A history of Canada, 1763-1812

by Sir Charles Prestwood Lucas

But the House of Commons had not yet done with the Peace, or with the ministry. Four days later, on Resolutions by Lord John Cavendish. the 21st of February, Lord John Cavendish moved five resolutions in the House. The first three resolutions confirmed the Peace and led to little debate, but the fourth and fifth were a direct attack on the Government. The fourth resolution was as follows, ‘The concessions made to the adversaries of Great Britain, by the said Provisional Treaty and Preliminary Articles, are greater than they were entitled to, either from the actual situation of their respective possessions, or from their comparative strength.’ The terms of the fifth resolution were, ‘that this House do feel the regard due from this nation to every description of men, who, with the risk of their lives and the sacrifice of their property, have distinguished their loyalty, and been conspicuous for their fidelity during a long and calamitous war, and to assure His Majesty that they shall take every proper method to relieve them, which the state of the circumstances of this country will permit.’ A long debate on the fourth resolution ended in the defeat of the Government by seventeen votes; and, the Opposition being satisfied Shelburne’s ministry defeated. by carrying this vote of censure, the fifth resolution was withdrawn. The result of the night’s work was to turn out Shelburne and his colleagues, and to make way for the famous coalition of Fox and North, which had been amply foreshadowed in the debates.

Unnecessary concessions made on the English side in the Peace of 1783.

It will be noted that, though the case of the Loyalists was made a text for denouncing the terms of the Peace, the Government was defeated avowedly not so much on the ground of dishonourable conduct to the friends of England as on that of having made unnecessary concessions. The case of the Opposition was strong, and the case of the Government was weak, because sentiment was backed by common sense. The Loyalists had been shabbily treated, without any adequate reason either for sacrificing them or for making various other concessions. That was the verdict of the House of Commons then, and it is the verdict of history now. England had become relatively not weaker but stronger since the disaster at Yorktown, and the United States were at least as much in need of peace as was the mother country. The Americans had done more by bluff than by force, and the wholesale cession of territory, the timorous abandonment of men and places, was an unnecessary price of peace. The case of the Opposition was overwhelming, and it carried conviction in spite of the antecedents of many of those who spoke for it. North and Sackville, who declaimed against the terms which had been conceded, were the men who had mismanaged the war. Fox was to the front in attacking the Peace, and with reason, for he had been the chief opponent in the Rockingham cabinet of Shelburne and his emissary Oswald, but Fox beyond all men had lent his energies to supporting the Americans against his own country in the time of her trial.

Excuses made for the policy of the British Government with regard to the Loyalists.

What the Government pleaded in defence of the articles which related to the Loyalists was first, that they could not secure peace on any other terms; secondly, that the Americans would carry out the terms honourably and in good faith; and thirdly that, if the terms were not carried out, England would compensate her friends. The first plea, as we have seen, was rejected. The second plea events proved to be ill founded. Congress made the recommendation to the state legislatures which the Persecution of the Loyalists in the various states. fifth article prescribed, but no attention was paid to it. ‘Confiscation still went on actively, governors of the states were urged to exchange lists of the proscribed persons, that no Tory might find a resting-place in the United States, and in nearly every state they were disfranchized’.[167] The Acts against the Loyalists were not repealed, and in some cases were supplemented. In some states life was not safe any more than property, and the revolution closed with a reign of terror. South Carolina stood almost alone in passing, in March, 1784, an Act for restitution of property and permitting Loyalists to return to the state. In Pennsylvania Tories were still disfranchized as late as 1801.

In retaliation for the non-fulfilment of the fifth and sixth articles of the treaty relating to the Loyalists, as well as of the fourth article by which creditors on either side were to meet with no lawful impediment in recovering their bonâ fide debts,[168] the British Government, in their turn, refused to carry out in full the seventh article under which all the places which were occupied by British garrisons within the borders of the United States were to be evacuated ‘with all convenient speed’; and it was not until the year 1796, after further negotiations had taken place and a new treaty, Jay’s Treaty of 1794, had been signed, that the inland posts were finally given up. Meanwhile the Government took in hand compensation for the sorely tried Loyalists, redeeming the pledges which had been given and the honour of the nation.

Compensation given to the Loyalists from Imperial Funds.

A full account of the steps which were taken to compensate in money the American Loyalists is given in a Historical view of the Commission for inquiry into the losses, services and claims of the American Loyalists which was published in London in 1815, by John Eardley Wilmot, one of the commissioners. Compensation or relief had been going on during the war, for, as has been seen, each stage of the war and each abandonment of a city implied a number of refugees with claims on the justice or the liberality of the British Government. Thus Wilmot tells us that in the autumn of 1782 the sums issued by the Treasury amounted to an annual amount of £40,280 distributed among 315 persons, over and above occasional sums in gross to the amount of between £17,000 and £18,000 per annum for the three last years, being payments applied to particular or extraordinary losses or services. Shelburne named two members of Parliament as commissioners to inquire into the application of these relief funds; and they reduced the amount stated above to £25,800, but by June, 1783, added another £17,445, thus bringing up the total to £43,245.

In July, 1783, the Portland administration, which had taken the place of Shelburne’s ministry and which included Fox and North, passed an Act ‘appointing commissioners to inquire into the losses and services of all such persons who have suffered in their rights, properties and professions during the late unhappy dissensions in America, in consequence of their loyalty to His Majesty and attachment to the British Government’.[169] The Act was passed for two years only, expiring in July, 1785; and the 25th of March, 1784, was fixed as the date by which all claims were to be sent in. But the time for settlement was found to be too short. In the session of 1785 the Act was renewed and amplified, and the time for receiving claims was extended under certain conditions till May 1st, 1786. In that year the Act was again renewed, and it was further renewed in 1787. Commissioners were sent out to Nova Scotia, to Canada, and to the United States. On the 6th of June, 1788, there was a debate in Parliament on the subject of compensation, which was followed by passing a new Act[170], the operation of which was again twice extended, and in 1790 the long inquiry came to an end. The total grant allowed was £3,112,455, including a sum of £253,000 awarded to the Proprietaries or the trustees of the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland, the Penn family receiving the sum of £100,000 converted into an annuity of £4,000 per annum.

It was a long drawn out inquiry, and the unfortunate Loyalists chafed at the delay; but the outcome was not illiberal and showed that England had not forgotten her friends. William Pitt, who as Prime Minister carried the matter through, had been Chancellor of the Exchequer in Shelburne’s ministry which was responsible for the articles of the Peace, and his subsequent action testified that amid the many liabilities of England which he was called upon to face, he well remembered the pledges given in respect of the Loyalists of America.