Diary in America, Series Two

by Frederick Marryat

What was still more absurd was, that the office of trustee for the schools could only be held by the same tenure, and in the Act passed, it is provided, that the trustees for national education may be permitted to affix their cross to the school reports, a more convincing proof of the state of ignorance in which the Canadian French population have been held and acknowledged to be so by the French party, by the making such a proviso in the statute. I had a convincing proof myself of the ignorance of the French population during the rebellion in Lower Canada. I handed a printed circular to about four hundred prisoners who were collected, for one of them to read aloud to the rest, and there was not one who could read print.

Having secured the party in the province, the next object of M. Papineau and his adherents was, to blind the Government at home: they sent home a list of grievances which required redress, and in this they were joined by the English republican party. Among other demands, they insisted upon the right to the Lower Assembly having the control of the colonial revenues. So earnest was the Government at home to satisfy them, that every concession was made, and even the last great question of controlling their own expenditure was consented to, upon the sole condition that the civil list, for the payment of the salary of the governor and other state officers, was secured.

What was the conduct of M. Papineau and his party as soon as they had gained their point? They immediately broke their faith with the Government at home, and refused to vote the sum for the civil list.

For three years, the governor and all the public officers were without their salaries, which were at last provided for by a vote of the English Parliament at home. This nefarious conduct of the French Party had one good effect, it created a disunion with the English republican party, who, although they wished for reform, would be no participators in such a breach of honour.

That for many years there has been sad mismanagement on the part of the Government at home, cannot be denied, but the error has been the continual yielding to French clamour and misrepresentation, and the Government having lost sight of the fact that the English population were rapidly increasing, and had an equal right to the protection of the mother-country. It is the English population who have had real cause of complaint, and who are justified in demanding redress. The French have been only too well treated, and their demands became more imperious in proportion to the facility with which the Government yielded to them in their earnest, but mistaken, desire to put an end to the agitation of M. Papineau and his party. Mistaking the forbearance of the English government for weakness, M. Papineau issued his inflammatory appeals; the people were incited to rebellion; but even this conduct did not seem to rouse the Government at home, who had probably formed the idea that the French Canadian was too peaceful to have recourse to arms. Emboldened by the conduct on the part of the Government, which was ascribed to fear, and finding themselves supported by Mr Joseph Hume and Mr Roebuck at home, the republican party in Upper Canada openly declared itself, and a portion of the Canadian press issued the most treasonable articles without molestation. The Americans were not idle in fomenting this ill-will towards the mother country in the Upper Province, and the Papineau party proceeded to more active measures. Arrangements were made for a general rising of the Lower Province; the meeting of St. Charles took place, and resolutions were passed of a nature which could no longer be overlooked by the Provincial Government. For many months previous to the meeting at St. Charles, the Provincial Government had been aroused and aware of the danger, and Lord Gosford perceived the necessity of acting contrary to the orders received from home. Proofs had been obtained against those who were most active in the intended rebellion, and at last warrants were issued by the Attorney-General for their apprehension. It was this sudden and unexpected issue of the warrants which may be said to have saved the provinces. It defeated all the plans of the conspirators, who had not intended to have flown to arms until the next Spring, when their arrangements would have been fully made and organised. This fact I had from Bouchette, and three or four of the ringleaders, whom I visited in prison. They intended to have had the leaf on the tree, and the cold weather over, before they commenced operations; and had they waited till then the result might have been very serious, but the issue of the warrants for the apprehension of the leaders placed them in the awkward dilemma of either being deprived of them, or of having recourse to arms before their plans were fully matured. The latter was the alternative preferred; and the results of this unsuccessful attempt are well described in Lord Durham’s report:—

“The treasonable attempt of the French party to carry its political objects into effect by an appeal to arms, brought these hostile races into general and armed collision. I will not dwell on the melancholy scenes exhibited in the progress of the contest, or the fierce passions which held an unchecked sway during the insurrection, or immediately after its suppression. It is not difficult to conceive how greatly the evils, which I have described as previously existing, have been aggravated by the war; how terror and revenge nourished, in each portion of the population, a bitter and irreconcilable hatred to each other, and to the institutions of the country. The French population, who had for some time exercised a great and increasing power through the medium of the House of Assembly, found their hopes unexpectedly prostrated in the dust. The physical force which they had vaunted was called into action, and proved to be utterly inefficient. The hope of recovering their previous ascendancy under a constitution similar to that suspended, almost ceased to exist. Removed from all actual share in the government of their smaller country, they brood in silence over the memory of their fallen countrymen, of their burnt villages, of their ruined property, of their extinguished ascendancy, and of their humbled nationality. To the Government and the English they ascribe these wrongs, and nourish against both an indiscriminating and eternal animosity. Nor have the English inhabitants forgotten in their triumph, the terror with which they suddenly saw themselves surrounded by an insurgent majority, and the incidents which alone appeared to save them from the unchecked domination of their antagonists. They find themselves still a minority in the midst of a hostile and organised people; apprehensions of secret conspiracies and sanguinary designs haunt them unceasingly, and their only hope of safety is supposed to rest on systematically terrifying and disabling the French, and in preventing a majority of that race from ever and again being predominant in any portion of the legislature of the province. I describe in strong terms the feelings which appear to me to animate each portion of the population; and the picture which I draw represents a state of things so little familiar to the personal experience of the people of this country, that many will probably regard it as the work of mere imagination; but I feel confident that the accuracy and moderation of my description will be acknowledged by all who have seen the state of society in Lower Canada during the last year. Nor do I exaggerate the inevitable constancy, any more than the intensity of this animosity. Never again will the present generation of French Canadians yield a loyal submission to a British Government; never again will the English population tolerate the authority of a House of Assembly in which the French shall possess or even approximate to a majority.”

Although M. Papineau and his party were very willing to fraternise with the discontented party in Upper Canada, and to call forth the sympathy and the assistance of the Americans, their real intentions and wishes were to have made the Canadas an independent French province, in strict alliance with France. (See Note 2.) The assistance of the Upper Canada party would have been accepted until they were no longer required, and then there would have been an attempt, and very probably a successful one, to drive away by every means in their power the English settlers in Upper Canada to the United States. The Americans, on the other hand, cared nothing about the French or English grievances; their sympathy arose from nothing less than a wish to add the Canadas to their already vast territories, and to drive the English from their last possessions in America; but they also knew how to wear the cloak as well as M. Papineau, and had the insurrection been successful, both French and English would by this time have been subjected to their control, and M. Papineau would have found that he had only been a tool in the hands of the more astute and ambitious Americans. Such is my conviction: but this is certain, that whatever may have been the result of the former insurrection, or whatever may be the result of any future one (for the troubles are not yet over), the English in Upper Canada must fall a sacrifice to either one party or the other, unless they can succeed (which, with their present numbers and situation, will be difficult) in overpowering them both.

It may be inquired, what were the causes of discontent which occasioned the partial rising in Upper Canada. Strange to say, although Mackenzie and his party were in concert and correspondence with M. Papineau, the chief cause of discontent arose from the partiality shown by the English government to the French Canadians in Lower Canada; their grievances were their own, and they had no fellow-feeling with the French Canadians. If they had any prepossession at all, it was in favour of joining the American States, and to this they were instigated by the number of Americans who had settled in Upper Canada. There were several minor causes of discontent: the Scotch emigrants were displeased because the Government had decided that the clergy revenues were to be allotted only for the support of the Episcopal church, and not for the Presbyterian. But the great discontent was because the English settlers considered that they had been unfairly treated, and sacrificed by the government at home. But although discontent was general, a wish to rebel was not so, and here it was that Mackenzie found himself in error, and M. Papineau was deceived; instead of being joined by thousands, as they expected, from the Upper Province, they could only muster a few hundreds, who were easily dispersed: the feelings of loyalty prevailed, and those whom the rebel-leaders expected would have joined the standard of insurrection, enrolled themselves to trample it tinder foot. The behaviour of the settlers in Upper Canada was worthy of all praise; they had just grounds of complaint; they had been opposed and sacrificed to a malevolent and ungrateful French party in the Lower Province; yet when the question arose as to whether they should assist, or put down the insurrection, they immediately forgot their own wrongs, and proved their loyalty to their country.

The party who adhered to Mackenzie may well be considered as an American party; for Upper Canada had been so neglected and uncared for, that the Americans had already obtained great influence there. Indeed, when it is stated that Mathews and Lount, the two members of the Upper House of Assembly who were executed for treason, were both Americans, it is evident that the Americans had even obtained a share in the legislation of the province. When I passed through the Upper Province, I remarked that, independently of some of the best land being held by Americans, the landlords of the inns, the contractors for transporting the mails, and drivers of coaches, were almost without exception, Americans.

One cause of the Americans wishing that the Canadas should be wrested from the English was that, by an Act of the Legislature, they were not able to hold lands in the province. It is true that they could purchase them, but if they wished to sell them, the title was not valid. Colonel Prince, whose name was so conspicuous during the late troubles, brought in a bill to allow Americans to hold land in Upper Canada, but the bill was thrown out. It scarcely need be observed that Colonel Prince is now as violent an opponent to the bill. See Note 3. He has had quite enough of Americans in Upper Canada.