Chapter 31, shall be introduced in the English language; and the

bills relative to the laws, customs, usages and civil rights of this province shall be introduced in the French language in order to preserve the unity of the texts.”

On the 9th of May, 1793, Sir Alured Clarke in his speech from the throne was forced to make allusions to the first French revolution, which had been already four years in progress before the opening of the assembly of Lower Canada in December, 1792. The Bastille had fallen on June 17, 1789. “At the first meeting of the legislature I congratulated you,” he said, “upon the flattering prospects which opened to your view and upon the flourishing and tranquil state of the British empire, then at peace with all the world; since that period, I am sorry to find, its tranquility has been disturbed by the unjustifiable and unprecedented conduct of the persons exercising the supreme power in France, who, after deluging their own country with the blood of their own fellow citizens and embruing their hands in that of their sovereign, have forced His Majesty and the surrounding nations of Europe in a contest which involves the first interests of society.”

The king of France had been executed on January 21st and war with Great Britain had been declared on February 1st, although Great Britain had made every effort to avoid hostility. Washington had issued the proclamation of neutrality on April 22d, warning Americans of the penalties incurred by its infraction. The revolted provinces had first shown great sympathy with the French revolutionists. On the news of the evacuation of the allied forces which began on September 20, 1793, all New England seems to have lost its head: McMaster in his “History of the People of the United States” (Vol. II, page 13-14) says: “Both men and women seemed for a time to have put away their wits and gone mad with republicanism. Their dress, their speech, their daily conduct were all regulated on strict republican principles. There must be a flaming liberty cap in every house. There must be a cockade in every hat, there must be no more use of the old titles, Sir and Mr. and Dr. and Rev., etc.”

But later when the excesses of the Revolution began to be known excitement somewhat cooled. It was no pleasure, consequently, to Washington to hear on the day of the proclamation of neutrality that Genet, sent as minister by the French republic, had arrived at Charleston. Genet was well received on his way to Philadelphia, but was chilled by the reception given by Washington and left in a rage. (Archives Report, 1891, Douglas Brymner.)

Lower Canada was not uninfluenced by all this. Genet’s agents, or those of his successor, Fauchet, for Genet was superseded in February, 1794, had succeeded in creating a disaffected spirit among people. At Quebec there was an open manifestation of sedition on the parade. Kingsford tells how Prince Edward (Duke of Kent)[2] was in command of the Seventh Fusileers at Quebec when a threatened mutiny was suppressed. Several were charged on a plot to seize the Prince, the general and the officers. One man was sentenced to be shot, but at the Prince’s interception was spared. Three men were severally sentenced to 500, 700 and 400 lashes, one being a sergeant. The details cannot be traced. (Kingsford, Vol. VII, page 383.)

A descent on Canada by way of St. John’s and Lake Champlain was reported to be meditated by congress. In April, 1794, the authorities of Vermont had, as reported to Lord Dorchester, made an offer to Congress to undertake the conquest of Canada without assistance from the federal government, provided the troops were allowed to plunder the inhabitants, and in order to facilitate communications with the seditious of Montreal, Mason lodges were instituted in Vermont under pretended charters from lodges in Montreal.

On September 23d Dorchester arrived in Quebec; shortly Sir Alured Clarke returned to England. The second parliament was opened on November 11th. In January M. Chartier de Lothbinière succeeded M. Panet as speaker, the latter having been made judge of Common Pleas. At the end of November, 1793, Dorchester issued proclamations to take means against the French emissaries in the country. In May, 1794, orders were issued for the embodiment of 2,000 militia to be ready for service. The extent of the poisonous and seditious influences at work is shown by the fact that out of the 7,000 men fit for service in forty-two parishes only 900 men obeyed the law. Lord Dorchester attributed this unwillingness to serve as due more to long absence from military duty than disloyalty. The habitants were, however, dissatisfied, for though the hand of the government was easy they claimed to be oppressed by the expenses of the law and to be unprotected against the exactions of their seigneurs as they had been under the French intendants. (Dorchester to Dundas, May 24, 1794.)

The district of Montreal was reported to be universally disaffected, though the British subjects were loyal and well disposed. The militia law was opposed. At Côte de Neiges a party of habitants had become possessed of arms and were determined to defend themselves if attacked. As said, information was received that a Freemasons’ lodge had been established at Montreal in connection with a lodge in Vermont for the sole purpose of carrying out a traitorous correspondence with the disaffected. On all sides it was reported that the French were coming to seize Canada.

Attorney General Monk, writing from Quebec to Dundas on May 3, 1794, gives an alarming picture of the spread of French revolutionary principles becoming general. He states that threats were used by disaffected new subjects against the loyal new subjects; that it was astonishing to find the same savagery exhibited here as in France, in so short a period for corruption; that blood alliances did not check the menaces upon the non-compliant peasants of burning their houses, of death, emboweling, decapitation and carrying their heads on poles; that religion was being thrown aside. The intrigues had been traced to Genet and the French consuls; that correspondence had been carried on between the disaffected Canadians of the United States and Canada, and that French emissaries had been sent to prepare the people to follow the example of France.

A pamphlet, extracts from which have been preserved, was circulated in January, 1794, under the title of “les Français Libres a Leurs frères les Canadiens.” This pamphlet deserves the extracts extant being made known as indicating a picture of the feelings of the seditionary party. They are to be found in French in the Canadian Government Archives, Q 62, page 224.

The object was to encourage the Canadians “to emulate the example of the people of America and of France. Break then, with a government which degenerates from day to day, and which has become the most cruel enemy of the liberty of the people. Everywhere are found traces of the despotism, the avidity, the cruelties of the king of England. It is time to overthrow a throne which has been seated so long on hypocrisy and imposture. In no way fear George III with his soldiers, too small in number to successfully oppose your valour. The moment is favourable and insurrection is for you the holiest of duties. Remember that being born French you will always be envied and persecuted by the kings of England and that this title will be more than ever today a reason for exclusion from all offices. Also what advantages have you drawn from the constitution which has been given you since your representatives have been assembled? Have they presented you with a single good law? Have they corrected any abuse? Have they had the power to free your commerce from its shackles? No! And why not? Because all the means of corruption have been secretly and publicly employed to make the balance weigh in favour of the English. They have dared to impose an odious veto which the king of England has reserved only to prevent the destruction of abuses and to paralyze all your movements; here is the present which the vile stipendaries have dared to offer you as a monument of the beneficence of the English government. Canadians, arm yourselves. Call to your assistance your friends, the Indians; count on the help of your neighbours and on that of Frenchmen.”

A resumé is given of the advantages that Canadians will obtain in throwing over the English domination.

1. Canada will be a free and independent state.

2. It can form alliances with France and the United States.

3. The Canadians will choose their own government; they will themselves name the members of the legislative body and the executive power.

4. The veto will be abolished.

5. All persons who have obtained the right of citizenship in Canada can be named for all offices.

6. The Corvées will be abolished.

7. Commerce will enjoy a more extensive liberty.

8. There will be no longer any privileged company for the fur trade. The new government will encourage this trade.

9. The seigneurial _droits_ will be abolished. The _lods et ventes_, the millrights, the tolls, the lumber reservations, work for the service of the seigneur, etc., will be equally abolished.

10. Hereditary titles will be also abolished. There will be no lords, seigneurs or nobles.

11. All cults will be free. Catholic priests named by the people as in the primitive church will enjoy a treatment analogous to their ability.

12. Schools will be established in the parishes and towns; there will be printing offices; institutions for the high sciences; medicine and mathematics. Interpreters will be trained who, known for their good morals, will be encouraged to civilize the savage nations and by this means to extend the trade with them.

In spite of these inflammatory circulars, and outside those immediately disaffected, the majority of the Canadians were in good disposition with the government. They would have resisted an American invasion without hesitation. When their own people tampered with them and offered to regain Canada to the French it is only natural that many should have been unsettled. But it must clearly be understood that the reports of the French emissaries being in the country were not the dreams of visionaries. It was expected in many quarters that Napoleon, the First Consul, would have redemanded Canada at the general treaty of peace. Canada was desired for the French “as an outlet for French products and for the means of speculation to an infinite number of Frenchmen who have no resources in their own country.” The last quotation occurs in a letter dated January 12, 1803, from France by an ex-Canadian, Mr. Imbert, to a brother of Judge Panet.

Yet a panegyric on the occasion of the death of Bishop Briand in 1794 reveals a change of opinion undergoing at this period with regard to the relations of the English and the French. “Ah!” cried the preacher, “how the perspective of our future formerly spread out bitterness in all Christian families! Each one mourned his unhappy plight and was afflicted not to be able to leave a country where the kingdom of God seemed about to be forever destroyed. No one could be persuaded that our conquerors, strangers to our soil, to our language, our law, our customs, our worship, could ever be able to give back to Canada what it had just lost in the change of masters. Generous nation! which has made us see with so much evidence how this prejudgment was false; industrious nation! which has made riches sprout forth which the bosom of this land enclosed; beneficent nation! which daily gives to Canada new proofs of your liberality; No! no! you are not our enemies, nor those of our properties which your laws protect, nor those of our religion, which you respect. Pardon this first mistrust in a people which had not yet the honour of knowing you.”

At Montreal some important arrests were made; one, Duclos, an active agent of the United States who had moved among the people confidently foretelling the invasion of the French, and a traitor named Costello, who was proved to have been diligent in circulating the incendiary pamphlets in French. To meet this disaffection Constitutional Associations were formed in Montreal and Quebec of the leading French Canadian and British loyalists. Gradually the sedition died down. But during the great fear of a French invasion there had been no little doubt and uncertainty among the mercantile classes as to the fate of the vessels that might be dispatched with cargoes on the St. Lawrence. Jay’s treaty, 19th of November, 1794, with Great Britain, for the amicable adjustment of all differences between it and the United States, was a potent factor in making for peace. It was finally agreed to in the senate of the United States in 1795, although the sympathizers of the French fought it determinedly.

In April, 1796, Dorchester, who had sent in his resignation, received official information that Gen. Robert Prescott had been appointed lieutenant governor of Lower Canada and commander-in-chief in North America. Prescott arrived at Quebec on the 18th of June and Dorchester sailed in July, being wrecked on the island of Anticosti, but, being taken off by a ship of war, reached his destination in safety. On the 18th of June, 1796, Sir Robert Prescott, Lord Dorchester’s successor, did not find matters in the province in a satisfactory state. The French republican designs on Canada were still represented in the Montreal district by many sympathizers. Riots were caused and the magistrates of Montreal seemed to have acted weakly, if not with connivance, so that a new commission of the peace was issued with several names omitted. The ostensible cause was opposition to the execution of the Road Bill, but in reality it was a disaffection stirred up by emissaries from the French republic, then in the province.

Attorney General Sewell had been sent to Montreal to get information and he reported the above to the executive council at Quebec on Sunday, October 30, 1796, on the authority of Messrs. de Lothbinière, McGill, Richardson, Murray, Papineau and others. He reported: “That a pamphlet of most seditious tendencies, signed by Adet, the embassador from the French republic to the United States, was now in circulation in the district. That this pamphlet bore the arms of the French republic and was addressed to the Canadians assuring them that France, having now conquered Spain, Austria and Italy, had determined to subdue Great Britain and meant to begin with her colonies; that she thought it her duty in the first instance to turn her attention to the Canadians, to relieve them from the slavery under which they groaned, and was taking steps for that purpose; that it pointed out the supposed advantages which the republican form of government possessed over the British and concluded that in a short time there would only be heard the cry of ‘Vive la Republique!’ from Canada to Paris.” The attorney-general added that he had heard at Montreal that the French republic intended to raise troops in Canada and had actually sent four officers’ commissions into the country. This brought a proclamation from Lieutenant-Governor Prescott, commander-in-chief, ordering the arrest of seditious persons, especially “certain foreigners being alien enemies who are lurking and lying concealed in various parts of the province.” This proclamation was ordered to be published for three successive weeks in the Quebec Gazette and Montreal papers in both languages, and also copies to be printed to be affixed to the church doors in the province. During the rest of the year various people were examined in Montreal, which revealed the existence of a widespread revolt organized by agitators.

On May 17th at the recent assizes for the district of Quebec and Montreal a number had been arrested and tried. Attorney-General Sewell in his report to Prescott on May 12, 1797, mentions among the several indictments preferred the following:

“High Treason: Inciting persons to assemble in a riotous manner for the purpose of opposing the execution of the Road Act; Conspiracy to prevent the market of Montreal being supplied with Provisions until the inhabitants of that city should unite with those of the Country in their opposition to the Road Act.

“Assault on a Constable in the execution of his office under the Road Act.

“Riot and assault on a justice of the peace in the execution of his Office.

“Riots, assaults on and false Imprisonment of different overseers of the High Roads.

“Riots and Rescue of Persons apprehended for the offence last above mentioned from the hands of the sheriff’s officers. Assault on the sheriff of Montreal in the execution of his Office and Rescue of a Prisoner from his custody for an offence against Government.

“Seditious Conversation and Libels on the House of Assembly.

“The number of Persons indicted in Montreal for the above offences amounted in all to nineteen, of which four for High Treason have not yet been tried. Thirteen were tried and of that number eleven were convicted and received Judgment. The remaining Two absconded.

“The number of persons indicted at Quebec for the above offences amounted to twenty-four, of which twenty-three were convicted and received punishment.”

It is needless to review these cases. As, however, the name of McLean stands out in this sedition, he must be noticed. This man was not arrested till May 10, 1797, although information of his seditionary mission work on the borders of Canada and the United States was in the hands of the authorities in December, 1796. On July 7th he was tried and found guilty and executed on the 21st. On various occasions he had been known to be in Montreal planting sedition. He was in close touch with Ira Allen, of Vermont, who had been on board the “Olive Branch” from Ostend with 20,000 stand of arms. He tried to explain that these were purchased for the Vermont militia. But there is no doubt that they were furnished by the Directory in Paris for the army of the Lower Canadians in an expedition in which McLean was to be interested. Among McLean’s papers was found one from Adet confirming this.

The attempts of the French on Canada already mentioned under the dates of 1796 and 1797 seemed never to have entirely relaxed. In 1801 Lieutenant-Governor Milnes became warned that persons were plotting for the subversion of Canada and that a society of “a parcel of Americans” had been formed in Montreal, proceeding on the principles of Jacobinism and Illuminism, having one Rogers as leader, it being supposed that he was the only one who knew the real objects of the society, which had increased from six to sixty-one members. Six were arrested and held for trial but Rogers escaped. Attorney-General Sewell made a report of his investigation. Rogers was a New England schoolmaster who had settled a short time before at Carillon, forty miles west of Montreal. The society formed by him was composed “of sundry individuals of desperate fortunes,” and among them were many of the persons concerned in McLane’s (sic) conspiracy, particularly Ira Allen and Stephen Thorn, who were lately arrived from France. The pretext on which Rogers founded his society was to search for treasure. The depositions accompanying Sewell’s report implicate Ira Allen and his Vermont marauders as bent on plundering Canada. In this regard Montreal was especially aimed at. The trouble died down somewhat in 1802 when peace with France was proclaimed, but on June 1, 1803, long before any steps could be taken after the declaration of war again, French emissaries were in the province sapping the loyalty, some of them being in Montreal. Again, this was no visionary conception, but a reality. A keen lookout was maintained on strangers. Mr. Richardson, a magistrate of Montreal, was appointed secret agent. One of those to be watched was Jerome Bonaparte, the brother of the First Consul of France. His description is as follows, as sent by Barclay from New York, 2d December, 1803, to Milnes: “Jerome Bonaparte appears about twenty-one years of age, five feet, six or seven inches high, slender make, sallow complexion, sharp and prominent chin, cropped dark hair, short, but he sometimes adds a queue and is powdered; dark eyes.” Jerome had arrived at New York about November 20th and was reported to be making, via Albany, for Lake Champlain, where there was “a Frenchman named Rous, who is notorious for assisting deserters. McLean, hung for treason, is particularly intimate with Rous.” Richardson came to terms with this Rous, whom he employed as a spy. The attempt on Canada by the French was temporarily abandoned, the reason, given by Pichon, Chargé d’affaires at Washington, being that Great Britain was too powerful by sea.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] One of the first statutes was an act to prevent gun powder drawn in ships and other vessels into the harbour of Montreal and to guard against the careless transportation of the same into the powder magazines.

[2] He landed at Quebec in August, 1791, and left Canada in 1794. On the 13th of September, in passing through Montreal, he received a complimentary address. He went up country probably as far as Niagara, returning through Montreal in September of 1792. On December 6, 1793, Chief Justice Smith died at Quebec. His remains were interred on December 8th, and were attended to the grave by H.R.H. Prince Edward.--(Quebec Gazette, Thursday, December 12, 1793.)