Canada Part 13

The story of those days of trial has not yet been adequately written; perhaps it never will be, for few of those pioneers have left records behind them. As we wander among the old burying grounds of those founders of Western Canada and New Brunswick, and stand by the gray, moss-covered tablets, with names effaced by the ravages of years, the thought will come to us, what interesting stories could be told by those who are laid beneath the sod, of sorrows and struggles, of hearts sick with hope deferred, of expectations never realised, of memories of misfortune and disaster in another land where they bore so much for a stubborn and unwise king. Yet these gra.s.s-covered mounds are not simply memorials of suffering and privation; each could tell a story of fidelity to principle, of forgetfulness of self-interest, of devotion and self-sacrifice--the grandest story that human annals can tell--a story that should be ever held up to the admiration and emulation of the young men and women of the present times, who enjoy the fruits of the labours of those loyal pioneers.

Although no n.o.ble monument has yet been raised to the memory of these founders of new provinces--of English-speaking Canada; although the majority lie forgotten in old graveyards where the gra.s.s has {297} grown rank, and common flowers alone nod over their resting-places, yet the names of all are written in imperishable letters in provincial annals. Those loyalists, including the children of both s.e.xes, who joined the cause of Great Britain before the Treaty of Peace in 1783, were allowed the distinction of having after their name the letters U.

E. to preserve the memory of their fidelity to a United Empire. A Canadian of these modern days, who traces his descent from such a source, is as proud of his lineage as if he were a Derby or a Talbot of Malahide, or inheritor of other n.o.ble names famous in the annals of the English peerage.

The records of all the provinces show the great influence exercised on their material, political, and intellectual development by this devoted body of immigrants. For more than a century they and their descendants have been distinguished for the useful and important part they have taken in every matter deeply a.s.sociated with the best interests of the country. In New Brunswick we find among those who did good service in their day and generation the names of Wilmot, Allen, Robinson, Jarvis, Hazen, Burpee, Chandler, Tilley, Fisher, Bliss, Odell, Botsford; in Nova Scotia, Inglis (the first Anglican bishop in the colonies), Wentworth, Brenton, Blowers (Chief Justice), Cunard, Cutler, Howe, Creighton, Chipman, Marshall, Halliburton, Wilkins, Huntingdon, Jones; in Ontario, Cartwright, Robinson, Hagerman, Stuart (the first Anglican clergyman), Gamble, Van Alstine, Fisher, Gra.s.s, Butler, Macaulay, Wallbridge, Chrysler, Bethune, {298} Merritt, McNab, Crawford, Kirby, Tisdale, and Ryerson. Among these names stand out prominently those of Wilmot, Howe, and Huntingdon, who were among the fathers of responsible government; those of Tilley, Tupper, Chandler, and Fisher, who were among the fathers of confederation; of Ryerson, who exercised a most important influence on the system of free education which Ontario now enjoys. Among the eminent living descendants of U. E. Loyalists are Sir Charles Tupper, long a prominent figure in politics; Christopher Robinson, a distinguished lawyer, who was counsel for Canada at the Bering Sea arbitration; Sir Richard Cartwright, a liberal leader remarkable for his keen, incisive style of debate, and his knowledge of financial questions; Honourable George E. Foster, a former finance minister of Canada. We might extend the list indefinitely did s.p.a.ce permit. In all walks of life we see the descendants of the loyalists, exercising a decided influence over the fortunes of the Dominion.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea)]

Conspicuous among the people who remained faithful to England during the American revolution, we see the famous Iroquois chief, Joseph Brant, best known by his Mohawk name of Thayendanegea, who took part in the war, and was for many years wrongly accused of having partic.i.p.ated in the ma.s.sacre and destruction of Wyoming, that beauteous vale of the Susquehanna. It was he whom the poet Campbell would have consigned to eternal infamy in the verse:

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"The mammoth comes--the foe, the monster, Brandt-- With all his howling, desolating band; These eyes have seen their blade and burning pine Awake at once, and silence half your land.

Red is the cup they drink, but not with wine-- Awake and watch to-night, or see no morning s.h.i.+ne."

Posterity has, however, recognised the fact that Joseph Brant was not present at this sad episode of the American war, and the poet in a note to a later edition admitted that the Indian chief in his poem was "a pure and declared character of fiction." He was a sincere friend of English interests, a man of large and statesmanlike views, who might have taken an important part in colonial affairs had he been educated in these later times. When the war was ended, he and his tribe moved into the valley of the St. Lawrence, and received from the government fine reserves of land on the Bay of Quinte, and on the Grand River in the western part of the province of Upper Canada, where the prosperous city and county of Brantford, and the towns.h.i.+p of Tyendinaga--a corruption of Thayendanegea--ill.u.s.trate the fame he has won in Canadian annals. The descendants of his nation live in comfortable homes, till fine farms in a beautiful section of Western Canada, and enjoy all the franchises of white men. It is an interesting fact that the first church built in Ontario was that of the Mohawks, who still preserve the communion service presented to the tribe in 1710 by Queen Anne of England.

General Haldimand's administration will always be noted in Canadian history for the coming of the {301} loyalists, and for the sympathetic interest he took in settling these people on the lands of Canada, and in alleviating their difficulties by all the means in the power of his government. In these and other matters of Canadian interest he proved conclusively that he was not the mere military martinet that some Canadian writers with inadequate information would make him. When he left Canada he was succeeded by Sir Guy Carleton, then elevated to the peerage as Lord Dorchester, who was called upon to take part in great changes in the const.i.tution of Canada which must be left for review in the following chapter.

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XXII.

FOUNDATION OF NEW PROVINCES--ESTABLISHMENT OF REPRESENTATIVE INSt.i.tUTIONS.

(1792-1812.)

The history of the Dominion of Canada as a self-governing community commences with the concession of representative inst.i.tutions 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 a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly did not a.s.semble 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 a.s.sembly 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, inst.i.tutions, and history of the French regime. 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 Towns.h.i.+ps. 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 Const.i.tutional 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 princ.i.p.al 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 inst.i.tutions. Accordingly the const.i.tutional act provided for an a.s.sembly, 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 cla.s.s, 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 a.s.sisted 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 a.s.sembly 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 regime. The civil and military branches of the government then occupied apartments in the old Chateau 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 a.s.sembled 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 a.s.semblage 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 a.s.sociated with the fortunes of the colony. Chaussegros de Lery, St. Ours, Longueuil, Lanaudiere, Rouville, Boucherville, Salaberry, and Lotbiniere, were among the names that told of the old regime, and gave a guaranty to the French Canadians that their race and inst.i.tutions 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 a.s.sembly of French Canada.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 const.i.tution 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 ma.s.sive pile which was chosen for a similar purpose in Quebec; and yet each was appropriate in its way. The Bishop's Palace ill.u.s.trated 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 a.s.sembly 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 a.s.semble 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 circ.u.mstances 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 pa.s.sed the same number of bills that it took seven months at Quebec to pa.s.s.

The history of Canada, during the twenty years that elapsed between the inauguration of the const.i.tution of 1792 and the war of 1812, does not require any extended s.p.a.ce 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 regime 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 inst.i.tutions, 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 n.o.ble 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 r.e.t.a.r.ded its advancement, and whose claims of proprietors.h.i.+p were not settled until after the confederation of the provinces.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Lieutenant-General Simcoe.]

The political condition of the provinces from the beginning of the nineteenth century began to a.s.sume considerable importance according as the a.s.semblies 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 a.s.semblies 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 a.s.sembly had crossed his wishes. In the absence of a ministry responsible to the a.s.sembly, a conflict was always going on between that body and the representative of the Crown. The a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly 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.

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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 cla.s.s, 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 munic.i.p.al organisation. In the a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly 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 inst.i.tutions, notre langue, et nos lois_. By its constant attacks on the government and the English governing cla.s.s 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 a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly, 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 cla.s.s.

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 cla.s.s, 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 cla.s.s, 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 Willc.o.c.ks, 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 a.s.sembly 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 a.s.semblies 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 Hamps.h.i.+re 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.

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XXIII.

THE WAR OF 1812-1815--PATRIOTISM OF THE CANADIANS.

At the outbreak of the unfortunate War of 1812 the United States embraced an immense territory extending from the St. Lawrence valley to Mexico, excepting Florida--which remained in the possession of Spain until 1819--and from the Atlantic indefinitely westward to the Spanish possessions on the Pacific coast, afterwards acquired by the United States. The total population of the Union was upwards of eight million souls, of whom a million and a half were negro slaves in the south.

Large wastes of wild land lay between the Canadian settlements and the thickly populated sections of New England, New York, and Ohio. It was only with great difficulty and expense that men, munitions of war, and provisions could be brought to the frontier during the contest.

The princ.i.p.al causes of the war are quite intelligible to the historical student. Great Britain was engaged in a great conflict not only for her own national security but also for the integrity of {317} Europe, then dominated by the insatiable ambition of Bonaparte. It was on the sea that her strength mainly lay. To ensure her maritime supremacy, she found it necessary, in the course of events, to seize and condemn neutral American vessels whenever there was conclusive evidence that their cargoes were not the produce of the United States, but had been actually bought in an enemy's colony and were on their way to the mother country. But such an interruption of a commerce, which had been carried on for years at a great profit by American merchants, was by no means so serious an affair as the stoppage of American vessels on the high seas, and the forcible abduction and impressment, by British naval officers, of sailors who were claimed as British subjects, even when they had been naturalised in the United States. To such an extent did Great Britain a.s.sert her pretensions, that one of her frigates, the _Leopard_, actually fired into the American cruiser _Chesapeake_, off the coast of the bay of the same name, and made prisoners of several men who were claimed as deserters from an English man-of-war--a national outrage for which Great Britain subsequently made an apology and gave a measure of reparation. Then came the British orders in council which forbade American trade with any country from which the British flag was excluded, allowed direct trade from the United States to Sweden only in American products, and permitted American trade with other parts of Europe only on condition of touching at English ports and paying duties. Napoleon retaliated with decrees which {318} were practically futile while England was victorious on the ocean, but which nevertheless threw additional difficulties in the way of the commerce of a country like the United States, which possessed such exceptional facilities for its development from its position as a neutral nation, and its great maritime and mercantile enterprise. The British measures meant the ruin of an American commerce which had become very profitable, and the Was.h.i.+ngton government attempted to retaliate by declaring an embargo in their own ports, which had only the result of still further embarra.s.sing American trade. In place of this injudicious measure a system of non-intercourse with both England and France was subst.i.tuted as long as either should continue its restrictive measures against the United States. The Democratic governing party practically fell under the influence of France, and believed, or at least professed to believe, that Napoleon had abandoned his repressive system, when, as a matter of fact, as the English ministry declared, it still existed to all intents and purposes. The Democratic leaders, anxious to keep in power, fanned the flame against England, whose naval superiority enabled her to inflict an injury on American commercial interests, which France was entirely powerless to do. The Democrats looked to the South and West for their princ.i.p.al support in holding power. In these sections the interests were exclusively agricultural, while in New England, where the Federalists--the peace party--were in the majority--and the war was very unpopular--the commercial and maritime {319} element largely prevailed. In the West there had been for years an intense feeling against England on account of the fact that after the definitive treaty of peace in 1783, the English Government continued to occupy the Western posts and dependent territory for thirteen years, nominally on the ground of the harsh treatment meted out to the loyalists in violation of its terms, and of the non-payment of debts due to English creditors, but probably also with the view of keeping control of the fur trade. The feeling prevailed among the western frontiersmen that the English secretly instigated Indian attacks on the new settlements, a belief proved by recent investigations to be groundless. Even after the victories of Mayne in 1794, and of Harrison in 1811, when the Indian power was effectively broken, this bitter sentiment still existed in the West against English and Canadians, and had much influence with the politicians who favoured the war.

The Southern leaders, Clay of Kentucky and Calhoun of South Carolina, were most inimical to England, and succeeded in forcing Madison to agree to a declaration of war, as a condition to his re-election to the presidency. The consequence of this successful bargain was the pa.s.sage of a war measure by Congress as soon as Madison issued his message, and the formal declaration of hostilities on the 18th of June, 1812. On the previous day, England had actually repealed the obnoxious orders in council, but it was too late to induce the war party in the United States to recede and stop the progress of the forces, which were already near the western {320} Canadian frontier when the governor-general of Canada, Sir George Prevost, a military man, heard the news of the actual declaration of hostilities.

With the causes of the War of 1812 the Canadian people had nothing whatever to do; it was quite sufficient for them to know that it was their duty to a.s.sist England with all their might and submit to any sacrifices which the fortunes of war might necessarily bring to a country which became the princ.i.p.al scene of conflict. Ontario, then Upper Canada, with a population of about eighty thousand souls, was the only province that really suffered from the war. From the beginning to the end its soil was the scene of the princ.i.p.al battles, and a great amount of valuable property destroyed by the invading forces. "On to Canada" had been the cry of the war party in the United States for years; and there was a general feeling that the upper province could be easily taken and held until the close of the struggle, when it could be used as a lever to bring England to satisfactory terms or else be united to the Federal Union. The result of the war showed, however, that the people of the United States had entirely mistaken the spirit of Canadians, and that the small population scattered over a large region--not more than four hundred thousand souls from Sydney to Sandwich--was animated by a stern determination to remain faithful to England.

No doubt the American Government had been led to believe from the utterances of Willc.o.c.ks in the _Guardian_, as the representative of the discontented element in Upper Canada, that they would find not {321} only sympathy but probably some active co-operation in the western country as soon as the armies of the Republic appeared on Canadian soil and won, as they confidently expected, an easy victory over the small force which could be brought to check invasion and defend the province.

General Hull's proclamation, when he crossed the Detroit River at the commencement of hostilities, was so much evidence of the belief that was entertained in the United States with regard to the fealty of the Canadians. Willc.o.c.ks proved himself a disloyal man, for he eventually joined the American forces and fell fighting against the country which he and a very small disaffected cla.s.s would willingly have handed to a foreign invader. The forces at the disposal of the Canadian authorities certainly appeared to be inadequate for the defence of a country with so long and exposed a frontier. In the provinces of Canada there were, in 1812, only four thousand five hundred regular troops, and of these hardly one-third were stationed above Montreal.

The Canadian militia, however, rallied with extraordinary readiness to the call of the authorities. The majority of the loyal population that had come into the country had been engaged in military services, and even the old settlers, who were exempted from active duty, voluntarily came forward, and exercised, as General Sheaffe, said, "a happy influence on the youth of the militia ranks." The legislative bodies of all the provinces responded liberally to the call of the executive and placed at the disposal of the government all their resources. Army bills were issued to a {322} large amount, and found a most valuable currency throughout the war.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Major-General Brock.]