# Report on the Affairs of British North America/Upper Canada

Upper Canada.
State of Upper Canada.The information which I have to give respecting the state of Upper Canada not having been acquired in the course of any actual administration of the government of that Province, will necessarily be much less ample and detailed than that which I have laid before Your Majesty respecting Lower Canada. My object will be to point out the principal causes to which a general observation of the Province induces me to attribute the late troubles; and even this task will be performed with comparative ease and brevity, inasmuch as I am spared the labour of much explanation and proof, by being able to refer to the details which I have given, and the principles which I have laid down, in describing the institutions of the Lower Province.
Difficulty of ascertaining real objects of struggles.At first sight it appears much more difficult to form an accurate idea of the state of Upper than of Lower Canada. The visible and broad line of demarcation which separates parties by the distinctive characters of race, happily has no existence in the Upper Province. The quarrel is one of an entirely English, if not British population. Like all such quarrels, it has, in fact, created, not two, but several parties; each of which has some objects in common with some one of those to which it is opposed. They differ on one point, and agree on another; the sections, which unite together one day, are strongly opposed the next; and the very party, which acts as one, against a common opponent, is in truth composed of divisions seeking utterly different or incompatible objects. It is very difficult to make out from the avowals of parties the real objects of their struggles, and still less easy is it to discover any cause of such importance as would account for its uniting any large mass of the people in an attempt to overthrow, by forcible means, the existing form of Government.
Isolation of districts.The peculiar geographical character of the Province greatly increases the difficulty of obtaining very accurate information. Its inhabitants scattered along an extensive frontier, with very imperfect means of communication, and a limited and partial commerce, have, apparently no unity of interest or opinion. The Province has no great centre with which all the separate parts are connected, and which they are accustomed to follow in sentiment and action; nor is there that habitual intercourse between the inhabitants of different parts of the country, which, by diffusing through all a knowledge of the opinions and interests of each, makes a people one and united, in spite of extent of territory and dispersion of population. Instead of this, there are many petty local centres, the sentiments and the interests (or at least what are fancied to be so) of which, are distinct, and perhaps opposed. It has been stated to me by intelligent persons from England, who had travelled through the Province for purposes of business, that this isolation of the different districts from each other was strikingly apparent in all attempts to acquire information in one district respecting the agricultural or commercial character of another; and that not only were very gross attempts made to deceive an inquirer on these points, but that even the information which had been given in a spirit of perfect good faith, generally turned out to be founded in great misapprehension. From these causes a stranger who visits any one of these local centres, or who does not visit the whole, is almost necessarily ignorant of matters, a true knowledge of which is essential to an accurate comprehension of the real position of parties, and of the political prospects of the country.
Features of the contest in the Assembly, &c.The political contest which has so long been carried on in the Assembly and the press appears to have been one, exhibiting throughout its whole course the characteristical features of the purely political part of the contest in Lower Canada; and, like that, originating in an unwise distribution of power in the constitutional system of the Province. The financial disputes which so long occupied the contending parties in Lower Canada, were much more easily and wisely arranged in the Upper Province; and the struggle, though extending itself over a variety of questions of more or less importance, avowedly and distinctly rested on the demand for responsibility in the Executive Government.
The 'family compact'.In the preceding account of the working of the constitutional system in Lower Canada, I have described the effect which the irresponsibility of the real advisers of the Governor had in lodging permanent authority in the hands of a powerful party, linked together not only by common party interests, but by personal ties. But in none of the North American Provinces has this exhibited itself for so long a period or to such an extent, as in Upper Canada, which has long been entirely governed by a party commonly designated throughout the Province as the 'family compact', a name not much more appropriate than party designations usually are, inasmuch as there is, in truth, very little of family connexion among the persons thus united. For a long time this body of men, receiving at times accessions to its numbers, possessed almost all the highest public offices, by means of which, and of its influence in the Executive Council, it wielded all the powers of government; it maintained influence in the legislature by means of its predominance in the Legislative Council; and it disposed of the large number of petty posts which are in the patronage of the Government all over the Province. Successive Governors, as they came in their turn, are said to have either submitted quietly to its influence, or, after a short and unavailing struggle, to have yielded to this well-organized party the real conduct of affairs. The bench, the magistracy, the high offices of the Episcopal Church, and a great part of the legal profession, are filled by the adherents of this party: by grant or purchase, they have acquired nearly the whole of the waste lands of the Province; they are all-powerful in the chartered banks, and, till lately, shared among themselves almost exclusively all offices of trust and profit. The bulk of this party consists, for the most part, of native-born inhabitants of the Colony, or of emigrants who settled in it before the last war with the United States; the principal members of it belong to the church of England, and the maintenance of the claims of that church has always been one of its distinguishing characteristics.
Opposition of reformers, and results.A monopoly of power so extensive and so lasting could not fail, in process of time, to excite envy, create dissatisfaction, and ultimately provoke attack; and an opposition consequently grew up in the Assembly which assailed the ruling party, by appealing to popular principles of government, by denouncing the alleged jobbing and profusion of the official body, and by instituting inquiries into abuses, for the purpose of promoting reform, and especially economy. The question of the greatest importance, raised in the course of these disputes, was that of the disposal of the clergy reserves; and, though different modes of applying these lands, or rather the funds derived from them, were suggested, the reformers, or opposition, were generally very successful in their appeals to the people, against the project of the tory or official party, which was that of devoting them exclusively to the maintenance of the English Episcopal Church. The reformers, by successfully agitating this and various economical questions, obtained a majority. Like almost all popular colonial parties, it managed its power with very little discretion and skill, offended a large number of the constituencies, and, being baffled by the Legislative Council, and resolutely opposed by all the personal and official influence of the official body, a dissolution again placed it in a minority in the Assembly. This turn of fortune was not confined to a single instance; for neither party has for some time possessed the majority in two successive Parliaments. The present is the fifth of these alternating Houses of Assembly.
Objects and conduct of reformers.The reformers, however, at last discovered that success in the elections insured them very little practical benefit, For the official party not being removed when it failed to command a majority in the Assembly, still continued to wield all the powers of the executive government, to strengthen itself by its patronage, and to influence the policy of the colonial Governor and of the Colonial Department at home. By its secure majority in the Legislative Council, it could effectually control the legislative powers of the Assembly. It could choose its own moment for dissolving hostile Assemblies; and could always insure, for those that were favourable to itself, the tenure of their seats for the full term of four years allowed by the law. Thus the reformers found that their triumph at elections could not in any way facilitate the progress of their views, while the executive government remained constantly in the hands of their opponents. They rightly judged that, if the higher offices and the Executive Council were always held by those who could command a majority in the Assembly, the constitution of the Legislative Council was a matter of very little moment, inasmuch as the advisers of the Governor could always take care that its composition should be modified so as to suit their own purposes. Contrast with the French majority.They concentrated their powers, therefore, for the purpose of obtaining the responsibility of the Executive Council; and I cannot help contrasting the practical good sense of the English reformers of Upper Canada with the less prudent course of the French majority in the Assembly of Lower Canada, as exhibited in the different demands of constitutional change, most earnestly pressed by each. Both, in fact, desired the same object, namely, an extension of popular influence in the Government. The Assembly of Lower Canada attacked the Legislative Council; a body, of which the constitution was certainly the most open to obvious theoretical objections, on the part of all the advocates of popular institutions, but, for the same reason, most sure of finding powerful defenders at home. The reformers of Upper Canada paid little attention to the composition of the Legislative Council, and directed their exertions to obtaining such an alteration of the Executive Council as might have been obtained without any derangement of the constitutional balance of power; but they well knew, that if once they obtained possession of the Executive Council, and the higher offices of the Province, the Legislative Council would soon be unable to offer any effectual resistance to their meditated reforms.
Question as to the Executive Council.It was upon this question of the responsibility of the Executive Council that the great struggle has for a long time been carried on between the official party and the reformers; for the official party, like all parties long in power, was naturally unwilling to submit itself to any such responsibility as would abridge its tenure, or cramp its exercise of authority. Reluctant to acknowledge any responsibility to the people of the Colony, this party appears to have paid a somewhat refractory and nominal submission to the Imperial Government, relying in fact on securing a virtual independence by this nominal submission to the distant authority of the Colonial Department, or to the powers of a Governor, over whose policy they were certain, by their facilities of access, to obtain a paramount influence.
Views of reformers in general.The views of the great body of the Reformers appear to have been limited, according to their favourite expression, to the making the Colonial Constitution 'an exact transcript' of that of Great Britain; and they only desired that the Crown should in Upper Canada, as at home, entrust the administration of affairs to men possessing the confidence of the Assembly. It cannot be doubted, however, that there were many of the party who wished to assimilate the institutions of the Province rather to those of the United States than to those of the mother country. A few persons, chiefly of American origin, appear to have entertained these designs from the outset; but the number had at last been very much increased by the despair which many of those who started with more limited views conceived of their being ever carried into effect under the existing form of Government.
Local jobbing.Each party, while it possessed the ascendancy, has been accused by its opponents of having abused its power over the public funds in those modes of local jobbing which I have described as so common in the North American Colonies. This, perhaps, is to be attributed partly to the circumstances adverted to above, as increasing the difficulty of obtaining any accurate information as to the real circumstances of the Province. From these causes it too often happened that the members of the House of Assembly came to the meeting of the legislature ignorant of the real character of the general interests entrusted to their guardianship, intent only on promoting sectional objects, and anxious chiefly to secure for the county they happen to represent, or the district with which they are connected, as large a proportion as possible of any funds which the legislature may have at its disposal. In Upper Canada, however, the means of doing this were never so extensive as those possessed by the Lower Province; and the great works which the Province commenced on a very extended scale, and executed in a spirit of great carelessness and profusion, have left so little surplus revenue, that this Province alone, among the North American Colonies, has fortunately for itself been compelled to establish a system of local assessments, and to leave local works, in a great measure, to the energy and means of the localities themselves. It is asserted, however, that the nature of those great works, and the manner in which they were carried on, evinced merely a regard for local interests, and a disposition to strengthen party influence. The inhabitants of the less thickly peopled districts complained that the revenues of the Province were employed in works by which only the frontier population would benefit. The money absorbed by undertakings which they described as disproportioned to the resources and to the wants of the Province, would, they alleged, have sufficed to establish practicable means of communication over the whole country; and they stated, apparently not without foundation, that had this latter course been pursued, the population and the resources of the Province would have been so augmented as to make the works actually undertaken both useful and profitable. The carelessness and profusion which marked the execution of these works, the management of which, it was complained, was entrusted chiefly to members of the ruling party, were also assumed to be the result of a deliberate purpose, and to be permitted, if not encouraged, in order that a few individuals might be enriched at the expense of the community. Circumstances to which I shall hereafter advert, by which the further progress of these works has been checked, and the large expenses incurred in bringing them to their present state of forwardness, have been rendered unavailing, have given greater force to these complaints, and, in addition to the discontent produced by the objects of the expenditure, the governing party has been made responsible for a failure in the accomplishment of these objects, attributable to causes over which it had no control. But to whatever extent these practices may have been carried, the course of the Parliamentary contest in Upper Canada has not been marked by that singular neglect of the great duties of a legislative body, which I have remarked in the proceedings of the Parliament of Lower Canada. Useful reforms.The statute book of the Upper Province abounds with useful and well-constructed measures of reform, and presents an honourable contrast to that of the Lower Province.
Third party of recent emigrants.While the parties were thus struggling, the operation of a cause, utterly unconnected with their disputes, suddenly raised up a very considerable third party, which began to make its appearance among the political disputants about the time that the quarrel was at its height. I have said that in Upper Canada there is no animosity of races; there is nevertheless a distinction of origin, which has exercised a very important influence on the composition of parties, and appears likely, sooner or later, to become the prominent and absorbing element of political division. The official and reforming parties which I have described, were both composed, for the most part, and were almost entirely led, by native-born Canadians, American settlers, or emigrants of a very ancient date; and as one section of this more ancient population possessed, so another was the only body of persons that claimed, the management of affairs, and the enjoyment of offices conferring emolument or power, until the extensive emigration from Great Britain, which followed the disastrous period of 1825 and 1826, changed the state of things, by suddenly doubling the population, and introducing among the ancient disputants for power, an entirely new class of persons. The new-comers, however, did not for a long time appear as a distinct party in the politics of Upper Canada. A large number of the higher class of emigrants, particularly the half-pay officers, who were induced to settle in this Province, had belonged to the Tory party in England, and, in conformity with their ancient predilections, naturally arrayed themselves on the side of the official party, contending with the representatives of the people. The mass of the humbler order of emigrants, accustomed in the mother country to complain of the corruption and profusion of the Government, and to seek for a reform of abuses, by increasing the popular influence in the representative body, arrayed themselves on the side of those who represented the people, and attacked oligarchical power and abuses; but there was still a great difference of opinion between each of the two Canadian parties and that section of the British which for a while acted with it. Each of the Canadian parties, while it differed with the other about the tenure of political powers in the Colony, desired almost the same degree of practical independence of the mother country; each felt and each betrayed in its political conduct a jealousy of the emigrants, and a wish to maintain the powers of office and the emoluments of the professions in the hands of persons born or long resident in the Colony. The British, on the contrary, to whichever party they belong, appear to agree in desiring that the connexion with the mother country should be drawn closer. They differ very little among themselves, I imagine, in desiring such a change as should assimilate the Government of Upper Canada, in spirit as well as in form, to the Government of England, retaining an executive sufficiently powerful to curb popular excesses, and giving to the majority of the people, or to such of them as the less liberal would trust with political rights, some substantial control over the administration of affairs. But the great common object was, and is, the removal of those disqualifications to which British emigrants are subject, so that they might feel as citizens, instead of aliens, in the land of their adoption.
Proceedings of Sir F. Head.Such was the state of parties, when Sir F. Head, on assuming the government of the Colony, dismissed from the Executive Council some of the members who were most obnoxious to the House of Assembly, and requested three individuals to succeed them. Two of these gentlemen, Dr. Rolph, and Mr. R. Baldwin, were connected with the reforming party, and the third, Mr. Dunn, was an Englishman, who had held the office of Receiver General for nearly 14 years, and up to that time had abstained from any interference in politics. These gentlemen were, at first, reluctant to take office, because they feared that, as there were still three of the former Council left, they should be constantly maintaining a doubtful struggle for the measures which they considered necessary. They were, however, at length induced to forego their scruples, chiefly upon the representations of some of their friends, that when they had a Governor who appeared sincere in his professions of reform, and who promised them his entire confidence, it was neither generous nor prudent to persist in a refusal which might be taken to imply distrust of his sincerity; and they accordingly accepted office. Among the first acts of the Governor, after the appointment of this Council, was, however, the nomination to some vacant offices of individuals, who were taken from the old official party, and this without any communication with his Council. These appointments were attacked by the House of Assembly, and the new Council, finding that their opinion was never asked upon these, or other matters, and that they were seemingly to be kept in ignorance of all those public measures, which popular opinion nevertheless attributed to their advice, remonstrated privately on the subject with the Governor. Sir Francis desired them to make a formal representation to him on the subject; they did so, and this produced such a reply from him, as left them no choice but to resign. The occasion of the differences which had caused the resignation, was made the subject of communication between the Governor and the Assembly, so that the whole community were informed of the grounds of the dispute.
Real question decided by general election of 1836.The contest which appeared to be thus commenced on the question of the responsibility of the Executive Council, was really decided on very different grounds. Sir F. Head, who appears to have thought that the maintenance of the connexion with Great Britain depended upon his triumph over the majority of the Assembly, embarked in the contest, with a determination to use every influence in his power, in order to bring it to a successful issue. He succeeded, in fact, in putting the issue in such a light before the Province, that a great portion of the people really imagined that they were called upon to decide the question of separation by their votes. The dissolution, on which he ventured, when he thought the public mind sufficiently ripe, completely answered his expectations. The British, in particular, were roused by the proclaimed danger to the connexion with the mother country; they were indignant at some portions of the conduct and speeches of certain members of the late majority, which seemed to mark a determined preference of American over British Institutions. They were irritated by indications of hostility to British emigration, which they saw, or fancied they saw, in some recent proceedings of the Assembly. Above all, not only they, but a great many others, had marked with envy the stupendous public works which were at that period producing their effect in the almost marvellous growth of the wealth and population of the neighbouring state of New York; and they reproached the Assembly with what they considered an unwise economy, in preventing the undertaking or even completion of similar works, that might, as they fancied, have produced a similar development of the resources of Upper Canada. The general support of the British determined the elections in favour of the Government; and though very large and close minorities, which in many cases supported the defeated candidates, marked the force which the reformers could bring into the field, even in spite of the disadvantages under which they laboured from the momentary prejudices against them, and the unusual manner in which the Crown, by its representative, appeared to make itself a party in an electioneering contest, the result was the return of a very large majority hostile in politics to that of the late Assembly.
Failure of result aimed at by Sir F. Head.It is rather singular, however, that the result which Sir F. Head appears really to have aimed at, was by no means secured by this apparent triumph. His object in all his previous measures, and in the nomination of the Executive Councillors, by whom he replaced the retiring members, was evidently to make the Council a means of administrative independence for the Governor. Sir F. Head would seem to have been, at the commencement of his administration, really desirous of effecting certain reforms which he believed to be needful, and of rescuing the substantial power of the Government from the hands of the party by which it had been so long monopolized. The dismissal of the old members of the Executive Council was the consequence of this intention; but though willing to take measures for the purpose of emancipating himself from the thraldom in which it was stated that other Governors had been held, he could not acquiesce in the claims of the House of Assembly to have a really responsible Colonial Executive. The result of the elections was to give him, as he conceived, a House of Assembly pledged to support him, as Governor, in the exercise of the independent authority he had claimed. On the very first occasion, however, on which he attempted to protect an officer of the Government, unconnected with the old official party, from charges which, whether well or ill founded, were obviously brought forward on personal grounds, he found that the new House was even more determined than its predecessor to assert its right to exercise a substantial control over the Government; and that, unless he was disposed to risk a collision with both branches of the legislature, then composed of similar materials, and virtually under one influence, he must succumb. Unwilling to incur this risk, when, as he justly imagined, there was no party upon whose support he could rely to bear him safely through the contest, he yielded the point. Although the committee appointed to inquire into the truth of the charges made against Mr. Hepburn refused to adopt a report confirming these charges prepared by their chairman (by whom the accusation had been brought forward, and by whom the committee was virtually nominated), Sir F. Head persuaded the individual in question to resign his office, and to take one of very inferior emolument. From that time he never attempted to assert the independence which the new House of Assembly had been elected to secure. The Government consequently reverted in effect to the party which he had found in office when he assumed the Governorship, and which it had been his first act to dispossess. In their hands it still remains; and I must state that it is the general opinion, that never was the power of the 'family compact' so extensive or so absolute as it has been from the first meeting of the existing Parliament down to the present time.
Real result of Sir F. Head's policy.It may, indeed, be fairly said, that the real result of Sir F. Head's policy was to establish that very administrative influence of the leaders of a majority in the Legislature which he had so obstinately disputed. The Executive Councillors of his nomination, who seem to have taken office almost on the express condition of being mere ciphers, are not, in fact, then, the real government of the Province. It is said that the new officers of Government whom Sir F. Head appointed from without the pale of official eligibility, feel more apprehension of the present House than, so far as can be judged, was ever felt by their predecessors with regard to the most violent of the reforming Houses of Assembly. Their apprehension, however, is not confined to the present House; they feel that, under no conceivable contingency, can they expect an Assembly disposed to support them; and they accordingly appear to desire such a change in the colonial system as might make them dependent upon the Imperial Government alone, and secure them against all interference from the Legislature of the Province, whatever party should obtain a preponderance in the Assembly.
Legislature does not possess sufficient popular confidence.While the nominal Government thus possesses no real power, the Legislature, by whose leaders the substantial power is enjoyed, by no means possesses so much of the confidence of the people, as a Legislature ought to command, even from those who differ from it on the questions of the day. I say this without meaning to cast any imputation on the Members of the House of Assembly, because, in fact, the circumstances under which they were elected, were such as to render them peculiarly objects of suspicion and reproach to a large number of their countrymen. They were accused of having violated their pledges at the election. It is said that many of them came forward, and were elected, as being really reformers, though opposed to any such claims to colonial independence as might involve a separation from the mother country. There seems to be no doubt that in several places, where the Tories succeeded, the electors were merely desirous of returning members who would not hazard any contest with England, by the assertion of claims which, from the proclamation of the Lieutenant-Governor, they believed to be practically needless; and who should support Sir F. Head in those economical reforms which the country desired, far more than political changes—reforms, for the sake of which alone political changes had been sought. In a number of other instances, too, the elections were carried by the unscrupulous exercise of the influence of the Government, and by a display of violence on the part of the Tories, who were emboldened by the countenance afforded to them by the authorities. It was stated, but I believe without any sufficient foundation, that the Government made grants of land to persons who had no title to them, in order to secure their votes. This report originated in the fact, that patents for persons who were entitled to grants, but had not taken them out, were sent down to the polling places, to be given to the individuals entitled to them, if they were disposed to vote for the Government candidate. The taking such measures, in order to secure their fair right of voting to the electors in a particular interest, must be considered rather as an act of official favouritism, than as an electoral fraud. But we cannot wonder that the defeated party put the very worst construction on acts which gave some ground for it; and they conceived, in consequence, a strong resentment against the means by which they believed that the representative of the Crown had carried the elections, his interference in which in any way was stigmatized by them as a gross violation of constitutional privilege and propriety.
Exasperation of the people.It cannot be matter of surprise, that such facts and such impressions produced in the country an exasperation and a despair of good Government, which extended far beyond those who had actually been defeated at the poll. For there was nothing in the use which the leaders of the Assembly have made of their power, to soften the discontent excited by their alleged mode of obtaining it. Many even of those who had supported the successful candidates, were disappointed in every expectation which they had formed of the policy to be pursued by their new representatives. No economical reforms were introduced. The Assembly, instead of supporting the Governor, compelled his obedience to itself, and produced no change in the administration of affairs, except that of reinstating the 'family compact' in power. On some topics, on which the feelings of the people were very deeply engaged, as, for instance, the clergy reserves, the Assembly is accused of having shown a disposition to act in direct defiance of the known sentiments of a vast majority of its constituents. The dissatisfaction arising from these causes, was carried to its height, by an Act, that appeared in defiance of all constitutional right, to prolong the power of a majority which, it was supposed, counted on not being able to retain its existence after another appeal to the people. This was the passing an Act preventing the dissolution of the existing, as well as any future Assembly, on the demise of the Crown. The Act was passed in expectation of the approaching decease of his late Majesty; and it has, in fact, prolonged the existence of the present Assembly from the period of a single year to one of four. It is said that this step is justified by the example of the other North American Colonies, But it is certain that it nevertheless caused very great dissatisfaction, and was regarded as an unbecoming usurpation of power.
Proximate causes of the insurrection.It was the prevalence of the general dissatisfaction thus caused, that emboldened the parties who instigated the insurrection to an attempt, which may be characterized as having been as foolishly contrived and as ill-conducted, as it was wicked and treasonable. This outbreak, which common prudence and good management would have prevented from coming to a head, was promptly quelled by the alacrity with which the population, and especially the British portion of it, rallied round the Government. The proximity of the American frontier, the nature of the border country, and the wild and daring character, together with the periodical want of employment of its population, have unfortunately enabled a few desperate exiles to continue the troubles of their country, by means of the predatory gangs which have from time to time invaded and robbed, under the pretext of revolutionizing the Province. But the general loyalty of the population has been evinced by the little disposition that has been exhibited by any portion of it to accept of the proffered aid of the refugees and foreign invaders, and by the unanimity with which all have turned out to defend their country.
Mackenzie's treasonable enterprize.It has not, indeed, been exactly ascertained what proportion of the inhabitants of Upper Canada were prepared to join Mackenzie in his treasonable enterprize, or were so disposed that we may suppose they would have arrayed themselves on his side, had he obtained any momentary success, as indeed was for some days within his grasp. Even if I were convinced that a large proportion of the population would, under any circumstances, have lent themselves to his projects, I should be inclined to attribute such a disposition merely to the irritation produced by those temporary causes of dissatisfaction with the government of the Province which I have specified, and not to any settled design on the part of any great number, either to subvert existing institutions, or to change their present connexion with Great Britain for a junction with the United States. I am inclined to view the insurrectionary movements which did take place as indicative of no deep-rooted disaffection, and to believe that almost the entire body of the reformers of this Province sought only by constitutional means to obtain those objects for which they had so long peaceably struggled before the unhappy troubles occasioned by the violence of a few unprincipled adventurers and heated enthusiasts.
Difficulties of adjustment increased by late events.It cannot, however, be doubted, that the events of the past year have greatly increased the difficulty of settling the disorders of Upper Canada. A degree of discontent, approaching, if not amounting, to disaffection, has gained considerable ground. The causes of dissatisfaction continue to act on the minds of the reformers; and their hope of redress, under the present order of things, has been seriously diminished. The exasperation caused by the conflict itself, the suspicions and terrors of that trying period, and the use made by the triumphant party of the power thrown into their hands, have heightened the passions which existed before. It certainly appeared too much as if the rebellion had been purposely invited by the Government, and the unfortunate men who took part in it deliberately drawn into a trap by those who subsequently inflicted so severe a punishment on them for their error. It seemed, too, as if the dominant party made use of the occasion afforded it by the real guilt of a few desperate and imprudent men, in order to persecute or disable the whole body of their political opponents. A great number of perfectly innocent individuals were thrown into prison, and suffered in person, property and character. The whole body of reformers were subjected to suspicion, and to harassing proceedings, instituted by magistrates, whose political leanings were notoriously adverse to them. Severe laws were passed, under colour of which, individuals very generally esteemed were punished without any form of trial.
Irritation excited.The two persons who suffered the extreme penalty of the law unfortunately engaged a great share of the public sympathy; their pardon had been solicited in petitions signed, it is generally asserted, by no less than 30,000 of their countrymen. The rest of the prisoners were detained in confinement a considerable time. A large number of the subordinate actors in the insurrection were severely punished, and public anxiety was raised to the highest pitch by the uncertainty respecting the fate of the others, who were from time to time partially released. It was not until the month of October last that the whole of the prisoners were disposed of, and a partial amnesty proclaimed, which enabled the large numbers who had fled the country, and so long, and at such imminent hazard, hung on its frontier, to return in security to their homes. I make no mention of the reasons which, in the opinion of the local government, rendered these different steps advisable, because my object is not to discuss the propriety of its conduct, but to point out the effect which it necessarily had in augmenting irritation.
Feelings of the reform party.The whole party of the reformers, a party which I am inclined to estimate as very considerable, and which has commanded large majorities in different Houses of Assembly, has certainly felt itself assailed by the policy pursued. It sees the whole powers of Government wielded by its enemies, and imagines that it can perceive also a determination to use these powers inflexibly against all the objects which it most values. The wounded private feelings of individuals, and the defeated public policy of a party, combine to spread a wide and serious irritation; but I do not believe that this has yet proceeded so far as to induce at all a general disposition to look to violent measures for redress. The reformers have been gradually recovering their hopes of regaining their ascendancy by constitutional means; the sudden pre-eminence which the question of the clergy reserves and rectories has again assumed during the last summer, appears to have increased their influence and confidence; and I have no reason to believe that any thing can make them generally and decidedly desirous of separation, except some such act of the Imperial Government as shall deprive them of all hopes of obtaining real administrative power, even in the event of their again obtaining a majority in the Assembly. With such a hope before them, I believe that they will remain in tranquil expectation of the result of the general election which cannot be delayed beyond the summer of 1840.
Difficulty of classifying parties.To describe the character and objects of the other parties in this Province would not be very easy; and their variety and complication is so great, that it would be of no great advantage were I to explain the various shades of opinion that mark each. In a very laboured essay, which was published in Toronto during my stay in Canada, there was an attempt to classify the various parties in the Province under six different heads. Some of these were classified according to strictly political opinions, some according to religion, and some according to birthplace; and each party, it was obvious, contained in its ranks a great many who would, according to the designations used, have as naturally belonged to some other. But it is obvious, from all accounts of the different parties, that the nominal Government, that is, the majority of the Executive Council, enjoy the confidence of no considerable party, and that the party called the 'family compact', which possesses the majority in both branches of the Legislature, is, in fact, supported at present by no very large number of persons of any party. None are more hostile to them than the greater part of that large and spirited British-born population, to whose steadfast exertions the preservation of the Colony during the last winter is mainly attributable, and who see with indignation that a monopoly of power and profit is still retained by a small body of men, which seems bent on excluding from any participation in it the British emigrants. Zealously co-operating with the dominant party in resisting treason and foreign invasion, this portion of the population, nevertheless, entertains a general distrust and dislike of them; and though many of the most prominent of the British emigrants have always acted and still invariably act in opposition to the reformers, and dissent from their views of responsible government, I am very much inclined to think that they, and certainly the great mass of their countrymen, really desire such a responsibility of the government, as would break up the present monopoly of office and influence.
Peculiar complaints of British settlers.Besides those causes of complaint which are common to the whole Colony, the British settlers have many peculiar to themselves. The emigrants who have settled in the country within the last ten years, are supposed to comprise half the population. They complain that while the Canadians are desirous of having British capital and labour brought into the Colony, by means of which, their fields may be cultivated, and the value of their unsettled possessions increased, they refuse to make the Colony really attractive to British skill and British capitalists. They say that an Englishman emigrating to Upper Canada, is practically as much an alien in that British Colony as he would be if he were to emigrate to the United States. He may equally purchase and hold lands, or invest his capital in trade in one country as in the other, and he may in either exercise any mechanical avocation, and perform any species of manual labour. This, however, is the extent of his privileges; his English qualifications avail him little or nothing. He cannot, if a surgeon, licensed to act in England, practise without the license of a Board of Examiners in the Province. If an attorney, he has to submit to an apprenticeship of five years before he is allowed to practise. If a barrister, he is excluded from the profitable part of his profession, and though allowed to practise at the bar, the permission thus accorded to him is practically of no use in a country where, as nine attornies out of ten are barristers also, there can be no business for a mere barrister. Thus, a person who has been admitted to the English bar, is compelled to serve an apprenticeship of three years to a Provincial lawyer.
Obstacles in the way of settlers.By an Act passed last Session, difficulties are thrown in the way of the employment of capital in banking, which have a tendency to preserve the monopoly possessed by the chartered banks of the Colony, in which the Canadian party are supreme, and the influence of which is said to be employed directly as an instrument for upholding the political supremacy of the party. Under the system, also, of selling land pursued by the Government, an individual does not acquire a patent for his land until he has paid the whole of the purchase-money, a period of from four to ten years, according as his purchase is a Crown or clergy lot; and until the patent issues, he has no right to vote. In some of the new states of America, on the contrary, especially in Illinois, an individual may practise as a surgeon or lawyer almost immediately on his arrival in the country, and he has every right of citizenship after a residence of six months in the state. An Englishman is, therefore, in effect less an alien in a foreign country than in one which forms a part of the British Empire. Such are the superior advantages of the United States at present, that nothing but the feeling, that in the one country he is among a more kindred people, under the same laws, and in a society whose habits and sentiments are similar to those to which he has been accustomed, can induce an Englishman to settle in Canada, in preference to the States; and if, in the former, he is deprived of rights which he obtains in the latter, though a foreigner, it is not to be wondered at that he should, in many cases, give the preference to the land in which he is treated most as a citizen. It is very possible that there are but few cases in which the departure of an Englishman from Upper Canada to the States can be traced directly to any of these circumstances in particular; yet the state of society and of feeling which they have engendered, has been among the main causes of the great extent of re-emigration to the new states of the Union. It operates, too, still more to deter emigration from England to the Provinces, and thus both to retard the advance of the Colony, and to deprive the mother country of one of the principal advantages on account of which the existence of Colonies is desirable—the field which they afford for the employment of her surplus population and wealth. The native Canadians, however, to whatever political party they may belong, appear to be unanimous in the wish to preserve these exclusive privileges. The course of legislation, since the tide of emigration set most strongly to the country, and while under its influence the value of all species of property was rising, and the resources of the Province were rapidly, and (for the old inhabitants) profitably developed, has been to draw a yet more marked line between the two classes, instead of obliterating the former distinctions. The law excluding English lawyers from practice is of recent origin. The Speaker of the reforming House of Assembly, Mr. Bidwell, was among the strongest opponents of any alteration of that law which might render it less rigidly exclusive, and, on more than one occasion, gave his casting vote against a Bill having for its object the admission of an English lawyer to practise in the Province without serving a previous apprenticeship. This point is of more importance in a Colony than it would at first sight appear to any one accustomed only to such a state of society as exists in England. The members of the legal profession are in effect the leaders of the people, and the class from which, in a larger proportion than from any other class, legislators are taken. It is, therefore, not merely a monopoly of profit, but, to a considerable extent, a monopoly of power, which the present body of lawyers contrive, by means of this exclusion, to secure to themselves. No man of mature age emigrating to a Colony, could afford to lose five years of his life, in an apprenticeship from which he could acquire neither learning nor skill. The few professional men, therefore, who have gone to Upper Canada have turned their attention to other pursuits, retaining, however, a strong feeling of discontent against the existing order of things. And many who might have emigrated remain at home, or seek some other Colony where their course is not impeded by similar restrictions.
The country should be made attractive to emigrants.But as in Upper Canada, under a law passed immediately after the last war with the States, American citizens are forbidden to hold land, it is of the more consequence that the country should be made as attractive as possible to the emigrating middle classes of Great Britain, the only class from which an accession of capital, to be invested in the purchase or improvement of lands, can be hoped for. The policy of the law just referred to, may well be doubted, whether the interests of the Colony or of the mother country are considered, since the wealth and activity, and consequent commerce of the Province, would have been greatly augmented, had its natural advantages of soil and position been allowed to operate in attracting those who were most aware of their existence, and eminently fitted to aid in their development; and there is great reason to believe that the uncertainty of the titles which many Americans possess to the land on which they have squatted since the passing of this law, is the main cause of much of the disloyalty, or rather very lukewarm loyalty, evinced by that population in the western district. But when this exclusion had been determined upon, it would at least have been wise to have removed every thing that might have seemed like an obstacle in the way of those for whom the land was to be kept open, instead of closing the principal avenues to wealth or distinction against them in a spirit of petty provincial jealousy.
Question of clergy reserves.The great practical question, however, on which these various parties have for a long time been at issue, and which has within a very few months again become the prominent matter in debate, is that of the clergy reserves. The prompt and satisfactory decision of this question is essential to the pacification of Canada; and as it was one of the most important questions referred to me for investigation, it is necessary that I should state it fully, and not shrink from making known the light in which it has presented itself to my mind. The disputes on this subject are now of long standing. By the Constitutional Act a certain portion of the land in every township was set apart for the maintenance of a 'Protestant' clergy. In that portion of this Report which treats of the management of the waste lands, the economical mischiefs which have resulted from this appropriation of territory, are fully detailed; and the present disputes relate solely to the application, and not to the mode of raising, the funds, which are now derived from the sale of the clergy reserves. Under the term 'Protestant Clergy', the clergy of the Church of England have always claimed the sole enjoyment of these funds. The members of the Church of Scotland have claimed to be put entirely on a level with the Church of England, and have demanded that these funds should be equally divided between both. The various denominations of Protestant Dissenters have asserted that the term includes them, and that out of these funds an equal provision should be made for all Christians who do not belong to the Church of Rome. But a great body of all Protestant denominations, and the numerous Catholics who inhabit the Province, have maintained that any such favour towards any one, or even all of the Protestant sects, would be most unadvisable, and have either demanded the equal application of those funds to the purposes of all religious creeds whatsoever, or have urged the propriety of leaving each body of religionists to maintain its own establishment, to repeal or disregard the law, and to apply the clergy funds to the general purposes of the Government, or to the support of a general system of education.
Proceedings of Provincial Legislatures.The supporters of these different schemes having long contended in this Province, and greatly inconvenienced the Imperial Government, by constant references to its decision, the Secretary of State for the Colonies proposed to leave the determination of the matter to the provincial Legislatures, pledging the Imperial Government to do its utmost to get a Parliamentary sanction to whatever course they might adopt. Two Bills, in consequence, passed the last House of Assembly, in which the reformers had the ascendancy, applying these funds to the purposes of education; and both these Bills were rejected by the Legislative Council.
Effect of Sir J. Colborne's establishment of rectories.During all this time, however, though much irritation had been caused by the exclusive claims of the Church of England, and the favour shown by the Government to one, and that a small religious community, the clergy of that church, though an endowed, were not a dominant, priesthood. They had a far larger share of the public money than the clergy of any other denomination; but they had no exclusive privileges, and no authority, save such as might spring from their efficient discharge of their sacred duties, or from the energy, ability or influence of members of their body. But the last public act of Sir John Colborne, before quitting the Government of the Province in 1835, which was the establishment of the fifty-seven Rectories, has completely changed the aspect of the question. It is understood that every rector possesses all the spiritual and other privileges enjoyed by an English rector; and that though he may have no right to levy tithes (for even this has been made a question), he is in all other respects in precisely the same position as a clergyman of the Established Church in England. This is regarded by all other teachers of religion in the country as having at once degraded them to a position of legal inferiority to the clergy of the Church of England; and it has been resented most warmly. In the opinion of many persons, this was the chief pre-disposing cause of the recent insurrection, and it is an abiding and unabated cause of discontent. Nor is this to be wondered at. The Church of England in Upper Canada, by numbering in its ranks all those who belong to no other sect, represents itself as being more numerous than any single denomination of Christians in the country. Even admitting, however, the justice of the principle upon which this enumeration proceeds, and giving that Church credit for all that it thus claims, its number could not amount to one third, probably not a fourth, of the population. It is not, therefore, to be expected that the other sects, three at least of whom, the Methodists, the Presbyterians and the Catholics, claim to be individually more numerous than the Church of England, should acquiesce quietly in the supremacy thus given to it. And it is equally natural that the English Dissenters and Irish Catholics, remembering the position which they have occupied at home, and the long and painful struggle through which alone they have obtained the imperfect equality they now possess, should refuse to acquiesce for themselves in the creation of a similar establishment in their new country, and thus to bequeath to their children a strife as arduous and embittered as that from which they have so recently and imperfectly escaped.
But for this act, it would have been possible, though highly impolitic, to have allowed the clergy reserves to remain upon their former undetermined and unsatisfactory footing. But the question as to the application of this property, must now be settled, if it is intended that the Province is to be free from violent and perilous agitation. Indeed, the whole controversy, which had been in a great measure suspended by the insurrection, was, in the course of the last summer, revived with more heat than ever by the most inopportune arrival in the Colony of opinions given by the English Law Officers of the Crown in favour of the legality of the establishment of the rectories. Since that period, the question has again absorbed public attention; and it is quite clear that it is upon this practical point that issue must sooner or later be joined on all the constitutional questions to which I have previously adverted. I am well aware that there are not wanting some who represent the agitation of this question as merely the result of its present unsettled character, and who assert, that if the claims of the English Church to the exclusive enjoyment of this property were established by the Imperial Parliament, all parties, however loud their present pretensions, or however vehement their first complaints, would peacefully acquiesce in an arrangement which would then be inevitable. This might be the case if the establishment of some dominant church were inevitable. But it cannot be necessary to point out that, in the immediate vicinity of the United States, and with their example before the people of Canada, no injustice, real or fancied, occasioned and supported by a British rule, would be regarded in this light. The result of any determination on the part of the British Government or legislature to give one sect a predominance and superiority, would be, it might be feared, not to secure the favoured sect, but to endanger the loss of the Colony, and, in vindicating the exclusive pretensions of the English Church, to hazard one of the fairest possessions of the British Crown.
State of society adverse to the principle of a dominant church.I am bound, indeed, to state, that there is a degree of feeling, and an unanimity of opinion, in the question of ecclesiastical establishments over the northern part of the continent of America, which it will be prudent not to overlook in the settlement of this question. The superiority of what is called 'the voluntary principle' is a question on which I may almost say that there is no difference of opinion in the United States; and it cannot be denied, that on this, as on other points, the tone of thought prevalent in the Union has exerted a very considerable influence over the neighbouring Provinces. Similar circumstances, too, have had the effect of accustoming the people of both countries to regard this question in a very different light from that in which it appears in the Old World; and the nature of the question is indeed entirely different in old and new countries. The apparent right which time and custom give to the maintenance of an ancient and respected institution cannot exist in a recently settled country, in which every thing is new; and the establishment of a dominant Church there is a creation of exclusive privileges in favour of one out of many religious denominations, and that composing a small minority, at the expense not merely of the majority, but of many as large minorities. The Church, too, for which alone it is proposed that the State should provide, is the Church which, being that of the wealthy, can best provide for itself, and has the fewest poor to supply with gratuitous religious instruction. Another consideration, which distinguishes the grounds on which such a question must be decided in old and new countries, is, that the state of society in the latter is not susceptible of such an organization as is necessary for the efficiency of any Church Establishment of which I know, more especially of one so constituted as the Established Church of England; for the essence of the Establishment is its parochial clergy. The services of a parochial clergy are almost inapplicable to a colony, where a constantly varying population is widely scattered over the country. Any clergy there must be rather missionary than parochial.
Members of Anglican church likely to remain a minority.A still stronger objection to the creation of a Church Establishment in this Colony is, that not merely are the members of the Church of England a small minority at present; but, inasmuch as the majority of emigrants are not members of the Church of England, the disproportion is likely to increase, instead of disappearing, in the course of time. The mass of British emigrants will be either from the middle classes of Great Britain, or the poorer classes of Ireland; the latter almost exclusively Catholics, and the former in a great proportion either Scotch Presbyterians or English Dissenters.
Mode of settlement suggested.It is most important that this question should be settled, and so settled as to give satisfaction to the majority of the people of the two Canadas, whom it equally concerns. And I know of no mode of doing this but by repealing all provisions in Imperial Acts that relate to the application of the clergy reserves, and the funds arising from them, leaving the disposal of the funds to the local legislature, and acquiescing in whatever decision it may adopt. The views which I have expressed on this subject sufficiently mark my conviction, that, without the adoption of such a course, the most mischievous practical cause of dissension will not be removed.
Policy towards the Catholics.I feel it my duty also, in this as in the Lower Province, to call especial attention to the policy which has been, and which ought to be, pursued towards the large Catholic population of the Province. On this subject I have received complaints of a general spirit of intolerance and disfavour towards all persons of this creed, to which I am obliged to give considerable credit, from the great respectability and undoubted loyalty of those from whom the complaints were received. Bishop M'Donnell, the venerable Roman Catholic Bishop of Kingston, and Mr. Manahan, M.P.P. for the county of Hastings, have made representations in letters, which will be given in the Appendix to this Report. The Catholics constitute at least a fifth of the whole population of Upper Canada. Their loyalty was most generally and unequivocally exhibited at the late outbreak. Nevertheless, it is said that they are wholly excluded from all share in the government of the country and the patronage at its disposal. 'In Upper Canada,' says Mr. Manahan, 'there never was one Irish Roman Catholic an Executive or Legislative Councillor; nor has one been ever appointed to any public situation of emolument and profit in the Colony.'
Complaints of Orangeism.The Irish Catholics complain very loudly and justly of the existence of Orangeism in this Colony. They are justly indignant that, in a Province which their loyalty and bravery have materially contributed to save, their feelings are outraged by the symbols and processions of this association. It is somewhat difficult to understand the nature and objects of the rather anomalous Orangeism of Upper Canada. Its members profess to desire to uphold the Protestant religion, but to be free from those intolerant feelings towards their Catholic countrymen, which are the distinctive marks of the Irish Orangemen. They assert, that their main object, to which the support of the English Church is subsidiary, is to maintain the connexion with Great Britain. They have sworn, it is said, many ignorant Catholics into their body; and at their public dinners, after drinking the 'pious, glorious and immortal memory', with all the usual formality of abuse of the Catholics, they toast the health of the Catholic Bishop, M'Donnell. It would seem that their great purpose has been to introduce the machinery, rather than the tenets of Orangeism; and the leaders probably hope to make use of this kind of permanent conspiracy and illegal organization to gain political power for themselves. In fact, the Catholics scarcely appear to view this institution with more jealousy than the reformers of the Province. It is an Irish Tory institution, having not so much a religious as a political bearing. The Irish Catholics who have been initiated have entered it chiefly from its supposed national character, and probably with as little regard to the political as to the religious objects with which it is connected. Still the organization of this body enables its leaders to exert a powerful influence over the populace; and it is stated that, at the last general election, the Tories succeeded in carrying more than one seat by means of the violence of the organized mob thus placed at their disposal. It is not, indeed, at the last election only that the success of the Government candidate has been attributed to the existence of this association. At former elections, especially those for the county of Leeds, it is asserted that the return of the Canadian Deputy Grand Master, and of the then Attorney General, his colleague, was procured by means of a violent and riotous mob of Orangemen, who prevented the voters in the opposition interest from coming up to the poll. In consequence of this and other similar outrages, the Assembly presented an address to Sir Francis Head, begging 'that his Excellency would be pleased to inform the House whether the Government of the Province had taken, or determined to take, any steps to prevent or discourage public processions of Orange societies, or to discourage the formation and continuance of such societies'. To this Address the Governor made the following reply:—'The Government of this Province has neither taken, nor has it determined to take, any steps to prevent or discourage the formation or continuance of such societies.' It is to be presumed that this answer proceeded from a disbelief of the truth of those charges of outrage and riot which were made the foundation of the address. But it can excite no surprise that the existence of such an institution, offending one class by its contemptuous hostility to their religion, and another by its violent opposition to their politics, and which had been sanctioned by the Governor, as was conceived, on account of its political tendencies, should excite among both classes a deep feeling of indignation, and add seriously to the distrust with which the Government was regarded.
Impediments to industrial progress.In addition to the irritation engendered by the position of parties, by the specific causes of dispute to which I have adverted, and by those features in the Government of the Colony which deprive the people of all power to effect a settlement of the questions by which the country is most deeply agitated, or to redress abuses in the institutions, or in the administration of the Province, there are permanent causes of discontent, resulting from the existence of deep-seated impediments in the way of its industrial progress. The Province is without any of those means by which the resources of a country are developed, and the civilization of a people is advanced or upheld. The general administration of justice, it is true, appears to be much better in Upper than in Lower Canada. Courts of Justice, at least, are brought into every man's neighbourhood by a system of circuits; and there is still some integrity in juries. But there are general complaints of the union of political and judicial functions in the Chief Justice; not because any suspicion attaches to that Judge's discharge of his duties, but on account of the party grounds upon which his subordinates are supposed to be appointed, and the party bias attributed to them. Complaints, too, similar to those which I have adverted to in the Lower Province, are made against the system by which the Sheriffs are appointed. It is stated, that they are selected exclusively from the friends or dependents of the ruling party; that very insufficient securities are taken from them; and that the money arising from executions and sales, which are represented as unhappily very numerous in this Province, generally remains in their hands for at least a year. For reasons also which I have specified in my account of the Lower Province, the composition of the Magistracy appears to be a serious cause of mischief and dissatisfaction.
Want of means of communications, &c.But, independently of these sources of complaint, are the impediments which I have mentioned. A very considerable portion of the Province has neither roads, post-offices, mills, schools, nor churches. The people may raise enough for their own subsistence, and may even have a rude and comfortless plenty, but they can seldom acquire wealth; nor can even wealthy land-owners prevent their children from growing up ignorant and boorish, and from occupying a far lower mental, moral and social position than they themselves fill. Their means of communication with each other, or the chief towns of the Province, are limited and uncertain. With the exception of the labouring class, most of the emigrants who have arrived within the last ten years, are poorer now than at the time of their arrival in the Province. There is no adequate system of local assessment to improve the means of communication; and the funds occasionally voted for this purpose are, under the present system, disposed of by a House of Assembly which represents principally the interests of the more settled districts, and which, it is alleged, has been chiefly intent in making their disposal a means of strengthening the influence of its members in the constituencies which they represent. These funds have consequently almost always been applied in that part of the country where they were least needed; and they have been too frequently expended so as to produce scarcely any perceptible advantages. Of the lands which were originally appropriated for the support of schools throughout the country, by far the most valuable portion has been diverted to the endowment of the University, from which those only derive any benefit who reside in Toronto, or those who, having a large assured income, are enabled to maintain their children in that town at an expense which has been estimated at £50 per annum for each child. Even in the most thickly peopled districts there are but few schools, and those of a very inferior character; while the more remote settlements are almost entirely without any.
Contrast between Upper Canada and the United States.Under such circumstances there is little stimulus to industry or enterprise, and their effect is aggravated by the striking contrast presented by such of the United States as border upon this Province, and where all is activity and progress. I shall hereafter, in connexion with the disposal of the public lands, advert to circumstances affecting not Upper Canada merely, but the whole of our North American Colonies in an almost equal degree, which will illustrate in detail the causes and results of the more prominent of these evils. I have referred to the topic in this place in order to notice the inevitable tendency of these inconveniences to aggravate whatever discontent may be produced by purely political causes, and to draw attention to the fact, that those who are most satisfied with the present political state of the Province, and least disposed to attribute economical injuries or social derangement to the form or the working of the Government, feel and admit that there must have been something wrong to have caused so striking a difference in progress and wealth between Upper Canada and the neighbouring states of the Union. I may also observe, that these evils affect chiefly that portion of the people which is composed of British emigrants, and who have had no part in the causes to which they are attributable. The native-born Canadians, as they generally inhabit the more settled districts of the Province, are the owners of nearly all the waste lands, and have almost exclusively had the application of all public funds, might be expected to have escaped from the evils alluded to, and even to have profited by the causes out of which they have sprung. The number of those who have thus profited is, however, comparatively small; the majority of this class, in common with the emigrant population, have suffered from the general depression, and share in the discontent and restlessness which this depression has produced.
Prohibitory revenue laws.The trade of the country is, however, a matter which appears to demand a notice here, because so long as any such marked and striking advantages in this respect are enjoyed by Americans, as at present arise from causes which Government has the power to remove, it is impossible but that many will look forward with desire to political changes. There are laws which regulate, or rather prohibit, the importation of particular articles, except from England, especially of tea, which were framed originally to protect the privileges of monopolies here; but which have been continued in the Province after the English monopoly has been removed. It is not that these laws have any appreciable effect in raising the price of the commodities in question: almost all used in the Province is smuggled across the frontier, but their operation is at once injurious to the fair dealer, who is undersold by persons who have obtained their articles in the cheaper market of the United States, and to the Province which can neither regulate the traffic, nor make it a source of revenue. It is probable, indeed, that the present law has been allowed to continue through inadvertence; but, if so, it is no very satisfactory evidence of the care or information of the Imperial Government that it knows or feels so little the oppressive influence of the laws to which it subjects its dependencies.
New York desired as a port of entry.Another and more difficult topic connected with this subject, is the wish of this Province that it should be allowed to make use of New York as a port of entry. At present the rate of duty upon all goods coming from the United States, whatever may be their nature, or the port in Europe from which they have been shipped, is such as to compel all importers to receive the articles of their trade through the Saint Lawrence, the navigation of which river opens generally several weeks later than the time at which goods may be obtained in all the parts of Upper Canada bordering upon Lake Ontario, by way of Oswego. The dealer, therefore, must submit to an injurious delay in his business, or must obtain his goods in the autumn, and have his capital lying dead for six months. Either of these courses must lessen the amount of traffic, by diminishing the quantity, or increasing the price, of all commodities; and the mischief is seriously enhanced by the monopoly which the present system places in the hands of what are called the 'forwarders' on the Saint Lawrence and the Rideau Canal. If goods might be shipped from England to be landed at New York in bond, and to be admitted into Upper Canada free of duty, upon the production of a certificate from the officer of customs at the English port from which they are shipped, this inconvenience would be removed, and the people of the Province would in reality benefit by their connexion with England, in the superior cheapness of their articles, without paying for it as highly as they do at present in the limitation of their commerce.
Spirit of improvement impeded by financial relations with Lower Canada.I have already stated, in my account of Lower Canada, the difficulties and disputes which are occasioned by the financial relations of the two Provinces. The state of affairs, however, which causes these disputes is of far greater practical mischief to Upper Canada. That Province some years ago conceived the very noble project of removing or obviating all the natural impediments to the navigation of the Saint Lawrence; and the design was to make these works on a scale so commensurate with the capabilities of that broad and deep river, as to enable sea-going vessels to navigate its whole course to the head of Lake Huron. The design was, perhaps, too vast, at least for the first effort of a State at that time comparatively so small and poor; but the boldness with which the people undertook it, and the immense sacrifices which they made in order to achieve it, are gratifying indications of a spirit which bids fair hereafter to render Upper Canada as thriving a country as any State of the American Union. The House of Assembly, with this object in view, took a large portion of the shares of the Welland Canal, which had been previously commenced by a few enterprising individuals. It then commenced the great ship canal, called the Cornwall Canal, with a view of enabling ships of considerable draught to avoid the Long Sault Rapids; and this work was, at an immense outlay, brought very far towards a completion. It is said that there was great mismanagement, and perhaps no little jobbing, in the application of the funds, and the execution of the work. But the greatest error committed was the undertaking the works in Upper, without ensuring their continuation in Lower Canada. For the whole of the works in the Upper Province, when completed, would be comparatively, if not utterly, useless, without the execution of similar works on that part of the St. Lawrence which lies between the Province line and Montreal. But this co-operation the Lower Canadian Assembly refused or neglected to give; and the works of the Cornwall Canal are now almost suspended, from the apparent inutility of completing them.
Upper Canada denied the means of completing local works.The necessary expense of these great undertakings was very large; and the prodigality superadded thereto, has increased it to such an extent, that this Province is burthened with a debt of more than a million of pounds; the whole revenue, which is about £60,000, being hardly adequate to pay the interest. The Province has already been fortunately obliged to throw the whole support of the few and imperfect local works which are carried on in different parts of the Province on local assessments; but it is obvious that it will soon be obliged to have recourse to direct taxation to meet its ordinary civil expenditure. For the custom duties cannot be increased without the consent of Lower Canada; and that consent it is useless to expect from any House of Assembly chosen under the suspended constitution. The canals, of which the tolls would, if the whole series of necessary works were completed, in all probability render the past outlay a source of profit, instead of loss, remain in a state of almost hopeless suspension: the Cornwall Canal being unfinished, and the works already completed daily falling into decay, and the Welland Canal, which has been a source of great commercial benefit, being now in danger of becoming useless, from want of money to make the necessary repairs. After all its great hopes, and all the great sacrifices which it has made to realize them, Upper Canada now finds itself loaded with an enormous debt, which it is denied the means of raising its indirect taxation to meet, and mocked by the aspect of those unfinished works, which some small combined efforts might render a source of vast wealth and prosperity, but which now are a source of useless expense and bitter disappointment.
Discontent of the colonists.It may well be believed that such a state of things is not borne without repining by some of the most enterprising and loyal people of the Province. It is well known that the desire of getting over these difficulties has led many persons in this Province to urge the singular claim to have a convenient portion of Lower Canada taken from that Province, and annexed to Upper Canada; and that it induces many to desire an union of the Provinces as the only efficient means of settling all these disputes on a just and permanent footing. But it cannot be matter of surprise, that in despair of any sufficient remedies being provided by the Imperial Government, many of the most enterprising colonists of Upper Canada look to that bordering country, in which no great industrial enterprise ever feels neglect, or experiences a check, and that men the most attached to the existing form of government would find some compensation in a change, whereby experience might bid them hope that every existing obstacle would be speedily removed, and each man's fortune share in the progressive prosperity of a flourishing State.
British policy has disregarded the wants of the Province.A dissatisfaction with the existing order of things, produced by causes such as I have described, necessarily extends to many who desire no change in the political institutions of the Province. Those who most admire the form of the existing system, wish to see it administered in a very different mode. Men of all parties feel that the actual circumstances of the Colony are such as to demand the adoption of widely different measures from any that have yet been pursued in reference to them. They ask for greater firmness of purpose in their rulers, and a more defined and consistent policy on the part of the Government; something, in short, that will make all parties feel that an order of things has been established to which it is necessary that they should conform themselves, and which is not to be subject to any unlooked for and sudden interruption consequent upon some unforeseen move in the game of politics in England. Hitherto the course of policy adopted by the English Government towards this Colony, has had reference to the state of parties in England, instead of the wants and circumstances of the Province; neither party could calculate upon a successful result to their struggles for any particular object, because though they might be able to estimate accurately enough their strength in the Colony, they could not tell how soon some hidden spring might be put in motion in the Colonial Office in England which would defeat their best laid plans, and render utterly unavailing whole years of patient effort.