The Quebec Assembly
The governor afterwards visited several of the principal places in the province, where he was received with effusion by the anti-Canadian party. The Quebec Mercury, alluding to the conduct of the assembly in persisting in its action against the judges, said: "The conduct of a conquered people, lifted by their victors from the depths of misery to the height of prosperity, and to whom has been extended every species of indulgence, is not such as might have been expected at their hands." Le Canadien naturally justified the opinion of the majority of the House, and quoted Blackstone, Locke, and other British authorities as to the rights of parliament. The editor of the Journal wrote: "The king's representative has power by law to dissolve the House when he thinks fit to do so, but he has no right whatever to make abusive remarks such as his harangue contained upon the action of the legislature—a body which is absolutely independent of his authority." So the little rift grew wider every day. The governor fondly hoped that the new elections would give a different complexion to the House, but in this he was disappointed. It was even more strongly opposed to his party than the former one, and included among the new members M. Louis-Joseph Papineau, then a student of twenty, who, in after years, was destined to take a very prominent part in the long struggle between the assembly and the legislative council.
In the meantime, before the new House met, the British ministry had sent instructions to Sir James Craig as to the ineligibility of judges to sit in parliament, and directed him to sanction the bill excluding them.
The year 1809 saw Napoleon's waning star once more in the ascendant. Austria had risen against him, only to be defeated, and on May 10th the victor had entered Vienna in triumph. Then followed the battle of Wagram on July 6th, which was a crushing blow to the Austrian army under the command of the Archduke Charles. An armistice was signed on the 12th, and on October 24th, by a treaty of peace, Austria ceded all her sea-coast to France. The news of Napoleon's successes aroused England to fresh exertions. Canning, the war minister, increased the army to five hundred thousand men. The regulars were fed by volunteers from the militia. The militia was kept up by voluntary recruiting and by ballot. Sir Arthur Wellesley, who had returned to England after Cintra, was again sent out after the death of Moore at Corunna, at the head of a much better army than he had had the year before, to match his strength against Generals Soult and Massena. There was a scarcity, though, of transport, supplies, and specie. England was drained of gold to supply the needs of her army in the Peninsula, and to assist the Spanish patriots in their struggle against France.
Walcheren, Talavera
There was little chance for Canada's needs to be attended to in this great crisis. Sir James Craig in February asked the home government for a reinforcement of twelve thousand troops, with the necessary camp equipage, two thousand to be stationed in the citadel at Quebec, two thousand in Upper Canada, and eight thousand for an active field force. This was his estimate of what he considered necessary for the proper defence of the country. His request arrived at a time when the cabinet was rent asunder by dissensions. The Duke of Portland, the nominal leader, was powerless. Castlereagh and Canning were at war. Both hated Perceval. Castlereagh was bent on sending troops to the Scheldt to take Flushing and Antwerp, where Napoleon was building a fleet. Canning wanted troops only for the Peninsula. The former had his way, and the ill-fated Walcheren expedition was undertaken. Forty thousand troops were sent against Antwerp, with thirty-three sail of the line, besides frigates. Flushing was besieged, but Antwerp, being reinforced and strengthened, was impregnable. Disputes arose between Lord Chatham, who was the commander-in-chief, and Admiral Sir Richard Strachan. By September the siege was given up, and fifteen thousand men were sent to the island of Walcheren. A plague of fever attacked them there, and the whole expedition turned out a failure. The result was the breaking up of the Portland ministry, and the retirement of Castlereagh under a cloud. No wonder was it under these circumstances that Sir James Craig's request was ignored, and no troops were available for Canada. Sir Arthur Wellesley alone was holding up abroad the honour and fame of England. He drove Marshal Soult out of Portugal, marched up the valley of the Tagus, caused Joseph Bonaparte to fly a second time from Madrid, and, on July 28th, 1809, fought and won the desperate battle of Talavera. For these services the brilliant soldier was rewarded by the title of Viscount Wellington of Talavera.
Public opinion in England was so occupied with affairs in the Peninsula and political dissensions at home that it did not concern itself with distant Canada, or even with the standing quarrel with the United States. The new president, James Madison, while removing the embargo, still held to non-intercourse with France and England, their colonies or dependencies. The Non-Intercourse Bill, brought in by the committee on foreign relations and passed by congress, excluded all public and private vessels of France and England from American waters, and forbade, under severe penalties, the importation of British or French goods. It was at this time that one John Henry, was sent by Ryland, on behalf of the governor-general of Canada, into the New England States to report on the state of public opinion there with regard to internal politics and the probability of war. It was supposed then that the Federalists of Massachusetts, rather than submit to the difficulties they were subjected to, would bring about a separation from the union. Henry's letters, unimportant in themselves, afterwards came into the possession of the government of the United States, and were made use of to foment the war feeling of 1812.
New order-in-council
Early in 1809 Canning had sent instructions to the British minister in Washington, Mr. Erskine, to offer to withdraw the orders-in-council on certain conditions. The minister exceeded his instructions, and announced in April that the orders of 1807 would be withdrawn, in respect to the United States, on June 10th. There was universal joy and satisfaction throughout that country at the resumption of trade. A thousand ships hurried out of the harbours laden with merchandise for British ports. The French minister at Washington remonstrated at the hasty belief in promises, and it was soon found that the announcement was premature. The conditions attached to the withdrawal had not been insisted upon by the English envoy, and on the very day, June 10th, that the revocation of the order was arranged for, it was learned in America that on April 26th another order-in-council had been passed by England establishing a strict blockade of the ports of Holland, France, and Italy.[[1]] British merchants, frightened at the prospect of free entrance of American ships to the Baltic, had crowded the board of trade protesting that if American vessels with cheaper sugar, cotton, and coffee were allowed into Amsterdam and Antwerp, British trade was at an end. Their warehouses were stuffed full, and they could not stand American competition and the resulting fall in prices. Relations with the United States were more strained than ever. Smuggling during these years of restriction seems to have flourished everywhere, and the island of Heligoland was the chief depot for English traders in the Baltic.
Much as they hated the English orders-in-council, Americans, on the other hand, were awaking to the knowledge that Napoleon's friendship was a hollow mockery. He was no longer the champion of republics, for he was an emperor surrounded by an aristocracy on whom he had conferred hereditary titles. He had seized American ships on the high seas on the pretext that they had British merchandise on board. By his Bayonne decree, he had sequestered all American vessels arriving in France, or in any port within the military contest, subsequent to the embargo, as British property or under British protection. When Louis of Holland refused to seize American ships at Amsterdam, Napoleon came to the conclusion that the former must abdicate and Holland be annexed to France. It was calculated that by the seizures in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Spain, France, Denmark, Hamburg, Italy and Naples, more than ten millions of dollars had been added to the revenues of France. Twenty years afterwards the United States received five million dollars as indemnity.