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

by Charles Roger

There were one or two measures introduced into the Assembly during the session just closed worth mentioning, en passant; as showing the progress really made by a "factious" Assembly. A bill was introduced, by Mr. Lee, for the appointment of commissioners to examine the accounts of the Receiver General, though, apparently, because Mr. Caldwell presented a petition to the Assembly, complaining of the insufficiency of his salary. Mr. Lee also introduced a bill to establish turnpike roads in the vicinity of Quebec, but was unable to carry it because of the outcry made by the farmers and the population of the parishes around Quebec.

There were 1,727 marriages, 7,707 baptisms, and 4,601 burials in Montreal; 653 marriages, 4,045 baptisms, and 2,318 burials in Quebec; and 260 marriages, 1,565 baptisms, and 976 burials in Three Rivers, during the year 1814. The revenue amounted to £204,550 currency, the expenditure to £162,125 sterling; and 184 vessels were cleared at Quebec.

On the 3rd of April, Sir George Prevost left Canada for England, through New Brunswick, by way of the River St. John. He received several valedictory addresses speaking of him in the highest terms, from the French Canadian population, but the British who were annoyed about Plattsburgh stood aloof, while the office holders secretly rejoiced that his rule had terminated. Lieut.-General Sir Gordon Drummond succeeded Sir George Prevost in the government of Lower Canada, the Lieutenant-Governorship of Upper Canada being again in the hands of His Excellency, Francis Gore, Esquire. General Drummond convened the parliament of Upper Canada on the 15th of February, 1814. The first Act of that parliament was one to repeal part of the laws in force for raising and training the militia. All the male inhabitants of the province, from 16 to 60 years of age, were liable to militia duty, but no person over 50 years of age was to be called out except on occasions of emergency. The militia were not to be ordered out of the province unless for the assistance of Lower Canada, when actually invaded, or in a state of insurrection, or except in pursuit of an enemy who had invaded the province, or for the destruction of any vessel either built or building, or for the destruction of any depot or magazine, formed or forming, or for the attack of any enemy invading the province, or for the attack of any fortress in the course of erection or already erected, to cover such invasion of the province. Justices of the Peace were authorised to impress carriages and horses; twenty shillings a day to be paid for every carriage with two horses, or oxen with a driver; fifteen shillings to be paid for every carriage and two horses or oxen; and for every horse employed singly, seven shillings and six pence was to be paid a day, on a certificate from the officer employing them, to the Collector of Customs, and received by the Receiver General of the province. A penalty was imposed on persons using traitorous or disrespectful words against His Majesty or against any member of the royal family, or for behaving with contempt or disrespect to the Governor while on duty. Death was to be the punishment for exciting to sedition or mutiny; and either death or such other punishment as a Court Martial might award, was the punishment to be awarded for being present at any meeting without endeavoring to suppress it, or give information, or for deserting to the enemy. And Quakers, Menonists, and Tunkers, were to pay £10 for their exemption from militia servitude, the Act to be continued until the next session of parliament. An Act was passed providing for the circulation of army bills; £6,000 was appropriated for the construction and repair of roads and bridges; an Act was passed to ascertain the eligibility of persons to be returned to the House of Assembly; an Act was passed to continue the Act granting to His Majesty duties on licenses to hawkers, pedlars, petty chapmen, and other trading persons; every traveller on foot was to pay £5 for his license, and for every boat £2 10s.; for every decked vessel £25 was to be paid; for every boat £10; and for every non-resident £20; the Act to be in force for two years; an Act was passed to detain such persons as might be suspected of a treasonable adherence to the enemy; an Act was passed imposing a duty of 3s. 9d. per gallon on the contents of licensed stills; and the Act to prohibit the exportation of grain and restraining the distillation of grain from spirits was continued.

General Drummond again met the parliament of Upper Canada, on the 1st of February, 1815. There were much the same kind of wranglings in the Assembly of Upper Canada that distinguished the parliament of Lower Canada. There were two parties, one highly conservative and another violently radical. In Upper Canada the conservatives had the majority. In 1808, Mr. Joseph Wilcocks, a member of the Assembly, was imprisoned for having libellously alleged that every member of the first provincial parliament had received a bribe of twelve hundred acres of land. The "slanderous" accusation first appeared in a newspaper styled the Upper Canada Guardian or Freeman's Journal, edited by the Joseph Wilcocks, who was a member of the Assembly. Mr. Wilcocks grievously complained of the Messrs. Boulton and Sherwood, who were ever on the watch to prevent any questions being put that would draw forth either inaccuracy or inconsistency from the witnesses. Mr. Sherwood attacked that great blessing of the people, the freedom of the press and, being a good tory, called it, to the great horror of Mr. Wilcocks, a pestilence in the land. Indeed, Mr. Wilcocks was deeply and painfully sensible that Little York abounded in meanness, corruption, and sycophancy, and notified his constituents accordingly. Such a condition of things was only natural in a small community, having all the paraphernalia of "constitutional" government.

In 1815, the progress of Upper Canada is indicated by the first bill of the session—an Act granting £25,000 for amending and repairing the public highways of the province, and awarding £25 to each road commissioner in compensation for his services. There were in all eighteen Acts passed. Provision was made for proceeding to outlawry in certain cases. An Act was passed for the relief of Barristers and Attornies, and to provide for the admission of Law Students within the Province; £100 was granted to Mr. Sheriff Merritt, of the Niagara District; a new Assessment Act was passed; the Act to provide for the maintenance of persons disabled, and for the widows and children of persons killed in action was explained and amended. Isaac Swayze, Esquire, having been robbed of £178 5s. 8d., was exonerated from the payment of it; £6,000 was granted for the rebuilding and repair of gaols and Court Houses in the Western, London and Niagara Districts, each £2,000; an Act was passed to remove doubts with respect to the authority under which the Courts of General Quarter Sessions had been erected and holden; an Act to license practitioners in physic and surgery throughout the province, providing for the appointment of a Board of Surgeons to examine applicants, and imposing a penalty of £100 for practicing without license, but excepting from the application of the Act such as had taken a degree at any University in His Majesty's dominions, was passed; £292 was granted to repay advances on team-work, and for the apprehension of deserters by certain Inspectors of Districts; £1,500 was granted to provide for the accommodation of the legislature at its next session; £6,090 was granted for the uses of the incorporated militia; £111 11s. 7d. was granted for the Clerks of Parliament; £1,700 was appropriated to the erection of a monument to the memory of the late Major-General Sir Isaac Brock; the Quarter Sessions Act was again amended; £400 was repaid to the Honorable James Bayley, which he had paid for hemp delivered to him as a commissioner for the purchase of that commodity; and an Act incorporating the Midland District School Society. On the 25th of April, Lieutenant-General Sir George Murray, Baronet, superseded Sir Gordon Drummond, K.C.B., in the command, civil and military, of Upper Canada, and on the 1st of July, in the same year, the civil and military command of the Upper Province devolved upon Major-General Sir Frederick P. Robinson, K.C.B., who held the reins of government until the return of His Excellency Francis Gore, who had been absent in England during the war, on the 25th of September, 1815.

CHAPTER IV.

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.