[Sidenote: a scourge to the province.]

The immigration which is now taking place is a frightful scourge to the province. Thousands upon thousands of poor wretches are coming here incapable of work, and scattering the seeds of disease and death. Already five or six hundred orphans are accumulated at Montreal, for whose sustenance, until they can be put out to service, provision must be made. Considerable panic exists among the inhabitants. Political motives contribute to swell the amount of dissatisfaction produced by this state of things. The Opposition make the want of adequate provision to meet this overwhelming calamity, in the shape of hospitals, &c., a matter of charge against the Provincial Administration. That section of the French who dislike British immigration at all times, find, as might be expected, in the circumstances of this year, a theme for copious declamation. Persons who cherish republican sympathies ascribe these evils to our dependent condition as colonists—'the States of the Union,' they say, 'can take care of themselves, and avert the scourge from their shores, but we are victims on whom inhuman Irish landlords, &c., can charge the consequences of their neglect and rapacity.' Meanwhile I have a very delicate and irksome duty to discharge. There is a general belief that Great Britain must make good to the province the expenses entailed on it by this visitation. 'It is enough,' say the inhabitants, 'that our houses should be made a receptacle of this mass of want and misery: it cannot surely be intended that we are to be mulcted in heavy pecuniary damages besides.' The reasonableness of these sentiments can hardly be questioned—bitter indignation would be aroused by the attempt to confute them—and yet I feel that if I were too freely to assent to them, I might encourage recklessness, extravagance, and peculation. From the overwhelming nature of the calamity, and the large share which it has naturally occupied of the attention of Parliament and of the public, the task of making arrangements to meet the necessities of the case has practically been withdrawn from the department of the Civil Secretary, and fallen into the hands of the Provincial Administration. In assenting to the various minutes which they have passed for affording relief to the sick and destitute, and for guarding against the spread of disease, I have felt it to be my duty, even at the risk of incurring the imputation of insensibility to the claims of distress, to urge the necessity of economy, and of adopting all possible precautions against waste. You will at once perceive, however, how embarrassing my position is. A source of possible misunderstanding between myself and the colonists is furnished by these untoward circumstances, altogether unconnected with the ordinary, or, as I may perhaps venture to term them, normal difficulties of my situation.

On the whole, all things considered, I think that a great deal of forbearance and good feeling has been shown by the colonists under this trial. Nothing can exceed the devotion of the nuns and Roman Catholic priests, and the conduct of the clergy and of many of the laity of other denominations has been most exemplary. Many lives have been sacrificed in attendance on the sick and administering to their temporal and spiritual need. But the aspect of affairs is becoming more and more alarming. The panic which prevails in Montreal and Quebec is beginning to manifest itself in the Upper Province, and farmers are unwilling to hire even the healthy immigrants, because it appears that since the warm weather set in, typhus has broken out in many cases among those who were taken into service at the commencement of the season, as being perfectly free from disease. I think it most important that the Home Government should do all in their power by enforcing the provisions of the Passengers' Act, and by causing these facts to be widely circulated, to stem this tide of misery.

* * * * *

What is to be done? Private charity is exhausted. In a country where pauperism as a normal condition of society is unknown, you have not local rates for the relief of destitution to fall back upon. Humanity and prudence alike forbid that they should be left to perish in the streets. The exigency of the case can manifestly be met only by an expenditure of public funds.

[Sidenote: The charge should be borne by the mother-country.]

But by whom is this charge to be borne? You urge, that when the first pressure is past, the province will derive, in various ways, advantage from this immigration,—that the provincial administration, who prescribe the measures of relief, have means, which the Imperial authorities have not, of checking extravagance and waste; and you conclude that their constituents ought to be saddled with at least a portion of the expense. I readily admit the justice of the latter branch of this argument, but I am disposed to question the force of the former. The benefit which the province will derive from this year's immigration is, at best, problematical; and it is certain that they who are to profit by it would willingly have renounced it, whatever it may be, on condition of being relieved from the evils by which it has been attended. Of the gross number of immigrants who have reached the province, many are already mouldering in their graves. Among the survivors there are widows and orphans, and aged and diseased persons, who will probably be for an indefinite period a burden on Government or private charity. A large proportion of the healthy and prosperous, who have availed themselves of the cheap route of the St. Lawrence, will, I fears find their way to the Western States, where land is procurable on more advantageous terms than in Canada. To refer, therefore, to the 82,000 immigrants who have passed into the States through New York, and been absorbed there without cost to the mother-country, and to contrast this circumstance with the heavy expense which has attended the admission of a smaller number into Canada, is hardly just. In the first place, of the 82,000 who went to New York, a much smaller proportion were sickly or destitute; and, besides, by the laws of the state, ship-owners importing immigrants are required to enter into bonds, which are forfeited when any of the latter become chargeable on the public. These, and other precautions yet more stringent, were enforced so soon as the character of this year's immigration was ascertained, and they had the effect of turning towards this quarter the tide of suffering which was setting in that direction. Even now, immigrants attempting to cross the frontier from Canada are sent back, if they are either sickly or paupers. On the whole, I fear that a comparison between the condition of this province and that of the states of the neighbouring republic, as affected by this year's immigration, would be by no means satisfactory or provocative of dutiful and affectionate feelings towards the mother-country on the part of the colonists. It is a case in which, on every account, I think the Imperial Government is bound to act liberally.

[Sidenote: Lord Palmerston's tenants.]

Month after month, the tide of misery flowed on, each wave sweeping deeper into the heart of the province, and carrying off fresh victims of their own benevolence. Unfortunately, just as navigation closed for the season, a vessel arrived full of emigrants from Lord Palmerston's Irish estates. They appear to have been rather a favourable specimen of their class; but they came late, and they came from one of Her Majesty's Ministers, and their coming was taken as a sign that England and England's rulers, in their selfish desire to be rid of their starving and helpless poor, cared nothing for the calamities they were inflicting on the colony. Writing on November 12, Lord Elgin says:—

Fever cases among leading persons in the community here still continue to excite much comment and alarm. This day the Mayor of Montreal died,—a very estimable man, who did much for the immigrants, and to whose firmness and philanthropy we chiefly owe it, that the immigrant sheds here were not tossed into the river by the people of the town during the summer. He has fallen a victim to his zeal on behalf of the poor plague-stricken strangers, having died of ship-fever caught at the sheds. Colonel Calvert is lying dangerously ill at Quebec, his life despaired of.

Meanwhile, great indignation is aroused by the arrival of vessels from Ireland, with additional cargoes of immigrants, some in a very sickly state, after our Quarantine Station is shut up for the season. Unfortunately the last arrived brings out Lord Palmerston's tenants. I send the commentaries on this contained in this day's newspapers.[6]

[Sidenote: The flood subsides.]

From this time, however, the waters began to subside. The Irish famine had worked its own sad cure. In compliance with the urgent representations of the Governor, the mother-country took upon herself all the expenses that had been incurred by the colony on behalf of the immigrants of 1847; and improved regulations respecting emigration offer ground for hope that the fair stream, which ought to be full of life and health both to the colony and to the parent state, will not again be choked and polluted, and its plague-stricken waters turned into blood.

[Sidenote: Visit to Upper Canada.]

In the autumn of this year Lord Elgin paid his first visit to Upper Canada, meeting everywhere with a reception which he felt to be 'most gratifying and 'ncouraging;' and keenly enjoying both the natural beauties of the country and the tokens of its prosperity which met his view. From Niagara he wrote to Mr. Cumming Bruce:—

[Sidenote: Niagara.]

I write with the roar of the Niagara Falls in my ears. We have come here for a few days' rest, and that I may get rid of a bad cold in the presence of this most stupendous of all the works of nature. It is hopeless to attempt to describe what so many have been describing; but the effect, I think, surpassed my expectations. The day was waning when we arrived, and a turn of the road brought us all at once in face of the mass of water forming the American Fall, and throwing itself over the brink into the abyss. Then another turn and we were in presence of the British Fall, over which a still greater volume of water seems to be precipitated, and in the midst of which a white cloud of spray was soaring till it rose far above the summit of the ledge and was dispersed by the wind. This day we walked as far as the Table Rock which overhangs one side of the Horse-shoe Fall, and made a closer acquaintance with it; but intimacy serves rather to heighten than to diminish the effect produced on the eye and the ear by this wonderful phenomenon.

The following to Lord Grey is of the same date:—

Our tour has been thus far prosperous in all respects except weather, which has been by no means favourable. I attended a great Agricultural Meeting at Hamilton last week, and had an opportunity of expressing my sentiments at a dinner, in the presence of six or seven hundred substantial Upper Canada yeomen—a body of men not easily to be matched.

It is indeed a glorious country, and after passing, as I have done within the last fortnight, from the citadel of Quebec to the Falls of Niagara, rubbing shoulders the while with its free and perfectly independent inhabitants, one begins to doubt whether it be possible to acquire a sufficient knowledge of man or nature, or to obtain an insight into the future of nations, without visiting America.

A portion of the speech to which he refers in the foregoing letter may be here given, as a specimen of his occasional addresses, which were very numerous; for though the main purposes of his life were such as 'wrote themselves in action not in word,' he regarded his faculty of ready and effective speaking as an engine which it was his duty to use, whenever occasion arose, for the purpose of conciliating or instructing. In proposing the toast of 'Prosperity to the Agricultural Association of Upper Canada,' he said:—

[Sidenote: Speech at an agricultural meeting.]

Gentlemen, the question forces itself upon every reflecting mind, How does it come to pass that the introduction of agriculture, and of the arts of civilised life, into this and other parts of the American continent has been followed by such astonishing results? It may be said that these results are due to the qualities of the hardy and enterprising race by which these regions have been settled, and the answer is undoubtedly a true one: but it does not appear to me to contain the whole truth; it does not appear to account for all the phenomena. Why, gentlemen, our ancestors had hearts as brave and arms as sturdy as our own; but it took them many years, aye, even centuries, before they were enabled to convert the forests of the Druids, and the wild fastnesses of the Highland chieftains, into the green pastures of England and the waving cornfields of Scotland. How, then, does it come to pass, that the labours of their descendants here have been rewarded by a return so much more immediate and abundant? I believe that the true solution of this problem is to be found in the fact that here, for the first time, the appliances of an age, which has been prolific beyond all preceding ages in valuable discoveries, more particularly in chemistry and mechanics, have been brought to bear, under circumstances peculiarly favourable, upon the productiveness of a new country. When the nations of Europe were young, science was in its infancy; the art of civil government was imperfectly understood; property was inadequately protected; the labourer knew not who would reap what he had sown, and the teeming earth yielded her produce grudgingly to the solicitations of an ill-directed and desultory cultivation. It was not till long and painful experience had taught the nations the superiority of the arts of peace over those of war; it was not until the pressure of numbers upon the means of subsistence had been sorely felt, that the ingenuity of man was taxed to provide substitutes for those ineffective and wasteful methods, under which the fertility of the virgin soil had been well-nigh exhausted. But with you, gentlemen, it is far otherwise. Canada springs at once from the cradle into the full possession of the privileges of manhood. Canada, with the bloom of youth yet upon her cheek, and with youth's elasticity in her tread, has the advantage of all the experience of age. She may avail herself, not only of the capital accumulated in older countries, but also of those treasures of knowledge which have been gathered up by the labour and research of earnest and thoughtful men throughout a series of generations.

Now, gentlemen, what is the inference that I would draw from all this? What is the moral I would endeavour to impress upon you? It is this: That it is your interest and your duty to avail yourselves to the utmost of all these unparalleled advantages; to bring to bear upon this soil, so richly endowed by nature, all the appliances of modern art; to refuse, if I may so express myself, to convert your one talent into two, if, by a more skilful application of the true principles of husbandry, or by greater economy of management, you can convert it into ten. And it is because I believe that societies like these, when well directed, are calculated to aid you in your endeavours to effect these important objects, that I am disposed to give them all the protection and countenance, which it is in my power to afford. They have certainly been very useful in other countries, and I cannot see why they should be less serviceable in Canada. The Highland Society of Scotland was the first instituted, and the proud position which Scotland enjoys as an agricultural country speaks volumes of the services rendered by that society. The Royal Agricultural Society of England and the Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland followed in its wake, and with similarly beneficial results. I myself was instrumental in establishing an agricultural society in the West Indies, which has already done much to revive the spirits of the planters; and I shall be very much disappointed, indeed, if that society does not prove the means, before many years are past, of establishing the truth so important to humanity, that, even in tropical countries, free labour properly applied under a good system of husbandry is more economical than the labour of slaves.

[Sidenote: Change of Ministry.]

At the close of 1847 the Canadian Parliament was dissolved. When the new Parliament met early in 1848, the Ministry—Lord Metcalfe's Ministry— found itself in a decided minority. A new one was accordingly formed from the ranks of the opposition, 'the members of both parties concurring in expressing their sense of the perfect fairness and impartiality with which Lord Elgin had conducted himself throughout the transactions' which led to this result.[7]

[Sidenote: French habitans.]

The French Canadians, who formed the chief element in the new government, were even at this time a peculiar people. Planted in the days of the old French monarchy, and cut off by conquest from the parent state long before the Revolution of 1789, their little community remained for many years like a fragment or boulder of a distinct formation—an island enshrining the picturesque institutions of the ancien regime, in the midst of an ever-encroaching sea of British nineteenth-century enterprise. The English, it has been truly said, emigrate, but do not colonise. No concourse of atoms could be more fortuitous than the gathering of 'traders, sailors, deserters from the army, outcasts, convicts, slaves, democrats, and fanatics,' who have been the first, and sometimes the only ingredients of society in our so-called colonies. French Canada, on the contrary, was an organism complete in itself, a little model of medieval France, with its recognised gradations of ranks, ecclesiastical and social.

It may, indeed, be doubted whether the highest forms of social life are best propagated by this method: whether the freer system, which 'sows itself on every wind,' does not produce the larger, and, in the long run, the more beneficent results. But if reason acquiesces in the ultimate triumph of that busy, pushing energy which distinguishes the British settler, there is something very attractive to the imagination in the picture presented by the peaceful community of French habitans, living under the gentle and congenial control of their coutumes de Paris, with their priests and their seigneurs, their frugal, industrious habits, their amiable dispositions and simple pleasures, and their almost exaggerated reverence for order and authority. Politically speaking, they formed a most valuable element in Canadian society. At one time, indeed, the restless anarchical spirit of the settlers around them, acting on the sentiment of French nationality, instigated them to the rebellion of 1837; but, as a rule, their social sympathies were stronger than their national antipathies; and gratitude to the Government which secured to them the enjoyment of their cherished institutions kept them true to England on more than one occasion when her own sons threatened to fall away from her.

By the legislative union of 1840 the barriers which had separated the British and French communities were, to a great extent, broken down; and the various elements in each began gradually to seek out and to combine with those which were congenial to them in the other. But there were many cross currents and thwarting influences; and there was great danger, as Lord Elgin felt, lest they should form false combinations, on partial views of local or personal interest, instead of uniting on broad principles of social and political agreement.

Such were the antecedents of the party which now, for the first time, found itself admitted to the counsels of the Governor. Well might he write to Lord Grey, that 'the province was about to pass through an interesting crisis.' He was required, in obedience to his own principles, to accept as advisers persons who had very lately been denounced by the Secretary of State as well as by the Governor-General, as impracticable and disloyal. On the other hand he reflected, with satisfaction, that in these sentiments he himself had neither overtly nor covertly expressed concurrence; while the most extravagant assertors of responsible government had never accused him of stepping out of his constitutional position. He felt, therefore, that the onus probandi would rest on his new councillors if they could not act with him, and put forth pretensions to which he was unable to accede. At least he was determined to give them a fair trial. Writing on the 17th of March he says:—

The late Ministers tendered their resignations in a body on Saturday 4th, immediately after the division on the address, which took place on Friday. I received and answered the address on Tuesday, and then sent for Messrs. Lafontaine and Baldwin. I spoke to them in a candid and friendly tone: told them that I thought there was a fair prospect, if they were moderate and firm, of forming an administration deserving and enjoying the confidence of Parliament; that they might count on all proper support and assistance from me.

They dwelt much on difficulties arising out of pretensions advanced in various quarters; which gave me an opportunity to advise them not to attach too much importance to such considerations, but to bring together a council strong in administrative talent, and to take their stand on the wisdom of their measures and policy....

I am not without hopes that my position will be improved by the change of administration. My present council unquestionably contains more talent, and has a firmer hold on the confidence of Parliament and of the people than the last. There is, I think, moreover, on their part, a desire to prove, by proper deference for the authority of the Governor-General (which they all admit has in my case never been abused), that they were libelled when they were accused of impracticability and anti-monarchical tendencies.

[Sidenote: News of the French revolution.]

It was only a few days after this that news reached Canada of the revolution of February in Paris. On receipt of it he writes:—

It is just as well that I should have arranged my Ministry, and committed the Flag of Britain to the custody of those who are supported by the large majority of the representatives and constituencies of the province, before the arrival of the astounding intelligence from Europe, which reached us by the last mail. There are not wanting here persons who might, under different circumstances, have attempted, by seditious harangues if not by overt acts, to turn the example of France, and the sympathies of the United States, to account.

[Sidenote: Three difficulties.]

But while congratulating Lord Grey on having passed satisfactorily through a crisis which might, under other circumstances, have been attended with very serious results, and on the fact that 'at no period, during the recent history of Canada, had the people of the province generally been better contented, or less disposed to quarrel with the mother-country,' Lord Elgin did not disguise from himself, or from the Secretary of State, that there were ominous symptoms of disaffection on the part of all the three great sections of the community, the French, the Irish, and the British.

Bear in mind that one-half of our population is of French origin, and deeply imbued with French sympathies; that a considerable portion of the remainder consists of Irish Catholics; that a large Irish contingent on the other side of the border, fanatics on behalf of republicanism and repeal, are egging on their compatriots here to rebellion; that all have been wrought upon until they believe that the conduct of England to Ireland is only to be paralleled by that of Russia to Poland; that on this exciting topic, therefore, a kind of holy indignation mixes itself with more questionable impulses; that Guy Fawkes Papineau, actuated by the most malignant passions, irritated vanity, disappointed ambition, and national hatred, which unmerited favour has only served to exasperate, is waving a lighted torch among these combustibles—you will, I think, admit, that if we pass through this crisis without explosions it will be a gratifying circumstance, and an encouragement to persevere in a liberal and straightforward application of constitutional principles to Government.

I have peculiar satisfaction therefore, under all these circumstances, in calling your attention to the presentment of the grand jury of Montreal, which I have sent you officially, in which that body adverts to the singularly tranquil and contented state of the province.[8]

[Sidenote: The French question.]

With regard to the French he constantly expressed the conviction that nothing was wanted to secure the loyalty of the vast majority, but a policy of conciliation and confidence. In this spirit he urged the importance of removing the restrictions on the use of the French language:—

[Sidenote: Use of the French language.]

I am very anxious to hear that you have taken steps for the repeal of so much of the Act of Union as imposes restrictions on the use of the French language. The delay which has taken place in giving effect to the promise made, I think by Gladstone, on this subject, is one of the points of which M. Papineau is availing himself for purposes of agitation. I must, moreover, confess, that I for one am deeply convinced of the impolicy of all such attempts to denationalise the French. Generally speaking they produce the opposite effect from that intended, 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, 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?

In the same spirit, when an association was formed for facilitating the acquisition of crown lands by French habitans, he put himself at the head, of the movement; by which means he was able to thwart the disloyal designs of the demagogue who had planned it.

[Sidenote: French unionisation.]

You will perhaps recollect that some weeks ago I mentioned that the Roman Catholic bishop and priests of this diocese had organised an association for colonisation purposes, their object being to prevent the sheep of their pasture (who now, strange as it may appear, emigrate annually in thousands to the States, where they become hewers of wood and drawers of water to the Yankees, and bad Catholics into the bargain) from quitting their fold. Papineau pounced upon this association as a means of making himself of importance in the eyes of his countrymen, and of gratifying his ruling passion by abusing England. Accordingly, at a great meeting convened at Montreal, be held forth for three hours to the multitude (the bishop in the chair), ascribing this and all other French-Canadian ills, real or supposed, to the selfish policy of Great Britain, and her persevering efforts to deprive them of their nationality and every other blessing.

In process of time, after this rather questionable start, the association waited on me with a memorial requesting the co-operation of Government, M. Papineau being one of the deputation.

In dealing with them I had two courses to choose from. I had nothing for it, situated as I was, but either, on the one hand, to give the promoters of the scheme a cold shoulder, point out its objectionable features, and dwell upon difficulties of execution—in which case (use what tact I might) I should have dismissed the bishop and his friends discontented, and given M. Papineau an opportunity of asserting that I had lent a quasi sanction to his calumnies; or, on the other, to identify myself with the movement, put myself in so far as might be at its head, impart to it as salutary a direction as possible, and thus wrest from M. Papineau's hands a potent instrument of agitation.

I was tempted, I confess, to prefer the latter of these courses, not only by reason of its manifest expediency as bearing upon present political contests, but also because I sympathise, to a considerable extent, with the views of the promoters of the movement. No one object, in my opinion, is so important, whether you seek to retain Canada as a colony, or to fit her for independence and make her instinct with national life and vigour, as the filling up of her vacant lands with a resident agricultural population. More especially is it of moment that the inhabitants of French origin should feel that every facility for settling on the land of their fathers is given them with the cordial assent and concurrence of the British Government and its representative, and that in the plans of settlement their feelings and habits are consulted. The sentiment of French Canadian nationality, which Papineau endeavours to pervert to purposes of faction, may yet perhaps, if properly improved, furnish the best remaining security against annexation to the States.

I could not with these views afford to lose the opportunity of promoting this object, which was presented by a spontaneous movement of the people, headed by the priesthood—the most powerful influence in Lower Canada.

The official correspondence which has passed on this subject I hope to send by the next mail, and I need not trouble you with the detail of proceedings on my own part, which, though small in themselves, were not without their effect. Suffice it to say, that Papineau has retired to solitude and reflection at his seignory, 'La Petite Nation'—and that the pastoral letter, of which I enclose a copy, has been read au prone in every Roman Catholic church in the diocese. To those who know what have been the real sentiments of the French population towards England for some years past, the tone of this document, its undisguised preference for peaceful over quarrelsome courses, the desire which it manifests to place the representative of British rule forward as the patron of a work dear to French-Canadian hearts, speaks volumes.

With the same object of conciliating the French portion of the community, he lost no opportunity of manifesting the personal interest which he felt in their institutions. The following letter, written in August 1848, to his mother at Paris, describes a visit to one of these institutions, the college of St. Hyacinthe, the chief French college of Montreal:—

[Sidenote: A French college.]

I was present, the other day, at an examination of the students at one of the Roman Catholic Colleges of Montreal. It is altogether under the direction of the priesthood, and it is curious to observe the course they steer. The young men declaimed for some hours on a theme proposed by the superior, being a contrast between ancient and modern civilisation. The greater part of it was a sonorous exposition of ultra-liberal principles, 'Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite,' 'Vox populi, vox Dei,' a very liberal tribute to the vanity and to the prejudices of the classes who might be expected to send their children to the institution or to puff it; with an elaborate pivot a la Lacordaire—that the Church had achieved all that had been effected in this genre hitherto. Au reste, there was the wonderful mechanism which gives that church such advantages—the fourteen professors receiving no salaries, working for their food and that of the homeliest; as a consequence, an education, board and lodging inclusive, costing only 15 l. a year; the youths subjected to a constant discipline under the eye of ecclesiastics day and night. I confess, when I see both the elasticity and the machinery of this church, my wonder is, not with Lacordaire that it should do so much, but that it should not do more.

[Sidenote: The Irish question.]

More formidable at all times than any discontent on the part of the quiet and orderly French habitans was the chronic disaffection of the restless, roving Irish; and especially when connected with a threatened invasion of American 'sympathisers.' When such threats come to nothing, it is generally difficult to say whether they were all mere vapouring, or whether they might have led to serious results, if not promptly met; but at one time, at least, there appears to have been solid ground for apprehending that real mischief was intended. On the 18th July, 1848, Lord Elgin writes:—

[Sidenote: Irish republicans.]

At the moment when the last mail was starting a placard, calling an Irish repeal, or rather republican, meeting was placed in my hands. I enclosed it in my letter to you, and I now proceed to inform you how the movement to which it relates has progressed since then.

An M.P.P.[9], opposed in politics to the present Government, waited on me a few days ago and told me, that he had been requested to move a resolution at the meeting in question by a Mr. O'Connor, who represented himself to be the editor of a newspaper at New York, and a member of the Irish Republican Union. This gentleman informed him that it was expected that, before September, there would be a general rising in Ireland; that the body to which he belonged had been instituted with the view of abetting this movement; that it was discountenanced by the aristocracy of the States, but supported by the great mass of the people; that funds were forthcoming in plenty; that arms and soldiers, who might be employed as drill sergeants in the clubs, were even now passing over week after week to Ireland; that an American general, lately returned from Mexico, was engaged to take the command when the proper time came; that they would have from 700,000 to 800,000 men in the field, a force with which Great Britain would be altogether unable to cope; that when the English had been expelled, the Irish people would be called to determine, whether the Queen was to be at the head of their political system or not. He added that his visit to Canada was connected with these objects; that it was desirable that a diversion should be effected here at the time of the Irish outbreak; that 50,000 Irish were ready to march into Canada from the States at a moment's notice. He further stated that he had called on my informant, because he understood him to be a disappointed man, and ill-disposed to the existing order of things; that with respect to himself and the thousands who felt with him, there was no sacrifice they were not ready to make, if they could humble England and reduce her to a third-rate power.

The place originally selected for the monster meeting, according to the advertisement which I enclose, was the Bonsecour Market, a covered building, under the control of the corporation. When this was announced, however, the Government sent for the mayor (a French Liberal) and told him that they considered it unbecoming that he should give the room for such a purpose. He accordingly withdrew his permission, stating that he had not been before apprised of the precise nature of the assembly. After receiving this check, the leaders of the movement fixed on an open space near the centre of the town for their gathering.

It took place last night, and proved a complete failure. Not a single individual of importance among the Irish Repeal party was present. Some hundreds of persons attended, but were speedily dispersed by a timely thunder shower. O'Connor was violent enough; but I have not yet ascertained that he said anything which would form good material for an indictment. I am of opinion, however, that proceedings of this description on the part of a citizen of another country are not to be tolerated; and, although there is an indisposition in certain quarters to drive things to an extremity, I think I shall succeed in having him arrested unless he takes himself off speedily.

[Sidenote: The British question.]

But the French question and the Irish question were simple and unimportant as compared with those which were raised by the state of feeling recently created in a large and influential portion of the British population, partly by political events, partly by commercial causes.

[Sidenote: The Family Compact.]

The political party, which was now in opposition—the old Tory Loyalists, who from their long monopoly of office and official influence had acquired the title of the 'Family Compact'—were filled with wrath at seeing rebels—for as such they considered the French leaders—now taken into the confidence of the Governor as Ministers of the Crown. At the same time many of the individuals who composed that party were smarting under a sense of injury and injustice inflicted upon them by the Home Government, and by that party in the Home Government by whose policy their own ascendency in the colony had, as they considered, been undermined. Nor was it possible to deny that there was some ground for their complaints. By the Canada Corn Act of 1843 not only the wheat of Canada, but also its flour, which might be made from American wheat, had been admitted into England at a nominal duty. The premium thus offered for the grinding of American wheat for the British market, caused a great amount of capital to be invested in mills and other appliances of the flour trade. 'But almost before these arrangements were fully completed, and the newly built mills fairly at work, the [Free-Trade] Act of 1846 swept away the advantage conferred upon Canada in respect to the corn-trade with this country, and thus brought upon the province a frightful amount of loss to individuals, and a great derangement of the Colonial finances.'[10] Lord Elgin felt deeply for the sufferers, and often pressed their case on the attention of the Secretary of State.

[Sidenote: Discontent due to Imperial legislation.]

I do not think that you are blind to the hardships which Canada is now enduring; but, I must own, I doubt much whether you fully appreciate their magnitude, or are aware of how directly they are chargeable on Imperial legislation. Stanley's Bill of 1843 attracted all the produce of the West to the St. Lawrence, and fixed all the disposable capital of the province in grinding mills, warehouses, and forwarding establishments. Peel's Bill of 1846 drives the whole of the produce down the New York channels of communication, destroying the revenue which Canada expected to derive from canal dues, and ruining at once mill-owners, forwarders, and merchants. The consequence is, that private property is unsaleable in Canada, and not a shilling can be raised on the credit of the province. We are actually reduced to the disagreeable necessity of paying all public officers, from the Governor-General downwards, in debentures, which are not exchangeable at par. What makes it more serious is, that all the prosperity of which Canada is thus robbed is transplanted to the other side of the lines, as if to make Canadians feel more bitterly how much kinder England is to the children who desert her, than to those who remain faithful. For I care not whether you be a Protectionist or a Free-trader, it is the inconsistency of Imperial legislation, and not the adoption of one policy rather than another, which is the bane of the colonies. I believe that the conviction that they would be better off if they were 'annexed' is almost universal among the commercial classes at present, and the peaceful condition of the province under all the circumstances of the time is, I must confess, often a matter of great astonishment to myself.

[Sidenote: How to be remedied.]

His sympathy, however, with the sufferings caused by the introduction of Free-trade was not accompanied by any wish to return to a Protective policy. On the contrary, he felt that the remedy was to be sought in a further development of the Free-trade principle, in the repeal of the Navigation Laws, which cramped the commerce Canada by restricting it to British vessels, and in a reciprocal reduction of the duties which hampered her trade with the United States. In this sense he writes to Lord Grey:—

I am glad to see your bold measure on the Navigation Laws. You have no other course now open to you if you intend to keep your colonies. You cannot halt between two opinions: Free-trade in all things, or general Protection. There was something captivating in the project of forming all the parts of this vast British empire into one huge Zollverein with free interchange of commodities, and uniform duties against the world without; though perhaps, without some federal legislation, it might have been impossible to carry it out. Undoubtedly, under such a system, the component parts of the empire would have been united by bonds which cannot be supplied under that on which we are now entering; though it may be fairly urged on the other side, that the variety of conflicting interests which would, under this arrangement, have been brought into presence would have led to collisions which we may now hope to escape. But, as it is, the die is cast. As regards these colonies you must allow them to turn to the best possible account their contiguity to the States, that they may not have cause for dissatisfaction when they contrast their own condition with that of their neighbours.

Another subject on which I am very solicitous, is the free admission of Canadian products into the States. At present the Canadian farmer gets less for his wheat than his neighbour over the lines. This is an unfortunate state of things. I had a long conversation with Mr. Baldwin about it lately, and he strongly supports the proposition which I ventured to submit for your consideration about a year ago, viz. that a special treaty should be entered into with the States, giving them the navigation of the St. Lawrence jointly with ourselves, on condition that they admit Canadian produce duty free. An arrangement of this description affecting internal waters only might, I apprehend, be made (as in the case of Columbia in the Oregon treaty) independently of the adjustment of questions touching the Navigation Laws generally. I confess that I dread the effect of the continuance of the present state of things on the loyalty of our farmers. Surely the admission of the Americans into the St. Lawrence would be a great boon to them, and we ought to exact a quid pro quo.

He was sanguine enough to hope that these measures, so simple and so obviously desirable, might be brought into operation at once; but they were not carried until many years later, one of them, as we shall see, only by aid of his own personal exertions; and his disappointment on this score deepened the anxiety with which he looked round upon the difficulties of his position, already described. On August 16 he writes:—

The news from Ireland—the determination of Government not to proceed with the measure respecting the Navigation Laws—doubts as to whether the American Congress will pass the Reciprocity of Trade Bill—menaces of sympathisers in the States—all combine at present to render our position one of considerable anxiety.

Firstly, we have the Irish Repeal body. I need not describe them; you may look at home; they are here just what they are in Ireland. Secondly, we have the French population; their attitude as regards England and America is that of an armed neutrality. They do not exactly like the Americans, but they are the conquered, oppressed subjects of England! To be sure they govern themselves, pay no taxes, and some other trifles of this description; nevertheless, they are the victims of British egoisme. Was not the union of the provinces carried without their consent, and with a view of subjecting them to the British? Papineau, their press, and other authorities, are constantly dinning this into their ears, so no wonder they believe it.

Again, our mercantile and commercial classes are thoroughly disgusted and lukewarm in their allegiance. You know enough of colonies to appreciate the tendency which they always exhibit to charge their misfortunes upon the mother-country, no matter from what source they flow. And indeed it is easy to show that, as matters now stand, the faithful subject of Her Majesty in Canada is placed on a worse footing, as regards trade with the mother-country, than the rebel 'over the 'lines.'

The same man who, when you canvass him at an English borough election, says, 'Why, sir, I voted Red all my life, and I never got anything by it: this time I intend to vote Blue,'—addresses you in Canada with 'I have been all along one of the steadiest supporters of the British Government, but really, if claims such as mine are not more thought of, I shall begin to consider whether other institutions are not preferable to ours.' What to do under these circumstances of anxiety and discouragement is the question.

As to any aggressions from without, I shall throw the responsibility of repelling them upon Her Majesty's troops in the first instance. And I shall be disappointed, indeed, if the military here do not give a very good account of all American and Irish marauders.

With respect to internal commotions, I should like to devolve the duty of quelling them as much as possible upon the citizens. I very much doubt whether any class of them, however great their indifference or disloyalty, fancy the taste of Celtic pikes, or the rule of Irish mob law.

Happily the dangers which there seemed so much reason to apprehend were dispelled by the policy at once firm and conciliatory of the Governor: mainly, as he himself was never wearied of asserting, owing to the healthy and loyal feeling engendered in the province by his frank adoption and consistent maintenance of Lord Durham's principle of responsible government. It was one of the occasions, not unfrequent in Lord Elgin's life, that recall the words in which Lord Melbourne pronounced the crowning eulogy of another celebrated diplomatist:—'My Lords, you can never fully appreciate the merits of that great man. You can appreciate the great acts which he publicly performed; but you cannot appreciate, for you cannot know, the great mischiefs which he unostentatiously prevented.'

[Sidenote: Navigation Laws.]

In the course of the discussions on the Repeal of the Navigation Laws, to which reference is made in the foregoing letters, an incident occurred which attracted some attention at the time, and which, as it could not be explained then, ought, perhaps, to be noticed in this place.

Lord George Bentinck, who led the opposition to the measure, saw reason to think that, in the published despatches from Canada on the subject, a letter had been suppressed which would have furnished arguments against the Government; and, under this impression, he moved in the House of Commons for 'copies of the omitted correspondence.' The motion was negatived without a division, on Lord John Russell's pointing out that it involved an imputation on the Governor's good faith; but the Premier himself was probably not aware at the time, how completely the mover was at fault, as is shown in the following letter from Lord Elgin to Mr. C. Bruce, who, being a member of Parliament and a strong Protectionist, had a double interest in the matter:—

You ask me about this mare's nest of Bentinck. The facts are these: the Montreal Board of Trade drew up a memorial for the House of Commons against the Navigation Laws, containing inter alia a very distinct threat of separation in the event of their non-repeal. My secretary (not my private secretary, mark, but my responsible Government Secretary) sent me a draft of a letter to the Board containing very loyal and proper sentiments on this head. I approved of the letter, and sent a copy of it home with the memorial, instead of a report by myself, partly because it saved me trouble, and partly because I was glad to show how perfectly my liberal government had expressed themselves on the point. Two or three weeks later, the Board of Trade, not liking Mr. Sullivan to have the last word, wrote an answer, simply justifying what they had already stated in their memorial, which had already gone with my comment upon it to be laid before the House of Commons. To send such a letter home in a separate despatch would have seemed to me worse than absurd, because it would really have been giving to this unseemly menace a degree of importance which it did not deserve. If I had sent it I must have accompanied it with a statement to the effect, that my sentiments on the point communicated in my former letter remained unchanged; so the matter would have rested pretty much where it did before. Bentinck seems to suppose that, in keeping back a letter which stated that Canada would separate if the Navigation Laws were not repealed, I intended by some very ingenious dodge to hasten their repeal![11]

[Sidenote: Speech on education.]

At the beginning of the winter season of 1848-9, Lord Elgin was present, as patron, at a meeting of the Montreal Mercantile Library Association, to open the winter's course of lectures. It was an association mainly founded by leading merchants, 'with a view of affording to the junior members of the mercantile body opportunities of self-improvement, and inducements sufficiently powerful to enable them to resist those temptations to idleness and dissipation which unhappily abound in all large communities.' He took the opportunity of delivering his views on the subject of education in a speech, parts of which may still be read with interest, after all that has been spoken and written on this fertile topic. It has at least the merit of being eminently characteristic of the speaker, whose whole life was an illustration, in the eyes of those who knew him best, of the truths which he sought to inculcate on the young merchants of Montreal.[12]

After remarking that it was vain for him to attempt, in a cursory address, to fan the fervour of his hearers' zeal, or throw light on subjects which they were in the habit of hearing so effectively treated,

Indeed (he continued) I should almost be tempted to affirm that in an age when education is so generally diffused—when the art of printing has brought the sources of information so near to the lips of all who thirst for understanding—when so many of the secrets of nature have been revealed—when the impalpable and all-pervading electricity, and the infinite elasticity of steam, have been made subservient to purposes of human utility,—the advantages of knowledge, in an utilitarian point of view, the utter hopelessness of a successful attempt on the part either of individuals or classes to maintain their position in society if they neglect the means of self-improvement, are truths too obvious to call for elucidation. I must say that it seems to me that there is less risk, therefore, of our declining to avail ourselves of our opportunities than there is of our misusing or abusing them; that there is less likelihood of our refusing to grasp the treasures spread out before us, than of our laying upon them rash and irreverent hands, and neglecting to cultivate those habits of patient investigation, humility, and moral self-control, without which we have no sufficient security that even the possession of knowledge itself will be a blessing to us. I was much struck by a passage I met with the other day in reading the life of one of the greatest men of his age and country—Watt—which seemed to me to illustrate very forcibly the nature of the danger to which I am now referring as well as its remedy. It is stated in the passage to which I allude, that Watt took great delight in reading over the specifications of inventions for which patent rights were obtained. He observed that of those inventions a large proportion turned out to be entirely worthless, and a source of ruin and disappointment to their authors. And it is further stated that he discovered that, among these abortive inventions, many were but the embodiment of ideas which had suggested themselves to his own mind—which, probably, when they first presented themselves, he had welcomed as great discoveries, likely to contribute to his own fame and to the advantage of mankind, but which, after having subjected them to that rigid and unsparing criticism which he felt it his bounden duty to apply to the offspring of his own brain, he had found to be worthless, and rejected. Now, unquestionably, the powerful intellect of Watt went for much in this matter: unquestionably his keen and practised glance enabled him to detect flaws and errors in many cases where an eye equally honest, but less acute, would have failed to discover them; but can we doubt that a moral element was largely involved in the composition of that quality of mind which enabled Watt to shun the sunken rocks on which so many around him were making shipwreck—that it was his unselfish devotion to truth, his humility, and the practice of self-control, which enabled him to rebuke the suggestions of vanity and self-interest, and, with the sternness of an impartial judge, to condemn to silence and oblivion even the offspring of his own mind, for which he doubtless felt a parent's fondness, when it fell short of that standard of perfection which he had reared? From this incident in the life of that great man, we may draw, I think, a most useful lesson, which we may apply with good effect to fields of inquiry far transcending those to which the anecdote has immediate reference. Take, for instance, the wide region occupied with moral and political, or, as they are styled, social questions: observe the wretched half- truths, the perilous fallacies, which quacks, greedy of applause or gain, and speculating on the credulity of mankind, more especially in times of perturbation or distress, have the audacity to palm upon the world as sublime discoveries calculated to increase, in some vast and untold amount, the sum of human happiness; and mark the misery and desolation which follow, when the hopes excited by these pretenders are dispelled. It is often said in apology for such persons, that they are, after all, sincere; that they are deceived rather than deceivers; that they do not ask others to adopt opinions which they have not heartily accepted themselves; but apply to this reasoning the principle that I have been endeavouring to illustrate from the life of Watt, and we shall find, I think, that the excuse is, in most cases, but a sorry one, if, indeed, it be any excuse at all. God has planted within the mind of man the lights of reason and of conscience, and without it, He has placed those of revelation and experience; and if man wilfully extinguishes those lights, in order that, under cover of the darkness which he has himself made, he may install in the sanctuary of his understanding and heart, where the image of truth alone should dwell, a vain idol, a creature of his own fond imaginings, it will, I fear, but little avail him, more especially in that day when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed, if he shall plead in extenuation of his guilt that he did not invite others to worship the idol until he had fallen prostrate himself before it.

These, gentlemen, are truths which I think it will be well for us to lay to heart. I address myself more particularly to you who are entering upon the useful and honourable career of the British merchant; for you are now standing on the lower steps of a ladder, which, when it is mounted with diligence and circumspection, leads always to respectability, not unfrequently to high honour and distinction. Bear in mind, then, that the quality which ought chiefly to distinguish those who aspire to exercise a controlling and directing influence in any department of human action, from those who have only a subordinate part to play, is the knowledge of principles and general laws. A few examples will make the truth of this proposition apparent to you. Take, for instance, the case of the builder. The mason and carpenter must know how to hew the stone and square the timber, and follow out faithfully the working plan placed in their hands. But the architect must know much more than this; he must be acquainted with the principles of proportion and form; he must know the laws which regulate the distribution of heat, light, and air, in order that he may give to each part of a complicated structure its due share of these advantages, and combine the multifarious details into a consistent whole. Take again the case of the seaman. It is enough for the steersman that he watch certain symptoms in the sky and on the waves; that he note the shifting of the wind and compass, and attend to certain precise rules which have been given him for his guidance. But the master of the ship, if he be fit for his situation—and I am sorry to say that many undertake the duties of that responsible office who are not fit for it—must be thoroughly acquainted, not only with the map of the earth and heavens, but he must know also all that science has revealed of some of the most subtle of the operations of nature; he must understand, as far as man can yet discover them, what are the laws which regulate the movements of the currents, the direction of the tempest, and the meanderings of the magnetic fluid. Or, to take a case with which you are more familiar—that of the merchant. The merchant's clerk must understand book-keeping and double-entry, and know how to arrange every item of the account under its proper head, and how to balance the whole correctly. But the head of the establishment must be acquainted, in addition to this, with the laws which regulate the exchanges, with the principles that affect the production and distribution of national wealth, and therefore with those social and political causes which are ever and anon at work to disturb calculations, which would have been accurate enough for quiet times, but which are insufficient for others. I think, therefore, that I have established the truth of the proposition, that men who aspire to exercise a directing and controlling influence in any pursuit or business, should be distinguished by a knowledge of principles and general laws. But it is in the acquisition of this knowledge, and more especially in its application to the occurrences of daily life, that the chief necessity arises for the exercise of those high moral qualities, with the importance of which I have endeavoured, in these brief remarks, to impress you.

[1] Our Colonies: an Address delivered to the members of the Mechanics' Institute, Chester, Nov. 12, 1855, by the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P.

[2] See the Colonial Policy of Lord John Russell's Administration, by Earl Grey: a work in which the records of a most important period of colonial history are traced with equal ability and authority.

[3] MacMullen's History of Canada, p. 497.

[4] Lord Grey's Colonial Policy, &c., i. 207.

[5] MacMullen's History of Canada.

[6] A pamphlet was published by a member of the Legislative Council, denouncing this and similar instances of 'horrible and heartless conduct' on the part of landed proprietors and their 'mercenary agents;' but it was proved by satisfactory evidence that his main statements were not founded in fact.

[7] Lord Grey's Colonial policy.

[8] See Papers presented to Parliament, May, 1848; or Lord Grey's Colonial Policy, i. 216.

[9] I.e. Member of the Provincial Parliament.

[10] Lord Grey's Colonial Policy, i. 220. Lord Grey was one of the few statesmen who were blameless in the matter, for he voted against the Act of 1843, in opposition to his party.

[11] The personal annoyance which he felt on this occasion was only a phase of the indignation which was often roused in him, by seeing the interests and feelings of the colony made the sport of party-speakers and party-writers at home; and important transactions in the province distorted and misrepresented, so as to afford ground for an attack, in the British Parliament, on an obnoxious Minister.—Vide Infra, p. 113.

[12] 'A knowledge' wrote Sir F. Bruce, 'of what he was, and of the results he in consequence achieved, would be an admirable text on which to engraft ideas of permanent value on this most important question;' as helping to show 'that to reduce education to stuffing the mind with facts is to dwarf the intelligence, and to reverse the natural process of the growth of man's mind; that the knowledge of principles, as the means of discrimination, and the criterion of those individual appreciations which are fallaciously called facts, ought to be the end of high education.'



CHAPTER IV.

CANADA.

DISCONTENT—REBELLION LOSSES BILL—OPPOSITION TO IT—NEUTRALITY OF THE GOVERNOR—RIOTS AT MONTREAL—FIRMNESS OF THE GOVERNOR—APPROVAL OF HOME GOVERNMENT—FRESH RIOTS—REMOVAL OF SEAT OF GOVERNMENT FROM MONTREAL—FORBEARANCE OF LORD ELGIN—RETROSPECT.

[Sidenote: Commercial depression.]

The winter of 1848 passed quietly; but the commercial depression, which was then everywhere prevalent, weighed heavily on Canada, more especially on the Upper Province. In one of his letters Lord Elgin caught himself, so to speak, using the words, 'the downward progress of events.' He proceeds:—

The downward progress of events! These are ominous words. But look at the facts. Property in most of the Canadian towns, and more especially in the capital, has fallen fifty per cent. in value within the last three years. Three-fourths of the commercial men are bankrupt, owing to Free-trade; a large proportion of the exportable produce of Canada is obliged to seek a market in the States. It pays a duty of twenty per cent. on the frontier. How long can such a state of things be expected to endure?

Depend upon it, our commercial embarrassments are our real difficulty. Political discontent, properly so called, there is none. I really believe no country in the world is more free from it. We have, indeed, national antipathies hearty and earnest enough. We suffer, too, from the inconvenience of having to work a system which is not yet thoroughly in gear. Reckless and unprincipled men take advantage of these circumstances to work into a fever every transient heat that affects the public mind. Nevertheless, I am confident I could carry Canada unscathed through all these evils of transition, and place the connection on a surer foundation than ever, if I could only tell the people of the province that as regards the conditions of material prosperity, they would be raised to a level with their neighbours. But if this be not achieved, if free navigation and reciprocal trade with the Union be not secured for us, the worst, I fear, will come, and that at no distant day.

[Sidenote: Political discontent.]

Unfortunately, powerful interests in the one case, indifference and apathy in the other, prevented these indispensable measures, as he always maintained them to be, from being carried for many years; and in the meantime a most serious fever of political discontent was in effect worked up, out of a heat which ought to have been as transient as the cause of it was intrinsically unimportant.

[Sidenote: Rebellion Losses Bill.]

Irritated by loss of office, groaning under the ruin of their trade, outraged moreover (for so they represented it to themselves) in their best and most patriotic feelings by seeing 'Rebels' in the seat of power, the Ex-ministerial party were in a mood to resent every measure of the Government, and especially every act of the Governor-General. When Parliament met on January 18, he took advantage of the repeal of the law restricting the use of the French language, to deliver his speech in French as well as in English: even this they turned to his reproach. But their wrath rose to fury on the introduction of a Bill 'to provide for the indemnification of parties in Lower Canada whose property was destroyed during the Rebellion in 1837 and 1838:' a 'questionable measure,' to use Lord Elgin's own words in first mentioning it, 'but one which the preceding administration had rendered almost inevitable by certain proceedings adopted by them' in Lord Metcalfe's time. As the justification of the measure is thus rested on its previous history, a brief retrospect is necessary before proceeding with the account of transactions which formed an epoch in the history of the colony, as well as in the life of the Governor.

[Sidenote: History of the measure.]

Within a very short time after the close of the Rebellion of 1837 and 1838, the attention of both sections of the colony was directed to compensating those who had suffered by it. First came the case of the primary sufferers, if so they may be called; that is, the Loyalists, whose property had been destroyed by Rebels. Measures were at once taken to indemnify all such persons,—in Upper Canada, by an Act passed in the last session of its separate Parliament; in Lower Canada, by an ordinance of the 'Special Council' under which it was at that time administered. But it was felt that this was not enough; that where property had been wantonly and unnecessarily destroyed, even though it were by persons acting in support of authority, some compensation ought to be given; and the Upper Canada Act above mentioned was amended next year, in the first session of the United Parliament, so as to extend to all losses occasioned by violence on the part of persons acting or assuming to act on Her Majesty's behalf. Nothing was done at this time about Lower Canada; but it was obviously inevitable that the treatment applied to the one province should be extended to the other. Accordingly, in 1845, during Lord Metcalfe's Government, and under a Conservative Administration, an Address was adopted unanimously by the Assembly, praying His Excellency to cause proper measures to be taken 'in order to insure to the inhabitants of that portion of the province, formerly Lower Canada, indemnity for just losses by them sustained during the Rebellion of 1837 and 1838.'

In pursuance of this address, a Commission was appointed to inquire into the claims of persons whose property had been destroyed in the rebellion; the Commissioners receiving instructions to distinguish the cases of those persons who had joined, aided, or abetted in the said rebellion, from the case of those who had not. On inquiring how they were to distinguish, they were officially answered that in making out the classification 'it was not His Excellency's intention that they should be guided by any other description of evidence than that furnished by the sentences of the Courts of Law.' It was also intimated to them that they were only intended to form a 'general estimate' of the rebellion losses, 'the particulars of which must form the subject of more minute inquiry hereafter under legislative authority.'

In obedience to these instructions, the Commissioners made their investigations, and reported that they had recognised, as worthy of further inquiry, claims representing a sum total of 241,965l. 10s. 5d., but they added an expression of opinion that the losses suffered would be found, on closer examination, not to exceed the value of 100,000l.

This Report was rendered in April 1846; but though Lord Metcalfe's Ministry which had issued the Commission, avowedly as preliminary to a subsequent and more minute inquiry, remained in office for nearly two years longer, they took no steps towards carrying out their declared intentions.

So the matter stood in March 1848, when, as has been already stated, a new administration was formed, consisting mainly of persons whose political sympathies were with Lower Canada. It was natural that they should take up the work left half done by their predecessors; and early in 1849 they introduced a Bill which was destined to become notorious under the name of the 'Rebellion Losses Bill.' The preamble of it declared that in order to redeem the pledge already given to parties in Lower Canada, it was necessary and just that the particulars of such losses as were not yet satisfied, should form the subject of more minute inquiry under legislative authority; and that the same, so far only as they might have arisen from the 'total or partial unjust or wanton destruction' of property, should be paid and satisfied. A proviso was added that no person who had been convicted, or pleaded guilty, of treason during the rebellion should be entitled to any indemnity for losses sustained in connection with it. The Bill itself authorised the appointment of Commissioners for the purpose of the Act, and the appropriation of 90,000l. to the payment of claims that might arise under it; following in this respect the opinion expressed by Lord Metcalfe's preliminary Commission of enquiry.

[Sidenote: Excitement respecting it.]

Such was the measure—so clearly inevitable in its direction, so modest in its proportions—which, falling on an inflamed state of the public mind in Canada, and misunderstood in England, was the occasion of riot and nearly of rebellion in the Province, and exposed the Governor-General, who sanctioned it, to severe censure on the part of many whose opinion he most valued at home. His own feelings on its introduction, his opinion of its merits, and his reasons for the course which he pursued in dealing with it, cannot be better stated than in his own words. Writing to Lord Grey on March 1, he says:—

A good deal of excitement and bad feeling has been stirred in the province by the introduction of a measure by the Ministry for the payment of certain rebellion losses in Lower Canada. I trust that it will soon subside, and that no enduring mischief will ensue from it, but the Opposition leaders have taken advantage of the circumstances to work upon the feelings of old Loyalists as opposed to Rebels, of British as opposed to French, and of Upper Canadians as opposed to Lower; and thus to provoke from various parts of the province the expression of not very temperate or measured discontent. I am occasionally rated in not very courteous language, and peremptorily required to dissolve the Parliament which was elected only one year ago, under the auspices of this same clamorous Opposition, who were then in power. The measure itself is not indeed altogether free from objection, and I very much regret that an addition should be made to our debt for such an object at this time. Nevertheless, I must say I do not see how my present Government could have taken any other course in this matter than that which they have followed. Their predecessors had already gone more than half-way in the same direction, though they had stopped short, and now tell us that they never intended to go farther. If the Ministry had failed to complete the work of alleged justice to Lower Canada which had been commenced by the former Administration, M. Papineau would most assuredly have availed himself of the plea to undermine their influence in this section of the province. The debates in Parliament on this question have been acrimonious and lengthy, but M. Lafontaine's resolutions were finally passed by a majority of fifty to twenty-two.

Dissensions of this class place in strong relief the passions and tendencies which render the endurance of the political system which we have established here, and of the connection with the mother-country, uncertain and precarious. They elicit a manifestation of antipathy between races and of jealousy between the recently united provinces, which is much to be regretted. This measure of indemnity to Lower Canada is, however, the last of the kind, and if it be once settled satisfactorily, a formidable stumblingblock will have been removed from my path.

A fortnight later he adds:—

The Tory party are doing what they can by menace, intimidation, and appeals to passion to drive me to a coup d'Etat. And yet the very measure which is at this moment the occasion of so loud an outcry, is nothing more than a strict logical following out of their own acts. It is difficult to conceive what the address on the subject of rebellion losses in Lower Canada, unanimously voted by the House of Assembly while Lord Metcalfe was governor and Mr. Draper minister, and the proceedings of the Administration upon that address could have been meant to lead to, if not to such a measure as the present Government have introduced.

I enclose a letter which has been published in the newspapers by A. M. Masson, one of the Bermuda exiles,[1] who was appointed to an office by the late Government. This person will be excluded from compensation by the Bill of the present Government, and he positively asserts that Lord Metcalfe and some of his Ministers assured him that he would be included by them.

I certainly regret that this agitation should have been stirred, and that any portion of the funds of the province should be diverted now from much more useful purposes to make good losses sustained by individuals in the rebellion. But I have no doubt whatsoever that a great deal of property was wantonly and cruelly destroyed at that time in Lower Canada. Nor do I think that this Government, after what their predecessors had done, and with Papineau in the rear, could have helped taking up this question. Neither do I think that their measure would have been less objectionable, but very much the reverse, if, after the lapse of eleven years, and the proclamation of a general amnesty, it had been so framed as to attach the stigma of Rebellion to others than those regularly convicted before the Courts. Any kind of extra-judicial inquisition conducted at this time of day by Commissioners appointed by the Government, with the view of ascertaining what part this or that claimant for indemnity may have taken in 1837 and 1838, would have been attended by consequences much to be regretted, and have opened the door to an infinite amount of jobbing, false swearing, and detraction.

[Sidenote: Petitions against it.] [Sidenote: Neutrality of the Governor.]

Petitions against the measure were got up by the Tories in all parts of the province; but these, instead of being sent to the Assembly, or to the Legislative Council, or to the Home Government, were almost all addressed to Lord Elgin personally; obviously with the design of producing a collision between him and his Parliament. They generally prayed either that Parliament might be dissolved, or that the Bill, if it passed, might be reserved for the royal sanction. All such addresses, and the remonstrances brought to him by deputations of malcontents, he received with civility, promising to bestow on them his best consideration, but studiously avoiding the expression of any opinion on the points in controversy. By thus maintaining a strictly constitutional position, he foiled that section of the agitators who calculated on his being frightened or made angry, while he left a door open for any who might have candour enough to admit that after all he was only carrying out fairly the principle of responsible government.

In pursuance of this policy he put off to the latest moment any decision as to the course which he should take with respect to the Bill when it came up to him for his sanction. As regards a dissolution, indeed, he felt from the beginning that it would be sheer folly, attended by no small risk. Was he to have recourse to this ultima ratio, merely because a parliament elected a year before, under the auspices of the party now in opposition, had passed, by a majority of nearly two to one, a measure introduced by the present Government, in pursuance of the acts of a former one?

If I had dissolved Parliament, I might have produced a rebellion, but most assuredly I should not have procured a change of Ministry. The leaders of the party know that as well as I do, and were it possible to play tricks in such grave concerns, it would have been easy to throw them into utter confusion by merely calling upon them to form a Government. They were aware, however, that I could not for the sake of discomfiting them hazard so desperate a policy: so they have played out their game of faction and violence without fear of consequences.

The other course urged upon him by the Opposition, namely, that of reserving the Bill for the consideration of the Home Government, may appear to have been open to no such objections, and to have been in fact the wisest course which he could pursue, in circumstances of so much delicacy. And this seems to have been the opinion of many in England, who were disposed to approve of his general policy; but it may be doubted whether they had weighed all the considerations which presented themselves to the mind of the Governor on the spot, and which he stated to Lord Grey as follows:—

There are objections, too, to reserving the Bill which I think I shall consider insurmountable, whatever obloquy I may for the time entail on myself by declining to lend myself even to this extent to the plans of those who wish to bring about a change of administration.

In the first place the Bill for the relief of a corresponding class of persons in Upper Canada, which was couched in terms very nearly similar, was not reserved, and it is difficult to discover a sufficient reason, in so far as the representative of the Crown is concerned, for dealing with the one measure differently from the other. And in the second place, by reserving the Bill I should only throw upon Her Majesty's Government, or (as it would appear to the popular eye here) on Her Majesty herself, a responsibility which rests, and ought, I think, to rest, on my own shoulders. If I pass the Bill, whatever mischief ensues may probably be repaired, if the worst comes to the worst, by the sacrifice of me. Whereas, if the case be referred to England, it is not impossible that Her Majesty may only have before her the alternative of provoking a rebellion in Lower Canada, by refusing her assent to a measure chiefly affecting the interest of the habitans, and thus throwing the whole population into Papineau's hands, or of wounding the susceptibilities of some of the best subjects she has in the province. For among the objectors to this Bill are undoubtedly to be found not a few who belong to this class; men who are worked upon by others more selfish and designing, to whom the principles of constitutional Government are unfathomable mysteries, and who still regard the representative of royalty, and in a more remote sense the Crown and Government of England, if not as the objects of a very romantic loyalty (for that, I fear, is fast waning), at least as the butts of a most intense and unrelenting: indignation, if political affairs be not administered in entire accordance with their sense of what is right.

In solving these knotty problems, and choosing his course of action, the necessities of the situation required that he should be guided by his own unaided judgment, and act entirely on his own responsibility. For although, throughout all his difficulties, in the midst of the reproaches with which he was assailed both in the colony and in England, he had the great satisfaction of knowing that his conduct was entirely approved by Lord Grey, to whom he opened all his mind in private letters, the official communications which passed between them were necessarily very reserved. The following extract illustrates well this peculiarity in the position of a British Colonial Governor, who has two popular Assemblies and two public presses to consider:—

Perhaps you may have been annoyed by my not writing officially to you ere this so as to give you communications to send to Parliament. All that I can say on that point is, that I have got through this disagreeable affair as well as I have done only by maintaining my constitutional position, listening civilly to all representations addressed to me against the measure, and adhering to a strict reserve as to the course which I might deem it proper eventually to pursue. By following this course I have avoided any act or expression which might have added fuel to the flame; and although I have been plentifully abused, because it has been the policy of the Opposition to drag me into the strife, no one can say that I have said or done anything to justify the abuse. And the natural effect of such patient endurance is now beginning to show itself in the moderated tone of the organs of the Opposition press. You will perceive, however, that I could not possibly have maintained this position here, if despatches from me indicating the Ministerial policy had been submitted to the House of Commons. They would have found their way out here at once. Every statement and opinion would have formed the subject of discussion, and I should have found myself in the midst of the melee a partisan.

To counteract the violent and reckless efforts of the Opposition, Lord Elgin trusted partly to the obvious reasonableness of the proposal under discussion, but more to the growth of a patriotic spirit which should lead the minority to prefer the rule of a majority within the province to the coercion of a power from without. Something also he hoped from the effect of the many excellent measures brought in about the same time by his new Ministry, 'the first really efficient and working Government that Canada had had since the Union.' Nor were these hopes altogether disappointed. Writing on April 12 he observed, that a marked change had taken place within the last few weeks in the tone both of the press[2] and of the leaders of the party, some of whom had given him to understand, through different channels, that they regretted things had gone so far. 'But,' he adds, 'whether the gales from England will stir the tempest again or not remains to be seen.'

[Sidenote: Opinions in England.]

And, in effect, the next post from England came laden with speeches and newspaper articles, denouncing, in no measured terms, the 'suicidal folly of rewarding rebels for rebellion.' A London journal of influence, speaking of the British population as affected by the measure in question, said:— 'They are tolerably able to take care of themselves, and we very much misconstrue the tone adopted by the English press and the English public in the province, if they do not find some means of resisting the heavy blow and great discouragement which is aimed at them.' Such passages were read with avidity in the colony, and construed to mean that sympathy would be extended from influential quarters at home to those who sought to annul the obnoxious decision of the local Legislature, whatever might be the means to which they resorted for the attainment of that end. It may be doubted, however, whether any extraneous disturbance of this kind had much to do with the volcanic outburst of local passions which ensued, and which is now to be related.

[Sidenote: The Bill is passed,]

The Bill was passed in the Assembly by forty-seven votes to eighteen. On analysing the votes, it was found that out of thirty-one members from Upper Canada who voted on the occasion, seventeen supported and fourteen opposed it; and that of ten members for Lower Canada, of British descent, six supported and four opposed it.

These facts (wrote Lord Elgin) seemed altogether irreconcilable with the allegation that the question was one on which the two races were arrayed against each other throughout the province generally. I considered, therefore, that by reserving the Bill, I should only cast on Her Majesty and Her Majesty's advisers a responsibility which ought, in the first instance at least, to rest on my own shoulders, and that I should awaken in the minds of the people at large, even of those who were indifferent or hostile to the Bill, doubts as to the sincerity with which it was intended that constitutional Government should be carried on in Canada; doubts which it is my firm conviction, if they were to obtain generally, would be fatal to the connection.

[Sidenote: and receives the Royal Assent.]

Accordingly, when, on April 25, 1849, circumstances made it necessary for him to proceed to Parliament in order to give the Royal Assent to a Customs Bill which had that day passed the Legislative Council, he considered that, as this necessity had arisen, it would not be expedient to keep the public mind in suspense by omitting to dispose, at the same time, of the other Acts which still awaited his decision, among which was the 'Act to provide for the indemnification of parties in Lower Canada whose property was destroyed during the Rebellion in 1837 and 1838.' What followed is thus described in an official despatch written within a few days after the event:—

[Sidenote: Riots.]

When I left the House of Parliament I was received with mingled cheers and hootings by a crowd by no means numerous which surrounded the entrance to the building. A small knot of individuals, consisting, it has since been ascertained, of persons of a respectable class in society, pelted the carriage with missiles which they must have brought with them for the purpose. Within an hour after this occurrence a notice, of which I enclose a copy, issued from one of the newspaper offices, calling a meeting in the open air. At the meeting inflammatory speeches were made. On a sudden, whether under the effect of momentary excitement, or in pursuance of a plan arranged beforehand, the mob proceeded to the House of Parliament, where the members were still sitting, and breaking the windows, set fire to the building and burned it to the ground. By this wanton act public property of considerable value, including two excellent libraries, has been utterly destroyed. Having achieved their object the crowd dispersed, apparently satisfied with what they had done. The members were permitted to retire unmolested, and no resistance was offered to the military who appeared on the ground after a brief interval, to restore order, and aid in extinguishing the flames. During the two following days a good deal of excitement prevailed in the streets, and some further acts of incendiarism were perpetrated. Since then the military force has been increased, and the leaders of the disaffected party have shown a disposition to restrain their followers, and to direct their energies towards the more constitutional object of petitioning the Queen for my recall, and the disallowance of the obnoxious Bill. The proceedings of the House of Assembly will also tend to awe the turbulent. I trust, therefore, that the peace of the city will not be again disturbed.

The Ministry are blamed for not having made adequate provision against these disasters. That they by no means expected that the hostility to the Rebellion Losses Bill would have displayed itself in the outrages which have been perpetrated during the last few days is certain.[3] Perhaps sufficient attention was not paid by them to the menaces of the Opposition press. It must be admitted, however, that their position was one of considerable difficulty. The civil force of Montreal—a city containing about 50,000 inhabitants of different races, with secret societies and other agencies of mischief in constant activity—consists of two policemen under the authority of the Government, and seventy appointed by the Corporation. To oppose, therefore, effectual resistance to any considerable mob, recourse must be had in all cases either to the military or to a force of civilians enrolled for the occasion. Grave objections, however, presented themselves in the present instance to the adoption of either of these courses until the disposition to tumult on the part of the populace unhappily manifested itself in overt acts. More especially was it of importance to avoid any measure which might have had a tendency to produce a collision between parties on a question on which their feelings were so strongly excited. The result of the course pursued is, that there has been no bloodshed, and, except in the case of some of the Ministers themselves, no destruction of private property.

The passions, however, which appeared to have calmed down, burst out with fresh fury the very day on which these sentences were penned. The House of Assembly had voted, by a majority of thirty-six to sixteen, an address to the Governor-General, expressive of abhorrence at the outrages which had taken place, of loyalty to the Queen, and approval of his just and impartial administration of the Government, with his late as well as with his present advisers. It was arranged that Lord Elgin should receive this Address at the Government House instead of at Monklands. Accordingly, on April 30, he drove into the city, escorted by a troop of volunteer dragoons, and accompanied by several of his suite. On his way through the streets he was greeted with showers of stones, and with difficulty preserved his face from being injured.[4] On his return he endeavoured to avoid all occasion of conflict by going back by a different route; but the mob, discovering his purpose, rushed in pursuit, and again assailed his carriage with various missiles, and it was only by rapid driving that he escaped unhurt.[5]

None but those who were in constant intercourse with him can know what Lord Elgin went through during the period of excitement which followed these gross outrages. The people of Montreal seemed to have lost their reason. The houses of some of the Ministers and of their supporters were attacked by mobs at night, and it was not safe for them to appear in the streets. A hostile visit was threatened to the house in which the Governor-General resided at a short distance from the city; all necessary preparation was made to defend it, and his family were kept for some time in a state of anxiety and suspense.[6]

For some weeks he himself did not go into the town of Montreal, but kept entirely within the bounds of his country seat at Monklands, determined that no act of his should offer occasion or excuse to the mob for fresh outrage.[7] He knew, of course, that the whole of French Lower Canada was ready at any moment to rise, as one man, in support of the Government; but his great object was to keep them quiet, and 'to prevent collision between the races.'

[Sidenote: Firmness of the Governor.] [Sidenote: Refuses either to use force,]

'Throughout the whole of this most trying time,' writes Major Campbell,[8] 'Lord Elgin remained perfectly calm and cool; never for a moment losing his self-possession, nor failing to exercise that clear foresight and sound judgment for which he was so remarkable. It came to the knowledge of his Ministers that, if he went into the city again, his life would be in great danger; and they advised that a commission should issue to appoint a Deputy-Governor for the purpose of proroguing Parliament. He was urged by irresponsible advisers to make use of the military forces at his command, to protect his person in an official visit to the city; but he declined to do so, and thus avoided what these infatuated rioters seemed determined to bring on—the shedding of blood. "I am prepared," he said, "to bear any amount of obloquy that may be cast upon me, but, if I can possibly prevent it, no stain of blood shall rest upon my name."'

As might have been expected, the Montreal press attributed this wise and magnanimous self-restraint to fear for his own safety. But he was not to be moved from his resolve by the paltry imputation; nor did he even care that his friends should resent or refute it on his behalf.

So little was he affected by it that on finding, some years afterwards, that Lord Grey proposed to introduce some expression of indignation on the subject in his work on the colonies, he dissuaded him from doing so. 'I do not believe,' he said, 'that these imputations were hazarded in any respectable quarter, or that they are entitled to the dignity of a place in your narrative.'

[Sidenote: or to yield to violence.]

But if neither the entreaties of 'irresponsible advisers,' nor the taunts of foes, could move him to the use of force, he was equally firm in his determination to concede nothing to the clamour and violence of the mob. Writing officially to Lord Grey on the 30th of April, when the fury of the populace was at its height, he said:—

It is my firm conviction that if this dictation be submitted to, the government of this province by constitutional means will be impossible, and that the struggle between overbearing minorities, backed by force, and majorities resting on legality and established forms, which has so long proved the bane of Canada, driving capital from the province, and producing a state of chronic discontent, will be perpetuated.

[Sidenote: Tenders resignation.]

At the same time, he thought it his duty to suggest, that 'if he should be unable to recover that position of dignified neutrality between contending parties which it had been his unremitting study to maintain,' it might be a question whether it would not be for the interests of Her Majesty's service that he should be removed, to make way for some one 'who should have the advantage of being personally unobnoxious to any section of Her Majesty's subjects within the province.'

[Sidenote: Approval of Home Government.]

The reply to this letter assured him, in emphatic terms, of the cordial approval and support of the Home Government. 'I appreciate,' wrote Lord Grey, 'the motives which have induced your Lordship to offer the suggestion with which your despatch concludes, but I should most earnestly deprecate the change it contemplates in the government of Canada. Your Lordship's relinquishment of that office, which, under any circumstances, would be a most serious loss to Her Majesty's service, and to the province, could not fail, in the present state of affairs, to be most injurious to the public welfare, from the encouragement which it would give to those who have been concerned in the violent and illegal opposition which has been offered to your Government. I also feel no doubt that when the present excitement shall have subsided, you will succeed in regaining that position of "dignified neutrality" becoming your office, which, as you justly observe, it has hitherto been your study to maintain, and from which, even those who are at present most opposed to you, will, on reflection, perceive that you have been driven, by no fault on your part, but by their own unreasoning violence.

Relying, therefore, upon your devotion to the interests of Canada, I feel assured that you will not be induced by the unfortunate occurrences which have taken place, to retire from the high office which the Queen has been pleased to entrust to you, and which, from the value she puts upon your past services, it is Her Majesty's anxious wish that you should retain.'

[Sidenote: Support in the colony.]

While awaiting, in his retreat at Monklands, the contrecoup from the mother-country of the storm which had burst over the colony, Lord Elgin found a great source of consolation in the numerous sympathetic addresses which poured in from every part of the province: fortifying him in the conviction that the heart of the colony was with him, and that the bitter opposition at Montreal was chiefly due to local causes; especially 'to commercial distress, acting on religious bigotry and national hatred.' One of these addresses, coming from the county of Glengarry, an ancient settlement of Scottish loyalists, appears to have touched the Scotsman's heart within the statesman's. In reply to it he said:—