Chapter 10

It was in the character of Administrator-in-Chief that Lieutenant-General Sir Gordon Drummond assumed the government of Lower Canada, on the 5th of April, 1816. The army bills were called in and honorably redeemed in cash, at the army bill office, in Quebec, and as if to show how beneficial the war had been to the country, first one new steamer arrived at Quebec, and then another from the already flourishing city of Montreal. The _Malshane_, built by Mr. John Molson, of Montreal, at that port, appeared at Quebec on the opening of the navigation, and was speedily followed by an opposition steamer built by an association of merchants in Montreal, and named:--The _Car of Commerce_. The inhabitants of Canada were, at this time, under 400,000 in number. About seven-eighths were of French descent, and the other eighth was composed of English, Irish, Scotch, Germans, Americans, and their descendants. Of the latter, the Scotch were the most numerous, and in their hands nearly the whole external trade of the country was placed. The French Canadians were chiefly agriculturists, but they had also a large share in the retail and internal trade. There was, at this period, no manufactories of note in the province. The manufacture of leather, hats, and paper, had been introduced, and _étoffe du pays_, manufactured by the farmers, constituted the garb of the Canadians generally. There were two iron works in the vicinity of Three Rivers. There was nothing more. It is said, not without reason, that one of the first improvements in any country should be the making of roads, and the speedy making of roads, both in Upper and Lower Canada, was one of the good effects of the war. Already there was a road from Point Levi across the portage of Temiscouata, from thence to the forks of the Madawaska, from thence to the Great Falls, from thence to Fredericton, in New Brunswick, from thence to St. Johns, on the Bay of Fundy, and from thence to Halifax, which was 618 miles long; there was a road from Quebec to Montreal, 180 miles in length, from thence to the Coteau-du-Lac, 225 miles, from thence to Cornwall, 226 miles, from thence to Matilda, 301 miles, from thence to Augusta, 335 miles, from thence to Kingston, 385 miles, from thence to York, 525 miles, from thence to Fort Erie, 560 miles, from thence to Detroit, 790 miles, and from thence to Michillimackinac, 1,107 miles; there was a road _en route_ to Boston, _via_ St. Giles, Ireland, Shipton, St. François, and the Forks of the Ascot, to the lines, 146 miles long; and there was a road from Laprairie, opposite Montreal, to Isle-aux-Noix, which was 28 miles long. Canals were contemplated to overcome the difficulties of the Lachine, Cedars, and Long Sault rapids, and indeed there was an eye to those improvements which never fail to develop the riches of a country. The landholders at this time were mostly French Canadians. There were some thousands of acres, however, which had been granted to the British population since 1796, occupied or settled upon by Americans, that is to say, former residents of the United States. Land was not by any means valuable, on account of the great distances from convenient markets, and the consequent length of time which it took the distant farmer to bring his produce to market. It was this drawback that produced in the Canadian the pernicious habit of merely producing enough for the consumption of his own family, and for the keep of his own farm stock. Farm lands were seldom held upon lease. The cultivators were the _bona fide_ proprietors of the soil, subject to a very inconsiderable annual rent to the seigneur and to a fine of a twelfth upon a change of proprietor by sale, a condition which, as a matter of course, would in time become intolerable and demand that remedy which has since been applied. In Lower Canada, the lands held by Roman Catholics, were subject to the payment of a tythe or a twenty-sixth part of all grain for the use of the curate, and to assessments for the building and repair of churches. Now with regard to the character of a people, who, not long after this period, exhibited an intolerance of tyranny and injustice, it may fairly be said that the French Canadians are naturally of a cheerful and lively disposition, but very conservative in their ideas. Outwardly polite, they are not unfrequently coarse in conversation. If the Canadian evinces respect, it is expected that he will be treated with respect in consideration therefor. His chief shortcoming is excessive sociability. When once settled among friends and relatives he cannot leave them--absence from home does in truth only make the heart grow fonder of home associations. He is active, compactly made, but generally below rather than above the middle size. His natural capacity is excellent, but when the mind is unimproved and no opportunity has been afforded for the acquisition of new ideas, little can be expected from even the most fertile understanding. All improvements have been the result of observation, there being nothing original in any one, nor an iota new under the sun. It is in the application of the natural elements only in which one individual excels another, his capacity for excellence, of course, favoring observation. As the bee sips honey from the flower, so does man inhale the poetry of nature, daguerreotyping it upon his understanding, either from the mountain's top, from the summit of the ocean wave, or from the wreck of battle; so does the astronomer learn from the firmament itself the relative proportions and distances, the transits, eclipses, and periodical appearances of other worlds, than that in which he lives, moves, and has his being; and so the man of science collects and combines the very elements themselves, either to purposes of destruction or towards the progress, improvement, and almost perfection of human nature. The Canadian could only reason from his own experience, and that was so exceedingly limited, that his backwardness in enterprise is less to be wondered at than the eagerness with which he copies the enterprise of others. The Canadian, like the native of old France, is a thinking animal. He is ever doubting, ever mistrustful. In spiritual matters, he is guided by his curate, who, if he wishes to stand well with him, must meddle with nothing else. And who will say that such a people are incapable of improvement? Railroads, intercourse with others, and time, will yet make the Canadian think for himself much sooner than they will influence others, more naturally confiding, generous, and credulous than he is, but whose very energy and bravery only cover a multitude of sins.

Lieutenant-General Sir Gordon Drummond met the parliament of Lower Canada on the 26th of January, 1816. He informed the two Houses that the Regent had committed to him the administration of the government of Lower Canada, that he had entered on the duties of his trust with a deep sense of their importance and with a more earnest desire to discharge them for the general advantage of a province in the capital of which he had been born; the King was no better in health, but had no corporeal suffering and only continued in a state of undisturbed tranquillity; Buonaparte had been exiled and the family of Bourbon restored to the throne of their ancestors; Waterloo had consummated the high distinction obtained by the British forces under Wellington. He recommended the renewal of the Militia Act, and in consequence of many discontented adventurers, and mischievous agitators, from the continent of Europe, having thrown themselves into the neighbouring States, he strongly recommended the immediate revival of the Act for establishing regulations respecting aliens, with such modifications as circumstances might render it proper to adopt; the executive government had redeemed its pledge by calling in and paying with cash the army bills which were in circulation; a statement of the revenue and expenditure of the past year would be laid before the Assembly; the Prince Regent viewed with much pleasure the additional proof of patriotism afforded by the sum voted towards the completion of a proposed canal from Montreal to Lachine; His Majesty's government duly appreciating the many important objects with which the canal was connected, were interested in its early execution; and he awaited only further instructions upon the subject to carry it into effect. He pressed upon the attention of both Houses the importance of further promoting the internal improvements of the province. He trusted that this session of parliament would be distinguished for accordant exertion and for efficient dispatch in conducting the public business; and for his own part, he could assure honorable gentlemen that he would most cordially co-operate in every measure which might tend to advance the interests and promote the welfare of the province. His Excellency the Administrator-in-Chief made allusion to his native city after the manner of a somewhat notorious, if not a celebrated judge of the present time, who was accustomed to boast in the Assembly of being the representative of his native city. Sir Gordon, however, only meant to be conciliatory, and indeed there was no objectionable egotism in a governor putting himself forth as a colonist by birth, or in one sense placing himself on a level with the governed. The pity is that so few governors had even that interest in Canada which, to however limited a degree, must have weighed with Sir Gordon Drummond. The House was glad that a native of Quebec had so distinguished himself as a soldier, and indeed in all else, echoed His Excellency's speech.

The transaction of business had hardly begun when a message was received from the Administrator-in-chief. His Royal Highness, the Regent, had commanded His Excellency to make known his pleasure to the House of Assembly on the subject of certain charges preferred by the House against the Chief Justices of the province and of Montreal, in connection with certain charges against a former governor, Sir James Craig. The Regent was pleased to say that the acts of a former governor could not be a subject of enquiry, whether legal or illegal, as it would involve the principle that a governor might divest himself of all responsibility on points of political government; the charge referred by the Regent to the Privy Council, was only such as related to the Rules of Practice, established by the Judges, in their respective Courts, and for which the Judges were themselves solely responsible; and the Report of the Privy Council was that the Rules of Practice complained of were made not by the Chief Justices alone, but in conjunction with the other Judges of the respective Courts, as rules for the regulation and practice of their respective Courts, and that neither the Chief Justices, nor had the Courts in which they presided, exceeded their authority in making such rules, nor had they been guilty of any assumption of legislative power. Further, His Excellency was commanded to express the regret with which the Regent had viewed the late proceedings of the House of Assembly against two persons who had so ably filled the highest judicial offices in the colony, a circumstance calculated to disparage their character and services, in the eyes of the inconsiderate and ignorant, and so diminish the influence which a judge ought to possess. The other charges with regard to the refusal of a writ of _Habeas Corpus_, by Mr. Chief Justice Monk, of Montreal, were considered to be totally unsupported by any evidence whatever. The message from the administrator, by order of the Regent, had been somewhat too soon communicated to the Assembly for "accordant exertion" in legislation. A call of the House was ordered for the 14th of February, and the message was to be referred to a committee of the whole on that day. That day came and the committee of the whole referred the message to be reported upon by a select committee of nine members, and the report of the committee was to the effect that a humble representation and petition to the Regent must be prepared, and that before doing so, the sense of the House, as expressed in a committee of the whole, should be obtained. Accordingly, the House again resolved itself into committee, on the 24th, when it was reported that the House in impeaching the Chief Justices was influenced by a sense of duty, by a desire to maintain the laws and constitution, and by a regard for the public interest, and for the honor of His Majesty's government; that the House was entitled to be heard, and to have an opportunity of adducing evidence in support of the impeachments; that the opposition and resistance of the Legislative Council prevented the appointment of an agent from the Assembly, to maintain and support the charges; and that a petition should be presented to the Regent, appealing to the justice of His Majesty's government and praying that an opportunity might be afforded to the Commons of Canada to be heard and to maintain their charges. The resolutions were adopted by a very large majority of the House, and a special committee was appointed to prepare an address in accordance with the resolutions. But before this could be done, Sir Gordon Drummond, in accordance with his instructions, dissolved the House. He prorogued the parliament on the 26th, because his reasonable expectations, with regard to their diligent application to the business which he had recommended to their attention had been disappointed; because the Assembly had again entered upon the discussion of a subject on which the pleasure of the Regent had been communicated to them; and because, he, therefore, felt it to be his duty to prorogue the present parliament, and to resort to the sense of the people by an immediate dissolution. Only one Act received the royal assent, that to regulate the trial of controverted elections.

The writs for the new elections were issued in haste. Indeed so early as the month of March, they were completed, the greater number of the members of the previous Assembly having been re-elected. But before even the elections had been completed, General Drummond was notified of the appointment of Sir John Sherbrooke, the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, to the Governor-Generalship of British North America, and leaving Major-General Wilson in temporary charge of the government, he sailed for England on the 1st of May.

It is impossible to speak of Sir Gordon Drummond's civil government. The measures which he proposed were well calculated to benefit the country. He was thwarted, possibly in good intentions, by the commands of the imperial government, requiring him imperatively to obtain the submission of the colonial legislature to Downing-street dictation, without remonstrance. A colonial legislature, tethered as it is, and ever will be, until the Governor is elected by the people, to English administrative incapacity might, with no lack of prudence, have been permitted rope enough to wander round the tethering post, so that it would only have been at considerable intervals that the effect of the tethers would have been in any degree galling or even felt.

In 1815, the revenue of Lower Canada amounted to £150,273 currency, the expenditure to £125,218 sterling, in which was included £16,555 for the erection of the gaol in Quebec; £26,439 for militia services; and £35,325, the proportion of duties to Upper Canada. Only 194 vessels of 37,382 tons, were cleared at Quebec, not taking into account ten new vessels of only 1,462 tons altogether, hardly equal to the tonnage of a single vessel of the present day.

Sir John Sherbrooke did not arrive at Quebec until the 21st of July. He was then received with all the honors due to his rank and station. Every body was as obsequious as any body could be, and great things were, of course, expected from the new man. Nor was Sir John deficient in ability. He had been most successful in his government of Nova Scotia, and he had been most prudent in his negotiations with the people of Maine. He had too an opportunity for acquiring popularity immediately on his arrival, and he did not suffer the opportunity to escape him. The wheat crop had failed in the lower part of the district of Quebec. The days though warm as usual were succeeded by cold frosty nights, which killed the wheat. There was indeed a prospect of a famine. Representations of anticipated distress, came pouring in upon him from first one parish and then another. A less decided man would have called upon the provincial parliament to have acted as became the emergency. Sir John threw open the King's stores, and on his own responsibility, advanced a large sum of money from the public treasury, for the purchase of such supplies as the imperial store-houses did not afford. The season, in Lower Canada, he knew was a short one, and to have procrastinated would have been fatal to the farmer.

Nor was Sir John less prudent in other matters. He saw the mistake committed by his predecessor with regard to the impeachments and he endeavored to avoid any similar mistake. He wrote to England for instructions, taking care to inform the Minister of State for the Colonies of the true state of public opinion in the province. He represented that the appeal to the people by Sir Gordon Drummond had entirely failed; the people were irritated at the appeal to them under such circumstances; the dissolution of a parliament was not, in his opinion, at any time calculated to do much good, but was often seriously productive of evil; in a small community it was more difficult to correct public opinion than in a larger one; he would carry out whatever instructions should be given to him; but these were his views and he would await an answer. He went still further. He informed the Colonial Secretary that Chief Justice Sewell was unpopular, not with the Assembly alone, but with all classes of the people. No matter whether the feeling proceeded from the acts and calumnies of designing demagogues, it existed. It was indeed believed in the Palace of the Roman Catholic Bishop, and in the cottage of the humblest peasant, that Chief Justice Sewell had outraged their feelings of loyalty and religion. When Attorney-General, Mr. Sewell had maintained doctrines and supported measures that clashed with the religious opinions of the Canadians. A dislike, amounting to infatuation, had been confirmed by the part which he was supposed to have taken in the government after his promotion. It was this gradually increasing dislike which had led to his impeachment. Sir John believed that a hearing to both parties, on the impeachment, even had the decision been the same, would have been conducive to the peace of the province, as it would have deprived the party hostile to the Chief Justice of a pretext of complaint, by which, in a free country, the people will always be interested. The impression was that the government of England had come to a decision on an _exparte_ hearing. Chief Justice Sewell should have been permitted to retire on a pension. That step would have had the effect of getting rid of a grievance. Agreeably to his instructions, he would support the Chief Justice even should the wrath of the Clergy be the result. He would also cultivate a good understanding with the Roman Catholic Bishop, but neither argument nor coercion could destroy public opinion. Prorogation might succeed prorogation, and dissolution, but there would be a revolution in the country sooner than a change in the feelings of its inhabitants with regard to Chief Justice Sewell. He would suggest the appointment of an agent in England, as had long been desired, and as had been effected in almost every other colony. The opposition to this measure was even ascribed to the Chief Justice. He would further suggest that Mr. Stuart should be detached by motives of self-interest, from the party with whom he acted, and which it was supposed, would dwindle into insignificance without him. If the Attorney-Generalship should become vacant, it might be offered to him. The most fruitful source of all the dissensions in Canada was, nevertheless, according to Sir John Sherbrooke, the want of confidence in its executive government,[28] not so much in the personal character of the Governor as in the Executive Council, who have come to be considered the Governor's advisers, and who are watched with a jealousy that hampered every governmental operation. To remove the distrust, the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly should, _ex officio_, be a member of the Executive Council.

[28] True, and which an elective government will altogether remove, to the great advantage and enduring honor of Great Britain.

Sir John had stated a series of truths, since made apparent, by the disclosures of Mr. Ryland.

The new parliament was convened for the dispatch of business, on the 15th of January, 1817, when Mr. Papineau was re-elected Speaker. The Governor then formally opened the business of the session, by stating that having ascertained that the crops had failed in several parts of the province, he had taken steps to prevent the mischief that threatened the country, the particulars of which should be laid before the parliament; that he relied upon the liberality of the Assembly to make the necessary provision for defraying the expenses already incurred; that he felt assured such further aid would be granted as necessity might require; that he would lay before the House a statement of the revenue and expenditure of the province: that he felt it to be his duty to call early attention to the renewal of the militia and several other Acts, which either had expired or were about to expire; and he intimated that the advantages to result from every improvement calculated to open up the commerce of the country and encourage agriculture were of themselves sufficient to recommend that matter to their attention. The Assembly replied in the usual way and immediately afterwards appointed the committees. There was a grand committee of grievances, a committee on courts of justice, a committee on agriculture and commerce, and a special committee of five members to keep up a good understanding between the two Houses, hitherto antagonistic. Immediately after these committees had been named, a message was received from the Governor, intimating that the Regent of the United Kingdom and of the Empire had been pleased to assent to the bill granting a salary of £1,000 a year to the Speaker of the Assembly. The House then voted £14,216 to relieve the distressed parishes, with the view of making good the advances made by the Governor, and also voted the additional sum of £15,500, with the same view, and £20,600 more, for the purchase of seed grain, for distribution among such as could not otherwise procure it, to be repaid at the convenience of the recipients. This business being settled, Mr. Cuvillier presented to the House articles of impeachment against Mr. Foucher, a Judge of the King's Bench, at Montreal, for malversation, corrupt practices, and injustice. A committee was appointed to examine into these charges, and having reported adversely to the judge, the House prepared and adopted an address to the Regent, asking for Mr. Foucher's removal from office, and that justice should otherwise be done. The House further requested the Governor-in-Chief to suspend Mr. Foucher, while the charges made against him were pending. The Governor complied with the request of the House, by desiring Mr. Foucher to abstain from taking his seat upon the Bench, until the will of the Regent should have been ascertained. The Legislative Council were most indignant. They remonstrated against the suspension of Mr. Foucher. Every public officer was by the assent given to the act of the Assembly, liable to be put to the expense of going to England before he could even get a hearing, if at the mere dictation of the Assembly, a public officer was to be suspended. The Assembly replied that, if suspension could not take place, offenders, out of the reach of ordinary courts of justice, could not be brought to trial, and that an illegal, arbitrary, tyrannical, and oppressive power, over the people of the province, would be perpetuated. And so the suspension did take place. The judges were in very bad odour in those days. They were between two fires. If they thwarted the government, they were dismissed, and if they annoyed the people they were impeached. Another complaint was made against Mr. Chief Justice Monk. He, it was alleged by the family of the late François Corbeil, had exceeded his authority, by issuing a warrant for the arrest and imprisonment of Corbeil, on a charge of treasonable practices, well knowing that such changes were notoriously false, and, by so doing, had accelerated or caused the death of Corbeil, the disease of which he died having been contracted while in prison. Mr. Samuel Sherwood also complained, on his own behalf, against the Chief Justice of Montreal. It appeared that he had been prosecuted and imprisoned for libel, in having burlesqued the pamphlet published and circulated by the Chief Justices in Montreal and Quebec, to show to the public and their friends that the impeachments against them had fallen through. At the trial for the libel, Mr. Chief Justice Monk presided. He seemed to be both prosecutor and judge. The jury box was packed. The court was specially held. The indictment against Sherwood had been framed on suspicion. In the pretended libel the name of James Monk was thirty times mentioned, and yet James Monk, in the character of Chief Justice, sat upon the Bench. He took a lively interest in the prosecution. He had fiercely assailed a member of the Bar, who had smiled during the reading of the indictment, and threatened to remember the smile in his address to the jury. Such an example of a judge, sitting in his own cause, was not even afforded by Scraggs or Jefferies. Mr. Sherwood had been falsely imprisoned, arbitrarily held to excessive bail, his liberties, as a British subject, violated, and his privileges as a member of the Assembly had been set at nought. The petition was referred to a select committee, and no more heard of. Yet it had an effect. Chief Justice Monk was compelled to explain and to defend himself.

There was yet another similar matter to be proceeded with. There was the revival of the impeachments to be taken in hand. The House had been clumsily baulked in their attempt to remonstrate with the Regent concerning his will and pleasure, as far as his royal will and pleasure related to the impeachments of Chief Justices Sewell and Monk, and there seemed to be a _sub rosa_ disposition to get rid of the disagreeable affair by management. Mr. Stuart, keen-sighted as he was, both saw and felt that the tools, with which he worked, required sharpening up. They had been handled. They had been in other hands than his. They had apparently been rendered almost unfit for use. He would, however, move for a call of the House, on the 21st of February. The cards had been admirably shuffled. The Panets, Vanfelsons, Gugys, Ogdens, Vezinas, Taschereaus, Malhiots, Cherriers, were all wonderfully intermingled in an adverse vote. The motion was rejected by a vote of 23 nays to 10 yeas. Mr. Stuart tried the 20th of February. Still it would not do. The Assembly had become suddenly tired of impeachments. Again, the matter was tried on the following day, when the House consented not to revive the impeachments but to reconsider the message addressed to the Assembly on the 2nd of February last, by the late Administrator-in-Chief. Mr. Stuart had some business to transact in Montreal, and he left Quebec to attend to it. During his absence the impeachments were forgotten; his measures were paralysed by _sub rosa_ negociation; Mr. Sewell was recompensed for the ill-treatment he had experienced, and the government was relieved of anxiety. The Speaker of the Assembly was informed that for this parliament as well as for the last parliament he would be permitted to receive £1,000 a year, and that Mr. Sewell, who, as Chief Justice, was Speaker of the Upper House, might be recompensed for his ill-treatment, by the attachment of a salary of £1,000 to an office which it was designed he should hold for life. The Assembly, accordingly, applied to His Excellency to _allow_ their Speaker £1,000 a year, and to confer some signal mark of the Royal favor on Dame Louise Philippe Badelard, widow of Mr. Speaker Panet. His Excellency, the Governor, unhesitatingly complied with the request of the Assembly, the more especially as on the request of the Council he had consented to a similar salary being paid to their Speaker, and he had further pleasure in authorising the payment of a pension of £300 a year, to Dame Louise Philippe Badelard. The whole was most cheerfully agreed to by all the parties interested, and thus was the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada betrayed and dealt with for the consideration of a few thousand pieces of silver. On the 17th of March, Sir John Sherbrooke intimated by message that he had conferred upon the two honorable Speakers the salaries of £1,000 each per annum. Two days afterwards, Mr. Sherwood moved that the message of the late Administrator-in-Chief should not be considered until the 27th of March, and that a call of the House should be made for that day. Mr. Ogden, however, bluntly moved for the discharge of the order of the day, and that the subject should not be taken into consideration at all during the session. The debate was loud and long continued. James Stuart and Andrew Stuart were brilliant; the Gugys, the McCords, and the Ogdens, were dumb. The Vezinas, the Vigers, the Panets, the Languedocs, and the Badeaux, had changed sides. Night came and still the debate continued, the midnight hour was passed and yet the war of words was fiercely going on, and morning came only to find the impeachments, which the Assembly had so long cherished, finally buried in oblivion, by 22 votes in favor of the abrupt motion of Mr. Ogden, while there were only 10 votes against it. Mr. Stuart was abandoned. There was now a greater than he to lead the Assembly. Sir John Coape Sherbrooke thoroughly understood the materials with which he had to deal, and he dealt with them accordingly. The Assembly had no longer independence: spirit, self-respect, power was sacrificed for that which gives wisdom to the foolish and judgment to the weak. The sum of £55,000 was appropriated for the improvement of roads, canals, and bridges; £2,000 was voted for the encouragement of inoculation with vaccine virus as a preventative of small pox; the revenue for 1816 was £144,625; the expenditure £75,638, less £24,495, the proportion of duties payable to Upper Canada for 1815; the expenses of the legislature for the same period were £3,203 currency; the salaries of the judges were now £1,000 currency per annum each, and yet at the disposal of the legislature there was the sum of £140,153.[29] The session was closed on the 22nd of March, by receiving the thanks of the Governor General for the extraordinary application to business which had distinguished this session from any preceding session of the parliament of Lower Canada.

[29] Christie's History, page 290.

In the course of the summer (1817) three hundred and three vessels with five thousand three hundred and seventy-five new settlers had arrived at Quebec, and banks were established both in Montreal and Quebec, named after the cities in which they were set afloat. About the 15th of November it was remarked that the Montreal Bank had commenced with quite an unexpected confidence from every part of the community, so much so that the merchants were realising more convenience from it than they ever anticipated; and that since it had commenced business, the profits were reported to have been immense.

In 1816, a settlement of emigrants was begun, under the direction of the military, in Bathurst, Drummond, Beckwith and Golbourne. The first settlers of Canada had a free passage afforded them from the United Kingdom, and were provided with rations and tools on their arrival in the colony. In 1816, rations and tools were furnished to 2,000 emigrants, who came out at their own expense, and in 1817 multitudes came out in the expectation of being favored in the same way, but were disappointed, nothing having been given to them but 100 acres of land each, which many of them were too poor to occupy.[30] There were not yet seven persons to the square mile, in the Upper Province. There were only twenty places of worship and thirty-five resident preachers:--fifteen methodists, five baptists, four quakers, three presbyterians, three Roman Catholics, three episcopalians, one tunker and one menonist--in the Western, London, Gore, and Niagara districts, with a population of 26,977 souls; and there were for the same population, 20 medical practitioners, 132 schools, 114 taverns, 130 stores, 79 grist-mills, and 116 saw-mills. The Home district contained 7,700 people; the Newcastle, 5,000; the Midland, 14,853; the Johnstown, 9,200; the Eastern, 12,700; and the Ottawa, 1,500; the total population of Upper Canada being then estimated at 83,250 souls. York, the capital of the Upper Province, situated on a beautiful plain, in a rich soil, and temperate climate, was, at this period, more than a mile and a half in length. It was laid out in regular streets, lots, and squares, having the garrison, and the site of the parliament house on its two wings, and a market near the centre. There was a public square open to the water. Many neat and some elegant houses had been erected. The town had a mixed appearance of city and country. Kingston was yet the town of most note and indeed, in every respect, the most entitled to civic consideration of any town then in the province. Parallel with its spacious and convenient harbour were the streets, at convenient distances from each other, and intersected, at right angles, by cross streets, dividing the town into squares. One square was an open public area in front of the Court House, and gaol, and episcopal church. The market was held in that area. But there were other public buildings in Kingston, besides the Court House, gaol, and episcopal church. There was a new catholic church, a barracks for the troops in garrison, an hospital, and a residence for the commandant. The town consisted of 300 private dwelling houses, a number of warehouses and stores, about 50 shops, in which goods were sold, several public offices, a respectable district school, a valuable library, mechanics' shops &c. The Court House, gaol, Catholic Church, and the principal dwelling houses were built of the bluish limestone obtained in large quantities in the middle of the town; but were more substantial than elegant in design. Kingston wanted a populous back country then, and still wants it because the soil is stoney and not therefore so well adapted for agricultural operations as the soils of other parts of the province. The Upper, as well as the Lower province had profitted by the circulation of army bills and by the requirements of the troops. Government transactions had given a spirit to trade and industry, and only for a system of government, which, as far as any government can do, crushed enterprise and fettered trade, both provinces would have so flourished immediately after the war that the reaction which the withdrawal of a few troops produced would scarcely have been felt. As matters stood the provinces were already flourishing, and schemes of improvement were everywhere in contemplation. Steam navigation, which had proved so useful on the St. Lawrence, and had, as it were, drawn, the two chief cities of the Lower Province more closely together, was about to be attempted on Lake Ontario. Already the keel of a steamboat, to be 170 feet on deck, was in process of construction at the village of Ernest-town, for certain gentlemen resident in Kingston. If possible, the new boat was to transport both goods and passengers for the whole extent between Queenston and Prescott. It was, however, feared that the rough water of the lake would be too much for any steamer to contend against. The Americans were also building a smaller steamboat at Sackett's Harbour. A year later and the steamboat _Walk-in-the-Water_, plied between Black Rock, near Buffalo and Detroit, on Lake Erie, occasionally to Michillimackinac.

[30] Gourlay's Canada, page 523. vol. 1.

The legislative affairs of the Upper Province have as yet hardly warranted comment. There were so very few people in the province for whom legislation was necessary, and there was so much sameness about the business transacted in parliament that comment was barely needful. At first sight it seems that all went smoothly. There could not have been factionists where there were no French people entertaining seditious ideas and cherishing revolutionary projects. But red-tapism is every where the same. In Upper as in Lower Canada, there were only two legislative branches, a Lower, or People's House, a Crown, or Upper House. There was also a certain amount of Crown influence in the Lower House, which made constitutional government a sham. The freedom of speech was not even permitted to some members of the Assembly; and it was quite impossible to hint at corruption in those times, far less to insist upon the nomination of a corruption committee. There was a continued interruption of harmonious intercourse between the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly. As the Assembly of Lower Canada had done and had been treated with regard to an offer to defray the expenses of the civil list, so precisely had the Assembly of Upper Canada acted, and so had they been treated, when an exactly similar offer was made. And why? Because the legislative and executive functions were united in the same persons. His Majesty's Executive Council was almost wholly composed of the members of the Legislative Council. Both Councils then consisted of the Deputy Superintendent General of the Indian Department, the Receiver General, the Inspector General, the Chief Justice, the Speaker of the Legislative Council, and the Honorable and Reverend Chaplain of the Legislative Council. The Upper House was the mere instrument of some designing confidential secretary to a weak-minded or, at least, credulous governor. Nay, it was said that "ruffian magistrates" abounded in those days along the banks of the St. Lawrence, from Brockville to Cornwall, inclusive, the Lieutenant-Governor being held in leading strings, by the Honorable and Reverend Chaplain of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada and one of His Majesty's Executive Councillors for that province.[31] It is indeed asserted that after the passage of the Sedition Act of 1804, the misrule of Upper Canada came to a pitch so extraordinary, that it was exclaimed against from the Bench, while a jury applauded. Governor Gore appeared to have been creating at the same time, and with the same effect, those treasonable practices which were so pleasing to Mr. Witsius Ryland, in Lower Canada, and which had evidently been stirred up, by the men-in-office, with the view of depriving both provinces of the "exact image and transcript of the British constitution," with which the Canadas had been favored in 1791. Until the invasion, in 1811, political discontent was loud and incessant, as well in Upper as in Lower Canada; and it was the misrepresentations of the governing party and the outcries of the governed in both provinces, that induced the government of the United States to make war, on false pretences, upon the government of Great Britain. There were persecutions for opinion's sake in Upper as in Lower Canada. The newspaper was as odious to the government in one province as in the other. In 1806, a sheriff of the Home District, in opposition to the will of the Governor, voted at an election. He lost the shrievalty for his stubborn independence. Thrown upon his own resources, he established a newspaper, which he called _The Upper Canada Guardian, or Freeman's Journal_. He spoke with considerable freedom of the governor. He attacked the ministerial party. He exhibited abuses with wonderful dexterity and skill. The ex-sheriff, Joseph Wilcocks, was rapidly rising into note. It was time to restrain him. A Captain Cowan was induced to be his persecutor. The truth rapidly becoming dangerous to those whose business consists in concealing the truth, cannot always be told with safety. Wilcocks alleged that the Governor or his Executive Council had bribed several members of the Assembly with land, to induce them to vote against the interests of their constituents. Captain Cowan knew that the assertion was without foundation. Wilcocks was prosecuted but was acquitted, gained popularity in return for his persecution, and ultimately obtained a seat in parliament. There was no more freedom for Wilcocks in parliament than out of it. For some extra freedom of speech on the floor of the House, he was thrust into prison. Nevertheless, he acquired an ascendancy in the Assembly, to the great regret of the ministerialists. He became still more the object of governmental wrath, and when the war broke out, he was deprived of his paper. In 1812, he fought as a volunteer against the Americans. He was present at the battle of Queenston. He did all that within him lay, for his country and for his king; but the government of the province hated and persecuted him, so that starving and exasperated,[32] he deserted to the enemy, carrying with him a corps of Canadians. Joseph Wilcocks, who was an Irishman of good family, and who was persecuted by the office-men of Upper Canada, to the prejudice and without the knowledge of the British government, was driven into hostile opposition to Britain by the most petty and contemptible tyranny of a few fellow colonists holding office, and was killed during the siege of Fort Erie. Had war occurred while Sir James Craig held Bedard in gaol and kept the _Canadien_ printing press in the vaults of the Court House, at Quebec, it is difficult to say whether a feeling very different to that elicited by the prudent management of Sir George Prevost, might or might not have been exhibited. The government of the province should from the very outset have been only responsible to the people of the province, and Great Britain have only maintained in acknowledgement of her supremacy a military protectorate of British North America. But Francis Gore, Esquire, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, again met the parliament of that province, on the 6th of January, 1816. The business done consisted in an Act to alter the time of holding Courts of Quarter Sessions in the London and Johnstown districts, an Act to repeal part of the Act constituting the counties of Prescott and Russell a separate district, under the name of the District of Ottawa; an Act to make more effectual provision for the collection of the revenue; an Act to provide for the appointment of Returning Officers; an Act to extend the jurisdiction of the Court of Requests; an Act to provide, for a limited time, for the appointment of a Provincial Aid-de-Camp, to be appointed by the Governor, and to have ten shillings a day in war, and five shillings a day in peace; an Act to provide £165 a year for the Adjutant-General of Militia; an Act to enable the Governor to establish one or more additional ports of entry; an Act to remunerate William Dummer Powell, Esquire, in the sum of £1,000, for his services in ascertaining titles to land; an Act repealing part of an Act for granting to His Majesty an additional duty on shop and tavern licences; an Act to amend an Act to prevent damage to travellers on the highways; an Act to grant relief to Catherine McLeod, whose son was killed in war; an Act to relieve Charlotte Overholt whose husband had been peculiarly killed; an Act to extend the limits of the town of Niagara; an Act granting £799, as a provision for the contingent expenses of both Houses of Parliament; an Act to relieve persons holding lands in the district of Niagara, whose title deeds, conveyances, or wills, had been destroyed when the enemy burnt the town; an Act to continue the Act for the appointment of Returning Officers; an Act to alter and extend the provisions of the Act granting pensions to the widows and children of persons killed in the king's service; an Act authorising the construction of a gaol and Court House in the town of York; an Act to erect the District of Gore out of certain parts of the Home and Niagara Districts; an Act granting £425 4s. 6d. to several inspectors who disbursed that amount for teamwork and the apprehension of deserters; an Act to revive the Act affording relief to persons entitled to claim lands in the province, as heirs or devisees of the nominees of the Crown, in cases where no patent had issued; an Act to grant annually, for four years, £470, as an increase to the salaries of certain officers of the Council and Assembly; an Act granting, £513 for the repair of certain highways; an Act appropriating £800 for the purchase of books for the formation of a library for the use of both Houses; an Act to continue an Act to facilitate the circulation of Lower Canada army bills; an Act appropriating £2,500 annually for defraying the expenses of the civil administration of the government; an Act to increase the salary of the present Speaker of the Assembly, and to remunerate the present Speaker for past services, granting £800 as four years' additional salary, and, in future, £200 to be paid annually, in addition to the former annual payment of £200; an Act regulating the trade between the United States and the province, permitting the Governor to make regulations as to duties, but not prohibiting the admission of wheat, flour, peas, beans, oats, barley, and all other articles of provision and travellers' baggage; an Act to continue for a limited time the provisional agreement entered into between Upper and Lower Canada, relative to duties; an Act appropriating £155 7s. 3d., to remunerate Elizabeth Wright, whose husband was a tailor, for militia clothing; an Act appropriating £1,000 as an encouragement for the cultivation of hemp; an Act regulating the police within the town of Kingston; an Act granting to His Majesty duties on licences to hawkers, pedlars, and petty chapmen, and other trading persons; £10 to be the cost of a license to a person travelling on foot; £10 for every horse, ass, mule, or other beast of burden; £5 for every other beast; £50 for a decked vessel; £40 for every boat; and for every non-resident of the province £50 a year; an Act providing a salary of £500 a year for a Provincial Agent in Great Britain, to correspond with the Governor and with the Speakers of the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council, who was to be removed on addresses from the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly; an Act granting £6,000 to His Majesty for the use of common schools; to the Home District £600 annually; to the District of Newcastle £400; to the Midland District £1,000; to the District of Johnstown £600; to the Eastern District £800; to the London District £600; to the Gore District £600; to the Niagara District £600; to the Western District £600; and to the Ottawa District £200; an Act granting £21,000 for the building and repairing of bridges and for the repairing of highways; an Act granting £1,000 to defray the expenses of any commission for ascertaining titles to lands in the Niagara District; and an Act to repeal and amend part of an Act for laying out and repairing the public highways.

[31] Gourlay, page 512, vol. 2.

[32] Gourlay, page 316, vol. 2.

Parliament was again assembled on the 4th of February, 1817, by Governor Gore, during the session of which an Act was passed providing for the representation of the commons of the counties of Wentworth and Halton in parliament; also an Act to establish a police in the towns of York, Sandwich, and Amherstburgh; an Act granting to His Majesty £2,578 for the administration of justice; £900 for the Lieutenant-Governor's Office; £737 for the Office of the Receiver General; £2,300 for the Surveyor General's Department; £650 for the Executive Council Office; £36 for the Crown Office; £90 for the Attorney General's Office; £400 for the Secretary's Office; £200 for the Registrar of the Province; £620 for the Inspector General's Office; £620 for pensions to wounded officers; £400 for four clergymen; £50 for one minister of the Gospel; £200 for repairs to Government House; and £500 for casual and incidental expenses; an Act to establish a market in the town of Niagara; an Act to repeal, amend and extend the Act granting pensions to persons disabled in the service, and to the widows and children of persons killed in war; an Act granting £1,576 0s. 8d. for the clerks and for the contingencies of the last session of parliament; an Act in part repealing and in part altering and amending an Act providing for the appointment of parish and town officers; an Act to continue the Act making provision for certain sheriffs; and an Act to enable the commissioner of gaol delivery and Oyer and Terminer to proceed, although the Court of King's Bench be sitting in the Home District, for which they are commissioned.

This parliament was prorogued suddenly and unexpectedly, on the 7th of April, 1817. The sudden prorogation was resorted to because the Assembly had, on the 3rd of April, resolved itself into a committee of the whole to take into consideration the state of the province. The propriety or expediency of preventing immigration from the United States, was to be discussed; the management of the Post Office establishment was to be examined into; the manner of the disposal of the Crown and Clergy Reserves was to be looked at; and the granting lands to the volunteer flank companies, and the incorporated militia who served during the late war, was to be investigated. It was resolved to present an address to the Lieutenant-Governor, requesting him to inform the Assembly, whether any orders had been received from England, making an allotment of lands to the volunteer and incorporated militia, who served during the war. The Assembly further resolved that an Act had been passed in the reign of George the Second, for naturalizing such foreign protestants as were then or should thereafter be settled in any of His Majesty's colonies in North America; that an Act had been passed in the thirtieth year of the reign of George the Third, for encouraging new settlers in His Majesty's North American colonies; and that these Acts were expressly enacted for facilitating and encouraging the settlement of His Majesty's American dominions.

The good resolutions of the Assembly were, however, frustrated by His Excellency the Governor, who, having assented to several bills, and reserved for His Majesty's pleasure, a bill for a Bank and another to enable creditors to sue joint debtors separately, summoned the Commons to the Bar of the Legislative Council, and thus addressed the Parliament:--The session of the legislature has been protracted by an unusual interruption of business at its commencement and your longer absence from your respective avocations must be too great a sacrifice for the objects which may remain to occupy your attention. I come to close the session and so permit you to return home. In accepting the supply for defraying the deficiency of the funds which have hitherto served to meet the charges of the administration of justice, and support of the civil government of this province, I have great satisfaction in acknowledging the readiness manifested to meet this exigence.

In this session of parliament, Mr. James Durand, a member of the Assembly, for Wentworth, was accused of having issued an address to his free and independent electors, which was a libel upon the Lieutenant-Governor, and a gross, false, and malicious libel on the members of the late House of Assembly. Mr. Durand admitted the publication of the address, but denied that he had spoken disrespectfully of the Governor, and asserted, on his honor, that he never had any intention of doing so. If any gentleman, however, believed that he had abused him, whether intentionally or unintentionally, he was prepared to give him that satisfaction which was due from one gentleman to another. Mr. Nichol was surprised that any gentleman should have made an appeal to the laws of honor. The people of Wentworth had sent Mr. Durand to parliament to be their legislator, not their gladiator. Mr. Jones adduced authority from Blackstone to prove the right of the House to enquire into the libel--to prevent bloodshed. Mr. Durand contended that the House had no authority to try him, and even if it had, the jury should be impartial, whereas several members of the House felt themselves to be implicated in the charge against him. Mr. Nichol considered that honour demanded that all the members should remain to decide the question. Mr. Durand protested against his accuser, and spoke flatteringly of the Governor, whom he had not calumniated. Mr. Speaker rose to say that no explanation to the House would do away with the malice of the publication. The paper was before the world, which would draw its own inferences. He thought there was no doubt about its being a libel on the Lieutenant-Governor and the Honorable the Legislative Council, but he was not prepared to say how far the House could take cognizance of a libel against any former House of Parliament. A false, scandalous and malicious libel was accordingly reported. Mr. Nichol moved for Mr. Durand's committal to gaol. Mr. McNabb moved in amendment, that Mr. Durand be required to appear at the Bar of the House and apologize, the apology to be published in the _Upper Canada Gazette_, _St. Catherines Spectator_, and the _Montreal Herald_, which amendment was lost by a majority of three against it. The original motion was carried by the same majority, when Mr. Nichol moved for the commitment of James Durand, Esquire, to the common gaol of the district, during the session, which was carried in the affirmative, by a majority of four!

His Excellency, Francis Gore, soon after this returned to England, and was prosecuted in London, by the Surveyor-General of Upper Canada, whom he had deprived of office maliciously and without cause. The Court in London gave Mr. Wyatt, as plaintiff, damages to the amount of £300.[33]. Governor Gore was succeeded in the administration of Upper Canada, by the Honorable Samuel Smith, on the 11th of June, 1817. The Little Pedlington proceedings of the Upper Canada parliament, during this reign, are hardly worthy of remark. The same spirit still continued to actuate both Council and Assembly, and the Governor lorded it over both. The voice of the people was remarkable for nothing but its weakness.

[33] It is not a little curious that the judge in summing up the evidence in this case speaks of Upper Canada being an island.

Sir John Sherbrooke met the parliament of Lower Canada again on the 7th of January, 1818. He informed the Houses that he had distributed the seed wheat and other grain, for which a large sum had been voted during the previous session, so immediately that the relief had been attended with the happiest consequences. He had been commanded by the Regent to call upon the provincial legislature to vote the sums necessary for the ordinary expenditure of the province. He would lay before the Assembly an estimate of the sums required. He would also submit the accounts of the revenue and expenditure for the past year. And he anticipated a continuance of that loyalty and zeal which had prompted the Assembly to offer to meet the expenses of the government. The Assembly were proud that their offer had been accepted. The public was satisfied that the settlement of the civil list, and the control of the public expenditure, should rest with the Assembly, and the reply to the speech from the throne was a simple affirmative. Sir John Sherbrooke had informed Lord Bathurst that the permanent expenditure actually exceeded the revenue by nearly the sum of £19,000 a year; and that there was a debt due to the provincial chest from the imperial treasury of £120,000. The salaries of the clergy and pensioners never had been laid before the Assembly, but had been thrown into a separate list, and although paid in the first instance out of the civil chest had, nevertheless, invariably been provided for out of the extraordinaries of the army. He further informed the secretary for the colonies that, in his opinion, it was desirable that the civil list should be wholly provided for by the province. Lord Bathurst did not fail to take into consideration the accumulation, during four years, of the annual excess of the actual expenditure, beyond the appropriated revenue of each year. He quite concurred in the opinion expressed by Sir John Sherbrooke, that the annual settlement of the accounts of the province and the government at home would have been at once the most expedient course and most likely to prevent any interruption of a mutual good understanding. Short accounts make long friends. As related to the past, it was a question whether the legislature might not fairly be considered as having sanctioned the appropriation, the extra appropriation of the funds, by not objecting to it, when submitted to their notice, or whether any further measures were required for legalizing the appropriation itself, or for repaying the debt, which, under other circumstances, might be considered due to the province. With respect to some part of the expenditure, the silence of the legislature must be interpreted into an approbation of it, for they could not but think themselves bound to make good the deficiency of the funds appropriated by themselves to specific objects, such as the charge for the Trinity House, and the payment of the officers of the legislature, which had uniformly exceeded the funds raised under the Imperial Acts. He saw no objection to considering the silent admission of the accounts, submitted to them, as an implied approbation of the accounts themselves, and of the manner in which they had been discharged. But with respect to the future, he considered it advisable that the legislature should be annually called upon to vote all the sums required for the annual expenditure of the province. The House was to be prepared for the probable contingency of voting that part of the civil list which provided for the stipends of the Roman Catholic Clergy, and omitting the other part which had reference to the Protestant establishment. The Governor in such case was to use every means in his power to prevent a partial provision from passing the Upper House, and if it did pass there, he was to withhold his assent. He called the Governor's attention to the necessity of vigilantly watching and guarding against any assumption, on the part of the Legislative Assembly, of a power to dispose of money, without the concurrence of the other branch of the legislature. This great concession, with which every body was so pleased, was due to the sagacity of Sir John Sherbrooke. He saw how easily it was to be turned to favorable account. He saw that the Assembly would be extraordinarily well pleased; and he further saw that the full power of the public chest was all that the Assembly required to be fully in the power of the government. In a word, they only needed the money power to corrupt and to be corrupted.

An address to the Governor was next adopted, requesting His Excellency to state whether or not the Prince Regent had forwarded to him instructions concerning the impeachment of the Honorable Louis Charles Foucher, one of the Judges of the King's Bench. Sir John Sherbrooke had had a conversation with Mr. Ryland on the subject. The Clerk of the Executive Council, and member of the Legislative Council, had even put his opinion in writing, respecting the mode in which it might be most advisable to carry into execution the instructions contained in the despatch of Lord Bathurst, dated on the 5th of July, 1817. He was strongly of opinion that the advice given to Sir John to convey a judicial power to the Legislative Council, by commission, was founded in error. The House of Assembly had acquired, by dint of perseverance, and a gradual exercise of privilege, during a period of six and twenty years, some of the most important privileges that attached to the House of Commons, one of which was the power of preferring impeachments against such public officers of the Crown in the colony as they might deem deserving of punishment or removal from office; and, as a counterbalancing influence, in the case of Mr. Justice Foucher, and in all similar cases of impeachment by the Assembly, the adjudication of the charges preferred against the party accused was to be left to the Legislative Council, it being added to the instruction, as a reason for the concession, that the party accused could sustain but little injury from a temporary suspension, while, if ultimately pronounced guilty, the advantage of an immediate suspension was unquestionable. Mr. Ryland conceived that no other power or privilege was, however, intended to be conveyed by the despatch to the Legislative Council than that of sitting, as grand jurors of the province, upon accusations brought by the Assembly against the public servants of the Crown, and that if the charges brought by the Lower House were considered by the Council as valid, His Majesty would then exercise the Royal Prerogative, either by suspending from office or dismissing from his service the party accused. He was strongly of opinion that a communication of the substance of that despatch by a _solemn_ message to both Houses of the Provincial Parliament, would be the utmost that either House could reasonably require to enable them to proceed to a final adjudication, as far as the Crown intended they should proceed, upon accusations preferred against individuals by the Assembly. He was astonished at the line of argument adopted before His Excellency for the purpose of forcing an analogy between the Court of the Lord High Steward of England and that which it was proposed to establish in Canada. The High Court of Parliament took cognizance only of crimes committed by Peers of the realm, upon indictments previously found in the inferior Courts. He contended that Sir John Sherbrooke was not empowered to constitute any tribunal but for the trial of offences recognised as such by statute or common Law. If Mr. Justice Foucher was accused of any such offence, the ordinary tribunals of the country could take cognizance of it and inflict punishment. Mr. Ryland was deeply impressed with the idea that the longer or shorter continuance of the province as an appendage to the British empire would be dependent on the events of the present or coming session of parliament. Mr. Ryland did not relish the idea of the Legislative Council being deprived of its _constitutional character_ by the supposition even that it might be compelled to adopt a course of proceeding contrary to its own judgment. He thought that the Legislative Council ought to be made parties to any accusation adduced against a public officer by arrangement. There was no precedent for a commission, and indeed, Mr. Ryland was in every way opposed to the plan of leaving to the Legislative Council the adjudication of charges preferred against public officers by the Assembly. Sir John Sherbrooke could not understand the reasoning of Mr. Ryland. He agreed with the Clerk of the Executive Council that a great change was to be brought about in the system of the provincial government, especially with respect to its finance; but, when it was considered that the mother country was "at present" struggling with pecuniary embarrassments, it was not surprising that ministers should call upon the colonies to contribute to their own support. It was very obvious that, ever since the present constitution had been given to Lower Canada, the House of Assembly had been gradually obtaining an increase of power, whilst the Legislative Council remained in _statu quo_. The proper balance had consequently been lost and he knew of no better mode of giving new weight and importance to the Upper House than the measure devised by the Prince Regent that as often as the House of Assembly should impeach, the Legislative Council should adjudicate upon the case, and the Council having declared that they had not the power to do so, some more formal instrument than a letter from the Secretary of State to the Governor, to invest the Council with the necessary authority to act, would be required. To the address of the Assembly an answer was given in a message to both Houses. The message intimated that the adjudication of impeachments by the Assembly was to rest with the Legislative Council; that the Regent trusted that the Council would discharge the important duties which thus devolved upon them in such a manner as to give satisfaction to all classes of people in the province; and that the Governor, not having had instructions, as to the manner in which the adjudications were to be conducted, would apply to the Regent for instructions and communicate them as soon as obtained. The House of Assembly did nothing, as the wisest course to be pursued, and the Council, now almost raised to a level with the House of Lords, in its own estimation, expressed its thanks in a series of resolutions offered by Mr. Ryland, for the confidence which His Royal Highness had reposed in it. Mr. Ryland and some other members of the Council were most anxious to adjudicate upon Mr. Foucher's impeachment at once; but, says the Clerk of the Council, in a letter written subsequently to Colonel Ready, the resolutions offered by me, which would have been adopted by a majority of the legislature, were stifled or repressed by artful and solemn asseverations made in the House for the purpose of inducing a belief that the state of the Governor's health was such that a further agitation of the business might endanger his life! And so ended the Foucher impeachment matter for a time. An Act was passed for the incorporation of a company to construct a navigable canal, on the Richelieu, from Chambly to St. Johns, a work subsequently undertaken and completed by the province, on a very inadequate scale, inasmuch as the canal was only sufficiently large for batteaux, instead of being of a size which would have permitted steamboat communication between Quebec, _via_ Sorel, and the towns on Lake Champlain. The estimates for the civil list amounting to £73,646, were voted after a debate of a week; a night watch and night lights were provided for in Montreal and Quebec; an Act was passed for the encouragement of agriculture, and commissioners appointed to improve the communication, by water, between Upper and Lower Canada; an attempt was made to indemnify the members of the Assembly; and the public accounts being submitted, the revenue for 1817 appeared to have been £108,925 currency, and the expenditure £116,920 sterling, including £19,426 owing to Upper Canada for duties in 1816. The expenses of the legislature amounted to £16,173, including £3,945 for books purchased for the library of the Assembly.

Sir John Sherbrooke, was so very ill that he found himself unable to go down to the Council Chamber to prorogue the parliament. He was, therefore, waited upon by the members of both Houses, at the Castle of St. Lewis, and there the prorogation took place _sans cérémonie_.

Business had been rather brisk this year, but out of parliament, and away from St. Peter street, there was no stir of any kind. The newspapers contented themselves with retailing news from the continent of Europe, six months old, and the inhabitants of town and country unconcernedly watched the rising and the setting of the sun, or endeavored, as an antidote to the _tedium vitæ_, to count the number of the stars at night. Three hundred and thirty-four vessels of 76,559 tons burthen, including one vessel built at Quebec, cleared at the port, and a duty of 2-1/2 per centum was levied on goods, wares, and merchandise, amounting to £672,876. There was one matter, which, however, created a little talk about town. Mrs. Montgomery, widow of the late General Montgomery, who fell on the night of the 31st of December, 1775, while leading on a storming party of Americans at the _Près-de-Ville_, Quebec, applied to Sir John Sherbrooke for the remains of her husband, which had been buried somewhere in the neighborhood of a powder magazine. The request was complied with. On the 16th of June, the exhumation of the body, in the presence of Major Freer, who was on the staff of the Governor, of Major Livingston, a near relative to Mrs. Montgomery, and of some other spectators, took place under the direction of Mr. James Thomson, of the Royal Engineer Department, one of the followers of General Wolfe, who forty-two years previously to the application for the body had buried the General with his two Aides-de-Camp, Cheeseman and McPherson, beside him, where the military prison, near St. Lewis Gate, now stands.

Sir John Sherbrooke was, at his own request, recalled. His health had been indifferent for some time. He was relieved of his government soon after he had requested to be so by His Grace the Duke of Richmond. Sir John sailed for England on the 12th of August, with his character either in a military or civil point of view untarnished. Richmond, Lennox and Aubigny, the new Governor-in-Chief, had been Lord Lieutenant General of Ireland. His hereditary rank, his previous position, as well as his present station obtained for him a consideration greater than any mere military knight could reasonably look for. He was accompanied by Major-General Sir Peregrine Maitland, K.C.B., his son-in-law appointed to the Lieutenant-Governorship of Upper Canada. His Grace was looked upon indeed as a semi-deity. But the Duke was exceedingly poor, and perhaps owed his own appointment as well as that of his son-in-law, as much to the influence of the Duke of Wellington, who was his friend, as to his own. He summoned the legislature of Canada together on the 12th of January, 1819, but merely intimated that the Queen had died, and adjourned the public business, out of respect to Her Majesty's memory, until the 22nd of the month. The opening speech on that day was a wretched affair. The Duke did not recommend anything beyond a provision for the expenses of the civil government, which the illness of Sir John Sherbrooke had prevented him from completing; and the reply to his Grace was as tame as His Grace's speech. It was very like two individuals in meeting, saluting each other with the words--"good morning, Sir,"--"a good morning to you, Sir,"--"_shalom elachem_," as the Jew has it, to be returned with "_alaichem shalom_," "peace be unto you,"--"with you be peace." His Grace was not slow in submitting the estimates of the expenses of the civil government for the year 1819. Instead of £73,646 currency, as before, the estimate was now £81,432. The House could not understand the sudden increase. Was it necessary to pay £15,000 extra for a Duke? That was gracious goodness to an appreciable extent! The estimate was referred to a select committee, who were to make as ostensible as possible the necessity for the increased demand, and if that could not be done, to say why not. The committee reported that the interests of the country would best be served by making an unqualified reduction of those sinecures and pensions, which, in all countries had been considered the reward of iniquities, and the encouragement of vice, and which had been and still were subjects of complaint in England, and would, in Canada, lead to corruption, and that too while the estimates contained the item of £8,000 sterling a year, to be placed at the disposal of His Majesty's representative, for rewarding provincial services, and for providing for old and reduced servants of the government and others. Mr. Ryland had already been in correspondence with the Duke's Secretary, Colonel Ready, and hence the provision in the civil list for decayed servants of the government. When this manoeuvre failed, an attempt was made to obtain a permanent provision for the civil government of the province, during the reign of the sovereign, and that failing, another was made to vote the civil list money _en bloc_; but the Assembly would only listen to one proposition, however democratic it might be, and that was to vote the civil list annually, item by item, so that the House might increase or diminish particular salaries at will. The Assembly then went through the civil list, affixing to each office a salary, and passing over without any appropriation such offices as were either positive sinecures or little else. A bill was introduced and carried through the third reading, granting to offices particularly specified, particular salaries. It was sent to the Legislative Council for concurrence, and was there at once rejected. The Council looked upon the mode adopted by the bill of granting a supply to His Majesty as unprecedented and unconstitutional, as an assumption of the prerogative of the Crown, as calculated to prescribe to the Crown the number and description of its servants, and as certain to make the Crown officers dependent on an elective body, whereby they might be made instrumental in overthrowing the Crown itself. Thus was the civil list bill lost. A company was incorporated to construct a canal between Montreal and Lachine. £3,000 was appropriated towards the apportionment of lands to the militia who had served during the war; and Pierre Bedard, Esquire, Judge for the District of Three Rivers, was impeached by Mr. C. R. Ogden. Mr. Ogden accused Bedard of prostituting his judicial authority to the gratification of personal malice; of tyranny; of imposing fines upon his enemies on pretence of punishing contempts of Courts; of uttering expressions derogatory to the other judges of the Court in which he sat; of having accused the barristers of Three Rivers frequently of high breaches of moral and professional rectitude; of having wickedly imprisoned in the common gaol of Three Rivers, Charles Richard Ogden, Esquire, then and still being His Majesty's Counsel for the said district, for an alleged libel and contempt against the provincial Court, in which Mr. Bedard was the judge; for having illegally fined Pierre Vezina, Esquire, an advocate practicing in Court, ten shillings, for pretended contemptuous conduct; and for having grossly and unjustifiably attacked the character of Joseph de Tonnancour, a barrister. The articles of impeachment were referred to a committee which reported in favor of the judge, and the House did not, therefore, impeach him.

While this was going on a message was received from His Grace the Governor-in-Chief, acquainting the members of the Legislative Council that the commands of the Prince Regent had been received respecting the proceedings of the Assembly against Mr. Foucher. The Regent directed that the Assembly, previous to any ulterior proceeding, should lay before the Governor-in-Chief such documentary evidence as they might consider adequate to support the charges which they had brought against Mr. Justice Foucher, and that copies of such charges, of such documentary evidence, and of the examination already taken and annexed to the charges should be then transmitted by His Grace the Governor-in-Chief to Mr. Justice Foucher for his answer and defence, which answer and defence would be submitted to the Assembly for their reply, when the whole of the documents would be submitted to the Regent for such further course as the case might require. The Legislative Council were quite shocked at this message. They had been told that they might adjudicate upon cases of impeachment, and now it was commanded that they should gather evidence and send it to the Regent for adjudication. The Council dutifully remonstrated, feeling it due to itself to state to His Grace that at the time of receiving the late Governor's message it was prevented from taking more upon itself than to return its humble thanks for the "decision" of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, on the subject of its address of the 3rd of March, 1817, by representations made in the Council, that the state of His Excellency's health was such that a further agitation of the business at the moment might endanger his life. But the House confidently relied on the communication, contained in the message, that the "arrangement" therein announced with respect to the adjudication of impeachments by the Council was _final_. If representations had subsequently been made tending to withdraw from the Council the favor and confidence of the Crown, all doubt would be removed by the communication which they solicited from His Excellency as to the Royal intervention, and the House would finally be able, with His Grace's powerful support, to secure the full and free exercise of a privilege, without which the balance of an admirable constitution would be destroyed, and the second estate of the provincial legislature be reduced to insignificance and contempt. The answer to this address was most emphatic. Mr. Justice Foucher was ordered to resume his functions as a Judge of the Court of King's Bench, at Montreal; and the Duke turning from the Council, drew the attention of the Assembly to the necessity which existed for a reform in the judicature. The Assembly had indeed already expressed an opinion to the effect that it was necessary for the independence of the judges that they should not be withdrawn from their judicial duties by holding any other offices in the civil administration of the government. The House of Assembly paid very little heed, however, to the recommendation of the Duke. There was, indeed, no ministry in the confidence of the majority to originate any business in the Lower House, and for one of a minority, the creature of the government in the Assembly, and without the shadow of influence in it, to take the matter up, would have been worse than useless. The Lower House was, indeed, like a ship without a helm. It was uncontrollable. All that a governor could do was to look upon the most popular man in the Assembly, as if he were a minister of State, and govern in such a manner as to suit his views. The expediency of erecting the Eastern Townships into a judicial district had been represented to the Assembly at its previous session. It was considered a denial of justice to require people situated as the Eastern Township farmers were, in a new and rather far off country, when the want of good roads is considered, to sue and be sued in the Courts of Montreal, Three Rivers, or Quebec. But they stirred not. They merely appointed a committee to draw up a statement of the receipts of the provincial revenue of the Crown, and of the disbursements by the Receiver General from the date of the constitution to 1819; and also a statement of all the appropriations made by the legislature, and of the amount paid upon each of them by the Receiver General, the balance to be stated and the monies to be counted. There was evidently a suspicion in the minds of some of the members of the Assembly that the National Bank had been paying interest out of the new deposits and that the managers were living in the same style of novelty. However that may have been, the business of legislation was now concluded, and His Grace the Duke of Richmond, Lennox and Aubigny, Governor-in-Chief of Canada, and Captain General of British North America, came down to the Legislative Chambers in State. He took his seat upon the throne quickly. He seemed to speak to his attendants testily. He sent for the Commons impatiently. And he looked sternly. Colonel Ready, as soon as the Commons had appeared, handed His Excellency, who was not particularly gracious, a paper to read. "Gentlemen of the Legislative Council," were the first words uttered, and all eyes were upon the Duke. "_You_ have not disappointed my hopes. I thank you for your zeal and alacrity. Gentlemen of the Assembly:--It is with deep concern that I cannot thank you in connection with the result of your labors and of the principles upon which they rest. You proceeded to vote a part of the sum required for the expenses of 1819, but the bill of appropriation which you prepared was founded upon such principles that it had been most constitutionally rejected by the Upper House, and so the government has been left without the supplies necessary for the support of the civil administration for the ensuing year, notwithstanding the voluntary offer given to the King in 1810." His Grace had recommended by special message the consideration of the Judicature Act so that it might be amended, and the Assembly had not even proceeded with it so far as to enable the Governor-in-Chief to transmit the result of the parliamentary proceedings to the King's ministers, with the view of obtaining the opinions and assistance of the law officers of the Crown in England. He did trust, therefore, that at an early day in the next session the matter would be proceeded with. He had assented to the militia bill with reluctance. It was not necessary that the officers should be natives of the province. There were many half-pay officers of the army who were much better fitted for holding commissions in the militia than wealthy _habitants_ were; and there were clerks, and other enterprising young men about cities and towns, who, on any emergency, were equally as well adapted for officers of militia as any _seigneur_ whatever. The population of the province afforded excellent materials for a defensive army, but a general and proper selection of officers was necessary to make it formidable to an active and enterprising enemy. The selection of officers must only belong to the executive power. This speech did not raise the Duke of Richmond in the estimation of the Commons of Canada. Some were inclined to laugh at His Excellency, while not a few were offended. His Grace had been evidently tampered with. He was not looked upon as a free agent. While perfectly willing to defray the expenses of the civil administration, the Commons felt no disposition to build up a pension list or to be in any way burthened with life annuities to officers of the imperial army, for whom the imperial government was bound to provide. All the officers required in the civil government of the country, the Commons were prepared amply to remunerate, but they were not at all prepared to award salaries for the perpetuation of sinecure offices, the holders of which had never set a foot in the country. The Commons, in a word, desired to have some control over the government itself, as, in a free country all power should proceed from the people. This was denied to them. They were required to do whatever the government desired, and refusing obedience, they were castigated, castigated by the representative of the sovereign of a free country, of which Canada formed a part. In spite of this rugged mode of governing, the country was nevertheless, making progress. Business was brisk. The population was rapidly increasing. A steamer had been placed on the Ottawa. The Rideau Canal to connect the Ottawa with Lake Ontario, at Kingston, had been commenced, at the expense of the imperial government, as a military work. Quebec contained 2,008 houses, and a population of 15,257 souls, of whom 11,991 were Roman Catholics, and 3,266 were Protestants. Four new vessels had been built at Quebec in the course of the past year, and 409 vessels of 94,657 tons of shipping had been cleared at the port of Quebec, while merchandise to the amount of £772,373 had been imported. The gross revenue amounted to £58,332 sterling for Lower Canada, and £18,673 sterling for Upper Canada. The expenditure amounted to £127,379 sterling, including £9,720 for the purchase of seed wheat in 1817; £45,270 in payment of army bills: £14,988, the fifth of the whole duties collected for 1817 and due to Upper Canada, by agreement. The cost of mere legislation was this year £13,420 currency. In 1819, from the opening of the navigation to the 12th of October, 612 vessels had arrived, and 12,434 immigrants had come to enrich the country by their labor and benefit trade by their necessities.

In the Lower Province two Banks had already been established; there was now one in operation at Kingston, in Upper Canada. It is not a little curious, however, that when efforts were first made to establish the Kingston Bank the current of public opinion set so strongly against the measure, that although supported by men of intelligence and respectability, it was abandoned without the presentation of petitions to the legislature. A bill, as may have already been perceived, was, nevertheless, passed, for the incorporation of the bank, but reserved for His Majesty's pleasure by Governor Gore. The roads, in Upper Canada, were at this period so indifferent that there were but few common carriages, while the inns were so indifferent that in the summer season travelling was for the most part accomplished by water. Indeed the facilities afforded by water for travelling in some very considerable degree impeded the improvement of the roads, between towns situated very far apart.

Sir Peregrine Maitland having assumed the government of Upper Canada, met the parliament of that province, for the first time, on the 12th of October, 1818. His "maiden" speech from the throne was noticeable for the remark that parliament would feel a just indignation at the attempts which had been made to excite discontent and to organize sedition, accompanied by the hint and suggestion that should it appear to parliament that a convention of delegates could not exist without danger to the constitution, in framing a law of prevention, parliamentary wisdom would be careful that it should not unwarily trespass on that sacred right of the subject to seek a redress of his grievances by petition. Mr. Robert Gourlay, of Craigrothie, Fifeshire, in Scotland, had emigrated to Upper Canada, with the view of settling himself and family and indeed of making a settlement in some suitable spot. Mr. Guthrie had peculiar ideas with regard to emigration, free trade, and liberty of speech. He was a democrat, but not, by any means, a republican. He was not politically connected with either Cobbett or Hunt, although he seems to have known both of these gentlemen. He was not in the habit of attending such meetings as those that were held at Spa-fields and were then termed "radical" meetings, although he had been at a meeting in Spa-fields. He had been both in Ireland and in the United States, but he was neither an Irish rebel nor an American revolutionist. He had only a bee in his bonnet, which has since buzzed in the bonnets of a very great number of men, whose loyalty or patriotism has not been even doubted, and, who, consequently, have never been marked "dangerous" by a colonial Justice of the Peace. Mr. Guthrie conceived that Canada was capable of absorbing about 50,000 of the poor of England, Ireland, and Scotland, annually; that a land tax was preferable to taxes on trade and manufactures, especially in a new country; that there should be three description of roads--provincial, district, and township; that it would be advantageous to connect the lakes of the St. Lawrence together, and permit the free navigation of the Canadian inland waters from Lake Superior to the sea; that free trade should exist; and that there should be no hindrance to the expression of public opinion, however offensive to the authorities such public opinion might be. Mr. Guthrie arrived in Canada in the summer of 1817, and after looking around him, determined upon establishing himself as a land agent. He had, in truth, conceived schemes for a grand system of emigration, and set about obtaining statistics with the view of setting forth the capabilities of the country to the people of England. He addressed the landowners of Upper Canada for information. He sent circulars to the people, but unfortunately made allusion to the able resolutions brought forward at the close of the last session of the provincial parliament. He brought the matter before the parliament itself, but that body having been suddenly prorogued, by Governor Gore, the idea of a convention suggested itself to Mr. Gourlay. The Executive of Upper Canada took alarm. The desire, for a knowledge of the condition, circumstances, and requirements of the townships and districts, was in connection with some radical schemes for upsetting British authority in the Canadas. Mr. Guthrie was misrepresented and, with the view of creating a general panic, he was arrested. Nevertheless, deputies were chosen and a convention was held at York. In this convention the political restraints to which the colonists were liable were fully discussed. There was undoubted mismanagement on the part of the executive government, and Gourlay advised a petition to the Prince Regent, soliciting the appointment of a commission from England to make enquiries. Such a proposal could not fail to give offence. Gourlay was arrested and carried before the most virulent of his political enemies. He was tried and twice acquitted, but the _London Courier_, of the 8th of July, 1818, arrived, in which he was alluded to as "one of the worthies, who had _escaped_ after the disgraceful proceedings of Spa-fields." That was enough. Mr. Gourlay was brought before a magistrate, Mr. Dickson, M.P. "Do you know Mr. Cobbett?" asked the magistrate. "Yes," answered the culprit. "Do you know Mr. Hunt?" "Yes." "Were you at Spa-fields?" "Yes." "Were you ever in Ireland?" "Yes." "Were you lately in the Lower Province?" "Yes." "Were you lately in the United States?" "Yes." "Was it you that wrote the article in the _Spectator_, headed "Gagged, gagged by jingo?"" "It was." "Then," said Mr. Dickson to his fellow magistrates, "it is my opinion that Mr. Gourlay is a man of desperate fortune, and would stick at nothing to raise insurrection in the province." He was committed to gaol charged with treasonable practices! There was then, indeed, no real liberty in the province, and Mr. Gourlay had made use of words which only could be used safely in England. The magistracy were completely in the hands of the Executive Council, and a considerable number of both Houses were inclined to do whatever they were ordered. Indeed there were few politicians in the country, politics not having yet become a trade. The Commons replied to Sir Peregrine Maitland just as he wished. They were convinced that a convention of delegates could not exist without danger to the constitution. Nay, they even went further, and on the 19th of October, presented an address expressing just indignation at the systematic attempts that had been made to excite discontent and organize sedition in the province, and they deeply regretted that the designs of one man should have succeeded in drawing into the support of his vile machinations so many honest men, and loyal subjects of His Majesty. A bill was passed indeed to prevent the organization of persons, who might degrade the character of the province, and after assenting to several bills Sir Peregrine Maitland closed the session by thanking parliament for the seasonable aid of "An Act for preventing certain meetings within the province." He conceived that if the people were aggrieved they could send a petition to the foot of the throne. The Surveyor General's Department was to be abolished. He was proud of the sentiments expressed by the House of Assembly and would send them to His Majesty's government. Had the public mind been tranquil, he would have brought before the Houses a few objects of general importance, one of which was a remedy for the unequal pressure of the road laws. Mr. Gourlay was retained in gaol, then ordered to leave the province, and, on refusing to go, was tried for disobeying an Act of parliament. He was forcibly ejected from the province, and it was not until 1847 that the province of Canada offered him redress in the shape of a pension of some fifty pounds a year, Mr. Gourlay being then resident in Scotland. Governor Maitland again met the parliament of Upper Canada on the 7th of June, 1819. He informed the parliament that the Queen had closed a long life, illustrious for the exemplary discharge of every public and private duty; that the Regent had authorised the governors of both Canadas to bestow lands on certain of the provincial army and militia, "which served" during the late war; that recent purchases from the natives had been so far effected, as would enable him to set apart tracts in the several districts, to accommodate such of their respective inhabitants as were within the limits of the royal instruction; but that he (Governor Maitland) did not consider himself justified in extending that mark of approbation to any of the individuals, who composed the late convention of delegates, the proceedings of which were properly the subject of very severe parliamentary animadversion. The royal assent had been given to the bill for the establishment of a provincial bank, but, from some delay, it did not arrive in time for promulgation, within the period limited by law; the form of an enactment would, therefore, be necessary to render it available. He was deeply impressed with the necessity of an amendment to the road law; neglected grants of an early day were becoming a serious evil. The exemption of any land belonging to individuals, from the operation of the assessment law, was found to be detrimental: a new bill so modified as to protect the land from sale by distress until due notice could be given to the proprietors would receive His Majesty's assent. The public accounts would be laid before the House of Assembly with the estimates for the ensuing year. The growth of the province in population and wealth, justified a reasonable expectation that the measures adopted to encourage it would receive the fullest support: and the expediency of affording the new settlers, situated remotely from the great lakes and rivers, an easy approach to market was apparent, and with other matters would, he hoped, be attended to. The speech in reply was satisfactory, but there was an under current of public opinion, not quite so satisfactory. It was considered that Governor Maitland had exceeded his authority in withholding in part that which the Regent had instructed him not to withhold at all. Conventions were not illegal. The right to meet and discuss public measures had never been called in question. The convention was composed of men who were altogether loyal. To upset the government of the province or to get rid of imperial authority was never contemplated. All that the members of convention desired was the repeal of several grievances, and they meant only to petition the Regent for their removal. The executive influence in the legislature was overwhelming and mischievous. The governor had not only the disposal of every civil office, and of every civil and military commission, but of land to a boundless extent. That influence had been repeatedly misapplied. The lamentable effects of such a misapplication of influence had been too frequently witnessed. Public duty was neglected. The whole face of the country was pining with disease. Nature was everywhere struggling with misrule. And civilization itself was on the decline. In Upper Canada the image and transcript of the British constitution was now only reflected by Major-General Sir Peregrine Maitland, and five executive councillors. Legislation was embraced in a governor's speech from the throne.

About the time of the prorogation of the session, His Grace, the Duke of Richmond, came to Upper Canada, on a tour of inspection. His Grace and his son-in-law went to Niagara together. Important internal improvements were contemplated, and the two governors were desirous of ascertaining how they might be effected. The Duke, after a short stay in Upper Canada, bade farewell to his relative, and, with Colonel Ready, his secretary, was on his way to Quebec, when, somewhere between Kingston and Montreal, he became seriously ill. It is not very certain what ailed him. He was said to have been bitten by a fox. However, he died, in a few hours, of excruciating suffering. He supported, for the brief period, a disease, supposed to be hydrophobia, with undaunted constancy, and yielded up his spirit on the 28th of August, 1819. His remains were brought to Quebec, and there interred with great pomp and ceremony, beneath the altar of the Church of England Cathedral, but as yet no monument has been erected to his memory.

The administration of the government of the province of Lower Canada was, on the death of the Duke of Richmond, assumed by the senior member of the Executive Council, Mr. Monk, and President Monk issued his proclamation to that effect, on the 20th of September. He summoned the legislature to meet for the despatch of business on the 21st of February, 1820. Mr. Monk had, however, hardly assumed the government when Sir Peregrine Maitland arrived in Quebec, from Upper Canada, to take the administration of affairs into his hands, according to instructions which, on his appointment to the Lieutenant-Governorship of Upper Canada, he had received from the imperial government. He did not stay long. He merely advised Mr. Monk, whom he left in charge of the government, and on the 9th of February he set out again for Upper Canada, to dissolve the parliament. The existing parliament had been very refractory and had been admonished even by the late Governor-in-Chief. The Parliament was dissolved and writs for an election, returnable on the 11th of April, issued. Gaspé being very remotely situated was an exception. The Gaspé writ was not returnable until the 1st of June. Nothing was gained to the administration by the resort to dissolution. The new parliament was even more hostile to the government than the old one. The people approved of the course pursued by the late Assembly in the matter of the civil list and indeed approved of their proceedings generally. Sir Peregrine returned to Quebec on the 17th of March, after he had prorogued the parliament of Upper Canada, and having assumed the management of the public business, he convened the parliament on the 11th of April, the very day on which the writs were returnable, Gaspé only excepted. He opened the House with a speech remarkable for nothing but its brevity. Mr. Papineau was re-elected Speaker and the choice approved of. But this was no sooner done than the Assembly found themselves incompetent for the transaction of business. The House must, by law, consist of fifty members, and only forty-nine had been returned. The Gaspé writ was not returnable until the 1st of June. There was no House. Business could not legally be carried on. A message came down from the Governor recommending the renewal of certain Acts of the legislature. The House paid no attention to the message. The House at last resolved that it could do no business. The twelve months within which a session was necessary would expire on the 24th of April, and there could be no return of the Gaspé writ until the 1st of June. The Governor was informed of his "fix," but was by no means pleased. He did not believe in such nonsense as the unavoidable non-return of a single member being a matter of such importance as the Assembly alleged. He begged that they would go on with the public business. The House would not budge. A message came from the Legislative Council, and the messenger knocked, but the door of the Assembly remained closed. The government had dissolved the parliament stupidly and the parliament meant stupidly to dissolve the government. It was the 24th of April when the news of the death of King George the Third reached Quebec, by way of New York, when the Administrator was offered an excuse for another dissolution, by which the accident threatened by the previous dissolution could be escaped. Parliament was dissolved, during the firing of minute guns and the tolling of bells; and a new king was proclaimed by the sheriff, after a salute of 100 guns had been fired, on the Place d'Armes, in presence of the Governor, the heads of departments, the troops and a crowd of people. There was no other occurrence of moment until the arrival of the new Governor General, the Earl of Dalhousie, who arrived from Halifax, where he had administered the government of Nova Scotia, on the 18th of June, in H.M.S. _Newcastle_. Lord Dalhousie was a soldier. He had been altogether educated in the camp. To the trickery of diplomacy he was quite a stranger. He had not long arrived when the general elections took place. Mr. Papineau, the Speaker of the late Assembly, was at the hustings addressing a Montreal constituency. How strong the feeling was in favor of British constitutional rule in comparison with the Bourbon fashion of ruling colonies, the Earl of Dalhousie learned from Mr. Papineau's own lips. A great national calamity had made it imperative upon Mr. Papineau to court the favor of his constituents a second time in one year. A sovereign who had reigned over the inhabitants of Canada since the day in which they had become British subjects, had ceased to breathe. To express the feeling of gratitude which was due to him, or to say how much his loss was mourned would be impossible. Each year of his long reign had been marked by new favors bestowed on the country. A comparison between the happy situation of Canada at present, with the situation of Canada under "our" fore-fathers, when George the Third became their legitimate monarch, would sufficiently indicate the extent of the calamity which Canada had sustained in the death of the good old king. Under the French government the rule was arbitrary and oppressive. Canada had been neglected by the French Court, and mal-administered by the French Viceroys. The fertility of the soil, the salubrity of the climate, and the extent of territory which might even then have been the peaceful abode of a numerous and happy population was not considered. Canada was looked upon as a mere military post. The people were compelled to live in perpetual warfare and insecurity. There was no general trade. Trade was in the hands of companies. Famine was of frequent occurrence. Public and private property were insecure. Personal liberty was daily violated. Year after year the inhabitants of Canada were dragged from their homes and families to shed their blood, and carry murder and havoc from the shores of the great lakes and the banks of the Mississippi and Ohio, to the coasts of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Hudson's Bay. And now, how changed! The reign of law has succeeded to that of violence. Religious toleration; trial by jury; the Habeas Corpus; and the right to obey no other laws than those of our own making, have taken the place of perpetual warfare and perpetual insecurity. Such was the news received by Lord Dalhousie, on his arrival, and that too immediately preceding a deplorable period of agricultural distress in both of the Canadas; when the absence of all demand for wheat had compelled several farmers in the district of Montreal to send hay, oats, and vegetables, in boats, down the river, for the chance of a market at Quebec; when in some of the parishes of Montreal, which formerly sold great quantities of wheat for exportation, farms partly cleared, with a log house and barn, had been sold at sheriff's sales, for less than the usual law expenses incurred to effect the sale; and when one immediate consequence of this distress was expected to be on the part of the farmers a compulsory resort to family manufactures for their supply of clothing, as they must soon otherwise have been without the means of protecting their bodies against the inclemency of the seasons. Commercial operations had, however, been tolerably brisk. 585 vessels of 147,754 tons had arrived from sea, in 1820, and 7 new vessels had been built at Quebec. £674,556 worth of merchandise had been imported.

Lord Dalhousie met the legislature of Lower Canada on the 14th of December. Mr. Papineau was re-elected Speaker and approved of when the Governor-in-Chief opened the business of the session. His Lordship made a semi-theatrical allusion to the death of the late king; mixing it up with the death of the Duke of Richmond, whom he had known and honored during thirty years, when he immediately descended to pounds, shillings and pence. He called attention to the accounts of the general expenditure for the past two years; he would lay before the Assembly the accounts of the expense annually incurred in the administration of the government, and he would add a statement of the annual product of the permanent taxes, and hereditary territorial revenues of the Crown. By these documents the Assembly would perceive that the annual permanent revenue of the province was not equal to the amount of annual permanent charges upon the provincial civil list, but was deficient in about £22,000. The king had commanded him to say that having, from past experience, the fullest confidence in the loyalty and sense of duty of the Canadian people, he expected that a proper and permanent provision would be made to supply the deficiency, so that the civil government of the province might be sustained with honor and advantage to his subjects. He had made a tour of the province, but could not take upon himself to point out with confidence those measures of improvement which would prove of the most advantage to the country. He concurred, however, in all that had been said on the subject by the late Duke of Richmond, and the Duke's recommendations were worthy of consideration by the parliament. A permanent revenue law or a revenue law not liable to be suddenly changed, would benefit trade. Agriculture should be encouraged. The militia laws should be renewed. The waste lands should be settled. A tide of immigration had set in, which promised to continue. Many of the new comers were poor, and some had been grievously afflicted with sickness. Not a few had abundant means. The settlement of these immigrants should not have been impeded by the want of legislative aid. There were great advantages to be derived from a new population. Lower Canada, he was aware, had a population sufficiently numerous to settle the waste lands. There were, undoubtedly, prejudices against the introduction of strangers to be overcome, and there were also prejudices in the minds of strangers, affecting their settlement in Lower Canada, fertile as it was, offering as it undeniably did, so many facilities for manufacturing operations, and presenting, as was apparent, so wide a field for internal trade. Inducements should be held out to new comers, with the view of making them spread more widely. Parochial churches should be erected. Roads affording access to distant woodlands should be laid out. For himself, he would assure the Assembly that he had no object in view but the good of the country. The Assembly liked the frankness of the Governor-in-Chief. They had no idea, however, of permanently appropriating, in the then uncertain state of trade, an amount for the civil list, exceeding half the usual amount of the whole revenue. They would vote annually, in accordance with their promise to Sir John Sherbrooke, all the necessary expenses of the government if His Excellency pleased, and no more. With regard to permanent taxes they believed such a mode of taxation to be impracticable. They would, however, investigate the effects that might result from a long duration of the revenue laws. They would, if it were possible, inspire the commercial classes with confidence. Legislation was then proceeded with. The civil list was first considered. The estimate divided the list into classes. There was the Governor-in-Chief and his staff; the Legislature and its officers; the Executive Council and its officers; the Judges, Sheriffs, Clerks of Courts, and Tipstaffs; the Secretary and Registrar of the Province; the Receiver General and his clerk; the Surveyor General and clerks; the Surveyor of Woods; the Auditor of Land Patents; the Inspector General and clerks; and the contingencies of the whole. The estimate amounted to £44,877. The Assembly proceeded to the discussion of the items _con amore_. Item after item was read over and commented upon, much after the present fashion. John Neilson was then a member of the Assembly. Mr. Neilson was then as much an economist as Mr. Mackenzie is or pretends to be now. He was wisely jealous of the government. Mr. Neilson, the editor of the _Quebec Gazette_, was in the highest degree intelligent. He was honest and, consequently independent. He could say more in a sentence than Charles Richard Ogden could combat in a speech. He was a tall, spare man, with rugged, but yet prepossessing features. He had always two black eyes, overshadowed by a low protruding forehead. From the occiput to the _os frontis_, his head was quite level and extraordinarily long. It was possibly due to Mr. Neilson's intelligence that, after some reductions had been made, the required supply was voted, not in a bill, providing for the payment of stipulated sums to certain individuals, but in a bill in which allowances were made for six different departments and a supply voted for the whole. The sum voted, notwithstanding certain reductions was more than the estimate. £46,000 sterling was appropriated towards defraying the expenses of the civil government. £3,083, the charge upon the pension list, and £1,543, the annual cost of the militia staff were added to the civil list. The supply was voted _en bloc_, or almost so, with the view of reconciling the Legislative Council to an annual appropriation, and because that House had objected to the previous supply bill in which certain sums were appropriated for the payment of certain functionaries. Nevertheless, the bill was rejected by the Legislative Council. The bill had not made a permanent provision for the civil list, and it interfered with monies already appropriated. The Council resolved that it would not proceed upon any bill of supply, which should not have been applied for by the king's representative; the Council would not proceed upon any bill appropriating public money that should not have been recommended by the king's representative; the Council would not proceed upon any bill of appropriation, for money issued, in consequence of an address of the Assembly to the king's representative, unless upon some extraordinary emergency; the Council would not proceed upon any appropriation of public money for any salary or pension hereafter to be created, unless the _quantum_ of such salary or pension had been recommended by the king's representative; and the Council would not proceed upon any bill of appropriation for the civil list, which should contain specifications therein, by chapters or items, nor unless the same should be granted during the life of the king. The Assembly were also quite resolved as to the course to be pursued by them. They would pass no bill of supply without specifications, nor for any period longer than a year. They would not pass any bill at all for the purposes of defraying the expenses of the government, unless the right of applying and apportioning by vote, the monies previously appropriated towards the support of the civil government, was also conceded to them. This quarrel between the two Houses was an exceedingly interesting one. The members of the Upper House, or the majority of them, felt themselves to be personally interested--and were uneasy, while the Assembly, having no other interest in the matter, than principle and a sense of expediency, could maintain their position, without flinching, for almost any length of time. Nay, the Assembly were positively generous. As the rejection of the supply bill had left the Executive without the means of defraying the civil expenditure for the year, the Assembly tendered the sum of £46,060 sterling to His Excellency, pledging themselves to make good the amount by a bill at the ensuing session. But His Excellency would not have it. He was of opinion that the grant, now proposed, was wholly ineffectual without the concurrence of the Legislative Council. There was no answer. Mr. Neilson moved, and the Assembly resolved that, the speech of His Grace the Governor-in-Chief, on the 24th of April, 1819, contained a censure of the proceedings of the Assembly; that all censure of any proceeding of the Assembly, by either of the branches of the legislature, was an assumption and exercise of power contrary to law, a breach of the undoubted rights and privileges of the House of Assembly, and subversive of the constitution of the government, as by law established in the province; and that it was the undoubted right of the Assembly, in voting aids or supplies, or offering money bills for the consent of the other branches of the legislature, to adopt such order or mode of proceedings, as it might find conformable to its rules, and to propound such matter as in its judgment should seem fitted and most conducive to the peace, welfare, and good government of the province.

Mr. Andrew Stuart, a man of brilliant attainments, was busily engaged in the exposure of the enormous abuses that had prevailed in the improvident and prodigal grants of the Crown lands. A bill was brought forward in the Assembly for more effectually ascertaining the state of the public funds in the hands of the Receiver General. The Receiver General was to account annually to the legislature for his expenditures, and he was to tell over, for its disposal by the Assembly, the balance which he should have remaining in hand. He was to be allowed a commission on all monies paid into his hands, in lieu of a salary. And he was not to be engaged in trade. The bill did not, however, receive a third reading, and the Receiver General still continued to carry on the business of a lumber merchant. A bill was also introduced for the trial of impeachments by the Legislative Council, but was afterwards relinquished. An effort was made to obtain a per diem allowance for the members of the Assembly, but it was not successful. Mr. James Stuart was named agent for the province in London, and the sum of £2,000 was voted to defray his expenses in that capacity; but the appointment was set aside by the Council, because a Mr. Gordon, who held a situation in the Colonial Office, had been previously appointed agent for the province by the Executive government, with a salary of £200 a year. Several messages, relative to public improvements were sent down to the Assembly in the course of the session, but the House only promised to consider them next session. One bill, of great importance, was, however, passed:--that to open a canal between Montreal and Lachine, at the public expense. Before the close of the session the House represented that if a Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, with a salary of £1,500 a year, was necessary, he should be resident in the province; that the Lieutenant-Governorship of Gaspé, to which a salary of £300 a year was attached, was a sinecure; that the Secretary of the Province, with a salary of £400 a year, resided in London, while his duties were performed by a deputy, who only received the fees incidental to the office; that the agent of the province, who received £200 a year, did nothing for his salary, and had no services to perform, being merely the agent of the Executive; and that it was the opinion of the Assembly that no salary should be allowed to any of the members of the Executive Council, non-resident in the province. It was further represented that the offices of Judge of the Vice-Admiralty and Judge of the Court of King's Bench were incompatible, and that the offices of Judge of the King's Bench and of French Translator to the Court could not be held by the same person. The exaction of fees, too, by the Judge of the Vice-Admiralty, while he received a salary of £200 a year, in lieu of fees, was improper and contrary to law. And the Governor-in-Chief was requested to effect remedies. On the 17th of March, the session was prorogued. Lord Dalhousie could not express his satisfaction at the general result of the Assembly's deliberations. He regretted that the expectations of His Majesty, with respect to the civil list, had not been realised. He was disappointed. The administration of the civil government had been left without any pecuniary means, but what he should advance upon his own personal responsibility. Individuals would suffer under severe and unmerited hardships, caused by the want of that constitutional authority necessary for the payment of the expenses of the civil government; the improvements of the country were nearly at a stand; and the executive government was palsied and powerless. When parliament should be again summoned for legislation, it would be summoned to decide whether government should be restored to its constitutional energy, or whether the prospect of lasting misfortune was to be deplored by a continuance of the present state of things. The Assembly inwardly chuckled as the Governor concluded his speech. All that they wanted had been in part effected. The government had acknowledged itself to be constitutionally dependent on the Assembly for its energy and for its pecuniary means. It was hoped, indeed, that sooner or later, the propriety of permitting the Assembly to vote the supplies, after its own fashion, would be conceded.

Shortly after the prorogation, Mr. Papineau, the Speaker of the Assembly, Mr. Hale, a member of the Legislative Council, and Colonel Ready, Civil Secretary, were added to the Executive Council.

On the 7th of July, the construction of the Lachine Canal was commenced.

In the course of the summer, Lord Dalhousie proceeded on a tour to Upper Canada, returning by the Ottawa, in August.

The legislature of Lower Canada was again opened by the Governor-in-Chief, on the 11th of December. He brought under the consideration of parliament the state of the province, recommending immediate attention to its financial affairs, with the view of making a suitable provision for the support of the civil government. He had adopted a course for the payment of the current expenses of government as consistent as possible with the existing laws. He had been commanded to recommend that a provision for the civil list should be granted permanently, during His Majesty's life. He felt assured that the Council would attend to the recommendation, and he would not advert to topics of far inferior importance, for the present. The Council considered it to be their paramount duty to adopt what had been established in the British parliament, as a constitutional principle, the granting of the civil list during the life of the king. The Assembly were not so submissive. They requested His Excellency, the Governor, to convey to the king that they had received with all due humility the communication of His Majesty's recommendation that such provision, as should appear necessary for the payment of the expenses of the civil list should be granted permanently, during His Majesty's life, as well as the information that such was the practice of the British parliament, and that the recommendation would have due weight with them. The Governor on receiving the address of the Commons, in reply to his speech from the throne, was not particularly well pleased. He assured the Assembly that until the expenses of the government were provided for, in the manner he had indicated, that there would be neither harmony, union, nor cordial co-operation in the three branches of the legislature, and that the real prosperity of the province would be decidedly arrested. The Assembly were quite indifferent as to consequences. They had a duty to perform to their constituents, and meant to perform it. The estimates of the civil list were sent down. The House asked the Governor to lay before it his instructions. The Governor refused. His instructions were confidential and he would not suffer any part of them to become the subject of discussion by the House. A motion to grant a permanent civil list was made and negatived. There were only five ayes to thirty-one nays. The House adhered to the opinion that the supplies ought to be voted and appropriated annually, and not otherwise. The Governor was requested to mention the circumstance to the King, and he promised to do so. The Assembly proceeded to the transaction of other business. The expediency of having an agent to represent the interests of the people, not the Executive of Canada only, in England, was next considered. It occurred to the House that some member of the imperial parliament might be induced to accept the agency, and it was resolved that Joseph Marryatt, Esquire, M.P., should be requested to act as such agent. The resolution of the Assembly was transmitted to Mr. Marryatt, who was also put in possession of the civil list difficulty, with instructions relative to the course of action which it was expected he would adopt. The Council felt annoyed. They looked upon the appointment of Mr. Marryatt as a dangerous assumption of legislative power by the Assembly alone. They considered it a breach of the constitution, a breach of the king's prerogative, a breach of the privileges of the Legislative Council, and as a something which tended to subvert the constitution of the province. This protest had the effect desired by the Council. Mr. Marryatt would not act. Unless the Council concurred in his appointment he could have no weight with the government in England, nor would he be even acknowledged. There was nothing now to be done but to starve the government into submission. The government was not to be conquered by assault. The Assembly determined upon cutting off the supplies entirely. The revenue Acts were, one after the other, suffered to expire. No appropriation was made even for the current expenses of the year. A revenue of thirty thousand pounds a year, or more, part of which belonged to Upper Canada, was sacrificed. The Governor might make advances to the officers of the government, on his own responsibility, or not, as he pleased. But the House would hold the Receiver General personally responsible for all monies levied on His Majesty's subjects, paid over by him on any authority whatever, unless such payments should be authorised by an express provision of law. If anything could arrest the real prosperity of the province, it was now arrested. Some members of the Legislative Council took alarm. Afraid that their resolutions of the previous session interfered with the privileges of the Assembly, they wished to rescind them. The Assembly, in the opinion of a section even of the Council, ought not to be dictated to. The Commons had exclusively the right of dictating their own terms and conditions, with regard to all aids to the Crown. And the object, for which such aids were sought, was of no consequence, as far as their right was concerned. The majority of the Council took quite another view of the matter. One member was particularly severe on the Assembly. The Honorable John Richardson, considered the course pursued by the Assembly, as unconstitutional and overbearing. He characterised their pretensions as subversive of the prerogatives of the Crown, and indicative of a desire to have the absolute control of the government. Their proceedings were revolutionary. From day to day secret committees were in session. Grievances were mischievously hunted up. Their measures were precisely similar to those which preceded the fall of Charles the First, and the French revolution. And, at that very moment, there was a committee of the Assembly sitting, the members of which were in consultation, about replacing the distinguished personage who resided at the Castle of St. Lewis. Mr. Richardson was being quietly listened to by several members of the Assembly. They resolved to move in the matter. The sayings and doings of Mr. Richardson were accordingly brought under the notice of the Assembly. Mr. Quirouet informed the Lower House that he had heard the Honorable John Richardson, one of the members of the Legislative Council say, in reply to the Honorable Mr. Debartzch, who had moved for the rescission of the rules relating to the civil list, that there was a secret committee sitting in the House of Assembly, deliberating on the appointment of a governor of their choice, and on the removal of the person now in the castle; and that the committee, which was, perhaps, one of public safety, sat without the knowledge of several members of the House, a thing without example in England, except in the time of Charles the First. A committee of five members was appointed to obtain further information. The committee ascertained that everything reported by Mr. Quirouet was true. A spirited debate ensued. The conduct of Mr. Richardson was looked upon as atrocious. Mr. Richardson too was the senior member of the Executive Council, and on him the government of the province might devolve. He was entirely unworthy of confidence. He was the enemy of his country. It was resolved that his language was false, scandalous, and malicious; that he had been guilty of a high contempt of the Assembly; that he had made an odious attempt to destroy His Majesty's confidence in the fidelity and loyalty of the Assembly, and of the people of the province, and that he had been guilty of a breach of the rights and privileges of one branch of the legislature. It was further resolved to inform the Legislative Council of the Assembly's opinion of the discourse of the Honorable John Richardson, with the request that the Council would inquire into the charge which they preferred against him and were prepared to substantiate, so that the Honorable John Richardson might be adequately punished. And it was still further resolved that the Governor General should be informed of the libelous language of the Honorable John Richardson, and of the desire of the Assembly that he should be removed and dismissed from every place of honor, trust, or profit, which he might hold under the Crown. These resolutions of the Assembly, respecting the conduct of the Honorable John Richardson were taken by special messengers to the Governor and to the Legislative Council. The Governor considered the resolutions undignified. They were as much a breach of the privileges of the Council as the remarks of Mr. Richardson would have been a breach of the privileges of the Assembly if uttered anywhere else than in the Council. Mr. Richardson had a perfect right to express himself freely in parliament. Freedom of debate was as necessary to the Upper as it was to the Lower House. He distinctly refused to dismiss Mr. Richardson from any office of honor, trust, or profit, which he might hold. The Council, so far from proceeding to punish Mr. Richardson for his outspokenness, looked upon the resolutions of the Assembly as a flagrant breach of its privileges, and would take no measures with regard to the language made use of towards the Assembly, by Mr. Richardson, until the Assembly apologised to the Council for its interference with the rights of the Legislative Council. Mr. Richardson even repeated the substance of his observations in the debate which had given offence, in still stronger language. He had little to fear, and he knew that the Assembly had taken a position which they could not sustain. He held no office under the Crown. He was a legislator and Executive Councillor, but not a placeman. Indeed the Assembly were becoming ashamed of themselves. Instead of attacking the Council in return for the attack made upon them, they had taken it for granted that their proceedings were not liable to be commented upon at all. They pretended to represent public opinion and yet would not tolerate the expression of any opinion adverse to themselves. But public opinion prevailed. They were compelled to edge out of their difficulty by representing in a resolution that it was the incontestable right of the Assembly to prevent any breach of their privileges, by every constitutional means in their power. So the matter rested.

A message came to the Assembly from the Governor. It had reference to certain grievances submitted by the Assembly to the King. The Governor had been commanded to inform the Assembly that the Lieutenant-Governor had been ordered to repair to Quebec, and to reside in the province during his tenure of office; that a Lieutenant-Governor for Gaspé was necessary and should be provided for; that the successor to the Provincial Secretary should be a resident officer, but that the present absent incumbent was not to be dispossessed without adequate compensation; and that the present agent of the province, in the colonial office, had not been guilty of misconduct, and the office of agent which he held was not to be abolished. The message was anything but satisfactory, and the Assembly grumbled audibly.

Another message was sent to the Assembly informing the House that the Governor intended to apply the territorial and casual revenues, fines, rents, and profits, which were reserved to the French King, at the conquest, and belonged to the King of Great Britain on the surrender of the country, the monies raised by statutes of the imperial parliament, and the sum of £5,000 sterling raised by the provincial statute 35th George the Third, chapter 9, towards the support of the civil government and the administration of justice. And he called upon the Assembly, as they had refused the civil list, to defray the cost of certain local establishments, the expenses of the legislature and the necessary expense of collecting the revenue. The Assembly assured the Governor of their great satisfaction that he had not questioned the constitutional doctrine which they had enunciated, that the public money should only be applied conformably to law. They were indeed sorry that the standing rules of the Council prevented their House from entertaining even the hope that its invariable disposition to provide for the necessary expenses of the civil government could have its proper and legal effect. But they would grant no supplies whatever. This manoeuvre might have been most successfully practised upon the government of Lower Canada, if it had not also affected Upper Canada. The supplies of Upper, as well as of Lower Canada, were cut off. Quebec was the only seaport the two provinces had. It was in Lower Canada that the duties on imports were levied. Of these import duties Upper Canada was now entitled to a fifth, instead of an eighth, as at first agreed upon. And if the whole was sacrificed, the value of a fifth of the whole would not amount to much. The government, and, indeed, the whole people of Upper Canada were annoyed at the loss of revenue inflicted upon the country, for the sake merely of principle. But that was not all. Upper Canada was already so rapidly increasing in population that a fifth of the whole duties collected was not looked upon as her fair share of receipts. Her commissioners desired a larger share of the incomings. Lower Canada would not grant the increase and there was another difficulty between the provinces. The subject was brought under the consideration of the imperial parliament, by Upper Canada, through the instrumentality of an agent, in London, appointed to communicate with the government at home. The parliament of Lower Canada was prorogued on the 18th of February. Lord Dalhousie was satisfied that no benefit to the public could be expected from a continuance of the session, and had come to prorogue the parliament. He regretted that the supplies had been withheld, but neither the civil government, nor the officers of justice, nor any of the officers of the government or of the courts would be at all affected. The mischievous effects of their proceeding would fall upon trade and of course be highly injurious to His Majesty's loyal and faithful subjects, who should know how to bring about a remedy. He was much pleased with the conduct of the Council. The Governor General had received an idea from Mr. Ryland, with which he was quite delighted. It now seemed to His Excellency that he would soon bring the Commons of Canada to their senses. Had Mr. Ryland been called upon to point out a remedy for the existing difficulties in the government, he would have said to lord Dalhousie:--either unite the legislatures of Upper and Lower Canada, or, by giving a fair representation to the townships, secure an English influence in the House of Assembly. Perfect the constitution by creating an hereditary aristocracy, for which the Crown Reserves were originally set apart, and make the Legislative Council so respectable as to render a seat therein an object of ambition to every man of character and talent. Exercise decidedly the patronage of the Romish Church, and give the Romish Bishop clearly to understand that the slightest opposition on his part to this regulation would put an end to his allowance of £1,500 sterling per annum. Admit no more coadjutors, secure a permanent revenue, adequate or nearly adequate to the expenses of the civil government. Ascertain to a farthing the monies that actually are or ought to be in the Receiver General's chest. Give to that officer an adequate salary, and take effectual means to prevent one shilling of the public monies from being employed by him in future in commercial speculations. Accomplish these objects, as you easily may, and be assured that good sense and upright intentions, on the part of His Majesty's representative, will thereafter be fully adequate to get the better of every difficulty that has hitherto attended the provincial government. This scheme of a remedy for existing difficulties was submitted by the Earl of Dalhousie to the government of England. A bill was indeed introduced into the imperial parliament, for a legislative union of the two provinces, and for the regulation of trade in Canada. A majority of the Commons of England would not, however, listen to the proposal for a legislative union of the provinces, for which no desire had been expressed by either Upper or Lower Canada. The sense of the inhabitants of the Canadas should first have been obtained. To this opposition the imperial ministry were compelled to yield, and therefore that part of the bill which related to the union was relinquished. The other part of the bill, afterwards known as "The Canada Trade Act," became law. By it the claims of Upper Canada were recognised, and to guard that province against the caprice of the lower province, all the duties payable under Acts of the legislature of Lower Canada, on imports, were to be permanently continued, according to the latest agreement, in July, 1819. The two temporary provincial Acts, 53 and 55, George III, chapter 2, and 85, George III, chapter 3, including that which had been suffered to expire were revived, and became permanent Acts, only liable to repeal or alteration, by Lower Canada, with the concurrence of Upper Canada. New duties on imports by sea could not be imposed by Lower Canada without the consent of Upper Canada, without the special interference of the imperial parliament. It was no wonder that Lord Dalhousie spoke ironically of the effect to be produced by the stoppage of the supplies. The measure was not, however, judicious. It was in the highest degree irritating to Lower Canada. It was a positive grievance, and indeed it was a partial destruction of the constitution, at the instance of a placeman. There was one good thing in the Act. The power of commuting the seigniorial or feudal tenure into free and common soccage was given to the censitaire in transactions with the crown.

This rude assault upon the Commons of Lower Canada came at an unfortunate period. Both provinces were suffering. Agriculture and commerce were in distress. Agricultural and commercial distress had also afflicted the mother country. People were unwillingly idle, and consequently, discontented. The regulations then existing in Great Britain, with respect to the importation of grain and flour from the Canadas were alleged to amount almost to a prohibition. To the operation of these regulations Canadian distress was attributed. Unless relief were speedily obtained, the certain ruin of the entire farming and commercial interests was expected to ensue. The difficulties occasioned by the obstruction to Canadian navigation, in winter, rendered it impossible for the Canadian farmer to compete fairly or with a reasonable chance of success, in the English markets, with the United States. American produce was admitted into Lower Canada, for consumption, free of duty, to the prejudice of Upper Canada, and was a direct violation of the reciprocity which ought to exist between the two provinces, as it depressed the price of Upper Canada produce, and rendered nugatory the laws existing for its protection. And unless the flour of Upper Canada should be admitted into the English market on terms of greater favor, the imports from Great Britain would entirely cease. The Upper Canadians wished the repeal of the corn bill. They wanted the monopoly of the supply of the West Indies. They desired a corn bill for themselves. And they did not know precisely what they desired for the riddance of their distress. It was at this season that the "Canada Trade Act" came into force, and that the propriety of uniting the two provinces was to be considered by the people. In Lower Canada the contemplated re-union of the provinces was not relished. Upper Canada was indifferent and perhaps rather in favor than opposed to the scheme. To Lower Canada it forboded the loss of caste, usages, and religion, while to Upper Canada it indicated only a more extended sphere of legislative action, and the direct control of the general revenue for improvements. The Union Bill was well conceived. The Governor was to have erected the townships, previously unrepresented, into counties, of six townships each, with a member for every county. The qualification for a seat in the Assembly was to be the unincumbered possession of landed property to the value of £500 sterling. The House was to consist of not more than one hundred and twenty members, and of not more than sixty members for either province. Four ministers were to have seats in the House and to have the liberty of speech without the right of votes, in the shape of two members from each of the Executive Councils of Upper Canada and of Lower Canada. The duration of the parliament was to be five years. There was to be no power of imprisonment for alleged contempts given to either House. The proceedings of both Houses were to be recorded in the English language, and in fifteen years afterwards, the English language only was to be made use of in debate. The free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion was to be respected, subject to the king's supremacy, and to the collation or induction into cures--a privilege until then enjoyed by the Bishop superintending the Romish Church in Canada. Here was Mr. Ryland's scheme to the letter. It gave evidence of some ability. It was the scheme of a lifetime, of one zealous in the cause of the Church of England. How the Lower Canadians were to have been induced to consent, is not easily guessed at. It is true Mr. Ryland intimates that the Bishop's salary could be withdrawn, and that no more coadjutors should be allowed. But the Bishop was not the only clergyman of the Church of Rome in the province, and the See of Rome has its instruments in every ecclesiastical grade. The priests, as a body were very much annoyed at the Union Bill. They did not fail to declaim against it. Nor were they to be blamed. The French Canadians were indeed, to a man, opposed to the union. The English population were, of course, in favor of the scheme. Horrified at popery, an Englishman honestly believed that popery had no rights in a country possessed by a protestant king. It could be tolerated but not legally maintained. Of course when the King became Bishop of the Church in Canada, the Pope was virtually deposed, and the deposition of the Pope in England is indeed the most essential difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome. The people of Montreal were most actively in favor of Mr. Ryland's admirable scheme of religious conversion. Of 80,000 people who had come into the province since the American war scarcely a twentieth part had remained within the limits of the province, the rest having been induced by the foreign character of the country in which they had sought an asylum, and the discouragements they experienced, to try their fortune in the United States. The division of the Province of Quebec, into Upper and Lower Canada, had been impolitic. Had a fit plan of representation been adopted the British population would have now exceeded the French, and the imports and exports of the country have been greatly beyond their present amount.[34] It is not a little extraordinary to find that the English speaking inhabitants of the province complained of the unreasonable extent of political rights which had been conceded to Lower Canada. Mr. Neilson was not of these complainants. Mr. James Stuart was. The Canadians had deserted Mr. Stuart and he now deserted them. Mr. Neilson had not been yet deserted by those whom he had served, and he had not therefore cause for desertion. Messrs. Neilson and Papineau went home in charge of petitions against the contemplated union of the provinces, while Mr. Stuart went to London with the petition of the unionists in his pocket. The mob was merely prejudiced. There was no politics in the heads of the ordinary people, whether of French or English extraction. But the English hated the French, and the French disliked the English, because neither understood the other. It was enough for the English speaking population that the government was English, to secure their sympathies to the government, and it was enough for the French speaking part of the population to know that the Assembly was chiefly Franco-Canadian to secure their sympathies to the Assembly. Lord Dalhousie and the red-tape-nobility looked upon both only as _canaille_. His lordship was the emperor; the judges, the bishops, and the secretaries, were the marshals and princes of an empire of serfs--of crown serfs and of serfs of the soil. But, however that may have been, two events of some importance had occurred. The Lieutenant-Governor of the province, Sir Francis Burton, had arrived at the scene of his labors, and Sir John Caldwell, the Receiver General, had become insolvent towards the province, in the sum of £100,000. The difficulties of Lord Dalhousie's reign were on the increase. The union and intended extinction of Lower Canadian nationality was not a matter to be so easily effected as at first anticipated. His lordship again assembled parliament on the 10th of January, 1823. The Clerk of the Assembly informed the noble Earl, at the head of the government, that the Speaker, Mr. Papineau, had gone to England. The Governor ordered the Assembly to elect another Speaker in his stead. They did so, and their choice fell upon Mr. Vallières de St. Réal. The choice was approved of. Lord Dalhousie thereupon opened the session. He told the Houses that an Act had been passed regulating the trade of Lower Canada with the United States of America, and the intercourse between Upper and Lower Canada, an adjustment of the differences subsisting between the two provinces being provided for. He further intimated that the imperial government contemplated the union of the two provinces, but had withdrawn the measure until the next session of the imperial legislature, with the view of ascertaining the sentiments of the Canadian people on the matter. He hoped that the subject would receive attention, and the deliberations of the parliament be distinguished for moderation. He had been somewhat embarrassed by the stoppage of the supplies, but had done as much as he could to avert inconvenience, by paying up the usual expenses for the half year then current, though he had not felt himself justified in doing so beyond that period, and there consequently remained a very considerable arrear due to the public servants. A full statement of the receipts and expenditures for the year would be laid before the Assembly, together with an estimate of the probable expense in the present year of those local establishments for which the Assembly were bound in duty to provide. He trusted that the whole financial accounts would be brought to a clear and final arrangement. He was convinced that the Assembly regretted that the progress of the public interests had been interrupted. And without dwelling upon the past, he would earnestly recommend them to consider the incalculable injuries which had been accumulated on the province, while the executive branch of the constitution remained disabled from exercising its just and legitimate and most useful powers. The Assembly were pleased to learn that the imperial parliament had suffered the measure for the union of the two provinces to lie over until the opinion of the Canadian people had been ascertained, and indeed they fairly echoed in their reply the speech from the throne. A call of the Assembly was ordered for the 21st of January, to consider the union question. The Upper House, with the exception of the Honorables John Richardson, Herman W. Ryland, Charles W. Grant, James Irvine, Roderick McKenzie, and Wm. B. Felton, were decidedly opposed to the contemplated union. The Assembly believed that the union of two provinces, having laws, civil and religious institutions, and usages essentially different, would endanger the laws and institutions of either province; and that there would thence result well-founded apprehensions respecting the stability of those laws and institutions, fatal doubts of the future lot of these colonies, and a relaxation of the energy and confidence of the people, and of the bonds which so strongly attached them to the mother country. The resolutions of both Houses were embodied in addresses to the King and Parliament of Great Britain. Those to the King the Governor was requested to transmit, and those to the two Imperial Houses of legislation were forwarded to the delegates of the anti-unionists, Messrs. Neilson and Papineau.

[34] To-day an agitation has begun for a repeal of the present Act of Union.

A message was sent to the Assembly, officially informing the House of the arrival of Lieutenant-Governor Sir Francis Burton. The message contained another bit of information to the effect that it was necessary that a residence should be provided for His Excellency. It stated still further that a furnished House had been taken for His Excellency, at a yearly rent of £500, for which it was desirable that the Assembly should provide. And the message concluded by recommending the addition of £1,000 a year to the salary of His Excellency, which was then only £1,500, so that with £2,500 a year, and house rent free, he might live in becoming style. The Assembly cheerfully voted these extra allowances to the Lieutenant-Governor. A bill was this session passed, erecting, for judicial purposes, the Eastern Townships into the Inferior District of St. Francis. There was to be a provincial court in the district, and a resident judge, who was to have jurisdiction in personal actions of £20 sterling. A Court of Quarter Sessions in the district was also established. The bill was introduced into the Assembly, and passed, to increase the representation, by giving the Eastern Townships a representation precisely as recommended in the contemplated Act of Union; but the Assembly, to counterbalance the effect which might result from the introduction of six new members into the Assembly, also created an overbalancing number of new French constituencies. The Council consequently rejected the representation bill. Then the estimates of supply were submitted by message. They had been classed into two schedules. One comprehending the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, certain officers attached to the Governor-in-Chief, including the provincial agent in London, the Surveyor General and contingencies of his department; the judges and officers of the Courts; the Executive Councillors (£100 a year each); the Clerk of the Council, and the contingencies of his office and of the committee of audit; the Inspector General of Accounts; the Receiver General's department; and the Clerk of the Terrars, the whole sum to be supplied being £32,083 11s. 3d. sterling. The second schedule included the local establishments--the legislature and its officers; the cost of printing the laws; the salaries to public schoolmasters; the pension list; rents and repairs of public buildings, and the salaries and disbursements in connection with such buildings; the expense of collecting the revenues: the expenses of the Trinity House; the militia staff and contingencies; the expenses for criminals and houses of correction; and miscellaneous expenses, such as the salaries of the Grand Voyer and others, the grants to residents on Anticosti, for the assistance of shipwrecked seamen; and the assessments on public buildings, in all amounting to £30,225 sterling. The Assembly voted the local schedule but not the other. Indeed they protested against being required to do so in the particular manner required. The Assembly next passed bills to reimburse and indemnify His Majesty for monies expended without the sanction of the legislature. The Council did not think it decorous to speak of "indemnifying" the King and rejected the bills. There was yet another money bill to pass the Council. A bill to defray the expenses of the local establishments, in which the different items of expenditure were specified, was sent up for concurrence and was only not rejected on account of the distress to individuals which its rejection would have caused. The Assembly had appropriated monies for the payment of the local establishments, which was to be taken from the general funds of the province. The Council passed the bill under protest because by the term "general," appropriated as well as unappropriated monies might be indicated as under the control of the Assembly. An attempt was made to induce the Council to agree to the nomination of Mr. Marryatt as agent for the province, but the Council refused, and the Assembly allowed the matter to drop. To render the proceedings of the Assembly still more attractive, a breach of privilege case occurred again this session. The _Montreal Times_, a stiffishly unionist paper, had dealt harshly both with the Assembly and Council, in speaking of these two august bodies, as anti-British. The Council was quite indifferent to the imputation, but the Assembly pronounced the assertion of the _Times_ to be a false and scandalous libel upon the House, and a breach of its privileges. In accordance with this judgment, Mr. Speaker was instructed to issue warrants for the arrests of the editor and publishers of the _Times_. One offender, Mr. Ariel Bowman, was taken into custody, but Mr. Edward Sparhawk, the other offender, could not be found. Mr. Bowman was not long a prisoner. He escaped from custody soon after being taken, and neither of the offenders were subsequently caught during the session, so that both eluded the punishment due to an offence which was very heinous only in the sight of the Assembly. After this important matter was disposed of, the Governor General intimated that he had advanced £30,000 to the Receiver General, out of the military chest, to enable him to pay the expenses of the civil government, for the half year ending in May, 1822. He called upon the House for re-payment. The reply was pertinent. The House would at once have authorised the Receiver General to return the money out of the sum of £100,000, the balance of the public money which should have been in his hands, if it could have been done, but a balance being due to the province, the Assembly could only look upon the accommodation afforded to the Receiver General as a personal favor to that officer. Indeed the Assembly voted all the sums required for other public purposes, without taking into any account whatever the emptiness of the public chest. The financial affairs of the province were in a curious condition. "My earnest entreaties," says Lord Dalhousie to Mr. Vallières de St. Réal, "to ascertain the state of our finances, have been unavailing. Whilst the legislature has been contending about forms, the substance of the treasury has been used, and the province now stands without any funds which can be called its own, or, worse than that, it has incurred a debt to the military chest of £30,000, advanced in 1822, and £30,000 more advanced this summer of 1823, to which must be added the amount of all unpaid appropriations in last session, a sum not less than £240,000, exclusive of the grant of the Chambly Canal:

Our debt contracted is £ 60,000 Appropriations of 1823 unpaid 24,000 Our necessary expenses for 1824 70,000 Our probable appropriation, including the award to Upper Canada 25,000 --------- £179,000 And our revenue to meet this 90,000."

The recent declaration and exposure of the Receiver General undoubtedly did shew the evils arising from not annually settling the public accounts. The Receiver General had not, however, positively wasted the public revenue. Largely engaged in business he had built sawmills, dammed rivers, and constructed viaducts. He was an enterprising man of business, and doubtless his enterprise had indirectly enriched the province, although as far as the immediate recovery of the money was concerned, for the payment of the civil expenses of the government, the investments had been somewhat selfish and rather injudicious. The Receiver Generalship should not have been in the hands of a person engaged in trade. That was the mistake, and it was one, which the Assembly even had endeavored to remedy when perhaps it was too late.

There were still some other matters of finance meriting legislative attention. The "Canada Trade Act" of the imperial parliament had wonderfully deranged the siege operations of the House. The Assembly was now on the defensive, the governor of the province having been very considerably re-inforced by the energetic measures of the imperial authorities. It was not even considered prudent to make further zigzag approaches. The Assembly resolved upon keeping within their own lines and to defend themselves as well as they could from the vigorous sorties of the enemy, led on by Mr. Ryland. They requested that copies of any addresses to His Majesty by the Legislative Council of Lower Canada or by the Parliament of Upper Canada to the King, or his representative in Lower Canada, might be laid before them. The Governor sent to them an able report of a joint committee of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, alluding to the fruitless negotiations, which had been carried on between the duties' commissioners of the two provinces, a document which had had such weight with the imperial parliament as to have led to the passage of the Canada Trade Act. The Assembly scanned the paper carefully but did nothing. They only said that the Act would receive their most serious attention in the next session of the parliament. They were rather inclined to do business on a more liberal scale than they had manifested at the previous session. An Act was passed to enable the province to commence the construction of a canal between the town of St. Johns, in Canada East, and the village of Chambly, which the company, incorporated in 1818, had been unable, for want of funds to commence. Fifty thousand pounds were appropriated for this purpose. They voted also twelve thousands pounds as an additional appropriation towards the construction of the Lachine Canal; two thousand one hundred pounds for the encouragement of agriculture; eight hundred and fifty pounds were granted to the Montreal General Hospital Society; two hundred pounds were awarded to the Education Society of Quebec; Chief Justice Monk was pensioned in the sum of five hundred and fifty pounds sterling a year; and Mr. Justice Ogden was voted a retiring annual pension of four hundred and fifty pounds sterling. The House then applied to the Governor for a copy of his instructions relative to the application of the Jesuits' Estates Revenues for educational purposes; but the Governor refused to comply with the Assembly's request, because he had not been specially permitted to lay his instructions before the Assembly. The business of the session was concluded, and Lord Dalhousie went down in State to the Legislative Council Chamber, to prorogue the parliament. In his closing speech he expressed the satisfaction with which he had witnessed so much diligence and attention to the business of the country. He was exceedingly well pleased to have had to give the royal assent to the Acts passed to facilitate the administration of justice, to encourage agriculture, to construct canals, to assist trade, and to aid charitable and educational institutions. He thanked the Assembly for the supplies. He regretted that offices for the enregistration of property had not been established. He had transmitted the addresses of both Houses on the subject of the union of the provinces to the king. And he assured the Houses that he esteemed the result of the session at once honorable to parliament and useful to the country.

There was still much anxiety in the country about the contemplated union. Messrs. Neilson and Papineau had not, however, been idle in London. They had strongly pointed out to the imperial government the probability of a relaxation of the energy and confidence of the people of Lower Canada and of the bonds which so strongly attached them to the mother country, if the union was consummated, and their representations weighed with the government, for not long after the prorogation of the Lower Canada parliament it was officially announced by Lord Dalhousie that His Majesty's government had, for the present, determined to relinquish the proposed measure for the legislative union of the provinces.

The parliament of Upper Canada was opened on the 23rd of March. Governor Maitland, in his opening address, spoke of the temporary diminution of receipts from Quebec, as having interfered with the prosperity of the province. He recommended the establishment of an additional circuit and of a second assize. He probably addressed the House for the last time, and he took the opportunity of remarking that he had ever found them guided in their deliberations by a scrupulous attention to the interests of the people as by a proper regard for the honorable support of His Majesty's government. And he concluded by alluding to the contemplated union of the two provinces which, if effected, would extend the field of legislation. In the course of the session, the Assembly represented to the Lieutenant-Governor that they found the travelling expenses of the Judges too high, and that the salaries of all the officers of the government and of the courts were too high. It was recommended that there should be retrenchment, and it was suggested that the scale of remuneration, which existed previous to 1796, was sufficient. The Governor would not hear of a retrenchment, which could only have the effect of placing respectable men in the situation of struggling against actual penury, with the gloomy prospect of starving in old age. A second representation was made by the Assembly, to the effect that confusion resulted from the manner in which the public accounts were kept. There was a want of detail which should be obviated. Sir Peregrine Maitland was quite indignant at this representation. He was answerable for the necessities of the public, and the House of Assembly approached him with the deliberate intention of misrepresenting his administration. Any information, solicited by the Assembly, to be afforded by him, as an act of courtesy, would have been most cheerfully afforded. He did not care for secrecy, and any information desired concerning the public accounts he would, at any time, on a proper application, afford. The House respectfully informed His Excellency that they had not the slightest intention of misrepresenting his administration, but merely ventured to suggest an improvement in the mode of keeping the accounts. So the matter ended. The parliamentary session was rather a protracted one. The Kingston Bank Bill had been a long time before the House, and almost at the close of the session some amendments were made to it. An Orange Society Bill was thrown out of the House, by the casting vote of the Speaker.

Mr. Gourlay, when in Upper Canada, in 1819, strongly recommended, in a letter to the _Niagara Spectator_, the advisability of constructing canals for the improvement of the navigation of the great lakes and the St. Lawrence. His views were most enlightened. He advised the construction of canals on a scale to admit vessels of 200 tons burthen, large enough to brave the ocean, and not inconveniently large for internal navigation. Should it be deemed advisable, says Mr. Gourlay, to have larger vessels in the trade, any additional expense should not for a moment be thought of as an objection. The Lachine Canal is to admit only of boats. This may suit the merchant of Montreal, but will not do for Upper Canada. Indeed I am doubtful if our great navigation should at all touch Montreal, and rather think it should be carried to the northward. As to the line within the province, my mind is made up, not only from inquiries commenced on my first arrival here, but from considerable personal inspection of the ground, as well between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, as below. My opinion is that the navigation ought to be taken out of the river St. Lawrence, near the village of Johnstown, in Edwardsburgh, and let into the Ottawa, somewhere below the Hawkesbury Rapids; probably in that part of the river called the Lake of Two Mountains. By a bold cut, of a few miles, at the first mentioned place, the waters of the St. Lawrence might be conducted to a command of level, which would make the rest of the way practicable, with very ordinary exertion. The idea which has been started by some of raising the navigation by two stages, first into Lake St. Francis, and thence to the higher level, may do for boat navigation; but, for vessels of a large scale it is greatly objectionable. Any benefit to be gained from the lake considered as part of the canal already formed, would be quite overbalanced by the want of a good towing path. A boat navigation may, I think, with benefit to the parts adjoining, be brought up so far as Milrush, through Lake St. Francis, and thence be taken into the line of the grand canal. The advantages to Upper Canada from a navigation on a large scale would be infinite. Only think of the difference of having goods brought here from England, in the same bottoms to which they were first committed, instead of being unshipped at Quebec, unboated and warehoused in Montreal, carted to the ditch canal, and there parcelled out, among petty craft for forwarding to Kingston. Then again at Kingston tumbled about for transport across Lake Ontario; and again, if Amherstburgh is the destination, a third time boated, unboated, and reshipped. Think of the difference in point of comfort and convenience to the merchants here. Think of the greater despatch. Think of the saving of trouble and risk. Think of being unburdened of immediate commissions and profits. Think of the closer connexion which it would form between this province and England. Think of the greater comfort it would afford to emigrants, and how much it would facilitate and encourage emigration. With navigation on a large scale, shipbuilding would become an object of great importance here, and new vessels might be ready loaded with produce to depart with the first opening in the spring. There are but few vessels trading from England to Quebec, which make two voyages in a season, and then it is with increase of risk that the second voyage is performed. Every vessel could leave England, proceed to the extremities of Lakes Michigan or Superior, and get back with ease in a season, or every vessel could leave Lakes Erie or Ontario in the spring, proceed to England, get back here, and again take home a second cargo of produce. In time of war what security would such a scale of navigation yield. It would put all competition on the lakes out of the question. Upper Canada would then possess a vast body of thorough bred seamen and ship carpenters, with abundance of vessels fit to mount guns, not only for their own individual defence, but to constitute a navy at a moment's notice. In a commercial competition too, the Great Western Canal of the States would be quite outrivalled by such a superior navigation. Upwards, except at the Falls of St. Mary, where a very short canal would give a free passage, navigation is clear for more than a thousand miles, and when population thickens on the wide-extended shores of the Upper Lakes, only think how the importance increases of having the transport of goods and produce uninterrupted by transhipment. Such was Mr. Gourlay's dream in the jail of Niagara. It is now reality. Ships of war, American and British, have passed from Lake Ontario down the St. Lawrence to the ocean, the ship _Eureka_ embarked passengers for California, at Cleveland, in Ohio, and passed down the St. Lawrence to sea, safely reaching her destination on the Pacific, and sea-going vessels have been built in Kingston to ply between that port and Liverpool direct. Steamships pass up the St. Lawrence canals and down the St. Lawrence rapids. Canada is advancing with giant strides, small as her beginning was. It was in November, 1823, that George Keefer, J. Northrop, Thomas Merritt, William Chisholm, Joseph Smith, Paul Shipman, George Adams, John Decoes, and William Hamilton Merritt, advertised in the _Upper Canada Gazette_ that, as freeholders of the district of Niagara, they intended to petition the legislature at the next session of parliament, to incorporate a company for the purpose of connecting the Lakes Erie and Ontario, by a canal capable of carrying boats of from twenty to forty tons burthen, by the following route:--To commence at Chippewa, ten miles above the mouth of that creek, on the farm of John Brown, from thence to the head of the middle branch of the twelve mile creek, at G. Vanderbarrack's, from thence to John Decoes, passing over to the west branch of the twelve mile creek, on the farm of Adam Brown, and continuing along the said stream to Lake Ontario. From the Chippewa to Grand River, either from the forks of the Chippewa, through the marsh, or from Oswego, whichever may prove most advantageous,--and for the erection of machinery for hydraulic purposes, on the entire route.

There was a beginning by men whose names are familiar to the Canadians. These were some of the pioneers of improvement, and some of them yet living have to combat the vulgar or interested reproach of being possessed with ideas of utopian schemes. But it is time to turn again to the baser things of Lower Canada. Lord Dalhousie, who had paid a visit to Nova Scotia, immediately after the prorogation of the parliament of Lower Canada, returned to Quebec in August. In October he established a new official Gazette. The commission of King's Printer given to Mr. Samuel Neilson, in 1812, was revoked, and Dr. John Charlton Fisher, who had been the editor of the _Albion_, published in New York, was commissioned as the printer in Canada, to the King's Most Excellent Majesty. Dr. Fisher was a man of gentlemanlike exterior, of good address, of superior educational acquirements, of fair mental capacity, and, in a word, a gentleman and a scholar. He was an Englishman, and passionately loyal. But he was no match in shrewdness for Mr. Neilson, who was now more bitterly opposed to the government than ever. Dr. Fisher was, however, beyond any question, better suited for the management of a court journal than Mr. Neilson could have been. Mr. Neilson was a colonist and deeply imbued with that spirit of independence which is natural to the resident of a country far removed from the extremes of majesty and misery. Dr. Fisher had been the resident of a town in England, an officer of the English militia, and having had long to live on smiles, he smiled again to live. He was a courtier.

There was a considerable immigration both in 1822 and 1823. In 1822, 10,465 immigrants had arrived at Quebec. This year 10,188 immigrants had arrived. Nearly 60 families, consisting of 200 persons, the majority of whom were Quakers, had come from Bristol, in England to settle in Upper Canada.

The legislature of Lower Canada was again summoned to meet for the despatch of business, on the 25th of November. It was the last session of the parliament. Lord Dalhousie in opening the session apologised for the statements about financial difficulties, which he was obliged to make so frequently. He entreated the House to proceed with the public business harmoniously. He recommended the further consideration of the judicature bill, and his message of the 4th of February, calling attention to the expediency of enacting a law for the public registry of instruments conveying, changing, or affecting real property, with a view to give greater security to the possession and transfer of such property, and to commercial transactions in general, which had been overlooked in the previous session. And the Assembly proceeded to business. Thereupon Lord Dalhousie officially informed the House that he had suspended the Receiver General from the performance of the duties of his office. The Governor had directed his attention after the close of the previous session, to ascertain the state of the funds upon which large appropriations had been granted, and there appeared to be £96,000 in the hands of the Receiver General. But when His Excellency had called upon that officer to declare whether he was prepared to meet warrants to that amount, various accounts and statements shewing claims on the part of the province, on the imperial treasury, and the military chest, the payment of which into his hands would enable him to meet the demands of the government and, in time, to pay up the actual balance of his accounts with the public men, were submitted to him. He was not then prepared with the balance required to meet the warrants for the public salaries, and he requested that the warrants might not be issued until the 1st of July, when the revenue of the current year would place funds in the chest. Lord Dalhousie agreed to the Receiver General's request, concerning the time of issuing the warrants; but the question as to the repayment of the sums claimed by the Receiver General as due to the province, being one on which His Majesty's government alone could decide, Mr. Davidson was sent to England, on the part both of the government and of the Receiver General, with voluminous papers to be submitted to the Lords of the Treasury. When, however, Lord Dalhousie returned to Quebec from Nova Scotia, he was informed by the Receiver General that he was unable to meet any further warrants to be drawn upon him. Under such circumstances it only remained for the Governor-in-Chief to appoint a commission of two gentlemen to inspect and control the operations of the Receiver General; and he took upon himself the responsibility of granting loans from the military chest, to meet the urgent necessities of the civil government. But two days before the House had been assembled, no intimation having been received from the imperial authorities, that the claims advanced by the Receiver General, on the part of the province, would be admitted, he had been compelled to suspend the Receiver General until the pleasure of the king should be known with regard to him, or, at least, until arrangements should be made for replacing the deficient balance in the public chest. Mr. Caldwell was to be pitied, if not excused. His father, his predecessor in the Receiver Generalship, had left him a defalcation of £40,000 to be made good from a salary of £500 a year. Mr. Caldwell was compelled to engage in trade, and he did engage in trade successfully. He acquired large property. His estate at Lauzon was worth £1,500 a year, but then he bought his estate, to make good his father's deficiencies, by trading on the public monies, and he entailed the estate on his son, to prevent its falling into the hands of the province, with whose means he had improved it, previously to announcing that he was a defaulter towards the province to the extent of £96,117. This was not honorable and deserves neither pity nor excuse. The courts of law would not countenance the entail. The pretended entail was dismissed in the Canadian courts and dismissed in the courts of law in England. It was not to be supposed that Mr. Caldwell could keep an estate improved at the public expense, on the condition only of paying, during his life, £1,500 a year, out of it, to government. But Mr. Caldwell had a claim upon the province. He had paid out large sums of money, for which he was as much entitled to 3 per cent as was the Receiver General of Upper Canada. He and his father had received a million and a half, the per centage on which, at 3 per cent, was £45,471, which ought in equity to be allowed him. He would pay, moreover, £1,000 a year, in the event of his restoration to office, with a provision, by the legislature, suited to its responsibility. Now it does seem that if Mr. Caldwell was prepared to pay so many thousands a year, on certain conditions, there was no necessity for his default. The House would have nothing whatever to do with Mr. Caldwell. He was not their officer, and he was a defaulter. The imperial government were bound to make good the Receiver General's defalcation, and they would address His Majesty on the subject. They did so. It was alleged that Mr. Caldwell was an officer of the imperial government, over whom the provincial government had no control, and that he had lost to the province £96,117 13s. and one farthing, which it was right that the government of England should make good to the government of Canada. The Assembly proceeded to another matter. On the motion of Mr. Bourdages a committee was appointed to consider the propriety of erecting an equestrian statue "_in memoriam illustrissimi viri D. Georgii Prevost, Baroneti, Hujusce Provinciæ, Gubernatoris, Atque Copiarum Ducis Canadarum Servatoris_." The statue was never erected, the excuse being simply "no funds." The subject of tea smuggling was brought before the House. The revenue had been seriously affected by the illicit importation of Bohay, Souchong, and Oolong, from the United States. Canada was desirous of obtaining "Gunpowder" from other and more profitable sources, and addressed the king to know if tea could not be obtained direct, either by some arrangement with the East India Company, for an annual supply, or by granting to His Majesty's subjects the benefit of direct importation. The king's ministers advised the East India Company to have no more colonial tea difficulties, and tea sufficient for the consumption of the province of Canada was annually sent to Quebec, in the company's ships, until the company ceased to be concerned in the tea trade. Messrs. Neilson and Papineau had returned to Quebec from London, and had reported that the consideration of the union of the provinces would not be resumed without previous notice being given to the inhabitants of the province. The Canada Trade Act was discussed and defended by Mr. Papineau on the plea of necessity. The supplies were then considered, voted as before, _item_ by _item_, and twenty-five per cent discounted on every salary, to make up for the Receiver General's defalcation. The Legislative Council rejected the supply bill as soon as it appeared in their chamber, and implored His Majesty to consider the state of the province, out of tenderness to his loyal subjects in Lower Canada, and to grant a remedy for the withholding of the supplies. But there was a subject of somewhat greater importance brought to the attention of the parliament in a message to Congress by the President of the United States. The American government claimed the right of freely navigating the St. Lawrence from their territories, in the west, to the sea. It certainly was a pity that the right was not conceded. The whole province of Canada would have gained by the increase of shipping to its waters. The Council were, however, much alarmed and addressed the Governor, deprecating such a concession, as contrary to the law of nations, in similar cases; dangerously calculated to affect the dependence of the colony, on the parent state; as having a tendency to systematize smuggling and as pernicious to British interests, in a variety of ways. They had further learned that Barnharts' Island, in the St. Lawrence, situated above Cornwall, in the Upper Province, was to be conceded to the Americans. They were apprehensive that the navigation of the St. Lawrence, between Upper and Lower Canada, was to be impeded or placed at the mercy of the States, and they suggested a reciprocal right of navigation, during peace, of the several channels of the St. Lawrence, south of the forty-fifth degree of north latitude, although they had prayed the king not to grant the reciprocal right of navigation in the St. Lawrence, north of that latitude, in time of peace. The Assembly paid no attention to the matter.

The Lower House, however, was beginning to be, on the whole, somewhat factiously disposed. For the most part, the positions assumed by the Commons of Canada, were correct positions, but they were not incapable of doing mischievously silly things. Indeed, while jealous to an extreme, of power in others, they claimed extraordinary powers, rights, and privileges for themselves. They would not have their proceedings commented upon either by the Governor, the Legislative Council, or the press. The slightest attempt to curb them was a breach of privilege, a simple remonstrance was something malicious, false, or libellous. They were occasionally pettish. A war losses Act had been passed in Upper Canada. The brunt of the war of 1812, had fallen upon the inhabitants of the Upper Province. There, whole villages, had been burned, by the enemy, and grain fields laid waste. It was only right to indemnify the sufferers. Upper Canada was, however, totally destitute of means. The cost of her civil government had been altogether defrayed out of the imperial treasury, until very recently. She only received, for all purposes, a fifth of the duties on imports collected at Quebec. To enable the government of Upper Canada to carry out the objects sought to be attained by the passage of the War Losses Act, the British government had consented to a loan of £100,000, the interest on one half of which the British government guaranteed. The other half, £2,500, was to be provided for by Upper Canada. How to manage it was the difficulty. Already the government had been compelled to resort to the miserable stratagem of heavily taxing traders, so that any dumb inhabitant of the province, and every implement of trade appeared to be the absolute property of the government, distributed among the people for a consideration. Neither a man's ox nor ass was his own. He paid to government a consideration, not for the land on which the cattle grazed, nor on the profits which they yielded, but for using them. It was a similar kind of stupidity to that which in Scotland and England refused to permit a man to make a pair of trowsers, sole a boot, or set up types, however capable he might have been, unless he had served an apprenticeship to the craft of seven years. It was not considered that while the horses of a pleasure carriage would be a proper source of revenue to a government, a carter's horse is not a proper subject for taxation. It was not considered that the laborer should give of the fruits of his labor an offering to the State which countenances and protects him, while labor is not to be prevented by taxation. It was not considered that while manufactured goods are properly dutiable, it is unwise to tax the raw material. An occupation ought not to be taxed. It is a wrong policy to tax an auctioneer, a pedlar, a carter, a merchant, a tavern keeper, or an editor, because of his occupation; but the stuffs which are traded in may very properly be taxed. Yet occupations were taxed in Upper Canada, and, of course, rather to the disadvantage than advantage of the province. It would not do to increase the taxation on inn keepers, pedlars, hawkers, boatmen, and on public carriages on land or water. The only way in which money could be raised was by the imposition of higher duties on imported goods, and the Upper Canada Assembly therefore requested the Assembly of Lower Canada to impose new duties on imports sufficient to make up the annual interest on the war losses loan, required from Upper Canada. But the Lower Canadian Assembly would not impose new taxes upon imports for any such purpose. They sympathised with the sufferers, but as all the disposable resources of both provinces had been employed in resisting the unjust charges of the war, it was not now expedient to increase the taxation on imported goods, such as wines, refined sugar, muscovado sugar, or by so much per cent, according to value, on merchandise. The Assembly of Lower Canada would not do anything in furtherance of the views of those who had made such representations to England as had led to the "Canada Trade Act." They did not of course say so. They, however, immediately afterwards, passed a vote of thanks to Sir James Mackintosh and some other members of the House of Commons, who had succeeded in persuading His Majesty's ministers to relinquish their support of a bill introduced into the imperial parliament in 1822, with the view of altering the established constitution of Canada, and the remains of which bill was the "Canada Trade Act." Upper Canada had another way to obtain money from Lower Canada. The Upper had a claim upon the Lower province. There were arrears of drawbacks due by Lower Canada upon importations into Upper Canada during the war, of which no exact entries had been made at the Custom House. The "Canada Trade Act" had provided that the amount due was to be decided by arbitration, and arbitrators appointed, in 1823, had awarded to Upper Canada £12,220. Upper Canada applied to Lord Dalhousie for the money, but his lordship was so embarrassed with financial difficulties that he was compelled to refer the matter to the Assembly. The Assembly would not pay the same sum twice. The Governor had used the money in paying the public officers of Lower Canada, inasmuch as the award had been made in 1823, and from the time of the award the amount due to Upper Canada was not at the disposal either of the government or of the Assembly, but should have been paid to Upper Canada. The Governor had virtually suspended the execution of the Canada Trade Act and had, in consequence, exposed Lower Canada to the misfortune of a renewal of the difficulties with Upper Canada. Lord Dalhousie was pestered with considerable ingenuity. The Assembly of Lower Canada were rapidly becoming conservative or non-progressive. They reported against any attempt being made to abolish the seigniorial tenure, or change any of the institutions of the country, the continuance of which was granted by the capitulations of the colony. They were liberal enough in matters which did not peculiarly interest the French-Canadian population. The Church of Scotland, in Canada, having applied for a proportion of the lands reserved for the clergy of the protestant churches, which had hitherto been exclusively claimed by the clergy of the Church of England, in Canada, the Assembly at once consented and addressed the king on the subject. They were strongly of opinion that even protestant dissenters, from the Churches of England and Scotland had an equitable claim, if not an equal right to enjoy the advantages and revenues to arise from the reserves in proportion to their numbers and their usefulness. The Church of England, in Canada was wroth. It was a pretty thing, indeed, for a Roman Catholic House of Assembly, to presume to represent to the King of Great Britain, and the head of their church, that the word "Protestant" was not exclusively the property of the Church of England. It was high time to close the session, and accordingly, the Governor-in-Chief went down to the Council Chamber, on the 9th of March. He was not pleased. He said, in his prorogation speech, that he did not think the session would prove of much advantage to the public. He would most respectfully tell both Houses his sentiments upon the general result of their proceedings. A claim had been made to an unlimited right, in one branch of the legislature, to appropriate the whole revenue of the province according to its pleasure. Even that portion of the revenue raised by the authority of the imperial parliament and directed by an Act of that parliament to be applied to the payment of the expenses of the administration of justice, and of the civil government of the province, the Assembly claimed the control of. By the other two branches of the legislature that claim had been denied, but it had, nevertheless, been persisted in by the Assembly, and recourse had been had to the unusual course of withholding the supplies, except on conditions, which would amount to an acknowledgment of its constitutional validity. The stoppage of the supplies had caused incalculable mischief to the province; but the country was, nevertheless, powerfully advancing in improvement. The people, generally, were contented. He had hitherto averted the unhappy consequences of the stoppage of the supplies, by taking upon himself certain responsibilities, but as his advice with regard to the payment of the civil list, had been, even yet, unavailing, he would in future guide the measures of the government by the strict letter of the law. He thanked the Council for the calm, firm, and dignified character of their deliberations. And he fervently prayed that the wisdom of the proceedings of the Legislative Council would make a just impression upon the loyal inhabitants of the province and lead them to that temperate and conciliating disposition which is always best calculated to give energy to public spirit, to promote public harmony, and ensure public happiness, the great advantages which resulted from a wise exercise of the powers and privileges of parliament. The Governor-in-Chief of Lower Canada was on his knees fervently praying for that which was not very likely to happen. Energy or public spirit does not ordinarily spring from the temperate and conciliatory tone of such inhabitants of a province as Lord Dalhousie would have considered loyal.

It is desirable to know what Sir Peregrine Maitland was about in Upper Canada. He had made a speech to parliament which he considered to be his last. It was little wonder--Sir Peregrine Maitland was intolerably tyrannical. He had gagged Mr. Gourlay. He had destroyed conventions. He had suppressed public meetings. And he had been censured for it by Sir George Murray. In 1822 the Honorable Barnabas Bidwell was returned to the Upper Canada Assembly as a reformer. Mr. Bidwell was a man of very considerable ability. He was eloquent, and his ideas of civil and religious liberty were liberal. Born a British subject, during the period of the revolution, but too young to take a part in it, he remained in the United States, after the declaration of independence. It was not long before he attained an elevated station in Congress. His talents, however, coupled with his independence of spirit and love of truth made him enemies. A hostility so vindictive was raised against him by his political enemies, that he removed to Upper Canada, in disgust, there only to meet with similar treatment, the result of similar causes. No sooner did the people of Upper Canada begin to show an appreciation of his talents, than the Upper Canadian oligarchy saw in him a formidable rival to be got rid of by any means. A special Act was passed to incapacitate Mr. Bidwell from holding a seat in the Assembly. He was to be considered an alien and to be treated as an alien as the Act directed. Mr. Barnabas Bidwell was expelled. The spirit of opposition to a bad government was not, however, lessened by such a course of action. New champions of the people's privileges arose. Colonial red-tapism and colonial empiric aristocracy could with difficulty sustain itself. Mr. Bidwell's son was brought to the hustings by the supporters of his father. He was not, without difficulty to obtain a seat. At the first election, the returning officer, one of the original Timothy Brodeurs, contrived to give his adversary a majority. A protest was entered, however, and after distinguishing himself in an able defence of his rights at the Bar of the House, the return was set aside.[35] Another election ensued, and the returning officer refused to receive any votes for Mr. Bidwell, on the ground of his being an alien. The return was again protested against, and the election again set aside. At last a fair election was allowed, when Mr. Bidwell, junior, was triumphantly returned to parliament. In 1824, many other reform members were elected to parliament, and on several questions, there was a decided majority against the faction. A new expedient was hit upon to get rid of these intruders. An "Alien Bill," to make aliens of those who had taken advantage of the various proclamations to United Empire loyalists to enter and settle in the province was attempted to be carried. Sir Peregrine Maitland and his advisers were not content with interdicting liberty of speech and liberty of action. They attempted to seize the property and very means of those to whom the faith of the government was pledged for protection. They attempted to sweep out of the country those who had received their titles to lands, thirty years back, and had, for that length of time occupied their farms. And they, consequently, attempted to alienate, and so get rid of men who had enjoyed, for a great length of time, the full privileges of British subjects, and who were British subjects in sympathy and in reality as in law. Indeed it was only by the united exertions of the people that the calamity was turned aside. The concoctors of the scheme took nothing by their motion. Had they succeeded, the advantage would only have been temporary, and the reaction more terrible than it was. Having failed in a design, which the word iniquitous is scarcely sufficient to characterise, the House of Assembly decidedly assumed a progressive or reform character. It was while this silly, as well as unjust measure was being attempted to be carried that an attack of a novel kind was made upon Mr. William Lyon Mackenzie. Mr. Mackenzie had some years previously emigrated to Toronto, from Dundee, in Scotland, where he had been engaged in business, as a merchant's clerk. An excellent accountant, he was probably instrumental in causing it to be pointed out to Sir Peregrine Maitland that the public accounts of Upper Canada were not properly kept. He would have had at any rate no hesitation in doing so. Very small in stature, he had a large head, ornamented with a moderately sized and sparkling light blue eye, and with a nose peculiarly short, and in comparison with his other features, altogether ridiculously small. His nose was in wonderful contrast with a massive fore-head and well-shaped mouth, which even when his tongue stood still, rare as that occurrence was, ever moved. He was peculiarly thin-skinned. The blue veins of his fair face made him seem to have been tatooed. Mr. Mackenzie was then astonishingly active, persevering, and intelligent, as he still is. A more able or a more indefatigable exposer of colonial abuses could not have appeared at a more fitting time. He was undoubtedly the right man in the right place. He had engaged in business, and prospered, in York. He was, at this period, the proprietor of a periodical called the _Colonial Advocate_, wherein the corruptionists of the period were unmasked with very little ceremony or consideration. The "corruptionists," very naturally, desired to put him down. It was a matter, however, daily becoming more difficult to put a man in prison and toss him out of the country on the plea that he entertained opinions which he might give expression to, and revolutionize the country. It was suspected, indeed, by the magnates, that the state of feeling in the country was such that prosecutions could not be maintained against Mr. Mackenzie. It was even believed that they would increase his popularity. Mr. Mackenzie travelled often to pick up information. He went about not so much to create a public opinion as to ascertain it. He was at Niagara with this view when a mob of "gentlemen" stormed his printing office in York. Like all other assaults of the kind, it was, of course, a night attack, and being well managed was quite successful! It was not. In the broad light of day, the press was captured and destroyed, and the type of the _Colonial Advocate_ seized and thrown into Lake Ontario. Nor was this all. Mr. Mackenzie's family and his infirm old mother received the most brutal treatment.[36] The authorities took very little notice of the occurrence. But Mr. Mackenzie appealed to a jury, who, "to the no small discomfiture of the tories, from Sir Peregrine Maitland, down to the lowest menial employed in the political shambles," gave exemplary damages. This had some effect, but not the weight which punishment for the crime would have produced. The risk of having to pay for damages would certainly not have prevented similar violence. The employees or relatives of the Executive Councillors, the Judges, the Attornies, and Solicitors General, and of such distinguished families at home would have continued to destroy presses to this day, gaining more by the suppression of truth and the prevention of free discussion, than they lost in damages, had not an obstacle stood in their way, which it was dangerous to encounter. The liberal press took up a bold position. The speeches in the Assembly, by the leading independents, told upon the country. A spirit of retributive justice had been stirred up, which awed and intimidated the ruling compact. Open violence could not again be resorted to. The subtleties of the law were, however, brought into requisition. Under a show of justice and a pretended bridling of licentiousness, the press might be muzzled or compelled to play one monotonous hymn of praise to the powers above. The libel laws were sufficiently odious to accomplish anything. Mr. Mackenzie was prosecuted for libel. Prosecution followed prosecution, and where truth constitutes a libel, it is surprising how he escaped. The juries would not convict. The eyes of the whole country had been opened, and the conspiracies against the public liberties were observable. Besides, Mr. Mackenzie defended himself, and gave his persecutors nothing to boast of in the rencontres. He never failed to improve these occasions. He entered into every swindling transaction with greater severity than he could have done in his newspaper. Mackenzie always succeeded in an appeal to the people. There were others of his class not so fortunate. A gentleman named Francis Collins, lately arrived in the country, from Ireland, with a small competency, established a newspaper which he called _The Canadian Freeman_. Mr. Collins commented on the ruinous policy of the administration. But he did it too fervently for the tories. Sir Peregrine Maitland, the Governor, ordered him to be prosecuted, and upon what grounds may be gained from the fact of the trial being put off, and the proceedings afterwards discontinued. The end was answered. Smarting under a sense of ill-usage, he became more severe upon the government, and perhaps did ascribe to them more than was true. He was prosecuted by Mr. Attorney General Robinson, a wonderfully able man then, and now Sir John Beverly Robinson, and Chief Justice in Canada West, and with the aid of Messrs. Justices Hagerman and Sherwood, a verdict of guilty was brought in against him. According to a "resolution" of the House of Assembly an "oppressive and unwarrantable sentence" was passed upon him. Whether or no, he was thrust into prison. The House of Assembly applied to the Governor for his release in vain. It was not until the king came to hear of his situation that he was released, with a broken constitution, which brought him to the grave in the flower of his manhood. It was so that Sir Peregrine Maitland and the clique who surrounded him persecuted the press, with the view of concealing from England the true state of public opinion, in the colony. Men submit to terrible injustice before they rebel. An able despot might so manage as to inflict almost unheard of cruelties upon individuals without driving a population to arms. Men with wives and families and properties, however inconsiderable in value such properties may be, are unwilling to risk their all, at the tap of the drum, until wrought up to it by desperation. There is a feeling of respect for authority, a regard for that which is believed to be law, a peculiar sense of duty towards the State in most men, which prevents them from assuming a position even of firmness in the assertion of their rights. In a colony there are thousands who bring with them recollections of home and of home institutions, and who cannot be brought to believe that an English gentleman will pursue a course of policy, as the governor of a colony, which the Queen of England has too much good sense to assume, even if she could do it, in the United Kingdom. Indeed, if a glance is taken behind the curtain, English statesmen will be noticed to have been liberal and well inclined towards the colonists, and have only erred when purposely misled by those whom they had appointed to places of which it was and is a serious mistake for any ministry to have the patronage. Sir Peregrine Maitland did not confine his persecuting operations to gentlemen who gathered statistics, or printed newspapers, and wrote political articles, commenting on an administration for which he only was responsible to the Secretary of State for the colonies. He was not satisfied with having seen a printing press destroyed and the types of a newspaper office sunk in Ontario, but must needs throw a building belonging to a private gentleman over the Falls of Niagara. He was recalled because, in the supposition that the law was too slow for redress, and impatient of contradiction, as some military men are, he caused an armed force to trespass on the property of a gentleman named Forsyth, on the plea that his land belonged to the Crown. The property was situated at the Falls of Niagara. A building stood upon a part of the land claimed for the Crown by Sir Peregrine. The soldiery tumbled the building over the precipice, and the land was free of all incumbrances. The House of Assembly interfered in this matter too. They attempted to obtain the evidence of the officers engaged in the business, but the government would not permit them to testify, the consequence of which was that the Assembly imprisoned them for contempt. So far was their reluctance to give evidence carried, that the Serjeant-at-Arms was compelled to enter by force the house in which they had barricaded themselves. The king was made aware of the whole proceedings, Mr. Forsyth's claim for redress acknowledged, and Sir Peregrine Maitland recalled. It was not too soon. Before this, His Excellency managed to juggle Mr. Robert Randall, the agent of the people to England, against the alien bill, and who was, therefore, one of the proscribed, out of his ample estates on the Niagara frontier, and out of his valuable mill privileges on the Ottawa, by the formality of law, so that he was left bankrupt and penniless, and died in sorrow. Indeed anything in the semblance of a liberal was in those days proscribed in a country possessed of the image and transcript of the British constitution. A peninsular officer, Captain Matthew, a member of the Assembly, who would not receive "new light" at command was set upon by spies. The object was the contemptible one of robbing him of his half-pay. A spy declared that he had once heard him call for "Yankee Doodle," at a play in the metropolis. It was a grievous offence, certainly, even had it been true. But it was enough to deprive a man who had served his country in battle of his half-pay. Indeed, he only could get it back again on condition of repairing to England. He went there to seek redress and died. There were yet other sufferers. Mr. Justice Willis had been elevated from the English bar to the Bench of Upper Canada. There were but three Judges of the King's Bench, in the country, the Chief Justice Campbell and two Puisne Judges. The Chief Justice went to England in search of a knighthood. Mr. Willis was not in favor at Court. He had studiously abstained from mixing himself up with politics. He had indeed refused to be an obsequious Jefferies, and was looked upon, therefore, as opposed to the administration. When term time came, the Chief Justice being in England, Mr. Willis refused to go on with the business of the Court, because there was no one to decide in case of a difference of opinion between him and his brother Justice. It was enough. Sir Peregrine Maitland dismissed him, and appointed Mr. Hagerman, _pro tempore_, in his stead. The newly appointed Judge must have been surprised at his elevation. He was at the very moment of his appointment discharging the onerous and important duties of an officer of the Customs at Kingston. Mr. Willis appealed to the English government and was sustained in the position which he had assumed, but instead of being reinstated in Canada, another office was provided for him in Demerara. The Chief Justice shortly afterwards returned from England as Sir William Campbell, and resigned to make way for the election of Mr. Attorney General Robinson. Hagerman was succeeded by Mr. M'Aulay, a barrister of six years standing, and very cheerfully accepted the humbler office of Solicitor General. Again the House of Assembly interfered with Sir Peregrine Maitland. They represented that Willis had been grossly ill-used, and explained the cause. It was without effect. The beauties of colonial irresponsible government were as discernible in Upper Canada, where there were no seditious, English-hating, Frenchmen, as in Lower Canada. A private gentleman, two editors of newspapers, a member of parliament, a captain in the army, and a judge had experienced some of the benefits derivable from a constitution, the very transcript and image of that of Great Britain, managed by a General of Division and a clique of placemen. The clique were, on the whole, men of genteel education and refined tastes. They formed an exclusive circle of associates. Officers of the army, on full pay, were admitted to the society of their wives and daughters, and no one else but one of themselves, and indeed the gentry of the country consisted of the Governor, the Bishop, a Chief Justice, the Clerk of the Executive Council, a few of the leading merchants, who were members of the Legislative Council, or who were the descendants of an Executive Councillor, or of an Aid-de-Camp, the Colonels of Engineers and Artillery, with such of the other officers of these corps who cared for the society of an honorable possessor of waste lands or Timber Broker, and the officers of the regiments of the line. In the principal towns the clergy of the Church of Scotland were sometimes looked upon as gentlemen. Elsewhere, in common with the clergy of dissenting congregations, they were only on a footing with those many respectable people who cultivated farms, kept shops, or owned steamboats. The banker had not even yet reached that scale of importance which would have entitled him to be considered one of the gentry. Among Governors, Bishops, Chief Justices, Clerks of Council, and officers of the army, it would have been wonderful had there not been men of literary tastes. These tastes did prevail and required gratification. In Lower Canada, it was suggested to Lord Dalhousie that it would do him honor were he to be the founder of a Literary and Historical Society. Lord Dalhousie--who was a really excellent man--although a blundering governor in Lower Canada, where he had such men as Neilson, Stuart, Papineau and even the supple Vallières to thwart him--and anxious to benefit the colony as much as he could at once took the hint. He founded it in Quebec, and became its patron. It was founded for the purpose of investigating points of history, immediately connected with the Canadas; to discover and rescue from the unsparing hand of time the records which remained of the earliest history of New France; to preserve such documents as might be found amid the dust of unexplored depositories, and which might prove important to general history and to the particular history of the province. The Society has not been unproductive of good. Indeed it acquired at one time even a distant reputation. There have been both able and educated men connected with it. The Reverend Daniel Wilkie, LL.D., one of the most eminent teachers of youth, which the country has yet known, a man of great learning, and capable of profound thought, contributed many valuable papers to it. The Honorable Andrew William Cochran, an accomplished scholar, was its President. The Skeys, the Badgleys, the Fishers, the Sewells, the Vallières, the Stuarts, the Blacks, the Sheppards, the Morrins, the Doluglasses, the Reverend Dr. Cook, the Bishops Mountain, the Greens, the Faribaults, and indeed all the men of learning and note in the country were associated with it. But it is decaying. The men, a greater part of whom were, in a political sense, injurious to the country, who were capable of holding up such a society, are being supplanted by more practicable men of inferior literary acquirements, such as the Camerons, the Richards, the Smiths, or the Browns. The literature of the country is increasing in quantity and diminishing in quality, and so it will continue to do until the wealth of the country becomes more considerable. The means for the obtainment of a simply classical education are now at the very door. There are universities in Quebec, Montreal, Kingston, and Toronto, but there are yet only a very few men with time sufficient at their disposal, even in winter, to become Icelandically learned. The society should, however, be maintained, and it would reflect credit on any government to vote it a yearly grant of at least £300. Lord Dalhousie was a benevolent and personally upright man. Among other good things which he did, unconnected with politics, was the gift from the Jesuits' Estates Fund of £300, and a large donation out of his privy purse to assist in the enlargement of St. Andrew's Church; which at an expense of £2,300 was completed in 1824. As a gentleman, no man could have been more respected than the Earl of Dalhousie was. There was nothing despicably mean about him. He was liable to be deceived by others. He never intentionally deceived himself or others. He did not like the French. He did not like diplomacy. The trickeries of the hustings were distasteful to him. He rejoiced in being a good soldier and an honest man, and he would have been glad had all the world been as he was. He should not, however, have been the Governor of Canada, or the Governor of any colony with a constitution, which could only be successfully worked by the most skilful manoeuvring and adroit trickery. His Lordship sailed for England on the 6th of June, 1824, and the government of Lower Canada devolved on the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Francis Nathaniel Burton.

[35] Well's Canadiana, page 162.

[36] Well's Canadiana, page 164.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.