XXII.

FOUNDATION OF NEW PROVINCES--ESTABLISHMENT OF REPRESENTATIVE INSTITUTIONS.

(1792-1812.)

The history of the Dominion of Canada as a self-governing community commences with the concession of representative institutions to the old provinces now comprised within its limits. By 1792 there were provincial governments established in Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. From 1713 to 1758 the government of Nova Scotia consisted of a governor, or lieutenant-governor, a council possessing legislative, executive, and even judicial powers. In October, 1758, an assembly met for the first time in the town of Halifax, which had been the capital since 1749. New Brunswick had been separated from Nova Scotia in 1784, but a representative assembly did not assemble until 1786, when its form of government was identical with that of the older province. Prince Edward Island was a part of Nova Scotia until 1769 when it was created a distinct province, {303} with a lieutenant-governor, a combined executive and legislative council, and also an assembly in 1773. The island of Cape Breton had a lieutenant-governor and executive council, and remained apart from Nova Scotia until 1820 when it was included in its government. In 1791 the province of Upper Canada was formally separated from the province of Quebec by an act of the imperial parliament, and was called Upper Canada, while the French section received the name of Lower Canada. At that time the total population of British North America did not exceed a quarter of a million of souls, of whom at least a hundred and forty thousand lived on the banks of the St. Lawrence and its tributary streams, and almost entirely represented the language, institutions, and history of the French régime. In the French province there was also a small British population, consisting of officials, commercial men, and loyalists who settled for the most part in the Eastern Townships. The population of Upper Canada, about twenty-five thousand, was almost exclusively of loyalist stock--a considerable number having migrated thither from the maritime provinces. Beyond the Detroit River, the limit of English settlement, extended a vast region of wilderness which was trodden only by trappers and Indians.

The Constitutional Act of 1791, which created the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, caused much discussion in the British Parliament and in Canada, where the principal opposition came from the English inhabitants of the French province. These opponents of the act even sent Mr. Adam {304} Lymburner, a Quebec merchant of high standing, to express their opinions at the bar of the English House of Commons. The advocates of the new scheme of government, however, believed that the division of Canada into two provinces would have the effect of creating harmony, since the French would be left in the majority in one section, and the British in the other. The Quebec Act, it was generally admitted, had not promoted the prosperity or happiness of the people at large. Great uncertainty still existed as to the laws actually in force under the act. In not a few cases the judges were confessedly ignorant--Chief Justice Livius, for instance--of French Canadian jurisprudence. The increase of the English population was a strong argument for a grant of representative institutions. Accordingly the constitutional act provided for an assembly, elected by the people on a limited franchise, in each province, and for a legislative council, appointed by the Crown. The sovereign might annex hereditary letters of honour to the right of summons to the legislative council, but no attempt was ever made to create a Canadian aristocracy, or distinct class, under the authority of this section of the act. The British Government reserved the right of imposing, levying, and collecting duties of customs, and of appointing or directing their payment, though it left the exclusive apportionment of all moneys levied in this way to legislature. The free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion was permanently guaranteed. A seventh part of all uncleared Crown lands was reserved for the use of the Protestant clergy--a {305} provision that caused much trouble in the future. The civil law of French Canada was to regulate property and civil rights in that province. English criminal law was to prevail in both the Canadas. The Governor-General of Quebec and Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada were each assisted by an executive council chosen by those functionaries, and having a right to sit also in the legislative council. Lord Dorchester was the first governor-general, not only of Canada, but likewise of the other provinces by virtue of separate commissions to that effect. The heads of the executive in all the provinces except Quebec were called lieutenant-governors, but they became only directly subordinate to the governor-general when he was present in a province in his official capacity.

The city where the first assembly of Lower Canada met in 1792 was one of great historic interest. The very buildings in which the government transacted its business had echoed to the tread of statesmen, warriors, and priests of the old régime. The civil and military branches of the government then occupied apartments in the old Château St. Louis, elevated on the brink of an inaccessible precipice. On a rocky eminence, in the vicinity of a battery close to Prescott Gate, erected in 1797, was an old stone building, generally known as the Bishop's Palace. Like all the ancient structures of Quebec, this building had no claims to elegance of form, although much labour and expense had been bestowed on its construction. The chapel of this building, situated near the communication with the lower {306} town, was converted into a chamber, in which were held the first meetings of the representatives of Lower Canada.

On the 17th of December, the two houses assembled in their respective chambers in the old palace, in obedience to the proclamation of Major-General Alured Clarke, who acted as lieutenant-governor in the absence of the governor-general, Lord Dorchester. Among the officers who surrounded the throne on that occasion, was probably his Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, who was in command of the 7th Royal Fusiliers, then stationed in the old capital. On so momentous an occasion, the assemblage was large, and comprised all the notabilities of English and French society. In the legislature were not a few men whose families had long been associated with the fortunes of the colony. Chaussegros de Léry, St. Ours, Longueuil, Lanaudière, Rouville, Boucherville, Salaberry, and Lotbinière, were among the names that told of the old régime, and gave a guaranty to the French Canadians that their race and institutions were at last protected in the legislative halls of their country. M. Panet, a distinguished French Canadian, was unanimously elected the speaker of the first assembly of French Canada.

[Illustration: Prescott Gate and Bishop's palace at Quebec in 1830.]

Now let us leave the Bishop's Palace, among the rocks of old Quebec, and visit the humble village of Newark, where Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe opened his first legislature under the new constitution in the autumn of 1792. Across the rapid river was the territory of the Republic, which was engaged in a grand experiment of government. The roar of the {308} mighty cataract of Niagara could be heard in calm summer days. On the banks of this picturesque river was the residence of the lieutenant-governor, known as Navy Hall, where the legislators of Upper Canada probably met. This was but a mean parliament house, compared with the massive pile which was chosen for a similar purpose in Quebec; and yet each was appropriate in its way. The Bishop's Palace illustrated an old community, which had aimed at the conquest of the larger part of America, and had actually laid the foundations of an empire; the legislative cabin of Newark was a fit type of the ruggedness and newness of western colonial life. The axe was whirring amid the forests, and only here and there, through a vast wilderness, could be seen the humble clearings of the pioneers.

The session was opened with the usual speech, which was duly reported to the house of assembly by the speaker, Mr. McDonnell of Glengarry, and immediately taken into consideration by the representatives of the yeomanry of the western province. It is said that on more than one occasion, the representatives were forced to leave their confined chamber and finish their work under the trees before the door. If the attendance was small on this occasion, it must be remembered that there were many difficulties to overcome before the two Houses could assemble in obedience to the governor's proclamation. The seven legislative councillors and sixteen members who represented a population of only 25,000 souls, were scattered at very remote points, {309} and could only find their way at times in canoes and slow sailing craft. Nor must it be forgotten that in those early days of colonisation men had the stern necessities of existence to consider before all things else. However urgent the call to public duty, the harvest must be gathered in before laws could be made.

Such were the circumstances under which the legislatures were opened in the two provinces, representing the two distinct races of the population. Humble as were the beginnings in the little parliament house of Newark, yet we can see from their proceedings that the men, then called to do the public business, were of practical habits and fully alive to the value of time in a new country, as they sat for only five weeks and passed the same number of bills that it took seven months at Quebec to pass.

The history of Canada, during the twenty years that elapsed between the inauguration of the constitution of 1792 and the war of 1812, does not require any extended space in this work. Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe, who had distinguished himself during the war for independence as a commander of the Queen's Rangers, was a skilful and able administrator, who did his best to develop the country. It was during his régime that Toronto, under the name of York, was chosen, by the influence of Lord Dorchester, as the capital in place of Newark, which was too close to the American frontier, although the Lieutenant-Governor would have preferred the site of the present city of London, on the River {310} Thames, then known as La Tranche. Mainly through his efforts a considerable immigration was attracted from the United States. Many of the new settlers were loyal and favourable to British institutions, but in the course of time there came into the country not a few discontented, restless persons, having radical and republican tendencies. Among the important measures of his administration was an act preventing the future introduction of slaves, and providing for the freedom of children of slaves then in the province. Governor Simcoe devoted his energy not only to the peopling of the province, but to the opening up of arteries of communication, of which Yonge and Dundas Streets--still well-known names--were the most noted. The founder of an important settlement in the west, an eccentric Irishman of noble ancestry, Colonel Thomas Talbot, was a member of the Lieutenant-Governor's staff, and eventually made his home in the western part of the province, where he became a useful and influential pioneer. Among the most desirable immigrants were the Scotch Highlanders, who settled and named the county of Glengarry, and came to the country by the advice of the energetic and able priest, Macdonell, afterwards the first Roman Catholic bishop of Upper Canada. In Nova Scotia a number of Scotch settled in Pictou county as early as 1773, and were followed in later years by many others who found homes in the same district, in Antigonishe and Cape Breton, where their descendants are still greatly in the majority. In Prince Edward Island, Lord Selkirk, the founder of the {311} Red River settlement, to whose history I shall refer in a later chapter, established a colony of thrifty Scotch in one of the deserted settlements of the French. Charlottetown was founded in those days on the bay first known as Port La Joye, and is now a pleasing example of the placid dignity and rural tranquillity that a capital may attain even in these restless modern times. In this island, the seeds of {312} discontent were planted at a very early time by the transfer of nearly all its lands in one day by ballot to a few English landlords, whose absenteeism long retarded its advancement, and whose claims of proprietorship were not settled until after the confederation of the provinces.

[Illustration: Lieutenant-General Simcoe.]

The political condition of the provinces from the beginning of the nineteenth century began to assume considerable importance according as the assemblies became discontented with their relatively small share in the government of the country. In all the provinces there was a persistent contest between the popular assemblies and prerogative, as represented by the governors, and upper houses appointed by the same authority. Charles the First, with all his arrogance, never treated his parliament with greater superciliousness than did Sir James Craig, when governor-general, on more than one occasion when the assembly had crossed his wishes. In the absence of a ministry responsible to the assembly, a conflict was always going on between that body and the representative of the Crown. The assembly began now to claim full control over the taxes and revenues which belonged to the people of the provinces. The presence of judges in the legislature was a just cause for public discontent for years, and although these high functionaries were eventually removed from the assembly they continued to sit in the upper house until 1840. The constant interference of the Imperial Government in matters of purely local concern also led to many unfortunate misunderstandings.

{313}

In Lower Canada, where the population was the largest, and the racial distinctions strongly accentuated, the political conflict was, from the outset, more bitter than in other sections. The official class, a little oligarchy composed exclusively of persons brought from the British Isles, treated the French Canadians with a studied superciliousness, and arrogated to themselves all the important functions of government. This element dominated the executive and legislative councils, and practically the governors, who, generally speaking, had extreme views of their prerogative, and were cognisant of the fact that the colonial office in England had no desire to entrust the Canadian Government with much larger powers than those possessed by a municipal organisation. In the assembly the French Canadians were largely in the majority--the English element had frequently not more than one-fifth of the total representation of fifty members. The assembly too often exhibited a very domineering spirit, and attempted to punish all those who ventured to criticise, however moderately, their proceedings. The editor of the _Quebec Mercury_, an organ of the British minority, was arrested on this ground. _Le Canadien_ was established as an organ of the French Canadian majority with the motto, _Nos institutions, notre langue, et nos lois_. By its constant attacks on the government and the English governing class it did much harm by creating and perpetuating racial antagonisms and by eventually precipitating civil strife. As a result of its attacks on the government, the paper was seized, and the printer, as well as {314} M. Bedard and several other members of the assembly who were understood to be contributors to its pages, or to control its opinions, were summarily arrested by the orders of Sir James Craig. Though some of these persons obtained their release by an expression of regret for their conduct, M. Bedard would not yield, and was not released until the Governor-General himself gave up the fight and retired to England where he died soon afterwards, with the consciousness that his conduct with respect to Bedard, and other members of the assembly, had not met with the approval of the Imperial authorities, although he had placed the whole case before them by the able agency of Mr. Ryland, who had been secretary for years to successive governors-general, and represented the opinions of the ruling official class.

In Upper Canada there were no national or racial antipathies and rivalries to stimulate political differences. In the course of time, however, antagonisms grew up between the Tories, chiefly old U. E. Loyalists, the official class, and the restless, radical element, which had more recently come into the country, and now desired to exercise political influence. Lieutenant-governors, like Sir Francis Gore, sympathised with the official class, and often with reason, as the so-called radical leaders were not always deserving of the sympathy of reasonable men. One of these leaders was Joseph Willcocks, for some time sheriff of the Home district--one of the four judicial divisions of the province--and also the proprietor and editor of the _Upper Canada Guardian_, {315} the second paper printed in Upper Canada--the first having been the _Upper Canada Gazette_, or the _American Oracle_, which appeared at Newark on the 18th April, 1793. He was a dangerous agitator, not worthy of public confidence, but he was able to evoke some sympathy, and pose as a political martyr, on account of the ill-advised conduct of the majority of the assembly ordering his arrest for expressing some unfavourable opinion of their proceedings in his paper.

In the maritime provinces the conflict between the executive and the assemblies was less aggravated than in the St. Lawrence country, although Sir John Wentworth, the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, who had been a governor of New Hampshire before the revolution, had a very exalted idea of the prerogative, and succeeded in having an acrimonious controversy with Mr. Cottnam Tonge, the leader of the popular party, and the predecessor of a far greater man, Joseph Howe, the father of responsible government.

Such, briefly, was the political condition of the several provinces of British North America when events occurred to stifle discontent and develop a broader patriotism on all sides. The War of 1812 was to prove the fidelity of the Canadian people to the British Crown and stimulate a new spirit of self-reliance among French as well as English Canadians, who were to win victories which are among the most brilliant episodes of Canadian history.

{316}