IBIHi:' 
 
 * 
 
STUDIES IN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE 
 
 Edited by Prof. W. A. S. HEWINS, 
 
 Director of the London School of Economics. 
 
 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA 
 
 AND HOW IT WAS ACHIEVED. 
 
SELF-GOVERNMENT 
 IN CANADA 
 
 AND HOW IT WAS ACHIEVED: 
 
 THE STORY OF 
 
 LORD DURHAM'S 
 
 REPORT. 
 
 By F. BRADSHAW, B.A., 
 
 Senior Hulme Exhibitioner, Brasenose Coil,, Oxford* 
 
 Honfcon : 
 P. S. KING & SON, 
 
 ORCHARD HOUSE, WESTMINSTER* 
 1903* 
 

 il 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THIS volume is the result of research work carried 
 on in the seminar of the Director at the London 
 School of Economics and Political Science. 
 
 The Author wishes to acknowledge the unfail- 
 ing kindness of the Director, Professor W. A. S. 
 Hewins, M.A., who was not only ready on all 
 occasions to give him the benefit of his experience, 
 but also made time to read through the proof- 
 sheets. 
 
 To Mr. Graham Wallas, who suggested the 
 subject and supplied useful hints from time to 
 time, as well as to Mr. J. McKillop, Librarian 
 of the British Library of Political Science, for 
 help with the bibliographies, the best thanks of 
 the Author are tendered. 
 
 F. B. 
 
 '37 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP 
 
 I. LORD DURHAM AND HIS PARTY I 
 
 II. THE CESSION OF CANADA AND THE TWO CONSTITUTIONS 25 
 
 III. " LA NATION CANADIENNE " 46 
 
 IV. THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 58 
 
 V. ENGLISH Versus FRENCH 74 
 
 VI. THE REBELLION QO 
 
 VII. THE UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS . . ' . . IO2 
 
 VIII. THE BEGINNINGS OF RADICALISM IOq 
 
 IX. THE RISE AND FALL OF MACKENZIE . . . -II? 
 
 X. LORD DURHAM IN CANADA. THE ORDINANCE. . . 138 
 
 xi. THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL'S TOUR 153 
 
 XII. DISILLUSIONMENT 165 
 
 XIII. RESIGNATION 177 
 
 XIV. THE RETURN TO ENGLAND 204 
 
 xv. LORD DURHAM'S RECEPTION IN ENGLAND . . . 221 
 
 XVI. THE DURHAM REPORT : LOWER CANADA .... 257 
 
 XVII. ,, ,, UPPER CANADA AND THE MARI- 
 TIME PROVINCES . . . 274 
 
 XVIII. ,, ,, PUBLIC LANDS EMIGRATION . 30! 
 
 XIX. ,, ,, RECOMMENDATIONS . . . 318 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 361 
 
 INDEX 375 
 
SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA, 
 
 AND HOW IT WAS ACHIEVED. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 LORD DURHAM AND HIS PARTY. 
 
 JOHN GEORGE LAMBTON, first Earl of Durham, the 
 eldest son of William Henry Lambton, who sat in 
 parliament as the member for Durham City, was of gentle 
 but not noble birth, and the family estates descended to 
 him in unbroken male succession from the twelfth century. 
 He was born at Berkeley Square, London, on April I2th, 
 1792, and died at Cowes, July 28th, 1840. 
 
 After leaving school at Eton, he served in the army 
 during 1810 and 1811, first as cornet and afterwards as 
 lieutenant of the loth Dragoons. He took his seat as a 
 Whig member for the County of Durham in 1813, after a 
 bye-election, and continued as one of the county's 
 representatives till his elevation to the Peerage in 1828. 
 Durham was Lord Privy Seal in Earl Grey's Reform 
 Administration, and on his resignation, March I4th, 1833, 
 he was created Viscount Lambton and Earl of Durham. 
 
 In politics Durham was a thorough Radical, not only as 
 the heir of a Radical family, but from sincere conviction. 
 Some of his most telling speeches in the House were on 
 behalf of oppressed nationalities. He spoke in favour of 
 mediation when Norway was struggling against Sweden, 
 and wished to preserve the Republic of Genoa in 1815. 
 
 S,G,C, B 
 
2 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 He opposed the Corn Bill of 1815, and attacked the 
 Government for the Peterloo massacre in 1819. Naturally 
 he sympathised with the demand for parliamentary reform. 
 His plans included electoral districts, household suffrage, 
 and triennial parliaments. Durham's marriage with Earl 
 Grey's daughter increased his political importance, and he 
 was made a Privy Councillor and Lord Privy Seal in the 
 Reform Administration of 1830. He had a considerable 
 share in the drafting of the great Reform Bill ; one of his 
 suggestions was the introduction of the ballot, but the 
 Whigs were not yet ready for such a measure, and Durham 
 soon became an object of suspicion to his fellow-ministers. 
 Durham's education was by no means worthy of his natural 
 gifts as a statesman, and his hatred for half-measures, 
 combined with a complete disregard for the remonstrances 
 of the more timid members of the Cabinet, ill fitted him for 
 a subordinate position. One of those who had experienced 
 Durham's scorn nicknamed him the "Dissenting Minister," 
 and it was a relief to all parties when he accepted the post 
 of Ambassador Extraordinary to St. Petersburg in 1832. 
 Within a few weeks he returned; for, as might have been 
 expected, he had too little control of his feelings and 
 perhaps too great an impatience of the obvious insincerity 
 of Russian diplomacy to render his success possible in such 
 a sphere. 
 
 Soon after his return from St. Petersburg Durham 
 resigned his seat in the Cabinet. Already he was giving 
 signs of that malady which was to carry him off, and his 
 obvious unpopularity with his colleagues was another 
 determining cause. Earl Grey, despite Durham's frequent 
 outbursts of rudeness towards himself, was devotedly 
 attached to his son-in-law, and wished to bring him into the 
 Cabinet again. The other members objected, and Durham 
 himself was not too eager to resume a subordinate position. 
 The extreme Whigs or Radicals were discontented with 
 the Reform Bill, which really threw all power into the 
 hands of the hated middle classes. The various Reform 
 
LORD DURHAM AND HIS PARTY. 3 
 
 Clubs and Unions felt that they who had made reform 
 possible by their agitation had been tricked by the Whigs, 
 and began to consider the possibility of a separate Radical 
 Party. They were as strong in leaders as they were weak 
 in numbers in Parliament. Hume, Roebuck, Grote, 
 Molesworth, Leader, and others proved as little friendly to 
 the ministry of Lord Melbourne as they were to that of 
 Earl Grey, and when the actual leadership of the Tories 
 passed into the able hands of Sir Robert Peel, it was 
 evident that the days of the ministry were numbered. 
 Melbourne only retained office by the good-will of 
 O'Connell, the repealer, and the Radicals ; and when the 
 troubles in Canada began to grow serious the Radicals 
 openly abandoned the ministry, and scoffed at the high- 
 handed measures that had been devised by a Liberal 
 minister to crush out Liberal movements. Hume and 
 Roebuck boasted openly of the "coming triumph of the 
 Canadian Republicans, and the quick suppression of the 
 rising by Colborne only angered them the more. 
 
 While the Whigs were sinking deeper every day in 
 popular estimation, although they had forced Peel to resign 
 in 1835, Durham was a prey to two opposite tendencies. 
 His influence in the North of England was very great, and 
 it was yet possible that he might make his own terms with 
 the Whigs, now led by Melbourne. He had been present 
 at a banquet to Earl Grey at Edinburgh in 1834, and his 
 speech there against the lukewarmness of certain so-called 
 "Reformers" had been taken by Lord Brougham, the 
 Chancellor, as a personal attack. The warfare continued, 
 both in newspapers and at meetings, and Durham had 
 followed up his Edinburgh speech by expressing the most 
 advanced Radical sentiments at other meetings in Scotland. 
 Durham was a sincere friend to the theories of the Radicals, 
 but their practices did not appeal to him so strongly. He 
 was himself a wealthy landowner, and there \yere signs of 
 socialistic movements among the Radicals. Moreover, the 
 Radicals were not agreed upon their programme, and 
 
 .B 2 
 
4 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Durham could not count upon much support, except from 
 leaders of the stamp of Grote, and Molesworth. The 
 philosophic Radicals appreciated Durham, the others were 
 ready to accept him if he could convince them that he had 
 the gift of leadership. 
 
 Durham was, however, too dangerous to leave at liberty, 
 and he was sent a second time to St. Petersburg. Again 
 Durham felt out of his element, and soon returned. He 
 met with a great reception from the Radicals, and for a 
 moment the ministers were alarmed. Durham's irresolution, 
 fortunately for himself, allowed the chance to pass. It was 
 an ingenious scheme to send the Radical Earl to Canada 
 to restore order, and mediate between the warring parties 
 there. In any case the ministry would score; if Durham 
 succeeded an unlikely event the ministry might hope 
 for a further lease of power from the country, and they 
 would share the credit of his success ; if he failed, it would 
 provide an excuse for acknowledging the independence of 
 a troublesome colony, as the Radicals proposed, while at 
 the same time it would ruin Durham politically for ever. 
 The Earl had only one friend in the Cabinet Lord John 
 Russell; Melbourne despised Durham's abilities as much 
 as he feared his ambition. In sending Durham the 
 ministry, from their own point of view, made a mistake, as 
 Melbourne acknowledged in a private letter a few months 
 afterwards. At last the Earl felt himself his own master, 
 and his terms were hard. Only at the personal request of 
 the Queen would Durham accept the post. He had his 
 way. It was not the first time that Durham had been 
 designated as Governor- General of Canada. Before Lord 
 Gosford set out on his ill-omened mission, Durham was 
 sounded, but the Earl knew little about Canada; his 
 interests lay in political reform at home, and his personal 
 health was not good. 
 
 On January i6th, 1838, Parliament reassembled. Men 
 were on the tiptoe of expectation ; for the Christmas recess 
 had occurred too soon after the outbreak of the rebellion to 
 
LORD DURHAM AND HIS PARTY. 5 
 
 allow of a policy being outlined by the Government. Now 
 the unseemly jubilation of some of the Radicals had been 
 somewhat toned down by the easy way in which the rising 
 had been suppressed. The Tories were delighted at the 
 prospect of a ministerial defeat, for they knew that without 
 the support of O'Connell and the Radicals, the Melbourne 
 Government was at their mercy. Many of the Irish wilfully 
 absented themselves, and the Radicals were avowedly 
 hostile; Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington 
 whipped up their supporters, and Melbourne was not sure 
 of a majority even in the House of Commons. In per- 
 formance of a promise given before the prorogation Lord 
 John Russell unfolded his scheme. He proposed to sus- 
 pend the Lower Canadian Constitution for two years, and 
 moved an Address to the Throne pledging the House to 
 vindicate the Royal authority in Canada. He proceeded 
 to give a short account of the history of the colony since its 
 cession, and put forward the view that as the Assembly of 
 Lower Canada had expressed itself satisfied with the recom- 
 mendations of the Commissioners of 1828, their Report was 
 the standard by which it was fair to decide whether the 
 Canadians had any real grievances. His speech was able, 
 but from its special pleading was not likely to convince 
 the followers of Sir Robert Peel. Two passages are worthy 
 of quotation. He gave an outline of the intended Bill, and 
 sketched the character which the new Governor must bear, 
 if his mission should be a success. " I think it is most 
 important that the person to be sent from this country 
 should be one whose conduct and character should be 
 beyond exception ; a person not conversant solely with 
 matters of administration, but with the more important 
 affairs which are brought before parliament. I think he 
 should be conversant with the affairs of the various European 
 States ; and, moreover, that it should be implied by his 
 nomination, that we were not at all opposed to opinions 
 the most liberal, and that we were favourable to popular 
 feelings and popular rights. Having said this much, I 
 
6 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 know not why I should refrain from adding that Her 
 Majesty has been pleased to intrust the conduct of this 
 affair to one whom her advisers think in every respect 
 fitted for the charge, namely, the Earl of Durham ; and 
 that noble lord, having accepted the office, will proceed in 
 due time to perform its important duties." The second 
 passage forms the concluding part of the speech. He said 
 that although a time might arrive when he would not be 
 indisposed "to give the 1,400,000 of our present fellow- 
 subjects who are living in the provinces of North America 
 a participation in the perfect freedom enjoyed by the 
 Mother Country," he thought that the day for separation 
 was still in the distance. 
 
 It was soon evident that, although the enemies of the 
 ministry had no alternative scheme to propose, they were 
 quite capable of rendering that of the Government unwork- 
 able. Hume and Grote blamed the Government for first 
 driving the colonists to desperation, and then applying 
 coercion to avoid the effects of their own blundering. Sir 
 Robert Peel's speech was scarcely worthy of him, but he 
 had the magnanimity to expose Hume's inconsistency in 
 blaming the ministry for the rebellion which he had him- 
 self partly caused by his unpatriotic advice to Mackenzie, 
 the leader of the rising in Upper Canada. Buller and 
 Leader also spoke. The former, probably knowing that 
 he for one would have to assist Lord Durham in executing 
 the arrangements now being made, insisted that the Royal 
 authority should be vindicated ; there was no rational 
 ground for separation, but the just grievances of the 
 Canadians should be remedied as speedily as possible. 
 Leader attempted to adjourn the House, for the Radicals 
 were unwilling to precipitate the fall of the ministry, while 
 at the same time they could not support the Bill. By a 
 clever manoeuvre Russell carried the Address with a large 
 majority, but he offended many of his supporters. 
 
 On January i;th the Bill was brought in. Russell 
 explained its leading provisions. His explanation was 
 
LORD DURHAM AND HIS PARTY. 7 
 
 not very clear, and the new Bill was mercilessly criticised 
 by Peel. Lord John dared not risk a defeat, and he allowed 
 Peel to amend in such a way that it was all but impossible 
 to know what powers were or were not conferred on Lord 
 Durham. On the 22nd the Bill was read a second time, 
 and then Roebuck, 1 on the motion of Grote, was heard at 
 the Bar of the House against the Bill. Some difficulty 
 was raised as to the capacity in which he appeared, but it 
 was smoothed over. Roebuck addressed the House in one 
 of his usual speeches. Argument there was none, but what 
 it lacked in argument was made up in invective. He 
 attempted to show that the Canadians were wholly in the 
 right, but the House heard him with little attention. He 
 was followed by a number of speakers, all of whom agreed 
 in nothing except eulogy of Lord Durham. On the 23rd 
 the second reading was carried by 246. Only a little knot 
 of Radicals opposed it, and even they did so as a mere 
 formality. At the third reading, on January 29th, the 
 Noes fell to 8, but it was a Bill amended to suit Sir Robert 
 Peel and the Tories. The debate is dreary to read, for it 
 only shows the utter absence of any real appreciation of 
 the issues at stake. Men talked airily of the inevitable 
 separation from the Mother Country, or proposed various 
 impossible schemes for the federation or union of the 
 British North-American Provinces. That the colonists 
 themselves had any views on the matter never seemed to 
 occur to the speakers. The ignorance upon the troubles 
 in Upper Canada was only equalled by the perversity with 
 which ministers and Opposition alike approached the 
 question of Lower Canada. The one redeeming feature 
 in the debate was the readiness with which all parties, from 
 Lord John Russell to Hume, agreed in ascribing to Durham 
 the most despotic authority in his new government. 
 
 If ever a man had an excuse for over-estimating his 
 
 1 Roebuck, when M.P. for Bath, had supported the French Cana- 
 dians, and had been made their Agent by the Assembly of Lower 
 Canada. He lost his seat in 1835. 
 
8 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 powers, Lord Durham had. Russell said 1 it was proposed 
 " to set aside and suspend for a time the present Constitu- 
 tion of Lower Canada, and to place the authority despotic 
 authority if the right hon. baronet (Sir Robert Peel) 
 would have it so in the hands of the Governor-General in 
 Council." Again, on January 26th, Russell said, 2 " In 
 short, Lord Durham in proceeding to Lower Canada will 
 proceed there with our instructions, and will not consider 
 his discretion fettered by any resolution or any vote which 
 has been come to by the House on the subject." Moles- 
 worth was even more emphatic 3 : "The Governor alone 
 should be made answerable for every act done or omitted ; 
 all responsibility should be concentrated upon his single 
 head, and the noble lord should be made to feel that, 
 though he alone would merit all the praise of success, he 
 must equally bear all the odium, blame, and deep discredit 
 of failure. ... In proportion as Lord Durham was 
 independent of the control of the Colonial Office, or even 
 of Her Majesty's Government, in exactly the same ratio 
 would the probability of a successful termination of these 
 affairs increase. . . . The first act of the noble lord should 
 be one of grace and mercy, an oblivion of all past political 
 offences a general amnesty." Finally, Hume, speaking 
 for the " Friends of Canada," said 4 "that he should be 
 sorry to see the despotic power granted by that Act for 
 despotic it was in every sense of the term exercised by 
 any person but Lord Durham, to whom he had no 
 objection to confide it." 
 
 The course of the debate in the House of Lords, where 
 Lord Glenelg, the Colonial Secretary, brought in the Bill 
 on January iSth, was not dissimilar in some respects to 
 that in the Commons. Glenelg had not forgotten the 
 dispatches of Gosford telling of the dreams of Papineau 
 and " la nation Canadienne," and expressed his opinion 
 that the mutual hostility of the English and the French 
 
 1 " Hansard," Vol. XL., p. 154. 3 Ibid., p. 358. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 546. 4 Ibid., p. 584. 
 
LORD DURHAM AND HIS PARTY. 9 
 
 was at the root of the troubles of Lower Canada. This 
 theory of the rebellion and an attempt to show that the 
 Government had not been caught napping by the rebels, 
 in the matter of troops stationed in North America, 
 practically constituted the whole of his speech. He was 
 followed by Brougham ; the ex-Chancellor had never 
 forgiven the ministry, and his merciless sarcasm and irony 
 were never displayed with more zest. He ridiculed alike 
 the past actions and present proposals of the ministry, and 
 Melbourne's reply was quite ineffective. Wellington was 
 all-powerful in the House of Lords, and although he made 
 a show of defending Melbourne against some of the more 
 unfair attacks of Brougham, it only displayed the former's 
 impotence the more. After Wellington, Goderich (now 
 Lord Ripon) and Lansdowne spoke ; the former as an ex- 
 Colonial Secretary to express regret for having by an 
 imprudent confidence in the Assembly's good intentions 
 helped on the crisis he sought to avoid; the latter to 
 attack Brougham for having talked for three hours without 
 touching upon the real point at issue. 
 
 Then Durham arose and made a most touching speech, 
 full of generous confidence that the patriotism of his 
 opponents equalled his own. 1 He did not wish to take 
 part in the debate, but to address a few words explanatory 
 of the general principles which would influence his conduct 
 in the discharge of the grave duties imposed upon him, 
 and of the reasons which had induced him to accept the 
 trust. He would not go to Canada to support a party, but 
 to assert the supremacy, in the first place, of Her Majesty's 
 Government and to vindicate everywhere the majesty of 
 the law. He would not look upon any part of the 
 Canadians as French, but merely as Her Majesty's 
 subjects, and would defend the rights of all, whether 
 French habitants in Quebec or British merchants in 
 Montreal. He did not think that he would, as some 
 speakers had said, execute a thankless task in carrying out 
 1 " Hansard," Vol. XL., p. 240. 
 
io SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 with him the measure for the suspension of the French- 
 Canadian Constitution, for it was already de facto sus- 
 pended by the rebellion of the Canadians, and his duty 
 was merely to provide as well as he could for the extra- 
 ordinary state of affairs thus brought about ..." Great 
 and dictatorial as these powers are, I shall be anxious to 
 lay them down at the earliest possible time. As far as 
 concerns the principal province it would be wise and I 
 implore my noble friends to give me the means of 
 accomplishing it to effect such a kind of settlement as 
 should produce contentment and harmony among all 
 classes, enable me to establish, not temporarily but 
 lastingly, the supremacy of the laws, and finally to leave 
 behind me such a system of government as may tend to 
 the general prosperity and happiness of one of the most 
 important portions of Her Majesty's dominions. If I can 
 accomplish such an object as that I shall deem no personal 
 sacrifice of my own too great. I feel, however, that I can 
 only accomplish it by the cordial and energetic support a 
 support which I am sure I shall obtain of my noble 
 friends, the members of Her Majesty's Cabinet, by the 
 co-operation of the Imperial Parliament, and, permit me to 
 say, by the generous forbearance of the noble lords 
 opposite to whom I have always been politically opposed. 
 From the candour and generosity which have distinguished 
 the noble Duke's [Wellington's] remarks this evening, as 
 well as upon all other occasions, I trust that he and those 
 who think with him will give me credit for the good 
 intentions which I feel, and will only condemn me if they 
 find my actions such as shall enable them, consistently 
 with their own consciences, to find fault." 
 
 Brougham did not hear this appeal. Feeling unwell, he 
 had left the House immediately after his own speech, 
 much to Glenelg's disgust, as the latter's reply thus 
 remained unheard by him. The new Governor-General 
 knew his foes and his friends alike too well to imagine that 
 he would find forbearance or defence within the walls of 
 
LORD DURHAM AND;;; HIS PARTY. n 
 
 parliament. He was appealing to a wider audience to 
 the British people and to those over whom he was about to 
 rule. It is impossible to doubt Durham's sincerity, nor 
 were his words the offspring of a vaulting ambition. 
 Having outlined his policy, he wisely employed his remain- 
 ing time in England in selecting suitable assistants, and in 
 collecting information bearing upon his task. It is 
 probable that he realised only too well the justice of the 
 criticisms which were levelled at the motives influencing 
 the ministry in its appointment of him. However, the 
 Earl felt that the chance of his life had come, and hoped 
 that success would be as beneficial to himself as he meant 
 t to be to the unhappy French. 
 
 On February 2nd the Bill was read for a second time in 
 the House of Lords. As usual Brougham was in opposi- 
 tion, and the acrimony of his speech was so marked that it 
 stirred up the normally placid Melbourne into something 
 very like a state of excitement. The most remarkable 
 passage in Brougham's speech in the light of his sub- 
 sequent conduct was the splendid word-painting with 
 which he described the successful mission of Pedro de la 
 Gasca to recover Peru from the rebel Pizarros. If it 
 meant anything, it was an assertion that Lord Durham's 
 power was not great enough for his task. On February 5th 
 Roebuck was heard at the Bar against the Bill. This time 
 his speech was less wild and more constructive and had 
 important after-results. On February 8th the Bill passed 
 the third reading, but lengthy protests were entered by 
 Brougham, Ellenborough, and Fitzwilliam. 
 
 The purport of this " Act to make temporary provision 
 for the Government of Lower Canada " is as follows : The 
 House of Assembly which was granted to Lower Canada 
 by the Act 31 Geo. III. c. 31 cannot be called together on 
 account of the disturbed state of the province, but to obtain 
 information by which the Imperial Government may be 
 guided to form a suitable Constitution for the province, 
 the Governor-General is to summon delegates from the 
 
12 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Provinces of Lower and Upper Canada, which is also 
 interested in the proposed reforms. In the meantime, to 
 carry on the Government of Lower Canada, the Queen is 
 authorised to suspend so much of the Act 31 Geo. III. c. 31 
 as orders the calling of a Legislative Council and House of 
 Assembly for Lower Canada, and under the Great Seal or 
 the Signet to commission the Governor-General to call 
 together a Legislative Council for Lower Canada of a 
 number to be settled by the Crown. After the proclama- 
 tion of this Act, and up to the first day of November, 1840, 
 " it shall be lawful for the Governor of the Province of 
 Lower Canada, with the advice and consent of the majority 
 of the said councillors ... to make such ordinances for the 
 peace, welfare, and good government of the said Province 
 of Lower Canada as the legislature of Lower Canada as 
 at present constituted is empowered to make." These 
 ordinances, subject to certain appended conditions, were 
 to have like force and effect as laws made by the super- 
 seded legislature would have had, provided that they were 
 proposed to the Council by the Governor, and assented to 
 by at least five of the said legislative councillors. The 
 Governor had to transmit a copy of the ordinances 
 thus made to the Queen, who could disallow any of them 
 within two years ; certain ordinances were to lie on the 
 table of parliament for thirty days, as they would have 
 done had they been made under the Act 31 Geo. III. c. 31. 
 The remaining clauses in the Act are comparatively 
 unimportant, but it is necessary to say something of a 
 document which was issued to members during the passage 
 of the Act. On Wednesday, January 23rd, appeared the 
 " Instructions to Lord Durham." These were an extract of 
 a dispatch from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Durham, and 
 dated January 2Oth. It was remarked that the issue of 
 these Instructions before Lord Durham had sailed, or even 
 before the Bill had passed, was somewhat unusual, to say 
 the least ; but the Melbourne Government were straining 
 every nerve to pass the Bill, in the teeth of many of their 
 
LORD DURHAM AND HIS PARTY. 13 
 
 own supporters, and wished to make it plain that they 
 sought, at any rate, to create a liberal despotism. 
 
 The Instructions in the first place pointed out that legis- 
 lative action by the Imperial Parliament would probably 
 be necessary, not only to compose the difficulties in* Lower 
 Canada, but also those at issue between Upper and Lower 
 Canada. To find out the real wishes of the colonists, 
 Durham was authorised and* advised to form a sort of 
 provincial convention. No time was fixed for this meet- 
 ing, but it was suggested that three members should be 
 chosen from the Legislative Council of Upper Canada, and 
 ten others elected by the Assembly of that province. In 
 Lower Canada the matter would be more difficult ; three 
 members of the old Legislative Council could be chosen, 
 but, as the Assembly was de facto non-existent, the five 
 districts of Lower Canada should choose two members 
 each. An obscurely worded sentence seems to suggest 
 that if the French would not elect suitable persons, or 
 refused to take part at all, Durham should appoint the 
 members himself. Over this Council of twenty-six Durham 
 was to preside, and its authority was limited to giving the 
 Governor advice, when asked. Then followed a list of 
 suggested subjects for the Council to discuss. The great 
 question was that of the regulations governing commerce, 
 for its geographical position placed the Upper province at 
 the mercy of the Lower. The possibility of a federal 
 union of the two provinces is hinted at, and Durham is 
 requested to investigate the matter. Another question was 
 the future continuance of the Constitutional Act of 1791. 
 Its defects were recognised at least in the case of Lower 
 Canada, and Durham is asked to suggest a means of making 
 the Legislative Council more worthy of the public con- 
 fidence, as the Imperial Parliament had suggested, although 
 it repudiated the claim of the Assembly that it should be 
 elective. After instancing the matter of the civil list, the 
 land tenure, a tribunal of impeachment and a Court of 
 Appeal, as being also in need of investigation, Glenelg 
 
i 4 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 suggests that Durham shall draft measures for the Imperial 
 Parliament dealing with these questions, and concludes by 
 giving him ample authority to deal with the Council as 
 seems best to him. 
 
 The new Governor had received his orders, but it was 
 not till March 3ist that letters patent issued, creating him 
 High Commissioner " for the adjustment of certain impor- 
 tant questions depending in the said provinces of Upper 
 and Lower Canada, respecting the form and future govern- 
 ment of the said provinces," and also Governor-General of 
 the British provinces of North America. He had, however, 
 "kissed hands" on his appointment on January 2Oth, and 
 devoted his attention to selecting capable assistants. 
 Unfortunately, perhaps, Durham took little account of 
 qualities other than intellectual, and he had enemies on 
 the look-out for points on which to attack him. Durham's 
 friends were not very discreet, and allowed the Opposition 
 papers many opportunities. The Times was especially 
 bitter, not only because it opposed Durham on personal 
 grounds, but because he was zealously championed by 
 The Morning Chronicle, its great rival, of which the 
 editor was John Easthope, the Radical M.P. and friend of 
 Durham. On March loth Glenelg received a letter from 
 Durham giving an approximate idea of the establishment 
 he proposed to take with him. As the result of a question 
 in the House, Glenelg asked Durham to draw up a paper 
 containing more details. As the minister laid no restric- 
 tions on him, Durham concluded, naturally enough, that 
 he was to have a free hand in this matter also, and in his 
 reply enclosed a memorandum of an establishment on a 
 scale which was so lavish that he thought it required 
 an explanation; in view of the magnitude and importance 
 of his task he would need the most zealous and efficient 
 co-operation, and he felt it due to his assistants that they 
 should have the most adequate and honourable remunera- 
 tion. He justified also the nomination of four paid and 
 four unpaid aides-de-camp by the necessity of reliable 
 
LORD DURHAM AND HIS PARTY. 15 
 
 means of communication with the various Lieutenant- 
 Governors. He put no salary down for himself or his 
 private secretary that had been part of the terms he had 
 insisted on when he accepted the post but the Chief 
 Secretary was to have 1,500, a legal adviser the same 
 sum, a military secretary 700, and two assistant secretaries 
 or clerks 600. 
 
 ^i Hitherto the attacks on Durham had been confined to 
 sneering allusions to the magnificence of his preparations, 
 to the number of his household, and to the gold and 
 silver plate he had sent to a goldsmith's to be valued for 
 insurance. On April 3rd the Marquis of Chandos the 
 author of the Chandos clause of the Reform Bill proposed 
 a resolution which only could have for its object the 
 annoyance of Durham. His love of display was well- 
 known, and Chandos proposed a resolution which, under 
 cover of zeal for economy, proposed to limit Durham's 
 expenses to those of the Earl of Gosford. This sum was 
 only 12,678, and Gosford's duties were far less important 
 than those of the new Governor. Not content with the 
 resolution, the Marquis proceeded to attack the appoint- 
 ment of Lord Durham, which he characterised as a "job " ; 
 the ministry had desired to remove the Earl to a distant 
 region where he could not inconvenience them. After 
 some debate, the resolution was lost by two votes. Had it 
 been carried, it would probably have achieved its end the 
 resignation of Durham. As it was, the Earl felt hurt, but a 
 foolish refusal to dine with Bingham Baring, because of his 
 vote in the House, brought much ridicule upon him. 
 
 The Times and the other Tory organs redoubled their 
 attacks, and the memorandum which Durham had fur- 
 nished of his establishment provided them with a splendid 
 weapon. It had provided for a legal adviser at 1,500, 
 and rumour soon had it that the post was destined for 
 Thomas Turton. Turton was a member of the Calcutta 
 Bar, and not without ability. He had been a schoolfellow 
 of Durham, and was at this time in London on a mission 
 
16 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 from India. Hobhouse, who was a friend of Durham's, 
 introduced Turton to the Governor, and the latter seems 
 to have promised Turton the post as an act of kindness. 
 Unfortunately, Turton had appeared before the House of 
 Lords about four years before in connection with a very 
 painful scandal, and when the news of the appointment 
 got out Melbourne was alarmed. He told Durham plainly 
 that he could not consent ; the Earl, however, felt that he 
 had pledged his word, and he knew that the opposition 
 was not based on any zeal for morality. Durham, too, 
 seems to have been misled as to his power to make and 
 revoke the appointment, but after two days he agreed that 
 Turton should go out as his private friend only. 
 
 Another man to whom Durham had promised an appoint- 
 ment was the famous Edward Gibbon Wakefield. Durham 
 had come into contact with him in connection with a scheme 
 for colonising New Zealand, and was a pupil of Wakefield 
 and Molesworth in colonial matters. Like Turton, Wake- 
 field had a past. He was, however, a far abler man, and 
 the appointment of Wakefield could be more easily 
 justified. As he received no definite position as yet, he 
 attracted little attention. The other appointments were 
 unexceptionable, especially that of the brilliant Charles 
 Buller, pupil of Carlyle, and Radical M.P. Buller, Wake- 
 field and Durham each possessed different yet comple- 
 mentary gifts, and were bound together by common 
 interests and personal affection. Turton was not one of 
 the inner circle, and his presence, to which so much evil 
 can be traced, was only due to Durham's chivalry. 
 
 If the Earl of Durham did not possess the gift of origi- 
 nality, he was an apt pupil, and could improve upon the 
 ideas of others. It has been mentioned that Roebuck's 
 speech before the House of Lords was rather more con- 
 structive than usual. He there outlined a plan he had 
 often urged before for the government of Canada. It was 
 little more than a suggestion, but to Durham that was 
 enough. It was the Earl's object to win the support of 
 
LORD DURHAM AND HIS PARTY. 17 
 
 the Radicals for his policy. He did not know Roebuck 
 personally, but they had a common friend in Molesworth, 
 who with Hume and Roebuck had taken part in a 
 meeting of the " Friends of Canada " at the headquarters of 
 the Westminster Reform Association the "Crown and 
 Anchor/' Molesworth and Hume opposed the Bill for 
 suspending the Lower Canadian Constitution, but they 
 both, as has been said, supported Durham's appointment. 
 
 On March 6th Molesworth made a slashing attack on 
 Glenelg's administration of colonial affairs. His views 
 were those of Durham the policy of " ships, colonies and 
 commerce." Hume defended Durham when Chandos 
 moved his Resolution on April 3rd, and this is perhaps 
 the best guide we possess as to the date of the famous 
 meeting between Durham and Roebuck. 
 
 Roebuck's version 1 is that shortly before the Earl left for 
 Canada a hint was given that he should call upon the 
 Governor and explain at length his views on the subject of 
 the government of Canada. It is more than probable that 
 the hint was given by Molesworth, but Roebuck says he 
 refused to take it. He professed, however, to be willing 
 to afford Lord Durham the desired information if the 
 Governor chose to invite him to call. Durham saw the 
 advantage he might derive from having the imprimatur 
 of Roebuck for his mission. Roebuck was a Lower 
 Canadian by birth, on friendly terms with the French 
 leaders, and possessed of information as to their wishes 
 by virtue of his position as Agent for the Assembly in 
 England. Charles Buller was sent to interview Roebuck, 
 and he agreed to call on Durham. It is amusing to read 
 of the Agent's virtuous indignation when Durham proposed 
 that he should take up a position on the borders of Canada, 
 but in the territory of the United States, and correspond 
 with him there. Perhaps Durham and Wakefield had 
 already worked out their plan for conciliating the French, 
 and intended to use Roebuck as a means to obtain touch 
 1 See his " Colonies of England," pp. 120 et seg. 
 
 S.G.C. C 
 
i8 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 with Papineau, who was also at this time hovering about 
 the frontier. 
 
 Although he refused to agree to Durham's wishes in 
 this matter, he professed himself willing to give advice, 
 but only openly, as " secrecy was foreign to his nature." 
 We can imagine the scene Roebuck pouring out a flood 
 of theoretical propositions as to the way in which the 
 Canadians should be given all they wanted, and at the 
 same time the power of the Crown secured. Durham 
 listened politely and then asked Roebuck if he would put 
 his views on paper. Durham had found the weak point 
 in his opponent's armour his desire to secure his recogni- 
 tion as Agent for Lower Canada, which had hitherto been 
 withheld by the Imperial Government. From other sources 
 it seems likely that Roebuck assured Durham of a favour- 
 able reception from the French in Canada, contingent on 
 his following out the Agent's recommendations. Roebuck 
 went home and drew up a document which is worthy of a 
 short description. At his request Durham only retained 
 a copy. Roebuck says that Durham gave him the strongest 
 assurance of his most sincere approval of the scheme ; and 
 it is certain that it was a scheme closely modelled on this 
 that Durham tried to carry out in Canada. His realisation 
 of the actual wishes of the colonists, and a certain practical 
 sagacity which taught him to prefer the expedient to the 
 desirable, went to produce the imperfect scheme he finally 
 proposed. 
 
 Roebuck's plan was based on two premises that the 
 extent of the proposed reforms should only be limited 
 by the extent to which the Imperial Parliament would go ; 
 and that the supremacy of England and the well-being 
 of the colony are perfectly compatible. Its objects were 
 to evolve a Government capable of producing contentment 
 and happiness, and also a scheme for federating British 
 North America. These two are interdependent. Roebuck's 
 scheme seems to have been really the result of much thought 
 on his part The idea of federation, however, was no* 
 
LORD DURHAM AND HIS PARTY. 19 
 
 wholly his own, for William Lyon Mackenzie, in Upper 
 Canada, had advocated it (together with many other things), 
 and Uniacke, a lawyer from the Maritime Provinces, had 
 contributed somewhat to making the idea familiar. Chief 
 Justice Sewell, of Lower Canada, had corresponded with 
 Edward, Duke of Kent, Queen Victoria's father, on the 
 question, and later 1 showed Durham an autograph letter 
 from the Duke written in 1814. The difficulties, mainly 
 of distance and want of population, seemed so insuperable, 
 that the Duke finally declared against it, and the English 
 Government, as will be related in due course, preferred the 
 less ambitious scheme of the Montreal merchants the 
 union of the two Canadas. In 1822 Roebuck himself 
 wrote an able pamphlet in support of this scheme, but 
 when he became Agent he changed his opinions. To 
 everybody it was plain that one or the other plan must 
 be adopted, and a beginning had been made by the union 
 of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton. Naturally the French 
 Canadians preferred to govern their own province, even with 
 powers limited by a Federal Legislature, and we can under- 
 stand that Durham would look with favour on their views. 
 The really original part of Roebuck's scheme referred to 
 the two Councils. After the vote on Lord John Russell's 
 Resolutions of March, 1837, Roebuck saw that the Legisla- 
 tive Council would not be made elective, and as one of the 
 chief complaints was that it merely echoed the opinions of 
 the Executive Council, he boldly proposed to abolish it 
 altogether, and, as was the case in some of the provinces, 
 have only an Executive Council. To the Executive 
 Council, consisting of not more than five members, he 
 assigned only powers of revision. It might alter a Bill 
 from the Assembly or amend it, but could not reject it, 
 and all Bills were to be sent back in a given time. This 
 was in itself a tremendous revolution ; for if, as Roebuck 
 undoubtedly wished, some system of responsible govern- 
 ment was to be introduced, the Assembly would command 
 1 See Report, p. 236. 
 
 C 2 
 
20 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 two of the three parts of the Legislature and all that 
 Papineau asked and more would be granted. 
 
 To the Assembly Roebuck assigned large powers. 
 Elected by ballot, a delicate compliment to Lord Durham, 
 it should sit for three years without a dissolution, but it 
 could only adjourn one week at a time. The whole of the 
 provincial revenues were to be surrendered to the 
 Assembly, which was to grant a Civil List. Roebuck 
 hints quite as strongly as Durham does in the Report, that 
 after all the Mother Country has no right to expect a 
 revenue from the colony, and that in giving the colony 
 good government, and in consenting to be responsible for 
 their acts to the colony, statesmen were only doing their 
 duty. Curiously enough Roebuck would strengthen the 
 hands of the Governor, who is to be appointed by the 
 Crown, and although his salary is to be settled by the 
 Assembly it cannot be altered for six years, the executive 
 councillors to have a similar tenure of office, but to be 
 appointed by the Governor. The Governor might convoke 
 extraordinary meetings of the Legislature, and might send 
 down communications concerning the condition of the 
 province, either voluntarily or when asked for information 
 by the Assembly. He is empowered to assent to or reject 
 Bills without showing any cause, and he may also reserve 
 Bills for the approbation of the Colonial Secretary. The 
 scheme seems very plausible, but would not work well ; 
 with responsible government and control of the supplies 
 the Assembly would find that the Governor had too much 
 power ; without responsible government, it is difficult to 
 see how deadlocks could be avoided, for the Assembly in 
 Lower Canada would instantly refuse supplies if the 
 Governor rejected its Bills. It is remarkable that Roebuck 
 seems to presume that the revenues will be collected by 
 the Provincial rather than by the Federal Government. 
 His scheme as to this latter is not well thought out. At 
 one time he favours the system of the United States, but 
 again he provides for the appointment of the Lieutenant- 
 
LORD DURHAM AND HIS PARTY. 21 
 
 Governor by the Crown. He would rigidly define the 
 powers of the federal authorities. 
 
 A large portion of Lord Durham's Report on Lower 
 Canada is taken up with an analysis of the legal system. 
 Its defects are pointed out by Roebuck freely enough, 
 although he hints that it seemed all Cherokee to Durham. 
 However, if Durham did not understand, others did. 
 Roebuck proposed that a commission of experts should be 
 appointed to revise and ascertain the existing law in 
 Lower Canada, regardless of the interests and wishes of 
 the lawyers. It was necessary to form an efficient 
 judiciary and court of appeal, and he suggested that the 
 judges should be appointed for a fixed time and be liable 
 to impeachment. 
 
 This meeting with Roebuck and the matter of his advice 
 have been gone into thus fully because it seems to afford 
 a clue to much that is otherwise hard to understand in 
 Durham's proceedings in Canada. The Earl thought he 
 had secured at least the neutrality of those Radicals who 
 did not support him, and he looked forward to a reception 
 even from the Papineauists the reverse of unfriendly. It is 
 certain that both Wakefield and Buller left England with a 
 firm belief that the French had real grievances against the 
 authorities, and just before Durham sailed he informed a 
 deputation of Montreal merchants that every argument they 
 had brought forward only served to confirm his opposition 
 to their favourite project of a union of the two Canadas. 
 The whole of Durham's stay in Canada was one process 
 of bitter disillusionment. He found himself betrayed by 
 everybody in turn, and at last his only supporters were 
 the British of Lower Canada. Upper Canada and the 
 Maritime Provinces gave him fair words, but would have 
 none of his schemes. It is clear that he never anticipated 
 the difficulties he was to meet with in Canada. He looked 
 upon his task as merely to build on a foundation already 
 rising on cleared ground. He told 1 the ministry before his 
 1 See Report, p. 3. 
 
22 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 departure that he would submit a scheme for the future 
 government of British North America in time for it to be 
 presented to parliament in the ensuing session ; Charles 
 Buller was to take charge of the Bill and be ready to 
 explain its provisions, and Durham himself was ready, if 
 necessary, to take a flying trip across the Atlantic, to 
 back up his recommendations in the House of Lords. His 
 conversation with Roebuck had made it quite evident to 
 him that immediate action was necessary, and to a man of 
 Durham's political views a breach of continuity with the 
 past colonial system of Great Britain was a light matter. 
 He sailed in the Hastings on April 24th, accompanied by 
 his wife and children. Many of his suite, including Buller 
 and Turton, went in the same ship. Wakefield reached 
 Canada some time afterwards. 
 
 When Durham left for Canada he had just completed 
 his thirty-sixth year. He had never enjoyed robust health, 
 and suffered at times from indigestion, and later from 
 rheumatism. Few men ever evoked more enthusiasm or 
 more hatred. He was chivalrous, high-minded, enthusi- 
 astic, generous, hospitable, and with a transparent sincerity 
 which often exposed him to the attacks of men less 
 conscientious than himself. Firmly convinced of his own 
 rectitude of purpose, he could ill brook the restraints of an 
 antiquated custom or an inconvenient law. To him law 
 was the servant, not the master, of the State, and when men 
 used it to defend oppression, or what Durham held to be 
 an abuse, all the flaws in his character helped to blind him 
 to his true course of action. Durham could not endure 
 opposition, for he could never understand that there might 
 be a different point of view from his own. He was utterly 
 wanting in tact or thoughtfulness, and his natural irrita- 
 bility was increased by his malady. He never sought to 
 convince an opponent by smooth words, for it seemed to 
 him a paltering with injustice. To his equals he was 
 arrogant when he only meant to show himself independent ; 
 to his inferiors he was condescending so long as they 
 
LORD DURHAM AND HIS PARTY. 23 
 
 proved submissive. He was a man to inspire deep hatred 
 or enthusiastic affection. Those who knew him best 
 Buller, Wakefield, and the leaders of the Radical party 
 loved him, because they saw of necessity only the good 
 side of his character, and knew how unjust was the 
 persecution he endured from Brougham. To his fellow- 
 ministers Durham could not be attractive. We can see 
 from the memoirs of the time with what suspicion he was 
 looked upon by them. He was Earl Grey's son-in-law, 
 and so, perhaps, his outbursts of passion were to the Prime 
 Minister no new thing ; to the rest, however, such childish 
 behaviour was distasteful, and Durham's extreme opinions 
 seemed only too like a bid for popularity ; they were 
 becoming more unpopular every day, while Durham, who 
 had never given the least reason for it, according to them, 
 was hailed by all as the coming leader of the Radical party. 
 Even in Canada he did not restrain himself; he rated 
 with equal vehemence Charles Buller, who spilled a cup of 
 coffee on a Westminster Review ', and an unfortunate waiter 
 at Niagara who unthinkingly appeared before the Lord 
 High Commissioner in his shirt sleeves. Durham would 
 have made an excellent satrap in some Eastern land ; it 
 was his destiny to be the representative of a constitutional 
 monarch in a land whose wounds cried out for the knife. 
 
 With good reason do the Canadians cherish the memory 
 of Lord Durham to-day ; while he lived a strong party in 
 Canada decried him. It was because he dared to maintain, 
 Radical though he was, that there was something more 
 holy than the wishes of an elected Assembly, much more so 
 than those of a Government House clique. When Lord 
 Durham ceased to be a politician we see his true greatness 
 as a statesman. His Report is the Magna Charta of the 
 Dominion whose success is bringing about results to the 
 Empire we can yet foresee but dimly ; we only know that 
 there is a wider citizenship than that of a race merely 
 bound together by ties of blood. Durham as an adminis- 
 trator was a failure ; granted, but, though he himself could 
 
24 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 not govern, he could point to the true secret of success for 
 Governors. At a time when men were openly talking of 
 schemes for getting England rid of the burden of Empire, 
 Durham taught a nobler policy. "Emancipate your 
 colonies" was "Citizen BenthamV advice to the French 
 Republicans. Durham said: "Trust your colonial fellow- 
 subjects with the same rights as you claim for yourselves, 
 now in 1839, not as Lord John Russell proposed, at some 
 remote date in the future." Durham converted Russell, 
 and sank his own differences with the ministry to keep 
 his promises to the Canadians. Men who had spoken with 
 Durham heard Etienne Tache' say at Montreal: "The last 
 gun in defence of the English power in America would be 
 fired by a French Canadian." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CESSION OF CANADA AND THE TWO 
 CONSTITUTIONS. 
 
 To understand the difficulties which Lord Durham was 
 sent to compose a sketch of the history of Canada from its 
 cession is necessary. Lord Durham's task was no light 
 one. The only thing on which its population agreed was 
 the necessity for an alteration of the existing state of 
 affairs. At that time the provinces composing British 
 North America were six in number Upper Canada, 
 Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince 
 Edward Island, and Newfoundland. Each province pos- 
 sessed a Legislature, consisting of a Lieutenant-Governor, 
 a Legislative Council, and a Legislative Assembly. The 
 members of the Legislative Council and the Executive 
 Council, a sort of advisory Privy Council, composed of the 
 chief officials of the province, were nominated in theory by 
 the Crown, actually by the Lieutenant-Governor, or those 
 who ruled in his name. Very often the members of the 
 Executive formed a majority, if not the whole, of the 
 Legislative Council, and as the latter body had to accept the 
 proposals of the Assembly before they were submitted to 
 the Governor, it formed an effective check on the Assembly. 
 The executive councillors were practically irremovable; 
 they were actually responsible to nobody, certainly not to 
 the Assembly, and in all the provinces the system worked 
 equally badly. As population increased, and fresh settlers 
 flowed in from England, especially between 1815 and 1835, 
 these differences became acute, for many of the newcomers 
 were imbued with the Radical doctrines then so prevalent 
 among the English middle and lower classes. In their new 
 
26 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 homes they soon secured control of the Houses of Assembly, 
 which were elected on a liberal franchise, but only to 
 discover their helplessness under the colonial constitutional 
 system. Economic causes in the Maritime Provinces the 
 approaching termination of preferential treatment for their 
 timber contributed largely to this universal feeling of 
 discontent, and in Upper and Lower Canada outbreaks 
 occurred during the winter of 1837-8. In the Maritime 
 Provinces the intensely British character of the people 
 prevented the agitation for parliamentary reform taking a 
 violent turn, but the majority of the population in Lower 
 Canada were descendants of the original French settlers, 
 and in Upper Canada the American element was strong. 
 The seat of the Governor-General of British North America 
 was at Quebec, in the province of Lower Canada. There 
 the trouble was most acute. It may be mentioned in 
 passing that the post of Lieutenant-Governor of Lower 
 Canada was often held as a sinecure ; the Governor-General, 
 as a rule, confined himself solely to the administration of 
 the Lower province, and his authority over the various 
 Lieutenant-Governors was very small. 
 
 Lower Canada had remained a French province from 
 its foundation at the beginning of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury till its capture by the English in the Seven Years' War. 
 It was formally ceded by the French at the Treaty of Paris 
 in 1763. Its population at the time of the conquest has 
 been variously estimated. It was probably about 60,000. 
 Immigration from France had been rare for some time 
 before its capture by the English, and the inhabitants were 
 mainly the descendants of the 8,000 peasants from Northern 
 France planted there by Colbert. To encourage the 
 settlement of the country, broken-down noblemen, half-pay 
 officers, and various hangers-on at the Court were given 
 "seigneuries," that is, feudal estates on the model of those 
 in France. The peasantry, half-starved and oppressed by 
 the heavy war taxes and the various feudal dues, went 
 willingly to this new land. They received from the 
 
THE CESSION OF CANADA. 27 
 
 seigneurs farms under the " customary " tenure known as 
 the " Custom of Paris," and the dues they owed to their 
 lord, troublesome as they became later, were light compared 
 with the taxation they had undergone in France. As the 
 natives were cruel, and good fighters, the estates were laid 
 out in long narrow strips, seldom exceeding a mile in width, 
 so that each man might have a river frontage to give him a 
 chance of escape. 
 
 In later years the French, under the influence of Papineau, 
 entertained very rosy views of their status under the old 
 regime. As a matter of fact, although the sway of the 
 Intendant was indeed regulated by custom, the colony was 
 administered strictly in the interest of the Mother Country. 
 Religiously the inhabitants were well cared for. At 
 Montreal was the great house of the Sulpician Fathers, a 
 branch of the Franciscans, and at Quebec the Jesuits were 
 supreme till the suppression of their Order in 1773. These 
 two Orders had control of the education of the country, but 
 except as far as it related to candidates for Holy Orders, it 
 seems to have been of a very elementary character. 
 Constant wars with the Iroquois and with the English 
 settlers, who were pushing into the valley of the Ohio, had 
 made the "habitant" a skilful and daring fighter. He 
 was, however, at heart a simple, kindly man, devout 
 even to superstition ; he still retained the old traditional 
 French courtesy, and, it must be confessed, his old 
 conservative habits. He knew nothing of scientific 
 agriculture, and used the same cumbrous plough as his 
 great-grandfather; but so long as new land was plentiful, 
 and there were no English, with their enterprising but 
 inconvenient methods, the habitant was content to keep in 
 the old paths. 
 
 The Church encouraged early marriage, and so he was 
 moral. Large families were common, but the people, 
 attached to their religion, refused to colonise the waste 
 lands at the back of the seigneuries. They became poorer 
 year by year ; no matter, so long as they could go to Mass 
 
28 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 each Sunday. As has been said, education was defective. 
 Large estates were given to the Jesuits, but these were 
 rendered useless for their original purpose of supporting 
 schools, for they escheated to the Crown on the suppression 
 of the Order by the Pope. Repeated attempts were made 
 by the Assembly in later years to secure their return to 
 their original use, but in vain. In 1800 an attempt was 
 made toapply them to the foundation of common schools, but 
 the English arid Protestant element in the scheme wrecked 
 it. It was not till the British North America Act restored 
 French influence in Quebec that the Jesuit estates question 
 was settled. Then, in the year 1888, thanks to Jesuit 
 influence, the Provincial Parliament voted the Order 
 $400,000 compensation. 
 
 Canada passed into the hands of the English on the fall 
 of Montreal in 1760. The French leaders struggled hard 
 for terms which would have confined English authority 
 over Canada to that of a mere military protection, but in 
 vain. The free exercise of their religion was guaranteed to 
 the inhabitants, and all communities of religieuses,andall the 
 monastic Orders, with the exception of the Sulpicians, 
 Recollets and Jesuits, were promised secure possession of 
 their goods, constitutions, and privileges. The claims of 
 these three Orders, as well as the right of the clergy to 
 tithe, were to be referred to the King of England. On 
 February loth, 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed. 
 France finally abandoned all claim to North America, and 
 received certain fishing rights and two small islands. The 
 King of Great Britain was to allow the Canadians the free 
 exercise of their religion, " as far as the laws of Great 
 Britain permit," but nothing was mentioned about the 
 legal system which was to prevail henceforth in Canada. 
 
 The period from the conquest to 1774 is known among 
 the French Canadians as the " Rule of the Soldiery." The 
 term is eloquent as to the condition of the country. 
 General Murray, who was left in charge, seems to have 
 been an impartial man, and he possessed a very bad 
 
THE CESSION OF CANADA. 29 
 
 opinion of those of his countrymen who had flocked to the 
 new colony in answer to a proclamation by the King. 
 This proclamation gave power to the Governors of the 
 various colonies to summon assemblies as in the older 
 provinces, and courts of law and systems of judicature 
 were to be established as near as possible to the English 
 pattern. A rough system of organization was established 
 in the chief towns of Lower Canada, but it was only a 
 modified form of martial law, and the natives preferred to 
 settle their disputes before arbitrators. General Murray 
 resolutely refused to call an Assembly, for the necessity 
 laid on the members to accept the oath of supremacy 
 and the declaration against transubstantiation virtually 
 disfranchised all but the men whom the Governor, in 
 a letter to Lord Shelburne, described as " men of mean 
 education, traders, publicans, mechanics, and followers of 
 the army." 
 
 In 1766 Murray was succeeded by Sir Guy Carleton, 
 afterwards created Lord Dorchester for his services. In 
 his time Canada received her first Constitution, the Quebec 
 Act of 1774 (14 Geo. III. c. 83). The trouble in the older 
 colonies was assuming a threatening aspect. It was neces- 
 sary to conciliate the French population, and therefore the 
 operation of the Test Act was suspended in Canada, and 
 the civil law was henceforth to be the old "Custom of 
 Paris." It was considered doubtful whether the French 
 population of Canada desired an Assembly, and a 
 nominated Council was appointed instead, to advise the 
 Governor. This Act was passed in the teeth of opposition, 
 both in England and America. It did not satisfy the new 
 settlers in Canada, who claimed to enjoy English law 
 under the proclamation of 1763, nor did it please the 
 fanatical Puritans of New England or the political leaders 
 of the coming rebellion. The former saw with distaste 
 the acknowledgment of Roman Catholicism, the latter 
 were angry at the loss of territory they had marked as 
 their own. Burke thundered against the adoption of the 
 
3 o SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 barbarous French civil law, and Fox saw nothing but evil 
 in the refusal to grant an Assembly. 
 
 In the light of history we can sympathise with Burke's 
 denunciations. It was undoubtedly a foolish step to thus 
 sanction the idea of a separate nationality. Unless immi- 
 gration into Canada was to be practically forbidden, trouble 
 was bound to ensue when the energetic Englishman found 
 his labour made harder and the tenure of his possessions 
 less sure by an alien and antiquated law. In 1763 the 
 Canadians were not a nation, and their life under French 
 rule fitted them to receive the impress from above of a new 
 scheme of social and political life. An able man, by 
 conciliation where possible, and by strenuous endeavour 
 not to touch permissible prejudices, might have gradually 
 moulded the new subjects into a fair resemblance to 
 Englishmen. Unfortunately, the quarrel with the older 
 colonies began the moment danger was removed from the 
 north, and the various ministers from 1760 onwards were 
 too busily engaged in that quarrel to give serious attention 
 to the Canadian problem. Having alienated their fellow- 
 Englishmen on the Atlantic sea-board of America, Lord 
 North and his friends had to surrender to the demands of 
 the French if they wished to prevent Canada from 
 accepting the " freedom " the Republicans offered her. 
 
 Carleton had his way, and the interests of any possible 
 English population in the future were sacrificed in an 
 attempt to repair somewhat the bad statesmanship of Lord 
 North. It was successful. Remembering the denunciations 
 of the New Englanders when their religion was guaranteed 
 to them by the Act of 1774, the Canadians turned a deaf 
 ear to the protestations of friendship now made by 
 Congress. Even Franklin visited Canada in vain. The 
 priests had been conciliated, the notaries and seigneurs 
 saw in the Quebec Act a guarantee of their own influence, 
 and the habitant followed his leaders. Only among some 
 of the English settlers could the American offers obtain 
 consideration. Carleton was popular, and, although he 
 
THE CESSION OF CANADA. 31 
 
 received little help from England, he fairly held his own 
 against the Republican invaders. Piqued at the selection 
 of Burgoyne to command in the famous Saratoga campaign, 
 he returned to England. During the next few years 
 General Haldimand governed Canada. Nominally the 
 Quebec Act was in force, but the French historians com- 
 plain of the iron hand of the new Governor, and of his 
 imprisoning men on mere suspicion. Perhaps the Constitu- 
 tion of 1774 would have been a success had the stream of 
 British immigration not been diverted from the older 
 colonies by the peace of 1783. Carleton might have 
 developed in the French of Lower Canada a feeling of 
 loyalty to the English Crown from mere gratitude at the 
 scrupulous regard for their feelings, but with the coming of 
 the United Empire Loyalists all was changed. In 1838 
 Lord Durham diagnosed the trouble in Lower Canada as 
 " two nations warring in the bosom of a single State." He 
 was not far wrong, although perhaps the aims of the 
 majority were for economic rather than political reform. 
 
 Despite the blunders of the ministry and the incom- 
 petency of her generals, England had many active 
 partisans in the revolted colonies. These had fought on 
 her side in the war, and after 1783 the United States could 
 no longer be their home. Some were formerly men of 
 wealth Governors and State officials others simply 
 colonial farmers, but all alike had lost their possessions, 
 and were dependent on the charity of the British Govern- 
 ment. They colonised the Maritime Provinces, and over- 
 flowed into Canada. Most of the available land on the 
 banks of the St. Lawrence was in the possession of the 
 habitants and their seigneurs. The newcomers had little 
 inclination for city life, and, pressing westwards along the 
 north shore of Lake Ontario, colonised the rich alluvial 
 lands of the Peninsula of York. Haldimand did his best 
 for them, but their life was hard. Even in 1787 the new 
 settlers could not depend on the produce of their farms for 
 food. In the older colonies they had been accustomed to 
 
32 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 meet in the Assembly and devise measures for the 
 amelioration of their difficulties ; in Canada the only 
 legislative body was the nominee Council. Some of its 
 members were French, and the English members were 
 generally placemen, and powerless against a strong 
 Governor, although constitutionally his advisers. The 
 United Empire Loyalists, as they were called, loudly 
 demanded the rights they had enjoyed in their old homes, 
 and the French were not altogether satisfied now with the 
 Quebec Act as it was worked. Most of the higher judges 
 and officials were English, and were only slightly 
 acquainted with the civil law, even when they did not 
 calmly ignore it altogether. 
 
 In 1786 Carleton returned to Canada as Governor. The 
 British ministry saw that some new scheme of government 
 must be devised for Canada ; otherwise there was no hope 
 of saving it from the new Republic on its southern borders, 
 The British at Quebec and Montreal were delighted at the 
 influx of the Loyalists, and again preferred their claim that 
 an Assembly should be established to represent the 
 Protestant population only. They looked with alarm on 
 the scheme of the Loyalists that they should have a 
 separate Constitution for a new province in the west. As a 
 last resort, they asked that the Protestant population alone 
 might be represented in the British House of Commons. 
 Carleton's position was no enviable one. All his former 
 plans were impossible, if instead of a strong French 
 element, he had to see an increasing number of British 
 settlers in Lower Canada ; the Quebec Act with its system 
 of government by Council was manifestly unworkable. 
 
 Largely as a result of his representations the Constitu- 
 tional Act was passed in 1791 (31 Geo. III. c. 31). It 
 seemed a fair solution of the conflicting claims of the two 
 nationalities to divide up the province, giving each half a 
 Legislature in which one race would be supreme. There 
 were practically no French in Upper Canada, but the 
 population of Lower Canada consisted partly of British. 
 
THE CESSION OF CANADA. 33 
 
 It is impossible now to decide on the exact proportion. 
 Perhaps, at the time of the rebellion in 1837, Mr. Kings- 
 ford's estimate that the ratio was as three to one is fairly 
 accurate. 1 In earlier times the English-speaking population 
 was not so numerous, but even then, in wealth and com- 
 mercial enterprise, it was far more important than the 
 French. In the person of Adam Lymburner, a merchant 
 of Quebec, the British of Lower Canada protested 
 vigorously against this abandonment of their interests to 
 the French majority, and ridiculed the claim of the small 
 population in the new western province to self-government. 
 All protestations were useless, and the Bill became law. 
 
 This Constitutional Act (31 Geo. III. c. 31) is worthy of 
 a somewhat detailed account. It was an honest attempt 
 on the part of Pitt to satisfy the claims of two conflicting 
 nationalities. He thought the solution was to give an 
 exact copy of that Constitution which worked so well in 
 England ; he knew very little about the actual condition of 
 affairs in Canada, and it is doubtful whether the claim of 
 the colonists to responsible government in the modern 
 sense was ever thought of. The Whig theory of the 
 balance of opposing forces in the State which made for 
 stability was held just as firmly by Pitt as by Fox, and the 
 only instance of an Assembly claiming to be master of the 
 Executive was the product of the French Revolution, then 
 in its infancy. 
 
 The reason alleged for the repeal of the Quebec Act was 
 the unsuitability to the changed condition of affairs in 
 Canada of the provision that the Governor and Council 
 should make the laws ; this was repealed, and all laws in 
 future, consonant with the powers granted under this Act, 
 were to be made "by the Governor (or Lieutenant- 
 Governor), with the advice and consent of the Legislative 
 Council and Assembly," of each of the two new provinces. 
 The King could authorise the Governor, under his sign- 
 manual, to summon under the great seal of the province a 
 
 1 Kingsford, " History of Canada," Vol. IX., p. 518. 
 S.G.C. D 
 
34 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 sufficient number of discreet and proper persons to sit in 
 the Legislative Council. Seven was the minimum number 
 in Upper Canada, and fifteen in Lower Canada. Addi- 
 tional members could be added as the King directed, but 
 all members must be over twenty-one years of age, and 
 either natural-born or naturalised British subjects. The 
 seats were to be held for life, and although advantage was 
 never taken of the power thus conferred, the King might 
 create a colonial nobility, whose members could demand a 
 writ of summons to the Legislative Council. The Speaker 
 of the Legislative Council was to be appointed and could 
 be removed by the Governor. 
 
 Elaborate rules were given for the convocation of the 
 Assembly. The King was to authorise the Governor to 
 convoke it, and by proclamation to divide the provinces 
 into electoral districts. Sixteen members in Upper 
 Canada and fifty in Lower Canada formed the minimum 
 allowable in the new Assemblies. The franchise was 
 extraordinarily liberal. In the country districts of Quebec 
 a forty-shillings freehold, or its equivalent in any other 
 tenure, gave the right to vote, while in the towns the 
 elector must possess a dwelling-house value $, or rented 
 at 10 after a tenancy of at least one year. No member 
 of either provincial Council, and no clergyman of any 
 denomination, were eligible for election. The Assembly 
 was to be called together at least once every twelve 
 months, and was not to continue longer than four years. 
 The Governor, when a Bill had passed both Houses, could 
 either accept or reject it, or he might reserve it for the 
 signification of His Majesty's pleasure. Even when the 
 Governor assents to a Bill he must transmit a copy home, 
 and the Bill could be disallowed at any time during the 
 next two years. All laws in force in 1791 were to con- 
 tinue, unless repealed by this Act or by a subsequent vote 
 of the provincial parliament. The provision under the 
 Quebec Act for a Canadian Court of Appeal, consisting of 
 the Governor and the Executive Council, was continued ; 
 
THE CESSION OF CANADA. 35 
 
 from this Court an appeal was allowed to the Privy 
 Council as before. 
 
 The sections relating to the religious question are very 
 important. The Quebec Act allowed the tithe from lands 
 owned by Roman Catholics to be paid as usual, but the 
 tithe from Protestant settlers was to be paid, according to 
 orders sent to Sir Guy Carleton and Governor Haldimand, 
 to commissioners for the support of a resident Protestant 
 clergy. This scheme, so far at least as it related to lands 
 held by Protestants, does not seem to have been a success ; 
 perhaps the fact that many of the settlers were Presby- 
 terians or of non-Anglican sects may account for its 
 failure. Section 36 of the new Constitution orders that 
 one-seventh of all grants henceforth made from the Crown 
 lands shall be set apart in each township or parish "for 
 the support of a Protestant clergy " ; this condition is 
 essential to the validity of all future grants. According to 
 sec. 37 " all and every the rents profits or emoluments " 
 which may at any time arise from these lands shall be 
 applicable solely to the maintenance and support of a 
 Protestant clergy within that province where the lands are 
 situated, " and to no other use and purpose whatever." 
 The next section gave the Governor power to erect, with 
 the advice of the Executive Council, one or more parson- 
 ages or rectories in each township, " according to the 
 establishment of the Church of England," and to endow 
 them with the lands allotted in this particular township or 
 parish under sec. 36. The holders of these rectories or 
 parsonages were (according to sec. 39) to be presented by 
 the Governor, and to be subject to the jurisdiction of the 
 newly-appointed Bishop of Nova Scotia (sec. 40). They 
 were to have "all rights, profits, and emoluments, there- 
 unto belonging, as fully and as amply as the incumbent of a 
 parsonage or rectory in England." Section 41 gives to the 
 provincial Legislatures a right to repeal or modify these 
 and former provisions touching religion, but the King has 
 no power to assent to any provincial Act respecting the 
 
 D 2 
 
36 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 status and endowment of the Church of England in 
 Canada, until the proposed measures have lain before 
 parliament for thirty days without any objection being 
 raised. In the Constitutional Act there is no express 
 mention of equality for Roman Catholics and Protestants, 
 but that equality is tacitly secured by the wording of the 
 oaths in sees. 24 and 29. However, sec. 5 of 14 Geo. III. 
 c. 83, asserting the King's supremacy under Primo Eliz., 
 was not formally repealed, but the alternative oath for 
 Roman Catholics, given in sec. 7 of the Quebec Act, 
 appears in sec. 29 of 31 Geo. III. 
 
 The only other important provisions of the Act are 
 those relating to land tenure and commerce. By sec. 8 of 
 14 Geo. III. it was enacted that recourse was to be had to 
 the laws of Canada to decide questions touching the owner- 
 ship of land, except where such laws were varied by enact- 
 ments of the Governor and Council. This recourse to the 
 Feudal Law did not affect lands already granted or to 
 be granted by the King "in free and common soccage " 
 (sec. 9), and wills could be made either according to the 
 French or the English form. Naturally the United Empire 
 Loyalists of the west objected to feudal tenure, and 
 therefore, by sec. 43 of the Constitutional Act, all lands in 
 the new province of Upper Canada were henceforth to be 
 granted on the English tenure only ; grants made on 
 feudal tenure in the now separate Upper Canada, prior 
 to 1791, could be transformed on petition into holdings on 
 English tenure (sec. 44). In Lower Canada it was still 
 possible for a settler to get a grant in free and common 
 soccage, but it was henceforth to be subject to such altera- 
 tions, as to its nature and consequences, as the Provincial 
 parliament might determine with the consent of the 
 King. 
 
 Section 46, which relates to the commercial relations 
 between the colonies and the Mother Country, is both 
 interesting and significant. It recites the purport of an 
 Act passed in 1/78, during the height of the struggle with 
 
THE CESSION OF CANADA. 37 
 
 the revolted colonies. The Act 18 Geo. III. c. 12 promised 
 that the parliament of Great Britain would not impose any 
 duty, tax, or assessment whatever, payable in any of His 
 Majesty's colonies, except only such duties as it may seem 
 expedient to impose for the regulation of commerce, the net 
 product of such duties to be always paid and applied to and 
 for the use of the particular colony. It is necessary for the 
 general benefit of the British Empire that this power shall 
 still be retained, and therefore nothing in 31 Geo. III. c. 31 
 is to be taken as preventing the King from regulating the 
 commerce between Upper and Lower Canada, or between 
 either and Great Britain or any other colony or foreign 
 State. However, the net produce of all dues so levied 
 shall be only disposed of at the will of the Legislature 
 of the province. 
 
 The speeches of those who took part in the debate on 
 the Constitutional Bill are well worth reading. Pitt intro- 
 duced the new Constitution as a panacea for the disputes 
 between the old and the new settlers. They could make 
 what laws they pleased in their new Assemblies. He did 
 not conceive that the new Constitution favoured the growth 
 of French nationality in Lower Canada. He said that any 
 attempt to establish a French nationality in Lower Canada 
 would incur the enmity not only of the United States but 
 also of our own colonies. Both Burke and Fox took part 
 in the debate, and it was then that the famous quarrel 
 between them occurred. The French Revolution had 
 driven every Liberal idea from Burke's head, and he could 
 only see in the proposed Constitution an unwelcome 
 following of French rather than British ideas. Fox was, as 
 usual, much more advanced than his colleagues. He seems 
 to have favoured a united Canada, in contradistinction to 
 Burke, who wished to leave each race supreme in the part 
 where it had a numerical majority. Fox foresaw the diffi- 
 culty which would arise when the unprogressive French 
 Canadians by sheer force of numbers controlled the wishes 
 of the energetic British in Lower Canada. He took 
 
38 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 exception also to the proposed constitution of the Legislative 
 Council. He maintained that, valuable as an aristocracy 
 was in an old and settled country, the proper materials for 
 a stable hereditary Upper House were wanting in Canada. 
 He proposed that the Legislative Council should be elective, 
 but with a higher property qualification, both for members 
 and constituents, than was the rule for the Assembly. The 
 time was not yet ripe for the elective principle to be applied 
 to both Houses, and it was never intended that the new 
 Legislature should be able to defy the Crown. Were the 
 Legislative Council also an elected body, the Governor's 
 veto might chance be too frequently needed ; so long as 
 the revising Chamber was controlled by the Governor, 
 obnoxious measures could be killed without the official 
 opposition becoming too marked. 
 
 Reading the Constitution of 1791 in the light of its 
 subsequent history, we are tempted to ask if its authors 
 seriously expected it to be a remedy for the troubles of 
 Canada. It is worthy of Abbe Sieyes and his master 
 Napoleon. The appointment of the Governor remained 
 with the Colonial Office, to whom alone he was responsible. 
 The Executive Councillors were supposed to advise the 
 Governor, but a strong man could and did ignore them. 
 They were frequently poor men, and the temptation to 
 make a fortune out of their position was strong. They 
 formed frequently a majority in the Legislative Council, 
 and had to obey the Governor as to rejecting Bills. In 
 Upper Canada they tried, sometimes not without success, 
 to make the Lieutenant- Governor their tool. The judges 
 were appointed by the Crown, and could be and were 
 dismissed when they ceased to be useful. Both in Upper 
 and Lower Canada dismissal was the penalty for indepen- 
 dence, whether the culprit was a high or low official. The 
 British colonial minister, seldom the most brilliant member 
 of the Cabinet, invariably insisted that he should be con- 
 sulted upon the minutest details of the Governor's policy. 
 Failure to observe this rule brought upon the unfortunate 
 
THE CESSION OF CANADA. 39 
 
 Governor a sharp rebuke, and frequently a recall in later 
 times. It is true that the Governor knew very little about 
 the true needs of the country, and was dependent for infor- 
 mation upon the very officials whose misgovernment he 
 ought to have checked ; and yet it cannot be maintained 
 that the Colonial Office, situated on the other side of the 
 Atlantic, and with a head whose policy depended on party 
 exigencies or the chance result of an election, was much 
 better informed. Most of the rulers it sent to Canada 
 from 1763 to 1837 were military men, sometimes able 
 administrators, seldom statesmen, and only recommended 
 by their previously formed habit of obedience to authority. 
 The pay and privileges of the office were not, even in 
 Lower Canada, sufficient to tempt a really able man to 
 accept it, and it often went a-begging. 
 
 If the personnel of the Executive Council was so poor, 
 little could be expected of its nominees in the Legislative 
 Council. The English-speaking population in Lower 
 Canada was small in early times, and the number of men 
 fitted, either by natural abilities or training, for office under 
 the Government was not even in proportion to that popu- 
 lation. It was hopeless, at that early date, to find more 
 suitable men among the French inhabitants ; for, with the 
 exception of the seigneurs, doctors, notaries, and advocates, 
 there were few people among the laity with any pretence 
 of education. French placemen in increasing numbers 
 gradually filled the lower offices, but their chief claim was 
 more often their docility than their nationality. The 
 British official class kept a firm hold on the higher appoint- 
 ments, even of the Bench, and the Lord Chief Justice was 
 an Englishman as a rule. Even of the judges appointed 
 to administer the French Civil Law, few really understood 
 the mass of feudal rules known as the Custom of Paris, 
 and, certainly before 1791, it was the custom for the judge 
 to administer a sort of irregular equity when too ignorant 
 or too lazy to use the Civil Law. Few really able 
 men are to be met with in the dreary annals of early 
 
4 o SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Canadian history, for genius was not looked kindly upon 
 by the governing class, whatever might be the race of its 
 possessor. 
 
 The Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada was 
 intensely French in feeling. Perhaps, considering the 
 habitant's past, and his want of any sort of preparation for 
 the exercise of political rights, the franchise was too liberal. 
 Except in Quebec, Montreal, Three Rivers, and Sorel it 
 was hopeless for the English to attempt the election of one 
 of their own countrymen. The method adopted in fixing 
 the electoral districts, by Sir Alured Clarke, the Lieutenant- 
 Governor, even gave the French an unfair increase of 
 representatives. The fifty members were to be elected by 
 counties, each returning as a rule two members, and by the 
 four cities or towns. The Eastern Townships were at that 
 time only partially settled, and no separate provision was 
 made for their representation. It was not till 1829 that 
 they received direct representation in the Assembly. Then 
 eight members were granted to them ; before that time 
 they seem to have been regarded as part of the nearest 
 French constituency. As was natural, the habitant pre- 
 ferred to elect his parish leaders, and so the members of 
 the Assembly were doctors, notaries, advocates and 
 seigneurs, with a varying number of actual habitants and 
 small farmers. In the first parliament, sixteen of the 
 members were British, at any rate in name, and this 
 proportion was never exceeded. 
 
 So long as Dorchester remained Governor there was 
 little actual trouble ; the French population understood 
 that he had every sympathy with their legitimate aspira- 
 tions under the Constitution, and even the English 
 inhabitants joined with them in forming a society for the 
 education of the new electors in their duties. At first the 
 French members, unacquainted with the principles of self- 
 government, gladly allowed the British representatives to 
 take a leading part in the business of the House. Except 
 for the election of a French Speaker, and the decision that 
 
THE CESSION OF CANADA. 41 
 
 the minutes should be kept in French, the majority did not 
 act with any striking unanimity. 
 
 It was unfortunate that the concession of this phantom of 
 responsible government synchronised with the outbreak 
 of the French Revolution. Into Canada poured a steady 
 stream of priests and nobles, seeking an asylum among a 
 French race that yet remained true to its old traditions. 
 At first all classes of the French Canadians were shocked 
 at the excesses in France, and openly congratulated them- 
 selves that they were under British rule. There was soon 
 to be a change of feeling, at least among the habitants and 
 the half-educated class that supplied the doctors and 
 notaries. The French minister Genet was labouring with 
 great success to embroil the United States in a war with 
 Great Canada. Not content with that, he sent emissaries 
 to preach the new gospel of equality to the French 
 Canadians, and to persuade them to form a new Republic. 
 His offers were treated contemptuously by the clergy and 
 upper classes, but they soon began to share Dorchester's 
 alarm at the readiness with which the habitants listened. 
 From the ranks of the latter were largely drawn the notary 
 and the doctor, and, as Lord Durham points out, these 
 men, on returning to their villages from the seminaries of 
 Montreal and Quebec, were looked up to and too often 
 implicitly trusted by the ignorant habitant. The latter 
 was accustomed to be guided by them in his civil affairs, 
 and naturally learned to accept political guidance from 
 them also. Education was practically non-existent among 
 the lower classes, and the few newspapers that might filter 
 in from the States could not be read. When, at the 
 beginning of the nineteenth century, a French Press 
 appeared, it was edited and managed by a bitterly anti- 
 British group of politicians. 
 
 Even Dorchester, although he sympathised with the 
 native Canadian, never thought of entrusting him with true 
 self-government, and he generally gave his confidence to 
 those of his own nation. The fact that when, on the 
 
42 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 prospect of war with the United States, he attempted to 
 call out the militia, he found the French very reluctant to 
 serve, did not encourage him to give them too much power. 
 This suspicious attitude awakened the ambitious notaries to 
 their real position under the Constitution. It was not long 
 before a fairly compact majority appeared in the Assembly, 
 and true to their ideas of political rights, they began to 
 resent the eternal thwartings of their plans. They were 
 the majority and ought to rule, but over against them 
 stood the British merchant class, small in numbers but 
 already important by reason of their wealth and the 
 seigneuries they had bought from decayed Canadian 
 owners. The opposition between the merchant and the 
 notary was twofold. The former resented the prevailing 
 system of indirect taxation, by which the commercial 
 classes provided all the revenue of the country ; the notaries 
 voted this in the Assembly for objects beneficial only to 
 their own party, and would do nothing to improve the 
 commerce of the country. Moreover, many retired mer- 
 chants and others had settled in the seigneuries, and found 
 all their efforts to change their holdings to free and common 
 soccage, or to introduce a more scientific agriculture, in 
 vain. The notaries, who found in the litigiousness of the 
 habitant a great source of wealth, naturally wished to 
 retain the feudal tenure. The English merchant found he 
 had bought an estate which he could not improve without 
 incurring jealousy from his neighbours, and, owing to the 
 absence of any system of registration of sales or mortgages, 
 he was never certain of his title. All attempts to get a 
 registry were vain, and even in the Eastern Townships 
 there were none till 1830. 
 
 It was this obstinate but quite intelligible adherence to 
 the Custom of Paris on the part of the notaries that 
 prevented any extensive British settlement of Lower 
 Canada, except in the Eastern Townships. The English 
 seigneur received none of the reverence so willingly paid 
 by the habitant to his French predecessor ; perhaps, 
 
THE CESSION OF CANADA. 43 
 
 however, this was on account of his insistence on what he 
 conceived to be his strict legal rights over the seigneury. 
 To the habitant the seigneur had always been in theory a 
 mere trustee, and as the feudal system was fast breaking 
 down in Canada, the old dues were paid less cheerfully. 
 The priest disliked the newcomers, for their lands did not 
 pay tithe, and the peasant disliked them because, having 
 fewer Church holy days to observe, they derived more 
 advantage from the short Canadian summer. The English 
 merchant had shot far ahead of his French competitor in 
 the towns, and it seemed as if sheer superiority of method 
 was going to give the Englishman dominion over the 
 seigneuries also. He felt his superiority, and chafed at the 
 antiquated law which kept him from sharing the prosperity 
 of the farmers over the frontier. The Englishman's 
 objection to the Custom of Paris was not in the least 
 sentimental. He had come to Canada to better himself, 
 and if the majority in the Assembly would only apply the 
 taxes he alone paid to the making of roads and bridges 
 and to the improvement of the country generally, he had 
 no political ambitions. Often in disgust the English 
 settler abandoned his farm and went off to Upper Canada 
 or the newer States of the Union. Even in the Eastern 
 Townships things were not much better. They were 
 politically impotent in the Assembly, and it was not until 
 1823 that the establishment of a resident judge at Sher- 
 brooke, in the district of St. Francis, relieved litigants from 
 the necessity of transacting all their legal business at 
 Montreal or Quebec. As has been mentioned, it was not 
 until 1830 that the establishment of registries gave a man 
 a sure title even to land held on English tenure. 
 
 If the wrongs of the English settlers remained unredressed 
 so long it was not their fault. Unfortunately for them- 
 selves, they could not unanimously accept the remedy 
 which the British Government might have offered the 
 enforcement of the Act of 1791 ; for they were not all 
 English by nationality, many being Americans, and the 
 
44 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 tenure which found favour both in Upper and Lower 
 Canada was the American modification of the English 
 Land Laws; this discarded primogeniture in favour of a 
 system of division among all the children. The commercial 
 class in the towns and the English in the seigneuries had 
 thus little in common with the semi-Americanised settlers 
 in the eastern township ; it was not until Papineau and his 
 party deliberately raised the question of nationality that 
 the English-speaking population showed a united front. 
 Lord Durham expressed their position accurately as a 
 determination that Lower Canada should remain English, 
 even if necessary at the expense of not remaining British. 
 
 There was as little sympathy between the merchants and 
 the officials at Quebec, as between the former and the 
 people of the Eastern Townships. The mercantile classes 
 only cared for political influence as a means to secure 
 increased prosperity, and they disliked as much as the 
 French leaders the exclusiveness of the official clique. A 
 few of the richer merchants were taken into favour, but 
 that only made the others more envious ; they were power- 
 less both at the Castle of St. Lewis, and in the Assembly, 
 and we cannot blame them for intriguing perpetually at 
 London for the revision of the Constitution. During 
 Dorchester's tenure of office the official class, aided by the 
 merchants and a few of the seigneurs and better class 
 French Canadians, could count on a party in the Assembly, 
 whose members were no real criterion of its strength ; but 
 with the coming of Governor Prescott, Dorchester's 
 successor, began the system of the oligarchy, due to the 
 final severance of interest between the official and non- 
 official English on account of the revelations as to the 
 doings of the Land Board Committee. 
 
 The Land Board was composed of members of the Privy 
 or Executive Council, and its duties were to manage the 
 Crown lands, and allot them to settlers. Prescott very 
 soon saw that the backward state of the country and the 
 scantiness of the English population were due to official 
 
THE CESSION OF CANADA. 45 
 
 mismanagement. He transmitted a report to the Colonial 
 Office, revealing a scandalous system of jobbery and 
 corruption on the part of the Land Board officials. Of 
 necessity, he had not dared to give his confidence to the 
 Executive Council, and when he produced his instructions 
 to reform wholesale the existing state of things, there was 
 trouble. The guilty councillors cleverly embroiled their 
 fellow-members of the Executive Council in the quarrel, 
 and it degenerated into a personal squabble between the 
 Governor and Chief-Justice Osgoode. Both sailed to 
 England, and the officials breathed again. 
 
 The direct result of this exposure of the Land Board's 
 mismanagement was to encourage the French leaders to 
 oppose any attempt at reform. They felt stronger now 
 that the settler and the official were at loggerheads, and 
 the yielding character of Prescott's successor, Sir Robert 
 Shore Milnes, opposed no obstacle to their ambitions. He 
 flattered them, because otherwise he could not have 
 governed Lower Canada at all. The Assembly as yet, 
 however, had no definite leaders and scarcely a definite 
 policy, unless opposition to the engrossing of all important 
 offices by the British constitutes one. The officials in 
 their turn, finding that it was useless to seek supremacy in 
 the Assembly, found a sort of tacit alliance with the com- 
 mercial interests at Quebec and Montreal ; they would, so 
 far as they dare, ignore the Assembly they could not 
 manage, and perhaps after the war they might secure a 
 revision of the Constitution. The situation was anomalous ; 
 it was impossible to carry any law either party objected to, 
 and yet, for all their power in the Assembly, the French 
 Canadian leaders had not an atom of control over the men 
 who governed the country. The Governor-General was 
 responsible only to Downing Street, and disregarded, when 
 it pleased him, the wishes of Council and Assembly alike. 
 Governor Milnes only gave the Assembly fair words, and 
 his successor, Craig, was not even so complaisant. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 " LA NATION CANADIENNE." 
 
 CRAIG came at an unfortunate time (1808). The two 
 parties had at last become definitely opposed, and more- 
 over Genet's intrigues were soon to bear fruit in the war of 
 1812. The Assembly had passed a Gaol Act, just before 
 his arrival, providing for the construction of gaols out of the 
 provincial revenues. The Quebec Mercury and The Montreal 
 Gazette, as representatives of the commercial element, out 
 of which the taxes came, protested against this incessant 
 plundering of the British population, and suggested that a 
 local rate would have been preferable. There was nothing 
 so distasteful to the Assembly as criticism, and the offending 
 editors were summoned before the House for breach of 
 privilege. This unwise proceeding caused a tremendous 
 sensation among the commercial class, and it was now 
 openly said that Lower Canada was too French for a 
 British colony, and it was high time to put a check to the 
 proceedings of the Assembly. At that very moment the 
 Assembly had planned to take the offensive, and in 1806 
 Le Canadien, the first French newspaper, appeared. 
 
 The new paper was said to be controlled by Panet, the 
 Speaker of the Assembly, and Pierre Bedard, one of the 
 most influential members. It was very ably edited, and 
 being written in French, penetrated into all the country 
 villages. From first to last the writers attacked the 
 Government, although carefully avoiding any denunciation 
 of England. They rather took their stand upon the rights 
 of parliament, as laid down in the great English law-books, 
 such as Blackstone, and claimed for the Assembly all the 
 rights of the House of Commons. It was suspected that 
 
"LA NATION CANADIENNE." 47 
 
 the writers enjoyed the secret support of the anti-British 
 element in the United States, and this suspicion was quite 
 enough to make the paper distasteful to Craig, who had 
 been expressly sent in view of the expected war. 
 
 Quite early in his governorship (August 8th, 1808) Craig 
 wrote to Lord Castlereagh a remarkable dispatch. He 
 said, 1 " They (the Canadian leaders) believe, or affect to 
 believe, that there exists a ministry here, and that, in 
 imitation of the Constitution of Great Britain, that ministry 
 is responsible to them for the conduct of the Government. 
 It is not necessary that I should point out to your lord- 
 ships the steps to which such an idea may lead them." 
 Perhaps Craig understood better than Bedard himself the 
 ultimate tendency of the latter's proceedings. The present 
 demands of the French leaders were much more modest. 
 They were to remove the judges from the House of 
 Assembly, and by becoming responsible for the expenses 
 of the civil government of the province, to secure control 
 over the officials. In theory, there is little in their plans 
 to which exception can be taken, but the time was inop- 
 portune, and the methods by which they sought these 
 reforms were most unwise. Bedard and his friends used 
 Le Canadien to preach a policy of " Lower Canada for the 
 French" in most offensive terms, and held themselves 
 aloof from those Englishmen who would otherwise have 
 supported them. They made all their demands to- 
 gether, at a time when war was daily expected with the 
 United States, and when England was in the very thick 
 of the struggle with Napoleon. Craig was a soldier, not 
 a politician, and neither he nor the ministers who appointed 
 him were willing to give the French rights which were 
 scarcely recognised in England. A colony was a de- 
 pendency, and only in municipal affairs were the colonists' 
 wishes to count for anything. Opposition was to be merci- 
 lessly crushed, and people must take for granted the 
 Governor's good intentions. Craig does not deserve the 
 1 Can. Arch., Q. 107, p. 312. 
 
48 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 obloquy thrown upon him by some writers, especially by 
 Garneau. He could do no otherwise than he did ; the 
 system was to blame, not the man, for in all he could, he 
 devoted his powers to the welfare of the province. 
 
 One of the first acts of the Assembly was to pass a 
 measure excluding the judges from the Assembly ; the 
 Council threw it out, and in consequence some members 
 of the Lower House wished to exclude the judges by resolu- 
 tion, as they excluded a Jew, who had been returned for 
 Three Rivers. In his prorogation speech Craig lectured 
 the Assembly in a paternal way, which was much resented. 
 The new elections were keenly contested, and Speaker 
 Panet lost his seat at Quebec on account of his extreme 
 views. He had taken part in a meeting at which the 
 executive had been attacked, and, although he was elected 
 for Huntingdon, Craig determined to teach the students 
 of Blackstone a lesson. Panet, Bedard, Taschereau, and 
 two others were dismissed from their commissions in the 
 Militia as being concerned in the issue of the disaffected 
 organ Le Canadian. Panet was accepted as Speaker, 
 however, and Craig encouraged the Assembly to legislate, 
 so that the United States' embargo would only develop 
 the resources of Canada. The Assembly preferred to 
 proceed with the Bill for the disqualification of the judges, 
 and the result was that Craig incontinently dissolved 
 parliament in an extraordinary speech which praised the 
 Legislative Council for their conduct, and accused the 
 Assembly of wasting time in frivolous debates. For a 
 time it seemed as though Craig's transparent honesty of 
 purpose was approved of in the constituencies, but Le 
 Canadien soon effected a conversion of sentiment. The 
 habitants were uneducated and incapable of judging of the 
 real meaning of the frothy commonplaces of their leaders, 
 but the appeals to passion, and sometimes to religious 
 bigotry, had little effect on the better educated seigneurs. 
 Unfortunately, the latter had no influence compared with 
 the agitators, and the undisguised hostility of Secretary 
 
"LA NATION CANADIENNE." 4g 
 
 Ryland and his friends to the retentions by the Roman 
 Catholic Church of its endowments prevented the clergy 
 from discountenancing the anti-British tendency. 
 
 The new elections were a disagreeable surprise to Craig. 
 He had had an almost triumphal tour around the province, 
 and met the new parliament with one of his usual speeches 
 about British victories and the need for union against the 
 States. As an olive-branch, he told the members that the 
 King had allowed him to sanction a Bill for the exclusion 
 of the judges. The answer he received was a Resolution of 
 the Assembly, carried by 24 votes to n, that his late 
 speech, in which he attempted to censure the Assembly, 
 was a breach of privilege, and an attack on the liberties of 
 the province. There was worse to follow; it was the 
 second part of the Assembly's policy to secure the whip- 
 hand of the officials. Resolutions were passed in the 
 Assembly that the province was able and willing to bear 
 the expense of its own civil government. The Assembly 
 had totally ignored the Legislative Council, and in another 
 respect that the Crown had not asked for a grant the 
 proposal to pay the civil expenses was contrary to prece- 
 dent. Craig, in his reply, pointed out these mistakes, and 
 although he agreed to forward the Resolutions, he did it 
 with a salvo of the rights of the Legislative Council and 
 the Crown. 
 
 Bedard and his party were not content with this reply. 
 They asked the Governor to order the proper officer to lay 
 before the House an estimate of the civil expenses pre- 
 sumably, from their later conduct, with a view to reducing 
 the salaries of obnoxious officials and in addition a com- 
 mittee was appointed to consider and report upon consti- 
 tutional usage in the matter of voting supplies. It was 
 bad enough for Craig to find that his law was not accepted, 
 but Bedard was not content with this. A proposal was 
 made to appoint an Agent in London quite independent of 
 Craig and the Councils, and the Bill for the exclusion of the 
 judges was again passed. The Legislative Council were 
 
 S.G.C. . E 
 
50 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 willing to accept it, if it might take effect on the expiration 
 of the present Legislature. The Assembly showed its true 
 colours by ignoring an obvious constitutional victory, and 
 promptly excluded Judge de Bonne, an obnoxious French 
 official, from the House. This decision was a foreshadow- 
 ing of the later policy of Papineau. Out of fifty members, 
 only twenty-four voted ; eight dared to oppose the ex- 
 tremists, and twenty-six did not vote or were absent. It 
 is not surprising that Craig dissolved the Assembly. 
 Dorchester would have rallied the moderates by concessions, 
 but Craig had fallen into the hands of Sewell and Ryland, 
 who did not at heart wish the Assembly to exist at all. 
 A policy of exasperation and no concession might drive it 
 into action that would result in the suspension of the 
 Constitution. 
 
 We must acquit Craig of any intention to play the 
 tyrant ; the fact is that he was a soldier, and saw that war 
 with the United States was inevitable. The Assembly, in 
 its existing state of feeling, was dangerous to the security 
 of the province. Craig could see that the extremists had 
 no more a coherent majority in 1810 than in the final 
 struggle before the rebellion, but he did not understand 
 that his true policy was to expose the groundless nature of 
 the Assembly's claims by argument rather than to use force 
 to terrorise the malcontents into submission. Addresses 
 of approval from many parts of the province had followed 
 his action in dissolving the Assembly, but his violent con- 
 duct in forcibly suppressing Le Canadien, and arresting 
 the printer, and, soon afterwards, Bedard, Blanchet, and 
 Taschereau, checked the movement in his favour. As the 
 prisoners were all released in course of time, untried, it 
 seems that Craig found his suspicions of treasonable inter- 
 course with Americans to have been unfounded, but it 
 cannot be denied that Le Canadien had exerted a baneful 
 influence on the struggle. Its appeals to passion and 
 prejudice consorted ill with its professed constitutionalism. 
 Unfortunately, its suppression was far from bringing peace, 
 
"LA NATION CANADIENNE." 51 
 
 as the consequent military precautions Craig took made 
 the French uneasy. Other arrests followed that of Bedard, 
 and much feeling was aroused. 
 
 Craig issued a long proclamation stating that " treason- 
 able writings were being circulated in the province at great 
 expense to some person unknown ; he had been grossly 
 slandered, as he had neither applied for troops nor pro- 
 posed to tax land so as to relieve the mercantile class of 
 some import duties. As to the offer to pay the civil 
 expenses, the King must be consulted, and time was 
 required. The agitators could not know his plans, and 
 people should listen to the clergy, who were their advisers 
 before. He himself had no motive for oppressing them, 
 as he was a dying man, and only remained in Canada to 
 please the King." Craig tried to convince Bedard, who 
 remained longest in prison, because he would not own his 
 error ; the utmost Bedard would say was that he believed 
 the Governor had acted in the way he thought best, but 
 that his conscience would not allow him to plead guilty. 
 Ultimately Bedard was released before Craig returned to 
 England, and he at least seems to have realized that he 
 had not acted wisely. 
 
 Craig, in despair at governing in accord with the Assembly, 
 sent his private secretary, Mr. Ryland, to London to pro- 
 pose changes in the Constitution. Lord Liverpool's ministry 
 was then in power, but although Ryland remained in 
 England from August, 1810, till March, 1812, he could 
 not obtain more than fair words. The plan proposed was 
 to abolish the Assembly, and obtain money by confiscating 
 the estates of the Sulpicians, under plea of a flaw in the 
 title ; the income derived from these estates and from that 
 part of the Jesuit estates not applied to the support of 
 education would make the Government independent of 
 the Assembly. Moreover, the people could be kept under 
 control by the Crown allowing the Roman Catholic Bishop 
 a salary as Superintendent and by the appointment of the 
 cur6s only by letters of confirmation from the Government. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Most important, too, was it that the proceedings against 
 Le Canadien should be approved. 
 
 The ministry had enough on their hands with the war in 
 Spain to risk a rebellion in Canada, nor were the members 
 sufficiently homogeneous in their politics to make an 
 alteration of the Constitution easy-. Ryland was told that 
 the utmost possible was the reunion of the two provinces ; 
 that the law officers recognised an equitable although not 
 a legal right of the Sulpicians to their estates, and that 
 the Assembly should be managed by " bringing over " 
 some of the Opposition ; as for the proceedings against 
 Le Canadien, they were scarcely legal, but excusable from 
 its conduct, although a better policy would have been to 
 prosecute it for libel. Ryland failed in his mission, but he 
 had so impressed Lord Liverpool that he was recommended 
 to Sir George Prevost, Craig's successor ; Prevost and 
 Craig, however, were two different characters, and Ryland 
 was glad to receive a monetary equivalent for his post 
 in 1813. 
 
 In June, 1811, Craig left Canada. To the last he had 
 trouble with the Assembly, for the number of British in 
 the House of 1810 was only nine. With great reluctance 
 the Assembly passed the " Act for the better preservation 
 of His Majesty's Government" and the " Alien Act," 
 which were both about to expire. There was a difference 
 of opinion as to the state of feeling in the province, but 
 Craig was a little more conciliatory. The Assembly had 
 no wish to see the province annexed to the United States, 
 and passed the Militia Act, Craig accepting an Act for the 
 exclusion of the Judges. Perhaps the French leaders were 
 beginning to see the Governor's good points, his geniality 
 and frankness, and his interest in everything that concerned 
 the welfare of the province. The Governor closed the session 
 with a speech in which he actually praised the Assembly 
 for their attention to duty, and preached them a little 
 homily on the advantages of union to the province. He 
 probably believed sincerely in the roseate picture of the 
 
"LA NATION CANADIENNE." 53 
 
 province which he painted for them, but it was well for 
 British interests in Canada that he was succeeded by 
 Prevost Violence had failed to curb the Assembly. 
 
 Prevost had been very popular as Lieutenant-Governor 
 of Nova Scotia. He won similar favour in Canada. The 
 Executive and Legislative Councils were strengthened by 
 the introduction of moderate members, and Prevost con- 
 ciliated the Opposition by restoring their commissions to 
 militia officers previously cashiered by Craig. He cleverly 
 muzzled Bedard by making him judge of Three Rivers. 
 Finally, just before he left Lower Canada, he appointed 
 Speaker Panet to a seat in the Legislative Council ; this 
 allowed the election of Louis Joseph Papineau as Speaker 
 of the House of Assembly. 
 
 The appeasement of the French took place not a moment 
 too soon, for without the active co-operation of the 
 Canadians, Lower Canada could not have been defended 
 against the Americans. Prevost's real title to fame is too 
 frequently eclipsed by his misfortunes in the war of 1812, 
 but the Canadians never forgot him. Colonel de Salaberry's 
 splendid victory at Chateauguay caused great enthusiasm, 
 and somewhat made up for Prevost' s failures. 
 
 Prevost had little trouble with the Assembly ; perhaps 
 the war had calmed the advanced party somewhat, for 
 spies were swarming in the villages, and this circumstance, 
 combined with the insulting speeches and proclamations 
 of the Americans, caused imaginary grievances to be 
 forgotten. His personal popularity caused the Assembly 
 to prefer that he alone should exercise the extra-con- 
 stitutional power to arrest suspects, rather than that he 
 should be checked by the Council, and liberal supplies 
 were voted. His military failures, however, gave the 
 British population a means of attacking one who was too 
 friendly to the French, and, despite the petitions of the 
 latter for his retention in the Government, Prevost had to 
 return to England. 
 
 After a brief interval Prevost was succeeded by a 
 
54 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 like-minded Governor, Sir John Sherbrooke. His first 
 difficulty was the case of Chief Justice Sewell, who, for 
 his part during Craig's government, had incurred the bitter 
 hatred of the French. The latter had found an ally in 
 Sir James Stuart, who had been dismissed from his post 
 as Solicitor-General by Craig ; and even under Prevost's 
 rule attempts had been made to impeach Sewell. The 
 Chief Justice, however, secured the ear of Lord Bathurst, 
 and also that of Edward Duke of Kent, and thus secure, 
 he had his revenge by proposing that there should be a 
 federation of all British North America, which would 
 effectually destroy the Assembly's power. Sherbrooke 
 recognised that, at present at any rate, he had to govern 
 with the Assembly, and proposed to solve the difficulty 
 by pensioning off Sewell and making Stuart Attorney- 
 General. The reign of the officials had come to an end to 
 all appearance, for Sherbrooke wanted to give Papineau, 
 then becoming prominent, a seat in the Executive Council, 
 and did actually succeed in inducing Bishop Plessis to 
 accept nomination, with the consent of the Colonial Office. 
 Unfortunately, Sherbrooke remained in thecolony little more 
 than two years, and his efforts to govern in harmony with 
 the Assembly were not consonant with the ideas prevailing 
 in Downing Street. There was no wish to oppress the 
 colonists, but they were to remain as children, satisfied 
 with a toy instead of real self-government. In justice to 
 the Colonial Office it must be admitted that no intelligible 
 plan of reform was put forward by the Opposition ; cer- 
 tainly responsible government in the later sense was not 
 thought of, and the greatest innovation even Papineau 
 suggested after 1828 was the introduction of the elective 
 principle for the appointment of members of the Legislative 
 Council. No one, in Lower Canada at any rate, asked 
 that the Executive Council should retire when it failed to 
 find support in the Assembly ; the French leaders had no 
 wish to assume responsibility, but preferred to gain their 
 ends by impeaching recalcitrant members of the Govern- 
 
"LA NATION CANADIENNE." 55 
 
 ment. The Assembly were to govern through subservient 
 English officials, and the Assembly soon became a synonym 
 for Louis Joseph Papineau. 
 
 The Colonial Office had a difficult problem to solve ; 
 it could either support the policy of Prevost and Sherbrooke 
 or disavow it. The former course seemed likely to develop 
 a system of colonial government quite different from any- 
 thing yet known, and it meant leaving the rich merchants 
 of Lower Canada as a prey to the party who, supreme in 
 both the Council and the Assembly, would govern Canada 
 for their own advantage. Owing to the fact that Upper 
 Canada had no port and that the Assembly of Lower 
 Canada resolutely refused to deepen the St. Lawrence 
 shallows so that the canals of Upper Canada might 
 be reached from the sea, the party governing Lower 
 Canada commanded also the fate of Upper Canada. We 
 must bear this relation of the two provinces in mind to 
 see any justification for the policy of the British Govern- 
 ment. Hume, Roebuck, and the other extreme Radicals 
 of the day, vehemently supported the French in the coming 
 struggle. The majority should govern, according to the 
 principles of Liberalism, even if that majority was due to 
 an unnatural division of territory, and was led by men who 
 did not understand in the least the principles they professed 
 to fight for. 
 
 The second alternative was the reunion of the two 
 provinces. No other course was possible if Sherbrooke's 
 scheme of conciliation was to be disavowed, but, unfortu- 
 nately for this policy, it was only popular among the 
 British of Lower Canada. The inhabitants of Upper 
 Canada, especially the party in power, led by Archdeacon 
 Strachan, would have none of it ; the Assembly's reputation 
 had gone before it, and the population of Upper Canada 
 was as yet too small to out-vote the French by fair means. 
 The Canadian question coincided in point of time with 
 the great Liberal movement throughout Europe, and the 
 younger French Canadians became enthusiastic for theories 
 
56 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 which promised to serve their ambitions so well. They 
 found a fitting leader in the new Speaker of the House of 
 Assembly. Now for the first time the French had found a 
 leader with qualities that appealed to them far more than 
 the legal pedantry of Bedard. 
 
 Papineau first entered the Assembly in January, 1810. 
 He came of a family whose loyalty to the British connec- 
 tion was well known. He himself always protested his 
 loyalty to the British Crown, even after the rebellion ; 
 perhaps the position he took up at first arose from mere 
 ungratified ambition, as was so commonly the case in those 
 early days, when all honours were engrossed by members 
 of the ruling race. Afterwards there can be no doubt that 
 he entertained designs by no means consonant with his 
 duty as a British subject ; it may be that towards the final 
 scene he was pressed on by the flood of passions which he 
 knew better how to excite than to calm or guide into safe 
 channels. He was a man of imposing presence, an eloquent 
 speaker, after the fashion of his countrymen, and possessed 
 remarkable power of fascinating all who came into contact 
 with him. He stood forth as the leader of the young 
 Canadians, the champion of Canadian nationality against 
 the intruding British. Everything favoured his schemes : 
 harvests were bad ; the English Corn Laws deprived the 
 habitant of a large market ; English settlers were flood- 
 ing the country ; and, finally, Upper Canada produced in 
 William Lyon Mackenzie a fellow-agitator. 
 
 Against the serried phalanx of French Liberalism the 
 British Government could only oppose the sporadic efforts 
 of constantly changing ministries, with Colonial Secretaries 
 who deemed it a point of honour to " do something " with 
 Canada. It generally took the form of sending a new 
 Governor, or, later, appointing a Royal Commission, but 
 these remedies were quite useless. The Governor must 
 carry out the orders of Downing Street, and although the 
 Commissions had of necessity more liberty in reporting, 
 there were ample means for counteracting or actually 
 
"LA NATION CANADIENNE." 57 
 
 neglecting the remedies proposed. The British ministries, 
 whatever their private politics, agreed in one thing the 
 impossibility of conceding the elective Legislative Council, 
 and so allowing incidentally the French Canadians to arrange 
 the salaries of the officials at their pleasure. Finally, the 
 Assembly, under the influence of Papineau, fatuously 
 refused first to vote supplies, and then actually refused 
 to transact any business until their demands were granted. 
 Such a challenge roused even the reformed House of 
 Commons, and the suspension of Lower Canada's constitu- 
 tion was the inevitable outcome of Papineau's policy. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. 
 
 THE brief government of the Duke of Richmond (July 3Oth, 
 1818 August, 1819) was a fitting prelude to the new 
 policy ; to carry it out Lord Dalhousie was chosen. Rich- 
 mond's Government was the last in which the oligarchy 
 had any power, Sewell being his chief supporter and adviser. 
 The British Government determined to end the struggle 
 for mastery by a very simple process. In 1822 the Under 
 Secretary for the Colonies, Sir Robert Horton, introduced 
 the famous Union Bill. Upper and Lower Canada were 
 to be united in one Legislature, each having sixty repre- 
 sentatives in the new Assembly, irrespective of population ; 
 and the high property qualification proposed would have 
 effectually disfranchised the habitant in most cases. The 
 French language was to be permitted in Parliament for 
 fifteen years longer, and the Roman Catholic Church was 
 to be curbed by the Act of Supremacy. New counties 
 might be formed out of the townships. The British of 
 Montreal, thanks to the pressure successfully exerted in 
 London, were to have all they asked for. The remedy 
 seemed simple, and the ministry were congratulating them- 
 selves, when the whole scheme fell through. The Radicals 
 in the unreformed parliament were few in number, but the 
 Union Bill of 1822 was too unblushing an attack on their 
 creed to escape notice. The ministry was asked to ascer- 
 tain the feeling of the inhabitants of Lower Canada on the 
 Bill ; the inhabitants of Lower Canada spoke with no 
 uncertain voice. Papineau himself, accompanied by a 
 Quebec journalist named John Neilson, as representative 
 of the more Liberal section of the British, took to London 
 
THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. 59 
 
 a monster petition bearing 60,000 signatures, or perhaps, 
 to be strictly accurate, names of inhabitants with marks 
 appended. The Government had given Papineau a party, 
 alienated the clergy who had been their firm supporters, 
 and frightened peasant and seigneur alike by proposed 
 alterations in the Land Laws. Even in Upper Canada 
 the Bill found little support. 
 
 If the Bill could not be passed in its entirety, it might 
 have a different fate when presented in instalments. The 
 Roman Catholic clergy were conciliated by the withdrawal 
 of the attempt to control their Church. In 1823 the com- 
 mercial relations between Upper and Lower Canada were 
 put on a more satisfactory footing by the Canada Trades 
 Act (3 Geo. IV. c. 119). As will be related afterwards, 
 there was considerable difficulty in persuading the Assembly 
 of Lower Canada to treat the upper province fairly in the 
 matter of dividing the Customs duties collected in Lower 
 Canada. Although the population of the upper province 
 was increasing rapidly, and the consumption per head of 
 the imported articles was much higher than in the lower 
 province, Upper Canada had only received one-eighth 
 of the dues levied ; after July 1st, 1824, the proportion was 
 to be one-fifth, and a fresh award was to be made by 
 arbitrators every four years. It was claimed that this Act 
 of the Imperial Parliament infringed the Declaratory Act 
 (18 Geo. III. c. 12), as to the taxation of the colonies by the 
 Mother Country. 
 
 The latter clauses of the Canada Trades Act proposed 
 to allow the commutation of the feudal tenure. It was 
 permissive only, but it was expected that many would 
 avail themselves of the chance to obtain lands on free 
 and common soccage tenure. The Canada Tenures Act 
 (6 Geo. IV. c. 59) gave elaborate instructions as to the 
 manner in which the conversion of tenure might be made, 
 and about the same time a charter was granted to the 
 British American Land Company. The company was 
 formed to encourage the settlement of the Crown and 
 
60 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 clergy reserves, especially in the Eastern Townships, by 
 immigrants from England. The great emigration after 
 the long wars was just beginning, there was much distress 
 in England, and " Chartism " was rife. Many of the more 
 intelligent middle and lower class people eagerly took the 
 opportunity to start life afresh. The more energetic did 
 not remain long in Lower Canada, which, they decided, 
 was no place for Englishmen, but pressing on to Upper 
 Canada, helped to make the company's colonisation 
 scheme there a success. In Lower Canada remained the 
 unfit and the parish immigrants, and their only resource 
 was to swell the British mob in the cities of Montreal and 
 Quebec. They did not understand very much about the 
 rights and wrongs of the coming struggle, but their 
 presence increased the dislike of the English in those 
 French of the lower classes with whom they entered into 
 competition for work. 
 
 Before going into the details of the final struggle which 
 ended in the refusal of the Assembly either to vote 
 supplies or to perform any of its functions, it is necessary 
 to explain the origin of Papineau's power in the con- 
 stituencies, which seems so unaccountable to modern 
 notions of French Canadian loyalty. There are few to- 
 day, even of his own race, who attempt to justify 
 Papineau, and the most cursory glance at the French 
 Canadian electorate in the old days enables one to see 
 alike his strength and his weakness. The French inhabi- 
 tants of Lower Canada were divided into two main classes 
 the seigneurs and the peasantry, or " habitants." Trade 
 was generally in English hands, at any rate, trade on a 
 large scale, and the only important professions outside 
 Holy Orders were those of the doctor, the advocate, and 
 the notary. The seigneurs were from the beginning 
 supporters of the British Government, as were the clergy, 
 and the loyalty of these two classes, strengthened by the 
 French Revolution and the war of 1812, never failed to 
 any appreciable extent. They may have resented their 
 
THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. 61 
 
 comparative impotence in the State, but the seigneurs were 
 not used to political rights and were seldom ambitious, 
 while the clergy, generally sprung from the lower classes, 
 were content with their spiritual influence. 
 
 It was quite otherwise, however, with the members of 
 the medical and legal professions. Like the clergy, they 
 often sprang from the people, and by virtue of their calling 
 had great influence in their native village, to which they 
 generally returned. The habitant, although in most cases 
 totally unable to read or write, had a great respect for 
 educated people, and thus, even when the French press 
 had become a reality, he had to take his news from the 
 lips of the men from whom he received his law and 
 medicine. They were frequently enthusiastic admirers of 
 the French Revolution, or at least favourers of American 
 rather than British ideas of the rights of colonies, and in 
 later times delighted to compare themselves to the 
 European Liberals who were fighting for freedom against 
 tyrant kings. Papineau's chief supporters were men of 
 this type. They had little to lose and everything to 
 gain by agitation. They found it impossible to obtain 
 any share in their country's government except through 
 the Assembly, and therefore claimed for the Assembly 
 powers which, if granted, would have made government 
 impossible. A quarrel with Upper Canada would 
 certainly have followed upon the triumph of the French 
 Assembly over the British Government, and the result 
 would not have been long in doubt ; the French were 
 almost without arms, and would have been exposed to 
 an attack not only from the remaining British colonies 
 but also from the United States. In fine, the policy of the 
 French leaders was suicidal in its short-sightedness ; they 
 would not hear of concession, and yet they had nothing to 
 hope from any appeal to force, the only alternative. 
 
 The habitant for a long time took no interest in the 
 political question ; he elected his seigneur or his doctor or 
 the local notary or advocate whom he favoured, and, 
 
62 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 occasionally, he displayed resentment when the Assembly, 
 under Government pressure, passed Acts to secure the 
 making of roads, or a slight alteration in the shape of the 
 cariole, to give the existing roads a longer life. Yet he 
 was responsible for the election of, generally, two-thirds, 
 and frequently four-fifths of the Assembly, although he 
 could not sign his name, and had only the vaguest possible 
 ideas about the world outside. What touched him more 
 closely than all his political wrongs was the growing 
 burden of the cens et rentes and the various other feudal 
 dues. His ancestor had gained by changing his condition, 
 and becoming a cultivateur in Quebec, but year by year 
 the descendant was sinking in fortune. Estates were 
 divided and subdivided under the French law of succession, 
 and the average family of the habitant did not grow less. 
 It was useless to recommend colonisation as a remedy, 
 for he had no means of carrying his church into the wilder- 
 ness and therefore he would not go himself. Intensive 
 cultivation might have helped him, but he was unscientific 
 in his methods ; the British Government once taught him 
 hemp-growing, but as hemp did not pay tithe, the clergy 
 discouraged it. He had, it is true, an indefeasible right to 
 his holding, but however much he improved it, the seigneur 
 could claim a portion of the price it was sold for. 
 
 He saw with dismay the substitution of English for 
 French seigneurs, and the incoming of English farmers on 
 seigneurial lands. The new seigneur was too often a hard 
 master, and the new farmer, seeing that he paid no tithe, 
 could cultivate at a profit lands which had been the ruin of 
 the less energetic and tithe-burdened habitant. Some- 
 times the newcomer inter-married with the natives and 
 his descendants became as French as they, but later, even 
 intercommunication was rare, and, egged on by his 
 leaders, the habitant tried to scare away the unwelcome 
 intruders by a system of petty persecution or open boycott. 
 After the peace of 1815 there was a period of economic 
 distress in Canada ; the English Corn Laws shut out 
 
THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. 63 
 
 Canadian produce from a good market, and the Navigation 
 Act sealed up the St. Lawrence to foreign trade. A 
 petition of the Assembly to Lord Bathurst in 1821 states 
 that the wages of labour and the price of land had fallen 
 by one-half, and that the revenue had dropped from 
 102,142 to 78,164. The habitant's only notion of 
 politics was due to the teaching of republican emissaries 
 and their disciples the notaries. He wished to cast off his 
 feudal burdens, as his brethen in France had done, and 
 this inclination was not unknown in England. The 
 Canada Tenures Act was meant to be a boon for seigneur 
 and tenant, English and French alike, but the notaries 
 were not likely to consent. The natural litigiousness of 
 the peasant was increased by the difficulty of establishing 
 a clear title to any estate ; this was due to the fact that 
 successive mortgages could be and were obtained on one 
 farm. There were no registry offices in the feudal 
 domain ; for sales and mortgages were quite valid if made 
 in the presence of any notary, and a prior purchaser or 
 mortgagee could claim the estate from a later without 
 compensation ; only by the expensive process of a "decret" 
 or sheriffs sale could a secure title be obtained. 
 
 This system was too profitable to the notaries to be 
 abolished, and we can understand that they eagerly sought 
 for flaws in the proposals of the British Government. 
 They maintained that the new law favoured the seigneurs 
 by giving them the waste lands of which they were only 
 the trustees for the habitants. When the Tenures Act was 
 pointed out to be part of the same plan as the British 
 American Land Company's scheme to anglicise Lower 
 Canada, the notaries' victory was complete. Although 
 Papineau affected to approve of the proposed commutation, 
 the seigneurs themselves took alarm. The commutation 
 of the tenures became a stock Canadian grievance, and 
 henceforward the habitants sought to defeat the British 
 conspiracy against them by supporting the notaries in the 
 Assembly. Whenever the Governor dissolved the Assembly 
 
64 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 the only result was to increase Papineau's power, for he 
 and his lieutenants took advantage of the elections to weed 
 out every man who would not follow unhesitatingly in the 
 new plan of campaign. 
 
 It has been mentioned that one of the schemes of Bedard 
 and his followers was to obtain control of the Government 
 by granting the Civil List. Although refused at the time, 
 the British ministry recalled the offer when, on the con- 
 clusion of peace, they found it necessary to make every 
 possible economy in the Imperial expenditure. The 
 Assembly were quite willing to renew their offer, but under 
 certain conditions. The revenue of Canada was derived 
 from (a) certain import duties imposed by the Imperial 
 Parliament's Act (14 Geo. III. c. 88), in place of less 
 convenient pre-conquest charges; (b) provincial duties, 
 established by the Legislature ; and (c) the royal casual 
 and territorial revenues, arising from the profits of the 
 Jesuit estates, the seigneurial dues, and other sources. 
 Hitherto the Assembly had been accustomed to vote appro- 
 priations out of the provincial duties only, the rest of the 
 revenue being expended by the Governor with the advice 
 of the Executive Council. Canada was at first, in theory, 
 a military colony, and any deficit in the expense of main- 
 taining its civil government was made up out of the 
 Imperial military chest. The deficits increased as the 
 income from the royal revenues was by no means commen- 
 surate with the growing expense of government. The 
 Assembly, however, often voted more than was covered 
 by their appropriations, and, without asking the consent of 
 the Legislature, this surplus was used to cover the deficit. 
 From 1813 there had been an annual deficiency of 20,000, 
 and 120,000 were due to the province. 
 
 Sherbrooke had pointed out to Lord Bathurst the incon- 
 venience which might arise in the future from this appro- 
 priation of provincial money, and was told to persuade the 
 Legislature to take over the expenses of government, in 
 accordance with its previous offer. Bathurst warned him 
 
THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. 65 
 
 to be careful of the interests of the Protestant clergy and 
 the pensioned officials, as well as of the rights of the 
 Legislative Council. The Colonial Secretary had good 
 grounds for his warning, for the Assembly at once de- 
 manded that every item in the expenditure should be sub- 
 mitted to an annual vote, Thanks to Lord Durham's 
 advice, the Union Act of 1840 declared that money grants 
 could only originate with the Crown, and the Act of 1867 
 repeated the prohibition. The Assembly, however, were 
 henceforward to fight for two things, the right of every 
 member to originate a money grant for any purpose what- 
 ever, and the control of every portion and detail of the 
 provincial revenue, so that an obnoxious official might be 
 made to feel the Assembly were his master. 
 
 The Assembly were as wrong in their constitutional law 
 on the former point, that of voting salaries in detail, as they 
 were right in their demand for control over every portion 
 of the provincial revenue. That they could not at first 
 secure the latter was due to their bad management, rather 
 than to any tyranny on the part of the British Government. 
 A favourite plan of the French leaders was to secure con- 
 trol over the appointment of judges. They were at that 
 time appointed by the Crown " during pleasure," and the 
 French asserted, probably with truth, that they were subject 
 to pressure from the Government. The British ministry 
 were quite willing to assent to any scheme which, by secur- 
 ing to the judges fixity of tenure on the English plan, 
 would make them independent of Assembly and Govern- 
 ment alike. The French leaders foolishly insisted that the 
 salaries of all officials, including the judges, should be 
 voted yearly and name by name, in opposition to the plan 
 of the Imperial Parliament, which established the amount 
 of the Civil List at the commencement of each king's reign, 
 and granted it for his life, only the incidental supplies 
 being annually voted. 
 
 It would be tedious to trace in detail the proposals and 
 counter-proposals on the question of the Civil List. It may 
 
 S.G.C. F 
 
66 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 suffice to say that the Assembly objected to the payment of 
 certain officials out of the revenue raised under the Imperial 
 Act (14 Geo. III. c. 88), and claimed the right to control 
 all the provincial revenues, making annual votes only. 
 From June, 1824, to September, 1825, Lord Dalhousiewas 
 absent from the province. The Lieutenant-Governor, Sir 
 Francis Burton, was popular with the French, perhaps 
 because he was more complaisant than Dalhousie ; at any 
 rate, in January, 1825, he so far respected their wishes that 
 he asked simply for a vote of 31,456 6s. od. to cover the 
 deficit arising from the insufficiency of the amount provided 
 by statute, 40,545 15^. lod. The Assembly, after a long 
 discussion, voted the supply asked for one year, and 
 although the Bill sent up to the Legislative Council was 
 passed as suitable, the Assembly claimed to have estab- 
 lished their right to control all the revenue. When Lord 
 Dalhousie returned, the dispute recommenced, for the law 
 officers of the Crown decided that the Imperial Govern- 
 ment's power over the revenues raised under 14 Geo. III. 
 c. 88 was indisputable. Dalhousie was ordered to pay 
 the officials their salaries from this fund, and this caused 
 great excitement among the French. Naturally the habi- 
 tants, who only read or heard the version given in the 
 French newspapers, supported the Assembly, and to increase 
 this sympathy between leaders and followers, an address 
 was voted by the Assembly to the Home Government, 
 asking for their rights under the Declaratory Act (18 Geo. 
 III. c. 12), as otherwise they would be unable to provide 
 for the charge of the civil government. 
 
 The French leaders could not hope to convert the British 
 Government to their views ; legally the ministry were 
 unassailable, but, with that blind perversity which marked 
 all Papineau's proceedings, he insisted upon fighting the 
 question on a false issue that the Home Government 
 wished to tax the colonies in spite of her promise given in 
 1 8 Geo. III. c. 12. The judicial system was terribly in 
 need of reform, but Papineau preferred to use the abuses 
 
THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. 67 
 
 as a lever to obtain more power for his party. His policy 
 is the more regrettable as the colony was flourishing and 
 could easily afford the money asked. The Assembly, 
 however, took advantage of the bankruptcy of Receiver- 
 General Caldwell, and the fact that during the war of 1812 
 Upper Canada had not received her share of the joint 
 revenue (no accounts being kept) to plead the poverty of 
 the country as a reason for their careful stewardship. 
 They insisted on viewing an advance made by Dalhousie 
 to ease the difficulty caused by CaldwelPs bankruptcy as 
 a private loan, and they treated Upper Canada so badly 
 that the Imperial Government interfered. As the Assembly 
 showed no inclination to renew their temporary Act, the 
 ministry settled the question of the joint revenue by 
 Imperial statute, for the alteration of which the consent of 
 both provincial Legislatures was necessary. The obvious 
 plan was that the Assembly should guarantee a proper 
 Civil List in return for the repeal of 14 Geo. III. c. 88, but 
 that solution of the difficulty was too simple for Papineau. 
 In 1826 the Assembly definitely refused to vote supply 
 except on their own terms. Dalhousie prorogued parlia- 
 ment in a speech in which he pointed out how their policy 
 had put an end to all legislation, although some measures 
 were most pressing ; he could not expect them to see their 
 error, but he appealed to the country. In one sentence he 
 put the question in a nutshell : " During this Session there 
 has been a positive assumption of the executive authority, 
 instead of that of legislation, which alone is your share 
 in the Constitution." 
 
 Dalhousie received addresses of support from the English- 
 speaking population, and his challenge had found the weak 
 point in the Assembly's position. Instead of arguing the 
 question as to their claim to be the executive as well as 
 the legislative body, Papineau and his friends prepared 
 a manifesto in anticipation of the elections. They laid at 
 the door of Dalhousie the failure to provide the Acts so 
 much needed ; they themselves were as completely in the 
 
 ' F 2 
 
68 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 right as the Governor-General was wrong. Papineau 
 seems to have taken a delight from this time in insisting 
 on a quasi-conspiracy among the English to put down 
 " la Nation Canadienne." The English declined to admit 
 the existence of " la Nation Canadienne " except in a 
 geographical sense, and as their own numbers began to 
 increase, they became as disinclined to argue as Papineau. 
 A bitter feeling grew up between the two races; a few 
 British, chief of whom was John Neilson, a Scotchman, 
 owning The Quebec Gazette, supported the Assembly on 
 political grounds. Dalhousie had offended Neilson, partly 
 on private grounds, but also because of his refusal to treat 
 the claim of the Assembly to control taxation as on all- 
 fours with the undoubted rights of the Imperial Parliament 
 Neilson, and afterwards Wolfred Nelson, of St. Denis, were 
 members of a small party of constitutional Radicals ; 
 Neilson certainly had no thoughts of rebellion, and deserted 
 Papineau, after 1828, as decidedly as he opposed the Union 
 Act of 1840. Wolfred Nelson, Doctor O'Callaghan, and 
 the other English and Irish members of the French party, 
 were generally enthusiastic rather than able men, who were 
 unable to see the inevitable outcome of such a reckless 
 agitation. In common with Papineau, they believed till 
 too late that the English Government would yield all rather 
 than risk a second war of independence. 
 
 The French who supported the English authorities were 
 more numerous, and it is certain that, even among Papineau's 
 intimate friends, few dreamed of armed resistance. What 
 Papineau himself expected it is hard to say ; he denied 
 afterwards that he planned rebellion. We cannot, however, 
 forget threats and reckless speeches, or the assurances he 
 gave his followers that Americans would help them. 1 In 
 fact, he was only a politician, and the strongest condem- 
 nation of the Constitution of 1791 is that such a man could 
 
 1 In a letter dated December 7th, and found at St. Denis in 1837, 
 Papineau counselled perseverance in constitutional agitation as the 
 best course. Sec also another letter quoted by Kingsford, Vol. IX. 
 pp. 444445 n. 
 
THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. 69 
 
 climb to power on the support of an agrarian agitation the 
 aims of which were diametrically opposed to the interests of 
 himself and his friends. He seems to have taken a bitter 
 dislike to Dalhousie, and did his best to disgust with him 
 all the ignorant habitants. His language was as unrestrained 
 as that of the most excitable member of the Assembly, and 
 he treated Dalhousie with the most studied rudeness. At 
 this date we can see how little the Governor deserved the 
 treatment he received. Dalhousie was personally a most 
 able man, and took a keen interest in promoting the pros- 
 perity of the province. It is possible that Lord Durham 
 owes much to him in the recommendations he made in 
 the Report as to road and bridge building, the enforcement 
 of the Homestead Laws, and the reorganization of the 
 Eastern Townships. Unfortunately for himself, Dalhousie 
 was ordered by the home Government to carry out an 
 impossible policy in the teeth of men who would not under- 
 stand the meaning of concession. His natural arbitrariness 
 was bound to be increased under such circumstances. 
 This disinclination on the part of the Governor to rally 
 round himself a constitutional party prevented many 
 French Canadians and men like Neilson from opposing 
 Papineau actively as well as passively. Others were enthu- 
 siastic for reform in an age when Liberalism seemed to be 
 everywhere the rising faith, and if they could see in the 
 mild government of England a remorseless tyranny, we 
 can understand the feeling of the ignorant habitants. The 
 latter wished for agrarian reforms, but Papineau and the 
 notaries quite convinced them that from England at least 
 they had nothing to expect but confiscation, and the 
 suppression alike of their laws and their religion. 
 
 The Militia Law had not been passed, but Dalhousie 
 fell back upon an old order of the Council in 1787 and 
 1789. At once the different elements of opposition began 
 to declaim against this illegality, and to advise people not 
 to present themselves at the roll call. Despite murmurings 
 the only offenders, either in non-appearance or behaviour, 
 
70 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 were certain officers. The result was that many, including 
 Papineau and his chief lieutenants, found their commissions 
 cancelled, and the weeding-out process was extended to 
 the Commission of the Peace. It was plain that both the 
 Governor and the Opposition were in a fighting mood, and 
 at the ensuing elections, thanks to the most unceasing 
 appeals to passion and prejudice on the part of the French, 
 not half-a-dozen supporters of Dalhousie were elected. 
 He had no means of reaching the habitants, and Papineau 
 might well think his victory was complete. The agitation 
 was redoubled, and in the American newspapers there was 
 a general opinion expressed that the end of British authority 
 was near. This news reacted on Papineau and flattered 
 his self-will, until he lost whatever caution he may have 
 had. 
 
 Papineau was of course re-elected Speaker, but in con- 
 sideration of his late manifesto, Dalhousie refused to accept 
 him. There had been an attempt to nominate Papineau's 
 rival, M. Vallieres de St. Real, and perhaps the Governor 
 thought his disallowance of Papineau's election would 
 mark the latter's loss of power. As the Assembly insisted 
 on presenting an address in favour of Papineau's election, 
 it was forthwith prorogued. The result was that the 
 attacks on the Governor were redoubled, and every pos- 
 sible charge of tyranny and illegality was hurled at him. 
 One of the newspapers provoked him to proceed against 
 it for libel, but, although Dalhousie received an address 
 from Montreal approving of the prorogation of parliament, 
 he could not silence the Liberal press. Under its auspices 
 meetings were held both at Montreal and Quebec, and the 
 resolutions passed formed the basis of a petition which 
 Viger, Cuvillier and Neilson took to London. Signatures 
 had been obtained by the most persistent canvassing, and 
 the size of the petition was taken by Papineau as a triumph. 
 The population of Lower Canada was about 500,000, of 
 whom the French claimed 400,000. The names of 80,000 
 petitioners were given, of whom all but 9,000 signed with 
 
THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. 71 
 
 a cross. Had Papineau been backed up, as he declared, 
 by the whole French Canadian population, he ought to 
 have secured at least 150,000 signatures, according to a 
 moderate calculation of Mr. Kingsford. 
 
 The petition embraced the usual charges against Dal- 
 housie, and asked for his recall. A counter- petition for 
 protection from the tyranny of the House of Assembly 
 was sent from the Eastern Townships. It was stated that 
 of their population of 70,000, there were 40,000 of British 
 birth, and they defended the Canada Tenures Act and 
 advocated emigration. The British Government, on the 
 motion of Huskisson, appointed a committee to investigate 
 the charges. The evidence they took should be read, if 
 first-hand information of the state of affairs in Canada is 
 needed. Huskisson is one of those English statesmen to 
 whom justice has never been done. At a time when men 
 openly declared that the only possible way out of the 
 Canadian difficulty was the abandonment of the province, 
 he made a splendid speech in which he tore in pieces the 
 sophistries of the Assembly's defenders. It was quite 
 true, he asserted, that Dalhousie had not acted in a 
 strictly constitutional manner, but that was the fault of 
 the Assembly ; government was necessary even if the 
 Assembly refused to act. 
 
 The Report of the committee of 1828 can only be touched 
 upon very briefly, but it is well worth reading. The 
 Tenures Act was maintained, and the mutation of 
 seigneurial tenure advocated, with a recommendation that 
 the French should not be disturbed in the peaceful enjoy- 
 ment of their existing privileges. The Townships were to 
 retain their rights, but land might be granted on French 
 tenure when desired. Reforms in the electoral systems 
 were proposed on the compound basis of territory and 
 population, as in the upper province. Naturally the 
 committee were severe on the monopolisation of the 
 Crown lands by a few individuals. As to the question of 
 the Civil List, it was agreed that, although the Crown's 
 
72 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 claim to the revenue raised under 14 Geo. III. c. 88 was 
 incontestable, yet it would be more expedient that the 
 House of Assembly should control all the provincial 
 revenues ; the Governor, the Executive Council, and the 
 Judiciary, however, ought not to depend upon an annual 
 vote for their salaries. If the Assembly would grant this 
 last condition, the committee were prepared to recommend 
 that all the revenues, with the exception of the territorial 
 and hereditary, should be surrendered by the Crown. 
 
 The committee could only see justification for the taking 
 of provincial funds without the Assembly's consent in a 
 very urgent case indeed, and they passed strictures on a 
 system which had allowed Receiver-General Caldwell and 
 certain sheriffs to cause great financial loss to the province. 
 The Jesuit estates should be applied to the support of 
 education, and the Crown and clergy reserves disposed of 
 for settlement, the clergy being compensated in some 
 other manner. Continuing their scarcely veiled censure 
 of the existing system in Lower Canada, the committee 
 considered that the interests of the province should be 
 better represented in the Legislative Council, and that its 
 members should not hold office merely during pleasure. 
 The Assembly's objection to the presence of judges in the 
 two Councils was sustained, although an exception was 
 admitted in the case of the Chief Justice. However, any 
 change in the Constitution should be carried out, if possible, 
 by the provincial parliament. The union of the two pro- 
 vinces was at present declared to be inadmissible, but a 
 sort of Customs union was hinted at. 
 
 Just before the committee rose fresh petitions came from 
 Lower Canada, complaining of Dalhousie's prosecutions of 
 the newspapers which had criticised him, and of his dis- 
 missal of militia officers for political reasons. The com- 
 mittee contented themselves by inserting the petitions in 
 the appendix, and recommending an inquiry into the 
 matter, as well as into the extensive remodelling of the 
 Commission of the Peace. The whole tone of the Report 
 
THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. 73 
 
 is curiously optimistic, and the only advice the members of 
 the committee gave was their belief that " if the Legislative 
 Assembly and the Executive Government of Canada can 
 be put on a right footing, all minor grievances will be 
 remedied." What that " right footing " was to be is not so 
 much as hinted at ; few people, even among the English 
 " friends of Canada/' considered it to be the introduction 
 of the elective principle into the Legislative Council, and 
 the transformation of the Executive Council into a ministry. 
 However, the Report was never debated, for soon afterwards 
 Huskisson ceased to be Colonial Secretary, and the policy 
 was changed. Huskisson was a strong man, and would 
 have insisted on a just return from the Assembly as the 
 price for the carrying out of the Report. His successor in 
 Wellington's high-Tory Cabinet was Sir George Murray, 
 who had actually served as Lieutenant-Governor of Upper 
 Canada for two months, and consequently considered 
 himself an authority. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 ENGLISH VERSUS FRENCH. 
 
 DALHOUSIE was not the man to accept the affronts of the 
 committee of 1828 without a struggle, and asked to be 
 allowed to justify himself in the House of Lords. Wel- 
 lington offered him the position of Commander-in-Chief 
 in India, and he left Canada, only partially pacified ; it 
 was a slight consolation that addresses were sent to him 
 from all parts of the province. The strong man was sup- 
 posed to have failed, although he felt himself only aban- 
 doned by the British authorities. The Governors who came 
 after him, Kempt, Aylmer, and Gosford, were especially 
 sent to conciliate the French ; that they failed is, perhaps, 
 a proof that Dalhousie was not wholly to blame. However, 
 Kempt's failure could scarcely be due to want of concilia- 
 tion. He devoted all his attention to placating the popular 
 leaders, already becoming giddy from their success in 1828. 
 He managed to silence the acerbity of those Quebec 
 newspapers which were on the side of the Government, 
 but he had less success with those of Montreal. 
 
 With the Assembly great care had to be used. Papineau 
 was accepted as Speaker, and it was promised that the 
 clauses in the different Imperial Acts should be repealed 
 so as to give the Legislature control of the revenue raised 
 under 14 Geo. III. c. 88. Meanwhile an indemnity was 
 asked for, and certain necessary reforms were recommended, 
 especially the establishment of registry offices and a tax 
 on " wild land." Much to Kempt's surprise, he only 
 provoked a string of defiant Resolutions from Neilson, 
 repudiating any right of the Imperial Government to deal 
 with the revenue question. Most of the demands of the 
 
ENGLISH VERSUS FRENCH. 75 
 
 great petition were repeated, and the final clause was the 
 comprehensive demand for an inquiry into, and a remedy 
 of, all abuses that might be found to exist, or had been 
 petitioned against by the subjects of the province. Their 
 victory in 1828 had encouraged the Liberals to think that 
 if they only asked loudly enough they would gain their 
 ends. Petitions were sent in from all parts of the province, 
 in support of the most extreme demands of the Assembly ; 
 all the acts of Dalhousie were retold (and often so mis- 
 represented as to be unintelligible), and obnoxious officials, 
 and, in one case, a member of the House of Assembly, 
 Christie, the future historian, were made to feel that the 
 majority were as resolved to repress criticism as Dalhousie 
 had been. 
 
 Even when the Assembly seemed to make a concession 
 there was generally some ulterior motive. In 1831 the 
 number of seats in the House was increased to eighty-four, 
 the Townships receiving eight members. Most of the new 
 representatives were enthusiastic supporters of Papineau, 
 and of necessity all but ignorant of parliamentary usage. 
 Before 1831 the Assembly had shown little regard for 
 constitutional maxims, henceforth it showed none at all. 
 We look in vain for any reasoned policy or any adequate 
 remedy proposed by the majority. The only clear desire 
 was for complete control over every department of govern- 
 ment ; the method proposed was the election of the 
 Legislative Council by the constituencies. For the few 
 years it was yet to exist the Legislative Assembly of Lower 
 Canada abandoned the ordinary work of such a body and 
 devoted itself to asking for and considering petitions of 
 grievances from all quarters. With such an electorate as 
 that of Lower Canada these proceedings passed for zeal in 
 the popular service. The peasantry, conscious of no 
 tangible grievance, were taught to see in the very efforts of 
 the British Government to mitigate their economic 
 difficulties a conspiracy against their religion and nation- 
 ality. They rallied round the leaders who professed to 
 
76 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 work only for their good, and knowing nothing of the 
 justifiable limits of constitutional agitation, found them- 
 selves involved in a rebellion, when they only sought to 
 rescue their beloved leaders from their common tyrants. 
 
 Kempt's policy of conciliation was rewarded by the 
 Assembly ; they voted a supply, but in their own way, and 
 asserted their claims to control all the revenue. The 
 Legislative Council only passed the Bill by means of a 
 double vote on the part of the Speaker. Dalhousie was 
 not forgotten, for the Assembly sent a fresh petition to 
 England and passed a Militia Bill in which, as Dalhousie 
 had opposed it, the control and appointment of the officers 
 were virtually left in the hands of the French only. 
 Demands were made for the reform of the two Councils, the 
 exclusion of the judges from the Executive Council, and 
 the establishment of a tribunal for the impeachment of 
 guilty officials. The British ministry had been in corre- 
 spondence with Kempt on the subject of the reform of the 
 Councils. Kempt could express no decided opinion as to 
 the best method, but suggested that more independent 
 members should be introduced into the Legislative Council, 
 and that certain leaders of the Opposition should be made 
 executive councillors. Again Kempt received an unex- 
 pected response from the Liberals. At St. Charles on the 
 river Richelieu, Mr. Debartzch, a seigneur, convened a great 
 meeting of the inhabitants of the five counties on both sides 
 of the river. These counties were the strongholds of 
 Liberalism, and Debartzch at that time was an enthusiastic 
 follower of Papineau ; like most of the seigneurs, he 
 deserted him before 1837, and was in consequence bitterly 
 hated during the outbreak. The meeting indeed thanked 
 Kempt for abandoning the arbitrary policy of Dalhousie, 
 but declared that the only reform of the Councils they 
 would recognise was that which had been set forth in the 
 petition of 1828. The Resolutions were sent to Kempt. 
 
 Gradually the proposal that the Legislative Council 
 should be made elective was becoming prominent, but it 
 
ENGLISH VERSUS FRENCH. 77 
 
 had at first few supporters even among the Liberals, and 
 in 1832 motions in that direction were overruled in the 
 Assembly. It was not until Papineau broke with Neilson 
 and the Moderates that his cherished scheme was openly 
 proclaimed. The yielding policy of Kempt was to increase 
 the difficulties of his successor, and the successor, Lord 
 Aylmer, came at an awkward time. The British ministry, 
 on account of political crises at home, had not been able to 
 redeem its promises earlier, but one of Lord Aylmer's first 
 negotiations with the Assembly was to ask it to vote a 
 Civil List of about ^"20,000 in return for an Act 
 of the Imperial Government which surrendered all the 
 provincial revenues, with the exception of the casual and 
 territorial, amounting only to 7,000. The Assembly 
 refused to grant any Civil List for the King's life, asked 
 for information as to the way in which the various items 
 not specified were to be expended, and finally demanded 
 that the Imperial Act (14 Geo. III. c. 88) should be repealed. 
 The rearrangement of the constituencies under the Act of 
 1831 had introduced a more extreme element into the 
 Assembly, and threats began to be made that no subsidy 
 should be granted until the Imperial Parliament redressed 
 their wrongs. These " wrongs " were the refusal to repeal 
 14 Geo. III. c. 88 unconditionally, to exclude the judges 
 from the two Councils, to reform the Councils thoroughly, 
 to surrender all provincial revenues to the Assembly, 
 to apply the Jesuit estates to the support of education 
 in the way approved of by the Assembly, and to allow all 
 provincial lands to be held under the tenure known as 
 ^ranc aleu roturier^ a sort of French "free and common 
 soccage." 
 
 Lord Aylmer attempted to be conciliatory, hoping that 
 the extremists would spoil themselves by excesses, but even 
 Neilson moved twelve violent Resolutions in which the state 
 of the province was taken into consideration. It was 
 acknowledged that matters had improved, but sweeping 
 reforms were demanded. The crux of the situation was 
 
78 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 that the Liberals demanded the unconditional repeal of all 
 statutes conferring on Great Britain financial control over 
 the colony ; the ministry had long seen it was impossible 
 to refuse consent to the repeal of these statutes, but 
 struggled to preserve the officials, many of whom were able 
 and loyal servants of the Crown, from the mercilessness of 
 the Assembly. Neilson was becoming alarmed, however, 
 at the recklessness of his colleagues, for now it was that one 
 member, Mr. Bourdages, proposed the abolition of the 
 Legislative Council and the refusal of subsidies, while 
 another was in favour of the total abrogation of the 
 Constitution of 1791. The Provincial Government were 
 accused of being hostile to the diffusion of intelligence, and 
 contrasted unfavourably with that of pre-conquest times, 
 in a manner as complacently false to history as was im- 
 possible but in Canada in 1 83 1 . Papineau was as extravagant 
 as any, and hinted at a time when Canada, having reached 
 the present population of the United States, would find in 
 the latter a friend against the tyranny of the Home 
 Government. It is useless to trace the debate in detail ; 
 all the speeches on the Liberal side were in the same tone, 
 doctrinaire and violent. When the inevitable petition 
 was sent to Lord Aylmer, he asked, perhaps by order of 
 the British ministry, if it contained all the grievances of 
 which the Assembly complained. The bearers could not 
 decide whether this extraordinary question was meant for 
 a rebuke or not. 
 
 The Assembly continued to bring complaints against 
 various officials, chiefly judges ; the usual result followed, 
 and finally by order of the British Government only the 
 Chief Justice retained his seat in the Executive Council. 
 The ministry of Earl Grey, never strong, except for the 
 passage of the Reform Bill, could not pay much attention 
 to Canada, and was unwilling to risk a rupture. No 
 ministry until Peel's second term of office was secure of 
 power, and in this circumstance we must find the cause of 
 these repeated concessions. To secure the passing of a 
 
ENGLISH VERSUS FRENCH. 79 
 
 Civil List the obnoxious Acts of Parliament were repealed ; 
 if the Assembly would grant a Civil List, the commissions 
 of the judges should henceforth be for life instead of during 
 pleasure, and they should not sit in either of the Councils. 
 Instead of accepting the offer, the various committees 
 appointed to consider it rose without making any decision ; 
 indeed it was often difficult to get a quorum of thirty in a 
 House of eighty-four, when the proposal to be discussed did 
 not please the majority, and yet they dare not reject it openly. 
 Naturally, the Legislative Council generally rejected the 
 Bills sent up to them, as this custom would prevent the 
 passage of any calmly considered measure. However, the 
 Assembly had gained their end. They now controlled 
 practically all the revenues, and were supported by a 
 formidable array of newspapers. Le Canadien and La 
 Minerue in French, and the Vindicator^ edited by the 
 famous Dr. O'Callaghan, in English, were the most im- 
 portant. For a time, under the influence of the latter, a 
 bid was made for the support of the newly-arrived Irish 
 immigrants on the ground of religion, but at the last 
 moment the Irish rallied to the authorities, much to the 
 extremists' disappointment. 
 
 In May, 1832, at an election riot in Montreal, the troops 
 had to fire on the crowd to restore order. Papineau was 
 present at the inquest on the three victims, but his influence 
 could not bring in the desired verdict of murder. Nor 
 were Papineau's efforts to induce the Governor to order a 
 special enquiry any more successful. If the French papers 
 had been violent before, they knew no bounds after this 
 unfortunate affair, and the fact that in the next few years 
 Canada was ravaged by cholera did not prejudice the 
 habitant in favour of the settlers who were said to have 
 brought it. Papineau was clever enough to realize that 
 the British ministry had no policy in respect to Canada ; 
 it was the misfortune of Canada that the man who alone 
 commanded confidence had no policy either, and Papineau 
 was often urged on to steps from which even he shrank. 
 
8o SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 His one remedy was an elective Legislative Council, 
 for then he would control two out of the three branches 
 of the Legislature. It did not matter that, almost 
 to a man, the English and Irish were against him, 
 and that his power in the purely French constituencies, 
 although supreme everywhere, was not everywhere un- 
 challenged. The French who distrusted him seldom 
 openly showed their sympathies, but the British press 
 in Montreal and Quebec rivalled Le Canadien and its 
 fellows in vituperation. Even the British who were 
 opposed to the oligarchical system of government preferred 
 it to the tyranny of the Assembly, and at last Neilson and 
 his party abandoned Papineau ; at the election of 1834 
 Neilson was defeated by a creature of Papineau and the 
 rupture was complete. 
 
 To the end, however, Papineau was supported by his 
 " moutons" as the habitants were called from their docility, 
 and excited meetings were held all over the country ; the 
 speeches would be laughed at to-day, but it was otherwise 
 at that time, when the very intangible character of the 
 grievances alleged gave more scope to the speakers' 
 rhetoric. The British, aided by men like Jules Quesnel, 
 who had formerly supported Papineau, held meetings also, 
 and sent petitions expressing their loyalty. Perhaps there 
 would have been a stronger constitutional party but for 
 the proposals frequently made, both in Upper Canada and 
 in Montreal, that the latter city should be annexed to 
 Upper Canada. This somewhat cooled French loyalty. 
 When Aylmer ventured to reserve a Bill of Supply, he lost 
 whatever popularity he had had, and finally in 1832 the 
 Assembly declared for an elective Legislative Council by 
 34 votes to 26. Neilson and Cuvillier were in the minority, 
 and on a proposal to secure the independence of the 
 judges, Quesnel also quarrelled with his party. The 
 resistance went further, and in his proposal to refuse 
 supplies, Papineau only obtained 27 votes out of 68. 
 Even so the Bill reduced or cut out the salaries of many 
 
ENGLISH VERSUS FRENCH. 81 
 
 officials. The Legislative Council then addressed the 
 Crown on the serious condition of affairs in the lower 
 province, and pointed out that the majority in the 
 Assembly would soon embroil the country with Upper 
 Canada. For this hint at provincial disloyalty a rebuke 
 was administered from Downing Street. 
 
 As the Assembly seemed determined to pick a quarrel 
 with Lord Aylmer he prorogued it. During the recess 
 meetings were held by the British party, and some of the 
 French opponents of Papineau tried to calm the bitter 
 feeling they had helped before to raise. When parliament 
 met again Neilson vainly proposed a motion for a com- 
 mittee to establish better relations with the Legislative 
 Council ; the majority had decided that no business should 
 be transacted with the Executive, and proposed to "con- 
 sider the condition of the province " in a committee of the 
 whole House. Aylmer sent messages to the House, 
 explaining that the Supply Bill of last session had been 
 rejected by the Legislative Council because of the clauses 
 " tacked " on to it; the Executive had used certain funds at 
 its disposal to pay salaries, but there was still a deficiency. 
 The unwise conduct of the Assembly in insisting too much 
 on its privileges, and the unconstitutional proposals to 
 abolish the Legislative Council, were touched upon, and a 
 hint was given that, if the Imperial Parliament did alter 
 the Constitution, it might be in a direction unwelcome to 
 the Assembly. The members of the Assembly received 
 these messages with varied feelings, but the followers of 
 Papineau were indignant ; their indignation was not 
 calmed by the statement of Aylmer that he could not issue 
 his warrant to meet a charge of 7,ooo, the cost of various 
 investigations by the House into the Montreal riot ; he had 
 no money, he declared, as the Assembly would vote no 
 supplies. One member, Mr. Bourdages, who was Papineau's 
 lieutenant in the Assembly, proposed to rescind the parlia- 
 mentary rule which caused the Governor's permission to 
 be necessary for the origination of a money grant ; to 
 
 s.G.c, . G 
 
82 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Cuvillier's assertion that the rule was borrowed from 
 England it was replied that the request for permission 
 was a mere form. 
 
 Papineau had meanwhile become involved in a personal 
 quarrel with The Quebec Gazette, whose editor, once his 
 ally, accused him of using his position as Speaker to secure 
 immunity from giving satisfaction to the men he had 
 insulted ; it was openly said that he was " a mere leader of 
 the sans-culottes," on the British side. Papineau had his 
 revenge in a savage attack on Lord Aylmer, whom he 
 accused of bribing the judges, in language of the grossest 
 violence. This attack was a prelude to the introduction, 
 on February i/th, 1834, of the famous "ninety-two Resolu- 
 tions/' They were introduced by Elzear Bedard, first Mayor 
 of Quebec, in a debate by a committee of the whole on the 
 state of the province. They can be read in Kingsford, 1 but 
 except as a specimen of Papineau's general methods, they 
 are scarcely worth reading. In form they can only be 
 compared to the Grand Remonstrance of the Long Parlia- 
 ment. They affect to rehearse all the grievances and 
 wrongs of the province, the oppression of Dalhousie, and 
 the misgovernment of Lord Aylmer ; the history of the 
 causes of the American Revolution was gone into, and 
 American rather than British institutions were alleged to 
 have been preferred by many who were not now acting 
 with the Assembly. The whole system of colonial govern- 
 ment was impeached, the method of appointing the 
 Legislative Council, the financial arrangements, the 
 appointment and behaviour of the judges, the claim of the 
 Executive to be responsible only to the Imperial treasury 
 for the expenditure of Canadian revenue, and, in fact, every 
 detail of the administration to which the Assembly took 
 exception. Lord Aylmer was impeached, and Hume, 
 O'Connell, and Viger (the Assembly's Agent in London) 
 were thanked, and asked to continue their services on 
 behalf of Canada. The most audacious statement of all 
 1 Vol. IX., pp. 544554- 
 
ENGLISH VERSUS FRENCH. 83 
 
 was that the majority of the 75,000 non-French inhabitants 
 of Lower Canada were at one in their views with the 
 525,000 French. 
 
 It was in vain that the more moderate members, led by 
 Neilson, attempted to expose the travesty of the truth 
 which these extraordinary Resolutions presented. All the 
 benefits of the British connection were enlarged upon, and 
 the folly was pointed out of supposing that after so many 
 grievances had been redressed, even the oligarchy could 
 affect to any large extent the population of Canada, 
 composed as nine-tenths of it were of habitants and farmers. 
 The fiftieth Resolution had contained a scarcely veiled 
 threat to form a Republic in imitation of the United States, 
 and to send this to the Imperial Parliament was as wise 
 as to insert the clause calling on O'Connell and Hume 
 for help. Neilson proposed alternatives to the ninety- 
 two Resolutions which expressed clearly all that the 
 Liberals had fought for, but in more decent language 
 than that of Bedard. The ninety-two Resolutions were 
 the work of Papineau, and he rallied his party to their 
 support. He commanded 56 votes to Neilson's 24, and 
 probably this represents the true strength of each in the 
 Assembly. 
 
 Aylmer was not a strong man, and he foolishly received an 
 address embodying the ninety-two Resolutions ; he should 
 have adjourned the House rather than have allowed them 
 to be voted, for it was near the end of the Assembly's legal 
 tenure of power, and henceforth till the dissolution there 
 was a daily adjournment, for want of a quorum. His best 
 justification was the abandonment of Dalhousie in 1828. 
 The British ministry, unpopular, and disliked by William IV., 
 was dismissed in November. The Legislative Council 
 petitioned the Crown against the Resolutions, and even Lord 
 Aylmer could not refrain from asking the members to 
 convey his message to their constituents : he thought it 
 would be a difficult task to convince men of the existence 
 of evils which they were not personally conscious of, for 
 
 G 2 
 
84 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 except within the walls of the House of Assembly there 
 was everywhere profound tranquillity. 
 
 The Assembly, however, cared nothing for the rebuke, 
 for they had made an alliance with some of the leading 
 Radicals of England, including Hume and Roebuck. The 
 latter was appointed Agent in 1833, an< ^ to his advocacy in 
 the Imperial Parliament the ninety-two Resolutions were 
 committed. It is impossible to credit Roebuck with 
 sincerity, for he had been in Canada and was said to have 
 supported Dalhousie. That the British in Canada were 
 anything but favourable to the Assembly must have been 
 known to him ; but, secure in the support of his fellow- 
 Radicals, he forced the ministry in 1834 to consent to the 
 appointment of a fresh committee to consider the affairs 
 of Canada, by representing that the population of Lower 
 Canada was in a state of open rebellion, and that Upper 
 Canada was not in a much better condition. Drawing on 
 his personal knowledge, as he professed, he described the 
 two Councils as a " petty and vulgar oligarchy," and con- 
 trasted the different degrees of prosperity in the United 
 States and Canada. He extenuated the conduct of the 
 Assembly as being due to circumstances, and re-told the 
 history of Craig and Dalhousie in Canada. He had gone 
 too far in his attack on the Colonial Secretary, Stanley, 
 but, although the latter had no difficulty in showing the 
 exaggerated character and general unreliability of Roe- 
 buck's statements, the committee met Its task was, how- 
 ever, not to consider the grievances of Upper and Lower 
 Canada, as Roebuck wished, but to find out how far the 
 remedies proposed in 1828 had been applied. 
 
 The committee, of which Roebuck and O'Connell were 
 members, admitted that the Government had done its best 
 to remedy the grievances of Canada, but that, in some 
 cases, the animosities and heats prevailing between the 
 different branches of the colonial Legislature, and between 
 the Assembly and His Majesty's Government, had prevented 
 complete success. It was considered better not to express 
 
ENGLISH VERSUS FRENCH. 85 
 
 a more definite opinion, but to leave the future administra- 
 tion of Lower Canada to the Government responsible for 
 it. It is significant that the evidence of the numerous 
 witnesses was not submitted to parliament. This Report 
 did not please Roebuck, and he wrote to the " central and 
 permanent committee " at Montreal ; it was about this 
 time that the Liberals began to create a system of 
 organization, by which they hoped to have in every village 
 committees of their supporters through whom they could 
 influence public opinion. This letter actually counselled 
 armed resistance, if another peaceful effort to secure the 
 wished-for reforms should fail. It was quite unnecessary 
 to give any stimulus to O'Callaghan and his brother 
 editors, but when articles in La Minerveand The Vindicator 
 advised that preparations for a revolutionary movement 
 should be made, the British population were not slow to 
 take warning. A petition was sent to Lord Aylmer by 
 them, all the more impressive from the fact that 400 
 French landowners in the district of St. Martin signed it. 
 In his reply Lord Aylmer asserted that he preferred 
 worth to nationality as a ground for claims to favour, and 
 he adverted to the unpleasant fact, which Lord Durham 
 also remarked, that the native-born Canadians treated the 
 English-born immigrant as a foreigner. 
 
 At a great convention held in Montreal the language of 
 the ninety-two Resolutions was applauded, and the Report 
 of the late committee unfavourably canvassed. One of the 
 speakers was Girod, a Swiss adventurer, through whose 
 specious misrepresentations the inhabitants of the district 
 of Two Mountains joined the rebellion. As the champion 
 of the habitants, he attacked the Land Company's 
 Charter, and Resolutions in which Lord Aylmer was again 
 insulted were sent to Roebuck and the Assembly's friends 
 in England. At the elections, to which this meeting was a 
 prelude, Papineau managed to secure the defeat of every 
 man of mark, English or French, who had shown the 
 slightest hostility to him. As a reply to Papineau's victory 
 
86 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 and the ninety-two Resolutions, constitutional societies were 
 formed by the Moderates, both at Montreal and Quebec, 
 and at a meeting in Quebec a declaration was drawn up 
 and assented to by practically all the English-speaking 
 population. It was designed as a rallying-point for 
 English, Irish, and French alike who were disgusted at the 
 tyranny of the Assembly's majority. Appeals were made 
 to all the English-speaking population of the colonies for 
 help to maintain the British connection on the basis of 
 justice and reform. The new societies were as determined 
 on reform as the Assembly, but it was not to be at the 
 expense of either nationality. In their appeal to all the 
 colonies for the verdict, they dimly pointed to the Dominion 
 which was to settle all disputes. 
 
 Government could not be carried on without money, and 
 therefore Spring Rice, the Colonial Secretary, authorised 
 an advance of 31,000 to the Governor-General to 
 discharge the officials' salaries. Soon after this the ministry 
 fell. His successor, Lord Aberdeen, was a member of 
 Peel's first administration, which was in a minority in the 
 House. For the benefit of the House of Commons alone, 
 the new Assembly declared its agreement with the ninety- 
 two Resolutions in February, 1835. After twenty-five days 
 the House was prorogued, as it showed no inclination to 
 vote supply, and did not reply to the Governor's com- 
 munications. The Moderates presented their petition to 
 the House of Commons by the hands of the old reformer 
 of 1828, John Neilson, and sought help in the coming 
 struggle from Upper Canada. The Assembly, as before, 
 handed in their petition through Roebuck, whose speech 
 was of the usual kind. He had the audacity to characterise 
 the men who signed the Moderates' petition as being " only 
 loyal when loyalty was favourable to their oligarchy" ; it 
 was obvious he had not read their demands, and, after his 
 letter to the Montreal committee, his speech was only an 
 impertinence. Lord Aberdeen's real reply to Roebuck and 
 Papineau is contained in a dispatch dated February nth. 
 
ENGLISH VERSUS FRENCH. 87 
 
 He appealed to the recommendations of the committee of 
 1828 as the standard by which the sincerity of the British 
 Government should be judged ; in so far as it attempted to 
 carry out these points, which the Assembly itself had 
 accepted, the censures of the Assembly upon its good faith 
 were undeserved. No one can doubt that the King and his 
 ministry were sincere in their profession that, in sending 
 out a special commissioner to investigate the position of 
 affairs in Canada, they were only swayed by the desire to 
 redress the colony's wrongs. However, all conciliation 
 was refused by the Assembly ; Papineau was at the parting 
 of the ways when Lord Gosford arrived in Canada, and 
 that he took the wrong way may be ascribed to Lord 
 Glenelg, Aberdeen's successor. 
 
 Peel's first administration had been succeeded in April, 
 l %35> by that of Lord Melbourne, which relied for its 
 support on the Radical section. Lord Glenelg was the 
 new colonial minister, and it is not too much to say that 
 the inept policy which he pursued towards Lord Gosford 
 and Canada was largely responsible for the stiff-neckedness 
 of Papineau and his party. A firm and just man like 
 Aberdeen might even yet have solved the Canadian prob- 
 lems, but Gosford's perverse " conciliation " and Glenelg's 
 weakness blinded Papineau to his danger. The priests 
 and seigneurs saw it and abandoned him, but his faithful 
 "moutons" whose bravery in the dark days of 1837 and 
 1838 was worthy of a nobler leader, remained. Lord 
 Durham read the closing scene of the tragedy well. In a 
 dispatch to Lord Glenelg, dated August Qth, 1838, and 
 marked " Secret," he writes that the rebellion could not have 
 been avoided under the attendant circumstances of such 
 mutual provocation, but that it was precipitated by the 
 British from an instinctive sense of the danger of allowing 
 the Canadians full time for preparation. 
 
 Gosford, who succeeded Aylmer in August, 1835, was 
 accompanied by two fellow-commissioners, Sir George 
 Gipps and Sir Charles Grey. They had received precise 
 
88 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 instructions as to their behaviour ; they were to conciliate 
 the Assembly and carefully investigate their complaints. 
 With such instructions, and with the disgrace of Dalhousie, 
 Kempt, and Aylmer before his eyes, we can understand 
 that Gosford was not likely to countenance a very heroic 
 policy. He had come too late, for the British held that 
 the time for parley had passed ; the obdurateness of 
 Papineau played the game of the British extremists well 
 enough, and from the moment Gosford arrived in Canada 
 Papineau was doomed. Out-voted in the Assembly, un- 
 justly as they believed, the British of Lower Canada 
 determined that, come what may, the farce should not 
 continue. If Upper Canada would not take them in, they 
 would appeal to the United States. Every movement of 
 the "Patriots" was carefully noticed, and at last even 
 Gosford had to take action. Papineau did wisely in fleeing, 
 for his followers were indeed sheep, when the time came, 
 both in docility and helplessness. The men of Gore, on 
 the borders of Upper Canada, and the English from the 
 eastern provinces were ready to march when the signal 
 was given ; to oppose the attack of the half-million British, 
 Papineau could only count, as the event proved, upon 
 a few hundred habitants and professional men, and the 
 handful of Mackenzie's partisans in Upper Canada. The 
 Americans, upon whose sympathy he relied, had only the 
 most lukewarm enthusiasm for the displacement of a 
 British colony by a French peasant Republic. 
 
 It is very necessary to understand that the behaviour of 
 Papineau towards Lord Gosford, and his refusal of all 
 reforms save one the abolition of the Legislative Council 
 or its transformation into an elective body were part of a 
 preconcerted plan. Constitutional agitation had won the 
 Reform Bill, but we can understand how Papineau and his 
 English supporters confused the two sides of the Chartist 
 movement. All the talk about imitating the colonists of 
 1776, if redress were not given, ludicrous though it sounds 
 to-day, was applauded by many even of the moderate 
 
ENGLISH VERSUS FRENCH. 89 
 
 Whigs in England. Perhaps Papineau knew that it was 
 unreal, but many of those who had supported the ninety- 
 two Resolutions began to fall away In the month succeeding 
 Lord Gosford's advent to office, including Elzear Bedard, 
 their proposer ; he accepted office under the Crown, and 
 Papineau had to fall back on the more extreme men, and 
 on his English allies, who, in the Canadian Portfolio and 
 in letters and speeches, were indefatigable in justifying 
 him. Papineau had to cease his agitating or to make good 
 his threats, when the British ministry finally challenged 
 him by the Ten Resolutions of Lord John Russell on 
 March 6th, 1837. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 THE REBELLION. 
 
 ON October 27th, 1835, Lord Gosford opened parlia- 
 ment in a very long speech, asserting the good intentions 
 of the Imperial Government, and its wish to remedy all 
 complaints ; he would condemn no man, and he insisted that 
 nationality was not a claim or a prejudice in the confer- 
 ment of office. Henceforth Blue Books would be regularly 
 presented to the Houses, and Bills would only be reserved 
 under exceptional circumstances. In short, he promised 
 in the name of the Imperial Government to remedy every 
 grievance that had ever been alleged by the Assembly 
 except one, the method of appointment to the Legislative 
 Council. He added words of encouragement to the 
 British party, and seemed to say that the Imperial 
 Government had been impressed with the recommendations 
 in their petition. The Governor laudably tried to please 
 all parties in conformity with his instructions, and of 
 necessity he failed ; for all concessions were refused by 
 Papineau if the one great subject of complaint was not 
 settled to his liking. Unlike Mackenzie, he did not ask 
 for responsible government, but for government at the 
 will of an irresponsible demagogue. 
 
 In the debate on the answer to the Address, Papineau 
 and O'Callaghan, who, on the death of Bourdages, became 
 his lieutenant, refused to recognise the legality of Gosford's 
 Commission as it proceeded from the King alone, and they 
 claimed that the House of Assembly was the fittest organ 
 to give information on the state of the province. The 
 reply, as finally agreed upon, ignored the commissioners 
 as such, and declared that the House truly represented in 
 
THE REBELLION. 91 
 
 its demands the wishes of the province ; that the great 
 attention given to its demands must convince the Imperial 
 Government of their justice. Gosford himself, as a new 
 Governor, did not fail to receive a delicate personal 
 compliment on his extensive powers. The compliment, 
 however, did not prevent the Assembly from asking for 
 22,000, the arrears of their contingent expenses, and 
 disregarding the statement that the provincial accounts 
 showed arrears of 135,617. Gosford professed to " cheer- 
 fully " agree to the Assembly's demand, much to the 
 disgust of the British ; in the Legislative Council a Bill 
 continuing Roebuck as Agent was thrown out, and Papineau 
 declared himself a Republican, who would welcome 
 American emissaries. However, while he talked, others 
 were acting. 
 
 In December, 1835, the British of Montreal organized 
 the first rifle corps, eight hundred strong, and offered it for 
 official sanction. In the face of Gosford's refusal it was 
 nominally disbanded, and a bitter peroration was inserted 
 in the notice to the Governor of that fact. Sir John 
 Colborne, the Governor of Upper Canada, was known to 
 be in sympathy with the British, from his speech of 
 January I4th, 1836, and the drilling went on, but in private. 
 The new Governor of Upper Canada, Sir Francis Bond 
 Head, had foolishly laid the Commissioners' Instructions 
 before the Assembly of that province ; the result was that 
 the Radical Speaker Bidwell pointed out in a letter to 
 Papineau how they condemned the idea of an elective 
 Council. It was useless for Gosford to secure the Colonial 
 Secretary's consent to lay his instructions before the 
 Assembly. Papineau had meant to attack Sir John 
 Colborne for his speech, and now, thinking that he had an 
 ally in Bidwell, he turned on Lord Gosford as he had on 
 Lord Aylmer. It did not matter that the so-called double- 
 dealing of the Imperial Government was not justified by 
 the perusal of the actual Instructions, and that, according 
 to the latter, the Imperial Government would surrender 
 
92 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 all the provincial revenues in return for a permanent Civil 
 List and adequate protection for the judges and other civil 
 servants. Papineau was already beyond his own control. 
 In the course of the debate on Colborne's speech, one 
 Resolution included the words "a good and responsible 
 system of local government." What this meant was not 
 stated, but it proved to be the burning question after the 
 Union of 1840. It was, however, quite unmentioned in 
 the ninety-two Resolutions, and was not a war-cry of 
 Papineau. The Speaker was asked to intimate to the 
 other British provinces of North America, Lower Canada's 
 willingness to co-operate in all constitutional measures for 
 their mutual interest. The appeal fell on deaf ears, and 
 even in Upper Canada, where Bidwell secured it a reception, 
 the succeeding House of Assembly expunged Papineau's 
 letter from its journals. 
 
 A succession of attacks on unpopular officials followed; 
 generally the victims were judges or sheriffs, and frequently 
 men who had supported Dalhousie. It was, however, 
 necessary to vote supplies, if only to provide for the contin- 
 gent expenses of the House, and therefore Resolutions were 
 passed granting six months 1 supply from January 1 5th, 
 1836. It was declared that this was not to be taken as a 
 precedent, and that petitions for redress of grievances were 
 to be sent to the King and parliament. The Legislative 
 Council refused to pass the Bill under those circumstances. 
 The petitions sent to England by the Assembly are remark- 
 able ; the demands for reform are couched in respectful 
 language, and a new item is added, that, conformably to the 
 principles and practice of the British Constitution, the 
 Executive Council might be rendered directly responsible 
 to the representatives of the people. Perhaps this insistence 
 on the principle of a responsible executive was due to 
 Wolfred Nelson, afterwards a prominent Liberal politician; 
 even in the petition, however, it was recognised that there 
 was a difficulty in accommodating the English colonial 
 system to the corollary of this demand ; but it was insisted, 
 
THE REBELLION. 93 
 
 justly enough, that the colonial minister was scarcely 
 fitted, from his necessary imperfect information, to have 
 the final decision on Canadian affairs. There were one or 
 two notes of defiance; for instance, it was declared that the 
 Colonial Secretary had no right to prevent the House from 
 discussing anything it pleased, and that Lord Aylmer's 
 behaviour had endangered "the safety and connection of 
 the colony as a dependency." 
 
 Unfortunately, the Assembly could never understand its 
 own constitutional position. It actually proceeded to 
 discuss Bills repealing the Canada Tenures Act of 1826, and 
 to amend the Constitution of 1791 on the lines approved 
 of by the Assembly. On the 2ist of March Gosford pro- 
 rogued the House ; he informed the members that, as they 
 had voted no supply, the Government would be compelled 
 to use the money it had in hand, and to leave further 
 measures to the Imperial authorities. This was the fourth 
 year of the failure to vote supplies. In 1833 the "tacked" 
 clauses caused the Supply Bill's rejection ; in 1834 no Bill 
 was voted, and in 1835 the Assembly refused supplies. 
 Finally, in 1836, the Six Months' Supply Bill was rejected 
 by the Legislative Council, and the end was near. In 
 September October, 1836, the House sat again for thirteen 
 days, and for three days in August, 1837 ; it had no better 
 conception of its duties than to vote amendments of the 
 Constitution for which it could not hope to secure 
 acceptance, and it was finally dismissed by Gosford in an 
 indignant speech. 
 
 The Moderates, organized in constitutional societies, 
 gave up all hope of justice from the Assembly, and prepared 
 for the conflict that could not be delayed. They had 
 money, and could procure arms ; there can be no doubt 
 that they were eager to decide the quarrel by force at any 
 time in the year 1837. The Liberals were perplexed, for 
 few of their number contemplated an appeal to force, nor 
 had they money to buy arms and ammunition. Some few 
 rifles were smuggled in from the States, but, as after events 
 
94 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 showed, very few even of the little band of extremists 
 possessed reliable weapons. However, both parties could 
 drill and establish corresponding societies and clubs. The 
 British organization was called the Doric Club ; it seems to 
 have been of Scottish origin, but the question fs obscure. 
 The Liberals, on their part, had an organization known 
 as the Sons of Liberty, on the model of the American 
 Revolution, formed at a later date but of a similar character 
 to the Doric Club. 
 
 On October I5th, 1836, the last of their six Reports was 
 handed in by Sir Charles Grey and his fellow-commis- 
 sioners. These Reports were probably seen by Lord 
 Durham, and afford much information on the various 
 burning questions. On the whole, the commissioners 
 justified the British party and the Imperial Government, 
 and, while recommending certain minor concessions to the 
 Assembly, they hinted rather strongly that the total 
 suspension of the Constitution was preferable to any 
 tinkering at details. The Radicals, under Hume and 
 Roebuck, naturally refused to accept this Report as final. 
 Lord John Russell, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, met 
 with great opposition when, on March 6th, 1837, he pro- 
 posed his famous ten Resolutions on the Canadian 
 troubles. Long, and in parts irrelevant, speeches were 
 made by the Radical leaders, but on the 24th Russell 
 managed to get the Resolutions passed. A timely quotation 
 from La Mmervewas of great assistance : " Immediate sepa- 
 ration from England is the only means of preserving French 
 Canadian nationality." The House took alarm, for it saw 
 how very little Roebuck and his party understood the French 
 programme, or how greatly they misrepresented it. 
 
 The Resolutions were couched in unaggressive but decided 
 language. They simply reaffirmed the position taken up 
 by Lord Aberdeen and the commissioners who had just 
 returned from Canada; the sting, however, lay in the 
 eighth Resolution authorising Gosford to pay the arrears of 
 salaries, etc., amounting to 142, 1 60 145. 6d., from revenues 
 
THE REBELLION. 95 
 
 already in the hands of the Receiver-General. As a matter 
 of fact, this provision was not taken advantage of, for the 
 actual payments made came out of the military chest. 
 However, the Imperial Parliament had at last put its foot 
 down, and Papineau had to make a swift choice. It was 
 made for him by his followers ; meetings were held all over 
 the province, at which Gosford and the British Government 
 were denounced in unmeasured language. Everywhere 
 Papineau had a triumphant escort of followers, and threats 
 were made against those who dared to fall away. The 
 climax came when, at the meeting of the "six counties " 
 on both sides of the river Richelieu, south of Montreal, 
 which was held at the village of St. Charles, on October 
 23rd, a pillar, surmounted by a cap of liberty, was set up 
 amidst a great deal of theatrical display, and, with many 
 fiery speeches, thirteen Resolutions were passed, flinging 
 defiance at the Government. Wolfred Nelson was in the 
 chair, and Papineau was present with many of his 
 lieutenants. Even the dedication of the pillar to himself 
 could not reassure Papineau, for on the ground various 
 companies of the Patriot Volunteer Militia were going 
 through their drills, at the command of officers cashiered 
 by Gosford. The latter's patience had been exhausted by 
 the open disloyalty of these men and certain justices of the 
 peace, who had retired or been removed from their posts ; 
 on June I5th he had issued a proclamation of warning 
 against disloyalty, and on September 2nd, in a dispatch to 
 Glenelg, he recommended the suspension of the Constitu- 
 tion. He still hoped for peace in his dispatches, but he 
 asked to be relieved of his post in favour of some one who 
 was not so committed to a policy of conciliation. He felt 
 he had nothing to hope for in the way of support from Lord 
 Glenelg, but that in the hands of Colborne, who since June 
 had been in command of the Imperial forces in Lower 
 Canada, Papineau would be powerless. 
 
 No one recognised better than Papineau that resistance 
 was hopeless when power was in the hands of Colborne, 
 
96 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 the veteran soldier. The language used at St. Charles was 
 thoroughly disloyal and warlike ; Papineau, in his reply, 
 hesitated between surrendering to his followers or rebuking 
 them. Perhaps he was intoxicated somewhat at the com- 
 parison of himself to O'Connell, and by the proposal to 
 establish a " Papineau tribute." At any rate, while objecting 
 to active hostility, he counselled passive resistance on the 
 pattern of the American colonists : " Let no one use any 
 article upon which duty had been paid, and let every man 
 dress only in the plain homespun of the country." His 
 hearers were astounded at their chief's reluctance, Nelson 
 and O'Callaghan especially so. It was too late to draw 
 back now, for on November 6th a collision took place in 
 the streets of Montreal, 
 
 On the very day that Papineau was hesitating at St. 
 Charles an enthusiastic meeting of the British party was 
 held at Montreal. At that meeting the Irish definitely 
 ranged themselves alongside the English and Scots, for the 
 Roman Catholic Bishop of Montreal, Lartigue, had declared 
 against Papineau. This was serious enough, but its effect 
 was slight compared with that of the language used by The 
 Vindicator about the English troops, and the offers made 
 at St. Charles to induce them to desert. On November 6th 
 the Patriots and their newspaper probably remembered 
 their unwise words. The Sons of Liberty, mentioned a 
 few pages back, were holding a meeting in Montreal upon 
 enclosed premises. Feeling by this time ran high, and a 
 loyalist crowd soon gathered. It was small, and when the 
 Sons of Liberty, to avenge desultory stone-throwing and 
 revilings, charged it in a solid mass, it had to retire, but 
 not for long, as various members of the Doric Club gathered 
 to assist it, and the French, in their turn, had to flee. The 
 troops, who sympathised but little with the Patriots after 
 their recent language, did not rush very eagerly to check the 
 riot, and before they arrived the premises of The Vindicator 
 had been gutted. The rebellion had begun, but "rebellion" 
 is a woeful misnomer for the events in Lower Canada. 
 
THE REBELLION. 97 
 
 On November Qth Colborne definitely took over the 
 government from Gosford, who, in a dispatch of the I4th, 
 insisted on being recalled. It was high time, for even in 
 the parishes near Montreal the Patriots had terrified judges 
 and suitors alike from using the courts, and British settlers 
 were fleeing for their lives to the towns. Still, there was 
 no definite plan of campaign with Papineau, although it 
 could not be hoped that Colborne would overlook the 
 meeting at St. Charles. The only definite organization 
 for resistance seems to have been at St. Charles itself, 
 where Thomas Storrow Brown, an American, who had 
 gained great influence among the Patriots, essayed to form 
 an entrenched camp. After the affray of November 6th 
 the leaders of the French had left Montreal, for regiments 
 of volunteer cavalry, riflemen, and artillery were being 
 raised by the Government, and troops summoned from 
 Upper Canada, while public processions and assemblies 
 were forbidden. The Commission of the Peace was 
 remodelled, and finally warrants were issued for the 
 arrest of certain prominent Liberals on November nth. 
 The Government was well served with spies, and Colborne 
 was not afraid to strike hard. 
 
 As we know from Lord Durham's Report, the police of 
 Lower Canada were practically non-existent, and the 
 warrants had to be executed by a band of volunteer 
 cavalry. As a party of these under Lieutenant Ermatinger 
 were returning to Montreal, their prisoners were taken from 
 them by a mob organized for that purpose by some of the 
 leaders still at large. This first success elated the Patriots 
 considerably, and they gathered in strength at St. Denis 
 and St. Charles, both villages on the Richelieu. Warrants 
 had been issued against Papineau, Nelson, O'Callaghan, 
 and Brown by the i6th, and Papineau had no choice now. 
 Escaping from Montreal, he sent the Swiss Girod to raise 
 the county of Two Mountains at St. Eustache, and himself 
 hastened to join Dr. Nelson at St. Denis. 
 
 Except for the peasantry at St. Denis, St. Charles, and 
 
 S.G.C. . H 
 
98 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 St. Eustache, there was no sign of the rising Papineau had 
 threatened. The Government had no difficulty in obtaining 
 men, for even those who did not join with Viger and 
 Ouesnel in denouncing Papineau remained neutral. The 
 fort at Chambly on the Richelieu was strongly garrisoned 
 by Wcatherall with volunteers, regulars, and artillery, and 
 it was decided that Colonel Gore should proceed from 
 Sorel, at the confluence of the Richelieu and the St. 
 Lawrence, with 250 men and one gun, to arrest Nelson and 
 the other leaders at St. Denis ; Weatherall, on November 
 22nd, received orders to march from Chambly at once, so 
 as to effect a junction with Gore on the following day at 
 St. Charles. The news of Gore's approach was brought to 
 Nelson and Papineau, and the capture of Lieutenant Weir 
 and his despatches made it clear that it was true. Papineau 
 asserted afterwards that Nelson advised him to flee to the 
 States, but at the time and afterwards the latter insisted 
 that the flight was due to Papineau himself. Nelson had 
 fortified an old barn and a house by the roadside, and 
 when Gore's men came in sight he and his peasants made 
 a stout resistance. Gore's men had had a cruel march, 
 and after twenty-four miles of journeying through mud, 
 ice, and rain, they were not fit for battle with foes under 
 cover. For nearly five hours they struggled, and then 
 Gore was glad to abandon his howitzer and retire. He 
 had lost six men killed and ten wounded, while thirteen 
 of the defending force fell. The Patriots were jubilant, 
 but it was their last success. 
 
 Weatherall had better fortune than Gore, and, as a 
 general, Brown was inferior to Nelson. Around the house 
 of that Debartzch who had formerly been a local leader 
 a rude entrenchment was thrown up, but no attempt was 
 made to hold a neighbouring hill which defended the 
 position. Although the Patriots at St. Charles were better 
 armed and more numerous than those at St. Denis, the 
 best leader they could find was the American, and his 
 lieutenant was the village curt M. Blanchet, one of the few 
 
THE REBELLION. 99 
 
 clergy on Papineau's side at this time. At first Brown did 
 his best to feed and encourage his followers ; according to 
 his account the latter were insubordinate, and when he 
 himself met with an accident, his power was at an end. 
 
 It seems that Colonel Weatherall had detached many 
 habitants from him by a message promising pardon, and 
 Brown, being unwilling to risk too much in the cause of 
 his unruly followers, rode over to St. Denis and announced 
 that all was lost, at the very moment Nelson's men were 
 rejoicing over their victory. Brown's presence at St. Charles 
 could not have affected the result, for after a brief parley 
 WeatheralPs men bombarded and stormed the Patriots' 
 position, and in an hour all was over. The insurgents 1 loss 
 was heavy ; thirty prisoners were taken to Montreal, and 
 the fugitives carried the news of the disaster far and wide. 
 
 When Girod, at Papineau's command, attempted to 
 raise the district of Two Mountains, he found it difficult, 
 as the news of St. Charles effectually damped the Patriots' 
 ardour. However, matters had gone too far, and a mis- 
 taken notion of chivalry compelled Dr. Chenier, one of 
 the leading Liberals of the district, to join Girod. The 
 loyalists had fled in terror to Montreal, and St. Eustache, 
 where Dr. Chenier lived, was soon full of Patriots from the 
 neighbouring villages. Some arms were carried off from 
 the Government stores at the Indian Mission, and Girod 
 by his audacity actually persuaded Chenier to disregard 
 the remonstrances of his most intimate friends. It is 
 impossible to excuse the folly of Girod and Chenier in 
 exposing their deluded followers to the attack of an over- 
 powering and exasperated body of troops. Colborne made 
 all preparations, and then, with horse, foot, and artillery, to 
 the number of 2,000, marched on the doomed insurgents. 
 Chenier and some of his men had taken refuge in the 
 village church, but it did not afford protection long. The 
 door was forced, and all was over. Chenier fell, together 
 with seventy of his followers, and then began a scene of 
 horror which was never forgotten in Lower Canada. The 
 
 H 2 
 
ioo SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 people of St. Eustache had not themselves been conspicuous 
 among the insurgents, but the volunteers, especially those 
 from the district of Two Mountains, were not in a mood 
 to make fine distinctions. Colborne could restrain the 
 regulars, but no power on earth could hold back the men 
 who for years past had been subject to every form of petty 
 oppression and had finally been compelled to flee for their 
 lives. Part of the village was burnt, and afterwards half- 
 burned corpses were picked up among the ruins. 
 
 Next day the column marched to St. Benoit, but no 
 resistance was offered. Unfortunately, this did not save 
 St. Benoit from the fate of St. Eustache, although the 
 officers did their utmost. The column returned in triumph 
 to Montreal, and the French vied with the English in 
 welcoming the regulars and volunteers who were pouring 
 into Lower Canada from the neighbouring provinces. 
 There were, however, regrettable incidents enough ; the 
 Lieutenant Weir mentioned as having been captured by 
 Nelson's men near St. Denis was brutally cut to pieces 
 with swords on attempting to escape from his guards, 
 and a poor habitant, named Chartrand, who was serving 
 as a loyalist volunteer, was murdered by some of the baser 
 Patriots. These incidents did not conciliate either the 
 regulars or the volunteers, and many petty retaliations 
 were made in the shape of house-burning and looting. 
 However, the insurrection was too thoroughly crushed to 
 make resistance possible. Girod had shot himself when 
 attempting in vain to escape, and Wolfred Nelson was 
 arrested by the volunteers in seeking to cross the frontier. 
 The arch-insurgents Papineau and O'Callaghan, more 
 prudent and less warlike, had already reached the United 
 States, and a price was put upon their heads. Even 
 Lafontaine, the future Premier, who had been one of the 
 extremists, prayed Gosford to convoke the Assembly, and, 
 finding him obdurate, made his way to Paris. Lafontaine's 
 visit was due to the publication of an argumentative pro- 
 clamation on November 2gth against the insurgents. 
 
THE REBELLION. 101 
 
 Happily for Lower Canada, Colborne held the real power, 
 and he soon proved how little sympathy the insurrection 
 had even among the habitants. It is worthy of note that 
 at St. Eustache the insurgents were promised by their 
 leaders the abolition of tithe and seigneurial dues, as well 
 as the lands of the loyalists ; and the insurrection had been 
 threatened as a protest against any tampering with the 
 rights of the Church or with the Custom of Paris ! 
 
 When the first news of the troubles reached England 
 there was great excitement. Many of the Radicals talked 
 as if they hoped the French were going to emulate the 
 deeds of the revolted colonists of 1776, and exulted. 
 However, Lord John Russell, backed up by Whigs and 
 Tories alike, took a firm line. On January 26th, 1838, 
 a Bill was introduced to suspend the Constitution of Lower 
 Canada for three years, and to provide for the dispatch of 
 the Earl of Durham as Special Commissioner. Roebuck 
 had by this time lost his seat at Bath, but he was heard at 
 the Bar of the House against the Bill, as the Agent for 
 Lower Canada. He could only find sixteen supporters to 
 oppose the two hundred and sixty-two votes for the Bill. 
 The new Commissioner had no easy task, for, on the top 
 of the troubles in Lower Canada, came the news of 
 Mackenzie's mad attempt in Upper Canada. It is necessary 
 very briefly to sketch the story of the troubles which led to 
 this fresh insurrection. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 THE UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS. 
 
 IT has been related how the United Empire Loyalists were 
 given a separate Government in Upper Canada. The first 
 Governor was Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe, under whose 
 wise rule the new province flourished exceedingly. The 
 population increased in his time from 1 2,000 to 30,000, and 
 it was a population in which loyalty was a creed held 
 almost to fanaticism. The settlers of Upper Canada were 
 at first nearly as homogeneous in their religions as in their 
 political views, being generally Episcopalians. However, 
 the fertile lands of Upper Canada could be obtained on such 
 liberal terms that many keen Republicans left the new 
 United States in favour of the British colony. Simcoe 
 did not refuse them, but he cautiously made them settle 
 in the interior, and lined the frontier with Loyalists only. 
 Simcoe did a great deal for the colony, but he was bitterly 
 opposed to the United States, and at the same time as he 
 made roads and organized the new province, he seems to 
 have intrigued with the Indians and the discontented 
 Americans in the neighbouring states of the Union. Lord 
 Dorchester was alarmed, and friction ensued when he 
 attempted to assert the somewhat shadowy claim of the 
 Governor-General to control a Lieutenant-Governor. The 
 British Government supported Dorchester, and Simcoe 
 returned to England, greatly to the disgust of the Loyalists 
 as a whole, but to the satisfaction of a few in Upper Canada 
 who disliked his inflexible honesty. 
 
 When he had gone the evils of land-grabbing and official 
 corruption could not be suppressed. Peter Russell, the 
 Administrator of the province till the arrival of General 
 
THE UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS. 103 
 
 Hunter, took the lead and secured huge grants of land for 
 himself. Hunter arrived in 1799, and carried on in some 
 ways Simcoe's policy of watchfulness against the Americans. 
 His rule coincided with troublous times, and in 1804 the 
 famous Alien Act was passed. It was a copy of similar 
 legislation in Great Britain and Lower Canada, and em- 
 powered the Government to arrest and deport from the 
 realm men of suspected loyalty, who had not resided in the 
 province six months. The loyalty of some of the American 
 settlers was more than doubtful, but the Alien Act could be 
 made a powerful engine of oppression. 
 
 From 1806 to 1818 Sir Francis Gore was Lieutenant- 
 Governor. He was a high Tory and, supported by the 
 United Empire Loyalists, he ruled with unchecked power. 
 He was really dependent on the official class, but, as these 
 were Tories to a man and controlled the House of Assembly 
 there was little trouble. Most of the leaders lived in or 
 near Toronto (York it was then called), arid as they had 
 founded the province, they claimed a right to control its 
 destinies. We must not be misled by the Radical views of 
 Lord Durham into construing this monopoly of place and 
 power as mere selfish tyranny. The loyalists had suffered 
 much for Great Britain, and saw with indignation that the 
 Americans, not content with having robbed them of their 
 possessions in the old colonies, were seeking to share the 
 new lands they had first found. Moreover a large number 
 of the settlers were German Protestant refugees, and had 
 scruples as to the lawfulness of bearing arms. Upper 
 Canada had to fight for the Imperial connection, and the 
 war of 1812 was primarily one for the conquest of Canada. 
 
 For many years there was no regular opposition to the 
 Tory views ; the later settlers were too busy cultivating 
 their lands to mix in politics. In accordance with the 
 Constitution of 1791, vast reserves of land were made in 
 each township for the clergy and for the Crown, and these 
 naturally remained uncultivated, as did most of the huge 
 grants of Crown lands secured by members of the party in 
 
io 4 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 power. Canada suffered from lack of population and 
 capital, and many of the improvements, hardly made, were 
 injured by the vast tracks of wild or semi-wild land that 
 intervened between the estates. Roads were too frequently 
 bad or non-existent, and mills, schools, churches, bridges 
 in fact, most of the outward signs of civilisation were 
 absent in many places. We can understand how little 
 sympathy there was between the Loyalist and the Republican, 
 and Gore, though an amiable man, was not capable of 
 striking out in the right direction of creating a better 
 feeling. He leaned on the Tories, and most of the half-pay 
 officers or soldiers who emigrated to Upper Canada before 
 the end of the Napoleonic wars were Tories by instinct or 
 interest. 
 
 Gore had to face opposition at times, but careful inves- 
 tigation of the questions at issue does not show any 
 especial merit in his adversaries. The first case was that 
 of Justice Thorpe, an intriguing man, who, discontented 
 with his own position, made a bid for popularity by advo- 
 cating political ideas of an advanced character. He formed 
 an alliance with an ex-United Irishman, Sheriff Willcocks, 
 and managed to get a seat in the Assembly. His real aim 
 seems to have been to secure the post of Chief Justice of 
 Upper Canada, and, failing in this, he began to talk with 
 the American element of separation from Great Britain. 
 Gore appealed to the home authorities, and secured 
 Thorpe's recall to England. Sheriff Willcocks, who had 
 even more ambitious plans than Thorpe, established a news- 
 paper, The Upper Canada Guardian, to advocate views so 
 extreme that the paper is thought to have been subsidised 
 across the frontier. An action for libel against him was 
 not pressed, but Willcocks 1 real views are shown by his 
 death before Fort Erie in 1 8 14 as a colonel in the American 
 army. 
 
 There arose out of the cases of Thorpe and Willcocks 
 the famous pamphlet issued by John Mills Jackson, an 
 English traveller, professing to expose the corruption and 
 
THE UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS. 105 
 
 misgovernment in Upper Canada. The very escape of 
 Willcocks was seized upon by the Assembly as a proof of 
 the freedom of speech enjoyed in Upper Canada. As a 
 matter of fact, there was little beyond theoretical grievances 
 at this time in Upper Canada. The Government was 
 paternal, but in that it followed the English model. The 
 new state of things arose after the war of 1812. Gore had 
 retired into the background for three years, while Upper 
 Canada, under the gallant Brock, made a splendid defence 
 against the invaders. With peace Gore returned, but the 
 condition of things was changing every day. The American 
 troops carried back wondrous tales of the fertility of the 
 land, and thousands came as settlers to the land they had 
 failed to conquer. On the whole, they were a distinct gain 
 to the country by their industry, but they were advanced 
 Radicals in politics, and few were Episcopalians. Side by 
 side with them there settled in Upper Canada immigrants 
 from the British Isles, some disbanded soldiers, others 
 artisans, labourers, or middle-class professional men. Many 
 of the lower classes were disciples of Cobbett and the 
 Radicals, and. most of the Irish and Scots were non- 
 Episcopalian Protestants. 
 
 In the stream of English immigrants came the famous 
 Robert Gourlay. Failing in most things, generally rather 
 on account of his advanced Radical opinions than from 
 want of industry, Gourlay at last came to Canada and set 
 up as a land agent. Immigration was increasing rapidly, 
 and Gourlay, wishing to encourage settlers, sent round in 
 1817 a list of " Thirty-one Questions " to the various town- 
 ships, with a view to publishing a "Statistical Abstract of 
 Upper Canada." The questions were generally unobjec- 
 tionable, but one, which asked for the views of the township 
 as to the causes retarding the country's prosperity, trod on 
 dangerous ground. The answers generally instanced the 
 wild lands held by the Crown, the clergy and private 
 owners ; there was a lack of capital, a want of settlers, and 
 a defective system of colonisation. It happened that 
 
io6 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Gourlay was acting with an American named Bidwell, who, 
 though formerly Attorney-General of Massachusetts, had 
 been compelled to flee ; possibly Bidwell's defence of his 
 conduct was true, but it was unfortunate that his past was 
 open to attack. The American settlers were very unpopular 
 with the British Government, and efforts had been made to 
 keep them out In the Assembly, however, voices were 
 raised in their favour, and complaints had also been made 
 sufficiently in the spirit of Gourlay's questions to alarm the 
 authorities. 
 
 At this time there began to exhibit itself a closecommunity 
 of interest between the leading families of the United 
 Empire Loyalists. Intermarriage was of necessity con- 
 fined to a small circle in a sparsely populated land, and 
 most of the sons of the leading families had attended the 
 school of the well-known Dr. Strachan. Strachan had 
 been invited over by Simcoe, but when his patron left too 
 early for the proposed system of national education to be 
 carried out, he was persuaded to remain and establish a 
 private academy. Strachan was a Scotsman, whose mother 
 was a member of the Secession Church, and whose father 
 was a Non-juror. Educated a Presbyterian, his sympathies 
 drew him over to Anglicanism, and he became a tower of 
 strength to that Church in Canada. He was a hard hitter 
 in self-defence, but he seems to have been a courteous and 
 kindly man, and was a true friend of education. He was 
 bitterly, often unscrupulously, assailed by his opponents, 
 but he lived down all opposition, and died Bishop of 
 Toronto. 
 
 In 1817 Strachan, previously its chaplain, was made a 
 member of the Legislative Council ; Gore had already 
 placed him on the Executive Council in 1816. John 
 Beverley Robinson, first Attorney- General and afterwards 
 Chief Justice of Canada, had been one of Strachan's pupils, 
 and both he and others of his fellow-pupils who attained 
 office in Upper Canada were accustomed to look to their 
 late schoolmaster for guidance in their new positions. 
 
THE UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS. 107 
 
 There was, as has been said, a certain family relationship 
 between the leading men of Upper Canada, but the term 
 "family compact," first applied, it seems, by Mackenzie in 
 1833, was a sneering reference to the Bourbon league of the 
 eighteenth century. Strachan and his friends were em- 
 phatically the Tory party of Upper Canada. They held 
 fast to the old colonial tradition that the Executive of 
 Lower Canada was, like the Governor, only responsible to 
 the Crown. 
 
 They had no wish to oppress any individual, but they 
 looked to the rewards of office as being theirs alone ; any 
 claim to share these on the part of the later settlers could 
 only spring from disloyal Republican views, and must be 
 resisted. It is unfortunate that while early Radicalism in 
 Upper Canada had a distinctly Republican tendency, the 
 love of power had become so ingrained in its possessors 
 that, when the British immigrants of a later date demanded 
 equal rights, they too were treated as prospective rebels ; 
 and yet, because they were not rebels, they met with scant 
 sympathy from the Republican American element. As 
 became Strachan's pupils, the Tory leaders were keen 
 Anglicans, and felt as much interest in the clergy reserves 
 as in their own huge grants of wild land. The Americans 
 and many of the British settlers, being Methodists, 
 Presbyterians, and Baptists, were indisposed to bear the 
 burden of supporting their own ministers while at the same 
 time their farms were injured by the existence of the clergy 
 reserves. At first the Episcopalians were in a majority, 
 but after 1820 they could no longer claim to be the most 
 numerous body of Christians in Upper Canada ; it was 
 their misfortune to be led by Strachan, whose very virtues 
 made him unfit to preserve a minority in its rights. 
 
 Such being the state of affairs in Upper Canada towards 
 the close of Gore's administration, we cannot be surprised 
 that, when Gourlay attempted to agitate, and finally sent 
 an address to the Prince Regent, reiterating the old 
 charges of corruption and hinting at the superior excellence 
 
io8 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 of the United States, he was prosecuted. It was Gourlay's 
 ill luck that Sir Peregrine Maitland succeeded Gore in 
 July, 1818. Maitland was a high Tory, and although he 
 must have seen that Gourlay's complaints were not un- 
 reasonable, he shared the dislike of the Upper Canada 
 ruling class to any symptoms of Liberalism. It was 
 cleverly suggested in the Governor's speech to the 
 Assembly that the Convention which Gourlay had proposed 
 could only have for its end the severance of Canada from 
 Great Britain, and the Assembly promptly denounced such 
 conventions as an usurpation of its powers. " Gagged, 
 gagged, by Jingo!" was Gourlay's comment on the Act 
 forbidding these meetings, and for these words, which 
 headed a written protest against the Act, Gourlay was 
 tried twice as a libeller. When it was found impossible to 
 secure a conviction in the face of popular sympathy, 
 Gourlay was proceeded against as an alien, under the Act 
 of 1804. Maitland, by describing Gourlay as half Hunt, 
 half Cobbett,had alarmed Bathurst, the Colonial Secretary, 
 and nothing was feared from the Imperial ministers. 
 Gourlay was accused by a man of notorious character as 
 an evil-minded and seditious person who had not been in 
 the country six months. Gourlay, technically, had not 
 been for the last six months continuously in Canada, but 
 his foes would show him no mercy. Thoroughly broken 
 down by imprisonment, for he was never a strong man, 
 Gourlay was condemned by Chief Justice Powell to quit 
 the country. He went and the Tories breathed again, but 
 Bidwell remained, and around him gathered a more 
 formidable opposition than Gourlay had been. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF RADICALISM. 
 
 IN January, 1821, the Assembly was increased to thirty- 
 eight members, under a new Act on the basis of a compound 
 area and population scheme. It was impossible to prevent 
 the inevitable result that the new members were frequently 
 not at all Tory. At present, however, there was no Radical 
 party, and the Government had little to fear during this 
 parliament Bidwell, Gourlay's friend, had been elected, 
 but the Tories managed to get him expelled by raking up 
 his shady antecedents in addition to his American citizen- 
 ship. In this parliament sat Dr. Baldwin, Robert Baldwin's 
 father. He was a Moderate Liberal, but he was powerless 
 to secure the repeal of the Act of 1804. The Radicals, 
 however, were delighted when they succeeded, after many 
 rebuffs, in getting Marshall Bidwell elected in his father's 
 place. Around Marshall Bidwell was to grow up the new 
 Radical party. 
 
 Among the new immigrants were many Presbyterians, 
 and they were well represented in the Assembly of 1821. 
 In 1823 William Morris of Perth, one of their members, 
 carried a Resolution in the Assembly, claiming an equal 
 share in the clergy reserves for the Church of Scotland, 
 on the ground that, being established by law in Scotland, 
 it could profess that its ministers were included in the 
 term "a Protestant clergy" of the Act of 1/91. This was 
 the beginning of a bitter struggle, and it is necessary to go 
 into it rather in detail, as Lord Durham asserts that it was 
 an important factor in the Upper Canada troubles. So 
 long as the Episcopalians were in a majority their view 
 prevailed, namely, that the clergy reserves were for their 
 
no SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 clergy only, in lieu of the right to the possession of tithe 
 which they enjoyed in England. The Imperial Parliament 
 bore them out in this for some time, and although Bathurst, 
 by advice of the law officers of the Crown, allowed 
 Maitland in 1819 to grant 100 out of the Reserves Fund 
 to a burnt-out Presbyterian congregation at Niagara, he 
 distinctly said the " clergy reserves were not for 
 dissenters.'' In 1819 the number of clergy in Upper 
 Canada was so small that the Imperial Parliament granted 
 them a Charter of Incorporation, with power to lease some 
 of the reserves, so that more clergy might be supported. 
 As, however, freehold was favoured in Canada where land 
 was cheap, negotiations were entered into with the British 
 North-American Land Company to buy one-third of the 
 reserves. Although the negotiations miscarried, the other 
 religious bodies were alarmed, and began to challenge the 
 Anglican claims. 
 
 Then began an agitation for the division of the clergy 
 reserves among all the denominations, and, later, for their 
 conversion to the support of education. Resolutions were 
 sent to the Imperial Parliament, and the Anglicans, as 
 supporters of the Tories, received little sympathy from the 
 Assembly. In 1823 Strachan had forwarded an ecclesias- 
 tical chart to the House of Lords. The Rev. Egerton 
 Ryerson, at that time a newly-ordained Methodist preacher, 
 took exception to the statement that the Episcopalians 
 outnumbered the other bodies, and henceforth led the 
 religious opposition in Upper Canada. He was an able 
 man, but, although a Radical in some things, he was also 
 an enthusiastic loyalist It is difficult to gauge the actual 
 numbers of the different denominations in Upper Canada, 
 but the probability is that the Episcopalians were less 
 numerous than Strachan believed, and more numerous 
 than his opponents allowed. 
 
 Strachan made a plucky fight for what he held to be the 
 rights of his Church. Maitland was favourable to his views, 
 and in 1820 had already been consulting Bathurst as to 
 
BEGINNINGS OF RADICALISM. in 
 
 the establishment of rectories in the manner provided for 
 by the Act. 1 From this time till the departure of Colborne 
 negotiations went on between the Anglicans and the 
 different Governors as to whether these rectories should 
 correspond to the area of the parish served by them, or 
 merely to the church and churchyard. As usual, Colborne 
 was unwilling to give needless offence, and at last persuaded 
 Strachan to consent to the smaller area. Patents for the 
 erection of fifty-nine rectories were prepared, and forty- 
 four had been signed before Colborne handed over the 
 governorship to Head. News of these proceedings came 
 to Speaker Bidwell, and there was great indignation. 
 Colborne, however, was only following out his instructions, 
 and the law officers of the Crown subsequently upheld his 
 action. In the Report Lord Durham practically finds in 
 Colborne's creation of the rectories one of the main causes 
 of the trouble in Upper Canada, but it is due to the memory 
 of a man too often misrepresented to point out that he 
 attempted to carry out a difficult task in the most con- 
 ciliatory manner. 
 
 We must keep in view this question of the rectories all 
 through the history of the next few years. The people 01 
 Upper Canada envied the Americans their churches and 
 schools, and regretted the poverty which prevented them 
 from possessing the like. Clergy and schoolmasters were 
 very scarce in Upper Canada, and the clergy reserves 
 brought in very little, while at the same time they injured 
 the province. No one believes in the expediency of their 
 creation, but the right of the Anglicans was incontestable. 
 It was never challenged till 1824, and the pleas alleged by 
 the Radicals are of little weight. The Scottish Church, 
 perhaps, had a claim as a Protestant established Church, 
 but the Anglicans 'pointed out that most of the Presby- 
 terians of Canada did not belong to that Church, but to 
 independent Churches in America. The Methodists, prob- 
 ably the most numerous denomination, were broken up 
 1 Can. Arch., O. 328, I., p. 27. 
 
ii2 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 into many bodies, and, at the time when the Act was 
 passed, were scarcely a non-Anglican sect The Baptists 
 were few in numbers, as were the remaining sects, and the 
 Roman Catholics, like the Presbyterians, received a small 
 grant from the funds of the Canada Company. 
 
 It was alleged that the author of the clause, Lord 
 Grenville, informed Viscount Sandon in 1791 that the 
 reserves were to be applied to the support of any clergy 
 not Roman Catholic. Strachan, in his famous " speech on 
 the clergy reserves," maintains that Lord Sandon's words 
 had been misunderstood ; Lord Grenville had merely said 
 that he had no objection to aid being given to the Presby- 
 terians when the Anglicans had been provided for. How- 
 ever, the other version obtained credence, and the demand 
 continued. Strachan attempted to conciliate the opposition 
 by proposing a state subvention to the non- Anglican bodies, 
 but the more extreme Radicals took to proposing that the 
 reserves should be applied to the support of education. It 
 may be that this was one of the causes for the lukewarm- 
 ness of Ryerson and the Methodists. They included in 
 their ranks many United Empire Loyalists and settlers 
 from Great Britain, and it was to them that Head turned 
 in his election campaign. 
 
 Lord Durham well remarks that it was difficult to find 
 any clear line of division or definite objects among the 
 parties of Upper Canada. The actual number of the 
 extreme Tories was small, outside the official class, and 
 their opinions were not so much convictions as the result 
 of their position as office holders who had to carry out the 
 policy of Downing Street. Nor were the extreme Radical- 
 Republicans much more numerous. Perhaps, among the 
 farmers who had left the United States after 1812, and 
 among the English disciples of Cobbett and Hunt, there 
 was little encouragement needed to advocate annexation 
 to their southern neighbours. The vast majority of the 
 people of Upper Canada were not politicians, except so far 
 as they sought to develop their country by good laws and 
 
BEGINNINGS OF RADICALISM. 113 
 
 just government. Many of them were ex-soldiers and half- 
 pay officers, whose inclinations led them to support the 
 established Government. They felt their exclusion from 
 power and the scarcely veiled contempt of the soi-disant 
 aristocracy of Toronto, not less than did the numerous pro- 
 fessional men who had arrived in Upper Canada in the recent 
 immigrations. They formed a sort of Liberal-Conservative 
 party, and it is to their disgust at the excess of each of the 
 extremist parties in turn that we owe the peculiar political 
 instability of the various Assemblies of Lower Canada. 
 
 The elections of 1824 returned an Assembly in which 
 the " reformers," as they delighted to call themselves, were 
 supreme. This did not give them very much real power 
 under the existing Constitution. A Bill for the naturalisa- 
 tion of aliens after a seven years' residence in the country 
 was submitted to the Assembly by Maitland, in accord- 
 ance with the orders of Lord Bathurst. This Bill was 
 said to have been drafted by the Home Government in a 
 manner believed to be acceptable to the province, but it 
 aroused great opposition. A more liberal measure pro- 
 posed by Bidwell in 1827 was passed after a few alterations 
 had been made in the Legislative Council, but it proved 
 the occasion for a collision between Maitland and the 
 Assembly. Already in 1825 the Council had thrown out 
 the Supply Bill owing to the Assembly's modifications, and 
 in 1826 the Assembly had asked the King to exclude the 
 judges from the Executive Council, and to make them inde- 
 pendent of the Crown. The country was not prosperous. 
 Like Lower Canada, it suffered from the reaction after the 
 war of 1815, and from the protective duties on wheat levied 
 by Great Britain. The province had no ocean port, and 
 the troubles in Lower Canada affected the upper province 
 adversely. It was in vain that one Imperial statute gave 
 Upper Canada an increased share of the duties levied at 
 Montreal and Quebec, and another admitted her wheat on 
 easy terms. Upper Canada was becoming little better 
 than a halting-place for immigrants to the Western States 
 s.G.c. I 
 
1 1 4 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 of the Union, and capital and population were both scarce 
 in comparison with area. 
 
 M airland must be held responsible for many of the 
 troubles of Upper Canada. He was an indolent man, who 
 did not trouble to acquaint himself, as Dalhousie did, with 
 the real needs of the province, but contented himself with 
 attempting to repress all criticism. One of the most 
 virulent critics was the future rebel leader, William Lyon 
 Mackenzie, at that time editor of The Colonial Advocate. 
 He had drifted to Canada and journalism through a variety 
 of adventures, as draper, bookseller, engineer, and politician, 
 and brought to bear on his editorial work a fluent pen and 
 a fiery impetuosity, which too often undid any good he 
 had previously effected in calling attention to abuses. 
 Mackenzie was a born agitator and politician, a warm 
 friend and a bitter enemy. Unfortunately, he was destitute 
 of self-control, and lacked the power of articulating the 
 grievances which he felt. Journalism did not bring in 
 large fortunes in Upper Canada, but it made an editor 
 important, and Mackenzie soon became a valuable sup- 
 porter of the Radicals. He criticised the oligarchy 
 severely, without offering any very clear alternative policy. 
 Mr. Kingsford refuses to accept the theory that to 
 Mackenzie was due the first advocacy of responsible 
 government, but Mackenzie's insistence on the respon- 
 siveness of the Executive to the wish of the people was 
 as near to that theory as a colonial statesman dare go in 
 those pre-Reform days. His son-in-law, Mr. Lindsay, 
 gives a very different picture to that which Mackenzie 
 presented to the outsider; we may admit that he held 
 views as to the federation of British North America and 
 on other matters which were afterwards accepted, but he 
 spoiled all by his impatience of control, and his utter want 
 of consistency. Mackenzie wrote at high tension, and 
 foolishly thought himself bound to defend his words when 
 he had worked off his passion. His views varied with every 
 burst of passion, and yet all must be reconciled. 
 
BEGINNINGS OF RADICALISM. 115 
 
 Very early in his career Mackenzie attacked the ad- 
 ministration of the Post Office. He claimed that the 
 profits should be retained in Canada, quite oblivious of the 
 fact that the so-called profits were largely swallowed up by 
 the transit dues which Great Britain paid. He never 
 looked below the surface of things, and moreover he con- 
 fused the individual with the office, and was led into state- 
 ments often unjust and seldom capable of proof. Maitland 
 championed his official friends, and consequently objected 
 to the placing of a copy of the Advocate beneath the 
 statue erected to Brock in 1824, and in 1826 struck out of 
 the Estimates a proposed grant to Mackenzie of 37 i6s. 
 for publishing the debates. These were small things, but 
 they won sympathy for Mackenzie and Mackenzie's hatred 
 for the ruling class. He became even less restrained in 
 his editorials, denouncing Justice Boulton and his son, the 
 Solicitor-General. Foolishly enough, a crowd of Tory 
 young men wrecked the printing offices of the Advocate in 
 Mackenzie's absence. The newspaper would have ceased 
 to appear in a short time owing to debt, but ^"625, which 
 Mackenzie received as damages, gave it a fresh lease of 
 life, at the same time securing Mackenzie new friends. 
 Bidwell had been one of his solicitors, and as though to 
 identify the rioters with the Governor and his friends, 
 Colonel Fitz-Gibbon, the future defender of Toronto, 
 at that time Deputy Adjutant-General, made a collection 
 among the Tories to pay the fine. 
 
 The very next year occurred the Forsyth case. Forsyth, 
 a tavern keeper at Niagara, had illegally erected a high 
 fence, cutting off the view of the Falls. Everyone com- 
 plained, and Maitland, as though to show his power, sent 
 troops to pull down the fence ; an appeal to the law courts 
 could not have failed to obtain the same result, but Mait- 
 land's action secured popular sympathy for the law-breaker. 
 The Governor went further and refused to allow two 
 officers to be examined by the Assembly on the affair. 
 The matter was carried to England, and next year 
 
 I 2 
 
ii6 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Maitland was removed to Nova Scotia. Even the Duke 
 of Wellington could not justify his action, and yet, before 
 Maitland left, the "amoval of Justice Willis" and his 
 treatment of Francis Collins had roused indignation enough 
 to give the reformers a great victory at the elections. 
 
 Willis had come out to Upper Canada as puisne judge 
 in 1827, hoping to be made head of a new Court of Equity. 
 He was a second Thorpe in some ways, and his wife, Lady 
 Mary, by daring to dispute the claims to precedence of 
 Lady Sarah Maitland, daughter of the Duke of Richmond, 
 made him unpopular with the Governor and Toronto 
 society. Maitland did not like his assumed superiority, 
 and he also offended Beverley Robinson, whose talents he 
 had affected to despise. As a matter of course, he gave 
 ear to the reformers, and when, in 1828, Francis Collins, 
 who was, like Mackenzie, a bitter journalistic opponent of 
 the Tories, was brought before him on a charge of libel, 
 he allowed him to attack Attorney-General Robinson for 
 dereliction of duty. Robinson was indignant, and, as 
 Willis entirely exceeded his powers in censuring him, was 
 not slow to take his revenge. Willis published a notice 
 about a new book by himself, which seemed to refer 
 unfavourably to Canadian jurisprudence, and then, because 
 he disliked Sherwood, the other judge, refused to sit on 
 the Bench, alleging that, in the absence of Chief Justice 
 Campbell, the two puisne judges were incompetent to 
 hold a Court. The reformers supported Willis, but he 
 was again unquestionably wrong, as was decided afterwards. 
 Finally Maitland suspended Willis, and the latter sought 
 redress in England. Before Maitland himself left, he 
 secured the condemnation of Francis Collins on a charge 
 of libelling the Attorney-General. Collins was largely to 
 blame, for he mistook Robinson's forbearance for timidity, 
 and was not satisfied with a former narrow escape. This 
 time, although his fine was paid by subscription, he had to 
 undergo twelve months' imprisonment, and find sureties 
 for three years. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF MACKENZIE. 
 
 ON November 4th, 1828, Sir John Colborne began his 
 long rule in Upper Canada. He was a man of an altogether 
 different stamp from Maitland. He had no personal 
 enmities, and only wished to carry out the orders of the 
 Imperial Government. He had naturally little sympathy 
 with Liberal ideas, but he was a good friend to education 
 and the general welfare of the province. It was due to 
 him that Upper Canada College was founded, and he 
 sympathised with the good as well as the bad points in 
 Strachan's policy. The weak part of his government was his 
 sympathy with the " family compact," but it was hard for 
 any Governor to dispense with them. This sympathy led 
 him to refuse Collins' petition for release. However, the 
 popular feeling was reflected by the result of the election 
 of 1829, for the new Reform Assembly took up Collins* 
 case. Bidwell was elected Speaker by three votes, and 
 Mackenzie and Dr. Baldwin were members. Peter Perry, 
 another reform leader, was already in the House, and 
 Robert Baldwin secured a seat at York, on the elevation 
 of Beverley Robinson to the position of Chief Justice, a 
 few months later. 
 
 The new House by 37 votes to I declared that it 
 should be the responsible adviser of the Governor, not 
 the Executive Council, which had ruled so badly ; it 
 was hoped that under Colborne the administration of 
 justice would be above suspicion. Colborne was in a 
 dilemma at this address, and his reply was that it was less 
 difficult to trace political dissensions than to efface them. 
 He had already expressed his opinion to the Colonial 
 
n8 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Secretary that some means should be taken to prevent the 
 Legislative Council from being controlled by the Executive 
 Council ; however, affairs in Lower Canada were threaten- 
 ing and Colborne could only obey orders. Perhaps he 
 would have acceded to the request of the Assembly and 
 released Collins, but Robinson could not forget how the 
 latter had given Willis a chance to insult him. 
 
 Mackenzie was in his element as a member of the 
 Assembly, and at once proceeded to hunt for grievances, 
 umping all together as of equal importance. The question 
 of the Executive Council was still burning ; for, under the 
 system then followed, it could secure the rejection of any 
 Bill in the Legislative Council, and could and did persuade 
 the Governor to strike out any item of expenditure from 
 the Estimates voted by the Assembly. The reformers 
 might propose what they liked, but there their power 
 ended, for in Upper Canada the Government had generally 
 a surplus of revenue independent of the Assembly. 
 Mackenzie proposed to ask the Home Government for a 
 remedy against the continuing in office, by the Governor's 
 favour, of an Executive out of harmony with the Assembly. 
 When the address was presented to Colborne he showed 
 his disapproval of Mackenzie's theories by the curt formula, 
 " Gentlemen of the House of Assembly, I return you 
 thanks for your address.' 1 
 
 The death of George IV., in June, 1830, necessitated a 
 new Assembly. The Reform Assembly had not been a 
 success ; fresh settlers were arriving in Upper Canada, and 
 the Tories were roused to unwonted exertion. Already 
 Mackenzie had alarmed moderate men by his reckless 
 speeches, while Colborne was inspiring hopes of sane 
 measures of reform. In January, 1831, a Moderate was 
 elected Speaker by 26 votes to 14, and it was seen that 
 the reformers were in a hopeless minority. The two 
 Baldwins lost their seats, as did Dr. Rolph, of whom more 
 will be said later ; Mackenzie, Perry and Bidwell were 
 re-elected, and, unfortunately for the reformers, they were 
 
RISE AND FALL OF MACKENZIE. 119 
 
 largely identified with Perry and Mackenzie instead of 
 with Bidwell. There was no longer any question of 
 Executive versus Assembly, but the overwhelming defeat 
 of the reformers only complicated matters. The lead fell 
 to Boulton and Hagerman, friends of Robinson, who 
 possessed his arbitrariness without his talents, and the 
 Moderates in the Assembly agreed upon very few questions. 
 Before matters resolved into chaos a Bill was passed, 
 called by the reformers in derision the "Everlasting Salary 
 Bill " ; it established, on the English plan, a Civil List of 
 6,500 to pay the stipends of the Governor, three judges, 
 the Executive Councillors, and the law officers of the 
 Crown. In return, the Crown surrendered the revenue of 
 11,000 which had made it independent of the Assembly. 
 Thus one great source of trouble in Lower Canada 
 disappeared in the upper province, and, but for the unwise 
 conduct of Hagerman and his friends in prosecuting 
 Mackenzie, the rebellion in Upper Canada would have 
 been impossible. 
 
 Mackenzie refused to see that his position as an agitator 
 was now dangerous, and he attacked as usual. Beverley 
 Robinson would have treated him with contempt, which 
 would have hurt Mackenzie more, but Boulton was as 
 impetuous as his opponent. Hagerman and Boulton knew 
 they could rely on the support of the office-holders, and 
 ventured also to threaten Mackenzie with Colborne's 
 displeasure. Mackenzie, in his recklessness, got a com- 
 mittee to consider the constitution of the House, in the 
 spirit of Burke in 1780, but the members of the committee 
 were the perpetrators of the abuses. He next attacked 
 Boulton's conduct in respect of the Upper Canada Bank, 
 and it was decided that he must be silenced. 
 
 Mackenzie had published as an election paper extracts 
 from the Journals of the House. Boulton and his friends 
 attempted to secure his condemnation for breach of privi- 
 lege, because he had not included the appendix ; this was 
 too barefaced, even for the parliament of 1 830. Encouraged 
 
i2o SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 by this, and by a Report of the committee he had secured, 
 Mackenzie began to organize petitions, both to the King 
 and to the Assembly, for the reform of abuses. He had 
 also commented in his paper upon the reception given by 
 the Assembly to petitions, and his language was strong, 
 even for a Mackenzie. The " sycophantic Assembly " 
 joined with the " mercenary Executive," and despite 
 BidwelPs various amendments, Mackenzie was expelled 
 from the House by 24 votes to 15. Colborne did not 
 interfere, for the House was as tenacious of its privileges 
 as if it were keenly " reform/' The sympathy Mackenzie 
 met with in the province alarmed the House, and a vote 
 was passed that the clergy reserves should be devoted to 
 education. 
 
 Ryerson was supporting Mackenzie at this time, and he 
 was re-elected for York. The ansxver of the House was a 
 declaration that he was incapable of sitting in the Assembly, 
 for he had given his opponents a handle by another attack 
 on the House. Five times was Mackenzie prevented from 
 taking his seat, despite frequent re-elections, and he was 
 finally removed by the sergeant-at-arms, although Colborne 
 had allowed him to take the oath before the clerk of the 
 Privy Council. In 1832, after his second expulsion, 
 Mackenzie went to England, and presented a memoir to 
 Goderich, the Colonial Secretary, by the assistance of the 
 Radicals. Even as presented by Mackenzie, the facts wt re 
 undeniable, and a dispatch to Colborne followed. In this 
 visit Mackenzie received encouragement from the Radicals, 
 who were supporting Papineau, and perhaps then it was 
 that he first entertained the idea of following in the latter's 
 footsteps. 
 
 The population of Upper Canada increased rapidly 
 between 1830 and 1832, but the newcomers brought the 
 cholera with them, and great distress prevailed. Boulton 
 and Hagerman led the party who wished to annex Montreal 
 to Upper Canada, but they could not carry the House with 
 them, and soon the question of Mackenzie's memoir came 
 
RISE AND FALL OF MACKENZIE. 121 
 
 up. The dispatch which Colborne received stated the 
 willingness to remedy all grievances, including the presence 
 of an unlimited number of office-holders in the Legislative 
 Council and Assembly. Both branches of the Legislature 
 denied the existence of the grievances complained of by 
 Mackenzie, and the Assembly added epithets uncompli- 
 mentary to the latter. Boulton and Hagerman felt them- 
 selves affected by the dispatch, and spoke of it in violent 
 language. They were removed from their posts, because 
 they were in opposition to the Imperial policy, and had to 
 go to England for pardon. Boulton and his friends, in their 
 first anger, hinted, like Papineau, at a possible separation ; 
 it was as genuine as Papineau's threat, but Mackenzie 
 had not a good example set him. 
 
 When Mackenzie returned he had a slight consolation in 
 being elected as a councillor and first Mayor of Toronto, 
 then recently incorporated. It is said by Dent that his 
 election was due to an intrigue against Dr. Rolph, the 
 choice of the Moderate Liberals. Dr. Rolph deserves some 
 little notice here owing to the part he played in 1837. 
 Despite Dent's attempt at whitewashing, we cannot acquit 
 Rolph of cowardice or treachery or both. At this time he 
 was a doctor and barrister in Toronto, highly respected for 
 his talents. Colborne had wished to make him head of a 
 college of medicine, despite his views, and his loyalty was 
 never suspected. In the Assembly his imposing figure 
 and splendid eloquence won him attention, but there was 
 a certain shiftiness about him which repelled confidence. 
 He nominally supported the Moderate Radicals under 
 Bidwell and Baldwin, but the tempter came later in the 
 person of Mackenzie. He felt himself less popular than his 
 colleagues, and, had Head given him his confidence in 
 1836, would probably have turned Tory. He seems to 
 have desired to be the Franklin of the new revolution, but 
 he was at once ambitious and timid, and dared not support 
 Mackenzie when that support might have scored the 
 victory. 
 
122 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Perhaps the most universally respected man among the 
 Radicals was Robert Baldwin. His talents as a barrister 
 were acknowledged, and even the bitterest Tories never 
 breathed a word against his loyalty. There was an air of 
 austere virtue about him which prevented his ever inspiring 
 enthusiasm as Mackenzie did, and it was unfortunate for 
 Upper Canada that Baldwin was a doctrinaire. He could 
 never support any policy whole-heartedly, and his 
 moderation caused him to be shouldered out of the way by 
 less able but more assertive men. His real chance came 
 after the Union in 1840, for he only sat for a short time in 
 1829, and he lost his seat in 1830. He thus could do 
 little to check Mackenzie, and the leader of the Moderate 
 Radicals was Bidwell. 
 
 No more unfortunate choice could have been made, for 
 Bidwell, although an able and honest man, was lacking in 
 moral courage. He never professed to be an enthusiastic 
 supporter of the British connection, for the treatment he 
 and his father had received from the "family compact" 
 precluded that. However, his father's career as well as his 
 own was likely to be brighter in Canada than in New 
 England, and, had his talents been rewarded as they 
 deserved, he would have remained a passive supporter of 
 Great Britain. He was, however, suspected by the Tories, 
 quite unjustly as Head afterwards admitted, and when the 
 British Government ordered that he should be raised to the 
 Bench, Head refused. On the defeat of the reformers by 
 Head, Bidwell, unlike Rolph, was content to wait for the 
 usual reaction, and no one ever seriously suggested that he 
 and Baldwin countenanced Mackenzie. At that time he 
 was an ailing man, and Head used his physical infirmity as 
 an additional lever to work upon his fears ; Bidwell left 
 Upper Canada and refused all invitations to return. Had 
 he been bolder and Baldwin less unpractical, Mackenzie 
 would never have gained the support he did. The key of 
 the situation lay with Egerton Ryerson and the Methodists; 
 Bidwell and Baldwin should have moulded them into a 
 
RISE AND FALL OF MACKENZIE. 123 
 
 Moderate Liberal party, whose demands would have won a 
 hearing from England. As it was, Mackenzie alone among 
 the Radicals offered a clear-cut policy, and Ryerson's 
 quarrel with Mackenzie threw the Methodists into the 
 arms of Head and the reactionaries. 
 
 Mackenzie as Mayor of Toronto was not exactly a 
 success. He displayed great heroism during the visitation 
 of the cholera, but his head was turned by his new dignity. 
 His crowning folly was the publication in his journal of a 
 letter from Hume. In this letter the phrase " freedom from 
 the baneful domination of the Mother Country" occurs. 
 The sentiment was not stronger than the Radicals were 
 displaying in the Imperial Parliament with regard to 
 Papineau, but the United Empire Loyalists were up in 
 arms. The Moderate newspapers attacked him, and 
 Ryerson and he definitely separated. Rolph saw in the 
 retirement of Baldwin in 1830 from political life a chance 
 for himself. He did not stand for the new Assembly, but 
 as he had now begun to practise as a physician in Toronto 
 his relations with Mackenzie became more intimate. The 
 latter was drawing very near to Papineau, and at a con- 
 vention held in Toronto, March, 1834, resolutions were 
 carried to refuse supplies unless control of all provincial 
 revenues was granted to the Assembly ; the Legislative 
 Council, in accordance with Papineau's plan, should be 
 made elective, and the Executive Council made respon- 
 sible to the representatives of the people. How far 
 Mackenzie understood what he wanted is doubtful, and a 
 visit he paid to Quebec in November, 1835, to strengthen 
 the alliance was not calculated to enlighten him very 
 greatly. 
 
 In the Assembly of January I5th, 1835, Bidwell was 
 elected Speaker by a majority of four. Hume's letter had 
 not converted the Methodists altogether, but there were 
 six members of a new Conservative party in the House. 
 Mackenzie could not see the difference in his position now 
 any more than in 1831. His newspaper had ceased to 
 
i2 4 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 appear, and just before the election he had founded the 
 Canadian Alliance Society ; he was its corresponding 
 secretary. The programme of the Alliance was practically 
 that of the Toronto Convention, and, if Mackenzie noticed 
 the partial defection of the Methodists, he would find con- 
 solation in the rally to the reformers of the more recent 
 Roman Catholic settlers. As a reward for his self-restraint 
 under Boulton's attack on him with reference to Hume's 
 letter, Mackenzie secured the appointment of the committee 
 which drew up the celebrated " Seventh Report on 
 Grievances'*; it may be compared to the ninety-two 
 Resolutions of the Lower Canada Assembly. The Report 
 in some ways foreshadowed Lord Durham's recommenda- 
 tions. It scathingly criticised the action of the Executive 
 in pleading responsibility to London alone, while at the 
 same time it disregarded the Colonial Secretary's orders. 
 It was pointed out that the Governor neglected it, contrary 
 to the Constitution ; military Governors were a mistake, 
 and in the present state of things, when the Governor did 
 not consult the Executive, it was necessary to hold him 
 personally responsible. There was, however, no suggestion 
 as to the way in which the Executive might be made 
 responsible, and the one definite proposal, as in Lower 
 Canada, was that the Legislative Council should be elected. 
 Although this Report was never formally adopted by the 
 Assembly, copies were sent to England. As usual, the 
 British Government asserted its wish to redress all griev- 
 ances ; it had ever before its eyes the lesson of 1776, 
 and it was alarmed by the unfavourable comparisons that 
 were everywhere made between the prosperity of the States 
 and the backwardness of Canada. Colborne would never 
 have administered Upper Canada on the lines of this Report, 
 and therefore a new Governor was sent out at the same time 
 as Gosford, to carry out the new policy. Sir Francis Bond 
 Head is depicted by Lord Durham in vivid colours, for the 
 two men were mutually antipathetic. We must make 
 allowances for this, but, even then, Head's appointment to 
 
RISE AND FALL OF MACKENZIE. 125 
 
 succeed Colborne is amazing. The new Governor possessed 
 many excellent qualities, and he was neither a knave nor a 
 fool, as he is too frequently depicted. Upper Canada was 
 his first government, and he brought to it a wild exuberance 
 of energy similar to that which had carried him across the 
 Pampas. There was about him an air of frankness and 
 good-fellowship, which deceived men into thinking he 
 agreed with them ; whereas he was one of the most 
 obstinate of men, and, although well-meaning, he was too 
 fond of devising theatrical effects to ensure the successful 
 working of the plot. 
 
 It was perhaps due to his confusion with a kinsman that 
 Head found himself placarded in Toronto as a "tried 
 reformer," and he cannot be blamed for not acting up to 
 an unauthorised description. His first step was unwise, for, 
 with a view of creating a sensation, he allowed the Assembly 
 to become acquainted with the Instructions he had 
 brought. It was seen that the concessions Head had been 
 sent to offer were little more than an acknowledgment that 
 the House had a right to remonstrate against any action of 
 the Governor. Bidwell did not voice the reformers' wishes 
 w r hen he communicated the Instructions to Papineau, 
 but they shook men's confidence in Head considerably. 
 On his part Head took a dislike to Mackenzie and Bidwell 
 at once, but he was forced to respect Baldwin, and Rolph 
 seems to have won favour. It is the difficulty in reading 
 Head's views that, like Mackenzie, he changed them day 
 by day. He soon became convinced that the " Grievance 
 Report" was unjustified, and determined to discredit its 
 authors. Lord Durham tells the story of the appointment 
 and secession of Rolph, Baldwin and Dunn from the 
 Executive Council, and the election campaign in which 
 Head triumphed. He is, perhaps, too severe on Head, for 
 Mackenzie could by this time count on little support, except 
 among the extreme Radicals. Baldwin, too, is not wholly 
 free from blame. Perhaps, in disgust at what he considered 
 Head's duplicity, he made no effort to check Mackenzie, 
 
126 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 and Rolph certainly allowed the latter to broach dangerous 
 subjects in his anger. 
 
 We can understand Mackenzie's feelings, for he had 
 actually been beaten at the polls, and, as he believed, 
 unfairly. At this date, however, we can see that Head 
 had no need to seek a majority by unconstitutional means, 
 for, had he been content to wait, the rising tide of loyalty 
 would have swept away all opposition. It is necessary to 
 go back a little. The resignation of Baldwin and the rest 
 caused great indignation, and it was said, quite wrongly, 
 that Head had fallen into the hands of the " family compact." 
 He possessed enough natural perverseness of his own, and 
 when the House, on receiving a report as to the resignation 
 of Baldwin, Rolph and Dunn, decided to refuse supplies, 
 except for certain purposes, Head believed his opinion of 
 the reformers justified ; Bidwell, the Republican, had set 
 the tone of the reform party, and all were alike. He had 
 his eye on Papineau as the ally of that party, and when 
 Bidwell foolishly presented the latter's circular letter to 
 the House, Head seized it as the opportunity for another 
 tableau. In answer to an address from the home district 
 on Papineau's letter, he pictured himself at the head of a 
 contented anti-democratic Canada, facing an invasion of 
 aliens invited by a few discontented politicians. " In the 
 name of every regiment of militia in Upper Canada, I 
 publicly promulgate, Let them come if they dare." 
 
 Patriotism was never lacking in Upper Canada, and the 
 British Constitutional Society was formed to preserve the 
 British connection. It was in vain that the Moderate 
 Radicals, under the presidency of Dr. Baldwin, established 
 the Constitutional Reform Society, and treated their own 
 loyalty as beyond doubt. They would not disown 
 Mackenzie, and in the new Assembly they were in a 
 minority of 18 to 44. The Moderates, mainly Metho- 
 dists, had rallied to the Government, and even Bidwell 
 lost his seat ; only Rolph remained of the old leaders. 
 Many of the reformers in parliament held extreme views, 
 
RISE AND FALL OF MACKENZIE. 127 
 
 among whom was Dr. Duncombe, afterwards a rebel leader, 
 who, through Hume, made the wildest allegations in the 
 British parliament against Head's conduct. Mackenzie 
 became a changed man, and gave up all his faith in con- 
 stitutional reform. He started a fresh journal, The Con- 
 stitution, in 1836, on the anniversary of the Declaration of 
 Independence. His articles were often so wild as to be 
 almost nonsense, but Head was content with his victory, 
 and despised him too much to take any notice. This 
 contempt was worse than death to Mackenzie, and he 
 began to organize meetings of the extreme Radicals in 
 the outlying districts. He became bolder, and talked of 
 an armed procession. Men were drilled, ostensibly to 
 cause a more impressive effect, and finally Mackenzie 
 talked over the question of resistance with a few choice 
 friends, such as Matthews, Lount, and Duncombe. Head's 
 recklessness helped on the movement. 
 
 The Governor had made a sort of triumphal tour through 
 the province, and was highly satisfied with himself. He 
 wrote dispatches to Glenelg describing his proceedings, in 
 terms which alarmed that sedate person. As Head actually 
 won the election, Glenelg had to congratulate him, but the 
 Governor was not pleased when he received orders to 
 appoint certain reformers, Bidwell among others, to places. 
 He refused, and threatened to resign ; his position was 
 certainly badly paid, and the new proposals to give the 
 Assembly control of all the revenues, and to concede 
 responsible government, alarmed him. Head sympa- 
 thised with the plan of the " family compact," by which 
 the Lower Canada difficulty should be solved by the 
 partial dismemberment of that province. 
 
 When the new Assembly met, it did not show much 
 inclination to carry out the " economic reforms " which 
 Head had promised during the election campaign. There 
 was a difficulty as to the disposal of the clergy reserves, 
 for the Methodists still hesitated between division among" 
 
 o 
 
 all denominations and their application to the support of 
 
128 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 education. Huge votes were made for improvements, 
 regardless of the enormous debt of the country, and the 
 fact that commercial troubles in the United States had hit 
 Canada hard. Finally, the discontented were tempted by 
 the evacuation of Upper Canada by the regulars. Colborne 
 had asked Head how many troops he could spare, and had 
 been informed that the militia were able to defend Upper 
 Canada. Although the troops were gone, several hundred 
 stand of arms remained at Toronto, protected only by 
 constables. 
 
 The temptation was too great for Mackenzie. He and 
 his friends hated Head bitterly, but they were not averse 
 to remaining British subjects on their own terms. In 
 conjunction with Lount, Matthews, and a few others, 
 Mackenzie discussed a plan for seizing these arms and 
 proclaiming a Provisional Government. A convention was 
 to be held at Toronto early in 1838, and the Radicals thus 
 gathered together were to force Head to admit Rolph, 
 Baldwin, and Mackenzie into the Executive Council. 
 Baldwin was not consulted, and it is doubtful if Rolph 
 was at first wholly acquainted with the plan. To trace 
 in detail the tortuous course of Mackenzie's schemes during 
 1837 i s a hopeless task ; accounts differ, and Mackenzie's 
 story, as told by Lindsay, does not fit in with the known 
 facts. He seems to have intrigued with Papineau, and 
 each thought the other more powerful than he himself was. 
 Bidwell had given his opinion as to the legality of drilling, 
 but he went no further. Rolph was less scrupulous ; he 
 hung back from countenancing the movement till Mackenzie 
 insisted that he should be allowed to use his name when 
 consulting the different Radical unions as to the feasibility 
 of the scheme. Rolph believed that Mackenzie was able 
 to rely on 4,000 supporters, as he claimed ; perhaps 
 Mackenzie believed it too, but he was grievously mistaken. 
 
 These constant drillings and suspicious movements of 
 Mackenzie could not escape the notice of the Tories. 
 Head refused to arrest Mackenzie or to take any 
 
RISE AND FALL OF MACKENZIE. 129 
 
 precautions until the rebels were on the march to Toronto. 
 All the Tories were not so blinded by their recent victory, 
 and Colonel Fitz-Gibbon, one of the veterans of 1812, 
 despite Head, got together and drilled a small body of 
 men. Information was brought to Head almost daily of 
 the progress of the movement, but his contempt for the 
 Radicals remained. It is certain that his failure to take 
 action inclined many waverers to expect that Mackenzie 
 would succeed, and they prepared to join him in that case. 
 Finding Head immovable, the Tories proposed to defend 
 themselves. At last the Governor had to consent to the 
 arrest of Mackenzie and to the calling out of two regiments 
 of militia. Rolph heard the news, and, knowing Fitz- 
 Gibbon's military qualities were not despicable, he sent a 
 message to Mackenzie. The latter had just recently sent 
 word that the rising was to be on Thursday, December 7th; 
 the exact message from Rolph is not known, for it passed 
 through many hands before reaching Mackenzie. It is 
 certain, however, that Rolph warned Mackenzie that 
 Thursday was too late, and proposed Tuesday. When 
 the rebellion failed, Mackenzie said that Rolph was con- 
 sidered sole executive, and that it was through his mis- 
 management that the scheme for seizing Toronto miscarried. 
 Rolph always denied that he was more than a sympathiser, 
 and blamed Mackenzie. The probability is that, when 
 Rolph saw the half-armed rabble which met Mackenzie at 
 Montgomery's Tavern, he recognised that the game was 
 up. They numbered several hundreds, it is true, but they 
 were only poorly armed, and food was scarce. 
 
 Mackenzie's presence at the tavern, which is a short 
 distance from Toronto on Yonge Street, was made known 
 by the arrival at Toronto of Mr. Brooke, who had only 
 escaped from the insurgents by hard riding. At first Head 
 was incredulous, but other fugitives came in, and at last 
 even he was convinced. The loyalists armed in haste, 
 and Fitz-Gibbon stationed a small detachment to watch 
 Mackenzie's approach. Afterwards men asked why Rolph 
 
 S.G.C ? K 
 
130 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 did not fulfil his part of the bargain, and rouse the Radicals 
 of Toronto. He had had a meeting with Mackenzie on 
 the Monday, and had urged the abandonment of the 
 enterprise, on the news of the battle of St. Charles, 
 Mackenzie refused, and Rolph left him, seemingly intending 
 to be governed by circumstances. It must be remembered 
 that Rolph was as yet unsuspected, and after some delay 
 Head pitched upon him and Baldwin to carry a flag of 
 truce, and negotiate with the insurgents, refusing the 
 characteristic suggestion of Fitz-Gibbon that he should be 
 allowed to attack at once. 
 
 The appearance of Rolph as a Government envoy 
 surprised and alarmed the rebels. As the event proved, 
 when he was compelled to choose between betraying Head 
 and abandoning Mackenzie, he chose the former, but the 
 insurgents, who were about to march on Toronto, could 
 not know this. As to what happened, we are again at a 
 loss, for the accounts do not tally. Rolph and Baldwin 
 went twice to meet the insurgents, and on one of the 
 occasions Rolph managed, unknown to Baldwin, to convey 
 to Lount or Mackenzie a hint to disregard any proposal for 
 an armistice. Then Rolph seems to have recognised that he 
 personally was running no small risk. The loyalists were 
 well armed at Toronto, and a rising within the city was 
 hopeless. The insurgents, however, expected Rolph would 
 assist them, and proceeded towards Toronto about 6 p.m. 
 They stumbled on the picket set by Fitz-Gibbon, and 
 after a discharge of musketry both sides turned and fled. 
 On the Tuesday, Sir Allan MacNab, Speaker of the 
 Assembly, led to Toronto the first detachment of the 
 " men of Gore," and at the same time the rebel forces 
 began to melt away. Mackenzie was no general, and 
 spent his time robbing the mails and burning the houses 
 of his personal enemies. He disgusted his own men, and 
 few hoped for success now. On the Wednesday, Dr. 
 Morrison was arrested at Toronto. He was one of the 
 leading Radicals and was implicated in the same way as 
 
RISE AND FALL OF MACKENZIE. 131 
 
 Rolph. The latter saw his turn would soon come, and he 
 quietly abandoned the city and his friends, reaching the 
 United States after several narrow escapes. He had 
 betrayed Head, and now he abandoned Mackenzie. 
 
 On the Thursday, Fitz-Gibbon and MacNab led out the 
 loyalists against Mackenzie. The insurgent leaders were 
 already at loggerheads as to how they should act, and no 
 effective resistance was possible against the 1,200 volunteers 
 and militia. Only one man was killed, and in twenty 
 minutes the insurgents were flying for their lives all over 
 the country. Mackenzie escaped, but Lount and Matthews 
 were less fortunate. The insurgents under Buncombe 
 made even less resistance, and soon the prisons were 
 crowded with reformers, for Mackenzie, with a criminal 
 carelessness nothing can excuse, had allowed his list of the 
 insurgents to fall into Head's hands. Volunteers poured 
 into Toronto so rapidly that Head had to issue a procla- 
 mation against it. The loyalist feeling was so strong that 
 much injustice was done. As in Lower Canada, men used 
 the opportunity to gratify private feelings, and neither 
 Head nor Sir Charles Arthur, his successor, was 
 magnanimous enough to interfere. 
 
 Mackenzie made his way to the United States, and there 
 began the saddest part of his career. He quite lost all 
 control of his words, and stirred up the floating population 
 in the frontier cities against Great Britain. Under frivolous 
 pretexts he and his sympathisers got possession of arms 
 and ammunition and on December I3th seized Navy 
 Island, not far from the Falls of Niagara on the Canadian 
 side of the line. Work was scarce in the frontier cities, 
 not only on account of the season, but also because of the 
 financial distress in the United States, and Mackenzie's 
 offer of gold and fertile lands in Canada soon rallied a 
 miscellaneous crowd to the standard of the provisional 
 Government which Mackenzie proclaimed. He himself 
 seems to have been "Lord High Everything," although 
 he was lavish in his use of names; when he did not 
 
 K 2 
 
132 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 actually use a name, as in Rolph's case, he allowed it to 
 be understood that "certain other important persons" 
 would join him in due course. However, the revolution 
 hung fire ; there was no sign of a rising in Upper Canada, 
 for those who would have welcomed Mackenzie's success 
 were by no means eager to risk anything for so hopeless 
 a cause. Buffalo was Mackenzie's headquarters, and he 
 enlisted the support of a young man, Van Rensselaer, an 
 unworthy son of a noble father, and a certain Sutherland, 
 an American citizen with ambitions far outrunning his 
 abilities. Mackenzie was gradually being ousted from the 
 position of leader ; Rolph would have nothing to do with 
 him when he published a highly-coloured " Narrative " x 
 of the abortive attack on Toronto, which belittled every 
 reformer except Mackenzie and blamed others for the 
 miscarriage of the enterprise, and Bidwell was frightened 
 by Head into retirement. Robert Baldwin and his friends 
 washed their hands of the whole enterprise, and Mackenzie's 
 chief supporters were adventurers who wished to repeat in 
 Canada the seizure of Texas. 
 
 Head was not idle now that the storm had really burst 
 upon him. Secure in the loyalty of Upper Canada, he 
 sent all the militia he could spare to the help of Colborne 
 in the lower province, and stationed a body of militia 
 under MacNab at the village of Chippewa, opposite Navy 
 Island. No attack was made for some time, for Mackenzie's 
 strength was unknown, and Head did not share the desire 
 of the Orangemen of Upper Canada for a war with the 
 United States. MacNab was not so pacific ; many of his 
 men had been hurt by the fire from Navy Island, and 
 when Mackenzie managed to procure an American steamer 
 named the Caroline to provision Navy Island from the 
 American shore, he could restrain himself no longer. On 
 December 28th the Caroline lay at Fort Schlosser on 
 the American side, and in obedience to MacNab's orders 
 
 1 Parts of this curious document were reprinted in The Spectator 
 of March 3ist, 1838. 
 
RISE AND FALL OF MACKENZIE. 133 
 
 Commander Drew with a force of volunteers cut her 
 out and towed her half way across the stream. At the 
 time of her capture there were many people sleeping on 
 board, as lodgings were difficult to find in the neighbour- 
 hood. Mackenzie, to win sympathy, issued his " Caroline 
 Almanack " with startling woodcuts and letterpress ; the 
 story was that after killing all who resisted, the vessel was 
 set on fire by the Canadians and sent hurtling over the 
 Falls with men on board. The true version is that it was 
 found impossible to carry the prize across the stream ; 
 therefore it was set on fire, and the boiler, which exploded, 
 could be seen years afterwards in the river. Only parts of 
 the vessel went over the Falls, and the vessel had been 
 carefully searched for possible stowaways before it was set 
 on fire. The real facts were not known then and a wave of 
 sympathy set in for Mackenzie which caused great anxiety 
 to the British Government. MacNab was knighted for his 
 act, but apologies were tendered at Washington for the 
 violation of United States territory. Volunteers now came 
 in apace to Mackenzie and he thought of taking the 
 aggressive. 
 
 In the meantime the parliament of Upper Canada was 
 summoned, and after a characteristic speech from Head, it 
 passed a Bill suspending the Habeas Corpus Act, and another 
 for the trial by Courts-Martial of foreigners taken in arms. 
 Mackenzie was becoming a nuisance, but he anticipated 
 the storming of his fortress by decamping in the night of 
 January I4th. When he landed on the American shore he 
 and Van Rensselaer were arrested ; friends bailed them out, 
 and they began a new enterprise. One section of the 
 Patriots, as they called themselves, proposed to attack the 
 extreme western portions of Upper Canada, especially 
 Amherstburg, a second chose Kingston, and a third seized 
 Point Pele Island in Lake Erie. All the attacks failed ; 
 the leaders could not agree among themselves and were 
 beaten in detail. Many prisoners were taken armed with 
 muskets belonging to the United States Government. 
 
134 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Sutherland, who was captured, professed that this attempted 
 seizure of Canada was encouraged by the United States 
 authorities. However, by the end of February most of the 
 attacks had been delivered, and the Governor and Legisla- 
 ture of Upper Canada, proud of their victory, were not 
 chary of their censure on the Americans for their frequent 
 breaches of the neutrality laws. The President and the 
 State Governors had put out various proclamations, but 
 these had no effect on the population of the frontier cities. 
 The Legislative Council of Upper Canada was strongly 
 loyalist, and the Assembly scarcely less so. Before the 
 session closed on March 6th, each House voted a loyal 
 address to the Queen, and Reports on the state of the 
 province were produced by the committees of each House 
 which had been appointed for that purpose. The senti- 
 ments in these Reports were politely but firmly expressed. 
 All the troubles were laid at the door of the Imperial 
 Government, which had tampered with the old and ap- 
 proved system of colonial government. The Report from 
 the Assembly is a remarkable document. It recom- 
 mended nothing less than a federation of British North 
 America on the model of the later Dominion, and re- 
 quested that the Queen would incorporate in her royal 
 title a distinct claim to these possessions. The Report 
 also proposed that the Governors in future should be men 
 of high rank and bear the title of "Viceroy." Nothing 
 but the intense desire of the British of Lower Canada 
 would ever reconcile Upper Canada to a union of the two 
 provinces ; a better plan would be the annexation of 
 Montreal, which would give Upper Canada her rights a 
 port communicating with the ocean. They refer to Hume, 
 Roebuck, Leader, and Molesworth as being of the same 
 class as Mackenzie, Rolph, and Buncombe, both in morals 
 and politics. However, like Roebuck, the Assembly had 
 its pet scheme for the better government of British North 
 America. Two representatives from Upper Canada, 
 Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and 
 
RISE AND FALL OF MACKENZIE. 135 
 
 one each from Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland, 
 were to have seats in the Imperial Parliament ; these 
 representatives were to be elected by the two Houses " in 
 joint assembly," and were to continue for six months after 
 the dissolution of the Assembly of the colony for which 
 they were retained. A vigorous attack on the inefficiency 
 of the Colonial Office followed, and the Assembly asserted 
 at once its loyalty to the British connection and its 
 detestation of American ideas of government. Sir Francis 
 Head's administration came in for high praise. 
 
 This was the last parliament Head met, and in a farewell 
 speech he attacked the Americans at great length and 
 eulogised the patriotism of the people of Upper Canada. 
 On March 23rd he handed over the government to Sir 
 George Arthur, who had been Governor of the convict 
 settlement of Van Diemen's Land. It has already been 
 stated that Head had come into collision with Glenelg on 
 the question of appointing Bidwell to a judgeship. The 
 friction had begun earlier and increased with each dispatch, 
 and although Head professed himself quite willing to resign 
 if his policy was disapproved of, Glenelg knew that he 
 could not easily get a successor for him. As Head had 
 also had disputes on other matters, Glenelg was weary of 
 him and his extraordinary communications. The Governor 
 meant to form a party for himself in Upper Canada ; he 
 succeeded, and at the same time won the hatred of the 
 reformers. A certain Ridout had been dismissed from his 
 post as district judge of Niagara, and from his colonelcy 
 in the militia on account of language grossly disrespectful 
 towards the Governor. He was bitter against Head, who, 
 in his account of the affair to the Colonial Office, said 
 Ridout was an orator of and a frequent visitor at a cer- 
 tain revolutionary society's meetings, Ridout appealed to 
 Glenelg, and as he had no difficulty in proving that he was 
 not a member of the society in question, Head was ordered 
 to reinstate him. He refused, and by sheer force of will 
 prevailed upon the weak Glenelg to make Ridout's 
 
136 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 reinstatement depend upon his ability to refute the various 
 charges which were brought against him. Head knew he 
 could not do that, and it is only fair to add that Sir 
 George Arthur, after a careful investigation, refused to 
 recommend Ridout's restoration to office, 
 
 The discussion on Ridout's case had lasted from 1835, 
 and there was further trouble over the appointment of 
 Hagerman, the Solicitor-General, to the post of Attorney- 
 General. Hagerman, never careful in his language, had 
 incurred Glenelg's dislike by expressions derogatory to the 
 Presbyterian Church, and he vetoed the appointment. The 
 quarrel over Bidw r ell was the last straw. It opposed 
 Glenelg's favourite scheme of conciliation, and probably 
 Bidwell, already disgusted with Mackenzie, would never 
 have given even the moderate encouragement he did to his 
 schemes had his undoubted talents been recognised. Sir 
 Francis had always professed himself willing to resign, and 
 Glenelg took him at his word. However, the outbreak 
 of the rebellion about this time rendered it necessary for 
 him to remain. On January I5th Head informed the 
 Assembly of his resignation, as he had had the misfortune 
 to differ from Her Majesty's Government on one or two 
 points of colonial policy. The Legislature vigorously 
 championed Head and asked for copies of his corre- 
 spondence with the Colonial Office. Wishing to render 
 Arthur's task as easy as possible, Head excused himself 
 from agreeing to their wishes. Soon after the end of the 
 session Head left for England ; he will be mentioned 
 again, and it is best to deal with Lord Durham's view of 
 him in discussing the Report. The people of Upper 
 Canada had grown to look on Head either with enthusiasm 
 or tolerance. He claimed to have saved the country ; he 
 may best be compared to the British of Montreal who 
 forced on at their pleasure the trouble which was inevitable 
 at a later date and under more unfavourable conditions. 
 One thing deserves to be mentioned to his credit. While 
 the banks in Lower Canada and the United States were 
 
RISE AND FALL OF MACKENZIE. 137 
 
 suspending payment in the financial crash of 1837, Head 
 insisted on the banks of Upper Canada redeeming their 
 notes in specie, and the Assembly agreed. Head's 
 successor, Sir George Arthur " Van Demon " Arthur, the 
 reformers called him- was a man as inferior to Head in 
 ability as he was his superior in vigour and cruelty. He 
 saw at a glance that rightly or wrongly the Tories were in 
 power, and to keep the province he let them work their 
 will. Head had instituted a board of commissioners under 
 the Vice-Chancellor of the province to investigate the 
 cases of the numerous prisoners and to classify them 
 according to their guilt Some of the accused were let 
 out on bail, others dismissed, and a third party, mostly 
 foreigners, were banished ; the most guilty were placed on 
 their trial, and sentenced to penal settlements such as that 
 from which the new Governor had come. Two men, 
 Lount and Matthews, were hanged on April I2th, despite 
 numerously signed petitions for release. A reign of terror 
 would have set in for the reformers of Upper Canada but 
 for the timely arrival of the new Governor-General. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 LORD DURHAM IN CANADA. THE ORDINANCE. 
 
 LORD DURHAM had not made a very rapid voyage, for he 
 did not arrive off the mouth of the St. Lawrence till nearly 
 a month after leaving England. His vessel even then was 
 delayed by ice floes, and although he reached Quebec on 
 May 2/th, he did not land till the 28th. His first appear- 
 ance in Canada was splendid, and impressed as it was 
 meant to do all who saw it. In a splendid uniform, and 
 mounted on a white charger, Durham rode through lines of 
 troops and cheering crowds to the Castle of St. Lewis. On 
 the same day appeared his first proclamation 1 to the people 
 of Canada announcing that he had assumed office under the 
 Act lately passed, and outlining the, principles upon which ^ 
 his administration was to be based. "The honest and con- 
 scientious advocates of reform and of the amelioration of 
 defective institutions will receive from me, without distinc- 
 tion of party, race, or politics, that assistance and encourage- 
 ment which their patriotism has a right to command from 
 all who desire to strengthen and consolidate the connection 
 between the parent State and these important colonies ; 
 but the disturbers of the public peace, the violators of the 
 law, the enemies of the Crown and of the British Empire, 
 will find in me an uncompromising opponent, determined 
 to put in force against them all the powers, civil and ; 
 military, with which I have been invested. . ..'. On ~y<5tr,~ 
 the people of British America on your conduct and on 
 
 1 According to Miss Martineau, Book V., Chap. XII., this procla- 
 mation was prepared on board the Hastings in consequence of the 
 bad news found in the Quebec newspapers which he received at the 
 mouth of the St. Lawrence. The information is obviously from the 
 Buller MS. 
 
LORD DURHAM IN CANADA. 139 
 
 the extent of your co-operation with me will mainly 
 depend whether that event (the restoration of constitutional 
 government) shall be delayed or immediate. I therefore 
 invite from you the most free and unreserved communica- 
 tions. I beg you to consider me as a friend and arbitrator, 
 ready at all times to listen to your wishes, complaints and 
 grievances, and fully determined to act with the strictest 
 impartiality. If you on your side will abjure all party and 
 sectarian animosities, and unite with me in the blessed 
 work of peace and harmony, I feel assured that I can lay 
 the foundations of such a system of government as will 
 protect the rights and interests of all classes, allay all 
 dissensions, and permanently establish under Divine Pro- 
 vidence that wealth, greatness and prosperity of which 
 such inexhaustible elements are to be found in these fertile 
 countries." 
 
 Durham's first appeal to the colonists was well received. 
 L'Ami du Peuple, a French journal published at Montreal, 
 was delighted with Lord Durham ; he was the last olive- 
 branch from England, and his past ought to encourage 
 them to support him. The Montreal British Press was not 
 quite so enthusiastic, and The Herald^ was for some weeks 
 especially critical. At Quebec Durham was more popular. 
 Le Canadien was delighted at the request for petitions for 
 so it interpreted Lord Durham's proclamation as it seemed 
 to support all they had learnt about the new Governor 
 from their English friends. The Gazette, edited by Neilson, 
 and The Mercury were guardedly friendly to Durham. It 
 was part of the latter's policy to watch the newspapers 
 carefully, and as yet there was nothing to mar the favour- 
 able character of his reception. The Patriots outside 
 Canada, however, were not so peaceful, for on the night of 
 the 29th Bill Johnson, the American leader of a gang of 
 fifty non-Canadian Patriots, who lurked among the 
 
 1 Adam Thorn, who had been its editor, had nominally retired to 
 become Recorder of Rupertsland, but he still directed its policy. He 
 will be frequently mentioned as a " Gallophobe." 
 
140 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 " Thousand Isles," burnt the Sir Robert Peel, a Canadian 
 steamer which had put in for wood near French Creek on 
 the American side ; the captain of the steamer was a 
 loyalist, and as a result of his past conduct his passengers 
 were put on shore destitute and almost naked. Other 
 attacks were threatened, and, disgusted at the supineness 
 of the American State authorities, Durham sent his brother- 
 in-law, Colonel Grey, to Washington, to support Fox, the 
 British minister. Soon a combined British and American 
 force were in the Lake of a Thousand Isles hunting for 
 Johnson, who had publicly avowed his action. Johnson 
 had a narrow escape, but Mackenzie was less fortunate, for 
 the American authorities began to let him know that the 
 agitation must cease, and finally imprisoned him. 
 
 Durham had no very definite scheme of reform, for he 
 honestly wished to act according to the wishes of the 
 Canadians. However, remembering his conversation with 
 Roebuck, he allowed one of his suite to write an article for 
 a number of Le Canadien (June 8th) which attacked the 
 idea of a union of the two provinces. The article was 
 taken to embody Lord Durham's own views, and as Buller 
 and Wakefield never concealed their sympathy with the 
 French, the latter began to look forward to a favourable 
 reception for their wishes. It was understood that Durham 
 had come out vested with the most ample powers of 
 redress, and petitions and addresses poured in upon him. 
 He and his assistants carefully considered the former, and 
 the latter always received a polite reply, but one which 
 told them little of the real intentions of the new ruler. 
 Durham wisely decided to form his own opinion by 
 personal investigation or from the reports of those whom 
 he could trust. The only decisive step he took was to 
 isolate himself from all persons connected with the old 
 system of government. To such an extent did he carry 
 this aloofness that he was barely civil to a deputation of 
 judges, and the incident excited adverse comment in The 
 Montreal Herald. 
 
LORD DURHAM IN CANADA. 141 
 
 Durham's relations with Colborne were not marked by 
 excessive cordiality at first. The latter, now that his task 
 was done and the presence of 12,000 British troops in 
 Canada rendered a rising futile, wished to retire to England. 
 Rumours of active disagreement between him and Durham 
 reached England, but Colborne loyally backed up his 
 successor, and they parted on good terms. Colborne on 
 April 1 8th had nominated a special Council of twenty-one 
 members, of whom eleven were French Canadians and two 
 more natives of the province. Among these were John 
 Neilson and Quesnel, but they were informed that their 
 appointment was only provisional. Colborne was attempt- 
 ing to carry out the Suspending Act in the best way, and 
 followed carefully the instructions sent by Glenelg as 
 to the Council's meetings and composition. It had really 
 little to do except to pass Colborne's ordinances, and 
 fortunately proved docile. The military governed Lower 
 Canada, which was portioned out into special districts. 
 The Council agreed to the suspension of the Habeas Corpus 
 and to a Press Law, and to continue a local Act which was 
 expiring, empowering the Government to transport offenders 
 to England and thence to Van Diemen's Land ; another 
 remarkable ordinance allowed the person administering 
 the government, before the arraignment of the prisoner to 
 grant a pardon upon such terms as should seem proper ; 
 the pardon was to have the effect of an attainder so far as 
 regarded the forfeiture of the real and personal estate of 
 the person mentioned therein. If a person thus pardoned 
 broke his promise and returned from voluntary banishment 
 or transportation without lawful excuse, he should be 
 deemed guilty of felony and suffer death accordingly. 
 Moreover, if a person after indictment by a grand jury did 
 not appear within three months of the proclamation of the 
 finding of the jury, he was judged to stand convicted, and 
 only when he could prove within the three following months 
 that he was unavoidably absent could he obtain a trial. 
 These ordinances are important in view of Durham's action 
 
142 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 in the case of Nelson and his fellow-prisoners. When 
 peace had been re-established Colborne had no wish to act 
 despotically. He repealed his proclamation of martial law 
 on April 27th, and on May 5th the special Council was 
 prorogued. 
 
 Perhaps the very docility of the Council was one of 
 Durham's reasons for dissolving it ; composed as it was 
 of many French Canadian placemen, it could not have the 
 confidence of the Liberals. About the same time 
 Durham sent a circular to the members of the Executive 
 Council thanking them for their services, and explaining 
 that he considered it " essential for the object of this 
 mission that during the temporary suspension of the Con- 
 stitution the administration of affairs should be completely 
 independent of and unconnected with all parties and 
 persons in the province." 1 This dismissal of the Executive 
 Council, which took place on May 3ist, was followed by 
 the nomination of a new one composed of Charles 
 Buller, Thomas Turton, whom Durham had made a 
 secretary ; Colonel Couper, who was military secretary ; 
 the provincial secretary, Dominick Daly ; and the com- 
 missary-general. Durham's action was tacitly approved 
 by all in Canada, and he proceeded to devote his atten- 
 tion to the case of the rebels and suspects, of whom the 
 various gaols were full to overflowing. 
 
 Durham's own opinion was probably that of Buller, 2 
 who thought that a complete amnesty was desirable. 
 Molesworth 3 had been even more emphatic, but Glenelg's 
 instructions stood in the way. Writing to Durham on 
 April 2 ist, he advised leniency, but proposed that those 
 guilty of murder, and the more important leaders, should 
 be exceptions to the complete amnesty ; for the former, 
 hanging was the only fate; the fate of the latter had to be 
 
 1 The* clerk of the Council made an " audacious attempt " to surprise 
 Durham into swearing in the old members, who thought their office 
 was for life. Miss Martineau, Book V., Chap. XII. 
 
 2 "Hansard," Vol. XL., p. 159. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 358. 
 
LORD DURHAM IN CANADA. 143 
 
 settled by Durham, whose powers were supposed to be 
 ample for the task. With his customary perverseness 
 Glenelg proceeded to inform Durham that the ministry 
 wished the prisoners to be tried by the ordinary criminal 
 courts, although the penalty of death was not to be in- 
 flicted except on the murderers. The Jury Law of Lower 
 Canada was unsettled l ; it had formerly been the custom 
 to select the juries from the chief places of each district. 
 As this gave a rather unfair predominance to the British, 
 an order by Sir James Kempt extended the radius of 
 selection to fifteen miles around, and this was further 
 increased by Mr. Vigers' Jury Law to the whole district 
 As a natural result the juries were often wholly or largely 
 French, and the Council refused to renew the Act in 1836. 
 This caused the Government to issue private instructions 
 to the Sheriff to follow Sir James Kempt's plan, but juries 
 were frequently packed the case of the Montreal riot has 
 been already alluded to and the French fully expected 
 that Durham would follow the usual custom, if he did not 
 adopt the more unpopular one of trial by Courts-Martial. 
 He might have erected a special tribunal, but in the 
 present state of Lower Canada an acquittal or a judicial 
 murder were the only alternatives. Moreover he knew 
 that his action would be looked upon with suspicion at 
 Montreal in any case ; he dared not acquit the prisoners 
 whom, the Herald had declared, " the Government were 
 fattening for the gallows, " and he was conscious of the 
 value clemency would have if he could render it acceptable 
 to all parties. 
 
 Durham's first action was to request the Attorney-General 
 to furnish him with a list of the prisoners and their offences. 
 The gaol at Montreal was full, and everywhere there was 
 misery and uncertainty as to the future. The story of 
 Durham's next proceedings is largely a matter of conjec- 
 ture. The probable course of events was as follows : 
 Wakefield started for Canada about a week after Durham 
 1 Report, pp. 88 et seg. 
 
i 4 4 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 had sailed. In the ordinary way he would travel by New 
 York to Montreal. Here he probably visited Roebuck's 
 step-father, Colonel John Simpson, then a Customs collec- 
 tor at Coteau du Lac, who, like Roebuck, had sympathised 
 with Papineau. Lord Durham's order to the Attorney- 
 General would by this time be known, and nothing is more 
 likely than that Wakefield and Simpson should talk over 
 matters. 1 Whether Wakefield took any definite offer to 
 Quebec is unknown, but on June ipth Buller and Edward 
 Ellice visited Montreal. Buller's object was probably to 
 see how far The Montreal Herald truly represented the 
 British, and to arrange for the organization of a body of 
 police there by Leclerc, 3 whom Durham found a useful 
 ally. There can be no doubt that he also called upon 
 Simpson, and assured him that his mediation was welcome. 
 Theller 3 says that Simpson was acting under Durham's 
 orders, and although this may be not strictly true, 
 Nelson and his friends were glad to believe it. 
 
 The principal prisoners confined at Montreal were 
 Dr. Wolfred Nelson, of St. Denis, R. S. M. Bouchette, 
 R. des Rivieres, L. H. Masson, H. A. Gauvin, S. Marches- 
 sand, T. H. Goddu, and B. Viger. Simpson had no diffi- 
 culty in persuading these men to take advantage of the 
 ordinance passed by Colborne ; Durham's pacific desires 
 were known, and it was hoped by Nelson and his friends 
 that the Governor would be satisfied with a voluntary 
 exile on their part. They were all disgusted with Papineau 
 and did not expect that their punishment would endure 
 longer than the suspension of the Constitution. It was 
 tacitly agreed that they should be the only victims. 
 The letter they signed is of doubtful authorship ; 
 
 1 Two members of the Council suggested the punishment of a few 
 leading rebels, lightly but steadily, by means of an ex post facto law. 
 Foreseeing the possible objection to this, Durham desired first the 
 consent of the British and the prisoners. Miss Martineau. Book V., 
 Chap. XII. 
 
 2 Report, p. 93. 
 
 " Canada in 1837-38," Vol. II., p. 79; and cf. Dispatch of June 29th. 
 
LORD DURHAM IN CANADA. 145 
 
 certainly, it was not, as Theller hints, known beforehand to 
 Durham. " They could trust Lord Durham for his own 
 character, and had he come sooner there would have been 
 no rebellion. They did not rebel against Her Majesty's 
 person or Government, but against colonial misgovern- 
 ment. . . . They desired to avoid all the ceremonies 
 of a trial, and knowing that Lord Durham's power was 
 unlimited/' they added, "if there be guilt in high 
 aspirations we confess our guilt and plead guilty." It 
 seems to have been this paper that Wakefield took to 
 Quebec, but it was not considered complete enough, as 
 by Colborne's ordinance the prisoners must first confess 
 their guilt. 
 
 Quoting Theller l again, Buller brought with him from 
 Quebec a paper which they were requested to sign. 
 Simpson took it to them on June 23rd, but all his 
 eloquence was thrown away ; they were unwilling to re- 
 cord an unqualified plea of guilty of high treason, although 
 they would agree to anything else, if by so doing they 
 could secure the release of their fellows. They were 
 allowed to consult with a friend. (Could it have been 
 Lafontaine ?) He and Simpson jointly concocted a letter 
 which professed only to explain the ambiguities of their 
 former appeal, dated June i8th. After some demur the 
 prisoners signed it on June 26th. It ran : 
 
 " My lord, we have some reason to apprehend that the 
 expressions used by us in a letter addressed to your lordship 
 on the 1 8th instant may appear vague and ambiguous. Our 
 intention, my lord, was distinctly to avow that in pursuit of 
 objects dear to the great mass of our population, we took a 
 part that has eventuated in a charge of high treason. We pro- 
 fessed our willingness to plead guilty, whereby to avoid 
 the necessity of a trial ; and thus to give, as far as in our 
 power, tranquillity to the country ; but whilst we were thus 
 disposed to contribute to the happiness of others we could 
 not condescend to shield ourselves under the provisions of 
 1 Cf. also Carrier : " Les venements de 1837-38," p. 106. 
 
 S.G.C. L 
 
146 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 an ordinance passed by the late special Council of the 
 province. 
 
 " Permit us then, my lord, to perform this great duty, to 
 mark our entire confidence in your lordship, and to place 
 ourselves at your disposal without availing ourselves of 
 provisions which would degrade us in our own eyes by 
 marking an unworthy distrust on both sides. 
 
 " With this short explanation of our feelings, we again 
 place ourselves at your lordship's discretion, and pray that 
 the peace of the country may not be endangered by a 
 trial. 
 
 " We have the honour to be, my lord, with unfeigned 
 respect, your lordship's most humble servants, R. S. M. 
 BOUCHETTE, WOLFRED NELSON," and the rest. 
 
 Lord Durham accepted this, and on June 28th he 
 nominated his special Council, which, according to the Act, 
 was to ratify all his ordinances. Five members were to 
 constitute a quorum, and Durham cleverly interpreted this 
 to mean that five members were sufficient for a first 
 nomination. He was not sure, after some of the speeches 
 made during the discussion in parliament, whether he had 
 any right to call a Council at all, and he seems merely to 
 have wished to give the ministry a pretext for defending 
 his action. It would have been better had he acted on the 
 suggestion thrown out in the letter, and of his own 
 personal authority sentenced them to honourable exile, 
 preferably to England. As it was, he disregarded their 
 wishes, and, seizing on the qualified plea of guilty they 
 entered, he thought it safer to have them kept in safe custody 
 near at hand. The special Council which carried through 
 the famous ordinance consisted of Charles Buller, chief 
 secretary, Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Paget, Major-General 
 Sir James Macdonnell, commanding the Guards, Colonel 
 Couper, military secretary and chief aide-de-camp, and 
 Colonel Grey, the envoy to Washington, and Durham's 
 brother-in-law. 
 
 There was no pretence at debate, nor was it meant that 
 
LORD DURHAM IN CANADA. 147 
 
 there should be ; the Act conferring on Durham his powers 
 clearly had in view nothing but a body which should 
 register the Governor's acts, and on the very day of their 
 appointment the ordinance appeared. By it three classes 
 of prisoners were distinguished. Wolfred Nelson and the 
 seven others referred to above as signing the letter were 
 banished to Bermuda, after having admitted their guilt, 
 and submitted themselves to Her Majesty's pleasure ; 
 Papineau and fifteen others who had absconded formed 
 the second class, and the murderers of Weir and Chartrand 
 the third. Reciting that the Queen wished to grant an 
 amnesty to the rest of the prisoners, but that it was deemed 
 expedient for the peace of the province to take severer 
 measures against the leaders, it ordered that Nelson and 
 his fellow-prisoners should be confined under such restraints 
 as were deemed fitting at Bermuda, and that if any mem- 
 ber, either of the party of fugitives or of the exiles, should 
 be found at large in the province he should be deemed 
 guilty of treason, and on being convicted of having returned 
 should suffer death. The Governor for the time being, 
 however, was to have power to allow all or any of these 
 persons to return and reside in the province. The 
 murderers of Weir and Chartrand were expressly excluded 
 from the benefits of this ordinance. 
 
 Nelson and his friends were in a peculiar position. In a 
 way they felt grateful to Durham for his clemency, but the 
 feeling grew that they had been tricked. However, when 
 visited by the Attorney-General at their request, they 
 asked him to express their thanks to the Governor for his 
 clemency ; they were quite willing to go into exile if it 
 would restore peace to Canada. All the prisoners were 
 by this time disgusted with Papineau's incapacity, not to 
 mention his cowardice, for they said that he had procured 
 his own escape by telling his deluded followers that he 
 was going to place himself at the head of 12,000 men in 
 the United States. 1 On July 3rd Nelson and the others 
 1 Cf. Report, p. 39, and Duncombe, Vol. I., p. 257. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 arrived at Quebec from Montreal, and were immediately 
 put on board the Vestal, which sailed for Bermuda. 
 Before they left, a meeting of the Liberal extremists was 
 held in the St. Roch district of Quebec, and fiery Reso- 
 lutions were passed and ordered to be sent on board the 
 Vestal. x A storm was brewing, but at present all seemed 
 calm. The English, indeed, did not receive the ordinance 
 well in every case. The Montreal Herald talked about 
 Magna Charta and the indefeasible right of trial by jury, 
 quite forgetting that it had formerly advised that Papineau 
 should be hanged without a trial. Neilson in The Quebec 
 Gazette argued with the Montreal extremists, and pointed 
 out the folly of attacking what was unavoidable. To 
 Durham's delight the French papers welcomed his action 
 warmly, and stigmatised his opponents as enemies to their 
 country. Le Canadien of July 2nd praised the ordinance, 
 and showing its readers how Lord Durham was staking 
 his reputation on his success in Canada advised that he 
 should be frankly accepted as a dictator. The Vindicator 
 and La Minerve had ceased to appear at the beginning of 
 the troubles, but their clients still lived, and Durham took 
 too rosy a view. However, determining to win over the 
 Herald^ he sent Buller to Montreal, and Adam Thorn, its 
 director, soon changed his opinion of the new ruler. 
 
 While the prisoners on the Vestal were drinking Lord 
 Durham's health, a dispatch to Glenelg was carrying 
 Durham's official account of his action. On June 2Qth he 
 wrote to the Colonial Secretary the defence which he was 
 quite aware was necessary for his action. It was not the 
 first he had sent, and private letters had also been dispatched 
 both to Glenelg and Melbourne ; these, however, will be 
 most fitly referred to later. Now he began by pointing 
 out that his action had received the entire approbation of 
 Sir John Colborne, and the heads of what is called the 
 British party, who only desired security for the future 
 and not sanguinary punishment. He had not sent the 
 1 Bonnycastle, " Canada as it Was/' II., p. 141. 
 
LORD DURHAM IN CANADA. 149 
 
 prisoners to a penal colony, as was in his power to do, 
 because public opinion would not have sanctioned their 
 branding with such infamy, and, what was more important 
 still, he did not wish to provide Nelson with a fresh field 
 for the exercise of his talents as a rebel leader. After a 
 consultation with Sir Charles Paget, he fixed on surveillance 
 in Bermuda as the most fitting punishment, because there 
 they would be harmless and would not attempt to escape 
 for their own sakes. Durham said in one of his later dis- 
 patches that he was quite aware that he had no authority 
 over Bermuda, but that he expected the Island Legislature 
 to act, or Her Majesty's Government to complete his pro- 
 ceedings. Durham soon heard from Sir Stephen Chapman, 
 the Governor of Bermuda ; the law officers of the Crown 
 had informed him that he had no power to impose nor 
 legal means to enforce any restrictions upon the prisoners, 
 whether with a view to their detention or otherwise. 
 Chapman at first thought of refusing to allow the prisoners 
 to land, but contented himself with taking their parole, 
 and requesting Durham to relieve him of their charge as 
 soon as possible. Nelson and his associates made the best 
 of a bad business, and their detention did not last long. 
 
 Durham, as ever, appealed to a wider audience than 
 parliament, and very soon a letter appeared in The Morning 
 Chronicle signed by Buller. It was not meant ostensibly 
 for publication, but it went to Robertson, editor of The 
 Westminster Review, one of the few organs supporting 
 Durham ; Robertson allowed Melbourne to see it, and it 
 soon became common property when it appeared, as was 
 intended, in the Chronicle. It ran as follows : 
 
 "I enclose you our first great act about the prisoners. It 
 will appear to you horribly unconstitutional and despotic, 
 but it is really mild. We put no one to death. Our trans- 
 portation is, as you will see, not to be penal, but merely 
 accompanied by measures necessary for security. The rest 
 are merely banished ; we confiscate no property. We were 
 obliged to enclose a great many in our provision, in 
 
i5o SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 conformity to a general rule laid down in each case, whom 
 we do not wish and do not intend to treat so hardly. This 
 is rather an advantage, as it will enable us immediately to 
 bring the pardoning power into operation. We would not 
 interfere with the ordinary tribunals or tamper with the 
 juries. The legal guilt of these men was clear. From an 
 ordinary .jury their certain acquittal was equally clear. 
 These ignorant Canadians would have said either that their 
 leaders in revolt were right all along, or that the Govern- 
 ment had not dared to punish. The British party would 
 have said that our trial had been a mere mockery of justice, 
 and that we had let their guilty enemies loose on them by 
 a trick. Our present act does something like substantial 
 justice ; it will do good to both parties, and in no way 
 corrupt the great judicial institutions of the country. The 
 prisoners petitioned to be disposed of without trial." 
 
 Perhaps this letter of Buller is the best defence and 
 apology for Lord Durham's action. More will be said 
 when the debate in the Imperial Parliament is referred to. 
 At present it is sufficient to notice that Durham could not 
 please any one of the three parties the British, the French, 
 and the prisoners without offending the other two. None 
 of his suite knew much about the laws of British North 
 America, and Paget's suggestion was tempting. Durham 
 accompanied the first ordinance with another for the 
 establishment of an efficient system of police in Quebec 
 and Montreal. Gosford had employed Young at Quebec 
 and Leclerc at Montreal to carry out some reforms in 
 the old arrangement of watchmen, who were worse than 
 useless. Few cities needed more efficient police than 
 Quebec ; travellers had often commented on the laxity of 
 colonial morals, but the pleasure-loving Qudbecquois did 
 not appreciate the almost New England austerity with 
 which the new law was enforced. Colborne's Council were 
 considering a similar ordinance, and Durham, as was so 
 often the case, only completed the work of others. Prompt 
 action was necessary, for disorder was rife in the lower town 
 
LORD DURHAM IN CANADA. 151 
 
 and complaints of the desertion of sailors were common. 
 Durham did not forget the other needs of the province, and 
 it was announced that the new Council were preparing 
 measures dealing with the question of the Jury Laws, the 
 administration of justice, bankruptcy cases, municipal 
 institutions, education, registry offices, and the equitable 
 commutation of feudal tenures. On June 2ist there had 
 appeared in the Official Gazette a notice appointing Charles 
 Buller to be chief commissioner to inquire into the present 
 mode of disposing of Crown lands in Lower Canada, and to 
 collect information for the encouragement of emigration. 
 Richard Davies Hanson and H. Petrie, two of Durham's 
 attaches, were appointed assistant-commissioners. The 
 Lieutenant - Governors of the various provinces were 
 requested to appoint similar commissioners, and not to make 
 any fresh grants of land until a uniform scheme had been 
 evolved for all British North America. Other commissions 
 were appointed to investigate the question of education ; 
 Arthur Buller was appointed chairman and also judge of 
 the new Court of Appeal. A third committee to consider 
 a scheme for the establishment of municipal institutions 
 was the one on which Adam Thorn was to be employed. 
 Wakefield, for reasons to be explained later, received no 
 appointment, but he was employed in making a Report on 
 the waste lands of the colony, and upon other matters. 
 
 Despite Durham's administrative duties he found time to 
 entertain lavishly the leaders of the two parties, and also a 
 number of American visitors, some of whose accounts are 
 most amusing, for they could not understand but were 
 greatly impressed by the state which the Earl kept up, and 
 by the magnificence of Lady Durham's drawing-rooms. 
 The Earl himself, on horseback, and often surrounded by a 
 showy staff, rode out almost daily, accompanying his wife, 
 who was in her carriage. The Canadians of both races 
 realized that Durham was a man of different calibre to 
 Gosford ; they thought he was a strong man with unlimited 
 power, and of great benevolence. He had wisely conciliated 
 
152 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 the clergy (for which he was attacked 1 by his old enemy 
 Bishop Philpotts), and he secured the approbation of the 
 seigneury of Montreal for Buller's 2 solution of the vexed 
 question of the commutation of the feudal tenures. Buller 
 knew nothing of French law, but he was an able man and 
 proposed that the commutation money should be made an 
 annual charge redeemable at the will of the debtor. This 
 seemed fair, but it did not suit Ellice, who owned the large 
 seigneury of Beauharnois. Ellice was unpopular with his 
 tenants, for he treated the relations between them and 
 himself as strictly economic, and his disapproval of Buller's 
 leniency was the beginning of his hostility to Durham. 
 The Governor-General, thinking he had left behind a 
 peaceful Lower Canada, began his tour to the upper 
 province on July 4th. It is a coincidence that on July 
 3rd appeared the first number of The Toronto Examiner^ 
 in which Francis Hincks pleaded so powerfully for 
 " responsible Government." 
 
 1 " Hansard," Vol. XLIV., p. 483. 
 
 2 Adam Thorn seems to have had a hand in this scheme. Cf. 
 The Spectator (1838), p. 774. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL'S TOUR. 
 
 To his annoyance Durham found it necessary to charter a 
 private steamboat for his journey. This vessel, fitly named 
 the John Bull, was altered to suit his taste, and the central 
 cabin was transformed into a library in which he could 
 receive deputations. Durham did not forget to write to 
 Glenelg a strong dispatch on the necessity for a Govern- 
 ment vessel to be placed at his disposal, on account of the 
 cost incurred in chartering the John Bull. He left Quebec 
 on July 4th, accompanied by Buller, Turton, Paget, and 
 others of his suite : Wakefield remained behind, for he had 
 other work to perform. Early in his voyage he experienced 
 the results of the Assembly's refusal to improve the St. 
 Lawrence channel ; his recommendation as to the necessity 
 for the deepening of Lake St. Peter was the stronger 
 because of the inconvenience its shallows caused. He 
 arrived at Montreal on the 6th and was warmly received, 
 perhaps rather to his surprise. He exerted himself to 
 please, and the British were willing to be pleased. Durham 
 could not fail to find a hearing there; for his friend Easthope, 
 of The Morning Chronicle, had close relations with many of 
 the leading Canadian merchants in London, and Roebuck 
 had said outright at the Crown and Anchor meeting on 
 January 4th that McGillivray, one of them, was part pro- 
 prietor of The Morning Chronicle; the Chronicle denied this, 
 it is true, but the fact remains that McGillivray had 
 married a daughter of Easthope, and both were closely 
 connected with Edward Ellice, who was again a relative of 
 Durham. Probably McGillivray was the source of that 
 " exclusive information " which the Chronicle so frequently 
 
i 5 4 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 boasted of during the next few months. Buller had done 
 his work well, and Adam Thorn was an enthusiastic cham- 
 pion of Lord Durham. What the latter's plans were had 
 not yet come out, but there were whispers that although 
 the Governor could not yet see his way to approve of the 
 union with Upper Canada, he was less unfavourably dis- 
 posed to the scheme of Sir Charles Grey, one of Lord 
 Gosford's commissioners. Under this scheme Lower 
 Canada would be divided into two, or perhaps three, 
 sections with local self-government and a common federal 
 Legislature ; Montreal, Quebec, and the Eastern Townships 
 would be the new divisions. To the French Durham was 
 polite, and they were grateful for the ordinance as yet. It 
 was always the custom for Durham and his suite to invite 
 both nationalities together when any entertainment, public 
 or private, was given, but although the French were willing 
 to attend, they all even Lafontaine seemed disinclined 
 to unbend. During this short stay Durham had, by his 
 unexpected affability, created for himself a party. 
 
 The John Bull could not ascend the St. Lawrence 
 beyond Montreal, and Durham travelled overland to 
 Prescott. At that place he embarked on board the 
 Cobourg, and reached Kingston late on the evening of the 
 I ith. On his way he passed through The Thousand Isles, 
 and next day heard that he had all but encountered "Bill" 
 Johnson in person. Durham's reception in this part of 
 Upper Canada was enthusiastic, and he was equally willing 
 to please. He passed the night of the I ith of July at the 
 British North American Hotel, for the Cobourg was most 
 inconvenient. Soon stories were being told in Canada of 
 Durham's haughtiness. His enemies, and he had many at 
 first, revelled in telling how he had scolded an unfortunate 
 waiter who had appeared in his shirt-sleeves, and how he 
 had rated the mate of the Cobourg for daring to approach 
 too near him. They said that he had actually refused to 
 allow smoking in the hotel while he remained there, but 
 that even the imperious Governor met his match at last in 
 
THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL'S TOUR. 155 
 
 the landlady. Durham had suspected the freshness of the 
 eg^s supplied for breakfast, and, when he demanded that 
 they should be " warm from the nest," the obliging land- 
 lady dipped them in hot water before forwarding them to 
 the Earl for inspection. But Durham's defects were 
 purely personal, and he busied himself with plans for the 
 development of Kingston and the Rideau Canal. By 
 July 1 3th Durham reached Fort St. George, and ascended 
 the Niagara, meeting Sir John Colborne at Queenston. 
 Side by side they rode on horseback to the camp of the 
 43rd regiment at Niagara. Here they were joined by 
 Sir George Arthur. As Durham expected, the prompt 
 massing of troops by the Falls had impressed the 
 Americans, and, ever ready to follow up an advantage, 
 the Governor planned to hold a review at which the 
 Americans should be honoured guests. 
 
 While the preparations were being made, Durham 
 visited Navy Island, and got a distant glimpse of Buffalo 
 and the Erie Canal. He read the local newspapers, and felt 
 humiliated at the contrast presented by the busy harbour 
 of Buffalo to the empty Canadian ports. Durham was 
 perhaps too hard on Canada, and he did not realize that 
 the foundation of the prosperity he so much envied was a 
 credit system, impossible, even if desirable, north of the 
 frontier. The review was a great success. Durham was 
 an ideal host, and although he could not accept the dinner 
 offered him at Buffalo in return for the ball he gave on the 
 1 7th, he had effectually killed American sympathy for the 
 Patriots. On the iSth he left Niagara, after having re- 
 ceived two addresses. Secure from attack on his flank, 
 Durham adopted a language towards the * brigands " that 
 secured him favour in Upper Canada, and he proceeded to 
 Toronto hopeful of a good reception. On his way he 
 visited Port Dalhousie, the eastern entrance of the Welland 
 Canal. Impressed by its inferiority to the Erie Canal, 
 and yet recognising its immense natural advantages, 
 Durham wrote home to Glenelg, and advised that the 
 
156 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Imperial Government should make a grant of money 
 towards the cost, as this would tend to restore tranquillity 
 to Upper Canada. 
 
 Durham arrived at Toronto late in the afternoon of the 
 1 8th. The Lieutenant-Governor, the Mayor and Corpora- 
 tion, and in fact every inhabitant of the district who could 
 possibly appear, turned out to meet him. He was agree- 
 ably surprised, and by his graciousness at the levee and at 
 the State-dinner he captivated for a moment the hearts of 
 the Tories. He received several addresses, and his reply 
 to that from the Anglican clergy was most diplomatic. 
 Strachan had qualities which would appeal to Durham, 
 and the latter could admire the Archdeacon's real enthu- 
 siasm for education. Durham had one point in common 
 with the Tories he disliked the proposal to reunite the 
 Canadas. The Tories were not at all averse to federation, 
 and Durham must have recognised that without their 
 support it was impossible to hold Upper Canada. 
 
 Durham left Toronto on the igth, for he could have 
 done no good by remaining. It was necessary for him to 
 avoid the reformers, as such, if he would retain the new- 
 found loyalty of the Tories. Moreover he was ill ; during 
 his four days' stay at Niagara he had suffered from 
 dyspepsia, and Buller and Paget were too ill to travel at 
 all. The length of Durham's wine-bill was jokingly 
 referred to at a later date in parliament. How Buller 
 used his time at Niagara and elsewhere in Upper Canada 
 we are told by Head. He was a good-hearted but not 
 very prudent Radical, and he could only see the reformers' 
 side of the story. He knew little of Durham's reception 
 at Toronto, and was not easily persuaded out of a view 
 once held. Buller seems to have conceived a violent 
 dislike against Colborne, who was very popular in Upper 
 Canada, and to have taken as betokening serious discon- 
 tent every hasty word he heard from the sorely tried 
 farmers of the Niagara district. 
 
 Before Durham left Toronto he had taken Arthur's 
 
THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL'S TOUR. 157 
 
 measure. The latter's approval of severity was distaste- 
 ful to him, despite his own threats against the " brigands." 
 At a later date a lively quarrel broke out, when Durham 
 gave Arthur to understand that he would sanction no 
 fresh executions. Arthur blustered about his independence, 
 but Durham was firm. He gained his point, but won 
 Arthur's enmity and alienated the Tories of Upper Canada. 
 At present, however, the danger from the " brigands " 
 made Arthur quiescent, but when the Report was issued 
 he used all his influence against the proposed union of the 
 provinces. Poulett Thompson had been warned by 
 Durham, and having none of Durham's scruples he calmly 
 disregarded Arthur's authority, and reduced him to a 
 cypher long before he was actually recalled. 
 
 The reformers of Upper Canada recognised that if 
 Durham was not an advocate, he would at least be a 
 protector, and were inclined to forgive him for fraternising 
 with the Tories of Toronto. He was therefore quite 
 justified in thinking that he had left behind a tranquil 
 Upper Canada, and he landed at Kingston still optimistic. 
 He was only on shore one hour, but as usual he managed 
 to crowd into it answers to several addresses, and kindly 
 remarks to the various notabilities. As yet there was no 
 jarring note ; crowds of admirers cheered him everywhere, 
 and at his side was the leader of the Tories, Chief Justice 
 Robinson. He reached Prescott on the 2Oth, after passing 
 within one hundred yards of the wreck of the Sir Robert 
 Peel; two of "Bill" Johnson's men had just been 
 captured. 
 
 Leaving Prescott, Durham continued his journey by 
 way of Coteau du Lac. Here the Long Sault Rapids 
 begin, and he had to leave the Cobourg. At Coteau du 
 Lac he received an address ; it thanked him for the 
 Ordinance, but begged him in passionate language to 
 relieve them of their feudal burdens. Durham sympathised 
 with them, and knowing it they gave him a particularly 
 hearty welcome. At the other end of the Rapids lay the 
 
158 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 estate of Ellice, the seigneury of Beauharnois. Durham 
 had promised to visit it, and descended the St. Lawrence 
 in a batteau specially fitted up. The journey was novel, 
 but it converted him into an enthusiastic supporter of the 
 Cornwall Canal. 
 
 Durham had another splendid reception at Beauharnois ; 
 it is perhaps significant, however, that the British and French 
 presented separate addresses. Ellice was not a popular 
 landlord ; he exacted the utmost possible rent, and his 
 attempt to provide for the education of the peasantry was 
 not accepted as a sufficient atonement. The local member 
 seems to have embezzled the funds and ruined the scheme. 
 Durham reached Montreal on July 24th. He was received 
 with enthusiasm by the British, and an address was 
 presented to him from the inhabitants of the seigneury of 
 Montreal, asking for the abolition of feudal tenure, and 
 for the resumption by government of the rights of the 
 Sulpicians. The petition was of uncertain origin, and one 
 sentence contained a threat ; this latter called forth from 
 Durham a severe rebuke, and no one seemed very anxious 
 to claim the authorship of the document. 
 
 When Durham reached Montreal for the second time, his 
 reception from the French was not quite so enthusiastic. 
 Papineau was staying at Albany, in Vermont, and the hopes 
 of the French were rising. The ordinance did not seem so 
 great a boon on second thoughts, and Durham's friendliness 
 with the Tories of Upper Canada and with the British of 
 Montreal seemed suspicious. The country folk who 
 attended the market talked matters ever; the extremists 
 said that the Governor dared not punish anyone, and that 
 the British had no troops to send out, and Papineau was 
 about to return with his 12,000 men. Although Durham 
 did not know it, two conspiracies were forming at his very 
 doors. In June, before the ordinance was passed, the 
 French plot was being hatched ; this time no English 
 should be admitted, and all through July, August, and Sep- 
 tember the inhabitants about Quebec were administering 
 
THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL'S TOUR. 159 
 
 mutual oaths to rise when Dr. Robert Nelson, Cote, 
 and Gagnon, who were across the frontier, should appear 
 with the necessary arms. There was only the vaguest idea 
 of a future action after the rebellion had been successful 
 but Nelson favoured the formation of a French peasant 
 Republic in Lower Canada. 
 
 The exiled Upper Canadians and their American sym- 
 pathisers held aloof from the French scheme ; they had 
 other plans for Canada, and when the increased vigilance, 
 both of Sir George Arthur and the United States Govern- 
 ment, rendered border raids unprofitable, they formed, in 
 May, 1838, the "Hunter Lodges." The members, who 
 were frequently highly-placed American officials, were 
 bound together by a sort of freemasonry with hierarchies 
 and secret signs, and were pledged to work for the extension 
 of Republican principles over the whole of North America. 
 Mackenzie was held of small account now, but the Hunter 
 leaders quarrelled, and Arthur and Colborne, who had 
 spies everywhere, learnt each plan as it was formed. All 
 the inhabitants on the frontier were not hostile to England, 
 and they cared little for the Hunters' threats of vengeance. 
 It is pointed out in the first number of The Colonial 
 Magazine that this hostility of the frontier population to 
 England had a curious origin. " Many of the inhabitants 
 are British colonists. If they are Radicals, they hate the 
 monarchical system ; and if they are not, they have to show 
 zeal against it to prevent themselves being suspected of 
 treachery." The burning of the Sir Robert Peel was the first 
 blow, and although Durham had persuaded the Washington 
 authorities to enforce the Neutrality Laws, his threats of 
 retaliation on the brigands only drove the conspiracy 
 underground and deluded him as to his true position. 
 
 Durham had the most perfect confidence in Buller and 
 Wakefield, and often discussed his policy with them. It 
 was felt that the ordinance was incomplete unless Papineau 
 would ask for pardon too. Durham was quite willing to 
 grant it ; for he felt that to carry through any scheme of 
 
160 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 federation without the consent of the Assembly of Lower 
 Canada would be futile. His plan was to use the power 
 conferred on him by the ordinance to amnesty Papineau 
 and the Bermudan exiles, and persuade them to agree to 
 federation as the price of the restoration of the Assembly; 
 however, they must ask, and they did not seem inclined to 
 do so. There is no necessity to dispute Wakefield's 
 assertion that Durham did not know of his plan, 1 but 
 he knew of Durham's plan, and he did not know of 
 Papineau's plan, which was to wait for something to turn 
 up, preferably a war between England and the United 
 States. According to Wakefield, his search for Papineau 
 arose out of a very simple incident. Introduced by Colonel 
 Simpson, the mediator of the ordinance scheme, he soon 
 got on familiar terms with Lafontaine and the other French 
 leaders. Many were the discussions on the situation, and 
 Wakefield, out of a pure desire to help the French, tried to 
 show them the folly of their proceedings. Whether this 
 was meant as a hint or not, the French took it as one, and 
 attempted to induce Wakefield to offer to mediate with 
 Lord Durham. Wakefield knew of Lafontaine's wish that 
 the Assembly should be called together again. He was 
 the virtual leader of the French, and apparently made 
 Durham a definite promise that the legislation desired by 
 the British should be favourably considered by the new 
 Assembly. 3 Lafontaine and Morin, now convinced of the 
 folly of armed resistance, had no wish to see Papineau 
 back in Canada. Cote, Nelson and Davignon were 
 obscure people, and Lafontaine had no fear of them ! 
 Papineau was different, for he was the idol of the peasantry 
 despite his flight. The views of Lafontaine were shared 
 by Vallieres de St. Real, whom Durham, in furtherance of 
 his plan and to win the confidence of the French, made 
 a member of the Executive Council and a judge of the 
 Court of Appeal. He had been the Moderate candidate 
 
 1 The Spectator, November 24th, 1838. 
 1 Cf. Report, p. 13. 
 
THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL'S TOUR. 161 
 
 for the Speakership against Papineau in Dalhousie's time, 
 and had held the office during Papineau's absence in 
 England in 1825. Leslie, an Englishman, who favoured 
 the French Liberals, was also one of the persons with 
 whom Wakefield consorted. According to a letter, which 
 Roebuck quotes, 1 Wakefield went so far as to ask these 
 men for information about all the exiles ; but other 
 French politicians were not so wary as Lafontaine. Among 
 the exiles with Papineau was a young man named Dr. 
 Davignon ; his friends were very anxious for his return, 
 and encouraged by them, Wakefield contented himself with 
 a letter from Simpson alone. He did not know the precise 
 whereabouts of Papineau, but made his way to Saratoga. 
 Papineau was not there, and Wakefield could only see 
 Dr. Davignon and Cartier, the former at Saratoga, the 
 latter at Burlington. 2 Wakefield admits that he "conversed 
 fully and frankly on Canadian affairs " while in the United 
 States. According to Garneau, the conversation took the 
 form of an assurance that Buller and Turton were great 
 friends of the French. Wakefield left Simpson's letter 
 with an American named Cowan, with the message that he 
 would call upon the French leader at his pleasure. Papineau 
 did not take the bait ; perhaps one explanation was his 
 constitutional timidity. He was at Albany on June 6th, 
 and wrote a letter to Roebuck, giving him a full account 
 of Lord Durham's proceedings, including the dismissal of 
 the Councils. Roebuck was delighted that Durham had, 
 as he thought, taken his advice, but he was less pleased 
 with a suggestion of Papineau that he should come to 
 Europe. 3 He wished Papineau to have a hearing, and yet 
 he feared the French leader might say too much ; perhaps 
 Papineau's wish to leave America was due to the know- 
 ledge of Colonel Grey's mission to Washington. He knew 
 that Durham had asked for affidavits against the prison ers 
 
 1 The Spectator^ November roth, 1838. 
 
 2 Garneau : " History of Canada," Vol. II., p. 468. 
 
 3 Leader: " Roebuck," p. 121. 
 
 S.G.C. M 
 
162 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 and under Colborne's ordinance he might be called upon 
 to surrender himself within three months, or, what was 
 worse, might be arrested by the United States autho- 
 rities. Whatever the cause of his hesitation was, he 
 refused to enter into communication with Wakefield or 
 to sue for pardon. He was in the natural course of events 
 shouldered out of the way by men of action like Nelson, 
 and soon afterwards made his way to Paris. 
 
 Wakefield returned to Canada. As he declined to give 
 any alternative version, while denying that of Roebuck 
 and Dr. Davignon's brother, it seems impossible to believe 
 that he was speaking the whole truth. Gisburne, the bio- 
 grapher of New Zealand statesmen, said of Wakefield : 
 " His deceptiveness was ineradicable, and like the fowler, 
 he was ever spreading his nets ; always plausible, and often 
 persuasive, he was never simple and straightforward." His 
 conduct in Canada, especially at this juncture, well deserves 
 the epithet of "crooked." Garneau is, perhaps, not an 
 absolutely unbiassed author, but his version equally con- 
 tradicts Wakefield's. We may take it, then, that on his 
 return he communicated the news of his failure to Buller. 
 He had interviews with Lafontaine in Buller's presence, 
 and the question as to the recall of the exiles came up. 
 Wakefield maintained that the exile was unjust, and that 
 the sooner a return was allowed the better. Buller advised 
 that the exiles should petition Lord Durham, but Wake- 
 field, playing the game, said that the Government ought 
 voluntarily to undo their act of injustice. Buller, as though 
 partly converted, asked Lafontaine how the recall could 
 be managed. The advocate referred him to the clause in 
 the ordinance allowing the Governor to grant a pardon 
 under his sign and seal. 1 Buller's reply led Lafontaine to 
 think that the recall would be merely a matter of time, but 
 nothing was done, and Lafontaine had a personal grievance 
 against the new system. 
 
 When Gosford refused Lafontaine's request that he should 
 1 The Spectator, November loth. 1838, p. 1062. 
 
THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL'S TOUR. 163 
 
 summon an Assembly, on the news of the outbreak on the 
 Richelieu, the latter considered that Montreal would not 
 be a desirable place of residence for him. He therefore 
 went to England, where he was well received by the 
 Radicals, and did not return to Canada till the spring. In 
 his absence his wife had been stopped by the military at 
 Three Rivers, on her way home from Quebec, and her 
 trunks searched for possible treasonable documents. Of 
 course none were found, for Lafontaine was too wary ; 
 but in his desk at Montreal, Leclerc and Donegani, two 
 loyalist magistrates, discovered five letters written to him 
 by clients. These were considered sufficient basis for a 
 warrant on a charge of high treason. Lafontaine heard 
 of this, and before arriving at Montreal he wrote to 
 De Lacy, one of the Executive Councillors, asking if the 
 news were true ; if so, he was on his way to be tried, and 
 he only asked the question because the suspension of the 
 Habeas Corpus rendered it necessary. De Lacy promised 
 to inform Durham, but nothing was done* It was this 
 charge of high treason, which he was not allowed to refute, 
 that caused Lafontaine to sulk when his assistance would 
 have been most valuable to Durham. At last, in September, 
 he wrote to Buller, who had discussed the matter with him, 
 and was angry when Buller calmly told him that neither 
 a trial nor a copy of the warrant could be allowed him. 
 By means of a barrister named Drummond, Lafontaine 
 learned that the warrant had been based on a letter found 
 somewhere by Leclerc, and which he was said to have 
 written to a M. Girouard. The letter was of doubtful 
 authenticity. Leclerc now said that he looked upon the 
 letter as a joke (badinage], but in September, 1838, 
 Lafontaine sent the whole correspondence to Le Temps. 
 Coming so closely on the news of the disallowance of the 
 ordinance, it shook the confidence of the French in Durham. 
 As fast as Durham devised a scheme of conciliation his 
 subordinates caused it to miscarry by sheer bad manage- 
 ment, and Durham himself, ever lacking in tact, gave his 
 
 M 2 
 
1 64 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 confidence to those French Canadians, such as Leclerc, 
 who were most unpopular with their countrymen. 
 
 It is necessary to go back a little now. Soon after his 
 arrival in Canada Lord Durham had a most interesting 
 visitor. Major John Richardson had fought in De Lacy 
 Evans' British Legion against the Carlists, and had written 
 a number of entertaining books. The proprietors of The 
 Times conceived the idea of sending him out as special 
 correspondent. He was to play the spy on Durham of 
 course it was not expressed in such vulgar terms and to 
 criticise in as hostile a spirit as possible all Durham's acts. 
 Richardson was well paid for his work, but his employers 
 reckoned without Durham. The Governor quite expected 
 his visitor, and received him with that charming courtesy 
 which he knew so well how to assume. By skilful flattery 
 Durham convinced Richardson of anything he desired, and 
 soon The Times correspondent was sending home articles 
 in most enthusiastic praise of the Governor-General's policy. 
 Durham affected to confide all his plans to so able an 
 advocate, and Buller was equally friendly. Richardson 
 was delighted at his good fortune, but The Times proprietors 
 were not. The waste-paper basket proved the receptacle 
 of the Major's account of how the Governor proposed to 
 remedy the racial question by a scheme of a British North- 
 American federation, which would bridle the French with- 
 out crippling them. Letters took from three to four weeks 
 to travel from Montreal to London, and it was not till 
 October I4th that Richardson received the news of his 
 dismissal by The Times. In the meantime he had been 
 eating Lord Durham's dinners, and The Times was deprived 
 of the special information which it meant to use against 
 the Lord High Commissioner. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 DISILLUSIONMENT. 
 
 ON August gth Durham sent home what was perhaps the 
 most famous of his dispatches. It was marked " Secret," 
 and was only published in a mutilated form. It gives Lord 
 Durham's opinion of the policy pursued by the Imperial 
 Government since the conquest, and condemns the Act of 
 1791 for its acknowledgment of the French character of 
 Lower Canada. The language is typical of Durham's 
 masterful manner. He admits that Papineau's policy was 
 theoretically justifiable under the Constitutional Act, but 
 bound to bring on a conflict with the British sooner or 
 later, and that the conduct of the latter had only precipitated 
 matters. " The consequent rebellion, although precipitated 
 by the British from an instinctive sense of the danger of 
 allowing the Canadians full time for preparation, could 
 not, perhaps, have been avoided ; and the sentiment of 
 national hostility has been aggravated to the uttermost on 
 both sides by that excessive inflammation of the passions 
 which always attends upon bloodshed for such a cause, 
 and still more by this unusual circumstance, that the victor 
 minority suffered extreme fear at the beginning of the 
 contest, and that the now subdued majority had been led 
 to hope everything from an appeal to force." 
 
 Such was Durham's view of the past, and the more care- 
 fully the facts are studied the more is it found to be true. 
 He was not equally happy in his opinion of the future. 
 Perhaps he wrote while the disappointment at Wakefield's 
 failure was still fresh. Durham tried to understand and 
 sympathise with the French, but he never succeeded in 
 seeing their point of view ; he had, in fact, a constitutional 
 
166 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 incapacity for seeing any point of view but his own, and to 
 this must be ascribed largely his failure in Canada. He 
 was able, however, to write more profitably on the chances 
 of American intervention. Slingsby Buncombe, the Radical 
 member for Finsbury, kept a diary of his visit to Durham, 
 and we are told of numerous parties given by Durham at 
 which American guests were nearly always present. They 
 were charmed by the Earl's hospitality, and carried his 
 praises home, but it is possible that they too frequently 
 merely spoke smooth things to him. The United States 
 Government were not likely to intervene in Canada in the 
 existing state of their financial stability, but they had no 
 control over the lawless frontier population. We shall not 
 be far wrong in conjecturing that the suppressed passages 
 in the dispatch refer to the wholesale violation of the 
 neutrality laws in favour of the Hunter Lodges by highly- 
 placed American officials. Col borne, however, never relaxed 
 his vigilance, for at the end of June 1 there had been a raid 
 on Upper Canada at the mouth of the Thames; State 
 prisoners were rescued in the London district in July, and, 
 finally, a camp had to be formed at Niagara to check 
 further movements. 
 
 In an excursion to Upper Canada Duncombe met 
 poor half-mad Robert Gourlay, who, as has been already 
 mentioned, was compelled to quit that province. Since 
 then Gourlay had had an eventful history ; he had tried, 
 but in vain, to get some recompense from the British 
 Government. Once, in 1824, he had been sentenced to 
 three years' imprisonment in the Coldbath Fields Prison 
 for horsewhipping Lord Brougham. He was now on his 
 way from Quebec after a series of vain attempts to interview 
 Lord Durham personally. Gourlay's opinions were still 
 the same, but he at least was no rebel, and resisted for 
 many years the proposal of Mackenzie for a combined 
 demonstration against the party in power at Toronto. 
 Gourlay finally sent Mackenzie a letter which would have 
 1 Bonnycastle : "Canada as it Was," Vol. II., p. 141. 
 
DISILLUSIONMENT. 167 
 
 done credit for vituperation even to that master of lan- 
 guage, and when Mackenzie finally rose in revolt Gourlay 
 took a delight in baulking all his schemes by sending 
 information to Head. He became quite friendly with the 
 Lieutenant- Governor, who invited him to return. Gourlay, 
 however, though very poor, thought he could serve his 
 country better by remaining across the frontier. When 
 Head left, Gourlay continued to send information to 
 Arthur, but met with no response, for the party in power 
 had no wish to see Gourlay back. 1 When Durham came 
 Gourlay hoped for redress from him, and sent a series of 
 letters to him, during June and July, from various places. 
 He attempted but vainly to see Durham at Niagara, and 
 it was not until August loth that he secured an interview 
 with Colonel Couper, the military secretary, at Montreal. 
 He handed him certain papers for Lord Durham's perusal, 
 and returned to his lodgings, after vainly desiring an 
 interview with the Governor. 
 
 That evening he was visited by the ubiquitous Wakefield. 
 Plausible as ever, he told Gourlay that he had been the 
 author of a series of letters in The Spectator, seven years 
 ago, in defence of the latter ; he also, according to Gourlay, 
 made the interesting statement that the reason he had sent 
 him his pamphlet on " Colonisation " some years before 
 was that he owed all his ideas on the subject to Gourlay. 
 The poor Scotsman, delighted at meeting with recognition 
 from so powerful a dependant of Durham, told Wakefield 
 that he had even more elaborate theories on the subject 
 now, and they chatted for some time about the way in 
 which the British Government had followed Gourlay's plan 
 in the settlement of South Australia. Wakefield went 
 away leaving Gourlay in a state of pleased anticipation, 
 but his interview with Couper was a cruel disappointment. 
 The Governor could not see him and Gourlay sadly 
 went away. He did not let this refusal cool his zeal 
 against Mackenzie, and he was an active worker for 
 1 Gourlay : " Banished Britain and Neptunian," pp. 20 et seg. 
 
1 68 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 constitutional reform. He accepted Durham's Report as 
 " passable," and he influenced many in Upper Canada in its 
 favour. 
 
 Why Durham refused to see Gourlay can only be 
 conjectured. The exile blamed the dislike of Buller for 
 him at first, but it is hard to see why he held that opinion. 
 The idea of a conspiracy against him on the part of the 
 staff Gourlay also rejects after considering it, and blames 
 Durham himself. He had once been a friend of Brougham, 
 and apart from the fact that the ex-Chancellor had just 
 been in a way defending Turton's appointment, Durham 
 had no wish to incur the charge of having taken on his 
 staff another ex-convict, for probably that would have been 
 the result of an interview between Durham and Gourlay. 
 Wakefield's intervention was for once a success, but it did 
 not prevent Gourlay from making bad poetry about the 
 " Durham ox which became a calf." 
 
 Despite Wakefield's failure with Papineau, Durham had 
 not yet given up all hope of seeing his mission crowned with 
 success, but the French grew more and more suspicious, 
 thanks to Durham's frequent visits to Montreal, and the 
 presence on his staff of Adam Thorn and young Ellice, 
 the one a bitter enemy, and the other the son of that most 
 unpopular of British a seigneur who farmed his estate for 
 profit. Ugly rumours, too, began to fly about as to the 
 past of other members of Durham's staff. Perhaps the 
 moral turpitude of Turton and Wakefield did not concern 
 them very greatly, but Roebuck took care that they should 
 know how the former had been sent to England in defence 
 of a system of class privileges by a body of English 
 in India, not unlike the friends of the old oligarchy at 
 Quebec ; and how the latter and his master the Governor 
 were warm advocates of a scheme for taking the waste 
 lands of the province out of the control of the Assembly, 
 and for colonising them with a body of English paupers. 
 " Jaloux et ingrat, haut et bas " was the description of 
 the French Canadians by a Frenchman, according to 
 
DISILLUSIONMENT. 169 
 
 Buncombe, 1 and Durham's staff was fast beginning to 
 share his view. 
 
 The French were as little disposed as Roebuck had been 
 to sacrifice themselves in order that Lord Durham might 
 succeed. He could get members of both nationalities 
 under one roof; French courtesy caused Lafontaine and 
 the others to converse with Buller or their host, but they 
 would go no further. Durham tells how he was asked to 
 become president of an agricultural show at Quebec, in 
 which the two nationalities would only compete in separate 
 classes, and the ploughing matches had to be held in fields 
 a long distance apart. Even the school children quarrelled 
 as English and French, and the steamers sought patronage 
 on the ground of their nationality. It was not so marked 
 in Ireland, this intense national exclusiveness, and Durham 
 tried to combat it in vain. Wishful to turn men's minds 
 from politics for a season, he had offered on his first arrival 
 a cup to be contested at the forthcoming Montreal races. 
 A sidelight on Durham's character is cast by a little 
 incident related by Richardson as occurring at the presen- 
 tation of the cup to Mr. Yarker, the owner of the winning 
 horse, Midas. One of the aides-de-camp, the Earl of 
 Mulgrave, placed the cup before the Governor for delivery 
 to the winner in a somewhat awkward manner. Before all 
 the crowd on the racecourse Durham gave his subordinate a 
 lesson in the proper way to offer it, and insisted that the Earl 
 of Mulgrave should follow his plan. The French came to 
 the races, but, although it is not recorded that they had here, 
 as at Quebec, separate contests from the British, Durham 
 could not make them cease their attitude of suspicion. 
 
 During the month of August Durham busied himself 
 in administrative work. He had sent an invitation to the 
 various Lieutenant-Governors to meet him at Quebec, 
 and a similar meeting of delegates from the eastern 
 provinces was to be held somewhat later. Durham did 
 not consider himself bound by his instructions very strictly, 
 1 Vol. I, p. 257. 
 
170 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 and he understood very soon that it was hopeless to expect 
 the Lower Canadians to elect any representatives to the 
 proposed Council. He knew the opinions of the existing 
 Legislative Council of Lower Canada, and he knew also 
 that the French had no desire for federation in any shape 
 or form, and certainly not with Upper Canada as Glenelg's 
 instructions suggested. He did not expect any more 
 profitable result from the presence of the Tory delegates, 
 as those sent from Upper Canada were sure to be, and he 
 was not disposed to take their view as representing the 
 wishes of the Upper Canadians. Moreover, their 1 view 
 was distinctly hostile to any scheme for uniting Upper and 
 Lower Canada, although they had no objection to include 
 in their province the rich city of Montreal, " as the inhabi- 
 tants so earnestly desired it." They had, it is true, no 
 such hostility, in theory, to the federation of all the 
 provinces, and in fact had a scheme of their own which 
 provided for the presence in the Imperial Parliament of 
 representatives from the colonies. 1 
 
 Perhaps August was the happiest month Durham spent 
 in Canada. Duncombe tells us of innumerable dinners, of 
 whist parties, mesmeric exhibitions by Wakefield, and rides 
 to the pretty Indian village of Lorette and to other places 
 of interest in the lower province. He also mentions 
 several occasions on which Durham was too seriously 
 indisposed to appear. Durham had the society of congenial 
 friends who encouraged his hopes. Letters to and from 
 England were common, and all reports, public or private, 
 agreed in ascribing great popularity to the Governor. 
 Roebuck's scheme 2 was discussed, and it was agreed that it 
 should be presented to the forthcoming congresses. The 
 Globe newspaper in London gave a sketch of the scheme at 
 the beginning of September, and said that it had been 
 approved by the Home Government. The Spectator pointed 
 out that it was the identical scheme propounded by 
 
 1 Report of Committee of Assembly, March, 1838. 
 a For the scheme see Chap. I. 
 
DISILLUSIONMENT. 171 
 
 Roebuck before the passing of Lord John Russell's famous 
 ten Resolutions, but apparently no one knew how Durham 
 came to adopt it. 
 
 Durham was, however, ill at ease. Few, even of his 
 intimates, knew of the private correspondence that he had 
 been carrying on with Melbourne and Glenelg almost from 
 the day he landed. The trouble arose out of the appoint- 
 ment of Turton and Wakefield to offices. It has been 
 already mentioned that on a rumour that Durham intended 
 to confer on Turton the post of legal adviser Melbourne 
 had compelled Durham to promise that he should have no 
 post under the Government. It soon became known, 
 however, that Turton had sailed to Canada with Durham, 
 and on April 3<Dth the Earl of Winchilsea called Melbourne's 
 attention to the matter. Relying on his interview with 
 Durham, Melbourne assured him that not only had Turton 
 not been appointed, but that he had no chance of appoint- 
 ment. The former statement was perfectly true because 
 Durham had informed Glenelg that Ellice and Couper were 
 the only members of his staff who were to be appointed in 
 England. Soon the news spread that Wakefield also had 
 left London, and on May 4th Glenelg wrote a private letter 
 to Durham informing him that he had reason to believe 
 Wakefield was on his way to Canada, and requesting that 
 he should have " no regular appointment under the Crown," 
 although, of course, there was no objection to his being 
 employed " unofficially." Glenelg admitted Wakefield's 
 abilities, but pointed out that any nomination of him to 
 office would be unwise. Dr. Garnett 1 thinks that Glenelg's 
 objection arose merely from an anticipation of the hostility 
 of the French to Wakefield's schemes of colonisation, but 
 Melbourne's letter of July 1 8th scarcely supports this view. 
 
 A letter from Melbourne, unfortunately now lost, was 
 
 received by Durham about the same time as that from 
 
 Glenelg ; it apparently referred both to Wakefield and 
 
 Turton. In reply, Lord Durham wrote to Melbourne on 
 
 1 "Life of E. G. Wakefield/' p. 167. 
 
172 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 June 1 5th: "As for Mr. Wakefield, your letter arrived 
 before him, and I have therefore been able, without com- 
 promising my own character and independence, to comply 
 with your desire. He holds no employment or official 
 situation whatever, nor will his name appear before the 
 public at all. * Oh, no ! we never mention him ; his name 
 is never heard/ Really, if it were not very inconvenient, 
 all this would be very ludicrous. But I am placed in a very 
 painful situation. I am called to perform an almost super- 
 human task. You provide me with no, or at most in- 
 adequate, means from yourselves, and you then interfere 
 with the arrangements I make to supply myself with the 
 best talent I can find." Durham apparently followed this 
 up by a second letter, and both dealt with the affairs of 
 Canada. He did not, however, take Melbourne very greatly 
 into his confidence, which the Prime Minister resented. 
 They never were good friends, and the estrangement which 
 was to end in the great betrayal can be traced more and 
 more clearly in every letter. Perhaps Durham's illness 
 was caused largely by annoyance at the querulous letters 
 almost every mail brought from Melbourne. He knew 
 from friends in England and from the newspapers how the 
 Premier was being harried by his opponents, and the 
 tension of the situation was not lessened by the unreason- 
 ableness of the British and the suspicion of the French in 
 Canada. 
 
 To Glenelg's letter Durham replied : " I had intended to 
 have named Mr. Wakefield a Commissioner of Inquiry 
 into the Crown Lands Emigration, etc., but in consequence 
 of your letter have given up all thoughts of it, and Mr. 
 Wakefield will hold no official situation of any kind under 
 me or the Government." Wakefield did not hold any 
 official appointment, but, as Buller, the ostensible Com- 
 missioner for Crown Lands, was employed on other duties, 
 it fell to Wakefield to help Richard Davies Hanson, the 
 Assistant - Commissioner. Wakefield was devoted to 
 Durham, and submitted to the inevitable. His work will 
 
DISILLUSIONMENT. 173 
 
 be described afterwards, for he was more successful as a 
 commissioner than as envoy to suspicious French 
 Canadians. 
 
 To convince Melbourne that he had the support of all 
 classes on his first arrival, Durham sent home a number of 
 Canadian newspapers. In the Gazette were, of course, the 
 names of the new councillors, and Turton was described as 
 secretary and member of the Executive Council. Others 
 saw Canadian newspapers too, and on July 2nd Melbourne 
 was questioned as to Turton's appointment by Lord 
 Wharnecliffe. Melbourne had to admit the truth of the 
 report, but he maintained that he had given his former 
 reply to the Earl of Winchilsea in all good faith. As usual 
 Brougham patronised the Government when he was not 
 attacking it, and maintained that after all Turton's crime 
 was not strictly the one attributed to him by Wharnecliffe. 
 The result of this question was a sharp letter 1 to Durham 
 on July 2nd complaining of his action, not only in appoint- 
 ing Turton after his pledge, but also in keeping the 
 Government in ignorance. He ends with a grudging 
 approval of his other acts, but hints that as he writes 
 without previous consultation with his colleagues, he cannot 
 answer for any future action that may be taken. 
 
 Before Durham could receive this letter Melbourne wrote 
 again on July i/th. " I will write once for all about this 
 unfortunate and foolish affair of Mr. Turton. It will do you 
 much harm, it will do me much harm, it will do your 
 government and your mission some harm. It is one of 
 those gratuitous and unnecessary difficulties which men 
 most unaccountably create for themselves, and which are 
 generally greater than any which are created for them by 
 the natural course of events." Melbourne does not spare 
 his reproaches against Durham for in the first place allowing 
 himself to be advised into negotiations with Turton, and 
 still more so for having actually appointed him immediately 
 on his arrival in Canada, although he had been compelled 
 1 Sanders : " Lord Melbourne's Papers," p. 425. 
 
174 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 by popular opinion to abandon the idea of appointing him 
 in England, and he did not know whether there was any 
 likelihood of the appointment being unchallenged. " It is 
 not fair to yourself, it is not fair to the Government, it is 
 not fair to the important duty which you have undertaken 
 to discharge, to array and to enlist against yourself so great 
 a mass of popular feeling as you have done by the associa- 
 tion with yourself and your government of this gentleman 
 and of others whom you have with you. This feeling 
 may be prejudiced and erroneous ; but even if such be the 
 case, it does not diminish its strength or render it less 
 formidable." 
 
 Strong though this language of disapprobation was, the 
 letter ends lamely. He promises to refer to the Turton 
 case no more as Durham would have already received two 
 letters from him on it, referring to the missing letter already 
 mentioned and to the one sent on July 2nd. There had 
 been in the interval since July 2nd a meeting of the 
 Cabinet, but no one cared to suggest that Durham should 
 be ordered to revoke Turton's appointment, for in the 
 debate on July 3rd Glenelg had maintained Durham's 
 power to appoint whom he pleased, and the ministry had 
 no wish to see Durham in England at present. Melbourne, 
 therefore, told him that although ministers were not dis- 
 posed to push matters to an extreme, or in other words did 
 not wish to give him an excuse to resign, they anticipated 
 further trouble in parliament, and they hoped Durham 
 would be prepared to accept the result if an adverse motion 
 should be carried. A half-hearted appreciation of the re.st 
 of Durham's policy is expressed. 
 
 This reached Durham as he was preparing to receive the 
 Lieutenant-Governors of the Maritime Provinces, and he 
 understood quite well how much Melbourne's promise of 
 support was worth. A high-spirited man would not have 
 asked his nominee to tamely accept the confession that he 
 could no longer rely upon the man who appointed him for 
 support ; he would have resigned the post of Prime Minister 
 
DISILLUSIONMENT. 175 
 
 since he was not master. Melbourne, however, clung to 
 office despite the ridicule of his opponents, and driven by 
 them, forgot his promise to Durham to worry him no more. 
 On July 1 6th Winchilsea again returned to the attack, and 
 asked what steps the ministry intended to take in the 
 matter. Melbourne made the excuse that until ministers 
 had communicated with the Governor they could come to 
 no decision. 
 
 When the ministry did consult the Governor it was in 
 the form of the half-whispered suggestion in Melbourne's 
 letter of the i/th that he should induce Turton to resign. 
 Turton apparently was willing to sacrifice himself, and the 
 newspapers actually stated that he had resigned, but 
 Durham was not the man to abandon a client because of 
 his unpopularity, and Turton remained in Canada to the 
 last It was Wakefield's turn next, for on July i/th 
 Winchilsea referred to a rumour that Wakefield had 
 received an appointment and that Colborne had resigned. 
 Melbourne knew nothing about the appointment, but 
 believed that Colborne had resigned. 
 
 Melbourne had received a letter from Durham dated 
 June 1 5th which promised distinctly that Wakefield's name 
 should not appear before the public at all. On July i/th, 
 however, 1 he wrote to Durham again, and said that although 
 he believed Durham's assurance as to the employment of 
 Wakefield, he wished to inform him that if Wakefield was 
 appointed " no power on earth could prevent an address to 
 remove both him and Turton from being moved and carried 
 in the House of Lords, and I believe in the House of 
 Commons." He, therefore, relied on Durham's assurance 
 that he would not give Wakefield any public appointment 
 or allow his name to appear in any public document, and 
 that he would not put forward Turton in any more pro- 
 minent situation, or place him in any other post of trust or 
 dignity. He preaches Durham a short homily as to the 
 effect on his own reputation of association with Turton and 
 1 Sanders p. 427. 
 
176 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Wakefield, and refers to the age and character of the 
 Queen as additional reasons for care. Melbourne would 
 wish but cannot hope to have to write no more about the 
 matter. Durham had written after the burning of the 
 Sir Robert Peel, asking for fresh troops and a naval rein- 
 forcement. He was not disposed, however, to consult the 
 ministry on his policy in Canada, and except for a promise 
 not to give any more preferment to Turton, he refused to 
 commit himself. He never informed Melbourne or Glenelg 
 of the matter of the ordinance until the irrevocable step 
 had been taken. There is a hiatus in the Melbourne 
 correspondence from July i8th to August ipth. Thus 
 Durham would be free from ministerial criticism during 
 the eventful four weeks in which he met the Lieutenant- 
 Governors and the Maritime deputies and decided to 
 resign. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 RESIGNATION. 
 
 ONE of the first to be informed of Durham's plan of 
 federation was Sir John Harvey, Lieutenant-Governor of 
 New Brunswick. He arrived at Quebec early in August 
 overland ; the frontier between his province and the State 
 of Maine was in dispute, and on New Brunswick the brunt 
 of an American attack would fall. The province had thus 
 much to gain from a federation of British North America, 
 under which its powers of defence would be largely 
 increased ; but Harvey would not agree to Durham's scheme. 
 Various reasons can be found for this objection; one was 
 that after a political struggle almost exceeding that of 
 Lower Canada in violence the popular party had prevailed 
 upon Glenelg to grant their demands and surrender to 
 them the control of all the revenues. Sir John Harvey, 
 the new Governor, who came out in 1837, found the 
 machinery of government working smoothly enough to 
 render a new Constitution distasteful. Sir Charles Fitzroy 1 
 of Prince Edward Island and Sir Colin Campbell arrived a 
 little later by sea. They were more inclined than Harvey 
 to support Durham's proposal, for in each province the 
 Assembly was making ever growing demands, although in 
 Nova Scotia the reform leader, Joseph Howe, was as 
 keen a loyalist as any one in the colony. Durham charmed 
 his guests by his hospitality ; they were feasted royally, 
 and on August 24th Sir Colin Campbell was allowed to 
 review the brigade of Guards on the Plains of Abraham. 
 
 1 Fitzroy also consulted Durham as to the expropriation of the 
 " Proprietors," the absentee owners of Prince Edward Island, and 
 Durham devised, as he hoped, a satisfactory plan. Report, p. 141. 
 
 S.G.C. N 
 
i 7 8 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 On the 25th Durham escorted them to the harbour, where 
 they embarked on board the Medea. 
 
 The preliminary conference seems not to have been so 
 entirely satisfactory as Durham expected. The day after 
 the Governors left Durham was seriously indisposed, and 
 it was not until several days had passed that he was able to 
 appear in public. His position was now no enviable one ; 
 he could not hope to carry his scheme of federation in the 
 face of New Brunswick's opposition, and the rumours of 
 unrest among the French gathered strength and probability. 
 At one time, about the beginning of September, Durham 
 planned a second tour to the upper province, but he waited 
 for the mail from England, which was due soon by the 
 Great Western, and when it came the news put an end 
 to all idea of leaving Lower Canada. As if to throw 
 Durham completely into the hands of the British party at 
 Montreal, a French jury acquitted the murderers of the 
 loyalist habitant Chartrand in the face of the clearest 
 evidence. To hide their infamy, we are told, 1 the jury 
 cried "Non coupable " in chorus, and no one knew who took 
 the lead in this perjury. To the French the acquittal of 
 these murderers was patriotism, but it made Durham despair 
 of doing anything with a people who abused their rights in 
 such a way. He informed Glenelg of the hopelessness of 
 securing a conviction even in the face of the clearest 
 evidence from a French jury. Glenelg's reply 2 was to 
 recommend the creation of a special tribunal for the trial 
 of future offenders. Even Glenelg saw that such flagrant 
 contempt for law as the acquittal of Chartrand's murderers 
 was sure to provoke attempts at revenge on the part of the 
 loyalists. As for Durham, he felt that he had tried the 
 French with mercy, and he had in the case of Chartrand 
 offered them the arbitrament of the law, and henceforth he 
 turned to Montreal and the British. He held that the 
 connection between Canada and the Mother Country 
 
 1 Buncombe, Vol. I., p. 264. 
 - Dispatch, dated October 26th. 
 
RESIGNATION. 179 
 
 should be retained at all events for the present, and he 
 was at last realizing that only by depriving the French of 
 their power to do harm could he obtain this end. 
 
 Durham was expecting the delegates from the Maritime 
 Provinces about the third week in September, but before 
 they had all arrived, the situation of the High Commissioner 
 had altered still more for the worse. It has been mentioned 
 that Durham sent home a dispatch on the subject of the 
 ordinance, and on the motives which had guided him in 
 issuing it. He did not, however, send any copy of the 
 prisoners' plea of guilty or their confession, and of course 
 he did not inform the Government of Simpson's mission. 
 In reply he received the ordinary qualified approval, but it 
 was hinted that the part of the ordinance relating to the 
 banishment to Bermuda might cause difficulties. 1 
 
 The news of the ordinance reached England by the 
 steamer Pennsylvania on July 29th, and other information 
 arrived soon afterwards for Roebuck. 2 Melbourne says it 
 was furnished by the prisoners themselves, but it is more 
 probable that Roebuck heard from his step-father, Colonel 
 Simpson, or from the organizers of the meeting of protest 
 on July 4th. He was disappointed, for he had advised a 
 complete amnesty. With this expectation in view, 3 he had, 
 at the beginning of July, written a long letter to Brougham 
 in defence of Durham, and Brougham, who foresaw that 
 the Governor-General could not possibly act as Roebuck 
 desired, waited patiently. His opportunity soon arrived, 
 for Roebuck, being himself out of parliament, was glad 
 to find so doughty a representative in the Lords as 
 Brougham. 
 
 The attack which Brougham was about to lead was only 
 the final charge of Durham's enemies. Even the Tory 
 newspapers admitted the High Commissioner's popularity 
 in Canada, but they attributed it to unworthy arts, and 
 both Tories and Whigs unceasingly criticised him. The 
 account of his popularity with the French clergy brought 
 ] Sanders, p. 430. * Ibid., p. 430. 3 Leader, p. 122. 
 
 N 2 
 
i8o SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 up Henry Philpotts, Bishop of Exeter, Durham's old foe, 
 with a question 1 as to whether the Earl had received in- 
 structions to treat the Roman Catholics more favourably. 
 The reply was that after the passage of the Catholic 
 Emancipation Act, such a course as the Earl pursued was 
 the only proper one. On July 9th, a fortnight previous, 
 Sir Edward Sugden had, in the House of Commons, 
 attacked Durham for abolishing the existing Executive and 
 Legislative Councils, and for appointing a fresh Executive 
 Council of five members from his own suite. He asked 
 Lord John Russell whether Lord Durham was acting in 
 conformity with his published instructions in so doing, and 
 whether the new special Council was composed in a manner 
 similar to the Executive Council. Russell defended 
 Durham as having acted to the best of his discretion, and 
 said that the Canadians were satisfied. On July 3oth 
 Sugden took up the matter again, pointing out that not 
 only was the special Council too small, but that Charles 
 Buller was a member of either Council. Russell again 
 maintained that Durham's action was approved of by the 
 Canadians the persons most concerned ; the Attorney- 
 General also defended Durham, and O'Connell expressed 
 himself satisfied with the way in which the High Com- 
 missioner had exercised his despotic power in contra- 
 distinction to Sir George Arthur. The words "despotic 
 power " brought up Sir Charles Grey, one of Lord Gosford's 
 commissioners, who emphatically denied that the Act 
 conferred on Lord Durham despotic power ; such an idea 
 would be ruinous to Lord Durham's behaviour in Canada, 
 if he should accept it. His power really was, that as 
 Governor-in- Council he possessed the legislative powers of 
 the late Legislature of Lower Canada. 
 
 On the very day that Russell was maintaining Durham's 
 popularity in Canada, and the legality of his special 
 Council, Brougham opened the attack in the Lords. 2 Few 
 
 1 " Hansard," Vol. XLIV, p. 483. 
 
 2 " Hansard," Vol. XLIV., p. 755. 
 
RESIGNATION 181 
 
 knew of his intention, even of the Radicals, and the 
 ministry seem to have been quite unprepared for so fierce 
 an attack. Quoting from New York newspapers, Brougham 
 told of the appointment of the special Council, and of the 
 banishment proclamation. If Durham carried out his 
 threats in case the exiles returned, he would be guilty of 
 murder. In the case of the Bermudan prisoners, they were 
 at the utmost only guilty of a capital felony in returning, 
 even if, as seemed not to have been the case, they had been 
 regularly tried and sentenced to transportation. In the 
 case of Papineau, Durham had broken the law twice, first 
 by offering a reward of 1000 for his capture, and secondly 
 by threatening him with death on his return without a 
 trial. Durham's commission only allowed him to frame 
 general laws ; it did not give him power to make a sudden 
 regulation under which men were to be hanged. 
 
 Ellenborough joined in the attack, maintaining that the 
 ordinance had not been discussed according to the rules 
 laid down by Sir John Colborne's Council, by which 
 twenty-one days' notice was necessary, and, moreover, the 
 three " readings " all took place on the same day. To 
 make things worse, Ellenborough continued, only four of 
 the five members who signed the ordinance were actually 
 in Quebec on the 28th. Glenelg and Melbourne knew 
 scarcely as much about the question as Brougham, and 
 could only promise to lay the required papers on the table 
 of the House ; Melbourne said that Durham being present 
 in Canada was likely to know better than they in England 
 how to act, and that Brougham's conduct was highly im- 
 prudent, not to say unpatriotic, in view of the peculiar 
 situation in Canada. Brougham denied the charge of want 
 of patriotism. While the Bill was being discussed, they 
 were asked to grant the most ample powers to Durham, 
 because parliament could always interfere ; Durham had 
 exceeded his powers, for it could not be necessary to hang 
 a man without a trial. 
 
 Brougham's law was sound enough, but he did not know 
 
182 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 the facts except according to Roebuck's version. The 
 truth is that Nelson and his associates expected a free 
 pardon coupled with voluntary exile, but in the face of 
 Glenelg's dispatch, and of the opposition of the British, 
 Durham dared not make the amnesty complete. That he 
 wished to, and intended to, recall the prisoners at the 
 earliest possible moment is clear from his negotiations, 
 through Wakefield and Buller, with the French leaders, 
 and from the actual ordinance. 1 Durham was no lawyer, 
 and in common with those who should have been able to 
 advise him better, he hoped that a breach of the law in a 
 season of lawlessness would be condoned in view of its 
 object. He trusted to his vague, ill-defined powers, and 
 he seems to have really known, from a later dispatch, that 
 he had no power to secure the detention of Nelson at 
 Bermuda without the consent of the Island Legislature. 
 We need not call this an after-thought as some were dis- 
 posed to do. To understand Durham's motives it is 
 necessary to read carefully the important dispatch which 
 he sent to Glenelg on June 29th. He says that it was im- 
 possible to find sufficient evidence to justify extreme 
 measures against more than eight or nine of the prisoners. 
 He maintains that he had in view in all his addresses and 
 speeches the course he actually followed, and that he 
 intended to force Nelson and the rest to act as they did. 
 Moreover, Durham did not actually threaten to put the 
 exiles to death without a trial if they returned, but expressly 
 provided in the ordinance that they must first be convicted 
 of being at large in the province without permission, and 
 he reserved to himself and to his successors the right to 
 grant a pardon. Brougham's legal casuistry enabled him 
 to see the flaw in Durham's ordinance ; had he acted 
 without the Council and forced the prisoners to give their 
 parole, it is probable that his action would have been un- 
 
 1 "... it shall and may be lawful for the Governor ... so soon 
 as it shall appear to him consistent with the peace and tranquillity of 
 this province, to grant permission," etc. 
 
RESIGNATION. 183 
 
 assailable. It is what the prisoners themselves intended, 
 and they had able assistance in drawing up the letter. 
 At first they seem to have interpreted Durham's action as 
 granting their desires, and but for the meeting of the 
 extremists at Quebec on July 4th, it is probable that 
 Durham's mission would have been a success. 
 
 However, Melbourne and the ministry were ignorant of 
 the real meaning of the " other means," by which, according 
 to the dispatch, Durham had procured the qualified plea of 
 guilty. They were not very eager in the mass to defend 
 Durham, and Brougham soon had at his back the whole 
 force of the Tories and Radical " Friends of Canada." The 
 papers relating to the ordinance had been produced, and 
 seemed to Radicals like Hume and Leader to prove that 
 Durham was no true friend to the French as they had 
 thought. They joined with Brougham in his thirst for 
 revenge ; he also wished to patronise the ministry which 
 refused to recognise his abilities, and in this he drew near 
 to the Tories who were eager for its fall. The newspapers 
 discussed the matter, and The Spectator said Lord Durham 
 had not a single friend in the House of Lords to see that 
 he had fair play. The Morning Chronicle naturally de- 
 fended Durham whole-heartedly, and The Standard said 
 that as the Governor-in-Council had the whole authority 
 of Government, he had consequently power of amnesty and 
 attainder. On the whole, except in the extreme Tory and 
 Radical quarters, the view was that although Lord 
 Durham had obviously stretched his authority to the 
 utmost, his action should be upheld by the Government. 
 
 On August 7th Brougham produced the result of his 
 week's preparation. He assumed that Durham had in- 
 flicted pains and penalties for high treason on persons who 
 had not been tried. This contravened the Act passed in 
 the seventh year of William III. In 1715 parliament 
 heard witnesses before passing a Bill of Attainder against 
 the Jacobite fugitives ; Durham had heard no evidence. 
 Thirdly, the sole counts on which men could be found 
 
184 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 guilty of high treason were settled by the Act 25 
 Edward III., but Durham had announced that the 
 Canadian prisoners would be guilty of high treason if they 
 left Bermuda. Again, by exempting the murderers of 
 Weir and Chartrand from the scope of the ordinance, the 
 Governor-General of Canada had proclaimed that he had 
 powers superior to those of the Queen, who would be unable 
 to pardon them. The powers of the Governor-General of 
 Canada under the Coercion Act did not extend to Bermuda, 
 and any person who attempted to detain the prisoners 
 there would be liable to an action for false imprisonment. 
 Lord Duiham had been granted large powers, despite the 
 danger of such a course being pointed out ; he had 
 misused them and his proceedings were opposed to every 
 principle of English law. 
 
 The plan of attack was perfect, and Brougham was 
 enjoying a double revenge ; he had never forgotten 
 Durham's Edinburgh speech, and he hated Melbourne's 
 ministry none the less because he despised it. Glenelg 
 made a feeble reply ; his main plea was the peculiar 
 condition of Canada, and he denied that the ordinance was 
 illegal. Brougham played with his opponents like a cat 
 with a mouse, and offered to be convinced if the Chan- 
 cellor would say that Lord Durham's powers under the Act 
 actually did give him power to contravene the Act of 
 William III. and 25 Edward III. Ministers may have 
 intended to give him greater powers, but the question was, 
 had they managed to do so? 
 
 The ministry understood that he referred to the way in 
 which their Bill had been altered by Peel. Melbourne had 
 to say something in defence of Durham's peculiar position, 
 but declined to accept Brougham's challenge as to the 
 legal points involved, as he was no lawyer. He admitted 
 that Durham's powers did not extend to Bermuda, but he 
 was ready to defend the remaining parts of the ordinance. 
 Ellenborough supported Brougham, and the latter turned 
 on the ministry with a demand for a copy of the legal 
 
RESIGNATION. 185 
 
 opinions which justified Melbourne's assertions, and also 
 moved for a return of the date at which Sir Charles Paget 
 first attended the Council. Lord Brougham ended by 
 saying that he was " neither prepared to remove Lord 
 Durham, nor to create him absolute in Canada, to put him 
 above all law, and to allow him to supersede the very 
 authority that sent him there." 1 He was really doing Lord 
 Durham a service in acting as he did, and pointing out the 
 actual limitations of the great authority he possessed. 
 After other speeches Brougham announced that he would 
 introduce a declaratory Act defining what the Earl's 
 powers under the Act really were. 
 
 On August 9th Brougham moved the Second Reading 
 of his Bill, disclaiming at the same time any motive of 
 personal hostility. He gave Nelson's version of their plea 
 of guilty, and said that they had been willing to go to 
 Bermuda because a plea of not guilty would have been 
 useless in the existing state of the Jury Law in Canada, and 
 knew that they could not be detained in Bermuda legally. 
 He then pointed out that the ordinance had been so 
 hastily drawn up that it was full of mistakes as to the 
 names and crimes of the exiles, mixing up those guilty 
 of sedition merely with actual rebels, and in one case con- 
 demning a man, Louis Perrault, who had left Canada on 
 business long before the outbreak. He proposed to accept 
 an Indemnity Act together with the Declaratory Act, 
 but he refused to agree to an Indemnity Act which would 
 cover the cases where the innocent or wrongly-described 
 prisoners were concerned. 
 
 Brougham's Bill was not very carefully drawn up, and 
 Glenelg pointed out that it condemned Durham unheard 
 quite as clearly as he had, according to it, condemned the 
 prisoners. The better course would be to write to the 
 Governor of the Bermudas and order him to free the 
 prisoners. He held, however, that the ordinance was with- 
 in the competence of the Council as the late Legislature 
 1 " Hansard," Vol. XLIV., p. 1031. 
 
186 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 was allowed by the Act of 1774 to amend the English 
 criminal law whenever the peculiar circumstances of 
 Canada made it necessary. Lord Brougham's Bill really 
 sought to restrict Durham's powers. The Earl of Ripon, 
 the Lord Chancellor, and Lord Lyndhurst took part in the 
 debates, generally in a spirit hostile to Durham. Learned 
 expositions of the law as to high treason were given, 
 and Melbourne, who followed Lyndhurst, must have realized 
 that the Bill could not be resisted. 
 
 Melbourne knew that he was in a perpetual minority in 
 the House of Lords, and so he did not attempt to defend 
 Durham so much as to find excuses for the presumed 
 stretching of his authority ; he had thought that Durham's 
 appointment had received the unanimous approbation of 
 the House, and it was unwise to weaken his authority in 
 Canada at so critical a moment. The Tories in the House 
 of Lords were led by Wellington, and this insinuation that 
 they had shared in the appointment of Durham called forth 
 from the Duke a vehement denial. As a patriotic statesman 
 he had certainly tried to strengthen the Government's hands, 
 he admitted, but he and his friends at least had never meant 
 to make Lord Durham an absolute ruler. Personally he 
 would prefer to pass only an Indemnity Bill, and leave it 
 to the Government to take such steps in the matter of 
 Papineau's illegal banishment as would render further 
 action unnecessary. 
 
 It was the end of the session, and Melbourne had no 
 further arguments, as his own Chancellor had supported 
 Brougham ; the Bill passed the Second Reading by 54 to 36. 
 On the following day Melbourne formally accepted the 
 Bill of Indemnity, and announced that the ministry had 
 resolved to advise the Queen to disallow the whole ordi- 
 nance. 1 He knew the probable result of his action, as his 
 
 1 At the Cabinet meeting Spring Rice proposed that the Bermudan 
 Legislature should be asked to pass an Act legalising the ordinance, 
 but Howick said the request would be in vain. See Torrens. 
 Vol. II., p. 269. 
 
RESIGNATION. 187 
 
 words show : " I cannot but say that it is with the deepest 
 regret and alarm that I have taken this course, nor is it 
 without the very great apprehension of the consequences 
 that I have come to this determination." 1 He insisted that 
 Durham only held out the threat in terrorem, and that the 
 Lords by their action were striking at the root of all 
 authority ; they could not mean to tie down the Governor- 
 General to every detail in an Act of Parliament. Brougham 
 and Wellington complimented Melbourne for his good 
 sense in accepting the Bill, but Lansdowne maintained that 
 Durham had not acted in a different manner to Sir John 
 Colborne, whose Act of Attainder had not been attacked. 
 Brougham agreed that Lord Durham had the same powers 
 as Colborne, but he declined to say whether Colborne had 
 exceeded his powers. One reason for his diffidence was 
 probably the fact that Wellington would have defended 
 his old subordinate. 
 
 When the Report was brought up Melbourne made a 
 last desperate attempt to save the honour of the ministry 
 by an amendment which would practically give Durham 
 absolute discretion as to his course of action. Ellenborough 
 the lawyer saw the intention and opposed Melbourne. 
 Brougham cruelly remarked that the amendment was 
 merely an attempt to placate Durham by saying in effect, 
 " Although we have been obliged to disallow your ordi- 
 nances, yet we have got you a great power." Seeing he 
 was helpless, Melbourne withdrew his amendment. On 
 August 1 3th the Bill passed its Third Reading. Durham 
 had been ruined by two men Lord Brougham, the author 
 of the Bill, and Sir William Follet, the author of the proviso 
 in the Suspending Bill that the powers of the special 
 Council were strictly limited to Acts in conformity with 
 the laws of England. Melbourne must share in the blame ; 
 he should have resigned if he could not carry a Bill to 
 supplement the ordinance. If he held that Durham was 
 entirely in the wrong he should have recalled him. 
 1 " Hansard," Vol. XLIV., p. 1129. 
 
1 88 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 On August 1 3th Lord John Russell moved the First 
 Reading of the Bill in the House of Commons, and despite 
 the objections of Leader, secured that the Bill should be 
 read the first and second time. Leader referred to Charles 
 Buller's letter 1 defending the ordinance which Easthope 
 had inserted in The Morning Chronicle for August 1 3th. 
 It was the best defence the friends of Durham could think 
 of at the moment, but the question was now one of law, 
 not of fact, and, moreover, the " Friends of Canada " denied 
 that the exiles had petitioned to be disposed of without a 
 trial ; they had only thrown themselves on the mercy of 
 the Crown. On August I4th the House went into com- 
 mittee on the Bill, Russell first explaining that he did not 
 intend to propose any amendments. Russell's speech was 
 one of the finest he ever made. He pleaded eloquently 
 for Durham, and maintained the essential legality of the 
 ordinance except so far as related to banishment to 
 Bermuda. " I ask you to pass this Bill of Indemnity," he 
 said, " telling you that I shall be prepared, when the time 
 comes, not indeed to say that the terms or the words of 
 the ordinances passed by the Earl of Durham are alto- 
 gether to be justified, but that, looking at his conduct as 
 a whole, I shall be ready to take part with him, I shall be 
 ready to bear my share of any responsibility which is to 
 be incurred in these difficult circumstances." He skilfully 
 adduced the written protests of Brougham and Ellenborough 
 as evidence of the despotic power conferred on Durham, 
 and he insisted that he personally had intended that the 
 Earl should have powers exceeding those of Sir John 
 Colborne, who had passed the ordinances upon which 
 Durham's ordinance of June 28th appeared to be founded. 
 
 Leader would not be conciliated, but made a savage 
 attack on Lord Durham, on the constitution of the Council, 
 and above all, on his late friend Charles Buller and his 
 letter. Again he denied that the prisoners had pleaded 
 
 1 Ante, p. 149. 
 
 1 "Hansard," Vol. XLIV., p. 1228. 
 
RESIGNATION. 189 
 
 guilty, and quoted copiously from their letters and from 
 that of Buller. He also attacked the Police Ordinances, 
 the relations of Buller with Adam Thorn, and the appoint- 
 ment of Arthur Buller to be judge of the Court of Appeal. 
 He concluded with a sneer at Melbourne's readiness to 
 sacrifice Durham, even in the House of Commons, where 
 he had a majority. 
 
 Sir William Follet, the author of the proviso in the 
 original Bill that was responsible for the trouble, made a 
 long speech defending his action. The Attorney- General 
 attempted to defend Durham on the lines of Lord John 
 Russell's speech, but he admitted that as the ordinance 
 was a legislative Act, and Durham's authority did not 
 extend beyond Canada, it was ultra vires for him to order 
 the confinement of the exiles at' Bermuda. Curiously 
 enough Sir Charles Grey maintained the view, which 
 Durham in one of his later dispatches put forward, that by 
 the Acts 5 Geo. IV. c. 63 and 6 Geo. IV. c. 59 even the 
 Bermuda section might be justified. These Acts regulated 
 the transportation of convicted felons from the colonies, 
 and the probability is that Durham really was relying on 
 the Imperial Government including the Bermudas among 
 those colonies to which convicts might be sent. At any 
 rate he explained in his dispatch of June 2Qth why he had 
 not sent N elson and the rest to the ordinary penal settle- 
 ments of Australasia, and it remained for the law officers 
 of the Crown to advise the ministry to make good the 
 defects. 
 
 In the newspapers the comments were seldom respectful 
 to the ministry, although most of the Government journals 
 admitted that the ordinance could not be defended so far 
 as it referred to Bermuda. It was necessary now that 
 Durham should be informed, but Melbourne postponed 
 the evil day as long as he could. It was not till August ipth 
 that he wrote to Durham. 1 He maintained that the ministry 
 had done their best to defend him, but that they had not 
 1 Sanders, p. 429. 
 
igo SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 been kept so well informed as Brougham had been. He 
 requested that Durham's suite should not write home in 
 the way Buller had done, but that Durham would keep 
 the Government well posted as to his proceedings. There 
 is not a word to show that Melbourne expected Durham 
 would resent his letter or the action of the ministry. 
 Speaking of the future, he writes : " The only safety lies in 
 strict observance of the powers, in adhering to forms as well 
 as to principles, and, if you are obliged to deviate from either, 
 in making apparent the grounds and reasons for such devia- 
 tion." He was sure that the " untoward circumstances " 
 which had taken place would only encourage Durham to 
 persevere in his task the more. 
 
 Unfortunately for Melbourne, this was not the first intelli- 
 gence Durham had received of the proceedings in 
 parliament 1 On September ipth Durham saw a copy of 
 an American newspaper containing the report of the debate 
 in the Lords on August 7th, Qth, and loth. Buller, who 
 was present at a dinner in the Governor's chateau, saw 
 from the expression of his face that he had received a 
 violent shock 2 ; the party broke up in confusion, and 
 Duncombe, Turton and Buller retired to the latter's house 
 to talk the situation over. 3 The news soon spread through- 
 out Lower Canada and the other provinces, and produced 
 a painful sensation. The Maritime delegates were throng- 
 ing Quebec, 4 and on September 22nd Durham was to meet 
 them. On the 2ist Durham received an ovation at the 
 theatre, and nearly four hundred callers of all shades of 
 opinion signed their names in a book at the Castle. The 
 Maritime deputies, whose meetings with Lord Durham had 
 already made them his enthusiastic admirers, presented an 
 address on the 22nd, expressing gratitude for past kind 
 
 1 Duncombe, Vol. I., p. 255. 
 
 2 Garnett, p. 172. 
 
 8 Duncombe, p. 255. 
 
 4 Young and the Nova Scotian delegates, together with those from 
 Prince Edward Island, arrived on September J2th, the rest some- 
 what later. Martineau, Book V., Chap. XII. 
 
RESIGNATION. 191 
 
 offices and confidence in his future plans ; they earnestly 
 besought him not to resign his post. 
 
 Durham made two replies : the first was purely formal, 
 but the second was a passionate appeal to his audience. 
 In his formal reply he stated that he was proud of the 
 achievements of a few short months, and that he was on 
 the point of promulgating various salutary laws, and of 
 proposing a scheme of federation which, if they accepted it, 
 he intended to bring before the Imperial Parliament. " In 
 this, I trust, useful course I have been arrested by the 
 interference of a branch of the English Legislature, in which 
 the responsible advisers of the Crown have deemed it their 
 duty to acquiesce. Under these circumstances, I have but 
 one step to take : to resign that authority the exercise of 
 which has thus been so weakened as to render it totally 
 inadequate to the grave emergency which alone called for 
 its existence." He assured them, however, that this 
 unexpected and abrupt termination of his official connec- 
 tion with British North America would not weaken in his 
 mind his deep interest in their fate. 
 
 This was very decorous and colourless, but after a 
 moment he turned to the delegates and addressed them as 
 " friends." He thanked them for coming to meet him, and 
 rejoiced that they were all so eager to retain the Imperial 
 connection. He was happy to find that but one sentiment 
 prevailed a determination never to be separated from the 
 home of their fathers. Amid all the perplexities that had 
 surrounded him he had found consolation and pleasure in 
 looking forward to the prospect of a settlement of the 
 many difficulties which presented themselves at almost 
 every step. The calling together of the delegates from the 
 lower provinces was a subject on which he had bestowed a 
 good deal of thought ; and he had entertained hopes that 
 some plan could be adopted which would benefit each 
 province and strengthen the bonds of the whole, thereby 
 shedding a lustre on that country which of all others might 
 be considered the glory of the world. Difficulties might 
 
192 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 have presented themselves in the arrangement of a union, 
 but he assured the delegates that his great object would 
 have been for the good of the whole and not particularly 
 that of the Canadas ; he would have heard with attention 
 every argument that could have been brought forward, and 
 would have endeavoured to satisfy all. He declared that 
 whatever he did should be done openly and fairly, and 
 never would he make use of deception to gain any point ; 
 that was the language he used to the Emperor of Russia, 
 when he was ambassador to that Court, and that course 
 should guide him in all his pursuits through life. 
 
 Alluding to the Canadas, he said they were very 
 imperfectly known to those at home. He knew very little 
 about them while in England. He came out not to gratify 
 his own personal feelings, but to obey the commands of 
 his Sovereign. His views of this country had greatly 
 changed since he became acquainted with her resources 
 and with a portion of her inhabitants ; and wherever he 
 might be called, and however employed, he should always 
 cherish an ardent wish for the prosperity of this vast 
 country. 
 
 It had been his aim and the dearest object of his wishes 
 to be able to inform Her Majesty that her fine possessions 
 in British North America might be considered one of the 
 finest gems in her dominions, that the entire population 
 were in a state of harmony and friendship, and that each 
 party was striving which could promote the good of the 
 whole. He had not yet brought into action those measures 
 which were intended for the good of the country, but 
 several of them were nearly completed, and would almost 
 immediately have been made public. 
 
 At a -moment when he was about to complete those 
 plans which had been maturing, party spirit had interposed 
 her withering hand, and blasted all his hopes for the welfare 
 of the Canadas. He could not, he did not wish to conceal 
 from the gentlemen present that the recent intelligence 
 from England, though not official to him, had made a very 
 
RESIGNATION, 193 
 
 deep impression on his mind. Opposition from Lord 
 Brougham and from those acting with him was no more 
 than he might expect, but he was compelled to say that 
 he had been put down sacrificed by his friends ! those 
 whose duty it was to stand forth in his defence, at a period 
 when his political enemies were using their utmost energies 
 to destroy him. 
 
 At this point Durham broke down ; he was in weak 
 health, and the strain of the past few days had been too 
 much for him. It was not merely a disappointment : it was, 
 in fact, rather a realization of his fears, which had seemed 
 more and more probable with every letter from England. 
 He had been scoffingly told by Chandos and the Tories 
 that his mission to Canada had not been meant as a kind- 
 ness to him, but as a trap devised for his ruin, and the 
 abbreviated version of the debate which he had hitherto 
 seen only supported this statement. Retiring to a 
 corner of the room, he gave way to his feelings unre- 
 strainedly ; after a few moments he recovered his self- 
 control and apologised to those present. Durham was no 
 actor, but if he had been he could have devised no more 
 effective means of getting into the sympathy of his 
 auditors. They shared his indignation against the minis- 
 try, and conceived a bitter dislike to Brougham and his 
 Tory allies. Continuing, Durham said it was the duty of 
 Her Majesty's ministers to support him in the hour of 
 persecution, and not to join with his bitter foes in striking 
 at his head. 
 
 Deprived of all ability to do anything for Canada, it 
 could be of no use for him to remain longer in the country ; 
 and he should leave it as soon as he received the official 
 account of the parliamentary doings, it was his intention 
 to be on his way to England by October loth. 
 
 This second speech lasted about ten minutes, and at the 
 end Durham cemented the friendship between himself and 
 the delegates by his care for their welfare and return. Of 
 course a conference as originally intended would be useless 
 
 S.G.C. O 
 
 S.G.C, 
 
194 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 now, but with such of the delegates as remained behind 
 Durham had frequent conversations. He was very favour- 
 ably impressed with one of the leading reformers from 
 Nova Scotia, named Young, who gave him valuable infor- 
 mation as to the working of the constitutional system in 
 the Maritime Provinces. Besides the actual representatives 
 of the Legislature of each colony, whose presence had been 
 provided for in the Governor's instructions, there were in 
 Quebec various persons who gave evidence before the 
 different Commissions. The delegates and witnesses from 
 the Maritime Provinces were frequently members of the 
 reform party in their respective States ; perhaps Durham 
 was inclined to trust them the more from that circumstance. 
 One of the witnesses, Lelacheur, was the Papineau of 
 Prince Edward Island. 1 He will be mentioned in dealing 
 with that province, but his evidence was contradicted by 
 one of the Island's law officers. Durham, however, did not 
 find the Maritime representatives willing to accept his 
 plans without modification. The provincial spirit was 
 strong, and although they would agree to a scheme of 
 federation, it would be a very loose one indeed, and they 
 did not appear to be at all anxious for the abolition of the 
 Legislative Council as proposed in Roebuck's scheme ; 
 their ideal, as Young and Howe in Nova Scotia and 
 Wilmot and Crane in New Brunswick declared, was a 
 system of responsible, or semi-responsible government, 
 similar to that already established in New Brunswick. We 
 shall not be far wrong in tracing to his relations with men 
 like Young the final renunciation by Durham of any hope 
 of carrying out Roebuck's scheme. To those of the 
 delegates who wished to return home at once the Governor 
 offered a passage in the Medea, but many remained for a 
 time at Quebec. 
 
 As soon as the news of the disallowance of the ordinance 
 came the extremists threw off the mask. It is true that 
 they had no longer The Vindicator or La Minerve to 
 
 1 See pamphlet, " Facts versus Lord Durham," by a Proprietor. 
 
RESIGNATION. 195 
 
 encourage them to action, but even the lately Moderate 
 organs, finding that Durham, whom they had feared, was 
 not after all so very formidable, began to talk of the future 
 with renewed hope. Among the habitants the midnight 
 meetings for drill recommenced, and many who had hitherto 
 held aloof joined the conspiracy; no definite plan of revolt 
 existed, but their leaders hoped that Durham's resignation 
 would be a good opportunity for their success. Colborne 
 and Durham were almost as well served by spies as Sir 
 George Arthur in Upper Canada, and they knew of the 
 preparations all along the American frontier, not only by 
 the Hunter Lodges, but also by the French exiles under 
 Nelson. A few desperate* men actually plotted to seize the 
 Isle au Noix, about the end of September, in imitation of 
 Mackenzie. The fort was well armed and Colborne was 
 vigilant, but the will to rebel was present among many of 
 the habitants in the Richelieu basin. 
 
 Upon the British the news of Durham's approaching 
 resignation fell with crushing force. Meetings were 
 organized in Quebec, Montreal, and Upper Canada. The 
 whole British party fell into line ; even those who had been 
 inclined to carp at some of the details in Lord Durham's 
 plans forgot their opposition in the present fear. The 
 Quebec Gazette energetically defended Durham against the 
 ministry. "The blow has fallen on us with a force that 
 appears for the moment to have paralysed all feeling/' said 
 Neilson's paper. " Men hardly dare ask what is now to be 
 done ; the most gloomy apprehensions are entertained, but, 
 we will yet hope, needlessly. Our prospect, which Heaven 
 knows was dark enough before, has been rendered more 
 gloomy by the conduct of the ministers in denying their 
 support to the local Government, whose measures, conceived 
 in a knowledge of the actual state of the colony, were 
 framed to meet the exigencies of the dangerous position in 
 which it was placed. It is clear that had the leaders of the 
 rebellion, sent to Bermuda, been brought to trial, the jury 
 would have acquitted them in the face of any evidence, no 
 
 O 2 
 
196 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 matter how direct and strong, as did the jury that acquitted 
 the murderers of Chartrand." The Montreal Gazette was 
 even more severe upon Melbourne than Neilson had been. 
 " We cannot conceive how any man of high spirit could 
 submit to the utter degradation of serving a Government 
 who have neither the power to support him in the exercise 
 of his public functions, nor the courage to defend him 
 and themselves from the factious insults of party politicians, 
 or the more infamous inroads of personal and jealous 
 enemies. A ministry so utterly weak and incapable as a 
 Government, so grossly ignorant of the duties of their 
 station, of their obligations to their Sovereign, and of their 
 responsibility to their country, are totally unworthy of being 
 favoured with the services of any man of honour who values 
 his own reputation. It is therefore no wonder if the Earl 
 of Durham has resolved upon abandoning the future 
 administration of the affairs of these provinces." And The 
 Montreal Gazette represented the Moderates in the British 
 party ! 
 
 At Quebec Lord Brougham was burnt in effigy to the 
 accompaniment of groans and hisses, and some of the hotter 
 spirits wished to treat Melbourne and other ministers with 
 similar insults. On Wednesday, October 23rd, a great 
 meeting was held at the Quebec Exchange ; Andrew 
 Stuart took the chair, and although Duncombe 1 describes 
 the speeches as bad, there was great enthusiasm. The 
 meeting was called by the Executive Committee of the 
 Constitutional Association of Canada, and was a last 
 attempt to persuade the High Commissioner to remain. 
 Four Resolutions were passed. The first expressed con- 
 fidence in Durham as Governor of British North America, 
 and the meeting's regret at the action of the Imperial 
 Parliament, and at the feeble and inefficient support given 
 by the ministry ; the second regretted that Durham was 
 about to leave Canada at the very moment when he had 
 grasped the cause of the trouble, and when they were 
 
 1 Page 258. 
 
RESIGNATION. 197 
 
 "hoping that the difficulties would be met by some com- 
 prehensive measure calculated to take from the turbulent 
 disaffected the power of using their political rights to the 
 injury of the peaceable inhabitants." The third Resolution 
 declared the legislative union of the Canadas was the only 
 remedy, as the scheme for federating all the British North 
 American colonies would be inadequate and only multiply 
 the present subjects of discord. The final Resolution 
 invited Durham to continue in his post. 
 
 A meeting was also held at Montreal, but under rather 
 different conditions. Adam Thorn was present ; he had 
 joined the staff of Lord Durham, it was well known, and 
 men looked to him as able to give them information of the 
 Governor's real plans. The British of Montreal were feeling 
 dissatisfied with Durham until the news that he was about 
 to resign made them remember what that resignation would 
 mean to them. Their dissatisfaction was due to his 
 presumed hostility to their pet scheme of a legislative union 
 of the two provinces, for in one of the few definite declara- 
 tions of policy he had made in Upper Canada he had 
 expressed himself in favour of a federation of all British 
 North America. Durham had convinced Thom that the 
 proposed union of the two Canadas was hardly probable in 
 view of the unwillingness of the people of Upper Canada, 
 and Thom himself was beginning to realize that if Baldwin 
 and Lafontaine should combine, as they afterwards did, the 
 position of the British at Montreal would not be improved. 
 
 Thorn's appeal to his party that they should support Lord 
 Durham was well received, when he could assure them that 
 the Governor thoroughly accepted the necessity of making 
 Lower Canada British. He followed up his speech at the 
 meeting by a series of letters to the Herald ; perhaps 
 he took upon himself too much in representing that he 
 expressed Lord Durham's views officially, but to the 
 position held by Thom, Lord Durham had now been 
 driven. According to Thorn's letters, the Earl's reluctance 
 to the legislative union arose from his knowledge that it 
 
198 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 would fail to achieve the ends desired ; in Thorn's words, 
 " there are too many Republicans in Upper Canada/' The 
 plan which he asserted that Lord Durham favoured was the 
 one already recommended by Roebuck. To the British, 
 however, it seemed insufficient check upon the French that 
 they should be subordinate only to the Federal Legislature 
 when the Legislative Councils were abolished. They would 
 have preferred Sir Charles Grey's scheme of a fresh 
 partition of Lower Canada. Thorn 1 then announced that 
 the abolition of the Legislative Council was no vital part of 
 the scheme in a letter dated September 29th. 
 
 It was essential to Durham's success that he should 
 create a following for himself among the French, and it 
 was his failure to do so which convinced him that he could 
 serve no useful purpose by remaining in Canada. We must 
 consider the Quebec Resolutions as the result of Thorn's 
 speech and letters, for the case of L. M. Viger, president of 
 the " Banque du Peuple," could only be interpreted to mean 
 that Lord Durham had failed in his object and must now 
 come to terms with the British. The Montreal meeting 
 had declared unanimously for the legislative union, but 
 there was yet a chance that both the British and the 
 French would accept a combination of the schemes of 
 Roebuck and Grey, under which the lower province was to 
 cede the Montreal district to Upper Canada and the eastern 
 counties to New Brunswick. This scheme had been fre- 
 quently advocated by Ellice's newspaper, The London 
 Morning Chronicle, for it would give to Upper Canada the 
 seigneury of Beauharnois. It was impossible, however, to 
 get the French to consent to the dismemberment of Lower 
 Canada, and without their consent the new Lower Canada 
 could only be governed by a military force. The London 
 Times, attacking its rival, said the whole scheme for 
 uprooting French nationality was formed in the interests of 
 Ellice and the Montreal merchants, and perhaps Durham's 
 refusal to acquiesce in the dismemberment scheme without 
 1 Cf. The Spectator ) 1838, p. 1085 ; and Sanders, p. 439. 
 
RESIGNATION. 199 
 
 the consent of the French was the final cause of his breach 
 with Ellice. 1 
 
 To explain why the French refused to have any dealings 
 with Durham needs an account of the case of L. M. Viger. 
 This affair was going on at the same time as the attempts 
 of Lafontaine to secure his trial. Viger had been a member 
 of the Assembly, and became President of Papineau's 
 Banque du Peuple. He was an able man, but somewhat 
 of the type of Craig's opponent, Pierre Bedard. He was 
 no revolutionist, although he was a strong nationalist, but 
 he was arrested in November, 1837, and was confined till 
 Durham's arrival without a trial. No charge could be 
 proved against him, and he stubbornly refused to give the 
 usual bail when the prisoners were released under the 
 ordinance. The period for which Colborne had suspended 
 the Habeas Corpus ended on August 25th, 1838, and 
 because, like his friend Lafontaine, he was refused a trial, 
 he determined to wait till the Habeas Corpus Act was 
 automatically restored. A few days before the 25th Buller 
 called at the prison, and tried to persuade him to give bail; 
 all schemes to win over Lafontaine and Papineau had 
 failed, but Viger would have been almost as useful to 
 Durham, and there is nothing improbable in the state- 
 ment that hopes were held out of Government patronage 
 for the Banque du Peuple. 3 Viger was as obdurate as 
 Lafontaine, and then Buller foolishly tried threats ; Viger's 
 lawyer was informed that his client would have to submit to 
 an ordinance. Viger insisted on applying for a writ of 
 habeas corpus ; the judges took a day to consider the 
 matter, and before it had expired an ordinance was sent to 
 Montreal, under the provisions of which Viger could be 
 retained in prison. 3 Viger then gave way and found bail 
 for 20,000 dollars. Durham had acted within the law, but 
 it was not the way to win the confidence of the French, 
 
 1 Cf. 
 
 * Cf. 
 
 Letter from Ellice to Melbourne, Sanders, p. 438. 
 Cf. Report, p. 26. 
 3 The Spectator, 1838, p. 989. 
 
200 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 and the time was soon to come when they remembered 
 only incidents like the cases of Viger and Lafontaine. 
 
 These digressions have been necessary to give a clear idea 
 of the feeling in Lower Canada at the time of Durham's 
 speech to the Maritime delegates. It is time now to con- 
 sider the effect of Brougham's action on Durham himself. 
 It has been said that the news first reached him on Sep- 
 tember i Qth, in the columns of an American newspaper. 
 His first thought was to resign ; Durham was a passionate 
 man, and smarting under the betrayal he had suffered, he 
 only thought of his personal feelings. Perhaps his reception 
 by the delegates appealed to the nobler side of his character, 
 and it was not until September 25th that he wrote his first 
 letter of resignation. He said that he had relied on two 
 things alone for ultimate success, first the great extent of 
 his powers, and secondly the feeling throughout the colonies 
 that he could rely for support on Her Majesty's Govern- 
 ment. By the proceedings in parliament he had been 
 deprived of both these, and now that his prestige was 
 gone he had no option but to resign. The constant 
 attacks to which he had been subjected in parliament had 
 disposed him to resign earlier, since he had not met with 
 that defence from the ministry to which he felt he was 
 entitled ; but he had determined to struggle on, until he 
 saw in an American newspaper the account of the debate 
 of August 7th, Qth, and roth. He had at present, however, 
 no other information, but he was determined to quit his 
 post at the earliest opportunity. 
 
 On the 26th Durham, Duncombe, and Colonel Grey 
 were starting for an excursion outside Quebec, when they 
 saw the steamer arriving. 1 The two latter went to meet it, 
 and brought the mail bag to Durham in Spencer's Wood. 
 It contained the official notification of the disallowance 
 and of the Bill of Indemnity. Glenelg's dispatch informed 
 the Governor that the law officers of the Crown were ready 
 to accept all the ordinance except the provision applying 
 1 Duncombe, Vol. I., p. 256. 
 
RESIGNATION. 201 
 
 to the exile to Bermuda, but that it had been so severely 
 attacked that the ministers had been most reluctantly com- 
 pelled to advise that Her Majesty should disallow the 
 whole of it. Durham was advised to pass another ordinance 
 subjecting the prisoners to some penalty short of death, if 
 they should return from Bermuda without permission ; he 
 was to announce publicly that Papineau and the fugitives 
 would be arrested and dealt with according to law on a 
 charge of high treason. He was also advised to suspend 
 the Habeas Corpus Act with as much publicity as possible, 
 and the dispatch concluded by assuring him that the 
 ministry would give him all possible support in his arduous 
 duties. Durham knew how much ministerial assurances 
 were worth by this time. 
 
 On the 28th Durham sent his reply to Glenelg's despatch. 
 He ridicules Glenelg's statement that the ministry had 
 done their best for him ; he rightly says that a defeat in 
 the House of Lords, where Melbourne never had a majority, 
 would not have mattered, for it had always attacked him, 
 and Melbourne could surely have counted on the House of 
 Commons for support, and the colonials would not have 
 taken much notice of the vote in the House of Lords. 
 The ministry accepted Brougham's Bill to stop hostile pro- 
 ceedings in the House of Lords, and the Bill of Indemnity 
 is an insult, for it assumes that the prisoners whose lives 
 he had saved would sue him for damages. The demand 
 that he should proclaim the Acts in Canada makes him 
 join in condemning himself. He then ably defends the 
 section of the ordinance which relates to Bermuda ; he 
 knew quite well throughout that he had no power over the 
 prisoners after he had landed them on the Island, but he 
 expected that the Island Legislature or the Imperial Parlia- 
 ment would have passed Acts to complete the ordinance. 1 
 The words authorising Her Majesty to impose restraints 
 on the prisoners at Bermuda were mere surplusage, for 
 unless she already had that power they had no force, and 
 1 C/. ante, p. 186, n. 
 
202 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 did not make the entire instrument containing them illegal. 
 If the ordinance were inoperative through some technical 
 defect, they should have given it effect ; if illegal, they 
 should have made it law. His policy had been approved 
 almost universally, both in Canada and the United States, 
 and its general merits had not been denied even in the 
 Imperial Parliament. 
 
 After stating that henceforth his government of Canada 
 cannot be a success, he attacks Glenelg's proposed sub- 
 stitutes for the ordinance. They are inconsistent and 
 unfair, unless Papineau and Nelson are treated alike ; he 
 refuses to suspend the Habeas Corpus. The sting of the 
 dispatch lies in the tail. He would remain in the country a 
 few weeks longer for the purpose of completing certain 
 measures and inquiries ; the government of those colonies 
 required something more than a knowledge of common 
 and statute law, and he should never regret having wielded 
 his despotic powers in a manner which he was anxious to 
 declare inconsistent with the British Constitution till he 
 learned " what are the constitutional principles that remain 
 in force when a whole Constitution is suspended ; what 
 principles of the British Constitution hold good in a country 
 where the people's money is taken from them without the 
 people's consent ; where representative government is anni- 
 hilated ; where martial law has been the law of the land ; 
 and where the trial by jury exists only to defeat the ends 
 of justice and to provoke the righteous scorn and indignation 
 of the community." 
 
 This dispatch is Durham's real answer to his oppponents, 
 and it is conclusive. He took as his guide Sains populi 
 suprema lex and acted up to it throughout. Before the 
 legal pedant he has no defence, 1 but before everyone else 
 his defence is complete. Had he succeeded in the impos- 
 sible task of appeasing the French and the British alike, 
 no one would have blamed the ordinance. Had he been 
 
 1 See, however, The Spectator for 1838, p. 825, for an analogy 
 between the cases of John Lilburne and JNelson. 
 
RESIGNATION. 203 
 
 a mere politician, and chosen to support the British at their 
 own price the legislative union of the Canadas he might 
 have returned in triumph, but left behind a legacy of French 
 hatred for the Empire. He took his stand on true as 
 opposed to legal justice, and he fell because chance had it 
 that the two great political parties of England were of 
 equal strength, and an able unforgiving lawyer was at 
 once the enemy of Durham and of the ministry who 
 appointed him. Durham might have won cheap glory, 
 and possibly the allegiance of a Leader and a Roebuck, by 
 denouncing only the wrongs of the French. They had 
 wrongs, it is true, but the British of Montreal had wrongs 
 also, and Durham the Radical dared to say that oppression 
 even by a democracy was a crime. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 THE RETURN TO ENGLAND. 
 
 ALTHOUGH Durham had announced to the delegates from 
 the Maritime Provinces his intention of returning to England, 
 men still hoped that he could be persuaded to reconsider 
 his decision. According to Torrens, 1 Charles Buller talked 
 him over, and he wrote privately as though he might still 
 be coaxed to stay for the sake of the public service. That 
 Buller did his best to prevent Durham from going home 
 is borne out by another circumstance, and we can be sure 
 that Slingsby Duncombe and the others with whom he 
 had frequent conversations about this time supported 
 Buller. Buller's intimacy with Lafontaine and Morin has 
 been already noticed, and also the many attempts he made, 
 in company with Wakefield, to enlist a party among the 
 French on Durham's side. The ordinance had failed ; 
 Papineau was timid, and Lafontaine and Viger obstinate; 
 but one more leader remained, A. N. Morin, whose 
 influence was greatest in Quebec. When the British of 
 Canada burned Lord Brougham in effigy, and held meet- 
 ings calling upon Lord Durham to remain, and advocating 
 outright the reunion of the Canadas, the French, now some- 
 what recovered from the shock of disaster, actually planned 
 a meeting at St. Roch, a district of Quebec. It was known 
 that this meeting was to thank Lord Brougham for his 
 action, and trouble was feared. 2 Buller applied to Morin 
 as the local leader, and asked him to use his influence 
 so as to secure the calling of a meeting of French in support 
 of the ordinance, or, if that could not be, at any rate to 
 
 1 Vol. II., p. 268. 
 Cf. Theller, Vol. II., p. 151 ; and Garneau, Vol. II., p. 468. 
 
THE RETURN TO ENGLAND. 205 
 
 prevent the St. Roch meeting from being held ; Morin 
 refused to interfere, and the meeting was held. Happily 
 the presence of a large force of the new Quebec police and 
 of the troops of the line prevented the threatened riot ; 
 but it was clear that if Lord Durham was to remain it 
 could not be at the request of the French. 
 
 There was nothing left now but to publish the notice of 
 the disallowance of the ordinance, and to prepare for the 
 return journey. 1 Durham was ill both in mind and in body, 
 for the news brought in by spies of the coming rebellion 
 was disquieting. He had a visit from Sir George Arthur 
 in October, who came to concert measures against the 
 invaders. Arthur, on his return to Toronto, published a 
 proclamation announcing the coming invasion, and stating 
 that spies had betrayed the enemy's plans, and they would 
 find little support in Upper Canada. Nothing but Durham's 
 state of health can account for his action when, in putting 
 forth his proclamation of October gth, he committed a 
 blunder which deprived him of the sympathy of many in 
 England. It was probably his own composition, and it is 
 the work of a man labouring under a heavy disappointment 
 and the consciousness of an unmerited betrayal. It was 
 described in England as an appeal to the colonists against 
 the Mother Country, and resented accordingly. To take 
 this view simply is to be most unjust to Durham ; it was the 
 necessary defence of a Radical for having committed appar- 
 ently illiberal actions. If Durham felt himself compelled 
 to break silence at all, he could not have said less, but a man 
 of greater self-control would have expressed it differently. 
 
 He first proclaimed the Act of Indemnity and the 
 disallowance of the ordinance, and then addressing " the 
 people of British North America," he said that he did not 
 approve of the secrecy which so frequently surrounded 
 the motives of various acts of State. He could trust 
 the colonists, and after his first proclamation in which 
 
 1 Melbourne's letter (see ante^ p. 189) seems to have reached Durham 
 on September 29th. Cf. Duncombe, Vol. L, p. 257. 
 
206 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 he announced that he had both the will and the power to 
 redress all grievances, he felt himself compelled to explain 
 why he was now returning home. He had accepted the 
 government of British North America with a full know- 
 ledge of the difficulties of the post, and he had not shrunk 
 from assuming the " awful responsibility " of powers which 
 were " in the strictest sense of the word despotic." He 
 acted as though the ordinary reign of law in Canada 
 had been abolished, the more readily because men had 
 long ceased to have any respect for or confidence in the 
 administration of justice there. 
 
 He had one object in view to elevate the province into 
 a thoroughly British character, and to win support for the 
 new order of things by the offer of a more extensive enjoy- 
 ment of free and responsible government, under which men 
 could " merge the petty jealousies of a small community 
 and the odious animosities of origin in the higher feelings 
 of a nobler and more comprehensive nationality." 
 
 He felt that to carry out these aims he needed both legal 
 and moral force, and he believed that his commission 
 armed him with all the necessary legal powers, while at 
 the same time he trusted that party feeling in England 
 would for once be stilled in consideration of the importance 
 to the Empire of his success. 
 
 "In these just expectations I have been painfully dis- 
 appointed. From the very commencement of my task, 
 the minutest details of my administration have been 
 exposed to incessant criticism, in a spirit which has evinced 
 an entire ignorance of the state of this country, and of 
 the only mode in which the supremacy of the British 
 Crown can here be upheld and exercised. Those who 
 have in the British Legislature systematically depreciated 
 my powers, and the ministers of the Crown by their tacit 
 acquiescence therein, have produced the effect of making 
 it too clear that my authority is inadequate for the emer- 
 gency which called it into existence. At length an act of 
 my government, the first and most important, which was 
 
THE RETURN TO ENGLAND. 207 
 
 brought under the notice of the authorities at home, has 
 been annulled, and the entire policy of which that act was 
 a small though essential part has thus been defeated." 
 
 The disposal of the political prisoners was from the first 
 a matter foreign to his mission. The question ought to 
 have been settled before his arrival ; but as his first task 
 was to allay irritation, and as there was no confidence in 
 the ordinary tribunals of justice, he was glad to be able to 
 avoid harsh measures by acting as he had done, since the 
 prisoners had made a confession of guilt. 
 
 It is too late now to consider whether this was the only 
 way, but even those who had at first attacked it had come 
 to approve of it, and the views of the Americans were 
 shown by the cessation of their attempts to disturb the 
 Canadas. Even at home the rectitude of his policy was 
 admitted, and the ordinance had only been attacked on 
 technical grounds ; if he had not had the power he 
 attempted to exercise, he ought to have had it. 
 
 He was quite aware that the section in the ordinance 
 relating to Bermuda was quite inoperative, but the words 
 were inserted to relieve the prisoners of their apprehension 
 as to detention in a convict settlement, 1 and he expected 
 the co-operation of the Imperial Government to render 
 effective his own enactment, as he did not think that it 
 would allow technical errors to invalidate an ordinance so 
 necessary for the peace and good government of British 
 North America. 2 
 
 This small aid had not been extended to him even for 
 this great object ; and the usefulness of his delegated 
 power expired with the loss of that support from the 
 supreme authority which alone could sustain it. His plans 
 were too far-reaching and revolutionary to be carried out 
 with success by weakened hands that had ineffectually 
 
 1 To which it seems Durham had power to commit them. 
 
 2 In the original this paragraph is an almost verbatim copy of 
 the parallel passage in his dispatch of September 28th. Cf. p. 201, 
 ante. 
 
208 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 essayed but a little more than the ordinary vigour of the 
 police of troubled times. 
 
 How could he provide against the immediate effects of 
 the disallowance of the ordinance ? He had taken upon 
 himself to punish and had left it to Her Majesty to 
 amnesty. As the ordinance had been disallowed and the 
 proclamation of amnesty confirmed, there remained no 
 obstacle to the return of those prisoners who had confessed 
 their guilt 1 ; for he refused to re-enact the ordinance under 
 the disguise of an alteration in the scene of banishment, or 
 to place the personal liberty of every man at the mercy of 
 the Government by a needless suspension of the Habeas 
 Corpus merely to exercise the influence of a vague terror 
 over a few individuals. 2 
 
 " In these painful and conflicting circumstances, it is 
 far better that I should at once and distinctly announce 
 my intention of desisting from the vain attempt to carry 
 my policy and system of administration into effect with 
 such inadequate and restricted means. If the peace of 
 Lower Canada is to be again menaced, it is necessary that 
 the Government should be able to reckon on a more 
 cordial and vigorous support at home than has been 
 accorded to me. No good tnat may not be expected from 
 any other Government in Lower Canada can be obtained 
 by my continuing to wield extraordinary legal powers of 
 which the moral lorce and consideration are gone." 
 
 They could easily conceive his Disappointment at having 
 to leave the province with his hopes of reforming its crying 
 abuses unfulfilled. He had planned to confer on them 
 municipal institutions, to establish a system of education, 
 to reform the laws relating to commerce and real property, 
 
 1 On October i$ih Louis Perrault, one of the fugitives, returned to 
 Quebec. 
 
 2 This was not written in pique, according to Miss Martineau, but 
 the decision to allow the exiles to return was taken at a Council 
 meeting, with a full knowledge of the charge that would be made. 
 Durham did not wish to make "martyrs" of Nelson & Co. in the 
 eyes of the Americans. 
 
THE RETURN TO ENGLAND. 209 
 
 and to introduce a pure and competent administration of 
 justice. Above all he was grieved to be thus forced to 
 abandon the realization of such large and solid schemes of 
 colonisation and improvement as would connect the 
 distant portions of these extensive colonies and lay 
 open the unwrought treasures of the wilderness to the 
 wants of British industry and to the energy of British 
 enterprise. 
 
 He had laboured much for these objects and had 
 received the most active, zealous and efficient co-operation 
 from the able and enlightened persons who were associates 
 with him in that great undertaking. Their exertions 
 would not could not be thrown away. The information 
 they had acquired, although not as yet fit for the purpose 
 of immediate legislation, would contribute to a juster view 
 of the resources, wants, and interests of the colonies than 
 had as yet prevailed in the Mother Country. To complete 
 and render available those materials for future legislation 
 was an important part of his work as High Commissioner, 
 which he had yet to do. 
 
 " I shall also be prepared at the proper period to suggest 
 the constitution of a form of government for Her Majesty's 
 dominions on this continent, which may restore to the 
 people of Lower Canada all the advantages of a representa- 
 tive system unaccompanied by the evils that have hitherto 
 proceeded from the unnatural conflicts of parties, which 
 may safely supply any deficiencies existing in the Govern- 
 ments of the other colonies, and which may produce 
 throughout British America a state of contented allegiance, 
 founded, as colonial allegiance ever must be, on a sense of 
 obligation to the parent State." 
 
 He fervently hoped that his usefulness to the colonists 
 would not cease when he resigned his various commissions. 
 As a peer in parliament the special knowledge he had 
 acquired would be as useful as it was essential in framing 
 measures affecting the provinces. Too often the legislators 
 were ignorant of the situation for which they were supposed 
 
 S.G.C. P 
 
210 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 to be making provision, but he hoped that he would be 
 able to assist in preparing measures which would not only 
 secure their allegiance to the British Crown, but would also 
 save them from the evils to which they were subjected by 
 every change in the fluctuating policy of distant and 
 successive administrations. 
 
 This comparatively full account of Lord Durham's final 
 proclamation has been given to provide ah opportunity of 
 judging how far it really merits the all but universal con- 
 demnation it received in England. So far from being 
 disastrous to the Imperial interest it was beneficial, for it 
 prevented the British in their despair from refusing to 
 trust any longer to the Imperial Government. Moreover, 
 by definitely declaring, as it does, against the legislative 
 union of the two Canadas, it secured the neutrality of 
 Lafontaine's party in the coming struggle. The construc- 
 tive part of the proclamation is very interesting, especially 
 in view of the modifications which are to be seen in the 
 Report itself. All that can be said against Durham's 
 reference to the treatment he received from Melbourne and 
 Brougham, apart from the question of taste, is that it was 
 calculated to render more difficult the task of his 
 successor. However, the justness of Durham's complaint 
 cannot be disputed, and as a matter of fact it did not 
 increase the difficulties of Poulett Thompson's work ; both 
 British and French were so jealous of each other that they 
 allowed the strong man to do as he pleased, especially 
 when he came backed by Durham's approval. 
 
 Colborne had been requested by Glenelg to remain in 
 Canada by a note addressed to him on the same day as he 
 sent off his first announcement to Durham of the pro- 
 ceedings in parliament. 1 It was fortunate for the Empire 
 that Colborne did remain and that Durham was patriot 
 enough to transfer all real authority into his hands, as 
 Gosford had done in 1837. Information as to the coming 
 
 1 The Commission appointing him Durham's successor appeared in 
 the Gazette of December i4th. 
 
THE RETURN TO ENGLAND. 211 
 
 outbreak grew more and more definite. Men were seen 
 drilling not far from Quebec and Montreal, and the British 
 newspapers teemed with rumours of preparations on the 
 part of the French ; before Durham left an iron nine- 
 pounder gun was captured in a French peasant's cart at 
 Moore's Corner, close to the American frontier. 1 Arthur 
 had brought the news which he had derived from his spies 
 as to the preparations of the Hunter Lodges, and it was 
 decided that Durham should leave Quebec about October 
 2oth and return to England by way of Washington. He 
 was very popular in the United States, and he hoped by 
 his intervention to be able to support Fox, the British 
 representative, and to prevail upon President Van Buren 
 to calm the excitement among the frontier population. 
 That this visit to Washington was not abandoned on 
 account of the threats of the Hunter Lodges scarcely 
 requires assertion. Durham decided to return to England 
 direct because the danger of a general outbreak in Lower 
 Canada was threatening, and because the British of Upper 
 Canada as well as those of Lower Canada were displaying 
 little eagerness to defend the Government. Indeed, so 
 early as September nth The Montreal Herald had 
 demanded justice on the rebels, or, as an alternative, 
 peaceful separation from the Mother Country, and at a 
 later date it decisively declared against federation, stating 
 that if the Imperial Government enforced it, rebellion 
 would ensue ; if it were brought about voluntarily, there 
 would be endless bickerings between the members. It is 
 clear from Durham's proclamation of October 9th that he 
 still had hopes of being able to carry the necessary 
 measures through the Imperial Parliament, and he 
 probably thought that the sooner he settled the question 
 between himself and the ministry the better it would be 
 for the colonists. 
 
 Although he had determined to resign, he was not 
 forgetful of his duties. In one despatch to Glenelg he 
 1 Bonnycastle : " Canada as it Was," Vol. II., p. 144. 
 
 P 2 
 
212 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 brought forward the case of the American squatters in the 
 Eastern Townships and advised that their claims should be 
 recognised ; in another he pleads for Colborne's troops, 
 out of whose scanty pay deductions were being made to 
 cover the cost of the extra garments which were needed in 
 the cold Canadian winter. On October 20th 1 Theller and 
 Dodge, two of the American prisoners, escaped from 
 Quebec aided by sympathisers among the French inhabi- 
 tants ; it was a sign of the increasing boldness of the 
 discontented. On the 2Oth Wakefield and Captain Dillon, 
 one of the aides-de-camp, left for England, via New York, 
 bearing the news of Durham's approaching return without 
 permission. On the 2gth, at the old chateau, a farewell 
 dinner was given to Durham, by the Guards, under Sir 
 James Macdonnell. About a hundred sat down, and the 
 greatest unanimity prevailed. As the wine circulated, 
 speeches were made most flattering to Durham, but 
 scarcely consonant with military discipline. Durham in 
 reply insisted that the most cordial understanding had 
 always existed between himself and Sir John Colborne ; he 
 had perfect confidence in him, both as a civil and as a 
 military administrator. He would have been glad to 
 remain in Canada to serve as a volunteer under Sir John 
 did he not think he could do more good in the Imperial 
 Parliament. On the 3<Dth Durham was unwell again ; 
 perhaps the news Colborne brought that day from 
 Montreal may account for it. 
 
 On Thursday, November 1st, Durham embarked on the 
 Inconstant frigate, the only one available. Snow had 
 fallen heavily the night before and it was bitterly cold. 
 Despite this, 2 3,000 of the most respectable inhabitants 
 of Quebec accompanied him to the ship, including the 
 societies of St. George, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick. 
 
 1 See Theller: "Canada in 1837-38"; and Carrier :" Les Evdnements 
 de 1837-38." 
 
 a Garnett: "Life of E. G. Wakefield," p. 173; and "Slingsby 
 Duncombe," Vol. I., p. 265. 
 
THE RETURN TO ENGLAND. 213 
 
 Durham rode down from the Castle, between two lines of 
 Guards ; Lady Durham was in an open carriage, and there 
 were also present Sir John Colborne and Sir James 
 Macdonnell. Amid the cheers of the crowd and the 
 thunder of guns from the city, the citadel, and the fleet, 
 the Inconstant got under way at half-past four. She 
 was towed by the Canada and the Lumber -Merchant 
 steamer to St. Patrick's Hole, v about six miles down 
 stream from Quebec. The British desired to accompany 
 as far as possible the Governor upon whom all their hopes 
 now rested. Duncombe tells us how they did not forbear 
 to express their fears that long before the Inconstant 
 reached Plymouth, they would be struggling for their lives. 
 It is perhaps significant of Durham's change of feeling 
 that one of his last acts was to appoint Sir James Stuart, 
 Chief Justice of Quebec. 1 
 
 The French held sullenly aloof from the pageant, as they 
 had from the previous meetings in Durham's favour. They 
 scarcely knew whether they were glad he had gone, but 
 for the majority of them, at least, the future held no hope. 
 Only a few enthusiasts and hot-heads believed in the 
 possibility of Nelson's success against the veteran Colborne. 
 In Upper Canada men's feelings were divided. A few 
 shared Draper's belief that Lord Durham woulc( view the 
 situation in Upper Canada as a statesman and not as a 
 Radical politician; but the majority were indifferent to 
 everything. While at sea, on November loth, Durham 
 wrote a dispatch to Glenelg with the news that the 
 militia of Upper Canada were showing little inclination 
 to volunteer for the defence of a province which they 
 believed would be surrendered to the United States in the 
 near future. Durham insisted that there was no intention 
 of abandoning the colonists, and his assurance was accepted 
 by many. Others, who had little love for the ruling 
 powers, refused to accept deliverance from the Hunter 
 
 1 Stuart had been one of the officials attacked by the Pa ineauists, 
 and he had been suspended from office. 
 
2i 4 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Lodges, and Arthur, thanks to his spies, had little difficulty 
 in beating the invaders in detail. 
 
 While Durham had been making the final arrangements 
 for his departure, Colborne had taken steps to nip in the 
 bud the efforts of Nelson. Early in October a letter was 
 sent to The Morning Chronicle 1 from Quebec, in which it 
 was announced that the Hunters could count on 40,000 
 men for the invasion of Canada. Durham himself, in a 
 dispatch dated October 2Oth, informed Glenelg of the 
 imminence of the rising, and it was not known then that 
 the French could count on no support from the Hunters. 
 Another letter from St. John's, in the heart of the Richelieu 
 district, dated October nth, told of the visible prepara- 
 tions of the Canadians and of the terror of the English at 
 Odelltown and La Colle. The province was divided into 
 military districts, and the officers in command were so 
 watchful that it was all but impossible to concert plans for 
 a rising. On October I5th Colborne sent the ist Dragoon 
 Guards under Colonel Cathcart to garrison Chambly. By 
 this movement he hoped to overawe the troublesome "six 
 counties." All leave to officers was stopped, and the super- 
 numeraries were forbidden to leave Canada. Colborne 
 informed the United States Government of the movements 
 of the Hunter Lodges, and he sent the men-of-war in the 
 river for all the troops which were available at the 
 American stations. Notice was given that volunteers 
 would be called out immediately and Martial Law pro- 
 claimed on the first symptom of disaffection. 
 
 Colborne's precautions were none too many for the 
 occasion. Scarcely had Durham left the St. Lawrence 
 than Dr. Robert Nelson and his friends began to move. 
 At the head of 4,000 habitants, they seized a little place 
 called Napierville, while a second party attacked the house 
 of a Mr. Brown at Beauharnois and captured young Ellice, 
 Durham's ex-secretary, and several of his friends. The 
 loyalists at La Prairie got ten minutes' notice to leave the 
 1 See issue of November 2ist, 1838. 
 
THE RETURN TO ENGLAND. 215 
 
 village. What the new rising aimed at seems from 
 Nelson's proclamations to have been a French Canadian 
 peasant-republic, but it never had any chance of success. 
 The attack had been planned to take place at Montreal on 
 the Sunday, when it was expected that all the troops 
 would be at church and without arms. Colborne's vigilance 
 had made this impossible, and as there was no further 
 time to devise a satisfactory plan, the rebels were beaten 
 in detail ; one party of them, indeed, were captured and 
 delivered up by a body of loyalist Iroquois, from whom 
 they had attempted to obtain arms. 
 
 Immediately he got wind of the rebellion Colborne 
 called out the volunteers and declared Martial Law. The 
 volunteers made a series of domiciliary visits to search for 
 arms, and all outlets from the city were closed. It was 
 remarked that few men were to be found, but L. M. Viger, 
 President of the People's Bank, D. B. Viger, one of 
 Papineau's agents in England and an ex-Legislative 
 Councillor, together with others of less note, were arrested. 
 The volunteers were ruthless, and determined that the 
 question as to who should rule in Lower Canada should 
 this time be settled once and for all. 
 
 Colborne had arrived at Montreal on the 4th of November, 
 and issued a proclamation against the Patriots, but 
 before he could set his troops in motion, the rising gave 
 signs of collapsing. Although a large number of the 
 habitants were out between the 3rd and the 6th, they 
 could find no arms at the depots to which they were 
 directed, and as the weather was bad they began to return 
 home in disgust. The affair was no better managed than 
 in the preceding winter, but Colborne took no risks. He 
 ordered the corps under Macdonnell and Clitherow to 
 march to L'Acadie and St. John's so as to be ready to 
 attack Napierviile on the pth. Nelson heard of this, and 
 as the roads were bad, succeeded in evacuating the place 
 a few hours before the troops entered it on the morning 
 of the roth. Nelson's only plan was to wait for a more 
 
216 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 favourable opportunity, and he had to fight for his retreat. 
 The loyalists of the neighbourhood, appeased by Durham's 
 politic recognition of the rights of the squatters, had 
 resisted all Nelson's efforts to secure arms and ammunition 
 from across the frontier. Led by Colonel Naylor, whom 
 Colborne had sent to inform them of his plans, the loyalists 
 threw themselves into the church at Odelltown, and after 
 attacking them with nine hundred men on his retreat from 
 Napierville, Nelson himself retired across the frontier 
 beaten. 
 
 The event in Beauharnois was not dissimilar. The 
 regular troops of the /ist Regiment and the Glengarry 
 Highland Militia had little difficulty in scattering the half- 
 armed peasantry. Young Ellice and his friends, who had 
 been well treated, were released by their captors in a hurry 
 to escape, and by the i$th the remnant of the rebels had 
 surrendered. For the second time the French had 
 appealed to the sword and had been vanquished. On the 
 I4th and I5th the prisoners from La Prairie and Odelltown 
 were brought to Montreal. Of one of them, La Martine, 
 a French officer who had been captured at Odelltown, The 
 Montreal Herald of November i$th said, " He deserves 
 the death of a brigand, and we trust he will meet it." 
 The actions of the volunteers were not less ruthless than 
 their words. They are best described by the following 
 quotation from The Montreal Herald of November I3th: 
 " On Sunday evening the whole of the back country about 
 La Prairie presented the awful spectacle of one vast sheet 
 of lurid flame, and it is reported that not a single house 
 has been left standing. God only knows what is to become 
 of the surviving Canadians and their wives and families 
 during the approaching winter, as nothing but starvation 
 from hunger stares them in the face. It is melancholy to 
 reflect on such awful consequences of rebellion and the 
 irretrievable ruin of so many human beings, whether 
 innocent or guilty. Still, the supremacy of the laws must 
 be maintained inviolate, the integrity of the Empire must 
 
THE RETURN TO ENGLAND. 217 
 
 be asserted, peace and prosperity must be secured to 
 British subjects, even at the expense of the entire ' Nation 
 Canadienne.' . . . The history of the past proves that 
 nothing but sweeping them from the earth and laying 
 their habitations in the dust will prevent renewed rebellions 
 south of the St. Lawrence or renewed invasions from the 
 Americans." 
 
 By November I2th Colborne could announce to 
 Buchanan, the British Consul at New York, that the 
 rebellion was put down, and by November i8th the arrival 
 of the nth and 65th Regiments at Quebec had made the 
 cause of the rebels hopeless. By virtue of an ordinance 
 passed by his special Council, Colborne erected a tribunal 
 for trying the prisoners. 1 Some were hanged, and others 
 transported to the Australian penal settlements. En- 
 couraged by the disavowal of DurhanVs ordinance, Elz^ar 
 Bedard, now judge at Three Rivers, granted a habeas 
 corpus writ to test the question of the legality of 
 Colborne's acts, but the old soldier simply suspended 
 Bedard from office, and the French sullenly acquiesced. 
 The presence of the military and the zeal of the volunteers 
 prevented any further attempts at insurrection in Lower 
 Canada. 
 
 It is not strictly correct to speak of a second rebellion in 
 connection with Upper Canada ; the only hostilities there 
 were the work of American brigands sent by the Hunters. 
 Arthur was quite aware of the plans of the latter, and was 
 taking measures to complete the embodiment of 13,000 
 militia for eighteen months, when a force of about 500 of 
 the Patriot troops, mostly Americans, some mere boys, 
 managed to land near Prescott, a Canadian town opposite 
 to Ogdensburgh, from which they had sailed. There was 
 a miniature naval battle between the Patriot steamer 
 United States and the small Government armed steamer 
 Experiment, and this was followed by a skirmish on shore 
 between the Patriots and a force of regulars and militia. 
 1 See L. O. David : " Les Patriotes de 1837-38." 
 
218 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 The latter forced their opponents into some stone buildings 
 outside the town, while at the same time a second force 
 under Captain Sandom, of the Royal Navy, prevented help 
 being sent from the American side. The Patriots 
 crossed on November I2th, and held their posts till the 
 1 6th ; no help came from Upper Canada, much to their 
 surprise, and on the i6th Colonel Dundas arrived at Prescott 
 with four companies of the 83rd Regiment and some 
 artillery. After a fierce bombardment the first stronghold 
 was stormed, and those of the defenders who were not 
 captured were glad to escape back across the river. The 
 people who held the second extemporised fort a wind- 
 millthereupon surrendered. Eighty-seven unwounded 
 and sixteen wounded prisoners were taken, together with 
 three pieces of artillery and some small arms. The 
 Government troops lost forty-five killed and wounded. 
 
 There was great excitement on the American frontier 
 at this defeat, for the Canadians were arming, and 
 reprisals were feared. Petitions were sent from the 
 American cities, asking for mercy on the misguided men 
 who had been deceived as to the true state of feeling in 
 Upper Canada. Van Buren, the President, issued a 
 proclamation of warning on November 2ist, in which he 
 stated that those who interfered in Upper Canada must 
 not expect support. On November 24th a Court Martial 
 was opened at Kingston for the trial of the prisoners. 
 This time there was no hope of mercy, for men of all 
 opinions in Upper Canada condemned the attack on 
 Prescott. Three men were hanged besides the leader, a Pole 
 named Von Schoultz. He is variously described as a mere 
 adventurer and a pathetic hero who was deceived by others. 
 A curious rumour was mentioned by The Spectator that the 
 " hero " was merely a spy in the service of the Czar of 
 Russia, and it is a fact that soon afterwards the Russian 
 Consul at Boston was arrested by the authorities of Lower 
 Canada. 
 
 Unwilling to give up their plans, the Hunters dis- 
 
THE RETURN TO ENGLAND. 219 
 
 patched a second force, which landed near Sandwich, in 
 the extreme west of Upper Canada, on December 4th. 
 They burned the Thames steamboat, set fire to the 
 barracks, and thereby caused two militiamen to be burnt 
 alive ; after committing sundry murders, and in one case 
 that of a military surgeon, Dr. Hume mutilating the 
 body, they offered the feeblest possible resistance to a body 
 of militia under Colonel Prince. The militia lost two 
 killed and two wounded, while of the invaders twenty-six 
 were slain and twenty-five captured. The Canadians had 
 been stung into a desire to punish so wanton an attack. 
 Five of the prisoners shared the fate of Von Schoultz, for 
 no plea of ignorance could be urged in their favour. 
 When the news was carried to the Maritime Provinces, 
 votes of men and money were made to repel the invaders. 
 Arthur had no trouble with the reformers of Upper Canada, 
 while at the same time he had the enthusiastic support of 
 the loyalists and Tories, and it is interesting to notice 
 that a loyal address was presented to him by those few 
 French Canadians who were at that time living in the 
 upper province. 
 
 Following Head's example, Arthur summoned the 
 Assembly to meet. The Assembly and the Council, so 
 far from being, as was said, both Tory, quarrelled inces- 
 santly, and the latter negatived many of the former's 
 measures. The question of the clergy reserves again 
 caused disagreement, and when Lord Durham's Report was 
 issued in February, 1838, its proposals were vigorously 
 debated. The proposed union of the Canadas was 
 adversely canvassed in the Assembly, but the scheme to 
 send a commissioner to England on the subject was 
 opposed by the Council, A committee of the Assembly 
 drew up, under Hagerman's direction, a vigorous attack 
 on the Report, but this in turn was attacked as vigorously 
 by Francis Hincks, then editor of The Examiner -, in a 
 pamphlet. Several members of the House characterised 
 the Report as "full of inaccuracies, mis-statements, and even 
 
220 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 positive falsehoods." After much debate the Assembly 
 adopted an address to the Queen. The tone was loyal, 
 but they made it quite clear that the old system of colonial 
 administration must end. On May nth Arthur prorogued 
 the Assembly. Two of its Acts are worthy of mention : 
 the first authorised the Government to dispose of its stocks 
 in the Bank of Upper Canada, the second enabled 
 the Government to buy out the private shareholders of 
 the Welland Canal, giving them in payment debentures 
 redeemable in twenty years at a graduated rate of yearly 
 interest. Although the banks of Upper Canada resumed 
 specie payments on August ist, the colony was actually 
 bankrupt, and owed an enormous debt to Barings. This 
 must be remembered when seeking a cause for its final 
 acceptance of Poulett Thompson's scheme. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 LORD DURHAM'S RECEPTION IN ENGLAND. 
 
 ALTHOUGH Melbourne, in his letter to Durham announcing 
 the disallowance of the ordinance, professed to believe 
 that it would only encourage the High Commissioner to 
 stick to his task the more, he really held a very different 
 opinion. Writing to Lord John Russell on August 25th, 
 he said: " Durham will either throw up at once, or he will 
 hurry his measures very much, which indeed he was other- 
 wise inclined to do, and then insist upon coming home 
 immediately. He will concoct a general arrangement by 
 the end of October, send it home, follow it himself, boast 
 of the effect he produced while there, and, if it is thrown 
 out, will afterwards say it is all owing to the manner in 
 which he has been treated in saying which he will have a 
 good deal of colour, if not of truth." 1 This was certainly a 
 remarkably correct anticipation of how Lord Durham did 
 act, if one looked at his resignation from Melbourne's point 
 of view. Nothing, however, could be more unfair. Durham 
 did not resign in a fit of pique, but because he realized, 
 quite correctly, that he could be of no more use in Canada. 
 His authority had been slowly undermined in the eyes of 
 the French by the repeated attacks upon him in parliament. 
 On account of these attacks Lafontaine listened to Roebuck 
 and refused to make terms with Durham. Had the latter 
 remained in Canada, he would only have hampered 
 Colborne during the struggle which both clearly foresaw, 
 while he certainly was of the greatest use to Poulett 
 Thompson and the Government in England. 
 
 The people of England, as a rule, sympathised with 
 
 1 Sanders, p. 432. 
 
222 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Durham during the whole of August, and in fact until the 
 news of the final proclamation of October gth came in 
 November. The newspapers of every shade of opinion 
 attacked the Government more or less openly for betray- 
 ing Durham. The Morning Chronicle was furious, and 
 even The Times, although supporting Brougham's interpre- 
 tations of the ordinance, attacked the ministry for their 
 conduct in language curiously like that of The Montreal 
 Gazette: "True to their base and selfish instincts, the 
 time-serving Whigs, in deference to whom the noble Earl 
 had at great personal sacrifice placed himself in the van of 
 their Canadian conflict, have at the first shot deserted, 
 dishonoured, and dismissed him. It is in vain to pretend 
 that their conduct towards Lord Durham has been other- 
 wise than we have now described it ; nor on learning the 
 public affront which they have now put upon him by advis- 
 ing Her Majesty to disallow his proceedings, is it possible 
 that his lordship can retain their commission for a single 
 day ; unless, indeed, that proud and sensitive spirit, hereto- 
 fore reported as the very model of sensitive honour, shall 
 now be so abased by contumely as to submit ignominiously 
 to those freedoms with his character and coronet which 
 formerly he would have perilled his life to resent." 1 
 
 Allowance must be made for party feelings, but even 
 so the view of The Times expressed that taken by the 
 ordinary man. Melbourne, however, had no wish for 
 Durham's resignation, and would have been pleased had 
 he found it possible to remain in Canada. That Durham's 
 private correspondence bore out this hope seems evident. 2 
 On October i8th the dispatches of September 26th and 
 28th reached Melbourne at Windsor. Both he and Spring 
 Rice, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, recognised the 
 ability with which the Governor-General presented his 
 case. Melbourne met Glenelg and Rice in London at 
 once, and at a Cabinet meeting on the iQth the situation 
 
 1 Leading article for August 28th, 1838. 
 
 2 Torrens, Vol. II., p. 268. 
 
LORD DURHAM'S RECEPTION. 223 
 
 was talked over. The dispatches were compared with the 
 tone of Durham's private letters, and Glenelg, probably 
 assisted by the others, drew up an answer to Durham's 
 defence. Lansdowne had written on October i8th to Lord 
 Melbourne on receiving the news. He was one of the few 
 men who had ventured to defend Durham, and he now 
 advised that no step should be taken until they heard from 
 Durham again. " What wounded vanity had done, grati- 
 fied vanity might undo, and he should not consider it quite 
 off the cards that the address of the inhabitants, if 
 generally signed and urgently pressed, might induce him 
 so far to reconsider his determination as to delay at all 
 events his departure till he heard from England." Glenelg 
 and Melbourne both had unbounded confidence in Lans- 
 downe's sagacity, and the despatch to Durham was drawn 
 up on the expectation that only sufficient pressure was 
 needed. Glenelg admitted that the Earl had cause for 
 complaint, but entreated him on public grounds to recon- 
 sider his decision. 
 
 Meanwhile an intrigue to oust Glenelg from his post 
 was going on within the Cabinet. The Colonial Secretary 
 was obviously too weak a man for his post, and his health 
 was severely strained by the death of his brother, Sir 
 Robert Grant. Other rearrangements of portfolios were 
 also discussed to strengthen the ministry, but it was as 
 difficult to secure the resignation of the discarded officials 
 as it was to satisfy the demands of would-be successors. 
 On October i8th Russell advised that Glenelg should be 
 asked to accept the office of Auditor of the Exchequer, a 
 rich but uninfluential post for which his unimpeachable 
 integrity and his scanty means both fitted him. Melbourne 
 agreed to this proposal, but it was necessary to secure 
 Glenelg's consent, and he shrank from broaching the 
 subject so soon after the death of the Colonial Secretary's 
 brother. Melbourne's momentary sympathy with Durham, 
 however, was passing away, for he found he would have less 
 difficulty than he thought in filling his place. He had 
 
224 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 directed Glenelg to have Durham's dispatches copied as 
 quickly as possible so that they could be fairly considered, 
 and not only had Colborne written to accept the temporary 
 command in Canada, but offers had also come from 
 the Marquis of Normanby, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, 
 and from several others, to undertake Durham's post. 
 Normanby and Morpeth, the Irish Secretary, did not agree, 
 and Russell wished to see Morpeth in the Cabinet. To 
 remove both together seemed an admirable plan, especially 
 as Normanby had won golden opinions in Ireland, and it 
 was felt that the whole policy hitherto pursued towards 
 Canada must be altered. 
 
 Melbourne had carefully perused the dispatch of Sep- 
 tember 28th, and it was become common property that 
 Durham's private letters laid the major portion of the 
 blame on the Prime Minister. Writing to Russell on 
 October 2 ist, he professes himself " unable to understand 
 the terror that Durham inspires. Everybody has always 
 been afraid of him. They seemed to him to fear him more 
 than Brougham.'* It was arranged that Glenelg should 
 draw up a fresh dispatch to Durham, the tone of which was 
 influenced by Normanby and Morpeth. The latter hoped 
 that there " would be no truckling to Durham ; " l and 
 Melbourne in a letter to Russell on October 26th said: 
 " Now Durham has so run at me in those letters of his and 
 I dislike him so much that there is no course would please 
 me so well as setting him at defiance ; but when I consider 
 the state of the colony, and the feeling of the English party 
 now rallying round him, and when I recollect that I am 
 accused of not having supported him, I feel it to be 
 absolutely necessary that we should do nothing to prevent 
 his returning or to facilitate his coming away. If we were 
 merely to accept his resignation and appoint a successor 
 it would be said, ( This was your intention from the begin- 
 ning, and all you have done has been in order to carry it 
 into effect/" 2 This well describes Melbourne's position; 
 1 Sanders, p. 434. * Ibid., p. 435. 
 
LORD DURHAM'S RECEPTION. 225 
 
 he would like to humble Durham, while at the same time 
 he feared to increase his own already great unpopularity 
 by recalling him, and therefore he adopted his favourite 
 plan and did nothing. 
 
 Although Melbourne gave way to personal feelings, 
 Russell was more of a statesman. He had seen Glenelg's 
 dispatch, which he described as " mere verbiage, proposing 
 nothing, asking nothing, deciding nothing," but only leaving 
 the question of Durham's retirement in some manner open. 
 He valued Durham more justly than Melbourne did, and 
 as the High Commissioner's information as to a possible 
 renewal of the rebellion tallied with that sent from Fox, 
 the British minister at Washington, Russell wished parlia- 
 ment to meet before Christmas. It is clear from Russell's 
 letter to Melbourne of October 22nd that he was under no 
 illusions as to the power of the ministry. 1 The House must 
 meet because Durham's dispatch plainly declared that he 
 could not accept the construction put upon the Suspending 
 Act by the ministers. He refused to exercise the powers 
 they professed to assign to him in the face of a possible 
 second attack. Durham and the ministry, as Russell saw, 
 might ignore the Opposition, but the ministry alone could 
 not. Russell's plan was to pass an Act definitely stating 
 that the Governor of Canada should or should not, with his 
 Council, have power to pass laws for keeping suspected 
 persons in custody, and for bringing before an impartial 
 tribunal traitors or murderers. If parliament gave this 
 power, the mischief of Brougham's Bill would be repaired. 
 If they did not, they would be responsible for the con- 
 sequences. On the next day, the 25th, Russell sent 
 Melbourne the emendations he proposed in Glenelg's 
 dispatch, and at the same time gave Melbourne the choice 
 between forwarding to Durham a paper which he had 
 drawn up, or of calling a Cabinet to consider the question 
 of assembling parliament ; otherwise he, Russell, would be 
 compelled to resign. Russell's plan for placing Brougham 
 
 1 Walpole's " Life of Lord John Russell," Vol. I., p. 309. 
 S.G.C. Q 
 
226 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 and the Tories on the horns of a dilemma was highly 
 ingenious, but the proclamation of October gth had already 
 placed a gulf between Durham and the ministry. On 
 October i2th Durham wrote to Russell : " I do not conceal 
 from you that my feelings have been deeply wounded by 
 the conduct of the ministry. From you, however, and you 
 alone of them all, have I received any cordial support 
 personally ; and I feel, as I have told you in a former 
 letter, very grateful to you." This letter reached Russell 
 as he was considering the best way to emendate Glenelg's 
 dispatch. He was placed in an unpleasant position ; he 
 had to choose between the claims of friendship and the tie 
 of loyalty to his party chief. On October 25th he wrote to 
 Melbourne that he had received Durham's letter and had 
 answered it, "merely saying that if I had been in the 
 Lords I should have done no better than my colleagues 
 there." Durham understood and respected Russell's 
 motives in writing thus, but it did not calm his resentment 
 against Melbourne. The latter's power was obviously 
 declining, and there is a probability, amounting almost to 
 a certainty that Durham was kept informed by his friends 
 in London of Melbourne's real opinion about him. 
 
 Glenelg's dispatch, as amended by Russell, never reached 
 Durham in Canada, for he had already sailed. It professed 
 surprise at Durham's statement of his knowledge that the 
 section of the ordinance relating to Bermuda would be 
 inoperative. It was pointed out that he had not informed 
 the Government of this before, and that he had sent the 
 prisoners to Bermuda at once so that it had been impossible 
 for the Government to suggest legislation to the Bermuda 
 authorities. The propriety of proposing a measure to the 
 Imperial Parliament to supply the defects of the ordinance 
 had been considered, but Lord Durham would not expect 
 to find in a dispatch the reasons which induced Her 
 Majesty's Government, after full deliberation, to think such 
 a course inexpedient. The dispatch was a desperate 
 attempt to "save the face" of the ministry without 
 
LORD DURHAM'S RECEPTION. 227 
 
 absolutely breaking with Durham. In the meantime the 
 serious illness and death of Lord John Russell's wife 
 secured Glenelg himself a further lease of office. 
 
 As yet no one could decide how Durham would act. 
 Melbourne's letter to Poulett Thompson, the head of the 
 Board of Trade, on October 3Oth, proves that he, however, 
 did not look with equanimity on either of the possible 
 courses open to the High Commissioner. The letter is in 
 reply to one from his subordinate informing him of the 
 state of feeling which prevailed. 1 The Prime Minister 
 admitted that Durham had received great provocation, 
 although he had brought it on himself by his rash and 
 imprudent manner of doing things in themselves right, and 
 it required much patience and forbearance to submit to it. 
 Melbourne attempts to defend the action of the ministry 
 by saying that if they took steps to hasten Durham's 
 return he would put down any failures that resulted to his 
 recall, although he would not have allowed this recall to 
 have interfered with his plans. Their request that he 
 should reconsider his determination was the best course 
 under the circumstances. He had the British party on his 
 side now, although they were formerly discontented. It 
 was not really submission to his insolence, but it was saying 
 in effect, " You have put yourself into a foolish passion and 
 acted rashly ; do think better of it and retract your 
 declaration." Melbourne did not fail to see that if Durham 
 did remain, it " would be liable to the observation that he 
 was there, Governor of the Canadas, rather by the direction 
 of the Canadians than by the appointment of the Queen," 
 but that was not sufficient to counterbalance other con- 
 siderations. Melbourne also touches on the affair of Turton 
 and the "absolution" which Durham had sent to Lord 
 John Russell, but these were soon to be unimportant. 2 
 Another of the men Durham had relied on wrote to 
 Melbourne about this time disparaging the High Com- 
 missioner's rule in Canada and encouraging Melbourne to 
 1 Sanders, p. 436. 2 Sanders, p. 437, 
 
 'Q 2 
 
228 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 flout him. This was Edward Ellice, " the Bear," Canadian 
 fur trader and English M.P. His son had resigned his 
 post as Durham's private secretary before the Governor 
 left for England. He was a party in himself in Canada, 
 and seems to have half-heartedly supported the legislative 
 union in theory, but to have objected to the federation 
 scheme. Roebuck hints that Ellice's pet scheme was that 
 of Head, the annexation of the Montreal district, including 
 the seigneury of Beauharnois, to Upper Canada. 1 Such a 
 scheme was too unfair for Durham ever to accept it. 
 
 On November 3rd Roebuck published the first of his 
 three attacks on Lord Durham in The Spectator ; on the 
 loth and on the I7th other articles appeared. Where 
 Roebuck made charges they were as regards the facts 
 generally true enough, but every act of the High Com- 
 missioner was misrepresented in a way no one but Roebuck 
 was able to misrepresent it. Melbourne was always lucky, 
 and at this moment, immediately after 2 the appearance of 
 Roebuck's first letter, came the news of the proclamation 
 of October Qth. The tide of sympathy with Durham had 
 been steadily rising, but this checked it, and few of the 
 newspapers ventured to defend Durham. The Times was 
 delighted and attacked Durham without mercy. It nick- 
 named him the " Lord High Seditioner," and many of 
 the ministerial papers followed its lead. Melbourne's good 
 fortune did not end here, for Lord Brougham and he 
 became more friendly, and Roebuck, who had at this time 
 frequent interviews with Brougham, met Melbourne also. 
 After his proclamation ministers thought they dare deal 
 strongly with Durham. A Cabinet Council was held, and 
 as a result, on November 15th, Glenelg sent off the following 
 dispatch, one of the sternest ever sent by a British Govern- 
 ment to a representative abroad. 
 
 "The proclamation of October gth Her Majesty's con- 
 fidential advisers regard not merely as a deviation from 
 
 1 The Spectator, 1838, p. 1085. 
 
 '-' Actually on November 5th, by the Royal William. 
 
LORD DURHAM'S RECEPTION. 229 
 
 the course which has been invariably pursued by the 
 Governors of British possessions abroad, but as a dangerous 
 departure from the practice and principles of the Constitu- 
 tion. They consider as open to most serious objection an 
 appeal by such an officer to the public at large from 
 measures adopted by the Sovereign, with the advice and 
 consent of parliament. 
 
 " The terms in which that appeal has, in this instance, 
 been made appear to Her Majesty's ministers calculated 
 to impair the reverence to the royal authority in the colony, 
 to derogate from the character of the Imperial Legislature, 
 to excite among the disaffected hopes of impunity, and to 
 enhance the difficulties with which your lordship's successor 
 will have to contend. 
 
 " The ministers of the Crown having humbly submitted 
 this opinion to the Queen, it is my duty to inform you that 
 I have received Her Majesty's commands to signify to 
 your lordship Her Majesty's disapprobation of your 
 proclamation of October gth." 
 
 The ministry had thrown down the gage, but they were 
 none too confident of the issue, although Roebuck and 
 Brougham were useful auxiliaries. On November 1st 
 Lady Russell died, and Lord John wished to resign his 
 post ; the ministry was already tottering, and strong 
 pressure alone could persuade Russell to remain. Trouble 
 was feared in Canada, and on November 7th The Morning 
 Chronicle announced that, according to private letters, the 
 habitants, once so confiding and devoted to the English, 
 were now preparing to renew the struggle and to let it go 
 on to its termination. It was a contest of races, English- 
 men against Frenchmen, not royalist against rebel or 
 Republican. " Nothing now can bring about a settlement 
 but such a course of events as shall determine whether 
 English or French blood shall rule. The contest which has 
 been provoked by the sword must be settled by that 
 weapon or by superior force." On November 2Oth 
 Wakefield and Captain Dillon arrived at Liverpool with 
 
230 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 the news that Durham proposed to sail on November ist 
 They had had a most adventurous voyage and had only 
 landed on the Irish coast by the help of a fishing boat. 
 
 Meanwhile Durham's friends were not idle. John Stuart 
 Mill was a warm admirer of the High Commissioner, and 
 wrote an eloquent article taking " the highest ground and 
 claiming for Durham not mere acquittal but praise and 
 honour." l He had followed Durham's career with interest 
 from the beginning, and did not think him the " defeated 
 and discredited man" he seemed to be. The article 
 appeared in the December number of The Westminster 
 Review, but advance sheets were sent to the various 
 journals, and The Spectator, no friend to Melbourne, 
 published large portions of the article in its issue of 
 November 24th. 2 Mill's article was more than eloquent ; 
 it was one of the adroitest manifestoes ever issued on 
 behalf of a popular leader. He pointed out that Durham 
 in dealing with the rebels had to reckon up the two forces 
 of sympathy with them in America and hostility to them 
 among the loyalists and in England ; to hold Canada for 
 the British he had to smooth over the racial problem, and 
 restore representative government. To this end all his 
 measures were directed, even the ordinance, which was in 
 many ways defensible. Men blamed the proclamation of 
 October Qth as inflammatory, but feeling was already 
 running too high in the colony to be affected by it, and 
 there was very little of complaint in the ordinance ; it was 
 really the necessary explanation to the colonists of Lord 
 Durham's reasons for retirement, and was no appeal to the 
 people, but an answer to the various addresses which had 
 been presented asking him to remain. Had Lord Durham 
 wished to gratify personal feelings, private communications 
 would have sufficed, but he was the only British politician 
 
 1 Mill's Autobiography, p. 216. 
 
 2 The same number also contained a letter from Wakefield denying 
 that his mission to Papineau had been from Durham, as Roebuck 
 alleged. 
 
LORD DURHAM'S RECEPTION. 231 
 
 who was not convicted of having blundered in the affairs of 
 Canada, and he wished to assure the Canadians that he had 
 not abandoned them. As he was debarred from leaving 
 healing measures behind him, he would leave healing 
 principles. By his proclamation he had detached the 
 British from the official clique, while at the same time he 
 had announced, without opposition being made, that justice 
 should be done to the French Canadians ; they had accepted 
 Durham's policy of conciliation, not coercion. 
 
 The peroration is worthy of quotation : " He has been 
 thwarted, but he has not failed. He has shown how 
 Canada ought to be governed, and if anything can allay her 
 dissensions, and again attach her to the Mother Country 
 this will. He has at the critical moment taken the initiative 
 of a healing policy. He has disposed of the great 
 immediate embarrassment the political offenders. He 
 has shown to the well-intentioned of both sides an honour- 
 able basis on which they may accommodate their differ- 
 ences. He has detached from the unreasonable of one 
 party their chief support the sympathy of the United 
 States, and it is reserved for him to detach from the 
 unreasonable of the other the sympathy of the people of 
 England. He comes home master of the details of those 
 abuses which he has recognised as the original cause of the 
 disaffection, prepared to expose these as they have never 
 before been exposed, and to submit to Parliament, after 
 the most comprehensive inquiry that has ever taken place, 
 the system on which the North American colonies may be 
 preserved and well governed hereafter." 
 
 The effect of this defence was very great ; men who now 
 saw on what lines Durham could be defended rushed in 
 to help. Wakefield was in London, and we can perhaps 
 trace to his influence some of the positive enthusiasm for 
 Durham which began to show itself. The Radicals were 
 without a recognised leader and turned their thoughts to 
 him. There was a sort of Durham party already in 
 existence, and though The Times as well as the ministerial 
 
232 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA 
 
 organs affected to despise the movement, it gathered 
 strength. The Globe was especially bitter in its attacks. 
 The ministers had good reason to fear Durham now ; in 
 Ireland O'Connell was gathering recruits for his " Precursor 
 Society," and in England the democrats were troublesome. 
 Richard Oastler was agitating in the north against the new 
 Poor Law, and in August the Chartists had adopted the 
 "six points" of the " People's Charter" at Birmingham. 
 The "physical force" men were extremely prominent, 
 and threats to march on London were heard. Scarcely 
 had Wakefield's tidings as to Durham's approach been 
 grasped when the news came that Durham himself had 
 arrived. 
 
 On November 2/th the Inconstant arrived off England, 
 after a somewhat exciting voyage. For four days it was 
 impossible to land on account of the heavy seas, but on 
 the 3Oth the party reached Devonport in the Admiral's 
 barge. There was no official reception (that was part of 
 Durham's punishment), but he was enthusiastically greeted 
 by a meeting of the Devonport Liberals, which Molesworth 
 had organized for December ist. The Town Hall was 
 filled by a crowd of 1,500 people, and an address was 
 presented to Lord Durham by the mayor. He made a 
 short speech thanking them for their address ; it contained 
 two remarkable passages : 
 
 "You will never have reason to regret the confidence you 
 have this day placed in me, or the declaration that you 
 have made of your approbation of my government in 
 British North America. 
 
 "So far as it seemed to me imperatively necessary, in order 
 to allay the most alarming irritation and excitement in the 
 Canadas, and to lead men's minds from the contemplation 
 of present evils to the prospect of future remedies, I have 
 already explained the nature and scope of the policy which 
 I pursued as Governor-General. Upon that subject I shall, 
 when parliament meets, be prepared to make a representa- 
 tion of facts wholly unknown here, and disclosures of which 
 
LORD DURHAM'S RECEPTION. 233 
 
 the parliament and people of this country have no con- 
 ception ; and I shall then fearlessly demand from the 
 assembled Legislature that justice which neither they nor 
 the people of England ever will deny to a public servant 
 who has faithfully and honestly discharged the duties 
 assigned to him." 
 
 Durham had not yet received the dispatch of November 
 1 5th, but the intentions of the ministry were well known, 
 and it seems probable that before the meeting a plan of 
 campaign was agreed on between Durham and Molesworth. 
 At any rate, the very evening he returned from the meeting, 
 if not before, Molesworth despatched a letter to his con- 
 stituents at Leeds ; in it he announced his confidence in 
 Lord Durham, and his belief that he was the fittest man 
 to advise on the settlement of British North America. 
 " Let Leeds follow the example of Devonport in acclaiming 
 Lord Durham, and in support of the man who not only 
 champions the sound policy of ' Ships, Colonies, and Com- 
 merce/ but is also in favour of an improvement in the 
 representative system." The Radicals understood that 
 Lord Durham was no longer coy, and on December 7th a 
 meeting was held of the Westminster Reform Association 
 at which it was decided to call a special meeting to discuss 
 the propriety of presenting an address to the Earl of 
 Durham. Durham was in no hurry to reach London ; he 
 was agreeably surprised at the warmth of his reception, 
 which he is said to have ascribed to Mill's article, and 
 agreed to receive addresses at several places on his way to 
 London. At Devonport he received a deputation from 
 Plymouth with an address. In his answer he claimed to 
 have " effaced the remains of a disastrous rebellion," and 
 to have " conciliated the esteem of a great and powerful 
 nation." Fate played him an unkind trick, for even as he 
 spoke the news was known of the outbreak of the second 
 rebellion, and on the 3rd came the news of its suppression. 
 
 At Totnes, Exeter, Ashburton, and Honiton addresses 
 were presented. At Exeter he was tempted to reply that 
 
234 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 the very renewal of the rebellion showed how the best 
 interests of the Empire were affected by proceedings 
 founded on party feeling and political animosity. Some 
 thought this not consistent with his former words, but the 
 inconsistency is not so real as apparent ; it is true that the 
 habitants had been preparing since June, but they would 
 never have taken the decisive steps had they not thought 
 that Durham was powerless. Perhaps Durham's slow 
 journey was intentional ; he wished to give popular feeling 
 a chance to declare itself, and in the south of England, at 
 any rate, he had no cause for complaint. 
 
 When Melbourne heard of Durham's arrival, he remained 
 in London, expecting that the Governor would come post 
 haste to town and storm the position. He grew uneasy 
 when he heard what Durham really was doing, and in his 
 letter to Russell admitted that the departure of the High 
 Commissioner and the immediate outbreak of the rebellion 
 synchronised somewhat awkwardly. He said he did not 
 wish to press upon Durham, and would do anything short 
 of " court and truckle." 1 He had soon changed his views, 
 and his alarm did not decrease when Durham on his arrival 
 forbore to call on the ministers. On December 8th Lord 
 Stanley of Alderley, party whip and Secretary to the 
 Treasury, called upon Durham. The latter had by this 
 time heard of the dispatch of November I5th, and, according 
 to Melbourne's version, informed Stanley that he should 
 write a reply to it announcing that when he received from 
 North America the whole of the information which he had 
 left Charles Buller to collect and digest he should lay it 
 before the Government. Durham seemed much hurt at 
 the last dispatch, but was " otherwise calm and quiet 
 enough." However, he expressed no animosity or resent- 
 ment against anyone, but he said he thought the Govern- 
 ment had acted towards him with ill will, and that he had 
 been made an object of persecution. Greville's account 
 shows Durham in a more fighting mood, for, referring to 
 1 Sanders, p. 440. 
 
LORD DURHAM'S RECEPTION. 235 
 
 the articles in The Globe, he said that as the ministers had 
 attacked him he must defend himself. 
 
 True to his promise to Stanley, Durham sent in a dispatch 
 to Glenelg, announcing his resignation, and informing him 
 that the Report and minutes of evidence should be handed 
 in when Buller arrived, who was to leave Canada on 
 November 2Oth. Soon afterwards Lady Durham resigned 
 her appointment at Court ; it seemed as though Durham 
 wished to break entirely with the ministry. Perhaps his 
 hostility was not decreased by the attitude of the Whig 
 journals. Rumours that the Queen had been instructed to 
 treat him with marked coldness were flying about, and as 
 the ministers made no sign of wishing for a reconciliation, 
 Durham maintained his reserve. The ministers were, on 
 their part, waiting for Durham to take the first step, for 
 already on the 7th, the day before he reached London, 
 they had met and jointly drawn up a letter to him " in very 
 moderate and proper terms," and were waiting for a fitting 
 opportunity of sending it. As before, Melbourne did not 
 lack advisers, and his attitude towards Durham depended 
 on the latest influence to which he had been exposed. On 
 the 4th he had been willing to make things easy for the 
 ex-Governor by any course short of appearing to court and 
 truckle, but on the nth he had veered round to Greville's 
 opinion : " I have always said that there had been a 
 deference to him and attention to him neither of which 
 I could understand." 1 About the same time he was 
 encouraged in his latest view by a letter he received from 
 the Duke of Richmond, who had been a member of Earl 
 Grey's Cabinet, but was now an independent member of 
 the Upper House. His advice was, " Be steady, be very 
 firm with your ex-Governor, or there will be the very devil 
 to pay." Melbourne informed Russell that he agreed with 
 Richmond's advice, but did not exactly see what he 
 apprehended. 
 
 If Melbourne could not read the signs of the times, 
 1 Sanders, p. 442. 
 
236 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 others were not so blind, and Durham received many 
 visitors. Although he did not commit himself, he said 
 nothing to damp the hopes of those Radicals who looked 
 to him to reorganize the Reform party in England. Many 
 of the Whig newspapers openly discussed his capabilities 
 for the post of leader in place of Melbourne, but Durham 
 was too haughty to court popularity, and he was by no 
 means desirous of being a merely titular head of the party. 
 That is shown by a letter of his dated December iSth, in 
 answer to one from the Westminster Reform Association, 
 requesting him to fix a day for the presentation of the 
 address by the deputation appointed at a meeting held a 
 short time before. Durham said he would have been proud 
 to receive the address itself, as it was expressive of prin- 
 ciples in which he entirely concurred, but he had read a 
 report of the meeting, and therefore was precluded from 
 receiving the deputation. The chairman had been chosen 
 unanimously, and he asked the meeting to forget strong 
 opinions on the subject of Canada in order to consider 
 whether they could not "make use of" Durham for the 
 furtherance of their own objects. Durham also objected 
 to the opinions of other speakers. One, Dr. Wade, said 
 that, as an upholder of universal suffrage, he did not see 
 how he could support an address to one who advocated 
 household suffrage, but he did support it, on the ground, 
 as he declared, that Durham might be made use of as a 
 " stepping stone " for the advantage of the Radical party. 
 Durham pointed out that not only did the opinions expressed 
 at the meeting differ from those in the address, but they 
 differed from those he had always upheld himself. " If I 
 had merely responded to this address, knowing, as I do, 
 that many from whom it proceeds entertain opinions and 
 seek objects which I utterly repudiate as destructive to the 
 peace and very existence of society, I should have shared 
 in misleading, not to say deceiving the public. And this 
 I will never do, come what may. ... I know of no other 
 means by which the true ends of all political exertion may 
 
LORD DURHAM'S RECEPTION. 237 
 
 be secured namely, the instruction, the respectability and 
 self-respect and the permanent dignity and happiness of 
 the whole people without distinction of classes. To these 
 great ends I believe that the stability of the Throne, the 
 security of property, and the prosperity of industry are 
 not less essential means than the realization of those prin- 
 ciples which I expressed to the people of Scotland in 1834. 
 . . . For these reasons I must decline receiving the deputa- 
 tion. I will not run the risk of deceiving anyone. There 
 shall be no mistake in any quarter as to my opinions or 
 objects. I cannot accept support so tendered or an 
 address so voted. In other circumstances I should have 
 considered it an honourable and gratifying mark of public 
 esteem." 
 
 In a subsequent letter, in answer to an explanation by the 
 officials of the association that they could not be expected 
 to be responsible for isolated expressions of opinion, Lord 
 Durham agreed to receive the address. However, his 
 chance of leading the Radicals, certainly of leading a 
 united Reform party, had passed away, and it redounds to 
 his honour that it was so. Durham was face to face with a 
 great temptation. He had, however, seen too much of 
 the work of Papineau and Mackenzie to desire to emulate 
 their careers as a demagogue. Durham could not accept 
 Chartism, and in December, 1838, Chartism was the creed 
 more or less openly professed by the majority of the English 
 Radicals. Further than household suffrage and vote by 
 ballot Durham refused as yet to advance, and he fell 
 between the two stools of Feargus O'Connor and Lord 
 Melbourne. The age of sane Liberalism had not yet 
 arrived, and Durham was a man without a party. A 
 greater man would have created a party, as Peel did, but 
 Durham had to face many disadvantages, not the least of 
 which was the utter disorganization of the Reformers. 
 Chartism was rampant all over England, and Radicals 
 openly professed their preference for Tories over Liberals. 
 Durham could not, as a landowner and an aristocrat, accept 
 
238 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Chartism. Haliburton at a later date warned him that 
 Lafayette's Report on the American Revolution fired the 
 train of discontent in France, but the warning was needless. 
 As yet, however, Durham had not been a month in England, 
 and he hoped that the saner Reformers would rally round 
 him. 
 
 While Melbourne was content to let things alone, others 
 of the party were seeking to put an end to the deadlock. 
 Duncannon, who had succeeded Durham as Lord Privy 
 Seal, wrote asking for an interview ; the reply he received 
 was that Lord Durham could have no communication with 
 any member of a Cabinet which had used him so scan- 
 dalously. This was not encouraging, but the attack had 
 not been skilfully planned. Stephenson, one of the adroitest 
 wirepullers of the party, who had taken no part against 
 Durham, was more circumspect. He had first interviewed 
 Lord Grey of Howick, Durham's brother-in-law, and found 
 him by no means unreasonable ; although he thought 
 Durham had been ill-treated, he disapproved of the pro- 
 clamation. The result of the interview decided Stephenson 
 that although Durham would not take the first step, he 
 would perhaps be not indisposed to communicate with 
 Lord John Russell. He then visited Lord Cottenham, trie 
 Chancellor, and informed him of his scheme for the recon- 
 ciliation of Durham and the ministry before the meeting of 
 parliament. The Chancellor preferred to consult Melbourne 
 first, and the latter, ever cautious, discussed with Lord 
 John Russell the advisability of asking Stephenson to find 
 out whether such a reconciliation was desired by Durham. 1 
 
 The ministry were eager to meet Durham, or rather to 
 learn what information he could give them upon Canada, 
 as Colborne's dispatches indicated that that was one reason 
 for his hurried departure from Quebec. Glenelg, in 
 accordance with Melbourne's plan, wrote officially upon 
 receiving the announcement of Durham's resignation, and 
 on December 2Oth Durham sent in his last dispatch 
 1 Sanders, p. 443. 
 
LORD DURHAM'S RECEPTION. 239 
 
 regretting that Duller had not arrived, but expressing his 
 willingness to afford them any information they desired. 
 On December 2ist Buller and Turton landed at Liverpool 
 after a fifteen days' passage from New York. They 
 immediately posted to London, and we can understand 
 that Buller, at any rate, would encourage Durham in his 
 refusal to become the figure-head of a Chartist party. 
 Whatever hesitation Durham may have felt disappeared by 
 the end of December. On the afternoon of December 27th 
 the Government declared war against Chartism by arresting 
 the Wesleyan minister Stephens, who had been agitating 
 against the Poor Law in conjunction with Oastler. On 
 November I3th, at Leigh, in Lancashire, Stephens had 
 preached "physical force" as the best remedy for grievances, 
 and when Lord John Russell, who was Home Secretary, 
 learned that the Chartists had begun to manufacture pikes, 
 he thought it was time to interfere. The arrest of Stephens 
 was the pricking of the "physical force" bubble, just as later 
 the presentation of the Great Petition, with its array of 
 fictitious signatures, proved that even "moral force" 
 Chartism was nothing formidable. 
 
 Convinced that his duty was to support the maintenance 
 of law and order, Durham was willing to sink his private 
 grievances against the ministry. Ponsonby, who had been 
 one of Durham's suite in Canada, was as eager to promote 
 reconciliation as Stephenson, and he was successful in per- 
 suading Durham to receive, as well as Duncannon, Lord 
 Grey of Howick, with whom he had not been for some time 
 on good terms. 1 The rest was easy ; Lord John Russell 
 returned to London on January loth, just before this inter- 
 view, in which Howick seemed to have assured Durham 
 that the ministry would meet him half-way ; the really 
 difficult question was the matter of Turton's appointment, 
 on which either Durham or Melbourne would have to admit 
 being in the wrong. On the 24th 2 Greville writes that 
 
 1 "Greville Memoirs," Vol. IV., p. 162. 
 - Ibid.) p. 163. 
 
2 4 o SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Durham had agreed to receive Duncannon, and that the 
 latter found him in a very complacent mood. The question 
 of Turton was soon disposed of, for Durham maintained 
 that although Melbourne had vetoed Turton's appointment 
 to any official post, the one he had received, that of 
 secretary, was in Durham's own household. The ministry 
 were glad to accept the explanation, as peace was desirable, 
 and it was known now that Stanley and Hobhouse could 
 both be mixed up in the affair if a searching inquiry took 
 place. 1 Soon afterwards Durham met Melbourne ; we can 
 imagine he was not very gracious, but Melbourne could not 
 afford to resent it, and Durham had probably received 
 a hint from Howick as to possible Cabinet changes. 
 
 Melbourne was in a most uncomfortable position. 
 Glenelg's incapacity was notorious, and although it had 
 been agreed that Durham should hand in his Report as soon 
 as possible, there was still the question as to the future 
 policy to be pursued towards Canada. For the present 
 Colborne could preserve order there, but Ellice had 
 warned Melbourne that nothing but the dispatch of an 
 able Governor, against whom no objections could be urged, 
 could prevent the ultimate loss of British North America. 2 
 Before Durham had been pacified the Tory papers had 
 accused the ministry of being afraid to meet Parliament, 
 and Ellice wrote again, shortly before December igth, 
 informing Melbourne that there must be no further delay 
 or he would propose a plan himself. 3 But Canada was not 
 the only colony where there was trouble. Jamaica was in 
 a similar state to that of Canada in 1837, and Glenelg 
 could not devise any remedy. At a Cabinet Council 
 towards the end of January, Lord Howick, now sharing his 
 brother-in-law's dislike to Glenelg, took exception to the 
 Colonial Secretary's scheme. 3 He informed Lord John 
 Russell, the friend of Durham and himself, of his dissatis- 
 faction, and when the Cabinet supported Glenelg's policy at 
 
 1 Sanders, p. 437. 2 Ibid., p. 439. 
 
 3 Walpole : " Life of Lord John Russell," Vol. I., pp. 312313. 
 
LORD DURHAM'S RECEPTION. 241 
 
 their meeting of January 30th, Howick told Russell that he 
 could no longer retain his place in the Cabinet. Russell 
 had sympathised with Durham, and recent events only 
 made it more evident that the incompetent Glenelg was 
 really at the bottom of the ministry's sacrifice of Durham 
 to Brougham, whatever Melbourne's personal feelings may 
 have helped. 
 
 Russell was now in a position to demand his way from 
 Melbourne, as he had been about to do in the previous 
 October. How far Durham contributed to his decision it 
 is hard to say, but their well-known friendship lends credit 
 to the supposition. Perhaps it is going too far to say that 
 Glenelg was deliberately sacrificed to Durham, as the latter 
 had been to Brougham, for the Colonial Secretary's con- 
 tinuance in office was plainly impossible. However, 
 Melbourne may have taken it in that light, for it was not 
 until Russell, on February 2nd, positively refused to con- 
 tinue in office on any other terms that he at last consented 
 to replace Glenelg by the Marquis of Normanby. Sir 
 George Grey, the Under Secretary, also resigned ; the post 
 was given to Labouchere, but not before a rumour went 
 the rounds of the press that it was to be offered to Charles 
 Buller. 
 
 Durham's position at this time was one of irresponsible 
 influence. We may perhaps be able to trace to him 
 Russell's appeal from the House of Lords to the House of 
 Commons when the ministry was defeated in the former 
 on Lord Roden's motion for a committee on the state of 
 Ireland, and Russell's majority of twenty-two must have 
 caused him to wish that he had made a similar appeal 
 against Brougham. Russell was now in fact Prime Minister. 
 Perhaps Durham hoped to succeed Melbourne as the head 
 of the next Whig Government, for Russell's " finality " 
 declaration on the question of reform had offended the 
 Radicals, and Lord John himself had no great desire for 
 office. Durham could afford to be complacent now. On 
 January 3ist he handed in his Report to Glenelg, and it 
 
 S.G.C. R 
 
242 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 was considered at a Cabinet meeting. The recommenda- 
 tions as to the Clergy Reserves and the proposed resump- 
 tion of the sole control over the Crown lands may have 
 produced the request that was made to him for his consent 
 to a process of re-editing. Durham was willing, but he 
 had forgotten for the moment his subordinates. To save 
 time Melbourne had agreed that 2,000 copies should be 
 printed before the meeting of parliament, and Wakefield, 
 anxious for the fate of his scheme when in the hands of 
 the Downing Street officials, sent Hanson with a copy of 
 the original edition to The Times. On Friday, February 8th, 
 appeared the final section giving Durham's recommenda- 
 tions, and on the Qth and nth the rest of the Report. 
 Durham had himself distributed copies of the Report to 
 his friends with a request that they should not allow its 
 contents to escape. Easthope 1 of The Morning Chronicle 
 received one from Durham, but he did not appreciate the 
 gift, for he seems to have already procured a copy which 
 he meant to publish himself before Durham could forbid it. 
 However, another story is told by Wakefield's family. 2 
 Lord Durham actually consented to send a copy of the 
 Report to The Times , presumably to force the ministers' 
 hands. But, when he considered the matter, he seemed 
 disposed to recall his permission. It was too late, and 
 Wakefield replied, "My lord, it is gone already." This 
 certainly tallies better with Lord Durham's explanation in 
 the House of Lords. On February 8th he had indignantly 
 defended himself against the insinuation that he had sent 
 the Report to The Times himself, but on the nth 3 he 
 insisted that he had not on the previous Friday said he 
 was surprised to see the Report published, but that he 
 regretted that it had only been published in part. He then 
 gave an explanation. He had been pressed by the ministers 
 to finish the Report as early as possible, and had done so 
 
 1 Greville, Vol. IV., p. 169. 
 
 2 Garnett, " Life of E. G. Wakefield," p. 177. 
 2 " Hansard," Vol. XLV., p. 214. 
 
LORD DURHAM'S RECEPTION. 243 
 
 at the expense of considerable labour and great anxiety of 
 mind. To save excess of labour and cost, proof-sheets of 
 the Report were sent to the ministers, and on the Saturday 
 evening previous a printed office copy was sent to the 
 Queen and laid before her on the Monday. Durham was 
 then informed at the Colonial Office that the Report would 
 be laid before parliament when it met, for which purpose 
 two thousand copies had been printed. When he found 
 that there was a delay in presenting the Report to parlia- 
 ment he had questioned Lord Melbourne, but when he 
 returned home he found a dispatch from Lord Glenelg 
 informing him of the Queen's approbation of his labours. 
 He then obtained permission from one of the ministers to 
 communicate the Report to his friends, and he distributed 
 certainly not more than half a dozen copies. It was curious 
 to find Brougham supporting Durham, apparently quite 
 honestly. The old friends had been reconciled, and were 
 to dine at Lady Blessington's on the I7th. Brougham, 
 however, excused himself at the last moment, saying that 
 he could be of more service to his friend if the reconciliation 
 were not too marked. 1 
 
 However brought about, the publication of the Report 
 was the cause of a torrent of criticisms and vituperation 
 seldom equalled. In The Quarterly Review Croker, Sir 
 Robert Peel's "henchman /'attacked it most savagely, especi- 
 ally for its recommendation of responsible government as 
 the sovereign cure for the disorders in the colonies. Various 
 pamphlets were written in reply to or in defence of it 
 Judge Haliburton, the Nova Scotian loyalist author, 
 attacked it cleverly in a series of letters to The Times, 
 which were afterwards published both at Halifax and 
 London in pamphlet form. Another attack was made by 
 one of the Proprietors of Prince Edward Island, entitled 
 " Facts versus Lord Durham," and the Assembly of Upper 
 Canada appointed a committee to draw up a reply also. 
 This reply was replied to in its turn by Francis Hincks, editor 
 1 Greville, Vol. IV., p. 169. 
 
 R 2 
 
244 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 of The Examiner^ who maintained the essential justice of 
 the references to Upper Canada in Lord Durham's Report, 
 and asserted that the Assembly's reply was really the work 
 of Hagerman. The Report was reprinted in Canada both 
 in English and in French, and met with a mixed reception 
 from each nationality. 1 The hostility was caused by the 
 recommendations as to Church and Crown lands, to the 
 union of the provinces, and to the granting of responsible 
 government. The loyalists of Upper Canada were 
 especially furious, but did not always criticise in their own 
 names. 
 
 The question has been frequently raised as to the real 
 authorship of the Durham Report, but it is not very 
 important. 3 " Wakefield thought it, Buller wrote it, Durham 
 signed it," is probably more epigrammatic than true. It 
 certainly does an injustice to Lord Durham, and perhaps 
 to Wakefield. The origin of the legend of Buller's author- 
 ship is perhaps not very hard to trace. It may be found 
 in Durham's 8 own remark to "Ben Stanley" that he intended 
 to inform Glenelg that when he received from North 
 America the whole of the information which he had left 
 Charles Buller to collect and digest, he would present it to 
 the Government Durham had not planned to return to 
 England direct, and probably expected that he and Buller 
 would arrive together, for it had been arranged that the 
 latter should leave Quebec on November 2Oth. On 
 December 20th Buller had not yet arrived, and Durham 
 again pleaded this as an excuse for neglecting to supply 
 the Government with information. Those who wished to 
 disparage Durham and there were many at that time who 
 hated him saw in these repeated mentions of Buller a sign 
 of the state of dependence in which Durham was on his 
 chief secretary, for when Buller did arrive Durham soon 
 
 1 Papineau also criticised it in an article in the Paris Revue des 
 Progres. 
 
 2 "See a suggestive article in The English Historical Review for 
 April, 1902. 
 
 * Sanders, p. 441. 
 
LORD DURHAM'S RECEPTION. 245 
 
 handed in the Report. Beyond this there is really no 
 trustworthy support for the claim preferred for Buller. 
 The real reason for Durham's inability to complete the 
 Report without him was probably the possession by Buller 
 of all the evidence taken at the various sittings of the 
 Commissions. 
 
 A passage in the Greville Memoirs is often misunder- 
 stood. 1 The statement that " the whole Report was written 
 by Buller, with the exception of two small paragraphs on 
 Church or Crow T n lands, which were composed by Gibbon 
 Wakefield and Mr. Hanson," is not Greville's, but is only 
 anonymous information supplied to Reeve, the editor of 
 the Memoirs, by a second person, to whom Hanson is said 
 to have imparted it. A very brief examination of the story 
 tempts one to wonder whether Reeve ever read the Durham 
 Report. It is impossible to find in it " two small para- 
 graphs " on Church or Crown Lands ; there are sections on 
 both, but they are not small, and Reeve's informant seems 
 to have been uncertain whether they were on the Church 
 or the Crown lands. Another witness is John Stuart Mill, 
 who in his autobiography says : " Lord Durham's Report, 
 written by Charles Buller, partly under the inspiration of 
 Wakefield, began a new era." 3 Mill was certainly a friend 
 of Durham, but even he somewhat limits Buller's share, 
 and seems to hold that " Wakefield thought " at least part 
 of it. A third witness is Miss Harriet Martineau, who 
 used Charles Buller's MS. Journal in writing her " History 
 of the Thirty Years' Peace." She says : " It is understood 
 that the merit of the celebrated Report is mainly ascribable 
 to him." 3 This, however, is far from saying that Buller 
 wrote the Report himself, and it is difficult to see which 
 recommendations are due to Buller, outside the section on 
 Upper Canada. 
 
 Having enumerated the chief arguments on behalf of the 
 
 1 Greville, Vol. IV., p. 169. 
 
 a Page 216. 
 
 a Vol. II., p. 392 (Bk. V., Chap. XII.). . 
 
246 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 theory of Buller's authorship, it is right to remember that 
 there are some serious ones against it. In The Edinburgh 
 Review for April, 1847, there .. is an article on Head's 
 " Emigrant," which was, it is practically certain, the work 
 of Buller. This article combats Head's assumption that 
 Lord Durham had no hand in the composition of the 
 Report, and asserts that he had, the statement to the 
 contrary being described as " groundless/' Another piece 
 of evidence against Buller's claim is supplied by an 
 article in The British Quarterly Review for November, 
 1849. It reviews Wakefield's "Art of Colonisation,'* 
 and maintains not only that the Durham Report was 
 principally the work of Wakefield, but also that Buller 
 himself had publicly disclaimed the leading share in the 
 " Canada Report." Unfortunately, the author of this 
 review is not known, but his statement is supported by 
 other evidence. 
 
 <V At the time of its publication no one seems to have 
 credited Durham with any great share in the Report. The 
 Quarterly reviewer said : " We suspect, and shall be glad if 
 our suspicion be confirmed, that in Lord Durham's execrable 
 Report Mr. Buller had as little hand as Lord Durham 
 himself." The Report is probably not the production of one 
 man ; elsewhere attempt is made to indicate the various 
 sources of Lord Durham's information, and it may be 
 sufficient here to point out the arguments in favour of the 
 view, not commonly held, that Wakefield wrote the Report, 
 partly at the dictation of Lord Durham, with the exception 
 of the section on Upper Canada, which is almost certainly 
 Buller's work in its original shape, although it was 
 doubtless edited to bring it into a line with the style and 
 references of the rest of the Report. 
 
 Mr. Egerton, in his " Short History of British Colonial 
 Policy," maintains that Durham wrote the entire Report 
 himself. He relies on the difference between the style of 
 the Report and that of the Report on Crown lands in the 
 appendix. This latter was signed by Buller, but it was 
 
LORD DURHAM'S RECEPTION. 247 
 
 not necessarily or even probably his work. A truer 
 criterion is to compare the style of parts of the Report with 
 that of Durham's own speeches, and especially with that of 
 the proclamation of October Qth, which Durham certainly 
 dictated himself. Arguments from style are untrustworthy, 
 as momentary feeling and varying subject-matter exercise 
 a large influence even upon oratory. A marked difference 
 is easily to be detected in the various sections of the Report. 
 The Introduction and the section on Lower Canada sweep 
 along with a lordly air of contempt mingled with pity for 
 the battles of frogs and mice ; he could not understand 
 Radicals behaving as the Radicals of Lower Canada had 
 done. The section on Upper Canada is the work of a 
 politician whose views are already determined, and who 
 can only see facts through the distorted medium of personal 
 sympathies with oppressed reformers ; there is no attempt 
 to hold the balance of judgment even as in the previous 
 section, and scarcely any indication of a personal acquaint- 
 ance with the real state of affairs. Actual blunders, which 
 are indicated later, are not absent, and the sure touch is 
 not there. The section on the Maritime Provinces only 
 professes to be the result of conversations and secondhand 
 information. In the fourth section, dealing with the land 
 question, the style changes again ; it is more businesslike 
 and less picturesque. There are, however, traces of personal 
 feeling, as in the eloquent lament over the contrast 
 presented between the two sides of the frontier ; but this 
 love of things American was common both to Wakefield 
 and Durham. The final section, the future administration 
 of North America, must be Durham's ; no one else could 
 lay down the law as he does, and consign to virtual 
 extinction the national aspirations of a race, with the 
 accompanied consolation of a happier future under other 
 conditions. 
 
 It is hardly to be believed that Durham was capable of 
 the actual physical labour of writing the Report with his 
 own hand. He was too highly strung, and at that time too 
 
248 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 weak to undertake such a labour. He wrote seldom, but 
 spoke often, and his letters and proclamations have all the 
 passion and rhythm of a personal declaration of feelings. 
 His private secretary in Canada had been young Ellice, 
 but, according to the jeering criticisms of contemporary 
 journalists, his incompetence had proved so notorious that 
 he had been allowed to amuse himself and do his work by 
 deputy. That deputy was probably Turton. Buller's post 
 was official, and ended with Lord Durham's mission. 
 Wakefield alone of the party remained at Durham's dis- 
 posal, when Buller took up his old political interests, and 
 Wakefield is expressly stated by a newspaper 1 of the 
 time to have acted as Lord Durham's secretary during 
 January. That Lord Durham himself was actually "em- 
 ployed in getting out his Report " is proved by a letter 2 of 
 Lady Durham to a friend at this time. Lord Durham's 
 authorship is vouched for by a family tradition at least as 
 strong as that in favour of Buller's, and there are other 
 indications, small in themselves, which go to support it. 
 There is nothing in the Buller MS., which Miss Martineau 
 used, and from which a copious quotation was made in the 
 Spectator for June 28th, 1900, to tell against Lord Durham's 
 share in the actual drawing up of the Report. Buller says 
 that all the more important matters were referred to him 
 in Canada, and that the plan for a federation of British 
 North America was also his ; it is inconceivable that Buller 
 could speak of Lord Durham with the reverence he does, 
 if he were conscious that h?e himself had been the author of 
 the document on which he proposes to rest Lord Durham's 
 title to fame. 
 
 Without accepting unreservedly Dr. Garnett's ingenious 
 attempt to fix the actual share of Durham, Wakefield and 
 Buller in the Report, it is probably quite safe to assert that 
 Wakefield wrote, at Durham's dictation, the whole of the 
 
 1 The Leeds Mercury for January iQth, 1839. 
 
 2 See an interesting letter by the present Lord Durham in The 
 Spectator for July 28th, 1900. 
 
LORD DURHAM'S RECEPTION. 249 
 
 Introduction and the section on Lower Canada, although 
 illustrations may have been supplied by Wakefield himself. 
 Head's evidence in favour of Buller's authorship of the 
 section on Upper Canada is not strictly positive, except 
 where it refers to the sources of the information, but the 
 question will be dealt with later when the section on Upper 
 Canada is discussed. It may be sufficient to say that the 
 original draft by Buller was retouched and probably altered 
 in language somewhat to bring it more into harmony with 
 the rest of the Report. Even so, the style marks it out as 
 the work of a different hand. The section on the Maritime 
 Provinces scarcely affords materials for an adequate decision, 
 but the information was obviously given at private inter- 
 views, and these pages may have been also dictated by 
 Durham. Dr. Garnett is quite justified in concluding that 
 if Wakefield wrote " any part of the Report on Church and 
 Crown lands he wrote the whole." 1 Hanson may have 
 assisted Wakefield to digest the evidence, but he did little 
 more. Lord Durham was as keenly interested in the land 
 question as Wakefield himself, and had accepted the latter's 
 views ; however, if he himself had been responsible for the 
 paragraphs on Church and Crown lands, which seem to 
 have been the passages objected to by the ministry, we can 
 hardly believe that he would have so complacently agreed 
 to delete them. His interests were more political than 
 economic, and Wakefield's were more economic than 
 political. Perhaps we may even trace that vivid picture 
 of the almost magical transformation of the wilderness into 
 centres of American industrial and political life to the same 
 hand that wrote " England and America," although it is 
 described as the result of private conversations and a 
 distant view of Buffalo. 
 
 Whether Durham had or had not any share in the fourth 
 
 section, he certainly had a very great share in the last 
 
 It was, however, commonly accepted at the time that he 
 
 could not have written the Report himself, because he had 
 
 1 " Life of E. G. Wakefield," p. 179. 
 
250 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 consistently opposed, during the whole of his stay in Canada, 
 the proposal to unite the two provinces. Head, the 
 Quarterly reviewer, and the hostile Canadian pamphleteers, 
 all indicate Buller, Wakefield, or Turton, or all combined, 
 as those responsible for it Only Haliburton seems willing 
 to ascribe it to Durham, but he does so in no spirit of 
 friendliness. One anonymous Canadian pamphleteer is 
 especially definite, and charges Wakefield with being the 
 one who advised the union of the two Canadas the jewel 
 of the Report, as he sarcastically terms it. All the evidence 
 goes to prove that his guess was correct, but he would only 
 suggest the reply that Durham had first to be converted. 
 
 Head adduces " three conversations and one private 
 letter " to prove that at any rate a month before he left 
 Canada Lord Durham was hostile to the proposed union. 1 
 No one denies that, and Richardson admits it, but seems 
 to ascribe the change of opinion to the meetings of the 
 British in favour of the union 3 ; to these may be added the 
 failure of the final attempt by Buller to win over the French. 
 Wakefield, in his letter to The Spectator of November 24th, 
 1838, says that an actual residence in Canada had forced 
 him to change his views, and he probably spoke for Lord 
 Durham too. His letter of November 22nd is but a repeti- 
 tion of the view he expressed in writing from Quebec, on 
 September 29th, to Sir William Molesworth 3 : " Buller has 
 been true to his avowed principles. He has ever been the 
 advocate of mercy and justice against policy. Not so I, 
 who have had deeply impressed on me the opinion first 
 suggested by you, that the Canadians are a miserable race, 
 and that the country must be made English by one means 
 or another." This statement of Buller's opinion confirms 
 the story 4 that Buller, even after the second rebellion, was 
 a sympathiser with the French. The country might have 
 
 1 In his "Emigrant," pp. 366368. 
 
 2 " Eight Years in Canada," p. 36. 
 
 3 Mrs. Fawcett's " Life of Molesworth," p. 201. 
 
 4 See/^/, p. 318. 
 
LORD DURHAM'S RECEPTION. 251 
 
 " been made English " by Sir Charles Grey's scheme of a 
 triple division of the Canadas, but the meeting in support 
 of Lord Brougham at St. Roch may have caused Durham 
 to distrust even the French of Quebec, and so have disposed 
 him to agree in Wakefield's plan. 
 
 Beyond the suggestion of the union Wakefield's part in 
 the authorship of the fifth section is probably slight. The 
 recommendations of Durham are thoroughly in accord with 
 his past professions, and are a manifesto in favour of 
 that policy of " ships, colonies and commerce " which he 
 advocated immediately on his return to England. We 
 can scarcely ascribe to Buller any share in the final section 
 of the Report. He never agreed with the policy of uniting 
 the Canadas, 1 and, in criticising Head's " Emigrant," he 
 maintains, which is quite true, that Durham only accepted 
 it as a substitute for the truer policy of a federation of all 
 the colonies. If Durham wrote or dictated the first part 
 of the Report, it is difficult to ascribe the last section, which 
 tallies with it so well, to any one else. Durham was too 
 honest to accept the praise for other men's work and too 
 haughty to sign his name to other men's opinions. If he 
 accepted Buller's view of the Upper Canadian troubles, 
 he made it his own, and advised remedies ; if the diagnosis 
 was wrong, the fault was not his. If he included Wake- 
 field's views on the land question and on the union, he 
 only did so when he was convinced of their justness. He 
 was nofatn/aat Governor, neither was he a brilliant Heaven- 
 sent leader. He was an honest man, desirous of doing his 
 best for his Queen and his country ; he was placed in a 
 difficult position and acquitted himself to the best of his 
 ability. If he failed in Canada and who dare say now 
 that he did fail ? if he failed in England, his failure must 
 be put down to his honesty. " And that I will never do, 
 come what may," was his reply to an invitation to become 
 figurehead of a Chartist- Radical party. 
 
 The rest of Durham's life was soon over. The exertions 
 1 Except perhaps passively. C*. "Hansard,' Vol. XLVIL, p. 1282. 
 
252 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 of the past year and the many disappointments to which 
 he had been subjected were telling upon a physique never 
 too strong. Still, he kept his word, and worked hard for 
 the Canadas, and for other colonies too. He and Wake- 
 field were keenly interested in a plan for the colonisation 
 of New Zealand. Normanby, Glenelg's successor, disliked 
 Durham, and persistently refused to grant a Charter, 
 although Durham reorganized the older societies into the 
 New Zealand Land Company, and became chairman him- 
 self in April. When Normanby went so far as to be 
 obviously about to prevent the sailing of the ship Tory 
 with the first pioneers on board, Wakefield secretly left 
 London and went on board the Tory at Plymouth before 
 Normanby could make up his mind to act. It was at 
 a dinner, held on April 2/th at the West India Dock 
 Tavern, on behalf of the Company, that Durham showed 
 one of the last sparks of the old fire. Trouble was threaten- 
 ing with the United States over the New Brunswick 
 frontier, and one of the members offered the consolation 
 that the sun of England's glory in the West had only 
 set to rise again in the South. Durham arose, and with 
 flashing eyes denounced such a belief; he for one would 
 rather sever his right arm from his body than see the 
 British dependencies in the Canadas severed from the 
 parent State. 
 
 Durham was not a man of a single interest, and he was 
 working hard in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws. 
 He supported the Government nominally, but he generally 
 sat on the back bench. in the furthest corner removed from 
 the woolsack. One of the spectators said of him : " His 
 face and figure continue so juvenile as to surprise all who 
 see him for the first time. His countenance bespeaks 
 indifferent health, at least a bad digestion, of which a very 
 natural consequence is irritability and discontent ; but 
 there is only a tinge of this expression on his otherwise 
 quiet and soft features. He always speaks like a man of 
 great decision, mixed with some impatience." Perhaps 
 
LORD DURHAM'S RECEPTION. 253 
 
 the impatience was excusable in dealing with the second 
 Melbourne ministry. At the end of March Lord John 
 Russell announced his intention of introducing on April 
 22nd a Bill to provide for the government of Canada, but 
 the trouble in Jamaica delayed matters. On May 3rd 
 Melbourne presented to the House of Lords the Queen's 
 message recommending the union of the Canadas, but on 
 the 7th he announced that the ministry had resigned on 
 account of the Commons' vote on the Jamaica proposals 
 of the Government. The Bill for suspending the island's 
 Constitution had only been carried by five votes, and 
 Melbourne, seeing that the Radicals had abandoned him, 
 gave up the struggle. 
 
 In this "bedchamber crisis" Lord Durham took little 
 part, beyond agreeing to present a petition to the Queen 
 from Marylebone congratulating her on her firmness. In 
 a few days Melbourne resumed office, but with less power 
 than ever. On Monday, June 3rd, Lord John Russell 
 opened the debate on Canada by proposing two Resolutions, 
 one in favour of the union of the Canadas, and the other 
 renewing the Act which suspended the Lower Canadian 
 Constitution, with certain modifications, till 1842. His 
 speech was an account of the different remedies proposed 
 for the troubles in Canada, and maintained that the 
 solution put forward in the Resolutions was the only one 
 possible. However, more opposition than was expected 
 was met with, principally based on the objection of the 
 Legislature of Upper Canada, both to the union and to 
 responsible government. The debate was adjourned and 
 readjourned until the proposal to legislate immediately 
 for the Canadas was abandoned. It was arranged that 
 Poulett Thompson, ex-President of the Board of Trade, 
 should replace Colborne in Canada. He was ostensibly 
 to find out the real wishes of the colonists, actually to 
 carry through the Legislatures of the two provinces a 
 Resolution approving of the union. 
 
 The political situation in England was unique. Sir 
 
254 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Robert Peel had all but replaced Melbourne, and the 
 Radicals had been willing to assist. Melbourne and the 
 Whigs dared not cross Durham too openly, and yet they 
 were equally afraid of offending Peel and the Tories by 
 accepting his recommendations. As a result they agreed 
 to the "whitewashing" of Turton on February iQth, 
 Brougham assisting at the operation by virtue of his 
 renewed friendship with Durham, 1 but in July they hesitated 
 to trust the Union Bill to parliament. A better choice 
 than that of Poulett Thompson could not have been made 
 for the work in hand. He was, or affected to be, thoroughly 
 converted to Durham's views, and held frequent con- 
 versations with him and Buller. When he sailed it was 
 with Durham's approval of his mission, and he made use 
 of that approval to the full. 
 
 He met with little opposition in the special Council of 
 Lower Canada, except from John Neilson, who could not 
 even yet approve of the union. From the French no 
 opposition was possible. Held down by force of arms, 
 they listlessly awaited their doom. They had learned 
 that nothing was to be hoped from the United States, and 
 neither Papineau nor Nelson would hear of a fresh in- 
 surrection. It was otherwise in Upper Canada, where 
 opposition to the union was strong, especially among the 
 Tories and officials. However, it was union or bankruptcy, 
 and Poulett Thompson did not mince matters. On 
 December I2th, 1839, he had written a long letter to 
 Melbourne describing the state of affairs. 2 The Government 
 could scarcely command two votes in the Assembly or 
 Council, and the officials voted against its plans ; jobbery, 
 financial chaos, and administrative disorder were rife, and 
 most of the public offices were defaulters, but by the 1 5th 
 he had forced the Legislative Council to accept his plan. 
 Finally the Assembly also gave way ; Poulett Thompson 
 had coaxed, cajoled, and even threatened those who 
 
 1 " Hansard," Vol. XLV., p. 598. 
 
 2 Sanders, p. 446. 
 
LORD DURHAM'S RECEPTION. 255 
 
 resisted. He was made Lord Sydenham for his success, 
 and the Ministry could now face parliament with their 
 scheme. 
 
 While Poulett Thompson was reaping where Durham 
 had sown, the latter was gradually sinking into his grave. 
 He took no prominent part in advocating the Union Bill, 
 partly because his health was failing, but more probably 
 because he did not wish the cause of the Canadians to be 
 identified with his own unpopularity. Speaking from his 
 place in the House of Lords on February nth, 1839, 
 he said : " If noble lords wished to indulge in personalities, 
 he offered himself to them to pursue the course which 
 seemed to them the best. Let them say of him what they 
 pleased ; let them set apart one day for personal attacks ; 
 but then let these things be finished, and then let them 
 come to the great and important question, and the mighty 
 interests involved in it, without any admixture of low, 
 petty, and personal feelings." 1 Before the new Union Bill 
 could be presented to parliament, Durham was ordered to 
 the South of Europe by the physicians. He got as far as 
 Dover, but the journey was too great a strain on his 
 strength. For six weeks he lay dying at Cowes. When he 
 had to turn aside at Dover he felt the end was near, but 
 with his indomitable will-power he actually took a short 
 cruise in his yacht while at Cowes. For a moment it 
 seemed as though he might linger as a chronic invalid, 
 but during the last week he could take only beef-tea and 
 fruit. He was devotedly nursed by his wife, but for two 
 days before he died he could not rise from his bed. On 
 the early morning of July 28th he was taken so ill that a 
 physician was called in again, but the Earl died four hours 
 later, at ten minutes past nine, surrounded by his family. 
 On the day following the body was conveyed by his yacht 
 to Sunderland and thence to its last resting-place at 
 Chester-le-Street. Five days before he breathed his last 
 the Queen had signed the new Constitution of United 
 1 "Hansard," Vol. XLV., p. 214. 
 
256 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Canada. Two of Durham's recommendations had been 
 accepted, for in a dispatch to Poulett Thompson, Russell 
 had ordered him to govern Canada in accordance with the 
 advice of the leaders of the majority in the Assembly. 
 Durham died hopeful, if not contented ; almost his last 
 words were : " The Canadians will one day do justice to my 
 memory." 
 
 His best epitaph will be the verdict of Charles Buller : 
 " If he failed to obtain the results of immediate satisfaction 
 and credit to himself, it was because he laboured for 
 higher and more permanent objects .... was the 
 first to advance towards wider and clearer views .... 
 his foresight enabled him to base his policy on those 
 principles on which the coming age of the world will be 
 ruled, . . . From after times he will receive a yet 
 larger meed of justice. For, as coming events in their 
 appointed course shall prove the sagacity with which he 
 foresaw them .... so will shine forth with daily 
 increasing brightness the character of that statesman'who 
 alone in his day rightly appreciated the worth of our 
 colonial Empire, and saw on what deep and sure foundations 
 of freedom its prosperity might be reared. With us, then, 
 that sorrow for his loss, which no time can efface, need be 
 mingled with no vain and injurious regrets for the result 
 of his labours, which will long survive in the bettered lot 
 and grateful recollections of our colonies, with none for a 
 fame which, instead of being laid in his untimely grave, 
 will date from the hour of his death the commencement of 
 a long and vigorous existence." l 
 
 1 From the Buller MS. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 THE DURHAM REPORT: LOWER CANADA. 
 
 THE Report falls easily into five sections. Nearly half of 
 the total number of pages are taken up by an elaborate 
 examination of the state of things reponsible for the 
 trouble in Lower Canada. The second section, of thirty- 
 four pages, deals with Upper Canada. " The Eastern 
 Provinces and Newfoundland " is the heading of section 
 three ; the treatment, however, is very slight, and only 
 seven pages are devoted to it. Section four deals with the 
 disposal of public lands and emigration, and takes up 
 forty-six pages. Section five, consisting of the rest of the 
 two hundred and forty-six pages of Messrs. Methuen's 
 edition of the Report, propounds and discusses the various 
 remedies and schemes of reform which Durham thought 
 advisable. 
 
 The section on Lower Canada follows a brief preface. 
 The latter, after reciting how Durham was appointed 
 " High Commissioner for the adjustment of certain impor- 
 tant questions depending in the provinces of Lower and 
 Upper Canada, respecting the form and future government 
 of the said provinces," proceeds to explain that the very 
 extension of Durham's powers beyond the usual limit 
 assigned to the Governor-General, while it increased the 
 difficulties of his task, also gave him special facilities for 
 acquiring information. The course of his investigations 
 led him to study, not only the Canadas, but also the other 
 provinces, and he found the same evils in each. He was 
 aware, before leaving England, of the pressing necessity 
 for action, and had promised the ministry to furnish a 
 scheme of reform as soon as possible. Therefore his 
 
 S.G.C. s 
 
258 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 resignation had not caused the presentation of a hurriedly 
 extemporised plan, but it had prevented more detailed 
 information. The preface closes with a glowing description 
 of the possible future of British North America, by reason 
 of the population likely to be attracted there by its 
 industrial and agricultural capabilities. 
 
 The section on Lower Canada is perhaps the most able, 
 and certainly the most interesting, section of the Report. 
 Whatever views may be held as to the composite character 
 of the authorship of the Report as a whole, the diction and 
 spirit of this portion can only be ascribed to Durham 
 himself. The absence of an Assembly, while it enormously 
 simplified the work of government, rendered it necessary 
 for the Governor to become conversant with every detail 
 of the administration of affairs. He thus saw the actual 
 defects of the system. Relying on the ordinary accounts 
 of the troubles in Lower Canada, Durham was astonished 
 to find on his arrival how utterly they misrepresented 
 the real state of affairs. The actual occurrence of a 
 political struggle in the other provinces helped the illusion, 
 but in Lower Canada he found the question* was really 
 one of English versus French. How that conviction was 
 driven home has been already related in his own striking 
 phrase : " I expected to find a contest between a Govern- 
 ment and a people. I found two nations warring in the 
 bosom of a single State." 
 
 Durham sketches rapidly and accurately the gradual 
 embitterment of the two races, first in the cities and finally 
 in the townships and seigneuries. The insurrection of 
 1837 completed the severance, and now the two races 
 stood openly opposed and the authorities refused, except 
 in one solitary case, to allow those French who professed 
 to be loyal to take up arms. To-day we see that Durham 
 underrated the numbers of the Moderates, whose leader 
 Lafontaine was soon to be. At that time Lafontaine was 
 sulking in his tent, and the failure of the second insurrec- 
 tion had not, during Durham's stay in Canada, taught 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 259 
 
 men that the day of " Papineauism " was over. All that 
 Durham could see was the steadfast loyalty of the clergy 
 and the more important seigneurs, and the necessarily 
 strong professions of the French Canadian placemen. 
 The presence of the veteran reformer John Neilson in 
 Colborne's Council convinced Durham how little sympathy 
 Papineau's aims found among the British. 
 
 We then are told of Durham's amazement when he 
 learnt the aims and actions of the French Liberals. No 
 one had less sympathy than he with the feudal system in 
 any shape, and he was surprised to find the Liberal leaders 
 of men, who themselves at St. Denis and St. Charles 
 believed they were fighting for its abolition, straining 
 every nerve to retain its grossest abuses for their own 
 advantage. He began to distrust his informants in Eng- 
 land when a very short stay "in Canada taught him the true 
 character of those " slavish tools of an official clique," as 
 Roebuck and his friends had called the British. To his 
 cost Durham knew they were anything but slavish. Before 
 Durham could win their confidence or even neutrality he 
 had to disown all sympathy with the "old gang" at 
 Quebec. This the Governor did not think any great 
 hardship till he found that only in the minds of men like 
 Chief Justice Sewell was there any thought of the mis- 
 fortunes of the French. It was only with the greatest 
 reluctance that Durham accepted Glenelg's view of the 
 contest that it was one of races, not of principles ; but 
 when he came to study the French character as it had 
 developed in Canada, he understood. 
 
 He does full justice to the good qualities of the habitant ; 
 he goes further, and does not blame the advocate, doctor, 
 and notary for the course they took in becoming dema- 
 gogues when every other avenue to influence was closed. 1 
 It was the fatuous policy of the Constitutional Act that 
 Durham attacks ; although a Radical, he saw the folly of 
 
 1 An estimate was made at the time that seventeen doctors, eleven 
 advocates, and five notaries took an active part in the struggle. 
 
 ' S 2 
 
2 6o SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 giving the franchise to men so utterly unfitted for it by 
 history and habits as the habitant of Quebec. He shows 
 that the inevitable result of representative institutions, 
 divorced from any system of responsible government, was 
 bound to cause discontent even if, as was assuredly not the 
 case in Canada, the oligarchy had taken reasonable steps 
 to keep in touch with the people governed. The influx of 
 fresh settlers alarmed the Canadians, as they managed by 
 their superior energy and ability to engross a large share 
 of the country's wealth. The British, careless as ever of 
 foreign susceptibilities, did not conceal their contempt for 
 everything French. The latter were not backward in 
 retaliating and the estrangement of the two races grew, 
 till they, or rather the French, shunned as far as possible 
 all chance of meeting. They took their revenge by using 
 their majority in the Assembly to prevent the passage of 
 any measure desired by the British, careless of the natural 
 result that the British sank their own differences with the 
 Executive, which were not small, and joined it against the 
 common enemy. The British reformers fell away, too, 
 and Papineau and the extremists were left in control of 
 the Assembly. 
 
 Durham does not quite agree with his own dispatch of 
 August Qth in describing the immediate cause of the 
 rebellion. In the despatch he pointed out, quite truly, that 
 the British hurried on the rebellion, which was inevitable, 
 because they were ready and the French were not ; waiving 
 the question of whether Papineau actually contemplated an 
 appeal to arms, it is somewhat suggestive of the strong 
 Montreal influence to which he was subjected during the 
 September and October of 1838 to find him in the Report 
 writing of the " treasonable attempt of the French party to 
 carry its political objects into effect by an appeal to arms." 
 In graphir tvords Durham describes the utter collapse of 
 the Frciich hopes, and the state of despair and stupefaction 
 to which they had been reduced by their defeat ; turning 
 to the other side, he paints the triumph of the British and 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 261 
 
 their sudden transition from a state of danger to one of 
 unchecked supremacy ; taught by their spies of the 
 existence of secret conspiracies among the conquered, they 
 trembled in the midst of success and convinced themselves 
 that only the inauguration of a reign of terror could 
 prevent a second rising of the French. " Never again will 
 the present generation of French Canadians yield a loyal 
 submission to a British Government ; never again will the 
 English population tolerate the authority of a House of 
 Assembly in which the French shall possess or even 
 approximate to a majority." 1 The history of United Canada 
 falsified Durham's prophecy, but the circumstances were 
 different 
 
 After a few examples of the extraordinary ignorance 
 which places the habitant at the mercy of his unscrupulous 
 leaders, Durham touches on the failure of the jury system 
 in Canada, as, whatever may be the case on trial, the 
 English and French jurymen invariably adopt different 
 views irrespective of the evidence. After expressing his 
 opinion that it is impossible to find out what were the 
 plans, if any, of the French leaders, or the hopes of the 
 habitant from independence, he alludes to the readiness of 
 both parties in Canada to prefer annexation to the United 
 States before submission to their rival at home. Durham's 
 intercourse with Adam Thorn had left him in no doubt as 
 to the intentions of the British of Montreal. " Lower 
 Canada must be English, at the expense, if necessary, of not 
 being British"* Durham scarcely needed this hint, for he 
 knew too well how strong were the sympathies between 
 the English north and south of the frontier. As a Radical 
 Durham could not counsel any " gerrymandering " of the 
 constituencies of Lower Canada so as to give the British a 
 majority, and yet he saw that the only possible means of 
 retaining Canada for the English Crown lay in giving 
 power to the British. In spite of all, his sympathy with 
 the French was not wholly gone ; he inveighed against the 
 1 Report, p. 35. " Report, p. 41. 
 
262 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 folly of those statesmen who were short-sighted enough to 
 encourage the idea of " Lower Canada for the French " by 
 the Acts of 1774 and 1791. He tried hard to persuade 
 himself and others that he believed England was justified 
 in anglicising the country. And yet his arguments do 
 not ring true. Durham saw the real remedy every 
 incident in his career proves that : he wished to secure 
 liberty to French and English alike, and to prevent the 
 oppression of either. However dimly, the French of 
 Lower Canada had grasped the national idea, and knowing 
 its value, Durham wished to preserve it as the mainspring 
 of a healthy rivalry between the States of a new federal 
 union. Circumstances proved too strong for him ; Durham 
 was blameless, and he insisted as strongly as he dare that 
 the Montreal scheme of a united Canada was a makeshift 
 and doomed to failure. 
 
 Durham preferred vividness to logical arrangement, and 
 he launches next into a disquisition on the working of the 
 constitutional system of the colonies as a whole, but more 
 particularly of Lower Canada. The story has been already 
 told in previous chapters. In marked contrast to the want 
 of knowledge displayed later in dealing with the history of 
 Upper Canada, Durham seems to have thoroughly mastered 
 the subject of the troubles of Lower Canada. He had been 
 for many months in daily converse with many of the 
 principal actors in the events he describes, and he had the 
 advantage of being able to consult Neilson as well as 
 Adam Thorn and Sewell. He was strictly impartial, for 
 his personal predilections were in favour of the men whom 
 he felt impelled by the mere weight of evidence to 
 condemn. He admitted that the conduct of the British 
 Government was not blameless, that the colonies were 
 often neglected, and that the system of government 
 pursued in British North America was bad. No one could 
 be made responsible ; the Executive Council was 
 independent of Governor and Assembly alike and was 
 powerful only for harm. Durham recognised the difficulty, 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 263 
 
 if not the impossibility, of making it " responsible " as 
 demanded by the reformers, unless by transforming it into 
 the Cabinet which Bedard had said it was in Craig's 
 time. 
 
 The fact is that representative government was an alien 
 plant among the French. To the habitant the Governor- 
 General was only the successor of the old Intendant, 
 and consequently everything was referred to him or the 
 Civil Secretary ; the theory of a bureaucracy still prevailed, 
 but the elaborate machinery which alone made the French 
 centralised system possible was in a ruinous condition, 
 where it existed at all. To complete the disorganization, 
 local government was practically unknown ; outside the 
 walls of Quebec, the only representatives of law and order 
 were the Solicitor-General at Montreal, and a sheriff in 
 each of the districts into which Lower Canada was divided. 
 Elsewhere there was neither sheriff, mayor, nor constable, 
 and the counties were only electoral districts. As Lord 
 Durham expresses it, 1 "the French Canadians were un- 
 happily initiated into self-government at exactly the 
 wrong end ; and those who were not trusted with the 
 management of a parish were enabled by their votes to 
 influence the destinies of a State." Montreal and Quebec 
 certainly did once possess corporations, but in 1836 the 
 Act was not renewed ; the reason was that it gave too 
 much influence to the French. 
 
 When Durham comes to describe the legal system of the 
 province his perplexity is almost ludicrous. Roebuck 
 thought he did not seem to understand his advice on this 
 point during their interview, but Durham can be pardoned 
 this, for a more absurd state of things could not be iound 
 in a comic opera. No one reading the Report of the 
 Commissioners of 1828, and especially the evidence they 
 took, dare venture to say that any one understood what 
 the law in Canada on any given point really was. It 
 consisted of (i) British Acts of Parliament, (2) ordinances 
 1 Report, p. 79. 
 
264 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 of the Governor and Council previous to 1791, (3) 
 provincial statutes, (4) so much of the Custom of Paris as 
 had been commonly received in Canada as governing civil 
 matters, (5) British Common Law relating to criminal and 
 commercial cases, and, strangest of all, (6) a strong strain 
 of American law especially in the case of the devolution of 
 inheritances, primogeniture being unpopular in Canada. 
 Perhaps there was once a definite partition of the different 
 spheres of legal action among these various legal systems, 
 but it soon passed out of knowledge. A rude customary 
 law was administered in the more outlying districts such 
 as Gasp6 and the Eastern Townships, but, court-houses and 
 gaols being rare, the more important cases were taken to 
 Quebec or Montreal. The country was divided into four 
 superior districts with supreme, original and unlimited 
 jurisdiction, and one inferior district with limited jurisdic- 
 tion ; the superior districts were Quebec, Montreal, Three 
 Rivers, and St. Francis (in the Eastern Townships), and 
 Gasp, the dreary peninsula at the mouth of the St. 
 Lawrence, was the other. The existence of a coroner for 
 Gaspe was only ascertained by the discovery of an 
 estimate for his salary, and almost the only thing Durham 
 could learn about it was the inhabitants' dislike of the Act 
 constituting them a separate district inferior to Quebec. 
 Gaspe, being inhabited by British, was shamefully 
 neglected by the Assembly, who had expelled its famous 
 member, the historian, Robert Christie, from the House. 
 
 At Montreal and Quebec there was a Chief Justice with 
 three puisne judges ; at St. Francis and Three Rivers 
 there was but one judge, the complete Bench being made 
 up in term-time by borrowing others. In civil cases these 
 Courts possessed original and unlimited jurisdiction, but, 
 despite the heavy fees, the more important cases were 
 taken to Quebec and Montreal. An attempt had been 
 made to introduce the English circuit system to remedy 
 this, but as the value in dispute must not exceed ;io, 
 the Bar generally absented itself, and the short duration of 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 265 
 
 the various Courts made the system scarcely a success. 
 The real seat of justice to the habitant was the Courts 
 of the " Commissioners of Small Causes," established in 
 the different parishes by the Governor, on the application 
 of a certain number of the inhabitants, under a Provincial 1 
 Act. The Commissioners appointed by the Governor 
 upon the recommendation of the petitioners had jurisdic- 
 tion over all debts not exceeding 25 dollars (6 5*. 
 currency). They were residents in the parish and almost 
 wholly unversed in law. Their constitution was simply 
 an elective judiciary based on an electoral system the most 
 absurd, irregular, and fraudulent imaginable. Durham 
 got his information from one of the subordinate officials in 
 the Civil Secretary's office, who seems to have taken a 
 delight in painting in the blackest colours a system under 
 which he was a mere passive agent, and which caused him 
 and his fellows so much extra work on account of the 
 constant charges and counter-charges brought against 
 the successful candidate for office. As might be expected, 
 the British had little to hope for from these Commis- 
 sioners, and when they abused their powers by persecut- 
 ing loyalist volunteers, often for acts done in the course 
 of their duty, Durham was urged by those whom he calls 
 the " highest legal authorities in the country " to abolish 
 them. 2 Had the Commissioners attempted to deal fairly 
 with the loyalists, it would have been useless, for petitions 
 alleging that they were incompetent would be immediately 
 got up by ambitious would-be successors. 
 
 In Lower Canada, with its two systems of law, a good 
 appellate jurisdiction was absolutely necessary, but the 
 legal tribunal, except for cases involving very large sums, 
 was the Executive Council. It was true that the Chief 
 Justices of Montreal and Quebec were ex-officio members 
 of the body which sat to hear appeals four times a year, 
 and acted as chairmen in turn when cases from each other's 
 
 1 6 Will. IV., c. 17. 
 
 a Probably Sewell or Sir James Stuart. . 
 
266 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 district came up, but a quorum of five was necessary, and 
 although laymen often allowed the Chief Justice to decide, 
 they also interfered at times for party reasons. The 
 absurd result also of professional rivalry between the Chief 
 Justices was that each generally reversed his fellow's pre- 
 vious decision in a lower Court, and the law in each district 
 was consequently held to be the exact antithesis of the 
 decision given by its Chief Justice. Men would not take 
 the trouble therefore to plead their case fairly until it came 
 before the highest Court, and when Durham reformed the 
 Court of Appeal it reversed every decision but one in the 
 single sitting it held. Bound by the Constitutional Act to vest 
 the appellate jurisdiction in the Executive Council, Durham 
 placed on the Executive Council the Chief Justice and one 
 puisne judge from each of the two districts of Montreal 
 and Quebec, and also the judge from Three Rivers. M. 
 Vallieres de St. Real, once the rival of Papineau, was given 
 them as an arbitrator, whose position as the ablest French 
 lawyer in the province was universally admitted. 
 
 The necessary quorum of five for every possible case was 
 made up by the inclusion of two other Executive Council- 
 lors, " one of whom by his thorough knowledge of com- 
 mercial" law, and his general legal experience was com- 
 monly admitted to have rendered essential service." 1 
 Durham would prefer the abolition of a further appeal to 
 the Privy Council in cases where the value is over 500, if 
 an efficient colonial Court of Appeal could be created. 
 
 Durham's strictures do not end here. He dilates on the 
 want of sufficient gaols, of the absence of sessions and 
 salaried chairmen, and on the bad system of appointing 
 sheriffs, and the failure to take sufficient security from 
 them, but his greatest objection is to the character and 
 methods of appointment of Canadian juries. Some 
 account of the peculiarities of the Canadian system has 
 already been given in telling the story of the ordinance. In 
 the Report Durham admits that both French and English 
 1 One of these was Arthur Buller, the latter perhaps Turton. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 267 
 
 had reason to complain, and the acquittal of Chartrand's 
 murderers thoroughly offended his sense of duty. He does 
 not deny that the French acted fairly when the matter was 
 non-political, but he hints, not obscurely, that in the actual 
 condition of Canada the jury system was worse than useless. 
 
 Nothing in the legal system of Lower Canada was satis- 
 factory to Durham, and almost least of all, perhaps, the 
 character of the Commission of the Peace. While admit- 
 ting its usefulness in Great Britain, he condemns it in 
 Canada, where ignorance of law, want of education and 
 vehement party feelings too often made the system of 
 unpaid magistrates the cause of miscarriages of justice. 
 He advises their replacement by a few stipendiary magis- 
 trates. Closely akin to the magistracy was the police 
 system. He gives an account of the forty-eight watchmen 
 who, till the expiry of the temporary Act in 1836, shared 
 the duty of keeping order with six day constables. These 
 six were under no efficient control, and when, after May, 
 1836, the forty-eight watchmen could not be kept up the 
 British portion the upper town was policed by a 
 voluntary patrol on account of the numerous murders. 
 In December, 1837, Lord Gosford had formed a sort of 
 force under a Mr. Young, and Durham in June, 1838, 
 finding it too small, gave Young thirty-two men, organised 
 after the London plan, and afterwards increased the force 
 to seventy-two in October. Leclerc, of Montreal, whom 
 Gosford had appointed a stipendiary magistrate, organized 
 a similar force there, consisting of one hundred men. In 
 the country districts the militia had to be used for execut- 
 ing warrants, and they were disaffected. 
 
 Durham discusses also the question of education. Arthur 
 Buller, his Commissioner, had formed a plan for obtaining 
 information on a scale too large for any considerable number 
 of replies to be received before the Report was drawn up. 
 Even so Durham is scarcely fair to the French. It is easy 
 to quote stories of children holding reading-books upside 
 down and saying the contents by rote ; there were doubt- 
 
268 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 less many illiterate schoolmasters in Lower Canada, and the 
 general level of book learning was not high. The Assembly 
 had done well for education in the past, although, eager 
 to use it and everything else as a lever to obtain power, 
 they had furnished the Council with an excuse for abolishing 
 at one stroke the system of elementary education in Lower 
 Canada. Durham proposed to use the Jesuit estates for 
 the support of a system of education their original pur- 
 pose and thought that, in their eagerness to emulate their 
 southern neighbours, both English and French would 
 gladly submit to an assessment for the supply of the funds 
 needed. Fortunately there was little sectarian bitterness, 
 and, if the reluctance of the clergy of all denominations to a 
 purely secular education could be overcome, the laity would 
 welcome such a system. "The British who come to Canada 
 late in life are generally better educated than the French, 
 but the children of either race are equally handicapped in 
 their attempts to acquire learning. The Roman Catholic 
 children owe whatever means of education they possess to 
 the clergy ; and all higher education in the province, which 
 is, at the best, not so satisfactory in quality as in the number 
 of institutions of learning, is solely in the hands of the 
 priesthood. The Protestant youth in Canada have no 
 opportunities of obtaining a college education unless they 
 resort, as they do very often, to the United States." 
 
 Durham's private physician, Sir John Doratt, had been 
 made Inspector-General of Hospitals, and had been 
 appointed to investigate the affairs of the various charitable 
 institutions of Lower Canada. His inquiries were cut 
 short, and Head in his " Narrative " makes merry over the 
 long list of foundlings given in the Appendix. Doratt 
 found his task too great, for the condition of affairs in 
 Lower Canada was very bad. Durham says he could not 
 devote much time to this matter, but mentions that Doratt 
 drew his attention to the absence of asylums for the insane, 
 to the insanitary condition of the gaols, especially at Quebec, 
 to the defects of the quarantine station at Grosse Isle, and to 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 269 
 
 the low state of the medical profession in Canada, due to the 
 ignorance and bad training of the practitioners. There were 
 abuses in the system under which convents were granted 
 public money for the support of the insane, the invalid 
 poor, and foundlings. In after years Wolfred Nelson, then 
 restored to his country, became Inspector-General of 
 Prisons, and did much to alleviate the horrors he knew by 
 experience. 
 
 A section follows on the religious question in Canada. 
 Durham pays a magnificent tribute to the Roman Catholic 
 clergy, whose behaviour had conciliated to them the goodwill 
 of all classes. He praises their loyalty, especially during the 
 disturbed times of his government, and advises that they 
 should not be forgotten in any settlement of the clergy 
 reserves question, especially as they were spiritually 
 responsible for the Irish immigrants, whose loyalty they 
 had secured. Durham asks that it shall be rendered easy 
 to legally establish new Catholic parishes so as to relieve 
 the overcrowding in the seigneuries, and he mentions the 
 reluctance of the priests to encourage the settlement of 
 Protestants on seigneurial lands as being natural, so long as 
 they depend for their livelihood on tithes, which Protestants 
 do not pay. Alluding to the clergy reserves dispute, 
 he says it is not so important as in Upper Canada, but it 
 is necessary that the plan adopted in the upper province 
 shall be extended to the lower also, as fear of Anglican 
 predominance very nearly deprived the Government of the 
 support of some portions of the British population. 1 
 
 Durham ends by glancing at financial matters in the 
 colony. He is dissatisfied with the banking and currency 
 system, although he does not think it responsible for the 
 late disorders. This is interesting in view of the statement 
 made by Roebuck that the British merchants of Montreal 
 caused the rebellion, to stave off financial ruin. Dealing 
 with the question of a decrease in the revenue within the last 
 four years of from ; 150,000 to 100,000, he puts it down 
 
 1 Presumably referring to the Presbyterian element at Montreal. 
 
270 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 to the growth of native manufactures and to the smaller 
 amount of spirituous liquors consumed. It is one of the 
 many unaccountable omissions in the Report that the true 
 reason for this diminution of the revenue is not given. In 
 imitation of the Americans, Papineau's followers decided to 
 punish England by refusing to consume articles on which a 
 duty had to be paid. Durham held it to be anything but 
 a healthy sign that, the sum of 68,000 being sufficient to 
 defray the cost of the civil government, there should remain 
 40,000 to be spent by the Assembly in public works in 
 other words, in bribing the electorate. It was impossible, 
 however, to decrease the duties, for they affected Upper 
 Canada. He alludes to the unsatisfactory condition of the 
 financial relations between Upper and Lower Canada, 
 although the former received two-fifths of the dues levied. 
 This financial difficulty was one reason why a portion of the 
 people of Upper Canada desired the union of the provinces. 
 Durham mentions also the complaint of the Assembly that 
 the control of the Post Office was not in their hands, and 
 that the surplus revenue of 10,000 was remitted to England. 
 This was also one of Mackenzie pet grievances in Upper 
 Canada, but neither he nor Durham seems to have con- 
 sidered that a large portion of this 10,000 was only the 
 cost of carriage, which England had already paid. The 
 system was defective, but the efforts of Rowland Hill for 
 Post Office reform were only successful in 1839. It would 
 be impossible to compress more condemnation of a system 
 into so small a space than Durham does in the final 
 paragraph of his remarks upon Lower Canada. The final 
 sentence is : " If the Lower Canadians had been subjected, 
 or rather been taught to subject themselves to a much 
 greater amount of taxation, they would probably at this 
 time have been a much wealthier, a much better governed, 
 and a much more contented people/' 
 
 The question of the authorship of the Report has been 
 already dealt with, but it may perhaps be as well here 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 271 
 
 to give some account of the probable sources of Durham's 
 information. It is no slight on Durham to say that even 
 this section on Lower Canada is not first-hand knowledge 
 to any large extent. He was the head of, and practically 
 the sole Executive at a most important crisis in the history 
 of the country. Except for odd moments, he never came 
 into contact with the people he described. His natural 
 hauteur prevented his making friends in the ordinary sense 
 of the term with the people he ruled. He certainly met 
 Lafontaine, Leslie, Morin, and other French leaders, and, 
 later on, was frequently in close communication with Adam 
 Thorn, Peter McGill, John Neilson, and various British 
 leaders ; but all he knew personally of the habitant was 
 gathered from his rides to Lorette and the various places 
 around Quebec and Montreal. In his grand tour he did 
 not visit the Eastern Townships ; in fact, he seldom left his 
 steamer after embarking at Montreal until he reached 
 Upper Canada. He spent barely ten days there, and four 
 of those were at Niagara, where he entertained quite as 
 many Americans as British, and he was only one day at 
 Toronto. Moreover, he was frequently unable to work 
 owing to rheumatism and dyspepsia, and there is no more 
 striking proof of his ability than the life-like picture he 
 gives of Lower Canada. 
 
 Durham's sources of information were twofold, personal 
 and literary. By the help of able assistants he mastered 
 the contents of the various Reports drawn up by former 
 Commissioners, especially in 1828 and 1834, and by the 
 members of Lord Gosford's Commission, and he seems to 
 have read or learned the contents of some of the many 
 political pamphlets issued by the two Canadian parties or 
 by their British sympathisers. He was also a diligent 
 observer of popular opinion as reflected in the press. Not 
 only did he read what had been written, but he also 
 questioned the actors in some of the scenes. There is a 
 story mentioned by Morgan in his " Bibliotheca 
 Canadensis " that Adam Thorn was the author of a large 
 
272 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 portion of the Report. This is scarcely true in the strict 
 sense, but it represents the truth fairly accurately as regards 
 the section on Lower Canada. Thorn had been an able 
 member of the British party and had defended their views 
 not only in the Herald but also in various pamphlets. His 
 " Anti-Gallic Letters/' and an able defence of the Legisla- 
 tive Council, signed " Anti-Bureaucrat," are worth reading 
 to-day. He was bitterly hated by the French, and Garneau 
 the historian is very severe on him. Lord Durham wisely 
 saw that Thorn was a fitting corrective to the views put 
 forward by Roebuck. He employed him on the Munici- 
 palities Commission, and consulted him on various occasions, 
 especially on the question of the federation of British 
 North America. Thorn and Neilson between them were 
 calculated to give Durham the views he held as to the late 
 Assembly and the habitants. Before Durham left, he took 
 Sewell into favour to some extent, and he and Sir James 
 Stuart, whom Durham appointed his successor, had both 
 personal testimony to give of the methods of the Assembly. 
 Buller and Wakefield, the latter especially, by their inter- 
 course with Lafontaine, Morin, and the rest, could give 
 Durham useful information. Dominick Daly, the Provincial 
 Secretary, member of the Executive Council, and perpetual 
 office-holder under every system of colonial government, 
 must not be forgotten in a list of Durham's helpers. He 
 tells us that his information on education in Lower Canada 
 is derived from Arthur Buller, 1 and we shall not be far 
 wrong in ascribing to Arthur Buller and Turton the 
 account 2 of the extraordinary legal system of the province. 
 Sir John Doratt 8 is responsible for the information as to 
 asylums, gaols, and foundlings, while among the less 
 important but probably valuable informants are to be 
 classed the unnamed assistant in the Civil Secretary's 
 office 4 and Young 5 and Leclerc, who were the heads of the 
 
 1 Report, p. 94. 4 Ibid., p. 84. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 87. * Ibid., p. 93. 
 1 Ibid., p. 96. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 273 
 
 Quebec and Montreal police ; the law officers l of the 
 Crown, especially the Attorney-General, were also useful. 
 
 It may, perhaps, be possible upon investigation to trace 
 other sources of information in the writings of travellers, or 
 to conversations with his American visitors, but those 
 already given are the most important. As it was known 
 that Durham could not have himself obtained the mass of 
 information he produced in the short space of five months, 
 part of which time he was ill, the authenticity of some of his 
 statements was challenged. However, so far as concerns 
 this section, Durham undoubtedly secured the best informa- 
 tion available. It does not detract from his fame that he 
 had the wisdom to use so well the inferior instruments at his 
 command. He strove to be fair to both parties, and no 
 impartial critic can condemn him. Garneau's eloquence 
 revels in mere vague generalities, 2 nor does Haliburton 3 
 deal effectively with the section on Lower Canada. 
 
 1 Report, p. 89. 
 
 2 " Hist, of Canada," Vol. II., ad fin. 
 
 3 " A Reply to Lord Durham's Report," by a colonist. 
 
 S.G.C. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE DURHAM REPORT: UPPER CANADA AND 
 THE MARITIME PROVINCES. 
 
 THE section of the Report dealing with Upper Canada is 
 the one most open to attack, and it met with great criticism 
 from different quarters. The picture is not sketched with 
 so sure a touch as that of Lower Canada, and is not always 
 perfectly consistent. There are reasons, which will be given 
 later, for ascribing, at any rate, the first draft of this section 
 to Charles Buller alone, and it is scarcely disputed that the 
 facts are taken from a less composite source than are those 
 of the first section. 
 
 It is acknowledged by Durham that the information 
 was not acquired during an actual administration of the 
 province, and that his object is only to point out the 
 principal causes which led to the late troubles. 1 The want 
 of any definite party lines necessarily rendered this search 
 somewhat difficult, and the touch may be Durham's own 
 it is added that it is really hard to understand what 
 justification there was for rebellion. 3 As a constitutional 
 reformer Durham had no sympathy with Mackenzie and 
 not much with Papineau ; Buller was more impetuous and 
 if he was the author of this section proceeds to sketch a 
 state of things which, if true, would go far to justify the 
 action of the extremists. 
 
 It begins by describing the settlement of separate bodies 
 of men in isolated corners of the geographical division 
 called Upper Canada ; the badness of communications 
 increased this isolation, and hence one's opinion of the 
 country and its desires varied with the part from which the 
 
 1 Report, p. 103. a Ibid., p. 103. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 275 
 
 information was obtained. Toronto, Kingston, Niagara 
 and Guelph were rivals, whose inhabitants fancied they had 
 few interests in common, and hence, in describing each 
 other to travellers, were guilty of misrepresenting facts, and 
 that too voluntarily. A sketch of the political history of 
 Upper Canada is then given, but it cannot be said that it 
 possesses anything like the value of that in the previous 
 section. It is not so much that Buller wished to deceive 
 as that, being a Radical of a peculiar stamp himself, he 
 could not judge fairly of a system so alien to his views of 
 what was right and proper. He disliked the Tories of 
 Upper Canada as much as they distrusted him. According 
 to a letter 1 of W. H. Draper, the Solicitor-General to 
 Head, Buller left the province stating that nine-tenths of 
 the people were disaffected an obvious exaggeration and 
 his account of the history of the province is like an attempt 
 to explain why they ought to be even if they were not. 
 
 According to the Report, the key to the political troubles 
 is to be found in the existence of the " family compact " 
 an episcopalian Government House clique and its per- 
 sistency in ruling the country despite the wishes of the 
 people, especially in the matter of the clergy reserves. 
 Although Buller accepts the view of Mackenzie as to the 
 " family compact" he affects to doubt the existence of 
 any family connection among the members. The fact is 
 that there was a close family connection, but this was 
 inevitable when the people in question were the aristocracy 
 of Toronto and their power of forming outside alliances 
 was in consequence necessarily limited. 3 Quoting from the 
 Report, 3 "the Bench, the magistracy, the high offices of 
 the Episcopal Church, and a great part of the legal pro- 
 fession are filled by this party ; by grant or by purchase 
 they have acquired nearly the whole of the waste lands of 
 
 1 See Head's " Narrative," p. 480. 
 
 9 See Dent : "Hist, of Upper Canadian Rebellion," Vol. I., p. 75 ; 
 and Mackenzie : " Sketches of Canada and the United States, 
 pp. 405-409. 
 
 3 Report, p. 105. 
 
 T 2 
 
276 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 the province ; they are all-powerful in the chartered banks, 
 and, till lately, shared among themselves almost exclusively 
 all offices of trust and profit. The bulk of this party 
 consists for the most part of native-born inhabitants of the 
 colony, or of emigrants who had settled in it before the 
 last war with the United States ; the principal members of 
 it belong to the Church of England, and the maintenance 
 of the claims of that Church has always been one of its 
 distinguishing characteristics." 
 
 It is strange that Buller did not say outright that the 
 patricians of Toronto owed their position to the simple 
 fact that, like the patricians at Rome, they were the 
 original creators of the State, and were naturally as dis- 
 inclined as the Boers were to hand over the control of their 
 land to a crowd of American and British immigrants. The 
 United Empire Loyalists belonged to the eighteenth 
 century ; many of them had come from the slave-holding 
 States of the south, and even those from the northern States 
 were upholders of the views with which the Whig 
 oligarchy governed England in the eighteenth century. 
 According to our more enlightened ideas they were politi- 
 cally wrong, but we must not forget that in 1838 the poorer 
 classes in Great Britain were without the franchise and that 
 the middle classes had only obtained it in 1832. The 
 " family compact " governed Upper Canada as an aristo- 
 cracy always governs a country ; it is frequently at first 
 necessary, it is always arbitrary ; but it is seldom, for its 
 own sake, tyrannical except towards the unfortunate 
 individual reformers to whose lot it falls to combat its pre- 
 tensions. The " compact " was emphatically not a Govern- 
 ment House clique, if by the " compact " Buller means the 
 Tory party of Upper Canada. Such of its members as 
 were not descendants of the United Empire Loyalists were 
 half-pay officers or discharged soldiers and sailors. The 
 Radical Opposition from the time of Willcocks to that of 
 Bidwell consisted of United Irishmen and Americans with 
 a preference for Republican institutions. What Buller did 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 277 
 
 not grasp as he did not really visit the country thoroughly 
 was the existence of an intensely powerful body of 
 Moderates, largely Methodists, led by Egerton Ryerson, 
 whose name is not once mentioned in this section, although 
 it would come in most fittingly in describing Head's victory 
 over Mackenzie. It was not to the Governor's appeals, but 
 to Mackenzie's quarrel with Ryerson, whom the rebels 
 subsequently threatened to hang to the nearest tree, that 
 the extremists owed their defeat. Their jealousy of the 
 exclusive rights of the Episcopalians to the clergy reserves 
 gave the Reformers the victory in 1829 and 1834. 
 
 In Lower Canada the extremists of either party com- 
 prised the majority of the population. It was otherwise in 
 Upper Canada, where the extremists, as represented by 
 Hagerman and Mackenzie, were in a hopeless minority. 
 In both countries the real discontent arose from economic 
 as opposed to political troubles. In Lower Canada it was 
 the struggle of an economically inefficient peasantry 
 against the wealth and vigour of a rich and progressive 
 minority of a different race ; in Upper Canada the dis- 
 content arose from the backward condition of the country, 
 which in turn was due to want of capital and population, 
 and to the existence of a quantity of "dead" land which 
 obstructed all improvement. As is ever the case, cheap 
 land meant poverty, and Buller admits that the reformers 
 obtained power by appealing to the people against the 
 two worst offenders, the members of the compact and the 
 corporation of the Anglican clergy. 1 
 
 When Buller is dealing simply with the political question 
 the demand for a responsible Executive he is on safer 
 ground. It is an inevitable result of the national difference 
 that while the French attacked the foes they saw the 
 nominated Legislative Council Mackenzie and his party 
 went to the root of the matter, the irresponsible provincial 
 Executive. It is doubtful if Buller really understood the 
 immense gap which separated Baldwin and Ryerson from 
 1 Report, p. 1 06. 
 
278 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Rolph and Mackenzie or even Bidwell. He mentions that 
 the "American" party had been increased by the failure of 
 Mackenzie, but probably he was mistaken. In the same 
 paragraph it is said that the views of the great body 
 of reformers appear to have been limited, according to 
 their favourite expression, to making the colonial Con- 
 stitution " an exact transcript " of that of Great Britain. 1 
 This is undoubtedly true, but Baldwin and Mackenzie held 
 different views on the subject, and it must be remembered 
 that the phrase " responsible government " even as under- 
 stood by Lord Durham with reference to the colonies, 
 varied somewhat from the system established to-day. The 
 Tories too were by no means mere blind upholders of 
 tyranny. In their ranks were men who should rather be 
 called " Conservatives." It was this latter party that 
 gained most from Mackenzie's failure and formed the 
 nucleus of the Liberal-Conservative party after the Union. 
 Buller next touches on the "jobbing" which was so 
 shameful a feature of Canadian political life. It was not so 
 bad here as in Lower Canada, largely because the surplus 
 funds were few ; the construction of the great canal system 
 of Upper Canada had been very expensive, and sheer bad 
 management not to say dishonesty had increased the 
 cost so much that funds were available neither to complete 
 the system nor to keep in repair the parts already con- 
 structed. He admits that both parties are accused of 
 favouring local interests at the expense of those of out- 
 lying districts, and probably relying on the writings of 
 Mackenzie mentions the charge brought against the 
 ruling class that the increased cost of the various public 
 works was due to their desire to enrich a few individuals 
 at the expense of the community. It is an unpleasant 
 feature in this section of the Report that such charges are 
 made without any evidence to substantiate them. Mis- 
 management, gross and inexcusable, there certainly was 
 during the construction of the Welland and Cornwall 
 1 Report, p. 1 08. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 279 
 
 Canals, but there were few or none of the outward signs 
 of wealth in the dwellings or mode of life among those 
 men who are supposed to have been guilty. 
 
 The Statute Book of Upper Canada abounds with useful 
 and well-constructed measures of reform, and presents an 
 honourable contrast to that of Lower Canada. 1 It is but 
 just to notice every tribute to the ruling party in Upper 
 Canada ; for, strong in the Legislative Council and supreme 
 also in the Assembly in three out of the six which met 
 between the Redistribution Act of 1821 and the appear- 
 ance of the Report, they could have checked or postponed 
 indefinitely any measure to which they objected. The 
 election which Head won will be considered presently, but 
 it is admitted that as a parliamentary party the reformers 
 were badly managed, 3 and even when in a majority in the 
 Assembly were practically powerless to pass their Bills. 
 
 Before dealing with the administration of Sir Francis 
 Head, the Report gives a sketch of the existing parties in 
 Canada after the great immigration. There were the 
 United Empire Loyalists, and the American or Radical 
 settlers, who formed the original parties ; both, however, 
 agreed in wishing to deprive of their full rights and 
 privileges the newcomers from England after 1825. They 
 were made to feel aliens in the land of their adoption ; 
 elsewhere mention is made of the irksome disqualifications 
 which prevented a lawyer or a doctor from practising 
 his profession until he had served an apprentice- 
 ship in Canada. 3 Bidwell, the reform leader, was one of 
 the supporters of this disqualification ; something might be 
 said in its defence on the ground that Canadian laws were 
 different from those of Great Britain, and that the medical 
 qualifications of some of the doctors who came over in the 
 emigrant ships were low. The new settlers at first 
 submitted, coming as they did in small parties, and became 
 Tories or Radicals in Canada as they had been in England. 
 As, however, they were more " Imperialist," to use the 
 1 Report, p. no. 2 Ibid., p. 106. * Ibid., p. 122. 
 
280 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 modern expression, than either of the Canadian parties, 
 they formed a sort of third party ; Buller seems to hint 
 that they favoured in general a system like that of the 
 Reform Act of 1832, and disliked equally a too powerful 
 Executive and an indiscriminate bestowal of the franchise. 
 Their great aim, whether Radicals or Tories, was to remove 
 the disqualifications under which they suffered. 
 
 Ten pages are given to a description of Sir Francis 
 Head's government of Upper Canada. It was warmly 
 resented by Head when the Report appeared, in 1839, and 
 as he could not for some time gain Melbourne's permission 
 to justify himself by publishing his dispatches, he com- 
 mitted an act of defiance. It is true that on the inter- 
 vention of the Duke of Wellington a tardy permission was 
 given, but Head hastily wrote and published his famous 
 "Narrative" in 1839. It was an unwise act, to say the 
 least ; in itself the book is useful as giving Head's view of 
 the matter, and incidentally of correcting not a few careless 
 statements in the Report. The " Narrative " is on the whole 
 fairly trustworthy as to facts, if we remember that they are 
 facts as they appeared to Head. Neither he nor Buller 
 seems to have made wilful misrepresentations, but unfortu- 
 nately, Buller's story is misleading in not a few points. 
 
 In the very first sentence a curious mistake is made. 
 Head is said to have dismissed three Tories from the 
 Executive Council and to have requested three reformers, 
 Rolph, Baldwin, and Dunn to succeed them. The story 
 has already been referred to. If Head had dismissed three 
 Tories in favour of three reformers, the latter might fairly 
 assume that the new Governor intended to be guided by 
 their wishes, but the fact was that death, old age, and other 
 causes had reduced the Executive Council to three 
 members, a number totally insufficient. The Report 
 distinctly says that Head dismissed the old members of 
 the Council with a definite end in view 1 to rescue the 
 substantial power of the Government from the hands of the 
 1 Report, p. 113. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 281 
 
 " family compact," for he had no wish to be a cypher as 
 previous Governors had been, and really desired to effect 
 certain needful reforms, although unwilling to acquiesce in 
 the claims of the Assembly for a really responsible colonial 
 executive. Beginning with such an idea of Head's aims, 
 the Report gives a totally wrong idea of the real facts of 
 the case. Head never had any plan when he first came to 
 Toronto ; if he was anything, he was a Whig, and his 
 sympathies were entirely with the more recent emigrants. 
 Like them, he desired to retain the Imperial connection, 
 although willing to agree to necessary reforms. The diffi- 
 culty, as Buller himself saw, was to find out what reforms 
 were really desired, and, more important still, immediately 
 capable of execution. Head had been sent to begin a new 
 reign of conciliation, and he therefore turned first of all to 
 the discontented, and asked what they desired. He inter- 
 viewed Bidwell and Mackenzie; the former, although he 
 never concealed his preference for a Republic, was too 
 level-headed to vouch for the reality of the grievances 
 enumerated in the famous Seventh Report of Mackenzie's 
 committee, and his replies to Head's questions showed the 
 distrust he was beginning to feel of Mackenzie. There 
 were grievances, Bidwell admitted, but he would not 
 descend to details, and Head began to suspect that nothing 
 less than a total alteration in the theory of government 
 would content Bidwell. He was not far wrong, although 
 in justice to Bidwell we must admit that he at least did 
 not believe in armed insurrection. 
 
 With Mackenzie the interview was decisive. Head 1 
 describes him as sitting on a chair too high for him, and 
 turning his head away. Unlike Bidwell, Mackenzie was 
 only too ready to inform Head of the " grievances," but in 
 his usual way mixed up all together, and gave Head the 
 idea that he was a mere hare-brained agitator. The 
 Governor, however, was favourably impressed by the 
 Baldwins and by Rolph, and as he had no intention of 
 1 " Narrative," p. 35. 
 
282 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 being a tyrant or a partisan, he invited the three reformers 
 to accept seats in the Executive Council. He made no 
 stipulation as to the theory of government he should 
 follow, but wished, like George III., to be his own Prime 
 Minister, accepting advice from both parties, but not 
 necessarily acting on it. Baldwin and the reformers were 
 not justified in expecting Head to consult them alone, but 
 he made a blunder in consulting the " leading member of 
 the old Council " alone on the question of certain appoint- 
 ments. As to what followed it is difficult to say ; since 
 Buller blundered in the under the circumstances rather 
 important point of Baldwin, Rolph and Dunn's appoint- 
 ments, we are compelled to hesitate in accepting his further 
 statement that it was only after a private remonstrance 
 with Head, and on the receipt of a request so to act, that 
 they drew up a formal representation to him on the 
 subject. Accepting this version, Head committed the 
 egregious blunder of answering the remonstrance in such a 
 way that they were compelled to resign, and then unless 
 the grammatical construction is very loose sent a com- 
 munication to the Assembly on the matter. 
 
 Head 1 denies this story altogether, and his version 
 certainly acquits him of acting in this most incredible 
 manner. The appointments complained of were made in 
 pursuance of his plan of impartiality from the Tories, it is 
 true, but at the same time as Rolph, Baldwin and Dunn 
 received their appointment. 2 The Assembly, thinking that 
 His Excellency's conduct in appointing men from both 
 parties was not worthy of " a tried reformer," energetically 
 attacked it, and, to justify themselves in the eyes of their 
 constituents, the three councillors drew up an appeal or 
 representation on the matter to Head. Head's reply made 
 it quite clear that, like Sir Charles Metcalfe, he did not 
 consider that anyone possessed the right to criticise his 
 
 1 " Narrative," p. 444. 
 
 2 According to Hincks 5 review of the Assembly's Tract on Lord 
 Durham's Report. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 283 
 
 appointments. Baldwin, as at the later date, took the lead 
 in resigning his office ; he acted as he ought to have done 
 under a system of responsible government ; but that had not 
 been granted to Upper Canada in 1836, and Head was in the 
 right legally in refusing to acknowledge Baldwin's demands, 
 although the wisdom of his first action is more open to 
 doubt After they had sent in their formal protest, 
 according to Head, they remonstrated privately, and the 
 communication was from the Assembly to Head. 
 
 The Report then describes how Head put the question 
 to the electors that the decision was for or against separa- 
 tion from Great Britain, and that, partly by the help of 
 the British party, and partly through disgust at the 
 action of the Assembly, Head secured the defeat of the 
 reformers at the election following an opportune dis- 
 solution. The election was won by unfair means, and yet 
 the new House was more masterful than the most violent 
 reform Assembly, as the new Executive Councillors whom 
 Head made were mere cyphers ; they did not expect support 
 in any other Assembly, and preferred a system of Crown 
 Colony government for Upper Canada. " It is the general 
 opinion that never was the power of the 'family compact' so 
 extensive or so absolute as it has been from the first meeting 
 of the existing parliament down to the present time." 
 
 Head denies the whole account, as usual. At a later 
 date he was absolved by the Imperial Parliament from the 
 accusations of Dr. Duncombe, and Buller himself does not 
 believe all the stories he tells of interference at the election. 
 The truth seems to be that Head dissolved parliament, if 
 anything, a few weeks too soon ; for the proceedings in 
 Lower Canada and the quarrel, now very bitter, between 
 Ryerson and Mackenzie would have given him an over- 
 whelming majority, and one independent of the Tories. 
 He was really more popular at the end of his tenure of 
 office than Buller allows, and it is a sheer misrepresentation 
 to call men like Robert Baldwin Sullivan, and W. H. 
 Draper " mere cyphers " ; the other Executive Councillors, 
 
284 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 the Hon. W. Allen, the Hon. Lieut John Elmesley, and 
 the Hon. Captain Baldwin, were all previously members 
 of the Legislative Council. Baldwin was uncle of Robert 
 Baldwin, Allen was President of the Bank of Upper 
 Canada, and Elmesley was an ex-Executive Councillor ; 
 the latter appointment was interesting because Elmesley 
 was a Roman Catholic, and an Irish Roman Catholic 
 Executive or Legislative Councillor had not been known 
 before. 1 Elmesley may not have been Irish, but it shows 
 that Head wished to be fair, according to his lights. 
 Head insists strongly that he deliberately abstained from 
 taking part in the election ; perhaps this is literally true 
 so far as speaking is concerned, but his sympathies were 
 known. It is strange to see every charge made by the 
 wildest of the reformers brought up as evidence of Head's 
 unpopularity, and of the power of the " compact/' How 
 Buller can give the " general opinion " of a province in 
 which he spent so short a time is hard to understand. 
 
 It is unfortunate that Lord Durham himself did not stay 
 long in Upper Canada, for he would probably have left a 
 truer picture. Why Buller took so intense a dislike to 
 Head and the Tories it is hard to say, but it exists and 
 distorts his view ; it is difficult to accept anything on his 
 unsupported evidence when he blunders on details which 
 ordinary care would have corrected, and it raises an un- 
 comfortable feeling of political bias. Head's appointment 
 to Upper Canada was a mistake, but no fair-minded man 
 can lay at his door the troubles of 1837. Buller admits 
 that Mackenzie found very few supporters in Upper 
 Canada, and that the Patriots were now mostly 
 Americans. One of the strongest proofs of this was given 
 by the absolute unanimity of the province during the 
 second rebellion. Again, Buller strings together a list of 
 grievances varying from Head's regulations as to banking 
 to the law which forbids a man to vote until he has paid all 
 the instalments of the price of his land, contrary to the 
 1 Report, p. 129. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 285 
 
 custom which prevails in some of the newer States of the 
 Union ; he admits almost at the same moment that it is very 
 possible that there are but few cases in which the departure 
 of an Englishman from Upper Canada to the States can be 
 traced directly to any of these circumstances in particular. 
 Having disposed of Head's Government, Buller proceeds 
 to what is really an attack on Sir John Colborne, although 
 nominally only discussing the clergy reserves. The story 
 has been already told, but reference must be made to 
 two or three grave blunders which are made. He totally 
 misrepresents the real facts as to the establishment of the 
 fifty-seven rectories by Colborne. In the first place the 
 number is too large, and, moreover, Colborne actually 
 persuaded Strachan to be content with their restriction to 
 the churchyard ; it is scarcely a just presentation of the 
 facts to say that the establishment of the rectories altered 
 the aspect of the question. Colborne had no alternative 
 but to obey his orders, and so far from the matter being 
 hurriedly carried through, it was debated frequently during 
 the whole of Colborne's stay in Upper Canada. One 
 sentence is inexplicable, unless Buller took all his in- 
 formation on trust from party pamphlets. He says : " It is 
 understood that every rector possesses all the spiritual 
 and other privileges enjoyed by an English rector; and 
 that, though he may have no right to levy tithes (for even 
 this has been made a question), he is in all other respects 
 in precisely the same position as a clergyman of the Church 
 of England." 1 One is tempted to ask if Buller ever read 
 the Act of 1791 ; the idea was to establish the Church of 
 England in Canada, but to give it the clergy reserves 
 instead of tithe where rectories were created. Waiving 
 the question as to the meaning of " Protestant clergy," it 
 was never seriously maintained that other than Anglican 
 rectories were meant, and Buller seems ignorant of a law 2 
 
 1 Report, p. 125. 
 
 2 Kingsford, Vol. X., p. 215; and NickalPs "Statutes of Upper 
 Canada," p. 602. 
 
286 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 that was passed in 1823 by the Provincial Legislature, in 
 which it is laid down that the Anglican clergy have no 
 claim to tithe. 
 
 No one, perhaps, now would defend the system by which 
 the Church of England received its endowment in Canada, 
 but it is necessary to remember that for some time it met 
 with little opposition. A true Radical, Buller asserts that 
 it established the Church of the minority and was therefore 
 wrong. The Anglicans would retort that it was the 
 Church of the majority in the Mother Country. As has 
 been said, the actual numerical relations of the various 
 Churches in Upper Canada cannot be discovered now, but 
 Strachan would decline to count all Methodists as one 
 denomination, or all Presbyterians, for the hostility between 
 various subdivisions of these bodies was as great as 
 between them and the Anglicans. It is difficult to under- 
 stand Buller's meaning when he talks of the " imperfect 
 equality " Dissenters had but recently obtained in England, 
 and of their disinclination to leave a similar heritage to 
 their children in Canada ; it was not within the power of 
 the Provincial Legislature to impose religious dis- 
 qualifications, and, however injurious the clergy reserves 
 may have been, they were created in 1791, when the 
 Anglicans were certainly in a majority. Buller, or Dur- 
 ham for on this question we can imagine they would have 
 come to the same opinion seems to hint that he should 
 prefer in Canada the "voluntary system," which he praises 
 so highly as giving excellent results in the United States. 
 He seems to have thought, also, that the Anglican Church 
 in Canada was only the Church of the rich, but the 
 pauper immigrants and many of the non-pauper farm- 
 labourers were nominally Anglicans. 1 He also makes the 
 extraordinary statement that the organization of the 
 Church of England, being parochial, is not suitable for the 
 circumstances of a new country ; he had apparently never 
 met any of the missionary clergy of that communion 
 1 Bettridge: "History of the Church of England in Upper Canada." 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 287 
 
 during his stay in Upper Canada, but Bettridge gives 
 quite a different account of his Church's activity and 
 organization in Upper Canada. The plan recommended 
 in the Report is that the Imperial Parliament should repeal 
 all its Acts so far as they relate to the clergy reserves 
 and allow the Provincial Legislature to settle the matter. 
 
 There follows next a rather amusing account of the 
 Orange societies of Upper Canada. These were not so 
 much religious as political; for Catholics were persuaded 
 to join, Buller says, and the toast of the Roman Catholic 
 Bishop Macdonnell, was drunk together with that of the 
 "pious, glorious, and immortal memory," although the 
 customary abuse of Catholics was not omitted. These 
 Orange societies were, as Buller saw, really Tory organiza- 
 tions, which aimed at the conservation of the Imperial 
 connection ; they were not necessarily United Empire 
 Loyalists, but they shared their views on many points, 
 especially their hatred of everything American. 1 Buller 
 calls the Orange Lodges " an illegal organization,' 1 but 
 he was probably mistaken. Head refused to take action 
 against them, and at a later date they obtained recognition 
 and a charter from the Government. 2 He is probably right 
 in maintaining that they attempted to turn the fate of 
 elections by terrorism, but that was a practice they had 
 in common with their opponents. The case of Leeds and 
 Grenville was especially bad, but it seems to have been 
 accepted as the usual thing that the election for this 
 constituency should not pass off quietly. 
 
 " In addition to the irritation engendered by the position 
 of parties, by the specific causes of dispute to which I 
 have adverted, and by those features in the government 
 of the colony which deprive the people of all power to 
 effect a settlement of the questions by which the country 
 is most deeply agitated, or to redress abuses in the institu- 
 tions, or in the administration of the province, there are 
 
 1 Report, p. 130. 
 
 2 In 1890. See Todd : " Parl. Govt. in the Colonies," p. 484. 
 
288 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 permanent causes of discontent, resulting from the existence 
 of deep-seated impediments in the way of its industrial 
 progress. The province is without any of those means by 
 which the resources of a country are developed and the 
 civilisation of a people is advanced or upheld. The general 
 administration of justice, it is true, appears to be much 
 better in Upper than in Lower Canada. Courts of Justice, 
 at least, are brought into every man's neighbourhood by 
 a system of circuits ; and there is still some integrity in 
 juries." 1 This quotation is an almost perfect synopsis of 
 the section on Upper Canada, and in the concluding para- 
 graphs of this portion of the Report, where political bias 
 has little room to work, there is a most able account of 
 the real economic as opposed to the sentimental root of 
 the trouble in Upper Canada. The country suffered from 
 want of capital and population, and from the absence of a 
 scientific system of colonisation and land granting. 
 
 Reckless grants of land to speculators, or to men who 
 sold it to speculators, had cut up the settlements into 
 a number of isolated blocks. Crown reserves and clergy 
 reserves existed in every township, and as there was 
 little, if any, effective local taxation, roads and bridges 
 were all but totally absent. Churches, mills, schools, and 
 post-offices in fact, all the usual outward signs of a 
 civilised community were scarce, and in consequence even 
 the rich and well-educated settlers saw their children 
 destined to grow up in ignorance. Lands had been set 
 apart for the support of education, but by far the most 
 valuable portion had been diverted to the endowment of 
 a University at Toronto, in whose advantages only the 
 children of the rich could share, on account of the cost of 
 living in Toronto. Few settlers grew wealthy a rude and 
 comfortless plenty was the highest point to which they 
 could attain and many of the settlers were poorer than 
 when they came to Canada. Even those who were satis- 
 fied with the political system of the province were 
 1 Report, p. 131. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 289 
 
 disposed to think that there was something wrong, when 
 they compared Upper Canada with the neighbouring States 
 of the Union. 
 
 The picture thus drawn is only too true a one of certain 
 parts of Upper Canada, especially those settled at a later 
 date in the more outlying districts. The lands of the 
 British North-American Land Company were rather more 
 fortunate, for it had been arranged that part of the 
 purchase-money of those lands should be devoted to the 
 building of roads and bridges, and to the general improve- 
 ment of the country. It is a mistake to take Buller's 
 picture too literally as applying to all Upper Canada, but 
 apart from this, it must be confessed that it certainly 
 describes very accurately the wretched condition of many 
 of the settlers. The contrast between the Canadian and 
 the American shores of the St. Lawrence will be better 
 dealt with under section four. 
 
 Upper Canada had no port, but with splendid courage, 
 to which Buller gives unstinted praise, it set to work to 
 make a system of canals to give it access to the lower 
 St. Lawrence. The Welland Canal cut through the neck 
 of land north of the Niagara Falls which separated Lake 
 Erie from Lake Ontario, and a second canal was commenced 
 to enable ships to avoid the Long Sault Rapids. This 
 was the Cornwall Canal, but the expense was too great for 
 the province, and it could not be completed. To pay for 
 these and other public works large loans had been created, 
 and the debt aggregated the enormous sum, for Upper 
 Canada, of 1,000,000; the revenue was barely 60,000 
 a year, and was hardly adequate to pay the interest. This 
 necessitated the introduction of a system of local assess- 
 ments for other works, but it was obvious that the province 
 must soon resort to direct taxation to meet its ordinary 
 expenditure. 
 
 These canals, which should have been a source of wealth 
 to the province, were rendered almost useless from want 
 of money to complete the Cornwall Canal and to keep 
 
 S.G.C. U 
 
2 go SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 the works of the Welland Canal in repair. Hence the 
 anticipated tolls were not available as a return for the 
 outlay, and Upper Canada was filled with a feeling of 
 bitter disappointment. Unfortunately, they had neglected 
 to secure adequate pledges from the Legislature of Lower 
 Canada that they would deepen the channel of the lower 
 St. Lawrence, which, in the existing state of affairs in the 
 lower province, had not been done. (The excuse alleged 
 was the mismanagement of the Welland Canal, but the 
 British saw in it a design to check all commercial 
 enterprise.) 
 
 While their canals were thus all but useless, the people 
 of Upper Canada were at the mercy of the " Forwarders'' 
 of the St. Lawrence and the Rideau Canal. These 
 middlemen possessed a monopoly of the transportation of 
 merchandise through the lower to the upper province. 
 The St. Lawrence route was only open in summer, and 
 that too several weeks later than the route by way of New 
 York through Oswego. The Report recommends the intro- 
 duction of a " bonding system," making New York the port 
 of entry. One reason of the attraction the United States 
 possessed for some colonists was the fact that it was 
 possible to buy goods cheaper there. There were also in 
 existence laws which were framed to support monopolies 
 in England, but which had remained unrepealed when the 
 monopolies were abolished. One of the most vexatious of 
 these was the tea duty. They did not really make the 
 articles in question any dearer, for, as in the case of tea, 
 an extensive system of smuggling was carried on all along 
 the frontier, and the fair dealer was undersold by the 
 smuggler. Moreover the loss to the provincial revenue 
 was large. 
 
 It could well be believed that such a state of things was 
 not borne without repining even by the loyal, and it was 
 well known that the proposal to transfer Montreal to Upper 
 Canada was due to a desire to avoid the inconvenient dual 
 Customs system, while others thought that the only efficient 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 291 
 
 way to settle the difficulty was to unite the two provinces. 
 It could not be a matter of surprise that in despair of 
 finding a sufficient remedy from the Imperial Government, 
 men should turn their eyes to the neighbouring Union, 
 where every industrial enterprise prospered. Men the 
 most attached to the existing form of government in 
 Upper Canada would find compensation in the beneficial 
 results of a union with the neighbouring State. A dis- 
 satisfaction with the existing order of things necessarily 
 extended to many who desired a change in the political 
 institutions of the province ; they at least desired to see the 
 government administered in a very different mode. Men 
 wanted to feel that there was some definite policy which 
 was being carried out towards the colonies, to which all 
 must conform themselves and which would be independent 
 of the state of parties in England. Neither party could 
 count on the issue of their struggles because, although 
 they could determine their strength in Canada, they could 
 not tell how soon some hidden spring might be put in 
 motion in the Colonial Office in England which would 
 defeat their best laid plans, and render utterly unavailing 
 whole years of patient effort. 1 
 
 The sources of the information contained in the above 
 section can be fairly easily traced. Draper's letter to 
 Head has been already referred to ; according to Draper, 
 Buller acknowledged to several people that his information 
 was largely acquired by sending out his servant to converse 
 with people while Buller was lying ill. There is nothing 
 improbable in this, although Buller' s strong political bias 
 would be sufficient to account for some of the more glaring 
 misrepresentations. He probably had pretty well made 
 up his mind as to the rights and wrongs of the case in 
 Upper Canada before he left England, and all that his 
 
 1 The Tories complained of the Radical Mr. " Over"-Secretary 
 Stephen ; the reformers of the influence of the Church Missionary 
 Society with Lord Glenelg. Durham and Wakefield both felt the 
 latter in the affair of tjie colonisation of New Zealand. 
 
 ' U 2 
 
292 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 servant could learn would only convince him the more 
 firmly of the truth of his previous views. The actual 
 picture he gives us is a curiously shallow one ; little is 
 stated definitely, although insinuations or suggestions are 
 common. The section abounds in statements introduced 
 by "it is said," "it seems," and such phrases, and this 
 points to a want of a personal understanding of the situa- 
 tion. At the most, Buller was not a month in Upper 
 Canada, and there is nothing to indicate that he saw 
 anything of the province except the districts around 
 Niagara, Kingston, and Toronto. None of Lord Durham's 
 suite could give Buller the information, and we are driven 
 to the conclusion that Draper's account is correct, so far 
 as it goes. 
 
 However, Buller did not rely upon his servant's informa- 
 tion alone. Either he or Wakefield furnished Durham 
 with an abstract of the more important evidence relating 
 to Upper Canada that was given before the Hanson 
 Commission on the waste lands of the colonies, and there 
 are distinct traces of the Seventh Grievance Report, and 
 of others of Mackenzie's writings, particularly of his 
 " Sketches of Canada and the United States." Not so 
 definite, but probably still to be found, are echoes of 
 Robert Gourlay's " Statistical Abstract," which, it is well 
 known, was partly written by Marshall Bidwell's father, 
 and embodied his opinions. The Report praises the Statute 
 Book of Upper Canada, but the praise is probably general 
 rather than for any specific act, as there is little trace of 
 any extensive knowledge either of the Journals of the 
 Assembly or of the different Acts passed. Buller did un- 
 doubtedly read some of the tracts written by the reformers, 
 especially on the subject of the clergy reserves, and his 
 account of Head's election campaign is suspiciously like a 
 re-statement of the charges laid against the Governor by 
 Dr. Duncombe. 
 
 In ascribing this section to Buller it is not intended to 
 maintain that in its present shape it is the work of the 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 293 
 
 Chief Secretary. It bears traces of Durham's own handi- 
 work, especially in the final paragraph. That strikes a 
 higher note than the uncertain semi-accusations of mis- 
 government and tyranny ; it is an attempt to get at the 
 true root of the difficulty, the wretched shilly-shallying 
 policy of Downing Street, and it agrees with the views 
 which Draper stated that Durham himself professed. 
 There is something in it of the defiant spirit which was so 
 marked in the proclamation of October gth. Durham 
 never hesitated to admit that a residence in Canada had 
 changed his views, while we know that Buller was stated 
 to have expressed sympathy with the French even after 
 the second rebellion. As Buller was the only member 
 of his suite who had any information about the upper 
 province, Durham probably took his rough draft as the 
 foundation of his Report. It is of course impossible to say 
 exactly how far the section on Upper Canada owes its 
 final shape to Durham, but we shall not be far wrong in 
 assuming that the conclusions and recommendations are 
 Durham's own. The personal attacks on Head and Colborne, 
 especially that on the latter, could scarcely originate with 
 Durham himself, for he was on the best of terms with 
 Colborne when he left Canada. Head is seldom a trust- 
 worthy judge, but perhaps for once his verdict is not far 
 wrong. 1 He says : " All the complaints made in the Report 
 are true, but they are only the voice of a small minority." 
 It may have been only a small minority who dreamed of 
 revolution with Mackenzie or of peaceful annexation with 
 Bidwell, but a vast majority of the people of Upper 
 Canada demanded economic reforms, and it was all the 
 more pitiful because of their inability to obtain them 
 unaided. If the Durham Report did nothing else, it 
 taught the people of England how nearly they had lost a 
 glorious inheritance from mere failure to see in it anything 
 more than a refuge for half-pay officers or troublesome 
 paupers. 
 
 1 u Narrative," p. 483. 
 
294 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 The third section of the Report very briefly touches on 
 the situation in the Maritime Provinces. Durham explains 
 the small attention he gave to the latter as being due, 
 firstly to lack of time and secondly to the knowledge that 
 there were no burning questions to be settled in any of 
 them with the exception of Newfoundland. The general 
 political difficulties in these provinces resembled those 
 which were to be found in the Canadas, and arose from 
 the same cause the Constitution which gave representative 
 institutions but not responsible government. However, 
 the population was British and loyal, and while the popular 
 party disliked the political views of the various Governors, 
 it uniformly respected them for their private virtues. The 
 parties were evenly balanced on the whole, and both were 
 content to accept the verdict of the electors. In New 
 Brunswick the Assembly had prevailed upon the Colonial 
 Secretary to surrender all the provincial revenues, and as 
 recent appointments had given the party which had a 
 majority in the Assembly control of the Legislative and 
 Executive Councils, the government of New Brunswick, 
 instead of being as before one of the most difficult, has 
 become now the most harmonious. 1 
 
 Mr. Young, one of the delegates from Nova Scotia, gave 
 Durham a paper (printed in the Appendix), in which he 
 stated that the difficulties in that colony arose from the 
 presence in the Councils of men who, however much they 
 were respected personally, were out of harmony with the 
 majority in the Assembly. Moreover, despite the express 
 orders of the Colonial Secretary and the remonstrances of 
 the Assembly, the Church of England had been allowed 
 to retain a majority in both Councils. (It should be 
 mentioned that in Nova Scotia a large proportion of the 
 population were Presbyterians or Baptists, but little religious 
 intolerance was displayed.) 
 
 The Report next touches on the deplorable condition of 
 
 1 For a brief account of the history of the Maritime Provinces, see 
 Roberts' " History of Canada." 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 295 
 
 the inhabitants of Prince Edward Island, who were the 
 tenants of the Proprietors, among whom the Island was 
 parcelled out soon after its cession. All efforts of the Island 
 Legislature to expropriate these owners have failed because 
 of the power and influence they possess with the authorities 
 in Downing Street. Sir Charles Fitzroy, the Governor, was 
 genuinely anxious to put an end to the anomalous condition 
 of affairs which left the islanders at the mercy of a few 
 absentee landlords who, it was alleged, refused to encourage 
 the improvement of the province. Durham attempted to 
 devise a scheme to please all parties, but it failed, as did 
 every other attempt, until, when the province entered the 
 Dominion, in 1873, the proprietors were bought out. The 
 island was indeed fertile, and the surrounding seas teemed 
 with fish. Durham's informants he mentions Major Head 
 only, but we know that Lelacheur was also one of them 
 seem to have rather misled him as to the true condition of 
 affairs. The account given in the Report should be checked 
 by the able little pamphlet published anonymously by " A 
 Proprietor," and entitled " Facts versus Lord Durham." 
 The first mistake was made when the Imperial Government 
 separated the island from Nova Scotia. As a matter of 
 fact, the province, instead of being one of the most back- 
 ward, was, for its size, the most flourishing of the Maritime 
 Provinces, and its " scanty population of 40,000 " was the 
 densest in British North America. Head calculated that 
 the island could support 400,000 in comfort on its agricul- 
 tural resources alone, and this produced an amusing 
 calculation from the " Proprietor," that, going by the 
 figures supplied by the map which Lord Durham used, 
 400,000 people must live on 1,106,460 acres by agriculture, 
 and that 2,000 men should have worked for the seventy 
 years which had elapsed since its colonisation, merely in 
 grubbing up roots, if the island was to be the granary of the 
 colonies. Again, Head said that only 100,000 acres out of 
 1,400,000 were under cultivation, but Bouchette is quoted 
 to prove that, in 1831, 189,000 acres were under the plough, 
 
296 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 and it is asserted that, according to the census of 1833, 
 one-third of the whole island was parcelled out in lots of 
 from 30 to 1,000 acres each among farmers who were, many 
 of them, owners and not tenants. 
 
 The true facts of the case seem to be as follows. In 
 1769 large grants of land were made to certain officers and 
 others on condition that they settled the island with foreign 
 Protestants. Soon after the War of Independence broke 
 out, and most of the grantees took part in it. Governor 
 Paterson confiscated many of the estates during their 
 absence on account of the non-payment of quit rents as 
 agreed, and bought large quantities of confiscated land for 
 himself. At the end of the war, in 1783, much litigation 
 arose over these proceedings, and the actual possessors were 
 afraid to spend money, even when they had it, on estates to 
 which their titles were disputed. Some land changed 
 hands, and it was seen to be impossible to colonise the 
 island with foreign Protestants. The Government tacitly 
 waived the clause, but the outbreak of the Napoleonic 
 wars prevented emigration till 1815. Prince Edward 
 Island was little known, and it was passed over by the bulk 
 of the new arrivals. The Island Legislature, representing 
 the actual tillers of the soil, wished to tax the land of the 
 Proprietors which was not under cultivation, to force them 
 to sell ; the Proprietors were only too eager to sell, but they 
 held out for the best possible terms, and suspected that the 
 tax on wild lands, which the Assembly were at last 
 allowed by the Imperial authorities to levy, was unfairly 
 distributed, and that the funds thus raised were used 
 to beautify Charlottetown instead of to develop the 
 province. Lelacheur and the reformers in the Assembly, 
 instead of proposing a reasonable scheme, were in favour of 
 a general escheat of the Proprietors' lands, and the latter 
 naturally objected to this most determinedly. The popula- 
 tion of the island was small for its resources, and it was 
 more given to politics than to industry. Part of the people 
 tilled the fertile lands, while others were fishermen. They 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 297 
 
 could not, of themselves, produce a fleet large enough to 
 keep out the enterprising Americans, and at that time, as 
 till long after, British capitalists preferred to develop 
 American rather than Canadian industries. 
 
 The picture Major Head gave of the other Maritime 
 Colonies was equally depressing. Haliburton is indignant 
 at what he calls Head's perversion of facts. 1 It is curious 
 that the true reason for the abandonment of "half the 
 tenements and the lands falling into decay " is not mentioned 
 in the Report. During the Napoleonic wars the Imperial 
 Parliament gave the colonies a preference over the Baltic 
 nations in the British timber market, and this proved so 
 profitable to the colonies that lumbering rapidly succeeded 
 in ousting agriculture as the leading industry in the 
 Maritime Provinces. It required very few labourers, and 
 indeed, apart from this, the attractions of Upper Canada 
 were far superior to those of Nova Scotia and New 
 Brunswick, from the point of view of farming. Much of 
 the territory of the latter was waste, although rich in 
 minerals. Haliburton also insists that the speeches of the 
 Governors at the opening of the various Assemblies con- 
 tradict Head's assertions of stagnation, poverty, and want 
 of enterprise. There can be no doubt, however, of the 
 truth of Head's statements as to the aggressiveness and 
 success of the inhabitants of the United States, who, as in 
 Lower Canada and Upper Canada, were settling on the 
 more fertile lands. 
 
 In reading Head's account of the striking difference 
 between the American and the Canadian sides of the 
 frontier, one is tempted to wonder whether he was not 
 given to colouring for the sake of effect. Maine had 
 certainly been settled longer than either Nova Scotia or New 
 Brunswick, and it is quite possible that Head was com- 
 paring Maine, as defined on British Government maps, 
 with the Maritime Provinces, as defined on the same maps. 
 There was a vast tract of territory, however, in dispute, and, 
 1 " Reply to Lord Durham's Report," by a colonist. 
 
298 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 although there were scattered settlements in it, it is not fair 
 to consider it as part of New Brunswick proper. Again, 
 Haliburton mentions a curious Nova Scotian custom of 
 leaving the old log hut to fall into decay when the farmer 
 could afford to build the more pretentious " frame-house " 
 on another part of the estate. In that case Head would 
 strictly describe the truth when he spoke of " half the 
 tenements abandoned," and the substitution of lumbering 
 for corn growing would account for " lands everywhere 
 falling into decay/' Despite all these qualifications, how- 
 ever, it is evident that the Maritime Provinces were not 
 developing in as satisfactory a manner as might be. Like 
 Upper Canada, they needed not only population but capital. 
 As Durham says, the capitalists at Halifax preferred the 
 high interest obtainable in the United States to the return 
 they received from their outlay in the backward Maritime 
 Provinces. 1 Haliburton hints that the inhabitants devoted 
 to politics the time they should have spent in working on 
 their farms, but perhaps they were in the first instance 
 merely ardent politicians because they wished for remedial 
 legislation. 
 
 Durham does not profess to have any special knowledge 
 concerning Newfoundland, as, owing to difficulties of com- 
 munication, he heard nothing more of the Assembly's 
 intimation that they intended to make an appeal to him ; 
 they had a difference with the Governor, the immediate 
 origin of which was a dispute with a judge. Durham 
 thought the political troubles were the same as those of 
 the other provinces, and if, as was said, the state of society 
 in the island rendered it inexpedient to leave the whole of 
 the local government to the inhabitants, it would be most 
 advisable to incorporate Newfoundland with a larger 
 community. 
 
 It would take too long to discuss the actual cause and 
 course of the dispute in Newfoundland. The difficulty 
 arose from the presence on the island of a number of poor 
 1 Report, p. 143. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 299 
 
 Roman Catholics from Ireland, who, although they did 
 not intend to permanently settle there, secured the fran- 
 chise. They voted at the direction of their clergy, much 
 to the disgust of the Protestant inhabitants. There were 
 other matters in dispute, but the autocratic exercise of 
 its privileges by the Assembly caused much discontent. 
 The judge referred to was probably Boulton, the ex-Tory 
 leader from Upper Canada, who was given a post in New- 
 foundland by the English authorities, although they refused 
 to reinstate him in Upper Canada. He was as reckless in 
 his language towards the Roman Catholics of Newfound- 
 land as he had been towards the reformers, and the 
 Assembly warmly resented this. 
 
 Durham is quite explicit as to the sources of his informa- 
 tion on the Maritime Provinces. He relied chiefly on 
 Major Head, a Commissioner whom he sent to the Maritime 
 Provinces to gather materials. Head not only used his 
 own eyes, but he also conversed with the merchants, 
 American and Canadian, whom he met with. He seems 
 to have been an honest but rather credulous man, and he 
 had little idea of testing the extraordinary statements 
 which some of his informants made to him. Durham's 
 second source of information was his communications with 
 the Lieutenant-Governors of the various provinces who 
 met him at Quebec in August, 1838. Besides these he had 
 frequent conversations with the witnesses before the various 
 Commissions, especially that on the Crown lands. The most 
 trustworthy source of information which Durham possessed 
 was undoubtedly the delegates from the Maritime Provinces, 
 who met him in September. Many of them, especially 
 Young of Nova Scotia, were leading reformers in their 
 respective provinces, and although their evidence cannot 
 be accepted as indisputable in every case, they were the 
 most reasonable of all the politicians in Canada. Durham 
 realized their value, and not only included the paper drawn 
 up by Young among the Appendices to the Report, but 
 also made a copious extract from it in the R.eport itself. 
 
300 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Unfortunately, all were not so trustworthy as Young, but 
 Durham had no means of checking the information given 
 by men like Lelacheur. On the whole, the section on the 
 Maritime Provinces is best compared with that on Upper 
 Canada. Such mistakes as Durham made were due to his 
 defective information. While he points out the defects of 
 these provinces, he does full justice to the patriotism of 
 their inhabitants, and he found some of his staunchest 
 supporters there. 
 
CHAPTER XVII L 
 
 THE DURHAM REPORT: PUBLIC LANDS- 
 EMIGRATION. 
 
 DURHAM heads the fourth section "The Disposal of Public 
 Lands Emigration." In his mind the two matters were 
 closely allied, but the treatment is very unequal. The 
 Durham Report differs from the ordinary parliamentary 
 Paper in being intensely personal and practical, and in no 
 section is the difference more marked than in this. It is 
 a treatise in itself on the " art of colonisation/' and no 
 resume, however full, can do it justice. It begins by 
 pointing out the paramount necessity to new countries of 
 a good system of land-granting. Men must neither be 
 " pinched for room in the wilderness," nor scattered over a 
 vast tract of country and cut off from one another by 
 stretches of wild land owned by the Crown or absentee 
 landlords. The cultivator should have easy access to 
 market by good roads ; schools, churches, and the apparatus 
 of civilisation should be easy to secure ; and careful sur- 
 veying should enable men to obtain a good title to their 
 lands without needless litigation. 
 
 There should be a definite, well-known, and uniform 
 system of granting lands, unattended by that mystery, 
 irregularity, and uncertainty which is ever present when 
 frequent changes of method are the rule. Nor should any 
 partiality or class prejudice be exhibited in dealing with 
 the distribution of public lands, for then colonisation is 
 discouraged, and the neglected settlers, who are of course 
 in the majority, are hostile to the Government When the 
 true system is adopted, a constant and regular supply of 
 new land is at hand to meet the population as it increases 
 
3 o2 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 by births and immigration ; there are " all the advantages 
 to which facility of transport is essential ; certainty of 
 limits and security of title to property in land ; the greatest 
 facilities in acquiring the due quantity ; the greatest 
 encouragements to immigration and settlement ; the most 
 rapid progress of the people in wealth and material 
 comfort and social improvement, and a general sense of 
 obligation to the Government. What a contrast do the 
 two pictures present ! Neither of them is over-coloured ; 
 and a mere glance at both suffices to show that in the 
 North American colonies of England, as in the United 
 States, the function of authority most full of good 
 or evil consequences has been the disposal of public 
 land." 1 
 
 The Report goes on to state that Durham hoped from 
 the success of a new method of disposing of public lands 
 in the Australian colonies to be able to recommend 
 beneficial reforms in North America, and therefore took 
 precautions for instituting a thoroughly efficient inquiry 
 into the whole subject, generally and in detail. He was 
 the more disposed to do this because the select committee 
 of the House of Commons in 1836 in a similar inquiry 
 furnished abundant information on every colony except 
 those of North America, which were specially excluded 
 from its orders, and he could not find in England any 
 authentic or at least sufficient evidence as to the disposal 
 of public lands in any of them. He was the more con- 
 vinced of the importance of the matter by the number of 
 petitions he received, from people who believed in the great 
 extent of his powers, relating to the administration of the 
 Crown Lands Department, and by the deep and universal 
 interest taken by the colonists in the question. Durham 
 then refers to the Appendices, attached to the folio edition 
 of the Report, for the minutes of the evidence taken before 
 his committee on the subject of Crown Lands, and to a 
 separate Report which contained " the outline of a plan for 
 1 Report, p. 146. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 303 
 
 the future administration of this all-influential department 
 of Government." 
 
 This plan was really that of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, 
 who was the master both of Durham and Buller in colonial 
 questions. Wakefield was employed by Durham, or 
 employed himself, on other matters, as has been mentioned, 
 but though a poor diplomatist, he was an able writer on 
 colonial subjects, and he and Hanson were probably 
 responsible for the real work of the committee, although, in 
 accordance with Melbourne's request and Durham's promise, 
 the name of Buller was inserted as the ostensible Chief 
 Commissioner. Durham had learned to appreciate Wake- 
 field's genius in the movement which ended in the 
 foundation of South Australia on the new plan and had 
 fully intended to place Wakefield in charge of the investiga- 
 tions he proposed to make. 1 Perhaps a few words on the 
 subject of Wakefield's scheme may be useful, the rest of 
 the section being little more than extracts from the evidence 
 of witnesses which proved how far the authorities in British 
 North America had departed from the true system. 
 
 Wakefield's pet abomination was the system of convict 
 settlements by which New South Wales and Tasmania had 
 been first colonised ; he objected scarcely less strongly to 
 the methods of the Colonial Office, for he and his friends 
 looked upon it as the " preserve of the Church Missionary 
 Society," which in the supposed interests of the natives 
 opposed all his schemes of scientific colonisation. 
 Wakefield's ideal was the national emigrations of the 
 swarms from the old Greek cities ; their nearest representa- 
 tives were the Puritans who sailed in the Mayflower. He 
 wished to make the new settlements as closely as possible 
 copies of those at home ; he was no Radical, and admired 
 the graded ranks of English society, with their inter- 
 dependent rights and duties. He found it difficult to 
 
 1 For an account of Wakefield's achievements and proposals, see 
 the interesting " Life of Edward Gibbon Wakefield," by Dr. Garnett 
 and Wakefield's own " Art of Colonisation/' 
 
3 o 4 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 persuade any but the middle classes to emigrate with the 
 capital so necessary to his scheme ; labourers and paupers 
 were indeed willing to better their lot, but they had neither 
 capital nor, sometimes, skill in farming, so that they were, 
 if possible, worse off in the colonies than at home. Land 
 was granted sometimes free of cost, at other times at a very 
 trifling price, and the result was that every man was a 
 landowner, and labour was either extremely dear and 
 inefficient, or absolutely lacking ; hence the new settlers 
 were poor and the land remained undeveloped, 
 
 Wakefield proposed that the Government, at first the 
 Imperial authorities, should retain sole control over the land 
 and fix a fair price at which it could be acquired by settlers 
 with capital. The money thus raised was to be used for 
 developing the country by constructing roads and bridges. 
 At first, only the lands around the seat of government 
 would be settled, and as mechanics and traders came in to 
 supply the wants of the new society, the value of the settled 
 lands would automatically increase, and fresh land in more 
 outlying districts could be placed on the market. The 
 immigration of labourers was to be encouraged ; if necessary 
 the cost of their passages could be advanced, but as they 
 had no money it would be necessary for them to hire them- 
 selves out to capitalists. They would receive good wages 
 and could soon save money enough to enable them to buy 
 land at an easy rate. It was expected that the community, 
 not being purely agricultural, would attract the upper 
 classes also, and thus a new England, in every possible 
 respect like the old, would spring up in the colony. 
 
 The Radicals did not approve of the scheme because it 
 perpetuated class distinctions, and many of the reformers 
 objected to it because it gave the Imperial Government sole 
 control of the waste lands of the colony. However, it 
 justified itself wherever it was adopted in its entirety, both 
 in South Australia and in parts of New Zealand, and when 
 the Canadian authorities superseded the Imperial Govern- 
 ment in the control of the waste lands, they retained the 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 305 
 
 essential parts of Wakefield's system. Two things were 
 necessary for the success of the scheme : a " sufficient price " 
 must be fixed, and there must also be a desire on the part of 
 the right sort of people to make their homes in the new land. 
 Sudden accessions of population, such as the " gold rush " to 
 Australia in the middle of last century, necessarily disorga- 
 nized the whole arrangement. Wakefield's scheme was a good 
 foundation, but he did not pretend that it was anything else. 
 Mention has been made in a previous chapter of the 
 meeting between Wakefield and Robert Gourlay at 
 Montreal in the August of I838. 1 There is no reason to 
 suppose that Wakefield deceived Gourlay or that Gourlay 
 deceived himself as to the first origin of the Wakefield 
 system. Gourlay was a voluminous writer, and it is 
 notorious that his " Statistical Abstract " was designed with 
 a view to attract settlers to Upper Canada. The two men 
 had much in common, but poor Gourlay's thirst for informa- 
 tion was misunderstood, and his plans of colonisation ran 
 directly counter to the interests of the ruling classes in the 
 colony. It is very probable that Wakefield's acquaintance 
 with Gourlay's views only dated from the time when the 
 story of his persecution became known through his attack 
 on Lord Brougham in 1824, but Wakefield was a far abler 
 man, and developed the other's ideas beyond the point first 
 conceived by Gourlay. 
 
 After mentioning the Special Report, Durham proceeds 
 to give an account of the actual system in vogue in British 
 North America. Since the year 1796 the disposal of public 
 land in the United States had been governed by one uniform 
 law, unchangeable save by Congress, and never materially 
 altered ; this law " renders the acquisition of new land easy, 
 and yet by means of a price restricts appropriation to the 
 actual wants of the settler. It is so simple as to be readily 
 understood ; it provides for accurate surveys, and against 
 needless delays ; it gives an instant and secure title ; and it 
 1 Ante) p. 167. 
 
 S.G.C. x 
 
306 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 admits of no favouritism, but distributes the public property 
 amongst all classes and persons upon precisely equal terms. 
 That system has promoted an amount of immigration and 
 settlement of which the history of the world affords no other 
 example, and it has produced to the United States a revenue 
 which has averaged about half a million sterling per 
 annum, and has amounted in one twelvemonth to above 
 four millions sterling, or more than the whole expenditure 
 of the Federal Government." 1 It was quite otherwise, how- 
 ever, in British North America. There the Crown Lands 
 Department, responsible only to the Treasury and the 
 Colonial Office in England, had had full sway ; recently 
 the Provincial Assemblies of New Brunswick and Upper 
 Canada had gained some right to control the disposal of 
 the lands in their respective colonies, but it was little more 
 than nominal. "The Imperial Parliament only interfered 
 when it enacted the unhappy system of Clergy Reserves." 
 
 " In the North American colonies there never has been 
 any system. Many different methods have been practised, 
 and this not only in the different colonies, but in every 
 colony at different times, and within the same colony at 
 the same time. The greatest diversity and the most 
 frequent alteration would almost seem to have been the 
 objects in view. In only one respect has there been 
 uniformity. Everywhere the greatest profusion has taken 
 place, so that in all the colonies, and nearly in every part 
 of the colony, more and very much more land has been 
 alienated by the Government than the grantees had at the 
 time, or now have, the means of reclaiming from a state of 
 wilderness ; and yet in all the colonies, and in some of 
 them to an extent which would not be credited if the facts 
 were not established by unquestionable testimony, the 
 surveys have been inaccurate, and the boundaries, or even 
 the situation of the estates, are proportionately uncertain. 
 Everywhere needless delays have harassed and exasperated 
 applicants, and everywhere, more or less, I am sorry, but 
 1 Report, pp. 148, 149. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 307 
 
 compelled to add, gross favouritism has occurred in the 
 disposal of public lands." 1 
 
 It is indeed a deplorable condition of affairs which 
 Durham here describes. Of its truth in all essentials there 
 is unfortunately no doubt, for the witnesses upon whose 
 testimony the charges are based were drawn from all 
 parties, ranks and districts in British North America. He 
 adds that under this system not only did the Crown Lands 
 Department not yield a revenue, but that for some years 
 the expenses exceeded the income. This, although serious, 
 was of small account to Durham in comparison with the 
 disastrous results the system produced on the civilisation 
 of Upper Canada. During his tour in that province Durham 
 coasted along the American shores of Lake Erie and saw 
 Buffalo in the distance. There is no indication that he 
 knew any other American city, but he listened to the 
 boasts of his numerous American guests, and to the 
 "concurrent statements of numerous eye-witnesses, who 
 had no motive for deceiving me," as he curiously phrases it, 2 
 and he seems to refer to Haliburton in the mention of " one 
 of your Majesty's chief functionaries in Nova Scotia," whose 
 work bore out his assertions as to the backward condition of 
 the province, although a different cause was assigned for it. 
 
 " On the American side all is activity and bustle. The 
 forest has been widely cleared. Every year numerous 
 settlements are formed, and thousands of farms created 
 out of the waste ; the country is intersected by common 
 roads ; canals and railroads are finished, or in the course 
 of formation ; the ways of transport and communication 
 are crowded with people, and enlivened with numerous 
 carriages and large steamboats. The observer is surprised 
 at the number of harbours on the lakes, and the number of 
 vessels they contain, while bridges, artificial landing-places, 
 and commodious wharfs are formed in all directions as 
 soon as required. Good houses, warehouses, mills, inns, 
 villages, towns, and even great cities, are almost seen to 
 1 Report, p. 149. 3 Ibid., p. 151.. 
 
 xa 
 
3 o8 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 spring out of the desert. Every village has its school-house 
 and place of public worship. Every town has many of 
 both, with its township buildings, its book stores, and prob- 
 ably one or two banks and newspapers ; and the cities 
 with their fine churches, their great hotels, their exchanges, 
 court-houses, and municipal halls of stone or marble, so 
 new and fresh as to mark the recent existence of the forest 
 where they now stand, would be admired in any part of 
 the Old World." 1 In these glowing words the Report 
 describes the civilisation of the Frontier States of the 
 Union, and states that, by reversing the picture, the 
 condition of British America can be equally well realized. 2 
 Durham's constant harping on this theme of the supe- 
 riority of the United States, which he himself never saw, is 
 remarkable. Wakefield did make two or three more or 
 less hurried trips through that country, and his eagerness 
 to repair the undoubtedly backward condition of the 
 Canadas may account for the above description. Of a 
 certainty this section of the Report was inspired by Wake- 
 field, and he was an adept at conveying impressions by the 
 use of picturesque language. We are driven to believe that 
 there is some intentional exaggeration here by the absence 
 of any reference to the true cause of the extraordinary 
 development of the Western States of the Union. They 
 were settled by emigrants not only from the populous 
 eastern States, which were, comparatively speaking, close 
 at hand, but also from England. It was easier to get to 
 Canada via New York than by the St. Lawrence, and 
 many of those who would have gone to Canada were 
 persuaded into remaining by the blandishments of the 
 American land agent so familiar to readers of " Martin 
 Chuzzlewit." The American industrial system was based 
 on credit to an extent inconceivable to-day, and the Canadas 
 were still reeling under the shock received when American 
 
 1 Report, p. 1 50. 
 
 2 For the dark side of the picture of American civilisation, see 
 Head's " Three Letters to Lord Brougham and Vaux." 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 309 
 
 banks, and even States, repudiated their debts. Capital 
 and credit were easy to obtain in the United States prior 
 to 1837, an d this must be remembered when contrasting 
 the condition of the two sides of the frontier. 
 
 The Report compares the two countries in three places 
 where they touch New Brunswick, Lower Canada, and 
 Upper Canada. Major Head told Durham that, when 
 travelling near the frontier line of the State of Maine and 
 New Brunswick, he could always tell on which side he was 
 by the obvious superiority of the American settlements 
 in every respect. This has been referred to before; it may 
 be sufficient to point out that, if Head knew the precise 
 position of the frontier so clearly in 1838, he was probably 
 the only person in the world who did, for it was not settled 
 till 1840. Such careless statements, however picturesque, 
 are not evidence ; the condition of New Brunswick was 
 lamentable enough without exaggeration. It was improv- 
 ing, although slowly, and that too in face of enormous diffi- 
 culties ; capital and population were both scarce, and even 
 the enterprising Yankee, without capital or credit, was 
 helpless. Head is on safer ground when he speaks of 
 the condition of the roads in the Eastern Townships being 
 so uniformly bad that settlers preferred to travel between 
 any two points in them by making use of the roads in 
 Vermont This was not the fault of the settlers but of the 
 unfortunate racial question in Lower Canada, under which 
 the Eastern Townships were persistently starved by the 
 Assembly. The inhabitants were largely Americans, and 
 had more affinity with the Vermonters than with Lower 
 Canada proper, from which they were separated by a belt 
 of swamp and forest. The difference between Upper 
 Canada and the opposite shore of the lakes was said to be 
 less perceptible but not less in fact, and one proof is alleged 
 that in some parts of the frontier the difference in the 
 value of land north and south of the line was sometimes 
 1,000 percent ; " between Upper Canada and the States of 
 New York and Michigan it is notoriously several hundred 
 
310 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 per cent" Mr. Hastings Kerr, of Quebec, the premier 
 authority on the subject, gave the price of wild land in 
 Vermont as five dollars an acre, and in the adjoining 
 British townships as one dollar, and at that price much 
 was unsaleable. The system under which Crown lands 
 were granted is blamed, and obviously with justice, for 
 this unsatisfactory state of affairs. 
 
 Another regrettable circumstance is the considerable 
 re-emigrations from the Canadas to the United States, 
 amounting, according to Mr. Bell Foryth of Quebec, to 
 60 per cent. ; and even according to Mr. Hawke, the chief 
 agent for emigration, to nearly 17 per cent, of the British 
 settlers in Upper Canada. A similar thing happened in 
 the Maritime Provinces. Durham states emphatically that 
 the main cause of the very inferior value of land in the 
 British colonies, and the re-emigration of immigrants is 
 the mismanagement in the disposal of public lands. Then 
 there follows a series of statistics and extracts from the 
 evidence of witnesses to show the appalling condition of 
 the provinces. Lands had been granted to United Empire 
 Loyalists and their children, to Governors, Government 
 officials and others, all of whom had either neglected to 
 improve them or had sold them in despair to speculators, 
 and so increased the evil. The only people who made any 
 effort to develop their holdings in the Eastern Townships 
 were the American squatters on the wild lands of others. 
 
 In Upper Canada huge tracts of land had been granted 
 in this way, and had been bought up by rich members of 
 the Councils. In Lower Canada the law against excessive 
 grants was actually set at defiance by the assistance of the 
 Attorney-General, who drew up an instrument which was 
 publicly sold in Quebec, whereby grants made to a " leader 
 and associates," who were " men of straw," could be con- 
 veyed to the leader alone ; the principal intermediate agent 
 was the assistant surveyor-general. Another instance of 
 mismanagement was the way in which the lands were 
 bestowed which had been promised to the militiamen who 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 311 
 
 fought in the war of 1812. In despair at developing 
 or even obtaining their lands, in the face of the trouble 
 of making out their claims, the militia sold their rights 
 to speculators for a very few pounds, and thus "there 
 has been the maximum injury to the province with the 
 minimum of benefit to the militiamen." 1 
 
 Attempts had been made to reform the system of free 
 grants. In 1827 the practice was to cease in Upper Canada 
 and a price to be demanded, but only 100,317 acres had 
 been sold, while 2 ,000,000 acres were granted free in respect 
 of antecedent claims. A commissioner was appointed at 
 this time to control the disposal of Crown lands at a salary 
 of ^"500 a year. In ten years the surveyor-general handed 
 over to him about 300,000 acres, while he retained control 
 of the rest to satisfy claims to free grants. In November, 
 1826, instructions were sent by the Treasury to Lower 
 Canada, and these were confirmed in 1831 and further 
 enforced by Lord Goderich ; henceforth free grants were 
 to be replaced by a system of sale, but again, as antecedent 
 claims demanded 640,039 acres, and only 450,469 acres had 
 been sold, the scheme had not been a success, and there 
 were still unsettled claims to more than 1,000,000 acres. 
 Lord Goderich had ordered that, to restrict appropriation, 
 a short time only should be allowed in which to pay the 
 purchase-money; but in 1832 Lord Aylmer allowed this to 
 be disregarded. In 1837 Lord Glenelg required that ready 
 money should be paid at the time of sale. 
 
 Even when a man had bought his land he was not sure 
 of his rights, for the early surveys had been careless, and 
 the boundaries of the lots were frequently hopelessly 
 unsettled, or wrong. In one case the greater part of a lot 
 was found to be occupied by a lake. Hence there were 
 frequent disputes as to title between squatters and purchasers, 
 and the state of affairs can be realized by the evidence of 
 Mr. Kerr, who stated that in one township, Inverness, three 
 out of the four lots granted to a Captain Skinner were 
 1 Report, p. 163. 
 
3 i2 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 decided not to be in existence. Not the least cause of 
 complaint was the more or less useless formality and 
 delay before a patent could be obtained, even when the 
 purchase-money had been paid ; it issued by the joint 
 efforts of eight or nine officials, and the time varied from 
 six weeks to eight years. In one instance a man was held 
 in prison for debt a fortnight by his creditors while his 
 patent, for which he had already made all necessary pay- 
 ments, was sent to the Governor at Niagara for his 
 signature ; until it arrived the debtor could not raise the 
 small sum required. 
 
 Little reference need be made to the question of the 
 clergy reserves, which has been dealt with elsewhere. 
 A curious mistake, but one of which the clergy were 
 guiltless, according to Durham, was made in laying out 
 the township, and not only did a reservation of one-eighth 
 of the total land of the township become one-seventh, but 
 in Lower Canada a further reservation of one-seventh was 
 made at each fresh sale or grant. 1 Hence in Upper Canada 
 45,000 and in Lower Canada 16,000 of the price 
 hitherto received for the reserves belongs to the State. 
 At the end of his remarks on the land system Durham 
 refers again to Prince Edward Island. The state of things 
 in that island, and their origin, have been already explained 
 As Durham himself found, it was easier to blame the policy 
 which alienated the whole 1,400,000 acres in one day than 
 to devise means for undoing the evil which should satisfy- 
 all parties. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to say that Durham's information 
 as to the land system was gathered from the evidence 
 taken by Hanson and Wakefield before their commission. 
 Buller, the nominal chief commissioner, took little part 
 in this matter, being employed elsewhere, but he and 
 
 1 The Act 31 Geo. III. c. 31 ordered that in respect of all grants 
 made by the Crown a quantity equal to one-seventh of the lands so 
 granted should be reserved for the clergy i.e. t one-eighth of the 
 whole. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 313 
 
 Wakefield agreed on the question. The credibility of the 
 statements made is hardly contestable if the diverse character 
 of the different witnesses is considered. Possibly, almost 
 probably, Wakefield intentionally painted things in Canada 
 as black as possible, but without that they were bad 
 enough. As in the case of Upper Canada, we have appa- 
 rently a first draft of the sections written out by Wakefield, 
 and revised by Wakefield and Durham, probably with the 
 assistance of Buller and Hanson. 
 
 Closely following the account of the land system is a 
 description of the methods by which the population of the 
 colonies was recruited by emigrants. The first census of 
 those arriving at Quebec by sea was taken in 1831 ; from 
 that date till 1838, 263,089 arrived in Canada, the most 
 being in the year 1832 (51,746), and the smallest number, 
 as might be expected, was in 1838, when, on account of 
 rumours of trouble, only 4992 arrived. It is a terrible 
 story of criminal negligence that Durham has to tell. 
 Packed out of all proportion in crazy, ill-found, and foul- 
 smelling emigrant ships, the wretched men, women, and 
 children often landed at Quebec in a sick and dying state. 
 The cholera outbreak of 1832-4 was traced to them, and 
 finally a quarantine station was formed at Grosse Isle, a few 
 miles below Quebec. The newcomers who had not 
 sufficient energy to push on to Upper Canada lingered 
 about Quebec and Montreal as casual labourers ; often the 
 parents were carried off by disease in the foul dens to 
 which they betook themselves if they had a little money 
 and did not wish to sleep out on the wharf side. They 
 made no attempt to save, thinking that they were sure of 
 work at good wages all the year round, and in the long 
 Canadian winter they were a heavy burden on the charity 
 of the people of Quebec. To remedy this, the provincial 
 parliament imposed a tax on emigrants from the United 
 Kingdom, and out of the proceeds a fund was provided 
 which secured shelter, medical attendance, and the means 
 of further transport to destitute emigrants. 
 
3H SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 The conveyance of emigrants was regulated by the 
 Passengers Act (9 Geo. IV.), which was amended in 1835. 
 By this Act the names, ages, sexes, and occupations were 
 to be entered on a list certified by the Customs officer at 
 the outpost, and delivered by the captain with the ship's 
 papers to the officer of the Customs in Canada. Systematic 
 evasion took place, for although lists were handed in they 
 were seldom correct, the object being to evade the tax on 
 emigrants by entering grown-up persons as children. 
 Again, each passenger was supposed to have sufficient 
 provisions for the voyage, but the same bag did duty for 
 many. The pauper emigrants and those from Ireland 
 fared worst ; not only was the food supplied to the former 
 unsuitable for the voyage, but they were often put on short 
 rations before the vessel had been at sea many days. As 
 they had only salt pork, beef, and biscuits, without the 
 sugar, coffee, oatmeal, and flour, they frequently developed 
 contagious fevers, and the food and water they actually 
 did get were not always of the best quality. These parish 
 emigrants were the worst kind, both physically and morally ; 
 they seldom knew a trade, even farming, and only swelled 
 the ranks of the poor in Quebec. An exceedingly mean 
 kind of extortion was commonly practised by the captains 
 of the emigrant ships sailing from Ireland. Although they 
 knew that the average passage was six weeks, and some- 
 times longer, they persuaded the emigrant that stores for 
 three weeks or a month would be sufficient. Having laid 
 in a stock of provisions, the captain then sold them at a 
 profit of 400 per cent, to the wretched emigrant who had 
 consumed all his own, and frequently robbed him of his 
 last shilling. The cheaper vessels were exceedingly ill- 
 found, and commonly had an insufficiency of water casks. 
 
 The Passengers Act also provided for the conveyance 
 of doctors on the emigrant ships, 1 but " the majority of 
 these were unlicensed students and apprentices, or apothe- 
 caries' shopmen, without sufficient medical knowledge to 
 1 Report, p. 184. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 315 
 
 be of any service to the emigrants, either for the prevention 
 or cure of diseases/' In one case the surgeon of an Irish 
 vessel professed to have cured of bowel complaints and 
 catarrhs the only sick on the vessel, but the surgeon at 
 Grosse Isle, Dr. Poole, found below forty cases of typhus 
 fever, of whom nine were in bed. Another emigrant-ship 
 surgeon gravely diagnosed a strain of the arm as a fracture 
 of the tibia and fibula, both of which are bones in the leg. 
 Durham admits that it was agreed that things were im- 
 proving somewhat since the Act was amended in 1835, 
 but, although there were agents appointed to secure the 
 execution of its provisions at both ends of the voyage, the 
 instructions they received were too vague to be of much 
 use. This difficulty which the emigrant found in procuring 
 information, either in Upper or Lower Canada, was, 
 frequently the reason for his re-emigration to the United 
 States. At Quebec and Montreal emigrant societies had 
 been formed, but their chief object was to facilitate the 
 progress of the poorer emigrants to the United States, 
 although they had by their exertions introduced some 
 improvement into the unhealthy mid-passage. 
 
 The Report gives a striking instance of the utter want 
 of system in the account of the "Commuted Pensioners." 
 In 1832 and 1833 about 3000 of these old soldiers, who had 
 commuted their pensions for a lump sum down and a 
 grant of land, arrived at Quebec. As, however, they 
 anticipated the dispatch sent to provide for their reception, 
 they were unable for some time to receive their money. 
 Some of them, when they received it, gave themselves up 
 to drunkenness and debauchery, never attempting to settle 
 on their lands ; others, who were more prudent, found it 
 utterly impossible to discover the situation of their 
 grants. The result was* that many sold their rights for a 
 mere trifle, and within a short time after their arrival were 
 beggars and hangers-on in the principal towns ; not one 
 in three attempted to settle their lands, and not one in 
 six remained in 1838 on them. Many of the pensioners 
 
316 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 perished during the two years of cholera, and others had 
 disappeared, but the situation of those who survived called 
 loudly for relief, as they were useless as farm-labourers or 
 as domestic servants, and at the commencement of every 
 winter they were thrown on private charity. In the 
 upper province numbers were only saved from absolute 
 starvation by being fed at the expense of the Provincial 
 Government. Durham advised that their pensions be 
 restored to them, and that the next Government-managed 
 scheme of emigration should be carried out on more 
 scientific principles. 
 
 This subject of emigration naturally interested Wakefield 
 and his patron very greatly, and they were disgusted at 
 the arrangements which the Report of the Agent-General 
 for emigration praised. In the face of the terrible scenes 
 of the cholera years we can understand their objection to 
 a passage in the printed Report for 1838, which, referring 
 to the emigration of 1832, says : " These great multitudes 
 had gone out by their own means and disposed of them- 
 selves through their own efforts, without any serious or 
 lasting inconvenience ... a practice which appeared to 
 thrive so well spontaneously." Lord Durham seems to 
 have intentionally provided the evidence, as given above, 
 for the contradiction of another passage from the same 
 Report. Speaking of the officers employed by the 
 Colonial Department to secure the carrying out of the 
 Passengers Act, it says : " Their duty is to give ease and 
 security to the resort to the colonies, and to promote the 
 observance of the salutary provisions of the Passengers 
 Act. In all that relates to emigration they constitute, as 
 it were, the poor man's friend. They take notice whether 
 the ship offered for his conveyance is safe, and fit for its 
 purpose ; they see to the sufficiency of the provisions on 
 board ; they prohibit overcrowding ; they make every effort 
 to avert or frustrate those numerous and heartless frauds 
 which are but too constantly attempted at the moment of 
 departure upon the humbler class of emigrants. . . . Every 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 317 
 
 effort is made for the ease and safety of their transit/' 
 This is an admirable summary of what should be the duties 
 of emigration agents, but there is considerable evidence 
 to show that they were but indifferently performed. It 
 was essential to the success of the Wakefield scheme of 
 colonisation that emigrants should receive every assistance 
 from the Government, and although Durham does not 
 actually advocate State-aided emigration, he gives many 
 indications that he approved of it. To him "the chief 
 value of those colonies to the Mother Country consists in 
 their presenting a field where millions even of those who 
 are distressed at home might be established in plenty and 
 happiness." 1 
 
 The sub-section on emigration belongs to section four, 
 and the sources and authorities are largely the same. The 
 evidence quoted was given before the Crown Lands 
 Commission, and probably was selected by Wakefield 
 himself with a view to emphasising the difference between 
 the true and the false method. Of course, we are not 
 justified in taking the extreme instances quoted as true 
 types of the emigrant-ship, but even so their existence 
 was a reproach to the nation. Contemporary evidence is 
 strong upon the point of the utter unsuitability of many 
 would-be emigrants, and the proof is clinched by the very 
 different system under which the great emigration of the 
 fifties was carried out, when the Durham Report had 
 drawn attention to the abuses, and the Special Report had 
 pointed to the true method of settlement. It is scarcely 
 worth while to do more than mention Haliburton's criticism 
 upon the Report's interpretation of certain clauses in the 
 Passengers Act. 
 
 1 Report, p. 190. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 THE DURHAM REPORT: RECOMMENDATIONS. 
 
 BEFORE giving an account of Lord Durham's scheme for 
 the future government of British North America, as out- 
 lined in the Report, it may be as well to remember that 
 this differed considerably from Roebuck's scheme, which 
 he found unworkable, and also from the scheme he gave 
 hints of in the proclamation of October 9th. The ministry 1 
 affected to believe that Durham never had a scheme until 
 Charles Buller arrived in England, and the Report was 
 finally drawn up ; the fact is, Durham had a very definite 
 scheme when he left British America. He still hoped to 
 satisfy the British of Montreal without destroying absolutely 
 the French nationality in Lower Canada. Charles Buller 
 was not converted to the union when he left Canada, for a 
 Montreal paper accused him of language which leaves no 
 doubt of his sympathies. 3 Buller was stated to have 
 expressed an opinion in favour of the rebels, when on the 
 steamer 6V. George, just after Durham left, calling them 
 an injured and oppressed people, and asserting that the 
 so-called loyalists had caused both the first and the second 
 rebellion by tyrannising over their opponents and goading 
 them into rebellion. This agrees more with the tone of 
 the dispatch of August Qth than with Durham's actual 
 recommendation. Buller's opinion was said to have been 
 shared by young Ellice. 
 
 There are, moreover, strong grounds for thinking that 
 Durham and Wakefield were still in favour of, at least, 
 
 1 Cf. Sanders, p. 443. 
 
 2 Montreal Herald, November 1 4th, 1838. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 319 
 
 Sir Charles Grey's scheme. 1 In the Proclamation of 
 October Qth reference was made to a measure which 
 Durham hoped to bring before the Imperial Government, 
 under which "all the advantages of a representative system, 
 unaccompanied by the evils that have hitherto proceeded 
 from the unnatural conflict of parties," would be secured to 
 Lower Canada. To offer the scheme in the Report as the 
 fulfilment of such a pledge would be simple mockery, and 
 we must believe that Durham's scheme actually provided 
 for the subdivision of Lower Canada under a general 
 scheme of confederation, so as to give the French the 
 superiority in those districts of Lower Canada where they 
 were almost the sole inhabitants. Chance has preserved a 
 letter which strongly corroborates this view, and which 
 professes to give the scheme which Durham proposed to 
 present for acceptance. The writer was an inhabitant of 
 Montreal, and he names as his authority one of the 
 Commissioners, who may have been 2 Adam Thorn. The 
 plan 3 is as follows : 
 
 " i The name of Canada is to be superseded as being 
 intimately connected with misgovernment, party spirit and 
 strife, and the two provinces are to be re-divided into the 
 provinces of Quebec, Montreal, Kingston, and Toronto, 
 which with the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, 
 Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, will in one 
 federal union go under the name of British North America. 
 The Queen's title will then be, * Queen of the United 
 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and British North 
 America.' British North America will then have a Secre- 
 tary and office in Downing Street to itself, and be 
 governed by a viceroy, as Ireland now is, with this 
 difference : that we shall have a separate federal Legislature 
 nearly independent of the Mother Country. 
 
 "2. Each province to have a Legislature to itself for 
 
 1 See ante, p. 1 54. 
 
 2 Cf. ante, p. 197, and Roebuck's letter in The Spectator of 
 November I7th, 1838. 
 
 3 Quoted from The Observer, December 24th, 1838. 
 
320 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 the management of local matters, and the whole country 
 is to be divided into municipalities, answering to the 
 townships of the States, where they shall elect their own 
 officers. The people are also to elect Commissioners of 
 Education in each municipality, and trustees of each 
 school, who are to be overseen by inspectors having the 
 status of puisne judges, and they in their turn to be under 
 a superintendent, with the rank of chief justice, and re- 
 movable only for misconduct, so that education may go 
 on independently of party and factious strife. The Clergy 
 Reserves, the Jesuits' estates, and all funds for education to 
 be thrown into a fund, and distributed to each school 
 district in the country in proportion to its population ; 
 said school district to be compelled by law to raise at least 
 an equal amount, so that education shall be free to every 
 child in British North America. 
 
 " 3. Each province fo send two or more members to 
 the Imperial Parliament in London. Steam navigation 
 to be established on a large scale between Great Britain 
 and British North America, and our country here to be 
 opened up from Halifax to Sandwich, by railroads and 
 improvements of navigation. 
 
 " This is a magnificent plan, and I think will be likely 
 by its grandeur to bear down all opposition. It would 
 also, in my opinion, work well, as there would not be 
 a French Canadian majority in any province but that of 
 Quebec, and that district has never participated in the 
 disturbances. Besides, as the people would have the 
 sole control and management of their own affairs, and as 
 improvements of all kinds would be carried on rapidly and 
 prosperity abound, no one would have reason to 
 complain." 
 
 This was indeed a magnificent plan, and we cannot 
 easily understand how a statesman like Durham could 
 abandon it for the miserable makeshift scheme of a legisla- 
 tive union of two provinces, whose peoples had no more 
 affinity than water and oil. It is true that he compares 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 321 
 
 the case of Louisiana, but there had been no rebellions 
 there ; the French population was small in Louisiana, 
 and was soon swamped, while there was not the slightest 
 likelihood that the English settler would prefer the poor 
 soil of Lower Canada to the rich lands of the upper 
 province. The bribe which bought the adhesion of the 
 Upper Canadian reformers responsible government 
 had no attractions for the habitant or notary, who saw, 
 as he thought, his nationality destroyed at the bidding of 
 his hereditary enemies, the Montreal merchants. Thirty 
 years of the unequal yoke did not prevent the French 
 from eagerly grasping at the scheme of confederation 
 whereby the partial control of their beloved Quebec was 
 restored to them. In 1839 they would undoubtedly have 
 preferred to control half of the lower province if they 
 could not have the whole ; at the present day there 
 are signs that even under confederation the British of 
 Montreal are becoming somewhat restive from the neglect 
 with which they fancy their port is treated in comparison 
 with Quebec by a French Legislature. There is now no 
 question of nationality. Merchant and habitant are alike 
 proud of the great Dominion, but there is no community of 
 interests between a commercial city like that of Montreal, 
 which is truly American in its progressiveness, and the 
 quaint, interesting, sleepy old French town of Quebec. 
 When the last British settler shall have turned his back 
 on the Eastern Townships and that will be ere many years 
 have passed it will be time to consider whether Durham's 
 first plan may not still, with suitable modifications, be the 
 best solution of the difficulty. It holds good equally with 
 Upper Canada, for Kingston and Toronto were already, 
 in 1839, the capital of different civilisations, and soon the 
 population and wealth of Ontario will entitle it to 
 become two States, one industrial and the other agri- 
 cultural. 
 
 Perhaps we can find the key to Durham's hesitation 
 in that peculiar British disinclination to attempt too much 
 
 S.G.C. Y 
 
322 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 at once. His ideal was the federation of all the provinces ; 
 he admits that ; but he did not know how far the taint of 
 disaffection had spread among the French, and perhaps 
 misinterpreted their unwillingness to trust him as having 
 been due to a consciousness of guilt Again, the plan of 
 The Times, l and so of the Tories, was to set the English- 
 men of Upper Canada as a guard over the Frenchmen of 
 Lower Canada, and the Montreal merchants who had 
 influence with The Morning Chronicle had preached 
 legislative union in season and out of season. His own 
 instructions bade him consider a scheme for the federal 
 union of the two provinces, and he saw that there was at 
 present no chance of arranging a satisfactory division of 
 the joint revenue, or of the French Assembly consenting 
 to complete the canal system of the St. Lawrence. Upper 
 Canada was bankrupt, and Lower Canada thoroughly dis- 
 organized ; she would not have felt the dismemberment, 
 or perhaps have only looked upon it as an unpleasant but 
 necessary operation. There was, however, one drawback 
 to the compound division and federation scheme. The 
 Maritime Provinces only appreciated the theory, but they 
 steadily disapproved of its being carried out in Durham's 
 way, under which the central authority received all power 
 and revenue, while the provincial Legislature remained a 
 sort of glorified County Council. Durham was quite sure 
 he was right, and the fathers of confederation practically 
 adopted his view. 
 
 Mr. Garnett believes that the adoption of the plan for 
 a legislative union "the jewel of the Report," as a spiteful 
 pamphleteer calls it was due to Wakefield. 2 It is 
 impossible to do more than conjecture, but the supposition 
 is a likely one. Durham had great confidence in 
 Wakefield's judgment, and Wakefield could be at once 
 practical and a dreamer. Perhaps the union was not so 
 valuable a jewel as appears at first sight, but it was an 
 
 1 Issue of January 3rd, 1838. 
 
 2 " Life of Wakefield," p. 179. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 323 
 
 eminently practical and temporary solution. Durham 
 had to reckon with the British parliament Roebuck's 
 letters to The Spectator prove that the " Friends of Canada " 
 had come to look upon the High Commissioner as hopeless 
 from their point of view, and they would have resisted the 
 dismemberment scheme. The Tories were not enamoured 
 of federation, and they would have had a good excuse in 
 the obvious reluctance of the colonists themselves. 
 Melbourne 1 and his ministry had no scheme at all, 
 certainly none they could hope to carry in the face of 
 opposition, and Durham showed his practical good sense 
 in at once disarming his opponents by adopting the Tory 
 principle of the Union, while he bought off the hostility 
 of Upper Canada with his proposal to grant responsible 
 government. Of course the French were not considered, 
 but after their late rebellion it was evident that the system 
 of the Constitutional Act could not be re-established. 
 Durham's term of office in Canada had taught him that 
 Lower Canada must become English if the other colonies 
 were to remain British, and even while he recommended 
 the legislative Union, he preached the federation of all the 
 colonies. The Report pointed out its advantages so strongly, 
 while it declared that it must only come about by consent 
 of all parties, that the actual realization of his project was 
 only a question of time. 
 
 Durham prefaces his recommendations with a brief 
 summary of the reasons for immediate action. Both in 
 Upper Canada and Lower Canada the need for remedial 
 measures is equally pressing. In Lower Canada it was 
 impossible to re-establish the old Constitution neither 
 party would tolerate that ; nor could it be expected that 
 the present system of forcible subjugation could be 
 permanent. In Upper Canada the continuance of the many 
 
 1 As late as December 23rd, 1838, Melbourne wrote to Russell that 
 the only course was to continue the suspension of Lower Canada's 
 Constitution, and leave the other provinces as they were. Sanders, 
 p. 444- 
 
 ' Y 2 
 
3 2 4 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 practical grievances, and the determined resistance to 
 such a system of responsible government as would give 
 the people a real control over their own destinies, were 
 calculated to make men desire the adoption of Republican 
 institutions under which the United States, whom they 
 envied, had prospered. For the moment he believed that 
 all the discontented, especially in Upper Canada, looked 
 forward with considerable confidence to his mission, but it 
 was the last effort of their exhausted patience, and if it 
 was in vain they would "wait in sullen prudence the 
 contingencies which may render the preservation of the 
 province dependent on the devoted loyalty of the great 
 mass of its population." 1 
 
 With respect to the other provinces, the evils were not so 
 imminent because the feeling of attachment to the Mother 
 Country was very strong. This feeling indeed existed among 
 all the British inhabitants of the different colonies, and 
 might form the basis of a safe, honourable, and enduring 
 connection if a wise and firm policy were adopted by the 
 Imperial Government. But even this feeling might be 
 impaired, and a blind reliance on the all-enduring loyalty 
 of our countrymen might be carried too far. It was not 
 politic to cramp their resources and to allow the backward- 
 ness of the British provinces everywhere to present a 
 melancholy contrast to the prosperity of the United States. 
 It was no true loyalty to hide the truth from the Queen, 
 who was as able as she was willing to provide the remedy, 
 and the noble confidence of the colonists in trusting to 
 Great Britain for redress was worthy of reward. They had 
 believed that there is a power in British institutions to 
 rectify existing evils and to produce in their place a well- 
 being which no other dominion could give. " It is not in 
 the terror of the law or in the might of our armies that 
 the secure and honourable bond of connection is to be 
 found. It exists in the beneficial operation of those British 
 institutions which link the utmost development of freedom 
 1 Report, p. 192. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 325 
 
 and civilisation with the stable authority of an hereditary 
 monarchy, and which, if rightly organized and fairly 
 administered in the colonies, as in Great Britain, would 
 render a change of institutions only an additional evil to 
 the loss of the protection and commerce of the British 
 Empire." 1 
 
 This passage strikes the keynote of the new colonial 
 policy which Durham had learned from Molesworth and 
 Wakefield, and had transformed and ennobled by his own 
 genius. He saw a vision of a wider empire than that of 
 fleets and armies. " Government by consent " was to join 
 in one Briton and Frenchman and to give a new meaning to 
 " la nation Canadienne." He was not the man to blame 
 national aspirations, but he would turn them into a more 
 profitable channel, and suggest to their upholders a nobler 
 and more useful field of effort. It was possible, he 
 admitted, to hold the Canadas by force at present, but 
 such a barren sovereignty was not worth the cost of its 
 maintenance, and by a little effort and by wise conciliation 
 a sister nation might be created alongside of the United 
 Kingdom a source of strength instead of weakness, and 
 the ever-present nightmare of a possible American inter- 
 vention would pass away as it has done for ever. 
 Durham deserves all credit for facing and laying the 
 spectre of annexation. British statesmen feared it, even 
 when they most affected to despise it, and the British 
 of Canada, as Durham saw, "protested too much" in their 
 hatred of everything American. They certainly preferred 
 British institutions, but they had never yet enjoyed them 
 to the full, and they cannot be blamed for thinking that 
 the freedom of a Republic was preferable to the slavery of 
 a monarchical colony. 
 
 Perhaps Durham is nowhere seen to better advantage 
 than in this section of the Report, and not least readable 
 of all are the pages where he discusses the chances of 
 American intervention. He scouts the idea that there 
 
 1 Report, p. 194. 
 
326 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 could be any real sympathy between the aggressive, 
 enterprising Americans and the habitants of Lower Canada. 
 For them to understand the real object of the latter was at 
 once to condemn it, and it was only the fancied analogy 
 between the grounds of quarrel in 1837 and 1776 that ever 
 won a momentary sympathy for the French in the United 
 States. In Upper Canada the danger was more real 
 because the natural ties and affinity were stronger than in 
 Lower Canada. There were Americans in Upper Canada, 
 and Canadians in the different States of the Union and 
 intercourse was very common. Again, there was the ques- 
 tion of the Irish, of whom 40,000 were said to be in the 
 militia of New York State. At present Durham's policy 
 had secured the almost unanimous approbation of the people 
 of the United States, and, therefore, there was little to be 
 feared from American sympathy with the rebels. Any 
 recent aid the latter had received was due to the national 
 animosity arising from past wars or to "those undisguised 
 projects of conquest and rapine which, since the invasion 
 of Texas, find but too much favour among the daring 
 population of the frontiers." l The Federal Government at 
 Washington, however, would not be strong enough to 
 resist the popular will, if any sudden turn of affairs should 
 again revive a strong and general sympathy with insur- 
 rection in Canada, and there were mutual provocations on 
 each side of the frontier ; for the loyal people of Canada 
 were irritated at the constant damage and terror caused by 
 invasions from the opposite shore. 
 
 But not only was immediate action necessary in view of 
 the possible change in the present friendly attitude of the 
 Washington authorities, but it was also imperative for the 
 true interests of British North America. Capital and 
 population were both leaving the distracted provinces. 
 From Lower Canada the emigration was not permanent at 
 least, to any great extent but it was otherwise in Upper 
 Canada. It was said that many settlers were crossing over 
 1 Report, p. 198. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 327 
 
 from the western and London districts, and a body of the 
 reforming party had openly avowed their intention of 
 emigrating from political motives. There was actually in 
 existence the Mississippi Emigration Society, for the 
 purpose of facilitating emigration from Upper Canada to 
 the new State of Iowa. However, at present, very few 
 even of those who were loudest in their protestations of 
 departure had actually left the country and some of those 
 who had left were said to have returned. Durham cannot 
 agree with the dominant party in rejoicing at the departure 
 of the discontented, for not all the reformers were disloyal 
 or turbulent men, and he instances the case of a large 
 proprietor from Trinidad who had left Upper Canada, 
 where he had taken no very prominent part in politics, 
 solely because of the unrest in the colony. Other cases 
 were given, not only of capitalists but also of squatters, 
 and even the descendants of the Dutch around Niagara 
 were showing a disposition to quit the country. 
 
 In the face of such a deplorable situation Durham relied 
 on " the efficacy of reform in the constitutional system by 
 which these colonies are governed for the removal of every 
 abuse in their administration which defective institutions 
 have engendered." l The problem was to bring the influence 
 of a vigorous public opinion to bear on every detail of 
 public affairs, and to secure harmony instead of collision 
 between the various powers of the State. " It needs no 
 change in the principles of government, no invention of a 
 new constitutional theory, to supply the remedy which 
 would, in my opinion, remove the existing political dis- 
 orders. It needs but to follow out consistently the principles 
 of the British Constitution, and introduce into the govern- 
 ment of those great colonies those wise provisions by which 
 alone the working of the representative system can in any 
 country be rendered harmonious and efficient. We are not 
 now to consider the policy of establishing representative 
 government in the North American colonies. That has 
 1 Report, p. 204. 
 
328 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 been irrevocably done ; and the experiment of depriving 
 the people of their present constitutional power is not to 
 be thought of. To conduct their government harmoniously, 
 in accordance with its established principles, is now the 
 business of its rulers ; and I know not how it is possible to 
 secure that harmony in any other way than by adminis- 
 tering the government on those principles which have 
 been found perfectly efficacious in Great Britain. I would 
 not impair a single prerogative of the Crown ; on the 
 contrary, I believe that the interests of the people of these 
 colonies require the protection of prerogatives which have 
 not hitherto been exercised. But the Crown must, on the 
 other hand, submit to the necessary consequences of repre- 
 sentative institutions ; and, if it has to carry on the 
 government in unison with a representative body, it must 
 consent to carry it on by means of those in whom that 
 representative body has confidence." 1 
 
 In these simple words Durham laid the foundations of 
 the new colonial policy of Great Britain ; he did not seem 
 to realize the immense revolution he was initiating. To 
 him " government by consent " was as natural in Canada 
 as in England, and that was to him sufficient justification 
 for the proposal. He was a Benthamite in that he preferred 
 the interest of the whole to that of the part, whether the 
 part was the oligarchies at Toronto and Quebec or the whole 
 " nation Canadienne"; he was greater than a Benthamite, 
 for he looked beyond the present to the heritage of the 
 unborn. Canada was an inheritance that must be preserved 
 for the British race, but it was a race which knew no ties 
 of blood, but only of common allegiance to one ruler. It is 
 a mistake to consider that Durham for one moment desired 
 to wipe out, in the sense of the Montrealers, " la nation 
 Canadienne"; he only wished to show the French that, by 
 the logic of past events, they were politically British, and 
 that, however modified to suit their local needs, the type of 
 the new Canadian nation must be British too. Nevertheless 
 1 Report, pp. 204, 205. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 329 
 
 the Canadian nation had all the rights which Durham, 
 as a Radical, believed to be an Englishman's birthright. 
 He had no thought of innovating ; in his own eyes he 
 merely carried to its logical conclusion the policy begun by 
 others, and from a halting-place where it had already 
 delayed too long. 
 
 Durham just does pause, not to defend a new proposal, 
 but to answer possible objections to his view of the 
 necessity of the course he would pursue. The principle he 
 advocated was commonly received in England, and had 
 not been challenged since the time of William III. If 
 colonial legislatures had stopped supplies and preferred 
 impeachment with too great a frequency, it was only 
 because they could not show their want of confidence in 
 the officials in a milder way and yet attain their end. He 
 did not approve of any of the other plans that were 
 suggested to end the difficulty. Some in the colonies 
 proposed an elective Executive Council, but that was incon- 
 sistent with monarchy, and would really, under the nominal 
 authority of the Crown, deprive the people of one of the 
 great advantages of an hereditary monarchy. He main- 
 tained that every purpose of popular control might be 
 combined with every advantage of vesting the immediate 
 choice of advisers in the Crown, were the colonial 
 Governor to be instructed to secure the co-operation of the 
 Assembly in his policy, by entrusting its administration to 
 such men as could command a majority ; and if he were 
 given to understand that he need count on no aid from 
 home in any difference with the Assembly, that should not 
 directly involve the relations between the colony and the 
 Mother Country. "The change might be effected by a 
 single dispatch containing such instructions ; or, if any 
 legal enactment were requisite, it could only be one that 
 would render it necessary for every official act of the 
 Governor to be countersigned by some public functionary. 
 This would induce responsibility for every act of the 
 Government, and, as a natural consequence, it would 
 
330 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 necessitate the substitution of a system of administration 
 by means of competent heads of departments for the 
 present rude machinery of an Executive Council. The 
 Governor, if he wished to retain advisers not possessing 
 the confidence of the existing Assembly, might rely on the 
 effect of an appeal to the people, and if unsuccessful might 
 be coerced by a refusal of supplies, or his advisers might be 
 terrified by the prospect of impeachment. But there can 
 be no reason for apprehending that either party would 
 enter on a contest when each would find its interest in the 
 maintenance of harmony ; and the abuse of the powers 
 which each would constitutionally possess would cease 
 when the struggle for larger powers became unnecessary. 
 Nor can I conceive that it would be found impossible or 
 difficult to conduct a colonial government with precisely 
 that limitation of the respective powers which has been so 
 long and so easily maintained in Great Britain." 1 In after 
 years Durham's meaning was interpreted by Wakefield's 
 acts to be that the Governor should rule through the 
 leaders of the majority in the Assembly, not that those 
 leaders should rule through the Governor; but the true 
 theory of " responsible government " according to the 
 Durham Report has been too often forgotten. 
 
 Anticipating Croker's shriek, 2 Durham says: 3 "Perfectly 
 aware of the value of our colonial possessions, and strongly 
 impressed with the necessity of maintaining our connection 
 with them, I know not in what respect it can be desirable 
 that we should interfere with their internal legislation 
 in matters which do not affect their relations with the 
 Mother Country. The matters which so concern us are 
 very few. The constitution of the form of government 
 the regulation of foreign relations, and of trade with the 
 Mother Country, the other British colonies and foreign 
 
 1 Report, pp. 206, 207. 
 
 2 "The fundamental error is this: they forget that Canada is a 
 province a colony. They measure it by a scale of doctrines which 
 are applicable only to a national and independent sovereignty." 
 
 3 Report, p. 207. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 331 
 
 nations- and the disposal of the public lands, are the only 
 points on which the Mother Country requires a control. 
 This control is now sufficiently secured by the authority 
 of the Imperial Legislature; by the protection which the 
 colony derives from us against foreign enemies ; by the 
 beneficial terms which our laws secure to its trade ; and by 
 its share of the reciprocal benefits which would be conferred 
 by a wise system of colonisation/' Durham thought that 
 " a perfect subordination on the part of the colony, on these 
 points, is secured by the advantages which it finds in the 
 continuance of its connection with the Empire/' We have 
 now drifted far from his ideal, but there are signs of a change 
 in men's feelings as to the adequacy of mere " silken ties." 
 
 Regarding the results of his proposal to place the control 
 of their home affairs in the hands of the colonists them- 
 selves, Durham has no fears ; if they make bad laws or 
 choose improper leaders, they will suffer most. The 
 existing system, maintained by a costly military force, 
 only allowed a Governor or colonial secretary to confer 
 posts upon one set of people rather than upon another, and 
 the persons selected were seldom remarkable for ability, 
 while they could not be removed without " inflicting a kind 
 of brand on their capacity or integrity." Nor should it be 
 urged against the new system that its advocates in the past 
 had been men suspected of a preference for Republican 
 institutions. Past expressions of disappointment were not 
 to be taken too seriously, for everywhere among the 
 English population he had found a devoted attachment to 
 the Mother Country. " The British people of the North 
 American colonies are a people on whom we may safely 
 rely, and to whom we must not grudge power." The new 
 policy might indeed be carried out by the unaided power 
 of the Crown, and an assurance that it would be hence- 
 forth adopted would dispel the great mass of discontent in 
 Upper Canada not arising from a feeling of personal 
 irritation. However, he thought that the colonists would 
 feel more secure if all the provinces were united ; then, 
 
332 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 preferring their complaints with one voice, they would find 
 no one in England venturing to run counter to their wishes, 
 except on points involving the few Imperial interests 
 which it is necessary to remove from the jurisdiction of 
 colonial legislation. 
 
 Having laid down the great principle which was in 
 future to regulate the relations of Great Britain and her 
 colonies, Durham does not spare the latter in indicating 
 their faults. He advises that, to prevent the possibility of 
 that political jobbery and log-rolling which so thoroughly 
 disgusted him in colonial politics, the consent of the Crown 
 shall be made necessary before any money vote can be 
 moved ; he would strengthen the prerogative of the 
 Monarchy for the real protection of the people, as it " is 
 constantly exercised in Great Britain." He also advises 
 the devolution of some of the powers now possessed by the 
 provincial legislatures upon a number of municipalities 
 throughout the colonies. The legislatures would never 
 willingly surrender their powers, but it was necessary for 
 political purity and good management that the power of 
 local assessment, and the application of the funds thus 
 collected should be confided to the new municipalities, and 
 that the establishment of the latter should be a part of 
 every colonial Constitution. The Crown must zealously 
 defend them against any encroachments of the Assembly 
 until the people had realized their value. " The establish- 
 ment of a sound and genuine system for the manage- 
 ment of the lands and the settlement of the colonies 
 is a necessary part of any good and durable system of 
 government." 
 
 Then Durham returns to the greatest of all the problems 
 the future of Lower Canada. Sixteen pages are filled 
 with a discussion of the past, present, and most suitable 
 future for the lower province, and he ends where he began 
 in practically re-stating the problem. Durham sympathised 
 with the French of Lower Canada as an " oppressed 
 nationality," but his stay in Canada convinced him that 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 333 
 
 their hopes could not come to fruition unless by the 
 sacrifice of the destiny of his own people, and he made his 
 final decision in accordance with his creed. Less ruthless 
 than Wakefield in his disappointment, Durham seriously 
 thought that he might even persuade the French to 
 acquiesce in the extinction of their national aspirations by 
 the offer of a more glorious citizenship ; but in 1840 their 
 wounds were too recent, and the exultation of their foes too 
 evident for this. During the long night of their hopes, 
 however, the French gradually learned that they too could 
 contribute something of their past to the glories of the 
 future Canadian nation. When the British in Canada 
 consented to become also Canadians, the French could 
 also take upon themselves a dual nationality. They 
 discovered that not the renunciation but the sublimation of 
 their cherished ideal "la nation Canadienne" was asked; 
 and, after all, the Norman peasantry in Quebec are not of 
 a very different race from the Anglo-Danish farmers of 
 Ontario and the Maritime Provinces. 
 
 " I entertain no doubts as to the national character 
 which must be given to Lower Canada ; it must be that of 
 the British Empire ; that of the majority of the population 
 in British America ; that of the great race which must, in 
 the lapse of no long period of time, be predominant over the 
 whole North American continent. Without effecting the 
 change so rapidly or so roughly as to shock the feelings and 
 trample on the welfare of the existing generation, it must 
 henceforth be the first and steady purpose of the British 
 Government to establish an English population, with 
 English laws and language, in this province, and to trust its 
 government to none but a decidedly English Legislature.'* 1 
 Durham's hopes have been vain, for Quebec to-day is more 
 French than in 1839, in everything but racial animosities. 
 Having stated the problem thus clearly, the Report 
 proceeds to discuss it. After a few words of sympathy 
 with the French for the coming loss of that nationality 
 1 Report, p. 212. 
 
334 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 " which is after all an inheritance," and deprecating too 
 severe a punishment, Durham defends his refusal to subject 
 the British minority to the French majority on the ground 
 that the British race will eventually outnumber the French, 
 and that, under the existing condition of things, the 
 occupation by the French of the lower St. Lawrence 
 debars the British of Upper Canada and the Townships 
 from the natural channel for the trade which they have 
 created. Any future influx of settlers must be British, 
 and they would not submit to the injustice. Even if the 
 Imperial Government will not give the British the control 
 they will agitate for it until successful, backed by their 
 increasing numbers and by the sympathy of their race both 
 in Great Britain and in the United States. If abandoned 
 by the Imperial Government, they will turn to the neigh- 
 bouring Republic for aid, and, when they are incorporated 
 with it, the fresh swarms of settlers from all parts of the 
 Union will speedily overpower every other race by superior 
 numbers and activity. 
 
 But there is no hope for French nationality, whether 
 under British or American rule ; they are an isolated 
 fragment of an ancient colonisation in an Anglo-Saxon 
 world, and, if severed from the Empire, they will only 
 remain part of an English confederation, or, " after keeping 
 up a wretched semblance of feeble independence for a few 
 years," will be merged in the American Union, being 
 " exposed more than ever to the intrusion of the 
 surrounding population. The only question is whether 
 the small number of French who now inhabit Lower 
 Canada shall be made English under a Government which 
 can protect them, or whether the process shall be delayed 
 until a much larger number shall have to undergo, at the 
 rude hands of its uncontrolled rivals, the extinction of a 
 nationality strengthened and embittered by continuance/' 1 
 Durham was a false prophet, but, as his forecast was based 
 on the information he next supplies as to the existing state 
 1 Report, p. 215. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 335 
 
 of the French in Lower Canada, we cannot be surprised. 
 Lafontaine he knew, but Jean Baptiste he did not know, 
 and the renaissance of civilisation in Lower Canada 
 unfortunately at that time wore the form most calculated 
 to disguise its true power and achievements. We know 
 from Richardson, 1 and also from hints in the Report, that 
 Durham quite expected that in due course the Canadas 
 would become independent, although he hoped to prevent, 
 or at least minimise, the shock of parting, and he was 
 thinking of the day when the British of Montreal would be 
 in power. 
 
 According to him, the educated French Canadian was 
 kept apart from the Empire by difference of language and 
 manners, and the aspiring ones could not be employed by 
 the Government in sufficient numbers, even if they received 
 fair treatment, from a similar reason. For the habitant the 
 case was as bad. If he remained in his native village, the 
 weight of economic forces made him poorer and poorer, for 
 the pressure of population could only cause to deteriorate 
 into poverty the present state of rude and equal plenty. If 
 he wandered abroad, he would lose his racial traits among 
 an English population, or he would sink into being a 
 member of a class of labourers in the employ of English 
 capitalists ; in either case it would appear that the French 
 Canadians are doomed, in some measure, to occupy an 
 inferior position, and to be dependent on the English far 
 employment, a position aggravated tenfold by a spirit of a 
 jealous and resentful nationality, separating employer from 
 employed. The time is past for the mode of life and 
 division of property prevailing among the French, however 
 good its effects at present may be. There is not enough 
 land left contiguous to the seigneuries to keep pace with 
 the rapidly increasing French population, if it is to be 
 cultivated in the old manner. According to a Report from 
 a committee of the Assembly in 1826, it is stated that since 
 1784 the population of the seigneuries had quadrupled, 
 1 "Eight Years in Canada," p. 36, and Report, p. 229. 
 
336 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 while the number of the cattle had only doubled, and the 
 quantity of land in cultivation had only increased one-third. 
 " Were the French Canadians to be guarded from the influx 
 of any other population, their condition in a few years would 
 be similar to that of the poorest of the Irish peasantry." 
 
 For a long time it seemed as if Durham had correctly 
 outlined at least one phase of the habitants* future. Despite 
 the commutation of the tenures, the younger men were 
 driven into the mills of New England in large numbers, for 
 neither in Quebec nor elsewhere north of the frontier could 
 they find a means of subsistence ; still, even among the 
 Puritans, the priest followed his flock and formed a bond of 
 union among them. When they died in the strange land 
 he buried them, but all who could returned with their 
 savings to die. Patriotic leaders mourned over the forced 
 migrations, and priests feared the effect of the factory life 
 on their simple parishioners. Schemes were formed of a 
 new Quebec on the Red River, but, like the half-breeds of 
 Batoche, they found that isolation was not possible in North 
 America for long. The fate of Louis Riel was harder than 
 that of Papineau, but his rising was the last false step on the 
 part of any section of the French. They remain a minority 
 in Manitoba, jealous of their rights, but able to maintain 
 them because their support is generally indispensable to the 
 success of the British party leaders. Similarly in Ontario ; 
 the French have, step by step, thrust forward their outposts 
 from western Quebec, and by their frugality and clannishness 
 have secured their hold. They find in Ontario the industrial 
 life they formerly saw only in New England, and the 
 French farmer, who could barely wrest a livelihood from 
 the barren fields of Quebec, is content with lands the more 
 aggressive Englishman has abandoned for the fertile corn- 
 fields of the north-west. Perhaps they may not be always 
 the minority even in Ontario, but at present they are 
 unmolested, and are even powerful by reason of their votes. 
 In the future, education may raise the condition of the 
 habitant and teach him to abandon his limpet-like preference 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 337 
 
 for his native land. In time the French will develop party 
 divisions as the British have already done, but the process 
 will be slow and checked by the broad cleavage of religion. 
 Meanwhile, the two races live side by side, proud of their 
 common fatherland. The French were ever a people with 
 great powers of assimilating and transforming all that was 
 best in the Roman and the Teuton who came among them, 
 and there are already signs that the old process is at work. 
 It is to their interest to retain the Imperial connection, 
 under which they have flourished so greatly, and the genius 
 of their abler leaders has seized upon the old war-cry of the 
 Tories and claimed for the French membership in the new 
 Imperial race. Side by side French and British Canadians 
 struggled up the Nile, and side by side they fell at 
 Paardeberg. It required the genius of a Frenchman to con- 
 ceive a new criterion of nationality wider than the blood-tie, 
 but the rest of the Empire is learning it, and finding new 
 motives for union. 
 
 But when Durham wrote this was in the future ; he had 
 hoped to conciliate, but had been repulsed. The French 
 were then holding aloof in their ruin, and from the distance 
 he saw only a nation " destitute of all that can invigorate 
 a people," with its own language, it is true, but with neither 
 history nor literature, and yet cut off from all enjoyment 
 of English literature. He says that the only literature 
 familiar to them was that of a nation from which they had 
 been separated for eighty years, and still more by the 
 changes which the Revolution had wrought in the whole 
 political, moral and social state of France ; even their news- 
 papers were written by men imported from old France, 
 and, although members of the race most addicted to the 
 drama, they could not support a national stage, on a 
 continent where almost every town, great or small, has an 
 English theatre. Many of the French already realized 
 their hopeless position ; the English language was gaining 
 ground, and in Quebec were ten times as many French 
 children learning English as there were English learning 
 
 S.G.C. Z, 
 
338 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 French. Justice and policy alike demanded that the 
 alteration of the character of the province should be at 
 once entered upon and firmly though cautiously followed 
 up. To trust the French, in their present state of mind, 
 with the control of the province would only be facilitating 
 a rebellion, and thus the policy suitable both for the 
 present and the future is the same. Durham is unjust to 
 the French ; they were not without a history even in 
 Canada, as Louisbourg and Fort Duquesne had proved, 
 and they were successfully re-creating their literature. It 
 is and was, perhaps, of a somewhat peculiar type, but we 
 must not forget that French literature sailed back to France 
 in 1760-63 with the officials and soldiers of the most 
 Christian king, and only reluctantly returned. We know 
 now how unfair it was to assume that all the French were 
 ripe for rebellion, but Durham felt himself compelled to 
 justify a policy which could not be justified on any ground 
 but that of superior strength. The only argument for the 
 union was that, if it did not come about peaceably, it would 
 be carried by force; the true solution confederation was 
 not possible in 1840. 
 
 Durham had spoken the fatal sentence, but he made 
 every attempt to mitigate its severity. He would not hear 
 of Head's scheme ; to join Montreal to Upper Canada and 
 then govern the rest of the province despotically was no 
 solution, nor could it help provoking the interference of the 
 United States, if they set up a semblance of representative 
 government which gave power to the British minority. In 
 time the discontent of the French would affect the English 
 also, and there was nothing in the history of past attempts 
 at irresponsible government to justify a repetition of the 
 experiment. Such a system could not last, and would only 
 result in a weak and irresolute conduct of affairs by the 
 Governor and his Council from fear of criticism. Nor 
 would he agree to a gerrymandering of the constituencies 
 or a rearrangement of the franchise qualification. " It is 
 not in North America that men can be cheated by an 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 339 
 
 unreal semblance of representative government, or persuaded 
 that they are out-voted when they are in fact disfranchised. 
 The only power that can be effectual at once in coercing 
 the present disaffection and hereafter obliterating the 
 nationality of the French Canadians is that of a numerical 
 majority of a loyal and English population, and the only 
 stable Government will be one more popular than any that 
 has hitherto existed in the North American colonies." 1 
 
 He next attempts to correct a misapprehension among 
 the British as to what really happened after the purchase 
 of Louisiana in i8o4. 2 On the single fact that in the Con- 
 stitution of Louisiana it is specified that the public Acts 
 of the State shall be " in the language in which the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States is written " it has been inferred 
 that the Federal Government in the most violent manner 
 swept away the use of the French language and laws, and 
 subjected the French population to some peculiar dis- 
 abilities which deprived them, in fact, of an equal voice 
 in the government of their State." 3 Durham again pleads 
 for consideration to be shown to the French Canadians 
 by giving an interesting account of how Louisiana was 
 Americanised by a combination of fair treatment and 
 superior ability on the part of the new settlers. By his own 
 showing, however, the success attained had not been very 
 great, and he does not mention that the circumstances 
 were very different. Louisiana was a tiny colony of slave- 
 holding aristocrats which had never enjoyed representative 
 institutions ; the French of Lower Canada were a fairly 
 numerous nation of peasant farmers, whose aspirations had 
 once been encouraged till, after half a century of growth, 
 they became inconvenient. Durham attempted to maintain 
 the view that, as in Louisiana, the more ambitious Canadians 
 would learn English and take an interest in the affairs of 
 
 1 Report, p. 22 1 . 
 
 2 Is it a mere coincidence that The Morning Chronicle had compared 
 Louisiana and Canada ? 
 
 3 Report, p. 222. 
 
340 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 their new and larger nationality, and their peculiar language 
 and manners would pass away as those of the New York 
 Dutch had done. He forgot for the moment the two 
 rebellions and their legacy of hate. 
 
 There were two kinds of union possible, he says federal 
 and legislative. When he first landed in Canada he had 
 been in favour of the former, under which there would be 
 two local Legislatures and one superior one to manage their 
 common affairs ; however, he had discussed this scheme, as 
 part of a plan for the general government of all the 
 colonies, with deputations from the lower provinces and 
 with various leading individuals and public bodies in both 
 the Canadas, and had found it unworkable at present. The 
 proposed federal Constitution would be cumbrous to work, 
 and the central authority weak, unless the local authorities 
 surrendered more of their powers than they were apparently 
 willing to do. Moreover, so long as the colonies were 
 liable to be moulded according to the pleasure of the 
 supreme authorities at home, there was lacking the induce- 
 ment to federation supplied by the necessity of conciliating 
 the pretensions of independent States to the maintenance 
 of their own sovereignty. However, he was pleased to find 
 the leading minds of the various colonies strongly and 
 generally inclined to a scheme that would elevate their 
 countries into something like a national existence. He 
 thought it would be a tendency of a federation sanctioned 
 and consolidated by a monarchical Government, gradually 
 to become a complete legislative union, and that thus, 
 while conciliating the French of Lower Canada by leaving 
 them the government of their own province and their own 
 internal legislation, he might provide for the protection of 
 British interests by the general Government, and for the 
 gradual transition of the provinces into an united and 
 homogeneous community. But the time for transition was 
 past in Lower Canada ; no French Assembly would work 
 in harmony with a central federal authority, and tranquillity 
 could only be restored by subjecting the province to the 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 341 
 
 vigorous rule of an English majority, and the only efficacious 
 Government would be that formed by a legislative union. 
 
 Durham gives some figures to prove that in United 
 Canada the British of Upper Canada, 400,000 in number, 
 reinforced by the 150,000 British of Lower Canada, would 
 have a majority over the French of 100,000. He put the 
 British population far too high, as the event proved, but he 
 rightly saw that immigration would soon redress any 
 balance adverse to his scheme. He hoped that the French 
 would realize that they were fairly out-voted for he would 
 not alter the existing constituencies and give an equal 
 number of representatives to each province and that, 
 recognising the futility of any attempt at opposition, would 
 acquiesce in their new state of political existence. He 
 would not like to subject the French to the British of 
 Lower Canada, but from a majority emanating from so 
 much more extended a source they would, he thought, 
 have no oppression or injustice to fear. 
 
 Most of their new fellow-citizens would not have come 
 into hostile relations with them, and so would bear no 
 feelings of animosity towards the French. However, 
 Durham proposed to guarantee to the Roman Catholic 
 Church of Lower Canada its endowments, and only to 
 allow the existing laws to be altered by the united 
 Legislature, as was stipulated in 1707 with regard to 
 Scotland. The union would secure to Upper Canada the 
 objects of its desire. There would be no more disputes 
 about the revenue, and the province which was placed 
 beyond the possibility of locally jobbing the surplus 
 revenues would gain as much as the province which would 
 acquire a means of paying the interest of its debts. This 
 would not be unjust, as Lower Canada would share in 
 the benefit of the canals, which could be completed and 
 become a source of profit. There would also be a saving 
 in the cost of carrying on the government, which would be 
 more efficient, and the responsibility of the Executive would 
 be secured by the increased weight which the representative 
 
342 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 body of the united province would bring to bear on the 
 Imperial Government and Legislature. 
 
 He was inclined to go further, and ask if a legislative 
 union of all the provinces would not be equally advisable. 
 It would, in a greater degree, answer all the purposes of 
 the smaller scheme, and United Canada, under good and 
 responsible government, and protected by the British 
 Empire, might in some measure counterbalance the pre- 
 ponderant and increasing influence of the United States. 
 He did not think a colonial legislature thus strong and 
 thus self-governing would desire to abandon the connection 
 with Great Britain. " On the contrary, I believe that the 
 practical relief from undue interference which would be 
 the result of such a change would strengthen the present 
 bond of feelings and interests, and that the connection 
 would only become more durable and advantageous by 
 having more of equality of freedom and of local independ- 
 ence. But, at any rate, our first duty is to secure the well- 
 being of our colonial countrymen ; and if in the hidden 
 decrees of that wisdom by which this world is ruled it is 
 written that these countries are not for ever to remain 
 portions of that Empire, we owe it to our honour to take 
 good care that, when they separate from us, they should 
 not be the only countries on the American continent in 
 which the Anglo-Saxon race shall be found unfit to govern 
 itself." 1 
 
 This was the expression of a generous confidence, which 
 history has thoroughly justified. The Empire owes a debt 
 to Lord Durham that it has ill-repaid ; he raises to a higher 
 level than mere commercialism the question of the relations 
 between the various parts of the Empire, and tries to inspire 
 men with a sense of that duty which made him accept a 
 post so visibly offered for his ruin, that he might preserve 
 to the nation, as the inheritance of future ages, the wide 
 lands of the West. The colonies have a right to the best 
 form of government that we can give them and to the best 
 1 Report, p. 229. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 343 
 
 chance of industrial progress, because their inhabitants are 
 a part of the nation which the seas cannot dissever: they 
 shall no longer be the preserves of corrupt politicians and 
 place-hunters, but sharers with the people of England in 
 the liberties so lately won. For the future Durham was 
 content to wait ; perhaps he was looking forward to the 
 new ideal of empire a federation of free and self-governing 
 communities allied on equal terms. 
 
 It was the gift of Durham, shared in common with 
 Wakefield, that he could offer to every man the arguments 
 most fitted to appeal to him, and so here he attempts to 
 reassure the timid. There is no danger of separation, he 
 says, for the new scheme will call out all that is best in the 
 colonial politician. No longer would he be a demagogue 
 in a dependency, and forced to rely solely on agitation for 
 influence. He will henceforth be a leader in a community 
 whose voice counts in the councils of the Empire. He will 
 find larger objects and aims, and the more sordid and petty 
 quarrels which made up colonial politics will sink out of 
 sight. At present the American spirit is the only one the 
 colonists are influenced by, since they have no nationality, 
 and the spirit of Great Britain cannot act from its distance. 
 If it be true that these troubles are fomented by a few 
 designing men, the union of all the provinces will afford a 
 means of turning their ambitions into more honourable 
 channels by raising up a Canadian nationality, whose 
 destinies they may aspire to mould, uninfluenced by alien 
 pressure. Adam Smith's sagacity traced to its true source 
 the alienation of the United States from the parent nation : 
 we must provide some scope for what he calls the " import- 
 ance " of the leading men of the colony, beyond what he 
 forcibly terms the present " petty prizes of the paltry raffle 
 of colonial faction." They would no longer look with envy 
 and wonder at the great arena of the bordering federation, 
 but see the means of satisfying every ambition in the high 
 offices of the judicature and Executive Government of their 
 own Union. 
 
344 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Nor would the colonies themselves gain less by federa- 
 tion ; the superintendence of a central Executive would in 
 almost every case improve the working of the present 
 existing departments in the colonies. It was hard to 
 consider why the colonies were divided into separate 
 provinces, since they are all part of one Empire, with 
 common laws and common interests ; their relations to the 
 Empire and to foreign nations are the same, and in case of 
 a war for example, in the matter of the boundary dispute 
 between Maine and New Brunswick they would all suffer 
 together. Even a quarrel over the fisheries of Nova Scotia 
 would lead most probably to the invasion of Upper Canada. 
 Their internal relations afford equally strong motives for 
 union; the Post Office should be managed by one authority, 
 and certainly the disposal of the waste lands in the several 
 provinces. It would be advantageous to the colonies to 
 possess a common fiscal system, a common currency, 
 and a common banking and monetary system. The exist- 
 ing public establishments in the different provinces would 
 best be altered by the united Legislature, and a similar 
 course should be pursued with regard to the judicial system, 
 as a general appellate tribunal could then be formed for all 
 the North American colonies. 
 
 But all these interests are small in comparison with those 
 that would be called into existence by the union. Not 
 only would the colonies be brought into closer intercourse, 
 but the success of steam navigation in shortening the 
 Atlantic passage bade fair to bring Europe nearer to them 
 also. Lord Durham mentions a dispatch from Glenelg 
 which reached him on his return to England. It announced 
 that the Government were determined to establish steam 
 communication between Great Britain and Halifax, and 
 instructed him to turn his attention to the formation of a 
 road between Halifax and Quebec. Durham says that, had 
 he remained in Canada, he would have had both the will 
 and the power to carry out the scheme, but unfortunately, 
 the respective provinces had no means of concerting 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 345 
 
 common action ; they stood to one another in the relation 
 of foreign States without diplomatic relations. Their only 
 common meeting-ground was the Colonial Office, the place 
 just where the interests of all parties would have the least 
 means of being fairly and fully represented, and where the 
 minute local knowledge necessary for such a matter would 
 be least likely to be found. 
 
 He considered that the completion of any satisfactory 
 communication between Halifax and Quebec would, in fact, 
 produce relations which would render the union of the 
 provinces absolutely necessary. The idea of a railroad was 
 quite feasible, as the cost would not be so great as in 
 England, and the general contour of the country was 
 favourable. He instances the case of the Utica railroad, in 
 the north of New York State, to prove that the severe 
 American winter did not affect travelling by rail. Quebec 
 would be brought within ten or twelve days steaming from 
 Ireland, and there would be communication between the 
 colonies and Great Britain, even in winter ; Halifax would 
 become a great trading port and the landing-place of 
 passengers to British North America. The completion of 
 the St. Lawrence canals and of the railroad from Quebec 
 to Halifax would render the colony independent of the 
 mouth of the St. Lawrence in bad weather, but would 
 cause it to be more than ever necessary that the provinces 
 should be united. The union would also be most beneficial 
 to the two smaller provinces of Newfoundland and Prince 
 Edward Island. It is to be regretted that Durham could 
 not prevent the disgraceful Ashburton Treaty, which tore 
 from New Brunswick the lands through which such a rail- 
 road must pass ; her claim to most of the territory she 
 demanded has since been proved to be indisputable by the 
 discovery of the old French map, but when the Inter- 
 colonial Railway was finally made, it was deprived of its 
 strategic value by the consequent necessity of running its 
 trunk line through the ceded territory. Any direct all- 
 British line cannot start therefore from Halifax, the most 
 
346 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 suitable port, and other, if possible even more ambitious, 
 projects have been designed by Canadian engineers to 
 bridge the Strait of Canso, and make the terminal point in 
 Cape Breton. 
 
 As a final argument in favour of the union of all the 
 provinces, Lord Durham reproduces a letter from Edward, 
 Duke of Kent, Queen Victoria's father, in which is discussed 
 the question of the union, according to the plan of Chief 
 Justice Sewell, to whom he writes. It is dated November 
 3Oth, 1814, and the scheme is slightly different to Durham's. 
 As amended by the Duke of Kent, the scheme provided 
 for a central Assembly of thirty members and a Governor- 
 General ; under him there were to be two or at the most 
 four Lieutenant - Governors, Executive Councils, and 
 Assemblies. The Duke wavered between the creation of 
 two provinces by the amalgamation of the Canadas on the 
 one side and of the Maritime Provinces on the other, or at 
 any rate of uniting Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and 
 Cape Breton. Curiously enough Newfoundland was left 
 out of the proposed federation, of which the only result was 
 the annexation of Cape Breton to Nova Scotia in 1820. 
 The Duke of Kent died too soon for the success of the 
 scheme, and he seems to have yielded to the representation 
 that the population was too small and the distances too 
 immense for a union to be feasible at that moment. 
 Durham, however, does not mention these facts as an 
 obstacle, but he personally found the drawback in the 
 reluctance of the Maritime Provinces to surrender to a 
 central body the control of their revenues ; he thought that 
 reluctance might be overcome by the erection of a system 
 of municipalities. However, in view of the unwillingness 
 of the Maritime Provinces to accept the scheme, he does 
 not think it wise to press it, as there are, save in Lower 
 Canada, no exceptional circumstances to justify such a 
 step. But the state of the two Canadas is such that 
 parliament must decide on their future government without 
 delay. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 347 
 
 He advises that a Bill be immediately brought into 
 parliament for repealing the Act 31 Geo. III. c. 31, 
 restoring the union of the Canadas under one Legislature, 
 and reconstituting them as one province. The Bill should 
 also provide for the future admission of any other of the 
 colonies into the union on such terms as may be agreed on. 
 A parliamentary Commission should decide upon the new 
 electoral districts, arranging them as near as possible with 
 a view to representation in proportion to population, for no 
 other scheme would be fair. However, to prevent the 
 confusion and danger likely to ensue from attempting to 
 have popular elections in districts recently the seat of 
 rebellion, the Governor should receive temporary power to 
 suspend certain writs by proclamation, stating specifically 
 the ground for his action. The same Commission should 
 devise a plan for the erection of bodies for local govern- 
 ment, subordinate to the Legislature, but protected from 
 it by having their powers defined by an Act of the 
 Imperial Parliament. An improved general Executive and 
 a Supreme Court of Appeal for all the North American 
 colonies should be established, but the other laws and 
 institutions of the colonies to remain unaltered until the 
 united Legislature dealt with them, the existing endow- 
 ments of the Roman Catholic Church in Lower Canada 
 alone being guaranteed by the new Act. 
 
 Durham's treatment of the Legislative Council is un- 
 satisfactory ; the reason was that he had already burned 
 his fingers by following Roebuck's advice as to the abolition 
 of the Legislative Council. In Nova Scotia Roebuck's 
 scheme of a combined Executive-Legislative Council had 
 not been a success, and had only just been reformed, on 
 the petition of the inhabitants, when Durham offered his 
 plan of federation coupled with the abolition of the 
 Legislative Council, but apparently without the proposal 
 for responsible government. He found, however, that the 
 politicians of the Maritime Provinces preferred the surer 
 remedy of a responsible to a powerless Executive Council, 
 
348 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 as did those of Upper Canada. \ His actual scheme of 
 responsible government falls far short of the demands of 
 the Maritime reformers, but it is an improvement upon 
 them. V Only in Lower Canada, among the followers of 
 Papineau, did he find any desire for an elective Legislative 
 Council, and he saw how useless a remedy it would prove. 
 However, he objected with Fox to any comparison between 
 the House of Lords and the Legislative Council, but 
 strange omission in an otherwise most comprehensive 
 Report -^he suggests no remedy beyond a vague hope that 
 parliament may "revise the Constitution of the Council, 
 and by adopting every practicable means to give that 
 institution such a character as would enable it, by its 
 tranquil and safe but effective working, to act as a useful 
 check on the popular branch of the Legislature, preventing 
 a repetition of those collisions which have already caused 
 such dangerous irritations." 1 Durham had become a Whig 
 and did not know it. 
 
 He proposes that the administration of his plan for the 
 management of the waste lands should be confided to an 
 Imperial authority, his reasons being given in the Special 
 Report. All other revenues of the Crown should be 
 surrendered to the united Legislature on the concession of 
 an adequate Civil List. The responsibility to the united 
 Legislature of all officers of the Government, with the 
 exception of the Governor and his secretary, should be 
 secured by every means possible to the British Constitution. 
 The Governor, as the representative of the Crown, should 
 be instructed that he must carry on his government by 
 heads of departments, in whom the united Legislature shall 
 repose confidence ; and that he must look for no support 
 from home in any contest with the Legislature except on 
 points involving strictly Imperial interests. The independ- 
 ence of the judges should be secured by giving them the 
 same tenure of office and security of income as exist in 
 England. No money votes should be allowed to originate 
 1 Report, p. 241. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 349 
 
 without the previous consent of the Crown. In the same 
 Act should be contained a repeal of past provisions with 
 respect to the Clergy Reserves, and the application of the 
 funds arising from them. 
 
 He elsewhere (i.e., in the separate Report) recommends 
 a system of measures expressly framed after mature 
 deliberation for the promotion of emigration on the 
 greatest possible scale. These measures would subject 
 neither the colony nor Great Britain to any expense what- 
 ever, but would benefit both. "The objects, at least, with 
 which the plan has been formed are to provide large funds 
 for emigration, and for creating and improving means of 
 communication throughout the provinces ; to guard emi- 
 grants of the labouring class against the present risks of 
 the passage ; to secure for all of them a comfortable 
 resting-place, and employment at good wages immediately 
 on their arrival ; to encourage the investment of surplus 
 British capital in these colonies by rendering it as secure 
 and as profitable as in the United States, and to promote 
 the settlement of wild lands and the general improvement 
 of the colonies ; to add to the value of every man's 
 property in land ; to extend the demand for British manu- 
 factured goods, and the means of paying for them, in pro- 
 portion to the amount of emigration and to the general 
 increase of the colonial people; and to augment the 
 colonial revenues in the same degree." 1 
 
 The peroration proper contains perhaps some of the 
 most eloquent thoughts in a Report which is never dull and 
 never lacking in passages calculated to play upon the 
 emotions. After a brief vindication of the trustworthiness 
 of his facts and the suitability of his recommendations, he 
 admits that, in view of the number and magnitude of past 
 errors, and the wretched economical state of the colonies, 
 his scheme almost amounts to a revolution ; but, after all, 
 it is only the substitution of a scientific system for none at 
 all, and he "has presumed that the Imperial Government 
 1 Report, p. 242. 
 
350 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 and Legislature will appreciate the actual crisis in the 
 affairs of these colonies, and will not shrink from any 
 exertion that may be necessary to preserve them to the 
 Empire." 1 He is hopeful rather than confident of the 
 success of his scheme, but action is necessary. " The 
 deep-rooted evils of Lower Canada will require great 
 firmness to remove them. The disorders of Upper Canada, 
 which appear to me to originate entirely in mere defects 
 of its constitutional system, may, I believe, be removed by 
 adopting a more sound and consistent mode of administer- 
 ing the government. We may derive some confidence 
 from the recollection that very simple remedies yet remain 
 to be resorted to for the first time. And we need not 
 despair of governing a people who really have hitherto 
 very imperfectly known what it is to have a Government." 1 
 He does not recommend emigration on a large scale, as 
 a remedy for the existing state of affairs, since the country 
 holds at present no attraction for settlers ; if, however, his 
 measures shall restore peace, a large influx of British would 
 prevent a recurrence of the trouble, and one year's immigra- 
 tion would redress the adverse balance if he had miscal- 
 culated the forces of the friends and enemies of the British 
 connection in the united Legislature. " It is by a sound 
 system of colonisation that we can render these extensive 
 regions available for the benefit of the British people. The 
 mismanagement by which the resources of our colonies 
 have hitherto been wasted has, I know, produced in the 
 public mind too much of a disposition to regard them as 
 mere sources of corruption and loss, and to entertain with 
 too much complacency the idea of abandoning them as 
 useless. I cannot participate in the notion that it is the 
 part either of prudence or of honour to abandon our 
 countrymen when our government of them has plunged 
 them into disorder, or our territory when we discover that 
 we have not turned it to proper account. The experiment 
 of keeping colonies and governing them well ought at 
 1 Report, p. 243. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 351 
 
 least to have a trial, ere we abandon for ever the vast 
 Dominion, which might supply the wants of our surplus 
 population, and raise up millions of fresh consumers of our 
 manufactures, and producers of a supply for our wants. 
 The warmest admirers and the strongest opponents of 
 Republican institutions admit or assert that the amazing 
 prosperity of the United States is less owing to their form 
 of government than to the unlimited supply of fertile land, 
 which maintains succeeding generations in an undiminish- 
 ing affluence of fertile soil. A region as large and as 
 fertile is open to your Majesty's subjects in your Majesty's 
 American dominions. The recent improvements of the 
 means of communication will, in a short time, bring the 
 unoccupied lands of Canada and New Brunswick within as 
 easy a reach of the British Isles as the territories of Iowa 
 and Wisconsin are of that incessant emigration that 
 annually quits New England for the far West. I see no 
 reason, therefore, for doubting that by good government, 
 and the adoption of a sound system of colonisation, the 
 British possessions in North America may thus be made 
 the means of conferring on the suffering classes of the 
 Mother Country many of the blessings which have 
 hitherto been supposed to be peculiar to the social state 
 of the New World/' 1 
 
 Such is a brief outline of Lord Durham's Report, " one 
 of the ablest State documents ever penned " ; but no resume 
 can convey an adequate idea of its statesmanlike proposals 
 or of the majestic sweep of its periods, which creates out of 
 the normally dry State paper one of the finest examples 
 of virile English prose. It is easy to carp at the Durham 
 Report ; many slips in facts and false conclusions have been 
 pointed out in this sketch, but they do not touch the 
 fundamental truths. Let us admit to the full that there is 
 not a single original thought in the Report which can be 
 ascribed to Lord Durham alone : this does the Earl less 
 than justice, but what does it amount to ? The schemes 
 1 Report, p. 244. 
 
352 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 for the disposal of the waste lands and for encouraging 
 emigration are Wakefield's true ; but they are no more his 
 than Robert Gourlay's, and probably owe something to 
 Lord Durham's hand. The idea of federation can be traced 
 back to Sewell, and beyond Sewell, but the scheme Durham 
 propounds is that which is being realized more and more 
 every day. The Report advocates no mere weak federation 
 of loosely connected and semi-independent provinces, but 
 a legislative union which would make the old provinces 
 simple geographical divisions as they are fast becoming 
 to-day. It is possible to carry back the claim for respon- 
 sible government to the pamphlet of Ogle Govvan in 1830 j 1 
 we know it was the watchword of the advanced reformers of 
 Upper Canada, and we shall probably not be far wrong in 
 attributing Durham's conversion to a belief in its essential 
 justness to his meetings with men like Young of Nova 
 Scotia. But the theory, as it left his hands, was no mere 
 demagogue's assertion of popular rights : it was the reasoned 
 conclusion of the statesman seeking the best remedy for a 
 problem which had baffled all previous attempts to solve 
 it. Durham would have hotly denied the insinuation that 
 he was creating a faineant Governor to represent a faineant 
 Queen. To him, Queen and Governor alike had well 
 defined rights which they must not scruple to exercise. 
 His scheme is only possible in a State where political 
 education is widely if not universally diffused, but to make 
 it possible is to take the wiser course. And so it is with 
 every subject Durham handles : it gains in value by its 
 passage through that wonderful mind of his, the visible 
 fruits of which were so few in his lifetime, but the harvest 
 yet continues with undiminished splendour and richness. 
 
 This sketch will not be complete without a very brief 
 account of the way in which Lord Durham's recommenda- 
 tions were carried out or neglected. When Lord John 
 
 1 The phrase first appeared in a petition of 1829, Cf. MacMullen, 
 P- 370. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 353 
 
 Russell introduced the Union Bill on June 3rd, 1839, he 
 said he could not accept the theory of responsible govern- 
 ment as Lord Durham proposed to apply it to the colonies, 
 but he compromised, and sent a dispatch on the vexed 
 question to Poulett Thompson. This, the latter explained to 
 the Legislature of Upper Canada, conveyed Her Majesty's 
 commands to administer the government of these provinces 
 " in accordance with the well understood wishes and interests 
 of the people." This rather ambiguous sentence was the 
 first sanction the principle of responsible government 
 received in the Canadas ; in 1848 the system was introduced 
 into Nova Scotia, and in 1854 into New Brunswick. On 
 June I3th, 1841, the first meeting of the united Legislature 
 took place. The Union Bill had been carried at last, but 
 it differed in many respects from Lord Durham's ideal. 
 There was to be one Legislative Council and one Assembly ; 
 the Council was to consist of not fewer than twenty-eight 
 natural-born or naturalised subjects of Her Majesty, with a 
 life tenure, quamdiu se bene gesserint. The Speaker of the 
 Council was to be appointed and could be removed by the 
 Governor, and ten members, including the Speaker, con- 
 stituted a quorum. The constituencies of Lower Canada 
 were to be reduced to the number in Upper Canada. The 
 qualification for membership of the Legislature was fixed 
 at bond-fide possession of an estate worth $oo. The 
 English language was the only one to be used in the written 
 or printed proceedings of the Legislature. The passing of 
 any Bill to repeal 14 Geo. III. or 31 Geo. III., or respecting 
 the government of Quebec, the dues and rights of the 
 Church of Rome, the allotment of the clergy reserves, the 
 endowments of the Church of England and its internal 
 discipline or establishment, or affecting the toleration of 
 any creed, and the Queen's control of the waste lands of 
 the Crown, was subject to the necessity of being laid on 
 the table of parliament before the Queen's assent could be 
 declared ; and if at any time within thirty days the Queen 
 was requested to withhold her assent, she must do so. 
 S.G.C. A A 
 
354 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Other clauses provided for the levying of Imperial and 
 colonial dues, for the appointment of a Court of Appeal, for 
 the administration of the civil and criminal laws, for the 
 fixation of the Court of Queen's Bench within Upper 
 Canada, for the regulation of trade, and for the consolida- 
 tion of all the revenues of the colonies into one fund, to be 
 appropriated for the public service of Canada. Out of this 
 fund a Civil List of 45,000 was to be paid to the Queen 
 for the expenses of government and the legal system, and 
 30,000 for certain officials and pensions ; all other revenues 
 were surrendered to the united Legislature. The debts of 
 the two provinces were to be assumed by United Canada. 
 All appropriations were to originate with the Governor, 
 who should initiate the same ; also all new taxation, which 
 the Assembly should then discuss. The formation of 
 townships and the appointment of township officers were 
 vested in the Governor. 
 
 This was the Constitution which Poulett Thompson had 
 to administer. Luckily for him Mackenzie and Papineau 
 were in exile, and every other political leader too bewildered 
 to grasp the situation. There was no attempt made to 
 hold fair elections in Lower Canada. British mobs and 
 French mobs struggled openly about the booths with 
 disastrous results to the number of French members who 
 were returned. The habitant was too cowed to resist the 
 autocratic Governor, and Robert Baldwin again lost his 
 nerve at the critical moment. He had accepted office 
 under Poulett Thompson, but became suspicious and 
 resigned on the very eve of the first meeting of the 
 Legislature. Poulett Thompson had attempted to form a 
 sort of "ministry of all the talents," but Baldwin would 
 not work with W. H. Draper, the talented Solicitor-General 
 of Upper Canada. However, Poulett Thompson was ever 
 resourceful, and he eventually managed to eliminate or 
 reduce to powerlessness every member of the Assembly 
 he had cause to fear. He secretly laughed at the 
 notion of being responsible to anyone but himself and 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 355 
 
 Lord John Russell, who was now Colonial Secretary, and 
 as the Canadians, through sheer weariness of agitation, 
 allowed him to have his own way, the new Governor 
 rapidly improved the hitherto wretched state of affairs. A 
 system of municipal government was established, and the 
 shareholders of the Welland Canal were bought out ; new 
 roads and bridges were built in all directions and Poulett 
 Thompson, now Lord Sydenham, even essayed to solve 
 the question of the clergy reserves. He was too premature, 
 for the scheme was disallowed. He had carefully avoided 
 to place power in the hands of extreme men of either side, 
 and, of course, neglected utterly the claims of Lafontaine 
 and the French. He was considering a plan which 
 Roebuck describes as the creation of a system of " rotten 
 boroughs " to prop up the influence of the Executive, when 
 he died from the effects of a fall from his horse in the 
 autumn of 1841. 
 
 The Tories were now in power in England, and Sir 
 Charles Bagot was sent out to succeed Lord Sydenham. 
 He carried relentlessly into practice what Sydenham had 
 merely professed, despite the murmurs of the Tories in 
 Canada. However, Bagot was so eager to maintain an 
 impartial attitude that he accepted a Reform ministry 
 under Baldwin and Lafontaine ; the Liberals of the two 
 provinces had coalesced, and, in the absence of Sydenham, 
 were irresistible. Bagot resigned in the following year, 
 and was succeeded by Sir Charles Metcalfe, who had 
 previously held office in Jamaica and Hindostan, and, like 
 Head at an earlier date, was looked upon as a " tried 
 reformer," although, again like Head, he was a very 
 moderate Liberal. Wakefield had returned to Canada 
 during Bagot's term of office, and had become the member 
 for the French county of Beauharnois. The part he played 
 in securing the admission of Lafontaine to office is not very 
 clear, but he soon quarrelled with the reformers, who, in 
 his opinion, not only held antiquated views on the question 
 of colonisation, but were also too much inclined to exalt 
 
 A A 2 
 
356 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 their own rights as ministers at the expense of the Governor. 
 Metcalfe was probably quite justified, under Russell's 
 dispatch, in refusing to admit the claim of Baldwin and 
 Lafontaine to dispose of all offices in his gift, but the 
 Colonial Office was fearful of a second crisis in Canada. 
 For some time the province was without a ministry, and 
 Metcalfe was on the eve of being recalled, when he appealed 
 to the constituencies, and defeated the reformers, in the 
 true spirit of Durham's own theory. Wakefield defended 
 Metcalfe ; he was his secret adviser in Canada, and we can 
 therefore understand how Wakefield, at any rate, had 
 interpreted Durham's words. When he returned to England 
 he wrote pamphlets and articles in support of Metcalfe. 
 In one, " A View of Sir Charles Metcalfe's Government in 
 Canada," he describes the Governor as a man "whom God 
 made greater than the Colonial Office," and as " a Christian 
 gentleman of whom it is enough to say that nothing would 
 persuade him to take an unfair advantage ; he can hardly 
 persuade himself to take a fair one." In another, an article 
 which appeared in Fishers Colonial Magazine for July, 
 1844, he expounds his own, and presumably Durham's, 
 views on the question of responsible government. 
 
 Draper formed a Conservative ministry, and the capital 
 was removed from Kingston to Montreal. Metcalfe resigned 
 in 1845, and Lord Cathcart succeeded him. Sir Allan 
 MacNab secured the payment of a lump sum to the 
 loyalists for their losses during the rebellion ; Draper 
 even assented to the payment of 10,000 as compensation 
 for the losses suffered in the lower province. This caused 
 a storm, and when Lord Elgin, Durham's son-in-law, 
 succeeded Cathcart in 1847, Draper resigned office to 
 Lafontaine and Baldwin, who had just won the election. 
 Naturally they were in favour of the compensation of the 
 French ; but when Elgin assented to the Bill, the Tories 
 broke into a riot, mobbed the Governor, and fired the Parlia- 
 ment House at Montreal. Elgin was threatened with recall 
 by the British, but he stood firm, and the capital was 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 357 
 
 removed from Montreal to Toronto and Quebec alternately, 
 until the Queen finally decided upon Ottawa as the most 
 suitable place. Out of the evil came good : the Tories of 
 Upper Canada had gradually become Conservatives, and 
 were rapidly gaining power there. Seeing that the French 
 alliance benefited the reformers, they formed the British 
 North American League in 1849, to carry out Durham's 
 scheme of confederation ; Canada would then be two 
 provinces again, and the French would be powerless for 
 evil. The growth of Conservatism was helped by the split 
 between the " Clear Grits," as the extreme Radicals were 
 called, and the Moderates who followed Baldwin. The 
 reformers sustained another loss when " Representation 
 by population " became the cry in Upper Canada, which 
 had by immigration become the more populous section of 
 the united provinces. The French claimed their rights 
 under the Act of Union, and at last the two parties became 
 so evenly matched that stable government was impossible. 
 Elgin's mistaken 1 policy of allowing party leaders to 
 govern through him had practically reduced his successors 
 to mere figure-heads, and they could render no help to 
 solve the difficulty. At last, in 1864, George Brown, the 
 leader of the Reformers, and Sir John Macdonald, the 
 Conservative chief, formed a Coalition Government ; it was 
 the confession of failure to work successfully the parlia- 
 mentary machine by the mere impulse of popular election, 
 and there was an understanding that confederation, the 
 only way out of the difficulty, should be adopted as soon 
 as possible. 
 
 Meanwhile, many of the problems that had been trouble- 
 some before 1840 were successfully solved. One by one 
 the exiles had been allowed to sue out their pardon 
 and return. Even Mackenzie was back, now professing 
 himself a constitutional reformer who was sorry for the 
 past. He had expressed his regret in a letter to the 
 
 1 Elgin's views, as laid down in his last dispatch, accord more with 
 Durham's, but all Governors were not so strong and able as he. 
 
358 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 Colonial Secretary, but his frequent playful references to 
 the part the Radicals had played in 1837 and 1838 were 
 not always relished. He soon found his true level in the 
 united Legislature, and, seeing himself neglected, he retired 
 into private life in 1859 ; in 1861 he died in comparative 
 poverty. It is easy to judge him too harshly, and to 
 praise him too highly ; but all must admit that his was 
 a terrible expiation from that raw December morning in 
 1837 till he was allowed to return in 1849. ^ n the sam e 
 year Lafontaine got a nolle prosequi entered against 
 Papineau's name, and he too came back. He never 
 regained his old influence, for Lafontaine opposed his 
 useless agitation against the union, and at last he too 
 retired into private life. In 1854 and 1859 Acts were 
 passed commuting the Feudal Tenures, and in 1854 the 
 clergy reserves were finally secularised, the rights of the 
 existing clergy being safeguarded. 
 
 The Rebellion Losses Bill, to which Elgin assented, was 
 after all a measure of justice, and it was not his only gift 
 to Canada. As a counter-attraction to the wild threats of 
 the Annexationists, both in Canada and the United States, 
 he carried through a Reciprocity Treaty with the American 
 Government, which was a slight relief to the prevailing 
 depression in Canadian trade. But the Americans were 
 not content with having robbed New Brunswick, and 
 essayed to claim all the Pacific coast. " Fifty-four Forty 
 or Fight " was their challenge. The Canadians would 
 have fought, but arbitration and good sense settled the 
 difficulty piecemeal between 1846 and 1872, this time more 
 justly. However, these incidents and the political situation 
 in Canada caused the leaders of both parties to eagerly 
 accept the movement for confederation, which desire for 
 economy had started in the maritime provinces. After con- 
 ferences at Charlottetown and Quebec, the great Dominion 
 was born in 1867. Lord Durham's principle of a strong 
 central authority was adopted, and one by one the provinces 
 are sinking into the position he held to be most fitting. 
 
THE DURHAM REPORT. 359 
 
 Already Ontario and Manitoba have decided against the 
 second chamber, and Nova Scotia seems likely to do the 
 same. The best men prefer Ottawa to the petty politics 
 of the provinces, and thus help to strengthen the supreme 
 Government. In 1856 it had been decided that future 
 appointments to the Legislative Council in Canada should 
 be elective, but the old system was adopted in 1867. The 
 senate has yet a great part to play in Canadian political 
 life, if those responsible for its nomination do their duty. 
 The Dominion has been too forgetful of Durham's warning 
 against the dangers of an elected Executive Council for 
 so the colonial ministry has become and it has been 
 content to see the leaders of the majority govern through 
 the Viceroy. If the Durham Report has any message for 
 present-day colonial politicians, it is surely this : now that 
 the danger of a despotism is over, encourage to the utmost 
 a lengthy tenure of office by the Viceroy, and insist that 
 he shall be an able man, determined at least to exercise 
 the powers assigned by common consent to his royal 
 master. A constitutional monarchy, as Durham saw it, 
 has many advantages over a Republic, not the least of 
 which is the comparative stability of the chief Executive's 
 tenure. The depth of degradation for that office is reached 
 when the representative of the monarch can be accused of 
 having dissolved parliament at the advice of his Premier, 
 to give that Premier a chance to snatch a victory from his 
 opponents. To Durham the Governor was responsible to 
 the people whom he governed, and it was his duty to 
 govern according to their wishes through his ministers ; 
 it was never his ideal that a minister who obtained his 
 majority by pandering to sectional interests opposed to 
 the national welfare should be able to secure his authority 
 by disposing of all offices of profit at his pleasure, and by 
 packing the senate with his nominees. Rather than assent 
 to advice he feels to be wrong, the Viceroy should appeal 
 to the people. If defeated, after the fullest explanation 
 of his views he should resign, for to remain would deprive 
 
360 SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
 
 him of all power to help the colonists. A Viceroy who is 
 a mere figure-head possesses all the defects of the position 
 alike of the American President and of the English King, 
 with the usefulness and advantages of neither. 
 
 Slowly, but surely, Lord Durham's recommendations are 
 being justified by history ; where men have not followed 
 him, it is because they have misunderstood him. Dr. 
 Henry, writing in 1839, tells how the Report had "become 
 a very manual of treason," and how it had caused the 
 Hunters to engrave the name of Lord Durham on their 
 bowie knives " in demonstration of their idea of responsible 
 government." l We, who saw the lineal successor of Papi- 
 neau representing both peoples in " la nation Canadienne " 
 at the coronation of our King, know more truly what the 
 effect of the Durham Report has been. One of the greatest 
 statesmen of the new Imperial nation which Durham 
 foresaw in his dream is the French-Canadian leader, and 
 it may be that he will not prove the only non-Briton in 
 the future Councils of the Empire. 
 
 1 " Trifles from My Portfolio," by a Staff Surgeon, Vol. II., p. 214. 
 
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BIBLIOGRAPHY ON CANADIAN HISTORY. 363 
 
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INDEX. 
 
 ABERDEEN, LORD: 
 
 Becomes Colonial Secretary 
 
 under Peel, 86 
 His Dispatch of February nth, 
 
 86, 87 
 Might have solved the Canadian 
 
 Question, 87 
 
 "Act to make Temporary Provision 
 for the Government of Lower 
 Canada," see "Suspending" Bill 
 Acts of the Imperial Parliament : 
 12 Charles II. c. 18, see Naviga- 
 tion Act 
 14 George III. c. 83, see Quebec 
 
 Act 
 14 George III. c. 88, see Tariff 
 
 Act 
 
 18 George III. c. 12, see Declar- 
 atory Act 
 
 31 George III. c. 31, see Consti- 
 tutional Act 
 3 George IV. c. 119, see Canada 
 
 Trades Act 
 6 George IV. c. 59, see Canada 
 
 Tenures Act 
 
 6 George IV. c. 69, see Trans- 
 portation Act 
 
 9 George IV. c. 21, see Passen- 
 gers' Act 
 
 i & 2 Victoria c. 9, see Suspend- 
 ing Act 
 3 & 4 Victoria c. 35, see Union 
 
 Act 
 
 30 & 31 Victoria c. 3, see Do- 
 minion Act 
 
 Albany, Papineau at, 161 
 Alien Act : 
 
 Passed in Lower Canada, 52 
 Passed in Upper Canada, 103 
 Allan, W., made Executive Coun- 
 cillor, 284 
 Americans : 
 
 Settle in the Eastern Town- 
 ships, 44 
 
 Americans continued. 
 
 Object to primogeniture, 44 
 Settle in Upper Canada, 102 
 Unpopular, 103 
 Settle in Increasing Numbers, 
 
 105 
 Help Patriots of Upper Canada, 
 
 131 
 Seize United States Muskets, 
 
 133 
 
 Their Raids Beaten Back, 133 
 Entertained by Durham, 151, 
 
 155 
 
 Form " Hunter Lodges," 159 
 
 Washington Authorities enforce 
 Neutrality Laws, 159 
 
 Chances of Official Interven- 
 tion, 1 66 
 
 New Brunswick-Maine Dis- 
 pute, 177, 252, 345, 358 
 
 Squatters Protected by Dur- 
 ham, 212 
 
 Volunteers Attack Prescott, 
 217 
 
 Petition for Mercy for the 
 Prisoners, 218 
 
 Visitors give Durham Informa- 
 tion, 273 
 
 Durham Report on Official 
 
 Intervention, 325 326, 338 
 Amherstburg, 133 
 
 L'Ami du Peuple approves of 
 Durham's First Proclamation, 139 
 Anglicanism : 
 
 Religion of United Empire 
 Loyalists, 102 
 
 Ceases to be most numerous 
 Body, 107 
 
 Its Claim to Clergy Reserves, 
 107 
 
 Assembly Declares against it, 
 109 
 
 Clergy Incorporated, no 
 
 Strachan's Chart, no 
 
37 6 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Anglicanism continued. 
 
 Clergy present Address to 
 
 Durham, 156 
 
 Durham Report on, 269, 276, 
 285 286, 294 
 
 Sue also Clergy Reserves 
 Anti-Tithe Law in Upper Canada, 
 
 285 
 
 Arthur, Sir George : 
 Succeeds Head, 135 
 Character and Policy, 137 
 Meets Durham at Niagara, 155 
 Receives Durham at Toronto, 
 
 156 
 
 Quarrels with Durham, 157 
 Opposes Union of the Canadas, 
 
 J 57 
 
 Relations with Poulett Thomp- 
 son, 157 
 
 Visits Durham, 205 
 His Proclamation, 205 
 Learns of the " Hunters' " 
 
 Plans, 211 
 
 Embodies the Militia, 217 
 Establishes Courts-Martial, 218 
 Has a Free Hand in Upper 
 
 Canada, 219 
 
 Summons the Assembly, 219 
 Ashburton, Address Presented to 
 
 Durham, 233 
 Ashburton Treaty, 345 
 Assembly of Lower Canada : 
 
 Character of Early Members, 
 
 40, 41 
 Encouraged by Quarrels among 
 
 the British, 45 
 Summons British Journalists 
 
 for Breach of Privilege, 46 
 Quarrels with Craig, 48, 49 
 Wishes to Exclude the Judges, 
 
 48 
 
 Seeks to Control Officials, 49 
 Proposes to Appoint an Agent 
 
 in London, 49 
 Excludes Judge de Bonne by 
 
 Resolution, 50 
 No Definite Policy before 1828, 
 
 54 
 
 Asked to Grant a Civil List, 64 
 Disputes as to Conditions, 65 
 Objects of, to Control Officials, 
 
 65 
 
 Refuses to Vote Supply, 67 
 Rebuked by Dalhousie, 67 
 Petitions in Favour of Papineau, 
 
 70 
 
 Assembly of Lower Canada con- 
 tinued. 
 
 Excludes Christie the His- 
 torian, 75 
 
 Passes a Reform Bill, 75 
 
 Policy after 1828... 75 
 
 Grants Supply on its own 
 Terms, 76 
 
 Passes a Militia Bill, 76 
 
 Further Demands, 76 
 
 Negotiations with Lord Aylmer, 
 
 77 
 Demands Redress of " Wrongs," 
 
 77 
 Demands Unconditional Repeal 
 
 of 14 Geo. III., etc., 78 
 Other Extravagant Proposals, 
 
 78 
 Parliamentary Tactics of the 
 
 Liberals, 79 
 
 Declares for an Elective Legis- 
 lative Council, 80 
 Refuses to Transact Business, 
 
 81 
 
 Message from Aylmer, 81 
 Adopts the Ninety -Two Resolu- 
 tions, 82 
 Refuses to Answer Aylmer's 
 
 Communications, 86 
 Flatters Gosford, 91 
 Colborne's Speech Debated, 92 
 Manifesto to the other Colonies, 
 
 92 
 
 Attacks Unpopular Officials, 92 
 Six Months' Supply Bill Passed, 
 
 92 
 
 Unconstitutional Votes of, 93 
 Resorts to " Tacking," 93 
 Refuses Supplies, 93 
 Dismissed by Gosford, 93 
 Durham Report on, 262 
 Its Encouragement of Educa- 
 tion, 268 
 
 See also 160 
 
 Assembly of Upper Canada : 
 At first Tory, 103 
 Rise of the Opposition, 104 
 Sympathy for Americans, 106 
 Denounces Gourlay s Proposed 
 
 Convention, 108 
 Passes Reform Act, 109 
 Expels Barnabas Bidwell, 109 
 Admits Presbyterian Claim, 109 
 Objects of its Parties, 112 
 Throws out Naturalization Bill, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 377 
 
 Assembly of Upper Canada con- 
 tinued. 
 
 Collision with the Council, 113 
 
 Asks King to Exclude Judges 
 
 from the Executive Council, 
 
 H3 
 Champions Forsyth of Niagara, 
 
 115 
 
 Champions Collins, 117 
 Claims to be the Governor's 
 
 Responsible Adviser, 117 
 Expels Mackenzie, 120 
 Repudiates Mackenzie's Me- 
 moir, 121 
 Reformers Supreme in 1835, 
 
 123 
 
 New Conservative Party, 123 
 "Seventh Grievance Report," 
 
 124 
 
 Quarrels with Head, 126 
 Threatens to refuse Supplies, 
 
 126 
 Moderates Supreme in 1836, 
 
 126 
 Does not carry ' ' Economic 
 
 Reforms," 127 
 Clergy Reserves Question, 
 
 128 
 
 Reckless votes for Improve- 
 ments, 128 
 
 Speech from Head, 133 
 Measures against Patriots, 133 
 Accuses Americans of Breaches 
 
 of Neutrality, 134 
 Loyal Address to the Queen, 
 
 134 
 Report on State of Province, 
 
 134 
 
 Advises Federation, 134 
 Champions Head, 136 
 Summoned by Arthur, 219 
 Quarrels with the Council, 219 
 Attempts to solve Clergy Re- 
 serves Problem, 219 
 Opposes the Union, 219 
 Issues a Report on Lord 
 
 Durham's Report, 219 
 Criticism of this by Hincks, 
 
 219 
 Adopts Loyal Address to the 
 
 Queen, 220 
 Passes Laws relating to Banking 
 
 and the Welland Canal, 220 
 " Union or Bankruptcy," 220 
 Asylums in Lower Canada, Durham 
 Report on, 268, 269 
 
 Aylmer, Lord : 
 
 Governor-General, 77 
 Conciliatory Policy, 77, 78 
 His Question to the ' ' Grievance 
 
 Deputation, "78 
 Refuses to take Papineau's 
 
 Advice, 79 
 
 Loses his Popularity, 80 
 His Message to Assembly, 81 
 Refuses Assembly's "Contin- 
 gent Expenses," 81 
 Impeached in the Ninety-two 
 
 Resolutions, 82 
 
 Receives an Address embody- 
 ing the Resolutions, 83 
 Reply to Petition from St 
 
 Martin, 85 
 Insulted in Resolutions, 85 
 
 BAGOT, SIR CHARLES, his Policy in 
 
 Canada, 355 
 Baldwin, Captain, made Executive 
 
 Councillor, 284 
 Baldwin, Dr. W. : 
 
 Fails to Repeal Alien Act, 109 
 Sits in Assembly of 1829... 117 
 Loses his Seat, 118 
 President of " Constitutional 
 
 Reform Society," 126 
 Baldwin, Robert : 
 
 Enters the Assembly, 117 
 Loses his Seat in 1830, 118 
 Character and Views, 122 
 Appointed Executive Coun- 
 cillor by Head, 125, 281 
 Resigns, 125, 281, 283 
 Did not Check Mackenzie, 126 
 Acts as Head's "Flag of 
 
 Truce," 130 
 Refuses to assist Mackenzie's 
 
 Rebellion, 132 
 Accepts Office under Syden- 
 
 ham, 357 
 Refuses to Work with Draper, 
 
 357 
 
 Forms first Baldwin-Lafon- 
 taine Ministry, 355 
 
 Defeated by Metcalfe, 356 
 
 Forms second Baldwin-Lafon- 
 taine Ministry, 356 
 
 Becomes Leader of the Moder- 
 ates, 357 
 
 Bank of Upper Canada, 119, 220 
 Banks, Banking, 136, 155, 199, 220 
 
 Durham Report on, 269, 276, 
 284, 344 
 
37 8 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Banque du Peuple, Durham's offer, 
 
 199 
 Baptists : 
 
 Object to Clergy Reserves, 107 
 Their Numbers in Upper 
 
 Canada, 112 
 In Nova Scotia, 294 
 Barings, the Bankers, Creditors of 
 
 Upper Canada, 220 
 Bathurst, Earl, Correspondence 
 
 with Sherbrooke, 64 65 
 Batoche, 336 
 Beauharnois : 
 
 Durham at, 158 
 Addresses Presented to Dur- 
 ham, 158 
 
 Cession to Upper Canada de- 
 sired, 198 
 
 Patriot Attack on, 214 
 Annexation Advocated by 
 
 Ellice, 228 
 
 Elects Wakefield to the Assem- 
 bly, 353 
 Bedchamber Crisis, Durham's share 
 
 in, 253 
 Bedard Elzear : 
 
 Introduces Ninety-two Resolu- 
 tions, 82 
 
 Mayor of Quebec, 82 
 Abandons Papineau, 89 
 Suspended by Colborne, 217 
 Bedard Pierre : 
 
 Founds Le Canadien, 46 
 Professes to be a Constitutional 
 
 Reformer, 46 
 
 Said by Craig to be Advocating 
 a Theory of Responsible 
 Government, 47 
 Opposes Craig, 48, 49 
 Cashiered, 48 
 Imprisoned and Released by 
 
 Craig, 49, 50 
 Bentham, Jeremy, " Emancipate 
 
 your Colonies," 24 
 Bermudan Exiles : 
 
 Real Intentions of Durham 
 
 towards them, 182 
 Illegally sent to Bermuda. 184 
 Their Motives in signing the 
 
 Letter to Durham, 185 
 Defended by the " Friends of 
 
 Canada," 188 
 Allowed to Return, 208 
 Bermuda Ordinance : 
 
 Passed by the Special Council, 
 H7 
 
 Bermuda Ordinance continued. 
 
 Debate on, in Parliament, 181 
 
 189 
 Durham's Policy in Passing it, 
 
 182 
 Rice's Proposal to Legalize it, 
 
 186, 226 
 
 Disallowed, 189, 205 
 Disallowance Published by 
 
 Durham, 205 
 
 Durham's Defence of, 207 208 
 Bettridge, Rev. William, Anglican 
 
 Church Historian, 286, 287 
 Bid well, Barnabas : 
 
 Friend of Gourlay, 106 
 Expelled from the Assembly, 
 
 109 
 
 Part Author of Gourlay's " Sta- 
 tistical Abstract," 292 
 Bidwell Marshall : 
 
 Letter to Papineau, 91 
 Elected to the Assembly, 109 
 Objects to the Rectories, in 
 His Naturalization Bill, 113 
 Mackenzie's Solicitor, 115 
 Elected Speaker, 117 
 Leader of Moderate Radicals, 
 
 122 
 
 Character and Views, 122 
 Elected Speaker, 1835... 123 
 Communicates Commissioner's 
 
 Instructions to Papineau, 91, 
 
 !25 
 
 Disliked by Head, 125 
 Presents Papineau's Circular 
 
 Letter to the Assembly, 126 
 Loses his Seat, 126 
 Glenelg wishes to make him a 
 
 Judge, 127, 135 
 
 Pronounces Drilling Legal, 128 
 Will not countenance Mac- 
 kenzie, 128 
 Frightened into Retirement by 
 
 Head, 132 
 Blackstone, Pierre Bedard professes 
 
 Constitutional Principles of, 46 
 Blanchet, Francois, arrested by 
 
 Craig, 50 
 Blanchet, Cure of St. Charles, 
 
 98 
 Blessington, Lady, invites Durham 
 
 and Brougham to dinner, 243 
 "Bonding System," the, Durham 
 
 Report on, 290 
 
 Bouchette, R. S. M., one of the 
 Bermudan Exiles, 144, 146 
 
INDEX. 
 
 379 
 
 Boulton, H. J., Solicitor- General : 
 Attacked by Mackenzie, 115 
 Tory Leader in Assembly, 119 
 Attacked by Mackenzie, 119 
 Accuses Mackenzie of Breach 
 
 of Privilege, 119 
 Proposes to Annex Montreal, 
 
 1 20 
 
 Removed from his Post, 121 
 Disloyal Language of, 121 
 Behaviour in Newfoundland, 
 
 299 
 
 Boulton, Justice, attacked by Mac- 
 kenzie, 115 
 Bourdages, L. : 
 
 Proposes Abolition of the Legis- 
 lative Council, and the Re- 
 fusal of Subsidies, 78 
 His Financial Proposals, 81 
 British Constitutional Society, 126 
 British North America : 
 
 Provinces composing it, 25 
 The Type of Constitution, 25 
 Growth of Population, 25 
 Discontent due to Economic 
 
 Causes, 26 
 
 British North American Land Co. : 
 Receives its Charter, 59 
 Its Object, 60 
 Offers to Buy Clergy Reserves, 
 
 no 
 
 Condition of its Lands, 289 
 "British North American League," 
 
 357 
 
 British of Lower Canada : 
 Their Grievances, 42 
 Unpopular in the Seigneuries, 
 
 43 
 
 Differ in their Objects, 44 
 Join with the Officials against 
 
 the Assembly, 45 
 Alarmed by Articles in the 
 
 French Press, 83 
 Petition Lord Aylmer, 85 
 Disgusted at Gosford's Subser- 
 viency, 91 
 Form Rifle Corps at Montreal, 
 
 Qi 
 
 Address to Gosford, 91 
 Unite in Support of Durham, 
 
 195 
 Wish to Retain the Legislative 
 
 Council, 198 
 Prefer Sir Charles Grey's 
 
 Scheme, 198 
 Lukewarmness of, 211 
 
 British of Lower Canada continued. 
 Durham Report on, 259, 261, 
 
 335.341 
 
 Present Condition, 321, 337 
 The British Quarterly Review main- 
 tains Wakefield's share in the 
 Report, 246 
 Brock, General, defends Upper 
 
 Canada, 105 
 
 Brooke, Mr., announces the Insur- 
 rection, 129 
 Brougham, Lord : 
 
 Quarrels with Durham, 3 
 Attacks " Suspending Bill," 9 
 Protests Formally against it, n 
 On Durham's Mission, n 
 Horsewhipped by Gourlay, 166 
 Defends Turton's Appoint- 
 ment, 168, 173 
 Intrigues with Roebuck against 
 
 Durham, 179 
 Receives Letter from Roebuck, 
 
 179 
 Supplied with facts as to the 
 
 Ordinance, 179 
 Attacks the Legality of the 
 
 Ordinance, 180 et seq. 
 Introduces his Declaratory 
 
 Act, 185 
 
 Offers to Accept also an In- 
 demnity Act, 185 
 Carries his Bill against the 
 
 Ministry, 186 
 Burnt in Effigy at Quebec, 
 
 196 
 
 Thanked by the French, 204 
 Russell's Scheme to Check- 
 mate, 226 
 Becomes more friendly to 
 
 Melbourne, 228 
 Is Reconciled to Durham, 243 
 Assists to " Whitewash " Tur- 
 
 ton, 254 
 
 Brown, George, Reform Leader, 357 
 Brown of Beauharnois, his House 
 
 Attacked, 214 
 Brown, Thomas Storrow : 
 Patriot Leader, 97 
 Warrant Issued for his Arrest, 
 
 97 
 
 Defeated at St. Charles, 99 
 Buchanan, Consul at New York, 
 
 217 
 Buffalo : 
 
 Mackenzie's Headquarters, 132 
 Durham's Opinion of, 155 
 
3 8 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Buller, Arthur : 
 
 Appointed a Commissioner, 151 
 Member of Court of Appeal, 
 
 151, 266 
 
 Attacked by Leader, 189 
 Gives Durham information, 272 
 Buller, Charles : 
 
 Appointed Chief Secretary, 16 
 Sails in the Hastings, 22 
 Expresses sympathy with the 
 
 French, 140 
 Member of the Executive 
 
 Council, 142 
 
 Visits Simpson at Montreal, 144 
 Brings Letter for the Prisoners 
 
 to Sign, 145 
 
 Member of the Special Coun- 
 cil, 146 
 
 Writes Letter Defending the 
 
 "Bermuda" Ordinance, 148 
 
 Appointed Chief Commissioner 
 
 of Crown Lands, 151 
 Scheme for Commuting Feudal 
 
 Tenures, 152 
 111 at Niagara, 156 
 Sympathises with the Re- 
 formers, 156 
 Dislikes Colborne, 156 
 Informed of Durham's Plans, 
 
 159 
 
 Intrigues with Lafontaine, 162 
 Refuses Lafontaine a trial, 163 
 Gourlay's Charge against, 168 
 His Work as Commissioner 
 
 done by Wakefield, 172 
 Attacked by Leader, 188 
 Discusses the Disallowance, 190 
 Threatens L. M. Viger, 199 
 Fails to Win over Morin, 204 
 Left behind in Canada, 234 
 Arrives in England, 239 
 His Influence on Durham, 239 
 Rumoured Appointment to 
 
 Under-Secretaryship, 241 
 His Share in the Durham 
 Report : 
 
 Origin of the Legend, 244 
 The Greville Memoirs 
 
 on, 244 
 
 J. S. Mill on, 244 
 Miss Harriet Martineau 
 
 on, 244 
 The Edinburgh Review on, 
 
 246 
 
 The British Quarterly 
 Review on, 246 
 
 Buller, Charles continued. 
 
 His Share in the Durham 
 Report con tinned. 
 
 The Quarterly Reviewer 
 
 on, 246 
 
 Probable Author of Sec- 
 tion on Upper Canada, 
 246, 248, 249, 251, 
 291293 
 Defends the French to 
 
 the last, 250, 318 
 His Report on Upper Canada, 
 
 274291 
 
 Gives Durham information, 272 
 Buller MS. : 
 
 Used by Miss Martineau, 138 
 note, 142 note, 144 note, 208 
 note, 245 
 
 Quoted in The Spectator, 248 
 Does not Disprove Lord Dur- 
 ham's Authorship of the 
 Report, 248 
 
 Epitaph on Lord Durham, 256 
 Burke, Edmund : 
 
 Opposes the Recognition of the 
 
 Custom of Paris, 29 
 Proposals in 1791... 37 
 Burlington, Wakefield at, 161 
 Burton, Sir Francis : 
 
 Lieutenant-Governor of Lower 
 
 Canada, 66 
 Popular with the French, 66 
 
 CALDWELL, RECEIVER - GENERAL, 
 
 Bankruptcy of, 67 
 Campbell, Chief Justice, 116 
 Campbell, Sir Colin : 
 
 Lieutenant-Governor of Nova 
 
 Scotia, 177 
 Visits Durham, 177 
 Favours Federation, 177 
 Reviews the Guards, 177 
 Canada Steamer, 213 
 Canada Tenures Act : 
 Its Provisions, 59 
 Misrepresented to the Habi- 
 tants by the Notaries, 63 
 Attempted Repeal by the 
 
 Assembly, 93 
 Canada Trades Act : 
 
 Its Provisions and Object, 59 
 Unpopular in Lower Canada, 
 
 59 
 
 See also 113 
 
 Canadian Alliance Society, 
 Canadian Portfolio, The, 89 
 
INDEX. 
 
 381 
 
 Le Canadien : 
 
 Founded by Bedard, 46 
 Preaches Policy of " Lower 
 
 Canada for the French," 47 
 Suppressed by Craig, 50 
 Supports the Assembly, 79 
 Approves of Durham's First 
 
 Proclamation, 139 
 Article against the Union by 
 
 one of Durham's Suite, 140 
 Praises the Ordinance, 148 
 Canals, 155, 157, 220, 278, 289 290, 
 
 345. 355 
 Cape Breton, United with Nova 
 
 Scotia, 19 
 
 Capitulation of Montreal, 28 
 Carleton, Sir Guy, see Dorchester 
 Caroline Almanack, The, 133 
 Caroline Steamer, cut out by 
 
 Loyalists, 133 
 
 Cartier, Meets Wakefield at Bur- 
 lington, 161 
 Cathcart, Colonel, Garrisons 
 
 Chambly, 214 
 Cathcart, Lord, Governor-General, 
 
 356 
 
 Catholic Emancipation Act, 180 
 Chambly : 
 
 Garrisoned by Colborne, 98 
 
 Garrisoned by Cathcart, 214 
 
 Chandos, Marquis of, Attacks 
 
 Durham, 15 
 Chapman, Sir Stephen, Governor 
 
 of Bermuda, 149 
 " Chartism," its Cause in England, 
 
 60 
 Chartist Movement Misunderstood 
 
 in Canada, 88 
 Chartists, The : 
 
 Adopt " People's Charter," 232 
 Durham Refuses to be their 
 
 Leader, 237 
 Government Action Against, 
 
 239 
 
 Chartrand : 
 
 Murdered by the Patriots, 100 
 
 Acquittal of his Murderers, 178 
 
 Chenier, Dr., Killed at St. 
 
 Eustache, 99 
 Chester-le-Street, Durham Buried 
 
 at, 255 
 
 Cholera in Lower Canada, 79 
 Cholera in Upper Canada, 120, 123 
 Christie, Robert, the Historian, 
 
 Punished by the Assembly, 75 
 Circuits of Judges, 264, 288 
 
 Civil List, The : 
 
 In Roebuck's Scheme, 20 
 Lower Canada's Terms, 64 
 Disputes as to, 65 66 
 Committee of 1828 on, 72 
 Durham Report on, 348 
 Fixed by the Union Act, 354 
 Clarke, Sir Alured, fixes Electoral 
 Districts in Lower Canada, 40 
 " Clear Grits," 357 
 Clergy Reserves, The : 
 Creation of, 35 
 Morris Resolution, 109 
 Anglican Clergy Incorporated, 
 
 no 
 Negotiation with British North 
 
 American Land Co., no 
 Their Creation Inexpedient, 
 
 in 
 Proposal to devote them to 
 
 Education, 120 
 Proposals in 1836... 127 
 Disputes between Council and 
 
 Assembly, 219 
 Proposed Alteration of the 
 
 Durham Report on, 241 
 Durham Report on, 269, 285 
 
 287, 312, 349 
 
 Under the Union Act, 353 
 Sydenham's Scheme Dis- 
 allowed, 355 
 Finally Secularized, 358 
 Clitherow, Major, Sent to Attack 
 
 Napierville, 215 
 Cobourg Steamer, Chartered by 
 
 Durham, 154 
 "Coercion Act," see "Suspending 
 
 Act " 
 Colborne, Sir John : 
 
 His Speech Sympathizing with 
 
 the British, 91 
 Commander in Lower Canada, 
 
 95 
 Prepares to Meet the Patriots, 
 
 97 
 
 Victorious at St. Eustache, 99 
 Lieutenant-Governor of Upper 
 
 Canada, 117 
 Character, 117 
 Reply to Assembly's Address, 
 
 117 
 His Opinion of the Councils, 
 
 118 
 
 Refuses to Release Collins, 118 
 Disapproves of Mackenzie's 
 
 Theories, 118 
 
3 82 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Colborne, Sir John continued. 
 
 Allows Mackenzie to take the 
 Oath, 120 
 
 Receives Dispatch concerning 
 the Councils, 120, 121 
 
 Resigns on Account of the 
 " Seventh Grievance Re- 
 port," 124 
 
 Relations with Durham, 141 
 
 Ordinances of His Special 
 Council, 141 
 
 Repeals Proclamation of 
 Martial Law, 142 
 
 Meets Durham at Queenston, 
 
 155 
 
 Checkmates the Patriots, 195 
 Announces Collapse of the 
 
 Rebellion, 217 
 Punishment of the Prisoners, 
 
 217 
 
 Suspends Elzear Bedard, 217 
 Requested by Glenelg to re- 
 main in Canada, 210 
 Praised by Lord Durham, 212 
 Preparations for the Rising, 
 
 214 
 
 Calls out the Volunteers, 215 
 Proclaims Martial Law, 215 
 Arrests Suspects, 215 
 Issues Proclamation against 
 
 the Patriots, 215 
 Succeeded by Poulett Thomp- 
 son, 253 
 Durham Report on, 285, 286 
 
 See also 187 
 
 Coldbath Fields Prison, 166 
 Collins, Francis : 
 
 Attacks Beverley Robinson, 116 
 Supported by Justice Willis, 
 
 116 
 
 Condemned for Libel, 116 
 His Petition for Release Re- 
 jected by Colborne, 117 
 Colonial Advocate, The : 
 
 Founded by Mackenzie, 114 
 Its Office Destroyed by Tory 
 
 Young Men, 115 
 Colonial Magazine, The, on Cause of 
 
 United States Hostility, 159 
 Colonial Minister, Generally Ineffi- 
 cient, 38 39 
 
 Colonial Nobility Contemplated 
 under the Constitutional Act, 34 
 Colonial Office, the : 
 
 Policy towards Canada before 
 5 4 57 
 
 Colonial Office, the continued. 
 
 Cause of its Concessions to the 
 
 French, 78 
 Attempts to Conciliate Radicals 
 
 of Upper Canada, 124 
 Durham Report on, 291, 344 
 Willing to Sacrifice Metcalfe, 
 
 356 
 Committee of 1828, Report of, 71 
 
 73 
 Committee of 1834 : 
 
 Its Appointment due to Roe- 
 buck, 84 
 Its Task, 84 
 Its Report, 84 
 
 Evidence not Published, 85 
 Commission of the Peace : 
 
 Remodelled by Dalhousie, 70 
 And by Gosford, 95, 97 
 Durham Report on, 269 
 " Commissioners of Small Causes," 
 
 Durham Report on, 265 
 Commuted Pensioners, the, 315 
 
 3i6 
 Conservative Party, the: 
 
 Rise of, in Assembly of 1835, 
 123 
 
 See also ' ' Liberal Conserva- 
 tives," and " Moderates " 
 Constitution, The, Founded by 
 
 Mackenzie, 127 
 Constitutional Act : 
 
 Its Provisions, 33 37 
 
 Debate on, 37, 38 
 
 Introduced a False System, 38, 
 
 39 
 
 Its Abrogation proposed, 78 
 Attempted Repeal by the As- 
 sembly of Lower Canada, 93 
 Durham Report on, 259, 262, 
 
 323. 347 
 Constitutional Association of 
 
 Canada, 196 
 
 Constitutional Reform Society, 126 
 Constitutional Societies formed by 
 the Moderates of Lower Canada, 
 86 
 Corn Laws : 
 
 Effect of, on Prosperity of 
 
 Canada, 56, 62, 113 
 Repeal Supported by Durham, 
 
 252 
 
 Cornwall Canal, 158, 289 
 Cote, Patriot Leader, 158 
 Coteau dn Lac, Address presented 
 against Feudal Tenures, 157 
 
INDEX. 
 
 383 
 
 Cottenham, Lord : 
 
 Interviewed by Stephenson, 238 
 
 Consults Melbourne, 238 
 Couper, Colonel : 
 
 Member of the Executive 
 Council, 142 
 
 Member of the Special Council, 
 146 
 
 Interviews Gourlay, 167 
 Court of Appeal : 
 
 Under the Quebec Act, 34 
 
 Under the Constitutional Act, 
 
 34 
 
 Reformed by Durham, 151 
 Durham Report on, 265, 266 
 Under the Union Act, 353 
 Cowan, of Saratoga, forwards 
 
 Wakefield's Letter, 161 
 Cowes, Durham dies at, 255 
 Craig, Sir James Henry : 
 Governor-General, 46 
 His View as to Bedard's In- 
 tention, 47 
 Quarrels with the Assembly, 
 
 48, 49 
 Suppresses Le Canadien, and 
 
 Arrests Bedard, 50 
 Issues a Proclamation de- 
 fending his Action, 51 
 Sends Ryland to London to 
 Propose a New Constitution, 
 
 5i 
 
 Releases Bedard, 51 
 Leaves Canada, 52 
 Crane of New Brunswick demands 
 
 Responsible Government, 194 
 Croker, John Wilson, criticises the 
 Report in The Quarterly Review, 
 243. 330 
 
 Crown Lands, 35, 44, 59, 71, 72, 
 103, 105, 151, 242, Durham Report 
 on, 275, 288, 300 312, 348 
 Custom of Paris, Acknowledged as 
 Civil Law of Canada, 29 
 
 See also " Seigneurial 
 
 Tenure. ' ' 
 
 Cuvillier, A., takes Petition to 
 London against Dalhousie, 70 
 
 DALHOUSIE, LORD: 
 
 Governor-General, 58 
 
 Disputes with the Assembly 
 over the Civil List, 66 et seq. 
 
 Rebukes the Assembly for En- 
 croaching on the Executive 
 Authority, 67 
 
 Dalhousie, Lord continued. 
 
 Supported by the British, 67 
 Attacked by Papineau, 68, 69 
 Difficulties of his Position, 69 
 Cashiers Papineau and others, 
 
 69, 70 
 Refuses to Accept Papineau as 
 
 Speaker, 70 
 Petition sent to London against, 
 
 70 
 
 Defended by Huskisson, 71 
 Unfairly Treated by the Com- 
 mission of 1 828... 72 
 Goes to India, 74 
 Daly, Dominick : 
 
 Member of the Executive 
 
 Council, 142 
 Gives Durham Information, 
 
 272 
 Davignon, Dr., meets Wakefield at 
 
 Saratoga, 161 
 Debartzch, P. D. : 
 
 Convenes a Meeting at St. 
 
 Charles, 76 
 Deserts Papineau, 76 
 Declaratory Act, the, of 1778, its 
 Provisions, 37 
 
 See also 59, 66 
 " Decret," 63 
 
 De Lacy, Friend of Lafontaine, 163 
 Dent, J. C., the Historian, attempts 
 
 to " whitewash" Rolph, 121 
 de Salaberry, Colonel, Victorious 
 
 at Chateauguay, 53 
 des Rivieres, R., one of the Ber- 
 
 mudan Exiles, 144 
 Devonport, Durham's Speech at, 
 
 232, 233 
 Dodge, American Prisoner, escapes 
 
 from Quebec, 212 
 Dominion Act, 358 
 Donegani searches Lafontaine 's 
 
 House, 163 
 Doratt, Sir John ; 
 
 Inspector-General of Hospitals, 
 
 268 
 Gives Information to Durham, 
 
 268, 272 
 Dorchester, Lord: 
 
 Governor-General, 29 
 Conciliates French by Quebec 
 
 Act, 29 
 
 Second Term of Office, 32 
 Share in Act of 1791, 32 
 Sympathises with the French, 
 40 
 
3 8 4 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Doric Club : 
 
 Formation of, 94 
 Riot at Montreal, 96 
 Draper, W. H. : 
 
 His Opinion of Lord Durham, 
 
 213 
 Letter to Head referred to, 275, 
 
 291, 292, 293 
 Made Executive Councillor, 
 
 284 
 Accepts Office under Syden- 
 
 ham, 355 
 
 Becomes Premier, 356 
 Offers Compensation for Re- 
 bellion Losses, 356 
 Defeated, 356 
 Drew, Commander, 133 
 Drummond, Friend of Lafontaine, 
 
 163 
 Duncannon, Lord : 
 
 Refused an Interview by 
 
 Durham, 238 
 Received by Durham, 239 
 Smooths over the Question of 
 
 Turton's Appointment, 240 
 Duncombe, Dr. : 
 
 Patriot Leader, 127 
 
 His Allegations against Head, 
 
 127, 283 
 
 Defeated by MacNab, 131 
 Duncombe, Thomas Slingsby : 
 
 Diary of his Visit to Durham, 
 
 166, 170 
 
 Meets Robert Gourlay, 166 
 His Opinion of the French, 168 
 Discusses the Disallowance, 190 
 His Opinion of the Quebec 
 
 Meeting, 196 
 Takes Official News of the 
 
 " Disallowance " to Durham, 
 
 200 
 
 His Diary Referred to, 213 
 Dundas, Colonel, Defeats Patriots 
 
 at Prescott, 218 
 
 Dunn, J. H., Receiver-General, 
 Appointed Executive Councillor, 
 125, 282 
 Durham, Lady : 
 
 Accompanies her Husband, 22 
 Magnificence of her Drawing 
 
 Rooms, 151 
 Leaves Canada, 213 
 Resigns her Post at Court, 235 
 Letter of, referring to the 
 
 Report, 248 
 Nurses her Husband, 255 
 
 Durham, Lord : 
 
 Sketch of his Career previous 
 
 to 1838...! 3 
 Eulogized by all, 7 
 Farewell Speech, 9 10 
 His " Instructions," 13 14 
 Receives Patent as High Com- 
 missioner, 14 
 
 Proposed Establishment, 14 15 
 Denounces the Union of the 
 
 Canadas, 21 
 Sails for Canada in the Hastings, 
 
 22 
 
 Character, 22 23 
 Understood the Situation in 
 
 Lower Canada, 87 
 His State Entry into Quebec, 
 
 138 
 
 First Proclamation, 138 139 
 Reception from the Canadians, 
 
 139 
 
 Sends Colonel Grey to Wash- 
 ington, 140 
 
 Attempts to Discover Wishes of 
 Canadians, 140 
 
 Relations with Colborne, 141 
 
 Dismisses Executive Council 
 and Special Council, 142 
 
 Appoints a new Executive 
 Council, 142 
 
 Glenelg's Advice as to Prisoners, 
 142, 143 
 
 Appoints a Special Council, 146 
 
 Bermuda Ordinance, 147 
 
 Reception of the Ordinance in 
 Canada, 148 
 
 Defends Ordinance in a Dis- 
 patch to Glenelg, 148, 149 
 
 Difficulties with the Bermudan 
 Governor, 149 
 
 Buller's Letter Defending the 
 Ordinance, 149 
 
 Issues an Ordinance establish- 
 ing a Police, 150 
 
 Appoints various Commis- 
 sions of Inquiry, 151 
 
 Entertains American Visitors, 
 
 151 
 Conciliates Roman Catholic 
 
 Clergy, 152 
 Begins his Tour, 152 
 Reception at Montreal , 153 154 
 Favours Grey's scheme to 
 
 divide Lower Canada, 154 
 Opposes Union of the Canadas, 
 
 154 
 
INDEX. 
 
 385 
 
 Durham, Lord continued. 
 
 Attempts to Conciliate the 
 
 French, 154 
 
 In Upper Canada, 154 158 
 Stories of, 154155 
 Review at Niagara, 155 
 Reception at Toronto, 156 
 Politic reply to Anglican Clergy, 
 
 156 
 Receives address at Coteau du 
 
 Lac, 157 
 
 Visits Beauharnois, 157 
 Returns to Montreal, 158 
 Rebukes Petitioners, 158 
 French begin to Distrust, 158 
 Plans for a Rising, 158 
 Fails to Conciliate the French, 
 
 158 
 
 Wins over the Times corre- 
 spondent, 159 163 
 11 Secret" Dispatch of Aug. gth, 
 
 165166 
 Flattered by American Visitors, 
 
 166 
 Refuses Interview to Gourlay, 
 
 167 
 Probable Cause of this Refusal, 
 
 168 
 Growth of French Distrust, 
 
 168, 169 
 Attempts to secure Federation, 
 
 170 
 Occupations in August, 1838, 
 
 170 
 
 Correspondence with Mel- 
 bourne and Glenelg on the 
 Appointment of Wakefield 
 and Turton, 171 176 
 Cause of his Ill-health, 172 
 His Independence of the 
 
 Ministry, 176 
 
 Meets the Lieutenant- Gover- 
 nors, 177 
 Proposes Federation to them, 
 
 177, 178 
 
 Advice to Fitzroy, 177 note 
 Plans to revisit Upper Canada, 
 
 178 
 Disgusted at acquittal of Char- 
 
 trand's murderers, 178 
 Turns to the British for support, 
 
 178 
 
 Criticised in England, 179 
 Attacked in Parliament, 180 
 Debate on the Ordinance, 180 
 
 -183 
 S.G.C. 
 
 Durham, Lord continued. 
 
 Disallowance of the Ordinance, 
 
 189 
 Letter from Melbourne on the 
 
 Disallowance, 189 
 Sees Account of the Disallow- 
 ance in an American Journal, 
 190 
 
 Receives Address from Mari- 
 time Delegates, 190 
 His Reply, 191 193 
 Conference with the Delegates, 
 
 194 
 
 Supported by the British, 195 
 Asked to remain, 196, 197 
 Final Breach with the French, 
 
 198 200, 204 205 
 Receives Official Notification 
 
 of the Disallowance, 200 
 Announces his Resignation, 202 
 Defends the Ordinance, 201 
 
 202 
 
 His real Defence, 202 203 
 Urged by his Suite to remain in 
 
 Canada, 204 
 Failure of Negotiations with 
 
 Morin, 204 
 Publishes the Disallowance of 
 
 the Ordinance, 205 
 Visited by Arthur, 205 
 Final Proclamation of Oct. 9th, 
 
 205 210 
 
 Its Justification, 210 
 Decides to return via Washing- 
 ton, 211 
 Pleads for the Squatters and the 
 
 Troops, 212 
 
 Speech at the Guards' Fare- 
 well Dinner, 212 
 Departure from Canada, 213 
 Encourages Militia of Upper 
 
 Canada, 213 
 
 Did not Resign in Pique, 221 
 Attitude of Melbourne towards, 
 
 221 229 
 Popular in England, 221, 222, 
 
 228. 
 
 The Times on, 222 
 His Private Correspondence, 
 
 222, 223, 224 
 
 Letter Absolving Russell, 226 
 Dispatch from Glenelg, 226 
 Attacked by Roebuck, 228 
 " Lord High Seditioner," 228 
 Glenelg 's Dispatch on the Pro- 
 clamation of October 9th, 229 
 
 C C 
 
386 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Durham, Lord continued. 
 
 Mill's Defence of the Proclama- 
 tion, 230 231 
 The Reaction in his Favour, 
 
 231 
 
 The Durham Party, 231 
 Arrival at Plymouth, 232 
 Molesworth's Appeal, 233 
 Triumphant Journey to London, 
 
 234 
 Overtures from the Ministry, 
 
 234236 
 
 Formally Resigns his Post, 235 
 Westminster Reform Associa- 
 tion, 236 238 
 Durham's Decision, 239 
 Reconciliation with the Min- 
 istry, 240 
 
 " Irresponsible Influence," 241 
 Hands in the Report, 241 
 Its Premature Publication, 242 
 Reconciliation with Brougham, 
 
 243 
 
 Attacked for the Report, 243 
 His Claim to its Authorship, 
 
 244251 
 Promotes Colonisation of New 
 
 Zealand, 252 
 Contemporary Description of, 
 
 252 
 His Action in the Bedchamber 
 
 Question, 253 
 Instructs Poulett Thompson, 
 
 254 
 Does not Publicly Advocate the 
 
 Union Bill, 255 
 His Appeal on Behalf of 
 
 Canada, 255 
 Illness and Death, 255 
 His Last Words, 256 
 Buller MS. on, 256 
 Durham Report : 
 
 Criticised by the Assembly of 
 
 Upper Canada, 219 
 Defended by Hincks, 219 
 Handed in to Glenelg, 241 
 Considered at a Cabinet Meet- 
 ing, 242 
 
 Re- Editing Proposed, 242 
 2,000 Copies Printed, 242 
 Copy sent to The Times, 242 
 Prematurely Published in The 
 
 Times, 242 
 
 Durham's Share in the Publica- 
 tion, 242 
 Adversely Criticised, 243, 244 
 
 Durham Report continued. 
 Authorship, 244 251 
 Style, 247 
 
 Introduction, 257, 258 
 Section I., on Lower Canada : 
 Durham's Unique Position, 
 
 258 
 The " Two Nations," 258 
 
 260 
 
 French Liberalism, 259 
 British Arrogance, 260 
 Cause of the Rebellion, 
 
 260, 261 
 
 French Juries, 261 
 Demands of the British, 261 
 Union or Federation, 262 
 The Working of the Con- 
 stitutional Act, 262 
 Defective Local Adminis- 
 tration, 263 
 The Legal System, 263 
 
 266 
 
 The Police System, 266 ,267 
 Education, 267 268 
 Hospitals, Gaols, etc., 268 
 
 269 
 
 The Religious Question,269 
 Banking and Finance, 269 
 
 270 
 
 Sources for this Section, 
 271273 
 
 Section II., on Upper Canada: 
 Least Trustworthy Section , 
 
 274 
 The " Family Compact," 
 
 275 
 Real Cause of its Power, 
 
 275. 276 
 
 Influence of Ryerson, 277 
 The Trouble Economic, 277 
 Demands of the Reformers, 
 
 278 
 Jobbery and Corruption, 
 
 278279 
 
 Qualified Praise, 279 
 Parties and their Aims, 279 
 Head's Administration, 280 
 
 284 
 Colborne and the Clergy 
 
 Reserves, 285 287 
 Orange Lodges, 287 
 Administration of Justice, 
 
 288 
 Economic Troubles, 288 
 
 289 
 
INDEX. 
 
 387 
 
 Durham Report continued. 
 
 Section II., on Upper Canada 
 continued. 
 
 Canals, 289 290 
 Commercial Arrange- 
 
 ments, 290 291 
 General Causes of Discon- 
 tent, 291 
 Sources for this Section, 
 
 291293 
 Section III., on the Maritime 
 
 Provinces : 
 General Political Situation, 
 
 294 
 Prince Edward Island, 295 
 
 297, 312 
 Nova Scotia and New 
 
 Brunswick, 297 298 
 Newfoundland, 298 299 
 Sources for this Section, 
 
 299 3 c o 
 Section IV., on Public Lands 
 
 Emigration : 
 Necessity for a Good 
 
 System, 301 302 
 The System Favoured, 302 
 
 303 
 
 Account of Wakefield's 
 System, 303 305 
 
 Wakefield's Debt to Gour- 
 lay, 305 
 
 The American System, 305 
 306 
 
 The Old Canadian System, 
 306307 
 
 Canada and the States con- 
 trasted, 307 308 
 
 American Superiority Ex- 
 aggerated, 308309 
 
 Re-Emigration, 310 
 
 Abuses of the Crown Lands 
 Department, 310 312 
 
 The Clergy Reserves, 
 312 
 
 Sources for this Sub-Sec- 
 tion, 312313 
 
 Emigrants and Emigration, 
 
 313 
 
 The Passengers' Act, 314 
 
 315 
 
 The Commuted Pensioners, 
 315316 
 
 The Agent-General's Re- 
 port, 316317 
 
 Sources for this Sub-Sec- 
 tion, 317 
 
 Durham Report continued. 
 
 Section V., Recommendations : 
 
 Durham's own Scheme, 
 318319 
 
 The Observer Scheme, 319 
 320 
 
 The Union a Makeshift, 
 321 
 
 Federation Premature, 322 
 
 Union Due to Wakefield, 
 322323 
 
 Immediate Action Neces- 
 sary, 323324 
 
 Force no Remedy, 325 
 
 Chances of American Inter- 
 vention, 325 326 
 
 Constitutional Reform 
 alone Needed, 327 
 
 The Wider " Nation Cana- 
 dienne," 328 
 
 Responsible Government 
 only the Natural Corol- 
 lary to Representative 
 Institutions, 329 330 
 
 Wakefield's Interpretation 
 of it, 330 
 
 External Control alone 
 necessary, 330331 
 
 Self-interest makes People 
 careful, 331 
 
 Colonists are Worthy of 
 Trust, 331 
 
 Criticism of Colonial Legis- 
 latures, 332 
 
 Need for Municipalities, 
 332 
 
 Future of Lower Canada, 
 332 
 
 Sympathy with the French, 
 332 
 
 Lower Canada must be 
 made English, 333 
 
 Arguments for the Union, 
 
 333334 
 
 French Nationality 
 Doomed in America, 334 
 
 Durham did not under- 
 stand the French, 335 
 
 Expected a Canadian 
 " Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence," 335 
 
 Future of the Educated 
 French, 335 
 
 Fate of the Habitant De- 
 termined by Economic 
 Causes, 335 
 
 C 2 
 
3 88 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Durham Report continued. 
 
 Section V., Recommendations 
 continued. 
 
 Breakdown of the Seigneu- 
 rial System, 335336 
 
 The New England Emigra- 
 tions, 336 
 
 Last Stand of "La Nation 
 Canadienne," 336 
 
 Present Condition of the 
 French, 33633? 
 
 New Criterion of Nation- 
 ality, 337 
 
 Injustice of Durham's View 
 of the French, 337338 
 
 Unfair Schemes Rejected, 
 
 338339 
 
 The Case of Louisiana, 339 
 
 Two Kinds of Union, 340 
 
 Federal Union now Im- 
 possible, 340 
 
 The Population of the 
 Canadas, 341 
 
 The Case for the Legisla- 
 tive Union, 341 342 
 
 Federation of all the Pro- 
 vinces Advocated, 342 
 
 Federation will prevent a 
 Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence, 342 
 
 The Colonists have Claims 
 on the Mother Country, 
 
 342343 
 
 Federation will create a 
 Canadian Nationality, 
 
 343 
 
 Adam Smith's Advice, 343 
 
 Gain will Accrue to the 
 
 Colonies themselves, 
 
 344345 
 Transport Problems and 
 
 Possibilities, 345 346 
 The Duke of Kent's 
 
 Federation Scheme, 346 
 Repeal of 31 Geo. III. 
 
 necessary, 347 
 A Union Bill should be 
 
 Introduced, 347 
 Fresh Electoral Districts, 
 
 347 
 Temporary Disfranchise- 
 
 ment, 347 
 
 Local Government, 347 
 Court of Appeal, 347 
 Laws to be Settled by the 
 
 United Legislature, 347 
 
 Durham Report continued. 
 
 Section V., Recommendations 
 continued. 
 
 The Legislative Council, 
 
 347348 
 The Elective Principle 
 
 Denounced, 348 
 Crown Revenues to be 
 
 Exchanged for a Civil 
 
 List, 348 
 Responsible Government 
 
 to be conceded, 348 
 The Judges' Security of 
 
 Tenure, 348 
 
 Control of Money Votes, 
 Waste Lands to be Con- 
 trolled by the Imperial 
 
 Government, 349 
 Disposal of the Clergy 
 
 Reserves, 349 
 Objects of the Scheme in 
 
 the Separate Report, 
 
 349 
 Peroration of the Report, 
 
 349351 
 
 Indication of the Recom- 
 mendations, 349 
 
 Sensible Reform alone 
 necessary, 350 
 
 The Colonies are worth 
 Keeping, 350, 351 
 
 The Recommendations not 
 Original, 351, 352 
 
 Durham's own Concep- 
 tion of Responsible 
 Government, 352 
 
 His true Greatness, 352 
 See also, 69, 97, 112 
 
 Eastern Townships : 
 
 Land Tenure in, 30, 36, 42, 44 
 
 Population, 31, 42, 43, 60 
 
 No Separate Representation in 
 the Assembly, 40, 43 
 
 Provisions of the Union Bill of 
 1822. ..58 
 
 Petition the King against the 
 Assembly, 71 
 
 Defended by the Committee of 
 1828. ..71 
 
 Allowed to Send Eight Mem- 
 bers to the Assembly, 75 
 
 Possibly a New Province, 154 
 
 Durham and the American 
 Squatters, 212 
 
 Defeat Robert Nelson, 216 
 
INDEX. 
 
 389 
 
 Eastern Townships continued. 
 
 Durham Report on, 264, 309 
 
 310 
 
 Present Condition of, 321 
 Easthope, John, M.P. : 
 
 A Friend of Durham, 14 
 
 His Connection with Montreal, 
 
 152 
 Secures Advance Copy of the 
 
 Report, 242 
 Economic Reforms promised by 
 
 Head, 127 
 Economic Troubles : 
 
 In Lower Canada, 62, 63, 69, 277 
 In the Maritime Provinces, 26, 
 
 297, 298 
 In Upper Canada, 113, 128, 
 
 136, 277, 288 
 
 Edinburgh Review, The, maintains 
 Durham's Share in the Report, 
 246 
 Education : 
 
 In Lower Canada, 27, 28, 39, 
 
 41, 51, 62, 70, 77, 158 
 Durham Report on, 267, 268 
 In Upper Canada, 104, 106, 
 
 in, 112, 116, 127 
 Durham Report on, 288 
 
 See also 320 
 nth Regiment arrives at Quebec, 
 
 217 
 Elgin, Lord : 
 
 Governor- General, 356 
 Mobbed by the Tories, 356 
 His Mistaken Policy, 357 
 His Personal Views on Respon- 
 sible Government, 357 note 
 Carries a Reciprocity Treaty 
 
 with the United States, 358 
 Ellenborough, Lord : 
 
 Enters a Protest against the 
 
 " Suspending' 1 Bill, n 
 Attacks the Ordinance, 181 
 Supports Brougham, 184 
 Ellice, Edward : 
 
 Objects to Buller's Plan for 
 Commuting Feudal Tenures, 
 
 152 
 
 His Connection with Durham, 
 
 153 
 Attempts to Educate his 
 
 Peasantry, 158 
 Desires Cession of Beauhar- 
 
 nois to Upper Canada, 198 
 Probable Cause of his Breach 
 
 with Durham, 199 
 
 Ellice, Edward continued. 
 
 Turns against Durham, 228 
 
 Opposes Federation, 228 
 
 His Solution of the Canadian 
 
 Question, 228 
 Ellice, Edward (junior) : 
 
 Accompanies Buller to Mont- 
 real, 144 
 
 Disliked by the French, 168 
 Captured by the Patriots, 214 
 Released, 216 
 Resigns his Post as Durham's 
 
 Secretary, 248 
 Elmesley, Lieut. John, made 
 
 Executive Councillor, 284 
 Emigrants, Emigration : 
 
 From Upper Canada, 113, 326, 
 
 327 
 Durham Report on, 313 317, 
 
 . 349. 350. 35 1 
 English Law, Established in 
 
 Canada by Proclamation, 29 
 Erie Canal, Admired by Durham, 1 55 
 Ermatinger, Lieutenant, 97 
 " Everlasting Salary Bill," 119 
 Executive Council : 
 
 Under Roebuck's Scheme, 19 
 Its Power in the Maritime 
 
 Provinces, 25 
 Under the Quebec Act, 34 
 Under the Constitutional Act, 
 
 34.38 
 
 Character and Personnel, 38 39 
 Durham Report on, 329, 330,347 
 Executive Council of Lower 
 Canada : 
 
 Character and Personnel, 38, 39 
 The Land Board Scandal, 
 
 4445 
 
 Attempt to Ignore the As- 
 sembly, 45 
 Bedard's Theory, 47 
 Financial Powers, 64 
 The Committee of 1828... 72, 73 
 Judges Excluded, 76, 78 
 Reform Demanded, 77 
 Re-constituted by Durham, 142 
 Durham's Nominations At- 
 tacked, 1 80 
 
 Executive Council of Upper 
 Canada : 
 
 Character and Personnel, 38 39 
 Its Members Influenced by 
 
 Strachan, 106 
 
 Claims to be Responsible only 
 to the Crown, 107 
 
390 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Executive Council of Upper 
 Canada continued. 
 
 Accused of Incompetence by 
 
 the Assembly, 117 
 Colborne's Opinion of, 1 18 
 Secures rejection of Bills in the 
 
 Legislative Council, 118 
 Goderich's Dispatch, 121 
 Demand of Toronto Convention, 
 
 123 
 " Seventh Grievance Report," 
 
 124 
 Head's Appointments to, 125, 
 
 282 
 Exeter : 
 
 Address presented to Durham, 
 
 233 
 His Reply termed Inconsistent, 
 
 234 
 Experiment steamer, 217 
 
 Family Compact : 
 Rise of, 1 06 
 Meaning of, 107 
 Behaviour of, 113 
 Supported by Maitland, 115 
 Has Influence with Colborne, 
 
 117 
 Victorious at Elections of 1830, 
 
 118 
 Expels Mackenzie from the 
 
 Assembly, 120 
 
 Relations with Head, 126, 127 
 Resents Lord Durham's Report, 
 
 244 
 
 Durham Report on, 275 276 
 Federation : 
 
 Of Upper and Lower Canada 
 
 proposed, 13 
 Roebuck's Scheme, 18 
 Scheme Proposed by Assembly 
 
 of Upper Canada, 134 
 With Upper Canada disliked 
 
 by the French, 170 
 Tories of Upper Canada favour, 
 
 156 
 Durham's Plan to win Consent 
 
 of Lower Canada, 159 
 Durham Advocates, 170 
 Maritime Provinces and, 177, 
 
 178 
 
 Durham on the Point of Pro- 
 posing a Scheme, 191, 318, 
 
 3i9 
 
 Quebec Meeting declares 
 against, 197 
 
 Federation continued. 
 
 Declaration by Lord Durham 
 
 in Upper Canada, 197 
 Advocated by Adam Thorn, 198 
 Pronouncement in the Procla- 
 mation of October gth, 209 
 The Montreal Herald declares 
 
 against, 211 
 Durham still hopes to Carry, 
 
 211 
 
 Opposed by Edward Ellice, 228 
 Buller ascribes the Plan in the 
 
 Report to Durham, 248 
 The Observer Scheme, 319, 320 
 Durham Report on, 342 346, 
 
 352 
 "British North American 
 
 League," 357 
 Birth of the Dominion, 358 
 " Fifty-four Forty or Fight," 358 
 Fiscal Relations between the 
 Canadas, 37, 55, 59, 67, 72, 113, 
 270, 290, 341, 353, 354 
 Fitz-Gibbon, Colonel : 
 
 Collects from the Tories, 115 
 Drills Loyalist Volunteers, 129 
 Warns Head, 129 
 Defends Toronto, 130 
 Defeats Mackenzie, 131 
 Fitzroy, Sir Charles : 
 
 Lieutenant-Governor of Prince 
 
 Edward Island, 177 
 Visits Durham, 177 
 Asks Advice as to the ' ' Pro- 
 prietors," 177, 295 
 Favours Federation, 177 
 Fitz william, Lord, enters a Protest 
 against the ' ' Suspending ' ' Bill , 1 1 
 Follet, Sir William : 
 
 Effect of his " Proviso," 187 
 Defends his Action, 189 
 Fort George, Durham at, 155 
 Fort Schlosser, 132 
 Forsyth of Niagara, his Illegal 
 
 Action, 115 
 " Forwarders " of the Rideau Canal, 
 
 Durham Report on, 290 
 Fox, Charles James : 
 
 Advocates the Granting of an 
 
 Assembly in 1774. ..30 
 Opposes the Division of the 
 
 Canadas, 37 
 
 Advocates an Elective Legis- 
 lative Council, 
 
 Fox, Henry, British Minister at 
 Washington, 140, 211 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Franc aleu roturier, 77 
 Franchise Qualifications : 
 
 Under the Constitutional Act, 34 
 Under the Union Act, 353 
 French Canadians : 
 
 Prefer Federation to Union, 19 
 Reject the Overtures of the 
 
 Revolted Colonists, 30 
 Able to Control the Assembly, 
 
 40 
 Growth of Radicalism among 
 
 them, 41 
 Dislike the British Settlers, 43, 
 
 85 
 11 La Nation Canadienne," 47, 
 
 68, 94 
 Not all Supporters of Papineau, 
 
 68, 80 
 Four hundred Landowners of 
 
 St. Martin support Aylmer, 85 
 Many remain Neutral during 
 
 the Rebellion, 98 
 Welcome the British Troops, 
 
 100 
 Relations with Durham, 139, 
 
 140, 142, 143, 148, 150, 154, 
 
 158, 160 
 Break with Durham, 163, 168, 
 
 195, 190, 204, 2ii, 213 
 Durham Report on, 258261, 
 
 321323, 332341 
 Number of Moderates under- 
 rated by Durham, 258 
 Present Condition, 333, 336 
 
 337 
 
 Unfairly Treated by Sydenham, 
 
 354 
 
 Gain Power under Bagot, 355 
 "The Rebellion Losses Bill," 
 
 356 
 
 1 ' Representation by Popula- 
 tion,' 357 
 
 French Canadians of Upper Canada 
 Present Loyal Address to Arthur, 
 219 
 French Revolution, its effect on 
 
 Lower Canada, 41 
 " Friends of Canada " : 
 
 Hume Expresses their Con- 
 fidence in Durham, 8 
 Hold a Meeting to Oppose 
 
 " Suspending " Bill, 17 
 Publish The Canadian Portfolio, 
 
 89 
 
 Support Brougham's Attack on 
 the Ordinance, 183, 188 
 
 GAGNON, Patriot Leader, 158 
 Gaol Act Criticised by the British, 
 
 46 
 Gaols in Lower Canada, Durham 
 
 Report on, 264, 268 
 Garneau, F. X., the Historian: 
 On Craig, 48 
 On Wakefield's Mission, 161, 
 
 162 
 
 On the Durham Report, 273 
 Garnett, Dr. Richard : 
 
 On the cause of Glenelg's 
 
 Objection to Wakefield, 171 
 
 On Wakefield's Share in the 
 
 Report, 248, 249, 322 
 Gaspe : 
 
 Coroner of, 264 
 Durham Report on, 264 
 Gauvin, H. A., one of the Bermudan 
 
 Exiles, 144 
 Genet, French Minister, Intrigues 
 
 against Great Britain, 41 
 German Protestants Settle in Upper 
 
 Canada, 103 
 Gipps, Sir George, one of the 
 
 Gosford Commission, 87 
 Girod, Amaury : 
 
 Champion of the Habitants, 85 
 Sent by Papineau to St. 
 
 Eustache, 97 
 Defeated by Colborne, 99 
 Commits Suicide, 100 
 Girouard, J. ]., Friend of Lafon- 
 
 taine, 163 
 Gisburne, the Historian, his Opinion 
 
 of Wakefield, 162 
 Glenelg, Lord : 
 
 Introduces the " Suspending 
 
 Bill," 8 
 Succeeds Aberdeen as Colonial 
 
 Minister, 87 
 His Weakness, 87 
 Quarrels with Head, 127, 135 
 Wishes to Promote Bid well, 135 
 Accepts Head's Resignation, 
 
 136 
 
 On the Disposal of the Pri- 
 soners, 142 143 
 Receives Durham's Account 
 of the "Bermuda" Ordi- 
 nance, 148, 149 
 
 Correspondence with Durham 
 on the Appointment of Wake- 
 field and Turton, 171 176 
 On the Acquittal of Chart- 
 rand's Murderers, 178 
 
392 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Glenelg, Lord continued. 
 
 His Feeble Defence of the 
 Ordinance, 184 
 
 Criticises Brougham's Bill, 185 
 
 Sends Durham the Official 
 Notification of the Disallow- 
 ance, 200 
 
 Advises the Public Suspension 
 of the Habeas Corpus Act, 
 201 
 
 Durham's Objections to his 
 Proposals, 202 
 
 Requests Colborne to remain 
 in Canada, 210 
 
 Draws up an Answer to Dur- 
 ham's Defence, 223 
 
 Asks Durham to remain, 223 
 
 Intrigue in the Cabinet against, 
 223, 227, 240, 241 
 
 Death of his Brother, 223 
 
 Asked to get Durham's Des- 
 patches Copied, 224 
 
 Prepares a fresh Dispatch, 
 224 
 
 Russell's Description of it, 225 
 
 The Dispatch not received by 
 Durham, 226 
 
 Stern Dispatch on the Procla- 
 mation, 228, 229 
 
 Failure to Solve the Jamaica 
 Question, 240 
 
 Resignation Demanded by 
 Russell, 241 
 
 Sacrificed by Melbourne, 241 
 
 Regulations for Sale of Crown 
 
 Lands, 311 
 
 Glengarry Highland Militia, Vic- 
 torious at Beauharnois, 216 
 Globe, The : 
 
 Gives Sketch of Roebuck's 
 Federation Scheme, 170 
 
 Attacks Durham, 232 
 
 Durham's bitterness against, 
 
 235 
 Goddu, T. H., one of the Bermudan 
 
 Exiles, 144 
 Goderich (Earl of Ripon) : 
 
 Takes part in the Debate on 
 
 the Ordinance, 186 
 Receives Mackenzie's Memoir, 
 
 120 
 
 Sends Despatch to Colborne 
 on the Composition of the 
 Councils, 121 
 
 His Regulations for the Sale of 
 Crown Lands, 311 
 
 Gore, Colonel, Defeated at St. 
 
 Denis, 98 
 Gore, Sir Francis : 
 
 Governor-General, 103 
 His Policy, 103 et seq. 
 Gosford Commissioners : 
 
 Legality of their Commission 
 
 Impugned, 90 
 Hand in their Reports, 94 
 Gosford, Lord : 
 
 Succeeds Aylmer, 87 
 
 His Fatuous Policy Responsible 
 
 for the Rebellion, 87 
 Attempts to Conciliate the 
 
 Assembly, 90 
 Legality of his Commission 
 
 Denied, 90 
 
 Flattered by the Assembly, 91 
 Grants Assembly's Contingent 
 
 Expenses, 91 
 Refuses to Sanction British 
 
 Rifle Corps, 91 
 Incident of the Instructions, 
 
 Qi 
 
 Attacked by Papineau, 91 
 
 Quarrels with and Dismisses 
 the Assembly, 93 
 
 Issues Proclamation against 
 Disloyalty, 95 
 
 Cashiers Disloyal Militia 
 Officers and J.P.'s, 95 
 
 Asks to be Recalled, 95 
 Gourlay, Robert Fleming : 
 
 Arrives in Canada, 105 
 
 His "Thirty-one Questions/' 
 105 
 
 Address to the Prince Regent, 
 107 
 
 Prosecuted by the Tories, 108 
 
 Driven from Upper Canada, 
 1 08 
 
 Meeting with Slingsby Dun- 
 combe, 1 66 
 
 Misfortunes in England, 166 
 
 Betrays Mackenzie's Schemes 
 to Head, 167 
 
 Unsuccessful Attempts to Inter- 
 view Durham, 167 
 
 Visited by Wakefield, 167 
 
 Accepts Durham Report as 
 
 " Passable," 168 
 Gourlay's " Statistical Abstract," 
 
 292 
 
 Governor- General of British North 
 America : 
 
 His Seat at Quebec, 26 
 
INDEX. 
 
 393 
 
 Governor- General of British North 
 America continued. 
 
 Has little Control over Lieu- 
 tenant-Governors, 26 
 His Position according to the 
 Durham Report, 329, 330, 
 
 348. 352 
 Present Position, 359 
 
 See also 134, 319 
 
 Governors, Lieutenant-Governors : 
 Under Roebuck's Scheme, 20 
 Under the Quebec Act, 29 
 Under the Constitutional Act, 
 
 3336 
 
 Usual type, 1763-1837. ..39 
 The Committee of 1828, 72 
 " Seventh Grievance Report," 
 
 124 
 
 Gowan, Ogle, His Pamphlet on 
 
 "Responsible Government," 352 
 
 Grant, Sir Robert, death of, 
 
 223 
 Greville, C. C. F. : 
 
 His Account of Stanley's Visit 
 
 to Durham, 234 
 Influences Melbourne against 
 
 Durham, 235 
 His Account of Duncannon's 
 
 Visit to Durham, 240 
 Greville Memoirs : 
 
 On Stanley's Visit to Durham, 
 
 234 
 Note on the Durham Report, 
 
 245 
 Grey, Colonel ; 
 
 Sent to Washington, 140 
 Member of Special Council, 
 
 146 
 
 Takes Official News of the 
 
 Disallowance to Durham, 200 
 
 Grey, Lord, of Howick,s^ Howick, 
 
 Lord Grey of 
 Grey, Sir Charles : 
 
 One of the Gosford Commis- 
 sioners, 87 
 His Scheme to Divide Lower 
 
 Canada, 154 
 Denies Durham received 
 
 " Despotic Power," 180 
 Defends the Ordinance, 180 
 His " Partition " Scheme, 198, 
 
 251, 318 
 Grey, Sir George, Resignation of, 
 
 241 
 
 Grosse Isle, Durham Report on, 
 268, 313 
 
 HABEAS CORPUS ACT : 
 
 Suspended in Upper Canada, 
 
 133 
 
 Suspended by Colborne's 
 Council, 141 
 
 Case of L. M. Viger, 199 
 
 Public Suspension Advised by 
 Glenelg, 201 
 
 Durham Refuses to Suspend, 
 
 202, 208 
 Habitants, The : 
 
 Character of, 27, 41, 42 
 
 Able to Control Elections in 
 Lower Canada, 62 
 
 Economically Inefficient, 62 
 
 Suffers from Imperial Legisla- 
 tion, 62, 63 
 
 Only Desire Agrarian Reforms, 
 69 
 
 Misled by Agitators, 75 
 
 Ascribe the Cholera to British 
 Settlers, 79 
 
 Support Papineau to the last, 
 80, 88 
 
 Victorious at St. Denis, 98 
 
 Defeated at St. Charles and St. 
 Eustache, 99 
 
 Favour Abolition of Tithe and 
 Seigneurial Dues, 101 
 
 Disgusted with Nelson's In- 
 capacity, 215 
 
 Montreal Herald on their Fate, 
 216 
 
 Change their Attitude towards 
 the English, 229 
 
 Durham Report on, 259, 261, 
 
 265, 271 
 Hagerman, C., Solicitor-General : 
 
 Tory Leader in Assembly, 119 
 
 Attacks Mackenzie, 119 
 
 Proposes Annexation of Mont- 
 real, 121 
 
 Removed from his Post, 121 
 
 Disloyal Language, 121 
 
 Appointment as Attorney - 
 General Vetoed, 136 
 
 His Report on the Durham 
 
 Report, 219, 244 
 Haldimand, General : 
 
 Governor-General, 31 
 
 Unpopular with French Cana- 
 dians, 31 
 
 Helps United Empire Loyal- 
 ists, 31 
 Haliburton, Judge T. C. : 
 
 Warns Durham, 238 
 
394 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Haliburton, Judge T. C. continued. 
 
 On the Durham Report, 243, 
 273. 297> 298, 317 
 
 Probably referred to, 307 
 Hanson, Sir Richard Davies : 
 
 Appointed Assistant-Commis- 
 sioner, 151 
 
 Assisted by Wakefield, 172 
 
 Takes an Advance Copy of the 
 Report to The Times, 242 
 
 His Share in the Durham 
 
 Report, 245, 249, 313. 
 Harvey, Sir John : 
 
 Lieutenant-Governor of New 
 Brunswick, 177 
 
 Visits Durham, 177 
 
 Opposes Federation, 177 
 Head, Major C. F., Assistant 
 
 Commissioner, 295, 297, 299 
 Head, Sir Francis Bond : 
 
 Succeeds Colborne, 124 
 
 Character and Politics, 125, 
 126, 127 
 
 Opinion of the Reformers, 125, 
 126 
 
 Communicates his " Instruc- 
 tions," 91, 125 
 
 His Appointments to the 
 Executive Council, 125, 281 
 284 
 
 Defeats the Reformers at the 
 Polls, 127 
 
 Disputes with Glenelg, 127, 
 135. J 36 
 
 Relies on the Militia, 126, 128 
 
 Incredulous as to the Rebellion, 
 129 
 
 Attempts to Trick the Insur- 
 gents, 130 
 
 Frightens Bidwell into retire- 
 ment, 132 
 
 Energetic Measures, 132 
 
 Praised by Assembly, 135 
 
 Announces His Resignation, 
 136 
 
 Refuses to Allow Suspension 
 of Cash Payments, 137 
 
 His Treatment of the Rebels, 
 
 I3 1 . 137 
 His Criticism of the Report, 
 
 246 
 Maintains Durham's Personal 
 
 Dislike to the Union, 250 
 Durham Report on, 280 284 
 Head's "Emigrant" referred to, 
 246, 250, 251 
 
 Head's "Narrative" referred to, 
 
 156, 268, 280, 293 
 Hemp-growing : 
 
 Introduced by British Govern- 
 ment, 62 
 
 Discouraged by the Priests, 62 
 Henry, Dr. Walter, on the Durham 
 
 Report, 360 
 Hincks, Sir Francis : 
 
 Advocates Responsible Govern- 
 ment, 152 
 Defends the Durham Report, 
 
 219, 244 
 
 Hobhouse, Sir John Cam, Recom- 
 mends Turton to Durham, 16 
 Honiton, Address Presented to 
 
 Durham, 233 
 Horton, Sir Robert W., Introduces 
 
 Union Bill, 58 
 
 Hospitals in Lower Canada, Dur- 
 ham Report on, 268 
 Howe, Joseph, of Nova Scotia, 
 demands Responsible Govern- 
 ment, 177, 194 
 Ho wick, Lord Grey of : 
 
 On Rice's Proposal to get the 
 Ordinance Legalized, 186 note 
 Sympathises with Durham, 238 
 Disapproves of the Proclama- 
 tion, 238 
 
 Interviewed by Stephenson, 238 
 Received by Durham, 239 
 Assures him of the Ministry's 
 
 Desire for Peace, 239 
 Hints at Glenelg's Dismissal, 
 
 240 
 Opposes Glenelg's Jamaica 
 
 Scheme, 240 
 Threatens to Resign, 241 
 Hume, Dr., Murdered by the 
 
 Patriots, 219 
 Hume, Joseph : 
 
 Expresses Confidence in Dur- 
 ham, 8 
 Thanked in the " Ninety-two 
 
 Resolutions, 82 
 Supports Papineau, 84 
 Attacks Report of the Gosford 
 
 Commissioners, 94 
 " Baneful Domination " Letter, 
 
 123 
 Hunter, General : 
 
 Governor-General, 103 
 His Policy, 103 
 
 " Hunter Lodges," " Hunters " : 
 Objects of, 159 
 
INDEX. 
 
 395 
 
 "Hunter Lodges," "Hunters" 
 continued. 
 
 Plans Betrayed, 159 
 
 Raid on Upper Canada, 166 
 
 Plans Betrayed to Arthur, 211, 
 
 214 
 
 Threaten Durham, 211 
 Receive no Support in Upper 
 
 Canada, 213. 
 The Morning Chronicle on their 
 
 Forces, 214 
 Raids on Upper Canada fail, 
 
 217219 
 Applaud the Durham Report, 
 
 .360 
 
 Huskisson, William, Defends Dal- 
 housie, 71 
 
 Inconstant Frigate, 212, 213, 232 
 
 Indian Mission, Plundered by 
 Girod, 99 
 
 Instructions of the Gosford Com- 
 missioners, 91 
 
 Inter-Colonial Railway, The, Dur- 
 ham Report on, 345 
 
 Irish of Lower Canada take the 
 Loyalist Side, 96 
 
 Iroquois Capture a Party of Patriots, 
 215 
 
 JACKSON, JOHN MILLS, His Pamph- 
 let, 104, 105 
 Jesuit Estates, The : 
 
 Given for the Support of Edu- 
 cation, 28 
 Confiscated, 28 
 Durham Report on, 268 
 See also, 51, 72, 77, 320 
 Jesuits : 
 
 Supreme at Quebec till 1773 .. .28 
 Receive 400,000 dols. Compen- 
 sation for their Lost Estates, 
 28 
 John Bull Steamer Chartered by 
 
 Durham, 153 
 Johnson, " Bill," 
 
 Burns the Sir Robert Peel 
 
 Steamer, 140 
 
 Narrowly Escapes Capture, 140 
 Judges, The : 
 
 Ignorant of Custom of Paris, 32 
 Liable to Dismissal by the 
 
 Crown, 32, 39 
 Their Tenure of Office, 65 
 Plan of the Assemby to Con- 
 trol, 65 
 
 Judges, The continued. 
 
 Their Presence in the Assembly 
 
 Condemned, 72 
 Excluded from the Councils, 78 
 Their Commissions to be for 
 
 Life, 79 
 Assembly Seek to Exclude 
 
 Them from Executive Coun- 
 cil, 113 
 
 " Everlasting Salary Bill," 119 
 Durham Report on, 264 266 
 Under the Union Act, 354 
 Jury Law of Lower Canada, 143 
 Jury : 
 
 Durham's Opinion of French, 
 
 178 
 Durham Report on, 261, 267, 
 
 288 
 Justice, Administration of: 
 
 Lower Canada, Durham Report 
 
 on, 263 267 
 Upper Canada, Durham Report 
 
 on, 288 
 Arrangements under the Union 
 
 Act, 353 
 
 KEMPT, SIR JAMES: 
 Administrator, 74 
 Accepts Papineau as Speaker, 
 
 74 
 Attempts to Gain Reform by 
 
 Conciliation, 74 
 Neilson Repudiates Claims of 
 
 Imperial Government, 74 
 Petitions sent in Support of 
 
 Assembly's Demands, 75 
 His Conciliatory Policy Par- 
 tially Successful, 76 
 His Plan to Reform the 
 
 Councils, 76 
 Receives Resolutions Passed at 
 
 St. Charles, 76 
 His Jury Order, 143 
 Kingsford, W., the Historian : 
 
 On the Population of Lower 
 
 Canada, 33 
 On the Petition against Dal- 
 
 housie, 71 
 On Mackenzie, 114 
 Kingston : 
 
 Attacked by Patriots, 133 
 
 Durham at, 154, 157 
 
 Address Presented to Durham, 
 
 157 
 
 Court Martial at, 218 
 Capital of United Canada, 356 
 
396 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 LABOUCHERE, HENRY, becomes 
 Under-Secretary for the Colonies, 
 241 
 
 La Colle, Terror of English at, 214 
 Lafontaine, Sir Louis H. : 
 
 Asks Gosford to Convoke the 
 
 Assembly, 100 
 Goes to Paris, 100 
 Advises the Bermudan Exiles, 
 
 145 
 Attempts to Secure Wakefield's 
 
 Mediation, 160 
 His Promise to Durham, 160 
 Refuses to Advise Papineau 
 
 to Return, 160 
 Proposes that the Exiles should 
 
 be Pardoned, 162 
 Refused a Trial by Buller, 163 
 Sends the Correspondence to 
 
 Le Temps, 163 
 His Neutrality Secured by 
 
 Durham, 210 
 
 Influenced against Durham, 221 
 His Intercourse with Durham, 
 
 269, 154 
 
 Neglected by Sydenham, 355 
 Accepted as Joint-Premier by 
 
 Bagot, 355 
 Defeated by Metcalfe at the 
 
 Polls, 356 
 Forms the Second Baldwin- 
 
 Lafontaine Ministry, 356 
 Secures Papineau's Return, 358 
 Defends the Union against 
 
 Papineau, 358 
 
 La Martine, French Officer : 
 Captured at Odelltown, 216 
 Montreal Herald on, 216 
 Land Board, The, Failure of Pres- 
 
 cott's Attempt to Reform, 45 
 Land System in British North 
 America, Durham Report on, 
 301313 
 
 Lansdowne, Lord, Suggests that 
 Durham should be Asked to 
 Remain in Canada, 223 
 La Prairie, Loyalists Driven from, 
 
 214 
 Lartigue, Bishop, Declares against 
 
 Papineau, 96 
 
 Laws of Lower Canada, 263 265 
 " Leader and Associates," 310 
 Leader,]. T. : 
 
 Supports Brougham, 183 
 Attacks Buller and Durham, 
 188, 189 
 
 Leclerc, P, E. : 
 
 Head of the Montreal Police, 
 
 144, 150, 267 
 Searches Lafontaine's House, 
 
 163 
 
 Gives Durham Information, 272 
 Leeds and Grenville Election, 
 
 Durham Report on, 287 
 Leeds, Electors of, Molesworth's 
 
 Address to, 233 
 
 Legal System, see Justice, Admini- 
 stration of, 
 Legislative Council : 
 
 Roebuck Proposes its Abolition, 
 
 19 
 Sometimes Identical with the 
 
 Executive Council, 25 
 Under the " Rule of the 
 
 Soldiery," 29 
 Under the Quebec Act, 29 
 Under the Constitutional Act, 
 
 33. 34. 38 
 
 Personnel, 39 
 
 Ignored by the Assembly, 49 
 
 Committee of 1828 Advises 
 Reform, 72, 73 
 
 Kempt's Plan, 76 
 
 Appointment by Election Ad- 
 vocated, 76, 77, 123, 124 
 
 Abolition Proposed by Bour- 
 dages, 78 
 
 Generally Rejects the Assem- 
 bly's Bills, 79 
 
 Appointment by Election 
 Demanded by the Assemby 
 of Lower Canada, 80 
 
 Elective Principle Condemned 
 in Gosford's Instructions, 91 
 
 Goderich's Dispatch to Col- 
 borne, 121 
 
 Roebuck's Scheme Opposed 
 by the Maritime Delegates, 
 194 
 
 And by the British of Lower 
 Canada, 198 
 
 Durham Abandons Roebuck's 
 Scheme, 198 
 
 Durham Report on the, 347 
 348 
 
 Under the Act of Union, 353 
 
 Abolished in many Provinces, 
 358 
 
 Elective Principle Adopted, 359 
 
 Elective Principle Abandoned, 
 
 359 
 Seealso, "Special Council." 
 
INDEX. 
 
 397 
 
 Legislative Council of Lower 
 Canada : 
 
 Personnel of the, 39 
 
 Committee of 1828 on the, 72, 73 
 
 Passes the Supply Bill Reluc- 
 tantly, 76 
 
 Appointment by Election Advo- 
 cated, 76, 77 
 
 Abolition Proposed by Bour- 
 dages, 78 
 
 Rejects the Assembly's Bills, 
 79, 81 
 
 Papineau Carries a Motion in 
 Favour of the Elective Prin- 
 ciple, 80 
 
 Addresses the Crown, 81 
 
 Rebuked by Downing Street, 81 
 
 Attacked in the Ninety-two 
 Resolutions, 82 
 
 Petitions the Crown Against the 
 Resolutions, 83 
 
 Attacked by Roebuck, 84 
 
 Rejects the Bill Appointing 
 Roebuck Agent, 91 
 
 Gosford's "Instructions " as to, 
 
 91 
 
 Rejects the Six Months' Supply 
 
 Bill, 92 
 Refuses to Renew the Education 
 
 Act, 268 
 
 Legislative Council of Upper 
 Canada : 
 
 Throws out Supply Bill, 113 
 Controlled by Executive 
 
 Council, 118 
 
 Goderich's Dispatch to Col- 
 bourne, 121 
 
 Demand of Toronto Conven- 
 tion, 123 
 "Seventh Grievance Report," 
 
 124 
 Presents a Loyal Address to the 
 
 Queen, 134 
 
 Quarrels with the Assembly, 219 
 Lelacheur, J. W., Reform Leader, 
 
 *94 295, 296, 300 
 Leslie, J., a Montreal Liberal, 160, 
 
 271 
 Liberal - Conservatives of Upper 
 
 Canada, origin of, 113, 278, 357 
 Liberals of Lower Canada : 
 
 Not Generally in Favour of 
 
 Armed Resistance, 93 
 Resort to Terrorism, 97 
 See also, Assembly of Lower 
 Canada, Habitants, etc. 
 
 Lilburne, John, Analogy between 
 his Case and that of Nelson, 202 
 note 
 Local Government, Durham Report 
 
 on, 263, 332, 347 
 London District, Prisoners Rescued. 
 
 166 
 Long Sault Rapids, Durham 
 
 descends, 157 
 
 Lorette, Durham's Visits to, 170 
 Louisiana, Durham Report on, 339 
 Lount, Gabriel, Patriot Leader, 
 
 127, 128, 137 
 Lower Canada : 
 
 Early Colonists French, 26 
 Establishment of Seigneuries,26 
 Captured by the English, 26 
 Peasant Life under the old 
 
 Regime, 27 28 
 Proportion of French to 
 
 British in 1837... 33 
 Character and Objects of its 
 
 Population, 60 64 
 Loyalist Volunteers of Lower 
 Canada : 
 
 Raised at Montreal, 91, 97 
 Sack St. Eustache, 100 
 Retaliate on the French, 100 
 Called Out by Colborne, 215 
 Determine to End the Dispute, 
 
 215, 217 
 
 Beat Nelson at Odelltown, 216 
 Excesses of, 216 
 Persecution of, 265 
 Loyalist Volunteers of Upper 
 Canada : 
 
 Rally round Head, 130 
 Defeat Mackenzie, 131 
 Persecute Reformers, 131 
 Burn the Caroline, 133 
 Lumber-Merchant, steamer, 213 
 Lymburner Adam, heard at the 
 Bar against the Proposed Divi- 
 sion of Canada, 33 
 Lyndhurst, Lord, supports Broug- 
 ham, 1 86 
 
 MACDONALD, SIR JOHN A., Con- 
 servative Leader, 357 
 Macdonnell, Bishop, 287 
 Macdonnell, Sir Jarnes : 
 
 Member of the Special Coun- 
 cil, 146 
 Present at Guards' "Farewell 
 
 Dinner," 212 
 Sent against Napierville, 215 
 
398 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Mackenzie, William Lyon : 
 Early Career, 114 
 Starts The Colonial Advocate, 114 
 Joins Reformers, 114 
 Was not First Advocate of 
 Responsible Government, 
 114 
 
 His Character and Views, 114 
 Advocates Post Office Reform, 
 
 H5 
 Quarrels with Maitland and the 
 
 Tories, 115 
 His Newspaper Office wrecked, 
 
 "5 
 
 Recovers damages, 115 
 
 Enters the Assembly, 117 
 
 Hunts for Grievances, 118 
 
 Proposes to Address the Crown 
 on the Irresponsible Execu- 
 tive, 118 
 
 His Recklessness, 119 
 
 Attacks Boulton, 119 
 
 Accused of Breach of Privilege, 
 119, 120 
 
 Attacks Assembly and Execu- 
 tive, 1 20 
 
 Expelled, 120 
 
 Goes to England, 120 
 
 Encouraged by the Radicals, 
 120 
 
 Imitates Papineau, 120 
 
 His Memoir Repudiated by 
 the Assembly, 121 
 
 Councillor and Mayor of 
 Toronto, 121 
 
 Dent's Charge Against, 121 
 
 Publishes Joseph Hume's letter, 
 123 
 
 Summons Convention at 
 Toronto, 123 
 
 Demands a Responsible Execu- 
 tive, 123 
 
 Visits Quebec, 123 
 
 Founds " Canadian Alliance 
 Society," 124 
 
 " Seventh Report on Griev- 
 ances," 124 
 
 Interview and Quarrel with 
 Head, 125, 281 
 
 Defeated by Head at the Polls, 
 126 
 
 Founds The Constitution, 127 
 
 Prepares for Armed Resistance, 
 127 
 
 Intrigues with Papineau, 128 
 
 Tortuous Plans, 128 
 
 Mackenzie, William Lyon con- 
 tinued. 
 
 Warrant Issued for His Arrest, 
 
 129 
 
 Fails to Surprise Toronto, 129 
 Peace Negotiations, 130 
 Defeated by Fitz-Gibbon, 131 
 Seizes Navy Island, 131 
 Proclaims a Republic, 131 
 Loses His Authority, 132 
 Quarrels with Rolph, 132 
 Issues His "Narrative," 132 
 The " Caroline Almanack," 132 
 Deserts Navy Island, 133 
 Arrested, 133 
 Imprisoned by the American 
 
 Authorities, 140 
 Neglected by the ' ' Hunters, " 
 
 159 
 
 Plans Betrayed by Gourlay, 167 
 Allowed to Return to Canada, 
 
 357 
 
 Becomes Neglected, 357 
 Retirement and Death, 358 
 Mackenzie's "Sketches of Canada 
 and the United States," 275 note, 
 292 
 MacNab, Sir Allan : 
 
 Speaker of the Assembly, 130 
 Leads ' ' Men of Gore ' ' to 
 
 Toronto, 130 
 Defeats Mackenzie, 131 
 Commands at Chippewa, 132 
 Knighted, 133 
 Secures Compensation for the 
 
 Loyalists, 356 
 Maitland, Sir Peregrine : 
 
 Takes Part against Gourlay, 108 
 Favours Anglicanism, no 
 Consults Bathurst as to the 
 
 Rectories, in 
 Submits Naturalisation Bill to 
 
 the Assembly, 113 
 Defects of His Character as 
 
 Governor, 114 
 Treatment of Mackenzie and 
 
 Forsyth, 115 
 Secures Recall of Judge Willis, 
 
 116 
 Takes Part Against Francis 
 
 Collins, 116 
 Manifesto : 
 
 Of Moderates of Lower 
 
 Canada, 86 
 Of Liberals of Lower Canada, 
 
 92 
 
INDEX. 
 
 399 
 
 Marchessand, S. , one of the Ber- 
 
 mudan Exiles, 144 
 Maritime Provinces : 
 
 Delegates at Quebec, 190 
 Present Address to Durham, 190 
 Durham's Reply, 191 193 
 Attitude Towards Federation, 
 
 194 
 
 Durham, Report on, 294 300 
 Martial Law : 
 
 Threatened by Colborne, 214 
 Proclaimed, 215 
 Martineau, Harriet: 
 
 Her History of the Peace quoted 
 
 as to : 
 Durham's First Proclamation, 
 
 138 note 
 
 Dismissal of Executive Coun- 
 cil, 142 note 
 
 Bermuda Ordinance, 144 note 
 Durham's Final Proclamation, 
 
 208 note 
 On the Authorship of the 
 
 Durham Report, 245 
 Masson, L. H., one of the Ber- 
 
 mudan Exiles, 144 
 Matthews, Patriot Leader, 127, 128, 
 
 137 
 McGillivray, Montreal Merchant : 
 
 Part Owner of The Morning 
 Chronicle, 153 
 
 Connection with Easthope and 
 
 Ellice, 153 
 
 Medea Frigate, 178, 194 
 Melbourne, Lord : 
 
 Opinion of Durham, 4 
 
 Objects to Turton's Appoint- 
 ment, 1 6 
 
 Correspondence with Durham, 
 171176 
 
 Defends the Ordinance, 181, 
 184 
 
 Ignorant of Durham's Inten- 
 tions, 176, 183, 190 
 
 Announces Acceptance of Bill 
 of Indemnity and the Dis- 
 allowance of the Ordinance, 
 186 
 
 Withdraws his Amendment, 187 
 
 His Share of the Blame, 187 
 
 Informs Durham of the Dis- 
 allowance, 189 
 
 Unpopular with the British of 
 Lower Canada, 196 
 
 Durham's Criticism of His 
 Action, 201 
 
 Melbourne, Lord continued. 
 
 Letter to Russell on Durham's 
 Probable Course of Action, 
 221 
 
 His Unfairness Towards Dur- 
 ham, 221 
 
 Does Not Desire Durham's 
 Resignation, 222 223 
 
 Advice from Lansdowne, 223 
 
 Receives Offers to Take Dur- 
 ham's Post, 224 
 
 His Personal Dislike of Dur- 
 ham, 224 
 
 Threatened Resignation of 
 Russell, 225 
 
 Letter to Poulett Thompson on 
 Durham's Position, 227 
 
 Helped by Brougham and Roe- 
 buck, 228 
 
 Uneasy at Durham's Popu- 
 larity, 234 
 
 His Account of Stanley's 
 Interview with Durham, 234 
 
 Encouraged to Oppose Dur- 
 ham, 235 
 
 Approaches to Durham, 238 
 
 Reconciliation, 240 
 
 Threats of Ellice, 240 
 
 Sacrifices Glenelg, 241 
 
 Agrees to the Printing of the 
 Report, 242 
 
 Proposes to Unite the Canadas, 
 
 253 
 
 Resigns on the "Jamaica" 
 Vote, 253 
 
 His Precarious Tenure of 
 Office, 255 
 
 His Helplessness, 323 note 
 " Men of Gore," 88, 130 
 Metcalfe, Sir Charles : 
 
 His Struggle with the Re- 
 formers, 355 
 
 Defended by Wakefield, 356 
 Methodists : 
 
 Object to Clergy Reserves, 107 
 
 Their Numbers in Upper 
 Canada, in 
 
 Often United Empire Loyalists, 
 112 
 
 Hold Key of Situation in Upper 
 Canada, 122 
 
 Partial Defection from Mac- 
 kenzie, 124 
 
 Rally Round Head, 126 
 
 Their Wishes as to the Clergy 
 Reserves, 127 
 
400 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Methodists continued. 
 
 Their Views Misunderstood by 
 
 Buller, 277 
 Midas, Race-horse, Winner of 
 
 Durham's Cup, 169 
 Militia of Lower Canada : 
 
 Serves Reluctantly Against the 
 
 American Colonists, 42 
 Officers Cashiered, 40, 70, 95 
 Militia Act Passed, 52 
 Serves Against the United 
 
 States, 53 
 Dalhousie's Quarrel with the 
 
 Assembly, 69 
 Patriot Volunteer Militia 
 
 Formed, 95 
 Militia of Upper Canada : 
 
 Defends the Province under 
 
 Brock, 105 
 Head Relies on Them Alone, 
 
 126, 128 
 
 Defeats Mackenzie, 131 
 Besieges Navy Island, 132 
 Hesitates to Volunteer, 213 
 Encouraged by Durham, 213 
 Embodied by Arthur, 217 
 Defeats the Patriots, 219 
 Mill, John Stuart : 
 
 Defends the Proclamation of 
 
 October a.th...230 231 
 Effect of this Defence, 233 
 On the Durham Report, 245 
 Milnes, Sir Robert Shore : 
 Governor- General, 45 
 Flatters the Assembly, 45 
 La Minerve : 
 
 Supports the Assembly, 79 
 Advocates Revolution, 85 
 Quoted in the Imperial Parlia- 
 ment, 94 
 
 Ceases Publication, 148 
 " Mississippi Emigration Society," 
 
 327 
 Moderates of Lower Canada : 
 
 Joined by Neilson, Cuvillier, 
 
 and Quesnel, 80 
 Cause of French Neutrality, 80 
 Hold a Meeting at Quebec, 86 
 Send their Manifesto to the 
 
 Other Colonies, 86 
 Present a Petition against the 
 
 Assembly, 86 
 Belittled by Roebuck, 86 
 Decide on Solving the Question 
 
 by Force, 88 
 Prepare for War, 93 
 
 Moderates of Lower Canada con- 
 tinued. 
 
 Support Durham, 139, 148, 
 
 195 196, 212 213 
 Not Unanimous for the Union, 
 
 254 
 
 Their Numbers Under-rated 
 
 by Durham, 258 
 Moderates of Upper Canada : 
 
 Oppose Boulton and Hager- 
 man, 120 
 
 Support Head, 126 
 
 Attitude on Durham's Depar- 
 ture, 211 
 Molesworth, Sir William : 
 
 Advocates Durham's Indepen- 
 dence of the Colonial Office, 8 
 
 Recommends a General Am- 
 nesty, 8 
 
 Attacks the Colonial Office, 17 
 
 Organises Meeting in Support 
 of Durham, 232 
 
 Address to His Constituents, 
 233 
 
 His Opinion of the Canadians, 
 
 250 
 
 Montgomery's Tavern, 129 
 Montreal : 
 
 Election Riot at, 79 
 
 Proposal to Annex it to Upper 
 Canada, 80 
 
 The Central and Permanent 
 Committee," 85 
 
 Meeting Held in Support of 
 the Ninety-twoResolutions,85 
 
 British Rifle Corps Formed, 91 
 
 " Moderate " Meeting at, 96 
 
 Doric Club Riot, 96 
 
 Volunteers Raised at, 97 
 
 Annexation Favoured by Upper 
 Canada, 134, 136 
 
 Durham at, 153 154, 158 
 
 Petition against the Sulpicians, 
 158 
 
 Races at, 169 
 
 British Support Durham, 197 
 
 Failure of Patriots' Attempt on, 
 219 
 
 Colborne's Precautions at, 219 
 
 Present Position of, 321 
 
 Capital of United Canada, 356 
 
 " Rebellion Losses " Riot, 356 
 Montreal Gazette : 
 
 Attacks Gaol Act, 46 
 
 Defends Durham against the 
 Ministry, 196 
 
INDEX. 
 
 401 
 
 Montreal Herald : 
 
 Criticises Durham's First Pro- 
 clamation, 139 
 Accuses Him of Incivility to a 
 
 Deputation, 140 
 On the Prisoners, 143 
 Attacks the Ordinance, 148 
 Buller's Advances, 148 
 Demands "Justice on the 
 Rebels or a Peaceful Separa- 
 tion," 211 
 Declares Against Federation, 
 
 211 
 
 Desires Execution of La Mar- 
 tine, 216 
 On the Wasting of La Prairie, 
 
 216 
 Moore's Corner, Smuggled Gun 
 
 Captured, 211 
 Morgan, H. J., on Adam Thorn's 
 
 Share in the Report, 271 
 Morin, A. N. : 
 
 Does Not Wish for Papineau's 
 
 Return, 160 
 Declines Buller's Advances, 
 
 204 
 
 Intercourse with Durham, 271 
 Morning Chronicle : 
 
 Defends Durham, 14 
 Publishes Buller's Letter, 149, 
 
 188 
 
 Vindicates the Ordinance, 183 
 Advocates Inclusion of Mon- 
 treal in Upper Canada, 198 
 Attacks Melbourne for Betray- 
 ing Durham, 223 
 Prophesies the Second Rebel- 
 lion, 229 
 
 Compares Canada and Louisi- 
 ana, 339 
 Morpeth, Lord : 
 
 Offers to go to Canada, 224 
 Influences Melbourne against 
 
 Durham, 224 
 
 Morris, William, Carries Resolu- 
 tion on the Clergy Reserves, 109 
 Morrison, Dr., Arrest of, 130 
 Mulgrave, Earl of, at Montreal 
 
 Races, 169 
 Municipal Institutions : 
 
 Committee Appointed by Dur- 
 ham, 151 
 Durham Report on, 263, 332, 
 
 347 
 
 Created by Sydenham, 355 
 See also 82, 121 
 
 S.G.C. 
 
 Murray, General : 
 
 Governor- General, 28 
 Refuses to Call an Assembly, 
 
 29 
 
 Opinion of Early British Set- 
 tlers, 29 
 
 Murray, Sir George, Colonial 
 Secretary, 73 
 
 NATURALISATION BILL, 113 
 Navigation Act, Effect on Canadian 
 
 Trade, 63 
 Navy Island Seized by the Patriots, 
 
 131 
 Naylor, Colonel, Defeats Nelson at 
 
 Odelltown, 216 
 Neilson, John : 
 
 Accompanies Papineau to 
 London in 1822... 58 
 
 Supports the Assembly against 
 Dalhousie, 68 
 
 Only a Constitutional Radical, 
 68 
 
 Takes a Petition to London 
 against Dalhousie, 70 
 
 His Resolutions on the Revenue 
 Question, 74 
 
 His Resolutions for the Redress 
 of Wrongs, 77 
 
 Alarmed at Assembly's Reckless 
 Proposals, 78 
 
 Breaks with Papineau, 80 
 
 Defeated by his Nominee, 80 
 
 Vainly Attempts to be a Peace- 
 maker, 87 
 
 Unsuccessfully Opposes the 
 Ninety-two Resolutions, 83 
 
 Presents Petition of the Mode- 
 rates, 86 
 
 Member of Colborne's Special 
 Council, 141 
 
 Defends the Ordinance, 148 
 
 Defends Durham, 196 
 
 Opposes the Union, 254 
 
 Gives Durham Information, 262, 
 
 272 
 Nelson, Dr. Robert : 
 
 Patriot Leader, 158 
 
 Desires a French Peasant- 
 Republic, 158, 215 
 
 Seizes Napierville, 214 
 
 Forced to Flee, 215 
 
 Defeated at Odelltown, 216 
 
 Retires Across the Frontier, 
 216 
 
 D D 
 
402 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Nelson, Dr. Wolfred : 
 
 Advocate of Responsible 
 
 Government, 92 
 Takes the Chair at St. Charles, 
 
 95 
 Warrant Issued against Him, 97 
 
 Defeats Gore at St. Denis, 98 
 
 Arrested, 100 
 
 Expects a Voluntary Exile only, 
 
 144 
 Throws Himself on Durham's 
 
 Mercy, 146 
 
 Banished to Bermuda, 147 
 Considers Himself Tricked, 147 
 His Work as Inspector- General 
 
 of Prisons, 269 
 New Brunswick : 
 
 Dispute with Maine, 177 
 Gains Control of its Revenues, 
 
 177 
 
 Opposes Federation, 178 
 Durham Report on, 294, 297, 
 
 298, 306, 309 
 Newfoundland, Durham Report on, 
 
 298, 299 
 
 New Zealand Land Company : 
 Organized by Durham, 252 
 Refused a Charter, 252 
 Dispatches the Tory Unknown 
 
 to the Government, 252 
 Niagara : 
 
 Camp Formed, 155 
 
 Review of Troops by Durham, 
 
 *55 
 
 Addresses Presented to Dur- 
 ham, 155 
 
 Ninety-two Resolutions, The : 
 Introduced by Bedard, 82 
 Compared to the Grand Remon- 
 strance in Form, 82 
 A Travesty of the Truth, 83 
 The Work of Papineau, 83 
 Applauded by a Montreal 
 
 Meeting, 85 
 Did not Demand Responsible 
 
 Government, 92 
 Normanby, Marquis of : 
 
 Offers to go to Canada, 224 
 Influences Tone of Dispatch to 
 
 Durham, 224 
 Succeeds Glenelg, 241 
 Refuses a Charter to the New 
 
 Zealand Company, 252 
 Nova Scotia : 
 
 United with Cape Breton, 19 
 Demands of the Assembly, 177 
 
 Nova Scotia continued. 
 
 Durham Report on, 294, 297, 
 298, 299 
 
 OASTLER, RICHARD, 232, 239 
 Observer, The, Describes Durham's 
 Scheme of Federation, 319 320 
 O'Callaghan, Dr. E. B. : 
 
 Editor of The Vindicator, 79 
 Tries to Enlist Irish Support 
 
 for Papineau, 79 
 Preaches Revolution, 85 
 Refuses to Acknowledge the 
 
 Gosford Commissioners, 90 
 Present at St. Charles, 96 
 Warrant Issued against him, 
 
 97 
 Escapes to the United States, 
 
 100 
 O'Connell, Daniel: 
 
 Keeps Melbourne in Power, 5 
 Thanked in the Ninety-two 
 
 Resolutions, 82 
 Member of Committee of 1834 
 
 ...84 
 
 Papineau Compared to, 96 
 Satisfied with Durham, 180 
 Organizes the Precursor 
 
 Society, 232 
 O'Connor, Feargus, 237 
 Odelltown : 
 
 Terror of English at, 214 
 Nelson Defeated at, 215 
 Ogdensburgh, 217 
 Oligarchy in Lower Canada : 
 Origin of, 45 
 End of its Power, 58 
 Orange Societies of Upper Canada : 
 Desire War with the United 
 
 States, 132 
 
 Durham Report on, 287 
 Organization of Parties in Lower 
 
 Canada, 85, 86, 93 
 Osgoode, Chief Justice, Supports 
 Land Board against Prescott, 45 
 Ottawa chosen Capital by Queen 
 Victoria, 356 
 
 PAGET, SIR CHARLES : 
 
 Member of the Special Council, 
 
 146 
 Recommends that the Prisoners 
 
 be exiled to Bermuda, 149 
 Accompanies Durham to Upper 
 
 Canada, 153 
 
INDEX. 
 
 403 
 
 Paget, Sir Charles continued. 
 Ill at Niagara, 156 
 Said to have been absent from 
 
 Quebec on June 28th...i8i 
 Panet, J. A. : 
 
 Elected Speaker, 40, 46 
 Helps to found Le Canadien, 
 
 46 
 
 Loses his Seat at Quebec, 48 
 Cashiered by Craig, 48 
 Member of the Legislative 
 
 Council, 53 
 
 Papineau, Louis Joseph: 
 Enters the Assembly, 56 
 Champions Canadian Nationa- 
 lity, 56 
 Inevitable Outcome of His 
 
 Policy, 57 
 Takes to London Petition 
 
 against the Union Bill of 
 
 1822. ..58 
 Union Bill gives him a Party, 
 
 59. 
 
 Origin of His Power, 60 
 Approves of the Tenures Act, 
 
 63 
 
 Fights on a False Issue, 66 
 Issues Manifesto against Dal- 
 
 housie, 67 
 Plans uncertain, 68 
 Attacks Dalhousie, 69 
 Wins Election against Dal- 
 housie, 70 
 
 Recognition as Speaker Re- 
 fused, 70 
 
 Accepted by Kempt, 74 
 Gains Power Through a Re- 
 form Bill, 75 
 Rebuffed by Aylmer, 79 
 Abandoned by the Moderates, 
 
 80 
 
 Secures Neilson's Defeat, 80 
 Supported by the Habitants, 
 
 80 
 
 Proposes to Refuse Supplies, 80 
 Did not Understand Limits of 
 
 Constitutional Agitation, 88 
 Refuses to Recognise Legality 
 of Gosford's Commission, 90 
 Avows Himself a Republican, 
 
 9* 
 
 Attacks Gosford, 91 
 Did not Demand Responsible 
 
 Government, 92 
 Checkmated by the "Ten i 
 
 Resolutions," 95 
 
 Papineau, Louis Joseph continued. 
 Hesitates at the St. Charles 
 
 Meeting, 96 
 Counsels Passive Resistance, 
 
 96, 270 
 Warrant Issued for His Arrest, 
 
 97 
 
 Cowardice at St. Denis, 98 
 Escapes Across the Frontier, 
 
 100 
 
 Banished by Durham, 147 
 His Promise to the Habitants, 
 
 147 
 Abandoned by the Bermudan 
 
 Exiles, 147 
 Terms of a Possible Amnesty, 
 
 159 
 
 Prefers to Wait for an English- 
 American War, 1 60 
 His Return not Desired by the 
 
 Moderates, 160 
 
 Refuses to Meet Wakefield, 161 
 Writes to Roebuck, 161 
 Escapes to Paris, 161 
 His Banishment by Durham, 
 
 181, 186, 201 
 Criticises the Durham Report, 
 
 244 note 
 Opposes a Fresh Insurrection, 
 
 254 
 Allowed to Return to Canada, 
 
 358 
 
 Agitates against the Union, 358 
 Retirement and Death, 358 
 
 " Papineau Tribute," 96 
 
 Parties in Upper Canada : 
 Their Objects, 112 
 Durham Report on, 112, 275 
 280 
 
 Passengers' Act, 314, 315, 316 
 
 Paterson, Governor, 296 
 
 Patriots of Lower Canada : 
 
 From a Volunteer Militia, 95 
 Resort to Terrorism, 97 
 Victorious at St. Denis, 98 
 Defeated at St. Charles, 98 
 Failure at St. Eustache, 99 
 Excesses of, 100 
 Misery of the Prisoners, 143 
 The Bermudan Ordinance, 144 
 
 147 
 
 Deceived by Papineau, 147 
 Begin to Distrust Durham, 158 
 Form a Conspiracy, 158 
 Encouraged by the Disallow- 
 ance, 194 
 
 D D 2 
 
44 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Patriots of Lower Canada con- 
 tinued. 
 
 Renew their Plots, 195 
 
 Fail to Surprise Isle au Noix, 
 
 195 
 
 Gun Captured by the Volun- 
 teers, 211 
 
 Failure of the Second Rebel- 
 lion, 214-- 216 
 Fate of the Prisoners, 217 
 Patriots of Upper Canada : 
 Mackenzie's Schemes, 128 
 Meet at Montgomery's Tavern, 
 
 129 
 
 Fail to Surprise Toronto, 130 
 Defeated by Fitz-Gibbon, 131 
 Roll-call Captured by Head, 
 
 131 
 
 Helped by Americans, 131, 132 
 On Navy Island, 131, 132 
 Make Raids on Upper Canada, 
 
 133. 134 
 
 Legislation against, 133 
 
 Tried by a Special Commis- 
 sion, 137 
 
 Burn the Sir Robert Peel 
 Steamer, 140 
 
 Durham's Proclamation 
 against, 155 
 
 Fresh Executions Forbidden, 
 156 
 
 Form " Hunter Lodges," 159 
 
 Arthur's Proclamation against, 
 205 
 
 Their Plans Betrayed, 205, 211 
 
 Failure of the Second Rebel- 
 lion, 217 219 
 
 Fate of the Prisoners, 218 
 Peel, Sir Robert : 
 
 Criticises Canadian Policy of 
 the Ministry, 6 
 
 Allowed to Amend the " Sus- 
 pending Bill," 7 
 
 All but Replaces Melbourne as 
 
 Premier, 254 
 
 Pennsylvania Steamer takes News 
 of the Ordinance to England, 179 
 Perrault, Louis : 
 
 Illegally Exiled by Durham, 185 
 
 Returns to Quebec, 208 note 
 Perry, Peter: 
 
 Member of Assembly in 1829... 
 117 
 
 Reform Leader in i83i...n8 
 Petitions from Lower Canada : 
 
 Against the Union Bill, 58 
 
 Petitions from Lower Canada 
 continued. 
 
 Against Dalhousie, 70 
 Against the Assembly, 71 
 Against Dalhousie, 72 
 Against Dalhousie, 76 
 Against the Assembly, 86 
 In favour of Responsible 
 
 Government, 92 
 
 Petrie, H., Appointed Assistant- 
 Commissioner, 151 
 Philpotts, Bishop, Attacks Durham, 
 
 152, 180 
 
 Pitt, William, His Policy in Pass- 
 ing the Constitutional Act, 33 
 Plessis, Bishop, made a Member of 
 
 the Executive Council, 54 
 Plymouth : 
 
 Presents Address to Durham, 
 
 233 
 
 His Unfortunate Reply, 233 
 Point Pele Island, 133 
 Police of Lower Canada : 
 
 Durham's Police Ordinance, 
 
 150 
 Leader's Attack on the Latter, 
 
 189 
 
 Prevent Riot at St. Roch, 205 
 Durham Report on, 267 
 Ponsonby, John, successful Media- 
 tion of, 259 
 Population of Lower Canada, its 
 
 Character, 26 28 
 Population of Upper Canada, its 
 
 Character, 102 105 
 Port Dalhousie, Durham at, 155 
 Post Office Reforms Proposed by 
 Mackenzie, 115 
 
 Durham Report on, 270, 344 
 Powell, Chief Justice, 108 
 " Precursor Society," 232 
 Presbyterians : 
 
 Object to Clergy Reserves, 170 
 Numerous in Assembly of 
 
 1821. ..109 
 Claim a Share in the Clergy 
 
 Reserves, 109 
 Of Niagara Receive a Money 
 
 Grant, no 
 
 Probably Referred to by Dur- 
 ham, 269 
 
 In Nova Scotia, 294 
 Prescott : 
 
 Durham at, 154, 157 
 Failure of Patriot Attack on, 
 217, 218 
 
INDEX. 
 
 405 
 
 Prescott, General : 
 
 Governor-General, 44 
 Quarrels with Executive Coun- 
 cil, 45 
 Press Law Passed by Colborne's 
 
 Council, 141 
 Prevost, General : 
 
 Governor-General, 53 
 His Conciliatory Policy, 53 
 Muzzles Bedard, 53 
 Unpopular With the British, 53 
 His 111 Success in War, 53 
 Prince, Colonel, Defeats the Pa- 
 triots, 219 
 Prince Edward Island : 
 
 Durham's Scheme to Expropri- 
 ate the "Proprietors," 177 
 note 
 Durham Report on, 294 297, 
 
 312 
 
 Proclamation of October gth : 
 Account of, 205 210 
 Probably Durham's Own Com- 
 position, 205 
 
 Resented in England, 205, 228 
 Actual Effect in Canada, 210 
 Glenelg's Dispatch on, 228 
 
 229 
 
 Defended by Mill, 230, 231 
 " Proprietor " of Prince Edward 
 Island Criticises Lord Durham's 
 Report, 243, 295 
 
 " Proprietors," The, Durham's 
 Scheme to Expropriate, 177 note, 
 
 295 
 41 Protestant Clergy," A : 
 
 Provided for in the Constitu- 
 tional Act, 35 
 Meaning of, 109 
 Viscount Sandon on, 112 
 Provincial Convention : 
 
 Suggested in Durham's Instruc- 
 tions, 13 
 
 Not Summoned by Durham, 
 170 
 
 Quarterly Review, The : 
 
 Criticises the Durham Report, 
 
 243 
 Denies Durham any Share in 
 
 the Report, 246 
 Quebec : 
 
 Seat of the Governor-General, 
 
 26 
 
 Incorporated, 82 
 Durham's Reception at, 138 \ 
 
 Quebec continued. 
 
 Meeting Held to Protest 
 against the Ordinance, 148 
 
 Agricultural Show at, 169 
 
 Meeting in Support of Dur- 
 ham, 196 
 
 French Hold a Meeting to 
 Thank Brougham, 204 
 
 British Accompany Durham to 
 the Inconstant, 212, 213 
 
 Durham Report on, 267, 268 
 Quebec Act : 
 
 Its Provisions, 29 
 
 Opposed by British in Canada 
 and by New Englanders, 
 
 29 
 Reasons Alleged for its Repeal, 
 
 33 
 
 Quebec Gazette : 
 
 Attacks Papineau, 82 
 Guardedly Friendly to Durham, 
 
 139 
 
 Defends the Ordinance, 148 
 Defends Durham Against the 
 
 Ministry, 195 
 
 Quebec (Official) Gazette, 151, 173 
 Quebec Mercury : 
 
 Attacks the Gaol Act, 46 
 Guardedly Friendly to Dur- 
 ham, 159 
 
 Queenston, Durham at, 155 
 Quesnel, Jules : 
 
 Deserts Papineau, 80 
 Denounces Papineau, 98 
 Member of Colborne's Special 
 Council, 141 
 
 RADICALS OF UPPER CANADA. See 
 
 Reformers. 
 
 " Rebellion Losses Bill," 356 
 " Reciprocity Treaty," The, 357 
 Rectories : 
 
 Maitland Consults Bathurst, 
 
 no 
 
 Colborne Signs Patents, in 
 Durham Report on, in, 285 
 
 286 
 
 Reeve, Henry, Note on the Dur- 
 ham Report, 245 
 Reform Bill (Lower Canada) : 
 Passed by the Assembly, 75 
 Strengthens Papineau' s Power, 
 
 75 
 
 Reform Bill (Upper Canada) : 
 Passed by the Assembly, 109 
 Its Effect, 109 
 
406 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Reformers of Upper Canada : 
 
 Rally Round Marshall Bidwell, 
 
 109 
 Propose to Apply Clergy 
 
 Reserves to Support Educa- 
 tion, 112 
 Supreme in Assembly of 
 
 1824. ..113 
 
 Victorious in 1829, 117 
 Champion Collins, 117 
 Powerless to Control Executive, 
 
 118 
 
 Defeated in i83o...n8 
 Become Identified with Perry 
 
 and Mackenzie, 119 
 Supreme in Assembly of 
 
 1835. ..123 
 Partially Abandoned by the 
 
 Methodists, 124 
 Helped by Roman Catholics, 
 
 124 
 Form Constitutional Reform 
 
 Society, 126 
 Defeated at the Polls by Head, 
 
 120 
 Oppressed by Loyalists, 131, 
 
 137 
 
 Abandon Mackenzie, 132 
 Listened to by Bulier, 156 
 Protected by Durham, 157 
 Refuse to Support the 
 
 "Hunters," 213, 219 
 Durham Report on, 277 279 
 Registries : 
 
 Refused by the Assembly of 
 
 Lower Canada, 42 
 Established in Eastern Town- 
 ships, 42 
 Non- Existent in the Seig- 
 
 neuries, 63 
 Reports : 
 
 Of Committee of 1828. ..71 73 
 Of Committee of 1834... 84 85 
 Of Lord Gosford's Commis- 
 sioners, 94 
 
 Of Lord Durham, 257 352 
 Of "Bulier" on the Crown 
 
 Lands, 246, 302, 348, 349 
 Of Agent-General for Emigra- 
 tion, 316 
 
 Of the Assembly of Lower 
 Canada on the Seigneuries, 
 335336 
 
 "Representation by Population," 357 
 Responsible Government : 
 
 Under Roebuck's Scheme, 19 
 
 Responsible Government continued. 
 Craig's View of Bedard's Policy. 
 
 47 
 
 Not Demanded in 1828. ..73 
 
 First Mention in Assembly of 
 Lower Canada, 92 
 
 Petition from Lower Canadian 
 Assembly, 92 
 
 Not first Advocated by Mac- 
 kenzie, 114 
 
 Demand of Toronto Conven- 
 tion, 123 
 
 In "Seventh Grievance Report," 
 124 
 
 Head Hostile to, 126, 127 
 
 Advocated by Hinck's in The 
 Examiner, 152 
 
 Demanded by the Maritime 
 Delegates, 194 
 
 Hinted at in Durham's Final 
 Proclamation, 206 
 
 Durham's Recommendations 
 Opposed by the Tories of 
 Upper Canada, 244 
 
 Russell's Dispatch on, 256, 352, 
 
 355 
 Durham Report on, 277 278, 
 
 327332, 348, 352 
 Informally Conceded, 353 
 Poulett Thompson's View, 354 
 Bagot Accepts Baldwin's 
 
 Terms, 355 
 Metcalfe's Struggle with the 
 
 Reformers, 356 
 Wakefield's Explanation, 356 
 Policy of Elgin, 357 
 Present Working of, 359 
 Revenue : 
 
 Lower Canada : 
 Sources, 64 
 Control Claimed by the 
 
 Assembly, 6567 
 Committee of 1828 Advise 
 
 Surrender, 72 
 Control Abandoned, 74, 77 
 Upper Canada : 
 
 Independent of Assembly, 118 
 "Everlasting Salary Bill," 119 
 Claim of Toronto Conven- 
 tion, 123 
 
 Proposal to Surrender Con- 
 trol, 127 
 Durham Report on, 269, 289, 
 
 290, 348 
 
 Arrangements under the 
 Union Act, 354 
 
INDEX. 
 
 407 
 
 Rice, Spring, Colonial Secretary : 
 Authorises an Advance of 
 
 31,000 to Pay Officials, 86 
 Proposes to get the Bermuda 
 Ordinance Legalised, iS6note 
 Appreciates Durham 's Defence, 
 
 223 
 Richardson, Major John : 
 
 The Times Correspondent, 164 
 Won Over by Durham, 164 
 Dismissed by The Times, 164 
 Admits Durham's Dislike to 
 
 the Union, 250 
 
 Richmond, Duke of, Governor- 
 General, 58 
 
 Richmond, Duke of, urges Mel- 
 bourne to be Firm with Durham, 
 
 235 
 
 Rideau Canal, Durham at, 155 
 Ridout, Judge of Niagara, 135 
 Riel, Louis, 336 
 Rifle Corps formed by British of 
 
 Montreal, 91 
 Roads in Canada : 
 
 Condition of, 43, 62, 69, 104, 
 
 355 
 
 Durham Report on, 288, 289, 
 
 301, 304, 307, 309 
 Robertson, : 
 
 Editor of Westminster Review, 
 149 
 
 Shows Buller's Letter to Mel- 
 bourne, 149 
 Robinson, Sir John Beverley : 
 
 Pupil of Strachan, 106 
 
 Attorney-General, 106 
 
 Quarrels with Willis, 116 
 
 Attacked by Collins, 116 
 
 Chief Justice, 117 
 
 Will not Forgive Collins, 118 
 
 Accompanies Durham from 
 
 Toronto, 157 
 Roebuck, J. A. : 
 
 Appointed Agent for the Lower 
 Canadian Assembly, 84, 91 
 
 Defends the Ninety-two Reso- 
 lutions, 84, 85 
 
 Secures Appointment of Com- 
 mittee of 1834... 84 
 
 His Opinion of the Councils, 84 
 
 Attacks Stanley, the Colonial 
 Secretary, 84 
 
 Letter to Liberal Committee 
 at Montreal, 85 
 
 Belittles the Moderates in 
 Parliament, 86 
 
 Roebuck, J. A. continued. 
 
 Attacks the " Gosford Report," 
 
 94 
 Heard at the Bar of the House 
 
 of Commons, 7 
 Heard at the Bar of the House 
 
 of Lords, ii 
 Interviews Durham, 17 
 His Pacification Scheme, 18 20 
 His Version of Wakefield's 
 
 Mission, 160 
 Receives Letter from Papineau, 
 
 161 
 Causes French to Suspect 
 
 Turton and Wakefield, 168 
 His Federation Scheme de- 
 scribed in The Globe, 170 
 Hears of the Ordinance, 179 
 His Letter to Brougham, 179 
 Gives Information against 
 
 Durham, 179 
 
 His Federation Scheme Aban- 
 doned by Durham, 194 
 Attacks Durham in The 
 
 Spectator, 228 
 Interviews with Melbourne 
 
 and Brougham, 228 
 On the British of Lower 
 
 Canada, 259 
 On the Cause of the Rebellion, 
 
 269 
 His Charge against Sydenham, 
 
 355 
 Rolph, Dr. John : 
 
 Loses His Seat, 118 
 
 Character, 121 
 
 Dent's Attempted " White- 
 washing," 121 
 
 Supports Moderate Radicals, 
 121 
 
 An Opportunist, 121 
 
 Becomes Intimate with Mac- 
 kenzie, 123 
 
 Made Executive Councillor by 
 Head, 125, 281 
 
 Resigns, 125, 282 
 
 Only Partially in Mackenzie's 
 Confidence, 128 
 
 Causes Mackenzie's Plan to 
 Miscarry, 129 
 
 Acts as Head's " Flag of 
 Truce," 130 
 
 Encourages Insurgents to 
 Resist, 130 
 
 Escapes from Toronto, 131 
 
 Disowns Mackenzie, 132 
 
408 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Roman Catholics : 
 Lower Canada : 
 
 Craig's Plan for Controlling 
 
 the Church, 51 
 Clergy Declare against 
 
 Papineau, 96 
 
 Durham Conciliates, 152, 180 
 Durham Report on, 268, 269, 
 
 34 * 
 Position under the Union 
 
 Act, 353 
 Upper Canada : 
 
 Receive a Money Grant, 112 
 Help the Reformers, 124 
 Durham Report on, 284, 287 
 
 See also, 28, 29, 36 
 " Rule of the Soldiery," 28 
 Russell, Lord John: 
 
 Proposes his " Ten Resolutions," 
 
 94 
 Proposes to Suspend Lower 
 
 Canadian Constitution, 5 
 Introduces the " Suspending 
 
 Bill," 7 
 Ascribes Despotic Authority to 
 
 Durham, 8 
 
 Defends Durham's Appoint- 
 ments to the Councils, 180 
 Maintains the Essential 
 
 Legality of the Ordinance, 188 
 Letter from Melbourne on 
 
 Durham's Plans, 221 
 Advises Glenelg's Removal, 223 
 Wishes to see Morpeth in the 
 
 Cabinet, 224 
 Letters from Melbourne on 
 
 Durham, 224 
 His Description of Glenelg's 
 
 Dispatch, 225 
 Values Durham, 225 
 His Plan to Checkmate 
 
 Brougham, 225 
 Threatens to Resign, 225 
 "Absolved " by Durham, 226 
 Letter to Melbourne on his 
 
 Reply, 226 
 
 Death of Lady Russell, 227, 229 
 Wishes to Resign, 229 
 Letter from Melbourne on the 
 
 Second Rebellion, 234 
 Consulted by Melbourne on 
 
 Stephenson's Offer, 238 
 Action against the Chartists, 
 
 239 
 
 Returns to London, 239 
 Interview with Howick, 239 
 
 Russell, Lord John continued. 
 
 Demands Glenelg's Removal, 
 
 241 
 
 Influence by Durham, 241 
 Appeals to the Commons 
 
 against the Lords, 241 
 Unpopular with the Radicals, 
 
 241 
 Announces the Intention to 
 
 Unite the Canadas, 253 
 Proposes his Two Resolutions 
 
 on the Canada Question, 253 
 Declines to Accept the Theory 
 
 of Responsible Government, 
 
 352 
 Practically Concedes it, 353 
 
 See also, 256 
 Russell, Peter, Administrator of 
 
 Upper Canada, 102 
 Ryerson, Rev. Egerton ; 
 Opposes Strachan, no 
 Opposes Secularisation of 
 
 Clergy Reserves, 112 
 Holds Balance of Power in 
 
 Upper Canada, 122 
 Quarrels with Mackenzie, 123 
 Threatened by the Rebels, 277 
 Ryland, H. W., Craig's Private 
 Secretary : 
 His Unsuccessful Mission to 
 
 England, 51 
 Recommended to Prevost, 
 
 5 2 . 
 Resigns, 52 
 
 SAN DOM, CAPTAIN, Deprives 
 
 Patriots of Reinforcements, 218 
 Sandon, Viscount, His Definition 
 
 of " A Protestant Clergy," 112 
 Sandwich, Patriot Raid Beaten 
 
 Back, 219 
 
 Saratoga, Wakefield at, 161 
 Seigneurial Tenure : 
 
 Introduced into Canada, 26, 27 
 Under the Quebec Act, 29 
 Under the Constitutional Act, 
 
 3. 6 
 Objections of the British, 42, 
 
 43 
 
 Commutation Proposed, 59, 71 
 Economic Effects of, 62 
 Committee of 1828 on, 71 
 Franc A leu Roturier, 77 
 View of the Assembly, 93, 
 Abolition Demanded by the 
 
 Habitants, 101 
 
INDEX. 
 
 409 
 
 Seigneurial Tenure continued. 
 
 Buller's Commutation Scheme, 
 
 152 
 
 Durham Report on, 335, 336 
 Under the Union Act, 353 
 Abolished, 358 
 Settlers in Upper Canada : 
 
 United Empire Loyalists, 102 
 Americans, 102, 105, 112 
 German Protestants, 103 
 From the British Isles, 105, 112 
 Fresh Arrivals, 118 
 Durham Report on, 279 
 "Seventh Grievance Report," 124, 
 
 292 
 7ist Regiment Victorious at Beau- 
 
 harnois, 216 
 Sewell, Chief Justice : 
 
 Unpopular with the French, 54 
 Proposes Federation to Ed- 
 ward, Duke of Kent, 54 
 His Superannuation Advised 
 
 by Sherbrooke, 54 
 Pities the French, 259 
 Gives Information to Durham, 
 
 265, 272 
 
 Sherbrooke, Resident Judge Ap- 
 pointed, 43 
 
 Sherbrooke, Sir John Cope : 
 Governor-General, 54 
 He Adopts Prevost's Policy, 54 
 It is Disavowed by the Colonial 
 
 Office, 54 
 
 Sherift's Sale. See " Decret." 
 Simcoe, Lieutenant-Colonel : 
 
 Develops Upper Canada, 102 
 His Anti-American Policy, 102 
 Quarrels with Dorchester, 102 
 Returns to England, 102 
 Simpson, Colonel John : 
 
 Step-Father to Roebuck, 144 
 Secures a Confession from the 
 
 Prisoners, 144 et seq. 
 Introduces Wakeneld to La- 
 
 fontaine, 160 
 Gives Wakeneld a Letter to 
 
 Papineau, 161 
 Probably Informs Roebuck 
 
 about the Ordinance, 179 
 ' ' Six Counties " : 
 
 Meeting at St. Charles, 95 
 
 Overawed by Colborne, 214 
 
 65th Regiment Arrives at Quebec, 
 
 217 
 
 Smith, Adam, Quoted by Durham, 
 343 
 
 " Sons of Liberty " : 
 
 Formed by the French, 94 
 Riot at Montreal, 96 
 Sorel, 40, 98 
 Special Council : 
 
 Durham's Instructions as to, 12 
 Appointed by Colborne Pro- 
 visionally, 141 
 Its Ordinances, 141, 145, 146, 
 
 150, 181 
 
 Dismissed by Durham, 142 
 Composition of the New Coun- 
 cil, 146 
 
 Passes the Bermuda" Ordin- 
 ance, 147 
 
 Durham's Nominations At- 
 tacked, 1 80 
 
 Reappointed by Colborne, 217 
 Erects a Special Tribunal to 
 
 Try the Prisoners, 217 
 Accepts the Union, 254 
 Spectator : 
 
 Wakeneld' s Letters in Defence 
 
 of Gourlay, 167 
 On Roebuck's Scheme, 170 
 Champions Durham, 183 
 On Von Schoultz, 218 
 Prints Roebuck's Letters At- 
 tacking Durham, 228 
 Prints Extracts from Mill's 
 
 Article, 230 
 Spencer's Wood, 200 
 Standard Defends the Ordinance, 
 
 183 
 Stanley, Lord, Colonial Secretary, 
 
 Attacked by Roebuck, 84 
 Stanley, Lord, of Alderley : 
 Party Whip, 234 
 His Reception by Durham, 
 
 234, 235, 244 
 
 Steam Communication with Great 
 
 Britain, Durham Report on, 344 
 
 Stephen, Mr. "Over-Secretary," 
 
 291 note 
 
 Stephens, Rev. J. R., Wesleyan 
 Minister : 
 Preaches ' Physical Force , ' ' 
 
 Chartism, 239 
 Arrested, 239 
 
 Stephenson, Whig Politician, At- 
 tempts to Reconcile Durham and 
 the Ministry, 238 
 Strachan, Archdeacon : 
 
 Parentage and Character, 106 
 Influence in Upper Canada, 
 106 
 
410 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Strachan , Archdeacon continued . 
 His Ecclesiastical Chart, no 
 Speech on the Clergy Reserves, 
 
 112 
 Attempts to Conciliate his 
 
 Enemies, 112 
 Meets Durham, 156 
 Stuart, Andrew, Chairman at the 
 
 Quebec Meeting, 196 
 Stuart, Sir James, Solicitor- 
 General : 
 
 Dismissed by Craig, 54 
 Supports the French, 52, 54 
 Overtures made to, by Sher- 
 
 brooke, 54 
 Appointed Chief Justice of 
 
 Quebec by Durham, 213 
 Gives Information to Durham, 
 
 265, 272 
 
 Sugden, Sir Edward, Attacks Dur- 
 ham's Nominations to the 
 Councils, 180 
 Sullivan, Robert Baldwin, made 
 
 Executive Councillor, 283 
 Sulpicians Supreme at Montreal, 
 28 
 
 See also, 51, 52, 158 
 ' ' Suspending Act " : 
 
 Provisions of, n, 12 
 
 Carried Out by Colborne, 
 
 141 
 Powers Conferred by, 181, 184, 
 
 186, 187 
 
 Russell's Proposed Amend- 
 ment, 225 
 
 Renewed for Two Years, 253 
 Sutherland : 
 
 Patriot Leader, 132 
 
 Captured, 134 
 
 Attempts to Incriminate United 
 
 States Authorities, 134 
 Sydenham, Lord, see Thompson, 
 
 Charles Poulett 
 
 St. Benoit Sacked by the Volun- 
 teers, 100 
 St. Charles : 
 
 Meeting of ' ' Five Counties " 
 
 at, 76 
 Meeting of the " Six Counties " 
 
 at, 95, 96 
 
 Patriots Defeated, 98 
 St. Denis Patriots Beat Gore, 98 
 St. Eustache : 
 
 Patriots Defeated by Colborne, 
 
 99 
 Sacked by the Volunteers, 100 
 
 St. Lawrence Shallows, Assembly 
 of Lower Canada Refuse to 
 Deepen, 55 
 
 St. Martin District, 400 French 
 Landowners Sign Petition got up 
 by the British, 85 
 St. Patrick's Hole, 213 
 St. Roch : 
 
 Meeting to Protest against the 
 
 Ordinance, 148 
 French thank Brougham, 204 
 
 TACHE, SIR ETIENNE P., on French 
 Canadian Loyalty in 1847... 24 
 
 "Tacking" Resorted to by As- 
 sembly of Lower Canada, 93 
 
 Tariff Act (14 Geo. III. c. 88), 64, 
 66, 67, 72, 74, 77, 79 
 
 Taschereau Arrested by Craig, 50 
 
 Taxation and Revenue : 
 
 Protest of the Merchants, 42, 
 
 47 
 Durham Report on, 269 270, 
 
 288, 289 
 
 Tea-Duty, Durham Report on, 290 
 Le Temps Publishes Lafontaine's 
 
 Correspondence, 163 
 1 ' Ten Resolutions " Proposed by 
 
 Lord John Russell, 94 
 Test Act : 
 
 Operation Suspended in 
 
 Canada, 29 
 Repealed, 180 
 Thames Steamboat Burnt by the 
 
 Patriots, 219 
 Thames, Upper Canada, Hunter 
 
 Raid, 1 66 
 
 Theller, E. A., Patriot Leader : 
 His Account of the " Bermuda " 
 
 Ordinance, 144, 145 
 Escapes from Quebec, 212 
 Thorn, Adam : 
 
 Directs Policy of The Montreal 
 
 Herald, 139 note 
 
 Accepts Buller's Advances, 148 
 Appointed a Commissioner, 
 
 151 
 
 And Commutation of Feudal 
 Tenures, 152 note 
 
 Champions Durham at Mont- 
 real, 154 
 
 His Support Alienates French 
 from Durham, 168 
 
 Attacked by Leader, 189 
 
 Defends Durham's Federation 
 Scheme, 197 198 
 
INDEX. 
 
 411 
 
 Thorn, Adam continued. 
 
 Gives Durham Information, 
 
 261, 271 272 
 
 His Share in the Report, 272 
 Probably Referred to, 319 
 Thompson, Charles Poulett : 
 
 Correspondence with Mel- 
 bourne on Durham, 227 
 Governor-General of Canada, 
 
 253 
 
 Sent to Carry the Union, 253 
 His Suitability for the Task, 
 
 254 
 Instructed by Durham and 
 
 Buller, 254 
 Carries the Union in Lower 
 
 Canada, 254 
 Forces the Legislature of 
 
 Upper Canada to Acquiesce, 
 
 254 
 
 His Description of the State of 
 Affairs in Upper Canada, 
 
 254 
 
 Created Lord Sydenham, 255 
 His Theory of Responsible 
 
 Government, 353, 354 
 Makes Himself Supreme, 354 
 His Reforms, 355 
 Roebuck's Charge, 355 
 
 See also, 210, 220, 221 
 Thorpe, Justice, 104 
 Three Rivers, Jewish Member ex- 
 cluded by the Assembly, 48 
 Timber Duty, 26, 297 
 Times : 
 
 Attacks Durham, 14 
 
 Sends Major Richardson to 
 
 Canada, 164 
 Opposes Dismemberment of 
 
 Lower Canada, 198 
 Attacks Ministry for Deserting 
 
 Durham, 222 
 Terms Durham " Lord High 
 
 Seditioner," 228 
 Scoffs at the " Durham Party," 
 
 231 
 Prints the Durham Report in 
 
 Advance, 241 
 Publishes Haliburton's Attack 
 
 on the Report, 243 
 Favours the Union, 322 
 Tithe : 
 
 System in Lower Canada, 35 
 Abolition Proposed by Patriots 
 
 of St. Eustache, 101 
 Durham Report on, 269, 285 
 
 Toleration : 
 
 Tacitly Conceded in 1791. ..36 
 Guaranteed by the Union Act, 
 
 353 
 
 Tories of Upper Canada : 
 Dislike Americans, 103 
 Won over by Durham, 156 
 Approve of Federation, 156 
 Become Conservatives, 356 
 Toronto : 
 
 Incorporated, 121 
 Mackenzie's Convention, 123 
 Failure of Mackenzie's Attack, 
 
 130 
 
 Durham at, 156 
 
 Toronto Examiner Advocates Re- 
 sponsible Government, 152 
 Torrens, C. M., the Historian, on 
 
 Durham's Resignation, 204 
 Tory carries Wakefield to New 
 
 Zealand, 252 
 Totnes, Address presented to 
 
 Durham, 233 
 
 Transportation Act, continued by 
 Colborne's Council, 141 
 
 See also, 147, 181 189, 217 
 Treaty of Paris, 1763... 28 
 Turton, Thomas A. : 
 
 His Appointment unpopular, 
 
 I 5 
 
 His Previous Career, 16 
 
 Sails with Lord Durham, 22 
 
 Member of the Executive 
 Council, 142 
 
 Accompanies Durham to 
 Upper Canada, 153 
 
 Said to be a Great Friend of 
 the French, 161 
 
 Reason for French Dislike of, 
 168 
 
 Objections against his Appoint- 
 ment, 171, 173, 174, 175 
 
 Offers to Resign, 176 
 
 Discusses the Disallowance, 190 
 
 Accompanies Buller to Eng- 
 land, 239 
 
 Durham's Explanation ac- 
 cepted, 240 
 
 Acts as Private Secretary in 
 Canada, 248 
 
 " Whitewashed " in Parliament, 
 
 254 
 
 Probably referred to, 266 note 
 Gives Durham Information, 
 
 272 
 Two Mountains, District of, 97, 99 
 
412 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 UNION OF THE CANADAS : 
 
 Federal Union hinted at in 
 
 Durham's Instructions, 13 
 Advocated by the Montreal 
 
 Merchants, 19 
 
 And by Roebuck in 1822... 19 
 Union Bill of 1822. ..58 
 Opposed by Assembly of Upper 
 
 Canada, 134 
 
 Attacked in Le Canadien, 140 
 Advocated by the Quebec 
 
 Meeting, 197 
 
 Opposed by Adam Thorn, 197 
 Possible Compromise, 198 
 Proclamation of October gth 
 
 on, 210 
 Opposed by the Assembly in 
 
 1839. ..219 
 Accepted in Upper Canada as 
 
 an Alternative to Bankruptcy, 
 
 220 
 
 Attitude of Ellice towards, 228 
 Durham's Recommendations 
 
 opposed by the Tories of 
 
 Upper Canada, 245 
 Durham's Dislike to the Pro- 
 ject maintained by Head, 250 
 Always opposed by Buller, 251 
 Introduction of a Union Bill 
 
 promised by Russell, 253 
 Queen's Message recommends 
 
 the Union, 253 
 
 Russell's two Resolutions, 253 
 Poulett Thompson sent to 
 
 carry the Union in Canada, 
 
 253 
 Union carried in Lower 
 
 Canada, 254 
 
 Upper Canada reluctantly con- 
 sents, 254 
 Opposed by the Tories and 
 
 Officials, 254 
 
 Union Bill passed by the Im- 
 perial Parliament, 255 
 Advocated by The Times, 322 
 Durham Report on, 262, 322, 
 
 332341, 347 
 Terms of the Union Act, 353, 
 
 354 
 
 United Empire Loyalists : 
 Settle in Canada, 31 
 Object to Seigneurial Tenure, 
 
 36 
 
 Colonise Upper Canada, 102 
 Religion and Politics of, 102 
 Support Gore, 103 
 
 United Empire Loyalists continued. 
 Angry at Hume's Letter, 123 
 Origin of their Power, 276 
 
 United States : 
 
 Land System, 305 306 
 Compared with British North 
 America, 84, 107, 155, 247, 
 
 297. 307309 
 See also Americans 
 United States Steamer, 217 
 Upper Canada College, 116 
 Upper Canada Guardian, 104 
 Utica Railroad, 345 
 
 VALLIERES DE ST. REAL, J. R. : 
 Rival of Papineau for the 
 
 Speakership, 70 
 Made Executive Councillor 
 and Judge of Appeal by 
 Durham, 160, 266 
 Rival of Papineau, 160 
 Van Buren, Martin, President of 
 
 the United States, 218 
 Van Rensselaer, Patriot Leader, 
 
 132, 133 
 Vestal Sloop Conveys Bermudan 
 
 Exiles, 148 
 Viger, B., one of the Bermudan 
 
 Exiles, 144 
 Viger, D. B. : 
 
 Takes a Petition to London 
 
 against Dalhousie, 70 
 Thanked in the Ninety-two 
 
 Resolutions, 82 
 Arrested by Colborne, 219 
 Viger, L. M. : 
 Case of, 199 
 
 Arrested by Colborne, 219 
 Vigers' Jury Law, 143 
 Vindicator : 
 
 Supports the Assembly, 79 
 Advocates Revolution, 85 
 Offends the British Troops, 96 
 Office Sacked by the Loyalists, 
 
 96 
 
 Ceases Publication, 148 
 Von Schoultz, Patriot Leader : 
 
 Captured at Prescott, and 
 
 Hanged, 218 
 His Character, 218 
 
 WADE, DR., Proposes to use Dur- 
 ham as a " Stepping-stone," 236 
 Wakefield, Edward Gibbon : 
 
 Promised an Appointment by 
 Durham, 16 
 
INDEX. 
 
 413 
 
 Wakefield, Edward Gibbon con- 
 tinued. 
 
 His Previous History, 16 
 Expresses Sympathy with the 
 
 French, 140 
 Relations with Simpson and 
 
 the Prisoners, 144 et seq. 
 Receives no Appointment, 151 
 Does not Accompany Durham, 
 
 153 
 Failure of His Mission to 
 
 Papineau, 161 
 
 His Letter to The Spectator, 161 
 Professes to Desire the Exiles' 
 
 Return, 162 
 Visits Gourlay, 167 
 His Debt to Gourlay, 167, 305 
 Unpopular with the French, 
 
 168 
 Gives Mesmeric Exhibitions, 
 
 170 
 Objections Raised against His 
 
 Appointment, 171, 172, 175 
 His actual Position in Canada, 
 
 172 
 Sent to Announce Durham's 
 
 Return, 212 
 
 Arrives in England, 229 
 Probably Intrigues on Behalf 
 
 of Durham, 231 
 Sends the "Report" to The 
 
 Times, 242 
 
 His Reply to Lord Durham, 242 
 His Share in the Durham 
 Report : 
 
 "Wakefield Thought it," 
 
 244 
 Note in the Greville 
 
 Memoirs, 245 
 John Stuart Mill on, 245 
 The British Quarterly Review 
 
 on, 246 
 Writes partly at Durham's 
 
 Dictation, 246 
 Acts as Durham's Secre- 
 tary, 248 
 
 Dr. Garnett on, 248 
 Probably Author of the 
 Section on Public Lands, 
 249, 312, 313 
 Converted Durham to the 
 
 Union Project, 250 
 His Letter to Molesworth on 
 
 the French, 250 
 Sails to New Zealand in the 
 Tory, 252 
 
 Wakefield, Edward Gibbon con- 
 tinued. 
 His Report on Public Lands 
 
 and Emigration, 301 312 
 His Colonisation Scheme De- 
 scribed, 303305 
 His Interpretation of ' ' Respon- 
 sible Government," 330, 355 
 
 -356 
 
 Returns to Canada, 355 
 Quarrels with the Reformers, 
 
 355 
 
 Defends Metcalfe, 356 
 Weatherall, Colonel, Defeats 
 
 Patriots at St. Charles, 99 
 Weir, Lieutenant : 
 
 Murdered at St. Denis, 100 
 His Murderers Expressly Ex- 
 cluded from the Amnesty, 
 
 147 
 Welland Canal : 
 
 Durham Advises a State Sub- 
 vention, 155 
 Assembly's Act Concerning the, 
 
 220 
 
 Durham Report on, 289 290 
 Shareholders bought out, 355 
 Wellington, Duke of : 
 
 Supports Brougham, 186, 187 
 Defends Head, 280 
 West India Dock Tavern : 
 
 Dinner on Behalf of the New 
 Zealand Land Company, 
 252 
 Patriotic Speech by Lord 
 
 Durham, 252 
 
 Westminster Reform Association : 
 Agree to Present an Address 
 
 to Durham, 233 
 Negotiations with Durham, 
 
 236-237 
 The Westminster Review Publishes 
 
 Mill's Defence of Durham, 230 
 Wharnecliffe, Lord, Questions Mel- 
 bourne on Turton's Appointment, 
 
 173 
 
 Wheat Duty, 113 
 
 Willcocks, Sheriff, 104 
 
 Willis, Justice, The " Amoval " of 
 116 
 
 Wilmot, Lemuel, of New Bruns- 
 wick, Demands Responsible 
 Government, 194 
 
 Winchilsea, Earl of : 
 
 Questions Melbourne on Tur- 
 ton's Appointment, 171, 175 
 
414 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Winchilsea, Earl of continued. 
 
 And on Wakefield's Appoint- 
 ment and Colborne's Resig- 
 nation, 175 
 
 YARKER, Wins Durham's Cup, 
 
 169 
 
 York, see Toronto, 103 
 Yonge Street, 129 
 
 Young, T. A. : 
 
 Head of the Quebec Police, 
 
 150, 267 
 Gives Durham Information, 
 
 272 
 Young, W., of Nova Scotia : 
 
 Gives Information to Durham, 
 
 194, 294 
 
 Demands Responsible Govern- 
 ment, 194 
 
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 By A. J. SARGENT, B.A., Brasenose College, Oxford; Hulme Exhibi- 
 tioner, Oxford ; and Whateley Prizeman, Trinity College, Dublin ; 
 Lecturer at the School, viii. and 138 pp. 25. 6d. net. 
 
 Saturday Review, i3th May, 1899." Mr. Sargent's monograph on Colbert is a very 
 thorough bit of work. We have rarely met with a book that concealed with so careless a 
 grace the elaborate researches it has entailed." 
 
 Spectator, 22nd April, 1899. "This short but brightly written study . . . English 
 readers will be grateful for an account of the man who founded French financial and 
 commercial policy." 
 
 Manchester Guardian, 24th March, 1899." . . . We trust that the readers of Mr. 
 Sargent's useful tittle book will be encouraged by his example to undertake for themselves 
 the more detailed study of this remarkable man and his period. Those who do so will be 
 greatly assisted by the careful bibliography appended to the present volume." 
 
 6. Local Variations in Wages. 
 
 (The Adam Smith Prize, Cambridge University, 1898.) By F. W. 
 LAWRENCE, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, viii. and 
 90 pp., with Index and 18 Maps and Diagrams, 4to. 8s. 6d. net. 
 
 Birmingham Post. " . . . Mr. Lawrence's work may be commended to those who 
 make a special study of Economics as affording material for much thought and many 
 interesting points of comparison." 
 
 Yorkshire Post. " A. work of sociological first importance. ... His information is 
 clearly tabulated. ... Its results appear to us to have been carefully reached and to be 
 of great importance." 
 
 7. The Receipt Roll of the Exchequer for Michael- 
 
 mas Term of the Twenty-first Year of Henry 
 the Second (1185). 
 
 A unique fragment transcribed and edited by the Class in Palaeography 
 and Diplomatic under the supervision of the Lecturer, HUBERT 
 HALL, F.S.A., H.M. Public Record Office. With 31 Facsimile 
 Plates in Collotype, and Parallel Readings from the contemporary 
 Pipe Roll. 2 2$. net. 
 
 Athen&um."The record dealt with in this volume is of no small interest and 
 importance for our early fiscal history." 
 
 Glasgow Herald. " Contains the accounts of nine counties, and local names are to be 
 found not discoverable in any other surviving record." 
 
 Birmingham Post." Of interest to the historian, the antiquarian, and the political 
 student alike." 
 
8. Elements of Statistics. 
 
 By ARTHUR L. BOWLEY, M.A., F.S.S., Lecturer in Statistics at the 
 London School of Economics; Guy Silver Medallist of the Royal 
 Statistical Society, &c. Edited by Prof. W. A. S. HEWINS, M.A., 
 Director of the London School of Economics. Second Edition, 
 Revised and Enlarged. Demy 8vo, Cloth, 350 pp., numerous 
 Diagrams. 10$. 6d. net. 
 
 PROF. H. S. Fox WELL. " It is a first-rate book. I know none as good in any 
 language. It will, in my opinion, be the text-book of statistical method for the next 
 generation." 
 
 Economic Journal. "The London School of Economics has, since its foundation, had 
 systematic courses of lectures on the elements of statistics, and the School, therefore, is 
 entitled to share with Mr. Bowley the congratulations which are due to him for supplying 
 a long-felt want. Without further ado it may be plainly stated that, whatever its short- 
 comings, this book is the best on the Elements of Statistics written in English, French, 
 German or Italian." 
 
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 cannot but prove of the utmost service to all who have to do with the compilation or 
 interpretation of statistics." 
 
 Morning Post. " The public are constantly asking for information in a statistical form, 
 though no trustworthy statistics are in existence on which to base the required informa- 
 tion, hence these methods of statistics are exposed to sneers from which proper machinery 
 would save them." 
 
 9. The Place of Compensation in Temperance 
 
 Reform. 
 
 By C. P. SANGER, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; 
 
 Barrister-at-Law. Edited by Prof. W. A. S. HEWINS, M.A., Director 
 
 of the London School of Economics. Crown 8vo, Cloth, 140 pp. 
 
 2s. 6d. net. 
 
 Economical Journal. " Mr. Sanger is to be congratulated on the opportune publication 
 of this short, closely reasoned, and dispassionate essay on a subject which has long been 
 a bone of contention between ' The Trade ' and the more advanced temperance reformers, 
 and to which public attention has already been called by the discussions on the conflicting 
 Reports of the Royal Commission on Licensing Laws." 
 
 Glasgow Herald. "Mr. Sanger is to be commended for his dispassionate and lucid 
 exposition of a question which prejudice has sadly darkened and confused." 
 
 10. A History of Factory Legislation. 
 
 By B. L. HUTCHINS and A. HARRISON, B.A. (Lond.). With a Preface 
 by SIDNEY WEBB, L.C.C. Edited by Prof. W. A. S. HEWINS, 
 Director, London School of Economics. Demy 8vo, Cloth, 384 pp. 
 i os. 6d. net. 
 
 11. The Pipe Roll of the Exchequer of the See of 
 
 Winchester for the Fourth Year of the Episco- 
 pate of Peter des Roches (12O7). 
 
 Transcribed and edited from the original roll in the possession of the 
 Ecclesiastical Commissioners by the Class in Palaeography and 
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 12. Self-Government in Canada, 
 
 AND HOW IT WAS ACHIEVED : THE STORY OF LORD 
 DURHAM'S REPORT. By F. BRADSHAW, B.A., Senior Hulme 
 Exhibitioner, Brasenose College, Oxford. Edited by Prof. 
 W. A. S. HEWINS, Director, London School of Economics. Demy 
 8vo, Cloth, 424 pp. i os. 6d. net. 
 
Demy 8vo, cloth, 414 pp. 75. 6d. net. 
 
 PARLIAMENT : 
 
 ITS ROMANCE 
 ITS COMEDY 
 ITS PATHOS. 
 
 BY 
 
 MICHAEL MACDONAGH, 
 
 Author of "The Book of Parliament," and "Irish Life and Character." 
 
 CONTENTS : 
 
 The King : His Prerogatives and Disabilities The First of our Con- 
 stitutional Sovereigns How Edward VII. Opened his First Parliament 
 The Old House of Commons and the New The Old House of Lords and 
 the New " Privilege ! Privilege ! "The Great Seal of England The 
 Evolution of the Parliamentary Oath Maiden Speeches The Quaint 
 Side of Parliament Unparliamentary Expressions The Current Coin of 
 Politicians "Hansard" The Humours of Parliamentary Reporting 
 Last Speeches of Great Parliamentarians. 
 
 BOMB REVIBWS. 
 
 TIMES." Although a good many books have already been written on our Legisla- 
 ture, there is room for more, especially when the writer is well informed and knows how 
 to interest his reader." 
 
 ST. JAMES'S GAZETTE. "The book is well written, well informed, and is 
 altogether most attractive and readable." 
 
 PALL MALL GAZETTE." It is the best picture of Parliament in all its aspects 
 that has been got together within the covers of one volume." 
 
 DAILY EXPRESS." 'Parliament' is so brightly written that no one will skip a 
 line of this pleasant and profitable compilation." 
 
 ACADEMY. " Into this wonderful theatre of policies and passions, of enduring 
 measures and passing men, Mr. MacDonagh takes us with the skill of a completely 
 informed guide. His chapters on the King's prerogatives, on Queen Victoria's relations 
 with her Cabinets and Parliaments, and on the Great Seal of England, are a little aside 
 from the rest of the book, but they are in no way superfluous. They extend our vision 
 into the higher parts of the Constitution and give atmosphere and explication to the 
 whole. . . . We have skimmed only a little of Mr. MacDonagh's cream, and the rest we 
 leave with confidence, and with hearty recommendation, to the readers of this most 
 entertaining book." 
 
 ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS." It is still a legal maxim that ' the King can 
 do no wrong.' His Ministers may err, but he is infallible. He is also deathless, for, 
 according to the law, the Sovereign never dies. Moreover, he is omniscient from the 
 moment of his birth, and a despot in bis cradle. Nothing comes of this omniscience and 
 despotism, but that is the beauty of the Constitution. Mr. MacDonagh describes these 
 
 frave affairs with unfailing erudition and a sly humour which is very taking. Nothing 
 etter than his narrative of the adventures of the Great Seal of England (once used for 
 making pancakes) is to be found in the works of Mr. W. S. Gilbert." 
 
 P. S. KING & SON, ORCHARD HOUSE, WESTMINSTER. 
 
Demy 8vo, Cloth, 324 pp* and Map 1OS. 6d. net* 
 
 CIVILISATION IN 
 CONGOLAND: 
 
 A Story of International Wrong-doing. 
 
 By H R. FOX BOURNE, Author of "A Memoir of Sir Philip Sidney," The 
 Life of John Locke," &c., &c. With a Prefatory Note by the Right 
 Hon. SIR CHARLES W. DILKE, Bart., M.P. 
 
 DAILY NEWS. "A very outspoken impeachment of the policy and 
 methods of the Congo Free State, and an appeal to the European Powers, 
 who at the Berlin Conference of 1884 endowed that State with the functions 
 it is alleged to have abused, for such intervention as may put an end to 
 the alleged abuses. Adducing weighty evidence in support of his charges 
 as to the treatment of natives, the author lays most emphasis on what he 
 regards as the inherent defects of the machinery of government set up in 
 violation of the provisions of the Berlin Conference, and indicates the 
 injuries resulting therefrom to the other nations holding territory or 
 entitled to equitable trade within the Conventional Basin of the Congo." 
 
 DAIL Y MAIL. " We suppose no one now who knows the facts really 
 attempts to minimise the horrible atrocities towards the natives which 
 have characterised European ' civilisation ' in the Congo districts. Mr. 
 Fox Bourne writes temperately ; but the trail of blood is over all his pages, 
 and it can hardly be otherwise." 
 
 DAILY CHRONICLE. "Mr. Fox Bourne's book comes at an oppor- 
 tune moment. It should touch the conscience of Europe. . . The very 
 simplicity ol the book, the steady accumulation of fact upon fact, the 
 quiet, untheatrical piling up of damnatory material, does but accentuate 
 the crushing nature of the attack." 
 
 CHRISTIAN WORLD. " The Dark Continent seems, over great 
 stretches of it at least, to grow no brighter. The story here given of the doings 
 in Congoland, a region, let us remember, seventy times the size of Belgium, 
 is of midnight blackness, and leaves us with a sense of nightmare. . . . 
 The exposure of the atrocities in Belgian Congoland should stir the peoples 
 of all civilised States, and especially of those whose Governments are 
 signatories to the Berlin Conference of 1885, to demand that the provisions 
 then agreed to, and under which the Belgian Administration was confirmed 
 in its privileges, should be put in force ; that the decrees enacted which 
 are a contravention of those provisions be annulled ; and that the 
 perpetrators of these hideous crimes be brought to justice." 
 
 ST. JAMES'S GAZETTE." A very full case has been made out for 
 the interference of the signatory Powers to the Berlin Act." 
 
 P. S. KING & SON, Orchard House, Westminster. 
 
Demy SVG. 356 pp. 26 Plates. 8 Coloured Maps. 2s. 6d. net. 
 
 CAPE COLONY 
 
 FOR 
 
 THE SETTLER. 
 
 An Account of its Urban and Rural 
 Industries, their Probable Future 
 Development and Extension. 
 
 A. R. E. BURTON, F.R.G.S., 
 
 EDITOR OF THE Transvaal Agricultural Magazine; 
 LATE EDITOR OF THE Cape Government Agricultural Journal. 
 
 ISSUED BY ORDER OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE GAPE COLONY, 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 DAILY CHRONICLE. 11 The work is not only a careful compilation, but is more 
 honestly conceived than such invitations to settlers are sometimes apt to be. It should 
 prove of high value to any English artisans or agriculturists who have thoughts of making 
 a home for themselves in South Africa." 
 
 MORNING LEADER." The material is remarkably complete." 
 
 ST. JAMES'S GAZETTE. "The work has been specially undertaken for the 
 guidance of intending colonists, and as such it is both authoritative and comprehensive. 
 Personal experience, backed by investigation in every branch of the subject, has made the 
 volume thoroughly useful. Indeed, not only will it give information, it may also give 
 birth to that desire to settle at the Cape which deserves such hearty encouragement under 
 present circumstances." 
 
 PALL MALL GAZETTE. "It presents to the workman and the agriculturist 
 every guidance that will help him to foresee his probable surroundings as a settler, and its 
 carefully-written chapters are supplemented by lucid appendices and maps." 
 
 WESTMINSTER GAZETTE. "A. book of general and particular information. 
 ... It deals compactly with all that may be comprised under the heading ' Urban and 
 Rural Industries,' and this implies, as we see from the book itself, everything that can 
 interest or appeal to the intending settler." 
 
 RURAL WORLD. " Just the sort of thing which the intending emigrant to Cape 
 Colony wouM do well to procure and read." 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 P. S. KING & SON, Orchard House, Westminster. 
 
" A permanent and invaluable contribution to the sum of human knowledge. . . . We commend to the 
 public a book which is a monument of research and full of candour. . . . Indispensable to every publicist 
 and Politician." TIMES, 4th January, 1898 (day of publication). 
 
 Now Ready. Post 8vo, Two Vols., xxix. and 929 pp., with Two 
 Diagrams. Price 25s. net. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY. 
 
 By SIDNEY and BEATRICE WEBB 
 
 (Authors of " The History of Trade Unionism"). 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 In this work the authors of "The History of Trade Unionism" deal, 
 not with the past, but with the present. They describe, with the systematic 
 detail of the scientific observer, and in the same objective spirit, all the 
 forms of Trade Unionism, Factory Legislation, and other regulations of 
 industry to be found in the British Isles. The whole structure and function 
 of Labour Organisation and Restrictive Legislation in every industry is 
 analysed and criticised in a manner never before attempted. The employer 
 in difficulties with his workman, the trade unionist confronted with a fresh 
 assault upon his standard rate, the politician troubled about a new project 
 for Factory Legislation, the public-spirited citizen concerned as to the real 
 issues of a labour dispute, will find elucidated in this work the very problems 
 on which they are thinking. It is a storehouse of authenticated facts 
 about every branch of the "Labour Question," gathered from six years' 
 personal investigation into every industry in all parts of the kingdom ; 
 systematically classified and made accessible by an unusually elaborate 
 Index. 
 
 But the Book is more than an Encyclopaedia on the Labour Question. 
 Scientific examination of trade union structure reveals, in these thousand 
 self-governing republics, a remarkable evolution in democratic constitutions, 
 which throws light on political problems in a larger sphere. The century- 
 long experience of these working-class organisations affords unique evi- 
 dence as to the actual working of such expedients as the Referendum, the 
 Initiative, Government by Mass Meeting, Annual Elections, Proportional 
 Representation, Payment of Members, and, generally, the relation 
 between the Citizen-elector, the chosen Representative, and the Executive 
 Officer. The intricate relations of trade with trade have an interesting 
 bearing upon such problems as Local Government, Federation, and Home 
 Rule. Those who regard the participation of a working-class electorate in 
 the affairs of government as the distinctive, if not the dangerous, feature 
 in modern politics, will here find the phenomenon isolated, and may learn 
 how the British workman actually deals with similar issues in his own 
 sphere. 
 
 The analysis of the working of Trade Unionism and Factory Legislation 
 in the various industries of the United Kingdom has involved a reconsidera- 
 tion of the conclusions of Political Economy. The authors give a new and 
 original description of the working of industrial competition in the business 
 world of to-da}' ; and they are led to important modifications of the views 
 currently held upon Capital, Interest, Profits, Wages, Women's Labour, 
 the Population Question, Foreign Competition, Free Trade, &c. The latter 
 part of the work is, in fact, a treatise upon Economics. 
 
 Finally, it should be stated that the authors, in the Preface, describing 
 their investigations, propound a new view as to the scope and method of 
 Political Science. 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO., 
 LONDON, NEW YORK, AND BOMBAY. 
 
Other Works by the same Authors. 
 
 Published by SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO. 
 
 The Co-operative Movement in Great 
 
 Britain. By BEATRICE POTTER (Mrs. Sidney Webb,). 
 Second Edition, 1893. Crown 8vo, with Coloured Map 
 showing Distribution of the Co-operative Movement, 
 Appendices, and Index. Price 25. 6d. 
 
 " Miss Beatrice Potter's luminous and suggestive volume is not a mere bald, 
 historical outline, but a thoughtful and pregnant study of tendencies, causes, and 
 effects." Times. 
 
 " The whole volume is full of suggestion, both to co-operators and politicians. 
 ... It is without doubt the ablest and most philosophical analysis of the co- 
 operative movement which has yet been produced." Speaker. 
 
 Socialism in England. By SIDNEY WEBB, LL.B. 
 Second Edition, 1893. With new Introductory Chapter. 
 Crown 8vo. Price 2s. 6d. 
 
 " The best general view of the subject from the moderate Socialist side." 
 A thenc&um. 
 
 The London Programme. By SIDNEY WEBB, LL.B. 
 Second Edition, 1894. With new Introductory Chapter. 
 Crown 8vo. Price 2s. 6d. 
 " Brimful of excellent ideas. ' Anti- Jacobin. 
 
 Published by WALTER SCOTT. 
 
 The Eight-Hours Day. By SIDNEY WEBB, LL.B., 
 and HAROLD Cox, B.A. Crown 8vo, 280 pp., with 
 Bibliography. Paper Covers. Price is. 
 
 11 The unique value of this little book lies in its collection of facts. It is likely, 
 for some time, to hold the field as the handbook to one of the chief items in the 
 social politics of the immediate future." Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 Published by GRANT RICHARDS. 
 
 Labour in the Longest Reign, 1837-1897. 
 
 By SIDNEY WEBB, LL.B. Small 8vo, Cloth. Price is. 
 
 Published by LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. 
 
 The History of Trade Unionism. By SIDNEY 
 and BEATRICE WEBB. Second Edition, 1896. Revised 
 (completing 2,500 copies). Post 8vo, 547 pp., Cloth, with 
 Coloured Map. Price i8s. 
 
 " A masterly piece of work." Times. 
 
 " To the politician . . . an invaluable guide." Observer. 
 
 Problems of Modern Industry. By SIDNEY and 
 BEATRICE WEBB. Now Ready. Post 8vo, 286 pp. 
 Price 75. 6d. 
 
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