Canada; its Defences, Condition, and Resources / Being a third and concluding volume of "My Diary, North and South"

by Sir William Howard Russell

In a strain of sublime impudence, considering the work they were ready for, the same Congress also expressed their astonishment that Parliament should have consented to permit in Canada, “a religion that has deluged your island with blood, and dispersed impiety, bigotry, persecution, murder, and rebellion through the world.”

It may be worth while to notice the fact that the first notion of united action on the part of the British North American colonies may have been developed by the British government, and that the idea of independence was suggested by the very recommendations to self-defence which came from the mother country. The Convention of Delegates at Albany in 1754, which met in consequence of the advice tendered by the Home Government, adopted a federal system, which contained, in effect, the germ of the United States. Though this and similar propositions were not entertained, the growth of such an idea must have been rapid indeed. In the British Colonial system there was the breath of life—a little fanning, and the whole body was alive and active. In the Canadian system there was only the animating spirit of dependency on France, and on a system in France, which was perishing before the sneers of the new philosophy.

The French Canadians of the present day, in accusing the British government of a hundred years ago of want of liberality and foresight in the administration of their newly acquired territory, are wilfully blind to the sort of government which they received from the Bourbons. The dominion of a foreign race, however, is always galling, be it covered ever so thickly with velvet, and all its acts are regarded with suspicion and dislike. The concessions and liberality of the British government which drew forth such indignant protests from the bigoted New Englanders, was ascribed to fears of Canadian revolt, or to a selfish desire to conciliate the good-will of subjects who might become formidable enemies. If England lost the American colonies because she refused to accept a principle which, however sound and just, was certainly new and not accepted as of universal application, she needed not to apprehend the recurrence of a separation, forcible or peaceable, of Canada on any such grounds. It is impossible for a country to be held by a more slender cord; and in all but the actual exercise of the sovereign style, title, and attributes, Canada is free and independent. If the sentiment or the nationality of the Lower Canadians ever induces them to seek the protection or rule of any European State, they will no doubt at once come into collision with Upper Canada and the United States, and we can but pity their infatuation. If Upper Canada thinks to better herself by separation, and union with the Western States, Great Britain assuredly will never hold her by force. It would be useless to discuss the rights and obligations of a sovereignty and its nominal dependency in relation to mutual succour in time of war; but it seems only fair that the great permanent works necessary for strategical purposes, and as points d’appui for the forces of the protecting military power, should be made and repaired and garrisoned at the imperial expense, whilst on the mass of the population must be placed the task of rising to defend their country from invasion, assisted by such imperial troops as can be spared from the occupation of the fixed points of defence. The Canadians must not content themselves with the empty assertion that if their country should be invaded Great Britain alone is attacked. Let them emulate the Old England colonies, and the conduct of their ancestors in 1812. The United States bear them no good-will; and as the only power from which Canada has anything to fear, the Americans would be just as likely to make war against the Province as against the Empire, and trust to their own impregnability, except at sea, as a guarantee against any dangerous consequences.

The future is beyond our ken. There are prophets who long ago predicted the amalgamation of the Upper Province with the West, and who now find greater hope for the realisation of their soothsayings in the approaching dissolution of the Federal States. Others there are who see at no distant time the re-establishment of a French dependency on the northern portion of the Anglo-Saxon States, already hemmed in on the slave border by the shadowy outlines of an empire under French protection. When we see what has taken place on that continent within the last hundred years, it is not to be said that combinations and occurrences much more wonderful will not come to pass before the present century closes. The policy of a State, as the duty of an individual, is to do what is right and leave the future to work out its destiny.

CHAPTER X.

Canadian Hospitality—Muffins—Departure for the States—Desertions—Montreal again—Southerners in Montreal—Drill and Snow Shoes—Winter Campaigning—Snow Drifts—Military Discontent.

Although my residence in Quebec was very short, I left the city with regret. Compared with the cities of the States, its antiquity is venerable and its ways are peace; but from what I heard of public amusement in summer time I should say that life here would be found dull, as compared with existence in a European capital, or in a city so vainly gay and profitably festive as New York. There is no great wealth among the people, but a moderate competency is largely enjoyed, and neither wealth nor poverty attains undue dimensions.

I found at Quebec a very agreeable society, the tone of feeling which prevails in a capital, the utmost hospitality. Had I had a hundred mouths they would here all have been kept busy. Invitations came in scores, and were to be resisted with difficulty. Knowing all this I am the more astonished at the recent statements which I have heard, that the Canadians have not extended any civilities to our officers. If so, a great change must have taken place. I am not now talking of sleighing parties, but of the hospitality of the inner house. The fair Canadians may have been too kind in accepting the name and position of “muffins” from the young Britishry; but the latter cannot say they have suffered much in consequence. A muffin is simply a lady who sits beside the male occupant of the sleigh—Sola cum solo, “and all the rest is leather and prunella.”

The social system is intended rather for the comfort of the inner life, and for the development of domestic happiness, than for such external glare and glitter as Broadway delights in, or for such unsound social relations as mark the America of hotels. The great artists who adorn the drama or the lyric stage can rarely be bribed sufficiently high to visit these northern regions; but I doubt whether there is not a better taste in art among the people of Quebec than there is to be found in most cities of the same size in the United States.