Chapter 22

The disputes at last between the contending parties in Lower Canada prevented the working of the constitution. The assembly fought for years for the independence of Parliament and the exclusive control of the civil list and supply. When at last the assembly refused to vote a civil list and other necessary expenditures, the government were obliged to use the casual and territorial revenues--such as the proceeds of the sales and leases of Crown lands--and these funds were inadequate for the purpose. So carelessly were these funds managed that one receiver-general, engaged in business, became a heavy defaulter. The governors dissolved the legislatures with a frequency unparalleled in political history, and were personally drawn into the conflict. Public officials, including the judges, were harassed by impeachments. Bills were constantly rejected by the legislative council on various pretexts--some of them constitutionally correct--and the disputes {341} between the two branches of the legislature eventually made it impossible to pass even absolutely necessary measures. Appeals to the home government were very common, and concessions were made time and again to the assembly. In fact, the contest as to the revenues and expenditures ought to have closed, in a great measure, with the abandonment, in 1832, by the government of every portion of the {342} previously reserved revenue, but, as Lord Durham pointed out, the assembly, "even when it obtained entire control over the public revenues," refused the civil list because it was determined "not to give up its only means of subjecting the functionaries of government to any responsibility." The conflict was carried on to the bitter end. It does not appear, however, that the majority in the assembly at all understood the crucial difficulty. They devoted their whole strength to attacks on the legislative council, and to demands for an elective body. The famous ninety-two resolutions of 1834, in which Papineau's party set forth their real or fancied grievances, did not contain a single paragraph laying down the principles of parliamentary or responsible government as worked out in England, and ably supported by the moderate Upper Canadian Reformers like Robert Baldwin. The home government ought to have appreciated the gravity of the situation, but they were not yet prepared to introduce into these colonies the principles of parliamentary government. In 1835 they appointed a commission to inquire into the nature of the grievances and the best method of remedying them. The governor-general, Lord Gosford, was the head of this commission, but it failed because Papineau and his party were not now prepared to listen to moderate and conciliatory counsels. When in 1837 the assembly continued to refuse supply for the payment of public officials, and of the arrears, which up to that time amounted to nearly one hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling, Lord John Russell {343} carried in the English House of Commons a series of resolutions, rejecting the demand for an elective legislative council and other changes in the constitution, and empowering the executive government to defray the expenses of the public service out of the territorial and casual revenues. This action of the imperial government increased the public discontent, and gave an opportunity to Papineau and his followers to declare that no redress of grievances could be obtained except by a resort to arms. In this year the rebellion broke out, but before I refer to it, it is necessary to review briefly the condition of things in the other provinces.

In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the disputes between the executive and legislative authorities were characterised by much acrimony, but eventually the public revenues were conceded to the assemblies. In Prince Edward Island the political difficulties arose from the land monopoly, and the efforts of the lieutenant-governors to govern as much as possible without assemblies. In these provinces, as in Canada, we find--to cite Lord Durham--"representative government coupled with an irresponsible executive, the same abuse of the powers of the representative bodies, and the same constant interference of the imperial administration in matters which should be left wholly to the provincial governments." In the maritime provinces, however, no disturbance occurred, and the leaders of the popular party were among the first to assist the authorities in their efforts to preserve the public tranquillity, and to express themselves emphatically in favour of the British connection.

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In Upper Canada an official class held within its control practically the government of the province. This class became known, in the parlance of those days, as the "family compact," not quite an accurate designation, since its members had hardly any family connection, but there was just enough ground for the term to tickle the taste of the people for an epigrammatic phrase. The bench, the pulpit, the banks, the public offices were all more or less under the influence of the "compact." The public lands were lavishly parcelled out among themselves and their followers. Successive governors, notably Sir Francis Gore, Sir Peregrine Maitland, and Sir Francis Bond Head, submitted first to its influence and allowed it to have the real direction of affairs. Among its most prominent members were John Beverly Robinson, for some years attorney-general, and eventually an able chief-justice, and the recipient of a baronetage; William Dummer Powell, a chief-justice; John Henry Boulton, once attorney-general; John Strachan, the first bishop of the Episcopal Church in Upper Canada; Jonas Jones, the Sherwoods, and other well-known names of residents of York, Niagara, Kingston, and Brockville.

It was not until 1820 that a strong opposition was organised in the assembly against the ruling bureaucracy. The cruel treatment of Robert Gourlay, an erratic Scotch land-agent, by the ruling class who feared his exposure of public abuses, had much to do with creating a reform party in the legislature. Gourlay was a mere adventurer, who found plenty of material in the political condition of the province {345} for obtaining the notoriety that he coveted. In the course of some inquiries he made in connexion with a statistical work he published in later years, he touched on some points which exposed the land monopoly and other abuses. He was immediately declared by the "compact" to be a dangerous person, who must be curbed by some means or other. He was tried on two occasions for libelling the government, but acquitted. Then his enemies conspired to accuse him most unjustly of being a seditious and dangerous person, who came under the terms of an alien act passed in 1804. He was arrested and kept in prison for seven months. When he was at last tried at Niagara, the home of Toryism, he was a broken-down man, hardly in full possession of his senses. A severe judge and prejudiced jury had no pity, and he was forced to leave the province, to which he did not return until happier times. The injustice which was meted out to a man who had thrown some light on public corruption, stimulated the opponents of the "family compact" to united action against methods so dangerous to individual liberty and so antagonistic to the redress of public grievances.

The disputes between the reformers and the "family compact" were aggravated by the "clergy reserves" question, which was largely one between the Episcopalians and the dissenting bodies. This question grew out of the grant to the Protestant Church in Canada of large tracts of land by the imperial act of 1791, and created much bitterness of feeling for a quarter of a century and more. The {346} reformers found in this question abundant material for exciting the jealousies of all the Protestant sects who wished to see the Church of England and the Church of Scotland deprived of the advantages which they alone derived from this valuable source of revenue. The British Government for years were on the side of the "family compact," whose leading adherents belonged to the Church of England, and who opposed every effort that was made to dispose of these lands for the support of education and other public purposes. The Methodists, who outnumbered the Church of England, had for years an additional grievance in the fact that their ministers were not allowed to solemnise marriages, and it was not until 1829 that this disability was removed by the legislature.

Among the minds that dominated the "family compact" was the eminent divine, John Strachan, who was originally a Presbyterian, and came to the country as a teacher at the request of the Honourable Richard Cartwright, a prominent U. E. Loyalist, but eventually joined the Episcopalian Church, and became its bishop. Like his countryman, John Knox, he had extraordinary tenacity of purpose and desire for rule. He considered the interests of the Church as paramount to all other considerations. He became both an executive and a legislative councillor, and largely moulded the opinions and acts of the governing classes. It was chiefly through his influence that Sir John Colborne established a number of rectories out of the clergy reserves, and thereby gave additional offence to those religious {347} bodies who had no share in these lands. He hoped to create a state church, and the establishment of King's College, afterwards secularised, was a part of his ecclesiastical system. Eventually when King's College became a provincial institution, open to all denominations--the foundation of Toronto University--he devoted all his energies to the establishment of Trinity College, which is the noblest monument of the zealous prelate.

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Another Scotchman, who came to the country some years later than the bishop, was William Lyon Mackenzie, who was always remarkable for his impulsiveness and rashness, which led him at last into difficulties and wrecked his whole career. He had a deep sense of public wrongs, and placed himself immediately in the front rank of those who were fighting for a redress of undoubted grievances. He was thoroughly imbued with the ideas of English radicalism, and had an intense hatred of Toryism in every form. He possessed little of that strong common sense and power of acquisitiveness which make his countrymen, as a rule, so successful in every walk of life. When he felt he was being crushed by the intriguing and corrupting influences of the governing class, aided by the lieutenant-governor, he forgot all the dictates of reason and prudence, and was carried away by a current of passion which ended in rebellion. His journal, _The Colonial Advocate_, showed in its articles and its very make-up the erratic character of the man. He was a pungent writer, who attacked adversaries with great recklessness of epithet and accusation. So obnoxious did he become to the governing class that a number of young men, connected with the best families, wrecked his office, but the damages he recovered in a court of law enabled him to give it a new lease of existence. When the "family compact" had a majority in the assembly, elected in 1830, he was expelled five times for libellous reflections on the government and house, but he was re-elected by the people, who resented the wrongs to which he was {350} subject, and became the first mayor of Toronto, as York was now called. He carried his grievances to England, where he received much sympathy, even in conservative circles. In a new legislature, where the "compact" were in a minority, he obtained a committee to consider the condition of provincial affairs. The result was a famous report on grievances which set forth in a conclusive and able manner the constitutional difficulties under which the country laboured, and laid down clearly the necessity for responsible government. It would have been fortunate both for Upper Canada and Mackenzie himself at this juncture, had he and his followers confined themselves to a constitutional agitation on the lines set forth in this report. By this time Robert Baldwin and Egerton Ryerson, discreet and prominent reformers, had much influence, and were quite unwilling to follow Mackenzie in the extreme course on which he had clearly entered. He lost ground rapidly from the time of his indiscreet publication of a letter from Joseph Hume, the English radical, who had expressed the opinion that the improper proceedings of the legislature, especially in expelling Mackenzie, "must hasten the crisis that was fast approaching in the affairs of Canada, and which would terminate in independence and freedom from the baneful domination of the mother-country." Probably even Mackenzie and his friends might have been conciliated and satisfied at the last moment had the imperial government been served by an able and discreet lieutenant-governor. But never did the imperial authorities make a greater mistake than {351} when they sent out Sir Francis Bond Head, who had no political experience whatever.

From the beginning to the end of his administration he did nothing but blunder. He alienated even the confidence of the moderate element of the Reformers, and literally threw himself into the arms of the "family compact," and assisted them at the elections of the spring of 1836, which rejected all the leading men of the extreme wing of the Reform party. Mackenzie was deeply mortified at the result, and determined from that moment to rebel against the government which, in his opinion, had no intention of remedying public grievances. At the same time Papineau, with whom he was in communication, had made up his mind to establish a republic, _une nation Canadienne_, on the banks of the St. Lawrence.

The disloyal intentions of Papineau and his followers were made very clear by the various meetings which were held in the Montreal and Richelieu districts, by the riots which followed public assemblages in the city of Montreal, by the names of "Sons of Liberty" and "Patriots" they adopted in all their proceedings, by the planting of "trees," and raising of "caps" of liberty. Happily for the best interests of Canada the number of French Canadians ready to revolt were relatively insignificant, and the British population were almost exclusively on the side of the government. Bishop Lartigue and the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church now asserted themselves very determinedly against the dangerous and seditious utterances of {352} the leaders of the "Patriots." Fortunately a resolute, able soldier, Sir John Colborne, was called from Upper Canada to command the troops in the critical situation of affairs, and crushed the rebellion in its very inception. A body of insurgents, led by Dr. Wolfred Nelson, showed some courage at St. Denis, but Papineau took the earliest opportunity to find refuge across the frontier. Thomas Storrow Brown, an American by birth, also made a stand at St. Charles, but both he and Nelson were easily beaten by the regulars. A most unfortunate episode was the murder of Lieutenant Weir, who had been captured by Nelson while carrying despatches from General Colborne, and was butchered by some insurgent _habitants_, in whose custody he had been placed. At St. Eustache the rebels were severely punished by Colborne himself, and a number burned to death in the steeple of a church where they had made a stand. Many prisoners were taken in the course of the rebellious outbreak. The village of St. Benoit and isolated houses elsewhere were destroyed by the angry loyalists, and much misery inflicted on all actual or supposed sympathisers with Papineau and Nelson. Lord Gosford now left the country, and Colborne was appointed administrator. Although the insurrection practically ended at St. Denis and St. Charles, bodies of rebels and American marauders harassed the frontier settlements for some time, until at last the authorities of the United States arrested some of the leaders and forced them to surrender their arms and munitions of war.

In Upper Canada the folly of Sir Francis Head {353} would have led to serious consequences had Mackenzie and Rolph been capable of managing a rebellious movement. The Lieutenant-Governor allowed all the troops to go to Lower Canada, and the capital was entirely at the mercy of the rebels, had they acted with any spirit or energy. Dr. Rolph, a clever intriguer--who was to be the president of the new republic--was playing a fast and loose game, and temporised until the loyal forces from Hamilton were able to advance to the assistance of Head. Had the rebels, who were concentrating at Montgomery's tavern on Yonge Street, marched immediately on the capital, it could have been easily captured, in consequence of the neglect of Head to take the most ordinary precautions against surprise. Toronto was mainly saved by the men of the Gore district, led by Allan MacNab, an ardent loyalist, afterwards a baronet and premier of Canada. The insurgents, who at no time exceeded eight hundred in all, were routed at their headquarters. Rolph had previously thought it prudent to fly, and Mackenzie soon followed. Several lives were lost during this _émeute_, for it was hardly more, and a considerable number of prisoners taken. Among the latter were Samuel Lount, an ardent reformer, the first to arm for the rebellion, and Colonel Von Egmond, one of Napoleon's soldiers, the leader of the "patriot army." Marshall Spring Bidwell, an able and moderate leader of the Reformers, for some years speaker, does not appear to have taken any active part in the rebellious movement, but he availed himself of a warning given him by Head, who wished {354} to get rid of him as quietly as possible, and hurried to the United States, where he remained for the remainder of his life. Mackenzie also fled to the Republic, and industriously set to work to violate the neutrality of the country by inciting bands of ruffians to invade Canada.

As in the case of the Fenian invasion many years later, the authorities of the United States were open to some censure for negligence in winking at these suspicious gatherings avowedly to attack a friendly country. The raiders seized an island just above Niagara Falls, on the Canadian side, as a base of operations, and a steamer, called the _Caroline_, was freely allowed to ply between the island and the mainland with supplies. It became necessary to stop this bold attempt to provide the freebooters on Navy Island with the munitions of war, and a Canadian expedition was accordingly sent, under the command of Colonel MacNab, to seize the _Caroline_. As it happened, however, she was found on the American side; but at such a time of excitement men were not likely to consider consequences from the point of view of international law. She was cut from her moorings on the American side, her crew taken prisoners, one man killed, and the vessel set on fire and sent over the Falls of Niagara.

Until the month of December, 1838, Upper Canada was disturbed from time to time by bands of marauders, instigated by Mackenzie and others, but they were easily beaten back by the bravery of loyal Canadian volunteers commanded by Colonels Prince, MacNab, Cameron, Fitzgibbon, and other patriotic {355} defenders of the country. Whatever sympathy may have been felt for Mackenzie by some persons at the outset of the insurrection, was alienated from him by his conduct after he crossed the border. He suffered much misery himself while he remained in the United States, and was a prisoner for some months when the American Government awoke to the necessity of punishing a man who had so nearly embroiled them with England by his violation of the municipal law of a friendly territory, and of the obligations that rest upon political refugees. When Sir Francis Bond Head was very properly recalled from the province whose affairs he had so badly administered, he was succeeded by Sir George Arthur, who had been governor of Van Diemen's Land. Both Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews suffered death. Von Shoultz, and a number of Americans who had invaded the country in 1838, were also executed, and some persons in both provinces were transported to New Holland or sent to the penitentiary, but in the majority of cases the Crown showed clemency. The outbreak was an unfortunate episode in the history of Canada, but it caused the "family compact" to break up, and brought about a better system of government.

The immediate result of the rebellion in Lower Canada was the intervention of the imperial authorities by the suspension of the constitution of that province, and the formation of a special council for purposes of temporary government. Lord Durham, a nobleman of great ability, who had won distinction in imperial politics as a Reformer, was sent out {356} to Canada as governor-general and high commissioner to inquire into and adjust provincial difficulties. This distinguished statesman remained at the head of affairs in the province from the last of May, 1838, until the 3rd of November in the same year, when he returned to England, where his ordinance of the 28th of June, sentencing certain British subjects in custody to transportation without a form of trial, and subjecting them and others not in prison to death in case of their return to the country, without permission of the authorities, had been most severely censured in England as quite unwarranted by law. By this ordinance Wolfred Nelson, Bouchette, Viger, and five others, then in prison, were banished to Bermuda, while Papineau, Cartier, O'Callaghan, Robert Nelson, and others beyond Canadian jurisdiction, were threatened with death if they returned to the province. Lord Durham's action was certainly in conflict with the principles of English law, but it was an error of judgment on the side of clemency. He was unwilling to resort to a court-martial--the only tribunal open to the authorities. A trial in the courts of justice was impracticable under existing conditions, as it was shown later. Lord Durham left Canada in deep indignation at the manner in which his acts had been criticised in England, largely through the influence of Lord Brougham, his personal enemy. The most important result of his mission was a report, the credit for the authorship of which was long denied to him through the misrepresentations of his enemies, though it is now clear that he and not his secretary was the author.

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Soon after the departure of Lord Durham, who died a few months later, Sir John Colborne became governor-general. He was called upon to put down another rebellious movement led by Robert Nelson, brother of Wolfred Nelson, then in exile. At Caughnawaga, Montarville Mountain, Beauharnois, and Odelltown the insurgents made a stand from time to time, but were soon scattered. Bands of marauders inflicted some injury upon loyal inhabitants near the frontier, but in a few months these criminal attempts to disturb the peace of the province ceased entirely. The government now decided to make an example of men who had not appreciated the clemency previously shown their friends. Twelve men were executed, but it was not possible to obtain a verdict from a jury against the murderers of Weir and Chartrand--the latter a French Canadian volunteer murdered under circumstances of great brutality while a prisoner.