticonderoga, and the maintenance of French supremacy on Lake Champlain and the Richelieu. From Montreal he hastened to Fort Frontenac to make preparations for the capture of Oswego. While thus all was vigour and action on the side of the French, delay and indecision characterised the operations of the British. — Lord Loudon being detained by business in England, Major-General Abercromby was ordered to precede him, and hold the chief com- mand till his arrival. This officer brought out with him the 35th and 42nd regiments, and found himself at Albany towards the latter end of June. Abercromby deemed the force under his com- mand too weak to carry out the extensive plan of operations which had been sketched out by Shirley a!\d the other colonial officers ; and, desirous to avoid responsibility, resolved to await the arrival of the commander-in-chief before undertaking any important opera- tions. Meantime, he marched the provincial forces upon Fort William Henry, under the command of General Winslow, prepara- tory to the proposed movement on Crown Point and Ticonderoga. While the bulk of the army thus remained in idle inaction, Lieutenant-Colonel Bradstreet, with a detachment of raw Irish recruits, conducted a large convoy of provisions in safety to Oswego. Villier pushed forward from Sackett's Harbour, with 700 French and Indians, to intercept him, but losing his way in the forest he did not reach the Onondaga River till after the convoy had safely passed down its course. Bradstreet, fearing an attack on his return, divided his canoes and boats into three divisions, with nn easy interval between, so that if his advance was attacked the men behind might push for the bank of the river, and meet the enemy 1756.] A SHARP SKIRMISH. 155 on equal terms. Gallantly posting himself in the first canoe, he left Oswego on the 3rd of July, and had only advanced nine miles up the stream, v/hen suddenly a sharp volley, and the wild war- whoop of the savage, rang through the forest. The first fire fell with deadly effect upon the leading division, yet Bradstreet did not lose his presence of mind, and made for an island, which twenty of the enemy, however, dashing through the water, gained before him. He had not a dozen men with him, still he boldly faced his foes, and quickly drove them from the island. The remainder of his first division speedily arriving, brought his strength up to twenty men, who bravely beat back a fresh attack made by twice their number. The enraged French now made a third onset with seventy men, who, after a desperate hand-to-hand conflict on the island, were repelled by Bradstreet and his gallant little band. Meanwhile, the boatmen of the second and third divisions had landed, formed in good order, and pushed forward to the assistance of their hard- pressed comrades, After a desperate struggle the French were completely routed, leaving a hundred of their number dead ; and seventy prisoners, with a large quantity of arms, in the hands of their conquerors. On the other hand, the Irish boatmen had sixty killed and wounded in this fiercely-contested action. Bradstreet arrived at Schenectady on the 4th of July, and the following day proceeded to Albany, to warn Abercromby that Oswego was menaced by a large French force. The general at once gave orders for the 44th regiment to hasten to its relief, but owing to the interference of some of the provincial governors its march was delayed. Lord Loudon joined the army on the 29th of ' July, and still no active measures were taken. Montcalm having completed all his arrangements for the siege of Oswego, departed from Fort Frontenac on the 4th of August, and arrived on the evening of the same day at Sackett's Harbour, the general rendezvous of his army, which amounted to more than three thousand men. On the 9th his vanguard arrived within a mile and a half of Oswego ; on the night of the 10th his first division also came up. The second division followed shortly after, and at midnight on the 1 2th he opened his trenches against Fort Ontario, which crowned a height on the opposite side of the river from Fort Oswego, and completely commanded the latter. From the follow- ing daybreak till evening the fire of the garrison was well kept up, . when their ammunition becoming exhausted, they had no alterna- tive but to spike their guns, and retire across the river to Fort Oswego. The abandoned fort, which contained eight guns and four mortars, was immediately occupied by Montcalm, who now continued his parallel down to the river aide, where a breaching battery was speedily erected, and next morning, at six o'clock, nine / /, guns poured a destructive fire at point blank range against Fort / Oswego. At eight o'clock, Colonel Mercer, its commanding officer, ' was killed ; and at ten, although its fire was still much superior to that of the French, the besieged hoisted a white flag and offered r ' 4 « !, IJl * |-.it •». i « ■ ! I! " I 156 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1756. to surrender, much to the astonishment of Montcalm and his officers. The garrison, consisting of Shirley's and Pepperell's regiments, and a detachment of Schuyler's regiment of militia, was about seventeen hundred strong, and lost one hundred and fifty in killed and wounded during the brief siege, or shortly afterwards, when thirty men attempting to escape through the woods were massacred by the Indians. The French had eighty killed and wounded. — Over sixteen hundred prisoners of war, including one hundred and twenty women, were sent down the St. Lawrence, and the colours of the captured regiments for a brief space decorated the walls of the churches of Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec. One hundred and twenty cannon and mortars, six sloops of war, two hundred boats, and large stores of ammunition and provisions, with £18,000 in coin, fell to the conquerors.* This was a most fortunate victory for Canada, and established the already rising reputation of Montcalm ; but he stained his triumph by permitting his Indians to plunder many of his captives, and to slay and scalp the wounded who had been intrusted to his care.f Instead of occupying Oswego, he courted the favour of the Iroquois by razing it to the ground, and then retraced his way to Fort Frontenac. 'J.'he cowardly defence of Oswego imprinted a deep stain on the reputation of the British troops, and its capture terminated the campaign in 1756 completely in favour of the French. " Our ti'ade," wrote an officer of Montcalm's army to a friend, " is now entirely re-established. Lake Ontario is ours without any opposi- tion. We can hardly recover from astonishment at the victory we have achieved." Webb, who had at length advanced with the 44th regiment to relieve the garrison, when he heard of its capture turned and fled to Albany ; Loudon expressed his fears of an attack while the enemy was flushed with victory. When the danger had passed over he dismissed the militia to their several localities, and quartered his r^^gulars on the people of Albany and New York. The hapless frontier settlers of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York alone experienced the full evils of the recent disasters. Parties of French and Indians, from the Ohio, swept through the border counties of these colonies, and marked their course by plunder and massacre. Maddened by these injuries a body of three hundred Pennsylvanians hastily assembled, pursued a i ' il 160 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1757. 1^ : «, sought the tents of eighteen months. They were also to surrender everything but tlioir private eflFects, and the Canadians and French Indians taken captiv e during the war were to be given up. On the other hand, Mont- calm agreed to supply a sutKcient escort for their protection. The capitulation was signed on the 9th of August, and on the evening of the same day, Munro delivered up the fort, and retired with his garrison to the inti*enched camp. Hitherto Montcalm had kept intoxicating liquors from the savages, but now they obtained them from tlie English, who were desirous to court their forbearance. But, unfortunately for the latter, this course produced a wholly diiferent result from what they had expected. The Indians had been promised the liberty of plundering the British, and the greater part of them were dissatis- fied with the stipulation which allowed them to carry off their private effects. Thus disappointed, and maddened by liquor, they spent the night in revelry, and in recounting the wrongs they had sustained from the English. As the day broke, the British soldiers began to march out of their intrenchments, and were immediately surrounded by the Indians, who at once began the work of plunder and massacre. Officers and men, sl/ript of everything, safety in the recesses of the forest, in the fort, or in the French. Levis rushed in among the infuriated savages, and endeavoured to appease them, but without effect. A spirit was now aroused which it was impossible to allay. Many French officers were wounded in their endeavour to shield the British troops. " Kill me," said Montcalm, " but spare them, they are under my protection." But his prayers and menaces were alike fruitless, and he urged the British to defend themselves. The march to Fort Edward was a disordered flight ; not more than six hundred reached it in a body. Four hundred more were collected in the French camp, and were dismissed with a strong escort, while Montcalm despatched an officer to ransom those who had been made captives by the Indians. Such was the terrible occur- rence which the novelist Cooper has so eloquently depicted in his " Last of the Mohicans." The Indians speedily returned to their homes, leaving the French busy in demolishing the fort, and in carrying off the vast stores that had been collected there. Montcalm's loss was trifling ; only fifty-three of his army had been killed and wounded. Still he forebore to follow up his victory by attacking Fort Edward, and dismissed the Canadian militia to gather in their harvest. Webb expected to be assailed every moment, sent his baggage accordingly to the rear, and designed to retreat to the highland fastnesses of the Hudson. The alarm spread in every direction. " For God sake," wrote the oflicer commanding at Albany to Governor Pownall, of Massachusetts, " exert yourself to save a province, New York itself may fall ; and the inhabitants west of the Connecticut River were directed to destroy their waggons, and drive in their cattle. Lord Loudon returned from his bootless and costly expedition to Halifax, 1757.] THE POLICY OP PITT. 161 leaving Louisburg untouched; and spent the remainder of the season in quarrelling with the colonies about the quarters for his troops and the royal prerogative, while the French were left undis- turbed. Driven from the basin of the Ohio and the great lakes, the western trade effectually checked, Avith the American frontiers beset by a vigilant enemy, and hordes of treacherous savages, the false friends of procperity, Britain and her colonies were sorely humiliated, and longed to avenge themselves. In England the return of the shattered fleet, which had convey- ed out to Halifax the troops to operate against Louisburg, and the intelligence of the fruitless operations of Lord Loudon, awoke a' storm of public indignation. The discarded ministry of the Duke of Newcastle shared the odium of failure with the incompetent general, and all eyes were now turned on Pitt, who had again as- sumed the helm of state, in the hope that his wisdom would soon alter matters for the better. Nor were they disappointed. The " Great Commoner" knew no party but the British nation, and sought its benefit with honesty and singleness of purpose. The principal object with him was to exalt the power and establish the prosperity of his country on a. sure basis, and to protect continental Protestantism, threatened, in the King of Prussia, by the formid- able coalition of the great Roman Catholic sovereigns. No sooner was he firmly established in office than, warned by their incapacity, he urged upon his sovereign the necessity of removing the military and naval officers who had hitherto conducted the operations against the French. The wisdom of this course was at once ap- parent to the king, who promptly gave his consent ; and Pitt, with that keen perception which belongs to superior genius, proceeded to select his generals. Casting aside the formalities of military precedent, he elevated Colonel Amherst, a man of solid judgment and respectable ability, to the rank of major-general, and placed him at the head of the force which was designed for the attack of Louisburg. Under Amherst, Whitmore, Lawrence,- and James Wolfe were appointed brigadier-Generals. The conquest of the Ohio valley was assigned to Forbes ; whiie Abercromby was to operate against Ticonderoga and Crown Point, with Lord Howe, on whom Pitt mainly relied for the success of the expedition, for his second in command. Of Abercromby the minister knew very little, and had soon reason to regret his appointment. Among these officers Howe and Wolfe, both young men, were the favourites <^ith the minister and the public. Howe, connected with many of the best families of the nobility, was possessed of a manly and humane disposition, and great quickness of perception iu discerning merit. Wolfe had only seen thirty-one summers, yet he had already been eighteen years in the army, and served at Dettingen, at Fontenoy, and at Laifeldt. At two-and-twenty merit had elevated him to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, in which capacity he had won the respect of his officers, and the affection of his men, who, while they experienced in him a strict disciplinarian, found ^ At ill » I. !• '.''^i •. ^ » H-..- . » ■f m ■». • I I 162 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1758. .also ii kind and humane friend. Con8ciii''ui>of ability, like evei-y man of .sterling talent, hi.s aspirations fop distinction had still nothing of egotism about them, and \^e clad in the garb of genuine modesty. An authoritative and fiiisJ fcommander and a brave soldier, still he was not ashamed to obey hib widowed mother, whom he regarded with the utmost affection ; white his gentle nature, even as he kindled at the near prospect of gi,**(ater distinction, already saw visions of future happiness in the i^iure .scenes of domestic love. t On the 19th of February a magnitice>it Heet sailed from Ports- mouth, which carried out General Amherst, and an army 1758. of ten thousand men. It was long detained by contrary winds, and, after a stormy passage, reached Halifax on the 28th of May, when Bosca wen's fleet was> met coming out of the harbour, the gallant admiral being weaiy of inaction. At dawn, on the 2nd of June, the entire armamewt, embracing twenty-two ships of the line, fifteen frigates, one hufl'dred and twenty smaller vessels, and eleven thousand six hundrffof troop.s, arrived off Louis- burg. Amherst indulged in the hopej^'mt he would be able to surprise its garrison, and issued orders '>ti it the silent landing of the troops. But for six days a rough sea,ii... A the heavy surf which broke upon the rugged beach, rendered ^feembarkation impossible. During this interval the French toiled ti ;ht and day to strengthen their position, and fired upon the ships >it every opportunity. On the evening of the 7th the wind lulled, the fog cleared off, and the heavy sea gradually subsided, but a violent surf still con- tinued to break on the beach. On the following morning, just before daylight, three divisions of boats received the troops ; at dawn Commodore Durell examined the shore, and reported a land- ing to be practicable. Seven frigates now opened fire to cover the advance to land. In a few minutes afterwards the left division, led by Brigadier "Wolfe, began to row in-shore, and was speedily followed by Whitmore and Lawrence with their brigades, while two small vessels were sent past the mouth of the harbour to dis- tract the attention of the enemy, and induce them to divide their force. The left division was the first to reach the beach at a point about four miles from the town. Wolfe would not allow a shot to be fired, stimulated the rowers to fresh exertions, and on coming to shoal water boldly jumped out into the sea to lead on his men. The French stood firm, and retained their fire till their assailants were close to land. Then, as the boats rose on the last swell which brought them into the surf, they poured in a close and deadly volley from every gun and musket they could bring to bear. Wolfe's flagstaff was shivered by a bai'-shot ; many soldiers were killed ; several boats were wrecked by the surf ; but still he cheered on his men, who had not yet returned a shot, and in a few minutes, with fiery valour, they had burst through the breastworks of the French, who fled in disorder, The victors pressed rapidly on in pursuit r A 1758.] SIEPxE OF LOUTSBURG 163 Wolfe's light troops W' posts deserted by the F upon the ships and lai tions of the siege progres owing to the marshy na flooded the trenches, h the principal officers, anc and despite a r 'gged ' .jtry inflicted a severe loss on the fugitives, captured seventy prisoi ts, and invested Louisburg the same day. For the succeeding ro days a rou^h sea rendered it impossible to land the siege artii ry, and provision.s were conveyed to the army with the greatest difficulty. On the 11th the weather mod- ei'ated, when tents wei landed, and some progress made in the preparations for the si ^e. On the 1 "2th De l3rucor, the French general, withdrew all i s outpo'sts, and even destroyed a battery which commanded the entrance 'of tie harbour, being desirous to reserve all his force for tl 3 defe>iice tf the town. The garrison of Louisburg was composed of tJnree thousand regular tnxjps and militia, with a few Indiai-s, In aidition to this force, six line-of- battle ships and two friga e s guarietl the harbour, at the entrance of which three other friga es had been sunk, to prevent the passage of the British fleet. e speedily in possession of the different iicb ^^^ O" the 20th a battery opened tefences. For many days the opera- d mder great difficulties to the British, of the ground, and heavy rains which oience, a sufficient force, union among rnAirage and endurance in sailors and sol- diers, overcame every ols^itacle, and promised speedy success. A sortie on the 9th of July Itj the besieged was speedily repelled, and day and night the batteries thundered against the ramparts, the citadel, and the shipping. On the 21st three of the French men-of- war were set on fire by a shell, the following day the citadel was in a blaze, the next the barracks were burned down, while Wolfe's trenches were pushed close to the town, and the French driven from their guns by the British sharp-shooters. On the night of the 25th two captains of Boscawen's fleet swept into the harbour with a squadron of boats, under a furious fire, and burned one of the remaining men-of-war and carried off another. Boscawen prepared to send in six ships of the line to attack the other French vessels ; but the town was already a heap of ruins, the greater part of its guns dismounted, its garrison without a safe place to rest in, so Drucor resolved to capitulate at discretion, such being the only terms he could get. Skilfully fortified, defended by a sufficient garrison and a power- ful fleet, Louisburg had been bravely w^n. Its capture shed fresh lustre on the genius of Pitt, as well as on the gallant men he had wisely chosen to effect it. It was indeed a triumph for British arms, so long stained by sad reverses. Five thousand six hundred soldiers and sailors were made prisoners, and eleven ships of war taken or destroyed. About fifteen thousand stands of arms, and large quantities of military stores and provisions, also fell into the hands of the victors ; as well as eleven sets of colours, which were laid at the f^et of the British sovereign, and subsequently deposited with due solemnity in St. Paul's. With Louisburg fell Cape Breton r: 1 •^.4 1 ' 1 .l"! ,11 t •• H\ \ %' 104 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1758. and Prince Edward's Island ; and thus terminated the power of France for ever on the eastern seaboard of North America.— Halifax being the British naval station, Louisburg was deserted ; and although the harbour still affords shelter from storms, a few hovels only mark the spot which so much treasure was expended to fortify, so much courage and endurance needed to conquer. While Amherst and Wolfe were still busily engaged in the siege of Louisburg, the largest army as yet seen on the American conti- nent assembled at Albany, under the command of Abercromby, the successor of Lord Loudon as general-in-chief, for the attack of Ticcnderoga and Crown Point. It was compose^ of a strong de- tachment of the royal artillery, six thousand three hundred and fifty troops of the line, and nine thousand provincial militia. In the latter end of June this force marched to Lake George, and en- camped by the ruins of Fort William Henry till the 5th of July, when it struck its tents, and embarking in one thousand and thirty- five boats, protected by artillery mounted on rafts, proceeded towards Ticonderoga. All that day did this flotilla pull steadily forward, and when evening fell the troops landed, and built large fires to deceive the French into the belief that they would proceed no further till morning, and to distract their attention. But in the dead of the night they were suddenly re-embarked, and hurried forward to the stream which connects the two lakes. On the left bank of this stream, where it falls into Lake Champlain, rises a bold headland, on which stood Ticonderoga, or Fort Carillon, as it was named by the French. Protected by the lake and river on the east and south, while to the north it was effectually covered by marshes, it could only be approached from the west. The fort might thus be said to be situated at the point of an acute angle, the base of this angle presenting the only way by which it could be assailed by a land force. Across this base, at a distance of half a mile from Carillon, Montcalm marked out his lines, which he for- tified by felled trees and intrenchments of earth. At five o'clock on the morning of the 6th the advanced guard of the British, composed of two thousand men under the command of the gallant Bradstreet, were safely landed, and meeting no opposi- tion were speedily followed by the entire army, which pushed forward in four columns covei'ed by skirmishers. Montcalm did not expect to see Abercromby so soon in his immediate neighbour- hood, and was almost takei^by surprise. ** These people," said he, " march cautiously, yet if they give me time to gain the position I have chosen on the heights of Carillon I shall beat them." The British columns, led by guides who knew little of the neigh- bourhood, broke and jostled each other repeatedly. So dense was the forest and uneven the ground that an outlying detachment of three hundred French troops, called in by their general, lost their way, and were suddenly encountered by the right centre of the British army led by Lord Howe. The worn-out stragglers, who had been wandering twelve hours in the forest, fought bravely, but I . 1 1758.] DEATH OF LORD HOWE 165 ain, rises a were soon overwhelmed. Some were killed, others drowned in the stream, and one hundred and fifty-nine surrendered. Howe, fore- most in the skirmish, was the first to fall. Pierced by a bullet in the breast, he expired almost instantly, to the great sorrow of his com- panions in arms, by whom he was much beloved. His death was fatal to the army, and infatuation and dismay took the place of the cool conduct and courage which had hitherto marked its muve- men'^s. The British troops passed the ensuing night under arms in the forest, and next morning Abercromby had no better plan than to withdraw them to the landing-place, about two miles distant. An hour before noon Bradstreet again pushed forward with a strong detachment to rebuild the bridges which the French had thrown down, and take possession of a strong position at some saw-mills, less than two miles from Montcalm's lines, where he was speedily joined by the entire army. At dawn on the morning of the 8th Colonel Clark, the chief engineer, was despatched with several of the principal officers to reconnoitre the French lines. These Clark represented " to be flimsy in construction and strong in appearance only;" an opinion from which several of the other officers dissented. But Abercromby leaned to the professional counsel of the engineer, and having already learned from a prisoner, who deceived him, however, that Montcalm's force was six thousand strong, and that Levis was inarching to support him with three thousand men, he determined to carry the French lines by storm, without even waiting for his cannon. Levis had already joined Montcalm the previous evening, and brought only eight hundred men to his assistance, but four hundred of these were picked troops. At an early hour the French drums beat to arms, and Montcalm rad,rched his force, which did not amount to four thousand men, into the threatened intrenchments ; and having instructed them in the positions they were to occupy, the strengthening of his works was promptly proceeded with, despite the fire of the British light troops. The French intrenchments were of the most formidable description — a fact discovered too late. A solid earthen breast- work protected the defenders from a hostile fire ; while the slope in front was covered for nearly one hundred yards vith an abatis of felled trees laid close together, the pointed branches of which ob- structed the movements of an advancing force. Montqalm design- ed to protect his flanks, which he had not time to intrench, by batteries, but the rapid advance of the British prevented their construction, and accordingly both ends of his line could have been turned without difficulty. This the French general was well aware of, and gave orders that if either of his flanks were turned, his troops were to abandon the field, and retreat to their boats as they best might. Totally ignorant of this circumstance, which could never have escaped the sharp eyes of a skilful general, Abercromby rashly de- • «. A. .•I •t \ I . * 166 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1758. termined to throw his best troops against the enemy's centre, and cut their line in two, while his other troops assailed their right and left. While the army was forming for the attack. Sir WiUiam Johnson arrived with four hundred and forty Iroquois, who were push- ed forward into the woods to distract the attention of the enemy, but they took no active part in the bloody action that ensued. The American rangers, Bradstreet's boatmen, and some companies of light infantry, formed Abercromby's first line ; the second line was composed of the Massachusetts militia ; in the third were the British regiments of the line, with Murray's Highlanders, the gal- lant 42nd. The reserve consisted of the Connecticut and New Jersey militia. While the army was forming, detachments of French came forward and skirmished, but were speedily overpower- ed and driven back to the cover of their intrenchments. At one o'clock, having received orders not to fire till they had surmounted the breastwork, the British moved forward in three heavy columns, with skirmishers in the intervals, to force the French defences. Montcalm, who stood just within the intrench- ments, while Abercromby occupied a secure post in the rear of his anLiy, threw off his great-coat, the heat of the July afternoon being excessive, and ordered his men not to fire a shot till he commanded. No sooner had the heads of the British 'lolumns become entangled among the trees and logs in front of th > breastwork, than the word to fire was given, when a sudden and incessant discharge from swivels and small arms mowed down brave officers and men by hundreds. The light troops and militia were now moved aside, and the grenadier companies of the line, followed by Murray's Highlanders, pushed forward with quick but steady step, and despite the hea\'y fire of the French, without one hesitating pause or random shot, their column gallantly dashed against the abatis. Through this the grenadiers with desperate valour endeavoured to force their way, but the cool and well-aimed fire o2 the French smote them rapidly down. Maddened by the delay, thr Highlanders, who should have remained in reserve, were not to be restrained, and rushed to the front. For a moment they appeared more successful, but they fiercely won their way throu;^h the abatis to die upon the summit of the breastwork, till ere long half of these gallant men, and the greater part of their officers, were slain or severely wounded. Th^n fresh troops- pressed on, and for nearly four hours the attack w is renewed again and again by the British; now fiercely rushi > r forward, then broken and shattered by the murderous fire of i.nt foe, they sullenly retired to reform their ranks for another de5>pei- ate effort. But the valour of these brave men, thus sacrificed by an incompetent commander, was unavailing ; and against that rude barrier so easily turned, and which one hour of woll-plied artillery would have swept away, the flower of British chivalry was crushed and broken. At length, in the confusion, an English column lost their way, and fired in mistake on their comrades. This event 1758.] DEFEAT OF ABERCROMBY. 16; produced hopi^'f* lejection ; the disordei* in a few minutes became irretrievable, a .. ^.Highlanders and provincials, rangers and grena- diers, joined in one disgraceful flight. During the confusion of battle, Abercromby cowered safely at the saw-mills in the rear. When his presence was necessary to rally the fugitives, he was nowhere to be found, and his second in command lost the opportunity of distinguishing himself, and gave no orders. But the disordered troops, finding the French did not pursue them, gradually recovered from their terror, and rallied of their own accord on a few unbroken battalions whom the general had retained in his vicinity, most probably with a view to his own safety. Yet scarcely had confidence been partially restored, than an unaccountable order from Abercromby to retreat to the landing- place renewed the panic. The soldiers concluding they were to embark immediately, to escape the pursuit of their victorious enemy, broke from all order and control, and crowded towards the boats. Fortunately, however, Bradstreet still held together a small force, which he now with prompt decision formed across the landing- place, and would not suffer a man to embark. Had the disordered masses been allowed to rush into the boats, numbers must have perished in the lake ; and thus to the prudence of one man the salvation of many lives may be justly attributed. Owing to Brad- street's spirited conduct, order was in a little time restored, and the army remained on the lake-shore for the night. It still ex- ceeded the French force four-fold, yet next morning Abercromby re-embarked, did not rest till he was safe aci-oss the lake, and even then sent on his artillery and ammunition to Albany, to prevent the possibility of their falling into the hands of Montcalm. In this sanguinary battle the British army lost nineteen hundred and fifty men in killed, wounded and missing, nearly the whole of whom were regular troops, with a large proportion of officers. Of the French force four hundred and fifty were killed and wounded, among whom there were no less than thirty-eight officers.* Had the French pursued, the loss of the British must have been much greater ; and no doubt had they been aware of the complete dis- order of the enemy, they would have done so. No sooner had the firing ceased than Montcalm caused refreshments to be distributed among his exhausted soldiers, and thanked every regiment for their incredible valour. Dreading a fresh assault when the British would bring up their guns, he employed the night in strengthening his lines. But he had nothing to apprehend from Abercromby, who shaiedthe fright and consternatimi of his aneanest sentinel. — " Had I to besiege Fort Carillon," said Montcalm, " I would ask but for six mortars and two pieces of artillery."! The English general had still an army of fourteen thousand men, and an amply suffici- ent siege train ; but he whiled away the season of action near the * Smith's Hiat. Can., vol. i. p. 265. t Bancroft's Hist, United States, vol. iii. p. 217. ' . > . i ..1 n ♦ ». . ./t^i r.^ • , 1 r 4 It >• 168 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1758. site of Port William Henry in lining out a new fort, and thus signalised himself as one of the many incapables whom the purchase of commissions, and seniority system of the British military service, have elevated to the rank of general officers. Had he been gifted with ordinary military skill and prudence his success was certain. " Never was a general in a more critical position," wrote Montcalm to his mother after the battle. " God has delivered me ; his be the praise. He gives me health though I am worn out with labour, fatigue and miserable dissensions, that have determined me to ask for my recall. Vaudreuil was envious of the great officer, and be- littled him in every possible way. But the brave Bradstreet still persisted in his purpose of attack- ing Fort Frontenac, and was at length supported by a majority in the council of war. At the Oneida portage. Brigadier Stanwyx placed under his command nearly three thousand militia, and here he was also joined by forty-two of the Onondagas led by their chief " Red Head." Leading his men down the river past the scene of his brilliant victory in 1756, Bradstreet speedily found himself on Lake Ontario, and landed on the 25th of August within a mile of Fort Frontenac. This famed position he found to be a quadrangle, defended by thirty guns and sixteen small mortars ; but the works were weak, and the garrison small and dispirited. Bradstreet opened his lines at five hundred yards from the fort, but finding the distance too great, and the fire of the enemy little to be feared, he took possession of an old intrenchment near the de- fences, whence his guns opened with effect. The garrison, consisting of only one hundred and twenty soldiers and forty Indians^ were utterly incapable of defence, and surrendered on the morning of the 27th, finding there was no prospect of the succour which the commandant, De Noyan, had already asked from the Governor. — Sixty pieces of cannon, sixteen small mortars, an immense supply of provisions and ammunition, and all the shipping on the lake, among which were several vessels laden with rich furs, fell into the hands of the victors, who had not to lament the loss of a single man. Owing to the orders of Abercromby, Bradstreet had no choice but to burn and destroy the artillery, the stores, and even the provisions he had so easily captured, and to return by the route he had advanced. The ships, with the exception of two, retained to carry the furs across the lake, were also destroyed, and the fort blown up and abandoned. It was repaired, however, during the summer by the French, who likewise added to the works at Niagara, and strengthened the garrison there. Still, the loss of the large supplies of ammunition and provisions stored up at Frontenac, and the destruction of their fleet, was a severe blow to the French, and seriously crippled their operations westward. De Vaudreuil en- deavoured to shift the blame attaching to himself, for not strength- ening the garrison, to Noyan ; and compromised that officer's position to such an extent, that he was compelled to retire from the military service altogether. 1758.] PROGRESS OP THE WAR. 169 While Bradstreet was engaged in the expedition against Fort Frontenac, Montcalm, from his position at Ticonderoga, lost no opportunity of harassing the outposts of Abercromby's army. On the 17th of July, a party of twenty provincials and three officers were destroyed by the French light troops near Fort Edward ; and, ten days afterwards, one hundred and six ^n teamsters were surprised and massacred about the same place. Major Rogers was despatched, with seven hundred men, to seek out and punish the enemy. Hardships and desertion soon reduced his force to nearly five hundred men, who encountered an equal number of French on the 8th of Aug'.'.«t, and soundly beat them, killing and wounding one hundred and iiinety of the enemy, while their own loss was only forty. The capture of Louisburg and Fort Frontenac, with the bloody repulse of Abercromby by Montcalm, and the affair of outposts just narrated, may be said to have closed the campaign of 1758 at the north. Westward, the French power received a severe check in the capture of Fort Duquesne. On the 30th of June, Brigadier Forbes marched from Philadelphia, en route for the Ohio valley, at the head of fifteen hundred regular troops and five thousand militia. Among the latter were two Virginian corps under the command of Washington. The march over the Alleghanies was long and laborious, and commemorated by the construction of a new road to the Ohio. — September had come before the army arrived at Raystown, within ninety miles of Fort Duquesne. Here Forbes, who had been carried the greater part of the way in a litter, and whose life was fast ebbing, halted the main body of his force, and detached Colonel Bouquet with two thousand men to take post at Loyal Harina. — This officer, having learned that Fort Duquesne was weakly garri- soned, conceived the idea of capturing it before the arrival of his chief, and accordingly detached Major Grant, with eight hundred Highlanders and a company of Virginian militia, to effect a recon- naissance of the works. Instead of fulfilling his instructions, and retiring on the main body. Grant posted his men on a hill, and beat a march as a challenge to the garrison. The combat was promptly accepted, and, after a severe action, the Highlanders were completely routed, with a loss of nearly three hundred in killed, wounded and prisoners. In this affair the company of Virginian militia rendered essential service, and were publicly ex- tolled by Forbes. The whole army now moved forward as rapidly as the rugged nature of the country and the unusually unfavourable weather would permit, the advance led by Washington. Scouting parties of French and Indians endeavoured to impede its march, but were always promptly repulsed. Finding that resistance to the strong force, so cautiously and securely moving ngainst him, could not be made with any prospect of success, the French commandant with- drew from Fort Duquesne, after springing a mine under one of its ' > , • I. 1.^ .Hi .' . ! ' I ■■\:-i \. • -: m • ! ;.« , 1 170 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1758. I* Is* : It ' Ik '.. faces, and dropped down the stream of the Ohio to the friendly settlements on the Mississippi. It was now tl e 24th of November, and the hills were already white with snow. On the following day the British took possession of the deserted stronghold, at once pro- ceeded to repair its works, and changed its name to Pittsburg, in honour of the minister who planned its capture, and of whose glory the city on its site remains the enduring memorial. The capture of Port Duquesne closed the campaign of 1758. It was an event of considerable importance to the British, and restor- ed their failing military reputation with the western Indians, while it effectually interrupted the communications of the French with their settlements in Louisiana. Brigadier Porbes lived but a brief space to enjoy the credit of its capture : his naturally weak consti- tution was ruined altogether by the hardships he had undergone during the expedition, and he died at Philadelphia soon after his return, much regretted by his acquaintance. Although the cam- paign had been chequered with disaster, still its general results were eminently favourable to Great Britain, and reflected additional lustre on the great man who now guided her councils. It restored peace to the western frontier, and freed it from the terrible Indian incursions so fatal to the border settlements. The capture of Louisburg left Prance without a safe port near the lower St. Lawrence, and effectually closed Canada in on the seaboard, while the reduction of Prontenac and Duquesne had given all the terri- tory to Britain for tae possession of which the war had arisen, and cut the enemy's line of defence in two at its central point. The Indians soon began to turn with the tide, and seized three Precnh canoes in LakeOntario and murdered their occupants. Abercromby's defeat only delayed the final catastrophe for a brief space. His overwhelming force still menaced Canada from the side of Lake Champlain ; and Montcalm was fully sensible that it only wanted a skilful general to lead it to victoiy. That leader Pitt considered he gave it in the prudent Amherst, who received his commission, appointing him commander-in-chief of the army in America, in December, and at once proceeded to New York to supersede Abercromby, who returned in disgrace to England. In the same vessel with the fallen general sailed the gallant Wolfe on leave of absence. ^^' CHAPTER VIII ^ ^ 1 I I ■n-i THE GOVERNMENT OF THE MARQUIS DE VAUDREUIL,-.con. . I 1 I 178 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1759, and even moderate punishment failed to keep them by their colours, till at length a general court-martial sentenced four deser- ters to be shot ; and yet this terrible example did not altogether abate the evil. On the 22nd of June, Amherst traced out the plan of Fort George, near the spot where Fort William Henry formerly stood, and on the 21st of July, every preparation having been com- pleted, his army, over eleven thousand strong, one-half of whom were regulars, with fifty-four guns, embarked and moved down the lake in four columns. Next day it landed near the place where Aber- cromby had disembarked the year before. The British vanguard, composed prinolpaily of light troops, pushed rapidly forward into the bush, and soon encountered a detachment of French and Indians, who were overpowered and dispersed. Amherst followed with his main body in good order, and halted for the night at the Saw-mills, preparatory to an assault on the French lines, which he learned from some deserters were guarded by Bourlemaque, with a body of three thousand four hundred men, composed of regular troops, Oanadians and Indians. That night the British lay upon their arms, while every exertion was made to bring up the artillery. But, although Amherst's force was inferior to Abercromby's, the French next morning withdrew from the lines which had enabled them to gain their vic- tory of the preceding year, and fell back upon Fort Carillon. The British grenadiers immediately occupied the deserted intrench- ment, and the rest of the army encamped a short distance to the rear. A sharp fire was soon opened from the fort on the British camp, but no loss was sustained owing to the great height and strength of the breastwork, which now proved a most effectual shelter. Bourlemaque soon perceived that even the defence of the fort was impracticable, and, in pursuance of his orders in that case, silently abandoned it on the night of the 23rd, leaving four hundred men behind to continue such resistance as might conceal his retreat. These carried out their orders in the most effectual manner by making an assault upon the besiegers' trenches, where they killed and wounded sixteen men, and caused considerable confusion in the darkness of the night. During the 24th and 25th they kept up a constant fire on the trenches, and having got the range accurately, caused a good deal of trouble and some loss of life. On the night of the 26th, deserters brought intelligence to Amherst that the garrison had abandoned the fort, but loft every gun loaded and pointed, mines charged to blow up the defences, and a lighted fuse communicating with the powder magazine. In a few moments a tremendous explosion confirmed their statements, and the next minute the flames of the wooden breastwork, barracks and stores, fell far and near upon the lake and forest, their lurid glare deepen- ed at intervals by the flashes of the bursting guns and exploding mines. General Amherst promptly detached some light troops in pursuit of the retreating French, from whom were captured several boats, ^r: H 1759.] CROWN POINT CAPTURED. I7y laflen with powder, and sixteen prisoners. At daylight a sergeant volunteered to strike the French flag, which still floated uninjured abc /e the ruined fort, and raise that of Britain in its place. A detachment soon after succeeded in extinguishing the flames, when the task of repairing the works was speedily proceeded with, while Captain Loring of the navy raised some French boats which had been sunk, and commenced the construction of a brig, in order to strengthen the British naval power, which was much inferior to that of the enemy, on the lake. The capture of Crown Point was the next important step to be accomplished, and Major Rogers was despatched with two hundred rangers to examine the position, establish himself in some strong post near the fort, and hold out, if attacked, till relieved by the advance of the army. But it was soon ascertained that the French had also dismantled and abandoned Crown Point, which was ac- cordingly taken possession of by a British detachment. On the 4th of August, Amherst came up with his main force, encamped, and traced out the lines of a new fort, as a protection against the scouting parties of the French and Indians, who had so long been the terror of the British frontier settlements. Bourlemaque had retreated to the Isle-aux-Noix, at the northern extremity of the lake, where he strongly intrenched himself. Here, with a force of three thousand five hundred men, one hundred pieces of cannon, and four armed vessels commanded by naval officers, he determined to defend the entrance of the Richelieu to the last extremity. Amherst has been much censured for not captur- ing this post, and effecting a junction with Wolfe at Quebec, but when his position comes to be fairly examined, it is at once evident that he has been unjustly condemned. The command of the Richelieu was then absolutely necessary to the descent of an army from Lake Champlain on Canada, it being the only open road, and a land force was utterly helpless before an enemy strongly intrenched on an island, who also held complete command of the surrounding waters with his fleet. Amherst under these circumstances had only two courses to pursue. One was to open a road through the forest, and to push on to Montreal, leaving Bourlemaque in his rear ; the other to obtain command of the lake, and drive him from his position. He wisely adopted the latter course. Before, how- ever, it could be fully carried out, the bleak winds of October swept over the lake, and the main body of the British invading army was compelled to waste its strength in inaction on the veiy threshold of Canada. Nor was the force which Prideaux had led against Niagara more fortunate. On learning the death of that officer, Amherst had sent Brigadier Gage to assume the command, and instructed him to descend from Oswego with a sufiicient force to capture Ogdensburg, or, as it was still called. La Presentation. But Gage allowed his harvest-time of honour to pass away, to Amherst's infinite chagrin, and this important operation was defer- red till the ensuing year. » J I f s "t « , 180 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1759. While the bulk of the army lay inactive at Crown Point, a de- tachment of two hundred rangers under the indefatigable Rogers, already so distinguished in border warfare, was despatched to punish the Indians at Lake St. Francis for detaining an officer and some men, who had been sent with a flag of truce to offer them peace on condition of their remaining neutral. Rogers suffered the greatest hardships in penetrating the untrodden wilderness. One- fourth of his men dropped behind from fatigue, or perished in the march. Still he persevered, arrived in the vicinity of his destina- tion on the evening of the 22nd of October, and pushed forward alone to reconnoitre. The Indians were engaged in the war-dance, and exhausted by fatigue, as midnight approached, they sank into a profound slumber. But a foe as subtle as themselves, and infuri- ated by long years of injury, now hovered near, prepared to inflict the punishment their numerous massacres of women and children so justly merited. At two o'clock in the morning the British burst upon the sleepers with a loud cry of vengeance, and two hundred warriors were speedily slain, but the women and children were spared. Meanwhile a French detachment had captured Roger's boats, and threatened to cut off his retreat. Breaking into small parties, the British sought the shelter of the forest, and underwent the most extreme hardships before reaching a friendly settlement. On the 10th of October a brig mounting eighteen guns arrived at Crown Point from Ticonderoga, and a sloop of sixteen guns being also ready, the army embarked in boats for Isle-aux-Noix, and pro- ceeded up the lake in four divisions. But a severe storm and mishaps of various kinds retarded its progress, and although the greater part of the French fleet was destroyed, the lateness of the season rendered it useless to advance, and Amherst reluctantly re- tired to place his troops in winter quarters : a measure the more necessary as the provincials had become unusually sickly. Thus closed the <*ampaign of the British forces, which menaced Canada towards Ihe west : it now remains for us to trace the operations in the St. Lawrence. As soon as the weather permitted Wolfe assembled his array, amounting to about eight thousand men, atLouisburg. It was divided into three brigades, led by Brigadiers Monckton, Townshend and Murray, while its adjutant-general was Isaac Barre, an Irishman of humble birth, eloquent, ambitious and fearless, to whom the authorship of the Letters of Junius has been attributed, and who sub- sequently perished on his return from the East Indies. The fleet, consisting of twenty-two men-of-war and as many frigates and arm- ed vessels, was under the command of Admiral Saunders, a brave, skilful, and kind-hearted sailor. On board of one of its ships was Jervis, afterwards Earl St. Vincent, while James Cook, the cele- brated navigator, who subsequently traversed the unexplored waters of the Pacific, and threaded his way amidst its many isles, was sailing-master of another. On the 1st of June preparations were made to put to sea from • « .-^h ■; ■ . 'M 1759.1 WOLFE ASCENDS TO QUEBEC. 181 Louisburg, yet fully six days elapsed before the huge armament had entirely cleared the land. While spreading sail the admiral received the unwelcome intelligence, that his advanced squadron had suffered three French frigates and several store-ships to pass up the St. Lawrence. Two vessels only were captured, on board of which were found charts of the river that proved of the greatest service to the British fleet. On the 26th the armament arrived safely off the Isle of Orleans, and preparations were promptly commenced for the disembarkation of the troops. Great was now the confusion and distress at Quebec, where the reverses of the preceding year's campaign had already produced the most dismal forebodings. To the clerical orders, especially, the p* spect of British rule was particularly un- palatable. This was fori, ibly illustrated while the British fleet was still ascending the river,* The advance under Durell carried French colours till they arrived off Bic. Its inhabitants imagined, in consequence, that the expected succours had arrived from France,. and messengers were despatched to Quebec with the intelligence. But when the white colours were struck, and the Union Jack hoisted in their place, their consternation and grief were incon- ceivable, and the occurrence so affected a priest, who stood on the shore with telescope in hand, that he dropped down and instantly expired.* Early on the morning of the 27th, the troops landed on the island, which the inhabitants had abandoned during the previous night, and with the fertility and beauty of which the soldiers were delighted after their wearisome voyage. The eye of genius has often since rested upon the magnificent coup d'ccil which now burst upon the vision of their young general, from the western end of the isle, but the scene can hardly ever again awaken the emo- tions which then agitated his bosom. In the foreground, the white tents of his camp glanced in the sunshine ; on his left lay the magnificent fleet at anchor ; in his front, the citadel of Quebec was seen in the distance rising precipitously against the horizon in the midst of one of the grandest scenes of nature, and apparently impregnable. For its defence the gallant Montcalm had exhausted, with the means at his disposal, every plan which ingenuity and skill could devise. Above Quebec the height on which the Upper Town is built, spreads out into an elevated table-land, suddenly ter- minated towards the river by steep declivities. In this direction, for nine miles or more to Cape Rouge, every landing-place was in- trenched and guarded. Immediately below the city, the River St. Charles, its mouth then closed by a bwim and defended by stranded frigates, swept its rocky base, and expanded into marshes which afforded additional security. From thence to the Montmor- ency, a distance \)f eight miles, extended the position occupied by the French army, protected by numerous redoubts and intrench- • J. ; . • 1, M •II 1. » . .. » ■». ' ' ' o sea from * Smith's Hist. (Jau, vol. i. p. 291. 182 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1759. ments, the shoals and rocks of the St. Lawrence, and aknost im. pregnable. Behind lay the rich valley of the St. Charles, and the pretty villages of Charlesburg and Beauport, which, with a few other hamlets, gave shelter and hospitality in the rear. For the defence of these formidable lines Montcalm had twelve thousand French and Canadian troops and about four hundred Indians. As Wolfe gazed with intense interest on the prospect, to him at once beautiful and appalling, a storm suddenly gathered, and soon the teeming rain vailed the opposite shore, while a dangerous hur- ricane swept over the river with destructive force. Transports were driven from their moorings and cast ashore, smaller vessels were dashed against each other and swamped, while the vessels of war with difficulty held their anchors. Wolfe retraced his steps thoughtfully to the camp, somewhat discouraged by the great diffi- culties which he now saw clearly beset the enterprise he had promised Pitt to accomplish if possible. The storm passed away ; evening soon merged into a night at once still and dark ; and now Montcalm sent down six fire-ships on the receding tide towards the British fleet. From these shot and shell crashed among the trees and rocks, or left long seething furrows in the stream. Presently lurid flames burst from their hulls, caught the sails, and ran along their masts and spars in. thin red lines, lighting up the river, the hostile camps, and the city in tfie distance. As the blaze increased explosion after explosion tossed the burning vessels hither and thither, the tide still carrying them steadily towards the fleet. The sentries terrified at a sight so unusual, and believing that the French were advancing in force, fell back upon their pickets, and these in turn on the main body, when the drums beat to arms. — Daylight alone restored confidence and order. Meanwhile, a num- ber of well-manned boats put off towards the fire-ships, and the sailors, waiting till all the guns had exploded, fastened grappling irons to their hulls and towed them leisurely ashore. Finding that the channel at the Island of Orleans was neither a safe nor convenient anchorage in rough weather. Admiral Saunders determined to pass up into the basin, or harbour of Quebec, and learning that the French occupied, with some troops and artillery, the headland of Point Levis, from whence they could seriously annoy his ships, he requested Wolfe to take possession of it. This duty was assigned to Brigadier Monckton, who pushed forward one of his regiments on the evening of the 29th, and following next morn- ing at daybreak with the rest of his brigade, soon occupied the point, despite a stout resistance by a body of Canadians and In- dians some twelve hundred strong. In the possession of this post, Montcalm felt the British had gained a dangerous advantage. From the first he had seen its im- portance, for although it was three-quarters of a mile from the city heavy guns could play from thence with destructive effect. In a council of war he had urged that four thousand men should be strongly intrenched at Point Levis, and hold it to the last extremity, 1759.] THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. 183 but was overruled by the Governor, and from that hour the general regarded the latter with greater dislike than before.* He made a feeble attempt to dislodge the British by attacking their position with three floating batteries, but these were repulsed by a single broadside from a frigate, which a fair wind speedily carried up to the scene of action. Wolfe had already issued a proclamation to the inhabitants, of- fering safety in person and property if they remained neUtral. But the counter-proclamations aiid threats of MontcalAi, and their own national prejudices, held them fast in their allegiance. In company with the Indians they hung upon the skirts of the British army, cutting off and scalping stragglers whenever practicable, and Wolfe's soldiers, some of whom had been at the massacre of Fort William Henry and well trained in forest warfare, began to make reprisals of the same description, and burn and plunder on every opportunity. The British general endeavoured to restrain these excesses, but was ultimately so enraged by the cruel massacre of several of his men, that he allowed his light troops to retaliate on Indians, or on Canadians disguised like them, but forbade them, under the penalty of death, to molest the peaceable inhabitants. A battery at Point Levis, and another at the western point of the Isle of Orleans, gave sufficient security to the fleet. These were completed by the morning of the 9th of July, when three frigt^tes of light draught opened fire upon the French lines below Quebec. — Monckton, at the same time, marched his brigade along the oppo- site side of the river, in order to distract Montcalm's attention while Wolie was taking post with the main body of his army on the east* m bank of the Montmorency. He was thus placed at an angle with the French lines along the St. Lawrence, and in their rear, but the rapid current of the Montmorency, rushing over its rocky bed in impassable eddies and rapids, still separated the hostile armies. Three miles in the interior a ford was discovered, but the opposite bank was steep, woody, and well intrenched, and its passage impracticable in the face of a superior force. Not a spot along the Montmorency for miles into the interior, nor on the St. Lawrence to Quebec, was left unprotected by the vigilant Montcalm, and Wolfe began to despair of forcing him to a battle on anything like equal terms. The French once defeated, he felt assured that Quebec, insufficiently supplied with military stores and threatened by famine, must surrender ; but to compel them to tight with a fair prospect of success to British arms was the great difficulty. Vainly did Wolfe penetrate the dense bush and rugged country along the Montmorency, in order to discover some favour- able point to turn Montcalm's flank, and thus bring on a battle in * A bitter feud had almost immediately arinen between Vaudrenil and Montcalm, on the latter's arrival in Canada. The Governor became jealous of the general, and repeatedly wrote to the authorities in France to his prejudice. Montcaln made the breach still wider by vigorously denouncing the fraudulent conduct uf the Canadian ufliuiaU. I . . I ^1 , ■ i .1 I' •*. ' ring day for their carelessness. The French speedily constructed a battery at Sillery to annoy Rous's squadron, but its fire only had the effect of causing him to weigh anchor, and to move a little farther up the river. The French artillerymen had scarcely ceased firing at Rous's frigates, when a boat was observed skirting the southern shore, the mast of which they carried away by a shot. This boat bore Wolfe and Admiral Saunders on their way to reconnoitre the river's bank above. The keen eye of the general traced the outline of the pre- cipitous hill on which stands Quebec, and beheld a natural fastness defended at every assailable point by cannon, boats and floating batteries. Matters looked just as unpromising above the town as below it ; the banks were everywhere high and precipitous ; at every weak point intrenchments had been thrown up, and each movement of an enemy was jealously watched. Wolfe was almost in despair ; yet he determined to persevere, in the hope that some fortunate occurrence would aid him. To divide and harass the enemy, and obtain intelligence, he directed Colonel Carleton, who commanded the troops with Rous's squadron, to make a descent on the small town of Pointa-aux-Trembles, twenty- one miles up the river from Quebec, to which many of the inhabitants 1759.] THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. 185 of the city had retreated with their goods and valuables. A few Indians made a feeble resistance, and a number cf useless prisoners, some plunder, and several packets of letters, fell into the hands of the British. The latter furnished important intelligence. ** The Governor and Montcalm have disagreed," said one ; " But for our priests and the dread of the savages we would submit," said an- other, a third stated, " We are without hope and food ; since the English have passed the town, our communication with Montreal is cut off — God hath forsaken us." To increase the misery of the besieged, orders were now given to lay waste the surrounding country. On the 25th, Wolfe proceeded up the eastern bank of the Mont- morency, to examine some works which the French were erecting on the opposite side. His escort was attacked, and for a time hardly pressed by a strong body of Indians, who were only repuls- ed after a loss had been sustained of fifty killed and woundeid. — NexG morning the 78th Highlanders, surprised a French detach- ment, and slew nine of them. Scarcely a day passed over without skirmishes now taking place. Ou the night of the 28th the French sent down a large fire-raft, but it was towed ashore without doing any injury, and Wolfe threatened that if any more such were made they would be fastened to those vessels in which were the French prisoners. This threat had the desired effect. July was almost gone, and the British general had as yet effected little towards the capture of Quebec. It was true, he had severely harassed the enemy, and that he occupied the most import- ant points in the neighbourhood of the beleaguered fortress, but its defences still remained untov^ed. Before leaving England Wolfe had been taught that his force was merely auxiliary to Amherst's army, and another man, with the formidable obstacles which every- where encountered him, would have awaited its arrival. But with dauntless resolution he hoped on almost against hope, andj although his constitution was rapidly breaking up, resolved to make every effort to serve his country. The Montmorency after falling over a perpendicular rock expands into shallows for a distance of three hundred yards, and flows into the St. Lawrence at an obtuse angle. Near the apex of this angle Montcalm had placed a four-gun redoubt. The shallows of the Montmorency were fordable at low tide, and Wolfe now arranged with the admiral, that one column should wade across the stream and assault this redoubt, while another disembarking from the boats of the fliet supported the movement from the St. Lawrence. Meanwhile, the batteries from beyond the Montmorency were to sweep the French lines, while that at Point Levis was to play vigorously on the city. Could he possess himself of this redoubt and turn the right of the French line, Montcalm must then either fight or retreat. In the latter case the St. Charles, defended by a boom and two stranded frigates, would still be between Wolfe and the town ; but one difficulty overcome, he trusted to surmount the other. ,.-u-i '; ■ » ■j'/-1 ' 41 ! I '* r K •r I i * . . \ • 4 I ; ' 1 ' • t ' < ll< '. Il 186 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1759. If :. On the 3 Ist July, every preparation having been made, three vessels of light draught, two of which, however, grounded, ran in-shore, and opened fire upon the redoubt. The movements of the British warned Montcalm of their true point of attack, and he promptly made disposition to baffle it by a flank movement across the ford of the Montmorency, and capture their batteries, while their main body wasted its strength against his intrenchments. The British gene- ral, however, saw his intention, and directed the 48th, left in the works at Point Levis, to push up the river as if to attack the Prench position above the city. This proceeding compelled Mont- calm to relinquish his flank movement, and detach the two battalions he intended should accomplish it to observe the 48th. — Meanwhile, night was coming on apace, and a storm already darkened the distant horizon ; but Wolfe, observing disorder in the enemy's line, owing to new formations of troops, gave the signal to advance at five o'clock, and with a loud cheer the sailors bent to their oars, and the long motionless flotilla sprang into life. Some of the leading boats grounded on a rock, others were swamped by the guns of the enemy, and for a brief space it seemed as though the British would be beaten back. Wolfe sprang into a cutter and soon discovered a safe passage to the shore, to which a few pulls carried the flotilla. The next moment the eager troops jumped upon land, when the Prench gave a parting volley, aban- doned the redoubt, and retreated to their intrenchments, crowning the crest of the slope beyond. Several companies of grenadiers and some Royal Americans were the first ashore. These had orders to form in four columns on the beach, and wait the arrival of the remainder of the troops from the boats, and Townshend's brigade already advancing across the Montmorency. But proud of their post of preference, exasper- ated at their long delay, and regardless of the orders of their officers, they rushed forward to storm the French intrenchments. Wolfe saw that this rash valour had ruined the fortunes of the day, and instead of supporting the advance of his grenadiers, whom he strove ineffectually to recall, formed the remainder of his troops in admirable order on the beach to cover their inevitable retreat. Meanwhile the storm burst, the ground became slippery, and the teeming rain soon spoiled the ammunition of the grenadiers. — Still they pressed on, relying upon the bayonet, although they could scarcely keep their feet. But one close and steady volley from the Prench was sufficient to roll them back from the crest of the hill, when they sullenly retired, leaving over two hundred of their killed and wounded behind at the mercy of the Indians, who speedily swarmed across the field. The evening was far advanced, the tide was beginning to flow, the ammunition of the whole army had been damaged by the rain, the Prench, who had suffered little or no injury, while the British were weakened by the loss of thirty- three officers and four hundred and ten men, had concentrated their strength, and all that Wolfe could now do was to efiect an < t 1759.] WOLFE SUFFERS A DEFEAT. 187 orderly retreat. Such of the wounded as could yet be saved were carried from the field, the stranded ships were abandoned and burnt, and the flotilla embarked and rowed away from the fatal shore, while Townshend's and Murray's brigades recrossed the ford without interruption, and resumed their position on the heights east of the Montmorency. In the meantime, Admiral Holmes had joined Rous's squad^n above the town, and twelve hundred men were now despatched, un- der Brigadier Murray, to aid in the destruction of the French vessels which had retired up the river. These avoided the danger of capture by sending their guns and stores ashore, and taking refuge in the shallows towards Montreal, one brigantine excepted, which having grounded was abandoned and destroyed. Murray, as the fleet advanced up the river, found every landing-place forti- fied, and the French on the alert. After two fruitless attempts to disembark, he finally effected his purpose at the village of D'Eschambault, thirty-nine miles from Quebec, which was defend- ed by some invalid soldiers, and carried without difficulty. A few prisoners of some importa >. were taken, and letters fell into Murray's hands, from which he learned the occupation of Ticon- deroga and Crown Point by Amherst, and the capture of Niagara by Johnson. Finding that he could effect nothing of importance, the brigadier hastened down the river to convey this glad intel- ligence to Wolfe. He found the general, chagrined by the failure at Montmorency, and worn out by his exertions, stricken with fever, and unable to bear the presence of his officers. Still the British batteries thundered vigorously from the heights of Montmo' rency on the French lines, while the fire from Point Levis laid waste the city. On the morning of the 10th of August, at one o'clock, a shell pitched upon the vaulted roof of a cellar in the Lower Town, and burst beneath, igniting a large quantity of brandy wb7ch was stored there. The flames quickly spread, and nearly the vhole of the quarter was burned down, including the church erected to commemorate Phips' defeat. A fire broke out at the same time in the Upper Town, but did not do much injury. Amherst's and Johnson's successes, although gratifying in them- selves, gave no hope of aid to Wolfe before the close of the cam- paign. The difficulties which had hitherto impeded his own progress, taught him what others had to encounter, and he saw that he must depend solely on himself, and struggle on unaided. The numerous body of armed men under Montcalm " could not," he said, " be called an army ;" but the French had probably the strongest country in the world to cover the approaches to the only vulnerable points of the town. The keen eye of the Indian scout prevented surprise, and the peasantry, so long as they could be kept together, being thoroughly exasperated by the forays of the British troops, and incited by their clergy, were zealous to defend their homes, their language, and their religion. Every one able to bear arms was in the field ; and old men and boys fired upon the ' I. .■I ' -.i- ■ •: y ^■" r ■*. ' * . ■ *'' \ * ■ « ■ 1 1 . • ' .• ■ ■ 1 • * '■ • ■,- .» < • 9. t 1 t 1 * y ' • 1 ■4 ' 1 > \ 1 ■ ■ 1 1 • ■ ■* 1 " • ' 'A 1 ', • • - -.?» 'Mm 188 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1759. English detachments from every position which gave them conceal- ment—from the edges of the woods, from behind rocks and houses. Nevertheless Wolfe felt that every exertion must continue to be made, and, while yet disabled by sickness, laid a plan before his brigadiers, embracing three different and equally desperate methods of attacking Montcalm in his intrenchments below the town. They unanimously rejected them all, and adopted instead Brigadier Townshend's plan of landing an army above the town, and thus draw the French from their impregnable position to an open action. " I have acquiesced in their proposal," said Wolfe in his admirable despatch to Pitt of the 2nd of September, alluding to the course recommended by his brigadiers, and we are preparing to put it into execution. There is such a choice of difficulties, that I am myself at a loss how to determine." Attended by the admiral he once more examined the citadel with a view to a general assault. — Although every one of the passages from the Lower to the Upper Town was intrenched, the gallant Saunders was willing to join in any hazard for the public service. But the general saw that the undertaking promised no success, and while he had the main force of Canada to oppose the magnificent fleet could still give ^Arn no assistance. But if Wolfe'b difficulties were great, so also were those which surrounded Montcalm. He knew not where to turn for a ray of hope, except to the now rapidly approaching winter. Danger menaced him on every side. Gage threatened him from Lake Ontario, Amherst from Lake Champlain, while the stately fleet riding securely at anchor below left no hope of succour from France. The peculation and misconduct of the civil officers wasted his re- sources, and he hesitated not to tell even the Governor himself, that he had sold his country ; " but while I live," exclaimed the intrepid soldier, " I will not deliver it up." " Of one thing I can as- sure you," wrote he to a friend, " I shall not survive the probable lows of the Colony. There are times when a general's only resource is to die with honour ; this is such a time ; no stain shall rest on my memory." But he found consolation in the idea, that the con- quest of Canada must speedily lead to the independence of the British colonies. Provisions and ammunition were becoming scarce in his camp, and the unhappy peasants stole to their homes by dozens to gather in their harvest. He scourged some offenders, hanged others, and threatened their villages with the vengeance of the savages ; yet he could not keep them together, and was finally obliged to allow two thousand of the militia to depart, to gather in their crops, at the most critical period of the campaign. The new plan of operations adopted by Wolfe, rendered the con- centration of his troops at Point Levis necessary, and preparations were at once made to evacuate the position at the Montmorency. These were all completed by the 3rd of September, when the troops safely crossed over the river. The ^dgilant eye of Montcalm had anticipated this movement from the unusual stir among the British, ve wim no 1759.] THE SIEGE OP QtTEBEC. 189 and he marched two strong columns to attack them while embark- ing. Monckton, from the heights of Point Levis, discovered the danger which menaced the retiring brigades, and embarking a strong deta ;hment in boats, protected by some sloops and frigates, rowed towards the Beauport shore, as if about to assault the French lines. Montcalm was accordingly compelled to recall his battalions for their defence, and to permit the British troops at Montmorency to embark without molestation. On the 7th, 8th and 9th, Admiral Holmes constantly manoeuvr- ed his fleet above the town, and harassed the enemy by threatening tlieir different posts. Wolfe had partially recovered, and in com- pany with his brigadiers now closely reconnoitred the bank of the river, in the hope of discovering some point by which the army could ascend to the Plains of Abraham. At length, about three miles above the city, he discovered a narrow path winding up the steep precipice from the water's edge, at a point which is liow known as Wolfe's Cove, where the bank curved slightly inwards. — Two men could scarcely ascend this path abreast, yet here he deter- mined his army should disembark, and take the guard at the summit, which he knew by the number of tents could not exceed a hundred, by surprise. Once on the plains above the French must, of necessity, give him battle. Preparations were promptly commenced for the execution of this plan ; and in order to deceive Montcalm as to the true point of attack. Cook, the great mariner, and others, were sent to sound the river at Beauport, and plant buoys along the shore, as if an assault was intended in that quarter. But the real design was kept carefully secret, as otherwise the treachery of a single deserter would have prevented its execution. On the morning of the l2th one of the Royal Americans did go over to the enemy, but from thd caution observed was unable to warn them of their danger. At the same time a French deserter brought most important intel- ligence to Wolfe. " The main force," said he, " is still below the city, and our general will not believe that you meditate an attack anywhere but from the Montmorency side. The Canadians aiie alarmed by the fall of Niagara, and in great distress for provisions. Levis, with a large detachment, has left us for Montreal to meet Amherst ; and Bougainville, with fifteen hundred men, watches the motions of your fleet in the upper river." As evening approached the heavier ships of the line moved towards the Beauport shore, and anchored as near it as the water would permit, when the boats were lowered and filled with sailors and marines, as if to make a descent on the French intrenchments. While the enemy's attention was thus occupied, all the smaller ships of the fleet suddenly spread out their sails, and with a fair breeze swept proudly past the batteries of Quebec, and soon joined Holmes's squadron at Cape Rouge. At the same time Monckton's and Murray's brigades pushed up along the river from Point Levis, till they arrived opposite the fleet, on board of which they em- V. 7 •J. *► rl ■■M ■M 1 •!' I t, S 1 i * t • r .. I ;, • 190 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1759. barked without being observed by the enemy. At nine o'clock the first division of the army, sixteen hundred strong, silently re- moved into flat-bottomed boats, and waited the orders of their chief. It was a pleasant autumn night, and the full lustrous stars of a northern firmament shone brightly down on the noble current of the St. Lawrence, as Wolfe quietly passed from ship to ship to make his final inspection, and utter his last words of encourage- ment. In a pure and gifted mind like his the solemn hour could scarcely fail of awakening befitting associations. He spoke of the poet Grr..y, and the beautiful legacy he had given the world in his " Elegy in a Country Churchyard." " I would prefer," said he, " being the author of that poem to the glory of beating the French to-morrow ;" and, while the cautious dip of the oars into the rippling current alone broke the stillness of the night, he re- peated : — The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, Await alike the inexorable hour, The paths of glory lead but to the grave." About one o'clock, on the morning of the 13 th, the order to ad- vance was given, and the flotilla dropped silently down with the receding tide, Wolfe commanding in person. He still continued his poetical musings, but his eye at the same time was keenly bent on the outline of the dark heights beneath which he floated past. He recognised at length the appointed spot, and leaped ashore. — Meantime, the 'current had carried a few boats lower down, which had on board thj light company of the 78th Highlanders. These were the first troops to land, and without a moment's hesitation they scrambled up the face of the wooded precipice, clinging to the root» and branches of trees. Half the ascent was already won, when for the first time the *' qui vive" of the French sentry above was given. " La France," promptly answered McDonald, the Highland captain, with ready self-possession, and the sentinel shouldered his musket and pursued his rounds. In a few minutes, however, the unusual rustling among the trees near at hand alarmed the senti- nels, their guard was turned out and fired one hurried volley at the Highlanders, and then panic-stricken rapidly fled. By this time an- other body of troops had pressed up the pathway, and possessed them- selves of the four-gun redoubt which commanded it. As day dawned Wolfe stood with his invincible battalions on the Plains of Abraham, the battle-field which gave a new empire to the Anglo- Saxon race. Only one field gun, however, could be got up the hill, so difficult was the ascent. Meanwhile, Montcalm had been completely deceived by the de- monstration against his lines below the town. All night long boats plied off and on from the shore, while the ships of war swept the beach with their fire, as if to keep it clear for the landing of troops. Daylight at length came on ; yet he knew nothing of the danger 1759.J BEFORE THE BATTLE. 191 that menaced him in another direction. Presently the morning breeze bore along the boom of a distant gan, and the scattered roll of musketry, from above the beleaguered town. While he yet doubted as to their cause, a horseman galloped up and told him the British had ai cended to the Plains of Abraham. " It can be but a small party come to burn a few houses and retire," said Montcalm in amazement. The man persisted that the British were there in force. " Then," said the general, " they have at last got to the weak side of this miserable garrison ; we must give them battle and crush them before mid-day."* Leaving Governor de Vaudreuil behind with fifteen hundred mi- litia, and despatching a courier to recall Bougainville, Montcalm hurried his troops across the valley of the St. Charles, over the bridge, and along the northern face of the ramparts to the battle- ground, where Wolfe, having already formed his line, calmly awaited his approach. The 35th regiment was posted on the ex- treme right near the precipice. On its left stood the grenadiers of Louisburg ; the 28th, the 43rd, the 58th, the 78th Highlanders, and the 47th completed the front, led by Wolfe and Monckton on the right, and Murray on the left. The second line, composed of the 15th regiment and two battalions of the 60th or B^yal Americans, was led by Townshend. The 48th regiment, in four columns, formed the reserve under Colonel Burton. Colonel Howe, with the light infantry, posted in houses or scattered through the neigh- bouring coppices, covered the left flank and rear. The right flank was effectually protected by the precipice. The entire British army was somewhat under five thousand men, but they were all well-trained vett^rans. About six o'clock small bodies of the French troops deployed on the slopes near the ramparts of the city ; by seven they mustered more numerously, and brought up two field guns, which caused some annoyance to the British. Towards eight o'clock, Montcalm had arrived with the bulk of his army, which he formed in three distinct masses on a slope to the north-west of the city, where they were sheltered from Wolfe's solitary but mischievous gun. At nine, he pushed to the front, and began to form his line of battle, being assured that Bougainville, whose light cavalry, of which he had three hundred and fifty, already threatened the British left, was close at hand. His centre was formed of seven hundred and twenty regular troops and twelve hundred militia. The right was composed of sixteen hundred veterans and four hundred militia : on the left were thirteen hundred trained soldiers, supported by two thousand three hundred of the Canadian levies. His total force thus amounted to seven thousand five hundred and twenty men, * The Chevalier Johnston a Jacobite Scotchman, in the service of France, says that he was with Montcalm, and that the general himself was the first to discover Wolfe's army ; but this appears altogether doubtful, and is not supported by other evidence. Montcalm had remained with his troops be- low the city during the night, and therefore could not have fini diicovered the British. I.--, H I I Mil ^ d 1. V ! *iv r ■ I ■ J, *1 I . 193 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. I 'i >•'".'" [1759. besides Indians, who were not less than four hundred.* Of this force scarcely one half wer»; regular troops, but the expected arrival of Bougainville would add fifteen hundred veterans to his army, and, he trusted, enable him to win the battle and save Quebec. Montcalm designed to avail himself of his superior fores, by out- flanking the British left, and thus crowding them towards the landing-place, where he would assail them again with his own left and centre, while Bougainville threatened their rear. Thus attacked on three sides at the same time, he considered that the stubborn courage of the enemy must give way. The British potti- tion formed two sides of a square, one of which was occupied by their line of battle, the other by Colonel Howe's light infantry, who, as already stated, thus covered the left flank and rear. Agreeably to his plan of operations, Montcalm began the battle at ton o'clock, by assailing Howe's position with a strong body of Canadian and Indian skirmishers, who speedily drove in the British pickets on their supports. Under cover of the cloud of smoke which soon rose over this part of the battle-field, the veterans of the French right wing passed swiftly at an angle with the British left, and fiercely assaulted their light infantry. Howe felt the importance of his post, and made a stout resistance. His men fell fast, but in a few minutes Townshend, with the 15th regiment and two bat- talions of the 60th, came to his aid, and the assailants were speedily beaten back with heavy loss. The attempt to out-flank the British left being thus completely defeated, Montcalm's only resource was to attack their right and centre. Throwing forward a swarm of skirmishers, their fire speedily dislodged the few light infantry with which Wolfe hai^ covered his front, and drove them back in disorder on the main body. This occurrence somewhat alarmed the British troops, but Wolfe, hurrying along the line, cheered them by his voice and presence, and directed them on no account to fire without orders. He speedily succeeded in restoring confidence. Recalling his light troops, Montcaixii now pushed forward his whole centre and left, which with loud cheers and arms at the recover moved boldly on to the attack. As the smoke of the skirmishers' fire cleared off f roiiJLj,the battle-field, the long ranks of the French were seen rapidly a|)|^|i)aching the British position. At the distance of one hundred ahd fifty yards an oblique movement from the left gave their lines the appearance of columns, which chiefly threaten- ed Wolfe's right wing. Another moment passed, the French paused, and from flanJc to flank poured a murderous and rapid fire upon the * Bancroft estimates the French army under five thounand, but quotes no authority in support of this statement. Smith, who wrote shortly after the battle, and had access to the most accurate sources of information on this head, nves the number as above. He also furnishes the official return or state of the British army on the morning of the battle, showing its strength to be exactly: four thousand eight hundred and twenty -eight on the field.— Oameau is inaccurate and partial in this as well as in numerous other cases. 1759.] THE BATTLIi 198 British line. The 35th and the grenadiers fell fast. Still not a shot was returned. Wolfe was struck in the wrist, but wrapping a hand- kerchief around the wound he hurried from rank to rank, earning The official return shows that the following British regiments were present *t the battle of the 13th September, and the total number of men and officers in each : — 15th Regiment, 406 of all ranks. 28th " - 421 35th " ... 519 43rd " ... 327 47th •«.... 360 48th " - . - 683 68th " ... 335 60th " 2nd Battalion, ■ 322 60th " 3rd '« 540 78th Highlanders, 662 Louisbnrg Orenadiers, 241 Major-Oeneral and Staff Officers, 4,816 12 Total force. 4,828 It will be Been from the above statement, that every corps which Wolfe had under bis command was represented on the field of battle. The total force which Wolfe had on leaving Louisburg did not much exceed ei^ht thousand men. Before the 13th his killed, wounded and sick otherwise, could not be less than one thousand men, so that on that day his whole force fit for active service could not much, if at all, exceed seven thousand men. If we deduct from this number the troops necessary to protect the camps, man the batteries, and perform other necessary routine duties, we arrive at the fact that the official state of the mornine of the 13th, showing the force on the field of battle to be 4,828, must have oeen strictly correct. Garneau endeavours to make it appear that Wolfe's whole army of eight thousand men were present on the battle field, a simple absurdity ; and seeks to reduce Montcalm's strength by stating that Bougainville had three thousand troops with him, whereas he had only half that number. The official return shows that the strength of Montcalm's army at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham stood as follows :— BIGHT COLUMN. Colony Troops, . . - Regiment of La Sarre. ... do Lianguedoo, • Militia and one six pounder, 560 500 550 400 CKNTBB counts. Regiment of Beam, do Guienne, Militia, LEPT COLUMN. Regiment of Royal Roussillon, Colony Troops, . . . - Militia, - • - . . . Grand Total, (exclusive of Indians) 7,620 2000 360 360 1200 1920 650 650 2300 3,600 *'4. • 1 V >t '■1 194 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1759. '■ 4 * " his men to reserve .their fire for a shorter and deadlier range. Not a single trigger was pulled. With arras shouldered as if on parade, and motionless, save when they closed upon the ghastly gaps made in their ranks by the French fire, these gallant men waited tl\e word of command with that indomitable endurance which has ever characterised the ^British soldier when properly trained and rightly led. The French were still unharmed, their confidence increased, and with a loud cheer they pressed forward against the British. A few moments more and only forty paces separated the combatants.— And now the clear voice of Wolfe giving the word to fire rises over the field. The order passes like an electric shock along the British line ; its long row of muskets is swiftly levelled ; and the next in- stant a well-aimed volley, almost as distinct as a single shot, rolls over the battle-field. It fell with terrible effect upon the advanc- ing foe. Numbers of the French soldiers reeled and fell at once, others staggered for a moment, then dropped aside to die ; others, again, burst from the ranks shrieking in agony. Presently the breeze which blew gently across the battle-field, carried away the smoke of one of the deadliest volleys that ever burst from British infantry, and the assailing battalions were seen reduced to mere groups among the slain. Scarcely fifteen minutes had elapsed since Montcalm had made his principal attack, and already the battle was lost. The Brigadier de St. Ours was killed, and De Senezergues, the second in com- mand, mortally wounded, while the Canadian militia had already broken and fled in confusion. Still the gallant Frenchman was not dismayed. Riding through the shattered ranks he cheered the men with his voice, and induced them to reform. Meantime the Biitish troops had reloaded, and Wolfe, resolving to take advantage of the disorder in the French ranks, ordered his whole line to advance, placing himself at the head of the 28th and the grenadiers. For a few minutes they moved forward steadily, then their pace increases to a run, and with bayonets at the charge they rushed upon the French. Just then Wolfe was wounded a second time in the body, but still pressing forward he received a ball in the breast. " Support me," he said to an officer near him, " let not my brave fellows see me fall." He was carried to the rear, and water brought him to quench his thirst. Still the British pressed forward with fiery valour. On the right, the 35th swept all before them ; in the centre, the 28th and Louisburg Grenadiers moved firmly on ; on the left, the 58th and 78th overcame a stubborn and bloody resistance, and the last corps wi^.h its terrible claymore followed swiftly in pursuit, and supplied the want of cavalry. The fierce struggle fell heavily on the British, but was terribly destructive to the French. They waver- ed under the carnage ; but Montcalm, galloping among his stubborn veterans, called on them to reform, and again oppose the advancing foe. His efforts were vain ; the head of every formation was I' ) 1759.] THE BATTLE. 195 luowecl down by the terrible fire of the British, who again rushing forward at the charge compelled his troops to give way in every direction. At this critical period he fell mortally wounded, and from that moment all was utter rout and confusion on the side of the French. Wolfe's life ebbs fast away ; yet from time to time he essays to look upon the battle, and clear away the death-mist that gathers on his sight. Presently his spirit draws nearer *' to that bourne whence no traveller returneth ;" he sinks backward and gives no signs of life beyond a heavy breathing, and the occasional groan of painful dissolution. The French fly in all directions. " They run ! they run !" exclaimed one of the oflicers who stood by their dying general. " Who runs ?" eagerly asked "Wolfe, like one arous- ed from sleep. " The enemy, sir," answered the officer who supported him, " they give way everywhere." " Go one of you to Colonel Burton," said Wolfe, "and tell him to march Webb's regiment (the 48th) with all speed down to the St. Charles River to cut off their retreat." His voice grew fainter and fainter as he spoke, and he turned as if to seek an easier position on his side. — Four days before he had looked forward to an early death with dismay, but he now felt he would breathe his last breath on the tield of victory, and that he had well done his duty to his country. " Now God be praised ! I die happy," said the gallant soldier faintly, yet distinctly : and Wolfe, who had won a new empire for his race, passed from this material world to immortality. But while tongue can tell, or pen record, the annals of the past he will never be forgotten. Into a few brief years he had crowded actions that would have reflected lustre on the longest life. The morning of his career had given promise of no ordinary greatness, that promise was more than realised at a period when other men only appear prominently on the world's stage, and his day closed as it reached its meridian in the blaze of one of the most momentous victories that ever marked the annals of the human race. Grape shot from the ramparts of Quebec, and the tire of the frigates grounded in the St. Charles, chocked the pursuit of the British, whose rear was already threatened by the near approach of Bougainville's formidable corps of veterans. Mom kton had been shot through the lungs, and Townshend, now the senior officer, hastened to recall his disordered battalions to oppose this new enemy. His arrangements were strictly defensive ; and while forming his line of battle he advanced the 35th and 48th, with two field-pieces, one of which had just been captured from the French, to meet the advancing force, and, if possible, ;heck its approach. — But the news of Montcalm's total defeat speed ly leaching Bougain- ville, he declined meeting a victorious enemy, and hastily retreated to Cape Rouge. On the same day Vairdreuil, with his one thousand 'dve hundred Canadians, degerted the lines below Quebec, and leaving all his artillery, tents, ammunition, and stores behind, made a hurried retreat towards Jacques Cartier, *•« ; i». Jii .1* « i ,'1 I •I "v «' .4 196 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1759. The loss of the British in the memorable battle of the Plains of Abraham, amounted to fifty-nine killed, and six hundred wounded of all ranks ; that of the French to six hundred killed, and over one thousand wounded and taken prisoners.* The militia were completely disorganised by the defeat, and a large proportion of them never rejoined their colours. As they ran away when they saw victory inclining towards the British, they suffered much less than the regular troops, who were almost destroyed. From the field of battle and its immediate results — from the last moments of the immortal Wolfe, let us now turn aside for a brief space to the bedside of the gallant Montcalm. When his wound was dressed, he asked the surgeons if it were mortal, and being answered in the affirmative, calmly said, " I am glad of it ; how long can I survive V " Perhaps a dozen hours, and perhaps less," was the reply. " So much the better," rejoined the general, *' I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." To a council of war which hastily assembled, he showed that in twelve hours all the troops near at hand might be concentrated, and the British attack- ed before they had time to intrench themselves ; but his proposition was overruled, t With him the hope of France in Canada was departing. De Ramsay, who commanded the garrison, asked his orders about defendirg the city. "To your keeping," he replied, " I commend the honour of France. I wish you all comfort, and to be happily extricated from your perplexities. As for me, my time is short, I shall pass the night with God, and prepare myself for death." To another he said, " Since it was my misfortune to be discomfited and mortally wounded, it is a great consolation to be vanquished by so noble and generous an enemy." He shortly afterwards called for his chaplain, who, with the bishop, administer- ed the last offices of his religion, and remained with him till he died peacefully next morning at four ( 'clock. Thus terminated the career of a great general and a brave man. Trained from his youth in the art of war ; laborious, just, and self-denying, he offered a remarkable exception to the venality of the public men of Canada at this period, and in the midst of universal corruption made the general good his aim. Night, the rushing tide, veteran discipline, aild more brilliant genius, had given his rival the victory, yet he was not the less great ; and while the name of Wolfe will never be forgotten, that of Montcalm is also engraved by its side on the enduring scroll of human fame. He has been censured for not * I have followed Smith and Russell in giving this eBtimato of the French loss. Every probability is in favour of its correctness. Besides Wolfe, the British had of officers, one captain, six lieutenants, and one ensign killed. One brigadier, (Monckton,) the quarter-master- general, (Barre,) three staff officers, fourteen captains, twenty-six lieutenants, and eleven ensigns were wounded. Vide War Office Eeturn of killed and wounded on 13th Septem- ber, 1759. Previous to the 13th, Wolfe's army had lost one hundred and eighty-two killed, six hundred and fifty>ftv« wounded, and seventeen missing. t Raynal's America, vol. ii. p. 128, V. '■'^^ [1759. ! Plains of I wounded and over ilitia were portion of Bvhen they much less m the last for a brief lis wound ind being •f it ; how lapis less," tieral, " I icil of war 's all the sh attack- roposition ,nada was asked his le replied, ifort, and >r me, my re myself ortune to lation to e shortly minister- |l he died ,ted the is youth tiFered a Canada lade the jscipline, ■, yet he lever be on the for not le French lolfe, the killed. jree staff [ns were jeptem- ired and Iventeen 1759.] BURIAL OF MONTCALM. 19; abiding the chances of a siege, rather than risking a battle. But with a town already in ruins, a garrison deficient in provisions and ammunition, and an enemy to contend with possessed of a formid- able siege train, the fire of which must speedily silence his guns, he acted wisely in staking the issue on a battle, in which if he found defeat he met also an honourable and glorious death. It was a sad and melancholy day for the fortunes of France on the St. Lawrence. Fear and confusion reigned everywhere in Quebec, and no workman could be found to make a coffin. At la&K an old servant of the Ursuline Convent made a box of some rough boards, in which was placid the body of Montcalm ; and late in the evening, without tolling of bell or firing of minute gun, he ^as cirried to his final rest. The officers of the garrison followed their general for the last time, and a few men and women joined the procession, which moved along in saddest silence to the chapel of the Ursuline Convent. Here a bomb had fallen during the siege, and made, beneath the floor, a large hole, which a little labour had converted into a grave. Into th;" " after the funeral service was over, t!ie rude coffin was lowered by the light of torches, amid the tearh and sobs of warlike men — of priest, and nun, and people. — With Montcalm was buried the Canada of the old regime^ which Champlain had founded a century and a half before, and the funeral of its general was the funeral of France in the New World. No sooner had his men recruited themselves after the fatigues of battle, and the wounded been cleared from the ground, than Town- shend promptly proceeded to intrench himself, and secure his posi- tion against assault by the construction of redoubts. The communications of the city with the country were r/^xt cut off as far as possible, and the erection of bi'eaching batteries rapidly pushed forward. By the evening of the 17th no less than sixty- one pieces of heavy artillery, and fifty-seven of smaller calibre, had, with the united labour of soldiers ai)H ;:.:i,ilur3, bee" dragged to the camp. To support the land force Admiral Saunders had already moved the whole of his fleet into the basin, preparatory to an attack on the Lower Town. The besieged had endeavoured +0 retard these operations by constantly plying their guns, but their exertions were ineffectual, and to their great dismay the trenches of the British rapidly rose up before them. Vaudreuil had retreated precipitately, without throwing provi- sions into the city, and the small supply furnished by the cavalry of Bougainville, who had established himself at Beauport, was of scarcely any importance. Reduced to a few ounces of bread per diera, extreme famine now menaced the wretched garrison. The unhappy citizens pressed Ramsay to capitulate before they were reduced to the last extremity. " We have cheerfully sacrificed our houses and our fortunes," said they, " but we cannot expose our wives and children to raassacre." Levis, at Montreal, had already heard of the death of Montcalm, and by request of Vaudreuil hastened to Quebec to assume the chief couunand. He arrived at ; ■ ■4' • ■ ■■■ t Conquest of Can., vol. ii. p, 232, tit were sent 1760.] SIEGE OP QUEBEC. •203 batteries, consisting of thirteen guns and two mortars, opened upon the town. Murray had, in the meantime, placed one hundred and thirty-two guns in position on the walls, and as many of the infantry had been trained to act as artillerymen during the preceding winter, he was enabled to keep up a fire which completely overpowerfed that of the French. But the hopes of the besieged for deliverance rested chiefly on the arrival of the fleet. The French army looked also for aid from an expected squadron.* On the 9th of May a frigate was seen rounding the headland of Point Levi, and standing towards the city For a brief space an intense anxiety had complete possession of besiegers and besieged. But presently a flag is run up to the mizen peak of the strange ship, the Union Jack floats boldly out, and a boat puts off for the Lower Town, when the garrison, officers and men, mounted the ramparts in the face of the enemy, and made the welkin ring with hearty British cheers. On the 1 5th two other frigates arrived under the command of Com- modore Swainton. Next day, the French shipping above the town, consisting of two frigates and several armed vessels, were attacked and forced on shore or destroyed. The following night the siege was raised, and Levis precipitately retreated, leaving his provisions, guns, tents, ammunition, and intrenching tools behind. Murray had made preparations for a vigorous sally on the morning of the 17th, and when informed of the retreat of the besiegers, pushed rapidly out in pursuit with his grenadiers and light infantry, but was only able to capture some stragglers from their rear-guard. Levis retreated to Jacques Cartier, and afterwards proceeded to Moritreal, where the last stand was to be made against the British forces. The siege of Quebec, brief as it had been, furnished irnny opportunities to the officers of the different French departments to acquire money. They felt their time was short ; and resolving to make the best use of it, indulged in shameful peculations and public robberies, '"he people gradually became more and more dissatisfied, and .al began to look forward to English rule as a benefit instead oi' \n injury. Mui^'ay increased this feeling by issuing a judicious proclamation on the 2 2d of May. He stated briefly that the peaceable inhabitants would be fully protected, as well as those who at once laid down their arms, and remained neutral. Fran. ^04 THE j^I^TORX OF CANADA. [1760. It '' w I. ' the army of Levis, and gave it no assistance, further injury should not be done to their homes or growing crops, and that thus the evils of another famine would be averted."* This proclamation, which was widely-circulated, had a most excellent effect upon the habitants. Several copies were even sent to Montreal, which so enraged the French general that he threat- ened to hang any person found with one in his possession. But his anger availed him little. The ardour of the peasantry visibly abated, and it was evident from the progress of events that the reign of French official oppression and extortion in Canada was rapidly drawing towards its close. By the 22d of July Amherst had assembled an army ten thousand strong, and seven hundred Indians, at Oswego. On the 10th of August he embarked en route for Montreal, and arrived at Ogdensburg on the 19th. The French fort at this place was invested next day. On the 23d the British batteries opened their fire, which was vigorously replied to by the garrison, who, however, surrendered at discretion on the 25th. Amherst learned that the Iroquois intended to massacre the French soldiers as soon as they gained admission within the works. This he sternly forbade, and declared that if they attempted such an outrage he would restrain them by force. They now sullenly threatened to return home, to which course Amherst gave his consent ; but at the same time statedj that if they committed any acts of violence on their way he would assuredly chastise them. ^ * In the early settlement of Canada, there had been but little specie in it, and whatevbr sums of money that had been imported, were remitted to France, to purchase goods and other articles wanted by the inhabitants. The Court of France, with the view of incrsasingthe quantity of money, issued in the year 1670, a particular coin for all the Trench settlements in America, and directed that its value should be one-fourth more than it passed current at in France, This expedient had not the effect expected, which led the Government to 8ubstitut>e la pa,pier atix metarix, which answered every purpose, both in paying the troopi. and the other expenses of government, until the year 1720, when the Giovemment of France, not having made prOvisibn for the redenwtion of the stock, they sunk into discredit, and became of little or no value. * * * The Intendant, and others concerned in the government of Canada, issued considerable quantities of bills of exchange, which they pretended were for the use of the Government, but as the French Court charged them with maladministration, this point continued in dispute until judgment was passed in fVance on Bigot, and Other pecu- lators, in the year 1763. Bigot was banished from France for life, the others for a shorter period. They were, moreover, condemned to make restitution of several sums in proportion to the frauds of Which the}' had been found guilty; As the Canadians had always had great oonftdencs in Bigot, who they supposed had been vested with full powers from the Court of France, they continued to take bills as usual, and in general paid the full price for them. Upwards of four millions and a half sterling of this paper remained at the conquest, unpaid. These bills, immediately after that e/eut, became of little or no'Valne i but by an ^arrangement with the French (Government, at the peace. Great Britain obtsiined for her new subjects three millions in contracts, and six hundred thousand livres in money. — Smith's Hist. Can., vol. i. p. 944>346. • > * ■ 'illi.a,! :Kij. 1760.1 SURRENDER OP CANADA. 205 Passing down the St. Lawre' ^he British army, after losing eighty-four men and several boau. e Cedar Rapids, landed on the Island of Montreal, about nine uiiles from the town, on the 6th of September. Meanwhile Murray had left Quebec on the 14th of June, with a force of two thousand four hundred men of all ranks, and ascended the river, subduing some small posts on its banks, and compelling its inhabitants, whenever practicable, to submit to the authority of Great Britain. At Sorel he found Bourlemaque posted with a considerable force, and judged it prudent to await the arrival of an expected reinforcement from Louisburg. This coming up he pursued his way. On the 7th of September his troops were disembarked, and placed to the north- east of the town. On the following day, Colonel Haviland, who had penetrated into Canada by Lake Champlain and the Richelieu, also arrived at Montreal with a force of over three thousand men ; and thus an army of nearly sixteen thousand men was assembled under the walls of what might be deemed a defenceless town. On the same day Yaudreuil signed the capitulation,* which severed Canada from France for ever. This capitulation included the vast country extending from the fishing stations in the Gulf of St Lawrence to Michigan and Illinois. The regular tro^ips, amounting to four thousand, were to be permitted to march out from their several posts with all the honours of war, and afterwards conveyed to France. The militia, numbering over sixteen thousand, were to be allowed to return unmolested to their homes. To the inhabitants the free exercise of their religion was guaranteed, as well as undisturbed possession of their properties and slaves, and the same commercial privileges which other British colonists enjoyed. The French Government had made enormous sacrifices in blood and treasure for the preservation of Canada, during the long * Extracts from Articles of Oapitulation.- -^ . The free exercise of the Catholic, Apostolic, aad Roman Relieion, shall subsist entire, in such manner that all the titates and the people of the towi a and countries, places and distant posts, shall continue to assemble in the cha -ches, and to frequent the sacraments as heretofore, without being molested in any manner, directly or indirectly. These pteople shall be obliged, by the English (Government, to pay the Priests the tithes, and all the taxes they were used to pay under the Government of his Most Gracious Majesty. — "Granted, as to the free exercise of their religion ; the obligation of paying the tithes to the Priests will depend on the Kmg'a pleaiiire." 28. The Chapter, Priests, Curates, and Missionaries shall continue, with an entire liberty, their exercise and functions of cures, in the parishes of the towns and country. — "Granted." 29. The Grand Vicars, named by the Chapter to administer to the diocese during the vacancy of the episcopal see, shall have the liberty to dwell in the towns and country parishes, as they shall think proper ; they shall at all times be free to visit the different parishes of the diocese with the ordinary ceremonies, and exercise all the jurisdiction they exercised under the French dominion. They shall enjoy the same rights in case of the death of the future Bishop, of which mention will be made in the following article. — "Granted, except what regwrda the following article.'* ' I »'|. ¥\ *-A '\ 41 i-.. 206 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1760. . . I" I* contest of seven years' duration, and was deeply mortified at its loss and the subjugation of some seventy thousand of its subjects, who had so bravely struggled against overwhelming odds to preserve their connection with the mother country. The national anger was naturally very great at the loss of an empire ; hikI shortly after Vaudreuil reached home he and all the members of his government were incarcerated in the Bastile, to await their trial. Vaudreuil was honorably acquitted; but the intendant Bigot, and other members of the company with which he had been associated, were compelled to disgorge much of their ill-gotten wealth, to the extent of over two and a half million dollars, and were exiled from France for the rest of their lives. Commissary General Cadet alone was forced to refund over a million dollars. On the 13th, Major Rogers was detached with two humhed rangers and a few artillerymen, to take possession of the French posts on the lakes. At Kingston, an Indian hunting party brought him wild fowl and venison. From thence he ascended to Niagara. The lateness of the season terminated his journey at Detroit, which was promptly surrendered by th? French commandant. Near the head of Lake Erie, at Clevelard, Rogers encountered tlie great Ottawa chief, Pontiac, who had united the surrounding tribes in a confederacy, held supreme sway over them, and subsequently caused much ti'ouble to the British. Pontiac at first appeared indisposed to permit Rogers to pass through his country, but eventually gave a haughty consent. Shortly j^fter the capitulation of Montreal, General Amherst established a military government for the preservation of public 30. If by the treaty of peace, Canada should remain a British Colony, the Fren'ih King shall continue tp name the Bishop of the Colony, who shall always be of the Roman Communion, and under whose authority the people shall exercise the Roman Religion. — "Refused." 31. The Bishop shall, in case of need, establish new parishes, and provide for the rebuilding of his cathedral and his episcopal palace ; and, in the meantime, he shall have the liberty to dw >ll in the towns or parishes, as he ahall judge proper. He shall be at liberty to visit his diocese with the ordinary ceremonies, and exercise all the jurisdiction which his predecessor exercised undur the French dominion, save that an oath of fidelity, or a promise to do nothing contrary to his Britannic Majesty's service, may be required of him. — "This article is comprised under the foregoing." .4*2. The communities of nuns shall be preserved in their constitutions and privileges ; they shall continue to observe their rules ; they shall be exempted from lodging any military ; and it shall be forbid to molest them in their religious exercises, or to enter their monasteries ; safeguards shall even be given them, if they desire them. — "Grantt^d." 46. The inhabitants and merchants shall enjoy all the privileges of trade, iinder the same favours and conditions granted to the subjects of his Britannic Majesty, as well as in the countries above, as the interior of the Colony.— "Granted." 47. The Negroes and Panis of both sexes shall remain in the quality of slaves, in the possession of the French and Canadians to whom they belong ; they shall be at liberty to keep them in their service in the Colony or to sell them ; and they may also continue to bring them up in the Roman Religion. — "Granted, except those who have been made prisoners." EiaH^ar '. 1760.] PEACE AT LAST. 207 < « tranquillity, and the administration of justice. He d'vided the Colony into three districts : the first was that of Quebec, over which Murray was placed ; the second. Three HI; rs, at the iiead of which was Colonel Burton ; the third, Montreal, was intrusted to Brigadier Gage. Within these districts were established several courts of justice, composed of Canadian militia officers, who decided cases brought before them in a summary manner, with right of appeal, however, to the commandant. The British ministry approved of this procedure, and decided that the military authority should remain in force until the restoration of peace, when, in thcj event of Canada being relinquished by France, a proper form of ffovernment would be established.* At length this country, after years of warfare and bloodshed, was about to enjoy the blessings of peace. Freed from the terrors of Indian massacre on one hand, and the fears of British invasion on the other, the inhabitants once more cultivated their fields in quiet, and enjoyed their increase without fears of the extortions and oppressions of a Bigot, a Cadet, or the host of inferior officials who had so recently enriched themselves at their expense. Many of the upper classes, it is true, disgusted at the prospect of British rule, returned to France. A proud nobility, however, was little suited to Canada, and the departure of persons wht>se idle habits, imperious manners, and poverty of resources madtj them of little value to the community, was a cause of no regret, but rather of congratulation.! The bulk of the people had soon reason to bless the events which placed them under British rule. Great Britain had begun the memorable war in which she was now engaged, to establish her own interpretation of the boundary of Nova Scotia, and her claims to the valley of the Ohio. She had succeeded to her heart's content ; had won Canada and Guadaloupe in addition, and now desired peace. " The desire of my heart," said George II, to Parliament shortly before his death, "is to see a stop put to the efinsion of blood." Pitt was also desirous to ter- minate a contest which had already given him all he sought for : and the public began to discuss which of their conquests should be retained, and which surrendered. The majority of the British nation were in favour of keeping Canada, yet many reflecting men doubted the wisdom of this course. William Burke, the relative and friend of the great Irishman of that name, in a pamphlet at this time, found arguments for retaining Guadaloupe in the facil- ities it presented for profitable investment, the richness of its soil, the number of its slaves, and the absence of all competition with * Smith's Hist. Can., vol. i, p. 375. t In 1763, when Canada was finally ceded to England, a fresh immigration took place to France. It is estimated that between the exodus of the official class and other civilians and the military, the population of the Colony was reduced a fourth or to somewhere between sixty and seventy thousand souls. t'l. I. ^1 !l . 't •J 'TT ■ 1 1 1 V ■ I >« " 208 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1760. England. "If the people of our colonies," he added, to alarm the the public mind, " found no check from Canada, they will increase infinitely from all causes. What the consequence will be to have a hardy, numerous, and independent people, possessed of a strong country, communicating little or not at all with England, I leave to your own reflections. A neighbour that keeps us in some awe, is not always the worst of neighbours. There should be a balance of power in America." Even from Guadaloupe itself came a warning voice. "A country of such vast resources," it said, " and so distant as North America, could never remain long subject to Britain. The acquisition of Canada would strengthen America to revolt. The islands from their weakness can never revolt ; but if we acquire all Canada we shall soon find North America itself too powerful and too populous to be governed by us at a distance." " If Canada were annexed." objected British traders, " the Americans will be at leisure to manufacture for themselves, and throw oflF their dependence on the mother country." Such were the momentous questions which agitated the minds of the reflecting portion of the British public on the approach of peace. Franklin, then in England, strongly advocated the reten- tion of Canada, on the grounds that it would promote a perpetual peace in North America, that the facilities for profitable agricul- tural labour would prevent the colonists from engaging in manu- factures, and that the separate interests of the different govern- ments would always hinder a union against the mother country.- - Pitt leaned to the same opinions. He delighted, with a truly liberal and generous mind, to foster British liberty in America, ami made it his glory to extend the boundaries throughout which it was to be enjoyed. He desired to retain both Guadaloupe and Canada ; but, when overruled in the cabinet, held fast to this country. And thus, unwittingly, did this great stateman lay the foundation for the speedy independence of the United States. On the 25th of October, 1760, George II. died sudddenly of apoplexy, after a long reign of over thirty-three years, and his grandson, then but twenty-two years of age, ascended the British throne. Although so young, George III. was determined to rule as a king. He was unfriendly to Pitt, whose influence dimmed even monarchy, and the latter was soon made to feel that he had forced himself into the highest place in the ministry over the hgads of an envious and unwilling aristocracy, and that his influence with the crown was on the wane. The minister was unwilling to desert the King of Prussia in his extremity. But George 1761. III., caring little about Hanover and the German policy of his predecessor, displayed small considerti.tion for Frederick, and desired to negotiate separately with France. Other circum- stances ako conspired to weaken the influence of the premier ; and on the 5th of October. William Pitt, the greatest minister of the age ; the profound orator — Ihe rival of Demosthenes ; the man II ' 1762.] PITT RESIGNS. 209 who without title or fortune had rescued Great Britain from an abyss of weakness and disgrace ; who had conquered Guadaloupe, Canada, and the Great West ; who had preserved Prussia from annihilation, and sustained continental Protestantism ; who had humbled France, gained the supreme dominion of the seas, won an empire, greater than that of the Mogul, in Hindostan, and had vanquished faction at home ; this man stood in the presence of his young and inexperienced sovereign to resign his power. A few weeks before France and Spain had concluded a convention, by which Spain bound itself to declare war against England unless peace should be established, contrary to all expectation, before the 1st of May 1762. Pitt, warned of this treaty, would fain have crushed the whole race of the Bourbons, but a majority of the Privy Council had decided against his purpose, and thus compelled his resignation. Pious, and sincerely desirous to stop the effusion of blood, George III. felt that the minister alone stood in the way • of the peace he desired, and received the seals without requesting that Pitt should resume his office. Yet the king was not ungrateful, and desired to bestow some mark of favour on the retiring minister. He was offered the government of Canada, with a salary of £5000 per annum, but this was declined. His wife was made a peeress, with a grant of £3000 to be paid annually during the lives of herself, her husband, and her eldest son. So Pitt retired from office, having confirmed France and Spain in implacable hostility to Great Britain, and destroyed the balance of the European colonial system, by the naval preponderance he had given to his country, and the conquest of Canada and Guadaloupe. But Pitt was the minister of the nation, and the public were indignant at his retirement f i cm the government. This event was attributed to the secret influence of the Earl of Bute, who was grossly insulted on lord mayor's day in London. At the same time the king and queen were received with coldness and silence, when proceeding to dine in the city, while Pitt was welcomed with the loudest acclamations. Yet a still greater triumph awaited him. The force of circumstances soon compelled his successors to adopt his policy, and war was declared against Spain. All Europe was now arrayed against Great Britain, with the exception of Prussia and Portugal. The latter country was invaded by the armies of the Spanii rds. With the aid of English auxiliaries these were defeated in two decisive engagements, and driven back. But it was in her colonies and commerce 1762. that Spain suffered most severely. Havanna, with plunder to the amount of three millions sterling, was taken by thr Earl of Albemarle and Admiral Pococke : Draper and Comwallis captured the city of Manilla : and while the cannon of the Horse Guards announced the birth of a Prince of Wales, waggon? conveyed two millions of treasure to the Tower, a prize to the captors of two Spanish vessels. While the arms of Britain thus triumphed in various parts of the world, the king of Prussia, after a series of « 1. '•. '.'■ .1: V H r 1,1 '\. M ■I «i,'' 210 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1761 brilliant exploits, was brought to the brink of utter ruin by the junction of the Russians with his inveterate enemies. Fo;iuii. ately the death of the Empress Elizabeth released him from this new danger, and Frederick soon retrieved his disasters. The world had now enough of war, and the various governinems I of Europe were anxious for peace. France, deprived of her colonies,! found her commerce on the brink of ruin. Spain had sustained! the most severe reverses, and the Austrians and Prussians werel wearied of costly campaigns which produced no territorial addil tions. The terms proposed to France were severe, but she yielded! to necessity. " What else can we do." said the French minister] Choisel ; " the English are drunk with success, and we are not inal condition to abase their pride." Accordingly, on the 3d of Novenvl ber, the preliminaries of peace were signed, at Paris, by France and! Spain, on the one hand, and by Great Britain and Portugal, on ihel other. By this peace Britain, besides islands in the West Indies, gained! the Floridas, Louisiana to the Mississippi, all Canada, Cap«l Breton and the other islands in the Gulf of St Lawrence, andl Senegal ; while in Asia the victories of Clive and Coote by land,! and of Watson and Pococke by sea, had given her the ascendancyl in the East Indies, and suddenly opened to her the promise oil untold treasures and endless territorial acquisitions. •' Never, said George III., " did England, nor I believe any other! power in Europe, sign such a peace before." Yet Pitt opposed the I treaty, on the ground that it did not give his country the advan- tages it was entitled to by conquest. The nation at large sustained him in this position ; but in parliament he was out- voted 1763. by a considerable majority. On the 10th day of February 1763, the treaty was finally ratified; and peace was also restored, at the same time, between Austria and Prussia. The aap of Europe remained exactly as before the war ; but in Asia, a-.id on this continent, everything was changed. In America the I Anglo-Saxon element was now immeasurably in the ascendant THE CANADA OF THE FRENCH PERIOD. Two wholly distinct political and social systems were placefl on trial, before the world, at a very early period of North AmerVan colonization. On the one hand was a group of British colonies rejoic- ing in a large political and social freedom, mainly left to take caie of themselves, and in which the aggregate of individuals virtually constituted the state. On the other hand was the Canadian colony, governed by a paternal despotism, where the crown was everything I politically, and the people of no political account whatever. In the British colonies the people had to learn, from the first, to | provide for their own well-being in every way, to make laws for I their own government, and to put these laws into execution. In I «*. 1760. J CANADA BEITORE THE JONQUEST. 211 the Canadian colony the crown was the foundation of all law ; on its sole authority rested the execution of the law ; and the people had no voice whatever in their own government, and could ilo nothing to alleviate or remove any evils which might exist in their political or social condition. All law, all authority, emanated from the sovereign, and nothing whatever from the people. In 16G3, when Louis XIV. reorganised the government of Canada, he was so desirous of establishing it on the basis of a pure despotism, that lie did not even concede the right of muracipal taxation for any purpose whatever, local improvements or otherwise. In accordance with his motto " I alone am the state," he declined to delegate the power of levying imposts in New France to any man or body of men, and reserved that important function in his own hands, to be exercised at will by himself and his successoi-s. In 1716, when it was deemed necessary to fortify Montreal, the king laid an iirbitraiy annual impost on the town of 6,000 livres to repay the outlay, from contributing to which no citizens, not even the nobles nor the Sulpitians, were exempted. This tax became the precedent for subsequent levies for public purposes, which were always made oil the sole authority of the king. Outsidp the priests' tithes, no systematic, or municipal, system of taxation prevailed during the whole period of French dominion in Canada. In this direction what was observed in practice, was frequently inculcated in princi- ple. In 1742 a decree issued by Louis XV. recited, '* that the governors and intendants have no allowance to levy imposts : that is a sovereign right which his majesty communicates to none. It is not even lawful for the people to tax themselves, except by our permission." In the official project drawn up by Tracy and Talon, in 1667, for the future government of New France, and approved by Louis XIV. they declare, that " laying it down as a principle, that the obedience and fidelity due to the king, is more likely to become slackened in the provinces distant from the seat of control than in those which are near thereto, it will be only prudent to take precautions, in the nascent state called Canada, against the occurrence of such undesirable revolutions as might make it from being monarchic, as it is, to become either aristocrafAc or dft.Mcratic." And to carry out this principle more thoroughly, while all municipal^ franchises were withiield from the plebeian classes, the seignioral, or patrician, class, was gradually shorn of all real power and authority, until fewjuridical right'i remained to it, and it became as slavishly dependent on the crown as the habitant com- munity. •Had the Huguenots been permitted to settle in Canada, and make it a haven of refuge from the pers'^cutions in the mother land, (like several of the British colonies) they would have brought with them their independence of thought in religion and politics— their respect and attachment for the ancient franchises of their native country— and in that event New Prance must have become the peer of any of the North American colonies. Had that wise r t ■?•: . ■^'1'' . I "I ■ i( I, 212 THE HISTORY .OF CANADA. [1760. « *■ • 1 i ,, ♦ r S 1 and humane policy been followed, Canada, most probably, would have still been an integral part of the French empire ; and the i noiptliern part of this continent would have pi-esented a very dif- ferent political aspect from that which now exists. But, almost from' the first settlement of Canada, it was destined to be ruled by a despotism in religion as well as in politics. When Cardinal r Richelieu, in 1627, handed Canada over to the " Company of one hundred Associates," he made it a special condition that all euii- grants, . going thither, must be natives of France and Roman Catholic. And his policy in this respect was carefully followed out from first to last. When Louis XIV., on the 24th May, 1664^ signed the edict creating the " West India Company," and handing over Canada thereto, he made the exclusion of Huguenots • a special condition of the grant ; and repeatedly charged successive ■i governors and intendants to see that his orders, in this direction, wei*« carefully carried into effect. While he scourged the unfor- tunate Huguenots with dragonnades, and other modes of persecu- tion, and filially drove nearly hal^ a million of these industrious and enterprising people out of France by his revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he was careful to see that Canada, his favourite colony, and for which he had done so much, should not he polluted with their presence. The Jesuits were the most active agents of the king, in watching for Huguenots among every fresh arrival of immigrants at Quebec, and in keeping down heresy and heretics. When Maintenon and her ghostly allies overcame the better nature of Louis, and launched him into his bigotted excesses against the Huguenots, and all France reeked with shameless K infamies, perpetrated in the name of religion, and the churches rang with triumphant Te Deurna, the royal tool of priestly ferocity ^ sent orders that heresy should be treated in New France as it had been treated in Old France, But there were no Huguenots in Canada to extirpate ; and the pious Denonville wrote back, for the I information of his sovereign, " praised be God, there is not a heretic here. The Jesuits go every day on board the ships in the harbour to look after the new converts from France." These " new of^n verts" had been made by terror and coercion, not by conviction, and so it behooVed the Jesuits to sedulously watch that no relapses took place. During Denonvilie's term a number of the non-resident merchants, trading in Canada, were Huguenots from Rochelle. No favour was shown them : they were held under a rigid surveillance, and were forbidden to practice their religious worship, or even to remain in the Colony during the winter season without a special license. They came out from France with the spring fleet, and had to leave the country in the fall. One of these merchants, named Birnon, had rendered important financial services to the Colony, and was the principal , French merchant in the Canadian trade, " It is a pity," said Denonville, " that he cannot be converted. As he is a Huguenot the bishop wants me to order him home, which I have done. 1760.] CANADA BEFORE THE CONQUEST. 213 though he carries on a large business, and a great deal of money remains due to him." As regards religious intolerance in Canada, no change took place between the reign of Louis XIV. and the conquest j and the Colony remained wholly and exclusively Roman Catholic, although the decline and fall of the Jesuits rendered it somewhat less persecuting and prescriptive in its character. Strict as the rules of social life were in puritan New England^ they were still more strict in Canada. Balls and plays, of every description, were rigor- ously denounced by the Jesuits ; and Bishop Laval strongly condemned the performance of a few harmless comedies^ produced by the officers of the garrison and some young men of Quebec, under the patronage of Frontenac. The Jesuits, aided by the • confessional, raised the curtain from the domestic circle, and watched the morals of families with unceasing vigilance. La Hontain, in his travels, complains that, at this period, " one can neitJier go on a pleasure party, nor play a game of cards, nor visit the ladies, without the cure knovi'lng the occurrence, and preaching about it publicly from the pulpit. They watched more closely over the women and girls than their husbandi? and fathers. They prohibit and burn all books but books of devotion." The Sulpitians were almost as rigorous at Montrep.1 as the Jesuits at Quebec. The watchfulnesss and severity of clerical rula did not, however, convert Canada into an Arcadia, nor maintain that high standard of public morals which might be anticipated. There was always more or less of rebellions dissatisfaction within the fold, and a constant desire to escape from priestly restraint. The more youthful and vigorous part of the population soon began to take kindly to the ^ roving and adventurous life of the cowrewr rfe 6om, and made their escape into the woods to trade with the Indians, to live in undisturbed concubinage with their women, and, in numberless cases, to become almost as wild as the Indians them- selves. These coureursde bois, or bush rangers, were objects of the greatest dislike to Louis XIV., who directed edict after edict against them, but without avail, as his orders could not be enforced in the depth of the wilderness ; and more than once the Colony presented the extraordinary spectacle of the greater part of its young men turned into forest outlaws. The intendant Duchesneau reported to the king, that eight hundred men, out of a total population of less than ten thousand souls, had, during his time, vanished from sight in the immensity of a boundless wilderness. Many of these never returned to civilization, and became incorpor- ated with one Indian tribe or another, or hung loosely around the French frontier posts. Denonville enlarges, in his despatches, on their vagabond and lawless ways, and their indifference to marriage; and Bishop St. Vallier, at a later period, bitterly complains that the Canadian youths were for the most part wholly demoralised. Montreal was the chief harbouring place of the cour&iirs de bois j and there they frequently conducted themselves, during their ■» 'i f ' i II ) • ^ ■* */' i 1 ■ • if 1 ^ 1 ;i j. 214 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1760. I< If ' occasional visits, like the crew of a man of war paid off after a long voyage. Carheil, the Jesuit ncissionary at Mackinaw, draws a horrible picture of the state of things which existed at that frontier post in his day, and of the disorders produced by the sale of liquor to the Indians, and complains that the conduct of oflScers and soldiers, and coureurs de bois, made the Indian villages so many centres for drunkenness, and Sodoms for iniquity. And his description was equally applicable, in a greater or less degree, to all the other French frontier posts at this period. Against the absolute authority of the king, on the one hand, and the church, on the other, there was ever running in Canada a strong counter-influence, often of the most obstinate nature, and rude and almost wild, at times, in its antagonism. The St. Law 'ence and the sea-like lakes it drains, were the ready highways to the great wilderness of freedom around and beyond them ; and thither the disfranchised half-starved seignior, and the discouraged habitant, who could find no market for his surplus produce, naturally betook themselves. The lesson of savage freedom was easily acquired ; and so for generations a boundless individual license, and a despotic authority, in church and state, battled continually for supremacy. Nor even at the last, and under more favorable auspices, were church and state fairly masters of the field ; and in 1736, when French rule in Canada was drawing towards its end, the intendant complained that although twenty-eight com- panies of regular troops were quartered in the Colony, there were not soldiers enough to keep the people in order. And, at the last moment, when the hostile hosts were marshalling for the final struggle. Bishop de pont Briant bewails, in a touching pastoral, the little zeal for piety shown by Canadians, the terrible spirit of gambling which had seized upon his flock, the general contempt exhibited for religion, and the various crimes that had oeen recently multiplied. There can be no doubt that he was a faithful witness ; and, as contemporary evidence shows, there was no exaggeration in his description of Canadian morals just before the conquest. As regards the oflicial class, especially, the licentiousness and dishonesty which prevailed formed the reflex, on a diminished scale it is true, of the conditions gf things in France ; and the corrupt morals of the corrupt court of Louis XV. tainted the upper strata of Canadian society to the core. The evil of example taught the common people to imitate their betters, and the priests had a difficult task to keep their flocks in order. In the neighboring colonies of New England, self -governed and free, professing anothei' faith, and far more populous, perfect order prevailed, v/ith no oth'M* guardians of the peace than a few constables chosen by the people themselves. But if ihe Roman Catholic church had failed, under the most favorable auspices of an unquestioned state establishment, in doing much for the religious, the educational, or the social elevation of the Canadian people, during the old regime, it proved itself more useful in the day of adversity. The conquest shattered 1766. J CANADA BEFORE THE CONQUEST. 215 ) , est shattered the whole apparatus of civil administration. Governors, councillors, intendanta, commandants and soldiers, had all suddenly disappear- ed. Many of the seigniors went with them to France, and the people, who knew nothing about governing themselves, were left as sheep without a shepherd. The parish priests stepped into the wide gap which had been made, and with a paternal and prudent rule half spiritual, half temporal, preserved their flocks from anarchy, assisted the government to maintain order, and thus repaid the indulgence with which the British authorities had treated them. Had Jesuit influence continued to prevail such a gratifying result could scarcely be looked for ; and it was a most fortunate circumstance for Canada, at this critical peiiod, that the sinister rule of the order of Loyola had been terminated. While the self-sustained British colonies, where the individual achieved his own measure of success without any aid from the state, became prosperous and even rich, Canada, for which one French Government after another was constantly incurring expense, remained wretchedly poor, from first to last, and never got its head well above water. During the seventeenth century, and for some- time after its close, the Colony swarmed with beggars although a good farm could be had for the asking. Begging in Roman Catholic countries is not usually regarded as an unmixed evil, and is rather looked upon as promoting charity in thegiverand humility in the receiver. Nevertheless it became so troublesome in Canada that the authorities endeavored to restrain it. Vagabonds of both sexes were driven from Quebec, and no person was allowed to beg without having first obtained, from the cure or local judge, a certificate of poverty. These regulations, however, were not always well-enforced, and Bishop St. Vallier complains that he is overwhelmed by beggars, and the intendant has the same story to tell. Almshouses were established in Montreal, Three Rivers and Quebec, for the relief of the poor, and the general hospital, founded ill 1692, was also regarded as a house of refuge. Appeals for charity were frequently made to the king, who sent help, again and again, for the Canadian poor ; and as late as 1701, six thousand frann were granted for that purpose. On November 6th, 1687, Denonville reports to the minister, that the principal reason of the poverty of the country is the idleness and bad conduct of most of the people. In 1G84 the intendant Meules reports, " that the persons who have wished to make a figure in the Colony are nearly all so overwhelmed in debt, that they may be considered in the last necessity." And he adds that many of the people go half- naked in the winter. " The merchants of the Colony," reports the intendant Duchesneau, " are nearly all plunged in poverty." "In New England and the other British colonies," writes the Jesuit Charlevoix, in 1720, " there reigns an opulence by which the people almost seem not to know how to profit, while in New France poverty is hidden under an air of ease which appears entirely natural." The Canadians had become accustomed « . .* I il fil ■y' ' .* • 1 % * • « » i™ 21& THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1760. to to it. It was their noimal condition, and they had learnel make the most of it. The peopling of Canada was largely due to Louis XIV. Before his accession the entire population, clerical and lay, did not exceed twenty-hve hundred souls ; but scarcely had he reached his majority than the shipment of settlers, at the expense of the crown, systematically commenced. The Sulpitians of Montreal, in their seigniorial capacity, also brought out, from time to time, a number of colonists from France ; a few other landowners did the same ; but the government was always the chief emigration agent, and paid the great bulk of the charges. In 1661 Bishop Laval wrote the cardinals of the Propaganda, at Rome, that during the two preced- ing years, the king had spent two hundred thousand francs in the Colony ; that since 1659 he had annually sent out three hundred emigrants ; and that he had promised to send out the same ^umler every summer for the ensuing ten years. These emigrants were mostly poor, and very few brought any money with them. The regiment of Carignan, which came out with Tracy and Courcelleb, were also settled in Canada. Each officer received a bounty inging from one to six thousand francs, and a seignioral grant ; and the soldier, who consented to remain in the Colony, got a farm, usually of ninety acres, fifty francs in money, and provisio:^i for one year. To provide these settlers with wives, repeated shipments of young women were made from France — peasant girls for the farmers, and an educated and better class for the seigniors. Great as was the demand for wives, the king, in his eagerness to populate the country, caused that demand to be stimulated. Dowries v-ere given to young men who married enrly, and fathers who neglected to have their children married while young, were fined ; and orders were issued before the arrival of each ship-load of young women, that all single men should marry within a fortnight after the landing of their prospective brides. To parents of ten lawful children the king paid a pension of three hundred francs a year, and of twelve children four hundred francs. So children increased, but the population did not increase in due proportion. The Indians and the wilderness, drunkenness and debauchery, devoured the youth of the Colony ; and more than half a century after Louis XIV. took it in hand, the census did not show a tonal of twenty-five thousand souls. The lands along the Richelieu river weredi^ tded into large seigniories, and jifranted to the officers of the Carignan regiment, who in turn divided their estates into farms which they gave to their soldiers. And thus a military settlement was formed, as a barrier against the future incursions of the Iroquois or the English. But these officere and soldiers, unaccustomed to agricultural labour, remained miserably poor. Even when they had good crops ther*) was no sufiicient market tor their aurplub produce ; and the fur trade, and the suireptitiouB sale of brandy to t)ie Indians, were the only available sources of proui). " Many of our officers and other owners of 1760.] CANADA BEFORE THE CONQUEST. 217 seigniories^" i-eported Duchesneau in 1679, "spend most of their time in hunting and fishing. As their requirements in food and clothing are greater than thoiEu of the simple habitants^ and as they do not devote themselves to improving their land, they mix themselves up in trade, run in debt on all hands, incite their young habitants to range the woods, and send their own children there to trade in the Indian villages, and in the depths of the forest, in spite of the prohibition of his majesty. Yet with all thia they are in miserable poverty," *' It is pitiful," wrote the intendant Champigney in 1687 to the minister, "to see their children, of which they have great numbers, passing all the summer with nothing on them but a shirt, and their wives and daughters work- ing in the fields. Pride and sloth are the great faults of the people of Canada, especially of the nobles, and those who pretend to be such. I pray you grant no more letters of nobility unless you want to multiply beggars." " Two days ago," writes Denonville in 1685, Monsieur de Saint Cars, a gentleman from Dauphiny, came to me to ask leave to go bisck to France in search of bread. He says he will put his ten children in charge of any one who will give them a living, and that he himself will go into the army ar ',n. I have seen two of his girls reaping grain and holding the plough. All our married officer are beggars, and I entreat ;'ou to send them ?:d." Denonville added tha,t he feared thes . 1 , I 'I M ,■ % l> !••■, ' 4 • 218 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1760. with the dwellers on his own estate, and never more at home than when with a gun on his shoulder, and a crucifix on his breast, he betook himself to the warpath with a band of painted savages, and Cnnadians almost as savage, and pounced suddenly from the forest, like a lynx, on some lonely farmhouse, or outlying hamlet, of New England or New York, to burn and destroy, and even to slay, in the name of his country and his religion. Like St. Paul, when he persecuted the Christians from Jerusalem to Damascus, the Cana- dian was taught to believe, and verily believed, that in striking down heresy and heretics, he was doing God service. In every war the Indian tribes controlled by France, and the Christian mission Indians of the Jesuits as well, were launched against the frontiers of the British colonies without compunction ; and were frequently led in their march of wild destruction and ferocious mur- der by Canadian officers. No wonder, then, that New England hated above measure these seigniors for so often bringing down upon its borders the Abenaki and the Micmac Indians, to perpetrate the bloovdy massacres of Deertield and elsewhere. And no wonder, also, that it hated the Jesuits, who so frequently countenanced these forays, i^nd gave counsel and comfort to its savage foes. The Canada of Louis XV. was the successor, in every respect, of the Canada of his predecessor, only on a larger scale. The increase of French power in the Ohio valley, and around the waters of the western lakes, speedily weakened the hands of the Iroquois, and their inroads into Canada ceased. There were no more Indian forays down the St. Lawrence, and the habitant was left to prosper in peace, as best he coi Id, so far as his ancient enemies of thf Six Nations were concerned. Gradually new settlements spread out in every direction ; the condition of the people impi'oved ; they devoted more attention to the cultivation of their farms, ^ \ 1 became more amenable to order, and to the control of their clergy. But otherwise there was no change in their social or political condition, and they still ifinained the serfs of an undiluted despotism, to be tyrannized ov(!r by their superiors, and plundered with impunity, at every favorable opportunity, by official peculators of the Bigot stamp. Under even the most favorable circumstances the condition of the Canadian peasant, during the French period, was never a very enviable one. As the inhabitant of a military colony, his life and his fortunes were alike at the mercy of his superiors, from the king downwards. He was liable, at any moment, to be called upon for military duty, and to serve as a soldier without pay, not only as regarded his own immediate country, but at any point, however distant, to which he might be ordfM'ed. Hence his farm had frequently to be neglected, and the labours of the field performed by his wife and children of both sexes as best they could. While, as a rule, the civil law was adminis- tered very cheaply, and with tolerable fairness, the criminal code was most Draconic in its character, and enforced, at times, with the greatest ferocity. The punishment of death was frequently inflicted 1760.] CANADA BEFORE THE CONQUEST 219 for the most trifling offences. Trial by jury was unknown. The accused person was completely at the mercy of the judge, and was often treated with the most barbarous severity." " To the inipenetrably mysterious transactions of a cruel inquisition," said the impartial and clever French author, the Abbe Raynal, who wrote after the conquest, "succeeded a cool, rational and public trial ; and a tribunal dreadful, and accustomed to shed blood, was replaced by humane judges more disposed to acknowledge innocence, than to suppose criminality." The con- (luered people have been still more delighted by finding the liberty of their persons secured forever by the famous law of habeus corpus. As they had too long been victims of the arbitrary will of those who governed them, they have blessed the beneficent hand that drew them from a state of slavery to put them under the protec- tion of just Irtws."* Before the conquest the torture was frequently applied by the authorities, to force confessions of guilt from suspected persons; and as late as 1752 a soldier was subjected to the punishment of the rack at Three Rivers, in order to make Inm confess his accomplices in an attempt to bum the town. A female, who had concealed the birth of an illegitimate child, was tortured in the same cruel way. The i*ack was in use in Canada almost up to the conquest.* A person suspected, with or without good foundation, was seized, thrown into prison, and interrogated without kiiowing the charge preferred against him, and without being confronted with the accuser. He was also often deprived of the assistance of his relations, friends or counsel ; sworn to tell the truth, or, in other woi"ds, to condemn himself ; and frequently never saw his accuser until the moment before sentence was pronounced against him by the judge, or when the torture was applied, or at his execution. In capital cases judgment was invariably followed by confiscation of property. J As regarded the habitant the change in his personal condition, which resulted from Canada becoming {iait of the British Empire, was one indeed of the most beneficial character. It was passing from the bondage of slavery to a condi- tion of freedom. The finances of the Colony were never in a prosperous state. Very little ready money ever came i'lto it, and when it did come its stay was brief. In the absence o* coin, beaver skins long served as currency, but in 1669, the " ^n^^'l declared wheat to be a legal tender at about twenty -seve- .:ts to the bushel. In 1674 all creditors were ordered to receive I'aoose skins, at the market rate, in payment of debts. In order to keep money in the country a coin- age was made for Canada twenty per cent below the true value ; but even this cure turned out to be a very transitory one, and the bartei' system had to be again resorted to. In 1685 the intendant Meales, having no money to pay the soldiers, created a paper • urreiicy out of playing cards, cut into four pieces, stamped with * Raynal, vol. ii. p. 138. t Christie, vol. i. p. 11. J Smith's His. Cm vol. ii. p. 70. i -'■ •'». • . .n "*% I ' .■ « •' -4 22a' I' T "4 ■■ .. • ■ * ■ « • i * - • ', * " • n i 9 ■ *■■ ■ • y ■ 1 f .". ■ :, THB 1HI8T0RY iOP CANADA.^ [1760i the 'Jleur de lis and a crown, and signed by the governor, the intendant, and the ' clerk of the treaswry. He next issued an ordinance compelling the people to receive these cards as money. These promises to pay were not convertible into coin, but into government bills of exchange on France, at stated periods, and showed no disposition to leave the Colony, f MeuW example was largely followed by successive intendants ; and in 1714 the amount of card currency in circulation had risen to some four hundred thousand dollars; In 1717 this debt was at length converted into government bills of exchange. New card issues followed, until, in the last year of its bitter existence, the Colony was flooded with worthless paper, and the bills drawn against a large part of which the French government refused to honour. During the French period the trade of Canada was always small, and furs formed the great export staple. Prior to 1714 the Canadians had the bulk of the fur trade in their hands. But in that year the Treaty of Utrecht compelled them to relinquish Hudsons Bay and much of the North-west traffic, and the English colonists from thenceforward became their serious competitors. Extensive smuggling took place between New York and Montreal, and at Albany, also, Canadians freely exchanged their peltries for goods 'f and even the agents of the Jesuits were accused of engaging in this contraband traffic. Stilly in the decade before the conquest it was estimated that in furs alone the exports from Canada amounted to $700,000 annually. But very little of anything else, however, wess exported, - id even the timber trade was of small account. Very few ships were built, and many of those used in the Canadian trade were purchased in New England. The manufactures of the Colony were few and unimportant, it being the policy of the mother country to discourage efforts in this directioii, and compel the Canadians to look to France for supplies of clothing, and other necessary articles for every-day usoy as well as for the luxuries of life. Talon procured a relaxation of this policy, and sought to establish manufactures of i/he more necessary articles for domestic use, but without much success. In 1716 a royal edict war issued giving permission to manufacture coarse stufib for werring apparel, and this led to looms being set up in almost every house ; and the habittmts, and even many of the seigniors, thenceforward manufactured coarse articles of clothing for their own use, This edict was a great boon to the people, who soon learned to clothe themselves comfortably as well as cheaply. The balance of trade was always largely against Canada, and the di£ference usually had to be made good, in some way, by the king. Raynal states that the expenses of the French government, on Canadian account, which reached 400,000 francs in 1729, and before 1749 never exceeded 1,700,000 francs, rose to enormous sums during the war. In 1759 the expenH'uure exceeded 26,000, 000 francs ; and from 1749 to the surrmderof Canada, in 1860, the total expenditure was over one hundred and twenty-three • >t I 1760.] CANADA BEFORE THE CONQUEST. S21 million francs. Of this vast sum eighty million francs remained due, of which thirty-four millions were represented by the inten- dant Bigot's notes of hand to Canadian creditors, and seven millions in exchequer bills. A large part of this debt was at first repudiated by the French government, as being fraudulent ; and although the British government afterwards made it a matter of prolonged negotiation, and sought to do the best it could for its new subjects, the unfortunate Canadians recovered but a small part of the amount due them. Such was the condition of Canada during the French period of its history, as the story is told by its own people and its own rulers. It now remains for us to trace its progress under a new form of government, and under different circumstances. ••■4. f. » ! " ,1 i- tl is CHAPTER X . THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. CJCARCELY had the treaty of peace, between England .intl ^ France, been finally ratified, than, a new and most alanriiiig danger menaced the western frontier, from Virginia to Lake Huron. The easy manners of the French, their inherent liking for \s ild forest life, their frequent intermarriages into the native tribes, and their general knowledge of their language, had made them exceed- ingly popular with all the western Indians ; who speedily learned to regard them as comrades and fast friends. In addition to these favouring circumstances, the successful labours of the Jesuit and other Canadian missionaries, who almost invariably united tlie political with the sacerdotal function, exercised great influence in attaching many of the tribes to French interests. Fi-om Champlain to Vaudreuil the governors of the old regime, had sedulously culti vated alliances with the red man, deferred to his prejudices, and flattered his pride. Even the haughty Count Frontenac, plum- ed and painted like an Indian brave, did not hesitate to join the war dance, tomahawk in haqd ; and sing the war song at the camp fires of his delighted allies. Nor did his imitative complacency stop even here. On one occasion he caused an unfortunate Iroquois prisoner to be put to the torture and afterwards burned alive, to strike terror into his countrymen ; and no doubt, also, to gratify the Indian friends of France. His subordinates did not hesitate to follow this cruel example when it suited their purpose. In short, nothing could be more agreeable to the red man than his intercourse with the French soldier, trader or hunter, in whom he found a congenial spirit ; and to whose hut he was always welcome. As a result of the recent war this pleasant state of things speedily disappeared. When the French garrisons evacuat- ed one frontier post after another, they wei*e replaced by the soldiers of a different race, who, as a rule, were wholly unacquainted with the language of the neighboring tribes ; knew little or ntrthiiif; about their manners and customs ; and with whom the easy and agreeable relations which had been maintained with their piede- cessors could not be established. In fact, the English soldiers titer, in whom 1762.1 CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 223 usually regarded the presence of the Indians as a nuiss^nce, to be abated at the earliest favourable opportunity. This conduct touched to the quick the pride and self-love of the Indian, and he speedily learned to dislike, with all the intensity of his savage nature, the new comers into his country Times had indeed changed sadly for him. His alliance had hitherto largely constituted the balance of power between the two great contestants for North American empire. But the struggle was over, the victor required no aid, and the red man was about to be relegated to his original condition of savage inconsequence. Arlded to these grounds of dissatisfaction, the western tribes now became apprehensive that the widely aggressive progress of the British colonies must soon cause disaster to them- selves, in the destruction of game, and the loss even of their hunting grounds ; and that, therefore, their true policy was to prevent farther encroachment on their territory. During the long struggle for supremacy between England and France, the influence of the western Indians had steadily increased. The Iroquois, whose authority, at one time, had extended over half of North America, had gradually been forced eastward, and had eventually to rest contented with their ancient hunting grounds in central and western New York, and in the desolated wilderness of Ontario, out of which they had swept almost every vestige of the Algonquin and Huron races. French alliance and intercourse, in addition to in- creasing, at the expense of the Iroquois, the powei and influence of the tribes of the great lake region, and of the Ohio country as well, had also largely terminated their internecine warfare of former years, and knit them more closely together. The remnants of the Algonquin, the Huron, and the Ottawa nations, now de- scended from the inhospitable regions beyond Lake Huron, whither they had fled for refuge, and formed new homes for themselves nearer their ancient allies, the French, in the pleasant country lying along the upper end of Lake Erie, the Detroit River, and Lake St. Clair ; the Indian's terrestrial paradise abounding with fish and game. With the exceptions of the Delawares from Pennsylvania, now settled in the Ohio valley, and the Shawnees and the Tuscaroras, old allies of the English, all the western Indians still remained the fast friends of t^. d French, and would fly to their aid at any favourable moment. Among the tribes which had supplanted the Iroquois, in the Detroit region, the Ottawas occupied a foremost position ; while Pontiac, their chief, was regarded as the most intelligent and capable leader among all the western Indians ; who already looked up to him with the gre»>*»st respect and confidence. Independent of the fact that his people had suffered severely during the late war, at Niagara and elsewhere, and that he would avenge them if he could, he detested the English as the allies of the Iroquois, the hereditary foes of his race. H(i deeply regretted the defeat of his ancient ally of France, and at the close of the war sullenly retired to the territory of his tribe. Here, near the site of the * : i» 1 1 • i i_ »■}. '•;.. ^ ■».■ 1 Iv-- 1 •• !■ • ! ' , . • r ' ' '^1 ■t ! ■ I,- ■ ». 4 •■■.' • •• . «,'■ 324 1760. THE HISTORY OF CAKADA. [1760. present city ' of Glevelandj and late in the autumn, he en- countered the celebrated New Hampshire border ranger, niMajor Rogers, who had bu6n despatched, by Amherst, to take ' possesition of ^ the French lake posts, and angrily demanded how he had dared to enter his country without his permission. *' I have ■ oome," said Rogers, " with no hostile intent against you, but solely 1^1 to remove the French from Detroit, ani to restore a general peace b to white and red men alike." And, then, Rogers told the chief, >. who listened eagerly, that Canada had been surrendered to the ' English) and tiiat the power of France was at an end. Pontiuc at first declined to accept the proffered wampum belt of peace, but != after a night's consideration he deemed it hid best course to bow : to the inevitable, and informed Rogers he was willing to live in .''amity with the English, so long as they treated him with due re- U spect and deference. He kept his word, and largely contributed -to the safe passage of Rogers westward, and to the peaceable sur- :' render, on the 29th of November, of Detroit. The Indians looked .-•on in amazement as the French garrison defiled before Rogers, laid : 1 down their armSj and the ^ur df lis was lowered from the flag tr staff, where it had so long flown, and the cross of St. George rose tt aloft in its place. They could not understand why the many & Burnendered to the few, and conceived an extraordinary idea of > ^BngiUsh prowess. These occurrences made a deep impression on the astute mind of 4 Pontiac ; and, two years afterwards, much as he had come to dis- like the English, who had completely disappointed him in the interval, he was not the first to plot against them. During 1762. the reeeut war the Iroquois became greatly dissatisfied be- cause Amherst would not permit them to scalp and plunder > as they had formerly done ; and they were thus forced to return V home comparatively empty4ianded. Then, again, there was no ..occasion to court them as sedulously as in former days, as there I was no J'ranoein the Ne^ World now to encounter, and even the ittsual presents were not forthcoming. The Senecas were the most u I dissatisfied of all the confederates, and as early as 1761 I 1761.' commenced to • intrigue among the Ottawas and other '■'■ western tribes, with the view to th> formation of a^ general Indian confederacy. " The English," said the Senecas, "evidently ■ •intend to make slaves of us all, by occupying so many posts in our country, and we had better prevent them in time." And, in this ' way, one tribe after another was speedily drawn into the conspir- acy, which Pontiac presently found ready-made to his .' 1762. hand, and then determined to give it more complete form and force. Towards the close of 1762 he sent messengers to 'f. ftli the Indian tribes, from the lake region to the Mississippi. — i'With the war belt and red tomahawk, these messengers went from ; camp to camp, and village to village, and told the story of the r-iwrongs which their race had sustained at the hands of the English, ^;ettlement, new resolved to open negotia- tions with Pontiac. Three Canadians were accordingly despatched to his camp, and urgPfl him to agree ^o n peace. But Pontiac de- ' ' .III » !. P. ' • ; > ii 4 i hi In 4|il 228 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1763. clared that while anxious to do so, he could only hold council with the English fathers themselves. When Gladwyn heard this mes- 1^ sage he suspected treachery ; but finally, and after much urgent press'ng, consented that his second in command, Captain Campbell accompanied by Lieutenant McDougali, should proceed to Pontiae's caiup to open negotiations. On arrival there they were met by the most hostile demonstrations ; and for a time it appeared as if they would be murdered. But this was no part of Pontiae's plan ; and he retained them as his prisoners ; assigning them quarters with a respectable Canadian farmer, who resided within the boundaries of his camp. Next day Gladwyn was formally smnnion- ed to capitUi., '"e ; and Pontiac threatened that, in the eA'ent of refusal, he woukl ultimately put the whole garrison to the torture. The fort was now closely blockaded by land, but the schoonens still held command of the river, and the fire of their guns sweeping the northern and southern faces of the works, kept the enemy from approaching them. The presence of these vessels had also J. another most important effect. They prevented the canoes of the Indians from passing along the river, and thus enabled a few friendly Canadians, who lived on the opposite shore, to convey secret- ly, at night, to the garrison the provisions of which it stood sorely in need. Nor were the besiegers much better off. The large number of warriors, which sometimes reached two thousand, speedi- ly devoured their stores of provisions, and Pontiac soon found himself in no small difficulty to provide them with food. He accordingly organised a regular commissariat, which he placed under the control of some friendly Frenchmen, and made requisitions for supplies on the Canadian farmers — on friend and foe alike — to ^ whom receipts on birch bark, signed with the otter, the totem of his tribe, were issued, and afterwards faithfully redeemed. This politic chief had also a secretary, a Canadian, whom he caused to write to De Noyan, the French commandant in Illinois, who had not yet surrendered his posts at Fort Chartres and elsewhere, to send him help to expel the English, and an officer competent to conduct siege operations. Strong in the good-will of the western Indians, the French never had occasion to build posts of great strength amongst them. Where the English were likely to find their way, substantial forts, V armed with cannon, were built ; but in the wilderness, distant from the frontier, their military posts were of the weakest con- struction, and most frequently consisted of a block house and a few log houses, surrounded by a stockade of cedar or hemlock, loop-holed for nmsketry fire. These were sufficient for the acconun o- dation of a few soldiers, and occasional hunters and traders ; while the Indians in the neighbourhood were looked to for supplies of maize and game. These small forts were thinly scattered throughout the vast unbroken forest wilderness of the west and north-west, and usually stood by the side of some pleasant stream. In the Ohio region, a.i 1 along the lakes, they h.id been surrendered to the It li r, the totem of THE MASSACRE BEGUN. 229 1763.] conquerors at the close of the war, and were now garrisoned by small detachments of regular troops — the grim repellant successors of the gay and accommodating Frenchmen, who had so successfully won their way into the hearts of the red men. Upon these weak and isolated posts the storm of savage warfare descended, during the early days of summer, with fatal fury. On the 7\h of May the appointed day, or as soon thereafter as possible, each tribe danced its final war dance, and marched to attack the nearest English post, or suddenly burst from the forest on some defenceless frontier settlement, to slay and scalp, to burn and plunder. The woods, in every direction, were now alive with swarming troops of hostile savages, who speedily drove out oi murdered all the English traders they could lay hands upon. On the 16th of May a party of Indians made their appearance at Fort Sandusky, garrisoned by fifteen soldiers under Ensign Paulli. Seven of these Indians were admitted to a conference. At a given signal the soldiers and traders were massacred ; while Paulli was suddenly seized and bound, and afterwards sent a prisoner to Pontiac at Detroit. On the morning of the 25th of May, a party of Pottawatamies appear- ed at tlie post of St. Joseph, near the head of Lake Michigan, garrisoned by Ensign Schlosser and fourteen soldiers and traders. " We are come," said they, "to wish the garrison a good morning." A cry was suddenly heard in the log barracks, and in a fev> minutes all the English, v ith the 'exception of Schlosser and three others, were murdered. Tl: -^ captives were afterwards carried to Detroit, and there exchan(;ed for an equal number of Indian prison- ers. At Fort Miami, Holmes, who had warned Gladwyu of the approaching danger, and who understood a little medicine, was decoyed from his post on a visit of mercy to a neighbouring squaw, who was said to be sick, and treacherously shot dead. His sergeant, who went to search for him, was made prisoner ; and the feeble garrison of nine men, deprived of their othcers, surrendered at discretion. At Mackinaw, a little west of the strait, stood a fort of considerable strength, garrisoned by two officers and forty soldiers, under the command of Captain Etherington. On the 2nd of June a band of Chippewas, after sending their squaws into the fort with tomahawks concealed under their blankets, commenced a game of lacrosae. Presently the ball was pitched into the fort, the playei's were allowed to follow it, and, in a few minutes, an officer and .sixteen men were killed, and the remainder of the garrison, and all the English traders, made prisoners ; while the French traders were left at liberty. On the same day the fort at Prescjue Isle, (Erie) the chief point of communication between Pittsburg and Niagara, and garris^jned by an officer and twenty-four men, was weakly surrendered after a two days' siege, and the officer and most of his soldiers carried in triumph to Pontiac. Sixteen miles from rres(iue Isle, near the head watei.s of the Alleghany, and on the road to Fort Pitt, stood Fort Le Botmf, a single badly constructed block house, garrisoned by Ensign Price, two coiporals ; < t . Vrl n i ••« ;v. ••• ^ ■* Tl if' < ll»fl 230 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [17fi3. and eleven privates. On the night of the .3riitinue«l to be closely inaintaimrl. In the last days of May. .111 effort was made to relieve it hy .itV »!»••■. of 96 men, sent from Niagara, under command of Lieutenant C u/lei. While encamped at the mouth of the Detroit river, this force was suddenly attacked at night by Pontiac's Indians, and utterly defeated. Its loss in killed and prisoners was over sixty ; and those who escaped fled for their lives down the lake. Nearly all the provisions and military stores were captured. Among these was a quantity of whisky, which during the night led to hor 'id scenes of riot and debauch among the Indians, when all the unfortunate prisoners captured on this occasion were massacred ; and for several days afterwards, naked corpses, gashed with knives, and scorched with fire, floated down the river. Couriers carried to the tribes, in every direction, the news of Pontiac's success, in order to stimulate them to still greater exertions to drive the English back to the east whence they had come. But not content with destroy- ing the military posts and murdering their defenders, the Indians slew over a hundred English traders, captured either at their villages or in the forest. The Delawares and Shawnees, forgetful of their ancient treaties of peace and friendship with the Quakers, crossed the Alleghanies into Pennyslvania, which now felt all the evils of savage warfare in its direst form. It had long slumbered in fancied security, had few frontier defensive posts, and no organiz ed militia force equal to the projection of its borders. Scouting parties of cruel savages harried the border settlements in every direction down to Carlisle, and left wide swathes of destruction and death behind ther. wherever they turned their steps. The frontiers of Maryland and Virginia also felt the full effects of this terrible irIM .;. ! 1763.] SIEGE OF FORT PITT. >31 savage iriniption, and five hundred families, horaelesB and dehtitute, had to Hy to Winchester for protection. For hundreds of ^ iiles flight was thsi only source of safety txj the unhappy border populu tion ; and the larger towns w«re speedily tilled with fugitives — m^ a, women and children — in the direst terror and distress it possible to conceive. Strong parties of armed men, who went o. ■ to reconnoitr*" the raided districts, found everywhere habitavi-H: < in ruins, arc la which often lay the half -burned and mutilated boti s of the ir mates, from the father and mother to the infant at the br»ast. In several cases these unfortunate people had some remains of life and consciousness still left. A thousand families had been driven from the Susquehanna valley aloue ; the Moods were full of flying fugitives, destitute of food and shelter ; and it was evident that, unless the havoc was speedily checked, the western part of Pennsylvania would be wholly deserted. After Detroit, Fort Pitt was the most important of all the western posts, and the greatest menace '^ the Indians of the Ohio country. It had now a garrison of 30 en under a brave and prudent Swiss officer, Captain Ecu. '^r, - proved himself fully equal to the emergency. Early in /ii v,' i-nnds of Delawares and VTingoes had been seen hovering r .. 1 'iis post, as if for trading purposes : but their true object w \s . as Ci^rtain if the garrison < iiuld be surprised. On the 27tli «f the uiontli they exchanj^vd. with s»)iue traders, twelve hundrei.' ''us worth of furs tor powdej' and lead, and shortly afterwaixis sent a niL-ssugc to Ecuyrr. recounting the Indian successes against the various military posts, and threatening that if his garrison were not withdrawn it would share the same fate. To give emphasis to this warning they next day scalped and murdered a whole family, m .'lo resided near^, the fort, sparing neither women nor children, and then departed, but leaving behind them a tomahawk as their declaration of war. Next day two soldiers were shot within a mile of the fort ; while; news reached it that everywhere the traders were being slaughtered. " I see," writes Ecuyer to his Colonel, Bouquet, " that the affair is general. I tremble for the outposts. I expect to be attacked to morrow morning. I am passably well-prepared. Everybody is at work, and I do not sleep." Thus fully warned of the great danger which threatened his post ; and awa»' that a long period must elapse before effectual aid could be given him, the gallant Ecuyer resolutely determined to prepare for every emergency. The fortifications of Fort Pitt had never been fully completed ; and the floods had seriously damaged it on the water faces. With the aid of a few ship-carpenters, who had come to build boats for the expedition to take possession of the French posts in Illinois, he soon put the works in a good state of defence, constructed a fire engine to use should any of the wooden buildings become ignited by burning arrows, and made every other preparation, which his limited means permitted, to repel attack. But independent of this danger he had other serious / i^- .i .n ■ '1-,. ^ [• I. . '!■ '\. iiiir 232 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. 11763. « . • «. ■' difficulties to encounter. A small outside colony of settlers and camp followers had grown up under the protection of the guns of the fort, and as their log huts had to be destroyed, so as to give no cover to an enemy, over two hundred of their women and children had now to be sheltered within the works. Among these the small-pox soon broke out, and an hospital had to be built tor the sick out of range of musket shot. Prowling parties of Indians, constantly hovering near the fort, scalped and murdered those who ventured outside, and fired at the sentinels on the ramparts at every opportunity. At length, on the afternoon of the 22n(l of June, a strong body of the Delawares and Shawnees appeared before the fort, and opened a tierce fire on every side. It was replied to by the best shots of the garrison, and a discharge of howitzers which dropped their shells well among the assailants, who were greatly disconcerted at this, to them, new mode of fighting. At the close of the day the garrison had oidy one man killed and another wounded. Finding that the fort was more than a match for them, and that they could make no impression on the works, the Indians deteiunin- ed to see what could be gained by a conference. At 9 o'clock, next morning, several of their principal men came to the outer edge oi the ditch, and declared their purpose. Brothers said Turtle Heart, the principal chief of the Delawares, addressing Ecuyer and his officers, '* we stand here as your friends, but wo have bad news to tell you. Six great nations of Indians have taken up the hatchet, and have cut off all the English garrisons except yours. They are now on the way to destroy you also. We are your friends, and wish to save your lives ; but you must leave this fort with all your women and children, and go down to the English settlements where you will be safe. If you go at once we will protect you," But Ecuyer promptly rejected their proposal ; and told them that three great armies were now on their way to punish the rebellious tribes. As for himself he was bound to stay where he was, atid declared that the garrison was able to hold Fort Pitt against all the Indians who might dare to attack it. His courageous bearing disheartened the Delawares, and for the present they withdrew from the neighbourhood. Bad news soon came to Ecuyer from all sides. On the 26th, a fugitive from the garrison at Presque Isle brought intelligence of its surrender, the beleaguer of Detroit, and the destruction of the little fovts of Le Boeuf and Venango, whose ruins he had passed in his flight. Ecuyer expected that the enemy, flushed with success, would again attack him. But he was mistaken, and left in peace for several weeks. Meanvhile, the siege of Detroit was continued with varying fortunes to the assailed and the assailants ; but Pontiac had by far the best of it. On the 19th of June, a rumour reached the garrison that the schooner Gladwyn, which several weeks before had been despatched to Fort Schlosser, on the Niagara River, for supplies, had returned up the lake. Five days afterwards a great iJ '• I V 1763.1 THE SIEGE OF DETROIT. 233 commotion was observed among the Indians, larf e parties of whom were seen to pass along the outskirts of the woods. Baby, a friendly Canadian, brought news in the evening that the Gladwyn was again attempting to ascend the river, and that the Indians had gone to attack her. Two guns were n(>w tired as a signal that the garrison still held out, and the final result was anxiously awaited. Late that afternoon the schooner, with the aid of a gentle breeze, began to move slowly upwards, with nearly the whole oi the sixty soldiers on board concealed between decks, in order to deceive the enemy, and draw them on to make an attack. When a short distance below Turkey Island the breeze died away, and the anchor was dropped. A strict watch was kept, but hours wore on, and no sound broke the stillness of the night, save the rush of the rippling current as it parted from the bow of the vessel, to speed lakewards between the wooded shores that lay black and silont in the deepening obscurity of midnight. And now, stealthily / approaching through the darkness, came a hostile fleet of canoes / to be received by a steady fire of grape shot aiid musketry, which ( killed fourteen Indians, wounded as many more, and drove thev* survivors in consternation to Turkey Island, whence they opened I an ineflfectual fire. .Four days afterwards a fair wind enabled the Gladwyn to sail boldly up the river without having a man injured, although the Indians fired at her constantly. As she passed the Wyandot village, she sent, amid its wigwams and huts, a shower of grape shot, which killed several of the inhabitants ; and, in a few minutes afterwards, anchored by the side of her companion vessel off the fort. She brought a welcome reinforcement of sixty .neu to the garrison, a good supply of ammunition and provisions, and the nev. . of the final ratification of peace between England and France. Although greatly chagrined by the Gladwyn's successful relief of tlie garrison, Pontiac steadily continued the blockade, atxd en- deavoured to win over the Canadians, the more respectable of whom, however, declined to aid him. But several trappers and voyageurs, loose birds of passage, './ho had nothing at stake and longed for excitement, agreed to attach themselves to his fortunes. Meanwhile the schooners, having now plenty of ammunition, frequently assumed the aggressive, and moved up and down the river to fire upon the Indian encampments at either side. The enemy, aided by some renegade Canadians, constructed fire rafts, which came floating towards the schooners but did no harm, as they were easily towed aside. Finding these attempts were useless, Pontiac removed his camp several miles up the river, where ii wooded marsh protected it from the fire of the shipping While these events were transpiring. Major Dalzell, an aid-iie- camp of General Amherst, had been despatched from Niagara with a force of over 200 men, among whom was a small body of rangers under Major Rogers, and an abundant supply of provisions and military stores. On the evening of the 28th of July, Dalzell fj. ♦ 'I . ' . I* I > ..•(■! r H^V. I )i «ii ,- * • !> ^ .« ■» 234 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1763. arrived off the Detroit River, which, favo\ii ed by a fog, he cautiouRly and safely ascended during the night. Next morning the early sun dispelled the fog, the Indians discovered the relieving force, while still a short distance from the fort, and a sharp but brief action ensued, in which the English sustained a loss of fifteen killed and wounded. *Dalzell was eager to distinguish himself, and on the day of his arrival proposed a night attack on the camp of Pontiac, in order to cripple him eflectually before his retreat, which was now confident" ly anticipated. " He is too wary to be surprised," said QIadwyn, *' and I fear the attempt will not succeed ;" but after much persuasion, he reluctantly, and against his "better judgment,' yielded in the end.* Next day orders were issued for the meditated attack, and the necessary preparations made. But owing, it was said, to th*) carelessness of some of the officers, a Canadian spy, hanging around the fort, became avare of the projected attack, and speedily conveyed the news to Pontiac, who at once made skilful arrange- ments to repel it. Not quite two miles from the fort, Parent's Creek descended through a wild and rough hollow to the Detroit River ; and, a few i-ods above its mouth, was crossed by a narrow wooden bridge. Beyond thiH bridge, and parallel with the creek, the land rose in abrupt ridges, on which Pontiac had made slight intrenchment.> to protect his camp, which had formerly occupied the ground beyond. Here, too, the Canadian settlers had built several strong fences ; while their wood piles also made excellent cover for a defensive force. Behind all these points of advantage Pontiac placed his warriors, who, with levelled guns, watched silently for Dalzell's approach. About two o'clock in the morning his column of two hundred and lifty men passed noiselessly out of the fort, and marched two deep along the road ; while two armed batteaux rowed up the river abreast of them, every yard of their progress watched by the enemy's scouts. Presently the advance guard was half way over the bridge, and the main body just entering upon it, when a wild yell rose up in front, long lines of fire illumined the darkness, and in a few moments fully half the soldiers at the head of the column were shot down, when the whole force recoiled. But th? troops quickly reformed, and charged furiously across the bridge to find the Indians had disappeared. A retreat was now determined on, but the Indians had taken post at every available point between Dalzell and the fort, and his whole force narrowly escaped being cut oft'. He was shot dead during the retreat, when Captain Grant, a brave and skilful officer, assumed command, and, after six hours continued fighting, led the shattered coliunn back within the welcom'* shelter of the fort. In this action the English lost twenty killed and forty-two wounded ; while the * Gladwyn to Amherst, Augt- 8th, 1873. A fog, he cautiously loming the early e relieving force, a sharp but brief a loss of 6ft6en >n the day of his itiac, in order to UB now confident " said Gladwyn, )ut after much tter judgment,' or the meditated nng, it was said, an spy, hanging ck, and speedily skilful arrange- Ureek descended ver ; and, a few wooden bridge. the land rose in intrenchment.> ied the ground ; several strong nt cover for a antage Pontiac led silently for ling his column of the fort, and rmed batteaux * their progress advance guard just entering lines of fire lalf the soldiers ihe whole force rged furiously A retreat post at every lis whole force ad during the fficer, assumed the shattered In this action d ; while the 1763.] •BATTLE OP BLOODY RUN. 235 Indians loss scarcely amounted to twenty all told. And thus Pfireiit's Creek came to be called the " Bloody Run." This decisive victory gave fresh courage to the besiegers, and runners were despatched in every direction, through the forests, to tell the news, and to confirm the wavering tribes who were beginning to weary of the long contest. Fresh allies now poured into Pontiac's camp ; and the besieging force was speedily raised to over a thousand warriors. Pontiac's success stimulated the Delawares and their immediate allies to make a fresh effort to get possession of Fort Pitt, but before they again attempted its attack they resolved to see what persuasion would accomplish. Accordingly, on the 26th of July, a small party of their principal nhiefs, among whom was Turtle Heart, came to the fort, and were admitted to a council. Ecuyer heard them patiently, rejected their overtures, and told them he despised the Ottawas, and could hold his position, for three years, against all the Indians in the woods. On the succeeding night the Delawares and their allies, the Shawnees, Wyandots and Mingoes, surrounded the fort in large numbers, and, with their knives and tomahawks, dug rifle pits, whence they could fire with safety. The border sharpshooters, within the fort, lay close behind their parapets of logs ; exposed thdinselves as little as possible, and gave the enemy much the worst of it. Occasionally the Indians shot fire arrows, but very few of these entered the fort, and no damage was don«' beyond giving Ecuyer a slight wound in the leg. This attack lasted for five days and nights, during which the whole injury inflicted on the garrison was one man killed and seven wounded. On the 1st of August the Indians raised the siege, and moved eastwards to attack the relieving force now on its way to Fort Pitt. Late in June, Amherst began at last to clearly comprehend the great danger of the situation along the frontiers, and the necessity of checking the roving bands of Indians who still actively continued their depredations. But his position was one of no small difiiculty. The armies which had conquered Canada had been either disband- ed, or sent to other countries ; and his only available troops were a few skeleton regiments, whose strength had been cut down by service in the deadly climate of the West Indies. Little aid could be hoped from the legislatures of the colonies most directly affected, owing to one cause of diflFerence or another. The Pennyslvania Assembly was particularly obstinate, and regarding the Indians as the aggrieved party, even refused to give effectual assistance to protect its own borders. Under these circumstances, Amherst had to rely almost wholly upon the few regular troops at his disposal, to relieve the beleaguered garrisons at the west. To Colonel Bouquet, a brave and prudent Swiss ofl&cer, who had bten a soldier from his boyhood, and thoroughly acquainted with frontier warfare, was assigned the difficult task of relieving his countryman, Ecuyer, at Fort Pitt. On the 27th of J uie Amherst wrote him from New York, that every soldier there i*a*.l been sent on ro him. < I »i. .1 > .V • ■ * i 4 V r * ' I. • ■ * . ■ ( i . 236 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1763. and that should the whole race of Indians rise in arms against him, he could do no more. Bouquet now pushed on to the frontier to make arrangements for his expedition. At his camp, at Carlisle, on the 3rd of July, he lirst he;. id of the fall of Presque Isle, ^ie Boeuf and Venango, and at once despatched the news to Amherst. The little town was full of fugitives, reduced to the extreme! of want and misery. The cries of distracted women and starving children filled tlie air ; and Bouquet wrote to Amherst that the scene was painful to liumanity, and impossible to describe. At length, after siirmounviug numerous difficulties, the middle of July saw the relieving force prepared to move forward. It did not exceed 500 men all told, the most eftective of whom were the 42nd Highlanders. The remnant of the 77th were scarcely able to march, and were only fit for garrison duty. As the expedition moved slowly onwanls, desolation and ruin everywhere met the eye. At Shippensburg, a little hamlet twenty ii?iles from Carli.sle, another starving multitude, who had fied from the knife and the tomahawk, were encountered. Beyond this point lay a solitude whence every settler had fied. After a long and difficult march, through a country of rocky heights and deep valleys, the post of Bedford, hemmed in by encircling mountains, was reached on tlie 25th of July. The village was full of the wretched border popula- tion, now clustered in terror under the guns of the fort, as the neigh- bouring woods swarmed with prowling savages. Lieutenant Gurry, the ofiicer in command, I'eportcd that for .several weeks nothing had been heard from the westward, as all the messengers had been killed ; but that the last news was tluit Fort Pitt was threatened with a general attack. At Bedford Bouquet engaged thirty back- woodsmen to acts as scouts, as Iris own troops got lost in the woods ; and, leaving his invalid soldiers to garrison the fort, again pushed forward. The march over the Alleghanies, along the rough road hewn out by Forbes, five years before, was of the most difficult and arduous description. But at length, on the 2nd of August, Fort Ligonier, on the western slope of the mountains, fifty miles from Bedford and one hundred and fifty miles froni Carlisle, was reached. The Indians besieging this post at once disappeared. Its comniandant, Lieutenant Blane, could give no intelligenof^ of the enemy, as he had been (do.sely blockaded for weeks, and all his expresses to Fort Pitt, distant 50 miles, had, during that time, been either captured or killed. Leaving his cumbrous waggons at Fort Ligonier, and taking with him his pack train of three hundred and fifty horae.s, Bouijuet resumed his march on the 4th. About twenty miles in front of him lay the dangerous defile of Turtle Creek, a most favourable point for an Indian anibush. About two miles nearer fiowt^d another mountain streamlet, called Bushy Hun, and here Bou(iue.t determined to halt until night, and under cover of darkness make a force 17th of September, he arrived at Fort Pitt. There he found three Dehiwaie F. 1764.J BOUQUET'S ADVANCE. 241 spies in custody, and releasing one of them sent him with a warn- ing to his tribe to leave the road open for his expresses to Detroit ; ard that on their future good conduct would depend his making peace with them. This message; had a profound effect upon the Delawares, made them anxious for peace, and Bouquet's expresses returned safely from Detroit. After garrisoning Fort Pitt with provincials, so "that he might take with him all the regular troops possible, and especially his trusty Highlanders, Bouquet, with a force of over fifteen hundred men, began, early in October, his march into the wilderness. The column was accompanied by many persons who had lost friends and relatives during the war, and who now went to seek them. The Virginia backwoodsmen formed the advance guard, and threw out scouts to clear the forest of any lurking foe ; while behind came a corps of axe-men to open roads for the main body. The Delawares an(l the Shawnees did not desire that he should penetrate into the recesses of their country, and soon met him to propose terms of peace, and in order to propitiate him delivered up eighteen white captives, and pledged themselves to surrender eighty-three more. But this did not satisfy Bouquet, who continued his march into the very heart of their country, where he had a large number of villages within easy striking distance, and there dictated his terms. " I give you twelve days," said he, *' from this date to deliver into my hand all your white prisoners without exception ; Englishmen, Frenchmen, women and children, whether adopted into your tribes, married, or living «mong you under any pretence whatever. And you are to furnish these prisoners with food and clothing, and horses to convey them to Fort Pitt. When you have done this you shall then know on what terms you may obtain peace. Completely cowed, and anxioui to save their villagi s at any price, the Indians complied with Bouquet's demand, and in a fev days two hunrirf a captives were surrendered. Peace was now cuceded them, but ou the further conditions that they should send, without delay, a deputation of chiefs to make a treaty ^vith Johnson, and glvo [lostages for their good faith, which wer< s»reed to. Many of the restored captives were rn ^nized by their relativp^i ; and the most tender and touching scet took place. But other.^ wlio had been adopted into the fami « r, of the tribes, and were much beloved, were most unwilling to urn to civilization, and in some cases had even to be bound. were seen to weep bitterly at partii the objects of their tenderest affect the forest resound with their cries ol distress. Young women, who had been married to Indians, absolutely refused to be parted from their dusky husbands, and made their escape back to them at every opportunity. And when th^ red men could do not! "ng more for their white friends, they besought the English to be kind to the captives they had restored. Some of their young warriors accompanied the retiun^ column for several days, ( Hjven the stoical red laen rom those who had become while their squaws made, and oppressed by a proud and poor nobility, we have 1763.] CANADA AT REST. 243 now to reconl the progress of a peaceful community, in the enjoy- ment uf an immeasurably larger liberty.* From 1760 to 1763 that part of Canada lying along the St. Lawrence River, and then the chief seat of its population, scarcely presents a single event of note to record. The habitants had gladly laid aside the musket and the sword to devote themselves to agricul- tural employments, and were soon in the enjoyment of abundance of food. These people had been taught to look for every c utrage at the hands of the British, and were most agreeably surprised at the humane manner in which they were now treated. Their gratitude was also awakened by the generous way in which large sums of money had been subscribed, by British officers and mer- chants, to alleviate their sufferings during the recent famine. A disastrous war, the departure of French troops, and the return of many persons to France, among whom were a number of officials, had reduced the population of Canada to less than seventy thousand souls, and immediately after the conquest it was supposed that a large portion of even these would leave the country. But the daily iastances of lenity which they now experienced, the cheap and impartial justice administered to them by the military tribunals, and the indulgence shown to their religion, soon reconciled them to their new condition, and their only dread was lest they might be torn from their country like the Acadians.f No sooner had peace been established, than the attention of the British ministry was turned to the formation of governments in the (•(mquered countries, which h '^ ? • i,n ceded at the termination of the war. Tn the month of Octob ', 1 763, a proclamation was publish- ed, under t!\e great seal, erecting new civil governments in the troJonies of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and Granada. In this proclamation, the king exhorted his subjects to avail them- selves of I he advantages which must accrue, from his recent acquisitions, to commerce, manufactures and navigation. It was also stated, that, as soon as the circumstances of these colonies would permit, general assemblies of the people would be convened in the same manner as in the American provinces ; in the mean- time the laws of England were to be in force. Thus, all the laws, customs, and judicial forms of a populous and ancient Colony were in one hour overturned, and English laws, even the penal statutes affainst Roman Catholit.'s, intnxluced in their stead. It was a rash and unwise measure, and history furnishes no instance of greater injustice to a conqu«r»*«i people, nor less true wisdom on the part of * Thoy are extremely vain, awl have an utter contempt for the trading part of the Colony. They were usually provided for in the Colony troops, consisting of thirty companies Thoy are in general poor, exeept such as have command of distant posts, when they usually made a fortune in three or four years. They were great tyrants to their vassals, who seldom met with redress, let their grievances be over so just. — Oovtmor *flO Murrni/n Report oh tfu' State o/Oanada, Quebec, 5th Tune, I«62 + Murray's Report n I .' iff- ^ y^ « . .» ' I '■y, '■I .* «.'• ■ r 244 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1763. conquerors. The disorders it produced led to a reaction, which has perpetuated the French civil law in Lower Canada to the present day ; whereas had changes been at first gradually and wisely introduced, as the altered condition of the people permitted, the laws of England, modified to suit existing ordinances, would have eventually become the rule of decision in that Province. Shortly after the publication of this proclamation General Murray was appointed to the governorship of Canada, or the Province of Quebec, as it was now styled, and proceeded, agreeably to hia instructions, to nominate a council of eight members to aid him in the administration of government. While the writings of Voltaire and Rousseau penetrated every corner of France, and planted the germs of revolution throughout Europe, — while newspapei-s and books were scattered broadcast ever Great Britain and America, Canada still remained without a public journal. This medium of intelligence had been jealously ex- cluded by the French governors as unsuited to their despotic sway ; but scarcely had the country been finally ceded to Great Britain, than William Brown and Thomas Gilmore, of Philadelphia, detei-- mined to publish a journal at Quebec. There was then no type- founder in America ; so Gilmore went to England to purchase the necessary printing material ; and, on the 21st of June, the first number of the Quebec Gazette made its appearance 1764.* * The year 1764 was distinguished for the suppression of the Jesuit order. The hist for temporal power, and the engaging in trade and other secular pursuits, which had made the Jesuits unpopular in other countries, as well as in Canada, had already paved the way for the downfall of the Order, li had exercised almost sovereign authority in Paraguay while it remained a Spanish possession. The Jesuits were charged with inducing the Paraguay Indians to resist its transfer to Portugal, and of attempting the life of she king. A royal decree was accordingly issued in 11^ expelling the order from the Portuguese kingdom and colonies. In France a trial in the courts led to the disgrace of the Jesuits. Father Lavalette, as procurator of the order in Martinique, consigned two valuable cargoes of merchandise to Marseilles merchants, who accepted his bills. The vessels were captured by British cruisers, and the bills not being met when they became due, the onlor was sued, and judgment against it obtained. An appeal was made to the ■upreme court at Paris. The agitation which ensued greatly injured the order, and a royal edict was issued in 1764 suppressing it in French territory. Spain followed this example. To restore peace to the church Pope C!lemeut XIX. issued, in 1773, hia celebrated bull, " Domiuns ac Redemptor -Vos<(/-, suppressing the order throughout the world. In 1814, forty-one years after- wards. Pius VII. issued Ma bull rehabilitating the order, and it soon recover- ed much of its former influence. France never took kindly to its sway ; and in 1880 its parliament decreed its dissolution, and expelled the Jesuits from all their establishments. It is needless to say that in Canada the Jesuit Order has recovered its ancient prestige, and has become an important factor not only in ecclesiastical but also in civil matters. L 4? I " • 1 "J 1764.1 CANADA'S FIRST NEWSPAPER. 245 half in French and half in English ; and Canada had its newspaper, a new and potent element of civilization. The Vazette began with 150 subscribers, and after having been published for c /er a century ceased to exist a few years ago. On the 17th of September a proclamation, based on the intro- duction of English laws into the Colony, was issued by the Governor, in council, establishing a court of king's bench for the trial of all criminal and civil causes, agreeable to the laws of England and the ordinances of the Province. A court of common pleas was also instituted, in which the French laws were to be only allowed in cases of action ai ising before its construction. The introduction of the English civil law occasioned much dissatisfaction among the public, and accordingly, in the month of November, the Governor, in council, enacted " that in actions relative to the tenure of land and the nghts of inheritance, the French laws and usages should be obseivpd as the rule of decision." A court of chancery was erected soon after, at the head of which presided the Governoras chancellor, with tvo masters, two examiners, and one register. The English -speaking inhabitani;^ of the Colony were few in number, and t*»e sudden introduction of the English language, as well HN Ktxglish laws, into tbe courts of justice, was found to be jnxHluv^wNe of th«? greatest disorder. Trial by jury v.as of little \ alue to a people who did not understand a word of the pleadings unless through an interpreter, and it was soon evident that some change must be made in this respect. All public offices, moreover, wo»'e conferred on British born subjects, of which there were scarcely four hundred in the country, exclusive of the military. Many of these came out expressly from England to assume office, and as they neither knew the language nor customs of the people they were sent to control, much disgust and dissatisfaction resulted. Nor were officials always selected with the sole view to the public good. The ignorant, the covetous and the bigoted, were appointed to offices which required knowledge, integrity and ability. Several of the principal situations were given away by patent to persons of influence in England, who farmed them out to the highest bidders. No salaries vere attached to these patent places, the value of which accordingly dtnended upon the fees, which the Governor was directed to establish on the same scale as in the richest colony. Ah the necossary result of this state of affairs there was much extortion, and much oppression, which Murray found it most diffi- cult to prevent. His endeavours to protect the French Canadians made him many enemies among the English of the Colony.* who * In a letter to Shelburne, 30th August 1776, Miirrav, alluding to the Eng;li8h officials, declared them to be the most immoral collection of men he ever knew. Murray was not popular with the English resident merchants and traders of Quel)ec, who petitioned for his recall and the establishment of a house of assembly. On the other hanJ, the leading French Canadian citizens of Qu6l>ec sent a memorial to the king highly eulogistic of Murray, and asking that he should be ountiuued aa governor. Vide Can. Archives Report of 1888. I ^'4. .1 li ■I 246 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1764. were too apt to exhibit contempt for the old inhabitants, not even excepting the seigniors. The Governor, however, continuefl to alleviate the condition of the conquered people, to the best of his power, md won their sincere gratitude. Complaints were soon sent to England relative to the establish- ment of the courts, tlie harsh conduct of law-officers, aiul 1 765. the enormous fees exacted. These were laid, by the Board of Trade, btt'ore the Englifih attorney and solicitor generals, who made an elj.borate report thereon. They gave it as their opinion, that the introduction of the English language into 1766. the courts of Canada was inadvisable, and that it was unwise and arbitrary at once to abolish all the French usages and customs, especially those relating to the titles of land, the law of descent, of alienation and of settlement. They likewise supported the view that Canadian advocates, attorneys and proctors, should be permitted to practice in the courts.* During the summer several Canadians who had gone to France returned, fiishop de Pont Briant had died in 1760, and his successor also came out. On his arrival his friends received him with all the ceremony and respect which they had ever paid to bishops. These courtesies, however, he refused on the ground of altered circum- stances. In pursuance of this humble determination he wore, for sometime, only a common black gown like the other priests. But the liberal manner in which he found himse treated by the authorities, soon assured him that he might adept a higher tone with safety, and he accordingly assumed all the insignia of episcopal dignity, t In the following year Murray proceeded to England, leaving Brigadier Carleton to act in his absence. The offer of a 1767. more lucrative post prevented him from returning to this country, and Carleton was accordingly appointed Governor of Canada on the 1 2th of April, The humanity of the latter had made him popular with the Canadians, who already regarded 1768. him as a protector, and looked forward to his administration with confidence. Nor were they disappointed. Sir Guy Carleton ever proved himself their friend. THE GOVERNMENT OF SIR GUY CARLETON. Montreal, the population of which had now increased to seven thousand souls, suffered severely this year b} a most destructive fire, which broke out on the evening of the l»th April, and con- sumed nearly one hundred houses. The greatest sympathy was displayed towards the sufferers. In England a considerable sum was raised for their relief, but many were, nevertheless, reduced to poverty. Its citizens suffered also from the ai-bitrary conduct and * Yorke and De Grey to the Lords of Trade, 14th April 1766. t Smith's Hiat. Can., vol. U. pp. 38, 39. 1770.] NEW REGULATIONS. 247 petty extortions of the Englisli justices of the peace, whose irrei^ularities, however, were speeiHIy restrained by the action of the Governor. Hitherto these Justices had been allowed a juris- diction in civil cases to the amount of five p«»unds currency. This was now taken away, and they were only pennitted to decide in criminal matters.* Beyond these events there is not a fact of moment to record at this perioil. Although the old English colonies of North America were already heaving in the throes of revolution, the people of Canada remained peaceable, and tolerably contented. Trade was steadily reviving, and the population on the increase. Carleton having obtained the royal fiermission to proceed to England on leave of absence, Mr. Cramahe, fonnerly Swiss secretary to General Murray, and the oldest member of the 1770. Executive Council, assumed direction of the government. Carleton had always been desirous that the French civil laws, or ^•Coutume de Paris" should be introduced again into the Colony, and had them carefully compiled V)y soAeral Canadian advocates of acknowledged ability. This compilation he took with him on his departure for England, and where, soon after his arrival, it w.»s revised by the principal law othcers of the Crown, and at once became the chief authority, in the Canadian courts,! as i-egarded questions affecting land and inheritance. In cases of personal contract, and debts of a commercial character, the English laws remained the practical authorities. This arrangement was cheer- fully acquiesced in by the people generally : and although there was no fixed standard of decision, and judgment was dealt out sometimes agreeable to French legal authorities, and at other times acconling to English law, still, as it was evident that justice was always intended, the public were tolerably satisfied with matters as they stood, and waited patiently until more p<'nnanent and better defined arrangements could be effected. The criminal law of England, including trial by jury sinA i\w habeas corjmH^ had been fully introduced into Canada, J and appeared to give general satisfaction among the bulk of the people, with the exception that Canadian jurors grumbled a good deal about not being paid for their loss of time. >;? The old French gentry, however, did not like by any means that labourers and mechanics shouUl sit in judg nent upon gentlemen, and wondered that the British people should be so fond of trial by jury. || * Debates on the Queboc Bill, p. 128. In une case the cost on suing lis. amounted to £4. + Smith's Hist. Can., vol. ii. p. GO. t At the present day the old Frenoli Code is the basis of civil law in the Province of Quebec, but the British system of criminal law has been fully in force there since 1770. S Under Canadian statute laws jurors are now paid. II Creneral Carleton to the House of Commons, May 1774. Tht seigniors actually petitioned the British Parliament on this head in 1773, and against the general introduction of English law. See Debates on Quebec Bill, n !» «• >-, (■ 1u ^>. V y] '>'} IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.1 lAi lli |2.5 1^ 1^ 12.2 ui wm ■UUU Photographic Sciences Corporation V 4 1-25 1.4 1 1.6 ^ 6" ► SJ A \ ^^^'' 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. MSSO (716) B73-4S03 ^^-% V i* 248 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1773. The long peace had enabled the Canadian people to recover fully from the effects of war. Trade had now become more 1773 prosperous than ever. Many Canadians who had expatri- ated themselves after the conquest now returned from France ; numbers of the Acadians, scattered through the neigh- bouring colonies, also gladly proceeded to this country ; and in the space intervening between 1760 and 1773 it was estimated that the population had increased over a fourth. In May, 1774, General Carleton, in his evidence under oath before a committee of the House of Commons, estimated the population of Canada at one hundred thousand Roman Catholics and four hundred Protestants. The latter were chiefly merchants, officers, and disbanded soldiers, who resided principally at Quebec and Montreal ; in one hundred and ten rural parishes there were only nineteen Protestants.* With the exception of the changes in the laws, that there was now less peculation on the part of public officials than under the old regime, and that the country was more prosperous, matters remain- ed much in the same state as they were before the conquest. A governor and council, although with limited powers, still ruled the Colony, the common people were as uneducated and as simple as ever,t and the clergy received their parochial dues and tithes as punctually as during the period of French dominion. Still, the peasantry began to feel a stray glimmering of independence, and to resist such exactions of the seigniors as they considered were legally unjust. As the country gradually became more and more prosperous, and thinking people had leisure to look around them and reflect on the unsettled condition of political affairs, a good deal of arxiety began to prevail as to the future government of the Colony, and whether the French or English laws would be permanently established. As might naturally be expected the British settlers • The royal proclamation of the 7th October 1763, which provided for the government of Canada, granted to the officers and soldiers engaged in the war in this country, lands in the following proportions — viz, To a field-officer, five thousand acres ; captain, three thousand ; subaltern, two thousand ; sergeants and other non-commissioned officers, two hundred ; and privates, fifty acres. Very few, however, claimed these grants, and soldiers preferred to keep public-houses, rather than engage in agriculture. Strangers to Canadian customs and the language of the people, British settlers disliked the Colony, and did very poorly. Many left it altogether in disgust. i' Volney, a distinguished French traveller, who visited Canada towards the close of the last century, does not draw u very flattering picture of the habitants^ intelligence. After stating their easy and indolent habits, he observes : " Having several times questioned the frontier Canadians respect- ing the distances of times and places, I have found that in general they had no clear and precise ideas ; that they received sensations without reflecting on them ; in short, that they knew not how to make any calculations that were ever so little complicated. They would say to me, from this way to that is one or two pipes of tobacco ; you can or you cannot reach it between aunrlse or sunset, or the like." Education in Canada before the conquest was entirely restricted to the upper clasBes and clerical orders. Common Bohools were unknown, and few of the peasantry could either read or write, '• ' ill " '4! 1773.] WANTS A HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY. 249 were unanimous in favor of English law, and a government based on popular representation. The inhabitants of French origin, on the other hand, generally desired the establishment of their old civil law, but were divided with a regard to a house of assembly. Some supposed that a representative constitujjion would give the settlers of English origin, who were much better acquainted with this mode of government than themselves, a great preponderance in public afifairs. Others leaned to a governor and council, as the mode of government they best understood ; while a few of the better informed desired to be ruled by their own representatives, like the other British colonies. Mr. fiotbiniere, described by one of the principal law officers* of Canada as a very sensible and reflecting man, and a large Canadian landed proprietor, gave it as his opinion before a committee of the House of Commons on the Quebec Bill, in June 1774, that if Roman Catholics were allowed to sit in a house of assembly there would be no objections made to its establishment. He also stated, that if a legislative council were established, and composed in part of the Canadian noblesse, it would have the best effects, f Such W.XS the unsettled condition of this country, when, in the month of October 1773, meetings were held at Quebec to petition the Deputy-Governor, Carleton being still absent from the Pro- vince, to summon a house of assembly in agreement with the royal proclamation of 1763. The principal Canadians were invited to attend these meetings and take part in the proceedings, but on their declining to do so, the British inhabitants determined to proceed alone in the matter, and, after some delays, presented their petition to Cramahe on the 3rd of Decpmber. He replied to it the next week, by stating " that the matter was of too great importance for the Council of the Province to decide upon, and the more so, as the government appeared likely soon to be regulated by act of parliament." A fresh draft of the petition was soon after presented to the secretary of the colonies, the Earl of 1774. Dartmouth, but beyond hints that the Province was not yet ripe for a general assembly, no answer was returned. In (Jreat Britain the reflecting portion of the community were gradually becoming more sensible of the fact, that unless Parlia- ment receded from its assumed right to tax the American colonies, their independence was very near. The hostile position assumed by their houses of assembly was ill-calculated to make the British legislature regard popular colonial representation very favourably, and it was now determined to give Canada a different form of government. On the 2nd of May a bill, usually known as the Quebec Act, was brought into the House of Lords by the Earl of Mr. Maseres, an Anglicised Huguenot, and Attorney-General, author of "The Canadian Freeholder," and who was strongly opposed to the continuKtion of the French civil law in Canada. t Debates on the Quebec Bill, pp. 160, 161, , « «.•_•! 1.^ H ..'I' . .I**! w « 250 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. ri774. i •.'v:-. ■.•• *,'■ Dartmouth, which passed without opposition, and was sent down to the House of Commons for its concurrence.* This bill repealed all the provisions of the royal proclamation of 1763, annulled all the acts of the governor and council relative to the civil govern- ment and administration Tof justice, revoked the commissions of judges and other existing officers, and established new boundaries for the Province, which was now i^leclared to embrace all ancient Canada, Labrador, and the countries west to the Ohio and Missis- sippi. The Quebec Act released the Roman Catholic religion in Canada from all penal restrictions, renewed their dues and tithes to its regular clergy, but as regarded members of their own church only, (Protpstctnts being freed from their payment,) and confirmed all classes, with the exception of the religious orders and communi- ties, f in the full possession of their properties. '- The French laws were declared to be the rule for decision relative to property and civil rights, while the English criminal Jaw was established in perpetuity. Both the civil and criminal codes, however, were liable to be altered or modified by the ordinances of the Governor and a Legislative Council. This Council was to be appointed by the Crown, and to consist of not more than twenty-three, nor less than seventeen, members. Its power was limited to levying local or municipal taxes, and to making arrangements for the administra- tion of the internal affairs oi the Province ; the British Parliament jealously reserving to itself the 'right of external taxation, or levy- ing duties on articles imported or exported. Every ordinance passed by this Council was to be transmitted within six months, at furthest, after enactment for the approbation of the king, and if disallowed to be null and void on his pleasure becoming known in Quebec. Such were the principal provisions of the Quebec Act, under which Canada was governed for a period of seventeen 'years. Taking into consideration the absence of education among the great bulk of the Canadian people, as ^/ell as their total ignorance of popular institutions, and of the English laws and language, there can be no doubt that this bill gave them the mode of government best suited to their condition, and was a real boon so far as they were concerned.! But to the inhabitants of British origin, who had settled in Canada or the valley ^of the Ohio, § and^were subject- ed thereby to French laws, and deprived of the right of a jury in * The kiiiR, on o{>ening Parliament, recommended the question of a govern- ment for Canada to its consideration. There can be no doubt that this bill owed its origin principally to himself. t With the exception of the Jesuits, none of the religious orders or com- munities of Canada have ever been disturbed. -in, the, possession of their property. But their right to this property was clearly left an open (juestion hy the Quebec Act. t Garneau vol, ii. p. 125, § It was estimated that over twenty thousand people" had already settled in the valley of the Ohio., They were chiefly from Pennsylvania and Virginia, lirii:- 1774.1 THE QUEBEC BILL. 251 Tl ^ % V. •* -i ' ■ 1 ■ h < . ■ i^ i ■ ■ •4: \ ' i • civil causes, of the habeas corpus, and of a constitutional form of fjovernment, the measure was oppressive in the extreme, and at variance with all their previous ideas and experience of popular liberty. The law was based on the supposition that the French would remain the dominant race in Canada, as well as on a desire to restrain the progress westward of the Anglo-American popula- tion. The American revolution, and the rapid increase of a IJritish-Canadian population, ultimately placed it in error in both respects, and compelled its repeal. It met with strenuous oppo- sition in the House of Commons, chiefly on the ground of its being opposed to the British constitution, and granting too extensive territorial limits to Canada. " You have given up to Canada." said Thomas Townshend, " almost all the country which was the subject of dispute, and for which we went to war ; extending, in the words of the bill, southward to the Ohio, westward to the Mississippi, and northward to the territory granted to the Hudson's Bay Company." The bill, however, passed in the Commons by a majority of thirty-six, and was returned, on the 18th of June, to the House of Lords, whither Pitt, now Earl of Chatham, went to oppose it, although very ill at the time. " It will involve this country," said he, " in a thousand difliculties, and is subversive of that liberty wliicli ought to be the groundwork of every constitution." And he prophesied " that it would shake the affections and confidence of his majesty's subjects in England and Ireland, and lose him the hearts of all the Americans." But the bill passed, nevertheless, — only six siding with Pitt, while twenty-six peers voted against him. The city of London, always in the front of the battle for constitu- tional liberty, became speedily alarmed ; and, on the 22nd of June, the lord mayor, aldermen, and common council petitioned the king not to give his sanction to the bill. He gave them an evasive answer, and immediately after proceeded to the House of Lords, and signified his assent thereto ; observing " that it was founded on the clearest principles of justice and humanity, and would, he doubted not, have the best effect in quieting the minds and promo- ting the happiness of his Canadian subjects." As soon as the act reached Quebec, the English settlers met in the greatest alarm, and promptly petitioned the king, as well as both Houses of Parliament, for its repeal or amendment. They complained that it deprived them of the franchise they had inherit- ed from their ancestors, that they had lost the protection of English laws, the habeas corpus, and trial by jury in civil causes, which was disgraceful to them as Britons, and ruinous to their properties. In the American colonies the passing of this act awoke a storm of indignation. Almost all they had struggled for beyond the Alleghanies was taken from them at a single swoop. Their Congres's,on the 24th of October, endeavoured, by a forcible address, to awaken the people of Canada to a just sense of what it deemed their true interests. They were now invited to elect delegates to t ! • r ^1 I -I r '\ '• 4 ■■■ «,"' 252 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1774 represent their Province in the " Continental Congress," to be held in Philadelphia on May 10th of the following year,* But this document produced no effect among the simple Canadians. Not one in a thousand ever saw it, and even if they had seen it, cared little for the privileges of English freemen, and looked upon their own laws and customs as by far the most desirable. These had now been secured to them, and they were fully satisfied. Sir Guy Carleton returned from England in the latter end of the year, when a meeting of the new council, into which several Roman Catholic gentlemen had been admitted, was held, and such measures taken under the Quebec Act as were deemed immediately necessary for the public welfare. The Governor's return was gladly hailed by the people, with whom his humane conduct and liberal sentiments had rendered him deservedly popular. On all possible occasions he had shown himself their friend, and had interfered in many instances to protect them from the extortion and oppres- sion of the English civil officers. Meantime, the final struggle of America for independence was rapidly approaching, owing to the arbitrary and vacillating conduct of the British Parliament, and the firm determination of the colonies to resist taxation without representation. Lord Chatham's bill for composing all difficulties and disputes was rejected ; and, as Parliament would not recede from its assumption of the right to tax the colonies, on the one hand, nor the latter, on the other, give up the determination to preserve intact the privileges secured to them by their charters, and their heritage as British freemen, both parties now looked forward to a desperate contest. For a brief space a calm, with presage of a terrible storm, settled darkly over North America, and the crisis approached with the first days of early spring. On the 19th of April the Americans began 1775. ; the struggle for constitutional liberty with the battle of Lexington ; and, blood once shed, it became evident that the sword alone could now decide the unnatural quarrel between the mother-country and her cis- Atlantic oflfspring. While the New England militia besieged General Gage, the British comAiander in Boston, a small force was promptly raised in Connecticut and elsewhere for the capture of Ticonderoga. Led by Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allan, it crossed Lake Ghaniplain on the night of the 9th of May, and succeeded next morning in capturing the fort, in which were only a few men, by surprise, with- out firing a shot. Crown Point had only a garrison of a sergeant and twelve men, and was immediately afterwards taken possession of. And thus the Americans, at the first outset of the contest, acquired two strongly fortified positions, and a large amount of military stores. The speedy capture, also, of the only British sloop * This ConsresB enumerated the Quebec Act among its grievances. Its; provisions in favour of Roman Catholics gave great offence to the Protestant clergy of the American colonies, and led the majority of them to support the Revolution. t)y surprise, with- 1775.] WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 263 Lake Champlain, gave them complete command of its of war on waters. On receiving intelligence of these offensive operations, Carleton at once resolved to possess himself, if possible, of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and regain the command of the lake. Considering that the French feudal law still prevailed in Canada, and that the seigniors, accordingly, as well as their tenants, owed military service to the king, and would forfeit their lands by not rendering it, he resolved to enroll the militia on these grounds. Many of the seigniors took the same view as the Governor of this matter, and showed great alacrity in assembling their tenants to explain to them the situation of the Province, the services expected from them, and the absolute necessity of preparing for hostilities. But the peasantry, who had not yet forgotten the hardships they had suffered during the last war, and whose long absence from military training had sunk them into inglorious and contented ease, stoutly resisted the claims of their seigniors. They stated that the latter had no right to command their military services ; and that when they had paid them their quit-rent and the other seignioral dues, no further claim on them could be established. This determination of the habitants placed Carleton in an awkward position. For the defence of the Colony and its numerous frontier posts, he had only the 7th and 26th regiments, containing together scarcely eight hundred effective men ; and he felt that unless aided by the Canadians he could only make a very ineffectual resistance in case of attack. He accordingly endeavoured to call out the militia of the Province by proclamation, and declared, at the same time, martial law to be in force in his government ; but even these measures proved ineffectual. As a last resort the (Governor applied to Bishop de Briand for his aid and influence. The bishop promptly responded by a mandate to his clergy, to be read in their churches, exhorting the people to take up ai'ms in defence of their country. Even this appeal failed. The British authorities had as yet acquired no influence with the masse&, who knew little of the quarrel in progress, and wished to give themselves the least possible trouble about it ; and while they had no leaning whatever towards the Americans, they preferred to remain neutral as long as they could. In short, they felt like a conquered people ; if their homes were threatened with danger they would defend them, but they cared little to take up arms in behalf of their rulers. Tlie American Congress, however, believed the Canadian people to be favoui'able to their cause, and resolved to anticipate the British by striking a decided blow in the north. They accordingly despatched a force of nearly two thousand men, under Schuyler and Montgomery, to penetrate into Canada by the Richelieu. After taking the forts along that iiver, they were next to possess themselves of Montreal ; then descend to Quebec, and form a junction there with Colonel Arnold, who was to proceed up the I;-" **i '\, t. *.'■ 254 ^HE HISTORY OF CANADA. |1 HO. Kennebec with eleven hundred men, and if possible surprise the capital of Canada. On the 5th of September the American army arrived at the Isle-auxrNoix, whence Schuyler and Montgomery scattered a proclamation among the Canadians, stating that they only canie against the British, and had no design whatever on the lives, the properties, or the religion of the inhabitants. Schuyler l)einr' unwell now returned to Albany, and the chief command devolved on Montgomery, who having received a reinforcement investerl Fort St. John on the 1 7th, and sent some troops to attack the i'oit ut Chambly ; while Ethan Allan was despatched with a reconnoitrin" party towards Montreal. Allan proceeded to the St. Lawrence and being informed that the town was weakly defended, uikI believing the inhabitants were favourable to the Americans resolved to capture it by surprise, although his force was under two hundred men. Carleton had already arrived at Montreal to make dispositions for the protection of the frontier. Learnin<,', on the night of the 24th, that a party of Americans had crosserl the river, and were marching on the town, he promptly drew together two hundred and fifty of the local militia, chiefly English and Jiish, and with thirty men of the 26th regiment, in addition, prepared for its defence. Allan, however, instead of at once proceeding to attack Montreal, took possession of some houses and barns in the neighbourhood, where he was surrounded next day, and compelled to surrender after a loss of five killed and ten wounded. The British lost their commanding officer. Major Carsden, Alexander Paterson, a merchant of Montreal, and two privates. Allan and his men were sent prisoners to England, where they were confined in Pendennis Castle. "While these occurrences were transpiring at Montreal, Mont- gomery was vigorously pressing forward the siege of Fort St. John, which post was gallantly defended by Major Preston of the 26th regiment. His conduct was not imitated by Major Stopford, of the 7th, who commanded at Chambly, and who surrendered, ni . S ' K^i p^l^ i 360 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [177; on the contrary arousfifl the liostility of the JuibitantH and drew them closer to ^reat liritain. The military operatioiiK in the Unitefl StateH during the Revolutionary War, do nf)t j)rop(!rly come within the scopf; i,i a hi.stctol)(!r, which, after .several action.s with thf; American naval annanifinf, obtained complete command of itg waters. He likewise obtainerl pos.ses.sion of Crown Point, evacuat^;d by the Americans, who concentratfid all their strength for the defence of Ticonderoga. At th(! do.se of the camj)aign a riurri^x;r of the British trf;ops, were ({uarteref! along the Richelieu and Ht. Lawrence on tlu; Canadians, wlio willingly received them a.s their protectfjrs from invasion. General Burgoyne visited England .sfK;n after the troops had gone into winter quarters, and concertefl, with the ministry, a plan of opj^rations, agfvirist the Americans, by way of Lake 1777. Champlain. He returnefl the following spring to a.s.surnf! the chief command of the army, much to the dis8ati.sfaction of .Sir Guy Carleton, who afc once demanded his own recall, on the grounrl that he had been tniatcd with injustice. Burgoyne opened the campaign at the north by the capture of Ticonderoga ; and after an arlvance at first distinguislied by victorj' but afterwards by defeat, he was compelled to surrender his entire array, amounting to six thousarifl men, on the, 1 7th of October, at Saratoga. The first regular sitting of thf! Lfigislative Council, constituted by the Quebec Act, was held in the spring of 1777. At this se.ssion sixteen acts were passed, which received the sanction of the Governor anrl the approval f)f the Home Government. One of these acts erecterla court of king's bench, a court of common pleas, and a court of f)robates for testamentary and succession causes. The whole Council were constituted a court of appeal, and any five of their number, with thr; Governor or chief juscice, were declared competent to try all causfis brought before thei.A. Owing to the ignorance, however, of the juflges of th(;3e courts with regard to French law much confusion was caused, and matters did not proceed as smoothly as they should. CHAPTER X J *■ :: « i .1 THE (KJVJSKNMENT OF MAJOR GENERAL HALDIMAND. ''PHE DRW Oovenior was a native of Hwitz and 1790.* In 17o0 he was ccjmmandant at Philadelphia, whence he was onleied to Albany, to t;ike charge of a battalion of the Iloyal American K(!gimf!nt, then being raised for service against the Frfinch. During the several campaigns which followed, Haldiinanfi was activ(;ly employed in various parts of North America, was lookefl upon as an able anrl prudent officer ; and as a reward for his services was raised, in 1767, to the rank of brigfwlier-general, and was creatfjd a major- general in 1773. The British, (lovernn)ent was now alxmt to appoint him commander-in-chief in America ; l)Ut finally, inste;uj. sent liira to the West Indies as inspectf fill that important, and, under existing circumstances, diflicult ]:)osition. — He was unable, however, to proce.l f'" '■•It 1780.] HALDIMAND'S GOVERNMENT. 263 the wholesale imprisonment of suspects charged against Haldimand has been unduly magnified by his enemies. That this was the true state of the case is very clearly shown by his letter of the 22nd November, 1781, to Colonel Speth, commandant at Montreal. — After ordering therein that certain accusations made against sus- pected persons, be substantiated by additional evidence before being acted on, he added " we shall, otherwise, have ou» prisons filled upon trifling suspicions. The liberty of the subject being by our laws very sacred, it is necessary that suspicion should be well founded to justify imprisonment." And he then gave orders, " that no arrests shall take place in future for state offences until each case shall be reported to the civil governor." This letter demonstrates very clearly tha: Haldimand was not by any means the military tyrant he is represented to have been, but rather a cautious and prudent man, who was forced to resort to arbitrary measures from necessity rather than from choice. Additional proofs of this will be found in the fact, that when actions were subse- quently instituted against him in England, by persons who had been arrested without due warrant during his administration, and damages recovered, the British Government paid the whole cost of the proceedings. Among other persons suspected of treason was a Huguenot of the name of Du Calvet, a merchant, and at one time a magistrate, of Montreal. During the American occupation of that city he had furnished the enemy very freely with supplies, and was suspected of keeping up a correspondence with them afterwards. He was accordingly arrested, on the 27th September, 1780, and 1780. taken a prisoner to Quebec, where he was confined in the Recollet building, in the debtors' ward, for thirty-two months, and eventually discharged without trial, in 1783, on the conclusion of peace. Du Calvet went to France shoi'tly after his release, and there made claims through Benjamin Franklin, the resident ambas- sador at Paris for the United States, for payment for the supplies he had furnished to their soldiers in Montreal. Franklin trans- mitted the papers in the case to Congress, but with what result does not appear. Du Calvet afterwards went to England, and there com- plained bitterly to the government of the manner in which he had been treated by Haldimand without, however, being paid much attention to. He subsequently published a book, detailing all his grievances while in prison and otherwise, many of the statements in which, however, were flatly contradicted, un der oath, by the Recollet father, Felix de Berry, superior of the order in Canada.* Aside from the stringent measures taken hy the Governor to preserve the Colony from revolution, few events of import- ance took place within its borders. The records of this 1781. period are chiefly distinguished by the many petitions to the king and Parliament, from the British colonists, praying for an ♦ !. •!.■... 1^1 ; I •..•i.i ■jl i I i il * Report in Canadian Archives for 1888, p. 53. 204 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. ;•■ Nr' ^ •. [1782. alteration in the laws, so as to bring them more in unison with the English constitution. ^- The treaty of peace, the preliminaries of which were arranged on the 30th November, which acknowledged the independence 1782. of the United States, strengthened the hands of the advo- cates of reform, and made them more earnest in their de- mands for a house of assembly, and for the other privileges they deemed necessary to their welfare. But the close of the Revolu- tionary War was destined to have a still more important influence on the condition of this country, by adding largely to the Anglo- Saxon portion of the population, a circumstance which soon produced of itself the desired reforms. During the progress of the contest several families had removed to Canada ; and soon after the surrender of Burgoyne there was a considerable emigration of loyalists from the State of New York. On the close of the 1783. war a still larger number followed, and to make proper pro- visions for these devoted servants of the Crown, became a question of serious moment with the British ministry. Among the fugitives who now crossed the border into Canada were the whole of the Mohawk Iroquois, those ancient and faith- ful allies of the British Crown, who had, under their superintend- ent, Colonel Guy Johnston, taken an active part against the Americans during the war. Defeated by General Sullivan, who had marched against them with a strong force and driven them out of their country, so fair and fertile ; their crops destroyed, their smiling orchards cut down,, and their villages burned, they passed over into Canada with the other United Empire Loyalists, and were mostly settled on the Grand River, in western Ontario, where their descendants still remain. The adjoining city of Brantford took its name from their celebrated chief Joseph Brant, whose memory will thus be perpetuated for all time. Western Canada at this period was a mere forest wilderness, the greater part of it being wholly uninhabited. A few military posts along the St. Lawrence, and the French settlements in the neigh- bourhood of Detroit, embraced the entire European population, which scarcely amounted to two thousand souls. The military post at Frontenac, or Kingston, as it will in future be termed, had been abandoned immediately before the conquest ; Toronto had also been long deserted. There was still a small military post at Niagara, but with the exception of an occasional trapper, or a few wandering Indians, human being rarely trod the vast and feitile districts stretching along the northern shore of Lake Ontario and the upper St. Lawrence. The British government fancied it would not be at all politic to bring the two dominant races in Canada closely together, being desirous to preserve the French element as a safeguard to future revolutionary tendencies. It now conceived the idea of establish- ing a new colony farther westward, and at the same time of rewarding the American loyalists, who. might desire to join it, by «•'." •f 1784.J SETTLEMENT OF ONTARIO; 265 liberal gifts of land. Witii regard to those who had served in the army, the scale of grants was the same as after the peace of 1763, with the exception that all loyalists, under the rank of subaltern, now received two hundred acres.* In pursuance of this determi- nation, Haldimand was instructed to grant patents for land, on applicants taking the usual oath of allegiance, and subscribing a declaration acknowledging the three estates of Great Britain as the supreme legislature of the Province. He was instructed, however, to state, that this declaration had no reference to internal taxation, and that Parliament only reserved to itself the right of legislating for the regulation of trade and commerce. *' By this they could not be affected, or deprived of any indulgence or encouragement to which they were entitled."! The grants to royalists and disband- ed soldiers were directed to be made free of every expense. | ■ In the following year the Governor appointed commissioners to take a census of the population of Lower Canada. The districts of Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec, were found to contain one hundred and thirteen thousand and twelve inhabitants ; 1784. twenty-eight thousand of whom were fit to bear arms, and had been enrolled in the militia.g As this census, however, only embraced the more populous districts, it may reasonably be pre- sumed that the entire population of Canada, at this period, amounted to one hundred and twenty thousand souls. At the same time, surveys continued to be made of the lands lying along the banks of the St. Lawrence, from the highest French settlement at Lake St. Francis upwards, and round the Bay of Quinte, which were speedily divided into townships, and subdivided into conces- sions and lots. These townships were numbered, but r ot named till several years afterwards. The original settlers long continued the habit, even after distinct names had been given them, of de- scribing them by first township, second township, and so on. This survey having been completed, the American royalists and disband- ed ofiicers and soldiers of the 84th regiment, with a few other German and English soldiers, took possession in the course of the summer of their allotments. During the same season, also, royalist settlements were formed along the Niagara River and at Amherstburg, where surveys had also been made. And thus began the first effective settlement of Uppei" Canada, and before the close of the year its population amounted to about ten thousand souls. The greater part of these settlers were poor and dependent. Some had served in the army, and from the small pay of a British soldier, amounting then to only sixpence sterling per diem, nothing had * In 1798, owing to complaints of the profuse manner of granting lands, the allowance was limited to a quantity from two hundred to twelve hun- dred acres. » !. ■• i-il 1.',! : 1 *tl . II > » • n + Lord North to Governor Haldimand, 24th July, 1783. t Gourlay, vol. i. p. 11. § Smith's Hist. Can., vol. ii. p. 168, 366 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. I* I) ' •*•" 11784. been saved ; others again had lost their properties by the war ; so for the first two years government was obliged to assist nearly all with provisions, farming utensils and clothing.* Although cast thus destitute in the wilderness, these courageous people did not despond. The greater part had been bred to agricultural pursuits speedily adapted themselves to circumstances, and courageously resumed their former occupation. The axe of the backwoodsman was swung as vigorously in the forests of Canada, as it had been in the woods of New England and New York. Clearings were speedily made, log-houses erected ; in a few years the wilderness blossomed as the rose, and waving fields of grain bent to the sum- mer winds along the ancient hunting-grounds of the Wyandots and the ^.Igonquins. It being now deemed desirable by the government to draw as many emigrants to the new Province as possible, lots of two hundred acres each were granted to settlers, on condition of actual occupation, and the payment of expenses of survey and fees of ofl&ce, amounting together to about thirty-eight dollars. This soon led to an emigration from Great Britain; and when the passions excited by the recent war had somewhat subsided, and royalists went back to their old homes among the New England hills, or the more fertile districts farther south, to visit relations and friends they had left behind, many of these were induced to settle in Canada. The close of the war with the United tates largely stimulated the settlement, also, of the seaboard colonies of Canada. As early as 1758 Nova Scotia had been granted a constitutional form of government, and in that year her House of Assembly, (the first of * '• 'To put a mark of honour,' as it is expressed in the Orders of Council, ' upon the lamilies who had adhered to the iinity of the empire, and joined the royal standard in America, before the treaty of separation in the year 1783,' a list of such persons was directed, in 1789, to be made out and re- turned, ' to the end that their posterity might be discriminated from the then future settlers.' From the initials of two emphatic words, the unity oi the empire, it was styled the U. E. list ; and they whose names were entered on it were distinguished as U. E. loyalists, a distinction of some conse- quence ; for in addition to the provisions of such loyalists themselves, it waa declared that their children, as well those born thereafter as those already born, should upon arriving at the age of twenty-one yef„- , and females upon marriage within that age, be entitled to grants of two hundred acres each, . free from all expenses. In pursuance of that declaration these gratuitous grants continue to be made, Thousands of acres are thus granted every year. As the sons and daughters of those whose names are on the U. E. list become of age. they petition the Lieutenant-Governor in council, stating the facts, and verifying them by their own oath, and affidavit of one witness, and upon such petitions obtain orders for land, which they locate in some of the new townships, and then take out their patents without coat. " To encourage the further population of the province, a lot of two hundred acres was allowed to every settler, upon condition of actual settle- ment, and payment of the expense of surveying and fees of office, amounting in the whole to a little less than thirty-eight dollars." — Gourlay, vol. i. pp. 14, 16. jmbly, (the first of 1784.J NOVA SCOTIAN SETTLEMENT. 267 the Dominion) consisting of twenty-two elected members, met at the court house of Halifax, on the 2nd of October, in its maiden session, which was opened in due form by Governor Lawrence. — Self-governed, and freed from internal danger by the deportation of the Acadians, of whom only a small remnant now remained, and at peace with the Micmac Indians, who presently buried the hatchet for good, the Province at once started on the road of great pros- perity. In 1759 six hundred immigrants came from Boston and other parts of New England, and three hundred from Ireland. — Whilst the tide of war broke fiercely on the Canada of the St. Lawrence and the lakes, but little occurred to trouble Nova Scotia. In June, 1762, four French men-of-war captured St. John's, New- foundland; and some alarm was created at Halifax lest the victorious fleet should attack it. But the danger soon passed away. At the close of the war a large number of French colonists, finding themselves entirely abandoned by France, took the oath of allegi- ance to King George, and new immigrants continued to pour into the Province owing to the liberality with which government grants of land were made. In 1784 a large body of expatriated IJ. E. Loyalists, mostly from the New England States, settled in Nova Scotia. In that year New Brunswick was set apart as a separate Province, with Colonel Thomas Carleton, the brother of Lord Dorchester, as its first governor, a ^ ost which he filled with great tact and ability, and with much benefit to thejpublic, for the long period of nineteen years. The new colony attracted loyalist settlers from all parts of the Union, the city of St. John was founded, and there the first session of the legislature was held two years afterwards. At the close of 1784 the U. E. Loyalists alone, in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, had swelled in number to nearly twenty thousand souls. In 1770 Prince Edward's Island was separated from Nova Scotia, and became a Province by itself, although it had then only one hundred and fifty families, and contained but 365,400 acres of land, nearly all of which, however, was fit for agricultural purposes. In 1767 the island was divided into allotments, which were distri- buted by lottery among oflicers of the army and navy, and other persons having special claims on the Crown. The payment of a small annual quit-rent was stipulated, which subsequently became a source of much trouble to the little Province, which commenced its existence with a governor, a combined executive and legislative council, and an assembly of eighteen members. In 1773 its first parliament sat at Charlottetown. Despite the great fertility of the island its population increased very slowly,* mainly owing to the fact that the grantees never settled upon their lands, but sold them instead to speculators who lived mostly elsewhere. In 1770 it had only five resident proprietors. The arbitrary course of procedure which untoward circumstances * la 1798 the populatiou of th4 island was only 4,372 souls. .-li' y } ■ « » J. !-■ :|; . t ! I. I' .;■ 268 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. • * »* [1784. had forced General Haldimand to adopt, necessanly made him many enemies, and largely rendered his position one of isolation and unpleasantness. In addition, the numerous complaints preferred against him to the Home Government, made his tenure of office still more uncomfortable, He had, accordingly, asked for his re- call in 1783 J but ministers declined to receive his resignation, and nearly two years more elapsed before they consented to release him. Mr. Henry Hamilton, a retired officer of the army and a member of the Council, was appointed as his successor, but as lieutenant-governor only, as a suitable person for governor-general had not been determined on. One of the last measures of importance taken by Haldimand was to have a careful census of the population made. The Province had now one hundred and thirteen thousand and twelve inhabitants, among whom were three hundred and four slaves of both sexes. The number of men, between fifteen and sixty years of age, able to bear arms, and enrolled in the militia, was 28,249. After Haldimand's return to England, although it does not appear that he was afterwards appointed to any important post, he stood well at court, and with ths government. We cannot find any information as to the date o:c his death. His private diary closes in 1790, and it is probable he died shortly afterwards.* i* THE G( VERNMENT OP HENRY HAMILTON. The new Lieut.-Governor, who arrived in this country in the spring, had been an officer in the army, but had retired, like num- 1785. bers of others, on the establishment of peace. One of his first measures was to assemble the Legislative Council ; and, pursuant to his instructions, to recommend to its consideration the re-introduction of the law of habeas corpus into the Province.— The Canadians were nov well acquainted with the objects of this law, and evinced great satisfaction when it came up for considera- tion in the Council ; the Roman Catholic clergy, in particular, expressed their approbation. It was proposed to exclude the religious female communities from its benefits, at which they ex- pressed no small indignation, on the ground that ill-disposed persons might suppose the exception was necessary to retain them in their cloisters. The bill was accordingly extended to embrace them, and speedily passed. Beyond the establishment of a public library, and a great dark- ness which fell suddenly on Canada on the 9th of October, the incorporation of the habeas corpus Act into the statute law of the Province was the only event of importance which marked the gov- ernment of Mr. Hamilton. He was recalled after a single 1786. year's administration, and the direction of Canadian affisiirs * Vide Report in Canadian Archivtia 1889. 1786.] LORD DORCHESTER. again committed to General Carleton, who had, in the meantime, been raised to the peerage as Lord Dorchester. He did not, how- ever, immediately proceed to Canada, and in the interval the government was administered by Colonel Hope, a member of the Legislative Council .r -.il ■I h- THE GOVERNMENT OF LORD DORCHESTER. In the month of June, Lord Dorchester received his appointment as Governor-General of all the British North American Provinces, and on the 23rd October arrived at Quebec, where he was cordially welcomed by the inhabitants. He soon after assembled the Legis- tive Council, and forming them into committees, directed them to inquire into the state of the laws, the commerce, the police, and the education of the Province. An investigation by the chief justice was also made, at the instance of the Council, with regard to the administration of the laws, when it was clear- 1737. ly shown that English judges followed English law, Canadian judges, French law, and some judges, no particular law whatever, but decided according to what they deemed the equity of the case.* Coramrirce was also represented to be far from being in a flourishing condition, owing to the active rivalry of the 1788. United States and other causes ; while education was at the lowest ebb. The Jesuits had discontinued teaching, and there was not a school in the Province where the higher 1789. branches of learning were taught, f This condition of things, in connection with the rapid increase of the English-speaking population, strengthened the hands of the reform party, who finally employed an agent, Mr. Lym- 1790. burner, to advocate their views in England. He was ulti- mately successful in attracting the attention of ministers, and a bill was prepared by the colonial secretary, William Grenville, to give a new constitution to Canada, which, after being 1791. sent to Dorchester for correction, was laid before Parliament shortly after it assembled in the spring. Pitt, t in introducing the bill, briefly stated its provisions. The Province of Quebec was to be divided into Upper and Lower Can- ada, in order to prevent any dissensions between the French * Gameau, vol. ii. p. 190. t Smith's Hiat. Can., vol. i. p. 176. t Oar readers will bear in mind that there were two great Pitta in the eighteenth century. William Pitt the elder, the great Commoner as he was styled, was the son of a plain country gentleman, Robert Pitt, of Boconnoc, in Cornwall, and was born in 1708. After completing his education he ob- tained a cornetcy in the Life Guards, and in 1735 entered Parliament as a member for Old Sarum, one of the rotten English boroughs so numerous at that period. He soon distinguished himself, and opposed Walpole, who meanly' deprived Lim of his commission. In 1756 Pitt became Secretary.of State in the Newcastle adminiatration, but he was virtually premier. His • ^J K 270 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1791. • • Canadians and settlers of British origin. Each province was to have its own legislature, composed of a legislative council, the members of which were to be chosen for life, and a house of assembly, to be elected in the usual manner by the people. The habeas corjms act was to be a fundamental principle of the new constitution. Provision was likewise to be made for the mainte- nance of the Protestant clergy in both Provinces, by the allotment of lands, (the Clergy Reserves) and, while Parliament reserved to itself the right of regulating trade and commerce, the lo?al legisla- tures were to have the sole power of internal taxation. Fox warmly opposed the bill on several grounds. He argued that it would be wiser rather to unite still more closely than to separate the British and French settlers ; and that the legislative council should be also elective, with a higher qualification on the part of the elected and electors than was necessary for the lower house. " By this means," said he, " Canadians will have a real aristocracy, chosen by persons of property, from among persons of the highest property, who would thus have that weight and independ- ence necessary to guard against the innovations of the people, on the one part, or of the Crown, on the other." But Edmund Burke supported the bill with equal warmth, and a breach ensued be- tween him and Fox which was never afterwards closed. The Quebec reformers were also dissatisfied with the bill, and instructed Lymburner to oppose it, chiefly on the ground that the division of the province would interfere with commerce, and would be really injurious to the inhabitants of Upper Canada.— Lymburner was heard at the bar of the House of Commons against the bill, on the 23rd of March, and opposed its principles in a long and lucid argument. But his eflforts failed to prevent a separation of the province. The bill finally passed into law despite a strong opposition in the House of Lord", crd continued to be the consti- tution of the Oanadaa until the Union * vigorous policy led to the conquest of Canad a, and vast successes elsewhere, In 1766 he became Earl of Chatham, havin/^ in the meantime been raised from comparative poverty to affluence, by large legacies left bim by the Duchess of Marlborough and Sir William Pynsent. He died in May, 1778, and was buried in Westminister Abbey. His second son, the still more cele- brated William Pitt, was born in 1759. At the age of 23 he became Chan. cellor of the Exchequer in the Shelburne administration. In 1784, at the age of 25, he became premier, and was now the moat powerful subject that England had seen for many generations ; and was at once the favourite of the sovereign, the Parliament and the nation. He was out of office from 1801 to l8(H, when he again became premier. The victories of Napoleon were vir- tually the cause of his death in 1S06. He died a poor man, and Parliament voted £40.000 to pay his debts. • Thk Canadian Constitution of 1791. — The Constitutional Act repeal- ed so much of the Quebec Act as related to the appointment of a council for the affairs of the province of Quebec, and the powers given it to make ordinances for the government thereof. His Majesty's message expressive of hia iMtention to divide the province of 1791.] CANADIAN CONSTITUTION. 271 iride the proviace of One of the first measures rendered necessary by the new order of things, was the division of both provinces into electoral districts, and giving to each a fair proportion of the number of representatives fixed by the Act. In making this arrangement regard was had solely to the number of the male population in each district, and the superficial extent of which was not taken into consideration. A Quebec into two separate provinces, as previously noticed, to be called Upper Canada and Lower Canada, being recited, it was enacted that a Legislative Council and Assembly should be established in each province, with power to make laws for the peace, welfare, and good government thereof. The members of the Legislative Council were to bo appointed by the King for life, and in Upper Canada to consist of not ftswer than seven, and in Lower Canada not fewer than fifteen persons. The Governor had the right of appointing a Speaker to the Legislative Council. Each province was to be divided into districts or counties, or cities, or towns, or townships, which were to return representatives to the Assemblies, the Governor fixing the limits of such district and the number of representatives to be returned for each. The whole number of members of the Assembly in Upper Canada was to be not less than sixteen, and in Lower Canada not less than fifty, and to be chosen by a majority uf votes. The county members were to be elected by owners of land in freehold or in fief or roture. to the ^'alue of forty shillings sterling a year, over and above all rents and charges payable out of or in respect of the same. Members for the town or township were elected by persons having a dwelling-house and a lot of ground therein of the yearly value of five pounds sterling or up- wards, or who, having resided in the town for twelve calendar months, next before the date of the writ of election, shall bona fide have paid one year's rent for the dwelling-house in which he shall have resided, at the rate of ten pounds sterling per annum, or upwards . No person being a Legislative Councillor, or a clergyman of the Church of England or Rome, or a teacher of any other religious profession, was eligible to the House of Assembly in either province. Power was given to the Governor to Hx the times and places of holding the first and every other session of the Legislative Council and Assembly in each province, giving due notice thereof, and to prorogae the same from time to time, and to dissolve it whenever he deemed such expedient. They were to be convoked once at least in every twelve months, and each Assembly was to continue four years from the day of the returu of the writs for 9hoosing the members ; subject, however, to be sooner prorogued and dissolved, at the pleasure of the Governor The Governor was authorised to give or withhold his Majesty's assent to all bills, passed by the two branches, and to reserve such as he might think fit, for the signification of his Majesty's pleasure thereon. Copies of all bills he might assent to, were also to be forwarded to the Secretary of State ; and his Majesty might, at any time within two years after receipt by the Secretary, disallow them if he thought fit. Bills reserved by the Governor for his Majesty's pleasure, were not to have efifect till sanctioned, and notice thereof given by message to the two Houses of the Provincial Parliament, or by proclamation; nor could the royal assent to bills so reserved be given, unless within two years next after the day when presented to the Governor for the royal assent. All laws, statutes, and ordinances in force in either province, except as repealed or altered by this Act, were to remain in force, as they might be at the time of its condng into operation. The Governor and Executive Council, which, by an ordinance of the Pro- vince of Quebec, had been constituted a court of appeal, were, in each province, to continue so ; liable, however, to such other provisions as might be deemed necessary by the new Legislature. U. «'l »,■' 272 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1792. careful census made the proccfling year showed that the males in Canada, above sixteen, amounted to thirty-seven thousand four hundred and eleven, while the entire population nunibenid about one hundred and fifty thousand souls,* being an increase of some thirty thousand in the preceding six years. Having obtained leave of absence, Dorchester departed for Eng- land on the 7th of August, leaving Major-General Clarke to act as Lieutenant-Oovernor. The winter passed over without pro- 1792. ducing any event of note. On the I4th May writs, return- able on the 12th of July, were issued for the election of representatives. The election took place in .June, and in several instances were warmly contested. Among the members returned were some of the principal merchants of Montreal and Qu(!l)ec.— On the 17th of December Clarke opened the first Parliament of Lower Canada with a short and appropriate speech. William Smith, the historian, now the Chief Justice of the Province, was appointed Speaker of the Legislative Council, while J. A. Panet, an eminent Quebec advocate, on a vote of 28 to 18, after a long and somewhat acrimonious discussion between the French and English It was enacted that an allotment of Crown lands, in each province, should be made for the support and maintenance of a Protestant clergy within the same, equal in value to a seventh part of the lands granted, and to he granted. His Majesty was authorised to empower the governors in each province to erect parsonages and endow them, and to present incumbents or ministers of the Church of England, subject and liable to all rights of institution and all other spiritual and ecclesiastical jurisdiction and authority, lawfully granted to the Bishop of Nova Scotia. Power was given to the Provincial Legislatures to vary and repeal the pro- visions relating to such allotments for the support of a Protestant clergy, parsonages and rectories, and presentation of incumbents or ministers ; but it was provided that no bills in this behalf were to be assented to by his Majesty, until thirty days after they had been laid bef6re both Houses of Imperial Parliament, nor was his Majesty to assent to any such bill in case of an address from either of the Houses during that period, requesting him to withhold the royal assent from it. The British Parliament reserved to itself the right of providing regulations or prohibitions, imposing, levying, and collecting. duties, for the regulation of navigation, or for the regulation of commerce, to be carried on between the said two provinces, or between either of them, and any other part of his Majesty's dominions or any foreign country, or for appointing and directing the payment of duties so imposed ; leaving, however, the cxclusiva appro- priation of all moneys so levied, in either province, to the Legislature there- of, and applicable to such public uses therein, as it might think fit to apply them. The Governor, pursuant to the King's instructions, was to fix upon and declare the day when the Act should commence, which was not to be later than the Slst December, 1791, nor was the calling together of the Legislative Council and Assembly, in each province, to be later than the 31st December, 1792. * Smith gives a much larger number, but his estimate was evidently ba^ed on no correct data. A census was only taken of the adult males at this period, and the proportion of the rest of the population could not be much greater than four to one. ft 1791] PUOGHESS TN LOWER CANADA. 273 members, was choHen to fill th(! same office in the Lower House.* Shortly after the session commenced con.siderable discussion ;vrose as to the language in which the business of the House shoidd be contlucted. It was finally decided that the journals of the pniceedings should be kept in both languages, that motions made ill Ku'^lisli should be translated into French, and vice versa, before beiri" put, and that each member should have the privilege of usiri" liis mother tongue when addre.ssing the House. As the session pi-ogressetl the subject of education was taken up, ,'itul an address voted to the king praying for the establish- 1793. iiicnt of a Canadian college, as well as another address, of a loyal character, when intelligence was received of the breaking out of a war with the French Republic. Beyond the.se proceedings little business of importance was transacted, and the members l)eing weary of attendance, General Clarke, after giving assent to eight bills, prorogued the House in the beginning of May, when all gladly returned to their respective avocations. t While constitutional liberty thus gradually developed itself in this country, events were transpiring in the Old World of the deepest importance to civilized humanity. The American colonies had largely contributed to win Canada from France, and thus paved the way for their own independence. To achieve that independence, France, in revenge, gave most important assistance. Her conduct in this matter precipitated her own revolutionary crisis, which had its origin in the national poverty and distress and tU; tyranny and venality of the aristocracy, brought Louis XVI. to tli(i scaffold, and drove the iniquitous House of Bourbon forth as fugiti^•(^s. The French soldiers, whilst fighting in the cause of American liberty, had gradually imbibed the principles of their ;i.llie.s, and returned to their native country to disseminate the arguments of Otis, of Franklin, and of Jefferson, in favour of the inherent rights of man. However much the bulk of the British nation might have sympathized, at the commencement of the French Revolution, with the .struggles of a gallant people for a greater measure of liberty, the horrid atrocities of the Jacobins soon produced a most unfavourable impression on their minds. A hostile feeling, on both sides, was engendered. France declared war against England, and the latter stood forth as the champion of legitimacy and aristocracy, and issued a counter-declaration of hostilities against the new republic. From that period till Bonapai'te became a prisoner at St. Helena, Great Britain was destined to be a stranger to the blessings of peace, and to spend countless treasure in forcing a Bourbon sovereign on a people by whom he was afterwards speedily rejected. But although this long war militated .seriously against the * Christie, vol. i. pp. 126, 127. t During the summer the Protestant bishopric of Quebec was created, by the Crown. (•'■ ■'I-, < • .M --I i^l i 274 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. 11793, •• i ''. ;l iH|i>/ " ■ ■', -'^ ■ *■ prosperity of Canada, and checked emigration thither from the mother-country, it was happily exempt from its evils otherwise and in the enjoyment of a greater degree of liberty, was left to develop its resources as best it might. In the present age, when our rivers and lakes are covered with floating palaces, which frequently traverse their waters at the rate of twenty miles an hour ; when railroads annihilate space, and the electric telegraph and the telephone speak with the rapidity of the lightning's flash it is difficult to form an accurate idea of the condition of matters in Canada a century ago, or to imagine what a " slow people" our Canadian ancestors were. It took a month for the mail to travel from New York to Quebec ; the same period was necessary for the transmission of letters to Halifax ; and four months must expire before an answer to a communication could be looked for from England. A mail from Montreal twice a month * to the New England States, was regarded as quite a progressive event ; now the inhabitants of every little hamlet in Canada would grumble if they did not receive their letters and newspapers at least three times a week. Still, with all these disadvantages, the commerce and general prosperity of the country were steadily on the increase and from ninety to one hundred vessels, from British and foreign ports, annually visited Quebec, f while the net annual revenue of the Lower Province, from the sale of lands, and the customs' duties and licenses, was a little under £5000 sterling. \ The prudent legislators of Lower Canada, in those days, travelled through the public business fully as slowly and cautiously as the mail bags journeyed to Halifax or New York. Dorchester arrived from England on the 24th of September, and again assumed the reins of government. On the 11th of November, he opened the second session of the Legislature ; it sat till the 23rd of May 1794. in the ensuing year, when it w&,s prorogued after the royal assent had been given to five bills. One more bill had indeed been passed, relative to a change in the judicature, which was reserved for the royal pleasure. Emissaries from France had arrived in Canada to propagate revolutionary principles, so the Assembly, in the fulness of its loyalty, levelled one of its bills against aliens who inculcated treason, and gave the Governor large powers to ferret out and punish such persons. The next session of the Legislature, commenced in the January following, when for the first time the public accounts were 1795. laid before the Assembly. From these it appeared that the expenses of the civil administration of the Province amounted to £19,985 sterling annually. To defray this sum the revenue was wholly inadequate ; £5000 sterling were all the Assembly could give, the remainder had to be supplied by 1796. the mother-country. In the year ending January 1796, the revenue of the Province had largely increased, and amounted to £10,425 currency, while the public expenditure was * Quebec Gazette, 2Qt;h December 1792, t Ibi4. ^ Chriatie, vol.ip. 152. V 1^ m 1796.] LORD DORCHESTER RETIRES. 275. £24,711 currency, including £1205 paid to Upper Canada, as the proportion of the duties levied on her imports at the ports of Montreal and Quebec. On the 7th of May the first Parliament of Lower Canada closed its final session. Dorchester declared himself highly satisfied with the course it had pursued. " In expressing my approbation of your proceedings," said he, addressing both Houses, "I must further observe that the unanimity, loyalty, and disinterestedness manifested by this first Provincial Parliament of Lower Canada have never been surpassed in any of his majesty's colonies." On the 9th of July Lord Dorchester took his final departure from Quebec, greatly to the regret of the iniiabitants, all classes of whom presented him with addresses, couched in the warmest and most respectful language. From first to last he had been a true friend to Canada ; and its peop. had been largely indebted to his humanity, sound common sense, and love of constitutional liberty, for the comparatively happy condition in which they now found themselves. He was in his seventy-first year, and spent the remainder of his life in England, where he died in November 1808. !)-. i ■ii' villi 1^ THE GOVERNMENT OF MAJOR GENERAL PRESCOTT. Major General Robert Prescott, the successor of Lord Dorchester in the government of Canada, was at once a gallant and a humane soldier. He had served with great credit to himself in the American revolutionary contest, and after war had again broken out between England and France, was ordered to the West Indies, and took command of the expedition against Martinique, which he completely subdued. He afterwards became its governor ; and his rule, at once firm and judicious, was much appreciated by the inhabitants, with whom he became very popular. In January, 1795, ill-health compelled his return to England. On the 10th of April, 1796, he received orders from the Home Government to relieve Lord Dorchester, as commander-in-chief of Canada, and to act as Lieutenant Governor. Two days afterwards he embarked with his family at Portsmouth, and after a tedious voyage reached Quebec on the 18th of June. On the 3rd of that month writs for a general election for the Province had been issued, and the new Legislature met on the 24th of the ensuing January. In the Assembly the French-Canadians were largely in the 1797. majority and numbered thirty-six out of the total of fifty members. Panet was proposed for speaker, and was elected over his English opponent, Young, by a vote of thirty-two to eighteen. In his opening speech, Prescott alluded to the recent treaty of amity, commerce and navigation, between Great Britain and the United States, as being highly favourable tojthe Province. H " From the? flourishing state of commerce," he observed, " amidst the hazards and obstructions of war, well-founded hopes may be V '•%, I* 276 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. 4 ■'• ik' ■4 ll L"9;, entertained of the future prosperity of the Colony, when the bles- sings of peace shall be restored." And he then warned the Legis- lature that while it could rely on the superiority of the Biitish navy for external protection, it must take measures against treacherous attempts to disturb the internal tranquillity of the country. The Governor was fearful that revolutionary emissaries from France might tamper with the people he had been sent to rule, and, the more so, as Attorney General Sewell had reported, in the preceding summer, that there was a good deal of latent disaffection in and about Montreal,* and that Adet, the French ambassador to the United States, had sent a secret address to the Canadians, in which he told them that the Republic of France having vanquished Spain, Austria and Italy, was about to subdue the British Empire, also, and desired to raise troops in their country. Adet's address, however, had little effect upon the Canadians. The clerical order loved their own interests, and royalty and the Bourbons, too well to lift a finger in behalf of French republicanism ; and were too grateful, also, to England, for championing their cause, to permit of any overt acts among their flocks. There was, therefore, no reason for alarm, as Prescott must have seen had ho understood the people better. To meet his views, and re-assure him as well as other alarmists, the Assembly promptly responded to his recommenda- tions, by re-enacting the Alien Bill, which was about to expire, and passing a temporary act suspending the habeas ccnyms, and giving the Executive power to apprehend and commit to prison, during pleasure, any persons accused or suspected of treasonable practices ; and to hold them in custody without trial, bail or mainprise. While the session was in progress Prescott received his appoint- ment as Governor-General, and was now voted an unanimous address of congratulation, which also set forth the gratitude felt by the House for the "paternal attention of its august Sovereign," in giving it such an excellent Governor. And this address was duly presented by the speaker and all the members. Six bills were passed during the session of over three months ; and, on the 2nd of May, the Legislature was prorogued by the Governor in highly complimentary terms, as it had " faithfully performed its public duties." Adet's intrigues, and the uneasy feeling they had produced in the Province, presently led to a most tragic occurrence. David McLane, an American citizen, and a bankrupt trader of Providence, Rhode Island, was used by Adet as his agent in Canada, and had paid it a visit during the preceding year, without, however, acquiring any partisans or friends who could be of any use to him. McLane returned to the Province in the following spring, by way of St. John's, in the neighbourhood of which he engaged a habitant, named Frichette, to accompany him to Quebec. When he got there * Minutes of the Executive Counoil for 1796, 1797.] EXECUTION FOR HIGH TREASON. 277 he put himself in communication with a member of the Assembly, named Black, a ship-carpenter, and with whom, it appeared, he had some previous correspondence. Having fully obtained his confi- dence, Black denounced him to the authorities, and he was prompt- ly arrested, and put on his trial for high treason. McLane's plans for the capture of Quebec were proved to be of the most chimerical iind impracticable character, and embraced a sudden pike charge upon the garrison, and dosing the troops with laudanum to keep them quiet. He was convicted, however, and on the 2l8t of July met a traitor's doom on the glacis near St. John's gate, where he was hung, drawn and quartered, with all the revolting accompani- ments of ancient English usage. McLane had made a confident of Frichette, and told him of his insane plans ; and not having informed the authorities of these plans, the latter, despite his being an illiterate and ignorant person, was tried and convicted of misprision of treason, and sentenced to imprisonment for life. But calmer counsels presently prevailed ; the authorities became sensible, (III reflection, that they had acted too hastily and severely in the luatter of McLane, and Frichette was accordingly pardoned and set at liberty. Black was duly rewarded for his share in this unhappy business. Being regarded, however, by the public as more of a traitor than McLane, he was treated with universal contempt, lost his business in consequence, became a wretched pauper, and died in misery. The Legislature opened on the the 28th of February, and was told by the Governor that " the unremitting spirit of iinimosity against the king, his subjects and government, that 1 798. is openly avowed by the present ruling power in France," rendered it necessary that they should not relax their vigilance for the preservation of tranquillity. The address, in reply, showed the good understanding that now prevailed between Prescott and the Assembly. *' We cannot be otherwise than unanimous," they said, "when the support of the mild and orderly government under which we happily live is the subject of our deliberations." The Legislature assembled on the 29th of March, somewhat latei' than hitherto, and continuing in the same amicable mood the Executive got all the authority it desired for the preser- 1799. \ation of the public peace. One bill passed provided for the erection of court houses, with the proper offices, in the several districts of Quebec and Montreal. When the Governor prorogued the Legislature he warmly thanked it for the zeal and unanimity with which it had attended to the public business. The public accounts showed that the civil expenses of the Province amounted, during the year, to $125,702 and the revenue to $101,708. The defici- ency, as usual, was made good by the Crown. The expenses of the Legislature were of the very modest proportions of $5997.* But -while Prescott stood well with the Legislature and the f. ■:■ » J. :N V ■ Christie's vol. i. p. 202. 278 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1799. • i 1 j i » ■ . ^ '. *•* • '. •' • • f ■"i*-. • .» 4 • • << ■. . ^ / " . ,•! ■ ,, ki^K 1 B r A ' • '' ' ■. ' "* i .■•' » people, and was able to maintain the most satisfactory relations with them, a storm was brewing to his disadvantage within the ranks of his own Executive Council. Some of the Board charged with the management of the Crown lands, of which Chief Justice Osgoode * was the chairman, under one pretext or another, had acquired for their own benefit, or for that of their relations or friends, large tracts of the public domain in the Eastern Townships, and in other newly surveyed districts. The claims of actual settlers were, somehow, interfered with, and these settlers now made complaints to Prescott, who espoused their cause with warmth, and laid the matter before the Home Government, who issued instruc- tions to remedy the evil. The Executive Council was greatly incensed at the action of the Governor, refused to publish the new instructions, and sent two petitions to the colonial minister, the Duke of Portland, complaining of his conduct, f Judge Osgoode, especially, had, through his friends, great influence at court ; and the result of the pressure brought to bear upon the minister 1799. was, that, to avoid further difficulty, Prescott was recalled, much to the regret of a large majority of the people, who deemed him an honourable and upright man. Although relieved of the active governorship of Lower Canada, be was still, however, continued in the position of Governor General, and drew £2000 per annum as his salary therefor until he was finally superseded by Craig in 1807. It does not appear that he was afterwards intrusted by the Home Government with any important public position ; and he finally settled on his estate at Rose Green, in Sussex, where he died in December, 1815, at the great age of 89. THE GOVERNMENT OP SIR ROBERT SHORE MILNES. On the recall of Prescott, Sir Robert Shore Milnes received the appointment of Lieutenant Governor of Lower Canada. He had commenced life as an officer of the Horse Guards, but n^t liking the military service retired from it after a few years' experience. In 1795 he succeeded Prescott as governor of Martinique, in which position he appears to have given satisfaction to the Home Government. Hitherto the salary of the Governor General of Canada was £2000 sterling per annum, and that of the lieutenant governor £1500, in addition to which Milnes was now to be paid £1000. Each member of the Executive Council received annually * This gentleman was born in England in 1754, graduated at Oxford, and •embraced the profession of the law. He was appointed Chief Justice of Upper Canada in 1791, and came out, in the following year, in the same ship with Governor Simcoe. Two years afterwards he was translated to Lower Canada. Osgoode Hall still commemorates his memory in Ontario. He resigned his Chief Justiceship, and other offices in Lower Canada, at the «lose of 1801, and returned to England, where he died in 1824. He never married. t These petitions were signed by Judge Osgoode, Bishop Mountain, Hugh Finlay, Francis Baby, Thomas Diinn and John Young. * \ 1800. PROGRESS OF LOWER CANADA. 279 £100 sterling for his services. There were now nine paid members in that council, five English and four French-Canadians, among whom were Chief Justice William Osgoode, of Quebec, and Cliief Justice James Monk, of Montreal. As regards the closing year of the past century, Lower Canada presented few events of importance to record. Its people were blessed with abundance and peace ; and despite the slight racial antagonisms, which occasionally cropped up, all classes of the community were tolerably contented. The inhabitants of British origin felt they had all they could reasonably expect in a House oiE Assembly and a Legislative Council ; while the population of French descent, in the full enjoyment of their language, their customs and their religion, as well as of a large measure of self- government, lived on in an easy and good-natured state of eyistence which nothing appeared to disturb. Meanwhile the Province was steadily progressing in population and material resources. The Legislature assembled on the 5th of March. The opening speech of the Lieutenant Governor contained little that was of much interest. He congratulated the members on 1800. the loyal and liberal manner, in which a voluntary subscription had recently been made to assist the British Government, in carrying on the war ; and the friendly intercourse now subsisting with the people of the United States, which he trusted would continue. The Assembly responded in a loyal and courteous spirit. Trouble, however, was close at hand. On the 12th of March Plante, a member of the Assembly, moved "that the House do resolve itself into a committee, to consider of the most proper measures of obtaining information cv icerning the rights and pretensions which this Province may have upon the Jesuits' college of Quebec, and the estates thereunto annexed." On the question being put, John Young, a member of the Executive Council, said, "that he was authorized by his excellency, the Lieutenant Governor, to state, that the Home Government had given orders to take possession of the Jesuits' estates in the name of, and as the property of, the Crown."* Despite this notification the House went into committee of the whole, and on a vote of 16 to 8, agreed to an address to the Lieutenant Governor, asking for access to the report made on the 30th of June 1789, by a commission that had been previously appointed by Lord Dorchester on the 29th of December, 1787, to enquire into the matter of the Jesuits' estates, and as to all title deeds and documents connected therewith, and allow copies to be made of the same for their use. To this address the Lieutenant Governor replied that the whole of the documents in question had been submitted to the king, and laid by him before the Privy Council ; and that, as the result of its consultations, orders had been transmitted to the government of the Province, * When Frontenac wrote to Louis XIV. that the religious orders were largely monopolizing the best lands of Canada, he was nearer the truth than many might suppose. At the conquest these orders owned about two-sevenths > > • H 'IV ■ » , " •*<';•.■ • V'i' 280 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1800, in the preceding month of April, to take the entire property into the hands of the Crown. He further stated, that should the Assembly persist in their demand, he would give orders that they be at liberty to make copies of all reports and papers, which had existed before the 25th of August 1790, connected with the Jesuits' estates. But, he added, " after the information I have now given, the House of Assembly will certainly deem it incumbent on them, to consider whether it is consistent with that respect which they have hitherto uniformly manifested towards their sovereign, to reiterate any application on the subject." The Assembly winced under this rebuke, and resolved, a few days afterwards, " to post- pone, to a future time, the enquiry into the rights and pretensions alluded to." This resolution was, however, adopted by way of of all the granted lands, as the following table will show, heads the list : — The Jesuit order LANDS GRANTED BY THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT EXCLUSIVE OP ISLANDS. Contents of the total French Grant -s • 7,985,470 acres. Granted to the Jesuits as follows : Charlesbourg - - • • • - - 119,720 Lorette 23.944 SUlery 8,979 Isle au Reaux 360 Cape de la Magdelaine 282,240 Batiscan 282,240 La Prairie de la Magdelaine 56,448 St. Gabriel - - 104,850 Isle St. Christophe 80 Pachirigny 585 La Vacherie at Quebec 73 St. Nicolas, opposite Quebec 1,180 Tadousac 6 891,845 ■.iA. Recapitulation. Ursuiines ■ 164,616 Three Rivers Ursuiines 30,909 Recollets 945 Bishop and Seminary, Quebec .... 693,324 Jesuits - 891,845 . St. Sulpicians 250,191 General Hospital, Quebec 28,497 Do. Montreal - 404 Hotel Dieu, Quebec 14,112 SoBurs Crises 42,336 Total Grants to the R. C. Church up to the conquest — 2,115,178 acres. Total Grants to the Laity .... 6,870,292 1800.] THE JESUITS' ESTATES. 281 « !, 3 Jesuit order EXCLUSIVE amendment to a motion made by Mr. Grant, a Scotch member of the Assembly, to have a committee of five appointed to draft an address to the king, setting forth the deplorable state of the education of the youth of the Province, and praying that the Jesuits' estates, or some other estate, or waste lands of the Crown, be devoted to educational purposes. The main object of the Assembly was evidently to obtain control of the Jesuits' estates as provincial property, and not to have them administered by the Crown in any way, even for educational purposes, and so adroitly got rid of Grant's motion by an amendment. Bishop Mountain, of Quebec, was anxious that schools to teach the English language especially, should be established in the principal towns and villages, at the expense of the government. The Lieutenant Governor was so impressed by his views on this head, that in a despatch, dated April 5th, he proposed to the colonial minister, that portions of the Crown lands, and what remained of the Jesuits' estates, should be set apart to defray the costs of general education. He added, that such a measure would not only add to the popularity of the government, but be very advantageous, f' na a moral and political aspect, and promote the use of the Englisii tongue, a knowledge of which was still so rare in the Province that it was useless to speak it even in the House of Assembly, as the great majority of the members did not understand it.* The minister approved of the plan, and asked that a return of the values and revenues of the Jesuits' estates be submitted for his information.! Meanwhile Casot, the last of the Jesuit fathers in Canada, had died on the 16th of March, four days after the first debate' in the Assembly, touching the estates of his order, had taken place. Up to his death the government had permitted him to use, as he pleased, the large revenues arising from these estates, which the father applied ahnost wholly for charitable purposes. His death was, therefore, bitterly regretted by the poor. * Although the debates in the Assembly were conducted in French, the journals of the House were kept in both languages. Bills introduced were also put into both languages, after their being read a first time. This rule of the House gave general satisfaction ; and with slight modifications has been continued to the present day. It also prevails as regards the Dominion Parliament. + It is almost unnecessary to say that any project of this kind found little favour with either the majority of the Assembly or their constituents, with whom the preservation of their language as well as their religion was the first consideration. This feeling was sedulously fostered by the clerical order, who then as now saw in the continued ascendancy of the French language, the grand element of the preservation of its own influence and authority. But, independent of this state of things the English leaven in the Province of Quebec, has always been too slight to affect the language of the majority ; and to this fact, and not to any legislation of the British Parliament, as some suppose, is mainly due the perpetuation of the French language therein. Not only has that language always held its own in that province^ but it has been decidedly aggressive, and English settlers in many instances, as in the case of th^ Eraser Highlanders, forget in time their mother tongue. • ■ ' [ .-1 I . , ' ■*■■ 282 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1801. ■i 1 , The Legislature was prorogued on the 26th of May, after it had passed eight bills. The second Provincial Parliament ended with this session ; and, on the 7th of June, the writs were isjued for the general election, which produced several warm contests. Foui teen of the new members were of British origin ; one German was elected, and thirty-five French-Canadians. The Legis- 1801. lature met on the 8th of January when Panet was again chosen speaker. The opening speech of the Lieutenant Governor, among other matters, set forth " that his majesty had been graciously pleased to give directions for the establishment of a competent number of free schools, for the instruction of children in the first rudiments of useful learning, and in the English tongue ; and, also, as occasion might require, for educational foundations of a more enlarged and comprehensive nature." Crown lands were to be set apart to create a revenue for this purpose. There was nothing said, however, about the future disposition of the Jesuits' estates. The Assembly passed an act for the establishment of free schools, and of an institution for the advancement of learning. Under the provisions of this act endowed colleges were afterwards established at Montreal and Quebec, with Bishop Mountain at their head. Religious jealousy paralysed the scheme from the beginning. The Roman Catholic clergy declined to countenance any educational project they could not direct. Although shorn of the persecuting authority of the " Old Begime" they had abated nothing of its principle of intolerance and exclusion. Milnes chafed at this condition of things, seriously interfering, as it did, with his educational projects, and complained to the Duke of 1802. Portland, still colonial secretary, of the emancipation of the Roman Catholic clergy from state control, and that the royal instructions, " that no one shall be invested with holy orders, or be charged with a cure of souls, without the sanction of the Governor " were now practically ignored. He also complained that the seigniors still retained much of their ancient authority over the habitants ; and recommended that the militia be disbanded, as not being trustworthy. The duke comforted him by recommending that the militia laws should be amended so as to increase the authority of the government : and that as the seigniors' influence was based on ancient laws and customs it was useless to seek to abate it. Meanwhile Bonaparte had returned from Egypt, where his prospects of empire had been completely blasted by the victory of Nelson at Aboukir Bay ; and aided by Talleyrand and Fouche, had possessed himself of supreme power in France and established the provisional government of the Consulate. An European peace at length became possible, and the Treaty of Amiens was signed on the 25th of March, a circumstance which caused a good deal of rejoicing in Canada, as well as in other parts of the empire. B.t the peace was but a short-lived one, and in the month of 1803. August, 1803, the Lieutenant Governor found it necessary 1803.J LOWER CANADA LEGISLATION. 288 to call the Legislature together to acquaint it with the renewal of hostilities between England and France, and to ask it to renew those stringent temporary laws, which had been found so beneficial, during the late w i,r, in keeping dangerous characters out of the Province. This was done within the next tea days, and the Legislature adjourned. Its ensuing session, which opened on the 10th of February, had little to distinguish it beyond 1804. the fact, that it was still difficult to keep a quorum of the Assembly together for the despatch of business. The general election took place in July, and gave a fresh majority in the Assembly of twenty French-Canadians. Much of the time of its ensuing session was occupied in dealing with contested 1805. cases. A bill was introduced " to enable the seigniors to compound their feudal rights and dues with their vassals and censitaries," which from some unexplained cause was not pressed. It was the first step taken in a much-needed direction. Towards the close of the session a breeze was created by the Executive refusing to increase the salary of Desbarats, the French translator of the House, which had, in the meantime, dwindled down to fifteen members. The Lieutenant Governor promptly suppressed the agitation, by proroguing the Legislature. Having obtained leave of absence he sailed for England on the 5th of August, and never returned to this country, but nevertheless drew his salary for three years longer. He continued to enjoy two pensions on the civil list of England till his death, which took place in 1836. He was a man of very average abilities, and after leaving Lower Canada does not appear to have been again trusted wiU; important post by the Crown. He was rather unpopukK^^witl the French-Canadians. "" ' II GOVERNMENT OF THE HON. THOMAS DUNN?: On the departure of Sir Robert Shore Milnes, Judge T^o§i8| Dunn, as the senior member of the Executive Council, became administrator of the government. He had arrived in this courifry shortly after the conquest, married a French-Canadian lad^, Miss ' Guichaud, had become a seignior in her right, and was excee^tingly^ popular with the majority of the people. He was an enlight able and impartial man ; and always displayed much wisdom and prudence in legislating for, and dealing with, the antagonistic social elements of the Province. The commencement of his govern- ment was signalized by the first attempt to curb the public press. In its session of 1805 the Legislature had passed a bill providing for the erection of gaols in Quebec and Montreal, and imposing duties upon commerce to defray the necessary expenditure. The mercantile community contended that instead of levying an impost on commerce, the system of land tax should have been adopted, and petitioned the Crown to disallow the bill, after it had received I ■ .Hf ! '•>. ' U: . i 1 '. J. . .■ * • . 284 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. 1806. • '. fc'* the sanction of the Lieutenant Governor before his departure. While the act was under discussion, a public dinner was given at Montreal, by its merchants, to the parliamentary representatives of the city and county, at which Isaac Todd presided. Several toasts were proposed condemning, although in very mild terms, the Legislature for imposing a tax on commerce. The 7th toast was " Our representatives in the Provincial Parliament, who proposed a constitutional and proper mode of taxation for building gaols, and who opposed a tax on commerce for that purpose, as contrary to the sound practice of the parent state." The proceedings on this occasion were duly published by the Montreal Gazette, which publication was voted a libel and breach of privilege by the Assembly. Shortly after the Legislature had been opened, 1806. on the 21st of February, the House accordingly directed its sergeant-at-arms to proceed to Montreal, and take Todd and Edwards, the publisher of the Gazette, into custody. Neither of these gentlemen, however, could be found, and so the matter ended with respect to them. While these events were transpiring in the Assembly, the Quebec Mercury, in an article, headed " French intluence," criticised its illiberal proceedings in a manner highly distasteful to the members. The publisher, Gary, was summoned to the bar of the House, and compelled to apologise " for having presumed to render an account of its proceedings," when he was released. In the present day, when the action of Parliament is so narrowly watched and criticised by the public press, the course pursued on this occasion mu t appear sufficiently despotic. But Canada was only imitating the mother-country, where the press, at thip period, was shackled by the most odious restrictions, and where the proceedings in Parliament dare not be published. Even in the present day reporters for the press are admitted to the Houses of Parliament in England, and also in Canada, by suflfer- ance merely, and not as a matter of right, and may be excluded at any time they deem proper. Following up its proceedings against Todd and the newspapers, tiie Assembly petitioned the king not to disallow the act; and, on the advice of the Privy Council, he complied with its prayer. The gaols were accordingly built from the duties it imposed upon commerce. These affording a considerable revenue were afterwards continued, and made available towards the defence of the Province during the war witi'i the United States, In those days the members of the Legislature were not paid for their services, as they are now, and tenacious as they were of their privileges, they could with difficulty be kept together for the transaction of business, which was frequently retarded for the want of a quorum. The novelty of legislation had evidently worn off to a large extent, and in the absence of excitement of any kind many of the members, especially those who lived at a distance, preferred staying \t home, to attend to their private affairs, than to remain at Quebec, at considerable expense and inconvenience to themselves, 1806.] LE CANADIEN APPEARS. 285 len he was ta transact the business of the public. When proroguing the Legislature, on the 19th of April, Dunn expressed his dissatisfaction with this state of things. The necessary business, sjvid he, has not been completed, which woald not be the case had not so many members declined giving their customary attendance. Hitherto the newspapers of Lower Canada had been exclusively owned and conducted by persons of British origin, who, as a mere matter of course, were far from being friendly to PVench laws or customs. However prudent the different editors might be, their articles were undoubtedly biased by their feelings and their prejudices, and the educated portion of the French-Canadian population felt the want of an organ which would represent their own opinions, and repel the aspersions of the other journals. This feeling led to the publication, by a company, of a newspaper, Le Co/tiadien, exclusively in the French language, the first number of which was issued at Quebec in the month of November. Had this journal restricted itself to a moderate and sensible advocacy of French-Canadian interests and opinions, matters would have gone on smoothly. But, instead of pursuing this course, it devoted itself largely to the publication of extreme anonymous communications, appealed to national prejudices, and regarded the British immi- grants as strangers and intruders. Being conducted with ability it soon became popular, and the reign of agitation and discord between the two races, subsequently productive of so much injury to Lower Canada, now set in.* The Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, and the Governor- General, continuing absent, Dunn, on the 21st of January, again convened the Legislature, and congratulated it on 1807. the capture of the Cape of Good Hope, and the other successes which had distinguished the arms of Great Britain in the war with France and her allies. In responding to this address the Assembly expressed its appreciation of Dunn's personal worth, in very handsome and well-merited terms. The session was chiefly distinguished by a motion to obtain an allowance for mileage expenses of the members residing at a distance from Quebec, which was negatived by a majority of two, sixteen voting against it and fourteen in its favour ; and for the election of Ezekiel Hart, a Jew, by the people of Three Rivers. Hart was highly esteemed by his neighbours and fellow townsmen, as a man of irreproachable life and upright character. But the good Christians nevertheless took exception to his religion, and demurred to his return to the House. During this year a difficulty arose in connection with the Roman Catholic bishopric of Quebec. The royal patent appointing Bishop Mountain, designated him as the Bishop of Quebec ; and it was now contended by Attorney General Sewell, and also by Mr. Ryland, who had acted as secretary for all the Governors of the Province, from Lord Dorchester's time, and for the Executive » :. Christie, vol. i. p. 252. (rarneau vol, ii. p. 241, 242. .1 •. *.» 286 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1807 Council, and possessed much influence, that no other person could legally bear the title. The Roman Catholic bishopric of Quebec having become vacant, M. Plessis became entitled thereto by virtue of a bull issued by Pius VII,, and it became necessary, accordingly, that he should take the customary oath of fealty to the sovereign before he ontored upon the duties of his office. Despite tlie obstructive policy of Ryland and his friends, Duni recognized the new prelate, and administered the required oath in full council. Lord Castleroagh, then colonial minister, had already sustained his action, by stating that Plessis was not a foreigner, nor his clergy aliens, and were entitled to all their rights as British subjects. The wisdom of Dunn's sensible policy in this matter was speedily apparent. During the progress of summer serious apprehensions arose of a speedy war with the United States, The commerce of that country was seriously suffering from the action of Bonaparte, on one hand, and the British Government, on the other ; and the feeling of hostility towards the latter, on the part of the neighbour- ing republic, was presently aggravated by the affair between the Chesapeake and the Leopard. The Americans now talked of capturing Canada, as a matter desired by its people, and of easy accomplishment. As the most fitting answer, Dunn issued an order to embody a fifth part of the militia for active service, which was responded to with the greatest alacrity and even enthusiasm Bishop Plessis circulated a pastoral, to be read in all the churches, recommending the people to respond cheerfully to the demand made upon them for the defence of their country, and directing a te deum to be sung. The gallant Colonel Brock, who now, as senior military officer, commanded at Quebec, seconding the views of Dunn, promptly set to work to put the garrison and fortifications in a good state of defence, and made every addition to its natural strength that science and prudence could suggest. On the 19th of October, Lieutenant General Sir James Craig, ^^e successor of Prescott as Governor General of British North America, arrived at Quebec, and immediately assumed charge of the administration. •. V. > . THE GOVERNMENT OF LIEUT-GENERAL SIR JAMES H. CRAIG. The new Governor General was of Scotch descent, and born, in 1750, at Gibralter, where his father held tho appointment of civil and military judge. At the early age of fifteen he entered the army as an ensign, and rose, by distinguished gallantry and merit, from one grade to another, until in 1794, he became a major general. In that year, also, he was given the command of the expedition against the Cape of Good Hope, and after its conquest became its first British governor. He afterwards served in India and else- y •• . 1807.J CRAIG AS GOVERNOR GENERAL. 287 ES H. CRAIG. where with distinction, and in 1801, was raised to ti e rank of lieutenant general. As war with the United States was already- regarded, by the Home Government, as a possible contingency, the great military experiencd of Craig, and his thorough knowledge of this country, acquired by services during the Revolutionary War, pointed him out as the most suitable person to send to Canada as its Goveraor General. A very general feeling now prevailed in the United States, that, in the event of a war with England, the people of Canada, and especially those of French origin, would be disposed to make common cause with them ; and if they did not take active steps in their favour, they would at least gladly hail them as their deliverers. Craig, like his predecessor Dunn, regarded this idea as illusive ; and, on the 24th of November, issued a general order to the militia of Lower Canada, in which he spoke in terms of warm approbation of the measures which had been already taken for the defence of their country, in case of attack, and of their recent expressions of loyalty to the Crown. Hf) also alluded to the depots of arms which were being formed for their use, and to which they were to resort promptly on the approach of danger. He warned them, at the same time, to beware of emissaries from the United States, who might seek to weaken their allegiance to their lawful sovereign. The active force was to consist of one-fifth of the whole militia, from which it would be selected by ballot, and was to hold itself in readiness for service at the shortest notice. On the 29th of January the Governor proceeded in state to open the Legislature, and on his way was loudly cheered by the assembled crowd. Beyond an allusion to the pending diffi- 1808. culties with the United States, his opening speech contained little that was remarkable. The Assembly responded in the most courteous language, thanked "his excellency" for the flattering terms in which he had recently spoken of the militia of the Province, and assured him of its co-operation in every measure for the benefit of the public. A feeling had gradually arisen in the Province, and was now very generally diffused, that the judges of the different courts should not be eligible for election ta the Assembly. A bill to carry out this object was accordingly introduced, but negatived by the Legislative Council. The next measure of the Commons was, on a vote of 22 to 57, to unseat Mr. Hart, the member for Three Rivers, on the grounds of his being a Jew, although there was nothing in the Constitution to warrant such course. He was again re-elected by that constituency ; but only, however, to be unseated the second time. The militia bill was continued till repealed ; and the alien act, and the act for the better preservation of his Majesty's government, were passed for one year. On the whole this session, which terminated the fourth Parliament, pleased the Governor, who signified his approval when proroguing the Legislature on the 14th of April. )■ TM i \ ' '•! » f 288 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1809. The general election took place in May, and passed off rather quietly. The late speaker, Panet, presented himself as a candidate for the Upper Town of Quebec, largely inhabited by government officials of every class, who voted against him almost to a man, in consequence of his being one of the owners of the Canadien, and thus secured his defeat. His friends, however, anticipating this result, had also nominated him for another constituency, for which he was returned. Out of the fifty members, elected to the Assembly, only fourteen were of British origin. The elections left a good deal of bad blood behind them. During the canvass inflammatory hand bills had been circulated, which described the government as feeble and of the king log order ; and Panet and others h.id made speeches reflecting on the Executive, which were represented to the Governor as bordering on the disloyal, and were therefore exceedingly distasteful to him. So an order was issued dismissing Panet from his lieutenant colonelcy of militia ; and two captains, and a lieutenant and a surgeon, shared the same fate. Summer brought with it few Canadian events of any importance. Some improvements were made in the fortifications of Quebec, and the old Castle of St. Louis, the residence of the governors, repaired. The American non-intercourse and embargo system, and the partial exclusion of British shipping from the Baltic, created a great increase in the square timber trade of Lower Canada ; and produced a period of prosperity which led to a large demand for English manufactures. The American farmers and lumbermen li>^ing along the south shore of the Upper St. Lawrence, sought to share in this prosperity by smuggling, usually without detection, rafted timber to Quebec, and selling it there as the Canadian article. On the 9th of April, in the following spring, the new Assembly was convened. It was generally expected that Panet would 1809. again be elected speaker, an office he had filled during the four preceding Parliaments, and considerable curiosity was excited as to whether the Governor, in that case, would assent to the choice of the Assembly. He wisely confirmed Panet's election, after it had taken place, although, as had been anticipated, not in very gracious terms. In his opening speech to tlfe Legislature, Craig alluded, among other matters, to the prosperous condition of the Province, owing chiefly to the impetus given to the lumber trade by the American embargo on all intercourse with Great Britain ; and expressed his regret at being obliged to call the House together at that busy period of tlie yeai', but excused himself on the ground of public expediency. Some of his remarks implied an indirect censure on the members, and were unfavourably received. The question of the eligibility of judges for election to the As- sembly was again taken up, as well as the expulsion of Hart, who had been elected a third time for Three Rivers. A bill was introduced to disqualify Jews from a seat in the House, but five weeks had already elapsed when it underwent a second reading. 1809.] THE FIRST CANADIAN STEAMBOAT. 289 » J. t censure on Craig's patience became exhausted ; and regarding the Lower House as a refractory body, which had not a proper sense of its duty, he went down in state, from the castle of St. Louis, on the 15th of May, and dissolved the Assembly in t«rms of unmeasured censure. At the same time he complimented the Legislative Council on its general good conduct. In the ensuing month the Governor made a tour of the principal towns of the Province, was well received, and presented with several very complimentary addresses, which were criticised with consider- able asperity by the Canadien. The election took place in October, when either the recent representatives, or others still more opposed to the wishes of the Executive, were returned. The Governor had gained nothing by his arbitrary policy. While the public mind was still disturbed by the disagreement between the stern old general and the refractory Assembly, John Molson, an enterprising and spirited merchant of Montreal, was busily engaged in fitting out the first steamer that ever ploughed the waters of the St. Lawrence. On the 3rd of November, this ever-to-be-remembered little craft got up steam, shot out into the current, and after a voyage of thirty-six hours' duration arrived safe- ly at Quebec, where the whole city crowded to the river to have a look at the nautical phenomenon. " The steamboat Accommodation has arrived," said the old Mercury, in the fulness of its wonder- ment, " with ten passengers. ♦ ♦ * No wind or tide can stop her. The price of a passage is nine dollars up, and eight down. — The wheels are put, and kept, in motion by steam operating with- in the vessel " Fulton's first steamboat navigated the Hudson, the Acr mmodation cleaved the more magnificent waters of the St. Lawrence. A new light had burst upon the mind of Canada ; a fresh impetus had seized upon her prosperity. It was highly creditable to the Province that the second steamer built on this continent was launched at Montreal. The new Assembly met on the 29th of January, when Panet was again elected speaker, and confirmed in that office by the Governor, whose opening speech was as formal as usual. He 1810. alluded to the probable war with the United States, to the necessity of checking the forging of bills of exchange, touched upon the dissolution of the last Assembly, and declared himself prepared to give assent " to any proper bill for rendering his Majesty's judges of the Court of King's Bench ineligible in future to a seat in the House." The conciliatory tone of the speech gave freih courage <"o the Commons of Lower Canada. '* The Governor had incuri «d the displeasure of the Home Ministry," it was said, •' by his arbitrary conduct," so the Assembly now determined to become arbitrary in turn. By a vote of twenty-four to eleven they decided, by resolu- tion, " that the Executive's approving the conduct of one part of the Legislature, and censuring that of the other, was contrary to the spirit of the constitution, a breach of their privileges, and dangerous » > .• 1 .• * ■^ * ^.■/. .' . «- . .'I «■ •.•.,■ 290 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1810. to the rights and liberties of his Majesty's subjects in the Province. At the same time an address v.as voted to the king, breathing the most ardent and devoted loyalty. The Assembly likewise offered to defray the expenses of the civil list, now amounting to some $200,000 annually. This offer was coolly received by Craig, on the ground that all money grants should be first recommended by the Crown, and as the Assembly had been dissolved before the esti- mates could be laid before it, no action for the present was taken thereon. The breaking out of war postponed its subsequent con- sideration. Meanwhile, a bill had been introduced in the Assembly to dis- qualify judges from sitting there, iind was transmitted to the Legis- lative Council, which returned it with the amendment that it was not to come into force during the present ' Parliament. The Assembly now became indignant and declared, by a vole of eighteen to six, the seat of M. de Bonne, a judge, vacant. This brought matters to a crisis ; and down came the resolute old general to dissolve them again. He was loudly cheered by the people, who were more amused than otherwise by these novel occurrences, and the military promptitude of th^.ir veteran (rovernor. The late members, however, aided by their friends, soon took measures to arouse another feeling in the minds of the multitude. Songs and pasquinades, suited to the vulgar taste, were written and circulated ; while the Canadien became more abusive than ever. The breach became wider and wider every day. The colonists of British origin, ranged themselves, almost to a man, on the side of the despotic Governor ; those of French descent stood up for the more constitu- tional Assembly. Lower Canada, at this period, had five weekly newspapers, four of these favoured the Government and the British minority, while the Canadien, the smallest of the lot, was the sole advocate of the majority. Its tongue cut keen, and it stoutly stood its ground, although there were four to one. This will never do, thought the Governor and his council, insubordination must not be permitted in the ranks, and an election approaching. Treasonable matter was supposed to be discovered in three issues of the obnoxious newspaper, the publication of which was sworn to by two innkeepers, and thereupon Chief Justice Sewell issued his M'arrant to arrest the printers. So, on the 17th of March, a party of soldiers, headed by a magistrate and two constables, proceeded to the oftice of the Canadien, seized the press, and all the papers they could find, and conveyed them to the vaults of the city court-house. Lefrancois, the unlucky printer, was also pounced upon ; and, after an examination before the Executive Council, committed to prison. The guards were strengthened, patrols scoured the streets, and a miniature "Reign of Terror" had begun. Six prominent French- Canadians were apprehended a few days afterwards, on n. charge of treasonable practices, and the public looked for the revelation of some terriblr. conspiracy. But nothing was discovered. The ^*- 1810.] CRAIG AND THE ASSEMBLY. 291 presumed conspirators were released one after another, without trial, as time progressed ; and although the Governor, on the 21st of March, issued a warning proclamation, as tedious as one of his par- liamentary speeches, little ever came out of the business. This despotic and unconstitutional conduct, on the part of the Executive, merely daunted the French-Canadians for the morxient. Time had inoculated them with a portion, at least, of the spirit of British freemen, and they determined on an independent exercise of their franchise. The old members of the Assembly, for the most pait, were re-elected, Panet was again chosen speaker, and the Governor once more submitted to stern necessity, and confirmed him in that capacity. A third dissolution would scarcely have been orthodox parlia- mentary usage, so Craig met the new Assembly in a more concilia- tory spirit, and its iBcmbers, disliking the idea of being unceremoniously turned out of doors a third time, Cromwell fashion, wevo disposed to conduct themselves more amiably. A sly war of words took place between the belligerents, but iHe Assembly passed, however, with unusual speed, the measures recommended by the Governor, among which was " the continuation of the act for the better preservation of his Majesty's government," under which the late arrests had been made, and under which, also, Bedard, one of their own number, was still held in durance. The medicine was decidedly bitter ; but the Assembly swallowed it, nevertheless, though with a clause in favour of their own body ; but as this clause had only a prospective effect, the Executive still kept Bedard in prison. The Assembly now passed a resolution declaring this course illegal, and voted a humble address to his Excellency, prav- ing that Pierre Bedard, E'^q., might be released, and allowed to take his seat in the Housc). But the committee appointed to present it had not sufficient moral courage to beard the 1811. stern general in hisjj castle of St. Louis, and the Assembly were fain to sympathize with their want of nerve, and reliuvecl them from tbii? duty. The victory was decidedly on the side of Craig, so he released Bedard, at his own pleasure, shortly afterwards. The session of the Legislature, assembled in the beginning of 1811, passed smoothly over. The bill to disqualify judges from becoming members of the House was passed, and received the royal sanction through the Governor. The health of the latter w.is very feeble ; he was about to return to his native country ; and, after alluding to the great prosperity of the Province, recom- mended the Legislature to act unanimously for the public gdod. " I am earnest in this advice, gentlemen^" said he. " It is prol)ably the last legacy of a very sincere well-wisher ; who, if he lives to roach the presence of his sovereign, would be proud to be able to say that the people he had found separated by mistrust and jealousy, l>e had left cordially united, and rivalling each other only in the affectionate attachment to his Majesty's government, and in generous exertions for the public good." ''. «." Wt THE HISTQRY.OF CANADA. [1811. ThU language bears every mark of sincerity ; and even if Craig, from previous habit, and a long training in the camp and barrack- room* was arbitrary in his conduct, and unfitted otherwise to direct a popular administration, there can be no doubt that his intentions were of the purest character. Although he had overstepped the ^ bounds of constitutional government, and thereby caused some individual suffering, his firmness had still one salutary effect ; it repressed, the unwholesome spirit of dissension which had begun to manifest itself in the Assembly, and tended on the whole to the public good. Still, it must be admitted, he could have been equally firm, without being equally arbitrary, and that he would have promoted the public weal just as effectually had he not imprisoned innocent men, and violated the rights of private property. Having obtained leave of absence, he departed from Canada, on the 19th of June, to the great regret of the British population, who collected in large numbers to bid him a last farewell, took the horses from his carriage and drew it to the Kings Wharf, where he embarked on the man-of-war; Amelia. His frame had long been sinking under dropsy and other infirmities. The shadow of death was already falling on him, find he died in England in the January of the next ye«^r» at the age of sixty-two, haying well served his country forty- seven years in all parts of the world. Simple, earnest and honest, there can be little doubt that Craig was the victim of circumstances, and that his confidence had been abused by the oligarchy, who, as in XJppe;' Canada, then held supreme sway in the Province. An irresponsiVile , Executive was at the root of various public disorders, and as time progressed it became evident that Lower Canada had to pass through the same constitutional revolutionary ordeal as its western sifter. In both provinces identical causes were producing precisely si^iilar results, and at nearly the same time. The lesson hpd still to be learned, that a rudimentary form of constitutional government .cmn only be regarded as the, educator for that more adyiiQced condition, which permits the fullest measure of political control to the citizen. Once concede the first step in British freedom* and every other step, to the last rung of the ladder of human . liberty, must necessarily follow as the logical sequence of cauiQ.,an4 effect. On the departure of General Craig, Mr. Dunn again assumed charge or the civil administration, while Lieutenant General DrtiR^inond became commander-in-ohief of the forces v Canada, consisting of 445. artillery, 3783 troops of the line, and 1 226 fenQil^les j_ in all 5454. men» scattered f. >m Quebec to Amherstburg at the.^iQfiireat military posts. . » J CHAPTER XII 0PPER CANADA FROM 1791 TO 1811. THE GOVERNMENT OF MAJOR GENERAL SIMOOE.. C'^OLOKEL, and Brigadier-General, John Graves Simcoe,* was a ^ man of mark in many ways. A native oi England, he was born at the town of Cotterstock in 1752, and therefore in his fortieth yetir, that fortunate period of human existence in which the physical forces are still unimpaired, and the intellect at its meridian, when he assumed charge of the government of Upper Canada. His father, John Simcoe, was a naval o£Scer of excellent reputation and solid ability, who obtcined his captaincy at the early age of twenty-nine. He commanded a man-of-war at the siege of Quebec ; and, shortly after Wolfe had won his last victory, was killed during an action with the enemy. He left two sons behind him, one of whom was accidentally drowned ; the other, the future Governor of Upper Canada, received a good education, and finally completed it as a student of Mereton College, Oxford. While still in his nineteenth year he entered the army as an ensign in the 35th regiment of the line, then serving in North America, and arrived in Boiston as the memorable battle of Bunker 'Hill was in progress. He was an ardent soldier, loved military knowledge for its ovm sake, and his zeal for his profession soon led to the favourable notice of his com- manding officer, who appointed him to fill the responsible position of adjutant. Some time afterwards he purchased a captaincy in the 40th regiment, led his company gallanily at the battle of Brandywine, and was severely wounded. On his recovery his desire to distinguish himself induced him to seek some independent command. In 1777 his wishes, in this direction, were at length gratified by his appointment to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the Queen's Rangers, a mounted infantry partisan corps, recruited principally in New York and its neighbourhood. It became great- ly distinguished under Simcoe's command ; and, despite occasional lapses from strict military virtue, rendered important services to the British cause until its final surrender at York Town with * Promoted to Major-Cktneral in 1794. . .Al ■ i? ?'W^ . ■-•.%•, 1, 294 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. I .... ■<'• ', *■* [1791. Tho Revolu- recompense Lord Cornwallis's army, to which is was attached tionary War now speedily came to an end ; and as a for their gallant services., the officers of the Queen's Rangers were allowed to retain their provincial rank in the regular army, and retired upon half pay. Shattered in health, and shattered some- what, also, in fortune, for he had largely used his private means for the benefit of the Queen's Rangers and the Crown, Simcoe returned to England to be graciously received by his sovereign, in considera- tion of his meritorious services. He shortly afterwards married an estimable woman ; and for a time settled down contentedly into the life of an English country gentleman. In 1790 he entered Parliament as the member for a Cornwall borough, and cordially supported Pitt's measure giving a constitution to the two Canadas. In the following year he accepted the lieutenant governor- 1791. ship of the Upper Province, resigned his seat in the Commons, and, in the fall, sailed for Quebec, where he pass- ed the winter. He was accompanied by William Osgoode, a man of literary tastes and solid legal attainments, although by no means a brilliant pleader, who had been appointed as his chief justice, and who, some three years afterwards, was translated to Lower Canada, where a wider field of usefulness and emolument lay open to him. Several of the first statutes of Upper Canada bear the impress of his wisdom and legal learning ; and as a fitting memorial of their first Chief Justice its people have founded " Osgoode Hall," at Toronto, containing all the superior law courts of the Province ; while a township and a village also bear his name. When Lieutenant Governor Simcoe arrived in Upper Canada, in July 1792, beyond a small village at Kingston and another 1792. at Newark, or Niagara, and ah occasional cluster of log cabins at wide intervals, there was nothing in the Province entitled to the name of town. Newark being the most central, and at the same time the most populous, of these villages, he determin- ed should be his capital, at least for the present, and until he had more fully considered the matter. And here, accordingly, he fixed his residence in a small wooden house formerly occupied by commissariat officials of the lake transport department ; a most unsuitable residence for his family and himself, but the only available one. Here, three years afterwards, he was found 1795. still domiciled by the French travellers, the Duke de la Rochefoucault and his two companions, all of whom were most hospitably entertained by Simcoe, for eighteen days, while waiting for Dorchester's permission to visit Quebec, which was ultimately curtly refused. The Duke gossips pleasantly, in the story of his travels, about Simcoe and his household ; about his plans for settling the country, and his likings and dislikings ; and draws a picture of those primitive times in the life of the existing great and populous Province of Ontario, which possibly some of our readers may wish to contemplate for a brief space. Chief Justice Osgoode had departed to assume his duties in the other Province, * •; 1795.] SIMCOE'S GOVERNMENT. 295 !'h() Revolu- and the Legislative Council was thus deprived of its speaker. — Simcoe had put off, f ron , time to time, the meeting of Parliament, in the hope that a new chief justice would be sent him from Eng- land. But Osgoode's successor not making his appearance, and the expiration of the one year's legal sessional interval being close at hand, the Legislature had to be at last conven^id. It was early harvest time, labour was scarce and very dear, for a dollar in those days was the equivalent in value to double that amount now, and the majority of the members were more anxious to assist in saving their crops than to legislate for their country. Only two legisla- tive councillors out of seven made their appearance, and five assembly men out of sixteen. Although this number did not sup- ply the necessary quorum, Simcoe opened the session, in the hope that ships from Detroit and Kingston would shortly bring sufficient members for the transaction of business. Fifty soldiers, from the fort across the river, formed Simcoe's guard of honour • and with his hat on, in royal fashion, and richly drsssed in sil'. velvet, he entered the shabby little hall where* Parliament assembled and laws were made, attended by his adjutant and two secretaries. — One of the pair of legislative councillors present had been ap- pointed speaker, and now summoned the Commons of Upper Canada, in the persons of its five representatives, to attend at the bar of the House, to hear his Excellency's opening speech. It was duly framed after the royal model ; touched gingerly on recent political events in Europe ; enlarged on the favourable treaty just concluded with the United States ; and finally dealt with the peculiar affairs of the Province. " In private life," gossips the Duke, " Governor Simcoe is simple, plain and obliging. His guard consists of four soldiers, who every morning come from the fort and return thither in the evening. — He lives in a noble and hospitable manner. He discourses with much good sense on all subjects, for he is remarkably well read and informed ; but his favourite topics are his projects of settlement, and possible war with the United States, which he dislikes most intensely, and frequently boasts how he harried their borders with his Queen's Rangers during the struggle for independence, and what he would do along the Genesee Valley, with five thousand Indians at his back, should there be a fresh outbreak of hostilities." This fanatical hatred of America Rochefoucault declares to be the only dark spot in Simcoe's character. And, then, the voluble Frenchman lifts up the curtain from his host's domestic life, so unlike the domestic life of the gay and volatile France he still loved so well, although banished and proscribed by Robespierre, and his estates confiscated, and sketches a charming picture of a pure and holy English home, transplanted amid the forests of Canada. " Mrs. Simcoe" he says, " is a lady of thirty-six years of age. She is bash- ful and speaks little ; but is a woman of sense, handsome and amiable, and fulfils all the duties of a mother and a wife with the most scrupulous exactness. The performance of the latter she * . ' * ■ ;r:;- ,- ."• ': •■■^ 296 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1795. |i ■. . ' ■«••. - 1' • *t t • • « W ! It . carries so far as to act the part of a private secretary to her husband. Her talent for drawing, the practice of which she con- fines to maps and plans, enables her to be extremely useful to the Governor." " The scarcity of men servants," continues the Duke, ** is greater here than even in the United States. Those who come here from England soon settle upon farms or emigrate into the Union ; and owing to a recent statute negroes cannot be brought into the coun- try to supply their place. All persons belonging to the army use soldiers for servants. Every officer is allowed one private to wait on him, to whom he pays a shilling a week. The Governor, who is also colonel of the regiment of Queen's Rangers, stationed in the Province, is attended in his house and at dinner by privates of his regiment, who also take care of his horses. Among other good things his table is abundantly supplied with the finest fish, with which the lake and rivers literally swarm. With a net four feet wide and one hundred ^feet long, drawn three times, Ontario yielded up five hundred fish, among which were some thirty sturgeon." " Upper Canada pays no taxes except a small duty on wine. A tax of twelve dollars is imposed on tavern licenses. The total annual revenue amounts to $4,380, out of which are paid the salaries of the st)eaker of the Assembly and the secretaries. The quarter sessions are held in every district. The three superior jiiJges hold four sessions annually in the town in which the Governor resides, and go on circuit once a year. The district judges sit at shorter intervals to try small causes, and the justices of the peace exercise the same jurisdiction as in England." Before Simcoe entered upon his duties lands had been granted in the most lavish manner. Colonels of regiments, who had served in the Revolutionary War, were entitled to five thousand acres, and several of them had drawn their allotments in the Niagara District. Among these was Butler, formerly of Wilkesbarre in Pennsylvania, the commander of " Butler's Rangers," who led the massacre of Wyoming. He now lived at Newark in the enjoyment of a crown pension of £200 sterling a year, an Indian agency worth £500 more, and the privilege of taking supplies for his own use from the government stores. But, in accordance with instructions from the Home Governm'^nt, land was to be granted with more care for the future. One of Simcoe's first public acts, and while still at Quebec, was to issue a proclamation, dated the 7th February, 1792, pre- scribing the conditions under which land gran*r were in future to be made in Upper Canada. One-seventh of each township was to be first set apart as a Clergy Reserve, and another seventh for the Crown, and the remaining five-sevenths were to be granted to actual settlers in lots of not more than two hundred acres each. Larger grants, not to exceed a thousand acre.'>, could only be made on special application to the Executive Coun<'il. Settlers had first to take the oath of allegiance, and to establish the fact that they were ft . 1796.] SIMCOE'S GOVERNMENT. 297 in a position to work their farms. The Executive, if it then deemed it advisable, issued its warrant to the ^i^vemment surveyor, to make the necessary allotment. This warrant was returnable with- in six months, with the surveyor's certificate of the number of the plot attached thereto, when the patent was issued on the payment of a small authorised fee. Mines, minerals, and timber tit for building vessels for the royal navy, were reserved to the Crown. — But, to make matters still easier for settlers, Simcoe afterwards ordered that justices of the peace, who were even more numerous ihen in proportion to the population than they are now, could allot land to applicants who took the oath of allegiance before them, and satisfied them of their loyalty and good conduct. Such were the easy and simple conditions on which farms were granted to settlers, other than XJ. E. Loyalists, in the early days of the Province of Upper Canada. We have detailed them as fully as our limits permit, as they form the key to subsequent occurrences of importance. Fortunately for the Province there were no Indian titles to extinguish. The tomahawk of the Iroquois had inexorably swept them away many years before. We have already seen that Upper Canada, or Ontario as it is now termed, remained a mere wilderness, with the exception of a few trifling settlements, till the termination of the American War of Independence. From that period to its se{iftration from Lower Canada, it continued a portion of the Province of 1791. Quebec, and was under the immediate control of its govern- ment. Its population had in the meantime slowly increased, and when erected into a separate Province, with a legislature modelled on the same principle as that of its sister government, Upper Canada contained about twenty thousand souls. These were scattered along the St. Lawrence from Lake St. Francis upwards to Kingston, thence around the Bay of Quinte ; along the Niagara frontier, at Amherstburg, in the old French settlement on the Thames, and in the Irrquois' settlement at Grand River.* The backwoodsman, whose ' nes are cast in the remote inland settlements of the present day, i. r removed from churches, destitute * The Mohawk tribe, almost to a man, quit their beautiful valley and retired to Canada with the loyalists, under the leadership of their celebrated chief, Joseph Brant, on whom Cempbell conferred an unenviable, though it would seem unjust, inunortalit^ in his " Gertrw'* cf Wyoming." Stone asserts, in his Life of Brant, tha' he was not even present at the massacre of Wyoming, and with every appe^t'ance of truth. Brant was a Christian, and a member of the Church of England. In 1786 he built a church on the Grand River, for which he collected funds during a visit to England, and there he placed the firit " church-going bell " that ever tolled in Upper Canada. Shortly before his death he built a commodious dwelling-house, two stories high, for himself near Burlington Bay. Here he died on the 24th of November 1807, at the age of sixty-five years, after a painful illness borne with Christian patience and resignation. He was succeeded in the chieftainship of the Mohawks by his fourth son, John. — See Stone^g Life of Brcmt, vol. li. pp. 494-500. :■ ( < 298 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1791. '. *.» of ministers of the gospel and medical men, without schools or roads, or the many conveniences that make life desirable, can alone appreciate, or even understand, the numerous difficulties and hard- ships that beset the settler among the ague-swamps of Western Canada. The clothes on his back, with a rifle or old musket and a well-tempered axe, were not infrequently the full extent of his worldly possessions. Thus lightly equipped he took possession of his two hundred acres of closely-timbered forest-land, and com- menced operations. The welkin rings again with his vigorous strokes, as huge tree after tree is assailed and tumbled to the earth ; and the sun presently shines in upon the little clearing. The best of the logs are partially squared, and serve to build a shanty ; the remainder are given t^o the flames. Now the rich mould, the accumulation of centuries of decayed vegetation, is gathered into lit le hillocks, into which potatoes are dibbled. Indian corn is planted in another direction, and perhaps a little wheat. If married, the lonely couple struggle on in their forest oasis, like the solitary traveller over the sands of Sahara, or a boat adrift in the Atlantic. The nearest neighbour lives miles off, and when sickness comes they have to travel far through the forest to claim human aid and sympathy. But fortunately our nature, witli elastic temperament, adapts itself to circumstances. By-and-by the potatoes peep up^ and the corn-blades modestly show themselves around the charred maple stumps and girdled pines, and the prospect of sufficiency of food gives consolation to the little house- hold. As winter approaches a deer or other large game, now and then, adds to the comforts of the solitary people. Such was tlie life of the great majority of the first settlers in Western Canada. Within the brief space of a single century how marvellous has been the change. The preliminary arrangements having been completed the Lieutenant Governor opened the first Parliament of Upper 1792. Canada on the 17th of September. The Lower House was composed of sixteen members, the Upper House of seven, the minimum number in both cases permitted by the constitution. The majority of the Assembly was composed of plain farmers or country shop-keepers. Yet the acts of the first session of the first Parliament of Upper Canada displayed great common sense, and an intimate acquaintance with the necessities of the country. They were eight in number. One introduced the English civil law ; another established trial by jury ; a third provided for the easier recovery of small debts. Thei'e was an act to regulate the toll to be taken in mills ; from which we may gather that millers, in those days, were as much disposed to take more than their share as at a later period. They were now restricted to one-twelfth as their proportion for grinding and bolting. Another act made provision for building a gaol and court-house in each of the four districts, into which the Province had been divided. These comprised the Eastern, or Johnstown district ; the Middle or Kingston district ; •r-k [1791. thout schools or irable, can alone sulties and hard- imps of Western 1(1 musket and a ill extent of his X)k possession of t-land, and com- ith his vigorous tumbled to the ! little clearing. serve to build a Now the rich id vegetation, is es are dibbled. I perhaps a little n in their forest ahara, or a bout es miles off, and ugh the forest to our nature, with By-and-by the jhow themselves pines, and the the little house- 1792.] SIMCOE'S GOVERNMENT. 299 game, now and Such was the ''estem Canada, vellous has been completed the iment of Upper ower House was louse of seven, he constitution. lain farmers or ssion of the first on sense, and an country. They ;lish civil law ; I for the easier ulate the toll to that millers, in m their share as -twelfth as their made provision le four districts, ie comprised tlie ngston district ; the Home, or Niagara district ; and the Weste ^ o" Detroit district. These districts were sub-divided into nineteji. . 3s. Even in these rude times when men flung down c.ie axe, left the plough to repose, or ceased to swing the scythe in order to mature laws, in what was little better than a log barn, at Niagara, there was more of the spirit of real progress in Upper than in Lower Canada. It took the courtly seigniors of the latter seven months, at their urst .session of Parliament, to mature eight bills ; the home-spun legislators of Upper Canada did precisely the same amount of work in five weeks. They were evidently men after Lieutenant Governor Simcoe's own heart, to judge from the speech with which he closed the session on the 15th of October.* It was a matter of surprise to Rochefoucault that Simcoe who still retained the command of a regiment, held the staff rank of major general, and owned extensive estates in England, f should bury himself, and his charming wife and young family, in the Canadian wilderness, " among bears and savages." Upper Canada was a new country, or rather a country yet to be formed, and he might be ambitious to direct its primitive fortunes for the benefit of his native land. His enlightened and liberal policy lead to the supposition that he was actuated by patriotic motives in the main, and a desire to provide a new and better home for the poor dwellers in the congested discricts of his own country Possibly these motives were not unmixed with his passion for military glory, which, in the event of a new war between Britain and its revolted colonies, his position as commander-in-chief of a Province would enable him to gratify. | And then, again, having voted for Pitt's * " It is with very great satisfaction, said Simcoe, that I have considered the acts which you have found it expedient to frame, and to which, in con- sequence of the power delegated to me, I have this day given my assent, that they shall become laws of Upper Canada. " As the division which his Majesty, in his wisdom, thought proper to make of the late Province of Quebec obviated all inconveniences, and laid the foundation for an establishment of the English laws in this Province, it is natural to presume that j'ou would seize the first opportunity to impart that benefit to your fellow-subjects ; and by an act to establish trial by ju'y, and by that, which makes the English law the rule of decision, in all majtjrs of controversy, relative to property and civil rights, you have fully justiiiedthe public expectation. Your other acts seem calculated to promote the general welfare and convenience of the Province. "I cannot dismiss you without earnestly desiring you to promote, by precept and example, among your respective counties, the regular habits of piety and morality, the surest foundations of al! private and public felicity ; and at this juncture, I particularly recommend to you to explain, that this Province is singularly blest, not with a mutilated comtitution, but with a con- stitution which has stood the test of experience, and is the veil/ image ami transcript of that of Great Britain ; * by which she has long established and secured to her subjects as much freedom and happiness as is possible to be eujoyed under the subordination, necessary to civilized society." t Rochefoucault's Travels, 1795. X Gourlay, vol. ii. p. 144. * In making this statement Simcoe evidently furgot the irresponsible executive of Canada. « J . » iSOO THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1793. Bill giving a constitution to the Canadas, he may have been desirous of assisting in practically carrying out the measure he ha^ advocated. But whatever may have been Simcoe's motives for accepting his position of Lieutenant Governor, he filled it in such an honest und worthy manner as to entitle him to the perpetual gratitude of the Canadian people. He was one of that eminent band of proconsuls, greater than the Roman Empire produced in her best days, which Britain hfts sent out, during the last and present centuries, to direct the affairs of its provinces in every part of the world. It may be indeed partly true that he lacked experience in the art of governing, that his speech was not always as prudent as it ought to have been for one in his position, and that his plans at times w6re on too large a scale to be practicable. But these were slight blemishes on his public escutcheon ; and did not seriously impair the value of his designs, which were commen- surate with the vastness of the Province he came to govern, and for the great subsequent prosperity and progress of which he laid the solid and secure foundation. When Simcoe first came to Canada he supposed that the Hume Government would retain possession of the fort on the American side of the Niagara River, * which was still strongly garrisoned by British troops. When he found it was to be surrendered, 1793. he abandoned the design of making Newark his capital, as it would be too near the frontier. " The chief town of a province must not be placed under the guns of an enemy's fort,' said Simcoe, and he accordingly turned his attention to procuring a more suitable site for the metropolis of Upper Canada. In the summer he coasted along the upper shore of Lake Ontario ; took a look into Welland River and Twenty-mile Creek ; surveyed Burlington Bay ; and finally halted near the ruins of the old French fort, Toronto, so called after the Italian engineer Tarento, who originally constructed it, f where the inmates of a solitary wigwam | represented the Huron nation on their ancient hunting- ground. Here a neck of land stretching boldly out into the lake formed a secure harbour for shipping. Lake Ontario rolled thirty- six miles of its waters between it and the American shore, thus lessening the dangers of invasion ; and the vast forests of beech and maple, and other hard woods of Canada, that stretched away along the old French track towards Lake Simcoe, showed the land in the interior to be fertile. The geographical situation of Toronto was excellent. To the east, and south, and west, the broad lake gave easy access. To the north, thirty miles gained the Holland River, then navigable for its short intervening distance to the * During Simcoe's government the construction of Fort George on the Britiah side of the river was commenced nearly opposite to Fort Niagara. Another fort was soon after commenced at Amherstburg, to which the garrison trom Detroit was withdrawn. t On the early French maps it is called Pretq'iU de Taretito. + Bouohette's Topography, p. 607. feiHy I 1794. J SIMCOE'S GOVERNMENT. 301 benatiful lake in^" which it falls. From Lake Simcoe it was eaay to penetrate tt) LAkb Huron, on the one hand, and to the chain of small lakes lying towards the Upper Ottawa, on the other. All those considerations no doubt presented themselves to the mind of Simcoe, whose industry had already made him 1794. extensively acquainted with the geographical and physical resources of the country ; and he determined that at Toronto should be his capital city« The result has amply justified his I'iioice. In a locality where a century ago the beaver gambolled in solitary streams, rarely visited by human footsteps, and where fever and ague reigned supreme, has arisen one of the most beauti- ful citieii of the American continent, with a population of nearly two hundred thousand souls. In 1795 the infant 1795. city was described by Rochefoucault, as containing twelve houses, besides the barracks in which Simcoe's regiment was quartered. The inhabitants he stigmatised as not possessing the fairest character. The liberality with which land was granted to actual settlers, quickly induced many persons to emigrate from the United States to Upper Canp.da. Its population soon rose to thirty thousand souls, and Simcoe now began to dread that the country would be chiefly settled by Americans ; who, despite their oath of allegiance, might not always make the most loyal subjects. They were hard- working peaceable citizens, nevertheless, and his desire to see the country prosper would not allow him to hinder their settlement with- in his government. Here was a new difficulty. If Toronto, or York,* as he named it, should be chiefly settled by Americans, he might just as well make Newark his capital. He now conceived the idea of establishing the metropolis of Upper Canada on a river, named De La Trenche in old French maps, but which he re-christened by the name of Thames, and on which his London of the New World was to arise. A belt of loyal settlers extending along the coast of Lake Erie was to give additional security to the future city, as regarded internal disaffection, and to form an efficient militia in time of war. Siincoe's plans, however, were thwarted in a direction he did not anticipate. In civil matters he was supreme in his Province, and with regard to them communicated directly with the British Ministry. But Upper Canada had little public revenue of its own ; the Governor-General, Lord Dorchester, held the imperial purse- strings ; was, moreover, commander-in-chief of British North America, and had therefore the disposition of troops and vessels of war. He directed that Kingston should be the principal naval and military station of Lake Ontario ; such it accordingly became, and such it remains to the present time. Forty-three years afterwards, Sir John Colborne carried out, in part, Simcoe's plans, by erecting * The Americans coatemptuously called it Littla York to distingaish it the better from their owa New YorL Ita dii-ty clay atrtseta caused it to be dubbed Muddy Little York. '; ■ « •; »', *■'■'., ' '. ^^ 302 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1793. barracks on the spot he had chosen for his metropolis. Houses rapidly sprung up in their neighbourhood ; and the London of Canada has already expanded into a flourishing city of thirty thousand inhabitants, ti e centre of an extensive system of railroads, and the capital of the most foiuie district in the wide Province of Ontario. The second session of theLegislaturecommenced at Niagara on the 31st of May, and thirteen useful bills were passed. One of 1793. these provided for the payment of members at the rate of two dollars per day ; a very moderate allowance for legislators at a time when ordinary farm-labourers received half the sum for eleven hours' work. But by far the most important law passed at this session was orift levelled against slavery, which, although opposed to the spirit of vhe common law of England, had nevertheless been permitted to exist in the British colonies by an act of the Imperial Parliament. This act licensed the importation of slaves into the Province of Quebec, and under its authority a few negroes had been already introduced into Upper Canada. But slavery was fully as repugnant to its rustic legislator as it was to the Magna Charta of King John, and he now declared that no more slaves were to be imported into the Province under cerfain pains and penalties, and that even voluntary contracts for personal service were to be limited to rine years. But he did not think even this a sufficient step forward in the cause of human freedom. While the act con- firmed the property of masters in slaves, imported under authorised licenses, provision was made tbil their children, born after it came into force, should be manumitted at the age of twe.ity-five yeai-s. Thus, tive years before slavery was abolished in Lower Canada, by the decision of Chief-Justice Monk, at Montreal, the legislators of Upper Canada had struck a blow fatal to its existence, and in the lapse of a few years every semblance of it had disappeared from the Province.* * As we have already noted, on page 95, slavery was legally established, in 1705, in the Province of Quebec, by Louis XIV. , during the second gov- ernment of the Count de Frontenac. In 1701) an ordinance was issued, by the inteiuiant Raudot, reciting the king's decreo as to slavery, and provid- ing that negro and Pawnee Indian slaves shouhl belong to their owners in full «)roprietor8hii). The 47th article of the' capitulation of Canadr*, in 17()0, provided that the property in slaves still remain good. The act of 5 George IT. (1732) legalised slavery in the colonies of Great Britain, and enacted that •ilttves might be sold for debt like any other chattel property. That Act wns partially repealed in 1797, so far as the oompulsory sale of slaves was cnn- carned. Shortly after the passage of this last act. Lord Mansfield decidoil that negro slaves oould not be legally held in England ; and in the following year (1798) Chief .Fustica Sir James Monk roleasod. at Montreal, a slave brought before him on a writ of hahem corpus ; and stated that in liia opinion slavery no longer existed in the Province. Other authorities, how- ever, held that slavery legally exiatad in Quebec until 1833, when the imperial act removed it ti'oin all the colonies of the empire. When the Upper Canada statute, as a');ive recited, was passed, there were about 300 neqro slaves and a few Pawuees in the i'rovincu, mostly owned about Niagara and in the western district, Chief Justice Osgoode, whose active duties »' I 1795.] SIMCOE'S GOVERNMENT. 303 t • J. bated tha^ in hia The Assembly of Upper Canada, in those days, was elected every four years, just as it is now, and the tirst House according- ly terminated with the session of 1795, held at Niagara. 1795. The laws were all of a useful anfl eminently practical character, and reflected considerable credit on their framers. Beyond the information to be gleaned from the Statute Book and the scant public records, little is known of the social condition of Upper Canada at this period, although time stood on the threshold of the present century. The public press of the Province was limited to a demy sheet, issued as a government Gazette at Niagara, not the fourth part of the expense of which was repaid by its circulation, averaging from tifty to one hundred and fifty copies. It was published weekly, and contained short abstracts from the New York and Albany papers, as well as from the Quebec Gazette, of news usually a month old. The little press on which it was thrown off served also to print the acts of the Legislature, and the proclamations and circulars issued by the Lieutenant Governor, which gave it the greatest share of employment. It has been already seen that Simcoe was an out-spoken soldier, and made no secret of his dislike to the American people ; a feel- ing he was not at all careful to conceal even from his Indian allies. This encouragement led the latter to give the American govern- ment no small trouble, and the final result was that serious complaints of his conduct were made to the British minister at Washington, and duly forwarded to England. Tltese complaints commenced on the 2f»th of July, 1792, is supposed to have framed the manumitting bill. When proroguing the Legislature Simcoe expressed his satisfaction at the passage of this act, and tho relief hn experienced at being no longer liable to sign uermits for the importation of -ilavcs into the ' of settlers. Simcoe had planned a great highway leading through the Province, which hecalledDundas Street, and gave grants of land along its course to settlers, on condition that they completed thu road in front of their lots. Several settle- ments were accordingly made, but as the project was now abandond the links of the road were not completed, and the disgusted back- woodsmen, isolated from their neighbours, were left to battle with the surrounding wilderness as best they could. Lands which Simcoe designed should be given to actual settlers, were seized upon, by favourites of men in power, for purposes of speculation. In these and various other ways, great injury was inflicted upon the farming community, whose properties were insulated by forest tracts, which shut them cut from that mutual intercourse and help so necessary in a new country,* and therefore rendered much less valuable than they should have been. Wild lands paid no taxes in those days, nor for several years afterwards. * Gourlay, vol ii. p, 310. [1796. 1797.] UPPER CANADA UNDER RUSSELL. S05 » s le fact that Dorchester to Simcoe's s appointed did much, British rule, and English, ral. In 1806 ommander-in- that country rhere, and he igal. On the 1 to return to [orbay, at the i not his high «rity. Lake ers, he made a I as a county a, than several the Executive m he exercised med to violate ins had agreed rants to them 1, and twelve Iternative, but ;laim the bad leck to further 1 continued to anned a great Dundas Street, on condition Several settle- now abandond isgusted back- to battle with Lands which rs, were seized )eculation. In cted upon the ,ted by forest >urse and help red much less id no taxes in TaE GOVERNMENT OF THE HON. PETER RUSSELL. On Simcoe's departure the Hon. Peter Russell, the senior mem- ber of the Executive Council, assumed temporary charge of the administration. Very little is known about this gentleman. He had been sent out to Oanada in 1 792 as inspector general, and Simcoe at once appointed him a member of both the Legislative and Executive Councils. He had not very long administered the gov- ernment before stories began to circulate to his prejudice ; and he was accused of illegally making graubs of land to himself and to his relatives, and to particular friends as well. Searches in the registry offices have fully confirmed these accusations.* His successor in the government, in a letter to a friend, designated him as an avaricious man, who would make land grants on the slightest pre- text.! But while industriously advancing the personal fortunes of himself and his friends, Russell appears to have lived a quiet and decorous life, and made few personal enemies. Even Gourlay has not a word to say to his disparagement. But his avarice, and the manner in which ho permitted land monopolies to arise, seriously interfered with the settlement of the Province, and laid the founda- tion of many evils, and of much future dissatisfaction and agitation. This year Newark ceased to be the capital of Upper Canada. The government offices were removed to Toronto, where the second Parliament of the Province assembled, on the 1st of June, to hold its second session, in which seventeen acts were 1797. passed. Among these was an act for the better securing the Province against the king's enemies. It prohibited thts residence therein of subjects of powers at war with Great Brituin, unless under special license from the Lieutenant Governor. The Home Government was too closely occupied, during the en- suing two years, in endeavours to check the rising power of Napoleon, so hostile to British interests, and in suppressing the Irish Rebellion of '98, to be able to turn its attention to Canadian affairs. Nor was much attention required in this direction. Peace and good order reigned supreme from the seaboard to Lake Huron — from one end of the land to the other — and Russell was, accord- ingly, left undisturbed at the head of the administration. On the 5th of Jane he again opened the Legislature at Toronto, 1798. wlien seven acts were passed and duly assented to. On the 12th of June, in the following year, he performed a annilar duty, when after a short session five bills, of no great importance, became law. The Province did not now require much legis- 1799. tion. The measures already passed had been mainly of a practical and useful character. Commerce and trade, the legal and medical professions, marriage and dower rights, and various social * Dent's story of the Rebellion, vol. i. p. 47. t Ruasell never married anii died at Toronto a rich man . ■:v '■ ;j! • . ' •-•. 306 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1799. f-Vvo^*;'' '. v and municipal matters otherwise, had all been wisely and well dealt with, and a solid foundation of law and order laid for the future. But while Canada now restfully reposed, and enjoyed all the prosperity it could reasonably hope for, the mother-land was sorely menaced with peril. The ambition to rule as a king, and not as a strictly constitutional sovereign ; to make the Parliament of that rotten borough period subservient to his will ; and to be in fact his own prime minister, had led George III. into numerous fatal errors that brought repeated disaster to his country. The ministry which bore the name of Lord North had been a mere screen for the personal administration of the king, and for ten long years, up to 1782, he had wielded a personal power and .authority that, fortunately for the empire, neither he nor his suc- cessors could ever wield again. His meddling and his muddling had mainly produced the War of Independence, the consequent loss of the American colonies, and the vast increase in the national debt, which in 1796 stood at nearly two thousand millions of dol- lars. To his narrow and short-sighted policy was chiefly due the Quebec Bill, so distasteful to English speaking people generally on this continent, and the persistence of Parliament in its impolitic measures towards the American colonies. And in his hostile bitterness he did not hesitate to stigmatise the noble Chatham, when he stood up manfully for the rights of these colonies, as the *' trumpet of sedition." Had there been no War of Independence there could have been no French Revolution, at least after the fashion in which it came, and no Bonaparte to place the British Empire in the perilous position in which it stood towards the close of the last century, and in the earlier years of the present one. The supposed weakness caused by the loss of her trans- Atlantic domin- ion, and its own continental successes, emboldened the French Republic to declare war against England, despite the strenuous exertions of the younger Pitt to preserve peace, and Bonaparte made the policy of the Republic towards England his own. In 1 795 his cannon scattered the National GUard before the Tuilleries, and saved the government of the Directory. In the following year, by a single brilliant campaign in Italy, he broke the power of Austria and her allies ; and France became supreme on the European Continent. In 1797 Spain, under French pressure, declared war against England, Holland had already deserted her alliance, and she stood almost alone among the powers of Europe. Three of its prncipal navies now threatened her supremacy on the ocean, made an invasion of Ireland possible, and in the month of December the able French general Hoche was ready to put to sea with a fleet of more than forty sail, and an army of 25,000 men. It was indeed a period of gloom and great distress for the British nation ; and that distress was presently increased by the Bank of England sus- pending cash payments. In the superiority of her navy lay now the great hope of Britain ; and that superiority was dangerously •*■' * 1799.J PERIL OP THE MOTHER COUNTRY. 307 » J. imperilled, at this crisis, by the demands of her seamen for increas- ed wages, and the mutiny at the Nore. That mutiny was suppressed not a moment too soon. But the winds and the waves fought against Hoche's expedition, as they had fought against the Spanish Armada two hundred and ten years before. His fleet was parted by a fierce gale, shortly after it had put to sea, and scattered in every direction. Seventeen ships reached Bantry Bay, in the south of Irelan.l, but Hoche was not on board ; and so, despite the en- treaties of the soldiers to be permitted to land, they sailed back again to Brest. Another division of the floGC reached the mouth of the Shannon, to be scattered by a new storm, and also driven home ; while twelve vessels were wrecked or captured, and Ireland was saved. The victories of Nelson, of Jervis and Duncan, uestroyed, in succession, the hostile fleets of Spain, of Holland, and of France, restored the supremacy of the seas to Britain, relieved the impend- ing gloom, and taught the nation to realise more fully that the darkest hour is ever before day. In Ireland the progress of the War of Independence had evoked the most profound sympathy. The threat in 1779, of a trench in- vasion, and the want of any regular troops to oppose it, compelled the Home Government to call on Ireland to provide for its own defence. Forty thousand Protestant volunteers, commanded by Protestant officers, responded to the call. Grattan and Flood, in the Irish House of Commons, had demanded the repeal of PoyninPf's Act, which took all power of initiating legislation from the Irish Parliament, and the constituting the Irish House of Lords a final court of appeal. The Volunteers supported this demand, as well as Roman Catholic Emancipation. The king and his ministers had to give way on all but Emancipation, and the Irish Parliament be- came virtually independent, and Ireland a separate nation, but under one crowned head with England. But the first favourable opportunity was seized upon to peaceably disband the dangerous Volunteer army, and regular troops and yeomanry corps took its place. The success of the French Revolution speedily recoiled upon Ireland, where the refusal of Emancipation, and the disabili- ties under which the Presbyterians of Ulster still laboured, led to much soreness and dissatisfaction. The country was speedily honey- combed with secret societies, foremost among which stood the United Irishmen, formed ostensibly, at Belfast, by Wolfe Tone and others, to bring about measures of Parliamentary reform, but with the real purpose of separating Ireland from the British Empire, and founding a republic, a project to which the French Directory promised substantial support. As 1 798 approached every prepara- tion had been made for an armed rising, but the government be- came aware of the dangerous plot, and nipped it in the bud by the arrest bf Lord Edward Fitzgerald and other leaders. The partial rising which followed was aimless and unsuccessful. At the North, in Antrim and Down, it was but slightly felt, but in the opposite direction, within the limits of the old English Pale, in the counties {•f '.■.»• '. ^'^ ti ■^ .; . V ^ , 308 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1798. of Wicklow find Wexford, it burst out with fury, assumed the terrible form of a religious struggle, and led to the ^ruel massacre of numbers of the Protestant population. The horrors of Wexford Bridge, Vinegar Hill and ScuUabogue Barn, eflfectually stayed the hands of the Presbyterian insurgents of the North ; and the South- em insurgents were left to continue the hopeless struggle unaided by their Protestant friends. Towards the close of the summer help came to them from France, in a small force of nine hundred men, under General Humbert, which landed at Killala Bay, on the west coast, and at once moved inland on Castlebar. This force was captured in the course of a month by Lord Cornwallis. The Irish Rebellion paved the way for a speedy parliamentary union with England. The bad blood it engendered, between old neighbours and former friends, eventually led, also, to an extensive Prottstant emigration from the south-east of Ireland to Upper Canada ; where whole townships, and even counties, were largely settled by Wexford and Wicklow people, whose descendants to this day retain many bitter feelings as regQ.rds the terrible struggle of " '98." The supremacy of Britain at sea taught Bonaparte the hopeless- ness of naval operations against her coasts, and he now conceived the idea of attacking her empire in India, and of carrying out the old idea of French conquest there. When the empire of the Moguls was crumbling in detail, and feudatory princes, or mere adven- turers, were creating independent kingdoms for themselves, the genius of Hyder Ali had built up a powerful Mahommedan state in the Carnatic, which seriously threatened the British at Madras, and at one time brought them to the verge of ruin. On his death he was succeeded in the sultanship of Mysore by his son Tippoo, who was even still more hostile, but who was soon taught, by the victories of Lord Cornwallis, that he was no match for the British. Tippoo fruitlessly sought assistance from the Nizam and the AfFghans, and he next solicited help from the French to drive the English from the Carnatic. That help was promised in 1797, and Bonaparte fixed upon the Mysore as the basis of operations against the British empire in Hindostan. But the sea was now virtually closed against the French fleets, and the only road open for the attack was by way of Egypt and the Red Sea. Prepara- .tions for an expedition were made with the most profound secrecy, and in May, 1798, Bonaparte sailed for Egypt with a powerful fleet, and an army of 30,000 veterans who had served under him in Italy. Subduing Malta on his way, he landed near Alexandria at the close of June, a,nd an easy conqiiest of Egypt followed. But all his plans were dashed to pieces by the destruction of his fleet in Aboukir Bay by Nelson. Warned by the intrigues of Tippoo, Lord Wellesley assumed the offensive. A British army speedily invaded Mysore, wh6n the sultan's capital w«,s stormed and himseilf slain. Bonaparte was defeated, before Acre, by a British and Turkish force under Sir Sydney Smith. He now hurriedly returnctd to France ; and the remains of his army, l^ft behind, [1798. assumed the 1 massacre of J of Wexford ly stayed the id the South- ggle unaided summer help lundred men, , on the west his force was 3. The Irish y unior>. with d neighbours 7e ProtbStant per Canada ; ely settled by J to this day ^gle of " '98." the hopeless- low conceived Tying out the of the Moguls mere adven- smselves, the kedan state in 1 at Madras, On his death 3 son Tippoo, ,ught, by the ,tch for the le Nizam and ench to drive sed in 1797, of operations sea was now ily road open )a. Prepara- ound secrecy, h a powerful ed under hiin r Alexandria ypt followed, ruction of his intrigues of Iritish army stormed and by a British ow hurriedly left behind, ISOo! UPPER CANADA UNDER HTJNTER/l 309 were finally defeated l:>y Sir Ralph Abercrombie. These successes produced a period of comparative calm in Europe, which enabled the Home Government to at length turn its attention to the distant dependency of Upper Caaada ; and to send out a successor to Simcoe, in the person of Major General Peter Hunter, who was appointed Lieiutenant Governor of the Province, and commander- in-chief of British North America. THE GOVERNMENT OP MAJOR GENERAL HUNTfi^. Beyond the fact that he w;as born in 1746, aiid !belohged to a clever Scotch fapaily ; and that his brothers, William and John, were celebrated physicians and medical authors, very little is known about Hunter. A soldier by profession, he rose from small beginnings to the rank of lieutenj,nt general, to which he attained in 1803. Sis reign in Upper Canada was a mild and colorless one. He devoted much of his time to his military duties, and does not appear to have troubled himself overmuch about civil matters. Although fully sensible that public lands had been made away with improperly, it does not appear that he actively iuterfereil to; correct abuses in that direction ; and he certainly permitted the Executive Council to. do a good deal as it pleased. He opened Parlia- ment, at Toronto, on the 2nd of June. The legislation, a,s usual, was limited in quantity, and embraced only six bills. Canada under French dominion^ as we have already frequently seen, was never able to compete effectually with the British colonies for the western trade. The rapids of the- St. 1800. Lawrence, and the long portages which they rendered necessary in its ascent, made the communication with the great lakes tediou^ . and difi^cult ; and, aside from a restricted trade, placed a formidaljle barrier in the way of inland commerce. .The road to Lake Ontario was comparatively easy from New York or Albany, and the greater rapidity with which merchandise conse-, quenl^ly trayprsed to and from the sea-board, gave the merqhttuta of those cities an immense advantage over traders in Lower Canada. The same state of things prevailed long after the first settlement of Upper Canada, which became almost immediately tributary, tp, the trade of the State of New York, and it so continued till the construction of the St. Lawrence canals removed the unfav^itrablsirable. Still, it was evident that the commercial intercourse wi:ich had sprung up between the two countries had not removed the Cana- dian jealousy of the presumed American desire for conquest ; 1801. so, in the ensuing year an act, about to expire, for the better security of the Province against the king's enemies, was continued in force. To help the Crown to defray the increabed civil expenses, the duties collected on products brought from the United States, which, even then, were the same as those levied on English goods, were handed over to the government for a certain term ; and Cornwall, Brockville, (Johnstown,) Newcastle, Toronto, (York,) Niagara, Queenstown, Fort Erie, Turkey Point, Amherst- burg and Sandwich, declared ports of entry. The Lieutenant Governor had the privilege of appointing c«.»llectors, whose salaries were not to exceed i.i an} case $400 ; while, if below that sum, they were paid with one-half the amount of all the duties they received ; from which it may be gathered that this branch of revenue was not in a very flourishing condition. Another act, passed at this session, prohibited the sale < "' spirituous liquors and strong waters in 1/he Indian settlement on tij.e Thames. All this time English, Irish, Scotch .^nd American emigrants, the latter still the more nun:oi'ou!?, came to seek a home in the new Province ; but the English, as at the present day, v;ere the fewest of all. From Ireland, v/here the troubles of " '98" had left many a hearth desolate, and many a heart seared and crushed with sorrow, came most of the old country people. Better a free home, even though it were the rudest shanty of the backswoodsman in the uombre forests of Canada, than the cottage in old Erin, where any moment the insurgent White-boy might cruelly thrust the crack- ling turf inr;0 the thatch, or the minions of Castlereagh level its walls to the ground. And thus settlements gradually spread out on every side. When the Legislature next sat, the new district 1802. of Newcastle had been formed, and an act was passed providing for the administration of justice thcvein. Another act opened new ports of entry to pieet the wants of the increasing population. A third granted $3000 to encourage the growth of hemp, with a view to make England independent of Russia, and voted $336 for stationery for the House ; a very moderate sum, when compared wich the pre.'-'>nt public expend *.ture of Canada in that way. Aside from the proceedings of the Legisl?\bure there is very little known of General Hunter's administration. Responsible 1803. government djd not then exist ; there was no "Opposition party " in Parliament, nor ap independent press to ohronicle its sayings and its doirgs, and cOiHUient on its measures, had the contrary been the ca?,e. The farmers and st ire-keepers kept close to their farms or their shops, and when they happened to be mem- bers of the Assembly, »nd had I gislated to their hearts' content, 1803.] UPPER CANADA UNDER HUNTER. 311 went home to look after their business, leaving the irresponsible Executive to take care of the country, without troubling themselves further about the conduct of public affairs. At all events, In a Commons of sixteen members, some of whose literary acquirements barely extended to a knowledge of reading and writing, a majority against ministers would not be a very serio;i.o affair. There were neither Reformers nor Conservatives in those days, *and public questions were decided solely on their merits ; party had nothing to do with them one way or the other. The Assembly made laws to guide the Executive, and the Executive enforced them or not as it deemed proper ; so matters up to 1 804 had pro- 1 804. gressed harmoniously. While the country was very sparsely populated, and the people poor and ill-informed, this might, after ail, be the best possible state of things. Canada had hitherto been too young to admit of a healthy political opposition to any public measure, and faction amonp; a race of rough back- woodsmen must have seriously retarded the progress of the country. The people had few taxes to pay, and for yetrs had been too busy tumbling down the huge forests, which covered almost the entire face of the country, getting out rails, planting wheat and corn and potatoes, and making their homes more comfortable, to trouble themselves much about the affairs of government. Over twenty years of stvere and incessant toil, and an average prosperity, at length gave leisure to the early pioneers of Upper Canada to look around them, in order to see how political an _• r i' * i '. »* v. ^ 818 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1804. officials of the same description, were appointed by the governor or lieutenant governor, in the king's name, and were paid in accord- ance with provincial legislation. The territorial revenue, or that accruing in a,n;y way from public lands, whether by sale or other- wise, was retained by the Crown ; as v/ell as the casual revenue, arising from *.he post office and various other sources. In this way the Crown lor many years was rendered almost independent of a vote of supplies, and outside the law-making power the influence of the Canadian Legislatures was exceedingly limited. With the whole executive authority completely in its own hands, aiid without any virtual parliamentary responsibility, the Crown was supreme, in the most extensive sensv>, while, at the same time, the Imperial Parliament had reserved to itself the right to suspend or abrogate the constitution at pleasure. Under this system of government the position of the Canadian Legislatures was largely secondary, inferior and subordinate. The Executive Council necessarily became the centre of all local administrative authority. If its head were a psrson of resolution and ability, like Simcoe, the Executive largely partook of the one-man power ; but, if the governor were weak oi timid, then the rest of the council became supreme, and acted as they deemed proper. In a wealthy and populous community a House of Assembly, and an intelligent and independent press, might serve as a counterpoise to an almost absolute executive of this character ; but in Upper Canada, at this period, the trifling publwi revenue, wholly inadequate to meet the current expenses of tba Civil List, had already been handed over to the government ; and no check could> therefore, be established on the arbitrary, or corrupt, exercise of power by an annual vote of supplies. As for the public press of the Province, it was still com- posed of the solitary Gazette, which was completely under the control of the Executive, and accordingly supported all its measures. The unwritten Constitution of England was the gradual product of ages, and happily was of so expansive a character as to always readily adapt itself to the progress of intelligence, and the continu- ally increasing wants of the people. It assumed new forms, as new forms became necessary to its perpetual forward march. It grew with the growth of the nation, and so Magna Charta presently became its ofl^pring. It produced the revolution which drove the weak imitator of Louis XIV., tho would-be despotic James, from the throne ; and inaugurated a new era of national liberty and progress with the accession of William III. With him also came in responsible government ; and from thenceforth when ministers could not counnand a Parliamentary majority they retired from ntlice. In framing the Constitution ^f 1791 for the Canadas, the British minister evidently presumed that their social and political condition must resemble somewhat the condition of England before the Revolution of 1688, and gave them, accordingly, although in a modilied form, the system of government existing there antefrior to 1804.J THE RISE OF THE FAMILY COMPACT. 313 » i that period. The Canadas had, accordingly, sooner or later, to go through the same revolutionary ordeal as the parent state, with the exception that their more rapid increase in intelligence, popu- lation and wealth, brought the crisis about in a few years which in England it had taken generations to mature. Where electors do not exercise an indirect influence upon Government through their representatives, the elective franchise is of little comparative value. The executive is the only real governing power in the state, and the people must be content to be ruled by the king or his representative, if he is a despot like Oliver Cromwell or James II., or by an oligarchy. Thus, the Canadian Constitution of 1791 only permitted of a single alter- native. To be governed by an oligarchy was the fate of both Upper and Lower Canada. Circumstances cast the balance in its favcfar, and even as early as 1805 its reign had already commenced. Had the Constitution of 1791 made due provision for a change to Responsible Government, when the progress and intelligence of the people warranted such a step, much disorder and some misery would have been avoided. Still, it had all the progressive qualities of its venerable ancestor, the product of so much blood, so much suffering, and s© many tears, and time and circumstances gradually corrected its errors. The evils of an irresponsible government, of themselves suflScient- ly oppressive, were increased by causes of a local character, which could only exist in a new country. As the Province became more prosperous, it also became the refuge of a host of poor gentlemen, half-pay officers and others, who came thither to improve their tortunes. While Canada was under French dominion, this class of Df rsons had proved a serious draivback to its prosperity ; and as ^pper Canada had no commissions to give in a corps of " Colony Ti-oops," as in the days of the "Old Regime" matters were now worse with them than ever. Some had sold their commissions ; their grants of lands were likewise soon disposed of at a dollar or two an acre ; and they then, as their final resort, became hangers- on of the administration, to be thrust into every petty office as it became vacant, whether they were fit for it or otherwise Others, more prudent, retained at least as much of their land as they con- sidered they could cultivate to advantage, and sought "■ proserve by their exclusiveness the superiority which they posed their advantages of education, and the station they had occupied hitherto in society, ought to entitle them to. But, in a country where even General Simcoe could not retain a single male servant ; where a man couid acquire two hundred acres of fertile land by simple occupation or three months' wages ; and where a number of small })rf)prietors in fee-simple created a conservative democracy, this claim to superiority was somewhat difficult to be established. Hence this class also came to regard government influence as the only way of preserving their presumed respectability. So their necessities gradually drew these pi'or gentlemen of Canada closer ■. I ivT^ «'. 314 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1804. ■. *' and closer, till at length they became a diHtiuct party in the country. Fostered by an irresponsible government, which leaned to the foundation of a Canadian aristocracy, this party gradually acquired strength and influence ; its members intermarried backwards and forwards among themselves, until at length it emerged into the full-blown, famous, •' Family Compact." But there was another class of poor gentlemen who pursued a wiser f.iid more manly course. Acting on the truism, *• that God helps those who help themselves," they readily adapted themselves, without complaint, to their alterefl condition. While they learned to wield the axe and swing the scythe with the energy and skill of the roughest backwoodsman, they retained their polished manners, their literary tastes, their love for the beautiful and the elegant, and thus exercised the most beneficial influence on their rustic neighbours. In the absence of schools, of churches, of most of the refining influences of civilised society, this class of the early settlers of Upper Canada were foremost in usefulness. Their superior education, their well-bred manners, their more refined habits, raised them in the estimation of the rural population, who soon tacitly admitted a superiority, which would never have been conceded had it been more directly asserted. Thus we find that even as early as 1805, in the very infancy of Upper Canada, two parties had already begun to assume a primary form and consistency. They had, however, no political meaning, owed their origin to purely local causes, and might be termed the Executive Party and the Country Party The first clung to its irresponsible position as the source of i ^ influence and authority, and claimed the right to act as it deemetl proper without let or hindrance ; while the Country Party desired to have that authority exercised more equitably, and more for the benefit of the people. But land matters still continued to be the great source of trouble. A system of favouritism, and the constant desire of parties in power to benefit their friends and supporters, speedily prcxluced many abuses under the easy sway of Governor Hunter. Pateitts were refused to actual settlers i'or lands which were subsequently deeded to non-occupants. Upwards of .£60,000* sterling was annually expended for the bfjnefit of the Indian tribes, and pre- sented a favourable opportunity for peculation, of whicli many were not slow to avail themselves. The provisions, clothing, and farming utensils granted by the British Government for the benefit of poor loyalists, were in many cases handed over to favourites ; in others allowed to become useless, from negligence, in the public stores.! Nor was the administration of justice what it might be desired, or what it most undoubtedly ought to have been. Judges did not hold their commissions for life, if they conducted themselves properly, as at the present day, and were removable at the pleasure * (jrourlay, vol. ii. p. 150. t Jackson's Pamphlet on Canada, 1809. 1804.J PUBLIC ABUSES. 315 This circumstance weakene Alexander Grant, as senior member of , the ]^ecutive Council, assumed charge of the administration. He opiened 1806. the Legislature on the 4th of February. During the session seven acts were passed, one of which granted $6400 for the purpose of making new roads, and building bridges in several districts. Ai;iother act provided for the appointment of parish and township officers, and for the assessment and collection of municipal rates. During the summer Mr. Gore arrived from England, and at once assumed charge of the administration as Lieutenant Governor. Very little is known about the antecedents of this gentleman. It appears that he stood high a,s rcjgards personal worth, was of a manly and generous, though easily influenced, disposition, and no doubt desired to guvern the Province justly. The faults which subsequently distinguished his adminis- tration were evidently owing to his want of a better knowledge of the country and the people, in the first place, and a too subservient Legislature and the possession of an undue proportion of arbitrary power, in the second ; which power, to a considerable extent, he soon resigned into the hands of the oligarchy, whose influence was steadily on the increase, and who might be said to form the little court of the Lieutenant Governor. As might naturally be expect- ed. Gore was speedily influenced, in their own behalf, by the leaders of this party. Compared with these people, who composed, in a great measure, the select society of the little capital, and whose better education, and more polished manneis, naturally commended them to his consideration, the frieze-coated farmers had small chance of influence with their new ruler. Still, the people did not now stand up the less sturdily for what they considered to be their just rights. V/hile Judge Thorpe's independent conduct, and occasionally impolitic freedom of speech, very speedily made him an object of dislike with the Executive Party, whc' did all in thei" power to prejudice Gore against him, hip impartial administration of justice had already made him popular with the people. When he went on circuit the several grand juries intrusted statements of their grievances to him, to be laid before the Lieutenant Governor, by whom they were received with a very bad grace. He had become prejudiced against Thorpe, and this feeling had been increased by the imprudent language of the latter when replying to an address from the Grand Jury of the London District. "The art of governing," said the judge "is a difficult science. Knowledge is not instinctive, and the days of inspiration have •' 1806.1 GORE AND JVm^ THORPE. 317 « J passed away. Therefore when there was neither talent, education, information or even manners, in the administration, little could be expected, and nothing was produced. But there is an ultimate point of depression, as well as of exaltation, from whence all human affairs naturally advance or recede." Thorpe also condemn- ed, as entirely too stringent in its provisions, the Alien Act of 1804. To the impartial observer nothing could appear more unwise than this severe attack, by a judge, on the administration. Its great imprudence at onct> placed him in a false position, and invited the counter attack, which speedily followed. Thorpe was accused of instigating the grand juries to make hostile statements of grievances, and of causing dissatisfaction among the people while discharging his official duties. He now directed the officers of his court to take proceedings, in an action of Scandalum Tnagnatum, against one of his most forward revilers ; but his brother judges, some of whom were members of the Executive Council, held that he could not bring such an action, and it was accordingly abandoned. The statement of grievances made by the Grand Jury of the London District was a very strong and explicit one, and could not very well be ignored. An official letter from the Lieutenant Governor's office asked it to re-state its complaints, in the hope that they would appear in a milder form. The reply was a still stronger remonstrance against existing abuseij. A recanta- tion was now drawn up, in the hope that promises of government favour would induce individual members of the Grand Jury to sign it, but this was at once indignantly refused. These occurrences added to the hostile feelings of Gore and his advisers, and the question with them now was how Thorpe could be got rid of. It would never do to have a Radical judge, as they described him to be, using his position on the bench to move grand juries to make complaints about exiting evils, and so cause dissatisfaction among the people at large. At this juncture a vacancy occurred in the representation of one of the constituencies in the Home District, and Thorpe was invited by the electors to become their candidate. Judges were not then disqualified f roifi taking seats in the Assembly, and he consented, although disclaiming all intention of becoming a partisan. The Executive made every possible effiirt to defeat him, but he was nevertheless triumphantly elected. Whatever might be his intentions Thorpe was now in the position of a partisan, a most improper one for a judge to occupy, and seriously militating against his future usefulness on the bench. His election made the oligarchy furious. His friends were dismissed from office, and the solitary newspaper was now loud in its abuse, a.n.d denounced the people's favourite in no measured terms. This led to the establish- ment of an independent journal, the Upper Canada 1807. Guardian,* so the war between the rival parties had now fully commenced. * Willooks, the editor of this paper, was an Irishman of reapeotable parentage. He had been sheriff of toe Home District, but was deprived of *• I .« i '■ ., ' t •A 1 , W^ <'.. 318 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1807. Thorpe, hov aver, speedily fell a victim to his popularity. As Gore found he could not injure him by his cvn authority, he determined to use his influence with the Home Government against him. " The object of Mr. Thorpe's emissions," he writes to a Toronto friend from Kingston, while on a journey to Montreal, •' is to persuade the people to turn every gentleman out of the House of Assembly. However keep your temper with the rascals, I beseech you. I shall represent everything at St. James." He kept his word. His adverse representations to the Home Government, coupled with the fact of Thorpe's imprudent language on the bench, and his unvrisely permitting himself to be elected to the Assembly, led to the conclusion that he had seriously compromised himself, and Gore was accordingly directed by the Colonial Secretary, to suspend him from hi^ judgship. Thorpe proceeded to England, and on asking explanations at the Colonial Office, was told that his further stay in Canada could only have led to a perpetual disturbance of the public tranquillity. By way of recompense, however, he was appointed Chief Justice of Sierra Leone. Poor health compelled his return, in two years, to England. He carried home with him a petition from a number of the inhabitants, complaining of local abuses caused by parties in power. This greatly offended the ministry, and, in connection with his former unwise conduct in Canada, led to his final dismissal. The remainder of his life was passed in obscurity and neglect, and he died in comparative poverty. Sometime before his death he sued Gore for libel, and obtained judgment against him for a small amount.* Thorpe was unforfiunate ; but while we sympathise with him in his misfortune!?, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact, that his difficulties mainly had their origin in his own imprudence, and that he could have accomplished all he had dohe for Upper Canada, and much, also, in addition, without the slightest harm to himself, had he been more careful in his language, and had not placed himself in a false position, as a judge, by becoming a member of the House of Assembly — a political body. No Canadian, at the present day, would tolerate conduct of this kind in a judge ; and poor Thorpe's own unwise course placed a weapon in the hands of his aKi^iiants to strike him down. hia office in 1806, for voting against the wishes of the Governor at Thorpe's election. He soon became popular with the people, was elected to serve in the Assembly, which speedily thrust him into the Toronto jail, then a miser- able log hut. for makmg too free with its atf.tird Released from this, he became still more popular, and for a while was at the head of tho majority in the Assembly. The troubles of 1812 forced him to give up his paper, when he shouldered a muiket and fousht as a volunteer against the Americans at the battle of Queenstown. StiU, Government treated him harshly, and iit leni^th, thoroughly disheartened and disgusted, he deserted to the enemy, taking a small body of Canadian militia over with him. The Americans rewardeil his treason by making him a colonel. He was afterwards killed at the siege of Fort Erie while planting a guard. * Jackson's Pamphlet on Canada 1809 ; Gourlay vol. ii. p. 335. Bouny- caitle's Canada., ko,, vol. i. pp. SI and 62. ** [1807. opularity. As authority, he rnment against le writes to a. Y to Montreal, tlen^in out of mper with the l at St. James." to the Home >e's imprudent himself to be ie had seriously lirected by the ;ship. Thorpe at the Colonial d only have led ity. By way of istice of Sierra ars, to England, lumber of the >arties in power, ection with his final dismissal, id neglect, and 'e his death he him for a small iympathise with o the fact, that aprudence, and Upper Canada, irm to himself, )t placed himself of the House of J present day, i poor Thorpe's )f his af.L^aiiants Brnor at Thorpe's looted to serve in jail, then a miaer- 88 it from this, he of tho majority his paper, when the Americans at n harshly, and at ed to the enemy. The Americans ;erwards killed at p. 335. Bouny- 1808.] THE GORE ADMINISTRATION. 319 • J. While we have been thus careful to trace, as accurately as possible, the rise of political parties in Canada, and the origin of those causes which subsequently led to serious evils in the state, we do not desire to convey the impression that the people at this period were dissatisfied with the fundamental principles of the constitution. Responsible government was a question of much later origin. Whatever dissatisfaction existed was chiefly directed against the arbitrary conduct of the Executive, the extortions of law officers, and individual acts of oppression. The great bulk of the people continued to be steadily attached to Great Britain ; and although several desired annexation with the United States, and made representations to some of th ir public men which led in a measure to the invasion of the Province in 1812, this treasoncble feeling was by no means general. There was no desire, as a rule, to cure existing evils by superseding the monarchical institutions of the Colony with a republic. A purer administration of justice, a milder and more impartial sway on the part of the Executive, formed all that was necessary to secure the loyalty of the great mass of the people. Owing to the agitation connected with the election of Thorpe, the exposures made by the opposition press, and other occurrences favourable to liberty and free inquiry, concessions of this character were made about this time, and public matters pro- gressed much more smoothly. During the course of the year, Judge Powell, who afterwards figured so prominently in the affairs of Upper Canada, became a member of the Executive Council.* The first session of the Provincial Parliament convened by Mr. Gore, was distinguished by a very liberal appropriation of $3200 for the purpose of paying the salaries of the masters of grammar schools, in each of the eight districts into which Upper Canada had by this time expanded. The patronage was vested ir the Gove rn- ment. The sum of $400 a year was an object to a haif-pay officer, or some other reduced gentlemen ; so the greater pact of the masterships were given to this class of persons, who, from their previous habits, and ignorance of their new duties, were every way unfit for the office. Other acts passed this session continued laws about to expire, the most important of which was that handing over the customs' duties to the Crown for a period of two years longer. Meanwhile, the Province had continued to prosper steadily. New settlements had spread themselves out in every direc- tion into the interior, and the population had increased to 1809. about seventy thousand souls. The commerce of the coun- try had progressed in proportion. By an arrangement with the Lower Province, goods for Upper Canada were now entered at Oouteau du Lac, and the amount collected on these, for the year ending January 5th, exceeded $16,000. There was also a consider- able importation by way of the United States, and the annual * Seventh Grievance Report, p. 303. I' m* :, V^'^i^i ••■ , ♦svj'v. .' .'■t i • 320 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. |i8o; public revenue from customs' duties alone was now nearly $28,000. The tariff was very low. The duty on strong liquors, exclusive of a small impost levied by the Imperial Government for the support of the civil administration of the Province, was sixpence per gallon ; on wine, ninepence ; on teas, from twopence to four- pence per lb. The importations chiefly embraced groceries, as the bulk of the inhabitants manufactured their own wearing apparel. No civilised country in the world was less burdened with taxes than Upper Canada at this period. A small direct tax on property, levied by the District Courts of Session, ahd not amounting to $14,000 for the whole country^ sufl&ced for all local expenses. There was no poor-rate, no capitation tax, no tithes or ecclesiastical rates of any kind. Instead of road tax a fes. days of statute labour annually sufficed. Nowhere did the working man find the product of his labour so little diminished by exactions of any kind. The Province literally teemed with abundance ; while its people, unlike the early French and American settlers, had nothing to apprehend from hostilities with the Indian, and enjoyed the increase of the earth in peace. The chief check to the greater prosperity of the country at this period, was the want of a paper currency, there being ?io bank in Canada. Gold and silver formed the only circulating medium ; and as the exports did not balance the imports, the little money brought into the Province by settlers, or paid out by the Govern- ment, was insufficient to meet the increasing wants of the commu- nity. A system of barter was thus originated between the merchant and farmer which was; highly prejudicial to the latter, and which frequently led him into debt. Nor were the Dublio morals as much calculated to advance the welfare of the country as could be desired. Intemperance was a very prevaleut vice , t-he rough backwoodsmen, too, were often quairelsome in their cups, and pugilistic encounters very frequentlv took place. Murde/s, however, unlike a former period, were no.» of rare occurrence. The mass of the people may be described aa a rough, home-spun gener- ation ; with little religion,* and still less education ; but honest in their general demeanour, sturdy yet simple in their manners, and exceedingly hospitable in their homes. During the year little of moment occurred. The Legislature mot on the Isv^ of February. The sum of $8000 was granted 1810. for laying out new roads and building bridges by one act ; another act was levelled against forgers of bills of exchange and foreign notes and orders. During the summer of the ensuing year Mr. Gore received leave of absence, being desirous 1811. to visit England. He proceeded thither shortly afterwards, leaving the gallant Major-General Brock in temporary charge of the administration. * In !8Cr* there were only four miaisters of the Church of Ensland in Canada West, aad comparatively. few of other Protestant denomioations, CHAPTER XIII. > CAUSES LEADING TO THE SECOND UNITED STATES INVASION OF CANADA. »* • : urease of the w that E have already seen, that the loss of her Araerican colonies was supposed to have weaken^. '1 England to such an .extent, the French Republic, grown arrogant by its continental successes, was emboldened to declare war against her, in the delusive hope of winning back some part, at least, of the empire beyond the seas which the elder Pitt had wrested from France. In wealth and population the American colonies far surpassed all chat remained of England's colonial dominions, and they had been irretrievably lost. It is little wonder that, in the first bitter anguish of separation, even England looked upon herself as on the ver^e of ruin, and that France regarded the world-wide power of her ancient foe as practically terminated. But later events proved the worthlessness of these opinions. Fngland presently became superior to her adverse fortunes ; and h indomitable energy soon found new fields for commercial enterprise. During the closing two decades of the past century her industrial development was on ji truly colossal scale, and astonished the world. The rapid growth of wealth, wliich this development produced, made her again a flourishing mother of new nations, in new climes ; and England at length arose, from her trans- Atlantic defeat, more vigorous and stronger than ever. As the eiglteenth century wore on, there had come to her a new moral and religious, as well as a new material, existence ; uud while the Wesleys burst through the religious torpor wliich had paralysed the national church, Brindley was OGveiing England with a vast system of canals that soon led to an etiormou.s development* of lier internal traffic and external commerce, and Watt was silently engaged in perfecting his steam engine, which revolutionised the industrial world. Richard Arkwright, a barber's assistant, invented the spinning jenny ; the invention of the power loom speedi'y followed ; and with its iron and its coal mines, its workshops and its factories, England hounded to the foremost place of manufacturing suprcimacy, and became the great mechanical, industrial, and money cjiitre of the world. In the lust for universal empire, his consuming passion, > H. ■'?•■ '■'■'• ' '■ ■■>» i "J i . 1 ' ■ • • . i ♦ Hi*..' .. ^tl l.i' 322 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1800. Bonaparte bitterly hated England as the one great barrier in his way. His continental viotories, decisive and numerous as they were, became barren of results, so far as the chief goal of his ambition was concerned, v hile England remained supreme at sea, and untouched at home. His very victories had only served, so far, to stimulate her prosperity, and to a»ld new territories to her ever expanding realm. All the chief colonies of France and Spain lay at her feet ; and the hostility of Holland, which had led so quickly to the destruction of its fleet, transferred the Cape of Good iJope and the Spice Islands to England. Even Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt, and his prefects of eastern conquest, had only led to the consolidation and .viicrease af British power in India, and to the ruin of his ally Tippoo. iHe saw all this still more clearly as the new century opened upon him, and now deter- mined on achieving a general continental peace, so as to leave his hands completely tree to strike down, for good, the constantly growing power that barred his way to universal empire, and the practical enslavement of the human raceA The victories of Marengo and Hohenlinden enabled him to dfttate his own terms. In February, 1801, the Continental War was brought suddenly to a close by the peace of Luneville, and Bonaparte was now free to enter upon the great task of his life, the destruction of British supremacy by land and sea. fin Great Britain a marvellous change had indeed taken place! An agricultural and maritime people, had been transformed into a great manufacturing people, with rapidly increasing urban popula- tions. New facilities of internal communication in its 3000 miles of canals ; new industrial and commercial energy : new sources of wealvA ; new philanthropic and religious life ; and the uprising, as a consequence, of a great new middle class, showed that a new Britain had sprung into existence. The heart of the nation throbbed with a fresh and wider sense of life, and eagerly confronted the new questions of religion and morals, of education and philanthropy, of commerce and trade, which now presented themselves to its notice. Like its great leader, the younger Pitt, it would gladly have avoided perilling its new existence ; and to secure its more perfect development would fain be at peace with all mankind. fThe hostile attitude of the French Republic had been a source of serious alarm to the nationl That alarm deepened when the still more hostile policy of Napoleon threatened its social, commercial and political position, with an increased danger. The instinct of self-preservation now naturally became paramount with the nation ; and the great majority of its people swung round into an attitude of the fiercest and most uncompromising resistb,nce. As the new danger arose more clearly on the view Pitt would have consolidated the nation, and so given it increased strength for the coming struggle, by conceding emancipation to the Roman Catholics of Ireland, making provision for their clergy, and removing all disabilities from Dissenters. But the narrow bigotry of George 1801.] EUROPEAN AFFAIRS. 828 sources III. prevented the success of this statesmanlike project. ** I count every man my personal enemy," he angrily said, " who proposes such a measure." And he declared that it was opposed to his coronation oath, and persisted in his refusal to entertni.i it. As Bonaparte signed the Peace of Luneville, Pitt resigned his seals of office, to the great alarm of the nation, into the hands of his short-sighted sovereign, and did not again resume them until three years afterwards. The second year of the new century opened with dangerous menace to England. Every day, in one way or another, brought darker news. The scarcity of food was approaching che famine limits ; taxes were raised anew ; and twenty-five millions sterling had to be borrowed to meet the war expenditure for the year. . Not a single ally ranged itself on the side of England ; and she now stood utterly alone, while the peace of Luneville had secjired Bonaparte from all hostility on the Continent of Europe. ( Her naval supremacy had made England the ocean carrier of European commerce, and she had also become the great workshop of European manufactures. J All her ancient rivals had been swept from the seas ; the carrying trade of France, Spain and Holland, had been transferred to the British flag, and the conquest of their wealthier settlements had thrown into British hands naarly the whole colonial trade of the world, HBonaparte s aw that if he could devise some way of shutting Britain out of evei y laarket, she must cease to manufacture, while her carrying trade would be ruined and her commerce destroyed. yfAnd so he formed the project of a general continental system of exclusion, which would shut her out of every port.] And having succeeded in establishing this system in Europe, and drawn even the Russian emperor, Paul, into the hostile league, he plotted to extend it to the United States ; and, in order to influence them to join it, now recognised, by treaty, tho right of neutrals, which England was daily disputing. ^Influenced by the Emperor Paul, Denmark and Sweden joined the continental league ; and the union of the fleets of these northern powers created a fresh menace for England. But she promptly and boldly met this new danger ; and the battle of Copenhagen, on the 1st of April, 1801, ruined the Danish fleet, opened the Baltic to the British navy, and indirectly led to the assassination of Paul and the succession of Alexander. England and Russia now amicably settled the vexed question of the righi of search, and Swerlen and Denmark concurred in that settlement. Bonaparte had failed, but he was not the less resolute to achieve victory ; and now, in order to gain time for fresh aggressive preparations, agre"(l, in the Peace of Amiens, to what proved to be a mere truce. He never faltered for a moment in his detei-inination to crush England ; and having been chosen Consul for life felt liiins(?lf secure at home, and began anew to prepare for outward aggression, by creating huge armaments in the ports of Franco, and stimula- ting afresh the hostility of Spain. ITho British Government saw •:• »■. ^^ ;••.■?.' 32^. THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [ISC^., . ** through his designs, and in May, 1 803, wisely anticipated attack by a declaration of war.^ " Fifteen millions of people," said Bonaparte, alluding to the population of England, '• must surely give way to the forty millions of Franco ; " and he now planned an invasion of Britain on a gigantic scale. A camp of one hundred thousand of his best troops was formed at Boulogne, and a vast fleet of flat-bottomed small craft collected for their couveyance across the Channel. The peril of the nation recalled Pitt to power, as the one -man able to cope with the new danger. The plan of attack of the Emperor Napoleon, as Bonaparte now proclaimed himself, embraced the drawing away of the blockading fleet, whioi- effectually bar-ed thft mt^ard passage of his army, in pursuit of the united F. . h < Sp uish fleets, and the sudden return of the lancer to ',/ i.viiji •v^mmnnd of' the Channel. But the great victory of N- 'so « ^ (' > Trafalgar, on the 21st of October, 1805, effectually derang* ail r' plans, and his army of invasion lay helpless and inactive at B^auv^ne. Pitt soon found employment for him elsewhere, and induced Russia, Austria and Sweden to form a new alliance against him. " England has saved herself by her courage," said Pitt ; " she will save Europe by her example." But Napoleon's genius crushed the combined armies of Russia and Austria at Austerlitz. The shock given Pitt, whose health had completely broken down, by the news of that defeat, suddenly terminated his feeble life. In May, 1806, he was buried in Westminister Abbey, in the same grave with Chatham ; and the ashes of the greatest father and son, England has ever produced, mingle together. Fox succeeded Pitt, and although resolute as Pitt himself to save Europe, yet hoped for peace more ardently, and made overtures to Napoleon, to be met by an evasive answer, ai:d a declaration of war against Prussia, which, on the 14th of October, was irretrievably ruined by the battle of Jena. From Berlin Napoleon march'^d into the heart of Poland, where the decisive victory of Friedland, in the summer of 1807, forced the Czar to consent to the Peace of Tilsit. [Master of Europe he could now resume his task of crushing England^ which again stood solitarily in his path to universal empire, and determined to execute the long-cherished projects he had formed against her commerce, and thus strike at her power in the most vital partj( |jBy the celebrated Berlin and Milan Decrees, all the continental ports 1806. were closed against English manufactures! the whole British Islands declared in a state of blockade,} and the seizure authorised of all vessels bound from British harbours, as well, also, as the seizure of British goods, wherever such could be. 1807. found. England retaliated by the no less famous "Orders in Council," which declared all the ports of France and her allies, from which the British flag was excluded, in a state of rigorous blockade, and that all trade in articles the produce or manufacture of the said countries, or colonies, should be deemed ualawful, and all such f^rticles declare^ good pri^e.i'i These Orders 1807. AMERICAN PUBLIC OPINION. n^n Lidoptiug Bonaparte's own measures against great in Council were merely himself, and with him the responsibility solely rented. The state of things arising out of these proceedings pressed heavily upon neutrals, especially on the Americans, whose adventurous spirit hid, during thi., long war, enabled them .to engross a considerable part of the carrying trade of the globed / It was only natural th '. the American people, after the long and b''>ody struggle which had won their independence, should cherish a feeling of bitter hostility towards the British nation, while they evinced a corresponding feeling of gratitude towards tht *r -■•.'. es, the French. lYet, in cherishing that hostile feeling, they ignored the fact that neither the British Sovereign, nor the British Parliament, had fairly represented the British people, the great majority of whom sympathised with the struggle of their relatives in America for constitutional liberty, and bitterly deplor- ed the miseries it had produced. J This feeling interr-'ngled itself with the popular poetry of the nation ; and mai. a ournful ballad, set to the pathetic strains of Celtic melody coinr aerated in Scotland, as well as in Ireland, but particularly- 'n ... latter country, the deplorable events of the Revoluti • -'vy "War. But the chief American leaders in that war, were notaite " Li,rds actuat- ed by the hostile feeling which had taken such firui hold of the undiscerning masses, /their aim had been t- oh' ve the same system of Parliamentary independence, which tht it jther-land had won for herself by torrents of blood and centuries of bitter struggles, and not to crush a people whose laws, whose religion and whose language, were identical with their own ; whose very existence was a part of themselves ; and whose material interes*^ lay largely in parallel directions. They felt, too, that although a separate people they were still of ^ne blood, of one race, of one lineage ; and that although a separation had taken place, under circumstances of difficulty and bad feeling, a vast amount of mutual benefit must still result from friendly intercourse. Hence, the student of American history will readily understand why the efforts of the great Washington, and of his immediate friends, up to his final retirement from public life, in 1796, were steadily directed towards repressing the anti-English spirit, which so extensively pervaded the Democracy of his country, with the view of laying the foundation of a lasting ^ ace with Great Britain) Yet so stn^ug were the sympathies of the American people with France an ' revolution, that in 1793 it appeared, for a time, as if the cui ent of popular opinion would sweep even "Washington, himself, fro) i its path, and that a war with Britain must speedily take pla e. That true patriot was accused, in this period of intemperate nal onal folly, of being, " like the traitor Arnold, a spy sold to the Er ylish." But, still unmoved, he firmly pursued the course he was sai isfied would most conduce to the benefit of his country. The horrors of the French Revolution soon cooled the ardour of Ameri- cai Democt'atic admiration ; law-abiding citizens could have no X ..:^ ■ •^"V." •>••.■ 11 326 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1807. sympathy with red -republican cut-throats. Washington's pacific policy triumphed, and he had at length (the gratification to see a commercial treaty established with Great BritainJ But, although the partiality of the American Democrats for France had been successfully thwarted b) the firm conservative conduct of the President, and lessened by the horrors of the guillotine, it had not by any means been wholly removed. As the war between Great Britain and France went on, during the Presidency of Mr. Adams, this feeling of partiality, gradually acquired renewed strength, despite the haughty tone of the French Directory. Nor was this feeling very sensibly weakened by the hostilities which broke out between the United States and France in 1798, and which terminated in a treaty of peace with Bonaparte in 1800. The election of Jefferson to the Presidency, in 1801, completely established the ascendency of the Democratic Party in the Union, and no longer checked by the counteracting influence of government, the jealousy rnd dislike of everything British began to show itself more unmistakably than e"er. The republican sympathy of America was about to exhibit the anomalous spectacle of allying itself with the despotic sway of Napoleon, thus spurning the constitutional liberty of Britain, just as in the present age it palliates the tyrannical rule of a Nicholas o ' an Alexander. It might reasonably be supposed that after the promulgation of the Berlin and Milan Decrees, by the French Emperor, who had scarcely a ship at sea to support them ; and the purely defensive answer thereto made by the English '* Ordei's in Council," the anger of the United States Government would be tlirected againat Napoleon as the first aggressor. This course did not suit Mr. Jefferson, who now saw a favourable opportunity of stirring up the national hostility against England, and thus gratifying the Democratic Party, of which he was the leading expon*>ni. He acconlingly refused to ratify a treaty of amity, commerce and navigation, concluded by the American minister at London with the British Government ; and, on the 37th of October, communi- cated an angry message to Congress, |inveighing bitterly against 'x the British Orders in Counci^ but not breathing a single syllable ^<^ of complaint against the Berlin and Milan Decrees, to which these C) orders were merely a replyi The Democratic majority responded to --^' this message by decreeing an embargo, or prohibition to American -'- vessels to leave theii: ports, whiclTcaused much distress and many murmurs, especially in the New England States, whose shipping interests were as yet the most important in the Union^ Meanwhile, the right of searching for British deserters in American ships, insisted on by the English Government, and other unfavourable circumstances, continued to widen the breach between the two countries. On the 23rd of June the American frigate Chesapeake was cruising off Virginia, and being known to have some British deserters on board, was hailed by an English man-o£ war, the Leopard, of seventy-four guns, commanded by Captain X V communi- 1808.] ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES. 327 r^. Humphries, who made a formal requisition for these men. Tli« American captain denied he had them in his crew, and refused to admit the right of search, but was compelled to strike hia colours by a broadside, when the deserters, one of whom was afterwards hung at Halifax, were .taken out of his vessel. But the English Government disavowed this act, and offered to make reparation, as the right of search, when applied to vessels of war, extended only to a simple requisition, and should not be carried into eflfect by actual force. The state of things which now existed between England and the United States, gave little hope of an amicable arrangement ^ - of differences. The distress, however, caused by the 1808.^j><^^^ e mbar go strengthened the hands of the Federalists, or peace £*^'^^^ ' paffy^ who in New England, especially, acquired a decided prepon- derance. 1 Massachusetts boldly protested against the law establish- ing it, aria demanded its repeal, and it now appeared as if there were a prospect of the satisfactory adjustment of the points at ispuv . This prospect was still further advanced by the election of Mr. Madison to the Presidency, and by the repeal of the embargo law in March, 1^9, and the substitution of an act prohibit- 1809 ing all intercourse with France and England, but which provided, at t'le same time, that if either of the belligerents should* repeal their hostile edicts, this act should cease to be in force with respect to that nation. The English ministry, deeming this a favourable time for negotiation, despatched Mr. Erskine to the Unitetl States for that purpose. Unfortunately he exceeded his instructions. Consider- ing the suspension of the Non-intercourse Act a fair equivalent for that of the Orders in Council, he stipulated that the latter should cease to be in force at a certain period. The English ministry refused to ratify this arrangement ; so a storm of indignation was raised in the United States, the hands of the war party strength- ened, and the Non-intercourse Act renewed. I During this period it can easily be imagined what an immense injury the commerce of both countries sustained. J The Orders in Council were not withdrawn, although Bonaparte offered to sus- pend the Berlin and Milan Decrees if they were, and the matter now appeared to be reduced to a point of etiquette, as to which nation should first give in.* Meanwhile Bonaparte 1810. by his " Decree of Rambouillet," May 18th, 1810, struck a serious blow at the commerce of the United States, which the latter submitted to in the tamest manner. By this decree all vessels sailing under the flag of the United States, or (wned wholly or in part by any American citizen, wliich since the 20th of May, 1809, had entered, or should thereafter enter, any of the ports of France or her colonies, or countries occupied by French armies, should be seized. This decree was at once executed, and • Alison's Hist. Europe, New York, vol. iv. p. 455. VTt," . i/' r' ^'4 . \ ' ■<■•;*■•■: '. '** » ' ■ » t •••■ V ^ 328 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1811. funder its provisions, 160 vessels, of the value of over two hundred Jthousand dollars, were seized. The United States remonstrated, y>ut without avail, and there was no redress. It was war with /England, and the conquest of Canada, that the American Govern- I ment designed, and so there was no war with France, despite the great provocation given. During the following year, matters became more gloomy, and more portentous of war between England and the United States. The prospect grew still 1811. darker in the early part of 1811. Mr. Pinkney, the Ameri- can envoy at the British court, took formal leave of the Prince Regent on the 1st of March, and a rupture now appeared inevitable. So entirely were the American people of this opinion, that the intercourse with France was openly renewed. French vessels crowded into their harbours, were in numerous cases fitted out as privateers, and did considerable mischief to British commerce. The crisis was hastened by an accidentally hostile collision, on the 16th of May, between an English sloop of war, the Little Belt, of eighteen guns, and the American frigate President, of forty-four guns, in which the former had thirty-two men killed and wounded, and had to sail to Halifax for repair* In the following January, Congress, by a vote of one hundred and nine to 1812. twenty-two, decided to increase the regular troops to twenty- five thousand men, and raise an immediate loan of $10,000,000. By hastening hostilities, the Americans hoped, before their designs would be discovered, to secure the capture of the British homeward-bound West India fleet. With this view Congress laid a general embargo on all vessels in the harbours of the United States. They also expected to conceal the intelligence of their warlike preparations from spreading ; while, at the same time, their idle commercial marine would enable them to man their fleet more easily. In order to work up, more effectually, the indignation of members of the Senate to the necessary point, the President laid before them certain documents, which he had purchased from a Captain Henry for $50,000,* paid out of the secret service fund. This person had resided in Canada during the greater part of General Craig's administration, and in 1809, was sent to Boston, without the knowledge of the Home Govern- ment, to gain information of the condition of political parties in the United States, f The intelligence he supplied was of very little value, and could have been acquired just as well from the newspapers of the day. J He was recalled after a three months' absence, during which he wrote fourteen letters to Craig's secre- tary. Not thinking himself sufficiently remunerated for his services, he went to England, in 1811, andapplieo \o the Foreign OflBce for an additional reward, stating that he would be satisfied * Frost's United States, p. 349. t Christie, vol. ii. p. 9. t Alison's Hist. Europe, New York, vol. iv. p. 466. 1812.] WAR DECLARED. 329 with the post of judge advocate of Lower Canada, or a perpetual consulate in the United States. He was referred back to the Canadian Government ; but having already got all he could expect in that quarter, he proceeded to the United States, and offered to sell his papers to Madison. The latter, expecting important disclosures would be made, which would strengthen his party, and blacken the British Ministry, closed with the proposal, and paid him the enormous sum already stated. Henry, however, completely outwitted him. Still, although the President obtained no information of importance, he turned what he did get to the best possible advantage ; but the excitement the affair produced in the United States speedily subsiddd,* and their peace party suffered no injury. { On the 19th of June, Congress passed an act declaring war against Great Britain, and directing that hostilities be immediate- ly commenced. Four days afterwards the Orders in Council were repealed by the Liverpool Administration, in which Lord Castlereagh was now the minister for foreign affairs, an occurrence which was known in the United States in a few weeks. But although the ostensible cause of war was thus removed, Congress did not recede from the hostile position it had assumed. Wide as were their geographical limits, the Democracy of America desired additional territory, and would fain have gratified their hatred of Great Britain by driving her from the valley of the St. Lawrence, and thus depriving her of the source whence she now derived her chief supply of timber, as well as a most important addition to her breadstuffs.y But a most influential party in the United States vigorously opposed this unholy lust for conquest. Delegates from several counties of New York protested, at Albany, against the war, on the ground that the same injuries as those inflicted by England, had also been sustained from France ; that hostilities with the latter would equally have satisfied national dignity, with- out anything like an equal risk of danger ;f that England had revoked her Orders in Councilj; and that it was repugnant to a free people to ally themselves with the Emperor Napoleon, " every action of whose life (lemonstrate ;» J •■ ■• -t" ■> ■ • .• *•■'.. ■• • ■ • • • * I '. if I ■ 332 THE HISTOftY OP CANADA. 1812. Canada did not exceed two hundred and twenty thousand.* On the other hand, the population of the United States had prodigi- ously increased since the revolution, and was now nearly eight millions ; while their resources were enormous, and gave tliem immense advantages in carrying on a war against a comparatively poor and sparsely populated ccuntry like Canada. In point of numbers the odds were almost twenty-seven to one against the latter — an enormous disproportion. The United States had also the advantage, in the commencement of the war, of being the assailing party ; and could thus penetrate at leisure any part of our long frontier they pleased, while we had to protect the whole. But, aside from all these favourable circumstances, the American Democratic party relied upon the people of Canada, themselves, to aid in wresting this country from Great Britain. The trifling political troubles in Upper and also in Lower Canada had In! them to suppose that the inhabitants were weary of British rule, and would readily ally themselves, on the first opportunity, to the United States. But they were fully as much mistaken on this point, as in supposing that they could conquer these provinces by force of arms. If the Canadians were dissatisfied with the too great power of the Executive, a system of favouritism, and the arbitrary conduct of judges and other public officials, they were in no disposition to cure ills of this kind by a recourse to the greater evil of unbridled republicanism. The bulk of the people remained sincerely attached to constitutional monarchy, and a very general feeling of loyalty to the Crown pervaded both provinces. This feeling was decidedly the rule ; a desire for an alliance with the United States, the exception. But comparatively few Canadians joined the American standard during the war, and throughout which none were more gallant in rolling back the tide of unprincipled invasion, than the immigrants from New England and New York, who, aside from the U. E. Loyalists, had settled in the country. But aside from the monarchical predilections of the inhabitants, themselves, whether of British, French or American, origin, Canada at this period possessed a most important olement of strength in the friendship of the western Indian tribes, who had faithfully adhered to their treaties with King George, made at the close of the Pontiac rebellion. Meanwhile, these tribes liivd gradually imbibed a feeling of dislike and hostility towards the American people, whom they termed " long knives ;" and who invaded their country in swarms, and ruined their hunting grounds. And so, ns time moved onwards, they drew closer to the British Crown, and willingly took up the hatchet in its behalf during the War of Independence. Although the close of that war left the westerix Indian.s, and especially thosa of the Ohio country, at the mercy of the United States, their more dependent position I * Gourlay, vol. i. p. 612 1812.J TECUMSETH AND THE INDIANS. 333 )• did not abate their hostility ; and all the friendly feeling they at one time cherished towards the French was transferred to the British. That feeling was increased, in no small degree, by the liberal policy of the Crown towards the Mohawks and the other Indians who took refuge in western Canada in 1784 ; and a good understanding with whom was sedulously fostered by Simcoe. Although over forty years had passed away since the death of roatiac, his memory was still cherished by many of the vestern tribes ; and in the earlier years of the present century, the Sliawnee and other Ohio Indians felt strongly disposed to revive his policy, and form a new league in order to preserve their hunt- ing grounds from the encroachments of the white settlers. This project was strongly entertained by two leading Shawnee chiefs, Tecuraseth and his brother Elskwatana, or the Prophet, who adopted the mystical .character for the purpose of exercising a wider influence. The approach of war between Great Britain and the United States raised their hopes of success to a very high pitoh, and in 1811, during the absence of Tecumseth among the southern tribes, the attitude of the Prophet became so threaten- ing, that the American Government dispatched a strong force, under General Harrison, to compel his submissi' n. A battle ensued at Tippecanoe, in which the Shawnees and their allies were completely defeated. Shortly after this occurrence Tecumseth offered his services to the Canadian authorities, in the event of war with the United States. His offer was so favourably entertained, that he removed with a large part of his personal following to western Ontario. After the war had broken out he was created a brigadier general, and gave most important aid in repelling American invasion. Tecumseth was the most remarkable Indian who had appeared since Pontiac's death. He was now in his forty-second year, tall and finely formed, of dignified carriage, and temperate habits, then, as now, a most unusual trait in the Indian character. While usually of a silent and thoughtful habit, he was remarkably eloquent and forcible in council, anr' exercised great induence there. Unlike his fellows he cared aothing for the decoration of his person, and dressed, like the simplest Indian, in a (leer skin jacket, and in pantaloons of the same material. Although freijuently possessed of considerable sums of money he spent little on himself. His ruling passion was glory, and not wealth. He had a thorough knowledge of the geography of the western country, and was an admirable commander in front of an enemy. He sacrificed his life in defence of his adopted country, and tlius made an imperishable place for himself in its history. To the important aid rendered by the Shawnee and other western tribes, in the outset of the contest, before the militia was properly organised, or reinforcements had arrived from England, may, in a nsat measure, be attributed the preservation of western Canada. lie famous confederacy of the Iroquois had been entirely broken p by the Revolutiouary war. At its close the Mohawks and a 4 • ' 334 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. ri8ii. part of the Oneida, Onondaga and Tuscorora tribes, moved into Canada ; while the remainder of the confederates clung to their ixr cient hunting grounds in western New York, and became the allies of the United States. Under their famous chief, Red Jacket, the Senecas, still a numerous tribe, gave most important assistance to the United States during the war, in which they engaged, in 1813, after issuing a formal declaration of hostilities against the two Canadas.* Nor had the Iroquois, as a people, suffered much diminution in point of numbers. They were about as numerous in 1812 as when Frontenac had invaded their country one hundred and sixteen years before. The Senecas might be said to be the only Indian allies of the Americans during the war. The hostile feeling so generally entertained by the western tribes, and the great influence exercised among them by Tecumseth and his brother, effectually held them at the side of the Br.^tish. "J' V. THE GOVERNMENT OF LIEUT-GENERAL SIR GEORGE PREVOST. General Prevost, the successor of Craig as Governor General end commander-in-chief, arrived at Quebec on the 14th of 1811. November, and at once assumed charge of the civil adminis- tration of Lower Canada. A native of England, and born in May, 1767, he had entered the army at an early age, became lieutenant c Lionel of a battalion of the 60th Rifles, was created a baronet in 1803 for his meritorious services, and in 1808 raised to the rank of lieutenant general, and appointed to the government of Nova Scotia, where his administration was very popular. On his arrival at Quebec, one of his first measures was to visit the different frontier posts on the Richelieu, and to njake himself acquainted with the geographical features of a locality m likely to soon become the theatre of war. The Lower Canadian Parliament met on the 21st of February ; and although it refused to renew the " Alien Bill," or the 1812. statute " for the better preservation of his Majesty's govern- ment," it passed a very liberal militia act. $48,000 were granted for drilling the local militia ; $80,000 more for incidental measures of defence ; while a further sum of $120,000 was plated at the Governor's disposal should war be declared between Great Britain and the United States. The returns laid b-^fore the House showed that the revenue for bho, year ending January r)th amounted to $300,648, the expenses of the civil list to $238,068. Five hundred and thirty-two vessels had cleared, during the yeur, from the port of Quebec, of which thirty-seven had been built there. The Governor pursued a wise and conciliatory policy, and many of the parties who had been deprived, by his predecessor, of their commissions in the juilitia were now reinstated, while Bedard was That-oliP"'". Indian Biography vol. ii. p. 287. See also Nile's Register VCi. IV. 1811.] MATTERSIN LOWER CANADA. 335 IRGE PREVOST. appointed to a district judgship at Three Rivers, as some compen- sation for his illegal imprisonment by Craig. The benefit of this course was soon apparent. On the 28th of May, a general order directed the embodiment of four regiments of miiitia, which were filled up by the habitants with the greatest alacrity. A regiment of Canadian Voltigeurs was also raised, the command of which was given to Major de Salaberry, a Canadian gentleman of French extraction. On the 24th of June it became known at Quebec that Congress had declared war, so all American citizens were warned by the Government to quit the Province by the 3rd of July, On the 30th of June a proclamation was issued imposing an embargo on all vessels in the harbour, and convening the Legislature for the 16th of July. The Assembly acted #with the greatest liberality. A statute to legalise the issue of army bills to the amount of $1,000,000 wa« passed, in order to replenish the public exchequer ; and an annual grant of $60,000 made for five years, to pay what- ever interest might accrue. On the 6th of July the whole militia of the Province had been directed to hold themselves in readiness to be embodied, while the flank companies of the Montreal militia were formed into a battalion and armed. Meanwhile, in Upper Canada, General Brock had been busily employed in making preparations for the contest, which he now saw clearly was approaching. He had some trouble with the Legislature, which he called together on the 3rd of February, and which refused to pass two of his proposed measures, namely, the suspension of the habeas corpus and a militia supplementary act, as it did not think war would take place. No sooner, however, did it perceive its error than a very effective militia bill was passed, and $20,000 granted to defray training expenses. Still, Brock had considerable difficulties to encounter. There were but few troops in the Province, and not sufficient muskets to arm half the militiu ; while, at the same time, the Governor-General informed him no aid need be looked for from England for some months, as tb prevailing there was, that the Orders in Council havin repealed, war would not be declared by the (jniteil/vr troops, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel St. Geoi-ge. The surroundir;:; country was difficult to traverse, and the River Canard, flowing a little distance behind the village, and falling into the Detroit River some three miles above it, offered a favour- able position for checking the advance of an enemy. Off" the mouth of the Canard lay the British sloop of war Queen Charlotte, eighteen guns, which effectually prevented the advance of an armament by water. On the 17th Hull pushed forward, towards Amherstburg, a reconnoitrinf/ detachment, which was speedily driven back by the few troops I'-nd Indians St. George had ambushed at the Canard. Next day bhe Americans, in greater numbers, atttMnptod to force a passage, but with no better success ; aiu". on the 20th they were a third time repulsed. On this occasion two hundred of their army, attempting to ford the river higher up, were put to inglorious flight by twenty-two Indians ; many, in their hurry to escape, throwing away their arms and accoutrements. Hull now be}^.",n to be encumbered with wounded, and the vessel in which were the 1812. CAPTWRE OF DETROIT. 337 hospital stores of his army having been captured, his diiticulties increased. In his rear Mackinaw liad fallen, whi'e Colonel Proctor, who, on the 5th of August, had been sent on by Brock with a small reinforcement, threw a force across the river opposite Amherstburg, which routed two hundred and sixty of the enemy, captured a convoy of provisions, and effectually interrupted his communication with Ohio. Had Hull pushed forward at once, after crossing the river, with resolutioti ajid skill, Amherstburg must have fallen. But the right time for action had been allowed to pass ; the Indians were arriving in considerable numbers to aid the British, the militia also began to muster ; and, worst of all, Brock was advancing from Toronto. On the 7th and 8th, Hull recrossed the river with the whole of his army, except a garrison of two hundred and fifty men left in a small fort he had erected at Sandwich, and established himself at Detroit. From thence he despatched a body of seven hundred men to re-open his communi- cations with Ohio, — a duty effected with heavy loss to themselves, while the British and their Indians allies, although compelled to. retreat, suffered very little. On the other hand. Lieutenant Rochelle, with the boats of the Qmen Charlotte and Hunter^ attacked and captured a boat-convoy of the Americans. After a fatiguing journey by land and water, Brock arrived at Amherst- burg on the night of the 13th, and met the Indians in council on the following morning, when a line of mutual ac*!"n was agi-eed upon. Among the chiefs present was Tecurasetli, In one of the recent skirmishes Hull's despatches, to his govern- ment had been captured. These breathed so desponding a tone, and painted his position in such unfavourable colours,* that Brock determined to attack him before he received tjuccour, a course most amply justified by the result. By the 15th a battery was con- structed on the bank of the river, opposite Detroit, and three guns and two howitzers placed in position, when Brock summoned Hull to surrender. He refused to comply, when the battery opened tire. Next morning the British, numbering in all seven hundred regulars and- militia and six hundred Indians, crossed the river thi-ee miles below the town. Forming lii^ men in column, and throwing out the Indians to cover his tiauks, (General Brock advanced steadily towards the fort. When at the distance of a inUe he luilted to reconnoitre, and ob.serving that scarcely any defensive precautions had been taken at tht' land side, resolved ou an immediate assault. But Hull pi-e^vuted this yjovement by capitulating ; the garrison with troops encampett in the vicinity, amounting altogether to two thousand five huuilre movement. He understood his antagonist, acted as any g.!.ll»nt man would, or should, have acted under the circumstances, and his success constituted tht* best answer to hostile criticism. The great error would have been, in not availing himself of so favourable an opportunity to strike such an importar.t and effective blow at the commencement of hostilities. On the same day on which Detroit surrendered. Brock issued a proclamation to the inhal)itantH of Michigan, confirming them in the full enjoyment of their properties ; and stating, that tli(! existing laws would continue in force until the pleasure of the Crown should be known. Having made such other arrangements as he deemed necessary he returned to Toronto, where, on the 17tli, he was received with the heartfelt acclamations of a grateful peopk'. He would have followed up his successes by an immediate attempt on Fort Niagara, but was prevented by his instructions from Sir George Prevost. The Home (rovernment had hitherto been inclined to pursue a policy of forbearance towards the United States, under the suppo- sition that the Orders in Council having been repealed, the quarrel would soon be arranged. Aggressive measures, it was thought, 1812.] PltOaREbS OF THE WAR. 339 would only tend to exaspenite the Americans, widen the breach, and hinder the establishment of peace. In pui-suance of this line of policy, Prevost had proposed, in the latter part of July, an armistice to the Cominander-in-Chief of the United States' arniv, Major-General Dearborn, ii' liic hope that existing ditterences mii,'ht be speedily arranged. The latter agreed to this measure, excepting, however, H'iirs army ; but the American Secretary of War, General Armstrong, I'efusetl to ratify the armistice, presum- ing it originated in a sense of weakness and danger on tin; part of the British general. The recent invasion oi Canada had l)t!en based on the same principle of combined movement pursued by Amherst. Hull was t(» enter the country at Detroit, and Van llansallaer at the Niagara River, while Dearborn assailed it by way of Liike Oliamplain and the Richelieu. In addition to the; troops as.sembled at tliese points, the Amei'icans had established military posts at various favouralde places along the frontier, whence harassing incursions, which intlicte<^l serious injury on the inhabitants, were fre(|uently made across the boixlor. At (Tanaiiofjue, a little village thirty miles below Kingst«,«v a yv»rty of one hundred and tif':y, led by • (Captain Forsythe, lande*!, ^fofivted a small Ijody of militia, took ^xvssession of some public stores, anci retired after ill-treating the defenceless people v^f the neighbourhood. At Ogdensburg a con- siderabUi foi'ce, under Brigadier Bi'own, sei-iously interrupted the communication between Kingston and Montreal. LieutcMiant- Colonel Lethbridg«,\ commanding at Prescott, on the Canadian side; of the St.. LHwre»»> >s foi-mcd the design of capturing this position, and a(Kamvt} across tlie river, on the 4th of October, under cover of the guns of his own fort. When about mid-channel the enemy op&Nd^l a warm and well-directed tii-e upon his boats, which speedily compelled him to retreat, with a loss of three men killeunded near the opposite shore, vhere the crews after a sharp contest were made prisoners. During a fog a party of British from Fort Krie succetided In boarding ami dismantling the armed brig. A few lives were lost during these occurrences. Owing to the infatuation of the Home Government, which still coutidently looked for the establishuKMit of peace, and had no idea that the coiuiutjst, of Canada was really designetl by the Americans, the lU3rd regiment and a weak battalion of the 1st, or Koyal Scots, with a few recruits, formed, up to this period, the only assistance despatcluKl to Sir Georgia Prevost. Matters along the American frontier l)j,d, in the meantime, assumed a more threatening appearance. Irritated rather than discouraged by the surrender of HtH, preparations by land and water were energeti- 340 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1812. 1 u'.V V ^' ^ ^ . cally pushed forward for the conquest of Upper Canada before the winter set in. General Harrist>n had collected a large artny at the west to revenge the fall of Detroit, while Dearborn instructed Van Ransallaer to penetrate, at Queenston, iirock's line of defence on the Niagara, ar d establish himself permanently in the Proviuce. For this operation the force at his disposal was amply Hufficient, the British regulars and militia collected for the defence of this entire frontier line of thirty dx miles being under two thousand men. But, owing to the exeriioi^s of Brock, who clearly saw the approaching danger, these trcops were in the best possible state of efficiency, and thoroughly on ihe alert. During the 12th Van Ransallaer completed his preparations for attacking Queenston. The following mu<'ning was cold and stormy, but nevertheless his troops were embarked in boats at an early htur, and everything made ready to push across the river with the first blush of dawn These movements were soon discovered by the British sentries, who gave the alarm. Captain Dennis o : the 49th, who commanded at Queenston, immediately collected, at the landing place, two companies of his regiment and about one hundred of the militia to oppose the enemy, whom he held in check for a considerable time, aided by the fire of an eigh teen-pounder in position on the heights above, and a masked gun about a mile lower down. A portion of the Americans, however, landed higher up, and ascending by an unguarded path, turned the British flank, captured the eighteen-pounder, and speedily compelled Dennis, who had sustained considerable loss, to retreat to the north end of the village. Here he was met by General Brock, who had heard the cannonade at Niagara, and pushed forward, in company with his aides-de-camp. Major Glegg and Colonel M'Donnell, to ascertain its cause. Having learned how matters stood, he dismounted from his horse, and resolving to carry the heights, now fully in possession of the Americans, placed himself at the head of a company of the 49th, and, waving his sword, led them to the charge in double-quick time, under a heavy fire from the enemy's riflemen. Ere long one of these singled out the general, took deliberate aim, fired, and the gallant Brock, without a word, sank down to rise no more. The 49 th now raised a shout to " revenge the general !" when regulars and militia madly rushed forward, and drove the enemy, despite their superior numbers, from the summit of the hill. By this time the Americans had been strongly reinforced, and the British, who had never exceeded three hundred altogether, finding themselves almost surrounded, were compelled to retire, having sustained a loss in killed, wounded and prisoners, of nearly one hundred men, including S3veral officers. They reformed in front of the onu-gun battery, already stated as being a mile below Queenston, to await the arrival of assistance. Van Ransallaer had, therefore, made a solid lodgment on Canadian soil with nearly a thousand men, and after giving orders to form an intrenched 1812.1 1-1 THE BATTLE OF QUEENSTON. 341 i- leir superior camp, recrossed the river to send over reinforcements. But the American militia, having now .seen enough of hard fighting, were .suddenly seized with conscientious scruples about going out of their own territory, and comparatively few crossed over to the assistance of their comrades beyond the river, who were thus left to shift for themselves. Earl> in the afternoon, a demonstration was made against the American position, in the most gallant manner, by young Brant, at the head of some fifty Mohawks. These after a sharp skirmish were compelled to retire, owing to the steady front presented by Colonel, afterwards General, Scott, who had mean- while arrived, and assumed the chief com)nand, Wadsworth, a militia general on the Held, waiving his right thereto.* But the British had no intention of surrendering Queenston so easily. Major General Sheaffe, an American by birth, assumed the chief command on Brock's death, and having collected all the troops at Niagara and Chippewa, moved forward in admirable order to drive the enemy from their formidable position. His force, inclusive of one hundred Indians, was under one thousand men, of whom only five hundred and sixty were regulars, with two small guns. After making a long detour to the right, to gain the open ground in rear of the lieights, Sheaffe began the attack by an advance of his left, which, after delivering a volley, charged with the bayonet, and drove in Scott's right. He then advanced his main body, and, after a sharp conflict, a part of the enemy were driven back over the first ridge of heights to the road leading to the Falls, while another portion let tliemselves down, with the aid of the roots and bushes, towards the river, hotly pursued by the Indians, who were with difficulty withdrawn. Resistance was now out of the question, and the Americans, to the amount of nine hundred and fifty regulars and militia, surrendered. So completely had they been scattered, that hardly tln-ee hundred men remaine ^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 ■so ■ 36 I.I lis iU US 1^ lii|22 2.0 IM m '^ |125 ,u J4 ^ 6" - ► '-^ v5 ' ■ ♦. .;■■(• '•• •'■'.•. ', ■*' v^ . ♦ ■.< 342 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1812. beau ideal of a gallant warrioc. He fell at the early age of forty- two, just as his harvest-time of honour and. distinction had begun, and his country had learned to regard his opening career with pride. He was iispected by all classes — by friend and foe alike, and minute guns from the American as well as from the British batteries bore honourable testimony to his great personal worth, as he was buried at Fort George, on the 16th of October, side by side with Colonel M'Donnell, in a grave watered with the tears of brave soldiers and sorrowing citizens. Brock's name has not been forgotten ; the people of Canada still cherish his memory ; and while the current of the Niagara speeds past the scene of his death, he will occupy an honourable place in the pages of its history. On the day after the battle of Queenston, Van Ransallaer requested an armistice of three days, to enable him to take care of his wounded and bury his dead, which was granted by SheaflFe, on condition of destroying his boats, which was immediately complied with. On the 15th Wadsworth and all the principal officers were paroled, with the exception of Scott, who refused to be liberated, and was sent down to Montreal with the other prisoners of the regular army. The militia were all permitted to return to their homes, on condition of not serving during the war. Among the prisoners were twenty-three men who admitted themselves to have been British-bor'n subjects, and were sent to England to be tried as traitors. The Americans subsequently retaliated, by threatening to hang an equal number of their prisoners if any ill befell these men. They were ultimately released, and the matter terminated. Scott had angry words about them with the Biitish general at Niagara, and refused to be paroled on that account.* On the 16th Van Ransallaer, disgusted, as he said, with the conduct of the militia, requested permission from Dearborn to resign his command. The latter assented, and directed Brigadier- General Smyth to assume control of the United States' army on the Niagara frontier. This otHcer immediately applied for an armistice of thirty days, which Sheafie agreed to, though on what ground does not appear. Probably he anticipated the arrival of reinforce- mer.ts, and considered that any course which retarded hostilities against his command would be beneficial to Canadian interests, slenderly guarded as the frontier was. But the advantage was altogether on the enemy's side, who was thus allowed breatiiing space to recruit after his defeat, and to make preparations undisturbed for fresh operations. Hostilities, however, still continued in other directions. A body of Americans, four hundred strong, led by Major Young, surprised, at St. Regis, the picket, composed of Canadian voyageurs, killed their officer and seven men, and carried off twenty-three prisoners. A counter-attack by the • He was subsefiuently paroled by Sir Ceorge Prevosfc, and most dis- honourably broke it. Several other American officers did the same. [1812. 1812.J PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 343 age of forty- on had begun, ig career with and foe alike, Dm the British ersonal wortli, ctober, side by th the tears of 3 has not been memory and e scene of his 3 pages of its an Ransallaei' :o take care of by Sheaffe, on ately complied il officers were ) be liberated, •risoners of the eturn to their . Among tjie iselves to have I to be tried as jy threatening II befell these er terminated, ish general at said, with the Dearborn to ted Brigadier- s' army on the jran armistice what ground 1 of reinforce- ded hostilities ian interests, dvantage was wed breathing preparations owever, still four hundred is, the picket, nd seven men, ittack by the ami most (lis- i same. British was soon after made in the same neighbourhood, when three officers and forty-one privates of the enemy were made prisoners. The month of November had now set in, bleak, cold and cheer- less, yet the Americans persisted in their schemes of conquest. Dearborn, at the head of an army of ten thousand men, hung upon the confines of Lower Canada ; Smyth, with five thousand men, occupied the Niagara frontier : while Harrison, the bravest and most formidable of them all, wi^h his Kentucky forest-rangers and Ohio sharp-shooters, threatened the weak British force under Proctor in the distant west. At the sjime time. Commodore Chauncey had, by enormous exertions, equipped a fleet on Lake Ontario, which now forced the Canadian shipping to remain under the guns of the forts at Kingston, Toronto, and Niagara. Chauncey was generous as he was brave. In his first cruise he captured two schooners. On board of one of these he found the plate of General Brock, which he restored to his brother, a captain of the 49th, who had it in charge, in testimony of the high respect in which he held the deceased officer. Dearborn had established his headquarters at Plattsburg, and despatched from thence a strong body of infantry and a troop of dragoons, to make a reconnaissance towards the British advanced posts in the neighbourhood of Rouses Point. On the morning of the 20th, before day, these troops surrounded a guard-hut in which were a few Canadians and Indians, who returned their fire, and safely escaped in the confusion. The Americans tired upon each other in the dark, and killed and wounded several of themselves. On discovering their mistake they retired. Dreading an invasion in force, General Prevost now directed the whole militia of the Province to hold themselves prepared for active service. The greatest enthusiasm was manifested, and the militia of the district of Mon' real moved en masse on the point of threatened irivasion, to repel the enemies of their country. Dearborn now saw the fruitlessness of attempting a descent on Montreal, and began to withdraw his sickly and enfeebled troops from the frontier, in order to place them in winter quarters. All prospects of invasion, from the direction of Lake Champlain, having thus terminated, the British general ordered the troops and militia to return. While these events were transpiring in Lower Canada, the armistice between Smyth and Sheaffe, as regarded their respective commands, had drawn to a close. Every preparation had )nean- while been made for another descent upon Canada, which, this time, was to be effected between Chippewa and Fort Erie. For the defence of this frontier, fully twenty-one i^iiles in extent, there were less than seven hundred regulars and militia, while the American " army of the centre," as it was magniloquently styled, was at least five thousand strong. • After a gasconading proclama- tion in the Napoleonic style, which would lead one to doubt Smyth's common sense, a division of fourteen scows, with about four i- *. . I . -I. \.\m>^ •■■■•' r^.-'-^' '^.i;; I. '' '• 1 - ■• '., "»* .« . '* * ' ':W . . k •■■ •V 1 , 344 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1812. hundred men on board, crossed the river at the upper end of Grand Isle, before day on the morning of the 28th. They succeeded in carrying a four-gun battery defended by sixty-five men of the 49th regiment and three officers. Thirty of these were made prisoners, including Lieutenants King and Lamont ; the remainder, under Lieutenant Hartley, made a stout defence, but were ultimately compelled to retire. The bulk of the American force then returned across the river, leaving a few officers and forty men behind, who were all made prisoners, after a feeble resistance, by a detachment from Fort Erie. At 7 a. m., eighteen scows advanced across the river to effect a landing. A few rounds from a six-pounder sunk two of these, and, with the aid of a steady fire of musketry, threw the remainder into confusion, and compelled the enemy to retire. Smyth's failure and disgrace was complete. His inflated procla- mations had raised the expectations of the American people to the highest point, and his want of success depressed their spirits in proportion. To see their " army of the centre" held efTectually at bay by a force scarcely one-sixth of its number, was a source of bitter indignation to the Democracy of the United States. Smyth was appropriately nicknamed General Van Bladder. His own soldiers despised him, and he had finally to flee from the camp to escape their indignation. He was universally denounced as a traitor and coward, was hooted and shot at in the streets of Buffalo, and the tavern-keepers shut their doors in his face. Government, meanly sharing the feeling of the populace, cashiered him without trial, and was sustained in this arbitrary act by the Senate of the United States. Yet Smyth was an officer of the regular American ai'ray, which is cursed by the same seniority system prevailing in the British service. Men, however, are advanced continually from the ranks to the grade of commissioned officers in the latter, while in the United States' regular army no private can rise, as a rule, above the position of a sergeant. The American military service is the most aristocratic of any in the world, and all its officers must be graduates of West Point. The campaign of 1812 against Canada terminated, as we have seen, in most humiliating defeat and disgrace. Large armies had been repelled by a few regular troops, aided by the Canadian militia, whose patriotism and unflinching courage did them the greatest honour. These results strengthened, in no small degree, the influence of the peace party in the United States. It was now clearly seen that the Canadians, as a people, were sincerely attach- ed to their union with Great Britain ; and that the war, as it went on, had assumed more and more the character of an unprincipled invasion of unoffending neighbours. Shortly after Smyth's defeat, the Legislature of Maryland declared, by a series of resolutions, that the war was incompatible with republican principles, opposed to their interests and impolitic ; and that Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, had acted constitutionally in refusing their i :' 1813.J NAVAL OPERATIONS. 345 Mr. i. quota of militia. In Congress, on the 2nd of January, Quincey denounced the liostile course pursued by its majority. "We seized the first opportunity,'" said he, "to 1813. carry the war among the harmless colonists. It was not owing to our government that the bones cf the Canadians were not mixed with the ashes of their habitations, Since the invasion of the buccaneers, there was nothing in history more disgraceful than this war." Such were the sentiments which actuated, at this period, the right-minded portion of the people of the United States. But unfortunately for the cause of freedom, justice and humanity, the Democratic faction retained a small majority in Congress, and resolved to inflict still further the evils of war on tiie hapless Canadians, whom it was their interest to have regarded as friends and neighbours. While the Americans, during 1812, were unsuccessful in their hostile operations by land, they achieved some remarkable successes at sea, the last place to expect them. Their navy, although small, was an admirable one, their vessels very large for their class, fast sailers, and well-equipped ; while, at the same time, their idle merchant marine enabled them to man their ships with the best picked crews procurable. On the other hand, constant success had made the British careless as to the equipment of their frigates and smaller craft ; and with fully a thousand vessels of war, of all sizes, in commission, and a desire for economy on the part of the Admiralty, effectiveness of detail was frequently much neglected. The result of this state of things was, that the British had very soon the mortification to see several of their ships of war captured at sea, and their commerce greatly injured by the fast sailing and well-equipped American cruisers ; and it seemed, for a time, as if Britannia no longer ruled the waves. Several of the American frigates were literally cut down seventy-four gun ships,* and all their fleet was largely manned by British seamen seduced from their allegiance. On the 19th of August one of these large frigates, the Constitution, of 56 guns, and a crew of 460 men of all ranks, captured the English frigate Guerriere, of 48 guns, and 244 men. The guns of the Constitution threw a weight of metal fully fifty per cent, more than those of the Guerriere ; independent of other disadvantages on the side of the latter ship, which was returning home from a long voyage, greatly out of repair, and her powder damp and so reduced in strength. Her captain, Dacres, fought her bravely, however, and only surrendered after sustaining a loss of 15 killed and 63 wounded ; while the Constitution, owing to her commanding heiglit, only lost 9 killed and 1 1 wounded. The Guerriere was so badly damaged that she coald not be kept afloat, and was set on fire by her captors, f On the 16th of October, the brig Frolic, convoying several Jainea' Naval History, vol. viii. p.2. t Dacres Report August 2l8t 1812. ri . ... .* :,- .; ;. ;. ■*' ". rf • ". I I 346 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. 1 1812. merchant, vessels from Honduras to England, met with a violent gale which seriously damaged her masts and sails. While in this crippled condition, and her crew engaged in making repairs, she was attacked by the United States sloop of war Wasp, and captured after a severe action, in which she lost 30 killed and 45 wounded. When the Americans took possession of her only three officers and the man at the wheel, were found alive on deck. On the afternoon of the same day a British man-of-war fell in with and captured both vessels, and sent them into Bermuda. Seven days afterwards the Macedonia, of 38 guns and 246 men, was captured by the frigate United States, of 44 guns and 474 men, commanded by Commodore Decatur. The weight of the Macedonia's shot was 528 lbs, that of the United States 864 lbs. The British loss was 36 killed and 68 wounded. The American loss was only 5 killed and 10 wounded. Two-thirds of the United States' crew were British sailors. On the 29th of December, tlie Java frigate, while on her way to India with recruits, was attacked by the Constitution, and surrendered after a fierce battle of four hours' duration, and sustaining a loss of 22 killed and 92 wounded, out of a crew of 292 men, nearly one-third of whom were raw landsmen from Ireland. The Constitution lost 10 killed and 48 wounded. These single combat successes at sea, helped to keep up the spirits of the war party in the United States, and were regarded as a compensation for the se\ere defeats sustained on land. At the same time, they had the salutary effect of teaching the English Admiralty the necessity of looking more carefully after the equipment of its frigates and smaller craft, and so as to place them on a better footing to meet the large and finely equipped vessels of the American fleet. Between this fleet, and the swarm of privateers set afloat to prey upon the vast ocean commerce of Great Britain, 305 prizes, large and small, were captured during the year, — a heavy loss to its mercantile marine. CHAPTER XIV. t THE GOVERNMENT OF SIR GEORGE FliY.\OST,— continued. THE CAMPAIGN OF 1813. THE Legislature of Lower Canada assembled on the 29th of December, and at an early period of the session took measures to provide for the increased expenditure entailed by the war. The Army Bill Act was renewed and extended ; 1812. and, in agreement with its provisions, 82,000,000 were 1813. authorised to be put into circulation, $60,000 were granted to equip the embodied militia, $4000 to provide hospitals for their use, and $100,000 for general purposes of defence. In addition to these sums, two and-a-half per cent, on all merchandise imported into the Province, except provisions, were also granted to the Government for the support of the war, as well as a second two and-a-half per cent, on goods brought in by persons not resident for six months in the country. In Upper Canada the Legislature was convened on the 25th of February, by General Sheaffe, and passed several necessary m^iasures. Among these was one to facilitate the circulation in the Province of the army bills issued in Lower Canada, and making them a legal tender in all public offices. Another act authorised the Government to prohibit the exportation of grain, and restrain distillation therefrom, owing to an apprehended scarcity of food. Pensions were granted to widows and orphans of militiamen killed in the war ; the sale of liquors to the Indians was prohibited for a specific period ; and several other useful bills passed. In the United States the disasters of the recent campaign had produced great dissatisfaction among the majority of its citizens, who now began to realise, more fully than ever, that the sub- jugation of Canada was a hopeless task. Still, the war party determined to persevere in the endeavour to force their yoke on an unwilling people, yet evidently more fro' i a desire to restore their tarnished military reputation, than from the lust of conquest. But the unsatisfactory prospects now before them, independent of the cpntinuance of a profitletis and disastrous war, gave renewed ri;.; »* ]*■«.■■■. 04. I , f ' ■•■.'. ■ k- J. ',.•. A■^ , ■• . •. * -^ 348 THE HISTORV OF CANADA. [1813. strength to the American peace party. The heavy taxes imposed to defray the largely increased public expenditure, and the almost total sto^ijage of commerce of every kind, added greatly to the popu- lar discontent ; and the stern pressure of adversity had already begun to teach the American Democracy wisdom. The people's murmurs now compelled their government to recede, in some measure, from its position of inveterate hostility towards Great Britain and the Canadas, In the month of March a message from President Madison to Congress recommended the repeal of the Non- importation Act, which was speedily carried into p^iictical effect. High as its hopes of conquest had been Congress now saw fit to lower its tone of defiance, and not only repealed the Non- importation Act but the Embargo Act as well. Sanguine hopes were thus awakened throughout the Union, that hostilities would speedily be terminated. But the American people were soon undeceived on this head. They had endeavoured to grasp Canada when almost wholly unprotected by regular troops, and, as they supposed, entirely at their mercy, but had been repelled, principal- ly by its gallant militia. They had striven to drive Great Britain from her last foothold in their neighbourhood, and the attempt had so far mainly resulted in defeat and disgrace ; and further punish- ment was now at hand. On the 25th of April Great Britain replied to the pacific overtures of Congress, by declaring the whole American seaboard in a state of blockade. This declaration added largely to the existing discontent, and for a time it appeared as if the New England States would secede from the Union. The direct taxes had already advanced fully fifty per cent., various new imposts had been added ; and so low had the credit of the country fallen that its government could not negotiate a loan, and was compelled to issue treasury bills to supply the want of a circulating medium. Meanwhile, the campaign in the west had opened favourably for Canada, There General Harrison hovered on the borders of Michigan, prepared to strike a blow for its recovery on the first opportunity. Colonel Proctor, who still commanded at Detroit, had established several outposts in that neighbourhood ; one of which at Frenchtown, about twenty-six miles distant on the River Raisin, was composed of thirty of the Essex militia, under Major Reynolds, and two hundred Indians. Winchester, who command- ed a brigade of Harrison's army, detached Colonel Lewis with a strong body of troops, on the 17th of January, to drive the British and their allies from this post. This purpose was effected after a sharp action, in which the Americans had twelve killed and fifty wounded, when Reynolds fell back upon Brownstown, sixteen miles in his rear, Lewis maintained his position at Frenchtown undisturbed, and was there joined by Winchester with the remainder of his brigade, which numbered altogether nearly one thousand regular troops. - . Proctor's position was daily becoming more critical, and he now I'll e" ■: ■ «< 1813.] PROCTOR'S VICTORY. 349 and he now resolved to attack Winchester before Harrison, who was three or four days' march behind, came up, and beat the enemy in detail. Collecting his disposable force, consisting of live hundred regulars, seamen and militia, and six hundred Indians, at Brownstown, on the •Jlst, he pushed forward to Swan Creek, a short distance from Frenchtown, where he bivouacked for the night. Next morning, before day, he made preparations for attacking the enemy, whom he assailed at the tirst liglit of dawn by rapidly driving in his pickets on the main body, when the action became general. Winchester's left flank was speedily turned by the Indians, his line of battle broken, and he found liimself so hardly pressed that he was compelled to retreat. He was soon afterwards captured by the Wyandot chief, Roundhead, who brought him to Proctoi.* About four hundred of his men had in the meantime thrown them- selves into the houses of the village, where they continued to make a desperate defence till it was threatened to burn them out, when they surrendered.! In this action the enemy lost about two hundred and fifty men in killed, including several officers ; one brigadier-general, (Winchester,) three field officers, nine captains, twenty subalterns, and over five hundred privates were made prisoners. The loss of the British was also severe, and amounted to twenty-four killed, and one hundred and fifty-eight v/ounded.| The prompt and spirited conduct of Proctor completely checked, for the time, any forward movement on the part of Harrison, who even considered it prudent to retire farther back till he i-eceived reinforcements. Nor did the gallant conduct of Proctor go unrewarded. The Legislature of Lower Canada, then in session, tendered him a unanimous vote of thanks for his skill and intrepidity, while General Prevost raised him to the rank of brigadier-general, a measure afterwards confirmed by the Prince Regent. During the winter the St. Lawrence above the rapids is usually so firmly frozen over, that the heaviest loads may cross in safety. The officer commanding the American force at Ogdensburg availed himself of this circumstance to despatch marauding parties into Canada, which, on several occasions, treated the peaceable inhabitants with cruelty. One of these forays, made by two companies of riflemen commanded by Captain Forsythe, on the night of the 6th of February, was directed against the village of Brockville, twelve miles up the river. After wounding a sentry, and firing into several houses, the enemy ^rried off fifty-two of the inhabitants as prisoners, the greater part of whom, however, were released in a few days. * Proctor's Despatch to SheafFe, 26th of January, 1813. + Winchester to the American Secretary of War, January 181.3. Harrison to Governor Shelby. 24th of January, 1813, t Christie, vol, ii p. 70. The greater part of the American wounded were massacred by the Indians in revenge for their own loss. 4 *• • ,i ■ •, ■\"> ■■ . ,.*'.' '\ '%• ' . •• « / \ < * 350 THE HTSTOllY OF CANADA. [1813. (}(m(!ral Pr(!Vf)st, now on a tour throu^^li Upper Canada, arriv«Ml at Pnjscott on tin; 21st, and (liroot(!tured with tlu; l);i,yon(!t, although the d(!ef) snow retarded his arlvarice, and caused greater loss than would hav(! otherwise f)een sustaincid. TIh! en(Mnv fled acj-oss the Osw(!gatchie River, or retired intf) houses, wlunicfi tlxiy k(!pt up a galling fire till IVT'DoniKill brought up his field-pieces, wiiich .speedily dislodged them. Whihi the;e successes were achieved by the; main column, the oth(!r, composed of one hunflrefl and fifty iin^n, and led by Captain Jenkins, moved towards Fort La Presentation, and soon found themselves under a battery of .seven guns, which they gallantly endeavounid to carry. Captain Jerjkins, wiiile leading the charg * 1 1 ■ ■ •■ ■ v^ , .» ■• Aineriuaiis at once halted, being under the idea that the British were about to surrender. The next moment the head of their column was literally blown into the air, owing to an artillery sergeant, of the name of Marshall, firing the powder magazine to prevent its falling into their hands. Had they advanced a little nearer the greater part of the Americans must have been destroyed ; as it was they had two hundred killed and wounded. Among the latter was General Pike, who died in a few hour§. Several British soldiers were also killed by the explosion, which shook the town nnd surrounding waters as though it had been an earthquake. American writers censure SheafFe for blowing up the magazine, and denoun^.'^ it as a piece of unparalleled barbarity ; but acts of this kind are perfectly legitimate in warfare, and of frequent occurrence. The Americans were there solely for the purpose of conquest and aggrandisement ; and their invasion was accordingly of that odious stamp, ns to make it only a subject of regret that their whele column was not blown up. In any case Sheaffe had nothing to do with it, and with Marshall, who acted without any orders from his superiors, solely rested the responsibility.* It now became evident that the few British troops and militia would not be able to resist an enemy so vastly their superior in numbers and artillery. The garrison was accordingly withdi'awn towards the town, a second powder magazine blown up, and a ship on the stocks as well as the naval stores destroyed. These operations completed. General SheafFe i-etired towards Kingston with his few regular troops, leaving Lieutenant-Colonel Chewett of the militia, to treat with the enemy, who now gained possession of the town after an obstinate contest with a force scarcely one- third his number, not taking his navy into consideration, of seven hours' duration. Sheaffe, however, suffered much in the public ^ estimation, on account of his failure in defending Toronto, and was shortly afterwards superseded in the chief command of Upper Canada by Major-General de Rottenberg. On his return to the Lower Province, he was appointed to command the troops in the district of Montreal, t The British loss in this action was severe, one hundred and thirty having been killed and wounded ; that of the Americans was much more serious, and swelled up to nearly three hundred and fifty. The militia, to the number of two hundred and ninety- three, surrendered as prisoners of war. The regular troops, as we have already seen, effected an orderly retreat, and it is a matter of surprise chat Sheaffe did not also take the militia with him, in which case the Americans would have had no prisoners to boast of. As it was, they got possession of the militia muster roll, and endeavoured to swell up the list of captives by including all the men enumerated, but the greater part of whom were absent. * Auchinleck p. 152. tSheaffe's Despatch to General Prevost, Kingston, 5th of May 1813, [1813. the British id of their a artillery aagazine to •ed a little have been d wounded. few hour^. ).sion, which lad been an blowing up I barbarity ; •fare, and of lely for the nvasion was a subject of In any case ^rshall, who J rested the s and militia r superior in y withdrawn p, and a ship red. These is Kingston nel Chewett d possession carcely one- Dn, of seven ;i the public nto, and was of Upper turn to the roops in the lundred and e Americans iree hundred and ninety- roops, as we a matter of with him, in to boast of. ter roll, and tiding all the pbsent. Vlay 1813, 1813.J CAPTURE OF FORT GEORGE. 393 : ■ Having succeeded in his attack on Toronto, and destroyed such public stores as he could not carry off, the enemy re-embarked on the 2nd of May and sailed for Niagara, the capture of Fort George Vjeing the next part of his plan. Having landed the troops in a favourable position in its neighbourhood, Chauncey returned to Sackett's Harbour for reinforcements. These were speedily brought up, and by the 25th his fleet, with the exception of two vessels left cruising near Kingston, was again assembled ofif Niagara. For the defence of Fort George, now so seriously menaced by a large fleet and army, G^eneral Vincent, commanding on the Niagara frontier, had scarcely fourteen hundred men. But, what was still worse, the works of Fort George were not by any means strong ; the guns were of smaller calibre than they should b^, and the supply of powder wholly insuflicient, owing to the enemy having complete command of the lak?, and the great difficulty of transporting stores by land. On the 26th, Fort Niagara, on the American bank of the river, opened a heavy cannonade, by which Fort George was considerably injured. Next morniug this cannonade was resumed, and being supported by several vessels of the fleet, the heavy cross fire soon rendered the fort untenable. Chauncey posted the remainder of his vessels in advantageous positions, to cover the landing of the American troops, and swept the beach with a shower of shot and shell. Still, the British gallantly held their ground, and repulsed three attempts of the enemy to land. But Vincent, after a severe struggle of three hours' duration, finding it useless longer to oppose a force four times his own in point of numbers, and supported by a powerful fleet, directed the guns to be spiked and the magazine blown up, and retreated in excellent order towards Queenston, leaving the Americans to take possession of the ruins of Fort George and a few damaged houses.* On the following day, having withdrawn the garrisons from Fort Erie and all the posts downwards, Vincent, whose force was thus increased to sixteen hundred men, continued his retreat to Forty Mile Creek, on the road to Hamilton. The British loss during the recent action was fifty-two killed and three hundred wounded and taken prisoners. The loss of the enemy was thirty-nine killed and one hundred and eleven wounded, t Meanwhile Harrison, notwithstanding the annihilation of Winchester's Brigade, still persevered in his determination to drive the British across the Detroit River and recover Michigan. With this view he established himself, in the first days of spring, at the foot of the rapids of the Miami, where he constructed a block-house and other works to form a safe depot for his stores, as well as a base for offensive operations when his reinforcements came up. Proctor's plan was to beat the enemy in detail, and he now resolved ♦ Vincent's Despatch to General Prevost, 28th of May, 1813. AliBon's JEEiat. Europe, vol. iv. p. 465. t Chriitie, vol. ii. pp. 75, 76. ' 1 ^ ■ ':'yi\ *• Vi. " ^ ^' ■ t t M . , %;:. !••■ . 1 ,'. • 'I i • • • t. r, lLA' 864 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1813. to attack Harrison while his force was yet comparatively weak. Collecting five hundred and twenty regulars, four hundred and sixty militia, and fifteen hundred Indians, with a few pieces of artillery, he accordingly proceeded, en the 23rd of April, to assail the eneiny. As usual, at this season of the year, the roads were very heavy, and presented a serious obstacle to the passage of cannon. By the 1st of May, however, Fort Meigs was invested and a heavy fire opened on the works, which sustained very little damage, owing to the small calibre of the besiegers' guns. On the morning of the 5th, two American regiments, twelve hundred strong, under Brigadier Clay, having come up, the besieged made .a vigorous sally, carried the British batteries, and pursued the Indians who fell back steadily though rapidly. Proctor's main body getting speedily under arms, he succeeded in cutting off the retreat of his assailants by a rapid and judicious movement, and after a sharp action a great part of tbo enemy was either killed or -aptured. Upwards of five hundred prisoners were taken on this occasion, several of whom were afterwards massacred by the Indians, who were restrained from further excesses only with the greatest difficulty, and the personal influence of Tecumseth. Several of the British soldiers on guard over the prisoners were wounded in endeavouring to shield them from the fury of the savages ; and one old veteran was shot through the heart. Proctor's victory was most complete. The enemy had lost over seven hundred men in killed, wounded, and prisoners ; while the casualties of the British were only fifteen killed and forty-five wounded.* But, half his militia left soon after the battle, being unwilling to undergo the fatigues of a siegd, and a deputation of chiefs waited upon him to counsel him to return, as their people (as usual after an engagement of consequence) desired to go home, to take care of their wounded, and dispose of their plunder, of which they had taken a large quantity. Thus Proctor had no alternative save to raise the siege and retire, which he did undisturbed, carrying off his guns and stores, f Still, the offensive operations of Harrison were completely paralysed for the time ; and he had to await fresh reinforcements before he could resume the initiative in the campaign. This victory raised, in some measure, the spirits of the Cana- dians, considerably depressed by the capture of Toronto and Fort George, the possession of the Niagara frontier by Dearborn's large army, and the complete command of Lake Ontario obtained by Chauncey's fleet. Matters, however, soon began to assume a better appearance in Upper Canada. Sir James Yeo, a naval officer of distinction, arrived at Quebec on the 5th of May, with several officers of the royal navy and four hundred and fifty seamen • Alison's Hist. Europe, New York, vol. iv. p. 465 + Proctor's Despatches to Governor Prevost, 14th of May 181.3. Chi vol. ii. pp. 81, M2. Auchinleck's Hist, of the War of 1812, pp. 142-144. Christie, i •'. •*ltli:\ 1813.J ATTACK ON SACKETT'S HARBOUR. 355 isoners were for the lakes. Captains Barclay, Pring and Finnis, had already come up overland from H.'.!;' ami were busily engaged at Kingston in putting the flee a state of preparation to meet the enemy. The Governor-General accompanied Yeo to Kingston, and the public began to look forward to important offensive operations. Nor were they disappointed. The enemy's fleet was still at the head of the lake, and it was now determined to make a dash at Sackett's Harbour, the great depot of the American naval and military stores. On the 27th of May, the British fleet, consisting of seven armed vessels, mounting altogether one hunrlred guns, left Kingston with nearly one thousand troops on board, led by Sir George Prevost in person, for Sackett's Harbour, where it arrived at noon next day. The troops were immediately placed in flat-bottomed boats, or scows, preparatory to advancing against the enemy, while Prevost proceeded two miles nearer inshore to reconnoitre. Deem- ing the works too strong to be captured by his force, he ordered the troops to re-embark, and this being effected the ships wore round and stood for Kingston with a light wind. About forty Indians had accompanied the fleet in their canoes ; who, not understanding why the troops were prevented from landing, determined to effect something on their own responsibility. They accordingly rowed towards land, and their appearance so terrified some seventy dismounted dragoons, that they hoisted a white flag as a signal to the British shipping for protection, and were prompt- ly taken on board.* Prevost now finding that the Americans were not so formidable after all changed his mind, and determined to attack them on the following day. The indecision and delay were fatal to the objects of the expedition. Had the troops pushed boldly on shore at once, Sackett's Harbour must have been captured, and the immense stores collected there destroyed, which would have effectually crippled the enemy's operations on Lake Ontario. But, during the night, the militia collected from all quarters, and a sharp action ensued as the British effected a landing. Led by Adjutant-General Baynes, the latter soon dislodged the Americans with the bayonet, pursued them to their fort and block-houses, and set fire to their barracks. Their militia scattered in all directions, leaving about four best able 'dered the naval store-houses, hospital, and marine barracks to ' set on fire, and prepared to surrender. Unfortunately, at this crisis, the fleet hnl not yet come up ; there were, therefore, no guns to batter the block-houses, and Prevost, deeming the rlust raised by the runaway militia to be caused by a column advancing to aid the enemy, directed a retreat. This was immediately 'lundred regular troops, under General Brown, to make the efence they could. t This oflficer, believing the post unten- • Auchinleck p. 162. t cVlison'a Hist. Europe vol. iv. p. 465. J- *1 Frost's United States, p. 364, 306 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1813. » I ' ' : '} ■*♦ * t « \ ■ ■ ■•■ eflfected, to the great regret and mortification of the British troops, while not an American soldier dared to show himself. Still, the enemy suffered severe loss ; and all the plunder taken at Toronto was consumed in the burned buildings. A frigate on the stocks had also been set fire to ; but on discovering the retreat of their assailants, the Americans returned and extinguished the flames.* In this action the British lost one officer and forty-seven men killed, and twelve officers and nearly two hundred men wounded and missing ; the loss of the enemy was also heavy. But, severely as they suffered, our troops had won a complete victory, and little further loss, if indeed any, would have been entailed in capturing the entire position, and destroying all the enemy's stores, f The public were severely disappointed, and Prevost's military reputa- tion suffered a shock from which it never recovered. | The capture of Toronto and Fort George, and the retreat of General Vincent towards the head of Lake Ontario, had enabled Dearborn to establish himself in a solid manner on the Niagara frontier. But these successes effected little, after all, towards the complete subjugation of Upper Canada. Vincent, with a small yet highly efficient force, occupied a good position on Burlington Heights, and was a formidable foe, although almost destitute of resources, and with only ninety rounds of ammunition per man. Had Dearborn despatched a force in vigorous pursuit of Vincent on his retreat from Fort George, he might have seriously embarrassed and perhaps defeated him. But his efforts in this respect were languid in the extreme, and the month of June had already set in before he endeavoured to retrieve his error. He now despatched two brigades of infantry, three thousand strong, and two hundred and fifty cavalry, with nine field-pieces, to dislodge the British from their position. On the 5th of June Vincent first . received intelligence of the approach of this formidable force, by the retreat of his advanced pickets from Stony Creek, where the Americans formed their camp for the night. The condition of the British General was now extremely critical. In his rear Toronto had fallen, the lake on his left flank presented no prospect of succour, and an enemy twice his strength, with a formidable train of artillery, threatened him in front. Unfortunately as he was situated he saw that he must hazard a battle. While still undecided what course to pursue, he despatched Lieutenant-Colonel Harvey to reconnoitre the enemy's position. This officer soon ascertained that the American pickets were few and negligent, and their line of encampment long and broken. He accordingly proposed a night- attack to Vincent, who at once gave his consent, hoping to accomplish by surprise what his small force and want of ammuni- tion must hinder him from effecting in the open field. * Christie, vol. ii. plj). 79, 80. $ Christie, vol, ii. p. 81 f Baynes's Report to General Prevost. :•.. 1813.] SUCCESSFUL NIGHT ATTACK. 357 leral Prevost. Towards midnight the British force, consisting of the 49th regiment and a part of the 8th, and mustering altogether only seven hundred and four bayonets, moved silently forward to attack the American camp, distant about six miles. Arrived in its neighbourhood Vincent intrusted the command of the assault to Harvey, who speedily succeeded in surprising and capturing the enemy's outlying pickets, witiiout alarming his main body. -lis duty performed, the little band pushed swiftly yet regularly down upon the centre of the hostile camp, where in a few minutes all was confusion and dismay. The Americans were driven from their tents and scattered in all directions by the charges of the British, who fearing, however, to expcao their small numbers to view retired ere the day dawned, with Brigadiers Chandler and Winder, one hundred and twenty other prisorers, and four captured guns. The British did not, however, achieve this brilliant success with- out loss. One ofiicer and twenty-two men were killed, and twelve officers and one hundred and eighty men wounded and missing. But the loss of the enemy was also severe, aside from the injurious effects a night attack, so well executed, had on the spirits of his men. This was soon evinced by tht lapid retreat he made the savne morning to Forty Mile Creek, ten miles from the scene o2 action, where he halted on meeting General Lewis advancing to his assistance with a strong detachment. Meantime, Commodore Yeo had exerted himself so effectually, that the British fleet on Lake Ontario became stronger than the American, and Chauiicey had retired to Sackett's Harbour. This gratifying event enabled a communication tobe at once established with Vincent's little army. On the 3rd of June Yeo sailed with his squadron for the head of the lake, having two hundred and eighty men of the 8th regiment on board, with some much-needed clothing and provisions. At daylight on the 8th the fleet was off Forty Mile Creek, when the commodore summoned Lewis to surrender. This he refused to do, but shortly after hurriedly retreated to Fort George, leaving his tents standing, and his provisions and wounded behind ; all of which were soon taken possession of by the advanced guard of Vincent's force. Twelve large boats, carrying baggage, were also captured by one of the vessels of the fleet. • The tide of fortune had now completely turned against Dearborn, who was soon cooped up in Fort George and its vicinity. Sickness, battle and desertion, had wasted away the large force he had brought into Canada to less than five thousand men. His own health, also, became more and more feeble. Still, it was a strange spectacle to see his army hemmed in and intimidated by a force scarcely one- third its number. Nor was this owing to the physical inferiority of the men who composed it. Nearly all the defeats of the American army may be traced to its want of discipline, and the incapacity of its leaders. - But Dearborn's reverses had not yet terminated. On the 28th J''\.. A •»• .« * t \ ■ '• 358 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1813. of June he despatchefl Colonel Bocrstler with a fletachment of nearly six hundred men, including fifty cavalry and two field-gunw, to dislf)flge a British picket posted at a stone house at Beaver Dam, a place between Queenston and th(5 village of Thorold on the Wei land Canal. By some means, Mrs. Secord, of Chippewa, whose husband had b(;en wounded at the battle of Queenston, and her house plundered and destroyed by the Americans, learned the object of this movement, and walked nineteen miles, by a circuit- ous route to avoid the; American posts, to Beaver Dam, to apprise the officer commanding then; of the danger which threatened him. Thus warned, Lieutenant Fitzgibbon lost no time in communicating with Captain Ker, who was at the head of two hundred Indians in the neiglibourhood, and also with Major de Karen, commanding a body of troops to the rear. Boerstler's march was soon checked by the Indians, aided by thirty-four men of the 104th, who lined the woods along the road. After a sharp skirmish of two hours' duration, the Americans V>egan to retreat, but were attacked in another direction by twenty militia, who were accidentally passing. At this crisis Lieutenant Fitzgibbon summf>ned Boerstler to surrender, and to his great astonishment the latter consented. The lieutenant was quite at a loss tf> know what to do with his prisoners, who were double the numljer of the British and Indians ; but luckily Major de Karen came up in time to take charge of them. This affair entirely ruined Dearborn's n:ilitary reputation, and he was soon after superseded in his command by Major- General Wilkinson. ^ Its want of success, on this occasion, still further dispirited the American army, and enable .f ^ '. » ft * r v^ , 1 *% 360 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1813. commodore, who now returned to Kingston without having sustained the loss of a man. While these events were transpiring on Lake Ontario, Harrison was steadily prosecuting in Ohio his preparations for the recovery of Michigan, while Captain Perry exerted himself in fitting out a fleet, in order to obtain the command of Lake Erie, of which the Canadians as yet had the control. Proctor and Tecumseth endeavour- ed to capture Fort Meigs by surprise on one of the last days of July, but withdrew on finding the garrison on the alert. The British and their Indian allies next made a dash at Fort Stephenson, on the Sandusky River, which Proctor, after a brisk cannonade, endeavoured to carry by storm on the 2nd of August, but was repulsed with serious loss. Three officers and fifty-two men were killed or captured, and forty-one wounded. Proctor, finding his guns were not sufficiently heavy to overpower the fire of the garrison, and dreading the advance of Harrison to its succour, retreated to Amherstburg.* Whilst the tide of ruthless invasion thus broke with checkered fortunes along the frontier of Upper Canada, important successes were achieved against the enemy on the boundaries of the Lower Province. The old fortifications on the Isle-aux-Noix, where Lake Champlain narrows into the Richelieu River, had been repaired, a garrison placed there under Major Taylor, and three gun-boats sent thither from Quebec. On the 3rd of June an armed vessel was observed from this post, and her capture immediately resolved upon. No sailors were to be had, so Taylor manned the g i-boats with his soldiers, who promptly proceeded to attack the enemy, while another detachment was directed to push down on each side of the river, and open a cross fire from land. Meanwhile, another vessel hove in sight, and bore up to assist her qonsort. Both were compelled to strike their colours after a short action, when they proved to be the American vessels Growler and Eagle, of eleven guns and fifty men each, under the command of Lieutenant Smith, as commodore. In this action the British had only three men wounded ; the loss of the Americans was also trifling. The Eagle had been so much injured during the engagement as to make it necessary to run her ashore to prevent her from sinking, t This was a most important success, and it was immediate^ determined to follow it up, by striking a blow against the naval and military depots of the enemy on Lake Champlain. The Eagle was easily got off, refitted, and named the Broke, while the other captured vessel was named the Shannon, and also put in order, as well as three gun-boats, for an expedition up the lake. But the difficulty was to man this little squadron, as no seamen could be spared from the fleet on Lake Ontario. Fortunately, at this ♦ •> * Major Croghan's Despatch to Harrison, 5th of August 1813. Christie, vol. ii. pp. 89, 90. Prevost's General Ordar, Kingston, 3rd of September 1813. f Taylor's Despatch to Stovin, 3rd June 1813. \» .}■- : • .. h checkered 1813.] OPERATIONS ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 361 juncture, Captain Everard, of the brig of war Wasp, lying at Quebec, volunteered his services, and manned the Broke and Shannon with his crew. Sufficient batteaux having been procured, and every preparation completed, the little fleet, with nine hundred regular troops on board under Colonel Murray, sailed from Isle-aux-Noix on the 29th of July. On the 31st the expedition arrived at Plattsburg, where a landing was effected without opposition, a considerable body of American militia, under Brigadier Moore, retiring without firing a shot. A large quantity of military stores was promptly sent on board the shipping, and Colonel Murray then leisurely proceeded to burn the arsenal, store-houses, and barracks recently built, capable of accommodating four thousand men.* While the troops were thus employed. Captain Everard, with his two schooners and one gun-boat, stood across the lake to Burlington, where General Hampton had drawn together a strong body of regulars and militia, and where also the principal American naval force lay at anchor. But the latter declined to leave the protection of the shore batteries, and Everard, after destroying four vessels lying off the place, returned to Plattsburg. Detachments of troops next proceeded to Swanton and Champlain villages to destroy the stores there j when, the objects of the expedition having been fully accomplished, they returned to Isle aux-Noix on the 4th of August.! In the St. Lawrence, on the other hand, two gun-boats of the enemy captured a little below Kingston, on the 20th of July, a flotilla of fifteen batteaux laden with provisions, and one gun-boat convoying them. A fruitless attempt was made to recover the batteaux. The enemy took shelter in Goose Creek, interrupted its passage by felling trees, and lining the woods with his riflemen, compelled the British detachment to retire, after a sharp action in which the latter sustained some loss. But, while the campaign thus far had been on the whole eminent- ly favourable to Canada, the enemy, irritated by frequent defeat, and the negative and unproductive character of his successes, made great exertions, as autumn approached, to turn the current of events in his favour. Taught by repeated failure and misfor- tune, his operations now assumed a more systematic and menacing character. In the beginning of September, Hampton, with a force of nearly five thousand men, crossed Lake Champlain and establish- ed hims'^lf at Plattsburg, with the view of penetrating to Montreal. At Sackett's Harbour ten thousand men, under Wilkinson, were preparing to assai! Kingston, while Harrison, with a formidable force, mustering nearly six thousand of all arms, was ready to attack Proctor the moment the fleet, now fitting out by Perry, could establish its superiority on Lake Erie. Both belligerents * Murray's Despatch to General Sheaffe, 3rd of August 1813. t Everard'9 Despatch to General Prevost, 3rd of August 1813. ) - **.\ ..'» Bl \ n,« ... »' • ( » •• • % < ^■• •' .' - «, '• ;.■ •' . '■ ■■' i" • ■;'' ' ( ■,-V>'i' ■. . V 'r ' - ( ' J /'♦ .^ ' .". ' • , • ■ \ • '• - ' ' '\ - .'. -. •' 1 .:■,;: ■ •■■ ■^ ' . ■. ♦ 362 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1813. had made the most strenuous exertions to augment their naval forces on this lake ; but the British laboured at a great disadvan- tage when compared with the Americans. The sparse population of Upper Canada at this period possessed few facilities for ship- building ; and all the necessary material, with the exception of wood alone, had to be brought from England up the long portages of the St. Lawrence and Niagara rivers, at an amount of cost and labour we can have very little idea of at the present time. Captain Barclay, who had assumed command of the British squadron on this lake in the month of May, laboured with untiring zeal to tit out the Detroit, a larger vessel than any of the other tive composing his squadron hitherto, in order to enable himself to meet on more equal terms the fleet Perry was equipping at Erie. But he could not even obtain the necessary guns from the arsenal at Kingston, and had to take some of the cumbrous fort artillery at Detroit and Amherstburg to supply the deficiency. His greatest difficulty, however, was to man his fleet, as Commodore Yeo could only spare him fifty seamen. The rest of his crews was made up of two hundred and fifteen soldiers from Proctor's force and eighty Canadians ; while, on the other hand, an idle commer- cial marine enabled the enemy to man his fleet with picked seam en, to the number of nearly six hundred. The Americans, too, although their guns were fewer, had greatly the advantage in weight of metal, besides having twc vessels more than the British. But in sailors their great superiority rested. For these the wretched mixture of six landsmen to one seaman on board of Barclay's fleet, even were they equal in point of numbers, could be no match whatever.* 1 lOctor at this period found himself seriously embarrassed from want of food and other supplies ; and it was evident that if the enemy obtained command of the lake, not only Michigan but Western Canada must be abandoned. Barclay, under these circumstances, determined to do his best to succour the army, and with his feeble force blockaded Perry in Erie harbour, which he could do with safety, as the sand-bar in front must compel the enemy to take his guns out to cross it. Towards the end of August, however, he was obliged to proceed to Long Point for supplies, and the American commodore at once seized the oppor- tunity to put to sea. The British commander was now blockaded in turn in Amherstburg, and endeavoured to improve his leisure to advantage, by training the soldiers to work the guns, and the Canadians to handle the ropes. But his provisions soon failed ; he must either fight or starve ; no other alternative presented itself. He accordingly put to sea on the 10th of September, and soon met the enemy, when a most obstinate battle ensued. For a * Comparative strength of the fleets : — Americans. British. Weight of metal, lbs. 928 459 Complement of men, 680 345 •. 1 [1813. , their naval 3at. disad van- population of ies for ship- exception of ong portages b of cost and resent time, the British with untiring f of the other )le himself to )ping at Erie, a the arsenal , fort artillery Sciency. His LS Commodore his crews was Proctor's force I idle commer- )icked seamen, nericans, too, advantage in II the British, ror these the on board of bers, could be arrassed from ent that if the Michigan but under these the army, and our, which he ist compel the Is the end of ong Point for zed the oppor- low blockaded •ove his leisure guns, and the IS soon failed ; tive presented eptember, and nsued. For a 1813.J NAVAL BATTLE ON LAKE ERIE. 363 : - while the British had the advantage, and Perry's own ship, the Lawrence^ was compelled to haul down its colours, amid the cheers of the British squadron. But Barclay had not even a boat to take possession of his prize, so defective was his equipment. The firing now ceased for a few minutes, but a breeze springing up behind the American fleet. Perry, who had meanwhile shifted his flag to another vessel, skilfully gained the weather-gauge of the principal British ships, while they, from the unskilfulness of their crews, were unable to extricate themselves from their dangerous position. The result was, that after a desperate engagement of three hours, during which the carnage was fearful, the entire British fleet was taken. Still, it did not surrender till the vessels had become wholly unmanageable, nor till all the officers were either killed or wounded, and a third of their crews had shared the same melancholy fate.* The American loss was twenty ;jeven killed and ninety-six wounded, t The eflects of this severe reverse were speedily felt by Proctor. With an enemy on his flank and front, and lacking provisions and supplies of every kind, retreat was now his sole alternative. Amherstburg, Detroit, and the minor fortified posts in the west were dismantled, stores of every kind destroyed, and the British, numbering eigh ; hundred and thirty, commenced to retreat along the Thames, towards Lake Ontario, accompanied by tive hundred Indians under Tecumseth, who showed an honourable fidelity in misfortune. Harrison following rapidly in pursuit, with an army of three thousand five hundred men, including several hundred cavalry, came up with Proctor's rear-guard on the 4th of October, and succeeded in capturing all his stores and ammunition, and over one hundred prisoners. The British general had now no resource but to hazard a battle, and for this purpose he took up a position, on the following day, at the Moravian Village on the Thames. Proctor's usual prudence appears to have forsaken him. The bridges in his rear had been left entire ; he made no eflbrt to strengthen his position by a breast-work ; and it is even said that his field of battle was ill-chosen. J But, in any case, his few worn- out and harassed soldiers, now reduced by casualties to about six hundred men, were wholly unequal to a contest with Harrison's numerous and comparatively well-appointed army. The result was what might naturally be expected. The British were speedily beaten at all points, and Proctor fled from the field of battle leav- ing the Indians to their fate. Led by their gallant chieftain they fought manfully against enormous odds, and only retired when * Alison's Hist. Europe, New York. vol. iv. p. 467. Barclay's Despatch to Yeo, 22nd of September 1813. t Perry's Despatch to the Hon. W. Jones, American Naval Secretary. + Proctor was subsequently tried by court-martial at Montreal, and severe* ly censured for his conduct on this occasion, as well as for his unskilful management of his retreat generally, but his personal courage was not questioned. Vide Auchinleck p. 223. '' « s •• f7'f» •.. •• .. . ■ -J* . . •• • if .■•• •■■ f-ii f'V I ;. • •• ■i'' f •■v> •V .;•> •■> 364 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. 11813. Tecumseth no longer lived to rally them. The few British soldiers who escaped from captivity or death, fled through the woods to re-assemble to the number of 240 on Burlington Heights. Nor did the reverses of the British terminate with this fresh disaster. On the same day that Proctor fled before Harrison, six schooners, hr^ing on board two hundred and fifty soldiers, proceeding from Toronto to Kingston without convoy, were captured on Lake Ontario. These losses, in addition to the alarm- ing intelligence that the enemy was making great preparations fur the conquest of Lower Canada, and that Harrison was descending Lake Erie to reinforce the American army on the Niagara frontier, compelled Vincent, whose force was now reduced to twelve hundred effective men, to raise the blockade of Fort George, and retreat to his old position on Burlington Heights. This movement was effected in most excellent order, although his rear was threatened by Brigadier M'Clure, with a force fully as large as his own. At Stony Creek, his rear-guard took up a strong position, and checked the further pursuit of the enemy. At Burlington Heights Vincent was joined by the fugitives of Proctor's division, who made up his strength to nearly fifteen hundred bayonets. The Americans were greatly elated with these important successes, and openly avowed their intention of invading Lower Canada, and taking up their winter quarters at Montreal. As the f .st step in this plan, Kingston, now slenderly garrisoned, was to be immediately captured by Wilkinson's army from Sackett's Harbour. I*rescott was next to fall ; and then the road down the St. Lawrence would be perfectly open to Montreal, where a junction was to be effected with Hampton's army. His successes in the west, and the retreat of Vincent from Fort George, permit- ted the enemy to mass his disposable troops at Sackett's Harbour, without dangor to his Niagara frontier ; and Wilkinso a's army, by the addition of large bodieo of regular troops, rapidl/ assumed a more imposing character. On the 24th of October this army, amounting to nine thousand men, with a well-appoinced train of artillery, rendezvoused at Grenadier Island, near Kingston, a favourable point for operations against that important position. But the British had correctly divined the enemy's intention, and a force of two thousand men, under Major-General de Rottenberg, awaited Wilkinson's approach at the menaced fortress. The latter perceiving that his prospect of a successful assault on Kingston was now of the most slender description, determined to shift his line of attack, descend the St. Lawrence at once, form a junction with Hampton's army, and capture Montreal. Agreeable to this fresh plan of operations, Wilkinson commenced the passage down the river on the last days of October, his flotilla, of over three hundred large boats and schooners, protected by tv/elve heavy gun-boats. This movement having become speedily known at Kingston, De Rottenberg took measures to annoy, and, if possible, check the advance of the enemy. Two schooners and ii ' , i''.'F ,''•• 1813.] BATTLE OP CHRYSLER'S FARM. 865 : ■ several gun-boats were sent in pursuit, with orders to harass him as much as possible, and a "corps of observation," composed of eight hundred and fifty rank and file, under command of Colonel Morrison, was detached foi the same purpose. Wilkinson's progress was exceedingly slow, and spoke little for his energy of character, a quality so necessary to sucdbss in a military man. At French Creek, some twenty-five miles below Kingston, he halted his army for several days, during which his flotilla was much annoyed by the teasing fire of the British gun- boats. On the 5th of November he again pushed down the river, and reached a point about six miles above Ogdensburg, where another halt was made, and a proclamation issued to the Canadians. On the 7th the advance of his army was resumed, and next day the flotilla was off Matilda, where twelve hundred troops were landed under Colonel Macomb, to clear the bank of some militia who had assembled to annoy his progress down the river. Two days afterwards the American general found himself at Williams- burg, where he reinforced the troops under Macomb by a second brigade, led by General Brown, and a body of dragoons. On the following day another forco was landed under General Boyd. During this time the British corps of observation continued to advance steadily on the rear of the enemy. On the 10th a descent was made by Colonel Morrison on a post at the American side of the river, where a considerable quantity of provisions and stores and two guns were captured. Colonel Harvey in the meantime followed up the enemy, who towards evening endeavoured to check his advance with some light troops and cavalry, which a few rounds from three field-pieces compelled to retire. During the 11th Morrison pressed so close upon General Boyd's division, now form- ing the enemy's rear-guard, while the fire of his gun-boats severely harassed the flotilla, that Wilkinson determined to check his further advance, and if possible capture his artillery. He accord- ingly directed Boyd to give him battle, and the latter soon drew together, for that purpose, a body of fully two thousand regular troops with several guns.* The ground was open and perfectly clear, presenting no inequalities to favour either the assailants or the assailed, and the action, known as the battle of Chrysler's Farm, which now ensued, was a " fair stand-up fight," with the single exception that the Americans were exactly two to one ; but this advantage was counterbalanced, in some measure, by their inferiority in discipline to the British. The enemy began the action by attacking Morrison's advanced guard, which gradually fell back in admirable order on the main body. At half-past two, the battle became general ; and an extremely sharp contest ensued, which lasted * At Wilkinson's court-martial it was sworn by Colonel Walback, that the British numbered about eleven hundred men, including militia and a few Indians, "while Wilkinson admits in his despatches that the Americana engaged amounted to over two thousand men. ■'tl '■' 1 h^ ■M ■%,:'' ■ '*'".. ■ \ ■ , if.:, ,«' .1 * • i ' . ^ i! ' '•* ! ■<-^, ■^: .* .14> - IH-. '^3 366 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1813. fully two hours, and terminated entirely in favour of the British, who captured one of the enemy's guns, compelled him to retreat, and moved forward shortly after in pursuit. Our loss on this occasion was one officer and twenty-one men killed, ten officers and one hundred and thirty -seven men wounded, and twelve missing.* The Americans, on the other hand, had one hundred and two killed, and two hundred and thirty-six wounded, f Meanwhile the advance of Hampton towards Montreal, with a well appointed army of five thousand men, including a body of cavalry, compelled the Governor to call out en masse the militia of the district, an order responded to with the utmost alacrity. At the same time Colonel de Salaberry was detached with the Canadian Voltigeurs to reconnoitre the enemy. This duty was very gallantly performed, and De Salaberry, after a smai t skirmish with the American advance guard, fell back to an excellent position on the Chateauguay River. Hampton, however, not having as yet learned of Wilkinson's advance, hesitated to push forward to the St. Lawrence, and meanwhile, in order to distract the attention of the British, detached Colonel Clarke to the Canadian settlement on Missoquoi Bay, where the inhabitants were now plundered and ill-treated by his troops. X The season for action wore rapidly away, and the American general at length, on the 21st of October, commenced a forward movement. On the 24th he arrived in the neighbourhood of the position occupied by De Salaberry, and made preparations to dislodge him. During the night of the 25th a brigade was accord- ingly detached by a circuitous route to take the British post in the rear, while the main body of the army assailed it in front. But Colonel Purdy, who led this brigade, got bewildered in the woods, and did not arrive in time to take part in the beginning of the battle that ensued. Hampton, ignorant of this circumstance, pushed forward a column three thousand five hundred strong, at ten o'clock, on the morning of the 26th, under the command of Brigadier Izzard, to carry the position held by De Salaberry with less than four hundred Canadians. It was situated in a thick wood, the British left flank resting on the river, its right on an extended abattis, while its front was covered by a breast-work of logs. This position was penetrated by a road, which had been broken up and rendered as difficult to traverse as possible. The action began by the enemy driving in De Salaberry 's advanced picket, which retired on another a short distance in the rear, and both uniting opened a smart fire upon the head of Izzard's column. On hearing the firing De Salaberry placed his few troops in extended order in front of the abattis, and directed them not to fire till he gave the signal by discharging his own rifle. ♦ Morrison's Despatch to De Rottenberg. + Wilkinson's Deapatch to the American Secretary at War. t Christie, vol. ii, p. 123. [1813. 1813.J DE SALABERRY'S VICTORY. 367 the British, aa to retreat, loss on this n. officers and ive missing.* [•ed and two ^ntreal, with ig a body of e the militia lost alacrity, ed with the lis duty was Qai t skirmish an excellent jr, not having ih forward to the attention m settlement lundered and )he American led a forward lurhood of the reparations to ,e was accord- sh post in the n front. But in the woods, ginning of the circumstance, red strong, at e command of alaberry with ed in a thick ts right on an jreast-work of dch had been sible. Salaberry's istance in the the head of srry placed his and directed his own rifle. •e The engagement speedily became general, and the enemy was effectually held in check, till the retreat of a few skirmishers in the centre of the British line encouraged him to advance. De Salaberry now dreaded his small force would be surrounded, and by a clever ruse intimidated the American troops. Placing his buglers as far apart as possible he directed them to sound the advance, which effectually cooled the ardour of the assailants, who imagined that the Canadians were advancing in great numbers against them. Meanwhile, Purdy, directed by the firing, advanced to cross the river, and take De Salaberry in the rear. He was, however, completely defeated by two companies advantageously posted, and compelled to retire in disorder. Finding his efforts ineffectual to force the position in his front, disliking to resort to the bayonet, and seeing Purdy's brigade unable to co-operate with him, Hampton withdrew his forces at two o'clock in the afternoon, leaving the Canadians completely masters of the field, with very trifling loss to themselves. After a short halt, the American army commenced its retreat on Plattsburg, its rear severely harassed by the Canadian militia, who speedily collected in considerable numbers. The intelligence, on the 12th of November, of Hampton's inglorious defeat by a mere handful of Canadians, completely disconcerted Wilkinson's plans. He at once abandoned all idea of passing the winter at Montreal, agreeable to his first intt*ntion, and next day his army crossed the St. Lawrence, and proceeded to French Mills, on the Salmon River, where wooden huts were rapidly construjted for its use. Thus terminated this invasion of Lower Canada, formidable, however, only in the number of the invaders, who, to the extent of nearly fifteen thousand men, had been foiled or beaten back by fifteen hundred regulars and militia at Chrysler's Farm and Chateauguay. Wilkinson's drunken* descent of the St. Lawrence, was a fit occurrence to take place in connection with Hampton's five thousand men held in check by De Salaberry's four hundred Spartans. From Lower we have now to turn to Upper Canada, which Prevost, on receiving intelligence of Proctor's defeat, had ordered Vincent to abandon as far as Kingston. Fortunately, a council of war, held at Burlington Heights, decided adversely to the instructions of the commander-in-chief, and determined to defend the western peninsula at all hazards. M'Clure had in the mean- time remained undisturbed at Twenty Mile Creek, from whence marauding parties of his troops scoured the surrounding country, plundered the peaceable inhabitants of their cattle and provisions, and burned their barns. The latter represented these occurrences * •' * At Wilkinson's court-martial it was proved by Major Birsdall of the American army, and Owen Chatfield, of Ogdensburg, that he was drunk in the hous« of Daniel Thorpe, sung obscene songs behaved himself most improperly. there, and otherwise 'SI \ »■ * . « I.: .'• * ♦ t ■' , k •< ',' ' % . •' •']•*♦ t , •k • I M I ■ • ■, \ '■\ 368 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1813. to Vincent, who, accordingly, in the beginning of December, detached Colonel Murray, with five hundred regular** and Indians, as far as Forty Mile Creek, to drive in the foraging parties of the enemy. M'Clure, dreading an advance against him in force, now retreated on Fort George as rapidly as possible ; and having learned the disastrous termination of Wilkinson's and Hampton's movements against Lower Canada, determined to cross at once to the American side of the river. Even in this movement his terrified imagination did not see sufficient safety, if Vincent's army were permitted to find shelter in Niagara. To prevent this effec- tually he determinefl to destroy the town. The winter had set in unusually early ; huge icicles festooned in pendant clusters the rocks rising above the river up to the Falls, where the spray, caught in its a.scent by the biting north winds of December, fell back in small showers of hail upon the dark seething waters below. The fierce gusts of wind that traversed unchecked over Lake Ontario, fell keen and cold upon the homes of Niagara, whose unhappy people, although surrounded by the miseries of warfare, and subjected to hostile invaders, still consoled themselves with the thought that at hsast th(!y ha• i^:r I -. ». CHAPTER XV i.:^-: t -v. 1^' "H t .' i . I, ■'■ ■v \ J |/|; i' . ' ! 1; Mi )';■ '■: THE GOVERNMENT OF SIR GEORGE FREW OST,— continued. THE CAMPAIGN OF 1814. THE Legislature of Lower Canada was convened on the 13th of January, and congratulated by the Governor, in his opening speech, on the satisfactory results of the campaign of the preced- ing year. One of its first measures was to pass an act increasing the issue of " Army Bills" to $6,000,000, in order to defray 1814. the expenses of the war. A bill to disqualify judges for seats in the Legislative Council was passed in the Assembly, and sent to the Upper House, where it was thrown out on the ground that it was unparliamentary and interfered with the prero- gative of the Crown. After passing a vote of thanks to Colonel de Salaberry, for his gallant conduct at the Chateaugay River, and a similar vote to Colonel Morrison, for his defeat of Boyd at Chrysler's Farm, the Assembly next proceeded to consider the nature of the authority exercised by the superior courts of the Province. The leader, in 'the debate which followed, was James Stuart, the son of a Church of England clergyman for many years rector of the present city of Kingston. In his eighteenth year young Stuart became a student in the law office of Jonathan Sewell, then attorney general, and afterwards chief justice, of Lower Canada. — In 1805 he was appointed solicitor general for the Province, and removed to Montreal, which he was chosen to represent in the Assembly at the general election of 1808. His parliamentary conduct gave offence, in some way, to General Craig, and led to his dismissal from office. Stuart held that the Governor was induced to take this step by the advice of Chief Justice Sewell, who desired to create a vacancy for his brother Stephen, (who was appointed to the post) and at once went into bitter opposition to the govern- ment. He accordingly attached himself to the French-Canadian party in the Assembly, with the view of making it the medium of his personal revenge, became its leader, and now formulated seven- teen charges, couched in very extreme and even libellous language, against Chief Justices Sewell and Monk, which were endorsed by a formal vote of the House. These charges, or rather articles of 1814.] IMPEACHMENT OF THE JUDGES. 375 , — continued. on the 13th of in his opening n of the preced- 1 act increasing order to defray alify judges for ti the Assembly, rown out on the iwith the prero- ^s to Colonel de ly River, and a yd at Chrysler's e nature of the ovince. The uart, the son of rector of the young Stuart m Sewell, then 3wer Canada. — 3 Province, and ■epresent in the parliamentary , and led to his lor was induced ell, who desired as appointed to 1 to the govern- rench-Canadian the medium of rmulated seven- ellous language, endorsed by a iher articles of impeachment, set forth that tlie Rules of Court made by Judge Sewell, during Craig's administration, were contrary to l<».w, and subversive of the rights of liberty and property. Sewell was also accused of having given bad a(lvice on several occasions to the Governor General ; of having " falsely and maliciously slandered his Majesty's Canadian subjects, and the Assembly of the Province ; and so poisoned and incensed the mind of the said Governor General." He was further charged with having advised the re- moval of Stuart to make a place for his brother, and the dismissal, in 1808, of Panet from his lieutenant colonelcy ; the seizure, in 1810, of the printing material of the Canadien, and the arrest of its editor ; the illegal imprisonment of Bedard and others, and, in ad- dition, with /arious other illegal proceedings. These charges were ingeniously framed by Stuart so as to make Sewell responsible for the arbitrary and illegal acts of Craig, but as one of his advisers only, and even if true would largely resolve themselves into mere errors of judgment. They effectually served Stuart's purpose, however, for the time being, enabled him to pose as the advocate of the French Canadian majority in the Assembly and outside of it, and the redresser of it.« woes, and to embarrass the government. Papineau and his friends saw clearly through his ) .ipose, used him as long as they needed him and then pushed him aside. — So Sewell was at last amply avenged. The charges against Chief Justice Monk were of a much milder natui-e than those preferred against Sewell, and were mainly directed to the matter of the alleged illegal rules of court ; and the refusal, on one or two occasions, of the writ of habeas corpus. In order that its impeachment of the two chief justices should be vigorously pro- secuted, the Assembly appointed Stuart* as its agent, and voted the sum of $8000 to enable him to proceed to England. But this appropriation, being illegally tacked on to a supply bill, the item was struck out by the Legislative Council. The Assembly refused to agree to the alteration ; and thp bill, which contained a grant of $80,000 for the payment of the mi'itin, and a like sum for general war purposes, did not accordingly become law. On the 3rd of March the Assembly, with its Speaker at its head, went up to the Castle of St. Louis, to present an address to the Governor General praying him to forward its articles of impeach- ment to the Home Government, as well as a petition, asking their * Stuart remained in the Assembly until 1817. when he withdrew for a time from political life. In 18'22 he was sent as a delegate tt) Kngland, l)y the British citizens of Montreal, to advocate the re-uiiif)n of Upper and Lower Canada, a proceeding much dislike the Assemb y for 8».>rel. — Owing to his political course Lonl Aylmcr deprived him of office in 1832. In 1838 Lord Durham appointeil him chief justice of Lower Canada in the place of Sewell, .who retired on a pension. In 1840 he was created a baronet. — Ultimately he became most unpopular with the French Canadians. il , .il • ! S % f i*» ♦■/•-■ V^'.^ I) . ^ « n »- '. • , ; » ^« > ' t ft* :■ •^" 376 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. 1 1814. f ■.» full oonRideration, to tho Prince Regent, ThiH Prevowt promi8e an th«! ureupon the erwurrlH, cm indignantly riglitH and 1 his answer in. For the favourable IreHH to the howing the enable it to 3 transaction I Parliannait n the follow- harges made )wing to the inses. Before Bst terms of he Executiv(! Council, and bar, and the n the 15th of utes. Among ovide for t\w year, and bridges, the ensuing d by sleighs, expense. In th regiment red and fifty old days of ave a confer- Castle of St. Americans peace might ing-grounds, earts — they lery day, and ope that our ke us in our id Children.' B After some days' sojourn «t (,^ue})ec, they were loaded with presents, and sent back to prepare their tribes for the approaching campaign. The subjugation of the, western extremity of Canada had by no means been completed by the defeat ' ■■ Wr) ■■■■' « k •* { i '.'ft ' ' . * > ^.;;^';' p i T '• * \ \ •V • * .V 382 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1814. capture the flanking batteries on that side. But owing to the sud- den falling of the water he met with much delay, and did not accomplish his task until it was too late to be of use to the main attack in front. Becoming impatient of further delay, Fakenham at length ordered the attacking column, 5,000 strong, to advance. As his troops approached the fatal ditch they were met by a close and murderous iire from an enemy coinpletely under cover. Still, these brave men moved gallantly onwards, and presently were close to the breast-work. But, at the critical moment, it was found im- possible to cross the ditch without fascines to fill it up and scaling ladders, neither of which had been provided. Thus the head of the column was brought to a halt, and presently began to recoil under the clcse and terrible fire of the unseen foe. Fakenham, who was gallantly cheering on his mon, was now shot dead ; while Generals Gibbs and Kean, leading the attack, fell severely wounded. The command now devolved upon General Lambert, who at once saw the hopelessness of further attack, and withdrew his troops. In this battle the British loss, in killed and wounded, amounted to 2,036 ; that of the enemy to 70 men. The total loss of the British in this unfortunate expedition was 2,492, that of the Americans 333. It was afterwards discovered Jhat Jackson's position could have been turned, and attacked in the rear, and had that been done the city must have been taken. As a small set-off to the disaster at New Orleans, the British force, on its retreat, captured Fort Bowyer, which contained a garrison of 400 men, 23 guns, and a large quantity of war material. The concluding naval events of the war were of a mixed character. On the 14th of January the >.merican frigate President, of 59 guns, and 477 men. Commodore Decatur, eluded the blockading squadron off New York harbour in a snow storm, and got out to sea, with a view of cruising in the Bay of Bengal. After a long chase she was overhauled by the Endymion frigate of 50 guns and 346 men, when a sharp action ensued, in which the President suffered severe- ly. She finally struck her colours to the Pomone, the consort of the Endymion, which came up at eleven o'clock at night. On the 20th of February the American frigate Constitution, 56 guns, 472 men, captured, near the island of Madeira, the Cyane of 30 guns, 182 men, and the Levant oi 18 guns, 131 men. The latter was after- wards recaptured. These may be regarded as the last events of the war. During the three years of its continuance the Americans captured and carried into port 9 British vessels of war, of 3,314 tons capacity, mounting 171 guns, and with crews aggregating 919 men. On the other hand, the British captured 22 vessels of war, of 6,714 tons capacity, and with crews aggregating 2,430 men. Having traced the current of hostilities, as it ebbed and flowed along the American seaboard and on the ocean, during 1814 and the succeeding two months, we have now to return to the Canadian frontier line, and resume our narrative of the progress of the war in that direction. The first movements of the campaign were made i '" [1814. the sud- did not the main ikenham advance. ly a close r. Still, vere close lound im- id scaling sad of the oil under who was Generals led. The once saw roops. In lounted to he British ^.mericans tion could been done disaster at ured Fort ms, and a character. )f 59 guns, squadron sea, with chase she 346 men, red severe- sort of the n the 20th 472 men, guns, 182 was after- events of Americans 3,314 tons r 919 men. of 6,714 and flowed 1814 and Canadian of the war vere made 1814.J BATTLE OF LA COLLE MILL. 383 against Lower Canada. Wilkinson had descended from Salmon River to Plattsburg, and anxious to strike an important blow as early in the season as possible, crossed the Canadian frontier on the 22nd of March, and took possession of the village of Phillipsburg, just within the lines, on the eastern side of Lake Champlain. From this place he proceeded to the western side of the lake, on the 26th, with the view of attacking a small British force stationed at La CoUe Mill, about ten miles distant from Rouse's Point. His army consisted of over five thousand regular infantry, with one hundred cavalry, and eleven guns.* The mill about to be carried, as Wilkinson supposed by the large force under his command, was an ordinary quadrangle, fifty feet long by thirty-six feet wide, and two stories high, with a common shingle roof. The walls, eighteen inches thick, were pierced by several windows, now filled up with logs, in which loop- holes to fire through had been cut. On the opposite bank of the La Colle River, crossed at this point by a wooden bridge, was a small bouse at an angle with the mill, which had been surrounded with a breast-work of logs. For a distance of one hundred yards or so around this position, which was far from being a strong one, the woods had been cleared. The ordinary garrison of La CoDa Mill was under two hundred men, commanded by Major Handcock, while the few troops hastily drawn together to support it, on the advance of the enemy becoming known, did not exceed three hundred more. The latter consisted of the two flank companies of the 1 3th regiment, a company of Canadian Fencibles and another of Voltigeurs. With this slender force of less than five hundred men did Handcock resolve to hold a post, which a few hours' fire of well-directed artillery would have levelled to the ground, against a welj-appointed army. At one o'clock in the afternoon, on the 30th of March, Wilkin- son, after having made a demonstration against the outpost at Burtonville, occupied the woods close to La Colle Mill with his entire force, which he deployed into line with the view of surround- ing the British position, and carrying it with the bayonet. His troops cheered loudly as they advanced ; but the well-aimed and rapid fire with which they were received, soon compelled them to waver, and retreat back into the woods for shelter. Three guns (an eighteen, twelve and six-pounder) were now brought to bear upon the mill, within point-blank range. But these guns were badly served, and did little injury, while the artiller^'men sufferel severely from the British musketry, and the fire of their two gun. . The enemy was also held in check on the side of the Richelieu by the fire of two sloops and two gun-boats, which had advanced towards the scene of action from Isle-aux-Noix ; but these had * In the council of war held on the 20th of March, Wilkinson stated his force to.be three thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine combatants. This force was joined next day by Brigadier Macomb with his |)rigade, which made the entire force fully up to nve thousand men. Bi' y^ ■'•*•• Hcv ' '.^ *• *, . ■ hRT' ^ ** .11 . w -^ '«- 1 'k •■, ■ , ■ -N.n ■ *■ » 1 1 >.■. ' .6 1 Ir -■^4 .-J ■i .V'/r I'* ' r • < .i, ^ - . > •V * i384 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1814. to remain too far away to do iniich service. Desperate as were the odds, the flank companies of the 13th regiment and the Canadian Voltigeurs and Fencibles, made two gallant charges in turn, to capture the enemy's guns, but were repulsed by the sheer force of numbers, the tire of Jiis artillery, as well as of two brigades of : infantry, being directed against them.* For full four hours did these few hundred gallant men with- stand an army. As evening approached their ammunition began to run short. Still they did not quail. Not a man spoke of surrender ; and the daring front they had shown during the day deterred the enemy from assaulting their position with the bayonet. At six o'clock Wilkinson retreated from the Canadian grist-mill, completely foiled and beaten, and retraced his steps to Plattsburg. His repulse was infinitely more disgraceful than that sustained by Abercromby before the lines of Montcalm at Ticonderoga. There the British bravely endeavoured to storm the works of the enemy : the American army made no attempt of the kind.f In the defence of La Colle Mill the British loss was eleven killed, forty-six wounded, and four missing. The American loss has never been stated, but it must have been much greater. The check sustained by Wilkinson led the American Govern- ment to abandon the idea of subduing Lower Canada for the present, and after leaving garrisons in the principal posts on Lake Champlain, his army was moved to the neighbourhood of Lake Ontario, to operate against the Upper Province. Here the cam- paign was opened, under the most favourable auspices for Canada, by Commodore Yeo and General Drummond. On the 4th of May the British squadron, which by the construction of two new ships had obtained the ascendency on the lake, with one thousand and eighty troops on board, left Kingston for Oswego, where a lanv.ting was effected on the morning of the 6th, after a sharp action with the enemy, who was completely put to flight. The troops then proceeded to destroy all stores which could not be carried off", dismantle the fort, and burn the barracks and bridges. | Seven heavy guns, two of smaller calibre, a quantity of shot and gun- powder, two schooners and several small craft, and nineteen hundred barrels of flour and salt, were brought away.§ The British loss, on this occasion, amounted to one oflicer and eighteen men killed, two officers and sixty men wounded ; the Americans admit a loss of sixty-nine killed and wounded and sixty prisoners. The next operation of Yeo's fleet was to blockad^ Chauncey in Sackett's Harbour, and intercept the supplies forwarded there from Oswego. On the morning of the 29th of May sixteen boats * Colonel M'Pherson's evidence at Wilkinson's court-martial. t William's Despatch to Prevost, I3th March, 1814. Handcock Williams, X Drummond's Despatch to Prevost, 7th of May, 1814. § Yeo's Letter to Mr. Oroker. to •1^ [1814. ks were the Canadian n turn, to er force of Drigades of men with- ition began ,n spoke of ing the day he bayonet. I grist-mill, Plattsburg. ustained by »a. There rks of the :ind.t was eleven nerican loss sater. can Govern- ada for the •sts on Lake )od of Lake re the cam- for Canada, 4th of May ) new ships lousand and I lan^ting action with troops then carried off, :es.:j: Seven ot and gun- nineteen The nd eighteen Americans prisoners. hauncey in arded there ixteen boats Handcock to »e id iway.g 1814.1 BATTLES ON THE NIAGARA FRONTIER. 385 of the enemy, laden with military and naval stores, were discover- ed in-shore. One of these was captured, and the remainder took shelter in Sandy Creek, whither Yeo despatched Captains Popham and Spilsbury, with two gun-boats and five barges, to cut them out. They entered the creek on the 31st, but were speedily attacked in flank and front by a strong body of the enemy's riflemen, militia, cavalry, and two hundred Iroquois, and overpowered after a desperate defence. Their resistance so irritated the Indians, that they were with difficulty withheld from massacring the entire party on its surrender. The British loss on this occasion was eighteen killed, fifty wounded, and one hundred and thirty-eight prisoners. While these events transpired at the lower end of Lake Ontario, the American forces were being concentrated along the Niagara frontier for another invasion of that part of Cansida. Their want of success hitherto by land had taught the Americans experience, and great exertions were made to have their troops better driUed and better officered than ever. Major-General Brown, who now commanded, was ?n officer of much greater resolution and ability than any of tho:ie u'^ho had preceded him, and the brigadi'^rs under him were of the same stamp. On the 3rd of J uly, two str^ag brigades, under Brigadiers Scott and Ripley, crossed the Niagara River from Buffalo to Fort Erie. Here a small garrison of one hundred and seventy men had been left, more with a view of giving a temporary check to the enemy, and allowing time for troops to concentrate for the protection of the frontier at any menaced point, than for the purpose of a protracted resistance. Unfortunately Major Puck, of the 8th regiment, who now commanded at Fort Erie, c'ld not sufficiently weigh the importance of his post, and surrend<3red without ^ring a shot, thinking it would only be a useless k ss of life to oppose the large army, fully four thousand strong, besides Indians, which had advanced against him. To resist this formidable invasion, made, too, by almost all regular troops, there were only seventeen hundred and eighty British regulars along the entire Niagara frontier, including the garrisons at the different forts. But Major-General Riall, now commanding at this point, determined nevertheless to check the advance of the enemy ; who on the morning of the 4th, lea by General Brown, pushed down the river towards Chippewa, with the view of capturing that village whic^i ormed the extreme right of the British position extending downwards to Niagara. Durmg the day, however. Brown made no attempt to carry this post, and contented him°elf with solidly establishing his troops a short distance above it. On the morning of the 5th, Riall, having been reinforced by the 3rd Buffs, six hundred strong, from Toronto, determined to become the assailant with fifteen hundred regulars, three hundred Indians, and six hundred militia. Brown had taken up a good position ;■ his right rested on some buildings and orchards close to ■I 386 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1814. ■. •>' ^^v. ■; I* 1 r . ^■' , : A : i', •• *.'-^ the river, and was strongly supported by artillery ; his left extend- ed to a wood with a strong body of riflemen and Indians thrown out on his flank and in advance. Riall began the battle shortly after four o'clock in the afternoon, by pushing his main body in columns of echelon against the enemy's line, with the view of breaking through, and turning it at three diflferent points. At the same time a body of militia and the entire Indian force, were thrown to the right to dislodge his light troops and savages from the wood. But the Kentucky rifle- men fought stoutly, while the Iroquois effectually held the Cana- dian Indians in check, and neither were dislodged until assailed by the light companies of the Royal Scots and 100th regiment, when they were forced back on their main body. Meanwhile, the heads of the attacking columns were crushed again and again by the discharges of the long and solid American line, which stood its ground bravely and fired with rapidity and precision. Riall at length finding himself unable to penetrate it, was reluctantly obliged to order a retreat, having sustained a loss of one hundred and fifty-seven killed and three hundred and twenty wounded. The American loss was little more than half as severe. This battle was the most considerable fought as yet during the war, and the unusual steadiness and good conduct of the American troops showed the advantage of better discipline and superior general oflScers. Riall made a serious mistake in attacking an army strongly posted and twice his own strength, but had doubt- less been induced to take this step from the supposition that the enemy would be beaten as easily as usual. His defeat clearly proved that the British had now to contend against abler command- ers and better troops, and that a nearer equality of numbers must be possessed to insure success. Had Riall been content to act on the defensive, and cover himself by intrenchments at the favour- able ground on the eastern side of the Chippewa Creek, his position would be very difficult to force, and the attempt could scarcely fail to result in the defeat of the enemy. His desiperate bravery, how- ever, had one good effect ; it showed the Americans that if they established themselves in Canada, it would only be by very hard fighting. Although the British army had been defeated, the enemy took no active steps to improve the victory he had won, and appeared as if he had got plenty of fighting for one day. Riall retreated in admirable order, little disturbed by Brown's cavalry or light troops, and did not lose a gun, nor even a prisoner except .'.le wounded he had been compelled to leave on the field.* A rapid and vigorous pursuit must have seriously embarrassed him, but Brown attempt- ed nothing of the kind. Taking the smallness of the British force into consideration, and the severe loss it had sustained in killed * Eiall's Despatch vo Drummoad, 6th of July. [1814. 1814. BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE. 387 i\ left extend- ians thrown le afternoon, against the urning it at militia and 1 dislodge his ntucky rifle- d the Cana- il assailed by iment, when le, the heads again by the ich stood its 3n. Riall at 3 reluctantly one hundred ity wounded. et during the :he American and superior attacking an It had doubt- ion that the efeat clearly ler command- umbers must |nt to act on ,t the favour- , his position scarcely fail iravery, how- that if they •y very hard enemy took md appeared retreated in light troops, I wounded he md vigorous Lwn attempt- British force Ined in killed and wounded, a retreat such as it now eflfected was almost equiva- lent to a victory. Dreading that the enemy by a flank march would cut him off from Burlington Heights, and thus destroy his communications with Toronto, Riall, after a short pause at Chippewa, continued his retreat to Twenty Mile Creek, throwing reinforcements into Forts Mississaga, George, and Niagara as he passed by. Meeting, how- ever, with the 103rd regiment, and two companies of the 104th, he returned towards Niagara, and established himself near the Twelve Mile Creek. Meanwhile, Brown advanced leisurely down the frontier, and occupied Queenston, from whence he made demonstrations against Forts George, Niagara, and Mississaga. Here he remained till the 23rd, and during the interval his light troops and Indians scatter- ed themselves over the neighbourhood, and plundered and burned dwellings and barns in every direction. On the 19 th Colonel Stone caused the village of St. David, containing some thirty houses, to be burned down ; fences were next torn up, forage carried off without payment wherever it could be laid hands on ; and, on every occasion, the American outposts acted as if they had been in a country the inhabitants of which were their deadliest enemies. The unfortunate Canadians, maddened by their losses, were driven to desperation, and fired upon the invaders whenever an oppor- tunity presented itself. Scarcely did a single foraging party of the enemy return to camp without leaving behind some of its number, who had been either killed or badly wounded.* Brown had expected to be supported, in the sieges o'" Forts George and Niagara, by Chauncey's fleet. But the British squadron having now the command of the lake, he was disappoint- ed in this respect, and finding the garrisons on the alert, and that nothing could be eflEtcted by surprise, he retreated to Chippewa on the 24th, followed by Riall, who next day established himself at Lundy's Lane, in his immediate neighbourhood. No sooner had General Drummond heard, at Kingston, of the advance of a large American army across the Niagara frontier, and of the battle o^' Chippewa, than he hastened to Toronto, and from thence immediately proceeded to Niagara, where he arrived on the morning of the 25th. Here he learned of the retreat of Brown on the preceding day, and of the advance of Riall, whom he at once determined to support, on the enemy's rear. Directing Colonel Tucker to move up the American side of the river from Fort Niagara, in order to disperse or capture a body of the enemy assembled at Lewiston, he pushed forward to Queenston. t Brown was speedily informed of these threatening movements, and dreading that Tucker intended to capture his baggage and stores at Schlosser, if he were not forced to retreat by a counter- • Letter of Major M'Farland, an American officer of Brown's army, t Drummoad's Despatch to Prevost, 27th of July 1814. W: I . 'I ■I ■ ;. ■ . ■ ■■ yf 'w ■',. .. '■i i ■ I »■ * ' V \ >«' - . . « . .. ♦ .- 388 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1814. advance on his own part, determined to put his army in motion towanls Queenston. He accordingly directed General Scott, with the first brigade, the cavalry, and a battery of artillery, to move in this direction, and if he met the British in force to report to that effect, when the remainder of the army would march to assist him. In pursuance of these instructions Scott advanced to Niagara Falls, and finding the British in larger numbers there than had been anticipated, he despatched an orderly with a request that Brown should at once push on to his assistance.* Meanwhile, the enemy at Lewiston having decamped, Drummond directed Tucker to return to Niagara, and moved forward himself with eight hundred regulars to support Riall at Lundy's Lane, or Bridgewater, as it is styled by American writers. He reached the neighbourhood of this position at half -past five o'clock in the even- ing, and found that Riall, instead of occupying the hill he had expected, had already commenced a retreat, his advance, composed of eight hundred regulars and militia, being a considerable distance away on the upper road to Queenston. Despatching an aide-de- camp to I'ecall these troops, Drummond at once took possession of the little eminence at Lundy's Lane, on the summit of which he placed five field-guns in battery, with two brass twenty-four pounders a little in advance. His line of battle was formed with rapidity and skill. The 89th regiment, a detachment of the Royal Scots, and the light companies of the 41st, he posted in rear of the battery, the centre and key of his position. To the right, the Glen- igarry Light Infantry prolonged the line ; to the left, were posted a body of militia and a detachment of the 3rd BuflFs. On the road, in rear of theleft, were stationed a squadron of the 19th Light Dragoons. Drummond's entire force, thus formed in battle array, amounted to sixteen hundred men. Scott's brigade advancing against him was two thousand strong, exclusive of cavalry and artillery ; the second brigade under Ripley, soon rapidly pushing up to support Scott, was nearly of equal strength ; while the militia, under General Porter, and his own cavalry, made up Brown's army to fully five thousand men. When Drummond arrived on the ground, the enemy was alfeady within six hundred yards of the advantageous position of which he at once so promptly and skilfully took possession. He had barely time to complete his formation when the whole front was warmly engaged. But the decision and skill of the British general had already half won the battle. The battery, so judiciously placed, was admirably served, and swept the field with terriVle rapidity, while the sharp rolling volleys of the infantry held Scott's superior numbers effectually in check. For three quarters of an hour did the battle rage on something like equal terms in poirit of strength ; then Ripley's brigade came on the ground, with another battery of artiller^', and Drummond's little army had now to contend against three times its number. Brown at once availed himself of his * Brown's Despatch to Armstrong. [1814. y in motion 1 Scott, with ^, to move in jport to that assist him. iagara Falls, m had been that Brown I, Drummond ward himself dy's Lane, or 3 reached the : in the even- le hill he had ce, composed rable distance ig an aide-de- possession of t of which he 1 twenty-four 3 formed with of the Royal n rear of the ^ht, the Glen- were posted a n the road, in ffht Dragoons. , amounted to ainst him was y ; the second lupport Scott, nder General y to fully five y was already a of which he le had barely was warmly general had iously placed, ihle rapidity, ott's superior f an hour did of strength ; ler battery of itend against limself of his 1814.1 BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE. 389 superior force to outflank his opponent's line. The 'l')t\\ American regiment swept round the British loft, forced it back at an an;,'!e with the centre, gained temporary [K)sse.sHiou of the road, and the enemy's cavalry, following ))ehinfl, made .several prisoners, and General Riall, who had been severely wounded and was pa.ssing t(» the rear, among the rest. But the Canadian militiani(Mi of the left gave way no farther than the })row of the r-oad ; and therf-, although pressed hard by immensely superior numbers, did they gallantly hold their ground, and effectually covered tlie rear of the centre and right. Meanwhile, the battle raged furiously at the centre of the British line, on which the i\mericans made tierce and repeated attacks, but were repulsed again and again witli steady valour, to be afterwards smote down with terrible carnage by the fire of the artillery as they fell back to reform. Presently, night drew its sable pall over the battle field ; still the combat raged with desperate obstinacy. The assailants, maddened by their losses, pressed forwjird repeated- ly to capture the British guns, and even bayoneted the gunners in the act of loading, but were as often repulsed. They next pushed up their own guns within a few yards of Drummond's battery, and thus maintained a combat of artillery. At one time, led V)y Colonel Miller, they forced the S9th back and captured several of the Briti.sh cannon, but a vi2;orous bayonet charge reoovcr;>d them again, and took a gun in addition from the ouciuy, together with several tumbrels. About nine o'clock there was a brief lull in the battle, while Scott's brigade, which had suffered severely, was being withdrawn by Brown and placed in reserve, and Ripley's fresher troops pushed to the front. Luckily at this time the remainder of Riall's divi- sion, whose retreat on Fort George, as already stated, had been countermanded by Drummond, came up with two guns, and having been joined on its way by four hundred militia, the hard-pres.sed British combatants were now reinforced by twelve hundred fresh troops, with some of whom their line was prolonged at the right, which it was apprehended the enemy migljt outflank ; the rest were placed in reserve. The moon now rose dimly over the battle-field, and flung its uncertain light from behind a mass of thin feathery cloud on the hostile ranks, enabling the eye to scan the slope in front of the British position, strewed thickly with the dying and the dead, the plaintive groans of the wounded mingling sadly and chillingly the while with the dull, yet terribly voluminous, roar of the mighty cataract close by. The contest was again resumed. Long thin lines of fire marked the discharges of the hostile infantry, while ever and anon the artillery shot out a red volume of flame, and then its thunders reverberated across the bloody field, to waste themselves in fitful echoes amid the continuous roll of the Niagara. A momentaiy pause now. and then succeeded, and the cries of ttie wounded for water fell ominously on the ears of the still uninjured. Till mid- ■ ii • 1^. Ml u ' I, • • ,i ' •■ 1 4 •• • I!. )' '^V I' 4 ■•\ > r. •./,.' 390 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1814. night did this terrible combat continue, when Brown, finding all his eflforts fruitless to force the British position, retreated to Chippewa, leaving Drumraond in full possession of the battle-field. Such was the battle of Lundy's Lane, the most fiercely contest- ed, and bloody in its results, of any fought in Canada during the war. The Americans, as we have already seen, had largely the advantage in point of numbers ; the British the best position. Still, it is difficult to imagine how sixteen hundred men could have resisted an army of five thousand for nearly threa hours, had the latter been more ably commanded. The field of battle was open, there was no bush fighting, no breast-work of any kinc;, and the eminence held by the British was only of trifling height and quite oasy of ascent. The Americans showed a desperate courage worthy of their British descent, and had Brown wielded his large columns more skilfully, Drummond could scarcely fail to have been beaten. He committed a blunder in not knowing more of the British force in his front, and Scott committed a still greater blunder in commencing the battle before Ripley's brigade came up. Had the whole American army been at once thrown skilfully against the British line, it must have been outflanked and hemmed in, and Drummond compelled to retreat, or have his small force destroyed. While their troops behaved admirably, neither Brown nor Scott displayed the genius of the skilful military tactician, and literally fought the battle by detachments,* to be repulsed in detail. They sought to win a victory by the mere physical courage of their men, while ^neir superior numbers should have decided the contest in +^^heir favour with ono-half the loss they sustained in being beaten. The Americans claim they won a victory at Lundy's Lane, but on what ground it is difficult to imagine. They did not drive the British army from its position. If for a brief space they had its guns in their possession, a bayonet charge compelled them to surrender them again, besides losing one of their own in addition. Nor did they remain in possession of the battle-field. That honour rested with the British troops and the gallant Canadian militia. The latter fought for their country with illustrious valour, and behaved with all the coolness and courage of the best veteran soldiers The loss of the American army, also, was the most severe, being nine hundred and thirty killed and wounded, and three hundred prisoners ; while that of the British, prisoners included, only amounted to eight hundred and seventy men.t Generals Brown and Scott had been severely wounded during tlie battle. Drummond, also, was wounded in the neck, but remained upon the ground nevertheless till the enemy had retreated. The active command of the American army now devolved upon Ripley, who was directed by Brown to make a fresh demonstration against the British position, at day-break on the following morning. Armstrong, vol. ii. pp. 93 — 95. t Alison's Hist. £nrope, vol. iv. p. 473. I. ft ' [1814. , finding all •etreated to battle-field, ely contest- i during the I largely the )st position. 1 could have irs, had the e was open, inci, and the it and quite ate courage ed his large fail to have g more of the still greater ade came up. »wn skilfully and hemmed is small force jither Brown iry tactician, le repulsed in ^sical courage e decided the sustained in s Lane, but ot drive the hey had its ed them to in addition. That honour dian militia, valour, and jest veteran as the most ounded, and h, prisoners v^enty men.t 1 during the )ut remained ted. Bvolved upon emonstration ing morning. Toi, iv. p. 473. 1814.1 THE AMERICANS RETREAT. 391 But a reconnaisance soon convinced Ripley that Drummond was fully prepared to receive him on precisely the same ground, and he therefore declined to give battle. Fearing to be attacked in turn, Brown now determined on retreat ; and having, on the 27th, set fire to Street's Mills, destroyed the bridge over the Chippewa Creek, to check pursuit, and thrown his heavy baggage, tents and provisions, into the river, retired on Fort Erie, while Drummond's light troops, cavalry and Indians, followed rapidly in pursuit. The destruction of its heavy stores, and the retreat of the Ameri- can army so soon after the battle of Lundy's Lane, present clear evidence that it felt it had sustained a defeat. But if additional proof on this point is required, it will be found in the fact, that Brown's victorious troops were soon cooped up in Fort Erie, or in intrenchments beside it, by a force little more than half their number. The curious spectacle was thus presented to the world of the larger force besieged by the smaller, and rendered perfectly useless for the remainder of the campaign.* Ripley had made great exertions, during the brief interval of repose allowed him by Drummond, to strengthen the works of Fort Erie, while two vessels of war were placed so as to cover it towards the lake by their fire. These were captured, however, by the British, in two boats brought overland for the purpose, on the n7ght of the 12th of August. On the following morning Drummond's batteries opened on the works, which their fire speedily damaged so much, that it was determined to carry them at once by assault, f This daring attempt to storm a fort supported by an intrenched camp, in which lay over three thousand men, by a force less than two-thirds the number of the enemy, had very nearly succeeded. The assailants were divided into three columns, two of which established themselves before daylight, on the morning of the 1 5th, in a solid manner in a part of the Americans' works, and turned their own guns upon them. Unfortunately the third column, under Colonel Fischer, was unable to -^ ^-operate, owing to the vigorous defence of the enemy.:]: Still .« troops already inside firmly maintained their ground till a great part of them were killed bv the accidental explosion of a magazine close by, when the remainder retreated in dismay. In this gallant, but abortive attempt, the British loss was very severe ; one hundred and fifty -seven were killed, t'l .ee hundred and eight wounded, and one hundred a ad eighty-six made prisoners. The American loss was trifling in comparison, and in killed and wounded scarcely amounted to one hundred men. Nor was this the only repulse sustained by Drummond's force at this time. A simultaneous attack made against the enemy's position at Black *' Alison's Hist. Europe, vol. iv. p, 474. + Drummond's Despatch to* Prevost, 15th of August, 1814. t Fischer's Beport to Drummond, 14th of August, 1814. ^^ -■ . #■• til M ■ii .15 Ir V • 1^: f I ■■ fir I ti* I ii ■ i ^ ■J•^'•■. ■'• •vv.- i'.v*.. 392 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1814. Rock, with four hundred and sixty men, under Colonel Tucker, also failed. But the American army, now commanded by Brigadier Gaineh, had not the heart to follow up its success ; and Drummond being leinforced, on the 17th, by the 6th and 82nd regiments from Lower Canada, was enabled to retain his position. While the tide of war thus rolled fiercely along the Niagara frontier, hostile occurrences were also transpiring in the far west. Early iu the spring, Mackinaw had been reinforced by way of Nottawasaga, and from thence a force of six hundred and fifty Canadians and Indians were detached, under Colonel McKay, for the capture of the enemy's post at Prairie du Chien, on the Mississippi. This duty McKay effectually accomplished without the loss of a man, and thus completely established British influence with the western Indian tribes. Early in the season, Ai^nstrong, the American secretary at war, had planned the re-capture of Mac' inaw, and towards the latter part of July a force of one thousand men, under Colonel Croghan, proceeded to effect that object. With a part of this force Major Holmes made a descent upon the stores belonging to *he North - West Company at St. Mary's, and, after taking out all the furs and goods, reduced the buildings to ashes. But Holmes was not oontent with this robbery and destruction of private property, at a post where there was not a single military man. AH the horses and cattle were killed, and the provisions and garden stuff, which oould not be removed, destroyed. On the 4th of August, Croghan arrived near the Fort of Mackinaw, and Colonel McDowall, commanding that post, at once made dispositions with one hundred and four men to check his advance, the remainder of his little garrison being required to man the guns. But the enemy landed in a direction different from that anticipated by McDowall. His march, however, was gallantly checked by a body of Indians, and Croghan was speedily compelled to retreat to his shipping, having sustained a loss of sixty-four killed and wounded. Among the killed was Holmes, the destroyer of St. Mary's, who had thus met a well-merited fate. No further attempt was made on Mackinaw, which remainfjd in undisturbed possession of the British till the termination of the war. Its safety was further secured by the capture, on the 5th of December, of two of the enemy's vessels, left in the neighbourhood to intercept supplies for the garrison, by a small party of seamen and soldiers. While these events were transpiring in the west. Sir John Sherbrooke, the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, was engaged in subduing that portion of the State of Maine lying nearest to New Brunswick. Early in July a small force was detached from Halifax, under Colonel Pilkington, which took possession of Moose Island in Passamaquoddy Bay ; the garrison of the fort there, consisting of seven officers and eighty men, surrendering themselves prisoners of war. On the 26th of August General Sherbrooke sailed from Halifax, with all his disposable forces, established 1814.J SUCCESSES IN MAINE. sn himself without opposition, on the 1st of September, at Castiue, on the Penobscot River, the enemy having blown up his magazines and retreated ; and detached six hundred troops, body of sailors, to capture or destroy the frigate Adairm, which i . run up to Hampden for safety. The batteries at this place were gallant- ly carried, and the enemy, numbering some fourteen hundred^ compelled to retreat, but not, however, till he had set fire to the Adams. Bangor was next captured without resistance ; Machias aleo surrendered ; and the whole country from the Penobscot to New Brunswick was formally taken possession of, with small loss to our troops, and remained under British rule till the end of the war. ; Meanwhile, the arrival at Quebec of sixteen thousand men of the Duke of Wellington's army, put it. in Prevost's power to assume the offensive. Major-General Kempt was accordingly despatched with a portion of this force to Upper Canada, with a view to a descent on Sackett's Harbour, while a body of eleven thousand troops were concentrated on the Richelieu frontier, td' operate against the enemy's posts on Lake Champlaih. But, unfortunately, the naval part of this expedition, on which its success mairJy depended, was not by any means in the same state of efficiency as the land force. It was composed of a frigate, the Confiance of thirty-seven guns, one brig, two sloops, and twelve gun-boats, wretchedly equipped, not one-fifth of the crews being British sailors; the remainder were a strange medley of English soldiers and Canadian militia. On the 10th of August the American General, Izzard, had moved up Lake Ontario, with four thousand men, to reinforce the troops besieged at Fort Erie, and enable them to assume the offensive, leaving the posts on I^ake Champlain very slenderly defended. Prevost's advance, accordingly, met with no opposition ; and on the 6th of September his army appeared before Plattsburg, then protected by two block-houses and a chain of strongly-fortified field-works, garrisoned by fifteen hundred troops and militia under Brigadier Macomb. The three succeeding days were chiefl) employed in bringing up the heavy artillery. Prevost did not think it proper to open tire on the enemy's works, covered by his fleet of fourteen vessels, until supported by the British squadron. But so backward was its state of preparation, thj^-t it only hove in sight on the morning of the 11th, and the ship vrights were still busily working on the hull of the Confiance^ bearing the Commodore's (Captain Downie) flag, as she moved through the water. The squadron which the British vessels were now bearing down to attack was much their superior in men, tonnage, and weight of metal, besides being supported by powerful land-batteries. Still, Downie relied upon Prevost's assurance that the enemy's position would be assailed by land while he attacked his fleet, and bore ■■\ :•! A- Wi ■■ M li i % J i'4 li » .. i"f • fj. •■ •• • n 1 ■, 1 ■v ■■'. ■ 1. •'■ . '», ''■4 iy ' ' ■ '-i- ■* ' 4 " ' 1 ■ 'f . 1 •ii •, ^ • J, ;.- • * f : •■. '* v 1 •x • 'iM'^- .•»94 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1814. gallantly down to action.* But instead of supporting this move- ment, Prevost directed his men to cook their breakfasts. The result was what might naturally be expected. After a desperate battle the Conjiance, Linnet brig, and Chub sloop, were compelled to strike their colours. The Finch sl^^ruck on a reef, and was of no use during the action, and nine of the gun-boats tied. Prevost at length put his attacking columns in motion ; but, on finding that he could not expect succour from the fleet, he immediately with- drew them and resolved to retreat. The works would have been easily carried ; a success in this way would have been a set-off to the disaster of the fleet ; and nothing could have equalled the indignation of the troops when they were ordered to retreat. Many of the officers indignantly broke their swords, declaring they would never serve again ; and the army sullenly retraced its way to the Canadian frontier, undisturbed by the enemy. The disgrace- ful course pursued on this occasion effectually destroyed the military reputation of the Governor General ; and as he died before he could be tried by court-martial, the stain still rests on his memory. On board the fleet, the loss in killed and wounded was one hundred and twen^^y-nine, while the land force lost about two hundred. The loss of the American fleet was nearly as severe as that of the British. Among the killed of the latter was the gallant Downie. No sooner did the American troops invested at Fort Erie learn the disaster of the British at Lake Champlain, than they made a vigorous sortie on the afternoon of the 17th of September. Owing to the rain falling in torrents, they succeeded in turning the right of the besieger's pickets, and after a sharp contest obtained possession of two batteries. But a reinforcement speedily coming up, they were at once driven back, and pursued to the very glacis of the fort, wither they retired with precipitation, having sustained a loss in killed, wounded, and missing of five hundred and nine men. The British loss amounted to six hundred, of whom one-half, however, had been made prisoners in the trenches at the commence- ment of the sortie. Finding his men becoming very sickly, and learning also the advance of General Izzard's division, Drummond raised the siege on the 21st, and retired wholly unmolested on Chippewa. During the autumn months Chauncey had the advantage, both in the number and size of his vessels, of the British squadron on Lake Ontario. At length, on the 10th of October, the St. Latvrence, a vessel of one hundred guns, was launched at Kingston, when the * Comparative strength of vessels actually engaged : — British. American . Vessels, 8 14 • Broadside guns, 38 52 Weight of metal, lbs. , 765 1194 Aggregate of crews, 537 950 Tons, 1425 2540 [1814. 1814.] CLOSE OF THE WAR. 395 g this move- kfasts. The ' a desperate ire compelled nd was of no Prevost at finding that diately with- ild have been jn a set-off to equalled the d to retreat, leclaring they raced its way The disgrace- iestroyed the I as he died L still rests on and wounded 'ce lost about arly as severe atter was the ort Erie learn 1 they made a nber. Owing ing the right est obtained edily coming very glacis i^ing sustained red and nine lom one-half, le commence- sickly, and Drummond nmolested on vantage, both squadron on St. Latorence, ton, when the mean. 14 52 ■1194 950 ■2540 American Commodore immediately withdrew, and was blockaded in turn at Sackett's Harbour. The lake freed from the enemy's ships, troops and stores were conveyed to the army on the Niagara frontier ; and althou^.i Izzard had now a tine force of eight thousand men at Fort Erie, he blew up its works, recrossed the river, and left the harassed people of I'pper Canada to repose. Beyond a foray of mounted Kentucky brigands, who marked their course with plunder and destruction, at the extreme west, the retreat of Izzard was the last event of a war, which completely burst the bubble of American invasion of Canada. The Treaty of Ghent, on the 24th of December, put a final termination to hostilities, and restored peace between two nations, whose language, laws and religion, were identical, and who should, therefore, never have unsheathed the sword against each other. The ostensible grounds of the war, on the part of the United States, were the Orders in Council and the right of search ; but its real cause was the desire to acquire Canada, On each of these points the American Democracy had been completely worsted. Peace was concluded without a word being said about the flag covering the merchandise, or the right of search ; while Canada remained unconquered, and far better prepared to defend herself at the close of hostilities than at the beginning. From tirst to last the course pursued by the United States presents few grounds for justification. They had commenced an unrighteous war by the invasion of an unoftending and harmless people. When they found they could not seduce them from allegiance to their sovereign, their generals burned their villages and id,rm-houses, and plundered them of their properties. But, by a righteous dispensation of Providence, they were most deservedly punished. Nothing had been gained by all the lavish expenditure of American blood and treasure. Not one solitary dollar had been added to the vrealth of the people of the United States, nor one inch of land to their tei'ritory. On the other hand, their export trade from twenty-two millions sterling had dwindled down, in 1814, to less than one and a half million; and their imports, from twenty-eight millions sterling had been reduced to three. Nearly three thousand of their merchants vessels had been captured ; their entire seaboard insulted : two-thirds of the mercantile and trading classes of the whole nation had become insolvent, and the Union itself was threatened with dissolution by the secession of the New England States.* Then, if Canada suflFered much misery — if many of her gallant sons were laid low by the ruthless hand of the pitiless invader, and her soil steeped with the blood of her brave militia fighting in defence of their homes, the war was, nevertheless, a real benefit to her. The lavish expenditure of money enriched, more or less, all classes of her small population ; and thus gave a vast impulse to the general prosperity * Alison's Hist. Europe, vol. iv. pp. 482, 483. ^ ■i .'t ■ ' J*"'' • .' ' !f . • ' ■ i t 4 '«. . :; ' ' ♦ ' •• I i i ' <•. \^ .r'' ' ' • » ' > > ' 1 ' ' i- ■ .* •»l V *\' 3i»6 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1814. of the country. Nor did this expenditure add much to the burdens of the people, being chiefly borne by the mother country, while the inhabitants of the United States were grievously oppressed by taxation, and thus directly punished for their eagerness to engage in war, and coveting their neighbours' lands, while countless millions of acres of their own territory lay vaste. Perhaps the most extraordinary feature of iula war was the course Tjursued by the great majority of the American settlers, who, aside from the U. E. Loyalists, had emigrated to Canada. To their honour, be it said, they nobly adhered to their oath of allegiance, willingly enrolled themselves in the militia, and gallantly aided to stem the tide of invasion. It is true that a few of their number joined the armies of the United States, but so also did persons of British origin. Fortunately, however, for the country the aggregate number of traitors of all descriptions was very srii,;,ll, when compared with the patriotic portion of the population. At the present day American settlers, or their descendentS; form a large and important per centage of the people of Ontario. As a rule they are sincerely attached to the country of their adoption, and make intelligent, useful, and law-abiding citizens. Nor have they cause to blush for the land in which their lot has been cast. Englishmen, Irishmen, Scotchmen, Frenchmen or Americans, should never hesitate to fuse themselves into a Canadian people, and help to build up a young, vigorous and gallant m<.tion., in the valley of the St. Lawrence, along the borders ojE, our inland seas, and in the uew and vaster regions that lie beyond them to the Pacific Ocean. Canadians have every reason to be proud of their country. Brave in ws;*, contented in peace, we tread the soil of our magnificent heritage as a free people, in the widest sense of the term, l.i we have not the wealth of Bjigland, neither have we its aristocracy to crush down the industriiil clafvses : if we lack the population and the cotton fields of the Unitea States, we also lack its discordant foreign rabble, and thfc difficult problem of its negro multitude. Not a single national stigma rests on Canada ; and if its people are only true to them- selves in the future as they have been in the past, the course of its national prosperity should roll on as certainly, and as grandly, as the current of the majestic river that forms its great highway to the Atlantic Ocean. Another war with the United States is a very improbable contingency. There is, in point of fact, nothing left to seriously quarrel p,bout, nothing to provoke a war, nothing that should not be easily settled by arbitration, by the mutual good sense and righteous feeling of the people of both countries. . ♦ ■•' ■■ 4 .1 'i [1814. he burdens , while the pressed by to engage countless ,r was the kn settlers, bo Canada, leir oath of ilitia, and that a few but so also r, for the iptions was ion of the , or their the people ihe country aw-abiding which their Frenchmen Ives into a gorous and the borders ns that lie irery reason jd in peace, 3 people, in 1 wealth of down the atton fields rabble, and ;le national le to them- ourse of its grandly, as lighway to es is a very ling left to )thing that utual good es. CHAPTER Xyi. LOWER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. THE GOVERNMENT OF PREVOST,— continued. THE Legislature of Lower Canada assembled on the 21st of Jan- uary. Panet, the speaker of the Assembly, having been called to the Upper House, Louis Joseph Papineau, who for the ensuing twenty-three years figured so prominently in 1815. the public affairs of the Province, was chosen to replace him. The new speaker was descended from a respectable French family^ which emigrated to Canada towards the close of the seventeeuth century, and finally settled in Montreal. His father, frequently termed the elder Papineau, was born in 1752, appointed a notary public in 1780, and for many years was a member of the Assembly. He was a faithful subject of the existing government, and in 1810, when addressing the electors of Montreal, declared " that he had no other motive in seeking to become a member of the Assembly, than that which arose from a desire to consecrate his feeble talents to the support of the government and the constitucion." At the same time, he pointed to his past conduct as a proof of his tideh^y to the Crown, and alluded to his zeal to sustain the interests of the King's subjects in the Province, without distinction of rank, situar tion or religion. " I have given proof," he said, " of my devotion to the preservation of a strict union of these provinces with the mother country ; and I am still ready to expose my property, and even my life, for the preservation of the happiness and prosperity we enjoy under the British Government." The younger Papineau, however, did not share, to any very great extent, in the levotion of his father to the government under which he lived. Born at Montreal, in 1789, and educated at the Seminary of Quebec, he evinced, at a very early age, despite his priestly training, a decided leaning to democratic principles, and to the new school, now spring- ing into existence, which began to dream of French-Canadian sovereignty in the Laurentian Valley. In 1809, while still a student, he was elected as a member of the Assembly for the county of Chambly, for which he sat two years. During the ensuing twenty years he represented the western division of the City of Montreal. He at once attached himself to the opposition party in the 1 If:' ■« ■■'. ',■!■■■ ■,'■ • til- ♦■',•■■ 'if- 1 « •« ' • -l. ■'I' > : ... ( ■ ■ 'i ' H* :■ |5 i 'i-r IV '■'■''■ •\ \ I it I':-: ! ;•,, •.. •v: • ■3 ■ t '■ ' :K» 398 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1815. Assembly, soon became its leader, and continued to act with it afterwards until the rebellion took place. His eloquence, his readiness in debate, his desire to raise his countrymen from their secondary position, his purpose to make them supreme in the affairs of the Province, speedily won him the favour of the Assembly, and it now hastened to choose him as its speaker, although he was still not quite twenty-six years of age. And not content with elevating him to this dignity, the highest in its gift, it voted him the large salary of $4,000 per annum — a salary he continued to enjoy for over twenty years. Among the money grants of the session was one of $100,000 for building the Lachine Canal, which extends from the western part of Montreal to Lake St. Louis, a distance of some nine miles. — Another grant of $2,000 was made to Joseph Bouchette, surveyor- general of the Province, to assist him in publishing his maps and topography of the country. The question of having an agent in England was considered by the Assembly, and an address voted to the Governor asking him to procure the Piince Regent's sanction to the measure. It was also determined to further prosecute the impeachment of Sewell and Monk, and as this could only be done in England, the appointment of judges resting entirely with the Imperial Government, the necessity of having an agent there became more pressing. While the attention of the Assembly was still occupied by these proceedings, a message from the Governor, on the 1st of March, officially announced the conclusion of peace with the United States. The embodied militia were accordingly disbanded, officers receiving a gratuity of eighty days' pay. Provision was dso made for a pension of twenty-four dollars per annum to each militiaman and voltiger.r rendered incapable by wounds of earning a livelihood. A small gratuity was likewise given to the widows and orphans of those v.'ho had been killed during the war ; and an address voted to the Crown recommending tliat grants of laid be made to the em- bodied and other militiamen who had bfjen engaged in actual service. The public accounts for the year, ending January the 5th, showed that the revenue amounted to $818,200, and the expendi- ture to $789,000. Of the latter sum $541,178 had been absorbed by military expenses ; .$21,896 went to Upper Canada, as its pro- portion of the customs' duties ; while $1,35G defrayed the charges for the recent general election, and $14,672 those of the Legis- lature. The business of the session having been completed, the Legis- lature was prorogued by the Governor on the 25th of March. After alluding to the liberality of the Asseiably, and the fortunate establishment of peace, he stated bi'iefly that he had received the commands of the Prince Regent to return to England, " for the purpose of repelling accusations affecting his military character," preferred by Commodore Yeo, with regard to the loss of the fleet on Lake Champlain. He concluded by paying a well-merited I I'M: ■•;'>' [1815. 1815.] LOWER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 399 > act with it oquence, his I from their n the affairs isembly, and I he was still ith elevating lim the large enjoy for n 00,000 for western part line miles. — te, surveyor- lis maps and m agent in ress voted to nt's sanction ►rosecute the only be done ely with the there became pied by these st of March, the United nded, officers xs ilso made militiaman a livelihood. id orphans of ress voted to e to the em- in actual lary the 5th, the expendi- sen absorbed a, as its pro- the charges the Legis- h the Legis- of March, he fortunate received the d, " for the ' character," of the fleet well-merited compliment to the people of Canada, for the zeal and loyalty they had manifested during his administration. Prior to his departure, on the 3rd of April, Sir George Prevost re- ceived addresses, from the French-Canadian citizens of Montreal and Quebec, couched in the most flattering terms. With the British minority of Lower Canada he was not, however, by any means popular. His concessions to the French-Canadian majority had caused that minority to regard him with the utmost dislike, and his want of success at Sackett's Harbour and Plattsburg was eagerly seized on by its press to lower him in the public estimation. A calm review, however, of all the points at issue, while it leads to the conclusion that Prevost was not a great military genius, must accord him the ment of much political sagacity and wisdom. He effectually united a population of different origin and antagonistic feeling in defence of their common country, and thus preserved Canadian nationality tlirough a period of the greatest danger. In his conduct towards the French- Canadians he pursued the same line of policy followed by General Murray and Lord Dorchester, to both of whom the Lower Province was largely indebted. His bodily health, naturally delicate, was seriously injured by the hardships of his overland journey from Quebec to the seaboard, part of which was performed on foot, and the anxiety of mind consequent on his unpleasant position. He died on the 12th of January 1816, deeply regretted by his relatives and numerous friends. The court-martial appointed to try him never assembled. His afflicted wife took loving steps to clear his memory from the stains resting upon it in connection with the military occurrences at Plattsburg. The War Office eventually publicly acknowledged his valuable services ; the Prince Regent accorded an honourable addition to the armorial escutcheon of the family ; and the Duke of Wellington signified his approval of the retreat from Plattsburg. On the other hand, several of the naval officers who misconducted themselves there were tried by a court-martial and punished.* THE GOVERNMENT OF LIEUTENANT-GENERAL DRUMlvlOND. SIR GORDON General Drummond, with whom the reader must be already well-acquainted, assup.ied temporary charge of the government of Lower Canada on the departure of Prevost. His first measure of importance was the redemption of the Army Bills, issued during the war, which had passed equally current with gold and silver. On the 14th of November a proclamation was issued stating that these bills would now be paid in cash, at the Army Bill Office in Quebec, and that ail interest would cease thereon after one month. " These Army Bills," said the Quebec Gazette^ " have enriched the * Gurwood's Despatches, vol. xiv. p. 244. Garneau, vol. ii, p. 323. ■w 4 'ii '>\p ii"! ]•■/■ •■■ ■ IJ ' r ■ ' i 'v 1 . '• ■. ♦ 400 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. 11815. i , couiitry; not so much by the interest they paid as by stimulating the prices oi its commuoities, and giving great faeilities for the purchase) of government exchange on London." They were almost better than gold; while similar paper in the United States deprecifi.ted in value to such an extent, as to cause their people much confusion and serious loss. Drummond was very anxious to carry out the recommendation of the Assembly, with regard to giving grants of land to the militia- men, who had been engaged in active service during the war, and tit first supposed that these grants could be made in the Eastern Townships, and especially along the St. Francis River, which rises in a lake of the same name, and after winding for over a hundred ihiles through a highly picturesque district, and receiving several tributary streams, finally discharges its waters into Lake St. Peter. But on enquiry at the Crown land office of the Province Drum- mond foui:d, to his surprise, that all the available lands in the valley of th e St. Francis River had been absorbed by favourites of the 3rwutive. Between the years 1793 and 1811 over three million acres of this charming district had been dividf>>d among a couple of hundred of lucky grantees, one of whom was the former Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Robert S. Milnes, whose share alone was no lesf) than seventy thous£i.nd acres. Land had to be found else- wLere for the militia ; and the Home Government was duly advised of how matters stood.* Drummond next turned his attention to the postal department, complaints having been made to him touch- ing its bad management. Here he found so many abuses in existence, that he demanded the dismissal of Heriot,. its superin- tendent. The Legislature assembled on the 26th of January. In his open- ing speech Drumm.ond alluded to his own birth in Quebec, the 1816. continued indisposition of George III., the restoration of the Bourbons, the battle of Waterloo, and the necessity of renew- ing the Militia Act about to expire. He also drew the attention of the Legislature to the fact, that " many discontented adventurers, and mischievous agitators, had recently thrown themselves into the neigh- bouring States," and recommended that their entrance into the Province should be restrained by reviving the " Alien Act." The good-feeling manifested by the address of the Assembly, in reply, was of brief duration. On the 2nd of February that body was completely astounded by a message from the Governor, stating that the impeachments preferred against Chief Justices* Seweli and Monk had, on the advice of the law lords of the Privy Council, been dismissed by the Priara Regent. " No enquiry," said the message, " was deemed necessary in that part of the charges which related to acts done by a former Governor ; " and the adiniasion of the principle that the governor of a province might, at his own discretion, divest himself of all responsibility on points of political * Drummond's Deapatoh to Earl Bathurst June 16th, 1816, 11815. stimulating 1 ties for the | rere almost 1 ted States 1 beir people 1 amendation t the militia- he war, and the Eastern which rises ' a hundred ving several ce St. Peter, dnce Drum- lands in the favourites of over three lf>d among a bS the former re alone was found else- duly advised attention to 10 him touch- abuses in its superin- In his open- 1 Quebec, the )ration of the ity of renew- iention of the mturers, and ito the neigh- nce into the Act." The ly, in reply, lat body was stating that li and Monk ouncil, been the message, hich related ssion of the at his own s of political 1816.] LOWER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 401 government was impossible. Accordingly the only part of the enlarges submitted by the Prince Regent to the Privy Council, was that relating to the Rules of Court, which came immediately within the responsibility of the judges ; and on this point it was decided that they had not exceeded their authority, and had com- mitted no offence against the law. There can be no doubt of the soundness of this decision. Craig could alone be held responsible for his personal acts, and five years before he had gone into the court of a higher tribunal, and was now beyond the reach of the Assembly. Calmer counsels should have made these facts apparent to its members, and led ihem to submit decorously to the judgment of the Prince Regent, and to the decision of the highest court of appeal in the empire. But urged on by the malicious agitator, James Stuart, and inflated with an undue idea of its functions and constitutional authority,, the Assembly took counsel instead of its own prejudices and passions, and on the 24th of February decided, by resolution, not to submit to the adveime decision of the Privy Council, and to petition the Crown for permission to prove its charges. In other words, the Assembly demanded that the Privy Council should quash its final judgment, and re-open the case again, an unheard of proceeding. But the Home Government, anticipa- ting a course of this kind, had already instructed Drummond to dissolve the Assembly if it persisted in its hostility to the two judges. He accordingly, on the 26th, prorogued the Legislature in a brief speech of two paragraphs, in one of which he strongly censured the Lower House for the disrespect it had shown to the decision of the Crown ; and writs were at once issued for a general election. But nearly all the old members were again returned, and the new House evidently would prove as intractable as the one it had replaced. Meanwhile, Major-General Sir John Coape Sherbrooke had been appointed Governor-General of Canada.. Drummond departed for England on the 21st of May, and two months afterwards his successor arrived at Quebec, and assumed charge of the administration of the Province. THE GOVERNMENT OF 8ia JOHN COAPE SHERBROOKE. General Sherbrooke was an English officer of reputation, and had seen considerable military service. In India he had distinguished himself at the capture of Seringapatara, and had subsequently served with credit under Wellington in the Peninsula. He had also exhibited capacity in civil affairs, and had conducted the administration of Nova Scotia with much tact and political skill. His Canadian reign opened with an augury of success. Early frosts, in the preceding autumn, had caused the failure of the wheat crop in the lower districts of the Province, and famine was apprehended. On learning how matters stood he opened the Crown stores for the public relief, and in addition advanced, on J .. . ' , • •• ». •'• ' \ \ « * » <, *:[■•. ■' ♦ - 402 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1816. his own responsibility, a large sum of money to assist the afflicted habitants. His prompt and effective measures averted all danger of famine, and won for him the gratitude of the people. The Home Government was still resolute in its determination to support the judges, or, in other words, British ascendency in the Province (for that was the real issue at stake) although by this time aware that the recent general election had proved adverse to its wishes. But the Colonial Secretary did not by any means find Sherbrooke as 'pliant to his methods as his predecessor had been. While the Governor avowed himself prepared to execute the strongest measures the ministers of the Crown might deem advis- able, he plainly stated the hopelessness of any attempt in this direction, owing to the very general unpopularity of Sewell ; asked for specific instructions should the Assembly again take up the impeachment matter, and broadly hinted that the sounder policy would have been to have had the impeachment more fully tried, instead of giving it an ex parte hearing, and so covertly disposing of it in the Privy Council. These representations convinced the Colonial Office that it could no longer openly support the judges against the current of popular opinion, and Sherbrooke was now instructed to conciliate the Roman Catholic clergy, who were equally as hostile to Sewell as the other classes. To his influence in the Legislative Council was ascribed the frequent opposition it gave to measures of the Assembly. He was also regarded as an enemy of public improve- ments ; and his arbitrary conduct, in having refused a writ of habeas corpus in the case of Bedard, was still held in bitter remem- brance. Sherbrooke advised the Colonial Office to compromise the dispute, by permitting the Assembly to appoint an agent in England, or by detaching Stuart, the principal enemy of the judges, from the opposition party by giving him office. He also recommended that the speaker of the Assembly should be ex officio a member of the Executive Council, so as to bring the two bodies into more harmonious action, and that Sewell should be retired on a pension. The Home Government having consented to the policy of conciliation sketched out by Sherbrooke, steps were at once taken to carry it into practical effect. The Roman Catholic Bishop, Plessis, whose salary from the Crown had been raised, at the recommendation of Prevost, from two hundred to one thousand pounds sterling per annum,* and whose legal title had also been changed from superintendent to that of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec, for his cordial support of the government during the war, was now to be elevated to a new position of dignity as an Executive Councillor. The authority and extent of his episcopate were also greatly increased by the Crown, and he was now permit- ted to appoint, as in the days of the Old Regime, his vicars general t: » * It was afterwards raised to £1500 sterling. [1816. 1817.J LOWER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 403 the afflicted i all danger termination ency in the (Ugh by this ci adverse to r means find r had been, execute the deem advis- im^ t in this iwell ; asked take up the under policy e fully tried, :\y disposing that it could it of popular jnciliate the Sewell as the Council was sures of the blic improve- id a writ of )itter remem- n promise the an agent in lemy of the ce. He also I be ex officio le two bodies )e retired on policy of once taken lolic Bishop, aised, at the )ne thousand lad also been tholic Bishop it during the dignity as an is episcopate now permit- dears general in Upper Canada, Nova Scotia and Prince Edwarrl Tshind. These concessions thoroughly placated the clerical order, then, as now, the great lever of popular opinion in the Province of Quebec ; and an air of satisfaction and content, which extended even to the Assembly, swiftly yet silently spread itself over the community.* So far Sherbrooke's policy had succeeded, and was destined to be still more successful. When the Legislature met, on 1817. the 17th of Januarv, a mixed " committee of conciliation" was constituted to mediate amicably between the two chambers, when differences might afterwards arise. This step showed the secure progress the Government was making in propitiating the Assembly. But Sherbrooke was not content with this success. Papineau had been paid his speakership salary for the last Parliament, but no provision had as yet been made for its payment during the existing one. On. the 11th of March the Assembly voted an address to the Go' ernor, praying that its speaker's salary should be paid as before ; and, also, that " some signal mark of the royal favour" be conferred on the widow of Panel, the late speaker of the House, who had never received any remuneration for his .long services. The Governor declared himself prepared to meet the views of the Assembly in both respects, provided that it agreed to also pay a salary to the speaker of the Legislative Council, " for the performance of the arduous and important duties attached to his high Office." The Assembly at once accepted this condition ; and promptly presented the requisite address. On the 17th of March a message from Sherbrooke informed the House, that he had conferred on each of the speakers an annual salary of four thousand dollars during the present Parliament, while the Widow Panet was to receive twelve hundred dollars per annum for life. Chief Justice Sewell was speaker of the Legislative Council. His past alleged offences were now virtually condoned by the action of the Assembly ; and he was rewarded for all the trouble and annoyance he had suffered, by an important addition to his already la»*2e salary of some eight thousand dollars a year. Stuart fruitlessly laboured to induce the Assembly to revive its impeachments of Sewell and Monk. The matter crrae up for discussion on the 19th of March. A long debate ensued, and continued until the follow- ing morning, when the question was finally postponed until the ensuing session of the House, despite the eloquent and brilliant pleading of Stuart, who was almost entirely abandoned by the • Encouraged by the favourable condition of ecclesiastical matters in the Province, the Pope, early in the year, raised Quebec to the archiepiscopal dignity ; but this being done without the sanction of the Colonial Office Plessis shrank from uccepting the title. Lord Bathurst afterwards objected to the introduction of foreign ecclesiastics, as suffragan bishops, into the Province. To meet this objection several Cauadiau-born bishops were appointed, in ISliS, with the consent of the British Government. The title of Archbishop of Quebec, however, lay in abeyance until 1844, v.'hen Signelai assumed it publicly. Garneau vol ii. p. 343. Bathurst's Despatch, September 17th, 1816. * i •iJM m '404 THJS HlWokY OP CANADA. [1817. party, which he had hitherto led, or rather supposed he ^ad led, the vote against him standing 22 to 10. He returned in «iisgust to Montreal next day to attend to his privcte affairs, and ap^.eared no more in Parliament until the close of Lord Dalhousie's adiainis- t ration, and then only for a single session. The venality of the Assembly, so shameless and open, had resulted in his being completely baffled and beaten ; and in rewarding the very man he had so long laboured to ruin.^ The matter of &n agent in England shared the fate of the impeachments, and was alsr> postponed. During the session measures were taken to relieve the Governor from the respomribility he had incurred by making advances, to the extent of some fifty-seven thousand dollars, for the relief of the distressed districts. Sixty-two thousand dollars were voted u; addition for the same purpose; and a further sum of eighty tiiousand dollars, to be loaned in small sums to deserving farmers, 'ii order to enuble them co purchase seed for the ensumg spring sowing. Foucher, one of the superior oour J judges, was impeached for improper practices, in advising attorneys in suits pending before him: But tne chargeK against him were never forcibly pressed, and eventually abandoned altogether. On the 22nd of March, the session was brought to a close by a b; ef speech from the Governor, in T^'hioh the Legislature was thanked for i+s efficient services. The pubi:c accounts showed that the financial condition of the Province was in a flourishing state ; and that an unexpended balance, of over half a million dollars, stood to its credit. During the sunraer the Bank of Montreal, the first institution of the kind in Canada, was established. The Quebec Bank speed- ily followed. These banks gave a great impulse to the business of the countrj. Steamboats now constantly plied between Montreal and Quebeo ; and this year small vessels, propelled by steam, began to make their r^ppearance on Lakes Ontario and Erie. One little steamer, built at Prescott, made voyages to Kingt^ton, and wound in and out, at times, amid the intricate channels of the Thousand Islands ; while a sister boat, built at Emestown, traversed the placid waters of the charming Bay of Quinte. When opening the ensuing session of the Legislature, the Governor stated that the measures taken to avert the 1818. threatened famine had been attended with the happiest consequences. He also informed the Assembly that its former offier to defray the expenses of the civil list had been accepted by the Home Government, t This intelligence gave the * Chrisliie voL ii. p. 289. Gftmeau vol. ii. p. 331. t 4,t this period the public income of Tower Canada arose from three Bources : 1st, the Crown duties, levied under the British statute of 14 Gee . III., or the imperial act of 3 Geo. IV. 2nd; I^ovincial dutios, payable in virtun of local laws, proceeding immediately from the Provincial Legislature, or rendered j^^crmAnent without their oonient by the last-mentioned ioiparial aot. [1817. [ he had led, I in «UsgU8t nd api-^ared ie's adioinis- lality of the n his being srery man he ; in England bponed. he Governor ances, to the relief of the ere voted ii; m of eighty viag farmers, isumg spring IS impeached ending before f pressed, and I of March, ech from the 3r i+'S efficient ;ial condition a unexpended lit. st institution Bank speed- le business of een Mon^real steam, began ). One little n, and wound he Thousand iraversed the ^slature, the avert the I the happiest ably that its list had bieen snce gave tbe rose from three li 14 Get. ni:. TB, proceeding went without 1818.] LOWER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 405 greatest satisfaction to the members, by whom the settlement of the Provincial Civil List, and the control of the public expenditure, had long been desired, as the one great lever to increase their own influence. The duties levied by the Imperial Government, on imports into Canada, had been found wholly inadequate to defray the necessary civil expenditure, and prior to 1812 the deficiency had ci::>ually to be made up from the military chest. Subsequent to that period, the unappropriated revenues of the Province had been taken for this purpose, and as their expenditure was unauthorised by the Assembly, the Imperial Government was in its debt for the sum of £120,000 sterling. This condition of things was fully explained to the Colonial Office by Sherbrooke,* and as it was desirable to release the mother country from this burden, consent was now given that the Assembly of Lower Canada should provide, in the same way as Nova Scotia, for the civil expenditure by an annual vote of supplies.! In conceding this privilege, however, Lord Bathurst pressed it especially on the Governor's attentiOkX, that the concurrpuce of the Legislative Council should be necessary to the validity of all money bills ; and that in all grants for the payment of clergymen's salaries, the Protestant Church should be first considered. J The estimates for the civil list, sent r'.o'vn at a late period of the session, amounted to $306,584, while the re/enue derived from the imperial duties, sale of Crown lands, and other sources, was only $133,532, leaving a balance to be provided for by the Assembly for the current year of $173,052. This sum was voted after a long debate; but it was resolved that next session a fuller estimate under detailed heads, and not in total, should be furnished the House by the Executive, and provided for by bill, in order to place it on a more constitutional footing.^ 3rd, The King's casual and territorial revenue, which arose from his Majesty's landed property ; namely, the Jesuits' estates, the King's posts, the forges of St. M. .urice,the King's wharf, droit de quents, lods and vents, land fund and timber fund. With respect to Crown duties levied under 14 Geo. III., until they were surrendered in 1831, they were, with the territorial revenue, controlled a:.d dispensed by his Majesty's responsible servants ; while those levied under the Imperial act of Geo. IV., and all provisional acts, had always been under the disposal of the Legislature. As the Crown duties levied under 14 Geo. III. had generally, if not always, been inadequate to the support of the civil government and the administration of justice, Sir John Sherbrooke was instnicted. in pursuance of the general system of retrenchment adopted throughout the empire, to call upon the liegislature to appropriate, out of the provincial duties, a sum equal to the annual deficiency, • Sherbrocke's letter to Bathurst, 18th of March 1817. t Bathurst to Sherbrooke, 31st of August 1817. t Bathurst's letter to Sherbrooke, 8th of September 1817. § Christie, vol. ii. p. 391. t ■|i'/v f:.v ■ ^ ' I 1 ,• tt ■;.•■ 406 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [Ibl9. Governor Sherbrooke's colonial experience made him dislike remaining in Canada, where he saw that the shuffling policy of the imperial ministers must sooner or later cause difficulties. Hie failing health, also, had tended to make him request his recall. He left Canada on the 12th of August, xftpr having received the most gratifying addresses from all parties. He still, however, remained in the army, and in May, 1825, attained by seniority to the high rank of general. He died on the 14th of February, 1830, at Claverton in England. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE DUKE OF RICHMOND. j . ■ ■ t " • % 1 ■■•■ It * i V • ■ \ ;.|- The high rank of the Duke of Richmond, as well as the circum- stance that he had already administered the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland with much satisfaction to its inhabitants, caused his arrival in Canada, as its Governor General, on the 29th of July, to be hailed with gratification by the people. He was accompanied by his son-in-law, Major-General, Sir Peregrine Maitland, who had been appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada. The Legislature met on the 12th of January, but news of the death of Queen Charlotte, the consort of George III., having been 1819. received,an adjournment until the22nd,as a matter of respect to her memory, took place. Parliament was then opened by the Duke in a brief speech, in which he alluded to the oflorof the Assembly, made at a former session, to provide for the expenses of the civil government, an offer which the Crown had accepted, but which had not been carried into effect owing to the illness of the recent Governor ; and stated that the estimates for the current year would be laid before it. He added that he earnestly desired to promote the "prosperity of this rising Colony." The address of the Assembly was very complimentary to Richmond personally, hue his popularity was nevertheless destined to be of brief duration. Thfl estimates for the Civil List of the current year amounted to $396,302, being an increase of $89,718 over the previous year. — This increase was principally cau^d by a sura of nearly forty-nine thousand dollars, to be granted to the Crown in perpetuity, *' as a pension fund for rewarding provincial services, and for providing for old and reduced servants of the Government and others." The large additicn to the estimates at once aroused the hostility of the Assembly, aud a select committee was appointed to report thereon. That report was adopted, and recommended, in strong terms, policy of retrenchment and economy. Its concluding paragraph was couched in a tone of dlHi'ourteous censure, not only as regnded the local, but also the Imperial, Government. '* Your committee are of opinion," it stated, " that this House, in making suitable pro- vision for such offices as are indispensably necessary, should make an unqualified reduction of those sinecures and pensions, which in all countries have been considered as the reward of iniquities, and a [1819. 1819.J LOWER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 407 lim dislike olicy of the ilties. Hitj recall. He ;d the most r, remained to the high y, 1830, at OND. the circum- sutenancy of d his arrival : July, to be impanied by id, who had of the death having been :er of respect pened by the )e Assembly, I of the civil but which )f the recent year would to promote Iress of ihe lally, but his •'ition. Tim mounted to dous year. — ly forty-nine jtuity, " as a or providing thers." The stility of the )ort thereon. II g terms, a .i-agraph was iogf»ded the mmittee are citable pro- hould make ns, which in ic^uities, and the encouragement of vice ; which in the mother country have been, and still are, a subject of complaint, and which in this Pro- vince will lead to corruption." In accordance with the recommendation of its committee the Assembly now absolutely refused to follow the practice of the Imperial Parliament, and make a permanent provision for the Civil List of the Province during the King's reign, and decided to vote only an annual Supply Bill by items. And even this Su})ply Bill was not to be voted unless the right were admitted to appor- tion the fund already appropriated by law for certain specific purposes, and the disposition of which had been placed in the hands of the Crown. In pursuance ot this determination the Assembly proceeded to pass a bill specifying the items of public expenditure, and making provision for them in detail. It went, in committee of the whole, through the entire Civil List, from the Governor General's salary, of .£4,800 sterling a year, down to the humblest office holder, and fixed the sum to be paid in each case. At the same time, it declined altogether to provide for ofiices which it deemed to be sinecures or unnecessary. In the debate which ensued the leaders of the majority contended, that the Assembly had the unrestricted right to dispose, as it saw fit, of the people's money ; and that if the Imperial Commons did not think proper to exercise that right, they were not bound to follow this example. — When the Supply Bill was sent up to the Legislative Council, it was received with no small scorn, and at once rejected on the grounds that it was " unprecedented and unconstitutional, and a direct assurapt.jn, on the part of the Assembly, of the most im- portant rights and prerogatives of the Crown."* The " Conciliation Committee" took no steps to smooth the differences between the two chambers c. this Supply Bill matter, as they were deemed to be irreconcilable. The Supply Bill had occupied the attention of the Assembly to such an extent, that very little business otherwise was transacted during the session. Nor were any steps taken to provide for the relief • The following is the full text of the liegislative Council's resolution on this occasion : " That the mode adopted by this bill, for granting a supply to his Majes- ty, to defray the expenses of the civil list, is unprecedented and unconsti- tutional, and a direct assumption on the jjart of the Assembly, of the r impoitant rights and prerogatives of the Crown. That were the bill to l,j f>assed into a law, it would give to the commons of this Province, not mere- y the constitutional privilege of providing the supplies, but the power also of prescribing to the Crown the number and description of its .servants, and of regulating and rewarding their services individually, as the Assembly should, from time to time, judge mo.st expedient, by wh'ch means they would be rendered dependent on an elective body instead of being depend- ent on the Crown, and niight eventually ]>o made instrumental to the over throw of tiiat authority, whicli, l)y their allegiance, they are bound to support. '• That this House will proceed no further in the consideration of this bUl." ''I •i H-' :•■■. ■ ■ ' lli''' - ■ ' .-»• '4 » . » » n Hf:- ' ■^f->.''. .'• V . •. ♦ - 408 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. L1819. of the group of frontier settlements along the St. Francis and else- where, which had been extensively occupied by English-speaking yeomen, and known as the Eastern Townships ; and which were still without judges or courts for the suitable administration of justice. .$12,000 were voted to enable the Government to survey lands to be granted to the militiamen, who had served during the war, and an imperfect militia bill waH passed. The Legislature was prorogued by the Governor, on the 24th of April. While he praised the Legislative Council for its Z3al and alacrity in the per- formance of its duty, he cjnsured the Assembly for not making constitutional provision for the Civil List, and for not reforming the Judicature Act, which it was considered permitted too much latitude to judges, and thus led to public dissatisfaction. This praise of one branch of the Legislature and censuring the other gave rise, as in the case of Craig, to considerable oflFence on the part of the French-Canadians generally. Shortly after the session had terminated the Duke, on his own responsibility, drew upon the Receiver General of the Province for the sum necessary to defray the Civil List. While the termination of war had caused little, if any, social disturbance in the Canadas, where the people, as a rule, speedily and quietly settled down to their usual occupations, a very different state of things prevailed in Great Britain. There the sudden col- lapse of the inflated prosperity protluced by the lavish war expen- diture, and the vast number of so' iiers, militia and sailors, thrown out of employment and cast upon the already glutted labour market, produced a period of great suffering and want. Illegal soci'^tie.s sprang into existence all over England, furious riots and Odtiages took place in manufacturing districts, and the starving agricultural labourers fired the grain and hay ricks of the farmers who declined to give them employment. In their despair, the working classes of England sought to turn the dial hand of manufacturing progress backwards, and made war upon labour-saving machinery of every kind as their greatest foe. The gaols were filled with treasonable conspirators and other criminals ; numerous trials and executions took place ; and it seemed, at times, as if the very foundations on which society rested were about to be riven asunder. Across the Irish Channel matters were little better. The decrease in the value ot agricultural produce, and the almost total destruction of the Irish linen and woollen trades, owing to jealous enactments of Parliament, and the general introduction of spinning and weaving machinery into England, against which hand labour could no longer compete, reduced the now rapidly increasing people of Ireland to a deplorable condition. In their distress they turned, as their fathers had so often done before them, to seek for a new home in the New World ; and a large emigration to Canada took place during the summer. A considerable number of immigrants came also from the congested districts of England and "Scotland, swelling up the total to 12,434, many of whom were in a state of destitution, and [1819. 1819. 1 LOWER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 409 is and else- sh-speaking which were istration of it to survey durinj;; the Legislature While he in the per- not making forming the I too much tion. This g the other on the part session had jw upon the cy to defray any, social speedily and ry different sudden col- war expen- lors, thrown >our market, jal soci'^tie.s nd oatidges agricultural rho declined ting classes ing progress ry of every treasonable executions ndations on Across the ease in the sstruction of actments of -nd weaving lid no longer Ireland to a bheir fathers in the New during the e also from Uing up the itution, and drew largely upon the charity of the benevolent. And, from thence forward, year after year, one immigration wave after another con- tinued to flow up the St. Lawrence. Now the Paisley Weavers leave their looms to try farming in the rear of the Johnstown District ; now the Highlanders come to found a new Glengarry on the Upper St. Lawrence ; now English and Irish farmers and labourers swarm in to fill up the wastes of the Eastern Townships, or to scatter in every direction over Upper Canada. But while French Canada had no inflow of this kind, its natural increase was enormous, and enabled it, so far, to sturdily hold its own in numbers and influence. Peace and prosperity reigned throughout all its borders, and, unlike the days of the Old Regime^ the habitant found that personal liberty and security of property beneath the Union Jack which he had never known under the Fleur de lis. Having completed his duties in connection with the recent ses- sion of the Legislature, and made arrangements for a proper administration of public affairs during his absence, the Governor General left Quebec, on the 24th of June, on an extensive western tour of inspection. I'wo days afterwards his camp was pitched at Sorel or, as it was then called, William Henry, pleasantly situated on the right bank of the Richelieu, where it falls into Like St. Peter, forty-five miles below Montreal. In by-gone days this was a favourite rendezvous of the Iroquois, when they gathered for their forays on the settlements down the river, and here, accord- ingly, the Marquis de Tracy erected, in 1666, a fort to check their incursions. About this fort a settlement presently grew up, which had swelled into a large and flourishing village at the time of the Duke's visit. While walking about its streets his attention was attracted by a tame young fox, which presently commenced to play with his little dog. On the following day, when he attempted to caress this fox, it bit him in the hand. The wound was a trifling one and soon healed up. Nothing more was thought about the matter until the Duke was on the return trip. About the middle of August he landed at Kingston, and from thence proceeded through the woods to the newly formed settlement at Perth, ac- companied by two attendants. While at Perth the first symptom of hydrophobia developed itself, when drinking a glass of wine and water, in a strange and unusual sensation, but which, however, soon passed away. Thirty miles from Perth, and some twenty miles west of Ottawa, in the midst of what is now a splended agricultural country, lay the little hamlet of Richmond, so called in honour of the Duke, and first settled, in •the preceding year, by disbanded soldiers of the 100th Regiment of the line. Here Sergeant- Major Bell of that corps built for himself a substantial two story house, which is said to be still standing ; and in which he then kept a tavern known as the Masonic Arms. Following a blazed track through the forest the DulTe proceeded on foot to Richmond, and during the journey showed extreme dislike to crossing the smallest streamlet. Three miles from the hamlet a dense swamp, partly hi *♦ , "A ■ « % ■ , S I t . Bvf". •v" 410 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1819. dooded, was encountered, the passage of which the Duke absolutely refused tc attempt ; and obtained shelter for the night in the log shanty of a settler. One of his servants came on to Richmond and told how matters stood, and next morning the settlers, full of loyalty, went out to meet the representjitive of their sovereign, carrying with them planks and boards to bridge the bad places in the swamp. With these went Lieut Col. Burke, government store keeper of the settlement, who issued rations and supplies to his former soldiers, and Colonel By, now engaged in surveying the Riileau Canal, with ■ ome others who had come to meet the Governor General, and all of whom he entertalaed, in the evening, a*^ >i dinner given at the Masonic Arms. But he could scarcely take a glass of wine with his guests, passed a restless night, and a cup of coffee was his only breakfast in the morn- ing. " Takvi me to Quebec as quickly as possible" he said to his ser- vants, who at once embarked with him in a canoe on the Goodwood River, an affluent of the Rideau, which flows by tlie village, and along which he was swiftly rowed. The worst form of Hydrophobia now rapidly developed itself, the Duke presently became greatly distressed at the sight of the water, and asked to be taken on shore. He was assisted to a barn near by, as he said that would be farther from tlie river than the settler's shanty, and there, upon the camp coach which his servants carried with them, after suffer- ing the most excruciating toDnents, he died at eight o'clock on the following morning, the 'JSth of August. It was indeed a sad and tragical ending, amid the sombre forest of Canada, in the presence only of his servants and one or two others, of a brilliant career. The Montreal Herald had a most eloquent obituary notice of the unfor- tunate nobleman, and the magistrates of its city requested the public to wear mourning for him for thirty days. His remains were conveyed to Quebec and buried there, with much pomp and ceremony, in the English cathedral. Chief Justice Monk, as the senior member of the Executive Council, now assumed control of the administration of the Province and issued, accordingly, en the 20th September, the necessary pro- clamation. On the 7th of February he was superseded by 1820. Sir Peragrine Maitland, who took charge of the govern- ment, pursuant to orders from England, until the Earl of Dalhousie, promoted from Nova Scotia to the Governor General- ship, should relieve him. Maitland, however, had to open the Legislature of L^pper Canada on the 21st, and proceeded to Toronto on the 9th. Monk therefore again assumed charge of the govern- ment, and at once issued a proclamation dissolving Parliament. This unwise proceeding was no doubt adopted under instructions from the Colonial Oflice. Instead, however, of increasing the government supporters in the Assembly, the purpose sought to be accomplished, it had the opposite effect ; and seriously weakened the hands of the Executive. On the 17th of March Maitland returned from Toronto, ind relieved Monk of the government. The Legislature had been summoned to meet on the 11th uf [1819. ! absolutely , in the log hmond and 1 of loyalty, [n, carrying the swamp, seper of the joldiers, and [, with ■ ome all of whom LSonicArms. its, passed a in the morn- d to his ser- e Goodwood village, and iydrophobia time greatly be taken on that would I there, upon , after suffer- 'clock on the ed a sad and the presence career. The )f the unfor- •equested the His remains oh pomp and le Executive the Province, lecessary pro- uperseded by the govern- the Earl of nor General- to open the d to Toronto the govern- Parliament. instructions icreasing the sought to be ily weakened ■ch Maitland >rnment. the nth of 1820.J LOWER CA]*JADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 411 April, and was then duly opened by the acting Governor in a brief speech. After the Assembly had re-elected Papineau as its speaker, it commenced an enquiry into its legal competency to proceed to business, inasmuch as no member for the County of Gaspe had as yet been returned. While this enquiry was in progress, a message from Maitland, recommending the renewal of certain acts about to expire, was paid no attention to by the House. The Clerk of the Crown in Chancery was then ordered to produce the list of the returns for the late general election, and it being thus officially confirmed that the number of fifty members, required by law, was not complete, the Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution de- claring itself incompetent to proceed to the despatch of business. — As the legal term of twelve months, within which the Legislature must assemble, would expire on the 24th of the month, a question would thus be raised, presuming no member for Gaspe were elected in the interval, as to whether the constitution of the Province had not been violated. Maitland remonstrated with the refractory Assembly, but to no purpose. It was resolutely bent on resenting, in some way, tlie late sudden and useless dissolution, and accord- ingly eagerly seized upon the pretence of a legal difficulty as the best and safest method of embarrassing the administration ; and now dog- gedly persisted in its refusal to do any business, or to hold any communication with the other chamber. The Gordian Knot of this Parliamentary " strike" was, however, presently untied by the death of the King, news of which was received on the 24th of the month, the last day of grace with the Assembly. For the long period of fifty-nine years and four months had George III. reigned over England. On the 25th of October, 1760, he ascended a glorious throne ; for through the energy and foresight of its Great Commoner, Pitt, Britain had become the first nation in the world. After a checkered reign of mingled victory and defeat for the empire ; of mingled joy and sorrow for himself, he passed to his final rest on the 29th of January. Indifferently educated, narrow-minded and bigoted, he was largely responsible for the " War of Independence," and led the Parliament he had helped to pack in its insane crusade against the American colonies. But, unlike his two Guelph predecessors his domestic life was a pure one ; and his intentions however mistaken were always honest. He did his best, says Thackeray,* he worked according to his lights. What virtue he knew he tried to practice ; what knowledge he could master he strove to acquire. The punishment of his kingly pride, of his obstinacy, of his self-will, fell alike upo:\ per.jjle and chief. But his courage never failed him, never quailed. It trampled North under foot, it bafHed the eloquence of Chatham, it bowed the stiff neck of the haughty younger Pitt, it humbled the p.ristocracy of England. Even liis fits of insanity never concjuered his indomitable spirit ; and as soon as his brain again became clear * Vide Thackeray's Four Georges. i't'^ -■•■■ Uv :, ■ H' ■>. ■■ ' ■ 1,'^ ■■ ■ • . al ■ ' ' • ■J ''I/. j ■<■: t ■':,.. '"I « « . . 1 »■ * ,'■ it. ■; M tv i . ■ w •".■.♦ •> 412 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1820. it re8ur*dd the projects laid aside when his reason left him. Nine years before his death the loss of his favourite child, the little Princess Amelia, whom he tenderly loved, rendered him hopelessly insane. Watchers had at once to be Ff>t about him, and from November, 1810, George III. had ceased to reign. In audition to the terrible affliction of madness he became blind and deaf. All light, all reason, all sound of human voices, all the pleasures of this beautiful world of God's creation, were taken from him. Some slight lucid moments he had, in one of which his brave old Queen, de- siring to see him, entered his room, and found him singing a hymn, and accompanying himself on the harpsichord. When he had finished he knelt down, and prayed aloud for her, for his family, for the nation, for himself ; then burst into cears and his reason again fled. What a painful and sad ending to human greatness ! For him death was indeed a blessed release. So he passed to his fathers ; and George lY., the most unprincipled and most faithless of all the monarchs of England, reigned in his stead. Six days be- fore the death of George III. his fourth son, the Duke of Kent, died after an illness of three days. The Duke's infant daughter, now Queen Victoria, was then eight months old. In England, under a statute of William III., the death of the sovereign did not necessarily cause the dissolution of Parlia- ment. But its provisions had not been extended to Canada. — Maitland, accordingly, went down to the House, and, without the least allusion to its recent refractory proceedings, dissolved the Assembly in consequence of the death of George III. During this ceremony bells were tolled, and minute guns fired, in honour of the deceased monarch. Afterwards a royal salute of one hundred guns announced the accession of a new king ; and George IV. was sol- emnly proclaimed in the presence of the troops, and of a vast concourse of citizens. The same ceremonies took place at Montreal, at Three Rivers, and at other centres of population in the Province. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE EARL OP DALHOUSIE. On the 18th of June, George, ninth Earl of Dalhousie, and a lieutenant-general in the army, promoted from the lieutenant- governorship of Nova Scotia to be Governor General of Canada and the rest o£ British North America, arrived at Quebec to assume charge of the administration. His military career had been a most distinguished >me. In 1787, at the early age of seven- teen, he had succeeded to the title and estates of his father, and the same year became a cornet in the 3rd Dragoon Guards. He served in Ireland during the Rebellion of '98, and with Sir Ralph Abercrombie during his campaign in Egypt. In 1809, he took part in the unfortunate expedition to the Scheldt. The Duke of Wellington made honourable mention of him in his despatches for good conduct at Vittoria and the Pyrenees, and he received the ' :>■ ; [1820. im. Nine the little hopelessly , and from Btudition to deaf. All ileasures of lira. Some Queen, de- ng a hymn, len he had his family, i his reason L greatness ! assed to his ost faithless 3ix days be- l Kent, died ughter, now le death of )n of Parlia- ) Canada. — without the issolved the During this onour of the undred guns IV. was sol- d of a vast at Montreal, ;he Province. JSIE. ousie, and a lieutenant- il of Canada it Quebec to career had age of seven- s father, and >uards. He th Sir Ralph 809, betook The Duke of espatches for received the 1820.] LOWER CANADA PROM 1815 TO 1828. 413 thanks of both Houses of Parliament for his distinguished services, particularly at Waterloo. The general election took place immediately after Dalbousie's aj*rival, and resulted in the return of a French-Canadian majority rather larger than usual. Only ten members of British nationality were returned, and even some of these belonged to the anti- Executive party. The opposition, however, still continued of the opinion that it would be able to acquire complete control of the Province by parliamentary methods, and by the skilful use of its overwhelming majority in the Assembly. That this view was also entertained by Papineau, at this time, was shown by a very conciliatory speech which he had made in Montreal during thd recent election, and in which he contrasted, in forcible and appropriate language, the happy condition of his people under British sovereignty with what it had been in the ol" days of French dominion. "Then," said he, "this country was held as ft military post, whose feeble garrison was condemned to live in a state of perpetual warfare and insecurity, frequently su£fering from famine, Mdthout trade, or with a trade monopolised by privileged companies. Public and private property often pillaged, personal liberty daily violated, and the inhabitants dragged, year after year, from their homes and families, to shed their blood — from the shores of the great lakes, from the banks of the Mississippi and the Ohio, to Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Hudson's Biay. Now religious toleration, trial by jury, the act of habeas corpus, affdrd legal and equal security to all, and we need submit to no otheir laws but those of our own making. All these advantages have become our birthright, and shall, I hope, be the lasting inheritance of our posterity. To secure them, let us only act as British subjects and free men." The new Parliament met on the 14tl of December, and was immediately disturbed by a quarrel between its two branches, owing to the manner in which the Supply Bill was voted by the Assembly, which now made voluntary provision for the pension list, though not embraced in the estimates. The Ijegislative Council contended that this list had already been permanently provided for by law, and not being included by the Executive in t!io amount required for the public service, the Assembly had no right to assume its control. In support of this position, the Upper House agreed to a series of standing orders, to the effect that it would not entertain any supply bill which should not be applied for, and recommended by the King's representative ; nor proceed upon any bill of appropriation for the civil list specifying the expenditure by chapters or items, unless such appropriation extend- ed during the life of the reigning sovereign. Thus the breach widened continually between the two branches of the Legislature. The Upper House, chiefly composed of mem> bers of British origin, a majority of whom were mere Government dependents, took -a position more and more in favour of retaining B' ' V ti*:}. l^fi >*■'■' * M^v' ': ' '' ' mii fe"' •!'', ;: ♦•^•-, pi.' '♦ 't '».' ' Kit ■'♦' -. ' .»t.' pi/ .'< • ■ i^P • % W ri *', , i":^;' 1 ^^■:' a 1 f! ^'f^ :>■ tw « « ..k I .■ rr- • \ I • t 1 , ; f % 414 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. 1 1821. all real power in the Executive, and so secure for its members place and pension ; while the popular branch, from the very nature of its formation, ostensibly leaned to a greater constitutional freedom, a purer administration of affairs, and an economical use of the public resources. But, beneath all this pretence, the current of self-interest and a desire for place and power, ran deep and strong. Hitherto, the Crown lands of the Province had been granted to favourites of Government in the most prodigal manner. 1821. During this year's session of the Legislature, this circum- stance was made the subject of investigation, and enormous abuses brought to light. Enquiry was also made into the conduct of John Caldwell, the Receiver-General of the Province, an oflScer appointed by the Crown, and who was suspected to be largely a defaulter. He was extensively concerned in the lumber trade, a"d the possession of the provincial moneys by a person enga^f*"? in commerce was a source of much dissatisfaction to the mercantile community. The sessional payment of members of the House was again discussed, and negatived in committee. An attempt was likewise made to do away with several useless offices, and to compel the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, who drew a salary from it of ^1500 sterling, to reside in Canada instead of in England. Appropriations were granted for several public purposes ; among the rest was one to construct the Lachine Canal at the expense of the Province, the incorporated company having surrendered its privilege. As the disagreement still existed between the two Houses, no provision was- made for the payment of the Civil List. Government, finding itself in an unpleasant predicament, had in the earlier part of the session made a conces.'-ion to the Assembly by calling Papineau to the Executive Council ; but as he declined to act nothing vas gained by this proceeding. Meanwhile, the Province had been steadily progressing. The introduction of steamers on the St. Lawrence and the great lakes, had given a vast impetus to trade. Immigrants had rapi'^ly crowded in, and the Eastern Townships alone now conta'ned a population as large as that of all Canada at the Conquest. The annual revenue had increased to .$600,000 ; the Lachine „nd Rideau Canals, grea.. public works, were in progress, and the general condition of the country fairly prosperous. At the same time, party spii'it had taken firm hold of the community, owing to the difference of origin, the arbitrary conduct of the Executive, and the quarrels which originated in the Legislature. Confident in their increasing numbers and influence, a desire for a distinct nationality began to take possession of the minds of many among the French-Canadian population, owing to the intrigues, chiefly of the popular leaders, who saw in " La Nation Canculienne^' an accession to the place and power denied them under existing circumstances. On the other hand, the British minority could not divest themselves of the idea that the French- Iv 1 1821. 1822.J LOWER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 415 i members 'ery nature istitutional lomical use the current n deep and granted to ;al manner, this circum- d enormous the conduct e, an officer be largely a r trade, a"d engaf^*"3 in B mercantile ! House was .ttempt was id to compel salary from in England. )ses ; among 3 expense of ^rendered its sen the two le Civil List, ment, had in he Assembly he declined essing. The great lakes, had rapi'^\y conta'ned a iquest. The lachine „nd 3ss, and the >us. At the community, iduct of the i Legislature, a desire for ihe minds of wing to the *' Za Nation denied them , the British ,t the French- Canadians were a conquered people, that they •'lone had the right to govern, and chafed at their own want of legi" oive influence. This feeling, as time progressed, became more and more 'ntense, and displayed itself in a variety of ways, nearly all equally offensive to the popular party, and tending to unite it still more closely in its antagonism to British interests. The great majority of the people were still wholly uneducated, and even several members of the Assembly could not write. Hence the simple habitants gradually became the merf tools of the better informed and more designing, who found it to their interest to foster national prejudices, and make the mass of the people more completely French-Canadian every day. The truth of Mr. Fox's statement, " that it would be wiser to unite still more closely the two races than separate them," became more and more apparent as time progressed. As things now stood, if an Englishman, or Irishman, or Scotchman aspired to a seat in the Assembly, he had to divest himself of his national prejudices, learn the French language, and become a French- Canadian to all intents and purposes. While matters remained in this unsatisfactory c .edition, a financial dispute arose with Upper Canada, which now claimed a larger portion of the import duties than it had 1822. hitherto received. This dispute, in connection with the quarrels of the Legislature, and the tendency to independence now plainly manifesting itself, determined the Imperial Parliament to interfere. A bill was accordingly passed wliich provided for the union of the two provinces ; conceded all that Upper Canada had asked for ; and made che Executive, to a certain extent, indepen- dent of the Assembly, as regarded an annual vote of supplies. This bill prevented the Legislature of Lower Canada from imposing new duties Oil impor-ed goods, unless wich the consent of the Parlia- ment of the Tipper Province or the Sovereign, and also ocntained th« very important provision of permitting parties to commute, by transaction with the Crown, the seignorial tenure into free and common socage. With exception of the clause providing for the union of the provinces, omitted till the sense of the inhabitants should be ascertained, it passed into law, and became known as the " Canada Trade Act." When the project of a union was published in this country, it caused very great excitement. The inhabitants of British origin were generally strongly in favour of the proposal, while those of French descent were as decidedly opposed to it. Public meetings were held by both parties, at which resolutions for and against the measure were adopted, and petitions were drafted, accordingly, and sent to the Imperial Parliament. The French-Canadians dreaded the total loss of their ascendency in the Pi-ovince, and deprecated the project as one of bad faith ; while the Anglo-Canadianr, on the other hand, denounced this very ascendency as retarding the pros- perity of the country, as productive; of anti-British feeling, and as tending to check tlie growth of international commerce. The sig- ,!■■•■• ■•. r ■ V t » '! Miv hH 416 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1823. natures and crosses app^mded to the anti-union petition, taken to England by John Neilson and Louis J. Papineau, amounted to sixty thousand. James Stuart carried home the petitions of the unionists. From this agitation the Governor-General wisely held wholly aloof. Thoroughly alarmed by the projected union, which was generally regarded as a coercive measure, the Assembly came together, 1823. on the 10th of January, in a much more tractable spirit than formerly. After electing Mr. Villiers as Speaker in room of Papineau, who still remained in England, the proposed union of the provinces was taken into consideration, and resolutions passed against it by a majv, "ity of fifteen to five. On these resolu- tions were based petitions to the Imperial Parliament and the Crown, which were transmitted to Papineau and Neilson h r pre- sentation. Sir Francis N. Burton, the Lieutenant-Governor, having arrived in the meantime, his salary was increased from £1500 to £3000 sterling. The claims of the Eastern Townships to a more equal representation, and the establishment of convenient courts of justice therein, were taken into consideration. The new district of St Francis was accordingly erected, and a judge appoint- ed to it with an inferior jurisdiction. A court of quarter sessions was also established in these townships. The great difficulty of the Assembly was the question of a representation in its own body. The Eastern Townships were nearly all settled by persons of British origin, and if formed into counties their representatives must necessarily be opposed in opinion and feeling to French- Canadian influence. By way of compromise a bill was introduced giving six members to these townships, but which, at the same time, increased the represention of the rest of the Province ao as to preserve a large anti-British majority. This bill was very properly rejected by the Upper House. The estimates for the Civil List were laid before the Assembly on the 5th of February, eventually agreed to, and the necessary sums voted. Agreeable to instructions from the Home Govern- ment, these estimates were of two kinds. One was for the fund . ver which Government claimed the entire and independent con- trol ; the other specified the more popular expenditure, for which the Assembly was to make appropriation. Both estimates were given in detail. Several appropriations were also made for public works ; pensions were granted to Judges Monk and Ogden, who had been superannuated ; and sums voted to the General Hospital at Montreal, and the Hotel Dieu at Quebec. On the whole, the session, which terminated on the 22nd of March, passed off satis- factorily. " It only remains for me," said the Governor, in the closing paragraph of his speech, when proroguing the House, " to offer my warmest thanks for your assiduous and laborious atten- dance. I esteem the result of the session to be at once honourable to yourselves and useful to your country." Shortly afterwards it 1824.1 LOWER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 417 was officially promulgated that his Majesty's Government had re- linquished the project of a union for the present. Owing to the total failure of the Receiver-General, John Caldwell, for £96,117 sterling of the public money, the Executive found itself so embarrassed for funds, that the Legislature was called together, on the 25th of November, to devise some measure f'»r its relief. Caldwell proposed to surrender his private property, which he valued at X32,000, in liquidation in part of Fiis debt ; and, if he were continued in office, to pay £1000 per annum until that portion of it which he considered due, amounting to about £45,000, was discharged. The balance he asserted ought to be placed to his credit, as it amounted to only three per cent, on the whole moneys passing through his hands, the receiver-general of Upper Canada having that allowance. No promise of this nature, however, had ever been held out to him ; and his offer could only be regarded as an emanation of bankrupt ingenuity. In this light it was evidently viewed by the Assembly ; which, very justly, was averse to allowing such an enormous compensation for services so dishonestly performed. Alarmed at the additional burthen this failure must impose upon the country, it sought to shift its responsibility to the Imperial Government, whose immediate servant Caldwell was ; and establish the sum deficient as a debt due from it to the Province. As the Assembly had no control what- ever over the Receiver-General, who never accounted to it, directly or indirectly, the correctness of its position can scarcely be doubted. It had long been known that Caldwell was likelj to prove a defaulter; and in allowing him to retain office, under those circumstances, the Government had been guilty of a gross dereliction of duty, and was justly punished by the manner in which the occurrence strengthened the hands of the Assembly. The estimates for the Civil List were not laid before the House till a late period of the session. In going through their details twenty-five per cent, were deducted from the salaries of all 1824. public officials, beginning with the Governor, and other measures adopted equally unsatisfactory to the Legislative Council, which at once rejected the bill. The Governor now called upon the Assembly to refund the advances he had made, from the military chest, to the Receiver-General, in 1822-3. This it refused to do, on the ground that it was merely a loan of accommo- dation to Caldwell, then known to be a defaulter, and whom, instead of thus sustaining, it was the duty of the Executive tc have at once removed. As the session progressed, some discussion took place on the claim put forward by the United States to the free navigation of the St. Lawrence, which was steadily resisted. An otFei from Upper Canada to raise the tariff on importations was also taken into consideration, and rejected on tho ground that, owing to the unfavourable state of commerce, it would not be advisable to levy new taxes. An address was voted to the Crown praying the division of the Clergy Reserves of the Frovioce among 5#^';* ?; » »; H , «4 ;•.••;■ ' '■ l» ■ ••,•*•••■;■, t' ; i A ■ • K'S ■ } • « » f I.. II! i t-i •■. 418 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1895. all Protestant denominations ; which, emanating entirely from Roman Catholics, gave great offence to members of the Church of England, who regarded this step as an improper interference \. i+h their concerns. After the transaction of some other business, the Legislature was prorogued on the 9th of March. No provision had been made for the Civil List, and several important matters otherwise were left in a very unsatisfactory state. On the 6th of June Dalhousie, having received leave of absence, departed for England, leaving Sir Francis Burton, the Lieutenant-Governor, to conduct the administration. The general election took place in July and August, and increased rather than diminished the opposition to the Government in the Assembly. Very few members of British origin were re^^urned, and of these some were opposed to the Executiv In ^' • Cro> n, as far is it would go, and then making up the balance i .quired from the resources or the Province. Having V)0c 'me aware of these pT-oc Jings, Dalhousie now sought to influence the Assembly to vote the .supplies in the manner desired, by submitting the despatch from the Colonial Secretary, dated 4th of June, 1825,* disapproving of Sir Francis Burton's conduct in accepting the Supply Bill of the year before. This step, however, had lit Me weight with the Assembly, which persisted in its course. The government party, only some half-dozen strong, now led by the Attorney General, Jaraes^ Stuart, who from being a patriot leader had been converted into a place-man, and from being the most popular of men, with the French-Canadian members, had now become the most unpopular and the most odious, vainly essayed to induce ^^^ House to alter its det(!rmination. The Supply Bill was finally passe I in the "nanner originally proposed ; sent up to the Legislative Council ; and there amended. But the Assembly refused to concur in the amendments ; and the Government was again left without supplies. As the Assembly, however, had now been made officially aware that the Governor General was merely carrying out the policy of the Home Government, in accordance with his instructions, it sought to soften its refusal to vote the supplies, in the manner desired, by adopting a very loyal address to the King, in which the hope was expressed that the Province * " I regret," says that despatch, " tliat it is not in my power to consider this arrangement as in any degree satisfactory. The special instructions which have been given by his Majesty's command to the Governor General, in my despatches of llth of September, 1S20, and I. "ith of September, 1821, had imposed upon him the necessity of refusing all arrangements that went in any degree to compromise the integrity of the revenue, known by the name of the Permanent Revenue ; and it appears to me on a cai'e'^ 1 examination of the measures which have beor< adopted, that they are at variance with those specific and positive instv ictions." According to this despatch the items of expenditure as regiided the Permanent Revenue of the Crown, would always be laid before t. e Assembly for its information only, but not for its coatrol. and to show tha this fuinl was always applied, in the discre- tion of tV e Crown, for the bent it of the Province. As the Bill was limited to one year, it was not to be di allowed, and the Colonial Secretary stated, that he would confine himself 1i instructing his Majesty's representative in Lower Canada not to sanctic n any measure of a similar nature. It was quite evident, therefore, thai the Home Government was determined to adhere to its policy of refus ng the control of the Crown revenue to the Assembly.' » . V t * a ■■■' • 1 _ ;, r i i- . 420 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1827. 'f • would not be taxed without the consent of its Parliament. The Legislature was prorogued on the 29th of March. In his closing speech Dalhousie laid considerable stress upon the fact, that his public policy was entirely in accord with the instructions of the Home Government, and did not originate with himself. Little of importance occurred during the ensuing summer. Despite the distress in the manufacturing districts of England, and the general depression of trade, the shipping business of Quebec and Montreal was not materially diminished, and the revenue was almost equal to that of the preceding year. The summer was very dry, and forest fires did much damage, in many parts of the Province, and the wheat crop was a poor one. Root crops, however, and the coarser grains, yielded well, and the people had abundance of food. Immigration was fast tilling up the new townships, as in Upper Canada. The addition to the population was not always as orderly as it might have been, crime was on the increase, and grand juries made such strong presentments touching this fact that the Executive felt the necessity of a more active and extensive system of police. This state of matters was duly submitted 1827. to the Legislature by Dalhousie,, in his opening speech, on the 23rd of January. The Home Government was still resolute in maintaining its policy as to the manner of obtaining the supplies for the Civil List ; and the Assembly was equally resolute in its resistance. The estimates were submitted to a committee of seven members, only two of whom were favourable to the Executive. This committee made an adverse report ; and wound up by expressing its regret, that the Crown should persist in its policy of withdrawing a large portion of the revenue from the control of the Assembly. This report, and the estimates and messages of the Governor General, were referred to a committee of the whole. Tbe final result was that the Assembly, on the 6th of March, absolutely refused to pass a Supply Bill unless the control of the whole provincial revenues were conceded ; the vote standing 32 to 6. This ended the business of the session, as the Legislature was prorogued next day. In his closing speech Dalhousie stated " that it was lamentable to see that no concessions were of any avail ; and that the Assembly persisted in rejecting every measure which his Majesty's Government recommended for its considera- tion. The Assembly had refused not only the supplies necessary for the ordinary expenses of government, but also for gaols, houses of correction, asylums, education and charity, for local and public improvements. Great excitement now spread throughout the Province. The Anglo-Canadian part of the population, almost to a man, supported the policy of the Government ; while the French -Canadians ranged themselves, with equal unanimity, in opposition. The Roman Catholic clergy held wholly aloof from the agitation, and watched in silence the progress of events, in the hope that it would eventuate to their own advantage in some way. Most absurd i;? r-i; [1827. mt. The ds closing , that his ons of the summer. ;land, and of Quebec venue was ' was very ! Province, 3r, and the ce of food, in Upper always as jrease, and is fact that I extensive submitted speech, on t was still taining the ly resolute committee ible to the ind wound jrsist in its e from the mates and mmittee of the 6th of he control e standing legislature sie stated ire of any fy measure considera- necessary »ls, houses and public ince. The supported ms ranged le Roman watched it would lost absurd 1827.J LOWER' CANADA PROM 1815 TO 1828. 421 stories were put into wide circulation, by designing persons, among the simple habitants. The Governor General was represented as the most odious and oppressive of tyrants, who had obstructed beneficial legislation, robbed the public treasury, and was endeavouring to change the language, the laws, and the religion of the people. If not speedily recalled he would drive the Province into a rebellion, which would not fail to sweep the little that remained of British power from the continent of America.* This proceeding showed that even then the French-Canadian leaders had commenced to think of open rebellion, if they could not obtain control of the Province by milder methods ; and sought to prepare the minds of the people for the alternative. In order to carry out their pui'pose, they evidently stood ready to push the Government to an extreme position, and so render it as odious as possible. In tins direction, and in consequence of the quiescence of the clerical order, th y were largely successful. The uneducated and unreflect- ing habitants were only too prone to regard all who did not profess the same religion, or speak the same language as themselves, with dislike. They knew little or nothing even of their own past history, or of the evils their fathers had been rescued from, and were, therefore, as plastic as clay in the hands of the demagogues, who now abounded in every town and village. The refusal of the Assembly to renew the militia law added fresh fuel to the flame. The law officers of the Crovvn held that the non-renewal of this Act brought the militia ordinances of 1787 and 1789 again into force, in which opinion the Chief Justices afterwards concurred. Dalhousie, accordingly, issued on the 5th of July a militia general order, directing that the officers commanding battalions should see that their corps were properly drilled. Several officers refused to obey this order, on the ground that it was illegal, and that no militia law was in force j and were accordingly dismissed. Others were also dismissed for seeking to excite the people, at public meet- ings, against the Government ; and so became martyrs in the cause of freedom. But throughout the English-speaking settlements the order was promptly and cheerfully obeyed, and the best state of feeling prevailed. Acting evidently under instructions from the Colonial Office, Dalhousie, late in July, dissolved Parliament, a most unwise step to take in the existing temper of the people, and which could in no way strengthen the hands of the Executive. In fact it made affairs worse instead of better ; and scarcely gave a dozen supporters to the Government in the Assembly. Only nine members of English descent were returned ; and among these were the two Nelsons and others who acted with the opposition. In point of fact, as matters now stood in Lower Canada, were it not that the quadrennial election of the Assembly had to be complied with, in order to carry out the law, it might just as well be permitted to * Christie vol. iii. p. 132. p/ ;;';'. ; 1 . « it ■■' F.* •■•1 l-'i ( 1 ' ■'■. p ' H •4 < V I :t'. v.. .u^..•.^■.^ ■I' 422 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1827. convert itself into another " Long Parliament," and sit in perpetuity. The same side had the majority continually, and general elections |)rotluce(i no changes in the character of the representation, from which the Firitish element was now almost entirely eliminated. Meanwhile, a bitter newspaper war was maintained, racial difliculties sprang out anew, and Dalhousie, realising that his administration must terminate in failure, began to exhibit a los.s of temper, and t«) reply with warmth to ad :-i?\ ,.*> • < . 424 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1828. ^ir-'^^V, i -ij . I- )l » . ^11 V '' '!■ t » This motion was agreed to, but contrary to general expectation, the committee, on the 22nd of July, reported in favour of the Canadian petition. It recommended the abolition of the seigniorial rights of the Crown, the establishment of new electoral districts, more in accordance with the progress of population, and the surrender of the whole of the public revenue to the Assembly ; measures to be taken, at the same time, to render the Governor, Executive Council, and the judges independent of an annual vote of supply. It also reported in favour of allowing the Canadians to have an agent in England, and generally endorsed the prayer of the petitioners. The report of this committee of the Imperial Parliament gave great satisfaction in Lower Canada, and the Assembly ordered four hundred copies to be printed and distributed among its constituents. Towards the close of July it was very generally known, throughout the Province, that Dalhousie had been recalled. He had become exceedingly popular with its Anglo-Canadian population, and numerous addresses, professing the most unqualified approval of his firmness and esteem for his personal character, were now presented co him ; while a grand farewell banquet was given to his countess and himself at Quebec. He sailed for England on the 8th uf September, just one week before the success of the anti- Executive party in the House of Commons became known, and was thus spared the rnortitication of witnessing any part of the great re»joicings that ensued over the condemnation of his public policy. That policy he endeavoured to sustain in a memorial presented to the Colonial Secretary, in which he con- demned the Report of the Commons committee, and accused it of treating him unfairly ; and declared that if the government carried out that report it would lead to serious difficulty. The Ministry, well aware that Dalhousie's only fault was the carrying out of its own policy to its legitimate issue, had already resolved that he should in no way be the sufferer therefor ; and he was accord- ingly appointed commander-in-chief of the Army in India, one of the most important positions in the gift of the Crown. But the trying climate v'as too much for his weakened constitution ; and after a few years' service he returned home to die at Dalhousie Castle, Scotland, in March 1838. \ \ CHAPTER XVII UPPER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. THE ADMINISTRATION OF FRANCIS GORE,— continued. SIR GORDON DRUMMOND having assumed charge of the governuient of Lower Canada, the public affairs of the Upper Province were directed, for a brief space, by Generals Murray and Robinson, till the return of the Lieutenant- 1815. Governor, Mr. Gore, in the latter part of the summer. Three years of bitter warfare had taught the people the blessings of peace, and many gladly laid aside the sword to d*)vote themselves assiduously to their former occupations, and so repair the losses sus- tained during the progress of hostilities. But the recent war had inflicted numerous injuries which the gently soothing hand of time alone could alleviate. Many a brave man had gone to his last account ; and widows and orphatts watered with their tears the graves of fathers, who would still have protected and supported them, but for the invasion of their country by the pitiless Demo- cracy of the United States. It is to be sincerely hoped that no attempt of this kind will ever again be made, and that the rivalry between two nations of the same lineage and language — children of the same great Anglo-Saxon family — will be for ever restricted to the peaceful walks of commerce and agriculture. During the early part of this year, a strong effort was made by the Home Government to direct the current of British emigration to Canada. On the 22nd of February a proclamation w;is issued at Edinburgh, offering a free passage to emigrants of good character, a grant of one hundred acres of land to themselves, and a like grant to their sons on coming of age. They were also to receive provisions till their crops were harvested, and the necessary farm- ing implements at half of prime cost. To prevent any abuse of these advantages, intending emigrants were obliged to deposit eighty dollars in the Government agent's hands as security, which sum was to be returned when they had settled permanently on their grants of land. A large nunber of persons who came out from Scotland on these conditions were located in the county of Lanark. But the immigration was of too partial a character to be of much solid benefit to the country, and it soon became a source of regret -'jT-' h.. ^/r^'C •Vf, ; V »' I. 1.,, . • I' ) ' ' If ■ f » > '\' 1 * ;.i.':' 426 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1816. to many that the Government now steadily set its face against the admission of settlers from the United States, refusing altogether to grant them lands. As an additional measure of precaution, they were not permitted to take the oath of allegiance, and were thus, under the authority of an act of the Legislature, liable to be at any time driven out of the Province by the Executive. A single year of peace gave sufficient repose to the public mind of Upper Canada, and attention was now turned lo the 1816. better development of its resources, and the improvement of its facilities for education. The Legislature was convened on the 6th of February, and passed a number of necessary bills. — One appropriated $3,200 for the purchase of a library for the use of members of both Houses ; another gave a salary of $800 per annum to their speakers. A grant of $4,000 was made to encour- age the cultivation of hemp by bounties ; and an act, to continue till repealed, gave $10,000 per annum to help to defray the ex- penses of the Civil List, still a burden on the Crown, in gratitude, as the preamble stated, for the aid given by his Majesty in defending the country. But the most important act, by far, passed at this session, was that founding the common-school system of the Pro- vince, and granting the sum of $2,400 per annum to aid in paying the teachers* salaries and to purchase books. It was based on the general principles of the present School Act of Ontario ; but its provisions were simpler and more direct. The recent war had produced a considerable change in the social condition of the people. During its continuance a large amount of money had been expended in the country, and many persons thus contracted habits of expense little suited to an agricultural commu- nity. Several had acquired a fondness for the military life, and returned discontented to the drudgery of their farms. Government, too, had neglected to give the promised grants of land to the vol- unteers and embodied militia, which also created dissatisfaction. — Thus circumstanced numbers were disposed to quarrel more point- edly with anything which they supposed interfered with their individual prosperity, and to investigate more narrowly into causes tending to check the general progress of the country. Then, again, the people desired to revive, by some means, the current of money into the Province, so completely checked by the termination of the war, and did not at all like the idea of returning to the same degree of comparative poverty in which they were before its com- mencement. The war, which in one way or another drew almost the entire male population of Upper Canada into its vortex, had of itself completely unsettled the habits of the people by its novelty and excitement, and the absence of these mental stimulants, aside from the greater scarcity of money, produced a very general irrita- tion. This feeling naturally found vent agiinst whatever were deemed abuses, and formed the microscopic medium througli which the injuries they entailed, whether real or fanciful, were regarded. 1817.] UPPER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 427 Such was the state of feeling in Upper Canada, when its Legis- lature met on the 4th of February. The members of the Assembly, who were mostly farmers or country merchants, 1817. were evidently imbued with the dissatisfied spirit of the people generally ; and, after the ordinary business had been com- pleted, went into committee of the whole, o. > '■'. mji ,1 V is .' V • 1- :■ » * ** •y' rt 428 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1817. still lawfully settle in the country, and that any prohibition to the contrary ought to be rescinded. A ninth resolution averred that the large tracts of Crown and Clergy Reserve lands throughout the Province prevented the formation of connected settlements, so necessary for opening and keeping the roads in repair, and offered a temptation to future wars with the United States, by presenting the means of indemnifying themselves, and rewarding their wldiers, in the event of conquest. The tenth resolution recommended the sale of the Crown Reserves, instead of leasing them, as was then the practice ; while the eleventh condemned, " as altogether too lavisfi," the appropriating one-seventh of all the lands in the Province for the support of a Protestant clergy, proposed that the Imperial Parliament should be petitioned to sell, for the purpose of building and endowing churches, a part of the lands already re- served, and that a less quantity should be retained in future. These resolutions and the militia land grant matter embodied the bulk of the grievances of Upper Canada at this period ; and the great majority of the people were very anxious they should be remedied. The arbitrary conduct of the Lieutenant-Governor in preventing their discussion, and his discourteous treatment of the Assembly, were therefore unsparingly denounced, and no small dis- satisfaction prevailed throughout the Province. Its yeomen, as n rule, were sturdy and independent, and now bound to make their dissatisfaction felt on the first favourable opportunity. That op- portunity very soon made its appeara"ce. While the arbitrary conduct of Gore was planting the seeds of discontent and agitation in the community, Robert Gourlay, destined to figure somewhat prominently in the affairs of this country for a short time, came out from England in the month of July, attracted hither, in part, by the Home Government's procla- mation inviting respectable British emigrants to settle in Upper Canada, and offering them free grants of land.* Gourlay, however, had as yet formed no definite plan as to his future course ; and was chiefly desirous, in the first place, of examining the country with a view, as he stated, to a general system of immigration from Scot- land, and particularly of " his own tenantry there." Owing to the consequential manner in which he introduced himself to their notice, the simple .farmers soon came to regard him as a person of no small importance, and to expect considerable benefit from his advent amongst them. Gourlay was born in Fifeshire, in 1778, and was descended from an old and respectable Scottish family. His father, at one time an • The fa land, induced ♦He British Oovornment offer.ng free passages and a grant of . ...J . . leuve *he country of their birth fc* Canada. Amoui; these was the faia< » H.ob6i L Gourlay, whose advent was trumpeted liy ii grand sohomeof peopiing the waste lands by his teiuuitry and families from Scotland. Th-tv^.' >,„ cc'^iii'tted Iv U YM A*; S';i )man'a! ;> was partner to Mrs. Merritt in the lirat Mt o* ,"^■ itry «lanc«;n. iJiography of W. H. Merritt, p. 41. hi. i ' • [1817. ^libition to the n averred that ids throughout settlements, so ,ir, and offered by presenting g their wldiers, lommonded the m, as was then altogether too lands in the oposed that the the purpose of mds already re- in future, atter embodied period ; and the they should be fint-Governor in reatment of the nd no small dis- [ts yeomen, as a d to make their inity. That op- ing the seeds of obert Gourlay, affairs of this In the month of Irnment's procla- settle in Upper urlay, however, lourse ; and was country with n, Ition from Scot- re." Owing to himself to their as a person of Ibenetit from his descended from at one time an ^ges and ,% grant of Canada. Amoni; trumpeted l»y ii I and families from If the inhabitants. Jo Mrs. Merritt in litt. p. 41. 1817.] UPPER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 429 Edinburgh lawyer of some repute, had inherited a considerable quantity of landed property, and for several years was regarded as as a person of wealth. But the close of the war with the Emperor Napoleon materially reduced the value of land, and from this cause and other misfortunes the elder Gourlay became bankrupt, — Hia eldest son, Robert, was fated to be equally, if not still more unfortunate. He was put to no profession, and after leaving college devoted himself to no settled pursuit. Of large stature and robust health he was full of life and energy. Possessed of average abilities, restless, ambitious, always desirous to distin- guish himself in some way or another, he lacked the prudence and tact necessary to command success. His genius was of a flighty and erratic, rather than of a sober stamp : he belonged to a class exist- ing more or less in every age and every clime, fated to injure them- selves, to be their own worst enemy, while they benefited humanity at large. His father's estimate vof him was singularly correct. — " Robert," said he, " will hurt himself but do good to others." Robert married and settled down on one of his father's farms, and presently took upon himself various public positions of local use- fulness and philanthropy. He was soon much looked up to, by the yeomanry of the county, and oame to be regarded as the special advocate at agricultural meetings of the rights and interests of the smaller class of tenants. At one of these meetings he quarrelled with his neighbor, Lord Kellie, whom he subsequently attacked with much asperity in a pamphlet. From this and other causes he be- came somewhat unpopular in the neighborhood ; and in 1^09 leased, from the Duke of Somerset, the Deptford Farm in Wiltshire, Eng- land, for twenty-one years^ and expended a large sum of money in making improvements. His farm became a model one in every sen.-e ; and its products won prize after prize at agricultural exhi- bitions. But his restlessness and ambition to distinguish himself speedily led him outside his legitimate pursuits. He commenced a vigorous agitation to reform the administration of the parish poor- laws, and to remove other local abuses ; and soon came into direct c{mfiict with the landed gentry ; a conflict supported on his side l)y constant speechifying, and by weekly letters to , the county news- papers. He was presently regarded, by the landlords of Wiltshire, as a visionary and dangerous man. The Duke of Somerset re- monstrate'' with him, but to no use ; and rinally resolved to get rid of hirr altogether, and on some pretext filed a Vnll in chancery to cancel his lease. Long and expensive litigjition ^'ollowed, and, although Gourlay eventually won, he emerged from the contest almost a ruined man. He was now thirty-five years of age, with a wife in delicate health, and a family of Ave children dependent on him, and, like other unsucce.ssful men, his thoughts naturally turn- ed on a new home in the New World ; and tlu; more so, as Hve years before he had purchased a farn) in Upper Canada, i!i Dere- ham, County of Oxford? where his wife also ownerl some property. At the present day Gourlay would be regarded with cirioiiity as ?■■♦■.' . n. . :i ['•i^' ^ , : < !•' * '.' 430 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1817. a harmless philanthropic enthusiast, lacking the faculty of attend- ing pn dently to his own concerns, and as an impracticable sort ot person. But his was a different day and generation. England then overflowed with poverty, with acute misery, with serious crime, and the role of an agitator of any kiiid was regarded as alike dangerous and suspicious. Philanthropic and harmless as Gourlay's purposes undoubtedly were, his extreme manner of suppor!iing his views soon rendered him obnoxious to his landed neighbours. In Canada a three years' ilesperate war had been recently terminated ; society, as we have already seen, had not returned to its normal condition, and w«s still unsettled : and an agitator of any descrip- tion would naturally be regarded with sui=picion by the authorities, and as a disturber of the public peace. The social and political at- mosphere of Canada was, therefore, as littln suited to poor Gourlay as that of his native Scotland, or England, had proved to be. As one wades through the three ponderous octavos, of all manner of odds and ends, which he bequeathed to Canada, his coarse abuse of individ- uals, his intemperate language, his thirst for peit 'al revenge, his transparent egotism, must lower him seriously in the estimation of the impartial reader. Still, he was evidently more sinned against than sinning : and honest criticisi.i must make due .allowance for his difficulties and his misfortunes. An indefatigable worker, en- terprising, shrewd, fearless and honest in dealing with public questions and abuses, he struck boldly out for the welfare of Upper Canada after his own odd f"shion, and according to his own lights ; and had its leading me. sufficient patriotism to turn his abilities to pi'oper account, he must have effected much public good. But they were, one and all, more desirous to benefit themselves individually, tlijin the Province generally. Upper Canada was too young a coi'ditry as yet to have its disinterested patriots; and the public welfaio was lightly considered when balanced against personal profit. But if Gourlay's visit to this country was a most unfortu- nate event for himself, it was a fortunate occun'ence for its people, then and now, in many ways. His " Statistical Account of Upper Canada,'' however badly arranged and unsatisfactory it may be from a purely literary standpoint, throws a flood of light upon the social jfnd political history of the Province, for the first two decades of the present century, which is supplied from no other source. — While III Lower Canada the numerous and continual letters of its governors, its intendants, its bishops, its Jesuit and other mission- aries, to the king and his ministers, filled the archives of France with abujulance of admirable historical material, the correspondence of the officials of Upper Canada, outside purely military despatches, throw a very dimiiiished light upon its early history. Gourlay filled the gap thus left, and filled it well ; and his (juaint and ramb- ling record will always remain a rich mine for the Canadian historical student to dmc lop. But he also conferred another great benefit upon the i)eo{)le of this Diuninion. The fiei'co light wliicli he turned upon existing abuses laid the solid foundation for their 1817.J UPPER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 431 itiou for tiieir ultiirate removal ; while the pitiful story of his misfortunes awoke a very general feeling of profound compassion towards himself, of bitter wrath and indignation towards his unscrupulous persecutors, and led to the rise of a new political party, and, in some degree, to " Respomiible Government." While in England, and engaged in seeking the amelioration of the condition of the poor, and in writing and speaking in support of his views, which, as might be expected, were in many cases of an enthusiastic and visionary character, Gourlay undoubtedly leaned to the extreme opinions advocated by the celebrated William Cobbett, the great stickler for royalty and aristocracy in republican America, for the people and democracy in monarchical England. Like him Gourlay was indefatigable in hunting up abuses. Cir- cumr^AHces, as we have already seen, had tended to produce a plentiful harvest of these in Upper Canada ; and without stopping to consider the wisest mode of procedure, Gourlay ran full lilt again.st them ; oflFended the feelings and prejudices of men in authority, by the unceremonious and needlessly disrespectful manner in which he spoke of them ; and, by imprudent speech and imprudent acts, speedily made himself a host of bitter enemies, who soon destroy- ed all his prospects of usefulness in this country. His profitless experience in England and Scotland was about to be repeated on a larger scale in Upper Canada. A little more tact, a little more Scotch caution, a little more common sense, would have enabled him to steer clear of the ditiiculties which soon beset him. But the morbid passion for notoriety, which had distinguished him in the Old World, a disposition to treat the authorities with contempt as his inferiors in intelligence, and his rash language made speedy shipwreck of his hopes in th^ New. Ho still continued to be his own worst enemy, and had learned nothing from his past bitter experience. After a residence of a few months in this country, during which he sedulously applied himself to acquire a knowledge of its natural resources, and the social and political condition of its people, Gourlay conceived the idea of becoming a land-agent, and by the compilation of a statistical account of Upper Canada, to acquire the requisite information. This information, in the first place, he proposed to procure by addressing thirty-one queries to the princi- pal inhabitants of each township, the answers to which must supply precisely what he sought. Thirty of these queries related iwcTrfly to agricultural matters, or to that description of information usually embodied in census returns, and wei-e perfectly innocent c^ themselves. Owing to the agitation already commenced in the Province, the 31.st query, however, possessed a pointed political meaning, and created an immediate alarm among the Family Compact people. " What," it asked, " in your opinion, retaids the improvement of your township in particular, oi* of the Province in general ; and what would most contribute to tlie same ?" This question at once aroused a serious opposition to Gourlay's ^R'^l£<^^ %•: ^^jf." .M; MS^f^^° « . t ^^!'^ '' < ; ■ m' p m. ■*''• |;>^{'«. * ' Iru"*:- !••';• Pyi.X '•v '. *^' .' . * •'•>,' F^^P^ iH: « . I'^'Vr. [■'ff . ■ * *■ .1 i ■t!* ..|.'. • '\' • |i < 432 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1817. plans. Wild lands were then untaxed, Government favourites who had got grants of valuable ^ md, and held them in reserve, till the labours of the surrounding settlers made them doubly valuable, as well as all those interested in the preservation of land monopolies of every kind, disliked that any light whatever should be thrown on a system so largely advantageous to themselves. By these parties a feeling hostile to Gourlay was immediately excited. He was accused of sinister motives, stigmatised as a democrat and disloyal person, and in several instances the people were dissuaded from furnishing the information sought for. In the Home District, where large blocks of land were held by Government favourites, no return whatever was made to his queries, owing to the interference of members of the Executive. In other quarters, all his queries were answered but the 31st. In a majority of cases, however, this was broadly replied to, and the Crown, Clergy Reserves, and wild lands leld by speculators, very generally stigmatised as greatly interfering with local prosperity. Gourlay was not by any means disposed to allow his plans to be thwarted in silence, and his letters to the newspapers, of which seven were now published in the Province, added to the 1818. growing discontent ot the people. When the Legislature next met, a vote of enquiry into the condition of affairs was carrier? in the Assembly. But before any further action could be iru,ki3n in the matter. Gore seized upon the pretext of a difference wi'' the Legislative Council, and suddenly prorogued Parliament, leaving a large amount of public business unfinished. Finding there was little prospect of anything being done by the Legislature to remove the evils they complained of, the people now readily caught at a scheme, proposed by Gourlay, of petitioning the Imperial Parliament to \as ' tigate the affairs of the Province, and of emr.loying an agent in ^ ngland to support their views. He further proposed that deputies should be selected by the different townships, to meet at Toronto, and there to decide on the draft of a petition and the other necessary measures. This convention met during summer, and wholly unconscious of doing anything wrong or disloyal, h^d concluded its deliberations before the Legislature assembled. Owing, however, to the opposition of the Government, no decisive action was taken upon its resolutions. The agitation, nevertiieless, had one good effect. The Colonial Office at last deter- mined that the promised grants of land should be at once made to the militia embodied during the war. The Executive now became seriously alarmed, and as it was found exceedingly inconvenient to have a person of such a curious and prying disposition as Gourlay in the country, it was deter- mined to get rid of him on the first opportunity. He had already published the draft of a petition to the Crown, to be adopted by the people, so far as they thought proper ; and a passage in this was new fastened on as affording grounds for a criminal prosecu- 1818.1 UPPER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 433 tion for libel. This passage, couched in the sirongest language, alluded to the ignorance of che Colonial Minister of the wants of the country, the system of patronage and favouritism, and the universal corruption of the Canadian authorities. " Corruption, indeed, has reached such a height in this Pronnce," said the obnoxious passage of the proposed petition, " that it is thought no other part of the British empire witnesses the like. It matters not what characters fill situations of pubUc trust at present ; all sink beneath the dignity of men, and have become vitiated and weak." THE ADMINISTRATION OF MAJOR GENERAL SIR PiJREQRINE MAITLAND. Meanwhile Mr. Gore had been recalled, and Sir Peregrine Maitland appointed Lieutenant-Oovernor of Upper Canada. In the interim of the general's arrival the government was adminis> tered by Samuel Smith, a U. E. loyalist, who, while entirely unconnected with the Family Compact, had raised himself, by integrity and ability, to the highest positioi\s in the country. Sir Peregrine had possibly never heard in his liff of Gourlay till he arrived in his government in August, but that ^ntleman lost very little time in attracting his notice. He wtvte a letter to him stating, " that he was under a charge of libelling the Govornment, that he was a year in the country, ami would have no objection to wait upon him at any time, and give him the benefit of his experience."* Maitland, however, had no disposition to avail him- self of the one year's experi' ■ '•• • Vf, .■-■:' '■ n- ' il .■: .'■ ■ ■ ■ !• V ' ' ' H . • ^ I- * ii* ■i- •• f •: ' .". . ♦ ■> •- 434 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1819. The Assembly m'hh n<»\v as thorouf^'hiy alanne«l by the conven- tion as the Coveinnient, and re^ar«. drawing into the support t)f his vile machinations, so many honest men and loyal subjects of his Majesty." Not a word, howtver, was brcfithed almut grievances, or the condition of the Province; the, convention had all that busint'ss to itself The Assembly was now prepared to pass any measure the Executive might recom- mend ; and to put its ban, if necessary, upon the unlucky Gourlay. On the 28th of Octobei- Jimas Jone> , a leading light of the Brock- ville branch of the Family Com[)act, introduced a bill to prevent the future assemblage of conventio 1"^, under the head of " An act foi I • .j\ iitin^ certain meetings within this Piovince," which was duly passed into law, twelve^ out of a house of thirteen voting for it.* The extreme position taken by the Legislature, and the efforts of the Family Compact, produced a reaction against Gourlay in several parts of the country ; and many persons were led to believe that he was a seditious and disloyal person. Still, confiding in his owii integrity of ])urpose, considering himself as a British born citizen perfectly safe in a British colony, and not a little elated at the suddea importance he had achieved, he now resolved to settle permanently in the Province as a land agent. But his enemies determined that they should not be .so easily foiled. Under the provisions of an Act passed in 1804, during Hunter's administration, authority was given to the head of the Government, the members of the Executive and Legislative Councils, and the superior court judges, to issue their wai'rant foi- the arrest of any per- son not resident in the Province for six months, or who had not taken the oath of idlegiance, or was suspected of treasonable practices, or of a seditious intent to disturb the public tramiuillity. If, on examination, the person so arrested did not give a satisfactory account of himself he could be ordered to depart fiom the country. If this order wei-e disobeyed he was to be committed to the common gaol of the rlistrict, and there remain for trial, without bail or mainprise, until the next court of Assize, unless delivered therefrom, in the meantime, by a special order from the Governor or his representative. If, after conviction %y the court of the offence charged, the offender remained in, or returned to, the Province, * This law wns repealed two years afterwards, alone voted against its repeal. Chief-Justice Robinson [1819. the conven- an infringe- rl ft censure n Ainerican alarmed its ress to tlie his fa\ oured ring loyalty, the (k'si.'jns ucceeded .'»> iiany honest rd, howfcver, je Province ; ssembly was night recom- .ky (iourlay. •f the Brock- 1 to prevent of " An act ," which was irteen voting id the efforts ; Gourlay in ed to believe tiding in his British born little elated )w resolved it. But his isily foiled, ug Hunter's jrovernment, fils, and the it of any per- id not taken de practices, lity. If, on satisfactory he country, ted to the ial, without !ss delivered lie Governor : the offence le Province, tice Robinson 1819.| UPPER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 435 he was f:o be deemed guilty of felony, and suffer death as a felon without the benefit of clergy. This law, so Draconic in its provi- sions, which had rarely or ever been acted on, and was almost forgotten, it was now determined to enforce in the case of Gourlay, all other means to put an end to his agitation against existing abuses having failed. The prime mover against him was William Dickson, a distant relation of his own, who had been well acquainted with him for many years, had visited him in England in his prosperous days, had hospitably received him when he came to this country in the preceding year, had given him a large amount of information respecting various short-comings of the Executive, and had urged him to expose them. Dickson was of English birth, and had kept a small store at Niagara on first coming to this country. He had also acted as clerk to the District Judge, thus acquired a little legal knowledge, and presently blossomed into a lawyer, an easy matter in those days. Fortune smiled upon him still, and he was elevated to tiic Legislative Council. By one means or another he had acquired a large amount of landed property, among which were six thousand acres of Indian lands on the Grand River for which he was now seeking to get a title from the Crown, and was accordingly exceedingly adverse to the continuance of an agitation which he saw must do him injury. But, aside from this personal consideration, Dickson was well aware tha<^ if he could drive Gourlay out of the country, and thus put a sum...ary end to his agitation, it would greatly add to his influence wii;i the Executive Council and the whole of the Family Compact. And for these base considerations of personal profit he now stood prepared to strike down his relative and former friend and guest. Dickson found a willing assistant in his plans I'or Gourlay's ruin in William Claus, a neighbour and fellow Legislative Councillor. Claus had succeeded Butler as Government Indian Agent, and in this capacity had improperly influenced, by presents and otherwise, the Grand River Jndians to cede a large tract of their laml to Dickson, for a small consideration mainly made up of his fees for drawing out some accounts, and doing some other trifling legal business for the Indians, for which the most outrageous charges had been made. So Claus was Dickson's fast friend, and prepared to aid and abet him in crushing Gourlay. All that the pair of conspirators now needed was to find some tool ready and willing to lay an information against Gourlay. This tool Dickson soon found in Isaac Swayze, a Pennsylvanian of German descent, one of Butler's Rangers, a connnissariat forager and spy therefor, and a dangerous and unscrupulous man. But he had made some money, took up his grant of land with his fellow Rangers after the war, became apparently a pious member of the Methodist body, now numerous in his district, and thus, although scarcely able to write his own name, so ingratiated himself with the community that he had been returned to the Assembly for the fourth district of the County of Lincoln. Swayze was well- ^>. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1// 7 % / f/u 4c 1.0 I.I ■so « 12.0 IL25 III 1.4 1.6 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. M580 (716) S72-4S03 \ ^ a>^ :\ \ '^^ <* Ki ^?: 'c, Oil :a«^ / . hM-r- ■ i •;i 'i r'3 :i •■; ■ ( I •'I I X I 'V 436 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1819. acquainted with Gonrlay, whom he had met a year before, and knew as fully as Dickson and Claus that he had resided for over twelve months in the country, and from which he had only been absent for a few days' visit to the adjoining state. He, neverthe- less, deliberately swore to a formal information, drawn up by Dickson, charging Gourlay with being an evil-minded and seditious person, who had not taken the oath of allegiance, and who had not resided six months in the Province. So Geurlay was arrested and taken before his judges, the two interested conspira- tors, Dickson and Claus. He had been condemned beforehand ; and all his pleadings as to his innocence of intent, as to his loyalty as a British born subject, as to his willingness to take the oath of allegiance, as to his being longer resident in the country than the time charged in the information, all which his judges knew just as well as he did, went for nothing. His statements and explanations were held to be insufficient, and he was served by the court with a written order enjoining him to depart from the Province within ten days. "To have obeyed this order," said Gourlay, *' would have been ruinous to the business for which I had qualified myself at great expense, an acknowledgment of guilt, and a surrender of my birthright as a British subject." So he determined to disobey it, and tight it out in his usual obstinate way ; a rash resolve. He should have instead obeyed the order, and fought his persecutors by legal methods. On the 4th of January, three days after the expiration of the ten days allowed him, Dickson and Claus issued a formal 1819. commitment for Gourlay who was accordingly arrested, and committed to Niagara gaol, there to remain until his trial came on at the next assizes to be held in the month of August. His first proceeding, after incarceration, was to take steps to sue out a writ of habeas corj)us. In pursuance of that writ he was brought before Chief Justice William Duramer Powell at Toronto. His counsel produced three affidavits to support his argument for his client's discharge. One of these was made by the Hon. Robert Hamilton, a member of the Legislative Council, another by Peter Hamilton, and a third by Gourlay himself. These affidavits showed that he had resided in the Province for a longer period than that charged in the com- mittal, that he was a British born subject, and had taken the oath of allegiance.* His case was clearly made out. He had been un- * To the Honourable William Dummtr Powell, Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench of Upper Canada, ami the rest of the Justices of (he said Court, or any one of them. THE PETITION OF ROBERT GOURLAY, ESQ. Humbly bHEWETn, That your Petitioner is now a prisoner in the Jail of Niagara District, by virtue of a warrant of Commitment, whereof a copy is annexed. That your Petitioner, humbly apprehending he is not a person of that de- Boription against whom eucb a warrant cau legally be issued, as he believes [1819. before, and led for over only been 5, neverthe- awn up by linded and igiance, and xeurlay was id conspira- beforehand ; ) his loyalty the oath of the country li his judges s statements e was served lart from the order," said i for which I ledgment of ish subject." in his usual d obeyed the ation of the ued a formal arrested, and ntil his trial of August, steps to sue that writ m Duramer affidavits to )ne of these nber of the \d a third by ad resided in i in the com- ken the oath lad been un- )f the Court of cea of the said IQ. fcta District, by d. son of that de- as he believes 1819.J UPPER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 437 lawfully condemned upon a false pretence, and was plainly entitled to his full discharge. And that was the opinion afterwards given by some of the ablest lawyers in England, among whom was Sir Arthur Pigott. But Canadian judges were not then appointed for life, and were still the meie agents of the Crown, Powell, a native of Boston, in Massachusetts, and at one time strongly suspected of treasonable practices and put under arrest for a time, but who had afterwards contrived to thoroughly ingratiate himself with Gore, was now the head and front of the Family Compact, an Executive councillor, speaker of the Legislative Council, a large landowner, and on intimate terms with all the people that Gourlay had struck will fully appear frcin the affidavits annexed, and, inasmuch as he has not heretofore been called upon, or had an opportunity of showing the facts, prays for a writ of Habeas (Corpus, and, as bound in duty, will pray. Dated at the Jail of Niagara, the 13th day of January, 1819. (Signed) ROBERT GOUKLAY. Witness, Wm. Kerr. John Moffatt, AFFIDAVITS. District of ) Peter Hamilton, of the township of Niagara, in the Province Niaijara, / of Upper Canada, maketh Oath and saith, that he hath seen viz. ) Robert Gourlay, Esq., lately in the Jail of this district, and that he knew the same person and his connections and friends heretofore in Britain ; and that he was there respected, esteemed, and taken to be a British subject ; and that he is so this Deponent verily believes is notoriously true in this district. (Signed) P. H. HAMILTON. Sworn before me, the 9th day ) of January, 1819. \ ALEX. HAMILTON, J. P, ) Niagara 1 Robert Gourlay maketh oath and saith, that he is, by birth, a District, > British subject, that he hath taken the oath of Allegiance to viz. ) our lord the present King of Great Britain, and that he has been an inhabitant of the Province of Upper Canada now more than a year preceding the date of the warrant first issued against him by the Hon. William Dickson and William Claus, Esq.. and referred to in that, whereof a copy is annexed (Signed) ROBERT GOURLAY. Sworn before me, this 13th day ) of Jan 1819. [ (Signed) Wm. J. Kerr, J. P. ) District of ) Robert Hamilton, of Queenston, in said district, Esq., Niagara. > maketh Oath and saith, that Robert Gourlay, Esq., who is viz. ) now confined in the Jail of this district, has been domiciliated at Qneenston, in the Province of Upper Canada, more than nine months next preceding the date of this deposition ; and this Deponent further maketh Oath and saith, that ho hath always understood and verilj' believes the said Robert Gourlay to be a natural born subject of Great Britain. (Signed) ROBERT HAMILTON, Sworn before me, this 12th day ) of Jan, 1819. \ (Signed) James Kerby, J. P. ) .-*■ .. '':■ ■•'■/ '.' .. .•'••,•••"1 438 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. I: J ' m>^ ". i \ >i. ■» •. el V l'' ' I , 1-^.V ¥\ [1819. so hard at. So he wilfully and corruptly shut iiis eyes to the cause of justice and truth, evaded his plain duty, and sent the un- fortunate Gourlay back to his cell at Niagara. And, while doing so, he was guilty of a palpable falsehood. In the " order of remand " he stated that Gourlay had required to be admitted to bail, whereas he had made no such demand, well-knowing, from the advice of his counsel, that the statute under which he was com- mitted did not permit of bail. He could only be discharged as having been illegally committed, or remanded for trial. That was the sole alternative which the case permitted. Under the advice of English counsel Gourlay instituted actions against Dickson and Glaus for false imprisonment. But the contest was too unequal. — Each of the defendants obtained an order ior security for costs, and as the imprisoned plaintiif failed to furnish this the actions lapsed, and Dickson and Glaus escaped all punislnnent, in this world, for their wicked and most foul perversion of justice. In June the Legislature again assembled In his opening speech the Lieutenant-Governor stated, that he had received instructions from the Grown to give lands to the militia, but would take the re- sponsibility on himself of refusing grants to the members of the recent convention, who were thus to be punished for demanding the redress of public grievances. It was anxiously hoped by the people that the Assembly would l)e equal to the occasion, and evince its disapprobation of this part of Maitland's opening speech. But, after a long debate, it was at length endorsed by the casting vote of the speaker, the address was agreed to, and the Upper House concurred in language the most direct and submissive. This con- duct supplied a new grievance text to Gourlay, who under instructions from the sheriff, Thomas Merritt,* was permitted the unrestrained use of writing materials. He wrote a letter to the Niagara Spectator^ which was surreptitiously passed out through the open window of his cell, and published in the absence of the editor. This letter commented in rather severe terms on the con- duct of Maitland, and also made disparaging allusions to his father- in-law, the Duke of Richmond. Gourlay's unwise conduct, on this occasion, led to the gaoler refusing him almost every indulgence, until at length he completely broke down. His long confinement of over seven months in a wretchedly constructed prison, destitute of proper sanitary !i,rrangements, had so ruined his health that when brought to trial, on the 20th of August, he was partially insane, and nearly unconscious of the entire proceedings. His clothes hung loosely on his large and wasted frame, his eyes had lost their wonted light of intelligence, and during the whole of the proceed- ings he stood like one amazed and confounded, and mentally unable to realise his true position. He was indicted for merely refusing to obey the order of Dickson and Glaus to leave the Province, the only proceeding permitted under the statute, and found guilty as * The father of William Hamilton Merritt. 1819.J UPPER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 439 a mere matter of routine. The Attorney Genera.], John Beverley Robins(m, had prepared another iiulictinent against him for seditious practices, which was duly n^ad in court to influence tlie jury, but afterwards abandoned. Chief Justice Powell now de- manded if the prisoner had anything to say why the sentence of the court should not be pronounced upon him ; and all eyes were turned upon the unfortunate man, who stood befon; tli(>m without counsel to plead his cause, or friend t(; sustain him. tSuddeidy a gleam of light flashed across his mental sti^por : Ik^ n^alised that he was upon his trial, that he had prepared a written (hsfence, but he could not for his life remendier whtu'e he had [)ut that defence, although it was in his pocket. And, then, a thick darkness again settled down upon his mental vision ; and to the; lujri'oi" and amaze- ment of those present he l)urst into a peal of unmeaning )naniacal laughter, which filled tlie court ro(jm like the wail of a lost soul. — But that laughter relieved the terr'il)Ie mental strain ; his reason returned, an(l with returning reason there came l)ack a sense of injustice and oppression. He made a l)rief but inefl'ectual attempt to argue out his case with the judge ; who told him that the facts had already been passed upon by the jury, and that lu; could now only be permitted to speak on ((uestions of la.w. The sentcince of the court, that he must leave the Province within twenty-four hours, was pronounced ; and th(^ Chief Justice then prf)ceeded to read him a severe lecture upon his Ijad conduct sinc(! his arrival in the country, and to give him advice as to turning his great abilities to some practical acc(juiit. Before leaving tlu; dock he ct»mplained of the bad treatment he had exj)erienced while in pi-ison, and was ironically told by the Chief Justicj; that he niiuht, if he chose, prosecute the Sheriff. Courlay speedily crossed thciNiagai-a River, and shook off the dust of Ins tect against Canada, for nev(!r had justice or law been more abused than in his case. Seventy-two years have now passed away, since the painful seem; of in- justice and wrong, in the mingled drama of poor (iourlay's checkered existence, was enacted in the shabby little court rof)m at Niagara. Dickson, and Claus, and Swayze, and Powell, and Robinson ; and all the host of land-jobbers that rejoiced over his fall, have l)een confronted long ago by Gourlay at another and higher tril)unal, where even-handed justice; is administeitid without fail. (Jourlay was never the .same man afterwards. His long imprisonment dur- ing a hot summ(;r, in a close cell ; his mental troubles, his treatment, his disgrace, injured his hcialth ; and unl)alanced his mind to such an extent that In; was afteu'wards subje-ct to pcu-iodical fits of in- sanity. He returned to this country in 1S|<), und again in 1854, married a second time, and nwided subsc(|uently at the hamlet of Mount Elgin, in theConnty of ( )Nford. .As we write these lines we have a, le.tter of his b(!f(»reus, written in that larg(! plain hand which prevailed at the close; of tlu; last century ; and in which he finds fault with the account given of him in tlu; first edition of this history, published in 1855. m< ^ :•■:". ■ • ■v . v.. » , K'^r^* ►■■: ^ f- •■■.• 1. 1. •'• '. U:yvy- If 'I ' -^ li..' ' • I . I « ^'••.'. 'v. i ■• • ■ ■ » 440 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. 1 1819. Such was the sorrowful termination of Gourlay's original connec- tion with Canada. Whatever may have been his faults or his failings, his intentions were unquestionably good ; and at the present day there can be only one opinion of the treatment he met with, to wit, that it was most unjust and despotic ; and reflects indelible disgrace on the public men who gave it the sanction of their authority. The people of Canada have every reason to thank Providence that such an occurrence can never again disgrace their country, and that the sway of the oligarchy which permitted it, or rejoiced at it, has long since passed away never to return. But the ruin of Gourlay did not satisfy the Executive Council, and the rest of the Family Compact. It was also determined to prosecute Ferguson, the editor of the Niagara Spectator, for pub- lishing Gourlay's letter reflecting on Sir Peregrine Maitland and the Duke of Richmond. He was accordingly indicted, and put on his trial for sedition ; and although he proved that he was absent from home when the letter appeared in his paper, knew nothing about its publication, and was therifore entirely innocent of the offence charged, he was found guilty, and sentenced to pay a fine of two hundred dollars, to be imprisoned for eighteen months, and to stand in the public pillory one hour each day for the first month of his imprisonment ; at the end of which he was to give bail for his good conduct for seven years ; himself in two thousand dollars, and two sureties in a thousand dollars each. He was also to remain in gaol till bail was given, and the fine paid. Poor Ferguson did the best he could in his unfortunate position. He made an humble submission to the authorities, and promised to be more careful for the time to come. So Maitland, after a brief space, remitted the penalties ; and, on giving the required bail for his good behaviour, he was permitted to resume his business. He was a ruined man, however, and shortly afterwards failed. His printing material was sold, under a claim held by William Hamilton Merritt, to Amos McKenny, who thought it advisable to change the name of the Niagara Spectator into that of the Gleaner* The arbitrary conduct of the Government, with respect to Gourlay, excited a very geneml feeling of indignation 1820. throughout the Province, and a determination to send a different class of members to the Assembly next time, who would be more disposed to advocate the measures of reform desired by the people. The Lieutenant Governor was already becoming unpopular. He surrendered himself completely into the hands of the Family Compact, the more dexterous and politic members of which, while they pandered to his desire for flattery, and apparent- ly yielded to his love of power,t took good care to hold the reins of go /ernment firmly in their own hands. Of cold, haughty, and overbearing manners, with much more of the military man about * Biogiaphy of William Hamilton Merritt, pp. 49, 53. f Well's Sketches of Canada, p. 157. 1820.] UtPER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 44i him than the civil governor, he was not adapted by nature for a popular ruler, and leaned, from habit and constitutional tempera- ment, to a sytem of arbitrary government. The fact, too, of his having eloped with the Duke of Richmond's daughter at Paris, while the allied armies lay there after the battle of Waterloo, and that he was merely sent out by the Home Ministry by way of making provision for him, in deference to his father-in-law, and not in consequence of his fitness for the office, gradually leaked out, and tended to make him still more unpopular.* The population of the Province had now increased to nearly one hundred and twenty thousand souls. New settlements had been formed in various districts ; and as the country was on the eve of a general election, it was deemed advisable to increase the repre- sentation. The Legislature was accordingly convened, on the 21st of February, when an act was passed which nearly doubled the number of members. Another act regulated the commercial intercourse with the United States, and a third embodied a new School Bill. As the act prohibiting meetings of delegates in convention had caused a good deal of bitter feeling among the people, it was thought prudent by members to repeal it before they again asked support from their respective constituencies. One voice alone was raised against the measure, that of John Beverley Robinson, afterwards chief justice, and who, at a subsequent period, protested still more forcibly against the union of the Canadas. Agitation had also effected another benefit. Gourlay's suggestion was at length adopted, and a tax laid upon wild lands to the infinite chagrin of speculators.! On the 7th of March the House was dissolved, and writs were soon after issued for a new election. Beyond the establishment of branches of the Bank of Montreal in the principal towns of the Province, and the labours of the commission for settling the boundary line between the United States and Canada, nothing of importance occurred during the summer. In December the new Parliament was summoned to meet, for the despatch of business, on the 31st of the ensu- 1821. ing January. Before it assembled a notice, in the Upper Canada Gazette, informed the public that five new members had been called, by the Crown, to the Legislative Council of the Province. Four of these were ordinary and every-day men ; the other, first on the list, was a man of mark, the late Bishop Strachan, of Toronto, then Rector of York. He had been already appointed, in 1818, to both the Executive and Legislative Councils, but in merely an honourary capacity, as it was said at the time. The Rector, however, speedily became " the power behind the throne ;" took so kindly to politics, and evinced so much thorough * Gourlay, vol. iii. p. 493. • t While in prison at Niagara Gourlay had advocated a tax on wild lands as a check to speculation, and the improvement of the navigation of the St. Lawrence, 442 THE K:ST0RY of CANADA. »i. [1821. •, .■■ .'• ... ^ 1 If '•.';•■■ • • -* If ',»., •i'l If J •*, • « f- .- ' : .'. ' '• » ■ i , ■, • ,» business capacity, that it was now deemed advisable to publish his active connection with the administration. His rise had been equally rapid and exti'aordii»ary ; and presents a pointed illustration of what Scotch shrewdness, tact, ami worldly sagacity, in connec- tion with even mo(lerat(! abilities, can d(j for a man in a new country, such as Upper (Canada then was, and where society was as yet rough and unformed. Th(! story of Bishop Strachan's fortunes reminds one of the successful heroes of romance!. Descended from an humble Aberdeen family, his fath(!r, a non-juror Scotch Episcopalian, and an anient hat(;r of tin; House of Hanover, divA while he was .still a child ; and his training devolv(;d upon his mother, who IxiUmged to the strict Anti-liurgher off-shoot of Presbytcrianism, and straitly brought up her family in her own faith. After acquiring a fair share; of classical and other learning at Aberdeen, John Strachan becatne, in 1790, at the age of eighteen, teacher to the children of a farmer in Angusshire. Ho subsequently taught the j)arish school of Kettle, in Fifeshire, at a salary of one hundred and fifty dollars per annum, rather more than equal to double that sum now. On this small stipend he eked out an existence for some time while attending St. Andrew's College, as an irregular student, with a view of entering the ministry of his own l)ranch of the Presbyterian church, in accoi'dance with the dt'arest wishes of his mother- a pious and worthy woman. There was truly a noble picture presentcid by that humble Scottish household. The poor and struggling widow religiously biinging up her family ; the elder son educating himself by his own efforts ; fitting himself to win his way to future success, and even assisting his mother out of his small stipend. And so the everlasting promise, proclaimed amid the thunderings of Sinai, descended to him also, and his days were indeed long in the land. Some Canadian writers have stated that Siincoe, among other projects for the benefit of Upper Canada, designed to establish grammar schools in its .sciveral districts, and an university at their head at the seat of government ;* and that he gave authority to Richard Cartwright, of Kingston, and Robert Hamilton, of Niagara, both members of the Legislative Council, to procure a gentleman from Scotland to take charge of this university. It has also been stated that John Strachan received the appointment ; and that he accordingly sailed from (Ireenock, for Canada, in August, 1799, via New York, and reached Kingston on the last day of that year. Here he was informed that Simcoe had left Canada some time before, and that the project of an university had been abandoned. These statements (Mubody an anachronism which needs explanation. Simcoe left this Province, owing to his recall, in 1796, over three years before Strachan's arrival ; so he could not have authorised his engagement in 1799, and no statute r * * Morf^an's Celebrated Canadians p. Bishops. " 293. See also Taylor's "Three U Dr's "Three 1821.] UPPER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 443 passed during his administration niakcis provision for f?ither the founding of grammar schools oi- tho establishment of an university affiliated therewith. The Province; wa.s as yet too young and too poor, and the population too widely scatt(;red and too spars*;, to warrant the carrying out of any project of this nature.* Then ►Simcoe was an Oxford nimi, himself; thoroughly English in his likings and dislikings, and Scotland would he the last place in which he would seek the |)rincipal foi- his university, and the young Presbyterian lad of eighte to Canada with other U. E. Loyalists at the close of the War of Independtince, and settled in Kingston, where he went into mercantih; business, with Robert Hamilton as his partner. They did a large tra0, hIiowh clearly that up to the period of his recall, which shortly afterwards occurred, he had taken no Hte{)H what- ever for the establishinent of an university The (iovernor, in that despatch, recommends that a part of the (Jrown lands should he sold and devoted to the erection and endowment of an university. This despatch also shows that he deemed the founding of an university was a matter beyond his control, and that he had no funds for the purpose Under these circum- stances the engagement of a principal for an university which had no present prospect of existence was scarcely possible Hamilton and (Jart- wright, also, stood in bad odour with Simcoe, as they fie(]uently opposed hig plans. It is probable, h >wever, that Cartwright when engaging Strachan might have alluded to Simcoe's abandoned university project, and hence the error. t Cartwright's letter to Isaac Todd, Kingston, October 1st, 1794. t PubUshed by Belford Brothers, Torouto, 1876. 444 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. •I. t-::^:: V' t . ''|V • »:•• -.» . It .. " f* :; li. ' '• \ [1821. of Upper Canada, which was published in Scotland in the name of his brother James. This book was very severely criticised by some of the Scotch newspapers, as being inaccurate and misleading. It speaks of Capt. Brant " as a miserable man of savage ferocity, puffed up with his own importance," and devoted a whole chapter to abuse and misrepresentation of Gourlay, who thus, for the first time, became acquainted with the Rector of York. Gourlay 's own work was not yet published, and being anxioi^s to administer the antidote to his critic's bane, began an enquiry into his antecedents. The worst he tells us was that not content " with whipping children," the Rector had virulently attacked an ex-President of the United States in the newspapers, and published a pamphlet " abusing Lord Selkirk for his attempt to establish a colony in the Hudson's Bay territory." But he also tells us why the Rector of York came ^ to this country. Richard Cartwright being desirous of having thfe benefit of a good education for his children, whom he tenderly loved, solicited his friend, the Rev. Dr. Hamilton, of Gladsmuir in East Lothian, to send him out a young man qualified for a resident family tutor, to whom he would give £bO per V nnum. Dr. Hamilton, who was the uncle of Mrs. Gourlay, and connected with the Robert Hamilton, already spoken of, offered the situation to young Strachan, who gladly closed with the proposal, and came direct to Kingston. Not the slightest discredit attaches to this circumstance, and the advent of Cartwright's tutor was quite as honourable an occurrence as the advent of Simcoe's university principal would have been. While fulfilling his engagement of three years with Cartwright, the tutor became acquainted with the Rev. Dr. Stuart, the rector of the parish, who advised him to prosecute the study of divinity, and enter the ministry of the Church of England. He still, how- ever, remained a member of the Presbyterian communion ; and at this period we find him in correspondence with a congregation in Montreal,* and offering to become their minister, and return to Scotland for ordination, if they paid him a salary of twelve hundred dollars per annum. But this congregation being either too poor, or unwilling to meet his views in point of remuneration, the matter terminated. This occurrence was the turning point in John Strachan's career, and he now lent a more willing ear to Dr. iStuart, and fully made up his mind to connect himself with the Church of England. On the 2nd of May, 1803, he was ordained a deacon by Bishop Mountain, of Quebec, whose diocese still continued to embrace the two Canarlas, was priested in the following year, and appointed to the mission of Cornwall, then a poor little village of four hundred inhabitants — an episcopal oasis in a Scotch Presbyterian and Roman Catholic settlement. But he HI' ' »' 1 1 ' * This was the St. Gabriel Street Presbyterian congregation. Before they erected their own church they were permitted to meet for worship in the Roman Catholic EecoUet Church, and in gratitude for their liberality presented the fathers with a cask of wine. 1821.J UPPER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 445 was a brave and resoh^^e man, and at once determined to make the most of his position. After a time he opened a school which, in those days of limited culture, speedily became famous throughout the Province, and drew pupils from every direction ; and in which many of its leading men, of the past generation, received their education. In 1807, when grammar schools were at length founded, the Rev. John Strachan became the master of the Cornwall school. In that year he married a young and wealthy widow, who only died a short time before himself ; and received doctor's degrees from St. Andrews and Aberdeen Universities. At the instance of General Brock, who saw the great advantage of having such a successful practical educationist at the seat of government,* Dr. Strachan was appointed Rector of York in 1812. There he established another prosperous school ; and laid the foundation of several of the educational institutions for which Toronto is now famous. In 1825, he was appointed archdeacon ; and in 1839 was created bishop of the new diocese of Toronto, by patent from the Crown. In 1836 he resigned his seat in the Executive Council ; and in 1840 also retired from the Legislative Council, and disappeared altogether from political life, in which he had been a conspicuous actor for twenty-two years. During that long period he was the foreinost man in the ranks of the Family Compact ; subdued one governor after another to his sway, and wielded an influence possessed by no other person in the Province, not even excepting Chief Justice John Beverley Robinson. He commenced life by ruling boys : he finished it by ruling men. He left his impress for all time upon the Church of England in Ontario ; and to his strong will and dexterous management may be traced, for many years, a large part of the resolute opposition of the Legis- lative Council to popular measures ; r.nd to the more liberal policy of the Lower House. He never ratted, never turned aside from his Family Compact friends ; struggled hard from first to last to make his church the national church of Canada, and to preserve the Clergy Reserves for its sole benefit, to be baffled and beaten in the end ; to learn from a greater " Preacher " than himself that life brings with it a sure harvest of disappointments, and that all is " vanity and vexation of spirit." For the ensuing twenty seven years, after his retirement from political life, he was simply the blameless and Christian bishop of his large diocese, and on the 2nd of November, 1867, finally crossed that bourne " whence no traveller returns " in the eighty-ninth year of his age.f Dr. Strachan's remarkable success was achieved without the aid of either extensive learning or brilliant talent. His scant oppor- * When the war broke out in 1812, Toronto had, outside its garrison, scarcely a thousand inhabitants. After the war its population increased very slowly, and in 1820 did not exceed three thousand. t Dr. Ryerson, his contemporary for so many years, said the Bishop had long outlived the jealousy of distinctions, and the enmity of parties, and had died regretted by all classes. — Jour, of Ed. I . !'•< I 446 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. ' < ! [1821. |1 : H'v ■■• t » jr.-;.'' /■ • . ' .. \ 11. ' It . ■ ! • ■ ; , ■> ' .» • tunities could not have sufficed to make him a profound scholar ; nor did he attain to any celebrity in the otlier walks of literature. His *' Sketches of Canada " had such slender success, that he never attempted anything again in the way of serious authorship. Nor •were his pulpit discourses distinguished for their elegance of •diction, or charm of style. His sermons, whatever may have been their intrinsic merit, were delivered with such a broad unmusical Scotch accent, as to make them particularly unpleasant to the natives of other countries beside his own. His success, therefore, must be .sought in the fact, that he was a clever man of the world, a shrewd judge of human nature, and possessed of sufficient ability and tact to turn these qualities to the best account. Now that the effervescence of Canadian politics before the union has settled down, and past occurrences can be calmly and impartially investigated, it is evident that whatever temporal benefit the Church of England in Ontario .acquired for a time, in having its most distinguished member an active politican, this very circumstance, of itself, has inflicted a deep and lasting injury on its weal. Tlie oi'iginal agitation against the Clergy Reserves did not commence on religious grounds ; there was at first no dislike on the part of other Protestant Churches to the Church of Eng- land. The people simply complained that the Clergy Reserves, as well as the Crown Reserves and the wild lands of speculators, in- terfered with local and individual prosperity ; but there was nothing said about a State Church, nor the impolicy of endowing it so richly, to the detriment of other churches, till Dr. Strachan engaged openly in politics in 1818. But, as the dignitaries of the English Church allied themselves more and more closely with the members of the Family Compact, and were thus drawn deeper into the vortex of political squabbles, from which as ministers of the gospel they should have kept wholly aloof, an unreasonable feeling arose against the Church itself, as Ijeing despotic in its tendencies, and opposed to popular rights. Thus, to the course pursued by Dr. Strachan as a politician may, undoubtedly, in a great measure be traced the fact, that in no part of the British empire, nor in any other country, is the Church of England regarded with such hostile feelings by other Protestant denominations as in Ontario, and nowhere, certainly, has she lost the hearts of so many of her own members, who have gone to swell the ranks of contem- porary creeds. The Church of England in Canada, as well as elsewhere, has secured to itself the advantage of a refined and well-educated ministry. Unfortunately its Ontario antecedents have militated seriously against its usefulness. The Clergy Reserves' agitation did it an enormous amount of mischief, sharpen- ed and intensified in bitterness, as it was, by u\e unyielding opposition of Bishop Strachan. The question as to the exclusive right of the Church of England to the Clergy Reserves, was pointedly raised, early in 1819, by a petition from the Presby- terian inhabitants of the town of Niagara to Sir Peregrine Mait- 1821.J UPPER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 447 •eat measure land, praying for a yearly grant of four hundred dollars, out of the Clergy Reserve fund, for the support of their clergymen, on the ground that the Chu'ch of Scotland was a Protestant Church, recognised by huv. This claim the Lieutenant-Governor submitted to the Colonial Secretary, Lord Bathurst,* stating, at the same time, that the Canadian law officers were of the opinion, that the words " Protestant Clergy," in the A';t, only applied to the Church of England, thus very unfairly placing the Established Church of Scotland in the category of dissenters. The important issue thus raised, for the Hrst time, was very leisurely considered ; and the Lieutenant-Governor's despatch rtMnained unanswered for over a year. " As to the right of Dissenting Protestant Ministers," said the Colonial Secretary in rej)ly, " to pai-take of the lands directed by the Act 31 George III., Cliap. 31, to be reserved as a provision for the support and maintenance of the Protestant Clergy, I have now to acquaint you that His Majesty's law otticers are of opinion, that the provisions of that act are not confined solely to the Church of England, but may also be extended to the clergy of the Church of Scotland ; yet they do not extend to Dissenting Ministers, since the terms Pi-otestant Clergy can only apply to the Protestant Clergy recognised and established by law."t Had Dr. Strachan gracefully submittcil to this decision, which was unquestionably the true one in the premises, and consented to admit the Church of Scotland to a fair share of the Clergy Re- serves, it would have gone far to disarm hostile action. When it was considered that nearly a third of all the lands granted by France before the Concjuest went for the support of the Roman Catholic Church in Lower Canada, independent of its tithes, | there was nothing unreasonable in the procedure that one-seventh of the public lands should be set apart for the support of Protestant Churches in Upper Canada. But Dr. Strachan did not submit to this decision ; and he organised an opposition which pressed so strongly on the Home Government, that the matter was per- mitted to remain in abeyance. His policy, also, in other respects led to mucJi dissatisfaction and even bad feeling. With him the Church of England was the only orthodox body. It absorbed all his affections, and in the narrowness of his mind he cared little for the prosperity of other Protestant creeds, no matter how wide or how beneficial their influence might be, and so never lifted a finger to remove the disabilities under which they laboured. Very few, comparatively, of the U. E. Loyalist exodus to Canada were members of the Church of England. They mostly belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church, established by Wesley in the American colonies, or were Presbyterians or Congregationalists. — * Maitland's despatch, May ilth, 1819. t Bathurst'a despatch to Maitlaud. May 20th, 18.30. t Vide p. 280 of this volume. v"'! .'>'.'■■.■ ' •). ^i • i I . I ::■ R ! 448 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1821. Richard Cartwright,* in 1793, estimated that only one-twentieth of the population belonged to the Church of England ; and although a devout member of that church himself, he strongly protested against giving it the same exclusive political privileges it enjoyed in Britain. " Such a policy," said he, " is as short-sighted as it is illberal ; and however little it may be noticed at present, if per- siited in and pushed very far, will unquestionably be sowing the seeds of civil discord, and perhaps laying the foundation of future revolutions." He also advocated the removal of all disabilities from other churches ; and the passage of a new marriage act, which would permit the ministers of all denominations to perform the marriage ceremony ; a right not afterwards granted until 1831. t Before that period ministers of the Churches of England and Scotland, of Lutherans and Calvinists, were alone permitted to per- form the marriage ceremony in Upper Canada, The immigration into the Province after the war, especially from Ireland, was largely composed of members of the Church of England ; but the dissenting bodies, then as now, continued to form the bulk of the population. If Dr. Strachan had acted in a true Christian spirit, and assisted to remove their disabilities, instead of opposing measures looking co that end, and behaved more wisely and charit- ably otherwise, he w^mld have largely benefited the cau '.e of true religion, and his own church as well ; and disarmc'd i^^uch of the extreme opposition he encountered throughout his political career. When one contrasts the calm, and charitable, and eminently useful lives of the contemporary Bishops of Queljecand Montreal, men born and bred in the Church of England, with the political obstinacy and extreme course of Dr. Strachan, brer] a Presbyterian, they will comprehend how little he understood the true temporal policy of the Anglican Church in this country. He knew nothing originally of its literature. From the time that he attached himself to its ministry he was either the overtasked schoolmaster, working at night to add to his slender stock of classical rending, !>o that he might be able to meet his more advanced classes next day,+ or the bustling politician, who ruled the Executive and Legislative Councils a good deal as he ruled his own school. In an old and • The first Methoflist preachers in Canafla were officers of the army, who had become followers of Wesley in England. The real founders of Methodism in Canada were, however. Paul and Barbara Heck, of Ihe Township of Augusta, in the County of firenville, whose i^raves may still be seen at the Blue Church, throe miles west of Prescott. When Upper Canada, in 1701. was createtl a Province, a Methodist (Jhurch was organised in connection with that in the United States. In 1S12 there were nearly three thousand members in the two Canadas, and eighteen preachers. In 1891 the Mehodist Church in Canada had increased to 2.33.868 members, with 1,718 ordained ministers and 2,142 local preachers, with Church pro- perty valued at !S11,.')!)7,491, and 14 Colleges and (tther educational institu- tions. t Life and Letters of Richard Cartwright, pp. 52 and 5.3. X Taylor's Last Three Bishops, p. 206. [1821. me-twentieth and although ;ly protested jes ifc enjoyed sighted as it resent, if per- je sowing the Aon of future 11 disabilities ^e act, which perform the i until 1831.t Endand and nitted to per- 5 immigration Ireland, was land ; but the clie bulk of rue Christian i,d of opposing ily and charit- cau .e of true 1 i^uoh of the ilitical career, inently useful real, men born ical obstinacy rian, they will oral policy of ling originally limself to its working at ng, uo that he t day, I or the Legislative In an old and the army, who al founders of Heck, of the es may still be ^Vhen Upper 1 was organised ere were nearly preachers. In {.868 members, th Church pro- latiorial inatitu- 1821.] UPPER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 449 settled form of society he could never have emerged from the average mass of humx-- Hh-'irp, practical and clever, Canada was his true element. .^.,.iybody was beginning life ; there was nothing to keep him down ; where learning was a scarce article, a little went a long way. From the tutor of a farmer's children he rose to be the district .schoolmaster, " passing rich on £30 a year "; another step forward and he was enveloped in the surplice of the Episcopal minister. By being a clergyman he became a politician ; by being a politician he became a bishop. Yet even as a politician he was neither original nor profound. He attached himself to a body already formed, and can only be regarded in the light of an active partisan. As a partisan his influence was .secret and secure, rather than open and exposed.; of a depressing, rather than of an elevating, character. The Church of England, in Ontario, can never recover from the evils sustained by his short-sighted and impolitic sway. Whatever immediate advantages it may have derived from his worldly shrewdne.ss, or business sagacity, were more than counterbalanced by the circumstance of its first Bishop being an active politician and partisan, and lacking that distinguished posi- tion in scholarship and literature, which its principal divines have almost invariably attained to.* The eighth Parliament of Upper Canada met, pursuant to pro- clamation, on the 31st of January, for the first time, and the Assembly cho.se Levius P. Sherwood, of Brockville, for .speaker. — The Lieutenant-Governor opened the session with a precise and formal speech. He spoke of the accession of George IV., of the happy constitution of the Province, advised the Legislature to take measures to promote the interests of true religion, and allud- ed to the current of immigration now setting steadily into Upper Canada. Within the preceding two years forty new townships had been surveyed, and in a great measure granted on condition of actual settlement. But it appeared that the public finances of the Province were in a depressed condition, the militia pensions had been allowed to fall into arrear, and money was not forthcoming for various neces.sary purposes. The debate on the " address," showed clearly the complexion of the House. It was eviflent that the majority sided with the Exe- cutive. The people, whatever migiit have been their hopes, had chosen the wrong men, as a rule, to carry out their views. It was nlain that during the ensuing four years no enquiry of much moment rauld be made intc the condition of the Province, and that the Executive might be as arbitrary as it thought proper. Still, there were many good Imsiness men in the Houyn, and several useful acts were passed during the session. Among the principal of these was an act to establish a uniform currency throughout the Pro- vince ; another act granting a sum of money to aid the con.struction of the Rideau Canal ; and a third, enacting that no tithes or S«e Taylor's life of Bishop Strachan. Ni ',' •■'•■,) « 1 I' ' -' i . If *<*■,. Nv ( ♦ ■ If' ' r"; *'. M-'^ V " r f 14 IS ,% J ' |l i w'-. n 450 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1821. ecclesiastical rate of any kind should ever be levied in Upper Canada. The Legislature was prorogued on the 14th of April, and beyond a tour of the Lieutenant-Governor through several districts of the Province, the summer produced little of importance. Money con- tinued scarce, despite the establishment of the Bank of Upper Canada ; business> was dull ; and the prices of agricultural produce very low. Flour only rated from sixteen to twenty shillings cur- rency per barrel, and wheat was almost unsaleable.* The Legisla- ture again assembled on the 21st of November. The opening speech referred to the difference with the Lower Province, as to the amount of duties it should refund to Upper Canada, and regretted that the principal source of revenue should thus be interrupted, to the detriment of the public works then in progress. A vacancy having occurred in the representation of Lennox and Addington, during the recess, Barnabas Bidwell was returned. He had originally resided in Massachusetts, remained there after the termination of the War of Independence, took^the oath of allegiance to the American Government, became attorney-general of the state, treasurer of the County of Buckshire, and was returned to Congress. Bidwell, however, was poor, and possibly temptation proved too strong for him. We find him accused, in 1810, of mis- application of the public moneys, making false entries to conceal the deed, and flying to Canada to escape a trial — a fact of itself that goes a long way to prove the truth of the charges preferred against him. He settled in the Midland District, where he taught school for some time in the village of Bath, took the oath of allegiance in 1812, and prepared the clever " Sketches of Canada " which appear in Gourlay's work, and form its most valuable portion. He was the fast friend of the latter, became popular as a Reformer, a name by which the anti-Executive party now began to be characterised, and believing that his Massachusetts antecedents were not general- ly known, or, at least, partially forgotten, offered himself to the electors of Lennox and Addington, and was returned. But Bidwell was mistaken in supposing that his past conduct was not remembered. His election was immediately petitioned against, on the grounds of his being a person of immoral character — a fugitive from justice, and having taken the oath of allegiance to the Government of the United States. An agent was now despatched to Massachusetts, who easily obtained copies of his indictment, and positive proofs of his flight on a warrant having been issued for his apprehension. Bidwell defended himself with great tact and skill. He contended that the charges against him in Massachusetts originated solely with his political enemies ; at all events, as there had been no conviction, the House should not assume the fact of his guilt without a trial. With regard to the oath of allegiance, he maintained that it only embraced the period ** Brock ville ifecorder, 10th July, 1821, ■A*]. '' ■*■ I' 1822.J UPPER CANiiDA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 451 of his residence in the United States, and did not disqualify hira from taking a like oath in this country. But his defence was unavailing. His support of Gourlay and h!s eloquence had already made him obnoxious to the Family Compact, and every effort was now made to crush him. He was very properly expelled the House, after an unusually long debate, but by a majority of only one, seventeen voting for the motion of expulsion, and sixteen f dnst it.* A new writ was accordingly issued for Lennox and Addington, and a Mr. Clark elected this time by a majority of one hundred and thirteen. Bidwell's son, Marshall Spring Bidwell, who offered himself as a candidate, was objected to on the ground of his being an alien and his nominr.Uon set aside. He was elected, however, at a later period, and became a prominent personage in the arena of Canadian politics. The case of Bidwell was a novel one, and to prevent a recurrence of anything of the kind, an act was passed, on the 1 7th of January, making persons in his position ineligible to a seat in the Assembly. This act, however, being too oppressive on 1822. American immigrants, was afterwards repealed in 1824, and a new act passed, which made a residence of seven years the con- dition of eligibility to membership in the Assembly, on the part of foreigners who had taken the oath of allegiance to their former governments. At the same time, it continued ihe disqualification of persons who had held any of the principal public offices of the United States. As Bidwell had been attorney-general for Massa- chusetts this clause effectually shut him out from the Assembly. Owing to the statement in the Lieutenant-Governor's speech, with regard to the differences with Lower Canada on the mattei' or revenue, the Legislature determined to send the attorney-general as its agent to England, to press its claims on the attention of the Crown and Imperial Parliament, and voted $8,000 to defray his expenses and remunerate him for the service. After the transac- tion of some general business the House was prorogued on the 17th of January. This year was an uneventful one as regarded Upper Canada. — Despite the continued scarcity of money, the country was steadily progressing in population and in agricultural and commercial pros- perity. Steamboats were now in general use on the rivers and principal lakes, and gave a vast impetus to commerce ; but down the rapids of the St. Lawrence, below Prescott to Montreal, the old Durham, or flat-bottomed, boat alone continued to descend, to be frequently abandoned at the end of the voyage, or sold for whatever it would bring, as the expense of dragging it back against the current would ex-^eed its value. A high tariff and a lax revenue department led, as hitherto, to a vast amount of smuggling from the adjoining districts of the United States, which had a most baneful effect on the morals of many of the trading community, and * See Debates in Provincial Parliament of Upper Canada, and Journals o the House for 1821. '7' ■ • M. fir: ■■ •i .■'•■■.. •■'"l >■'/■'■,'■ ■ F'ti .■ H' ' ' m V ( « ■n V •#i ''•.■■•.,-..• •.■.'.>■• 40^ THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1822. produced considerable disorder in the Province otherwise. Among other commodities, large quantities of lumber were in this way in- troduced into Quebec and Montreal markets for shipment to England, to the detriment of the Canadian lumbermen, who were loud in their denunciations. Banks had now been established in all the principal towns, but the benefit derived from them was neutralised, in no small degree, by the great number of bad bills put into circulation by American counterfeiters. Farm produce of every kind continued to bring unremunerative prices, so the growth of hbmp remained a matter of attention with the agricultural com- munity ; and the advantages of the culture of tobacco, in the Western peninsula, began to be considered. Agricultural societies had been already established in some districts, and aided in no small degree in improving the modes of tillage, still in a very iniperfect state. Even in well-cleared districts the rudest descrip- tion of bush farming was yet adhered to ; and the ploughs and other agricultural implements were entirely unequal to the neces- sities of the farmer. Labour-saving machines were still unknown, and the products of the fertile glebe continued to be won by the sturdy efforts of manual toil alone. Towards the close of this year, the proposed union with Lower Canada created a good deal of agitation, and public meetings were held at which resolutions were passed for and against it. The general feeling, however, was decidedly in favour of the measure, as a whole ; but some of its provisions were strongly objected to, particularly that raising the property qualification for members of the Assembly from >£80 to £500. This clause^ it was said, would disqualify one-fourth of the sitting members.* The Legislature assembled on the 15th of January. The Lieu- tenant-Governor's speech on the occasion, beyond congratu- 1823. lating the House of Assembly on the success of its agent in England, in procuring the passage of the '• Canada Trade Act," presents no features of importance. The addresses from both Houses, in reply, were mere re-echoes of the speech itself. During the session a petition was presented from a large body of the freeholders of Lennox and Addington, praying that the recent election might be set aside, in consequence of the younger Bidwell having been illegally prevented from contesting it. The petition assumed the ground that Marshall Spring Bidwell was a British subject by birth, having been born in Massachusetts while still a colony of Great Britain, and never having taken the oath of allegi- ance to any other government. Bidwell was heard at the bar of the House as counsel for the petitioners ; and the matter was brought up for final consideration on the 17th of February, when it was decided by a considerable majority that the election was void and a new writ should be issued. Bidwell was subsequently de- feated, after a sharply-contested election, in which the whole weight * R^olutions passed at a meeting in Brockville in October 1822. [1822. Among is way in- pment to who were blished in them was d bills put ;e of every growth of iural com- ;co, in the il societies led in no in a very ;st descrip- oughs and > the neces- . unknown, iron by the jvith Lower etings were st it. The lie measure, objected to, r members said, would The Lieu- d congratu- Lts agent in lada Trade 3 from both n I. 'ge body of the recent ;er Bidwell he petition s a British vhile still a ih of allegi- the bar of latter was lary, when »n was void [uently de- lole weight 1822. 1823.J UPPER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 453 of the Family Compact was brought to bear in favour of his opponent, Ham, a supporter of the ruling party, whose return, however, was alleged to be illegal, on the ground that the poll was closed too soon. With the exception that provision was made for assizes twice a year in the more populous districts, there is little remarkable to distinguish the legislation of this session, which ter- minated on the 19th of March. During summer the project of the Welland Canal was brought before the public in a tp.ngible shape, principally through the exer- tions of William Hamilton Merritt, of the Niagara district, who, from first to last, occupied fi prodiinent position in connection with this great national work, which has done so much for the prosperity of Canada. The son of a U. E. Loyalist, Mr. Merritt served as a^ officer in the cavalry militia during the war of 1812 to 1814, and thus aided to preserve his country from the grasp of covetous American Democracy. But he ardently desired to serve Canada in peaceful as well as warlike pursuits, and all its great projects of internal improvement found in him a firm supporter. The Welland Canal fortos a lasting monument to his memory, and if he never had accomplished anything else, its inception would alone suffice to give him an honourable place in the annals of his country.* Beyond the agitation of this project, the journals of Upper Canada, at this period, record little domestic news of importance. Among their items we find that Maitland amused himself by ex- cursions through the Province, and drew for his travelling expenses on the Receiver-General ; and that the presence of distress in Ire- land sent many settlers hither, who were mostly located on free lands in the new townships on the Ottawa. As winter approached, the public mind was a good deal moved by the prospect of an approaching election, in which it was evident that the Reforpi Party would make a strong effijrt to obtain a majority in the House of Assembly. A decided feeling was setting in against the Family Compact. As time progressed, it became more and more plain that Maitland was the mere tool of this party, which now monopolis- ed every post of honour and profit in the country. The opposition press, however, was remarkably quiet, having evidently the fear of Government prosecutions before its eyes, and there being no editor belonging to it possessed of sufficient talent and courage to take the lead. The Legislature assembled on the 11th of November. From the opening speech of the Lieutenant-Governor it would appear that a spirit of contentment and obedience to the laws was now the char- acteristic of Upper Canadian society, and that the country was slowly recovering from the reaction caused by the termination of the war. But the revenue was still very far from being in a flourishing * Mr. Merritt first conceived the idea of this canal while riding along the frontier during the war. In 1S22 he presented a draft of the scheme to the Government. "iv I « U'.;!/.",, I,; '■••: 11 ■•' .. I 1) r F ir ' . '• r »i I •• • y ■ - ; ■>• hi'U 454 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1823. condition. He concluded by alluding to the cordial intercourse subsisting between the two Houses. The addresses in reply were couched in the customary complimentary strain. That from the Legislative Council was signed by its speaker, still Chief Justice William Dummer Powell. This session of the Legislature was distinguished by the effort, now made for the first time, to allow ministers of the Methodist persuasion to solemnise marriage. A bill to that effect was passed in the Assembly, but rejected in the Upper House. An earnest step was also taken towards securing a portion of the Clergy Reserves for the Presbyterian body, on the ground that these lands having been set apart for Protestants, and the Church of Scotland being acknowledged as such by the Statute Book of England, it had therefore a legal claim to its just proportion. An address based upon this principle was voted to the Imperial Parliament, alone competent to decide the issue thus raised, the Reserves provision being a part of the constitutional charter of 1791, which the local Legislature had no power to alter. In the course of the session the election for Lennox and Addington was again declared void, and the sitting member, Ham, unseated on the ground that the poll had been closed too soon ; the Welland Canal Company incorpo- rated, with a capital of .$160,000 ; and provision made for taking the first census of Upper Canada. A fruitless effort was made to secure the passage of a law prohib' "ng Orange pro- cessions, now oecoming common, in many parts of the Pro- vince, on the 1 2th of July, the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne. These procession'^ gave no small annoyance to the Irish Roman Catholic portion of the community ; and their suppression was therefore deemed desirable. As yet, however, they had been conducted with order and decorum, and even Dr. Strachan did not hesitate to preach the annual July sermon. Orangemen mainly came into the country with the North of Ireland immigrants ; but its first lodge in Canada was formed, at Brockville, by Wexford and Wicklow men, under the auspices of Ogle R. Gowan, editor for many years of the Brockville Statesman^* and who was after- wards frequently elected to Parliament. He was a man of ability, a fluent speaker, and a good newspaper writer ; but, although an ultra loyalist, he never harmonised with the Brockville Sherwoods, and the Joneses, and the other leading Family Compact lights, so numerous in that great stronghold of their party. And bitter war was frequently waged between the Gowanites on one hand, and the Family Compact people on the other. The latter could not brook that a mere immigrant, recently arrived in the country, should acquire the influence and authority with the people which * The Statesman was first issued about 1826, Its publication was discon- tinued in 1854, when it was purchased by a company mainly started by the late Hon, Geo. Sherwood, and merged into the Brockville Monitor. Gowan had then removed to Toronto, became license inspector for that city, and died there. [1823. intercourse I reply were it from the hief Justice y the efiFort, le Methodist was passed An earnest : the Clergy t these lands of Scotland : England, it ddress based iment, alone /es provision ich the local le session the red void, and hat the poll sany incorpo- ie for taking eflort was Orange pro- of the Pro- Battle of the to the Irish suppression ley had been chan did not emen mainly iigrants ; but by Wexford jowan, editor lo was after- an of ability, although an e Sherwoods, »act lights, so id bitter war land, and the could not the country, )eople which on was discon- started by the nitor. Gowan that city, and 1824.] UPPER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 455 they regarded as their birthright. But Gowan and Orangemen had come to stay, to the great chagrin of their opponents of all classes and shades of opinion. Number one Orange Lodge still exists at Brock ville, and has du ing its lifetime witnessed the dis- appearance of every member of t. e local Family Compact, as well as of almost all their descendents. Their very names in many cases, have been wholly blotted from the people's memory ;and their spacious homes have passed into the possession of the plebeians they so contemptuously looked down upon in their day. — Parliament was prorogued on the 19th of January, and the 1824. winter passed away without producing any event of note, with the exception of the failure of the Kingston Bank, which had been fradulently managed, and now caused no small loss and incon- venience in the Midland District. The writs for a general election were issued in the latter part of June, and made returnable on the 19th of August following. Much excitement ensued, and although it was tlie busy season of the year, with the farming community, a very full vote was polled. — Hitherto not only had the Family Compact usually the numerical majority in the Assembly, but also the greater part of its debating and business talent as well. A change had now taken place in both respects. The Reform Party had not only managed to secure a small majority in the Assembly, but had also elected several very able leaders of their party. Foremost among these was Marshall Spring Bid well, an excellent lawyer, an eloquent speaker, and a prudent and cautious man for a young one, but a republican at heart. His colleague, in Lennox and Addington, was burly Peter Perry, so widely known in Upper Canada in his day and generation ; a rough rustic diamond, unpolished by education, brought up on a farm, when public schools were few and far be- tween, and very poor ones at the best. The son of a U. E. Loyalist, he was a man of tlie people, with whom his rude and ready elo- quence gave him a large influence, and a great friend of the Bidwells — father and son. But the most able and brilliant Reformer elected was unques- tionably John Rolph. He was born at the market town of Thornbury, in Gloucestershire, England, on the 4th of March, 1793, and was the second son in a family of eighteen children. — His father, Thomas Rolph, was a physician of some local repute, who considering England too small a country to enable him to provide for his numerous progeny, emigrated to Canada in 1808. His sou took part in the recent war, was for 'ome time paymaster of his corps, was taken prisoner by the enemy but very soon ex- changed. He shortly afterwards went to England, entered one of the colleges at Cambridge, and after graduating there became a student at law, in London, and in due time was called to the bar of the Inner Temple. He returned to Canada, and .settled in the County of Norfolk, which then formed part of the Talbot district. He took the popular side during the Gourlay prosecutions, 'J I ■'I ,;.". ■ t* 1 ■ . • • 1 '.'..'■ ■ ■ • . I R'«^« I" i :i i ,'■ f ' t -,: .• »•■ 1 -1 .- '■■ ■•v'.., 1 i * ] ■- _ , ♦ .>■■ .; in 456 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1824. and strongly condemned the treatment suffered by the Bidwells. At once a brilliant and eloquent speaker, firm in opinion and logical in argument, he made many converts to his own way of thinking, and became so popular that he was brought out by the Reformers of Middlesex, and returned with his colleague. Captain Matthews, a retired officer of the Royal Artillery, who had become disgusted with Family Compact rule, at the head of the poll. — Shortly after the elections the first Reform Association was estab- lished at Toronto. It embraced, among others, Doctor William W. Baldwin, his son Robert, and William Lyon Mackenzie. The summer was distinguished by the formation, under an Imperial charter, of the Canada Lanci Company, a corporation at first productive of benefit, but subsequently of injury, to the Pro- vince. It commenced its operations by buying up vast tracts of the Clergy Reserves and Crown lands at low prices, which it sold again in small lots at a large advance. It was, in short, a huge land monopoly ; and, like all monopolies, has proved an injury to this country precisely in proportion to its extent. Thus, without once asking tiie consent of the Upper Canadian Parliament, a vast quantity of our soil was withdrawn from public purposes, and passed into the hands of private speculators of the London Stock Ex- change. The new year opaned with public disaster. On one of 1825. the first days of January theParliament building at Toronto was burned down, but fortunately the library and furniture were saved. The loss to the Province was estimated at $8,000, a modest sum, which would be entirely insufficient for the erection of many buildings for public^ school purposes now existing in Canada. Parliament was convened on the 11th of January, and a good deal of interest was excited as to the composition of the Assembly. The election of speaker tested the strength of the respective parties. John Wilson, of Wentworth, was chosen by a Reform majority of two, the vote standing twenty-one to nineteen. A plain farmer, but a man of sound common sense, calm, temperate, and dispas- sionate, his election was a popular one with his party. The Family Compact was at length in a minority. The Reformers, however, proceeded warily. The address in reply to the Lieutenant-Govern- or's speech was agreed to unanimously, and couched in as compli- mentary language as he could desire. Still it was evident that Maitland felt an apprehension of approaching trouble. He forgot to make his usual gracious reply to the Assembly, an honour vouchsafed to the Upper House. The long shadows of Canadian Radicalism were already settling down on his administration, and the Colonial Advocate, controlled by William Lyon Mackenzie, sadly disturbed his prospects of dignified repose with pungent diatribes on packed juries and government abuses, though as yet warily expressed. Even then the clouds were gathering for the storm of 1838. [1824. he Bidwells. opinion and 5 own way of it out by the gue, Captain ) had become I the poll.— 3n was estab- ' William W. le. n, under an !orporation at y, to the Pro- vast tracts of which it sold short, a huge an injury to rhus, without iment, a vast es, and passed lou Stock Ex- . On one of ing at Toronto and furniture at $8,000, a ient for the now existing r, and a good the Assembly, lective parties. :m majority of plain farmer, 8, and dispas- The Family ^ers, however, jnant-Govern- in as compli- evident that le. He forgot ly, an honour Is of Canadian jistration, and Mackenzie, ;ith pungent is, though as Ihering for the 1825.] UPPER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 457 Mackenzie had been only a short time in the country, where he arrived in 1820, just at the close of the Gourlay agitation. He was destined to exercise no small influence on the political future of Canada, and was indirectly one of its more important stepping- stones to the large measure of liberity and self-government which its people now enjoy. Descended from a poor Highland family of Perthshire, who, like the rest of their clan, cherished a strong affec- tion for the Stuart dynasty, his paternal grandfather, Colin Mackenzie, joined the standard of the Pretender in 1745, and after the fatal battle of Culloden fled with him to the Continent. His mother was also a Mackenzie of the same clan ; and the old family Bible records that she was married to Daniel, on the 8th of May, 1794, at Dundee. Their circumstances were of the most humble kind, and Daniel earned Ms daily bread as a weaver. William Lyon, their only child, was born in March, 1795, and twenty-seven days afterwards lost his father in consequence of a severe cold con- tracted at a dancing party. Belonging to the strict Seceder Pres- byterians, the widow, a woman of strong nerve and resolute will, sought to imbue her son's mind, as he grew up, with her own fervid religious impressions, and to give him the the best education that her poverty, which at times extended to a want of the actual necetisaries of life, would permit. If she failed in a religious point of view, she succeeded in storing his mind with a vast mass of general information, and an ardent love of liberty. But the lati- tude allowed him as an only chyid, by his widowed mother, gave Mackenzie an erratic and restless turn of mind, which seriously militated against him in after life. After leaving school we find him, for a short time, an apprentice in a draper's shop in Dundee ; next an articled clerk in the counting-room of a timber merchant of the name of Gray ; and at the early age of nineteen, he appears in the small town of Aly th as the proprietor of a little shop of odds and ends and a circulating library, to become a bankrupt in the short period of three years. In the spring of 1817, he crossed the Tweed into England, became clerk for a brief space for the Kennett and Avon Canal Company, then filled a similar office for a while in London, and finally emigrated to Canada in April, 1820. His course in this country was equally as erratic and uncertain as it had been in Scotland. Of slender frame, and only five feet six inches in stature, his massive head, bald from early fever, and high and broad in the frontal region, looked far too large for the small body it surmounted. His eye clear and piercing, his firm set Scotch mouth, his chin long and broad, and the general contour of his features, made up a countenance indicative of strong will and great resolution, while the ceaseless activity of his fingers, and the perpetual twitching of the lower part of his face, betrayed that restlessness and nervousness of disposition which so darkly clouded his existence. For a brief period Mackenzie was employed in some subordinate capacity in connection with the survey of the Lachine Canal. We I • I. '•: I ' . 4' 1;: :| : y^ 1 »*tiv ^d 'i ., I '■ li, V i ■i; h'l--- ■<■ 458 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1825. next find him keeping a small drug store in Toronto, and after a short stay there he removed to Dundas, where he and John Leslie entered into partnership to carry on the drug business, to which was added hardware, groceries, paints and dye-stuffs, as well as a circulating library. This partnership only lasted, from some cause, for fifteen months, when Mackenzie removed to Niagara. At this place he opened a general store on his own account, but, st:ll un- stable as water, he abandoned this enterprise within a y.^ar, became a public journalist, and, on the 18th of May, 1824, issued the first number of the Colonial Advocate, containing thirty-two octavo pages. In it he describes himself as an independent editor, neither rich nor in want ; and gave an amusing exhibition of his eccentricity by publishing twelve hundred copies without having as yet obtained a single subscriber. Its topics were varied, widely dissimilar, as might naturally be expected, and tincjed with no small portion of egotism. He declared himself a Calvinist in religion, and his adherence to the Westminister Confession ; approved the wisdom of the British Legislature in setting apart the Clergy Reserves for the support of the Protestant religion, but demurred to their being monopolised by the Church of England. The Exe- cutive, the Bench, the Bar, the Church, were criticised in turn, and in some cases most unfavourably. Sir Peregrine Maitland was unpleasantly contrasted with De Witt Clinton, Governor of New York State ; the Legislative Council was designated as the " tool of a servile power ;" while the Church and the Bar were not in the satisfactory state they should be. Finally, he averred that the Imperial Union Bill of 1818 had been rightly rejected, and the union of all the British- American provinces the only desirable one. The very first issue of the Advocate avs cl'e the greatest alarm iqi the Family Compact. Another prying Scot hman of the Gourlay stamp had come to disturb its repose, and its organ suggested that he should forthwith be banished from the Province, and the whole edition of his paper confiscated. To the charge of disloyalty Mac- kenzie responded, by publishing an amusing autobiography of himself, after the fashion of Cobbett, soundly berating, at the same time, Fothergill, editor of the York Observer, and a member of the Assembly, and John Beverley Robinson, and declaring " that he would rather work for his bread than submit to the official fungi of the country, more numerous and pestilential than the marshes and quagmires that encircle Toronto." But the storm of censure which had met the Executive for its arbitrary conduct in the case of Gourlay, was too recent, and too keenly remembered, to permit of a sirailar course being pursued towards Mackenzie. Beyond threats and abuse from the Family Compact organ, no attempt was made to injure him for the present. After issuing his Advocate two or three times, he adopted the broadsheet as the most conven- ient form for a public journal, and in the November following removed to Toronto, where he speedily became noted as a grievance- monger, and a keeu hunter-up of abuses in the various public [1826. 1825.] UPPER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 459 I, and after a i John Leslie less, to which as well as a m some cause, ara. At this , but, st:ll un- ithin a yoar, ', 1824, issued ng thirty-two endent editor, hibition of his ithout having varied, widely [ w ith no small ist in religion, ; approved the irt the Clergy but demurred nd. The Exe- icised in turn, 3 Maitland was ivernor of New i as the " tool vere not in the ;7erred that the i acted, and the ' desirable one. eatest alarm imi of the Gourlay suggested that and the whole disloyalty Mac- iobiography of ng, at the same member of the aring " that he le official fungi an the marshes ;orm of censure ucti in the case ered, to permit nzie. Beyond lO attempt was g his Advocate most conven- nber following as a grievance- various public departments. The Assembly was only a few weeks in session when his petition on the subject of disorders in the Post-Ottice department was brought up by Matthews and McCall, two Reform members of the chamber. His allegations were supported by the investiga- tions of a committee. It was proved that the mail bags were often filled with goods, letters opened and mis-sent, and that it would be advisable the Provincial, instead of the Imperial, Government should have control of this department. This session of Parliament was decidedly a talking one. After sitting till the 13th of April only seven bills had been pa.ssed, and, to make matters yet more uncomfortable, the annual Supply Bill, not coming up to the estimate, shared the fate of similar bills in Lower Canada, being thrown out by the Upper House. Although the finances of the Province were still in a depressed condition, it saw no necessity for retrenchment. The first Reform Assembly did not bid fair by any means for popularity. Tlie people's bill for legislation was even heavier than usual, and the Family Compact declared that less value had been given in return. This accusation aroused discussion, and it was shown that the estimates had been cut down most properly. The attorney-general, for instance, was not content with his regular stipend, and swelled up his income by charging the public with the rent of his private office, tra- velling expenses, legal advice to the Lieutenant-Governor, and so forth. All these charges, and many more like them, had been included in the estimates, although having no lawful business what- ever to be there. Summer passed rapidly away without producing disaster to dim its pleasant sunshine, or matter for the pen of the annalist. The Legislature was again convened on the 7th of November. The opening speech and the addresses in reply were longer than usual, more carefully prepared, and appeared to give satisfaction to all parties. Maitland now made a courteous response to the address of the Assembly, and soon after sent it a message, pursuant to instructions from the Colonial Office, recommending that a more liberal provision be made for the naturalisation of foreigners of every description. A bill was accordingly passed for this purpose, but rejected in the Legislative Council. Resolutions were also agreed to on the expediency of excluding judges from the Executive Council, and rendering them independent of the Crown by appoint- ment during good conduct, as in England. An address founded on these resolutions was voted to the King. During this session thirty-one acts were passed, one of which made provision for a bounty of $500 to every person establishing a paper mill. But eighteen other bills were thrown out by the Legislative Council, among which was one repealing the Sedition Act, under which Gourlay had been turned out of the country. This caused a very unpleasant feeling to spread abroad. The Family Compact still held firm possession of the Legislative 1826. Council ; it also continued to grasp the entire Executive J ' .' I Ih^ I ' i . ' ' ' II ■I l; '■ *■'■■' ■ ■•' ,., , k I l> .• I o •'■ • V f" •If: i '•' ..• <#.» » ; 460 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. 11826. control, although defeated on every important vote in the Assem- bly. The estimates laid before the House showed that the expenses for the current year would amount to $121,412, the revenue to $144,240. Upper Canada wns now in a condition to support its own Civil List, and to release the Crown from all burdens on its account, presuming that due economy were exercised. The Legislature was prorogued on the 30th of January, the usual appropriation having been iirst gninted for the public service, /n a few weeks afterv/ards the Lieutenant-Governor made a tour through a portion of the Province, and was met in every direction with very flattering addresses, chiefly concocted, however, by friends of the Executive. In saveral instances these addresses were condemned by the opposition newspapers, as not correctly conveying the sentiments of the community, and for dishonestly censuring the House of Assembly. Steamers had now become numerous on the lakes and rivers of Uppei* Canada ; the construction of the Welland Canal was being rapidly pushed forward ; and the building of the St, Lawrence Canals had begun to be seriously agitated. Despite the very general depression in financial matters, the Province was steadily progressing. The population had increased to nearly one hundred and seventy thousand souls ; while the continued stream of immi- gra-tion was fast filling up the new townships. Beyond the discussion caused by the rejection of the Allen Bill in the Legislative Council, which refused to pass it without amendments destroying its more important features, there seems to have been very little political agitation of any description at this period. Although disliked for his reserved manners, and for sur- rendering himself completely to the influence of the Family Compact, the Lieutenant-Governor was generally respected. The public mind, as a rule, was contented, and the prevailing desire was to obtain redress of existing evils solely by constitutional methods. — As yet the idea of Responsible Government had not resolved itself into a precise form, as a public question, although, doubtless, it was already entertained by many individuals. In those days comparatively few of the people read newspapers, which did not, therefore, by any means exercise the inf uence on the public mind that they do at the present day. The postage on a weekly newspaper amounted to four shillings a year, payable quar- terly in advance. Post-offices were few and far between, and post- masters exceedingly lax in the performance of their duties. The pungent editorials of Mackenzie, owing to these causes, and to their being regarded as too caustic and violent, were very little felt in the community. His affairs, consequently, were far from being in a flourishing condition,* and he made up his mind to discon- tinue the publication ot the Advocate, and was seriously meditating * Canada as it Was, &c., \rol. i. p. 121. Life and Times of Mackenzie, p. 74. Dent's Rebellion, vol. i. p. 130. 1^ : ■ ■■.i 1826.J UPPER CAI.ADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 461 ickenzie, p. 74. a removal to Montreal or the United S^ntot, when, during a tem- porary absence from home, his printing office was broken into by nine young men of respectable st didiag, mostly all connected with leading Family Compact people, wIjo ha«l taken offence at his writings, and completely wrecked, two magistrates looking coolly on. This event at once gave him a most opportune notoriety ; and had the Government countenanced the act, in any way, his popularity would have been still greater. The Lieutenant-Governor chanced to be absent from Toronto at the time, and on his return promptly expressed his disapproval of the outrage, and at once dismissed one of the clerks of his own office who had acted as a sort of leader on the occasion : with the remainder of the rioters the law was quietly allowed to take its course. Maitland's conduct in this matter gave general satisfaction to the public. For the moment he became de- cidedly popular ; and Mackenzie had not as yet the opportunity of becoming a political martyr. He sued the aggressors for damages, and on the 30th of October, despite all the eloquence of Hagerman, obtained from a special jury at Toronto a verdict in his favour for $2,500 damages and costs.* The suit, however, was brought for $8,000, on the ground that the stoppage of his printing business occasioned him additional loss. A subscription was set on foot to pay the verdict against the rioters, and the greater part of the necessary sum was raised by this means. The parties thus escaped due punishment for the offence, a circumstance which produced a good deal of public indignation, and increased the hostile feeling against the Family Compact. This feeling was deepened, in no small degree, by subsequent occurrences. The young men who had deliberately committed the outrage in tlie open day, as if they sought to set all public opinion at complete defiance, were regarded by their Patrician friends, in Toronto and elsewhere, as heroes who had done some meritorious service to the state. When the people's wrath had somewhat subsided, and it was deemed the proceeding could be safely taken, several of ohe rioters were placed in important and lucrative positions by the Government. Jarvis, their leader, son-in-law of ex-Chief Justice Powell,! at once got a good post, and was eventually created Indian Commissioner, to become, however, a defaulter ; Richardson, a law student in the office of the attorney -general, was appointed clerk of the peace for the Niagara District ; and Captain Lyons, Maitland's dismissed clerk, was made registrar of the same district ; while Colonel Fitz- gibbon, who collected the money to pay their damages, was appoint- ed clerk to the Assembly, to the great disgust of the Reform members. As these appointments could not be made without the consent of the Lieutenant-Governor, the credit which attached to * Mackenzie subsequently admitted that the actual damage to his office was not very groat, and that he had overestimated it. Vide Life and Timeg of Mackenzie, p. 101. t Powell ceased to be Chief Justice in 1825, and was succeeded by William Campbell. i.v.;;'|;;, '*: ' ( ■ .' 462 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1826. i ■ ■■.'. 1 ' Ii i' 'I ". » . It * wr his original dismissal o^ Lyons was diminished in no small degree. Although Mackenzie at first felt disposed to prosecute the rioters criminally, he was eventually dissuaded by Bidwell, who had ably conducted his civil action, from taking a step of this character, which the public would not fail to regard as being dictated by feelings of revenge. The partial destruction of his printing office had made him largely the gainer, both in pocket and popularity. — In a pecuniary point of view the liberal verdict of the jury was a fortunate circumstance for him. It enabled him to pay his debts, to provide himself with new printing material, and to resume, towards the close of the year, the publication of the Advocate under more favourable auspices than ever. It continued, however, to be marked by the same characteristics as formerly ; and was just as indiscreet, as extreme in its language, and as personal in its censure as ever. Had it been conducted with a judgment equal to its energy, it would have been a power for good ; but even as it was it acted as a check, in no small degree, on Executive aggression, and thus served a beneficial purpose. The Legislature again assembled on the .^th of December. In his speecli the Lieutenant-Governor alluded to the satisfactory pro- gress of the Province, the advanced state of its great public works, and the prosperous and contented condition of the people, all which he had personally witnessed during his recent tour. The address from the Assembly directly censured his conduct, in receiving and replying to addresses, during that very tour, which reflected on its body. Maitland retorted by declaring, that in this procedure it had departed from the courtesy usual on such occasions, and stoutly maintained he had acted correctly in the premises. — Trouble was evidently brewing. A commons with sufficient cour- age to censure a Lieutenant-Governor was a new thing in Upper Canada. While the Family Compact retained a majority in the House such an occur^^once had never been known. Apart from thi? squabble the session passed smoothly over. Several bills were enacted. Among these was a Naturalisa- 1827. tion Act, which was reserved, however, by the Executive for the pleasure of the King, by whom it was rejected, much to the gratification of the bulk of the people of Upper Canada, who thoroughly disliked it, owing to its illiberal provisions. Among others who denounced this bill was Robert Gourlay, still confined in a house of correction in London, for having assaulted Mr. Brougham in the lobby of the House of Commons, and being also insane, and who continued at lucid intervals to correspond with the Upper Canadian press. As the year progressed, considerable dis- cussion was excited owing to the exclusive claims to the Clergy Reserves put forward on behalf of the Church of England, and the right of Presbyterians to a share therein being very strongly urged by friends of the Kirk, lad by William Morris, member for Lanark in the Assembly. The naturalisation qu^tion, also, was very actively discussed at public meetings and by the press ; and it was evident [1826. no small degree, ecute the rioters ill, who had ably this character, eing dictated by s printing office nd popularity. — d£ the jury was a bo pay his debts, A, and to resume, e Advocate under I, however, to be -; and was just as )nal in its censure jnt equal to its Lt even as it was utive aggression, of December. In le satisfactory pro- ;r('at public works, 3 people, all which our. The address uct, in receiving ur, which reflected b in this procedure ich occasions, and a the premises. — ith sufficient cour- w thing in Upper I a majority in the 1. ed smoothly over. e was a Naturalisa- by the Executive was rejected, much Jpper Canada, who irovisions. Among rlay, still confined ving assaulted Mr. ons, and being also correspond with the id, considerable dis- jims to the Clergy if England, and the ry strongly urged by ember for Lanark in io, was very actively and it was evident 1827.1 UPPER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 463 that the agitation on this matter must speedily compel its settle- ment. In May an occurrence took place at Niagara Falls, which created a good deal of public feeling. A reserve of one chain in breadth, along the bank of the river, had been retained by the Crown for military purposes. This reservation was expressly stated in the deeds to parties holding the adjoining lands.* A person of the name of Forsyth, however, who then owned the principal inn at the Falls, and considera'ule landed property in the neighbourhood, enclosed the Crown reservation. This act was immediately pro- tested against by many of the neighVmuring residents, who peti- tioned the Lieutenant-Governor against the encroachment on the public domairi, and particularly as it left no passage open to see a part of the Falls but one thr ugh Forsyth's own house. Captain Phillpots, the engineer officer ho had the district in charge, was accordingly ordered to see that this space was kept open ; and as Forsyth refused several times to remove the fence, he directed it to be pulled down. This conduct was loudly protested against by the Reform press, eager to seize upon anything to the prejudice of an Executive it disliked. If Forsyth, it was urged, had taken improper possession of the ground, he should be ejected by due course of law, and not by military violence. This would most undoubtedly have been the wiser course, as Forsyth was afterwards beaten in two suits, brought to recover damages from Phillpots and another person for trespass. His pretensions to the ground in dispute were likewise set aside by an action against him for intrusion, which resulted in favour of the Crown, and chiefly on the evidence of a surveyor named Jones, who had made tlie original survey. The course pur- sued by the Executive on this occasion was censured by the Home Government.! The Legislature assembled on the 15th of January j and the Lieutenant-Governor made his speech to an unusually thin House. In the Assembly some difficulty was experienced 1828. in collecting a quorum for the despatch of business, which was not surmounted till the 1 8th. It was the last session of the eighth Parliament of the Province, and members appeared to be very indifferent whether they attended or ni»t. To judge from the newspapers of the day, many of them were too busy in canvassing for the next general election to pay much attention to legislative matters. As the session progressed, the ill-feeling towards Maitland evi- dently increased. His appointment of a clerk to the Assembly was regarded by that body as an interference with its privileges. — Forsyth had petitioned the House for n^dress, and the committee selected to investiga.te his case thought proper to summon * €hief-Jii8tice Robinson to Colonel Rowan, Slat Dec. 18.'J2. + Sir G. Murray's Despatch to Sir John Colborue, 20th of Oct. 1828. r':..;: .-,. '■ J*. A- >': ' ' Irt' • ! II '•V If f •' ■ ' '"'■ ' i ' V !•.•,♦.••.■ 464 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1828. Adjutant-General Coffin, and Colonel Givens, superintendrnt of Indian affairs, to give evidence. Maitland directed them not to obey the mandate, on the ground that the application for their attendance should have been made in the first place to him as their superior military officer. A warrant was accordingly issued by the Assembly for their appreliension for contempt. Coffin denied admission to the sergeant-at-arms, but the latter finally broke open the door with an axe, made him a prisoner, as well as Givens, and both, persisting in their refusal to give evidence, were committed to the common gaol, where they remained till the House was prorogued. The committee reported in favour of Forsyth's petition, recommended that he should be remunerated for the loss of his crops caused by the destruction of his fence, and denounced the conduct of the Lieutenant-Governor as altogether too arbitrary. A good deal of bitter discussion took place with regard to the Clergy Reserves, and a more decided opposition was shown to the admission of the Church of England's claims to their sole possession. A Naturalisation Bill was at length passed of a more liberal and satisfactory character, especially as regarded Canadian-bom child- ren of American aliens, which was reserved, nevertheless, for the consider?. Mon of the Home Government, and subsequently, on the 8th of May, assented to by the King ii^ council. A cause of pro- longed agitation was thus finally removed. The annual Supply Bill having been voted, the Legislature was pror gued on the 2oth of March. Four days after Parliament had risen, Maitland sent a despatch to the Home Government, detailing the circumstances of the Forsyth difficulty, bat in a very one-sided way. The Colonial Secretary was shrewd enough to see through the evident misrepre- sentation which pervaded the despatch ; and came to the conclusion " that the Lieutenant-Governor would have exercised a sounder discretion, had he permitted the officers to appear beifore the Assembly," and that the civil and not the military power should have been invoked to dispossess Forsyth. He also came to the further conclusion that Maitland had l)etter be removed from Upper Canada, and he was accordingly appointed to the govern- ment of Nova Scotia. This action of the Home Government was not taken a moment too soon. Party spirit was now becoming more and more vindictive and intense. A young mart named Francis Collins, a Roman Catholic Irishman, a printor by trade, had in 1822 applied for the vacant post of King's Printer, which was in the gift of the Lieutenant-Governor, to be curtly told that the office would only be conferred on a gentleman. Collins was a man of unquestionable ability, and deeply resented the insult he had received. Up to this time he had taken no part in politics, but now became the bitter foe of the Executive, and, while report- ing the proceedings of Parliament as before, watched for an opportunity to strike it with effect. In 1825 he succeeded in founding the Freeman, a weekly Radical newspaper which displayed n [1828. itendrnt of ihera not to a for their 3 to hira as ngly issued opt. Coffin tter finally r, as well as idence, were 11 the House )f Forsyth's for the loss I denounced K) arbitrary. ;gard to the hown to the e possession. liberal and i-born child- jless, for the sntly, on the sause of pro- lual Supply on the 25th b a despatch ices of the ?he Colonial nt misrepre- e conclusion 1 a sounder before the ower should came to the moved from the govern- rnment was V becoming nan named by trade, nter, which y told that ollins was a le insult he in politics, hile report- ed for an icceeded in h displayed 1828.] UPPER CANADA FEOM 1815 TO 1828. 4G5 no small vigour and ability, but very frequently, like Mackenzio's Advocate, disfigured by coarseness and bad taste. For three years he followed up the short-comings of the Executive with ceaseless vigilance, and became a veritable thorn in the flesh to Maitland and his attorney-general. It was at length resolved to crush him in some way, and the Lieutenant-Governor, accordingly, refused to pay him the sum of $454 voted him by the Assembly for reporting its proceedings. Collins was poor, mit he managed somehow to keep his Freeman in existence. He told the story of the pitiful and unworthy persecution, commented on it in the bitterest vein, and charged Maitland with partiality, injustice and fraud, in not pajdng him his honest claim. For this statement a criminal prose- cution was instituted against him at the spring assizes. A similar prosecution was also begun, on the information of Solicitor General Boulton, for injurious statements made in the Freeman, with regard to his connection with a duel, in 1817, be- tween S. P. Jarvis and John Ridout, ii which the latter was killed. Two additional bills were found against him for other libels, on all of which he gave bail. Collins then retorted by de- manding permission from the court, presided over by a new judge liiamed Willis, to prosecute Jarvis and Ridout for murder, as well as the rioters who had wrecked Mackenzie's oflBce. Permission was granted, to the infinite disgust of Attorney-General Robinson ; and true bills were found in all the cases. Jarvis and Ridout were acquitted by the jury, but the rioters were all found guilty ; and Judge Willis, in consideration of the heavy damages given in the civil action, only inflicted the nominal penalty of five shillings each. But the court recommended that the Crown should abandon all further prosecutions, ind the attorney-general agreed not to press the cases against CoUirs during the present assizes, and ijntiinated that if he exhibited a proper sense of his duty as the publisher of a newspaper in the future, the prosecutions would be abandoned altogether. The " future " conduct of Collins, how- ever, did not satisfy the attorney-general, who had him put on his trial for one libel at the autumn assizes, with the result that he was acq,uitted by the jury. But Collins' narrow escape had not taught hiiu wisdom- In reporting his own trial, he accused the attorney- gepieral of '* falsehood and native malignancy ;" was indicted and tried for the offence before Judge Sherwood ; found guilty ; ai;id sentenced to pay a fi/ie of $200, to be imprisoned for one year, to find sureties to keep the peace for three years, and to stand cppiujitted until all these conditions should be complied with. It was a severe sentence, and out of all proportion to the offence. The public sympathised with Collins, and his fine was paid by subscrip- tion. But he stUl remained in gaol ; and the feeling of hostility against the Executive became wider and deeper. This feeling was increased by the course of the Government towards Judge Willij, 8ei?.t out from England in the preceding year. He did not UAderstaud very well the social and political element iu which he ^:^^• ;•/;'(;:, ; «). 4G6 THE HISTORY OF CANADA. [1828. fc"^' '■:•'■ r'-. * J-M ir?; •■;<'.• It I •■ '.1 , I ".'■■ f KC ' mi was placed ; and he and the attorney-general speedily came to dislike one another. This feeling was deepened by Willis' course during the Collins' trials, and the Family Compact now determined to sacrifice him on the first opportunity. His refusal to sit in term, at Toronto, in June, as he held that the court could not be legally constituted without the presence of Chief Justice Campbell, then in England, oflFering the desired occasion, he was suspended from his office by Maitland. Hagerman was temporarily appointed to the vacant post, an arrangement, however, which did not meet the approval of the Home Government, and Macauley got the judgship. The news of Willis's deposition spread rapidly through the Province, and caused much excitement. Rolph and the Baldwins had endorsed his refusal to sit in term ; and the people accordingly supposed he had been driven from the bench be- cause he would not stoop to corruption, and declined to become the tool of the Family Compact. Meetings were held to sympathise with him ; and numerously signed petitions, in his favour, were sent to the King. Willis went home to England, to find that several charges had been preferred against him by Maitland. — Aftor waiting for a whole year the judgment of the Privy Council Avas, that he had acted wrong in refusing to sit in term, and that the Lieutenant-Governor had not exceeded his authority in remov- ing him. As his conduct, however, simply arose from an error in judgment, he was appointed to a judgship in Demarara. The Family Compact had again triumphed. These occurrences had a considerable influence on the elections, which took place in the autumn. The Reformers swept tho Province from end to end, and Mackenzie was returned for the County of York. Maitland's reign closed in a storm of unpopu- larity with the Reform Party, which gladly hailed his departure for Nova Scotia, and welcomed the advent of his successor. Sir John Colborne, as a public boon. The new Lieutenant-Governor assumed direction of the administration in November, and, as he was said to have received instructions to govern agreeably to a liberal policy, much was expected from him. While political lines were thus being strongly and clearly drawn, immigrants from all parts of the mother country continued to pour freely into the Province. Among the earlier of these were many half-pay officers, and other gentlemen of slender means, who moved by tho glowing accounts of the fine farms to be had for the asking, and the splendid shooting and fishing which abounded in every direction, came out to better their fortunes in Upper Canada. They got their farms, found the land, as a rule, fertile, but covered with a dense forest which had to be subdued. The rivers and lakes swarmed with fish, among which were the finest salmon and the most delicious trout. The woods abounded with game, from the quail, the pigeon and the partridge, to the duck, the goose and the turkey ; from the squirrel and the hare to the red deer, the gigantic moosi , ami the black bear, For a li^ne all went merrjr as a mar- 1828.J UPPER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 467 riagf' bell with these gentlemen settlers. But, by-and-by, thei* slender means disappeared in the ceaseless struggle with the forest, high wages to workmen could no longer be paid, and the product of mere shooting and fishing was insufficient to sustain them. They painfully realised at last, in the majority of cases, that they were unequal to the battle of life in a new country ; so their farms were abandoned and their little clearings surrendered to the Canada thistle or a 'ense growth of underbrush. Fortunate- ly, however, the Home Government did not relax its exertions to fill up the waste places of the Province with loyal settlers ; and presently the true sons of toil, farmers, farm labourers and mechanics, from every part of the mother country, swarmed up the St. Lawrence ; and, despite much original lack of woodcraft, even- tual'y proved themselves equal to the subjugation of the wilderness. Some of the gentlemen immigrants, however; stood their ground stoutly with true British pluck, assailed the forest with resolution, became excellent farmers in time, and exercised no small intluence for good among their more uneducated neighbours. We have before us, as we write, the " Twenty years' experience in Canada West " by one of these gentlemen,* extending onwards from 1824, which gives a graphic and uncoloured picture of the fortunes and misfortunes, the smooth ways and the rough ones, of the earlier settler's life in the backwoods of Upper Canada. " The employ- ments," said he, " of a respectable Canadian settler are certainly of a very multifarious character ; and he may be said to combine, in his own person, several professions if not trades. A man of educa- tion will always possess an influer ^°: even in bush society : he may be pool" but his value will not be tested by the low standard of money, and he will be appealed to for his judgment in many matters, and will be inducted into several offices more honourable than lucrative." Sickness, and sorrow, and death, came to his humble log home very soon ; and not only had he to battle with misfortune and the forest, but also with the black fly, the mosquito, the bears and the wolves. But, like thousands of others, the elastic and hopeful temperament of youth, the great sheet anchor of the new settler in a new country, enabled him to overcome one difficul- ty after another. And he learned to love the cloudless sunshine of its Canadian skies, the tender rays of its Indian summer, the healthful pleasures of its frosty winters. " Sleighing is without doubt," said he, " the most delightful mode of travelling you can possibly conceive, and the souml of approaching sleigh bells is the sweetest music to the ears of the anxious wife, watching for the safe return^of a husband from the winter's journey, from the dangers of the snow storm, which may make the roads impassable, from the packs of prowling wolves that roam through the forest, making night hideous, at times, with their appalling cries. In no country on the face of the earth does the touch of wedded love beam * Major Strickland. His work, in two vohnnea, was edited by his sister Agnes the celebrated authoress. , .,■>.'■•.■, ^ '•■II, 468 THE HISTORY OF CAI^ADA. [1828. i*h::) >7V, ,'.v ■ m- i • • • hv "'.•;li I? .1 .t . ■ ^<. It. ■■ <• ■M »•„.■.' I ' I » ,v i » » ; , brighter than in Canada, where the husband always finds the wife dearer than the bride. I have seen many an accomplished and beautiful English girl forgetting, with her father's house, the amusements of fashionable life, to realise with a half-pay officer or "younger brother," the purer, holier, pleasures of domestic love in this country, where a numerous issue, the fruits of their union, are considered a blessing and a source of wealth, instead of bringing with them, as in the Old Country, an increase of care." Such is the picture of Canada sketched in the earlier half of the present century by the pen of an English gentleman, of warm sympathies and kindly heart. It was true to life then : it is true to life now. But English, and Irish, and Scotch immigrants, were not the only settlers who found their way into Upper Canada at this period. The taxes imposed upon wild lands began to force them freely into the open market, and Americans of means again made their ap- pearance in the Province, and bought up the soil, to the great gratification of the Dicksons, the Powells, and other large real estate owners, who had begun to find their properties more burdensome than profitable. A poorer and more undesirable class of persons also began to find their way across the border. They had got into debt, or into some legal difficulty, came to Canada as a sure haven of refuge, sought to live by their wits, which had hitherto dealt so poorly by them, and occasionally made some trouble. But the progress of time, and the large and healthy British immigration gradually neutralised all difficulties in this direction. Springing from the same ancestry, speaking the same tongue, the people blended harmoniously together, and took kindly to the old Yankee ways which came in with the U. E. Loyalist immigration ; and which have governed rural society in English-speaking Canada from that day to this ; most probably because they were adapted to the inexorable fitness of things. These were the days of innumerable Logging, Barn, and House Raising Bees ; of frollicking Quilting Bees without end ; of Apple Paring Bees ; and dozens of other Bees besides. A rude plenty, won from the forest and fertile glebe by stalworth arms and brave toil, abounded all over the land. — Whiskey was cheap, and a good deal of it circulated at the Bees where men prevailed ; and led occasionally to quarrels and broken heads. But kindly feelings came back with returning sober reason, and neighbours became fast friends again and bore no malice. But if there were a good deal of whiskey drinking, of horse-play and pugilistic encounters, in these primitive times, the gentler and better aspirations of humanity never failed to assert their supremacy, and there were, also, a good deal of love-making, a good deal of marrying and being given in marriage. Happy homes spread them- selves over the land, which commenced to blossom as the rose ; waving grain fields bent to the gentle summer winds in the ancient hunting grounds of the Huron and the Algonquin, the Mohawk and the Seneca ; and the great forest wilderness of the past slowly bui surely receded forevei" into the distance, to be beaten back 1828.] tTPPUR CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1828. 469 still farther and farther into the remote perspective as time rolled on. The church and the school house came, as soon as could be rea- sonably expected, after the settler had made his home fairly comfortable. When the churches were prudently located they were well attended ; and free farms and abundance of food soon filled th^ log school houses with a new generation. Among the religious bodies the Methodists, still labouring with primitive simplicity and force, continued in the ascendant, both as regarded numbers and usefulness.* The old U. E. Loyalist settlers clung to the episcopal, or American, branch of this denomination, which mainly drew its ministers from the New York Conference ; while its members from the Old World held fast to Wesleyan Methodism. The ^Church of England, its ranks largely added to by recent immigration, especially from Ireland, came next in point of numbers, followed by the Roman Catholics and Presbyterians. Of other denominations there were very few in the Province. Outside the vice of intem- perance, cheap whiskey proving too great a temptation for Old Country settlers, the people were v-abiding, exceedingly honest, and the rural districts were easily kept in order by the local magistracy aided by the county constables, a few of whom sufficed for a whole district. The great drawback of Upper Canada, at this period, was the want of a seaport of its own. Montreal was in another Province, whose Legislature was by no means as friendly as it should have been ; and had frequently shown itself adverse to closer relations with its English-speaking sister towards the west. William Hamilton Merritt, that great practical benefactor of his country, went to England, in the summer of 1828, to raise more funds for the completion of the Welland Canal, on which $700,000 had already been expended ; and was examined by a select committee of the House of Comn ons, appointed to enquire into the civil govern- ment of the Canadas. To the question, in what way does the want of a seaport aiFect the value of land in Upper Canada ? his answer was, that it was thus excluded from its natural source of wealth. — He illustrated this opinion by stating that the wealth of the State of New York centered in the City of New York, to be redistributed from thence, while the wealth of Upper Canada, such as it was, centered in Montreal. He added that the improvement of the navigation of the St. Lawrence, so as to permit of its ascent by good-sized vessels, and the completion of the Welland Canal, an event now close at hand, would make a sea-coast of all the great lakes, and do for Canadian prosperity what the Erio Canal was so abundantly doing at that time for the Northern States of the Union. Freight from Liverpool to Montreal then averaged from four to seven dollars A ton ; while from Montreal to the upper end of Lake Ontario, the average rate was from twenty to twenty-seven * Life of William Hamilton Merritt, p. 107. 470 THE HISTORY OP CANADA. [1828. ^.I' '0:'"'' Mv -.■ i r ■ llfi'Vi-',,'. \ dollars a ton. The freight on a barrel of flour, shipped from St. Catherines to Montreal, ate up a third of its value ; while the freight on heavy goods fronf, Montreal cost the full half of their price. The tnde of Upper Canada was terribly hampered jy this state of things, and Mej^tt returned home to press the con- struction of the St. Lawreiice Canals as strongly as possible on the legislatures of the sister l^rov^oces. Little wonder that Toronto after an existence of sqiaae thirty years was still only a large village. The difficulty of trani^tort, which had so injuriously affect- ed the cooimeroe of Canada, ajbove Montreal, during the days of French dominion %till exiMed, and now seriously restricted the trade of the Upper Provincte.' ^ere i4> not that it shared, to some extent, in the facilities for commeroie which the Erie Casalgave to western l^ew York its condition would have been still worse. Merritt lived to see all his inrei^iMrcriects fully carried out ; and the Welland and St. Lawrence Cttnals woif^ing^m harmo4y, and givioig a vast impetus to western trade, and ii- new life to air the great lake ciiaes and towns: In 18€% he was i^pointed atiniember of the L^;isla- tive Council of the Province. In January' 1862 he lost his wife, and sensible that his oitn end was not far distant he pat his affikirs in order in his usual precise v^ay. On the approach of summer his medica. adviser recommended -'change of air. On his arrival at Montreal, on his way to the sea^ioast, he became v.'' ;.i v 'i i-f ♦' •^ i.-"t . ..-•••■ US., ■,.■■■■ f 1 ' / •',■ , ' '. [1828. a from St. ; while the lalf of their ited jy this ts the con- usible on the ;hat Toronto nly a large lously affect- the days of ted the trade some extent, e to western tse. Merritt the Welland giving a vast at lake cities I the Legislfr- lost his wife, )at his affiikirs I of summer n his arrival Vtery ill, and on board the nour, on the r through the