An’ foolish notion.”
Without detracting from the well-known loyalty of the other sections of the Province, it may be safely said that the inhabitants of the Bay Quinté and St. Lawrence, and Niagara, have proved themselves devotedly attached to British institutions. The U. E. Loyalists have been as a barrier of rock, against which the waves of Republicanism have dashed in vain. It has been the refugee-settlers and their descendants, who prevented the Province from being engulfed in its dark waters. In 1812, in ‘37, and at all times, their loyalty has never wavered. It has been elsewhere stated, that settlers from the States came in at a later date. Those were found likewise truly loyal. Says McMullen, speaking of the war of 1812, “But comparatively few Canadians joined the American standard in the war, and throughout which none were more gallant in rolling back the tide of unprincipled avarice than the emigrant from New England and New York, who aside from the U. E. Loyalist, had settled in the country.” There were a few renegades who forsook the country, not so much to join the enemy as because they had no soul to fight. In this connection it will be desirable to refer to one notable case; that of “Bill Johnson.”
The following will sufficiently shew how intense were the feelings of loyalty many years ago. The writer’s father was present at a meeting, which was conducted by a minister lately from the United States, and who was unaccustomed to pray for the King. The good man thought only of his allegiance to the King of Kings, and omitted, in the extemporaneous prayer, to pray for the King of England. Whereupon Mr. T. arose and requested the preacher either to pray for his Majesty, or leave his territories. The minister did not again forget so manifest a duty. In this connection, we cannot forbear inserting another instance of Canadian loyalty, which exhibited itself not long ago in the loyal city of Toronto.
“Canadian Loyalty.—A very extraordinary manifestation of feeling took place on Thursday night last in Toronto, at the closing meeting of the Sabbath School Convention. A gentleman from New York delivered a parting address, on behalf of the American visitors who had attended the Convention; at the conclusion of which he referred to our Queen as a “model woman,” and said that from the fulness of his heart he could say, ‘Long live Her Majesty Queen Victoria!’ When he gave expression to this sentiment there was such an outburst of enthusiastic loyalty that every one seemed carried completely away. The immense audience immediately commenced such a cheering, and clapping of hands, as is seldom seen, and kept it up till there was an accidental “change of exercise.” Under the powerful excitement of the moment, a gentleman near the platform commenced singing “God Save the Queen,” when the entire audience rose to their feet and joined in singing it through. That was singing with a will! Several persons were quite overpowered, and even wept freely. It was simply an unpremeditated expression of the warm devotion of the Canadian heart to the best Queen that ever sat on the British throne.”
Longevity.—The climate of Canada, even of Ontario, is by some considered very severe. The months of unpleasant weather which intervene between summer and winter, and again between winter and summer; and the snowy months of winter itself are not, it must be admitted, so agreeable as in other climates. And, occasionally, even the summer itself is comparatively cold. For instance, in 1817, snow fell at Kingston in the month of June. But, notwithstanding the occasional severity, and the general unpleasantness, (although all do not so consider it) the climate of Canada seems conducive to longevity. Both in Upper and Lower Canada, among the French and English may be found a great many instances of wonderfully extended age. There is a school of naturalists, who entertain the belief that the races of men are strictly indigenous; that if removed from the land of their birth, they will degenerate, and unless intermixed with constantly flowing recruits, will ultimately die out. They assert that the European races transplanted to America are doomed to degeneration and death so soon as emigration shall cease to maintain the vitality brought by the original settlers. To this view we have ventured to give very positive dissent, and have supported this position in another place with the following language: “In Canada are to be seen quite remote descendants of the most prominent people of Europe, the British and French, and, I am prepared to assert, with no marked signs of physical degeneration, the French of Lower Canada, even under many adverse circumstances, have fully maintained their ancient bodily vigor, and can compare favorably with the present inhabitants of old France, while their number has increased.” Yet their ancestors, many of them, emigrated two hundred years ago; and, since the colony became a part of Britain, no replenishment has been received from the old stock.
“Turning to Upper Canada, we find a fact no less important, and quite as antagonistic to the theory. In consequence of the American Revolutionary war, some twenty-five or thirty thousand United Empire Loyalists were forced, or induced, to seek a home in the Canadian wilderness. Many of these were descendants of those who had first peopled New Holland. A large number settled along the St. Lawrence and the Bay of Quinté. In the main, indeed, almost altogether, until very recently, these old settlers have intermarried. The great-grandchildren of those American pioneers now live on the old homestead, and are found scattered over the whole Province. And although I have no positive data upon which to base my assertion; yet, from careful observation, I have no hesitation in declaring that in physical development, in slight mortality among the children, in length of life, in powers of endurance, not to say in bravery and patriotism, they cannot be excelled by any class of emigrants.”—(Principles of Surgery).
Since the above was written, we have become more intimately acquainted with regard to the longevity, both among the French and Anglo-Canadians; and the opinion then expressed has been greatly strengthened. Respecting the latter class, personal observation has aided us. In our frequent visits to different parts, made during the last few years, we have enjoyed the opportunity of conversing with many persons who had much over-ran the period allotted to man; and others who had exceeded their three score years and ten. Some of them have been spectators of the very scenes of the settlement of the country, and retain a vivid recollection of the events attending that trying period. Venerable, with hairs blossoming for the grave, and chastened by the long endured fire of affliction, they are happy in their old age. They connect the present with the past, and remind us how great the heritage they have secured to us from a vast, untrodden wilderness. Notwithstanding the toils, the privations in early life, ere the tender child had merged into the adult, when the food was limited, and often inferior in quality, they yet have had iron constitutions that in the earnest contingency of life served them well. Of course, the plain and regular habits of the settlers, with plenty of out-door exercise, assisted to promote long life, and give them a hardy nature. We have knowledge of a vast number who attained to a great age. Of those who lived to an old age, “A Traveler,” writing in 1835 says of Upper Canada, “I often met the venerable in years.”
The children and grand-children of the early settlers live, in many cases, to as great an age as their fathers.
Descendants.—While there were some among the first settlers of European birth, the majority were of American birth, and possessed the characteristics of the colonists of that day. But, separated from the people and the scenes intimate to them in their youth, and living in the profound shades of the interminable wilderness, they gradually lost many of their characteristic features and habits, and acquired others instead.
The Canadian immigrant, be he English, Irish, or Scotch, or even German or French, will, as time gives lines to his face, and gray hair to his head, insensibly lose many of the peculiarities of his race, and in the end sensibly approximate to the character and appearance of the people among whom he has settled. The children of the emigrant, no matter what pains the parents may take to preserve in their children what belongs to their own native country, will grow up quite unlike the parents. So much is this the case that any one on entering a mixed school, high or low, or by noticing the children at play, as he passes along the street, whose parents are both natives and foreigners, would find it quite impossible to point out one from the other, whether the child was of Canadian parentage, or whether its parents were of another country. The fact at which it is desired to get is that emigrants to Canada, no matter how heterogeneous, are gradually moulded into a whole more or less homogenous. That this is observable somewhat in the emigrant himself, but decidedly so in the children. The fact being admitted that a transformation is slowly but certainly effected, it may be inquired by what influence it is accomplished. It cannot be due solely, to the climate, nor to dress, nor diet, nor the original habits of the people, although each has its influence. Must we not search for a more powerful cause of peculiarity as a people, in some other channel. A natural one seemingly presents itself. The growth of a nation, as the growth of a tree will be modified by its own intrinsic vitality, and at the same time by external circumstances. Upper Canada was planted by British heroes of the American Revolution. It arose out of that revolution. The first settlers were U. E. Loyalists. The majority of the original settlers were natives of America, and brought up in one or other of the provinces that rebelled. They were Americans in all respects, as much as those who took sides with the rebels, yet to-day the descendants of the U. E. Loyalists are as unlike the descendants of the rebels, as each is unlike a full blooded Englishman. The pure Yankee and the Canadian of the first water may trace their ancestors to a common parentage, and have the same name. As Canadians we are not afraid to institute a comparison between ourselves and the natives of New England or New York, or Pennsylvania. Let the comparison refer to any question whatever, either of the body or mind, of society or of government. The external influences which have operated have been elsewhere indicated. The circumstances of the U. E. Loyalists as settlers in a wilderness, were widely different from those of the States after the Independence was secured. Incessant toil and privations, without opportunities for acquiring education, on the one hand; on the other there was all the advantages of civilization. And so it continued for nearly half a century. It is to be desired that we had statistics to show the difference as to longevity, and general health. Suffice it to say that scientific men are debating the cause of gradual decline among the New Englanders, while Upper Canada overflows with native population. Another influence of an external nature, which must not be omitted as operating upon the loyalists, is that derived from the emigrants from Great Britain and the officers from the army and navy, and other gentlemen who became part of the first settlers. That they had a wholesome effect cannot be doubted, and gave a healthy tone to the provincial mind. From these internal and external influences the Upper Canadian has been developed into an individual singular in some respects, but yet constituting a middle link between the Englishman, and the “Englishman intensified,” as the American has been called.