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Produced by Al Haines | |
[Frontispiece: Advance of the British troops on the village of St. | |
Denis, 1837. From a colour drawing by C. W. Jefferys.] | |
THE | |
'PATRIOTES' OF '37 | |
A Chronicle of the Lower | |
Canadian Rebellion | |
BY | |
ALFRED D. DECELLES | |
TORONTO | |
GLASGOW, BROOK & COMPANY | |
1916 | |
_Copyright in all Countries subscribing to | |
the Berne Convention_ | |
{vii} | |
PREFATORY NOTE | |
The manuscript for this little book, written by me in French, was | |
handed over for translation to Mr Stewart Wallace. The result as here | |
presented is therefore a joint product. Mr Wallace, himself a writer | |
of ability and a student of Canadian history, naturally made a very | |
free translation of my work and introduced some ideas of his own. He | |
insists, however, that the work is mine; and, with this acknowledgment | |
of his part in it, I can do no less than acquiesce, at the same time | |
expressing my pleasure at having had as collaborator a young writer of | |
such good insight. And it is surely appropriate that an English | |
Canadian and a French Canadian should join in a narrative of the | |
political war between the two races which forms the subject of this | |
book. | |
A. D. DECELLES. | |
OTTAWA, 1915. | |
{ix} | |
CONTENTS | |
Page | |
I. CANADIANS, OLD AND NEW . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 | |
II. THE RIGHTS OF THE DEFEATED . . . . . . . . . . 7 | |
III. 'THE REIGN OF TERROR' . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 | |
IV. THE RISE OF PAPINEAU . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 | |
V. THE NINETY-TWO RESOLUTIONS . . . . . . . . . . 33 | |
VI. THE ROYAL COMMISSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 | |
VII. THE RUSSELL RESOLUTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 | |
VIII. THE DOGS OF WAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 | |
IX. _FORCE MAJEURE_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 | |
X. THE LORD HIGH COMMISSIONER . . . . . . . . . . 104 | |
XI. THE SECOND REBELLION . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 | |
XII. A POSTSCRIPT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 | |
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 | |
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 | |
{xi} | |
ILLUSTRATIONS | |
ADVANCE OF THE BRITISH TROOPS ON | |
THE VILLAGE OF ST DENIS, 1837 . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ | |
From a colour drawing by C. W. Jefferys. | |
SIR JAMES CRAIG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Facing page_ 16 | |
From a portrait in the Dominion Archives. | |
LOUIS JOSEPH PAPINEAU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " " 22 | |
After a lithograph by Maurin, Paris. | |
WOLFRED NELSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " " 60 | |
From a print in the Chateau de Ramezay. | |
SOUTH-WESTERN LOWER CANADA, 1837 . . . . . . . . . . " " 69 | |
Map by Bartholomew. | |
DENIS BENJAMIN VIGER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " " 128 | |
From a print in M'Gill University Library. | |
{1} | |
CHAPTER I | |
CANADIANS, OLD AND NEW | |
The conquest of Canada by British arms in the Seven Years' War gave | |
rise to a situation in the colony which was fraught with tragic | |
possibilities. It placed the French inhabitants under the sway of an | |
alien race--a race of another language, of another religion, of other | |
laws, and which differed from them profoundly in temperament and | |
political outlook. Elsewhere--in Ireland, in Poland, and in the | |
Balkans--such conquests have been followed by centuries of bitter | |
racial warfare. In Canada, however, for a hundred and fifty years | |
French Canadians and English Canadians have, on the whole, dwelt | |
together in peace and amity. Only on the one occasion, of which the | |
story is to be told in these pages, has there been anything resembling | |
civil war between the two races; and this unhappy outbreak was neither | |
widespread nor prolonged. The record {2} is one which Canadians, | |
whether they be English or French, have reason to view with | |
satisfaction. | |
It does not appear that the Canadians of 1760 felt any profound regret | |
at the change from French to British rule. So corrupt and oppressive | |
had been the administration of Bigot, in the last days of the Old | |
Regime, that the rough-and-ready rule of the British army officers | |
doubtless seemed benignant in comparison. Comparatively few Canadians | |
left the country, although they were afforded facilities for so doing. | |
One evidence of good feeling between the victors and the vanquished is | |
found in the marriages which were celebrated between Canadian women and | |
some of the disbanded Highland soldiers. Traces of these unions are | |
found at the present day, in the province of Quebec, in a few Scottish | |
names of habitants who cannot speak English. | |
When the American colonies broke out in revolution in 1775, the | |
Continental Congress thought to induce the French Canadians to join | |
hands with them. But the conciliatory policy of the successive | |
governors Murray and Carleton, and the concessions granted by the | |
Quebec Act of the year before, had borne {3} fruit; and when the | |
American leaders Arnold and Montgomery invaded Canada, the great | |
majority of the habitants remained at least passively loyal. A few | |
hundred of them may have joined the invaders, but a much larger number | |
enlisted under Carleton. The clergy, the seigneurs, and the | |
professional classes--lawyers and physicians and notaries--remained | |
firm in their allegiance to Great Britain; while the mass of the people | |
resisted the eloquent appeals of Congress, represented by its | |
emissaries Franklin, Chase, and Carroll, and even those of the | |
distinguished Frenchmen, Lafayette and Count d'Estaing, who strongly | |
urged them to join the rebels. Nor should it be forgotten that at the | |
siege of Quebec by Arnold the Canadian officers Colonel Dupre and | |
Captains Dambourges, Dumas, and Marcoux, with many others, were among | |
Carleton's most trusted and efficient aides in driving back the | |
invading Americans. True, in 1781, Sir Frederick Haldimand, then | |
governor of Canada, wrote that although the clergy had been firmly | |
loyal in 1775 and had exerted their powerful influence in favour of | |
Great Britain, they had since then changed their opinions and were no | |
longer to be relied upon. But it must be {4} borne in mind that | |
Haldimand ruled the province in the manner of a soldier. His | |
high-handed orders caused dissatisfaction, which he probably mistook | |
for a want of loyalty among the clergy. No more devoted subject of | |
Great Britain lived at the time in Lower Canada than Mgr Briand, the | |
bishop of Quebec; and the priests shaped their conduct after that of | |
their superior. At any rate, the danger which Haldimand feared did not | |
take form; and the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 made it | |
more unlikely than ever. | |
The French Revolution profoundly affected the attitude of the French | |
Canadians toward France. Canada was the child of the _ancien regime_. | |
Within her borders the ideas of Voltaire and Rousseau had found no | |
shelter. Canada had nothing in common with the anti-clerical and | |
republican tendencies of the Revolution. That movement created a gap | |
between France and Canada which has not been bridged to this day. In | |
the Napoleonic wars the sympathies of Canada were almost wholly with | |
Great Britain. When news arrived of the defeat of the French fleet at | |
Trafalgar, a _Te Deum_ was sung in the Catholic cathedral at Quebec; | |
and, in a sermon {5} preached on that occasion, a future bishop of the | |
French-Canadian Church enunciated the principle that 'all events which | |
tend to broaden the gap separating us from France should be welcome.' | |
It was during the War of 1812-14, however, that the most striking | |
manifestation of French-Canadian loyalty to the British crown appeared. | |
In that war, in which Canada was repeatedly invaded by American armies, | |
French-Canadian militiamen under French-Canadian officers fought | |
shoulder to shoulder with their English-speaking fellow-countrymen on | |
several stricken fields of battle; and in one engagement, fought at | |
Chateauguay in the French province of Lower Canada, the day was won for | |
British arms by the heroic prowess of Major de Salaberry and his | |
French-Canadian soldiers. The history of the war with the United | |
States provides indelible testimony to the loyalty of French Canada. | |
A quarter of a century passed. Once again the crack of muskets was | |
heard on Canadian soil. This time, however, there was no foreign | |
invader to repel. The two races which had fought side by side in 1812 | |
were now arrayed against each other. French-Canadian veterans of | |
Chateauguay were on {6} one side, and English-Canadian veterans of | |
Chrystler's Farm on the other. Some real fighting took place. Before | |
peace was restored, the fowling-pieces of the French-Canadian rebels | |
had repulsed a force of British regulars at the village of St Denis, | |
and brisk skirmishes had taken place at the villages of St Charles and | |
St Eustache. How this unhappy interlude came to pass, in a century and | |
a half of British rule in Canada, it is the object of this book to | |
explain. | |
{7} | |
CHAPTER II | |
THE RIGHTS OF THE DEFEATED | |
The British did not treat the French inhabitants of Canada as a | |
conquered people; not as other countries won by conquest have been | |
treated by their victorious invaders. The terms of the Capitulation of | |
Montreal in 1760 assured the Canadians of their property and civil | |
rights, and guaranteed to them 'the free exercise of their religion.' | |
The Quebec Act of 1774 granted them the whole of the French civil law, | |
to the almost complete exclusion of the English common law, and | |
virtually established in Canada the Church of the vanquished through | |
legal enforcement of the obligation resting upon Catholics to pay | |
tithes. And when it became necessary in 1791 to divide Canada into two | |
provinces, Upper Canada and Lower Canada, one predominantly English and | |
the other predominantly French, the two provinces were granted | |
precisely equal political rights. Out of this {8} arose an odd | |
situation. All French Canadians were Roman Catholics, and Roman | |
Catholics were at this time debarred from sitting in the House of | |
Commons at Westminster. Yet they were given the right of sitting as | |
members in the Canadian representative Assemblies created by the Act of | |
1791. The Catholics of Canada thus received privileges denied to their | |
co-religionists in Great Britain. | |
There can be no doubt that it was the conciliatory policy of the | |
British government which kept the clergy, the seigneurs, and the great | |
body of French Canadians loyal to the British crown during the war in | |
1775 and in 1812. It is certain, too, that these generous measures | |
strengthened the position of the French race in Canada, made Canadians | |
more jealous of their national identity, and led them to press for | |
still wider liberties. It is an axiom of human nature that the more | |
one gets, the more one wants. And so the concessions granted merely | |
whetted the Canadian appetite for more. | |
This disposition became immediately apparent with the calling of the | |
first parliament of Lower Canada in 1792. Before this there had been | |
no specific definition of the exact status of the French language in | |
{9} Canada, and the question arose as to its use in the Assembly as a | |
medium of debate. As the Quebec Act of 1774 had restored the French | |
laws, it was inferred that the use of the French language had been | |
authorized, since otherwise these laws would have no natural medium of | |
interpretation. That this was the inference to be drawn from the | |
constitution became evident, for the British government had made no | |
objection to the use of French in the law-courts. It should be borne | |
in mind that at this period the English in Canada were few in number, | |
and that all of them lived in the cities. The French members in the | |
Assembly, representing, as they did, nearly the whole population, did | |
not hesitate to press for the official recognition of their language on | |
a parity with English. | |
The question first came up in connection with the election of a | |
speaker. The French-Canadian members, being in a majority of | |
thirty-four to sixteen, proposed Jean Antoine Panet. This motion was | |
opposed by the English members, together with a few of the French | |
members, who nominated an Englishman. They pointed out that the | |
transactions between the speaker and the king's {10} representative in | |
the colony should be 'in the language of the empire to which we have | |
the happiness to belong.' 'I think it is but decent,' said Louis | |
Panet, brother of Jean Antoine, 'that the speaker on whom we fix our | |
choice, be one who can express himself in English when he addresses | |
himself to the representative of our sovereign.' Yet the majority of | |
the French members stuck to their motion and elected their speaker. | |
When he was sworn into office, he declared to the governor that 'he | |
could only express himself in the primitive language of his native | |
country.' Nevertheless, he understood English well enough to conduct | |
the business of the House. And it should not be forgotten that all the | |
sixteen English members, out of the fifty composing the Assembly, owed | |
their election to French-Canadian voters. | |
Almost immediately the question came up again in the debate on the use | |
of the French language in the publication of official documents. The | |
English members pointed out that English was the language of the | |
sovereign, and they contended that the exclusive official use of the | |
English language would more quickly assimilate the French | |
Canadians--would render them more loyal. To these {11} arguments the | |
French Canadians replied with ringing eloquence. | |
'Remember,' said Chartier de Lotbiniere, 'the year 1775. Those | |
Canadians, who spoke nothing but French, showed their attachment to | |
their sovereign in a manner not at all equivocal. They helped to | |
defend this province. This city, these walls, this chamber in which I | |
have the honour to speak, were saved partly through their zeal and | |
their courage. You saw them join with faithful subjects of His Majesty | |
and repulse attacks which people who spoke very good English made on | |
this city. It is not, you see, uniformity of language which makes | |
peoples more faithful or more united.' | |
'Is it not ridiculous,' exclaimed Pierre Bedard, whose name will appear | |
later in these pages, 'to wish to make a people's loyalty consist in | |
its tongue?' | |
The outcome of the debate, as might have been expected, was to place | |
the French language on a level with the English language in the records | |
and publications of the Assembly, and French became, to all intents and | |
purposes, the language of debate. The number of English-speaking | |
members steadily decreased. In the year 1800 Sir Robert Milnes {12} | |
wrote home that there were 'but one or two English members in the House | |
of Assembly who venture to speak in the language of the mother country, | |
from the certainty of not being understood by a great majority of the | |
House.' | |
It must not be imagined, however, that in these early debates there was | |
any of that rancour and animosity which later characterized the | |
proceedings of the Assembly of Lower Canada. 'The remains of the old | |
French politeness, and a laudable deference to their fellow subjects, | |
kept up decorum in the proceedings of the majority,' testified a | |
political annalist of that time. Even as late as 1807, it appears that | |
'party spirit had not yet extended its effects to destroy social | |
intercourse and good neighbourhood.' It was not until the regime of | |
Sir James Craig that racial bitterness really began. | |
{13} | |
CHAPTER III | |
'THE REIGN OF TERROR' | |
During the session of 1805 the Assembly was confronted with the | |
apparently innocent problem of building prisons. Yet out of the debate | |
on this subject sprang the most serious racial conflict which had yet | |
occurred in the province. There were two ways proposed for raising the | |
necessary money. One, advocated by the English members, was to levy a | |
direct tax on land; the other, proposed by the French members, was to | |
impose extra customs duties. The English proposal was opposed by the | |
French, for the simple reason that the interests of the French were in | |
the main agrarian; and the French proposal was opposed by the English, | |
because the interests of the English were on the whole commercial. The | |
English pointed out that, as merchants, they had borne the brunt of | |
such taxation as had already been imposed, and that it was the turn of | |
the French farmers to bear their {14} share. The French, on the other | |
hand, pointed out, with some justice, that indirect taxation was borne, | |
not only by the importer, but also partly by the consumer, and that | |
indirect taxation was therefore more equitable than a tax on the | |
land-owners alone. There was, moreover, another consideration. 'The | |
_Habitants_,' writes the political annalist already quoted, 'consider | |
themselves sufficiently taxed by the French law of the land, in being | |
obliged to pay rents and other feudal burthens to the Seigneur, and | |
tythes to the Priest; and if you were to ask any of them to contribute | |
two bushels of Wheat, or two Dollars, for the support of Government, he | |
would give you the equivocal French sign of inability or unwillingness, | |
by shrugging up his shoulders.' | |
As usual, the French-Canadian majority carried their point. Thereupon, | |
the indignation of the English minority flared forth in a very emphatic | |
manner. They accused the French Canadians of foisting upon them the | |
whole burden of taxation, and they declared that an end must be put to | |
French-Canadian domination over English Canadians. 'This province,' | |
asserted the Quebec _Mercury_, 'is already too French for a British | |
colony.... Whether we be in peace or at war, it is essential {15} that | |
we should make every effort, by every means available, to oppose the | |
growth of the French and their influence.' | |
The answer of the French Canadians to this language was the | |
establishment in 1806 of a newspaper, _Le Canadien_, in which the point | |
of view of the majority in the House might be presented. The official | |
editor of the paper was Jean Antoine Bouthillier, but the conspicuous | |
figure on the staff was Pierre Bedard, one of the members of the House | |
of Assembly. The tone of the paper was generally moderate, though | |
militant. Its policy was essentially to defend the French against the | |
ceaseless aspersions of the _Mercury_ and other enemies. It never | |
attacked the British government, but only the provincial authorities. | |
Its motto, '_Notre langue, nos institutions et nos lois_,' went far to | |
explain its views and objects. | |
No serious trouble resulted, however, from the policy of _Le Canadien_ | |
until after the arrival of Sir James Craig in Canada, and the | |
inauguration of what some historians have named 'the Reign of Terror.' | |
Sir James Craig, who became governor of Canada in 1807, was a | |
distinguished soldier. He had seen service in the American | |
Revolutionary {16} War, in South Africa, and in India. He was, | |
however, inexperienced in civil government and apt to carry his ideas | |
of military discipline into the conduct of civil affairs. Moreover, he | |
was prejudiced against the inhabitants and had doubts of their loyalty. | |
In Canada he surrounded himself with such men as Herman W. Ryland, the | |
governor's secretary, and John Sewell, the attorney-general, men who | |
were actually in favour of repressing the French Canadians and of | |
crushing the power of their Church. 'I have long since laid it down as | |
a principle (which in my judgment no Governor of this Province ought to | |
lose sight of for a moment),' wrote Ryland in 1804, 'by every possible | |
means which prudence can suggest, gradually to undermine the authority | |
and influence of the Roman Catholic Priest.' 'The Province must be | |
converted into an English Colony,' declared Sewell, 'or it will | |
ultimately be lost to England.' The opinion these men held of the | |
French Canadians was most uncomplimentary. 'In the ministerial | |
dictionary,' complained _Le Canadien_, 'a bad fellow, | |
anti-ministerialist, democrat, _sans culotte_, and damned Canadian, | |
mean the same thing.' | |
[Illustration: Sir James Craig. From a portrait in the Dominion | |
Archives.] | |
Surrounded by such advisers, it is not {17} surprising that Sir James | |
Craig soon took umbrage at the language and policy of _Le Canadien_. | |
At first he made his displeasure felt in a somewhat roundabout way. In | |
the summer of 1808 he dismissed from the militia five officers who were | |
reputed to have a connection with that newspaper, on the ground that | |
they were helping a 'seditious and defamatory journal.' One of these | |
officers was Colonel Panet, who had fought in the defence of Quebec in | |
1775 and had been speaker of the House of Assembly since 1792; another | |
was Pierre Bedard. This action did not, however, curb the temper of | |
the paper; and a year or more later Craig went further. In May 1810 he | |
took the extreme step of suppressing _Le Canadien_, and arresting the | |
printer and three of the proprietors, Taschereau, Blanchet, and Bedard. | |
The ostensible pretext for this measure was the publication in the | |
paper of some notes of a somewhat academic character with regard to the | |
conflict which had arisen between the governor and the House of | |
Assembly in Jamaica; the real reason, of course, went deeper. | |
Craig afterwards asserted that the arrest of Bedard and his associates | |
was 'a measure of precaution, not of punishment.' There is no {18} | |
doubt that he actually feared a rising of the French Canadians. To his | |
mind a rebellion was imminent. The event showed that his suspicions | |
were ill-founded; but in justice to him it must be remembered that he | |
was governor of Canada at a dangerous time, when Napoleon was at the | |
zenith of his power and when agents of this arch-enemy of England were | |
supposed to be active in Canada. Moreover, the blame for Craig's | |
action during this period must be partly borne by the 'Bureaucrats' who | |
surrounded him. There is no absolute proof, but there is at least a | |
presumption, that some of these men actually wished to precipitate a | |
disturbance, in order that the constitution of Lower Canada might be | |
suspended and a new order of things inaugurated. | |
Soon after Bedard's arrest his friends applied for a writ of habeas | |
corpus; but, owing to the opposition of Craig, this was refused. In | |
July two of Bedard's companions were released, on the ground of ill | |
health. They both, however, expressed regret at the tone which _Le | |
Canadien_ had adopted. In August the printer was discharged. Bedard | |
himself declined to accept his release until he had been brought to | |
trial and acquitted {19} of the charge preferred against him. Craig, | |
however, did not dare to bring him to trial, for no jury would have | |
convicted him. Ultimately, since Bedard refused to leave the prison, | |
he was ejected at the point of the bayonet. The situation was full of | |
humour. Bedard was an excellent mathematician, and was in the habit of | |
whiling away the hours of his imprisonment by solving mathematical | |
problems. When the guard came to turn him out, he was in the midst of | |
a geometrical problem. 'At least,' he begged, 'let me finish my | |
problem.' The request was granted; an hour later the problem was | |
solved, and Bedard was thrust forth from the jail. | |
Sir James Craig was a man of good heart and of the best intentions; but | |
his course throughout this episode was most unfortunate. Not only did | |
he fail to suppress the opposition to his government, but he did much | |
to embitter the relations between the two races. Craig himself seems | |
to have realized, even before he left Canada, that his policy had been | |
a mistake; for he is reported on good authority to have said 'that he | |
had been basely deceived, and that if it had been given to him to begin | |
his administration over again, he would have acted differently.' It is | |
{20} significant, too, that Craig's successor, Sir George Prevost, | |
completely reversed his policy. He laid himself out to conciliate the | |
French Canadians in every way possible; and he made amends to Bedard | |
for the injustice which he had suffered by restoring him to his rank in | |
the militia and by making him a judge. As a result, the bitterness of | |
racial feeling abated; and when the War of 1812 broke out, there proved | |
to be less disloyalty in Lower Canada than in Upper Canada. But, as | |
the events of Craig's administration had clearly shown, a good deal of | |
combustible and dangerous material lay about. | |
{21} | |
CHAPTER IV | |
THE RISE OF PAPINEAU | |
In the year 1812 a young man took his seat in the House of Assembly for | |
Lower Canada who was destined to play a conspicuous part in the history | |
of the province during the next quarter of a century. His name was | |
Louis Joseph Papineau. He was at that time only twenty-six years of | |
age, but already his tall, well-built form, his fine features and | |
commanding presence, marked him out as a born leader of men. He | |
possessed an eloquence which, commonplace as it now appears on the | |
printed page, apparently exerted a profound influence upon his | |
contemporaries. 'Never within the memory of teacher or student,' wrote | |
his college friend Aubert de Gaspe, 'had a voice so eloquent filled the | |
halls of the seminary of Quebec.' In the Assembly his rise to | |
prominence was meteoric; only three years after his entrance he was | |
elected speaker on the resignation of the veteran {22} J. A. Panet, who | |
had held the office at different times since 1792. Papineau retained | |
the speakership, with but one brief period of intermission, until the | |
outbreak of rebellion twenty-two years later; and it was from the | |
speaker's chair that he guided throughout this period the counsels of | |
the _Patriote_ party. | |
[Illustration: Louis Joseph Papineau. After a lithograph by Maurin, | |
Paris.] | |
When Papineau entered public life the political situation in Lower | |
Canada was beginning to be complicated. The French-Canadian members of | |
the Assembly, having taken great pains to acquaint themselves with the | |
law and custom of the British constitution, had awakened to the fact | |
that they were not enjoying the position or the power which the members | |
of the House of Commons in England were enjoying. In the first place, | |
the measures which they passed were being continually thrown out by the | |
upper chamber, the Legislative Council, and they were powerless to | |
prevent it; and in the second place, they had no control of the | |
government, for the governor and his Executive Council were appointed | |
by and responsible to the Colonial Office alone. The members of the | |
two councils were in the main of English birth, and they constituted a | |
local oligarchy--known as the 'Bureaucrats' or the 'Chateau | |
Clique'--which {23} held the reins of government. They were as a rule | |
able to snap their fingers at the majority in the Assembly. | |
In England the remedy for a similar state of affairs had been found to | |
lie in the control of the purse exercised by the House of Commons. In | |
order to bring the Executive to its will, it was only necessary for | |
that House to threaten the withholding of supplies. In Lower Canada, | |
however, such a remedy was at first impossible, for the simple reason | |
that the House of Assembly did not vote all the supplies necessary for | |
carrying on the government. In other words, the expenditure far | |
exceeded the revenue; and the deficiency had to be met out of the | |
Imperial exchequer. Under these circumstances it was impossible for | |
the Lower Canada Assembly to attempt to exercise the full power of the | |
purse. In 1810, it is true, the Assembly had passed a resolution | |
avowing its ability and willingness to vote 'the necessary sums for | |
defraying the Civil Expenses of the Government of the Province.' But | |
Sir James Craig had declined on a technicality to forward the | |
resolution to the Houses of Parliament at Westminster, realizing fully | |
that if the offer were accepted, the Assembly would be able to exert | |
complete {24} power over the Executive. 'The new Trojan horse' was not | |
to gain admission to the walls through him. | |
Later, however, in 1818, during the administration of Sir John Coape | |
Sherbrooke, the offer of the Assembly was accepted by the Imperial | |
government. Sherbrooke was an apostle of conciliation. It was he who | |
gave the Catholic bishop of Quebec a seat in the Executive Council; and | |
he also recommended that the speaker of the House of Assembly should be | |
included in the Council--a recommendation which was a preliminary move | |
in the direction of responsible government. Through Sherbrooke's | |
instrumentality the British government now decided to allow the | |
Lower-Canadian legislature to vote the entire revenue of the province, | |
apart from the casual and territorial dues of the Crown and certain | |
duties levied by Act of the Imperial parliament. Sherbrooke's | |
intention was that the legislature should vote out of this revenue a | |
permanent civil list to be continued during the lifetime of the | |
sovereign. Unfortunately, however, the Assembly did not fall in with | |
this view. It insisted, instead, on treating the civil list as an | |
annual affair, and voting the salaries of the officials, from the | |
governor {25} downwards, for only one year. Since this would have made | |
every government officer completely dependent upon the pleasure of the | |
House of Assembly, the Legislative Council promptly threw out the | |
budget. Thus commenced a struggle which was destined to last for many | |
years. The Assembly refused to see that its action was really an | |
encroachment upon the sphere of the Executive; and the Executive | |
refused to place itself at the mercy of the Assembly. The result was | |
deadlock. During session after session the supplies were not voted. | |
The Executive, with its control of the royal revenue, was able by one | |
means or another to carry on the government; but the relations between | |
the 'Bureaucrats' and the _Patriotes_ became rapidly more bitter. | |
Papineau's attitude toward the government during this period was in | |
harmony with that of his compatriots. It was indeed one of his | |
characteristics, as the historian Christie has pointed out, that he | |
seemed always 'to move with the masses rather than to lead them.' In | |
1812 he fought side by side with the British. As late as 1820 he | |
publicly expressed his great admiration for the constitution of 1791 | |
and the blessings of British rule. But in the struggles over the | |
budget he took up ground {26} strongly opposed to the government; and, | |
when the question became acute, he threw restraint to the winds, and | |
played the part of a dangerous agitator. | |
What seems to have first roused Papineau to anger was a proposal to | |
unite Upper and Lower Canada in 1822. Financial difficulties had | |
arisen between the two provinces; and advantage was taken of this fact | |
to introduce a Union Bill into the House of Commons at Westminster, | |
couched in terms very unfavourable to the French Canadians. There is | |
little doubt that the real objects of the bill was the extinction of | |
the Lower-Canadian Assembly and the subordination of the French to the | |
English element in the colony. At any rate, the French Canadians saw | |
in the bill a menace to their national existence. Two agents were | |
promptly appointed to go over to London to oppose it. One of them was | |
Papineau; the other was John Neilson, the capable Scottish editor of | |
the Quebec _Gazette_. The two men made a very favourable impression; | |
they enlisted on their side the leaders of the Whig party in the | |
Commons; and they succeeded in having the bill well and duly shelved. | |
Their mission resulted not only in the defeat of the bill; it also | |
showed {27} them clearly that a deep-laid plot had menaced the rights | |
and liberties of the French-Canadian people; and their anger was roused | |
against what Neilson described as 'the handful of _intrigants_' who had | |
planned that _coup d'etat_. | |
On returning to Canada Papineau gave vent to his discontent in an | |
extraordinary attack upon Lord Dalhousie, who had become governor of | |
Canada in 1819. Dalhousie was an English nobleman of the best type. | |
His tastes were liberal. He was instrumental in founding the Literary | |
and Historical Society of Quebec; and he showed his desire for pleasant | |
relations between the two races in Canada by the erection of the joint | |
monument to Wolfe and Montcalm in the city of Quebec, in the governor's | |
garden. His administration, however, had been marred by one or two | |
financial irregularities. Owing to the refusal of the Assembly to vote | |
a permanent civil list, Dalhousie had been forced to expend public | |
moneys without authority from the legislature; and his | |
receiver-general, Caldwell, had been guilty of defalcations to the | |
amount of L100,000. Papineau attacked Dalhousie as if he had been | |
personally responsible for these defalcations. The speech, we are told | |
by the chronicler Bibaud, recalled in its violence the {28} philippics | |
of Demosthenes and the orations against Catiline of Cicero. | |
The upshot of this attack was that all relations between Dalhousie and | |
Papineau were broken off. Apart altogether from the political | |
controversy, Dalhousie felt that he could have no intercourse with a | |
man who had publicly insulted him. Consequently, when Papineau was | |
elected to the speakership of the Assembly in 1827, Dalhousie refused | |
to recognize him as speaker; and when the Assembly refused to | |
reconsider his election, Dalhousie promptly dissolved it. | |
It would be tedious to describe in detail the political events of these | |
years; and it is enough to say that by 1827 affairs in the province had | |
come to such an impasse, partly owing to the financial quarrel, and | |
partly owing to the personal war between Papineau and Dalhousie, that | |
it was decided by the _Patriotes_ to send another deputation to England | |
to ask for the redress of grievances and for the removal of Dalhousie. | |
The members of the deputation were John Neilson and two French | |
Canadians, Augustin Cuvillier and Denis B. Viger. Papineau was an | |
interested party and did not go. The deputation proved no less | |
successful than {29} that which had crossed the Atlantic in 1822. The | |
delegates succeeded in obtaining Lord Dalhousie's recall, and they were | |
enabled to place their case before a special committee of the House of | |
Commons. The committee made a report very favourable to the _Patriote_ | |
cause; recommended that 'the French-Canadians should not in any way be | |
disturbed in the exercise and enjoyment of their religion, their laws, | |
or their privileges'; and expressed the opinion that 'the true | |
interests of the provinces would be best promoted by placing the | |
collection and expenditure of all public revenues under the control of | |
the House of Assembly.' The report was not actually adopted by the | |
House of Commons, but it lent a very welcome support to the contentions | |
of Papineau and his friends. | |
At last, in 1830, the British government made a serious and well-meant | |
attempt to settle, once and for all, the financial difficulty. Lord | |
Goderich, who was at that time at the Colonial Office, instructed Lord | |
Aylmer, who had become governor of Canada in 1830, to resign to the | |
Assembly the control of the entire revenue of the province, with the | |
single exception of the casual and territorial revenue of the Crown, if | |
the Assembly would grant {30} in exchange a civil list of L19,000, | |
voted for the lifetime of the king. This offer was a compromise which | |
should have proved acceptable to both sides. But Papineau and his | |
friends determined not to yield an inch of ground; and in the session | |
of 1831 they succeeded in defeating the motion for the adoption of Lord | |
Goderich's proposal. That this was a mistake even the historian | |
Garneau, who cannot be accused of hostility toward the _Patriotes_, has | |
admitted. | |
Throughout this period Papineau's course was often unreasonable. He | |
complained that the French Canadians had no voice in the executive | |
government, and that all the government offices were given to the | |
English; yet when he was offered a seat in the Executive Council in | |
1822 he declined it; and when Dominique Mondelet, one of the members of | |
the Assembly, accepted a seat in the Executive Council in 1832, he was | |
hounded from the Assembly by Papineau and his friends as a traitor. As | |
Sir George Cartier pointed out many years later, Mondelet's inclusion | |
in the Executive Council was really a step in the direction of | |
responsible government. It is difficult, also, to approve Papineau's | |
attitude toward such governors as Dalhousie and {31} Aylmer, both of | |
whom were disposed to be friendly. Papineau's attitude threw them into | |
the arms of the 'Chateau Clique.' The truth is that Papineau was too | |
unbending, too _intransigeant_, to make a good political leader. As | |
was seen clearly in his attitude toward the financial proposals of Lord | |
Goderich in 1830, he possessed none of that spirit of compromise which | |
lies at the heart of English constitutional development. | |
On the other hand, it must be remembered that Papineau and his friends | |
received much provocation. The attitude of the governing class toward | |
them was overbearing and sometimes insolent. They were regarded as | |
members of an inferior race. And they would have been hardly human if | |
they had not bitterly resented the conspiracy against their liberties | |
embodied in the abortive Union Bill of 1822. There were real abuses to | |
be remedied. Grave financial irregularities had been detected in the | |
executive government; sinecurists, living in England, drew pay for | |
services which they did not perform; gross favouritism existed in | |
appointments to office under the Crown; and so many office-holders held | |
seats in the Legislative Council that the Council was actually under | |
the thumb of {32} the executive government. Yet when the Assembly | |
strove to remedy these grievances, its efforts were repeatedly blocked | |
by the Legislative Council; and even when appeal was made to the | |
Colonial Office, removal of the abuses was slow in coming. Last, but | |
not least, the Assembly felt that it did not possess an adequate | |
control over the expenditure of the moneys for the voting of which it | |
was primarily responsible. | |
{33} | |
CHAPTER V | |
THE NINETY-TWO RESOLUTIONS | |
After 1830 signs began to multiply that the racial feud in Lower Canada | |
was growing in intensity. In 1832 a by-election in the west ward of | |
Montreal culminated in a riot. Troops were called out to preserve | |
order. After showing some forbearance under a fusillade of stones, | |
they fired into the rioters, killing three and wounding two men, all of | |
them French Canadians. Immediately the _Patriote_ press became | |
furious. The newspaper _La Minerve_ asserted that a 'general massacre' | |
had been planned: the murderers, it said, had approached the corpses | |
with laughter, and had seen with joy Canadian blood running down the | |
street; they had shaken each other by the hand, and had regretted that | |
there were not more dead. The blame for the 'massacre' was laid at the | |
door of Lord Aylmer. Later, on the floor of the Assembly, Papineau | |
remarked that 'Craig merely imprisoned his {34} victims, but Aylmer | |
slaughters them.' The _Patriotes_ adopted the same bitter attitude | |
toward the government when the Asiatic cholera swept the province in | |
1833. They actually accused Lord Aylmer of having 'enticed the sick | |
immigrants into the country, in order to decimate the ranks of the | |
French Canadians.' | |
In the House Papineau became more and more violent and domineering. He | |
did not scruple to use his majority either to expel from the House or | |
to imprison those who incurred his wrath. Robert Christie, the member | |
for Gaspe, was four times expelled for having obtained the dismissal of | |
some partisan justices of the peace. The expulsion of Dominique | |
Mondelet has already been mentioned. Ralph Taylor, one of the members | |
for the Eastern Townships, was imprisoned in the common jail for using, | |
in the Quebec _Mercury_, language about Papineau no more offensive than | |
Papineau had used about many others. But perhaps the most striking | |
evidence of Papineau's desire to dominate the Assembly was seen in his | |
attitude toward a bill to secure the independence of judges introduced | |
by F. A. Quesnel, one of the more moderate members {35} of the | |
_Patriote_ party. Quesnel had accepted some amendments suggested by | |
the colonial secretary. This awoke the wrath of Papineau, who assailed | |
the bill in his usual vehement style, and concluded by threatening | |
Quesnel with the loss of his seat. The threat proved not to be idle. | |
Papineau possessed at this time a great ascendancy over the minds of | |
his fellow-countrymen, and in the next elections he secured Quesnel's | |
defeat. | |
By 1832 Papineau's political views had taken a more revolutionary turn. | |
From being an admirer of the constitution of 1791, he had come to | |
regard it as 'bad; very, very bad.' 'Our constitution,' he said, 'has | |
been manufactured by a Tory influenced by the terrors of the French | |
Revolution.' He had lost faith in the justice of the British | |
government and in its willingness to redress grievances; and his eyes | |
had begun to turn toward the United States. Perhaps he was not yet for | |
annexation to that country; but he had conceived a great admiration for | |
the American constitution. The wide application of the principle of | |
election especially attracted him; and, although he did not relinquish | |
his hope of subordinating the Executive to the Assembly by means of the | |
control of the finances, he {36} began to throw his main weight into an | |
agitation to make the Legislative Council elective. Henceforth the | |
plan for an elective Legislative Council became the chief feature of | |
the policy of the _Patriote_ party. The existing nominated and | |
reactionary Legislative Council had served the purpose of a buffer | |
between the governor's Executive Council and the Assembly. This | |
buffer, thought Papineau and his friends, should be removed, so as to | |
expose the governor to the full hurricane of the Assembly's wrath. | |
It was not long before Papineau's domineering behaviour and the | |
revolutionary trend of his views alienated some of his followers. On | |
John Neilson, who had gone to England with him in 1822 and with | |
Cuvillier and Viger in 1828, and who had supported him heartily during | |
the Dalhousie regime, Papineau could no longer count. Under Aylmer a | |
coolness sprang up between the two men. Neilson objected to the | |
expulsion of Mondelet from the House; he opposed the resolutions of | |
Louis Bourdages, Papineau's chief lieutenant, for the abolition of the | |
Legislative Council; and in the debate on Quesnel's bill for the | |
independence of judges, he administered a severe rebuke to Papineau for | |
language he {37} had used. Augustin Cuvillier followed the lead of his | |
friend Neilson, and so also did Andrew Stuart, one of the ablest | |
lawyers in the province, and Quesnel. All these men were politicians | |
of weight and respectability. | |
Papineau still had, however, a large and powerful following, especially | |
among the younger members. Nothing is more remarkable at this time | |
than the sway which he exercised over the minds of men who in later | |
life became distinguished for the conservative and moderate character | |
of their opinions. Among his followers in the House were Louis | |
Hippolyte LaFontaine, destined to become, ten years later, the | |
colleague of Robert Baldwin in the LaFontaine-Baldwin administration, | |
and Augustin Norbert Morin, the colleague of Francis Hincks in the | |
Hincks-Morin administration of 1851. Outside the House he counted | |
among his most faithful followers two more future prime ministers of | |
Canada, George E. Cartier and Etienne P. Tache. Nor were his | |
supporters all French Canadians. Some English-speaking members acted | |
with him, among them Wolfred Nelson; and in the country he had the | |
undivided allegiance of men like Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan, editor of | |
the Montreal _Vindicator_, {38} and Thomas Storrow Brown, afterwards | |
one of the 'generals' of the rebellion. Although the political | |
struggle in Lower Canada before 1837 was largely racial, it was not | |
exclusively so, for there were some English in the Patriots party and | |
some French who declined to support it. | |
In 1832 and 1833 Papineau suffered rebuffs in the House that could not | |
have been pleasant to him. In 1833, for instance, his proposal to | |
refuse supply was defeated by a large majority. But the triumphant | |
passage of the famous Ninety-Two Resolutions in 1834 showed that, for | |
most purposes, he still had a majority behind him. | |
The Ninety-Two Resolutions were introduced by Elzear Bedard, the son of | |
Pierre Bedard, and are reputed to have been drawn up by A. N. Morin. | |
But there is no doubt that they were inspired by Papineau. The voice | |
was the voice of Jacob, but the hand was the hand of Esau. The | |
Resolutions constituted the political platform of the extreme wing of | |
the _Patriote_ party: they were a sort of Declaration of Right. A more | |
extraordinary political document has seldom seen the light. A writer | |
in the Quebec _Mercury_, said by Lord Aylmer to be John Neilson, {39} | |
undertook an analysis of the ninety-two articles: eleven, said this | |
writer, stood true; six contained both truth and falsehood; sixteen | |
stood wholly false; seventeen seemed doubtful and twelve ridiculous; | |
seven were repetitions; fourteen consisted only of abuse; four were | |
both false and seditious; and the remainder were indifferent. | |
It is not possible here to analyse the Resolutions in detail. They | |
called the attention of the home government to some real abuses. The | |
subservience of the Legislative Council to the Executive Council; the | |
partisanship of some of the judges; the maladministration of the wild | |
lands; grave irregularities in the receiver-general's office; the | |
concentration of a variety of public offices in the same persons; the | |
failure of the governor to issue a writ for the election of a | |
representative for the county of Montreal; and the expenditure of | |
public moneys without the consent of the Assembly--all these, and many | |
others, were enlarged upon. If the framers of the Resolutions had only | |
cared to make out a very strong case they might have done so. But the | |
language which they employed to present their case was almost certainly | |
calculated to injure it seriously in the eyes of the home government. | |
{40} 'We are in no wise disposed,' they told the king, 'to admit the | |
excellence of the present constitution of Canada, although the present | |
colonial secretary unseasonably and erroneously asserts that the said | |
constitution has conferred on the two Canadas the institutions of Great | |
Britain.' With an extraordinary lack of tact they assured the king | |
that Toryism was in America 'without any weight or influence except | |
what it derives from its European supporters'; whereas Republicanism | |
'overspreads all America.' Nor did they stop there. 'This House,' | |
they announced, 'would esteem itself wanting in candour to Your Majesty | |
if it hesitated to call Your Majesty's attention to the fact, that in | |
less than twenty years the population of the United States of America | |
will be greater than that of Great Britain, and that of British America | |
will be greater than that of the former English colonies, when the | |
latter deemed that the time was come to decide that the inappreciable | |
advantage of being self-governed ought to engage them to repudiate a | |
system of colonial government which was, generally speaking, much | |
better than that of British America now is.' This unfortunate | |
reference to the American Revolution, with its {41} hardly veiled | |
threat of rebellion, was scarcely calculated to commend the Ninety-Two | |
Resolutions to the favourable consideration of the British government. | |
And when the Resolutions went on to demand, not merely the removal, but | |
the impeachment of the governor, Lord Aylmer, it must have seemed to | |
unprejudiced bystanders as if the framers of the Resolutions had taken | |
leave of their senses. | |
The Ninety-Two Resolutions do not rank high as a constructive document. | |
The chief change in the constitution which they proposed was the | |
application of the elective principle to the Legislative Council. Of | |
anything which might be construed into advocacy of a statesmanlike | |
project of responsible government there was not a word, save a vague | |
allusion to 'the vicious composition and irresponsibility of the | |
Executive Council.' Papineau and his friends had evidently no | |
conception of the solution ultimately found for the constitutional | |
problem in Canada--a provincial cabinet chosen from the legislature, | |
sitting in the legislature, and responsible to the legislature, whose | |
advice the governor is bound to accept in regard to provincial affairs. | |
Papineau undoubtedly did much to hasten the day of responsible | |
government in Canada; {42} but in this process he was in reality an | |
unwitting agent. | |
The Ninety-Two Resolutions secured a majority of fifty-six to | |
twenty-four. But in the minority voted John Neilson, Augustin | |
Cuvillier, F. A. Quesnel, and Andrew Stuart, who now definitely broke | |
away from Papineau's party. There are signs, too, that the | |
considerable number of Catholic clergy who had openly supported | |
Papineau now began to withdraw from the camp of a leader advocating | |
such republican and revolutionary ideas. There is ground also for | |
believing that not a little unrest disturbed those who voted with | |
Papineau in 1834. In the next year Elzear Bedard, who had moved the | |
Ninety-Two Resolutions, broke with Papineau. Another seceder was | |
Etienne Parent, the editor of the revived _Canadien_, and one of the | |
great figures in French-Canadian literature. Both Bedard and Parent | |
were citizens of Quebec, and they carried with them the great body of | |
public opinion in the provincial capital. It will be observed later | |
that during the disturbances of 1837 Quebec remained quiet. | |
None of the seceders abandoned the demand for the redress of | |
grievances. They merely {43} refused to follow Papineau in his extreme | |
course. For this they were assailed with some of the rhetoric which | |
had hitherto been reserved for the 'Bureaucrats.' To them was applied | |
the opprobrious epithet of _Chouayens_[1]--a name which had been used | |
by Etienne Parent himself in 1828 to describe those French Canadians | |
who took sides with the government party. | |
[1] The name _Chouayen_ or _Chouaguen_ appears to have been first used | |
as a term of reproach at the siege of Oswego in 1756. It is said that | |
after the fall of the forts there to Montcalm's armies a number of | |
Canadian soldiers arrived too late to take part in the fighting. By | |
the soldiers who had borne the brunt of the battle the late-comers were | |
dubbed _Chouaguens_, this being the way the rank and file of the French | |
soldiers pronounced the Indian name of Oswego. Thus the term came to | |
mean one who refuses to follow, or who lets others do the fighting and | |
keeps out of it himself. Perhaps the nearest English, or rather | |
American, equivalent is the name Mugwump. | |
{44} | |
CHAPTER VI | |
THE ROYAL COMMISSION | |
A general election followed soon after the passing of the Ninety-Two | |
Resolutions and revealed the strength of Papineau's position in the | |
country. All those members of the _Patriote_ party who had opposed the | |
Resolutions--Neilson, Cuvillier, Quesnel, Stuart, and two or three | |
others--suffered defeat at the polls. The first division-list in the | |
new Assembly showed seventy members voting for Papineau as speaker, and | |
only six voting against him. | |
The Resolutions were forwarded to Westminster, both through the | |
Assembly's agent in London and through Lord Aylmer, who received the | |
address embodying the Resolutions, despite the fact that they demanded | |
his own impeachment. The British House of Commons appointed a special | |
committee to inquire into the grievances of which the Resolutions | |
complained; but there followed {45} no immediate action by the | |
government. The years 1834 and 1835 saw much disturbance in British | |
politics: there were no less than four successive ministers at the | |
Colonial Office. It was natural that there should be some delay in | |
dealing with the troubles of Lower Canada. In the spring of 1835, | |
however, the government made up its mind about the course to pursue. | |
It decided to send to Canada a royal commission for the purpose of | |
investigating, and if possible settling, the questions in dispute. It | |
was thought advisable to combine in one person the office of chief | |
royal commissioner and that of governor of Canada. To clear the way | |
for this arrangement Lord Aylmer was recalled. But he was expressly | |
relieved from all censure: it was merely recognized by the authorities | |
that his unfortunate relations with the Assembly made it unlikely that | |
he would be able to offer any assistance in a solution of the problem. | |
The unenviable position of governor and chief royal commissioner was | |
offered in turn to several English statesmen and declined by all of | |
them. It was eventually accepted by Lord Gosford, an Irish peer | |
without experience in public life. With him were associated as | |
commissioners Sir Charles Grey, afterwards {46} governor of Jamaica, | |
and Sir George Gipps, afterwards governor of New South Wales. These | |
two men were evidently intended to offset each other: Grey was commonly | |
rated as a Tory, while Gipps was a Liberal. Lord Gosford's appointment | |
caused much surprise. He was a stranger in politics and in civil | |
government. There is no doubt that his appointment was a last | |
resource. But his Irish geniality and his facility in being all things | |
to all men were no small recommendations for a governor who was to | |
attempt to set things right in Canada. | |
The policy of Lord Glenelg, the colonial secretary during Gosford's | |
period of office, was to do everything in his power to conciliate the | |
Canadian _Patriotes_, short of making any real constitutional | |
concessions. By means of a conciliatory attitude he hoped to induce | |
them to abate some of their demands. There is, indeed, evidence that | |
he was personally willing to go further: he seems to have proposed to | |
William IV that the French Canadians should be granted, as they | |
desired, an elective Legislative Council; but the staunch old Tory king | |
would not hear of the change. 'The king objects on principle,' the | |
ministers were told, 'and upon what he {47} considers sound | |
constitutional principle, to the adoption of the elective principle in | |
the constitution of the legislative councils in the colonies.' In 1836 | |
the king had not yet become a negligible factor in determining the | |
policy of the government; and the idea was dropped. | |
Lord Gosford arrived in Canada at the end of the summer of 1835 to find | |
himself confronted with a discouraging state of affairs. A short | |
session of the Assembly in the earlier part of the year had been marked | |
by unprecedented violence. Papineau had attacked Lord Aylmer in | |
language breathing passion; and had caused Lord Aylmer's reply to the | |
address of the Assembly containing the Ninety-Two Resolutions to be | |
expunged from the journals of the House as 'an insult cast at the whole | |
nation.' Papineau had professed himself hopeless of any amendment of | |
grievances by Great Britain. 'When Reform ministries, who called | |
themselves our friends,' he said, 'have been deaf to our complaints, | |
can we hope that a Tory ministry, the enemy of Reform, will give us a | |
better hearing? We have nothing to expect from the Tories unless we | |
can inspire them with fear or worry them by ceaseless importunity.' It | |
{48} should be observed, however, that in 1835 Papineau explicitly | |
disclaimed any intention of stirring up civil war. When Gugy, one of | |
the English members of the Assembly,[1] accused him of such an | |
intention, Papineau replied: | |
Mr Gugy has talked to us again about an outbreak and civil war--a | |
ridiculous bugbear which is regularly revived every time the House | |
protests against these abuses, as it was under Craig, under Dalhousie, | |
and still more persistently under the present governor. Doubtless the | |
honourable gentleman, having studied military tactics as a lieutenant | |
in the militia--I do not say as a major, for he has been a major only | |
for the purposes of the parade-ground and the ball-room--is quite | |
competent to judge of the results of a civil war and of the forces of | |
the country, but he need not fancy that he can frighten us by hinting | |
to us that he will fight in the ranks of the enemy. All his threats | |
are futile, and his fears but the creatures of imagination. | |
Papineau did not yet contemplate an appeal {49} to arms; and of course | |
he could not foresee that only two years later Conrad Gugy would be one | |
of the first to enter the village of St Eustache after the defeat of | |
the _Patriote_ forces. | |
In spite of the inflamed state of public feeling, Lord Gosford tried to | |
put into effect his policy of conciliation. He sought to win the | |
confidence of the French Canadians by presiding at their | |
entertainments, by attending the distribution of prizes at their | |
seminaries, and by giving balls on their feast days. He entertained | |
lavishly, and his manners toward his guests were decidedly convivial. | |
'_Milord_,' exclaimed one of them on one occasion, tapping him on the | |
back at a certain stage of the after-dinner conversation, '_milord, | |
vous etes bien aimable_.' 'Pardonnez,' replied Gosford; '_c'est le | |
vin_.' Even Papineau was induced to accept the governor's hospitality, | |
though there were not wanting those who warned Gosford that Papineau | |
was irreconcilable. 'By a wrong-headed and melancholy alchemy,' wrote | |
an English officer in Quebec to Gosford, 'he will transmute every | |
public concession into a demand for more, in a ratio equal to its | |
extent; and his disordered moral palate, beneath the blandest smile and | |
the {50} softest language, will turn your Burgundy into vinegar.' | |
The speech with which Lord Gosford opened the session of the | |
legislature in the autumn of 1835 was in line with the rest of his | |
policy. He announced his determination to effect the redress of every | |
grievance. In some cases the action of the executive government would | |
be sufficient to supply the remedy. In others the assistance of the | |
legislature would be necessary. A third class of cases would call for | |
the sanction of the British parliament. He promised that no | |
discrimination against French Canadians should be made in appointments | |
to office. He expressed the opinion that executive councillors should | |
not sit in the legislature. He announced that the French would be | |
guaranteed the use of their native tongue. He made an earnest plea for | |
the settlement of the financial difficulty, and offered some | |
concessions. The legislature should be given control of the hereditary | |
revenues of the Crown, if provision were made for the support of the | |
executive and the judiciary. Finally, he made a plea for the | |
reconciliation of the French and English races in the country, whom he | |
described as 'the offspring of the two foremost nations {51} of | |
mankind.' Not even the most extreme of the _Patriotes_ could fail to | |
see that Lord Gosford was holding out to them an olive branch. | |
Great dissatisfaction, of course, arose among the English in the colony | |
at Lord Gosford's policy. 'Constitutional associations,' which had | |
been formed in Quebec and Montreal for the defence of the constitution | |
and the rights and privileges of the English-speaking inhabitants of | |
Canada, expressed gloomy forebodings as to the probable result of the | |
policy. The British in Montreal organized among themselves a volunteer | |
rifle corps, eight hundred strong, 'to protect their persons and | |
property, and to assist in maintaining the rights and principles | |
granted them by the constitution'; and there was much indignation when | |
the rifle corps was forced to disband by order of the governor, who | |
declared that the constitution was in no danger, and that, even if it | |
were, the government would be competent to deal with the situation. | |
Nor did Gosford find it plain sailing with all the French Canadians. | |
Papineau's followers in the House took up at first a distinctly | |
independent attitude. Gosford was informed {52} that the appointment | |
of the royal commission was an insult to the Assembly; it threw doubt | |
on the assertions which Papineau and his followers had made in | |
petitions and resolutions. If the report of the commissioners turned | |
out to be in accord with the views of the House, well and good; but if | |
not, that would not influence the attitude of the House. They would | |
not alter their demands. | |
In spite, however, of the uneasiness of the English official element, | |
and the obduracy of the extreme _Patriotes_, it is barely possible that | |
Gosford, with his _bonhomie_ and his Burgundy, might have effected a | |
modus vivendi, had there not occurred, about six months after Gosford's | |
arrival in Canada, one of those unfortunate and unforeseen events which | |
upset the best-laid schemes of mice and men. This was the indiscreet | |
action of Sir Francis Bond Head, the newly appointed | |
lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, in communicating to the | |
legislature of Upper Canada the _ipsissima verba_ of his instructions | |
from the Colonial Office. It was immediately seen that a discrepancy | |
existed between the tenor of Sir Francis Bond Head's instructions and | |
the tenor of Lord Gosford's speech at the opening of the legislature of | |
Lower Canada in 1835. {53} Sir Francis Bond Head's instructions showed | |
beyond peradventure that the British government did not contemplate any | |
real constitutional changes in the Canadas; above all, it did not | |
propose to yield to the demand for an elective Legislative Council. | |
This fact was called to the attention of Papineau and his friends by | |
Marshall Spring Bidwell, the speaker of the Assembly of Upper Canada; | |
and immediately the fat was in the fire. Papineau was confirmed in his | |
belief that justice could not be hoped for; those who had been won over | |
by Gosford's blandishments experienced a revulsion of feeling; and | |
Gosford saw the fruit of his efforts vanishing into thin air. | |
A climax came over the question of supply. Lord Gosford had asked the | |
Assembly to vote a permanent civil list, in view of the fact that the | |
government offered to hand over to the control of the legislature the | |
casual and territorial revenues of the Crown. But the publication of | |
Sir Francis Bond Head's instructions effectually destroyed any hope of | |
this compromise being accepted. In the session of the House which was | |
held in the early part of 1836, Papineau and his friends not only | |
refused to vote a permanent civil {54} list; they declined to grant | |
more than six months' supply in any case; and with this they made the | |
threat that if the demands of the _Patriotes_ were not met at the end | |
of the six months, no more supplies would be voted. This action was | |
deemed so unsatisfactory that the Legislative Council threw out the | |
bill of supply. The result was widespread distress among the public | |
officials of the colony. This was the fourth year in which no | |
provision had been made for the upkeep of government. In 1833 the bill | |
of supply had been so cumbered with conditions that it had been | |
rejected by the Legislative Council. In 1834, owing to disputes | |
between the Executive and the Assembly, the legislature had separated | |
without a vote on the estimates. In 1835 the Assembly had declined to | |
make any vote of supply. In earlier years the Executive had been able, | |
owing to its control of certain royal and imperial revenues, to carry | |
on the government after a fashion under such circumstances; but since | |
it had transferred a large part of these revenues to the control of the | |
legislature, it was no longer able to meet the situation. Papineau and | |
his friends doubtless recognized that they now had the 'Bureaucrats' at | |
their mercy; and {55} they seem to have made up their minds to achieve | |
the full measure of their demands, or make government impossible by | |
withholding the supplies, no matter what suffering this course might | |
inflict on the families of the public servants. | |
In the autumn of 1836 the royal commissioners brought their labours to | |
a close. Lord Gosford, it is true, remained in the colony as governor | |
until the beginning of 1838, and Sir George Gipps remained until the | |
beginning of 1837, but Sir Charles Grey left for England in November | |
1836 with the last of the commissioners' reports. These reports, which | |
were six in number, exercised little direct influence upon the course | |
of events in Canada. The commissioners pronounced against the | |
introduction of responsible government, in the modern sense of the | |
term, on the ground that it would be incompatible with the status of a | |
colony. They advised against the project of an elective Legislative | |
Council. In the event of a crisis arising, they submitted the question | |
whether the total suspension of the constitution would not be less | |
objectionable than any partial interference with the particular | |
clauses. It is evident from the reports that the commissioners had | |
{56} bravely survived their earlier view that the discontented | |
Canadians might be won over by unctuous blandishments alone. They | |
could not avoid the conclusion that this policy had failed. | |
[1] He was really of Swiss extraction. | |
{57} | |
CHAPTER VII | |
THE RUSSELL RESOLUTIONS | |
When the legislature of Lower Canada met in the autumn of 1836, Lord | |
Gosford earnestly called its attention to the estimates of the current | |
year and the accounts showing the arrears unpaid. Six months, however, | |
had passed by, and there was no sign of the redress of grievances. The | |
royal commission, indeed, had not completed its investigations. The | |
Assembly, therefore, refused once more to vote the necessary supplies. | |
'In reference to the demand for a supply,' they told the governor, | |
'relying on the salutary maxim, that the correction of abuses and the | |
redress of grievances ought to precede the grant thereof, we have been | |
of opinion that there is nothing to authorize us to alter our | |
resolution of the last session.' | |
This answer marked the final and indubitable breakdown of the policy of | |
conciliation without concession. This was recognized by {58} Gosford, | |
who soon afterwards wrote home asking to be allowed to resign, and | |
recommending the appointment of a governor whose hands were 'not | |
pledged as mine are to a mild and conciliatory line of policy.' | |
Two alternatives were now open to the British ministers--either to make | |
a complete capitulation to the demands of the _Patriotes_, or to deal | |
with the situation in a high-handed way. They chose the latter course, | |
though with some hesitation and perhaps with regret. On March 6, 1837, | |
Lord John Russell, chancellor of the Exchequer in the Melbourne | |
administration and one of the most liberal-minded statesmen in England, | |
introduced into the House of Commons ten resolutions dealing with the | |
affairs of Canada. These resolutions recited that since 1832 no | |
provision had been made by the Assembly of Lower Canada for defraying | |
the charges for the administration of justice or for the support of the | |
civil government; that the attention of the Assembly had been called to | |
the arrears due; and that the Assembly had declined to vote a supply | |
until its demands for radical political changes were satisfied. The | |
resolutions declared that though both the bodies in question might be | |
improved in respect of their composition, it {59} was inadvisable to | |
grant the demand to make the Legislative Council elective, or to | |
subject the Executive Council to the responsibility demanded by the | |
House of Assembly. In regard to the financial question, the | |
resolutions repeated the offer made by Lord Aylmer and Lord | |
Gosford--namely, to hand over to the Assembly the control of the | |
hereditary, territorial, and casual revenues of the Crown, on condition | |
that the Assembly would grant a permanent civil list. But the main | |
feature of the resolutions was the clause empowering the governor to | |
pay out of the public revenues, without authorization of the Assembly, | |
the moneys necessary for defraying the cost of government in the | |
province up to April 10, 1837. This, though not exactly a suspension | |
of the constitution of Lower Canada and a measure quite legally within | |
the competency of the House of Commons, was a flat negative to the | |
claim of the Lower-Canadian Assembly to control over the executive | |
government, through the power of the purse or otherwise. | |
A long and important debate in Parliament followed on these | |
resolutions. Some of the chief political leaders of the day took part | |
in the discussion. Daniel O'Connell, the great {60} tribune of the | |
Irish people, took up the cudgels for the French Canadians. Doubtless | |
it seemed to him that the French Canadians, like the Irish, were | |
victims of Anglo-Saxon tyranny and bigotry. Sir George Grey, the | |
colleague of Gosford, Lord Stanley, a former colonial secretary, and | |
William Ewart Gladstone, then a vigorous young Tory, spoke in support | |
of the resolutions. The chief opposition came from the Radical wing of | |
the Whig party, headed by Hume and Roebuck; but these members were | |
comparatively few in number, and the resolutions were passed by | |
overwhelming majorities. | |
[Illustration: Wolfred Nelson. From a print in the Chateau de Ramezay.] | |
As soon as the passage of the resolutions became known in Canada, | |
Papineau and his friends began to set the heather on fire. On May 7, | |
1837, the _Patriotes_ held a huge open-air meeting at St Ours, eleven | |
miles above Sorel on the river Richelieu. The chief organizer of the | |
meeting was Dr Wolfred Nelson, a member of the Assembly living in the | |
neighbouring village of St Denis, who was destined to be one of the | |
leaders of the revolt at the end of the year. Papineau himself was | |
present at the meeting and he spoke in his usual violent strain. He | |
submitted a resolution declaring that 'we cannot but {61} consider a | |
government which has recourse to injustice, to force, and to a | |
violation of the social contract, anything else than an oppressive | |
government, a government by force, for which the measure of our | |
submission should henceforth be simply the measure of our numerical | |
strength, in combination with the sympathy we may find elsewhere.' At | |
St Laurent a week later he used language no less dangerous. 'The | |
Russell resolutions,' he cried, 'are a foul stain; the people should | |
not, and will not, submit to them; the people must transmit their just | |
rights to their posterity, even though it cost them their property and | |
their lives to do so.' | |
These meetings were prototypes of many that followed. All over the | |
province the _Patriotes_ met together to protest against what they | |
called 'coercion.' As a rule the meetings were held in the country | |
parishes after church on Sunday, when the habitants were gathered | |
together. Most inflammatory language was used, and flags and placards | |
were displayed bearing such devices as '_Papineau et le systeme | |
electif_,' '_Papineau et l'independence_,' and '_A bas le despotisme_.' | |
Alarmed by such language, Lord Gosford issued on June 15 a proclamation | |
calling on all loyal {62} subjects to discountenance writings of a | |
seditious tendency, and to avoid meetings of a turbulent or political | |
character. But the proclamation produced no abatement in the | |
agitation; it merely offered one more subject for denunciation. | |
During this period Papineau and his friends continually drew their | |
inspiration from the procedure of the Whigs in the American colonies | |
before 1776. The resolutions of the _Patriotes_ recalled the language | |
of the Declaration of Independence. One of the first measures of the | |
Americans had been to boycott English goods; one of the first measures | |
of the _Patriotes_ was a resolution passed at St Ours binding them to | |
forswear the use of imported English goods and to use only the products | |
of Canadian industry. At the short and abortive session of the | |
legislature which took place at the end of the summer of 1837, nearly | |
all the members of the Assembly appeared in clothes made of Canadian | |
frieze. The shifts of some of the members to avoid wearing English | |
imported articles were rather amusing. 'Mr Rodier's dress,' said the | |
Quebec _Mercury_, 'excited the greatest attention, being unique with | |
the exception of a pair of Berlin gloves, viz.: frock coat of {63} | |
granite colored _etoffe du pays_; inexpressibles and vest of the same | |
material, striped blue and white; straw hat, and beef shoes, with a | |
pair of home-made socks, completed the _outre_ attire. Mr Rodier, it | |
was remarked, had no shirt on, having doubtless been unable to smuggle | |
or manufacture one.' But Louis LaFontaine and 'Beau' Viger limited | |
their patriotism, it appears, to the wearing of Canadian-made | |
waistcoats. The imitation of the American revolutionists did not end | |
here. If the New England colonies had their 'Sons of Liberty,' Lower | |
Canada had its '_Fils de la Liberte_'--an association formed in | |
Montreal in the autumn of 1837. And the Lower Canada Patriotes | |
outstripped the New England patriots in the republican character of | |
their utterances. 'Our only hope,' announced _La Minerve_, 'is to | |
elect our governor ourselves, or, in other words, to cease to belong to | |
the British Empire.' A manifesto of some of the younger spirits of the | |
_Patriote_ party, issued on October 1, 1837, spoke of 'proud designs, | |
which in our day must emancipate our beloved country from all human | |
authority except that of the bold democracy residing within its bosom.' | |
To add point to these opinions, there sprang up all over the country | |
{64} volunteer companies of armed _Patriotes_, led and organized by | |
militia officers who had been dismissed for seditious utterances. | |
Naturally, this situation caused much concern among the loyal people of | |
the country. Loyalist meetings were held in Quebec and Montreal, to | |
offset the _Patriote_ meetings; and an attempt was made to form a | |
loyalist rifle corps in Montreal. The attempt failed owing to the | |
opposition of the governor, who was afraid that such a step would | |
merely aggravate the situation. Not even Gosford, however, was blind | |
to the seriousness of the situation. He wrote to the colonial | |
secretary on September 2, 1837, that all hope of conciliation had | |
passed. Papineau's aims were now the separation of Canada from England | |
and the establishment of a republican form of government. 'I am | |
disposed to think,' he concluded, 'that you may be under the necessity | |
of suspending the constitution.' | |
It was at this time that the Church first threw its weight openly | |
against the revolutionary movement. The British government had | |
accorded to Catholics in Canada a measure of liberty at once just and | |
generous; and the bishops and clergy were not slow to see that under a | |
republican form of government, {65} whether as a state in the American | |
Union or as an independent _nation canadienne_, they might be much | |
worse off, and would not be any better off, than under the dominion of | |
Great Britain. In the summer of 1837 Mgr Lartigue, the bishop of | |
Montreal, addressed a communication to the clergy of his diocese asking | |
them to keep the people within the path of duty. In October he | |
followed this up by a Pastoral Letter, to be read in all the churches, | |
warning the people against the sin of rebellion. He held over those | |
who contemplated rebellion the penalties of the Church: 'The present | |
question amounts to nothing less than this--whether you will choose to | |
maintain, or whether you will choose to abandon, the laws of your | |
religion.' | |
The ecclesiastical authorities were roused to action by a great meeting | |
held on October 23, at St Charles on the Richelieu, the largest and | |
most imposing of all the meetings thus far. Five or six thousand | |
people attended it, representing all the counties about the Richelieu. | |
The proceedings were admirably staged. Dr Wolfred Nelson was in the | |
chair, but Papineau was the central figure. A company of armed men, | |
headed by two militia officers who had been dismissed for disloyalty, | |
and {66} drawn up as a guard, saluted every resolution of the meeting | |
with a volley. A wooden pillar, with a cap of liberty on top, was | |
erected, and dedicated to Papineau. At the end of the proceedings | |
Papineau was led up to the column to receive an address. After this | |
all present marched past singing popular airs; and each man placed his | |
hand on the column, swearing to be faithful to the cause of his | |
country, and to conquer or die for her. All this, of course, was | |
comparatively innocent. The resolutions, too, were not more violent | |
than many others which had been passed elsewhere. Nor did Papineau use | |
language more extreme than usual. Many of the _Patriotes_, indeed, | |
considered his speech too moderate. He deprecated any recourse to arms | |
and advised his hearers merely to boycott English goods, in order to | |
bring the government to righteousness. But some of his lieutenants | |
used language which seemed dangerous. Roused by the eloquence of their | |
leader, they went further than he would venture, and advocated an | |
appeal to the arbitrament of war. 'The time has come,' cried Wolfred | |
Nelson, 'to melt our spoons into bullets.' | |
The exact attitude of Papineau during {67} these months of agitation is | |
difficult to determine. He does not seem to have been quite clear as | |
to what course he should pursue. He had completely lost faith in | |
British justice. He earnestly desired the emancipation of Canada from | |
British rule and the establishment of a republican system of | |
government. But he could not make up his mind to commit himself to | |
armed rebellion. 'I must say, however,' he had announced at St | |
Laurent, 'and it is neither fear nor scruple that makes me do so, that | |
the day has not yet come for us to respond to that appeal.' The same | |
attitude is apparent, in spite of the haughty and defiant language, in | |
the letter which he addressed to the governor's secretary in answer to | |
an inquiry as to what he had said at St Laurent: | |
SIR,--The pretension of the governor to interrogate me respecting my | |
conduct at St Laurent on the 15th of May last is an impertinence which | |
I repel with contempt and silence. | |
I, however, take the pen merely to tell the governor that it is false | |
that any of the resolutions adopted at the meeting of the county of | |
Montreal, held at St Laurent {68} on the 15th May last, recommend a | |
violation of the laws, as in his ignorance he may believe, or as he at | |
least asserts.--Your obedient servant, | |
L. J. PAPINEAU. | |
At St Charles Papineau was even more precise in repudiating revolution; | |
and there is no evidence that, when rebellion was decided upon, | |
Papineau played any important part in laying the plans. In later years | |
he was always emphatic in denying that the rebellion of 1837 had been | |
primarily his handiwork. 'I was,' he said in 1847, 'neither more nor | |
less guilty, nor more nor less deserving, than a great number of my | |
colleagues.' The truth seems to be that Papineau always balked a | |
little at the idea of armed rebellion, and that he was carried off his | |
feet at the end of 1837 by his younger associates, whose enthusiasm he | |
himself had inspired. He had raised the wind, but he could not ride | |
the whirlwind. | |
[Illustration: South-Western Lower Canada, 1837.] | |
{69} | |
CHAPTER VIII | |
THE DOGS OF WAR | |
As the autumn of 1837 wore on, the situation in Lower Canada began to | |
assume an aspect more and more threatening. In spite of a proclamation | |
from the governor forbidding such meetings, the _Patriotes_ continued | |
to gather for military drill and musketry exercises. Armed bands went | |
about the countryside, in many places intimidating the loyalists and | |
forcing loyal magistrates and militia officers to send in their | |
resignations to the governor. As early as July some of the Scottish | |
settlers at Cote St Joseph, near St Eustache, had fled from their | |
homes, leaving their property to its fate. Several houses at Cote St | |
Mary had been fired upon or broken into. A letter of Sir John | |
Colborne, the commander of the forces in British North America, written | |
on October 6, shows what the state of affairs was at that time: | |
In my correspondence with Col. Eden I have had occasion to refer to the | |
facts {70} and reports that establish the decided character which the | |
agitators have lately assumed. The people have elected the dismissed | |
officers of the militia to command them. At St Ours a pole has been | |
erected in favour of a dismissed captain with this inscription on it, | |
'Elu par le peuple.' At St Hyacinthe the tri-coloured flag was | |
displayed for several days. Two families have quitted the town in | |
consequence of the annoyance they received from the patriots. Wolfred | |
Nelson warned the patriots at a public meeting to be ready to arm. The | |
tri-coloured flag is to be seen at two taverns between St Denis and St | |
Charles. Many of the tavern-keepers have discontinued their signs and | |
substituted for them an eagle. The bank notes or promissory notes | |
issued at Yamaska have also the same emblem marked on them. Mr | |
Papineau was escorted from Yamaska to St Denis by a numerous retinue, | |
and it is said that 200 or 300 carriages accompanied him on his route. | |
He has attended five public meetings lately; and at one of them La | |
Valtrie, a priest, was insulted in his presence. The occurrence at St | |
Denis was certainly {71} a political affair, a family at St Antoine | |
opposed to the proceedings of W. Nelson, having been annoyed by the | |
same mob that destroyed the house of Madame St Jacques a few hours | |
before the shot was fired from her window. | |
Special animosity was shown toward the Chouayens, those French | |
Canadians who had refused to follow Papineau's lead. P. D. Debartzch, | |
a legislative councillor and a former supporter of Papineau, who had | |
withdrawn his support after the passing of the Ninety-Two Resolutions, | |
was obliged to flee from his home at St Charles; and Dr Quesnel, one of | |
the magistrates of L'Acadie, had his house broken into by a mob that | |
demanded his resignation as magistrate. | |
On November 6 rioting broke out in Montreal. The Doric Club, an | |
organization of the young men of English blood in the city, came into | |
conflict with the French-Canadian _Fils de la Liberte_. Which side | |
provoked the hostilities, it is now difficult to say. Certainly, both | |
sides were to blame for their behaviour during the day. The sons of | |
liberty broke the windows of prominent loyalists; and the members of | |
the Doric Club completely wrecked {72} the office of the _Vindicator_ | |
newspaper. It was only when the Riot Act was read, and the troops were | |
called out, that the rioting ceased. | |
Up to this point the _Patriotes_ had not indulged in any overt acts of | |
armed rebellion. Some of their leaders, it is true, had been laying | |
plans for a revolt. So much is known from the correspondence which | |
passed between the leading _Patriotes_ in Lower Canada and William Lyon | |
Mackenzie, the leader of the rebellion in Upper Canada. Thomas Storrow | |
Brown, one of Papineau's lieutenants, wrote to Mackenzie asking him to | |
start the ball rolling in Upper Canada first, in order to draw off some | |
of the troops which Sir John Colborne had massed in Lower Canada. But | |
all calculations were now upset by events which rapidly precipitated | |
the crisis in the lower province. | |
Soon after the fracas in the streets of Montreal between the Doric Club | |
and the _Fils de la Liberte_, a priest named Quibilier waited on | |
Papineau, and advised him, since his presence in Montreal had become a | |
source of disturbance, to leave the city. Whether he came as an | |
emissary from the ecclesiastical authorities or merely as a friend is | |
not clear. At any rate, Papineau accepted his advice, {73} and | |
immediately set out for St Hyacinthe. The result was most unfortunate. | |
The government, thinking that Papineau had left the city for the | |
purpose of stirring up trouble in the Richelieu district, promptly | |
issued warrants for the arrest of Papineau and some of his chief | |
lieutenants, Dr Wolfred Nelson, Thomas Storrow Brown, Edmund Bailey | |
O'Callaghan, and several others. | |
Meanwhile, on the day that these warrants for arrest were being issued | |
(November 16), a skirmish took place between a small party of British | |
troopers and a band of _Patriotes_ on the road between Chambly and | |
Longueuil--a skirmish which may be described as the Lexington of the | |
Lower Canada rebellion. The troopers, under Lieutenant Ermatinger, had | |
been sent to St Johns to arrest two French Canadians, named Demaray and | |
Davignon, who had been intimidating the magistrates. The arrest had | |
been effected, and the party were on their way back to Montreal, when | |
they were confronted by an armed company of _Patriotes_, under the | |
command of Bonaventure Viger, who demanded the release of the | |
prisoners. A brisk skirmish ensued, in which several on both sides | |
were wounded. The troopers, outnumbered by at least five {74} to one, | |
and having nothing but pistols with which to reply to the fire of | |
muskets and fowling-pieces, were easily routed; and the two prisoners | |
were liberated. | |
The news of this affair spread rapidly through the parishes, and | |
greatly encouraged the _Patriotes_ to resist the arrest of Papineau and | |
his lieutenants. Papineau, Nelson, Brown, and O'Callaghan had all | |
evaded the sheriff's officer, and had taken refuge in the country about | |
the Richelieu, the heart of the revolutionary district. In a day or | |
two word came to Montreal that considerable numbers of armed habitants | |
had gathered at the villages of St Denis and St Charles, evidently with | |
the intention of preventing the arrest of their leaders. The force at | |
St Denis was under the command of Wolfred Nelson, and that at St | |
Charles was under the command of Thomas Storrow Brown. How these | |
self-styled 'generals' came to be appointed is somewhat of a mystery. | |
Brown, at any rate, seems to have been chosen for the position on the | |
spur of the moment. 'A mere accident took me to St Charles,' he wrote | |
afterwards, 'and put me at the head of a revolting force.' | |
Sir John Colborne, who was in command of the British military forces, | |
immediately {75} determined to disperse these gatherings by force and | |
to arrest their leaders. His plan of campaign was as follows. A force | |
consisting of one regiment of infantry, a troop of the Montreal | |
Volunteer Cavalry, and two light field-guns, under the command of | |
Lieutenant-Colonel Wetherall, had already been dispatched to Chambly by | |
way of the road on which the rescue of Demaray and Davignon had taken | |
place. This force would advance on St Charles. Another force, | |
consisting of five companies of the 24th regiment, with a | |
twelve-pounder, under Colonel Charles Gore, a Waterloo veteran, would | |
proceed by boat to Sorel. There it was to be joined by one company of | |
the 66th regiment, then in garrison at Sorel, and the combined force | |
would march on St Denis. After having dispersed the rebels at St | |
Denis, which was thought not to be strongly held, the little army was | |
to proceed to St Charles, where it would be joined by the force under | |
Wetherall. | |
At eight o'clock on the evening of November 22, Colonel Gore set out | |
with his men from the barrack-square at Sorel for St Denis. The | |
journey was one of eighteen miles; and in order to avoid St Ours, which | |
was held by the _Patriotes_, Gore turned away from the main {76} road | |
along the Richelieu to make a detour. This led his troops over very | |
bad roads. The night was dark and rain poured down in torrents. 'I | |
got a lantern,' wrote one of Gore's aides-de-camp afterwards, 'fastened | |
it to the top of a pole, and had it carried in front of the column; but | |
what with horses and men sinking in the mud, harness breaking, wading | |
through water and winding through woods, the little force soon got | |
separated, those in the rear lost sight of the light, and great delays | |
and difficulties were experienced. Towards morning the rain changed to | |
snow, it became very cold, and daybreak found the unfortunate column | |
still floundering in the half-frozen mud four miles from St Denis.' | |
Meanwhile word had reached the rebels of the coming of the soldiers. | |
At daybreak Dr Wolfred Nelson had ridden out to reconnoitre, and had | |
succeeded in destroying several bridges. As the soldiers approached St | |
Denis they heard the church bells ringing the alarm; and it was not | |
long before they found that the village was strongly defended. After | |
capturing some of the houses on the outskirts of the village, they were | |
halted by a stockade built across the road covered by a large brick | |
house, well fortified on all sides. The commander of {77} the troops | |
brought reinforcements up to the firing line, and the twelve-pounder | |
came into action. But the assailants made very little impression on | |
the defence. Although the engagement lasted for more than five hours, | |
the troops succeeded in capturing nothing more than one of the flanking | |
houses. The ammunition of the British was running low, and the numbers | |
of the insurgents seemed to be increasing. Colonel Gore therefore | |
deemed it advisable to retire. By some strange oversight the British | |
were without any ambulance or transport of any kind; and they were | |
compelled to leave their dead and wounded behind them. Their | |
casualties were six killed and eighteen wounded. The wounded, it is a | |
pleasure to be able to say, were well looked after by the victorious | |
_Patriotes_. | |
The British effected their retreat with great steadiness, despite the | |
fact that the men had had no food since the previous day and had been | |
marching all night. They were compelled to abandon their | |
twelve-pounder in the mud; but they reached St Ours that night without | |
further loss. The next day they were back at Sorel. | |
The number of the insurgents at St Denis has never been accurately | |
ascertained; {78} probably they were considerably in excess of the | |
troops. Their position was one of great strength, and good judgment | |
had been shown in fortifying it. On the other hand, with the exception | |
of a few veterans of Major de Salaberry's Voltigeurs, they were | |
untrained in war; and their muskets and fowling-pieces were much | |
inferior to the rifles of the regulars. Their victory, it must be | |
said, reflected great credit upon them; although their losses had been | |
twice as great as those of the soldiers,[1] these peasants in homespun | |
had stood their ground with a courage and steadiness which would have | |
honoured old campaigners. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said | |
about some of their leaders. Papineau and O'Callaghan were present in | |
St Denis when the attack began; but before the morning was well | |
advanced, they had departed for St Hyacinthe, whence they later fled to | |
the United States. Papineau always declared that he had taken this | |
action at the {79} solicitation of Wolfred Nelson, who had said to him: | |
'Do not expose yourself uselessly: you will be of more service to us | |
after the fight than here.' In later days, however, when political | |
differences had arisen between the two men, Nelson denied having given | |
Papineau any such advice. It is very difficult to know the truth. But | |
even if Nelson did advise Papineau to leave, it cannot be said that | |
Papineau consulted his own reputation in accepting the advice. He was | |
not a person without military experience: he had been a major in the | |
militia, and was probably superior in rank to any one in the village. | |
His place was with the brave farmers who had taken up arms on his | |
behalf. | |
An episode in connection with the attack on St Denis left a dark stain | |
on the _Patriote_ escutcheon and embittered greatly the relations | |
between the two races in Canada. This was the murder, on the morning | |
of the fight, of Lieutenant Weir, a subaltern in the 32nd regiment, who | |
had been sent with dispatches to Sorel by land. He had reached Sorel | |
half an hour after Colonel Gore and his men had departed for St Denis. | |
In attempting to catch up with Gore's column he had taken the direct | |
road to St Denis and had arrived there {80} in advance of the British | |
troops. On approaching the village he was arrested, and by Wolfred | |
Nelson's orders placed in detention. As the British attack developed, | |
it was thought better by those who had him in charge to remove him to | |
St Charles. They bound him tightly and placed him in a wagon. Hardly | |
had they started when he made an attempt to escape. In this emergency | |
his warders seem to have lost their heads. In spite of the fact that | |
Weir was tightly bound and could do no harm, they fell upon him with | |
swords and pistols, and in a short time dispatched him. Then, appalled | |
at what they had done, they attempted to hide the body. When the | |
British troops entered St Denis a week later, they found the body | |
lying, weighted down with stones, in the Richelieu river under about | |
two feet of water. The autopsy disclosed the brutality with which Weir | |
had been murdered; and the sight of the body so infuriated the soldiers | |
that they gave the greater part of the village of St Denis to the | |
flames. In the later phases of the rebellion the slogan of the British | |
soldiers was, 'Remember Jack Weir.' | |
Another atrocious murder even more unpardonable than that of Weir was | |
perpetrated {81} a few days later. On November 28 some _Patriotes_ | |
near St Johns captured a man by the name of Chartrand, who was enlisted | |
in a loyal volunteer corps of the district. After a mock trial | |
Chartrand was tied to a tree and shot by his own countrymen. | |
[1] According to a report twelve _Patriotes_ lost their lives during | |
the engagement. Among them was Charles Ovide Perrault, member of the | |
Assembly for Vaudreuil, a young barrister of considerable promise. He | |
seems to have been Papineau's closest follower and confidant During the | |
last sessions of the Lower Canada legislature Perrault contributed many | |
letters to _La Minerve_. | |
{82} | |
CHAPTER IX | |
_FORCE MAJEURE_ | |
The check administered to Colonel Gore's column at St Denis, in the | |
first engagement of the rebellion, was the only victory which fell to | |
the rebel forces. In the meantime Lieutenant-Colonel Wetherall, with | |
several companies of infantry, a troop of volunteer cavalry, and two | |
field-guns, was marching on St Charles. On the evening of November 22 | |
Major Gugy, the leader of the English party in the Assembly, had | |
brought to Wetherall at Chambly instructions to advance down the | |
Richelieu and attack the rebel position at St Charles in the morning. | |
He set out accordingly at about the hour when Gore headed his forces up | |
the river from Sorel. But, while Gore carried out his orders to the | |
letter and reached St Denis on the morning of the 23rd, Wetherall | |
allowed himself some latitude in interpreting his instructions. This | |
was largely due to the advice of Gugy, if we are to believe {83} the | |
account which Gugy has left us. 'In the first place,' it runs, 'not | |
one of the force knew anything of the roads or people, nor do I believe | |
that more than one spoke French.... The storm raged so fearfully, the | |
rain poured in such torrents, and the frost set in afterwards so | |
intensely, that ... men and horses were equally fatigued ... all so | |
exhausted as to be unable to cope, on broken or woody ground, | |
successfully with any resolute enemy.... I learned that we had marched | |
without a dollar, without a loaf of bread, without a commissary, and | |
without a spare cartridge--a pretty predicament in an enemy's country, | |
surrounded by thousands of armed men.' It was apparent to Gugy that | |
Sir John Colborne, in issuing his orders, had greatly underestimated | |
the difficulty of the task he was setting for the troops. After | |
crossing the river above the Chambly Basin, Gugy therefore induced | |
Wetherall to halt until daylight; and, turning himself into a | |
commissary, he billeted the men and horses in the neighbouring houses | |
and stables. | |
The next day about noon the column reached St Hilaire, some seven miles | |
from St Charles. Here Wetherall obtained information which led him to | |
fear that Gore {84} had met with some kind of check; and he was | |
persuaded to send back to Chambly for a reinforcement of one company | |
which had been left in garrison there. His messenger reached Chambly | |
at four o'clock on the morning of the 24th. Major Warde, the | |
commandant at Chambly, at once embarked his company on a scow and | |
dropped down the river to St Hilaire; but he arrived too late to allow | |
of any further action that day, and it was not until the morning of the | |
25th that the column moved on St Charles. | |
Meanwhile, the rebels had been making preparations for defence. They | |
had fortified the manor-house of Debartzch, who had fled to Montreal, | |
and built round it a rampart of earth and tree-trunks--a rampart which, | |
for some mysterious reason, was never completed. They appointed as | |
commander Thomas Storrow Brown, a Montreal iron-merchant, for whose | |
arrest a warrant had been issued and who had fled to St Charles with | |
two or three other _Patriote_ politicians. But Brown had no military | |
experience, and was still suffering so severely from injuries received | |
in the rioting in Montreal that his proper place was a home for | |
convalescents rather than a field of battle. His appointment can only | |
be {85} explained by the non-appearance of the local _Patriote_ | |
leaders. 'The chief men,' Brown testified afterwards, 'were, with two | |
or three exceptions, absent or hiding.' It is evident that the British | |
authorities expected to meet with the strongest opposition at St | |
Charles, since that place had been the scene of the great demonstration | |
earlier in the year. But, as a matter of fact, the rebel forces at St | |
Charles were much less formidable than those at St Denis. Not only | |
were they lacking in proper military leadership; they were also fewer | |
in number and were, moreover, very inadequately armed. If Brown's | |
statements are to be relied upon, there were not in the rebel camp two | |
hundred men. 'Of ammunition,' wrote Brown, 'we had some half dozen | |
kegs of gunpowder and a little lead, which was cast into bullets; but | |
as the fire-arms were of every calibre, the cartridges made were too | |
large for many, which were consequently useless. We had two small | |
rusty field-pieces, but with neither carriages nor appointments they | |
were as useless as two logs. There was one old musket, but not a | |
bayonet. The fire-arms were common flintlocks, in all conditions of | |
dilapidation, some tied together with string, and very many with {86} | |
lock-springs so worn out that they could not be discharged.' | |
On the 24th Brown made a reconnaissance in the direction of St Hilaire. | |
He destroyed a bridge over a ravine some distance to the south of St | |
Charles, and placed above it an outpost with orders to prevent a | |
reconstruction of the bridge. But when the British troops appeared on | |
the morning of the 25th, this and other outlying pickets fell back | |
without making any resistance. They probably saw that they were so | |
outnumbered that resistance would be hopeless. On the approach of the | |
troops Brown at first assumed an attitude of confidence. A messenger | |
came from Wetherall, 'a respectable old habitant,' to tell the rebels | |
that if they dispersed quietly, they would not be molested. Brown | |
treated the message as a confession of weakness. 'I at once supposed,' | |
he said, 'that, followed in the rear by our friends from above, they | |
were seeking a free passage to Sorel, and determined to send a message, | |
that _if they would lay down their arms, they should pass unmolested_.' | |
This message does not seem to have reached its destination. And hardly | |
had the engagement opened when Brown quickly changed his tune. 'To go | |
forward {87} was useless, as I could order nothing but a | |
retreat--without it the people commenced retiring. I tried to rally | |
the little squads, my only hope being in keeping together the | |
fowling-pieces we had collected, but finding, after a long trial, my | |
strength and authority insufficient, I considered my command gone, | |
turned my horse, and rode to ... St Denis (seven or eight miles), where | |
... I arrived about nightfall.' | |
The engagement lasted less than an hour. The rebels, or at any rate | |
those of them who were armed, seem to have been outnumbered by the | |
soldiers, of whom there were between three and four hundred. But the | |
fighting was apparently brisk while it lasted. The British lost three | |
killed and eighteen wounded. The _Patriote_ losses are not known. The | |
local tradition is that forty-two were killed and many more wounded. | |
We know that thirty were taken prisoners on the field. | |
The defeat of the rebels at St Charles really terminated the rebellion | |
in the country about the Richelieu. When news of the defeat spread | |
over the countryside, the _Patriote_ forces immediately disbanded, and | |
their leaders sought safety in flight. Papineau and O'Callaghan, who | |
had been at St Hyacinthe, {88} succeeded in getting across the Vermont | |
border; but Wolfred Nelson was not so fortunate. After suffering great | |
privations he was captured by some loyalist militia not far from the | |
frontier, taken to Montreal, and there lodged in prison. | |
For some reason which it is difficult to discern, Wetherall did not | |
march on from St Charles to effect a pacification of St Denis. On | |
December 1, however, Colonel Gore once more set out from Sorel, and | |
entered St Denis the same day. He found everything quiet. He | |
recovered the howitzer and five of the wounded men he had left behind. | |
In spite of the absence of opposition, his men took advantage of the | |
occasion to wreak an unfair and un-British vengeance on the helpless | |
victors of yesterday. Goaded to fury by the sight of young Weir's | |
mangled body, they set fire to a large part of the village. Colonel | |
Gore afterwards repudiated the charge that he had ordered the burning | |
of the houses of the insurgents; but that defence does not absolve him | |
from blame. It is obvious, at any rate, that he did not take adequate | |
measures to prevent such excesses; nor was any punishment ever | |
administered to those who applied the torch. | |
{89} | |
But the end of rebellion was not yet in sight. Two more encounters | |
remain to be described. The first of these occurred at a place known | |
as Moore's Corners, near the Vermont border. After the collapse at St | |
Charles a number of _Patriote_ refugees had gathered at the small town | |
of Swanton, a few miles south of Missisquoi Bay, on the American side | |
of the boundary-line. Among them were Dr Cyrile Cote and Edouard | |
Rodier, both members of the Lower Canada Assembly; Ludger Duvernay, a | |
member of the Assembly and editor of _La Minerve_; Dr Kimber, one of | |
the ringleaders in the rescue of Demaray and Davignon; and Robert Shore | |
Milnes Bouchette, the descendant of a French-Canadian family long | |
conspicuous for its loyalty and its services to the state. Bouchette's | |
grandfather had been instrumental in effecting the escape of Sir Guy | |
Carleton from Montreal in 1775, when that place was threatened by the | |
forces of Montgomery. The grandson's social tastes and affiliations | |
might have led one to expect that he would have been found in the ranks | |
of the loyalists; but the arbitrary policy of the Russell Resolutions | |
had driven him into the arms of the extreme _Patriotes_. Arrested for | |
disloyalty at the outbreak of {90} the rebellion, he had been admitted | |
to bail and had escaped. These men, under the belief that the | |
habitants would rise and join them, determined upon an armed invasion | |
of Canada. Possibly they believed also that Wolfred Nelson was still | |
holding out. Papineau, it was said, had reported that 'the victor of | |
St Denis' was entrenched with a considerable force at St Cesaire on the | |
Yamaska. They therefore collected arms and ammunition, sent emissaries | |
through the parishes to the north to rouse the _Patriotes_, and on | |
December 6, flying some colours which had been worked for them by the | |
enthusiastic ladies of Swanton, they crossed the Canadian border, about | |
two hundred strong. They had two field-pieces and a supply of muskets | |
and ammunition for those whom they expected to join the party on | |
Canadian soil. | |
Hardly had the invaders crossed the border when they encountered at | |
Moore's Corners a body of the Missisquoi Volunteers, under the command | |
of Captain Kemp, who were acting as escort to a convoy of arms and | |
ammunition. Having received warning of the coming of the insurgents, | |
Kemp had sent out messengers through the countryside to rouse the | |
loyalist {91} population. To these as they arrived he served out the | |
muskets in his wagons. And when the rebels appeared, about eight | |
o'clock at night, he had a force at his disposal of at least three | |
hundred men, all well armed. | |
There is reason for believing that Kemp might have succeeded in | |
ambushing the advancing force, had not some of his men, untrained | |
volunteers with muskets in their hands for the first time, opened fire | |
prematurely. The rebels returned the fire, and a fusillade continued | |
for ten or fifteen minutes. But the rebels, on perceiving that they | |
had met a superior force, retired in great haste, leaving behind them | |
one dead and two wounded. One of the wounded was Bouchette, who had | |
been in command of the advance-guard. The rebels abandoned also their | |
two field-pieces, about forty stand of arms, five kegs of gunpowder, | |
and six boxes of ball-cartridge, as well as two standards. Among the | |
loyalists there were no casualties whatever. Only three of the rebels | |
were taken prisoner besides the two wounded, a fact which Kemp | |
explained by several factors--the undisciplined state of the loyalists, | |
the darkness of the night, the vicinity of woods, and the proximity of | |
the boundary-line, {92} beyond which he did not allow the pursuit to | |
go. The 'battle' of Moore's Corners was in truth an excellent farce; | |
but there is no doubt that it prevented what might have been a more | |
serious encounter had the rebel column reached the neighbourhood of St | |
Johns, where many of the _Patriotes_ were in readiness to join them. | |
A few days later, in a part of the province some distance removed from | |
the Richelieu river and the Vermont border, there occurred another | |
collision, perhaps the most formidable of the whole rebellion. This | |
was at the village of St Eustache, in the county of Two Mountains, | |
about eighteen miles north-west of Montreal. The county of Two | |
Mountains had long been known as a stronghold of the extreme | |
_Patriotes_. The local member, W. H. Scott, was a supporter of | |
Papineau, and had a large and enthusiastic following. He was not, | |
however, a leader in the troubles that ensued. The chief organizer of | |
revolt in St Eustache and the surrounding country was a mysterious | |
adventurer named Amury Girod, who arrived in St Eustache toward the end | |
of November with credentials, it would seem from Papineau, assigning to | |
him the task of superintending the _Patriote_ cause {93} in the north. | |
About Girod very little is known. He is variously described as having | |
been a Swiss, an Alsatian, and a native of Louisiana. According to his | |
own statement, he had been at one time a lieutenant-colonel of cavalry | |
in Mexico. He was well educated, could speak fluently several | |
languages, had a bold and plausible manner, and succeeded in imposing, | |
not only upon the _Patriote_ leaders, but upon the people of St | |
Eustache. He found a capable and dauntless supporter in Dr J. O. | |
Chenier, the young physician of the village. Chenier was one of the | |
few leaders of the revolt whose courage challenges admiration; and it | |
is fitting that to-day a monument, bearing the simple inscription | |
CHENIER, should stand in the Place Viger in Montreal, among the people | |
for whom, though misguidedly and recklessly, he laid down his life. | |
To St Eustache, on Sunday, November 26, came the news of Wolfred | |
Nelson's victory at St Denis. On Monday and Tuesday bands of | |
_Patriotes_ went about the countryside, terrorizing and disarming the | |
loyalists and compelling the faint-hearted to join in the rising. On | |
Wednesday night the rebels gathered to the number of about four hundred | |
{94} in St Eustache, and got noisily drunk (_s'y enivrerent | |
bruyamment_). They then proceeded, under the command of Girod and | |
Chenier, to the Indian mission settlement at the Lake of Two Mountains. | |
Here they broke into the government stores and possessed themselves of | |
some guns and ammunition. They next made themselves unwelcome to the | |
superior of the mission, the Abbe Dufresne, and, in spite of his | |
protestations, carried off from the mission-house a three-pounder gun. | |
On their return to St Eustache they forcibly entered the convent which | |
had been lately completed, though it was not yet occupied, and camped | |
there. | |
The loyalists who were forced to flee from the village carried the news | |
of these proceedings to Montreal; but Sir John Colborne was unwilling | |
to take any steps to subdue the _Patriotes_ of St Eustache until the | |
insurrection on the Richelieu had been thoroughly crushed. All he did | |
was to send a detachment of volunteers to guard the Bord a Plouffe | |
bridge at the northern end of the island of Montreal. | |
On Sunday, December 3, word reached St Eustache of the defeat of the | |
insurgents at St Charles. This had a moderating influence on many of | |
the _Patriotes_. All week the Abbe {95} Paquin, parish priest of St | |
Eustache, had been urging the insurgents to go back quietly to their | |
homes. He now renewed his exhortations. He begged Chenier to cease | |
his revolutionary conduct. Chenier, however, was immovable. He | |
refused to believe that the rebels at St Charles had been dispersed, | |
and announced his determination to die with arms in his hands rather | |
than surrender. 'You might as well try to seize the moon with your | |
teeth,' he exclaimed, 'as to try to shake my resolve.' | |
The events of the days that followed cannot be chronicled in detail. | |
When the Abbe Paquin and his vicar Deseves sought to leave the parish, | |
Girod and Chenier virtually placed them under arrest. The abbe did not | |
mince matters with Chenier. 'I accuse you before God and man,' he | |
said, 'of being the author of these misfortunes.' When some of the | |
habitants came to him complaining that they had been forced against | |
their will to join the rebels, he reminded them of the English proverb: | |
'You may lead a horse to the water, but you cannot make him drink.' | |
Unfortunately, the Abbe Paquin's good influence was counteracted by | |
that of the Abbe Chartier, the cure of the neighbouring village of St | |
{96} Benoit, a rare case of an ecclesiastic lending his support to the | |
rebel movement, in direct contravention of the orders of his superiors. | |
On several occasions the Abbe Chartier came over to St Eustache and | |
delivered inflammatory addresses to the rebel levies. | |
The vicar Deseves has left us a vivid picture of the life which the | |
rebels led. No attempt was made to drill them or to exercise | |
discipline. Time hung heavy on their hands. He continually saw them, | |
he says, passing through the village in knots of five or six, carrying | |
rusty guns out of order, smoking short black pipes, and wearing blue | |
_tuques_ which hung half-way down their backs, clothes of _etoffe du | |
pays_, and leather mittens. They helped themselves to all the strong | |
drink they could lay their hands on, and their gait showed the | |
influence of their potations. Their chief aim in life seemed to be to | |
steal, to drink, to eat, to dance, and to quarrel. With regard to the | |
morrow, they lived in a fool's paradise. They seem to have believed | |
that the troops would not dare to come out to meet them, and that when | |
their leaders should give the word they would advance on Montreal and | |
take it without difficulty. Their numbers during this period showed a | |
good deal of {97} fluctuation. Ultimately Girod succeeded in gathering | |
about him nearly a thousand men. Not all these, however, were armed; | |
according to Deseves a great many of them had no weapons but sticks and | |
stones. | |
By December 13 Sir John Colborne was ready to move. He had provided | |
himself with a force strong enough to crush an enemy several times more | |
numerous than the insurgents led by Girod and Chenier. His column was | |
composed of the 1st Royals, the 32nd regiment, the 83rd regiment, the | |
Montreal Volunteer Rifles, Globensky and Leclerc's Volunteers, a strong | |
force of cavalry--in all, over two thousand men, supported by eight | |
pieces of field artillery and well supplied with provision and | |
ammunition transport. | |
The troops bivouacked for the night at St Martin, and advanced on the | |
morning of the 14th. The main body crossed the Mille Isles river on | |
the ice about four miles to the east of St Eustache, and then moved | |
westward along the St Rose road. A detachment of Globensky's | |
Volunteers, however, followed the direct road to St Eustache, and came | |
out on the south side of the river opposite the village, in full view | |
of the rebels. Chenier, at the head of a hundred and fifty men, | |
crossed the {98} ice, and was on the point of coming to close quarters | |
with the volunteers when the main body of the loyalists appeared to the | |
east. Thereupon Chenier and his men beat a hasty retreat, and made | |
hurried preparations for defending the village. The church, the | |
convent, the presbytery, and the house of the member of the Assembly, | |
Scott, were all occupied and barricaded. It was about the church that | |
the fiercest fighting took place. The artillery was brought to bear on | |
the building; but the stout masonry resisted the battering of the | |
cannon balls, and is still standing, dinted and scarred. Some of the | |
Royals then got into the presbytery and set fire to it. Under cover of | |
the smoke the rest of the regiment then doubled up the street to the | |
church door. Gaining access through the sacristy, they lit a fire | |
behind the altar. 'The firing from the church windows then ceased,' | |
wrote one of the officers afterwards, 'and the rebels began running out | |
from some low windows, apparently of a crypt or cellar. Our men formed | |
up on one side of the church, and the 32nd and 83rd on the other. Some | |
of the rebels ran out and fired at the troops, then threw down their | |
arms and begged for quarter. Our officers tried to save the {99} | |
Canadians, but the men shouted "Remember Jack Weir," and numbers of | |
these poor deluded fellows were shot down.' | |
One of those shot down was Chenier. He had jumped from a window of the | |
Blessed Virgin's chapel and was making for the cemetery. How many fell | |
with him it is difficult to say. It was said that seventy rebels were | |
killed, and a number of charred bodies were found afterwards in the | |
ruins of the church. The casualties among the troops were slight, one | |
killed and nine wounded. One of the wounded was Major Gugy, who here | |
distinguished himself by his bravery and kind-heartedness, as he had | |
done in the St Charles expedition. Many of the rebels escaped. A good | |
many, indeed, had fled from the village on the first appearance of the | |
troops. Among these were some who had played a conspicuous part in | |
fomenting trouble. The Abbe Chartier of St Benoit, instead of waiting | |
to administer the last rites to the dying, beat a feverish retreat and | |
eventually escaped to the United States. The Church placed on him its | |
interdict, and he never again set foot on Canadian soil. The behaviour | |
of the adventurer Girod, the 'general' of the rebel force, was | |
especially {100} reprehensible. When he had posted his men in the | |
church and the surrounding buildings, he mounted a horse and fled | |
toward St Benoit. At a tavern where he stopped to get a stiff draught | |
of spirits he announced that the rebels had been victorious and that he | |
was seeking reinforcements with which to crush the troops completely. | |
For four days he evaded capture. Then, finding that the cordon was | |
tightening around him, he blew out his brains with a revolver. Thus | |
ended a life which was not without its share of romance and mystery. | |
On the night of the 14th the troops encamped near the desolate village | |
of St Eustache, a large part of which had unfortunately been given over | |
to the flames during the engagement. In the morning the column set out | |
for St Benoit. Sir John Colborne had threatened that if a single shot | |
were fired from St Benoit the village would be given over to fire and | |
pillage. But when the troops arrived there they found awaiting them | |
about two hundred and fifty men bearing white flags. All the villagers | |
laid down their arms and made an unqualified submission. And it is a | |
matter for profound regret that, notwithstanding this, the greater part | |
of the village {101} was burned to the ground. Sir John Colborne has | |
been severely censured for this occurrence, and not without reason. | |
Nothing is more certain, of course, than that he did not order it. It | |
seems to have been the work of the loyalist volunteers, who had without | |
doubt suffered much at the hands of the rebels. 'The irregular troops | |
employed,' wrote one of the British officers, 'were not to be | |
controlled, and were in every case, I believe, the instrument of the | |
infliction.' Far too much burning and pillaging went on, indeed, in | |
the wake of the rebellion. 'You know,' wrote an inhabitant of St | |
Benoit to a friend in Montreal, 'where the younger Arnoldi got his | |
supply of butter, or where another got the guitar he carried back with | |
him from the expedition about the neck.' And it is probable that the | |
British officers, and perhaps Sir John Colborne himself, winked at some | |
things which they could not officially recognize. At any rate, it is | |
impossible to acquit Colborne of all responsibility for the unsoldierly | |
conduct of the men under his command. | |
It is usual to regard the rebellion of 1837 in Lower Canada as no less | |
a fiasco than its counterpart in Upper Canada. There is no doubt that | |
it was hopeless from the outset. {102} It was an impromptu movement, | |
based upon a sudden resolution rather than on a well-reasoned plan of | |
action. Most of the leaders--Wolfred Nelson, Thomas Storrow Brown, | |
Robert Bouchette, and Amury Girod--were strangers to the men under | |
their command; and none of them, save Chenier, seemed disposed to fight | |
to the last ditch. The movement at its inception fell under the | |
official ban of the Church; and only two priests, the cures of St | |
Charles and St Benoit, showed it any encouragement. The actual | |
rebellion was confined to the county of Two Mountains and the valley of | |
the Richelieu. The districts of Quebec and Three Rivers were quiet as | |
the grave--with the exception, perhaps, of an occasional village like | |
Montmagny, where Etienne P. Tache, afterwards a colleague of Sir John | |
Macdonald and prime minister of Canada, was the centre of a local | |
agitation. Yet it is easy to see that the rebellion might have been | |
much more serious. But for the loyal attitude of the ecclesiastical | |
authorities, and the efforts of many clear-headed parish priests like | |
the Abbe Paquin of St Eustache, the revolutionary leaders might have | |
been able to consummate their plans, and Sir John Colborne, with the | |
small number of troops at {103} his disposal, might have found it | |
difficult to keep the flag flying. The rebellion was easily snuffed | |
out because the majority of the French-Canadian people, in obedience to | |
the voice of their Church, set their faces against it. | |
{104} | |
CHAPTER X | |
THE LORD HIGH COMMISSIONER | |
The rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada profoundly affected public | |
opinion in the mother country. That the first year of the reign of the | |
young Queen Victoria should have been marred by an armed revolt in an | |
important British colony shocked the sensibilities of Englishmen and | |
forced the country and the government to realize that the grievances of | |
the Canadian Reformers were more serious than they had imagined. It | |
was clear that the old system of alternating concession and repression | |
had broken down and that the situation demanded radical action. The | |
Melbourne government suspended the constitution of Lower Canada for | |
three years, and appointed the Earl of Durham as Lord High | |
Commissioner, with very full powers, to go out to Canada to investigate | |
the grievances and to report on a remedy. | |
John George Lambton, the first Earl of {105} Durham, was a wealthy and | |
powerful Whig nobleman, of decided Liberal, if not Radical, leanings. | |
He had taken no small part in the framing of the Reform Bill of 1832, | |
and at one time he had been hailed by the English Radicals or Chartists | |
as their coming leader. It was therefore expected that he would be | |
decently sympathetic with the Reform movements in the Canadas. At the | |
same time, Melbourne and his ministers were only too glad to ship him | |
out of the country. There was no question of his great ability and | |
statesmanlike outlook. But his advanced Radical views were distasteful | |
to many of his former colleagues; and his arrogant manners, his lack of | |
tact, and his love of pomp and circumstance made him unpopular even in | |
his own party. The truth is that he was an excellent leader to work | |
under, but a bad colleague to work with. The Melbourne government had | |
first got rid of him by sending him to St Petersburg as ambassador | |
extraordinary; and then, on his return from St Petersburg, they got him | |
out of the way by sending him to Canada. He was at first loath to go, | |
mainly on the ground of ill health; but at the personal intercession of | |
the young queen he accepted the commission offered him. It was {106} | |
an evil day for himself, but a good day for Canada, when he did so. | |
Durham arrived in Quebec, with an almost regal retinue, on May 28, | |
1838. Gosford, who had remained in Canada throughout the rebellion, | |
had gone home at the end of February; and the administration had been | |
taken over by Sir John Colborne, the commander-in-chief of the forces. | |
As soon as the news of the suspension of the constitution reached Lower | |
Canada, Sir John Colborne appointed a provisional special council of | |
twenty-two members, half of them French and half of them English, to | |
administer the affairs of the province until Lord Durham should arrive. | |
The first official act of Lord Durham in the colony swept this council | |
out of existence. 'His Excellency believes,' the members of the | |
council were told, 'that it is as much the interest of you all, as for | |
the advantage of his own mission, that his administrative conduct | |
should be free from all suspicions of political influence or party | |
feeling; that it should rest on his own undivided responsibility, and | |
that when he quits the Province, he should leave none of its permanent | |
residents in any way committed by the acts which his Government may | |
have {107} found it necessary to perform, during the temporary | |
suspension of the Constitution.' In its place he appointed a small | |
council of five members, all but one from his own staff. The one | |
Canadian called to this council was Dominick Daly, the provincial | |
secretary, whom Colborne recommended as being unidentified with any | |
political party. | |
The first great problem with which Lord Durham and his council had to | |
deal was the question of the political prisoners, numbers of whom were | |
still lying in the prisons of Montreal. Sir John Colborne had not | |
attempted to decide what should be done with them, preferring to shift | |
this responsibility upon Lord Durham. It would probably have been much | |
better to have settled the matter before Lord Durham set foot in the | |
colony, so that his mission might not have been handicapped at the | |
outset with so thorny a problem; but it is easy to follow Colborne's | |
reasoning. In the first place, he did not bring the prisoners to trial | |
because no Lower-Canadian jury at that time could have been induced to | |
convict them, a reasonable inference from the fact that the murder of | |
Weir had gone unavenged, even as the murderers of Chartrand were to be | |
acquitted {108} by a jury a few months later. In the second place, | |
Colborne had not the power to deal with the prisoners summarily. | |
Moreover, most of the rebel leaders had not been captured. The only | |
three prisoners of much importance were Wolfred Nelson, Robert | |
Bouchette, and Bonaventure Viger. The rest of the _Patriote_ leaders | |
were scattered far and wide. Chenier and Girod lay beneath the | |
springing sod; Papineau, O'Callaghan, Storrow Brown, Robert Nelson, | |
Cote, and Rodier were across the American border; Morin had just come | |
out of his hiding-place in the Canadian backwoods; and LaFontaine, | |
after vainly endeavouring, on the outbreak of rebellion, to get Gosford | |
to call together the legislature of Lower Canada, had gone abroad. The | |
future course of the rebels who had fled to the United States was still | |
doubtful; there was a strong probability that they might create further | |
disturbances. And, while the situation was still unsettled, Colborne | |
thought it better to leave the fate of the prisoners to be decided by | |
Durham. | |
Durham's instructions were to temper justice with mercy. His own | |
instincts were apparently in favour of a complete amnesty; but he | |
supposed it necessary to make an {109} example of some of the leaders. | |
After earnest deliberation and consultation with his council, and | |
especially with his chief secretary, Charles Buller, the friend and | |
pupil of Thomas Carlyle, Durham determined to grant to the rebels a | |
general amnesty, with only twenty-four exceptions. Eight of the men | |
excepted were political prisoners who had been prominent in the revolt | |
and who had confessed their guilt and had thrown themselves on the | |
mercy of the Lord High Commissioner; the remaining sixteen were rebel | |
leaders who had fled from the country. Durham gave orders that the | |
eight prisoners should be transported to the Bermudas during the | |
queen's pleasure. The sixteen refugees were forbidden to return to | |
Canada under penalty of death without benefit of clergy. | |
No one can fail to see that this course was dictated by the humanest | |
considerations. A criminal rebellion had terminated without the | |
shedding judicially of a drop of blood. Lord Durham even took care | |
that the eight prisoners should not be sent to a convict colony. The | |
only criticism directed against his course in Canada was on the ground | |
of its excessive lenity. Wolfred Nelson and Robert Bouchette had | |
certainly suffered a milder fate {110} than that of Samuel Lount and | |
Peter Matthews, who had been hanged in Upper Canada for rebellion. Yet | |
when the news of Durham's action reached England, it was immediately | |
attacked as arbitrary and unconstitutional. The assault was opened by | |
Lord Brougham, a bitter personal enemy of Lord Durham. In the House of | |
Lords Brougham contended that Durham had had no right to pass sentence | |
on the rebel prisoners and refugees when they had not been brought to | |
trial; and that he had no right to order them to be transported to, and | |
held in, Bermuda, where his authority did not run. In this attitude he | |
was supported by the Duke of Wellington, the leader of the Tory party. | |
Wellington's name is one which is usually remembered with honour in the | |
history of the British Empire; but on this occasion he did not think it | |
beneath him to play fast and loose with the interests of Canada for the | |
sake of a paltry party advantage. It would have been easy for him to | |
recognize the humanity of Durham's policy, and to join with the | |
government in legislating away any technical illegalities that may have | |
existed in Durham's ordinance; but Wellington could not resist the | |
temptation to embarrass the Whig {111} administration, regardless of | |
the injury which he might be doing to the sorely tried people of Canada. | |
The Melbourne administration, which had sent Durham to Canada, might | |
have been expected to stand behind him when he was attacked. Lord John | |
Russell, indeed, rose in the House of Commons and made a thoroughgoing | |
defence of Durham's policy as 'wise and statesmanlike.' But he alone | |
of the ministers gave Durham loyal support. In the House of Lords | |
Melbourne contented himself with a feeble defence of Durham and then | |
capitulated to the Opposition. Nothing would have been easier for him | |
than to introduce a bill making valid whatever may have been irregular | |
in Durham's ordinance; but instead of that he disallowed the ordinance, | |
and passed an Act of Indemnity for all those who had had a part in | |
carrying it out. Without waiting to hear Durham's defence, or to | |
consult with him as to the course which should be followed, the Cabinet | |
weakly surrendered to an attack of his personal enemies. Durham was | |
betrayed in the house of his friends. | |
The news of the disallowance of the ordinance first reached Durham | |
through the columns of an American newspaper. {112} Immediately his | |
mind was made up. Without waiting for any official notification, he | |
sent in his resignation to the colonial secretary. He was quite | |
satisfied himself that he had not exceeded his powers. 'Until I | |
learn,' he wrote, 'from some one better versed in the English language | |
that despotism means anything but such an aggregation of the supreme | |
executive and legislative authority in a single head, as was | |
deliberately made by Parliament in the Act which constituted my powers, | |
I shall not blush to hear that I have exercised a despotism; I shall | |
feel anxious only to know how well and wisely I have used, or rather | |
exhibited an intention of using, my great powers.' But he felt that if | |
he could expect no firm support from the Melbourne government, his | |
usefulness was gone, and resignation was the only course open to him. | |
He wrote, however, that he intended to remain in Canada until he had | |
completed the inquiries he had instituted. In view of the 'lamentable | |
want of information' with regard to Canada which existed in the | |
Imperial parliament, he confessed that he 'would take shame to himself | |
if he left his inquiry incomplete.' | |
A few days before Durham left Canada he took the unusual and, under | |
ordinary {113} circumstances, unconstitutional course of issuing a | |
proclamation, in which he explained the reasons for his resignation, | |
and in effect appealed from the action of the home government to | |
Canadian public opinion. It was this proclamation which drew down on | |
him from _The Times_ the nickname of 'Lord High Seditioner.' The | |
wisdom of the proclamation was afterwards, however, vigorously defended | |
by Charles Duller. The general unpopularity of the British government, | |
Duller explained, was such in Canada that a little more or less could | |
not affect it; whereas it was a matter of vital importance that the | |
angry and suspicious colonists should find one British statesman with | |
whom they could agree. The real justification of the proclamation lay | |
in the magical effect which it had upon the public temper. The news | |
that the ordinance had been disallowed, and that the whole question of | |
the political prisoners had been once more thrown into the melting-pot, | |
had greatly excited the public mind; and the proclamation fell like oil | |
upon the troubled waters. 'No disorder, no increase of disaffection | |
ensued; on the contrary, all parties in the Province expressed a | |
revival of confidence.' | |
Lord Durham left Quebec on November 1, {114} 1838. 'It was a sad day | |
and a sad departure,' wrote Buller. 'The streets were crowded. The | |
spectators filled every window and every house-top, and, though every | |
hat was raised as we passed, a deep silence marked the general grief | |
for Lord Durham's departure.' Durham had been in Canada only five | |
short months. Yet in that time he had gained a knowledge of, and an | |
insight into, the Canadian situation such as no other governor of | |
Canada had possessed. The permanent monument of that insight is, of | |
course, his famous _Report on the Affairs of British North America_, | |
issued by the Colonial Office in 1839. This is no place to write at | |
length about that greatest of all documents ever published with regard | |
to colonial affairs. This much, however, may be said. In the _Report_ | |
Lord Durham rightly diagnosed the evils of the body politic in Canada. | |
He traced the rebellion to two causes, in the main: first, racial | |
feeling; and, secondly, that 'union of representative and irresponsible | |
government' of which he said that it was difficult to understand how | |
any English statesman ever imagined that such a system would work. And | |
yet one of the two chief remedies which he recommended seemed like a | |
death sentence passed on the French in Canada. {115} This was the | |
proposal for the legislative union of Upper and Lower Canada with the | |
avowed object of anglicizing by absorption the French population. This | |
suggestion certainly did not promote racial peace. The other proposal, | |
that of granting to the Canadian people responsible government in all | |
matters not infringing 'strictly imperial interests,' blazed the trail | |
leading out of the swamps of pre-rebellion politics. | |
In one respect only is Lord Durham's _Report_ seriously faulty: it is | |
not fair to French Canadians. 'They cling,' wrote Durham, 'to ancient | |
prejudices, ancient customs, and ancient laws, not from any strong | |
sense of their beneficial effects, but with the unreasoning tenacity of | |
an uneducated and unprogressive people.' To their racial and | |
nationalist ambitions he was far from favourable. 'The error,' he | |
contended, 'to which the present contest is to be attributed is the | |
vain endeavour to preserve a French-Canadian nationality in the midst | |
of Anglo-American colonies and states'; and he quoted with seeming | |
approval the statement of one of the Lower Canada 'Bureaucrats' that | |
'Lower Canada must be _English_, at the expense, if necessary, of not | |
being _British_.' His primary {116} object in recommending the union | |
of the two Canadas, to place the French in a minority in the united | |
province, was surely a mistaken policy. Fortunately, it did not become | |
operative. Lord Elgin, a far wiser statesman, who completed Durham's | |
work by introducing the substance of responsible government which the | |
_Report_ recommended, decidedly opposed anything in the nature of a | |
gradual crusade against French-Canadian nationalism. 'I for one,' he | |
wrote, 'am deeply convinced of the impolicy of all such attempts to | |
denationalize the French. Generally speaking, they produce the | |
opposite effect, causing the flame of national prejudice and animosity | |
to burn more fiercely. But suppose them to be successful, what would | |
be the result? You may perhaps _Americanize_, but, depend upon it, by | |
methods of this description you will never _Anglicize_ the French | |
inhabitants of the province. Let them feel, on the other hand, that | |
their religion, their habits, their prepossessions, their prejudices if | |
you will, are more considered and respected here than in other portions | |
of this vast continent, and who will venture to say that the last hand | |
which waves the British flag on American ground may not be that of a | |
French Canadian?' | |
{117} | |
CHAPTER XI | |
THE SECOND REBELLION | |
The frigate _Inconstant_, with Lord Durham on board, was not two days | |
out from Quebec when rebellion broke out anew in Lower Canada. This | |
second rebellion, however, was not caused by Lord Durham's departure, | |
but was the result of a long course of agitation which had been carried | |
on along the American border throughout the months of Lord Durham's | |
regime. | |
As early as February 1838 numbers of Canadian refugees had gathered in | |
the towns on the American side of the boundary-line in the | |
neighbourhood of Lake Champlain. They were shown much sympathy and | |
encouragement by the Americans, and seem to have laboured under the | |
delusion that the American government would come to their assistance. | |
A proclamation signed by Robert Nelson, a brother of Wolfred Nelson, | |
declared the independence of Canada under a {118} 'provisional | |
government' of which Robert Nelson was president and Dr Cote a member. | |
The identity of the other members is a mystery. Papineau seems to have | |
had some dealings with Nelson and Cote, and to have dallied with the | |
idea of throwing in his lot with them; but he soon broke off | |
negotiations. 'Papineau,' wrote Robert Nelson, 'has abandoned us, and | |
this through selfish and family motives regarding the seigniories, and | |
inveterate love of the old French bad laws.' There is reason to | |
believe, however, that Papineau had been in communication with the | |
authorities at Washington, and that his desertion of Robert Nelson and | |
Cote was in reality due to his discovery that President Van Buren was | |
not ready to depart from his attitude of neutrality. | |
On February 28, 1838, Robert Nelson and Cote had crossed the border | |
with an armed force of French-Canadian refugees and three small | |
field-pieces. Their plan had contemplated the capture of Montreal and | |
a junction with another invading force at Three Rivers. But on finding | |
their way barred by the Missisquoi militia, they had beat a hasty | |
retreat to the border, without fighting; and had there been disarmed by | |
the American {119} troops under General Wool, a brave and able officer | |
who had fought with conspicuous gallantry at the battle of Queenston | |
Heights in 1812. | |
During the summer months, however, the refugees had continued to lay | |
plans for an insurrection in Lower Canada. Emissaries had been | |
constantly moving among the parishes north of the New York and Vermont | |
frontiers, promising the _Patriotes_ arms and supplies and men from the | |
United States. The rising was carefully planned. And when November | |
came large bodies of disaffected habitants gathered at St Ours, St | |
Charles, St Michel, L'Acadie, Chateauguay, and Beauharnois. They had | |
apparently been led to expect that they would be met at some of these | |
places by American sympathizers with arms and supplies. No such aid | |
being found at the rendezvous, many returned to their homes. But some | |
persevered in the movement, and made their way with packs on their | |
backs to Napierville, a town fifteen miles north of the boundary-line, | |
which had been designated as the rebel headquarters. | |
Meanwhile, Robert Nelson had moved northward to Napierville from the | |
American side of the border with a small band of refugees. {120} Among | |
these were two French officers, named Hindenlang and Touvrey, who had | |
been inveigled into joining the expedition. Hindenlang, who afterwards | |
paid for his folly with his life, has left an interesting account of | |
what happened. He and Touvrey joined Nelson at St Albans, on the west | |
side of Lake Champlain. With two hundred and fifty muskets, which had | |
been placed in a boat by an American sympathizer, they dropped down the | |
river to the Canadian border. There were five in the party--Nelson and | |
the two French officers, the guide, and the boatman. Nelson had given | |
Hindenlang to understand that the habitants had risen and that he would | |
be greeted at the Canadian border by a large force of enthusiastic | |
recruits. In this, however, he was disappointed. 'There was not a | |
single man to receive the famous President of the _Provisional | |
Government_; and it was only after a full hour's search, and much | |
trouble, [that] the guide returned with five or six men to land the | |
arms.' On the morning of November 4 the party arrived at Napierville. | |
Here Hindenlang found Dr Cote already at the head of two or three | |
hundred men. A crowd speedily gathered, and Robert Nelson was | |
proclaimed 'President of the Republic of {121} Lower Canada.' | |
Hindenlang and Touvrey were presented to the crowd; and to his great | |
astonishment Hindenlang was informed that his rank in the rebel force | |
was that of brigadier-general. | |
The first two or three days were spent in hastening the arrival of | |
reinforcements and in gathering arms. By the 7th Nelson had collected | |
a force of about twenty-five hundred men, whom Hindenlang told off in | |
companies and divisions. Most of the rebels were armed with pitchforks | |
and pikes. An attempt had been made two days earlier, on a Sunday, to | |
obtain arms, ammunition, and stores from the houses of the Indians of | |
Caughnawaga while they were at church; but a squaw in search of her cow | |
had discovered the raiders and had given the alarm, with the result | |
that the Indians, seizing muskets and tomahawks, had repelled the | |
attack and taken seventy prisoners. | |
On November 5 Nelson sent Cote with a force of four or five hundred men | |
south to Rouse's Point, on the boundary-line, to secure more arms and | |
ammunition from the American sympathizers. On his way south Cote | |
encountered a picket of a company of loyalist volunteers stationed at | |
Lacolle, and drove it {122} in. On his return journey, however, he met | |
with greater opposition. The company at Lacolle had been reinforced in | |
the meantime by several companies of loyalist militia from Hemmingford. | |
As the rebels appeared the loyalist militia attacked them; and after a | |
brisk skirmish, which lasted from twenty to twenty-five minutes, drove | |
them from the field. Without further ado the rebels fled across the | |
border, leaving behind them eleven dead and a number of prisoners, as | |
well as a six-pounder gun, a large number of muskets of the type used | |
in the United States army, a keg of powder, a quantity of | |
ball-cartridge, and a great many pikes. Of the provincial troops two | |
were killed and one was severely wounded. | |
The defeat of Cote and his men at Lacolle meant that Nelson's line of | |
communications with his base on the American frontier was cut. At the | |
same time he received word that Sir John Colborne was advancing on | |
Napierville from Laprairie with a strong force of regulars and | |
volunteers. Under these circumstances he determined to fall back on | |
Odelltown, just north of the border. He had with him about a thousand | |
men, eight hundred of whom were armed with muskets. {123} He arrived | |
at Odelltown on the morning of November 9, to find it occupied by about | |
two hundred loyal militia, under the command of the inspecting | |
field-officer of the district, Lieutenant-Colonel Taylor. He had no | |
difficulty in driving in the loyalist outposts; but the village itself | |
proved a harder nut to crack. Taylor had concentrated his little force | |
at the Methodist church, and he controlled the road leading to it by | |
means of the six-pounder which had been taken from the rebels three | |
days before at Lacolle. The insurgents extended through the fields to | |
the right and left, and opened a vigorous fire on the church from | |
behind some barns; but many of the men seem to have kept out of range. | |
'The greater part of the Canadians kept out of shot,' wrote Hindenlang; | |
'threw themselves on their knees, with their faces buried in the snow, | |
praying to God, and remaining as motionless as if they were so many | |
saints, hewn in stone. Many remained in that posture as long as the | |
fighting lasted.' The truth appears to be that many of Nelson's men | |
had been intimidated into joining the rebel force. The engagement | |
lasted in all about two hours and a half. The defenders of the church | |
made several successful sallies; and just when the {124} rebels were | |
beginning to lose heart, a company of loyalists from across the | |
Richelieu fell on their flank and completed their discomfiture. The | |
rebels then retreated to Napierville, under the command of Hindenlang. | |
Robert Nelson, seeing that the day was lost, left his men in the lurch | |
and rode for the American border. The losses of the rebels were | |
serious; they left fifty dead on the field and carried off as many | |
wounded. Of the loyalists, one officer and five men were killed and | |
one officer and eight men wounded. | |
Later in the same day Sir John Colborne, at the head of a formidable | |
force, entered Napierville. On his approach those rebels who were | |
still in the village dispersed and fled to their homes. Detachments of | |
troops were immediately sent out to disperse bands of rebels reported | |
to be still under arms. The only encounter took place at Beauharnois, | |
where a large body of insurgents had assembled. After a slight | |
resistance they were driven out by two battalions of Glengarry | |
volunteers, supported by two companies of the 71st and a detachment of | |
Royal Engineers. | |
In these expeditions the British soldiers, especially the volunteers, | |
did a good deal of burning and harrying. After the victory at {125} | |
Beauharnois they gave to the flames a large part of the village, | |
including the houses of some loyal citizens. In view of the | |
intimidation and depredations to which the loyalists had been subjected | |
by the rebels in the disaffected districts, the conduct of the men, in | |
these regrettable acts, may be understood and partially excused. But | |
no excuse can be offered for the attitude of the British authorities. | |
There are well-authenticated cases of houses of 'notorious rebels' | |
burned down by the orders of Sir James Macdonell, Colborne's | |
second-in-command. Colborne himself acquired the nickname of 'the old | |
Firebrand'; and, while he cannot be charged with such a mania for | |
incendiarism as some writers have imputed to him, it does not appear | |
that he took any effective measures to stop the arson or to punish the | |
offenders. | |
The rebellion of 1838 lasted scarcely a week. It was a venture | |
criminally hopeless. Failing important aid from the United States, the | |
rebels had an even slighter chance of success than they had had a year | |
before, for since that time the British regular troops in Canada had | |
been considerably increased in number. The chief responsibility for | |
the rebellion must be placed at the door of Robert Nelson, who at {126} | |
the critical moment fled over the border, leaving his dupes to | |
extricate themselves as best they could from the situation into which | |
he had led them. As was the case in 1837, most of the leaders of the | |
rebellion escaped from justice, leaving only the smaller fry in the | |
hands of the authorities. Of the lesser ringleaders nearly one hundred | |
were brought to trial. Two of the French-Canadian judges, one of them | |
being Elzear Bedard, attempted to force the government to try the | |
prisoners in the civil courts, where they would have the benefit of | |
trial by jury; but Sir John Colborne suspended these judges from their | |
functions, and brought the prisoners before a court-martial, specially | |
convened for the purpose. Twelve of them, including the French officer | |
Hindenlang, were condemned to death and duly executed. Most of the | |
others were transported to the convict settlements of Australia. It is | |
worthy of remark that none of those executed or deported had been | |
persons of note in the political arena before 1837. On the whole, it | |
must be confessed that these sentences showed a commendable moderation. | |
It was thought necessary that a few examples should be made, as Lord | |
Durham's amnesty of the previous year had evidently encouraged some | |
{127} habitants to believe that rebellion was a venial offence. And | |
the execution of twelve men, out of the thousands who had taken part in | |
the revolt, cannot be said to have shown a bloodthirsty disposition on | |
the part of the government. | |
{128} | |
CHAPTER XII | |
A POSTSCRIPT | |
The rebellion of 1837 now belongs to the dead past. The _Patriotes_ | |
and the 'Bureaucrats' of those days have passed away; and the present | |
generation has forgotten, or should have forgotten, the passions which | |
inspired them. The time has come when Canadians should take an | |
impartial view of the events of that time, and should be willing to | |
recognize the good and the bad on either side. It is absurd to pretend | |
that many of the English in Lower Canada were not arrogant and brutal | |
in their attitude toward the French Canadians, and lawless in their | |
methods of crushing the rebellion; or that many of the _Patriote_ | |
leaders were not hopelessly irreconcilable before the rebellion, and | |
during it criminally careless of the interests of the poor habitants | |
they had misled. On the other hand, no true Canadian can fail to be | |
proud of the spirit of loyalty which in 1837 {129} actuated not only | |
persons of British birth, but many faithful sons and daughters of the | |
French-Canadian Church. Nor can one fail to admire the devotion to | |
liberty, to 'the rights of the people,' which characterized rebels like | |
Robert Bouchette. 'When I speak of the rights of the people,' wrote | |
Bouchette, 'I do not mean those abstract or extravagant rights for | |
which some contend, but which are not generally compatible with an | |
organized state of society, but I mean those cardinal rights which are | |
inherent to British subjects, and which, as such, ought not to be | |
denied to the inhabitants of any section of the empire, however | |
remote.' The people of Canada to-day are able to combine loyalty and | |
liberty as the men of that day were not; and they should never forget | |
that in some measure they owe to the one party the continuance of | |
Canada in the Empire, and to the other party the freedom wherewith they | |
have been made free. | |
[Illustration: Denis Benjamin Viger. From a print in M'Gill University | |
Library.] | |
The later history of the _Patriotes_ falls outside the scope of this | |
little book, but a few lines may be added to trace their varying | |
fortunes. Some of them never returned to Canada. Robert Nelson took | |
up his abode in New York, and there practised surgery until {130} his | |
death in 1873. E. B. O'Callaghan went to Albany, and was there | |
employed by the legislature of New York in preparing two series of | |
volumes entitled _A Documentary History of New York_ and _Documents | |
relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York_, volumes | |
which are edited in so scholarly a manner, and throw such light on | |
Canadian history, that the Canadian historian would fain forgive him | |
for his part in the unhappy rebellion of '37. | |
Most of the _Patriote_ leaders took advantage, however, of the virtual | |
amnesty offered them in 1842 by the first LaFontaine-Baldwin | |
administration, and returned to Canada. Many of these, as well as many | |
of the _Patriote_ leaders who had not been implicated in the rebellion | |
and who had not fled the country, rose to positions of trust and | |
prominence in the public service of Canada. Louis Hippolyte | |
LaFontaine, after having gone abroad during the winter of 1837-38, and | |
after having been arrested on suspicion in November 1838, entered the | |
parliament of Canada, formed, with Robert Baldwin as his colleague, the | |
administration which ushered in full responsible government, and was | |
knighted by Queen Victoria. Augustin Morin, the reputed author {131} | |
of the Ninety-Two Resolutions, who had spent the winter of 1837-38 in | |
hiding, became the colleague of Francis Hincks in the Hincks-Morin | |
administration. George Etienne Cartier, who had shouldered a musket at | |
St Denis, became the lifelong colleague of Sir John Macdonald and was | |
made a baronet by his sovereign. Dr Wolfred Nelson returned to his | |
practice in Montreal in 1842. In 1844 he was elected member of | |
parliament for the county of Richelieu. In 1851 he was appointed an | |
inspector of prisons. Thomas Storrow Brown, on his return to Montreal, | |
took up again his business in hardware, and is remembered to-day by | |
Canadian numismatists as having been one of the first to issue a | |
halfpenny token, which bore his name and is still sought by collectors. | |
Robert Bouchette recovered from the serious wound he had sustained at | |
Moore's Corners, and later became Her Majesty's commissioner of customs | |
at Ottawa. | |
Papineau returned to Canada in 1845. The greater part of his period of | |
exile he spent in Paris, where he came in touch with the 'red | |
republicans' who later supported the revolution of 1848. He entered | |
the Canadian parliament in 1847 and sat in it until 1854. {132} But he | |
proved to be completely out of harmony with the new order of things | |
under responsible government. Even with his old lieutenant LaFontaine, | |
who had made possible his return to Canada, he had an open breach. The | |
truth is that Papineau was born to live in opposition. That he himself | |
realized this is clear from a laughing remark which he made when | |
explaining his late arrival at a meeting: 'I waited to take an | |
opposition boat.' His real importance after his return to Canada lay | |
not in the parliamentary sphere, but in the encouragement which he gave | |
to those radical and anti-clerical ideas that found expression in the | |
foundation of the _Institut Canadien_ and the formation of the _Parti | |
Rouge_. In many respects the _Parti Rouge_ was the continuation of the | |
_Patriote_ party of 1837. Papineau's later days were quiet and | |
dignified. He retired to his seigneury of La Petite Nation at | |
Montebello and devoted himself to his books. With many of his old | |
antagonists he effected a pleasant reconciliation. Only on rare | |
occasions did he break his silence; but on one of these, when he came | |
to Montreal, an old silver-haired man of eighty-one years, to deliver | |
an address before the _Institut Canadien_, he uttered a sentence which | |
may be taken as {133} the _apologia pro vita sua_: 'You will believe | |
me, I trust, when I say to you, I love my country.... Opinions outside | |
may differ; but looking into my heart and my mind in all sincerity, I | |
feel I can say that I have loved her as she should be loved.' And | |
charity covereth a multitude of sins. | |
{134} | |
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE | |
The story of the Lower Canada rebellion is told in detail in some of | |
the general histories of Canada. William Kingsford, _History of | |
Canada_ (1887-94), is somewhat inaccurate and shows a strong bias | |
against the _Patriotes_, but his narrative of the rebellion is full and | |
interesting. F. X. Garneau, _Histoire du Canada_ (1845-52), presents | |
the history of the period, from the French-Canadian point of view, with | |
sympathy and power. A work which holds the scales very evenly is | |
Robert Christie, _A History of the Late Province of Lower Canada_ | |
(1848-55). Christie played a not inconspicuous part in the | |
pre-rebellion politics, and his volumes contain a great deal of | |
original material of first-rate importance. | |
Of special studies of the rebellion there are a number worthy of | |
mention. L. O. David, _Les Patriotes de 1837-38_, is valuable for its | |
complete biographies of the leaders in the movement. L. N. Carrier, | |
_Les Evenements de 1837-38_ (1877), is a sketch of the rebellion | |
written by the son of one of the _Patriotes_. Globensky, _La Rebellion | |
de 1837 a Saint-Eustache_ (1883), written by the son of an officer in | |
the loyalist militia, contains some original materials of value. Lord | |
Charles Beauclerk, _Lithographic Views of Military Operations in Canada | |
under Sir John Colborne, O.C.B., {135} etc._ (1840), apart from the | |
value of the illustrations, is interesting on account of the | |
introduction, in which the author, a British army officer who served in | |
Canada throughout the rebellion, describes the course of the military | |
operations. The political aspect of the rebellion, from the Tory point | |
of view, is dealt with in T. C. Haliburton, _The Bubbles of Canada_ | |
(1839). For a penetrating analysis of the situation which led to the | |
rebellion see Lord Durham's _Report on the Affairs of British North | |
America_. | |
A few biographies may be consulted with advantage. N. E. Dionne, | |
_Pierre Bedard et ses fils_ (1909), throws light on the earlier period; | |
as does also Ernest Cruikshank, _The Administration of Sir James Craig_ | |
(_Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada_, 3rd series, vol. ii). | |
See also A. D. DeCelles, _Papineau_ (1904), in the 'Makers of Canada' | |
series; and Stuart J. Reid, _Life and Letters of the First Earl of | |
Durham_ (1906). | |
The parish histories, in which the province of Quebec abounds, will be | |
found to yield much information of a local nature with regard to the | |
rebellion; and the same may be said of the publications of local | |
historical societies, such as that of Missisquoi county. | |
An original document of primary importance is the _Report of the state | |
trials before a general court-martial held at Montreal in 1838-39; | |
exhibiting a complete history of the late rebellion in Lower Canada_ | |
(1839). | |
{136} | |
INDEX | |
Assembly, the language question in the, 8-12; racial conflict over form | |
of taxation, 13-14; the struggle with Executive for full control of | |
revenue leads to deadlock, 22-5, 27, 29-30, 53-4, 57; seeks redress in | |
Imperial parliament, 28-32; the Ninety-Two Resolutions, 38-42; the | |
grievance commission, 45-6, 52, 55-6; the Russell Resolutions, 57-61. | |
See Lower Canada. | |
Aylmer, Lord, governor of Canada, 29, 33-4, 44, 45. | |
Beauharnois, Patriotes defeated at, 124-5. | |
Bedard, Elzear, introduces the Ninety-Two Resolutions, 38, 42; | |
suspended as a judge, 126. | |
Bedard, Pierre, and French-Canadian nationalism, 11, 15, 16; his arrest | |
and release, 17-19, 20. | |
Bidwell, M. S., speaker of Upper Canada Assembly, 53. | |
Bouchette, Robert Shore Milnes, 129; wounded at Moore's Corners, 89-90, | |
91, 102, 108, 131. | |
Bourdages, Louis, Papineau's chief lieutenant, 36. | |
Brougham, Lord, criticizes Durham's policy, 110. | |
Brown, Thomas Storrow, 38, 72, 73, 131; in command of Patriotes at St | |
Charles, 74, 84-6, 102, 108. | |
Buller, Charles, secretary to Durham, 109, 113. | |
Bureaucrats, the, 18. See 'Chateau Clique.' | |
Canada. See Lower Canada. | |
Cartier, Sir George, 30; a follower of Papineau, 37, 131. | |
Catholic Church in Canada, the, 7; opposes revolutionary movement, | |
64-5, 102, 103. | |
Chartier, Abbe, encourages the rebels at St Eustache, 95-6; escapes to | |
the United States, 99. | |
Chartier de Lotbiniere, on French-Canadian loyalty, 11. | |
'Chateau Clique,' the, 22; and the Patriotes, 25, 31. | |
Chenier, Dr J. O., killed at St Eustache, 93, 94, 95, 97-9, 102, 108. | |
Christie, Robert, expelled from the Assembly, 34, 134. | |
Colborne, Sir John, his letter on the situation previous to the | |
Rebellion, 69-71; his 1837 campaign, 74-5, 83, 94, 97-101, 102; | |
administrator of the province, 106-8; his 1838 campaign, 122, 124, 125, | |
126. | |
Cote, Dr Cyrile, 89, 108, 118, 120; defeated at Lacolle, 121-2. | |
Craig, Sir James, his 'Reign of Terror,' 15-20, 23. | |
Cuvillier, Augustin, 28-9; breaks with Papineau, 37, 42, 44. | |
Dalhousie, Lord, his quarrel with Papineau, 27-9. | |
Daly, Dominick, provincial secretary, 107. | |
Debartzch, D. P., breaks with Papineau, 71, 84. | |
Deseves, Father, 93; his picture of the rebels at St Eustache, 96-7. | |
Doric Club, the, 71. | |
Durham, Earl of, governor and Lord High Commissioner, 104-6; his humane | |
policy fails to find support in Britain, 107-12; his appeal to Canadian | |
public opinion, 112-13; his Report, 114-16. | |
Duvernay, Ludger, at Moore's Corners, 89. | |
Elgin, Lord, and French-Canadian nationalism, 116. | |
English Canadians, their conflicts with the Patriotes, 51, 64, 128. | |
Ermatinger, Lieutenant, defeated by Patriotes, 73-4. | |
Executive Council, 22, 25, 59. See 'Chateau Clique.' | |
French Canadians, their attitude toward the British in 1760, 2; their | |
loyalty, 2-5, 128-9; their generous treatment, 7-8; their fight for | |
official recognition of their language, 8-12, 50; their struggle with | |
the 'Chateau Clique,' 22-5, 29; their fight for national identity, | |
26-7, 29, 115-16. See Patriotes. | |
French Revolution, the, and the French Canadians, 4-5. | |
Gipps, Sir George, on the grievance commission, 46, 55. | |
Girod, Amury, commands the rebels at St Eustache, 92-3, 94, 95, 103; | |
commits suicide, 99-100, 108. | |
Gladstone, W. E., supports the Russell Resolutions, 60. | |
Glenelg, Lord, colonial secretary, 46. | |
Goderich, Lord, colonial secretary, 29, 30. | |
Gore, Colonel Charles, commands the British at St Denis, 75-7, 88. | |
Gosford, Lord, governor of Canada, 45-7, 49-53, 55, 57-8, 61, 64, 106. | |
Great Britain, and French-Canadian loyalty, 2-5; her conciliatory | |
policy in Lower Canada, 7-8, 9, 44-6, 57-60; and the Rebellion, 104, | |
110-111. | |
Grey, Sir Charles, on the grievance commission, 45-6, 55. | |
Gugy, Major Conrad, 48; at St Charles, 82-3; wounded at St Eustache, 99. | |
Haldimand, Sir Frederick, governor of Canada, 3-4. | |
Head, Sir F. B., his indiscreet action, 52-3. | |
Hindenlang, leads Patriotes in second rebellion, 120, 121, 123, 124; | |
executed, 126. | |
Kemp, Captain, defeats the Patriotes at Moore's Corners, 90-2. | |
Kimber, Dr, in the affair at Moore's Corners, 89. | |
Lacolle, rebels defeated at, 121-2. | |
LaFontaine, L. H., a follower of Papineau, 37, 63, 108, 130, 132. | |
Lartigue, Mgr, his warning to the revolutionists, 65. | |
Legislative Council, the, 22, 25, 31, 36, 41, 46, 53, 54, 55, 59. | |
Lower Canada, the conflict between French and English Canadians in, | |
13-15, 33, 114; the Rebellion of 1837, 69-103; the constitution | |
suspended, 104, 106; treatment of the rebels, 108-13; Durham's | |
investigation and Report, 114-116; the Rebellion of 1838, 117-27. See | |
Assembly. | |
Macdonell, Sir James, Colborne's second-in-command, 125. | |
Mackenzie, W. L., and the Patriotes, 72. | |
Melbourne, Lord, and Durham's policy, 111. | |
Mondelet, Dominique, 30; expelled from the Assembly, 36. | |
Montreal, rioting in, 71-2. | |
Moore's Corners, rebels defeated at, 89-92. | |
Morin, A. N., a follower of Papineau, 37, 108, 130-1. | |
Neilson, John, supports the Patriote cause, 26-7, 28; breaks with | |
Papineau, 36-7, 38, 42, 44. | |
Nelson, Robert, 108; leader of the second rebellion, 117-26, 129-30. | |
Nelson, Dr Wolfred, a follower of Papineau, 37, 60, 65, 66, 70, 73, 74; | |
in command at St Denis, 74, 76, 79, 80, 88, 102, 108, 109, 131. | |
Ninety-Two Resolutions, the, 38-42, 44. | |
O'Callaghan, E. B., a follower of Papineau, 37, 73, 74, 78, 87-8, 108, | |
130. | |
O'Connell, Daniel, champions the cause of the Patriotes, 59-60. | |
Panet, Jean Antoine, his election as speaker of the Assembly, 9-10, 22; | |
imprisoned, 17. | |
Panet, Louis, on the language question, 10. | |
Papineau, Louis Joseph, 21; elected speaker of the Assembly, 22, 28; | |
opposes Union Bill in London, 26-7; his attack on Dalhousie, 27-29; | |
defeats Goderich's financial proposal, and declines seat on Executive | |
Council, 30; attacks Aylmer, 33-4, 47. becomes more violent and | |
domineering in the Assembly, 34-5; his political views become | |
revolutionary, 35-6, 42-43; his powerful following, 37-8, 44, the | |
Ninety-Two Resolutions, 38-42; hopeless of obtaining justice from | |
Britain, but disclaims intention of stirring up civil war, 47-8, 53; on | |
the Russell Resolutions, 60-1; his attitude previous to the outbreak, | |
66-68, 70; warrant issued for his arrest, 72-3, 74; escapes to the | |
United States, 78-9, 87-8, 90, 92, 108; holds aloof from second | |
rebellion, 118; his return to Canada, 131-3; his personality, 21, 25-6, | |
30-1, 49-50, 68, 79, 132-3. | |
Paquin, Abbe, opposes the rebels at St Eustache, 95, 102. | |
Parent, Etienne, breaks with Papineau, 42, 43. | |
Patriotes, the, 22, 25; their struggle with the 'Chateau Clique,' 31-2, | |
54-5; the racial feud becomes more bitter, 33-34, 128; the Ninety-Two | |
Resolutions, 38-42, 44-5, 52; the passing of the Russell Resolutions | |
causes great agitation, 60-2; declare a boycott on English goods, 62-3; | |
'Fils de la Liberte' formed, 63, 71-2; begin to arm, 63-4, 69-71; the | |
Montreal riot, 71-2; the first rebellion, 73-103; Lord Durham's | |
amnesty, 108-110, 113; the second rebellion, 117-27; and afterwards, | |
128-33. See French Canadians. | |
Perrault, Charles Ovide, killed at St Denis, 78 n. | |
Prevost, Sir George, and the French Canadians, 20. | |
Quebec Act of 1774, the, 7, 9. | |
Quesnel, F. A., and Papineau, 34-5, 37, 42, 44, 71. | |
Rodier, Edouard, 62-3; at Moore's Corners, 89, 108. | |
Russell, Lord John, his resolutions affecting Canada, 58-59; defends | |
Durham's policy, 111. | |
Ryland, Herman W., and the French Canadians, 16. | |
St Benoit, the burning of, 100-101. | |
St Charles, the Patriote meeting at, 65-6; the fight at, 74, 82-7. | |
St Denis, the fight at, 74-81; destroyed, 88. | |
St Eustache, the Patriotes defeated at, 92-100. | |
St Ours, the Patriote meeting at, 60-1, 70, 75. | |
Salaberry, Major de, his victory at Chateauguay, 5. | |
Sewell, John, and the French Canadians, 16. | |
Sherbrooke, Sir John, his policy of conciliation, 24. | |
Stanley, Lord, supports the Russell Resolutions, 60. | |
Stuart, Andrew, and Papineau, 37, 42, 44. | |
Tache, E. P., a follower of Papineau, 37, 102. | |
Taylor, Lieut.-Colonel, defends Odelltown against the rebels, 123-4. | |
United States, and the French Canadians, 2-3, 117-19. | |
Viger, Bonaventure, a Patriote leader, 73, 108. | |
Viger, Denis B., a follower of Papineau, 28-9, 63. | |
War of 1812, French-Canadian loyalty in the, 5. | |
Weir, Lieut., his murder at St Denis, 79-80, 88, 99. | |
Wellington, Duke of, and Durham's policy in Canada, 110-111. | |
Wetherall, Lieut.-Colonel, defeats rebels at St Charles, 75, 82, 83, | |
86, 88. | |
Wool, General, disarms force of Patriotes on the United States border, | |
119. | |
Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty | |
at the Edinburgh University Press | |
THE CHRONICLES OF CANADA | |
THIRTY-TWO VOLUMES ILLUSTRATED | |
Edited by GEORGE M. WRONG and H. H. LANGTON | |
THE CHRONICLES OF CANADA | |
PART I | |
THE FIRST EUROPEAN VISITORS | |
1. THE DAWN OF CANADIAN HISTORY | |
By Stephen Leacock. | |
2. THE MARINER OF ST MALO | |
By Stephen Leacock. | |
PART II | |
THE RISE OF NEW FRANCE | |
3. THE FOUNDER OF NEW FRANCE | |
By Charles W. Colby. | |
4. THE JESUIT MISSIONS | |
By Thomas Guthrie Marquis. | |
5. THE SEIGNEURS OF OLD CANADA | |
By William Bennett Munro. | |
6. THE GREAT INTENDANT | |
By Thomas Chapais. | |
7. THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR | |
By Charles W. Colby. | |
PART III | |
THE ENGLISH INVASION | |
8. THE GREAT FORTRESS | |
By William Wood. | |
9. THE ACADIAN EXILES | |
By Arthur G. Doughty. | |
10. THE PASSING OF NEW FRANCE | |
By William Wood. | |
11. THE WINNING OF CANADA | |
By William Wood. | |
PART IV | |
THE BEGINNINGS OF BRITISH CANADA | |
12. THE FATHER OF BRITISH CANADA | |
By William Wood. | |
13. THE UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS | |
By W. Stewart Wallace. | |
14. THE WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES | |
By William Wood. | |
PART V | |
THE RED MAN IN CANADA | |
15. THE WAR CHIEF OF THE OTTAWAS | |
By Thomas Guthrie Marquis. | |
16. THE WAR CHIEF OF THE SIX NATIONS | |
By Louis Aubrey Wood. | |
17. TECUMSEH: THE LAST GREAT LEADER OF HIS PEOPLE | |
By Ethel T. Raymond. | |
PART VI | |
PIONEERS OF THE NORTH AND WEST | |
18. THE 'ADVENTURERS OF ENGLAND' ON HUDSON BAY | |
By Agnes C. Laut. | |
19. PATHFINDERS OF THE GREAT PLAINS | |
By Lawrence J. Burpee. | |
20. ADVENTURERS OF THE FAR NORTH | |
By Stephen Leacock. | |
21. THE RED RIVER COLONY | |
By Louis Aubrey Wood. | |
22. PIONEERS OF THE PACIFIC COAST | |
By Agnes C. Laut. | |
23. THE CARIBOO TRAIL | |
By Agnes C. Laut. | |
PART VII | |
THE STRUGGLE FOR POLITICAL FREEDOM | |
24. THE FAMILY COMPACT | |
By W. Stewart Wallace. | |
25. THE 'PATRIOTES' OF '37 | |
By Alfred D. DeCelles. | |
26. THE TRIBUNE OF NOVA SCOTIA | |
By William Lawson Grant. | |
27. THE WINNING OF POPULAR GOVERNMENT | |
By Archibald MacMechan. | |
PART VIII | |
THE GROWTH OF NATIONALITY | |
28. THE FATHERS OF CONFEDERATION | |
By A. H. U. Colquhoun. | |
29. THE DAY OF SIR JOHN MACDONALD | |
By Sir Joseph Pope. | |
30. THE DAY OF SIR WILFRID LAURIER | |
By Oscar D. Skelton. | |
PART IX | |
NATIONAL HIGHWAYS | |
31. ALL AFLOAT | |
By William Wood. | |
32. THE RAILWAY BUILDERS | |
By Oscar D. Skelton. | |
TORONTO: GLASGOW, BROOK & COMPANY | |
End of Project Gutenberg's The 'Patriotes' of '37, by Alfred D. Decelles | |
*** |