'I.'jtiwthefii Boafa
fer the founding ef a. College VKrihis Ccifonf

'mLE-WMWEi&sinrY'

Acq aired by Exchange

This book was digitized by Microsoft Corporation in
cooperation with Yale University Library, 2008. You
may not reproduce this digitized copy ofthe book for
any purpose other than for scholarship, research,
educational, or, in limited quantity, personal use. You
may not distribute or provide access to this digitized copy
(or modified or partial versions of it) for commercial purposes.

THE TRAGEDY OF QUEBEC:

THE EXPULSION OF

ITS PROTESTANT FARMERS

By EOBERT SELLAR

HUNTINGDON, Que.
1907

c

ciGS* VS

H ,r-,

tjfmttA, accordiag ta'iet of *&e ^Mliment of Canada,
n tk»>»*r one Uxoawod BiSMtetus bB&dnd *n<} OTTeiy
b j BofeerV-geUar, at'lte Depwtniellfcof A«ricnit.ur*.

THE TBAGEDY OP QUEBEC

TO
THE FARMERS
WHOSE RIGHTS
I STRIVE TO VINDICATE
I DEDICATE
THIS BOOK

PREFACE

When I came to Huntingdon forty-four years ago the county,
leaving out one of its municipalities, St. Anicet, was as solidly
Protestant as any in Ontario. I have witnessed the decline of its
Protestant population to the point of being in the minority. The same
change, only in a more marked degree, has taken place iu all the coun
ties east of the Richelieu. Missisquoi, founded by U. E. Loyalists, has
ceased to be Protestant. Drummond, Wolfe, Shefford may be said to be
Catholic. The transformation has been going on with startling rapid
ity during the past fifteen years. Often, when friends deplored the de
parture of Protestant farmers, I heard them ask, "Did the electors of
the other provinces know what is happening to us in Quebec, would
they not intervene?" I thought of including testimony from residents
of different sections as to the extent of the change going on, but desist
ed on finding reluctance to putting their names to the information they
gave me. This was no reflection on these friends, for to make them
selves known would be, in their several neighborhoods, to expose them
to the malignity of the dominant power. The proof of the expulsion
of Protestant farmers is abundant without individual evidence. It is
' palpable to the most unobservant. It is open to question whether this
book will help the Protestant farmers. There is, however, no question
as to the failure of the policy that has been pursued — the policy of
fawning, of silence, of loud talk about tolerance, broad-mindedness,
living in peace and harmony, — a policy most agreeable socially, in busi
ness profitable, in public life the only road to preferment, but under
which tlie Protestant farujers_bafe gone»fa disappearing. Agitation
on their behalf may fail to help them, but cannot-make their situation
worse. Viewing the, immense resources of the church of Rome in Que
bec, how its influence permeates every channel of life and bends every ,
interest to advance its own, with no encouragement from the other
provinces, no offer to help them, it is not surprising that the Protestant
farmers of Quebec have hitherto made no resistance. The expression

often heard among them, "What's the use of butting our heads against
a stonewall?" "We don't like it, so let us get out and leave the pro
vince to them," represents their attitude. While Protestants form a
smaller part of Quebec than they did, yet at no period have they con
tributed so large a proportion of the revenue, either in customs duties
or taxes imposed by the legislature. They are the chief taxpayers, yet
it is a significant commentary on their policy of tame submission, that
they never exercised less influence at Ottawa and Quebec. In the hope
that a plain statement of the case of the Protestant farmers of Quebec
will bring them help, and lead to such legal changes as will preserve
those settlements that are still substantially intact, I have written
this book. Doing so means to me loss erf friends and loss of busi
ness, so that nothing save a sense of duty actuates me. I could not
find a publisher, even in Toronto, and the printing, poor as it is, was
effected at a sacrifice.
Huntingdon, August 12, 1907.

INTRODUCTION

The eighteen th century was near-
ing its end before the solitude of
that vast region which lies south
•of the parishes tbat border the St.
Lawrence, between the Chaudiere
and the Richelieu, was disturbed by
aught save the cry of the water
fowl as it winged its way over lake
Memphremagog, or the howl of the
wolf from its rocky den on the
slopes of Mount Tom. The old
world had been rent by wars, dy
nasties had risen, flourished, and
disappeared, and yet that be
witching expanse of forest, lake,
and mountain, threaded by rivers
beside which the Thames and
Clyde are but streamlets, continu
ed undisturbed, its beauty and pos
sibilities of wealth alike unknown.
From a sky as clear as that of Italy
the sun bathed this region of ro
mantic beauty summer after sum
mer, autumn dyed its mantle of
forest in hues of gold and scarlet,
and winter mantled it in ice and
snow, but ail this loveliness for
uncounted centuries was unseen by
man, save when some lone Indian
in search of game strayed from
his fellows. It .must be a baffling
thought to the dweller of the Old
World that a stretch of country
larger and fairer than that for
which kings fought and vast arm
ies perished remained unowned and
unoccupied down to a period al
most within the memory of a few
yet living.
The clay, however long delayed,
came at last when the white man,
intent on making a home in this
long secluded land, crossed its
charmed frontier. He was a scout
from a host of people dissatisfied
with thc granite hills of New Eng
land. His rifle was his dependence
for food: his axe his weapon for

subduing this untamed wilderness.
Selecting the spot for his future
home on the bank of some glassy
lake, where the growth of timber
told his experienced eye the soil
was rich, he woke the echoes which,
for aught we know, had slumber
ed since the world was new, as he
felled the first tree, and with it the
virgin page of an untold past was
soiled and the charm of this long-
secreted solitude broken. The deer,
startled as it grazed on the spring-
buds by the unwonted sound, leapt
into the darkest recesses of a forest
whose hour had come. With the
admirable skill of the American
woodsman the newcomer hewed
and shaped the fallen trees and
then drew them together to form
a rude shelter that would serve
until a better house could be built.
Then he left, blazing the trees as
he went backward,forming the first
avenue of communication. Before
a month has sped he returns, but
not alone: his wife and children are
with him. From dawn to dark the
sound of the axe is heard, the fell
ed trees are piled together, and one
night the glare of their burning
gilds forest and lake. The wife
and mother aids the stalwart hus
band in rolling aside the trunks
that defied the fire, and the first
clearance is made. The seed, so
painfully carried on the back from
the far-south home in Massachu
setts, is committed to the virgin soil,
and in its rapid growth the eager
couple see food for the coming win
ter. But there is no cessation to
their toil. The war on the forest
goes on and logs' are shaped for
a shanty that will defy the' wea
ther. When the corn begins to
tassel visitors come, relatives and
old neighbors to see for them-

selves this new land and how their
friends are faring in it. They help
to rear the modest shanty and hav
ing seen how much better this
country is than that where they
dwell, they resolve to make the
change when they have gathered
their harvest from their stoney
fields. Before the first snowflakes
fly from not one but half-a-dozen
shanties smoke rises above the tree-
tops. Once started, the growth of the
settlements was rapid. Paths were
blazed from what is now New
Hampshire and Vermont, and over
them streamed a hardy class into
the recesses of the newly opened
region. Those in the western sec
tion found convenient access to
Montreal by way of the Richelieu
and by opening short lines of road
northward, but those to the east
were not so fortunate. They were
much farther south of the St Law
rence and a broad belt of hilly coun
try, covered with forest, bade defi
ance to their efforts to reach Que
bec. The settlements had grown
to some importance long before
even a rumor reached the ears of
the people of that city of what was
going on to the south. Trappers
first brought word of tbe incur
sion of New England squatters
into Canada and lumbermen glad
ly found in the new settlements
an unexpected source of supplies.
When the facts became known the
elder Papineau and his coterie were
annoyed: they desired no increase
in the number of English-speaking
people, and, had it been in then-
power, would have expelled the
new-comers. The governor pro
posed a road be built from Quebec
to give them access to the city.
Papineau resented the proposal: the
legislative assembly would not vote

a sou for such a purpose. The pro
posed road hung fire until, in 1810,.
Governor Craig overrode the will
of the legislature by employing
squads from the garrison to make
it. It was indispensable, he said,
to shew these sti-angers they have
made themselves part of Canada
and to cause them to take an in
terest in its government. A chan
nel of communication between them
and us, he went on to declare, must
be formed, and to secure the money
needed to hew a path through the
intervening forest he sold the land
it crossed. The summer of 1810
was altogether unfavorable for road
making and the building of bridges
yet, despite rain and cold, the
soldier's worked vigorously. At
no period had agriculture among
the habitants been at lower ebb:
from their wretchedly tilled fields
they barely harvested enough to
supply their own wants. High
prices, paid cash down, failed to
bring a sufficiency from the par
ishes surrounding Quebec to feed
its garrison. Governor Craig saw
in the new settlements a sure
source of supplies and he was not
disappointed. No sooner did his
road tap them than droves of cattle
were driven over it. At the begin
ning of September the price of beef
in Quebec market had fallen from
14 cents a pound to 8, and six
weeks later it could be had for 6,
and of better quality than the par
ishes supplied. It was a rough
road, stretching from Quebec to
Shipton, where it connected with a
road the settlers had made, but it
ensured the development of the
new settlements by giving them a
market In summer over it went
bellowing a succession of herds of
beef cattle: iu winter sleighs laden
with grain and pork. Mr Bou-

chette,traversing it on its opening,
tells with astonishment the pro
gress he found in the new settle
ments, the succession of tidily-kept
homes, surrounded by gardens and
freshly-planted orchards, primitive
grist and saw-mills on the streams,
incipient villages with workshops
and asheries, churches and schools.
The population he estimated at
20,000. The coming of war in
1812 increased rather than dimin
ished the population. War against
Britain was unpopular in New
England and the number who vol
unteered was insufficient to supply
the quota of men required from
each State. Conscription had to
be resorted to, and to escape the
draft hundreds, possibly thousands,
fled across the line into the new
settlements. Many in the town
ships to-day, who affect to be of
U.E. stock, are descendants of these
skedadlers. An untoward effect of
the war was the closing of the
Craig road. As a possible avenue
for invasion, its bridges were de
stroyed and the highway blocked.
Despite that, the settlements flour
ished. The British commissariat
was offering unheard of prices for
supplies, and cattle and grain by
devious ways reached camp and
garrison. With the passing of the
war-cloud, which to the new settlers
had a silver lining, prosperity in
creased. Those stoney slopes which
strike the traveller to-day as bar
ren, yielded then, a lot of ready
money by converting the trees that
clad them into potash, and once
cleared several crops of wheat. To
be candid, all the settlers were not
industrious. Fugitives from justice
found in the new settlements safety
from U.S. officers, for there was no
extradition treaty. Bishop Stewart,
in his experiences at Frelighsburg,

has given us a vivid insight into
the character of this lawless por
tion of the population. Men who
had fled to escape paying their
debts, forgers, thieves, clustered
along the frontier and avoided de
fining their crimes by using the
convenient phrase that they were
"linebound." Hitherto the population was al
most entirely of American origin,
the scattered communities being as
intensely New England in cus
toms and opinion as those in Ver
mont, New Hampshire, and Massa-
chussets from which they had been
detached, but it was now to be
leavened by an infusion from the
British isles. The cessation of the
Bonaparte wars was followed by a
collapse alike in agriculture and
commerce. Farmers were unable
to pay their rents, manufacturers
could find no customers for their
goods, traders were ruined by bad
debts. In the country farm-labor
ers were starving: in the cities the
streets were thronged by mechanics
in search of work. Distress was
as general as it was acute. Among^
the means of relief suggested was
emigration. In those days the pro
posal was a novelty, and, at first..
was repulsive to those to whom it
was proposed. Passionate affection
for the land of their birth, dread
of a dangerous sea- voyage, and of
the hardships to be met in an un
known land, had to be overcome.
In 1818 a beginning was made,
and the experiences of those ven
turesome spirits who led the way
were eagerly read. Their letters
were passed from family to family
in the parishes they had left. They
told of a good land in the West,.
where every man could win a farm
by hard work. Repugnance to emi
gration rapidly wore away, to giver

place to eagerness to begin life a-
new beyond the Atlantic. The Im
perial government assisted by set
ting aside war-^hips that had fol
lowed the flag of Nelson to carry
those disposed to leave, coupled
with promises of free grants of land
-and some assistance in making a
start in life in the bush. Each year
saw the volume of emigrants in
crease, and it was no wonder, for,
save that love of native land which
-distinguishes the Anglo - Saxon,
there was naught to keep back the
working classes. The lot of the
peasantry was peculiarly hard. The
son of the cotter, even in those ten
der years when others more favor
ed are at school, -was set to work
to increase the family earnings that
procured only the coarsest food.
Manhood was a period of hopeless
toil, every copper he earned needed
to save those he loved from priva
tion; cringing to the titled owner of
the acres he labored, bullied by
the great man's factor to supply
more money for his extravagance,
taxed on everything to maintain a
great military establishment and to
pay interest on the public debt.
Ground down in body and spirit
he saw no escape from tbe shadow
of seeking poor-relief should sick
ness disable him or when old age
overtook him but by facing the hor
rors of the Atlantic passage in the
hold of a small and ill-found ship
.and of braving the toils and priva
tions of the backwoods. For over
.36 summers there was a constant
stream of sailing-ships, leaving the
ports of England, Ireland, and
Scotland, whose course is, to this
day, marked in ocean depths by
the bones of those who perished
from disease and hunger while
seeking the St Lawrence to find
j.efuge from the conditions they

were fleeing from. Then was the
opportunity of peopling the East
ern Townships with settlers who
would have averted the fate that
has overtaken them, but it was
missed. A few runlets from the
great tide of immigration that was
sweeping up the St Lawrence were
indeed turned into the townships,
but they were trifling compared
with what they might have been.
The cause was the selfishness of in
dividuals, the fatuity of the local
government. Instead of holding
the land to bestow on whoever un
dertook to clear it, the govern
ment granted it to favorites. When
the poor immigrant, whose wealth
lay in his sturdy limbs, sought
land in the townships, he found it
had been conceded by the govern
ment, and that the owner wanted
a price he could not pay. Turned
aside he sought the free grants in
Ontario. Great blocks of land
were every where thus held, whose
owners neither made roads nor
paid taxes, yet whose property was
growing in value from the im
provements made by the set
tlers around them. Tens of thou
sands of immigrants, who would
have gladly filled the vacant
lands that lay between the par
ishes bordering on the St Law
rence and the United States; were
turned away, and the last oppor
tunity of making Quebec essen
tially British was lost. Isolated
parties of immigrants, however,
did find a footing. Scattered over
the wide territory that stretches
between the head-waters of the
Chaudiere and the majestic Riche
lieu settlements sprung up, of Irish,
both from the South and North,
of Lowlanders and Highlanders,
and of English, showing what
might have been. This influx from

the United Kingdom, small as it
was, modified the character of the
American element. West of the
Richelieu there was along the fron
tier a stretch of land still in a state
of nature. Here immigrants were
more successful in getting a foot
hold, and Lacolle, Napierville, Cha
teauguay and Huntingdon gave
promise of becoming English-speak
ing counties.
These settlers from the Old Land
started under different conditions
from the Americans, who could re
gain their birthplace by a few days'
journey along forest paths, who
were in their native element in
bush-life, and who knew how to
meet the vicissitudes of the climate.
The Lowland Scot, with his fami
ly, rejoiced to be released from
shipboard with its horrors of dirt,
disease, and lack of food and water,
eagerly sought the bush of which
he had heard so much. When land
ed on the lot he had acquired, and
the cadence of the paddles of the
canoe that had conveyed the fami
ly was lost in the distance, he had
time to survey his new estate. His
wife, seated on the chest that re
presented their chief wealth, over
come by the sense of perfect isola
tion, realizing their separation from
kindred and fearful of the future
in this lonesome wilderness, un
able to stifle her emotions, burst
into weeping, while the younger
children around her, unable to com
prehend her regrets for the past or
her fears for the future, were lost
in wonder and admiration of the
novel sights which surrounded
them, and Colley, whom they
could not bear to leave behin d
when they left their home amid
Scotland's hills, barked in delight
at the squirrels who, darting from
tree to tree, eyed the new-comers

with daring curiosity. The father,
as he scanned the over-shadowing
trees, which opened in endless
vistas wherever he turned his
gaze, realized the gigantic task
he had assumed in conquering
these giants of the forest and wring
ing from the soil, cumbered with
the litter of centuries, the food to
feed his dear ones. The feeling of
despair that hovered near was driv
en back by the proud thought that-
the land on which he stood was his;
own, and that, for the first time in
his life, what he wrought for would
be his. Grasping the axe he had
bought at Quebec he, unused to
handling it, awkwardly attacked
the saplings around him to form a
covering against the cold of the
fast-coming night, while his wife,
suppressing her emotions, set to
work to light a fire and prepare
their first meal. When the placid
surface of the river was reflecting.
the glow of the evening sky, the.-
father ceased his labors and all
gathered to partake of it, with
thankful hearts. And then, before
retiring beneath the booth of poles
and brush the father had man
aged to shape, with no sound to
disturb them save the chitter of
some mother-bird as she gathered
her nestlings under her wings, ancl
the laving of the stream on whose
bank they clustered, rose, for the
first time since Creation's dawn, the
sounds of praise and prayer. With
full hearts that psalm in which the
Scottish peasantry have for gen
erations expressed alike their trust
in and thankfulness to an ever-
present God, the 23rd, was sung,
then the father poured out his
gratitude to Him who had pre
served them amid the dangers of"
the deep and whose kindness
had followed them into the wil-

derness. At the petition for those
they had left behind, the answer
ing sob of wife and daughter spoke
' of the undying affection of the
Scot for kith and kin, and for
the dear old land. The help of
distant neighbors having been
sought, a day was fixed for a bee,
when trees by the score were felled
and out of their trunks logs fash
ioned to build the walls of a shanty,
and when the wife took possession
she felt prouder of it than a duch
ess of her mansion. Their days were
days of unceasing toil, of hardship
and privation; when the nights
grew long and the maples were red
dening, the store of potatoes hoed
in amid the tree roots was secured,
and these were the chief winter's
food. The patching and mending
of clothes to resist the bitter cold
of a Canadian winter, the unre
mitting warfare with the axe to
enlarge the clearing, the joy in se
curing the first pig, the first cow,
the first horse, the widening fields,
the growing means, encouraged ef
fort and deepened satisfaction, until
the time came when the parents
could rest in simple competency.
All, however, in that severe ordeal
were not successful. Many who
tried to carve from the forest inde
pendent homes lost heart and aban
doned what they had accomplished

but the majority persevered until
success rewarded their efforts, and
from forbidding wilderness of
swamp and bush they created what
came to be ranked among the
finest agricultural sections of the
Dominion. These settlers, whether Ameri
can or British, dispossessed no
body. The country they occupied
was in a state of nature when they
went upon it, for it had never been
ceded, the title being still held by
the crown. In the name of the
king governors gave these settlers
patents for their lots and promised
them protection under the laws of
England. The land, therefore, was
theirs by authority of the king and
by their labor in clearing and
bringing it into cultivation. Yet
they were treated by the represen
tatives of the majority as intruders;
as being where they had no right
to be. The history of Quebec dur
ing the 19th century largely con
sists of attempts, under varied
pretences, to drive them away; the
beginning of the twentieth sees
the fruition of these attempts. To
trace to their source the causes of
this antipathy to English-speaking
occupants of the land in Quebec
and follow its results is the pur
pose of this book.

CHAPTER 1.

When the feudal system was
strong, when to bsa soldier was
considered the proper occupation
of a gentleman, when war was
chronic, and Europe a battle
field, there came the astounding
announcement that a new world
had been found beyond the At
lantic. The announcement was
not welcomed as opening a way
of relief for the suffering masses,
for there was poverty and
wretchedness among the pea
santry to which there js no par
allel in our day .Such an idea was
not conceivable to the governing
class, who regarded the common
people as the Athenian looked
upon iris slaves, as beings differ
ent from himself. Their condi-
¦dition never gave' a thought to
those who could have helped
them. Colonization is a modern
conception : the transplanting of
people in order to better them
selves never dawned on the
minds of the kings and nobles of
those days nor for a century or
two succeeding the discovery
made by Columbus. All they
thought of was enriching them
selves, and they regarded the
new world as the miner looks
upon the glistening rock his pick
has unexpectedly uncovered.
Spain iealously resented intru
sion into those countrias wh3re
the precious metals existed, so
that the kings of other nations,
whose cupidity was aroused by
the stories of shiploads of bul
lion poured into her lap, had to
try the shores north of the
Tropics, and successive explora
tions proved that neither silver
nor gold was to be found in
them. Disappointed in this, they
cherished the idea that a pas
sage might be found leading to
China and the Ind. In those

days these countries were be
lieved to b3 possessed of wealth
that baffled imagination. The
tales of the few Europeans who
had survived the perils of the
journey merely whetted the de
sires of those who heard them,
and the belief was general that
if a short cut could be found,
he who reached the Orient would
come back laden with pearls and
diamonds and gold. One way
had been found, round the Cape
of Good Hope, but that involved
a voyage for which their ships
were so unequal that the perils
and sufferings of those who
dared it appalled those who
would have liked to follow them.
A short route westward was
sought, and that which was the
inciting motive of the King of
Spain in helping Columbus, caus
ed Henry of England to equip
the expedition of Cabot, which
resulted in the discovery of what
we now call Canada. Disap
pointed in his not finding the
passage sought, Henry did not
follow up the discovery made,
the knowledge of which, how
ever, was given to the world to
gether with a chart, showing the
coast-line Cabot had traced.
Thirty-seven years passed, when
the King of France helped.
Jacques Cartier to equip an ex
pedition to explore the land Ca
bot had discovered. That Ameri
ca was a great continent, vaster
than Europe, was* not conjec
tured by any explorer, and if
one had hazarded such a sur
mise, it would have been treated
with scorn. The land Columbus
discovered and whose coasts,
north and south, were traced by
his successors, they believed to
be an island, a long one to be
sure but narrow, and there must

8

"be a passage across it. The
spanning of the isthmus of Pan
ama confirmed this misconcep
tion, and ship after ship was sent
to find an opening in the long
barrier of land thru which they
"would sail to the Pacific and
come back with their holds filled
with the riches of the Ind. This
was the cause of the assistance
given by the French King to
Jacques Cartier on his three voy
ages. JIe did not sail, as is popu
larly supposed., to an unknown
land, for the coast-line of what
we now know as Massachusetts,
Maine, , Nova Scotia, Newfound
land, Labrador, had been defined
and laid down in maps. More
than that, fishermen had already
discovered the inexhaustible
wealth of the banks that lie off
{Newfoundland, and ships from
as far south as Portugal and
north as Iceland dropped their
lines upon them each summer. It
is probable Jacques Cartier was
among these fishermen, and that
it was while so engagsd he heard
from the Indians on the shores
of Labrador, where the crews
landed for wood and water, that
ithe straits of Belle-isle led to a
great inland, sea which ran west
ward. That this great sea was
the long-sought break in the wall
which led to the Pacific was his
conclusion, and the records of
ithe three voyages preserved
show how confident he was in
Ms belief. Sailing through the
straits of Belle-isle he found his
way into the gulf of tha St. Law
rence, and, as day after day, he
traced its shore-line trending
southwest, he believed he had
made the grand discovery. In
'this belief his second voyage con
firmed him, when he penetrated
still farther west, expecting each
.jday the channel would expand

into the broad Pacific, when he-
would shape his course for China
and return to France in triumphs
In this delusion he was only the
first of a number of his country
men, who, in subsequent years,
fruitlessly sought a passage to
China by the St. Lawrence. While
baffled in the object of his voy
ages, Cartier's visits to the St.
Lawrence showed him a profit
able trade could b3 established
with the Indians, for he was a
trader from a trading-town and.
had an eye to the main-chance.
He began that barter with the
Indians for furs, which ultimate
ly led to France's connection
with Canada. The current belief
that Cartier's discovery of the
St. Lawrence valley was follow
ed by its possession by France
and its settlement is without
foundation. Cartier abandoned
Canada, so did Roberval, and no
Frenchmen were induced by what
they told of their experience to
take up residence on its shores
for nigh seventy years. During,
that long period Canada was no
man's land— free to whoever
chose Jo visit its waters and
trade with the Indians who
prowled along the shore. The
hardy fishermen from England,
France, Portugal not only filled
their holds with fish caught in
the gulf and its bays, but added.
to their profits by dickering with.
the Indians for furs. For nigh
a century Canada bore the same
relation to Europe as Patagonia
does to the civilized world of our
own day— a place free to who
ever wished to go and seek the
riches to be found in its waters,.
to trade with its natives, and,
if regard for their scalps per
mitted, to settle on its land. The
majority of the boats that thus .
paid summer visits to the St.

Lawrence were manned and
owned by French Protestants
who were energetic and daring
beyond their fellows. Tadousac
harbor was their headquarters,
followed in time by Qucbcc.Three
Rivers, and Montreal. This fact
that it was French Protestants
who developed the resources of
Canada, is constantly ignored. It
was the work they did during
those seventy years that pre
pared Canada for permanent oc
cupancy. The rivers were the
highway of the Indian, and at
the mouths of the Saguenay, the
Maurice, and the Ottawa the
daring Huguenot trader awaited
him. The trade was dangerous
and fitful. Some seasons full car
goes were obtained ; others not
sufficient to pay expenses. This
arose from the irregular habits
of the Indian, whose main pur
pose in life was war, hunting for
furs being a by-occupation. Often
the trader waited at the mouth
of the Maurice or Ottawa for the
appearance of the string of birch-
bark canoes and waited in vain :
the redmen were on the warpath.
The long continuance of this ir
regular traffic kept the name of
Canada before the world and as
sociated it with the supply of
fish and furs, so that, in time, the
rulers of France came to con
sider it would be a desirable de-,
pendency. The weak efforts they
made to reoccupy it showed, how
ever, their low estimate of its
value. If any merchant or com
bination of merchants in St. Malo,
Rochelle, or Harfleur would un
dertake the risk and expense of
taking possession in the name of
France, the government would
give him or them a monopoly of
its trade. The bait was poor
enough, but towards the begin
ning of the 17th century a few

snapped at it and lost, money.
None succeeded until Champlain
appeared. There are only two men whose
names are associated with the
settlement of Canada to whom
the epithet distinguished can be
joined. One was Champlain the
other Frontenac, and both, while
most dissimilar in character,were
alike in this, the coming of each
marked a new era in the destin
ies of the country. Champlain
combined, like hundreds of others
in the Atlantic seaports of those
days, the callings of sailor and
soldier, trader, and explorer.
With the aid of a Protestant,
de Monts, he sailed for the St.
Lawrence, intent on making
money out of the concession of
license to its trade which Henry
IV. had bestowed upon his friend.
The uselessness of the royal gift
was shown by the disregard of
the Huguenot skippers found at
Tadousac, who flouted the King's
letters-patent and pointed their
cannon at the ship of its posses
sor. Champlain perceived that
whoever wished to get ahead of
the free-traders and make any
thing out of the country, must
build permanent trading - posts
and be prepared to follow the In
dians in seeking their custom.
In this Champlain anticipated the
policy of. the Hudson bay com
pany, one of the richest and
most powerful of corporations.
He built huts at Quebec and for
the first time in 73 years French
men stayed over the winter, and
thus France resumed her occupa
tion of Canada, which really
dates from 1608, and not from.
1543, the year when Jacques
Cartier and Roberval abandoned
it as worthless territory. Hav
ing built a resting-place, Cham
plain next turned to the wander-

10

Ing bands of Indians, whom1 he
sought as customers. Among the
means to secure their attach
ment he backed them in their
disputes, went with the tribes he
favored on the war-path, and
¦won for them easy victories with
his matchlocks. It was a disas
trous move. He failed to make
permanent friends of the sav
ages he helped, while those whom1
he discomfited became the invet
erate enemies of the Frencihr
man. Thenceforth the history of
the French in North America' is
largely a record of Indian wars.
Marching with his new found1
friends on the war-path, reveal
ed to Champlain the interior of
the country, giving him some idea
of its vastness. He saw a lake
that was given his name, he
penetrated far towards the
sources of the Maurice and Otta
wa; he stood on the. shores of
the great inland seas— lakes
Ontario and Huron. In regard to
this matter of the exploration of
interior of the continent, paral
lels have been drawn between
the settlers of New France and
of New England, disparaging to
the latter. Those who have
done so overlook the fact that
the St. Lawrence is the key of
the northern section of the con
tinent, and that possession of
that key fell to the French. To
explore the region west of the
Massachusetts settlements meant
journeyings on foot that were
practically impossible from the
difficulty of carrying sufficient
supplies thru trackless forests,
the encountering of expanses of
swamp, the oft recurrence of
fordless rivers. Daring and en
during of fatigue and privation
as the backwoodsm/en of New
England were, it was a physical
impossibility to penetrate any

great distance westward. It was
far different with Champlain
and his fur-traders. They had a
highway provided by nature into
the interior and on which their
vehicle, the canoe, could make as
easy a passage then as now. It
was by following the waterways
that the head of lake Superior
was reached and the Mississippi
tapped. It is more of a reflec
tion on the want of energy and
enterprise of the dwellers on the
sites of Quebec and Montreal
that, with such ready means at
their disposal, 26 years elapsed
from Champlain's settling at Que
bec before they discovered lake
Michigan, 41 before they saw the
waters of lake Superior, and 65
years before they ascertained a
great river flowed southward
into the gulf of Mexico. Had the
New Englanders been planted on
the banks of the St., Lawrence
would they have rested content
two score years before they
found out whence the mighty
river came and to what regions
its lakes and tributaries led?
Champlain's connection with
Canada covered, a period of 32
years. It made such trifling pro
gress that at the endl of these
years his enumeration of its set
tlers gave Quebec/ a population'
of only 120, and his estimate ¦ of
the total number of Frenchmen
in New France was only 200.
Had it not been for one circum
stance, the annals of his time
would have simply resembled
those of any fur-trading comr
pany. That circumstance was
the Church of Rom'e making Can
ada a mission-field. Altho not
the first to come, the Jesuits
speedily monopolized the under
taking of the tasto to bring the
Indians within their church. The
Jesuits had learned the service

11

that can be rendered to any
cause by the printing-press, and
each year the parent society in
France prepared selections from
the reports sent by those in
charge of the stations and pub
lished them, thus anticipating the
modern missionary tidings. These
repffrts are tiresome and monot
onous in their narratives, and
abound with pious inventions.
fThe object of publishing these
reports, or relations, was to in
duce those who read them to
contribute towards carrying on
the work, so a good, story was
always told of marvellous suc
cesses with exaggerations of suf
ferings and of need for assist
ance. The alleged conversions
are not by ones or twos but by
thousands, sealed by stories of
providential interventions and
miracles that only a credulous
and childish generation would
credit. As these reports appear
ed regularly during 40 years,
they are exceedingly voluminous.
What the Jesuits meant by con
version was baptizing the Pagan.
That he understood the . rite or
was willing to submit, made no
difference. If there was no
water at hand, the Jesuit, by
moistening his finger at his lips,
dotting the outline of a cross on
the forehead of the savage, with
the muttering of the prescribed
formula, held that his act chang
ed the destiny of the Indian from
perdition to salvation. The
church was the ark, baptism
meant admission into it, and the
devotees in Old France were
regularly regaled with reports
of hundreds of conversions. The
Indian might go on in his old
courses, and they were abomin
able beyond those of any South
Sea islander, but they did not
affect his new character. When

he visited Quebec, if he appeared
in a religious procession in the
forenoon, he might engage in the
torture of an Iroquois captive in
the evening. The change was
nominal : change of heart and
disposition was not sought. When
the canopy over the host was
borne by four painted savages,
fresh from the war-path, with
bleeding scalps in their belts, the
incident was related for the de
lectation of readers in France as
proof of the victories of their
church. No white could know
the Indian better than Fronte
nac, he made companions of their
chiefs, he lived in their wigwams,
he wore their dress, he joined in
their games, he followed them in
their hunts and their wars. The
Jesuits had carried on their mis
sions for half a century when
Frontenac visited them one
after another and became fully
acquainted with the Jesuit meth
ods and with their converts.
What was his verdict? In a con
fidential despatch to tha court
of France he writes : '"The Jes
uits will not civilize the Indians
because they wish to keep them in
perpetual wardship. They think
more of beaver skins than of
souls, and their missions are
pure mockeries." That love of
supremacy which caused the
Jesuit to engage in the intrigues
of the courts of Europe, led him
to sit by the camp-fire in tha
councils of the savages, to raise
his voice to recommend alliances,
to engage in those negotiations
with other tribes in which wile
and deceit predominated, to de
clare war, to plan attacks. To
profess zeal for souls while urg
ing the redmen to boil the cap
tive taken from a hostile tribe,
in order to make reconciliation
impossible, to baptize the vie-

12

tims to whose torture they had
consented, to send an envoy to
Boston to invite the Puritans to
co-operate in exterminating the
Iroquois, are specimens of the
spirit and acts of the men who
took upon them the name of
Jesus. Their missions were a
travesty on Christianity, and it
is no extenuation to urge their
sufferings and death. There
have been propagators of Mo
hammedism just as earnest, as
full of fiery zeal, as self-denying,
as exultant under torture, as
ready to face death in awful
form. The labors of the Jesuits
ended in nothingness. The tribes
who fell under their influence
and were guided b|y their advice
were beaten in war and, became
extinct. The thousands of con
verts they professed to have
made, left not a vestige behind,
unless, indeed, the half-breeds of
Lorette be considered such. One
result the labors of the Jesuits
had, it determined the occupation
of Canada by France. Its value
as a region for the supply of
furs had come to be recognized,
but the trade was so precarious,
the losses of those who engaged
in it so great, that France would
never have decided to hold Can
ada on that score. The religious
sentiment of France had been im
pressed by the narratives of the
Jesuits, until the transformation
of the Indians into Catholics
came to be looked on as a sort of
crusade, and members of a cor
rupt court endeavored to com
pound for their sins by lend
ing their influence to measures
for the retention of Canada ;
enthusiasts of both sexes offered
their services, and donations and
legacies flowed into the Jesuit
treasury. While the tide of senti
ment was at its height an event

happened that threatened to
end it An English privateer,
Kirke, after sweeping every
French sail from' the St. Law
rence, made an easy capture of
Quebec in 1629, and the red ban
ner of St. Qeorge floated over St.
Louis castle. The British held
undisputed possession of the en
tire country during the ensuing
three years. That possession
would have become permanent,
preventing the bloodshed, the
burnings of heart, the difficulties
felt to this hour, but for the in
terference of the Jesuits. Their
mission in Canada gave them dis
tinction and renown over all
rival orders, an influence in the
French court and was a source
of income they no more wanted
to lose than the great grants
of land they anticipated along
the St. Lawrence, and so they be
sought Cardinal Richelieu to re
gain the country that had been
lost. England was not disposed
to give back the territory she
had won by fair fighting, and re
jected the overtures of France.
The Jesuits were persistent in
the pressure they brought to
bear on Richelieu, and, finally, on
his offering to pay the, balance
of his wife's dowry, King Charles
First snapped at the money, for
he was ever needy. The Jesuits
triumphed; Britain ceded Canada
back to France. The saying, that
the Scots sold their king for a
groat is proof of their shrewdy
ness ; a king who could sell an
undeveloped empire for payment
of an overdue debt was not
worth a groat.
The records of these early days
naturally fall into three periods :
1st, from the voyage up the
St. Lawrence of Cartier, in
1534, to the comling of Cham
plain, 1608. a period of 74

13

years, (luring which time Can
ada was nobody's land, its
waters frequented by fish'.ng-
boats of all nations, which
added to their gains by buy
ing furs.
2nd, From Champlain's forming
a settlement at Quebec, 1608,
to his death in 1635, a period
of 27 years, which witnessed
his persistent but futile ef
forts to found a colony, and
the appearance in Canada of
the Jesuits under the guise
of missionaries.
3rd, The resolve of Richelieu to
make Camada a crown colony,
the introduction of the seign
iorial and parish systems and
of forced emigration, ending
in Wolfe's victory— embracing
120 years.
Cartier may be taken as repre
sentative of the first period,
Champlain of the second, Fron
tenac of the third. The retro
spect of the first period is that
of an occasional sail stealing
along the shores of the gulf, land
ing to salt the fish its crew had
caught and to barter with the
wandering tribes for beaver
skins. Of the second, of a bold
and resourceful man endeavoring
to obtain a foothold in Canada
for his nationality : of black-
robed priests who called rites
and observances Christianity.
The third is the period whose
shadow still projects over Can
ada, which began with tha clos
ing years of Champlain, the
finest, and probably the noblest
figure that flits across its pages.
It was not his fault that his life-
work ended in. failure. The con
ditions under which he labored,
a policy of monopoly and exclu
sion on the part of the French'
government and of interference
with his plans by narrow-minded

priests, would have defeated the
wisest of policies. No wonder he
left Quebec an assemblage of
huts huddled beneath the rocky
cliff, inhabited by some 150
whites, who depended for food on
the arrival of the spring fleet
from France, who had not cut
a single road, their only avenues
of communication forest trails
alone perceptible to the bush
ranger, without a plow and with
out a horse. 100 years had
elapsed since Cartier had winter
ed in the St. Charles river, and
yet there were not over 200
French inhabitants, and these
the letters of visitors tell us
lived in privation, squalor, and
ignorance. Apparently it was Kirke's cap
ture of the country that caused
the French government to bestir
itself, for his deed showed if they
did not take steps to occupy
Canada in earnest thay would
lose it. Richelieu undertook the
task in autocratic fashion. Ships
were chartered and filled with
emigrants levied as he would
soldiers, and plans devised which
a body of officials were appoint
ed to carry out. Were men auto-
matums and the wilds of Canada
as easily controlled as the can
tons of France, the cardinal's de
signs would have succeeded. The
feudal system, which France was
beginning to discard, he sought
to graft on the free soil of the
New World — the system of a no
bility holding the land and rent
ing to those who tilled it— a sys
tem that discouraged industry
and independence alike, by mak
ing the toiler the slave of the
aristocrat. With the introduc
tion of seigniories came the par
ish system — that is, as the seign
ior exacted from the habitant,
who cleared the land of forest

14

and brought it into cultivation,
a fixed portion of his miserable
earnings, the priest also insisted
on a share, and a larger share
than the seignior, of his scanty
crops. That settlement should
prosper under these twin-sys
tems was impossible, and so, dur
ing the third period we find the
people often starving, dependent
for supplies on the mother-coun
try, and looking to it for aid to
do what the New Englanders,
with far less natural advantages,
but under a different system,
were doing for themselves and
prospering. This period is often
written about as one of. Arcad
ian joys— when the seignior unit
ed with the priest in ruling the
habitants with paternal benevo
lence, when the notary was their
only man of business, when the
bishop was looked up to with a
simple reverence that made him
almost divine, and the governor
was bowed before as the embodi
ment of the kingly power and
magnificence of Versailles. Those
who speak thus conjure a picture
that never existed : which a cas
ual reading of the despatches and
correspondence of these days dis
solves. With a salary of $1800
a year it was difficult for the
governors to live, much less to
keep up the appearance of a
court, and nearly all had to dab
ble in the fur and brandy trade.
Their attempts to keep up vice
regal style on their petty re
sources, their squabbles with
those around them1 as to the de
gree of attention that was their
due, their fight over the spot
where the governor's chair should
be placed when he attended mass,
whether ha should be incensed
by the daacon or an altar-boy,
who had the right to try cases
of witchcraft, such incidents as

these Cervantes would have
chuckled over, and only his pen
could have done justice to the
seigniors strutting round their
log-cabins with sword and cock
ed hat, while wife and daughters
were chopping wood to cook his
lordship's dinner or delving their
clearance that there might be
a supply of garlic and. cabbage
against the coming winter, or, at
other times, in faded finery,
idling in the narrow lanes of Que
bec or Montreal, affecting the
airs and dissipations of the dis
tant court and engaging in in
trigues for petty offices. Scrupu
lous in maintaining their dignity
by not putting their hand to hon
est work,they were not above liv
ing upon the sorely-won earnings
of their censitaires, whom they
looked down upon a3 of other
blood, and, so far as the changed
conditions allowed, exercised
over them, the feudal tyrannies
that existed in France. The hat
ed corvee compelled the tenant to
leave his own clearing to culti
vate the fields around the seign
iorial log-hut and into his lean
meal-bag his lordship was not
ashamed to thrust his fist.
New France had been a crown
colony for thirty years without
making much advance. In 1666
Quebec was a village of less than
700 inhabitants, Montreal num
bered a hundred less, and the
total population was set down at
3418. The stagnation that had
prevailed so long was now to
end, and it was broken by the
coming of Frontenac, a man of
restless energy and indomitable
perseverance, who had an assist
ant equally pushing in Talon, who
perceived if the colony was to
live, farming and its kindred in
dustries must replace trapping
for furs and trade with the In-

15

dians. He reported that during
the four score years the French
had occupied the country from1
its settlement by Champlain only
eleven thousand acres had been
brought under cultivation, and
that nearly everything needed
was brought from abroad. He
encouraged the clearing of land
and raising of cattle, the building
of grist and sawmills, of tanner
ies and shipyards, of foundries
and asheries, and gave a new im
petus to the fishing-industry by
securing for it the French mar
ket. The fur-trade had been a
blight to the struggling popula
tion. It bred idleness, improvi
dence, and the gambling-spirit,
for it was either, with hunter or
trader, a feast or a famine. Many
of the young men, fascinated by
the freedom of the forest, threw
off the duties of civilization and
joined the Indians. Against these
coureurs du bois, these bush
rangers, Bishop Laval levelled
the penalties of his church. Re
garding the attitude of these
early settlers to the clergy, their
rising in revolt on the imposition
of tithes shows they were not to
be compared in blind obedience
to their descendants of our day.
While Talon was teaching the
gospel of work to the sleepy, do-
nothing colony, dependent on the
hide of an animal whose industry
reproached them, Frontenac was
maturing his plans and lay
ing down the lines of a policy
which would have made France
supreme on this continent. He
marked the marvellous advances
of the English colonies to the
south, how New England ships
traded afar, how the Albany
merchants had established posts
on lake Ontario and were hand
ling more furs than the dealers
of Montreal. The English colon

ies had forged far ahead, but he
would check them1 and give New
France the pre-eminence. Her
geographical position gave her
the means, and he would use
them. The St. Lawrence was the
sceptre of the continent; who
ever held it and knew how to
wield it could sway its destiny.
The first step was to prevent the
English getting a foothold on
the great lakes : that was essen
tial to establishing the sov
ereignty of France, and he set
about driving them1 back, building
a fort at Kingston and establish
ed a series of posts that would
prevent them moving westward.
The discovery of the Mississippi
in his day aided him1 and along it
and its tributaries he built a line
of log forts, forming a frontier
beyond which no English trader
or settler dare venture. Fronte
nac thought imperially, many
have done likewise ; what dis
tinguished him from the herd of
political dreamers was that he
had the vitality and executive
ability to carry his designs into
effect. He had the physical
strength to personally direct
and the administrative faculty
that secures success. His jour
neyings on foot an.d by canoe
were marvellous ; he examined
every situation before selecting a
site for fort or post, and Was*
never daunted by unexpected ob
stacles. He was wofully cramp
ed in means, yet with the little
he could command he worked
wonders. Left alone, he certain
ly would have obtained for
France such a grip on the con
tinent that it could not have
been uprooted. He won undis
puted control of the great lakes
by establishing trading-posts on
Ontario, Erie, and Michigan.
Westward of Detroit he planned

16

forts, and. southward he designed
settlements should extend to the
mouth of the Mississippi, hem
ming the English between the
Ohio and the Atlantic. What
prevented the relization of thase
magnificent plans? What was the
obstacle that stopped New
France in this her new birth, her
onward sweep to sovereignty?
There can be only one answer :
so obvious that even Garneau
could not conceal it. Through
the intrigues of the priests, Fron
tenac was recalled to France : his
departure, says Garneau, was a
triumph for the Laval party. The
bishop and the Jesuits chuckled
as the great man stepped on
board ship : with his fall fell for
ever the prospect of New France
becoming supreme. Why did the
priests plot the downfall of Fron
tenac? Because his masterful na
ture would not bend to their
yoke, because he would have
them confined to their spiritual
duties and rejected their inter
ference with the course he shap
ed. Stung by his attitude and
words these men, to whom their
church was above everything,
trampled on all patriotic consid
erations and conspired to thwart
whatever he attempted. They
cast suspicion on his every act,
turned his subordinates against
him, misrepresented, by letters
and delegates, his administration
to the government of France, and
prevented its giving him the aid
he needed. Frontenac was for
the nation, the priests were for
their church, and, in their eyes,
the supremacy of the church in
the colony was of more moment
than the supremacy of the French
people over a territory vaster
than even LaSalle conjectured.
To the patriotic Frenchman,
there can be no sadder reading

than the official records that
show how Laval and the Jesuits
galled the fiery spirit of Fron
tenac, irritated him with petty
persecutions, and defeated his
comprehensive designs. When, 7
years later, he was besought to
return to Canada to save her
from her enemies who threatened
the extinction of its people, he
was verging on seventy, unable
to resume the plans of his ma
ture manhood, even had he found
them as he left them. He did
what he could. He saved its in
habitants from the tomahawk of
the Iroquois : it was no fault of
his that the sovereignty of North
America was not also saved to
New France.
The attempt to make French
power predominate roused the
antagonism of the English.
Tfiere was room and verge
enough for both, yet forbearance
and regard for each othar's rights
were unknown on either side.
The Jesuits deliberately incited
the Indians to raid the frontier
settlements of New England and
New York, frequently accom
panying them and encouraging
them with assurances thair ob
ject was pious, that English and
Dutch Protestants were human
only in appearance. At the dis
tance of two centuries, the hor
rors of these raids still make the
flesh creep. Tfie -English, in self-
defence, retaliated, and in their
spirit and methods they were no
better than their enemies. Both
peoples professed, each in their
own way, to be peculiarly re
ligious, yet in carrying into prac
tice the essence of Christ's teach
ing, love to God and man, the
Puritan was no better than the
Jesuit. This third and last
period of the early history of
Canada is written in blood : mon

17

who knew better, instead of
clearing the forest and cultivat
ing the soil, living in brotherly
love, devoted themselves to slay
ing their neighbors, getting the
savages to help thom in their
dreadful purpose. To talk of
heroism1 in connection with the
leaders in these contests is to
pervert the meaning ot the term.
The red fiends who at midnight
rushed the slumbering hamlet,
butchering mother and. babe, tor
turing the grey-haired sire and
his stalwart sons before dealing
the fatal blow; or who, stealing
behind the settler, while plowing
his little clearing, buried a toma
hawk in his brains; or, worse
still, waiting in the bush, shot tha
Puritan maicj while tripping her
way to church, are regarded
with abhorrence. Does the blare
of trumpet and roll of drum, the
shimmer of gold and scarlet, the
waving of plume and banner, the
high-sounding names of nobility,
the benison of priest or bishop,
the panegyric of the oratcr or
the eulogium of the historian
place all tha French soldiers from
Iberville to Montcalm, or their
opponents from Schuyler to
Wolfe, on a different plane? The
savage took life in his ignorance,
the white against his knowledge
of what was right. Of the two,
the Indian is the more excusable.
Both defiantly violated the eter
nal decree, Thou shalt not kill,
and are under the same condem
nation. The kings bf France looked
on the ordinary settler in two
lights, a's a customer for the
manufacturers of France and as
a unit of the garrison that was
•to hold Canada for France. To
ensure his being a customer for
what 'France had to sell, gover
nors were instructed to destroy

flax and sheelp to prevent the
habitant's household! making ita
own clothing : to keep him' a sol
dier, horses were to be shot and
sleighs broken that he might not
cease to be enured to making hia
journeys on foot or on snow-
shoes. That the supply of sol
diers might not fail, governors)
were adjured, in solemn state
despatches, to insist on mar
riages at fifteen years of ' age
and governors complacently re
ported on a good crop of babies.
While the kings of France treat
ed the habitants of Canada as
animals to fulfil their behest and
as serfs to enrich the manufac
turers, they wera no worse than
the priests. As a means of con
verting the Indians, the Jesuits
kept urging young habitants to
marry squaws, offering a dowry,
as an inducement. Select your
brides from the wigwam, was the
advice to young men of Bishop
Laval. At first the French gov-«
eminent rather approved of this,
but, finally realizing what it
meant, sent an order to the gov
ernors to oppose intermarriage
with the savages : the adminis-*
tration at Paris had some regard;
for the purity of the French race.
The clergy, on moral grounds,
encouraged early marriages, ancl
finally it becam'e part of the
law that a girl could marry
when 14 and a lad when 18,
Neither the endorsation of priest
nor legislator could change the
law of nature, and to this hour
Quebec suffers the consequences
in its hideous mortality of the
children of immature parents
and the unusual proportion oE
survivors defective in mind on
body. The picture of Canada under
France strikes the onlooker es
pecially in one regard— the com-:

18

plete isolation of its people from
the rest of the world. Its civil
rulers forbade all intercourse,
except with France: its spiritual
rulers went further, for they
forbade all intercourse even with
Frenchmen if Protestants. Can
ada under France was a pres
erve of feudal ideas, customs,
and tyranny and, at the same
time, of priestly exclusiveness.
iHe who would grasp the politi
cal problems that confront the

Dominion must realize what that
means and trace the shadow of
that regimte in darkening our na
tional life— the shadow projected
over the Dominion by the descen
dants of people who, for five gen
erations were inured to implicit
obedience to absolutism in church
and state, kept separate and by
themselves from the rest of the
world as a preserve for priest
and ruler.

CHAPTER 2

That Canada should have fallen
to the British by force every
generation of its inhabitants
since Wolfe's victory has had
cause to regret, and it will be
cause for regret to generations
to come. Freedom of the will in
the individual causes him to re
sent his career being shaped by
the violent interference of an
outsider, and the same sentiment
is as strong in a collective sense.
No people ever yet were over
come by foreigners who accepted
the yoke of the conqueror with
contented resignation. It would
be a reflection on the Almighty,
whose creatures we are, were it
otherwise. The sense of wrong,
the spirit of independence, the
natural love for kith and kin,
survive the lost battle, and, tho
they may smoulder, will flame
out long after the deed of con
quest. In a material sense the
French Canadian farmers profit
ed by the change of rulers. They
had been treated by the kings of
France as slaves— refused self-
government even in municipal

affairs— their services and pro
perty taken without compensa
tion by the representatives of
the king, who were as corrupt
and worthless a lot of officials
as ever cursed any country. Let
him who wishes to know how New.
France was governed, not go
to Parkman, who picks out from
the musty records only the de
tails that enable him to embellish
his narrative, but to the des
patches to the governors, anfl he
will learn how, in the minutest
details of daily life, its inhabi
tants were dictated to under a
system of absolutism destructive
alike of initiative and of self-re
spect. At the hands of the king's*
officials and at those of his
seignior, the habitant knew
naught save oppression and rob
bery. When Quebec fell he wag
in a pitiable condition. His
horses had been seized to draw
the war-supplies of Montcalm
and Vaudreuil, his oxen confis
cated to feed their soldiers, his
sons drafted to fill the gape in
their ranks, and. to raise a cr.op

19

to keep his other children alive,
he had to harness his wife and
daughters to the plow. Even had
Wolfe failed, in another year
famine would have compelled
surrender. To the habitant the
coming of the British meant
emancipation from oppression
and security in the enjoyment of
what he earned; for the first
time in Maf life he had a chance
.to' be his own master and to keep
the fruits of his labor. It is in
teresting to read of what the ex
pectations of the peasants were
at the time of the conquest.
They looked for coercion and
iron-handed oppression : they ex
pected to be treated as they had
treated the settlers of the New
England frontier, but, instead,
were met with kindness. It is a
fact, important to bear in mind
as it is undeniable, that the
French in Canada never knew
content and plenty until they
came under British rule. No de
gree of material prosperity, how
ever, can smother sentiment. The
hand that gave them security
and justice was the hand of a
stranger, of a stranger who had
taken possession of their country
by force, whose creed they had
been taught to abhor as am in
vention of the evil one, and
whose language they did. not un
derstand. The reflection is a provoking
one, that the brutalities of war
should have substituted a forced
union for the friendly alliance of
the two peoples that was coming
and which was inevitable. The
hour of Frontenac's recall sound
ed the doom of the hope of New
France's sovereignty on the Am
erican continent, and with the
passing of that hope her drift
into an alliance with the English-
speaking colonies was unavoid

able. The colonies were ad
vancing by leaps and bounds into
self-governing nations, increas
ing in population and in material
resources : New France had
ceased to grow and was tending
downwards. Her people number
ed less than 100,000 ; that of the
English colonies 3 millions. The
situation of the inhabitants of
Canada had come to the point
when they could no longer defy
these colonies, and self-preserva*
tion would have forced them re
luctantly into a treaty of amity.
How great the difference would
have been between their volun
tarily seeking the co-operation of
the English and their being
forced into submission, we can
see in comparing the spirit of the
Creoles of Louisiana towards
the Anglo-Saxon with that of
the French Canadian. Consider
ing how Canada was made part
of the British empire it should
be no cause for surprise that
thrice fifty years has failed to
wither the national aspirations
of the losers. At the same time,
recalling how much British rule
has done for them, that it
rescued them from tyranny and
an intolerable administration of
affairs, that it has given them:
self-government and equal rights,
that every avenue of honor, pro
fit, and responsibility in the ser
vice of the empire has been
thrown open to them; that all
the privileges that pertain to the
native-born Briton has been
made theirs ; it is surprising that
assimilation has made so little
progress and that the feeling of
exclusiveness should prevail to
the degree which exists. In
tracing to its source why this-
isi so, the cause of the peculiar,
difficulties of the Dominion is
also found.

20

Under the rule of the French
king3 Canada, in the true sense
of the word, never was a colony.
In our day, when we speak of a
colony we mean a body of people
who have left their native shore
to better their condition in a
new country. That was never so
with New France, which came
into existence as a place for fur-
traders and ended as a military
dependency. In both states of
existence it was actually a pre
serve of the church of Rome. The
priests who came as missionaries
to the Indians, determined this.
In 1615, when Champlain sailed
with four Recollet priests, the
edict forbidding Protestants to
live in Canada was promulgated.
Hitherto French Protestants bad
been the main agents in carrying
on its trade, henceforth they
were excluded. In the charter
granted the company of the hun
dred associates it is specified the
company is not only to permit no
Protestant to take up his abode
in Canada, but to exclude persons
of all other nationalities— they
must keepNew France exclusive
ly for Catholic Frenchmen.
Thirty-seven years later, when
the West India company were
given possession, the clause was
repeated— they were to permit
no Protestants to settle. The
enforcement of these regulations
fell to the Jesuits. Not a ship
cast anchor off Cape Diamond
they did not board on the hunt
for Protestants. The Protes
tants of Rochelle in those days
were the sailors of France, and it
was rare none were among a
crew. They were kept under
watch until tha ship left: no woc-
. ship by them on deck, no singing
of hymns, was allowed. If among
the passengers they discovered
ona tinged with Protestant views

he was taken in hand on landing
to be disciplined. The Relations
tell of instances of how these
unfortunates were "instructed,"
the means used to dispossess the
devil who blinded them, their con
version, their penitence, their
adding /to the triumphs of their
confessors. What was done with
those who would not recant, the
Relations pass in silence. Of their
fate, however, we have a glimpse
due to the ecclesiastical and civil
authorities disagreeing as to
what should be done with a Pro
testant who persevered in his
convictions. Among the new ar
rivals was Daniel Vvil, whom the
Jesuits discovered to be a Pro
testant. He was taken in hand
by them, what was the means
they used we are not told, with
the result that he agreed to be
come a Catholic. With great
pomp he was admitted by Bishop
Laval into the Catholic church.
Relieved of the pressure that had
been brought to bear upon him
and which had caused him to do
violence to his conscience, Vvil
refused to attend service. He
was brought before an ecclesias
tical court, when he declared his
regret at abjuring the reformed
faith and his determination to
hold to it. The court found him
guilty as a contumacious heretic
and doomed him to death. He
was handed over to the civil
authorities to carry out the sen
tence. Governor Argenson re
fused, and it is his refusal that
has caused the preservation of
the facts of the case. Had he
done as it is to be presumed his
predecessors did, obeyed the
order of the priests, we should
never have heard of the fate of
Daniel Vvil. Awaiting a change
of governor, Vvil was kept a pri
soner, in the midst of a commun-

21

ity where none dare express to
him a word of sympathy or ba
stow an act of kindness. History
abounds with instances of weak
men facing death with fortitude
when the sentence was carried
out promptly, but here was a
man who knew death was inevit
able, yet subjected to the sus
pense of months, all the while
knowing he could save his life by
submission to the priests who
tormented him with their impor
tunities. Can his constancy be
otherwise explained than that,
in his prison, he had an unseen
visitor who fulfilled the promise
made to whoever confessed him
before men? The fatal hour came
in the fall of 1661. A new gov
ernor had arrived, D'Avaugour,
who had no qualms in obeying
the bishop. Vvil was brought
forth from his prison, led to the
public square of Quebec, and, in
presence- of a crowd of specta
tors, faced a platoon of soldiers.
The captain uttered the word of
command, there was a volley of
flame and smoke, and Vvil lay
stretched on the ground, pierced
by many bullets.
When New France had attain
ed its height in population, it was
still the boast that among the no
inconsiderable number there was
not a single Protestant. "Praised
be God," writes Governor Denon
ville in an official report, "there
is not a heretic here." The chil
dren stolen in the raids on New
England were handed over to the
nuns, and their baptism and first
communion made occasions of
special celebration. The extreme
to which the spirit of exclusive
ness was carried is shown in the
case of a visitor from New Eng
land, who, possessed with the
idea that a passage to the Paci
fic could be foung by way of the

Saguenay, had crossed to the St.
Lawrence by following the Chau-
diere. He was promptly arrested
and sent away by the first ship.
A vexed question, which divided
the colony, was whether it was
justifiable to sell brandy to the
Indians. The opinion of tha theo
logians of the university of Tou
louse was sought. They decided
it was, and gave as one of the
reasons that thereby the Indians
were protected from heresy, for,
if they could not buy brandy in
Canada, they would go to the
English settlements in New York
State. Frontenac complains that
the confessional was used as an
inquisition into the inner lifo of
each family, and for every
thoughtless word regarding
church or clergy the offender
was called to account. Fronte
nac was not alone in objecting
to the use made of the confes
sional as a means of espionage on
family life. LaSalle, the ex
plorer, complained that, by its
means, the priests "enter as it
were by force into the secrets of
families, and thus make them
selves formidable." Frontenac
declared their prying into the
lives of, the people to be worse
than the Spanish inquisition. La
Motte-Cadillac, on his arrival at
Quebec, was astounded at the
state of society, and wrote a
friend "nobody can live here but
simpletons and slaves of the ec
clesiastical domination." Tha in
terference in family affairs ex
tended to dictating dress nnd
amusements. The punishments
or penances, for breaking the
rules or orders were always
puerile, sometimes cruel. The
girl who added a geegaw to her
attire, the son who failed to re
turn to the paternal roof by nine
o'clock, the father who tarried

22

in the tavern by the brandy-
bottle, all fell within the discip
line of the clergy. Their inter
ference extended to what is now
called criminal law. On the
ground that crimes concerned.
morals, they were active prose
cutors. The rack was a recog
nized means of discovering evi
dence, the slitting of lips, muti
lation of tongue, ears and hands
ordinary punishments, and burn
ing at the stake not unknown.
Those who dream of the French
regime as a period of delightful
romance, know not of what they
speak. Personal liberty in the
settlements there was none, for
the people were under unceasing
supervision. Punishments were
of constant occurrence for infrac
tion of church duty. Failure to
attend mass or working on a
saint's day were crimes. Owing
to his having appealed to the
council against his sentence,
there has been preserved in the
official records the case of Louis
Gaboury, convicted of having
eaten meat during Lent. He was
to be bound to the public whip
ping-post for three hours, then
taken to the door of his parish
church where, on his knees, he
was to beg pardon from God, to
pay a fine of 20 francs and the
m|ilk of a cow for a year.
The control of the individual
and of the family involved that
of the government of the coun
try. Frontenac remarked, "Mas
ters in spiritual matters is a
powerful lever for moving every
thing else." The clergy dictated
the course the governor and. his
subordinates were to follow, anc»,
on rejrusal, there was trouble.
When a governor was persistent
in rejecting their advice, they
used their influence at the court

of France to secure his recall.
No inconsiderable part of the
state papers relating to New
France concern contentions be
tween the clergy and the gover
nors. Talon, sagacious, cool,
politic, did his best to secure
the support of the priests in his
patriotic policy of trying to make
New France self-sustaining, yet,
when nearing his departure, he
reports to Colbert, "I should have
had less trouble and more praise
if I had been willing to leave the
power of the church where I
found it. It is easy to incur the
ill-will of the Jesuits if one does
not accept all their opinions and
abandon one's self to their direc
tion even in temporal matters,
for their encroachments extend
to affairs of police, which con
cern only the civil magistrate."
Five years later, after prolonged
experience and wide knowledge
of the country, Frontenac wrote
the same minister, "Nearly all
the disorders in New France
arise from the ambition of the
priests, who want to join to their
spiritual authority an absolute
power over things temporal, and
who persecute all who do not
submit entirely to them." First
under the Jesuits, then Laval and
his successor, .de Vallier, New
France was governed according
to their ideas, for the resistance
of the governors was intermit
tent and, in the end, ineffective.
Of Laval it was Colbert who de
clared, "He assumes a domination
far beyond that of other bishops
thruout the Christian world, and
particularly in the kingdom of
France." To preserve the inhabitants of
New France from heresy, it was
deemed necessary by the priests
to keep them in a state of tute-

23

lage. Altho they could not read,
no heretical book should be
brought from across the sea. A
French visitor, La Hontain, de
clares the priests "prohibit and
burn all books but books of de
votion." To prevent contact
with Protestants, communica
tion with the English speaking
settlements was forbidden under
penalty of death. Repulsive
stories of Protestants and their
belief were told, the people to
frighten them from going to their
settlements. The intolerance of
New France was a reflex of that
of the mother-country. The first
year William III. sat on the
throne of England, a plan was
agreed on at Versailles for the
conquest of New York. The
sealed instructions given to the
commander of the expedition
were, that on his overcoming the
garrison and obtaining posses
sion of the country, he was to
confiscate the lands and all other
property of the Protestants,
whether Dutch or English, and
send them out of the country.
.Untoward events prevented the
sailing of the fleet.
It is the constant pretension of
Rome that the country which
submits implicitly to its direction
thereby ensures happiness and
prosperity. In no other part of
the world was its rule ever more
complete than in New France,
which lay absolutely at tha feet
of the priests from Champlain to
Vaudreuil — a period of 150 years
—yet socially, commercially, in
tellectually, and politically, it
was a failure. The reports of
intendants are dotted with com
plaints of the pride and sloth of
the people, necessitating public
distribution of alms and provid
ing a house of refuge. The coun

try swarmed with beggars.
Bishop St. Vallier complained he
was overwhelmed by their visits.
Charlevoix could not help con
trasting the easy circumstances
of the New England settlers with
the poverty of the people of New
France. Material prosperity is
not everything, and it is possible
for great moral virtue to exist
where privation prevails. It was
not so in New France. The state
of morals in Quebec and smaller
towns was a reflex of that of Ver
sailles. To this the last bishop
under French rule bears striking
evidence. In a pastoral issued
during tha winter of 1760, Bishop
Pont Briant deplores the little
zeal for piety displayed, every
where ; the injurious and wicked
speeches maintained against
those in whom we ought to place
all our confidence ; the profane di
versions to which we are addict
ed, the insufferable excesses of
the games of chance, the impious
hypocrisy in derision or rather
in contempt of religion ; the vari
ous crimes that have multiplied
in the course of thi,-; winter. Then
he goes on to ask, "Were there
ever such open robberies, so many
heinous crimes of injustice, such
shameful rapines heard of? Who
has not seen in this colony fami
lies devoted publicly to sins of
the most odious nature? Who
ever beheld so many abomina
tions?" Rome had been given
every opportunity to mould New
France and this was the result.
The long tutelage of Canada
under the priests explains many
of the perplexing conditions that
to-day hinder the Dominion in
her onward march. The conquest
ended the rule of France : it did
not end the rule of Rome.

CHAPTER 3

With the coming of tha British
the military element of New
France disappeared, leaving be
hind the seigniors, the cl.rgy, and
the habitants. The total number
speaking French who became sub
jects of George III. is commonly
set down at 60,000. In January,
1759, a census was takan to as
certain how many were able to
bear arms in tha coming cam
paign. It showed there were
15,229 between 16 and 60 who
could take the field, and the total
population was reported as
85,000. Twenty months later, at
the capitulation, Vaudreuil hand
ed the British authorities an of
ficial statement that of enrolled
militia there were 16,000. Dur
ing those 20 months the male
population suffered from the ef
fects of war, so that to ascertain
the total population a higher
ratio than the usual one to five
must be taken. Multiplying
16,000 by six would show the
population to be nigh 100,000.
There was no such exodus to
France after the conquf:-n as is
generally represented. The offi
cial letters of tha tima thew thare
was great difficulty in securing
shipping even for the regulars
and that the number of resident
Canadians who asked to be sent
to France was trifling. Instead
of the native population being re
duced by the change of rulers, it
was increased, for Gen. Murray
reports that from British auth
ority ensuring security to those
who cultivated the soil, there
"was; a large influx of Aeadians
Who had been living in New Eng
land. When the treaty of Paris
was signed the population must
liave exceeded 100,000, and only

those who want to make out
miracles where none exist will
repeat the statement of 60,000_
Of the inhabitants, with trifling
exceptions, all resided on strips
of land along the banks of the
St. Lawrence and the Richelieu.
For the first time the farmer of
New France knew what security
means, being safe alike from the-
attack of the Indian and of the
domiciliary visit of an official
who, in the name of the French
king, forcibly requisitioned what
ever the army needed, not ex
cluding his sons. More than that
for the first time they began to
feel the ennobling sens a that they
were their own masters. As one
English officer put it in his re
port, "they begin to feel they
are no longer slaves." Haldi
mand, who spoke French and
freely mixed with the people, de
clares they were well pleased
with the change, which put new
life into them' and stimulated
therm to make undreamt of im
provements in their condition
The new rulers were a surprise
to the habitants. From infancy
the English had been pictured to
them as monsters who professed
a religion born of the devil, and
who would, if they captured New.
France, destroy everything that .
was French or Catholic. Finding
them to be different was grate
ful to a people who were at their
mercy. Knowing he would pos- -
sess what he grew, the habitant
applied himself as he had never
done before to extending and cul
tivating his clearing, and from a
state of living on the verge of
famine he before long had a sur
plus to sell, and Canada became
an exporter of grain. In one re- -

25

spect the habitant was disap
pointed. He had expected under
tM new rulers to be freed from
the demands of the seignior. Why
the claims of the seignior on the
land were not confiscated, is pro
bably to be explained by the re
lation of tenant and landlord be
ing the only conceivable method
of holding land of which General
Murray and his military succes
sors had any conception. That
the man who has redeemed the
land from forest for cultivation
should own it, never seems to
have flashed on their minds. In
the Old World the noble leased
the acres and the tenant paid
him rent, and that the governing
class had come to look upon as
part of the divine order. For the
next 50 or 60 years we find the
ruling class boggling over the
difficulty of settling the question
of ownership of the soil, one gov
ernor after another making ex
periments, all of which had as a
feature in some form or another
a lord of the manor and ten
ants. The seigniory system was
a survival of a form of feudal
ism no longer known in England,
and which the new rulers at first
did not comprehend. The seign
iories had been granted by the
French king on condition that
certain services be rendered him :
they were not sold or bestowed,
merely the usufruct was granted
by the king in conpensation of
specified services. The moment
these services ceased to be ren
dered the grants reverted to the
crown. In like manner, the
seignior allotted portions of the
land thus ceded to him to men
who bound themselves to do him
homage, to render certain ser
vices, to pay a prescribe^ rent,
and a fine should they sell. The
rent was smlall, yet large to men

in their circumstances : the fine
was generally prohibitive as to
sale. As King George did not
want the services for which King
Louis had ceded the land, the
seigniors could not pretend they
were rendering the obligations
which enabled them to hold it.
The seigniors were in the posi
tion of men who hold property
under a servitude : when the
servitude lapses, the property re
verts to the owner. As suzerain
by conquest, the seigniories fell
to King George. Instead of tak
ing possession, and declaring the
censitaires owners, the British
authorities dilly-dallied with the
system, and it was left to hinder
the advancement of the country,
to be a standing grievance with
the habitant, and to be a trouble
some question with successive ad
ministrations for nigh a century.
The seigniors, who arrogated to
themselves the name noblesse,
deprived of the petty civil posi
tions and their pay as officers
of the militia during French rule,
did nothing to improve the coun
try and formed a discontented
class, from which the two Papi-
neaus and like agitators were
drawn. While the seigniors retained
their rents, the clergy lost their
tithes. For fifteen years what
ever support they drew outside
their own) resources, came
either as voluntary gifts from
their flocks or, as Solicitor-gen
eral Wedderburn stated, under
threat of excommunication.
Nothing helped to reconcile the
habitants to the new rule as the
abolition of tithes, for tithes had
always been unpopular. The
church, however, made up for the
loss in the increased value of real
estate, for they were the largest
landowners in New France. They

26

now drew rents as they had
never done before. The Jesuits
owned ten seigniories, comprising
nearly a million acres, all advan
tageously located, and the Sulpi
cians the island of Montreal
worth half-a-dozen.
For a quarter of a century
after the battle of the Plains of
Abraham the expectation was
strong that France would speed
ily recapture Canada : that it
was only a matter of a few
years when the union jack would
be displaced. Possessed by this
conviction the clergy exerted
themselves to isolate their flocks
from the new-comers, going so
far as to prejudice them against
learning their speech, by de
claring English to be a Protes
tant language. Some of the ex
pedients of that time to keep the
French habitants a separate peo
ple are still used.
The attitude of the clergy dur
ing the American revolution has
been constantly quoted as proof
of their loyalty to the British
crown. It meant simply this,
that between two English-speak
ing communities, their choice was
against the Americans. They dis
criminated in a way we do not
now realize between the British
across the Atlantic and the Bos-
tonnais. Under the latter name
they classed all the settlers of
the colonies south of Canada, and
hated them! with a perfect hat
red, the Dutchman equally with
the Puritan. For generations
they had encouraged war being
waged upon them, and had held
them up to their people as fright
ful examples of. heresy. Were
they now going to exchange the
rule of the Imperial government,
little as it was to their mind, for
that of the new republic erected
by their life-long enemies? They

did not hesitate in choosing the
English from beyond the sea vas
the least of two evils. At the
outset, with one exception, they
agreed to refuse the sacraments
to those of their flocks who
favored the Americans. Later
on, however, when France took
a hand in the struggle, sending
ships and soldiers to help the
Americans, there was a change
of tone. When word came of the
surrender at Yorktown and of
the prospect of the victorious
French fleet shaping its course
next for the St. Lawrence, there
was alarm among the officials of
Quebec. Governor Haldimand
apprehended the worst, especial
ly when he heard of the circula
tion of a report that the Pope
had absolved them from the oath
of allegiance they had taken to
King George. "If," Haldimand
writes to England, "the Ameri
cans invade the province with a
few hundred French soldiers, the
Canadians will take up arms in
their favor, will serve as guides,
and furnish provisions." Had
the French fleet steered from
Yorktown for Quebec the figment
that it was the priests who kept
Canada to Britain during the Am
erican revolution would have
been exploded.
Why the advisers of George III.
did not continue Canada as a
crown colony has not been satis
factorily explained. Probably
some one, who has access to the
state papers of the period, may
think it worth his while to unveil
the causes that led to giving Can
ada a constitutional government
long before it had a population
fitted for self-government. Thi
explanation, repeated parrot-like
in so many histories, that it was
done to secure the goodwill of
the French Canadians, in the im-

27

pending struggle with the Ameri
can colonies, is absurd on the
face of it. When the Quebec a.ct
was submitted, the Imperial gov
ernment was blind to the coming
danger across the Atlantic and
was resting in full security. In
the lbng debates in the house of
commons, there is not a single
sentence, either from the minis
terial or opposition benches, to
indicate that the bill was of a
precautionary nature — a prudent
step to take on the eve of a
struggle. That is neither the
tone nor the language of the de
baters. There was neither fore
sight nor wisdom in the passing
of the Quebec act, for it failed
to make friends of the French
Canadians, it disgusted the hand
ful of English who had settled in
Quebec, and formed a new cause
of complaint to those of the Am
ericans who were discontented
with British rule.
It is well to here summarize
the attitude and course of the
American revolutionists towards
Canada. It was in response to
their prolonged importunity that
the Mother Country, sorely
against her will, engaged in the
conquest of Canada. When, after
shedding the blood of thousands
of the flower of the army, and
an expenditure of money that
high bankrupted her, that con
quest was effected, the Americans
refused to pay any part of the
cost of the war that had ensured
their autonomy, and made the at
tempt to collect a small tax to
wards paying it the signal for
revolt at Boston. At the time
they were clamoring themselves
for a fuller measure of self-gov
ernment, they united in a formal
protest against the Quebec act
in language so outrageous that
their descendants are ashamed of

it. Yet two years after issuing
that address of protest against
giving any concessions to the
French Canadians or restoring
the privileges of the priests, con
gress sent a delegation to Que
bec to incite a revolt, with a
promise that they would do more
for the priesthood than what
they had censured in the Quebec
act, and, to crown all, the very
men who were unable to sup
press their "astonishment that a
British parliament should ever
consent to establish in Canada a
religion that has deluged its
island with blood, and dispersed
impiety, bigotry, persecution,
murder, and rebellion through
every part of the world," in the
delegation to stir the French-
Canadians into rebellion against
Britain, they included Father
John Carroll, a Jesuit, whose
special office was to win over
the priests. On the surface this
appears inconsistent, but it was
all consistent with the ruling
motive of the revolutionary lead
ers—selfish blindness to the
rights of others in furthering
their own interests.
United States historians light
ly pass over the attempt to get
possession of Canada, treating it
as a mere incidental episode in
the war, whieh it was not, for it
was a serious movement, planned,
by Washington and earnestly
backed by congress. It was
not alone the danger of an in
vasion from the north they
sought to prevent, but to make
sure that they would not have
again on their frontier a hostile
people. The passing of the Que
bec act seemed, to the leaders of
the revolution to restore the
situation that had existed from
the days of Champlain. They de
clared they foresaw the restora-

28

tion of the French power under
the protectorate of the British
crown, and a revival of the con
test for the possession of the
continent, with savage raids on
their settlements, such as Fron
tenac and Montcalm planned.
The winning of Canada looked
to them1 as essential to the ex
istence of the new republic.
Washington declared the annex
ation of Canada to be of the ut
most importance, and that this
view was that of those with him
who were directing affairs, was
shown by their detaching, at. a
critical period, so important a
personage as Benjamin Franklin
to try and conciliate the French,
for the Americans approach ad the
task of winning Canada, in two
ways— by force of arms and. by
diplomacy. Secret agents were
set to work in the parishes and
spies on the British officers were
hired at every point of impor
tance. It is remarkable that altho the
history of Canada goes back only
some 3 centuries, and is there
fore comparatively modern, and
that of every decade, whether
under French or English rule, we
have voluminous official re
cords, it should abound in myths.
Perhaps the myth which is the
most direct perversion of fact is
that whieh represents the sav
ing of Canada to' the British
crown during the American re
volution as due to the devotion
of the priests and loyalty of the
habitants. Hundreds of orators,
amid thunders of applause, have
drawn the picture of Canada
cruelly abandoned by France and
dominated by a British garrison,
yet, when threatened by Ameri
can invaders, rallying under the
advice of their beloved pastors
for the defence of their new

masters and going forth as of
yore, led by their seigniors to
whom they still rendered loyal
allegiance. What are the facts as
presented in the despatches of
Governor-general Carleton, his
successor, Haldimand, and of
other officials? They reveal a
peasantry who loved neither the
republican nor the loyalist who
spoke English, and who, on being
asked by priest and seignior to
join the militia, were seized with
dread that the old absolutism of
the church and the hated rule of
the seignior under the French
regime were to be restored. The
call to arms they would not
listen to, and where a seignior
attempted to coerce them into
the ranks they resisted, and gave
them to understand they were
no longer vassals. The feudal
duties of corvee and military ser
vice had vanished before the
roll of Wolfe's drums. Never was
situation more perilous to Brit
ish interests than during 1775
and the first half of 1776. The
breaking out of hostilities found
Carleton with only 800 soldiers.
Ticonderoga and Crown Point,
held by corporals' guards, were
easily captured by the Ameri
cans, who thus got possession of
lake Champlain and rendered
possible an invasion of Canada.
Instructions from England were
that no troops could be spared.
Laboring under the delusion
that the habitants would take
the loyalist side, Carleton was
advised to call out the militia,
and to arm them 6000 muskets
were sent, to be followed later
on by equipment for an army of
20,000. The muskets were use
less. Every attempt to raise the
militia was futile. Seeing the
habitants refused to fight, the
Indians cared not to go on the

29

war-path unsupported. In Sep
tember St. Johns was taken and
an invading army appeared. The
main body struck for Montreal;
the smaller force dcscendad the
Richelieu to Sorel. The habi
tants, seized by a frenzy of ex
citement, welcomed the invaders,
sold them provisions, supplied
them with guides, ferried them
across the St. Lawrence from
Longueuil to the island of Mon
treal. A thousand enlisted in
the American ranks at Sorel.
Carleton complained bitterly. The
disobedience of the people in
creased, they everywhere helped
the Americans while the King's
representatives were betrayed.
Montreal was still surrounded
by tha walls of the French period
and altho he had only 60 sol
diers, 80 sailors, and a handful of
English militia, Carleton res Dived
to hold it, for he had cannon,
while the enemy so far had only
rifles. He soon realized the
position was untenable from
what he termed the treachery of
the habitants, who cut off his
supply parties and captured his
messengers. The language in
which he speaks of the habitants
is that of a man who had been
deceived. He had been instru
mental in carrying the Quebec
act in the belief its concessions
would reconcile them to British
rule, and was now mortified to
find this very act used by the
Americans as a reason why they
should join them. In his de
spatches to England Carleton re
fers to the baseness of the habi
tants, their ingratitude for all
the favors shown them; as a
wretched people blind to honor.
He had his eyes opened on an
other point. He saw the habi
tants really hated the seigniors,
and regretted he had not asked

them to enlist in regular regi
ments instead of using the old
militia machinery of France. Re
ceiving word that a second Am
erican army had advanced on
Quebec, he realized that prompt
action was needed. With traitors
within and without the walls, to
defend Montreal was going to be
difficult, but of what use would
it be to hold it should Quebec be
lost? Quebec was the key cf Can
ada and must be saved. On the
night of the 11th November he
embarked his little garrison on
boats, abandoning Montreal,
whose inhabitants welcomed the
Americans the following day.
Running the gauntlet of batter
ies at Berthier and Sorel, Carle
ton reached Quebec in a rowboat
on the 19th, and none too soon.
As at Montreal, the Americans
had been given every assistance
by the habitants and had been
ferried across the St. Lawrence
by them. They were now in
camp, within striking distance of
Quebec, awaiting the reinforce
ments they knew were on the
way. Carleton used the breath
ing-spell to complete his de
fences. On the 4th December, the
American army being now in full
strength, he was summoned to
surrender. Carleton's reply was
he would not parley with rebels,
and the siege began. The Am
ericans had the advantage in
numbers, led by able officers, and
in having the people of the coun
try with them. Carleton's sole
advantage lay in the fortifica
tions, which he had barely
enough men to cover. Assaults
by day and night were made and
stoutly repulsed; worse than
these open attacks were the ma
chinations of traitors within the'
walls to betray the garrison. The
weary winter crept on, and dur-

30

ing those five months the only
spot in Canada where the union
jack floated was from Cape Dia
mond. Both sides of the river
were in the undisputed posses
sion of the Americans, with their
headquarters in Montreal, where
they raised a regiment of French
Canadians. Arnold enlisted an
other regiment at Quebec, and
reported he would have taken
more had he been able to equip
them. The enthusiasm of the
habitants for their visitors, how
ever, began to wane as time
went on. The continental army
was leavened, with ruffians, who
repeated on whoever was sus
pected to favor the British the
outrages they had practised on
the loyalists of New England,
while between the U. S. commis
sary officer who cleaned out his
barnyard and handed in pay
ment paper scrip and the Brit
ish officials who had always paid
in gold, the habitant began to
draw comparisons. When the St.
Lawrence at last cast its coat
of ice the little garrison was
faced with a prospect of
famine, andN Carleton foresaw
that unless ships speedily arrived
from England Canada was lost
to the British. The Americans
redoubled their efforts. Their
batteries were planted nearer,
occasionally throwing hot shot
in order to set fire to the bar
racks of the little garrison, who
responded shot for shot. Perch
ed on the point of the cliff, where
the St. Lawrence unexpectedly
expands from a river into an
ever widening sea, sentinelled by
forest-clad mountains, the de
fenders, from earliest dawn turn
ed eager eyes down the vistas
of the two channels formed by
the isle of Orleans for the long-
delayed relief, and day after

day sought repose when night
closed with the sickness of de
ferred hope. On the morning of
the 6 th May a shout went up
that three sail were in sight
and when, on drawing nearer,
the red flag of their country was
discerned flying from the fore
mast of the leading ship, strong
men broke down at the reaction
of the suspense of five months,
and with tears and shouts of
joy grasped each other's hands.
No sooner had the ships cast an
chor than boats were lowered
and the landing of troops began.
The hour of remaining on the de
fensive had passed. Ordering the
long-closed gates to be thrown
open, at the head of his garrison
and of the newly arrived sol
diers, Carleton at noon marched
out to give battle to the Ameri
cans. It was too late. They
had spied the ships too, and at
once began their retreat, aban
doning cannons and stores. All
Carleton could do was to convert
their retreat into a rout.
For eight months the Ameri
cans were on Canadian soil; six
of these months they were in un
disputed possession of every part
except the few acres enclosed
within the walls of the fortifica
tions of Quebec. Why, then, did
Canada not continue to be part
of the American republic? Be
cause it had a governor with the
head to plan and the hand to
carry out his plans. Had Carle
ton surrendered, when surround
ed at Montreal, the stars and
stripes would be floating to-day
over Canada. It is to his daring
flight to Quebec, to his placing
its fortifications in a posture of
defence, to his dogged courage
in defending them under every
form of discouragement for five
cold, dreary months, that the

31

maintenance of British posses
sion is due. It may be said, it
was the arrival of the British
fleet in the spring that saved
Canada. It is true, had not re
inforcements come when they
did, the Americans would have
triumphed, but it is equally true
that had Carleton not kept a
foothold on Cape Diamond, the
one spot in a vast territory that
had not surrendered to the
enemy, the coming of British re
inforcements in the spring of

1776 would have been of no avail.
With the fortifications of Que
bec in his possession, Gen.Thomas
could have prevented the British
fleet passing the cape and the
landing of the troops it carried.
It was Carleton who saved. Can
ada i!n 1776, and whoever says
otherwise denies the honor that
is his due. Priest, seignior, and
habitant had knuckled to the
American republicans; it was
Carleton and his little garrison
who defeated their plans.

CHAPTER 5

In the province of Quebec the
church of Rome enjoys immuni
ties and. privileges unknown in
any other part of the world-
even in those countries which
have Catholic sovereigns. Here, on
British soil and under a Protes
tant king, that church is not
only, as it is right it should be,
autonomous, unrestricted by the
state in its spiritual sphere, bu1
exercises many of the powers
that belong- to the state. It
levies, when it sees fit, taxes for
the building and upholding of its
churches and the houses of its
clergy, and a yearly tax for the
support of the priest of each
parish, and payment of these
taxes is enforced by the machin
ery of. the secular courts. The
vows of. nuns and other religious
are recognized by the civil law
and their enforcement given the
support desired by the church.
The real estate of the church is
exempted from taxation and

much of that real estate is made
inalienable by mortmain. Educa
tion is placed in the hands of the
bishops, who have a pledge that
the legislature shall make no
change in its regulations with
out their consent, nor interfere
with their distribution of the
grant of public money. While the
provincial government is thus the
servant of the church, the hier
archy resents all appearance of
supremacy of the state, and for
this reason disregards the Do
minion proclamations for fasts or
thanksgiving. In a word, the
church sits as a queen in Quebec,
panoplied in its assumptions by
law, receiving from the state
whatever she asks, dominating
the province as the first interest
to be considered and served.
When %t is pointed out that
this supremacy is inconsistent
with the rights of British sub
jects who do not own her sway,
that the concessions made to her

32

are destructive of their privi
leges, the answer comes that the
church of Rome has prescriptive
rights in the province of Quebec
which cannot by either legisla
ture or parliament be modified,
much less taken away. The con
tention is, that when Canada
was ceded, Great Britain bound
herself by the treaty of Paris to
continue to the priesthood the
same privileges and. powers they
possessed during the period of
the French occupation. Do facts
support this assertion?
The first time the British came
in contact with the demands of
the church of Rome for exclusive
treatment was at the capitula
tion of Quebec after Wolfe's vic
tory. The officer in command
among the terms he asked in con
senting to surrender, included a
request that there be no inter
ference with religion. In his re
ply, dated Sept. 18, General
Townshend stated—
"The free exercise of
the Roman Catholic relig
ion is granted, likewise
safeguards to all religious
persons, as well as to the
bishop, who shall be at
liberty to come and exer
cise, freely and with de
cency, the functions of his
office, whenever he shall
think proper; until the
possession of Canada shall
have been decided be
tween their Britannic and
most Christian majesties."
Fearful of outrage on church
and convent the French officer
asked for assurance of protec
tion, which was granted. As to
the bishop exercising his func
tions in the town he could do so,
until the kings of England and
France decided what the. future
of Canada should be. On the

standing of the church the article
has no bearing, it simply con
cedes what any human a officer
would, grant. The following
summer General Amherst invad
ed Canada from the west and
after driving the enemy's forces
before him invested Montreal.
Vaudreuil recognized the hope
lessness of tho struggle, that it
must end in surrendar, and so,
while Amherst was waiting for
his cannon to come from Lachine
to batter down the walls, he re
ceived a flag of truce asking for
terms. Amherst was willing and
gave his beaten opponent the
privilege of suggesting the terms
he desired. Vaudreuil was so
licitous as to the fate of his sol
diers and of the citizens alone,
but the priests insisted on also
preferring their demands, which
they did in these words—
"The free exercise of the
catholic, apostolic, and
Roman religion shall sub
sist entire in such manner
that all the states and the
peoples of the towns and
countries, places and dis
tant posts, shall continue
to assemble in the churches
and to frequent the sacra
ments as heretofore, with
out being molested in any
manner, directly or indi
rectly. Thase people shall
be obliged, by the English
government to pay the
priests the tithes and all
the taxes they were used
to pay under the govern
ment of his most gracious
majesty (the King of
France)."
Opposite this demand General
Amherst wrote —
"Granted as to the free
exercise of their religion;
the obligation of paying

33

the tithes to the priests
will depend on the King's
pleasure."
Years afterwards, when clerical
pretensions revived, a meaning
favorable to the levying of tithes
was endeavored to be given to
the words "Depend on the King's
pleasure." How did priests and
people understand them in the
early years of British occupa
tion? Their practice was the
best interpretation of what the
words meant. Twenty-four years
after Amherst wrote the words,
Attorney-general Maseres, who
had resided in Quebec, was called
as a witness before the house of
commons. Standing at the bar,
the question was put, "Since the
conquest have habitants had the
option of refusing to pay tithes?"
He answered— "They certainly have,
and sometimes make use of
it. The priests never pre
sume to sue for tithes,
either in the court of
King's bench or common
pleas, knowing there is no
possibility of succeeding.
The ground of that opinion
of theirs and of mine is,
the strong words of Gen.
Amherst's answer to the
demands on the part of
th French general, for the
continuation of the obl:ga-
tion of the people to pay
their tithes and other
dues namely, 'Granted as
to the exercise of their re
ligion, but as to the obli
gation of paying tithes,
that will depend upon the
king's pleasure.' That has
been universally under
stood, till now (1774) to
have been a positive dis
pensing with the obliga
tion. It has often happen

ed that the habitants
have not paid tithe; much
oftener that they did,
from their regard to their
religion."
To judge fully of the inten
tion of Amherst with regard to
the demands of the priests, it
is proper to consider all the ar
ticles inserted at their instance
and they will be found in appen
dix A, along with his answers.
On reading them there is no mis
taking the attitude of General
Amherst. As a tolerant man he
wished the people to have liberty
of conscience, as a just man he
wished to dispossess no one of
his property. Beyond this he
would not go. He would recog
nize none of the privileges the
priests had enjoyed under the
King of France, would not even
allow the nomination of the
bishop to Louis or grant power
to erect new parishes.
Three years later ther a was a
meeting of representatives of
Austria and Prussia, of Britain
and France to draft a treaty of
peace. When the article regard
ing religion was reached in the
treaty that concerned Canada,
the French ministers asked that
it read—
"His Britannic Majesty, on his
"side, agrees to grant the liberty
"of the Catholic religion to the
"inhabitants of Canada; he will
"consequently give the most ef
fectual orders that his new
"Catholic subjects may profess
"the worship of their religion ac
cording to the rites of the I^o-
"man church as they have done."
The British representatives
would not consent. They would
grant all Amherst had agreed to
at the capitulation and nothing
more. They demanded that the
words "as they have done" be

34

struck out. The French minis
ters pled in vain for their reten
tion. They were scored out.
Fearful even then that the ar
ticle might be construed into
Britain's agreeing to continue
the church of Rome on the sta
tus it had nnder France, they in
sisted on adding the words, "so
far as the laws of Great Britain
permit." After some demur, the
French finding it impossible to
get the Englishmen to recede on
the' point, agreed, and the article
as confirmed read—
"His Britannic Majesty agrees
"to grant the liberty of the Cath-
"olic religion to the inhabitants
"of Canada: he will, consequent
ly, give the most effectual
"orders that his new Roman
"Catholic subjects may profess
"the worship of their religion, ac
cording to the rites of the Ro-
"man church, as far as the laws
"of Great Britain permit."
The meaning of the article is
obvious, whatever privileges
Catholics were to enjoy, were to
be measured by British law and
not by French. The English com
missioners were resolute in hav
ing it fully understood that the
subjects whom France was aban
doning were to come under the
ruj.e of Britein divested entirely
of everything that pertained to
their old status, and to that end
insisted on the adoption of this
additional article—
The King of France "cedes and
"guarantees to his Britannic Ma-
"jesty, in full right, Canada and
"its dependencies . . . and makes
"over the whole ... in the most
"ample manner and form, with-
"out restriction and without any
"liberty to depart from the said
"cession and guarantee."
The conveyance of Canada was
thus ma»de without a single

reservation or condition in favor
of the inhabitants, the French
king abandoning his late subjects
to the conqueror with brutal in
difference. In the entire treaty
there is not a single word about
the French language or French
laws. For the prevailing im
pression, that the treaty of Paris
placed the French Canadians on
a different plane from other Brits
ish subjects, by preserving to
them certain distinctive privi
leges, there is no foundation.
That such a notion exists is due
solely to the assertions of those
whose interest it is to have it
believed, but the fact is, that
whatever is found exceptional in
Quebec rests not upon treaty-
rights, and whoever says to the
contrary, asserts what he cannot
prove. The treaty was signed in Feby.,
1763, and the following October
King George issued a proclama
tion defining the limits of the
new dependency, prescribing how
it was to be governed, and the
conditions on which settlers could
rely. So soon as military rule
could with safety be superseded,
Canada was to be erected into
a province, similar to the 13 col
onies to the south of it, and have
aa assembly representative oi
the people, who woul<J make laws
and otherwise provide for its
government. Until such time,
the royal proclamation went on
to declare—
"All persons inhabiting in, or
"resorting to, our said colony,
"may confide in our royal protect
"tion for the enjoyment of the
"benefit of the laws of our realm
"of England."
3?he proclamation instructs the
governor to constitute courts for
trying cases, both civil and crim
inal, as near as may be agreeable

35

to the laws of England. There is
not a word in the proclamation
modifying this assurance of Eng
lish law to whoever should settle
in Canada, and not a word of
any exception in favor of the
French Canadians. This pro
clamation of the king is unquali
fied and absolute in placing Can
ada under the same conditions as
Massachusetts or New York. The
proclamation declared Canada to
be English, and nothing but Eng
lish. There is not even reserva
tion of the French tenure of land.
In the direction as to selling
lands to settlers and of grants
to soldiers and sailors who had
served in the late war, it is speci
fied the land shall be conveyed on
the same terms as exist in the
other colonies. This proclama
tion, issued a few months after
the treaty of Paris was signed,
recognizes in no way that the
French Canadians were to have
any privileges other than those
¦ftiat pertained to them as Brit
ish subjects. In this there was
no disappointment to the French
Canadians. Judge Hey, the first
chief justice of Quebec under Eng
lish rule, in his evidence before
the house of commons, testified
that at the conquest the French
Canadians "neither expected to
"retain their religion nor their
"laws, and looked upon them
selves as a ruined and aban
doned people. The general ex
pectation among the habitants
"was that King George would
"be as absolute as their late
"royal master, and order them
"to be Protestants." The lenity
with which they were treated,
Quebec's first attorney-general,
Masere?, confirmed in his remark
able statement, "I am of opin
ion," he said, "with General Am-
"herst, "that if the priests had

"been given their living (that is
"pensioned) and their places had
"been supplied by Protestants,
"the Canadians would have beem
"satisfied." Such was the slavish
reverence engrained on the habi
tants for their king, that there
is no cause to doubt the conclu
sions of these witnesses, one of
whom spoke French equally with
English. General Murray, on becoming
Canada's first civil governor, re
ceived instructions from the sec
retary of state, Earl Egremont,
to guide him. He was told to
guard against attempts by the
French government through the
priests to keep the habitants in
expectation of resumption of the
rule of Louis. Here are the
Earl's words—
"His Majesty has reason to
"suspect that the French may be
"disposed to avail themselves of,
"the liberty of the Catholic re
ligion granted to the inhabi-
"tants, to keep up their connec-
"tion with France, and to induce
"them to join for the recovery of,
"the country. The priests must,
"therefore, be narrowly watched,
"and any who meddle in civil
"matters be removed. Whilst
"there is no thought Df restrain
ing the new subjects in the ex-
"ercise of their religion according
"to the rites of the Romish
"church, the condition is as far as
"the laws of Great Britain per-
"mit, which can only admit of
"toleration, the matter being
"clearly understood in the nego
tiation for the definitive treaty
"of peace, the French ministers
"proposing to insert the words
"comme ci devant (as they have
"done), and did not give up the
"point until they were plainly
"told it would be deceiving them|
"to insert these words. Ydu are,

36

"however, to avoid everything
"that can give the laast unneces
sary alarm cr disgust to the
"new subjects. Tha greatest care
"must be used against the priest
"Le Loutre, should he return to
"Canada, where ha is not to be
"allowed to remain, and every
"priest coming to Canada must
"appear before the governor for
"examination and to take the
"oath of allegiance."
This is the evidence of a noble
man who was present while tha
treaty was being negotiated,
and is additional evidence as to
what was the object in adding
the clause, "as far as the laws of
"Great Britain permit." Britain
was asked to continue the status
of the priests as it had been
under France, and Britain said
No, and added nine words to the
article which decisively deprived
the priests of their powers under
French rule and placed them
where the law of Britain placed
them. JTen years after the treaty
was ratified, when the Quebec
act was being contemplated, the
law officer of the houose, Weddc-r-
burn, afterwards lord chancellor
gave this written opinion on the
article— "This qualification (so far as
the laws of Great Britain pe: mit)
"renders the article cf so little
"effect, from the severity with
"which, though seldom executed,
"the laws of England are armed
"against the exercise of the
"Roman Catholic religion, that
"the Canadian must depend more
"upon the benignity and wisdom
"of your majesty's government
"for the protection of his religi-
"ous rights than upon the provis
ions of the treaty."
Canada having been mada by
the treaty of Paris, part and
parcel of tha British empira, ar

rangements had to be made for
its government. In December,
1763, General Murray received
his appointment as governor of
the province of Quebec, with min
ute instructions as to what he
was to do. The following were
the directions he was to follow
in ecclesiastical affairs —
"And whereas we have stipulat
ed, by the late definitive treaty
"of peace concluded at Paris the
"10th Feb., 1763, to grant the
"l.berty of the Catholic religion to
"the inhabitants of Canada, and
"that we will consequently give
"the most precise and most ef
fectual orders, that our new Ro-
"man Catholic subjects in that
"province may profess the wor
ship of their religion, according
"to the rites of the Roman church,
"as far as the laws of Great
"Britain permit; it is therefore
"our will and pleasure, that you
"do, in all things regarding the
"said inhabitants, conform with
"great exactness to the stipula
tions of the said treaty in this
"respect. "You are not to permit of any
"ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the
"see of Rome, or any other for
eign ecclesiastical jurisdiction
"whatsoever in the province
"under your government.
"And to the end that the church
"of England may be established
"both in principles and practices.
"and that the said inhabitants
"may, by degrees, be induced to
"embrace the Protestant religien,
"and their children be brought
"up in the principles of it; we do
"hereby declare it to be our in
dention, when the said province
"shall have been accurately sur-
"veyed, and divided into town-
Ships, districts, precincts or par
ishes, in such manner as shall be
'hereinafter directed, all possible

37

"encouragement shall be given to
"the erecting Protestant schools
"in the said districts, townships
"and precincts, by settling, ap
pointing and allotting proper
"quantities of land for that pur-
"pose, and also for a glebe and
"maintenance for a Protestant
"minister and Protestant school-
"masters ; and you are to con
sider and report to us, by our
"commissioners for trade and
"plantations, by what other
"means the Protestant religion
"may be promoted, established
"and encouraged in our province
"under your government."
- In these instructions there is
not a word as to the French
language, while as to courts and
laws Gen. Murray is advised to
copy those of the other American
colonies, especially of Nova
Scotia. These then are the facts of the
treaty : 1 The French king ask
ed that the article of the treaty
regarding religion read so as to
"leave the priests thair old status.
2 Thia the British not only re
fused but inserted words to make
it clear the priests would only
have the status allowed by the
English laws then in force. 3 To
make the matter more definite,
an article was included jn the
treaty declaring the French king
made over his subjects in Canada
without restriction. 4 Following
the treaty, King George issued a
proclamation declaring English
law to be the law of Quebec. 5
The priests recognized thay pos
sessed no longer the status under
the French regime by not exact
ing tithes or dues by law. 6 The
instructions to the first governor
were that he was' not to permit
any ecclesiastical jurisdiction of
Rome in the province, and was

told it was tha intention to make
the Church of England its estab
lished church.
Positive and continued asser
tion goes a lciiafg. way with peo
ple too indolent or,, too care
less to enquire whether such as
sertion has a foundation of fact.
For generations the people of
Canada have been listening? to
solemn assurances that the
treaty of Paris secured to Que
bec peculiar privileges, and these
assurances have been accepted,
while reference to the article of
the treaty, without considering
the attending circumstances
under which they were formulat
ed, or the interpretation placed
upon them by the governors and
officials whq had to carry the
articles into practice, would show
they are falsehoods. Whoever re
peats, that the treaty by which
France renounced Canada to
Britain guarantees the except
tional privileges which the French
Canadians and the church of
Rome enjoy in the province of
Quebec, tramples on the truth.
Saeing these immunities and
privileges do not have any foun
dation in the treaty of Paris,
what authority is there for
them? They rest solely on legis
lation, and what legislation gave
legislation can take away. The
first concessions were contained
in the act of 1774, and the open
ing so made has been taken ad
vantage of to obtain a succession
of favors from thfe Quebec and
Dominion legislatures. To the
Quebec act, regarded by many
French Canadians as their magna
charta, is to be traced the origin
of the evils which have befallen'
the English-speak'ng settlers, and
which it is the purpose of thia
monograph to describe. It is con
sequently necessary to examine

38

it minutely and the circumstances
under which it was passed.
There never would have been
trouble in the consolidation of
Canada with the empire but for
the priests and those who stylad
.themselves the noblesse. The lat--
,ter did not number seven score
and not one in a score had tha
slightest claim to tha rank of
nobility. They had held commis
sions in the French army or had
been officials in its civil service.
£The change' of masters had left
them without employment. Tha
English governors would have
given them positions, but could
not owing to the oaths prescrib
ed as essential on entering the
king's service, so they lived in
poverty, too proud to work with
their hands but not too proud to
accept gratuities. Idle and dis
contented they agitated for
changes that would better their
lot. Under the new rulers the
habitants were prosperous and
contented ; the little knot of gen
try were the reverse. Had the
intolerant regulations that then
governed the military and civil
service been waived in their favor
they would have become valuable
servants of the British crown :
shut out by these wretched oaths,
proud and poor, arrogant and
.vain, they resented the law that
debarred them from positions of
profit and honor and constituted
a centre of discontent against the
government of the province. All
the petitions for changes in law
sprang from them. If, they said,
Canada is British, it ought to
be ruled as part of the empire;
self-governing, with representa
tive institutions, and so they a g'-
tated for changes which would
provide opportunities for bene
fitting themselves. The habi
tants ignorant of constitution

al government, took no part in an
agitation they could not compre
hend : all the same, the little knot
who were clamoring that Quebec
be given a legislature pretended
they represented the people as
a whole.
For four years after Canada-
had come into Britain's posses
sion it was under martial law.
To the habitants this was noth
ing new: under the rule of Louis
XV. they had known no other, it
was simply a benigner form of
the rule they were accustomed
to. Garneau termed it the period.
of military despotism. Did New
France ever know of any other
form of government? The issu
ing of the royal proclamation of
1763 ended military rule by giv
ing a governor and council to the
province. This continued until
the Quebec act came into force-
The beginning of May, 1774 the
government, without previous no
tice, laid before the house of lords
a bill to provide for the better
government of the province of
Quebec. It met with no opposition
and in a fortnight was adopted:-
and transmitted to the house of
commons. It was a short bill,
embodying three important en
actments- Restored French law,
Repealed test oaths and invest- -
ed the priesthood with auth
ority to levy tithes and dues,
Provided that the province be
ruled by a governor and nomi
nate^ council.
Who the author of the bill was
cannot be stated with certainty.
This is known, that it was ad
vised by Carleton, then governor
of the province, and was strongly
favored by the king. Lord North
was premier, and anything, no
matter how foolish, George Ill-
might ask he would support, the

89

more so, when, as the bill promis
ed to do, he would be saved
trouble in managing the new pos
session. Passed at once by the
lords, the bill suddenly appear
ed in the house of commons at the
fag-end of a session, which was
to be the last of that parliament,
so when it came up for its 2nd
reading out of a house of 588
only 134 were present. Believing
the work of the session was end
ed many members had gone home,
and many were engrossed in pre
parations to ensure their re-elec
tion. The expectation that tha
bill would slip thru the commons
as easily as It had done in the
house of lords was speedily dis
sipated. The ministers had offer
ed no explanation when the bill
was introduced and the motion
that it be read a second time was
formal. It likely would have
passed without debate but for
Thomas Townshend, who at once
rose to oppose the motion, and
to the close of the debates led the
opposition. He was against mak
ing Quebec French, and foretold
what would be the result. With a
prescience that tells of a pene
trating intellect, he pointed out
the effect the bill would have on
those English emigrants who had
settled in Canada, relying on the
promises of the proclamation of
1763. "Would it not be better by
degrees,." Mr Townshend asked,
"to show the French Canadians
"the advantages of the English
"law and mix it with their own?
"You have done the contrary :
"you have taken from the Eng
lish subject his benefit of the
"law of England, and you do not
"offer to the French subject that
"change of the constitution,
"which, if introduced in a mod
erate manner, would attach him
"to Britain. I am convinced," he

added, "this bill, if carried into
"execution, will tend more to
"rivet in the Canadians prej :dia:s
"in favor of French rule, than it
"will attach them to the govern-
"ment of England." Other mem
bers took the same view.. Lord
Cavendish held the true policy
was to assimilate the new sub
jects, who had been, he remark
ed, transferred to Britain by the
French king like deer in a park.
To give them their old laws and
customs will ever make them a
distinct people. The necessity of
keeping good faith with thos a
who had settled under tha pro
mises of the proclamation of
1763 was urged by several. The
persons affected were not the
few who had found homes on the
St. Lawrence, but the thousands
who had moved from the 13 col
onies into the valleys of the Ohio
and Mississippi, for, it is to be
understood, the term province of
Quebec was1 made to cover the
territory out of which great
States were afterwards carved.
The defence of the bill was pure
ly apologetic. None of the minis-
trs who spoke pretended they
cared much for the bill, which
was, they assured the house,
merely experimental. Lord North
was master of big phrases and
affectations of superior wisdom.
He patronized the opponents of
the bill, was sorry they could not
understand it, or see they were
misled by prejudices. In viaw of
the interpretation placed on the
bill by a certain class in our
times, the premier made two
striking admissions. The bill was
to be no irrevocable statute; he
intended it would be changed or
repealed in the near future. It
was not, he told the members, to
be a perpetual settlement. His
solicitor-general, afterwards lord

chancellor Wedderburn, was mare
explicit. "An objection has been
"urged against the measure," he
said, "namely, that there is no
"clause in the bill to make its
"operation temporary. Now, I
"consider this bill, in its nature
"to be temporary. A bill of this
"kind cannot but be temporary,
"because it is a bill of experi-
"ment." Lord North's other ad
mission was more remarkable.
"The honorable gentleman de-
"mands of us, will you extend
"into those countries the free ex
ercise of. the Roman religion?
"Upon my word, I do not see
"that this bill extends Kt fur-
"ther than the ancient limits of
"Canada," that is the church was
ta only exercise its privileges
in those parishes in which it
had done so under the French re
gime. Afterwards, when speak
ing on the objection to the pres
ence of a Catholic bishop in Que
bec, he remarked—
"Whether it is convenient to
"continue or to abolish the
"bishop's jurisdiction is another
"question. I cannot conceive that
"his presence is essential to the
"free exercise of religion; but I
"am sure that no bishop will be
"there under papal authority, be-
"cause he will see that Great
"Britain will not permit any
"papal authority in the country.
"It js expressly forbidden in the
"act of supremacy."
Those who read so much into
Ithe Quebec act should consider
the intention of the premier who
submitted it. Charles Fox, the
Jceenest of parliamentarians, bas
ed a point of order on the re
storing of tithes and dues. The
bill proposes to restore them,
said Fox, that is imposing a
money-tax on the Catholics of
'Quebec. The bill comes to us

40from the house of lords, which
has no power to originate a bill
to raise money, therefore the bill
could not be considered. Lord
North argued the bill did noth
ing of the kind, for it merely con
tinued a tax that already ex
isted. The retort was obvious. If
tithes and dues existed what need
for the bill: if they did not eiist,
the bill must be thrown out on the
point of order. This threw on
the ministers the necessity of
proving tithes were being levied
and their attempting to do so
brought out evidence of the
highest value as to the status of
the church of Rome in Canada
since the cession. Mr Dunning,
afterwards Lord Ashburton, de
clared he had it on the best
authority that the priests had
not been since the cession in pos
session of tithes and dues, nor
will they unless the bill becomes
law. Mr Townshend said he
also had it on the best author
ity that the priests never dared
to sue for tithes. Sergeant Glynn
an eminent lawyer, scouted the
drawing of any distinction be
tween a tithe and a tax. The
right to the tithe had ceased to
exist but would be restored if
the bill passed. The right to the
tithe, in future, he declared, is
founded not on anything in the
past, but upon this act of parlia
ment, and will be a new right
bestowed The government final
ly had to acknowledge tithes and
dues were not in existence in
Canada, the solicitor-general ad
mitting the priests had not since
the conquest sued in the temporal
courts but had adopted the
method of enforcing payment by
excommunication. Fox had sus
tained his point of order, but the
government overruled it by their
vote. They pressed the bill to

41

Its second reading, and it passed
by 105 to 29. This showed its
defeat was hopeless, but the op
position continued their efforts
jn the expectation of introducing
amendments. Of these two may
excite surprise in our times^
their strenuous efforts to graft
in the bill trial by jury in civil
cases and the right of habeas
corpus. Daily experience in
England was showing that only
trial by jury stood between the
people and the tyranny of the
crown, and that removal of
habeas corpus might mean at
Quebec lettres de cachet, then a
real terror in Paris. To under
stand the force of the arguments
on these two subjects we must
place ourselves in the position in
which the people of England then
stood, with the crown stretching
its prerogative to the utmost and
believed to be ready to use, if it
dared, the despotic instruments
of tfie French court.
When the house went into com
mittee on the bill, a new figure
appeared, that of Edmund Burke
who at once lifted the debate to
a higher plane. Pointing out
that the house was; asked to im
pose a code o(f laws with which
no member was conversant,
he demanded evidence as to tho
need of the toM4 and of the na
ture of the lawu and customs it
proposed to restore. It was mon
strous to enact laws of which
the members had no knowledge.
There were, he understood, re
ports on the subject! ;(. hie asked
that these reports be laid on the
table for the information of mem
bers. He was answered the re
ports were too voluminous to
copy in time for use. Baffled in
this direction, he demanded that
witnesses be examined. The
ministers say the hill is a neces

sity, and until such proof is ad
duced I, for one, will never give
my vote for establishing French
law in Canada. Shamed from
forcing the bill into law without
some proof of its need, witnesses
were called. Of these only three
were material, namely the late
governor, Sir Guy Carleton, after
wards made a peer with the title
of Lord Dorchester, his Attorney-
general at Quebec, Maseres, and
hie chief-justice, Hey. It was
well-known Carleton was humor
ing the king in his desire to have
the bill passed, yet, to pointed
questions, he had to acknowledge
there was no dissatisfaction
among the body of the people,
that the habitants were prosper
ous ahd contented, that they did
not want self-government, that
they feared any change would
lead to trouble and expense, and
that the agitation for change
of administration was confined to
the noblesse, who wanted admis
sion to places of trust and honor
equally with the English. The
courts of justice that had been
in existence since the proclama
tion did not give satisfaction,
and, in that regard, the desire to
return to old customs and usages
was general. The evidence of
the other two witnesses went to
confirm the belief that there was
no urgent need for the bill. When
asked how it would affect the
English inhabitants, Hey cauti
ously, answered it would disin
cline them to remain in Canada.
"My idea," he said, "is that a
"country conquered from France
"was, if possible, to be made a
"British province." He favored
adopting the French laws re
garding land and personality, but
all else, commercial and criminal,
should be English. The unexpect
ed lenity with which the French

42

had been treated, had caused
them to rise in their demands,
and they now asked nothing
short of restoration of their laws
and customs.
3?he calling of General Murray
was demanded, but the ministers
evaded the request. His testi
mony would have been of highest
value, and would have borne
against the bill. One member
said he especially wanted Murray
to explain the difference in esti
mates of the population of Can
ada. The statement of the bill
that it was 65,000 at the time of
the conquest and was now
150,000 was incredible, and so it
was. Before entering into the prin
ciple of the bill, Burke raised a
point concerning the status of
English-speaking settlers.. The
bill as introduced conceded to
Quebec the angle of land west
ward from the head of lake Cham
plain. On behalf of New York he
objected to this, because it would
bring into Quebec a number of
settlers who believed they were
on land belonging to New York.
"Unless the line is rectified,"
urged Burke, "you reduce British
"free subjects to French slaves."
He went on to say the line pro
posed was not a line of geograph
ical distinction merely, for it was
not a line between New York and
some other English settlement,
but a line which would separate
men from the right of an English
man, by placing them under laws
which are not the laws of Eng
land. Compared with English
law and rule the eloquent Irish
man exclaimed, the law and rule
of France is slavery. You can
not deprive the forty or fifty
thousand settlers on the New
York frontier of the benefit of
the laws of England, yet this is

what the bill proposes. I would
have English liberty carried into
the French colonies, but I would
not have French slavery carried
into' the English colonies. The
case thus made out by Burke was
so clear to the majority of the
members, that Lord North yield
ed and accepted Burke's amend
ment that the boundary of Que
bec from lake Champlain west
ward be the 45th parallel of lati
tude. If English - speaking settlers
drawn into Quebec by a change
of. boundary would be slaves,-
what of those then residing in
Quebec or who thereafter might
go there? This also was spoken
of, and by those on the minister
ial benches with a supercilious
ness and ignorance that was
shocking in legislators engaged
in shaping the destinies of a fu
ture empire. They held that the
settlers then in Canada were not
worth considering. They were
few, less than 360 men, apart
from women and children^ nearly
all were disbanded soldiers, who,
having the privilege of selling
liquor without license, were keep
ing taverns and grog-shops. The
better class, the military and
civil officials, and the merchants
doing business in the ports, were
merely sojourners, who expected
td return to Britain. What of
future English-speaking settlers?
The ministerialists declared there
would be none. Mr Dunning,
opposing the bill, asked, Ought
you not, upon the principle of
strict justice, to make some pro
vision for persons coming to Can
ada upon the promise of English
laws, and who will find, should
this bill pass, they have got into
a country governed by a des
potism—that they have got into
a country where the religion

43

they carried with them has no
establishment? Solicitor-general
iWedderburn replied that the
government did not wish to see
Canada draw from Britain any
considerable number of her in
habitants. The number of Eng
lish who have settled in Canada
is very few, and "it is one object
"of this bill that these people
"should not settle in Canada,"
and went on to declare the policy
of the government to be to pre
vent settlement of English be
yond its southern boundary, or
westward of the Ohio, to say to
intending settlers, "this is the
"border beyond which, for the
"advantage of the whole empire
"you shall not extend yourselves."
This was the view taken by other
of his colleagues, that English-
speaking people should not be al
lowed to take up land in Canada,
and, therefore, all they had to
consider was the 150,000 French
Canadians. The gentlemen on
the government benches looked
on Canada as an inhospitable
land of ice and snow, with a
fringe of Frenchmen dwelling on
the banks of the great river that
had its source in an unexplored
wilderness, whose vastness baf
fled imagination.
The ignorance that led them to
denounce emigration was match
ed by their ignorance regarding
religion. This assemblage, in
which was no member who would
not take the oaths of the test
act, had no conception of religion
existing without an establish
ment. The proof of the contrary,
furnished by the non-conformists
of Britain and by the Puritans
across the Atlantic, they totally
ignored. There must be tithes
and dues and state authority or
there could be no church. This
pretension was used by those

who, in supporting the bill, yet
held they were sound Protes
tants. Even Burke was unable
to take the larger view, that
with the maintenance of religion
the state should have nothing to
do — that the existence of religion
depends not upon the breath of
kings or parliaments and that
State assistance smothers the di
vine spark. The acute legal mind
of Mr Dunning saw the absurdity
of what the government was pro
posing, that a Protestant king
be head of an established Roman
Catholic church at Quebec, and
the greater absurdity which the
premier suggested, co-ordinate
establishment of that church and
of the church of England, and
argued for simple toleration of
both. He contended that to es
tablish was to encourage, and
pointed out the difficulties that
would arise from establishing a
church which did not recognize
King George as its head. The
premier scouted the fear thus
raised, for, he declared, he had
it from the law officers of the
crown, that the Catholic bishop
of. Quebec was subject to the
king's supremacy. As the debate
proceeded and members realiz
ed all the bill would do, those
who were military men feared
one result would be the reviving
of that militia which had ceased
with the surrender of Vaudreuil.
Binding the priests to King
George by privileges dependent
upon his will they thought se
cured to him the services of their-
parishioners as soldiers. It was
an impression which experience
at the outbreak of the American
revolution showed was erroneous
when the habitants refused to
turn out as militiamen for priest;
or seignior. The reverse was taken
for granted, however, and the be—

44

lief prevailed that the bill would
give the king an army irrespon
sible to parliament. Col. Barre,
who had served under Wolfe, and
whose figure appears in West's
picture as one of those surround
ing the dying soldier, with Irish
frankness declared the object of
the bill was to secure to the king
"a Popish army to serve in the
"colonies, destroying all hope of
"peace with them, for the Ameri-
¦"cans will look on the French Can
adians as their task-masters,
"and, in the end, their execution
ers. That is the plan of the gov
ernment, not a man of them de-
"nies it ; I wash my hands of the
"bill, I declare my solemn aver
sion to it." William Burke, the
friend, but not a relative of Ed
mund, denounced the bill as the
worst that ever engaged the at
tention of parliament, for its ob
ject was to establish the Popish
religion and French despotism
in a conquered province. All the
efforts of the opponents of the
bill to make it consonant to Brit
ish liberty and the principles of
the British constitution had been
defeated. "There will come an
"hour," he foretold, "when it
"will be necessary to testify
"there was some opposition en-
"tered against this mad proceed
ing." Tlle objections of the few
who realized the grave results
that would flow from the bill
were finely expressed by Ser
geant Glynn and Burke in the
closing debate, and extracts from
their speeches will be found in
appendix B.
The ministry showed no con
cern over the opposition the bill
evoked. Secure in his servile fol
lowing Lord North, when blocked
by the opposition, called for a
division, and the opposition was
out-voted. Even when the atten

dance was barely a seventh of the
total, he was secure in a two-
third majority. So slightly did
the premier think of the bill, that
he once adjourned the debate a
day in order that he might at
tend a private entertainment.
Tfie bill practically passed
the commons as introduced.
When it came before the lords
for concurrence in the amend
ments, Pitt, who had been unable
to attend when the bill was being
considered, arose from a sick-bed
to enter a protest against it as
subversive of liberty and open
ing the door to fresh dangers. It
will shake the affections of the
king's subjects on this side of the
Atlantic, he declared, and lose to
him the hearts of those on the
other side. The warning of the
statesman who had won Canada,
who had rescued England from
danger and disgrace, and led her,
wherever her flag floated,
triumphant over the forces of the
combined Catholic powers of
Europe, was unheeded. Only six
peers voted with him, and the bill
declared carried by the votes of
26. On hearing of the progress
of the bill the trade guilds of the
city of London took alarm at the
abolition of civil actions, as
likely to affect their collection of
debts in Canada, and the mayor,
heading the council, went to wait
on King George to ask that he
refuse assent to the bill. That
the measure was of his own sug
gestion, he proved by delaying to
receive the deputation on a quib
ble until he had declared it law.
When news of the bill reached
the American colonies there was
an outcry of indignation. Their
people saw the hurt done them by,
passing the act, and resented it.
The provincial legislatures ad
opted resolutions denouncing it

45

in language their descendants
care not to acknowledge. In
stead of allaying the spirit of dis
affection by recalling into life
fear of French domination, it in
tensified discontent. For a king
who would set Catholic against
Protestant, French against Eng
lish, they had less regard than
ever. In the declaration of inde
pendence the passage of the Que
bec act is made one of the of
fences of King George's govern
ment that justified repudiating
his rule.
What were the changes made
by this act which caused so much
discussion? The first and second
sections define boundaries, the
third confirms titles granted for
lands, the fourth repeals any pro
visions in previous ordinances
and the proclamation of 1763 in
so far as they may conflict with
the act, the fifth is the vital sec
tion, and reads —
"And, for the more perfect se-
"curity and ease of the minds of
"the inhabitants of the said pro-
"vince, it is hereby declared, That
"his Majesty's subjects, profess-
"ing the religion of the church of
"Rome, of and in the said pro
vince of Quebec, may have, hold
"and enjoy the free exercise of
"the religion of the church of
"Rome, subject to the king's su
premacy, declared and. establish
ed by an act, made in the first
- "year of the reign of Queen Eliza
beth, over all the dominions and
"countries which then did, or
"thereafter should belong, to
"the imperial crown of this
"realm; and that the clergy of
"the said church may hold, re-
"ceive, and enjoy, their accus-
"tomed dues and rights, with re
spect to such persons only as
"shall profess the said religion."
The sixth section provides for

the establishment and mainten
ance of a Protestant clergy, the
seventh dispenses with the oath
of the days of Elizabeth, in which
the claims of the Papacy are re
nounced, and substitutes one
which simply promises true al
legiance. The eighth runs thus—
"That all his majesty's Cana
dian subjects within the pro
vince of Quebec, the religious
"orders and communities only ex-
"cepted, may also hold and en-
"joy their property and posses
sions, together with all cus-
"toms and usages thereto, and all
"other civil rights. . . . \as! jnay
"consist with their allegiance to
"his Majesty, and subjection to
"the crown and parliament of
"Great Britain; and that in the
"matters of controversy, relative
"to property and civil rights, re
sort shall be had to the laws of
"Canada, as the rule for the de-
"cision for the same."
Section ten extends this by in
cluding all movables which may
be given or bequeathed either ac
cording to the laws of Canada or
of England. Eleven establishes
English criminal law. The re
maining sections provide for the
constituting of a council to as
sist in governing the province,
levying taxes, and other execu
tive matters.
The two important sections
are five and eight. On analyzing
five, it will b> seen it gives the
power to the priests to compel
their people to pay tithes and
taxes to build and maintain
churches and nothing mora. The
section does not recognize the
Catholic church as an established
church nor confer upon it any of
the attributes of an established
church beyond giving it the help
of the law to secure support from
its own members. Saction eight

46

is peculiar in its wording. Lit
erally interpreted, it placed the
province under the laws then in
existence in Canada, which were
those ot England. |£he phrase
"laws of Canada" was dictated
by pride, to avoid specifying the
laws of France. The intention of
the framer of the act was the
guide to those who administered
it. It was made clear, however,
that the restoration of Freftieh
law was not to extend to all the
province but to be confined to
the seigniories. Section nine
reads— "Provided always, that noth
ing in this act contained shall
"extend, or be construed to ex-
"tend to any lands that have
"been granted by his majesty, or
Shall hereafter be granted by
"his majesty, his heirs and suc
sessors, to be holden ih free and
"common soccage."
The importance has not been
attached to this section that it
deserves, for it confines the ap
plication of sections 5 and 8 to
an extremely limited area. When
the bill was passed the only land
ih the province that had not been
granted in free and common soc
cage was the seigniories, which
formed a fringe along the St.
Lawrence and Richelieu, some
ten miles deep. Outside that
narrow fringe, sections 5 and 8
did not apply. The act of 1774
amounted then to this, that in
the seigniortes French civil law
was restored and the priests
could collect tithes and dues.
Outside the seigniories the law
remained as fixed by the procla
mation of 1763. The act is in
variably spoken of by French
commentators as applying to the
entire province of Quebec, Sec
tion 9 places beyond controversy
that Its reensctmant of French

law was confined solely to the
parishes then in existence, an in
significant portion of the pro
vince. Of. the practical effect of the
changes made we have an offi
cial and authentic estimate
by the ministry who sub
mitted the Quebec act. It re
ceived the royal sanction on June
22nd, 1774. Six months after
wards Sir Guy Carleton was ap
pointed governor of Quebec.
The royal instructions he re
ceived for himself and the coun
cil that was to be formed were
exceedingly voluminous. After
pointing out the discrimination
to be exercised in allowing the
French "the benefit and use of
"their own laws, usages, and
"customs" ih regard to real
estate and descent, the new coun
cil is admonished to consider well
in framing its ordinances "whe-
"ther the laws of England may
"not be, if not altogether, at
"least in part, the rule for deci!s-
"ion in all cases" of a commercial
nature. The instructions as to
religion shatter the pretence that
the Quebec act made the Cathol c
church an established church.
Governor Carleton i3 enjoined to
recognize no such pretension, but
to hold its bishop and priests
under his control, preventing
their exercising their clerical
functions until they had received
his license. The instructions are
copied in appendix C, and the
reader will perceive from them
how limited were tha concessions
made. The value of the act of
1774 to the church of Rome in
Quebec lies not so much in what
it conceded, as in making an
opening for further demands.
Once granted that it should have
exceptional privileges, demand
was pile*! upon demand as orpor-

47
tunity presented itself, each de- to the British crown without re
mand as conceded forming an striction. Third, as to religion.
excuse for asking more and The treaty merely guaranteed
urged as a reason for legislators that toleration Catholics would
giving what was asked. It is have received without specifica-
the old fable of first a finger, tion. Then, following the treaty,
then an arm, ending in the whole King George issued; aproclama-
body. tion, in which he assured all who
This chapter has been unduly went to Quebec "may confide in
extended by giving the text of "our royal protection for the en-
quotations instead of summariz- "joyment of the benefit of the
ing them. This was necessary in "laws of our realm of England."
view of the fact that when any In instructing its first governor,
proposal is made to assimilate Murray, how he was to rule the
Quebec with the other provinces province, the king enjoins him
of the Dominion in law and ad- that, while giving such scope as
ministration, it is met with the the laws of England allowed to
declaration that the proposal his Roman Catholic subjects, he
conflicts with the "guaranteed was not to admit the jurisdiction
rights" of Quebeq. In daily con- of Rome. The measure of tolera-
versation, from the platform, on tion thus allowed was recognized
the floor of parliament, from the as all those affected could ex-
judicial bench, from the pulpit, pect under the treaty, and no
changes have been declared not complaint was made by them or
possible on this score, and the by the French government that
idea has been propagated that article four was not observed.
the French language, French Privileges granted by legisla-
laws, and the plenitude of power tion stand upon a different base
enjoyed by the church of Rome from those secured by an inter-
were pledged by a solemn treaty, national treaty, and it was by
with which parliament dare not legislation what is exceptional
interfere. In examining into in the privileges of the priesthood
whether this be so, it was neces- in Quebec came. The act of par-
sary to quote literally. And liament of 1774 gave them power
what has been the result? First, to collect tithes and fabrique
that neither the treaty nor any taxes in the 82 parishes then in
of the imperial documents has a existence and nothing more. Out-
single word about the French side those parishes they were
language. The assertion that its jrWen no exceptional rights. The
official use was guaranteed has instructions to the governor who
not a tittle of evidence to rest was to administer the act, ih-
upon: it is a pure fabrication, form him the concession does not
Nowhere in the treaty or the imply the church of Rome in Que-
documents it is based upon is the bee is an established church and
French language even recognized, he is forbidden to recognize its
Second, this is also true as to episcopal powers. Finally, the
Fsrench laws. The treaty not aot, while restoring French law
only makes no reference, how- and usage, does not do so in the
ever Indireotly, to such lawe, province at large, but only to
but by the fourth article trans- that small portion of it held
f erred the inhabltaats of Quebec undter seignior Sal tenure, ant that

48

only for a time, for the council
is admonished by the king to
bring that law, as opportunity
presented, into harmony with
English law.
The French Canadian has no
treaty rights, but he has what is
higher than any the king of his
forefathers could have demanded
for him— the rights of a British
subject, and these alone. The
church of Rome in Quebec has no
treaty rights, and nothing be

yond what statutes have bestow
ed. Her peculiar privileges, so
injurious to those outside her
pale, so threatening to the peace
of. the Dominion, wore obtained
piecemeal, and at wide intervals,
by legislation. At any time, by
the will of the majority of the
electors of the Dominion, what
ever is contrary to the public
weal in the law3 of the province
of Quebec, can be annulled by
legislation.

CHAPTER 6

War being the greatest of all
violations of the natural laws, it
follows that the penalty which
befalls the nations which have
crossed swords must be in pro
portion. Earthquake and vol
canic irruption, flood and drouth,
famine and epidemic, are each of
terrifying significance to a na
tion, yet the consequences of all
these combined are not compar
able to the woes that war lets
loose on humanity. And there is
this peculiarity about them, that
long after the cause, indeed often
when the war from which they
arose has passed from memory,
the woes remain. Tha loss of Ca
nada to France is directly trace
able to the bloodthirsty spirit of
its founders. They aimed at a
military colony, with every man
a soldier, and it was by flourish
ing the sword in the face of their
neighbors the colony provoked
its fate. Had they kept by spade
and plow the colony would have
lived and flourished. Tha over
throw of the power of France in
Amarica is referred to by those
of. English speech with exulta

tion, and Wolfe's victory is quot
ed as something inspiring. Yet
it is writ plain on the page of
history that the conquest of Can
ada was a blunder— a presage to
the greatest disaster that ever
befell the British nation and to
the Anglo-Saxon race. Had the
consequences of the battle of the
plains of Abraham been pictured
by a seer, the tidings of it would
have been received wherever
English is spoken with lamenta
tion. It was the conquest of Can
ada that made the American re
volution possible. Had there
been no conquest, a peaceable
separation of the 13 colonies
would have come in time; it was
the conquest that precipitated
the event in bloodshed, giving
birth to a spirit of hatred and
jealousy on the part of the Am
ericans which has often thwart
ed Britain's purposes and encour
aged her .enemies. Worse than
that, it ranged those who speak
the same language and profess
the same faith in open antagon
ism. The false patriotism to
which militarism gives birth may

49

glory over Wolfe's crowning
achievement; tru» patriotism, the
offspring of. the love of humanity,
cannot. The Canadian patriot
sees in that victory the cause of
the dangers that threaten his
country— the continuance of in
stitutions irreconcilable with
freedom. The progress of events
would have decided the destiny
of Canada without wager of
battle. A generation later its
separation from France would
have been inevitable. How dif
ferently would Quebec have en
tered into an English alliance had
the step been taken after the
downfall of the Bourbons? In
that case the church of Rome
would have been disestablished
by her own members, the effete
institutions which France had
fastened upon Canada wouldhave
been flung aside by those who
suffered from them. Tha people,
aroused from the torpor of cen
turies of absolutism would
have welcomed partnership with
their English neighbors as cc-
equals, as allies and brothers in
the cause of freedom. Let it be
set down as a self-apparent fact
that Wolfe's victory preserved in
the New World what the Old
World soon afterwards destroy
ed—the clerical and temporal in
stitutions of feudal France. The
France that died at tha taking of
the Bastile, and -which disappear
ed from the banks of the Seine,
was preserved on tha plains of
Abraham and survives to-day on
the banks of the St. Lawrence.
Under any circumstances tha
conquest of a country is the
greatest misfortune that can be
fall the conqueror. The world
is so ordered, that each national
ity can only ba content when
self-governed. The imposing of
rule by outsiders arouses a

spirit of antagonism that appeals
to every man who has felt the
glow of patriotism. That the
rule of the stranger is better
than that it superseded does not
change the attitude of the beat
en people. They are foreign
laws imposed by force. To the
French Canadians the rule of the
English was the more obnoxious
that it was that of newcomers
who differed from them in lan
guage and creed. In General
Murray and his officers thay saw
not only their hereditary ene
mies, but men whom they had
been taught from infancy to re
gard as heretics. That Murray
was considerate of their needs
and tolerant of their prejudices,
that he had changed their gov
ernment, for tha better, given
them a security they had never
known, released them from bur
dens of taxation and service that
had ground them to the dust,
went for little. The weakness
induced by the exhaustion of a
long war compelled them to sut-
mit, but there was nothing to
evoke their love. That they would
yet see the stranger driven forth
by the power of France was their
hope. Remarkable to relate,
there was not the slightest move
by the British towards assimila
tion, no effort made to induce
settlers either from the American
colonies or from the Mother
Land.and the habitants, prosper
ing as they never had done,
went on increasing, forming a
solid body of people impervious
to British ideas of civil and re
ligious liberty. Had the govern
ment of George III. said plainly,
that, as by the treaty of peace*
France had relinquished all claim
to Canada, they would treat It
as a part ofBritain and endeavor
to make it British in deed as well

50

as name, there would have been
ground to believe that each suc
ceeding generation would have
become more and more attached
to Britain. Instead, tha Cana
dians from tha first were treated
with distrust, the attitude of thc
governing class b-ing that we
witness to-day in Egypt and In
dia. The possibility of their ris
ing in revolt was the spectre that
haunted each successive gover
nor, and caused the maintenance
of garrisons obnoxious to the in
habitants and burdensome to tha
British taxpayer. Canada was
rieh beyond the wildest imagina
tion in natural resources, yet in
stead of developing them by en
couraging emigration from the
United Kingdom, where hundreds
of thousands lived in penury, the
government forbade the settle
ment of the lands that awaited
the hand of man to burst into
abundance. The policy of con
querors in all ages, to plant in
the countries they subdued set
tlements of people upon whose
allegiance they could rely, tha
British rulers ignored. But thay
went further. With a fatuity
past comprehension, thay not
only took pains to prevent Eng
lish settlers coming to Quebec,
but restored to the people whom
they guarded against such in
trusion, the distinctive features
cf the French regime. By a
sweep of his pen George III.
wiped out English jurisprudence
and restored the laws of tha
kings of France, and fastened a-
new on the people the parifh sys
tem. The latter was restored
under conditions the French
kings would not have listened to.
Whan the priest was given power
to tax and tithe, he was held ac
countable to the crown for the
way in which he used the privi

leges, there was appeal by the
parishioners to intendant and
governor. It was extraordinary
powers exercised by priests at
the will of an arbitrary monarch,
who, as he saw fit, .curbed and
suspended. Under the French re
gime the parish system, resting
upon the will of an arbitrary
ruler, could be , modified or re
pealed at his whim ; under British
rule it was given the authority
of a statute and was re-estab
lished in a way that has left the
priest irresponsible to our ecu ts.
It is important to grasp all that
is here implied. The Imperial
parliament by the Quebec act
gave the priest power to levy
taxes to build and maintain
church and parsonage and to
provide his salary, and to use the
secular courts to collect those
taxes, yet exempted him f :om ac
countability to the government
or to the courts. On a select
body of men was bestowed the
privilege of using the courts,
which means the authority of the
crown, to collect taxes, without
responsibility either to crown or
court as to giving account of the
service thay render for the money
so levied. What Bishop Laval
sought but could not get from
Louis XIV., an ecclesiastical sys
tem independent of the state yet
using the state as its servant,
George III., while pluming him
self on his stand against
the hierarchy of Rome, was the
means of enabling that hierarchy,
in course of time, to get all they
wanted. While thf conquest of Canada
made the American revolution
possible, that revolution was the
unlooked for cause of preventing
Canada reverting to what it was
under France. Left under the
conditions of the Quebec act and

51

the policy that prevented immi
gration, it would have become a
Papal preserve, expanding with
increase of population. What
changed that fate was the abrupt
rush of a host of fleeing men, wo
men, and children seeking refuge
beneath its forests from the hate
and cruelty of the victorious re
publicans. Their coming saved
all of Canada west of the Ottawa
from the doom that has over
taken Quebec. These newcomers
were energetic and the appear
ance of a chain of settlements on
the banks of the upper St. Law
rence and along the north shore
of lake Ontario compelled the
home authorities not only to
provide for their maintenance
but also to give them some form of
government. Here, again, jn fram
ing a constitution to meet the
new conditions forced upon them,
they blundered. They knew these
people who had fled from the
tyranny of the new republic
would not submit to the condi
tions of the Quebec act, and that
something different was requir
ed. Instead of repealing that act
and devising a constitution that
would give, French or English, all
they could expect, and so keep
Canada a unit, they decided to
divide Canada into two provinces
— one French the other English.
So far as practicable, the policy
of segration, of two laws, and
two systems of administration,
was to be tried. . This is the
policy which, half a century
afterwards. Lord Durham deplor
ed and endeavored to correct.
It was too late, the evil was not
in his day to be remedied, and the
union that would have succeeded
in 1791 failed in 1841. Pitt pro
fessed to see in the arrangement
of two provinces a means of
averting strife between French

and English, for each would have
their own province and their own
legislature. In this Fox did not
concur. Instead of providing for
the separation of the two races,
he urged, it was "desirable they
"should coalesce into one body,
"and that the different distinc
tions be extinguished." Outside
the official circle, the bill was
opposed by the entire English
population of Quebec. They were
few, to be sure, and because they
were few were the more solicit
ous there should be no division
into two provinces. One of their
number, Adam Lymburner, was
deputed to appear in London and
represent their views. He was
given a hearing at the bar of the
house of commons and read an
intolerably tedious protest
against the proposed measure.
Amid his cloud of inconsecutive
sentences he made one point
clear, that the English settlers
desired the repeal of the Quebec
act in toto and a new constitu
tion for the whole country ,which
would recognize no distinctions
as to race or creed; to use his
own words, "a new and complete
"constitution, unclogged and un-
"embarassed with any laws prior
"to" the conquest. He spoke to
the wind. The bill erecting two
provinces. Upper and Lower Can
ada, was passed, and another
step taken in perpetuating the
French regime under the British
flag. The Canada act provided for a
modified system of self-govern
ment. There was to be a lower
house whose members were to be
elected by the people, and a coun
cil composed of crown nominees.
The device was a compromise be
tween self-government and auto
cratic rule. A remarkable fea
ture of the act, and of which

slight notice has been taken in
any of our histories, is its
making the church of England
the established church of both
provinces. After declarm.; that
the provision in the act of 1774,
ordering "that the clergy of the
"church of Rome in the province
"of Quebec might hold, receive,
"and enjoy their accustomed
"dues" from their members, the
act authorized tha governor-in-
council to erect church of Eng
land rectories within every town
ship, or parish, and to pay the
rectors salaries out of the waste
lands to be allotted for that pur
pose or from any tithes that may
ibe collected. The governor-in-
council was to have the presenta
tion to these rectories under the
same conditions as exist in Eng
land. TP prevent any obstacle
toeing placed in the way of carry
ing out these provisions by tha as
sembly, it was provided that any
act of the legislature regarding
them must be submitted to the
Imperial parliament before re
ceiving the royal assent. Tha ob
ject of this clause, and of the one
confining the constituting of and
presenting to rectories to the
governor, is obvious — to block
any attempt by the French Can
adians to prevent carrying
out the purpose of the act. In
the act there are 50 sections.
Of these eight are devoted to the
constituting of the church of
England as the established
church. It would be correct to
describe the act as one establish
ing a modified system of self-gov
ernment and the church of Eng
land in Canada, and the act fur
nishes incontrovertible evidence
that, a generation after the con
quest, the home government re
garded the church of Rome in
Quebec; as an alien organization

having no inherent rights and
none beyond those it had con
ferred upon it, with a declared
intention of making the church of
England the church of Quebec,,
That the purpose of the act fail
ed does not affect the proof it
supplies of the legal standing of
the church of Rome in Quebec in
1791 or of the intention at that
date of the government.
The act was a failure in more
regards than its provision to es
tablish the church of England. Its
device to rule by means of an as
sembly elected by the people and
a Council nominated by the
crown, the council having a veto
on the acts of the assembly, was
foredoomed, for it could not work.
The one was democratic, tha pre
sumed mouthpiece of the people,
the other autocratic, represent
ing the governor and his advis
ers. It was inevitable the two
should clash, especially in Quebec,
where the assembly was French
and the council English. Ere long
they were openly antagonistic. In
Upper Canada the cause of strife
was constitutional ; in Lower
Canada, where only a handful of
Educated men knew anything of
constitutional government, the
cause was race. In Upper Cana
da, the members of the council
were largely of the class who
had been crown officials in the
13 colonies, and who brought
with them to Canada their ideas
of privileges, fees, and nepotism,
and who treated the members of
the lower house as inferiors who
needed a master. That with the
growth of the country there
should be a revolt against the as
sumptions of such a petty oli
garchy was to be expected. Con
ditions were entirely different in
Quebec. To the habitant the pro
posal of an approach towards

53

self-government was an entire
novelty, something he could not
comprehend. In no regard had
the French kings been so exact
ing as in seeing that the people
should have no voice in public af
fairs— their duty was to submit,
that of the king alone to govern.
JThe instructions from France to
successive governors give ample
proof. To so great an extreme
was this spirit of absolutism car
ried, that, as already noted, the
people were denied a voice even
in municipal matters. iWhen
Frontenac summoned an ordinary
council in the church of the
Jesuits at Quebec, he was not
only censured by the king but
advised to see that the town-
councillors be appointed by the
crown and not by the citizens of
Quebec. The instruction, sent in
1685, "It is of very great conse
quence that the people should
"not be left at liberty to speak
"their minds," was carried into
every domain— that of church,
parish, and state. Thus trained
for generations, the habitant had
come to look for the governance
of everything outside his farm
T>eing conducted by those who
claimed to be set above him, and
anything approaching the right
of free speech, free assembly, and
free action was an undreamt of
novelty. Of voting he knew noth
ing, and did not take kindly to
the innovation. When called
upon to vote for a representative
in the assembly, he had his sus
picions that it was a trap to do
him harm. The farmers of whole
parishes refused to vote and in
others the feeling was carried to
the extent of forcibly preventing
those who wished. , However
elected, legally or not, members
reported from each county. They
were, apart from a few farmers,

the big men 'of their parish,
seigniors or their sons, notaries
or lawyers if French : merchants
if English. When the house open
ed the question of language
necessarily had to ibe settled.
The supposition that the use of
French as an official language
was provided for in the act of
1791 is erroneous. There is noth
ing in it about language. Eng
lish was the sole official lan
guage, and all the first assembly
could do was to agree on the per
missive use of French in its de
bates and journals. The debate
as to language arose in choosing
a speaker, and the remarks of one
of the members have been pre
served. Mr Panet said—
"I will explain my mind on the
"necessity of the speaker we are
"about to choose should possess
"and speak equally well the two
"languages. In which ought he
"to address the governors — is it
"in the English or French lan
guages?— To solve the question,
"I ask whether this colony is or is
"not an English colony?— What is
"the language of the sovereign
"and of the legislature from
"whom we hold the constitution
"which assembles us to-day?what
"is the general language of the
"empire?— what is that of one
"part of our fellow-citizens?—
"what will that of the other and
"that of the whole province be at
"a certain epoch? I am a Cana
dian, the son of a Frenchman—
"my natural tongue is French;
"for, thanks to the ever subsist-
"ing division between the Cana
dian and the English since the
"cession of the country, I have
"been able to procure a little
"knowledge of that of the latter
" — my testimony will not, there
fore, be questioned. It is then
"my opinion, that there is an ab-

54

"solute necessity that the Cana
dians, in course of time, adopt
"the English language, as the
"only means of dissipating the re
pugnance and suspicions which
"the difference of language would
"keep up between two peoples
"united by circumstances and
"necessitated to live together;—
"but in the expectation of the ac-
"complishment of that happy re
solution, I think it is but decent
"that the speaker on whom we
"may fix our choice, be one who
"can express himself in English
"when he addresses himself to the
"representative of our sover
eign." The house was not in session a
week until the incompatability of
the two elements became appar
ent. The English-speaking mem
bers assumed airs of superiority
which ill became them, and to
which they had no claim, while
the French regarded them with
suspicion and banded themselves
together for mutual defence.
Under the most favorable condi
tions it would have been difficult
to get the two elements to work
in harmony; unfortunately, con
ditions were not favorable. War
was going on between the Indian
tribes of the southwest and the
Americans. The authorities at
Washington accused the English
of. secretly fomenting the strife.
(We know now, with the confiden
tial correspondence between the
governor of Canada and the Im
perial authorities before us, how
false that charge was, how sin
cerely anxious the British were
to keep on good terms with the
American government, and how
Lord Dorchester and his subor
dinates exerted themselves to
avoid even the appearance of of
fence. They, however, could not
control individual Frenchmen,

whose traditional alliance with
the warring tribes and dislike of
their English speaking foes led
them to assist in battling with
the U. S. forces. Men suspected of
acting thus were among the mem
bers of the assembly, and their
presence was resented by the
English members. A second and
worse cause was the firm belief
of the English that there was
danger of Canada being re
conquered by the French. From
the hour of its cession and for a
quarter of a century afterwards,
this fear was dominant in the
minds of the minority. That a
French fleet would appear some
morning in the St. Lawrence, land
an army, and, assisted by the
habitants, win Canada again for
France, was a recurring dread
with every prospect of war with
that country. There was always
a cry of wolf, of emissaries at
work with French gold to seduce
the habitants from their allegi
ance, of plots afoot to recapture
Quebec, of officers disguised as
civilians coming from France.
When the assembly met, relations
between France and Britain were
strained. The French revolution
had broken out, party feeling was
red-hot, and it was plain to all,
that only Pitt's great influence
kept the two nations from fly
ing at each other's throat. Just
when national feeling was glow
ing intensely, when English were
English and French were French
with a meaning never before .
known, the assembly met. They
could not unite. The English pro
fessed to see on its benches
Frenchmen who were aliens,who
were there to plot and scheme to
overturn British rule, unjustly
imputing to every Frenchman the
crimes and opinions that were be
ing perpetrated and promulgated

55

in Paris. The French members,
forced by prudence to suppress
their resentment outwardly, were
as flatly hostile. They insisted
not merely in using French in de
bate, many could not do other
wise, knowing no English, but in
introducing bills in French, and
in fixing the quorum at such a
figure as made it impossible for
the English members to be in a
majority at any sitting The
governor, Dorchester, would not
submit to bills being sent to him
for his assent in French, much
less agree to the statutes being
printed in that language, and
asked the Imperial authorities as
to whether he should pass a bill
laid before him in a foreign
tongue. The instruction came
back from London, that bills in
troduced in French, and passed in
the assembly, must be put into
English before being submitted
to him.
When 'each ship that cast an
chor off Cape Diamond brought
tidings of worse and worse ex
cesses in France, when every in
stitution, however venerable
from age or association with all
that men reverence, was being
overthrown, when scaffolds were
daily drenched with blood, and
every land was crowded with
fugitives, came the announcement
that France had declared war
against Britain. The handful of
English on the banks of the St.
Lawrence realized their danger,
and proceeded to take steps for
defence. The governor ordered a
levy of the militia. It was the
second effort to call the habi
tants to arms under the British
flag. It was a paltry contingent
he asked, 2000 men. It was
found impossible to make the
levy. Disaffection found expres
sion in riots and passive resist

ance. The English banded ihair.-
selves in loyal associations, and
the government, having susp nH-
ed the habeas corpus act, was ac
tive in arresting suspected per
sons. All this was natural under
the circumstances, yet it is evi
dent had the effect of placing the
two races into direct antagonism
and of i nterrupting the slowly
healing process that had been go
ing on before the ill-advised act
of 1791 was adopted. Thc Frcn h
now had a mouthpiece and a ral
lying point in the new assembly,
which used its power to obstruct
the measures the governor
thought necessary. All this wa.s
natural. They would have becu
less than men had they not
yearned to get back under their
own nation : they would have
been less than Frenchmen had tha
blood not run faster in their
veins as they heard of those vic
tories of the French republic that
promised the displacing of Eng
lish rule in Canada. Natural as
all this was, Dorchester and h.s
executive could not swerve fro.n
the line of conduct the victory of
Wolfe had made incumbent upon
them. Sedition was sternly
dealt with by imprisonment and
expulsion from the country, and
all possible steps taken in prepar
ation of invasion or a rising. It
was a critical time, and only the
supremacy won by the British
fleet saved Canada from in
vasion. The element that gave the gov
ernment most trouble was again
the seigniors. The prosperity
that had come to Quebec as the
result of British rule, had multi
plied their receipts from the in
creasing number of their censi-
taires and the introduction of
lumbering. They were no longer
the beggarly idlers who sought

56

charity from the British govern
ment. The opening of the assem
bly was their opportunity. Thay
became members and were in
their element in conducting in
trigues to embarrass the authori
ties. Most of them had maintain
ed correspondence with their
family relatives in France, sev
eral had visited France : all were
Anglophobes of an Implacable
type, yet deceitful and plausible
towards the English. Fortunate
ly for Lord Dorchester, they had
lost their influence over the
censitaires. The habitants had
never liked them, and what re
spect they still showed was a
survival of their fear under tha
old regime. They openly com
plained of their remorseless ex
actions. Under French rule they
could appeal to the advocate-
general to keep the seigniors
within bounds : now there was no
restraining hand, and the habi
tants were clamant in their de
mand that a law be passed to
protect them. The government
favored such a law, but in an
assembly where the seigniors had
so much influence, its passage
was impossible. The weakness
that left the seigniors their feud
al privileges is to ba rankad
among the causes which have pro
duced the political difficulties
which confront the Dominion.
The development of the habitant
is an interesting study. Under
the old rule he could hardly be
called a farmer, for his incoma
depended more on his employ
ment by the fur-traders than on
what he raised from his land.
Then his time was not his own.
At any moment he was liable to
be called out to serve as a sol
dier. In making forays on the
English settlements and in repel
ling Indian attacks much of his

time was taken up. There was
no encouragement for steady in
dustry, and as a matter of fact
the work on the homestead was
left largely to his wife and chil
dren. The habitant as we find
him to-day, in an economical
sense, is the product of English
rule. It was under Murray,Carlc-
ton, Haldimand the transforma
tion took place. He lost his mili
tary character, he lost tha ir
regular habits of those engaged
in the fur-trade, and became for
the first time in his history a
farmer. Dwelling in the midst of
his family those domestic virtues
were unfolded which form so
beautiful a feature in the hab-
tant home,while his limited earn
ings taught him his distinguish
ing thrift, for which there was no
encouragement during the period
when a commissary of the king
could empty his barn. Between
the habitant of the time of Louis
XV. and of George III. the resem
blance is slight. And this habi
tant created under English rule
is incomparably the finest type
of the French people. In solid
worth— honesty, industry, kindly
disposition, politeness — he com
mands respect, and if the causes
were removed which have kept
him unprogressive, he would as
tonish those who decry him, for
the habitant and his children are
naturally bright and have the
capacity to take a foremost place
among the peoples of this contin
ent. Their intellectual bears no
relation to their emotional and
perceptive development, for thay
have been designedly kept in ig
norance to serve the purposes of
priest and politician. When the
false lights of prejudice no longer
distort the vision, when the
bandages which have arrest
ed his mental- growth have

57

been torn away, when the habi
tant sees and thinks for himself,
there will be a renaissance in
Quebec outrivalling that of Italy
which will compel the wonder and
admiration of the world. Those
who speak disparagingly of the
habitant are ignorant of the
qualities which lie latent within
him awaiting the touch of the
spirit of truth.
The character of English rule
from the conquest to the ap
proach made to self-government
jn 1791 is persistently misrepre
sented. One of the stock pic
tures of St. Jean Baptiste day
pulpit and platform orators, is
that of the French people desert
ed, helpless, despairing, revived
by the appearance among them of
their beloved pastors, calling
upon them to save their nation
ality by rallying around them.
The people did so, and the priests
protected them from the designs
of the invader and brought them
in triumph to this hour. Contrast
this with the evidence of a wit
ness whose credibility cannot be
questioned, and see how false the
implication that British rulers
persecuted or afflicted the people
who had fallen into their hands.
In a sermon preached in Quebec
cathedral, June 27, 1794, he who
soon after became Bishop Plessis
said — "The disorders which pre
vailed in this colony ascended to
"heaven, crying vengeance and
"provoking the wrath of the Al-
"mighty. God visited our coun-
"try with the horrors of war. . . .
"It spread the severest grief
"among all Christian families.
"They all lamented their own un
fortunate lot, and that they
"could not live where the king-
"dom of God was threatened with
"destruction. Our conquerors
"were looked upon with jealousy

"and suspicion, and inspired only
"apprehension. People could not
"persuade themselves that
"strangers to our soil, to our lan
guage, our laws and usages, and
"our worship, would ever be cap-
"able of restoring to Canada,
"what it had lost by a change of
"masters. Generous nation I which
"has strongly demonstrated how
"unfounded were those pre
judices ; industrious nation !
"which has contributed to the de
velopment of those sources of
"wealth which existed in the
"bosom of the country; exem-
"plary nation! which in times of
"trouble teaches to the world
"in what consists that liberty to
"which all men aspire and among
"whom so few knew its just
"limits; kind hearted nation!
"which has received with so much
"humanity the most faithful sub
jects most cruelly driven from
"the kingdom to which we f orm-
"erly belonged ; beneficent na-
"tionl which every day gives to
"Canada new proofs of liberality.
"No, no 1 you are not our enemies,
"nor of our properties which are
"protected by your laws, nor of
"our holy religion which you re
spect. Forgive then this early
"misconception of a people who
"had not before the honor of
"being acquainted with you ; and
"if, after having learned the sub
version of the government and
"the destruction of the true wor
ship in France, after having en-
"joyed for 35 years the mildness
"of your sway, there are some
"amongst us so blind or ill-inten-
"tioned, as to entertain the same
"suspicious, and inspire the people
"with the criminal desire of re-
"turning to their former masters*
"do not impute to the whole peo-
"ple what is the vice of a small
"number."

CHAPTER 7

It will be recalled that the
policy of Lord North, and it was
endorsed by his political oppon
ents, was to keep Canada sealed
against emigrants. Some encour
agement however, was given to
soldiers who had served their
time, to remain, and to them
grants of land were made. Few
went on the lots bestowed on
them, and their patents they sold
for a trifle. It was the influx of
U. E. loyalists that shattered the
illusions of the home authorities
regarding emigration. The drift
of that remarkable movement
was towards Ontario, yet
streamlets trickled into Quebec.
Men with their families, who had
been robbed of every thing by the
successful republicans, came in
ships to Quebec ' ahd pleaded for
assistance. Most of them were
forwarded to the Lunenburg dis
trict, but, commencing in 1792,
a few were granted lots in Que
bec, which they set to work to
clear. The tidings which travel
lers west of Montreal brought of
the growth of thriving settle
ments where, a few years before,
was unbroken forest, showed
what was possible in Que
bec and encouragement began
to be given to the people of the
British isles to come over. From
a policy of exclusion the Quebec
authorities rushed to the other
extreme. After refusing land
grants for a generation, they

now began to dispense them
without discretion. Creatures
who had official influence sought
and obtained vast areas, ranging
from 40,000 acres downwards.
The first grant was made in 1795
and in the next 15 years over 2
million acres were ceded to men
who had not the remotest inten
tion of cultivating the land, but
sought its possession in the ex
pectation of selling it to those
who would. It was the first
of the long series of land-grabs
that have lasted to our own time,
and in some regards the most
disgraceful. The evil effects of
this locking up of land in the
hands of those who held it in
order to sell, were long felt, and
did much to discourage emi
grants remaining in Quebec. Had
the land been granted only to
those would clear and cultivate
it, a large English-speaking pop
ulation would have been planted
in Quebec. When the new-comer
found there were no free lots,
that the land he yearned for had
been conceded to some official or
political favorite, who asked a
price for it, he passed onwards
to Ontario. The course of Can
ada's governments, from first to
last, in dealing with its great
heritage of virgin land, has been
criminal. It trammeled the de
velopment of all the provinces,
it blasted that of Quebec. When
the first ship came whose main

59

purpose was the conveyance of
emigrants cannot probably now
be ascertained. In 1817, the
year when immigration assumed
such proportions that it com
manded attention, vessels arriv
ed with from 300 to 400, which
indicates the tide had set in sev
eral years before that date.
From 1790 ships landed families
and groups of families who found
homes in Quebec, but a steady
stream of immigrants did not set
towards the St. Lawrence until
1815, and high flood wag not
reached until 1820. These poor
people were land-hungry and
eager to get lots on landing. The
fringe of French parishes along
the great river was mostly occu
pied and what land was unoccu
pied was subject to rent, a word
they had learned to dread. Back
of the seigniories there were vast
expanses of wild land, which, had
it been given out in free lots,
would speedily have been taken
up. The government, however,
had conceded it to plecemen, who
asked prices which the newcom
ers, whose capital lay in their
sturdy arms and undaunted
courage, would not pay.
This fell in with the desires of
the majority in the legislature,
who threw every obstacle in the
way of those who came from the
British isles settling in Quebec.
Lord Dorchester perceived the
obstacle seigniorial tenure pre
sented to the settlement of the
province and proposed not only
that all unsurveyed land be
granted in free and common soc-
cage, but that steps be taken to
enable seigniors to so convert
their unconceded lands. The
French members strenuously op
posed these proposals, demanding
that parish and seigniorial tenure
be made universal. One of their

arguments was tha$ free and
common soccage tenure of land
was conducive to republicanism 1
However, the governor had
power enough to make that ten
ure the rule, and no crown lands
were conceded after 1796 except
in free and common soccage. That
did not settle the question. No
taries continued to draw deeds in
the old form and proprietors of
ceded wastelands claimed the
privileges of seigniors. In resist
ing the change of tenure, the ma
jority in the assembly did not
express the desires of the habi
tants, who were a unit for the
abolition of the feudal tenure.
They complained that while the
seigniors exacted rents beyond
what the law allowed, thtey did
not maintain mills, that they re
fused to sell the best lands, keep
ing them for their timber, that
they inserted a clause in deeds of
sale reserving the timber on the
lots, and that, owing to the rise
in values, the fines in selling lots
had become excessive. They
wanted to hold their land in free
and, common soccage. Composed
largely of seigniors, or of mem
bers who shared their views, tho
assembly was deaT to the de
mands of the habitants, who, ig
norant of modes of procedure and
incapable of combination, were
unable to bring the power they
possessed to bear. The more in
sistent the demand that seignior
ial rights be abolished, the more
resolute the assembly became in
making it a matter of patriot
ism to resist. Seigniorial tenure
was French, and meant French
ascendency and autonomy. An
English merchant, Alexander El-
lice, bought the most western of
the seigniories on the south shore
of the St. Lawrence with' the
view of settling it with Scotch

60

emigrants. On his son Edward
inheriting the property he exert
ed himself to have the tenure
changed, so that he could sell the
land in free and common soccage.
His will was potent in the offi
cial circle at Quebec and a bill
was submitted in 1822 to em
power any seignior who chose to
do so. It was thrown out by the
assembly. Supported by peti
tions from the habitants, the bill
was introduced anew in 1825,
and was again strangled. Seeing
it was hopeless to obtain legisla
tion in Quebec, the authorities
did the next best— they got an
act passed by the Imperial par
liament specifying that all lands
in Quebec outside the seigniories
were of English tenure. Here,
again, a great opportunity was
lost to abolish the French ten
ure, which remained to blight
the prospects of the habitants
for another quarter of a cen
tury. The passage of this act
was made a grievance by the
French members of the assembly.
One of its leaders.Viger, declared
"the tenures bill caused the
"greatest discontent, because it
"destroyed at once the system
"which we considered extend
ed to the whole province, and
"which had been acted upon ever
Since the conquest."
The placing of all unconceded
land outside French law increas
ed the settlements along the fron
tier. While they were weak and
struggling, and separated from
the parishes Hy an almost im
penetrable belt of forest, little
heed was paid them by the
French leaders, but the opening
of the Craig road and the know
ledge that they were growing
and prosperous developed un-
Bleeping hostility. Every recom
mendation of the governor to as

sist them was ignored and when
he suggested they had a right to
be represented in the legislature,
the French members would not
hear of it. Quebec was for the
French, and these newcomers
were, to use their own phrase;
"strangers and intruders" who
had no rights the assembly was
required to recognize. In 1821
the assembly declared itself in
favor of extending tha seigniorial
system over the entire province.
They did so, knowing well that
system was an injury to the
habitant. Why then did they
advocate it? Because they knew
full well Quebec had an executive
which would enforce the law that
no parish be formed where the
land was held in free and com
mon soccage. The priests were
determined their people would
not be allowed to go on lands
from which tithe and tax could
not be collected and the assembly
obeyed their order. To the hurt
of the habitant they would op
pose the abolition of feudal ten
ure until such time as the ob
structing provision of the Quebec
act could be either repealed or
defied. The motive in opposing
free and common soccage, and in
refusing to recognize the Eastern
Townships settlers was the same
that led the assembly in 1823 to
reject a proposal to unite with
Upper Canada, as expressed by
Its leaders, namely, that it would
endanger the peculiar laws and
institutions of the French. In a
joint letter of Papineau and Neil
son it is hinted the newcomers
should be united with Upper
Canada. The open and persistent hostil
ity of the French leaders in the
assembly towards the English-
speaking settlements was con
sistent from their point of view.

61

Their ardent desire was to pre
serve Quebec for their own peo
ple. Secretly, for it was danger
ous to avow it, they cherished
the hope of its becoming a French
republic. In all this they did ex
actly what Englishmen would
have done placed in a like posi
tion. If open to blame, it was
that in seeking ends that spoke
of love of race and country, they
covered their purpose by hypo
critical professions of loyalty to
the British crown and constitu
tion. No greater stickler for
British rights ever appeared than
Papineau, yet what he demand
ed for the French of Quebec he
refused to the English. The sight
of men protesting they were de
prived of the privileges that were
theirs under the British constitu
tion, while working to restore
French domination, was not edi

fying, and yet that is the sum
and substance of the course pur
sued by the assembly until end
ed by the rebellion.
The adoption of the tenures
act drew a sharp line of demar
cation between parish and town
ship, silencing all question as to
the nature of the tenure of the
land lying outside the seigniories,
and confirming the belief of the
settlers in the townships that
French law did not run withim'
their bounds. The words of the
Hon. J W. Horton, one of the old
est of the township settlers,whea
examined by the house of com
mons in 1825 were literally true,
"English law prevailed through-
"out the province of Quebec be-.
"tween 1763 and 1774 and, so
"far as regards the townships,,
"has never been repealed."

CHAPTER 8

Excepting Craig, the governors
between the departure of Dor
chester and the coming of Dal
housie were no credit to the Eng
lish name. Their greed was ex
celled alone by their pettiness of
mind. A great man can wield
despotic power to benefit those
over whom he is set, a weak one
will descend to acts so despicable
that resentment is colored with
disgust. It has to be admitted
their period of rule was trying.
The French revolution had done
in the province what the Ameri
can revolution had .failed to bring
about— it had formed a band of
republicans, of men who were en

thusiastic in their belief that
merely changing the form of gov
ernment would transform every
thing. Their ardent minds yearn
ed to make Quebec a republic,
and in this they were encour
aged by the French minister to
Washington. Something like the
clandestine communication be
tween the exiled Stuarts and the
Scottish Jacobites was opened
by these French Canadian repub
licans with Genet and his succes
sors at Washington, who encour
aged them with promises and
some money. Of more impor
tance, was the knowledge that
the Americans along the frontier

62

were ready to flock over at the
first Intimation of the red flag
being unfurled. Had Washing
ton, who was then president,
given the slightest encourage
ment there would have been a
second invasion by the valley of
the Richelieu. After the revolu
tion came the rise ol Napoleon.
It js impossible for us to realize
the dazzling effect his victories
and rapid rise had on the French
mind. Altho far removed from
the scene of his triumphs, and
only imperfectly informed of
them, the French Canadians ex
ulted in him, looking upon him as
the hero of their race. Spontane
ously the belief grew in their
hearts that he would be their de
liverer, that part of his invincible
army was sure to cross the seas
to Canada. While the French
were intoxicated with tha
achievements of that marvellous
soldier and eager to welcome his
legions, the English were as de
cided in their detestation of him,
their hatred being unjustly ex
tended to the French nation.
Whatever approach had been ef
fected between French and Eng
lish during the rule of Murray
and Dorchester was now oblit
erated by distrust and hatred.
The ruling class at Quebec and
Montreal looked on the French
as traitors at heart, ready to
side with the tyrant who was
menacing the existence of Eng
land, and, unfortunately, by their
haughty bearing and their high
handed acts In averting the dan
ger they supposed existed, inten
sified the Anglophobe sentiment.
Whoever would know the temper
of these times', let him read the
records of the assembly and the
despatches o? the governors. The
squabbles over- trifles, the irri
tating attitude of the assembly,

the mean tyrannies of the official
class, were the straws that indi
cated the tense feeling that di
vided the two races. If an ex
ception be attempted in the case
of Craig, it can only be on the
score that, unlike his predecesaora
and successors, he was not self-
seeking, and had a sincere desire
to advance the interests of the
province. Yet the well-meaning
old soldier, who tried to rule a
province as he had done his regi
ment, did more to estrange the
contending nationalities than all
the others. The party that had
been formed before he came, on
the platform of our religion, our
language, our laws, our usages,
was consolidated by the course
he pursued. Henceforth the ma
jority in the assembly had one
object in view, gaining the gov
ernment of Quebec for them
selves. Perhaps of all the foolish means
to which the governors resorted,
to defeat a purpose that was
palpable, was their endeavors to
enlist the priesthood on their side
The attitude to be taken by Pro
testant rulers towards the church
of Rome is so plain that there is
no excuse for their going wrong.
As the church of a section of their
fellowmen, it is entitled to the
same protection as is extended
to other churches. To go further,
is to place themselves in a false
position. The Protestant ruler
who looks upon that church as a
depository of political power,
and negotiates with it in order
to obtain its support, is a party
to an immoral proceeding, for
two reasons. First, he is a
traitor to those principles the
term Protestant represents; sec
ond, he does wron% to the minis
ters of the church of Rome in
asking them to use their spiritual

63

power to advance temporal ends.
Yet of this crime against the body
politic, this sin against God,
every governor, save Dalhousie
and Craig, before the union was
guilty. Since the union, when
personal gave way to represen
tative government, every party
leader stands equally convicted,
for, to this hour, it has been their
policy to enlist the influence of
the hierarchy on their side. In
no other way could such effectual
aid be obtained for the time be
ing : in no other way is the price
of aid so pernicious to the wel
fare of the people. It is a simple
statement of acknowledged facts,
that in all such negotiations,
where either a governor, a leader
of a party, or an ordinary poli
tician approached a representa
tive of the church of Rome, whe
ther a cure, bishop, or ablegate,
the ecclesiastic has exacted a
-benefit for his church. They
could not do otherwise. In ac
cepting orders they sank their in
dividuality, merging their in
terests in those of the greatest
of all close corporations, becom
ing its passive agents, looking to
its advancement as the purpcBa of
their lives, and always remember-
ing that while they would pass
away the organization, whose
creatures they are, would exist
after them, and, therefore, ever
to have an eye to plan for its
glory however remote the reali
zation of the plan might be. The
men of the world who came ask
ing for its favor had only a tem
porary purpose to serve and car ad
not for the future so long as
their personal ends were met.
The advantages they craved and
obtained perished with them. Not
so with the black robes with
whom they had dealings. The
favors they got in return for

those they bestowed were not for
themselves but for their church
and were permanent. The ruler
or the politician had. a momen
tary, a selfish purpose to serve :
the ecclesiastic looked solely to
the aggrandizement of the vast
system in whose hand he was a
staff. The early history of Canada
exemplifies this as that of no
other country, and does so be
cause it is a solitary instance of a
large Catholic population being
ruled for four score years by a
handful of Protestants, and when
the non-Catholics did come to out
number the Catholics, the latter,
from thair coherence, continued to
hold the balance of power. The
records I have now to quote tell
one story— of the extremity of
the state being made the oppor
tunity of the church, of how that
church has grown in power and
prerogative thru the subservi
ency of politicians who made al
liances with it to promote their
individual interests or those of
their party. How great the con
cessions have been only those re
alize who will compare what the
church of Rome was in Canada
in the days of Murray and Carle
ton with what it is now. Then
she was dependent on the will of
the civil magistrate: to-day she
dictates her desires to cabinets
and legislatures.
Like too many Englishmen who
find themselves in a new coun
try, Sir Guy Carleton desired to
reproduce the institutions of the
country he left without consider
ation of the difference of circum
stances. England had an estab
lished church, therefore Canada
ought to have one. That a church
could be maintained without
tithes was, to the ruling class
of the reign of Georg a Third as
inconceivable as that the crown

64

should not nominate bishops #nd
present to benefices. For lack
of members there was no An
glican church to establish, so
for half a century each succeed
ing governor undertook to mould
the church of Rome to suit his
ideas. One after another labored
under the notion that it was pos
sible to form the same relation
between that church in Quebec
and the crown, as existed be
tween the crown and the Angli
can body in England. Sir Guy
would have all the priests born
Canadians, he would have them
educated in Canada, he would
have them licensed and presented
to their parishes by the king's
representative, who would also
have a veto on the choice of
bishop, and from bishop and
priest exact the oath as to the
king's supremacy. In a close re
lationship between the crown and
the church, the church drawing
its authority in temporal affairs
from the crown., the early gover
nors saw a guarantee for the
permanence of British possession.
The heads of the church humored
the idea, for if the crown placed
itself under obligation to them
they perceived a means of regain
ing the old privileges their church
enjoyed under the French kings,
and after events proved their
shrewdness. They never exerted
their influence to help the British
to retain Canada, without gain
ing an advantage for their
church. Carleton, who fir3t tried to
mould the priesthood to suit his
designs, was insistent that it
should be composed of Canadians
born and educated, because he
looked upon the priests who had
come from France with suspicion.
The danger of his time was the
re-conquest of Canada, and he

regarded the French priests as
spies, as agents of King Louis,
plotting to overthrow the exist
ing state of -affairs. To get rid
of them was his purpose, and in
this he was aided by the jealousy
that existed between the French
and the Canadian priests. The
former despised the latter for
their illiteracy and rusticity ; the
Canadians, resenting these airs
of superiority, assisted the gov
ernor in finding excuses for fur
nishing them with passage on
board the first ship bound for
France, and he, before long, got
what he planned for, a native-
born and home-educated priest
hood. What was the result of
this meddling with the internal
management of a church? The
governor came under obligation
to the church, and the price ex
acted was including in the Quebec
act its old authority to tax and
tithe. That was the forerunner
of a hundred similar bargains.
Whenever governor or politician
approached priest or bishop to
get support, the price paid has
been at the expense of the coun
try at large. Had Carleton not
sought the aid of the priesthood.
the Quebec act would not have
included article 5. In the subse
quent period, when the danger to
the continuance of British rule
came from within, not from with
out, governors and their advisers
again relied on the priests for
help, each recurring obligation
involving some fresh concession.
For half a century after the con
quest the priesthood were depen
dent on the goodwill of the state.
The newly-appointed bishop did
not exercise his functions until
he visited the governor, obtained
his approval of his appointment,
and had administered to him the
oath of allegiance; he could not

65

erect parishes and the highest
legal authority was against him
in presenting to parishes without
obtaining the governor's leave.
The language of the royal in
structions was definite, "that no
"person whatsoever is to have
"holy orders conferred upon him
"or to have the care of souls,
"without a license first and ob-
"tained from the governor." The
principle to guide the governors
in dealing with the church of
Rome was laid down in these
words— "A toleration of the free
"exercise of their religion, but
"not the powers and privileges
"of it as an established church.'"
In consideration of political ser
vices, irregularities in matters of
patronage were winked at and
to bind the bisholp to the service
of the British government a year
ly salary from the Imperial trea
sury was allowed him. Contrast
Bishop Denaut, ready to adopt a
scheme that would have given the
governor a voice in the temporal
management of the church in
Quebec, with Archbishop Bourget
placing the state beneath the heel
of the church, and the extent of
the change in the condition and
spirit of Quebec ecclesiastics,
that took place within sixty
years, will be estimated.
The breaking out of the war in
1812 came opportunely for the
priesthood. The new danger
caused the executive to seek their
assistance, and the plan devised
by Craig, to bring the priests
under direct control of the gov
ernor, was abandoned. The year
ly allowance from the Imperial
treasury of $1000 to Bishop
Plessis was raised to $5000, and,
what he valued more than the ad
ditional money, the warrant for
his salary, in 1813, was no longer
made out in favor of "The super- 6

"intendent of the Romish church,"
for the existence of a bishop had
not hitherto been officially re
cognized, but in favor of "The
"Roman Catholic bishop of Que-
"bec," and so giving him, for the
first time since the conquest, a
legal status as such. Reduced to
choosing between the rule of the
American republic and that of
Britain the priesthood had no
hesitation in deciding for the lat
ter, so that Prevost's blandish
ments were uncalled for. Indeed,
they neither on this nor any pre
vious occasion rendered any ser
vice to the crown of special mo
ment. The claim that it was
due the priests that Canada
did not join in the American re
volution, that the madness of the
French uprising against mon
archy did not spread to Quebec,
that they prevented an invasion
during Napoleon's reign, that
they held back the habitants from
assisting the Americans during
the war of 1812, will not bear ex
amination. In each instance they
acted as the interests of their
church required and without re
gard to the advantage of Britain.
In every one of the four oppor
tunities the French Canadians
had to rise against Britain, it is
obvious their church was going
to profit more by remaining
under British rule than in pass
ing under that of Robespierre, of
Napoleon, or of the United States.
Under such conditions it was
easy to pose as the friends of
Britain and to accept money and
legislative concessions for sup
posed services. Two instances of,
toleration of this period are
often quoted— the use of the Re-
collet and Jesuit churches for
Protestant worship in Quebec
and Montreal. These would indeed
have been notable instances of

66

toleration had these chapels be
longed to the Recollets or Jesuits,
The properties in question be
longed to the British government,
having been confiscated at the
•conquest, provision being made
for the maintenance of the sur
viving members, who lingered
Around the old buildings until
their death. In Protestants hav
ing had placed at their disposal
by the governor for purpose of
worship rooms in buildings whose
title was vested in the crown
there was nothing remarkable
and a present of candles to the
old men in charge was a kindly
compliment. With the close of the war of
1812 came a change in the tone
of -Ji-3 bishop and his executive.
It was no longer that of the mild
Denaut; the conciliatory, sub
missive attitude faded, replaced
by a gradually increasing
haughtiness. Concessions ceased
to be humbly prayed, for, they
were now demanded and the
^arrogance which ended in making
the church the dictator in tem
poral affairs began to be appar
ent. This was due partly to Pre-:
vost's policy of flattering and
fawning, but more to the in
fluence of those French priests,
who fled to Canada from the hor
rors of the revolution. They
were given a cordial welcome as
objacts of pity by the authorities,
who made provision for their liv
ing in comfort while in exile. Such

of them as were Sulpicians were
granted an allowance out of the
revenues of the seigniory of Mon
treal. These foreign priests in
fected the native clergy with new
notions of their importance— told
them they were imposed upon by
their English masters, who could
not dispense with their support.
It was advice to be expected from
members of that priesthood who
had influenced the counsels of
France under successive kings,
and whose lives and spirit had
aided in provoking the greatest
national convulsion Europe hag
known. Their influence in Que*!
bee was malign.
While those who held the reins
of government at Quebec labored
under the delusion that the
priesthood could be made sub
sidiary to their interests, they
with stupid fatuity, strove tq
fasten on the province a church
establishment similar to that of
England. Grants of public money
were made to pay salaries to a
bishop and clergy, a cathedral
was built, and a chapter contem
plated, and it was looked upon as
feasible to levy tithes upon all
Protestants , until such time as,
the land set aside as clergy rei
serves should yield an income,
Had these plans been carried out,
the strange spectacle would have
been presented of a province
having two churches supervised
by the state and both subsidized
out of the public purse.

67

CHAPTER 9

Is it wise to give salf -govern
ment to a people who will use it
in an endeavor to free themselves
from their allegiance to the na
tion that bestows the boon? The
history of Quebac answers No.
The well -meant gift of the Im
perial government of an elemen
tary form of representative insti
tutions worked out badly for the
people intended to be benefited,
and led to endless complications
and difficulties to the British
authorities. I confess I shrink
from the task of outlining thc
events which ended in the rebel
lion, for to him who desires to
think well not only of his coun
trymen bat of the French who
had been, by the rude force of
war, entrusted to their care, in
the interval between Craig's ad
ministration and that of Col
borne, there is little in public
conduct creditable to either na
tionality, and which both might
well desire to have laps a into ob
livion. In tracing the causes
which led to the dying-out of the
English-speaking settlements, it
is necessary, however, to give at
tention to this period.
For the detestable struggle,
which came into being at the
organizing of the first assembly,
but which did not become palp
able until 1800, nor acute until
about 1820, the act of 1791 is re
sponsible. Given a representa
tive assembly French and Catho
lic, and a nominated council Eng
lish and Protestant, what other
result could there be than strife?
The bills that originated in the

assembly the council vetoed;
those the council sent down were
rejected. It was a constant dead
lock. There was no intermediary,
to bring the two together, for
there was no cabinet, no minis
ters responsible to the assembly
for the measures introduced or
for the conduct of business. The
assembly was independent of the
council and the council of the as
sembly, and each regarded the
other as its special enemy. Then,
back of both, was an executive
council, responsible to neither and
having a veto power over both.
The act of. 1791 was a half
hearted measure. Had it handed
over the government of Quebec
to representatives of the major
ity of its inhabitants, that would
have meant tha loss of tha pro
vince to the crown, for it would
have been speedily converted into
a French republic. That was
foreseen by Pitt, and a compro-.
mise made. The French were to
be given a voice in the govern
ment, and to a nominated council,
and to the governor and his exe
cutive council was entrusted a re
serve power to enable them to
preserve the province to the
crown. This arrangement could
not fail to breed trouble. The
French, zealous in seeking their
independence, were constantly,
thwarted by the council and the
executive, until governor and
council came to be distrusted and,
hated by the French.
The period between the peace
of 1815 and 1837 is often spoken
of as a struggle for constitution-

68

al liberty, and gratitude ex
pressed to Papineau and his col
leagues for the part they played.
Men, who ought to know better,
are still heard repeating, We are
enjoying what they fought for.
If we were enjoying what Papi
neau and his associates fought
for, we would be living in a
French, republic. The confusion
of ideas regarding the period in
question is extraordinary. Be
cause the French professed a zeal
for constitutional forms, they
.were fighting for the freedom
Britons love : because the Eng
lish settlers of those days op
posed them, they were the abet
tors of tyranny. Why be misled
iby names and cries? Is it con
ceivable that Papineau was the
representative of freedom, and
Dalhousie of despotism? Is it not
more consonant with fact and
commonsense, to say Papineau
plotted to overthrow British rule
and Dalhousie resisted to main
tain it? It is nothing new to seek
treasonable ends under the cloak
of zeal for the British constitu
tion. In these days we see, in
Ireland and India, leaders in the
movement to break the imperial
tie using that device. Given a
body of men eager to change
rulers, entrusted with legislative
powers by the government they
are opposed to, and by what
way could they undermine that
government except under consti
tutional forms? Force being out
of, the question, Papineau and his
party had to keep within the let
ter of the law. The end they had
in view was the expulsion of the
English from Quebec, which was,
from their standpoint, a patriotic
undertaking. To achieve their
purpose, they had the legislative
powers conceded to them by the
acts of 1774 and 1791, and they

used them skilfully and persist
ently. In the assembly their
course was the simple one of ob
struction. Whatever the gover
nor asked, they refused,— wheu
they dared ; whatever the council
enacted affecting their cause
they rejected. Necessarily ihey
had to do all this on constitution
al lines, and so it came they used
British parliamentary terms and
procedure in the expectation of
thereby trampling upon anij cast
ing out British institutions. They
proposed to kill the English gov
ernment with its own weapons.
Take, for instance, the one pro
minent grievance of the French
members, that they were denied
the distribution of the crown re
venue—meaning thereby the re
venue allotted by the home auth
orities for the payment of the
salaries of officials. In the as
sembly debates no disguise was
made as to the motive for the de
mand—that it would place in the
hands of the French members
the power to take away the sal
aries of the English-speaking of
ficials, who, as a result, would
have to resign, when they would
fill the vacancies from among
their own number. Successive
governors perceived what the as
sembly sought and rejected their
oft repeated demand. ,The de
mand of the assembly was per
fectly constitutional and its re
fusal as unconstitutional. The
dispute, however, was not aca
demic, it was one of fact. Those
who made the demand, sought,
under the cloak of zeal for consti
tutional government, to deal a
fatal blow to British rule and
those who denied the demand did
so according to the dictate of
self-preservation. Because a legis
lature makes a constitutional de
mand it does not follow its mem-

69

bers have a constitutional end in
view. Their motive has to be
considered. Ta&e another in
stance. The assembly demanded
that the crown lands be entrust
ed to its charge. What was their
motive? They did not conceal it,
ffhey wanted to stop the flow of
English-speaking settlers into the
townships. Did Dalhousie act
as a tyrant or as a true servant
of the government he represent-
ed.when he put his foot down, and
eaid No with emphasis, he would
keep the control of the waste
lands in the hands of the execu
tive and go on inducing immi
grants to take up their abode in
Quebec? It was the same with a
score of other nominal constitu
tional grievances. It was a viola
tion of British constitutional
precedent for Craig, and, after
him, Dalhousie, to carry on the
government by means of loans
from the military chest, yet they
had either to do so or quit their
residences and take the first ship
for England. Look under the sur
face of the political agitation of
these times, blow away the
smoke about constitutional griev
ances, and there will be seen an
ably led and energetic majority
using any pretence and any
catchword to attain the object of
their desire— Quebec for the
French— and a pitiably small min
ority striving to preserve Quebec
as a British possession. Both
were right from their own
standpoint. Nothing was more
natural than that the French
should use the power given them
"by the act of 1791 to endeavor
to drive the English out. They
only did what the English would
have done had they been in their
place. On the other hand, how
could the officials entrusted by
the crown with the preservation

of British interests, dp other than
they did in thwarting the efforts
of the French? Wolfe's victory
placed both in a false position.
Under the pretence of zeal for,
the British constitution the
French sought to overthrow Brit-.
ish rule, while those in office had
to break constitutional law to
defeat the men who were schem
ing to overthrow British power,
When appeals were made by
the assembly to the houses of
parliament regarding the high
handed acts of governors in con
ducting the affairs of the pro
vince without their consent, it
was impossible for the home
authorities to formally justify,
the king's representatives, their
conduct was plainly unconstitu
tional, yet they tacitly acknow
ledged that force ,-of circum
stances justified their irregulari
ties, that had they not over
ridden the will of the assembly
British ascendency would have
been undermined Dalhousie may
be represented in two lights— as
a dictator, putting under his feet
the constitution in order to
tyrannize the French, or as a
patriot, who dared to break the
law to keep the British flag fly
ing from Cape Diamond.
Until within a year or so of the
rebellion, I know of no evidence
that the French leaders intended
resorting to force. They believed
they could attain their purpose
by so embarrassing the execu
tive that British government
would become impossible and the
province be abandoned to them
selves. Their course was shaped
to bring about a deadlock— a
crisis, when the English executive
would have to confess inability
to longer conduct public affairs,
when they would get hold. Every
obstacle they could devise was
placed in the way of the gover-

70

nor and his advisers, and no arti
fice left untried to make them
odious in the eyes of the habi
tants. Grievances were hatched
by the dozen. Whoever had a
complaint to make against an
English-speaking official was in
vited to lay it before the as^m-
My, end payment made for h.s
loss of time in doing so. Even the
judges were not exempt. They
were described as minions of the
governor, who gave judgment ac
cording to his instructions and
not according to law. The crown
of all their grievances, was the
complaint of the assembly that
they were denied power to or
ganize a court which would try
and sentence the officials they
impeached. For thirty years the
assembly and the executive were
jn open strife. There were periods
of truce, as during Prevost and
Kempt's terms of office; the one
demanding the other refusing, the
one thwarting the other, and all
the while hatred increasing be
tween the two races. The dis
trust which still exists between
French and English is a continu
ance of the feeling of this unhappy
period, for the evidence goes to
show that until the fatal gift of
a legislative assembly there was
no open enmity between the two
races. The sort of members who made
up that assembly should be
understood. The pall of ignor
ance that overhung the parishes
.when they passed under British
rule had in no degree been lifted.
In 1801 a well-meant attempt
.was made to establish a system
of elementary schools. It was
defeated by the priests. Unless
given control of the schools they
.would prevent their people at
tending them, and so the plan
came, so far as the habitants

were concerned, to naught. The
revenue derived from the Jesuit.
estates was available for such a
purpose and that from the seign
iory of Montreal could also be
brought in, so that there was no-
financial difficulty in giv
ing the province a school sys
tem. The obstacle in the way or
teaching the children of the habi
tants to read and write was the
priests, who took the stand that
the education of their people
must be left in their hands. To
this the British authorities
would not consent, and. up to
1830, so far as schools were
concerned, the parishes were as
Montcalm had left them. The
habitant's childlike ignorance of
the world outside his own pro
vince, his utter unconsciousness
of the nature of public affairs, ex
cited the surprise of every visitor.
There was no cause for surprise.
For generations he had been con
fined to a secluded part of the
world, outside the community of
other nations ; with the one coun
try to the south of him, that
bordered his own, he had been
prevented, by brutal penalties,..
from having intercourse. What
he knew of other countries and
peoples was what his priest
chose to tell him or what he
heard from some stray soldier of
Old France. For centuries he and"
his fathers had been taught they
were the creatures of their king,
that it was their duty to obey
him and give their services when
ever ha call:d upon them. O; self-
government they had no concep
tion. Of the British constitution
they knew less than of the Ro
man decretals. It was their
king's province to govern, that
of the priest to tell them what
to believe. Take such a people,.
confined to a hermit corner of the

?i

earth, trained generation after
generation by priest and ruler to
blind obedience to throne and
church.and it is no matter for sur
prise that an acute observer so
late as 1840 described the ignor-
ance and credulity of the habi
tant as unbounded, so that he
had ceased to wonder they be
came the victims of the agitators
who stirred up rebellion. The
marvel is that the habitant re
tained, under such a system of
repression, his brightness of ap
prehension, his liveliness of spirit.
Only the happy genius of a super
ior race had preserved him from
sinking into the apathy, the sul-
lenness of the Russian serf. To
offer to a people so long hemmed
in from the world around. in
whose natures had been engrain
ed the lesson that thay were
born to be ruled, the splendid
boon of self-government was
folly, for they neither compre
hended it nor knew how to use it.
The few educated men in the pro
vince, however, saw in it their
opportunity to obtain an unlook-
ed for voice in the government of
the province and the priests a
means of benefitting their church.
In the first assembly were a few
of the habitant class who were
incapable of taking part. Had it
been otherwise, had an assembly
of habitants been constituted,
with their deference for author
ity, the governors might possibly
have been able to make tha act
of 1791 workable. Instead of
habitants, the house was largely
made up of lawyers and notaries,
with an occasional physician, or
seignior. The habitants having
no political opinions, no concep
tion, in fact, of representative
government, the educated mem
bers took them in hand to instil
in their minds the views they

wished them to hold. The politi
cal speech after mass became an
institution, and hearing na othar
views, and unable to read, the
habitants believed, what was
told them in those Sunday ora
tions. Here the English ware at
a disadvantage. They had no
class equivalent to that which
composed the majority of the
assembly, and the few among
them capable of going on the
platform were ignorant of
French. The consequence was
that for over forty years a pro
paganda hostile to British in
terests was carried on without
check. The English, altho they
"knew what was going on. in the
parishes, were unable to have
their side of the case represented.
It may be remarked that to this
day the habitants have never
been represented in parliament
by members chosen from their
ranks, tho the same cause, lack
of sufficiently educated men
among them, does not now exist..
They are still, as in the day3 of
Craig and Dalhousie, represented
by deputies drawn from the pro
fessional class, and the Dominion
has the views of that class thrust
upon it as the voice of Quebec, to
whose votes they owe their seats,
but of a class distinct and widely
different from their constituents,
a class of which no other pro
vince has its counterpart — men
educated in clerical colleges and
who, no matter what prof axsion
they choose, expect to figura in
public life. It is from this select
class the habitants receive their
political teaching. This fact,
that the representatives of th3
habitants have always been and
are to this day, drawn from a
distinct caste, is not given the
weight it • deserves. The word
caste is used advisedly. A bright

72

boy appears. The priest advises
his being sent to college. The
training of these colleges des-
stroys individuality. Their being
residential makes this possible.
Cut off from outside intercourse,
taught by priests, directed by
priests, constantly associated
with priests, the lad imbibes
their views. The first object of
these colleges, as is stated in
their announcements, is to make
the student a good Catholic.
The course of study is not of the
nature to develop his mind by
broadening it, nor are the books
he is allowed to read calculated
to expand it by conveying know
ledge from every quarter. He
leaves college with an apprehen
sion sharpened by prolonged
study of scholastic philosophy,
with a careful training in rhe
toric, and, above all, with an im
plicit faith in the authority of
his church. None are more acute
jn analysis, none more ready or
eloquent in speech than the aver
age graduate of these clerical in
stitutions, yet none more narrow,
taught to measure by the stan
dard of creed, and none in whom
the noble thirst for truth, seek
ing to gratify it untrammeled
and uncoerced, is less manifest.
Thru the students she sends from
these seminaries Rome rules Que
bec, and may, as she is now do
ing, continue to rule the Domin
ion. What was it the members
of this caste instilled into the
minds of the habitants during
the period under consideration?
First, that Quebec belonged to
them as the children of the soil;
second, that it would be an easy
task to drive out the English.
The governor and his subordi
nates were depicted as brutal
tyrants, who hated everything
French and Catholic, who were

trampling on the laws in order
to plunder and oppress, and these
assertions were supported by al
leged acts, many not having even
a semblance of truth. The object
the habitant was to keep in view
was the downfall of this corrupt
and tyrannical administration, to
be replaced by la nation cana
dienne, whose purpose would be
ta preserve the religion, lan
guage, laws, and usages, which
they, persuaded them were
threatened with immediate de
struction. To overthrow this
system of tyranny, the habitants
were assured, by their great
numbers, they could do without
difficulty. The habitants were
made to believe Britain was in
her decrepitude, that her
strength on this continent was
so feeble that all that was need
ed was a united and simultaneous
rush to drive out every vestige
of English rule and place the chil
dren of the soil in power. The
habitants believed this and the
belief strengthened with time,
until smashed by the experience
of. the rising in 1837. Against
the many unfortunate results
that flowed from that revolt,
there was, at least, one good ef
fect, it shattered the delusion
that had overspread the parishes,
that the strength of Britain had
become so contemptible that they
ran no risk in defying it.
In their leaders the French had
the advantage. The English had
no men to compare in ability, fer
tility of resource, or persistence
to Viger, Cuvillier, and Papineau.
The last dominated. Justice has
not been done that remarkable
man. To dismiss him as a dema
gogue who played on the string
of racial hate, is to misrepresent
him. He stands the foremost
man of his race in intellect and

73

independence of thought. Had
he not made the mistake of con
senting to an armed rising, he
would jhavie, led in the emancipa
tion of the habitant from the des
potism of the priests. In him was
centred the aspiration of a
French Canadian republic, and let
the English Canadian put himself
in Papineau's place and see if he
can blame him. It was no com
pliment to his political sagacity
to suppose that such a republic
was possible— it was to his honor
as a Frenchman that he should
have striven to regain what his
fathers had lost. As a sincere be
liever in the republican form of
government, the administration
at Quebec was objectionable to
him as representing royalty.
His views he thus expressed :"The
"people of this country are pre
paring themselves for a future
"state of political existence.which
"I trust will be neither a mon-
"archy nor an aristocracy. I
"hope Providence has not in view
"for my country a future so dark
"as that it should be the means of
"planting royalty in America,
"near a country so grand as the
"United States. I hope for the
"future, America will give repub
lics to Europe."
There was little in the conduct
of the ruling-class of his early
days to recommend royalty, for
several of the governors reflect
ed no honor on the throne they
represented and were surround
ed by a clique of office-holders
who for greed, indolence, super
ciliousness, and ignorant con
tempt of the French deserved
much of what Papineau said of
them. Worse than all, there was
dishonesty in handling the public
monies. The term "bureaucrat"
represented to the mind of the
habitant for many a year all that

was bad. No one who has Eng
lish blood in his veina can look
on certain of the officials and
judges of the period preceding the
union of 1841 without a feeling
of shame. The gentlemen who at
their dinner-tables befuddled
what brains they had by drink
ing confusion to Papineau and the
French would have served their
king and their race by giving
Papineau no occasion for the com
plaints he was constantly send
ing to London. Their private
characters did not command the
respect of the French, who
watched them with envious eyes:
there was less in their conduct
of public affairs to commend to
them English rule.
In the movement looking to
Quebec's independence,the French
had some assistance from the
English population. There then
appeared the forerunners of a
type of politician the Dominion
knows well, who thought they
could use French influence for
their personal advancement, of
whom Stuart is an example. Then
there were men who had been
Radicals in the Old Country, and
who resented the high-handed
acts and dishonesty of those in
office in Quebec, siding with Pap
ineau on this score, of whom
Neilson was prominent. The
number of these English-speaking
sympathizers was minute, how
ever, compared with those who
wished to see Quebec made a
State of the American Union. Up
to about 1830 the English-speak
ing population of the province
was largely composed of native-
born Americans, and, in Montreal,
especially, there was a wealthy
colony of them. Firm in the be
lief that an independent French
republic would be found im
possible, the Americans support-

74

ed Papineau, in the expectation
that the result of the agitation
he headed would be annexation.
The most prominent man in this
class was Nelson.
While the official class were no
honor to the crown there were
two sections of the English who
did the land of their or igin credit.
There was, first, the mercantile.
Merchants from the Thames, tha
Mersey, and the Clyde developed
a trade that, by 1820, each)
spring whitened the St. Lawrence
with the sails of hundreds of
ships, and its commerce rose from
nothing to be counted by millions
of dollars. The second were the
immigrants who sought out land,
enriching the country not only
by their labor but more by their
example jn introducing among
the French a higher type of farm
ing. It was the Montreal mer
chants and the Ulster and Scot
tish farmers who preserved
Quebec to Britain in 1837-8. The
wealth and influence of the first
and the sturdy resistance of the
second, were rocks that could not
be swept aside.
The growth of the English set
tlements along the frontier was
such that, in 1825, it was com
putet! their assessable property
outvalued that of the parishes
betweeen them and the river, yet
progressive and important as
they were, to them the advan
tages of governmental institu
tions were denied. The assembly
treated them as intruders who
were not to be recognized. Peti
tions for aid to open roads, for
registry offices, for courts, were
ignored. Most striking of all re
fusals was that of representation
The patriots who were declaim
ing as to their inherent rights
from being British subjects, who
were constantly quoting authors

on the constitution, and who
grew eloquent over the examples
of Hampden and Russell, peremp
torily refused to admit represen
tatives from the new settlements.
Governor after governor point
ed out the injustice thus done and
jn vain. No more English-speak
ing members were wanted in the
assembly. When, for very shame's
sake and when it became advis
able to keep up appearances with
the home government, represen
tation was granted, it was done
in a way that gave the votes of
the new members no weight. In
1823 the assembly offered to al
lot five members to the Eastern
Townships on condition that the
number of French, members be in
creased by a score. The council
declined the magnanimous offer,
and the townships continued to
be unrepresented. This in itself
proves the hollowness of the pre
tension that tha movement head
ed by Papineau was to; redress
constitutional grievances. No vio
lation of the principle of self-gov
ernment is comparable to deny
ing an important section of the
population a voice in the govern
ment. The men who were de
nouncing a succession of gover
nors as tyrants who were depriv
ing them of. their constitutional
rights, were at the very time re
fusing the barest recognition to
80,000 residents of the province.
And for what reason? Because
they were ignorant, because they
were disloyal? Not at all: the
reverse was the truth. The fran
chise was denied these eighty
thousand of thrifty, intelligent,
well-living people because, if re
presentatives from them were ad
mitted into the assembly, their
presence would militate against
the plan of making Quebec a na
tion Canadienne. In a British

75

colony, a large body of people
were denied representation sim
ply because they were not
French. The settlers expressed
it in a petition to the crown, that
representation in the assembly
would have been given them
"had not their language and de-
Scent been British." Of greater
immediate importance was the
refusal to give them the legal in
stitutions requisite for the pre
servation of the rights of person
and property. They could get no
courts. The consequence was
that an unscrupulous man who
wished to wrong another could
institute an action in Quebec,
.Three Rivers, or Montreal, and
force the defendant either to
make a journey thru the forest
of a hundred miles or more or
submit to judgment by default.
If he chose to brave the cost and
fatigue of the journey he found,
on entering the court, that his
case would be tried according to
French law, probably by a French
judge. No complaint was more
reasonable than that of the
French, after the conquest, that
they were made subject to laws
with which they were un
acquainted and tried in a lan
guage they did not understand,
and it had more weight in induc
ing members of the house of com
mons to vote for restoring the
custom of Paris than anything
else. The son's of the people who
made that complaint, and who
had rejoiced when a British par
liament set aside English law to
meet their views, showed not the
slightest consideration when ask
ed to right an exactly similar
wrong. The English settlers
complained of being made "sub
ject to French laws of which
"they know nothing, compiled in
"a language with which they are

"unacquainted" and those who
controlled the assembly mocked
their complaint. The very act
which revived French law speci
fied that it "should not extend
"to lands granted in free and
"common soccage." In defiance
of that condition, on which the
French had obtained their re
quest in 1774, the French, fifty
years afterwards, did their ut
most to force French law on the
settlers in the townships. The
mercy they had asked and ob
tained they would not show.
Of all the French laws the
English settlers were most vexed
by that which gave force to a
mortgage passed before a notary
without making it of public re
cord. A settler would buy a lot
of land, receive a deed, go on and
improve the land, to be suddenly
surprised by a stranger claiming
possession, producing a mort
gage executed before a notary
living in a distant parish. Scores
of immigrants lost their little
capital and a year or more of
hard work in this way. The de
mand of the English was, that
registry offices be establishad,
where all hypothecs be recorded,
so that a search would show
whether a clear deed could be ob
tained. This request was resist
ed as an innovation on French
law, and it was several years be
fore authority was obtained to
establish a registry-office at
Sherbrooke, and mortgages not
recorded held to be only com
mon obligations.
The perplexity of each succeed
ing governor as to how to carry
on the business of the province
kept increasing. Having control
of the provincial revenue, the as
sembly used their power to make
government impossible. They
withheld the salaries of those in

76

public employ, even the pitiful al
lowances to help the teachers in
the English settlements, and. re
fused grants for roads and
bridges, immigration and the ad
ministration of justice. That
government be carried on and the
public credit maintained, gover
nors had to draw on the crown,
and their doing so was made a
fresh grievance by the assembly
and so recorded in its journal.
Those who consider these times
by the conditions of to-day
wonder at Papineau's belief that
he could wrest independence by
constitutional means. There is
no comparison between the situa
tion of eighty years ago and
that which exists. Ontario was
just struggling into existence, a
string of thin settlements along
its water fronts, whose existence
was dependent on the use of the
St. Lawrence as their channel of
supply and export. Its popula
tion was not half of that of Que
bec, and its political influence in
London was almost nil. When
Canada was mentioned in the
house of commons, it was Quebec
that loomed before the minds of
members, and of Quebec and its
affairs these members had come
to be heartily sick. Tp get rid of
its perplexing problems of race
and creed, of its incessant com
plaints, agitations, and demands,
many members were ready t\o
vote to let Quebec go its own
way. Then, there was the finan
cial consideration. Quebec had
been a drain on the Imperial
treasury from its first occupa
tion. Instead of lessening, the
votes asked yearly for Quebec
kept growing, and to Britain, at
that time, suffering from bad
trade and financial depression,
stoppage of this expenditure was
of vital consequence. In the

house of. commons, Huskisson,
well qualified to speak from hav
ing been secretary for the colon
ies, recognized the gravity of the
situation by replying to those
who favored dropping Quebec;
He would not have done so, had
they not been influential in num
ber and position. He tacitly ac
knowledged it would save much
trouble to Britain to let Quebec
go, but asked could they in jus
tice to those of their fellow-sub
jects of English speech who were
faithful to their allegiance and
whose good conduct gave them a
claim to the protection of
Britain? Here lay the crux of
the difficulty — to yield to the de
mands5 of the assembly for com
plete control of the province of
Quebec meant the abandonment
of the English settlers, whose
quiet, prosperous ,and contented
condition stood out so markedly,
against the restless clamor of the
French agitators, who were using
constitutional cries to overthrow
the constitution, and affecting a
zeal for the crown to get into a
position that would enable them
to repudiate it. Supposing Dal
housie had recognized the elec
tion of Papineau as speaker, that
he had consented to the assembly
having entire control of the civil
service and judiciary, that he
had given up control of the
crown lands and the crown funds
and transferred both to the as
sembly, that he had promised to
veto no measure passed by a
two-thirds majority, and under
taken that the Imperial parlia
ment pass no bill affecting Que
bec without the assembly's con
currence, what would have re
sulted? Would Quebec to-day
be British, or, more momentous
consideration, would that vast
territory that lies west of it, and

77

to which Quebec is the gateway,
be British? Would Papineau and
his confreres, who denied repre
sentation to the English settle
ments of Quebec, who withheld
from them all the institutions
that secure property and public
order, who opposed building
roads that would give them ac
cess to the St. Lawrence, who
placed every possible obstacle in
the way of immigration from the
United Kingdom, and of the land
being granted to others than
their own countrymen, have
taken the steps that have led to
the making of Ontario and the
great provinces west of it?
Strange to say, the men who pre
served Canada as the seat on the
North American continent of
British institutions, it is the
fashion to adjudge as arbitrary,
overriders of the constitution",
while their opponents are laud
ed as patriots, and are spoken of
as the authors of the liberties
we enjoy. Consideration of the
intentions of the party repre
sented by Papineau and of the
class represented by Dalhousie
will correct many grievous mis
takes in the popular mind regard
ing Quebec history. The one aim
ed at the formation of la nation
canadienne, the other sought to
reproduce on Canadian soil ali
that was good in Britain. The
great service rendered by what
was known up to 1840 as tbe
British party in Quebec, in ren
dering possible the Canada we
know, will yet be acknowledged.
Abandonment of. Quebec being
barred, the home authorities had
to consider what device they
should adopt to end the dead
lock. The most plausible sugges
tion was dividing and portioning
the province. It was suggested
that the island of Montreal be

annexed to Ontario, thus giving
that province what it was then
in urgent need of a seaport. An
other proposal was, that the is
land of Montreal and all of Que
bec that lies south and west of
it, including the Eastern Town
ships, be formed into a new pro
vince. A third suggestion was,
that Bonaventure and Gaspe be
given to New Brunswick, and the
Magdalen islands to Prince Ed
ward island All these proposals
were based on the principle that
the divisive courses of Quebec
could either be controlled by the
presence of a majority of Eng
lish or made harmless by keeping
the French by themselves. The
device was! a. cowardly evasion
of the difficulty ; an unjust over
bearing of the will of the French,
The crisis was due not to their
being denied the rights of Brit
ish subjects, but to their seeking
to be other than British subjects,
Had they been content with the
rights and privileges of British
subjects, they would have lived
as quietly as the settlers of Bed
ford and Huntingdon. Seeing it
was theo/r strivings to erase all
England had effected that was
the cause of trouble, the straight
forward course was to grapple
with the situation by repealing
the Quebec and Canada acts,
thus wiping out all special privi
leges and making the province
again a crown colony, organizing
a thuro system of secular educa
tion in every parish, and await
ing the time when the habitants
would be capable of being en
trusted with self-governing in
stitutions. The deputation., sent
by the assembly laid before the
house of commons petitions sign
ed by eighty-seven thousand
against union with Ontario. Out
of that number seventy-six thou-

78

sand signed by making a mark.
That one palpable fact, speaking
more forcibly from the table of
the house, where the petition lay,
than words could of the ignor
ance that prevailed, ought to
have convinced parliament of the
state of affairs that prevailed in
Quebec, a solid mass of ignorant
people, dominated by their
priests, and, with their consent,
left to be manipulated by agita
tors. The debates that ensued
showed ministers the bill they
had prepared to join Quebec to
Ontario would not carry. The
agitation over the first reform
bill was then at white heat, and
with the air full of shouts for
constitutional rights and for the
abolition of hereditary abuses,, it
was useless to attempt to con
vince the opposition that Dal-
housie's course was justified by
the conditions he had to face.
The bill was not submitted. Had
it become law it is doubtful if it
would have prevented the rising
of 1837. Events were now al
lowed to drift, and spaed.ly ended
in an open rupture between tha
assembly and! the executive. The
leaders of the assembly became
defiant, the governors resolute in
resisting, confident that, if a
rising were attempted, it would
fail. Their confidence was not
based on the military force avail
able, for it was small, but on an
understanding that had baen
come to with tha head of thaCath-
olic church. Bishop Pirssis rn o :r-
aged and aided tha movement
headed by Papineau, but his suc
cessor discovered, that in the in
terests of his church, there would
have to be a change. There was,
owing to increase of population,
need for the appo'ntmcnt of two
more bishops. Tha government
refused its sanction to create

dioceses. Then, in the proposed
union bill, Bishop Panet had
found there were provisions for
putting into force the slumbering
power of the crown in nominat
ing the bishop and presenting
cures to parishes. Back of all
this, he had information of a pro
posal to carry into effect the con
fiscation of the seigniory of the
island of Montreal, and use its
funds for crown purposes. The
bishop was alarmed. What was
the cause of la nation canadienne
compared with the interests of
Rome? The church came first.
The governor was approached,
the bishop seeing aa opportun
ity for making a bargain. If the
government would agree to leave
the seigniory of Montreal in the
hands of the seminary of St. Sul
pice, if it would give its consent
to the appointment of a bishop
for Montreal, if it would give civil
powers to new canonical par
ishes, if it would drop the clauses
in the drafted union act, the in
fluence of the priesthood would
be won over. An understanding
between the bishop and the gov
ernor was arrived at. Tha change
of attitude of the priests was
quickly perceived by Papineau.
They had encouraged him in the
agitation so long as it suited
them, and now they had made a
bargain at his expanse. He re
sented their betrayal with all the
ardor of his enthusiastic temper
ament. The bureaucrats, he now
told his followers, were not the
only class to be dealt with. When
the English were got rid of, there
were black gowns to be clipped
and there were tithas to ba re
duced. In 1831, when a petition from
the assembly was presented to
him, Lord Sherbrooke asked if
they had included all their griev-

ances, was there not something
behind they were concealing;
would they not be candid and
tell all? The something they
were concealing it was not yet
time to avow, but what that
something was had become palp
able lto the most unobservant.
It was asked that all revenues,
no matter how derived, be placed
in the hands of the assembly,
that it have control of all offi
cials, including judges, that the
management of the militia be
given over to it by the gover
nor, that the legislative council
be made elective! and, then came
Papineau's crowning proposal
that that governor be elected.
All thi',* involved severance from
Britain and in a province where
the overwhelming majority of the
inhabitants were French, it
meant a French government.
Would it ba just to the thousands
of English-speaking farmers who
had settled in the province, or to
the merchants who had invest
ed their capital in its trade, to
abandon them to the rule of such
a government? Would it ba just
to the people of Ontario, and to
the territory west of it, to place
the only outlet they had to the
Atlantic under the control of euah
a government? When the issue
had become thus clear, many who
had hitherto sided with the ma
jority fell out. The first to drop
away were the few English-
speaking radicals who had sup
ported Papineau. Neilson, the
Scotch printer, who had, to the
serious injury of h's business,
stood by him thru thick and thin,
now convinced that it was not
constitutional reform that had
animated Papineau, withdrew
from him. The Irish Roman
Catholics, having no wish to live
in a French republic, refused

79
their countenance any longer,
French business men in the cities,
seeing that loss of property
might ensue, signed loyal ad
dresses. Acting under instruc
tions from England every gover
nor after Dalhousie strove to win
over the disaffected. Abuses in
administration were remedied,
every request compatible with
a continuance of British rule
complied with. Kempt, a child
ish, simple-minded man* despite
all he did to propitiate, declared
when the assembly was in session
he felt as if sitting on a barrel
of. gunpowder. Papineau was of
fered a seat in the council that
he might see it was not the as
semblage of tyrants he described
to the habitants. Aylmer open
ly curried favor with the bishop,
Increase of population had com
pelled the old parishes to be di
vided in order that no cure have
a flock too large to minister to,
The habitants of these new par
ishes could not understand how,
in secular affairs, they were held
to be inhabitants of the old par
ish, and there was confusion in
deeds and social misunderstand
ings. To end this Aylmer agreed
to what his predecessors refused,
who, indeed, had challenged the
right of the. bishop to erect can
onical parishes. A bill was sub
mitted to the assembly to legal
ize thasfe new parishes and re
cognize tham as parishes for civil
purposes also. Tha bill contained
no provision for parishes that
might in future ba erected by the
bishop, it simply dealt with the
parishes that were in existencs
at the date of the passaga, and
when the commissioners had de
fined the new parishes and thay
were proclaimed civil parishes,
the act expired. Despite this
limitation, the measura had a

80

deep bearing on future legisla
tion, inasmuch as it made Brit
ish law an accompaniment of ec
clesiastical power, the civil giv
ing force and efficacy to the ec
clesiastical, the combination that
has wrought harm to the Protes
tant farmers.
The British party considered
the policy of conciliation had been
carried too far and were loud in
denouncing the governors, whom
they blamed for currying to the
church and Papineau. That party
comprised a number of as blatant
humbugs as ever embarrassed a
government. They had a mono
poly of all loyalty and knew just
what ought to be done. The
British bayonet, sir, and the
hangman's rope was their pre
scription, and s° these loud-voiced
men went on from day to day
disgracing the English name and
making the situation worse than
there was need for, and the task
of the governor of the day more
difficult. Behind these blusterers
stood the solid worth of the
township farmers and the mer
cantile class, the true British
party, silent yet ready, patient
yet resolute.
It is of the nature of all agita
tions, that when they reach a
certain degree of impetus, the
leaders lose control, and instead
of guiding are driven. It was so
with Papineau. He had to go on.
Casting aside all pretences about
the constitution, he formally re
pudiated allegiance to Britain
and declared his intention of
forming an independent state to
be under the protection of the
great republic to the south. In
order to strike the nation of
shopkeepers in their vital part,
the use of all goods of British
make was to be shunned and, only-
those of home production or that

had been smuggled from the
States, were to be bought. The
smuggling of goods from the
United States was declared to be
perfectly honorable. The few
statutes passed by the Imperial
parliament, such as the tenures
bill, were declared of non-effect,
Steps were taken to organize
local courts with judges elected
by the people, a military organi
zation was outlined, and a tax
was levied to pay expenses, under
the name of Papineau tribute.
All this was possible everywhere
outside the townships, and the
creation of. an independent gov
ernment went on without hin
drance in the parishes which
were -exclusively French. The
meetings were held on Sunday at
the church-doors after mass, and
were so enthusiastic and unani
mous, that the habitants believed
their purpose was achieved, and
all that was needed was a com
bined effort, on a set day, to
drive out the English bureau
crats. It was an anxious time
for those jn office at Quebec and
Montreal, and had it not been for
the secret understanding with
the bishops there would have
been more cause for anxiety, for
the aid of the church was better
than a reinforcement of a dozen
regiments. Of what was passing
in the parishes the authorities
had full and accurate informa
tion, so that where danger men
aced they knew how to meet it,
A secret rising was now as im
possible as a united one, and
without a united rising there
was not a ghost of success. Papi
neau knew the church had turned
dead against him, yet so confi
dent was he that the province
was under his control he gave
little weight to the circumstance
and continued in the belief that,

81

once he gave the signal, there
would, be simultaneous risings
from Gaspe to Soulanges. He
gave the signal. Thera was a
sputtering response from a few
localities only, and these confined
to the vicinity of Montreal. Baf
fled iu the aspirations of a life
time by the priests, he fled to
the United States. To add to the
bitterness of his cup, there was
an episode which showed him
what might have been. The
priest of St. Eustache was a rare
exception to his class, for he
was a Frenchman first, a Catho
lic afterwards. Ka dared to dis
obey tha order- of his bishop.
rallied his peopla, and led them
in fight. Had other priests done
likewise, Papineau would have
been the first president of the
republic of Quebec, for Colborne,
in the face of a general rising
would havp been helpless. He
had only 5000 soldiers to grapple
with 400,003 people. When, after
8 years' exile, Papineau returned
he had no use for the priest.
The government, believing all
danger was past, dealt leniently
with the defeated. After a brief
term in jail, even leaders were al
lowed to go home. The anxiety
on the part of the authorities to
conciliate, to let bygones be by
gones, was so apparent that the
ignorant among the disaffected
attributed the course taken to
fear and weakness. Several of
those let go at once began to plot
for a second rising. In this they
were encouraged by their com
patriots who had fled to the
United States, and who, received
with open arms by the Ameri
cans, sent word they would get
substantial support from their
new-found friends. From Ogdens-
burg to Derby Line a secret
society was organized to assist

with men and arms a second, re
bellion. The secret was so well-
kept that the authorities were
unaware of what was going on
until the eve of the outbreak,
which had been fixed for the 3rd
November, 1838. On the evening
of that day, the habitants
who were in the plot assembled
in groups and began a house to
house visitation of the English-
speaking farmers. Doors were
burst in and the men of the fami
ly, often found in bed, taken pri
soners and marched to some
chosen central point. Not all were
taken prisoners ; a Yorkshire-
man who resisted was murder
ed. Next morning the habitants
organized to advance on the Eng
lish settlements too large to be
dealt with by surprise. The ris
ing was not general, and was
confined to the territory lying
between Champlain and the St,
Lawrence, where the English-
speaking settlers were mostly
Scotch or Ulster Irish,, and who
rallied at once to meet the ad
vancing habitants, who hesitated,
fell back, and instead of attack
ing, took up the defensive. There
were isolated skirmishes, invari
ably ending in the flight of the
deluded habitants. The chief
stand was made at the head of
the Richelieu. There the habi
tants gathered, awaiting the ar
rival of the body of Americans
who had promised to come and
help them. When scarce three
score had come, and they were
waiting for the arrival of more,
a combined body of Irish Protes
tants and Catholics, with a few
Scots, appeared and at once
charged them. .The habitants
and their American sympathizers
fled across the border, wh'ch was-
close behind them, leaving nine
dead. The best showing was

82

:noade a& a small village north
•ot where this skirmish took place.
There several hundred habitants
assembled and had everything
their own way for nigh a week.
A constitution was adopted, the
State of Lower Canada was duly
proclaimed, as a free and indepen
dent republic, with Dr Nelson as
interim president. There was a
great parade when the flag of
the new republic, white with two
blue stars, was hoisted on the vil
lage flagpole, and saluted amid
•shouts and firing of muskets,
'Two officers from old France
drilled the habitants, who were
armed with rifles received from
the United States.. Hearing that
a body of English-speaking farm
ers were posted in a stone church
not far distant, it was resolved
to rout them and then capture St,
Johns. Out from Lacolle march
ed 1200 habitants, of whom at
least 800 had muskets,, the others
pikes. Unawed by the approach
ing host, the 60 men who had
crowded inside the little Metho
dist church, and the 150 behind
such cover as the graveyard af
forded, prepared for fight, A
memorable struggle ensued. For

two hours the little band held
their own, when, hearing a report
of. an approaching reinforcement,
panic seized, the habitants, who
disappeared. The second rebellion was over.
I have narrated its leading fea
tures at some length, because it
was put down by the English-
spaaking farmers, unaided by
regular troops. Those who hold
the rebellion in Quebec of 1837-8
was, like that of Ontario, a
struggle for constitutional free
dom, have to account for Scotch
radicals, many of whom had fled
to Canada to escape prosecution,
having been foremost in fighting
the habitants. As Lord Syden
ham wrote in 1840, the people of
Ontario "quarreled for realities,
"for political opinions, but in
"Quebec there is no such thing
"as political opinion— they have
"only one feeling, a hatred of
"race." The rebellion was the
climax of a prolonged effort by
the French to regain control of
a province which had once been
theirs, which had been taken from
them by violence, and to establish
it as an independent republic. It
was that, and nothing else.

83

CHAPTER 10

The terms on which the church
of Rome agreed to assist in de
feating Papineau and his asso
ciates included recognition of the
division of the province into two
dioceses, Quebec and Montreal,
with L'Artigue as bishop cf Mon
treal, bestowing on the bishops
authority to create new parishes
and re-arrange old ones, and to
give to the Sulpicians the three
seigniories they owned before the
conquest. Sir John Colborne hon
orably carried out the bargain.
An order-in-council had recog
nized the new bishop, and ordin
ances were passed giving the de
sired power regarding parishes
and conveying the seigniories to
the Sulpicians. By a special act
of: the Imperial parliament the
governor and council were em
powered to adopt any legislation
necessary to carry on the busi
ness of the country; Durham
made slight use of the act, sanc
tioning nothing more than was
absolutely required. On the other
hand, Colborne, or rather those
behind him, took advantage of
the opportunity to pass whatever
they saw fit, to enact a mass of
legislation, much of it of an ad
mirable nature and all remark
ably well-drafted. There was a
limitation, however, to these acts
. adopted by a small and irrespon
sible body of councillors. They
only held good to the end of 1842,
when it was expected the new
legislature would be organ
ized and which would re-enact
what it approved ih these ordin
ances.

At the conquest, a question that
had to be settled was, What is
to be done with monastic institu
tions? The course determined
upon by Gen. Amherst at the oc
cupation of Montreal, was that
followed by the Imperial authori
ties for three-quarters of a cen
tury. The nuns were left as they
were. The property of the male
orders was taken possession of
by the crown, provision being
made for the maintenance of
those dispossessed until their
death. The rule was promptly
applied to the Jesuits and Recol-
lets, but with some forbearance
to the Sulpicians, as being a
teaching body, and useful to
carry out Carleton's plan of a
native clergy. They were, how
ever, forbidden to receive novices,
or to reinforce their numbers
from abroad, so that governors
considered it merely a question
of time when tha last of those
under vows would die, when the
crown would enter quietly into
possession of their property. This
is what happened with the Jesuit
and the Rjcollet. The Sulpicians
were saved by the French revolu
tion. Among the refugees were
members of the mother-house in
Paris. Pitying their plight, they
were permitted by the governor
to find a home with the aged
survivors of. the order in Mon
treal. These also would have be
come extinct and the crown en
tered into possession of its long-
deferred heritage, had not a sec
ond revolution rent France, The
Sulpicians, alarmed by the rising

84

in 1830, a second tima fled from
Paris to Montreal, and were
again permitted to take up their
abode in the pleasant buildings
at Montreal. All this was illegal.
The Sulpician order was con
demned by the Imperial law; the
members representing it in Cana
da were all of French birth and
citizenship and could not legally
hold real estate. All the same,
these priests of old France, ex
pelled from their native land,
given a home out of pity for their
misfortunes, no sooner were fair
ly settled than they claimed to
be owners of what legally be
longed to their benefactors. To
make that out, they would have
had to prove that there was such
a thing in English law as right
of succession in monas tia orders,
which it would be absurd to try,
so they sought their end by other
means. They made friends with
the agitators, and got them to
take up their cause. How this
came about needs a word of ex
planation. When Amharst took
possession of Montreal it was a
miserable collection of log houses,
worth less than the buildings of
the church which towered above
them. All told, when the English
passed its walls, Montreal had
not three thousand inhabitants.
[The island was only cleared in
patches, few settlers being lo
cated north of the mountain. The
Sulpicians were seigniors of the
island of Montreal, and drew its
rents, which were small. The
coming of British rule mada a
marvellous change. Tha paltry
town, whose chief characteristic
was its monastic institutions, be
came commercial. Its trade grew
by leaps and bounds. It was the
same outside the town limits.
The crash of falling trees was
heard, clearances were made,

and the influence of Scotch farm
ing began to tell in the produc
tiveness of crops. All this pros
perity enhanced the value of the
island as a seigniory, and the re
venue of a few hundred dollars
a year grew into tens of thou
sands. When governors had diffi
culty in meeting payment of cur
rent expenses, owing to the as
sembly refusing to vote supplies,
it was proposed the government
complete the transfer of the pro
perty of the Sulpicians, and, by
using its revenue for civil ser
vice salaries become independent
of. the assembly. Papineau, who
cared naught for the Sulpicians,
saw the danger to his cause of
such a move, and prevented it
by identifying their cause with
his own, and he fiercely denounc
ed all attempts to disturb the
Sulpicians. He measured not the
selfishness nor the ingratitude of
these ecclesiastics. When they
had profited by his exertions in
the abandonment of the plan con
templated, and in course of time
saw the opportunity of making
friends with the government by
betraying the cause Papineau re
presented, they did so. The price
agreed on, was confirming the
Sulpicians in the property they
occupied. The influence of the
church was suddenly thrown
against Papineau and his follow
ers, their every movement reveal
ed to the authorities, with the re
sult recorded in last chapter. So
highly did Sir John Colborne esti
mate the services of the priests,
that he hurried to fulfil his part
of. tha bargain. Tha echoes of the
reballion had not subsided, Mon
treal jail was still filled with un
tried prisoners, when he got an
ordinance-in-council passed vest
ing in them absolutely the estates
they claimed. This ordinance the

85

home authorities disallowed as
outside the powers of the council.
However, when the first union
parliament met in 1841 among
the bills it passed was one con
veying to the Sulpicians the pro
perty they coveted. It was valu
able then, it is incomparably
more valuable to-day. The ad
vent of Protestants in Quebec
while it ended its days as a pure
ly Papal preserve, enriched the
church that resented their ap
pearance. The skill and enter
prise of Protestants has made the
island of Montreal the richest
spot in Canada, and every square
foot of it worth more than an
acre when under French rule. Out
of the increase of values the
priests of St. Sulpice have reaped
what they never earned, and are
the richest corporation in the Do
minion. The treasure-heaps, ac
cumulated by monks and nuns out
of the unearned increment due to
the trade of Protestants in town
and city, form a factor in the re
moval of Protestants from tha
rural sections.
The ordinance regarding par
ishes was passed at the same
time. The preamble declared
that it was necessary for the
quiet and happiness of her ma
jesty's Roman Catholic subjects
to make permanent and efficient
provision for the erection of par

ishes. What was than enacted is
still, jn substance, the law in
force. Tha act was retroactive,
making valid all the bishops had
done in tha past.
When the new legislature met
in 1841, altho among its first acts
was confirmation of the ordin
ance conveying seigniories to the
Sulpicians, it was not so ready in1
re-enacting the ordinance regard
ing parishes. A bill to do so was
introduced in 1843 and not re
ported. Three years later it was
again submitted and not proceed
ed with, and in 1849 it was
dropped in its initial stage. It
was not unt 1 Baldwin and Lafon-
taine were in office that the bill
was hurried through without at
tracting attention. It declared
the ordinance of 1839 valid, a-
mended its provisions in many
particulars, and despite the limi
tation as to its duration, con
firmed all that had been done up
to the adoption of the new act.;
The act received the governor's
assent on the 10th August, 1850,
so that for nine years the bishops
had been erecting parishes il
legally. It is right to place the
responsibility of the existence of
the parish system in Quebec
where it belongs. It was the
help of Baldwin and his Ontario
followers that restored it and
gave it new life.

86

CHAPTER 11

The act of 1811, uniting On
tario and. Quebec, is spoken of as
the result of Lord Durham's ad
vice. The union effected by the
act was not such a union as he
recommended. Durham want;d
complete union— a merging of the
people of the two provinces into
one, with one law and one admin
istration of law, no discrimina
tion to be allowed on account of
faith or origin, but an effort to
be made, so far as legislation
could effect it, of assimilation by
the destruction of all legal differ
ences. This was the kernel of
his plan. It was ignored by
the framrrs of tha act, who
provided for a restricted union
with a single, a joint 1 gis-
lature. It was a forced union
even on that basis, resented alike
by French and English. The
French, knowing its purpose was
to keep them in check, naturally
detested it; the English of On
tario did not like an alien people
having a voice in ruling them.
The first meeting of tha members
was like a mixture of oil and
water— together yet apart. That
meeting took place in Kingston,
the city identified with Sir John
Macdonald, and to him the gath
ering was one of lively interest.
[He sketched that first meeting
in his after years— the French
members clustered in a group,
sullen, suspicious of every pro
posal made in the proceedings, re
senting all approaches, standing

on the defensive : the English-
speaking members careless of
their presence, if not contemptu
ous. He made friends with this
solid contingent, sore from rec :nt
defeat and forced into a union
it was their constant study to
break. When, three years later,
he became a member of the as
sembly, he began the plan he had
contemplated, that of getting
into power through an alliance
with them. Others besides him
saw the opportunity, which was,
indeed, apparent. In any assem
bly, a sufficient number of mem
bers who stand aloof from their
fellows and are united on one
purpose, can, eventually, win con
trol. The Ontario members were
split into factions, the English-
speaking members from Quebec
voted with whoever controlled
the patronage, so it came the
solid French phalanx held the
balance of power. After the first
election there was an appearance
of division. Remembering the
cause of the collapse of the re
bellion, many young men who
took part in it held the priest
ought to have no voice in politics,
and their views, advocated in two
papers, L'Avenir and Le Pays,
provoked those who differed into
preaching absolute submission to
the clergy. The one was styled in
reproach at first, for it was the
appellation of the revolutionists
of France, by tha name rouge, the
others cam a to be known as bleus.

87

As this difference has disappear
ed, the rouge of our day vying
with the bleu in doing the will of
Rome, it does not concern the
situation of the Protestant min
ority. What does concern that
minority is, that as a consequence
of the agitation that ended in re
bellion, the idea was firmly en
grained in the minds of the habi
tants that Quebec was theirs by
right and all others were intrud
ers. Each session of the new
legislature made it more plain,
that the very object for which
the union of the two provinces
was designed to bring about —
control of the priest-directed ele
ment—had been lost — and the
;union as a remedy for the evils it
was designed to cure, was a dis
astrous failure. The parliamen
tary history of Canada between
1841 and 1867 is, in essence, a
narrative of how, step by step,
Quebec obtained dominance. The
first notable advance was in
1848, when the Lafontaine-Bald-
win administration secured the
repeal of the section in the union
act making English the official
language. The supremacy of
Quebec, however, was not abso
lute until Sir John Macdonald and
Cartier took office on the under
standing that no bill affecting
Quebec should become law unless
supported by a majority of its
members. Such a basis of action
virtually dissolved the union.
The priesthood now saw their
opportunity to obtain the power
they had long desired but had
despaired of getting, and which.
they certainly never would have
got but for the union of 1841.
The Canada act of 1774 confined
the parish system to the seignior
ies. The territory within which
it should exist was thus definite
ly fixed. Wherever land was held

in fief, the priest could tax and
tithe. The moment he crossed the
boundary-line of. a seigniory into
land held in free and common soc
cage, he could claim no more
privilege than a Methodist
preacher. This was galling to
the hierarchy, who desired to
throw the net of the parish-sys
tem over every acre of Quebec.
The seigniories were overcrowd
ed, the land had been divided
and subdivided until the majority
of the habitants were in poverty,
yet they were in sight of uneon-
ceded lands, into which their
priests would not let them go, be
cause they would be free of the
parish-system. Lord Sydenham
in the summer of 1840, made a 3
days' trip up the valley of the
Richelieu. Writing a friend he
remarks, "The counties border
ing the Richelieu were formerly
"tha garden of Lower Canada,
"tha soil rich to a degree, but
"thay are now used up compl tcly
"by the abominable mode of culti
vation pursued by the habitants,
"and present a melancholy nic-
"ture; the population rapidly
"increasing, and the people un-
"willing to quit their neighbor-
"hood and settle on new lands
"until actually starved out." The
act of William IV. related solely
to parishes in the seigniories, the
ordinance passed went no further
as to territory. The color of
authority the bishops hava for
extending the sway they exer
cised in the seigniories is to ba
found in the statutes passed be
tween 18-11 and 1867. Monastic
orders by the dozen received acts
of incorporation, followed by
grants from the public treasury
under the guise of charity and
education. In any country where thsra is a
privileged class, it necessarily

88

follows there must be a class that
is discriminated against. There
is no escaping this social law.
.Whatever is given to a favored
portion of the population, places
those who are outside of it at a
disadvantage. It is a self-ap
parent axiom, that in any coun
try where there is not equality
of rights, there is no true free
dom, for some class must be suf
fering wrong. To give privi
leges to a select few, is to do in
justice to the many. Of all forms
of inequality the most objection
able is singling out a particular
church for special favors, be
cause doing so is not merely re
pugnant to our innate sense of
justice but offends the conscience,
In the session of 1841 and those
that followed, the members of
Ontario had an opportunity of
vindicating the great principle
upon which freedom rests, by
framing a system of government
which would have given equal
rights. Instead of doing so, they
were false to the principles which
they professed, and, for the sake
of personal or party advantage
sold their principles to secure the
votes of delegates who held their
mandate from their bishops. In
the history of self-governing
countries, there is nothing more
disgraceful than the course pur
sued by the members of Ontario
from 1841 to 1867.
At the conquest the church of
Rome entered a condition of suf
ferance; its next step was
a power to be propitiated for the
sake of the favors it could be
stow. It now blossomed into
supremacy. During the last 17
years of the union the bishops
got what they sought and in Que
bec their church was buttressed
by statutes and enriched by do
nations by the votes of Ontario

members. One member realized
the extent of the evil but
failed to diagnose its cure. The
remedy of George Brown, repre
sentation by population, was
the old delusion in a new guise
of overcoming the difficulty that
arose from Quebec by force of
numbers, instead of plucking the
difficulty out by the roots. Had
representation by population b :en
adopted it would have failed, for
it would have been found that,
from their solidarity, the Qu.bec
members would still have held
the balance of power, and con
tinued to rule Ontario. The lake
let may absorb a river but will
be governed by its ebb and flow
and its waters be dyed by it.
Only a sea can assimilate what
rolls into its bosom. There is no
present prospect that the popu
lation of the Dominion will ever
be so great or of such a charac
ter, that Quebec will b a lost in its
numbers and interests. Had
Brown traced the wrongs ha de
plored to their source, he would
have applied himself to effecting
in Quebec what he helped to do
in Ontario, namely, complete sep
aration of church and state.
Sandfield MacDonald's remedy,
double majority, was the device
of a coward. The members of
each province were to decide bills
affecting their respective pro
vinces, and when there was not a
majority of the members con
cerned in favor of such a bill, it
was to be dropped, even if a ma
jority of the united house was in
its favor. When a crucial case
arose, MacDonald showed the
cloven foot. The Catholic bishops
pressed for separate schools in
Ontario. It was a bill that con
cerned Ontario alone, and a ma
jority of its members voted
against it. .MacDonald refused

89

to apply his own principle to the
case, and separate schools were
forced on Ontario by the votes of
the Quebec members.
At the core of all wrong there
is an antidote. Wherever any
selfish interest moulds a legisla
ture to its will, whether a com
bination of manufacturers, rail
way projectors, or a church, the
members it wins to its support
become corrupt. In doing vio
lence to thair professed convic
tions by uniting in the purposes
of the Quebac majority, the On
tario members lowered their
moral standard and became s:lf-
seekers. Sir John Macdonald, tho
the most careless of men about
his own pecuniary advantage,
knew how to win support by ex
ercising the potent lever of self-
interest. Whether in the bar
room of the house, slapping mem
bers on the back, joking and tell
ing lewd stories, or on the floor
replying to grave argumnts with
gestures, quirks, and jaers that
raised the laugh, he was master
of his following. Cartier second
ed him effectively by using the
Quebec votes as a bludgeon to
defeat opposition. His shout,
"Call in the members," ended
many a discussion. All went
swimmingly until the venality of
members turned the moral sense
of Ontario against the Mac-
donald-Cartier combination, and
its candidates could not secure
re-election. Then there was a
deadlock— the end of the union of
1841 had come. There was no
questioning! as to the cause of
the deadlock, it was admittedly
the thrusting of the will of the
Quebec hierarchy on Ontario. To
take steps that for the future it
should have no interest in what
the legislature did would have
been tha remedy of statesmen.

The party politicians to whom
the solving of the difficulty fell
were intent alone in getting
the machinery of tha state again
in motion— the Conservatives to
enjoy a new lease of office, the
Liberals, long shut out, wera
eager for a coalition, that they
might share in honors and pat
ronage. The Liberals agreed
that, whatever new arrangement
was made, they would leave the
institutions peculiar to Queb c
alone. It was accordingly agreed
to copy the American system,
each province to ba autonomous
and self-governing as regards its
local affairs, with a federal house
to deal with matters affecting
all the provinces. There were
slight compunctions as to leaving
the English-speaking people of
Quebec to the rule of the major
ity. Protests from the minor
ity against their abandonment
were treated as the expressions
of bigots. It was represented on
behalf of the Quebac majority
that there was nothing to fear,
that the Protestants would be
the objects of their most consid
erate care. McGee scouted the
idea that the Protestant min
ority would be in any way.
injured. He declared they would
be the pets of the majority, the
spoiled children of the new Do
minion, that they would be
smothered with kindness. Others,
whom such gush did not blind,
thought the minority could not
suffer with a preponderating
Protestant influence in the fed
eral house, while there were
those who looked on confedera
tion as a temporary stage, bound
to end in a legislative union. The
representatives of the minority
gave little opposition. Party al
legiance constrained part to sil
ence ; others were bribed by pro-

90

mises of office. Th ra were pro
tests from the electors, but thay
were unhaeded. Tha one dangzr
to the eyes of many was tha edu
cational. Make our schools se
cure and we will go in for Con
federation, was the cry of many.
Sir A. T. Gait satisfied these pro-
pie by getting a clause inserted
that their schools were to be con
tinued as they were and that,
should any complaint arise of in
vasion of this provision, appeal
could be made to the federal auth
orities. In the proposal of this
clause the church of Rome saw
her opportunity. If, said h:r
representatives in the conference,
we concede this, we must have
equal security for the schools of
the minority in Ontario. The
schools of the Quebec minority
were public schools, the schools
of the Ontario minority were the
schools of a church, there was no
parallel between them, yet the
demand to. place them on an
equality was successful, and just
because the English people of
Quebec prayed for protection
against the possibility of having
their free, open, non-sectarian
schools changed into confessional
schools, the price of that protec
tion was that the people of On
tario should have fastened on
them for all time the separate
schools that had been, in the first
place, imposed upon them by Que
bec votes. They who speak of the
framers of Confederation as
statesmen, may take this as one
instance of several, of how they
were made to kiss the Papal rod.
The parliamentary debate on
Confederation was, strictly
speaking, not a debate. [The reso
lutions for confederation were
placed before the members to be
adopted as they stood. Where
amendment was impossible it

was absurd to debate. The advo
cates of the resolutions found op
portunity to explain why they
favored them, those who were
not satisfied could say so without
hope of changing a single word
in the document thay had baen,
in mockery, summoned to con
sider. Few of the speeches con
tained in the bulky volume which
professes to report the debate
were delivered. Members wrote
what they would like to go on re
cord, and, after speaking a short
time, passed their MS to tha re
porters. In the discussion over a
measure they were incompetent.
to amend, ona true voice was
raised- Col. Haultain, nrmber for-
Peterboro, asked whether it was-
just to ignore the aversion of the
Protestants residing in tha town
ships of Quebec to confederation
because it Would place them at
the mercy of an intolerant hier
archy. Their suspicions and
fears, found confirmation in the
encyclical latter of the Hope
which had been just received. In.
the syllabus, which accompaniedl
it, of errors to be condemned, was-
"that emigrants to Catholic
"countries should hava fr se
ldom of worship." He who speka
thus is the head of tha con
trolling influence in Quabsc, and
the fears, therefore, of the minor
ity were not unreasonable, when
called upon to put th ms lvcs nto
the power of tha hierarchy, for,
to them, that was what confed
eration meant. The colonel was
jeered by members who had de
clined committing themselves to
the support of confederation until
the scheme had been submitted to
the Pope and received his approv
al. At the consecration of a
church at St. Johns, Que., Cartier
presented a copy of the proposed
constitution to Bishop Bourget,

91

who considered it with his
confreres, and finally sant it to
the propaganda at Rome.
That the provinces could have
continued much longer distinct
was impossible. With separate
tariffs, no method to promote
intercourse batween themselves,
no means to combine in making
representations abroad on ques
tions jointly affecting them, or
to unite in the redeeming of the
northwest from savagery, a
union of the provinces had to
come. .The pity is, it should have
been accomplished at the time
and with the object it immediate
ly served. A constitutional dead
lock had arisen between Quebec
and Ontario, caused by the clash
ing of church and state, and a
union of the provinces was
sought to overcome it. This was
merely giving longer life to an
evil that would eventually have

to be radically dealt with. In
copying the American plan of
union, the framers of tha act of
1867 did not base it upon equal
rights. An article forbidding tha
establishment of any church in
any of the provinces, would have
ensured peaca and permanence.
The U. S. constitution carefully
avoided the subject of negro slav
ery ; doing so resulted in the
greatest civil war the world has
known. Those who drafted the
act of confederation as careful
ly refrained from touching the
supremacy of Rome. A genera
tion to come will know the conse
quences. The commercial advan
tages of confederation have been
great, so great that they have
blinded people to tha fact that it
was a cowardly evasion of right,
and carries in it the seeds of
future trouble.

92

CHAPTER 12

Confederation bestowed on Que
bec substantially what Papi
neau asked. She became an inde
pendent, self-governing province
having a legislature of har own,
her own civil service, har own
cabinet, her own governor. In
"every regard, outside of inter-
provincial relations, she could not
be held accountable. The conces
sions dazzled her public men who
proceeded as if the glories with
which imagination had invested
New France were to be revived.
An imitation of the court of Fron
tenac was established at Spencer-
wood, the lieutenant-governor
was styled his excellency, and
there were pretensions heard and
ceremonies witnessed that be
spoke exultation and satisfaction.
To the minority there was also
a revival of epithets long un
heard, and the distinction of
ante-rebellion times between the
children of the soil and intruders
was again drawn. The assump
tions of the laity were not to be
compared, however, with those of
the clergy. Confederation had
restored to them greater pleni
tude of power than they had en
joyed when Louis was king and
they used it to the full. Sir A. T.
Gait, who speedily realized the
mistake he had made in support
ing confederation, in a pamphlet
summarized the dangers which
menaced the minority, instancing
the assertion of ecclesiastical
over civil authority, clerical in
terference with elections, placing

the ban on frae speech and on
the press, that divina assistanca
in teaching whatever touches on
faith and morals descends from
the Pope to bishops, priests, and
religi.use. As a politician ha had
been shocked by a united condem
nation on the part of the bishops
of Liberalism, by pri sts b.ing
upheld in contested elections who
had denounced individuals as
guilty of a grave sin in voting
for candidates who had not re
ceived their approval, and especi
ally by a judge laying down as
law that as priests belonged to
a spiritual order they were
above the law and beyond the
jurisdiction of the courts. There
were decisions recognizing canon
law and burial was refused in the
parish cemetery to the body of a
man because he had been mem
ber of a society which had de
clared for the principle of re
ligious toleration. Public men
made it their boast, that their
obedience to the bishops was im
plicit and unreserved, and, in
pleading before electors, held
this up as a claim for support,
rival candidates competing on the
hustings in depreciating each
others loyalty to their church. It
was a period of distressful ex
planations by Liberals and of
exultant boastings by Conserva
tives. A new style of journalism
was developed, which was happi
ly characterized as more Catholic
than the Pope. In this period of
reactionary effervescence the

93

Castors rose into prominence. A
sign of the times was the anno-
tator of the statutes putting in
the marginal note, "tha decrees
"of the Pope are binding." The
subserviency of tha legislature
to the bishops was complete.
Those parts of the public service,
the care of lunatics, of those lack
ing in one or more of the bodily
perceptions, reformatories, re-
luges, wera handed over to nuns
and monks, and free grants of
money and land made to organi
zations of the church. They not
only thus ceased to ba public in
stitutions acceptable to all
classes, but passed from tha con
trol of the legislature, for, by
virtue of their vows and ordina
tion nuns and monks, professing
to be of a heavenly class, resent
the superintendence of laymen. A
striking instance of a legislature
calling itself British surrendering
its sovereign and exclusive right
to make laws, was shown in re
gard to a bill which the govern
ment had brought down to amend
the education act. Tha arch
bishop sent for the premier, ex
pressed his disapproval and indig
nation at its being introduced
without consulting him. Tha bill
was hastily dropped, and tha pro
mise mad", which is still observed,
that no measure affecting educa
tion should be introduced with
out being first submitted to him
and obtaining his approval. The
law was so changed as to place
education under tha control of
the bishops. The council of pub
lic instruction was reconstructed
so as to ba composed of ecclesi
astics and an equal number of
laymen. As at any meeting an
cedes astic may not attend he
can send a substitute, tha lay
members, who hava no privilege
of alternates, ara always in a

minority. Thus the educational
system, by one fell swoop, was
given into the hands of the
bishops, the legislature divest
ing itself of what it defines in the
act as part of the civil service,
handing over to ecclesiastics this
important function, and control
of the expenditure of the public
money for school and college. Ad
ditional instances could ba added
of the subserviency of the legis
lature, but all, even those of de
Boucherville's government, were
eclipsed in 1888. Bishop Bourget
invited the general of the Jesuits
to renew tha tradition of his
order in Canada, and, in 1842, he
sent six fathers, who proceeded
to establish a college in Montreal.
Whoever chooses to look over a
parliamentary guide will sae how
many members, both at Ottawa
and Quebec, received their train
ing in St. Mary's college, and will
realize how deeply, thru the men
imbued with its principles in that
chosen s at, Jesuitism influ:naes
our politics, and shapes the des
tinies of tha Dominion. Ths a new
ly arrived Jesuits and their suc
cessors described to their pupils
the confiscation of tha Jesuit es
tates by King George, at the con
quest, as an act of spoliation, and
claimed compensation ought to
be mada. None of the scores of
young men who passed thru their
hands and rose high in tha politi
cal world dared to propose that
tha Jesuits ba compensated forthe
the act of a British administra
tion until Merci r appeared. Visit
ing Rome ha made a proposition
to the general of the order of the
Jesuits, which ha afterwards sub
mitted to the Pope, who ratified
it. On the assembling of tha legis
lature ha introduced a resolution
to pay out of the public funds
$460,000 as compensation to the

94

order for tha estates the crown
had declared public property
more than a century bafore, to
gether with a portion of tha
seigniory of Laprairie. Tha reso
lution was adopted and the bill
founded upon it passed. To nona
of the guarantacs for the rights
of the minority, which ha got in
serted in the act of Confedera
tion, did Sir A. T. Gait attach the
same weight as that of appeal
to the federal parliament, which
he described as their real pal
ladium. It was now to be test
ed. The principle involved there
was no mistaking— Was it law
ful for the Quebec legislature to
tax Protestants to maka a pres
ent to tha Jesuit society? An ap
peal was made to Ottawa to veto
what had been dona at Quebac.
The appaal was rejected by 188
to 13. The money was paid, the
land transferred, and tha delu
sion about guarantees shattered.
In the pamphlet in which Gait
laid so much stress on tha value
of the guarantae embodied in
the privilege of appaal to Otta
wa, he remarked on the rapid de
cline of the political influence of
the minority. Writing only nine
years after Confederation, he
pointed out that in only two
of the constituencies always re
garded as English could a candi
date ba elected independent of
the Catholic vote. The change
was due to the extraordinary ac
tivity shown by the priesthood
in planting Catholic colonies in
the townships, with assist
ance given out of tha government
chest under the guise of repatria
tion. The Papal Zouaves were
rewarded by a block of township
land. In self-defence, leading men
of Sherbrooke moved to encour
age immigrants from the British
isles. How the attempt fared,

may be judged by tha experience
of a company that had an option
on a large tract of land in Comp
ton. They applied for an act of
incorporation. The premicr,Chap-
leau, told th.ir representative the
bill would not be allowed to pass
unless tha company consented to
select Frenchmen as half of their
prospective settlers. Missions
were established in settlements
wher a no priest had ever been.
The nucleus gathered grew into
congregations larg a enough to
warrant the mission being erect
ed into a parish, and before con
federation had been in force 25
years the townships were
dotted with costly parish
churches, convents, and colleges.
There were a few Irish Catholic
congregations, who had support
ed their priest and built their
churches by voluntary contribu
tions. On being required to pay
tithe and building-tax thay re
sisted. Their appeals to the
courts were futile: proof being
led that thair farms formed part
of a parish proclaimed by tha
lieutenant - governor, judgment
was given against them. Even
tually these parishes were re
duced to tha level of those sur
rounding them, by substituting
French priests for their Irish
pastors. The Irish Catholics also
resisted the introduction of sepa
rate-schools. Their children had
for two generations gone to the
same schooL as their Pro
testant neighbors, but their re
sistance was in vain. Once start
ed, the exodus of the English-
speaking farmers went on in an
increasing ratio. Tha fewer laft
in a concession, tha mora con
strained were those who remain
ed to follow. The beginning of
the century found tham outnum
bered in every county south of

95

the St. Lawrenoe where, thirty
years before, they were in a ma
jority, and with thair small :r
numbers cam a decline in political
influence. The class of Protes
tants who got appointments or
wera chosen as representatives
were of tha kind who answered
the purposes of tha bishops bet
ter than tha aspirants from their
own colleges. The High Pri st
did not select a batrayer from
among the orthodox.
From all purely farming coun
tries th.re must necessarily be a
constant passing-away of youth.
To get farms tha young m n have
to go where land is still to ba
had free or at a cheap rate. Then
there is always a class eager for
change, ready to abandon tha
homestead and go whera they be
lieve conditions are better. Ac
count also must be taken of tha
drift from the country to the
city. These causes explain many
departures from tha townships
but after allowing for them,
there is tha undeniabla fact that
a large proportion of tha chang-s
are compulsory; that the old
stock is being driven away. Had
conditions remained as thay were
in 1850, or even seventeen years
later, tha farms of tha townsh'ps
would have remained in English
hands. The prime cause of tha ejection
of Protestants from tha land is
the parish system. This book
has been written in vain if it has
not demonstrated that the ex
tension of that system to the
townships is a tyrannical invas
ion of free territory, a defiance
of royal proclamation and im
perial statute; in one word, a
usurpation. Consider what that
system means to the English
farmer. So long as a farm is
owned by a Protestant the priest

can levy no tithe; his trustees no
building-tax. The moment it is
sold to a Catholic, tha priest
draws tithe and the church-war
dens dues. Sae the motive here
held out, apart from th ir religi
ous or national consideration, to
get tha Protestant pushed aside!
The patents issued by the crown
for the lands hJd in tha town
ships read thus —
"Victoria, by the grace of God,
"of the United Kingdom of Great
"Britain and Ireland, Queen, . . .
"have granted to John Doe the
"parcel of land herein described
". . . to have and to hold . .. for
ever in free and common soc-
"cage, by fealty only, in lika
"manner as lands ara holden in
"frea and common soecage in that
"part of Great Britain called
"England.'' Thsse daeds wera signed for
the Queen by the governor then
in office, and they read tha same
from the tima of George III. If
language means anything, surely
these daeds are conveyances to
the farmer on tha sama condi
tions as if the land they specify
was situated in England. Is land
in England subject to ba taxad
by the Roman Catholic priest
hood? If not, how can it be in
the townships of Quebac? Is tha
transfer from the crown not cl ar
as to thera being no ulterior con
dition? Can it be pr. tended, that
the soveraign ever recognized
that the Papal representatives in
Quebac had a latent claim by
which, some day, tiny could tithe
and tax? Was the grant mada
with a servituda to Roma or as a
free grant from a British sover
eign to a British subject? Who
ever considers the matter solely
from reading tha daeds by which
the crown granted, or sold, the
farms in the townships of Que-

96

bee, can coma to no othar con
clusion than that it was frea
land with no encumbranca or
servitude. That was und.niably
the intention of the British gov
ernment, for, in the act of 1774,
which restored French law with
in the seigniories, ft is expressly
stated— "Nothing in this act contained
"shall extend, or ba construed to
"extend, to any lands that have
"been, or hereafter shall be grant
"ed by his maj .sty, his heirs and
"successors, to ba holden in free
"and common soccage."
This law has never been repeal
ed and stands as much in force
to-day as any other s action of
the act. If that section is not
valid, is not now the law of tha
land, then neither is section 8,
which Rome considers tha legal
bulwark of her privileges. There
never was a clearer case of defi
ance of an Imperial statute than
the erecting of parishes in tha
townships. When tha agitation
led by Papineau reached the point
that the Imperial parliament ap
pointed a select committee to
take evidence as to the alleged
grievances, Viger was called and
gave much evidence as to the
working of the tenures act, whieh
formed part of his complaint. Tha
committee, which included sev
eral eminent lawyers, in their re
port spoke thus on this head—
"To the provision in tha act of
"1774, providing that in all mat-
"ters of controversy relating to
"property and civil rights . . .
"be determined agreeably to the
"laws and customs of Lower Can-
"ada, thera is a marked exception
"to this concession of Fr. neh law,
"namely, 'that it shall not apply
"to lands which had been or
"should be granted in free and
"common soccage.' "

The report was adopted by the
house of commons. It prove
that, 54 years aftar tha Quebec
act was passed, when the town
ships had been erected and many
of them thickly populated, th3
Imperial parliament placed tha
interpretation of the Quebec act
that section eight no mora ap
plied to them than it did to On
tario. John J. McCord was ap
pointed Judge for tha townships
1842, and from his close associa
tion with them knew their con
dition and circumstances thuroly.
In the spring of 1854 a eas a was
brought before him, by tha priest
of Milton, in the St. Hyacinthe
circuit court, of a habitant who
refused to pay tithes because his
farm was township, not fief land,
that his tenur-a was free and
common soccage, not saigniorial.
The Judg a uphald tha plea. The
only authority for tithes, said
Judge McCord, was tha Quebac
act, which restricted tham to
seigniorial land. Tha conclu
sion of the judg a was, that such
being "tha present state of the
"law of the country, and there
"being a positive prohibition to
"the extension of the right of
"tithes to land held in free and
"common soccage, I am bound to
"maintain" defendant's plea.. (See
appendix D). Tha law is th j same
now as in 1854, but the judges
are not tha same. That summer
the legislature passed the act
abolishing clergy r-sarves, be
cause of tha reason that it is
"Desirable to remove all sam-
"blance of connection between
"church and state." This merely
reaffirmed tha declaration of the
rectories act, which laid down
legal equality among all religious
denominations. (Sae appendix E).
The statutes of tha united pro
vince hava othar passages of like

. n-J"-*-1

97

nature. Thus Vic. 14-15, regard
ing the Catholic diocese of Mon
treal, a section reads, "Nothing
"in this act shall be construed
"to extend, or in any manner con-
"fer, any spiritual jurisdiction or
"ecclesiastical rights whatsoever
"upon any bishop or other eccles
iastical person."
Seeing section 9 of the Quebec
act has not been repealed, and
no statute can be quoted repeal
ing it, How comes it that Rome
has extended the parish system
to the townships? How comes it
that she is levying her tributes
on a single acre outside fief
lands? As well ask, How did she
go on exercising tha powers given
her by the ordinance of 1839 dur
ing nine years after it had
lapsed? Holding the balance of
political influence, public men
dare not challenge what she does.
There has been so far only one
Doutre. It is a loose way of speaking
with many to say it is the edu
cational difficulty that drives the
Protestant farmers away. The
primal cause is the parish sys
tem, of which separate schools
are merely a consequence. Had
Sir A. T. Gait, when acting as re
presentative of the Quebec min
ority in the framing of confeder
ation, instead of asking guaran
tees for schools, simply demanded
that the parish system be con
fined to the limits defined in the
Quebec act, nothing more would
have been necessary, for if Rome
could not levy taxes to build
churches and parsonages and
tithes to support priests, it
would have had no more interest
to bring its forces to baar in ex
pelling the Protestant farmer
from the townships of Quebec
than it has in meddling with tha
farmers across the line in Ver- 8

mont and New York stat\ lam
not going to dwell on the
methods of expulsion, or describe
the ways and means used by the
agents of Roma to effect their
purpose. That might ba interest
ing, might gratify the curious,
but would, while the scheme is in
progress, be injudicious. One fact
the experience of the Eastern
Townships has established— the
Anglo-Saxon farmer will remain
in no country where ha is dis
criminated against. It is differ
ent with the business man. He
goes where trade and manufac
tures yield the largest profit.
The English-speaking population
on the island of Montreal grows
and will continue to grow. Of
Protestant farmers, each census
will count fewer, yet these farm
ers have an equal claim to the
province with the French and
Catholic farmers. Quebac is the
country of the Protestant farmer
from being the home of his fami
ly for several generations, and
from their labor in creating that
home by carving it out of the
primeval forest. Tens of thou
sands of them know no other
country: it is to them their na
tive land, which they desire to
live in, and, if need should arise,
would die for. The townships are
the creation of English-speaking
Protestants, what they are they
made them; they were their ar
chitects and builders, and by
crown and imperial parliament,
were secured in the townships as
their inheritance, their chosen
seat in the province of Quebec.
The premier of our Dominion has
been abroad of late, repeating
with eloquent iteration that the
secret of binding alien peoples to
the English crown is to copy
what has been dona in Quebec,
thrusting the ad vie a on British

98

statesmen that to solve the situ
ation in South Africa they should
grant the Boers the fullest au
tonomy. What of the hypocrisy
of talking thus and at the v.ry
time b.ing a party to the crush
ing of the autonomy of tha East
ern Townships, robbing its Pro
testant settlers of their rights as
British subjects, winking at the
violation of laws in order to
make thair situation unendur
able, and so drive them forth to
. seek equal rights in another pro
vince — too often under another
Sflag? Judging by their acts, it
Is se:n some men when they
clamor for autonomy really de
sire tha power to supplant those
who do not think as they do.
These Townships' farmers, as fine
a yeomanry as the sun ever
shone upon, the influence and ser
vices of whose fathers in hours
of danger saved Canada to
Britain, are being ousted by the
class in whose mouths autonomy,
self - government, constitutional
1 xights, are being constantly re
peated. The victims of ecclesias
tical designs ask for no excep
tional treatment. What they do
ask is, that they be rescued, from
the schemes and stratagems of a
church that does claim to have
special privileges, and that that
church be rendered powerless to
lurt them by being placed on the
same level as other churches. Is
that an unreasonable demand?
The shame is, that in a British
colony British subjects should
have to prefer such a demand.
Of the exceptional privileges
claimed as her right by Rome,
the most extraordinary is that
ethe children of her members be
preserved from mingling with
¦other children in learning the
srudiments of education. What
.concerns those who are not ad

herents of that church in this
demand iis, that the separate
schools thus sought are to b3
supported out of tha common
purse, that the schools of a sect
are to be treated as the schools
of the nation. How this claim
for separate schools came to be
preferred in Quebec and how it
works, it is necessary to under
stand. From their first settle
ment, the townships had schools,
maintained, it may be saidwhol-
ly by the farmers, for the assist
ance from government was er
ratic and trifling. Between 1820
and 1841 several educational acts
were passed, with grants per
scholar; one provided for half
the cost of naw schoolhouses.
None of these acts recognized
differences in creed; they pro
vided for public schools. Syden
ham was extremely anxious to
have the children of the habitants
educated, and induced his minis
ters to submit an act, at the first
meeting of the united parlia
ment, to establish public schools
in both provinces. Tha Quebec
members objected, asking Catho
lic schools. Instead of standing
by their measure the government
weakly consented to refer the act
to a committee, which inserted a
clause giving permission to Cath
olics to dissent and form schools
of their own. This permission
applied, to both provinces, and
so Ontario had its first taste of
Papal dictation. As regards the
Quebec parishes the act was in
operative. Conferences with the
bishops followed ending in sub
mitting the act of 1844, which
forms the basis of all subsequent
school legislation. It made pro
vision for sectarian schools. In
Quebec the act failed from an un-
looked for cause. It authorized a
compulsory tax to maintain

99

.schools. This the habitants re
sented, and attempts to levy
rates resulted in a ferment of
stubborn opposition with some
deeds of violence. The act had
to be modified in this regard,
without, however, leading to the
establishment of a general sys
tem of schools in tha parishes.
So late as 1853 there were muni
cipalities where no school tax
had ever baen collected. The
planting of schools among the
habitants is, therefore, compara
tively recent. The organizing of
their schools fell to their priests,
and they made them adjuncts of
their church. From tha earliest
period, the preparation of chil
dren for first communion had
been by means of repetition.
Someone, commonly the mother,
repeated the catechism and
prayers from memory, and the
words they said the little ones
stored away as they listened.
The introduction of schools was
seized to do this work of
preparation, and their main pur
pose to this day is to fit tha
scholars for their first commun
ion. After that ceremony, few of
the boys, at least, attend. These
schools are as much a part of the
Papal system as its convents.
They do for the ordinary child
what the college does for the se
lect few— train them to implicit
faith in and obedience to their
church. To parallel them with
schools whose end is to teach the
three R's and to enlarge the in
tellect by storing it with infor
mation, is to confound two essen
tially different institutions. When
the state makes provision for
separate schools, it is entering
into a partnership with Rome to
help it to preserve and propa
gate its doctrines ; when it gives
public money for these schools, it

is taxing non-Catholics to teach
what is repugnant to their con
sciences. In tha townships, lan
guage is no causa for separate
schools. English parents are
glad of any opportunity for their
children to acquire French, while
French parents, if laft to them
selves, would have all their chil
dren able to speak English.
For two score years, at least,
there were schools in the town
ships before there was any
serious effort to found any kind
of schools in the parishes. This
priority it is of importance to
bear in mind. When the act of
1844 began to ba enforced, there
were schools in every English-
speaking settlement. In farming
communities the support avail
able for schools is limited. Chil
dren cannot be expected to walk
over two miles to school, and
that radius gives, where farms
range from one to two hundred
acres, an average of one school
to every twenty families. This
physical obstacle to a rural popu
lation keeping up more than one
school has not been taken into
account by those who have
framed our educational laws.
Introduce a second school, and
one or other has to go out of ex
istence, for there are only suffi
cient families to support one. A'
priest goes into a school district
in the townships and commands
the few Catholic families to dis
sent and have a separate school.
The loss of their rates impairs
the revenue of the old school,
and, as time passes, whenever a
farm comes for sale, by some
unseen direction, a Catholic buy
er is brought for it, so the re
venue grows smaller until the
point is reached that it is insuf
ficient, and tha school door closes
for the last time. The town-

10G

ships had a system of schools as
old as their sattlement and as
non-sectarian as thos a of On
tario. .They have been under
mined by the innovation of con
fessional schools. It was offi
cially stated in 1906 that four
hundred had gon a out of exist
ence. The beginning of every
school year saes more doors un
opened. No matter under what
pretence separate schools are in
troduced into farming sections,
the result is to destroy the
original schools. It is different in
towns and cities, whare sufficient
support can be got for both. In
the country, whare there can only
be a limited number of families
to the square mile, the man who
establishes a separate school
does so with tha design of break
ing down the one in existence. In
her invasion of tha townships
Rome planned to destroy the
schools of their founders, and she
is killing them by the dozen.
To use public money to pay for
confessional schools is a direct
infringement on the rights of
conscience. This can be shown
by a single illustration. Tho
rule as to division of school taxes
is that they go according to the
creed of the ratepayer. When it
comes to the taxes levied on in
corporated companies this prin
cipal of allotment would require
that they be divided according
to the amount of stock owned by
Catholic and Protestant share
holders. This is not done, a new
rule is adopted and the rates
paid by companies are divided in
proportion to the children in tha
municipality in which tha fac
tory is situated, and thus, whila
Catholic shareholders may ba a
negligible quantity thc lion's
share of the company's tax goes
to the Catholic schools. An esti
mate, prepared, by one who invee

tigated the subject, gives a mil
lion dollars yearly ae the amount
taken from .Protestants for the
support of Catholic schools. That,.
I judge, is an excessive estimate,,
but the amount has nothing to
do with the principle at stake,,
which is, that Protestants hav
ing investments in banking and
insurance companies, commercial
and manufacturing enterprises
are compelled by law to support
Catholic schools. It is within the
truth to say that of the capital
of these companies nineteen-
twentieths is that of Protes
tants. There are many compan
ies compos sd exclusively of Pro
testants whosa tax goes to Cath
olic schools. Plausible gentlemen
in parliament dwell on the fair
ness of allowing each creed to
designate the school to which
their tax should go. Let them
reconcile their rule with their
seizing the taxes of Protestants
when associated in companies.
Their excuse is, that the proprie
tors of great industrial concerns
are interested in the education of
their employes. Certainly they
are interested in seeing that they
get a secular education, but it
is of the brutality of intolerance
to confiscate their money to
teach the doctrines of a church.
The air is full of plans to save
the non-sectarian schools of the
farmers. Take the rates levied
on Prdtestants for the support
of Catholic schools and place
them in a general fund and
there will be no need to call for
aid from the benevolent or for an
increased grant from the govern
ment. Each dollar levied in tax
ation or taken from the public
treasury for tha support of any
church or tha teaching of its
creed is a violation of the rights
of conscience.

101

CHAPTER 13

The growth of the townships,
sketched in the first chapter,
was full of hope. Each day's
work was done in joyous expec
tation of plans to be realized.
There was activity, progress,
life. Periodically there was ex
ultation over what had baen
achieved: neighbor joining neigh
bor to enumerate results, encour
aging one anothar to attempt
greater things. The pages in
which Bouchette tells of his suc
cessive visits to the townships
and of their marvellous advance
ment give a thrill of delight to
the reader. A brighter morning
no new country could have. H.ow
different the picture of to-day!
In a few centres there is much
industrial activity : Sherbrooke
and Granby hum with the revolv
ing wheels of mill and factory,
Around which cluster tenements
of workers. Thes a are apart
from the rural population, and
it is with the English-speaking
farmer I am concerned. Let us
see how he has fared. Here is a
concession in which, a f^w de
cades ago, in each home was
heard the kindly speech of the
Lowland Scot, here another
where Highlanders predominat
ed ; another where Irish Catholics
and Protestants dwelt in neigh
borly helpfulness; anothar where
neatnass and taste told of its
dwellers being of New England
descent. To-day approach one
of those homes, and with polite
gesture madam gives you to un

derstand she does not speak Eng
lish. Here is the school the first
settlers erected, and which
they and their successors kept
open with no small denial. Draw
near to it and you hear ^ the
scholars in their play calling to
one another in French. The de
scendants of tha men who cleared
these fields of forest and brought
them into cultivation have disap
peared. The meeting-house where
they met for worship stands
there on a knoll, with broken
windows, and boarded door,
dropping to decay. The surround
ing acre where they buried their
dead is a mass of weeds, -which
defy approach to read the word
ing on the stones that are bare
ly discerned thru the tangle of
vegatation. Once in tha course of
years there is a funeral : a body
comes by train from some far-
distant State, that of one who
was once a settler and yearned
to rest with har kindred. A van
ished race : why did they go? Be
cause tha pledged word of a Brit
ish king and tha statute enacted
by a British parliament, were
broken and set asida by Cana
dian politicians in obedience to
the ecclesiastics who helped them
to office. Thes a acres were
meant by tha king and parlia
ment of England to ba free land:
the blight of servitude to a
church is now upon them.
The situation of tha few fami
lies who Qling to a decaying
township settement is painful.

102

They have seen neighbor after
neighbor leave, and French fami
lies take their place. The people
they visited and who visited tham
are in tha United States, for of
those who have left the town
ships the larga majority sought
the republic instead of our North
west, as if from an instinctive
fear that no part of Canada is
safe from tha power that ex
pelled them. The lack of social in
tercourse presses on the wife and
children ; tha lack of mutual help
fulness on tha father. A feeling
of isolation and loneliness creeps
upon them. It is with difficulty
services in the church are main
tained. : were it not for help from
home - mission funds its door
would be closed. A day comes
when there are too few families
to keep up tha school. The father
Bees a Catholic one within sight
of his door. Will he send his chil
dren to it? What is the daily
routine of that school? Learning
the prayers of tha church, so that
the children may be able to fol
low the church service on Sun
day; learning the catechism.with
such questions as this—
"What is the church Jesus
"Christ has established?
"It is the Catholic, apostolic,
"and Roman church.
"Can one bo saved outside of
"the Catholic, apostolic, and Ro-
"man church.
"No, outside tha church none
"can be saved."
with a little of the three R's
during the intervals between
prayers and catechism. The
teacher assures the father his
children will not ba asked to join
in either, but he knows from ex
perience they will ba involuntari
ly fixed in thir memories by
daily hearing. Then the day
comes when the priest is to visit

the school, and the scholars join.
in preparing and decorating a
little shrine. The text-books are
Catholic, the whole atmosphere.
of the school is Catholic. He can
not in conscience send his little
ones to it, and so the French-Can
adian, who has been wanting his:
farm, gets it, and a week after
he is in possession a priest comes
to see the new acquisition of his
church, for it has a joint proprie
torship with the habitant in it*
acres. For the first time a priest
drives up the lane lined by mapl as
which the grandfather of the dis
possessed Protestant planted,
and levies tithes on the yield of
fields his great-grand parents re
deemed from the wilderness and
which four generations of Pro
testants have plowed.
When the stream of emigration
from the United Kingdom set in.
a century ago, it was so marvel
ous that any portion pf it should
have been diverted to the back
country of Quebec, that he who
weighs all the conditions of the
times traces the hand of design
—that God would have planted
within the bounds of the pro
vince a people who would bear
testimony to his truth. Hun
dreds of families who sailed from
the Old Land purposing to settle
in Ontario were, by what seemed
to them accidental happenings^
diverted from their intention and
remained in Quebec. Of the hun
dreds of first settlers I have con
versed with, not one in twenty
said they crossed the Atlantic
with the intention of remaining;
in Quebec. Was there no purpose
in this? Are the settlements of
UUtermcn and of Lowland Scots
that rose in the midst of the all-
pervading forest to be regarded
in no other light than that which
the economist views them? The,

103

fundamental truth of Christian
ity is the individuality of man
in his relation to God. .Each
stands accused before him, and
for his reconciliation there is no
provision for a human intermedi
ary. No fellow-being can step be
tween the soul and its maker : no
organization speak or act for him.
In every age and in every country
there have been men who pro
fessed to be the deputies, the re
presentatives on earth, of God;
assuming to speak for him and
claiming the efficacy of their
services as intermediaries in sav
ing souls. In no other part of the
continent was there more need
than in Quebec for a body of men
and women to bear witness by
their lives that no fellow-mortal
can stand between the soul ahd
God, teaching the twin truth of
the individual responsibility and
of the spiritual independence of
man. The settlers, so strangely
guided to Quebec, knew this
great truth, but hid it in their
materialism, their eager seeking
after what the world can give,
and the example they ought to
have set was lost in their in
consistent lives, their indiffer
ence to the eternal welfare of
the people whose eyes were upon
them. It was their duty to be
lights, to be witness-bearers to
the sovereignty of Christ and the
all-sufficiency of his intercession,
yet, if by naught else than their
neglect of associating together
to fan the flame of piety, and the
meanness of their contributions
to sustain Gospel ordinances,
"they disgraced, and finally
blasted the cause they were call
ed to recommend. Had they re
alized the grandeur of their op
portunity, had they been faith
ful to their duty, would they
have been abandoned to those

who, from their first coming,
plotted against them? The Pro
testants of Quebec had presented
to them an opening to do a grand
work. They threw it away, and
as a people they have been
thrown away. Will the remnant
consider where their fathers fail
ed and earnestly set their faces
to redeeming the past? If they
are to hold their own, it must
be, first, by a great spiritual re
vival among themselves. They
have been sinned against, wan
tonly and aggressively, but they
also have sinned by not living up
to the knowledge they possessed.
The conventional talk about na
tional characteristics needs modi
fying. The difference between
the English and the French-
speaking Canadian is not due to
race, it is caused by conditions.
Give the English boy tha same
training in youth as the French
boy, and reverse the position of
the French boy giving him an
English training, and see how.
little race has to do with the
traits we call national. Both
peoples are essentially the same.
That the French have been kept
apart is due to those whose in
terest it is to hold them their ex
clusive subjects. It is the black
robe who stands between kindred
peoples. Look at the States
where the French Canadians are
no longer under priestly control,
and mark how they develop and
rise to the place nature designed
they should occupy. Look at the
French Protestants in Quebec,
and mark how they become one
in heart and purpose with their
English neighbors, whila retain
ing their language and customs.
Language is no insurmountable
barrier. The French have an in
alienable right to the language
they so dearly cherish. Nature

104

has been kind to them in giv
ing them a remarkable capacity
for learning other languages, and
they are recognizing more and
more that English is the medium
of business, the key that opens
to them the avenues of advance
ment offered by nigh a hundred
millions of people. I am sure the
time will never come when they
will cease to speak French, but
the tltne will come when there
will be few who cannot speak
English, and in this they will
have a great advantage over the
English who only know one lan
guage. Thosa who speak dispar
agingly of the French, do so in
ignorance. If they lived among
them, had they come to know the
excellent qualities of head and
heart that are native to them,
they would be ashamed to so re
gard them. They who so act
show the same spirit as the
priesthood of Quebec, in raising
barriers to prevent full inter
course with the English, attempt
ing to bind tha French into a
solidarity that suits their pur
pose. Every man has a claim to
be judged on his own merits ; to
discriminate between man and
man on the score of origin is sin
ful prejudice. Judge him of French
origin as you would an English
man, be blind neither to his
faults nor his excellencies, and
make him feel that he stands on
a level with yourself. It is high
time that all distinctions as to
race be dropped in the Dominion,
that the truth be recognized that
origin gives no privilege, no claim
to superiority, that the highest
title is that of being a British
subject, and the only name for
any of us to boast is that of Can
adian. To use the term auton
omy in the sense of preserving
by phblic authority and resourc s

any race or creed is destructive
of the unity Canada requires.
It is not intolerant to propose
that a churoh be supported by
voluntary contributions; aman
can be a devout believer in its
teaching and yet consistently
contend that every bond between
it and tha state be cut. Are Ameri
can Catholics not the equal of
Quebec Catholics? Yet they pay no
tithes, they build their churches
by voluntary contributions, they
send their children to the same
school as their neighbors, when
a candidate for public office so
licits their vote they do not ask
whether he is approved by their
bishop, no mandements are pro
claimed from the altar telling
what books and newspapers they
must not read, what meetings
they must not attend, there is
no interference with freedom of
speech and press. Because Am
erican Catholics profess their
faith under such different con
ditions from those of Quebec, who
dare call them bad Catholics?!
What is orthodox south of 45,
cannot be reprehensible north of
itt If French Canadian Catholics
who have gone to the States are
emancipated from privileges their
clergy once held, and are still
counted among the faithful, why
is it wrong to advocate that
those on this side of the border
be relieved from a system that
may have had its use in feudal
times but is incompatible with
the conditions of the twentieth
century? The church of Rome is dual : it
is a spiritual system and it is a
political system. In the United
States it is a spiritual system : in
Quebec it is as much political as
spiritual. The French Canadian
who looks back on the history of
his race on this continent wili see

105
how his church, not in its spiri- preserver, Rome has been the
tual but in its political capacity, WOrst enemy of the French na-
has been its blight. The intoler- tionality in Canada, for she has
ance that drove the Huguenots used them to advance her own
away was the primal cause of tha interests and not theirs. To
failure of New France. Rome one objeet the controllers of that
backed the kings of France ,in church in Quebec have been un-
keeping the habitants vassals, waveringly true, the aggrandize-
isolated, and without that educa- ment of their order and organi-
tion that would have enabled zation. To attain those ends
them to hold their own with they have played with national
their neighbors to the south. It prejudices as with counters in
was priestly intrigues that the great game of politics. Hold-
blocked Frontenac's efforts to jng the mass of the people sub-
make New France a nation. ject to their bidding, they speak
Under English rule the interests aruj WOrk in parliament thru a
of the habitants were, whenever foody of men they have trained
opportunity offered, traded for for the purpose, a second caste
the advancement of the church. yet subject to their own, with
When fostering the aspirations the object of making, as near as
for national autonomy suited the may be, the Dominion what Que-
purposes of the bishops, they foec is. And let those provinces
clapped the leaders on the back; that think themselves safe, con-
when deserting was to win ad- sider this, that the measure of
vantages for the church, they de- Rome's privileges in Quebec is the
nounced them in pastoral letters, standard of Rome's demands in
It has ever been the same, when the rest of the Dominion. What
public men have served their i8 possessed in Quebec, is the
purpose and become a detriment claim of the bishops at this hour
they were cast aside. A promin- in Manitoba and her sister pro-
ent illustration is found in the vinces. The great issue that has
career of Mercier. When he had to be faced by Canada as a un
exhausted his popularity by do- tion, an .issue that cannot be
ing their bidding, the bishops evaded and the settlement of
threw him away like a squeezed which will ere long be impera-
lemon, by leaving him to be de- tive,. is the disestablishment of
feated in 'the election of 1891. No the church of Rome in Quebec,
injury done the habitants equals making it, as in Italy and France,
that visited on the tens of thou- a free church in a free state.
sands who have gone to the New May the tragical fate of the
England States. With their skill English farm settlements of Que-
of hand and their facility in foec be a warning to the people of
learning, they ought to fill the the other provinces, to rise above
best positions. From lack of cia- their local affairs, and grapple
mentary education, withheld with the great issue that is be-
from them in their native par- fore them, and which the longer
ishes because it suited the pur- it remains unsettled, the more
poses of the bishops, they far too complex and difficult it will be-
often fill the commonest and come. The union of church and
worst-paid callings. Arrogating state in Quebec is incompatible
to herself the character of their With the stability of the Dpmin-

106

ion. The existence of that sys
tem in one province will be found,
as in session after session of late
years, a menace to the other pro
vinces and a constant hindrance
to the proper working of the
federal government. No church
can with safety to the public
weal be given a preference by tha

state over other churches, and
the state cannot beeome the ser
vant of any church without con
juring a hundred troubles. Sepa
ration of church and state would
have saved the English-speaking
settlements of Quebec; separa
tion of church and state can
alone save the Dominion.

THE END

APPENDIX

APPENDIX

Extract from the articles of
capitulation of Montreal, giving
those relating to religion. In the
first of these articles the French
governor asked that—
The free exercise of the Catho
lic, apostolic, and Roman religion
shall subsist entire, in such man
ner that all the states and the
people of the towns and coun
tries, places and distant posts
shall continue to assemble in the
churches, and to frequent the
sacraments as heretofore, with
out being molested in any man
ner, directly or indirectly. These
people shall be obliged, by the
English government, to pay their
priests the tithes, and all the
taxes they were used to pay
under tha government of his most
Christian Majesty.
Answer of the British General:
Granted, as to the free exercise
of their religion, the obligation
of paying the tithes to the
priests will depend on the king's
pleasure. Tha French Governor ask-ad that
The chapter, priests, curates
and missionaries shall continue,
with an entire liberty, their ex
ercise and functions of cures, in
the parishes of the towns and
countries. Answer of tha British General:
Granted.

The French Governor asked that
The grand vicars, named by the
chapter to administer to the dio
cese during the vacancy of the
Episcopal see, shall have liberty,
to dwell in the towns and coun
try parishes, as they shall think
proper. They shall at all times
be free to visit the different par
ishes qf the diocese with the or
dinary ceremonies, and exercise
all the jurisdiction they exer
cised under the French Dominion,
They shall enjoy the same rights
in case of the death of the future
bishop, of which mention will be
made in the following article,
Answer of the British General:
Granted except what regards
the following article.
The French Governor asked that
If by the treaty of peace^Canada
should remain in the power of
his Britannic Majesty, his most
Christian Majesty shall continue
to name the bishop of the colony,
who shall always be of the Ro
man communion, and under whose
authority the people shall exer
cise the Roman religion.
Answer of the British General:
Refused. The French Governor asked that
The bishop shall, in case of
need, establish new parishes,
and provide for the rebuilding of
his cathedral and his episcopal
palace; and, in the meantime
he shall have the liberty to dwell

110

in the towns or parishes, as he
shall judge proper. He shall be
at liberty to visit his diocese
with the ordinary ceremonies,
and exercise all the jurisdiction
which his predecessor exercised
under the French Dominion, save
that an oath of fidelity, or a
promise to do nothing contrary
to his Britannic Majesty's ser
vice, may be required of him.
Answer of the British General :
This article is comprised under
the foregoing
The French Governor asked that
The communities of nuns shall
be preserved in their constitu
tions and privileges ; they shall
continue to observe their rules,
they shall be exempted from
lodging any military ; and it shall
be forbid to molest them in their
religious exercises, or to enter
their monasteries : safe-guards
shall even be given them, if they
desire them.
Answer of the British General :
Granted. The French Governor asked t,hat
The preceding article shall
likewise be executed, with re
gard to the communities of
Jesuits and Recollets and of the
house of the priests of St. Sul
pice at Montreal ; these last, and
the Jesuits, shall preserve their
right to nominate to certain cur
acies and missions, as heretofore.
Answer of the British General:
Refused till the king's pleasure
be known.
The French Governor asked that
All the communities, and all
the priests, shall preserve their
moveables, the property and re
venues of the seigniories and
other estates, which they possess
in the colony, of what nature so
ever they may be ; and the same
estates shall be preserved in

their privileges, rights, honors,
and exemptions.
Answer of the British General:
Granted. The French Governor asked +imt
The savages or Indian allies of
his Most Christian Majesty, shall
be maintained in the lands they
inhabit; if they choose to re
main there; they, shall not be mo
lested on any pretence whatso
ever for having carried arms,
and served his most Christian1
Majesty ; they shall have, as well
as the French, liberty of religion,
and shall keep their missionaries.
The actual vicar general, and the
bishop, when the Episcopal see
shall be filled, shall have leave to
send to them new missionaries
when they shall judge it neces
sary. Answer of the British General :
Granted, except the last article,
which has been already refused.

B

During the debate on the Que
bec act, June 10, 1774, Serjeant
Glynn spoke as follows : To any
predilection of the Canadians for
their ancient laws and customs,
I should be inclined as much as
anyone to yield, as far as I could
do so with safety; but to carry
my compliance to the exclusion
of the laws of England— to con
sent to substitute in their place
the laws of France— and to add
to all this a form of legislature
correspondent to that of the
kingdom whence those laws were
borrowed, is what I never can
consent to. And I own my objec
tion to tha measure was strength
ened when I was told, that there
was a prejudice and predilection1
in these people favorable to those

Ill

laws, and that it was considered
.good policy to avail ourselves of
this predilection, to build a sys
tem of government upon it so
contrary to our own. I should
have thought it was rather our
duty, by all gentle means, to root
these prejudices from the minds
of the Canadians, to attach them
by degrees to the civil govern
ment of England, and to rivet the
union by the strong ties of laws,
of language, and religion. You
have followed the opposite prin
ciple ; which, instead of . making
.it a secure possession to this
country, will cause it to remain
forever, a dangerous one. I have
contemplated with some horror
the nursery thus established for
men reared up in irreconcilable
aversion to our laws and con
stitution. When I was told by
Lord North, that they were
insensible to the value of those
laws and held them in contempt,
wishing to be bound by laws of
their own making — when I was
told that they had no regard for
civil rights, I must confess that
it operated with me in a contrary
way, and I could not help think
ing that it furnished p,n unan
swerable argument against grati
fying them. I think that we
could not, with humanity or
policy, gratify them in their love
of French law, of French religion.
The common safety is concerned
in our refusal. If the Canadians
love French law and French re
ligion, and entertain opinions
adverse to the peace and safety
of the mother country, would it
not be wise to recall them from
their delusion, by putting them
in immediate possession of civil
rights ; by which they would see
all questions concerning their
own property determined on the
Jairest and most impartial man

ner, by laws which are the best
guard of the weak and the
strong, the inferior and the most
powerful part of tha community?
Without they possess the highest
sense of civil rights, they can
never be good friends with us,
or good subjects of the king. .
All this is done, because it is
right to indulge the natural pre
dilections of the Canadians in
favor of their ancient laws and
usages ! Let me, sir, in like man
ner, plead the law in favor of the
English merchants — in favor of
the English inhabitants. If it be
cruel, if it be oppressive, to ob
trude upon the Canadians this
law, which they have been eleven
years in the exercise of, what
should be said of those who take
away the law from the poor Eng
lish subjects who reside there?
Thesa men have a predilection
and liking for the laws of their
own country, and claim their
privilege of being protected, ac
cording to the usage and just
principles of policy of their an
cestors. They have settled there
in consequence of the royal faith
pledged to them, that they should
not be deprived of the law which
they esteem so valuable, and that
none of their privileges should
be infringed. Is it justice to
these men to force them to live
under an arbitrary form of gov
ernment, and to submit to the ad
ministration of justice by the
principles of another law, to the
exclusion of juries, for the grati
fication of others, who prefer be
ing placed under a despotic form
of government? Is not the grati
fication due to the natives of
England, rather than to the na
tives of Canada? There is, sir,
a consideration which I will sub
mit to the house. Every man
born in Canada since the

112

conquest must be a free-born sub
ject. In process of time, all will
be of that description, and as
such, entitled to partake of all
the rights and privileges of the
system of government which we
are about to transmit to them. Is
it then, wise, I ask, out of the
prejudices of those who have been
born under the arbitrary law of
another country, to perpetuate a
system of government, which will
deprive all those who may here
after be born, from the enjoy
ment of the privileges of other
British subjects?
Edmund Burke spoke thus : How
many years elapsed, before you
thought of making any constitu
tion for Canada at all 1 And now
instead of making them free sub
jects of England, you sentence
them to French government for
ages. I meant only to add a few
words upon the part of the Can
adians, and leave them to their
misery. They are condemned
slaves by the British parliament.
You only give them new masters.
There is an end of Canada. Sir,
having given up a hundred and
fifty thousand of these people,
having deprived them of the prin
ciples of our constitution, let us
turn our attention to the three
hundred and sixty English fami
lies. It is a small number ; but I
have heard, that the English are
not to be judged of by number
but by weight; and. that one
Englishman can beat two French
men. Lat us not value the pre
judice. I do not know that one
Englishman can beat two French
men; but I know that, in this
case, he ought to be more valu
able than twenty Frenchmen, if
you estimate him as a freeman
and the Frenchmen as slaves.
What can compensate an English
man for the loss of his laws? Do

you propose to take away liberty
from the Englishman, because
you will not give It to tha French?
I would give it to the English
man, tho ten thousand French
men should take it against their
will. *¦ Two-thirds pf the whole
trading interests of Canada are
going to be deprived of their lib
erties, and handed over to French
law and 'French judicature. Is
that just to Englishmen? Surely,
the English merchants want the
protection of our law more than
the noblesse! They have pro
perty always at sea; which, if it
is not protected by law, every,
one may catch who can. No Eng
lish merchant thinks himself arm
ed to protect his property, if he
is not armed with English law. I
claim protection for the three
hundred and sixty English fami
lies, whom I do know, against
the prejudices of the noblesse of
Canada, whom I do not know. I
must put the house in mind of
what an honorable gentleman
said in the course of this debate
— that it was seldom that any
improvement was introduced in
any country, which did not, at
first, militate against the preju
dices of the people. Was all
England pleased with the revolu
tion? No, the wishes of the ma
jority were sacrificed to the rea
son of the better part, and the
interest of the whole ; and we are
now enjoying the benefits of that
choice— banef its brought upon the
ignorant people, not by force, but
with an easy hand. The Cana
dians are now struggling with
their old prejudices in favor of
their former laws. A new estab
lishment is proposed to them;
which throws them into some
disorder, some confusion— "All the
interim is like a phantasma and
a hideous dream." The honorable-

lib

gentlemen opposite, taking ad
vantage of this confusion, say—
We have got a basis ; let us see
how much French law we can
introduce 1 With a French basis,
there is not one good thing that
you can introduce. With an
English basis, there is not one
bad thing that you can introduee.
. . .With regard to state polie-y,
which is tha last point I shall
touch upon— the preservation of
their old prejudices, their old
laws, their old custom's, by ihe
bill, turns the balance in favor of
France. The only difference is,
they will have George the Third
for Lewis the Sixteenth. In
order to make Canada a secure
possession of the British govern
ment, you have only to bind the
people to you, by giving them
your laws. Give them English
liberty— give them an English
constitution — and then whe
ther they speak French or
English, whether they go to mass
or attend our own communion
you will render tham valuable
and useful subjects of Great
Britain. If you refuse to do this,
the consequence will be most in
jurious : Canada will become a
dangerous instrument in the
hands of those who wish to de
stroy English liberty in every
part of our possessions.

Royal instructions of Governor
Carleton given 3rd January, 1775.
The establishment of proper
regulations in matters of ecclesi
astical concern is an object of
very great importance, and it
will be your indispensable duty
to lose no time in making such
arrangements in regard thereto,
as may give full satisfactapn to

our new subjects .to every point,-
in which thfey have a right to
any indulgence on that head; al
ways remembering, that it is a
toleration of tha free exercise of
the religion of the church of
Rome only, to which thay are
entitled, but not to the powers.
and privileges of it as an estab
lished church, for that is a pre
ference, which belongs only to*
the Protestant church of Eng
land. Upon these principles, there-'
fore, and to tha end , that our just
supremacy in all matters ecclesi
astical, as well as civil, may have
its due scope and influence, it is
our will and pleasure. —
First, that all appeals to, or
correspondence with any foreign
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, of
what nature or kind soever, be
absolutely forbidden under very
severe penalties.
Secondly, That no episcopal or-
vicarial powers be exercised
within our said province by any
person professing the religion of
the church of Rome, but such
only as are essentially and indis
pensably necessary to the free
exercise of the Romish religion;
and in those cases not without
a license and permission from you
under the seal of our said pro
vince, for, and during our will
and pleasure, and under such
other limitations and restrictions-
as may correspond with the spirit
and provision of the act of par
liament, "for making more effec-
"tual provision for the govern-
"ment of the province of Que-
"bee;" and no person whatever
is to have holy orders conferred
upon him, or to have the cure of
souls without a license for that
purpose first had and obtained
from you.
Thirdly, That no person pr**"

9

114

f essing the religion of tha church
of Rome be allowed to fill any ec
clesiastical benefice, or to have
or enjoy any of the rights or
profits belonging thereto, that is
not a Canadian by birth, (such
only excepted, as are now in
possession of any such benefice)
and that is not appointed there
to by us, or by, or under our
authority, and that all right, or
claim of right in any other per
son whatever to nominate, pre
sent, or appoint to any vacant
benefice, other than such as may
lay claim to tha patronage of
benefices, as a civil right, be ab
solutely abolished. No person to
hold more than one benefice, or
at least not more than can rea
sonably ba served by one and the
sam? incumbent.
Fourthly, That no person,what-
ever, professing the religion of
the church of Rome, be appointed
incumbait of any parish, in which
tha majority of the inhabitants
shall solicit tha appointment of
a Protestant, and entitled to all
tithes payable within such par
ish; but, nevertheless, the Roman
Catholics may have the use of the
church for the free exercise of
their religion at such time, as
may not interfere with the re
ligious worship of tha Protes
tants. And in like manner the
Protestant inhabitants in every
parish, where the majority of the
parishioners are Roman Catho
lics, shall, notwithstanding, have
th us a of the church for the
exercise of their religion at such
times, as may not interfere with
tha religious worship of the Ro
man Catholics.
Fifthly, That no incumbent pro
fessing the religion of the church
of Rome, appointed to any par
ish, shall be entitled to receive
any tithes for lands, or posses

sions occupied by a Protestant;
but such tithes shall be received
by such persons as you shall ap
point, and shall be reserved in
the hands of our receiver general,
as aforesaid, for the support of
a Protestant clergy in our said
province to be actually resident
within the same, and not other
wise, according to such direc
tions as you shall receive from
us in that behalf. And in like
manner all growing rents and
profits of a vacant benefice shal1,
during such vacancy, be reserved
for and applied to the like uses.
Sixthly, That all persons pro
fessing the religion of the church
of Rome, which are already pos
sessed of, or may hereafter be
appointed to any ecclesiastical
benefice, or who may be licensed
to exercise any power or auth
ority in respect thereto, do take
and subscriba before you in
council, or before such person as
you shall appoint to administer
tha same, the oath required to
be taken and subscribed by the
act of 1774.
Seventhly, That all incumbents
of parishes shall hold their re
spective benefices during good
bahavior, subject, however, in
cases of any conviction for crim
inal offences, or upon due proof
of seditious attempts to disturb
the peace and tranquility of our
govarnment, to be deprived, or
suspended by you with the advice
and consent of a majority of our
said council.
Eighthly, That such ecclesias
tics as may think fit to enter
into the holy state of matrimony,
shall be released from all penal
ties to which they may have been
subjected in such cases by any
authority of the See of Rome.
Ninthly, That freedom of burial
of dead In churches and

115

church yards ba allowed indis
criminately to every Christian
persuasion. Tenthly, That tha royal family
be prayed for in all churches and
places of holy worship, in such
manner and form as are used in
this kingdom; and that Our Arms
and Insignia ba put up not only
in all such churches and places of
holy worship, but also in all
courts of justice; and that the
arms of Franca be taken down in
every such church or court where
they may at present remain.
That all missionaries amongst
tha Indians, whether established
under tha authority of, or ap
pointed by the Jesuits, or by any
other ecclesiastical authority of
tha Romish church, be withdrawn
by degrees, and at such times and
in such manner as shall be satis
factory to the said Indians, and
consistent with the public safety ;
and Protestant missionaries ap
pointed in their places ; that all
ecclesiastical persons whatso
ever, of the church of Rome, be
inhibited, upon pain of depriva
tion, from influencing any person
in the making a will, from in
veighing Protestants to become
Papists, or from tampering
with them in matter of religion
and that tha Romish priests be
forbid to inveigh in their sermons
against the religion of the
church of England, or to marry,
baptize, or visit the sick, or
bury any of our Protestant sub
jects, if a Protestant minister be
upon the spot.
You are at all times and upon
all occasions to give every coun
tenance and protection in your
power to such Protestant minis
ters, and schoolmasters, as are
already established within our
said province, or may hereafter
be sent thither.

D

CIRCUIT COURT, St.
HYACINTHE
McCord (J. S.), J. The declara
tion states that the plaintiff,
Refour, is a priest and cure of
the Catholic mission of Ste. Cecile
4n the township of Milton. Defen
dant is proprietor of lot No. 14
in the 8th range of Milton and a
Roman Catholic parishioner, liv
ing on tha lands of the said mis
sion, to whosa cura he is duly
assigned, and is bound to pay
10s for tithes of grain on said
lot. Defendant pleads —
1 That tha priest has no right
to tithes.
2 That the mission being with
in the township of Milton, where
the tenure is in free and common
soccage and subject to the laws
of England, which do not require
the payment of tithes within this
province. 3 That the mission has not
been either civilly or canonically
erected into a parish or cure.
It is well known that both in
England and in France at the
earliest periods when tithes were
mentioned they were voluntary,
contributions^ and only became
eligible when sanctioned by auth
ority of law, which was so
in France by Charlemagne, A.D.,
in England partially in 786-7,
and generally in 930. Burns'
Eccl. Law V. Tithes, vol. 3 p. 387.
There can, therefore, be no right
of tithe without sanction of.
law. In this province it formed
part of the law of the country.
introduced by tha kings of France
under whose dominion that part
of the country known as seign
iorial Canada was subject, and
where it was found in force at
the conquest of the country in
1760. Edit, du mois de Mai, 1669,

116

By the unpenal statute 14 Geo.
III., c. 83, sect. 5, it is enacted
that the inhabitants of Quebec,
professing the religion of the
"church of Rome may have,
"hold, and enjoy the free ex
ercise of the religion of
"the church of Rome . . . and
"that the clergy of the said
"church may hold, receive, and
"enjoy their accustomed dues and
"rights with respect to such per-
"sons only as shall profess the
"said religion." Had this clause
remained alone in the statute it
might perhaps be argued that
the permission should extend to
the entire province of Quebec
l>ut by the 9th section all doubt
is removed by the following
proviso. "That nothing in this
"act contained shall extend, or
"be construed to extend, to any
"lands that have been granted
"by his Majesty, or shall here-
"after be granted by his Majesty,
"his heirs or successors, to be
"holden in free or common soc-
"cage." The next and only other
statute on the subject is 31 Geo.
III., c. 31, sec. 35, which confirms
and contains the above provision,
with a further restriction, that
(where a Protestant shall possess
land, which in the hands of a Ro
man Catholic would have been
liable to tithes, such land shall
cease to be so subject to that
right. Such then is the present state
of the law of the country, and
there being a positive prohibition
to the extension of the rights of
tithes to lands held in free and
common soccage, I am bound to
maintain the second plea pleaded.
Sicotte for plaintiff: deBou'her-
TVille for defendant.
Previou scase is dated June 10
1854.

E

PREAMBLE OF RECTORIES ACT
Vic. 44-5.
Whereas the recognition of
legal equality among all religious
denominations is an admitted
principle of colonial legislation;
and whereas in the state and
condition of this province, to
which sufch a principle is pe
culiarly applicable, it is des'rable
that the same should receive the
sanction of direct legislative au
thority, recognizing and declaring
the same as a fundamental prin
ciple of our civil polity ... it is
hereby declared and enacted, that
the free exercise and enjoyment
of religious profession and wor
ship, without discrimination or
preference, so as the same be not
made an excuse for acts of licen
tiousness or justification of prac
tices inconsistent with the peace
and safety of the province, is, by
the constitution and laws of this
province allowed to all Her Ma
jesty's subjects within the same.

NOTES TO CHAPTER 12

The declarations referred to by
Sir A. T. Gait in lag two pam
phlets are too long to quote.
Judge Routhier gave two decis
ions in cases of actions for libel
based on sermons preached by
parish cures, in which he laid
down the rule that what was said
by a priest in discharge of his
ecclesiastical functions he could
not be called to account before a
secular court. The first judg
ment was upheld by the court of
appeal. The second was quashed
in review. The following sent-

117

ences sufficiently indicate Judge
Routhier's reading of the law-
Ecclesiastics cannot be prose
cuted before secular tribunals for
ecclesiastical matters. A layman
who asserts he has been defamed
by a cure in a sermon delivered
from the pulpit, cannot sue for
damages in civil tribunals for de
famation, preaching being a mat
ter essentially ecclesiastical. ?. .,
At the first glance thrown upon
this case. I asked myself if I was a
judge competent to decide it, if it
pertained to me, a layman, to cen
sure a priest. . . . The priest in
the pulpit, speaking in the name
of God, in virtue of his divine mis
sion, completely eludes my juris
diction, and I have no quality
(claim) to decide whether he a-
buses his sacred ministry or not.

There appeared in a Thre a Rivers
paper in 1870 a program for
the direction of electors at
the approaching Dominion elec
tions. It was endorsed by
the Bishops of Montreal and
Three Rivers in pastoral let
ters. Here are three quota
tions from the program—
"It is impossible to deny that
"politics are closely bound up
"with religion, and that the sepa-
"ration of the church and the
"state is an absurd and impious
"doctrine. This is particularly
"true of the constitutional rule,
"which, attributing to parliament
"all power of legislation, places
"in the hands of those who com-
"pose it a double-edged weapon
"which might become terrible.
"It is for this it becomes
"necessary : that those who exer-
"cise this legislative authority
"should be in perfect harmony
"with tha teachings of the church

"It is for this it is the duty of
"Catholic electors to choose for
"their representatives men whose
"principles are perfectly sound
"and sure.
"The full and entire adhesion
"to Roman Catholic doctrines, in
"religious politics and social
"economy, should be the first and
"principal qualification thatCath-r
"olic electors should exact from
"the Catholic candidate. It is the
"safest criterion of which they
"can avail themselves to Judge of
"men and things."
"We belong in principle to the
"Conservative party; that is to
"say, to that which constitutes
"itself the defender of social auth-
"ority. It is sufficient to say,
"that by the Conservative party,
"we do not mean every set of
"men who have no other tie than
"that of personal interest and
"ambition; but a group of men
"sincerely professing the same
"principles of religion and nation-
"ality, preserving in their in-
"tegrity the traditions of the
"old Conservative party, which
"may be summed up in an inviol-
"able attachment to Catholic doc-
"trines, and an absolute devotion
"to the national interests of
"Lower Canada.
"It is the duty of the electors
"not to give their suffrages but
"to those who will entirely con-
"form to the instructions of the
"church in these matters."

Bishop of Birtha, assisting in the
Montreal diocese, in a sermon
on the Sunday before the elec
tion of June, 1875, said—
"The Liberal Catholic professes
"to believe in the truths of the
"faith, but he rejects the inter-

118

"ference of the church in secular
"affairs. He does not want the
"priest to meddle in politics. He,
"therefore,, excludes God from
"men in human affairs. This is
"an error condemned by popes
"and councils. . . . The priest
"should be your adviser in politi-
"cal affairs."

Pastoral letter of 22nd Sept,
1875. from the united bishops :
"The church is a perfect so-
"ciety, distinct and independent
"from civil society, and she has
"necessarily received from her
"founder authority over her chil-
"dren to maintain order and
"unity. . . Not only is the church
"independent of civil society, she
"is superior. . . . the state is
"therefore in the church, and not
"the church in the State."

In a pastoral letter, dated Feby.
6. 1876, the Bishop of Montreal
warned his people against
Liberalism. The precautions
to avoid being led astray by
Liberalism are summed up in
this rule, which every one is
: advised to repeat in his heart:
"I hear my cure, my cure hears
"the bishop, the bishop hears the
"Pope, and the Pope hears Jesus
"Christ, who a-ssists him with his
"divine spirit in rendering him
"infallible in the teaching and
"government of His church. By
"keeping this rule in mind, and
"respecting the priest as they
"would thair Saviour, good Catho
lics need not fear to go astray."

In a mandement issued March 21 ,
1877, the Bishop of Rimouski
condemned the judgment of
the court in setting aside an
election in Bonaventure on
account of priestly influence.
The Bishop said—
"To pretend that electors
"should be free from all law ex-
"cept civil law, is to will that,
"during elections, the law of
"God and that of the church
"should be suspended. . . A third
"error^ no less pernicious, is that
"civil courts are charged with
"correcting the abuses, which
"may slip into preaching or re
cusing the sacraments. . . The
"church alone has the right to
"impose limits which shall not be
"exceeded by the preacher in the
"unfolding of the doctrine. . .
"The influence of the priest over
"his flock comes from his sacer-
"dotal character, his divine mis-
"sion. . . How does one dare to
"call the threatening of the
"refusal of the sacraments to
"those who do not submit them-
"selves to the direction of their
"pastors, a fraudulent proceed-
"ing?"

On Tuesday, Oct. 29, '76, the Jubi
lee of Bishop Bourget as a
priest was celebrated in Notre
Dame church Montreal. Father
Braun was the preacher. His
sermon was printed by auth
ority. Following are extracts
from it—
"The church, in the oyes of
"modern governments, is no more
"considered as a society com-
"pletely independent of the state,
"having itself the rights confid-

119

"ed to it by its Divine Founder;
"right of self-government; right
"of possessing and of administer-
"ing property ; right of making
"laws binding upon the con-
"science.. and to which the State
"should submit ; right of being the
"only power that can define the
"invalidating impediments to
"marriage, that can determine
"the form of marriage, that can
"judge matrimonial cases to pro-
"nounce upon the validity of the
"conjugal tie; right of erecting
"parishes independently of the
"State; right of superintending
"and directing education in pub-
"lic schools. People do not con-
eider any more than the heads
"of nations and their legislators
"that they owe submission, res-
"pect and obedience to the church
"just as much as the humblest
"citizen, and that the more ele-
"vated they are in the eyes of
"men, the more formidable ac-
"count they will have to render
"to God for their want of respect
"and submission to the laws of
"holy church.
"In future every upright and
"logical man, enlightened by the
"zeal of the bishop and his clergy,
"will say : Yes, we most heartily
"adhere to the constitutions of
"the church. Yes. they bind in
"conscience independently of the
"sanction of the state. There-
"fore the church is an indepan-
"dent society. Every one ad-
"mits this principle. The state is
"subordinate to the church. This
"truth is admitted. No one now
"dares to deny these two Catholic
"dogmas. But many, for a logical
"turn of mind, do not see the con-
"sequences which flow from these
"principles, and dare to doubt
"them. But the day we trust is
"near at hand when governments

"repudiating their errors, will at
"length recognize the truths pro-
"claimed by the First Council of
"Quebec. The law of the church!
'itself enacts the ecclesiastical
"laws, without any recourse tes
"the state, and it is the duty of
"the state to recognize these
"laws and submit to them. The
"church can, inasmuch as it
"thinks proper, require from the
"state a civil sanction for the
"laws. This sanction adds no
"new obligation to the law, but
"helps the execution thereof. In
"this case it is not a bill, a draft
"of a law, which the church pro
poses to the examination and
"discussion of a parliament, it is
"a law already made, and which
"the church alone has a right to
"make, a law which is already
"binding on the conscience, inde
pendently of the sanction
"of the state, and for which!
"the church claims a purely
"civil action and sanction. The
"state dees not enact the law r;or
"does it discuss the same ; this is
"beyond its jurisdiction. It sim-
"ply sanctions it civilly, just as
"the church proposes it, without
"having the right to change, omit
"or add anything.
"As the church enacts its owm
"laws, so does it also judge ec-
"clesiastical matters indepen
dently of the state's courts, to
"cause the church's decisions to
"be respected. The church de-
"cides in matrimonial cases, pre-
"scribes the forms of marriages,.
"and the state is honored by,
"causing the decisions of the
"church to be observed. The
"church has the possession and
"administration of temporalities,,
"independently of the state ; and
"the state protects the church in
"its possessions and adminlstra—

120

"tions. The church enjoys its im
munities., and the state protects
"it against the sacrilegious man
"who would wish to violate them.
"The church erects dioceses and
"parishes, and the state helps the
"church in all its works. The
"church watches over and dlrecis
"the schools, and it approves the
"teachers that parents choose,
"and the state hastens freely to
"grant its protection and assist
ance. A Christian government is
"far from imitating those Liberal
"governments who arrogate to
"themselves all right and power
"in schools, which everywhere be-
"come schoolmasters, and which
"have perverted the education of
"youth. Such is the union of
"church and Istate and our vener-
"able pontiff has devoted his life

"to the strengthening of this
"union. All these truths are the
"corollaries of the church's Inde
pendence, . proclaimed by. the
"council of Quebec."
Father Braun summed up the
principles he had laid down thus :
The supremacy and infallibility,
of the Pope ;
The independence and liberty of
the church;
The subordination and submis
sion of the church to the
State; in case of conflict be
tween them, the church to de
cide, the state to submit.
For whoever follows and defends
these principles, life and a bless
ing ; for whoever rejects and com
bats them, death and a curse.

INDEX

American revolution, attitude of
priests during 26 and 28, course
of Americans towards Canada
27, invasion §9.
Assembly, refuses to do justice to
English-speaking farmers 74-75
Barre, Colonel, 44.
Bishop of Quebec, official recog
nition 65.
Brandy traffic, decision of theo
logians 21.
Books prohibited 23.
Border raids 16.
Brown, George, 88.
Canada act 51, its working 67.
Canadienne la nation, 77.
Capitulation of Montreal 32, of
Quebec 32.
Carleton, his defence of Canada
29, attempts to mould priest
hood 64, royal instructions to
him as to their status 64.
Cartier, Sir Etienne, 89-90.
Charles I. sells back Canada to
France 12.
Champlain 9, condition of Canada
when left 13.
Chapleau. 94.
Church of Rome, its disestablish
ment the great issue before the
people of the Dominion 105.
Colborne. Sir John, carries out
agreement with priests 83.
Confederation, 89-90, what it
gave to Quebec 92.
Craig road, building 2
Dalhousie, 68, 69, 76.
Egremont, Earl, 35.
Crown lands, their control 69,
free of all servitude 95-96.
Ellice, Alex., 59.

Emigration, start of 3, Govern
ment forbids 43, resumed 58.
Explorations, slow in being made
10.
French revolution 54, founds a
party of republicans 61, sends
priests to Quebec 66.
Frontenac, arrival 14, his im
perial policy 15, defeated by
the priests 16, his return 16,
opinion of confessional 21, ob
jects to priestly dictation 22,
his instructions 53.
Gait, Sir A. T., 90, his pamphlet
94.
Habitants, .14, 16, 18, reception
of English 24, development of
56, ignorance of public affairs
70, their illiteracy 70, 78,
Sydenham's description 87, re
fuse to pay school rates 98,
their schools 9.9, 102, in the
United States 104.
Haultaheu Colonel, 90.
Huguenots, establish trade of St.
Lawrence 9, excluded 20, Exe
cution of Vvil 21.
Hey 35-41.
Jacques Cartier 7.
Jesuits, Relations 11, incite raids
on New England 16, advise
marriage with squaws 17,
search for heretics 20, their
blue laws 21, their return to
Canada 93, compensated for
property 93.
Kirke captures Canada 12.
Language, official 53-87.
LaSalle on priestcraft 21.
Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, and auton
omy 97.

INDEX

Missions 10, Frontenac's esti
mate of them 11.
Maseres 33-35.
Marriage, injury from early 17.
Members of assembly, description
of 70-71.
Mercier,. Honore, 93.
McCord, Judge, decision as to
tithes 96.
Macdonald, Sir John, 86-89.
MacDonald, Sandfield, 88.
McGee, D'Arcy, 89.
Napoleon, effect on Quebec 62
National characteristics 103.
Noblesse 38!
Ontario's politicians, their course
regarding Quebec 87, 88, 89.
Opposition to Immigrants 2-6.
Papineau. his using constitutional
cry to cover his designs, his em
inence 72. support from Eng
lish-speaking class 73, deserted
t»y priesthood 78, his demands
79, failure of rising 81.
Parish-system introduced 13, act
regarding 79, extended by Bald
win 85, the real cause of driv
ing away Protestant farmers
94-95.
Patents, Crown prove land wa«
not to ba subject to church
dues 95.
Plessis, Bishop, his testimony
about English rule 57.
Priesthood made French nation
ality subservient to the ad
vancement of their church 104-
105.
Protestants of Quebec did not
live up to their light 102.
Proclamation of 1763, 34.
Population in 1629, at the con
quest 24.
Public men asking aid from
priests 62.
Quebec act 38, opposed by Town
shend 39, North's statement 40,
Edmund Burke 41-42, Pitt 44,
analysis of act 45.

Royal Instructions 36-46.
Rebellion, first 80, second 81.
Recollet and Jesuit buildings,
their use for Protestant wor
ship 65.
Result of French regime 23.
Richelieu makes Canada a crown
colony 13.
Rome, church of, her privileges
in Quebec 31, the claim that
they are secured by treaty 32,
increase of privileges 65.
Schools, 90, 93, 94, 97
98, 99, 100.
School-rates of incorporated com
panies 100.
Scotch family, first day in the
bush 5.
Seigniory system, its introduc
tion 13-25, obstructs immigra
tion 59.
Seignior3 their pride and poverty
14, not suppressed 25, intrigues
of 55.
Separate schools fastened on On
tario 88, 90. 98.
Settlers in townships from New
England 1. from Britain 3, th ir
growth 74, their decline 94,
expulsion 98-101.
Sulpicians 83, 84, 85.
Talon tries to make colony self-
sustaining .14, his opinion of
priests 22.
Tenures act 60.
Tithes 13, abolished 25.
Treaty of Paris 33.
U. E. Loyalists 51-58.
Union act of 1841, 86, meeting
of first legislature 86, declara
tions as to church and state
96-97.
Vvil, Daniel, case of 20.
Wedderburn, 36.
William III., proposal of French
to conquer New York on his
accession 23.

The Tragedy of Quebec: Expul
sion of its Protestant Farmers.
$1.
History of the counties of Beau-
harnois. Chateauguay, and Hun
tingdon, from their first settle
ment to 1838. $2,
Gleaner Tales, illustrative of
Backwoods' life. $1.
The Quebec Minority. A collec
tion of pamphlets, including dis
cussion on Equal Rights by
[Mercier. $1. Only a few copies
left.
Any of the above mailed, post
age prepaid, oh receipt of price.
1 Address : THE GLEANER,
Huntingdon, Que.