Report on the affairs of British North America. Edited with an introd. by Sir C.P. Lucas

J-

/

v>

vu

• \

LORD DURHAM'S REPORT

ON THE AFFAIRS OF

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA

EDITED
WITH AN INTRODUCTION

BY

SIR C. P. LUCAS, K.C.B., K.C.M.G.

IN THREE VOLUMES

VOLUME II: TEXT OF THE REPORT

OXFORD

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1912

509520

ao.i

r

(/. Z
.3

HENRY FROWDE, M.A.

PUBLISHER TO THB UNIVERSITY OP OXFORD

LONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORK

TORONTO AND MELBOURNE

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II

LOED DURHAM'S COMMISSION ....

REPORT :

INTRODUCTORY

LOWER CANADA

UPPER CANADA .....

THE EASTERN PROVINCES AND NEWFOUNDLAND
PUBLIC LANDS . .
I EMIGRATION ......

GENERAL REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATIONS .

PAGE
3-5

ON

THE AFFAIRS

OF

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA,

FROM

THE EARL OF DURHAM,

HER MAJESTY'S HIGH COMMISSIONER,
&c. &o. &c.

(PRESENTED BY HER MAJESTY'S COMMAND.}

Ordered, ly The House of Commons, io l>e Printed,
ii February 1839.

COMMISSION.

VICTORIA, by the grace of God, of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender
of the Faith. TO Our right trusty and right well-beloved
Cousin and Councillor, John George Earl of Durham,
Knight Grand Cross of the Most Noble Order of the Bath,
Greeting : WHEREAS, by five several Commissions under
the Great Seal of Our United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, We have constituted and appointed you, the said
John George Earl of Durham, to be Our Captain General
and Governor-in-Chief in and over each of Our Provinces
of Lower Canada, Upper Canada, Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick, and in and over Our Island of Prince Edward,
in North America : And We have, by the said several
Commissions, made provision for the administration of
the government of Our said Provinces and of the said
Island respectively, in the event of your absence, by
authorizing the respective Lieutenant-Governors or Ad-
ministrators of the Governments of the said Provinces
and of the said Islands respectively, in that contingency,
to exercise the powers by the said Commissions respec-
tively granted to you : And whereas We have, by a
Commission under the Great Seal of Our said United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, constituted and
appointed our trusty and well-beloved Henry Prescott,
Esquire, Captain in Our Royal Navy, to be Our Governor
and Commander-in-Chief in and over our Island of New-
foundland and its dependencies : And whereas there are
at present certain weighty affairs to be adjusted in the

B 2

4 COMMISSION

said Provinces of Lower and Upper Canada : Now KNOW
you, That WE, reposing especial trust and confidence in
the prudence, courage and loyalty of you, the said John
George Earl of Durham, have, of Our especial grace,
certain knowledge, and mere motion, thought fit to
constitute and appoint, and do hereby constitute and
appoint you, the said John George Earl of Durham, to be
Our High Commissioner for the adjustment of certain
important questions depending in the said Provinces of
Lower and Upper Canada respecting the form and future
government of the said Provinces : And We do hereby
give and grant unto you, the said John George Earl of
Durham, as such High Commissioner as aforesaid, full
power and authority in Our name and in Our behalf, by
all lawful ways and means, to inquire into, and, as far as
may be possible, to adjust all questions depending in the
said Provinces of Lower and Upper Canada, or either of
them, respecting the Form and Administration of the
Civil Government thereof respectively : And whereas,
with a view to the adjustment of such questions, We
have deemed it expedient to invest you with the further
powers hereinafter mentioned : Now KNOW YOU, That
WE do in like manner constitute and appoint you, the
said John George Earl of Durham, to be Our Governor-
General of all the said Provinces on the Continent of
North America, and of the said Islands of Prince Edward
and Newfoundland : And We do hereby require and
command all Our Officers, Civil and Military, and all
other Inhabitants of Our said Provinces, and of Our said
Islands respectively, to be obedient, aiding and assisting
unto you, the said John George Earl of Durham, in the
execution of this Our Commission, and of the several
powers and authorities . herein contained : Provided
nevertheless, and We do hereby declare Our pleasure

COMMISSION 5

to be, that in the execution of the powers hereby vested
in you, the said John George Earl of Durham, you do in
all things conform to such instructions as may from time
to time be addressed to you for your guidance by Us,
under Our Sign Manual and Signet, or by Our Order in
Our Privy Council, or through one of Our Principal
Secretaries of State : Provided also, and We do hereby
declare Our pleasure to be, that nothing herein contained
shall extend, or be construed to extend, to revoke or to
abrogate the said Commission under the Great Seal of
Our said United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
appointing the said Henry Prescott Governor and Com-
mander-in-Chief of Our said Island of Newfoundland,
and its dependencies, as aforesaid : And We do hereby
declare, ordain and appoint that you, the said John George
Earl of Durham, shall and may hold, execute and enjoy
the said offices of High Commissioner and Governor-
General of Our said Provinces on the Continent of North
America, and of the said Islands of Prince Edward and
Newfoundland, as aforesaid, together with all and singular
the powers and authorities hereby granted unto you for
and during Our will and pleasure. In witness whereof,
We have caused these Our Letters to be made Patent.
Witness Ourself at Westminster, the Thirty-first day of
March, in the First year of Our Reign.

By Writ of Privy Seal.

EDWARDS.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA.
REPORT.

TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY,

YOUR MAJESTY, in entrusting me with the Government Duties of
of the Province of Lower Canada, during the critical period c
of the suspension of its constitution, was pleased, at the sioner.
same time, to impose on me a task of equal difficulty,
and of far more permanent importance, by appointing
me ' High Commissioner for the adjustment of certain
important questions depending in the Provinces of Lower
and Upper Canada, respecting the form and future
Government of the said Provinces '.* To enable me to

1 The term High Commissioner has been much in use in connexion
with the British colonies, but there is no special virtue in the title.
A High Commissioner is simply a man who has an important commis-
sion entrusted to him. The definition given by Festus of the Roman
term Potestas would apply to his case. Cum Potestate est dicebatur
de eo qui a populo alicui negotio praeficiebatur (see Bruns, Fontes Juris
Romani, p. 180). Lord Durham was pre-eminently a High Com-
missioner as well as a Governor, for he had to deal with a most important
special problem, in addition to carrying on the administration from day
to day. In latter times, however, the term ' High Commissioner ', as
opposed to Governor, has been rather specially used to denote or imply
the powers which the Imperial Government wish to be exercised on
their behalf outside but on the borders of the colonies ; and, with the
growth of the protectorates under the Foreign Jurisdiction Act, the
High Commissioner has gradually assumed in various instances, in
regard to protectorates, administrative functions such as in a Crown
Colony are exercised by a Governor. Thus the Governor of Fiji is also
High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, the Governor of the Straits
Settlements is also High Commissioner for the Federated Malay States
and Brunei, and in South Africa the term has for many years been used
with a similar signification. To take a much earlier instance, it may be
noted that, when the Ionian Islands were, by the treaty of November 5,
1815, placed under British protectorate, it was provided that ' His
Majesty will appoint a Lord High Commissioner to reside there invested

8 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

discharge this duty with the greater efficiency, I was
invested, not only with the title, but with the actual
functions of Governor-General of all Your Majesty's
North American Provinces ; and my instructions restricted
my authority by none of those limitations that had, in
fact, deprived preceding Governors of Lower Canada of
all control over the other Provinces, which, nevertheless,
it had been the practice to render nominally subordinate
to them.1 It was in addition, therefore, to the exclusive
management of the administrative business of an extensive
and disturbed Province, to the legislative duties that
were accumulated on me during the abeyance of its
representative government,2 and to the constant com-
munications which I was compelled to maintain, not
only with the Lieutenant-Governors, but also with in-
dividual inhabitants of the other five Provinces, that I
had to search into the nature and extent of the questions,
of which the adjustment is requisite for the tranquillity
of the Canadas ; to set on foot various and extensive

with all the necessary powers and authorities '. The islands were not
constituted a British possession, but only placed under British pro-
tection and general control. Therefore the term High Commissioner
was used in preference to Governor.

1 The Governor-in-chief of the British North American provinces had
gradually become in fact Governor of Lower Canada only. When Lord
Dalhousie was appointed Governor-in-chief, Sir Peregrine Maitland,
then Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, asked the Secretary of
State, Lord Bathurst, to define his relations to the Governor-in-chief,
and Lord Bathurst, in a dispatch dated February 9, 1821, laid dowii
that ' So long as the governor-in-chief is not resident within the Province
of Upper Canada and does not take the oaths of office in Upper Canada,
he has no control whatever over any part of the civil administration,
nor are you bound to comply with his directions or to communicate
with him on any act of your civil government. To His Majesty you
are alone responsible for the conduct of the civil administration '. At
the time when Lord Durham went out to Canada, the independence of
the Lieutenant-Governors under ordinary conditions was still further
emphasized, as will be seen from Lord Glenelg's dispatch to Lord Durham
of April 3, 1838, which is given in vol. iii, pp. 311-4. Lord Glenelg
says, ' With the title of governor-general, he has, in fact, been governor
of the Province of Lower Canada only. . . . The governor-general and
the Lt. -Governors have severally conducted their respective administra-
tions as separate and independent authorities.'

* On the other hand, a little lower down (p. 14) Lord Durham says
that the suspension of the constitution of Lower Canada relieved him
' from the burthen of constant discussions with the legislative bodies '.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 9

inquiries into the institutions and administration of those
Provinces ; and to devise such reforms in the system of
their government as might repair the mischief which had
already been done, and lay the foundations of order,
tranquillity, and improvement.

The task of providing for the adjustment of questions Extension
affecting the very ' form and administration of Civil

Government ', was naturally limited to the two Provinces, to aU
in which the settlement of such questions had been American
rendered matter of urgent necessity, by the events that Provmces-
had in one seriously endangered, and in the other actually
suspended, the working of the existing constitution.
But though the necessity only reached thus far, the
extension of my authority over all the British Provinces
in North America, for the declared purpose of enabling
me more effectually to adjust the constitutional questions
then at issue in two of them, together with the specific
instructions contained in Despatches from the Secretary
of State, brought under my view the character and
influence of the institutions established in all.1 I found
in all these Provinces a form^f government so nearly the
same — institutions generally so similar, and occasionally
so connected — and interests, feelings and habits so much
in common, that it was obvious, at the first glance, that
my conclusions would be formed without a proper use
of the materials at my disposal, unless my inquiries
were as extended as my power of making them. How
inseparably connected I found the interests of Your
Majesty's Provinces in North America, to what degree
I met with common disorders, requiring common remedies,
is an important topic, which it will be my duty to discuss
very fully before closing this Report. My object at
present is merely to explain the extent of the task imposed
on me, and to point out the fact, that an inquiry originally

1 As to the wide extent to which Lord Durham was invited to make
recommendations, see the latter part of Lord Glenelg's dispatch to
him of January 20, 1838, which is given in vol. iii, pp. 305-11.
Lord Durham, however, it will be remembered, only visited Lower
and Upper Canada.

10 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

directed only to two, has necessarily been extended over
all Your Majesty's Provinces in North America.
.vils of While I found the field of inquiry thus large, and every
uncernt day's experience and reflection impressed more deeply
tainty. on mv mmd the importance of the decision which it would
be my duty to suggest, it became equally clear that that
decision, to be of any avail, must be prompt and final.
I needed no personal observation to convince me of this ;
for the evils I had it in charge to remedy, are evils which
no civilized community can long continue to bear. There
is no class or section of Your Majesty's subjects in either
of the Canadas, that does not suffer from both the existing
disorder and the doubt which hangs over the future form
and policy of the Government. While the present state
of things is allowed to last, the actual inhabitants of these
Provinces have no security for person or property, no
enjoyment of what they possess, no stimulus to industry.
The development of the vast resources of these extensive
territories is arrested ; and the population, which should
be attracted to fill and fertilize them, is directed into
foreign states. Every day during which a final and stable
' settlement is delayed, the condition of the Colonies becomes
worse, the minds of men more exasperated, and the success
of any scheme of adjustment more precarious.
Plan not I was aware of the necessity of promptitude in my
byCresig- decision on the most important of the questions committed
nation of to me at a very early period after my acceptance of the

Governor- . . . J *,. .

General, mission which Your Majesty was pleased to confide to
me. Before leaving England, I assured Your Majesty's
Ministers that the plan which I should suggest for the
future government of the Canadas, should be in readiness
by the commencement of the ensuing Session ; l and,
though I had made provision that, under any circum-
stances, the measures which I might suggest should be

1 This passage is one which militates against full confidence in Lord
Durham's Report, as indicating that he had largely made up his mind,
before he went out, as to what constitutional changes he would
recommend. See below, p. 304, and see also Charles Buller's Sketch
of Lord Durham's Mission (vol. iii, p. 362).

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 11

explained and supported in Parliament by some person
who would have had a share in the preparation of them,
I added, that it was not improbable that I might deem
it my paramount duty towards the Provinces entrusted
to me to attend in my place in the House of Lords, for
the purpose of explaining my own views, and supporting
my own recommendations. My resignation of the office
of Governor-General has, therefore, in nowise precipitated
my suggestion of the plan which appears to me best
calculated to settle the future form and policy of govern-
ment in the Canadas. It has prevented, certainly, my
completing some inquiries which I had instituted, with
a view of effecting practical reforms of essential, but still
of subordinate importance. But with the chief of my
duties as High Commissioner, that of suggesting the
future constitution of these Colonies, that event has
interfered in no way, except in so far as the circumstances
which attended it occasioned an undue intrusion of
extraneous business on the time which was left for the
completion of my labours.

In truth, the administrative and legislative business Weight of
which daily demanded my attention could, with difficulty, business.
be discharged by the most unremitting labour on my own
part, and on that of all those who accompanied me from
England, or were employed by me in Canada.

It is in these circumstances, and under such disadvan-
tages, that this Report has been prepared. I may not
therefore present as extended and as complete a founda-
tion as I could have wished, for those measures of vast
and permanent importance which Parliament will find it
necessary to adopt. But it will include the whole range
of those subjects which it is essential should be brought
under Your Majesty's view, and will prove that I have
not rested content without fully developing the evils
which lie at the root of the disorders of the North American
Provinces, and at the same time suggesting remedies,
which, to the best of my judgment, will provide an
effectual cure.

12 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

The same reasons and the same obstacles have prevented
me from annexing a greater amount of detail and illustra-
tion, which, under more favourable circumstances, it
would have been incumbent on me to collect, for the
purpose of rendering clear and familiar to every mind,
every particular of a state of things, on which little
correct, and much false information has hitherto been
current in this country. I cannot, therefore, but deeply
regret that such a drawback on its efficacy should have
been a necessary consequence of the circumstances under
which the Report has been prepared. I still hope that
the materials collected by me, though not as ample as
I could have desired, will, nevertheless, be found sufficient
for enabling the Imperial Legislature to form a sound
decision on the important interests which are involved
in the result of its deliberations.

Magnitude These interests are indeed of great magnitude ; and
estsnhi-r on the course which Your Majesty and Your Parliament
volved. may adopt, with respect to the North American Colonies,
will depend the future destinies, not only of the million
and a half of Your Majesty's subjects who at present
inhabit those Provinces, but of that vast population
which those ample and fertile territories are fit and
destined hereafter to support. No portion of the American
Continent possesses greater natural resources for the
maintenance of large and flourishing communities. An
almost boundless range of the richest soil still remains
unsettled, and may be rendered available for the purposes
of agriculture. The wealth of inexhaustible forests of
the best timber in America, and of extensive regions of
the most valuable minerals, have as yet been scarcely
touched. Along the whole line of sea-coast, around each
island, and in every river, are to be found the greatest
and richest fisheries in the world. The best fuel and the
most abundant water-power are available for the coarser
manufactures, for which an easy and certain market will
be found. Trade with other continents is favoured by
the possession of a large number of safe and spacious

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 13

harbours ; long, deep and numerous rivers, and vast
inland seas, supply the means of easy intercourse ; and
the structure of the country generally affords the utmost .
facility for every species of communication by land.
^Unbounded materials of agricultural, commercial and
manufacturing industry are there : it depends upon the
present decision of the Imperial Legislature to determine
for whose benefit they are to be rendered available. The
country which has founded and maintained these Colonies Advan-
at a vast expense of blood and treasure, may justly

expect its compensation in turning their unappropriated by the
resources to the account of its own redujjdantjpopulation ; country
they are the rightful patrimony of the English people, the ^om *heso
ample appanage which God and Nature have set aside
in the New World for those whose lot has assigned them
but insufficient portions in the Old. Under wise and
free institutions, these great advantages may yet be
secured to Your Majesty's subjects ; and a connexion
secured by the link of kindred origin and mutual benefits
may continue to bind to the British Empire the ample
territories of its North American Provinces, and the
large and flourishing population by which they will
assuredly be filled.1

LOWER CANADA.

The prominent place which the dissensions of Lower First
Canada had, for some years, occupied in the eyes of the
Imperial Legislature, the alarming state of disorder to Lower
indicated or occasioned by the recent insurrection, and
the paramount necessity of my applying my earliest
efforts to the re-establishment of free and regular govern-
ment in that particular Colony, in which it was then wholly
suspended, necessarily directed my first inquiries to the

1 In this fine passage it will be noted that no specific reference is
made to the North-West, the opening of which came much later in
time. 1876, 1886, 1896, and 1906 are given as years of great moves
into the North-West, but its opening may perhaps be dated from 1885,
when the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed.

14 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Province of which the local government was vested in
my hands. The suspension of the constitution gave me
an essential advantage over my predecessors in the con-
duct of my inquiries ; it not merely relieved me from
the burthen of constant discussions with the legislative
, bodies, but it enabled me to turn my attention from the
alleged, to the real grievances of the Province ; to leave
on one side those matters of temporary contest, which
accident, or the interests and passions of parties, had
elevated into undue importance ; and, without reference
to the representations of the disputants, to endeavour to
make myself master of the real condition of the people,
and the real causes of dissatisfaction or suffering. It was
also a great advantage to me in one respect, that the ordinary
business of the government of the Province was combined
with the functions of my inquiry. The routine of every
day's administrative business brought strongly and fami-
liarly before me the working of the institutions on which I
was called to judge. The condition of the people, the system
by which they were governed, were thus rendered familiar
to me, and I soon became satisfied that I must search in
the very composition of society, and in the fundamental
institutions of government, for the causes of the constant
and extensive disorder which I witnessed.
Erroneous The lengthened and various discussions which had for

views

enter- some years been carried on between the contending parties
England" *n *^e Colony, and the representations which had been
circulated at home, had produced in mine, as in most
minds in England, a very erroneous view of the parties
at issue in Lower Canada.1 The quarrel which I was sent
for the purpose of healing, had been a quarrel between
the executive government and the popular branch of the
legislature. The latter body had, apparently, been con-
tending for popular rights and free government. The
executive government had been defending the prerogative
of the Crown, and the institutions which, in accordance
with the principles of the British Constitution, had been
1 See Introduction, pp. 127-9.

15

established as checks on the unbridled exercise of popular
power. Though, during the dispute, indications had been
given of the existence of dissensions yet deeper and more
formidable than any which arose from simply political
causes, I had still, in common with most of my country-
men, imagined that the original and constant source of
the evil was to be found in the defects of the political
institutions of the Provinces ; that a reform of the
constitution, or perhaps merely the introduction of a
sounder practice into the administration of the govern-
ment, would remove all causes of contest and complaint.
This opinion was strengthened by the well-known fact,
that the political dissensions which had produced their
most formidable results in this Province, had assumed
a similar, though milder, form in the neighbouring Colonies ;
and that the tranquillity of each of the North American
Provinces was subject to constant disturbance from
collision between the executive and the representatives
of the people. The constitutions of these Colonies, the
official characters and positions of the contending parties,
the avowed subjects oi dispute, and the general principles
asserted on each side, were so similar, that I could not
but concur in the very general opinion, that the common
quarrel was the result of some common defect in the
almost identical institutions of these Provinces. I looked
on it as a dispute analogous to those with which history
and experience have made us so familiar in Europe, —
a dispute between a people demanding an extension of
popular privileges, on the one hand, and an executive,
on the other, defending the powers which it conceived
necessary for the maintenance of order./ I supposed that
my principal business would be that of determining how
far each party might be in the right, or which was in the
wrong ; of devising some means of removing the defects
which had occasioned the collision ; and of restoring
such a balance of the constitutional powers as might
secure the free and peaceful working of the machine of
government.

16

The real in a Dispatch which I addressed to Your Majesty's
noTone of Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies on the

9tn °^ August l^1 1 detailed, with great minuteness, the
impressions which had been produced on my mind by
the state of things which existed in Lower Canada :
I acknowledged that the experience derived from my resi-
dence in the Province had completely changed my view
of the relative influence of the causes which had been
assigned for the existing disorders. I had not, indeed, been
brought to believe that the institutions of Lower Canada
were less defective than I had originally presumed them
to be. From the peculiar circumstances in which I was
placed, I was enabled to make such effectual observations
as convinced me that there had existed in the constitution
of the Province, in the balance of political powers, in the
spirit and practice of administration in every department
of the Government, defects that were quite sufficient to
account for a great degree of mismanagement and dis-
satisfaction. The same observation had also impressed
on me the conviction, that, for the peculiar and disastrous
dissensions of t^^g Province, there existed a far deeper
and far more efficient cause, — a cause which penetrated
beneath its political institutions into its social state,—
a cause which no reform of constitution or laws, that
should leave the elements of society unaltered, could
remove ; but which must be removed, ere any success could
be expected in any attempt to remedy the many evils of this
unhappy Province. Ji expected to find a contest between
a government and a people : I found two nations warring
in the bosom of a single state": I found a struggle, not of
principles, but of races ; and I perceived that it would be
idle to attempt any amelioration of laws or institutions
until we could first succeed in terminating the deadly
animosity that now separates the inhabitants of Lower
Canada into the hostile divisions of French and English..

1 This dispatch is given in vol. iii, pp. 319-31. As to the extent of race
feeling in Lower Canada, see Appendix D, vol. iii, p. 273 : ' The great
parent evil of Lower Canada is the hostile division of races, &c.'

17

It would be vain for me -to expect that any description Auimosi-
I can give will impress on Your Majesty such a view of Jwee^the
the animosity of these races as my personal experience French
in Lower Canada has forced on me. Our happy immunity English,
from any feelings of national hostility, renders it difficult
for us to comprehend the intensity of the hatred which
the difference of language, of laws, and of manners,
creates between those Avho inhabit the same village, and
are citizens of the same state. ^We are ready to believe
that the real motive of the quarrel is something else ;
and that the difference of rj^e. has slightly and occasionally
aggravated dissensions, which we attribute to some more
usual cause. Experience of a state of society, so un-
happily divided as that of Lower Canada, leads to an
exactly contrary opinion. The national feud forces
itself on the very senses, irresistibly and palpably, as the
origin or the essence of every dispute which divides the
community ; we discover that dissensions, which appear
to have another origin, are but forms of this constant
and all-pervading quarrel ; and that every contest is
one of French and English in the outset, or becomes so
ere it has run its course.

The political discontents, for which the vicious system Exaspera.
of government has given too much cause, have for a long tw*£ °aceae
time concealed or modified the influence of the national against
quarrel. It has been argued, that (5Hgin\ can have but other,
little effect in dividing the country, inasmuch as individuals
of each race have constantly been enlisted together on
the side of Government, or been found united in leading
the Assembly to assail its alleged abuses ; that the names
of some of the prominent leaders of the rebellion mark
their English, while those of some of the most unpopular
supporters of the Government denote their French,
origin ; * and that the representatives, if not of an actual

1 Among the leaders of the rising in Lewer Canada were the brothers
Nelson (Wolfred and Robert), Storrow Brown, and O'Callaghan, all of
British or Irish origin. Among French Canadians who suffered on the
Government side were Dr. Quesnel, a magistrate in the county of
L'Acadie, whose house was mobbed to make him resign his com-

1352-2 C

18 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

majority (as has occasionally been asserted), at any rate
of a large proportion of the purely English population,
have been found constantly voting with the majority
of the Assembly against what is called the British party.
Temporary and local causes have, no doubt, to a certain
extent, produced such results. The national hostility
has not assumed its permanent influence till of late years,
nor has it exhibited itself every where at once. While
it displayed itself long ago in the cities of Quebec and
Montreal, where the leaders and masses of the rival races
most speedily came into collision, the inhabitants of the
eastern townships,1 who were removed from all personal

mission of the peace, and Mr. Debartzch of St. Charles on the Richelieu,
who, after having been a leading agitator, set himself against the move-
ment to insurrection, and had to fly for his life to Montreal. A loyal
proclamation, signed by French-Canadian magistrates, and issued just
as the insurrection was breaking out, is given in Christie's History of
Lower Canada, vol. iv, chap, xxxix, pp. 452-4. See also Kingsford,
vol. x, p. 99.

1 The townships or eastern townships formed and form the southern
part of Lower Canada, situate to the south of the St. Lawrence, away
from the river, and bordering upon the United States. On p. 50 Lord
Durham speaks of them as ' the Eastern Townships, where the French
race has no footing '. On p. 69 he says that after the division of Canada
into two provinces, ' almost the whole of the then unsettled portion
of the province [of Lower Canada] was formed into townships, in which
the law of England was partially established, and the Protestant
religion alone endowed.' On p. 114 he says: 'The townships are
inhabited entirely by a population of British and American origin ;
and may be said to be divisions established for surveying, rather than
any other purposes.' See also p. 233. The origin of the townships is
described by Charles Buller in his report on public lands, Appendix B,
vol. iii, pp. 42-3. The separate grants were accumulated by means of
a system of leaders and associates. ' With this practice, in fact, the
history of the settlement of the Townships of Lower Canada commences.'
The system began after the passing of the Constitutional Act of 1791,
and in the evidence to which Buller refers, it is stated that there was
most bona fide settlement on the American frontier, where land was
applied for and obtained with a view to personal cultivation, and not
for the purpose of handing it over to a leader and forming a township.
The settlers generally, whether bona fide settlers, or leaders and asso-
ciates, were largely, if not mainly, Americans.

In a petition from the townships to the House of Commons which
was considered by the Select Committee of 1828, and which will be found
in the Appendix to the Report (House of Commons Paper, July 22, 1828,
No. 569, p. 323), the following account is given of the townships at that
time. ' The province of Lower Canada, according to its present con-
dition, may be separated into two parts, viz. first, the Seigniories or
French Lower Canada, which comprehends a narrow tiact of land on

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 19

contact with the French, 'and those of the district below
Quebec, who experienced little interference from the
English, continued to a very late period to entertain
comparatively friendly feelings towards those of the
opposite races. But this is a distinction which has
unfortunately, year after year, been exhibiting itself
more strongly, and diffusing itself more widely. One by
one the ancient English leaders of the Assembly have
fallen off from the majority, and attached themselves
to the party which supported the British Government
against it. Every election from the townships added
to the English minority. On the other hand, year after
year, in spite of the various influences which a government
can exercise, and of which no people in the world are
more susceptible than the French Canadians ; in spite of
the additional motives of prudence and patriotism which °*
deter timid or calm men from acting with a party, ob-
viously endangering the public tranquillity by the violence
of its conduct, the number of French Canadians, on whom
the Government could rely, has been narrowed by the
influence of those associations which have drawn them
into the ranks of their kindred. The insurrection of 1837
completed the division. Since the resort to arms the two
races have been distinctly and completely arrayed against
each other. No portion of the English population was
backward in taking arms in defence of the Government ;
with a single exception,1 no portion of the Canadian

each side of the river St. Lawrence, varying in breadth from ten to
forty miles; and secondly the Townships, or English Lower Canada,
which comprehends the remainder of the province, and is more exten-
sive, and capable of containing a far greater population than the
Seigniories, or French Lower Canada. . . . The Townships, or English
Lower Canada, are peopled wholly by inhabitants of British birth and
descent, and American loyalists, amounting at present to about 40,000
souls, who have no other language than that of their British ancestors,
who inhabit lands, granted under the British tenure of free and common
soccage, who have a Protestant clergy, for whose maintenance a portion
of those lands are set apart.' Lord Durham contemplated that the
French race and language would become merged in the English ; but
as a matter of fact the townships at the present day have largely passed
into the hands of French Canadians.
1 I have not been able to ascertain to what this refers. — ED.

02

20 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

population was allowed to do so, even where it was
asserted by some that their loyalty inclined them thereto.
The exasperation thus generated has extended over the
whole of each race. The most just and sensible of the
English, those whose politics had always been most
liberal, those who had always advocated the most moderate
policy in the provincial disputes, seem from that moment
to have taken their part against the French as resolutely,
if not as fiercely, as the rest of their countrymen, and to
have joined in the determination never again to submit
to a French majority. A few exceptions mark the
existence, rather than militate against the truth of the
general rule of national hostility. A few of the French,
distinguished by moderate and enlarged views, still
condemn the narrow national prejudices and ruinous
violence of their countrymen, while they equally resist
what they consider the violent and unjust pretensions
of a minority, and endeavour to form a middle party
between the two extremes. A large part of the Catholic
clergy,1 a few of the principal proprietors of the seignorial
families, and some of those who are influenced by ancient
connexions of party, support the Government against
revolutionary violence. A very few persons of English
origin (not more, perhaps, than fifty out of the whole
number) still continue to act with the party which they
originally espoused. Those who affect to form a middle
party exercise no influence on the contending extremes ;
and those who side with the nation from which their birth
distinguishes them, are regarded by their countrymen
Avith aggravated hatred, as renegades from their race ;
while they obtain but little of the real affection, confidence
or esteem of those whom they have joined.

1 The Roman Catholic clergy, as a whole, were quite loyal to the
Government, and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Montreal in October
1837 issued a mandement or pastoral letter in support of the Govern-
ment. See Christie's History of Lower Canada, vol. iv, pp. 406-10
and 415-19. One instance to the contrary was Chartier, the cure of
St. Benoit, in the district of the Two Mountains, who took an active
part in the rising, and in consequence came under the ban of the Church
(see Kingsford, vol. x, p. 95, note).

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 21

> The grounds of quarrel which are commonly alleged, Objects
appear, on investigation, to have little to do with its real French
cause ; and the inquirer, who has imagined that the Canadian
public demonstrations or professions of the parties have demo^ '
put him in possession of their real motives and designs, J^j5' nor
is surprised to find, upon nearer observation, how much English,
he has been deceived by the false colours under which
they have been in the habit of fighting. It is not, indeed,
surprising, that each party should, in this instance, have
practised more than the usual frauds of language, by
which factions, in every country, seek to secure the sym-
pathy of other communities., A quarrel based on the mere
ground of national animosity, appears so revolting to the
'notions of goocTsehse and charity prevalent in the civilized
world, that the parties who feel such a passion the most
strongly, and indulge it the most openly, are at great
pains to class themselves under any denominations but
those which would correctly designate their objects and
feelings. ^The French Canadians have attempted to
shroud their hostility to the influence of English emi-
gration,1 and the introduction of British institutions,
under the guise of warfare against the Government and
its supporters, whom they represented to be a small knot
of corrupt and insolent dependents ; 2 being a majority,

1 See below, p. 50, and what Charles Buller says in his Report on Public
Lands and Emigration (Appendix B, vol. iii, p. 122). ' With regard to the
British Government, and the British North American colonies, the case
is different. The former have stimulated emigration on the avowed
ground that it is beneficial to the United Kingdom ; and, except in the
case of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, the latter have
welcomed it.' One of the famous ninety-two resolutions passed by the
Quebec Assembly (No. 3) asserted that immigration was welcomed ; but
British immigration was undoubtedly regarded with suspicion by the
French Canadians, hence in great measure their hostility to the British
American Land Company, formed to take up land and introduce
emigrants in the eastern townships (see Christie, vol. iii, pp. 493-7).

1 It was not only the French Canadians who took a strong view
about the bureaucracy, the ' gens en place '. Writing of the condition
of Canada in Sir James Craig's time, 1807-11, Christie says : ' In fine,
the governor, however unconscious of it he may have been, really was
in the hands of, and ruled by a clique of officials rioting on the means
of the country, yet desiring nothing better than the privilege of tyran-
nizing it, and who, however obsequious to him in appearance, were

22 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

they have invoked the principles of popular control and
democracy, and appealed with no little effect to the
sympathy of liberal politicians in every quarter of the
world. The English, finding their opponents in collision
with the Government, have raised the cry of loyalty and
attachment to British connexion, and denounced the
republican designs of the French, whom they designate,
or rather used to designate, by the appellation of Radicals.
Thus the French have been viewed as a democratic party,
contending for reform ; and the English as a conservative
minority, protecting the menaced connexion with the
British Crown, and the supreme authority of the Empire.
There is truth in this notion in so far as respects the means
by which each party sought to carry its own views of
Government into effect. The French majority asserted
the most democratic doctrines of the rights of a numerical
majority. The English minority availed itself of the
protection of the prerogative, and allied itself with all
those of the colonial institutions which enabled the few
to resist the will of the many. But when we look to the
objects of each party, the analogy to our own politics
seems to be lost, if not actually reversed ; the French
appear to have used their democratic arms for conservative
purposes, rather than those of liberal and enlightened
movement ; and the sympathies of the friends of reform
are naturally enlisted on the side of sound amelioration
which the English minority in vain attempted to introduce
into the antiquated laws of the Province.^

Yet even on the questions which had been most
recently the prominent matters of dispute between the
two parties, it is difficult to believe that the hostility

nevertheless his masters. The government, in fact, was a bureaucracy,
the governor himself little better than an hostage, and the people
looked upon and treated as serfs and vassals by these their official
lords. Such was the inverted order of the government in those times,
anything, it must be avowed, but responsible in the English accep-
tation and meaning of the term ' (History of Lower Canada, vol. i,
pp. 349-50). The above description of the administration was pro-
bably much exaggerated.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 23

of the races was the effect, and not the cause, of the
pertinacity with which the desired reforms were pressed
or resisted.

, The English complained of the Assembly's refusal to Incon-
establish Registry Offices,1 and to commute the feudal J?^£
tenures : and yet it was among the ablest and most parties,
influential leaders of the English that I found some of
the opponents of both the proposed reforms. The leaders
of the French were anxious to disclaim any hostility to
these reforms themselves. Many of them represented the
reluctance which the Assembly had exhibited to entertain
these questions, as a result of the extraordinary influence

1 As to the refusal to establish registry offices (see also below, p. 50),
' The adoption of a registry was refused on the alleged ground of its
inconsistency with the French institutions of the province.' The subject
is mentioned in an address from the Constitutional Association of
Montreal to the inhabitants of British America, which forms the
last enclosure to Appendix A (vol. iii, pp. 24-5), in the following terms :
' In Lower Canada, from the absence of offices for the registration of
real estate, and from the system of secret and general mortgages, not
only is foreign capital excluded, but the colony is impoverished by the
withdrawal of funds for profitable and secure investment in other
countries. In tracing the motive of resistance to a measure that more
than any other would advance the public welfare, we again encounter
the pernicious influence of French exclusiveness. A general distrust
of the titles and securities of landed estate is suffered to exist, in order
to prevent the acquisition of real property by immigrants from the
British Isles.' The address goes on to specify among its demands ' To
introduce Registry offices, and put an end to the iniquitous frauds that
grow out of the present system ' (p. 27 ). Lord Dalhousie had called atten-
tion to the importance of this matter in a message to the Quebec As-
sembly, dated February 4, 1823. 'The governor-in-chief calls the atten-
tion of the House of Assembly to the expediency of enacting a law for the
public registry of instruments conveying, charging, or affecting real
property, with a view to give greater security to the possession and
transfer of such property and to commercial transactions in general.'
He called attention to it again in opening the session for 1826. Registry
offices were established in the eastern townships by a Lower Canada
Act of 1830, 10 & 11 Geo. IV, cap. viii, ' An Act to establish Registry
offices ^kfcJtjaCounties of Drummond Sherbrooke, Stanstead, Shefford,
and MraR^bwL: but by the last section of the Act, it was made to
S. This point is referred to in the report of
r"innrri of Municipal Inquiry (Appendix C, vol. iii,
p. ivj: s special instances of the unseasonabloness of temporary
we may mention the brief incorporation of Quebec and Montreal,
and^ie act for establishing registry offices in the townships.'

Appendix E t<W*Lord Durham's Report (not reprinted) contains
a letteV from Lory Durham on the subject, dated May 31, 1839, with
a repoA by Mr. T/urton and the draft of an ordinance.

24

which Mr. Papineau 1 exercised over that body ; his
opposition was accounted for by some peculiar prejudices
of education and professional practice, in which he was
said to find little concurrence among his countrymen ;
it was stated that even his influence would not have
prevented these questions from being very favourably
entertained by the Assembly, had it ever met again ; and
I received assurances of a friendly disposition towards
them, which I must say were very much at variance with
the reluctance which the leading men of the party showed
to any co-operation with me in the attempts which
I subsequently made to carry these very objects into effect.
At the same time while the leading men of the French
party thus rendered themselves liable to the imputation
of a timid or narrow-minded opposition to these improve-
ments, the mass of the French population, who are
immediate sufferers by the abuses of the seignorial
system, exhibited, in every possible shape, their hostility
to the state of things which their leaders had so obstinately
maintained. There is every reason to believe that a great
number of the peasants who fought at St. Denis and
St. Charles, imagined that the principal result of success
would be the overthrow of tithes and feudal burthens ;
and in the declaration of independence which Dr. Robert
Nelson 2 issued, two of the objects of the insurrection were

1 Lewis Joseph Papineau was born in Montreal in 1786. He entered
the Quebec Assembly in 1809. In 1815 he was chosen as Speaker. In
1820 Lord Dalhousie appointed him to the Executive Council, but he
resigned almost immediately. He was a fugitive from Canada from
1837 to 1847, he then returned, and re-entered the Legislature of the
United Provinces till 1854. He died in 1871 (see Diet, of Nat. Biog. s.v.)

8 Robert Nelson, brother of the better known Dr. Wolfred Nelson,
was at the general election of 1834 elected as Papineau's colleague for
the West Ward of Montreal. He joined with his brother in the rising
of 1837, and, while Wolfred Nelson was taken prisoner, Robert Nelson
escaped to the United States, and tried to levy war on Canada from
that country, issuing a ridiculous proclamation of independence. He
gave trouble in the second rising of 1838. Unlike his brother, when an
amnesty was proclaimed, he did not take advantage of it and return
to Canada. It is noteworthy that in 1838 he wrote of Papineau : ' Papi-
neau has abandoned us, and this through selfish and family motives
regarding the seigniories, and inveterate love of the old French bad

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 25

stated to be the abolition of feudal tenures and the
establishment of Registry Offices.* When I observe these
inconsistencies of conduct among the opponents and
supporters of these reforms ; when I consider that their
attainment was prevented by means of the censitaires,1
the very persons most interested in their success, and that
they were not more eagerly demanded by the wealthier
of the English, than by the artisans and labourers of that
race whose individual interests would hardly have derived
much direct benefit from their success, I cannot but think
that many, both of the supporters and of the opponents,
cared less for the measures themselves, than for the
handle which the agitation of them gave to their national
hostility ; that the Assembly resisted these cHanges
chiefly because the English desired them ; and that the

* Among the few petitions, except those of mere compliment, which
I received from French Canadians, were three or four for the abolition
and commutation of the feudal tenures. But the most remarkable
was one which was presented from the inhabitants of the county of
Saguenay, and supported by Mr. Charles Drolet, late M.P.P. for that
county. The petitioners, who represented themselves as suffering
under a degree of distress of which the existence is too deplorably
certain, prayed to be allowed to settle on the wild lands at the head of
the Saguenay. They expressed their willingness to take the lands on
any conditions which the Government might propose, but they prayed
that it should not be granted on the feudal tenure.

laws. We can do well without him, and better than if we had him —
a man only fit for words but not for action ' (see House of Commons
Paper of February 11, 1839, No.2, p. 101, and see also Kingsford, vol. x).
1 ' The censitaire, the broad base of the feudal pyramid. The tenure
en censive, by which the censitaire held of the Seignior, consisted in the
obligation to make annual payments in money, produce, or both. In
Canada these payments, known as cens et rente, were strangely diverse
in amount and kind ' (Parkman, The Old Regime in Canada, Macmillan,
1885, p. 249). The censitaire usually held from the Seignior, but some-
times direct from the Crown (Parkman, ibid. p. 246). For an account
of this tenure see Professor Munro's Seigniorial System in Canada
(Longman's, 1907). ' First in logical order among the remunerative
obligations imposed by the Seignior upon his habitants was that of
paying the annual cens et rentes. . . . The cens has been defined by
a leading commentator on the Custom of Paris as " a moderate tax
imposed in recognition of the Seignior's direct authority " ' (p. 85).
It may be said that the censitaire was the habitant in his feudal relation
to the Seignior.

26

REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Indepen-

of
English

tion" 8

eagerness with which many of the English urged them
was stimulated by finding them opposed by the French^,
Nor did I find the spirit which animated each party at
more coincident with the representations current in
this country, than their objects appeared, when tried
by English, or rather European ideas of reforming legis-
lation. ,An utterly uneducated and singularly inert
population, implicitly obeying leaders who ruled them by
the influence of a blind confidence and narrow national
prejudices, accorded very little with the resemblance
which had been discovered to that high-spirited democracy
which effected the American Revolution. Still less could
I discover in the English population those slavish tools
of a narrow official clique, or a few purse-proud merchants,
which their opponents had described them as being.
I have found the main body of the English population,
consisting of hardy farmers and humble mechanics,
composing a very independent, not very manageable,
and, sometimes a rather turbulent, democracy .> Though
constantly professing a somewhat extravagant loyalty
and high prerogative doctrines, I found them very
determined on maintaining in their own persons a great
respect for popular rights, and singularly ready to enforce
their wishes by the strongest means of constitutional
pressure on the Government. Between them and the
Canadians I found the strongest hostility ; and that
hostility was, as might be expected, most strongly deve-
loped among the humblest and rudest of the body.
Between them and the small knot of officials, whose
influence has been represented as so formidable, I found
no sympathy whatever ; and it must be said, in justice
to this body of officials, who have been so much assailed
as the enemies of the Canadian people, that however
little I can excuse the injurious influence of that system
of administration, which they were called upon to carry
into execution, the members of the oldest and most
powerful official families were, of all the English in the
country, those in whom I generally found most sympathy

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 27

with, and kindly feeling towards, the French population.
I could not therefore believe that this animosity was only
that subsisting between an official oligarchy and a people ;
and again, I was brought to a conviction that the contest,
which had been represented as a contest of classes, was,
in fact, a contest of races.

However unwilling we may be to attribute the disorders Dissimi-
of a country connected with us to a cause so fatal to its
tramjuillity, and one which it seems so difficult to remove,
noveryTbng or laboured consideration of the relative
characters and position of these races is needed for
convincing us of their invincible hostility towards each
other, y^ft is scarcely possible to conceive descendants j.
of any of the great European nations more unlike each
other in chajgystgr. and temperament, more .totally
sepaj*ated from each other by language, laws, and modes
of life, or placed in circumstances more calculated to
produce mutual misunderstanding, jealousy and hatredjf
To conceive the incompatibility of the two races in Canada,
it is not enough that we should picture to ourselves
a community composed of equal proportions of French
and English. We must bear in mind what kind of French
and English they are that are brought in contact, and in
what proportions they meet.

/The institutions of France, during the period of the Charac-
colonization of Canada, were, perhaps, more than those th^French
of any other European nation, calculated to repress the Canadians,
intelligence and freedom of the great mass of the people.
These institutions followed the Canadian colonist across
the Atlantic. The same\central, ill-organized, unimprov-
ing and repressive despotism extended over him.1 Not

1 For an account of the lines on which the French colonized Canada
see, among many other books, the two books referred to in the pre-
vious note, viz. The Old Regime in Canada and The Seigniorial System
in Canada. Lord Durham is not fair to the system, which Louis XIV,
Colbert, and Talon constructed, in calling it ' ill-organized '. It was
rather over-organized ; and as against what he says as to the ' feudal
dependence ' in which the habitants lived, contrast what was said by
Lieutenant-Governor Milnes in his dispatch of November I, 1800.
Milnes considered that the first and most important cause of the

28

merely was he allowed no voice in the government of
his Province, or the choice of his rulers, but he was not
even permitted to associate with his neighbours for the
regulation of those municipal affairs, which the central
authority neglected under the pretext of managing. He
obtained his land on a tenure singularly calculated to
promote his immediate comfort, and to check his desire
to better his condition ; he was placed at once in a life
of constant and unvarying labour, of great material
comfort, and feudal dependence. The ecclesiastical
authority to which he had been accustomed established
its institutions around him, and the priest continued to
exercise over him his ancient influence. No general
provision was made for education ; and, as its necessity
was not appreciated, the colonist made no attempt to
^repair the negligence of his government. It need not
surprise us that, under such circumstances,Ya race of men
habituated to the incessant labour of a rude and unskilled
agriculture, and habitually fond of social enjoyments,
congregated together in rural communities, occupying
portions of the wholly unappropriated soil, sufficient to
provide each family with material comforts, far beyond
their ancient means, or almost their conceptions ; that
they made little advance beyond the first progress in
comfort, which the bounty of the soil absolutely forced
upon them ; that under the same institutions they
remained the same uninstructed, inactive, unprogressive
people?] Along the alluvial banks of the St. Lawrence,
and its tributaries, they have cleared two or three strips
of land, cultivated them in the worst method of small

decline of the influence of the Canadian aristocracy was ' 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 '
(Egerton and Grant, Canadian Constitutional Development, p. 111).
Further on Lord Durham speaks again of the ' central ' despotism of
the old regime, and notes how it had disappeared without being
replaced by any municipal institutions (see pp. 98-9). ' Lower Canada
remains without municipal institutions of local self-government,
which are the foundations of Anglo-Saxon freedom and civiliza-
tion ; nor is their absence compensated by anything like the centraliza-
tion of France.'

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 29

farming, and established a series of continuous villages,
which give the country of the seignories the appearance of
i never-ending street.1 Besides the cities which were
;he seats of government, no towns were established ;
;he rude manufactures of the country were, and still are,
jarried on in the cottage by the family of the habitant ;
ind an insignificant proportion of the population derived
:heir subsistence from the scarcely discernible commerce
of the Province. Whatever energy existed among the
population was employed in the fur trade, and the occu-
pations of hunting, which they and their descendants
have carried beyond the Rocky Mountains, and still, in
great measure, monopolize in the whole valley of the ,
Mississippi. \The mass of the community exhibited in the *-x
New World the characteristics of the peasantry of Europe.!]
Society was dense ; and even the wants and the poverty

1 Cf. what is said in the Report of the Assistant Commissioners of
Municipal Inquiry (Appendix C, vol. iii, p. 142) : ' The inhabitants of
French origin are chiefly distributed along the banks of the St. Lawrence,
as far up as Montreal. The land ad j acent to this magnificent river exhibits
the appearance of a continuous line of villages, a military mode of
settlement, which presents obvious facilities for municipal organization.'

2 As to the characteristics of the habitants or peasantry, see the
Report of the Assistant Commissioners of Municipal Inquiry, as above,
p. 142. ' The habitant is active, hardy, and intelligent, but excitable,
credulous ; and, being a stranger to everything beyond his own con-
tracted sphere, he is peculiarly liable to be made the dupe of political
speculators.' See also the Report of the Commissioner of Inquiry into the
State of Education in Lower Canada, Appendix D, vol. iii, p. 267 : ' They
are shrewd and intelligent, very moral, most amiable in their domestic
relations, and most graceful in their manners ; but they lack all enter-
prise ; they have no notion of improvement, and no desire for it.
Their wants are few and easily satisfied. They have not advanced one
step in civilization beyond the old Bretons who first set foot on the ^
banks of the St. iawrence, and they are quite content to be stationary.'
General Murray reported in June 1762 that the Canadians might be
ranked in four classes, the fourth being ' The Peasantry or what is here
styled Habitant '. ' The fourth order is that of the Peasantry. These *•
are a strong, healthy race, plain in their dress, virtuous in their morals,

and temperate in their living. They are in general extremely ignorant,
for the former government would never suffer a printing press in the
country, few can read or write, and all receive implicitly for truth the
many arrant falsehoods and atrocious lies, industriously handed among
them by those who were in power' (Shortt and Doughty, Documents relat-
ing to the Constitutional History of Canada, 1759-1791, pp. 59, 60). The
habitants were mainly of Norman or Breton descent. For the use of
the word see note 1 on page 31.

30 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

which the pressure of population occasions in the Old
-HVWorld, became not to be wholly unknown. \They clung
to ancient prejudices, ancient customs and ancient
laws, not from any strong sense of their beneficial effects,
but with the unreasoning tenacity of an uneducated and
unprogressive people 7] Nor were they wanting in the
virtues of a simple and industrious life, or in those which
common consent attributes to the nation from which
they spring. The temptations which, in other states of
society, lead to offences against property, and the passions
which prompt to violence, were little known among them.
They are mild and kindly, frugal, industrious and honest,
very sociable, cheerful and hospitable, and distinguished
for a courtesy and real politeness, which pervades every
class of society. The conquest has changed them but
little. The higher classes, and the inhabitants of the
towns, have adopted some English customs and feelings ;
but the continued negligence of the British Government l
left the mass of the people without any of the institutions
which would have elevated them in freedom and civiliza-
tion. It has left them without the education andl without
the institutions of local self-government, that would have
assimilated their character and habits, in the easiest and
best way, to those of the Empire of which they became

1 It will be seen that Lord Durham strongly blames the British
Government for ' continued negligence ' in regard to education in
Lower Canada. On page 34 he speaks of ' the entire neglect of
education by the government ', and on p. 136 he says that ' the
British government has, since its possession of this province, done, or
even attempted, nothing for the promotion of general education ' ;
but in the Report of the Special Commissioner on Education, though the
action or inaction of the British Government is condemned, it is pointed
out that the intrusion of politics into educational matters, for which
the Quebec Assembly was responsible, was the main obstacle to educa-
tion in Lower Canada. ' This it was that mainly contributed to reduce
the province to the deplorable state in which it is at present found '
(App. D, vol. iii, p. 266). Lord Durham refers to the jobbery in con-
nexion with education on pp. 94-6. The Governors of Canada at any
rate were alive to the importance of education. Thus Lord Dalhousie,
in opening the session of the Quebec Legislature in January 1826,
said : ' I scarcely need advert to the subject of education in this pro-
vince. It has long occupied the public attention, and has acquired
increasing interest by the increasing desire for its inestimable ad-
vantages.' See also Introduction, pp. 232-6.

31

a part. They remain an old and stationary society, in
a now and progressive world^/ Jn all essentials they are
still French ; but French in every respect dissimilar to
those of France in the present day. They resemble rather
the French of the provinces under the old regime.^/

1 cannot pass over this subject without calling particular Their
attention to a peculiarity in the social condition of this *^iiar
people, of which the important bearing on the troubles condition,
of Lower Canada has never, in my opinion, been properly
estimated. The circumstances of a new and unsettled
country, the operation of the French laws of inheritance,
and the absence of any means of accumulation, by
commerce or manufactures, have produced a remarkable
equality of properties and conditions. A few seignorial
families possess large, though not often very valuable
properties ; the class entirely dependent on wages is very
small ; the bulk of the population is composed of the'
hard-working yeomanry of the country districts, commonly
called habitans,1 and their connexions engaged in other
occupations. It is impossible to exaggerate the want ot'
education among the habitans ; no means of instruction
have ever been provided for them, and they are almost
universally destitute of the qualifications even of reading
and writing. It came to my knowledge that out ofN
a great number of boys and girls assembled at the school-
house door of St. Thomas, all but three admitted, on
inquiry, that they could not read. Yet the children of
this large parish -attend school regularly, and actually
make use of books. They hold the catechism book in
their hand, as if they were reading, while they only repeat
its contents, which they know by rote.2 The common

1 In Professor Munro's Seigniorial System in Canada, p. 39, note 2,
it is stated that ' The dependents of the seigniors in New France were
not, as at home, known as " censitaires " ; they were in their own
language " habitants ", a term which they seem to have preferred
because it did not necessarily involve the idea of dependence.' Park-
man says : ' In fact, the Canadian settler scorned the name of peasant,
and then, as now, was always called the habitant' (The Old Regime in
Canada, p. 253).

2 The Annual Register for 1839 (p. 175), in referring to Lord Durham's

32 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

assertion, however, that all classes of the Canadians arc
equally ignorant, is perfectly erroneous ; for I know of
no people among whom a larger provision exists for the
higher kinds of elementary education,1 or among whom
such education is really extended to a larger proportion
of the population. The piety and benevolence of the
early possessors of the country founded, in the seminaries
that exist in different parts of the Province, institutions,
of which the funds and activity have long been directed
to the promotion of education. Seminaries and colleges
have been, by these bodies, established in the cities, and
in other central points. The education given in these
establishments greatly resembles the kind given in the
English public schools, though it is rather more varied.
\It is entirely in the hands of the Catholic clergy. The
number of pupils in these establishments is estimated
altogether at about a thousand ; and they turn out every
year, as far as I could ascertain, between two and three
hundred young men thus educated. Almost all of these
are members of the family of some habitant, whom the
possession of greater quickness than his brothers has
induced the father or the curate of the parish to select
and send to the seminary. These young men possessing
a degree of information immeasurably superior to that
of their families, are naturally averse to what they regard
as descending to the humble occupations of their parents.
A few become priests ; but as the military and naval
professions2 are closed against the colonist, the greater

Report, lays special stress on his statements as to the want of education
among the French Canadians, and quotes this particular passage.

1 See the Report of the Commissioner of Enquiry into the State of
Education in Lower Canada (Appendix D, vol. iii, p. 270). 'With regard
to the means of higher education, persons of British origin have hardly
any, while those of French origin have them in too great abundance.'
See also p. 134 of the Report, and Introduction, pp. 241-2.

8 See also below, p. 292. ' A spirit of exclusion has closed the higher
professions on the educated classes of the French Canadians, more,
perhaps, than was absolutely necessary.' Carleton (Lord Dorchester),
in earlier days, strongly pressed upon the home authorities the impor-
tance of taking the French Canadian gentlemen into the King's service.
Thus on January 20, 1768, he wrote to Lord Shelburne : ' As long as

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 33

part can only find a position suited to their notions of
their own qualifications in the learned professions of
advocate, notary and surgeon. As from this cause these
professions are greatly overstocked, we find every village
in Lower Canada filled with notaries and surgeons, with
little practice to occupy their attention, and living among
their own families, or at any rate among exactly the same
class. Thus the persons of most education in every village
belong to the same families, and the same original station
in life, as the illiterate habitans whom I have described.
They are connected with them by all the associations of
early youth, and the ties of blood. The most perfect
equality always marks their intercourse, and the superior
in education is separated by no barrier of manners, or
pride, or distinct interests, from the singularly ignorant
peasantry by which he is surrounded.1 He combines/
therefore, the influences of superior knowledge and social
equality, and wields a power over the mass, which I do
not believe that the educated class of any other portion^
of the world possess. To this singular state of things
I attribute the extraordinary influence of the Canadian
demagogues. The most uninstructed population any*
where trusted with political power, is thus placed in the
hands of a small body of instructed persons, in whom it
reposes the confidence which nothing but such domestic
connexion, and such community of interest could generate.

the Canadians are deprived of all places of trust and profit, they never
can forget, they no longer are under the dominion of their natural
sovereign ; and on November 20, 1768, to Lord Hillsborough : ' I have
not the least doubt of their secret attachments to France, and think
this will continue as long as they are excluded from all employments
under the British government, and are certain of being reinstated, at
least in their former Commissions, under that of France, by which
chiefly they supported themselves and families ' (see Documents Relating
to the Constitutional History of Canada 1759-91, Shortt and Doughty,
1907, pp. 206, 227).

1 The Canadian priesthood also, like the Irish priesthood, was largely
recruited from among the habitants. Thus Murray reported in 1762 :
' The Clergy — most of the dignified among them are French, the rest
Canadians, and are in general of the lower class of people ' (Shortt and
Doughty, Documents relating to the Constitutional History of Canada,
p. 59).

1352-2 D

34

Over the class of persons by whom the peasantry are thus
led, the Government has not acquired, or ever laboured
to acquire, influence ; its members have been thrown into
opposition by the system of exclusion, long prevalent hi
the colony ; and it is by their agency that the leaders
of the Assembly have been enabled hitherto to move as
one mass, in whatever direction they thought proper,
the simple and ductile population of the country. The
entire neglect of education by the Government has thus,
more than any other cause, contributed to render this
people ungovernable, and to invest the agitator with the
power, which he wields against the laws and the public
tranquillity.y

Conduct Among this people, the progress of emigration has of
English la*e years introduced an English population, exhibiting
the characteristics with which we are familiar, as those of
the most enterprising of every class of our countrymen.
The circumstances of the early colonial administration
Of the excluded the native Canadian from power, and vested
all offices of trust and emolument in the hands of strangers
of English origin. The highest posts in the law were
confided to the same class of persons. The functionaries
of the civil government, together with the officers of the
army, composed a kind of privileged class, occupying the
first place in the community, and excluding the higher
class of the natives from society, as well as from the
government of their own country.1 *It was not till within
a very few years, as was testified by persons who had seen
much of the country, that this society of civil and military
functionaries ceased to exhibit towards the higher order
of Canadians an exclusiveness of demeanor, which was
more revolting to a sensitive and polite people than the
monopoly of power and profit ; nor was this national
favouritism discontinued, until after repeated complaints
and an angry contest, which had excited passions that
concession could not allay. The races had become
enemies ere a tardy justice was extorted ; and even then
1 See above, p. 32, note 2.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA :*">

the Government discovered a mode of distributing its
patronage among the Canadians, which was quite as
offensive to that people as their previous exclusion./

It was not long after the conquest, that another and Of
larger class of English settlers began to enter the Province,
English capital was attracted to Canada by the vast
quantity and valuable nature of the exportable produce
of the country, and the great facilities for commerce,
presented by the natural means of internal intercourse.
The ancient trade of the country * was conducted on
a much larger and more profitable scale ; and new
branches of industry were explored. £ The active__and-.
regular_habits of the_English .capitalist drove out of all
the more profitable kinds of industry their inert and
careless competitors of the French race ; but in respect
of the greater part (almost the whole) of the commerce
and manufactures of the country, the English cannot be
said to have encroached on the French ; for, in fact, they
created employments and profits which had not previously
existed. A few of the ancient rage smarted under the
loss occasioned by the success of English competition ;
but all felt yet more acutely the gradual increase of
a class of strangers hi whose hands the wealth of the
country appeared to centre, and whose expenditure and
influence eclipsed those of the class which had previously
occupied the first position hi the country ,\ Nor was the
intrusion of the English limited to commercial enterprizes.
By degrees, large portions of land were occupied by them ;

1 General Murray, in reporting upon the district of Quebec, which j
was under his command, in June 1762, wrote : ' The traders of this !
colony under the French were either dealers in gross or retailers, the :
former were mostly French, and the latter in general natives of this
country.' The trade was mainly the fur trade. Thus General Gage,
in reporting upon the district of Montreal, which he commanded, in
the same year, wrote : ' The only immediate importance and advan-
tage the French King derived from Canada was the preventing the
extension of the British colonies, the consumption of the commodities
and manufactures of France, and the trade of pelletry ' (see Shortt and
Doughty, Documents relating to the Constitutional Development of Canada,
pp. 60, 71). The fur trade diverted the more active part of the Canadian
peasantryinto a roving life, Indianized them, and produced the voyageura :
and the Coureurs de Bois.

D 2

36 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

nor did they confine themselves to the unsettled and
distant country of the townships. (_The wealthy capitalist
invested his money in the purchase of seigniorial proper-
ties ; and it is estimated, that at the present moment full
half of the more valuable seigniories are actually owned
by English proprietors.*) The seigniorial tenure is one so
little adapted to our notions of proprietary rights, that
the new seignior, without any consciousness or intention
of injustice, in many instances exercised his rights in
a manner which would appear perfectly fair in this
country, but which the Canadian settler reasonably
regarded as oppressive. The English purchaser found an
equally unexpected and just cause of complaint in that
uncertainty of the laws, which rendered his possession of
property precarious, and in those incidents of the tenure
which rendered its alienation or improvement difficult.
But an irritation, greater than that occasioned by the
transfer of the large properties, was caused by the com-
petition of the English with the French farmer. The
English farmer carried with him the experience and habits
of the most improved agriculture in the world. He
settled himself in the townships bordering on the seig-
niories, and brought a fresh soil and improved cultivation
to compete with the worn-out and slovenly farm of the
habitant. He often took the very farm which the Canadian
settler had abandoned, and, by superior management,
made that a source of profit which had only impoverished
his predecessor. The ascendancy which an unjust
favouritism had contributed to give to the English race
in the government and the legal profession, their own
superior energy, skill and capital secured to them in every

1 An instance of a British seignior is given below (p. 96), viz. Mr.
Ellice, owner of the seigniory of Beauharnois. The French-Canadian
party contended that the effect of the two Imperial Acts of 1822 and
1825 (The Canada Trade Act and The Canada Tenures Act) was to
convert the seignior into an English landlord, and thereby to deprive
the censitaires or habitants of their rights. If this were so, a somewhat
analogous case would be the conversion of the heads of clans in Scotland
into modern landlords. As to French-Canadian feeling in the matter, see
Christie's History of Lower Canada, vol. iv, pp. 226-7 and notes.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 37

branch of industry. T^iey have developed the resources
of the country ; they have constructed or improved its
means of communication • they have created its internal
and foreign commerce. (The entire wholesale, and a large
portion of the retail trade of the Province, with the most
profitable and flourishing farms, are now in the hands of
this numerical minority of the population.^

In Lower Canada the mere working class which de- Animosi-
pends on wages, though proportionally large in comparison forking °
with that to be found in any other portion of the American classes

* not the

continent, is, according to our ideas, very small. Com- result of a

collision o
interests.

petition between persons of different origin in this comsion of

class, has not exhibited itself till very recently, and is,
even now, almost confined to the cities. The large mass
of the labouring population are French in the employ
of English capitalists. The more skilled class of artisans
are generally English ; but in the general run of the more
laborious employments, the French Canadians fully hold
their ground against English rivalry. The emigration
which took place a few years ago,1 brought in a class
which entered into more direct competition with the
French in some kinds of employment in the towns ; but
the individuals affected by this competition were not
very many. I do not believe that the animosity which
exists between the working classes of the two origins is
the necessary result of a collision of interests, or of a
jealousy of the superior success of English labour. But
(national prejudices naturally exercise the greatest influence
over the most uneducated ; the difference of language
is less easily overcome ; the differences of manners and
customs less easily appreciated. The labourers, whom
the emigration introduced, contained a number of very
ignorant, turbulent and demoralized persons, whose con-
duct and manners alike revolted the well-ordered and

1 As to British emigration to Canada before this time, see Introduc-
tion, pp. 189-93. The tide set in from about 1820 onwards. Lord
Durham notes below (p. 57) the falling off of immigration into Canada
owing to the political state of the Lower Province.

38 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

courteous natives of the same class. The working men
naturally ranged themselves on the side of the educated
and wealthy of their own countrymen. When once
engaged in the conflict, their passions were less restrained
by education and prudence ; and the national hostility
now rages most fiercely between those whose interests in
reality bring them the least in collision.)
Poiutd of The two races thus distinct have been brought into the
between™ same community, under circumstances which rendered
the races, their contact inevitably productive of collision. The
difference of language from the first kept them asunder.
(2^t is not any where a virtue of the English race to look with
complacency on any manners, customs or laws which
appear strange to them ; accustomed to form a high
estimate of their own superiority, they take no pains to
conceal from others their contempt and intolerance of
their usages. They found the French Canadians filled
with an equal amount of national pride ; a sensitive, but
inactive pride, which disposes that people not to resent
insult, but rather to keep aloof from those who would
Xkeep them under. The French could not but feel the
superiority of Englishjaiterprize ; they could not shut
their eyes to their success in every undertaking in which
they came into contact, and to the constant superiority
which they were acquiring. They looked upon their
rivals with alarm, with jealousy, and finally with hatred.
The English repaid them with a scorn, which soon also
assumed the same form of hatred. The French com-
plained of the arrogance and injustice of the English ; the
English accused the French of the vices of a weak and
conquered people, and charged them with meanness and
perfidy. The entire mistrust which the two races have
thus learned to conceive of each other's intentions, induces
them to put the worst construction on the most innocent
conduct ; to judge every word, every act, and every
intention unfairly ; to attribute the most odious designs,
and reject every overture of kindness or fairness, as
, covering secret designs of treachery and malignity.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 39

Religion formed no bond of intercourse and union. -
It is, indeed, an admirable feature of Canadian society,
that it is entirely devoid of any religious dissensions.
Sectarian intolerance is not merely not avowed, but it
hardly seems to influence men's feelings.1 But though
the prudence and liberality of both parties has prevented
this fruitful source of animosity from embittering their
quarrels, the difference of religion has in fact tended to
keep them asunder. Their priests have been distinct ;
they have not met even in the same church.

No common education has served to remove and soften Education i
the differences of origin and language. The associations seParate-
of youth, the sports of childhood, and the studies by which
the character of manhood is modified, are distinct and
totally different. In Montreal and Quebec there are
English schools and French schools ; the children in
these are accustomed to fight nation against nation, and
the quarrels that arise among boys in the streets usually
exhibit a division into English on one side, and French
on the other.

As they are taught apart, so are their studies different.2 Effects of
The literature with which each is the most conversant, e^'0^
is that of the peculiar language of each ; and all the ideas language.
which men derive from books, come to each of them from

1 Similarly Lord Gosford and his colleagues, in that part of their
General Report on Lower Canada which relates to Education, wrote :
' There is a deep sentiment of religion spread, we believe, over the
whole population of the country, and we are happy to bear testimony
so cordially as we can do, that it is accompanied with fewer feelings of
acerbity of the followers of one creed towards another, and particularly
of Protestants towards Catholics and Catholics towards Protestants,
than perhaps in any country where distinctions so marked and so
numerous exist ' (Reports of Commissioners on Grievances complained
of in Lower Canada : House of Commons Paper, No. 50, February 20,
1837 ; General Report, p. 50).

2 It is interesting to note how in the last thirty years literary and
scientific Canadians, of both races and in both languages, have joined
forces in ' The Royal Society of Canada for the promotion of Literature
and Science within the Dominion'. This Society, to which students of
Canadian history owe much, was initiated at Montreal on December 29
and 30, 1881, on the invitation of the Marquess of Lome (now the Duke
of Argyll), then Governor-General. The first meeting was held at
Ottawa in May 1882. *

40 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

perfectly different sources. The difference of language
in this respect produces effects quite apart from those
which it has on the mere intercourse of the two races.
Those who have reflected on the powerful influence of
language on thought, will perceive in how different
a manner people who speak in different languages are apt
to think ; and those who are familiar with the literature
of France, know that the same opinion will be expressed
by an English and French writer of the present day, not
merely in different words, but in a style so different as to
mark utterly different habits of thought. This difference
is very striking in Lower Canada ; it exists not merely in
the books of most influence and repute, which are of course
those of the great writers of France and England, and by
which the minds of the respective races are formed, but
it is observable in the writings which now issue from the
Colonial press. The articles in the newspapers of each
race, are written in a style as widely different as those of
France and England at present ; and the arguments
which convince the one, are calculated to appear utterly
unintelligible to the other.
The difference of language1 produces misconceptions

1 From the first, when the Act of 1791 was passed, French and
English ran side by side in the Quebec Legislature. ' The use of both
languages was accepted as a matter of course from the beginning of the
constitutional change without any formal resolution by either house,
and this applied also to bills introduced ' (Rrymner's Report on Canadian
Archives for 1891, Introduction, p. xxix). Lord Dalhousic held the
same views as Lord Durham as to the evil of the two languages. In
a confidential dispatch of November 21, 1823, in which he expressed
himself in favour of union of the two provinces, he wrote : ' At present
the use of two languages indiscriminately, in the Legislature and in the
Coiirts of Justice, creates an extraordinary and absurd confusion, leads
to immense additional labour and expense, and nourishes prejudice
and separation of feelings between the two classes of people.' At
a much earlier date, in February 1789, Finlay, the Postmaster-General
of Canada, wrote : ' We might make the people entirely English by
introducing the English language. This is to be done by free schools,
arid by ordaining that all suits in our courts shall be carried on in
English after a certain number of years ' (Shortt and Doughty, p. 657).
By the Union Act of 1840, section 41, the records of the Legislature
of the United Province were to be in the English language only, but
translations were allowed ; and in debates both languages were allowed
(see Houston's Constitutional Documents of Canada, p. 183). It was

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 41

yet more fatal even than those which it occasions with
respect to opinions ; it aggravates the national ani-
mosities, by representing all the events of the day in
utterly different lights. The political misrepresentation v
of facts is one of the incidents of a free press in every free
country ; but in nations in which all speak the same
language, those who receive a misrepresentation from one
side, have generally some means of learning the truth
from the other. In Lower Canada, however, where the
French and English papers represent adverse opinions,
and where no large portion of the community can read
both languages with ease, those who receive the mis-
representation are rarely able to avail themselves of the
means of correction. It is difficult to conceive the
perversity with which misrepresentations are habitually
made, and the gross delusions which find currency among
the people ; they thus live in a world fff pifflVTpyfptinna.
in which each party is set against the other not only by
diversity of feelings and opinions, but by an actual belief
in an utterly different set of facts. *^

The differences thus early occasioned by education and Absence of
language, are in no wise softened by the intercourse of tercourse
after-life ; their business and occupations do not bring between
the two races into friendly contact and co-operation, but
only present them to each other in occasional rivalry.
A laudable emulation has of late induced the French to
enter on the field previously occupied by the English,
and to attempt to compete with them in commerce, but
it is much to be lamented that this did not commence
until the national animosities had arrived almost at the
highest pitch ; and that the competition has been carried
on in such a manner as to widen the pre-existing differ-
ences. The establishment of the ' Banque du Peuple '

due to Lord Elgin that the French Canadians were given full scope
for the use of their own language ; and by the Union Act amend-
ment Act of 1848 this 41st section was repealed. By the 133rd section
of the British North America Act of 1867 the two languages are placed
on an equality in the legislatures and the law courts of the Dominion
of Canada and of the Province of Quebec.

42 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

by French capitalists,1 is an event which may be regarded
as a satisfactory indication of an awakening commercial
energy among the French, and it is therefore very much
to be regretted that the success of the new enterprise was
uniformly promoted by direct and illiberal appeals to the
national feelings of the race. Some of the French have
lately established steam-boats to compete with the
monopoly which a combination of English capitalists had
for some time enjoyed on the St. Lawrence, and small
and somewhat uncomfortable as they were, they were
regarded with favour on account of their superiority in
the essential qualities of certainty and celerity. But this
was not considered sufficient to insure their success ; an
appeal was constantly made to the national feelings of
the French for an exclusive preference of the ' French '
line, and I have known a French newspaper announce
with satisfaction the fact, that on the previous day the
French steamers to Quebec and La Prairie had arrived at
Montreal with a great many passengers, and the English
with very few. The English, on the other hand, appealed
to exactly the same kind of feelings, and used to apply
to the French steam-boats the epithets of 'Radical',
' Rebel ' and ' Disloyal '. The introduction of this kind
of national preference into this department of business,
produced a particularly mischievous effect, inasmuch as it
separated the two races on some of the few occasions on
which they had previously been thrown into each other's
society. They rarely meet at the inns in the cities ; the
principal hotels are almost exclusively filled with English
and with foreign travellers ; and the French are, for the
most part, received at each other's houses, or in boarding
houses, in which they meet with few English.
Instance Nor do their amusements bring them more in contact.
1S' Social intercourse never existed between the two races in

1 A notice of La Banque du Peuple will be found in Walker's History
of Banking in Canada (Toronto, 1909), pp. 27-8. It was started in
1835 as a private banking firm, Viger De Witt et Cie, and subsequently
became a chartered bank under special terms. This bank is no longer
in existence.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 43

any but the higher classes, and it is now almost destroyed.
I heard of but one house in Quebec in which both races
met on pretty equal and amicable terms, and this was
mentioned as a singular instance of good sense on the
part of the gentleman to whom it belongs. At the
commencement of Lord Aylmer's administration, an
entertainment was given to his Lordship by Mr. Papineau,
the Speaker of the House of Assembly. It was generally
understood to be intended as a mark of confidence and
good-will towards the Governor, and of a conciliatory
disposition. It was given on a very large scale, a very
great number of persons were present ; and of that number
I was informed by a gentleman, who was present, that he
and one other were the only English, except the Governor
and his suite. Indeed the difference of manners in the two
races renders a general social intercourse almost impossible.

A singular instance of national incompatibility was Instance
brought before my notice, in an attempt which I made to ^^m.0118
promote an undertaking, in which the French were said patibility.
to take a great deal of interest. I accepted the office of
President of the Agricultural Association of the District
of Quebec, and attended the show previous to the dis-
tribution of the prizes. I then found that the French
farmers would not compete even on this neutral ground
with the English ; distinct prizes were given, in almost
every department, to the two rapjss ; the national plough-
ing matches were carried on in separate and even distant
fields.

While such is their social intercourse, it is not to be Inter-
expected that the animosities of the two races can
frequently be softened by the formation of domestic
connexions. During the first period of the possession
of the Colony by the English, intermarriages of the two
races were by no means uncommon. But they are now
very rare ; and where such unions occur they are generally
formed with members of the French families, which
•> I have described as politically, and almost nationally,
separated from the bulk of their own race.

44 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Marked I could mention various slight features in the state of
society? ° society, which show the all-pervading and marked division
of the races ; but nothing (though it will sound paradoxi-
cal) really proves their entire separation so much as the
rarity, nay almost total absence, of personal encounters
between the two races. Disputes of this kind are
almost confined to the ruder order of people, and
seldom proceed to acts of violence. As respects the
other classes, social intercourse between the two races
is so limited,1 that the more prominent or excitable
antagonists never meet in the same room. It came
to my knowledge that a gentleman who was for some
years a most active and determined leader amongst the
English population, had never once been under a private
roof with French Canadians of his own rank in life, until
he met some at table on the invitation of persons attached
to my mission, who were in the habit of associating
indifferently with French and English. There are there-
fore no political personal controversies. The ordinary
occasions of collision never occur, and men must quarrel
so publicly, or so deliberately, that prudence restrains
them from commencing, individually, what would prob-
ably end in a general and bloody conflict of numbers.
Their mutual fears restrain personal disputes and riots,
even among the lower orders ; the French know and
dread the superior physical strength of the English in
the cities ; and the English in those places refrain from
exhibiting their power, from fear of the revenge that
might be taken on their countrymen, who are scattered
over the rural parishes.

1 Years before, in a dispatch dated May 1, 1810, Sir James Craig
wrote in much the same terms : ' The line of distinction between us
is completely drawn, friendship, cordiality are not to be found, even
common intercourse scarcely exists. The lower class of people, to
strengthen a term of contempt, add Anglois, and the better sort, with
whom there formerly did exist some interchange of the common""
civilities of society, have of late entirely withdrawn themselves.' Com-
pare with what Lord Durham says, the similar testimony given by the
Special Commissioner on Education (Appendix D, vol. iii, p. 273) : ' In
private life, the intense hatred of the two races does not often show
itself in violent collisions, but rather in a rigid non-intercourse.'

*•'

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 45

This feeling of inuhial forbearance extends so far as to No com -
produce an apparent calm with respect to public matters, J^^ur,
which is calculated to perplex a stranger who has heard objects.
much of the animosities of the Province. No trace of
them appears in public meetings ; and these take place
in every direction, in the most excited periods, and go off
without disturbance, and almost without dissent. The
fact is, that both parties have come to a tacit under-
standing, not in any way to interfere with each other on
these occasions ; each party knowing that it would always
be in the power of the other to prevent its meetings.
The British party consequently have their meetings ; the
French theirs ; and neither disturb the other. The
complimentary addresses which I received on various
occasions, marked the same entire separation, even in
a matter in which it might be supposed that party
feeling would not be felt, or would from mere prudence
and propriety be concealed. I had from the same places,
French and English addresses, and I never found the two
races uniting, except in a few cases, where I met with the
names of two or three isolated members of one origin,
who happened to dwell in a community almost entirely
composed of the other. /The two parties combine for /
no public object ; they cannot harmonize even in associa-
tions of charity. The only public occasion on which they
ever meet, is in the jury-box ; and they meet there only
to the utter obstruction of justice.1

The hostility which thus pervades society, was some Political
time growing before it became of prominent importance

in the politics of the Province. It was inevitable that such social
such social feelings must end in a deadly political strife.
The French regarded with jealousy the influence in
politics of a daily increasing body of the strangers, whom
they so much disliked and dreaded ; the wealthy English
were offended at finding that their property gave them
no influence over their French dependents, who were

1 On the perversion of juries caused by race animosity, see below,
pp. 126-30.

46

REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Superior
practical
intelli-
gence of
the Eng-
lish,

acting under the guidance of leaders of their own race ;
and the farmers and traders of the same race were not
long before they began to bear with impatience their utter
political nullity in the midst of the majority of a popula-
tion, whose ignorance they contemned, and whose political
views and conduct seemed utterly at variance with their
own notions of the principles and practice of self-govern-
ment. The superior political and practical intelligence
of the English cannot be, for a moment, disputed. The
great mass of the Canadian population, who cannot read
or write, and have found in few of the institutions of their
country, even the elements of political education, were
obviously inferior to the English settlers, of whom a
large proportion had received a considerable amount of
education, and had been trained in their own country,
to take a part in public business of one kind or another.
With respect to the more educated classes, the superiority
is not so general or apparent ; indeed from all the informa-
tion that I could collect, I incline to think that the greater
amount of refinement, of speculative thought, and of the
ment may knowledge that books can give, is, with some brilliant
among the exceptions, to be found among the French. But I have
no hesitation in stating, even more decidedly, that the
circumstances in which the English have been placed in
Lower Canada, acting on their original political education,
have endowed the leaders of that population with much
of that practical sagacity, tact, and energy in politics,
in which I must say, that the bad institutions of the
Colony have, in my opinion, rendered the leaders of
the French deplorably deficient. That a race which
felt itself thus superior in political activity and intelli-
gence, should submit with patience to the rule of a
majority which it could not respect, was impossible. At
what time and from what particular cause the hostility
between such a majority and such a minority, which was
sure sooner or later to break out, actually became of
paramount importance, it is difficult to say. The hostility
between the Assembly and the British Government had

although

greater

refine-

French.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 47

long given a tendency to attacks, on the part of the popular
leaders, on the nation to which that government belonged.
It is said that the appeals to the national pride and''
animosities of the French, became more direct and general
on the occasion of the abortive attempt to re-unite
Upper and Lower Canada in 1822, which the leaders of
the Assembly viewed or represented as a blow aimed at /
the institutions of their Province.1 The anger of thev
English was excited by the denunciations of themselves,
which, subsequently to this period, they were in the habit
of hearing. They had possibly some little sympathy with
the members of the provincial government of their own
race ; and their feelings were, probably, yet more strongly
excited in favour of the connexion of the Colony with
Great Britain, which the proceedings of the Assembly
appeared to endanger. But the abuses existing under
the provincial government, gave such inducements to
remain in opposition to it, that the representatives of
each race continued for a long time to act together against
it. And as the bulk of the English population in the
townships and on the Ottawa 2 were brought into very
little personal contact with the French, I am inclined to

1 Thus Papineau wrote to Wilmot on December 16, 1822, with
regard to the Reunion Bill : ' By what they call Anglifying the country
is meant the depriving the great majority of the people in this province
of all that is dear to men, their laws, usages, institutions, and religion '
(see Brymner's Report on Canadian Archives, 1897, note A, pp. 26-7).

2 If the immediate neighbourhood of Montreal be excepted, the first
settlement on the Ottawa was made in 1800 by Philemon Wright of
Massachusetts at Hull, on the northern bank of the river. He initiated
lumbering on the Gatineau River. On the opposite bank of the Ottawa,
in the next twenty years, small settlements were made near the mouth
of the Rideau, in addition to a military settlement at Richmond, some
fifteen miles inland ; and in 1826 Colonel By, the engineer of the
Rideau canal, made the mouth of the Rideau the head-quarters for
the works. Bytown then, now Ottawa, grew up. The construction of the
Grenville canal at the Long Sault rapids of the Ottawa also brought
a number of settlers; and among other colonists on the Ottawa were
Highlanders brought in by the McNab, and handloom weavers sent put
by the Glasgow Emigration Society, while various lumbering establish-
ments were formed on both sides of the river. In the main, one bank
of the Ottawa is in the province of Quebec and the other in that of
Ontario, but the colonization of both banks was on similar lines. As
to the lumbermen on the Ottawa, see below, p. 125, and note.

Views

settlers.

r

48 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

think that it might have been some time longer, ere the
disputes of origin would have assumed an importance
paramount to all others, had not the Assembly come into
* collision with the whole English population by its policy
with respect to internal improvements, and to the old
and defective laws, which operated as a bar to the aliena-
tion of land, and to the formation of associations for
commercial purposes.

The English population, an immigrant and enterprising
population, looked on the American Provinces as a vast
field for settlement and speculation, and in the common
spirit of the Anglo-Saxon inhabitants of that continent,
regarded it as the chief business of the Government,
to promote, by all possible use of its legislative and
administrative powers, the increase of population and the
accumulation of property ; they found the laws of real
property exceedingly adverse to the easy alienation_jof
land, which is, in a new country, absolutely essential to
its settlement and improvement ; they found the greatest
deficiency in the internal communications of the country,
and the utter want of local self-government rendered it
necessary for them to apply to the Assembly for every
road or bridge, or other public work that was needed ;
they wished to form themselves into companies for the
establishment of banks, and the construction of railroads
and canals, and to obtain the powers necessary for the
completion of such works with funds of their own. And
as the first requisite for the improvement of the country,
they desired that a large proportion of the revenue should
be applied to the completion of that great series of public
works, by which it was proposed to render the Saint
Lawrence and the Ottawa navigable throughout their
whole extent.

Jealousy Without going so far as to accuse the Assembly of
of the a deliberate design to check the settlement and improve-

Assembly

and dis- N ment of Lower Canada, it cannot be denied that they
improve- l°°ked with considerable jealousy and dislike on the
ments. increase and prosperity of what they regarded as a foreign

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 49

and hostile race ; they looked on the Province as the
patrimony of their own race ; they viewed it not as a
country to be settled, but as one already settled ; and
instead of legislating in the American spirit, and first
providing for the future population of the Province, their
primary care was, in the spirit of legislation which prevails
in t tie old world, to guard the interests and feelings of the
present race of inhabitants,1 to whom they considered the
new comers as subordinate ; they refused to increase
the burthens of the country by imposing taxes to meet
the expenditure required for improvement, and they also
refused to direct to that object any of the funds previously
devoted to other purposes. The improvement of the
harbour of Montreal was suspended, from a political
antipathy to a leading English merchant who had been
the most active of the Commissioners, and by whom it
had been conducted with the most admirable success.
It is but just to say that some of the works which the
Assembly authorized and encouraged were undertaken
on a scale of due moderation, and satisfactorily perfected
and brought into operation. Others, especially the great
communications which I have mentioned above, the As-
sembly showed a great reluctance to promote or even to
permit. It is true that there was considerable foundation
for their objections to the plan on which the Legislature
of Upper Canada had commenced some of these works,
and to the mode in which it had carried them on ; but the
English complained, that instead of profiting by the experi-
ence which they might have derived from this source, the
Assembly seemed only to make its objections a pretext
for doing nothing. The applications for banks, railroads

1 Other instances might be given of the jealousy of outsiders, which
was not peculiar to the Quebec Assembly, but is characteristic of
representative Assemblies in all small colonial communities, and which
militates against progress and development. Of the greater colonial
communities at the present day, with the growing influence of labour,
it may fairly be said that ' their primary care ' is ' to guard the interests
and feelings of the present race of inhabitants ' ; and in ' providing for
the future population ', race exclusion, in the sense of excluding coloured
men, plays a great part.

1352-2 E

50

and canals were laid on one side until some general
measures could be adopted with regard to such under-
takings ; but the general measures thus promised were
never passed, and the particular enterprizes in question
were prevented. The adoption of a registry was refused
on the alleged ground of its inconsistency with the French
institutions of the Province, and no measure to attain this
desirable end, in a less obnoxious mode, was prepared
by the leaders of the Assembly.1 The feudal tenure was
supported, as a mild and just provision for the settlement
of a new country ; a kind of assurance given by a Com-
mittee of the Assembly, that some steps should be taken
to remove the most injurious incidents of the seignorial
tenure, produced no practical results ; and the enterprizes
of the English were still thwarted by the obnoxious laws
of the country. In all these decisions of the Assembly,
in its discussions, and in the apparent motives of its
conduct, the English population perceived traces of a
desire to repress the influx and the success of their race?3
A measure for imposing a tax on emigrants,3 though
recommended by the Home Government, and warranted
by the policy of those neighbouring states, which give
the greatest encouragement to immigration, was argued
on such grounds in the Assembly, that it was not unjustly
regarded as indicative of an intention to exclude any
further accession to the English population ; and the
industry of the English was thus retarded by this conduct
of the Assembly. Some districts, particularly that of
the Eastern Townships, where the French race has no
footing,4 were seriously injured by the refusal of necessary

1 See above, p. 23 and note.

* As evidence that the British Government had no wish to swamp
the French Canadians by immigration may be taken Lord Dalhousie's
first address to the Quebec Legislature in the session of 1820-1. He
urged the advisability of encouraging the settlement of the waste lands
of the province, not only by British immigration, but also by enabling
the French Canadians to spread further afield.

3 This Act was passed in 1832. See Introduction, p. 195.

4 The French Canadians were not wholly without footing in the
eastern townships. Thus Christie writes of the general election of

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 51

improvements ; and the English inhabitants generally*
regarded the policy of the Assembly as a plan for prevent-
ing any further emigration to the Province, of stopping
the growth of English wealth, and of rendering precarious
the English property already invested or acquired in
Lower Canada. •

The Assembly of which they thus complained, and of Collision
which they entertained apprehensions so serious, was at the^Exo-
the same time in collision with the Executive Government, cutivo
The party in power, and which, by means of the Legislative Assembly.
Council, kept the Assembly in check, gladly availed itself
of the discontents of this powerful and energetic minority,
offered it its protection, and undertook the furtherance
of its views ; and thus was cemented the singular alliance
between the English population and the Colonial officials,
who combined from perfectly different motives, and with
perfectly different objects, against a common enemy N
The English desired reform and liberal measures from the
Assembly, which refused them, while it was urging other
reforms and demanding other liberal measures from the
Executive Government. The Assembly complained of
the oppressive use of the power of the Executive ; the
English complained that they, a minority, suffered under
the oppressive use to which power was turned by the
French majority. Thus a bold and intelligent democracy
was impelled, by its impatience for liberal measures,
joined to its national antipathies, to make common cause
with a government which was at issue with the majority
on the question of popular rights. The actual conflict
commenced by a collision between the Executive and
the French majority ; and, as the English population
rallied round the Government, supported its pretensions,
and designated themselves by the appellation of 'loyal ',
the causes of the quarrel were naturally supposed to be

1834 : ' The movement party in opposition to the government wore
everywhere successful except in the Eastern Townships, and partially
so there ' (vol. iv, pp. 18, 19). At this date, the partial success can
hardly have been due to British votes alone.

E 2

52 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

much more simple than they really were ; and the extent
of the division which existed among the inhabitants of
Lower Canada, the number and nature of the combatants
arrayed on each side, and the irremediable nature of the
^dispute, were concealed from the public view.
Appeal The treasonable attempt of the French party to carry
by TnT i^s political objects into effect by an appeal to arms,
French, brought these hostile races into general and armed
collision. I will not dwell on the melancholy scenes
exhibited in the progress of the contest, or the fierce
passions which held an unchecked sway during the insur-
rection, or immediately after its suppression. It is not
difficult to conceive how greatly the evils, which I have
described as previously existing, have been aggravated by
the war ; how terror and revenge nourished, in each portion
of the population, a bitter and irreconcileable hatred to
each other, and to the institutions of the country. The
French population, who had for some time exercised
a great and increasing power through the medium of the
House of Assembly, found their hopes unexpectedly
prostrated in the dust. The physical force which they
had vaunted was called into action, and proved to be
utterly inefficient. The hope of recovering their previous
ascendancy under a constitution, similar to that suspended,
almost ceased to exist. Removed from all actual share
in the government of their country, they brood in sullen
silence over the memory of their fallen countrymen, of
their burnt villages, of their ruined property, of their
extinguished ascendancy, and of their humbled nationality.
To the Government and the English they ascribe these
wrongs, and nourish against both an indiscriminating
and eternal animosity. Nor have the English inhabitants
forgotten in their triumph the terror with which they
suddenly saw themselves surrounded by an insurgent
majority, and the incidents which alone appeared to save
them from the unchecked domination of their antagonists.
They find themselves still a minority in the midst of
u hostile and organized people ; apprehensions of secret

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 53

conspiracies and .sanguinary designs haunt them unceas-
ingly, and their only hope of safety is supposed to restj
on systematically terrifying and disabling the French, and
in preventing a majority of that race from ever again
being predominant in any portion of the legislature of the
Province. I describe in strong terms l the feelings which
appear to me to animate each portion of the population ;
and the picture which I draw represents a state of things
so little familiar to the personal experience of the people i-he
of this country, that many will probably regard it as the French

£ • • x- i. T * i £j will not

work ot mere imagination ; but I teel confident that the loyally
accuracy and moderation of my description will be S1^1^ to
acknowledged by all who have seen the state of society in Govern- u
Lower Canada during the last year. Nor do I exaggerate ^ernthe
the inevitable constancy any more than the intensity of English

r ' tolerate

this animosity. (Never again will the present generation a French
of French Canadians yield a loyal submission to a British paj°nty
Government ; never again will the English population Assembly,
tolerate the authority of a House of Assembly, in which
the French shall possess or even approximate to a majority.^

Nor is it simply the working of representative govern-
ment which is placed out of question by the present
disposition of the two races ; every institution which
requires for its efficiency a^ confidence in the mass of the
people, or co-operation between its,, classes, is practically
in abeyance in Lower Canada. (The militia, on which
the main defence of the Province against external enemies,
and the discharge of many of the functions of internal
police have hitherto depended, is completely disorganized.2
A muster of that force would, in some districts, be the
occasion for quarrels between the ratces, and in the greater
part of the country the attempting to arm or employ it
would be merely arming the enemies of the Government.)
(The course of justice is entirely obstructed by the same

1 The ' strong terms ' might be called exaggerated terms. There were
cases of partial burning of villages, but they were very few, and only
in the Richelieu districts and in the county of the Two Mountains (see
Introduction, pp. 93-6).

2 As to the militia, see below, p. 98, note 2.

54

Obstruc- cause ; a just decision in any political case is not to be
course of ° relied upon ; even the judicial bench is, in the opinion

justice. Of both races, divided into two hostile sections of French
and English, from neither of whom is justice expected
by the mass of the hostile party.1 The partiality of grand
and petty juries is a matter of certainty ; each ratce relies
on the vote of its countrymen to save it harmless from
the law, and the mode of challenging allows of such an
exclusion of the hostile party that the French offender
may make sure of, and the English hope for a favourable
jury, and a consequent acquittal. This state of things,
and the consequent impunity of political offences, is
distinctly admitted by both sides. The trial of the mur-
derers of Chartrand2 has placed this disposition of the

1 As to the perversion of juries, see below, pp. 126-30.

2 Christie (vol. iv, pp. 474-5) gives the following account of the
murder of Chartrand in the insurrection of 1837 : ' Another still more
barbarous deed was perpetrated on November 28, on the person of an
unfortunate inhabitant of St. John's, by the name of Chartrand,
a Canadian of French origin, who, it seems, had enrolled himself at
this place as a loyal volunteer, a circumstance that gave offence to his
compatriots. He left his residence in the forenoon of this day for
L'Acadie, a distance of five or six miles, to collect, it was said, a small
debt due to him (a stone mason by trade) by an inhabitant of that
parish. On returning home in the afternoon, he was intercepted by some
ten or twelve men, five of them with loaded muskets, and conducted
to a small building hard by, used as a school-house, where, after under-
going a mock trial by those who had arrested him, he was declared to
l>e a spy, and sentenced to death as such. He was accordingly forth-
with led out, tied to a tree, and mercilessly shot by the miscreants,
who left the body attached to the tree by the rope with which they
had pinioned him, and in which state it was found three or four days
after. One ball had passed through his heart, and the several other
marks showed the deadly aim which his savage murderers had taken
to accomplish their horrid purpose. One of those implicated in it came
forward, by the advice, it was said, of his confessor, and gave the
shocking details of the murder. At the first discharge, the unfortunate
Chartrand received three wounds, but was not killed. Another of the
party then stepped up and shot him dead. The alleged ringleader of
this ruthless gang was tried for the murder, but in the contradictory
nature of the evidence, aided also by the passions of the jurors, for in
the excitement of the times it was impossible to impanel a perfectly
dispassionate jury, he escaped on this occasion, though, as will be seen,
an avenging Providence pursued him till the forfeiture of his crime
was paid ' (see also Introduction, pp. 94-5). Lord Durham wrote in
a dispatch of September 12, 1838 : ' In the case of Chartrand, the
most clear and indisputable evidence of the guilt of the prisoners was
adduced, but the jury, French Canadians (all others upon the panel,

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 55

French jurors in a most glaring light : the notes of the Acquittal
Chief Justice in this case were transmitted bv me to of t1}0

murderers

the Secretary of State ; and a perusal of them will satisfy of Char-
every candid and well-ordered mind that a base and cruel trand>
assassination, committed without a single circumstance of
provocation or palliation, was brought home by evidence
which no man ever pretended to doubt, against the
prisoners, whom the jury nevertheless acquitted. The
duty of giving this dishonest verdict had been most
assiduously and shamefully inculcated by the French
press before the trial came on ; the jurors are said to have
been kept for some time previous in the hands of zealous
partisans, whose business it was not only to influence
their inclination, but to stimulate their courage ; the
array of the leaders of the party who were present at the
trial was supposed to be collected for the same purpose :
and it is notorious that the acquittal was celebrated at
public entertainments, to which the jurors were invited in
order that they might be thanked for their verdict.

But the influence of this animosity does not obstruct Another
the course of justice in political cases alone. An example of obstruc-
of obstruction of ordinary criminal justice recently tion of
occurred at Quebec. A person had been, during a
previous term, indicted and tried for some offence seriously
affecting his moral character. The charge had been
supported by a witness whom the jury considered perjured,
and the accused had been acquitted. Having reason to
believe that the witness had been instigated by a neigh-
bour, the acquitted person indicted this neighbour for
subornation of perjury, and brought the witness, who had
formerly appeared against himself, to prove the falsehood
of his previous evidence, and the fact of his subornation.
The proof of subornation appears to have rested, in some
particulars, too much on the unsupported evidence of this

as had been foreseen, having been got rid of by the challenges of the
accused, allowed by the existing law) brought in a verdict of " Not
Guilty " ' (Parliamentary Paper No. 2, February 11, 1839, p. 165). On'
pp. 174-80 of this Paper will be found the notes of the Chief Justice
of Montreal.

56 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

witness ; the jury differed in opinion, one portion of them
believing the guilt of the accused to be on the whole
satisfactorily established, the other refusing to believe
that part of the case which depended solely on the evidence
of a man who came into court to swear to the fact of his
own previous perjury. This was a difference of opinion
which might naturally divide a jury, but as all the parties
were French, and as there is nothing in the circumstances
which marks this as a case in which feelings of politics or
origin could be supposed to operate, it will, I imagine,
appear singular that the jury, being composed nearly
equally of French and English, all the French were on one
side, all the English on the other. After long discussion
the jury came into court, and declared their inability to
agree ; and the foreman, on being told by the Judge that
they must agree, answered that they were an equal
number of French and English, and consequently never
could agree. In the end they did not, and after being
locked up for twelve hours, they were discharged without
giving a verdict ; so that even in a case in which no
question of party or of race is concerned, the animosity
of the races, nevertheless, appears to present an insur-
mountable barrier to the impartial administration of
justice. N

Evils to i. In strcn a state of feelings the course of civil government
from y ' is hopelessly suspended. No confidence can be felt in
national ^he stability of any existing institution, or the security

animosi- c »

ties. ot person and property. It cannot occasion surprise that
this state of things should have destroyed the tranquillity
and happiness of families ; that it should have depreciated
the value of property, and that it should have arrested
the improvement and settlement of the country. The
alarming decline of the value of landed property was
attested to me by some of the principal proprietors of
the Province. The continual and progressive decrease
of the revenue, though in some degree attributable to
other causes, indicates a diminution of the wealth of the
country. The staple export trade of the Province, the

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 57

timber trade, has not suffered ; but instead of exporting
grain, the Province is now obliged to import for its own
consumption. The influx of emigrants, once so consider-
able, has very greatly diminished. In 1832 the number
of emigrants who landed at the port of Quebec amounted
to 52,000 ; in 1837 it had fallen to a few more than 22,000 ;
and in 1838 it did not amount to 5,000. Insecurity begins
to be so strongly felt by the loyal inhabitants of the
seignories, that many of them are compelled, by fear or
necessity, to quit their occupations, and seek refuge in
the cities. If the present state of things continues, the
most enterprising and wealthy capitalists of the Province
will thus in a short time be driven from the seats of their
present industry.

Nor does there appear to be the slightest chance of Hopeless-
putting an end to this animosity during the present p^ting
generation. Passions inflamed during so long a period an end to
cannot speedily be calmed. The state of education which ^ieg at
I have previously described as placing the peasantry present.
entirely at the mercy of agitators, the total absence of any
class of persons, or any organization of authority that
could counteract this mischievous influence, and the
serious decline in the district of Montreal of the influence
of the clergy, concur in rendering it absolutely impossible
for the Government to produce any better state of feeling
among the French population. It is even impossible
to impress on a people so circumstanced the salutary
dread of the power of Great Britain, which the presence
of a large military force in the Province might be expected
to produce. I have been informed by witnesses so
numerous and so trustworthy, that I cannot doubt the
correctness of their statements, that the peasantry were
generally ignorant of the large amount of force which was
sent into their country last year. The newspapers that
circulate among them had informed them that Great
Britain had no troops to send out ; that in order to produce
an impression on the minds of the country people, the
same regiments were marched backwards and forwards

58 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

in different directions, and represented as additional
arrivals from home. This explanation was promulgated
among the people by the agitators of each village ; and
I have no doubt that the mass of the habitans really
believed that the Government was endeavouring to im-
pose on them by this species of fraud. It is a population
with whom authority has no means of contact or explana-
tion. It is difficult even to ascertain what amount of
influence the ancient leaders of the French party continue
to possess. The name of Mr. Papineau is still cherished
by the people ; and the idea is current that, at the
appointed time, he will return, at the head of an immense
army, and re-establish ' La Nation Canadienne '. But
there is great reason to doubt whether his name be not
used as a mere watchword ; whether the people are not
in fact running entirely counter to his counsels and policy ;
and whether they are not really under the guidance of
separate petty agitators, who have no plan but that of
a senseless and reckless determination to show in every
way their hostility to the British Government and English
race. Their ultimate designs and hopes are equally
unintelligible. Some vague expectation of absolute in-
dependence still seems to delude them. The national
vanity,1 which is a remarkable ingredient in their character
induces many to flatter themselves with the idea of
a Canadian Republic ; 2 the sounder information of
others has led them to perceive that a separation from
Great Britain must be followed by a junction with the
great Confederation on their southern frontier. But they
seem apparently reckless of the consequences, provided

1 Sir James Craig, who had a poor opinion of the French Canadians,
commented on the ' national vanity ' in his dispatch of May 1, 1810 :
' They are totally unwarlike and averse to arms or military habits,
though vain to an excess, and possessing a high opinion of their prowess.'
Craig was very unfair to the French Canadians in describing them as
unwarlike. Previous Governors had given a contrary view.

2 There was much foolish vapouring about Canadian Independence
and a Canadian Republic in 1837-8, e. g. by the ' Sons of Liberty ' at
Montreal, before the actual outbreak of the rising in 1837 (see Christie,
iv. 395), and by Robert Nelson in 1838, when he was safe in the United
States.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA r,9

Ihcy can wreak their vengeance on the English. There
is no people against which early associations and every
conceivable difference of manners and opinions, have
implanted in the Canadian mind a more ancient and
rooted national antipathy than that which they feel
against the people of the United States. Their more -
discerning leaders feel that their chances of preserving
their nationality would be greatly diminished by an
incorporation with the United States ; and recent symp-
toms of Anti-Catholic feeling in New England, well
known to the Canadian population, have generated a
very general belief that their religion, which even they
do not accuse the British party of assailing, would find
little favour or respect from their neighbours. Yet none'rhe
even of these considerations weigh against their present
all-absorbing hatred of the English ; and I am persuaded revenge
that they would purchase vengeance and a momentary

triumph, by the aid of any enemies, or submission to any on the

rJn.- I / P 4., • English by

yoke. This provisional but complete cessation of their >»ny aid.
ancient antipathy to the Americans, is now admitted even
by those who most strongly denied it during the last
spring, and who then asserted that an American war
would as completely unite the whole population against
the common enemy, as it did in 1813. (M.y subsequent
experience leaves no doubt in my mind that the views
which were contained in my Dispatch of the 9th of August1
are perfectly correct ; and that an invading American
army might rely on the co-operation of almost the entire /
French population of Lower Canada. )

In the Dispatch above referred to 1 also described the The
state of feeling among the English population, nor can

I encourage a hope that that portion of the community will never
is at all more inclined to any settlement of the present theFrench
quarrel that would leave any share of power to the hostile pjeten-
race. Circumstances having thrown the English into national-
the ranks of the Government, and the folly of their ltv-
opponents having placed them, on the other hand, in
1 See vol. iii, pp. 319-31.

60 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

a state of permanent collision with it, the former possess
the advantage of having the force of Government, and
the authority of the laws on their side in the present stage
'"of the contest. Their exertions during the recent troubles
have contributed to maintain the supremacy of the law,
and the continuance of the connexion with Great Britain ;
but it would in my opinion be dangerous to rely on the
continuance of such a state of feeling as now prevails
among them, in the event of a different policy being
adopted by the Imperial Government. Indeed the pre-
valent sentiment among them is one of anything but
satisfaction with the course which has been long pursued,
with reference to Lower Canada, by the British Legislature
and Executive. The calmer view, which distant spectators
are enabled to take of the conduct of the two parties, and
the disposition which is evinced to make a fair adjustment
of the contending claims, appear iniquitous and injurious
in the eyes of men who think that they alone have any
claim to the favour of that Government, by which they
alone have stood fast. They complain loudly and bitterly
of the whole course pursued by the Imperial Government,
with respect to the quarrel of the two races, as having
being founded on an utter ignorance or disregard of the
real question at issue, as having fostered the mischievous
pretensions of French nationality, and as having by the
vacillation and inconsistency which marked it, discouraged
loyalty and fomented rebellion. Every measure of
clemency or even justice towards their opponents they
regard with jealousy, as indicating a disposition towards
that conciliatory policy which is the subject of their angry
They com- recollection ; for they feel that being a minority, any
being the return to the due course of constitutional government
sport of would again subject them to a French majority ; and to
home. this I am persuaded they would never peaceably submit.
~£rjiey do not hesitate to say that they will not tolerate
much longer the being made the sport of parties at home,
and that if the mother country forgets what is due to the
loyal and enterprising men of her own race, they must

(il

protect themselves. In the significant language of one
of their own ablest advocates, they assert that ' Lower
i anada must be English, at the expense, if necessary, of
not being British.' ") -'

I have, in Dispatches of a later date than that to which
I have had occasion so frequently to refer, called the *he°r
attention of the Home Government to the growth of this Loyalists
alarming state of feeling among the English population. thcAmcri-
The course of the late troubles, and the assistance which Can8»
the French insurgents derived from some citizens of the
United States, have caused a most intense exasperation
among the Canadian loyalists against the American
Government and people. Their papers have teemed
with the most unmeasured denunciations of the good
faith of the authorities, of the character and morality of
the people, and of the political institutions of the United
States. Yet, under this surface of hostility, it is easy to
detect a strong under current of an exactly contrary
feeling. As the general opinion of the American people but with a
became more apparent during the course of the last year, contrary*
the English of Lower Canada were surprized to find how feeling,
strong, in spite of the first burst of sympathy, with a
people supposed to be struggling for independence, was
the real sympathy of their republican neighbours with the
great objects of the minority. Without abandoning their
attachment to their mother country, they have begun,
as men in a state of uncertainty are apt to do, to calculate
the probable consequences of a separation, if it should
unfortunately occur, and be followed by an incorporation
with the United States. In spite of the shock which it
would occasion their feelings, they undoubtedly think
that they should find some compensation in the promotion
of their interests ; they believe that the influx of American
emigration would speedily place the English race in
a majority ; they talk frequently and loudly of what
has occurred in Louisiana,1 where, by means which they

1 Louisiana is referred to at greater length below, pp. 299-303. It had
been ceded by France to Spain by a secret treaty signed in 1762, and

62

REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Evils of
conflict
of races
aggra-
vated by
the

utterly misrepresent, the end nevertheless of securing
an English predominance over a French population, has
_ undoubtedly been attained ; they assert very confidently
that the Americans would make a very speedy and
decisive settlement of the pretensions of the French ; and
they believe, that after the first shock of an entirely new
political state had been got over, they and their posterity
would share in that amazing progress, and that great
material prosperity, which every day's experience shows
them is the lot of the people of the United States. I do
not believe that such a feeling has yet sapped their strong
allegiance to the British empire ; but their allegiance is
founded on their deep-rooted attachment to British as
distinguished from French institutions. And if they find
that that authority which they have maintained against
its recent assailants, is to be exerted in such a manner as
to subject them again to what they call a French dominion,
I feel perfectly confident that they would attempt to
avert the result, by courting, on any terms, an union with
an Anglo-Saxon people.

Such is the lamentable and hazardous state of things
produced by the conflict of races which has so long divided
the Province of Lower Canada, and which has assumed
the formidable and irreconcileable character which I have

retroceded by Spain to France by a secret treaty of 1800. In 1803,
when Jefferson was President of the United States, it was sold by
Napoleon to the Americans for fifteen million dollars, and it was
admitted as a State into the Union in 1812. Both in his Report and in
his dispatch of August 9, 1838, Lord Durham quotes New York and
Louisiana as instances of the English race absorbing foreign races in the
way in which he wished French Canada to be Anglicized. It is interest-
ing to contrast with Lord Durham's view a present day view of a French
Canadian. Mr. Lemieux, then Postmaster-General of the Dominion
of Canada, in the Canadian House of Commons, on February 21, 1911,
made the following reference to Louisiana : ' We in the province of
Quebec, French Canadians one and all, Conservatives and Liberals,
are against any idea that smacks of annexation (to the United States).
Why ? Because of the privileges we enjoy under the British Crown,
under the Quebec act of 1774, under which act our language, our
faith, our laws, our customs, our usages have been respected in a
privileged manner by His Majesty the King and by the Imperial
government. We know what has been the fate of our fellow country-
men in Louisiana. .

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 63

depicted, (in describing the nature of this conflict, conduct of
I have specified the causes in which it originated ; and {££^n
though I have mentioned the conduct and constitution
of the Colonial Government as modifying the character
of the struggle, I have not attributed to political causes
a state of things which would, I believe, under any political
institutions have resulted from the very composition of
society. A jealousy between two races, so long habituated
to regard each other with hereditary enmity, and so
differing in habits, in language and in laws, would have
been inevitable under any form of government. That
liberal institutions and a prudent policy might have
changed the character of the struggle I have no doubt ;
but they could not have prevented it ; they could only
have softened its character, and brought it more speedily
a more decisive and peaceful conclusion. Unhappily,
however, the system of government pursued in Lower
Canada has been based on the policy of perpetuating that
very separation of the races, and encouraging these very
notions of conflicting nationalities which it ought to have
been the first and chief care of Government to check and
extinguish. From the period of the conquest to the
present time, the conduct of the Government has aggra-
vated the evil, and the origin of the present extreme
disorder may be found in the institutions by which the
character of the colony was determine^

^There are two modes by which a government may deal Two
with a conquered territory.1 The first course open to i
is that of respecting the rights and nationality of the with con-
actual occupants ; of recognizing the existing laws, and territories;
preserving established institutions ; of giving no en-
couragement to the influx of the conquering people, and,
without attempting any change in the elements of the
community, merely incorporating the Province under

1 The subject dealt with in this paragraph will be found referred to
in Sir G. Cornewall Lewis's Government of Dependencies (1891 od.), Q
p. 266. As to how far Lord Durham's criticism of the Imperial Govern-
ment in this part of his Report was justified by facts, see Introduc-
tion, pp. 277-81.

64 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OL'1

the general authority of the central Government. The
second is that of treating the conquered territory as one
open to the conquerors, of encouraging their influx, of
regarding the conquered race as entirely subordinate,
and of endeavouring as speedily and as rapidly as possible
to assimilate the character and institutions of its new
subjects to those of the great body of its empire. In the
case of an old and long settled country, in which the land
is appropriated, in which little room is left for colonization,
and in which the race of the actual occupants must
continue to constitute the bulk of the future population
of the province, policy as well as humanity render the
well-being of the conquered people the first care of a just
government, and recommend the adoption of the first-
mentioned system ; but in a new and unsettled country,
a provident legislator would regard as his first object the
interests not of the few individuals who happen at the
moment to inhabit a portion of the soil, but those of that
comparatively vast population by which he may reason-
ably expect that it will be filled ; he would form his plans
with a view of attracting and nourishing that future
population, and he would therefore establish those
institutions which would be most acceptable to the race
by which he hoped to colonize the country. The course
which I have described as best suited to an old and
settled country, would have been impossible in the
The first American continent, unless the conquering state meant
advisable ^° renounce the immediate use of the unsettled lands of
iu Lower the Province ; and in this case such a course would have
been additionally unadvisable, unless the British Govern-
ment were prepared to abandon to the scanty population
of French whom it found in Lower Canada, not merely
the possession of the vast extent of rich soil which that
Province contains, but also the mouth of the St. Lawrence,
and all the facilities for trade which the entrance of that
great river commands.

In the first regulations adopted by the British Govern-
ment for the settlement of the Canadas, in the Proclama-

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA G5

tion of 1763,1 and the Commission of the Governor-in-Chief Mistaken
of the Province of Quebec, in the offers by which officers J^KO
and soldiers of the British army, and settlers from the British
other North American Provinces, were tempted to accept
grants of land in the Canadas, we perceive very clear
indications of an intention of adopting the second and the
wiser of the two systems. Unfortunately, however, the
conquest of Canada was almost immediately followed by
the commencement of those discontents which ended in
the independence of the United Provinces. From that
period, the colonial policy of this country appears to have
undergone a complete change. To prevent the further
dismemberment of the Empire became the primary object
with our statesmen ; and an especial anxiety was exhibited
to adopt every expedient which appeared calculated to
prevent the remaining North American Colonies from
following the example of successful revolt. Unfortunately
the distinct national character of the French inhabitants
of Canada, and their ancient hostility to the people of
New England, presented the easiest and most obvious line
of demarcation. To isolate the inhabitants of the British
from those of the revolted Colonies, became the policy
of the Government; and the nationality of the French
Canadians was therefore cultivated, as a means of per-
petual and entire separation from their neighbours.* 2 It

* This policy was not abandoned even at so late a period as the year
1816 ; as will appear by the following Despatch from Lord Bathurst
to the Governor of Lower Canada : —

Sir, Downing-street, 1st July, 1816.

You are, no doubt, aware of the inquiries which have been made in

the Province as to the practicability of leaving in a state of nature

that part of the frontier which lies between Lake Champlain and

Montreal ; and you have, no doubt, had under your review the Report

1 These documents will be found in Shortt and Doughty's Documents
relating to the Constitutional History of Canada, 1759-91, published in
1907. See Introduction, pp. 203 and 278.

2 This is a case in which Lord Durham misrepresented the policy of
the Imperial Government. The great danger of Canada was the long

1352-2 F

66 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

seems also to have been considered the policy of the
British Government to govern its Colonies by means of

of the Surveyor-general on this subject, which was enclosed in Sir
Gordon Drummond's Despatch of 21st April 1816, No. 119. With the
opinion which his Majesty's Government entertains upon this subject,
it cannot but be a matter of regret to think that any settlements should
have been made in the districts of Hemingford, Sherrington, Good-
inanchester or Hinchinbrook. But at the same time I cannot recom-
mend the dispossession of the settlers, at the expense which must result
from the purchase of the lands which they have cleared, and the improve-
ments which they have made upon them, unless indeed that purchase
could be effected by an adequate assignment of other waste lands of
the Crown in other quarters. I must confine myself, therefore, to
instructing you to abstain altogether from making, hereafter, any grants
in these districts, and to use every endeavour to induce those who have
received grants there, and have not yet proceeded to the cultivation
of them, to accept uncleared lands in other districts more distant from
the frontier of the United States. In some cases, where the lands have
been long granted, they must, I apprehend, under the usual conditions
of the grants, have become resumable by the Crown ; and in such case
you can have no difficulty in preventing their cultivation ; and the
expediency of making other grants, in lieu of those resumed, will
depend upon the particular circumstances of each individual case.

It is also very desirable that you should, as far as lies in your power,
prevent the extension of roads in the direction of those particular
districts beyond the limits of that division of the Province referred to
in the plan of the Surveyor -general as being generally cultivated ; and
if any means should present themselves of letting those which have
been already made, fall into decay, you will best comply with the
views of his Majesty's Government, and materially contribute to
the future security of the Province, by their adoption.

I have the honour, &c. &c.

Lieutenant-General Sir J. C. Sherbrooke, (signed) Bathurst.

&c. &c. &c.

extent of frontier, which was exposed to invasion from the United
States. This danger had been amply illustrated by the war of 1812,
and on March 18, 1815, Sir George Prevost wrote to the Secretary of
State deprecating forming settlements on the American frontier, for
the simple reason that he thought that Canada would be better pro-
tected from invasion by leaving a belt of wilderness in this direction.
This was the origin of Lord Bathurst's instructions : they were given
entirely for military reasons and on military advice. Gordon Drum-
mond and Sherbrooke took steps to carry out the policy, and it was
not until 1821 that Lord Dalhousie, in a dispatch dated April 24 in

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 07

division, and to break them down as much as possible
into petty isolated communities, incapable of combina-
tion, and possessing no sufficient strength for individual
resistance to the Empire. Indications of such designs
are to be found in many of the acts of the British Govern-
ment with respect to its North American Colonies. In
1775 1 instructions were sent from England, directing
that all grants of land within the Province of Quebec, then
comprising Upper and Lower Canada, were to be made
in fief and seigniory ; and even the grants to the refugee
loyalists, and officers and privates of the colonial corps,
promised in 1786, were ordered to be made on the same
tenure. In no instance was it more singularly exhibited
than in the condition annexed to the grants of land in
Prince Edward's Island, by which it was stipulated that
the Island was to be settled by ' foreign Protestants ' ; 2
as if they were to be foreign in order to separate them
from the people of New England, and Protestants in
order to keep them apart from the Canadian and Acadian
Catholics. It was part of the same policy to separate
the French of Canada from the British emigrants, and to

that year, pointed out that the prohibition of settlement only resulted
in unauthorized squatting, and in producing a kind of Alsatia, to which
outlaws resorted both from Canada and from the United States. Lord
Bathurst then cancelled his instructions ; but nearly five years later
Lieutenant-Colonel Cockburn, who had been superintendent of military
settlements in Upper Canada, handed in a statement to the Select
Committee of the House of Commons on Emigration, in which he said :
' I have long regretted the encouragement which has of late been given
to opening communications from the United States towards the south
bank of the St. Lawrence ; in the event of future wars the impolicy of
having done so, will, I suspect, be felt. The barrier which the Bush
afforded was the best which could be offered ; it can no longer be
said to exist ' (House of Commons Paper of 1826, No. 404, p. 290).
The point is referred to in the evidence [not reprinted] given by Major
Head in Charles Buller's Inquiry into Public Lands and Emigration.

1 These instructions were given in July 1771, and renewed in 1775
after the passing of the Quebec Act. See Shortt and Doughty, Docu-
ments relating to the Constitutional History of Canada, pp. 295, 429.

2 See below, p. 198, note. A much more likely reason than that
given by Lord Durham, for encouraging the emigration of ' foreign
Protestants ' to Prince Edward Island, is that the Government of the
day (1767) was not anxious to encourage British Protestants to leave
Great Britain.

F2

68 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

conciliate the former by the retention of their language,
laws, and religious institutions. For this purpose Canada
was afterwards divided into two Provinces, the settled
portion being allotted to the French, and the unsettled
being destined to become the seat of British colonization.
Thus, instead of availing itself of the means which the
extent and nature of the Province afforded for the gradual
introduction of such an English population into its various
parts as might have easily placed the French in a minority,
the Government deliberately constituted the French into a
majority, and recognized and strengthened their indistinct
national character.1 Had the sounder policy of making
the Province English, in all its institutions, been adopted
from the first, and steadily persevered in, the French
would probably have been speedily outnumbered, and
the beneficial operation of the free institutions of England
would never have been impeded by the animosities of
origin^

Not only, however, did the Government adopt the

1 The statement ' the Government deliberately constituted the French
into a majority ' is misleading. They divided Canada into two provinces,
and thereby left the French Canadians in an overwhelming preponderance
in Lower Canada, but at the time — 1791 — taking both Canadas together,
the French Canadians greatly outnumbered the British. The division
into two provinces was not designed to isolate the French Canadians.
It was designed to prevent friction at the start of constitutional govern-
ment. Thus, in sending to Lord Dorchester the first draft of the bill
which subsequently became the Act of 1791, Grenville wrote that, as
it had been decided to give representative institutions to Canada,
' every consideration of policy seemed to render it desirable that the
great preponderance possessed in the Upper district by the King's
ancient subjects, and in the Lower by the French Canadians, should
have their effect and operation in separate legislatures, rather than
that these two bodies of people should be blended together in the first
formation of the new Constitution, and before sufficient time has been
allowed for the removal of ancient prejudices, by the habit of obedience
to the same government, and by the sense of a common interest '
(Grenville to Dorchester, October 20, 1789, Shortt and Doughty,
p. 664). See also the evidence given by Wilmot Horton before the
House of Commons Committee of 1828 as to Pitt's views in passing
the Act of 1791 (House of Commons Paper, July 22, 1828, Report on
the Civil Government of Canada, p. 301). See Introduction, pp. 31-2
and 279. The policy of recognizing the distinct national character
of the French Canadians, which Lord Durham here condemns, was
precisely the policy which Lord Elgin a little later strongly favoured
and carried out.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 69

unwise course of dividing Canada, and forming in one of Continued
its divisions a French community, speaking the French g™t°""oy of
language, and retaining French institutions, but it did British
not even carry this consistently into effect ; for at **
the same time provision was made for encouraging the
emigration of English into the very Province which was
said to be assigned to the French. Even the French
institutions were not extended over the whole of Lower [
Canada. The civil law of France, as a whole, and the
legal provision for the Catholic clergy were limited to
the portion of the country then settled by the French, and
comprised in the seigniories ; though some provision was
made for the formation of new seigniories, almost the whole
of the then unsettled portion of the Province was formed
into townships, in which the law of England was partially
established, and the Protestant religion alone endowed.
Thus two populations of hostile origin and different
characters, were brought into juxtaposition under a
common government, but under different institutions ;
each was taught to cherish its own language, laws and
habits, and each, at the same time, if it moved beyond its
original limits, was brought under different institutions,
and associated with a different people. The unenter-
prising character of the French population, and, above
all, its attachment to its church (for the enlargement of
which, in proportion to the increase or diffusion of the
Catholic population, very inadequate provision was made)
have produced the effect of confining it within its ancient
limits. But the English were attracted into the seigniories,
and especially into the cities, by the facilities of commerce
afforded by the great rivers. To have effectually given
the policy of retaining French institutions and a French
population in Lower Canada a fair chance of success, no
other institutions should have been allowed, and no other
race should have received any encouragement to settle
therein. The Province should have been set apart to be
wholly French, if it was not to be rendered completely
English. The attempt to encourage English emigration

French
nation-
ality not
preserv-
able
amidst
Anglo-
American
States.

70 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

into a community, of which the French character was
still to be preserved, was an error which planted the seeds
of a contest of races in the very constitution of the Colony ;
this was an error, I mean, even on the assumption that it
was possible to exclude the English race from French
Canada. But it was quite impossible to exclude the
English race from any part of the North American
continent. It will be acknowledged by every one who
has observed the progress of Anglo-Saxon colonization
in America, that sooner or later the English race was sure
to predominate even numerically in Lower Canada, as
they predominate already, by their superior knowledge,
energy, enterprise and wealth. (The error, therefore, to
which the present contest must oe attributed, is the vain
endeavour to preserve a French Canadian nationality in
the midst of Anglo-American colonies and states.^
The con- That contest has arisen by degrees. The scanty number
of the English who settled in Lower Canada during the
earlier period of our possession, put out of the question
any ideas of rivalry between the races. Indeed, until
the popular principles of English institutions were brought
effectually into operation, the paramount authority of the
Government left little room for dispute among any but
the few who contended for its favours. It was not until
the English had established a vast trade, and accumulated
considerable wealth, until a great part of the landed
property of the Province was vested in their hands, until
a large English population was found in the cities, had

1 With this and other passages, in which Lord Durham comments
on ' the vain endeavour to preserve a French Canadian nationality ',
contrast the far truer estimate formed by Carleton seventy years before.
Writing to Lord Shelburne on November 25, 1767, Carleton said :
' Having arrayed the strength of His Majesty's old and new subjects,
and shown the great superiority of the latter, it may not be amiss to
observe, that there is not the least probability, this present superiority
should ever diminish ; on the contrary 'tis more than probable it will
increase and strengthen daily. . . . Barring a catastrophe shocking to
think of, this country must, to the end of time, be peopled by the
Canadian race, who already have taken such firm root, and got to so
great a height, that any new stock transplanted will be totally hid and
imperceptible amongst them, except in the towns of Quebec and
Montreal ' (Shortt and Doughty, p. 198).

to

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 7i

scattered itself over large portions of the country, and had
formed considerable communities in the townships, and
not until the development of representative government
had placed substantial power in the hands of the people,
that that people divided itself into racjes, arrayed against
each other in intense and enduring animosity.

The errors of the Government did not cease with that, Continued
to which I have attributed the origin of this animosity. ^*11

The defects of the colonial constitution necessarily brought *ions of

Govern-

the executive Government into collision with the people ; ment.
and the disputes of the Government and the people called
into action the animosities of race ; nor has the policy
of the Government obviated the evils inherent in the
constitution of the Colony, and the composition of society.
It has done nothing to repair its original error, by making
the Province English. Occupied in a continued conflict
with the Assembly, successive Governors and their
councils have overlooked, in great measure, the real
importance of the feud of origin ; and the Imperial
Government, far removed from opportunities of personal
observation of the peculiar state of society, has shaped
its policy so as to aggravate the disorder. In some
instances it has actually conceded the mischievous
pretensions of nationality, in order to evade popular
claims ; as in attempting to divide the Legislative Council,
and the patronage of Government, equally between the
two paces, in order to avoid the demands for an elective
Council, and a responsible Executive : sometimes it has,
for a while, pursued the opposite course. A policy
founded on imperfect information, and conducted by
continually changing hands, has exhibited to the Colony
a system of vacillation which was in fact no system at
all. The alternate concessions to the contending races
have only irritated both, impaired the authority of
Government, and, by keeping alive the hopes of a French
Canadian nationality, counteracted the influences which
might, ere this, have brought the quarrel to its natural
and necessary termination. It is impossible to determine

72 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

precisely the respective effects of the social and political
causes. The struggle between the Government and the
Assembly, has aggravated the animosities of race ; and
the animosities of race have rendered the political dif-
ference irreconcileable. No remedy can be efficient that
Good does not operate upon both evils. At the root of the
disorders of Lower Canada, lies the conflict of the two

practic- races, which compose its population ; until this is settled,

conflict oSf no good government is practicable ; for whether the

races lasts, political institutions be reformed or left unchanged,

whether the powers of the Government be entrusted to

the majority or the minority, we may rest assured, that

while the hostility of the races continues, wMchejz££_oJ

them is entrusted with power, will use it for. paxtial

purposes.

Collisions I have described the contest between the French and

thelixecu- English races in Lower Canada with minuteness, because

live and it was my wish to produce a complete and general con-

tative611' viction of the prominent importance of that struggle,

thd3North w^en we are taking into consideration the causes of those

American disorders which have so grievously afflicted the Province.

jlomes. j have not, however, during the course of my preceding

remarks, been able to avoid alluding to other causes,

which have greatly contributed to occasion the existing

state of things ; and I have specified among these the

defects of the constitution, and the errors arising out of

the system of government. It is, indeed, impossible to

believe that the assigned causes of the struggle between

the Government and the majority have had no effect,

even though we may believe that they have had much

less than the contending parties imagined. It is impossible

to observe the great similarity of the constitutions

established in all our North American Provinces, and the

striking tendency of all to terminate in pretty nearly the

same result, without entertaining a belief that some defect

in the form of government, and some erroneous principle

of administration, have been common to all ; the hostility

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 73

of the ra^es being palpably insufficient to account for all
the evils which have affected Lower Canada, inasmuch
as nearly the same results have been exhibited among
the homogeneous population of the other provinces.
It is but too evident that Lower Canada, or the two
Canadas, have not alone exhibited repeated conflicts
between the executive and the popular branches of the
legislature. The representative body of Upper Canada
was before the late election, hostile to the policy of the
Government ; the most serious discontents have only
recently been calmed in Prince Edward's Island and
New Brunswick ; the Government is still, I believe, in
a minority in the Lower House in Nova Scotia ; and the
dissensions of Newfoundland are hardly less violent than
those of the Canadas. (It may fairly be said, that the
natural state of government in all these Colonies is that
of collision between the executive and the representative
bodyT) In all of them the administration of public affairs
is habitually confided to those who do not co-operate
harmoniously with the popular branch of the legislature ;
and the Government is constantly proposing measures
which the majority of the Assembly reject, and refusing
its assent to bills which that body has passed.

A state of things, so different from the working of Such col-
any successful experiment of representative government,

appears to indicate a deviation from sound constitutional deviation
principles or practice. Though occasional collisions 80Und

between the Crown and the House of Commons have constitu-

tional
occurred in this country since the establishment of our principles.

constitution at the Revolution of 1688, they have been
rare and transient. A state of frequent and lasting
collisions appears almost identical with one of convulsion
and anarchy ; and its occurrence in any country is
calculated to perplex us as to the mode in which any
government can be carried on therein, without an entire
evasion of popular control. But, when we examine into
the system of government in these colonies, it would
almost seem as if the object of those by whom it was

74 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

established had been the combining of apparently popular
institutions with an utter absence of all efficient control
of the people over their rulers. Representative assemblies
were established on the basis of a very wide, and, in some
cases, almost universal suffrage ; the annual meeting of
these bodies was secured by positive enactment, and their
apparent attributes were locally nearly as extensive as
those of the English House of Commons. At the same
time the Crown almost entirely relied on its territorial
resources, and on duties imposed by Imperial Acts, prior
to the introduction of the representative system, for
carrying on the government, without securing the assent
of the representative body either to its policy or to the
persons by whom that policy was to be administered.1
Practical It was not until some years after the commencement
Present century that the population of Lower

Assembly Canada began to understand the representative system
Canada, which had been extended to them, and that the Assembly
evinced any inclination to make use of its powers. Imme-
diately, however, upon its so doing, it found how limited
those powers were, and entered upon a struggle to obtain
the authority which analogy pointed out as inherent
in a representative assembly. Its freedom of speech
immediately brought it into collision with the Governor ;
and the practical working of the Assembly commenced
by its principal leaders being thrown into prison.2 In
course of time, however, the Government was induced,
by its necessities, to accept the Assembly's offer to raise

1 This passage invites a threefold criticism (a) that if English history
teaches anything, it is that the full development of popular liberties
and constitutional government in England was a matter not of years
but of generations and centuries ; (b) that the grant of representative
institutions without responsible government to Canada in 1791 was an
intermediate stage, preparing for a further development in accordance
with English precedents ; (c) that the French Canadians had never
had any training in any form of self-government whatever, which was
all the more reason for going slowly.

* The reference is to the suppression of the anti-government paper,
Le Canadien, by Sir James Craig, in March 1810. Craig imprisoned
those who were principally connected with the paper, including three
members of the Assembly, the most prominent of whom was M. Bedard.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 75

an additional revenue by fresh taxes ; and the Assembly
thus acquired a certain control over the levying and
appropriation of a portion of the public revenue. /From
that time, until the final abandonment in 1832 of every
portion of the reserved revenue, excepting the casual and
territorial funds, an unceasing contest was carried on, in
which the Assembly, making use of every power which
it gained, for the purpose of gaming more, acquired, step
by step, an entire control over the whole revenue of the
country.^)

I passihus briefly over the events which have heretofore Adminis-
been considered the principal features of the Canadian remained
controversy, because, as the contest has ended in the free from
concession of the financial demands of the Assembly, fluence.
and the admission by the Government of the impropriety
of attempting to withhold any portion of the public
revenues from its control,1 that contest can now be
regarded as of no importance, except as accounting for
the exasperation and suspicion which survived it. Nor
am I inclined to think that the disputes which subse-
quently occurred are to be attributed entirely to the
operation of mere angry feelings. A substantial cause
of contest yet remained. The Assembly, after it had
obtained entire control over the public revenues, still
found itself deprived of all voice in the choice or even
designation of the persons in whose administration of
affairs it could feel confidence. All the administrative
power of Government remained entirely free from its
influence ; and though Mr. Papineau appears by his own
conduct to have deprived himself of that influence in
the Government which he might have acquired, I must
attribute the refusal of a civil list 2 to the determination

1 But Lord Durham himself proposed to withhold from the Canadian
Legislature the control of the public lands, and to insist upon a Civil
List, which was tantamount to withholding a portion of the public
revenues. The date given above should be 1831 not 1832.

2 In England, before King William IV came to the throne, the term
' Civil List ' implied the provision made out of the hereditary revenues
of the Crown, supplemented by the proceeds of certain taxes which
were placed at the disposal of the reigning sovereign to cover the cost

76 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

of the Assembly not to give up its only means of subjecting
the functionaries of Government to any responsibility.
The public (JJQie powers for which the Assembly contended, appear
in both instances to be such as it was perfectly justified

indepen- jn demanding. It is difficult to conceive what could have
Assembly, been their theory of government who imagined that in
any colony of England a body invested with the name and
character of a representative Assembly, could be deprived
of any of those powers which, in the opinion of English-
men, are inherent in a popular legislature.1 It was a vain
delusion to imagine that by mere limitations in the Con-
stitutional Act, or an exclusive system of government,
a body, strong in the consciousness of wielding the public
opinion of the majority, could regard certain portions of
the provincial revenues as sacred from its control, could
confine itself to the mere business of making laws, and
look on as a passive or indifferent spectator, while those

of the ordinary civil expenses of the State (other than debt charges),
inclusive of the expenses of the Court and royal household. In the
reign of George III the amount of the Civil List rose from £800,000
per annum to largely over a million. When George IV came to the
throne, the Civil List was relieved of various services, and the amount
was fixed at £850,000. When William IV became King, the Civil List
was confined almost entirely to the ordinary expenses of the Crown
and the royal household, and was reduced to £510,000. On the acces-
sion of Queen Victoria, other items for pensions, &c., were removed
from the Civil List, and it was fixed at £385,000. The Act of 1901,
which fixed the Civil List of King Edward VII, raised the amount to
£470,000, but this included certain sums provided for the royal family
by special Acts passed in Queen Victoria's reign. In 1910, when the
present King came to the throne, an Act was passed, fixing the Civil
List at the same sum, £470,000. When it was intended by Sir Robert
Peel's Ministry in 1835 to send out Lord Amherst as Royal Commis-
sioner to Canada, Lord Aberdeen, in his instructions to him, dated
April 2, 1835, wrote : ' At no period of the history of England has the
King of this realm been dependent upon the votes of the House of
Commons for the maintenance of those officers for whom at the present
time provision is made by the Civil List ' (House of Commons Paper,
No. 231, March 22, 1838, p. 2).

1 The inaccuracy of this statement is pointed out in the Introduction,
p. 277. The Assembly were not ' deprived of ' the powers in question,
because they had never been given them; and the powers in question
are not necessarily inherent in a popular Legislature, as is shown by
the case of the United States, where ' the officers of government ',
in the sense of the ministers who form the Cabinet, are independent of
the Legislature.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 77

laws were carried into effect or evaded, and the whole
business of the country was conducted by men, in whose
intentions or capacity it had not the slightest confidence.3
Yet such was the limitation placed on the authority of
the Assembly of Lower Canada ; it might refuse or pass
laws, vote or withhold supplies, but it could exercise no
influence on the nomination of a single servant of the
Crown. The Executive Council, the law officers, and
whatever heads of departments are known to the adminis-
trative system of the Province, were placed in power,
without any regard to the wishes of the people or their
representatives ; nor indeed are there wanting instances
in which a mere hostility to the majority of the Assembly
elevated the most incompetent persons to posts of honour
and trust. However decidedly the Assembly might con-
demn the policy of the Government, the persons who
had advised that policy, retained their offices and their
power of giving bad advice. If a law was passed after
repeated conflicts, it had to be carried into effect by those
who had most strenuously opposed it. The wisdom of
adopting the true principle of representative government
and facilitating the management of public affairs, by
entrusting it to the persons who have the confidence
of the representative body, has never been recognized
in the government of the North American Colonies.
(Ml the officers of government were independent of the
Assembly ; and that body which had nothing to say to
their appointment, was left to get on as it best might,
with a set of public functionaries, whose paramount
feeling may not unfairly be said to have been one of
hostility to itself.^

A body of holders of office thus constituted, without Depen-
reference to the people or their representatives, must in

fact, from the very nature of colonial government, acquire Goverr
the entire direction of the affairs of the Province. A official
Governor, arriving in a colony in which he almost invari- party-
ably has had no previous acquaintance with the state of
parties, or the character of individuals, is compelled to

78 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

throw himself almost entirely upon those whom he finds
placed in the position of his official advisers.1 His first
acts must necessarily be performed, and his first appoint-
ments made, at their suggestion. And as these first acts
and appointments give a character to his policy, he is
generally brought thereby into immediate collision with
the other parties in the country, and thrown into more
complete dependence upon the official party and its
friends. Thus, a Governor of Lower Canada has almost
always been brought into collision with the Assembly,
which his advisers regard as their enemy. In the course
of the contest in which he was thus involved, the pro-
vocations which he received from the Assembly, and the
light in which their conduct was represented by those who
alone had any access to him, naturally imbued him with
many of their antipathies ; his position compelled him
to seek the support of some party against the Assembly ;
and his feelings and his necessities thus combined to
induce him to bestow his patronage and to shape his
measures to promote the interests of the party on which
he was obliged to lean. Thus, every successive year
consolidated and enlarged the strength of the ruling
party. Fortified by family connexion, and the common
interest felt by all who held, and all who desired, sub-
ordinate offices, that party was thus erected into a solid and
permanent power, controlled by no responsibility, subject
to no serious change, exercising over the whole government
of the Province an authority utterly independent of the
people and its representatives, and possessing the only
means of influencing either the Government at home, or
the colonial representative of the Crown.2

1 See the quotation from Christie's History of Lower Canada, given
above on p. 21, note 2.

2 Lord Durham does not note that, as far back as 1821, Lord Dalhousie
advocated putting four unofficial members, two Protestants and two
Roman Catholics, into the Executive Council, and that he actually
appointed to the Council Papineau, who was then the Speaker of the
Assembly. Papineau, however, resigned almost immediately. It will be
noted that he speaks of the Government clique being ' fortified by family
connexion ', but the term ' Family Compact ' was only used in the case of

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 79

This entire separation of the legislative and executive Impossi-
powers of a State, is the natural error of governments ^work-
desirous of being free from the check of representative ing of the
institutions.1 Since the Revolution of 1688, the stability system* of
of the English constitution has been secured by that wise g°veni-
principle of our Government which has vested the direction
of the national policy, and the distribution of patronage,
in the leaders of the Parliamentary majority. However
partial the Monarch might be to particular ministers, or
however he might have personally committed himself
to their policy, he has invariably been constrained to
abandon both, as soon as the opinion of the people has
been irrevocably pronounced against them through the
medium of the House of Commons. The practice of
carrying on a representative government on a different
principle, seems to be the rock on which the continental
imitations of the British Constitution have invariably
split ; and the French Revolution of 1830 was the
necessary result of an attempt to uphold a ministry
wjth which no Parliament could be got to act in concert.2
/It is difficult to understand how any English statesmen
could have imagined that representative and irresponsible
government could be successfully combined. There seems,
indeed, to be an idea, that the character of representa-
tive institutions ought to be thus modified in colonies ;
that it is an incident of colonial dependence that the
officers of government should be nominated by the Crown,
without any reference to the wishes of the community,
whose interests are entrusted to their keeping. It has
never been very clearly explained what are the imperial
interests, which require this complete nullification of

Upper Canada, and there Lord Durham tells us (p. 148) that there was
' in truth, very little of family connexion among the persons thus united.'

1 On the contrary, this separation was, in Cornewall Lewis's words,
a constitutional contrivance for affording a security against arbitrary
government (see Government of Dependencies, 1891 ed., pp. 41-8). See
also Introduction, p. 140.

2 This was the revolution which ended in the deposition of Charles X
and the accession of Louis Philippe. The Ministry was Polignac's
Ministry.

80 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

representative government. But if there be such a neces-
sity, it is quite clear that a representative government in
a colony must be a mockery, and a source of confusion.
For those who support this system have never yet been
able to devise, or to exhibit in the practical working of
colonial government, any means for making so complete
an abrogation of political influence palatable to the
representative body. It is not difficult to apply the case
to our own country. Let it be imagined that at a general
election the opposition were to return 500 out of 658
members of the House of Commons, and that the whole
policy of the ministry should be condemned, and every
Bill introduced by it, rejected by this immense majority.
Let it be supposed that the Crown should consider it
a point of honour and duty to retain a ministry so con-
demned and so thwarted ; that repeated dissolutions
should in no way increase, but should even diminish, the
ministerial minority, and that the only result which
could be obtained by such a development of the force of
the opposition, were not the slightest change in the policy
of the ministry, not the removal of a single minister, but
simply the election of a Speaker of the politics of the
majority ; and, I think, it will not be difficult to imagine
the fate of such a system of government. Yet such was
the system, such literally was the course of events in
Lower Canada, and such in character, though not quite
in degree, was the spectacle exhibited in Upper Canada,
and, at one time or another, in every one of the North
American Colonies. To suppose that such a system
would work well there, implies a belief that the French
Canadians have enjoyed representative institutions for
half a century,1 without acquiring any of the characteristics

1 As has been suggested in a previous note, half a century ia not
a very long time of training for a people who, before they came under
British rule, had never had any vestige of political and social freedom.
The half-century dates from 1791, and the French Canadians had
been British subjects since 1760, but in any case the analogy of England
makes the time of probation for full constitutional government in
Canada seem short, not long.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 81

of a free people ; that Englishmen renounce every
political opinion and feeling when they enter a colony,
or that the spirit of Anglo-Saxon freedom is utterly
changed and weakened among those who are transplanted
across the Atlantic.^

It appears, therefore, that the opposition of the Opposi-
Assembly to the Government was the unavoidable result AssemV/10
of a system which stinted the popular branch of the to the
legislature of the necessary privileges of a representative melt'un-
body, and produced thereby a long series of attempts on avoidable,
the part of that body to acquire control over the ad-
ministration of the Province. I say all this without
reference to the ultimate aim of the Assembly, which
I have before described as being the maintenance of
a Canadian nationality against the progressive intrusion
of the English race. Having no responsible ministers to
deal with, it entered upon that system of long inquiries
by means of its committees, which brought the whole
action of the executive immediately under its purview,
and transgressed our notions of the proper limits of
Parliamentary interference. Having no influence in the
choice of any public functionary, no power to procure
the removal of such as were obnoxious to it merely on
political grounds, and seeing almost every office of the
Colony filled by persons in whom it had no confidence, it
entered on that vicious course of assailing its prominent
opponents individually, and disqualifying them for the
public service, by making them the subjects of inquiries
and consequent impeachments, not always conducted
with even the appearance of a due regard to justice ; and
when nothing else could attain its end of altering the
policy or the composition of the colonial government, it
had recourse to that ultima ratio of representative power
to which the more prudent forbearance of the Crown has
never driven the House of Commons in England, and
endeavoured to disable the whole machine of Government
by a general refusal of the supplies.
/It was an unhappy consequence of the system which

1352-2 G

82 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Popular I have been describing, that it relieved the popular leaders
relieved of of a11 tne responsibilities^ of opposition. A member of
resppn- opposition in this country acts and speaks with the
contingency of becoming a minister constantly before his
eyes, and he feels, therefore, the necessity of proposing no
course, and of asserting no principles, on which he would
not be prepared to conduct the Government, if he were
immediately offered it. But the colonial demagogue bids
high for popularity without the fear of future exposure.
Hopelessly excluded frpm power, he expresses the wildest
opinions, and appeals to the most mischievous passions
of the people, without any apprehension of having his
sincerity or prudence hereafter tested, by being placed
in a position to carry his views into effect ; and thus the
prominent places in the ranks of opposition are occupied
for the most part by men of strong passions, and merely
declamatory powers, who think but little of reforming
the abuses which serve them as topics for exciting dis-
content/)

Collision The collision with the executive government necessarily
the°Legis. brought on one ^h tne Legislative Council. The com-
lative position of this body, which has been so much the subject
of discussion both here and in the Colony, must certainly
be admitted to have been such as could give it no weight
with the people, or with the representative body, on which
it was meant to be a check. The majority was always
composed of members of the party which conducted the
executive government ; the clerks of each Council were
members of the other ; and, in fact, the Legislative
Council was practically hardly any thing but a veto in the
hands of public functionaries on all the acts of that popular
branch of the legislature in which they were always in
a minority. This veto they used without much scruple.
I am far from concurring in the censure which the Assembly
and its advocates have attempted to cast on the acts of
the Legislative Council. I have no hesitation in saying
that many of the Bills which it is most severely blamed
for rejecting, were Bills which it could not have passed

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 83

without a dereliction of its duty to the constitution, the
connexion with Great Britain, and the whole English
population of the Colony. If there is any censure to be
passed on its general conduct, it is for having confined
itself to the merely negative and defensive duties of
a legislative body ; for having too frequently contented
itself with merely defeating objectionable methods of
obtaining desirable ends, without completing its duty by
proposing measures, which would have achieved the good
in view without the mixture of evil. The national ani-
mosities which pervaded the legislation of the Assembly,
and its thorough want of legislative skill or respect for
constitutional principles, rendered almost all its Bills
obnoxious to the objections made by the Legislative
Council ; and the serious evil which their enactment
would have occasioned, convinces me that the Colony
has reason to congratulate itself on the existence of an
institution which possessed and used the power of stopping
a course of legislation that, if successful, would have
sacrificed every British interest, and overthrown every
guarantee of order and national liberty. It is not difficult
for us to judge thus calmly of the respective merits of
these distant parties ; but it must have been a great and
deep-rooted respect for the constitution and composition
of the Legislative Council, that could have induced
the representatives of a great majority to submit with
patience to the impediment thus placed in their way
by a few individuals. But the Legislative Council
was neither theoretically unobjectionable, nor personally
esteemed by the Assembly ; its opposition appeared to
that body but another form of official hostility, and it
was inevitable that the Assembly should, sooner or later,
make those assaults on the constitution of the Legislative
Council which, by the singular want of judgment and
temper with which they were conducted, ended in the
destruction of the Provincial Constitution.
(From the commencement, therefore, to the end of the Purposes
disputes which mark the whole Parliamentary history Assembly.

G 2

84 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

of Lower Canada, I look on the conduct of the Assembly
as a constant warfare with the executive, for the purpose
of obtaining the powers inherent in a representative body
by the very nature of representative government. It wa&
to accomplish this purpose, that it used every means in
its power ; but it must be censured for having, in pursuit
of this object, perverted its powers of legislation, and
disturbed the whole working of the constitution. It made
the business of legislation, and the practical improvement
of the country, subordinate to its struggle for power ; and,
being denied its legitimate privileges, it endeavoured to
extend its authority in modes totally incompatible with
the principles of constitutional liberty."^)

Attempt One glaring attempt which was made directly and
to alter openly to subvert the constitution of the country, was,
stitutional by passing a Bill for the formal repeal of those parts of
the 31 Geo. 3, c. 31, commonly called the Constitutional
Act, by which the constitution and powers of the Legis-
lative Council were established. It can hardly be sup-
posed that the f ramers of this Bill were unaware, or hoped
to make any concealment of the obvious illegality of a
measure, which, commencing, as all Canadian Acts do,
by a recital of the 31 Geo. 3, as the foundation of the
legislative authority of the Assembly, proceeded imme-
diately to infringe some of the most important provisions
of that very statute ; nor can it be supposed that the
Assembly hoped really to carry into effect this extra-
ordinary assumption of power, inasmuch as the Bill could
derive no legal effect from passing the Lower House, unless
it should subsequently receive the assent of the very body
which it purported to annihilate.1

1 Lord Durham is not quite correct (see Christie, vol. iv, pp. 226-9
and 343). The Bill in question was introduced in two successive
sessions in 1836, but in neither case did it go through all the stages in
the House of Assembly. On the other hand, a Bill of precisely the
same nature, to repeal in part the Canada Tenures Acts passed by the
Imperial Parliament, was carried through the House of Assembly and
thrown out by the Legislative Council. Christie points out that the
object of bringing in Bills which every one knew must be inoperative,
was to show 'in precise terms to the Home Government, the altera-

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 85

A more dangerous, because, in some measure, more Claim of
effectual device for assuming unconstitutional powers, lawlor*
was practised by the Assembly in its attempts to evade resolutions
the necessity of obtaining the assent of the other branches Assembly,
of the legislature, by claiming for its own resolutions,
and that, too, on points of the greatest importance, the
force of laws.1 A remarkable instance of this was ex-
hibited in the Resolution which the Assembly passed on
the rejection of a Bill for vacating the seats of Members
on the acceptance of offices under the Crown ; and which,
in fact, and undisguisedly, purported, by its own single
authority, to give effect to the provisions of the rejected
Bill. This Resolution brought the Assembly into a long
dispute with ,Lord Aylmer, in consequence of his refus-
ing to issue a writ for the election of a Member in place
of Mr. Mondelet,2 whose seat was declared vacant in

tions and amendments which, in the view of the Assembly, it was desir-
able should be made by the ImperiaJ Parliament to those acts '. The
Colonial Laws Validity Act of 1865, 28 & 29 Vic. cap. 63, sec. 2, enacts :
' Any colonial law, which is or shall be in any respect repugnant to the
provisions of any Act of Parliament extending to the colony to which
such law may relate, or repugnant to any order or regulation made
under authority of such Act of Parliament, or having in the colony the
force and effect of such Act, shall be read subject to such act, order,
or regulation, and shall, to the extent of such repugnancy, but not
otherwise, be and remain absolutely void and inoperative.'

1 With what Lord Durham says here as to the Quebec Assembly
claiming for its resolutions the force of laws, compare what Aristotle
says in the Politics, Book IV, chap. 4, as to the different kinds of
democracy. The last and extreme kind of democracy, parallel to
a tyranny, is, he says, when the chief power is in resolutions and not in
the law (orav ra \lsr)(j)i<T para Kvpia ^ fiXXa pfj 6 v6fj.os). This passage of
Aristotle's will be found translated and annotated in Sir G. Cornewall
Lewis's Government of Dependencies, 1891 ed., pp. 29-32, and note B.
As to the authority of resolutions passed by either House of the
Imperial Parliament, see Professor Dicey's Law of the Constitution,
6th ed., 1902, pp. 52, &c.

2 The case of Mr. Mondelet was one of the most flagrant among the
many episodes of the Quebec Assembly. An account of it will be found
in Christie, vol. iii, pp. 444-9, 497-501, 523-6. Dominique Mondelet,
a young French Canadian, who had lately been elected to the Assembly
as one of the members for the county of Montreal, was in November
1832 appointed by the Governor- General to a seat on the Executive
Council. The Assembly resolved that his seat in that House should be
declared vacant under a resolution which they had passed in February
1831, and which laid down that any member accepting an office of
profit from the Crown and becoming accountable for public money,

86 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

consequence of his having accepted the office of executive
councillor. The instance in which the Assembly thus
attempted to enforce this principle of disqualification,
happened to be one to which it could not be considered
applicable, either from analogy to the law of England, or
from the apparent intent of the Resolution itself ; for
the office which Mr. Mondelet accepted, though one of
high importance and influence, was one to which no
salary or emolument of any kind was attached.
Syste- But the evils resulting from such open attempts to

abuses of di8Pense with the constitution were small, in comparison
cpnstitu- with the disturbance of the regular course of legislation
forms. by systematic abuse of constitutional forms, for the pur-
pose of depriving the other branches of the legislature of
all real legislative authority. VJQie custom of passing the
most important laws in a temporary form, has been an
ancient and extensive defect of the legislation of the
North American Colonies, partially authorized by royal
instructions to the Governors, but never sanctioned by
the Imperial Legislature, until it was established in Lower
Canada by the 1st Viet. c. 9.1 It remained, however, for

should vacate his seat. It was held that the office of executive coun-
cillor was an office of profit, though as a matter of fact Mondelet received
no pay ; and the Speaker issued a warrant' for a new writ of election.
The Governor-General, Lord Aylmer, as Keeper of the Great Seal, was
called upon to sign and issue the writ. This he refused to do ; and in
March 1833 the House of Assembly voted an address to him, asking
the reason of the delay. He gave his reasons, said that being in doubt
lie had referred to the Secretary of State, and asked that the matter
might stand over pending a reply. The Assembly then treated him as
having violated the constitution, and made use of very insulting terms.
In the following January 1834, Lord Aylmer communicated to the
Assembly the answer from the Secretary of State, Mr. Stanley. The
latter approved the Governor's refusal to sign the writ in unusually
plain language, said that the case was so clear that reference to him
was unnecessary, censured the tone adopted by the Assembly, and
commented severely upon the ' fatal error ', which he said the House
of Commons had never committed, ' of arrogating to themselves the
monstrous right of giving to their resolutions the force of law.'

1 The Act 1 & 2 Vic. cap. 9, dated February 10, 1838, was entitled
' An Act to make temporary provision for the government of Lower
Canada '. For the period from the date when it should be proclaimed
in the province to November 1, 1840, it repealed the constitutional
Act of 1791, so far as the latter provided a Legislature for Lower Canada,
and in lieu it authorized the Crown to constitute a Special Council for

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA $7

the Assembly of Lower Canada to reduce the practice
to a regular system, in order that it might have the most
important institutions of the Province periodically at
its mercy, and use the necessities of the Government
and the community for the purpose of extorting the con~
cession of whatever demands it might choose to make.
Objectionable in itself, on account of the uncertainty
and continual changes which it tended to introduce into
legislation, this system of temporary laws derived its
worst character from the facilities which it afforded to the
practice of ' tacking ' together various legislative measures ;
a practice not unknown to the British constitution, and
which has sometimes been found useful, because the
prudence of the House of Commons has induced that
body rarely to have recourse to it, but which the legislators
of Lower Canada converted into the ordinary mode of
legislation. By the abuse of this practice, any branch
of the legislature had, during every session, the power, if
it had the inclination, to make the renewal of expiring
laws the means of dictating its own terms to the others ;
and to this end it was systematically converted by the
Assembly?) It adopted the custom of renewing all expiring
laws, however heterogeneous in their character, in one
and the same Bill. Having the first choice to exercise, it
renewed, of course, only those Acts of which it approved,
and left to the Legislative Council and the Governors only
the alternative of rejecting such as had proved to be
beneficial, or of passing such as, in their opinion, had

the affairs of Lower Canada. The Governor and this Council were
empowered to make laws, but no such laws were to continue in force
beyond November 1, 1842, ' unless continued by competent authority.'
They were further precluded from imposing new taxes, and from any
legislation embodying a constitutional change. This Imperial Act,
therefore, was a very complete illustration of temporary legislation.
As to the practice of temporary legislation on the part of the Quebec
Assembly, see what is said in the Municipal Report (Appendix C,
vol. iii, pp. 145-52) under ' General Character of Provincial Legislation ',
and see Appendix D, vol. iii, p. 263. ' The House of Assembly knew
well the power which they derived from their common habit of tem-
porary legislation.' For a good illustration of the great practical
inconvenience which it caused, see the Introduction, p. 195, note.

REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

proved to be mischievous, j^ singular instance of this
occurred in 1836 with respect to the renewal of the Jury
Law, to which the Assembly attached great importance,
and to which the Legislative Council felt a strong repug-
nance, on account of its having in effect placed the juries
entirely in the hands of the French portion of the popu-
lation. In order to secure the renewal of this law, the
Assembly coupled it in the same Bill, by which it renewed
the tolls of the Lachine Canal,1 calculating on the Council
not venturing to defeat a measure of so much importance
to the revenue as the latter, by resisting the former.
The Council, however, rejected the Bill ; and thus the
Canal remained toll-free for a whole season, because
the two Houses differed about a jury law.2 j

1 The Lachine canal, 8J miles in length, with five locks — originally
seven — was cut through the southern part of the island of Montreal,
in order to facilitate navigation past the St. Louis or Lachine rapids of
the St. Lawrence. It was a very early project, but nothing was done
\mtil after the second American war, when, in 1815, on the recom-
mendation of the Governor, Sir George Prevost, the Quebec Legislature
passed an Act, appropriating £25,000 in aid of its construction. The
work, however, was not begun until 1821, and the canal was opened
in 1825. It cost over £107,000, the money being provided from Lower
Canada funds, with the exception of £10,000 contributed by the Imperial
Government. Like other Canadian canals, it was subsequently re-
constructed and enlarged (see the Historical Sketch of the Canals of
Canada in the Report of the Canadian Canal Commission of 1871,
Canadian Sessional Papers of 1871, No. 54).

* The following is wnat Erskine May says as to ' Tacking ' (Parlia-
mentary Practice, llth ed., 1906, p. 585) :

' Tacks to bills of Supply. In former times, the Commons abused
their right to grant supplies without interference from the Lords, by
tacking to supply bills provisions which, in a bill that the Lords had
no right to amend, must either have been accepted by them uncon-
sidered, or have caused the rejection of a measure necessary for the
public service. This is an invasion of the privileges of the Lords, no
less than their interference in matters of supply infringes the privileges
of the Commons, and has been met by the Lords by Standing Order
No. 59, and by their resolution of December 9, 1702 : —

" That the annexing any clause or clauses to a bill of aid or supply,
the matter of which is foreign to, and different from, the matter of
the said bills of aid or supply, is unparliamentary, and tends to the
destruction of the constitution of the government." '

Money Bills are now strictly defined by section 3 of the Parliament

Act of 1911.
No definit
Canadian U
1867, but section 18 of the latter Act provided that the privileges,

No definite provision was made against ' tacking ' either in the
Canadian Union Act of 1840 or in the British North America Act of

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 89

Nor was this custom of ' tacking ' confined to the case
of the renewal of expiring laws. A Bill for the indepen-
dence of the Judges jvas coupled with the establishment
of a new tribunal for trying impeachments, and with
other provisions, to which it was known that the Crown
was decidedly hostile ; and thus, in the attempt to extort
an objectionable concession, a most desirable guarantee
for the pure administration of justice was sacrificed.

The system thus framed, was completed by the regula-
tions with respect to a quorum; and the use which the
majority made of them. A quorum of nearly half the
whole House was required for the transaction of business.
Towards the end of every recent session, the majority
used to break up the quorum, and disperse to their
respective homes, without waiting to be prorogued,
immediately after sending up a number of Bills to the
Council, thus leaving no means of considering or adopting
any amendments which that body might make, and

immunities, and powers of the two Houses of the Dominion Parliament
respectively should be such as are defined from time to time by Act of
the Dominion Parliament, but so as never to exceed the privileges, &c.,
of the British House of Commons at the time of the passing of the Act.
These privileges, &c., were defined by the Canadian Senate and House
of Commons Act of 1868. In 1875 a short Imperial Act was passed
repealing the 18th section of the British North America Act, and
re-enacting it in a different form, so as to provide that the privileges,
&c., shall not exceed those enjoyed by the British House of Commons
at the time of the passing of any defining Canadian Act. The net result
is that while there is no legal provision against ' tacking ' in Canada,
the constitutional practice is as in the United Kingdom (see Todd,
Parliamentary Government in the Colonies, 2nd ed., 1894, pp. 705-6).

The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act of 1900 contains
very definite provisions against ' tacking '. Section 54 provides : ' The
proposed law which appropriates revenue or moneys for the ordinary
annual services of the government shall deal only with such appropria-
tion ' ; and section 55 provides that ' Laws imposing taxation shall
deal only with the imposition of taxation, and any provision therein
dealing with any other matter shall be of no effect '.

The South Africa Act of 1909 has the following safeguards against
' tacking '. Section 61 provides : ' Any Bill which appropriates
revenue or moneys for the ordinary services of the government shall
deal only with such appropriation.' With this section must be coupled
section 60, subsection 2 : ' The senate may not amend any Bills so far
as they impose taxation or appropriate revenue or moneys for the
services of the government ', implying that, except in this respect,
there is no restriction on the power of amendment by the senate.

REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Parlia-
mentary
grants for
local
works.

Impor-
tance o:
public
works in
American
legisla-
tion.

leaving it no option but that of rejecting or confirming
by wholesale the measures of the Assembly.

But in describing the means by which the Assembly
obtained, and attempted to consolidate, its power, I must
not omit to direct particular attention to that which,
after all, was the most effectual, and which originated
in a defect common to the system of government in all
the North American Colonies ; it is, the practice of
making Parliamentary grants for local works, — a system
so vicious, and so productive of evil, that I believe that
until it is entirely eradicated, representative government
will be incapable of working well and smoothly in those
Colonies.1

I know, indeed, of no difference in the machinery of
government in the old and new world that strikes an
European more forcibly than the apparently undue
importance which the business of constructing public
works appears to occupy in American legislation. (_In
speaking of the character of a government, its merits
appear to be estimated by the public works which it has
carried into effect. If an individual is asked how his own
legislature has acted, he will generally say what roads or
bridges it has made, or neglected to make, in his own
district ; and if he is consulted about changes in a con-
stitution, he seems to try their soundness by calculating
whether his neighbourhood would get more and better
roads and bridges under the existing, or the proposed
system^) On examining the proceedings of a legislature,
we find that a great proportion of its discussions turns on
such questions ; and if we look to the budget, we find
that a still greater proportion of the public money is
applied to these purposes. Those who reflect on the
circumstances of the New World, will not find it very
difficult to account for the attention there paid to what is,
necessarily, the first business of society, and is naturally
made the first care of every responsible government.

1 Lord Sydenham took entirely the same view on this point as
Lord Durham. See Introduction, p. 218.

91

The provision which in Europe, the State makes for the
protection of its citizens against foreign enemies, is in
America required for what a French writer has beautifully
and accurately called, the 'war wifb *

The defence of an important fortress, or the maintenance
of a sufficient army or navy in exposed spots, is not more
a matter of common concern to the European, than is the
construction of the great communications to the American ,
settler ; and the State, very naturally, takes on itself j

the making of the works, which are matters of concern

— — j

( to all alike.

Even the municipal institutions of the northern States Height to
of the American Union have not entirely superseded the ^^ o{
necessity of some interference on the part of their legis- grants haa
latures in aid of local improvements ; though the main carried.
efforts of those States have been directed to those vast
undertakings which are the common concern and the
common glory of their citizens. In the southern States,
where municipal institutions are less complete, the legis-
latures are in the habit of taking part more constantly
and extensively in works which are properly of mere local
interest ; 2 and great complaints are made of consequent

1 I have been unable to verify this quotation. — ED.

2 It is not always easy, especially in the smaller colonies, to deter-
mine whether a particular item of expenditure shall be charged to
municipal or to general funds, and in some colonies or dependencies,
as e. g. in Hong-kong before the extension of its boundaries, the colony
may mainly consist of what would in ordinary circumstances be a
municipality. Mr. Chamberlain, in a dispatch to the Governor of the
Leeward Islands, dated November 15, 1895, an extract from which
was sent to the other Crown Colonies in a circular dispatch, dated
December 23, 1895, condemned the practice of assisting purely local
improvements or enterprises from general funds in the following
terms : —

' 2. I am aware that in some instances my predecessors have allowed
charges to be imposed upon general revenues of a Colony in order to
provide for public works for the sanitation or other objects in the
capital town or other large towns. I cannot however give my adhesion
to such a practice, which I consider to be altogether opposed to the
true principles of municipal and civil government, which require that
those who spend the money and derive all the direct advantages of the
expenditure should also provide the funds.

' 3. There may be good reason for charging the general revenue with
the whole or part of the cost of Harbour Works or Port accommodation,

92 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

corruption and mismanagement. But in the British
Colonies, in none of which is there any effectual system
of municipal government, the evil has been carried to the
greatest height, and exercises the most noxious influence.
JTJje great business of the assemblies is, literally, parish
business ; the making parish roads and parish bridges. -
There are in none of these Provinces any local bodies
possessing authority to impose local assessments, for the -
management of local affairs. To do these things is the
business of the Assembly ; and to induce the Assembly
to attend to the particular interests of each county, is
the especial business of its county member. The surplus
revenue of the Province is swelled to as large an amount
as possible, by cutting down the payment of public
services to as low a scale as possible ; and the real duties
of government are, sometimes, insufficiently provided for,
in order that more may be left to be divided among
the constituent bodies. ' When we want a bridge, we
take a judge to build it,' was the quaint and forcible way
in which a member of a provincial legislature described
the tendency to retrench, in the most necessary depart-
ments of the public service, in order to satisfy the demands
for local works. This fund is voted by the Assembly on
the motion of its members ; the necessity of obtaining the
previous consent of the Crown to money votes never
having been adopted by the Colonial Legislatures from

although the works are local, because the whole community are in-
terested, and because the cost of works of this description is partially
recouped by dues levied from those who use them, but I can see no
more reason for providing for the extension and improvement of the
City of St. John at the expense of the whole Presidency, than for making
the whole of the United Kingdom pay for the improvement of London.

' 4. Moreover the system of charging the community at large with
the cost of a local scheme does not conduce to economy or prudence in
the administration of that scheme, or to the fostering of a due sense of
responsibility on the part of those who administer the affairs of the
locality which is allowed to draw upon the whole community for con-
tribution to local undertakings.

' 5. I am anxious to encourage and develop the municipal spirit in
all the larger towns of Her Majesty's Crown Colonies, but I hold it to
be of the first importance that such a spirit should aim from the first
at being self supporting.'

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 93

the practice of the British House of Commons.1 There
is a perfect scramble among the whole body to get as much '
as possible of this fund for their respective constituents j^)
cabals are formed, by which the different members
mutually play into each other's hands ; general politics
are made to bear on private business, and private business
on general politics ; and at the close of the parliament,
the member who has succeeded in securing the largest
portion of the prize for his constituents, renders an easy
account of his stewardship, with confident assurance of
re-election.

The Provincial Assemblies being, as I have previously Funds
stated, in a state of permanent collision with the Govern- b^Com-
ment, have never been in the habit of entrusting the missioners

HflllK'd DV

executive with any control over these funds ; and they the Lcgis-
have been wholly dispensed by commissioners named by lature-
the legislature. The Assemblies do not appear to have
been at all insensible to the possibility of turning this
patronage to their own account. An electioneering hand-
bill, which was circulated by the friends of Government
at the last dissolution in Upper Canada, exhibited, in
a very strong light, the expense of the commissioners
of the Assembly, contrasted with those of the officers of
the executive government ; but the Province of Nova
Scotia has carried this abuse to an extent which appears
almost inconceivable. (According to a report presented
to me by Major Head, an assistant commissioner of inquiry
whom I sent to that Colony, a sum of 10,000£. was, during
the last session, appropriated to local improvements ;
this sum was divided into 830 portions, and as many
commissioners were appointed to expend it, giving, on an
average, a commissioner for rather more than every 121.,
with a salary of 55. a day, and a further remuneration of
two and a half per cent, on the money expended, to be
deducted out of each shareN

1 See also vol. ii, p. 287 and p. 328, note. Both the Union Act
and the British North America Act contained provisions against this
abuse. See also the Introduction, p. 292.

94 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Abuse , Not only did the leaders of the Lower Canadian
patronage. ^ Assembly avail themselves of the patronage thus afforded,
y the large surplus revenue of the Province, but they
turned this system to much greater account, by using it
1o obtain influence over the constituencies. In a furious
political struggle, like that which subsisted in Lower
Janada, it was natural that a body, wielding, with hardly
any responsibility, this direct power of promoting the
inmediate interests of each constituency, should show
some favour to that which concurred in its political views,
md should exhibit its displeasure towards that which
)bstinately resisted the majority. But the majority of
the Assembly of Lower Canada is accused by its opponents
of having, in the most systematic and persevering manner
employed this means of corrupting the electoral bodies.
The adherents of Mr. Papineau are said to have been
lavish in their promises of the benefits which they could
obtain from the Assembly for the county whose suffrages
they solicited. By such representations, the return of
members of opposition politics is asserted, in many
instances, to have been secured ; and obstinate counties
are alleged to have been sometimes starved into sub-
mission, by an entire withdrawal of grants, until they
returned members favourable to the majority. Some
of the English members who voted with Mr. Papineau,
excused themselves to their countrymen by alleging,
that they were compelled to do so, in order to get a road
or a bridge, which their constituents desired. Whether
it be true or false that the abuse was ever carried to
such a pitch, it is obviously one, which might have
been easily and safely perpetrated by a person possessing
Mr. Papineau's influence in the Assembly.

Grants for ^But the most bold and extensive attempt for erecting
on* a system of patronage, wholly independent of the Govern-
ment, was that which was, for some time, carried into effect
by the grants for education made by the Assembly, and
regulated by the Act, which the Legislative Council has
been most bitterly reproached with refusing to renew.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 95

It has been stated, as a proof of the deliberate intention
of the Legislative Council to crush every attempt to
civilize and elevate the great mass of the people, that it
thus stopped at once the working of about 1,000 schools,
and deprived of education no less than 40,000 scholars,
who were actually profiting by the means of instruction
thus placed within their reach. But the reasons which
induced, or rather compelled, the Legislative Council to
stop this system, are clearly stated in the Report of that
body, which contains the most unanswerable justification
of the course which it pursued.1 By that it appears, that
the whole superintendence and patronage of these schools
had, by the expired law, been vested in the hands of the
county Members ; and that they had been allowed to
manage the funds, without even the semblance of sufficient
accountability. The Members of the Assembly had thus
a patronage, in this single department, of about 25,000?.
per annum, an amount equal to half of the whole ordinary
civil expenditure of the Province. They were not slow
in profiting by the occasion thus placed in their hands ;
and as there existed in the Province no sufficient supply
of competent schoolmasters and mistresses, they never-
theless immediately filled up the appointments with
persons who were utterly and obviously incompetent.
A great proportion of the teachers could neither read nor
write. The gentleman whom I directed to inquire into
the state of education in the Province, showed me a
petition from certain schoolmasters, which had come into
his hands ; and the majority of the signatures were those
of marksmen. These ignorant teachers could convey no
useful instruction to their pupils ; the utmost amount
which they taught them was to say the Catechism by_roie.

1 This Report is quoted with approval by Arthur Buller, the Com-
missioner of Inquiry into the State of Education in Lower Canada,
Appendix D, vol. iii, pp. 259-61. It is also given at length in the
Appendix to the General Report of the Commissioners on grievances
complained of in Lower Canada (Lord Gosford and his colleagues),
House of Commons Paper, No. 50, February 20, 1837, Appendix to the
General Report, pp. 156-60.

REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Even within seven miles of Montreal, there was a school-
mistress thus unqualified. These appointments were, as
might have been expected, jobbed by the members among
their political partisans ; nor were the funds very honestly
managed. In many cases the members were suspected,
or accused, of misapplying them to their own use ; and in
the case of Beauharnois, where the seigneur, Mr. Ellice,1
has, in the same spirit of judicious liberality by which his
whole management of that extensive property has been
marked, contributed most largely towards the education
of his tenants, the school funds were proved to have been
misappropriated by the county member. The whole
system was a gross political abuse ; and however laudable
we must hold the exertions of those who really laboured
to relieve their country from the reproach of being the
least furnished with the means of education of any on the
North American continent, the more severely must we
condemn those who sacrificed this noble end, and perverted
ample means to serve the purposes of party^
Grants for I know not whether to ascribe the system which was
d for the relief of the distress periodically occurring
n certain districts to the same policy of extending the
nfluence of the Assembly by local grants, or merely to
he antiquated prejudices which seem to have pervaded
many parts of the Assembly's legislation, which dictated
laws against hucksters and the maintenance of foundling
hospitals. No general system for the relief of destitution,
no poor-law of any kind was established, and the wants

1 Edward Ellice the elder, commonly known as ' Bear ' Ellice, be-
cause of his connexion with the Canadian fur companies, was born
in 1781. His father had been a Loyalist, who removed from New York
to Montreal, and subsequently established a branch of his firm in
London. Edward Ellice was brought up and educated in the United
Kingdom, and spent his life, partly as a merchant partly as a politician,
partly in Canada and the United States, in both of which he had large
estates, but mainly in the United Kingdom. He was largely instru-
mental in bringing about the amalgamation of the fur companies in
1821, and he inspired the attempt to reunite the two Canadas in 1822.
He was a strong Liberal, but no lover of office. He was only in office
from 1830 to 1834, first as whip in Lord Grey's Ministry and then as
Secretary at War. He lived till 1863. His son was Lord Durham's
private secretary (see Diet, of Nat. Biog., s.v.).

harvests,

1)7

of the country hardly demanded it.1 But when I arrived
at Quebec, I received a number of petitions from parishes
situated on the lower part of the St. Lawrence, praying
for relief, in consequence of the failure of the harvest.
I found, on inquiry, that relief had been granted to these
districts for several successive years. The cause of the
calamity was obvious ; it was the unsuitableness of wheat
crops under the wretched system of Canadian small
farming, to the severe climate of that portion of the
Province. By the side of the distressed parishes were
large districts, in which a better system of farming, and,
above all, the employment of the land for pasture and
green crops, had diffused the most general comfort among
the agricultural population, and completely obviated the
occurrence of failure or distress. There were, in the
vicinity of the distressed parishes, large tracts of rich and
unsettled land, available for the permanent amelioration^
of the condition of this suffering people ; and there were
valuable and extensive fisheries in the neighbourhood,
which might have supported it in comfort ; yet no
persevering attempt had been made to provide permanent
relief by encouraging the population which was thus
thrown on the legislature for support, either to adopt a
better system of agriculture, or to, settle on other portions
of the country, or to avail itself of the fisheries. The
Assembly met the evil by relieving the distress in such
a way as to stave off its immediate results, and ensure its
recurrence. It gave food for the season of scarcity, and

1 As to the subject of this paragraph, -see what is said under the
heading of Poor in the General Report of the Assistant Commissioners
of Municipal Inquiry (Appendix C, vol. iii, pp. 166-74). It will be seen
that the Commissioners divide the poor of Lower Canada into two classes
(1) such as are to be found in every ^country, and (2) ' such multitudes
of persons in particular localities as require aid to avert the consequences,
whether present or prospective, of an alleged failure of the crops.' An
account is given of the measures taken by the Legislature to deal with
this second class of cases. Sir John Sherbrooke acquired much popu-
larity, soon after he became Governor-in-Chief of Canada, by taking
the responsibility of making advances of money to meet distress caused
by failure of crops on the banks of the St. Lawrence below Quebec in
the autumn and winter of 1816.

1352-2 H

98 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

seed to sow a crop even of wheat as late as the 20th of June,
which was of course to fail in its turn ; for it had thus
relieved the same kind of distress, in precisely the same
places, for several successive years ; and its policy seemed
to be to pension a portion of the people to sow wheat
where it would not ripen.
Lost It is melancholy to think of the opportunities of good

ties°forUnl legislation which were sacrificed in this mere contest for
good legis- power. No country in the world ever demanded from
on' a paternal government, or patriotic representatives,
more unceasing and vigorous reforms, both of its laws
and its administrative system.1 Lower Canada had,
when we received it at the conquest, two institutions,
which alone preserved the semblance of order and civiliza-
tion in the community, — the Catholic church and the
militia, which was so constituted and used, as partially
to supply the want of better civil institutions. The
beneficial influence of the Catholic church has been
cramped and weakened ; the militia is now annihilated,
and years must elapse ere it can be revived and used
J to any good purpose.2 Lower Canada remains without

1 Lord Dalhousie had expressed much the same feeling in the speech
with which on March 9, 1824, he closed a barren and controversial
session of the Quebec Legislature : 'Every inhabitant of it (the province)
must see that the encouraging aid of the legislature is alone wanting
to arouse powerful exertions and draw forth those resources which
without that aid must in great measure be dormant and useless within
its reach.'

2 See above, p. 53. ' The most important persons in a parish were
the cure, the seignior, and the militia captain ' (Parkman, The Old
Regime in Canada, 1885 ed., p. 387). In his dispatch to the Duke of
Portland, November 1, 1800, Lieutenant-Governor Milnes writes : ' It
is necessary to inform your Grace how far under the dominion of France
the body of the people were regulated in all public matters by the
officers of Militia ; the Captains of Militia and the Cur£s being the
persons employed to issue and enforce the public ordinances, and,
through the authority thus delegated to them by government, possessed
considerable influence in their respective parishes ' (see Canadian
Constitutional Development, Egerton and Grant, p. 117). By an ordi-
nance of 1777 ' for establishing Courts of Criminal Jurisdiction in the
Province of Quebec ', the Captains of Militia were appointed peace
officers in their respective parishes ; and by another ordinance of 1787
the officers of Militia generally were declared to be public and peace
officers within their parishes (see Shortt and Doughty, Documents
relating to the Constitutional History of Canada, 1907, pp. 472 and 585).

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 99

municipal institutions of local self-government, which are
the foundations of Anglo-Saxon freedom and civilization ;
nor is their absence compensated by any thing like the
centralization of France. The most defective judicial insti-
tutions remain unreformed. Alone, among the nations
that have sprung from the French, Lower Canada re-
mains under the unchanged civil laws of ancient France.
Alone, among the nations of the American Continent, it
is without a public system of education. Nor has it, in
other respects, caught the spirit of American progress.
While the Assembly was wasting the surplus revenues
of the Province in jobs for the increase of patronage, and
in petty peddling in parochial business, it left untouched
those vast and easy means of communication which
deserved, and would have repaid the application of the
provincial revenues. The state of New York made its
own St. Lawrence from Lake Erie to the Hudson,1 while

Lord Durham says (p. 112) : 'The officers of the Militia used to be
employed for purposes of police, as far as regarded the service of
criminal warrants.' And again (p. 133) : 'Throughout the rest of the
province, where the functions of a police used to be discharged by the
Militia. . . .' The Assistant Commissioners of Municipal Inquiry say
that ' The Executive police of the province are the Captains, Subalterns,
and Serjeants of Militia. The Militia itself being but a nominal force '
(Appendix C, vol. iii, p. 162). As a military force, the Militia became more
or less obsolete after the British conquest of Canada. The habitants,
when called out by Carleton to meet the American invasion of 1775,
for the most part refused to obey ; and in later years, in Lord Dal-
housie's time, the majority on the Quebec Assembly brought the militia
laws into party politics, and, when they passed a new militia law in
1830, ' An act to provide for the better defence of the Province and
to regulate the militia thereof (10 and 11 Geo. IV, cap. iii), they
passed it only as a temporary ordinance. Lord Durham was thus
right in speaking of the Militia as ' annihilated ' and ' completely dis-
organized ', as compared with what it had been in French times. The
essence of the old French regime, of which the militia was a part, was
personal service and personal allegiance to the Bang, and thus, in the
dispatch quoted above, Milnes laid stress on the great advantage which
the Government would derive, if the captains of the militia could ' be
brought to consider themselves as the immediate officers of the Crown '.
1 The Erie canal connects Lake Erie at Buffalo with the Hudson
River at West Troy and Albany. It runs through what was once the
country of the Six Nation Indians. It is 352 miles in length. The
importance attached to it, when it was made, may be judged from the
terms of an article on the United States in the Quarterly Review for
January 1828, vol. xxxvii, pp. 265-71. That article gives the whole
length of the canal as 363 miles, and the difference of the levels between

100 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

^,the Government of Lower Canada could not achieve, or
|even attempt, the few miles of canal and dredging which
jwould have rendered its mighty rivers navigable almost
'to their sources. /The time which should have been
devoted to wise legislation, was spent in a contest for
power between the executive and the people, which a wise
executive would have stopped at the outset, by submitting
to a legitimate responsibility, and which a wise people
would have ceased to press when it had virtually attained
its end. This collision, and the defective constitution
were, in conjunction with the quarrel of the races, the
causes of the mischiefs which I have detailed. It will be
a ground, I trust, of permanent congratulation, that the
contest terminated in the destruction of the impracticable
constitution, which caused the strife'7/hor can I conceive
any course of conduct which could so effectually have
destroyed the previous system of mismanagement, and
cleared the ground for future improvement, as that
continued stoppage of supplies which the Assembly in its
intemperance effected. It broke down at once the whole
of that vicious appropriation of public funds, which was
the great bane of provincial legislation, and has left the
abuses of the Colony so long unfed, that a reforming
Government may hereafter work upon an unencum-
bered soil.

Thorough The inevitable result of the animosities of race, and of
constant collision of the different powers of the State,

Jnstitu- which I have described, was a thorough disorganization

tions. . .

oi the institutions and administrative system of the
country. I do not think that I necessarily cast any
stigma on my predecessors in Lower Canada, or on the
uniform good intentions which the Imperial Government
has clearly evinced towards every class, and every race
in the Colony, when I assert, that a country which has

Lake Erie and the Hudson River as 564 feet. ' The canal is 40 feet
wide on the surface, 28 feet at the bottom, and 4 feet deep.' It cost,
according to the article, about 10 millions of dollars, and was com-
pleted within 8 years. ' It is the first in this young nation on so magnifi-
cent a scale, but it will certainly not be the last.'

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 101

been agitated by these social and political dissensions,
has suffered under great misgovernment. The blame
rests not on individuals, but on the vicious system, which
has generated the manifold and deep-rooted abuses that
pervade every department of the public service, and
constitute the real grievances of the Colony. These
grievances are common to the whole people of Lower
Canada ; and it is not one race, or one party only,
that suffers by their existence ; they have hindered the
prosperity, and endangered the security of all ; though,
unquestionably, the interests which have most materially
been retarded by misgovernment, are the English. From
the highest to the lowest officers of the executive govern-
ment, no important department is so organized as to
act vigorously and completely, throughout the Province ;
and every duty which a government owes to its subjects
is imperfectly discharged.

/"The defective system of administration in Lower Canada, Want of
commences at the very source of power ; and the efficiency adminis-
of the public service is impaired throughout, by the entire tration of
want in the Colony of any vigorous administration of the Prero- ]
prerogative of the Crown. The fact is, that, according 8ative
to the present system, there is no real representative
of the Crown in the Province ; there is in it, literally,
no power which originates and conducts the executive
government. The Governor, it is true, is said to represent
the Sovereign, and the authority of the Crown is, to
a certain extent, delegated to him ; but he is, in fact, a
mere subordinate officer, receiving his orders from the
Secretary of State, responsible to him for his conduct,
and guided by his instructions. Instead of selecting a
Governor, with an entire confidence in his ability to use
his local knowledge of the real state of affairs in the Colony
in the manner which local observation and practical
experience best prescribe to him, it has been the policy
of the Colonial Department, not only at the outset, to
instruct a Governor as to the general policy which he was
to carry into effect, but to direct him, from time to time,

102 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

by instructions, sometimes very precise, as to the course
which he was to pursue, in every important particular of
his administration. Theoretically irresponsible to the
Colonial Legislature, the Governor was, in effect, the only
officer in the Colony who was at all responsible ; inasmuch
as the Assembly, by centring their attacks on him, and
making him appear the sole cause of the difficulties of the
Government, could occasion him so much vexation, and
represent him in so unfavourable a light at home, that it
frequently succeeded in imposing on him the necessity
of resigning, or on the Colonial Minister, that of recalling
him. In order to shelter himself from this responsibility,
it has inevitably, and I must say very justifiably, been
the policy of Governors to take care that the double
responsibility shall be as light as possible ; to endeavour
to throw it, as much as possible, on the home Government,
and to do as little as possible without previously consulting
the Colonial Minister at home, and receiving his instruc-
tions. It has, therefore, been the tendency of the local
government to settle every thing by reference to the
Colonial Department in Downing-street. Almost every
question on which it was possible to avoid, even with
great inconvenience, an immediate decision, has been
habitually the subject of reference ; and this applies not
merely to those questions on which the local executive
and legislative bodies happened to differ, wherein the
reference might be taken as a kind of appeal, but to
questions of a strictly local nature, on which it was next
to impossible for the Colonial Office to have any sufficient
information. It had become the habit of the Colonial
Mice to originate these questions, to entertain applica-
ions from individuals, to refer these applications to the
Governor, and, on his answer, to make a decision. The
Governor has been enabled by this system to shift
•esponsibility on the Colonial Office, inasmuch as in every
mportant case he was, in reality, carrying into effect the
>rder of the authority to which he was responsible. But
he real vigour of the executive has been essentially

103

impaired ; distance and delay have weakened the force
of its decisions ; and the Colony has, in every crisis of
danger, and almost every detail of local management, felt
the mischief of having its executive authority exercised
on the other side of the Atlantic.1^)

Nor has any thing been gained, either in effectual Evils of
responsibility or sound information, by thus transferring twTe-"
the details of executive government to the Colonial taila of
Department at home. The complete and unavoidable melt to

ignorance in which the British public, and even the great
body of its legislators, are with respect to the real interests ment.
of distant communities, so entirely different from their
own, produces a general indifference, which nothing but
some great colonial crisis ever dispels ; and responsibility
to Parliament, or to the public opinion of Great Britain,
would, except on these great and rare occasions, be
positively mischievous, if it were not impossible. The
repeated changes caused by political events at home
having no connexion with colonial affairs, have left, to
most of the various representatives of the Colonial Depart-
ment in Parliament, too little time to acquire even an
elementary knowledge of the condition of those numerous
and heterogeneous communities for which they have had
both to administer and legislate. The persons with
whom the real management of these affairs has or ought
to have rested, have been the permanent but utterly '
irresponsible members of the office. Thus the real
government of the Colony has been entirely dissevered
from the slight nominal responsibility which exists.
Apart even from this great and primary evil of the system,
he pressure of multifarious business thus thrown on the
Colonial office, and the repeated changes of its ostensible
lirectors, have produced disorders in the management of
3ublic business which have occasioned serious mischief,
md very great irritation. This is not my own opinion

1 With regard to the criticisms which Lord Durham makes on the
Colonial Office and colonial administration in this passage and on
pp. 192-3, see Tntrodiiction, pp. 266-75.

104 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Report merely ; for I do but repeat that of a Select Committee
HoSe of of the Present House of Assembly in Upper Canada, who,
A°s?mbly, in a Report dated February 8, 1838, say, ' It appears to
SlSda. y°ur Committee, that one of the chief causes of dissatis-
faction with the administration of colonial affairs arises
from the frequent changes in the office of Secretary of
State, to whom the Colonial department is intrusted.1
Since the time the late Lord Bathurst retired from that
charge, in 1827, your Committee believe there has not
been less than eight Colonial Ministers,2 and that the
policy of each successive statesman has been more or less
marked by a difference from that of his predecessor.
This frequency of change in itself almost necessarily
entails two evils ; first, an imperfect knowledge of the
affairs of the Colonies on the part of the Chief Secretary,
and the consequent necessity of submitting important
details to the subordinate officers of the department ;
and, second, the want of stability and firmness in the
general policy of the Government, and which, of course,
creates much uneasiness on the part of the Governors,
and other officers of the Colonies, as to what measures
may be approved.

* But undoubtedly ' (continues the Report) ' by far the
greatest objection to the system is, the impossibility it
occasions of any Colonial Minister, unaided by persons

1 Similarly at a later date, in 1848, Sir William Molesworth, in
a speech in the House of Commons on colonial expenditure, complained
that the Secretaries of State for the Colonies ' are generally chosen
haphazard from the chiefs of the two great political parties in this or
the other House of Parliament ; and they retain their office, on the
average, some eighteen months or so. During the last nine years there
have been no less than six colonial secretaries ' (Selected Speeches of
Sir William Molesworth, edited by H. E. Egerton, p. 202).

2 The eight ministers, as given in the Colonial Office list were : —

1827. F. R. Robinson, afterwards Earl of Ripon.

1827. W. Huskisson.

1828. Sir George Murray.

1830. Viscount Goderich, afterwards Earl of Ripon.

1833. E. G. Stanley, afterwards Earl of Derby.

1834. Thomas Spring Rice, afterwards Lord Monteagle.

1834. Earl of Aberdeen.

1835. Charles Grant, afterwards Lord Glenelg.

Making eight changes of office, and seven different individuals.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 105

possessing local knowledge, becoming acquainted with the
wants, wishes, feelings and prejudices of the inhabitants
of the Colonies, during his temporary continuance in office,
and of deciding satisfactorily upon the conflicting state-
ments and claims that are brought before him. A firm,
unflinching resolution to adhere to the principles of
the constitution, and to maintain the just and necessary
powers of the Crown, would do much towards supplying
the want of local information. But it would be perform-
ing more than can be reasonably expected from human
sagacity, if any man, or set of men, should always decide
in an unexceptionable manner on subjects that have their
origin thousands of miles from the seat of the Imperial
Government, where they reside, and of which they have
no personal knowledge whatever ; * and therefore wrong
may be often done to individuals, or a false view taken of
some important political question, that in the end may
throw a whole community into difficulty and dissension,
not from the absence of the most anxious desire to do
right, but from an imperfect knowledge of facts upon
which to form an opinion.

' To these objections ' (adds the Report) ' it may be
answered, that although the Chief Secretary of State
retires with a change of ministers, the Under Secretaries^
(or at least one of them) and the other subordinate officers
of the department, remain and hold their offices per-
manently, and therefore information upon all subjects
can be readily imparted to the superior by the gentlemen
who are thus retained ; and it may be admitted that the
knowledge of this fact ought to lessen the force of the

1 Even in the case of the self-governing dominions demand for more
personal knowledge in the Colonial Office of the Dominions has been
freely made. Thus at the Imperial Conference of 1907, Mr. Deakin,
then Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia, moved a
resolution to the effect ' that the Secretary of State for the Colonies
be invited to frame a scheme which will create opportunities for members
of the permanent staff of the Colonial Office to acquire more intimate
knowledge of the circumstances and conditions of the colonies with
whose business they have to deal, whether by appointments, temporary
interchanges, or periodical visits of officers, or similar means ' (Cd.
3523, May 1907, p. 611).

106 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

objections that rest on other grounds ; but it cannot be
disguised that there is a growing impatience and unwilling-
ness on the part of the Colonists, especially in these exten-
sive Provinces, to have the measures of Government,
whether connected with their general system of govern-
ment, legislation, or patronage, controlled by persons who
are utter strangers to them, not responsible in any way to
themselves or the British Parliament, and who perhaps,
being advanced to their office from length of service, or
other like cause, are not regarded as competent (perhaps
unjustly) to manage and direct measures which they (the
Colonists) deem of vital importance. Much of this feeling
may be traced to pride ; but it is a pride that springs from
an honourable and laudable feeling, and always accom-
panies self-respect, true patriotism, and love of country,
and it therefore ought not to be disregarded, nor should
any attempt be made to lessen or control it, if it were
possible to do so. But the imperfection that exists in the
system of colonial government that prevails in England,
is rendered more apparent by the want of that confidence
that ought to be reposed in the distinguished officers,
who from time to time are commissioned as Governors
to different Colonies, than by any other fact that can be
distinctly pointed out.'
lastance I will now only point out one instance of these evils,

f , V ** •*•

evils.68 and I select it because it is an instance occurring in
relation to the most important function of the executive ;
namely, its exercise of the legislative prerogative of the
Crown, and because its existence has been admitted by
the present Secretary of State for the Colonies, in his
instructions to my predecessor, Lord Gosford, — I mean
the reservation of Bills for the Royal Assent. The ' too
frequent reservation of Bills ' is a ' grievance,' says his
Lordship, ' of which my inquiries lead me to believe the
reality.' And in a subsequent part of the same Despatch,
his Lordship admits, that, owing to this cause, great
mischief has been done, by the wholly unintentional delay
in giving the Royal Assent to some perfectly unobjec-

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 107

tionable Bills, having for their object the endowment
of colleges by benevolent persons. This delay his Lord-
ship describes as ' chiefly attributable to political events,
and the consequent changes of the Colonial Adminis-
tration at home.' I know not to what cause is to
be attributed a delay, which produced, with respect to
another Bill, the still more serious effect of a doubt of its
legality, after it had been considered and acted on as law.
This Bill * was reserved ; and the Royal Assent was so
long delayed, through mere inadvertence, that, when it
was sent out to the Colony as an Act, the question was
raised whether the Royal Assent had been delayed beyond
the two years allowed by law, and whether, having been
so delayed, it was valid.1

One of the greatest of all the evils arising from this Ignorance
system of irresponsible government, was the mystery in people as
which the motives and actual purposes of their rulers to tlie
were hid from the colonists themselves. The most ings of

important business of Government was carried on, not
in open discussions or public acts, but in a secret corre- ment.
spondence between the Governor and the Secretary of
State. Whenever this mystery was dispelled, it was long
after the worst effects had been produced by doubt and
misapprehension ; and the Colonies have been frequently
the last to learn the things that most concerned them, by
the publication of papers on the order of the British
Houses of Parliament.

The Governor, thus slightly responsible, and invested Want of

rGSDorisi"

with functions so ill-defined, found himself at the head bmty in
of a system, in which all his advisers and subordinates other

* The 9 & 10 Geo. 4, c. 77. The period began to run in March 1829,
and the Royal Assent was not given till May 1831.

1 As to the reservation of Bills in the self-governing Dominions, see
Keith's Responsible Government in the Dominions, part v, chap, i :
' Imperial Control over Dominion Administration and Legislation.'
Two years is still the limit within which the Royal Assent must be given
to a Reserved Bill, in the case of legislation passed by the Parliament of
the Dominion of Canada, if the Bill is to become law (see section 57
of the British North America Act).

108 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

depart- had still less responsibility, and duties still less defined.
oTthe Disqualified at first by want of local information, and
Govern- very often, subsequently, by an entire absence of all
acquaintance with the business of civil government,1 the
Governor, on his arrival in the Colony, found himself
under the necessity of being, in many respects, guided
by the persons whom he found in office. In no country,
therefore, could there be a greater necessity for a proper
demarcation of the business of each public officer, and
of a greater responsibility resting on each. Now, I do
not at all exaggerate the real state of the case when I
assert, that there is no head of any of the most important
departments of public business in the Colony. The
limited powers of the local government in a Colony
necessarily obviate the necessity of any provision for some
of the most important departments which elsewhere
require a superintending mind. But the mere ordinary
administration of justice, police, education, public works
and internal communications, of finance and of trade,
would require the superintendence of persons competent
to advise the Governor, on their own responsibility, as
to the measures which should be adopted ; and the
additional labours which fall on the heads of such depart-
ments in other countries, in devising improvements of
the system and the laws relating to each, would certainly
afford additional occupation, growing out of the peculiarly
defective legislation and administration of Lower Canada.
Yet, of no one of these departments is there any responsible
head, by whose advice the Governor may safely be guided.
There are some subordinate and very capable officers in
each department, from whom he is, in fact, compelled to

1 When Lord Durham speaks of the Governors as being very often
disqualified ' by an entire absence of all acquaintance with the business
of civil government ', he does not notice the fact, referred to in the
Introduction (p. 17), that not so many years had passed since war
had been the normal condition of the British Empire, and that the
Governors had therefore necessarily been soldiers. Lord Gosford was
the first civilian who was Governor of Canada. No civilian Governors,
however, could have done better for Canada than e. g. Carleton or
Sherbrooke.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 109

get information from time to time. But there is no one
to whom he, or the public, can look for the correct manage-
ment and sound decision on the policy of each of these
important departments.

(The real advisers of the Governor have, in fact, been the Constitu-
Executive Council ; *• and an institution more singularly Exwutive

1 As to the relation of the Executive Council to the Cabinet in the Council.
Dominions, see Keith's Responsible Government in the Dominions, part i, v
chap, ii : ' The Legal Basis of Responsible Government ' and part ii,
chap, vii : '-The Cabinet System in the Dominions,' and compare what Sir
William Anson says as to the relations of the Privy Council and the
Cabinet in the United Kingdom : Law and Custom of the Constitution, 3rd
ed., 1907, vol. ii, The Crown, parti, chap, ii, ' The Councils of the Crown.'

It may be said in general terms that the Executive Council, in its
origin, was simply the Council which was constituted under the instruc-
tions of the King to advise the Governor, and whose advice and consent
the Governor was obliged within specified limits to obtain. The advice
might obviously be given either in executive, or in legislative, or in
judicial matters, and therefore one and the same Council had originally
executive, legislative, and judicial powers. Thus the Quebec Act of 1774
empowered the Crown to appoint a Council 'for the affairs of the
province of Quebec ', which" Council might make ordinances with
the consent of the Governor. In other words, it was at once an
executive and a legislative Council, and the Royal Instructions
to Governor Carleton in the following year, 1775, provided that
' any five of the said Council shall constitute a Board of Council
for transacting all business, in which their advice and consent
may be requisite, acts of legislation only excepted '. The same in-
structions directed that the Governor and Council should be constituted
a Court of Appeal in civil matters, and ' that any five of the said Council
with the Governor, Lt. -Governor, or Chief Justice shall constitute
a Court for that purpose ', and this was provided by an ordinance
which the Council passed in 1777 (see Shortt and Doughty, Documents
relating to the Constitittional History of Canada, pp. 420-4 and 464-5).
Thus the Council created by the Quebec Act had at once executive,
legislative, and judicial functions.

These different functions only gradually became entrusted to wholly
different bodies. The evolution of the Court of Appeal in Canada is
given below, pp. 123-4, note : With the Constitutional Act of 1791, the
Executive Council became differentiated from the Legislative Council,
which latter now became the Second Chamber of the Legislature in each
of the two provinces, but the Legislative Council and the Executive
Council in either province largely consisted of the same individuals,
while in Nova Scotia they were wholly the same down to Lord Durham's
time (see Introduction, pp. 83-5).

In the 1791 Act the Executive Council is only referred to incidentally,
e. g. ' Such Executive Council as shall be appointed by His Majesty for
the Affairs of such Province ' (section 34) ; and the same is the case
in the Union Act of 1840, e. g. section 45 ; but the llth section of the
British North America Act definitely lays down that ' There shall be
a Council to aid and advise in the Government of Canada, to be styled
the Queen's Privy Council for Canada '. Thus the Executive Council

110 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

calculated for preventing the responsibility of the acts
of Government resting on any body, can hardly be
imagined. It is a body, of which the constitution some-
what resembles that of the Privy Council ; it is bound
by a similar oath of secresy ; it discharges in the same
manner certain anomalous judicial functions ; and its
' consent and advice ' are required in some cases in which
the observance of that form has been thought a requisite
check on the exercise of particular prerogatives of the
Crown. But in other respects it bears a greater resem-
blance to a Cabinet, the Governor being in the habit of
taking its advice on most of the important questions of
his policy. But as there is no division into departments
in the council, there is no individual responsibility, and
no individual superintendence. Each member of the
Council takes an equal part in all the business brought
before it. The power of removing members being very
rarely exercised, the Council is, in fact, for the most part
composed of persons placed in it long ago ; and the
Governor is obliged either to take the advice of persons
in whom he has no confidence, or to consult only a portion
of the Council.1 The secresy of the proceedings adds to

of the Dominion of Canada, as in some other cases, is now styled the Privy
Council.

In Canada all the members of the Dominion Cabinet are, as in the
United Kingdom, members of the Privy Council, and Privy Councillors
in Canada, as in the United Kingdom, retain their position after they
have ceased to be ministers.

The Governor-General does not sit in Council with his ministers, and
such powers as must be exercised by the Governor-General in Council
are put into effect by minutes of the Cabinet, which are submitted to
and approved by the Governor-General.

1 In the preceding note reference has been made to the royal instruc-
tions to Governor Carleton in 1775, which provided that any five of
the Council created by the Quebec Act should form a Board of the
Council for executive business. Carleton read this as enabling him to
select a standing committee of five members to form an Executive
Council, but his interpretation was challenged by the Chief Justice
Livius, who contended that the meaning of the instruction simply was
that executive business might be transacted by any five members of
the Council who happened to be present at the time. This latter view
was upheld by the Imperial Government, who in March 1779 issued
an additional instruction to Carleton's successor, Haldimand, to the
effect that the article in question ' shall not be understood to delegate

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 111

the irresponsibility of the body ; and when the Governor
takes an important step, it is not known, or not authen-
tically known, whether he has taken the advice of this
Council or not, what members he has consulted, or by
the advice of which of the body he has been finally guided.
The responsibility of the Executive Council has been
constantly demanded by the reformers of Upper Canada,
and occasionally by those of the Lower Province. But it
is really difficult to conceive how a desirable responsibility
could be attained, except by altering the working of this
cumberous machine, and placing the business of the
various departments of Government in the hands of
competent public officers^

In the ordinary course of public business in the Colony, Civil See-
almost all matters come, in fact, before the Governor, or
his immediate assistant, the Civil Secretary of the Province.
The Civil Secretary's office is, in fact, the one general
public office in which almost every species of business
originates, or through which it passes in some stage or
other. The applications which every day reach this office
show the singular want of proper organization in the
Province, and the great confusion of ideas respecting
the functions of Government, generated in the minds
of the people. A very considerable proportion consist of
requests to the Governor to interfere with the course of
civil justice. Every decision of subordinate officers is
made matter of appeal ; and no reference to the proper
department satisfies the applicants, who 'imagine that
they have a right to claim a personal invest/gation of every
case by the Governor or the Civil Secretary. The appeals
from the past are equally numerous ; and it appears to be
expected that every new Governor should sit in judgment
on every decision of any or all of his predecessors, which
happens to have dissatisfied the applicant.

But if such is the bad organization and imperfection

authority to you our governor to select and appoint any such persons
by name as you shall think fit to make such quorum, terming the same
a Privy Council ' (Shortt and Doughty, p. 476 and 'note).

112 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

No regular of the system at the seat of Government, it may be easily
admmis- j^eyed that the remainder of the Province enjoyed no

tration in

the rural very vigorous or complete administration. (In fact,
cts' beyond the walls of Quebec, all regular administration
of the country appeared to cease ; and there literally was
hardly a single public officer of the civil government,
except in Montreal and Three Rivers, to whom any order
could be directed. The Solicitor General commonly re-
sides at Montreal ; and in each of the districts there is a
Sheriff. In the rest of the Province there is no Sheriff,
no Mayor, no constable, no superior administrative officer
of any kind. There are no county, no municipal, no
parochial officers, either named by the Crown, or elected
by the people. There is a body of unpaid Justices of the
Peace, whom I will describe more particularly hereafter.
The officers of the militia used to be employed for pur-
poses of police, as far as regarded the service of criminal
warrants ; but their services were voluntary, and not
very assiduous ; and the whole body is now completely
disorganized.1 In every case in which any information
was required by the Government, or any service was to be
performed in a remote part of the Province, it was neces-
sary either to send some one to the spot, or to find out, by
inquiry at the seat of Government, the name of some
resident there whom it was advisable and safe to consult
on the subject, or direct to do the act required.^) In the
state of parties in the country, such a step could hardly
ever be taken, without trusting to very suspicious infor-
mation, or delegating power to persons who would be, or
be suspected of being, likely to abuse it.

French f This utter want of any machinery of executive govern-

fnca^bie11 ment m tne Province is not, perhaps, more striking than

of aiding might be observed in some of the most flourishing portions

authority. °^ the American continent. But in the greater part of

the States to which I refer, the want of means at the

disposal of the central executive is amply supplied by the

1 As to the unpaid magistracy, see below, pp. 130-1 and note, and
pp. 325-6, note ; and as to the militia, see above, p. 98, note 2.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 113

efficiency of the municipal institutions ; and even where
these are wanting, or imperfect, the energy and self-
governing habits of an Anglo-Saxon population enable it
to combine whenever a necessity arises. But the French
population of Lower Canada possesses neither such
institutions, nor such a character. Accustomed to rely
entirely on the Government, it has no power of doing any
thing for itself, much less of aiding the central authority. Want of

The utter want of municipal institutions giving the |
people any control over their local affairs, may indeed be tions.
considered as one of the main causes of the failure of
representative government, and of the bad administration
of the country. If the wise example of those countries
in which a free representative government has alone
worked well, had been in all respects followed in Lower
Canada, care would have been taken that, at the same
time that a Parliamentary system, based on a very
extended suffrage, was introduced into the country, the
people should have been entrusted with a complete control
over their own local affairs, and been trained for taking
their part in the concerns of the Province, by their ex-
perience in the management of that local business which
was most interesting and most easily intelligible to them.
But the inhabitants of Lower Canada were unhappily
initiated into self-government at exactly the wrong end,
and those who were not trusted with the management of
a parish, were enabled, by their votes, to influence the
destinies of a State. \ During my stay in the Province,
I appointed a commission to inquire into its municipal
institutions, and the practicability of introducing an
effective and free system for the management of local
affairs. The gentlemen entrusted with this inquiry had,
when they were interrupted in their labours, made
considerable progress towards preparing a report, which
will, I hope, develope, in a full and satisfactory manner,
the extent of the existing evil, and the nature of the
practicable remedies.1

1 As to the want of municipal institutions in Canada, see Introduc-

1352-2 I

114 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

No French There never has been, in fact, any institution in Lower
Canada, in which any portion of the French population

adminis- have been brought together for any administrative pur-
purposes. pose, nor is there among the divisions of the country any
one which has been constituted with a view to such an
end. The larger divisions, called ' districts ', are purely
judicial divisions. The counties may be called merely
Parliamentary divisions ; for I know of no purpose for
which they appear to have been constituted, except for
the election of members for the House of Assembly ; and
during the present suspension of representative govern-
ment, they are merely arbitrary and useless geographical
divisions. There are no hundreds, or corresponding
sub-divisions of counties. The parishes are purely
ecclesiastical divisions, and may be altered by the Catholic
Bishops. The only institution in the nature of local
management, in which the people have any voice, is the
fabrique, by which provision is made for the repairs of the
Catholic churches.1
System of The townships are inhabited entirely by a population of

townships. . . . . •

British and American origin ; and may be said to be
divisions established for surveying, rather than any other
purposes. The eastern townships present a lamentable
contrast in the management of all local matters to the
bordering state of Vermont,2 in which the municipal
institutions are the most complete, it is said, of any part
even of New England. In any new settled district of
New England, a small number of families settling within
a certain distance of each other, are immediately em-
powered by law to assess themselves for local purposes,
and to elect local officers. The settlers in the eastern
townships, many of whom are natives of New England,

tion, pp. 212-3, and Merivale's Lectures on Colonization and Colonies,
1861 ed., Appendix to Lecture xxii, pp. 651-4. This passage shows
that the Report was written before the Reports of the Commissioners of
Inquiry into the Municipal Institutions of Lower Canada, which form
Appendix C, had been received.

1 See Appendix C, vol. iii, p. 155, and Appendix D, vol. iii, pp. 249-50.

" Contrast, however, with this what is said in Appendix C, vol. iii,
p. 144. As to the Eastern Townships, see above, p. 18 note.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 115

and all of whom can contrast the state of things on their
own with that which is to be seen on the other side of the
line, have a serious and general cause of discontent in the
very inferior management of all their own local concerns.
The Government appears even to have discouraged the
American settlers from introducing their own municipal
institutions by common assent. ' I understood,' says
Mr. Richards, in a Report to the Secretary of State of the
Colonies, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed
in March 1832,1 ' that the Vermonters had crossed the
line, and partially occupied several townships, bringing
with them their own municipal customs ; and that when
the impropriety of electing their own officers was pointed
out to them, they had quickly given them up, and pro-
mised to conform to those of Canada.'

But the want of municipal institutions has been and Want of
is most glaringly remarkable in Quebec and Montreal. ™"t™ulpal
These cities were incorporated a few years ago by a tions in
temporary provincial Act, of which the renewal was^nd 6
rejected in 1836. Since that time these cities have been Montreal,
without any municipal government ; and the disgraceful
state of the streets, and the utter absence of lighting,
are consequences which arrest the attention of all, and
seriously affect the comfort and security of the inhabitants.2

The worst effects of this most faulty system of general inefficient
administration will be developed in the view which I shall ^tjblTof

justice.

1 Parliamentary Paper 334, Canada Waste Lands, March 30, 1832.
' Copy of the Report of Mr. Richards to the Colonial Secretary respect-
ing the Waste Lands in the Canadas and Emigration.' This paper gives
a great deal of information valuable for historical purposes.

2 See below, pp. 132-3, and see Christie's History of Lower Canada,
vol. iv, p. 413 : ' The acts incorporating the cities of Quebec and Mon-
treal, passed in 1831, but reserved for the Royal pleasure, did not come
into force until June in 1832, and, limited in their duration to May 1,
1836, had not been renewed in the Session of that year, being allowed
to expire expressly, it is probable, with the view to increase the general
disorganization and disorders of the times, so that in the universal
dissolution of municipal as well as political government, the minds of
men might be the better prepared for the new order in the proposed
revolution. The consequence accordingly was a total annihilation of
the police in those cities, exceedingly alarming to the peaceable inhabi-
tants, who could not, in safety, walk the streets after nightfall.'

I 2

116 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

hereafter give of the practices adopted with respect to
the public lands, and the settlement of the Province, but
which I postpone for the present, because I purpose
considering this subject with reference to all the North
American Provinces. But I must here notice the mis-
chievous results prominently exhibited in the provision
which the government of Lower Canada makes for the
first want of a people, the efficient administration of
justice.1

(The law of the Province and the administration of
justice are, in fact, a patch-work of the results of the
interference at different times of different legislative
powers, each proceeding on utterly different and generally
incomplete views, and each utterly regardless of the other.
The law itself is a mass of incoherent and conflicting laws,
part French, part English, and with the line between each
very confusedly drawn. Thus the criminal law is the
criminal law of England as it was introduced in 1774,
with such modifications as have since been made by the
provincial legislature, it being now disputed whether the
provincial legislature had any power to make any change
whatever in that law, and it not being at all clear what is
Civil law. the extent of the phrase ' criminal law '. The civil law
is the ancient civil law, also modified in some, but unfor-
tunately very few, respects ; and these modifications
have been almost exclusively effected by Acts of the
British Parliament and by ordinances of the Governor
and Council constituted under the Quebec Act. The
French law of evidence prevails in all civil matters,
with a special exception of ' commercial ' cases, in
which it is provided that the English law is to be
adopted ; but no two lawyers agree in their definition of
' commercial '.2

1 As to the administration of justice in Lower Canada, see Introduc-
tion, pp. 223-31.

2 This paragraph is referred to more than once in Sir G. Cornewall
Lewis's Government of Dependencies, see pp. 188-9, 202, 251, 257 (1891
ed.). It is specially referred to in order to illustrate 'the peculiar
liability of the laws of a dependency to technical objections ', which

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 117

For judicial purposes, the Province is divided into four Judicial
superior districts, having unlimited and supreme original dmslons'
jurisdiction, and one inferior, with limited jurisdiction.
The four superior are those of Quebec and Montreal,
Three Rivers and St. Francis ; l the inferior, that of Gaspe.

The district of Gaspe2 is subordinate to that of Quebec, District of
with some special provisions for the administration ofGasi*'
justice within it under a particular Provincial Act, which
expires next May. I could obtain no very satisfactory
information respecting this district, except that every
body appeared to be of opinion that, from its distance
and scanty population, it had always met with very little
attention from either the legislature or the executive
government. About the administration of justice therein,

Lewis gives as one of the disadvantages arising to a dependency from
its dependence on the dominant country.

Lord Durham is incorrect in his statement : ' The criminal law is
the criminal law of England as it was introduced in 1774.' The Quebec
Act of 1774 did not introduce the criminal law of England into the
province, it continued it (section 11). The criminal law of England
had been introduced by the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the
ordinance of 1764. Lord Durham does not notice the allegation made
by the opponents in Canada of the Quebec Act — .without any valid
foundation — that it deprived them of the privilege of the Habeas Corpus
Act. As to this point, see the Editor's History of Canada, 1763-1812,
p. 88, note.

1 The district of St. Francis included the eastern townships : it
was originally an inferior district. In 1823, on the recommendation of
Lord Dalhousie, the Quebec Legislature passed an Act giving the
eastern townships a provincial court, with a resident judge, the area
being styled for judicial purposes the inferior district of St. Francis.
The measure was only passed after repeated complaints from the
inhabitants of these townships, and Christie suggests that the Quebec
Assembly were induced to listen to the representations in consequence
of the reunion of the two Canadas having come under the considera-
tion of the Imperial Parliament (Christie, vol. iii, pp. 12, 13).

* The Gaspe constituency was the most distant and inaccessible in
Lower Canada, and consequently fifty additional days were allowed
in this case for the return of a member, just as in the case of the Orkney
and Shetland constituency the member is not returned until long after
the other polls have been declared. In 1820, when Sir Peregrine
Maitland was acting as Governor-in-Chief, pending Lord Dalhousie's
arrival, the newly-elected Assembly tried to embarrass the Government
by refusing to transact business until the member for Gaspe had been
returned. Mr. Christie was member for Gaspe when, in 1829 and later,
he was repeatedly expelled from the Assembly.

The Assistant Commissioners of Municipal Inquiry suggested that
this district should be annexed to New Brunswick (Appendix C,
vol. iii, pp. 153 and 234).

118 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

I could hardly obtain any information ; indeed, on one
occasion, it being necessary, for some particular purpose,
to ascertain the fact, inquiry was made at all the public
offices in Quebec, whether or not there was any coroner
for Gaspe. It was a long time before any information
could be got on this point, and it was at last in some
measure cleared up, by the Accountant General discover-
ing an estimate for the salary of such an officer. The
only positive information, therefore, that I can give
respecting the present administration of justice in Gaspe
is, that I received a petition from the inhabitants, praying
that the Act by which it is regulated, might not be renewed.

Judges. Each of the courts of Quebec and Montreal has a chief
justice and three puisne judges; there is but one judge
in each of the districts of Three Rivers and St. Francis.
During term time judges from other districts make up
the bench in these two.

Jurisdic- In all civil cases these courts have original jurisdiction
to an unlimited amount ; and in spite of the immense
extent of all, but particularly of the two greater districts,
the parties are in almost all cases brought up to the chief
towns for the trial of their causes.

Attempt An attempt, but of a very trifling and abortive character,
rcuits. jiag keen macie to introduce the English system of circuits.
The judges of these districts make circuits once a year,
in order to try causes in which the disputed value is not
more than £.10. sterling. The limitation of the value,
the introduction of small-debt courts, and the consequent
failure of attendance on the part of a bar during their
progress, and the very insufficient time allotted for the
stay at each place, have, I am informed, rendered these
circuits almost useless ; and even the suits which might
be tried at the circuits are generally in preference carried
up for trial to the chief places of these districts.

Expen- There are some complaints that excessive fees are taken
in the courts of Montreal and Quebec.1 The distribution

1 The excessive amount of the fees charged by lawyers and officials
in Canada, or at any rate in Lower Canada, was an old story. Both

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 119

of legal patronage is a matter of great, it is not easy to
say, of how just complaint ; but the substantial evil of
the administration of civil justice consists in the practical
denial of it caused by the utter inefficiency of the circuit
system, and enormous expense and delay of carrying
every suit, where the value in dispute is more than £.10.
sterling, from the extremities of the three large and
settled districts of the Province to the three district
towns ; in the vicious constitution of the inferior tribunals
by which it has been attempted to supply the want of an
effective system, either of circuits or local courts ; and
in the very faulty nature of the supreme appellate juris-
diction of the Province.

The minor litigation of the country is, in fact, carried Commis-
on throughout these three districts in the courts of the g^n* of
Commissioners of Small Causes.1 These courts are estab- causes.
lished in the different parishes by the Governor, on an
application made by a certain number of the parishioners,
according to forms prescribed by the provincial statute, in
which this institution takes its rise, and have jurisdiction
over all debts not exceeding 25 dollars, equal to 61. 5s.
currency. The Commissioners are appointed by the
Governor, upon the recommendation of the petitioners ;
these are residents in the parish, and almost wholly
unversed in law. The constitution of these courts is,
in fact, nothing else in substance, but an elective judiciary,
elected under the most irregular, fraudulent and absurd
electoral system that could possibly be devised. I cannot
better illustrate this description, than by narrating simply
the mode in which the appointment is, in fact, made.
It is, and has for a long time been, left almost entirely in
the hands of a subordinate assistant in the Civil Secretary's

Carleton and Haldimand wrote very strongly on the subject. Haldi-
mand, who passed a temporary ordinance to regulate fees, wrote in
1780 to the Secretary of State that ' The fees in general are by far too
high, and more than the people of this province can bear ' (Shortt and
Doughty, Papers relating to the Constitutional History of Canada,
p. 486).

1 As to these Small Cause Courts, see Appendix C, vol. iii, pp. 158-9,
where they are not condemned in such wholesale terms.

120 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

office. This gentleman stated that he took no steps, and
indeed by law he could not, until he received a petition,
with the requisite number of names attached. His
impression was, that these signatures were generally
obtained by assiduous canvassing in the parish, generally
on the part of some person who wanted the appointment
of clerk, which is paid, and who took this trouble, in order
to secure the nomination of commissioners, from whom he
expected to get the appointment. After some inquiry
from any person whom this assistant secretary thought
proper to consult respecting the characters of the per-
sons proposed, they were, almost as a matter of course,
appointed. After a short time, if some other person in
the district happened to acquire more popularity, and to
covet the office, a petition was got up containing charges
against the occupant of the office, and praying for his
removal, and the substitution of his rival. Upon most
of the appointments also, there arose long controversies
respecting the politics, qualification and character of the
candidate for office ; and a removal or new appointment
was always attributed to some political causes by the
newspapers of each party or race. The inquiry into the
qualification of persons proposed, the investigation of the
charges made, the defence urged in reply, and the distant
and unsatisfactory evidence adduced in support of each,
formed a large proportion of the business of the Civil
Secretary's office. Whatever appointment was made,
the Government was sure to create dissatisfaction ; and
the administration of justice was left in the hands of
incompetent men, whose appointment had been made in
such a manner, as even, sometimes, to render their
integrity suspicious, in the eyes, not only of those who had
opposed, but also of those who had supported their
nomination. I shall only add, that some time pre-
vious to my leaving the Province, I was very warmly
and forcibly urged, by the highest legal authorities
in the country, to abolish all these tribunals at
once, on the ground that a great many of them, being

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 121

composed entirely of disaffected French Canadians, were
busily occupied in harassing loyal subjects, by entertaining
actions against them, on account of the part they had
taken in the late insurrection. There is no appeal from
their decision ; and it was stated that they had in the
most barefaced manner given damages against loyal
persons for acts done in the discharge of their duty, and
judgments by default against persons who were absent,
as volunteers in the service of the Queen, and enforced
their judgment by levying distresses on their property.

I must now turn from the lowest to the highest civil Court of
tribunal of the Province. In a country in which the pp<
administration of justice is so imperfect in all the inferior
stages, and in which two different and often conflicting
systems of law are administered by judges whose pro-
fessional education and origin necessarily cause different
leanings in favour of the respective systems in which
each is more particularly versed, the existence of a good
and available appellate jurisdiction, which may keep the
law uniform and certain, is matter of much greater
importance than in those countries in which the law is
homogeneous, and its administration by the subordinate
tribunals is satisfactory. But the appellate jurisdiction
of Lower Canada is vested in the Executive Council,
a body established simply for political purposes, and
composed of persons in great part having no legal quali-
fications whatsoever. The Executive Council sits as a
court of appeal, four times in the year, and for the space
of ten days during each session ; on these occasions the
two Chief Justices of Quebec and Montreal were, ex officio,
presidents, and each in turn presided when appeals from
the other's district were heard. The laymen who were
present to make up the necessary quorum of five, as
a matter of course, left the whole matter to the presiding
Chief Justice, except in some instances, in which party
feelings or pecuniary interests are asserted to have induced
the unprofessional members to attend in unusual numbers,
to disregard the authority of the Chief Justice, and to

122 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

pervert the law. In the general run of cases, therefore,
the decision was left to the President alone, and each
Chief Justice became, in consequence, the real Judge of
appeal from the whole court of the other district. It is
a matter of perfect and undisputed notoriety, that this
system has produced the results which ought to have been
foreseen as inevitable ; and that, for some time before
I arrived in the Province, the two Chief Justices had
constantly differed in opinion upon some most important
points, and had been in the habit of generally reversing
each other's judgments. Not only, therefore, was the
law uncertain and different in the two districts, but, owing
to the ultimate power of the Court of Appeal, that which
was the real law of each district, was that which was held
not to be law by the Judges of that district. This is not
merely an inference of my own ; it is very clear that it
was the general opinion of the profession and the public.
The Court of Appeal, as re-modelled by me, at the only
sitting which it held, reversed all but one of the judgments
brought before it. This induced a member of the court
to remark to one of the Chief Justices, that so general
a reversal of the law of a very competent court below, by
a tribunal so competent as the Court of Appeals then was,
appeared to him utterly inexplicable, inasmuch as it
could in nowise be attributed, as it was before, to the
influence of a single Judge. The reply of the Chief Justice
was, that the matter was easily accounted for ; that the
system previously adopted in the Court of Appeals had
rendered the decision of the court below so complete
a nullity, that the parties and counsel below often would
not take the trouble to enter into the real merits of their
case, and that the real bearing and law of the case were,
generally, most fully stated before the Court of Appeals.
Re-organi- As the business of the Court of Appeals was thus of
Court of great extent and importance, it became necessary that,
Appeals, having, from political considerations, altered the com-
position of the Executive Council, I should re-organize
the Court of Appeals. I determined to do this upon

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 123

the l)est principle that I could carry into effect, under the
circumstances of the case ; for, as the constitution of the
Court of Appeals is prescribed by the Constitutional Act,
I could not vest the appellate jurisdiction in any other
body than the Executive Council. I called, therefore,
to the Executive Council the Chief Justice and one Puisne
Judge from each of the two districts of Quebec and
Montreal, and by summoning also the Judge of Three
Rivers, I gave the members of the two conflicting tribunals
an impartial arbiter in the person of M. Valliere de St. Real,
admitted by universal consent to be the ablest French
lawyer in the Province. But the regulations of the
Executive Council, which it was supposed I could not
alter in this case, required the presence of a quorum of
five ; and as no Judge could sit on an appeal from his own
court, I had now only provided three for every appeal
from the two greater districts. In order to make up the
quorum, the court was therefore attended by two other
executive councillors, one of whom, by his thorough
knowledge of commercial law, and his general legal
experience, was commonly admitted to have rendered
essential service. I believe I may confidently say that
the decisions of this court carried far greater weight than
those of any previous court of appeals.1

The further appeal to the Privy Council allowed in Appeal to
cases where the value was above £.500, is, from the great council.
delay and great expense attendant on it, hardly ever
resorted to.2 The establishment of a good appellate

1 See also Lord Durham's dispatch to Lord Glenelg, September 29,
1838, in which he reported what steps he had taken in order to make
the Executive Council more efficient as a Court of Appeal. ' The
Executive Council is still the Court of Appeals. The only alteration
in practice is, in having sworn in as Executive Councillors an additional
number of judges, and not having summoned to the Council, when it
sat as a Court of Appeals only, such members as had received no legal
education ' (House of Commons Paper, British North America, No. 2,
Feb. 11, 1839, p. 194).

* The ordinance of September 1764, which established Courts of
Judicature for the Province of Quebec, provided that there should be
a Superior Court of Judicature or Court of King's Bench, and an inferior
Court of Judicature or Court of Common Pleas ; that in either case,
' where the matter in contest is above the value of Three Hundred pounds

124 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

jurisdiction for the whole of the North American Colonies
is therefore greatly desired by every Province ; and

Sterling ', an appeal should lie to the Governor and Council, and ' where
the matter in contest is of the value of Five hundred Pounds Sterling or
upwards ', an appeal should lie from the Governor and Council to the
King and Council. This was over and above the right of appeal from
the Court of Common Pleas to the Court of King's Bench, ' where the
matter in contest is of the value of Twenty Pounds and upwards '
(Shortt and Doughty, Documents relating to the Constitutional Development
of Canada, pp. 149-52). After the Quebec Act of 1774 had been passed,
an ordinance was enacted in 1777 ' for establishing Courts of Civil
Judicature in the Province of Quebec '. This ordinance constituted
the Governor and Council a Court of Appeals in all cases where the
value of the matter in dispute exceeded the sum of ten pounds sterling,
and in all cases where the value exceeded £500 allowed a further appeal
to ' His Majesty in His Privy Council ' (Shortt and Doughty, pp. 464-5).

After the Constitutional Act of 1791 had been passed, dividing the
Province of Quebec into Lower and Upper Canada, under the 34th
section of that Act, an Act was passed in Lower Canada in 1793 (34
Geo. Ill, cap. 6) ' for the division of the Province of Lower Canada,
for amending the judicature thereof, and for repealing certain laws
therein mentioned.' By this Act, when the value of the matter in dispute
exceeded £20, an appeal lay to the Provincial Court of Appeals, which
consisted of ' The governor, Lieutenant-governor, or person administer-
ing the government, the members of the Executive Council of this
province, the Chief Justice thereof, and the Chief Justice to be appointed
for the Court of King's Bench at Montreal, or any five of them '. When
the value of the matter in dispute exceeded £500, a further appeal lay
to ' His Majesty in his Privy Council '.

A similar Act was passed in Upper Canada in 1794 (34 Geo. Ill,
cap. 2) ' to establish a Superior Court of Civil and Criminal Jurisdiction
and to regulate the Court of Appeal.' Under this Act, when the value
of the matter in dispute exceeded £100, an appeal lay to ' the Court of
the governor and Executive Council '. This Court consisted of ' The
governor, Lieutenant-governor or person administering the govern-
ment of this province, or the Chief Justice of the province, together
with any two or more members of the Executive Council of the Pro-
vince '. When the value exceeded £500, a further appeal lay to ' His
Majesty in his Privy Council '.

When the two provinces were reunited by the Union Act of 1840,
the 44th section of that Act laid down that, until it should be other-
wise provided by an Act of the Canadian Legislature, the appellate
jurisdiction which had been vested in the Governors and Executive
Councils of the two provinces, should be vested in the Governor and
Executive Council of the United Province.

The 101st section of the British North America Act of 1867 authorized
the Parliament of Canada to provide for a General Court of Appeal for
Canada, and in 1875, by Act of the Dominion Parliament, the Supreme
Court of Canada was created with appellate jurisdiction throughout the
Dominion. But the right of appeal to the Privy Council was not thereby
abolished, and at the present day, under the Code of Civil Procedure
of the Province of Quebec (1897), an appeal lies to the Privy Council
from the Court of King's Bench in the province, where the value of
the matter in dispute exceeds the limit originally fixed, i.e. £500.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 125

a competent tribunal for this purpose would spare the
cost and delay of a resort to the Privy Council, and answer
all the purposes proposed to be attained by the present
double system of appeal.

The evils of the system of criminal justice are not so Faulty
various ; but, from the faulty judicial division and divisions
administrative system of the Province, the defects which for Pur:

poses of

exist in the constitution of the courts of justice are even criminal
more severely felt in this department. For, ^ejtcept a^ JUS
the principal towns of the five districts, there is not the
slightest provision for criminal justice ; and to these
places all prisoners must be brought for trial from the
most remote parts, subject to their jurisdiction. Thus
from the extreme settlements on the Ottawa, where is
now the great seat of the lumber trade, and of the large
and wild population which it brings together, all prisoners
have to be carried a distance of 200 miles, by bad and
uncertain means of conveyance, to Montreal for trial.
On the left bank of the Ottawa the law has, according
to a high legal authority, no power. It was but lately
that a violent mob, called Shiners,1 for a long time set the

1 The ' Shiners ' were mainly raftsmen on the Ottawa River, who
terrorized Ottawa and the neighbourhood, more especially in the
Forties of the last century, i. e. after Lord Durham's mission. Quarrels
between the French Canadian and the English-speaking lumbermen
led to much disturbance and lawlessness. ' For many years Ottawa
was under the control of a very dangerous class of roughs, who drank,
gambled, and fought continually, and were the terror of all well-disposed
citizens. Any one who incurred the wrath of " the Shiners " or other
desperadoes, was in daily danger of his life ' (from the Canadian Monthly,
vol. vii, 1875). Mr. Richards, who visited Canada in 1830, wrote :
' Above 2,000 lumbermen and rafters were employed upon the Ottawa
alone ' (copy of the Report of Mr. Richards to the Colonial Secretary
respecting the Waste Lands in the Canadas and Emigration. See
above, p. 115 and note). See also in this connexion Appendix C,
General Report of the Assistant Commissioners of Municipal Inquiry
(vol. iii, p. 164), in which a complaint of the want of proper police by
three inhabitants of the township of Hull, opposite Ottawa, is quoted
as follows : ' You are no doubt aware that our situation is immediately
on the Chaudiere Falls, where pass yearly above 160,000 pieces of timber
for the Quebec market. In consequence of the obstruction of the
navigation, the whole of the people employed in this branch of business
are, from time to time, collected in this vicinity. Frequent breaches of
the peace occur, offenders pass with impunity, &c.'

126 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

law at defiance, and had entirely at their mercy the large
properties invested in that part of the country.

Sheriffs, Besides those in the five places above mentioned, there
are only three county gaols, one of which is in the district
of Gaspe. There are no sessions held in any other than
those places. At the Quebec, Montreal and Three Rivers
quarter sessions there were, some years ago, professional
and salaried chairmen, but the Assembly discontinued
them. There are sheriffs only in the districts, and not
in each county. They are named by the Crown for life,
and are removable at pleasure. The offices are very
lucrative, and are said to have been frequently disposed
of from personal or political favouritism. It is alao
matter of complaint, that insufficient security has been
taken from those appointed to them ; and many indivi-
duals have consequently sustained very serious loss from
the defalcation of sheriffs.

Perversion But the most serious mischief in the administration of
criminal justice, arises from the entire perversion of the
institution of juries, by the political and national pre-
judices of the people.1 The trial by jury was introduced
with the rest of the English criminal law. For a long
time the composition of both grand and petit juries was
settled by the Governor, and they were at first taken from
the cities, which were the chefs lieux of the district.
Complaints were made that this gave an undue prepon-
derance to the British in those cities ; though, from the
proportions of the population, it is not very obvious how
they could thereby obtain more than an equal share.
In consequence, however, of these complaints, an order
was issued under the government of Sir James Kempt,
directing the sheriffs to take the juries not only from the
cities, but from the adjacent country, for fifteen leagues
in every direction. An Act was subsequently passed,

1 See also above, pp. 54-6. The Quebec Act of 1774, by restoring
French law and custom in civil matters, abolished trial by jury in such
cases, and this was made a ground of complaint against the Act by its
opponents. English criminal law and trial by jury in criminal matters
was retained by the Act.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 127

commonly called « Mr. Viger'a Jury Act ', extending these
limits to those of the district. The principle of taking the
jury from the whole district, to which the jurisdiction
of the court extended, is undoubtedly in conformity with
the principles of English law ; and Mr. Viger's Act,
adopting the other regulations of the English jury law,
provided a fair selection of juries. But if we consider the
hostility and proportions of the two races, the practical
effect of this law was to give the French an entire pre-
ponderance in the juries. This Act was one of the
temporary Acts of the Assembly, and, having expired in
1836, the Legislative Council refused to renew it.1 Since
that period, there has been no jury law whatever. The
composition of the juries has been altogether in the
hands of the Government : Private instructions, however,
have been given to the sheriff to act in conformity with
Sir James Kempt's ordinance ; but though he has always
done so, the public have had no security for any fairness
in the selection of the juries. There was no visible check
on the sheriff ; the public knew that he could pack a jury
wherever he pleased, and supposed, as a matter of course,
that an officer, holding a lucrative appointment at the
pleasure of Government, would be ready to carry into
effect those unfair designs which they were always ready
to attribute to the Government. When I arrived in the
Province, the public was expecting the trials of the persons

1 Christie, writing of the year 1829, when Sir James Kempt was
Governor, says : ' Hitherto the grand and petty jurors attending the
criminal assizes at Quebec and Montreal were taken from the cities,
but a new plan was now adopted, and they were at the March term
summoned from the body of the district, several travelling upwards of
thirty leagues from the country parishes, to attend as grand jurors
the courts on this onerous duty. The petty jurors were respectable
inhabitants from the country parishes in the neighbourhood of those
cities, but who, unused to the new duties which they were called upon
to perform, in general complained of being taken from their homes for
the performance of such, and acquitted themselves but indifferently
thereof, as it was but natural they should from their inexperience '
(vol. iii, p. 261). The Act referred to, as having been subsequently
passed, seems to have been an Act not of Sir James Kempt's time, but
of 1832 (2 Will. IV, cap. 22), ' to regulate the qualification and sum-
moning of jurors in civil and criminal matters.' It expired on May 1,
1835 (not in 1836), and was not renewed.

128

accused of participation in the late insurrection. I was,
on the one hand, informed by the law officers of the Crown
and the highest judicial authorities, that not the slightest
chance existed under any fair system of getting a jury
that would convict any of these men, however clear the
evidence of their guilt might be ; and on the other side,
I was given to understand, that the prisoners and their
friends supposed that, as a matter of course, they would
be tried by packed juries, and that even the most clearly
innocent of them would be convicted.

The people It is, indeed, a lamentable fact, which must not be

confidence concealed, that there does not exist in the minds of the

in criminal pe0pie of this Province the slightest confidence in the

administration of criminal justice ; nor were the complaints,

or the apparent grounds for themj confined to one party.

Complaint The French complain that the institution of both grand

against °h an(* P6^* juries have been repeatedly tampered with

tampering against them. They complain that when it has suited

juries. the interests of the Government to protect persons guilty

of gross offences against the French party, they have

attained their end by packing the grand jury. Great

excitement has long existed among the French party, in

consequence of a riot which took place at the election for

the West Ward of Montreal, in May 1832,1 on which

occasion the troops were called out, fired on the people,

and killed three of them. An indictment was preferred

against the magistrates and officers who ordered the troops

to fire. It was urged by the French that the grand jury

was composed almost entirely of Englishmen ; that 12

out of the 23 were taken from the parish of Lachine, the

smallest in the whole island ; a selection which, they said,

could hardly be attributed to mere chance, and that they

1 For an account of this riot, see Christie, vol. iii, pp. 396-407.
Papineau tried to induce the Governor-in-Chief, Lord Aylmer, to inter-
fere, but the latter very properly left the matter entirely to the law
courts. The riot took place on May 21, 1832, and at the beginning of the
following September, at the Montreal criminal assizes, bills of indict-
ment against two magistrates and two military officers were thrown
out by the grand jury.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 129

were not in the usual station in life of grand jurymen.
The opposite party, it must be observed, however, argued
that this apparent selection of a majority of the grand jury
from a single parish was a necessary result of some ill-
contrived provision of Mr. Viger's Jury Act. The bill
was thrown out, and all judicial investigation into the
circumstances consequently quashed. I am merely men-
tioning the complaints of parties. I know not whether
the preceding allegations were well founded, but there can
be no doubt that such was the impression produced among
the French Canadians by these proceedings, which, in
their minds, completely destroyed all confidence in the
administration of justice.

The French Canadians further complain that the
favourable decision of a grand jury was of no avail to
those who had fallen under the displeasure of the Govern-
ment. There are several instances in the recent history
of Lower Canada, in which an attorney-general, being
dissatisfied with the conduct of the grand jury in ignoring
a bill, either repeatedly preferred indictments for the
same offence, until he obtained a grand jury which would
find them, or filed ex-officio informations.

Nor are the complaints of the English population of Com-
a less serious nature. They assert, unhappily on too
indisputable grounds, that the Canadian grand and petit
juries have invariably used their power to insure impunity
to such of their countrymen as had been guilty of political
offences. The case of Chartrand is not the only one in
which it is generally believed that this has been done.
The murderers of an Irish private soldier of the 24th
regiment, of the name of Hands, are asserted to have been
saved by an equally gross violation of their oaths on the
part of the jury. A respectable and intelligent member
of the grand jury, which sat at Montreal in October 1837,
informed the Government that nothing could be more
proper than the behaviour of a great majority of the
jurymen, who were French Canadians, while they were
occupied with cases not connected with politics. They

1352-2 K

130

attended patiently to the evidence, and showed themselves
well disposed to follow the opinion of the foreman, who
was a magistrate of great competence ; but it was added
that the instant they came to a political case, all regard
for even the appearance of impartiality vanished, and
they threw out the bills by acclamation, without listening
to the remonstrances of the foreman.

Trial by The trial by jury is therefore, at the present moment,
jury a noj. onjy productive in Lower Canada of no confidence
bad. in the honest administration of the laws, but also provides

impunity for every political offence.

The ma- I cannot close this account of the system of criminal
gistracy. justice, without making some remarks with respect to
the body by which it is administered in its primary stages
and minor details to the great mass of the people of the
Province. I mean the magistracy ; and I cannot but
express my regret, that among the few institutions for
the administration of justice throughout the country,
which have been adopted in Lower Canada from those of
England, should be that of unpaid Justices of the Peace.
I do not mean in any way to disparage the character, or
depreciate the usefulness, of that most respectable body
in this country. But the warmest admirer of that
institution must admit that its benefits result entirely from
the peculiar character of the class from which our magis-
tracy is selected ; and that without the general education,
the moral responsibility imposed by their high station in
the eyes of their countrymen, the check exercised by the
opinion of their own class, and of an intelligent and vigilant
public, and the habits of public business, which almost
every Englishman, more or less, acquires, even the
country gentlemen of England could not wield their
legally irresponsible power as Justices of the Peace to
the satisfaction of their countrymen. What, then, must
be conceived of the working of this institution in a colony,
by a class over whom none of these checks exist, and
whose station in life and education would alone almost
universally exclude them from a similar office at home ?

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 131

When we transplant the institutions of England into our
colonies, we ought at least to take care beforehand that
the social state of the colony should possess those peculiar
materials on which alone the excellence of those institu-
tions depends in the mother country. The body of
Justices of the Peace scattered over tlie whole of Lower
Canada, are named by the Governor, on no very accurate
local information, there being no lieutenants or similar
officers of counties in this, as in the Upper Province.
The real property qualification required for the magistracy
is so low, that in the country parts almost every one
possesses it ; and it only excludes some of the most
respectable persons in the cities. In the rural districts
the magistrates have no clerks. The institution has
become unpopular among the Canadians, owing to their
general belief that the appointments have been made with
a party and national bias. It cannot be denied that
many most respectable Canadians were long left out of
the commission of the peace, without any adequate cause ;
and it is still more undeniable, that most disreputable
persons of both races have found their way into it, and
still continue to abuse the power thus vested in them.
Instances' of indiscretion, of ignorance, and of party
feeling, and accusations of venality, have been often
adduced by each party. Whether these representations
be exaggerated or not, or whether they apply to a small
or to a large portion of the magistracy, it is undeniable
that the greatest want of confidence in the practical
working of the institution exists ; and I am therefore of
opinion, that whilst this state of society continues, and,
above all, in the present exasperation of parties, a small
stipendiary magistracy would be much better suited to
both Upper and Lower Canada.1

1 See Appendix C, vol. iii, pp. 159-60, where the Assistant Com-
missioners of Municipal Inquiry point out, as Lord Durham also
suggests, that the real property qualification operated against the
British section of tho community in Lower Canada, who were mainly
to be found in the towns. As to the unsuitability of certain English
institutions for the colonies, see below, pp. 325-6, note.

K2

132 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Police of The police of the Province has always been lamentably
Quebec, defective. No city, from the lawless and vicious character
of a great part of its population, requires a more vigilant
police than Quebec. Until May 1836,1 the police of this
city was regulated by an Act which then expired, and was
not renewed, and it consisted of 48 watchmen, of whom
half served every night for the whole town. The day
police consisted of six constables, who were under no
efficient control. On the expiration of this Act there was
no night police at all ; and murders occurring in the
streets, the inhabitants formed a voluntary patrol for the
upper town. Lord Gosford, in December 1837, appointed
Mr. Young inspector of police, with eight policemen
under him ; a serjeant and eight men of the Volunteer
Seamen's Company were placed under his order ; and
another magistrate had a corporal and twelve men of
the same company for the police of the lower town.
Finding their force wholly insufficient, receiving daily
complaints, and witnessing daily instances of disorder
and neglect, and, above all, being much pressed to increase
the police by the owners of vessels who had no power
of restraining the desertion of their crews, I ordered
a regular police of 32 men to be organized on the plan of
the London police 2 in June last. This body was further
augmented in October to 75 ; and this number is repre-

1 See above, p. 115 and note 2.

* The Act ' for improving the police in and near the metropolis '
(10 Geo. IV, cap. 44) was passed in the year 1829, following on a House
of Commons Committee in the year 1828. It substituted a metropolitan
police under the direct control of the Home Office for the old local
system of watchmen. The author of the change was Sir Robert Peel,
when he held the office of Home Secretary in the Duke of Wellington's
Government. Hence the nicknames 'Bobbies', 'Peelers'. In their
Report (see vol. iii, p. 197) the Assistant Commissioners of Municipal
Inquiry write of Quebec and Montreal when incorporated under the
temporary Act : ' The guardianship of the night was intrusted to a
meagre selection of the class of veteran servitors, of whose impotency
for all useful purposes the people of London were cognizant before
the establishment of the " New Police " '. It will be noted that Peel's
reform was one of centralization, and directly opposed to the principle
of local self-government. It was much criticized at the time as interfer-
ing with popular liberties.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 133

sented to me by the inspector as by no means more than
sufficient.

In Montreal, where no approach to a general system Of
of police had been made, I directed Mr. Leclerc, who had Montreal-
been appointed a stipendiary magistrate by Lord Gosford,
to organize a force similar to that of Quebec. The number
of this is now carried, I think, as high as 100.

Throughout the rest of the Province, where the functions NO rural
of a police used to be discharged by the militia, that body Police-
being now disorganized,1 there is, in fact, no police at all.
In the course of the autumn, I was informed by Mr. Young,
that at St. Catharine's, 46 miles from Quebec, a man,
after notoriously committing an assault with intent to
murder, was still at large a fortnight after the act ; and
that no means had been found of executing a warrant
issued against him by a county magistrate. As the only
means of enforcing the law, Mr. Young was authorized
to send policemen sworn in as special constables, the place
being out of his jurisdiction ; and by them the arrest was
effected. When Theller and Dodge escaped from the
citadel, and were supposed to have taken the direction
of the Kennebec road, no means existed of stopping their
flight, except by sending the police of Quebec to the very
frontier of the United States.2

As there was no rural police, the same step had been
taken in the case of a deserter.

In the course of the preceding account, I have already Defective
incidentally given a good many of the most important
details of the provision for education made in Lower
Canada. I have described the general ignorance of the

1 See above, p. 98, note 2.

1 Theller was a leading man among a band of men who attempted
to organize an invasion of Upper Canada on the line of the Detriot
River. According to Kingsford (vol. x, p. 451), 'he was an Irish
American, claiming to be a doctor who had practised his profession in
some of the country parishes of Lower Canada.' The schooner on which
he threatened a landing, drifted within reach of the Canadian militia
in January 1838, and was taken. He was tried and sentenced to
transportation, but with another prisoner, Dodge, escaped from his
prison in the citadel of Quebec, and reached the State of Maine.
A good account of his escape is given by Kingsford (vol. x, pp. 465-8).

134 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

people, and the abortive attempt which was made, or
rather which was professed to be made, for the purpose
of establishing a general system of public instruction ;
I have described the singular abundance of a somewhat
defective education which exists for the higher classes,
and which is solely in the hands of the Catholic priesthood.
It only remains that I should add, that though the adults
who have come from the Old Country are generally more
or less educated, the English are hardly better off than
the French for the means of education for their children,
and indeed possess scarcely any, except in the cities.1
No There exists at present no means of college education

for Pro*- f °r Protestants in the Province ; 2 and the desire of
testants. obtaining general, and still more, professional instruction,
yearly draws a great many young men into the United
States.

Inquiries I can indeed add little to the general information
missioner. possessed by the Government respecting the great defi-
ciency of instruction, and of the means of education in
this Province. The commissioner whom I appointed to
inquire into the state of education in the Province,
endeavoured very properly to make inquiries so minute
and ample, that the real state of things should be laid
fully open ; and with this view, he had with great labour
prepared a series of questions, which he had transmitted
to various persons in every parish. At the time when
his labours were brought to a close, together with mine,
he had received very few answers ; but as it was desirable
that the information which he had thus prepared the
means of obtaining, should not be lost, a competent person
has been engaged to receive and digest the returns. Com-

1 See above, pp. 30-2 and notes and pp. 94-6. See also Appendix D,
(vol. iii) especially pp. 269-72, and see Introduction, pp. 232-44. As
Lord Durham states below, the Report of the Commissioner of Inquiry
into the State of Education in Lower Canada (Arthur Buller) had not
been completed when he (Lord Durham) wrote his own Report.

2 The Commissioner of Inquiry into the State of Education in Lower
Canada wrote : ' The only Protestant endowment in the province is that
of McGilPs College. . . . The college is not yet open ; indeed, the building
not yet erected ' (Appendix D, vol.iii, p. 272). See Introduction, pp.243-4.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 135

plete information respecting the state of education, and
of the result of past attempts to instruct the people, will
thus, before long, be laid before the Government.

The inquiries of the commissioner were calculated to Population
inspire but slender hopes of the immediate practicability ^ to8Ub"
of any attempt to establish a general and sound system assessment
of education for the Province. Not that the people ^^f
themselves are indifferent or opposed to such a scheme, education.
I was rejoiced to find that there existed among the French
population a very general and deep sense of their own
deficiencies in this respect, and a great desire to provide
means for giving their children those advantages which
had been denied to themselves. Among the English the
same desire was equally felt ; and I believe that the
population of either origin would be willing to submit to
local assessments for this purpose.

The inhabitants of the North American Continent, Provision
possessing an amount of material comfort, unknown to united
the peasantry of any other part of the world, are generally States.
very sensible to the importance of education. And the
noble provision which every one of the northern States
of the Union has gloried in establishing for the education
of its youth, has excited a general spirit of emulation
amongst the neighbouring Provinces, and a desire, which
will probably produce some active efforts, to improve their
own educational institutions.

It is therefore much to be regretted, that there appear Obstacles
to exist obstacles to the establishment of such a general
system of instruction as would supply the wants, and,
I believe, meet the wishes of the entire population. (JThe
Catholic Clergy, to whose exertions the French and Irish
population of Lower Canada are indebted for whatever
means of education they have ever possessed, appear to
be very unwilling that the State should in any way take
the instruction of youth out of their hands.1 Nor do the

1 Cp. what the Commissioner of Inquiry into the State of Education
in Lower Canada says (Appendix D, vol. iii, p. 268) : ' The bishop
himself intimated to me, that the education of the Catholic population

136 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

clergy of some other denominations exhibit generally a less
desire to give to education a sectarian character, which
would be peculiarly mischievous in this Province, inasmuch
as its inevitable effect would be to aggravate and per-
petuate the existing distinctions of origin. But as the
laity of every denomination appear to be opposed to these
narrow views, I feel confident that the establishment of
a strong popular government in this Province would very
soon lead to the introduction of a liberal and general
system of public education?}

Nothing I am grieved to be obliged to remark, that the British

Govern^ Government has, since its possession of this Province,

ment. done, or even attempted, nothing for the promotion of

general education. Indeed the only matter in which it has

appeared in connexion with the subject, is one by no means

creditable to it. For it has applied the Jesuits' estates,

part of the property destined for purposes of education, to

supply a species of fund for secret service ; and for a number

of years it has maintained an obstinate struggle with the

Assembly in order to continue this misappropriation.1

state of Under the head of the Hospitals, Prisons and Charitable

Prisons^' Institutions of Lower Canada, I beg to refer to some

&c- valuable information collected, by my direction, by

Sir John Doratt, during the exercise of his office of

Inspector-general of Hospitals and Charitable and Literary

Institutions, which will be found in a separate part of the

Appendix to this Report.2 I regret that the pressure of

more urgent duties did not allow me time to institute into

these subjects so searching and comprehensive an inquiry

as I should have desired to make in other circumstances.

But there are some points brought under my notice by

Sir John Doratt, to which I think it important that the

was the business of their Church, and one with which the Government
had no right to interfere.'

1 The same charge against the British Government of neglecting
education is made above, pp. 30-4. See p. 30, note 8, and see Intro-
duction, pp. 232-4. As to the Jesuits' estates, see Appendix D, and
Introduction, pp. 165-7 and 232, 236.

2 This has not been reprinted. As to the establishment of a quaran-
tine station at Grosse Isle, see Introduction, p. 194.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 137

attention of Your Majesty's Government should bo
directed without delay. I advert to the existing want of
any public establishment for the reception of insane
persons either in Lower or Upper Canada ; to the bad
state of the prisons in general, and especially the dis-
graceful condition of the gaol of the city of Quebec ; to
the defects of the quarantine station at Grosse Isle ; to the
low and ignorant state of the medical profession throughout
the rural districts ; and to the necessity of a change in the
system of providing for the insane, the invalid poor, and
foundlings, by payments of public monies to convents for
that purpose. It is evident that considerable abuses exist
in the management of several philanthropic institutions.
I have adverted, in another part of my Report, to the
subject of pauperism, as connected with emigration ; and
the evidence there cited is in some respects confirmed
by the information communicated by Sir John Doratt.

It is a subject of very just congratulation, that religious Religion
differences have hardly operated as an additional cau
of dissension in Lower Canada ; and that a degree of
practical toleration, known in very few communities, has
existed in this Colony from the period of the conquest
down to the present time.1

The French Canadians are exclusively Catholics, and The
their church has been left in possession of the endowments
which it had at the conquest. The right to tithe is
enjoyed by their priests ; but as it is limited by law to
lands of which the proprietor is a Catholic, the priest loses
his tithe the moment that an estate passes, by sale or
otherwise, into the hands of a Protestant.2 This enact-
ment, which is at variance with the true spirit of national

1 As to religious toleration in Lower Canada, see above, p. 39 and
note 1. It was a contrast to Upper Canada in this respect, see below,
pp. 179-82 and notes.

2 Under the Capitulation of Montreal in 1760, the obligation of the
French Canadians to pay tithes to the priests was reserved by Amherst
for the King's pleasure. By the 5th section of the Quebec Act of 1774
it was provided that the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church ' may
hold, receive, and enjoy their accustomed dues and rights with respect
to such persons only as shall profess the said religion '. This provision
was conformed by the 35th section of the Constitutional Act of 1791.

138

REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Virtues
of the

recogn-

their°
services,

Want of

of Catholic
institu-

tions.

endowments for religious purposes, has a natural tendency
to render the clergy averse to the settlement of Protestants
in the seigniories. (But the Catholic priesthood of this
Province have, to a very remarkable degree, conciliated
the good-will of persons of all creeds ; and I know of no
parochial clergy in the world whose practice of all the
Christian virtues, and zealous discharge of their clerical
duties, is more universally admitted, and has been pro-
ductive of more beneficial consequences. Possessed of
incomes sufficient, and even large, according to the notions
entertained in the country, and enjoying the advantage
of education, they have lived on terms of equality and
kindness with the humblest and least instructed inhabit-
ants of the rural districts. Intimately acquainted with
the wants and characters of their neighbours, they have
been the promoters and dispensers of charity, and the
effectual guardians of the morals of the people ; and in
the general absence of any permanent institutions of civil
government, the Catholic church has presented almost the
only semblance of stability and organization, and furnished
the only effectual support for civilization and order. The
Catholic clergy of Lower Canada are entitled to this
expression of my esteem, not only because it is founded on
truth, but because a grateful recognition of their eminent
services, in resisting the arts of the disaffected, is especially
due to them from one who has administered the govern-
ment of the Province in these troubled times .^)

The Constitutional Act, while limiting the application
°^ *^e c^ergy reserves in the townships to a Protestant
clergy, made no provision for the extension of the Catholic

1 A strong tribute to the loyalty of the Roman Catholic clergy in
Lower Canada is given in the Report of the Commissioner of Inquiry
into the State of Education in Lower Canada (Appendix D) : 'It is
impossible to pay too high a tribute to the merits of this most exem-
plary Church. Its existence has ever been beneficially felt, and its
career has been marked throughout by the most faithful discharge
of its sacred duties, and the most undeviating allegiance to the British
Crown ' (vol. iii, p. 241), and again, ' the Catholic Church, whose
ministers have been the only men of station among the French Canadians
who never forfeited their fidelity to the Mother Country ' ( vol iii, p. 277).

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 139

clerical institution, in the event of the French population
settling beyond the limits of the seigniories. Though
I believe that some power exists, and has been in a few
cases used, for the creation of new Catholic parishes, I am
convinced that this absence of the means of religious
instruction has been the main cause of the indisposition
of the French population to seek new settlements, as the
increase of their numbers pressed upon their resources.
It has been rightly observed, that the religious observances
of the French Canadians are so intermingled with all
their business, and all their amusements, that the priests
and the church are with them, more than with any other
people, the centres of their little communities. In order
to encourage them to spread fheir population, and to seek
for comfort and prosperity in new settlements, a wise
government would have taken care to aid, in every
possible way, the diffusion of their means of religious
instruction.

The Protestant population of Lower Canada have been clergy
of late somewhat agitated by the question of the clergy ^^
reserves. The meaning of the ambiguous phrase ' Pro- of ' Pro-
testant clergy ' has been discussed with great ardour in
various quarters ; and each disputant has displayed his
ingenuity in finding reasons for a definition in accordance
with his own inclination, either to the aggrandizement of
his own sect, or the establishment of religious equality.
Owing to the small numbers of the British population, to
the endowment of the Catholic church in most of the
peopled and important districts of the Colony, and, above
all, to the much more formidable and extensive causes of
dissension existing in the Province, the dispute of the
various Protestant denominations for the funds reserved
for a ' Protestant clergy ', has not assumed the importance
which it has acquired in Upper Canada. In my account
of that Province I shall give a more detailed explanation
of the present position of this much-disputed question.
I have reason to know, that the apprehension of measures
tending to establish the predominance of a particular

140 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

creed and clergy, has produced an irritation in this
Province which has very nearly deprived the Crown of
the support of some portions of the British population,
in a period of very imminent danger. I must therefore
most strongly recommend, that any plan by which the
question of clergy reserves shall be set at rest in Upper
Canada, should also be extended to the Lower Province.1
The endowments of the Catholic church, and the services
of its numerous and zealous parochial clergy, have been
of the greatest benefit to the large body of Catholic
emigrants from Ireland, who have relied much on the
charitable as well as religious aid which they have received
from the priesthood. The priests have an almost unlimited
influence over the lower classes of Irish ; and this influence
is said to have been very vigorously exerted last winter,
when it was much needed, to secure the loyalty of a portion
Impor- of the Irish during the troubles. The general loyalty
considera- exhibited by the Irish settlers in the Canadas, during the

w^n*er> and the importance of maintaining it unim-
Catholic paired in future times of difficulty, render it of the utmost
moment *kat *^e feelings and interests of the Catholic
clergy and population should invariably meet with due
consideration from the Government.2

Financial Setting on one side the management of the Crown

should be Lands, and the revenue derived therefrom, which will be

settled by treated of fully in another part, it is not necessary that

govern- I should, on the present occasion, enter into any detailed

account of the financial system of Lower Canada, my

object being merely to point out the working of the general

system of Government, as operating to produce the

1 It may be noted that in 1824 the Quebec Assembly addressed the
King in favour of giving to the Established Church of Scotland and
to the dissenting Protestant bodies a share in the clergy reserves of
Lower Canada. ' This address from the Assembly, consisting chiefly of
Roman Catholics, gave great offence to the Clergy and members of the
established Church of England, who deemed it an improper interference
in their concerns on the part of the Assembly ' (Christie, History of
Lower Canada, vol. iii, pp. 45-6).

* As to the large amount of Irish emigration to Canada, see Introduc-
tion, p. 190, and note.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 141

present condition of the Province. I need not inquire
\\hether its fiscal, monetary or commercial arrangements
have been in accordance with the best principles of public
economy. But I have reason to believe that improve-
ments may be made in the mode of raising and expending
the Provincial revenue. During my stay in Canada, the
evils of the banking and monetary systems of the Province
forced themselves on my attention.1 I am not inclined,
however, to regard these evils as having been in anywise
influential in causing the late disorders. I cannot regard
them as indicative of any more mismanagement or error
than are observable in the measures of the best govern-
ments with respect to questions of so much difficulty ;
and though the importance of finding some sufficient
remedy for some of these disorders has, as I shall
hereafter explain, very materially influenced my views
of the general plan to be adopted for the government
of this and the other North American Colonies, I regard
the better regulation of the financial and monetary
systems of the Province as a matter to be settled by
the local Government, when established on a permanent
basis.

With the exception of the small amount now derived Sources of
from the casual and territorial funds, the public revenue
of Lower Canada is derived from duties imposed, partly
by imperial and partly by provincial statutes.2 These

1 For an account of banking in Canada, see the article on ' Banks
Canada ' in the Dictionary of Political Economy, vol. i, pp. 100-2. See
also Shortt, Early History of Canadian Banking, and Walker, History
of Banking in Canada (Toronto, 1909). The successful establishment
of banks in Canada dates from 1817-25. The Articles of Association of
the Bank of Montreal were signed in 1817, and its charter received the
royal assent in 1822. In 1837, the year before Lord Durham went out,
there was a business panic in the United States, which resulted in the
banks in Lower Canada, and subsequently those in Upper Canada,
temporarily suspending specie payments. A special session of the
Upper Canada Legislature was called to deal with the crisis, and refer-
ence is made on p. 170 to legislation then passed. At the present day
the banking system of Canada is very strong and sound, as compared
with that of the United States.

2 As to the casual and territorial funds, see Introduction, pp. 40 and
182-5. The duties imposed by Imperial Statutes were mainly those

142 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

duties are, in great proportion, levied upon articles
imported into the Colony from Great Britain and foreign
countries ; they are collected at the principal ports by
officers of the Imperial Customs.

The amount of the revenue has within the last four
years diminished from about £150,000, to little more
than £100,000 per annum. This diminution is ascribed
principally to the decreased consumption of spirituous
liquors, and some other articles of foreign import, in
consequence of the growth of native manufactures of such
articles. Nevertheless, as the permanent expenditure of
the civil government only amounts to about £60,000
a year, there remains still a considerable surplus to be
disposed of for local purposes, in the mischievous manner
which I have described in the preceding pages. A vigorous
and efficient government would find the whole revenue
hardly adequate to its necessities ; but in the present
state of things, I consider the existence and application
of this surplus revenue as so prejudicial, that I should,
as the less of two evils, recommend a reduction of the
duties levied, were it possible to do this without an equal
diminution of the revenue of Upper Canada, which can
by no means afford it.

The financial relations between these two Provinces
are a source of great and increasing disputes.1 The

imposed by the Quebec Revenue Act of 1774 (14 Geo. Ill, cap. 88).
This Act was still in force, though the appropriation of the net revenues
raised under the Act had been handed over to the local Legislatures
by the Canadian Revenue Control Act of 1831.

1 One of the disadvantages of the Act of 1791 was that it created
a purely inland colony in Upper Canada, which imported and exported
either through a foreign country, the United States, or through another
British colony, Lower Canada. The main avenue of trade being the
St. Lawrence, Upper Canada could only collect a customs revenue,
either by establishing customs houses on the borders of Lower Canada,
or by making an arrangement with Lower Canada by which Lower
Canada would collect the customs and hand over a proportion to Upper
Canada. The second alternative was taken, but constant friction
resulted, and there were perpetual commissions appointed by the two
provinces resulting in temporary arrangements. At first, by an agree-
ment expiring at the end of 1796, one-eighth of the customs receipts
was assigned to Upper Canada ; in 1818 one-fifth was assigned ; then
there was a deadlock, to meet which the Imperial Canada Trade Act

greater part, almost the whole of the imports of Upper Financial
Canada entering at the ports of Lower Canada, the Upper ^^
Province has urged and established its claim to a proper- two Pro-
tion of the duties levied on them. This proportion is ^
settled, from time to time, by Commissioners appointed
from each Province. Lower Canada now receives about
three, and Upper Canada about two fifths of the whole
amount : nor is this the greatest cause of dissension and
dissatisfaction. The present revenue of Upper Canada
being utterly inadequate to its expenditure, the only
means that that Province will have of paying the interest
of its debt, will be by increasing its Customs' duties.
But as these are almost all levied in Lower Canada, this
cannot be done without raising the taxation also of the
Lower Canadians, who have, as it is, a large surplus
revenue. It was for the better settlement of these points
of difference, that the union of the two Canadas was
proposed in 1822 ; and the same feeling produces a great
part of the anxiety now manifested for that measure by
a portion of the people of Upper Canada.

A considerable revenue is raised from all these Provinces Post
by the Post-office establishment common to all of them,
and subordinate to the General Post-office in England.
The surplus revenue, which appears from a Report to the
House of Assembly to amount to no less than £10,000
per annum, is transmitted to England. The Assembly
made it a matter of great complaint that an important
internal public institution of the Provinces should be
entirely regulated and administered by the rulers and
servants of an English public office, and that so large an
amount of revenue, raised entirely without the consent

was passed in 182&, which restrained the Legislature of Lower Canada
from arbitrary action crippling the revenue of Upper Canada. By
arbitration under that Act, the proportion assigned to Upper Canada
was in 1824 raised to one -fourth, and Lord Durham tells us that in his
time it was about two-fifths. The dispute was only settled by the
reunion of the two provinces. An account of the different temporary
arrangements which were made is given in the evidence of Mr. (after-
wards Sir James) Stephen before the House of Commons Committee of
1828, pp. 250-1. See also below, p. 188-92.

144 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

of the Colonies, in a manner not at all free from objections,
should be transmitted to the mother country.* I cannot
but say that there is great justice in these complaints, and
I am decidedly of opinion that if any plan of an united
government of these Provinces should be adopted, the
control and revenue of the post-office should be given up
to the Colony.1

little (For the reasons I have before explained, there is hardly
taxation *ne semblance of direct taxation in Lower Canada for
in Lower general and local purposes. This immunity from taxation

Canada. ,. *

has been sometimes spoken of as a great privilege of the
people of Lower Canada, and a great proof of the justice
and benevolence of their government. The description
which I have given of the singularly defective provision
made for the discharge of the most important duties of
both the general and the local government will, I think,
make it appear that this apparent saving of the pockets
of the people has been caused by their privation of many
of the institutions which every civilized community ought
to possess. A people can hardly be congratulated on
having had at little cost a rude and imperfect administra-
tion of justice, hardly the semblance of police, no public
provision for education, no lighting, and bad pavements
in its cities, and means of communication so imperfect,
that the loss of time, and wear and tear caused in taking
any article to market, may probably be estimated at ten

* The privilege of franking possessed by a few public officers in this
Province, is of a singular kind. For, as it is necessary for the public
service that such a privilege should be exercised, and as the English
office accords no immunities to the functionaries of a Colonial Govern-
ment, the postage is charged on all franked letters, and the Provincial
Treasury has to pay the amount over to the Post Office. This, in fact,
destroys in a great measure the utility of the privilege for public pur-
poses ; because public officers are unwilling to use the post for their
communications, when their doing so diminishes the revenues of the
Province.

1 The post offices in Upper and Lower Canada were taken over by
the colonial authorities on April 5, 1851, and in the Maritime Provinces
on July 6, 1851.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA I r,

times the expense of good roads. If the Lower Canadians
had been subjected, or rather had been taught to subject
themselves to a much greater amount of taxation, they
would probably at this time have been a much wealthier,
a much better governed, a much more civilized, and a
much more contented people^

UPPER CANADA

THE information which I have to give respecting the State of
state of Upper Canada not having been acquired in the
course of any actual administration of the government
of that Province,1 will necessarily be much less ample and
detailed than that which I have laid before Your Majesty
respecting Lower Canada. My object will be to point
out the principal causes to which a general observation
of the Province induces me to attribute the late troubles ;
and even this task will be performed with comparative
ease and brevity, inasmuch as I am spared the labour of
much explanation and proof, by being able to refer to the
details which I have given, and the principles which I have
laid down, in describing the institutions of the Lower
Province.

/At first sight it appears much more difficult to form an Difficulty
accurate idea of the state of Upper than of Lower Canada, ^hdnT
The visible and broad line of demarcation which separates real ol>-
parties by the distinctive characters of race, happily has Struggles.
no existence in the Upper Province. Tne quarrel is one
of an entirely English, if not British population. Like
all such quarrels, it has, in fact, created, not two, but
several parties ; each of which has some objects in common

' His lordship's personal observation was confined to his passing
up the river St. Lawrence, and crossing Lake Ontario, in a steamboat
occupied exclusively by his family and suite ; a four days' sojourn at
the Falls of Niagara, and a twenty-four hours' visit to the Lieutenant-
Go vernor at Toronto.' From the Report of the Select Committee of
the House of Assembly of Upper Canada, dated April 30, 1839. Parlia-
mentary Paper No. 289, of June 1839, ' Copies or Extracts of Correspon-
dence relative to the Affairs of Canada,' p. 22. This Report contains
a detailed and most damaging criticism of the statements made by Lord
Durham in the following pages.

1352-2 L

146 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

with some one of those to which it is opposed. They
differ on one point, and agree on another ; the sections,
which unite together one day, are strongly opposed the
next ; and the very party, which acts as one, against
a common opponent, is in truth composed of divisions
seeking utterly different or incompatible objects. It is
very difficult to make out from the avowals of parties the
real objects of their struggles, and still less easy is it to
discover any cause of such importance as would account
for its uniting any large mass of the people in an attempt
to overthrow, by forcible means, the existing form of
Government.^

Isolation The peculiar geographical character of the Province
of dis- greatly increases the difficulty of obtaining very accurate
information. Its inhabitants scattered along an extensive
frontier, with very imperfect means gf communication,
and a limited and partial commerce, have, apparently no
unity_of interest or opinion. The Province has no great
^ centre with which alTtKe separate parts are connected,
and which they are accustomed to follow in sentiment and
action ; x nor is there that habitual intercourse between
the inhabitants of different parts of the country, which,
by diffusing through all a knowledge of the opinions and
interests of each, makes a people one and united, in spite
of extent of territory and dispersion of population.
Instead of this, there are many petty local centres, the
sentiments and the interests (or at least what are fancied
to be so) of which, are distinct, and perhaps opposed.
It has been stated to me by intelligent persons from
England, who had travelled through the Province for
purposes of business, that this isolation of the different
districts from each other was strikingly apparent in all
attempts to acquire information in one district respecting
the agricultural or commercial character of another ; and

1 It is not always an advantage for a colony or province to have one
great centre overweighting all the rest of the territory in wealth and
population. New Zealand has probably gained by having three or four
different centres, none of them overshadowing the others, and the same
may be said of the Canadian Dominion at the present day.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 147

that not only were very gross attempts made to deceive
an inquirer on these points, but that even the information
which had been given in a spirit of perfect good faith,
generally turned out to be founded in great misappre-
hension. From these causes a stranger who visits any
one of these local centres, or who does not visit the whole,
is almost necessarily ignorant of matters, a true knowledge
of which is essential to an accurate comprehension of the
real position of parties, and of the political prospects of
the country.

IXhe political contest which has so long been carried on Features
in the Assembly and the press appears to have been one, ^^
exhibiting throughout its whole course the characteristical in the
features of the purely political part of the contest in Lower g^cl
Canada ; and, like that, originating in an unwise distri-
bution of power in the constitutional system of the
Province. The financial disputes which so long occupied
the contending parties in Lower Canada, were much more
easily and wisely arranged in the Upper Province ; L and
the struggle, though extending itself over a variety of
questions of more or less importance, avowedly and
distinctly rested on the demand for responsibility in the
Executive Government.^

£ln the preceding account of the working of the con- The
stitutional system in Lower Canada, I have described the J
effect which the irresponsibility of the real advisers of
the Governor had in lodging permanent authority in the
hands of a powerful party, linked together not only by
common party interests, but by personal ties. But in
none of the North American Provinces has this exhibited
itself for so long a period or to such an extent, as in

1 By an Act of 1831, the Legislature of Upper Canada granted a Civil
List of £6,500 per annum, to come into force as soon as the revenues
raised under the Quebec Revenue Act of 1774 were placed under the
control of the Provincial Legislature. This was done by an Imperial
Act of the same year. Thus the Upper Canada Legislature responded
to the invitation of the Imperial Government, while the Quebec Assembly
refused to do so, and gained control of the revenues in question witnou
giving a quid pro quo (see Introduction, pp. 60 and 76). Sir John U
was Lieutenant- Governor of Upper Canada at the time.

L2

REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Upper Canada, which has long been entirely governed by
a party commonly designated throughout the Province
as the ' family compact V a name not much more appro-
priate than party designations usually are, inasmuch as
there is, in truth, very little of family connexion among
the persons thus united. For a long time this body of
men, receiving at times accessions to its numbers, possessed
almost all the highest public offices, by means of which,
and of its influence in the Executive Council, it wielded
all the powers of government ; it maintained influence in
the legislature by means of its predominance in the Legisla-
tive Council ; and it disposed of the large number of petty
posts which are in the patronage of the Government all
over the Province. Successive Governors, as they came
in their turn, are said to have either submitted quietly to
its influence, or, after a short and unavailing struggle, to
have yielded to this well-organized party the real conduct
of affairs. The bench, the magistracy, the high offices
of the Episcopal Church, and a great part of the legal
profession, are filled by the adherents of this party : by
grant or purchase, they have acquired nearly the whole
of the waste lands of the Province ; they are all-powerful
in the chartered banks, and, till lately, shared among
themselves almost exclusively all offices of trust and
profit. The bulk of this party consists, for the most
part, of native-born inhabitants of the Colony, or of
emigrants who settled in it before the last war with the
United States ; the principal members of it belong to the
church of England, and the maintenance of the claims
of that church has always been one of its distinguishing
characteristics.^
A monopolyof power so extensive and so lasting could

1 The name ' Family Compact ' is said to have been tirst applied
by William Lyon Mackenzie in 1833. See the Life of Sir J. Beverley
Robinson, pp. 191-4. The Report of the Select Committee of the
House of Assembly of Upper Canada, referred to in the note on
p. 145 above, speaks of it as 'a newspaper soubriquet '. The very
powerful leader of the Church of England in the ' Compact ' was
Dr. Strachan, who in the same year in which Lord Durham's report
appeared, 1839, became the first Bishop of Toronto.

BRITISH NORTH AMERH A 149

not fail, in process of time, to excite envy, create dissatis- oPPo«i.
faction, and ultimately provoke attack ; and an opposition Jjfome
consequently grew up in the Assembly which assailed the and™
ruling party, by appealing to popular principles of govern- re
ment, by denouncing the alleged jobbing and profusion
of the official body, and by instituting inquiries into \
abuses, for the purpose of promoting reform, and especi- '
ally ec^qmy\_^The Question" of the greatest importance,
~~~raised mtnecburse of these disputes, was that of the
disposal of the clergy reserves ; and, though different
modes of applying these lands, or rather the funds derived
from them, were suggested, the reformers, or opposition,
were generally very successful in their appeals to the
people, against the project of the tory or official party,1
which was • that of devoting them exclusively to the
maintenance of the English Episcopal Church. The
reformers, by successfully agitating this and various
economical questions, obtained a majority. Like almost
all popular colonial parties, it managed its power with
very little discretion and skill, offended a large number
of the constituencies, and, being baffled by the Legislative
Council, and resolutely opposed by all the personal and
official influence of the official body, a dissolution again
placed it in a minority in the Assembly. This turn of
fortune was not confined to a single instance ; for neither
party has for some time possessed the majority in two
successive Parliaments. The present is the fifth of these
alternating Houses of Assembly.2

The reformers, however, at last discovered that success Objects
in the elections insured them very little practical benefit. ^Sct ofthe
For the official party not being removed when it failed reformers,
to command a majority in the Assembly, still continued
to wield all the powers of the executive government, to
strengthen itself by its patronage, and to influence the

1 It will be noted that Lord Durham applies the terms of political
conflict at home, ' Tories ' and ' Reformers ', to Upper Canada.

2 For the political alternations in Upper Canada, see the Introduc-
tion, pp. 75-81.

150 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

policy of the colonial Governor and of the Colonial Depart-
ment at home. By its secure majority in the Legislative
Council, it could effectually control the legislative powers
of the Assembly. It could choose its own moment for
dissolving hostile Assemblies ; and could always insure,
for those that were favourable to itself, the tenure of their
seats for the full term of four years allowed by the law.
Thus the reformers found that their triumph at elections
could not in any way facilitate the progress of their views,
while the executive government remained constantly in
the hands of their opponents. They rightly judged that,
if the higher offices and the Executive Council were always
held by those who could command a majority in the
Assembly, the constitution of the Legislative Council was
a matter of very little moment, inasmuch as the advisers
of the Governor could always take care that its composition
should be modified so as to suit their own purposes. They
Contrast concentrated their powers, therefore, for the purpose of
French* 6 obtaining the responsibility of the Executive Council ;
majority, and I cannot help contrasting the practical good sense of
the English reformers of Upper Canada with the less
prudent course of the French majority in the Assembly
of Lower Canada, as exhibited in the different demands
of constitutional change, most earnestly pressed by each.
Both, in fact, desired the same object, namely, an exten-
sion of popular influence in the Government. The
Assembly of Lower Canada attacked the Legislative
Council ; a body, of which the constitution was certainly
the most open to obvious theoretical objections, on the
part of all the advocates of popular institutions, but, for
the same reason, most sure of finding powerful defenders
at home. The reformers of Upper Canada paid little
attention to the composition of the Legislative Council,
and directed their exertions to obtaining such an alteration
of the Executive Council as might have been obtained
without any derangement of the constitutional balance
of power ; but they well knew, that if once they obtained
possession of the Executive Council, and the higher offices of

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA Ui

the Province, the Legislative Council would soon be unable
to offer any effectual resistance to their meditated reforms.

fit was upon this question of the responsibility of the Quest ion
Executive Council that the great struggle has for a long JJ,foeExc"
time been carried on between the official party and the Council.
reformers ; for the official party, like all parties long in
power, was naturally unwilling to submit itself to any
such responsibility as would abridge its tenure, or cramp
its exercise of authority. Reluctant to acknowledge any
responsibility to the people of the Colony, this party
appears to have paid a somewhat refractory and nominal
submission to the Imperial Government, relying in fact on
securing a virtual independence by this nominal submission
to the distant authority of the Colonial Department, or to
the powers of a Governor, over whose policy they were
certain, by their facilities of access, to obtain a paramount
influence?)

The views of the great body of the Reformers appear Views of
to have been limited, according to their favourite expres- [„

sion, to the making the Colonial Constitution ' an exact
transcript ' of that of Great Britain ; and they only
desired that the Crown should in Upper Canada, as at
home, entrust the administration of affairs to men possess-
ing the confidence of the Assembly. It cannot be doubted,
however, that there were many of the party who wished
to assimilate the institutions of the Province rather to
those of the United States than to those of the mother
country. A few persons, chiefly of American origin,
appear to have entertained these designs from the outset ;
but the number had at last been very much increased by
the despair which many of those who started with more
limited views conceived of their being ever carried into
effect under the existing form of Government.

Each party, while it possessed the ascendancy, has been Local
accused by its opponents of having abused its power over J0
the public funds in those modes of local jobbing which
I have described as so common in the North American
Colonies. This, perhaps, is to be attributed partly to

152 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

the circumstances adverted to above, as increasing the
difficulty of obtaining any accurate information as to
the real circumstances of the Province. From these
causes it too often happened that the members of
the House of Assembly came to the meeting of the legis-
lature ignorant of the real character of the general
interests entrusted to their guardianship, intent only
on promoting sectional objects, and anxious chiefly
to secure for the county they happen to represent,
or the district with which they are connected, as large
a proportion as possible of any funds which the legislature
may have at its disposal. In Upper Canada, however,
the means of doing this were never so extensive as those
possessed by the Lower Province ; and the great works
which the Province commenced on a very extended scale,
and executed in a spirit of great carelessness and profusion,
have left so little surplus revenue, that this Province
alone, among the North American Colonies, has fortunately
for itself been compelled to establish a system of local
assessments, and to leave local works, in a great measure,
to the energy and means of the localities themselves.
It is asserted, however, that the nature of those great
works, and the manner in which they were carried on,
evinced merely a regard for local interests, and a dis-
position to strengthen party influence. The inhabitants
of the less thickly peopled districts complained that the
revenues of the Province were employed in works by
which only the frontier population would benefit. The
money absorbed by undertakings which they described
as disproportioned to the resources and to the wants of
the Province, would, they alleged, have sufficed to establish
practicable means of communication over the whole
country ; and they stated, apparently not without
' foundation, that had this latter course been pursued, the
population and the resources of the Province would have
been so augmented as to make the works actually under-
taken both useful and profitable. The carelessness and
profusion which marked the execution of these works, the

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 153

management of which, it was complained, was entrusted
chiefly to members of the ruling party, were also assumed
to be the result of a deliberate purpose, and to be per-
mitted, if not encouraged, in order that a few individuals
might be enriched at the expense of the community.
Circumstances to which I shall hereafter advert, by which
the further progress of these works has been checked, and
the large expenses incurred in bringing them to their
present state of forwardness, have been rendered unavail-
ing, have given greater force to these complaints, and, in
addition to the discontent produced by the objects of the
expenditure, the governing party has been made respon-
sible for a failure in the accomplishment of these objects,
attributable to causes over which it had no control. But
to whatever extent these practices may have been carried,
the course of the Parliamentary contest in Upper Canada
has not been marked by that singular neglect of the great
duties of a legislative body, which I have remarked in
the proceedings of the Parliament of Lower Canada. The Useful
statute book of the Upper Province abounds with useful reforms<
and well-constructed measures of reform, and presents an
honourable contrast to that of the Lower Province.

While the parties were thus struggling, the operation Third
of a cause, utterly unconnected with their disputes, jjjjjjjj. of
suddenly raised up a very considerable third party,1 emigrants.
which began to make its appearance among the political
disputants about the time that the quarrel was at its
height. I have said that in Upper Canada there is no

1 The statements in this paragraph as to a third party and their
disabilities are most vigorously contradicted in the Report of the Select
Committee of the House of Assembly. ' It is with no common satisfac-
tion, that your committee find among their number three gentlemen
well known throughout the province, the representatives of three
distinct constituencies, and who, being of the number of those who his
lordship states are regarded as aliens in this portion of their Sovereign's
dominions, are best able to pronounce upon the accuracy of His Lord-
ship's statements . . . the three members of your committee, to whom
special reference has been made, conceive that they are bound in justice,
calmly but unequivocally, to deny that Lord Durham has been correctly
informed with respect to the feeling of the original settlers in Upper
Canada towards them ' (p. 23).

154 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

animosity of races ; there is nevertheless a distinction of
origin, which has exercised a very important influence on
the composition of parties, and appears likely, sooner or
\ K later, to become the prominent and absorbing element of
political division. The official and reforming parties which
I have described, were both composed, for the most part,
and were almost entirely led, by native-born Canadians,
American settlers, or emigrants of a very ancient date ;
and as one section of this more ancient population
possessed, so another was the only body of persons that
claimed, the management of affairs, and the enjoyment
of offices conferring emolument or power, until the
extensive emigration from Great Britain, which followed
the disastrous period of 1825 and 1826,1 changed the state
of things, by suddenly doubling the population, and
introducing among the ancient disputants for power, an
entirely new class of persons. The new-comers, however,
did not for a long time appear as a distinct party in the
politics of Upper Canada. A large number of the higher
class of emigrants, particularly the half-pay officers, who
were induced to settle in this Province, had belonged to
the Tory party in England, and, in conformity with their
ancient predilections, naturally arrayed themselves on
the side of the official party, contending with the repre-
sentatives of the people. The mass of the humbler order
of emigrants, accustomed in the mother country to com-
plain of the corruption and profusion of the Government,
and to seek for a reform of abuses, by increasing the
popular influence in the representative body, arrayed
themselves on the side of those who represented the
people, and attacked oligarchical power and abuses ; but
there was still a great difference of opinion between each
of the two Canadian parties and that section of the

1 The latter part of 1825 and the earlier part of 1826 was a time
of disastrous bank failures and consequent distress. The legislation of
1826 authorized the constitution of joint-stock banks of issue, and
prohibited the issue of bank-notes in England and Wales for a smaller
sum than £5. In 1826 and 1827 there were House of Commons Com-
mittees on Emigration (see Introduction, pp. 190-3.)

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 15*

British which for a while noted with it. Each of the
Canadian parties, while it differed with the other about
the tenure of political powers in the Colony, desired almost
the same degree of practicaHndependence of the mother
country ; each felt~and each betrayed in its political
conduct a jealousy of the emigrants, and a wish to main-
tain the powers of office and the emoluments of the
professions in the hands of persons born or long resident
in the Colony. The British, on the contrary, to whichever
party they belong, appear to agree in desiring that the
connexion with the mother country should be drawn
closer. They differ very little among themselves, I
imagine, in desiring such a change as should assimilate the
Government of Upper Canada, in spirit as well as in form,
to the Government of England, retaining an executive
sufficiently powerful to curb popular excesses, and giving
to the majority of the people, or to such of them as the
less liberal would trust with political rights, some sub-
stantial control over the administration of affairs. But
the great common object was, and is, the removal of those
disqualifications to which British emigrants are subject,
so that they might feel as citizens, instead of aliens, in
the land of their adoption.

Such was the state of parties, when Sir F. Head,1 on

1 The Right Hon. Sir Francis Bond Head, Bart., K.C.H., was
born in 1793. He was an officer in the Eoyal Engineers, and was
present at Waterloo. He went on half-pay in 1825, and, as manager of
a mining association, visited what is now the Argentine Republic and
Chili. He crossed and recrossed the Andes, and wrote a book on his
experiences. In 1828 he finally retired from the army. In 1834 he
was appointed an Assistant Poor-Law Commissioner in Kent, and in
1835 he was appointed Lieu tenant-Governor of Upper Canada, being
sworn in in January 1836. He was made a baronet in 1837, tendered
his resignation in September of that year, and was replaced by Sir
George Arthur in March 1838. He wrote various books, and con-
tributed much to the Quarterly Review. He was made a Privy Coun-
cillor in 1867, and died in 1875 (see the Diet, of Nat. Biog., s.v., and for
a friendly account of him, see the Life of Sir J. Beverhy Robinson).
The Report of the Select Committee of the House of Assembly of
Upper Canada points out (p. 24) that the statement that Sir F. Head
' dismissed some of the members ' of the Executive Council is incorrect.
He did not dismiss any of the Council, but appointed Rolph, Baldwin,
and Dunn as additional members.

156 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Proceed- assuming the government of the Colony, dismissed from
FgHead *ne Executive Council some of the members who were
most obnoxious to the House of Assembly, and requested
three individuals to succeed them. Two of these gentle-
men, Dr. Rolph,1 and Mr. R. Baldwin,2 were connected
with the reforming party, and the third, Mr. Dunn, was
an Englishman, who had held the office of Receiver
General for nearly 14 years, and up to that time had
abstained from any interference in politics. These
gentlemen were, at first, reluctant to take office, because
they feared that, as there were still three of the former
Council left, they should be constantly maintaining a
doubtful struggle for the measures which they considered
necessary. They were, however, at length induced to
forego their scruples, chiefly upon the representations of
some of their friends, that when they had a Governor
who appeared sincere in his professions of reform, and
who promised them his entire confidence, it was neither
generous nor prudent to persist in a refusal which might
be taken to imply distrust of his sincerity ; and they
accordingly accepted office. Among the first acts of the

1 John Rolph was born at Thornbury in Gloucestershire in 1793,
and went out to Canada with his father before the war of 1812. He
served in the war, and was taken prisoner. Subsequently he went to
England, and studied both medicine and law. He returned to Canada
about 1820, settled in Upper Canada, was called to the Bar, first
entered the Assembly in 1825, and in 1836 was for a short time, with
Robert Baldwin, a member of the Executive Council. After the
abortive rising in 1837 he took refuge, with Mackenzie, in the United
States. He returned to Canada, under amnesty, in 1843, practised
medicine at Toronto, and became the founder of the Toronto School
of Medicine. He re-entered public life in 1845, served in office, retired
after some ten years of parliamentary life, and eventually died in
1870.

2 Robert Baldwin was born in 1804, and died in 1858, having with-
drawn from public life at the early age of 47. ' Baldwin's name is
inseparably connected with the introduction and establishment in
Canada of parliamentary government.' He was as wise and temperate
a reformer as Mackenzie was the opposite. He grasped clearly and
adhered tenaciously to the principle of parliamentary government and,
with Lafontaine, put it into effect for United Canada. It is interesting
to note that he was a strong Churchman and a pupil of Bishop Strachan,
who was so powerful a member of the Family Compact (see Diet, of
Nat. Biog., s.v.).

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 157

Governor, after the appointment of this Council, was,
however, the nomination to some vacant offices of indi-
viduals, who were taken from the old official party, and
this without any communication with his Council. These
appointments were attacked by the House of Assembly,
and the new Council, finding that their opinion was never
asked upon these, or other matters, and that they were
seemingly to be kept in ignorance of all those public
measures, which popular opinion nevertheless attributed
to their advice, remonstrated privately on the subject
with the Governor. Sir Francis desired them to make
a formal representation to him on the subject ; they did
so, and this produced such a reply from him, as left them
no choice but to resign. The occasion of the differences
which had caused the resignation, was made the subject
of communication between the Governor and the Assembly,
so that the whole community were informed of the grounds
of the dispute.

The contest which appeared to be thus commenced on
the question of the responsibility of the Executive Council,
was really decided on very different grounds. Sir F. Head, general
who appears to have thought that the maintenance of the
connexion with Great Britain depended upon his triumph
over the majority of the Assembly, embarked in the
contest, with a determination to use every influence in
his power, in order to bring it to a successful issue. He
succeeded, in fact, in putting the issue in such a light
before the Province, that a great portion of the people
really imagined that they were called upon to decide the
question of separation by their votes. The dissolution,
on which he ventured, when he thought the public mind
sufficiently ripe, completely answered his expectations.
The British, in particular, were roused by the proclaimed
danger to the connexion with the mother country ; they
were indignant at some portions of the conduct and
speeches of certain members of the late majority, which
seemed to mark a determined preference of American
over British Institutions. They were irritated by indica-

158

REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

tions of hostility to British emigration, which they saw,
or fancied they saw, in some recent proceedings of the
Assembly. Above all, not only they, but a great many
others, had marked with^Hvy the stupendous public works
which were at that period producing their effect in the
almost marvellous growth of the wealth and popula-
tion of the neighbouring state of New York ; and they
reproached the Assembly with what they considered an
unwise economy, in preventing the undertaking or even
completion of similar works, that might, as they fancied,
have produced a similar development of the resources
of Upper Canada. The general support of the British
determined the elections in favour of the Government;
and though very large and close minorities, which in
many cases supported the defeated candidates, marked
the force which the reformers could bring into the field,
even in spite of the disadvantages under which they
laboured from the momentary prejudices against them,
and the unusual manner in which the Crown, by its
representative, appeared to make itself a party in an
electioneering contest, the result was the return of a
very large majority hostile in politics to that of the late
Assembly.

FaUuro It is rather singular, however, that the result which
aimecUt ^ ^' Head appears really to have aimed at, was by no
by Sir F. means secured by this apparent triumph. His object in
all his previous measures, and in the nomination of the
Executive Councillors, by whom he replaced the retiring
members, was evidently to make the Council a means
of administrative independence for the Governor.
Sir F. Head would seem to have been, at the commence-
ment of his administration, really desirous of effecting
certain reforms which he believed to be needful, and of
rescuing the substantial power of the Government from
the hands of the party by which it had been so long
monopolized. The dismissal of the old members of the
Executive Council was the consequence of this intention ;
but though willing to take measures for the purpose of

159

emancipating himself from the thraldom in which it was
stated that other Governors had been held, he could not
acquiesce in the claims of the House of Assembly to have
a really responsible Colonial Executive.1 The result of
the elections was to give him, as he conceived, a House
of Assembly pledged to support him, as Governor, in the
exercise of the independent authority he had claimed.
On the very first occasion, however, on which he attempted
to protect an officer of the Government, unconnected with
the old official party, from charges which, whether well
or ill founded, were obviously brought forward on personal
grounds, he found that the new House was even more
determined than its predecessor to assert its right to
exercise a substantial control over the Government ; and
that, unless he was disposed to risk a collision with both
branches of the legislature, then composed of similar
materials, and virtually under one influence, he must
succumb. Unwilling to incur this risk, when, as he justly
imagined, there was no party upon whose support he
could rely to bear him safely through the contest, he
yielded the point. Although the committee appointed
to inquire into the truth of the charges made against
Mr. Hepburn refused to adopt a report confirming these
charges prepared by their chairman (by whom the
accusation had been brought forward, and by whom the
committee was virtually nominated), Sir F. Head per-

1 In not acquiescing in these claims, Sir Francis Head was only acting
in accordance with the instructions given him by Lord Glenelg. In
those instructions, dated December 5, 1835, Lord Glenelg had dealt with
the complaint which the Assembly had made, ' that the Executive
Government of Upper Canada is virtually irresponsible,' and had
emphasized the fact that the Governor was directly responsible to the
Home Government, not to the Commons of Upper Canada. ' To His
Majesty and to Parliament the governor of Upper Canada is at all
times most fully responsible for his official acts. ... It is the duty of
the Lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada to vindicate to the King

and to Parliament every act of his administration The responsibility

to His Majesty and to Parliament is second to none which can b
imposed on a public man, and it is one which it is in the power of the
House of Assembly at any time, by address or petition, to bring into
active operation ' (House of Commons Paper, No. 113, March 22, 18 Jb,
p. 64).

160

suaded the individual in question to resign his office,1 and
to take one of very inferior emolument. From that time
he never attempted to assert the independence which the
new House of Assembly had been elected to secure. The
Government consequently reverted in effect to the party
which he had found in office when he assumed the Gover-
norship, and which it had been his first act to dispossess.
In their hands it still remains ; and I must state that it
is the general opinion, that never was the power of the
' family compact ' so extensive or so absolute as it has
been from the first meeting of the existing Parliament
down to the present time.

Real result It may, indeed, be fairly said, that the real result of

Head's ^r ^ Head's policy was to establish that very administra-

policy. tive influence of the leaders of a majority in the Legislature

which he had so obstinately disputed, ^he Executive

Councillors of his nomination, who seem to have taken

office almost on the express condition of being mere

ciphers, are not, in fact, then, the real government of the

Province. It is said that the new officers of Government

whom Sir F. Head appointed from without the pale of

official eligibility, feel more apprehension of the present

1 This statement as to Mr. Hepburn was criticized as follows in
the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Assembly
(pp. 24-5); the side-note to the passage being 'His lordship's
inaccuracy in the case of Mr. Hepburne : ' A second inaccuracy
occurs in that part of the High Commissioner's Report which relates
to the proceedings of the new House of Assembly, in the case of
Mr. Hepburne. His lordship says that, in consequence of these pro-
ceedings, Sir F. Head succumbed to the Assembly, and persuaded
Mr. Hepburne to resign his office, and to take one of very inferior
emolument; and that this was done to avoid collision with the
Assembly, who are represented as having been influenced by exceed-
ingly discreditable, if not base, motives in their proceedings against
Mr. Hepburne. The truth of this case is simply this, that Mr. Hepburne
did not resign his office for the reason mentioned, but retained it until
within a few months of Sir Francis Head's departure from the country,
and then voluntarily relinquished it for appointments far more desir-
able than the one he gave up.'

Mr. William Hepburn was acting trustee for the Six Nation Indians.

On a petition by a man named W. J. Kerr, his conduct was inquired

. into by a committee of the House of Assembly in 1836-7, and he was

• ' admonished ' by the Speaker. He seems to have been subsequently

nominated as Clerk of Committees to the House.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 161

House than, so far as can be judged, was ever felt by their
predecessors with regard to the most violent of the
reforming Houses of Assembly. Their apprehension,
however, is not confined to the present House ; they feel
that, under no conceivable contingency, can they expect
an Assembly disposed to support them ; and they accord-
ingly appear to desire such a change in the colonial system
as might make them dependent upon the Imperial Govern-
ment alone, and secure them against all interference from
the Legislature of the Province, whatever party should
obtain a preponderance in the Assembly.

While the nominal Government thus possesses no real
power, the Legislature, by whose leaders the substantial notposseas
power is enjoyed, by no means possesses so much ofsufficient
the confidence of the people, as a Legislature ought to confidence,
command, even from those who differ from it on the
questions of the day. I say this without meaning to cast
any imputation on the Members of the House of Assembly,
because, in fact, the circumstances under which they were
elected, were such as to render them peculiarly objects
of suspicion and reproach to a large number of their
countrymen. They were accused of having violated
their pledges at the election. It is said that many of
them came forward, and were elected, as being really
reformers, though opposed to any such claims to colonial
independence as might involve a separation from the
mother country. There seems to be no doubt that in
several places, where the Tories succeeded, the electors
were merely desirous of returning members who would
not hazard any contest with England, by the assertion
of claims which, from the proclamation of the Lieutenant -
Governor, they believed to be practically needless ; and
who should support Sir F. Head in those economical
reforms which the country desired, far more than political
changes— reforms, for the sake of which alone political
changes had been sought. In a number of other instances,
too, the elections were carried by the unscrupulous
exercise of the influence of the Government, and by

1352-2 M

162 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

a display of violence on the part of the Tories, who were
emboldened by the countenance afforded to them by the
authorities. It was stated, but I believe without any
sufficient foundation, that the Government made grants
of land to persons who had no title to them, in order to
secure their votes. This report originated in the fact,
that patents for persons who were entitled to grants, but
had not taken them out, were sent down to the polling
places, to be given to the individuals entitled to them, if
they were disposed to vote for the Government candidate.
The taking such measures, in order to secure their fair
right of voting to the electors in a particular interest,
must be considered rather as an act of official favouritism,
than as an electoral fraud. But we cannot wonder that
the defeated party put the very worst construction on
acts which gave some ground for it ; and they conceived,
in consequence, a strong resentment against the means
by which they believed that the representative of the
Crown had carried the elections, his interference in which
in any way was stigmatized by them as a gross violation
of constitutional privilege and propriety.
Exaspera- It cannot be matter of surprise, that such facts and

tion of the , . . , , . ,, ,.

people. such impressions produced in the country an exasperation
and a despair of good Government, which extended far
beyond those who had actually been defeated at the poll.
For there was nothing in the use which the leaders of the
Assembly have made of their power, to soften the discon-
tent excited by their alleged mode of obtaining it. Many
even of those who had supported the successful candi-
dates, were disappointed in every expectation which they
had formed of the policy to be pursued by their new
representatives. No economical reforms were introduced.
The Assembly, instead of supporting the Governor, com-
pelled his obedience to itself, and produced no change
in the administration of affairs, except that of reinstating
the ' family compact ' in power. On some topics, on
which the feelings of the people were very deeply engaged,
as, for instance, the clergy reserves, the Assembly is

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 16.1

accused of having shown a disposition to act in direct
defiance of the known sentiments of a vast majority of
its constituents. The dissatisfaction arising from these
causes, was carried to its height, by an Act, that appeared
in defiance of all constitutional right, to prolong the
power of a majority which, it was supposed, counted on
not being able to retain its existence after another appeal
to the people. This was the passing an Act preventing
the dissolution of the existing, as well as any future
Assembly, on the demise of the Crown.1 The Act was
passed in expectation of the approaching decease of his
late Majesty ; and it has, in fact, prolonged the existence
of the present Assembly from the period of a single year
to one of four. It is said that this step is justified by the
example of the other North American Colonies. But it
is certain that it nevertheless caused very great dissatis-
faction, and was regarded as an unbecoming usurpation
of power.

It was the prevalence of the general dissatisfaction thus Proximate
caused, that emboldened the parties who instigated the ^J in_
insurrection to an attempt, which may be characterized sun-ection.
as having been as foolishly contrived and as ill-conducted,
as it was wicked anftreasonable. This outbreak, which
common prudence and good management would have
prevented from coming to a head, was promptly quelled
by the alacrity with which the population, and especially

1 This Act (cap. xvii, 7 Will. IV) was entitled ' An Act to prevent
the Dissolution of the Parliament of this Province in the event of
a Demise of the Crown '. It was dated March 4, 1837, the day on
which the Legislature was prorogued. The Legislature met again on the
following June 19, and on June 20 King William IV died.

The Imperial Parliament originally was dissolved ipso facto on tl
death of the sovereign whom the Houses had been summoned to advise.
By the Act 7 & 8 Will. Ill, cap. 15, it was provided that Parliament
should last for six months after the demise of the Crown, unless sooner
dissolved by the new sovereign. The Act 37 Geo. Ill, cap. 127, sections
3 and 4, provides for the case where there is a demise of the Crow
after a dissolution, and before the date fixed for a new Parliament.
The old Parliament meets and sits for six months, unless sooner dis
solved. An Act of 1867 (30 & 31 Vic., cap. 102, section 51) now pro-
vides that the duration of Parliament shall not be affected by a demis
of the Crown, but the Act of 1797 (37 Geo. Ill) still provides for the
case when a demise takes place after dissolution.

M2

164 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

the British portion of it, rallied round the Government.
The proximity of the American frontier, the nature of the
border country, and the wild and daring character,
together with the periodical want of employment of its
population, have unfortunately enabled a few desperate
exiles to continue the troubles of their country, by means
of the predatory gangs which have from time to time
invaded and robbed, under the pretext of revolutionizing
the Province. But the general loyalty of the population
has been evinced by the little disposition that has been
exhibited by any portion of it to accept of the proffered
aid of the refugees and foreign invaders, and by the
unanimity with which all have turned out to defend their
country.

Macken- It has not, indeed, been exactly ascertained what
sonableea proportion of the inhabitants of Upper Canada were
enterprize. prepared to join Mackenzie1 in his treasonable enterprize,
or were so disposed that we may suppose they would have
arrayed themselves on his side, had he obtained any
momentary success, as indeed was for some days within his
grasp. Even if I were convinced that a large proportion
of the population would, under any circumstances, have
lent themselves to his projects, I should be inclined to
attribute such a disposition merely to the irritation
produced by those temporary causes of dissatisfaction
with the government of the Province which I have
specified, and not to any settled design on the part of any
great number, either to subvert existing institutions, or
to change their present connexion with Great Britain for
a junction with the United States. I am inclined to view
the insurrectionary movements which did take place as
indicative of no deep-rooted disaffection, and to believe

1 William Lyon Mackenzie was born at Dundee in 1795. He emi-
grated to Canada in 1820. He established the Colonial Advocate in
1824, and was first elected to the Assembly of Upper Canada in 1828.
In 1834 he was elected as the first mayor of Toronto. After the rising
in 1837 he escaped to the United States, and, trying to make the States
a basis for war against Canada, was put into prison for a time in that
country. He was amnestied in 1849, and returned to Canada, where
he -went again into politics for some time, and died in 1861.

165

that almost the entire body of the reformers of this Pro-
vince sought only by constitutional means to obtain those
objects for which they had so long peaceably struggled
before the unhappy troubles occasioned by the violence
of a few unprincipled adventurers and heated enthusiasts.

It cannot, however, be doubted, that the events of the Difficulties
past year have greatly increased the difficulty of settling Hj
the disorders of Upper Canada. A degree of discontent,
approaching, if not amounting, to disaffection, has gained events,
considerable ground. The causes of dissatisfaction con-
tinue to act on the minds of the reformers ; and their
hope of redress, under the present order of things, has
been seriously diminished. TEe exasperation caused by
the conflict itself, the suspicions and terrors of that trying
period, and the use made by the triumphant party of the
power thrown into their hands, have heightened the
passions which existed before. It certainly appeared too
much as if the rebellion had been purposely invited by the
Government, and the unfortunate men who took part in
it deliberately drawn into a trap by those who subse-
quently inflicted so severe a punishment on them for their
error. It seemed, too, as if the dominant party made use
of the occasion afforded it by the real guilt of a few
desperate and imprudent men, in order to persecute or
disable the whole body of their political opponents.
A great number of perfectly innocent individuals were
thrown into prison, and suffered in person, property and
character. The whole body of reformers were subjected
to suspicion, and to harassing proceedings, instituted by
magistrates, whose political leanings were notoriously
adverse to them. Severe laws were passed, luicler colour
of which, individuals very generally esteemed wero
punished without any form of trial.

The two persons * who suffered the extreme penalty of

1 The two persons were Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews. Lount
had been bom in the United States, and from 1834 to 1836 had been
a member of the Assembly of Upper Canada; he was a prominent
colleague of Mackenzie. Matthews was a farmer of Upper Canada,
They both took an active part in the armed rising of 1837. They were

166 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Irritation the law unfortunately engaged a great share of the public
excited, sympathy ; their pardon had been solicited in petitions
signed, it is generally asserted, by no less than 30,000 of
their countrymen. The rest of the prisoners were detained
in confinement a considerable time. A large number of
the subordinate actors in the insurrection were severely
punished, and public anxiety was raised to the highest
pitch by the uncertainty respecting the fate of the others,
who were from time to time partially released. It was
not until the month of October last that the whole of the
prisoners were disposed of, and a partial amnesty pro-
claimed, which enabled the large numbers who had fled
the country, and so long, and at such imminent hazard,
hung on its frontier, to return in security to their homes.
I make no mention of the reasons which, in the opinion
of the local government, rendered these different steps
advisable, because my object is not to discuss the propriety
of its conduct, but to point out the effect which it neces-
sarily had in augmenting irritation. _i

Feelings The whole party of the reformers, a party which I am

reform inclined to estimate as very considerable, and which

party- has commanded large majorities in different Houses of

Assembly, has certainly felt itself assailed by the policy

pursued. It sees the whole powers of Government

wielded by its enemies, and imagines that it can perceive

also a determination to use these powers inflexibly against

all the objects which it most values. The wounded

private feelings of individuals, and the defeated public

policy of a party, combine to spread a wide and serious

hung in April 1838. Sir George Arthur's Report upon these cases, with
the minutes of the Executive Council, will be found in the House of
Commons Paper, No. 524, of June 21, 1838. The Lieutenant-Governor
(Sir George Arthur), the Chief Justice, the Attorney- General, and the
members of the Executive Council all concurred in thinking that the
sentence of death should be carried out. Lord Durham's statement
that a petition for their reprieve had been, it was asserted, signed by
30,000 of their countrymen was contradicted by the Lieutenant-
Governor, the Legislative Council, and the Assembly (see the Parlia-
mentary Paper, No. 289 of June, 1839, pp. 28, 32-4, and Canadian
Constitutional Development, Egerton and Grant, 1907, pp. 187-8). The
actual number of those who petitioned was 4,574.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 167

irritation ; but I do not believe that this has yet proceeded
so far as to induce at all a general disposition to look to
violent measures for redress. The reformers have been
gradually recovering their hopes of regaining their ascen-
dancy by constitutional means ; the sudden pre-eminence
which the question of the clergy reserves and rectories has
again assumed during the last summer, appears to have
increased their influence and confidence ; and I have no
reason to believe that any thing can make them generally
and decidedly desirous of separation, except some such
act of the Imperial Government as shall deprive them of
all hopes of obtaining real administrative power, even in
the event of their again obtaining a majority in the
Assembly. With such a hope before them, I believe that
they will remain in tranquil expectation of the result of
the general election which cannot be delayed beyond the
summer of 1840.

To describe the character and objects of the other Difficulty
parties in this Province would not be very easy ; and sifyin'g
their variety and complication is so great, that it would be parties,
of no great advantage were I to explain the various shades
of opinion that mark each. In a very laboured essay,1
which was published in Toronto during my stay in Canada,
there was an attempt to classify the various parties in the
Province under six different heads. Some of these were
classified according to strictly political opinions, some
according to religion, and some according to birthplace ;
and each party, it was obvious, contained in its ranks
a great many who would, according to the designations
used, have as naturally belonged to some other. But it
is obvious, from all accounts of the different parties, that
the nominal Government, that is, the majority of the
Executive Council, enjoy the confidence of no considerable
party, and that the party called the ' family compact ',
which possesses the majority in both branches of the
Legislature, is, in fact, supported at present by no very
large number of persons of any party. None are more
1 I have not been able to trace the essay referred to.— ED.

168 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

hostile to them than the greater part of that large and
spirited British-born population, to whose steadfast
exertions the preservation of the Colony during the last
winter is mainly attributable, and who see with indignation
that a monopoly of power and profit is still retained by
a small body of men, which seems bent on excluding from
any participation in it the British emigrants. Zealously
co-operating with the dominant party in resisting treason
and foreign invasion, this portion of the population,
nevertheless, entertains a general distrust and dislike of
them ; and though many of the most prominent of the
British emigrants have always acted and still invariably
act in opposition to the reformers, and dissent from their
views of responsible government, I am very much inclined
to think that they, and certainly the great mass of their
countrymen, really desire such a responsibility of the
government, as would break up the present monopoly of
office and influence.
Peculiar Besides those causes of complaint which are common

of Bntisnh8 co the whole of the Colony> the British settlers have many

uettlers. peculiar to themselves. The emigrants who have settled

in the country within the last ten years, are supposed to

comprise half the population. They complain that while

the Canadians are desirous of having British capital and

labour brought into the Colony, by means of which, their

fields may be cultivated, and the value of their unsettled

/possessions increased, they refuse to make the Colony

/ really attractive to British^skill and British capitalists.

\ They say that an Englishman emigrating to Upper Canada,

is practically as much an alien in that British Colony as he

would be if he were to emigrate to the United States. He

may equally purchase and hold lands, or invest his capital

in trade in one country as in the other, and he may in

either exercise any mechanical avocation, and perform any

species of manual labour. This, however, is the extent

of his privileges ; his English qualifications avail him

little or nothing. He cannot, if a surgeon, licensed to act

in England, practise without the license of a Board of

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 169

Examiners in the Province. If an attorney, he has to
submit to an apprenticeship of five years before he is
allowed to practise. If a barrister, he is excluded from
the profitable part of his profession, and though allowed
to practise at the bar, the permission thus accorded to
him is practically of no use in a country where, as nine
attornies out of ten are barristers also, there can be no
business for a mere barrister. Thus, a person who has
been admitted to the English bar, is compelled to serve
an apprenticeship of three years to a Provincial lawyer.1

1 On page 171 below Lord Durham says with regard to the law in
question : ' The law excluding English lawyers from practice is of
recent origin,' and presumably he is referring to an Upper Canada Act
of 1837 (7 Will. IV, cap. 15), entitled ' An act to amend the law for the
admission of barristers and attorneys, &c.'

With regard to attorneys, this Act admitted duly qualified attorneys
from the United Kingdom to practise in the province after three years'
articled service to a practising attorney in the province, or, if a graduate
of a university, after two years. Lord Durham therefore seems to be
wrong in specifying five years.

With regard to barristers, it provided that any one whose name had
stood on the books of the Law Society of Upper Canada for three years
might be called and admitted to practise as a barrister. Lord Durham
implies that an English barrister was allowed to practise at the Bar of
the province, though he could not act as an attorney. This, however,
does not seem to have been correct. An Upper Canada Act of 1797 pro-
vided that none but members of the Law Society of the province could
practise, but an English barrister was allowed to join the society at once,
whereas ordinary persons had to be entered as students and stand on
the books of the society for five years ; but an Act of 1822 made
reciprocity of recognition of qualifications necessary, and this appears
to have been tantamount to refusing to recognize the English qualifica-
tion. It does not therefore appear that the Act of 1837 did more than
substitute three years for five years as the qualifying period for member-
ship of the Law Society.

At present in Ontario a British barrister would only be admitted if
belonging to an Inn of Court extending reciprocal privileges to Ontario
barristers.

The comment of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council
Upper Canada upon this passage in their Report of May 11, 1839, was
as follows : ' The High Commissioner next endeavours to show, that
all persons of education, and more especially members of the learned
professions, ought rather to settle in the United States than in Cunada,
a surgeon, for instance, because he must show that he is duly qualified,
before he can be permitted to practise within this province ; an attorney,
because he is not permitted to practise therein as a barrister; a
a barrister, because he is not allowed to act as an attorney.

' Your Committee are of opinion that, in all these regulations, tl
legislature has shown a proper and praiseworthy desire to preven
ignorant pretenders to medical and legal knowledge, disturbing t

170 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Obstacles By an Act passed last Session, difficulties are thrown in
of settierJ ^he wav °^ *ne employment of capital in banking, which
have a tendency to preserve the monopoly possessed
by the chartered banks of the Colony, in which the
Canadian party are supreme, and the influence of which
is said to be employed directly as an instrument for
upholding the political supremacy of the party.1 Under
the system, also, of selling land pursued by the Govern-
ment, an individual does not acquire a patent for his land
until he has paid the whole of the purchase-money,
a period of from four to ten years, according as his purchase
is a Crown or clergy lot ; and until the patent issues, he
has no right to vote. In some of the new states of America,
on the contrary, especially in Illinois,2 an individual may
practise as a surgeon or lawyer almost immediately on his
arrival in the country, and he has every right of citizenship
after a residence of six months in the state. An English-
man is, therefore, in effect less an alien in a foreign country
than in one which forms a part of the British Empire.
Such are the superior advantages of the United States at
present, that nothing but the feeling, that in the one
country he is among a more kindred people, under the
same laws, and in a society whose habits and sentiments
are similar to those to which he has been accustomed, can
induce an Englishman to settle in Canada, in preference
to the States ; and if, in the former, he is deprived of rights

animal economy or social condition of Her Majesty's subjects.' (See
Canadian Constitutional Development, Egerton and Grant, p. 175.)

1 This must be a reference to the Upper Canada Act of 1838 (1 Vic.,
cap. 22), entitled ' An act to repeal and amend part of an act passed
in the last session, entitled " An act to authorize the Chartered Banks
in this province to suspend the redemption of their notes in specie
under certain regulations for a limited time and for other purposes
therein mentioned" '.

This Act authorized any chartered bank in the province which sus-
pended specie payment under the authority of the amended Act, to
have in circulation paper up to the amount of twice its paid up capital.
This provision gave so much advantage to the existing chartered banks
that it must have discouraged the investment of capital in new banks.

* Between 1816 and 1820 there was a great stream of emigration to
the West in the United States, and in 1818 Illinois was admitted as
a State into the Union, Indiana having been admitted two years
previously.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 171

which he obtains in the latter, though a foreigner, it is not
to be wondered at that he should, in many cases, give the
preference to the land in which he is treated most as
a citizen. It is very possible that there are but few cases
in which the departure of an Englishman from Upper
Canada to the States can be traced directly to any of these
circumstances in particular ; yet the state of society and
of feeling which they have engendered, has been among
the main causes of the great extent of re-emigration to
the new states of the Union. It operates, too, still more
to deter emigration from England to the Provinces, and
thus both to retard the advance of the Colony, and to'"
deprive the mother country of one of the principal advan-
tages on account of which the existence of Colonies is
desirable — the field which they afford for the employ-
ment of her surplus population and wealth. The native
Canadians, however, to whatever political party they may
JbelongT appear to bft ^ammous in the wish to preserve
1 hese exclusive privileges. The course of legislation, since
the tide of emigration set most strongly to the country,
and while under its influence the value of all species of
property was rising, and the resources of the Province
were rapidly, and (for the old inhabitants) profitably
developed, has been to draw a yet more marked line
between the two classes, instead of obliterating the former
distinctions. The law excluding English lawyers from
practice is of recent origin. The Speaker of the reforming
House of Assembly, Mr. Bidwell,1 was among the strongest
opponents of any alteration of that law which might render
it less rigidly exclusive, and, on more than one occasion,

1 Marshall Spring Bidwell, son of Barnabas Bidwell, was born in
Massachusetts in 1799. He came with his father to Upper Canada i;
or about 1810. He practised as a barrister in Upper Canada, ai
became a member of the Assembly in 1825. He was one of the leaders
of the Reform party, and was Speaker of the Assembly in 1829
again in 1835. His name was connected with Mackenzie s rising i:
1835, though he took no active part in it, and disclaimed all compile
with the movement. After the collapse of the rebellion, in Decembe
1837, at Sir Francis Bond Head's instance, he left Upper Canadi
the United States, and never came back to live in Canada. J
in New York, and died in 1872 (see Kingsford, vol. x).

172 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

gave his casting vote against a Bill having for its object
the admission of an English lawyer to practise in the
Province without serving a previous apprenticeship.
This point is of more importance in a Colony than it would
at first sight appear to any one accustomed only to such
a state of society as exists in England. JThe members
of the legal profession are in effect the leaders of the people,
and the class from which, in a larger proportion than from
any other class, legislators are taken. It is, therefore,
not merely a monopoly of profit, but, to a considerable
extent, a monopoly of power, which the present body of
lawyers contrive, by means of this exclusion, to secure to
themselves. No man of mature age emigrating to a
Colony, could afford to lose five years of his life, in an
apprenticeship from which he could acquire neither
learning nor skill. The few professional men, therefore,
who have gone to Upper Canada have turned their
attention to other pursuits, retaining, however, a strong
feeling of discontent against the existing order of things.
And many who might have emigrated remain at home,
or seek some other Colony where their course is not
impeded by similar restrictions.

£ The coun- But as in Upper Canada, under a law 1 passed imme-

b<fmade diately after the last war with the States, American citizens

attractive are forbidden to hold land, it is of the more consequence

grants. that the country should be made as attractive as possible

to the emigrating middle classes of Great Britain, the only

class from which an accession of capital, to be invested in

the purchase or improvement of lands, can be hoped for.

1 As was pointed out in the Report of the Select Committee of the
House of Assembly (p. 25), no such law was passed. What happened
was that, after the war of 1812, the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper
Canada, under instructions from the Secretary of State, enforced
two Imperial Statutes of 1740 and 1790. The effect of the first was
to require foreigners to reside seven years in Upper Canada before
they could hold land, and of the second to require incoming American
citizens, who wished to settle, to take the oath of allegiance to the
British Crown. Charles Buller seems to have made the same mistake
as Lord Durham, for he writes of ' the Alien law, which was passed
shortly after the last war with the United States ' (see Appendix B,
vol. Hi, p. 106).

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 173

The policy of the law just referred to, may well be doubted,
whether the interests of the Colony or of the mother
country are considered, since the wealth and activity, and
consequent commerce of the Province, would have been
greatly augmented, had its natural advantages of soil and
position been allowed to operate in attracting those who
were most aware of their existence, and eminently fitted
to aid in their development ; and there is great reason
to believe that the uncertainty of the titles which many
Americans possess to the land on which they have squatted
since the passing of this law, is the main cause of much of
the disloyalty, or rather very lukewarm loyalty, evinced
by that population in the western district. But when
this exclusion had been determined upon, it would at
least have been wise to have removed every thing that
might have seemed like an obstacle in the way of those G
for whom the land was to be kept open, instead of closing
the principal avenues to wealth or distinction against them
in a spirit of petty provincial jealousy. N

The great practical question, however, on which these Question
various parties have for a long time been at issue, and reserves.
which has within a very few months again become the
prominent matter in debate, is that of the clergy reserves.1
The prompt and satisfactory decision of this question is
essential to the pacification of Canada ; and as it was one
of the most important questions referred to me for investi-
gation, it is necessary that I should state it fully, and not
shrink from making known the light in which it has
presented itself to my mind. The disputes on this subject
are now of long standing. By the Constitutional Act
a certain portion of the land in every township was set
apart for the maintenance of a ' Protestant ' clergy.
In that portion of this Report which treats of the manage-
ment of the waste lands, the economical mischiefs which
have resulted from this appropriation of territory, are

1 As to the Clergy Reserves, see above, pp. 139-40, below, pp. 220-1,
&c., and vol. iii, pp. 1-6, 45-50, 56-7, 102-4, &c. See also Introduction,
pp. 162-5 and 294-6. The Parliamentary Papers and Reports bearing
on the subject are legion.

174 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

fully detailed ; and the present disputes relate solely to
the application, and not to the mode of raising, the funds,
which are now derived from the sale of the clergy reserves.
Under the term ' Protestant Clergy ', the clergy of tlie
N. Church of England have always claimed the sole enjoyment
of these funds. The members of the Church of Scotland
have claimed to be put entirely on a level with the Church
of England, and have demanded that these funds should
be equally divided between both. The various denomina-
tions of Protestant Dissenters have asserted that the
term includes them, and that out of these funds an equal
provision should be made for all Christians who do not
belong to the Church of Rome. But a great body of all
Protestant denominations, and the numerous Catholics
who inhabit the Province,1 have maintained that any
such favour towards any one, or even all of the Protestant
sects, would be most unadvisable, and have either
demanded the equal application of those funds to the
purposes of all religious creeds whatsoever, or have urged
the propriety of leaving each body of religionists to
maintain its own establishment, to repeal or disregard
the law, and to apply the clergy funds to the general
purposes of the Government, or to the support of a general
system of education.

Proceed- The supporters of these different schemes having long

Provincial contended in this Province, and greatly inconvenienced

Legisla- the Imperial Government, by constant references to its

decision, the Secretary of State for the Colonies proposed

to leave the determination of the matter to the provincial

Legislatures, pledging the Imperial Government to do its

utmost to get a Parliamentary sanction to whatever

course they might adopt. Two Bills, in consequence,

passed the last House of Assembly, in which the reformers

had the ascendancy, applying these funds to the purposes

1 As to the views of the Roman Catholics in the Lower Province,
see above, p. 140, note 1. The Roman Catholics in Upper Canada con-
sisted mainly of Irish, Scotch Highlanders, notably the Glengarrys, and
French Canadians over against Detroit. Reference should be made to
Bishop McDonnell's letter in Appendix A (vol. iii, pp. 18-21).

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 175

of education ; and both these Bills were rejected by the O
Legislative Council.

During all this time, however, though much irritation Effect
had been caused by the exclusive claims of the Church °f.^
of England, and the favour shown by the Government establish-
to one, and that a small religious community, the clergy
of that church, though an endowed, were not a dominant,
priesthood. They had a far larger share of the public
money than the clergy of any other denomination ; but
they had no exclusive privileges, and no authority, save
such as might spring from their efficient discharge of their
sacred duties, or from the energy, ability or influence of
members of their body. But the last public act of
Sir John Colborne, before quitting the Government of
the Province in 1835,1 which was the establishment of the
fifty-seven Rectories,2 has completely changed the aspect
of the question. It is understood that every rector
possesses all the spiritual and other privileges enjoyed by
an English rector ; and that though he may have no right

1 Colborne was succeeded by Sir Francis Bond Head in January 1836.
Sir John Colborne was born in 1778, and entered the army in 1794.
His war experience began in 1799, and he was constantly on active
service from that date until Waterloo. He served under Sir John
Moore, was at Corunna, and subsequently served with great distinction
throughout the Peninsular War. He received command of the 52nd
regiment after the battle of Albuera, and commanded it in the famous
charge at Waterloo. He was Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada from
1828 to 1836 ; then was Commander-in-chief of the forces in North
America; and, after Lord Durham's resignation in 1838, acted as
Governor-General. He was gazetted as Governor- General in December
1838, and left Canada, after Poulett Thomson's arrival to take up that
post, in October 1839. In December 1839 he was created Lord Seaton.
In the forties he was High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. He
retired from the army in 1860 as Field Marshal, and died in 1863.
Colborne's presence in Canada in 1837-9 probably contributed more
than any other cause to the fact that the armed risings were not more
serious.

2 Sir John Colborne did not relinquish the government of Upper
Canada until Sir Francis Bond Head arrived in the fourth week of
January 1836, and he signed the documents constituting the rectories
in that month, just before Head's arrival ; he signed forty-four out of
fifty- nine, the number originally named, the remainder not having been
completed when the new Lieutenant-Governor arrived. Colborne's
action was taken in accordance with instructions given by Lord Goderich
in 1832, and its legality, though challenged, was upheld (see Kingsford,
vol. x, pp. 335-7).

176 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

to levy tithes (for even this has been made a question),
he is in all other respects in precisely the same position
as a clergyman of the Established Church in England.
This is regarded by all other teachers of religion in the
country as having at once degraded them to a position
of legal inferiority to the clergy of the Church of England ;
and it has been resented most warmly. In the opinion
of many persons, this was the chief pre-disposing cause
of the recent insurrection, and it is an abiding and
unabated cause of discontent. Nor is this to be wondered
at. The Church of England in Upper Canada, by number-
ing in its ranks all those who belong to no other sect,
represents itself as being more numerous than any single
denomination of Christians in the country. Even admit-
ting, however, the justice of the principle upon which this
enumeration proceeds, and giving that Church credit for
all that i& thus claims, its number could not amount to
one thir^, probably not a fourth, of the population.
It is not, therefore, to be expected that the other sects,
three at least of whom, the Methodists, the Presbyterians
and the Catholics, claim to be individually more numerous
than the Church of England, should acquiesce quietly in
the supremacy thus given to it.1 And it is equally natural
that the English Dissenters and Irish Catholics, remember-
ing the position which they have occupied at home, and
the long and painful struggle through which alone they
have obtained the imperfect equality they now possess,
should refuse to acquiesce for themselves in the creation
of a similar establishment in their new country, and thus
to bequeath to their children a strife as arduous and
embittered as that from which they have so recently and
imperfectly escaped.

But for this act, it would have been possible, though
highly impolitic, to have allowed the clergy reserves to

1 In the Province of Ontario, at the 1901 census, out of a population
of 2,182,947, there were 666,388 Methodists, 477,386 Presbyterians,
390,304 Roman Catholics, 367,937 Anglicans, 116,281 Baptists, the
denominations being numerically in the same order in which they are
here given by Lord Durham.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 177

remain upon their former undetermined and unsatisfactory
footing. But the question as to the application of this
property, must now be settled, if it is intended that the
Province is to be free from violent and perilous agitation.
Indeed, the whole controversy, which had been in a great
measure suspended by the insurrection, was, in the course
of the last summer, revived with more heat than ever by
the most inopportune arrival in the Colony of opinions
given by the English Law Officers of the Crown in favour
of the legality of the establishment of the rectories. Since
that period, the question has again absorbed public atten-
tion ; and it is quite clear that it is upon this practical
point that issue must sooner or later be joined on all
the constitutional questions to which I have previously
adverted. I am well aware that there are not wanting
some who represent the agitation of this question as merely
the result of its present unsettled character, and who
assert, that if the claims of the English Church to the
exclusive enjoyment of this property were established by
the Imperial Parliament, all parties, however loud their
present pretensions, or however vehement their first
complaints, would peacefully acquiesce in an arrangement
which would then be inevitable. This might be the case
if the establishment of some dominant church were
inevitable. But it cannot be necessary to point out that,
in the immediate vicinity of the United States, and with
their example before the people of Canada, no injustice,
real or fancied, occasioned and supported by a British
rule, would be regarded in this light. The result of any
determination on the part of the British Government or
Legislature to give one sect a predominance and superi-
ority, would be, it might be feared, not to secure the
favoured sect, but to endanger the loss of the Colony,
and, in vindicating the exclusive pretensions of the
English Church, to hazard one of the fairest possessions
of the British Crown.

I am bound, indeed, to state, that there is a degree of
feeling, and an unanimity of opinion, in the question

1352-2 N

178

State of of ecclesiastical establishments over the northern part
advene of the continent of America, which it will be prudent
to the not to overlook in the settlement of this question. The
principle SUperjorjtv of w^at is called ' the voluntary principle ' is
dominant a question on which I may almost say that there is no
difference of opinion in the United States ; and it cannot
be denied, that on this, as on other points, the tone
of thought prevalent in the Union has exerted a very
considerable influence over the neighbouring Provinces.
Similar circumstances, too, have had the effect of accus-
toming the people of both countries to regard this question
in a very different light from that in which it appears in
the Old World ; and the nature of the question is indeed
entirely different in old and new countries. The apparent
right which time and custom give to the maintenance
of an ancient and respected institution cannot exist in
a recently settled country, in which every thing is new ; l
and the establishment of a dominant Church there is
a creation of exclusive privileges in favour of one out of
many religious denominations, and that composing a small
minority, at the expense not merely of the majority, but
of many as large minorities. The Church, too, for which
alone it is proposed that the State should provide, is the
Church which, being that of the wealthy, can best provide
for itself, and has the fewest poor to supply with gratuitous
religious instruction. Another consideration, which dis-
tinguishes the grounds on which such a question must
be decided in old and new countries, is, that the state of
society in the latter is not susceptible of such an organiza-
tion as is necessary for the efficiency of any Church
Establishment of which I know, more especially of one
so constituted as the Established Church of England ; for
the essence of the Establishment is its parochial clergy.
The services of a parochial clergy are almost inapplicable
to a colony, where a constantly varying population is
widely scattered over the country. Any clergy there
must be rather missionary than parochial.
1 See pp. 325-6.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 179

A still stronger objection to the creation of a Church Members
Establishment in this Colony is, that not merely are the j£nAtnhgli" h
members of the Church of England a small minority at likely to
present ; but, inasmuch as the majority of emigrants are
not members of the Church of England, the disproportion
is likely to increase, instead of disappearing, in the course
of time. The mass of British emigrants will be either
from the middle classes of Great Britain, or the poorer
classes of Ireland ; the latter almost exclusively Catholics,
and the former in a great proportion either Scotch Presby-
terians or English Dissenters.

It is most important that this question should be settled, Mode of
and so settled as to give satisfaction to the majority of
the people of the two Canadas, whom it equally concerns.
And I know of no mode of doing this but by repealing all
provisions in Imperial Acts that relate to the application
of the clergy reserves, and the funds arising from them,
leaving the disposal of the funds to the local legislature,
and acquiescing in whatever decision it may adopt. The
views which I have expressed on this subject sufficiently
mark my conviction, that, without the adoption of such
a course, the most mischievous practical cause of dissension
will not be removed.1

I feel it my duty also, in this as in the Lower Province, Policy
to call especial attention to the policy which has been, JjJ"ar
and which ought to be, pursued towards the large Catholic Catholics,
population of the Province. On this subject I have
received complaints of a general spirit of intolerance
and disfavour towards all persons of this creed, to which
I am obliged to give considerable credit, from the great
respectability and undoubted loyalty of those from
whom the complaints were received. Bishop M'Donnell,

1 Eventually, in 1853, an Imperial Act was passed 'to authorize
the Legislature of the province of Canada to make provision concern-
ing the Clergy Reserves in that province, and the proceeds thereof ,
and, under the authority conferred by that Act, the Canadian Parlia-
ment, in the following year, 1854, passed an Act by which the Clergy
Reserves were secularized. Thus Lord Durham's recommendation wa»
carried into effect (see Introduction, pp. 294-6).

N2

180 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

. the venerable Roman Catholic Bishop of Kingston,1 and
Mr. Manahan, M.P.P. for the county of Hastings, have
made representations in letters, which will be given in
the Appendix to this Report. The Catholics constitute
at least a fifth of the whole population of Upper Canada.
Their loyalty was most generally and unequivocally
exhibited at the late outbreak. Nevertheless, it is said
that they are wholly excluded from all share in the
government of the country and the patronage at its
disposal. ' In Upper Canada,' says Mr. Manahan, ' there
never was one Irish Roman Catholic an Executive or
Legislative Councillor ; nor has one been ever appointed
to any public situation of emolument and profit in the
Colony.'2

Com- The Irish Catholics complain very loudly and justly of

Oraife-0* *ke existence of Orangeism in this Colony. They are

ism. justly indignant that, in a Province which their loyalty

and bravery have materially contributed to save, their

feelings are outraged by the symbols and processions of

1 Alexander Macdonnell, the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Upper
Canada, was born in 1762, one of the Macdonnells of Glengarry, who
were Roman Catholic Highlanders ; he was brought up to the priest-
hood, and was instrumental in the formation of the Glengarry regiment,
to which he acted as chaplain, in or about 1794. When they were dis-
banded after the Peace of Amiens in 1802, he procured for them lands
in Canada and emigrated with them. They settled in Glengarry county
in Upper Canada, on the frontier of Lower Canada, and the Glengarry
regiment played a leading part in the war of 1812. Macdonnell
became Roman Catholic Bishop of Kingston in 1826, and died in 1840.
He was a man of conspicuous loyalty and patriotism, and one of the
most single-minded and noblest characters in Canadian history. Charles
Buller, in his Report on Public Lands (Appendix B, vol. iii, p. 57), speaks
of ' the Catholic bishop, Macdonnell, eminent for his loyalty '. A letter
from Bishop Macdonnell is given in Appendix A. As to the Glengarry
regiment and Bishop Macdonnell, see the editor's Canadian War of
1812, pp. 11-15. Special books have been written on the Macdonnells
in Canada.

2 Mr. Manahan's letter was included in Appendix A, but has not
been reprinted. The Select Committee of the House of Assembly
maintained ' that no portion of the inhabitants of the province are
more fully aware than the Catholics themselves, that no invidious policy
has ever been designed or acted upon towards them ', and that ' no
portion of the people of this province have been more ready to fulfil
the duties of faithful subjects, and none are more deserving of the
protection and patronage of the Crown ' (p. 25).

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 181

this association. It is somewhat difficult to understand
the nature and objects of the rather anomalous Orangeism
of Upper Canada. Its members profess to desire to
uphold the Protestant religion, but to be free from those
intolerant feelings towards their Catholic countrymen,
which are the distinctive marks of the Irish Orangemen.
They assert, that their main object, to which the support
of the English Church is subsidiary, is to maintain the
connexion with Great Britain. They have sworn, it is
said, many ignorant Catholics into their body ; and at
their public dinners, after drinking the ' pious, glorious
and immortal memory ', with all the usual formality of
abuse of the Catholics, they toast the health of the Catholic
Bishop, M'Donnell. It would seem that their great
purpose has been to introduce the machinery, rather than
the tenets of Orangeism ; and the leaders probably hope
to make use of this kind of permanent conspiracy and
illegal organization to gain political power for themselves.
In fact, the Catholics scarcely appear to view this institu-
tion with more jealousy than the reformers of the Province.
It is an Irish Tory institution, having not so much a
religious as a political bearing. The Irish Catholics who
have been initiated have entered it chiefly from its
supposed national character, and probably with as little
regard to the political as to the religious objects with
which it is connected. Still the organization of this body
enables its leaders to exert a powerful influence over the
populace ; and it is stated that, at the last general election,
the Tories succeeded in carrying more than one seat by
means of the violence of the organized mob thus placed
at their disposal. It is not, indeed, at the last election
only that the success of the Government candidate has
been attributed to the existence of this association. At
former elections, especially those for the county of Leeds,
it is asserted that the return of the Canadian Deputy
Grand Master, and of the then Attorney General, his
colleague, was procured by means of a violent and riotous
mob of Orangemen, who prevented the voters in the

182 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

opposition interest from coming up to the poll. In
consequence of this and other similar outrages, the
Assembly presented an address to Sir Francis Head,
begging ' that his Excellency would be pleased to inform
the House whether the Government of the Province
had taken, or determined to take, any steps to prevent
or discourage public processions of Orange societies, or
to discourage the formation and continuance of such
societies '. To this Address the Governor made the
following reply : — ' The Government of this Province has
neither taken, nor has it determined to take, any steps to
prevent or discourage the formation or continuance of
such societies.' It is to be presumed that this answer
proceeded from a disbelief of the truth of those charges
of outrage and riot which were made the foundation of
the address. But it can excite no surprise that the
existence of such an institution, offending one class by
its contemptuous hostility to their religion, and another
by its violent opposition to their politics, and which had
been sanctioned by the Governor, as was conceived, on
account of its political tendencies, should excite among
both classes a deep feeling of indignation, and add seriously
to the distrust with which the Government was regarded.1
Jmpedi- jn addition to the irritation engendered by the position

merits to . ft. T-ITI

industrial of parties, by the specific causes of dispute to which 1 have

progress. a(jverted, and by those features in the Government of the

Colony which deprive the people of all power to effect a

settlement of the questions by which the country is most

deeply agitated, or to redress abuses in the institutions,

1 Reference should be made to two little House of Commons Papers,
fathered apparently by Joseph Hume, one No. 571 of August 16,
1836, headed ' Orange Lodges Canada ', and the other, No. 352, of
June 1, 1837, headed ' Orange Lodges Upper Canada '. The first
contains a circular dispatch from Lord Glenelg to the colonies, dated
February 27, 1836, which encloses an address to the King from the
House of Commons, with a favourable reply, 'for the effectual dis-
couragement of Orange Lodges, and generally of all political societies
excluding persons of a different religious faith, using secret signs and
symbols, and acting by means of associated branches.' Bishop Mac-
donnell in his letter of June 22, 1838, which is included in Appendix A,
makes strong reference to the spread of Orangeism in Upper Canada.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 183

or in the administration of the Province, there are per-
manent causes of discontent, resulting from the existence
of deep-seated impediments in the way of its industrial
progress. The Province is without any of those means
by which the resources of a country are developed, and
the civilization of a people is advanced or upheld. The
general administration of justice, it is true, appears to be
much better in Upper than in Lower Canada. Courts of
Justice, at least, are brought into every man's neighbour-
hood by a system of circuits ; and there is still some
integrity in juries. But there are general complaints of
the union of political and judicial functions in the Chief
Justice ; * not because any suspicion attaches to that
Judge's discharge of his duties, but on account of the
party grounds upon which his subordinates are supposed
to be appointed, and the party bias attributed to them.
Complaints, too, similar to those which I have adverted
to in the Lower Province, are made against the system
by which the Sheriffs are appointed. It is stated, that
they are selected exclusively from the friends or depen-
dents of the ruling party ; that very insufficient securities
are taken from them ; and that the money arising from
executions and sales, which are represented as unhappily
very numerous in this Province, generally remains in
their hands for at least a year. For reasons also which
I have specified in my account of the Lower Province, the

1 The Chief Justice in question was Sir John Beverley Robinson,
who was born in 1791, the son of a United Empire Loyalist. He served
in the war of 1812, became Solicitor-General of Upper Canada in 1J
Attorney-General in 1818, and Chief Justice in 1829. In 1854 he was
created a baronet of the United Kingdom. In 1862 he ret.red from he
Chief Justiceship of Upper Canada, and was appomted President of the
Court of Error and Appeal ; he died in 1863. The Chief Justice of
Upper Canada, before the Union Act, was ex officw «*^* °fT«"
Executive Council and Speaker of the Legislative Council , but Sir John
Robinson resigned the Presidency of the Executive Council about 1832
and never actually sat in the Legislative Council after IK l(*9*y
Sir John Beverley Robinson, by his son, Major-General Robinson, 11
pp. 199-200). He was a great friend of Sir Francis Head and a leading
member of the so-called* < Family Compact', fe*g*
largely consisted in the high character and marked ability of
and his old tutor and lifelong friend, Bishop Straehan.

184 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

composition of the Magistracy appears to be a serious

cause of mischief and dissatisfaction.

Want of But, independently of these sources of complaint, are
meaasof ^ne impediments which I have mentioned. A very

communi-
cation, &c. considerable portion of the Province has neither roads,

post-offices, mills, schools, nor churches. The people may
raise enough for their own subsistence, and may even
have a rude and comfortless plenty, but they can seldom
acquire wealth ; nor can even wealthy land-owners
prevent their children from growing up ignorant and
boorish, and from occupying a far lower mental, moral
and social position than they themselves fill. Their
means of communication with each other, or the chief
towns of the Province, are limited and uncertain. With
the exception of the labouring class, most of the emigrants
who have arrived within the last ten years, are poorer
now than at the time of their arrival in the Province.
There is no adequate system of local assessment to improve
the means of communication ; and the funds occasionally
voted for this purpose are, under the present system,
disposed of by a House of Assembly which represents
principally the interests of the more settled districts, and
\\liich.it is alleged, lias been chiefly intent in making their
disposal a means of strengthening the influence of its
members in the constituencies which they represent.
These funds have consequently almost always been applied
in that part of the country where they were least needed ;
and they have been too frequently expended so as to
produce scarcely any perceptible advantages. Of the
lands which were originally appropriated for the support
of schools throughout the country, by far the most
valuable portion has been diverted to the endowment of
the University, from which those only derive any benefit
who reside in Toronto, or those who, having a large assured
income, are enabled to maintain their children in that
town at an expense which has been estimated at £50
per annum for each child.1 Even in the most thickly
1 In 1797 the Legislature of Upper Canada petitioned the King to

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 185

peopled districts there are but few schools, and those of
a very inferior character ; while the more remote settle-
ments are almost entirely without any.

Under such circumstances there is little stimulus to Contrast
industry or enterprise, and their effect is aggravated by uppeT"
the striking contrast presented by such of the .United Canada
States as border upon this_Prpvince, and where all is United°
_activity and progress. I shall hereafter, in connexion Statps-
with the disposal of the public lands, advert to circum-
stances affeqting not Upper Canada merely, but the whole
of our North American Colonies in an almost equal degree,
which will illustrate in detail the causes and results of
the more prominent of these evils. I have referred to the
topic in this place in order to notice the inevitable tendency
of these inconveniences to aggravate whatever discontent
may be produced by purely political causes, and to draw
attention to the fact, that /those who are most satisfied
with the present political state of the Province, and least
disposed to attribute economical injuries or social derange-
ment to the form or the working of the Government, feel
and admit that there must have been something wrong
to have caused so striking a difference in progress and
wealth between Upper Canada and the neighbouring
states of the Union. I may also observe, that these evils
affect chiefly that portion of the people which is composed
of British emigrants, and who have had no part in the
causes to which they are attributable. The native-born

the effect that a certain proportion of the Crown lands of the province
might be appropriated to the establishment of grammar schools in the
districts, and of a college or university. The petition was complied with
in the terms that free grammar schools should be established in the
districts where they were called for, and in due course of time ' other
seminaries of a larger and more comprehensive nature '. Under this
authority, in 1798 and 1799, about 550,000 acres were set aside for these
purposes. Of this total some 225,000 acres, or the equivalent, were
assigned to the endowment of King's College at Toronto, which received
a Royal Charter in 1827, mainly as a Church of England institution, but
was more or less secularized by a provincial Act of 1837, was opened in
1843, and in 1849 renamed the University of Toronto. (Reference
should be made to Sir George Arthur's dispatch of June 8, 1839, Parlia-
mentary Paper of 1840: Correspondence relative to the Affairs of
Canada, pt. iii, p. 50, &c.) See Introduction, pp. 245-7.

186

REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Prohibi-
tory
revenue
laws.

Canadians, as they generally inhabit the more settled
districts of the Province, are the owners of nearly all the
waste lands, and have almost exclusively had the applica-
tion of all public funds, might be expected to have escaped
from the evils alluded to, and even to have profited by
the causes out of which they have sprung. The number
of those who have thus profited is, however, comparatively
small ; the majority of this class, in common with the
emigrant population, have suffered from the general
depression, and share in the discontent and restlessness
which this depression has produced.

The trade of the country is, however, a matter which
appears to demand a notice here, because so long as any
such marked and striking advantages in this respect are
enjoyed by Americans, as at present arise from causes
which Government has the power to remove, it is impos-
sible but that many will look forward with desire to
political changes. There are laws which regulate, or
rather prohibit, the importation of particular articles,
except from England, especially of tea, which were
framed originally to protect the privileges of monopolies
here ; but which have been continued in the Province
after the English monopoly has been removed. It is not
that these laws have any appreciable effect in raising the
price of the commodities in question : almost all used in
the Province is smuggled across the frontier, but their
operation is at once injurious to the fair dealer, who is
undersold by persons who have obtained their articles in
the cheaper market of the United States, and to the
Province which can neither regulate the traffic, nor make
it a source of revenue. It is probable, indeed, that the
present law has been allowed to continue through inad-
vertence ; but, if so, it is no very satisfactory evidence
of the care or information of the Imperial Government
that it knows or feels so little the oppressive influence of
the laws to which it subjects its dependencies.1

1 The ' prohibitory revenue laws ' were the Navigation Laws, which
were finally swept away in 1849 by 12 & 13 Vic., cap. 29. Reference

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 187

Another and more difficult topic connected with this New York
subject, is the wish of this Province that it should be jj"""^ *,"
allowed to make use of New York as a port of entry, entry.
At present the rate of duty upon all goods coming from
the United States, whatever may be their nature, or the
port in Europe from which they have been shipped, is
such as to compel all importers to receive the articles of
their trade through the Saint Lawrence, the navigation
of which river opens generally several weeks later than
the time at which goods may be obtained in all the parts
of Upper Canada bordering upon Lake Ontario, by way
of Oswego. The dealer, therefore, must submit to an
injurious delay in his business, or must obtain his goods
in the autumn, and have his capital lying dead for six
months. Either of these courses must lessen the amount
of traffic, by diminishing the quantity, or increasing the
price, of all commodities ; and the mischief is seriously
enhanced by the monopoly which the present system
places in the hands of what are called the ' forwarders '
on the Saint Lawrence and the Rideau Canal.1 If goods

should especially be made to two statutes of 1833, 3 & 4 Will. IV,
cap. 59, ' An act to regulate the trade of the British Possessions abroad,'
and 3 & 4 Will. IV, cap. 101 : ' An act to provide for the collection and
management of the duties on tea.' The East India Company had the
exclusive right of trading in tea up to April 22, 1834. In view of
the termination of their monopoly on that date, the latter of the above
two Acts was passed. The second section of the Act provided ' that it
shall be lawful to import any tea into any of the islands of Guernsey,
Jersey, Alderney, and Sark, or into the British possessions of America,
from the Cape of Good Hope and places eastward of the same to the
Straits of Magellan, or from the United Kingdom, and not from any
other place, in such and the like manner as if the same was set forth
in an act passed in the present Session of Parliament to regulate the
trade of the British possessions abroad '. Thus tea might be imported
into Canada direct from China, and therefore Lord Durham's state-
ment that it could not be imported except from England was not
strictly accurate ; but as there was no direct trade at this time between
the East and Canada, it could practically only be imported from
England, and might not pass through the United States. The case
illustrates rather powerfully the difference between the Canada of
to-day and the Canada of Lord Durham's time. At the beginning
of Queen Victoria's reign a Canada which should embrace the Pacific
coast and trade direct with China across the Pacific was not even
dreamed of.
1 As to the Canadian canals, see the Introduction, pp. 206-7. The

188

might be shipped from England to be landed at New York
in bond, and to be admitted into Upper Canada free of duty,
upon the production of a certificate from the officer of
customs at the English port from which they are shipped,
this inconvenience would be removed, and the people of
the Province would in reality benefit by their connexion
with England, in the superior cheapness of their articles,
without paying for it as highly as they do at present in
the limitation of their commerce.1

Spirit of I have already stated, in my account of Lower Canada,
ment°im ^e difficulties and disputes which are occasioned by the
peded by financial relations of the two Provinces.2 The state of
relations affairs, however, which causes these disputes is of far
with greater practical mischief to Upper Canada. That Pro-
Canada, vince some years ago conceived the very noble project
of removing or obviating all the natural impediments to
the navigation of the Saint Lawrence ; and the design
was to make these works on a scale so commensurate with
the capabilities of that broad and deep river, as to enable
sea-going vessels to navigate its whole course to the head
of Lake Huron. The design was, perhaps, too vast, at

Bideau Canal, rather over 126 miles long from Ottawa to Kingston,
with 47 locks, was constructed by the Imperial Government as a military
work, at a cost of £803,000, the Duke of Wellington giving it his sup-
port. The object was to secure water communication between Upper
and Lower Canada at a safe distance from the American frontier. The
work was carried out with marked ability by Colonel By, after whom
Bytown, now Ottawa, was called. By arrived in Canada in 1826, and
began the preliminary arrangements for the canal. The actual con-
struction began in 1827, and in May 1832 a steamboat went through
the canal from end to end. Very interesting correspondence as to the
commencement and proposed dimensions of the canal will be found
in Appendix D to the Report on the Canadian Archives for 1890. See
also Kingsford's History of Canada, vol. ix, pp. 221-2 and 493-4.

1 The following criticism on Lord Durham's suggestion to make New
York a port of entry is contained in the Report of the Select Committee
of the House of Assembly (p. 27) : ' It is most singular that his lord-
ship should, when drawing up his final report, have overlooked the
fact, that, if his scheme of importing goods free of duty by the way
of New York were adopted, our magnificent canals would be rendered
almost, if not entirely, useless, and the whole advantage arising from
the transportation of our imports would be transferred to the boats
and canals of the State of New York.'

* See above, pp. 142-3 and note, and see below, p. 308.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 189

least for the first effort of a State at that time compara-
tively so small and poor ; but the boldness with which
1 he people undertook it, and the immense sacrifices which
they made in order to achieve it, are gratifying indications
of a spirit which bids fair hereafter to render Upper Canada
as thriving a country as any State of the American Union.
The House of Assembly, with this object in view, took
a large portion of the shares of the Welland Canal,1 which
had been previously commenced by a few enterprising
individuals. It then commenced the great ship canal,
called the Cornwall Canal,2 with a view of enabling ships
of considerable draught to avoid the Long Sault Rapids ;
and tin's work was, at an immense outlay, brought very
far towards a completion. It is said that there was great
mismanagement, and perhaps no little jobbing, in the
application of the funds, and the execution of the work.3

1 The Welland Canal, 27 miles long, connecting Lakes Ontario and
Erie, and using the Welland or Chippawa River, is said to have been
begun in 1818 by private effort. A Welland Canal Company was
incorporated in 1824, and went to work in 1825, and the canal was
practically completed, apart from enlargements and repairs, in 1833.
Writing on June 8, 1839, Sir George Arthur said : ' The private stock
holders of the Welland Canal Company have expended on the work
£117,000, the British Government £73,000, and Lower Canada £25,000.
Besides these sums, £275,000 have been expended on the work, which
belong to the public debt of this province, making a total of £490,000.'
(Correspondence relating to the Affairs of Canada, part iii, 1840, p. 39.)
In 1841 the canal was bought up by the Government for £463,000.
Unlike the Rideau Canal, the Welland Canal has been of very great
political and commercial importance, as overcoming the break of com-
munication caused by the Falls of Niagara, and competing with the
Erie Canal. The Duke of Wellington was a shareholder in the Welland
Canal, and gave his shares to found the Wellington scholarships at
King's College— afterwards at Trinity College. (See the Life of Sir John
Beverley Robinson, pp. 352-5.)

2 The Cornwall Canal, at the Long Sault Rapids, was begun in 1834.
Financial difficulties and the rebellion delayed its completion. The first
steamer went through its locks in December 1842, and it was formally
opened for traffic in June 1843.

* This statement was much resented in Upper Canada. The follow-
ing passage occurs in the Report of the Select Committee of the House
of Assembly of Upper Canada (p. 27) : ' In referring to the great works
undertaken by this province, Lord Durham has truly ascribed the
inability of the province to complete them to the impediments arising
from the political condition of Lower Canada, and its unwillingness to
contribute its aid in works in which they are equally interested ; but
your committee regret that this statement should have been accom-

190 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

But the greatest error committed was the undertaking
the works in Upper, without ensuring their continuation
in Lower Canada. For the whole of the works in the
Upper Province, when completed, would be comparatively,
if not utterly, useless, without the execution of similar
works on that part of the St. Lawrence which lies between
the Province line and Montreal. But this co-operation
the Lower Canadian Assembly refused or neglected to
give ; and the works of the Cornwall Canal are now almost
suspended, from the apparent inutility of completing them.
Upper The necessary expense of these great undertakings was

deniedthe verv large i aiid the prodigality superadded thereto, has
means of increased it to such an extent, that this ^Province is
in^&cai burthened with a debt of more jhtun a. r^]])inn of pounds ;
works. the whole revenue, which is about £00,000, being hardly
adequate to pay the interest! The Province has already
been fortunately obliged to throw the whole support of
the few and imperfect local works which are carried on
in different parts of the Province on local assessments ;
but it is obvious that it will soon be obliged to have
recourse to direct taxation to meet its ordinary civil
expenditure. For the custom duties cannot be increased
without the consent of Lower Canada ; and that consent
it is useless to expect from any House of Assembly chosen
under the suspended constitution. The canals, of which
the tolls would, if the whole series of necessary works were
completed, in all probability render the past outlay
a source of profit, instead of loss, remain in a state of
almost hopeless suspension : the Cornwall Canal being
unfinished, and the works already completed daily falling
into decay, and the Welland Canal, which has been
a source of great commercial benefit, being now in danger

panied by most unmerited and ungenerous insinuations against the
gentlemen who have gratuitously, and at great personal inconvenience,
acted as commissioners in superintending the outlay of the public
money. There is something so offensive and unbecoming in these
passages of the report, as to induce the committee, from that and other
internal evidence, to believe that that portion of it which relates to
Upper Canada was not written by and never received the careful
revision of his lordship.'

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 191

of becoming useless, from want of money to make the
necessary repairs. After all its great hopes, and all the
great sacrifices which it has made to realize them, Upper
Canada now finds itself loaded with an enormous debt,
which it is denied the means of raising its indirect taxation
to meet, and mocked by the aspect of those unfinished
works, which some small combined efforts might render
a source of vast wealth and prosperity, but which now
are a source of useless expense and bitter disappointment.1

It may well be believed that such a state of things is not Discontent
borne without repining by some of the most enterprising of,th<? t •
and loyal people of the Province. It is well known that
the desire of getting over these difficulties has led many
persons in this Province to urge the singular claim to have
a convenient portion of Lower Canada taken from that
Province, and annexed to Upper Canada ; 2 and that it

1 The following passage gives a good account of the public works
policy of Upper Canada : ' In 1833 — after having extended the naviga-
tion of the St. Lawrence nearly 1,000 miles into the interior by the
opening of the Welland Canal — Upper Canada voted £70,000 for the
improvement of the river between Prescott and the Eastern boundary
of the Province ; this being an object " highly important to the agricul-
tural and commercial interests of this Province ", as stated in the
Preamble to the Act ; and in 1834 the Legislature authorized a loan of
the munificent sum of £350,000 for this purpose, and dictated the
grand dimensions of 200 feet by 55 feet breadth for the locks, with not
less than nine feet of water. In 1837 the canal mania reached its height
in the Upper Province ; £245,000 additional stock was authorized for
the permanent completion of the Welland Canal, the wooden locks of
which were rapidly giving way — and in the session of that year the
enormous sum of £930,000 was voted by Upper Canada for internal
improvements. These magnificent " resolves " were rendered in a great
measure nugatory by the political crisis which followed shortly after '.
(From the Prize Essay on the Canals of Canada, by T. C. Keefer, Civil
Engineer, Toronto, 1850, pp. 17-18.)

2 In 1832 a committee was formed in Upper Canada to prepare and
circulate an address to the King in favour of annexing the island of
Montreal to that province (see Christie's History of Lower Canada,
vol. iii, pp. 423-7). The House of Commons Paper, No. 292, May 9,
1837, contains an address to the King from the House of Assembly of
Upper Canada, dated January 17, 1837, and asking for the annexation
of Montreal ' so as to give the Legislature of this province the entire
control of a seaport which of right they should long since have
possessed '. A reference to the Life of Sir J. Beverley Robinson,
pp. 260-1, will show that he considered the annexation of Montreal t
Upper Canada preferable to union of the two provinces. It is difficult
to understand why Lord Durham speaks of the ' singular claim . J

192 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

induces many to desire an union of the Provinces as the
only efficient means of settling all these disputes on a just
and permanent footing. But it cannot be matter of
surprise, that in despair of any sufficient remedies being
provided by the Imperial Government, many of the most
enterprising colonists of Upper Canada look to that
bordering country, in which no great industrial enterprise
ever feels neglect, or experiences a check, and that men
the most attached to the existing form of government
/would find some compensation in a change, whereby
experience might bid them hope that every existing
obstacle would be speedily removed, and each man's
fortune share in the progressive prosperity of a flourish-
ing State.

British A dissatisfaction with the existing order of things,
haVdL- produced by causes such as I have described, necessarily
regarded extends to many who desire no change in the political
erf the * institutions of the Province. Those who most admire
Province, the form of the existing system, wish to see it administered
in a very different mode. Men of all parties feel that the
actual circumstances of the Colony are such as to demand
the adoption of widely different measures from any that
have yet been pursued in reference to them. They ask
for greater firmness of purpose in their rulers, and a more
defined and consistent policy on the part of the Govern-
ment ; something, in short, that will make all parties feel
that an order of things has been established to which it is
necessary that they should conform themselves, and which
is not to be subject to any unlocked for and sudden
interruption consequent upon some unforeseen move in
the game of politics in England. Hitherto the course
of policy adopted by the English Government towards

was the most natural thing in the world for the people of Upper Canada
to desire an outlet to the ocean under their own control : and the
absence of it had caused the greatest practical difficulties. Moreover,
the proposal to unite Montreal to Upper Canada, and thereby, to split
up to some extent the French Canadians, would at least have done
something to remedy what Lord Durham considered to be the mistaken
policy of the Act of 1791 in isolating the French Canadians. (See
vol. iii, p. 363).

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 193

this Colony, has had reference to the state of parties in
England, instead of the wants and circumstances of the
Province ; neither party could calculate upon a successful
result to their struggles for any particular object, because
though they might be able to estimate accurately enough
their strength in the Colony, they could not tell how soon
some hidden spring might be put in motion in the Colonial
Office in England which would defeat their best laid plans,
and render utterly unavailing whole years of patient effort.1

THE EASTERN PROVINCES AND
NEWFOUNDLAND.

Though I have stated my opinion that my inquiries Inquiries
would have been very incomplete, had they been confined o"her
to the two Canadas, the information which I am enabled North

XT L A • American

to communicate with respect to the other JNorth American Colonies.
Colonies is necessarily very limited. As, however, in these
Provinces, with the exception of Newfoundland, there are
no such discontents as threaten the disturbance of the
public tranquillity, I did not think it necessary to institute
any minute inquiries into the details of the various
departments of Government. It is only necessary that
I should state my impression of the general working of
the Government in these Colonies, in order that if institu-
tions similar to those of the disturbed Provinces should
here appear to be tending to similar results, a common
remedy may be devised for the impending as well as for
existing disorders. On this head I have obtained much
useful information from the communications which I had
with the Lieutenant-Governors of these Colonies, as well
as with individuals connected with them, but, above all,
from the frequent and lengthened discussions which
passed between me and the gentlemen who composed the
deputations sent to me last autumn from each of the three
Eastern Provinces, for the purpose of discussing the
principles as well as details of a plan of general government

1 See Introduction, p. 272.
1362-2 O

194 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

for the whole of the British North American Colonies.1
It was most unfortunate that the events of temporary,
but pressing importance which compelled my return to
England, interrupted those discussions ; but the delegates
with whom I had the good fortune to carry them on, were
gentlemen of so much ability, so high in station, and so
patriotic in their views, that their information could not
fail to give me a very fair view of the working of the
colonial constitution under somewhat different circum-
Letter stances in each. I insert in the Appendix a communi-
Young. cation which I received from one of those gentlemen,
Mr. Young, a leading and very active Member of the
House of Assembly of Nova Scotia, respecting that
Province.2

Working It is not necessary, however, that I should enter into
govern- anv lengthened account of the nature or working of the
ment of form of government established in these Provinces, be-

thesePro- _ _^

vinces. cause in my account of Lower Canada I have described
the general characteristics of the system common to all,
and adduced the example of these Provinces in illustration
of the defects of their common system. In all these
Provinces we find representative government coupled with
an irresponsible executive ; we find the same constant
collision between the branches of the Government ; the
same abuse of the powers of the representative bodies,
owing to the anomaly of their position, aided by the want
of good municipal institutions, and the same constant
interference of the imperial administration in matters
which should be left wholly to the Provincial Governments.

1 The delegates from the Maritime Provinces, who came to Quebec
to discuss matters with Lord Durham in September 1838, were four
from Nova Scotia, six from New Brunswick, and three from Prince
Edward Island. The Nova Scotia delegates included Johnstone and
Young, but not Joseph Howe, who had opposed the appointment of
a committee to confer with Lord Durham (see Three Premiers of Nova
Scotia, by E. M. Saunders, 1909, pp. 87-8).

* For this letter, see Appendix A, vol. iii, pp. 12-18. William Young,
one of the reformers in Nova Scotia, was born in Scotland, in 1799, and
died in Halifax in 1887. After Lord Durham's time he became Speaker
of the House of Assembly, Premier, and eventually, in 1860, Chief
Justice. He was knighted in 1868 (see Diet, of Nat. Biog., s.v.).

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 195

And if in these Provinces there is less formidable discontent
and less obstruction to the regular course of Government,
it is because in them there has been recently a considerable
departure from the ordinary course of the colonial system,
and a nearer approach to sound constitutional practice.

This is remarkably the case in New Brunswick, a New
province which was till a short time ago one of the most
constantly harassed by collisions between the executive
and legislative powers ; the collision has now been in
part terminated by the concession of all the revenues of
the Province to the Assembly.1 The policy of this

1 As to constitutional changes in the Maritime Provinces prior to
Lord Durham's mission, see Introduction, pp. 81-6. In 1837 Sir
Archibald Campbell, who was Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick,
and who was not in harmony with the Legislature with regard to the
passing of the new Civil List Bill, resigned and was succeeded by Sir
John Harvey, who, both in New Brunswick and at a later date in Nova
Scotia, carried out the more liberal policy which had been approved by
the Imperial Government, with great tact and goodwill. The New
Brunswick Civil List Act was passed by the Legislature of the province
in July 1837. It was entitled ' An act for the support of the Civil
Government in this province ' (8 Will. IV, cap. i). The preamble stated
' Whereas His Most Gracious Majesty has been pleased to signify to
His faithful Commons of New Brunswick that His Majesty will sur-
render up to their control and disposal, the proceeds of all His Majesty's
Hereditary, Territorial, and Casual revenues and of all His Majesty's
woods, mines, and Royalties, &c.', in return for a Civil List; and the
Act provided that this surrender should last during the continuance of
the Act (see House of Commons Paper, No. 297, June 21, 1870, Crown
Lands, &c. (Colonies), pp. 16-19). In March 1839 another short Act
was passed by the Provincial Legislature making the Civil Government
Act perpetual. The Civil Government Act left the management of the
Crown lands to the Lieutenant-Governor acting on the advice of the
Executive Council, but the 5th section provided that leases and grants
were only to be made to the highest bidders at public auctions ; and an
Act passed immediately afterwards — also in July 1837 — modified this
section, being entitled ' An act to restrain the provisions of the 5th
section of an act entitled " An act for the support of the Civil Govern-
ment of this province ", and to establish sundry regulations for the
future disposal of Crown Lands and Timber in certain cases.' This Act
also was made perpetual in September 1839. Thus the Legislature con-
trolled not only the proceeds but the management of the Crown lands.
Lord Durham says that ' the policy of this concession, with reference
to the extent and mode in which it was made, will be discussed in the
Separate Report on the disposal and management of public .fends •
There is not much discussion of it in Buller's Report, but possibly tl
reference is to what is said on the subject in vol. in, p. 39. JLon
Durham, on p. 209 of his own Report, says ' The Provincial Assemblies,
except quite recently in New Brunswick and Upper Canada, hav

O 2

196 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

concession, with reference to the extent and mode in
which it was made, will be discussed in the separate
Report on the disposal and management of public lands ;
but the policy of the Government in this matter has at
any rate put an end to disputes about the revenue, which
were on the point of producing a constant Parliamentary
conflict between the Crown and the Assembly in many
respects like that which has subsisted in Lower Canada ;
but a more important advance has been made towards
the practice of the British constitution in a recent change
which has been made in the Executive and Legislative
Councils of the Colony, whereby, as I found from the
representatives of the present official body in the delega-
tion from New Brunswick, the administrative power of
the Province had been taken out of the hands of the old
official party, and placed in those of members of the former
liberal opposition. The constitutional practice had been,
in fact, fully carried into effect in this Province ; the
Government had been taken out of the hands of those
who could not obtain the assent of the majority of the
Assembly, and placed in the hands of those who possessed
its confidence ; the result is, that the Government of New
Brunswick, till lately one of the most difficult in the North
American Colonies, is now the most harmonious and easy.
Nova In Nova Scotia some, but not a complete approximation

Scotia. jjas been made to the same judicious course. The Govern-
ment is in a minority in the House of Assembly, and the
Assembly and the Legislative Council do not perfectly har-
monize. But the questions which divide parties at present
happen really to be of no very great magnitude ; and all
are united and zealous in the great point of maintaining
the connexion with Great Britain. It will be seen from

had any voice in this matter ; nor is the popular control in those two
cases much more than nominal'. On the other hand, Lord John
Russell in his Instructions to the newly-formed Board of Land and
Emigration Commissioners in January 1840, wrote : ' In Upper Canada
and in New Brunswick, the sale and management of waste lands is
vested by local enactments in certain local authorities, with whom the
Crown has no right of interference ' (House of Commons Paper, No. 35,
February 4, 1840, Colonial Land Board, p. 5).

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 197

Mr. Young's paper, that the questions at issue, though
doubtless of very considerable importance, involve no
serious discussion between the Government and the people.
The majority of the opposition is stated by the official
party to be very uncertain, and is admitted by themselves
to be very narrow. Both parties look with confidence to
the coming general election ; and all feel the greatest
reliance on the good sense and good intentions of the pre-
sent Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Colin Campbell.1

I must, however, direct particular attention to the Constitu
following temperate remarks of Mr. Young on the con-
stitution of the Executive and Legislative Councils : and

' The majority of the House of Assembly is dissatisfied
with the composition of the Executive and Legislative
Councils, and the preponderance in both of interests
which they conceive to be unfavourable to reform ; this
is the true ground, as I take it, of the discontent that
is felt. The respectability and private virtues of the
gentlemen who sit at the two Council Boards are admitted
by all ; it is of their political and personal predilections
that the people complain ; they desire reforming and
liberal principles to be more fully represented and advo-
cated there, as they are in the Assembly.

' The majority of the House, while they appreciate and
have acknowledged the anxiety of his Excellency the
Lieutenant-Governor to gratify their just expectations,
have also expressed their dissatisfaction, that the Church
of England should have been suffered to retain a majority
in both councils, notwithstanding the remonstrances of

1 Sir Colin Campbell, G.C.B., was born in 1776. He served for many
years and with much distinction under the Duke of Wellington, in
India, in the North of Europe, in the Peninsula, and at Waterloo. He
was a close friend of the Duke. He succeeded Sir Peregrine Maitland
as Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia in 1834. He was attacked
rather unfairly by Joseph Howe, who carried a motion for his recall in
the Assembly in 1840, the question at issue being responsible govern-
ment and Lord John Russell's Instructions on the subject. He was
replaced in Nova Scotia by Lord Falkland in the latter part of 1840
and was appointed Governor of Ceylon. He held that post from 184
to 1847, when he returned to England and died (see Dvct. of Mat.
Biog-, s.v.).

198 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

the House, and the precise and explicit directions of the
Colonial Secretary. Religious dissensions are happily
unknown among us, and the true way to prevent their
growth and increase, is to avoid conferring an inordinate
power on any one sect, however worthy it may be of
respect or favour.'
Prince The political history of Prince Edward's Island is

Edward's , . , . ,,

Island. contained in the system pursued with regard to its settle-
ment, and the appropriation of its lands, which is fully
detailed in the subsequent view of that department of
government in the North American Colonies ; and its
past and present disorders are but the sad result of that
fatal error which stifled its prosperity in the very cradle
of its existence, by giving up the whole Island to a handful
of distant proprietors.1 Against this system, this small
and powerless community has in vain been struggling for
some years : a few active and influential proprietors in
London have been able to drown the remonstrances, and
defeat the efforts of a distant and petty Province : for
the ordinary evils of distance are, in the instance of Prince
Edward's Island, aggravated by the scantiness of its
population, and the confined extent of its territory.
This island, most advantageously situated for the supply

1 See also above, p. 67. As is stated on p. 219, the whole of the Crown
lands in Prince Edward Island were, with the exception of 2,000 or
3,000 acres, alienated in one day. This was in the year 1767. The
lands were allotted to sixty-seven proprietors, chiefly Scotch, on con-
dition that they settled foreign European Protestants or British Ameri-
cans on their lands. The condition was not carried out. Giving evidence
at Charles Buller's Inquiry into Crown Lands, Mr. Le Lacheur, a resi-
dent in the island, said : ' The whole island was divided into 67 town-
ships, containing about 20,000 acres each, the whole of which were
granted in one day to different individuals, in lots of from a whole
to a quarter township, subject to the payment of a quit rent of from
2s. to 6». sterling per 100 acres, and to the obligation of settling the land
granted, within 10 years from the date of the grant, with foreign Pro-
testant settlers, in proportion of one person to every 200 acres.' He
added that the conditions ' were not fulfilled in a single instance, nor
does any attempt appear to have been made to fulfil them, as not one
foreign Protestant was introduced by any of the grantees ' (see Buller's
Report, Appendix B, and see also Lord Durham's dispatch of October 8,
1838, House of Commons Paper, of February 11, 1839, British North
America (pp. 196-201)).

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 199

of the surrounding Colonies, and of all the fisheries,
possesses a soil peculiarly adapted to the production of
grain ; and, from its insular position, is blessed with a
climate far more genial than a great part of the continent
which lies to the southward. Had its natural advantages
been turned to proper account, it might at this time have
been the granary of the British Colonies, and, instead of
barely supporting a poor and unenterprising population
of 40,000,! its mere agricultural resources would, according
to Major Head, have maintained in abundance a population
of at least ten times that number. Of nearly 1,400,000
acres contained in the island, only 10,000 are said to be
unfit for the plough. Only 100,000 are now under
cultivation. No one can mistake the cause of this
lamentable waste of the means of national wealth. It is
the possession of almost the whole soil of the island by
absentee proprietors, who would neither promote nor
permit its cultivation, combined with the defective
government which first caused and has since perpetuated
the evil. The simple legislative remedy for all this
mischief having been suggested by three successive
Secretaries of State, has been embodied in an Act of the
local legislature, which was reserved for the Royal Assent ;
and the influence of the proprietors in London was such,
that that assent was for a long time withheld.2 The
question was referred to me during my stay in Canada ;
and I believe I may have the satisfaction of attributing
to the recommendation which I gave, in accordance with
the earnest representations of the Lieutenant-Governor,

1 The population of Prince Edward Island at the last (1911) census
was 93,722.

* The measure referred to was an Act of 1837 (7 Will. IV, cap. 31),
entitled ' An act for levying an assessment on all lands in the island .
This Act was to be in force for ten years from the date of its allowance
by the Crown. In 1848 it was repealed by another Act entitled, .
act for levying further an assessment on all lands in this colony and
for the encouragement of education '. The rights of landowners and
tenants in Prince Edward Island were the subject of a Royal Commisi
which reported in 1861, one of the commissioners being Joseph H
but the land difficulties were not settled until after the island
entered the Dominion.

200 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Sir Charles Fitzroy,1 the adoption at last of a measure
intended to remove the abuse that has so long retarded
the prosperity of this Colony.

Backward The present condition of these Colonies presents none
these °f °^ those alarming features which mark the state of the
Colonies, two Canadas. The loyalty and attachment to the mother
country which animate their inhabitants, is warm and
general. But their varied and ample resources are turned
to little account. Their scanty population exhibits, in
most portions of them, an aspect of poverty, backwardness
and stagnation ; and wherever a better state of things
is visible, the improvement is generally to be ascribed
to the influx of American settlers or capitalists. Major
Head describes his journey through a great part of Nova
Scotia as exhibiting the melancholy spectacle of ' half the
tenements abandoned, and lands every where falling into
decay ' ; ' and the lands,' he tells us, ' that were purchased
30 and 40 years ago, at 5s. an acre, are now offered for
sale at 3s.' ' The people of Prince Edward's Island are,'
he says, ' permitting Americans to take out of their hands
all their valuable fisheries, from sheer want of capital to
employ their own population in them.' ' The country on
the noble river, St. John's,' he states, ' possesses all that
is requisite, except " that animation of business which
constitutes the value of a new settlement." But the
most striking indication of the backward state of these
Provinces, is afforded by the amount of the population.
These Provinces, among the longest settled on the North
American Continent, contain nearly 30,000,000 of acres,
and a population, estimated at the highest, at no more,
than 365,000 souls, giving only one inhabitant for every
80 acres. In New Brunswick, out of 16,500,000 acres, it
is estimated that at least 15,000,000 are fit for cultivation ;

1 Sir Charles Augustus Fitzroy was born in 1796 ; he was an officer in
the Horse Guards and was at Waterloo. In 1837 he was appointed Lieu-
tenant-Governor of Prince Edward Island, in 1841 Governor of the Lee-
ward Islands, and in 1846 Governor of New South Wales in succession
to Sir George Gipps. He left in 1855, and died in 1858. He was one
of the many successful soldier-governors (see Diet, of Nat. Biog., s.v.).

201

and the population being estimated at no more than
140,000, there is not one inhabitant for 100 acres of
cultivable land.1

It is a singular and melancholy feature in the condition Compari-
of these Provinces, that the resources rendered of so little Unu"i<h
avail to -the population of Great Britain, are turned to State*
better account by the enterprising inhabitants of the
United States. While the emigration from the Province
is large and constant, the adventurous farmers of New
England cross the frontier, and occupy the best farming
lands. Their fishermen enter our bays and rivers, and
in some cases monopolise the occupations of our own
unemployed countrymen ; and a great portion of the
trade of the St. John's is in their hands. Not only do the
citizens of a foreign nation do this, but they do it with
British capital.' Major Head states, ' that an American
merchant acknowledged to him that the, capital with
which his countrymen carried on their enterprises in the
neighbourhood of St. John's, was chiefly supplied by Great
Britain ; and,' he adds, as a fact within his own knowledge,
' that wealthy capitalists at Halifax, desirous of an invest-
ment for their money, preferred lending it in the United
States to applying it to speculation in New Brunswick, or
to lending it to their own countrymen in that Province.'

I regret to say, that Major Head also gives the same
account respecting the difference between the aspect of
things in these Provinces, and the bordering State of
Maine. On the other side of the line, good roads, good
schools, and thriving farms afford a mortifying contrast
to the condition in which a British subject finds the
neighbouring possessions of the British Crown.2

1 Major Head gave evidence before the Public Lands Commission
with regard to the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada, and Buller in his
Report (vol. iii, p. 68) speaks of him as having visited Nova Scotiaand
New Brunswick in the capacity of Assistant Commissioner, and as being
a native of Nova Scotia, but his evidence as to the condition of
Maritime Provinces does not appear to have been printed in the Appen-
dices. At the 1911 census the population of Nova Scotia was 4
and of New Brunswick 351,816.

* See below, p. 211, note 1.

202 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

New- With respect to the Colony of Newfoundland, I have

ou and. been able to obtain no information whatever, except from
sources open to the public at large. The Assembly of
that Island signified their intention of making an appeal
to me respecting some differences with the Governor,
which had their immediate origin in a dispute with
a Judge.1 Owing, probably, to the uncertain and tardy
means of communication between Quebec and that
Island, I received no further communication on this or
any other subject, until after my arrival in England,
when I received an Address expressive of regret at my
departure.

I know nothing, therefore, of the state of things in
Newfoundland, except that there is, and long has been,
the ordinary colonial collision between the representative
body on one side, and the executive on the other ; that
the representatives have no influence on the composition
or the proceedings of the executive government ; and
that the dispute is now carried on, as in Canada, by
impeachments of various public officers on one hand, and
prorogations on the other. I am inclined to think that
the cause of these disorders is to be found in the same
constitutional defects as those which I have signalized
in the rest of the North American Colonies. If it be true,
that there exists in this island a state of society which
renders it unadvisable that the whole of the local govern-
ment should be entirely left to the inhabitants, I believe
that it would be much better to incorporate this Colony
with a larger community, than to attempt to continue
the present experiment of governing it by a constant
collision of constitutional powers.2

1 The judge was presumably the Chief Justice Boulton, who was
President of the Legislative Council (see Introduction, pp. 86-8).

* Though Newfoundland did not, as a matter of fact, come within
Lord Durham's Inquiry, it was included within the scope of his com-
mission. Similarly it was included at a later date in the proposals for
the confederation of British North America, and the last two sections
of the British North America Act of 1867 provide for its future admis-
sion into the Dominion of Canada. The address from the House
of Assembly to Lord Durham on hearing that he was returning to

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 203

^DISPOSAL OF PUBLIC LANDS. EMIGRATIONS

I have mentioned the peculiar importance which, in Worst
newly-settled societies, is attached to works for creating ^tho[[i of
and improving the means of communication. But in °f pub
such communities, and especially when only a small
proportion of the land has been occupied by settlers, there
is a still more momentous subject of public concern.
I allude to an operation of Government, which has
a paramount influence over the happiness of individuals,
and the_grpgress of society towards wealth and greatness.
I am speaking of the disposal, by the Government, of the \l
lands of the new country. In old countries no such matter ]
ever occupies public attention ; in new colonies, planted
on a fertile and extensive territory, this is the object of
the deepest moment to all, and the first business of the
Government. Upon the manner in which this business
is conducted, it may almost be said that every thing else
depends. If lands are not bestowed on the inhabitants
and new comers with a generous hand, the society endures
the evils of an old and over-peopled state, with the
superadded inconveniences that belong to a wild country.
They are pmchecljlor room even in the wilderness, are
prevented from choosing the most fertile soils and favour-
able situations, and are debarred from cultivating that
large extent of soil, in proportion to the hands at work,
which can alone compensate, in quantity of produce, for
the rude nature of husbandry in the wilderness. If, on
the other hand, the land is bestowed with careless pro-
England, to which he refers, and which was printed in Appendix A,
but has not been reprinted, contains the following passage: We
have observed, with unmixed satisfaction, the repeatedly express
opinions of your lordship, not only of the possibility, but of the prac-
ticability of permanently uniting these provinces with the pare
State. In these opinions we fully participate, and we see no goo
reason why Newfoundland and the other provinces should not foi
part of the United Kingdom as much as Yorkshire, Edinburgh, or Cork.

1 As to this part of the Report which deals with public lands an<
emigration, see Introduction, pp. 152-98. Those who wish to study the
subject should refer to Merivale's Lectures on Colonization and C
1861 ed.

204 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

fusion, great evils of another kind are produced. Large
tracts become the property of individuals, who leave their
lands unsettled and untouched. Deserts are thus inter-
posed between the industrious settlers ; the natural
dinieulties of communication are greatly enhanced ; the
inhabitants are not merely scattered over a wide space of
country, but are separated from each other by impassable
wastes ; l the cultivator is cut off or far removed from
a market in which to dispose of his surplus produce, and
procure other commodities ; and the greatest obstacles
exist to co-operation in labour, to exchange, to the
division of employments, to combination for municipal
or other public purposes, to the growth of towns, to public
worship, to regular education, to the spread of news, to
the acquisition of common knowledge, and even to the
civilizing influences of mere intercourse for amusement.
Monotonous and stagnant indeed must ever be the state
of a people who are permanently condemned to such
separation from each other. If, moreover, the land of a

1 The evil of having waste tracts interposed between settled lands,
which is commented on here and on pp. 219-22 below, was constantly
being pointed out in connexion with the crown and clergy reserves.
In a dispatch to Lord Bathurst, dated December 20, 1823, dealing with
the subject of crown and clergy reserves in Lower Canada, Lord Dal-
housie wrote : ' These (Crown) Reserves also produce a farther and most
curious disadvantage to the country, in the impediments they present
to the making of new roads, They chequer the face of the country, and
remain as masses of wilderness or impassable swamps, which no person
can be compelled to improve, and those who do it feel it to be a most
heavy and unfair tax upon them.' In 1828 the Select Committee of
the House of Commons on the Civil Government of Canada, as quoted
by Lord Durham on p. 220 below, reported, with regard to the clergy
reserves in Upper Canada, that they entertained no doubt ' that these
reserved lands, as they are at present distributed over the country,
retard more than any other circumstance the improvement of the
colony, lying as they do in detached portions in each Township, and
intervening between the occupations of actual settlers, who have no
means of cutting roads through the woods and morasses, which thus
separate them from their neighbours ' (Report July 22, 1828, p. 9). In
the evidence given before the House of Commons Committee of 1836
on Disposal of Lands in the British Colonies (p 8), one of the witnesses,
Mr. Whitmore, spoke of ' the clergy reserves in Canada, remaining
desert in the midst of spreading cultivation, and thereby retarding the
general improvement of the country' (see also Appendix C, vol. iii,
p. 187, Mr. Panet's evidence before the Municipal Inquiry Commission).

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 205

new country is so carelessly surveyed that the boundaries
of property are incorrectly or inadequately defined, the
Government lays up a store of mischievous litigation for
the people. Whatever delay takes place in perfecting the
titles of individuals to lands alienated by the Government,
occasions gqual uncertainty and insecurity of property.
If the acquisition of land, in whatever quantities, is made
difficult or troublesome, or is subjected to any needless
uncertainty or delay, applicants are irritated, settlement
is hindered, and immigration to the colony is discouraged,
a,s qmjfrration from it is promoted. If very different
methods of proceeding have effect in the same colony, or
in different parts of the same group of colonies, the
operation of some can scarcely fail to interfere with or
counteract the operation of others ; so that the object
of the Government must somewhere, or at some time, be
defeated. And frequent changes of flyatem are sure to be
very injurious, not only by probably displeasing those
who either obtain land just before, or desire to obtain
some just after, each change, but also by giving a character
of irregularity, uncertainty, and even mystery, to the
most important proceeding of Government. In this way
settlement and emigration are discouraged ; inasmuch
as the people, both of the colony and of the mother
country, are deprived of all confidence in the permanency
of any system, and of any familiar acquaintance with any
of the temporary methods. It would be easy to cite
many other examples of the influence of Government in
this matter. I will mention but one more here. If the
disposal of public lands is administered partially — with
jfavour to particular persons or classes— a sure result is,
the anger of all who do not benefit by such favouritism
(the far greater number, of course), and consequently, the
general unpopularity of the Government.
Under suppositions the reverse of these, the best, instead Best

, , , , j method of

of the worst, effects would be produced ; a constan a di8po8ing
regular supply of new land in due proportion to the wants of lands,
of a population increasing by births and immigration ; all

206 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

the advantages to which facilities of transport and com-
munication are essential ; certainty of limits and security
of title to property in land ; the greatest facilities in
acquiring the due quantity ; the greatest encouragements
to immigration and settlement ; the most rapid progress
of the people in material comfort and social improvement,
and a general sense of obligation to the Government.
What a contrast do the two pictures present ! Neither
of them is over coloured ; and a mere glance at both
suffices to show that in the North American Colonies of
England, as in the United States, the function of authority
most full of good or evil consequences has been the disposal
of public land.1

Measures Impressed, before my departure from England, with
inquiry.01 a sense of the great importance of this subject, and
indulging a hope, founded on the very remarkable success
of a new method of disposing of public lands in Your
Majesty's Australian Colonies, that I might be able to
recommend beneficial reforms in the North American
Provinces, I took precautions for instituting a thoroughly
efficient inquiry into the whole subject generally, and in
detail. And I was the more disposed to do this, because
while an inquiry by a Select Committee of the House of
Commons in 1836 furnished abundant information on the
subject, as respects most parts of Your Majesty's Colonial
Empire, the North American Provinces had been speci-
fically excluded from that inquiry ; 2 and I could not

1 The more Lord Durham emphasized the supreme importance of
the disposal of public lands in the colonies, the more he laid himself
open to the criticism at the present day of having coupled the recom-
mendation of self-government for the British North American colonies
with withholding from their Legislatures ' the function of authority most
full of good or evil consequences '.

2 The South Australian Act was passed in 1834, and South Australia,
intended to be a field for applying the Wakefield system, was founded
in 1836. Reference should be made to Lecture XVI of Meri vale's
Lectures on Colonization and Colonies. The Report of the Select Com-
mittee of the House of Commons on ' Disposal of Lands in the British
Colonies' was dated August 1, 1836. House of Commons Paper,
No. 512. Though the scope of the inquiry only included the Australian
colonies, the Cape of Good Hope, and the West Indies, and excluded
British North America, much reference was made to the British North

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 207

obtain in England any authentic or, at least sufficient,
information as to the disposal of public lands in any of
them. Within a very short time after my arrival in
Canada, the expediency of a searching inquiry into the
subject became more than ever apparent to me. A com-
mon belief in the great extent of my powers revived
innumerable complaints of abuse, and applications for
justice or favour, which had slumbered during previous
years. During my residence in the Canadas, scarcely
a day passed without my receiving some petition or
representation relating to the Crown Lands' Department ;
and matters belonging to this branch of Government
necessarily occupied a far larger proportion than any other
of my correspondence with the Secretary of State. The
information which I now possess was chiefly obtained by
means of a commission of inquiry, which, having regard
to the probable advantages of an uniform system for the
whole of British North America, and to the deep and
universal interest taken in this subject by the colonists,
I issued in Your Majesty's name, and made applicable to Coinmis-
all the Provinces. Minutes of the Evidence given before ^^,-z (jj)
the Commissioners are appended to the present Report,1
together with a separate Report, containing the outline
of a plan for the future administration of this all-influential
department of Government. If that plan, or any other
founded on similar principles, should be adopted by
Your Majesty and the Imperial Legislature, I do firmly
believe that an impulse will be given to the prosperity of
Your Majesty's North American possessions, surpassing
what their most sanguine well-wisher, if unacquainted
with the facts, would be capable of imagining ; and more
calculated than any other reform whatever to attach the

American provinces in the evidence, and still more to the United States.
Among the witnesses were Gibbon Wakefield and R. D. Hanson, who
was afterwards Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands and Emigration
to Charles Buller in Lord Durham's Inquiry (see p. 221 below), and who
wrote the special Report on the Clergy Reserves which forms tb
document in Appendix A. One member of the House of I
Committee was Mr. Gladstone.
> The Minutes of the Evidence have not been reprinted.

208 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

li
people of British North America to Your Majesty's

Throne, and to cement and perpetuate an intimate
; connexion between the colonies and the mother country.
I shall have to return to this point hereafter. I have
mentioned it here, for the purpose of inviting Your
Majesty's attention, and awakening that of Your Ministers
and of Parliament to a theme which, however little it has
hitherto interested the Imperial Government, is the object
of constant and earnest discussion in the colonies.
Practice of In the United States.1 ever since the year 1796. the
disposal of public land not already appropriated to par-
ticular states, has been strictly regulated by a law of
Congress ; not by different laws for the various parts of
the country, but by one law for the whole of the public
lands, and a law which we may judge to have been con-
ducive to the prosperity of the people, both from its

1 The public domain of the United States, i. e. the public lands con-
trolled by the Federal Government, consisted of: (i) lands ceded by
foreign powers, notably the enormous tract which, under the title of
Louisiana, was bought from the French in 1803 ; (ii) lands ceded by
the Indians ; (iii) the hinterland of the old Atlantic States, which was
handed over to the Federal Government by the separate States, mainly
between 1780 and 1787, the States retaining, of course, the public lands
within their narrowed borders. A full account of the lands and the
land system of the United States in 1836 will be found in the evidence
given in that year by George Stevenson before the Select Committee
of the House of Commons on the Disposal of Lands in the British
colonies. On p. 22 of that Blue Book, Stevenson gives an account of
the Act of Congress of May 18, 1796, to which Lord Durham refers, and
which fixed the price of land at ' two dollars an acre with credit given'.
The Report of the Committee (p. iii) contains the following paragraph
relative to the land system of the United States : ' That the land
sales in the United States appear to be conducted upon an uniform
and well-organized system, which is applied to the whole Federation ;
there being a General Land Office established at Washington, under
separate and responsible officers, who have no political duties whatso-
ever, with forty subordinate district land offices, in other parts of the
Union : that these land offices are connected with a surveying depart-
ment, upon so extensive a scale, that the land actually surveyed amounts
to 110,000,000 of acres, over and above the 40,000,000 of ncres already
disposed of : that all land is offered for sale by auction, at an upset
price, fixed by the Legislature ; and that purchasers have the security
of an Act of Congress both for the performance of the conditions
upon which they buy the land ; and for the permanence of the system
under which they acquire it.' See also Merivale's Lectures on Coloniza,-
tion and Colonies, Lecture XV, pp. 443-50.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 209

obvious good effects, and from its almost unquestioned
continuance for so many years. In the British North of Great
American Colonies, with one partial exception,1 there Britain-
never has been, until quite recently, any law upon the
subject. The whole of the public lands have been deemed
the property of the Crown, and the whole of the adminis-
tration for disposing of them to individuals, with a view
to settlement, has been conducted by officers of the
Crown ; under instructions from the Treasury or the
Colonial Department in England. The PrQTJUflifl] AffT™
blies, except quite recently in New Brunswick and Upper
Canada, have never had any voice in this matter ; nor is
the popular control in those two cases much more than
nominal2 The Imperial Parliament has never interfered
but once, when, leaving all other things untouched, it
enacted the unhappy system of ' Clergy Reserves '.
With these very slight exceptions, the Lords of the
Treasury and Colonial Secretary of State for the time
being have been the only legislators ; and the provincial
agents of the Colonial Secretary, responsible to him alone,
have been the sole executors.

The system of the United States appea'rs to combine Efficiency
all the chief requisites of the greatest efficiency. It is °f
uniform throughout the vast federation ; it is unchange- States,
able save by Congress, and has never been materially
altered ; it renders the acquisition of new land easy, and
yet, by means of a price, restricts appropriation to the
actual wants of the settler ; it is so simple as to be readily
understood ; it provides for accurate surveys and against
needless delays ; it gives an instant and secure title ; and
it admits of no favouritism, but distributes the public
property amongst all classes and persons upon precisely
equal terms. That system has promoted an amount of
immigration and settlement, of which the history of the
world affords no other example ; and it has produced to

1 Presumably the ' partial exception ' refers to the Clergy Reserves
clauses of the Constitutional Act of 1791, referred to a few lines lower
down. * See above, p. 195, note.

1352-2 P

210 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

the United States a revenue which has averaged about
half a million sterling per annum, and has amounted in
one twelvemonth to above four millions sterling, or more
than the whole expenditure of the Federal Government.1
No system In the North American Colonies there never has been
American anv system . Many different methods have been practised,
Colonies. an(j this not only in the different colonies, but in every
colony at different times, and within the same colony at
the same time. The greatest diversity and most frequent
alteration would almost seem to have been the objects
in view. In only one respect has there been uniformity.
Every where the greatest profusion has taken place, so
that in all the colonies, and nearly in every part of each
colony, more, and very much more land has been alienated
by the Government, than the grantees had at the time, or
now have the means of reclaiming from a state of wilder-
ness ; and yet in all the colonies until lately, and in some
of them still, it is either very difficult or next to impossible
for a person of no influence to obtain any of the public
land. More or less in all the colonies, and in some of them
to an extent which would not be credited, if the fact were
not established by unquestionable testimony, the surveys
have been inaccurate, and the boundaries, or even the
situation of estates, are proportionably uncertain. Every
where needless delays have harassed and exasperated
applicants ; and every where, more or less, I am sorry
but compelled to add, gross favouritism has prevailed in
the disposal of public lands.2 I have mentioned but a part

1 At the time when Lord Durham wrote his Report the revenue from
government land in the United States had increased enormously.
' Before the year 1834 the annual sales of land had never amounted
to $3.000,000 ; but in 1835 they rose to $14,757,000, and in 1836 to
$24,877,000 ' (Cambridge Modern History, vol. vii : The United States,
p. 384).

2 Delays and land-jobbing were an old story in Canada. General
Robert Prescott, who succeeded Lord Dorchester as Governor-in-Chief
of the Canadas in 1797, became involved in a quarrel with his Executive
Council on the land question, which ended in his recall in 1799. The
surveys had not kept pace with the demand for land. Consequently
a large number of squatters had occupied land without legal title and
begun settlement, while others had been granted land but had not

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 211

of the evils, grievances, and abuses, of which Your Majesty's
subjects in the colonies justly complain, as having arisen
from mal-administration in this department. Those evils
remain wholly unremedied, most of those grievances are
unredressed, and not a few of those abuses are unreformed
at this hour. Their present existence has been forced on
my conviction by indisputable evidence. If they had
passed away, I should scarcely have alluded to them.
If I had any hope of seeing them removed, otherwise than
by means of giving them authentic publicity, I should have
hesitated to speak of them as I have done. As it is,
I should ill perform the duty which Your Majesty was
pleased to confide to me, if I failed to describe them in the
plainest terms.

The results of long misgovernment in this department Contrast
are such as might have been anticipated by any person ^ted
understanding the subject. The administration of the Stater,
jmblic lands, instead of always yielding a revenue, cost
for a long while more than it produced. But this is,
I venture to think, a trifling consideration when compared
with others. There is one in particular which has occurred
Tto every observant traveller in these regions, which is
a constant theme of boast in the States bordering upon
our colonies, and a subject of loud complaint within the
colonies. I allude to the striking contrast which is presented
between the American and the British sides of the frontier
line in respect to every sign of productive industry, in-
creasing wealth, and progressive civilization.1

occupied it. Prescott proposed to confirm those who were actually
occupying land, in full, and those who had acquired land but not. used
it, only in part ; and in future to dispose of land only at public auction.
He was opposed by the members of his Council, some of whom wer.
said to be concerned in land-jobbing, which according to his own
account he wished to prevent.

1 Lord Durham constantly contrasts the backwardness of the t
North American provinces with the progressiveness of the I mte
States (see e.g. above, p. 201, and below, pp. 261-3). i ^larlyt
Report on Public Lands and Emigration speaks of the morl
inferiority to the neighbouring states, which is at present everywhere
apparent (Appendix B, vol. iii, p. 109). Again, Jfc William Young, n
his letter on the state of Nova Scotia, writes : ' We admire the entei

P2

212 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Picture By describing one side, and reversing the picture, the
American otner would be also described. On the American side,
side. all is activity and bustle. The forest has been widely
cleared ; every year numerous settlements are formed,
and thousands of farms are created out of the waste ;
the country is intersected by common roads ; canals and
railroads are finished, or in the course of formation ; the
ways of communication and transport are crowded with
people, and enlivened by numerous carriages and large
steam-boats. The observer is surprised at the number
of harbours on the lakes, and the number of vessels they
contain ; while bridges, artificial landing-places, and
commodious wharves are formed in all directions as
soon as required. Good houses, warehouses, mills, inns,
villages, towns and even great cities, are almost seen to
spring up out of the desert. Every village has it school-
house and place of public worship. Every town has
many of both, with its township buildings, its book stores,
and probably one or two banks and newspapers ; and
the cities, with their fine churches, their great hotels,
their exchanges, courthouses and municipal halls, of stone
or marble, so new and fresh as to mark the recent existence
of the forest where they now stand, would be admired
in any part of the Old World. On the British side of the
line, with the exception of a few favoured spots, where
some approach to American prosperity is apparent, all

seems, waste and desolate. / There is but one railroad in

/^ — • . J

prise, activity, and Public Works of the United States, and would wish
that they were more largely imitated in our own possessions ' (Appendix
A, vol. iii, p. 13). On the other hand Mr. Young criticizes ' the American
Union, with its outrages on property and real freedom, its growing
democratic spirit and executive weakness ' ; and the Assistant Com-
missioners of Municipal Inquiry quote to the effect that ' Here (in
Lower Canada) the method of making and repairing roads is infinitely
preferable to any other — to that especially of the United States ', and
again state in a note, ' Persons who are disposed to regard the local
administration of the United States as a model for other countries, will
probably be unwilling to believe that in the State of New York, whose
prosperity has been immensely increased by its canal and railway com-
munications, the management of the roads is extremely defective '
(Appendix C, vol. iii, p. 144, and p. 194 note). See also Introduction,
pp. 2t>2-6.

Of the
British
side.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 213

all British America, and that, running between the
St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain, is only 15 miles long.1
The ancient city of Montreal, which is naturally the
commercial capital of the Canadas, will not bear the least
comparison, in any respect, with Buffalo, which is a
creation of yesterday. But it is not in the difference
between the larger towns on the two sides that we shall
find the best evidence of our own inferiority. That
painful but undeniable truth is most manifest in the
country districts through which the line of national
separation passes for 1,000 miles. There, on the side of
both the Canadas, and also of New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia, a widely scattered population, poor, and apparently
unenterprising, though hardy and industrious, separated
from each other by tracts of intervening forest, without
towns and markets, almost without roads, living in mean
houses, drawing little more than a rude subsistence from
ill-cultivated land, and seemingly incapable of improving
their condition, present the most instructive contrast to
their enterprising and thriving neighbours on the American
side.2/ I was assured that in the Eastern Townships of
Low^r Canada, bordering upon the line, it is a common

1 The railway ran from Laprairie on the St. Lawrence to St. John's
on the Richelieu river. It was begun in 1835, opened with horses in
1836, and worked with locomotives in 1837. The capital raised for
constructing it was £50,000, or a little over £3,000 per mile. See
Mr. Castell Hopkins's Canada, an Encyclopaedia, vol. ii, p. 225.

* That Wakefield had a hand in writing this part of Lord Durham's
Report may be judged by the evidence which he gave before the Select
Committee of 1836 on the Disposal of Lands in the British colonies.
On page 68 of the Blue Book is the following question and answer :
' 699. Chairman. Can you give the Committee any example of the
benefits arising from the sale of land, as contrasted with the results
arising from gratuitous grants ? I think there is a very striking example
of that contrast in the two sides of the St. Lawrence. All travellers
in that part of America agree in describing the United States side of
the St. Lawrence as a cultivated country, having roads, and ports on
the lakes, and ships, and carriages, and towns, and all other signs of
wealth and civilization ; but in describing the Canadian side of the
St. Lawrence, they tell of a barbarous country, but half cultivated,
with a common practice among the settlers of exhausting portions of
land, and then leaving those portions and running over other portions
of virgin soil ; and thus presenting altogether a very remarkable con-
trast with the American side in point of wealth and civilization.

214 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

practice for settlers, when they wish to meet, to enter the
State of Vermont, and make use of the roads there for
the purpose of reaching their destination in the British
Province. Major Head, the A,ssi ata.n t - f!om m i asioner of
Crown Lands' Inquiry, whom I sent to New Brunswick.
states, that when travelling near the frontier line of that
Province and the State of Maine, now on one side and t hen
on the other, he could always tell on which side he was
by the obvious superiority of the American settlements
in every respect. Where the two countries are separated
by the St. Lawrence and the Lakes, this difference is less
perceptible ; but not less in fact, if I may believe the
concurrent statements of numerous eye-witnesses, who
had no motive for deceiving me. For further corrobora-
tion, I might refer indeed to numerous and uncontradicted
publications ; and there is one proof of this sort so
remarkable, that I am induced to notice it specially.
A highly popular work, which is known to be from the
pen of one of Your Majesty's chief functionaries in Nova
Scotia, abounds in assertions and illustrations of the back-
ward and stagnant condition of that Province, and the
great superiority of neighbouring American settlements.
Although the author, with a natural disinclination to
question the excellence of government, attributes this
mortifying circumstance entirely to the folly of the people,
in neglecting their farms to occupy themselves with
complaining of grievances and abuses, he leaves no doubt
of the fact.1

1 The writer referred to here is Thomas Chandler Haliburton, ' Sam
Slick,' said to have been the father of the American School of Humour.
The notice of him in the Dictionary of National Biography says that
he was born in 1796 in Windsor, Nova Scotia, and died in England
in 1865. He was the son of a Nova Scotia judge, practised at the
Nova Scotia bar, and in 1828 became Chief Justice of the Court of
Common Pleas in Nova Scotia. He resigned judicial office in 1856,
and went to England. In 1825 and 1829 he published histories of
Nova Scotia. In 1835 he began a series of newspaper articles under
the name of ' Sam Slick ', and in 1837, 1838, 1840, he published a
collection of them anonymously under the name, The Clockmaker, or
Sayings and Doings of Sam Slick of Slickville. In 1839 he published
The Bubbles of Canada, by the Author of ' The Clockmaker ', suggested

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 215

This view is confirmed by another fact equally indis-
putable. Throughout the frontier, from Amherstburg
to the ocean, the market value of land is much greater
on the American than on the British side. In not a few
parts of the frontier this difference amounts to as much
as a thousand per cent., and in some cases even more.
The average difference, as between Upper Canada and Difference
the States of New York and Michigan, is notoriously1^*^
several hundred per cent. Mr. Hastings Kerr, of Quebec, British
whose knowledge of the value of land in Lower Canada f^l™96*
is generally supposed to be more extensive and accurate United
than that of any other person, states that the price of
wild land in Vermont and New Hampshire, close to the
line, is five dollars per acre, and in the adjoining British
townships only one dollar. On this side the line a very
large extent of land is wholly unsaleable, even at such low
prices ; while on the other side property is continually
changing hands. The price of two or three shillings
per acre would purchase immense tracts in Lower Canada
and New Brunswick. In the adjoining States it would
be difficult to obtain a single lot for less than as many
dollars. In and near Stanstead, a border township of
Lower Canada, and one of the most improved, forty-eight
thousand acres of fine land, of which Governor Sir R. S.
Milnes1 obtained a grant to himself in 1810, was recently
sold at the price of two shillings per acre. Mr. Stayner,
the Deputy Postmaster General, one of the largest pro-
prietors of wild land in Lower Canada, says :— ' Twenty
years ago, or thereabout, I purchased wild land at what
was then considered a low price, in the natural hope that
it would be gradually increasing in value, and that,
whenever I might choose to sell, it would be at such a profit
as would afford me a fair return for the use of the money

by Lord Durham's Report, and also A Reply to the Report of the Earl
of Durham by a Colonist. .

1 Sir Robert Shore Milnes was appointed Lieutenant-Govern
Lower Canada in 1799. He returned to England in 1805 and, though
he never went back to Canada, he continued to hold his appointment
till late in 1808. He was never Governor-in-Chief of the Oanadas.

216 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

employed. So far, however, from realizing this expecta-
tion, I now find, after the lapse of so many years, when
the accumulated interest upon the money invested has
increased the cost of the land 150 per cent. — I say I find
that I could not, if compelled to sell this land, obtain more
for it than it originally cost me.' I learned from others
besides Mr. Kerr, but quote his words, that ' the system
pursued in granting Crown Lands in Lower Canada has
been such as to render it impossible to obtain money on
mortgage of land, because there is no certainty as to the
value : when a sale is forced, there may be a perfect glut
in the market and no purchasers.' Similar statements
might be cited in abundance. It might be supposed by
persons unacquainted with the frontier country, that the
soil on the American side is of very superior natural
fertility. I am positively assured that this is by no means
the case ; but that, on the whole, superior natural fertility
belongs to the British territory. In Upper Canada, the
whole of the great peninsula between Lakes Erie and
Huron, comprising nearly half the available land of the
Province, consists of gently-undulating alluvial soil, and,
with a smaller proportion of inferior land than probably
any other tract of similar extent in that part of North
America, is generally considered the best grain country
on that continent.1 The soil of the border townships of
Lower Canada is allowed, on all hands, to be superior to
that of the border townships of New York, Vermont, and
New Hampshire ; while the lands of New Brunswick,
equal in natural fertility to those of Maine, enjoy superior
natural means of communication. I do not believe that
the universal difference in the value of land can any where
be fairly attributed to natural causes.
Re-emi- Still less can we attribute to such causes another
from°r circumstance, which in some measure accounts for the
British different values of property, and which has a close rela-
tion to the subject of the public lands. I mean the great

1 Many years elapsed after this was written, before the grain-growing
capacity of the north-west became known to the world.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 217

amount of ^e-emigration from the British Colonies to the? to tho
border States.1 This is a notorious fact. Nobody denies
it ; almost every colonist speaks of it with regret. What
the proportion may be of those emigrants from the United
Kingdom who, _soon after their arrival, remove to the
United States, it would be very difficult to ascertain
precisely. Mr. Bell Forsyth, of Quebec, who has paid
much attention to the subject, and with the best oppor-
tunities of observing correctly in both the Canadas,
estimates that proportion at sixty per cent, of the whole.
Mr. Hawke, the chief agent for emigrants in Upper Canada,
calculates that out of two-thirds of the immigrants by
the St. Lawrence who reach that Province, one-fourth
re-emigrate chiefly to settle in the States. It would
appear, however, that the amount of emigration from
Upper Canada, whether of new comers or others, must
be nearer Mr. Forsyth's estimate. The population was
reckoned at 200,000 in January 1830. The increase by
births since then should have been at least three per cent,
per annum, or 54,000. Mr. Hawke states the number of
immigrants from Lower Canada, since 1829, to have been
165,000 ; allowing that these also would have increased
at the rate of three per cent, per annum, the whole increase
by immigration and births should have been nearly
200,000. But Mr. Hawke's estimate of immigrants takes
no account of the very considerable number who enter
the Province by way of New York and the Erie Canal.
Reckoning these at only 50,000, which is probably under

1 The British residents in Lower Canada attributed the re-emigration
from that province to the attitude of the French Canadian majority in
the Quebec Legislature. Thus, in a petition for reunion of the two
Canadas, forwarded from the townships in 1823 and printed as an
Appendix to the Report of the Select Committee on the Civil Govern-
ment of Canada in 1828 (pp. 323-6), it is stated : ' Of the many thousand
emigrants who, within the last few years, have arrived from (
Britain, scarcely 1,000 have settled in the township of Lower Canada ;
but great numbers of them have gone into the United States, consid
ing, possibly, that they should there find themselves in a less foreign
country than in this British colony under its present circumstanc
and under the foreign aspect of the representative 1
Legislature.'

218 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

the truth, and making no allowance for their increase by
births, the entire population of Upper Canada should now
have been 500,000, whereas it is, according to the most
reliable estimates, not over 400,000^ It would therefore
appear, making all allowance for errors in this calculation,
' that the number of people who have emigrated from
Upper Canada to the United States, since 1829, must be
equal to more than half of the number who have entered
I the Province during the eight years. Mr. Baillie, the
present Commissioner of Crown Lands in New Brunswick,
says, ' a great many emigrants arrive in the Province, but
they generally proceed to the United States, as there is
not sufficient encouragement for them in this Province.'
Mr. Morris, the present Commissioner of Crown Lands,
and Surveyor General of Nova Scotia, speaks in almost
similar terms of the emigrants who reach that Province
by way of Halifax.

Public I am far from asserting that the very inferior value of

against the ^an(^ *n *ne British Colonies, and the re-emigration of
present immigrants, are altogether occasioned by mismanagement
agement. jn *ne disposal of public lands. Other defects and errors
of government must have had a share in producing these
lamentable results ; but I only speak the opinion of all
the more intelligent, and, let me add, some of the most
loyal of Your Majesty's subjects in North America when
I say that this has been the principal cause of these great
evils. This opinion rests upon their personal acquaintance
with numerous facts. Some of these facts I will now
state. They have been selected from a much greater
number, as being peculiarly calculated to illustrate the
faults of the system, its influence on the condition of the
people, and the necessity of a thorough reform. I may
add, that many of them form the subject of Despatches
which I have addressed to Your Majesty's Secretary
of State.2

1 According to the census of 1839 the population of Upper Canada
in that year was 409,048.

* These dispatches will be found in the House of Commons Paper

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 219

I have observed before that nearly all of the different Much wild
methods pursued by the Government have had onelando"fcof
mischievous tendency in particular ; they have tended Govern-0
to place a vast extent of land out of the control of govern- mcnti
jnent, and yet to retain it in a state of wilderness. This
evil has been produced in all the Colonies alike, to what
extent, and with what injurious consequences, will be
made apparent by the following illustrative statements.

By official returns which accompany this Report, it Quantity
. appears that, out of about 17,000,000 of acres comprised
within the surveyed districts of JIppejM^nadai less than ready

— r—

1,600,000 are yet unappropriated, and this amount*
includes 450,000 acres the reserve for roads, leaving less
than 1,200,000 acres open to grant ; and of this remnant,
500,000 acres are required to satisfy claims for grants
founded on pledges by the Government. In the opinion
of Mr. Radenhurst, the really acting Surveyor General,
the Remaining 700,000 consist for the most part of land
inferior in position or quality. It may almost be said
therefore, that the whole of the public lands in Upper
Canada have been alienated by the Government. In
Lower__Canad§;3 out of 6,169,963 acres in the surveyed
townships, nearly 4,000,000 acres have been granted or
sold ; and there are unsatisfied but indisputable claims
for grants to the amount of about 500,000. In Nova
_Scotia, nearly 6,000,000 of acres have been granted, and
in the opinion of the Surveyor General only about one-
eighth of the land which remains to the Crown, or 300,000
acres, is available for the purposes of settlement. The
whole of Prince Edward's Island, about 1,400,000 acres
was alienated in one day. In New Brunswick, 4,400,000
acres have been granted or sold, leaving to the Crown

of February 11, 1839, No. 2. See the dispatches of June 29, 1838
(pp. 135-7) ; July 31, 1838 (pp. 149-51), as to the British American
land company ; September 17, 1838 (pp. 166-70), as to militia claims
to land ; October 8, 1838 (pp. 196-201), as to land in Prince Edwwd
Island ; October 20, 1838 (pp. 226-8), as to a case of sale of lands
'in the Gaspe district ; October 30, 1838 (pp. 235-7), as to squatters on
Crown lands in Lower Canada ; and October 30, 1838 (p. 239), as tc
the British American land company.

220 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

about 11,000,000, of which 5,500,000 acres are considered
fit for immediate settlement.
Clergy Qf the lands granted in .Upper and Lower Canada,

reserves

upwards of 3TQQQrQQQ acres consist of ' Clergy Reserves ',
being for the most part lots of 200 acres each, scattered
at regular intervals over the whole face of the townships,
and remaining, with few exceptions, entirely wild to this
day. The evils produced by the system of reserving land
for the clergy have become notorious, even in this country;
and a common opinion I believe prevails here, not only
that the system has been abandoned, but that measures
of remedy have been adopted. This opinion is incorrect
in both points. In respect of every new township in both
Provinces, reserves are still made for the clergy, just as
before ; and the Act of the Imperial Parliament, which
permits the sale of clergy reserves, applies to only one-
fourth of the quantity. The Select Committee of the
House of Commons on the Civil Government of Canada
reported, in 1828, that ' these reserved lands, as they are
at present distributed over the country, retard more than
any other circumstance the improvement of the Colony,
lying as they do in detached portions in each township,
and intervening between the occupations of actual settlers,
who have no means of cutting roads through the woods
and morasses, which thus separate them from their
neighbours.' This description is perfectly applicable to
the present state of things. In no perceptible degree has
the evil been remedied.1
The Con- The system of clergy reserves was established by the
stitutional act of 1791 commonly caUed the Constitutional Act,

which directed that, in respect of all grants made by the
Crown, a quantity equal to one-seventh of the land so
granted should be reserved for the clergy. A quantity
equal to one-seventh of all grants would be one-eighth of
each township, or of all the public land. Instead of this
proportion, the practice has been, ever since the Act
passed, and in the clearest violation of its provisions, to
1 See above, p. 204 and note.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 221

set apart for the clergy in Upper Canada a seventh of all Violation -p
the land, which is a quantity equal to a sixth of the land j^iest'0' ^
granted. There have been appropriated for this purpose of the
300,000 acres, which, legally, it is manifest, belong to the JjppS "'
public. And of the amount for which clergy reserves have Canada,
been sold in that Province, namely £317,000 (of which
about £100,000 have been already received and invested
in the English funds), the sum of about £45,000 should
belong to the public.

In Lower Canada, the same violation of the law has The same
taken place, with this difference — that upon every sale ^°L^?e"
of Crown and clergy reserves, a fresh reserve for the Canada,
clergy has been made, equal to a fifth of such reserves.
The result has been the appropriation for the clergy of
673,567 acres, instead of 446,000, being an excess of
227,559 acres, or half as much again as they ought to have
received. The Lower Canada fund already produced by
sales amounts to £50,000, of which, therefore, a third, or
about £16,000, belong to the public. If, without any
reform of this abuse, the whole of the unsold clergy
reserves in both Provinces should fetch the average price
at which such lands have hitherto sold, the public would
be wronged to the amount of about £280,000 ; and the
reform of this abuse will produce a certain and almost
immediate gain to the public of £60,000. In referring,
for further explanation of this subject, to a paper in the
Appendix which has been drawn up by Mr. Hanson, a
member of the Commission of Inquiry which I appointed
for all the Colonies,1 I am desirous of stating my own
conviction that the clergy have had no part in this great
misappropriation of the public property, but that it has
arisen entirely from heedless misconception, or some other
error, of the civil government of both Provinces.

The great objection to reserves for the clergy is, that objection

those for whom the land is set apart never have attempted,

and never could successfully attempt, to cultivate or

settle the property, and that, by that special appropriation,

1 This is the first paper in Appendix A.

222 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

so much land is withheld from settlers, and kept in a state
of waste, to the serious injury of all settlers in its neigh-
bourhood. But it would be a great mistake to suppose
that this is the only practice by which such injury has
been, and still is, inflicted on actual settlers. In the two
Canadas, especially, the practice of rewarding, or attempt-
ing to reward, public services by grants of public land,1
has produced, and is still producing, a degree of injury
to actual settlers which it is difficult to conceive without
having witnessed it. The very principle of such grants
is bad, inasmuch as, under any circumstances, they must
lead to an amount of appropriation beyond the wants of
the community, and greatly_ beyond the, proprietor's
means of cultivation and settlement. In both the
Canadas, not only has this principle been pursued with
reckless profusion, but the local executive governments
have managed, by violating or evading the instructions
which they received from the Secretary of State, to add
incalculably to the mischiefs that would have arisen at
all events.

Grants of In Upper Canada, 3,200,000 acres have been granted to
Upper1 ' U. E. Loyalists ', being refugees from the United States
Canada ; who settled in the Province before 1787, and their children ;
730,000 acres to militiamen, 450,000 acres to discharged
soldiers and sailors, 255,000 acres to magistrates and
barristers, 136,000 acres to executive councillors and their
families, 50,000 acres to five legislative councillors and their
families, 36,900 acres to clergymen as private property,
J64^000 acres to persons contracting^ to_make__aur£eyj,
92,526 acres to officers of the army and navy, 500,000
acres for the endowment of schools, 48,520 acres to Colonel

1 Mr. Richards, in his Report on Waste Lands in the Canadas and
Emigration, printed for the House of Commons in March 1832, wrote
(p. 4) that ' the province of Upper Canada appears to have been con-
sidered by Government as a land fund, to reward meritorious servants.'
Land grants to officers and soldiers dated as far back as the Proclama-
tion of 1763. See above, p. 65. As an illustration of the claims put
forward, in 1797-8 Benedict Arnold asked for nearly 20,000 acres
of land in Canada as a reward for his services to the British Govern-
ment.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 223

Talbot,1 12,000 acres to the heirs of General Brock,2 and
12,000 acres to Doctor Mountain, a former Bishop of
Quebec ; making altogether, with the clergy reserves, *
nearly half of all the surveyed land in the Province.
In Lower Canada, exclusively of grants to refugee loyalists,
as to the amount of which the Crown Lands' Department in Lower
could furnish me with no information, 450,000 acres have Canada-
been granted to militiamen, to executive councillors
72,000 acres, to Governor Mimes about 48,000 acres, to
Mr. Gushing and another upwards of 100,000 acres (as a
rewar'd for giving information in a case of high treason),
to officers and soldiers 200,000 acres, and to ' leaders of
townships ' 1,457,209 acres, making altogether, with the
clergy reserves, rather more than half of the surveyed
lands originally at the disposal of the Crown.

In Upper-Canada, a very small proportion (perhaps less Small
than a tenth) of the land thus granted has been evenf°^ionof

1 1 ^ land occu-

occupied by settlers, much less reclaimed and cultivated, pied by
In Lower Canada, with the exception of a few townships ^
bordering on the American frontier, which have been
comparatively well settled, in despite of the proprietors,
by American squatters, it may be said that nineteen-
twentieths of these grants are still unsettled, and in a
perfectly wild state.

No other result could have been expected in the case of Land-
those classes of grantees whose station would preclude them i°
from settling in the wilderness, and whose means would
enable them to avoid exertion for giving immediate value
to their grants ; and, unfortunately, the land which was
intended for persons of a poorer order, who might be
expected to improve it by their labour, has, for the most
part, fallen into the hands of land-jobbers of the class just

• 1 Colonel Thomas Talbot was a very prominent figure in the early
history of Upper Canada. He was one of the Talbots of Malahide,
who went out to Upper Canada with General Simcoe, and settled him-
self and many others on the shore of Lake Erie, where he gave his
name to Port Talbot. He lived till 1853 (see Diet, of Nat. Biog., s.v.,
and see also the reference to him in the Life of Sir John Severity
Robinson).
2 The hero of the war of 1812, killed at Queenston Heights.

T

224 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

mentioned, who have never thought of settling in person,
and who retain the land in its present wild state, specu-
lating upon its acquiring a value at some distant day,
when the demand for land shall have increased through
the increase of population.
Abuses of In Upper Canada, says Mr. Bolton, himself a great
grants. speculator and holder of wild land, ' the plan of granting
large tracts to gentlemen who have neither the muscular
strength to go into the wilderness, nor, perhaps, the
pecuniary means to improve their grants, has been the
means of a large part of the country remaining in a
state of wilderness. The system of granting landtojthe
children of U. E. loyalists has not been productive of the
benefits expected from it. A very small proportion of
the land granted to them has been occupied or improved.
A great proportion of such grants were to unmarried
females, who very readily disposed of them for a small
consideration, frequently from 21. to 51. for a grant of
200 acres. The grants made to young men were also
frequently sold for a very small consideration ; they
generally had parents with whom they lived, and were
therefore not disposed to move to their grants of lands,
but preferred remaining with their families. I do not
think one-tenth of the lands granted to U. E. loyalists has
been occupied by the persons to whom they were granted,
and in a great proportion of cases not occupied at all.3
Mr. Radenhurst says, ' the general price of these grants
was from a gallon of rum up to perhaps 61., so that while
millions of acres were granted in this way, the settlement
of the Province was not advanced, nor the advantage of
the grantee secured in the manner that we may suppose
to have been contemplated by Government.' He also
mentions amongst extensive purchasers of these grants,
,Mr. Hamilton, a member of the Legislative Council, who
bougnTTaBouf 100,000 acres ; Chief Justices Emslie and
Powell, and Solicitor General Grey, who purchased
from JSO^OOO to 50.000 acres ; and states that several
members of the Executive and Legislative Councils, as

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA

225

well as of the House of Assembly, were ' very large
purchasers.'

In Lower Canada, the grants to ' Leaders and Asso- Evasion of
ciates ' were made by an evasion of instructions which ^wdS™
deserves a particular description.1 and as-

By instructions to the Local Executive immediately M
after the passing of the Constitutional Act, it was directed
that, ' because great inconveniences had tluTetofoiv, arisen
in many of the Colonies in America from the granting fUpp.Ca
excessive quantities of land to particular persons who
have never cultivated or settled the same, and have
thereby prevented others, more industrious, from improv-
ing such lands : in order, therefore, to prevent the like
inconveniences in future, no Jarm-lpt should be granted
to any person being master or mistress of a family in any
township to be laid out, which should contain more than
200 acres.' The instructions then invest the Governor
with a discretionary power to grant additional quantities
in certain cases, not exceeding 1,000 acres. According to
these instructions 200 acres should have been the general
amount, 1,200 the maximum, in special cases, to be
granted to any individual. The greater part, however,
of the land (1,457,209 acres) was granted, in fact, to
individuals at the rate of from 10,000 to 50,000 to each
person. The evasion of the regulations was managed as
follows :— A petition, signed by from 10 to 40 or 50 persons,
was presented to the Executive Council, praying for a grant
of 1,200 acres to each person, and promising to settle the
land so applied for. Such petitions were, I am informed,
always granted, the Council being perfectly aware that,
under a previous agreement between the applicants (of
which the form was prepared by the then Attorney
General, and sold publicly by the law stationers of -Quebec),
five-sixths of the land was to be conveyed to one of them,
termed the leader, by whose means the grant was obtained.

1 As to the practice here referred to see Appendix B, vol. iii, pp. 42-3,
iere it is stated that ' with this practice in fact, the history of the

where

settlement of the townships of Lower Canada commences

above, p. 18, note.

1352-2 Q

226 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

In most cases the leader obtained the whole of the land
which had been nominally applied for by 50 persons.
A Report of a Committee of the House of Assembly,
known to have been drawn up by the present Solicitor
General,1 speaks of this practice in the following terms :
* Your Committee, unwilling to believe that the above-
mentioned evasions of His Majesty's gracious instructions
had been practised with the knowledge, privity or consent
of His Majesty's servants, bound by their oaths, their
honour and their duty to obey them, instituted a long and
patient investigation into the origin of these abuses. They
have been painfully but irresistibly led to the conclusion,
that they were fully within the knowledge of individuals in
this Colony, who possessed and abused His Majesty's con-
fidence. The instruments by which this evasion was to be
carried into effect were devised by His Majesty's Attorney
General for the time being, printed and publicly sold in
the capital of this Province ; and the principal inter-
mediate agent was His Majesty's late Assistant Surveyor
— — General.'

In order to reward militiamen in Lower Canada, who
men. had served on the frontier during war, the Duke of
Richmond, acting, as it would appear, under instructions
from the Home Government, but of which no copy is
extant in the public offices at Quebec, promised grants of
land to many thousand persons inhabiting all parts of
the Province. The intentions of the Home Government
appear to have been most praiseworthy. How effectually
they have been defeated by the misconduct of the Local
Executive will appear from a Report on the subject in
ttons™' t!le APPendix (A-),2 and the following copy of the instruc-
Commis- tions given to Commissioners whom I appointed in order
sionera. to expe(jite the settlement of militia claims. I would also

1 The ' present Solicitor-General ' was Andrew Stuart, who had lately
been appointed to that office by Lord Durham. See below, p. 294, note.

1 This is the second paper included in Appendix A. It was also
given to Parliament in the Blue Book of February 11, 1839, pp. 166-9,
having been sent home by Lord Durham in a separate dispatch.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 227

refer to the evidence of Mr. Kerr, Mr. Morin, Mr. Davidson,
and Mr. Langevin.

To the COMMISSIONERS of unsettled MILITIA CLAIMS.
Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, 12 Sept. 1838.
Gentlemen,

I AM directed by his Excellency the Governor General,
in furnishing you with some instructions for your guidance
in disposing of unsettled militia claims, to state the view
which he takes of this subject, and has represented to
Her Majesty's Government.

His Excellency is of opinion that, if any reliance is to
be placed on the concurrent testimony of all from whom
he has derived information on the subject, the report of
the Commissioner of Crown Lands and Emigration, on
which his recent proclamation is founded, contains but
a faint description of the injury inflicted on this Province,
and of the cruel injustice done to the militiamen, by the
manner in which the intentions of the Home Government
with respect to these claimants have been defeated by
the local executive.

It appears to his Excellency that the intentions of the
Prince Regent in awarding land to those officers and men
of the militia who had loyally and gallantly served during
the last American war, were, in part, to promote the
settlement of wild lands, and the consequent prosperity
of the Province, but chiefly, there can be no doubt, to
bestow upon that body of loyal and gallant men some
extraordinary recompense for the privations and dangers
which they had cheerfully incurred in defence of the
country. His Excellency is satisfied that neither result
was obtained in any but so slight a degree as to be scarcely
worth notice. But the Governor General perceives, on
the other hand, that results occurred, as to the great
majority of cases, precisely opposite to those which the
Home Government had in view. The official delays and
obstacles interposed between the militia claimants and the
grants to which they were entitled — the impossibility,
in many cases, of ever obtaining a grant, even after the
most vexations impediments and delays — the mode of
allotting the land in such a manner, that the grant, when
obtained, was often worth nothing at all, and seldom
worth the trouble and expense of obtaining it— the neces-
sity of employing and paying agents acquainted with the

Q2

228 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

i labyrinths of the Crown Lands and Surveyor General's
' departments — the expense, uncertainty and harassing
trouble attendant upon the pursuit of such a claim ; all
' these circumstances, for which his Excellency is compelled
to believe that the public offices were alone to blame, had
the effect, he is convinced, in the majority of cases, of
converting what the Prince Regent had intended as a boon
into a positive injury to the militiamen. He is assured,
as might have been expected, that the militiamen disposed
of their claims, often for a mere trifle, to land speculators,
who never intended to settle upon the grants, and who
have for the most part kept the land in a state of wilder-
ness ; thereby defeating the only other intention with
which the Home Government could have determined on
making these grants. From a careful inspection of the
evidence taken on this subject from official gentlemen,
as well as others, his Excellency is led to concur entirely
in that part of the Commissioners' report, which states,
that ' there has been the maximum of injury to the
Province, with the minimum of benefit to the militiamen '.
This oryinfl gt^ey^p*^ his Excellency finds _has Jjgen
over and over again, and in various forms, represented
to the Government, but without any attempt., us far. as
he can discover, to provide an adequate reiri edy Jpnrjf . ,
He is encouraged to hope that the measure on which he
has determined, may, as respects the claims yet unsettled,
be the means of carrying into effect, however tardily, the
objects of the Prince Regent, by conferring a considerable
boon on these meritorious but long disappointed claimants,
and conducing to the settlement of the lands which may
thus be alienated by the Crown.

The Governor General further directs me to make you
acquainted with his confident expectation that you will
proceed, with the utmost despatch not incompatible with
accuracy, to determine all unsettled claims ; that, in
awarding orders to persons whose claims could not have
been admitted under the original proclamation, but will
now be held valid, you will take care not to admit any
claims except those of the six battalions, and of others
who actually served for the same period, and precisely
in the same manner as the six battalions. His Excellency
cannot doubt, moreover, that you will spare no pains in
endeavouring to secure to the class of militiamen the
advantage which was intended for them alone, and which
they ought long since to have received. As one means

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 229

of this most desirable end, his Excellency is of opinion
that you should explain to all claimants that the orders
for a nominal amount of money which you may award,
will have the full value of money at future sales of Crown
Jajuls^ and ought therefore to be .exchangeable for money,
if not for the whole sum named in them, still for one of
nearly the same amount. I am, &c.

Chas Butter, Chief Secretary.

The purposes of the Home Government, judging by the instruc-
general instructions which they gave to the local execu- °*

__ 7

tive, would seem to have been dictated by a sincere, and discon-
also an enlightened, desire to promote the settlement and oiT
improvement of the country. As respects Upper Canada,
instructions, dated July 1827, established as a general
rule for the disposal of public lands in future, that free
grants should be discontinued, and that a price should
be required for land alienated by the Crown. The
quantity of land disposed of by sale since those instruc-
tions were given amounts to 100,317 acres ; the quantity
disposed of during the same period by free grant, all in
respect of antecedent claims, is about 2,000,000 acres,
being above 19 times as much as has been disposed of
according to the new rule.

The instructions were obviously prepared with care for Intention
the purpose of establishing a new system, and placing the ]iflh^new
whole of the disposal of Crown lands in the hands of system,
a Commissioner, then for the first time appointed. The
Commissioner never assumed the control of any other
portion of these lands than such as were included in returns
made to him by the Surveyor General, amounting to
no more than about 300,000 acres. All the rest of the
land open for disposal remained, as previously, under
the control of the Surveyor General as an agent of the
Government for locating free grants. The salary of th<
Commissioner was £.500 a year, besides fees ; the whole
service during ten years was the superintendence of the
sale of 100,000 acres of wild land. The same person was
also Surveyor General of Woods and Forests, with a salary

230 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

of £.500 a year, and agent for the sale of Clergy Reserves,
with £.500 a year.

Lord In Logger Canada, under instructions from the Treasury,

^l™h'8 dated in November 1826, which were confirmed and
tions of further enforced by Lord Goderich in 1831, who manifestly
intended to supersede the old system of free grants by an
uniform system of sale, 450,469 acres have been sold, and
641,039 acres have, in respect of antecedent claims, been
disposed of by free grant ; and the object of the new rule
of selling was defeated by the large amount of free grants.
Even at tliis moment, in the two Provinces, where I was
assured before I left England that the system of selling
had been uniformly established by Lord Goderich's
regulations of 1831, there are unsettled, but probably
.indisputable claims for free grants, to the amount of from
1,000,000 to 1,300,000 acres. The main alteration which
Lord Goderich's regulations would have made in the
system intended to have been established by the Treasury
Instructions of 1826, was to render the price more restric-
tive of appropriation, by requiring payment in less time,
Disregard and the payment of interest in the meanwhile. This
tion'asto direction appears to have been totally disregarded in both
payment. Provinces. As respects Lower Canada, the head of the
Crown Lands Department gives the following evidence
on the subject :

' Q. How did it happen that this instruction was not
acted upon ? — A. In consequence of a representation
from Mr. Felton,1 the Commissioner of Crown Lands to
Lord Aylmer, the Governor of the Province, stating that
the terms imposed were too severe, and amounted, in
fact, to exacting the whole purchase-money down.

1 William Bowman Felton was Commissioner of Crown Lands in
Lower Canada and member of the Legislative Council. He seems to
have been conspicuous in malpractices with regard to lands, and three
(Imperial) Parliamentary Papers are concerned with him, two in 1836
and one in 1837. The Quebec Assembly in 1836 presented an address
to the Governor-in-Chief, asking that Felton should be removed from
office. The Governor-in-Chief, Lord Gosford, suspended him in August
1836, and in the following November the Secretary of State, Lord
Glenelg, confirmed the suspension and dismissed him from the service.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 231

Lord Aylmer, upon this, authorized Mr. Felton to continue
the former practice, and, it is understood, reported the
circumstance to the Home Government. This was in
1832, and the system of longer credit without interest
continued to be acted upon until the receipt of Lord
Glenelg's Despatch of 1837, which required payment in
ready money at the time of sale.'

I have already pointed out the importance of accurate Impor-
surveys of the public land. Without these there can be g^unto

no security of property in land, no certainty even as to surveys.
the position or boundaries of estates marked out in maps
or named in title deeds. In Nova Scotia, says the present
Surveyor General, ' there are very many instances of litiga-
tion in consequence of inaccurately denned boundaries.'
Mr. M'Kenzie, a draftsman of the Surveyor General's office
at Halifax, who is also employed to conduct surveys in
the field, says, he ' has found it impossible to make correct
surveys in consequence of inaccuracy as to former lots of
land, from which of necessity he measures, and also from
surveys being inaccurately made by persons not qualified.
In many cases, also, the boundaries of land granted have
never been surveyed or laid out at all. The present state
of surveys is inadequate and injurious to the settlement
of the land'. In New Brunswick, says the present
Surveyor General, ' no survey of the Province has ever
been made, and the surveys of the old grants are extreme y
erroneous, and expose errors and collisions which c
not have been supposed to exist. It frequently
occurred that different grants are made for the same
of land. I think this system pernicious, and it will
day be very injurious. The usual practice cam
relLd on as giving a settler a grant of land that cannot b
disturbed, without great care and a greater expense t
a poor settler can afford.' In Upper Canada - "^
hurst asserts that < ^surveys throughout the
generally are very inaccurate. This inaccuracy wa.
- gp3uced in the tat instance by the defidency ^ ^
petent persons, and the carelessness with whic.

*

Kee\c
Lo»

232 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

surveys were conducted. Latterly thtvpraof.inft intrnrhige
by Sir Peregrine Maitland, in spite of the results-being
pointed out by the then Surveyor General, of letting mif-
the surveys to any person who was willing to contract,
for them for a certain quantity of land, produced .extreme
carelessness and inaccuracy. The surveyors just hurried
through the township, and of course made surveys, which,
on the ground, are found to be very inaccurate. There
are instances in which scarcely a single lot is of the
dimensions or in the position actually assigned to it
in the diagram. The ^consequences of this have been
confusion and uncertainty in the possessions of almost
every man, and no small amount of litigation '. As to
Lower Canada, the evidence is still more complete and
unsatisfactory. The Commissioner of Crown Lands says,
in answer to questions, ' I can instance two townships,
Shefford and Orford (and how many more may prove
inaccurate as questions of boundary arise, it is impossible
to say), which are very inaccurate in their subdivision.
On actual recent survey it has been found, that no one
lot agrees with the diagram on record. The lines dividing
the lots, instead of running perpendicularly according to
the diagram, actually run diagonally, the effect of which
is necessarily to displace the whole of the lots, upwards
of 300 in number, from their true position. The lines
dividing the ranges are so irregular as to give to some lots
two and a half times the contents of others, though they
are all laid down in the diagram as of equal extent ; there
are lakes also which occupy nearly the whole of some lots
that are entirely omitted : I have heard complaints of
a similar nature respecting the township of Grenvile.
I have no reason for believing that the surveys of other
townships are more accurate than those of Shefford and
Orford, other than that in some parts of the country the
same causes of error may not have existed, whether
physical causes, such as that of magnetic attraction,
where there really was a survey, or, in cases where there
was no actual survey, the negligence of the surveyor.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 233

The inaccuracy of which I have spoken is confined to
that part of the Province which is divided into townships.1
There are 109 townships of about 100 square miles each,
including all the land which has been disposed of by the
British Government, except the seigniories which were
erected by that Government shortly after the conquest.
Similar difficulties to those which might arise in settling
a question of title between the Crown and an alleged
squatter, arising from the inaccuracy of the township
surveys, would extend to all grants and sales by the
Crown, and also to all questions of title between persons
claiming to have a grant, or to have purchased from the
Crown, and alleged squatters on the land asserted to be
theirs, and more or less to all cases in which different
persons should claim to have received or purchased the
same piece of land from the Crown. It is a general
observation that this state of the Crown surveys must
prove a source of interminable litigation hereafter ; it is
impossible to say how many cases may arise of double
grants of the same land under different designations,
arising from the defective state of the surveys. None of
such cases have come before me in an official shape, but
I apprehend that questions of that nature are waiting
in great numbers until lands shall have become more
valuable, when the Crown will be called in upon every
occasion to defend its own grant, and, considering the
state of the surveys, will be without the means of such
defence, unless measures to prevent the evil should be
adopted before its occurrence. In common with every
person who has ever reflected on the subject, I consider
this a subject of very high importance, and demanding
the immediate attention of Government.' Mr. Daly, the
secretary of the Province, says :— ' An accurate survey
of the whole of the ungranted lands in the Province
I believe to be extremely desirable and necessary to quiet
doubts that have arisen in the minds of many new settl
as to the correctness of their boundaries.' Mr. Patn
1 As to the townships, see above, p. 18, note.

234 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Daly, commissioned surveyor of the Province, gives the
following evidence : —

You are just come to Quebec to make a representation
as to the state of the township of Durham ? — I am.

What is the point which you wish to ascertain ? —
Whether I can have authority to establish a new line
between the 6th and 7th ranges of the township of Durham.

What would be the consequence of such a change ?—
In consequence of a part of the old range-line being found
incorrect to the extent of 60 perches, whereby the 7th
would lose about one-fifth of its dimensions, and the same
amount would be improperly added to the 6th ; the
change I wish to make would set this right.

How did you discover that the line was incorrect ? — In
consequence of having been employed by Capt. Ployart,
of Durham, to run the side lines of lot No. 15, in the 6th
range, in order to determine the extent of his property,
he being the proprietor of that lot, I discovered that the
line was incorrect, as I have described already ; and
I cannot proceed to rectify the error without authority
from the Governor, or some person appointed by the
Governor, as we have not any laws in the Province to
enable me to make a new range-line, as the old range-line
is not to be found, with the exception of a small part,
which is in the wrong place, as I have described.

Would a new line have the effect of taking away land,
in actual possession, from any person, and giving it to
another ? — Yes, it would.

Do you suppose that the other range-lines in this
township are correct or incorrect ? — Some are correct, but
they are generally incorrect ; my attention, however, has
not been particularly called to them.

Are not the proprietors of the other lots which are
incorrect anxious to have the limits of their property
settled ? — Yes, very anxious ; more particularly the
inhabitants of the 3d range, about one quarter of whose
property is taken by the inhabitants of the 2d range,
through the means of an erroneous old range-line, as has
been proved by various subsequent surveys duly sworn to.
I am requested by all the inhabitants of the 3d range to
take steps to obtain a new range-line.

Have they ever applied before for this rectification of
the survey ? — Yes ; they applied to the Surveyor General's
department, by a statement made by me, and now in the

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 235

Surveyor General's office ; but the answer was, that there
was no law in the province to authorize the changing of
a range-line, however incorrect, without the consent of
all the parties concerned.

Then all parties did not concur in this case ? — No, they
did not.

Why not ? — Because many of those who improperly
gained by the error wished to retain what rightly belonged
to their neighbour.

As the former application was fruitless, upon what
ground do you now proceed ? — Upon the confidence that
as Lord Durham has greater powers than other Governors,
he may be pleased to consider this great loss of property
to the people, and give orders to correct the evil.

Are you acquainted with other townships ? — Yes.

Have you found the surveys of them generally correct
or incorrect ? — I have found the surveys of the township
of Windsor as incorrect, or even more so, than that of the
township of Durham, which can be proved by the most
reliable testimony. Generally, with the exception of the
township of Wickham, I have found them quite incorrect.
I speak only from my personal experience, and not from
what I have heard.

Mr. Sewell, recently Chief Justice of the Province,1
says : — ' I have known of many defects in the surveys,
which have appeared in many cases before me, and am
apprehensive that they are very numerous. I can only
state, from my own opinion, two remedies by which these
defects may be in some degree remedied : the one is by

1 Jonathan Sewell was born in June 1766 at Cambridge, Massa-
chusetts, being the son of the Attorney-General of that State. He was
educated in England at Bristol Grammar School, and in 1785 went
with his father to New Brunswick. He was called to the bar m Lower
Canada, and served the Crown in that province for 48 years, 18 years
as Solicitor-General and Attorney^General, and 30 years as Chief Justice.
He was appointed Chief Justice in 1808, and retired in October 38,
when Lord Durham appointed, as his successor, James B
in 1814, when in opposition to the Government, had taken the 1<
impeaching Sewell in the Quebec Assembly. The charges were referr
to England, and a committee of the Privy Council upheld Sewell
all points, The judges were a favourite subject of attack by the » de
cratic party in the Quebec Assembly, and Sewell, who as Ch.ef Justice
was also Speaker of the Legislative Council, incurred much popu
hostility. He was a man of high standing and distinction and a fr
of the Duke of Kent. He died at Quebec m 1839.

236 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

running anew the outlines of the several townships ; the
other an Act to give quietjjpj^essionj such as has been
heretofore passed in other provinces. I am afraid that
running the outlines of the townships would not be of any
great benefit beyond exposing the errors.' Mr. Kerr
says : — ' It is generally understood the surveys in many
of the various townships are very inaccurate ; and many
of the surveys have been found to be so. I had in my
hand the other day a patent for four lots in the township
of Inverness, three of which did not exist, granted to
a Captain Skinner. Three of the lots were decided not
to be in existence ; and I received compensation for
them in another township. A great error was discovered
in the original survey of the township of Leeds. The
inaccuracy of the surveys is quite a matter of certainty.
I could cite a number of townships, Milton, Upton, Orford,
Shefford, &c., where the inaccuracy has been ascertained.
Inconvenience from the inaccuracy of the surveys has
been felt ; but it is only now beginning to be so seriously.
As the settlement of the country advances, and land
acquires a greater value, great inconvenience must arise
in the shape of endless questions of title : and of this
many people are so well aware, that they refuse to sell
with a guarantee of title.'

ineffi- I may add, generally, that I found the surveying

Surveying department in Lower Canada so thoroughly inefficient
Depart- jn its constitution, as to be incapable of any valuable
improvement ; and that I therefore abstained from
interfering with it, trusting that the whole future manage-
ment of the public lands would be placed on a new footing,
calculated to remedy this, as well as all the other evils of
the present system.

Delays in
complet-
ing Titles

Another of those evils requires some notice here. IIL
the United States, the title to land purchased of the

Government is obtained immediately and securely on
payment of the purchase-money. In all the British
Colonies, there is .more or less of useless formality and
consequent delay in procuring a complete title to land

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 237

which has been paid for. Dr. Baldwin, speaking of
Upper Canada, says : — ' I do not know that there was
any more constant subject of complaint on the part of
individuals, against the Government, than the delays of
office, especially in connexion with Jand-gr anting. It
frequently happened to myself, and I believe to others
also, that, during the time when free grants of land, of
small amount, were made to actual settlers, persons who
had spent their money in waiting for the completion of
the grant, have applied to me for employment while the
patent was being perfected, and I have furnished it for
a short time. The most striking instance that occurred
in my knowledge, in which an individual was injured by
the delay to which he was exposed in this respect, was
that of a man of the name of Burnes, who, in Sir Peregrine
Maitland's time, having fallen in debt to some persons
whom he had employed, was pressed by them for the
money. At this time, a patent was in progress through
the offices for him. He applied to his creditors to give
him time till his patent was completed, which would
enable him to raise money to pay them. The creditors
were willing, and waited for some time, but at last became
impatient, and they arrested him, and he was compelled
to go to prison. The patent had passed through the
offices, but he was compelled to remain in prison a
fortnight, while the patent was sent over to the
Governor for his signature, at his residence, near the
Falls of Niagara.' A recent Act of the Legislature of
Upper Canada l has greatly mitigated this evil, which
however remains in full force in Lower Canada. Mr. Kerr
says, ' As soon as the purchaser has paid the last instal-
ment, he is referred by the Crown Lands' Officer, to whom
the payment is made, for patent, to the Surveyor General
for the necessary specification. Then the specification,

1 The Act was presumably 7 Will. IV, cap. 118, 'An act to provide
for the disposal of the Public Lands in this Province and for otoj
purposes therein mentioned.' It was passed m 1837, and the , I
Assent was published in 1838. As to delays in giving legal t
lands, see above, p. 210, note 2.

238 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

with the reference, is sent to the Commissioner of Crown
Lands. These documents are next sent to the Secretary
of the Governor or Civil Secretary, who directs the
Provincial Secretary to engross the patent. The fees
are then levied, and, upon the payment of fees, the
Provincial Secretary engrosses. On engrossment being
made, the Governor signs the patent, and the great seal
of the Province is attached to it. This signature is
procured by the Provincial Secretary. The patent is
then sent to the Commisisoner of Crown Lands to be
audited. At present one of the Commissioners audits :
this used to be done by the Auditor, but the office of
Auditor has been abolished. When the audit is made,
the title is said to be perfected. The effect of having to
refer to so many persons has been the total loss of many
references, and the papers connected with them, in one
or other of the offices. There have been cases in which
I was referred three times for the same patent, all the
papers having been lost twice successively. In some cases
the papers are found again, but at too late a period to be
available. The shortest time withimwhich I

a title to be perfected is about six weeks, and the longest
.about eight years. More than ordinary diligence was
used in the case of six weeks. I obtained an order from
the Governor for a special reference for my patent, to take
priority of all others then in the office. The average
period required for completing a title, after the purchase
has been completed by the payment of the whole of. the
purchase-money, is full 15 months. I am satisfied that the
present system is a serious impediment to the settlement
of the country ; and that no extensive measure for that
purpose can work well, unless the mode of obtaining titles,
after purchase, be rendered much more simple. Immediate
despatch with title is what is required to encourage pur-
chasers, and prevent uncertainty and discontent. I have
been directed by purchasers to apply for the return of
their purchase-money from the Crown, because of the delay
which has occurred. The presently stem is so profitable

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 239

.Jo_agfints, that, speaking as an agent, I should be sorry
to see it abolished. One of the inconveniences to the
public is the necessity of employing agents acquainted with
the labyrinths through which each reference has to pass.'
The results of this general mismanagement are thus
illustrated by the chief agent for emigrants in Upper
Canada.

' The principal evils to which settlers in a new township niustra-
are subject result from the scantiness of population. J*011 °f
.A towns.hip contains 80,000 * acres of land ; on«Mievanth
Js_reseryed for the clergy and one-seventh for the Crown ; aseinent-
consequently five-sevenths remain for the disposal of
Government, a large proportion of which is taken up by
grants to U._E. loyalists, militiamen, officers and others :
the far greater part of these grants^remain in an unim-
proved state. These blocks of wild land place the actual
settler in an almost hopeless condition ; he can hardly
expect, during his lifetime, to see his neighbourhood
contain a population sufficiently dense to support mills,
schools, post-offices, places of worship, markets or shops ;
and without these, civilization retrogrades. Roads under
such circumstances can neither be opened by the settlers,
nor kepff fo pfflpf * *^p°;** even if made by the Government.
The inconvenience arising from want of roads is very
great, and is best illustrated by an instance which came
under my own observation in 1834. I met a settler from
the township of Warwick on the Caradoc Plains, returning
from the grist mill at Westminster, with the flour and
bran of thirteen bushels of wheat ; he had a yoke of oxen
and a horse attached to his waggon, and had been absent
nine days, and did not expect to reach home until the
following evening. Light as his load was, he assured me
that he had to unload wholly or in part several times,
and, after driving his waggon through the swamps, to
pick out a road through the woods where the swamps or
gullies were fordable, and to carry the bags on his back
and replace them in the waggon. Supposing the services
1 The figure given in the evidence is 60,000, not 80,000.

T

240 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

of the man and his team to be worth two dollars per day,
the expense of transport would be twenty dollars. As the
freight of wheat from Toronto to Liverpool [England] is
rather less than 2s. 6d. per bushel, it follows that a person
living in this city could get the same wheat ground on the
banks of the Mersey, and the flour and bran returned to
him at a much less expense than he could transport it
from the rear of Warwick to Westminster and back —
a distance less than 90 miles. Since 1834 a grist-mill has
been built in Adelaide, the adjoining township, which is
a great advantage to the Warwick settlers ; but the people
in many parts of the Province still suffer great incon-
venience from the same cause.'

Mr. Rankin, Deputy Land Surveyor, says, ' The jystem
grants °^ making large grants to individuals who h^H nn injgnfmn
have of settling them, has tended to retard the_pjrosj3erity_ of
abandon- the colony, by separating the actual settlers, and rendering
mttf °f ** so much more difficult, and in some QAOP^ impossibly for
ments. them to make the necessary roads._.It.has also made the
markets more distant and more precarious. To such an ex-
tent have these difficulties been experienced, as to occasion
the abandonment of settlements which had been formed,
I may mention, as an instance of this, the township of
Rama, where, after a trial of three years, the settlers were
compelled to abandon their improvements,. In the
township of J3t._ Vincent, almost all the most valuable
settlers have left their farms from the same cause. There
have been numerous instances in which, though the
settlement has not been altogether abandoned, the most
valuable settlers, after unavailing struggles of several
years with the difficulties which I have described, have
left their farms.' This witness, who was for ten years
employed by Government as Deputy Surveyor in the
western district, which I have before described as the
finest grain country in North America,1 states that ' nine-
tenths of the land granted by the Crown in that district
are still in a state of wilderness.'

1 See above, p. 216. In his quotations Lord Durham rather boils
down the evidence.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 241

For illustration of the same kind as respects Lower
Canada, I would refer to the testimony of the Commissioner
of Crown Lands, Mr. Kerr, the Deputy Postmaster
General, Mr. Russell, Major Head, Mr. Keough, the late
Chief Justice, and Mr. Lemesurier.

Mr. Kerr says, ' The main obstacle to the speedy Settler*
settlement and cultivation of all the more fertile party fheirf^ms
of the Province is private land remaining wild ; inasmuch for a third
as the land of the Crown is open to purchase, which is °f IhT*^
not generally the case with that of private individuals. n»oney«.
excepting at too exorbitant a price. So injurious is the im'i'n.vin"
^existence of this quantity of wild land, in the midst or in them'
the neighbourhood of settlement, that numerous cases have
occurred in which a settler, after several years' residence
upon his property, and having expended, in money and
labour, from £.20 to £.50 in clearing part of it and building
his house, has been driven to abandon the farm, and to
sell it for one-third or even one-fourth of the sum that he
had expended upon it. I have myself bought farms
which have been abandoned in this way for the merest
trifle. One, I recollect now, consisted of 100 acres, in
the township of Kingsey, a beautiful part of the district
of Three Rivers, with rather more than 20 acres cleared,
and a good house and outhouses erected upon it, for which
I paid under £.30. I could give very many instances of
a similar kind, where I have either purchased myself, or
have had a personal knowledge of the circumstances.'

One of the most remarkable instances of evils resulting Profusion
from profuse grants of land is to be found in Prince °n
Edward's Island.1 Nearly the whole of the island (about
1,400,000 acres) was alienated in one day, in very large
grants, chiefly to absentees, and upon conditions which
have been wholly disregarded. The extreme improvidence
which dictated these grants is obvious : the neglect of
the Government as to enforcing the conditions of the
grants, in spite of the constant efforts of the people and
the legislature to force upon its attention the evils under
1 See above, p. 198 and note, and p. 219.

1352-2 R

242

REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

which they laboured, is not less so. The great bulk of
the island is still possessed by absentees, who hold it as
a tort of reversionary interest, which requires no present
attention, but may become valuable some day or other
through the growing wants of the inhabitants. But in
the mean time, the inhabitants are subjected to the
greatest inconvenience, nay, to the most serious injury,
from the state of property in land.

neither improve the land, nor will let others improve it.
They retain the land, and keep it in a state of wilderness.
I have in another place adverted to the remedy proposed,
and the causes, which have long retarded its adoption.
The feelings of the colonists on the subject are fully
expressed in the evidence of Mr. Lelacheur, Mr. Solicitor
General Hodgson, and the Governor, Sir Charles Fitzroy.
I may add, that their testimony was confirmed by that
of the delegates from the Island who visited me at Quebec.
Influence ^ the above enumeration of facts, I do not profess to
of disposal have exhausted the long catalogue of evils and abuses

public which were brought to my notice. But I have stated
prosperity

Emigra-
tion*

L, I trust, to establish the position with which I set
out, — that the disposal of public lands in a new country
has more influence on the prosperity of the people than
any other branch of Government ; and further to make
it evident, that the still existing evils which have been
occasioned by mismanagement in this department, are
so great and general as to require a comprehensive and
effectual remedy, applied to all the Colonies, before any
merely political reform can be expected to work well.

I now proceed to another subject, which, though
ultimately connected with the colonization and improve-
ment of the Provinces, must yet be considered separately ;
for it is one in which not the colonial population only, but
the people of the United Kingdom have a deep and
immediate interest. I allude to the manner in which
the emigration of the poorer classes from Great Britain
and Ireland to the North American Colonies has hitherto
been conducted.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 243

About nine years ago, measures were for the first time
taken to ascertain the number of immigrants arriving at arri™>K »t
Quebec by sea. The number during these nine years has Q"C
been 263,089 ; and there have been as many in one year
(1832) as 51,746. In the year before, the number was
50,254; in 1833, 21,752; in 1834, 30,935; in 1835,
12,527 ; in 1836, 27,728 ; in 1837, 22,500 ; and in 1838,
only 4,992.! The great diminution in 1838 was occasioned
solely, I believe, by the vague fears entertained in this
country of dangers presented by the distracted state of
the Colonies. I am truly surprised, however, that
emigration of the poorer classes to the Canadas did not
almost entirely cease some years ago ; and that this
would have been the case, if the facts which I am about
to state had been generally known in the United Kingdom,
there can, I think, be no rational doubt.

Dr. Morrin, a gentleman of high professional and Diseases
personal character, Inspecting Physician of the Port of *"d^|
Quebec, and Commissioner of the Marine and Emigrant of Emi-
Hospital, says : — ' I am almost at a loss for words to
describe the state in which the emigrants frequently
arrived ; with a few exceptions, the state of the ships was
quite abominable ; so much so, that the harbour-master's
boatmen had no difficulty, at the distance of gun-shot,
either when the wind was favourable or in a dead calm,
in distinguishing by the odour alone a crowded emigrant
ship. I have known as many as from 30 to 40 deaths to
have taken place, in the course of a voyage, from typhus
fever, on board of a ship containing from 500 to 600
passengers ; and within six weeks after the arrival of
some vessels, and the landing of the passengers at Quebec,
the hospital has received upwards of 100 patients at

1 For purposes of comparison the figures of 70 years later are interest-
ing. The total immigrants by sea direct into Canadian ports (excluding
immigrants coming through the ports of the United States) were for
the year ended March 31, 1907, 138,591, of whom 83,904 were credited
to the port of Quebec ; and for the year ended March 31, 1908, 174,849,
of whom 112,324 were credited to the port of Quebec. The number
credited to Quebec includes the whole of the immigrants via the
St. Lawrence. Dr. Morrin's evidence is not quoted quite correctly.

R2

244 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

different times from among them. On one occasion, I have
known nearly 400 patients at one time in the Emigrant
Hospital of Quebec, for whom there was no sufficient
accommodation ; and in order to provide them with some
shelter, Dr. Painchaud, the then attending physician,
with the aid of other physicians, incurred a personal debt
to the Quebec Bank to a considerable amount, which,
however, was afterwards paid by the Provincial Legis-
Miserablc lature.' ... ' The mortality was considerable among the
Emigrants emigrants at that time, and was attended with most
\\hcn disastrous consequences ; children being left without pro-
tection, and wholly dependent on the casual charity of the
inhabitants of the city. As to those who were not sick on
arriving, I have to say that they were generally forcibly
landed by the masters of vessels, without a shilling in their
pockets to procure them a night's lodging, and very few
of them with the means of subsistence for more than
a very short period. They commonly established them-
selves along the wharfs and at the different landing-places,
crowding into any place of shelter they could obtain,
where they subsisted principally upon the charity of the
inhabitants. For six weeks at a time from the commence-
ment of the emigrant-ship season, I have known the shores
of the river along Quebec, for about a mile and a half,
crowded with these unfortunate people, the places of those
who might have moved off being constantly supplied by
fresh arrivals, and there being daily drafts of from 10 to
infectious 30 taken to the hospital with infectious disease. The
Korea^T consequence was it spread among the inhabitants of the
into the city, especially in the districts in which these unfortunate
creatures had established themselves. Those who were
not absolutely without money, got into low taverns and
boarding-houses and cellars, where they congregated in
immense numbers, and where their state was not any
better than it had been on board ship. This state of
things existed within my knowledge from 1826 to 1832,
and probably for some years previously.'
Dr. Morrin's testimony is confirmed by that of Dr. Skey,

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 245

Deputy Inspector General of Hospitals, and President of Contagion
the Quebec Emigrants Society.1 He says, 'Upon thej^jf
arrival of emigrants in the river, a great number of imported
sick have landed. A regular importation of contagious Q^bec by
disease into this country has annually taken place ; that Emigrant*,
disease originated on board ship, and was occasioned,
I should say, by bad management in consequence of the
ships being ill-found, ill-provisioned, over-crowded, and
ill- ventilated. I should say that the mortality during the
voyage has been dreadful ; to such an extent that, in
1834, the inhabitants of Quebec, taking alarm at the
number of shipwrecks, at the mortality of the passengers,
and the fatal diseases which accumulated at the Quaran-
tine Establishment at Grosse Isle and the Emigrant
Hospital of this city, involving the inhabitants of Quebec
in the calamity, called upon the Emigrants Society to
take the subject into consideration, and make repre-
sentations to the Government thereon.'

The circumstances described took place under the Operation
operation of the Act 9th Geo. 4, commonly called thep^^.
Passengers Act, which was passed in 1825, repealed ingersAct-
1827, and re-enacted in 1828. In 1835, an amended
Passengers Act was passed, the main features of which,
so far as they differed from the former Act, are stated to
have been suggested by the Quebec Emigrants Society.
Mr. Jessopp, Collector of Customs at the Port of Quebec,
speaking of emigration under the last Act, says, ' It very
often happens that poorer emigrants have not a sufficiency
of provisions for the voyage; that they should have
a sufficiency of provisions, might be enforced under the
Act, which authorizes the inspection of provisions by the
outport agent for emigrants. Many instances have come gjj^J1
to my knowledge in which, from insufficiency of provisions, Agenta<

1 Dr Skey in his evidence says of the Quebec Emigrants Society,
that 'the existence of the Society can be tr ac ed mperfectfr a
back as the year 1820' ; but, as a matter of MJteSMM
to have been formed in 1819 in consequence of the
emigration in that year, especially from Ireland, and
tion of the emigrants.

246 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

emigrants have been thrown upon the humanity of the
captain, or the charity of their fellow-passengers. It will
appear, also, from the fact that many vessels have more
emigrant passengers than the number allowed by law, that
sufficient attention is not paid at the outport to enforce
the provisions of the Act, as to the proportions between
the numbers and the tonnage. Such instances have not
occurred this season [1838], emigration having almost
ceased, in consequence, I presume, of the political state
of the Province ; but, last year, there were several
instances in which prosecution took place. Vessels are
chartered for emigration by persons whose sole object is
to make money, and who make a trade of evading the
provisions of the Act. This applies particularly to vessels
coming from Ireland. We have found, in very many
instances, that, in vessels chartered in this way, the
number was greater than allowed by law ; and the
captains have declared, that the extra numbers smuggled
themselves, or were smuggled, on board, and were only
discovered after the vessel had been several days at sea.
This might be prevented by a stricter examination of the
Frauds vessel. The Imperial Act requires that the names, ages,
atoms6™ sex and occupation of each passenger should be entered
in a list, certified by the customs officer at the outport,
and delivered by the captain with the ship's papers to the
officers of the customs here. Lists, purporting to be
correct, are always delivered to the tide-surveyor, whose
duty it is to muster the passengers, and compare them
with the list ; and this list, in many instances, is wholly
incorrect as to names and ages.' ... ' The object of the
falsification of the ages is to defraud the revenue by
evading the tax upon emigrants.' ... ' The falsification
of names produces no inconvenience ; and I have only
referred to it for the purpose of showing the careless
manner in which the system is worked by the agents
in the United Kingdom.' But Dr. Poole, Inspecting
Physician of the Quarantine Station at Grosse Isle, further
explains the fraud, saying, ' These falsifications are, first,

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 247

for the purpose of evading the emigrant tax, which is
levied in proportion to age, and the common fraud is to
understate the age ; and, secondly, for the purpose of
carrying more passengers than the law allows, by counting
grown persons as children, of which last, the law allows
a larger proportion to tonnage than of grown persons.
This fraud is very common, of frequent occurrence,
and it arises manifestly from want of inspection at
home.'

From this and other evidence, it will appear that the Measures
Amended Passengers Act alone, as it has been hitherto

administered, would have afforded no efficient remedy of been miti.
the dreadful evils described by Dr. Morrin and Dr. Skey.
Those evils have, however, been greatly mitigated by
two measures l of the Provincial Government : first, the
application of a tax upon passengers from the United
Kingdom, to providing shelter, medical attendance, and
the means of further transport to destitute emigrants ;
secondly, the establishment of the Quarantine Station at
Grosse Isle, a desert island some miles below Quebec,
where all vessels arriving with cases of contagious disease
are detained ; the diseased persons are removed to an
hospital, and emigrants not affected with disease are
landed, and subjected to some discipline for the purpose
of cleanliness, the ship also being cleaned while they
remain on shore. By these arrangements, the accumu-
lation of wretched paupers at Quebec, and the spread
of contagious disease, are prevented. An arrangement,
made only in 1837, whereby the Quarantine physician at
Grosse Isle decides whether or not an emigrant ship shall
be detained there or proceed on its voyage, has, to use the
words of Dr. Poole, ' operated as a premium to care and

1 These steps were taken in 1832 under two Acts passed by the
Legislature of Lower Canada in the spring of that year (see Introduct
pp 194-6). Of the Act which imposed a tax on immigrants, Chnt
says that it was ' afterwards the subject of much undue oppro
from Upper Canada, as a tax prejudicial to the influx of British mi-
grants, and consequently, it was said, to the prejudice of that pro
(vol. iii, p. 383).

248 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

attention on the part of the captain, and has had a salutary
effect on the comfort of the emigrants.'

Quaran- I cordially rejoice in these improvements, but would

Establish- observe that the chief means by which the good has been

ment, accomplished indicates the greatness of the evil that

remains. The necessity of a Quarantine Establishment

for preventing the importation of contagious disease from

Britain to her Colonies, as if the emigrants had departed

from one of those Eastern countries which are the home

of the plague, shows beyond a doubt either that our very

system of emigration is most defective, or that it is most

carelessly administered.1

State of It is, I know, contended in this country that, though
arrange- great defects existed formerly, present arrangements are
ments. very different and no longer objectionable. For example,
in the Report of the Agent General for Emigration from
the United Kingdom, ordered by the House of Commons
to be printed 14th May 1838,2 it is stated, with reference
to that emigration to the Canadas before the year 1832,
which has been described by Dr. Morrin and Dr. Skey,
eye-witnesses of the miseries and calamities that took
place, that ' these great multitudes had gone out by their
own means, and disposed of themselves through their
own efforts, without any serious or lasting inconvenience.'
. . . ' A practice,' it is added, ' which appeared to thrive
so well spontaneously.'

The same Report states, with reference to the present

1 This is one of the passages in which Lord Durham uses somewhat
exaggerated terms. It is difficult to imagine what his verdict would
have been on the very stringent laws and regulations which are enforced
by the Canadian Government at the present day with regard to vaccina-
tion, quarantine, and immigration generally.

1 The writer of this interesting Parliamentary Report was Mr. (after-
wards Sir) T. F. Elliot of the Colonial Office. He had been Secretary
of a Commission on Emigration appointed by Lord Ripon in 1831,
and he subsequently, in 1835, went to Canada with Lord Gosford and
his colleagues as Secretary to Lord Gosford's Commission. On his return
to England he was, in 1837, appointed Agent-General for Emigration,
and the Report here referred to was his first Report. In 1840 he was
nominated as one of the three members of the newly-constituted Board
of ' Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners ', in which his
previous appointment was merged.

249

operation of the Passengers Act, and the officers employed Duties of
by the Colonial Department to superintend its execution, S8™"
that ' their duty is to give ease and security to the resort Agents,
to the Colonies, and to promote the observance of the
salutary provisions of the Passengers Act. In all that
relates to emigration they constitute, as it were, in every
port, the appointed poor man's friend. They take notice
whether the ship offered for his conveyance is safe, and
fit for its purpose ; they see to the sufficiency of the
provisions on board ; they prohibit over-crowding ; and
they make every effort to avert or to frustrate those
numerous and heartless frauds which are but too con-
stantly attempted, at the moment of departure, upon the
humbler classes of emigrants.' ' Every effort,' adds the
Reporter, speaking of emigrants to North America, ' is
made for the ease and safety of their transit.'

At Quebec, at least, where are landed the great majority Real state
of emigrants to the North American Colonies, an opinion
prevails which is greatly at variance with the above
representation. Nobody in the Colony denies that the
Passengers Act, and the appointment of agents to
superintend its execution, is a considerable improvement
upon the utterly lawless and unobserved practices of
former times ; nor, I should imagine, would any one in
this country object to such an approach, however distant,
to the systematic and responsible management of emigra-
tion, which has been repeatedly urged upon the Govern-
ment of late years ; but that there is still great room
for further improvement, as respects emigration to the
Colonies in North America, is, I think, established by
Mr. Jessopp, and the following evidence of Dr. Poole.

Dr. Poole holds an important office, of which I am Ve
enabled to state that he has performed the duties with * nt8'
great skill and exemplary diligence. He did not volunteer
the information which he has supplied. He was summoned
to give evidence before the Commissioners of Inquiry on
Crown Lands and Emigration ; and it was in answer t
questions put to him that he said, ' I have been attached

250 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

to the Station at Grosse Isle for the last six years. My
description applies down to the present year. We had
last year upwards of 22,000 emigrants. The poorer class
of Irish, and the English paupers sent by parishes,1 were, on
the arrival of vessels, in many instances, entirely without
provisions, so much so, that it was necessary immediately
to supply them with food from shore ; and some of these
ships had already received food and water from other
vessels with which they had fallen in. Other vessels,
with the same class of emigrants, were not entirely
destitute, but had suffered much privation from having
been placed on short allowance. This destitution, or
shortness of provisions, combined with dirt and bad
ventilation, had invariably produced fevers of a contagious
character, and occasioned some deaths on the passage ;
and from such vessels numbers, varying from 20 to 90
each vessel, had been admitted to hospital with contagious
fevers immediately on their arrival. I attribute the whole
Disease evil to defective arrangements : for . instance, parish
by defec- emigrants from England receive rations of biscuit and
tlve beef, or pork, often of bad quality (of this I am aware

arrange- . . ? .

from personal inspection) ; they are incapable, from sea-
sickness, of using this solid food at the beginning of the
passage, when, for want of small stores, such as tea, sugar,
coffee, oatmeal and flour, they fall into a state of debility
and low spirits, by which they are incapacitated from
the exertions required for cleanliness and exercise, and
also indisposed to solid food, more particularly the women
and children ; and, on their arrival here, I find many
cases of typhus fever among them.' ... 'I also wish to

1 The Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons
on Emigration from the United Kingdom in 1826 shows, that before
that date there had been instances of parishes supplying money from
the Poor Bates to facilitate emigration ; but the first statutory provision
enabling the ratepayers to raise money for the purposes of emigration,
is section 62 of the great Poor Law Act of 1834. This section, and the
provisions of subsequent Acts relating to Emigration by Boards of
Guardians and to Emigration and Colonization by County Councils, will
be found in the annual Emigration Statutes and General Handbook
published by the Emigrants Information Office.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 251

mention, as loudly calling for remedy, a system of extortion
carried on by masters of vessels, chiefly from Ireland,
whence come the bulk of our emigrants. The captain Extortions
tells emigrants the passage will be made in three weeks 0!^a8f(>.r"

OI V 6M&10,

or a month, and they need not lay in provisions for any
longer period, well knowing that the average passage is
six weeks, and that it often extends to eight or nine weeks.
When the emigrants' stores are exhausted, the captain,
who has laid in a stock for the purpose, obliges them to
pay often as much as 400 per cent, on the cost price for
the means of subsistence, and thus robs the poor emigrant
of his last shilling. Such cases are of frequent occurrence,
even down to the present year.' ... ' Parish emigrants
are generally at the mercy of the captain or mate, who
serve out the provisions, and who frequently put emigrants
on short allowance soon after their departure. Complaints
of short weight and bad quality in the provisions are fre- Provisions
quently made.' . . . ' The captains have, in many instances, JJJ|It ."
told me that the agents only muster the passengers on
deck, inquire into the quantity of provisions, and, in some
cases, require them to be produced, when, occasionally,
the same bag of meal or other provisions was shown as
belonging to several persons in succession. This the
captain discovered after sailing. The mere mustering of
the passengers on deck, without going below where the
provisions are kept, is really no inspection at all ; and
it frequently happens that passengers are smuggled on
board without any provisions.' . . . ' Very few of these
vessels have on board a sufficient quantity of water, the and water,
casks being insufficient in number, and very many of them
old oak casks, made up with pine heads, which therefore
leak, if they do not fall to pieces, which often happens.
I have had many similar cases from Liverpool.' ...
part of the law which regulates the height between decks Height^
of emigrant ships is frequently evaded in the smaller class decks not
of vessels, by means of a false deck some distance below «*£
the beams, bringing the passengers nearly in conta :t by Act.
with the damp ballast, pressing them into the narrow

252 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

part of the ship, and the beams taking an important part
of the room allotted to them by law. It is quite impossible
that such fittings should escape observation in the port
of departure, if that part of the vessel intended for emi-
grants be visited.' ... ' There is another evil which might
be readily obviated by a proper selection of vessels at
Vessels home, that of employing as emigrant-ships vessels that
which an are scarcely sea-worthy ; and which, consequently, being
scarcely unable to carry sail, make very long passages. As the
worthy, tonnage of the best class of vessels coming to Canada is
more than sufficient to bring all the emigrants in any
year, the employment of these bad ships ought not to be
permitted.' ... ' The reports made to me by the class
of captains and surgeon-superintendents now bringing
passengers are seldom to be relied upon. In illustration,
I beg leave to mention a case that occurred last year.
It was a vessel with about 150 passengers on board, from
an Irish port. The captain assured me that they had no
sickness on board ; and the surgeon produced a list,
Conceal- which he had signed, of certain slight ailments, such as
disease by bowel complaints and catarrhs, which had occurred during
Surgeons, the passage, and which appeared on the list with the
remark " cured " to all of them. On making my usual
personal inspection, I found and sent to hospital upwards
of forty cases of typhus fever, of which nine were below
in bed. These nine they had not been able to get out of
bed. Many of the others were placed against the bulwarks,
to make a show of being in health, with pieces of bread
and hot potatoes in their hands. As there are many most
respectable captains in the lumber trade, a proper selection
by the emigrant agents at home would prevent this abuse.'
. . . ' The medical superintendence on board vessels obliged
by the Passengers Act to carry a surgeon is very defective.
The majority of such persons, called surgeons, are unlicensed
students and apprentices, or apothecaries' shopmen,
without sufficient medical knowledge to be of any service
to the emigrants, either for the prevention or cure of
diseases. On board a ship the knowledge of the means

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 253

of preventing disease in such a situation is the first
requisite in a medical man, and in this the medical super- gcoiu,
intendents are lamentably deficient. It is not much
better as to the cure of diseases. I boarded a ship li
year, of which the captain and three passengers, who had
met with accidents, had their limbs bandaged for supposed
fractures, which, upon examination, I found were only
simple strains or bruises. On examining the captains
arm, I said that there had been no fracture. The surgeon,
so called, replied-" I assure you the tibia and ./Ma are
both broken ". It happens that the tibia and fibula are
bones of the leg. This is an extreme case, apparently ;
but it is not an unfair illustration of the ignorance and
presumption of the class of men appointed to comply wit
that part of the Act which is intended to provide for the
medical care of emigrants during the voyage.

The Agent General's Report, which was laid be ore Vant o^
Parliament last year, does not even allude , to ano
feature of our system of emigration, on which I have ye grants
to offer some remarks. However defective the presen arrival.
arrangements for the passage of emigrants, they are
more so than the means employed to provide for the
comfort and prosperity of this class after their arrival in
SS^SdT * may be said that no such means
are in existence. It will be seen, from £"*£«£
evidence of the Agent for Emigrants at Quebec, tha the
office which he holds is next to useless. l~*»>*%
on the officer, but would only explain, that he has no
powers, nor scarcely any duties to perform. ly al

that is done for the advantage of poor emigrant .after
they have passed the Lazaretto, is performed by th
Quebec ano? Montreal Emigrants oeiet.s-benevokn
associations of which I am bound to
terms of commendation;

254 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

for the main purpose of relieving the inhabitants of tho
two cities from the miserable spectacle of crowds of
unemployed and starving emigrants, so have their efforts
produced little other good than that of facilitating the
progress of poor emigrants to the United States, where
the industrious of every class are always sure of employ-
ment at good wages. In the Report on Emigration,1
to which I have alluded before, I find favourable mention
Objection of the principle of entrusting 'some parts of the conduct
trusting °f emigration rather to ' charitable committees ' than to
Emfnf °f ' an or(*mary department of Government.' From this
tion to doctrine I feel bound to express my entire dissent. I can
Charitable scarceiy imagine any obligation which it is more incumbent
mittees. on Government to fulfil, than that of guarding against
an improper selection of emigrants, and securing to poor
persons disposed to emigrate every possible facility and
assistance, from the moment of their intending to leave

k1 As to this Report and its author, Sir Thomas Elliot, see above, p. 248,
note 2, and see also what Buller says in his Report (vol. iii, pp. 118-21).
The Government Commission on Emigration, appointed in 1831, held
that Government interference was not required in any great measure in
regard to emigration to British North America, and Elliot, who had been
their secretary, seems to have inherited their views. He says in this
Report of 1838 : ' The Commissioners contented themselves, in regard to
the North American colonies, with collecting, publishing, and diffusing
as widely as possible, correct accounts of prices and wages ; and with
pointing out in the same notices the impositions against which Emigrants
to those colonies should be most on their guard. Officers were at the
same time appointed both there and in this country to watch over the
interests of Emigrants, to advocate their rights gratuitously before
the magistrates, and to furnish them with every information that
might seem conducive to their welfare. And, at the instance of the
Government, a small tax of 5/- per head was imposed by the Provin-
cial Legislatures upon Emigrants, the proceeds being appropriated
to maintain hospitals for the sick, and to provide a conveyance
for the indigent to those places where their labour appeared most in
request. With these auxiliary and precautionary measures, designed
to give facility and security to Emigration, the expense of the transit
itself was left to be defrayed, as before, from private resources.'
Similarly, at a much later date, in the eighties, when the Government,
at a time of distress, was pressed to give State aid to emigration, they
refused to do more than establish, in 1886, the present Emigrants
Information Office for the purpose of supplying intending emigrants
with accurate information respecting emigration to the British colonies.
Lord Durham advocated a wholly different policy, involving a regularly
organized system of State-aided and State-regulated emigration.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 255

this country to that of their comfortable establishment
in the Colony. No less an obligation is incurred by the
Government, when, as is now the case, they invite poor
persons to emigrate by tens of thousands every year.
It would, indeed, be very mischievous if the Government
were to deprive emigrants of self-reliance, by doing every-
thing for them : but when the State leads great numbers of
people into a situation in which it is impossible that they
should do well without assistance, then the obligation to
assist them begins ; and it never ends, in my humble
opinion, until those who have relied on the truth and
paternal care of the Government, are placed in a situation
to take care of themselves. How little this obligation has
been regarded, as respects emigration to Your Majesty's
North American Colonies, will be seen from the following
evidence : —

Mr. Buchanan, the chief agent for emigrants at Quebec, No rules
says, ' I have had no communication from the agent-
general of emigration ; ' and, ' The instructions I have
mentioned as regulating the proceedings of my office do Quebec,
not, I conceive, contain any specific directions as to the
duties I have to perform. In fact they were not addressed
to my office at all. I suppose that they were transmitted
to my predecessor, in order that he might be acquainted
with the views of the Home Government on the subject.'
' There may have been specific instructions for the
guidance of the agent for emigrants, but I am not aware
of any. I have myself followed the routine that I found
established.'

Dr. Skey says, ' A pauper emigrant on his arrival in Emigrants
this Province is generally either with nothing or withjfgj11
a very small sum in his pocket ; entertaining the most country,
erroneous ideas as to his prospects here ; expecting
immediate and constant employment, at ample wages;
entirely ignorant of the nature of the country ; and of
the place where labour is most in demand, and of the bes
means by which to obtain employment. He has lauded
from the ship, and from his apathy and want of energy,

256 REPORT ON THE! AFFAIRS OF

has loitered about the wharfs, waiting for the offer of
employment ; or, if he obtained employment, he cal-
culated upon its permanency, and found himself, at the
beginning of the whiter, when there is little or no employ-
ment for labour in this part of the country, discharged,
and without any provision for the wants of a Canadian
winter. In this way emigrants have often accumulated
in Quebec at the end of summers, encumbered it with
indigent inhabitants, and formed the most onerous bur-
then on the charitable funds of the community.'
Total Mr. Forsyth says, ' Emigration has improved of late

system years with regard to the destitute sick, and to the totally
produces destitute, by means of the emigrant society, and the fund

re-emigra- , w*.

tion to the raised by the emigrant tax ; but with regard to the mam
states, body of emigrants, the evil results of a total want of
system are as conspicuous as ever. The great evils that
have hitherto existed have arisen from the want of
system, and especially from the want of all adequate
means of information, advice and guardianship. This
want of information necessarily gives a vagrant character
to their movements. Unable to obtain information as
to the best mode of proceeding in this Province, they
move onward to Toronto, and find the same want there ;
they become disgusted, and leave the Province in large
numbers, to become citizens of the American Union.
My observation on the subject has led me to estimate the
proportion of emigrants from Britain who proceed to the
United States, at 60 in 100 during the last few years.' 1
Leads to Mr. Stayner says, ' Many of those poor people have
!mffering. l^le or no agricultural knowledge, even in a general way ;
and they are all ignorant of the husbandry practised in
the country. The consequence is, that, after getting
into " the bush ", as it is called, they find themselves
beset by privations and difficulties which they are not
able to contend with, and, giving way under the pressure,
they abandon their little improvements to seek a livelihood
elsewhere. Many resort to the large towns in the Pro-
1 See above, p. 217.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 257

vinces, with their starving families, to eke out by day-
labour and begging together a wretched existence ; whilst
others of them (more enterprising) are tempted, by the
reputed high wages and more genial climate of the United
States, to try their fortunes in that country. Now and
then, some individual better gifted, and possessing more
energy of character than the mass of the adventurers
who arrive, will successfully contend with those difficulties,
and do well for himself and family ; but the proportion
of such is small.'

Mr. Jessopp says, ' Emigrants sent out by parishes are Emigrants
very generally inferior, both morally and physically, to Jj2heg
those who have found their own way out. The parishes generally
have sent out persons far too old to gain their livelihood proi^rm
by work, and often of drunken and improvident habits. class-
These emigrants have neither benefited themselves nor
the country ; and this is very natural, for, judging from
the class sent out, the object must have been the getting
rid of them, and not either the benefit of themselves or
the colony. An instance occurred very recently, which
illustrates this subject. A respectable settler in the
Eastern Townships lately returned from England in
a vessel, on board of which there were 136 pauper pas-
sengers, sent out at the expense of their parishes ; and
out of the whole number he could only select two that he
was desirous of inducing to settle in the Eastern Townships.
The conduct of the others, both male and female, was so
bad, that he expressed his wish that they might proceed
to the Upper Province, instead of settling in this district.
He alluded principally to gross drunkenness and un-
chastity. . . , The inhabitants of Quebec and Montreal
are subject to constant appeals from persons who arrive
here, and linger about in a state of total destitution.'

The most striking example, however, of the want 'fa-oof |Jj
system and precaution on the part of Government ] *t
of the old soldiers, termed Commuted Pensioners,

' At the present time retired soldiers are allowed to
of their persons for such purposes as emigration.

1352-2

258 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

whom nearly 3,000 reached the colonies in the years 1832
and 1833. A full description of the fate of these unfor-
tunate people will be found in the evidence of Mr. Davidson
and others. Many of them landed in Quebec before the
instructions had been received in the colony to pay them
the sums to which they were to be entitled on their arrival,
and even before the Provincial Government knew of their
departure from England. Many of them spent the amount
of their commutation money in debauchery, or were
robbed of it when intoxicated. Many never attempted
to settle upon the land awarded to them ; and of those
who made the attempt, several were unable to discover
whereabouts in the wilderness their grants were situated.
Many of them sold their right to the land for a mere trifle,
and were left, within a few weeks of their arrival, in a state
of absolute want. Of the whole number who landed in
the colony, probably not one in three attempted to
establish themselves 011 their grants, and not one in six
remain settled there at the present time ; the remainder
generally lingered in the vicinity of the principal towns,
where they contrived to pick up a subsistence by begging
and occasional labour. Great numbers perished miserably
in the two years of cholera, or from diseases engendered
by exposure and privations, and aggravated by their
dissolute habits. The majority of them have at length
disappeared. The situation of those who survive calls
loudly for some measure of immediate relief : it is one of
extreme destitution and suffering. Their land is almost
entirely useless, and they cannot obtain any adequate

are allowed to commute any portion of their army pension in excess
of two shillings a day, and non-commissioned officers and men any
portion in excess of one shilling a day, but in every case it must.be
proved that the commutation will be of distinct and permanent advan-
tage to the pensioner and that he is in good health. On the subject
of military settlements and of sending out old soldiers as emigrants, see
Cornewall Lewis, Government of Dependencies, 1891 ed., pp. 116-7 note.
It used to be argued that old soldiers do not make the best material
for settlers in a new country : (a) because their army training has not
suited them for solitary life ; (6) because they have always been
accustomed to be housed and fed instead of housing and feeding
themselves.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 259

employment either as farm labourers or as domestic
servants. At the commencement of every winter, there-
fore, they are thrown upon the charity of individuals.
In the Upper Province their situation is equally deplorable,
and numbers must have perished from absolute starvation
if they had not been fed by the Provincial Government.
I confidently trust that their pensions may be restored,
and that, in future, whenever the Government shall
interfere directly or indirectly in promoting the emigra-
tion of poor persons to these colonies, it will be under
some systematic arrangements calculated to prevent the
selection of classes disqualified from gaining by their
removal, and to guard the other classes from the mis-
fortunes, into which they are now apt to fall through
ignorance of the new country, and the want of all pre-
paration for their arrival.

It is far from my purpose, in laying these facts before Valuable

i. ... TT -KT A.I emigration

Your Majesty, to discourage emigration to Your JNorth jiclj iu
American colonies. On the contrary, I am satisfied that these

colonies.

the chief value of those colonies to the mother country
consists in their presenting a field where millions even, of
those who are distressed at home, might be established
in plenty and happiness.1 All the gentlemen whose
evidence I have last quoted, are warm advocates of
systematic emigration. I object, along with them, only
to such emigration as now takes place — without fore-
thought, preparation, method or system of any kind. /^^

I HAVE now brought under review the most prominent
features of the condition and institutions of the British
Colonies in North America. It has been my painful task
to exhibit a state of things which cannot be contemplated
without grief by all who value the well-being of our

1 €f what Lord Durham says above at the beginning of his Report
(p. 13) on « Advantages derivable by the Mother Country fromthcso
Colonies'. 'They are the rightful patrimony of the Lngh-sl, L peoi ,
the ample appanage which God and Nature have set aside n
World for those whose lot has assigned them but inefficient por
in the Old.'

S 2 s<\

260 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

colonial fellow-countrymen, and the integrity of the

Grievous British Empire. I have described the operation of those

exhibited. causes of division which unhappily exist in the very

composition of society ; the disorder produced by the

working ot an ill-contrived constitutional system, and

the practical mismanagement which these fundamental

defects have generated in every department of Government.

Existing It is not necessary that I should take any pains to prove

things° that this is a state of things which should not, which cannot

cannot continue. Neither the political nor the social existence

of any community can bear much longer the operation

of those causes, which have in Lower Canada already

produced a long practical cessation of the regular course

of constitutional government, which have occasioned the

violation and necessitated the absolute suspension of

the provincial constitution, and which have resulted in

two insurrections, two substitutions of martial for civil

law, and two periods of a general abeyance of every

guarantee that is considered essential for the protection

of a British subject's rights. I have already described

the state of feeling which prevails among each of the

contending parties, or rather races ; their all-pervading

and irreconcileable enmity to each other ; the entire and

irremediable disaffection of the whole French population,

as well as the suspicion with which the English regard

the Imperial Government ; and the determination of the

French, together with the tendency of the English to seek

for a redress of their intolerable present evils in the

Disorders chances of a separation from Great Britain. The dis-

CanadT* orc^er8 °^ L°wer Canada admit of no delay ; the existing

admit of form of government is but a temporary and forcible

eay' subjugation. The recent constitution is one of which

neither party would tolerate the re-establishment, and of

which the bad working has been such, that no friend

to liberty or to order could desire to see the Province again

subjected to its mischievous influence. Whatever may

be the difficulty of discovering a remedy, its urgency is

certain and obvious.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA L>«l

Nor do I believe that the necessity for adopting some
extensive and decisive measure for the pacification of
Upper Canada, is at all less imperative. From the account ThoM of
which I have given of the causes of disorder in thatcLPS»
Province, it will be seen that I do not consider them bv f180 P*"

. , J xor a

any means 01 such a nature as to be irremediable, or even remedy,
to be susceptible of no remedy, that shall not effect an
organic change in the existing constitution. It cannot be
denied indeed that the continuance of the many practical
grievances, which I have described as subjects of complaint,
and, above all, the determined resistance to such a system
of responsible government as would give the people a real
control over its own destinies, have, together with the
irritation caused by the late insurrection, induced a large
portion of the population to look with envy at the material
prosperity of their neighbours in the United States, under
a perfectly free and eminently responsible government ; l
and, in despair of obtaining such benefits under their
present institutions, to desire the adoption of a Republican
constitution, or even an incorporation with the American
Union. But I am inclined to think that such feelings
have made no formidable or irreparable progress ; on
the contrary, I believe that all the discontented parties,
and especially the reformers of Upper Canada, look with
considerable confidence to the result of my mission. The
different parties believe that when the case is once fairly
put before the mother country, the desired changes in
the policy of their government will be readily granted :
they are now tranquil, and I believe loyal; determined
to abide the decision of the Home Government, and to
defend their property and their country against rebellion
and invasion. But I cannot but express my belief, that Conae-

i i j • cjuenccs of

this is the last effort of their almost exhausted patience, ^^.
and that the disappointment of their hopes on the present pointing

hopes.

1 As is pointed out in the Introduction, pp. 139-41, Lord Durham,
when speaking of the 'eminently responsible government of the L mted
States, ignored the fact that in the United States the Executive is not
responsible to the Legislature, though responsible to the people.

262 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

occasion, will destroy for ever their expectation of
good resulting from British connexion. I do not mean
to say that they will renew the rebellion, much less
do I imagine that they will array themselves in such
force as will be able to tear the government of their
country from the hands of the great military power
which Great Britain can bring against them. If now
frustrated in their expectations, and kept in hopeless
subjection to rulers irresponsible to the people, they
will, at best, only await in sullen prudence the con-
tingencies which may render the preservation of the
Province dependent on the devoted loyalty of the great
mass of its population.

Xo iin- With respect to the other North American Provinces,

danger in I will not speak of such evils as imminent, because I

North firmly believe that whatever discontent there may be,

American, no irritation subsists which in any way weakens the

'H strong feeling of attachment to the British Crown and

(Empire. Indeed, throughout the whole of the North

'American Provinces there prevails among the British

population an affection for the mother country, and

a preference for its institutions, which a wise and firm

policy, on the part of the Imperial Government, may

make the foundation of a safe, honourable and enduring

connexion. Bint even this feeling may be impaired, and

I must warn those in whose hands the disposal of their

destinies rests, that a blind reliance on the all-enduring

loyalty of our countrymen may be carried too far. It is

not politic to waste and cramp their resources, and to

allow the backwardness of the British Provinces every

where to present a melancholy contrast to the progress

and prosperity of the United States/ Throughout the

course of the preceding pages, I have constantly had

occasion to refer to this contrast.1 I have not hesitated

to do so, though no man's just pride in his country, and firm

attachments to its institutions, can be more deeply shocked

by the mortifying admission of inferiority. But I should

1 See especially above, pp. 211-12 and note.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA o,};J

ill discharge my duty to Your Majesty, T should give but
an imperfect view of the real condition of these Provinces,
were I to detail mere statistical facts without describing the
feelings which they generate in those who observe them
daily, and daily experience their influence on their own for-
tunes. The contrast which I have described, is the theme
of every traveller who visits these countries, and who
observes on one side of the line the abundance, and on
the other the scarcity of every sign of material prosperity
which thriving agriculture and flourishing cities indi-
cate, and of that civilization which schools and churches
testify even to the outward senses. While it excites the
exultation of the enemies of British institutions, its reality
is more strongly evinced by the reluctant admission of
Your Majesty's most attached subjects. It is no true
loyalty to hide from Your Majesty's knowledge the
existence of an evil which it is in Your Majesty's power,
as it is Your Majesty's benevolent pleasure, to remove.
For the possibility of reform is yet afforded by the patient
and fervent attachment which Your Majesty's English
subjects in all these Provinces still feel to their allegiance
and their mother country. Calm reflection and loyal
confidence have retained these feelings unimpaired, even
by the fearful drawback of the general belief that every
man's property is of less value on the British than on the
opposite side of the boundary. It is time to reward this
noble confidence, by showing that men have not indulged
in vain the hope that there is a power in British institutions
to rectify existing evils, and to produce in their place
a well-being which no other dominion could give. It is
not in the terrors of the law, or in the might of our armies,
that the secure and honourable bond of connexion is to
be found. It exists in the beneficial operation of those
British institutions which link the utmost development
of freedom and civilization with the stable authority of
an hereditary monarchy, and which, if rightly organized
and fairly administered in the Colonies, as in Great Britain,
would render a change of institutions only an additional

264 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

evil to the loss of the protection and commerce of the
British Empire.

Mischief of But while I count thus confidently on the possibility
theseimg °^ a Permanent an(i advantageous retention of our
Colonies in connexion with these important Colonies, I must not
disguise the mischief and danger of holding them in their
present state of disorder. I rate the chances of successful
rebellion as the least danger in prospect. I do not doubt
that the British Government can, if it choose to retain
these dependencies at any cost, accomplish its purpose.
I believe that it has the means of enlisting one part of
the population against the other, and of garrisoning the
Canadas with regular troops sufficient to awe all internal
enemies. But even this will not be done without great
expense and hazard. The experience of the last two years
furnishes only a foretaste of the cost to which such
a system of government will subject us. On the lowest
calculation, the addition of a million a year to our annual
colonial expenditure will barely enable us to attain this
end. Without a change in our system of government,
the discontent which now prevails, will spread and
advance. As the cost of retaining these Colonies increases,
their value will rapidly diminish. And if by such means
the British Nation shall be content to retain a barren and
injurious sovereignty, it will but tempt the chances of
foreign aggression, by keeping continually exposed to a
powerful and ambitious neighbour a distant dependency,
in which an invader would find no resistance, but might
rather reckon on active co-operation from a portion of the
resident population.

No proxi- I am far from presenting this risk in a manner calculated
mate dan- ^o irritate the just pride which would shrink from the

ger of . — —-

collision thoughts of yielding to the menaces of a rival nation.

United Because, important as I consider the foreign relations of

States. this question, I do not believe that there is now any very

proximate danger of a collision with the United States,

in consequence of that power desiring to take advantage

of the disturbed state of the Canadas. In the Dispatch

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 2«r,

of the 9th of August l I have described my impression of
the state of feeling with respect to the Lower Canadian
insurrection, which had existed, and was then in existence,
in the United States. Besides the causes of hostile feeling
which originate in the mere juxta-position of that power
to our North American Provinces, I described the influence
which had undoubtedly been exercised by that mistaken
political sympathy with the insurgents of Lower Canada,
which the inhabitants of the United States were induced
to entertain,7 There is no people in the world so little
likely as that of the United States to sympathize with the
real feelings and policy of the French Canadians ; no
people so little likely to share in their anxiety to preserve
ancient and barbarous laws, and to check the industry
and improvement of their country, in order to gratify
some idle and narrow notion of a petty and visionary
nationality. The Americans who have visited Lower
Canada, perfectly understand the real truth of the case ;
they see that the quarrel is a quarrel of races ; and they
certainly show very little inclination to take part with tho
French Canadians and their institutions. Of the great
number of American travellers, coming from all parts of
the Union, who visited Quebec during my residence there,
and whose society I, together with the gentlemen attached
to my mission, had the advantage of enjoying, not one
ever expressed to any of us any approbation of, what
may be termed, the national objects of the French
Canadians, while many did not conceal a strong aversion
to them. There is no people in the world to whom the
French Canadian institutions are more intolerable, when
circumstances compel submission to them. But the mass
of the American people had judged of the quarrel from
a distance : they had been obliged to form their judgment
on the apparent grounds of the controversy; and were
thus deceived, as all those are apt to be who judge un
such circumstances, and on such grounds. The conte
bore some resemblance to that great struggle of then
1 See vol. iii, pp. 319-31.

^

266 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

forefathers, which they regard with the highest pride.
Like that, they believed it to be a contest of a Colony
against the Empire, whose misconduct alienated their
own country : they considered it to be a contest under-
taken by a people professing to seek independence of
distant control, and extension of popular privileges ; and,
finally, a contest of which the first blow was struck in
consequence of a violation of a colonial constitution, and
the appropriation of the colonial revenues without the
consent of the colonists.1 It need not surprise us, that
such apparently probable and sufficient causes were
generally taken, by the people of the United States, as
completely accounting for the whole dispute ; that the
analogy between the Canadian insurrection and the War
of Independence was considered to be satisfactorily made
out ; and that a free and high-spirited people eagerly
demonstrated its sympathy with those whom it regarded
as gallantly attempting, with unequal means, to assert
that glorious cause which its own fathers had triumphantly
upheld.

Sympathy In the case of Upper Canada, I believe the sympathy
Clipper t° have been much more strong and durable ; and though
Canada, the occasion of the contest was apparently less marked,
I have no doubt that this was more than compensated
by the similarity of language and manners, which enabled
the rebels of the Upper Province to present their case
much more easily and forcibly to those whose sympathy
and aid they sought. The incidents of any struggle of a
large portion of a people with its Government, are sure,
at some time or another, to elicit some sympathy with
those who appear, to the careless view of a foreign nation,
only as martyrs to the popular cause, and as victims of
a Government conducted on principles differing from its
own. And I have no doubt that if the internal struggle

1 One of the resolutions moved by Lord John Russell in the House
of Commons on March 6, 1837, empowered the Governor-General of
Canada to apply the revenues of the Lower Province to paying arrears
jf the official salaries. Sir John Colborne commented on this as ' seizing
which does not belong to us '. See Introduction, p. 73.

BRITISH NORTH AMKIJK'A 207

be renewed, the sympathy from without will, at some
time or another, reassume its former strength.1

For it must be recollected that the natural ties ofstrong
sympathy between the English population of the Canadas sympathy
and the inhabitants of the frontier States of the Union J^Tt!1

English

are peculiarly strong. Not only do they speak the same and
language, live under laws having the same origin, and pre-
serve the same customs and habits, but there is a positive Frontier,
alternation, if I may so express it, of the populations of the
two countries. While large tracts of the British territory are
peopled by American citizens, who still keep up a constant
connexion with their kindred and friends, the neighbouring
States are filled with emigrants from Great Britain, some
of whom have quitted Canada after unavailing efforts to
find there a profitable return for their capital and labour ; 2
and. many of whom have settled in the United States,
while other members of their families, and the companions
of their youth, have taken up their abode on the other
side of the frontier. I had no means of ascertaining the
exact degree of truth in some statements which I have
heard respecting the number of Irish settled in the State
of New York ; but it is commonly asserted that there are
no less than 40,000 Irish in the militia of that State.3
The intercourse between these two divisions of what is,
in fact, an identical population, is constant and universal.
The border townships of Lower Canada are separated
from the United States by an imaginary line ; a great part
of the frontier of Upper Canada by rivers, which are crossed

1 In connexion with what Lord Durham says here as to the danger
of Upper Canada coming under American influence, reference should
be made to the letter which Sir John Sherbrooke wrote on March
1822, after his retirement, to Lord Bathurst, and winch is repnnte
on pp. 123-5 of Canadian Constitutional Development (Egerton
Grant) : ' I could not avoid remarking when I was in Upper

that in many instances a stronger bias prevailed in favour c
American than of the British form of government ; whereas the u*«»oii.
in Lower Canada have a rooted antipathy to the government of UM
United States, and have no dread equal to that of one day f,
under its dominion.'

2 See above, pp. 217 and 256.

3 According to the 1900 census, there were then 275,108 Irish in tl
City of New York and 425,553 in the State.

268 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

in ten minutes ; and the rest by lakes, which interpose
hardly a six hours' passage between the inhabitants
of each side. Every man's daily occupations bring him
in contact with his neighbours on the other side of the line ;
the daily wants of one country are supplied by the produce
of the other ; and the population of each is in some degree
dependent on the state of trade and the demands of the
other. Such common wants beget an interest in the poli-
tics of each country among the citizens of the other. The
newspapers circulate in some places almost equally on
the different sides of the line ; and men discover that
their welfare is frequently as much involved in the
political condition of their neighbours as of their own
countrymen.

No present The danger of any serious mischief from this cause
Danger appears to me to be less at the present moment than for
from the some time past. The events of the last year, and the
circulation of more correct information respecting the
real causes of contention, have apparently operated very
successfully against the progress or continuance of this
species of sympathy ; and I have the satisfaction of
believing that the policy which was pursued during my
administration of the government, was very efficient in
removing it. The almost complete unanimity of the
press of the United States, as well as the assurances of
individuals well conversant with the state of public opinion
in that country, convince me, that the measures which
I adopted met with a concurrence that completely turned
the tide of feeling in favour of the British Government.
Nor can I doubt, from the unvarying evidence that I have
received from all persons who have recently travelled
through the frontier states of the Union that there hardly
exists, at the present moment, the slightest feeling which
can properly be called sympathy. Whatever aid the
insurgents have recently received from citizens of the
United States, may either be attributed to those national
animosities which are the too sure result of past wars, or
to those undisguised projects of conquest and rapine

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 269

which, since the invasion of Texas,1 find but too much
favour among the daring population of the frontiers.
Judging from the character and behaviour of the Americans
most prominent in the recent aggressions on Upper Canada,
they seem to have been produced mainly by the latter
cause : nor does any cause appear to have secured to the
insurgents of Lower Canada any very extensive aid,
except that in money and munitions of war, of which
the source cannot very clearly be traced. Hardly any
Americans took part in the recent disturbances hi Lower
Canada. Last year, the outbreak was the signal for
numerous public meetings in all the great cities of the
frontier States, from Buffalo to New York. At these the
most entire sympathy with the insurgents was openly
avowed ; large subscriptions were raised, and volunteers

1 Texas, in which a number of citizens of the United States had
settled, seceded from Mexico in 1836. Civil war followed, and in April
of that year the Texans defeated the Mexicans at the battle of San
Jacinto, and captured the Mexican leader, Santa Anna. In 1837 Texas
applied to be admitted into the Union of the United States, and it
was formally admitted in 1845, the immediate result being war between
Mexico and the United States. Lord Durham makes much use of
the illustration of Texas, in order to point out the danger of a weak
and disunited Canada being invaded by American frontiersmen. Thus,
in his dispatch of August 9, 1838 (see voL iii, p. 327), he writes :
' It is well that I should remind Her Majesty's government of tho
invasion of Texas by a body of American citizens, who, without tho
least aid from their government, have seized an extensive country,
defeated armies, got possession of the soil, and established themselves
as a nation ; ' and again in a dispatch dated October 20, 1838, he
refers to 'the aspect of the weakness of the government in these
provinces, which has latterly been presented to the bordering popula-
tion, and which offers to the ambition or avarice of the bold and lawless
settlers of the American wilderness the ample and fertile lands which
appear to invite occupation by the strongest. They think to repeat
the conquest of Texas from a nobler foe, with proportionably greater
means of aggression ; and if they know that they will have to contend
with something more than a Mexican army, they count on an internal
aid, which was not found in the solitary wilds of Texas (House of
Commons Paper, No. 2, February 11, 1839, p. 222).

Similarly The Annual Register for 1838, p. 12, with reference to
the raids in that year on Upper Canada across the American frontier,
says : ' There were few, if any, to be found amongst the large bodu
of men, who were organized on different points, with a view t
invasion of Canada, who could plead a higher motive than was sugge*
by their rapacity, and a desire to repeat, at the expense of™*"?
Britons of Canada, the experiment so successfully made in the J

270 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

invited to join. Since the last outbreak no such mani-
festations have taken place : the meetings which the
Nelsons 1 and others have attempted in New York,
Philadelphia, Washington, and elsewhere, have ended in
complete failure ; and, at the present moment, there does
not exist the slightest indication of any sympathy with
the objects of the Lower Canadian insurgents, or of any
desire to co-operate with them for political purposes.
The danger, however, which may be apprehended from
the mere desire to repeat the scenes of Texas in the
Canadas, is a danger from which we cannot be secure
while the disaffection of any considerable portion of the
population continues to give an appearance of weakness
But the to our Government. It is in vain to expect that such
Govern- attempts can wholly be repressed by the federal Govern-
ment can- ment ; or that they could even be effectually counter-
repress acted by the utmost exertion of its authority, if any
attempts, sudden turn of affairs should again revive a strong and
general sympathy with insurrection in Canada. Without
dwelling on the necessary weakness of a merely federal
Government 2 — without adverting to the difficulty which
authorities, dependent for their very existence on the
popular will, find in successfully resisting a general

1 Of the brothers Nelson, Robert Nelson has been referred to above
on p. 24. He escaped to the United States after the rising of 1837,
and tried to raise war against England. His better known brother,
Dr. Wolfred Nelson, was born at Montreal in 1792. He qualified as
a doctor in 1811, and established himself in practice at St. Denis, on
the Richelieu river. He took the popular and French Canadian side
in politics, and in 1827 carried the borough of William Henry or Sorel
against the then Attorney-General, James Stuart. He was a strong
adherent of Papineau. After his defence of St. Denis and armed
resistance to the Government, he tried to escape to the United States,
but was intercepted and imprisoned. In 1838 Lord Durham exiled
him, with others, to Bermuda. The sentence having been cancelled
by the Home Government, he was set free and went to the United States.
After the amnesty, he returned to Canada in 1842, went into Parliament
again in 1845, and subsequently held Government appointments. He
died in 1863. He seems to have been one of the bravest and most
honest of the insurgents, and in private life a kindly, humane, and
much-loved man (see Diet, of Nat. Biog., s.v.).

2 As to the weakness of a Federal Government, see what Lord Durham
says below as to a contemplated Federal Union of Canada, pp. 304-5.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 271

manifestation of public feeling, the impossibility which
any Government would find in restraining a population
like that which dwells along the thousand miles of
this frontier, must be obvious to all who reflect on the
difficulty of maintaining the police of a dispersed com-
munity.

Nor is this danger itself unproductive of feelings which Indigna-
are in their turn calculated to produce yet further mischief. cS^£c
The loyal people of Canada, indignant at the constant Loyalists,
damage and terror occasioned by incursions from the
opposite shore, naturally turn their hostility against the
nation and the government which permit, and which
they accuse even of conniving at the violation of inter-
national law and justice. Mutual recriminations arc
bandied about from one side to the other ; and the very
facilities of intercourse which keep alive the sympathy
between portions of the two populations, afford at the
same time occasions for the collision of angry passions
and national antipathies. The violent party papers on
each side, and the various bodies whose pecuniary interests
a war would promote, foment the strife. A large portion
of each population endeavours to incite its own govern-
ment to war, and at the same time labours to produce
the same result by irritating the national feelings of the
rival community. Rumours are diligently circulated
by the Canadian press ; and every friendly act of the
American people or government appears to be systemati-
cally subjected to the most unfavourable construction.
It is not only to be apprehended that this state of mutual
suspicion and dislike may be brought to a head by acts
of mutual reprisals, but that the officers of the respective
governments, in despair of preserving peace, may take
little care to prevent the actual commencement of war.

Though I do not believe that there ever was a time in J^cucr; in
which the specific relations of the two countries rendered gj*^
it less likely that the United States would imagine that ^^0™
a war with England could promote their own interests, tortw
yet it cannot be doubted that the disturbed state of the states

272

REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

spi
with
United
States
Govern-
ment.

Canadas is a serious drawback on the prosperity of a great
part of the Union. Instead of presenting an additional
field for their commercial enterprise, these Provinces, in
their present state of disorder, are rather a barrier to
their industrial energies. The present state of things also
occasions great expense to the federal Government, which
has been under the necessity of largely augmenting its
small army, on account chiefly of the troubles of Canada.
Existing Nor must we forget, that whatever assurances and
dispute8 ° Pro°f s °f amicable f eeling we may receive from the Govern-
ment of the United States, however strong may be the
ties of mutual pacific interests that bind the two nations
together, there are subjects of dispute which may pro-
duce less friendly feelings. National interests are now in
question between us, of which the immediate adjustment
is demanded by every motive of policy.1 These interests
cannot be supported with the necessary vigour, while
disaffection in a most important part of our North Ameri-
can possessions appears to give an enemy a certain means
of inflicting injury and humiliation on the Empire.

But the chances of rebellion or foreign invasion are not
those which I regard as either the most probable or the
most injurious. The experience of the last two years
suggests the occurrence of a much more speedy and
disastrous result. I dread, in fact, the completion of the
sad work of depopulation and impoverishment which is
now rapidly going on. The present evil is not merely,
that improvement is stayed, and that the wealth and
population of these Colonies do not increase according to
the rapid scale of American progress. No accession of
population takes place by immigration, and no capital is
brought into the country. On the contrary, both the
people and the capital seem to be quitting these distracted

1 About the beginning of 1839, when Lord Durham's Report was
published, the Maine Boundary question was in its most acute form,
and the disputes between the frontiersmen of Maine and New Brunswick
nearly brought on war between Great Britain and the United States.
The matter was finally settled by the Ashburton Treaty of 1842. See
also below, p. 313 and note.

Prospects
of depo-
pulation
and im-
j»overi«h-
uicnt.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA L'7.!

Provinces. From the French portion of Lower Cunu<h
there has, for a long time, been a large annual emigration
of young men to the northern states of the American
Union, in which they are highly valued as labourers, and
gain good wages, with their savings from which they
generally return to their homes in a few months or years.
I do not believe that the usual amount of this emigration
has been increased during the last year, except by a few
persons prominently compromised in the insurrection,
who have sold their property, and made up their minds
to a perpetual exile ; but I think there is some reason to
believe that, among the class of habitual emigrants whom
I have described, a great many now take up their per-
manent residence in the United States. But the stationary
habits^ and local attachments of the French Canadians
render it little likely that they will quit their country in
great numbers. I am not aware that there is any diminu-
tion of the British population from such a cause. The
employment of British capital in the Province is not
materially checked in the principal branch of trade ; and
the main evils are the withdrawal of enterprizing British
capitalists from the French portion of the country, the
diminished employment of the capital now in the Province,
and the entire stoppage of all increase of the population
by means of immigration. But from Upper Canada the
withdrawal both of capital and of population has been
very considerable. I have received accounts from most
respectable sources of a very numerous emigration from
the whole of the Western and London districts. It was
said by persons who professed to have witnessed it, that
considerable numbers had, for a long time, daily passed
over from Amherstburgh and Sandwich to Detroit ; and
a most respectable informant stated, that he had seen,
in one of the districts which I have mentioned, no less
than 15 vacant farms together on the road-side. A body
of the reforming party have nvowed, in the most open
manner/their intention of emigrating, from political
motives, and publicly invited all who might be influenced

274 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

by similar feelings to join in their enterprize. For this
the Mississippi Emigration Society has been formed with
the purpose of facilitating emigration from Upper Canada
to the new territory of the Union, called Iowa,1 on the
west bank of the Upper Mississippi. The prospectus of
the undertaking, and the report of the deputies who were
sent to examine the country in question, were given in
the public press, and the advantages of the new colony
strongly enforced by the reformers, and depreciatingly
discussed by the friends of the Government. The number
of persons who have thus emigrated is not, however,
I have reason to believe, as great as it has often been
represented. Many who might be disposed to take such
a step, cannot sell their farms on fair terms ; and though
some, relying on the ease with which land .is obtained
in the United States, have been content to remove merely
their stock and their chattels, yet there are others again
who cannot at the last make the sacrifices which a forced
sale would necessitate, and who continue, even under
their present state of alarm, to remain in hopes of better
times. In the districts which border on the St. Lawrence,
little has in fact come of the determination to emigrate,
which was loudly expressed at one time. And some even
of those who actually left the country are said to have
returned. But the instances which have come to my
knowledge induce me to attach even more importance to
the class than to the alleged number of the emigrants ;
and I can by no means agree with some of the dominant
party, that the persons who thus leave the country, are
disaffected subjects, whose removal is a great advantage
to loyal and peaceable men. In a country like Upper
Canada, where the introduction of population and capital
is above all things needful for its prosperity, and almost
for its continued existence, it would~be more prudent as

1 From 1836 to 1838 Iowa was part of the territory of Wisconsin.
In 1838 it was made a separate territory, and in 1846 it was admitted
as a State into the Union. As to the amount of emigration from
Upper Canada to the United States, see above, pp. 217, 256, 267.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 275

well as just, more the interest as well as the duty of
Government to remove the causes of disaffection, than to i/
drive out the disaffected. But there is no ground for
asserting that all the reformers who have thus quitted
the country, are disloyal and turbulent men ; nor indeed
is it very clear that all of them are reformers, and that the
increasing insecurity of person and property have not,
without distinction of politics, driven out some of the
most valuable settlers of the Province. A great impression
has been lately made by the removal of one of the largest
proprietors of the Province, a gentleman who arrived there
not many years ago from Trinidad ; who has taken no
prominent, and certainly no violent part in politics ; and
who has now transferred himself and his property to the
United States, simply because in Upper Canada he can
find no secure investment for the latter, and no tranquil
enjoyment of life. I heard of another English gentleman,
who, having resided in the country for six or seven years,
and invested large sums in bringing over a superior breed
of cattle and sheep, was, while I was there, selling off his
stock and implements, with a view of settling in Illinois.
I was informed of an individual who, 30 years ago, had
gone into the forest with his axe on his shoulder, and,
with no capital at starting, had, by dint of patient labour,
acquired a farm and stock, which he had sold for £2,000,
with which he went into the United States. This man,
I was assured, was only a specimen of a numerous class,
to whose unwearied industry the growth and prosperity
of the Colony are mainly to be ascribed. They are now
driven from it, on account of the present insecurity of
all who, having in former times been identified in politics
with some of those that subsequently appeared as pro-
minent actors in the revolt, are regarded and treated as
rebels, though they had held themselves completely aloof
from all participation in schemes or acts of rebellion.
Considerable alarm also exists as to the general disposition
to quit the country which was said to have been produced
by some late measures of the authorities among that mild

T 2

and industrious, hut peculiar race of descendants of the
Dutch, who inhabit the back part of the Niagara district.1
Difficulties Such are the lamentable results of the political and
fngagainst social evils which have so long agitated the Canadas ;
*he and such is their condition, that, at the present moment,

described, we are called on to take immediate precautions against
dangers so alarming as those of rebellion, foreign invasion,
and utter exhaustion and depopulation. When I look
on the various and deep-rooted causes of mischief which
the past inquiry has pointed out as existing in every
institution, in the constitutions, and in the very com-
position of society throughout a great part of these
Provinces, I almost shrink from the apparent presumption
of grappling with these gigantic difficulties. Nor shall
I attempt to do so in detail. I rely on the efficacy of
reform in the constitutional system by which these Colonies
are governed, for the removal of every abuse in their
administration which defective institutions have engen-
dered. If a system can be devised which shall lay in
these countries the foundation of an efficient and popular
government, ensure harmony, in place of collision, between

1 The reference is to the Pennsylvania Germans, commonly known
as Pennsylvania Dutch, They were mainly Mennonites, akin to the
Quakers in their tenets, and they settled in Pennsylvania in the later
years of the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth centuries.
Germantown, now a suburb of Philadelphia, and the scene of one of
Washington's battles in the War of Independence, was so called after
the first of these settlers. After the War of Independence, a good
many of these German colonists, following after an interval the steps
of the United Empire Loyalists, migrated into Ontario in the last few
years of the eighteenth and the early years of the nineteenth centuries.
They formed three main settlements, the Niagara colony, the Markham
colony, and the Waterloo colony. The last was in the valley of the
Grand River and included Berlin. A German newspaper was published
here in 1835 (see the article on the Pennsylvania Germans of Waterloo
County by the Rev. A. B. Sherk in the Papers and Records of the
Ontario Historical Society, vol. vii, Toronto, 1906). In the House of
Commons Paper of 1832, already referred to, ' Copy of the Report of
Mr. Richards to the Colonial Secretary respecting the Waste Lands
in the Canadas, and emigration ', the writer, who visited the British
North American provinces in 1830, stated (p. 5) that near Lake Simcoe
' there was a settlement of a species of Quakers, from some part of
Pennsylvania, of about 30 years old '. At the date of the 1901
census there were 12,000 Mennonites in the Province of Ontario.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 277

the various powers of the State, and bring the influence
of a vigorous public opinion to bear on every detail of
public affairs, we may rely on sufficient remedies being
found for the present vices of the administrative system.
~~~The preceding pages have sufficiently pointed out the HOW to
nature of those evils, to the extensive operation of which, gjjjj^,
I attribute the various practical grievances, and the Govern^
present unsatisfactory condition of the North Americanuarmoni
Colonies. It is not by weakening, but strengthening the
influence of the people on its Government ; by confining
within much narrower bounds than those hitherto allotted
to it, and not by extending the interference of the imperial
authorities in the details of colonial affairs, that I believe
that harmony is to be restored, where dissension has so
long prevailed ; and a regularity and vigour hitherto
unknown, introduced into the administration of these
Provinces. It needs no change in the principles of I
government, no invention of a new constitutional theory,1 (

juely.

of the most interesting points about the ff^<*

w

Government in Canada, pp. 59-60. A W^ ™* { Canada no

some legislation has uBuaUy acoompa^ ^/^nment, and it

law precluded the introduction of respo nsibl 3 go e

came into being gradually, being ^.^X^ng been fixed for

in or about the ^.l^™^^Lw Tof machinery w^

its introduction. The fact that no to mi ^cna ^ ^^

necessary to bring about respon-ble >g™^ m ^

in mind, in comparing what Lor J^TOMlSe government in

with what Lord John Russell *«d on espon g

his dispatch of October 14 183 (regin™" i[ona to the adoption

Lord John Russell saw ' btions to .

278 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

to supply the remedy which would, in my opinion, com-
pletely remove the existing political disorders. It needs
but to follow out consistently the principles of the British
constitution, and introduce into the Government of these
great Colonies those wise provisions, by which alone the
working of the representative system can in any country
be rendered harmonious and efficient. We are not now
to consider the policy of establishing representative
government in the North American Colonies. That has
been irrevocably done ; and the experiment of depriving
the people of their present constitutional power, is not
to be thought of. To conduct their Government har-
moniously, in accordance with its established principles,
is now the business of its rulers ; and I know not how it
is possible to secure that harmony in any other way, than
by administering the Government on those principles
which have been found perfectly efficacious in Great
Britain. I would not impair a single prerogative of the
Crown ; on the contrary, I believe that the interests of
the people of these Colonies require the protection of
prerogatives, which have not hitherto been exercised.
But the Crown must, on the other hand, submit to the
necessary consequences of representative institutions ; and
if it has to carry on the Government in unison with a
representative body, it must consent to carry it on by
means of those in whom that representative body has
confidence.

Kesponsi- jn England, this principle has been so long considered an
Govern- indisputable and essential part of our constitution, that it

ment m ^as really hardly ever been found necessaiy to inquire into

Durham, when he enjoined ' maintaining the harmony of the Executive

with the Legislative authorities'. What he was not prepared to con-

I cede was a Parliamentary Executive, i. e. a system by which the chief

7 Executive officers would be members of the Legislature, standing or

/I falling with the majority in the Legislature. This Lord Durham was

prepared to concede, for he speaks on pp. 279-80 of ' entrusting its

administration to such men as could command a majority '. If it had

been necessary to embody the principle of responsible government in

a law before it could be put into practice, the difference of views would

have been more clearly defined. See also Cornewall Lewis's Government

of Dependencies, pp. 299, 300 and note.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 279

the means by which its observance is enforced. When
a ministry ceases to command a majority in Parliament
on great questions of policy, its doom is immediately
sealed ; and it would appear to us as strange to attempt,
for any time, to carry on a Government by means of
ministers perpetually in a minority, as it would be to pass
laws with a majority of votes against them. The ancient
constitutional remedies, by impeachment and a stoppage
of the supplies, have never, since the reign of William III.,
been brought into operation for the purpose of removing
a ministry. They have never been called for, because,
in fact, it has been the habit of ministers rather to
anticipate the occurrence of an absolutely hostile vote,
and to retire, when supported only by a bare and uncer-
tain majority. If Colonial Legislatures have frequently
stopped the supplies, if they have harassed public servants
by unjust or harsh impeachments, it was because the
removal of an unpopular administration could not be
effected in the Colonies by those milder indications of
a want of confidence, which have always sufficed to attain
the end in the mother country.

The means which have occasionally been proposed in Objection

, i to elective

the Colonies themselves appear to me by no means l- Executive
culated to attain the desired end in the best way. These Council,
proposals indicate such a want of reliance on the willing-
ness of the Imperial Government to acquiesce in the
adoption of a better system, as, if warranted, would
render an harmonious adjustment of the different powers
of the State utterly hopeless. An elective executiv
council would not only be utterly inconsistent wit
monarchical government, but would really, under the
nominal authority of the Crown, deprive the community
of one of the great advantages of an hereditary monarchy.
Every purpose of popular control might be combined
with every advantage of vesting the immediate choi
of advisers in the Crown, were the Colonial Governor
be instructed to secure the co-operation of the Assembly
in his policy, by entrusting its administration t

280 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

men as could command a majority ; and if he were given
to understand that he need count on no aid from home in
any difference with the Assembly, that should not directly
involve the relations between the mother country and
the Colony. This change might be effected by a single
dispatch containing such instructions ; or if any legal
enactment were requisite, it would only be one that would
render it necessary that the official acts of the Governor
should be countersigned by some public functionary.
This would induce responsibility for every act of the
Government, and, as a natural consequence, it would
necessitate the substitution of a system of administration,
by means of competent heads of departments, for tho
present rude machinery of an executive council. The
Governor, if he wished to retain advisers not possessing
the confidence of the existing Assembly, might rely on
the effect of an appeal to the people, and, if unsuccessful,
he might be coerced by a refusal of supplies, or his advisers
might be terrified by the prospect of impeachment. But
there can be no reason for apprehending that either party
would enter on a contest, when each would find its interest
in the maintenance of harmony ; and the abuse of the
powers which each would constitutionally possess, would
cease when the struggle for larger powers became unneces-
sary. Nor can I conceive that it would be found impossible
or difficult to conduct a Colonial Government with pre-
cisely that limitation of the respective powers which has
been so long and so easily maintained in Great Britain.
How far I know that it has been urged, that the principles which
Severn""5 are Pro(iuctive of harmony and good government in the
incut mother country, are by no means applicable to a colonial
interfere dependency. It is said that it is necessary that the
m Colonial administration of a colony should be carried on bv persons

concerns . J r

and nominated without any reference to the wishes of its
memts1* People ', that they have to carry into effect the policy,
not of that people, but of the authorities at home ; and
that a colony which should name all its own administra-
tive functionaries, would, in fact, cease to be dependent.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 281

I admit that the system which I propose would, in factH
place the internal government of the colony in the hands
of the colonists themselves ; * and that we should thus »
leave to them the execution of the laws, of which we have
long entrusted the making solely to them. Perfectly
aware of the value of our colonial possessions, and strongly
impressed with the necessity of maintaining our connexion

1 The whole basis of Lord Durham's views on responsible govern-
ment was that a line could be drawn between matters of colonial or
' internal ' concern and matters of imperial concern. Similar views
were put forward by Sir William Molesworth in a speech in the House
of Commons on the Australian Government Bill, May 6, 1850 (Selected
Speeches of Sir William Molesworth, edited by Professor Egerton, 1903,
pp. 365-401). Molesworth, like Durham, was quite clear that a per-
manent line could be drawn between the sphere of the Colonial and
that of the Imperial Government. He said (p. 378) : ' I maintain that,
whenever the local circumstances of a colony will admit the existence
of a colonial parliament, the colonial parliament ought to possess
powers corresponding with those of the British parliament, with the
necessary exception of Imperial powers. For, if it were to possess
Imperial powers, it would become an Imperial parliament ; and, as
there cannot be two Imperial parliaments in one empire, the British
Empire would be dissolved.' Further on in the same speech (p. 391)
he says that, as the United States is a system of States clustered round
a central republic, so ' Our colonial Empire ought to be a system of
colonies clustered round the hereditary monarchy of England. The
hereditary monarchy should possess all the powers of government with
the exception of that of taxation, which the Central Republic possesses.
It it possessed less, the Empire would cease to be one body politic.'
Thus he evidently contemplated the retention of veiy considerable
powers by the Imperial Government. Lord John Russell, on the other
hand, in his dispatch of October 14, 1839, which is reprinted in vol. in,
pp. 332-5, contended that the Governor of a colony could not at once
serve two masters, on the one hand the Crown with its imperial advisers,
and on the other hand a Colonial Ministry; and that it was impossit
to draw the line between matters of imperial and matters of colonial
or ' internal ' concern. ' There are some cases of internal government,
in which the honour of the Crown, or the faith of Parliament, or
safety of the State, are so seriously involved, that it would i

X 1 __ __ • - -* i i - ___ A! ___ .lA— ±n ** \i i r» i a T 1*17 111

possible
a colony.

manently to~drawThe line between ' internal ' and imperial matters.

Reference should be made toCornewall Lewis's Government o/Depcn
dencies, 1891 ed., chap, x, p. 299, &c The present paw
between the Imperial Government and the se f -governing Doui UOM

is given fully in various books ; see e. g. Part V of Keith s
Government in the Dominions, on 'Imperial Control over DOB

T >*e» ol

Administration and Legislation ', and the chapter on T >*e» o
Colonial Legislatures' in The Constitution of the Common
Australia, by Harrison Moore, 2nd ed., 1910.

282

with them, I know not in what respect it can be desirable
that we should interfere with their internal legislation in
matters which do not affect their relations with the mother
country. The matters, which so concern us, are very few.
The constitution of the form of government, — the regu-
lation of foreign relations, and of trade with the mother
country, the other British Colonies, and foreign nations, —
and the disposal of the public lands, are the only points on
which the mother country requires a control. This control
is now sufficiently secured by the authority of the Imperial
Legislature ; by the protection which the Colony derives
from us against foreign enemies ; by the beneficial terms
which our laws secure to its trade ; and by its share of
the reciprocal benefits which would be conferred by a wise
system of colonization. A perfect subordination, on the
part of the Colony, on these points, is secured by the
advantages which it finds in the continuance of its con-
nexion with the Empire.1 It certainly is not strengthened,
but greatly weakened, by a vexatious interference on the
part of the Home Government, with the enactment of
laws for regulating the internal concerns of the Colony,
or in the selection of the persons entrusted with their
execution. The colonists may not always know what

1 It will be noted how veiy limited were the powers which Lord
Durham proposed to give to the colonies under responsible govern-
ment, and to what extent the limits have been swept away. Under
foreign relations he presumably included army and navy. With regard
to trade the following passage is interesting, taken from Keefer's prize
essay on The Canals of Canada, written in 1850, p. 27, ' In 1847 the
control of our Customs was abandoned by the Imperial legislature,
and the last and most important measure which has relieved us from
the baneful effects of the British Navigation Laws came into operation
with the commencement of the present year.' Keith (Responsible
Government in the Dominions, 1909 ed., p. 190) writes : ' In 1846 an Act
was passed by the Imperial Government to enable the colonies in North
America to reduce or repeal duties placed on foreign imports by Acts
of the Imperial Parliament. In 1849 this concession was followed by
the repeal of the Navigation Acts, which restricted the trade of Canada,
and in 1857 and 1869 full power was given to colonial legislatures to
regulate their customs establishments and the coasting trade.' The
adoption of Free Trade by Great Britain, not contemplated in Lord
Durham's Report, had a most powerful effect in widening the sphere
of colonial self-government.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 283

laws are best for them, or which of their countrymen arc
the fittest for conducting their affairs ; but, at least, they
have a greater interest in coming to a right judgment on
these points, and will take greater pains to do so than
those whose welfare is very remotely and slightly affected
by the good or bad legislation of these portions of the
Empire. If the colonists make bad laws, and select
improper persons to conduct their affairs, they will
generally be the only, always the greatest, sufferers ; and,
like the people of other countries, they must bear the ills
which they bring on themselves, until they choose to apply
the remedy. But it surely cannot be the duty or the
interest of Great Britain to keep a most expensive military
possession of these Colonies, in order that a Governor or
Secretary of State may be able to confer colonial appoint-
ments on one rather than another set of persons in the
Colonies. For this is really the only question at issue.
The slightest acquaintance with these Colonies proves
the fallacy of the common notion, that any considerable
amount of patronage in them is distributed among
strangers from the mother country.1 Whatever incon-
venience a consequent frequency of changes among the
holders of office may produce, is a necessary disadvantage
of free government, which will be amply compensated by
the perpetual harmony which the system must produce jj
between the people and its rulers. Nor do I fear that the |
1 character of the public servants will, in any respect, suffer
from a more popular tenure of office. For I can conceive
no system so calculated to fill important posts with

1 In the Government of Dependencies Sir George Cornewall Lewis
enumerates, among the disadvantages arising to a dependency from it
dependence on the dominant country, the exclusion of natives of
dependency from offices in their own country, and the appointment
natives of the dominant country to offices in the dependency witl
a due regard for their qualifications. He quotes from authonti
Jamaica under British Government, and on the French and bpar
dependencies (see Government of Dependencies, pp. 270-5 and n<
and pp. 137, 148-9, and notes). He does not, however, notice
case, to which Lord Durham here refers, i. e. appointing natives ot
a colony to posts in the colony, but keeping the nomination u
hands of the Home Government. See also below, pp. Ait-*-

284 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

inefficient persons as the present, in which public opinion
is too little consulted in the original appointment, and in
which it is almost impossible to remove those who dis-
appoint the expectations of their usefulness, without
inflicting a kind of brand on their capacity or integrity.
Loyalty I am well aware that many persons, both in the Colonies
British and a* home, view the system which I recommend with
population considerable alarm, because they distrust the ulterior
Colonies, views of those by whom it was originally proposed, and
whom they suspect of urging its adoption, with the
intent only of enabling them more easily to subvert
monarchical institutions, or assert the independence of\
the Colony. I believe, however, that the extent to which \
these ulterior views exist, has been greatly overrated. We
must not take every rash expression of disappointment as
an indication of a settled aversion to the existing consti-
tution ; and my own observation convinces me, that the
predominant feeling of all the English population of the
North American Colonies is that of devoted attachment
to the mother country. I believe that neither the interests
nor the feelings of the people are incompatible with a/
Colonial Government, wisely and popularly administered.
The proofs, which many who are much dissatisfied with
the existing administration of the Government, have given
of their loyalty, are not to be denied or overlooked. The
attachment constantly exhibited by the people of these
Provinces towards the British Crown and Empire, has all
the characteristics of a strong national feeling. They
value the institutions of their country, not merely from
a sense of the practical advantages which they confer,
but from sentiments of national pride ; and they uphold
them the more, because they are accustomed to view them
as marks of nationality, which distinguish them from their
Republican neighbours.1 J do not mean to affirm that

1 It will be noted what stress Lord Durham lays here and elsewhere
on the monarchy, and to what extent his views have been borne out
by later experience. Most people would agree that at the present day
the Crown is the one great bond of union in the Empire.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 285

this is a feeling which no impolicy on the part of tin-
mother country will be unable to impair ; but I do most
confidently regard it as one which may, if rightly appre-
ciated, be made the link of an enduring and advantageous
connexion. The British people of the North American
Colonies are a people on whom we may safely rely, and to
whom we must not grudge power. For it is not to the indi-
viduals who have been loudest in demanding the change,
that I propose to concede the responsibility of the Colonial
administration, but to the people themselves. Nor can I TheCrown
conceive that any people, or any considerable portion of a consult
people, will view with dissatisfaction a change which would the popu-
amount simply to this, that the Crown would henceforth inchclLeof
consult the wishes of the people in the choice of its servants. its 8er-

vants.

The important alteration in the policy of the Colonial HOW dis-
Government which I recommend, might be wholly or ^"*p^,'r
in great part effected for the present by the unaided Canada,
authority of the Crown ; and I believe that the great
mass of discontent in Upper Canada, which is not directly
connected with personal irritation, arising out of the
incidents of the late troubles, might be dispelled by an
assurance that the government of the Colony should
henceforth be carried on in conformity with the views
of the majority in the Assembly. But I think that for
the well-being of the Colonies, and the security of the
mother country, it is necessary that such a change should
be rendered more permanent than a momentary sense of
the existing difficulties can ensure its being.1 I cannot
believe that persons in power in this country will be
restrained from the injudicious interference with the
internal management of these Colonies, which I deprecate,
while they remain the petty and divided communities
which they now are. The public attention at home i
distracted by the various and sometimes contrary corn-

instructions

instructions irom tuo viunn, ^ " — ^^J» ~tnr- anmo

be embodied in some law, and (6) that the law should provide ft
form of British North American Union.

286 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

plaints of these different contiguous Provinces. Each
now urges its demands at different times, and in somewhat
different forms, and the interests which each individual
complainant represents as in peril, are too petty to attract
the due attention of the Empire. But if these important
and extensive Colonies should speak with one voice, if it
were felt that every error of our colonial policy must cause
a common suffering and a common discontent throughout
the whole wide extent of British America, those complaints
would never be provoked ; because no authority would
venture to run counter to the wishes of such a community,
except on points absolutely involving the few imperial
interests, which it is necessary to remove from the juris-
diction of Colonial legislation.1

Money It is necessary that I should also recommend what

should appears to me an essential limitation on the present
not be powers of the representative bodies in these Colonies.
I consider good government not to be attainable while
the present unrestricted powers of voting public money,
and of managing the local expenditure of the community,
are lodged in the hands of an Assembly. As long as
a revenue is raised, which leaves a large surplus after the
payment of the necessary expenses of the civil Govern-
ment, and as long as any member of the Assembly may,
without restriction, propose a vote of public money, so
long will the Assembly retain in its hands the powers

1 Compare with this passage the noteworthy letter of February 6,
1790, which William Smith, Chief Justice of Canada, wrote to Lord
Dorchester, and in which he urged that steps should be taken ' to put
what remains to Great Britain of her ancient dominions in North
America under one general direction, for the united interests and safety
of every branch of the Empire '. Referring to the old North American
colonies, the Chief Justice continued : ' To expect wisdom and mode-
ration from near a score of petty Parliaments, consisting in effect
of only one of the three necessary branches of a Parliament, must,
after the light brought by experience, appear to have been a very
extravagant expectation. . . . And it belonged to the Administrations
of the days of our fathers to have found the cure, in the erection of
a Power upon the continent itself, to control all its own little republics,
and create a Partner in the Legislation of the Empire, capable of con-
sulting their own safety and the common welfare ' (Egerton and Grant,
Canadian Constitutional Development, pp. 104-10).

without
consent
of the
Crown.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 287

which it every where abuses, of misapplying that money.
The prerogative of the Crown which is constantly exercised
in Great Britain for the real protection of the people,
ought never to have been waived in the Colonies ; and if
the rule of the Imperial Parliament, that no money vote
should be proposed without the previous consent of the
Crown, were introduced into these Colonies, it might be
wisely employed in protecting the public interests, now
frequently sacrificed in that scramble for local appro-
priations, which chiefly serves to give an undue influ-
ence to particular individuals or parties.1

The establishment of a good system of municipal <3ood
institutions throughout' these Provinces is a matter o'
vital importance. A general legislature, which manages

the private business of every parish, in addition to tb

common business of the country, wields a power which
no single body, however popular in its constitution, ought
to have ; a power which must be destructive of any
constitutional balance. The true principle of limiting
popular power is that apportionment of it in many
different depositaries which has been adopted in all the
most free and stable States of the Union. Instead of
confiding the whole collection and distribution of all the
revenues raised in any country for all general and local
purposes to a single representative body, the power of local
assessment, and the application of the funds arising from
it, should be entrusted to local management. It is in vain
to expect that this sacrifice of power will be voluntarily
made by any .representative body. The establishment of
municipal institutions for the whole country should be
made a part of every colonial constitution ; and the
prerogative of the Crown should be constantly interposed
to check any encroachment on the functions of the local
bodies, (jjjjtu) the people should become alive, as most
assuredly they almost immediately would be, to the
necessity of protecting their local privileges.2

1 See also above on pp. 93, 328 and notes, and Introduction, p. 292.

2 See Introduction, pp. 152 and 219.

288 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Land The establishment of a sound and general system for

mcirtge *ne management of the lands and the settlement of the
Colonies, is a necessary part of any good and durable
system of government. In a report contained in the
Appendix to the present, the plan which I recommend
for this purpose, will be fully developed.1

Lower These general principles apply, however, only to those

should changes in the system of government which are required
be made jn order to rectify disorders common to all the North
American Colonies ; but they do not in any degree go to
remove those evils in the present state of Lower Canada
which require the most immediate remedy. The fatal
feud of origin, which is the cause of the most extensive
mischief, would be aggravated at the present moment
by any change, which should give the majority more
power than they have hitherto possessed. A plan by
which it is proposed to ensure the tranquil government
of Lower Canada, must include in itself the means of
putting an end to the agitation of national disputes in
the legislature, by settling, at once and for ever, the
national character of the Province.2 I entertain no
doubts as to the national character which must be given
to Lower Canada ; it must be that of the British Empire ;
that of the majority of the population of British America ;
that of the great race which must, in the lapse of no long
period of time, be predominant over the whole North
without ^American Continent. Without effecting the change so
to°theiCe rapidly or so roughly as to shock the feelings and trample
French. On the welfare of the existing generation, it must hence-
forth be the first and steady purpose of the British Govern-
ment to establish an English population, with English

1 See Appendix B (vol. iii, pp. 34-130) and Introduction, pp. 176-88.

* In what follows, Lord Durham amplifies his views as to the necessity
of ' Anglifying ' French Canada, which was one of the main theses of
his Report. In preceding passages of the Report it has been abundantly
insisted on, as well as in Appendix D. The view is discussed in the
Introduction, pp. 129-36 and 281-4. Reference should also be made
to Cornewall Lewis's Government of Dependencies, 1891 ed., chap, ix,
on the ' Disadvantages arising to a Dependency from its Dependence
on the Dominant Country '. See especially p. 266 of that chapter.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA L>S«.»

laws and language, in this Province, and to trust its
government to none but a decidedly English Legislature.
V It may be said that this is a hard measure to a conquered Objections
people ; that the French were originally the whole, and £^'
still are the bulk of the population of Lower Canada ;
that the English are new comers, who have no right to
demand the extinction of the nationality of a people,
among whom commercial enterprize has drawn them.
It may be said, that, if the French are not so civilized, so
energetic, or so money-making a race as that by which /
they are surrounded, they are an amiable, a virtuous,
and a contented people, possessing all the essentials of
material comfort, and not to be despised or ill-used,
because they seek to enjoy what they have, without
emulating the spirit of accumulation, which influences
their neighbours. Their nationality is, after all, an
inheritance ; and they must be not too severely punished,
because they have dreamed of maintaining on the distant
banks of the St. Lawrence, and transmitting to their
posterity, the language, the manners, and the institutions
of that great nation, that for two centuries gave the tone
of thought to the European Continent. If the disputes of
the twct races are irreconcileable, it may be urged that
justice demands that the minority should be compelled
to acquiesce in the supremacy of the ancient and most
numerous occupants of the Province, and not pretend to
force their own institutions and customs on the majority.

But before deciding which of the two races is now to Prudence
be placed in the ascendant, it is but prudent to inquire J^^J^h
which of them must ultimately prevail ; for it is not wise U^£*
to establish to-day that which must, after a hard struggle, prevail.
be reversed to-morrow. The pretensions of the French
Canadians to the exclusive possession of Lower Canada,
would debar the yet larger English population of Upper
Canada and the Townships from access to the great
natural channel of that trade which they alone have
created, and now carry on. The possession of the mouth
of the St. Lawrence concerns not only those who happen

1362-2 TJ

290

REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

English

to have made their settlements along the narrow line
which borders it, but all who now dwell, or will hereafter
dwell, in the great basin of that river.1 For we must not
look to the present alone. The question is, by what race-
is it likely that the wilderness which now covers the rich
and ample regions surrounding the comparatively small
and contracted districts in which the French Canadians
are located, is eventually to be converted into a settled
and flourishing country ? If this is to be done in the
British dominions, as in the rest of North America, by
some speedier process than the ordinary growth of
population, it must be by immigration from the English
Isles, or from the United States, — the countries which
supply the only settlers that have entered, or will enter,
the Canadas in any large numbers. This immigration
can neither be debarred from a passage through Lower
Canada, nor even be prevented from settling in that
Province. The whole interior of the British dominions
must ere long, be filled with an English population, every
year rapidly increasing its numerical superiority over the
French. Is it just that the prosperity of this great
majority, and of this vast tract of country, should be for
ever, or even for a while, impeded by the artificial bar
which the backward laws and civilization of a part, and
a part only, of Lower Canada, would place between them
and the ocean ? Is it to be supposed that such an English
population will ever submit to such a sacrifice of its
interests ?

I must not, however, assume it to be possible that the
English Government shall adopt the course of placing or
allowing any check to the influx of English immigration
into Lower Canada, or any impediment to the profitable
employment of that English capital which is already
vested therein. The English have already in their hands

1 See above, p. 142, note. On the second reading of the Reunion
Bill in the House of Lords on June 30, 1840, the Duke of Wellington,
who was strongly opposed to the Bill, said that the two provinces
' could be considered, in point of fact, as having no one common interest
whatsoever except the great river '.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 291

the majority of the larger masses of property in the
country ; they have the decided superiority of intelligence
on their side ; they have the certainty that colonization
must swell their numbers to a majority ; and they belong
to the race which wields the Imperial Government, and
predominates on the American Continent. If we now
leave them in a minority, they will never abandon the
assurance of being a majority hereafter, and never cease
to continue the present contest with all the fierceness
with which it now rages. In such a contest they will
rely on the sympathy of their countrymen at home ; and
if that is denied them, they feel very confident of being
able to awaken the sympathy of their neighbours of
kindred origin. They feel that if the British Government
intends to maintain its hold of the Canadas, it can rely
on the English population alone ; that if it abandons its
colonial possessions, they must become a portion of that
great Union which will speedily send forth its swarms of
settlers, and, by force of numbers and activity, quickly
master every other race. The French Canadians, on the Isolation
other hand, are but the remains of an ancient colonization, jvench in
and are and ever must be isolated in the midst of an an Anglo-
Anglo-Saxon world. Whatever may happen, whatever woria.
government shall be established over them, British or
American, they can see no hope for their nationality.
They can only sever themselves from the British Empire
by waiting till some general cause of dissatisfaction
alienates them, together with the surrounding colonies,
and leaves them part of an English confederacy ; or, if
they are able, by effecting a separation singly, and so
either merging in the American Union, or keeping up for
a few years a wretched semblance of feeble independence,
which would expose them more than ever to the intrusion
of the surrounding population. I am far from wish-
ing to encourage indiscriminately these pretensions to
superiority on the part of any particular race ; but while
the greater part of every portion of the American Continent
is still uncleared and unoccupied, and while the English

U2

292 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

exhibit such constant and marked activity in colonization,
so long will it be idle to imagine that there is any portion
of that Continent into which that race will not penetrate,
or in which, when it has penetrated, it will not predominate .
It is but a question of time and mode ; it is but to deter-
mine whether the small number of French who now
inhabit Lower Canada shall be made English, under
u Government which can protect them, or whether the
, process shall be delayed until a much larger number shall
have to undergo, at the rude hands of its uncontrolled
rivals, the extinction of a nationality strengthened and
embittered by continuance.1
Hopeless And is this French Canadian nationality one which,
merely °f that people, we ought to strive to

French perpetuate, evjn if it were possible ? I know of no
race? ' * national distinctions marking and continuing a more
hopeless inferiority The language, the laws, the character
of the North Amf an Continent are English ; and every
race but the En sh (I apply this to all who speak the
English langua^ appears there in a condition of in-
feriority. It is elevate them from that inferiority that
I desire to give ' o the Canadians our English character.
I desire it for t, sake of the educated classes, whom the
distinction of language and manners keeps apart from the
great Empire to which they belong. At the best, the fate
of the educated and aspiring colonist is, at present, one
of little hope, and little activity ; but the French Canadian
is cast still further into the shade, by a language and habits
foreign to those of the Imperial Government. A spirit
of exclusion has closed the higher professions on the
educated classes of the French Canadians, more, perhaps,
than was absolutely necessary ; 2 but it is impossible for
the utmost liberality on the part of the British Govern-
ment to give an equal position in the general competition
of its vast population to those who speak a foreign language .
I desire the amalgamation still more for the sake of the
humbler classes. Their present state of rude and equal
1 See above, p. 70, note. * See above, p. 32, note 2.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 203

plenty is fast deteriorating under the pressure of population
in the narrow limits to which they are confined. If they
attempt to better their condition, by extending themselves
over the neighbouring country, they will necessarily get
more and more mingled with an English population : l
if they prefer remaining stationary, the greater part of
them must be labourers in the employ of English capitalists.
In either case it would appear, that the great mass of the
French Canadians are doomed, in some measure, to
occupy an inferior position, and to be dependent on the
English for employment. The evils of poverty and
dependence would merely be aggravated in a ten-fold
degree, by a spirit of jealous and resentful nationality,
which should separate the working class of the community
from the possessors of wealth and employers of labour.

I will not here enter into the question of the effect of the Economi-
mode of life and division of property among the French cfe to per-
Canadians on the happiness of the people. I will admit, petuation
for the moment, that it is as productive of well-being as nation-
its admirers assert. But, be it good or bad, the period in alitVt
which it is practicable, is past ; for there is not enough
unoccupied land left in that portion of the country in
which English are not already settled, to admit of the
present French population possessing farms sufficient to
supply them with flheir present means of comfort, under
their system of husbandry. No population has increased
by mere births so rapidly as that of the French Canadians
has since the conquest. At that period their number was
estimated at 60,000 ; it is now supposed to amount to
more than seven times as many. There has been no
proportional increase of cultivation, or of produce from
the land already under cultivation ; and the increased
population has been in a great measure provided for by
mere continued subdivision of estates. In a Report from
a Committee of the Assembly in 1826, of which Mr. Andrew

1 Lord Durham's forecast has not proved correct. The French
Canadians have extended over ' the neighbouring country witl
losing their nationality.

294 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Steuart * was chairman, it is stated, that since 1784 the
population of the seigniories had quadrupled, while the
number of cattle had only doubled, and the quantity of
land in cultivation had only increased one-third. Com-
plaints of distress are constant, and the deterioration of
the condition of a great part of the population admitted
on all hands. A people so circumstanced must alter
their mode of life. If they wish to maintain the same
kind of rude, but well-provided agricultural existence, it
must be by removing into those parts of the country in
which the English are settled ; or if they cling to their
present residence, they can only obtain a livelihood by
deserting their present employment, and working for
wages on farms, or in commercial occupations under
English capitalists. But their present proprietary and
inactive condition is one which no political arrangements
can perpetuate. Were the French Canadians to be
guarded from the influx of any other population, their
condition in a few years would be similar to that of the
poorest of the Irish peasantry.

The There can hardly be conceived a nationality more

nation- destitute of all that can invigorate and elevate a people,
alityis than that which is exhibited by the descendants of the

destitute _. . ~ 1 . . . ... ,1 •

of invigor- French in Lower Canada, owing to their retaining their

aualftie8 Pecu^ar language and manners. They are a people with

no history, and no literature. The literature of England

is written in a language which is not theirs ; and the only

1 Mr. Andrew Stuart had been one of the members for the town of
Quebec in the Assembly of Lower Canada, and apparently a very
popular member. He was enthusiastic on exploration of the northern
part of the Province of Quebec between the settlements and the Hudson
Bay territory, from the Saguenay and Lake St. John to the Ottawa
(see Christie, vol. iii, pp. 203-11. On p. 211 Christie speaks of ' The
splendid daydreams of the late Mr. Andrew Stuart, whose foresight
and capacious mind none who knew him will make light of '). He was
the first chairman of the Quebec Constitutional Association founded in
November 1834 (Christie, vol. iv, p. 23). In a dispatch dated October 25,
1838 (see House of Commons Paper, British North America, February 11,
1839, p. 234) Lord Durham reported that he had appointed Mr. Andrew
Stuart to be Solicitor-General of Lower Canada, adding that he ' is at
the head of the bar here, and pre-eminently qualified for the office to
which he has been appointed '.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA

literature which their language renders familiar to them,
is that of a nation from which they have been separated
by eighty years of a foreign rule, and still more by those
changes which the Revolution and its consequences have
wrought in the whole political, moral and social state of
France. Yet it is on a people whom recent history,
manners and modes of thought, so entirely separate from
them, that the French Canadians are wholly dependent
for almost all the instruction and amusement derived
from books : it is on this essentially foreign literature,
which is conversant about events, opinions and habits
of life, perfectly strange and unintelligible to them, that
they are compelled to be dependent. Their newspapers
are mostly written by natives of France, who have either
come to try their fortunes in the Province, or been brought
into it by the party leaders, in order to supply the dearth
of literary talent available for the political press. In
the same way their nationality operates to deprive them
of the enjoyments and civilizing influence of the arts.
Though descended from the people in the world that most
generally love, and have most successfully cultivated the
drama — though living on a continent, in which almost
every town, great or small, has an English theatre, the
French population of Lower Canada, cut off from every
people that speaks its own language, can support no
national stage.

In these circumstances, I should be indeed surprised Character
if the more reflecting part of the French Canadians p^^nce
entertained at present any hope of continuing to preserve should be

•i -A *i. • inuno-

their nationality. Much as they struggle against it, il is diateiy
obvious that the process of assimilation to English habits alt€red
is already commencing. The English language is gaining
ground, as the language of the rich and of the employers
of labour naturally will. It appeared by some of the few
returns, which had been received by the Commissioner
of the Inquiry into the state of Education,1 that there

1 The Report of the Commissioner of Inquiry into the state of
Education in Lower Canada (Appendix D) insists in almost identical

296 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

are about ten times the number of French children in
Quebec learning English, as compared with the English
children who learn French. A considerable time must,
of course, elapse before the change of a language can spread
over a whole people ; and justice and policy alike require,
that while the people continue to use the French language,
their Government should take no such means to force the
English language upon them as would, in fact, deprive
the great mass of the community of the protection of the
laws. But, I repeat that the alteration of the character
of the Province ought to be immediately entered on, and
firmly, though cautiously, followed up ; that in any plan,
which may be adopted for the future management of
Lower Canada, the first object ought to be that of making
it an English Province ; and that, with this end in view,
the ascendancy should never again be placed in any hands
but those of an English population. Indeed, at the
present moment this is obviously necessary : in the state
of mind in which I have described the French Canadian
population, as not only now being, but as likely for a long
while to remain, the trusting them with an entire control
over this Province, would be, in fact, only facilitating
a rebellion. Lower Canada must be governed now, as
it must be hereafter, by an English population : and thus
the policy, which the necessities of the moment force on us,
is in accordance with that suggested by a comprehensive
view of the future and permanent improvement of the
Province.

Plans for The greater part of the plans which have been proposed

govern-6 f°r the future government of Lower Canada, suggest

mentm either as a lasting or as a temporary and intermediate

Canada, scheme, that the Government of that Province should be

constituted on an entirely despotic footing, or on one that

I would vest it entirely in the hands of the British minority.

terms with those used by Lord Durham on the necessity of ' Anglify-
ing ' the province, e. g. on p. 273 of vol. iii : ' Until Canada is national-
ized and Anglified, it is idle for England to be devising schemes for her
improvement,' and iii. 289 : ' The colony will not be worth our keep-
ing unless it is Anglified.'

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 297

It is proposed either to place the legislative authority in
a Governor, with a Council formed of the heads of the
British party, or to contrive some scheme of representa-
tion by which a minority, with the forms of representation,
is to deprive a majority of all voice in the management of
its own affairs.

The maintenance of an absolute form of government impor-
on any part of the North American Continent, can never JJJJJ
continue for any long time, without exciting a general the sym
feeling in the United States against a power of which the jJeJn
existence is secured by means so odious to the people ; State8-
and as I rate the preservation of the present general
sympathy of the United States with the policy of our
Government in Lower Canada, as a matter of the greatest
importance,1 I should be sorry that the feeling should be
changed for one which, if prevalent among the people,
must extend over the surrounding Provinces. The
influence of such an opinion would not only act very
strongly on the entire French population, and keep up
among them a sense of injury, and a determination of
resistance to the Government, but would lead to just as
great discontent among the English. In their present
angry state of feeling, they might tolerate, for a whi
any arrangement that would give them a triumph over
the French ; but I have greatly misunderstood
character, if they would long bear a Government in whicl
they had no direct voice. Nor would their jealousy 1
obviated by the selection of a Council from the pen
supposed to have their confidence. It is not easy
know who really possess that confidence ; and
that there would be no surer way of depriving a ma
influence over them, than by treating him as then
sentative, without their consent,

The experience which we have had of a Governm

* This, with other passages in the ^^

powerfully Lord Durham was ^"^^tto United States.
Lns by the desire to maintain 8"*^" International tension
His efforts in this direction at a tun
were of the greatest service to bnglana.

298 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

The Legis- irresponsible to the people in these Colonies, does not
should justify us in believing that it would be very well
represent administered. And the great reforms in the institutions

public

opinion, of the Province which must be made, ere Lower Canada
can ever be a well-ordered and flourishing community,
can be effected by no Legislature which does not represent
a great mass of public opinion.

An irre- But the great objection to any government of an

GOTern-' ' absolute kind is, that it is palpably of a temporary nature ;

ment that there is no reason to believe that its influence during
the few years that it would be permitted to last, would
leave the people at all more fit to manage themselves ;
that, on the contrary, being a mere temporary institution,
it would be deficient in that stability which is the great
requisite of government hi times of disorder. There is
every reason to believe that a professedly irresponsible
government would be the weakest that could be devised.
Every one of its acts would be discussed, not in the Colony,
but in England, on utterly incomplete and incorrect
information, and run the chance of being disallowed
without being understood. The most violent outcry
that could be raised by persons looking at them through
the medium of English and constitutional notions, or by
those who might hope thereby to promote the sinister
purposes of faction at home, would be constantly directed
against them. Such consequences as these are inevitable.
The people of England are not accustomed to rely on the
honest and discreet exercise of absolute power ; and if
they permit a despotism to be established in their Colonies,
they feel bound, when their attention happens to be
directed towards them, to watch its acts with vigilance.
The Governor and Council would feel this responsibility
in all their acts : unless they happened to be men of much
more than ordinary nerve and earnestness, they would
shape their policy so as merely to avoid giving a handle
to attacks ; and their measures would exhibit all that
uncertainty and weakness which such a motive is sure
to produce.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 299

With respect to every one of those plans which propose objectio
to make the English minority an electoral majority by to unfair
means of new and strange modes of voting or unfair ISSriLg'
divisions of the country, I shall only say, that if the an Englis
Canadians are to be deprived of representative govern-
ment, it would be better to do it in a straightforward
way than to attempt to establish a permanent system
of government on the basis of what all mankind would
regard as mere electoral frauds. It is not in North America
that men can be cheated by an unreal semblance of
representative government, or persuaded that they are
out-voted, when, in fact, they are disfranchised.

The only power that can be effectual at once in coercing A numeri
the present disaffection, and hereafter obliterating the

nationality of the French Canadians, is that of a numerical will alone
majority of a loyal and English population ; and the only French

stable government will be one more popular than any .
that has hitherto existed in the North American Colonies.
The influence of perfectly equal and popular institutions
in effacing distinctions of race without disorder or oppres-
sion, and with little more than the ordinary animosities
of party in a free country, is memorably exemplified in
the history of the state of Louisiana, the laws and popula-
tion of which were French at the time of its cession to the
American Union. And the eminent success of the policy
adopted with regard to that State, points out to us the
means by which a similar result can be effected in Lower
Canada.

The English of Lower Canada, who seem to infer the Case of

. , Louisiana.

means from the result, entertain and circulate tne mo
extraordinary conceptions of the course really pursued in
this instance. On the single fact, that in the constitution
of Louisiana it is specified that the public acts of the State
shall be ' in the language in which the constitution of the
United States is written,' it has been inferred that the
federal Government in the most violent manner swept
away the use of the French language and laws,1 and
' As to Louisiana, see above, pp. 61-2, note. In a dispatch to Lord

300 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

subjected the French population to some peculiar disabili-
ties which deprived them, in fact, of an equal voice in
the government of their State. Nothing can be more
contrary to the fact. Louisiana, on its first cession was
governed as a 'district ' ; its public officers were appointed
by the federal Government ; and, as was natural under
the circumstances of the case, they were natives of the
old States of the Union. In 1812, the district, having
the requisite population, was admitted into the Union as
a State, and admitted on precisely the same terms that
any other population would have or has been. The
constitution was framed so as to give precisely the same
power to the majority as is enjoyed in the other States
of the Union. No alteration was then made in the laws.
The proof of this is afforded by a fact familiar to every
person moderately acquainted with the jurisprudence of
the age. The code, which is the glory of Louisiana and
Mr. Livingstone,1 was subsequently undertaken under the
auspices of the legislature, in consequence of the confusion
daily arising in the administration of the English and
French system of law in the same courts. This change

John Russell of January 22, 1840, from Poulett Thomson, Lord
Sydenham, in which the latter summarized his recommendations for
a Union Bill, he wrote : ' 4. The language. I recommend that, in the
publication of all records of the Legislature, the English language only
should be adopted. Great inconvenience and embarrassment have
been experienced in Lower Canada from the necessity of using the two
languages ; and in the United Legislature there can be no good ground
for continuing the practice. The debates, of course, may be conducted
either in French or English, according to the discretion of the Speaker.
The constitution of Louisiana affords a precedent for this regulation '
(House of Commons Paper, No. 147, March 23, 1840, p. 33).

1 Edward Livingston was born in the State of New York in 1764,
and became a barrister in that State, a member of Congress, and mayor
of the City of New York. After the cession of Louisiana to the United
States he settled in New Orleans, and was a leading supporter of
General Jackson in the defence of New Orleans against the English in
1814. He was a member of the Louisiana Legislature, and in 1821
was charged with the work of preparing a criminal code for the State.
This resulted in the highly-esteemed Livingston code, which was
adopted in several other States of the Union, and much consulted in
other countries. He subsequently became Secretary of State under
President Jackson, and in 1833 was American minister at Paris. He
died in 1836.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 301

of laws, effected in the manner most consonant to the
largest views of legislation, was not forced on the legislature
and people of the State by an external authority, but was
the suggestion of their own political wisdom. Louisiana
is not the only State in the Union which has been troubled
by the existence of conflicting systems of law. The State
of New York, till within a few years, suffered under the
same evil, which it remedied in the same way, by employ-
ing a commission of its ablest lawyers to digest both
systems of law into a common code. The contending
populations of Lower Canada may well imitate these
examples ; and if, instead of endeavouring to force their
respective laws upon each other, they would attempt an
amalgamation of the two systems into one, adopting what
is really best in both, the result would be creditable to
the Province.

Every provision was made in Louisiana for securing Provision
to both races a perfectly equal participation in all the *
benefits of the Government. It is true that the intention
of the federal Government to encourage the use of the
English language was evinced by the provision of the
constitution with respect to the language of the records ;
but those who will reflect how very few people ever read
such documents, and how very recently it is that the
English language has become the language of the law in
this country, will see that such a provision could have
little practical effect. In all cases in which convenience
requires it, the different parties use their respective
languages in the courts of justice, and in both branches
of the legislature. In every judicial proceeding, all
documents which pass between the parties are required
to be in both languages, and the laws are published in
both languages . Indeed the equality of the two languages
is preserved in the legislature by a very singular contriv-
ance ; the French and English members speak their respec-
tive languages, and an interpreter, as I was informed, after
every speech, explains its purport in the other language.

For a long time the distinction between the two

302 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Distinc- races was the cause of great jealousy. The Americans
races°ong crow(ied into the State in order to avail themselves of its
a cause of great natural resources, and its unequalled commercial
>usy' advantages ; there, as every where else on that continent,
their energy and habits of business gradually drew the
greater part of the commercial business of the country
into their hands ; and though, I believe, a few of the
richest merchants, and most of the owners of plantations,
are French, the English form the bulk of the wealthier
classes. Year after year their numbers have become
greater, and it is now generally supposed that they
constitute the numerical majority. It may be imagined
that the French have borne this with a good deal of
dissatisfaction ; but as the advantages gained by the
English were entirely the result, not of favour, but of
their superiority in a perfectly free competition, this
jealousy could excite no murmurs against the Government.
The competition made the two races enemies at first, but
it has gradually stirred the emulation of the less active
race, and made them rivals. The jealousies in the city
of New Orleans were so great at one time, that the Legis-
lature of the State, at the desire of the English, who
complained of the inertness of the French, formed separate
municipalities for the French and English parts of the city.
These two municipalities are now actuated by a spirit of
rivalry, and each undertakes great public works for the
ornament and convenience of their respective quarters.
Present The distinction still lasts, and still causes a good deal
society* °^ dm8*011 5 *ne society of each race is said to be in some
measure distinct, but not by any means hostile ; and
some accounts represent the social mixture to be very
great. All accounts represent the division of the races
as becoming gradually less and less marked ; their news-
papers are printed hi the two languages on opposite pages ;
their local politics are entirely merged in those of the
Union ; and instead of discovering in their papers any
vestiges of a quarrel of races, they are found to contain
a repetition of the same party recriminations and party

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 303

arguments, which abound in all other parts of the
federation.

The explanation of this amalgamation is obvious. Eiplana-
The French of Louisiana, when they were formed into^igL
a state, in which they were a majority, were incorporated nation,
into a great nation, of which they constituted an extremely
small part. The eye of every ambitious man turned
naturally to the great centre of federal affairs, and the
high prizes of federal ambition. The tone of politics was
taken from those by whose hands its highest powers were
wielded ; the legislation and government of Louisiana
were from the first insignificant, compared with the
interests involved in the discussions at Washington. It
became the object of every aspiring man to merge his
French, and adopt completely an American nationality.
What was the interest of individuals, was also the interest
of the State. It was its policy to be represented by those
who would acquire weight in the councils of the federation.
To speak only a language foreign to that of the United
States, was consequently a disqualification for a candi-
date for the posts of either senator or representative ;
the French qualified themselves by learning English, or
submitted to the superior advantages of their English
competitors. The representation of Louisiana in Congress
is now entirely English, while each of the federal parties
in the State conciliates the French feeling, by putting up
a candidate of that race. But the result is, that the Union
is never disturbed by the quarrels of these races ; and the
French language and manners bid fair, in no long time, to
f oUow their laws, and pass away like the Dutch peculiarities
of New York.

It is only by the same means,— by a popular govern-
ment, in which an English majority shall permanently pre-
dominate, that Lower Canada, if a remedy for its disorders
be not too long delayed, can be tranquilly ruled.

On these grounds, I believe that no permanent <
efficient remedy can be devised for the disorders of Lower Canada
Canada, except a fusion of the Government in that of one only

304 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

remediable or more of the surrounding Provinces ; and as I am of
with"81 ' opinion that the full establishment of responsible govern-
another ment can only be permanently secured by giving these

Province. n , . / , J . A, J «*

Colonies an uicreased importance ni the politics of the
Empire, I find in union the only means of remedying at
once and completely the two prominent causes of their
present unsatisfactory condition.

Two kinds Two kinds of union have been proposed, — federal and
pro'posed, legislative. By the first, the separate legislature of each
federal Province would be preserved in its present form, and retain
lative. almost all its present attributes of internal legislation ; the
federal legislature exercising no power, save in those
matters of general concern, which may have been expressly
ceded to it by the constituent Provinces.1 A legislative
union would imply a complete incorporation of the Pro-
vinces included in it under one legislature, exercising
universal and sole legislative authority over all of them,
in exactly the same manner as the Parliament legislates
alone for the whole of the British Isles.

Federal On my first arrival in Canada, I was strongly inclined
union con- to the project of a federal union, and it was with such

sidered ; . T

a plan in view, that I discussed a general measure for
the government of the Colonies, with the deputations
from the Lower Provinces, and with various leading
individuals and public bodies in both the Canadas. I was
fully aware that it might be objected that a federal union
would, in many cases, produce a weak and rather cum-
brous government ; that a Colonial federation must have,
in fact, little legitimate authority or business, the greater
part of the ordinary functions of a federation falling
within the scope of the imperial legislature and executive ;
and that the main inducement to federation, which is the
necessity of conciliating the pretensions of independent
states to the maintenance of their own sovereignty, could

1 A reference to Lord Glenelg's dispatch to Lord Durham of January
20, 1838, when the latter was first appointed, will show that Lord
Glenelg contemplated some kind of Federal Legislature for the two
provinces. The dispatch is reprinted in vol. iii, pp. 305-11,

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 305

not exist in the case of Colonial dependencies, liable to
be moulded according to the pleasure of the supreme
authority at home. In the course of the discussions which
I have mentioned, I became aware also of great practical
difficulties in any plan of federal government, particularly
those that must arise in the management of the general
revenues, which would in such a plan have to be again
distributed among the Provinces. But I had still more its diffi-
strongly impressed on me the great advantages of an0"11**"
united Government ; and I was gratified by finding the
leading minds of the various Colonies strongly and
generally inclined to a scheme that would elevate their
countries into something like a national existence.
I thought that it would be the tendency of a federation
sanctioned and consolidated by a monarchical Government
gradually to become a complete legislative union ; and
that thus, while conciliating the French of Lower Canada,
by leaving them the government of their own Province
and their own internal legislation, I might provide for the
protection of British interests by the general government,
and for the gradual transition of the Provinces into an
united and homogeneous community.1

1 In connexion with this passage it may be well to compare the
main features of the Constitutions of the Dominion of Canada, the
Commonwealth of Australia, and the Union of South Africa. The
Union of South Africa most nearly approaches Lord Durham's ideal
The main points of difference between the Constitutions of the Dominion
of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, and the Union of South
Africa are as follows : —

(1) Under the Constitution of Canada, for all external purpos
Dominion represents the provinces, which deal solely with so much of
internal affairs as is not reserved for the Dominion. The provincial
Lieutenant-Governors are appointed, and if need be dismissed, by tl
Governor-General on the advice of the Dominion ministers ; the li
of the provinces are subject to disallowance by the Governor-Oenen
on the advice of his ministers; and correspondence between t
Colonial Office and Canada is carried on through the Governor-G
alone. Further, the Dominion Parliament and Government have all the
powers necessary to perform obligations, whether of the Dominion or
province, arising out of treaties between His Majesty and foreign pov re
even in cases where the Dominion Parliament has normally no ger
legislative authority, though in practice this power JL^"W""

The Commonwealth of Australia, on the other hand, though it repre
sente the States for external affairs, does not do so completely. The

1352-2

306 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Period of But the period of gradual transition is past in Lower
n Canada. In the present state of feeling among the French

State Governors are appointed, and if need be, dismissed by His Majesty
on the advice of his Imperial ministers ; the laws of the States are
subject to His Majesty's disallowance ; and the State Governors
retain the right of direct communication with the Secretary of State
even in certain matters of external affairs. The Commonwealth of
Australia has apparently no power to enforce treaties affecting matters
upon which it has no power of general legislation, and has to obtain
the consent of State Governments to adhere to treaties dealing with
matters within the exclusive legislative competence of the States.

In the case of South Africa, the Union Government represents South
Africa in all external affairs ; it exercises a complete control over the
provinces by its power to veto their legislation, and to legislate over
the heads of the Provincial Councils, and by its having in its hands the
appointment and dismissal of the Administrator of the Province and
the control of the audit of the provincial accounts. All correspondence
regarding provincial affairs passes through the Governor-General's
hands. It is expressly provided that rights and obligations under con-
ventions affecting the colonies before union will devolve on the Union
Government.

(2) Under the Canadian Constitution the Dominion Government
has full powers of legislation for the peace, good order, and good govern-
ment of Canada, but certain limited powers of legislation in regard to
matters of local concern are vested exclusively in the Provincial Legis-
latures, all residuary power being in the hands of the Dominion Parlia-
ment. In the Commonwealth of Australia in certain matters, limited
in number, the Commonwealth Parliament has exclusive powers of
legislation ; in many others it has concurrent, but paramount, powers
with the State Parliaments ; in matters not expressly specified the
States alone have power. In this respect the Commonwealth follows
the model of the United States Constitution, but the practical difference
between the powers of the Provinces of Canada and the States of
Australia are not very great.

The legislative powers of the Union Parliament of South Africa are
paramount and unlimited. It can therefore legislate on any topic on
which a Provincial Council can legislate, and its legislation will over-
ride that of a province. A Provincial Council has certain restricted
powers of legislation with regard to purely local concerns, but these
powers can at any time be reduced by the Union Parliament.

(3) The Constitution of Canada can, save in minor details, be amended
only by the Imperial Parliament ; while in the Australian Constitution
definite provision is made for amendment by the Parliament and people
of Australia. The rigidity of the Canadian Constitution is more in
consonance with the conception of a federation, as it ensures that no
change shall be made against the wish of a State save with the approval
of His Majesty's Government, whereas in many matters an Australian
State could be overridden by the wishes of the majority of the States.

The Constitution of the Union of South Africa can be altered by
a simple Act, only a few points requiring even a special majority, and
provision being made for the reservation of Bills abolishing Provincial
Councils or abridging their powers. The provinces are thus quite
without protection against the Union, but that is only natural as the
Union Constitution is intended to be a real union, in which local bodies

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 307

population, I cannot doubt that any power which they past,

^ *u~ Lower

might possess would be used against the policy and the r
very existence of any form of British government. I can-
not doubt that any French Assembly that shall again
meet in Lower Canada will use whatever power, be it
more or less limited, it may have, to obstruct the Govern-
ment, and undo whatever has been done by it. Time,
and the honest co-operation of the various parties, would
be required to aid the action of a federal constitution ;
and time is not allowed, in the present state of Lower
Canada, nor co-operation to be expected from a legisla-
ture, of which the majority shall represent its French
inhabitants. I believe that tranquillity can only be
restored by subjecting the Province to the vigorous rule Legisla-
of an English majority ; and that the only efficacious Jl!lFnioa

•^ rccoin*

government would be that formed by a legislative union, mended.

If the population of Upper Canada is rightly estimated The
at 400,000, the English inhabitants of Lower Canada at ^J^ t
150,000, and the French at 450,000, the union of the two legitimate
Provinces would not only give a clear English majority, w^J*7'
but one which would be increased every year by the abandon
influence of English emigration ; and I have little doubt Of nation-
that the French, when once placed, by the legitimate
course of events and the working of natural causes, in a
minority, would abandon their vain hopes of nationality.

in the shape of the Provincial Councils are retained with strictly sub-
ordinate functions, not a federation in which the members retain in
a greater or less degree a real individuality.

(4) The Canadian Constitution entrusts to the care of the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council the question of the interpretation of
the Constitution as it affects the respective rights of the l pminion and
the provinces. The Australian Constitution leaves the decision of such
questions to the final judgement of the High Court of the Common-
wealth, unless that Court chooses to allow an appeal to the Privy Council

In South Africa, such disputes as may arise as to the limite of pro-
vincial and Union powers will be disposed of by the Supreme Court of
South Africa, subject to an appeal by special leave of the Privy Council
to that body. But, in view of the supreme legislative powers of the
Union, any decision of the Privy Council can be in effect reversed by
Union legislation.

The Constitutions differ also in countless points of detail

Beference should be made to Federations and Unions in the Bnttsh
Empire, by Professor H. E. Egerton (1911).

X 2

308 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

I do not mean that they would immediately give up their
present animosities, or instantly renounce the hope of
attaining their end by violent means. But the experience
of the two Unions in the British Isles may teach us how
effectually the strong arm of a popular legislature would
compel the obedience of the refractory population ; l and
the hopelessness of success, would gradually subdue the
existing animosities, and incline the French Canadian
population to acquiesce in their new state of political
existence. I certainly should not like to subject the
French Canadians to the rule of the identical English
minority with which they have so long been contending ;
but from a majority, emanating from so much more
extended a source, I do not think they would have any
oppression or injustice to fear ; and in this case, the far
greater part of the majority never having been brought
into previous collision, would regard them with no
animosity that could warp their natural sense of equity.
The endowments of the Catholic church in Lower Canada,
and the existence of all its present laws, until altered by
the united Legislature, might be secured by stipulations
similar to those adopted in the Union between England
and Scotland.2 I do not think that the subsequent
history of British legislation need incline us to believe,
that the nation which has a majority in a popular legis-
lature, is likely to use its power to tamper very hastily
with the laws of the people to which it is united.
Advan- The union of the two Provinces would secure to Upper
umon°to Canada the present great objects of its desire. All
Upper disputes as to the division or amount of the revenue
would cease.3 The surplus revenue of Lower Canada
would supply the deficiency of that part of the upper
Province ; and the Province thus placed beyond the
possibility of locally jobbing the surplus revenue., which

1 The subsequent history of Ireland has hardly borne this out.

2 The 25th section of the Act of Union of 1706 (5 Anne, cap. 8)
embodied the articles securing ' The Protestant religion and Presby-
terian church government in Scotland '.

3 See above, pp. 142-3 and note.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 309

it cannot reduce, would, I think, gain as much by the
arrangement as the Province, which would thus find
a means of paying the interest of its debt. Indeed it
would be by no means unjust to place this burthen on
Lower Canada, inasmuch as the great public works for
which the debt was contracted, are as much the concern
of one Province as of the other. Nor is it to be supposed
that, whatever may have been the mismanagement, in
which a great part of the debt originated, the canals of
Upper Canada will always be a source of loss, instead of
profit. The completion of the projected and necessary
line of public works would be promoted by such an union.
The access to the sea would be secured to Upper Canada.
The saving of public money, which would be ensured by
the union of various establishments in the two Provinces,
would supply the means of conducting the general Govern-
ment on a more efficient scale than it has yet been carried
on. And the responsibility of the executive would be
secured by the increased weight which the representative
body of the United Province would bring to bear on the
Imperial Government and Legislature.

But while I convince myself that such desirable endsAdvan-
would be secured by the legislative union of the two

Provinces, I am inclined to go further, and inquire whether onion to
all these objects would not more surely be attained, by
extending this legislative union over all the British
Provinces in North America ; and whether the advantages
which I anticipate for two of them, might not, and should
not in justice be extended over all. Such an union would
at once decisively settle the question of races ; it would
enable all the Provinces to co-operate for all common
purposes ; and, above all, it would form a great and
powerful people, possessing the means of securing good
and responsible government for itself, and which, under
the protection of the British Empire, might in some
measure counterbalance the preponderant and increasing
influence of the United States on the American continent.
I do not anticipate that a Colonial Legislature thus strong

310 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

and thus self-governing, would desire to abandon the
connexion with Great Britain. On' the contrary, I believe
that the practical relief from undue interference, which
would be the result of such a change, would strengthen the
present bond of feelings and interests ; and that the con-
nexion would only become more durable and advantageous,
by having more of equality, of freedom, and of local inde-
pendence. But at any rate, our first duty is to secure
the well-being of our colonial countrymen ; and if in the
hidden decrees of that wisdom by which this world is
ruled, it is written, that these countries are not for ever
to remain portions of the Empire, we owe it to our honour
to take good care that, when they separate from us, they
should not be the only countries on the American continent
in which the Anglo-Saxon race shall be found unfit to
govern itself.

A legisla- I am, in truth, so far from believing that the increased
would111011 Power an(* weigh* tnat would be given to these Colonies
counter- by union would endanger their connexion with the Empire ,
existing tha,t I look to it as the only means of fostering such
tendencies a national feeling throughout them as would effectually
tion. counterbalance whatever tendencies may now exist
towards separation. No large community of free and
intelligent men will long feel contented with a political
system which places them, because it places their country,
in a position of inferiority to their neighbours.1 The
colonist of Great Britain is linked, it is true, to a mighty
Empire ; and the glories of its history, the visible signs
of its present power, and the civilization of its people,
are calculated to raise and gratify his national pride.
But he feels, also, that his link to that Empire is one of
remote dependence ; he catches but passing and inade-
quate glimpses of its power and prosperity ; he knows
that in its government he and his own countrymen have
no voice. While his neighbour on the other side of the

1 This is one of the passages which make Lord Durham's Report such
a great work. It forecasts the substitution of ' dominions ' for ' colonies ',
and of political equality and partnership for subordination.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 311

frontier assumes importance, from the notion that his
vote exercises some influence on the councils, and that he
himself has some share in the onward progress of a mighty
nation, the colonist feels the deadening influence of the
narrow and subordinate community to which he belongs.
In his own, and in the surrounding Colonies, he finds petty
objects occupying petty, stationary and divided societies ;
and it is only when the chances of an uncertain and tardy
communication bring intelligence of what has passed a
month before on the other side of the Atlantic,1 that he
is reminded of the Empire with which he is connected.
But the influence of the United States surrounds him
on every side, and is for ever present. It extends itself
as population augments and intercourse increases ; it
penetrates every portion of the continent into which the
restless spirit of American speculation impels the settler
or the trader ; it is felt in all the transactions of commerce,
from the important operations of the monetary system
down to the minor details of ordinary traffic ; it stamps,
on all the habits and opinions of the surrounding countries,
the common characteristics of the thoughts, feelings and
customs of the American people. Such is necessarily the
influence which a great nation exercises on the small
communities which surround it. Its thoughts and man-
ners subjugate them, even when nominally independent
61 its authority. If we wish to prevent the extension of
this influence, it can only be done by raising up for the
North American colonist some nationality of his own ;
by elevating these small and unimportant communities
into a society having some objects of a national impor-

1 In the war of 1812, the Treaty of Ghent, which put an end to the
war, was signed a fortnight before the battle of New Oreana was

'

,

fought, and the news of the treaty did not ^V^taSJtv'SS
before Mobile, until rather more than seven weeks after the treaty ha

Stfri ££ sas^fiSrarait, 55

of communication between Europe and North America
and telegraphy had made themselves felt.

312 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

tance ; and by thus giving their inhabitants a country
which they will be unwilling to see absorbed even into
one more powerful.

It would While I believe that the establishment of a compre-
scope for hensive system of Government, and of an effectual union
elevating between the different Provinces, would produce this im-
tion of portant effect on the general feelings of their inhabitants,
aspiring j am inclined to attach very great importance to the
influence which it would have in giving greater scope and
satisfaction to the legitimate ambition of the most active
and prominent persons to be found in them. As long as
personal ambition is inherent in human nature, and as
long as the morality of every free and civilized community
encourages its aspirations, it is one great business of a wise
Government to provide for its legitimate development.
If, as it is commonly asserted, the disorders of these
Colonies have, in great measure, been fomented by the
influence of designing and ambitious individuals, this evil
will best be remedied by allowing such a scope for the
desires of such men as shall direct their ambition into the
legitimate chance of furthering, and not of thwarting,
their Government. By creating high prizes in a general
and responsible Government, we shall immediately afford
the means of pacifying the turbulent ambitions, and of
employing in worthy and noble occupations the talents
which now are only exerted to foment disorder. We must
remove from these Colonies the cause to which the sagacity
of Adam Smith traced the alienation of the Provinces
which now form the United States : we must provide
some scope for what he calls ' the importance ' of the
leading men in the Colony, beyond what he forcibly terms
the present ' petty prizes of the paltry raffle of colonial
faction '.* A general Legislative Union would elevate and

1 It will be remembered that Adam Smith published The Wealth of
Nations in 1776, i. e. a year after the beginning of the War of American
Independence. The passage in question will be found in part iii of the
chapter on Colonies, but it is not quite correctly quoted by Lord Dur-
ham, the exact words being, ' the little prizes which are to be found
in what may be called the paltry raffle of colony faction.' The whole

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 313

gratify the hopes of able and aspiring men. They would
no longer look with yenvy and wonder at the great arena
of the bordering federation, but see the means of satisfying
every legitimate ambition in the high offices of the
Judicature and Executive Government of their own Union.

Nor would an union of the various Provinces be less Reasons
advantageous in facilitating a co-operation for various
common purposes, of which the want is now very seriously

_

felt. There is hardly a department of the business of
Government which does not require, or would not be
better performed, by being carried on under the super-
intendence of a general Government ; and when we
consider the political and commercial interests that are
common to these Provinces, it appears difficult to account
for their having ever been divided into separate govern-
ments, since they have all been portions of the same
Empire, subject to the same Crown, governed by nearly
the same laws and constitutional customs, inhabited,
with one exception, by the same race, contiguous and
immediately adjacent to each other, and bounded along
their whole frontier by the territories of the same powerful
and rival State. It would appear that every motive that
has induced the union of various Provinces into a single
State, exists for the consolidation of these Colonies under
a common legislature and executive. They have the
same common relation to the mother country ; the same
relation to foreign nations. When one is at war, the
others are at war ; and the hostilities that are caused by
an attack on one, must seriously compromise the welfare
of the rest. Thus the dispute between Great Britain and
the State of Maine,1 appears immediately to involve the

passage is quoted and examined by Come wall Lewis in The Govern-
Lnt of Dependencies, chap, x, pp. 289-94 (1891 ed.). B£*»»*»U
also be made to Lewis's comments on the kindred subject of the -d£
advantages under which a dependency labours from ito ihabd
' exclusion of natives of the dependency from offices in their
country ' (PP 270-2). See above, p. 283, note.

™ Se? above p 272, note. Maine was admitted as a State into the
Union in 1820,Pand its admission naturally had the co^
making the Maine boundary question not only a national,

314 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

interests of none of these Colonies, except New Brunswick
or Lower Canada, to one of which the territory claimed
by us must belong. But if a war were to commence on
this ground, it is most probable that the American Govern-
ment would select Upper Canada as the most vulnerable,
or, at any rate, as the easiest point of attack. A dispute
respecting the fisheries of Nova Scotia would involve
precisely the same consequences. An union for common
defence against foreign enemies is the natural bond of
connexion that holds together the great communities of
the world ; and between no parts of any Kingdom or
State is the necessity for such an union more obvious than
between the whole of these Colonies.

Reasons Their internal relations furnish quite as strong motives
in internal f°r union. The Post Office is at the present moment
relations, under the management of the same imperial establish-
ment.1 If, in compliance with the reasonable demands
of the Colonies, the regulation of a matter so entirely of
internal concern, and the revenue derived from it, were
placed under the control of the Provincial Legislatures,
it would still be advisable that the management of the
Post Office throughout the whole of British North America
should be conducted by one general establishment. In
the same way, so great is the influence on the other Pro-
vinces of the arrangements adopted with respect to
the disposal of public lands and colonization in any one,
that it is absolutely essential that this department of
Government should be conducted on one system, and by
one authority.2 The necessity of common fiscal regula-
tions is strongly felt by all the Colonies ; and a common

more than before a State question. The Ashburton treaty of 1842,
which settled the international boundary, was followed by an arbitration
between Canada and New Brunswick as to the frontier between the
two provinces. The award was given in 1851, and embodied in an
Imperial Act of that year. 1 See above, p. 144, note.

2 This reads as if, in the event of a union of all British North America,
Lord Durham might have been prepared to hand over the public lands
to the Union Government, instead of keeping them under the control
of the Imperial Government, but the above interpretation would not
be consistent with what is said elsewhere, e. g. on ii. 282, 327, and he
probably only indicates the necessity for one land policy.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 316

custom-house establishment would relieve them from
the hindrances to their trade, caused by the duties now
levied on all commercial intercourse between them.1
The monetary and banking system of all is subject to the
same influences, and ought to be regulated by the same
laws. The establishment of a common colonial currency
is very generally desired.2 Indeed, I know of no depart-

1 See above, p. 282, note.

* The currency of the different British North American provinces
was at this time in complete chaos. The following is condensed from
Chalmers's History of Currency in the British Colonies (1893) :

In the 18th and earlier part of the 19th century a variety of
coins, British, Spanish, and French, were admitted to legal circulation
in Canada at fixed rates, but the Spanish dollar, or its subdivision the
pistareen, being over-rated, became the real standard of value.

The country had been flooded with paper money ever since it was
taken over from the French, and it was almost impossible to retain
gold. In 1816 the currency of the United Kingdom was established
on a gold basis, and practically for the first time silver token money
remained in circulation here. The shortage of dollars resulting from
the revolt of the Spanish colonies, and the success of the token coinage
in the United Kingdom, induced the British government in 1825 to
attempt to introduce British silver throughout the Empire. The
attempt, however, met with no practical success in Canada, a nominal
adherence to sterling being maintained p ari passu with a circulation
of non sterling coins.

In 1819 French gold and silver struck since 1792 were admitted to
unlimited legal tender in Lower Canada, but the over-rating of the
Spanish dollar by law left this latter coin as the standard of value,
and in 1826 it was said that ' the circulating medium of both provinces
is paper. British coin is rarely seen, and, except among the Canadians
below Quebec, rarely a silver dollar '.

In 1830 Upper Canada passed an act demonetizing the pistareen
and French silver coins, and Lower Canada reduced the rating of the
pistareen about the same time. ' The result was to establish the dollar,
in lieu of the pistareen, as the standard of value in Upper, if not in ^wer
Canada. In the latter province the worn ecu still held the field, but
growing scarcity of these old coins allowed South American dollars
and United States half dollars to circulate.'

In 1834 the United States passed to a gold standard, and «» Upper
Canada the consequent drain of gold and silver coin was severely felt.
In 1836 an Act was passed in Upper Canada providing for
rating of currency, but the quarter-dollar, being over-valued, drove
all other coins, and the Province, being practically left without

ilver asked for a secial silver coinage to be legal tender above

316 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

ment of Government that would not greatly gain, both
in economy and efficiency, by being placed under a common
management. I should not propose, at first, to alter the
existing public establishments of the different Provinces,
because the necessary changes had better be left to be
made by the united Government ; and the judicial
establishments should certainly not be disturbed until
the future legislature shall provide for their re-construc-
tion, on an uniform and permanent footing. But even
in the administration of justice, an union would imme-
diately supply a remedy for one of the most serious wants
under which all the Provinces labour, by facilitating the
formation of a general appellate tribunal for all the North
American Colonies.1
New inter- jju^ ^he interests which are already in common between

ests would ...,-».

be called all these Provinces are small in comparison with those
ence by^n w^cn *^e consequences of such an union might, and
union. I think I may say assuredly would, call into existence ;
and the great discoveries of modern art, which have
throughout the world, and no where more than in America,
entirely altered the character and the channels of com-
munication between distant countries, will bring all the
North American Colonies into constant and speedy
intercourse with each other. The success of the great
experiment of steam navigation across the Atlantic, opens

and the new ratings practically established the silver dollar of the
United States as the real standard of value in Canada.

In Nova Scotia, despite efforts to introduce British currency, the
real standard of value had also been the Spanish dollar or the pistareen,
though it was not actually declared legal tender ; nor did provincial
legislation in 1834 and 1836 do away with the over rating of the Spanish
money, British coins remaining very diificult to procure in the ordinary
course of trade, and there was a good deal of irredeemable paper.
Similar currency to that of the United States was not adopted in JNova
Scotia before its inclusion in the Dominion.

In New Brunswick the pistareen was the standard of value until
1821, when the province practically adopted the currency of the United
States.

In Prince Edward Island the 18th century rating of the Spanish
dollar was not corrected till 1849, when the United States silver dollar
was made the insular standard. The province suffered from an irre-
deemable issue of treasury notes which began in 1826.

1 See above, pp. 123-4 and note.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 317

a prospect of a, speedy communication with Europe, which
will materially affect the future state of allthese Provinces »
In a Despatch which arrived in Canada after my departure,
the Secretary of State informed me of the determination
of Your Majesty's Government to establish a steam com-
munication between Great Britain and Halif ax ; and
instructed me to turn my attention to the formation of
a road between that port and Quebec.2 It would, indeed,
have given me sincere satisfaction, had I remained hi the
Province, to promote, by any means in my power, so
highly desirable an object ; and the removal of the usual
restrictions on my authority as Governor-General, having
given me the means of effectually acting in concert with
the various Provincial Governments, I might have been
able to make some progress in the work. But I cannot
point out more strikingly the evils of the present want of
a_ general government for these Provinces, than by
adverting to the difficulty which would practically occur,
under the previous and present arrangements of both

1 With this cp. Appendix C, vol. iii, p. 237 : ' Steam navigation has
so far reduced the distance between England and her North American
colonies, that the affairs of these most valuable dependencies are cap-
able of being conducted with as much efficiency as those of the remoter
sections of the United Kingdom.' See also the Introduction, pp. 15-16
and 201. The first steam passage across the Atlantic, that of the
Royal William, was in 1833.

2 Writing of the session of the Quebec Legislature which was opened
by Lord Dalhousie in January 1826, Christie says : ' An address had
been sent up in the session of 1824, respecting a road between this
province and New Brunswick, to which it was thought the Imperial
Government as well as the provinces ought to contribute, it being the
route by which His Majesty's mail from and to England passed and
repassed between Quebec and Halifax. His Excellency now by message
acquainted them that, having while in England had communication
with His Majesty's Government relative to it, he was authorized to
inform the legislature that, although the government could not hold
out expectation of direct aid, by parliamentary grant for such purpose,
it had no objection to advance as a loan any sum of money that might
be required, either for this object or any other undertaking of the like
nature, in this or the neighbouring provinces of His Majesty's North
American dominions, if the provincial legislatures would respectively,
and in their several just proportions, guarantee the payment of an
interest of three per cent, on such advances, and provide a sinking fui
for the gradual liquidation of the loan ' (Christie's History of Lorn
Canada, vol. iii, pp. 86-7 ; see also Kingsford, vol. ix, pp. 326-6). 1
advantage was taken of this offer.

318 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Executive and Legislative authorities in the various
Provinces, in attempting to carry such a plan into effect.
For the various Colonies have no more means of concerting
such common works with each other, than with the
neighbouring States of the Union. They stand to one
another in the position of foreign States, and of foreign
States without diplomatic relations. The Governors may
correspond with each other : the Legislatures may enact
laws, carrying the common purposes into effect in their
respective jurisdictions ; but there is no means by which
the various details may speedily and satisfactorily be
settled with the concurrence of the different parties.
And, in this instance, it must be recollected that the
communication and the final settlement would have to be
made between, not two, but several of the Provinces.
The road would run through three of them ; and Upper
Canada, into which it would not enter, would, in fact, be
more interested in the completion of such a work than any
even of the Provinces through which it would pass. The
Colonies, indeed, have no common centre in which the
arrangement could be made, except in the Colonial Office
at home ; and the details of such a plan would have to be
discussed just where the interests of all parties would have
the least means of being fairly and fully represented, and
where the minute local knowledge necessary for such
a matter would be least likely to be found.
Improved The completion of any satisfactory communication

commum- , TT *., « *» i i -i • <• ,

cations between Hamax and Quebec, would, in fact, produce

desirable, relations between these Provinces, that would render

a general union absolutely necessary. Several surveys

have proved that a railroajtyvould be perfectly practicable

the whole way.1 Indeed, in North America, the expense

1 The project of an intercolonial railway, i. e. of railway connexion
between Quebec and New Brunswick or Nova Scotia, so as to give
Canada a port not icebound in winter, dates from the thirties, prior to
Lord Durham's mission and his Report ; but all the three provinces
began their lines independently, and the intercolonial railway as a
single undertaking did not come into existence until the British North
America Act of 1867 had been passed. Section 145 of that Act laid
down that the construction of the intercolonial railway was considered

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 319

and difficulty of making a railroad, bears by no means the
excessive proportion to those of a common road that it
does in Europe. It appears to be a general opinion in the
United States, that the severe snows and frosts of that
continent very slightly impede, and do not prevent, the
travelling on railroads ; and if I am rightly informed, the
Utica railroad, in the northern part of the State of New
York, is used throughout the winter. If this opinion
be correct, the formation of a railroad from Halifax to
Quebec would entirely alter some of the distinguishing
characteristics of the Canadas. Instead of being shut out
from all direct intercourse with England during half the
year, they would possess a far more certain and speedy
communication throughout the winter than they now
possess in summer. The passage from Ireland to Quebec
would be a matter of 10 or 12 days, and Halifax would be
the great port by which a large portion of the trade, and
all the conveyance of passengers to the whole of British
North America, would be carried on. But even supposing
these brilliant prospects to be such as we could not reckon
on seeing realized, I may assume that it is not intended
to make this road without a well-founded belief that
it will become an important channel of communication
between the Upper and Lower Provinces.1 In either case,
would not the maintenance of such a road, and the mode
in which the Government is administered in the different
Provinces, be matters of common interest to all ? If the
great natural channel of the St. Lawrence gives all the
people who dwell in any part of its basin such an interest

essential to the consolidation of the Union, and that a railway connect-
ing the St. Lawrence with Halifax should be begun within six months
after the Union. This Act was immediately followed by another Imperial
Act, guaranteeing the interest on a Canadian loan for the construction of
the railway, and the whole line was opened in 1876. See an interesting
Historical Sketch of the Intercolonial Railway, by Sir f-'andf ord Fleming in
the second volume of Mr. Castell Hopkins's Canada, an Encyclopaedia.
1 The feasibility, as well as the great desirability, of good land com-
munication between Halifax and Quebec had been emphasized by tl
war of 1812. Both in the winter of 1812-13, and in that of J
a regiment was sent up overland to Quebec from Fredericton in New
Brunswick. It was regarded as a great feat at the time.

320 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

in the government of the whole as renders it wise to incor-
porate the two Canadas, the artificial work which would,
in fact, supersede the lower part of the St. Lawrence, as
the outlet of a great part of the Canadian trade, and would
make Halifax, in a great measure, an outport to Quebec,
would surely in the same way render it advisable that the
incorporation should be extended to Provinces through
which such a road would pass.

Union With respect to the two smaller Colonies of Prince

to Prince Edward's Island and Newfoundland, I am of opinion, that
Mand and no* °^ would most of the reasons which I have given
New- for an union of the others, apply to them, but that their

• j| . ITA «/

smallness makes it absolutely necessary, as the only means
of securing any proper attention to their interests, and
investing them with that consideration, the deficiency of
which, they have so much reason to lament in all the
disputes which yearly occur between them and the citizens
of the United States, with regard to the encroachments
made by the latter on their coasts and fisheries.1
Opinion The views on which I found my support of a com-
the late prehensive union have long been entertained by many
Duke of persons in these Colonies, whose opinion is entitled to
the highest consideration. I cannot, however, refrain
from mentioning the sanction of such views by one whose
authority Your Majesty will, I may venture to say, receive
with the utmost respect. Mr. Sewell, the late Chief
Justice of Quebec*.2 laid before me an autograph letter
addressed to himself by Your Majesty's illustrious and
lamented father,3 in which his Royal Highness was pleased
to express his approbation of a similar plan then pro-
posed by that gentleman. No one better understood the
interests and character of these Colonies than his Royal

1 These disputes, arising out of the interpretation of the terms of the
Fisheries Convention of 1818, were the subject of arbitration before the
Hague Tribunal in 1910.

2 As to Chief Justice Sewell, see above, p. 235, note.

3 The Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria, served in Canada for
several years between 1791 and 1800. He commanded the forces in
Canada for rather over a year in 1799-1800. He died in 1820.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 321

Highness ; and it is with peculiar satisfaction, therefore,
that I submit to Your Majesty's perusal the important
document which contains his Royal Highness's opinion
in favour of such a scheme : —

' Kensington Palace, 30 Nov. 1814.
' My dear Sewell,

' I have this day had the pleasure of receiving your note
of yesterday, with its interesting enclosure : nothing can
be better arranged than the whole thing is, or more
perfectly I cannot wish ; and, when I see an opening, it is
fully my intention to hint the matter to Lord Bathurst,
and put the paper into his hands, without, however,
telling him from whom I have it, though I shall urge him
to have some conversation with you relative to it. Permit
me, however, just to ask you whether it was not an over-
sight in you to state that there are five Houses of Assembly
in the British Colonies in North America ? for if I am not
under an error, there are six, viz. Upper and Lower
Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the Islands of
Prince Edward and Cape Breton. Allow me also to beg
of you to put down the proportions in which you think
the thirty members of the representative Assembly ought
to be furnished by each province ; and, finally, to suggest
whether you would not think two Lieutenant Governors,
with two Executive Councils, sufficient for the Executive
Government of the whole, viz. one for the two Canadas
and one for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, compre-
hending the small dependencies of Cape Breton and Prince
Edward's Island ; the former to reside at Montreal, and
the latter at whichever of the two situations may be
considered most central for the two Provinces, whether
Annapolis Royal or Windsor. But at all events, should
you even consider four Executive Governments and four
Executive Councils requisite, I presume there cannot be a
question of the expediency of comprehending the two small
islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence with Nova Scotia.1

' Believe me ever to remain, with the most friendly
regard,

' My dear Sewell, yours faithfully,

(signed) ' Edward.'

1 No mention is made of Newfoundland in this letter. By the Royal
Proclamation of 1763, Cape Breton and Prince Edward ]

1352.2 Y

322 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Difficulty j knOW Of kut one difficulty in the way of such an union ;

m the way J *

of union, and that arises from the disinclination which some of the

Lower Provinces might feel to the transference of powers
from their present Legislatures to that of the Union. The
objection to this would arise principally, I imagine, from
their not liking to give up the immediate control which
they now have over the funds by which their local expendi-
ture is defrayed. I have given such a view of the evils of
this system, that I cannot be expected to admit that an
interference with it would be an objection to my plan.
I think, however, that the Provinces would have a right
to complain, if these powers of local management, and of
distributing funds for local purposes, were taken from
Provincial Assemblies only to be placed in the yet more
objectionable hands of a general legislature. Every pre-
caution should, in my opinion, be taken to prevent such
a power, by any possibility, falling into the hands of
the Legislature of the Union. In order to prevent that,
I would prefer that the Provincial Assemblies should be
retained, with merely municipal powers. But it would
be far better, in point both of efficiency and of economy,
that this power should be entrusted to the municipal
bodies of much smaller districts ; and the formation of
such bodies would, in my opinion, be an essential part
of any durable and complete Union.

Legisla- With such views, I should without hesitation recommend
immediate adoption of a general legislative union of

have the all the British Provinces in North America, if the regular
of the course of Government were suspended or perilled in the
colonial Lower Provinces, and the necessity of the immediate

people.

adoption of a plan for their government, without reference

to them, a matter of urgency ; or if it were possible to

Island of St. John), were annexed to Nova Scotia, which thereby, as
New Brunswick had not then been made a separate colony, included
the whole of the present Maritime Provinces. In 1770 Prince Edward
Island, and in 1784 Cape Breton, were again separated from Nova
Scotia, but in 1820 Cape Breton was once more annexed to Nova
Scotia. Prince Edward Island, under the French regime known as
the Isle St. Jean, was called by its present name after the Duke of
Kent in 1798.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 323

delay the adoption of a measure with respect to the
Canadas until the project of an union could have been
referred to the Legislatures of the Lower Provinces. But
the state of the Lower Provinces, though it justifies the
proposal of an union, would not, I think, render it gracious,
or even just, on the part of Parliament to carry it into effect
without referring it for the ample deliberation and consent
of the people of those Colonies. Moreover, the state of
the two Canadas is such, that neither the feelings of the
parties concerned, nor the interests of the Crown or the
Colonies themselves will admit of a single Session, or even
of a large portion of a Session of Parliament, being allowed
to pass without a definite decision by the Imperial Legis-
lature as to the basis on which it purposes to found the
future government of those Colonies.

In existing circumstances, the conclusion to which the Recom-
foregoing considerations lead me, is that no time should tion8 of
be lost in proposing to Parliament a Bill for repealing the ^J
31 Geo. 3 ; x restoring the union of the Canadas under one 8ioner.
Legislature ; and re-constituting them as one Province.

The Bill should contain provisions by which any or
all of the other North American Colonies may, on the
application of the Legislature, be, with the consent of the
two Canadas, or their united Legislature, admitted into into th*
the union on such terms as may be agreed on between

them.2

As the mere amalgamation of the Houses of Assemb y
of the two Provinces would not be advisable,3 or give at giving
all a due share of representation to each, a Parliamentary «

1 The Constitutional Act of 1791.

« No such permissive clauses appeared in the Union Act ^of

of ea*h province wa* not to exceed *ity.
Y2

324 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

represen- Commission should be appointed, for the purpose of
thetwo° f°rming the electoral divisions, and determining the
Provinces, number of members to be returned on the principle of
giving representation, as near as may be, in proportion
to population. I am averse to every plan that has been
proposed for giving an equal number of members to the
two Provinces, in order to attain the temporary end of
out-numbering the French, because I think the same
object will be obtained without any violation of the
principles of representation, and without any such
appearance of injustice in the scheme as would set public
opinion, both in England and America, strongly against
it ; and because, when emigration shall have increased
the English population in the Upper Province, the adoption
of such a principle would operate to defeat the very purpose
it is intended to serve. It appears to me that any such
electoral arrangement, founded on the present provincial
divisions, would tend to defeat the purposes of union, and
perpetuate the idea of disunion.

Power At the same time, in order to prevent the confusion and

Governor danger likely to ensue from attempting to have popular

of BUS- elections in districts recently the seats of open rebellion,

writs. it will be advisable to give the Governor a temporary

power of suspending by proclamation, stating specifically

the grounds of his determination, the writs of electoral

districts, in which he may be of opinion that elections

could not safely take place.1

Local The same commission should form a plan of local

Govern-

ment by government by elective bodies subordinate to the general

bodies6 legislature, and exercising a complete control over such

local affairs as do not come within the province of general

legislation. The plan so framed should be made an Act of

1 Lord John Russell's comment upon this proposal of Lord Durham's,
as given in his speech in the House of Commons on June 3, 1839, was :
' This does appear to us a very objectionable power to be given to the
Governor. The Governor might, indeed, state the grounds of his deter-
mination fairly, but it would always be suspected that the real grounds
were to give an advantage to one party over another ' (Hansard's
Parliamentary Debates, third series, vol. xlvii, p. 1266).

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 325

the Imperial Parliament, so as to prevent the general legis-
lature from encroaching on the powers of the local bodies.1

A general executive on an improved principle should
be established, together with a Supreme Court of Appeal,
for all the North American Colonies.2 The other establish-
ments and laws of the two Colonies should be left unaltered,
until the Legislature of the Union should think fit to
change them ; and the security of the existing endow-
ments of the Catholic Church in Lower Canada should be
guaranteed by the Act.

The constitution of a second legislative body for the Conatitu.
united Legislature, involves questions of very great i^giaU.
difficulty. The present constitution of the Legislative*™
Councils of these Provinces has always appeared to me
inconsistent with sound principles, and little calculated
to answer the purpose of placing the effective check which
I consider necessary on the popular branch of the Legis-
lature. The analogy which some persons have attempted
to draw between the House of Lords and the Legislative
Councils seems to me erroneous. The constitution of the
House of Lords is consonant with the frame of English
society ; and as the creation of a precisely similar body
in such a state of society as that of these Colonies is
impossible, it has always appeared to me most unwise to
attempt to supply its place by one which has no point
of resemblance to it, except that of being a non-elective
check on the elective branch of the Legislature.3 The

1 See Introduction, pp. 151-2 and 217.

2 The Supreme Court of Canada, being a Court of Appeal for the
whole Dominion, was first established in 1875. See pp. 123-4, note, above,

3 Similarly, Sir William Molesworth, in a speech on the Australian
Government Bill, March 22, 1850, said : ' As individuals the Members
of the House of Lords are respected ; in fact, that respect is proverbial,
for it is founded on tradition and old historical associations.

ditions and associations have been the slow growth of centuries ; tl
adhere to the institution, and cannot be suddenly created by the act
any legislature ; and it is idle to attempt to copy the forms <
an institution ' (Selected Speeches of Sir WiUiam Molesworth, edit
Professor Egerton, p. 338). . ,_Q1

When the Bill, which finally became the Constitutional Act .
was being considered, Lord Dorchester expressed himself , ollcws:
' Many advantages might result from an hereditary Legislative I

326 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

attempt to invest a few persons, distinguished from their
fellow-colonists neither by birth nor hereditary property,
and often only transiently connected with the country,
with such a power, seems only calculated to ensure
jealousy and bad feelings in the first instance, and collision
at last. I believe that when the necessity of relying, in
Lower Canada, on the English character of the Legislative
Council as a check on the national prejudices of a French
Assembly shall be removed by the Union, few persons
in the Colonies will be found disposed in favour of its
present constitution. Indeed, the very fact of union will
complicate the difficulties which have hitherto existed ;
because a satisfactory choice of councillors would have
to be made with reference to the varied interests of a much
more numerous and extended community.

should be It will be necessary, therefore, for the completion of any
stable scheme of government, that Parliament should
revise the constitution of the Legislative Council, and,
by adopting every practicable means to give that institu-
tion such a character as would enable it, by its tranquil
and safe, but effective working, to act as an useful check

distinguished by some mark of honour, did the condition of the country
concur in supporting this dignity, but the fluctuating state of property
in these provinces would expose all hereditary honours to fall into
disregard ' (Dispatch of February 8, 1790, Shortt and Doughty, p. 675,
and Egerton and Grant, pp. 100-1). Many years before, in a dis-
patch to Shelburne of January 20, 1768, Dorchester, then Carle ton,
had expressed himself to the same effect : ' It may not be improper
here to observe, that the British form of government, transplanted into
this continent, never will produce the same fruits as at home, chiefly
because it is impossible for the dignity of the Throne or Peerage to be
represented in the American Forests ' (Shortt and Doughty, p. 206).
By saction 6 of the 1791 Act the King was empowered to annex to
hereditary titles of honour the right of being summoned to the Legis-
lative Council, but the section remained a dead letter. As to the un-
suitability of certain English institutions for the colonies, cp. what
Lord Durham says as to the unpaid magistracy (above, pp. 130-1) :
' When we transplant the institutions of England into our colonies,
we ought at least to take care beforehand that the social state of the
colony should possess those peculiar materials on which alone the
excellence of those institutions depends in the mother country.' And
again, as to an established Church (above, p. 178) : ' The apparent right
which time and custom give to the maintenance of an ancient and
respected institution cannot exist in a recently settled country, in which
everything is new ' (see also Introduction, pp. 227-9).

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 327

on the popular branch of the Legislature, prevent a
repetition of those collisions which have already caused
such dangerous irritation.1

The plan which I have framed for the management of
the public lands being intended to promote the common
advantage of the Colonies and of the mother country, f»nd».
I therefore propose that the entire administration of
it should be confided to an imperial authority.2 The
conclusive reasons which have induced me to recommend I
this course, will be found at length in the separate Report
on the subject of Public Lands and Emigration.

All the revenues of the Crown, except those derived Crown
from this source, should at once be given up to the
United Legislature, on the concession of an adequate
civil list.3

The responsibility to the United Legislature of all Responsi-

/•t j i_- bihty of

officers of the Government, except the Governor and his officers of
Secretary, should be secured by every means known to
the British Constitution. The Governor, as the repre-
sentative of the Crown, should be instructed that he must
carry on his government by heads of departments, in
whom the United Legislature shall repose confidence ;
and that he must look for no support from home in any
contest with the Legislature, except on points involving
strictly Imperial interests.

The independence of the Judges should be secured, by Indcpen-
giving them the same tenure of office and security of Judgea>
income as exist in England.

> It will be noted that Lord Durham confines himself to generalities
as to the Second Chamber, and gives no specific recommenda
its constitution. A return showing the constitution of the var
Second Chambers in the self-governing dominions was given to the
House of Commons on March 30, 1910, No. 81.

: I: ±™ £p.3"-6,°where Lord Durham say* : • I must at, ribute
after year refused.

328 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

Money- No money- votes should be allowed to originate without
votes. fag previous consent of the Crown.1

Clergy In the same Act should be contained a repeal of past

ierves. provisions ^h respect to the clergy reserves, and the

application of the funds arising from them.

Measures In order to promote emigration on the greatest possible
mote°emi- scale, and with the most beneficial results to all concerned,
gration. I have elsewhere 2 recommended a system of measures
which has been expressly framed with that view, after
full inquiry and careful deliberation. Those measures
would not subject either the colonies or the mother
country to any expense whatever. In conjunction with
the measures suggested for disposing of public lands, and
remedying the evils occasioned by past mismanagement
in that department, they form a plan of colonization to
which I attach the highest importance. The objects, at
least, with which the plan has been formed, are to provide

1 This recommendation was carried out by the 57th section of the
Union Act of 1840. The British North America Act of 1867 (section 54) ;
the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act of 1900 (section 56) ;
and the South Africa Act of 1909 (section 62), all provide that money
votes and bills must be recommended by the Government before being
passed, but the South Africa Act is the only one which forbids their
being originated without such recommendation. The following is an
extract from a dispatch written by Lord Glenelg to the Governor of
Newfoundland on February 1, 1838 (House of Commons Paper, No. 579,
August 27, 1839, p. 126) :

' The Constitution of the Legislature of Newfoundland is avowedly
modelled on that of the Imperial Legislature. With regard to money
grants, however, a distinction prevails. In the House of Commons no
grant of money can be initiated except by the Crown. This rule prac-
tically does not exist in the House of Assembly, nor indeed in the
Houses of Assembly of the British Provinces on the continent in North
America. In the latter a substitute has been devised, not less effectual
in its operation, and more consonant with the general spirit of the
provincial constitution. It consists in the practice of either granting
the supplies for the year by a series of Bills, each of which is in turn
sent up to the Council for acceptance, or in granting the supplies by
separate resolutions, in each of which successively the concurrence of
the Council is obtained, before it is included in the General Appropria-
tion Act. In this respect the Assemblies are subject to a restriction
from which the House of Commons is exempt, a restriction which has
still in view the same object, that of affording to the people a security
against the misuse of that high trust which the constitution commits
to their representatives.'

2 In Appendix B (vol. iii), see above, pp. 203 note 1, and 206 note 2,
and Introduction, pp. 152-98.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 329

large funds for emigration, and for creating and improving
means of communication throughout the provinces ; to
guard emigrants of the labouring class against the present
risks of the passage ; to secure for all of them a comfortable
resting-place, and employment at good wages immediately
on their arrival ; to encourage the investment of surplus
British capital in these colonies, by rendering it as secure
and as profitable as in the United States ; to promote the
settlement of wild lands and the general improvement of
the colonies ; to add to the value of every man's property
in land ; to extend the demand for British manufactured
goods, and the means of paying for them, in proportion
to the amount of emigration and the general increase of
the colonial people ; and to augment the colonial revenues
in the same degree.

When the details of the measure, with the particular Legiala-
reasons for each of them, are examined, the means pro- ^ . .

, .... should

posed will, I trust, be found as simple as the ends are consult
great ; nor have they been suggested by any fanciful or

merely speculative view of the subject. They are founded exigencies
on the facts given in evidence by practical men ; on case.
authentic information, as to the wants and capabilities
of the colonies ; on an examination of the circumstances
which occasion so high a degree of prosperity in the
neighbouring States ; on the efficient working and
remarkable results of improved methods of colonization
in other parts of the British Empire ; in some measure
on the deliberate proposals of a Committee of the House
of Commons ; and, lastly, on the favourable opinion of
every intelligent person in the colonies whom I consulted
with respect to them. They involve, no doubt, a con-
siderable change of system, or rather the adoption of a
system where there has been none ; but this, considering
the number and magnitude of past errors, and the present
wretched economical state of the colonies, seems rather
a recommendation than an objection. I do not flatter
myself that so much good can be accomplished without
an effort ; but in this, as in other suggestions, I have

330 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

presumed that the Imperial Government and Legislature
will appreciate the actual crisis in the affairs of these
colonies, and will not shrink from any exertion that may
be necessary to preserve them to the Empire.

By the adoption of the various measures here recom-
ing present mended, I venture to hope that the disorders of these
Brs' Colonies may be arrested, and their future well-being
and connexion with the British Empire secured. Of the
certain result of my suggestions, I cannot, of course,
speak with entire confidence, because it seems almost too
much to hope that evils of so long growth, and such
extent, can be removed by the tardy application of even
the boldest remedy ; and because I know that as much
depends upon the consistent vigour and prudence of those
who may have to carry it into effect, as on the soundness
of the policy suggested. The deep-rooted evils of Lower
Canada will require great firmness to remove them. The
disorders of Upper Canada, which appear to me to originate
entirely in mere defects of its constitutional system, may,
I believe, be removed by adopting a more sound and
consistent mode of administering the government. We
may derive some confidence from the recollection, that
very simple remedies yet remain to be resorted to for the
first time. And we need not despair of governing a people
who really have hitherto very imperfectly known what it
is to have a Government.

Benefits of I have made no mention of emigration, on an extended
system'of8 scale, as a cure for political disorders, because it is my
ooloniza- opinion, that until tranquillity is restored, and a prospect
of free and stable government is held out, no emigrant*
should be induced to go to, and that few would at any rate
remain in, Canada. But if, by the means which I have
suggested, or by any other, peace can be restored, con-
fidence created, and popular and vigorous government
established, I rely on the adoption of a judicious system
of colonization as an effectual barrier against the recur-
rence of many of the existing evils. If I should have
miscalculated the proportions in which the friends and

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 331

the enemies of British connexion may meet in the United
Legislature, one year's emigration would redress the
balance. It is by a sound system of colonization that
we can render these extensive regions available for the
benefit of the British people. The mismanagement by
which the resources of our Colonies have hitherto been
wasted, has, I know, produced in the public mind too
much of a disposition to regard them as mere sources of
corruption and loss, and to entertain, with too much
complacency, the idea of abandoning them as useless.
I cannot participate in the notion that it is the part either
of prudence or of honour to abandon our countrymen
when our government of them has plunged them into
disorder, or our territory, when we discover that we have
not turned it to proper account. The experiment of
keeping colonies and governing them well, ought at least
to have a trial, ere we abandon for ever the vast dominion
which might supply the wants of our surplus population,
and raise up millions of fresh consumers of our manu-
factures, and producers of a supply for our wants. The
warmest admirers, and the strongest opponents of
republican institutions, admit or assert that the amazing
prosperity of the United States is less owing to their form
of government, than to the unlimited supply of fertile
land, which maintains succeeding generations in an
undiminishing affluence of fertile soil. A region as large
and as fertile is open to Your Majesty's subjects in Your
Majesty's American dominions. The recent improve-
ments of the means of communication will, in a short time,
bring the unoccupied lands of Canada and New Brunswick
within as easy a reach of the British Isles, as the territories
of Iowa and Wisconsin x are of that incessant emigration
that annually quits New England for the Far West.
I see no reason, therefore, for doubting that, by good

' For Iowa see above, p. 274, note. In 1836 Wisconsin including
Iowa, was made a separate territory, having before been i included wit
Michigan. Iowa was separated from Wisconsin in 1838, and in U
Wisconsin was admitted as a State into the Union.

332 REPORT ON THE AFFAIRS OF

government, and the adoption of a sound system of
colonization, the British possessions in North America
may thus be made the means of conferring on the suffering
classes of the mother country many of the blessings which
have hitherto been supposed to be peculiar to the social
jstate of the New World.

In conclusion, I must earnestly impress on Your
Majesty's advisers, and on the Imperial Parliament, the
paramount necessity of a prompt and decisive settlement
of this important question, not only on account of the
extent and variety of interests involving the welfare and
security of the British Empire, which are perilled by every
hour's delay, but on account of the state of feeling which
exists in the public mind throughout all Your Majesty's
North American possessions, and more especially the two
Canadas.

In various Dispatches addressed to Your Majesty's
Secretary of State, I have given a full description of that
state of feeling, as I found it evinced by all classes and all
parties, in consequence of the events which occurred in
the last Session of the British Parliament. I do not allude
now to the French Canadians, but to the English popu-
lation of both provinces. Ample evidence of their feelings
will be found in the Addresses which were presented to
me from all parts of the North American Colonies, and
which I have inserted in an Appendix to this Report.1
But, strong as were the expressions of regret and dis-
appointment at the sudden annihilation of those hopes
which the English had entertained of seeing a speedy and
satisfactory termination of that state of confusion and
anarchy under which they had so long laboured, they sunk
into insignificance when compared with the danger arising
from those threats of separation and independence, the
open and general utterance of which was reported to me
from all quarters. I fortunately succeeded in calming
this irritation for the time, by directing the public mind

1 These addresses were included in Appendix A, but have not been
reprinted.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 333

to the prospect of those remedies which the wisdom and
beneficence of Your Majesty must naturally incline Your
Majesty to sanction, whenever they are brought under
Your Majesty's consideration. But the good effects thus
produced by the responsibility which I took upon myself,
will be destroyed ; all these feelings will recur with
redoubled violence ; and the danger will become im-
measurably greater, if such hopes are once more frustrated,
and the Imperial Legislature fails to apply an immediate
and final remedy to all those evils of which Your Majesty's
subjects in America so loudly complain, and of which
I have supplied such ample evidence.

For these reasons, I pray Your Majesty's earnest atten-
tion to this Report. It is the last act arising out of
the loyal and conscientious discharge of the high duties
imposed upon me by the Commission with which Your
Majesty was graciously pleased to entrust me. I humbly
hope that Your Majesty will receive it favourably, and
believe that it has been dictated by the most devoted
feeling of loyalty and attachment to Your Majesty's
Person and Throne, by the strongest sense of public duty,
and by the earnest desire to perpetuate and strengthen
the connexion between this Empire and the North
American Colonies, which would then form one of the
brightest ornaments in Your Majesty's Imperial Crown.

All which is humbly submitted to Your Majesty.

DURHAM.

London, 31st January 1839.

INDEX TO SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL
PROPER NAMES

Americans, see United States.

Baldwin, Robert, 156 and note.
Banque du Peuple, 41-2 and note.
Beauharnois Seigniory, 36 note,

96.

Bidwell, Marshall, 171 and note.
Brock, General, 223 and note.

Campbell, Sir Colin, 197 and note.
Canada, Lower, 13-145, 260, 288-

99, 303-9 et passim.
Canada, Upper, 145-93, 261, 2C6-

7, 273-5, 285, 308-9 et passim.
Cape Breton Island, 321-2.
Chartrand, 54 and note 2, 129.
Colborne, Sir J., 175 and note.
Cornwall Canal, 189 and note, 190.

Dodge, 133 and note.
Doratt, Sir John, 136-7.
Dunn, Mr., 156.

Eastern Townships, 18 and note,

50 and note, 114 and note, 213,

257, 289, &c.
Ellice, 'Bear,' 36 note, 96 and

note.
English in Lower Canada, 16-27,

34-56, 59-62, 68-70, 81, 288-

96, 307-8 et passim.
Erie Canal, 99 and note, 189 note,

217.

Felton, Mr., 230 and note.

Fitzroy, Sir Charles, 200 and note,
242.

French Canadians, 16-72, espe-
cially 27-34, 112-13, 265, 289-
99, 306-8 et passim.

Gaspe, district of, 117 and note,

118, 126.
Grosse Isle Quarantine Station,

137, 245-7, 250.

Haliburton, Judge (' Sam Slick '),

214 note.

Halifax, 201, 218, 317-20, &c.
Hanson, Mr., 207 note, 221.
Head, Sir Francis Bond, 155-61,

182
Head,' Major, 93, 199-201, 214,

241.
Hepburn, Mr., 159-60 and note.

Illinois, 170 and note, 275.

Iowa, 274 and note, 331 and note.

Ireland and Irish, 140 and note,
174 note, 179-82, 242, 245 note,
250-1, 267, 294, 319, &c.

Kempt, Sir James, 126-7.
Kent, Duke of, H.R.H., 320-1 and
note.

Lachine Canal, 88 and note.
Livingston, Edward, 300 and note.
Louisiana, 61 and note, 208 note,

299-303.
Lount, Samuel, 165 note.

McDonnell, Bishop, 179-81 and

notes.
Mackenzie, William Lyon, 148

note, 164 and note.
Maine, 201, 214, 216, 272 note,

313 and note.

Maitland, Sir Peregrine, 237.
Maritime Provinces, The, 193-201.
Matthews, Peter, 165 note.
Michigan, 215, 331 note.
Milnes, Sir R. S., 215 and note,

223.

Mondelet, Mr., 85-6 and note.
Montreal, 49, 57, 112, 115, 11 7,

126, 128, 133, 213, 253, 257, &c.

Nelson, Robert, 17 note, 24 and
note, 270 and note.

336

INDEX

Nelson, Wolfred, 17 note, 24 note,

270 and note.
New Brunswick, 73, 117 note,

195-6, 200-1, 209, 213-16, 218-

9, 231, 314, 321-2, 331, &c.
New England, 59, 65, 67, 201, 331.
Newfoundland, 73,193, 202, 320-1.
New Hampshire, 215-16.
New Orleans, 302.
New York City, 187-8, 217, 269-

70, &c.
New York State, 99, 158, 215-16,

267, 301, 303, 319, &c.
Nova Scotia, 73, 93, 194, 196-8,

200, 213, 218-19, 231, 314,

321, &c.

Orangeism in Upper Canada, 180-

2 and note.
Ottawa, The, 47 and note, 125 and

note.

Papineau, Louis, 24 and note, 43,
47 note, 58, 75, 78 note, 94.

Pennsylvania Dutch, 276 and
note.

Prince Edward Island, 67, 73, 198-
200, 219, 241-2, 320-2.

Quebec, 42, 112, 115, 117, 126,
133, 243-5, 247, 249, 253, 255-8,
317-20, &c.

Richmond, Duke of, 226.
Rideau Canal, 187 and note.
Robinson, Sir John Beverley, 183

note.
Rolph, Dr., 156 and note.

St. Charles, 24.
St. Denis, 24.

St. Francis, District of, 117-18.

St. John's City, 201.

St. John's River, 200-1.

St. Lawrence, 28, 42, 48, 64, 99,

187-90, 213-14, 217, 289-90,

319-20, &c.

St. Real, M. Valliere de, 123.
Scotch in Upper Canada, 174, 179.
Sewell, Chief Justice, 235 and note,

320-1.

' Shiners,' The, 125 and note.
Strachan, Bishop, 148 note, 156

note, 183 note.
Stuart, Andrew, 226 note, 294 and

note.

Talbot, Colonel, 223 and note.
Texas, 269 arid note, 270.
Theller, 133 and note.
Three Rivers, 112, 117-18, 126,

241.
Toronto, 167, 184 and note, 240,

256, &c.

United States, 58-9, 61-2, 65, 91,
112, 151, 164, 168, 170-1, 178,
206, 208-11, 217-18, 264-75,
290-1, 297, 299-301, 309, 311-13,
319-20, 329, 331, &c.

United States, contrast to Canada,
91-2,99-100, 112-13, 135, 185-6,
201,211-16,261-3.

Vermont, 114-15, 214-15.
Viger'sAct, 127, 129.

Welland Canal, 189 and note, 190.
Wisconsin, 274 note, 331 and note.

Young, William (Nova Scotia),
194, 197.

INDEX TO SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL
SUBJECTS

Absentee Proprietors in Prince

Edward Island, 198-9, 241-2.
Ambition, Scope for, 312-3.
Appeals, see under Judicial.
Assembly, House of :
General, 92-3, 286, &c.
Lower Canada, 17-19, 23-5, 46-
53, 71-8, 81-90, 92-100, 126-
7, 190, 307, 326, &c.
Upper Canada, 147-53, 157-63,

166, 182, 184, 189, &o.
Maritime Provinces, 194-7.
Newfoundland, 202.

Banks and Banking, 41-2, 48, 141
and note, 148, 154 note, 170 and
note, 315.

Bureaucracy, 21 and note, 34, 75-
81, 101-11, 147-9, &o.

Cabinet, 109-10 and note.
Canals, 99-100 and note, 187-91

and notes, 212.
Casual and Territorial Revenues,

75, 141 and note.
Censitaire, 25 and note, 31 note,

36 note ; see also Habitant.
Centralization, French, 27-8 and

note, 98-9.

Church of England, see Religion.
Civil List, 75 and note, 147 note,

327 and note.
Civil Secretary, 111.
Clergy Reserves, 139-40, 149, 162,

167, 173-9, 204 note, 209, 220-2,

328
Colonial Office, 101-7, 150-1, 193,

249, 318.
Commissioners of Small Causes,

119-21.
Communication by land and

water, 12-13, 99-100, 184, 204,

212-14, 316-20, &c.
Corruption and Jobbery, 90-100,

151-3, 184, 189, 210-11 and

note, 223-6, 286-7, 308, 322.

1352-2

Councils, Executive, 77, 78 note,

109-11 and notes, 148, 150-1.

156-60, 197, 279-80, &c.
As Courts of Appeal, 109-10,
121-5 and notes.

Legislative, 51, 82-3, 94-5. 150-
1, 196-7, 325-6, &c.

See also Privy Council.
Crown, 278-9, 284-5 and notes ft

passim • see also Prerogative, and

Monarchy.
Crown Lands, see Public Lands.

and Casual and Territorial

Revenues.

Crown Revenues, 327.
Currency, 141, 315 and note.

Dissolution on Demise of the
Crown, 163 and note.

Education, 28, 30-4 and not™.
39, 57, 94-6, 133-6, 144, 184-5.

Emigrants and Emigration, 37
and note, 50-1, 57, 153-5. 168.
171, 216-18, 242-59, 273-4,
324, 328-31, Ac.

Established Church, 176, 178-9; *et
also under Religion, and Institu-
tions, Old.

Exclusion of Canadians from
Government employment, 32
and note-34, 36, 292.

Executive, collision of, with popu-
lar representatives, 15, 51, 7l-
84, 100, 147-61, 194-6. 202,
276, &c.

Executive Councils, ste Councils.

Executive. General, 325.

Family Compact, 78 note, 148 and
note, 160, 162, 167, 183 note.

Federation, as opposed to Union.
270, 304-7.

Fees, legal and official, 118 and
note.

Feudal Tenures, 24-5 and note,

338

INDEX

27-31, 36, 50, 67, 69, 96, 99,

139, 233, 265, 294, &c.
Financial disputes between Lower

and Upper Canada, 142-3 and

note, 188-92, 308.
Fisheries Disputes, 314, 320 and

note.

Foreign Relations, 264, 282.
Franking Letters, 144 note.

Governor-in-Chief, relations to

Lieutenant- Governor, 8 and

note.
Governor, position of, 77-8, 101-2,

104, 106-11, 279-80, 298, 327,

&c.
Grants of land, 222-30.

Habitant, 25 note, 27-33 and
notes, 36, 57-8, &c. ; see also
Censitaire.

High Commissioner, 7 and note.

House of Lords, 325 and note;
see also Institutions, Old.

Inquiry, extent of Lord Durham's,
9 and note.

Institutions, disorganization of,
100-1.

Institutions, Old, in new countries,
130-1, 178, 325-6 and note.

Interference by Home Govern-
ment, 101-7, 192-4, 277, 280-5.

Intercolonial Railway, 318-19
note ; see Railways.

Judicial :

Administration of Justice in

Lower Canada, 116-31.

Upper Canada, 183-4.
Appeals, 121-5, 316, 325 and

note ; see also Councils,

Executive.

Judges, Independence of, 327.
Juries, Perversion of, 45 and

note, 54-6, 126-30.
Justices of the Peace, 112, 130-

1, 184.

Land Registration, see Registry

Offices.

Lands, see Public Lands.
Language and Literature Question

39-41 and notes, 292, 295-6.
Lawyers, qualifications for, in,

Upper Canada, 169 and note-

172.
Leaders and Associates, 225-6 ; see

also Townships.
Local Government, 28 and note,

91-2, 99, 112-15, 184, 190, 194,

287, 324-5.

Magistrates, see Justices of the

Peace, under Judicial.
Military pensioners as colonists,

257-9 and note.
Militia in Lower Canada, 53, 98

and note, 112, 133.
Militia, land claims, 226-9.
Monarchy, 279, 281 note, 284 and

note, 305, &c.
Money Votes, initiating of, 92-3,

286-7, 328 and note.
Municipal Institutions, see Local

Government.

Nationality, French Canadian, 27-
31, 59-60, 70 and note, 289-
95, &c.

Navigation Acts, 186 and note.

Officials, see Bureaucracy.

Passengers Acts, 245-9, 252-3.

Patronage, 94, 106, 148-9, 283,
312, &c.

Police, 132-3.

Post Offices, 143-4 and note, 314.

Prerogative of the Crown, 101,
106, 110, 278, 287.

Priests, Roman Catholic, see Reli-
gion, Roman Catholic Church.

Privy Council, 109-10 and note,
123-5 and note.

Protestants and Protestant Clergy,
see Religion.

Public Lands, 185, 203-42, 282,

288, 314, 327-9, &c.
in United States, 206, 208 and
note-210.

Public Works, 49, 90-4, 188-9 1, &c.

Quarantine, 137, 247-8.

Race animosity in Lower Canada,
16-63, 260, 265, 288, &c.

Railways, 212-13 and note, 318-19.

Rectories, establishment of, 167,
175, 177.

Regime, Old, in Canada, 27-31.

•INDEX

389

Registry Offices, 23 and note, 25,

50.

Relief Grants, 96-8.
Religion :

Church of England, 148-9, 174-
9, 181, 197-8, &c.; see also
Established Church, &c.

Church of Scotland, 174, 179.

Intolerance in Upper Canada,
179-82.

Protestants and Protestant
Clergy, 39 note, 67, 69, 137,
139-40, 173-4, 180-1, &o.

Roman Catholic Church and
Roman Catholics, 20 note, 28,
32-3, 39 note, 57, 69, 69,
98, 134-5, 137-40, 179-81,
308, &c.

Tolerance in Lower Canada, 39,

59, 137.
Representative Institutions and

Responsible Government, 76-82,

84, 150-1, 168, 194, 196, 261,

277-85, 304, 309, 327, &c.

Reservation of Bilk, 106-7 and

note.
Resolutions of Assembly treated

as having force of laws, 85-6.

Secretary of State for the Colonies,

101-7, 209.
Seigniors and Seigniories, see

Feudal Tenures.
Steam navigation, 316-17.
Surveys, Land, 231-6.

' Tacking,' 87-9 and note.
Temporary legislation, evil of,

86-7.
Territorial Revenues, see Casual

and Territorial Revenues.
Titles to Land, 236-9.
Townships, 18-19 and note, 36,

69, 71, 114-15, 213, 225-6, 233-

6, 239, 267, 289, &c.

Uncertainty of policy, evil of, 10,
60, 69-71, 104, 107, 192-3, 205.
Union, Legislative, 304, 307-23.

OXFORD: HORACE HART
PRINTER TO THE TTNIVERSITY

o

«*

F

5075

D98

1912

v.2

cop. 3

Durham, John George Lambton,
1st earl of Durham

Report on the affairs of
British North America

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY