Head. this proceeding is not pleasant reading. Robert Baldwin, indeed, went as the Governor's messenger in singleness of heart to warn the insurgents of their danger; but his com- Conduct of panion, Dr. Rolph, was in secret correspondence with the Rolph and rebels, and his behaviour at the interview was more than equivocal. Upon the other hand, the refusal of Head to put in writing terms which he had offered by word of mouth has an ugly look, and it would seem that the arrival of volunteers, and more accurate accounts of the strength of the rebel forces, had quieted the Governor's fears, and caused him no longer to hold out hopes of amnesty. Meanwhile, according to the subsequent testimony of his own followers, Mackenzie's behaviour was that of a lunatic. He gratuitously outraged the feelings of the more respectable among his followers by wantonly burning private houses, and his actions can only be explained by the fact that his nerves were completely overstrained. An abortive attack Attack upon Toronto was made on the evening of December 5, Toronto. upon and when it was renewed on the 7th it was wholly desperate, reinforcements having poured into the city throughout the preceding day. The rebellion was put down with very little loss of life. Mackenzie succeeded in escaping to the United States; but his second-in-command, Samuel Lount, was captured, and, in spite of strong petitions in his favour, was afterwards hung. towards Discreditable as had been to most concerned the events of Head's behaviour the Upper Canadian rebellion, the events which followed its suppression were as bad. Bidwell was an advanced Radical Bidwell. by conviction, but physically and intellectually he was the last man likely to be drawn into revolutionary courses, and it seems clear that, by working on the weak side of his character, Head succeeded in causing him to pronounce upon himself a verdict of banishment. But whatever our opinion may be of Sir Francis Head, it is undoubted that he had the confidence of the Upper Popularity Canadian legislature. When he announced his approaching of Head. departure, owing to a difference of opinion between him and the home Government, the Assembly declared that if anything could shake their attachment to the throne, it was the exhibition of ungenerous distrust towards an officer who had done such service as he had done. Be this as it may, it was time that, in the clearer atmosphere of a wider political union, the disgraceful page of Upper Canadian history which tells of the rebellion of 1837 should be recognized as belonging to an obsolete past. AUTHORITIES The Dispatches are calendared in Brymner, op. cit. 1902. The Canadian Rebellion in 1837. By D. B. Read. Toronto, 1896. Garneau, op. cit. Christie, op. cit. La rebellion de 1837 à Saint Eustache. Quebec, 1883 (contains an account, day by day, of what happened for twenty days, by the vicar of the parish). Lindsey, op. cit. The Story of the Upper Canadian Rebellion. By J. C. Dent. Toronto, 1885. A narrative (of his administration of Upper Canada). By Sir Francis Bond Head. 1839. CHAPTER XII LORD DURHAM'S REPORT Durham. FACE to face with the situation in Lower Canada, the Mission of home Government took the wisest course that was possible Lord in the circumstances. The Constitution was suspended for three years, and Lord Durham was sent out as special commissioner with very full powers. No better choice could have been made. Durham was an advanced Radical, who 'saw with regret every hour that passed over recognized and unreformed abuses'; but he was also a fervid imperialist, the first British statesman, since Chatham, who recognized the possibilities latent within the Empire. The very qualities which made him an impossible colleague were of service for the special mission on which he was employed. The curse of colonial administration had been the timid shrinking from responsibility; but here was a governor who was not afraid to act regardless of others. He refused to avail himself of the special council, which had been set on foot by Sir John Colborne, during the short time in which he administered the government, from the departure of Gosford to the coming of Durham. The members of it could not but be tarred by the brush of political controversy; and Durham was determined that his administration should be free from all suspicion of political influence or party feeling, and that it should rest on his own individual responsibility. A condition precedent, however, to the success of such a procedure was that it should have the loyal support of the home Government. His staff. His reception. Treatment of guilty. Durham arrived in Quebec towards the end of May, accompanied by a numerous staff. His chief secretary was Carlyle's pupil, the brilliant and capable Charles Buller, whose premature death some years later proved a severe blow to liberal imperialism. Considerable outcry had been raised in England over the appointment to Durham's staff of Thomas Turton, who had figured in the divorce court. Durham had intended to give an official position to Gibbon Wakefield, the inspirer of the policy of systematic colonization; but Wakefield's past stood in his way, and the Secretary of State refused his sanction. Wakefield, however, accompanied the mission in a private capacity. Lord Durham had no reason to complain of his reception. The French were for the moment disillusioned by the complete failure of the 1837 insurrection. Moreover, Mr. Roebuck, the English agent of Lower Canada in London, had been already approached on the question whether some form of federation would be acceptable. The British, on the other hand, who might naturally be expected to regard with suspicion a governor, who was a persona grata to the French, had suffered too much from weak rulers not to give a respectful greeting to one who was at least a strong man. The first question requiring settlement was the treatment to be accorded to the guilty, which had been postponed for the decision of Lord Durham. Three hundred and forty of the prisoners had been liberated, but one hundred and seventy-four were still detained. Durham proclaimed a comprehensive amnesty, which included the whole population, with the exception of eight prisoners, who, on pleading guilty, were, by a special ordinance, banished to the Bermudas, without formal trial, and of a further sixteen, who, having absconded from justice, were held liable to the death penalty, were they to re-enter the province; among these sixteen were included the names of Papineau and Nelson. However wide were Durham's powers, and they had been somewhat abridged by amendments to the measure appointing him, it was obvious that they did not include the power of banishment to the Bermudas; and there were thus good technical grounds for the criticisms which were directed against the ordinance in Parliament. But throughout Canada there was a general consensus of opinion that Durham had wisely tempered justice with mercy; and it was to the credit of all concerned that the rebellion of 1837 should have ended without the judicial shedding of any blood. Unhappily, when the news of the ordinance reached England, Lord Criticism Brougham, who had a personal grudge against Durham, of measure appeared as the champion of outraged law; and the Duke of Wellington, for once allowing party interests to warp his judgement, joined in the hue and cry. The defence of their agent by the Government in the House of Lords was of so tepid and feeble a character as to seem to endorse his condemnation. The Ministry assented to a Bill, introduced by Brougham, indemnifying those who had acted under the ordinance; and they formally disallowed the ordinance itself. The alarm which the action of the House of Lords caused to the English merchants trading with Canada was a striking comment on its folly. It was not the first nor the last time on which English party politics had cast a malignant shadow over the affairs of the colonies. Durham first knew of the debate in the House of Lords from an American newspaper. He had already noted the ominous silence with which the Prime Minister had received the Duke of Wellington's statement on July 4, that he had no powers beyond those of an ordinary governor. On recognizing his virtual abandonment by the home Government, Durham rightly concluded that the necessary condition for the success of his mission was not being fulfilled, and at Durham resolves to once decided on resignation. He was at the time suffering resign. from illness; but his action was not due to this cause. So |