As Upper Canada was, in a limited sense, an offshoot of Lower Canada, so but a few of the peculiarities of Lower Canada were introduced to the Upper. One was that of Charivariing, which means a great noise with petty music. It was introduced from France. The custom is now almost obsolete among us, but time was when it was quite common. It generally was indulged in at second marriages, or when an unequal match and marriage took place; when a young girl married an old man for instance, or if either party were unpopular. The night of the wedding, instead of being passed in joyous in-door pleasures by the wedded ones, was made hideous by a crowd of masked persons, who with guns, tin-pans, pails, horns, horse-fiddles, and everything else that could be made to produce a discordant noise, disturbed the night until silenced by a treat, or money. Sometimes those meetings resulted in serious consequences to one or more of the party, by the bridegroom resorting to loaded fire-arms.
Sometimes the native Indians contributed to the general amusement, upon days when there was a public gathering. Now and then they engaged alone in certain sports which would be witnessed by the whites. Playing ball—bandy-ball, lacrosse, foot-races, and the war-dance, were occasionally engaged in. The present fashionable game of lacrosse is of Indian origin, and may well be remembered by every Canadian, and even American. After the conquest of Canada, when the Great Ottawa chief Pontiac had effected an alliance of all the western and northern tribes, to destroy the frontier forts of the British. There were several forts, originally French, along the upper lakes; two notably, one at Detroit, the other at Michilmacinac. Smaller forts had been attacked and taken, in most cases by treachery and Indian cunning. These two forts remained untaken. Pontiac devised the plan of pretending to wish for peace. With the ostensible intention of holding a council to make peace, the chiefs were to enter the forts; while the Indians, engaged in ball-playing along the ramparts, were to amuse those within the ramparts. The squaws were to be present, seemingly as spectators, but in reality to hold under their blankets, rifles, the ends of which had been cut off for concealment. At a given signal, the ball was to be knocked over the outer defence, and the Indians were to rush in as if to get it; but seizing their rifles from the women who had placed themselves conveniently, they were to rush in to slaughter the unsuspecting inmates. At Michilmacinac this proved successful, and the whole garrison was massacred, and Detroit barely escaped the same fate.
Dueling.—At the time when fierce encounters took place between organized forces in America, which resulted in the independence of the United States, and the settlement of Upper Canada, the practise of duelling obtained among the higher classes. Happily, this heinous crime, an outrage against humanity, is no longer tolerated where British laws and British principles of justice and freedom have force. But such was not the case seventy years ago. The early history of Canada witnessed a few personal engagements of honor. The first duel was between Peter Clark, Chief Clerk of the Legislative Council, and Captain Sutherland of the 25th regiment. The meeting took place at Kingston, and Mr. Clark fell fatally wounded. This occurred in the winter of 1795.
On the 22nd July, 1817, a duel was fought between S. P. Jarvis, Esq., and Mr. John Ridout. The latter received a wound in the chest and died in about an hour.
“Duel.—On Friday the 11th inst., Alexander McMillan, Esquire, and Alexander Thom, Esquire, met in a field on the Brockville Road, to decide an affair of honor—the former attended by Mr. Radenhurst, and the latter by Mr. Cumming. After exchanging shots, the seconds interfered, and on mutual explanations being made, the matter terminated amicably. Doctor Thom received a contusion on the leg.”
One of the latest instances in which a duel was fought in Upper Canada, occurred some forty years ago. The event resulted in the death of one of the combatants, the other, who was tried for his life, has now for some years adorned the bench of the Province.
Patriotism.—In no country upon the face of the Globe, and at no period in the history of any country, has appeared a higher or purer order of patriotism, than is written upon the pages of the history of British America. British connection is to mostly every son of the land dearer even than life itself. At least it has been so in respect to those of whom we write, the U. E. Loyalists. Co-equal with the love they have to the British Crown, is the hearty aversion they bear to Republicanism. Neither the overtures of annexation, nor the direct and indirect attempts to coerce, has produced a momentary wavering on the part of the descendants of the ancient stock. Americans in our midst have vainly tried to inoculate the minds of the people with the principles of Republican Government; but the Canadian mind was too free, the body politic too healthy, the system too strong to imbibe any lasting feeling of desire to change the tried for the untried. The few annexationists who have, from time to time, existed, were but the fungoid offshoot of a healthy plant. From the time Franklin and his coadjutors vainly essayed to draw the French Canadian into their rebellious cause, until the present there has been a frequently manifested desire, on the part of the United States, to force us into the union. The contemptible duplicity of Webster, who concealed from Ashburton the existence of a second map, whereby he tricked Canada, Yankee like, out of a valuable portion of territory along the Atlantic coast, with a view of cutting us off from the ocean. The declaration of war in 1812, and the repeated but unsuccessful invasions of our Province. The proclamations issued to Canadians, by the would be conquerors, Hull, Wilkinson, and others. Their sympathy and aid to turbulent spirits in 1836–7. The attempts at bullying England when she was at war with Russia. The organization of the Fenian association, with the publicly avowed purpose of seizing some portion of our Province. The abrogation of the Reciprocity Treaty, the object of which was proclaimed by Consul Potter—all along the eighty years’ history of the United States, is to be seen a disreputable attempt, by all possible means, to bully a weaker neighbor. All this does not become a great and honorable nation, a nation so extensive, whose people are so loud-tongued upon the principles of liberty—Liberty! The name with the United States is only synonymous with their government. They cannot discover that a people should be free to choose their own form of government, always excepting those who rebelled in 1776. Oh yes! we have liberty to choose; but then we must choose in accordance with Yankee ideas of liberty. Egotistic to the heart’s core, they cannot understand how we entertain views dissimilar to their own. How applicable the words of the immortal Burns:—
“O wad some power the giftie gie us,
To see oursels as others see us:
It wad frae monie a blunder free us