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^1i
<'
AN
ADDRESS
TO
THE HOUSE OE LORDS.
B
Y SIR FRANCIS BOND HEAD, Bakt.
•■ Would you destroy the old Uou8« r'-Quy Mamering.
/'Ea'^, ,,) f^'kWf'i'« ' *■
AN
ADDRESS
^
TO
THE HOUSE OF LORDS,
AGAINST
THE BILL BEFORE PARLIAMENT FOR THE
UNION, OF THE CANADAS;
AND
DISCLOSING THE IMPROPER MEANS BY WHICH THE CONSENT OF
THE LEGISLATURE OF THE UPPER PROVINCE HAS
BEEN OBTAINED TO THE MEASURE.
By sir FRANCIS B. HEAD, Bart.
S.V----- ■■yf''/-^. *
' Would you destroy the old House ? '* — Guy Mannerimj.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1840.
1 " » '" %';
LONDON t
Pi-iiilcd by W. Cix)WK8niid Sons,
Stumrord Street-
PREFACE.
The following Memorandum of an Address to
the House of Lords against the bill now before
Parliament for the re-union of the Canadas, and
against the improper means by which the consent
of the Legislature of the Upper Province has been
obtained for that measure, is published —
1st. Because I feel it a duty I owe to the
country to disclose objections which I most
humbly conceive tend to forbid the bans of this
proposed Union ; and
2ndly. Because I feel it a duty I owe to myself
at all events to record them.
It will, I trust, appear that I have offered no
personal reflections against the Governor-General
of the Canadas, who has evidently only obeyed
the instructions he has received ; and although I
have freely impugned the inexplicable policy of
those instructions, yet I can truly declare that I
entertain no improper feeling against the Govern-
ment, from several members of which, and espe-
cially from Lord Melbourne, I have received as
much personal attention as I have had any reason
to expect.
AN ADDRKSS,
WiiKNKVKK tlie Imperial Parliament is called u))on by the
Ministers of the Crown to annul a Holemn act, such as (hat by
which an immense region of the liritish empire was more
than hair a century ngo deliberately divided info two parts, it
must stu'ely be the duty of e\ery sensible man, bol'ure even he
judges of the new measure, calmly to n^consider the reasons
lor which the old one was so solemnly eftVcled.
In the year 17G3, when the Canadas were added, by con-
quest, to the British Crown, the law of iLiigland was intro-
duced by an act of royal authority, and the ca])tured coiuitry
was thus made an uniform, as well as integral, part of the
British empire. However, from a false principle of concilia-
tion, it imfortunately was soon d.;emed proper, or rather ex-
pedient, that with our own hands we should subvert our own
laws; and accordingly the British Parliament, by their Act of
1774, expressly restored the ancient law of Canada, and made
it "the rule of decision in all controversies relating to pro-
perty and civil rights." This obeisance or submission, by the
most powerful empire on the globe, to a small body of con-
quered Frenchmen, who had surrendered to our arnis, and
over whose head the British flag, the emblem of justice and
sound sovernment, had for more than ten years waved in
triumph, it would be useless now to deplore : without a single
comment it may therefore be observed that, when the
B
sIjIlmuI'kI wiklornoss of UpixT Cuiitula Iji-^iin to he jn'oplcd by
u low IJritish oniignrnts, a I'l'W iTtircd soldiers, and by a baud
of royalists, who, aiiirnatud by a IWding ol" ibo j)urfst patriot-
isni, prt'ferrod its hardships antl its loneliness to livinji; in the
r<'])ublicwii States, wliich had violated their allegiance to the
British C'rown, it became a question for the consideration of
Parliament*, which could not be evaded, whether tliis inmiensc
and almost unjioopled wild<>rncss was also to be made a
Catholic province, and whether its future inhabitants were
aho to be bereft of the blessings and institutions of the (lag
round vvhidi they had assend)lod, or, without metaphor, of
the empire to which they belonged.
After calm and unruffled deliberation (for, while the upper
province remained almost unpeopled, the cpiestion was one
more of theory than pnictice), it was deemed unnecessary,
immanly, and unjust to inllict French law, in the French lan-
guage, upon people who had all their lives been accustomed
to English law, and to their mother-tongue; and that to have
tv'o codes of law in one country, or to make a distinction in
the administration of justice between suitors in the same court,
woidd be impracticable as well as absurtl. But, besides these
reasons, the enormous country we had conquered (which in its
extent of frontier was, as it still is, bounded by six or seven
States of the repubhcan confederacy, each having within itself
a separate government) was considered too large to be con-
veniently and safely ruled by one executive government.
The few settlers at Sandwich were more than 1500 miles
from the eastern extremity of the province ; and, even had
the best possible roads existed. Parliament deemed that it
would be impracticable, even in Europe, to govern from one
point such an enormous expanse of territory ; and that to subject
the whole of this immense region to foreign law, merely be-
cause in a fit of weakness we had unfortunately granted such
a concession to a portion of the country thinly peopled by
foreigners, would be as preposterous as it would have been to
ha^
aiH
llc(
tlu
Cil
Pa
nai
en
coi
bei
3
,1 l,y
)aiiii
liot-
the
the
M of
loi.se
.1
|\V(Me
Imvc oi(l(M(\l Frt'iU'li rc^ulatiuiis, I'lviU'li woiils ol" conHiiiiiid,
niul the adoption of Catholic rha])hiiiis. throughout our wholr
fleet, because from a false luiiuiple we had allowed all ol"
thoni to exist on hoard a single I'Vench IViirate which we had
raj)tured.
For thcso, as well as for other minor reasons, the Imperial
Purlian)ent, fifty years ago, deliberately came to the determi-
nation, hy the Act of 17'.)!, to remedy, or at least to confine, the
error which had been perpetrated by the Act of 1774, to the
country and to the people only in favour of whom it had
been committed; and accordingly, still securing to the French
or lioman catholic portion of the lower country their foreign
laws and foreign langua;Te, ihey deemid it pioper to consti-
tute the upper and ahnost »minhal,ited porlion of Canada a
Britiah settlement, to be govrned by Engli.vh lawsj to be
administered for ever in the Er>li.\-h tongue.
For these solid reaso s the division of Canada into two pro-
vinces was deliberately and solemnly eirccled; and before the
Imperial Parliament shall consent to annul this act, surely it
will be wise for it to consider whether the reasons for which
the divorce was decreed (founded as they were on the laws of
nature) are not as solid, as fresh, and as sound at heart to this
day as they were half a century ago ; for the distance from
Quebec to Sandwich is still precisely what it was in 1791 ;
the difference which then existed between the English and
French languages, and between French and English laws,
remains inialtercd ; the difference between the Catholic and
the Protestant religion has not changed; and the only altera-
tion which has really taken place in the great reasons which
have been just mentioned is, that, while the British part of the
province has, under Pitish laws, maintained its loyalty, the
French portion of the Canadas, under P^rench laws, has be-
come gradually more and more disaffected, until, by having
openly rebelled against its sovereign, it has at last arrived at
that climax in which it can only be kept in subjection by the
n2
bayonet. But even this is nothing more than a result which,
in the parhamentary discussion of the fatal measure of 1774,
was prophesied by many, and was thus most clearly foreseen
and foretold by Serjeant Glynn, who, after having very elo-
quently protested against the un-British and unnatural policy
of excludincr the laws of England from British soil, and of sub-
stituting in their place the laws of France, added, —
" I should have thought it was rather our duty, by all
gentle means, to root those prejudices from the minds of the
Canadians; to attach them by degrees to the civil government
of England ; and to rivet the union by the strong ties of laws,
language, and religion.
" You have followed the opposite principle, which, instead
of making it a secure possession of this country, will cause it to
remain for ever a dangerous one. I have contemplated with
some hoi'ror the nursery thus established for men reared up in
irreconcilable aversion to om* laws and constitution. When I
was told by the noble lord that they were insensible to the
value of those laws, and held them in contempt, wishing to be
bound by laws of their own making ; when I was told
they had no regard for civil rights, 1 must confess that it
operated with me in a contrary way; and I could not help
thinking that it furnished an unanswerable argument against
gratifying them. I tlnnk that we could not, with humanity or
policy, gratify Them in their love of French law and of French
religion."
We did, however, gratify them in their love for both;
and Parliament is now reaping the result of having wilfully
sov/n tares in its own dominions. But even if the great
reasons which authorised the division of Canada were not
now what they were in the time of Mr. Pitt; admitting for
a moment that the domination of French laws ought to have
been extended over the whole region, and that tiie Par-
liament of 1791 committed an error in establishing in its own
wilderness a British province ; yet, before we now consent to
annul the decree, we must rellect that "just as the twig is
bent the tree is inclined ;" so, between the years 1791 and 1840,
effects have been generated by <he Act, and changes have taken
pla
wh
of
bui
to
ha;
th;
5
place ill tlie empire, which make it impossible to restore noiv
what in 1792 might, without injury, have been lepealed.
Toronto has now been the heart or scat of the Government
of Upper Canada for nearly forty ve years. Expensive public
buildings have been erected, and the population has increased
to about 12,000 people, of whom many in all ranks of life
have acquired property, and built houses, in the full confidence
that the seat of Goveinment was firmly established.
In this system a healthy circidation of the produce of the
country has been created which it would be impolitic and
unjust to disturb. Every town, every village, every lot of
ground that has been purchased and cleared, besides its in-
trinsic worth, has an artificial local value, which it would be
unjust to diminish ; and when it is taken into consideration how
admirably the arrangement of 1791 has answered, how rapidly
the British province, on being emancipated from the thraldom
of French laws, has changed from a cheerless wilderness into
one of the most valuable possessions of the Crown ; when it is
considered how affectionately it has defended its institutions,
and what honourable attachment it has evinced to the Crown ,
surely the Imperial Parliament would incur an awful respon-
sibility in disordering and disorganizing so perfect a system ;
and surely it would act unjustly towards these brave people, by
suddenly confounding the relative value of all their properly
merely for the sake of trying the hopeless experiment of
making 450,000 British subjects subdue the disaffection and
the ingratitude of a foreign population of superior numbers,
living from 500 to a 1000 miles off, in open rebellion against
the Crown !
The British nation might as well make the people of Upper
Canada pay the expenses of our war with China as to say to
them, —
" We have unnaturally fostered in our bosom French laws
r.nd French language till they have stung us ; and, having thus
involved ourselves in open war with Lower Canada, instead of
meeting the difficulty as we ought to do; instead of manfully
determining to re-conquer the province by force of arms, and
to place it, as it ought to liave remained, imclcr English laws,
we will dexterously slip the millstone from our neck to yours,
and in return for your loyalty, for your having without,
troops suppressed rebellion, and for your having successnilly
repelled the repeated invasions of the American people, we
will tax your little province to struggle with a colony which
the empire itself has not firmness enough to govern !"
But another most important change has arisen in the empire
since the Act of 1791, by which the Canadas were divided into
two provinces ; for the population of the mother-country has
become redundant, and independent therefore of the wishes
or even of the interests of the present inhabitants of Upper
Canada; those who have not now room to live among
us, as well as those who may hereafter desire to emigrate,
may fairly implore of Parliament, in forma jjanperis, that the
British province of Upper Canada — which, unless they go to
the antipodes of the earth, is their almost only congenial place
of refuge — may be maintained for them and for posterity un-
contaminated by disloyalty, by French legislators, by the
French language, and by French laws
In a young colony, thinly inhabited, it is surely unwise to
the mother-country, possessing large tracts of fertile land, to
legislate for its temporary prosperity on the demand of its in-
habitants, witliont also attending to the great permanent in-
terests of the empire; for, from a failure of potatoes in Ireland,
of grain in Scotland, or of employment in the manufacturing
or rural districts in England, emigration may, as it often has
done, rapidly overflow from one of these countries in suffi-
cient quantities to alter materially the preponderating voice of
all other classes in the colony.
A worthless, designing demagogue, may. as he often has,
m-ge one, two, or all parlies to demand from the mother-
country, for theni'-^elves or for their church, what ought not to
be concedeil ; and, unions uo desire to oncourase diese mo-
•J
rnentary ebullitions, surely we cannot udopt a sal'er or a wiser
course than always to consider the young colony not merely
as the domicile of those who may have chanced to be the first
to inhiibit it, but as a glorious place of refuge for British emi-
grants, who, trusting themselves to the laws and institutions of
England, wViich have been there secured to them, may, as they
leave our shores, proudly exclaim,
" Coelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt."
Having endeavoured to show that the main reasons fur which
the Canadas were separated not only still exist, but that they
have strengthened since the provinces were divided, it may be
proper to consider whether the Parliament of Up])er Canada
has expressed any opinion, disclosed any facts, or oftered any
arguments sufficient to induce Parliament to vacillate in its
grave decision of 1791.
Of the three branches of a Colonial Legislature, the Lieu-
tenant-Governor is the only authority whose especial duty it is
to prevent any trespass \ipon the prerogatives or property of
the Crown, or upon the grand interests of the empire. For
instance, the Legislative Council and House of Assembly
might desire, (in which case the inhabitants of the province
w ould no doubt equally approve,) that the Crown Lands should
be surrendered to the people, or that any amount of duty
should be levied upon imports which might raise the value of
their own ])roduce.
On all subjects therefore of this nature, and a fortiori on
any proposed alteration of an Act of the Imperial Parliament
relating to the colony, the opinion of the Lieutenant Governor
is that on which the British Government and the British
nation ought to place the greatest reliance, *'jr the simple
reason that he is the sentinel of the empire, whereas die Upper
and Lower Houses of the Legislature are, comparatively
speaking, merely the parish guardians of the local interests
of the colony; and if this be true, before the Imperial Par-
,9
liament shall take upon itself the awful responsibility of re-
pealing that Act of 1791 which deliberately disunited the
Canadas, surely it will never refuse to take into its serious con-
sideration the opinions on the subject of the coiisecutive Lieu-
tenant-Governors of the province.
Now, out of the list of those who have held this station, from
the time of Governor Simcoe down to the promulgation of
Lord Durham's fatal report, I believe it may be asserted that
no one of them, during the period of his administration, ever
ventiu'ed to recommend the re-union of the Canadas; but that,
on the contrary, every opinion that has been delivered on the
subject has been diametrically opposed to the measure ; and
if this be the case, will the Imperial Parliament, living 4000
miles from the field of legislation, deem it prudent to turn
upon a phalanx of public servants, each of w horn has had the
opportunity for several years of judging of the proposition on
the spot?
But, to view the question a little closer, let us for a moment
recall to mind the opinions of the luur officers who have ad-
ministered the government of Upper Canada for the last
quarter of a centmy.
1st. Sir Peregrine IVIaitland was Lieutenant-Governor of
the province for ten years. What was, and what still is, his
experienced opinion of the proposed union of the Canadas will
clearly appear from the following letter, which he lately did me
the honour to address to me in reply to a communication in
which I begged that, "if he saw no objection to my making
his reply public, he would be so good as to avow tome whether
my statement, as regarded his experience, was or was not
correct."
To the above query, the following reply was returned : —
Sir,
" Brighton, 6th June, 1839.
"In reply to your letter which I have just received, I
have not a moment's hesitation in saying that the democratic
woj
dell
upJ
9
pressure in the House of Assembly, aided as it was by I^'norlisli
inHuence, has been as stron^ as tlie Lieutenant-(jrovernors ol"
the ])rovin{'e have been practically able to resist.
" There can be no doubt that the union of the two piovinces
would greatly increase that pressure, and the measure was
deprecated by the loyalists of Upper Canada in my time,
upon this ground.
" I have, &c.
(Signed) "P. Maitland.
" Sir F. B. Head, Bartr
2nd. Sir John Colborne, who succeeded Sir Peregrine
M ait land, and who was Lieutenant-Governor for eight years,
never declared himself, throughout the whole period of his
government, in favour of an union of the Canadas.
During his administration, the republican leader, Mr. Bid-
well, was twice elected Speaker of the House of Assembly.
The Republican party succeeded in effecting Sir John Col-
borne's removal from the province. A month only before his
departure they returned a most disrespectful reply to his
speech from the throne ; and when he left the province, re-
gretted and respected by all its loyal inhabitants, Mr. Bidwell
continued as Speaker, supported by a republican majority of
36 against 25. It is evident, therefore, that during the ad-
ministration of this distinguished officer, to quote the words of
Sir Peregrine Maitland, " the democratic pressure, (tided as it
was by English injluence, had been as strong as the Lieu-
tenant-Governor had been practically able to resist ;" and
consequently that Sir John Colborne could neither have de-
sired, or, if he had desired, could have contended against, an
addition to the House of Assembly of Mr. Papineau, and the
overwhelming republican majority by which he was sup-
ported.
3rd. I had the honour to succeed Sir John Colborne, and,
though it would of course give me pleasure to be enabled to
assert the contrary, it is my duty to admit that it was as much
as I could do to contend with Mr. Bidwell and his republican
10
«
adherents. Driven at last by the stoppage of the supplies to
appeal to tlie loyalty and good sense of the people, the
province supported me, or rather constitutional principles, in a
manner unexampled in colonial history.
Having thus experienced the worst as well as the best feel-
inors of liie people of the province, having put both to a most
severe test, and having afterwards had considerable time for
reflection, I felt it my duty, in a despatch which has beea printed
by order of Parliament, to state to her Majesty's Government
at considerable length my humble but decided opinion against
the impolicy of a re-union of the Canadas.
The following are extracts of my Memorandum on the
subject : —
" Toronto, Upper Canada, Oct. 2Sth, 1S36.
" The remedy which I fear will be assiduously recom-
mended by the British population of Lower Canada is, that
the two provinces should be united and placed under the
government of some individual in whose coolness, decision, and
ability they can rely.
" My humble but deliberate opinion of this project is, that
it would produce the effect of separating botli the Canadas
from the parent state, on the homely principle that, if tainted
and fresh meat be attached together, both are corrujited
" So long as Upper Canada remains by itself, 1 feel con-
fident that by mere moderate government her ' majority men '
will find that prudence and principle unite to keep them on the
same side ; but if once we were to amalgamate this province with
Lower Canada, we should instantly infuse into the House of
General Assembly a powerful French party, whose implacable
opposition would be a dead or rather a living weight, always
seeking to attach itself to any question whatever that could
attract and decoy the * majority men.'
" If the Imperial Parliament will now deal with Lower
Canada with firmness u.id decision, there is nothing whatever
to fear ; if it vacillates all is gone.
(Signed) "F. B. Head."
To the above opinions (which were delivered to her Majes-
ty's Government at a moment when I might reasonably have
been suspected of over-rating what might have been called the
tet
au(
It
pi
tk
11
temporary support I had rocoivod) I have contiruod to adhere;
and I now most solemnly dechire that in my Imn-ble opinion
it was the operation of that very Act of 1791, whkh it is now
proposed to repeal, which saved tlie Canadas during the time [
was resident there : indeed it must surely be undeniable that, if
the deluded adherents of Mr. Papineau and of Mr. Bidwell had
formed one Legislative Assembly instead of two, my appeal to
the people would have failed to obtain a loyal majority ; and
that, at a moment when the representatives of the I^ower
province were in open rebellion had I been publicly defeated
in the struffjjle into which I was forced, and on which the
existence of the Canadas depended, the Americans would have
overpowered us.
Their perfidious attempts to do so were, however, success-
fully repelled by the people of Upper Canada, headed and led
on by the Spea^'or of their own House of Assembly ; and with
this historical fact on record, with this triumphant exemplifica-
tion of the- soundness of Mr. Pitt's policy in separating the
Catholic French and Protestant English inhabitants of the
Canadas, surely the Imperial Parliament will never consent
to level the fortress of the Upper Province, and to swamp its
garrison, by cutting away the barrier which was so scientifically
constn-.cted in 1791 !
As well might the King of Holland cut the dikes of his
Kingdom in order to lower the level of the German ocean, as
the British Parliament cut away that barrier between the
Canadas which has been wisely made to separate British
loyalty, British enterprise, and British love for British laws,
from Frenchmen, French language, and French laws.
4th. Sir George Arthur, who succeeded me, was troni the
period of his accession, 23rd of March, 1838, to the arrival at
Toronto of Mr. Poulett Thomson, as strongly opposed to the
project of the Union as his predecessors in office ; and it must
be perfectly well known to Lord Seaton that to the very last
momevl he was so.
12
Willi respect to tlie various I'kccutivc Councils, I bog to
observe that, having consuUed with tlie members of the blxo-
cutive Councils who advised Sir Peregrine Maithmd and Sir
John Colborne, and having niysolf a])pointed those who, with,
1 behove, a single exee})tion, now form the Executive Council
of Sir George Arthur, I can confidently declare that the
Executive Councils of the last twenty-five years (and I believe
I may oven say that those who were in office from the time of
Governor Simcoe) have, down to the period of the arrival of
Mr. Poulett Thomson at Toronto, invariably been o])posed to
the project of the Union; indeed scarcely a year ago Sir George
Arthur's presiding Councillor (the Hon. W. B. Sullivan),
most ably and eloquently exposed in his place in Parliament
the fatal tendency of that measure.
With respect to the opinions of the various Legislatures on
the subject, I beg to state that, although the question of the
Union was agitated in England in 1822, yet, from the time of
Governor Simcoe in 1701 to the accession of Sir Georsre
Arthur, the two Houses of the Legislature of Upper Canada,
or even of Lower Canada, never once addressed the Crown or
the Secretary of State for the Colonies in favour of the
measure; on the contrary, in 1823, both Houses of the Lower
Province petitioned against it, and on the 3rd of March,
1837, both Houses of the Upper Province, fearing that Lord
Gosford and the Royal Commissioners might possibly recom-
mend the Union, joined in an address to the King, of which
the following is an extract : —
" Most Gracious Sovereign,
" We, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the
Legislative Council and Commons of Upper Canada in Pro-
vincial Parliament assembled, humbly beg leave to address your
Majesty for the purpose of stating to your Majesty our appre-
hension that a mistaken view of the condition and interests of
the people of Upper and Lower Canada may prompt some
persons inconsiderately to press upon your Majesty's Govern-
ment the measure of uniting these provinces as a remetly lor
existing evils.
l:i
of
**VVe are of o[)iiiioii that such a clianwo would cxposo ii> to
the clanger of fonseqiioncesccrtainly incomoiiieiit, iiiid possibly
most ruinous to the peace and welfare of this country, and de-
structive of its cotuiexions with the parent stale.
" This province we believe to be cpiite as large as can be
effectually and conveniently ruled by one executive govern-
ment : united with Lower Canada it would form a territory of
which the settled parts from east to west would cover an extent
of eleven hundred miles, whi?h, for nearly half the year, can
oidy be traversed by land ; the opposite territory of the United
States, alonjjf the same extent of fiontier, being divided into
six states, having each an inuependent government.
*' The population which Upper Canada contains is almost
without exception of British descent. They speak the same
language and have the same laws, and it is their pride that
these laws are derived from their mother-country, and are
unmixed with rules and customs of foreicru oriiiiu.
'*^ Wholly and happily free from those causes of difliculty
which are found so embarrassing in the adjoining province, we
cannot but most earnestly hope that we shall be sutVered to
continue so; and that your Majesty's paternal regard for your
ntmierous and loyal subjects in this colony will not sutler a
doubtful experiment to be hazarded, which may be attended
with consequences most detrimental to their peace, and in-
jurious to the best interests of themselves and their posterity,
(Signed) " John B. Robinson, Speaker, L.C.
" Akchibalu M'Lean, Speaker, H.A''
s, the
Pro-
your
ppre-
sts of
some
■)vcrn-
ly for
What was the opinion of his late Majesty on the subject
will clearly appear from the following reply from the Secretary
of State to the foregoing Address : —
"ATo. 170.
Sir,
" Doivning-streef, 21s/ April, 1837.
" I HAVE the honour to acknowledge your despatch (No.
26) of the 4th \dtimo, in which you transmit to me an address
to his Majesty from the Legislative Council and House of
Assembly of Upper Canada, deprecating an union between the
two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada.
"1 beg leave to acquaint you that, having laid this address
before the King, his Majesty lias been pleased to receive the
same very graciously, and to command me to observe that
the project of an union between the two provinces has not been
II
contompliiU'd hv his Md]vs\y as ^t tit he rcvmnmcntled Jor (he
sanction of Parliament.
" I have, &c.
» Sir F. B. Head, Jhrrt.
(Signo(l) "Glknelg.
Altlioiigh iiulivitluiil o])inion8 can have little relative weight,
ill comparison with the mass of legislative evidence which has
been adduced, yet it may not be improper to observe, Istly,
that the impolicy of uniting the Canadas has been just most
powerfully exposed in a printed letter, dated Wandsworth,
30th December, 1839, and addressed to Lord John Russell
by the Chief Justice of Upper Canada, a gentleman universally
respected throughout British North America for his public
talents and private worth, who has been for twenty-seven years
in the service of the Crown, and who in both Houses has been
for the last eighteen years a leading member of the Provincial
Legislature; and 2ndly, that the said project has also, in a
printed letter, been most strenuously opposed by the Bishop of
Toronto, the head of the Established Church in L^pper Canada.
Having shown the positive opposition to a re-union of the
Canadas, which, from the time of Governor Simcoe, in 1701,
has conscientiously been evinced by a succession of all those
constituted authorities which it is the duty of Parliament to
respect, it may be proper to adduce, as negative evidence, that
not only was the joint address of the Legislature of Upper
Canada to the Crown, in 1837, against the Union, opposed by
every one of those members of the assembly who have since
been outlawed as rebels, but that that arch-traitor Dr. Rolph,
for whose apprehension a reward of 500/. is now ofTered, finding
that the measure had been carried, secretly combined with his
republican associates, on the very last day of the session, to
speak against time, in order that the mere formal address to
the Lieutenant-Governor, praying him to forward the joint
address to the King, might be interrupted, as it accordingly
was interrupted, by the firing of the guns which announced the
Ij
or
flip
Lao.
ch hfis
, Istly,
t most
su'ortli,
Llussell
public
n years
as boeti
jvincial
so, in a
shop of
>anada.
of the
1791,
those
ncnt to
e, that
Upper
Dsed by
e since
Rolph,
finding
ith his
sion, to
Jress to
le joint
rdingly
ced the
Lieutenant-Govenuii- having iclt ^ioverniiifnl House lo pro-
rogue tlie Parliament.
Besides this, it nnist be stated, tliat ahnost the very hist act
of Mr. Speaker Papineau was to aduress a most treasonable
letter to Mr. Speaker Bidwell, proposing to him an union be-
tween the two Houses of Assembly of the C'anadas, as the surest
and most etTectual means of thwartini; the sovereiirn's autho-
rity, wliich he most grossly insulted and reviled.
Now, if it be true that, from the year 17U1, when Canada
was deliberately divided by the Imperial Parliament into two
provinces, down to the appointment of Lord Durham, every
Lieutenant-Governor has felt it his duty not to advise that
the said two provinces should be re-united — if the various
Executive Councils, during the whole of that period, have
agreed with the various Lieutenant-Governors (however they
might have disagreed with them on other subjects) in not
advisinj; the measure — if the two Houses of the Provincial
Parliament of both provinces, during that period, have never
once advised it, but, on the contrary, as soon as they sus-
pected it might be recommended, have in both provinces
joined together in an address to the Crown praying that it
might not be effected — if it be true that his late Majesty,
by advice of the present ministers, replied to their joint address,
" that the project of an union between the two provinces had
not been contemplated by His Majesty as fit to be recom-
mended for the sanction of Parliament" — if the Chief Justice,
and if the head of the Established Church, have, reckless of
consequences, unceasingly opposed it — and if, during the
period mentioned, the measure has been advocated by Mr.
Papineau, Mr. Bidwell, Dr. Rolph, Mr. M'Kenzie, and by
adherents, most of whom having absconded are at this moment
outlawed traitors, — it becomes necessary to consider upon what
grounds Her Majesty's Ministers could possibly have deemed
it proper suddenly to advise our Most Gracious Sovereign, in
her late royal message to Parliament, to declare —
Ifi
" TliJit Hor Mnjosty thinks proper to sicqiiaiiit tlio I Ions*'
I of l^onls and Commons] that it appears to Her Majesty that
the liitnre wellare of her siil)jects in i.ower and Upper ('ana(hi
would he promoted hy a nnion of the said provinces intt) one
province, for tlie purpose of legislation/'
Now, incredible as it may sound, it is nevertheless true, that
the above recommendation to I*arlianient, as well as the in-
structions subsequently given to Mr. Pouletl 'J'homson, were
notoriously and avowedly based upon the posthumous report
of a nobleman who had not only im])ugne(l to his Sovereign
the conduct — of his predecessors, of the Legislative and ICxecu-
tivo Councils, of the House of Assembly, and of the public
authorities — but who, before the whole world, having aj)pealed
from the Castle of Quebec to the people of British North
America against Her Majesty's delegated authority, against
the conduct of the Queen's Ministers, against the members of
the Imperial Parliament, without permission had abandoned his
post on the very eve of an insurrection, which he has since
acknowledged he had clearly foreseen.
What weight was intrinsically due to posthumous opi-
nions, delivered under the circumstances above stated, is a
specidative question which I will not presume to discuss; hut,
as Lord Durham's assertions form the acknowledijed basis of
the recommendation of the proposed union of the Canadas, it
is not only just, but absolutely necessary, to place in the
opposite scale the following facts for uuch consideration only
as they may appear to deserve.
1st. — Lieutenant-General Sir Peregrine Maitland was
Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada ten years, besides
being afterwards Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. In a
reply, dated Brighton, 19th August, 1839, which this distin-
guished officer did me the honour to address to me, he
declared : —
" I have no objection whatever to its being stated that I
have expressed to you my decided condemnation, with full
liberty to disclose my sentinients, of Lord Durham's report ;
17
I ioiistr
ry that
ito one
ic, that
the iii-
[1, WITO
\ repoi
pu
1)1
IC
p])ealed
North
aji^ainst
ibcrs ot
mod his
IS sinco
us opi-
d, is a
s; hnt,
isis of
adas, il
in the
11 only
Id was
I besides
In a
dlstiii-
ne, he
that I
lith full
[report ;
my opinion that it ^ives an inuccurato and unfair description
of the provitu'o and j)eople of Upper Canada, and that it cen-
sures ignorant ly and unjustly those who have administered the
government of that province.
(Signed) " P. Maitland.'*
2nd. — Sir F. Head, who was Lieutenant-Governor of Upper
Canada dining three session^ of the Provincial Legislature, has
declared that his Lordship's allegations against him are the
reverse of the truth — that they area tissue of unintentional
errors — that, with respect to his Lordship's assertion that ihe
Executive Council took office under him on the express con-
dition of being mere ciphers, such a condition was neither
expressed nor understood — and that, with respect to the alle-
gation that the elections were carried by the unscrupulous in-
fluence of the Government, he calmly but unequivocally denied
it. Sir F. Head moreover has in vain called upon Lord
Durham to fultil the promise his Lordship made on his
landing, namely, "that he would make disclosures which would
astonish both the Parliament and the country."
3rd. — Sir George Arthur, the present Lieutenant-Governor
of Upper Canada, in his published despatch to Her Majesty's
Secretary of State for the Colonies, No. 91, dated Toronto,
April 17, 1839, has stated: —
" I have had the honour to receive Lord Glenelg's despatch,
marked "Circular" of the 17th of February last, wherewith
His Lordshi]) has transmitted lor my information a copy of
the Earl of Durham's report to Her Majesty on the affairs of
British North America, and also of part of the Appendix. . . .
'•The members of both Houses, I find, generally consider
parts of the report which refer to Upper Canada to be in many
particulars incorrect ; and a committee of the House of
Assembly has been consequently appointed to draw up a re-
port on the subject.
" They regard the Earl of Durham's scheme for the future
government of Canada as essentially the same as that nhich
was advocated by Mr. Bidwell, Dr. Rolph, and Mr. M'Ken-
zie, and to which the great majority of the people of this
province expressed their unequivocal dissent; that in fact it
18
was on this point that the elections to the present House of
Assembly turned."
Again, Sir George Arthur, in his published despatch to
the Marquis of Normanby, No. 107, dated Toronto, 13th May,
1839, after complaining against certain allegations in Lord
Durham's report, has stated —
" His Lordship has evidently regarded the party whose
practical loyalty has been so warm)y eulogised by Her Ma-
jesty's Government to be politically the most culpable, and the
unsuccessful faction to be the injured party.
" Of the Earl of Durham's report in other respects I will
only state that on many important points he has been much
misinformed.
(Signed) " Geo. Arthur."
In two subsequent despatches addressed to Lord Normanby
on the 2nd July and 21st August, 1839, Sir George Arthur
has stated : —
" There is a considerable section of persons who are disloyal
to the core ; reform is on their lips, but separation is in their
hearts : these people, having for the last two or three years
made 'responsible government' their watchword, are now
extravagantly elated because the Earl of Durham has recom-
mended that measure.'^
Again,
" Far more to be lamented than any of the circumstances
to which I have referred are the effects of Lord Durham's
report.
" The bait of ' responsible government' has been eagerly
taken, and its poison is working most mischievously. It was
M^Kenzie^s scheme for getting rid of what Mr. Hume called
' the baneful domination of the mother-country ;' and never
was any better devised to bring about such an end speedily."
(Here follow further observations, the publication of which
Government have deemed it proper to suppress.)
4th. — The Commons House of Assembly of Upper Canada,
in the report which they humbly submitted to the Queen, and
in which they refute at great length all Lord Durham's prin-
cipal allegations, have stated —
years
never
lily."
which
19
** That they will apply 'hemselves with calmness, and, they
trust, with dispassionate zeal, to vindicate the people of Upper
Canada, their Government and Lemslature, from charges that
imply a want of patriotism and integrity which they did not
expect, and which they grieve to find advanced by a nobleman
who had been sent to these provinces to heal rather than to
foment grievances, and who certainly should have carefully
guarded against giving currency to unfounded, mischievous,
and illiberal rumours, for the truth of which he admits he is
unable to vouch."
Of Lord Durham's well-known proclamation of the 9th of
October the Commons House of Assembly observe ; —
" It was regarded by all lovers of order with silent asto-
nishment and disappointment. . . . They considered as
open to most serious objection an appeal by such an officer to
the public at large from measures adopted by the sovereign,
with the advice and consent of Parliament ;" and they add,
" the terms in which that appeal had in that instance been
made, appeared to Her Majesty's ministers, (vide Lord
Glenelg's despatch) ' calculated to impugn the reverence due
' to the royal authority in the colony ^ to derogate from the
* character of the Imperial Legislature, to excite among the
' disaffected hopes of impunity, and to enhance the diffi-
' culties with which his Lordship's successor would have to
' contend.' "
5th. — ^The Upper House of the Legislature of Upper
Canada also adopted a report transmitted by Sir George
Arthur to the Secretary of State, refuting in the strongest
terms the principles and the allegations contained in Lord
Durham's report.
6th. — Chief Justice Robinson, the Speaker of the Upper
House, and for twenty-seven years a servant of the Crown, in
his published communication to the Secretary of State for the
Colonies, has stated : —
" Another object desirable to be accomplished for pro-
moting the security and welfare of Canada is the counteract-
ing, by whatever measure may seem most effectual, the inju-
rious tendency of the report which was presented to Her
Majesty by Lord Durham during the last session of Ptiilia-
ment.
** In thus referring to Lord Durham, I would unwillingly
■M
■I J
I >
y\\
20
fail to speak of him with the respect due to his rank and the
station which he lately filled.
" All was done that could be done in this country, by
persons connected with the colony, for lessening the f >rce of a
blow unintentionally aimed (I trust) at the tranquillity of a
distant possession, which, for the common good of all its inha-
bitants, wanted nothing so much as the restoration of internal
peace. The late Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada
showed, in the clearest manner, how strangely inaccurate the
statements were which related to his public measures ; the
merchants of London connected with the colonies felt them-
selves called upon to wait in a body on her Majesty's Govern-
ment, with a public expression of their conviction tliat that
part of the report which respected Upper Canada was founded
in error, and was likely to be productive of injurious conse-
quences ; and, as an inhabitant of Upper Canada, / did not
hesitate to state officially to her Majesty's Secretary of State,
immediately upon its appearance, that I was ready, in any
place and at any time, to show that it was utterly unsafe to
be relied upon as the foundation of Parliamentary proceed-
ings. I knew then, and I know now, that the means of re-
futing the most important statements and conclusions con-
tained in it must exist in the office of the Colonial Depart-
ment, and could not require even a reference to the colony.'*
Now, may it not calmly be asked, why has this offer of the
Chief Justice of Upper Canada to corroborate three Lieutenant-
Governors in impeaching Lord Durham's Report been with-
held from the Imperial Parliament ? What has been the
reason of this denial of justice to the people of the Canadas ?
Was it fair in the ministers of the Crown to overwhelm
both Houses of the Legislature with voluminous reports and
appendices, not only recommending by one-sided arguments a
republican system of " responsible government," but slander-
ing the Lieutenant-Governor, Executive Council, Legislative
Council, Commons House of Assembly, and people of the
Colony, and yet on the other hand to suppress all mention of
so competent and irreproachable a witness as the Chief
Justice of the very colony in question, who had offered " at
any time and any jjlace " to destroy the theory and to refute
the cahimnles ? Was not the suppression of such a witness an
21
lents a
lander-
tslative
of the
Ition of
Chief
kl " at
refute
less an
injustice to Parhament and to the people of England, who had
so long, so earnestly, and so patiently been endeavouring to
arrive at a sound and impartial conclusion as to the future
government of the Canadas ?
Have the expenses of Lord Gosford, of Sir Charles Grey, of
Sir George Gipps, have the enormous expenses of Lord Dur-
ham, Turton, Gibbon Wakefield, &c., all been incurred by
her Majesty's Ministers, not for the purpose of really ascer-
taining the state of the Canadas, but for the sole object of
enabling them to recommend a favourite republican theory
w^hich the country, wilfully kept in ignorance, is to be forced
to adopt ?
Without presuming to anticipate what may be the opinion
of the Imperial Parliament on the policy of framing remedial
measures for Canada upon Lord Durham's unwholesome
Report, there surely can be no doubt that, when history retro-
spectively and dispassionately weighs his Lordship's experience,
his allegations, and his recommendations, against the united re-
futations and opinions not only of three Lieutenant-Governors
who had successively administered the government of the pro-
vince for fifteen years, but of both Houses of the Provincial
Legislature, it will join with Chief Justice R' jinson in de-
claring " that the Report was utterly unsafe to be relied upon
as the foimdation of Parliamentary proceedings."
Her Majesty's Ministers, however, unfortunately judged
otherwise, and, having determined to make Lord Durham's
Report the basis of their remedial measures, they advised our
most gracious Sovereign — Jst. to transmit the said Report
to both Houses of Parliament, and 2ndly, to recommend to
Parliament the fatal project it contained of a re-union of the
Canadas.
By the above recommendation from the throne, Her Ma-
jesty's Government however found themselves in a predicament
from which nothing could extricate them but the most despe-
rate remedies ; for, although our revered but youthful Queen,
Hi
U
22
generously yielding to their solicitations, had consented to
recommend the re-union of the Canadas, yet it became
painfully evident that the thing was " easier said than done :"
for, notwithstanding the immense weight which the message
of the Sovereign would evidently possess in the loyal pro-
vince of Upper Canada, it was well known to the Govern-
ment that Sir John Colborne and Sir George Arthur not only
had no confidence in the measure, but foresaw in it the ruin
of these noble colonies. It became necessary, therefore, that
both these public servants should be got rid of. The former
was accordingly recalled to England, the latter was informed
it would be necessary he should submit to the unprecedented
mortification of being, before the whole province he governed,
and before the Legislature of which he was the head, super-
seded by a gentleman who, on the " lucus a non lucendo"
principle, had apparently been selected to maintain on the con-
tinent of America the cause of monarchy versus democracy —
first, because he was personally unacquainted with the country,
secondly, because he was opposed to the timber-trade of the
Canadas, and thirdly, because he was a conscientious advocate
for the ballot !
But, besides Sir John Colborne and Sir George Arthur,
there were other living obstacles to be removed j for not only
Her Majesty's Attorney-General in Upper Canada, but Sir
George Arthur's late secretary, several members of his
Executive Council, as well as many other public servants, had,
in their seats in the Legislature, honestly voted against the
Union.
In order therefore to silence these and all other public
servants, as well as all who hungered after office, it was
deemed necessary that Mr. Thomson should arrive at Toronto
armed with a despatch signed "John Russell/' and addressed
to Sir George Arthur, of which the following are extracts : —
" Sir, " Downing Street, \6th October, 1839.
" I am desirous of directing your attention to the terms on
23
Sir
his
hadj
t the
Bublic
was
ronto
ssed
which pubhc offices in the gift of the Crown appear to be held
throughout the British colonies I
cannot learn that during the present, or two last reigns, a
single instance has occurred of a change in the subordinate
colonial officers, except in case of leath or resignation, in-
capacity or misconduct It is time,
therefore, that a different course should be followed ; and the
object of my present communication is to announce to you the
rules which will be hereafter observed on this subject in the
province of Upper Canada. You will understand, and will
cause it to be generally known, that hereafter the tenure of
colonial officers, held during Her Majesty's pleasure, will not
)e regarded as equivalent to a tenure during good behaviour,
Dut that such officers will be called upon to retire from the
public service as often as any sufficient motives of public policy
may suggest the expediency of that measure." ....
Now, when Mr. Ridout was dismissed from the militia, and
from the bench of a District Court in Upper Canada, merely
because he so far opposed the " public policy " of the Lieute-
nant-Governor as to threaten in republican language "to tar
and feather him," the Secretary of State, as counsel for the
defendant, replied on the 5th of April, 1837, as follows: —
" Much allowance is to be made for natural feelings under a
sense of supposed injury I certainly never con-
templated that every officer of the militia, every district judge,
and every justice of the peace, should hold his office on the
condition of being dismissed if he should happen to oppose
the policy of the Lieutenant-Governor for the time being.
I have accordingly to convey to you His Majesty's
commands that Mr. Ridout should be permitted to resume the
various employments from which he has been removed."
And the despatch, as If sneering at the mischief it intended
to create, added,
" It will afford me most sincere pleasure if you shall be able
to reconcile the prompt and complete execution of these in-
structions with the protection of your own authority from the
danger to which / am well aware it may be exposed by the
means which I am thus compelled to adopt."
From the foregoing extracts it appears that her Majesty's
Ministers had scarcely pronudgated, on the eve of a rebellion,
IH).
24
the doctrine that the Secretary of State never contemplated that
a Governor should dismiss a public officer merely because " he
happened to oppose the policy of the Sovereign's representative
for the time being " (the said policy being well known to them
to have been simply the maintenance of British institutions
against sedition and treasonable violence), when, in the very
same colony and in a moment of profound peace, to enable
them to force the Union Bill through the Legislature, they
supported the Governor by a contradictory despatch, empow-
ering him to dismiss whoever, by reason or argument, should
dare to oppose him.
With his blunderbuss in his hand, primed, loaded, and
cocked, Mr. Thomson did not deem it prudent to level it
directly at the head of any particular individual ; on the con-
trary, he of course cautiously abstained from committing him-
self by making any such threat, but, merely playing with the
trigger of his instrument, he significantly observed to at least
one of the principal public officers, " Of course, sir, you will
be expected to vote for the Union !"
But Mr. Thomson himself admits very honestly the assist-
ance he had derived from the publication of the despatch in
question ; for it appears that in his despatch to Lord John
Russell, dated Toronto, December 6th, 1839, he states —
" I had previously received the similar despatch addressed
by you to Sir George Arthur, and had directed its publication
in the Gazette, for the information of all parties concerned.
This publication appears to have been attended with good
effects.''''
The old faithful, time-tried servants of the Crown having
been thus disposed of, Mr. Thomson openly (and, considering
his instructions, very honestly) exercised the immense influence
of the station he held in obediently persuading influential
members of both Houses of the Legislature not to oppose the
royal message and the Government measure of a re-union of
the provinces.
25
he
'
The Commons House of Assembly of Upper Canada had
conscientiously petitioned the Crown against the Union unless
certain securities which Ihe Government have declared to be
inadmissible were granted to them ; it was therefore deemed
necessary that the Governor-General should be authorised
to promulgate on his arrival, in case of their persisting in
opposing the measure, his intention to dissolve this loyal
body, whose Speaker, at the head of the militia of the pro-
vince, had successfully suppressed the rebellion, had repulsed
every invasion of the Americans, and had thus preserved the
province to the British Crown ! The Assembly were thus
placed in the predicament either of implicitly consenting to
the measure, or of being publicly and ungratefully dismissed.
But, while this threat was held over the whole Assembly,
those most distinguished for their loyalty were reminded that
the recommendation commanded their support because it had
emanated directly from their Sovereign. Those who were
most interested in the financial difficulties of the province were
told of the pecuniary relief which the new and " only measure"
promised. It can be easily believed that nothing woi'ld be
more likely to intimidate those who had most conspicuously
fought against the Americans and against the rebels than
anything approaching to a hint from the Governor-General
that, unless the ministers' measure was acceded to, the Queen's
troops would be withdrawn, and the defenders of British
institutions be thus handed over to the blood-thirsting ven-
geance of their republican enemies. I neither assert nor
insinuate that Mr. Thomson, whose private character I respect,
used any hint of this nature contrary to the spirit of his in-
structions, which it was clearly his duty to obey, but I leave
every unprejudiced man to form his own conclusion from the
following extracts from the published Parliamentary Debates
on the question of the Union, which took place in the Upper
House of the Canadian Legislature on the 12th of December
last : —
i-i
. (I
(
,; f
' It
^
26
" The Hon. W. Elmsley " (a lieutenant in her Majesty's
navy, a nephew of the late Admiral Sir Benjamin Hollowell,
a Member of the Executive Council of three Lieutenant-
Governors, and the leader of one of the boats which cut out
the Caroline) " would state another great cause for our ditR-
culties, and that was the countenance shown by her Majesty's
Government to the disaffected portion of the community, and
by the injurious course of policy pursued towards Upper
Canada in comparison with the Lower proviri?e; whereas,
had the weight of Government authority been thr^vn into the
loyal scale, very different consequences might have been
anticipated. We should have met no opposition from the
dissatisfied, and British interests would have triumphed. And
there, in his place, did he tax her Majesty's Ministers as the
great moving cause of the late rebellion, and its train of
bhghting and withering consequences. By their short-sighted
policy were the seeds of rebellion sown, and by their encourage-
ment had they germinated. ..... It
had leaked out, he had heard, what the intentions of her
Majesty's Government were, if this union question was not
carried ; and he had understood that on our assent or dissent
depended the continuance of protection. It had been reported
thatj if the union were opposed, the forces woidd be withdrawn
from this country. He would not say it was so stated in so
many words, but he had heard that such was the tenor of the
communication. Yes, honourable gentlemen would be sur-
prised, but he had heard out of doors, that a member of the
other branch of the Legislature had been told in a conversation
with the Governor- General on the subject of this union, 'that
if the resolutions for the union were not passed, the troops
would be withdrawn / and he hesitated not to say, that it was
unworthy of that high personage so to have expressed himself;
and he deserved, if he had used such language, to be im-
peached by the people of England. Would honourable gen-
tlemen allow threats to influence the deliberations of that
honourable House ? Was an independent body, in the dis-
charge of its legislative functions, to be told, if you do not pass
this measure, her Majesty's troops shall be withdrawn ? He
was willing to admit that there might be some mistake in this
reported threat, and until it was confirmed, in common cha-
rity he would not believe that one of her Majesty's advisers
could have used the words which it was currently circulated he
had employed; and he took that opportunity of asking the
Government organ in that honourable House if it was the
intention of the Government to withhold protection if this Bill
27
)t pass
I? He
III this
in cha-
llvisers
Ited he
]g the
IS the
lis Bill
was not passed ; and what he meant when he said, • it would
not be safe for us to throw obstacles in the way of her Ma-
jesty's gracious intentions in our favour !*'
" The Hon. Mr. Sitllivan^'' (presiding Member of Sir
George Arthur's Executive Council) "rose for the purpose
of correcting a mistake the honourable member had fallen into,
in stating that the head of the Government had said, if the
Legislature did not assent to these resolutions the troops
should be withdrawn ; and he heartily concurred with the
honourable gentleman in declaring, that had such a threat
been made, it was unworthy of a British statesman. But he
was happy to inform honourable gentlemen, and he did so
from authority, that no such threat had either been expressed
or intended. His Excellency the Governor-General, in con-
versing with the gentleman alluded to, had only put a case
thus, that if the people of England, hearing always of our
discontent, and of our applications for assistance, and if they
also heard of our rejection of the only remedy that seemed
open for our relief, might they not say, why should we any
longer trouble ourselves with a people who will not hear
reason ? and he put it to honourable gentlemen if it was a fair
thing to separate a part of a conversation from its context, by
which the meaning might so materially be altered ?"
As it is of vital importance that the public should clearly
understand to what extent and by what means Mr. Thomson's
immense influence was, under orders, exerted to force the
union through the Provincial Legislature, it is necessary to
consider whether Mr. Sullivan's defence of the Governor-
General does not amount to an admission rather than to
a denial of the charge contained in Mr. Elmsley's speech. The
inhabitants of the Canadas could not be supposed to be so
dimsighted or so dull, as not to have comprehended very
clearly the moral of the Governor- General's admitted remarks,
for surely the declaration, or even the supposition, of the
Governor-General that if the proposed measure, " the only
remedy" were rejected, England might no longer trouble
themselves with the people of the Canadas, meant nothing
more or less than that unless the union was agreed to, the
troops might be withdrawn. ^_
i 1
;ii
^^t
98
But in order to carry the Union Bill through the Legis-
lature, it was (leomed necessary not only to discourage the
loyal population, not only to terrify by L(»rd John Kussell's
despatch every public servant of the Crown from opposing it,
but bv marked attentions to the chairman of the late repub-
lican ** Alliance Society," and to those who had most distin-
guished themselves by their enmity to British institutions, to
encourage \ho support of this party, who on seeing its tendency,
beca..ie strongly in favour of the measure.
As an example of the manner in which Mr. Poulett Thom-
son, in obedience to the policy of his employers, lias heaped
honour and distinction upon the enemies of our institutions, it
is necessary I should relate the following anecdote, which, it is
humbly submitted, stands unparalleled in the history of the
world.
In March, 1836, a Mr. Robert Baldwin, then only known as
an advocate for " reform," was offered by the Lieutenant-
Governor to be appointed to the Executive Council. To this
offer Mr. Robert Baldwin replied, that " he considered as abso-
lutely necessary the assistance of Dr. Rclph/' now an outlawed
traitor, " and of Mr. Bidwell," whose name having stood alone
on the rebel flag of Mr. M'Kenzie when he attacked Toronto,
voluntarily exiled himself from the province the day after that
traitor was defeated.
The Lieutenant-Governor agieedtoadd Dr. Rolph to the
Council, and Mr. R. Baldwin and this gentleman were accord-
ingly appointed. No sooner, however, had they obtained this
step, which excited universal dissatisfaction among the roy-
alists, than they insidiously persuaded the other Councillors to
sign a paper ready written for them, in which they demanded
from the Lieutenant-Governor " responsible government," alias
" non-responsibility to the home government," alias " separation
from the parent state."
This unconstitutional demand having been resisted, Mr.
Speaker Bidwell and the republican majority in the House of
29
., Mr.
luse of
Assembly, not only presented most insulting addresses to th«
Governor — they not only supported Mr. Robert Baldwin and
Dr. Rolph in tlieir demand that the Executive Council should
be made " responsible to the people," but, because it was
refused, they actually stopped the supplies ; and the very last
act of Mr. Bidwell was to lay before the House a treasonable
letter addressed to him by his friend Mr. Papineau, in which
that traitor impeached the Ministers of the Crown, demanded
responsible government, and proposed the co-operation of the
Legislatures of the two Provinces (the very project now pro-
posed by her Majesty's Government), as the best means of
obtaining all their objects.
Under these circumstances the Lieutenant-Governor dis-
solved the House of Assembly, and in a series of addresses
appealing to the people, a discussion among them took place
which has never been equalled in our colonies. The demand
of Mr. Robert Baldwin and of Dr. Rolph for " responsible
government," together with the arguments which the Lieu-
tenant-Governor had adduced for peremptorily refusing it,
were brought most distinctly before every hustings in the
province, and the result of this public investigation, which
attracted the undivided attention of the whole of British
North America, was the complete defeat of the unconstitutional
demand which had emanated from Mr. Robert Baldwin and
Dr. Rolph. Mr. Bidwell not only lost the chair, but even his
seat in the House of Assembly ; so did Mr. M'Kenzie, and
indeed so did all the leading demagogues who had hitherto
been successful enemies of British institutions.'
Mr. Robert Baldwin having been thus completely defeated
in his own country, was despatched by his party to Mr.
Joseph Hume, and accordingly he and Dr. Duncombe, now
outlawed for treason, and who crossed the Atlantic under a
feigned name, arrived in England, and naturally enough, with-
out loss of time, waited upon the only individual in this
country who, like themselves, looked upon the parental pro-
,'1
f;||
30
tection of the British Sovereign as "the baneful domination of
the mother country."
Lord Glenelg very generously refusing to allow Mr. Robert
Baldwin, or his colleague, to make verbal accusations against
their Lieutenant-Governor, they were obliged to communicate
their complaints in writing : accordingly, Mr. Baldwin not
only enclosed to his lordship a memorandum from the Alliance
Society, of which his father was chairman, in favour of " that
sterling reformer W. L. M'Kenzie,''' but in a letter which he
addressed to the Secretary of State, dated 13th July, 1836, ho
reiterated his demand for an Executive Council " responsible
to the people;" and concluded, by absolutely requiring "that
Sir Francis Head should be recalled, and a successor appointed
who should have been practically acquainted with the working
of the machinery of a free representative government."
Mr. R. Baldwin and Dr. Buncombe having been informed
by the Colonial Office that their allegations against the cha-
racter and conduct of the Lieutenant-Governor would be
forwarded to that officer, Mr. Hume, in a letter which he
instantly addressed to Lord Melbourne, dated 3rd October,
1836, stated,—
" It is with deep regret I complain of the conduct of Lord
Glenelg to the agents of the Reformers from Upper Canada,
m having refused to give an interview either to Mr. Baldwin,
a Member of the late Executive Council, or to Dr. Charles
Duncombe, Member for Oxford in the new House of Assembly
of that Province, although they came 4000 miles, deputed by
their colleagues, on purpose to explain to his Majesty's Go-
vernment the conduct of Sir Francis Head, the Lieutenant-
Governor, and other public officers in that Province
" Mr. Baldwin and Dr. Duncombe will both return to
Canada and communicate to their countrymen that they have
been not only refused redress to their complaints, but that they
have been refused by the Colonial Office an opportunity of
personally stating their grievances."
On the return of Mr. Baldwin and Dr. Duncombe to Upper
Canada, they, however, pursued a course diametrically oppo-
s
f(
i
■1
81
Upper
oppo-
site' from that prophesied to Lord Melbourne by Mr. Hume)
for instead of daring to make any public complaint, Dr. Dun-
combe absconded from his seat in the Commons House of
Assembly, and thougii called upon by the House to sub-
stantiate the charges he had made against the Lieutenant-
Governor, and which that oflRcer had felt it his duty to
transmit to the House for thorough investigation, he was
afraid to take his seat ; he did not dare to appear before even
the Committee to substantiate a single one of his allegations ;
and having afterwards become a principal leader of the rebels,
and having, on the appearance of the militia who advanced to
attack him, run away, he was expelled from the House of
Assembly without a dissentient voice.
Mr. Robert Baldwin, equally ashamed of the slanders he
had uttered against His Majesty's representative, and equally
afraid to repeat them before the inhabitants of his native
country, abstained from all public meetings, and not daring in
any instance publicly to maintain any one of his allegations, he
shrunk into ignominious retirement.
On the 4th of December, 1837, the rebellion which for many
years had been slumbering, burst into a flame. Mr. M'Kenzie
heading a band of 500 or 600 traitors, armed with murderous
weapons, advanced upon the capital for the avowed purpose of
overturning the Queen's government — pillaging the banks — dis-
posing of the Crown lands and those of the Canada Company —
and of setting up a republic; — and to assist them in these objects
they openly declared that the American people were ready to
join them in making war upon the country.
In support of the Lieutenant-Governor — the Chief Justice
of the province, the Chancellor, the five Judges, one of whom
has since been superannuated, the Attorney- General, the
Solicitor-General, the three Queen's counsels, with muskets on
their shoulders, voluntarily fell into the ranks as common
soldiers, to defend the authority of their sovereign ; in which
loyal duty they were joined by upwards of ten thousand
. r
3^i
people of all ranks and ages, who, encouraged by the ministers
of their respective religions, wen determined that the British
flag should not be trampled under foot without a most despe-
rate struggle for its defence.
But in this picture which history will not fail to portray,
where was Air. Robert Balduin ? He was a young man, a
native subject of the province, who had been clothed, fed, and
educated by the money received by his father in the service of
the Crown; indeed, in the whole city of Toronto there was
scarcely a family possessing so much valuable property directly
derived from the bounty of the Crown, to themselves or their
connexions.
If Mr. Robert Baldwin could have pleaded in earnest,
those causes of exemption which Jack Bannister assigned in
jest, if he could truly have written himself down " old, lame,
and a coward j'^ he might have stood excused for being neuter
in such an exigency. But^ he had not these exemptions to
plead ; on the contrary, he stood aloof upon what he called
" principle."
He could look on without concern at hundreds of armed
ruffians advancing to destroy the town in which he had been
born, for well did ho know that neither his person, nor his pro-
perty, nor his father's property, were at all in danger. He
well knew that the rebels would not injure him, and secure
under this infamous protection, he was content that they
should murder the representative of his Sovereigrn, the judges,
or any or all of the loyal subjects who had assembled to oppose
them. He could calmly see, as he did see, the houses of liis
townsmen in flames, and could look upon the scene as if it did
not concern him.
At a moment when the Lieutenant-Governor well knev/ that
he could not approach the rebels with safety, and that any
man of acknowledged loyalty would have been barbarously
shot down by them (just as the gallant Colonel Moodie had
been murdered by them), Mr. Robert Baldwin, and Dr. Rolph,
ainisters
I British
: despe-
portray,
man, a
fed, and
Brvice of
lere was
directly
or their
earnest,
igned in
d, lame,
ff neuter
itions to
16 called
f armed
ad been
his pro-
;r.
He
secure
they
udges,
oppose
of his
it did
vv that
lat any
irously
ie had
Rolph,
3:^
iHidertook to convey to the rebels a message from the Lieut. -
Governor, calling upon them in the name of their Sovereign to
spare the effusion of human blood. Instead, however, of de-
livering this message. Dr. Rolph, who was the secret concoctor
of the rebellion, infamously advised them immediately to
advance, while his bosom friend, Mr. Robert Baldwin, bore
back an answer not only insulting and defying the government
of his Sovereign, but demanding the surrender of the authority
which the constitution placed in his hands. Mr. Robert
Baldwin knew that the traitorous demands of which he was
the bearer, could not and would not be conceded, and that
instant murder and pillage was threatened ; and yet, when
every respectable member of his profession was under arms,
he could withdraw to his dwelling as a place of sure refuge
(which to his shame it was), and could leave his fellow-subjects
to encounter without his assistance whatever treason might
have power to accomplish !
And now, how will the British nation shudder, what will the
civilised world say of us, how will posterity blusli for their
ancestors, when it is made known that the Governor- General,
who wcs a member of the cabinet when all these events took
place, has, with the authority of her Majesty's Government,
deliberately selected Mr. Robert Baldwin out of all the prac-
titioners of the bar to the honourable post of Solicitor-General
to the Queen, to be the representative of her Majesty in the
Courts of Justice ! ! !
At the moment of the perilous struggle there were numbers
of barristers at Toronto of all agos belonging to various parts
of the province who had hesitated not a moment in arming
themselves, and in taking their posts by the side of the Lieut. -
Governor. Among thorn none were more conspicuous than
Sir Allan Mac Nab, Sp<>aker of the House of Assembly, and
Henry Sherwood, M.P., who during the insurrection acted as
an aid-de-camp to the Lieutenant-Governor, and who is one
of the most eloquent speakers in the Conmions House of
Assembly.
t
ill
t-
34
Both these distinguished barristers, as well as Mr. Cart-
wright, a gentleman universally respected by men of all par-
ties, having been previously appointed Queen's Counsel, were
in the direct road to preferment. In merit as well as in
rank they stood first for promotion; nevertheless all three were
publicly passed over, and as if to add to their mortification —
as if to disgust every loyal defender of the Crown in British
North America, they were informed by the Gazette that out
of the whole list of barristers in Upper Canada, the individual
who had been selected by the Governor-General as having the
stronger I claims upon her Majesty's Government for reward
— was no other than Mr. Robert Baldwin, the convicted slan-
derer of Sir Francis Head, the arch-instigator of the disturb-
ance of 1836, the defeated advocate of mob-government, the
travelling companion of the outlawed traitor. Dr. Duncombe,
the associate of the absconded rebel Dr. Rolph, and the pro-
tege of Mr. Joseph Hume in England ! !
But the case is i.ot complete, for in order to judge clearly of
the moral which such an appointment by the Governor-
General at such a moment was intended to impress, we must
contemplate another incident in the drama.
When foreign invasion was added to insurrection, and the
whole population of a neighbouring country seemed ready to
burst in upon an unoffending province, a gallant sailor, not
basking in the sunshhie of the capital, but toiling in the wil-
derness to glean a subsistence from the soil, abandoning his
shanty, his wife, and his family of little children, rushed
forwards to the post of danger — " These are scenes,'* he
thought, "from which a Briton and a sailor can find no
honourable retreat. Have I ate my Sovereign's bread, and
shall I decline to fight his battles ?" Everybody in Canada
knew poor Drew, and knew what, under orders, he accom-
plished. Seldom has a more daring and successful enterprise
done honour to the British name ! And has he been rew.irded ?
Has the humble but earnest recommendations of the Lieut.-
Governor under whom he served — has the address in his favour
35
Uiff his
rushed
," he
tnd no
and
Canada
kcom-
;rprise
Irded ?
iieut.-
favour
to her Majesly from both houses of the Provincial Parliament
been attended to? No. He remains undistinguished, un-
noticed, except that, indeed, he seems to have been singled out
for persecution !
The distinguished veteran officer under whose eye his
youthful days were spent in the service of his country, scarred
with wounds, has just descended to his grave — his heart
burned to procure for his Lieutenant that just consideration
which his conduct called for, but he died without obtaining it :
and too likely it is that poor Drew will himself draw his last
breath in an ungrateful country.
And is this England ? Is this EngUsh justice, honour, spirit ?
How can a colonist witness these things and contiiuie to feel
his heart beat with pride when he looks upon the once honoured
standard of his country ? On the contrary, must it not sink
within him when he sees that standard, and remembers the
indignities that have been heaped on its defenders, and the
rewards that have unblushingly been bestowed throughout all
our North American provinces upon rank traitors ?
By what miracle can our colonists hope to maintain the
public credit of their province, or how can their private pro-
perty possibly be deemed secure, when they find that instead
of both being really under British institutions, the leading
advocate of the theory of " government responsible to the
people,' is openly encouraged by a Governor-General who is
himself the known advocate of the other republican theory —
namely, of absolving the people by ballot from the responsi-
bihty which is proposed to be thrown upon them— and surely
not only our colonists, but every sensible man of property in
England cannot but see, that while responsibility, like a
shuttle-cock in the air, is allowed to rest neither with the
government nor with the people, a scene of legislative darkness
and of universal pillage must ensue !
The effect naturally produced on the provincial legisla-
ture by the attentions publicly bestowed by the Governor-
d2
<
I
36
Gonoral upon the adverse faction, and by the change that had
been wrought in the Lieutenant-Governor and public officers,
need hardly be described. To use their own homely ex-
pression, " it was easy to see which way the wind blew," and
as the approaching storm was evidently inevitable, many
sound and sensible men, who had all their lives been distin-
guished for their admiration of British institutions, as soon as
they were told that Mr. Thomson had declared that "Sir
Robert Peel was in favour of the union,'' did not hesitate
openly to avow that common prudence and a sense of self-
preservation had united in inducing them to shelter themselves
in time from its desolating effects.
On the other hand, there were others doggedly determined
never to abandon the British flag, and in sullen opposition even
to the recommendation from the Crown, never to submit to
join in legislation with its avowed enemies !
They complained, and perhaps not without reason, that the
royal recommendation had not been at least suspended until
her Majesty had been made acquainted with the result of the
Governor- General's free conference with an unbiased legisla-
ture, and that it was a violation of justice, on the part of the
Ministers of the Crown, to advise the Queen to pronounce her
judgment before her Majesty had weighed, or had even ob-
tained the evidence upon which it was to be grounded.
By the unexpected removal of Sir John Colborne — by the
extraordinary suspension of Sir George Arthur — by the un-
worthy intimidation of the public servants — by the appeal that
was made to them by the Governor-General to obey the re-
commendation of their Sovereign — by the allurement of
pecuniary assistance — by the significant observations respecting
the removal of the troops — by the countenance shown to
the republican party — by the astounding declaration *' that
Sir Robert Peel was in favour of the union," — and above all,
by the malign and withering influence of Lord Durham's report,
the legislature of Upper Canada, which for upwards of half a
37
century had given such noble proofs of its attachment to
British institutions, and of its deliberate detestation of the
tyranny of mob-government, finally surrendered at discretion ;
that is to say, they consented to the union, throwing themselves
upon their Sovereign, and upon the Imperial Parliament, for
conditions which they were told " it would be better for them
not to prescribe," and which, when subsequently embodied by
them in an address to the Queen, were declared by Mr. Thom-
son in his dispatch to Lord John Russell, dated 18fh January,
1840, " to be considered as mere suggestions, of which, it may
be observed, lie disapproved.
For many years in vain had the thunder of the Colonial-
Office rolled above these stitunch adherents of the British
monarchy. In vain had its lightning stricken to the ground
every lieutenant-governor and public officer who had endea-
voured to defend them. The militia, unassisted by troops,
had suppressed rebellion ; in every direction they had driven the
American invaders from their soil; and, regardless of the
storm which still assailed them, Mr. Thomson had found them
upon the sparkling snow and under the bright sun of heaven,
glorying in the name of Britons, and ready to die in defence of
British institutions ; nevertheless, overpowered and disheart-
ened, they at last yielded to necessity ; and, " the age of their
chivalry having fled," they consented to be handcuffed to
450,000 Frenchmen, only prevented by military force from
being most ungratefully in criminal rebellion against the Crown !
Several of the members of the Legislature, among whom was
the bishop, or head of the Established Church, and even one or
two of the members of Sir George Arthur's executive council,
entered their protests on the journals of the house.
The Bishop of Toronto, as head of the Established Church
in Upper Canada, not only opposed the Union, but felt it his
duty publicly to deprecate " the seasonable publication of a
despatch from Lord John Russell, by which placemen were
made aware that their tenure of office was absolute submission,
in all things, to the Governor for tlie time being;" and to
38
adil, "ill this way the Government have gained a {emporary
advantage; but the Legislature has lost its moral power, and
become an object of general scorn. Even the advantage
reaped by Government is fleeting, and will be destroyed at the
next election ; for since the tenure of office is now coarsely
divulged, no office-holder has any chance of becoming a repre-
sentative for any important constituency." "Influence," ob-
serves the venerable Prelate, " to be useful and lasting, must
be more secret and of more ge,Jle pressure.''
What were the opinions of the Americans of the manner in
which the measure has been forced, will be sufficiently ap-
parent from tlie following extract from the " Albion," one of the
most respectable papers published at New York : —
" P.S. Since writing the above, we have received accounts
from Toronto several days later. The Legislative Council
passed the Union Bill on Friday last, without conditions.
Doubtless the threat of Lord John Russell to change all people
in office with each and every change of Governor, has had the
intimidating effijct intended. It was even reported that the
further threat of withdrawing the Queen's troops, and leaving
the Loyalists to the tender mercies of the sympathisers, has
been resorted to. The whole matter of this Union is de-
signed as a cl;ip-tia}) for popularity on the part of the Cabinet
at home. Mr. Tliomson will obey his instructions — force the
Bill through the Upper Canadian Legislature, and send it to
the people in Downing-street, who will oj)en Parliament with
a grand flourish, announcing The Pacification of Canada!''
As the Queen's message to Parliament, recommending a
re-union of the Canadas, was delivered many months before
Governor Thompson echoed the same sentiment to the Legis-
lature of Upper Canada, it cannot be denied that the project
has emanated from Her Majesty's Government, and not from
the Colonists. It also cannot be denied that the Government
has exerted the whole influence of the Crown in carrying the
lUeasure; and that notwithstanding this bias, the Legislature of
Upper Canada has, in equity, only consented to it upon con-
ditions emboilied in their Address to the Crown, which, having
been refused, the agreement is virtually annulled. It also
39
cannot be denied that the Legislature of Lower Canada has
expressed no opinion at all on the subject, and that it continues
dumb under military law.
It also cannot be denied that the " Bill for Re-uniting the
Provinces of Lower and Upper Canada, and for the Govern-
ment of the United Province," as brought in by Lord John
Russell and Mr. Labouchere, and ordered by the House of
Commons to be printed, on the 20th of June, 1839, was
framed by Her Majesty's Government on the basis of Lord
Durham's Report ; and that in 1840 the said bill was cancelled
and a different bill substituted, based on the report of Governor
Thomson.
Now can anything be more discreditable to the government
of the most powerful empire on the globe than the puerile
authority on which the first bill was framed, and the equally
inexperienced authority on which it has been condemned ? For,
first, it was framed on the recommendation of a nobleman,
whose summer state-tour to the Falls of Niagara formed the
whole of his personal knowledge of two vast provinces, each
bigger than England and Wales ; and, secondly, it has been
overturned by the winter journey of Governor Thomson, who,
travelling very nearly over the same line, in one week after his
arrival at Torojito, saw, and very nobly reported to Her Ma-
jesty's Government (vide his despatch to Lord John Russell,
dated 24th December, 1839,) the errors of his predecessor.
But with every respect for Mr. Thomson's talents, and for
the damnatory judgr.ent he has pronounced, it may calmly
be asked, whether it will be safe for the Imperial Parliament
to venture to legislate on his ephemeral experience of the
countries he has visited ?
What has he seen of the splendid western district — or what
has he seen of any part of the Canadas but the sleigh-road
which leads from one capital to another? Has he seen the
produce of either province, the crops, the mode of tillage, the
indications of mineral wealth ? Has he seen the harvest, or even
a square yard of the verdant surface of either country ? No ;
40
he has seen almost nothing of Upper Canada but snow ; and
without appealing to philosophy — without appealing to states-
men — surely Mr. Gunter would be sufficient authority to warn
him, as well as all of us, of the utter impossibility of forming
any opinion of a bridal cake merely from an inspection of a
small portion of the white sparkling material that covers it.
On the other hand, Lord Durham has seen the Canadas
only during the burning heal of summer ; and though her
Majesty's ministers may mathematically argue that, inasmuch
as two halves make a whole, so the summer excursion of one
governor added to the winter journey of another form a poli-
tical tour-book, sufficiently authentic to authorise Parliament
to alter the solemn Act of 1791 ; yet, to common minds, can
anything be more ridiculous than the very idea of a meeting
at this moment between the two governors in question ; one of
whom, as far as his own simple experience could go, would
declare Canada to be a country as hot as India; while the
other would just as stoutly maintain that it was as cold as
Caucasus?
Like the two Arabian travellers disputing about the colour
of the chamelion, one would be heard to exclaim ; —
•' 'Tis green, 'tis green, Sir, I assure you,
Green ! cries the other in a fury,
Why, Sir, d'ye think I've lost my eyes ?
'Twere no great loss his friend replies,
For if they always serve you thus.
You'll find 'em but of little use."
B\it the subject offers a miich graver moral. Mr. Thomson's
bill for settling for ever the long disputed question of the
Clergy Reserves, like Lord Durham's ordinances, has been
declared by the highest authority in this country to be illegal.
And with the rocks of ignorance, upon which these two Go-
vernor-Generals have foundered, protruding from the surface,
surely, instead of following in their wake, they should be bea-
cons to warn the Imperial Parliament of the imminent danger
of legislating upon their ephemeral recommendations!
41
Before Parlianipnt shall grant its assent to the Bill for the
re-union of the Canadas, it will surely deem it necessary most
seriously to consider what effects, if any, the measure will
produce in the Upper province on the Established Church,
whose relative proportion to other communities will appear
from the following extract from the " General Numerical
Return of the several Religious Bodies in Upper Canada,
founded on the Returns of the Clerk of the Peace, so far as they
have been made for the year 1839," which has lately been
printed by order of ParUament,
Summary.
Church of England 79,75 i
Methodists (of all denominations) 61,088
Presbyterians (ditto) 78.383
Roman Catholics 43,029
Baplists of all denominations 12,908
Miscellaneous (composed of Independents, Congre-
gationalists, Nonconformists, Menonists, Junkers,
Moravians, Quakers, Society of Peace, Univer-
salists, Restorationalists, Unitarians, Latitudina-
rians. Deists, Freethinkers, Irvingites, Re-
formers, Christians, Bible Christians, Disciples,
Mormans, &c. &c. &c.) 22,806
No profession 34,000
Deficiency as compared with the entire population,
being nearly one-sixth 67,558
Total 400,346
With reference to the above abstract I beg leave to premise
that in no foreign country which it has ever been my humble
fortune to visit, or in any part of Er gland, have I ever wit-
nessed a more creditable observance of religious ordinances
than I beheld during the time I was in Upper Canada ; in-
deed, of the different communities into which the population
were divided, it was difficult to say which wa? most distin-
guished by its steady observance of the fjabbath, or by its
affectionate attaclunent to the ministers of its cliurch.
In moments of the strongest political excitement, religion
42
seemed to act throughout the province like oil upon ' '^ waves
of the sea. During the excitement of the rebellion, the con-
gregations, instead of having diminished, were rather increased,
and even on that Sunday when the church of St. James, at
Toronto, was accidentally burned, its congregation assembled
round its respected minister for evening service in a temporary
building, with a fervour that seemed to have been encouraged
rather than daunted, by the severe calamity which had befallen
them.
In the Provincial Parliament difference of religion was
never the cause of any lasting enmity or dispute. At the
elections the Catholics supported Protestant candidates, and
vice versa, whenever they had reason to respect their private
characters and political sentiments ; and lastly, when the pro-
vince was attacked by the American people — who, boasting that
they had no noblemen among them, proved the truth of the
assertion by perfidiously assailing thei" allies under the pretext
of making them " free and equal" like themselves — Catholics,
Protestants, and Methodists, encouraged by their respective
ministers, combined together in one body to maintain the
character of human nature against the jealous power that
was desirous to efface its brightest colours.
I feel confident that Sir Peregrine Maitland, and that Lord
Seaton, to whose examples as well as precepts Upper Canada
in general, and its Established Church in particular, are
deeply indebted, will subscribe to the accuracy of the above
picture, which has long been exhibited in a colony in which
the Established Church has been openly supported by the
administrators of the Government, and in which the said
Church, in population and wealth, preponderates over every
other community.
Now, if this family compact of various religious communities,
that have hitherto fraternally fought together in the senate as
well as in the field in defence of British institutions, be sud-
denly flooded by 650,000 Lower Canadians, of whom about
450,000 are French Catholics, it cannot but follow that the
43
Established Church, as well as the whole system described,
must be swamped, and that the province nmst be placed
under a Catholic legislature.
No man acquainted, however, with Upper Canada will
venture to deny that this revohition will not calmly be sub-
mitted to; but even if it could be effected without bloodshed, I
humbly but fearlessly maintain that the British Parliament
have no right to create such a revolution.
'I'hc members of the Established Chuich in Upper Canada
are either people or the descendants of people who, under the
good faith of the British Government, liave settled in a portion
of the British empire which it was originally declared by
Governor Simcoe was " to be the image and trmucript of the
mother-country^
In this faith the population of the whole province has been
reared ; and 1 can faithfully bear testimony that there are
thousands of men who have been for years mentally supported
in the difficulties which they have had to contend with in the
backwoods by the reflection that the blessing of God rested
upon their land as fast as they cleared it, and tliat, whatever
might be their privations, they at least were enabled to enjoy,
and to hand down to their children, the inestimable blessings of
British institutions, firmly based upon an Established Church.
For the maintenance of this Church, and for the support of
what was termed in the constitutional Act of 1791 " a Pro-
testant Clergy," it is well known that a splendid provision was
wisely set apart, and it was upon this rock that British emi-
grants from all regions were in\ Ited to build. And although
that amiable and pious nobleman Lord Glenelg, when Secre-
tary of State for the Colonies, was thoughtlessly induced to
assert, in a despatch lo the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Ca-
nada, that section 42 in that Act, which enabled the Provincial
Parliament to vary and modify the distribution of the clergy
reserves, was " a precaution against the inaptitude of a system-
atic provision for a Protestant clergy to more advanced stage.s
of society^' (as if it was just as natural for a Protestant colony
44
to outgrow its faith, as it is the nature of a schoolboy to out-
grow his clothes), yet it was never contemplated for a moment
that in the year 1842 the representatives of 70,754 members of
the Established Church should be deliberately and cruelly
overpowered, and tha tho clergy reserves should be made
over by the Imperial Parliament to tho overwhelming control
of tlie representatives of 450,000 French Catholics, who, assisted
by the representatives of 43,029 Catholics at present in the
province, would of course subvert the foundation upon whicii
every Protestant in the province had been invited to build.
It is true that the clergy reserves could not be thus misap-
plied without the consent of the Imperial Parliament, but the
Protestant colony of Upper Canada may justly protest against
the unconstitutional injustice of the Imperial Parliament
placing even their temporal affairs under the protection of a
Catholic Legislature ; and they may fairly say, " if the Home
Government has for years yielded willing obeisance to the
demands, however insatiable, of the popular branch of the
Legislature of each single province, what reason have we to
expect that they would manfully hold up their heads to support
us against the demands of the Catholic Legislature of the
United Canadas ?"
It is impossible even to suppose for a moment that the bench
of bishops in the House of Lords will ever consent to so flagrant
a violation of those constitutional principles which they have
hitherto so nobly defended ; and it surely ought also most
confidently to be relied on, that the lords temporal as well as
spiritual will feel it their duty to oppose the measure ; for if
before the civilised world, the peers of England should be seen
to combine together to pull down the established Church in a
British province, eminently distinguished for its loyalty, there
is nothing that revolution can effect, there are no horrors that
anarchy can, and ere long will, accomplish, that will not, in
retributive justice, fall upon their own heads !
The guilt of deliberately sacrificing the established Church
in I'pper Canada, in a mere experimentul attempt to remedy
op
of
4fi
clisordoi'ft whicli have boon produced in llio lower province,
by a series of weak concessions, and by other acts of mis-
governtnent, is an act which no man who respects the House
of Lords as he ought to do, can ever bo incUiced to believe
possible. In taking leave of this subject, I will therefore only
])resunio to observe that I entertain no prejudice against tiie
Catholics of Upper Canada ; on the contrary, I am much
indebted to them for the support they afforded me. Indeed I
should do them injustice were I not to take every projjcr
opportunity of repeating, that in the moment of rebellion and
of foreign invasion, they were distingtiisheil by then* bravery,
and by their loyalty, and by their devoted attachment to
British institutions, which would not have been the case had
the Protestant governors and Protestant legislature of their
province been in the habit of acting towards them lijtolerantly.
Why, therefore, shoul'^ it be proposed that the Imperial Par-
liament should overturn a Church which, since the Act of
1791, has been constitutionally established in the British
dominions ?
It is necessary now to consider one or two of the principal
legislative conseqtiences which must ensue from the proposed
re -union of the Canadas.
Whenever a moderately incorrect principle is attempted to
be supported, it is generally defended as being " expedient ;"
but when no honest arguments whatever can be adduced in
its favour, it is then invariably denominated an act of " neces-
sity,^' a word which, like that of charity, has covered, and ever
will cover, a multitude of sins. Accordingly those who have
themselves created the very rebellion in Canada which it is
pretended to bewail, now feel it " expedient," firstly, to lay the
blame of it on the guiltless Act of 1791 ; and, having based
their remedial measures upon this foundation, they argue,
secondly, that as the division of the Canadas has created the
disease, it has become an act of evident " necessity," by their
re-union, to cwr^ it; and in exemplification of the success which
40
may reasonably be expected from such a theory, it will no
doubt be brought lOthe recollection of the Imperial Parliament
that
" There was a man in Thessaiy, and he was wond'rous wise !
Who jump'd into a quickset hedge, and scrafch'd out both his eyes ;
And when he saw his eyes were out, with all his might and main,
He jump'd Into the quickset hedge, and scratched them in again T^
It must be evident, however, that an intiinate acquaintance
with the inhabitants of the Canadas can alone eiiable the Im-
perial Parliament to express anything like a correct judgment
on the effect likely to be produced upon the provincial legis-
lature by the propo ■ d amalgamation of the legislators of the
two provinces. Yet, surely, without local knowledge, before
her Majesty's ministers recommended this Babel project, they
ought to have reflected upon the following ingenuous confession
of George, eldest son of the Vicar of Wakefield : —
" I addressed myself, therefore, to two or three of those I
met, whose appearance seemed most promising ; but it was im-
possible to make ourselves mutually understood. It was not
till this very moment I recollected, th m order to teach
Dutchmen English, it was necessary that they should first
teach me Dutch. How I came to overlook so obvious an ob-
jection is to me amazing ; but certain \^ is, I overlooked it."
To men of plain common sense has anything ever been pro-
posed so preposterous as even the idea of assembling tliirty-six
Frenchmen ind thirty-six Enghshmen to legislate together ?
Neverthless, the " Bill " before Parliament is grounded on the
expectation that the latter would instil into the former the
principles of British liberty and of British law ; but by what
means is this miracle to be effected ? for, however enlightened
the French members might be, however open their minds
might be to conviction, and however willing they might be to
bend to reason, I beg to say without offence, that the ruddy-
faced representatives of the British population might just as
well be made to address their arguments to six-and-thirty
Mandareens as to a body of respectable gentlemen, each of
47
/>»
-ment
whom could only reply to them by a shrug, meaning, " Mes-
sieurs, je no. vous entetids pas /" and vice versa.
Could the business of the empire be transacted in the House
of Commons under such an arrangement? Could the affairs
of any nation in the world be transacted under such a mockery
of the gift of speech ? Would the citizens of the United States
submit to such an insult upon their language and their sense ?
On the contrary, their General Govei nment very properly can-
celled the laws of the French province of Louisiana ; they de-
creed that the English language only should be used in their
legislature and courts of justice, and they prescribed a code of
criminal and civil law which left not a vestige of the French
system remaining.
What stronger reason, therefore, could the bitterest enemy
to British institutions adduce for adding M. Papineau and his
"/ai7" of thirty-seven Frenchmen to the same number of
representatives in the House of Assembly of Upper Canada,
than that because they had rebelled against the Crown, it
might be hoped that being deaf to all argument and dumb
to reply, they would be political automatons whose dead-
weight would inevitably turn the scale ?
The shrewd opinion of the Americans on the infatuated pro-
ject of her Majesty's Government, will clearly appear from the
following observations by the able editor of the New York
Gazette : —
" The Governor-General of the Canadas appears to be act-
ing under specific instructions from his Government, and can
hardly, therefore, be considered accountable for this or any
other act of his administration. These are certainly affairs
with which we, on this side of the border, have no right to
meddle. The British Ministry must manage these matters as
best suits themselves ; but there is nothing unneighbourly, we
suppose, in prophesying as we do that the British Government
will have very little further trouble in defending their North
American possessions, after a imion of the two Canadas, as is
proposed ; for the Lower Canadians will probably take that
matter into their own hands. Her Majesty's Ministers have
for a year or two past proved themselves the most adroit gen-
tlemen whose acts we ever heard or road of, Tf their object
48
really he to lose their colonies altogether ; this, we have
already said, is none of OUR business."
The Chief-Justice of Upper Canada, who, from having
served eighteen years in the Provincial Legislature, may justly
be admitted to be a most competent authority respecting it,
has stated in his printed letter to Lord John Russell, dated
Wandsworth, 30th December, 1839:—
" I greatly apprehend that the effect of uniting the two
provinces of Canada will be, to create a representative assem-
bly such as the Government will be \mable to withstand, ex-
cept by measures which it will be painful to anticipate — tliat
it may at the very outset, and will certainly at no distant
period, give existence to a representative body, in which the
majority will not merely be opposed in the common spirit of
party to any Colonial Governor who shall not be unfaithful to
his trust, but a majority which would be held together by a
common desire to separate the colony from the Crown — a party,
consequently, whom it will be impossible to conciliate by any
concession within the bounds of right."
To t he above experienced opinion I humbly subscribe, and
I moreover most solemnly declare, that although I have had
as nmch reason as any man to place confidence in the
people and Legislature of Upper Canada, yet that I feel
perfectly certain I should find it utterly impossible to main-
tain British institutions in Canada, if the two provinces were to
be united ; and I appeal to Mr. Gore, to Sir George Murray,
to Sir Peregrine M ait land, to Lord Seaton, to Lord Gosford,
who are now all in England, and to Sir George Arthur, who is
the present Lieutenant-Governor of the upper province, to
avow whether any one of them would conscientiously under-
take to stand at the helm of the United Legislature; and I
would further ask them whether they could name any indi-
vidual in the kingdom who they think could undertake suc-
cessfully to do so.
And if these noblemen and gentlemen, who from having ad-
ministered the Government of both colonies, must be practically
aware of the difficulties attendant upon the project, unite in
the above opinion, I feel myself justified in expressing my
have
49
most ferver t prayer that the House of Lords will deem it their
high duty to oppose a bill which, for the reasons I have stated,
it is humbly submitted must inevitably destroy in Upper
Canada both " Church and State."
But it is argued by many whose opinions are entitled to
the highest respect, that though they are fully aware that
the re-union of the Canadas must inevitably cause their
separation from the parent state, yet that, because we cannot
govern them, or rather the Lower Province as it is, it is there-
fore perfectly immaterial in which way we lose them, although,
it is by no means immaterial which political party is to incur
the responsibility of the act. To this abstract reasoning I beg
leave to observe that, even admitting the predicament to be
correct, and that it is justifiable in diplomacy for statesmen
to allow our colonies to be lost rather than incur the embar-
rassment and danger of being in their turn called upon to
govern them, it is nevertheless of immense importance that
the loss shoukl be attributed by history to our colonists and
no*" to us ; in short, that, whenever the separation takes place,
it should De their fault and not. ours.
It was upon this principle that I humbly administered the
government of Upper Canada ; and accordingly, at a moment
when Mr. Papines.u and the Assembly of Lower Canada, —
Mr. Bidwell and tire Assembly of Upper Canada, — and my own
Executive Council were, with one voice, demanding " respon-
sible government," I felt it my duty, although they were sup-
ported by the neighbouring states, publicly to declare that, ' if
all the inhabitants of Upper Canada were to agree together in
demanding the alteration of a single letter of the Constitu-
tional ^ct of 1791, / had neither the power nor the will to com-
ply with their request.'' The result is known ; but had it been
otherwise, the hour, I humbly submit, would then have arrived
when it might justly h.ave been said that the blame of the sepa-
ration rested with them, and there can be no doubt that, if ever
the day should come when o\ir No'th American colonics cease
60
to value our protection, and cease to prefer British institutions
to democracy, they would be no longer worthy to be either con-
sidered or retained as an integral portion of our noble empire.
But I have reason for believing that, if our institutions were
to be inflexibly supported, that moment would never arrive ;
but that, on the contrary, every year's experience of the prac-
tical working of mob-government in America is actually
binding our colonists closer and closer to the parert state : for
if it were otherwise, why did the people of Upper Canada
repel the Americans, and why did the Legislatures of New
Brunswick and Nova Scotia burn to assist them ?
As long as it is the policy of the British Government
openly to reward those who advocate revolution, and as long
as it is their policy to ruin every one of their servants who
dare (o oppose it, so long will our colonies be unsettled and
disturbed ; and there can be no doubt but that they will very
shortly prefer anarchy to a mongrel form of government, such
as it has been our inexplicable policy for many years to impose
upon them ; but if we would nobly alter our system, and fear-
lessly maintain our institutions, I feel confident that the British
flag would never be deserted.
Upper Canada might at one time again ask for " a respon-
sible executive council :'' at another time an elective lejrisla-
tive council might be asked for in New Brunswick : at another
time the Commons House of Assembly might be, as it now is,
out of favour in Newfoundland : at another time a complaint
might be raised, as it now is in Nova Scotia, against the exe-
cutive council : — but, instead of uniting these separate sticks
into a fagot — instead of re-uniting the Canadas — surely our
policy should rather be *' Divide et impera."
These momentary ebullitions could, as they have been, easily
be conquered in detail ; they would neutralise each other ; and
if ever our colonies combined against us, and became too
powerful to be resisted, then, indeed, would the period of their
separation from us have arrived. And although our financial
51
and commercial loss would be immense ; and though without
our colonies we should sink into insignificance, yet we should
at least have no cause to mourn over our own misconduct ;
and the British flag would still wave in the confined citadel of
the empire, although its splendid outworks had unavoidably
been abandoned.
No British subject who venerates as he ought to do the
talent, intelligence, integrity, and high sense of honour which
have always characterised the House of Lords, will believe
that that constitutional body of noble Englishmen or of English
noblemen (for the terms are synonymous), will ever consent,
for the sake of avoiding pecuniary expences, to the unconstitu-
tional injustice of destroying the Established Church in Upper
Canada, of subverting British institutions, and of thereby
effecting the separation of our North American colonies from
the parent state.
An it is, however, a common error even among distinguished
statesmen to suppose that this noble portion of the empire is of
more trouble and expence to us than it is worth, it may be
well to lay before the consideration of such gentlemen the
following facts : —
It appears from the last official returns of the Board of
Trade, as quoted by Chief Justice Robinson, that in the year
1836, the value of British manufactures exported to the four
North American colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,
Upper and Lower Canada, was nearly double the amount ex-
ported to Russia ; and that it exceeded by nearly half a million
sterling the whole value of goods exported to France, Spain,
Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark, and that the city of Toronto
alone consumes more of our manufactures than the kingdom
of Prussia.
The quantity of British shipping employed in our trade with
the colonies, and which forms a nursery for seamen of inesti-
mable value to the empire, compared with that employed in
foreign countries in which the system of reciprocity is main-
tained, is as follows : —
52
Tons of British Shipping.
France 198,339
Prussia 42,567
Sweden 10,865
Denmark 2,152
Norway 1,573
United States of America .... 86,383
Total 341,879
Colonies.
Tons.
British North American Colonies . . 620,772
West Indies 237,922
East Indian territories 97,034
New South Wales 19,195
Total 974,923
It will appear from the above table, that after deducting' the
620,000 tons that belongr to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick,
our trade with Canada alone employed in the year 1836 a
much greater tonnage of shipping than our trade with France,
Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and with the Unitc^l
States of America !
With these facts before him, who can deny that it is our
interest, as well as our duty, to maintain in our colonies those
glorious institutions, which, however ungratefully we may
speak of them, have converted so large a portion of "the
w^ilderness of this world" into so profitable a market for our
manufactures ?
It has been most nobly declared by one whose career has
with undiminished splendour now almost reached the horison,
that "England can never engage in a little war.'* Can it
exist with "a little trade?" or, in other words, can even the
interest of our national debt be provided for, after we have
irretrievably diminished our income by wilfully subverting the
Established Church, and by ruining British institutions in our
colonies ?
I'ondoii: Printed l>v William Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street.
lipping.
165
52
►73
183
579
72
)22
)34
95
)23
jtinir the
insvvick,
• 1836 a
France,
Unitc^'
it is our
es those
we may
of "the
t for our
ireer lias
horison.
Can it
even the
we have
"ting the
s in our