English members only throughout the Province, namely, one for the inferior District of Gaspé, and one for the Borough of William Henry, where the English inhabitants happen to have a majority of votes.1 It is hardly possible to attach too much importance to this subject, or to place it in too prominent a point of view, as it shews the absolute necessity of an Act of the Imperial Parliament, if it is intended that there ever should be any thing like an English influence in the inferior branch of the Provincial Legislature, for it is not to be expected that a House of Assembly, made up as the present, will ever suffer a Bill to pass for the encouragement of English settlers, and much less one which would afford such settlers the means of representation in that House. H. W. R. LXIX My Lord, CRAIG TO CASTLEREAGH' [Trans. Canadian Archives, Mss., Q. 107, pp. 306 ff.] Quebec, 5th August, 1808. The Canadian Party, hang so compleately together, and these People have so much Influence among them, that it is to be expected; while their ignorance or their Presumption, for I know not to which to attribute it, is such, that I shall not be surprized if they adopt some resolution which may put me under the necessity of dissolving them; they either believe, or affect to believe that there exists a Ministry here, and that in imitation of the Constitution of Britain that Ministry is responsible to them for the conduct of Government. It is not necessary that I should point out to your Lordship the steps to which such an Idea may lead them." Inclosed your Lordship will receive the Speeches which I thought proper to address to the Provincial Parliament both on the opening and closing of that Assembly and it is my duty now to lay before your Lordship the grounds upon which it was judge expedient that they, particularly the latter, should bear the Complexion which will not escape your Lordship's observation. In my dispatch No. 29, I gave your Lordship an Account of a party which exists here and which is far from inconsiderable in strength. It 1 An error, however, as to Gaspé, where the majority of voters have always been, and are of French origin.-[R. Christie.] 2 Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, was appointed Secretary of State for War and the Colonial Department in July, 1805. For a contemporary account of Craig's rule in Canada, see R. Christie, Memoirs of the Administration...of Lower Canada by Sir James Henry Craig (Quebec, 1818). The growing strength of racial strife characterized Craig's regime. Chaig shrewdly saw the logical issue to Canadian claims. This despatch is the earliest mention of "a ministry" in Canada in the constitutional sense of the term. See No. LXIX. was with concern that I saw the number of Persons returned to the House of Assembly who might upon good grounds be looked upon as their adherents; and it was very early understood that they were preparing for the adoption of every Measure which they considered as likely to Embarrass Government and shew their own power & importance. Their first step was to elect Monsr. Panet for their Speaker. This I have reason to believe was intended as a sort of experiment upon my temper & firmness; if I had rejected Mr. Panet, they would have chosen another instrument equally adapted to their views while it would have served as a fair pretext for the ill humour that might be apparent in their further proceedings; and on the other hand if I admitted Mr. Panet they supposed I could only do so under the influence of intimidation, and they should then consider themselves at liberty to go any lengths they pleas'd. Upon a little reflection I chose the latter alternative, I thought the refusal of Mons. Panet would be making him individually of more consequence that I wish'd to have the appearance of attaching to the whole of the Assembly, & I thought what I proposed to say to them in my Speech would do away the idea of my acting under the impression which they supposed, at the same time that under the conviction of the Spirit by which they were actuated, I was willing that, whatever took place, should arise solely from themselves, I therefore approved of Mr. Panet on the principle of the choice being a matter which concerned themselves more than me. As I was well aware that great activity had been exerted by the leaders of this Party in dissiminating their principles over the Province, in which they had so far succeeded, that a Spirit of jealousy and Suspicion had shewn itself in several parts, insomuch, that a Person elected a Member, after using very unwarrantable Language with respect to the Views of the Government and of the English, did not scruple to say, that if an Englishman was elected for his Colleague, he would not attend the Parliament: I thought it right in my Speech upon opening the Session, to advert to the dangers and disadvantages to the Colony, that might arise from the prevalence of that Spirit, if permitted to gain ground; and this is the part to which I alluded, as supposing it would do away the Idea of my being any way apprehensive of their opposition, as it was a reflection, which however general it was made in the wording of it, was obviously levelled at them, and was generally so understood. This however, altho' it was taken up by them & produced some warm debates, had not the effect that I thought it would, & it very soon appeared that they conceived themselves above all control, & were determined that their proceedings should be guided by their pleasure only setting aside even all consideration for the Act of the Imperial Parliament under which they hold their Constitution & every power with which they are vested. My Speech upon closing them contains, almost, as complete a history of their proceedings, as I could give to your Lordship, were I to detain you by a more detailed Account, except that I did not think it necessary to allude to the indecent lengths to which their personal abuse of each other was carried neither did I advert to their treatment of their own Speaker to whom, the most violent and unbecoming Language was used, altho' he on every occasion showed the most decided partiality towards them, and this altercation was carried so far, that on the very day, on which I so unexpectedly prorogued them they were prepared to have voted him out of the Chair. Upon the same principle of these matters concerning themselves only, and not being regularly before me, I abstained from adverting to the extraordinary Circumstance, of a Member having attempted to continue sitting, and having declared that he saw no occasion for getting up, while a Message was delivering from me, altho', such had been the invariable usage, and tho' such was one of their own regulations. He was indeed over ruled, but the Circumstance did not meet the reprehension that ought to have attended it. Among their own violent and unjustifiable proceedings, they seemed resolutely bent upon carrying their favorite points of expelling His Majesty's Judges from the House', and having failed last Session in carrying thro' an Act for rendering them ineligible, which was thrown out in the Legislative Councilby this time resolved to effect their purpose by a simple vote of their own, this motion, however, after a full fortnight's altercation, was negatived by a small Majority: this favourite measure of theirs was founded entirely & solely, on the determined animosity that they bear to Mr. De Bonne, the only Judge who is in the House. I mean, however, this motive as only applying to the avowed Leaders of the party in the House, for I am aware that very many of the best meaning Men in the Province are of opinion that it would be better if the Judges were not under the necessity of counting the people, as they are obliged to on the occasion of their Elections. Upon the failure of this attempt to expel the Judges by vote, they brought in a bill again to render them ineligible, but they had not made any progress in it. The next point which occupied their attention was the expulsion of a Mr. Hart, a Jew', this they disposed of by a Vote "that Ezekiel Hart professing the Jewish Religion cannot sit or vote in this House." On both these occasions they proceeded with the utmost violence, refusing to listen to any argument founded upon the Act of the 31st of His Majesty, & altho' they did not, as far as I can learn, explicitly deny the Supremacy of the British Parliament or the force of that Act, yet they openly declared that they were the sole & only Judges of their own proceedings, not to be controuled, or bound, by any other power. In the case of Mr. Hart they called only for evidence of the mode in which he had taken the Oath, which was proved to have been, precisely in the same manner, as every other Member had taken it. They did not call upon him to avow or deny his religion; they called for no evidence on the Subject, and for any thing that appears on the face of their minutes Mr. Hart may be a Christian; nay indeed his having taken the Oaths on the New Testament would, prima facie, carry the evidence that he is so; but even as a Jew, we are here decidedly, and the Executive Council to whom I submitted the Subject, was unanimously of opinion that He is eligible, provided he takes the Oaths as required by the Acts of Parliament. In pursuing their plan of hostility towards the Judges, they appointed a Committee, to enquire if any, & what inconveniences, had resulted to the Public, on occasions where the Judges had been Candidates at Elections for Members of that House. This Committee was formed entirely of the most violent of the party and accordingly nothing could exceed the marked irregularity, partiality and injustice of their proceedings; these were carried on in Secret, altho' they had not been appointed with that intent; the testimony laid before them was entered very differently from the way in which it was given, every circumstance that had the slightest tendency to prove, that the Judges had not made use of the influence that might be supposed to arise from their Situation, was carefully suppressed, when it was possible to do so, but testimony of a contrary tendency, tho' grounded upon hearsay, twice & thrice removed, was eagerly inserted with every exaggeration that it would admit of, and individual opinion at great length, without containing one particle of evidence, or one single fact that could come under that description, was a prominent feature in their report. This was such as was calculated and evidently intended to inflame the public Mind and excite discontent at the administration of Justice so far as it is connected with the Object under review, and it was smuggled into the House in direct Violation of their own regulations, without being previously read by the Chairman in his place, so that no opportunity was afforded to oppose its being received, while to complete 1 In 1808 the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada passed a bill excluding judges from sitting as members of the House of Assembly, following a resolution to that effect passed by a Committee of the Whole House. (Journals of Assembly of Lower Canada, 1808). The Legislative Council threw out the bill. In the following year, dissolution disposed of a similar measure. For the Act of 1811, excluding judges. see No. LXXX. 2 See Journals, op. cit. 1808, 1809. See Doughty and McArthur, p. 357. the Climax of the irregularity & disregard to common decency, with which this whole Matter was conducted, they entered upon their Journals, the direct falsehood that the Report had been read by the Chairman in his place, when he presented it. I have entered more particularly into detail upon these Circumstances My Lord because they so strongly mark the Complexion of the House, otherwise I might, as I have already observed, have confined myself to the contents of my Speech as conveying all the Information that I dare say Your Lordship will think necessary. All this while publick business was completely at a stand, whilst Messages from me, on objects of importance to the publick Welfare, and Bills sent down to them from the Legislative Council for their Concurrence, lay on their table for Weeks equally disregarded & unattended to. In the five weeks which they had sat, they had in fact passed one Bill, for of the five that were presented to me, three were the mere renewal of annual Acts, to which they stood pledged by their address, and the fourth being only to correct an error in a former Act, came equally under the description of requiring no discussion. Altho' there was nothing in their proceedings, so far as they had hitherto gone, that bore any appearance of particular opposition to His Majesty's Government, or of personal hostility to myself yet it was impossible that I could view them with indifference. The Public Mind began to be much agitated, by far the greater part, were laughing at, or calling out shame upon them, but their partizans were busily employed in representing them as supporting the authority and importance of that part of the Legislature, on which the happiness and prosperity of the Colony must depend. I have no reason to believe that these were very successful in their labours, but it became necessary to show their futility. It was greatly expedient to prevent the House from falling into the Comtempt, to which, it was fast verging altho' it was not less so, to give a check to the ideas of omnipotence, by which they themselves appeared to be inspired. The Speaker, speaking in a Committee of the whole House, had said that I dare not dissolve them. Add to these considerations, that the expulsion of Mr. Hart appeared to me to be in direct violation of An Act of the British Parliament, which I could not countenance, and on maturely reflecting on the whole, I determined not only to prorogue but to dissolve them also. Having come to this determination I thought it might be as well to prevent their coming to some violent or absurd resolution, which was to be expected, if they had had any intimation of my intentions, and I took my measures so, that they had not the slighest suspicion of them. till the Salute was firing on my entrance into the House. I am assured on all hands, and I have every reason to believe, that this measure has given very general satisfaction, the English part of the Community all view it as having become highly expedient not only from the conduct of the House that was Dissolved, but from the general tendency of all their proceedings for some time past, and even the thinking part of the Canadians, allow it to have been called for by the circumstances. Mr. Panet has I believe said it is no more than they deserve. I am even taught to expect that the effect will most probably be that few or none of those who were at the head of the Party, will get in again, certain it is, at any rate, that it will be impossible to collect a house that can be worse composed, either as to good will or the information necessary for carrying on the Public Business. I have the Honor to be My Lord Your Lordship's J. H. CRAIG. Sir, LXXI CASTLEREAGH TO CRAIG [Trans.: Doughty and McArthur.] Downing Street, 7th Sept., 1809. I received & laid before the King your letter of the 5th of June last' detailing an account of the Causes which had led you to dissolve the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada after a severe censure of their Conduct. I have no doubt that in the Measure you have taken you have been solely influenced by a Sense of your Duty to His Majesty & as you represent that it is approved by the English Part of the Community & the sensible Part of the Canadians I shall entertain a hope that it may not be attended with any prejudicial effect. I am at the same time to impress on you this Counsel, that if any unfortunate difference shall arise hereafter between you & the Legislative Assembly which may render it necessary for you to advert to their Proceedings (which should always be done cautiously) & in consequence thereof to prorogue & dissolve them you will take care to use all such temperate & chosen Language as may not leave it in the Power of the Legislative Assembly which may afterwards be chosen to question the Propriety of your sentiments as affecting their Privileges or the Constitution. I am to express to you His Majesty's Approbation of your removing Mr. Stuart from his office of Solicitor General and of your appointing Mr. Bowen to succeed him: As Mr. Uniacke the Attorney General will have arrived in the Province long before this letter reaches you, I shall trust you will receive every necessary assistance from his zeal and abilities. I have the honor, etc., CASTLEREAGH. Sir, LXXII CASTLEREAGH TO CRAIG [Trans. Doughty and McArthur.] Downing Street, 7th Sept., 1809. Having written to you officially upon the Subject of your letter relating to the Dissolution of the Legislative Assembly, I think it at the same time right to express to you my private sentiments. Nothing appears to me more difficult or delicate to manage than a Provincial Assembly constituted like that of Lower Canada, wherein almost all the Privileges of the House of Commons of Great Britain are claimed or exercised, where there exist little Means of influencing the Members and inducing them to coalesce with the Government, and wherein from the example of the American States, and the very nature of a popular Assembly, strong, active & turbulent Minds have great incitements and opportunities to raise themselves into imaginary or real Importance by opposing the Administration. And the Difficulty becomes thus great from another peculiar circumstance that there is no means whatever of punishing an Assembly but by Dissolution, & that this Method when the conduct of the Assembly is popular, is sure to fail of success, and to increase the Evil it is intended to cure. It is therefore of the utmost consequence to take care that in any difference which may arise between a Governor & a Provincial Assembly he should not advert to any particular proceeding of the Assembly, that 1 See No. LXX. 2 An interesting lesson from the Colonial Office on how to manage a Colonial House of Assembly). See also the following document, |