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 30208 
 
 
 • • • ' FROM THE 
 
 N EW YO RK EJLKNING EXPRES S. 
 
 ... ^«»»T.^ I ■' 1 
 
 Tuesday, April 22, 1873. 
 
 CANADA CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 Tho aeries of letters we are publishing from Canada, from an old correspondent 
 of 1837 (the year after the Express started, and before the old New York Daily 
 Advertiser of Dwight and Towns^-nd was merged into the Exl•KK^s,) with the 
 occasional letters of an intelligent writer, keep our readers well posted in Canada 
 matters. L.M.N, was the author of a sories cf able and independent letters which 
 attracted much attention in Englat- ', Canada and the United States, and cost the 
 writer seven years banishnniit from his home. The writer at tiie age of 70 has 
 lost none of his force, w(; are glad to hiar from him, though not su nuuli now of 
 the future as in revitw of the past. 
 
 CANADA. 
 The K"»»llion of 18it7 : Interesting KeniiniseeneeN : Progresi* 
 
 sventH : 'I'iie MiniNters sent out fVom England. 
 
 (From the Kxprens Correspondent o/\S3l.) 
 
 MoNTRKAL, April 18, 187.S. 
 
 Sirs ; About thirty-sevt-n years ago — tliat is, in the years 1830 and 1837 — more 
 than the lih'tiipe of one generation, I addrtssid to the New York KxiirenH a series of 
 letters, signed L.M.N., on the political position of Canada, which, from either their 
 merit or their effrontery, were assumed to proceed from one who spoke with 
 authority, and were republished by newspapers in all directions. 
 
 They were presumed to have done tliiir part in hastening the crisis (-ailed "Thk 
 Rk!»kli,io> of 1837," and their prediction of the extinction of European control ou 
 this continent is now verified, though not in the ordt^' of previous calculations, for 
 destiny in our day has adopted new rules of practice, and results to nations are 
 accomplisheil by agencies of which our fathers dreamed not. 
 
 Outwardly, the contest here was one for supremacy between the French and 
 English races forming our population; but underlying was the same grand princi- 
 "plci of constitutional libert\' which agitated England trom the time of the First 
 Charles to that ot William. The English ranged themselves ridiculously on the 
 gide of the " prerogative," the French on the side of popular rights, and your (oires- 
 pondent, a hitherto <iuiet young " business" man, without political position, dashed 
 into the melee on their side, like a knight-erraijt, neither seeking companionship 
 nor asking reward. Quintus Curtius did not plunge into the gulf with greater self- 
 aacrifiee ; fortunately for him, he did not come out to be told that his was no great 
 exploit after all, or to be laughed at for the loss of his horse and accoutrements. 
 
 '■"»--- \ t— 
 
2 
 
 We were very noisy with our public meetings through the summer, and " reso- 
 lutions, " and some may have been "seditious," as the word has a wide range of 
 application ; but our demonstrations were still within the law as recognized in 
 England and in the United States, when Lord Gosford, then Governor-General , 
 sent the Attorney-General from Quebec to Montreal, to make 
 
 _ ARRESTS FOR HIGH TREASON. 
 
 The judges were too noble to lend themselves to a process for which there was 
 no foundation, but the Attorney-General was a man of resources. He found two 
 willing Justices of the Peace, and with their illegal warrants, issued on the 16th 
 November, 1837, sent to jail to pass the winter, and be released in the spring, a 
 crowd of French Canadian gentlemen, of Montreal and its vicinity, against whom 
 there were no grounds of accusation whatever. Leading agitators left the city. 
 Eewards were offered for their capture. Your correspondent's head was valued at 
 $2000. He ranked third on the list. 
 
 By a course of the merest accidents, I found myself on the morning of Nov. 18, 
 1837, landed with two coinpanions at St. Charles, on the riglit bank of the Riche- 
 lieu, thirty miles east from Mui'treal. Considering that we had rights of residence 
 in our own country, and n l caring to be disturbed by bailiffs, we detirniined on 
 establishing a camp. Dr. Wolfrud Nelson, with similar intent, established another 
 at St. Denis, 9 miles lower down the river. Dr. Chenier with a few "aids," estab- 
 lished a third at St. Eustache, 25 miles west of Montreal. The few country people 
 assembled at eiicli place with wretclad fowling-pi(!ces were speedily dispersed by 
 brigades ot British Infantry and Artillery, though Nelson repulsed the first attack 
 on his position iuost heroically. My adventurous escape was recorded in your 
 paper at the time, and an exile of nearly seven years followed. 
 
 Such was tin; whole measure and dimensions of the so-called "revolt" or " re- 
 bellion" in Lower Canada in 1837. With no previous intent, eombination or or- 
 ganization, nobody was implicated but those that accid(!nt made actors m three 
 places. Elsewhere ((verything passed in the ordinary ([uiet. In Upper Canada, 
 McKenzie attempted an attack on Toronto, which failed. Along the frontier, from 
 Lake Chanii)lain to Detroit, desultory "patriots" in Canada, with desultory "sym- 
 pathizers" on your side, organized, in the winter of 1838 and the autumn of the 
 same year, several sm .11 invasions, which were easily repulsed. The delicious lux- 
 ury of deceiving ourselves is common to organizations as to individuals. " Patriots " 
 believed great forces were coming to tiieir assistance. "Sympathizers" believed 
 that immense bodies of "patriots" would be in battle array wlien the invaders 
 arrived ; but when the day did come, the meagre number of invaders encouraged 
 no rising of " patriots" even had it been intended, and as few hailed their coming, 
 the " sympathizers " were glad to back out. 
 
 The summer of 1838 saw Canada garrisoned by 15,000 British troops, at a cost 
 to England of three millions sterling, all of which should be charged to Lord John 
 Russell, for not doing in March (1837) what he did do in October, by which all 
 political troubles might have been smoothed over, and your correspondent, with 
 some of his friends, spared the loss of the best years of thi'ir lives. 
 
 The brains of those involved in the intensity of revolutionary agitation became 
 sadly disordered, and men are apt to die before they are cooled down again for the 
 practical uses of common life. The new battle for personal re-establishment is a 
 hard one, in which few are conquerors. With the additional troops came Lord 
 
 Dil 
 
 hi[ 
 tail 
 
md " reso- 
 e range of 
 ignized in 
 r-General , 
 
 there was 
 found two 
 a the 16th 
 
 spring, a 
 nst whom 
 
 the city, 
 valued at 
 
 f Nov. 18, 
 he Riehe- 
 residence 
 mined on 
 d another 
 s," estab- 
 ry people 
 persed by 
 ■st attack 
 in your 
 
 " or " re- 
 on or or- 
 la tliree 
 Canada, 
 ier, from 
 y " syiu- 
 n of the 
 ious lux- 
 atriots " 
 l)elieved 
 invaders 
 ouragcd 
 coming, 
 
 it a cost 
 rd Jolin 
 hich all 
 it, with 
 
 became 
 
 for the 
 
 lit is a 
 
 le Lord 
 
 Durham, as a sort of dictator, high commissioner and pacificator, bringing with 
 him a staff of able men, who among them, got up a report somewhat co nplimen- 
 tary to our side, as manv passages read very like our own compositions ; but, as he 
 must do something for "justice," several prisoners, whose overt acts brought them 
 within the technicalities of high treason, were, without trial, transported to Ber- 
 muda ; and certain absentees, among whom was named your correspondent, had a 
 sentence of death rtcorded, to be executed should they be caught in Her Majesty's 
 dominions. The British Parliament, not exactly appreciating this novel code of 
 criminal procedure, disallowed the edict, and Lord Durham, throwing up his hand, 
 returned lionie in a " milV," to make room as Governor-General for Poulet Thomp- 
 son (Lord Sydenham), p thorough « business" man, who, unencumbered by any 
 inconvenient scruples, and acting upon the maxim that the end justifies the means 
 — which we all fling at tlie Jesuits, but act upon ourselves — made people who were 
 opposed to the measure consent to a legislative union of the Provinces of Upper 
 and Lower Canada, and put all government aifairs in a train of good working order 
 Then came Sir Charles Bagot, an amiable old diplomatist, during whose time 
 was passed by our Parliament, and approved in England, an unpretending-looking 
 resolution, to the effect that our government should be conducted according to 
 
 " THE WKLL-UNDEUSTOOU WISHES OF THE PEOPLE," 
 
 which few words now comprise the " Constitution " called " Responsible Govern- 
 ment" of British Colonies, the positive intent and meaning being that each shall 
 be governed by the people themselves, as England is governed, with no foreign 
 interference wiiatever. A lower House elected by the people, an upper House ap- 
 pointed by the Crown, or some hocus-pocus, and a Governor appointed by the 
 Crown (Lieutenant-Governors will be noticed hereafter), who, like the Queen, 
 reigns as a pageant, without ruling, the real ruler being the premier, or man who 
 can command a majority in the lower House, and who is assumed to represent 
 " the well-understood wishes of the people," to which the powerless Governor 
 assents, as a mere matter of form. This system, worked by an oligarchy, has done 
 well in England, where tradition, usage and fiction (the voice of the people has 
 never yet been heard in the people's house), maintain their checks, and it has done 
 good work here ; but in the naked realities of a younger stage of nationality, it is 
 dangerous machinery that jumbles legislative with executive powers, and, ignoring 
 the existence of a minority, makes the head of a democratic majority an absolute, 
 unchecked ruler in all things. Some day, when common thought becomes develo- 
 ped into public opinion, which cannot yet be said to have an existence in Canada, 
 where the masses, like the strong horse, are content to be led or driven, democracy 
 will see the necessity of erecting barriers against itself. Where would you be to- 
 day, if, on every night during sessions of Congress in the last ninety-seven years, 
 your Government had been liable to overthrow on a chance vote in the House of 
 Representatives? Lord Metcalf followed, an excellent and able East Indian official, 
 who could not exactly understand how he could represent Her Majesty with honor, 
 or the need of any Governor at all, if he was to be in all things controlled by some 
 loud-mouthed village lawyer, who could control in the Assembly a few votes more 
 than the leading lawyer of the next village — and was inclined to interfere ; but 
 "the well understood wishes" proved too strong, and he was replaced in 1846. 
 
 Lord Elgin, who in this year accepted the position with all its pageantry and 
 pay, was one of those mental light-weights who by a cunning exercise and exhibi- 
 
 r-l —^ *-»>';-»-»l ■ 
 
tion of thepower thoy possess, like '• light~weip;lits" of the prize rinp, opposing 
 '• science'' to the slow force of <' big uns," come off victorious, and earn, as he did, 
 a well-earned celebrity. Lord Elgin's motto was "dignified neutrality." His 
 wisdom, for he was a wise man, saw a fact in " responsible Government," which he 
 allowed to work freely, in the entirety of its conception, and during his stay con- 
 fined lumself to that easiest of all tasks in this world — siding with the strongest. 
 
 His successors. Sir Edmund Head, Lord Monck, and Lord Lisgar, have left no 
 heroics upon our records. Mention of our present Governor-General may be madu 
 here-after. 
 
 Old Times ; British Territory ; a Farmer's Paradise ; 
 the New Pacific Railroad. 
 
 At the age of 70 your old correspondent finds himself in his old city of Montreal, 
 floating down the current of life, in companionship with the biggest fish(!S, as 
 pleasantly as though, governed by 
 
 I'RUDENTIAl, CONSIUEBATIONS 
 
 or " timid counsels," he had, false to the traditions of our noblest English forefathers, 
 always worshipped the " prerogative," or embarked in nothing whtue he could not 
 first discern some personal advantage. If, in the decline of a life of independence, 
 conscience upbraids us with the little we have done for our fellow-men, there is 
 relief in the reflection that we owe nothing to these same fellow-m(!n for any ap- 
 preciation, reward, or thanks for what we have attempted. And here ct)nclu<les the 
 parable of L. M. N. 
 
 THE BRITISH TEKRITOBV 
 
 on your north, which, until half a dozen years ago, was knt -' ''ova Scotia, New 
 Brunswick, Lower and Upper Canada, now greatly increased, i. all the civilized 
 world, in wealth, strength and comfort, is confederated into what is called the 
 
 " DOMINION op CANADA, " 
 
 to which has since been added all the western British possessions to the Pacific, 
 containing from east to west a population of three millions and a half. Were all 
 men, women and children called out to guard the frontier, they would form 
 a line of sentinels, fifty feet apart, without reliefs. Bordered on the south by 
 the curved line of nine of your States, to the west of Lake Superior, and thence by 
 the forty-ninth parallel to ♦he Pacific, two new Provinces have been organized, one 
 at the Red lliver of the North, bordering Minnt^sota and Dakotah, called •' Mani- 
 toba, " and the other on the Pacific, with Vancouver's Island, called "British 
 Columbia;' that is, a strip altogether running from the Atlantic to the Pacific* 
 with yourselves a possibly dangerous neighbour, on the south, and no danger of 
 any neighbour whatever on the north, by reason of eternal ice and snow. And 
 then it is rather disjointed. Nova Scotia is separated from New Brunswick by the 
 Bay of Fundy, and the latter from the best part of Lower Canada, now Province of 
 (juebec, by the State of Maine, which runs up to within some thirty miles of the 
 St. Lawrence. A line drawn west from Montreal, latitude forty-five and a-half, 
 strikes the Georgian Bay, south of which line lies most that is valuable in the Pen- 
 insula of Upper Canada (now Province of Ontario,) and for more land we must go 
 
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 thi 
 
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 aiKl 
 
 kill 
 
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 car 
 
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 round the north of Lako Superior (latitude 49), where some humircdw of miles of 
 uninvitinfx territory separates us from Manitoba. P]very man along this line is 
 uncomfortably distant from his fellow-subjects, and provokingly near to your 
 people, for not to love you or your institutions is our duty. 
 
 THE WHEAT COPNTRY. 
 
 Neither Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, nor the lower portion of the Province of 
 Quebec are celebrated for their agricultural capacity, but the valley of the upper St. 
 Lawrence, running from a few miles north of the river to the States that it joins, 
 the valley of the Ottawa, with its tributaries, and some forty or fifty thousand square 
 miles in Ontario, compare favouraldy with the region to their south Manitoba 
 and the western extension is a country of " bulls ' and "bears" (of the two-legged 
 kind, I mean, who toss up, or pull down), one assuring us that wheat, which 
 averages twenty bushels to the acre from Tennsylvania to Dakotah, averages lifty 
 bushehs in Manitoba, while another says that,, if not eaten up by grasshoppers, it 
 freezes in August. One tells us that cattle fatten in winter on pastures buried 
 under twelve inches of snow, another that they perish unless well housed and 
 cared for. 
 
 One tells of fine garden vegetables growing where another says the ground 
 never thaws three inches deep. The truth is, isothermal lines rise as we proceed 
 west, and the fifty-fifth ])arallel there may compare with the forty-fifth hero. 
 
 ON THK PACIFIC 
 
 the mean temperature may be still higher, and it may be comforting for you to know 
 that if Northern British Columbia at r)4.40 be somewhat troi)ical, southern Alaska, 
 which joins it there, cannot be exactly Siberian. Wherever there are great rivers, 
 there must be, except in ice-bound regions, fertile plains and valleys, and in our 
 western possessions, after discounting largely for unprofitable portions, there must 
 be vast portions fitted for the happy dwelling place of man. A railroad north of 
 Lake Superior, through to the Pacific, will soon open all to tiie population of 
 Europe, who will be attracted by all reasonable facilities and inducenuJits, and 
 were not mankinil distracted by all the land to bt; "opened " for settlement between 
 this and Patagonia, not to mention New Holland and the Islands of the Ocean, we 
 might expect to see the country filled up in our day, provided always, that Kui'ope 
 discovers a more prolific process of incubation, or prevention for the mortality of 
 infants, and the "heathen Chinee'' lends bis assistance. Ireland is tolerably 
 drained; Germany an'" Scandinavia are not inexaustil)le; Southern Europ«! has a 
 sufticient outlet in Africa ; Russia moves eastward. Malthus is no longer a prophet. 
 
 HiNtory. Roniaiico aii«l Tradition: a Groat National 
 Highway : the new diovernor-Ciienoral. 
 
 Leaving the future of this western extension in " the lap of the gods, " to be 
 shaken out as time may determine, li't us return to Old Canada — the Canada of 
 two hundred years' history, romance, and tradition — stretching southwesterly from 
 Oaspe, lat. 49, to Detroit, lat. 42. over one thousand miles, through, or along, which 
 iiows the most magnificent inland water-course on our globe, in a direct line from 
 th« centre of our American continent to central Europe, and the shortest possible 
 
6 
 
 route — a great natural highway to the ocean, not merely for the small Canadian 
 territory on the north side, but for seven of your States on the south, and all that 
 western expanse between the 42d and 49th parallels, whose eastern depot is Duluth. 
 Ships and steamers of the largest si«e that float upon the ocean may come up full- 
 loaded to this city of Montreal, 500 miles inland. Above us, to complete the navi- 
 gation, are the largest locks and canals in the world, and these will be soon more 
 enlarged to admit of the passage of vessels of 800 tons to Lake Superior, that may 
 tranship here at trifling cost. Your " West " clamors for more outlet to the Eastern 
 World. We have it direct and cheap, and they will use it. 
 
 Then, say you, " We must have annexation." Well, "annexation" may be in 
 the cards, but apparently it is not in the hands dealt out to present players. There 
 are many people who call themselves "Annexationists," but few men, with 
 political aspirations, would dare to announce themselves to be of that sect. Doubt- 
 less there is a proud Americanism growing up that will hereafter spurn the idea of 
 dependence on anything European, but the men of to-day see in "responsible 
 government" complete independence for internal concerns, a complete control 
 of our own resources, and an unlimited privilege of running into debt, while Great 
 Britain, maintaining foreign relations, armies and navies, throws their shield over 
 us at no chaige, and tells us that entire independence may be had off hand when- 
 ever asked l^ the " well-understood wishes." 
 
 I have told you that the Governor-General is the only British authority now in 
 the " Dominion." Each of the now six provinces have a separate " responsible 
 government," subordinate only to the Government of the Dominion, with a Lieu. 
 tenant-Governor appointed by and representing the Governor-Geni^ral in all busi- 
 ness matters, and only representing the Queen in ceremonies or tomfooleries, that 
 will soon become contemptible even to our accustomeii eyes. 
 
 OLD LOWER CANADA, 
 
 now the Province of Quebec, is a French parish, three-fourths of the population 
 being French-speaking Catholics, whose language, religion and laws, guaranteed 
 at tbf Conquest, have been honorably maintained. Though nominally French, they 
 are among the purest native-born American of any nationality on this continent, 
 except the Indians, for there has been little admixture of foreign blood for more 
 than a century. A most amiable people, many figure well in politics, at the bar, 
 on the bench, as physicians, as merchants, or as mechanics ; but the bulk are tillers 
 of the soil, who, adopting the Buddhist philosophy, that the cause of misery lies 
 in desire, desire too little, and indulge in what in Ameuea is the crime of being 
 content with plain living and too small expenditure. These, where their priests are 
 local rulers, care little for change. Those who become restive annex themselves to 
 your side of the lines, where hundreds of thousands are settled, and every year, 
 such is the fecundity of these Celts, continues the exodus. 
 
 THE " dominion" IS A SCOTCH COLONY, 
 
 as that nationality, by its superior ability and control of the press, the banks, the 
 importing trade, and the most important part of the retail, maintains a general 
 supremacy. Luckily, there is no king of Scotland, for, imitating the House of 
 Braganza, he would abandon his little kingdom in the East to found an empire in 
 the West. The Israelites are superseded — these Scotch are the " chosen people" 
 of our age. Round the world, from the Equator to nearer the North Pole and the 
 
 \ 
 
 5 
 
1 Canadian 
 nd all that 
 is Duluth. 
 ne up fulj. 
 
 J thf navi- 
 
 soon more 
 
 that may 
 
 le Eastern 
 
 aay be in 
 s. There 
 noil, with 
 . Doubt- 
 le idea of 
 sponsible 
 e control 
 lie Great 
 ield over 
 id when- 
 
 y now in 
 ponsiblo 
 a Lien, 
 ill busi- 
 ies, that 
 
 )ulation 
 ranteed 
 h, they 
 itinent, 
 r more 
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 tillers 
 ry lies 
 ' being 
 ists are 
 Ives to 
 
 year, 
 
 B, the 
 meral 
 ise of 
 re in 
 ople" 
 \i the 
 
 South Polo than any other white man, he is to be found, every where strong-minded 
 and clear-headed, a chief having subject- under him, whom he directs for their ad- 
 vantage and his own protit. Whether a farmer, mechanic or merchant, he always 
 aims to be the best of his class, and a nodel for all. The influence of such a peo- 
 ple must be great. They do not see the gain of "annexation," and until they do, 
 we may pause on the consideration. The numerous "Americans" in Canada, feel- 
 ing apparently as if they were looked upon as repentant rebels seeking comfort 
 under the old flag, have never held the position to which they are entitled by their 
 wealth and charu'.ter. Of the Irish, the Protestant portion are fervently loyal to 
 the British Crown, and the Catholic, like those with you, not remarkable in this 
 line. 
 
 Another " stopper" is now found in our popular Governor-General, for the huge 
 mass of undefined or half-formed opinion is often directed in its course by little 
 touches, like as the finger of a child on the steering apparatus of a leviathan 
 steamship turns the monster to north or south. 
 
 THE EARL OF DLKFEIUN 
 
 appears one of the high types of humanity, who, on becoming Governor, has not 
 ceased to be a gentleman, whose influence will be directed for good, and who will 
 endeavor to achieve that most diflicult tiling for an European — to look at American 
 things with American eyes ; but we must remember tliat even " Earls" are made 
 from tiie common ingredients of common mortals, and tliat wlieri we subtract from 
 the best of us all tlie folly and all the weakness that enters into our compositions, 
 there may be little left to make the man. 
 
 As a rule, if you scratch any newly arrived Briton you may find a buccaneer, 
 impressed with the legtudaiy idea that all possessed by Americans, whether politi- 
 cal or material, is a sort of spontaneous growth, to which he has no special right 
 against the will of the flrst-come European. Our Governor-General is probably 
 far removed from this, and there has been a manly frankness in the kindly social 
 relations which he has courted, that gives him a large place in the hearts of our 
 people, who see comfort 
 
 IN BRITISH CONNECTION, 
 
 that gives us for pageantry a high-minded representative of Majesty, and saves 
 
 us from some diligent governor of our own choice, who might, in these days 
 
 of speculation and sudden fortune, engineer many schemes with more protit than 
 
 honor. 
 
 To conclude, you must not forget that we a net yet fully out of our colonial 
 
 swaddling clothes — that our thought comes from European sources, transmitted 
 
 through European influences. When thought, emancipated and Americanized, 
 
 enables us, with American manliness, to look with disdain on European pretensions, 
 
 and the tiiird generation ceases to speak of Europe as "home," we shall be prepared 
 
 for a change of some sort. 
 
 Such are the musings of one who is now a mere looker-on. 
 
 T. S. B. 
 
 MITCUKLL AND WlIiSON, PRINTSRS, MONTBKAL.