“The result,” it says, “of careful examination of the Canadian connection in all its aspects, is, that so far from England being a sufferer from the renunciation of their allegiance to the British Crown on the part of the Canadas, she would be an actual gainer. It is a well ascertained fact that the expenses of the connection have more than counterbalanced its advantages. The maintenance of that part of our colonial possessions subjects us to a yearly expenditure of £800,000 hard cash. Will any one tell us that the Canadas confer on us benefits at all equivalent to this? It may, indeed, be debated whether our exports to the Canadas would not be as great as they have been at any former period. At any rate we speak advisedly when we say that this country would be no loser by the secession of the Canadas. That is certainly the conclusion at which ministers have arrived after the most able and careful consideration. On that conclusion they have determined to act. When the session meets we shall see the fact brought fully before the public, with the ground on which the cabinet has come to the conclusion at which it arrived.”
Such a statement, from a responsible English journal, sounds strangely to us even today—but it is of value in reminding us that at that time Britain was spending some four millions of dollars annually on the Canadas. Four years later, in 1854, the annexation movement received its quietus at the hands of Lord Elgin, when he secured the passage of the Reciprocity Treaty.
As there was no very general support in Canada, the movement soon collapsed. It was begotten of temporary gloom and despair. Annexation was thought by serious and well meaning men to be the necessary remedy—if it could come peaceably. Hence it was not rebellion. The annexation movement was communicated to the Upper Province, but it never had as great a hold anywhere as in Montreal. There was little aftermath beyond the cancelling of the commissions of those who held them at pleasure, a course deemed necessary as a protest by the governor general, Lord Elgin.
In the beginning of November of this year, 1849, the government offices were removed to Toronto. In the early part of 1850 a party known as the “Clear grits,” composed of the more progressive of the reform party in Upper Canada, and dissatisfied with the slowness of ministry, elaborated a programme which, among other heads, advocated, first, the complete application of the elective principle from the highest to the lowest member of the government, and, secondly, universal suffrage. A corresponding but more radical movement was organized at Montreal for Lower Canada by L.J. Papineau, under the title of “La Parti Rouge.” Its members were mostly young French-Canadians, although a number of British radicals were with them, such as L.H. Holton, and others. The “Parti Rouge” pronounced in favour of the repeal of the Union, of a republican form of government and of annexation to the States. “La Parti Rouge,” says La Minerve, the organ of the “bleus,” “has been formed at Montreal under the auspices of Mr. Papineau in hatred of English institutions, of our constitution, declared to be vicious, and above all, of responsible government which is regarded as a takein, with ideas of innovation in religion and in politics, accompanied by a profound hatred for the clergy and with the very formal and very pronounced intention of annexing Canada to the United States.” By the end of the year the prospects of trade had so brightened that with this annexation and other desperate remedies were forgotten. In October the first provincial exhibition of agricultural and industrial products was held at Montreal.
During the session of 1851, the legislation for railways was of primary importance to Montreal; if it was to keep its place as the center of transportation by land as it had been by water it would now enter into its new railroad era forced by the competing enterprises of the adjoining republics. In October the great Lafontaine-Baldwin ministry resigned. Mr. Lafontaine resumed his law practice at Montreal. In the month of August, 1853, he became chief justice of Lower Canada and held that position to his death, February 26, 1864. Ten years previously, in 1854, he was created a baronet. Sir L. Hippolyte Lafontaine’s name and fame stand high in the remembrance of Montreal.
On the 6th of November the existing parliament was dissolved. In the following elections Mr. John Young was returned from Montreal and was given a place in the Hincks-Morin cabinet as commissioner of public works. Mr. Papineau was defeated in Montreal, but found a seat for the county of Two Mountains. In the early part of 1852 Mr. Hincks visited England and arranged for the capitalizing of the Grand Trunk Railway to proceed westward from Montreal. Consequently during the fourth parliament’s first session at Quebec, which opened on August 19th, conspicuous among the acts passed was one to incorporate the Grand Trunk Railway. Other acts interesting to Montrealers were the municipal loan fund act to enable municipalities to borrow money on the credit of the province for local improvement, an act for the establishment of a trans-Atlantic line of steamers and the appropriating of £19,000 sterling per annum for the purpose. The contract was secured by McKean, McLarty & Company, of Liverpool, and steamers began to run during the following spring. Two years later the contract was annulled and an arrangement was made with Messrs. Edmonstone, Allan & Company, of Montreal. The small fleet of the last named company has since developed into the well known Allan line of trans-Atlantic steamships. On October 23d Mr. Charles Wilson, mayor of Montreal, was added to the legislative council. Before the session ended there occurred the famous Gavazzi riots in Quebec and Montreal, the latter place especially maintaining its reputation for mob violence. As the government was afterwards attacked for delay in ordering an unavoidable and searching investigation into the perpetrators of the fatal disaster at Montreal the story may be told here rather than in the ecclesiastical history of the city. During the spring of 1853 Alessandro Gavazzi, an ex-monk, had been giving a course of lectures in the States, mostly against Romanism. He had previously been received with success in England. Posing as an Italian patriot of liberty, with the reputation for impassioned and eloquent oratory and the added piquancy of being an ex-priest, he had attracted elsewhere a favourable hearing. But on his entrance to Lower Canada, at Quebec, he received a check on June 6th when delivering a lecture on the Inquisition in the Free Church on St. Ursule Street. A scene of disorder occurred in the church. The lecturer was attacked in the pulpit, and though he defended himself right valiantly with a stool, knocking down some sixteen of his assailants, he was overmastered and thrown on to the heads of the people below. Confusion reigned. The military were providentially soon on the scene and quiet obtained. The proceedings were sufficient to warrant an informal discussion in the House next day. On the night of the 9th of June Gavazzi was in Montreal, lecturing in Zion Church on the Haymarket square, now Victoria Square. Without, to prevent a recurrence of the Quebec assault, a posse of police was placed opposite the church, another in the Square and a small body of military, hard by, in concealment. These were the “Cameronians” but recently arrived in the city. There was an attempt of a body of Catholic Irishmen to break a way into the church, but they were repulsed. On retreating the second time a shot was fired by one of the intruders who was immediately shot down by a Protestant. Other shots followed. Confusion reigned. The lecture was hurriedly concluded and the people made for home. On the church being attacked the Gavazzi called for three cheers for the Queen and congratulated his hearers on freedom of speech being maintained. On their way through the streets shots were fired at them by the military. Who gave the order to fire has never been discovered. The mayor, the Hon. Charles Wilson, who had read the riot act, was accused and denied it. So also did Colonel Hogarth, of the Twenty-sixth Cameronian Rifles, also accused. It is said that the soldiers fired, at the order of some one in the crowd, but over the heads of the people, so that those making their way up Beaver Hall Hill received the shots. The Cameronians were very unpopular for a time. About forty were killed or wounded, of whom many were injured by stones and other missiles. Two women were struck down and almost trampled to death. The scene was one of frenzied riot, heightened by the screams of women. Gavazzi made his way between two clergymen to St. James street, narrowly escaping with his life. He afterwards escaped from St. Lawrence Hall in an inclosed cab to the wharf, where the Iron Duke took him to La Prairie. Thus his career ended in Canada. On June 26th an investigation was held into the causes of the riot, but nothing was the outcome and there were no apprehensions, at which there was much disapproval, as it was thought the affair was being hushed up as a political move. It is for this reason that the story has been inserted in this portion. The occasion was made an occasion of odium theologicum. At that time the St. Patrick’s Society, founded in 1834, was composed of Irishmen of different religions, but as Mr. Hincks and the mayor, the Hon. Charles Wilson, were both prominent members, Mr. Hincks was accused of being under the influence of the Roman Catholic majority for political purposes. Mr. Drummond, the attorney-general for Lower Canada, being a Catholic, was also accused in being dilatory in bringing the rioters to justice.
L.H. HOLTON
SIR FRANCIS HINCKS