of electing Members to the Inhabitants of the proposed cities of Niagara and Kingston; which certainly will add to their respectability-both, should include a competent tract of Ground, and for all purposes, the former should include Queenstown, where some Proprietors mean to build largely the ensuing Year, and the present town of Newark.

In respect to existing circumstances, It appears to me of consequence, That Niagara should be incorporated so soon as possible, were it only to preserve its name in the King's Dominions. It is the policy of the United States to call themselves solely Americans, not only with the view to melt down in that general name every part of their Confederation, but to enforce when time shall suit, their principle, "that all Colonies connected with European Governments, or depending upon them are foreign, and invaders, and that They themselves only are the Natives."

Having no Chief Justice, and being at a distance from the Attorney General I have thought proper at the present Crisis to offer These ideas to Your Grace In Hopes that should they be deemed worthy of attention, Charters of incorporation with such powers may be forwarded to me from England, before the meeting of the next Session; and I am to observe to Your Grace, That as by Act of Parliament' the ensuing Session will be the last of the present House of Assembly, It will be provident, to pass every Bill, that may be necessary before it be dissolved, as it not be probable that a more loyal or better disposed set of men will be again reassembled.

It has been represented to me, that the Act of Parliament' which established the Constitution of this Country, specifying that the Lands should be granted in free and common soccage, is at variance with His Majesty's Instructions which preclude my granting Lands without The reservation of Mines which may be discovered; and It is stated to me that a Grant in free and common Soccage reserves only to the Crown, Mines of Silver and Gold.

I shall be glad of Your Grace's immediate directions on this Point; in particular as I meant to submit to you whether the grant of Iron Mines might not be made by the Government of this Country, there is every probability that They may be usefully worked And I presume that His Majesty's Ministers do not mean to follow any system which may preclude such rude Manufactures as may be necessary for the benefit of the Country.

I have the honour to be with great Respect and Deference.

My Lord Duke

Your Grace's

most Obedient and
most humble Servant.
J. G. SIMCOE.

Sir

LXIII

SIMCOE TO LIEUTENANTS OF COUNTIES, 1794

Having thought it necessary for the public benefit to create Lieutenants of those Counties within the Province which are sufficiently populous to require such a Superintendency, I enclose to you a Commission under the Great Seal of Upper Canada appointing you Lieutenant of the County of

It may not be improper to observe that this high office under the Constitution of Great Britain is generally conferred upon the Persons who seem most respectable to His Majesty's Government for their property. Loyalty, Abilities and Discretion in their several Counties, and who from a combination of such Possessions and Qualities acquire that weight,

respect and public confidence which renders them the natural support of Constitutional Authority.

If on the one hand this Office has been at all times bestowed by the Sovereign with the Circumspection and Caution due to the Important Trusts which it involves; on the other; it has been a principal object of honourable Ambition which the British Constitution approves in the first Men of any State making a due provision of Power for that legal_Aristocracy which the Experience of Ages has proved necessary to the Ballance and Permanency of her inestimable form of Government.

In Naming You, Sir, to this office on the first establishment of the true British Constitution in her Colony of Upper Canada, I am influenced by the Consideration of finding you already at the Head of the Civil Jurisdiction of the County in which you reside, and having the same Opinion of Your Loyalty, and Character which occasioned Your Original Appointment, I am happy in adding my public Testimony to that of Lord Dorchester.

It is my wish, that the Magistrates whom you are now to superintend may appear to you to be worthy to be continued in Office, but should there be Improper persons in that Station, You will be pleased without hesitation to give me the necessary Information.

A Commission will probably be issued soon after the meeting of the Legislature, agreeably to the British Custom including Such persons in each County as shall appear proper to be continued, or added, if any Addition shall seem necessary to the Several Lieutenants as Justices of the Peace.

In regard to the Militia of your County, as it is to be supposed that the Legislature will shortly frame a General Act for the Province, I should not wish at present to make any Alterations in its Officers; You will be pleased however to be prepared with such lists as may be necessary to fill up any vacancies or to supply any Augmentation, should such appear requisite All Commissions are to be recommended by you, and if then they shall be approved by me, they are to be signed as in the British Act by you as Lieutenant I beg to observe that I consider all those who keep Taverns, however respectable in their private Character; as not admissable either as Officers of the Militia or Justices of the Peace. You will be pleased to take the customary Oaths with as much Publicity and Solemnity as possible.

Both the Measures1 seem very unfit to be encouraged by the Parent State in a dependent Colony The Legislative Power being given up to an Assembly of their own, it is only thro' the executive Power, vested in the Person having the Government of the Province, that the Sway of this Country can be exercised Every kind of Authority that is not inconsistent with the Constitution given to the Province, ought, therefore, to be concentered in his hands - Whereas the evident tendency of both these measures, is to fritter down his direct Power, and to portion it out among Corporations and Lieutenants, who, on many occasions, may be disposed.

1i.e. The plans of creating Corporations and of establishing Lieutenants of Counties (see Nos. LXII and LXIII). This despatch illustrates contemporary ideas of colonial government.

1

to use it in obstructing the Measures of Government, and, in all events, will require to be courted and managed, in order to secure the right direction of the Influence thus unnecessarily given them. I have entered purposely more at large into these proposed Measures, because I observe that your adoption of them arises from an idea, that by assimilating the modes of the Government of the Province, to the modes of the Government of England, you will obtain all the beneficial effects which we receive from them-Whereas to assimilate a Colony in all respects to its Mother Country, is not possible, and if possible, would not be prudent. The one may have many Institutions which are wholly inapplicable to the situation of the other Some there may be, which we permit to continue here only, because they already exist, and are interwoven with other parts of the Government, but which, perhaps, if we had a choice, we should not now be disposed originally to introduce - Such, in the Opinion of many, are Corporations, and separate Jurisdictions of all sorts. Others there are which may be objectionable in a Colony, as tending to lessen the Authority which the Farent State ought to possess over it, as long as that relation subsists between them Of this description I conceive to be all subordinate Powers created in the Colony, beyond those which are absolutely necessary for its internal Police - The Power of the Person having the Government, is the Power of this Country; but such subordinate Powers as are proposed, are not ours. We have no connection with, or direct Influence over, those who exercise them They are rather means and instruments of Independence. Having said thus much, it must depend on local circumstances and further consideration, how far it may be expedient to attempt to undo anything that has been already done; but I can see no ground that will authorize me to encourage the further prosecution of either of the Measures in question.

On my first taking upon myself the administration of the Affairs of this Province I was extremely struck with the wavering state in which I found the Interests of Government. I have since been at much pains to discover the real Causes of this situation of things which I plainly saw lay deeper than, I believe, is generally supposed by His Majesty's Ministers; and I am so forcibly impressed with a persuasion that this Subject ought to be attended to, that I feel it my Duty to lay before Your Grace, such Remarks as have occurred to me respecting it, in order that Your Grace may be fully apprized of the real State of the Country, and take such Measures as you may think fit to strengthen the Executive Power in Lower Canada.

However excellent in itself the new Constitution may be which His Majesty has graciously been pleased to grant to the Province, I conceive the Foundation of it must rest upon a due proportion being maintained between the Aristocracy and the lower Orders of the People, without which it will become a dangerous Weapon in the hands of the latter. Several Causes at present unite in daily lessening the Power and Influence of the aristocratical Body in Lower Canada: I cannot however but think that

1 This despatch illustrates the workings of the Constitutional Act of 1791. It is also valuable, as it throws light on the position of the Executive Government and the House of Assembly in Lower Canada before the racial struggle began to complicate the issues.

Measures might be adopted to counterbalance in some degree this Tendency, and I shall hereafter have the Honor to point them out to your Grace: but in order to make myself clearly understood I must first explain what I consider to be the principal Causes by which the Influence of the Aristocracy in this Country has gradually been reduced to it's present State.

The first and most important of these I am of opinion arises from the manner in which the Province was originally settled; that is, from the independent Tenure by which the Cultivators (who form the great Body of the People and are distinguished by the appellation of Habitants) hold their Lands; and on the other hand from the inconsiderable Power retained by those called the Seigneurs, and the little disposition they feel to encrease their Influence, or improve their Fortunes by Trade. Hence by degrees the Canadian Gentry have nearly become extinct, and few of them on their own Territory have the Means of living in a more affluent and imposing Style than the simple Habitants who feel themselves in every respect as independent as the Seigneur himself with whom they have no further Connexion than merely the obligation of having their Corn ground at his Mills, paying the Toll of a Fourteenth Bushel, which they consider more as a burthensome Tax than as a Return to him for the Lands conceded by his Family to their Ancestors for ever upon no harder Conditions than the obligation above mentioned, a trifling Rent, and that of paying a Twelfth to the Seigneur upon any transfer of the Lands.

The Second Cause which I apprehend tends to lessen the Influence of Government in this Province is, the prevalence of the Roman Catholic Religion and the Independence of the Priesthood': this Independence I find goes considerably further than what was intended by the Royal Instructions wherein it is particularly declared to be His Majesty's Pleasure "that no Person whatsoever is to have Holy Orders conferred upon him, or to have the Cure of Souls without a License for that purpose first had and obtained from the Governor," etc. etc. But this Instruction has hitherto never been enforced, by which means the whole Patronage of the Church has been thrown into the hands of the Roman Catholic Bishop, and all connexion between the Government and the People through that Channel is cut off, as the Priests do not consider themselves as at all amenable to any other Power than the Catholic Bishop.

A singular Instance lately occurred of this Independence: A Priest at Terrebonne near Montreal interfered in the most indecent manner in the late Election for the County of Effingham; he exerted all his Influence to prevent the Solicitor General from being chosen, and violently supported a Man who had been expelled from the last House of Assembly on account of his having been convicted of a Conspiracy, and who was consequently considered as a dishonored Person.. Upon this man's being chosen the Priest actually went so far as to perform High Mass in the Parish Church, to return Thanks as he termed it, "for the reelection of this Martyr." In justice to the Canadian Bishop I must add, that upon my Representation he did every thing which was proper to be done on the occasion.

Another Circumstance which has greatly tended to lessen the Influence of Government since the Conquest has arisen from the necessity which then existed of disembodying the Militia: but as I am by no means of Opinion, considering the Circumstances which took place a few years since, that it would be either practicable or prudent to call out the Militia at this particular moment. I shall not enter further into this Subject at present, though I shall hereafter revert to the Militia even in its present State as a Means by which a certain degree of Influence might still perhaps be established in the several Parishes.

It may be unnecessary to observe to your Grace how much more important the above Facts are become since the establishment of the new

For a further discussion of this point see Sir James Craig's despatch to Lord Liverpool, 1 May, 1810 (No. LXXIII).

i.e. Charles B. Bouc, who, after being expelled from the House of Assembly, successfully ran for the County of Effingham against Solicitor-General Foucher in 1800. He was disqualified by Act of Parliament in 1802.

Constitution. In the time of the French Government an Ordinance, issued in the name of the King, was sufficient to enforce the execution of any Measure that was deemed expedient without any discussion taking place upon the subject, or its entering into the Minds of the unlettered Habitants to doubt for a moment the propriety of the Measure.

But since the establishment of the present Constitution in the year 1792, the Case is very different every thing being previously discussed in the House of Assembly; and unless a certain preponderance can be maintained in that House (which at present is by no means as firmly established as I could wish) the Power of the Executive Government will insensibly become nothing.

Very few of the Seigneurs, as I have already hinted, have sufficient Interest to insure their own election or the election of any one to whom they give their Support in the House of Assembly, and the uneducated Habitant has even a better chance of being nominated (though he cannot perhaps sign his name) than the first Officer under the Crown: There was a moment when I even despaired of getting the Attorney General' into the present Assembly; and though it is undoubtedly better composed than the last, it is far from being so respectable a Body as Government might wish. The Canadian Habitants are I really believe an industrious, peaceable and well disposed People; but they are, from their want of Education and extreme simplicity liable to be misled by designing and artful Men, and were they once made fully sensible of their own Independence, the worst Consequences might ensue. They are in fact sole Proprietors of nearly all the cultivated Lands in Lower Canada.

The Seigneurs and Ecclesiastical Bodies to whom the Lands were originally granted having conceded the greater part of their Lands for ever, with little or no reserve, to the Cultivator in small Parcels of from One to Two Hundred acres retaining only as I have already observed the Property and Profits of the Mills, a certain Proportion of their Produce which is sometimes paid in kind and in various ways, and the Lods et Ventes; and this Species of Property attached to the Seignorial Rights is by the ancient French Laws of Inheritance, which occasion frequent subdivisions of Property, in a few Generations become quite inconsiderable, whereby the Situation of the Seigneur has in many instances been reduced below that of the Vassel. Each Habitant cultivates as much Land as he can manage with the Assistance of his own family, and as is necessary for its support; and having thus within themselves from year to year all the Necessaries of Life, there cannot be a more independent Race of People, nor do I believe there is in any part of the World a Country in which Equality of Situation is so nearly established. Except in the Towns of Quebec, Montreal and Three Rivers, little or no difference is observable in the affluence of the Canadians but what may in some Measure arise from the local Circumstances of more or less favorable Situation, a richer Soil, or a greater or less degree of exertion.

The Counties are divided into Parishes each Parish chiefly extending about Three Leagues along the Rivers St. Lawrence and Chambly, and to each of which there is a Parochial Church; the principal Person in every Parish is in general the Priest, and the next the Captain of Militia, and it is through the latter that any Business is transacted for Government.

Having endeavoured to give your Grace some insight into the actual State of this Country, which I could more fully enlarge upon if I was not apprehensive of intruding too much upon your time till I have received your permission so to do, I shall proceed to point out the means by which I imagine the Influence of Government might be immediately extended to the distant Parts of the Province, and though I am conscious this cannot be effected without a certain expence to the Mother Country, I consider that expence as inconsiderable when compared to the Sums it would require to quell any disturbance that might for want of timely precaution take place in the Province: the apprehension of such an Event though not 1 Jonathan Sewell.