Puslapio vaizdai
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showed the need of local government. Quebec had narrow Condition and ill-paved streets; huge wooden steps projected, in con- of Quebec tempt of the law, across the broken footpath. The water Montreal. was unwholesome, hawked by carters from the St. Lawrence. There was no system of lighting the streets, and passengers carried their own lanterns. The condition of Montreal was rather better, but it remained in total darkness during the winter months, at a time when military guards were placed in almost every street, and there was a general fear of insurrection.

Quebec and Montreal had been watched and lighted after a fashion under a temporary Act down to 1836; but the condition of things had been little better, and there was no proper police force until one was organized during Lord Durham's administration. Bad as was the condition of the towns, the state of things in the country was worse; and here the evil was the greater, because the situation of the seigniories stretching almost in a continuous village would have rendered easy the assembly of local boards. In no respect, perhaps, does the action both of the French Assembly and of the British Government stand more self-condemned than in this neglect to set on foot a system of local government.

AUTHORITIES

The official correspondence between 1829 and 1831 is calendared in Brymner, op. cit. 1899; betwcen 1832 and 1835 in volume for 1900; and between 1836 and 1837 in that for 1901.

Christie, op. cit., vols. iii and iv; are especially valuable as representing views of British minority.

Garneau, op. cit.

Life of Papineau in 'Makers of Canada' Series, by A. D. De Celles, Toronto, 1904.

Parliamentary Papers, Reports of Gosford Commission, 1837.

Letters to H. Taylor, October 24 and November 4, of Mr. Elliot, 1835, in Brymner, op. cit. 1883, Note A.

Appendix C to Lord Durham's Report on 'Municipal Institutions', in vol. iii of Sir C. Lucas's edition of Lord Durham's Report. Oxford, 1912.

CHAPTER X

UPPER CANADA FROM 1815 TO 1837

Upper Canada after the

war.

Clergy

reserves.

SOME account has been given of affairs in Upper Canada before the outbreak of the war of 1812. The effect of that war was to instil into the mind of the Upper Canadians a feeling of self-confidence hitherto unknown. It had been an imperial question, and yet such success as had been gained had been largely due to the Canadians themselves. With this new temper prevalent considerable tact was necessary on the part of Government if disputes were to be avoided; but such tact was, nearly always, absent. With the departure of Drummond the melancholy tale of blunder and failure began. There was inexcusable delay in settling the claims of the Militia to their pay, and the land-grants allotted caused disappointment. It was natural that the Government should endeavour to restrict the immigration of Americans; but such measures were unpopular, as they tended to lower the value of land. A further subject of controversy played a great part in Upper Canadian politics. We have seen that under the Constitutional Act reserves of land were made for a Protestant clergy'. It would seem from the wording of the Act that some distinction was intended between the words 'Church of England' used in one section and Protestant clergy' used in another; and there is authority for the statement that Grenville in 1791 had intended the latter words to be of wide application. The English law officers, however, were of opinion that such clergy must belong to a Church established by the law of the

land, so that all Protestants other than members of the Churches of England and Scotland were excluded from the benefits of the provision. In a country where the great majority of the population belonged to dissenting sects such a distinction was both impolitic and galling; and the discontent caused tended to drive the people more and more into the arms of the Radical party, which denounced the doings of the Government.

A shrill voice was given to Upper Canadian grievances Persecution by Robert Gourlay, a Scotchman who had arrived in Canada of Gourlay. in 1817. He was a man of undoubted abilities, but of no common sense. A note of hysteria runs through his criticisms. Corruption,' he wrote, 'has reached such a height...that no other part of the British Empire witnesses the like.' Upper Canada was pining in premature decay, and discontent and poverty were experienced in a land blessed with the gifts of nature. Language of this sort might well be left to itself, but the Government took the foolish and unjust step of making Gourlay a martyr. The arrival of Sir Peregrine Maitland, as Lieutenant-Governor, in 1818, placed a willing tool in the hands of the reactionary party. Maitland was a brave soldier and a friend of the Duke of Wellington; but he had all the prejudices, without the bonhomie, of his father-in-law, the Duke of Richmond. Advantage was taken of a clause in an Act directed against suspicious foreigners who had not taken the oath of allegiance to imprison a British subject, who, as such, did not need to take the oath. Gourlay's main cause of offence had been that he had issued a circular to correspondents asking what in their opinion retarded the development of their townships and of the province in general, and had invited a convention of delegates to consider the terms of a petition to the Government. Tried for sedition, he was acquitted, but was then proceeded against under the Alien Act mentioned above. Gourlay was ordered to leave the province within ten days,

The Bid

wells.

Liberal

and, on refusal, was thrown into prison, a writ of habeas corpus being for months denied him. In 1820 he left Canada broken down in health and mind; but afterwards in great measure recovered, and lived to the age of eightyfive.

More dangerous antagonists to the Government were the Bidwells, father and son. Barnabas Bidwell was an American lawyer, who had fled from the United States to avoid a charge of misappropriation of public funds brought by his political enemies. Elected to the Upper Canadian Assembly, he was excluded on the ground that he had taken the American oath of citizenship; and an Act was passed in 1821 making all Americans ineligible for a seat in the Assembly. This Act was subsequently modified so that Americans who had resided seven years in Canada and taken the oath of allegiance, might become members. His son, Marshall Spring, was elected in the place of Barnabas Bidwell; but he also was excluded as an alien, having been born in Massachusetts, though before the Treaty of Paris.

With the modification of the law the younger Bidwell became eligible, and he was returned to the new House of Assembly which met in 1825. The intolerance of the Government party brought about its natural consequences, and the Liberals obtained a small majority. The younger majority. Bidwell was a man of great ability, and afterwards became Speaker, though his extreme nervousness unfitted him for the rough and tumble of political life. Another of the party was of a yet more puzzling character. Had Dr. Rolph been as honest as he was able, he must have reached the highest step in the ladder of political life; but there was something furtive and sinister in his actions which stood in the way of his advancement. The treatment of a half-pay officer, Captain Matthews, who had ventured to profess Radical opinions, showed the nature of the Government. That a British officer should embark upon the stormy waters

of political agitation was intolerable to the notions of the day, and Matthews was made the victim of a petty persecution which ended in his ruin.

It was at this time that a far more formidable antagonist W. L. Mackenzie. first appeared upon the scene. William Lyon Mackenzie was a Scottish immigrant of good family and indifferent means, who started a newspaper in 1824, the Colonial Advocate, to attack the Governor and his connexions. In spite of the violent character of its writings and the exaggerated importance attached to it by the fussy LieutenantGovernor, the newspaper proved a failure, and might have. died a natural death, but for the proceedings of its enemies. The wrecking of its office and type by young men in close relations with the Government officials gave it a new life, by securing for it the sinews of war in the shape of heavy damages, and by enlisting on its behalf the sympathies of moderate men.

dissensions.

A feeling of dissatisfaction everywhere prevailed. The Political Government was narrow-minded and tyrannical. With regard to the settlement of aliens, political and economic interests seemed hard to reconcile, while the inaction of Lower Canada, which neglected the improvement of the St. Lawrence between Lakes St. Louis and St. Francis, added greatly to the difficulties of the colony. In this state of things a political firebrand might well find his opportunity. It is difficult to take very seriously Judge Willis, who appeared upon the scene in 1827. Had he succeeded in his ambition to preside over a court of equity we should probably have heard nothing of his constitutional agitation. A judge can hardly be in the right in encouraging attacks upon his brother judges and the law officers of the Crown; nor is it necessary to feel much interest in the social squabbles between Lady Mary Willis and the Lieutenant-Governor's wife. Willis's removal was then natural enough; but more difficult to justify was the heavy punishment inflicted on a newspaper writer,

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