In defence of the retreat of Sir George Prevost, the opinion expressed by Lord Wellington to Lord Bathurst, in 1813, is quoted. Wellington advised the pursuance of a defensive policy, knowing that there were not then men sufficient in Canada for offensive warfare, and because by pursuing a defensive system, the difficulties and risk of offensive operations would be thrown upon the enemy, who would most probably be foiled. This opinion was verified to the letter. On the other hand, the authority of Wellington, who says to Sir George Murray, that after the destruction of the fleet on Lake Champlain, Prevost must have returned to Kingston, sooner or later, is valueless, inasmuch as His Grace in naming Kingston, had evidently mistaken the locality of the disaster, and must have fancied that Plattsburgh was Sackett's Harbour. He says that a naval superiority on the Canadian lakes is a sine qua non in war on the frontier of Canada, even should it be defensive. But Lake Champlain is not one of the Canadian lakes, and, therefore, this justification of a military mistake is somewhat far-fetched. Sir George Prevost failed because he feared to meet the fate of Burgoyne, and he incurred deep and lasting censure because, when it was in his power, he did nothing to retrieve it. Historic truth, says the historian of Europe, compels the expression of an opinion that though proceeding from a laudable motive—the desire of preventing a needless effusion of human blood—the measures of Sir George Prevost were ill-judged and calamitous.

Sir James Yeo accused Sir George Prevost of having unduly hurried the squadron on the lake into action, at a time when the Confiance was unprepared for it; and when the combat did begin, of having neglected to storm the batteries, as had been agreed on, so as to have occasioned the destruction of the flotilla and caused the failure of the expedition.

The result of the Plattsburgh expedition was exhilarating to the Americans. It seemed to be compensation for the misfortunes and disasters of Hull, of Hampton, and of Wilkinson. In the interior of Fort Erie even a kind of contempt was entertained for the British. In their joy at the discomfiture of Downie and the catastrophe of Prevost, they began to look with contempt even upon General Drummond, who had cooped them up where they were. Hardly had the news reached these unfortunate besieged people than a sortie was determined upon, and such is the effect of good fortune that it infuses new spirit, and generally insures further success. In the onset the Americans gained some advantages. During a thick mist and heavy rain, they succeeded in turning the right of the British picquets, and made themselves masters of the batteries, doing great damage to the British works. But no sooner was the alarm given than re-inforcements were obtained, and the besiegers drove the besieged back again into their works, with great slaughter. The loss on each side was about equal. The Americans lost 509 men in killed, wounded, and missing, including 11 officers killed and 23 wounded, while the British loss was 3 officers and 112 men killed, 17 officers and 161 men wounded, and 13 officers and 303 men missing. On the 21st of September, General Drummond, finding the low situation in which his troops were engaged very unhealthy, by reason of continued rain, shifted his quarters to the neighborhood of Chippewa, after in vain endeavoring to provoke the American General to battle. General Izzard had, meanwhile, arrived from Sackett's Harbour with 4,000 troops from Plattsburgh, but General Brown, having heard that Sir James Yeo had completed a new ship, the St. Lawrence, of 100 guns, and had sailed from Kingston for the head of the lake, with a re-inforcement of troops and supplies for the army, Commodore Chauncey having previously retired to Sackett's Harbour, instead of prosecuting the advantages which the addition of 4,000 men promised, blew up Fort Erie and withdrew with his whole troops into American territory, realizing the prediction of General Izzard, that his expedition would terminate in disappointment and disgrace.

It indeed seems quite evident that the supremacy, which Sir James Yeo, an officer at once brave, prudent, and persevering, had obtained upon the lakes, contributed, in some measure, to the total evacuation of Upper Canada by the Americans. He did not conceive that with a couple or more of armed schooners he could sail hither and thither, and effect daring feats, but carefully husbanded the means at his disposal, took advantage of circumstances, and obtained the construction of vessels so much superior to those of the Americans that it needed not the test of a battle to decide upon superiority. Indeed had he been afforded sufficient time, two or more such vessels, and even larger, would have been placed on Lake Champlain, and Sir George Prevost might have made such progress in subduing New York that peace might have been dictated on more flattering terms to Great Britain than they were.

The fleet and army, which had been baffled at Baltimore, by the sinking of twenty ships in the Patapsco, to obstruct the navigation of the river, sailed for New Orleans. The squadron arrived off the shoals of the Mississippi on the 8th of December. Six gun-boats of the enemy, manned by two hundred and forty men, were prepared to dispute with the boats of the fleet, the landing of the troops. To settle this difficulty, Admiral Cockburn put a detachment of seamen and marines, under the command of Captain Lockyer, who succeeded in destroying the whole six, after a chase of thirty-six hours. The pursuit, however, had taken the boats thirty miles from their ships; their return was impeded by intricate shoals and a tempestuous sea, and it was not until the 12th that they could get back. It was only on the 15th that the landing of the troops commenced under adverse circumstances. The weather, how extraordinary soever it may seem, was excessively cold and damp, and the troops, the blacks more especially, suffered severely. Four thousand five hundred combatants, and a considerable quantity of heavy guns and stores were landed, and on the same evening an attack, by the American militia, was repulsed. Sir Edward Pakenham arrived next day, when the army advanced to within six miles of New Orleans. New Orleans was then, as it now is, the emporium of the cotton trade of the United States. Comparatively with the present day, the population was inconsiderable. There were not more than 17,000 inhabitants. But it was a place sure to become of importance, from its situation, and was even then a place of considerable wealth, and, from the nature of its chief export, was one of the principal sources of revenue to the American government, in the Union. The defence of this town was entrusted to General Jackson, afterwards President of the United States, and whose elevation to the chief magistracy is as much to be attributed to the skill and heroism displayed by him in the defence of the chief cotton mart as to any other cause. Jackson was a shrewd, obstinate, and energetic man. On ascertaining that the British had landed, he threw every possible obstacle in the way of their advance. The weather was cold and damp, and the soil was low, and wet, and muddy. A few days' delay in such a situation would make nearly one half of an invading force ill and dispirit the other half. Jackson sent out a few hundreds of militia, every now and then, to harass his enemies, and in the meanwhile he stirred up the 12,000 troops under him, to work vigorously in the erection of lines of defence for the city. Indeed, in a short time, he awaited an attack, with confidence, in a fortified position, all but impregnable. His front was a straight line of upwards of a thousand yards, defended by upwards of three thousand infantry and artillery, and stretching from the Mississippi on the right, to a dense and impassable wood on the left. Along the whole front of this fortified line there was a ditch which contained five feet of water, and which was defended by flank bastions, on which a heavy array of cannon was placed. There were also eight distinct batteries, judiciously disposed, mounting in all twelve guns of different calibres, while on the opposite side of the river, about eight hundred yards across, there was a battery of twenty guns, which also flanked the whole of the parapet. The great strength of the American position was strikingly apparent to General Pakenham. It seemed so very strong indeed that he contemplated a siege. But then the ground was so cold and damp, and the climate so unhealthy, that he could not sit very long before a town, likely to be reinforced, and capable of being strengthened by the construction of lines of defence, within lines of defence, to almost any extent, if not completely invested. And more, Pakenham had not guns sufficient for regular approaches. Pakenham was, however, a good officer, a man of energy, judgment, and decision. He set all hands instantly to work to deepen a canal, in the rear of the British position, by which boats might be brought up to the Mississippi, and troops ferried across to carry the battery on the right bank of the river, a work of extraordinary labour, which was not accomplished until the evening of the 6th of January. The boats were immediately brought up and secreted near the river, and dispositions made for an assault at five o'clock on the morning of the 8th of January. Colonel Thornton was to cross the river, in the night, storm the battery, and advance up the right bank till he came abreast of New Orleans; while the main attack, on the intrenchments in front, was to be made in two columns—the first under General Gibbs, the second led by General Keane. There were, in all, about six thousand combatants, including seamen and marines, to attack double their number, intrenched to the teeth, in works bristling with bayonets, and loaded with heavy artillery.[25] When Thornton would have crossed, the downward current of the Mississippi was very strong, so strong indeed that the fifty boats, in which his division was embarked, were prevented from reaching their destination at the hour appointed for a simultaneous attack upon New Orleans, in front and rear. Pakenham, as the day began to dawn, grew exceedingly impatient, and, at last, having lost all patience, as it was now light, revealing to the enemy, in some degree, his plans, he ordered Gibbs' column to advance. A solemn silence pervaded the American lines. There was indeed nothing to be heard but the measured tread of the column, advancing over the plain, in front of the intrenchments. But when the dark mass was perceived to be within range of the American batteries, a tremendous fire of grape and round shot was opened upon it from the bastions at both ends of the long intrenchment, and from the long intrenchment itself. Gibbs' column, however, moved steadily on. The 4th, 21st, and 44th regiments closed up their ranks as fast as they were opened by the fire of the Americans. On the brow of the glacis, these intrepid men stood as erectly and as firmly as if they had been on parade. But, through the carelessness of the colonel commanding the 44th regiment, the scaling ladders had been forgotten, and it was impossible to mount the parapet. The ladders and fascines were sent for, in all haste, but the men, on the summit of the glacis, were, meanwhile, as targets to the enemy. They stood until riddled through and through, when they fell back in disorder. Pakenham, unconscious that Colonel Mullens, of the 44th, had neglected his orders, and only fancying that the troops being fairly in for it, were staggering only under the heaviness of the enemies' fire, rode to the front, rallied the troops again, led them to the slope of the glacis, and was in the act, with his hat off, of cheering on his followers, when he fell mortally wounded, pierced, at the same moment, by two balls. General Gibbs and General Keane also fell. Keane led on the reserve, at the head of which was the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders, a thousand strong. Undaunted by the carnage, that noble regiment dashed through the disordered throng, in front, and with such fury pressed the leading files on, that without either fascines or ladders, they fairly found their way by mounting on each other's shoulders into the work. But they were then cut down to a man. The fire from the enemy's rifles was terrific. It was almost at the same moment that Colonel Ranney penetrated the intrenchments on the left only to be mowed down by grape shot. An unforeseen circumstance had too long delayed an attack which could only have been successfully made in the dark, and General Lambert, who had succeeded to the command by the death of Pakenham and the wounds of Gibbs and Keane, finding it impossible to carry the works, and that the slaughter was tremendous, drew off his troops. Thornton had been altogether successful on the left bank of the Mississippi. With fourteen hundred men this able and gallant officer repaired to the point assigned to him on the evening of the 7th, but it was nearly midnight before even such a number of the boats as would suffice to transport a third part of his troops across, were brought up. Anxious to co-operate at the time appointed, he, nevertheless, moved over with a third of his men, and, by a sudden charge, at the head of part of the 85th regiment and a body of seamen, on the flank of the works, he succeeded in making himself master of the redoubt with very little loss, though it was defended by twenty-two guns and seventeen hundred men, and amply provided with supplies. And when daylight broke, he was preparing to turn the guns of the captured battery on the enemy's flank, which lay entirely exposed to their fire, when advices were received from General Lambert of the repulse on the left bank of the river. Thornton was unwilling to retire from the battery, but Colonel Dixon, who had been sent by General Lambert to examine it and report whether it was tenable, having reported that it was untenable unless with a larger force than Lambert could spare, he was required to return to the left bank of the river, and the troops at all points withdrew to their camp.

[25] Alison's History of Europe.

Defeated, far advanced into the enemy's country, an army flushed with success, double their strength in front, and with fifteen miles of desert between the British army and their ships, it was not long before General Lambert came to the conclusion that instead of renewing the attack, retreat was now desirable, and that the sooner he retreated the more safely could it be done. For this, under the circumstances, inevitable retreat, Lambert gathered himself up. He sent forward, during the early part of the night of the 18th, the whole of the field artillery, the ammunition, and the stores of every kind, excepting eight heavy guns, which were destroyed. With the exception of eighty of the worst cases, whom he left to the humanity of General Jackson, who discharged that duty with a zeal and attention worthy of the man, he also removed the whole of the wounded; and, indeed, accomplished his retreat under the most trying circumstances, with such consummate ability, that the whole force under his command, were safely re-embarked on the 27th.

The defeat, which was neither attributable to want of foresight, to incapacity, of any sort, or to lack of bravery, however humiliating it was, but entirely to the accident which delayed a night attack until daybreak, was in some degree compensated for by the capture of Fort Boyer, near Mobile, commanding one of the mouths of the Mississippi. Fort Boyer was attacked by the land and sea forces on the 12th of February, and, with its garrison of 360 men and 22 guns, was compelled to yield, when further operations were stayed by the receipt, on the very next day, of intelligence that peace between Great Britain and the United States had been concluded at Ghent.

It is asserted, with regard to the storming of New Orleans, that Pakenham displayed imprudent hardihood, in the attempt to achieve by force, what might have been gained by combination; and that the whole mischief might have been avoided by throwing the whole troops instead of only Thornton's division, on the right bank of the river, and so have rendered unavailing all Jackson's formidable arrangements. Pakenham's disaster was, however, not the result of imprudent hardihood, but purely the result of accident in the time of attack, and in the neglect of Colonel Mullens, to whom the duty of bringing up the fascines and ladders was entrusted. Pakenham well considered the difficulties which he had to encounter. He would have carried the American entrenchments by a coup de main, had he not perceived that the operation would have been extremely hazardous. He would have sat down before the city and have advanced under cover of first one parallel and then another, had he not perceived that as he approached so the enemy could have retired within successive lines of entrenchment. Nay, he saw that the most probable mode of speedy and successful assault was by a simultaneous attack upon the enemy during the night, in the front and in the rear of their intrenched lines. He further knew that the attack in rear would depend for success, in a very great measure, upon the skill and intrepidity of the officer entrusted with its execution, and he accordingly selected an officer possessed of both these essentials in the person of Colonel Thornton. And with respect to the effect of having landed his whole force, on the right bank of the river, where success, though too late, did attend the efforts of Thornton, it is to be remembered that Colonel Dixon reported to General Lambert, when the battery on that side was in Thornton's possession, that it could not be retained even, without more men than Lambert could spare to re-inforce him. The defeat at New Orleans was only humiliating to Great Britain in the result, not in the conception, and it cannot fairly be laid to the charge of Pakenham that he only exhibited heroic valour, coupled with imprudent hardihood, or that he despised his enemy.

However the heroic defence of New Orleans and the disastrous retreat from Plattsburgh may have elated the Americans and may yet gratify their natural vanity, there are men in the United States, fully alive to the consequences which could not have failed to have resulted from the defeat of Pakenham, had the war continued. The British government had able generals without number, well-trained and experienced soldiers, and ships also without number, to bring to bear upon a country almost pecuniarily exhausted, and suffering from internal dissensions, on the conclusion of a war which had, as it were, brought out the immense resources for war, which were almost latent in England during the American war of independence. That the United States was on the very verge of destruction is evident from the fact that during the continuance of the war, the general government of the United States and the States governments were at variance. There was an apprehension that the affairs of the general government were mismanaged, and, to many, it appeared that a crisis was forming, which, unless seasonably provided against, would involve the country in ruin. That apprehension particularly prevailed throughout New England. Indeed, Massachusetts proposed that measures should be taken for procuring a convention of delegates from all the United States to revise the constitution, and more effectually to secure the support and attachment of all the people, by placing all upon the basis of fair representation. Such a convention actually did meet at Hartford. After a session of three weeks, a report in which several alterations of the federal constitution were suggested, was adopted. Representatives and direct taxes were to be apportioned to the number of free persons; no new State was to be admitted into the Union without the concurrence of two-thirds of both houses; Congress was not to have the power of laying an embargo for more than sixty days; Congress was not to interdict commercial intercourse, without the concurrence of two-thirds of both houses; war was not to be declared without the concurrence of a similar majority; no person to be thereafter naturalised was to be eligible as a member of the Senate or House of Representatives, or hold any civil office under the authority of the United States; and no person was to be twice elected to the presidency, nor was the President to be elected from the same State two terms in succession. The report was a direct censure of the government, who with the alliance of France only contemplated to annex Canada to the United States. It was so understood. The Hartford convention was looked upon by the democrats of the Union as a treasonable combination of ambitious individuals, who sought to sever the Union, and were only prevented from doing so by the somewhat unexpected conclusion of peace, which disembarrassed the administration, and swept away all grounds upon which to prosecute their designs. But the positive truth was that the public mind was excited to a pitch bordering on insurrection by the situation of the country. The war had been singularly disastrous; the recruiting service languished; the national treasury was almost penniless; the national credit was shaken, and loans were effected at a ruinous discount; the New England seaboard was left exposed to the enemy; and the officers under the general government, both civil and military, were filled by men contemned by a vast majority of the people in the north eastern States. Before the war, the foreign trade of the United States was flourishing. The exports amounted to L22,000,000, and the imports to L28,000,000, carried on in 1,300,000 tons of shipping. After the war, the exports had sunk to L1,000,000, and the imports to less than L3,000,000, to say nothing of the losses by capture. This too was the case in America, while the sinews of war were increasing instead of drying up in Great Britain. Yet England was not wholly unaffected by the war. There were great distresses in England, consequent upon the American Embargo Act, in 1811, and it was not until commerce had discovered some new channels in the markets of Russia, Germany, and Italy, that these great distresses were fully abated, while the war had the further and lasting effect of producing manufactures in the United States, to permanently compete with those of Birmingham and Manchester. The treaty of peace which was signed at Ghent, on the 24th of December, 1814, was ratified by the President and Senate of the United States, on the 17th of February, 1815. It was silent upon the subject for which the war had "professedly" been declared. It provided only for the suspension of hostilities; for the exchange of prisoners; for the restoration of territories and possessions obtained by the contending powers, during the war; for the adjustment of unsettled boundaries and for a combined effort to effect the entire abolition of the traffic in slaves.

All parties in the United States, welcomed the return of peace. It was somewhat otherwise in Canada. The army bills had enriched the latter country; and the expenditure of the military departments had benefitted both town and country, without cost. When peace came, this extra expenditure rapidly declined. But the war had further and permanently proved of advantage to Canada, inasmuch as it drew public attention in Europe, to the country, and showed to the residents of the United Kingdom that there was still in America a considerable spot of earth, possessed of at least semi-monarchical institutions, with a good soil and great growing capacity, which could be defended and preserved, as British property, for a time, notwithstanding the assertions made, previous to the war, that the country was in a state of dormant insurrection. The war restored confidence and promoted emigration to Canada.

The Canadian Militia, Voltigeurs, Chasseurs, Drivers, Voyageurs, Dorchester Dragoons, and the Battalion Militia, in both provinces, were, by a General Order, issued on the 1st of March, to be disbanded on the 24th of that month, not a little proud of Detroit and the River Raisin exploits, of the battles of Queenston, Stoney Creek, Chateauguay, Chrystler's Farm, Lacolle, and Lundy's Lane, and of the capture of Michillimackinac, Ogdensburgh, Oswego, and Niagara, by assault.

The eighth parliament of Lower Canada was summoned for the despatch of business, on the 21st of January. In this new parliament, there were James and Andrew Stuart, and for the county of Gaspe, a George Brown,[26] and in all there were fifteen members of British extraction—not much less than one half of the entire House, which, in all, numbered fifty members. After the opening speech from the throne, the House proceeded to the election of a Speaker. The Honorable Jean Antoine Panet, was no longer eligible for election, having been removed to the Legislative Council, and the chair of the Assembly fell upon Louis Joseph Papineau, a man of superior manners, of considerable independence of character, of fluent tongue and impassioned utterance, of extraordinary persuasive powers, and of commanding aspect. He was accepted by Sir Gorge Prevost, and business began. A vote of thanks was unanimously accorded to Mr. Panet for his steady, impartial, and faithful discharge of the speakership for twenty-two years, during the whole of which time he had upheld the honor and dignity of the House, and the rights and privileges of the people. One of the first measures which occupied attention was the militia law. An Act was introduced by which it was so far amended and revised that substitutes were permitted to persons drafted for service. A grant of new duties upon tea, spirits, and on goods, sold at auction, was made; one thousand pounds granted for the promotion of vaccination as a preventative of small pox; L25,000 was granted for the construction of a canal between Montreal and Lachine; a bill was introduced granting the Speaker of the House an annual salary of L1,000; and another was passed granting a similar salary to the Speaker of the Upper House. Of these bills all were finally adopted or sanctioned with the exception of those granting salaries to the two Speakers. That conferring a salary upon the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, was reserved for the royal sanction, but was afterwards confirmed, while that conferring a salary upon the Speaker of the Upper House, was lost in the Legislative Council, because the members of that body considered it infra dignitate, to receive any direct remuneration for their legislative services, the more especially as, with few exceptions, the Speaker and members were already salaried, either as Judges, Bishops, or Clerks of the Executive Council. In the course of the session the expediency of sending to London a kind of agent or ambassador for the country, was again discussed, and its expediency determined upon by the Assembly, but the Legislative Council impressed with the idea that the Governor General should be the only channel of communication with the imperial authorities, refused to concur in any bill framed with the view of securing the services of any such agent, who could not be more than a delegate from the Assembly, and whose acts could not be considered binding on the government of the province. The matter was then referred to a select committee of the Assembly, who reported that the necessity for an agent appeared evident, each branch of the legislature having a right to petition the King, the Lords, and the Commons of England; that although the Governor could transmit such petitions to the foot of the throne, he could neither transmit nor support such petitions when transmitted before the House of Lords or before the House of Commons, solicit the passing of laws, nor conduct many affairs which might be conducted by a person resident in Great Britain. Without an agent the Assembly would be deprived of the right of petition. An agent was especially necessary to the people of the province, because endeavours were even then being made to prejudice the imperial government, and the British nation against Canada, and endeavours were being made to effect a change in the free constitution which had been conferred upon Lower Canada, by means of a union of the two Canadas, the language, laws, and usages of the two provinces being entirely distinct. It was further urged that uneasiness would cease whenever a resident agent was appointed, and as an additional reason for the appointment of such an agent, accredited to the Court of St. James by the province. Such an agent would have all the weight of a foreign ambassador, and his representations could not fail to meet with attention. But the agent to have such weight could not merely have been the representative of one branch of the legislature, but of the three branches. He must have been the authorised governmental agent of the province, the government of the province being in the confidence of the country. Unfortunately such a state of things did not prevail. The colonists had neither voice nor shared in the government of the country. The Legislative Assembly nearly compensated for the lack of newspapers. It poured into the ear of the governing party the complaints of the people, suggested reforms, and insisted upon the obtainment of them. And the Assembly might have better obtained a hearing for themselves in England, by the establishment and maintenance of a single newspaper in London, than by the nomination either of a Hume or a Roebuck, to represent Canadian grievances to the representatives of a people who were ignorant of the exact nature of such grievances, and could not, therefore, press them upon parliamentary attention. The pertinacity with which the House of Assembly of Lower Canada adhered to the idea of an agent for the people of Lower Canada, is not matter of surprise, for, it is beyond all dispute that the government of the province stood between the people of Canada and the people and government of England, to the great prejudice and injury of the country. In this case, an address, founded on the Assembly's report, was drawn up to be transmitted by the Governor-in-Chief to the Prince Regent, praying that His Royal Highness might give instructions to his Governor of Canada to recommend the appointment of a provincial agent to the imperial legislature. The Assembly persisted in the heads of impeachment exhibited by the Commons of Canada against the Chief Justices Sewell and Monk, and persisted in nominating James Stuart, Esquire, one of the members of the House, to be the agent of the House, in conducting and managing the prosecutions to be instituted against them, if His Royal Highness the Prince Regent permitted these impeachments to be submitted to a tribunal, competent to adjudge upon them, after hearing the matter on the part of the impeachments, and on the part of the accused. It was while these things were being done in the Assembly that the treaty of peace was officially announced to the House. The Assembly granted eight days' pay to the officers of the militia, after the time already noticed as determined upon for the disbandment of the provincial corps; an annuity of six pounds was provided for such rank and file as had been rendered incapable of earning a living; a gratuity was made to the widow and the orphan; and it was recommended that grants of land should be made by His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, to such militiamen as had served in defence of the province during the war. And more, the House, entertaining the highest veneration and respect for the character of His Excellency, Sir George Prevost, whose administration, under circumstances of peculiar novelty and difficulty, stood highly distinguished for energy, wisdom and ability, and who had rescued the province from the danger of subjugation to her implacable foe, unanimously granted and gave a service of plate not exceeding L5,000 sterling value, to His Excellency, in testimony of the country's sense of distinguished talents, wisdom, and ability. Sir George Prevost felt strongly the high compliment which had been paid to him as a civil ruler. And he deserved it. Surrounded as he was by the selfishness of officials, the sycophants of the colonial office, and the scandalizers of himself and the country, and tormented by the suspicions of the Assembly, which were the result of such sycophancy and scandal, Sir George pursued a most straightforward and honorable course as a Governor-in-Chief, expressed his gratitude, and would transmit the address to the Prince Regent, to be governed by His commands. The Regent approved of the donation and was rejoiced that Sir George had deserved it; but the Legislative Council would not assent to the bill![27] The House afterwards resolved that on the opening of the next session of parliament it would take into consideration the expediency of granting a pecuniary compensation to the Honorable Jean Antoine Panet, for his long and meritorious services as Speaker; and an Act was passed granting L500 to the Surveyor General, Joseph Bouchette, Esquire, to assist him in publishing his geographical and topographical maps of Upper and Lower Canada. At the prorogation, Mr. Speaker Papineau intimated to the Governor that the House had bestowed their most serious attention on the recommendations submitted to them. A great part of the expenses occasioned by a state of war had been continued by the Revenue Act which they had adopted. They had indemnified such of the citizens whom the love of their king and country had induced to accept commissions in the provincial corps, until they should be advantageously enabled to resume their civil professions, which they had abandoned on the declaration of war. They had afforded relief to the families of such of their countrymen as had fallen, and to those whose sufferings for life, from honorable wounds, furnished living evidence of the zeal which had animated His Majesty's Canadian subjects, in the defence of the rights of that empire to which it was their glory to belong. The events of the war had drawn closer the bonds which connected Great Britain with the Canadas. Although at the epoch of the declaration of war the country was destitute both of troops and money, yet from the devotion of a brave and loyal, yet unjustly calumniated people, resources sufficient for disconcerting the plans of conquest devised by a foe, at once numerous and elate with confidence, had been derived. The blood of the sons of Canada had flowed mingled with that of the brave soldiers sent for its defence, when re-inforcements were afterwards received. The multiplied proofs of the efficacious and powerful protection of the mother country and of the inviolable loyalty of the people of Canada strengthened their claim to the free exercise and preservation of all the benefits secured to them by their existing constitution and laws. The pursuits of war were about to be succeeded by those of peace, and it was by the increase of population, agriculture and commerce, that the possession of the colony might become of importance to Great Britain. It was with lively satisfaction, therefore, that the House heard His Excellency recommend to their consideration the improvement of internal communications, and they were only too proud to second His Excellency's enlightened views by large appropriations to facilitate the opening of a canal from Montreal to Lachine, to assist in the opening up of new roads, and to acquire such information as might enable them afterwards to follow up and extend that plan of improvement.

[26] This was the father of the celebrated Felicia Hemans.

[27] It is here worthy of note that the late Lord Raglan, then Fitzroy Somerset—sometime between the abdication of Napoleon and Waterloo, and before his lordship had lost his arm—was in Quebec, having been sent to Canada, it was supposed, privately to ascertain how matters were, and especially as a spy upon Sir George Prevost, against whom many complaints had been made by the reigning officials.

A lady, still living, well remembers the late Commander-in-Chief, of the British army in the Crimea, being in Quebec. She saw him in Mountain street, and the object of his visit was no secret.

Sir George Prevost then closed the session. He praised the liberality with which the public service had been provided for; alluded to the benefits promised by peace; informed parliament that he had been summoned to return to England for the purpose of repelling accusations affecting his military character, which had been preferred by the late naval commander-in-chief, on the lakes, in Canada, and while he would leave the province with regret, he eagerly embraced the opportunity afforded him of justifying his reputation; and yet, however intent he might be on the subject which so unexpectedly summoned his attention, he would bear with him a lively recollection of the firm support he had derived from the Legislature of Canada, and should be gratified to represent personally to His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, the zeal and loyalty evinced by every class of His Majesty's subjects in British America, during his administration.

There were one or two measures introduced into the Assembly during the session just closed worth mentioning, en passant; as showing the progress really made by a "factious" Assembly. A bill was introduced, by Mr. Lee, for the appointment of commissioners to examine the accounts of the Receiver General, though, apparently, because Mr. Caldwell presented a petition to the Assembly, complaining of the insufficiency of his salary. Mr. Lee also introduced a bill to establish turnpike roads in the vicinity of Quebec, but was unable to carry it because of the outcry made by the farmers and the population of the parishes around Quebec.

There were 1,727 marriages, 7,707 baptisms, and 4,601 burials in Montreal; 653 marriages, 4,045 baptisms, and 2,318 burials in Quebec; and 260 marriages, 1,565 baptisms, and 976 burials in Three Rivers, during the year 1814. The revenue amounted to L204,550 currency, the expenditure to L162,125 sterling; and 184 vessels were cleared at Quebec.

On the 3rd of April, Sir George Prevost left Canada for England, through New Brunswick, by way of the River St. John. He received several valedictory addresses speaking of him in the highest terms, from the French Canadian population, but the British who were annoyed about Plattsburgh stood aloof, while the office holders secretly rejoiced that his rule had terminated. Lieut.-General Sir Gordon Drummond succeeded Sir George Prevost in the government of Lower Canada, the Lieutenant-Governorship of Upper Canada being again in the hands of His Excellency, Francis Gore, Esquire. General Drummond convened the parliament of Upper Canada on the 15th of February, 1814. The first Act of that parliament was one to repeal part of the laws in force for raising and training the militia. All the male inhabitants of the province, from 16 to 60 years of age, were liable to militia duty, but no person over 50 years of age was to be called out except on occasions of emergency. The militia were not to be ordered out of the province unless for the assistance of Lower Canada, when actually invaded, or in a state of insurrection, or except in pursuit of an enemy who had invaded the province, or for the destruction of any vessel either built or building, or for the destruction of any depot or magazine, formed or forming, or for the attack of any enemy invading the province, or for the attack of any fortress in the course of erection or already erected, to cover such invasion of the province. Justices of the Peace were authorised to impress carriages and horses; twenty shillings a day to be paid for every carriage with two horses, or oxen with a driver; fifteen shillings to be paid for every carriage and two horses or oxen; and for every horse employed singly, seven shillings and six pence was to be paid a day, on a certificate from the officer employing them, to the Collector of Customs, and received by the Receiver General of the province. A penalty was imposed on persons using traitorous or disrespectful words against His Majesty or against any member of the royal family, or for behaving with contempt or disrespect to the Governor while on duty. Death was to be the punishment for exciting to sedition or mutiny; and either death or such other punishment as a Court Martial might award, was the punishment to be awarded for being present at any meeting without endeavoring to suppress it, or give information, or for deserting to the enemy. And Quakers, Menonists, and Tunkers, were to pay L10 for their exemption from militia servitude, the Act to be continued until the next session of parliament. An Act was passed providing for the circulation of army bills; L6,000 was appropriated for the construction and repair of roads and bridges; an Act was passed to ascertain the eligibility of persons to be returned to the House of Assembly; an Act was passed to continue the Act granting to His Majesty duties on licenses to hawkers, pedlars, petty chapmen, and other trading persons; every traveller on foot was to pay L5 for his license, and for every boat L2 10s.; for every decked vessel L25 was to be paid; for every boat L10; and for every non-resident L20; the Act to be in force for two years; an Act was passed to detain such persons as might be suspected of a treasonable adherence to the enemy; an Act was passed imposing a duty of 3s. 9d. per gallon on the contents of licensed stills; and the Act to prohibit the exportation of grain and restraining the distillation of grain from spirits was continued.

General Drummond again met the parliament of Upper Canada, on the 1st of February, 1815. There were much the same kind of wranglings in the Assembly of Upper Canada that distinguished the parliament of Lower Canada. There were two parties, one highly conservative and another violently radical. In Upper Canada the conservatives had the majority. In 1808, Mr. Joseph Wilcocks, a member of the Assembly, was imprisoned for having libellously alleged that every member of the first provincial parliament had received a bribe of twelve hundred acres of land. The "slanderous" accusation first appeared in a newspaper styled the Upper Canada Guardian or Freeman's Journal, edited by the Joseph Wilcocks, who was a member of the Assembly. Mr. Wilcocks grievously complained of the Messrs. Boulton and Sherwood, who were ever on the watch to prevent any questions being put that would draw forth either inaccuracy or inconsistency from the witnesses. Mr. Sherwood attacked that great blessing of the people, the freedom of the press and, being a good tory, called it, to the great horror of Mr. Wilcocks, a pestilence in the land. Indeed, Mr. Wilcocks was deeply and painfully sensible that Little York abounded in meanness, corruption, and sycophancy, and notified his constituents accordingly. Such a condition of things was only natural in a small community, having all the paraphernalia of "constitutional" government.

In 1815, the progress of Upper Canada is indicated by the first bill of the session—an Act granting L25,000 for amending and repairing the public highways of the province, and awarding L25 to each road commissioner in compensation for his services. There were in all eighteen Acts passed. Provision was made for proceeding to outlawry in certain cases. An Act was passed for the relief of Barristers and Attornies, and to provide for the admission of Law Students within the Province; L100 was granted to Mr. Sheriff Merritt, of the Niagara District; a new Assessment Act was passed; the Act to provide for the maintenance of persons disabled, and for the widows and children of persons killed in action was explained and amended. Isaac Swayze, Esquire, having been robbed of L178 5s. 8d., was exonerated from the payment of it; L6,000 was granted for the rebuilding and repair of gaols and Court Houses in the Western, London and Niagara Districts, each L2,000; an Act was passed to remove doubts with respect to the authority under which the Courts of General Quarter Sessions had been erected and holden; an Act to license practitioners in physic and surgery throughout the province, providing for the appointment of a Board of Surgeons to examine applicants, and imposing a penalty of L100 for practicing without license, but excepting from the application of the Act such as had taken a degree at any University in His Majesty's dominions, was passed; L292 was granted to repay advances on team-work, and for the apprehension of deserters by certain Inspectors of Districts; L1,500 was granted to provide for the accommodation of the legislature at its next session; L6,090 was granted for the uses of the incorporated militia; L111 11s. 7d. was granted for the Clerks of Parliament; L1,700 was appropriated to the erection of a monument to the memory of the late Major-General Sir Isaac Brock; the Quarter Sessions Act was again amended; L400 was repaid to the Honorable James Bayley, which he had paid for hemp delivered to him as a commissioner for the purchase of that commodity; and an Act incorporating the Midland District School Society. On the 25th of April, Lieutenant-General Sir George Murray, Baronet, superseded Sir Gordon Drummond, K.C.B., in the command, civil and military, of Upper Canada, and on the 1st of July, in the same year, the civil and military command of the Upper Province devolved upon Major-General Sir Frederick P. Robinson, K.C.B., who held the reins of government until the return of His Excellency Francis Gore, who had been absent in England during the war, on the 25th of September, 1815.



CHAPTER IV.

It was in the character of Administrator-in-Chief that Lieutenant-General Sir Gordon Drummond assumed the government of Lower Canada, on the 5th of April, 1816. The army bills were called in and honorably redeemed in cash, at the army bill office, in Quebec, and as if to show how beneficial the war had been to the country, first one new steamer arrived at Quebec, and then another from the already flourishing city of Montreal. The Malshane, built by Mr. John Molson, of Montreal, at that port, appeared at Quebec on the opening of the navigation, and was speedily followed by an opposition steamer built by an association of merchants in Montreal, and named:—The Car of Commerce. The inhabitants of Canada were, at this time, under 400,000 in number. About seven-eighths were of French descent, and the other eighth was composed of English, Irish, Scotch, Germans, Americans, and their descendants. Of the latter, the Scotch were the most numerous, and in their hands nearly the whole external trade of the country was placed. The French Canadians were chiefly agriculturists, but they had also a large share in the retail and internal trade. There was, at this period, no manufactories of note in the province. The manufacture of leather, hats, and paper, had been introduced, and etoffe du pays, manufactured by the farmers, constituted the garb of the Canadians generally. There were two iron works in the vicinity of Three Rivers. There was nothing more. It is said, not without reason, that one of the first improvements in any country should be the making of roads, and the speedy making of roads, both in Upper and Lower Canada, was one of the good effects of the war. Already there was a road from Point Levi across the portage of Temiscouata, from thence to the forks of the Madawaska, from thence to the Great Falls, from thence to Fredericton, in New Brunswick, from thence to St. Johns, on the Bay of Fundy, and from thence to Halifax, which was 618 miles long; there was a road from Quebec to Montreal, 180 miles in length, from thence to the Coteau-du-Lac, 225 miles, from thence to Cornwall, 226 miles, from thence to Matilda, 301 miles, from thence to Augusta, 335 miles, from thence to Kingston, 385 miles, from thence to York, 525 miles, from thence to Fort Erie, 560 miles, from thence to Detroit, 790 miles, and from thence to Michillimackinac, 1,107 miles; there was a road en route to Boston, via St. Giles, Ireland, Shipton, St. Francois, and the Forks of the Ascot, to the lines, 146 miles long; and there was a road from Laprairie, opposite Montreal, to Isle-aux-Noix, which was 28 miles long. Canals were contemplated to overcome the difficulties of the Lachine, Cedars, and Long Sault rapids, and indeed there was an eye to those improvements which never fail to develop the riches of a country. The landholders at this time were mostly French Canadians. There were some thousands of acres, however, which had been granted to the British population since 1796, occupied or settled upon by Americans, that is to say, former residents of the United States. Land was not by any means valuable, on account of the great distances from convenient markets, and the consequent length of time which it took the distant farmer to bring his produce to market. It was this drawback that produced in the Canadian the pernicious habit of merely producing enough for the consumption of his own family, and for the keep of his own farm stock. Farm lands were seldom held upon lease. The cultivators were the bona fide proprietors of the soil, subject to a very inconsiderable annual rent to the seigneur and to a fine of a twelfth upon a change of proprietor by sale, a condition which, as a matter of course, would in time become intolerable and demand that remedy which has since been applied. In Lower Canada, the lands held by Roman Catholics, were subject to the payment of a tythe or a twenty-sixth part of all grain for the use of the curate, and to assessments for the building and repair of churches. Now with regard to the character of a people, who, not long after this period, exhibited an intolerance of tyranny and injustice, it may fairly be said that the French Canadians are naturally of a cheerful and lively disposition, but very conservative in their ideas. Outwardly polite, they are not unfrequently coarse in conversation. If the Canadian evinces respect, it is expected that he will be treated with respect in consideration therefor. His chief shortcoming is excessive sociability. When once settled among friends and relatives he cannot leave them—absence from home does in truth only make the heart grow fonder of home associations. He is active, compactly made, but generally below rather than above the middle size. His natural capacity is excellent, but when the mind is unimproved and no opportunity has been afforded for the acquisition of new ideas, little can be expected from even the most fertile understanding. All improvements have been the result of observation, there being nothing original in any one, nor an iota new under the sun. It is in the application of the natural elements only in which one individual excels another, his capacity for excellence, of course, favoring observation. As the bee sips honey from the flower, so does man inhale the poetry of nature, daguerreotyping it upon his understanding, either from the mountain's top, from the summit of the ocean wave, or from the wreck of battle; so does the astronomer learn from the firmament itself the relative proportions and distances, the transits, eclipses, and periodical appearances of other worlds, than that in which he lives, moves, and has his being; and so the man of science collects and combines the very elements themselves, either to purposes of destruction or towards the progress, improvement, and almost perfection of human nature. The Canadian could only reason from his own experience, and that was so exceedingly limited, that his backwardness in enterprise is less to be wondered at than the eagerness with which he copies the enterprise of others. The Canadian, like the native of old France, is a thinking animal. He is ever doubting, ever mistrustful. In spiritual matters, he is guided by his curate, who, if he wishes to stand well with him, must meddle with nothing else. And who will say that such a people are incapable of improvement? Railroads, intercourse with others, and time, will yet make the Canadian think for himself much sooner than they will influence others, more naturally confiding, generous, and credulous than he is, but whose very energy and bravery only cover a multitude of sins.

Lieutenant-General Sir Gordon Drummond met the parliament of Lower Canada on the 26th of January, 1816. He informed the two Houses that the Regent had committed to him the administration of the government of Lower Canada, that he had entered on the duties of his trust with a deep sense of their importance and with a more earnest desire to discharge them for the general advantage of a province in the capital of which he had been born; the King was no better in health, but had no corporeal suffering and only continued in a state of undisturbed tranquillity; Buonaparte had been exiled and the family of Bourbon restored to the throne of their ancestors; Waterloo had consummated the high distinction obtained by the British forces under Wellington. He recommended the renewal of the Militia Act, and in consequence of many discontented adventurers, and mischievous agitators, from the continent of Europe, having thrown themselves into the neighbouring States, he strongly recommended the immediate revival of the Act for establishing regulations respecting aliens, with such modifications as circumstances might render it proper to adopt; the executive government had redeemed its pledge by calling in and paying with cash the army bills which were in circulation; a statement of the revenue and expenditure of the past year would be laid before the Assembly; the Prince Regent viewed with much pleasure the additional proof of patriotism afforded by the sum voted towards the completion of a proposed canal from Montreal to Lachine; His Majesty's government duly appreciating the many important objects with which the canal was connected, were interested in its early execution; and he awaited only further instructions upon the subject to carry it into effect. He pressed upon the attention of both Houses the importance of further promoting the internal improvements of the province. He trusted that this session of parliament would be distinguished for accordant exertion and for efficient dispatch in conducting the public business; and for his own part, he could assure honorable gentlemen that he would most cordially co-operate in every measure which might tend to advance the interests and promote the welfare of the province. His Excellency the Administrator-in-Chief made allusion to his native city after the manner of a somewhat notorious, if not a celebrated judge of the present time, who was accustomed to boast in the Assembly of being the representative of his native city. Sir Gordon, however, only meant to be conciliatory, and indeed there was no objectionable egotism in a governor putting himself forth as a colonist by birth, or in one sense placing himself on a level with the governed. The pity is that so few governors had even that interest in Canada which, to however limited a degree, must have weighed with Sir Gordon Drummond. The House was glad that a native of Quebec had so distinguished himself as a soldier, and indeed in all else, echoed His Excellency's speech.

The transaction of business had hardly begun when a message was received from the Administrator-in-chief. His Royal Highness, the Regent, had commanded His Excellency to make known his pleasure to the House of Assembly on the subject of certain charges preferred by the House against the Chief Justices of the province and of Montreal, in connection with certain charges against a former governor, Sir James Craig. The Regent was pleased to say that the acts of a former governor could not be a subject of enquiry, whether legal or illegal, as it would involve the principle that a governor might divest himself of all responsibility on points of political government; the charge referred by the Regent to the Privy Council, was only such as related to the Rules of Practice, established by the Judges, in their respective Courts, and for which the Judges were themselves solely responsible; and the Report of the Privy Council was that the Rules of Practice complained of were made not by the Chief Justices alone, but in conjunction with the other Judges of the respective Courts, as rules for the regulation and practice of their respective Courts, and that neither the Chief Justices, nor had the Courts in which they presided, exceeded their authority in making such rules, nor had they been guilty of any assumption of legislative power. Further, His Excellency was commanded to express the regret with which the Regent had viewed the late proceedings of the House of Assembly against two persons who had so ably filled the highest judicial offices in the colony, a circumstance calculated to disparage their character and services, in the eyes of the inconsiderate and ignorant, and so diminish the influence which a judge ought to possess. The other charges with regard to the refusal of a writ of Habeas Corpus, by Mr. Chief Justice Monk, of Montreal, were considered to be totally unsupported by any evidence whatever. The message from the administrator, by order of the Regent, had been somewhat too soon communicated to the Assembly for "accordant exertion" in legislation. A call of the House was ordered for the 14th of February, and the message was to be referred to a committee of the whole on that day. That day came and the committee of the whole referred the message to be reported upon by a select committee of nine members, and the report of the committee was to the effect that a humble representation and petition to the Regent must be prepared, and that before doing so, the sense of the House, as expressed in a committee of the whole, should be obtained. Accordingly, the House again resolved itself into committee, on the 24th, when it was reported that the House in impeaching the Chief Justices was influenced by a sense of duty, by a desire to maintain the laws and constitution, and by a regard for the public interest, and for the honor of His Majesty's government; that the House was entitled to be heard, and to have an opportunity of adducing evidence in support of the impeachments; that the opposition and resistance of the Legislative Council prevented the appointment of an agent from the Assembly, to maintain and support the charges; and that a petition should be presented to the Regent, appealing to the justice of His Majesty's government and praying that an opportunity might be afforded to the Commons of Canada to be heard and to maintain their charges. The resolutions were adopted by a very large majority of the House, and a special committee was appointed to prepare an address in accordance with the resolutions. But before this could be done, Sir Gordon Drummond, in accordance with his instructions, dissolved the House. He prorogued the parliament on the 26th, because his reasonable expectations, with regard to their diligent application to the business which he had recommended to their attention had been disappointed; because the Assembly had again entered upon the discussion of a subject on which the pleasure of the Regent had been communicated to them; and because, he, therefore, felt it to be his duty to prorogue the present parliament, and to resort to the sense of the people by an immediate dissolution. Only one Act received the royal assent, that to regulate the trial of controverted elections.

The writs for the new elections were issued in haste. Indeed so early as the month of March, they were completed, the greater number of the members of the previous Assembly having been re-elected. But before even the elections had been completed, General Drummond was notified of the appointment of Sir John Sherbrooke, the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, to the Governor-Generalship of British North America, and leaving Major-General Wilson in temporary charge of the government, he sailed for England on the 1st of May.

It is impossible to speak of Sir Gordon Drummond's civil government. The measures which he proposed were well calculated to benefit the country. He was thwarted, possibly in good intentions, by the commands of the imperial government, requiring him imperatively to obtain the submission of the colonial legislature to Downing-street dictation, without remonstrance. A colonial legislature, tethered as it is, and ever will be, until the Governor is elected by the people, to English administrative incapacity might, with no lack of prudence, have been permitted rope enough to wander round the tethering post, so that it would only have been at considerable intervals that the effect of the tethers would have been in any degree galling or even felt.

In 1815, the revenue of Lower Canada amounted to L150,273 currency, the expenditure to L125,218 sterling, in which was included L16,555 for the erection of the gaol in Quebec; L26,439 for militia services; and L35,325, the proportion of duties to Upper Canada. Only 194 vessels of 37,382 tons, were cleared at Quebec, not taking into account ten new vessels of only 1,462 tons altogether, hardly equal to the tonnage of a single vessel of the present day.

Sir John Sherbrooke did not arrive at Quebec until the 21st of July. He was then received with all the honors due to his rank and station. Every body was as obsequious as any body could be, and great things were, of course, expected from the new man. Nor was Sir John deficient in ability. He had been most successful in his government of Nova Scotia, and he had been most prudent in his negotiations with the people of Maine. He had too an opportunity for acquiring popularity immediately on his arrival, and he did not suffer the opportunity to escape him. The wheat crop had failed in the lower part of the district of Quebec. The days though warm as usual were succeeded by cold frosty nights, which killed the wheat. There was indeed a prospect of a famine. Representations of anticipated distress, came pouring in upon him from first one parish and then another. A less decided man would have called upon the provincial parliament to have acted as became the emergency. Sir John threw open the King's stores, and on his own responsibility, advanced a large sum of money from the public treasury, for the purchase of such supplies as the imperial store-houses did not afford. The season, in Lower Canada, he knew was a short one, and to have procrastinated would have been fatal to the farmer.

Nor was Sir John less prudent in other matters. He saw the mistake committed by his predecessor with regard to the impeachments and he endeavored to avoid any similar mistake. He wrote to England for instructions, taking care to inform the Minister of State for the Colonies of the true state of public opinion in the province. He represented that the appeal to the people by Sir Gordon Drummond had entirely failed; the people were irritated at the appeal to them under such circumstances; the dissolution of a parliament was not, in his opinion, at any time calculated to do much good, but was often seriously productive of evil; in a small community it was more difficult to correct public opinion than in a larger one; he would carry out whatever instructions should be given to him; but these were his views and he would await an answer. He went still further. He informed the Colonial Secretary that Chief Justice Sewell was unpopular, not with the Assembly alone, but with all classes of the people. No matter whether the feeling proceeded from the acts and calumnies of designing demagogues, it existed. It was indeed believed in the Palace of the Roman Catholic Bishop, and in the cottage of the humblest peasant, that Chief Justice Sewell had outraged their feelings of loyalty and religion. When Attorney-General, Mr. Sewell had maintained doctrines and supported measures that clashed with the religious opinions of the Canadians. A dislike, amounting to infatuation, had been confirmed by the part which he was supposed to have taken in the government after his promotion. It was this gradually increasing dislike which had led to his impeachment. Sir John believed that a hearing to both parties, on the impeachment, even had the decision been the same, would have been conducive to the peace of the province, as it would have deprived the party hostile to the Chief Justice of a pretext of complaint, by which, in a free country, the people will always be interested. The impression was that the government of England had come to a decision on an exparte hearing. Chief Justice Sewell should have been permitted to retire on a pension. That step would have had the effect of getting rid of a grievance. Agreeably to his instructions, he would support the Chief Justice even should the wrath of the Clergy be the result. He would also cultivate a good understanding with the Roman Catholic Bishop, but neither argument nor coercion could destroy public opinion. Prorogation might succeed prorogation, and dissolution, but there would be a revolution in the country sooner than a change in the feelings of its inhabitants with regard to Chief Justice Sewell. He would suggest the appointment of an agent in England, as had long been desired, and as had been effected in almost every other colony. The opposition to this measure was even ascribed to the Chief Justice. He would further suggest that Mr. Stuart should be detached by motives of self-interest, from the party with whom he acted, and which it was supposed, would dwindle into insignificance without him. If the Attorney-Generalship should become vacant, it might be offered to him. The most fruitful source of all the dissensions in Canada was, nevertheless, according to Sir John Sherbrooke, the want of confidence in its executive government,[28] not so much in the personal character of the Governor as in the Executive Council, who have come to be considered the Governor's advisers, and who are watched with a jealousy that hampered every governmental operation. To remove the distrust, the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly should, ex officio, be a member of the Executive Council.

[28] True, and which an elective government will altogether remove, to the great advantage and enduring honor of Great Britain.

Sir John had stated a series of truths, since made apparent, by the disclosures of Mr. Ryland.

The new parliament was convened for the dispatch of business, on the 15th of January, 1817, when Mr. Papineau was re-elected Speaker. The Governor then formally opened the business of the session, by stating that having ascertained that the crops had failed in several parts of the province, he had taken steps to prevent the mischief that threatened the country, the particulars of which should be laid before the parliament; that he relied upon the liberality of the Assembly to make the necessary provision for defraying the expenses already incurred; that he felt assured such further aid would be granted as necessity might require; that he would lay before the House a statement of the revenue and expenditure of the province: that he felt it to be his duty to call early attention to the renewal of the militia and several other Acts, which either had expired or were about to expire; and he intimated that the advantages to result from every improvement calculated to open up the commerce of the country and encourage agriculture were of themselves sufficient to recommend that matter to their attention. The Assembly replied in the usual way and immediately afterwards appointed the committees. There was a grand committee of grievances, a committee on courts of justice, a committee on agriculture and commerce, and a special committee of five members to keep up a good understanding between the two Houses, hitherto antagonistic. Immediately after these committees had been named, a message was received from the Governor, intimating that the Regent of the United Kingdom and of the Empire had been pleased to assent to the bill granting a salary of L1,000 a year to the Speaker of the Assembly. The House then voted L14,216 to relieve the distressed parishes, with the view of making good the advances made by the Governor, and also voted the additional sum of L15,500, with the same view, and L20,600 more, for the purchase of seed grain, for distribution among such as could not otherwise procure it, to be repaid at the convenience of the recipients. This business being settled, Mr. Cuvillier presented to the House articles of impeachment against Mr. Foucher, a Judge of the King's Bench, at Montreal, for malversation, corrupt practices, and injustice. A committee was appointed to examine into these charges, and having reported adversely to the judge, the House prepared and adopted an address to the Regent, asking for Mr. Foucher's removal from office, and that justice should otherwise be done. The House further requested the Governor-in-Chief to suspend Mr. Foucher, while the charges made against him were pending. The Governor complied with the request of the House, by desiring Mr. Foucher to abstain from taking his seat upon the Bench, until the will of the Regent should have been ascertained. The Legislative Council were most indignant. They remonstrated against the suspension of Mr. Foucher. Every public officer was by the assent given to the act of the Assembly, liable to be put to the expense of going to England before he could even get a hearing, if at the mere dictation of the Assembly, a public officer was to be suspended. The Assembly replied that, if suspension could not take place, offenders, out of the reach of ordinary courts of justice, could not be brought to trial, and that an illegal, arbitrary, tyrannical, and oppressive power, over the people of the province, would be perpetuated. And so the suspension did take place. The judges were in very bad odour in those days. They were between two fires. If they thwarted the government, they were dismissed, and if they annoyed the people they were impeached. Another complaint was made against Mr. Chief Justice Monk. He, it was alleged by the family of the late Francois Corbeil, had exceeded his authority, by issuing a warrant for the arrest and imprisonment of Corbeil, on a charge of treasonable practices, well knowing that such changes were notoriously false, and, by so doing, had accelerated or caused the death of Corbeil, the disease of which he died having been contracted while in prison. Mr. Samuel Sherwood also complained, on his own behalf, against the Chief Justice of Montreal. It appeared that he had been prosecuted and imprisoned for libel, in having burlesqued the pamphlet published and circulated by the Chief Justices in Montreal and Quebec, to show to the public and their friends that the impeachments against them had fallen through. At the trial for the libel, Mr. Chief Justice Monk presided. He seemed to be both prosecutor and judge. The jury box was packed. The court was specially held. The indictment against Sherwood had been framed on suspicion. In the pretended libel the name of James Monk was thirty times mentioned, and yet James Monk, in the character of Chief Justice, sat upon the Bench. He took a lively interest in the prosecution. He had fiercely assailed a member of the Bar, who had smiled during the reading of the indictment, and threatened to remember the smile in his address to the jury. Such an example of a judge, sitting in his own cause, was not even afforded by Scraggs or Jefferies. Mr. Sherwood had been falsely imprisoned, arbitrarily held to excessive bail, his liberties, as a British subject, violated, and his privileges as a member of the Assembly had been set at nought. The petition was referred to a select committee, and no more heard of. Yet it had an effect. Chief Justice Monk was compelled to explain and to defend himself.

There was yet another similar matter to be proceeded with. There was the revival of the impeachments to be taken in hand. The House had been clumsily baulked in their attempt to remonstrate with the Regent concerning his will and pleasure, as far as his royal will and pleasure related to the impeachments of Chief Justices Sewell and Monk, and there seemed to be a sub rosa disposition to get rid of the disagreeable affair by management. Mr. Stuart, keen-sighted as he was, both saw and felt that the tools, with which he worked, required sharpening up. They had been handled. They had been in other hands than his. They had apparently been rendered almost unfit for use. He would, however, move for a call of the House, on the 21st of February. The cards had been admirably shuffled. The Panets, Vanfelsons, Gugys, Ogdens, Vezinas, Taschereaus, Malhiots, Cherriers, were all wonderfully intermingled in an adverse vote. The motion was rejected by a vote of 23 nays to 10 yeas. Mr. Stuart tried the 20th of February. Still it would not do. The Assembly had become suddenly tired of impeachments. Again, the matter was tried on the following day, when the House consented not to revive the impeachments but to reconsider the message addressed to the Assembly on the 2nd of February last, by the late Administrator-in-Chief. Mr. Stuart had some business to transact in Montreal, and he left Quebec to attend to it. During his absence the impeachments were forgotten; his measures were paralysed by sub rosa negociation; Mr. Sewell was recompensed for the ill-treatment he had experienced, and the government was relieved of anxiety. The Speaker of the Assembly was informed that for this parliament as well as for the last parliament he would be permitted to receive L1,000 a year, and that Mr. Sewell, who, as Chief Justice, was Speaker of the Upper House, might be recompensed for his ill-treatment, by the attachment of a salary of L1,000 to an office which it was designed he should hold for life. The Assembly, accordingly, applied to His Excellency to allow their Speaker L1,000 a year, and to confer some signal mark of the Royal favor on Dame Louise Philippe Badelard, widow of Mr. Speaker Panet. His Excellency, the Governor, unhesitatingly complied with the request of the Assembly, the more especially as on the request of the Council he had consented to a similar salary being paid to their Speaker, and he had further pleasure in authorising the payment of a pension of L300 a year, to Dame Louise Philippe Badelard. The whole was most cheerfully agreed to by all the parties interested, and thus was the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada betrayed and dealt with for the consideration of a few thousand pieces of silver. On the 17th of March, Sir John Sherbrooke intimated by message that he had conferred upon the two honorable Speakers the salaries of L1,000 each per annum. Two days afterwards, Mr. Sherwood moved that the message of the late Administrator-in-Chief should not be considered until the 27th of March, and that a call of the House should be made for that day. Mr. Ogden, however, bluntly moved for the discharge of the order of the day, and that the subject should not be taken into consideration at all during the session. The debate was loud and long continued. James Stuart and Andrew Stuart were brilliant; the Gugys, the McCords, and the Ogdens, were dumb. The Vezinas, the Vigers, the Panets, the Languedocs, and the Badeaux, had changed sides. Night came and still the debate continued, the midnight hour was passed and yet the war of words was fiercely going on, and morning came only to find the impeachments, which the Assembly had so long cherished, finally buried in oblivion, by 22 votes in favor of the abrupt motion of Mr. Ogden, while there were only 10 votes against it. Mr. Stuart was abandoned. There was now a greater than he to lead the Assembly. Sir John Coape Sherbrooke thoroughly understood the materials with which he had to deal, and he dealt with them accordingly. The Assembly had no longer independence: spirit, self-respect, power was sacrificed for that which gives wisdom to the foolish and judgment to the weak. The sum of L55,000 was appropriated for the improvement of roads, canals, and bridges; L2,000 was voted for the encouragement of inoculation with vaccine virus as a preventative of small pox; the revenue for 1816 was L144,625; the expenditure L75,638, less L24,495, the proportion of duties payable to Upper Canada for 1815; the expenses of the legislature for the same period were L3,203 currency; the salaries of the judges were now L1,000 currency per annum each, and yet at the disposal of the legislature there was the sum of L140,153.[29] The session was closed on the 22nd of March, by receiving the thanks of the Governor General for the extraordinary application to business which had distinguished this session from any preceding session of the parliament of Lower Canada.

[29] Christie's History, page 290.

In the course of the summer (1817) three hundred and three vessels with five thousand three hundred and seventy-five new settlers had arrived at Quebec, and banks were established both in Montreal and Quebec, named after the cities in which they were set afloat. About the 15th of November it was remarked that the Montreal Bank had commenced with quite an unexpected confidence from every part of the community, so much so that the merchants were realising more convenience from it than they ever anticipated; and that since it had commenced business, the profits were reported to have been immense.

In 1816, a settlement of emigrants was begun, under the direction of the military, in Bathurst, Drummond, Beckwith and Golbourne. The first settlers of Canada had a free passage afforded them from the United Kingdom, and were provided with rations and tools on their arrival in the colony. In 1816, rations and tools were furnished to 2,000 emigrants, who came out at their own expense, and in 1817 multitudes came out in the expectation of being favored in the same way, but were disappointed, nothing having been given to them but 100 acres of land each, which many of them were too poor to occupy.[30] There were not yet seven persons to the square mile, in the Upper Province. There were only twenty places of worship and thirty-five resident preachers:—fifteen methodists, five baptists, four quakers, three presbyterians, three Roman Catholics, three episcopalians, one tunker and one menonist—in the Western, London, Gore, and Niagara districts, with a population of 26,977 souls; and there were for the same population, 20 medical practitioners, 132 schools, 114 taverns, 130 stores, 79 grist-mills, and 116 saw-mills. The Home district contained 7,700 people; the Newcastle, 5,000; the Midland, 14,853; the Johnstown, 9,200; the Eastern, 12,700; and the Ottawa, 1,500; the total population of Upper Canada being then estimated at 83,250 souls. York, the capital of the Upper Province, situated on a beautiful plain, in a rich soil, and temperate climate, was, at this period, more than a mile and a half in length. It was laid out in regular streets, lots, and squares, having the garrison, and the site of the parliament house on its two wings, and a market near the centre. There was a public square open to the water. Many neat and some elegant houses had been erected. The town had a mixed appearance of city and country. Kingston was yet the town of most note and indeed, in every respect, the most entitled to civic consideration of any town then in the province. Parallel with its spacious and convenient harbour were the streets, at convenient distances from each other, and intersected, at right angles, by cross streets, dividing the town into squares. One square was an open public area in front of the Court House, and gaol, and episcopal church. The market was held in that area. But there were other public buildings in Kingston, besides the Court House, gaol, and episcopal church. There was a new catholic church, a barracks for the troops in garrison, an hospital, and a residence for the commandant. The town consisted of 300 private dwelling houses, a number of warehouses and stores, about 50 shops, in which goods were sold, several public offices, a respectable district school, a valuable library, mechanics' shops &c. The Court House, gaol, Catholic Church, and the principal dwelling houses were built of the bluish limestone obtained in large quantities in the middle of the town; but were more substantial than elegant in design. Kingston wanted a populous back country then, and still wants it because the soil is stoney and not therefore so well adapted for agricultural operations as the soils of other parts of the province. The Upper, as well as the Lower province had profitted by the circulation of army bills and by the requirements of the troops. Government transactions had given a spirit to trade and industry, and only for a system of government, which, as far as any government can do, crushed enterprise and fettered trade, both provinces would have so flourished immediately after the war that the reaction which the withdrawal of a few troops produced would scarcely have been felt. As matters stood the provinces were already flourishing, and schemes of improvement were everywhere in contemplation. Steam navigation, which had proved so useful on the St. Lawrence, and had, as it were, drawn, the two chief cities of the Lower Province more closely together, was about to be attempted on Lake Ontario. Already the keel of a steamboat, to be 170 feet on deck, was in process of construction at the village of Ernest-town, for certain gentlemen resident in Kingston. If possible, the new boat was to transport both goods and passengers for the whole extent between Queenston and Prescott. It was, however, feared that the rough water of the lake would be too much for any steamer to contend against. The Americans were also building a smaller steamboat at Sackett's Harbour. A year later and the steamboat Walk-in-the-Water, plied between Black Rock, near Buffalo and Detroit, on Lake Erie, occasionally to Michillimackinac.

[30] Gourlay's Canada, page 523. vol. 1.

The legislative affairs of the Upper Province have as yet hardly warranted comment. There were so very few people in the province for whom legislation was necessary, and there was so much sameness about the business transacted in parliament that comment was barely needful. At first sight it seems that all went smoothly. There could not have been factionists where there were no French people entertaining seditious ideas and cherishing revolutionary projects. But red-tapism is every where the same. In Upper as in Lower Canada, there were only two legislative branches, a Lower, or People's House, a Crown, or