Public School History of England and Canada/Canada/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III.
LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CANADIAN CONSTITUTION.
1. Peace of Paris, 1763.—General Murray took the command of the British army after the death of Wolfe, and De Lévis succeeded Montcalm. Though Quebec had fallen, the Governor, Vaudreuil, and De Lévis, were not willing to surrender Canada to the English without a struggle. The walls of Quebec had been partly beaten down, and a great portion of the city had become a mass of ruins by the cannonading of the British, and Murray, fully expecting an assault from the French, at once began to put the fortress into as good a condition as possible. His army, especially the Highlanders, suffered much from the cold, which was very severe that winter. The French in Quebec and the British army were on very friendly terms, and much kindness was shown to the suffering soldiers by the inhabitants, the nuns knitting long hose to protect the unfortunate Highlanders from the effects of the frost and cold. Towards spring De Lévis advanced with an army of seven thousand men to retake Quebec, and Murray was foolhardy enough to march out of the city against him. The British numbered but three thousand men, (so much had they suffered during the winter) and in the second battle of Plains of Abraham, they were defeated and compelled to retreat, in haste, within the walls of Quebec. The siege lasted some time longer, until the St. Lawrence becoming free of ice, a British fleet sailed up the river, and De Lévis, in despair, returned to Montreal. In September, Murray and Amherst united their forces before Montreal, and Vaudreuil and Lévis feeling the impossibility of defending the city with the few weary and disheartened men at their disposal, surrendered all Canada to England, on the 8th of September, 1760.
Three years later the Seven Years’ War was brought to a close, and Canada was formally given to England; France ceding all her possessions in America east of the Mississippi except New Orleans, and the island of St. Pierre and Miquelon near Newfoundland. Besides these great territories England gained largely in India and other parts of the world. The treaty: that closed this war is known as the Peace of Paris.
2. Conspiracy of Pontiac—About the time this treaty was made, a very strange and remarkable plot took place. Its object was the seizure of all the British forts along the Upper Lakes and in the Great West, and the holding them for the French. A famous Indian chief, Pontiac, who did not want the British to rule in Canada, and who did not know that the French had given up all hope of recovering it, stirred up the Indian warriors in the valley of the Ohio, and along the line of the Great Lakes, to seize the rude forts in the West recently handed over by the French to the British. A short time after the Peace of Paris was signed, a sudden and almost simultaneous attack was made on these forts, and in nearly every instance they fell into the hands of the Indians, their garrisons being murdered or made prisoners. Detroit was besieged for over a year by thousands of Indians, who managed to prevent supplies and assistance coming to the garrison. At last a strong force came to the relief of the brave defenders of the fort, and the Indians sullenly withdrew. Fort Pitt and Niagara also were able to hold their own against the dusky warriors, and the Indians finding that French power was at an end in America, ceased hostilities. Pontiac, a few years later, while drunk, fell by the hands of a treacherous Illinois Indian.
Two things make this conspiracy remarkable in Indian history. One is the vastness of the scheme planned and carried out by Pontiac with so much skill and success ; the other is the determination shown by the Indians in the siege of Detroit, their usual mode of warfare being to capture forts, if at all, by surprise, and not by a long siege.
3. Military Rule.—There was an interval of more than two years between the surrender of Canada by the last French Governor and the Peace of Paris, and during that period the colony was governed by Military Rule. General Murray ruled over the district of Quebec; General Gage, that of Montreal; and Colonel Burton, that of Three Rivers. A Council of officers met twice a week, and settled all disputes. The people were allowed the free use of their religion, and were treated justly and kindly. The French militia, who had been called from their homes to defend the colony against the British were allowed to go back to their farms and occupations, and the regular soldiers were sent to France. Canada was in a sad condition at this time. The people had been taken from their usual occupations to defend the country, and their farms had gone untilled, except by the women and the feeble men and boys who were unfit to carry a musket. Bigot, the last Intendant, and a host of greedy followers had plundered the people of the little they had, and the colony was flooded with a worthless paper money. Not many more than sixty thousand inhabitants were scattered along the line of the St. Lawrence between Montreal and Quebec. Peace brought Canada a measure of prosperity. Farms could now be tilled without fear of interruption from enemies, English or Indian. Many of the principal inhabitants returned to France, some of them like Bigot, to answer for their misdeeds to the French King, and to receive merited punishment. Gradually the colony settled down to steady industry, and the mild rule of Murray and his brother officers lessened any feeling of soreness arising from passing under the government of their old-time enemies.
4. The Quebec Act.—After the Peace of Paris, King George III. proclaimed Canada a British province, and promised the French inhabitants the right of free worship, and the “free exercise” of their religion. They were also left in undisturbed possession of their property, and were given in every way the same rights and privileges as the King’s subjects of British birth, except that they were excluded from holding public office, because the laws of Great Britain at that time did not allow a Roman Catholic to hold offices in the gift of the State. An effort was made to induce British people to settle in Canada by offering them land grants, and the protection of British laws. A promise, also, made was of British parliamentary institutions as soon as the circumstances of the country would permit; that is, the people of Canada would be allowed to have their own Parliaments, and make most of their own laws. In the meantime the country was governed by a Governor and Council the latter composed entirely of men of British birth, many of them military officers. The British settlers for many years were few in number, yet they had all the power, and the French had no voice in managing the affairs of the colony. Again, English law was introduced into the courts, and the English language used. Trial by jury was unknown to the French, and they did not like the system. They preferred to be tried directly by a Judge, in a language they understood. On the other hand the English settlers wanted British law in both criminal and civil cases. They did not like the French way of buying and selling land, and settling disputes about property. General Murray the first Governor after 1763, and his successor, Sir Guy Carleton, both, tried to befriend the French, and in so doing displeased the English settlers. To please the former they allowed French civil law—that is the law relating to property and inheritance—to prevail; while the demands of British settlers were—met by giving them English criminal law, which includes trial by jury. The consequence was both English and French were dissatisfied, and after considerable delay and many complaints, the British parliament tried to remedy the evil by passing in 1774 what is known as the Quebec Act. This Act extended the boundaries of Canada from Labrador to the Mississippi, and from the Ohio river to the watershed of Hudson’s Bay. It gave the French the same political rights as the British, regardless of their religion. It gave the Roman Catholic clergy the right to collect tithes (the tenth part of the produce) and their “accustomed dues” from their own people. The French law or Custom of Paris was made the law in civil cases—and English law, the law in criminal cases. The Government was to consist of a Governor and Council appointed by the Crown. The Council was to consist of not less than seventeen and not more than twenty-three members, the majority being of British birth.
5. Canada invaded by the Americans.—Another reason for passing this law must now be mentioned. The English colonies in America had for many years felt it a grievance that Britain should endeavor to force them to trade exclusively with her. Nearly everything they sold had to go first to England, and they had also to buy the most of their manufactures from the people of the mother country. At that time all European nations thought that their colonies existed for the good of the mother countries, and so they tried to keep the colonial markets for their own trade. So long as the French held Canada the English colonies had to depend upon Britain for aid against the French and their Indian allies; but when Canada became a British possession their fear of attack from the north and west was removed, and the colonies felt more independent of England, and more inclined to resent any interference with their freedom. Not long after the conquest of Canada, England tried to tax the American colonies, claiming that as the war in America was for their special benefit they should bear a portion of the expense. The colonies thought the tax unjust, because they were not represented in the British’ Parliament. After several efforts had been made to settle the difficulty the colonies revolted, and declared themselves independent of Great Britain. Sir Guy Carleton saw what was coming, and he also knew the American colonies would try to get Canada to join in the revolt against England. There was a fear lest the new French subjects of the King should take sides with the discontented English colonies. To prevent this, the Quebec Act was passed, giving the French so many rights and privileges. A few months after this Act was passed the people of Canada were invited by the American colonists to send representatives to a Congress at Philadelphia, to protest against the invasion of their liberties. The, Canadians of British birth were known to be discontented with the Quebec Act, because it gave them the French civil law, and did not secure them the protection of the Habeas Corpus Act, which all British subjects highly valued. Nevertheless, very few of the English in Canada were willing to aid in the revolt against Britain, so the invitation to the Congress was refused, and Canada remained loyal to the British Crown.
War began between the colonies and the mother country in 1775, and the Americans sent troops into Canada, with the hope that the Canadians would rise in arms and aid them in throwing off the yoke of England. But they were disappointed, for while the French would do nothing to defend Canada, they would do but little to help the Americans. Two expeditions were sent against Canada—one, by way of Lake Champlain, to take Montreal; the other, under General Benedict Arnold, by way of Maine, to capture Quebec. Governor Carleton could not defend Montreal, and escaped to Quebec, there to make a final stand. The Americans united their forces under Generals Montgomery and Arnold, and advanced against the famous old fortress; but Carleton had taken wise precautions to defend the city. On the last day of the year, at four o'clock in the morning, in a blinding snowstorm, an attack was made on the Lower Town. But it was of no avail; Montgomery was killed, and four hundred of the Americans were hemmed in and taken prisoners. Arnold remained near Quebec throughout the winter, and then, with his forces terribly reduced by sickness and disease, retreated. Thus ended the fifth and last siege of Quebec. Soon after, the arrival of a strong body of British troops, under General Burgoyne, forced the Americans to leave Canada, which was troubled no more by invaders during the Revolutionary war. This war came to an end in 1783, by England acknowledging the Independence of the United States (as they were now called) in the Treaty of Versailles. By this treaty the boundaries of Canada as far west as the Lake of the Woods were fixed. Canada lost the fertile territory lying between the Ohio and the Mississippi, and received as her southern boundary the middle of the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence, the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude, and the St. Croix River in New Brunswick. The boundary between the present State of Maine and New Brunswick was left very vague, and this gave rise to serious trouble at a later date.
6. United Empire Loyalists—The close of the Revolutionary War brought a large increase of population to Canada. Many of the American colonists remained loyal to England during the struggle for independence, and when the war was over, these people found themselves looked upon with dislike and suspicion by their republican neighbors. So harsh was the treatment they received that the British Parliament took pity upon them, and voted them a large sum of money (over £3,000,000) in consideration of the losses they had borne by remaining loyal to the British Crown. Besides this grant of money they were given large and valuable tracts of land in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and in Western Canada, (now Ontario). It is said that over twenty-five thousand left the United States in 1784, and settled in the British colonies, and of these ten thousand came to Upper Canada, settling chiefly around the Bay of Quinté, along the Niagara River, and the St. Clair. Each U. E. Loyalist received two hundred acres of land free; so did each of his .sons on coming of age, and each daughter when she married, They were given provisions for three years, in addition to clothing, tools, and farming implements. Disabled soldiers and half-pay officers also came to Canada, and received grants of land and aid for a time from the Government.
7. The Constitutional Act of 1791.—All these years the people of Canada had been without a Parliament, although George III., in 1763, had promised them that as soon as possible they would be given the same rights of self-government as enjoyed by other British subjects. The French portion of the population had never known any other form of government than that of a Governor and Council, and therefore did not feel the need of a change. But the British population were discontented with the Quebec Act, and its French law of buying, selling and holding property, especially land. This discontent rapidly grew greater when British settlers began to take up land in Western Canada. These wanted the British law of “freehold,” that is, the right of every man holding land to have it as his own. According to the French system, the farmers held the land as tenants from their “seigneurs,” and had to give for its use, money and work, besides being subject to a great many petty exactions and services. They could not freely sell the land without paying the “seigneur” or getting his consent. On the other hand, they could not be turned out of their holdings by being unable or unwilling to pay their debts. Again, the British settlers wanted the protection of the Habeas Corpus Act, Trial by. Jury, and other British laws; and the need of these was felt during the harsh and tyrannical rule of Governor Haldimand, who succeeded Carleton in 1778. The complaints from Canada, became o.pressing and frequent, that William Pitt (a son of the great war minister-of that name), who was the Prime Minister of England at that time, brought in a Bill to give Canada representative institutions. The Bill also aimed. at settling the difficulties that had arisen out of the difference of the language, laws, religion and customs of the two. races in Canada. It proposed to divide Canada into two Provinces, Lower Canada and Upper Canada. The former was French Canada, while the latter was settled mainly by a British population. The boundary line between the two Provinces began at Point-au-Baudet, on Lake St. Francis, extended north to Point Fortune on the Ottawa, and then continued along that river to its head waters and Hudson’s Bay Territory. Roughly speaking, it made the Ottawa River the dividing line. Each Province was to have a Governor, an Executive Council, a Legislative Council and a Legislative Assembly. The Governor and the two Councils were appointed by the Crown, but the Legislative Assembly was elected for four years by the people.
In Lower Canada the Legislative Assembly was to have not less than fifty members, and the Legislative Council fifteen. In Upper Canada the former was to have not less than sixteen members, and the latter seven. The Executive Council was chosen to advise the Governor, and the Legislative Council corresponded in a measure to our Dominion Senate, or the British House of Lords. Both Councils were independent of the people, and could not be removed, if they did wrong, by the people’s representatives, the members of the Legislative Assembly. The British parliament kept the right to impose taxes or duties for the regulation of commerce; but the Canadian parliaments had the right to collect them. They could also impose taxes for public purposes, such as building roads, bridges, public buildings, and providing education for the people, Unfortunately, the money arising from the sale of wild lands, from timber and mining dues, and from taxes on goods coming in the country was under the control of the Governor and his Executive Council, and this left the people of Canada with very little power to get rid of a bad Government. The Quebec Act was to remain law until repealed by the Provinces; but in Upper Canada all land was to be held by “freehold tenure,” and English criminal law was to be the law for both Upper-and Lower Canada, Provision was made for founding a Canadian nobility and an Established Church. One-seventh of the Crown lands were set aside for the support of a “Protestant clergy” in both Provinces; but the Roman Catholic clergy in Lower Canada were left with the power given them by the Quebec Act, to collect tithes “and their accustomed dues” from their own people in support of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Bill did not become law without strong objections being made by leading men of British birth in Lower Canada. It was also strongly opposed by Charles James Fox, Pitt’s great political rival, who foresaw very clearly the result of attempting to govern Canada by Councils not responsible to the peeple. He also objected to the clauses relating to titles of nobility and granting Crown lands for the support of a Protestant clergy; and he pointed out what would be the effect of dividing Canada into separate Provinces, one French and the other British. Nevertheless, in spite of these and other objections, the Bill was passed by large majorities in the British Parliament, and became law in 1791. The new Constitution went into force in Canada the following year.