IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) /. 1.0 I.I 1.25 ^ 140 M 2.2 2.0 R ill 1.6 % ^ n '7. °m' ^^^ ^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MmIN STREST WEBSTER, N.Y. 14380 (716) 877-4S03 \ Wo r 6 ^ CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHIVi/ICIVIH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques '*»*'li^U<nf hoSiy LETTER TO SIR W. F. WILLIAMS, COMMANDER OF THE FORCES, &o. &o., ON THE FORMATION OF A BRITISH NORTH AMERICAN LEUION. «/ «/ TO HIS EXCELLENCY SIR W. F. WILLIAMS, COMMANDER OF THE FORCES IN B. N. A. In addressing your Excellency on this subject, at a period when two of the greatest military powers in the world are engaged in what may well prove the death struggle of one or both; and when the danger that all Europe may, ere long, be dragged within the vortex of war, appears so imminent; that even in Britain herself, the instinctive good sense of her people, — aware that in s-ch circumstances an imposing display of strength constitutes their best, if 7iot their only security for preserving their neutrality intact, — has induced them to have recourse to such precautions for self defence as have not been heard of since the time when the first Napoleon at the head of two hundred thousand veterans, stood prepared for immediate invasion; — I cannot but believe that you will be ready to, at least consider and examine carefully any project which otfers a fair chance of increasing the strength and resources of the Empire at this most critical conjuncture. And, al- though totally in the dark as to your Excellency's own private opinion on this point, I have less hesitation in ven- turing to submit these suggestions to your notice, because I feel convinced that, yourself a brother colonist, the cir- cumstances of your birth and early education, no less than those of your subsequent career, will tend to free your mind from those prepossessions against the proposals I am about to bring forward, which might naturally exist in that of any one occupying your official position who was less intimately ncquaintea with the habits and feelings of the people of these colonies. Here, as I need hardly remind you, the conditions of society, especially with respect to the distinc- tions between the various grades composing it, differ widely from those which prevail throughout the Bi'ilish isles, nor will it, 1 imagine, require any lengthened argument to prove to one who has shown himself so well able to under- stand the peculiarities of national character elsewhere, that if we are ever to establish a truly national force of our own, due regard must be paid to the manners and modes of thought of the people from whom it is to be formed. If, then, the British government be alive as fully as it ought to the importance of obtaining from their North American colonies a force which may be at once a pled2,e of moral sjanpathy and a substantial addition to the ranks of their army, it should direct its most earnest attention to the raising it in such a manner as will render it a thor- oughly popular and national one ; and, since it may be inferred, a priori, that the conditions of social life in a young, thinly peopled, and newly settled colony cannot in the nature of things be exactly similar to those which subsist in an old and crowded state, it is but fair to assert that any corps formed here under terms of service identi- cally the same as those deemed suitable for English regi- ments, cannot, even if it escape proving a complete failure, be turned to one quarter as good account as one procured ou conditions adapted to the wants and wishes of our people. But, setting aside all antecedent probabilities, however strongly in favour of our view of the case, it only requires to compare, for one moment, the composition of the British army and of British society at large, with our own, to prove to demonstration that, as actual matter of fact, those arrangements which are eminently well fitted for the one are very far indeed from being equally suited to the other. Is it not true that in Great Britain society is divided both by law and custom into several distinct grades, the differences between which are so strongly marked that it usually requires several generations to obliterate iho natural peculiarities wliicli so]iar;ite the liiglicr from the lower eveu in those exceptional cases where talent and energy have elevated their posses-sor above the rank in which he was born ? And I would ask is it not equally true that these distinetipuhition some four millions strong, and without a single oilier demand on their resources, can have the slightest difficulty, if they choose, in furnishing a force not one tenth part as largo as that which many a European state, every way their inferior, in wealth, in spirit, in numerical strength even, habitually keeps up,— while the facts that under far less favourable terms one fifth of the required lorce has been already raised in the shaj)e of the lOOtli reg- iment, and, though last not least, that, when that body was t) 9 I in process of formation, no less than three hundred disap- pointed candidates np|)lied in vain for commissions, in spite of the very onerous terms on Aviiicli they were offered,— at one and the same time establish the complete feasibility of the scheme here detailed and supply a striking comment on the inconceivable inf ituation which actuated the Brit- ish government when, in the very midst of the Crimean contest, they risked embroiling themselves in war with the United States for the sake of (obtaining a few miserable recruits, at the very moment when (if the facts were one iota less well known I could not hope to be believed) they had ungraciously refused our ofi^ers to furnish them with at least two excel leilt regiments. Sunly if a dozen gen- tlemen could raise one thousand m.en in the Canadas alone on mere ordinary conditions of service, it is a fair assump- tion that three hundred, with such inducements as I pro- pose to offer, and the range of all British Korth Ameiiea to boot, would find it an easy task to secure at least five times that number. It needs but to proclaim to these gentlemen that, if amongst them they can collect five thousand men, commissions will be distributed freely as far as they will go to all who can pass a reasonable exami- nation (rank being determined as in the case of the 100th by the number of recruits obtained by each) and, in all probability in less time than the lOOih itself was obtained, we may be able to congratulate your Excellency on having achieved the formation of a contingent such as Canada might justly be proud to give and England to receive. And surely if any proposal can be left to stand or fall on its own merits one which combines the quadruple advan- tage of furnishing all British North America with a rally- ing point and common centre of interest,— which will afford to Great Britain in time of need a supply of excel- lent soldiers flir from despicable in point of numbers and yet more valuable from the moral support which they will bring with them and perhaps from the precedent they will furnish,— which will at once give a vent for the useful em- ployment of our more adventurous spirits and aid in rais- 10 iDg our credit and reputation abroad,— while it proposes to effect all this at no greater cost either to mother country or to colony than the distribution of a few thousand acres of waste territory, which too, may be easily managed in such a manner as to contribute to the strength and improvement of the Province which bestows them,— ought to obtain at any rate a fair and impartial hearing. So far as Great Britain is .oncerned unless the terrible disasters ^f the preceding century which cost her the em- pire of half a continent and all but reduced her to the rank of a secoru rate power; besides raising up for her a formidable rival in a state which ought to be her nearest and dearest ally, —unless these lessons have been entirely thrown av^ay, any schejne which can tend to bind her colo- nics tc herself ought to be eagerly sought after and wel- corned. Wliile, on our side, Vuq advantages wc would dcnve from such a project, though not so immediately obvious, are still great enough to justify strenuous exer- tions to secure them, for uot only would such a contingeat do more than aught else we could devise to arouse the minds of Englislmien from the torpid apathy with which the vast majority of them habitually regard their trans- atlantic possessions, but it would also tend powerfully to re-establish the credit of the country at home which some late proceedings of ours have damaged more than most of us woulc' care to own ; and, last, and in the mind of every true Canadian most important service of all, it would con- tribute most effoctually to excite amongst us that healthy and generous national feeling, which is the best if not the only guarantees for ti'ue patriotism, while by the examples of heroism which war, whatever be its evils, never fails to bring to light, it might do mucli to correct the sordid spirit so apt to prevail among a i)erfcctly peaceful community. And here I shall take leave to mention a circumstance of which your Excellency is doubtless aware, but which is not, I think, generally known, and that is that lor several years previous to the American revelation there existed in the British army a regiment now known as the 60 ih Eiflcs, 11 whicTi had been raised in much the same manner as the 100th ; and, what is more, that some able American states- men have expressed their couviction that had the British army, in lieu of this regiment, contained a contingent sim- ilar to the one I have just described, the revolution itself might never have taken place, so great in their opinion would have been the effect of such a measure in enlisting the sympathies of the inhabitants of the union on the side of the mother country. ^ I need only add further that it would be highly desirable to stipulate distinctly that such a corps should always be kept on foreign service,— as well for many other reasons as because one strong inducement to the men to join would be the prospect of travelling in distant lands as they usually possess in abundance that taste for rovin^ which IS naturally strong in young countries and perhaps m all descendants of emigrants. And now, when I recall to memory how, when the tidings of the marvellous defence of Ears reached our ears, the thought passed through the mind of many a Canadian besides myself that if Nova Scotia could furnish such a leader, we on our part ought to find him followers, may I venture to express the hope that if we do for once succeed in breakino- thi ouo-h the trammels of routine and if a Canadian contino-°nt takes Its place in the British line of battle, your E-celkncy and no other may be the chief under whose guidance they will march. And what they are likely to perform if Mny led, may perhaps be judged from what our fathers achieved m 1812-1814, when, with the aid of some two compan'ies and a half of English regulars, the Militia of Upper Can- ada repulsed from an open frontier full 500 miles in lencrth an hostile army which could bring into the field a greater number of bayonets than the whole adult male population of the Province all told. While that their opponents were no contemptible foes none will deny who remember that later m this very war, twelve thousand of Wellino-ton's peninsular veterans were forced to retreat from the breast- works of these same men when lighting on their own soil. 12 In conclusion, since your Excellency is a colonist as well as .1 soldier, and have besides CQinl.ined senatorial with military duties, I be^r to call your attention to one other circumst(jnce of no slight p(^litical significance, which is that the proportion between the native born and natur- alized Canadians, hitherto nearly equal, is now changing rapidly in favour of the former, and hence, as noobservan°t man can doubt, it is all but certain that in a very few years the great preponderance of native born Canadians wdl have c:dled into existence a very much more active national feeling than now prevail?. In one word, Canada IS f.ist becoming nationalized and Canadian, and notwith- standing that hitherto, in nearly every instance recorded in history, the rise of this national instinct, in itself most necessary and desirable, has proved a source of division and disunion between colony and parent state, there can surely be no just reason why it should not hi made a lie to bind them yet more closely than before, even if on somewhat different terms. ^\nd, although it does not seem very clear how the baro permission to become recruits in an English regiment, or even allowing a few gentlemen to obtain commissions in it at a cost (in bounties to the men they were required to raise) fully equal to the or.li- nary price of similar commissions in other corps, can pos- sibly be construed into a compliment to Canada,— still the formation of a Canadian or North Americim K-gion with such substantial differences of system as would at once stamp its origin and-adapt it to the social characteristics of th(*se colonies might justly be regarded as such. While the success of the ICOtl. itself, (though partly owing to the extraordinarily depressed condition of the country just then) affords I think, convincing evidence how easily, with a little energy, a force nn'ght be obtained from us not only of far greater strength than could otherwise be hoped for, but fcir more likely to secure our sympathies thoroucrhly on the side of England. And surely if the Imperial Gov- ernment can deem it worth their while, as they did daring the Crimean campaigns, to ransack every hole and corner 13 in Europe for foreign mercenaries, nay even to hazard war with our haughty and jealous republican neighbours for the sake of a few indifferent recruits,— it will augur but httle for their sagacity or statesmanship, if while admittin