The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation. Volume 1

by Charles Roger

From the time of the landing at Black Rock until the full accomplishment of the object of the expedition, with one, not unimportant, exception, the Americans lost from three to four hundred men in killed and wounded, and one hundred and thirty men taken prisoners, while the British loss was thirty-one men killed, and four officers, sixty-eight men wounded, and nine men missing.

The exception to the full accomplishment of the object of the expedition, that is to say, the burning of private property, was an exception to the general rule of the British army. But as evil, in some cases, must be done that good may follow, the rule, now laid down by General Drummond, was to pillage, burn, and lay waste, in retaliation for Newark. In accordance with this new rule, therefore, General Riall set about doing the only thing which he had left unaccomplished; the destruction of private property. Buffalo and Black Rock, previously deserted by their inhabitants, were set on fire and entirely consumed. Clothing, spirits, flour, public stores, and, indeed, everything which could not be conveniently carried off, fell a prey to the flames.

Thus was the campaign of 1813 terminated.

It might not unnaturally be supposed that during all this fighting, business would have been nearly at a stand. But so far from such being the case, the war had contributed in no small degree to bring Canada and its capabilities into notice. And it could not be otherwise. So large an expenditure as that required for the maintenance of the regular soldiery and militia must have made money plentiful, and such as were engaged in trade, whether in Quebec or Montreal, undoubtedly profitted by an expenditure almost necessarily profligate. On account of the militia alone, the province expended £121,366, and the expenditure of the commissariat department must have been enormous. But the grand source of wealth was the establishment of a kind of National Bank, with specie, to redeem its paper, in the vaults of the Bank of England. The circulation of fifteen hundred thousand pounds worth of army bills, all redeemable in cash, with interest, could not have failed to enrich a country in which there were not more than 350,000 inhabitants, the greater number of whom were actually in the pay of Great Britain, while they had the privilege of attending, unless in extraordinary cases, to their private pursuits. That Canada prospered during the war is undeniable. There was a considerable falling off in the number of vessels cleared at Quebec in 1813, in comparison with the previous year, and which was in some degree attributable to the risk attendant upon crossing the Atlantic, while the great frigates of the United States were permitted to prowl about, but the provincial revenue had, nevertheless, increased in the course of one year to the amount of £30,006, while the provincial expenditure alone was nearly £200,000. Indeed, Montreal, the temporary head-quarters of the commander-in-chief, and literally alive with troops, who all ate and drank heartily, was making rapid progress in the way of commercial advancement. Mr. Molson gave some indication of the general prosperity by placing upon the St. Lawrence a second steamer. On the 4th of May, 1813, the arrival of the Swiftsure is noticed by the Quebec newspapers. The Swiftsure had twenty-eight passengers, besides a serjeant with six privates of the royals, having three Americans, prisoners of war, four deserters from the 100th regiment, and one deserter from the American army, in charge, on board, and had been twenty-two hours and a half in running down. She had a good engine with a safety valve for blowing off surplus steam. The ladies' cabin had eight reposing berths. The gentlemen's cabin was thirty feet in length by twenty-three in breadth, and contained ten berths on each side, and two "forming an angle with the larboard side." The cabin was capable of lodging forty-four persons, and the steerage could accommodate about 150. The Swiftsure was in length of keel 130 feet, her length upon deck was 140 feet, and her breadth of beam was 24 feet.

Lower Canada was then a wheat growing and even wheat exporting country. So early as 1802, Lower Canada exported 1,010,033 bushels of wheat, besides 28,301 barrels of flour, and 22,051 cwt. of biscuit. In 1810, the value of the exports from the St. Lawrence was £1,200,000 sterling. And the farmer of Lower Canada profitted in 1814 by the presence of the floating army population almost to as great an extent as the merchant. Both animal and vegetable foods were largely in demand.

Sir George Prevost, as soon as the temporary cessation of active hostilities, in his immediate neighbourhood, would permit, called a meeting of the Parliament of Lower Canada, for the despatch of business. Two sessions of parliament had been held in Upper Canada, since the commencement of the war, one was opened by Major General Brock, on the 3rd of February, 1812, when eleven Acts were passed, and the other by Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe, during which other eleven Acts became law. They show the temper of the times. An Act was passed in General Brock's ruleship, granting a bounty for the apprehension of deserters from the regular forces; another granted £2,000 for the repair of roads and bridges; a third amended the militia law; a fourth regulated the meeting of sleds on the public roads; a fifth allowed £502 for clerks and the contingent expenses of parliament; a sixth granted £5,000 for the purpose of training the militia; a seventh extended an Act granting a certain sum of money to His Majesty; an eighth granted £1,000 for the purchase, sale, and exportation of hemp, and £423 for the purchase of hemp seed and payment of bounties; a ninth afforded relief to certain persons entitled to claim lands; a tenth amended an Act for the laying out of highways; and an eleventh provided for the appointment of returning officers. While General Sheaffe was President of Upper Canada, an Act was passed to facilitate the circulation of the Lower Province Army Bills. They were to be received in payment of duties and at the office of the Receiver General. A second Act was passed to empower Justices of the Peace to fine and, in the event of non-payment, to distress the properties of persons offending against the militia laws; a third Act prohibited the exportation of grain and other provisions and restrained the distillation of spirituous liquors from grain; a fourth gave a pension of £20 a year to such persons disabled in the war, as had wife or child, to be continued to the widow or the fatherless, in the event of the death of such disabled persons, and disabled bachelors were to obtain, so long as they were unable to earn a livelihood, £12 a year; a fifth prevented the sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians; a sixth continued the Act to provide means for the defence of the province; a seventh repealed the Hemp Encouragement Acts; an eighth continued the Duties Agreement Act; a ninth amended an Act for the better regulation of town and parish officers; a tenth amended and repealed in part the Act for quartering and billetting the soldiery; and the eleventh granted for the clerks of parliament £88 1s. 9d. The debates of course were neither animated nor of particular interest.

In 1814, the parliament of Lower Canada was opened by the Governor General, on the 13th of January. Sir George could meet the legislature with heartfelt satisfaction and pride. The Canadians had acted nobly, both in the field and out of it, while they entertained for himself, personally, a feeling of respect, which he had done his utmost to win, and which it was his aim to preserve. In the speech from the throne, he congratulated parliament, particularly on the defeat of the enemy at Chateauguay. He alluded triumphantly to the brilliant victory over Wilkinson at Chrystler's Farm. He rejoiced that, notwithstanding the various events of the past summer, by which the enemy had gained a footing in the Upper province, the theatre of war had recently been transferred to American soil, and that Niagara, Black Rock, and Buffalo had been wrested from the enemy by British enterprise and valour. He was proud beyond expression, at the determination manifested by the Canadians to defend to the last extremity one of the most valuable portions of His Majesty's dominions. He trusted to Canadian loyalty and patriotism in the expectation that the sacrifices which the war might yet require would be patiently submitted to. And he would faithfully represent to His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, the loyalty, zeal, and unanimity of His Canadian subjects. The Houses trembled with emotion. A thrill of intense satisfaction ran through every vein. Sir George had touched that chord in the human heart, which was never touched in vain. He had spoken of patriotism; he had acknowledged that the brave were brave indeed; and he had admitted that those who had been represented as treasonable were loyal to the core. The House of Assembly expressed their sincere acknowledgements. They felt themselves to have been rescued from most unfounded imputations that had been industriously attempted to be fixed upon them. They were grateful to His Excellency for the good opinion he had formed of them. They would cheerfully co-operate with His Excellency in maintaining the honor and promoting the service of their gracious sovereign. And they further gratefully acknowledged that His Excellency, in his anxious desire to forward the prosperity and to preserve the integrity of the province, had been guided by a just and liberal policy towards His Majesty's Canadian subjects, by which their loyalty, zeal, and unanimity had been cherished and promoted, and they were so impressed with the sense of it that, when His Excellency should withdraw, which they hoped would never be, from the administration of the government of Lower Canada, he would carry with him the good opinion and affection of the people over whom he had ruled so conscientiously, so honorably, and so justly. Sir George Prevost could not be otherwise than well satisfied with the address in reply to his speech. Kindness and conciliation had not been thrown away, but had been met with respect and affectionate regard.

The House proceeded almost immediately to business, and had not been long so employed, when His Excellency sent a secret message, asking for an increased issue of army bills, to meet the public requirements. The House at once authorised an issue to the extent of fifteen hundred thousand pounds. Afterwards the Assembly adopted a bill to amend the militia laws, which the Legislative Council refused to concur in; then a bill was passed to disqualify the judges for sitting or voting in the Legislative Council, which the Council also refused to concur in, on the plea that the bill was an interference with the Prerogative of the Crown, and with their privileges; next a bill was passed in the Assembly and negatived by the Council, to grant His Majesty a duty on the income arising from civil offices, and on pensions, to be applied for the defence of the province, in the war with the United States; again the Assembly adopted a bill for the appointment of a provincial agent in Great Britain, which the Council also set aside. Surprising as so obvious an antagonism between the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly may seem, it is easily accounted for. The Council were, many of them, placemen, and indeed the immaculate and confidential secretary to Sir James Craig, Mr. Witsius Ryland, also Clerk of the Executive Council, had himself a seat in the Upper House, although Mr. Robert Peel, differing in opinion with Sir James Craig, did not think that the situation which Mr. Ryland held was quite compatible with a seat in the Legislative Council. Mr. Ryland has favored the present generation, through the instrumentality of a near relative, with a brief review of the political state of the province of Lower Canada, from which some interesting facts can be gathered. He states that the Assembly knew that their bill for disqualifying the Chief Justice and Justices of the Court of King's Bench from being summoned to the Legislative Council, would be thrown out in the Upper House, but that the introduction of such a bill in the Assembly served the purpose which the party who introduced it had in view: it impressed the mass of the people with a disrespectful idea of the judges, preparatory to a grand attack upon the whole judicature of the province. In the bill for appointing an agent to Great Britain, Mr. Bedard, the person who had been under confinement on a charge of treasonable practices, had been named as such agent, and a salary of £2,000 per annum assigned him. Mr. Ryland knew that the Council would throw out the bill. But, says that gentleman, the Council were thwarted, as Sir George Prevost acceded to a request of the Assembly for the appointment of two such agents, whom he accredited to His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, and the Legislative Council passed several resolves expressive of their astonishment. The Council humbly considered His Excellency's acquiescence with the wishes of the Assembly to be an unequivocal abandonment of the "Rights" of the Legislative Council, and a fatal dereliction of the first principles of the constitution. And with regard to the income tax, proposed by the Assembly, Mr. Ryland states that the whole saving that would have been effected by it, would only have been £2,500 a year, and that the officers of the government who had the utmost difficulty in subsisting on their salaries, would have been, by such a measure, reduced to extreme distress! Now, it is a noticeable fact, in connection with this matter, that the Provincial Secretary, at the period alluded to, was an official in the Colonial Office, and had never seen Canada, although he afterwards received from the province a pension of £400 a year, in consideration of his long and valuable services; and it is in a high degree amusing to find Mr. Ryland informing this functionary "decidedly" and "frankly", that he had acted wisely in not asking for an increase of salary, although it was a different thing to solicit additional assistance in an office where the public business was constantly increasing! Mr. Ryland and a few other such cormorants could not tolerate the impertinent interference of the House of Assembly with their means of subsistence. Nay, it will even appear that Mr. Ryland took it upon himself to privately lecture Sir George Prevost's successor upon the impropriety of following a certain course of action, and that he actually succeeded in dissuading the Governor from his original purpose.

The Assembly, thwarted as it had been by the Council, still pursued its reformatory course. Much time, indeed, did not elapse until Mr. Stuart again brought forward his motion to take into consideration the power and authority exercised by the Provincial Courts of Justice, under the denomination of Rules of Practice. His motion was almost unanimously carried. And who this Mr. Stuart was, Mr. Ryland tells. About 1813, says the Clerk of the Executive Council, "Mr. Bedard, the judge, came to Quebec, for the purpose of advising the measures to be pursued, but not having a seat in the Assembly, the principal management was left to an Anglo-American Barrister, named Stuart, who had been a pupil of the present Chief Justice, (Sewell) when he held the situation of Attorney-General. This gentleman obtained from Lieutenant-Governor Milnes the appointment of Solicitor-General, from which he was dismissed by Sir James Craig, in consequence of his pursuing a line of conduct, which the latter considered utterly inconsistent with his duty as a servant of the Crown." What the particular line of conduct pursued by Mr. Stuart was, that so much offended Sir James Craig, even time and Mr. Ryland have not yet revealed. Perhaps "the Anglo-American Barrister" did not bow sufficiently low to confidential Secretaries and Executive Clerks. He would have found such obsequiousness difficult. Mr. Stuart was both vigorous in mind and body, and was very far from being a common man. He stood more than six feet high, and was built in proportion. His shoulders were broad, his chest ample, and his arms long. His head was immoderately large. His countenance was commanding and his bearing dignified. He spoke with great fluency and with astonishing conciseness. His eye was large, his forehead prominent, lofty and broad, with great depth between the brow and the occiput, his nose was long and aquiline, with the nostrils open; his mouth was large, but the lips were thin; and the chin was square and somewhat prominent; viewed, in profile, the whole head was wall-sided. He was no man to be trifled with, and none other than a fool would at any time, have thought of doing so. The Chief Justice Sewell, also an Anglo-American, was also an exceedingly talented man, but still a man quite of another stamp of mind, to that of Mr. Stuart. Mr. Sewell was thoroughly polished. No man could so well bow to power or so well bend an inferior to his will as Mr. Chief Justice Sewell. To see him in the street was to see him in the least, the lowest, and, consequently, the worst point of view. He was knowing, well read, and well bred. He could become sarcastic, but never condescended to be furious. If he was at all sycophantic, it was his will rather than his nature to be so. On the bench, he loomed large, being long in body, and looked stately and agreeable. He could be stern, but sternness was less natural to him than concealment. He never told all he knew, nor did his face ever betray the innermost recesses of his heart. On the whole, Mr. Sewell was a good man, and he was an excellent Chief Justice. Such are the characters of the complainant and the defendant in this cause. Mr. Stuart carried great weight, when on the right side, in a House of Assembly, steadily bent upon fair legislation. Not only did he carry his motion about taking into consideration the power and authority exercised by the Courts of Justice, through the medium of Rules of Practice, at variance with the law and the liberty of the subject, but the House ordered the Clerk of the Court of Appeals, and the Prothonotaries of the Courts to produce the Rules of Practice, or certified copies of them, for the immediate use of members. The House went into committee and talked the matter over, then rose, and reported progress. The Rules of Practice had not been very long in use. They were made for the Court of Appeals so recently as 1809, and the example was so excellent that the Court of King's Bench followed it. The Legislative Assembly not only considered the rules an infringement upon their privilege of law-making but an infringement upon the civil rights of His Majesty's subjects and subversive of the laws of the province, rendering the enjoyment of liberty and property altogether insecure and precarious, and giving to the judges an arbitrary authority. And the Assembly without further ceremony proceeded to impeach the Chief Justices of Quebec and Montreal, at the instance of Mr. Stuart, the Anglo-American Barrister. It was said that Jonathan Sewell, Chief Justice, had traitorously and wickedly endeavored to subvert the constitution by the introduction of an arbitrary, tyrannical government against law; that the said Jonathan Sewell had disregarded the authority of Parliament, and usurped its powers by making regulations subversive of the constitution and the laws; that Jonathan Sewell had libellously published such Rules of Practice; that Jonathan Sewell had substituted his own will for the will of the legislature; that Jonathan Sewell being Chief Justice, Speaker of the Legislative Council, and Chairman of the Executive Council, had maliciously slandered the Canadian subjects of the King and the House of Assembly, and had poisoned and incensed the mind of Sir James H. Craig, the Governor-in-Chief, and had so misled and deceived him that he did on the 15th of May, 1809, dissolve the parliament, without any cause whatever to palliate or excuse the measure, the said Governor-in-Chief having been at the same time advised to make a speech in gross violation of the rights of the Assembly, grossly insulting to its members, and misrepresenting their conduct; that to prevent opposition to his tyrannical views the said Jonathan Sewell had counselled and advised Sir James Henry Craig to remove and dismiss divers loyal and deserving subjects, from offices of profit and emolument—now the head and front of Mr. Sewell's offending has come nebulously to light—without the semblance of reason to justify it; that to mark his contempt for the representatives of the people and for the constitution, he had procured the dismissal of Jean Antoine Panet, Esquire, who then was, and for fifteen years preceding had been Speaker of the Assembly, from his rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the militia, without any reason to palliate or excuse the injustice; that he had induced P. E. Desbarats, the law printer, to establish a newspaper styled the "Vrai Canadien," for the purpose of vilifying such members of the Assembly as were obnoxious to him; that with the view of extinguishing the liberty of the press, and destroying, therefore, effectually, the rights, liberty, and security of His Majesty's subjects in the province, and suppressing all complaint of oppression, he had, in March, 1810, advised and approved the sending of an armed force to break open the dwelling house and printing office of one Charles Lefrançois, there to arrest and imprison him, and seize and bring away a printing press, with various private papers, which measure of lawless violence was accordingly executed, the said press and papers being then in the Court House of Quebec, with the knowledge and approbation of the said Jonathan Sewell; that Jonathan Sewell had advised the arrest of Messrs. Bedard, Blanchet and Taschereau, upon an unfounded pretext; that Jonathan Sewell had instigated the oppression of the old and infirm François Corbeil, by which the old man lost his life; that Jonathan Sewell had instigated Sir James Henry Craig to issue a proclamation causing the public to believe that Mr. Bedard had been guilty of treason, and that the province was in a state approaching to open rebellion; that Jonathan Sewell had read the wicked proclamation in the Court House, to influence the Grand and Petty Juries; that Jonathan Sewell had abused his powers simply with the view of paving the way for American predominance in Canada; that with the view of annexing Canada to the United States he had entered into a base and wicked conspiracy with one John Henry, an adventurer of suspicious character, for the purpose of sowing dissension among the subjects of the government of the United States, and producing a dismemberment of the Union; and had given artful advice to Sir James Craig, inducing him to send Henry, the adventurer, on a secret mission, which had exposed His Majesty's government to imputations reflecting on its honor, and that he had labored to promote disunion between the legislative Council and Legislative Assembly, and had fomented dissensions in the province to prevent a reliance on the loyalty and bravery of His Majesty's Canadian subjects. Mr. Chief Justice Monk was impeached as an accessory.

With the view of effectually prosecuting the impeachment, the House appointed Mr. Stuart its agent, and directed him to proceed to England, to press upon His Majesty's ministers the necessity of giving heed to the business. £2,000 were awarded for the payment of the expenses of Mr. Stuart, but the Council expunged the award from the revenue bill, and there was no more about it, until the House went to the Castle with their Speaker, who presented an address to the Governor General, requesting him to transmit the impeachments, and suggested the propriety of the Chief Justices being suspended from the exercise of their powers until the pleasure of the Prince Regent could be ascertained. Sir George Prevost was somewhat taken by surprise. He was in an exceedingly delicate or rather interesting situation. It was an unpleasant, if not a disagreeable part, which he was required to play. It was, in a word, to make complaint to the Prince Regent of his predecessor. Sir George, however, blandly said that he would take an early opportunity of transmitting the address, with the articles of accusation against the Chief Justices, to His Majesty. With regard to the suggestion of the Honorable House of Assembly, concerning the suspension of the Chief Justices, he did not consider it necessary to go to that extreme. The Legislative Council had not even been consulted with regard to the articles of accusation; and he could not think of suspending two officers of such rank, on the complaint of only the third branch of the legislature.