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c \

HUMOURS OF '37

GRAVE, GAY AND GRIM

REBELLION TIMES IN THE CANADAS.

PiOBINA AND KATHLEEN MACFARLANE LIZARS,

Authors of "In the Days of the Canada Company : the Story of the
Settlement of the Huron Tract."

" The humours are commonly the most important and most
variable parts of the animal body."

TORONTO :
WILLIAM BRIGGS,

Wesley Buildings.

C W. COATES, Montreal.

S. F. HUESTIS, Halifax.

1897.

42986

Entered, aocording: to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one
thousand eight hundred and ninety -se ven, by Kathlbbn MacFar-
LAMB LiZARS, at the Department of Agriculture.

PREFACE.

The title of this book is built upon the assumption that
humour is a sense of incongruity, not that there was anything
specially humorous in the affairs of '37 beyond that which arose
from the crudeness of the times.

A medium between the sacrifice of detail attendant on com-
pilation, and the loss of effect in a whole picture through too
close application of the historic microscope, has been attempted.
True proportion is difficult to compass at short range, yet the
motives, ideas and occurrences which produced the animosities
leading to the Rebellion were the mheritance, the special
property, of the men who lived then ; and of them few remain.
To those who do and who have so kindly given their remini-
scences special thanks are due. The works of the documentary
and the philosophic historian lie on the shelves ready to one's
hand; but those who were "Loyalist" and "Rebel" are
quickly dropping into that silence where suffering and injustice,
defeat and victory, meet in common oblivion.

Like lichens on rocks, myths have grown about that time ;
but the myth is worth preserving for the sake of the germ of
truth which gave it birth. Historians sometimes tell the truth,
not always the wliole truth, certainly never anything but the
truth, and nothing is to be despised which gives a peep at the
life as it really was. For complexion of the times, the local
colour of its actif^n, there can be nothing like the tale of the
veteran, of the v/^hite-haired, dim -eyed survivor, whose quaking
voice tells out ihe story of that eventful day. A page from
Pepys or Bellasys lifts a curtain upon what really took place
when the historic essence fails ; then some morsels of secret

PREFACE.

history come to light, and motives and actions hitherto puzzling
stand revealed.

Were all contributed sentences herein to have their rights in
inverted commas the publisher's stock would be exhausted.
The prejudice in favour of Italics has not been observed in
certain cases. ''A bas les prejudices;" in Canada French is
not a foreign language.

It is also assumed that every Canadian is familiar with Cana-
dian history, and that some one or other of its masters is well
fixed in school memories. To those masters, and to many
others, an apology is tendered for wholesale appropriation of
their matter. If every statement made herein were substanti-
ated by the customary foot-note many unsightly pages would
be the result ; therefore, as no statement has been made with-
out due authority, we commend our readers to the writings of
Parkman, Gameau, Dent, McMullen, McCarthy, Macaulay,
Michelet, DeGasp^, LeMoine, David, Morgan, Carrier, Bonny-
castle, F. B. Head, George Head, Macgregor, Bender, Lindsay,
Rattray, Scadding, Thompson and others ; to the writings and
biographies of the statesmen and, governors quoted ; to Govern-
mental Journals and House of Commons Debates ; for the
record of events as they daily took place to innumerable
manuscripts, pamphlets Hiid newspapers, written or published
between Samia and Quebec and in many American cities,
covering in particular the years '36, '37, '38, '39, '40 ; and to
various sources where Canada is treated as a side issue and not
as a main point. Theller and McLeod have been used where
the corroborative testimony of others warrants a transcription
of their humours.

" Whether an eagle or ant in the intellectual world seems to
me not to matter much," says Joubert. The work of the
humble ant is to gather fragments, and, as the humblest in the
tribe, the collectors of the data from which this melange has
risen offer it to the public, and as humbly hope they have come
within the same writer's further observation : "A small talent,
if it keeps within its limits and rightly fulfils its task, may
reach the goal just as well as a great one."

Stratfobo, October, 1897.

Several score of authorities, known or comparatively
unknown, have been drawn on in the compilation of
Gallows Hill. Bill Johnston and Colonel Prince, as they
appear here, are derived from twenty-one and twenty-six
authorities respectively. Therefore when the hundredth,
and the twenty-second, and the twenty-seventh, shall arise
to contradict, or disagree with, each and every word herein,
the authors beg to be allowed to see nothing but a humour
in the situation.

mmc4

1, <

NEW WORDS TO AN OLD SONG;

OR, JOHN GILPIN TRAVESTIED.

[We are indebted to Miss FitzOibbon for a copy of the Cobourg
Star of February 7th, 1838, in which appears, under the above
title, an epitome, from one point of view, of Rebellion events.
Its humours make it a fitting introduction for the papers which
follow.]

" Now puny diaeord firtt broke out.
And fools rebelled ; but what about

Thiiy could not Ull."

TnERK lived in famed Toronto town

A man not very bijf,
A belted knight was he likewise, —

Kniicht of the old bay wig.

Mackenzie was this hero called,
From Scotia's land he came.

To sow and reap - if e'er he could—
The seeds of future fame.

Well taught was he to broil and scold.

To slander and to lie.
The good to libel— but the bad

Around him close to tie.

A precious clan this hero got

To join him in the cause
Of Freedom, which but truly meant

Upturning of our laws.

He travelled all the country round,

With grievances his cry ;
Then off to father John, at home.

Right quickly did he hie.

And then he told so many lies
That John began to stare ;

And eke he talked so very large
That John began to swear.

Then out Mackenzie pulled the roll
Of those who did complain ;

And for redress of grievances
He bawled with might and main.

Now John a so-so clerk had got —

A Janus-looking elf,
Who cared for nothing else of earth

But sleeping and himself.

Olenelg was snoring in his chair -

His custom every day —
Then up he got and rubbed his eyes

To brush the sleep away.

Said he, " Rebellion is our love,

In it we do delight ;
So now you may go back again,

We'll soon set things to nght ;

" For you and all the world must know,

By it our place we keep,"
But scarcely had he spoke these words

When he was fast asleep.

And when he'd slept teh months or so,

He csalled him for a pen ;
But long before it ready was

He'd sunk to sleep again.

Now goodman Stephen, in his ear
In whispering accents said —

" Both pens and paper now, my Lord,
Are on your table laid."

So quick he took the gray goose-quill.
And wrote a neat despatch ;

Says he, "I think that that, at least.
Their Toiy wiles will match.

NEW WORDS TO AN OLD SONG.

" JiiHt an my naint>, it may l)u read

Whichever way you like,
Or WhlR or Tory, oh may best

The readcr'8 fancy Mtrike.

" So find me now Sir Krancis Hootl,—

A learned kni(fht iH he,—
Su(H:e88or to the bravo Hir John

I vow that mar. Hhall be."

Sir FranciH came, but lonjc declined

The proffere<l nost to take,
Until convince<l by Lord Olenelt;

'Twaa tor Uefomi'8 sake.

" Now take this book," his Lordwhip said,

"And in it you may see
The many wronf^H that do oppress

A people blest and free.

•' And take you also this despatch,

And read it over well ;
But to the people you nee<l not

Its whole contents to tell."

Sir Francis bowed, and off he came

In hurry to be here ;
And rabble shout and rabble praise

Fell thick upon his ear.

nut full amazefl was he to see

The ><ood Sir John depart ;
For blessintjs flowed from many a lip

And sighs from many a heart.

"Good lack!" quoth he, "but this is
Which I do now behold, [strange

For that Sir John most hated was
In England we were told ! "

And then ho mode a little speech,
And said he'd let them know,

What his instructions fully were
He meant to them to show.

It happened then our worthy knights

Were met in Parliament,
And unto them a copy neat

Of the despatch he sent.

And then they blustere*! ond they fumed

And acted as if mod,
And said though things were bad before,

They now were twice us bad.

And then they asked that from their
Six Councillors he'd choose — [ranks

Six men of wisdom, whose advice
In all behests he'd use.

To humour them he did his best,
And quickly tried the plan, sir :

But quit« as quickly he found out
That it would never answer.

He said, "One law shall be my guide,
From which I'll never swerve—

The Constitution I'll uphold
With all my might and nerve."

So shortly to the right-about

He sent them in a hurry.
Which caused among their loving frienda

A most outrageous flurry.

The House was filled with witty chaps,

Who of a Joke were fond ;
They thought it wo)dd be mighty fine

To ask him for a " Bond."

And then were speeches long and thick,
With nonsense and with rant.

And " Rights of Council" soon became
Reformers' fav'rite cant.

And then one Peter Perry rose,

And in a flaming speech
He vowed that he Sir Francis Head

The use of laws would teach.

He said he had a plan which should

The country's temper try,
And then he moved him that the House

Would stop the year's supply.

A mighty struggle then arose,

Of who'd be first to vote ;
For they their lessons well hod read

And knew them all by rote.

Now up the Speaker of the House

With hasty step arose,
A letter from a friend below

He on the table throws.

The letter, read, was found to be
With treason full well pock'd ;

It begg'd that rebels from below
Might by that House be back'd.

To print it, it was found too late —

Alas ! they were nut able.
For, dire mischance, some wicked wight

Had stole it from the table.

Sir Francis took them at their word-
He was as quick as they —

And with a speech that mode them wince
He sent them all away.

Addresses now from far and near

To him came j)ouring in.
That he would give the people chance

Of choosing better men.

And now each Briton's bosom beat
Right Joyous at the thought, [«hanoe

That they at length had gained the
Which they so long had sought.

NEW WORDS TO AN OLD SONG.

•:

Our tried and tnwt.v Oovernor,

Of rcbelit well aware,
Defied their malice, and them told

**To come on if they dare."

Now all around our happy land

Was heard a Joyous shout —
Of forty-seven, rebels all,

Full thirty were left out.

Ex-8|icaker Bidwell in the dumps

Vow'«l politics he'd quit ;
For well ne knew in that there House

He never more could sit.

Ma(;kcnzie also lost his place,
" ilnd whete and phtower" too,

Mild Turtle and his hopeful (;ang
Were left their deeds to rue.

And Loyalty triumphant was

In almost every place,
Its hitter foes were left at home

To batten on dist^race.

Of Doctor Duncombe must I tell.

Who off to Entfland hies,
And thoui^ht a wondrous job to work

By pawning ofT his lies.

How, decked with Jewels of all kinds.

He looke<i so mighty gay.
And how his name he (|uickly changed

When he got well away.

And how he met with Jocky R.,

And Josey Hume, also.
And what a Jolly set they were

When planning what to do.

And soon they sunmi'd up all our wants

The " tottle " for to find ;
Said Josey, " Soon a storm I'll raise,"

Said Duncombe, " That is kind.

" And— for I know you never stick

At trick'ry or at lie ;
I think we might make out a case

Twix't Roebuck, you and I."

But when they'd said their utmost say.

And vented all their spleen,
The truth it shortly came to light.

Such things had never been.

And then Sir Francis high was praised

And J<ist applauses met.
And by his King he straightway was

Created Baronet.

Not so Lord Gosford, who, intent

His nat'ral bent to show,
The titled minion had become

Of Speaker Papineau.

In him rebellion evermore

Was sure to And a friend ;
His only study seemeil to be

His utmost help to lend.

It happen'd that the rebel gan^
Some resolutions imssed, (stick

To which they swore that they would
Unto the very lost.

And Melbourne then, to ease their fears,
Three knowing G's (u^ne) did send.

To see if they could cnlm the French
And make their murmurs end.

They quickly came. Lord Gosford chief,

A pretty set were they,
And Jean Baptiste, he swore outright

He not a sou would pay.

Lord Johnny Russell then got wrath,

And spoke as lion bold.
That he the money soon should get

As in the time of old.

The Frenchmen at St. Charles then

Did loud assert their right ;
But soon they found 'twas easier far

To make a speech than fight.

For quick the Loyalists around
Their nmch loved flag did rally,

The battle-shout was heard throughout
The broad St. Lawrence valley.

Corunna's chieftain, he was there.

With gallant Wetherall,
And many loyal men, prepared

To conquer or to fall.

How British bayonets did their work

Let razed St. Charles tell ;
St. Eusfache, also, where in scores

The dastard rebels fell.

Of gallant Markham would I sing,

And others if I could ;
Of Weir, who most inhumanly

Was murdered in cold blood.

But soon the traitors were compelled
With grief to bite the dust ;

They crouche<l beneath the British flag.
As every traitor must.

But where were they, the gallant chiefs,

Who led the people on ?
In vain you searched, for they away

To Yankee-land had gone.

Among the rebels there were found

Some dozen M.P.P.'s ;
Who now confined in Jail may pass

The winter at their ease.

NEW WORDS TO AN OLD SONG.

But to Sir Mju;. we now return,
From whom we've strayed too \0T\a ;

This verse, I think, will ju8t conclude
The middle of my song.

Mackenzie and his rebel gant;

In Doel's brew'ry met,
" A bung-hole pack," Jim Dalton calls

This mischief-brewing set.

And there they laid down all their plans

Of this great revolution.
And destined Rolph to be the head

Of their new Constitution.

At length unto this crew the Knight

A flaming speech addressed.
And told the plan which after all

Did unto him seem best.

Said he : " My true and trusty friends,
Though we have promised been

Reform these many years, yet we
Kefonn have never seen.

" So now, my lads, no longer we
In anxious doubt must wait,

The time has come for pulling down
The Church, the Queen, and State.

*• For vote by ballot we must have.

And stars and garters too,
And we must hung Sir Francis Head,

With all his Tory crew.

" I've written round to all my friends

That they should ready be,
And as of them we are now sure

We'll gain the victory.

"The Tories all securely sleep.
And dream they've naught to fear.

Nor L.tle think that tx) their end
They now are drawing near.

" John Strachan now is quite at rest.

And Robinson likewise ;
But soon at Freedom's shrine of them

We'll make a sacrifice.

"The red-coats, too, are far away.
Removed from every station,

And now it is our time to burst
From ' hateful domination.'

" The Yankees also are prepared

To lend a helping hand
To breed confusion and dismav

Throughout this happy land.

" And now, my friends, in right good
We've little time to spare, [truth.

Go quick, collect your several bands
And arm them with great care."

When he had done, all gave a shout

To show their courage high.
And then obedient to his words

In various paths they fly.

The blacksmith Lount, he active was
Both spears and swords to make.

And General Duncombe hoped that soon
Fort Maiden he might take.

Mackenzie to mail-robbing took —

A most delightful trade
For one who every blackguard art

Erstwhile had well essayed.

And when he got three hundred men,

All brave ones as himself.
He then marched to Toronto town

To see and gain some pelf.

Their gallant deeds and gallant acts

I'm sure I need not tell.
How full four hundred arm^d men

Ran from the College hell.

Nor how full thirty men at least

Did one old man attack.
Nor dared to fight him face to face,

But shot him in the bock.

How good Sir Frank a flag of truce
With Rolph and Baldwin sent

Unto the rebel camp, to ask
Them what was their intent ;

And how they (prompted by the twain)
Declared 'twas their intention

To settle all the State aflfairs
By General Convention.

And then Toronto in a blaze

They threatened for to set.
But nearer than Montgomery's

They ne'er to it could get.

'Twos on the seventh of that month
Which we do call December,

Sir Francis Head led out his men, —
That day we'll long remember.

And then 'twas glorious fun to see
What rabble rout could do, —

They every man took to his heels.
The word was, Sauve qui pent.

Some hundred taken prisoners were

On that eventful day ;
Sir Francis with too kind a heart

He let them all away.

But " Which way did the leaders run ?"

I think I hear you ask ;
To tell which way they took, I ween,

Would be an arduous task.

NEW WORDS TO A IV OLD SONG.

Soon 08 the new8 of this outbreak
Hod tfone the country through,

It was a glorious sight to see
How (luick to arras they flew;

And 'mongst the foremost i.i the ranks

To quell the rebel band,
Old Erin's dauntless shamrock stood

A guardian of the land.

And then was seen old England's rose

!n all its pride and glory ;
And Scotland's thistle, which is known

In many a deathless storj'.

And with them joined thy valiant sons.

My own wlopted land,
To form around the Queen and laws

A glorious valiant band.

MocNab his gallant volunteers

Led anxious to the fight,
And all the west poure<i in her troops

To stand in freedom's right.

Newcastle, too, her quota sent

Of men both good and true;
In truth it was a cheering sight

Their bearing high to view.

Of Cobourg, too, I needs must sing.

Which on that trying day
The fire of virtuous loyalty

Did to our eyes display.

There Conger with his company,
With Calcutt and with Clarke,

And Warren, with his rifle band.
Whom every eye did mark.

And on they went, a gallant set,

To stop the foes rebelling ;
How many prisoners they took

Would take some time in telling.

Meanwhile Mackenzie, safe and sound.

Had got to BufiFalo;
The Yankees sympathized with him

And mode him quite a show.

Neutrality it was their low,
But that thev never mindetl.

They sj^mpathized with rebels so
It quite their reason blinded.

Their papers, too, were filled with stuff.
With nonsense and with lies ;

So fast they told them, that you'd think
They lied but for some prize.

At Ifciigth, when after much ado

They got two hundred men,
Mackenzie in high spunk set off

To try the job again.

At first I hear 'twos their intent

At Waterloo to land.
But Newcastle's good rifles there

Were rea<ly to their hand.

Rensselaer then took the command

Of those degraded wretcihes.
For some had neither coat nor hat.

And some not even breeches.

To Navy Island then they went.
And there made a great splutter, —

A Constitution printed off,
And many threats did utter.

Alas, for Yankee modesty !

It really is quite shocking,
Some Indieit made the rebels ghirt».

And some, too, sent them stocking.

Of many acts which by our men

Right gallantly were done,
I've spun my verse to such a length

I can relate but one.

And that the very gallant act

Of Captain Andrew Drew,
Whose name must be immortalized,

Likewise his daring crew.

A Yankee steamer oft had tried

The rebels aid to bring ;
This English seaman swore that he

Would not allow the thing.

The Captain and his valiant crew.

Whose names I wot not all.
From Schlosser cut the steamlioat out

And sent her o'er the Fall.

Oh I then the Yankees stormed outright,

And spoke of reparation ;
A might}' flame then rose through this

Tobacco-chewing nation.

But little Mot was for too wise

The risk of war to run.
For he was one who never thought

III fighting there was fun.

So quickly to the frontier he
Sent General Winfleld Scott,

Who in last war at Lundy's Lane
A right good drulibing got.

Meanwhile upon the rebel host
Our guns so well did play [soon

With shot and shell that they right
Were glad to run away.

And Dunconibe, too, oh I where is he.
The Doctor, brave and l)old ?

Some say that he is dead and gone,
Being perished in the cold.

I ''

NEW WORDS TO AN OLD SONG.

And now that the rebellion's o'er

Let each true Briton »\n«,
Lend: live the Queen in health and peace,

And may each rebel swing.

And good Sir Francis Head, may he
With health and peace be crowned ;

May earthly happiness to him
For evermore abound.

Qod prosier, too, my own loved land.
Thy soiiS so brave and true,

A heavy debt of loyalty
Doth England owe to you.

But as for those said Yankee chaps.
They well may pine and fret.

For, by lord Harry, they will have
To pay us all the debt.

And now to Mac. there's still one step

To end his life of evil ;
Soon may he take the last long leap

From gibbet to the .

CONTENTS.

Baneful Domination

More Baneful Domination

The Canadas at Westminster

A Call to Umbrellas -

Le Grand Brule -

Gallows Hill

Autocrats All

Huron's Age Heroic

Deborahs of '37

PAOB

13
44
63
91

132

161

202

272

308

HUMOURS OF 'n.

JSancful Domination.

*' Every reform tttas once a primte opinion, and when it nhall he a
private opinion again it will solve the problem of the age. "

The vivacious Pompadour enlivens the twenty years of
her boudoir conspiracies playing les graces with her lord's
olonies. She throws the ring ; Pitt, at the other end of
the game, catches Canada.

The mills of the gods in their slow grind have reversed
the conditions of the contestants ; the Norman conquest of
England becomes a British conquest of New France. The
descendants of the twenty thousand barbarians who landed
at Hastings have but come to claim their own.

Life is "moving music." The third movement in this
historic sonata comes back to the original subject, even
if the return to the tonic opens in a minor mode.

" Gentlemen, I commend to your keeping the honour of
France," says the dying Montcalm.

" Now, God be praised, I die in peace ! " and Wolfe
expires.

The fiercest of the conflict ever rages round a bit of
bunting on the end of a stick. The lilies of France come
down ; up goes the Union Jack to usher in the birthday of

<W|l|Hl ilim

HUMOURS OF '37.

the Greater Britain, and Horace Walpole says, " We are
forced to ask every morning what victory there is, for fear
of missing one."

Voltaire gives a fete at Fernay to celebrate the deliv-
erance from fifteen hundred leagues of frozen country ; the
Pompadour tells her Louis that now he may sleep in peace ;
and outsiders ask of Pitt that which a celebrated novelist,
a century later, asks of his hero — " What will he do with
it ? " " The more a man is versed in business," said the
experienced Pitt, " the more he finds the hand of Provi-
dence everywhere,"

But Providence would need to have broad shoulders if
generals, kings and statesmen are to place all their doings
there.

By 1837 Canada was no longer a giant in its cradle.
Colonial boyhood had arrived; a most obstreperous and
well-nigh unmanageable youth, with many of the usual
mistakes of alternate harshness and indulgence from the
parent. For it was not all wisdom that came from
Downing Street, either in despatches or in the guberna-
torial fiesh. It is easy now to see that much emanating
therefrom came from those whose vision was confined to
the limits of a small island.

The great lubberly youth was g'iven to measuring himself
from time to time ; for Canadian epochs are much like the
marks made by ambitious children on the door jamb,
marks to show increase in height and a nearer approach
to the stature of the parent.

Canadians' privileges, like children's, existed only during
the good pleasure of those who governed them. Some
meant well and did foolishly ; others were " somewhat
whimsical, fond of military pomp, accustomed to address

BANEFUL DOMINATION.

deputations, parliamentary or others, as if they had been
so many recruits liable to the quickening influence of the
cat-o'-nine-tails." One peer in the House of Lords, during
a debate on the vexed Canadian question, demurred at the
members of Colonial Assemblies being treated like froward
children, forever tied to the Executive icading-strings.
Canada was, in fact, bound to the Mother Country by
bonds of red tape and nothing else. " Who made you 1 "
catechized Great Britain. In the words of Mr. Henry
Labouchere's precocious young catechumen : " Let bygones
be bygones ; I intend to make myself," replied the colony.

The problem of assimilation created by the influx of all
nations, and the fact of two divisions, a conquering and a
conquered, with languages, customs and creeds as diverse
as the peoples, made up an enigma the solution of which
still occupies French and English wits alike.

The English and the French temperaments, each the
antipodes of the other, called for mutual patience and
forbearance. But historic truth compels many admis-
sions : first, that British rule with British freedom left out
made a dark period from the Conquest to the Rebellion ;
secr>nd, that the national, religious and intellectual ideas
of the French Canadians, their whole mental attitude, were
dominated by the Quebec Act ; and the motto given them
by Etienne Parent, " Nos institutions, notre langue et nos
lois," had become a kind of fetich. They looked upon
themselves as the agents of their mother country and the
Church in the New World ; and they argued did they give
up these laws, institutions and language, and become Angli-
cized, their nationality would be forever lost.

The toast among oflicers en route to the Conquest had
been, " British colours on every fort, port and garrison in
America." For many years after the British flag had first
2

HUMOURS Of 'J7.

waved on the citadel the habitant on the plain lifted his
eyes to where he had seen the lilies of France, and with
heavy heart said to himself that which has become an
historic saying, " Still we shall see the old folks back
again " — words as pathetic in their hope as the High-
landers' despairing "We return no more, no more."

It is doubtful if at this period the old folks bothered
themselves much about their late colony. Like their
own proverb, " In love there is always one who kisses and
one who holds the cheek," French Canada was expending
a good deal of sentiment upon people who had forgotten
that tucked away in a remote corner of the new world was
" a relic preserved in ice," a relic of France before the
Revolution, its capital the farthermost point of manner
and civilization, a town with an Indian sounding name,
which yet bore upon its front the impress of nobility. For
Quebec is and should be the central point of interest for
all Canadians ; the history of the old rock city for many a
day was in eifect the history of Canada. History speaks
from every stone in its ruined walls — walls that have sus-
tained five sieges.

The Revolution did not create the same excited interest
in Canada that might have been looked for, yet there were
those who " wept bitterly " when they heard of the execu-
tion of the King. The patois, ignorance, superstition,
devotion of its inhabitants, were identical with a time
prior to the Revolution; and with them were the same
social ideas and the same piety.

But the power divided in France among king, nobles,
and priest, in Canada was confined to priest alone ; and
when the dream of a republic was dreamt it was the priest
and not the British soldier who made the awakening. The
British soldier and those who sent him seem to have been

BANEFUL DOMINATION.

not a whit bettor informed about the colony gained than
France was about the colony lost. Some London journal-
ists were not sure whether Canada formed part of the
Cape of Good Hope or of the Argentine Republic. For a
long time the English Government annually sent a flag-
pole for the citadel, probably grown in a Canadian forest.
Nor did time improve their knowledge, for as late as the
Trent affair one statesman in the House of Commons
informed his more ignorant brethren that Canada was
separated from the United States by the Straits of
Panama.

The acts of Regicide France inspired jiorror in Canada,
yet were not without their fruits. Despite his title of
the "Corsican ogre" and their horror of revolution, the
submission of all Europe to Napoleon did not make the
French of Canadian birth more submissive. Nor did the
nation of shop-keepers, whom he despised and who were
to cut his ambition and send him to his island prison,
become more plausible, courteous or conciliatory, through
their sense of victory. Many a thing, had the positions
been reversed, which would have been passed unnoticed
by a phlegmatic Briton, was to the Gailican a national
insult.

And LeMoine, that past grand master of the Franco-
Anglo-Canadian complexion, says all too truthfully that
conciliation was not a vice-regal virtue ; and one of the
singers of the day, a Briton of the Britons, confirms the
opinion :

" So triumph to the Tories and woe to th« Whigs,

And to all other foes of the nation ;
Let us be through thick and thin caring nothing for
the prigs
Who prate about conciliation."

HUMOURS OF '.?;

V ■

But, under its fossil simplicity, Quebec, the " relic pre-
served in ice," untrue to its formation, burned with a fear-
some heat and glow in the years '37-'38, and those prior
to them. The thoughtless words of such birds of passage
as commandants and governors were not calculated to put
out the fire. The very origin of the name Jean Baptiste,
applied generically, arose from a Jean Baptiste answering
to every second name or so of a roll called in 1812, when
he turned out in force to defend the British flag. Getting
tired of the monotony of them, said the officer in his

cheerful English way : " I> them, they are all Jean

Baptistes." And so the name stuck. General Murray, out-
raged at any gold and scarlet apart from his own soldiers,
lost all patience at the sight of French officers in the
streets of Quebec. " One cannot tell the conquering from
the conquered when one sees these Frenchmen walk-
ing about with their uniforms and their swords."*

But the French-Canadians did not struggle against indi-
viduals except as they represented a system considered
vicious. With the British Constitution Jean Baptiste was
a veritable Oliver Twist. He was not satisfied with the
morsels doled out, but ever asked for more.

True, there were many — at any rate, some — of the higher
class French whose horizon was not bounded by petty
feelings regarding race and religion. These men accepted

* " Among French as well as among English military men, swearing on every
trivial occasion was formerly so common that it was considered as quite the pro-
per thing. A witty French author asserted that ' God Damn ^tait le fonds de la
langue anglaise ' — the root of the English language ! whilst the Vicomte de Pamj*,
an elegant writer, composed a poem in four cantos bearing that profane title.
Long before and after the British soldiers ' swore so dreadfully in Flanders ; ' long
before and after Gombronne uttered his malodorous ' Juron ' on the field of Water-
loo—though it must be confessed in extenuation the incidents of that day were
ugly enough to make any of Napoleon's vieiUea nuntstachea swear most emphati-
cally.—swearing was indulged in all over Europe."— J. M. LbMoinb.

\y.'

BANEFUL DOMINA TION.

British rule as one of the fortunes of war and enjoyed its
benefits. An old seigneur, when dying, counselled his
grandson, "Serve your English sovereign with as much
zeal and devotion and loyalty as I have served the French
monarch, and receive my last blessing." And that king in
whose reign insurrection was on the eve of breaking —
irreverently called " Hooked-Nose Old Glorious Billy " —
strangely enough had great sympathy with French-Cana-
dian feeling, a sympathy which did much to hearten the
minority who counselled abiding by the fortunes of war.
But " Old Glorious " was also called the " People's
Friend," and the Quobecers had lively and pleasant
memories of him.

In the nine years preceding the fateful one of '37 there
had been eight colonial ministers, the policy of each
differing from that of his predecessor, and all of them with
at best but an elementary knowledge of colonial affairs and
the complexities arising from dual language, despite the
object-lesson daily under their eyes in the Channel Islands.
A little learning is a dangerous thing. Each Colonial
Secretary had that little, and it proved the proverbial
pistol which no one knew was loaded. By them Can-
adians were spoken of as " aliens to our nation and con-
stitution," and it was not thought possible that Lower
Canada, any more than Hindostan or the Cape, could
ever become other than foreign. It was popular and
fashionable in some quarters to underrate the historic
recollections which were bound up in religion and lan-
guage; and as for Canadian independence, that was an
orchid not yet in vogue. By 1837 he who sat in state in
the Chateau St. Louis (says LeMoine) in the name of
majesty had very decided views on that subject. H. M.
William IV. 's Attorney-General, Charles Ogden, by virtue

HUMOURS OF \i7.

of his office " the King's own Devil," who was an
uncompromising foe to all evil-doers, held it to mean a
hempen collar.

The question of British or French rule grew steadily for
a half century, until Melbourne's cabinet and Sir John
Colborne marie effort to settle it in one way and forever.
" Les sacres Anglais " was, in consequence, the name
applied to the followers of the latter ; and as to the former,
probably the illiterate habitant, who could not read the
papers but who had an instinct wherewith to reach
conclusions, had his own patois rendering of an English
colonial's opinion that the politicians comprising the
cabinet might " talk summat less and do summat more."
All classes, indeed, of all sections, were not backward in
giving opinion as to the quality of ministerial despatches ;
for a titled lady, writing from a far off land where she did
much work for the Home Government, dipped her pen in
good strong ink and wrote, " My Lord, if your diplomatic
despatches are as obscure as the one which lies before me,
it is no wonder that England should cease to have that
proud preponderance in her foreign relations which she
once could boast of."

A humorous naturalist had said that the three blessings
conferred upon England by the Hanoverian succession
were the suppression of popery, the national debt, and the
importation of the brown or Hanoverian rat.

Strange to say, one of the complexities of the Canadian
situation was the position taken by that very popery
which in England was still looked upon with distrust
and suspicion. In 1794, not a decade's remove from
when the streets of London ran alike with rum and
Catholic blood, through Protestant intolerance and the
efforts of a mad nobleman, Bishop Plessis had thanked

BANEFUL DOMINATION.

God in his C lu-i'lian Cafcholic Cathedral that the colony
was Englisli aiul free from the horrors enacted in the
French colonic of the day. "Thank your stars," cried
another from the pulpit, "that you live here under the
British flag."

" The Revolution, so deplorable in itself," wrote Bishop
Hubert of Quebec, "ensures at this moment three great
advantages to Canada : that of sheltering illustrious exiles ;
that of procuring for it new colonists ; and that of an
increase of its orthodox clergy." "The French emigrants
have experienced most consolingly the nature of British
generosity. Those of them who shall come to Canada are
not likely to expect that great pecuniary aid will be
extended ; but the two provinces offer them resources on
all sides."

Many of the French officers whom the fear of the
guillotine sent over in numbers to England found their
way to that country which the Catholic Canadian priest-
hood so appreciated. Uncleared land and these fragments
of French noblesse came together in this unforeseen way.
But there was another view of their position when Burke
referred to them as having " taken refuge in the frozen
regions and under the despotism of Britain." Truly has
Britain shouldered many sins, made while you wait in the
factory of rhetoric ; nor is it less true that glorious sunny
Canada has suffered equally unjustly as a lesser Siberia
from a long line of writers, beginning with Voltaire,
ending — let us hope — with Kipling.

The French Revolution over, and a mimic one threaten-
ing in the colony, the clergy did not hesitate to remind
one another of the fate of their orders in France, to con-
gratulate themselves they were under a different rj^gime, nor
fail to remember that the War Fund to sustain British action

aiHHHifa

HUMOURS OF '57.

against the Republicans of France in 1799 had been sub-
scribed to heavily by many of their brethren and them-
selves. Le Seminaire stands in that list, in the midst of
many historic names, against the sum of fifty pounds "per
annum during the war." One point of great difference
between new and old was that the habitants, who were
more enlightened and more religious than their brother
peasants left behind in France, had, with the noblesse, a
common calamity in any prospect which threatened sub-
jugation. The variance 'twixt priest and people could
only end in one way where the people were devout ; and
the Lower Canadian has ever been devout and true to
Mother Church. But the " patriot," who was more apt
in diatribe against Tories than in prayers, spared not the
priests in their historical leanings. " Who was the first
Tory?" cries a patriot from his palpitating pages. "The
first Tory was Cain, and the last will be the State-paid
priest."

But if the British Government had in some things
acted so kindly and justly to those of French extraction
as to merit such words, in other matters there had been
much of harshness increased by ignorance and indifference,
and the time had come when all had to suffer for such
inconsistencies, and, unfortunately, those most severely
who already were the victims of them.

" C'est la force et le droit qui reglent toutes choses dans
le monde." Said one of their own writers, "la force en
attendant le droit.' In both Canadas " la force" was local
supremacy. The painful development as to when it should
be superseded proved "le droit" and British supremacy
identical.

It was a political struggle prolonged beyond endurance,
more than a real wish to shake free from Britain; a

'! <«■

BANEFUL DOMINATION.

political struggle, where the combatants were often greedy
and abusive partisans who appealed to the vilest passions
of the populace and who were unscrupulous in choosing
their instruments of attack. Capital was made out of
sentiment most likely to appeal to the suffering :

** Hereditary bondsmen, know ye not
Who would be free themselves must strike the blow "

and Papineau, by speech, manifesto and admission, looked
toward the seat of vice-royalty and made plain the homely
sentiment, " Ote toi de \k que moi je m'y mette." He did
not agree with the humble habitant saying, " C'est le bon
Dieu qui nous envoya 9a, il faut I'endurer." His opinion
leaned more to that of O'Connell, who said the French
were the only rightful inhabitants of the country. How
much baneful domination had it taken to so change the
Papineau of 1820, when on the occasion of the death of
George III. he says, " ... a great national calamity
— the decease of that beloved sovereign who had reigned
over the inhabitants of this country since the day they
became British subjects; it is impossible not to express
the feeling of gratitude for the many benefits received
from him, and those of sorrow for his loss so deeply felt in
ihis^ as in every other portion of his extensive dominions.
And how could it be otherwise, when each year of his long
reign has been marked by new favours bestowed upon the
country ? . . . Suffice it then at a glance to compare
our present happy situation with that of our fathers on the
eve of the day when George III. became their legitimate
monarch . . . from that day the reign of the law
succeeded to that of violence. . . . All these advant-
ages have become our birthright, and shall, I hope, be the
lasting inheritance of our posterity. To secure them let
us only act as British subjects and freemen.

mtmmmmtmmmmmimmitmH^m^^

^^^^— ^^»^"^W. pi I -Mil 1

HUMOURS OF '37.

About '31 the Lower Canadian Assembly received a
lot of new blood ; and very hot, adventurous and zealous
blood it was. Young men like Bleury, Lafontaine, and
their confreres, were not backward in naming what they
considered their rights ; and they had somewhat unlimited
ideas. The most ardent of the group centred round
Papineau and excited him still further. They scouted
Lord Goderich (Robinson) and his concessions so long as
his countrymen formed a majority in their government.
This was a "demarcation insultante " between victor and
vanquished. Lord Dalhousie, "glowing with scarlet and
gold," and followed by a numerous staff, had brought a
session to a close in a peremptory manner, with words
which might have furnished a cue to himself and others.
" Many years of continued discussion . . . have proved
unavailing to clear up and set at rest a dispute which
moderation and reason might have speedily terminated."

To the Loyalist Papineau was the root of all evil. A
French loyal ditty attributed every calamity of the era
to him, cholera morbus, earthquakes and potato-rot in-
cluded, each stanza finishing with the refrain, "C'est la
faute de Papineau." " It is certain," said the latter,
" that before long the whole of America will be repub-
licanized. ... In the days of the Stuarts those who
maintained that the monarchic principle was paramount
in Britain lost their heads on the scaffold." This, surely,
was the proverbial word to the wise.

Naturally, such sentiments made him receive cool treat-
ment in Downing Street, even when his Ninety-Two
Resolutions embodied much truth and called for affirmative
answers. Nothing but the most absolute democratic rule
would satisfy the irreconcilables. Their act in the House
had led to Lord Aylmer being forced to advance the

"I'.

BANEFUL DOMINATION.

supplies from the Military Chest, and to embody his dis-
approval in a resolution of censure. They in turn voted
his censures should be expunged from the journals of the
House. Then Fapineau, from the Speaker's chair, in-
veighed against the Mother Country. After the presen-
tation of the Resolutions, Lord Aylmer, alluding to them,
imprudently said that dissatisfaction was mostly confined
to within the walls of the Assemblv rooms, that outside
of them the country was at peace and contented. The men
who framed them lost no time in giving him a practical
denial. Resolutions from many parishes approved of the
acts of the Assembly, and the newspaper columns teemed
with accounts of popular demonstrations. Lord Aylmer,
however, supposed himself within his rights. After his
recall, at his interview with the King, and supported by
Palmerston and Minto on either side, the monarch de-
clared he entirely approved of Aylmer's official conduct,
that he had acted like a true and loyal subject towards
a set of traitors and conspirators, and as became a British
officer under the circumstances.

Lord Glenelg sent to the rescue that commission of
enquiry, the prelude to the later Durham one, whereof
Lord Gosford was chief. This nobleman, who became
governor of the province, was Irish, and a Protestant, an
opponent of Orangeism, a man of liberal opinions and de-
cisive in speech and action. He tried every means to
make friends in the French quarter ; visited schools and
colleges, enchanted all by his charming politeness of man-
ner, gave a grand ball on the festival day of a favourite
saint, and by his marked attentions at it to Madame
Bedard showed at once his taste and his ability to play
a part. He made a long address to the Chambers, breath-
ing naught but patriotism and justice ; so some still had

HUMOURS OF '57.

hope. "To the Canadians, both of French and British
origin, I would say, consider the blessings you might en-
joy but for your dissensions. Offsprings as you are of
the two foremost nations of the earth, you hold a vast
and beautiful country, having a fertile soil with a health-
ful climate, whilst the noblest river in the world makes
sea-ports of your most remote towns." He replied to the
Assembly first in French, then in English. There is a
possibility of doing too much, and the Montreal Gazette
censured this little bit of courteous precedence so far as
to deny the right of a governor to speak publicly in any
language but his own, and construed this innovation by
the amiable Earl into one that would lead to the Mother-
Country's degradation. Then what of the Channel Is-
lands, where loyalty was and is above suspicion ; where
the Legislature declared that members had not the right
to use English in debate, and "that only in the event
of Jersey having to choose between giving up the French
language, or the protection of England, would they con-
sent to accept the first alternative."

Matters progressed till rulers were burned in effigy,
and bands of armed men, prowling about the most dis-
affected parts, confirmed M. Lafontaine's saying, "Every
one in the colony is malcontent." " We have demanded
reforms," said he, "and not obtained them. It is time
to be up and doing." "We are despised!" cried M.
Morin, "oppression is in store for us, and even annihi-
lation. . . . But this state of things need endure no longer
than while we are unable to redress it."

" It is a second conquest that is wanted in that colony,"
said Mr. Willmot in the House of Commons, when he
heard the Canadian news via the Montreal Gazette.

So Lord Gosford asked for his recall, got it, stepped

I niirii-iiirnnr.

BANEFUL DOMINATION.

into a canoe after a progress through streets lined with
guards of honour composed of regular and irregular
troops, amid "some perfunctory cheering," and was pad-
dled to his ship, the band of the 66th playing "Rule
Britannia." She might rule the waves, but many of those
who listened were more than ever determined that she
should not rule Canadians.

The Gosford report was vehemently protested against
by Lord Brougham and Mr. Roebuck, who did not mince
matters, but predicted the rebelHon and outlined a probable
war with the neighbouring republic.

But Ijord John Russell, like Sir Francis Bond Head,
did not anticipate a rebellion.

Lord Gosford had found his task more difficult than he
expected. His predecessor, Sir James Kempt, had done
his best and failed, through no fault of his own but
because there was a determination in the majority of his
subjects not to be satisfied. Lord Gosford tried the effect
of a proclamation as an antidote for revolutions. But the
habitants tore it to shreds, crying, "A bas le proclama-
tion ! Vive Papineau, vive la liberty, point de despotisme,"
and made their enthusiasm sacred by holding their meet-
ings at parish church doors. Papineau was omnipotent ;
one would imagine ubiquitous, for he seems everywhere.
He made the tour of the northern bank of the St. Law-
rence, while his supporters, Girouard and Lafontaine,
took the southern, making the excited people still more
discontented. In after years, as a refugee in Paris, Papi-
neau disclaimed any practical treason at this time : " None
of us had prepared, desired, or foreseen armed resistance."
Yet the pikes were further sharpened, and the firelocks
looked to; and at St. Thomas (Que.) alone sixty men on
horseback, carrying flags and maple boughs, preceded him,

< f-

HUMOURS OF '57.

li !:

and following him were several pieces of artillery and the
remainder of the two thousand people who formed his
procession. Bishop Lartigue, a relative of Papineau,
warned his people to beware of revolt, declaring himself
impelled by no external influence, only actuated by motives
of conscience. Addressing one hundred and forty priests,
he used unmistakable terras as to how they were to resist
rebellion in the people ; no Roman Catholic was permitted
to transgress the laws of the land, nor to set himself up
against lawful authority. He even speaks of " the Govern-
ment under which we have the happiness to live," while
his relative was contending that the yoke on the necks of
the Canadians was made in a fashion then obsolete — the
Stuart pattern. But he spoke too late ; his people were
beyond his control, and they in turn condemned clerical
interference in politics, and the cur^ in charge at the
combustible Two Mountains had his barns burned in
answer to his exhortation. On the first Monday of every
month these sons of Liberty, organized by Storrow Brown,
met — "Son projet rduissoit a merveille, chaque jours le
corps augmentoit en nombre et dej^ de pareilles soci^tes se
formaient dans la campagne."

The chronic state of eruption in unhappy Lower Canada
had intervals of quiet only when some governor, with
manners of oil and policy of peace, made an interregnum.
All time was not like that of the little Reign of Terror,
full of fear and arbitrary measures, after the suppression
of Le Canndien and the arrest of the judges ; but the
country felt itself to be a plaything of not much more
veight than the cushion dandled by Melbourne or the
feather blown about by that minister of deceptive manner.
The famous Ninety-two Resolutions embodied the Canadian
view of what was wrong, and the remedy for it. Papineau,

BANEFUL DOMINATION.

their author, owed much in their construction to his col-
league, M. Moria, a gentle, polite man of letters, with the
suave manners of a divine, who neither looked nor acted
the conspirator, despite his many fiery words — as fervid as
those of the idol of the people, the eloquent leader in
Canadian debate, who was nightly carried home to his
hotel on the shoulders of the enthusiastic crowd.

" Since the origin and language of the French-Canadians
have become a pretext for vituperation, for exclusions, for
their meriting the stigma of political inferiority, for depri-
vation of our rights and ignoring public interests, the
Chamber hereby enters its protest against such arrogant
assumptions, and appeals against them to the justice of the
King and Parliament of Great Britain, likewise to the
honourable feeling of the whole British people. The
numerical though not dominant majority of this colony
are not themselves disposed tp esteem lightly the con-
sideration which they inherit from being allied in blood
to a nation equal, at least, to Britain in civilization and
excelling her in knowledge of the arts and sciences — a
nation, too, now the worthy rival of Britain for its
institutions."

Certain it is, the policy of the British Clique, so called,
was moulded more upon old than new country needs and
ideas, and was suited to the times of George I. and Louis
XIV. more than to the dawn of the Victorian era. But
'tis always darkest the hour before day, and the torch
lighted by Papineau was unfortunately to make conflagra-
tion as well as illumination. It was the old, old story of
theorists and political agitators exciting popular discontent
and alarm more than the occasion warranted, by exaggera-
tions retarding instead of speeding a cause, with another
story of procrastination and cross-purposes from the

HUMOURS OF '37.

Mother Country. Further, history was corroborated in
that a demagogue ends as a tyrant. A super-loyal news-
paper did not hesitate to say that the only way to calm
Canada was to purge the Colonial Office from King
Stephen down to Glenelg, and to do so by one huge peti-
tion to Majesty signed by every Canadian from Quebec to
Amherstburg. For Lord Glenelg, with the best inten-
tions in the world, had a positive genius for doing the
wrong thing.

But even such evidences of ignorance as did arrive by
despatches and otherwise did not warrant, in the minds of
many Liberals, the overthrow of a monarchy. They made
allowance for good disposition in the abstract, and spoke
of " want of knowledge and characteristic apathy." The
influence of these men cannot now be overestimated.
They were then looked upon with suspicion by either side,
for they recognized that gigantic obstacles and class exclu-
sions were to be met ; a recognition which lessened the
credit of their heartfelt " Je suis loyal." On the other
hand, a good many French Canadians were made to join
the rebel side by intimidation.

If the assurance of " Je suis loyal " did not come
quickly enough some inoffensive Frenchman would find
himself popped into the guardhouse, and the results of
jealousy and over-zeal have left us many absurd stories.
A county M.P., at the Chateau one sultry evening, seeing
the rest all busy at ice-cream, asked for some. The
Canadian Solon took a huge spoonful, his first taste of
such a delicacy. With a feeling of rage at what he
thought an insult, or at least neglect, he cried out what is
translated into, ''You abominable rascal, had this been for
an Englishman you would have taken the chill off."

No. more condemnatory record exists of the British

I-

rt»!SJamiaA^v^-■s^v.v|5tT,V^l^^^iMfiaff»T'-^n^ ri"'f" "' 'r-^"-^"'^rm,-i ruiriimiii

BANEFUL DOMINATION.

Clique than that left of it in its earliest days by Governor
Murray, a man not likely, to judge by the personal
anecdotes we have of his reign, to be accused of French
proclivities. For a time everything was given a French
turn, and " Don't mousihify me" in the words of an
eminent literary man, showed the essence of British feel-
ing of the day.

Although Murray said the ignorance of the French-
Canadian and his devotion to his priest ran together, and
that the veneration was in proportion to the ignorance, he
has to say also that, with the exception of nineteen Pro-
testant families and a few half-pay officers, most of the
British population were traders, followers of the army,
men of mean education. All had their fortunes to make :
" I fear few are solicitous about the means when the end
can be obtained. . . . The most immoral collection of
men I ever knew, of course little calculated to make the
new subjects enamoured with our laws, religion and
customs, and far less adapted to enforce these laws which
are to govern."

Canadians were then a frugal, industrious, moral set of
men, noblesse and peasantry alike, knit to each other by
ties made in the time of common danger ; the former as
much contemned by Murray's compatriots for their
superior birth and behaviour as the latter were by him
for their ignorance. In his despatch to the king's advisers
he is particularly hard on the judge and attorney-general,
neither of whom knew the French language, — nor, indeed,
did any of the men to whom offices of greatest trust were
bestowed by the sub-letting of posts whose property they
became through favour. In a word, a more worthless set
of officials could not be gathered together than that which
carried out the beginning of British rule in Lower Canada.
3

I-

HUMOURS OF W.

Haphazard circumstance placed them where they were, and
they scrupled not to make themselves paramount.

This oligarchy, made up " of the driftwood of the army
and manned by buccaneers of the law, knew how to seize
occasion and circumstance;" and the governors, " fascinated
by these official anacondas, fell into their folds and became
their prey, were their puppets and servants, and made
ministers of them instead of ministering to them."

Papineau contended that when all the people in any
country unanimously repudiate a bad law it is thereby
abrogated. To which sentiment Mr. Stuart responded,
" This is rebellion." Unfortunately, viith many high in
office, some governors included, any measure of opposition
meant rebellion, and, like Mr. Stuart, they did not hesi-
tate to say so.

Papineau, and those whom he represented, looked upon
the British Government as a melange of old usages, old
charters, old fictions, and prejudices old and new, new and
old corruptions, the right of the privileged few to govern
the mass. The boasted " image and transcript " in Canada
was called by them a veritable Jack-'o-lantern, a chameleon
that assumed colour as required.

In Papineau's interview with Lord Bathurst some years
before rebellion, that nobleman, after allowing that diffi-
culties existed, blaming remoteness from England and
nearness to the United States as aggravating circumstances,
asked for only twenty-five years of patriotic resignation to
what he considered a hard but, under ■ the circumstances,
natural state of things. But Papineau's Utopia diflFered
from Lord Bathurst's ; and he told him so.

It was now that it came to be acknowledged there was
something more powerful than Parliament, governor, or
priest. That was opinion after it had spoken in print.

iiitttii

BANEFUL DOMINATION.

On being asked how much treason a man might write and
not be in danger of criminal prosecution, Home Tooke
replied : "I don't know, but I am trying to find out."
Where anything belonging to Majesty, even so remotely as
an article in the military stores, was irreverently treated,
the article in question became of importance through the
importance of its royal owner, and treason could lurk in a
misused garment.

" For grosser wickedness and sin,
As robbery, murder, drinking gin,"

the penalties were then heavy indeed ; but the nature of
treason, according to the Common Law of England, is
vague, and judges were sometimes put to rare shifts to find
it. Evidently it did not always dwell in the heart alone,
but on occasion could be found by a diligent judge con-
siderably below that organ. A tailor, tried for the murder
of a soldier, had the following peroration tacked on to his
death sentence by a judge who was loyal enough to have
been a Canadian :

"And not only did you murder him, but you did thrust,
or push, or pierce, or project, or propel the lethal weapon
through the belly-band of his breeches, which were His
Majesty's ! "

" To slay a judge under specified circumstances " was also
a count in treason, and this knight of the bodkin doubtless
longed to thrust his tool into his wordy antagonist. But
as a phrenologist has told us, the judge could best illus-
trate his bump of veneration by the feeling with which
Tories of the old school regarded their sovereign. In
Canada a man had not to show sedition in order to be
suspended; for there was a law to banish him if he
were " about to endeavour to alienate the minds of His

HUMOURS OF W.

Majesty's subjects . . . from his person or Govern-
ntient." She foreshadowed the methods of the Mikado ;
when it was desired to punish a man "a crime was in-
vented to suit his case" — an inversion of the punishment
fitting the crime. Sir James Mackintosh succeeded in
passing two bills lessening the list of crimes punished by
hanging ; but Lord Eldon demurred at the noose being
done away with in case of five shillings worth of shop-
lifting, as the small tradesmen would be ruined. Then,
why not quartering and other horrors for treason 1

They certainly left no stone unturned in Canada to find
out details in matters of treason or libel. The John Bull
and other English papers handled some cases without
gloves ; but it was reserved for Canada to show^ what could
be done with printers' ink. The type fairly fiew into place
under the willing fingers of compositors who were also
politicians. Minerva in the printing office is oftentimes
undignified. She seems to have been particularly so in the
case of Le Canadien, a paper founded in 1806. Its wood-
cut frontispiece had the arms and emblems of Canada, with
two beavers hard at work biting the slender tie which
attached the scroll to the insignia of Great Britain, and,
of course, a suitable motto. Two reporters of that stormy
time added to the excitement of the Assembly by throwing
assafoetida on the stoves. The odour was insupportable,
and the too enthusiastic scribes were taken in charge by
the sergeant-at-arms. Like many others whose freedom
that functionary sought to curtail, they could not be found
when wanted. When the type, paper and presses of Le
Canadien office, under a warrant from Judge Sewell, were
seized in 1810, the magistrate, attended by a file of sol-
diers, removed all to the vaults of the Courthouse. This act,
with the long imprisonment without trial which followed,

■e?

liANEFUL DOMINATION.

was considered one of the most arbitrary committed since
Hanoverian rule began. The printers were arrested, as
were also the leading members of the Assembly, Messrs.
Pierre Bedard, Tachereau and Blanchet. When some of
these memliers had been admitted to the bar, M. Perrault,
one of those discreet men who were the saving of their
country, patriotic but prudent, made the caustic remark :
" So many men forced to steal in order to make a living !
I shall certainly yet see some of you hanged." It was
quite easy to hang a man in days when the death penalty
covered an incredible number of offences, when a boy
could receive that sentence for killing a cow or a child
for stealing sweets from a pastry cook's window. So M.
Perrault had a margin for his prediction. This half-jocular
condemnation of the legal profession was prevalent to
a degree which made many believe that in a corner of the
Protestant hell, which was separate from and hotter than
the Roman Catholic one, was a place reserved for lawyers.
" There they will have a little hell of their own, and even
well lighted for them to see each other the better ; and
there, after having deceived their poor clients on earth,
they will tear each other to pieces without the devil having
the bother of helping them."

In '37, when three of the members had become judges,
Perrault made his pun by saying, " I have often pre-
dicted that I should see some of you hanged (pendu) ;
there are now three of you suspended (suspendu), which
is nearly the same thing." Those who were partners in
guilt in the writings of this "seditious paper" were sent to
gaol, and we learn that the article which gave chief offence
was one entitled " Take hold of your nose by the tip."
Maladministration was evidently malodorous. Such pro-
ceedings naturally caused excitement, and the fears of

HUMOURS OF '37.

those in power made them redouble the city guards and
patrols.

But if Le Canadien had been conducted with animosity,
it was also marked by much ability. Nor had it a
monopoly of the former. The Anglo-Canadian papers, too,
knew how to be bitter and violent. The press of those
times indulged in wonderful prophecies. But the future
is in the lap of the gods, so said the more knowing
ancients ; and if any of those '37 prophecies had the flavour
of truth it is to be found in those of the contemned
Reformers.

Early in the century Judge Sewell had got into
trouble. He was accused of usurping parliamentary
authority, by undue influence persuading the Governor
(Craig) to dissolve the House and also to address the
members in an insulting manner ; and later there were the
Bedards' affairs. Judge Monk was also accused. Judge
Sewell went to London to defend himself, which he did to
such good purpose, backed by the influence of Prince
Edward, that he gained the ear and confidence of Lord
Bathurst. His explanations were accepted, and fresh
favours were in store for him from the incoming Governor
Sherbrooke.

Although " each new muddler " blamed his predecessor
for his own misgovernment, tjie tasks falling to the
Governors were not easy. Under Kempt came up the
question of giving legal status to Jews and Methodists,
the question regarding the former going back some twenty
years, when, under the administration of " little king
Craig," there was endless trouble over Mr. Ezekiel Hart's
presence in the House. Expelled and returned alternately.
Hart was doubly obnoxious as a Jew and an Englishman.

BANEFUL DOMINATION.

Methodism had an equally hare time since the First
Gentleman in Europe had said that that faith was not
the faith of a gentleman. The characteristics of the
personnel of the House of Assembly in the years of
the century prior to the Rebellion could doubtless fill
volumes of humours. Most of the members from the
Lower St. Lawrence arrived in schooners, sometimes
remaining in them as boarders ; or they put up at some
Lower Town hostelry, content with their cowpacks and
scorning Day & Martin. The members from down the
Gulf were sure to be of the right political stripe, from a
clerical point of view, or their constituents stood a chance
of being " locked out of heaven." One head of a house
who dared to be a Liberal in those illiberal times, an
educated man, and likely to have possessed weight in
character as well as by his appointments in his native
village, so locked himself out. His child of seven came
home from school in tears one day, and after much coaxing
to disburden his woe confided to his mother that in seven
years his father, a parent much-bcjloved, would be a loup-
garou. The end of this persecution was a removal over
the border.

But there were not many who had the courage of their
convictions in the face of the Church's No — they were all
too good Catholics then. Stories of their religious life
provide material for a picture whose beauty cannot be
surpassed. A niche was hollowed in a wall of most
Canadian homes to hold a figure of the " Blessed Lord," or
His equally dear Mother ; and it is recorded of one of the
first of Canadian gentlemen of his time that he never
passed [a wayside cross without baring his head, saying
once in explanation, "One should always bare the head
before the sign of our redemption and perform an act of

HUMOURS OF '37.

penitence." The humbler sort began no dangerous work,
such as roofing, without a prayer. With heads uncovered,
the workers knelt down, while some one of the oldest of
the company recited the prayer to which all made response
and Amen. Nor was thanksgiving omitted when the
harvest firstfruits were sold at the door of the parish
church. Close by the housewife's bedhead hung her
chaplet, black temperance cross and bottle of holy water ;
from the last the floor was sprinkled before every thunder-
storm. And nothing was done by natural agency. Even
the old, worn-out cure, who met death by the bursting of
the powder-magazine on board the ship in which he was
returning to France, was " blown into heaven."

But once the primitive ones left their village they were
much at sea, and we have a member for Berthier, whom we
shall credit as being both pious and Tory, arriving in Que-
bec with his wife 0;>e winter's evening in his traineau.
They drew up at the parliamentary buildings and surveyed
the four-and-twenty windows above them, wondering which
one would fall to their lot for the season. They descended,
boxes and bundles after them, rapped at the door and pre-
sented their compliments to the grinning messenger. " He
was the member for Berthier, and this was Madame his
wife;" they had brought their winter's provisions with
them, and all in life needed to allow him to pursue his
work of serving his country as a statesman was a cooking
stove, which he looked to a paternal government to supply.
When told that not one of the four-and-twenty windows
belonged to him, and that family acccnmodation did not
enter into the estimates, the member from Berthier stowed
his wife and bundles back in the traineau, gave his steed
a smart cut, and indignantly and forever turned his back
upon the Legislative walls of his province.

BANEFUL DOMINATION.

What did he not miss? Within them Papineau was
making rounded periods, holding men entranced by his
eloquence ; Andrew Stuart was defending British rights ;
yet another Stuart thundered against the tyranny of the
oligarchy, the privileged few \ and Nielson and other dis-
creet Liberals sought to steer a middle course of justice
without rebellion. No wonder that from this concert dis-
cords met the ears of the audiences without.

Peculiarities and eccentricities were not confined to the
rural populace and members of Parliament. " Go on
board, my men, go on board without fear," w^as a magis-
trate's dismissal to two evil-faced tars who had deserted
their ship at sailing time because they thought her unsea-
worthy j " I tell you you are born to be hanged, so there-
fore you cannot be drowned."

" If anyone has a cause," said one dignified prothono-
tary, " let him appear, for the Couit is about to close."
" But," said the judge above him, " the law states we must
sit to-morrow." Turning to the public the prothonotary
made further announcement : " The judge says he will sit
to-morrow, but the prothonotary will not be here." And
in his Louis XIV. costume, cut-away coat with stiff and
embroidered collar, knee-breeches of black cloth, black silk
stockings, frills on shirt-bosom and cuffs, the silver-
buckled shoes of the prothonotary bore their somewhat
stubborn wearer away.

At the beginning of the century it was only occa-
sionally that foreign news reached Canada. With time
postal matters improved ; but news was still only occa-
sional. At the advent of a vessel at Father Point the
primitive telegraph of the yard and balls was used, and at
jiight fires were lighted to carry the tidings from cape to

HUMOURS OF '37.

cape. The means of intercommunication depended upon
the size of the post-bag, the fidelity of the carrier, and on
the state of the storm-strewn paths or trackless wastes
which had to be crossed. The bag for Gasp^ and Bale des
Chaleurs was made up once in a winter and sent to Que-
bec, dark leather with heavy clasps and strapped on an
Indian's back. The man travelled on snowshoes, and
when tired would transfer his load to the sled drawn by
his faithful Indian dog. There were others whose mode of
transit was much the same, but whose beats were shorter
and trips more frequent. " Do not forget," would say a cer-
tain old Seigneur, " to have Seguin's supper prepared for
him." Seguin was postman for that large country-side,
and generally arrived during the night at the manor house.
The doors, under early Canadian habit, were unlatched ;
Seguin would quietly enter, sit down, take his supper, and
produce from his pockets the letters and papers which made
the Seigneur's mail, leave them on the table, then as
quietly let himself out into the night again, to pursue his
journey to the next point. Such latitude in trust was
possible in a country where law in its beginning was a
matter of personal administration aided by keep, and four-
post gibbet whose iron collar might bear the family arms.
Nor was other travel in a very advanced state. The
palm of beauty was then, as now, accorded the St. Law-
rence, but one traveller from abroad wrote, " 'Tis a sad
waste of life to ascend the St. Lawrence in a bateau." By
1818 "a first-class steamer" made its exhausted way from
Quebec to Montreal ; aided by a strong wind it covered
seven leagues in nine hours. This exhilarating motion
caused the historian Christie, one of the pleased passen-
gers, to open his window and hail his friends, " We are
going famously ! " By the third day's voyage they were at
the foot of the current below Montreal, and with tl^e

■•jafc.vtfomaUJi»i

BANEFUL DOMINATION.

united aid of forty-two oxen they reached the haven for
which they wore bound.

With news so transmitted and the bulk of the popula-
tion unable to read or write, and with only the compara-
tively wealthy and the adventurous able or willing to
travel, it is not surprising that " the focus of sedition, that
asylum for all the demagogic turbulence of the province,"
the Assembly rooms at Quebec, had not succeeded in dis-
seminating their beliefs and hopes among the most rural of
the population. One thing which made remote villages
loath to be disturbed was that they had more than once
seen noisy demagogues and blatant liberators side with the
alien powers when opportunity for self-aggrandizement
came. Also, in many cases their isolated lot precluded
feeling governmental pressure. But in the county of Two
Mountains, at St. Denis, St. Charles, and also at Berthier,
they were alert enough, and the most stirring pages in the
coming revolt were to be written in blood in these localities.
There secret associations flourished ; open resistance only
waited opportunity. There the Sons of Liberty drilled
and wrote themselves into fervour, with pikes made by
local blacksmiths and manifestoes founded on French and
Irish models for outward tokens of the inward faith : " The
diabolical policy of England towards her Canadian sub-
jects, like to her policy towards Ireland, forever staining
her bloody escutcheon." The history of " my own, my
native land," inspires all words written from this point of
view ; one patriot, " plethoric with rhethoric," had many
fine lines, such as " the torch, the sword, and the savage,"
and pages devoted to the " tyrannical government of palace
pets."

Away back in 1807 many militia officers of fluctuating
loyalty had been dismissed, and the precedent established
by Governor Craig was continued. Fapin.eau was one of

HUMOURS OF '37.

\ I

I ''

these officers ; he had made an insolent reply — " The pre-
tension of the Governor to interrogate me respecting my
conduct at St. Laurent is an impertinence which I repel
with contempt and silence " — to the Governor's secretary,
and had to suffer for it. The political compact called the
Confederation of the Six Counties was governed by some
ox hose so dismissed, and they all grew still more enthusi-
astic from the sight of such banner legends as " Papineau
and the Elective System," " Our Friends of Upper Can-
ada," " Independence." The Legislative Council was pic-
t,»jnft'^y rrpresented by a skull and cross bones, and the
dtjclf V «n of the rights of man was voiced.

lu adckit'oii to present troubles there was a perpetual
har' rnr, bacK v ^hese meetings to old scores, impelling
" the pe- /^ lo uO •. -^stle with the serried hordes of their
oppressors in the bloody struggles which must intervene "
before " the injured, oppressed, and enslaved Canadian "
could escape from "the diabolical policy of England."
There was a liberty pole, and Papineau, burning, ener-
getic, flowery of speech, promised all things as crown
to laudable eflfort " in the sacred cause of freedom." It
was a Canada " regenerated, disenthralled, and blessed
with a liberal government " which the prophetic speech
of Papineau had foreshadowed ; and the " lives, fortunes,
and sacred honour " of his hearers were there and then
pledged with his own to aid in that regeneration. That
"Frenchified Englishman," Dr. Wolfred Nelson, also
spoke; and Girod, — a Swiss, who taught agriculture in
a Quebec school for boys, got up by that true patriot
Perrault, — destined shortly for a tragic fate, was there.
At this meeting Papineau thought he had set a ball
rolling which would not easily be stopped. Already it
was careering in an unpleasantly rapid manner. He
deprecated the use of arms, and advised as punishment to

BANEFUL DOMINATION.

England that nothing should be bought from her. This
reprisal on the nation of shopkeepers Nelson thought a
peddling policy ; that the time was come for armed action,
not pocket inaction. Papineau's opinion was disappoint-
ing to the fiery wing of the Confederation. Again did
Bishop Lartigue warn generally against evil counsels, re-
minding his flock that a cardinal rule of the Church was
obedience to the powers that be ; and every one of his
clergy echoed him.

" II n'y a que le premier pas qui coute " was once oddly
applied by a lady who heard a canon of the Church say that
St. Piat, after his htidd was cut ofi*, walked two leagues
with it in his hand. She could not gainsay such an
authority, so said, " I can quite believe it. On such occa-
sions the first step is the only difficulty."

Alas, many at these meetings were to exhibit the price
of a first step ; heads were to come off and necks to be
broken, and every step in that blood-stained via doloroso
which led to the Union, to the righting of Englishmen's
and Frenchmen's wrongs, to establishing Canadian rights
to be French or British, was to cost bitterly, — cost how
bitterly only one can know who reads the story in its
human aspect, not politically alone. It is a strange thing
that privileges so purely British as those asked for, the aboli-
tion of the death sentence except in case of murder, *' that
chimera called Responsible Government," the unquestioned
use of a national language in public affairs, freedom of the
press, should have been asked for by Frenchmen, denied
by Englishmen, and fought for to the death by many of
each nationality.

All time from the Conquest to the Rebellion seems to
belong to the latter event. For the causes of it reach back
by perspective into Misrule, making a vanishing point in
Mistake.

/l^ore JSanctul Domination.

** Aioay with those hateful distinctions of English and Canadian."

' —Edward Dukk of Kknt.

Treason always labours under disadvantage when it
makes preliminary arrangements ; and it is often obliged
to found combinations on defective data, not reckoning
upon disturbing forces and the sudden appearance of the
unforeseen. But if so in ordinary cases, what must it
have been when, in Upper Canada, sympathy with the
French and dissatisfaction with existing Upper Cana-
dian institutions ended in a determination to combine
forces and make a common cause.

Each province had its distinct enemies ; but distance
was one common to both. They were divided from the
metropolis and arsenal of the Empire by ocean, storm, and
wooden ships ; and tracts of native roadless wilderness,
long stretches of roads of mud and corduroy, and the in-
tercepting reserve, helped to keep man from man. A huge
place ; and the badness of its affairs was in proportion to
its size. With no hint of the future iron belt from
Atlantic to Pacific, all travel was by stage, a painful
mode, and costing some $24.00 from Montreal to Toronto ;
or if by water, in long flat-bottomed bateaux rowed by
four men, Durham boat, barge, or the new ventures, steam-
boats, where as yet passenger quarters were in the hold.

The element of Upper Canada was crude, and the home-
sick letters of the new-come emigrants sighed over the rude

./ . L

MORE BANEFUL DOMINA TION.

surroundings. But perhaps the rudest thing which the
settlers of '37 found was the apology for a form of govern-
ment then offered to them. An idea had prevailed in the
home countries that Canada was the best of the colonies.
But this idea was dispelled by Mackenzie ; those of his
earlier writings which reached Britain rendered such a
sorry account of Canadian happiness that people who had
confidence in his book thought twice before they risked
fortune in what evidently had become his country through
necessity.

Some time previous to the publication of his book
("Sketches of Canada and the United States"), he had
been good enough to write Lord Dalhousie, " So far, your
Lordship's administration is just and reasonable." To him
Canadian affairs were like a falling barometer, soon to end
in storm, and there was every ground for the statement of
a United States editor that Mackenzie constituted himself
the patron or the censor of the race.

"Oh, England is a pleasant place for them that's rich and high,
But England is a cruel place for such poor folk as I."

There was no iron hand in a silken glove about the oli-
garchy ; the hand was always in evidence to Mackenzie and
his kind, and Canada was not a whit better than Kingsley's
apostrophized land.

It is easy at this time of day to cast reflections upon the
ruling class of that period, a class chiefly composed of sons
of officers in the army and navy, for the most part gentle-
men in the conventional sense of the term — a crime laid to
their charge by some who could not forgive it. They
naturally came to centre in themselves all offices of honour
and emolument; and the governors, all gentle if some
foolish, looked to them for counsel and support, before

HUMOURS OF \"i7.

time was allowed for reflection, the governors so cleverly
governed that they knew it not. Gifts of the Crown
naturally followed, and the great Pact grew richer, along-
side of that older Compact of the sister province. It is a
case for " put yourself in his place." The burden and heat
of the day had fallen on these men ; they but followed the
instinct to reap where one has strawed, and carried out to
the letter the axiom that unlimited power is more than
mortal is framed to bear.

" The tyrannical government of palace pets " furnishes
pages of misgovernment. It took a clear head, a steady
will and a true heart to cling to British connection and the
Union Jack, when desperation made some determined to
be rid of the Toronto rule, which was to them odious,
unjust, intolerable. And yet, when we review that epoch
of dissolution and transformation, the errors and short-
comings of either party, the two sides of the dispute stand
out so clearly that we wonder anyone could then think he
was altogether right. " Flayed with whips and scorped
with scorpions," one side said, " there is no alternative but
a tame, unmanly submission or a bold and vigorous
assertion of our rights as freemen ; " while the other, by
the mouth of its governor, likened Canada, standing in
"the flourishing continent of North America," to a "girdled
tree with drooping branches." Certainly, the simile was
good; and with all justice to the side of Tory or Reformer,
Royalist, Rebel, Loyalist and Loyalist, a retrospective
glance discloses a knife on either side busy at the process
of girdling. " What is the best government on earth ? "
asks a school-book in use in Buncombe's District and
printed in Boston for Canadian schools; "A Republican
Government like th6 United States," is the unqualified
next line. " What is the worst government on earth ? "

MORE liANEFUL DOMINATION.

— *' A Monarchical Government like that of England and
Canada." "Can the King of England order any man's
head cut off and confiscate his property ? " — " Yea." " Will
you, if the occasion arrives, rise up and rebel against such
a government as yours, and join the States % " — ♦' Yes, with
all my power and influence." The Yankee school -master,
a chief agent of this propaganda, was one of the first
prisoners.

The Family Compact believed the chief beauty of govern-
ment to be simplicity, the foremost tenet loyalty to one
another. But men outside the Pact, every whit as much
gentlemen and each in turn bearing his part of that heat
and burden, awoke to a sense of individualism, each to
realize that he was a unit in the commonweal.

The forerunner of the new dispensation was Robert
Gourlay. And what and if his sorrows had so overwhelmed
his wits, he yet was the founder of public opinion in Upper
Canada ; nor is it less true that the first outcome of his
martyrdom was that life was made harder for those who
dared to follow where he had failed.

" Whaur ye gaun, Sawndie % " '* E'en to the club just
to conthradick a bit ; " and Mackenzie, right as he was in
many points, leaves us in no doubt as to his descent and
his ability to " conthradick " for pure love of so doing.
Also his club covered a wide area, and his influence over a
tract as wide as his ability to contradict was phenomenal.

Passing the line between the Canadas, Glengarry showed
the change from French to British ways. Not only were
the features and tongues of the inhabitants different, but
there was an entire absence of that thrifty, snug cot-
tage comfort which distinguished the half-brother below.
With outsides unfinished, no taut lines about them, both
houses and original huts proclaimed a people undaunted

1 !

ill !

HUMOURS OF '37,

by obstacles and surmounting them by indifference to
detail. Here all were loyal. Stories of the famous
Glengarry Fencibles of 1812 took up the leisure hours,
and the spirit of the Loyalist fighting bishop war -""ra-
mount. That prelate would not tell his people . to
vote, but he talked of " these radicals who aim at the
destruction of our Holy Religion ; " and this word to those
already wise was sufficient.

Next came Prescott, once La Galette, well built on a
rocky prominence, the site of a former entrenchment, a
place mentioned in old French diaries from the time of La
Salle, the white of its tall, massive tower, roofed with a
tin dome and built out on a rounding point covered with
evergreen, making an abrupt feature in the river bank.
Enormous sails flapping in the breeze proclaimed its 'unc-
tions, and a fort in process of erection, not ha • a
moiety of its aggressive strength of appearance, lay in.> it.
Here the people were of two minds, many ready to be
sympathisers in a movement though lacking the force to
be leaders ; prominent men, some of them, and wishing
for a lead, while others, living in the remote shadow of
the dominant party, were so securely attached to crown
and flag that they were ready to defend that party for
the sake of the flag whose exclusive property it seemed to
be.

Farther on, as the river broadened towards the chain
of lakes, came Kingston, its " agreeable, genteel society
accommodated in houses of stone and wood," also much
divided by party. In the harbour ships of war stood
close to the shore, where blockhouse and fort com-
manded the entrance. Fort Henry, begun in '32, had
by February, '36, cost England more than j£50,000 ;
its area did not exceed an acre, the wails, massive

MMHNH

ssssssss

MORE BANEFUI. nOMINATION.

outworks and aspect evidently conveniently designDd
for the success of the enemy. A few more years
were required for its completion and to level the glacis ;
hut although unfinished it was to he the theatre of a tra-
gedy. In its finished state it has been described as a
•colossal monument to military stupidity. From the top
of the inner fort lie in view the famous "cow pasture,"
Dead Man's Bay where some fourteen men were drowned
during construction of the fort on Cedar Island, and Shoal
Tower, all points of arrest to the eye in that ever-beautiful
scene. Several old war-ships left from 1812 were in 1831
kept at the dockyards, shingled over and protected, some
fated later to be sunk as useless, one to be burnt to the
water's edge. Hard by there was a dockyard, furnished
with every article of naval stores required for the equip-
ment of ships of war. Two seventy-fours, a frigate, a sloop
of war and eleven gunboats reposed under cover on stocks.
They were not plank iJ, but men employed for the purpose
replaced decaying bits of timber, and it was estimated that
in little more than a month they could be got ready for
sea. Immense sums had been expended during that war
upon unnecessary things, unaccountable ignorance having
sent the woodwork of the frigate PaycJie to a country
where it could have been provided on the spot at one-
hundredth of the expense and in one-tenth of the time
necessary to convey it there. Even wedges had been sent,
and the Admiralty, full of salt-water notions, was paternal
enough to include a full supply of water casks for use on
Lake Ontario, where a bucket overboard could draw
up water undreamed of by Jack tars, from a reservoir
through which flowed nearly half the fresh water supply
of the globe. Clearly, details of geography were not
included in the lists for those bright youths who were

HUMOURS OF '3:

IK j

preparing for the Admiralty, and nowhere in Canada was
the foolish touch of a prodigal-handed parent seen to
more ad\ antage than in Kingston.

Across the lake at Sackett's Harbour was a ship of 102
guns, apparently put together in a substantial manner in
forty days from the day the first tree used in her construc-
tion was cut down. Peace declared, she was never launched ;
and, agreeably to the terms of the treaty, which called for
the abolition of an armed force on the lakes, six or seven
more American vessels were sunk in the harbour and,
in the parlance of their owners, were " progressing to
dissolution." Green timber might have proved as good a
vehicle for the squandering of money as imported wedges
and water-casks.

But although there was then this show of vessels in
Kingston, a practical military man of '37 records that the
dockyard was a grazing ground, that the Royal Engineers'
department did naught but patch up barracks in much the
same state as the ships, not a ship, boat, sail or oar was
available, and that sad havoc had been made by the
twenty- two years of profound peace and disuse in harness,
waggons, carriages, limbers, wheels, drag-ropes and other
munitions of war. The powder would not light, and
moths had destroyed blankets and bedding. Artillery
with no horses to the guns, and part of the 66th regiment,
represented the military force at the half-finished fort.

At Kingston Her Majesty's accession was proclaimed on
a certain Monday in August of '37 by Mr. SheriflF Bullock
and the other authorities, but " the procession was meagre
and pitiful in the extreme." And this state of afiairs was
because of the dislike " manifested by many to petticoat
government."

Farther on, the peninsula of Prince Edward should have

MORE BANEFUL DOMINATION.

been the very paradise of loyalty if any inference were to
be made from its nomenclature : Adolphusburg, Maryburg,
Sophiasburg, a transatlantic inventory of major and minor
royalties. But, although it had sent forth a Hagerman, the
Bidwells were there too, all champions in the coming
struggle for what each loyally believed to be the right.
Every town and hamlet along that immense waterway had
heard the call of Mackenzie from either lips or pen, and
some dwellers in each had responded.

With York is reached the centre of grievance, the house
of hate, where the principals in the coming struggle dwelt
in a succession of patched-up peace, revolts, domineering
unfairness, harsh punishments and secret reprisals, a pano-
ramic play in which the first act was tyranny and the last
revolution. Some of the by-play reads childishly enough.
Mackenzie's stationery shop in King Street contained
window decorations of the most soul-harrowing kind, and
all belonging to the era of belief in eternal punishment.
The asperities of Mackenzie's truly Presbyterian enjoyment
had not yet been softened by a Farrar or a Macdonnell.
The prints there displayed depicted Sir Francis Bond
Head, Hagerman, Robinson, Draper and Judge Jones
as squirming in all the torments of a realistic hell, relieved
by sketches of a personal devil whose barbed tail was used
as a transfixing hook for one or other of these Tories, the
more conveniently to spit and cook him. The Canadian
ejaculations of former times, "May an Iroquois broil me,"
or " Tors mon ame au bout d'un piquet " (Twist my soul on
the end of a fence rail), were forever routed. Like Pope
and an interrogation point, Mackenzie was a little thing
who would ask questions, any crookedness about him being
the peculiar twists and turns made possible by nature to
his rapier-like tongue. His paper heralded the day of

HUMOURS OF \n.

Carlyle and Dor^, anticipating the former's " gloomy
procession of the nations going to perdition, America the
advance guard." When he thus bearded these lions in
their dens they promptly called — through the government
organ — for the suppression of the first issue of this obnox-
ious paper ; further, that the editor should be banished,
and the entire edition confiscated. Vituperative, he had a
command of uncomfortable words fitted to every circum-
stance, his ability to scent out abuses phenomenal. But
he was not banished, nor his pen and pencil confiscated,
nor yet did his influence stop at this point in the long
journey from Glengarry to Windsor. And why should
such a pen be confiscated ? While the Family Compact
were expelling Mackenzie, imprisoning Collins, and hunting
to death any poor stray printer who dared put his want of
admiration of them in type, no less great a person than
their King was feign to be out of his wits because he was
not only libelled but had no redress. He laments the
existence of " such a curse . . . as a licentious and
uncontrolled press," and of a state of things which renders
the law with respect to libellers and agitators a dead letter.
Poor King, happy Family Compact ; Canada had no dead
laws if the people who administered them wished them
quick. " The Irish agitators, the reviews and, above all,
the press, continue to annoy the King exceedingly;" but
Earl Grey said the only way with newspaper attacks was
the Irish way, "to keep never minding." Also Lord
Goderich writes to Sir John Colborne in '32 : " I must
entirely decline, as perfectly irrelevant to any practical
question, the inquiry whether at a comparatively remote
period prosecutions against the editors of newspapers were
improperly instituted or not." It is needless to look beyond
Mr. Mackenzie's journal to be convinced that there is no

MORE BANEFUL DOMINATION.

latitude which the most ardent lover of free discussion
ever claimed for such writers which is not enjoyed in
Upper Canada. Had he looked beyond Mr. Mackenzie's
journal he would have found the Reformers called "juggling,
illiterate boobies — a tippling band — mountebank riffraff —
a saintly clan — Mackenzie a politico-religious juggler."
The Reform Parliament was " the league of knave and
fool — a ribald conclave ;" and Mr. Ryeraon, when under a
temporary cloud, was called " a man of profound hypocrisy
and unblushing effrontery, who sits blinking on his perch
like Satan when he perched on the tree of life in the shape
of a cormorant, to meditate the ruin of our first parents
in the Garden of Eden ! "

Following the frontier line, Niagara, looking like a
" dilapidated hennery," had not much in the aspect of its
feeble fort to awe the rebellious spirits. They remem-
bered the cruel sufferings of Gourlay, the demolition
of Forsyth's property, and could not be awed back into
what had technically come to be known as loyalty by any
associations of " Stamford," or by the leavening power of
the U. E. Loyalism which abounded in that district.
Thence on to the hamlets of Dunnville and Port Dover,
past the Dutch settlement called the Sugar Loaves — six
conical hills rising from the low ground near the lake — to
where that old lion. Colonel Talbot, perched midway be-
tween Niagara and Detroit, on Lake Erie, dared any
among his many settlers to name a grievance. Thence to
Amherstburg and Windsor, and on to Goderich, youngest
of them all, and beyond which was primeval wilderness, a
matted and mighty forest on which clouds and thick dark-
ness still rested — known only to the savage, the wild beast,
or perhaps to some stoic of the woods who was hustled out
of his dream of quiet by the hunt after that ever-receding

HUMOURS OF 'S7.

■«i

point of the compass, the West. Over such an area did
the influence of this small, almost childish figure of a man
extend. And up and down the land within this water-
bound border, in outlying interior townships, did his
message penetrate until, as the seasons advanced and the
times grew ripe, he seemed to hold within the hollow of
his small palm — a palm never crossed with gold — the
power for which Governor and Council schemed without
tiring or maintained by the right of might.

As early as '34 the Canadian Alliance had been
formed, not local in aim, but " entering into close alliance
with any similar association that may be found in
Lower Canada or other colonies." The democratic ten-
dency of its resolutions caused it to be called revolutionary
by the governmental party ; but then anything outside of
that party was " rebel." When matters focused between
Sir Francis and that which he called his " low-bred
antagonist, democracy," evenly balanced persons became
" notorious republicans ; " Postmaster Howard, who came
of ultra-loyal stock, was deposed from office chiefly because
his son, a lad of ten, read a radical newspaper ; and we
find an " old dyed-in-the-wool Tory, a writer of some note,"
afterwards saying : " When I look back over events which
were thought all right by the Loyalists of those times, I
only wonder there were not thousands of Mackenzies and
Papineaus." Might with the Loyalists made right; Mr.
Hagerman would not " stoop to enquire whether this act
was right or wrong, it was sufficient for him the House
had done it." It was clear, too, that the Chief -Justice
himself was no student of George III. in the meaning of
the word "mob," and it was exasperating to the last to
hear themselves spoken of as " a few individuals," their
serious conclaves as " casual meetings," their petitions as
" got up by somebody or other."

MORE BANEFUL DOMINATION,

The Alliance was pledged to disseminate its principles
and educate the people by gratuitous issues of political
pamphlets and sheets. The series of meetings organized
to bring the people together showed sympathy with
Papineau throughout. Lloyd was the trusted messenger
sent to convey that sympathy ; but at first it was not a
sympathy backed up by physical force. 'HMtuch may be
done without blood " was the keynote of its temperate
tone. Yet, as where Papineau's own disclaimers of physi-
cal force were heard, in Upper Canada the meeting ended
in drill ; Brown Besses were furbished up, and the clink
of the blacksmith's hammer might be heard in any forest
forge busy fashioning into shape the pikes which were
made in such shape as to be equally happy in ripping or
stabbing.

In November, '37, Papineau sent despatches to Upper
Canada by the hands of M. Dufort, with an appeal for
support as soon as they should have recourse to arms there.
The mission carried Dufort still farther west, and in
Michigan a Council of War was held, embracing many
names prominent in that section. Cheers for Papineau and
" the gallant people of the sister province " were tempered
in their enthusiasm by fears in some minds that there was
a disposition to establish the Roman Catholic as a domi-
nant or State Church in the Lower Province. State Church,
they said, was one of their own most formidable enemies.
At one meeting those composing it were called upon to
divide, those in sympathy with Papineau to go to the right
of the chairman. Only three remained on the left. The
sympathy, which was general, grew more enthusiastic over
common woes. " They," (the British) said Papineau, "are
going to rob you of your money. Your duty then is plain.
Give them no money to steal. Keep it in your pockets."

HUMOURS OF '57.

The women of the country, handsome and patriotic, were
exhorted to clothe themselves and their children in a
way to destroy the revenue, and to assist the men to pre-
vent the forging of chains of undue taxation and duty.
" Henceforth there must be no peace in the province, no
quarter for the plunderers. Agitate, agitate, agitate.
Destroy the revenue, denounce the oppressors. Every-
thing is lawful when the fundamental liberties are in
danger." In his newspaper Mackenzie calmly discussed
the probability of their success under the question : " Can
the Canadians conquer ? " drawing a picture of two or three
thousand of them, headed by Mr. Speaker Papineau,
muskets on shoulders, determined to resist and finally
throw off British tyranny. He argued that they could
conquer, everywhere, except that " old fortalice, Que-
bec," i/he daily sight of whose sombre walls, no doubt, was
instrumental in keeping her own citizens the quietest in
those troublous times. He pointed out how their or-
ganization was better than dreamed of by Lord Gosford,
how as marksmen they were more than a match for the
British Atkins, how the garrison might possibly desert
rather than fire, how blood would tell and Britons over the
border come flocking to the Canadian standard ; how no
House of Commons would spend fifty or sixty millions to
put down rebellion in what was already " a costly encum-
brance," and how the men who commanded these malcon-
tents were, as already shown, renegade regular or dismissed
militia officers.

At one of these outside meetings emblems, devices and
mottoes were even more significant than words. On one
flag was a star surrounded by minor stars, a death's head
in the centre, with " liberty or Death ; " another showed
" Liberty " surrounded with pikes, swords, muskets and

Ukm

MORE BANEFUL DOMINATION.

cannon, " by way of relief to the eye." In another deco-
ration Father Time discarded his scythe and rested his
hands in an up-to-date fashion on a cannon. A Liberty
Pole one hundred feet high was contemplated in imitation
of the Papineau pole ; but methods likely to be successful
under skilful French management came to naught with the
clumsier Anglo-Saxon. Certain it is, no poet had yet
arisen from that hot-bed of poesie, treason, though dog-
gerel adorned many flags. The concluding lines in one
effort show Pegasus' actempt to settle into a steadier trot :

" Ireland will sound her harp, and wave
Her pure greon banner for your right ;
Canadians never will be slaves —
Up, Sons of Froedom, to the fight ! "

But Ireland's other arm was waving a banner of a dif-
ferent colour. Orangeman followed Liberal with the
usual results, fights and many black eyes ; horsemen then
escorted the organizers of the meetings ; and after threats
of assassination and guns snapping in the pan, angry
cavalcades of hundreds of carriages and mounted men,
quiet at the shilelah's point was in most instances gained.
The pretended constitution was announced a humbug, the
people living under the worst of despotism. Discontent,
vengeance and rage were in men's hearts.

Two years before this period Mackenzie had visited
Quebec, one of a deputation to cement the fellowship exist-
ing between Reformers of the two provinces. They found
many of their grievances identical, and their oneness in
determination to overcome them would, it was hoped,
prove to Canadian and English authorities alike that " the
tide was setting in with such unmistakable force against
bad government that, if they do not yield to it before long.

'■ i\

HUMOURS OF \r^

it will shortly overwhelm them in its rapid and onward
progress."

Truly the progress had been rapid and onward. It was
now " Hurrah for Papineau " in every Upper Canadian
inn where the two hundred meetings held in this year of
'37 might happen to rendezvous. And yet th^re were some
who opined that Mackenzie's bark was worse than his bite ;
who, with Lord Gosford and the Provincial Governor, did
not apprehend a rebellion. The province was, in the words
of its Governor — in his opinion — more tranquil than any
part of England ; and because there was a demand for
Union Jack flags it was argued that if people loved that
flag they would willingly die for the oligarchy. To many
minds, the Pact was the most untrue and disloyal element
in the province ; and according to the point of view the
sides unfurled these signiflcant bits of red and blue bunt-
ing, each man defining to his own satisfaction the meaning
of that vexed word loyalty.

The Hon. Peter McGill had said at a loyalist meeting,
" . . . the organization (to repel rebels), that it may
combine both moral determination and physical force, must
be military as well as political. There must be an army
as well as a congress, there must be pikes and rifles as
well as men and tongues." The answer to these wise words,
useful to either side as containing solid truth for each, was
a miserable attention, an exhibition of incompetence on the
rebel side towards that necessary military wing, and on
the Governor's side the answer was the removal of all the
troops in the province. The one party was no longer the
superior of the other ; with the dreadful difference that
there was unanimity on the loyalist side, as against jeal-
ousies and multiplicity of leadership on the other.

It so happened that in the year '34, partly in com-

MORE BANEFUL DOMINATION.

pensation to him for his expulsion from the House of
Assembly, Mackenzie had been raised to the dignity of
first Mayor of York, and, as in the words of his own
rhyme, changed the name to the far better Canadian one
of Toronto :

" Como hither, come hither, my little dog Ponto,
Let's trot down and see where Little York's gone to ;
For forty big Tories, assembled in jmita,
Have murdered poor Little York in the City of Toronto."

Calendars tell us that the pillory was abolished in '37.
"When reading the life of Mackenzie one would imagine
the statement a mistake, so popular did pillory methods
seem. So far as unmerited obloquy, misrepresentation at
home and abroad from those who pretended to despise and
at heart feared him, personal insult, outrage, hard words,
kicks from men who made up in inches what they lacked
in justice, could constitute a pillory, Mackenzie had for
years stood in it metaphorically, the old conditions being
carried out faithfully, since practically it had been a pun-
ishment thought meet for authors and publishers of sedi-
tious pamphlets. ' A wise man has said : " Whereas before,
our fathers had no other books but the score and tally,
thou hast caused printing to be used ; and contrary to the
king, his crown and dignity, thou hast built a paper mill."
In certain cases, too, the persecution was unpopular, and
the intended disgrace became a species of triumph. A
public pillory and stocks were still part of the actual
machinery of government in Little York, and unfortu-
nately for his own good name Mackenzie celebrated Toronto's
first year by using the stocks and otherwise conducting
himself in a way mortifying to his friends, most satisfac-
tory to his enemies, and calculated to still further alienate

HUMOURS OF '37.

those members of the Reform party to whom he seems to
have been personally objectionable even when his mistakes
of judgment did not run the length of seditious writing or
putting women in the stocks.

But extraordinary acts and extraordinary words were
not confined to Canada. It was reserved for a member of
Parliament, a British statesman, to pen words the repeti-
tion of which alone was sufficient to overturn the feelings
of the majority of the thinking and well-intentioned por-
tion of the colony. Never did Tory press or Tory lips tire
of abusing saddle-bag doctors and saddle-bag ministers as
the purveyors of treason, the latter, in guise of Methodist
preacher, supposed to scatter seeds of faith and sedition
with the same hand. Strangely enough. Dr. Ryerson, the
most prominent Methodist in the country, was Tory
enough to provoke the wrath of the radical Mr. Hume. In
a letter to Mackenzie, so abusive that all must wonder a
gentleman could write it, Hume made the clergyman an
object of abuse in words which stamped the receiver as
well as the writer everything their most ardent enemies
desired and believed them to be.

That letter did more for Loyalism in Upper Canada
than the concentrated action of Governor, oligarchy, and
Tory press could ever do to hurt it. Mackenzie, to work
oflFa private spleen of his own against Dr. Ryerson, pub-
lished the obnoxious document without comment. Vain
was it for its author to hasten to say *' that the misrule of
the Government of Canada, and the monopolizing, selfish
domination of such men as had lately (though but a small
faction of the people) resisted all improvement and reform,
would lose the countenance of the authorities in Downing
Street, and leave the people in freedom to manage their
own affairs." The mischief was done. On the one hand.

MORE BANEFUL DOMINATION.

many of the most reputable of that body through which
amelioration of condition might be hoped to come were
forever divorced from a party that could voice such
sentiments ; and on the other, it placed a weapon ready to
the hand of those men who, the incarnation of Toryism,
honestly believed themselves to be the only conservers of
loyalty left. By noon of that day, in May, '34, when the
" copious extracts " were published by Mackenzie, he and
the writer of them were execrated by many who, an hour
before that electrical sheet was issued, had been friends or
silent sympathisers.

The whole country was under baneful domination ; but
not of the mother-land. Great provocations had brought
just condemnations, and the match was about to be put to
the torch. The rights of the people and the prerogative
of the Crown bade fair to become parallel lines that could
not meet. Some still believed in a brighter future ; but
the few streaks of light which they declared they could
discern in that darkest hour before dawn were blood-red.
Day was to be ushered in with much woe, although more
than one writer has been found to call Rebellion " a mag-
niloquent word " as applied to all the unsettled humours
of the land in that episode of Canadian history.

Had Shakespeare, born to still further glory, tarried till
Canadian times, he might have added a syllable or so when
he wrote " The devil knew what he did when he made men
politic." But then, a contemporary diary of his time tells
us : "I have heard it stated that Mr. Shakespeare was a
natural wit, but had not any art at all ; " and he would
have needed both to do justice to the Canadian question.

That which was called '* the almost romantically loyal
Canadian population " had diverse ways of showing
loyal enthusiasm, when (to quote Mackenzie in after

//UAfOURS OF '.?r.

yoar«), a " porHon known aw Victoria, the sovereign of
England and tho CanadaH," camo " to keep up the
dignity of tliat article called a crown." Te Deutim were
sung in the French cathe<lralH, it \h true, but many in the
congregations rose and walked out. But at the corona-
tion illuuiinationH in Toronto, although one transparency
quoted the words of the late king, " The Canadas must not
be lost or given away," another came as rider to it, " Tho
Constitution, the whole Constitution, and nothing but the
Constitution." For many in Upper Canada were as dis-
satisfied with the portions of that system imported by
Oovernor Himcoe as their French brethren were. Here as
there the broad basis of it, tho Will of the People, was a
dead letter.

Happily for Toronto on that occasion it luul that British
characteristic which, however Tory might abuse Whig, or
Reformer predict the ruin of everything Tory, made all
men unite — for tho day at least — in fealty to the young
Queen, and, more wonderful still, in good-will towards one
another. Elsewhere there were forecasts of petticoat
government, when " the speech from the throne would
dwell chiefly on embroideries, nurseries and soap." How
were they to know that the slim and beautiful young
fingers which held the sceptre were strong, tenacioup, and
of an even touch, or that the girlish form held a mother
heart large enough and to spare for her own and evorv
bairn within her realm.

So did the shuttles angrily fly to and fro in < '
woof of coming catastrophe in the year when 1 iMaje.^ ,
came into her inheritance of discontent.

i'l

Xlbe (Iann^a0 at Me^tmindter.

•* / pfit not my faith in Privren, /or that would he /orffettiiir/ the.
riUfH of Uo\\f Writ ; hut, hetftfiiif/ your ])ardou, 1 utill put my faith
in PferH.^'

*' ' / am (flail I am not thr chli'Ht non,' Kaid the youmjer Pitt when
he heard ofhin fat her' h eJe.intion to an earldom ; * / unnt to ftjttalc in
the lloUMe. of CommoHM like /Htpa.* "

** A politic caution, a \fiuirded rlrrumnpei-tiou, irere amouf/ the
rulin;/ prturipleM af our forefathe.rn. "

Thk man who wrote tho letter calculated to create
trouble and promote that already begun waH (|uite a per-
Honage in the Rtulical wing of the House of Commons. A
Scotchman from Montrose, born in 1777, ho was son of a
captain of a trading vessel ; the father's early death left
this Joseph and numerous brothers and sisters to the care
of a mother who was a woman of extraordinary persever-
ance and energy. Hhe kept a small stand on market-day
in Montrose, and Fox Maule, afterwards Lord Panmure,
seeing young Joseph there, was seized with the whim to
apprentice him to a druggist. A subsequent apprentice-
ship to surgery and a voyage to India led to his study
there of the native dialects, a knowledge of which he made
such good use that in the war with the Mahrattas he
became interpreter, an office of emolument and honour.
He returned to Britain at the peace of 1807, and began a
tour there so minute and exhaustive that he visited every
manufacturing town. He then went as thoroughly through
6

HUMOURS OF '37.

Southern Europe, and with his head thus equipped entered
the House as Tory member for the borough of We3rmouth
in 1812, calculated to make a figure there and carry much
weight through native ability and wide experience. Once
more he tried his rdle of interpreter between those who
could not or would not understand each other. His oppo-
nents found it impossible to tire or baffle iiim ; repulses
were thrown away on him, and he returned to the charge,
unconscious, ready to repeat a hundredth time that which
they had declared unreasonable.

"What manner of man is Joseph Hume?" asks The
Noctes. " Did you never see him ? " says North. *' He is a
shrewd-looking fellow enough, but most decidedly vulgar.
Nobody that sees him could ever for a moment suspect him
of Ijeing a gentleman born. He has the air of a Montrose
dandy at this moment, and there is an intolerable affec-
tation about the creature. I suppose he must have sunk
quite into the dirt since Croker curried him." '• I don't
believe anything can make an impression on him. A
gentleman's whip would not be felt through the beaver of a
coal-heaver." He was, in fact, short, broad, stiff, square
and copperfaced. He exhibited the uncouthness of the
Scot in relief, and his speech, in all the worst of the
Scotch brogue, " barbarous exceedingly," baffled descrip-
tion. " Depend upon it, Joseph will go on just as he
has been doing." And he had been going on from his
place as Radical member for Montrose. Added to all, he
was a master of detail. In spite of his earnestness, he
often convulsed the House with his Scotch bulls when he
intended most to impress. Expatiating on the virtues of
the French-Canadians, he exclaimed, " I say, sir, they are
the best and gentlest race in Eu 9pe (laughter), aye "
— waxing hotter — " or in Africa " (roars of laughter). Sir

!i I

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THE CAN AD AS AT WESTMINSTER.

ed
bh
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a

Francis Bond Head did not scruple to say that Hume was
the greatest rebel of the lot, and, in his turn, Hume made
a furious attack on Sir Francis. However, he was just as
vigorously answered by Lord Grey, and then the morning
papers said " that Hur 3 had not been able to make Head."
Politics were so bitter then that all Reformers were rebels.
Hume's letter of March 29th, 1834, in which he says,
" Your cause is their cause, your defeat would be their
subjection. Go on, therefore, I beseech you, and success,
glorious success, must inevitably crown your joint efforts,"
sounds as if Sir Francis might have had reason for his
opinion. By 1839 a public dinner had been given this
erstwhile Tory, in testimony of his eminent public services
and constant advocacy in the cause of reform. Says
North, " Why, a small matter will make a man who has
once ratted rat again. We all remember what Joe Hume
was a few years ago ! "

"A Tory?"

" I would not prostitute the name so far, but he always
voted with them."

" At the Whigs it was then his chief pleasure to rail,
He opposed all the Catholic claims tooth and nail. . ."

" Why, no wonder ... he hates the Tories. They
never thought of him while he was with them, and now
the Whigs do talk of Joe as if he were somebody. But,
as John Bull says,

** ' A very small man with the Tories

Ip :i very great man 'mong the Whigs. ' "

It was a time of general unrest and suspicion, just
frc*m the likelihood of change and the alarming pre-
cedents set up. No two men could be seen anywhere

HUMOURS OF '37

in the same neighbourhood without arousing ideas of
coalition, hope, suspicion and a host of feelings — as, for
instance, when " Mr. Roebuck was seen in a quarter
which left little doubt that he had been with Lord
Brougham. It is very generally thought that something
is about to happen," Mr. Roebuck, like Mr. Hume,
was a marked man and an out-and-out Canadian sympa-
thiser. He, according to a well-known and accredited
newspaper, " was paid by the Lower Canadian House of
Assembly to expatiate on grievances, and to declare at all
times and in all places to those who have no personal
acquaintance with the Canadas that the people there are
restless, dissatisfied, yearning for republican institutions,
and that unless the never-ending, still-beginning concessions
they require are granted, another American war must be the
result J^ The effect of his words was weakened by his
appearance, which was that of a boy of eighteen. " If we
do not immediately take active measures," was Sir John
Colbome's antiphon from across the sea, " to arm and
organize our friends, the province (Lower Canada) will be
lost to us."

He did organize — " Why, slaves, 'tis in our power to
hang ye." " Very likely," came the answer, " 'tis in our
power, then, to be hanged and scorn ye."

What in Canada were called Roebuck's *'remarques
ordinaires " were constant philippics against adminis-
trative abuses there. He wanted some means to be found
as remedy for the defects. He laboured unceasingly. In
speeches, writings in journals and pamphlets and period-
icals, in season and out of season, he lost no chance to
plead the cause of the Canadas. Naturally, he was
<' abusive and ridiculous " in these letters to such as did
not agree with him. Had his nomination been properly

THE CAN AD AS AT WESTMINSTER.

confirmed, his income as agent would have been £1,000 a

year;

but the want of it did not slacken his efforts.

" While such is the nature and conduct of this petty and
vulgar oligarchy, I beseech the House to consider the
peculiar position of the people over whom they domineer,"
He then goes on to draw a picture of the superior scene
across the St. Lawrence, a natural enough picture to be
drawn by an American, born with prejudices in favour of
his native land. He goes on : " With such a sight before
them it is not wonderful that the Canadian people have
imbibed the free spirit of America, and that they bear with
impatience the insolence, the ignorance, the incapacity and
the vice of the nest of official cormorants who, under the
festering domination of England, have constituted them-
selves an aristocracy, with all the vices of such a V)ody,
without one of the redeeming qualities which are supposed
to lessen the mischiefs which are the natural attendants
of all aristocracies. It is of a people thus high-spirited,
pestered and stung to madness by this pestilential brood,
that I demand your attention."

But the Canadians, though grateful, were aware he did
not always act with prudence in their behalf. He and
Mr. Hume together had presided at a meeting where the
latter declared that Canada was of no advantage to Britain.
But they gave him and all who mentioned them kindly in
the House of Commons — O'Connell, Pakington and others
who had spoken for them — their heartfelt thanks.

Labouchere, French by descent, stood up in their defence
and vindicated their claims. " I look upon the Act of
1791," said he, '*as the Magna Charta of Canadian
freedom," and contended that a more rigid following of
Pitt's intentions would have resulted in better things. He
denounced the prejudice of one race against another, nor

HUMOURS OF 'S7.

deemed a council so altogether British wholesome govern-
ment for people so entirely French. The French had
many champions in that historic chamber. Sir James
Mackintosh, author of " Vindicite Gallicoi" a man whose
whole bias of mind had been turned and held fast by
French revolution, equipped by nature with all the powers
and attributes of statesmanship, and who had brought all
to bear on hone politics and legislation in the broadest
imperial sense, was not the least of these. He had under-
taken, years before the blooming of that bitter blossom,
the Canadian aloe — tenacity of liie is one of its virtues, —
the successful defence of a French emigrant for libel on
the consul ; his residence in Bombay, as Recorder, had
been famous for his wholesome administration between
British and native rights ; he had strongly opposed " the
green bag and spy system ; " had voted against the severe
restrictions of the Alien Bill, and had moved against the
existing state of the criminal law; so that he did not
speak, as many did on Canadian affairs, without special or
collateral experience. He wanted the dependency governed
on principles of justice, few and simple ; protection against
alien influence, and freedom to conduct their own affairs
and manage their own trade.

" A British king see now assume
Judicial sovereignty, * coutume,^
And that of Paris cease to reign
Throughout the Canada domain. " *

He even allowed merit o that old coutume in comparison
with affairs as they existed under British law, and in sar-
castic humour ran a parallel between them.
When

" Quebec first raised the legal courts
For Does or Roes to hold their sports," *

* Curia Canaden$$s.

aa£s

THE CAN ADAS AT WESTMINSTER.

the spirit of the Conaeil Souverain was one which did not
at the Conquest migrate to the new body : " Nous avons
cru ne pouvoir prendre une meilleure rt^solution qu'en
^stablisant une justice r^gl^ et un Conseil Souverain dans
le dits pays, pour y faire fleurir les lois, maintenir et
appuyer les bons, chatier les m^chants, et contenir chacun
en son droit."

Sir James now held the Governor responsible for the ex-
isting state of affairs ; he accused the Colonial Minister of
appealing to the sympathies of the House in favour of
British interests only. Were the twenty thousand British
to be privileged at the expense of the four hundred thou-
sand French ? Were the former to be cared for exclusively,
their religious sympathies so fostered as to bring about
Protestant domination? Again he draws a parallel be-
tween what Ireland was and what Canada might become,
and in the name of heaven, his eloquence aided by large
grey melancholy eyes, adjured them solemnly that such
a scourge fall not a second time upon any land under
Britain's sway. " Above all, let not the French-Canadians
suppose for a moment that their rights or aspirations are
leas cared for by us than those of their fellow-adult

colonists of our own blood Finally, I look

upon a distinction in the treatment of races and the divi-
sion of a population into distinct classes as most perilous
in every way and at all times."

Then Melbourne rose to reply that nothing was as
unsafe as analogy, particularly historical analogy.

And Lord Alymer thought, after an extensive tour of
the French province, giving all these questions earnest
consideration, that the best way to settle the question was
to bring in thousands of the Irish to the colony ; the East-
ern Townships he estimated could take five hundred

HUMOURS OF '37.

I !

thousand, and the valley uf the Ottawa one hundred
thousand. These painstaking, conscientious governors
generally left England laden with minute instructions, and
came on the scene with exact directions as to their action.
The Canadians, first credulous, afterwards wary and lastly
suspicious, shrewdly guessed that many of the " impromp-
tU8 " were in the Governor's pocket ; they also knew that
Lord Glenelg was a Reformer in London and a Conserva-
tive in Quebec. They believed that orders publicly given
carried with them secret advice not to have them enforced,
as they were meant " only to blarney the Radicals." And
Papineau had told them that the same hand which wrote
the King's speech penned the answer to it. When the
Irish emigrant did come he brought the cholera with him,
and Jean cried out again that legislation and emigration
only meant fresh trouble.

The amount of thought bestowed upon the Canadas by
these statesmen no one, not even the most discontented
Canadian, denied. But the mistaken data from which
many of the arguments were drawn maddened some ; and
aristocratic mannerisms, when brought into contact with
the democratic Upper Canadian, gave offence. There was
a great deal of the picturesque about Jean Baptiste, and of
him much was known ; retiring governors and officers took
with them bulky note-books full of anecdotes. In Upper
Canada there was nothing of the picturesque, and the same
note-books, developed into goodly volumes, tell us it in print
without flinching. True, those intent on learning had
Basil Hall's Sketches, with accounts of Hall's five thousand
two hundred and thirty-seven miles of travel ; but though
the former were beautifully done the latter were meagre,
and with the exception of Niagara make the Upper Pro-
vince as uninteresting as its own crows. For foundation

THE CAN A DAS AT WESTMINSTER.

they had Charlevoix ; but, saya Charlevoix, " The horned
owl is good eating, many prefer his flesh to chickens. He
lives in winter on ground mice which he has caught the
previous fall, breaking their legs first, a most useful pre-
caution to prevent their escape, and then fattens them up
with care for daily use." Could housewife with Thanks-
giving turkey do more !

Now a good many of those who came after Charlevoix
and reported on us took him — perhaps unconsciously, per-
haps conscientiously, for Charlevoix was a good man — for
a literary model, pushing to the extreme limit their rights
and privileges as travellers. They read, did these mighty
and well-meaning statesmen, in their leisure hours. Nor
in later years were the English less credulous when Cana-
dian curiosities came to them bodily. When a party of
Indians were nightly attracting large and wondering
masses of the classes, one of the Royal Household, with
two others as white as himself, one of the trio six feet two
of apparent savagedom, arrayed themselves as magnifi-
cent Bois Brule, a Sac and a Sioux respectively, to appear
before a brilliant array of fashion, wealth and beauty,
carry out an unusually thrilling programme and be loaded
with gifts by the spectators. The " interpreter '' of the
three got into rather a mess through his attempt to inter-
pret too much, and in a final frenzy of dancing they danced
o£P some paint made liquid by their desire to be honest in
giving enough for their lavish remuneration. An earl in
the audience failed to recognize his brother in one of the
chief actors, voice and speech being disguised by a rifle
bullet held in the mouth. The sequel was the return of
the presents and a chase home to lodgings, followed by a
yelling; crowd of ragamuffins who turned out to be truer
savages than those whom they termed Hopjibbeways. The

HUMOURS OF \37.

Indian came first in romantic interest to the Englishman,
particularly when got ready for an audience by a clerer
manager. To hear a handsome, strapping Bois Brul^ sing
" To the land of my fathers, white man, let me go," was
enough to draw tears. Next in point of interest to this
link between red and white came the habitant. The
Upper Canadian was very tame after these two, and To-
ronto was but " a place of considerable importance . . .
in the eyes of its inhabitants."

Another writes of travel by water as he finds it in
America : " There is no toothbrush in the country, simply
I believe the article is entirely unknown to the American
toilet. A common towel, however, passes from hand to
hand, and suffices for the perfunctory ablutions of the
whole party on board." No man in England would take
the trouble to contradict this ; it was much easier to buy
the book, read, be amused, and believe — as he did with
the Indian party.

Much as Mackenzie was instrumental in doing for his
country, he was scarcely a person to make his province
interesting when he presented himself in London.

•• Now Willie's awa' frae the land o' contention,
Frae the land o' mistake and the friends o' dissension ;
He's gane o'er the waves as an agent befitting
Our claims to support in the councils o' Britain,"

sang a Candian bard in 1832, when Mackenzie, with his
monster grievance book under his arm, set sail for the
Home Office.

The quiet of the vessel after his late life in Little York
was irksome ; so this stormy petrel went aloft one night in
a howling tempest, no doubt in a fit of home-sickness, and

i.'snti

THE CAN A DAS AT WESTMINSTER.

remained for hours at the masthead. Scarcely had he
descended when one of the sails was blown away.

" Then there the Reformers shall cordially meet him,
An' there his great namesake, King William, shall
greet him."

He lost no time in putting himself in communication with
Hume, Roebuck, Cobbett and O'Connell, and with Lord
Goderich, then Colonial Secretary ; but just how far the
meeting was cordial, with those from whom cordiality was
expected, only a long comparison of data can show. Even
then our opinions had weight, as in '31 when Brougham
wrote : " Dear Lord Grey, the enclosed is from a Canadian
paper ; they have let you off well, as being priggish and
having a Newcastle burr, and also as iwt being like
O'Connell." Mackenzie was in the nick of time to see that
wonderful sight for eyes such as his — a great aristocracy
bowing to the will of a great people — to hear the third
reading of the Reform Bill. He was lucky enough to get
into that small gallery in the House of Lords which accom-
modates only some eighty persons. He noticed that but
few peers had arrived, and that a number of members from
the Lower House stood about. To stand they were forced,
or sit upon the matting, for there were neither chairs nor
benches for them — a state of things highly displeasing to
the fiery little democratic demagogue perched aloft, anxious
to hear and determined that others should yet hear him.

At the Colonial Office he was simply a person interested
in Canadian affairs, and useful as one able to furnish infor-
mation. But he furnished it in such a discursive manner
and adorned it with so much rhetoric that the Colonial
Secretary found his document " singularly ill-adapted to
bring questions of so much intricacy and importance to a

HUMOURS OF V?r.

definite issue." The impression Mackenzie might have
made was nullified by the coUnter-document adroitly sent
in ahead of his own by the Canadian party in power,
wherein a greater number of signatures than he had been
able to get appended to dissatisfaction testified to satis-
faction with affairs us they then existed in the Upper
Province. The customary despatch followed. Some of
Mackenzie's arguments were treatetl with cutting severity ;
but an impression must have been made by them, for the
despatch carried news most distressing to the oligarchy,
which was modelled after the spirit of St. Paul, — that there
should be no schism in the body, that the members should
have the same care one for the other.

To these Tories of York it was all gall and wormwood.
Nor could they accept it. Mackenzie hud spent six days
and six nights in London, with only an occasional forty
winks taken in his chair, while he further expressed him-
self and those he represented. His epistolary feat was
regarded by the Upper Canadian House with unqualified
contempt, and Lord Goderich's moderately lengthy one as
" not calling for the serious attention of the Legislative
Council." Mackenzie had ventured to predict in his vigil
of ink and words that unless the system of the govern-
ment of Upper Canada was changed civil war must follow.
But peers also sometimes have insomnia and know the
distressing results ; so he was warned : " Against gloomy
prophecies of this nature, every man conversant with
public business must fortify his mind." The time was
not far distant when he might say, " I told you so."
The Home Office listened with great attention, but
observed close reticence in regard to itself. The Colonial
Minister looked upon such predictions as a mode to
extort concessions for which no adequate reason could be

THE CAN A DAS AT WESTMINSTEK.

offered. Nevertheless, the two Crown officers who were
Mr. Mackenzie's most particular aversions at that time
had to go. The weapon of animadversion sent skipping
across seas for the purpose of his humiliation had proved
a kind of boomerang, and the Attorney-General and Soli-
citor-General were left free to make as many contemptuous
expressions as thoy pleased concerning the Colonial Secre-
tary and his brethren, being looked upon by the last-
named as rebels themselves, since they had, " in their
places in the Assembly, taken a part directly opposed to
the assured policy of His Majesty's Government." Such
is the strength of point of view; for the libellous rebel
doing his busiest utmost against them was to them "an
individual who had been twice expelled " this same House
of Assembl}!. Under the first affected hauteur of the
dismissed officials there had been many qualms ; the
Attorney-General thought it ill became the Colonial
Secretary to " sit down and answer this rigmarole trash "
(Mackenzie's hard work of seventy-two sleepless hours),
"and it would much less become the Canadian House of
Assembly to give it further weight by making it more
public." One, a little more sane, thought that if Mac-
kenzie's papers contained such an amount of falsehood
and fallacy, the best way to expose such was by publica-
tion. But a large vote decided that it should not go upon
the Journals, and the official organ called Lord Goderich's
despatch an elegant piece of fiddle-faddle, . . . full of
clever stupidity and condescending impertinence. The
removal of the two Crown officers was described as "as high-
handed and arbitrary stretch of power as has been enacted
before the face of high heaven, in any of the four quarters
of this nether world for many and many a long day."
The organ's vocabulary displayed such combinations as

HUXfouRs OF \rr.

"political mountebank — fooln and knaves — all fools and
knaves who listened to the silly complaints of the swinish
multitude agninst the honourable and learned gentlemen
connected with the administration of government."

Whenever time dragged withal in the Upper Canadian
House they re-expelled Mackenzie and fulminated anew
against " the united factions of Mackenzie, Goderich, and
the Yankee Methodists."

Mackenzie's friends lost no time in celebrating what was
to be a short-lived triumph :

** They sneered at Mackenzie and quizzed his red wig ;
That the man was too poor they delighted to show,
Nor dreamed with such triumph the future was big,
As chanting the death song of Boulton and Co.

Rail on, and condemn the corps baronial,
Lord Goderich and Howick despatched at a blow,

Those peers who knew nothing of interests colonial,
In proof read the march route of Boulton and Co."

Lord Goderich's polite wish not to hamper any nor coerce
— that these gentlemen might be " at full liberty, as mem-
bers of the Legislature, to follow the dictates of their own
judgment " — ended in the dictates of anger appearing in
hard words in the official press. The affections of these
tried Loyalists were said to have been estranged ; more-
over, "they were casting about in their mind's eye for
some new state of political existence " which would put
them and their colony beyond " the reach of injury and
insult from any and every ignoramus whom the political
lottery of the day may chance to elevate to the chair of
the Colonial Office."

Now Mackenzie himself could not have done better than
this, nor had he yet gone even thus far.

THE CAN A I) AS AT WESTMINSTER.

But the official in that chair was used to many hard
knocks, and the individual was changed so often that the
blows had no time to take effect. Nor was the incomer
ever anxious to avenge the woes of his predecessor.

" Prosperity Robinson," alias " Goosey Goderich," soon
to be Ijord Hipon, " the dodo of the Reform party," stepped
out. Mr. Stanley, " Rupert of debate," stepped in. The
two dispossessed of Canadian power lost no time in pre-
senting themselves at the Colonial Office, one of them
going in as his small adversary, Mr. Mackenzie, happened
to be coming out, and the personal interview with the
possessors of " alienated affections " made the new Secre-
tary make a bid for the return of these valuables by
reinstating the ex-Solicitor-General, and giving the ex-
Attorney-General the Chief-Justiceship of

" Some place abroad,
Where sailors gang to fish for cod,"

in what was called the Cinderella of the colonies, New-
foundland. History is silent, as far as we can learn, on
the state of his affections thereafter, transplanted and
uprooted so often. We presume they withered and a'
wede awa*.

Now this Chief -Justice had formerly called Mackenzie a
reptile, and the other gentleman had dubbed him a spaniel
dog — quite a leap from the general to the special, had but
Darwin, then somewhere near American waters casting his
search-light of enquiry from H. M. S. Beagle^ known of it.

Mackenzie was in despair : " I am disappointed. The
prospect before us is indeed dark and gloomy." But rally-
ing from this despondency, in his usual peppery style he
told Mr. Stanley the appointments would be " a spoke in
the wheel in another violent revolution in America."

HUMOURS OF '37.

Hume wrote that he judged the disposition of the Secre-
tary was to promote rather than to punish for improper
conduct, and thereby encourage the misgovernment in
Canf-vda, which Lord Goderich's policy had been likely to
prevent.

Well might a Canadian paper, announcing the advent
of the new Attorney-General, Jameson, say : " It is to be
hoped he will view the real situation of the people of this
province from his own observation."

The Iroquois was always ready to drink to the King's
health, be he a George or a William ; Stanley might
declaim about " the most odious and blood-thirsty tyranny
cf French republicanism;" but this little Canadianized
JScoiehman, with his clever pen and tongue, misty con-
ceptions of statesmanship, real grievances and revolu-
tionary speech, was more than the Home Government
could "thole." The Earl of Ripon, in 1839, stated that
Mackenzie in his correspondence of 1835 sought to make
himself appear a very great man, whereas in reality he was
a very little man. In his apologetic we find : " Well, he
saw Mr. Mackenzie. He did not know that Mr. Mackenzie
was a broken-down peddler. He knew that Mr. Mackenzie
was an exceedingly troublesome person. He was perfectly
satisfied, from the conduct of the individual, that M..
Mackenzie was as vain and shallow a person as he had
ever encountered. If the conference alluded to by Mr.
Mackenzie was of only two hours' duration, he must say it
was the longest two hours he had ever known."

How to make a common unity, a compact and har-
monious people, out of their uncommon ancestors V>ecarae
the problem. " Not that our heads are some brown, some
black, some auburn, some bald," said the Canadian melange,
" but that our wits are so diversely coioured." Some

\ »

THE CAN A DAS AT WESTMINSTER,

of the men who were to solve the problem do not read as
if equipped by appearance or culture to handle with their
delicate fingers such homely subjects. Scarcely a week
paased without a fresh turn up of the cards in Canada ;
and although Mr. Warburton wondered if the colony were
worth retaining, the game worth the candle, the young
Queen, in that part of her speech which dealt with the
Canadian question, had an undertone of determination " to
maintain her supremacy throughout the whole of the
North American colonies," and how the game would finally
turn out became daily involved at Westminster in greater
doubt and difficulty. At this time an editor in the United
States uttered prophecy : " We do earnestly believe that
the Virgin Queen of England is destined to be one of the
most extraordinary characters of the present age or any
country. She is a little Napoleon in pei,ticori*.s— as deter-
mined, as lofty, as generous, as original as he was. Wait
and see."

"My Lords," said the Great Duke, refe'^^ring to her
speech quoted from, ** I could ha <• wished that this
declaration of Her Majesty had been accompanied by cor-
responding efforts to enable Her Majesty to carry those
intentions into effect."

" Sir Rol>srt Peel, wh- > played upon the House as upon
an old fiddle," regretted that there was not also in that
speech a stronger expression of sympathy for the sufferings
of their brave and loyal fellov subjects in the colonies —
at whicli there were cheers from both sides of the Ifouse.
He could not too much admire the bravery, the loyalty,
the devotedness of the Canadians. Nor did this arise from
interested motives; it was sincere .attachment to monarch
ioal principles, and sincere opposition to a republican form
of government.
6

HUMOURS OF '37.

There were many men, interesting in themselves, in
debate on us then ; but individually, and as he borrowed
interest from his position towards that centre of all obser-
vation, the young Queen, came Melbourne.

While still William Lamb he had hated what he called
the creeping palsy of misgiving, tried hard to resist it, and
developed into one of those not afraid to advance with the
age. He had no '* extreme faith in religion, politics, or
love." Accordingly, to him patriotism and wisdom were
not confined to the Whigs alone. The oh-oh's and ironi-
cal cheers from what he knew to be a powerful majority
moved him not ; he was as easy, comfortable, good-
humoured, as ever. Quaintness, originality of a manner
fitful, abrupt, full of irony, at times of a tenderness almost
feminine, distinguished him, together with an insuperable
aversion to "platitudes, palaverings," — and bishops. In
an age when swearing was as common in drawing rov)ms as
in the field, England's Prime Minister was an acknow-
ledged past-master in the art, and by inflections gave a
dozen changes to the small familiar four-lettered Bi-itish
adjective in most common use. In ordinary transactions
he loved a chirpy oath ; but in his dealings with the bishof s
was forced to coin a "superdamnable." The Order of the
Garter was a great favourite with Mm, "because there was
no damned merit about it." Utilitarian levelling like
Bentham's he regarded as nonsense ; state parsimony like
Hume's, a "pettifogging blunder ; " radicalism after the
manner of Cobbett and others he called mere ragamuf-
finism ; but he told his peers plainly that the time hml
gone by when any .set of men could put themselves up {is a
check against national opinion, that antiijue usages could
not prevail against reasoix and argument — truths spoken
with the voice of the Commons in that place where such

THE CAN A DAS AT WESTMINSTER.

a voice was almost unknown, seldom heard. Yet rancour
was foreign to hi« nature : " The great fault of the present
time (1835) is that men hate each other so damnably; for
my part, I love t'iem all." And all with the air of a good-
tempered, jovial gentleman.

'* If something of his amiable spirit could be caught by
others," said a friend, "and grafted on Ijord Wellesley's
counsel to ' demolish these people,' matters would not be
difficult."

(Called upon frantically by friend and foe at a time of
crisis '*<o do something," the responsibility of the times
thrown on him, he sat tight and calmly answered, " When-
ever you are in doubt what should be done — do nothing."

This all sounds like the man for the Canadas. Nine
hundred or so of his peers gnashed their teeth at him, —
if peers ever so use their molars ; and in Canada they
wrote of " the prolific source of political evil, the profligate
course of iml>'cile rulers."

William the Fourth had called him "a great gentleman,"
although he and his government had been *' kicked out "
by that obstinate, morbid, prejudiced and somewhat
imaginative monarch. Naturally, Melbourne refused an
earldom and a garter ; but in his final advice to the sov-
ereign he was as tactful as ever in making th^ lattor par-
tially modify the note of dismissal, thereby averting a
storm of popular fueling and irujividual rest-ntment of
ministei-s. '* Mind what you are about in Canada," said
the King wheti final instructions were giv«!n to Lord Gos-
ford before he left England, and Molbourne arxl (Jlenelg —
the Sleeping Beauty — found the monarch a-, hard to man-
age as the colony itself. " By I will never consent

to alienate the Crown Lrfin<ls nor to make the Council
elective. Mind me, my lord, the cabinet is not my cabinet ;

I i

HUMOURS OF 'S7.

I !

they had better take care, or by I will have them

impeached. You are a gentleman, I believe, I have no
fear of you ; but take care what you do."

Posing as a man of pleasure, in reality a capable man of
business, Melbourne lounged through his duties in a way to
exasperate friend and foe. But as he lounged, he learned
men and manners, determined to see into things, and
even in Ireland, when Chief Secretary, said, " If agitation
would not go to bed he would like to have a chat with it."
He was ever pleading for concession to the demai>ds of
the people, dreading the consequences of refusal. " Every-
thing about him seems to betoken careless desolatior ;
anyone would suppose from his manner that he was play-
ing at chuck-farthing with human happiness, that he was
always on the heels of fortune, that he would giggle away
the great Charter. . . . But I accuse our Minister,"
said his critic, " of honesty and diligence ; I deny that he
is careless and rude ; he is nothing more than a man of
good understanding and good principle, disguised in the
eternal and somewhat wearisome affectation of a political
rou^." Perfectlv courteous to others, it was impossible for
others to be discourteous to him, always excepting
Brougham. But even before Brougham he did not quail,
and always could give tit for tat, much to the delight of
the audience of peers who, like schoolboys, exulted when-
ever their terror, the bully of the class, got a drubbing.
The tongue which Brougham sarcastically spoke of as
attuned to courtly airs, made to gloze and flatter, flayed
him so completely with its quiet polish that he winced
under its lash and betrayed, by his own increased violence
of invective, the weight of the punishment. Soon after
the accession the press said Lord Melbourne was about to
puMish a work on chess — the best method of playing the

THE CAN ADAS AT WESTMINSTER.

Queen, of getting possession of the castle, an entire disre-
gard of the old system as to bisliops, being points in the
book. This genial, indolent statesman, who fearlessly
told the truth irrespective of party, was rubicund, with the
aquiline nose of the aristocrat ; his large blue eyes some-
times flashed with fire, but oftener brimmed with merri-
ment. The noble head, sturdy plainly clad and careless-
looking figure, consorted well with the laisser aller expres-
sion of face. Strange to say, he, like Lord John Russell,
usually stuttered out his speeches, thumping the table or
desk iKjfore hi»n as if to work out the sentences that
would not get themselves delivered. The Reform Bill
made him specially energetic. Sitting next to him was a
very noble earl who wore his hat well over his brows,
weighing the pros and cona of too much liberty — for
other people. Melbourne in his heat took his own white
hat in his right hand, beat the air with it in inarticulate
struggle, and brought the white 1(3 bear, crown to crown,
upon the black one. The blow was fair, the arm
muscular ; the very noble earl looked like the ancient
White Knight, with head apparently wedged between his
shoulders. He sat speechless for a moment, and then
nimbly springing to his feet, amid roars of laughter,
twisted his head free and regained his vision. And when
the roar subsided, the Duke of Buckingham thought that
the great statesman so suddenly beclouded could scarcely
see his way out of the difficulty, and the laughter was
renewed. To see a way out of the Canadian difficulty was
to find a clue in a maze.

Canadian Tories were triumphant over the fall of the
Ministry on the Jamaica question. " We cannot guess,"
says one editor, ** into what hands Her Majesty may be
pleased to commit the trust which Lord Melbourne has

HUMOURS OF '37.

declared his unfitness to administer." The incoming man,
Peel, quoted the state of Canada as among the trying
questions which made the ottice of premiership the most
arduous, the most important that any human being could
be called upon to perform . . . the greatest trust,
almost without exception, in the whole civilized world, that
could fall on any individual. A few moments lat'T he had
to confess that there was one question worse than the
Canadian one, greater than colonial politics, a " question de
jupons." So the Government, after forty eight hours'
attempt at change, reverted to its former holders ;
Canadian Tories were as glum as ever, and said Melbourne
was again the governor of the petticoatocracy.

The St. Lawrence alone made the colony worth keep-
ing ; also, Canada by its confines came in contact with
Russia ; it was the seat of the most valuable fur trade
in the world, and England would not be out of posses-
sion of it for two months before a French fleet would
be anchored in the Gulf. These were thoughts impossible
to think with calmness, worse even than annexation
to the United States. The least calm of these men
who debated upon what we were worth, and just what
should become of us, was Brougham. Like most who love
to torment, he himself was easily tormented. How does
this champion of liberty look as he rises to condemn the
policy on the Canadian question as " vacillating, imbecile,
and indolent;" as he puts his awkward (|uestions to those
whom he calls his "noble friends " or " tlie noble lords,"
all looking marvellously uncomfortable when their names
are in that merciless mouth. We ht»ar of him as absent
from his place, ill in Paris through having swallowed a
neeflle ; yet after his return, one could imagine, in spite of
his pointed replies, that his gastronomic feat had been to

THE CAN A DAS AT WESTMINSTER.

swallow a flail. "The foolish fellow with the curls has

absolutely touched him," says a contemporary writer.

. . . " Make way, go(.Ml people, the bull is coming — -

chained or loose, right or wrong, he can stand it no longer;

with one lashing bouad he clears every obstacle— there he

is, with tail erect and heml depressed, snorting in the

middle of the arena." The eyes flash, the brows gather,

the dark iron grey hair stands up rigid, his arm is raised,

his voice high ; he is well out of the lush pastures of rhodo

montade and diffuseness. The display of his power and

the fertility of his mind amazes friend and foe ; for the

genius of his fervent intellect includes French cookery,

Italian poetry, bees and cell building, and a host of

subjects seemingly far reniove<l from law and politics.

This must have been knowledge gained at the cost of his

profession, for an epigram has it that he knew a little of

everything, even of law. " Brougham, though a Whig, is

not a goose," says the Nodes. Certainly *' the whipster

peer " who was so lately defiant does not look as if he

thought so, as his late pretty bits of rhetoric rattle alnrnt

his own ears. Sarcasm on his tonguf*, bile in his heart.

Brougham talks pure vitriol, and everywhere a word falls

a scar remains.

His foes accused him of being " one of those juggling

fiends"

" Who never spoke Ixjforo,
But cried, ' I warncil you,' when the event is o'er."

He contended that his conduct on the Canadian (juostion
had been *' impudently, falsely and foully aspersed." So
far from being a juggling fiend who did not warn until the
event was o'er, instead of standing l)y and not giving a timely
warning, he had, not less than ten months l>etoiG, standing

HUMOURS OF '37.

! I

in that place, denounced the policy of the Government.
More, he had entered his protests on the journals, warning,
distinctly warning, the Government that their proceed-
ings would lead to insurrection ; and to mark the falseness
of the quotation, more marvellous still, he had never
twitted them when the event was o'er by saying he had
warned them.

There were, however, occasions and com})ination8 which
dismayed even Brougham. He, Ellis, Hume, Papineau
and Bedard, happened to meet in Paris. Much to the
satirical disgust of some Canadian papers. Lord Brougham
declined a dinner invitation and remained in bed in order
to be quite incapacitated, as he had good reason to fear
that his seat at table would be opposite Papineau.

But there is a grave in the Benchers' Plot at Lincoln's
Inn which tells the tale of the one vulnerable spot, the
wound which would not heal, in this extraordinary,
audacious, eloquent man, this free lance, the critic of
administrations, so prone to wound others. There he laid
his only remaining child, a girl of seventeen, his applica-
tion to have her so buried listened to by tiie Benchers
because he too wished to be laid there in the same grave
with her.

The third in this trio who faithfully laboured to abolish
or mitigate " toil, taxes, tears and blood," — who all for
their pains were burned in effigy in Quebec and other
places — was Lord Glenelg. The following is a travesty on
what were supposed to be the instructions given by him,
when debates as to what would prevent rebellion were
followed by debates on what would cure it. Lord Durham
chosen the Physician Extraordinary for colonial ills. The
document was intended to regulate the Canadian Govern-
ment, and showed the zeal and watchfulness of Lord
Glenelg :

-< Ll

4*^llM^l^lWHllllll

THK CAN A DAS AT WESTMINSTER.

" First of all, endeavour to diHCOver of what rel>ellion
consists ; it is not exactly murder or manslaughter, or
precisely highway robbery or burglary ; but it may, in a
measure, consist of all." The witty gentleman who wrote
thus far was quite right, but his words were two-edged.
Lount's death has more than once been called murder, and
rel)ellion losses discovered some pretty kinds of robbery.
'^ I have looked into all the dictionaries, and I find that
the definitions given are pretty much alike; but I would
not be (juite certain that they are right." Lord Glenelg
had personally written Sir F. B. Head on his appointment
a year or so before, " You have been selected for this office
at an era of more difficulty and importance than any which
has hitherto occurred in the history of that part of His
Majesty's dominions. The expression of confidence in your
discretion and ability which the choice implies would only
be weakened by any mere formal assurance which T could
convey to you." Now any man who could ascribe discretion
and ability to Sir Francis Bond Head had need of recourse
to dictionaries.

The bogus Lord Glenelg then continues his theorizing,
on the basis that a mascot is a mascot. " A rebel is
undoubtedly a person who rebels, and rebellion is unques-
tionably the act of a rel)el ; you will therefore ascertain
whether there is a rebel, whether that rel)el rebels, and if
he does rebel whether it be rebellion. Having decided the
point, you will then consider what is to be done. I ain
strongly of opinion that as long as rebellion lasts it will
continue. Now, it would be requisite to learn the prolmble
duration of the rebellion, which, I should think, would
depend in some measure on the causes which excited it.
Your object will be, therefore, to make its continuance as
short as possible ; and if you cannot suppress it all at once,

i I

HUMOURS OF 'J7.

you will do it as .soon as you can. Thtui, as to the metluxl
of suppressing. I know of no way so efficacious as that of
putting it down. I would advise neither severity nor concili-
ation, but only measures which will deter the bad or win
them over. I would neither hang, pardon nor fine a single
rel)el, but let the law take its course, tempered with
mercy." The last Sir (Jeorge Arthur did.

" By following these general instructions you will most
assuredly set the Canadian (juestion at rest, and I comfort
myself with the idea that my rest will not be broken up
again while I hold the colonial seat. Should any dith-
culty occur, I beg of you to send to me for further
instructions ; but I place such confidence in the advice I
have already given that I shall not anticipate any appli-
cation to disturb my slumbers."

At the date of this ironical issue there were questions,
seriously enough put, as to why Lord Gosford should be
decorated with the Order of the Bath, the inference from
the wording btnng that, unlike the Garter, it had some
" merit " in it ; merit which this Tory sheet failed to
discover : " Given in a mad spirit of democratical arrogance
to make rank and honours mere butts for public derision
. . . they generate a swarm of obscure baronets " — poor
Sir Francis ! *' Last, and worst, they bestow that distinc-
tion, which was intended for the highest military and civil
merit, on Lord Gosford, who found a colony in peace (!) and
left it in rebellion." The colony did not think so : il <5tait
un excellent homme. L. O. David says that only where he
found it impossible to work out his mission of pacification
he took vigorous measures, which were forced upon him.
He left l^ehind him, says the legend, le trop-celebre Col-
borne.

I have laboured with all my wits, my pains and strong

THE CAN A DAS AT WESTMINSTER.

enrleavours, said oach debater : and Canada, Shakespearian
in turn, replied, " Pray you, let us not be the laughing-
stocks of other men's humours."

There wore many winter nights of '37 made anxious to
the colonies, when "Goderich, amiable but timid, . .
Lord Glenolg, sleepy, . . Howick, mischievous, . .
and the reMl Judas^ Mr. Stephen, debated leisurely, and
]Mr. Disraeli began his romance of politics."

" Well, Mr. Disraeli," said Lord Melbourne, " what is
your idea in entering Parliament ? " " To be Prime
Minister, my Lord," was the daring answer ; not (|uite as,
in their minor world of politics, Papineau and Mackenzie
dreamt of presidency in new republics.

On the night of Gallows Hill, December 7, *37, while
Toronto was in a flutter of excited wonder and self-con-
gratulation, while Mackenzie was speeding one way,
Rolph another, and Papineau had already crossed the lines,
the British House of Commons echoerl to the sonorous
brogue of the Celtic Thunderer and to Mr. Disraeli's
famous failure of a maiden speech. *• A failure is nothing,"
said the man destined to Ije great ; " it may Ik) deserved or
it may be remedied. In the first instance, it brings self-
knowledge ; in the second, it develops a new combination
which may Xm triumphant." Words as prophetic for the
failure in Canada as for his own.

If, with Henry VI., we can say of Mackenzie, a y)edlam
and ambitious humour makes him oppose himself against
his king, so might these I^ords and Commons, Governors
and Commanders, have taken pains with the habitant to
" attend him carefully and feed his humours kindly as
we may." The French were such very children. "Oh
mon Dieu," cried one from the bottom of a boat while he
and his companions looked momentarily for destruction,

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i/..

HUMOURS OF '37.

" if you mean to do anything, do it quickly ! Once we
are at the bottom it will be too late. AUons mon Dieu !
just one little puff of wind, and we shall escape ! "

Far back as the times of the beloved Murray, M'hen they
had at his recall petitioned the King to send him back to
them — for he and his military council " were upright
officers, who, without prejudice and without emolument," did
their best — and received as answer the arrival of Carleton
in his stead, they were satisfied. For Oarleton " was chosen
by your Majesty." Even the Duke of Richmond, in his
short and stormy encounter with the Houses of Assembly,
was beloved ; why ? They hailed the prestige of his ex-
alted rank, for he was not only Duke of Richmond but
Due d'Aubigny, direct from the Duchess of that title, who
had been invested with it by Louis Quatorze, their own
Grand Monarque, as his other ancestors had been by
Charles. Why did not some quick wit in the year '37
follow the Scotch plan of providing a monarch for England
instead of allowing that that place provided rulers for
Scotland, and draw a parallel between James, who was
Sixth of Scotland before he added England to his domain,
and the young Queen whose claim to anything and every-
thing came straight down from France 1 " The Norman-
French of Quebec may well feel proud when they remem-
ber that they can claim what no other portion of the
Empire can assert — that they are governed by a monarch
of their own race, who holds her sceptre as the heir of RoUo,
the Norman sea-king, who first led their ancestors forth
from the forests of the north to the plains of Normandy."

H Call to xambreUas.

" We must have bloody iwaea, and cracked croivns, and poM

them current, too."

In 1837 people did not do things by halves. De mortuis
nil nisi bonum doubled its meaning from the fervour of the
abuse and obloquy cast upon the subject of it during life.
William IV. found even his Queen — to whom, by the way,
though she was jostled on the edge of accession by Mrs.
Jordan and others, he seems to have been devoted — satir-
ized, lampooned, vilified, by press and tongues alike. No
sooner is he himself dead than his demise becomes
"mournful intelligence," "melancholy event," "aflTecting
news," " distressing circumstance of the death of our be-
loved monarch."

Out of the chaos left behind him steps a girlish figure,
not unlike, in her bare feet and streaming hair, to some
picture of early Italy, a Stella Matutina.

Her head and hands are touched with the holy Chrism ;
Melbourne redeems the sword of state with a hundred
shillings ; two archbishops and some peers lift the tiny
figure into the throne ; no champion throws the glove ; the
acclamations of thousands proclaim her crowned, peers and
peeresses put on their coronets ; trumpets blare above the
boom of cannon ; the heads of a nation are bowed in the
silence of prayer ; " Stand firm and hold fast," adjures
His Grace ; the old do homage and become her liege men

HUMOURS OF '57.

of life and limb and of earthly worship, and of faith and
truth which they will bear unto her, to live and die against
all manner of folk. All the romance of the Middle Ages
seems crowded round that small figure in St. Edward's
chair, and Stella Matutina becomes Queen Regnant.

When she opened her first Parliament the Repeal Cry
and disturbed Canada were vexing elements in discussion ;
but the young sovereign placed her trust " upon the love
and affection of my people;" and that trust, as we see,
was not misplaced.

The Far West was long in hearing of her accession.
"There was a deep slumberous calm all around, as if Nature
had not yet awoke from her night's rest; then the atmosphere
began to kindle with gradual light ; it grew brighter and
brighter ; towards the east the sky and water intermingled
in radiance and flowed and glowed together in a bath of
fire. Against it rose the black hull of a large vessel, with
masts and spars rising against the sky. One man stood in
the bows, with an immense oar which he slowly pulled,
walking backwards and forwards ; but vain seemed all his
toil with the heavy black craft, for it was much against
both wind and current and it lay like a black log and
moved not. We rowed up to the side and hailed him,
* What news % ' What news indeed, to these people weeks
away from civilization, newspapers and letters. * William
Fourth was dead, and Queen Victoria reigned in his
stead.' "

"Canada will never cost English ministers another
thought or care if they will but leave her entirely alone,
to govern herself as she thinks fit." Then came the
division of opinion as to what was fit, to be followed later
by the opinions of Lords Durham and Sydenham upon the
dominant party, to be in the meantime fought for by all.

A CALL TO UMBRELLAS.

Some held it wisdom to say that a despotic government
was the best safeguard of the poorer classes. A certain
gentleman aired this idea in Canada, saying a governor
and council was the only thing for that country. His
Canadian listener looked at him fixedly for a moment,
asking again if that were really his opinion, — " Then, sir, I
pity your intellects."

There was an ominous smoke from the fire in Canadian
hearts over this question of class prejudices. Those were
the days when a barrister would not shake hands with a
solicitor, nor would a "dissenting" minister be allowed
within the pale of society. Governor Maitland had been
particularly hard upon this latter so-called shady lot of
people. A store-keeping militia officer refused a challenge
because the second who brought it was a saddler. The
honourable profession of teaching was looked at so askance
that to become a teacher was an avowal of poverty and
hopelessness. Yet joined to this Old World nonsense,
transplanted to a world so new that the crops sprung out
of untilled ground, was the fact that many of the noblesse,
indigenous as the burdock and thistle, drew their rent rolls
from the village stores, and with the rearing of the head of
what was called " the hydra-headed democracy," Froissart's
fear was shared "that all gentility was about to perish."

Under these circumstances military life naturally gave
scope for much originality in uniform, accoutrement, and
deportment. At one drill three or four hundred men were
marshalled, or rather scattered in a picturesque fashion
hither and thither. A few well-mounted ones, dressed as
lancers, in uniforms which were anything but uniform,
flourished back and forth over the greensward to the
great peril of spectators, they and their horses equally
wild, disorderly, spirited and undisciplined. Occasionally

, »

HUMOURS OF '37.

a carving or butcher knife lashed to the end of a fishing
pole did good duty for lance, — not a whit more astounding
in appearance and use than the coqcert of marrow-bones
and cleavers which some years before had nearly frightened
the Duchess of York to death on her arrival in England.

But the lancers were perfection compared with the in-
fantry. Here there was no attempt at uniformity of
dress, appearance or movement; a few heui coats, others
jackets ; a greater number had neither coats nor jackets,
but appeared in shirt-sleeves, white or checked, clean or
dirty, in edifying variety. Some wore hats, some caps;
some had their own shaggy heads of hair. Some had fire-
locks, some had old swords suspended in belts or stuck in
waistbands; but the greater number shouldered sticks.
An occasional umbrella was to be seen, but umbrellas
were too precious to allow of liberties; some said, "But
for these vile guns I myself would have been a soldier;"
some were willing to enlist for gardin*, but not for shootin'.
The word of command was thus given : — "Gentlemen with
the umbrellas, take ground to the right ; gentlemen with
the walking-sticks, take ground to the left." They ran
after each other, elbowed and kicked, stooped, chattered ;
and if the commanding officer turned his back for a mo-
ment, very easily sat down. One officer made himself
hoarse shouting out orders which no one thought of obey-
ing with the exception of two or three men in front. But
the lancers flourished their lances, galloped and capered,
curvetted (and tripped) to the admiration of all. The
captain of the lancers was the proprietor of the village
store, and shortly after the military display might have
been seen, plumed helmet in hand, vaulting o^ ^r his
counter to serve one customer a pennyworth of tobacco
and another a yard of check. The parade day ended in

9^m,

A CALL TO UMBRELLAS.

•

a riot, in which the colonel was knocked down and one or
two others seriously, if not fatally, injured. " Most ele-
gantly drunk," " superbly corned," the gallant lancers, for
want of an enemy, fought with one another. One inven-
tion of '37 was a fuddleometer, an instrument designed to
warn a man when he had taken his innermost utmost.
But it does not seem to have been adopted at the War
Office. Be that as it may, " these were the men who were
out in '37, and they did good work too."

A glance at the method of preparation at times employed
by their enemies shows a uniformity in style. One cap-
tain, in calling his company together, enumerating " You
gentlemen with the guns, ramrods, horsewhips, walking-
canes and umbrellas, and them that hasn't afi//," could
not get his men together, because at the time most of
them happened to be engaged either as players in, or spec-
tators of, a most interesting game of fives. The captain
consulted his hand-book of instructions to see what was
proper to do in such circumstances, and exhorted them
persuasively and politely :

" Now, gentlemen, I am going to carry you through the
revolutions of the manual exercise, and I hope, gentlemen,
you will have a little patience. I'll be as short as possible;
and I hope, gentlemen, if I should be going wrong, one of
you gentlemen will be good enough to put me right again,
for I mean all for the best. Take aim ! Ram down cart-
ridge— no, no, fire — I remember now, firing comes next
after taking aim ; but with your permission, gentlemen,
I'll read the words of command."

" Oh, yes, read it. Captain, read it, that will save time."

" 'Tention, the whole then. Please to observe, gentle-
men, that at the word 'fire,' you must fire, that is if any
of your guns are loaded ; and all you gentlemen fellow-
7

HUMOURS OF '57.

soldiers, who's armed with nothing but sticks and riding
switches and cornstalks, needn't go through the firings,
but stand as you are and keep yourselves to yourselves. . . .
Uandle cartridge t Pretty well, considering you done it
wrong end foremost. . . . Draw rammer ! Those who have
no rammers to their guns need not draw. . . . Hand-
somely done, and all together too, except that a few of
you were a little too soon and some a little too late. . . .
Charge hagonet ! "

(Some of the men) " That can't be right, Captain. How
can we charge bagonets without our guns ? "

" I don't know as to that, but I know I'm right, for
here it is printed, if I know how to read — it's as plain as
the nose on y ur — faith, I'm wrong! I've turned over
two leaves at once. I beg your pardon, gentlemen, — we'll
not stay out long, and we'll have something to drink as
soon as we've done. Gome, boys, get oflf the stumps. . . .
Advance arms ! Very well done ; turn stocks of your guns
in front, gentlemen, and that will bring the barrels be-
hind ; and hold them straight up and down please. . . .
Very well done, gentlemen, you have improved vastly.
What a thing it is to see men under good discipline.
Now, gentlemen, we come to the revolutions — but Lord,
men, how did you get into such a higglety-pigglety ? "

The fact was, the sun had come round and roasted the
right wing of the veterans, and, as they were poorly
provided with umbrellas, they found it convenient to
follow the shade. In a vain attempt to go to war under
the shadow of their own muskets, and huddling round to
the left, they had changed their crescent to a pair of pot-
hooks. The men objected to the captain's demand for
further " revolutions," as they had already been on the
ground for three-quarters of an hour, and they reminded

A CALL TO UMBRELLAS.

him frequently of his promise to be as quick as he could.
He might fine them if he chose, but they were thirsty and
they would not go without a drink to please any captain.
The dispute waxed hotter, until he settled it by sending for
some grog, and the fifteen guns, ten ramrods, twelve gun-
locks, three rifle-pouches and twenty-two horse-whips,
walking-canes and umbrellas, fortified themselves for fur-
ther exertions. The result of the next order or two was
doubly groggy.

" 'Tention to the whole. To the left, no — that is the
left — I mean the right — left wheel — march." He was
strictly obeyed, some wheeling to the right, others left, and
some both ways.

" Halt — let's try again ! I could not just tell my right
hand from my left — long as I have served, I find some-
thing new to learn every day — now gentlemen, do that
motion once more." By the help of a non-commissioned
officer in front of each platoon they succeeded in wheel-
ing this time with some regularity.

" 'Tention the whole — hy divisions — to tlie rights wheel
— march ! "

They did wheel and they did march, and it seemed as if
Bedlam had broken loose ; every man took the command :

" Not so fast on the right ! "

" Haul down those umbrellas ! "

" Faster on the left — keep back in the middle ! "

" Don't crowd so ! "

" I've lost my shoe ! " And by this time confusion was
so many times confounded that the narrative had to cease
perforce.

There is a Sherlock Holmes-like story told of a
deserter from the British army who tried to enlist in
Bufifalo. His good manner and address were noticeable,

HUMOURS OF \rr.

and he was supposed to be no common recruit. A surgeon
who suspected hira suddenly called out " Attention ! "
and as the man's hands dropped by his side he stood
confessed a soldier.

At Fort Brady, with its whitewashed palisades and
little mushroom towers, was a castle, unrivalled in modern
architecture. On the greensward in front were drilled an
awkward squad of matchless awkwardness, in that way the
superiors of any Canadians whom they might propose to
attack. On occasion one would give his front file a
punch in the small of the back to speed his movements,
another would aim a kick for the same purpose ; each had
a humour to knock his neighbour indifferently well. The
sentinels, in flannel jackets, were lounging up and down,
looking like ploughboys ready to shoot sparrows, quite
in keeping with their surroundings. But on the Cana-
dian side there were not even these vivid demonstrations
of power. Enthusiasm, however, made up for many
shortcomings.

In all the newspapers of the two provinces such produc-
tions as that shown in reduced fac-simile on the opposite
page might be seen ; age has robbed the original, now
lying before us, of a few words, but the lettering and
alignment are unaltered.

The chronicler has it that Brockville's corps began with
twenty-three inoffensive and respectable men of small
merchandise, who essayed to hearten themselves and terrify
the French by adopting the name Invincibles. This
amused Kingston, and a corps was accordingly turned out
from there, called the Unconquerables, in order not to be
behind " the paltry little village down the river," and in a
bogus notice from one '* Captain Focus, commanding," there
was an N.B. : "No Unconquerable permitted to attend

/f CALL TO UMBRELLAS.

•ify

muster without hiu shues well blacked and his breeches
well mended."

One colonel issued instructions that alK)ve all things
solid form must be preserved, — should a man fall, close

LO¥ALMTS TO VOVR DVTT.

^s^mMAtmrnm sr i^iIbijt. MuNvei. bow Ami
WattCed 4MIIiO jrfd ¥•! vnteerttror
e above C^p«r for iizjBoatlii ner*
▼Ice only*

EHeh inao Will get 8 dollan tomi-

iff a ae w tult elotbee, and a great

oat A pair f Bootn, aliMi a fireo

ht$fM.9fM «/ ^ye piiy when dfo>

erllns^HlMe, per pA¥v«it*fr««

y I^ei m^ Vliaitoreteiidlng 9m IJpir*
AtTY HAIvetoACR;«ltM« «me^

JPORWARDitt«»«»*^'^^^*^'

APPLY TO fclpUTEflANVoi •NKUOOWAM. AT BROCKVILIX

OOD 8Af|B THE 4I1JEEPI*

and cover the vacancy. An Irishman with a bass voice
and sepulchral delivery gravely asked, " And would your
honour have us step on a did man ? "

The word "halt" had little power to make some
militia corps stationary ; it rather accelerated their speed.

-Kf

100

HUMOURS or w.

" Halt — halt — halt ! " criod a perspiring ofllcer as ho
chasod \m men, and a» near explosion point as his own
gun ; " if you don't halt I'll walk you five miles ! " The
threat prevailed, and they halted. But they were peremp-
tory enough when individually they had to give the same
order. Both sides, loyalist and patriot, saw an enemy in
every bush and were always ready for a spy. Excitement
was running high in a Yonge Street village one day, when a
lad, young Jakeway, hearing an unusual noise in the street,
walked out to see what it was. One of a number of armed
men before the village inn called to him to halt, taking
him for a spy. But the lad turned away and did not hear.
The man, upon no further provocation, raised his gun to
shoot, but another, less ardent, knocked the weapon up
and contented himself with Jakeway's arrest. The leader
recognized him as an inoffensive onlooker, and dismissed
him with an apology. No one was to pass certain out-
posts out of Kingston without passport, the parole and
countersign. The Montreal mail with four horses dashed
to the bridge at Kingston Mills as the militia sentry's halt
rang out. But the coachman, as fit as himself, paid no
heed ; so the sentry's bayonet pierced the breast of one of
the leaders. Complaint was made to the Postmaster-
General, but the sentry was promoted and Government
would afford no redress. It knew a good man. That
same night brought commanding officer and men, clothed
and armed, to parade. By lantern light they were made
load and told " tlie time was come.** On the principle of
first fire, then enquire, a man in the front rank — of course
an Irishman — discharged his musket in his officer's face.
"Be jabers," said he, when asked for explanation and
congratulated on the harmlessness of his aim, " Colonel, I
wuz that full of fight I cuddn't help it."

A CAU. TO UAfnRELLAS,

101

But at the grand inspection in and about KingHton,
which took place chiefly before 8t. George's church, with
the same hearty bluff Englishman, Colonel Bonnycastle, in
command, the troops, six hundred and fifty in number,
newly clothed and equipped, made a handsome showing,
and considering their rawness performed their evolutions
creditably and without damage to themselves or him.

" Are these British soldiers ? " asked an onlooker who
was shrewdly guessed to be a military spy from the other
side.

" Oh, no, not at all, only the Frontenac militia."

" Then if they are militia," returned the American, " all
I can say is they must be regular militia."

Old Peninsula officers, remnants of Brock's army,
veterans from everywhere British, helped from Quebec to
Sarnia to leaven this mass of raw colonial fighting material,
and they developed it into something very ugly to tackle.

But even veterans want substantial recompense for
service, and in *37 Sir Francis received a strong appeal
from one of them :

^nd
I

" May it please your Honor and Glory, for iver more,
Amen.

"I,

-, formly belonging to the 49 th Regt of

Foot was sent to this country in 1817 by his Majesty
George the Forth to git land for myself and boys ; but my
boys was to small, but Plase your Honor now the Can
work, so I hope your honor wold be so good to a low them
Land, because the are Intitle to it by Lord Bathus. I was
spaking to His Lord Ship in his one office in Downing
Street, London, and he tould me to beshure I wold Git
land for my boys. Plase your Honor, I was spaking to
Lord Almor before he went home about the land for my

102

HUMOURS OF '37.

boys, and he sed to beshure I was Intitle to it. Lord
Almor was Captain in the one Regt that is tlie Old 49th
Regt foot. Plase your honor I hope you will doe a old
Solder Justis. God bless you and your family.
" Your most humble Sarvint

"N.B. Plase your Honor I hope you will excuse my
Vulgar way of writing to you, but these is hard times
Governor so I hope you will send me an answer."

Not one of them was too far off to hear the despatchmen
as they rode along the half-made roads, with bugles blow-
ing the call to arms. Spear in boot, sword clanking by his
side, the despatchman was an impressive figure which still
lives in the memory of some of those who in their youth
answered to his call. No one disputed his word ; at his
behest the farmer had to go, and the farmer's horses had
to be harnessed to furnish tiansport for recruits. " Four
of us were out, 'cause why, we had to. Two of us were
stacking cornstalks, one was at the creek with the horses,
and I was mending the fence. It was a beautiful day, and
the air was clear enough to hear anything, let alone that
bugle. The tooting was followed by the appearance of a
lot of men, and we were ordered to fall in. It took me
only a minute to run into the house for some things ; none
of us had a gun, and on the way we cut ourselves cudgels.
There was not any volunteering about it, for it was a regu-
lar press. I was the youngest, and mother she did cry
like sixty."

E\'erywhere the rigours of barrack life, drill, and life
generally were lightened by practical jokes and bogus
challenges. John Strachan, junior, once gravely challenged
a cow, gave her one more chance to answer, and then, in

A CALL TO UMBRELLAS.

me
lone
jels.

3gU-

icry

;us
red

defence of his country, took her life. What is more, he
had to pay for her.

In Quebec the volunteer days of '37-38 were festive
times. With population that followed a thin line of river
border and condensed at the two cities, and with superior
means of equipment and drill, the period of formation
was not so lengthy as in Upper Canada. Lieutenant-
Colonel the Honourable James Hope was chosen by
Lord Gosford as commander of the volunteer force. In
December, '37, the garrison at Quebec was reduced to one
company of Royal Artillery. No greater compliment
could be paid Major Sewall, late of the 49th, Brook's own
— with his regiment in uniforms of " blue coat and buff
breeches, white blanket coat and green facings, blue cap
and light band" — than to put him in charge of that
important post. He had some veterans among them,
Henry Lemesurier, a captain minus his right arm, which
had been carried away by a round-shot at the battle of
Salamanca when bearing the colours of his regiment — the
74th — for one. The militia force in the beginning of the
year was incomplete and inefficient, looking formidable
with its list of every officer from colonel to corporal,
but with many, officers and men alike, who had never
handled a musket. But they were to get used to the smell
of powder. "Lord love your honour, the smell of gun-
powder, did you say ? Divil a bit do we care for it — it's the
balls we do be moindin'." And well he might say so, for
not even H. M. Regular Rocket troop was to be entirely
trusted. At St. Eustache, under the impression that
rockets like wine improve with age, one, a relic of the
Peninsula, was fired. It was a mellow old fellow, slow
in making up its mind. Instead of rising it fell, failed to
clear the unaccustomed snake fence which lay in the track,

104

HUMOURS OF '37.

broke off its tail and sent its huge head whirling and
whizzing, twirling and sizzling, over a ploughed field, with
Head-quarter staff, Rocket troop and all before it in mad
flight to escape. It seized upon one volunteer to play
particular pranks with, and chased him round and round
the field, until, exhausted, he fell between the furrows,
and the rocket, balked of its prey, went out with a final
bang. Convinced that his enemy was defunct the man got
somehow to his feet, and never drew breath — so the story
goes — until Montreal was reached.

The first paid corps raised at Quebec was named the
Porkeaters, a regiment some six hundred strong, able-
bodied, resolute fellows, mostly Irish labourers, mechanics
and tradesmen, who did no discredit to their supposed
diet. These bacon-fed knaves began by looking the
awkward squad; but drill by the non-coms, of the regulars,
aided by strict discipline, soon made them perform their
evolutions with the regularity and precision of their
instructors. It is easy to fancy this regiment going into
action under Colonel Rasher, with the wholesome advice,
Salvum Larder, floating to the breeze in the hands of
Ensign Flitch — "Charge, Sausage, charge; On, Bacons,
on," the last words of some local Marmion.

A fine cavalry corps, well-mounted, muscular fellows,
under Major Burnet, did good work ; yet temperate withal,
not like Strange's troop in Kingston. The latter had been
in semi-activity since '34 — that is to say, they were drilled
on foot, with sticks for sabres. The consequence was that
when they were furnished with arms and mounted on
steeds of many sizes, difficulties ensued. Calm Sergeant
Nobbs, sword in hand, all his neighbours equally hard at
work mastering horse and weapon, unfortunately drew the
curb at an inopportune moment as he was demonstrating his

A CALL TO UMBRELLAS.

105

mode of parrying. Up came the horse's head, and off
went its ears.

Also at Quebec were the Que itv's Pets, composed of sea-
faring men, under Captain Rayside, a veteran naval officer,
in long blue pea-jackets, blue breeches, round fur caps with
long ears, and red woollen cravats — evidently the young
Queen was supposed to be fond of novelty — their arms,
horse pistols, broad cutlasses and carronade. Companies
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 in this regiment had blue loose coats
with red collars, blue breeches, and high fur caps with
long ears'; the Highland company had Rob Roy tartan
trews, Scotch bonnets and dark frock coats.

The Fauch-a-Ballaughs were gayer still, in white blanket
coat, red sash, green buttons, green facings and green
seams, high cap with green top falling over — an old hat
and the humour of forty fancies pricked int' it for a feather
— and blue breeches with a red stripe.

One corps had a euphonious and suggestive Dahomean
title from corporations gained in forty years of piping
peace and good dinners. They were chiefly Lower Town
merchants, veterans in business if not in war, who soon
brought their cognomens under the discipline of black
leather belts,, cartouche box and twenty rounds of ball
cartridge ; good Brown Besses rested on the shelves pro-
vided by a kindly Mother Nature ; and with much puffing
and blowing, their eyes fronted and righted until a per-
manent cast was threatened.

All corps dined much, whether they were to fight or not.
Military dinners were frequent, and rjways went off with
great ^dat^ the local excitement lending " go " to them all.
Even in that time of ferment there were, as there had
been since the Conquest, sensible men, French and English,
of the better classes who had made the fact of a common

106

HUMOURS OF '37.

enemy — the American assault of Quebec — a ground for
a common patriotism. History has handed down a glow-
ing account of one St. Andrew's dinner given in '37,
in Quebec, and Mr. Archibald Campbell's lines, sung by
himself in a clear and mellow voice, are worth reproduc-
tion as indicative of the Scottish spirit :

Men of Scotia's blood or land,
No longer let us idly stand
Our ' origin ' which traitors brand
As ' foreign ' here.

By gallant hearts those rights were gained,
By gallant hearts shall be maintained,
K'en tho' our dearest blood be drained
Those rights to keep.

On the crest of Abram's heights,
Victorious in a thousand tights,
The Scottish broadsword won our rights,
Wi' fatal sweep.

Then when the Gaul shall ask again
Who called us here across the Main,
Each Scot shall answer, bold and plain,
' Wolfe sent me here. '

Be men like those the hero brought.
With their best blood the land was bought.
And, fighting as your fathers fought.
Keep it or die. "

There were men then in Quebec whose denunciations of
British rule were given with a vim not exceeded by
Papineau himself, who were destined, fermentation over, to
be like the wine kept for the end of the feast. It so hap-
pened that Sir E. P. Tach^, aide-de-camp to the Queen in
after years, was then Patriote — to be spelled in capitals and

A CALL TO UMBRELLAS.

107

rolled with the reverberation of the Parisian R. He was
subjected to an unexpected domiciliary visit, as a cannon
was supposed to be hidden under his winter supply of pro-
visions. The searchers were rewarded by a pair of duelling
pistols, then a part of every gentleman's outfit, and a veri-
table Mons Meg, six inches long, which belonged to a small
boy of the same number of years.

As history counts, it was not long before Etienne Tacht^,
in the fold and one of our Queen's knights good and true,
declared '* the last gun fired for British supremacy in
America would be fired by a French-Canadian."

From survivors, and from a few printed memorials,
one finds that what was known as Training Day seems
to have been a great farce in Upper Canada. The 4th
of June, King George's birthday, was its date. Descrip-
tions of it take one back to the Duke of Brunswick's
lament over his army — that if it had been generaled
by «■' iakers and tailors it could not have been worse,
for lune Duke's general marched with his division like cab-
bages and turnips in defile. Here there was no likeness to
anything so formal ; the army manoeuvres partook of the
wild luxuriance of native growths. If twelve were the
hour for muster on the common at Fort George, it was
sure to be after one before the arduous work of falling in
began. "The men answered to their names, as the rolls of
the various companies were called, with a readiness and
distinctness of tone which showed that, in spite of the
weather, they were wide-awake," says the chronicle. Once
they became more active a scene ensued which could not
fail to gladden the eyes of the onlookers. In time, either
slow or quick, the men did not seem to be guided by any
rule of book, but exemplified home-made tactics, present-
ing lines for which mathematicians have yet furnished no

108

HUMOURS OF \n.

- )

!■

1 '.

V.''

name, putting out flanking parties at either end, and as
nearly squaring a circle and circling a square as possible.
" Though many jokes were passed, fewer sods were
thrown than usual." Even later than '37, once men had
been out and had come home veterans their services
were in demand by officers newly appointed. As in the
days of the good Duke of York, ignorance was an officer's
perquisite ; then some intelligent sergeant whispered the
word of command which his officer was ashamed to know ;
here, the poor officer was willing, but perhaps had a ser-
geant as ignorant as himself. However, he was not too
haughty to search for some private to help him. " Say,
they tell me you were out," said one of these officers to a
private ; " I suppose you know something of military train-
ing. Now, I am a captain and don't know anything, and
I believe I'll appoint you my sergeant." The scene of
initiation was by the Little Thames, on what was later to
be a Court House site, thenceforward to be known as
Stratford. The captain wore the battered remains of a
tall silk hat, a black tailed coat, white linen trousers
about six inches too short, and hose a world too wide for
his shrunk shanks. The hastily-made sergeant, Tom
Stoney, a blue-eyed young Irishman with a spice of fun
but kind at heart, armed his superior officer with his own
cavalry sword, and taking him into his small saddler-shop
made himself military tailor as well. The captain never
would have rested without spurs had he known that the
late King on his first appearance in military uniform,
although unmounted, wore a pair of gold ones that reached
halfway up his legs like a gamecock. Stoney drew down the
white pantaloons as far and as tight as possible, sewed on
buttons, and cut and sewed two leather straps to aid in
keeping the captain together. The men were got into line ;

A CALL TO UMBRELLAS.

109

the captain meekly took his place among them. " Right
face ! " cried the sergeant, and off flew a button, up went the
trouser-leg to the knee — " pursued my humour, not pursu-
ing his" — rejoicing in regained freedom, relented and
came down again. Clump-clarap wentthe leather ^trap with
every step. The sergeant's commands came quicker than
ever, the captain perspired, and toiling behind his men
removed his silk hat to wipe his streaming face. Then he
ventured his first " command " : "I think we have had
enough drill ; we'll march down to the distillery, boys, if
you like." And they did.

In the Talbot District, Training Day since 1812 had
been kept up with constancy. In spite of that, the inhabi-
tants were somewhat unprepared when '37 came. But the
gathering of the Loyalists, however isolated they were from
one another, was willing and surprisingly quick. Old
ofiicers of the army sought for and gathered up volunteers ;
they had neither drum nor fife, but there was a ready
response from willing hearts, and from hands equally will-
ing, however uncouth and unused to arms. The most
embarrassing hindrances, sometimes, to everything like
organization and drill and obedience to orders were those
same old soldiers when, as was generally the case, they
knew more than their officers. They stood ip the ranks, and
at the same time found fault with every word of command,
so that they demoralized that which they had brought
together. No set of volunteers was more difficult to
handle than the old soldiers who had settled in Adelaide.
Captain Pegley, although himself a retired regular officer,
found them almost unmanageable when mixed with the
more docile farmers and farmers' sons. After much adjur-
ation he at length broke out into exclamations which,
on the whole, suited his mixed audience better than set

HUMOURS OF 'd7.

military phrase. " Haw, man ! gee, man ! " cried he, a start-
ling contrast to the studied politeness of some of the subs,
who, with nothing whatever of the drill-sergeant tone, when-
ever the openings in the ranks were too wide, would say,
'* Won't you be kind enough to step nearer this way ; now,
you men, be good enough to keep your places." The sharp-
est order delivered by these subs was, " Halt ! and let the
others come up, can't you ! " Wheeling into line disclosed
a line looking like the snake fence surrounding the stubble
field which contained the wheel.

Marching in quick time with one bagpipe and a fiddle,
or with a single drum and fife, was not antidote enough to
the stubble as they passed the gallant Lieutenant-Colonel
in blue frock coat, white trousers shoved up from his boots,
a round hat above his fat face, seated in unostentatious
dignity on his venerable white mare, whose sides were
blown out with grass and her neck adorned with a rope
halter. " Now, men, wori't you fall in," he would patheti-
cally inquire, while they showed every disposition to fall
out. For, instead of the drum boy, in the centre of the
panide-ground was a keg containing that liquid which in
Lower Canada, when carried in a seal skin covered bottle,
was known as Lac dulce, or sometimes as old man's milk.
Then would Captain Rappelje command to drink the
Sovereign's health, which was done con amove ; trials of
strength, boxing and wrestling, would follow, when " Abe
would knock Jehial as straight as a loon's foot."

What would men not do to keep these kegs full. Once
Colonel Bostwick and Captain Neville were temporarily
absent at the same time, while certain points on the
river were guarded against surprise ; the rebels were
hourly expected, but failed to appear. Advantage was
taken of the officers' absence to cross at one of these

A CALL TO UMBRELLAS.

Ill

points, to replenish the canteen. The boat, showing lights,
returned before the expected time. Those on the pier
bethought them of a Yankee boast to come across and
eat the small village before breakfast. They prepared to
fire into the boat, but changed their minds, and rushed
to where their Captain and a companion were soundly
sleeping. The pile of discarded clothing by the couch had
been rather mixed, and the Captain measured six foot
odd ; his companion's valour was contained in few inches.
" Come, come quick, quick, the rebels are upon us ! "
brought them to their feet, the big Captain thrr.dting him-
self as far as he could, and farther than the garments bar-
gained for, into the unmentionables of the smaller man.
They refused to cover below the calf ; he tried to with-
draw, they were obdurate, and in an agony of thought
the enemy's knock was heard. The small man had
meanwhile decamped with a train at either heel. The
Captain seized a jacket which matched the rest of his suit ;
in desperation he took the quilt, and in toga arrayed, like
"that hook-nosed fellow of Rome," reached the wharf
in time to receive the whiskey kegs, where he delivered
a lecture on breach of discipline and ordered the men to
the guard-house. This Captain was a formidable figure
out of his quilt, in his own red uniform with white fac-
ings and girt with a sword whose hilt of ivory and brass
was further decorated with two beavers conventionalized
beyond even the requirements of modern art. The sash,
of double twisted silk, strange to say had been the pro-
perty of John Kolph, who, during his life in Middlesex,
had made his home in Captain Neville's house — a queer
foregathering, for we all know the one, and the latter
was after the pattern of the U. E. Loyalist definition in
1777 :
8

112 HUMOURS OF '.H7.

•• By Tory now is underntooil
A man who seekn his country's goo<l."

Captain Neville and Colonel Mahlon Burwell had a
friendly rivalry as to who would furnish the country to
which they were both so devoted with the most warlike
sons. Leonidas, Blucher, Hannibal, Napoleon and Brock,
did they call their unprotesting infants, until a mother
rose to the assertion of her prerogative when Wolfe was
suggested for one of her babies. The most warlike of
this cream of heroism weighed but two pounds when he
came into the world, and was put in his father's carpet
slipper to be weighed. Great, then, was the consterna-
tion when at the outbreak the following regimental order
was issued, embracing fathers and sons :

" You are hereby ordered and required to warn all the
men from sixteen to sixty, within limits of the late Cap-
tain David Rappelje's company, to meet at St. Thomas,
13th inst., on Wednesday, with arms and ammunition, of
whom I will take command." The same village walls
held another order from Sir Francis Bond Head. Tho
result was more men brought together than ever before in
the history of the settlement. The Mansion House was the
great rallying point, and here, after the Scotch fashion,
business was discussed, the suspected ones talked over by
the extra loyal, and toasts and maledictions drunk ac-
cording to the politics of the thirsty. That part of the
country was one of the most disaffected sections, and
neighbour looked upon neighbour with suspicion.

Some time before this, roused out of his retirement by
the tales of agitation which he heard, Colonel Talbot at-
tended the only political meeting of his Canadian life.
On St. George's Day of the year when Sir John Col-
b jrne, one of his nearest friends, took such a conspicuous

A CALL ro UAfliRFJ.LAS.

113

part in the pruvincial elections, a large party of his people
went out to meet the Colonel on the way from his Cana-
dian Malahide castle. They found him on the top of
Drake's Hill, from which a beautiful view was atforded of
the pleasant valley they were ready to defend. He en-
tered the town, surrounded by waving flags bearing "The
Hon. Thomas Talbot, Founder of the Talbot Settlement,"
and other descriptive legends. The venerable figure of
the eccentric lord of the manor, Executive Councillor,
friend and fellow-officer of Wellington, stood there sur-
veying his flock, the majority cheering him to the echo ;
but knots here and there bestowed unfavourable glances
on them and him. His address was full of wit and sage
advice. Some of the veterans, clad like himself in home-
spun, who had toiled under his eye and by his aid had
emerged from poverty to wealth, stood, with hands in
their capacious pockets, looking up at him as if they
" could fairly swallow his words." When he referred to
the pains he had taken to preserve loyalty among them,
" That's true, Colonel," came as involuntary response.
" But," said he, " in spite of all my eflforts, some black
sheep have got into the flock — aye, and they have got
the r-r-rot-t-t, too ! "

His well-known aversion to altercation or controversy
resulted in his being the only speaker. A loyal address
was dictated by him extolling the blessings of government
as then enjoyed and resting the blame of disaffection on
the religious teaching of a certain lot of immigrants who
had come to the Talbot Settlement in time to enjoy its
prosperity, and then, not having the devotion bred by
being first-comers, found it easy to pick flaws. The year
'37 brought to them a mysterious individual mounted on a
cream-coloured horse which ambled him along the lanes

114

HUMOURS OF \17,

and roads of Yarmoutli. Like tho clock puddlur, tho
Htraiiger wore de«p groon glasscH in his Hpoct<acles. After
his lalmurs of disseminating dissension were over he
managed to make his escape, but the cream-coloured nag
figured as an otHcer's charger on the Loyalist side — accord-
ing to his late owner's opinion, much after tho manner of
the unmounted Glengarries whose humour it was to steal
at a moment's rest — " convey, the wise it call " — but from
the opposite point of view was pressed into government
service. It was an animal of no prejudices, for with its
rider it was always in the van.

Of those whose looks burned as they listened to the
Colonel, and who would not subscribe to the address, some
were yet to stand upon the drop to die for treason — a
dignified name with which Colonel Talbot, in common with
Drew, Prince and others, would have had little patience.
These disaffected were chiefly influenced by an Englishman,
George Lawton, who, like a good many of the demagogues
of that day, had been a factious pate elsewhere. Concerned
in the Bristol Riots, he was well up in the catch- words
which thrilled the crowds there, and he used his strong
mind and nimble tongue upon Canadian complications.
He had to escape, somehow, from the consequences of his
acts at home ; so a sham illness and a sham death, a
stuffed coffin and a funeral, and a voyage of the supposed
deceased brought George Lawton to the Talbot District to
sow those " seed-grains " of revolutionary doctrine which
were to make him a second time an outcast. One of the
first persons he met in this country was a chief mourner
who had followed his coffin to the grave.

As early as '33, Colonel Talbot writes to a friend : " My
rebels endeavoured to hold a meeting at St. Thomas on
the 1 7th, Dr. Franklin's birthday as I am informed, but

yj CALL TO UAfiiKELLAS.

115

in which thry w<'r<) frustrutcd hy my Royal (»uiir«ls, who
routed tho rascals at all points and drove; thorn out of the
village liko sheep, numbers with broken heads leaving
their hats l)ehind them — the glorious work of old Colonel
Hickory, In short, it was a most splendid victory. Mr.
Frascr, the Wesleyan minister, l)ehaved admirably on the
occasion, and 1 scarcely think they will venture to call
another meeting in St. Thomas. Tlnur object was to form
a political union, the' articles of which were to elect the
Legislative Council and magistrates."

At all periods of the Rebellion Tall)ot's District pro-
vided much "sympathy." {Several men from Port Stanley
set out to join the sympathisers who were making ready
at Detroit. Their small vessel was provided with Iwiler
and machinery, and they made fair headway until off a
spot near the Lake Road, when the I'udder gave way. In
a frenzy of conscience the boat made for her own shore
and stuck in the sand-bank. Just at that point there hap-
pened to be a small company of dragoons, who, when they
saw the boat coming towards them, with armed men in it,
divided into two parties and galloped off in opposite
directions. The officer of the company, in two minds to
go both ways at once, solved his difficulty by popping
under an upturned canoe. The would-be saviours of their
country in the rebel boat got clear of the sand-bank and
made off, upon which the dragoons galloped back to look
after their captain. After a careful search, for he was
very coy, they found him under his canoe canopy, not a
bad makeshift where umbrellas were not procurable.

There was scarcely a locality which did not give evidence
that the rebel spirit had a lodgment not far oflP. But also
in each there were martial spirits eager and willing to lead

116

HUMOURS OF \rr.

or be one of loyalist troops. Some of them tell their own
stories so well that it would be a pity to garble or curtail
them. One man describes how he gave up his professional
work, as the winter and the Rebellion were coming on
together. " . . . The political horizon at that time
looked rather squally. The Rads. were holding frequent
meetings in different parts of the country, at which loud
and long speeches were made to the ignorant and wicked,
until it broke out in a general rising among the disaf-
fected portion — which was the largest portion of the
County of York. In Simcoe the Rads. were fully half
the population ; but they did not turn out for fear of the
other half, among whom were many fiery Orangemen.
And to this Order I attribute the safety of our country,
although many loyal men, not Orangemen, turned out in
behali of the Government. Without these men we should
have failed, as, before troops could arrive from England,
the Yankees would have flooded the country.

" The Home District appeared to be the stronghold of
the disaffected in Upper Canada. On the 4th of December,
as I was going towards Queensville, I met five or six men
with rifles, whom I knew to be fond of hunting deer. We
talked about hunting and I went on my way, when I met
sixty or seventy more, straggling along, some with guns,
some with swords, and others unarmed. They had several
waggons with them, which appeared loaded, but were
covered up. I began to suspect their object, but could get
no satisfaction to my questions. Then I met a young
fellow whom I followed into his father's house, and saw
his father give him a pair of boots and some money. That
convinced me. I then turned back and followed the party,
when I met a man who told me my suspicions were correct,
and that they were going to take Toronto. I advised him

-I.

A CALL TO UMBRELLAS.

117

^ere
I get
mg
kaw
hat

ty,

|ct,

to go home, but he said he dare not ; so then I told him
he had better go to the States. He said he would, and I
afterwards learned that he took my advice. On my way
south I went into the tavern on Tory Hill, and asked the
landlady if she understood the movement, to which she
replied that they were going to take Toronto, and she had
known it for several days. Her husband and several
others had gone there three days before, and I may
say here that when I went to the city I found him there
as a volunteer — either that or go to prison. I next saw
Mr. Samuel Sweasey, and asked him if he understood the
movement. ' Yes, they are going to take Toronto, rob the
Bank, hang the Governor, and when they come back they
will hang you.* When I asked him where his sons were,
he said he had sent them to the woods to get rid
of them, as the rebels were after them." Between this
narrator and his friends the news was soon pretty
well spread in the neighbourhood of the Landing,
Bond Head, Bradford and Newmarket as to what he had
seen and heard. "Farther on I met several men, too
great cowards to turn out with the rebels, but mean
enough to give me great abuse on account of my principles."
He and various other officers met at Newmarket, and
agreed to do all possible to raise quickly what force they
could in their respective neighbourhoods, the narrator
being assisted by one of his sons, who was a sergeant.
" Two men had been sent from Newmarket to inform the
Governor that there were a number up here he could
depend on. These men were taken prisoners by Mac-
kenzie's party. , . . We felt much the want of arms.
Orders were given to search for and seize all the arms that
could be found ; but we had poor success, as most of
them were in the hands of the rebels and the rest were

118

HUMOURS OF '87.

hidden away to prevent our getting them. About the 9th
we heard that John Powell had shot Anderson," followed
by the rest of the doings after Montgomery's. News
reached the men of the north slowly, and for many reasons
their march to the assistance of the city was delayed.
"At McLeod's inn, on Yonge Street, a most cowardly
affair occurred. Some twenty-five or thirty of the Scotch
and a few others, on hearing that a body of men under
Lount was stationed in the Ridges, whom we might have
to fight, turned tail and went home. Their minister did
all he could to dissuade them ; but home they would go.
When he found persuasion useless, he mounted his horse
and called for volunteers. A few fell in with him, and
he and they were with us when we took up our march
for the city.

" A certain officer had assumed the command, and was
mounted on a horse that had been taken from a Lloyd-
town man as he was trying to get home after Mont-
gomery's. When we got down as far as Willis's farm, at
the entrance to the Ridges, a halt was called and a council
held, and, as it was yet feared by some that there was a
strong force of rebels in the Ridges, it was decided that a
few of us, about eight, and mounted, should form an
advance guard to reconnoitre. A man from the Landing
had gone into Willis's and got a gun, which when the
colonel saw he called to the man to let him have. The
other objected, whereupon the colonel went up to him and,
in the presence of us all, wrenched it out of his hands.
We were then ordered, the disarmed man one of us, to
advance, which we did. The eight of us had two guns,
three swords, one club, and this little party went through
the Ridges while the colonel and his reserve waited for
about half an hour. Hearing nothing from us in the shape

A CALL TO UMBRELLAS.

119

of a skirmish they ventured through. When we got to
Bond's Lake I got a pitchfork for the man from whom the
colonel had taken the gun." At Thornhill they learned
that the rebels were completely dispersed, and many were
for returning home ; but it was decided to continue the
march and tender their services to the Government. " Bv
this time we mustered pretty strong, as several had joined
us during the night and morning, many of whom I pre-
sume would have joined the other party had they been
able to reach the city and make a stand there. We had
now some twenty-five or thirty prisoners that we had
picked up as we came. These we tied and placed in
two strings, somewhat in the form of A." Arrived in
the city the volunteers were inspected by the Governor,
and thanked by him in Her Majesty's name for the tender
of their services. " When they came opposite to where I
was sitting on my horse. Colonel Carthew said, * A more
loyal man does not live,' and upon this the Governor
bowed twice and passed on." Some ten or twelve of them
did not accept their billet upon the people, but went to a
tavern and paid their own way. "I was officer of the
guard on the night that Peter Matthews was brought into
the Parliament House (used as head-quarters and prison)
a prisoner. On the next night I went with Mr. Robinson,
Dr. King and Sheriff Jarvis to the hospital, where Edgar
Stiles, Kavanagh, and Latra were lying, to take their
depositions." On the next night he was sent " with a
strong party to Sharon, where we captured some thirty or
forty and sent them to Toronto. For three or four days
I was at Newmarket attending to the guards, as we had a
number of prisoners in the Baptist meeting-house. . .
I was ordered to where Collingwood now stands to look
for Lount, who was said to be there at a lonely house of

120

HUMOURS OF '57.

one John Brasier. When we had got as far as Bradford
a man was sent after us with a report that Lount had been
taken somewhere below Toronto. When I went to New-
market again I found that in my absence several gentle-
men who had been nowhere at the first had come in, had
got commissions and my men. . . . After this, some
eighteen or twenty of us about the Landing and Sharon
joined and formed a company for our mutual defence,
armed with muskets. For a while we met for drill weekly,
then monthly, and soon not at all."

Lloydtown, although the seat of disaffection, had its
loyalists, too ; but as they were in the face of such odds
they had to temper the exhibition of their loyalty with
discretion. One of themselves says that when the call
came for their aid they made a prompt response, but took
the precaution to leave the village in small parties.

But loyalty was a term on a sliding scale, and a Scotch-
man whose vote was Reform was every whit as loyal as
his Tory acquaintance who " suspicioned " him.

" Loyal ? Of course I was loyal, as every one in our
neighbourhood was ; but most of us were true Reformers
nevertheless, and not ashamed of the name, in spite of
Mackenzie's goings-on. I refused to volunteer in '38 when
the draftings began again, because all trouble in Upper
Canada was over, and I could not see that I was called
upon to give up important home duties ; and besides that,
the officers had nothing to do, and thought it would be a
fine thing to get a company up and have the recompense
for keeping it together. The captain only succeeded in
getting a few volunteers, not twenty, and the thing was
to be completed by ballot. That was a regular farce, and
the ignorance of some of those who drew was ridiculous.
A Scotchman, holding his slip in his hand, showed it

ajaaa

A CALL TO UAfBRELLAS.

121

exultantly to a friend, who did not begrudge him his luck,
saying, • 0-o-aye, ah've drawed a prize.' But I met an
Irishman, soon after, who had been sharper than the
Scotchman, pretending that he knew the peculiar twist
of a paper that was intended not to be 'drawed.' The
Irishman was rejoicing in his own exemption, and wickedly
gloating over his brother who was not up to the twisted
paper trick and had 'drawed.' One man, now our most
prominent citizen, and certainly one of the oldest, refused
either to draw or volunteer, for reasons the same as mine ;
he had fought in '37 on the loyalist side, and now in '38 a
warrant was out for him on the score of disloyalty ! They
tried to arrest him, thinking he would submit quietly, but
he fought the thing on every point, and these so-called
loyalists found they had no legal ground to stand on.
They dare not press the matter, so my friend was let
alone."

■'%!"r

"Our captain was a regular autocrat in manner and
appearance, and he spoke with a thick, fast utterance of a
kind better imagined than written, when he was excited.
Two others, who happened to be where we were stationed,
also had an impediment in their speech, and none of them
were remarkable for smooth temper. X. was sitting in the
tavern one day when Z. entered to get something which was
lying on the back of X.'s chair. Z. stutteringly apologized
for disturbing him. X. was annoyed at being mocked, and
stutteringly told him he would stand no such insult. Z.
wondered why it was an insult to claim his belongings on
the chair, and was equally angry at being stuttered at in
response to his polite speech. Stutters were bandied until
mutual anger, recrimination and exasperation led to a
mutual invitation to the open and an appeal to the

122

HUMOURS OF '57.

captain's sympathy, which was stutteriiigly refused, while
he advised them not to 1x5 ' such-ch f-f-fools.' "

" In the beginning of the winter of '37-38, MacNab,
president of our railroad, came with some of the directors
into our office. He stood before the fire, with his coat-
tails turned up, and seemed to have made up his mind
to rival Ororawell, if not to surpass him. * Boys, the
Rebellion has burst out and the railway has burst up.
Make out your arrears of accounts due, get them verified
and certified by the chief engineer and keep them safe —
some day you may get the money. In the meantime we
have none for you, and the banks are burst all over the
country, and if we had any to give you you could not pass
it. We have no further use for your services, unless you
choose to enlist in the volunteer corps. In that case I can
promise you lots of work at twenty-five cents a day without
board, except by foraging on the enemy. I give you
quarter of an hour to get your accounts verified, and then
go. I want to lock up the office and put the key in my
pocket by that time.'

'• I don't know what the other fellows did with them-
selves, but I got my $130 odd verified, and it will be just
sixty years next December since that money started
* coming ' to me. I joined the Guelph Light Infantry,
under Captain Poore, and that afternoon we marched over
awful roads to Ancaster. When we got there we made
camp-fires along the street, and lay down in our blankets
on the frozen ground. The object of our expedition was
to annihilate Duncombe.

" At about two in the morning we were kicked till we

5ke

up, when we were summoned to partake of the •
banquet the Government provided of pork and bread. For

A CALL TO UMBRELLAS.

123

the ensuing two weeks of our expedition we looked l»ack
in raptures at that meal, for we got hardly another bite
except an occasional one stolen from the farmers. Once I
got one hot potato from the table while the people were at
breakfast ; the other fellows took the rest, and it was all
done in a moment. We got an occasional frozen potato or
turnip, but the farmers, who were nearly all rebels tliere,
generally left their houses empty. Lane, the commissary,
was all the time a three-days' journey behind us.

" When we reached Brantford we were quartered in the
Methodist Church, three hundred of us, a coloured com-
pany from Toronto part of the three hundred. Many
queer things happened there, including a burlesque
sermon from the pulpit by a darkey, and the attempt
to take up a collection after it for commissariat pur-
poses. I was sentry that night over the so-called
stores, and as I was leaving the church a kettle of boiling
fat was brought in. I had not time to wait, so I
dipped my india-rubber cup in and took a drink. I
scalded my thumb and finger; burnt my mouth and tongue,
melted my cup, and then had two hours in which to quietly
meditate on the result of drinking red-hot fat in a hurry.
As I was leaving the church a strip of red flannel was
handed me to sew on my fur cap ; none of us had uniforms,
and the flannel was our distinguishing mark from the
enemy. While on sentry a woman crossed the road and
asked me if I had seen her husband ; I said I had seen no
one, and asked her to sew the flannel on my cap. It
appeared I was keeping sentry over her husband's bake-
shop, which had been taken for commissary purposes, and
she kept me bareheaded in a snowstorm for an hour wait-
« ing for that cap. That was our first snow, and before that
all our teaming had been by waggons. While bareheaded

124

HUMOURS OF '37.

the commissary came along to get into his store ; I chal-
lenged him, and he said he had not got the watchword. I
would not let him pass ; so he forced his way against my
bayonet. That made him go oflF vowing vengeance. Soon
Colonel MacNab and Colonel Mills and the commissary
came up. I guessed what they came for, and challenged
them. MacNab was in the m iddle. To * Advance, friend,
and give the countersign,' he said, ' Don't you know me V I
said I knew no one on duty. He then came up and
whispered * Quebec,' and I let him pass. That ended the
attempt to catch me tripping while on duty. When the
woman brought me my cap 1 said I was not going to thank
her for sewing it, because she sympathised with the rebel-
lion. Suddenly I heard musket shots, and it appeared the
rebels were marching in to take Brantford without know-
ing we were there waiting for them. A doctor in advance
of their army had been taken prisoner at the bridge ; but
he lied to MacNab, and said he was on his way to see a sick
person. This seemed probable, and he was let go, when
he rode back to warn the rebels. A shot was sent after
him, and that started the alarm I heard. All our com-
panies were mustered in line in a great snowstorm, and
furnished with thirty-six rounds of ball cartridge ; then we
began quick march to catch the enemy, who retreated
when the doctor reached them. We caught up to them at
Beemersville, when they took position and fired a volley ;
we charged, and they subsided ; so we ate their breakfast.
During the day several hundred Indians drew up in line
in an orchard and took us for rebels ; we took them for
the same. We were in line to receive them, and pails of
whiskey were dealt along. The others took it, but I re-
fused, although the sergeant who dealt it out said it would
give me Dutch courage. I said I wanted only English

A CALL TO UMBRELLAS.

125

courage. Officers met each other half way with flags of
truce for a parley. It turned out we were all of the same
side, so they brought their painted faces to within ten feet
opposite ; but we couldn't speak Indian and they couldn't
speak English, so we were not very communicative. When
there was to be no fighting I wanted ray whiskey, but the
sergeant would not give it.

" I went into the tavern to capture a prisoner almost in
my hand. He had fired two rifles at me, and then he ran
to the tavern ; my musket was not loaded, so I could not
return fire, but I threw it at him. I got him fast in the
tavern, almost transfixing him with my bayonet before I
could divert it ; as it was, his long whiskers were pinned
into the wall, and to withdraw the steel I had to plant my
foot against his waistband. But when our men came
pouring in several tried to kill him, so I stood before him
and we fenced with bayonets, I against three or four.
They desisted when I told them that the first blood spilt
would be theirs or mine, and I sent for a sergeant to come
and take the man. But when they went out I had to
staild between my prisoner and the crowd.

"We slept three deep in straw that night. I came
in late, found a place, and used another man for a pillow ;
soon a comrade came in and woke me up by sitting on my
head while he pulled oflf his boots. I shook him off three
or four times, but he remonstrated with me for being in-
considerate, as my head was the highest thing in the room
and the best for his purpose. He was so persistent, and
I so sleepy, that I agreed to let him stay if he would
promise to get off when he got rid of his boots. He pro-
mised, and I went to sleep ; and I suppose he must have
done as he said, for I did not find him on my head in the
morning.

126

HUMOURS OF '37.

"Near what waH then Sodom-and-Gomorrah wo came
on seven hayHtacks in a row by the fence line ; the cavalry
had tied their horses to the fence and divided the stacks
among them ; then the teams came up, and the stacks
were melted more thoroughly than the snow. My legs
were stiff from walking, and a pock-marked Irishman's
hands were stiff from driving ; so we exchanged musket
and whip, and I had a day's relief while driving for him.
The snow had grown so deep that a team took the lead,
breaking the way for the men, who would pass by in full pro-
cession, while the teamster drew to one side to rest his horses.
Before we left Norwich three or four hundred men gave
themselves up as prisoners, heartily sick of what they had
supposed was patriotism. When we got to Iiigersoll and
asked for food they said there that everything had been
bought up that was not poisonous ; the grocery man had
nothing to offer me but soft soap, and he recommended
that in strong terms. I declined the inference.

" Our barracks there were in the blacksmith's shop,
without a floor, and built over the creek on the only street
in the place. I took my bayonet out of the sheath and
knocked at the kitchen door of the best looking house I
could see. A lady answered, and I asked her if there was
a gentleman in the house that I could talk to. She said
no, her husband was with the officers. I said I came to
buy a loaf of bread. She could spare me none, as she was
going to give a dinner to the officers that evening, and at
any rate she did not sell bread, that was not her business.
I told her I was sorry there was no man in the house that
I could talk to, but as there was not I must tell to her
that I had been all over the village trying to buy food, and
as I had not been able to get any I had taken this bayo-
net out with a view to fighting for some if I could ttot buy

A CALL TO UMliRELLAS.

127

it; that I was soldiering to drive the rebels out, and that
we had no cummissariat ; that that Hort of thing was hard
for me and the rest of the men, when officers could have
banquets given them after V)eing too ignorant to organize a
commissariat. I told her a great many things, and apolo-
gized for having to talk to her so, and that I was sorry
there was no man to talk to. She ended by giving me
nearly a whole loaf, the price for which she said was a
York sixpence. I put a York shilling down on the table
and took my loaf to the barracks, where I cut it in as many
pieces as there happened to be men in. As soon as I had
put a piece in ray mouth I found myself reeling and get-
ting blin'^ They led me out and I fell into the creek,
with mi head under water; they picked me out again, but
my appetite was all gone, and I gave away my bit of bread.
I wandered about, and after awhile heard that the Orange-
men were having a feast. I and several others went to
the same house, and we were all in the seventh heaven of
happiness ; good food, and served by a handsome hostess
and two beautiful daughters. After eating, we joined the
Orangemen in the next room, and we spent several hours
drinking grog and singing. That was our tenth day
out, and that supper was my third meal. Generally our
meals consisted in sucking a corner of a blanket ; we kept
our mouths moist that way, and averted faintness and
reeling.

" When going to Hamilton teams were pressed from the
farmers, and we were carried seven men and a driver in
each. When we got to the mountain the angle and state
of the road sent the first sleigh over the precipice, and
ours, the second, hung over at right angles ; but we man-
aged by hugging the bank and shifting our weight. I
looked over and saw the first sleigh on a ledge about one
9

12H

HUMOURS OF '5;

hundred feet below, and ua the men were not visible I
suppose they were buried in the snow.

" When sitting in the tavern that day I found in my
pocket a small apple I had bought near Paris. I took a
bite of it and that brought the saliva into my mouth, when,
naturally, I fainted as I sat.

*' As we marched into Hamilton we had to pass by my
door, so I marched out of the ranks and into it. Of my
three meals in two weeks, only one was at the expense of
the Government."

" When I was going from Hamilton to Windsor I had
to take to sleighing at Chatham, and as we drove down
the river, hugging the shore, many large fields of ice
floated down the open. We passed three men on one
cake, another on a second, and later a fifth, all dead
and frozen Yankees, sympathisers. At Windsor I stopped
with Mr. Baby, whose house windows were riddled with
bullets, and I saw vacant lots broken up and dotted with
graves. As an encouragement for me, on my way to
Detroit, I was told that the Yankees had threatened to
hang the first six Canadians they could catch, to the
lamp posts, in return for Colonel Prince's shooting.
When I got my pass from a lieutenant to enable me to
cross the river he told me the same thing. I got over and
was trying to get my boxes examined by two men who
called themselves custom house oflicers, when I found I
had to go off, for peace' sake, with three others, to report.
I guessed what it was about, and made up my mind. They
took me to a low tavern filled with unwashed men, and I
was left sitting with one of my three while the other two
reported on me to an officer. Was I in the • war ' 1 Yes.
Which side, the patriotic) Yea. Where? Under General

— .1-

A CAl.l. TO UMIiRRI.LAS.

129

Duncoinl)e. How did ho make out? Beaten horril)ly. My
queHtioncr hod been at Navy Island, and said 'the British

had sent over a rocket, which they all looked at while

it zig/ag^'ed round until it fell plump on the island, where
it fiziced away so long that they went t<i see what was the

mutter with it, and while they were looking the

thing burst, and if it didn't kill eight ; they didn't

feel any curiosity to examine any of the rest that came.' I
treated this fellow to a drink, unrectified and tasting like
sulphuric acid. I didn't drink mine, so he did. Then I
was conducted to the officers' room, al)out eighteen gentle-
manly looking fellows, apparently American officers, who
were deputed to conduct the campaign, so as to give better
prospects of success in the conquering and annexing of
Canada. They tried to catch me tripping, but I lied man-
fully ; I had no scruples about treating such gentry so. I
knew all about what I had seen, and all I had to do was
to reverse the position. But my stay in Detroit was short,
and I soon returned to work in Canada.

" In our scrimmage with the enemy our captain of
cavalry fired his pistol at a rel)el, but his horse inoppor-
tunely pranced and the bullet ran along the animal's
neck and out at his forehead. He fell, stunned, crushing
the captain pretty badly, one of whose hands was perma-
nently injured. He told the story to some one, and that
person said, ' Don't tell that story again ; say the rebels
shot your horse, and claim a pension.' He took his friend's
advice, but I don't know about the pension. At a review
afterwards I saw the same captain on the same horse, and
I told the story to the man I was with ; we then went up
to the captain, and asked him how he got his hand hurt,
and he replied that the rebels had shot his horse !

''After our campaign I found I could drink thirteen

130

HUMOURS OF '37.

cups of tea at a meal for several successive meals ; but I
could not sleep in a bed, or in fact stay long in the house
at night at all." This narrator gives some most unflatter-
ing opinions of Colonel MacNab in his generalship in the
Buncombe campaign, and many tales of the commissariat
department alone seem to bear out his statements from a
private's point of view. He is contemptuous and satirical
in describing the methods employed in the Little Scotland
affair, " but considering we were about 30 to 1 it did not
much matter."

Another gives a summary of the few casualties at Little
Scotland, and, as a death dealer, thinks sauerkraut almost
equal to bullets : " A private from Hamilton nearly per-
ished after eating a quart of raw frozen sauerkraut. I was
detailed to bring in some prisoners, a cold trip in the snow,
and I was fired at from behind an elevation in the road in
front of us. We found two of the prisoners covered up in
an op*^^ bin in a tannery. Our luggage-train had such a
hard time that in one place we had to build a bridge and
hold it down with hand-spikes while the train went over.
We had no rest and little to eat ; no salt at all, and our
rations only frozen bread. We would gnaw at it a while
and then lay it aside to rest our jaws ; but we had to be
careful that the hero of the sauerkraut would not make
away with it, as he had a hungry maw and a canvas bag.
At night we slept in the open, and we wrapped ourselves
in Indian blankets — to find them frozen round us. But
a fire made of fence rails thawed us and our bread and
blankets."

Occasionally there were volunteers who were not made
of the stuflF which could be comfortable in a frozen blanket
or willing to face a foe. An American, engaged in ship-
ping lumber to Buffalo, with no love for Canadians, had

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ir-
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A CALL TO UMBRELLAS.

131

boards added in every possible way about his vessel and
covered with all available lanterns ai: i candles. This
display sent terror, as he expected, to the hearts of the
raw recruits. When ordered to hold themselves in readi-
ness for the advancing foe, one of them approached the
captain and declared he was not going, as he had "only
listed to Stan' guard."

I !

■49

Xe (3ranD 3Brule.

" It appears to me that there is no danger in leacimj Canada in Sir
John Cotbome^s hands for the present, and that hia powers are
amply sufficient for all emeryencies that may arise."

While in Upper Canada vigilance committees had
merged into military organizations with much intended
secrecy, in Lower Canada matters went with a higher
hand. In the former, " shooting matches," where turkeys
took the place of Loyalists, were fashionable with the more
advanced Reformers ; sharp-shooting practice went on,
with an occasional feu de joie in honour of Papineau when
some courier brought an enthusiasm-begetting letter from
below. Mr. Bidwell, an " incurable American in mind,
manners, and utterance," gave his legal opinion that trials
of skill such as these were not contrary to law. It was
found, too, that bayonets were much the handiest weapons
in hunting deer ; from humane desire some hunters added
these to their rifles, so that such monarchs of the forest as
came in their way could be speedily put out of misery.

But in Montreal and elsewhere the rebels drilled on the
military parade grounds and complained bitterly if inter-
fered with, and officers of the troops would make small
knots of amused audience near them. The bulk of these
patriots were boys, but they did not like to hear them-
selves so called ; they were tired of the times of peace,
when sons bury their fathers, and were ambitious for the

LE GRAND BRULE.

133

times of war, when fathers bury their sons. One of them
challenged an officer, demanding satisfaction for such a
" remarque insultante," and. two more jostled a soldier on
sentry, trying to take his musket from him. His officer
advised, " If the gentlemen come near you again, you have
your bayonet ; use it, and I will take the consequences."
For, withal hoping it was but an eflfect of humour, which
sometimes hath his hour with every man, instructions were
not to force matters by any hasty act. The only result of
this incident was another private challenge, an exchange
of shots, and Sir John Colborne's disapproval, all part of
the excitement surrounding the Doric-Liberty riots, when
the patriots were ambitious to be " fils de la victoire " as
well as "fils de la liberte."

On his way to the famous Six Counties meeting, Papi-
neau narrowly escaped a thrashing from a noted pugilist
who would willingly have championed England had not a
party of officers on " board the boat, bound for a fox hunt,
interfered." The officers did not scruple to ride at and
rout with their whips the parcel of young boys, who, armed
with duck guns, met Papineau as escort at Longueuil, the
lads fleeing in all directions, while Papineau made his dis-
appearance unostentatiously down a byway.

In after years Longueuil was a favourite haunt for Papi-
neau. He would sit for hours in a small rustic arbour built
upon a point of land where he could look upon a wide and
beautiful view, pondering on the things that might have
been had Sir John Oolborne not been the man he was.

As early as the 14th of October matters were thought
so ripe for insurrection that the troops were kept ready
in barracks for a minute's notice, and a loyalist meeting —
a sure forerunner of disturbance — at which Campbell
Sweeny was one of the ablest speakers, was held. By

1^4

HUMOUkS OF '57,

afternoon Loyalists and Canadians had come to blows, and
fought, off and on, into the night, the former thenceforth
called the Axe-handle Guards, from their weapons on that
occasion. On the following day a young officer named
Lysons was sent to Toronto to ask Sir Francis Bond Head
for as many troops as he could spare. He could spare all,
except the detachment at Bytown. Garrison artillery was
turned into field artillery, with guns, harness and horses
newly bought; and Sir John Colborne, apparently the
right man in the right place, was appointed commander of
the forces. Asked what Cromwell had done for his coun-
try, an old Scotch laird once answered, "God, doctor, he
gart kings ken they had a lith in their necks." Colborne
at once set about assuring Canadian rebels that they were
made on the same anatomical principles as kings. He was
not likely to make a plaything of Revolution. This old
and tried soldier had befen in New York ready to sail for
home, not a little wearied after his Upper Canadian experi-
ences, when he received his new command. He lost no
time in repairing to Quebec to organize and appraise his
available forces. He armed the Irish colonists ; what they
would do was the question, for there was much sympathy
among them for the oppressed Canadians, but Garneau
sarcastically remarks that Colborne possibly appreciated
the versatility of that race.

Hitherto the military in CanjvLi had been left unsup-
ported by their own authorities. Colborne felt them to be
something after the pattern of the standing army in the
Isle of Champagne, which consisted of two, who always sat
down ; and he proceeded to make those under him stand
up. He asked for reinforcements from home, his policy
being of the kind which dictated the display of the British
fleet in Delagoa Bay but lately — to frighten, overawe,

LE GRAND BRULE.

135

to show the case to be hopeless, and so save further
demonstration from the disaffected. By his detractors he
has been accused of taking measures to force premature
revolt, knowing that to allow the movement to ripen it
would become a grand combination of force which he
would be unable to resist. Calumny of this kind was
common and not confined to one side of politics, as witness
the theory that Mackenzie was in the pay of the British
Government to stir up rebellion.

It was a master-stroke of policy, said the cavillers, to
force the first encounter in Montreal ; and thence was
traced the line of disaster which followed. Among the
scuffles — " troubles serieux " — was the famous one between
the Doric Club and the Sons of Liberty. Warrants
against the chief malcontents followed, including Papi-
neau, Morin, O'Callaghan and Nelson. Arrests in the
rural districts were resisted strongly. After the Governor
(Gosford) had proclaimed martial law, the clash of arms
began to be heard. Lieutenant Ermatinger of the Royal
Volunteer Cavalry and some twenty men were despatched
to St. John's, via Longueuil and Chambly, to arrest Davig-
non and Demarais, two noted malcontents. Ermatinger
did his work quietly, put irons on their hands and feet and
ropes about their nedks, and after placing them in agonizing
positions on the boards of the waggon in which they were
to be conveyed to Montreal, began his return. Their
appearance of complete defeat struck the young lieutenant
as possibly a wholesome lesson to others ; so instead of
returning by a direct route he took them where the display
would not be lost. Near Longueuil he was warned by a
woman that a rescue party awaited him on the road.
Disregarding her, he went on till some three hundred men,
armed with the usual long guns, in a field on their right.

136

HUMOURS OF '37.

and protected by the high fences, proved her to be correct.
Shots were exchanged, Ermatinger himself was wounded in
face and shoulder with duck-shot, and a plucky little
Surgeon-Major of Hussars (Sharp) in the leg. Some half-
dozen others of the Loyalists were disabled, and they
began to make good their retreat. Sharp, in spite of his
wounds, managed to cover it. The waggon upset prisoners
and constables, and as there was neither time nor inclina-
tion to pacV t'oom in again the escape was due rather to
acciden thai* to rescue. Meantime a party of regulars
awaited Ermatinger's return at the ferry, ready to escort
the expected prisoners to gaol ; the civil force was so
inadequate that }je and his men had in fact been doing
the work Ox' -i-tic..;! constables. Shots in the distance,
then the straggle .;. . ounded or whole, told their story,
and it was deemed expc'lt-^at to send a stronger force. A
detachiiient of .*><^yils, K 1 artillery, and some cavalry,
comprising a few ot choso w< 'dd the day before, went
back to the scene, commanded by Wetherall. Tracks of
blood in the fields, an overturned waggon and a dead
horse, wayside houses and barns with shutters and
windows nailed tight but hearth-fires still burning, told
of conflict and hurried departure. Not an inmate or
weapon was to be found, but a pedestrian said he saw
women and children and some armed men farther on.
The cavalry in advance gave chase to some thirty armed
horsemen, who, after leading their pursuers over very
rough riding, took to the woods, leaving behind only one
solitary footman, who at once gave himself up. The
infantry then were ordered into the woods, and the
cavalry drew up along its edge, twenty or thirty shots
were exchanged, and this time they were rewarded with
seven prisoners.

LE GRAND BRULE.

137

The miscarriage of the first attempt made the rebels
ironical. Ermatinger's followers, called the Queen's
Braves, were portrayed as ''decamping across the fields,
leaving Messieurs Davignon and Demarais to their farmer
rescuers, . . . one of the gallant soldiers first dis-
charging his pistol, . . . but his hand trembling with
fear did no other execution than graze the shoulder of M.
Demarais. . . . The disciplined mercenaries of tyrants
were far from invulnerable when opposed by men resolved
to be free."

St. Denis and St. Charles were seats of discontent and
determined resistance. A combined movement was there-
fore resolved on, one comman • under Lieut. -Colonel Weth-
erall, one under Lieut. -Colonel Hughes, and the whole
under Colonel the Honourable Charles Gore. A magis-
trate's general address preceded this action, accompanying
the order of the Lieut. -General commanding. "Should
our language be misunderstood, should reason be slow to
make itself heard, it is still our duty to warn you that
neither the military force nor the civil authorities will be
outraged with impunity, and that the vengeance of the
laws will be equally prompt and terrible. The aggressors
will become the victims of their rashness, and will owe the
evils that will fall upon their heads to their own obstinacy.
It is not those who push you to excess who are your true
friends. These men have already abandoned you, and
would abandon you again at the moment of danger, while
we, who call you back to peace, think ourselves to be the
most devoted servants of our country." D. B. Viger's
name heads the list of magistrates, a signature which made
some eyes open wide.

But, in an evil moment, the Nation Canadienne perse-
vered in its trial of strength ; Papineau, at its head.

138

HUMOURS OF \{7.

proclaimed himself ** a brillijint leader and a constellation
of moral excellence," and his proclamation declared that
" all ties were severed with an unfeeling mother country,
that the glorious fate of disenthralling their native soil
from all authority, except that of the brave, democratic
spirit residing in it, awaited the young men of all the
colonies."

Meanwhile the Church issued its pastoral letter, never
having countenanced either Fapineau or his followers. The
premier Bishop had ended his personal exhortation by
proposing the health of the Sovereign, and his brother
Bishops and all the clergy had risen and drunk the toast
respectfully. His mandement was accepted with few
exceptions. At the parish church of St. Charles the
greater portion of its masculine hearers left the church
cursing, and the Abbe Blanchet, cur^ of the parish, was a
patriot who took no trouble to hide his sentiments.

At St. Charles the rebels had seized the chateau,
substantial and built on old French models, of M.
Debartch, seigneur of the manor. He fled for his life on
horseback, while General Storrow Brown regaled his
followers on the seigneur's good beef and mutton, after
which they cut down the trees and made the house into no
bad imitation of a fortress. M. L'Esp^rance, whom they
courted as a colonel, refused to act. They told him to
leave the parish at once ; he tried to do so, and then they
took him prisoner, contributing $236 of his money to their
exchequer. They loop-holed the walls, and made their
barricades in the form of a parallelogram on the acres
which lay between the river Richelieu and the hill at the
foot of which the house stood. The tree trunks were
banked with earth, a tidy fortress in appearance, but a
trap from which there was no escape in case of defeat.

LE GRAND BRULE.

139

practically of no strength against the loyalist guns. But
no outside strength of position availed where such miser-
able management prevailed within. General Brown had
lost an eye in one of the late affrays in Montreal ; he was
now thrown from his horse on the frozen ground and
severely injured. He had but a handful of men to resist
attack, for he had sent out a number the night before on
various errands. They had not returned, and the few
with him were wretchedly armed. By the time the troops
arrived he himself was in the village, trying to beat up
recruits ; and when the firing began without him he took
the precaution to remove himself still farther. The
unhappy followers he had forsaken were being killed or,
trying to escape, taken ; every building but the chateau
itself was burned and the barricades demolished. The
fields were by this time covered with flying women and
children. One woman, who evidently had not time to
save herself, was found dead, after the battle, in the midst
of the smoking ruins of her dwelling.

There were two cannon within the fortress, but they
were only used twice. Wetherall posted his men on the
small hill, got his guns into place and began to play on the
insurgents, who were left no egress but by the river.
They managed to gall him, one party making a sortie ; the
firing was kept up for an hour but ever grew fainter, while
the balls from the field-pieces made great breaches in the
rude earthworks, and the undisciplined, unofficered defen-
ders were deeper in confusion. Then came the cruel
advance with fixed bayonets, and all who did not ask for
quarter received none ; the Richelieu was on the other
side of them, and " many leaped into the lake who were
not thirsty." " The slaughter on the side of the rebels
was great," wrote Wetherall \ "I counted fifty-six bodies,

140

HUMOURS OF 'r,

and many more were killed in the buildings and the
bodies burnt." The rebel record reads not at all like
this, and ends, " One hundred of these brave men took
shelter in a barn filled with hay and straw. The Royal
butchers set fire to it and burned them alive. One hundred
were drowned in crossing the Richelieu. The village of
St. Oharles was entirely burned by the soldiers during the
attack ; those of the inhabitants who escaped the flames
perished in the woods from the effects of fright and cold.
. . . The prisoners that fell into their hands were
inhumanly treated, and many of the wounded murdered in
cold blood." But, as a brother officer records, " Nothing
succeeds like success. Colonel Wetherali was lauded to
the skies."

•' We understand the capture of St. Charles was effected
with great ease," says a correspondent in a tone admiring
the burning and complete destruction ; " no loss of conse-
(juence to the troops." " As soon as possible after the
action, the troops, with the greatest humanity, began to
bury the bodies of the killed, the scene truly deplorable,
wives and daughters ransacking among the bodies for
those to whom they wished to pay the last rites." The
Montreal Courier said that hot shot had been used.

In Montreal the welcome to the troops was, as might be
expected, extravagantly joyful : " It was an interesting
sight to see the hundreds who crowded on the wharf to
witness it. The cavalry landed first, two of them carrying
the liberty pole and cap erected at St. Charles at the meet-
ing of the Six Counties, with its wooden tablet bearing the
inscription ' A P$ipineau par ses citoyens reconnaissants,'
the former fragment of the spoils looking sadly like a fool's
cap upon a barber's pole. The artillery followed, with the
two little guns taken at St. Olivi^re in addition to their

LE GRAND BRULE.

141

proper armament. After them rode the commanding
officer, followed by the bands of the Royals and the infan-
try, the first company of which followed the prisoners,
thirty-two in numl)er."

" The pole, it was hoped by some, would lie deposited in
that proud fane of British glory, where the tattered
ensigns of extinguished rebels in Ireland and of WockI-
hunted Covenanters in Scotland wave over the tombs of
sleeping monarchs in melancholy conjunction with the
virgin standard of Bunker's Hill and the trophies of such
days as Trafalgar, Cape Vincent, and Waterloo ! " ! !

It had been intended that the other half of the force,
under Colonel Hughes, Colonel Gore accompanying it,
should appear before disaffected and mutinous St. Denis
simultaneously with Wetherall's appearance at St. Charles.
But the gods of war were not with them as with the
others. Torrents of rain, pitchy darkness, rain turning to
snow, men and horses sinking in mud, harness breaking,
knee deep in water or winding along trails did the column
bound for St. Denis find itself, while a few broken bridges
were the only drawback to the victorious Wetherall. Four
miles away, they surmised their plight and slow approach
had led to a warning to their enemies and time for prepar-
ation. For eleven hours they toiled, at the rate of a mile and
a half an hour, the mud pulling oflf the men's boots and
moccasins. The cavalry were kept busy driving away
parties who were destroying the bridges, all of which had
to be repaired before the gullies and streams could be
crossed and the howitzers carried over. A most useful man
was Comet Campbell Sweeny, of the Mounted Dragoons, who
prevented much damage and was alert in securing early
intelligence. They heard the church bells ring the alarm —
in rebel language usually called the tocsin — and they found

142

HUMOURS OF \17.

a welcome awaiting them from some eight hundred men
armed with a Hcant stock of go<xi and bad guns, pikes,
pitchforks, and cudgels.

Before Colonel Gore left he had sent on young Lieuten-
ant Weir, in plain clothes, to prepare for the jwlvance. He
was to meet the troops at Sorel, but failed to do so, as they
had taken a byroad known as the Pot-au-Beurre to avoid
Ht. Ours, a stronghold of the rel)els. This Weir did not
know. He took a caluche, and insisted that the man should
drive him by the very road which it was impolitic to take.
He gave up this caleche, being urged by a Frenchman to
take one driven by himself. Weir l)elieved the man's
assertions, engaged the caliche for the balance of his
journey, and was driven straight to Nelson's quarters.
When he arrived there and was stopped by the rebel sentry
he boldly asked where the troops were. This was the first
intimation to the others that the troops were expected.
Tied hand and foot, he was put into a cart and removed
under escort. As Weir was at once arrested he had dis-
appeared before his friends' arrival. Among the prepara-
tions Nelson immediately set his son Horace and his pupil
Dansereau to make bullets.

At the outskirts another skirmishing party gave the
troops a brisk salute, and from nine in the morning till
four in the afternoon the struggle lasted. Success in resist-
ance seemed so uncertain that Nelson persuaded Papineau
to retire and save the person most sacred to the cause.
" It is not here you are most useful," said he ; " we shall
want your presence at another time." Papineau argued
that his retirement at such a moment might be misinter-
preted, but eventually agreed that his rdle was more that
of orator than soldier — to breathe fire-eating words rather
than to stand the fire of Colonel Gore's guns. Nelson then

LE GRAND lUWLR.

143

rofle out to reconnoitre, wjih afraid he would fall in with
the tulvanoin^ column, and came hack at a hard gallop.
In the m(>antim(> Captain Markham at the head of his men
was pushing on, takin<{ house after house, till he reached a
stockade across the road which f««iiced off the lar^e stone
huilding, four stories high, where Nelson had ensconced
himself, with other houses so situate<l as to strengthen its
position. The howitzer now came into f)lay ; one of the
houses was taken, and attention wjis turned towards secur-
ing a large distillery near by. Captain Markham, severtily
wounded in the knee and with two- balls in his neck, still
kept with his men ; but they, too, l)egan to fall. The pre-
vious night's toil, the cold and hunger, told on them ;
ammunition began to run out, and the insurgents received
additions to their numbers from th< neighbouring villages.
One of the defenders was Pere Lafl^che, who had l)een
soldier before priest and now combined his callings. He
was telling his beads when he first caught sight of the
troops, and in a twinkling xchangcd his rosary for a
musket. " Hue done ! " he cried, and a ball sped to the
death of an advance guard. Another, David Bourdages,
son of a celebrated patriot, kept two boys busy loading for
him for nearly two hours ; he then trancjuilly lit his pipe and
began again, still smoking. The chronicle says that nearly
every shot dealt death. At that rate of computation a
simple problem in junior mathematics would show that
Bourdages alone could have comfortably despatched half
the attacking force.

Meanwhile Weir, hurried off in Nelson's cart, complained
to his captors of the tightness of the cords which bound
him. Captain Jalbert, two men, Migneault and Lecour,
with the young driver Gustin, who formed his guard, dis-
puted with him ; he insisted, they assailed him, and he
10

144

HUMOURS OF '37.

jumped out of the cart and underneath it to escape their
lilows. He was fired at twice with pistols, and had sabre
cuts on his head and hands, the latter hacked away, as,
tied together, they vainly attempted to screen the former.
Dragged from beneath the cart the butchery was finished,
and the body wiis secured under the water of the Riche-
lieu by a pile of stones.

With the troops it had become a question how to man-
age a retreat. There was no ambulance, there were seven-
teen wounded, and it was decided to remove Captain
Markham oiAy. The circumstances demanded that they
should so be left, but their comforts were attended to as
far as might be. The rebel chronicles say that the troops
deserted their wounded.

The insurgents had turned from the defensive to the
o£fensive, and came out to dislodge some of their enemies
in rear of a barn ; a galling fire was kept up from the for-
tified house, and Captain Markham, in transit, was again
wounded, as was also one of his bearers. Tlie rebel fire
was dexterous and precise ; the retreating party had to
cross a frozen ploughed field, and Captain Markham was
put in the only cart and sent to the rear. Hughes needed
all his cool address to conduct the rear guard, for the in-
habitants seemed to swarm from every direction. Thus
hampered they only removed themselves some three miles
when, exhausted, in a freezing atmosphere, their gun-car-
riage broken down and frozen in the ground, they spiked
the gun and threw its remaining ammunition in the river.
They kept on their march till daylight, by which time the
men were nearly barefoot, for their moccasins were cut by
the rough ice and frozen earth ; their horses were lamed,
and the lighted villages through which they passed made
them apprehensive of attack. At daylight a halt was

LE GRAND BRULE.

145

called, and the men, half dead through fatigue and hunger,
lay wherever they could find a place in the bams of a
deserted farmhouse. A young officer who in the plight
of darkness the night before had got a lantern, stuck it to
a pole and sent it on ahead of the men as a guiding star,
now turned his attention to a search for potatoes — which
he found and boiled in sufficient quantity to allow each
man three or four before the weary march was resumed.

Nelson had had his triumph ; a short-lived one, for he
at once had to follow the advice so recently given by him
to Papineau, that one's discretions are one's best valours.
According to a manuscript letter historically quoted, the
English commander had more faith in the dictum of a
priest than in his own guns. Perhaps a submission gained
by obedience to a higher authority than military force
might be of greater service to the crown they served.
Wetherall sent for the cure of St. Denis — as soon as " il
voyait qu'il n'avait pas a faire a des enfants" — and be-
sought him to tell his people that if they did not succumb
they would be tormented in even a worse place than Lower
Canada; that if they persisted, he would refuse them
I. j.-:'A. The last was a former expedient to ensure an ap-
pearance of loyalty. Many graves were to be seen in old
gardens or by the wayside along tl e south coast, outside
of consecrated ground, the graves of *' Canadian rebels ; "
rebels who, during the Revolution of 1776, had taken part
with the Americans, thinking that by so doing they would
hasten the coming of " the old folks back again." " You
smell English," said one of them on his death-bed, raising
himself to give his cur^ a scowling defiance on this his one
strongest conviction, and, turning to the wall, died, outside
the Church but true to France.

After the curb's menace, " which succeded "k merveille,"

146

HUMOURS OF '37.

the men on whom Nelson had counted were reduced one
half, a story confirmed by Colonel Gore's later despatch,
wherein he also says, "I was accompanied by Mons. Crenier,
the parish priest, who gave me every information in his
power." The Colonel revisited St. Denis with an increased
force, but found the place abandoned ; Nelson had escaped
with Papineau and others, although there were many signs
of greater defences having been made. So the troops
marched on to St. Charles with their rescued howitzer.
Montreal was now put in a state of defence ; stockades sur-
rounded it, and only a few gates, well guarded, were left
open.

There were two searches now to be made, one for the
body of Weir, another for the bodies, living or dead, of
Papineau, Nelson, and others, the heads of the first two
being valued at $4,000 and $2,000 respectively. The
melancholy duty of searching for Weir was given to a
lieutenant of the 32nd, Griffin, who, conducted to the
place by a young girl who had witnessed the hiding of it,
found the body. Several of the fingers were split, an
axe, some said a spade, having been the last weapon used
upon him. He had taken breakfast with Nelson and was
well treated throughout by him. On leaving the house,
Nelson, in Weir's presence and after begging him not to
be refractory, had commanded the men to treat him with
all possible attention, but on no account to allow him to
escape. Their tale was that the sound of the firing, as
they travelled from the point of attack, so excited Weir
that in his struggles he loosened the binding of one of his
arms, and springing from them ran. They overtook him,
and the appearance of his body told the sequel. It was
taken to Montreal for burial with military honours, in
which regulars and volunteers took an equal share. To

LE GRAND BRULE.

147

the patriot eye this natural action was making "a vile
use " of an " unfortunate occurrence," to " waken the old
British horror against Frenchmen, Jacobins and blood-
thirsty revolutionists." As a set-off to this peculiar view
of a terrible act there is the following sentence anent the
second occupation of St. Denis, by a Tory paper : " We
are not sanguine enough to expect that any regular
opposition will be attempted."

" Jock Weir, remember Jock Weir ! " now became the
war-cry of his incensed comrades.

The hunt for the leaders began in earnest. Papineau, a
lawyer of some repute, was then a man of about forty-eight
years, of good average height, inclined to corpulency,
certainly not the figure to imagine under small haystacljs
or at full length in ditches. His face was strongly marked
with those features which proclaim a Jewish ancestor
somewhere ; dark very arched eyebrows, hair nearly black,
the eye dark, quick and penetrating ; an exterior of
determination and force in keeping with the well-stored
mind, conversational power, cultivation and gentlemanly
address which marked the man. His eloquence had passed
into a proverb. An unusually precocious Canadian child
always had said of it, " C'est un Papineau."

His followers had every excuse for their worship, and
thought him equal, perhaps superior, to Washington. His
father, '* le pere des patriotes," who had not let his patriotism
go the length of severance from Britain, frowned on the
more advanced son, still keeping to feudal tenure and the
Catholic religion as the priests taught. The Code Papineau
junior had not much feudalism in it, and politics may be
said to have been the son's religion.

So also did Robert Nelson say that feudal nonsense
was abolished forever, and the Church of not much more

148

HUMOURS' OF '57.

account. He and his brother Wolfred had their own
interpretation of their relative's saying that ' England
expects every man to do his duty." Mrs. Wolfred Nelson's
grandfather, le Marquis de Fleurimont, was one of the
French officers wounded in September, 1759 ; afterwards
he took the oath of allegiance, and was again wounded in
the repulse of Montgomery before Quebec. These Frenchi-
fied Englishmen seem to have been born for something
better than treason, stratagem and spoils ; they took none
of the last and found the first two meant prison and
expatriation. Wolfred Nelson was by far the best looking
of the leaders, tall, with handsome features, and had
moreover a brave and manly disposition. His proclama-
tions were yonderfully worded, his Athanasian rendering
declaring the Canadian Republic to be " one and indivisi-
ble." Colonel Gore sought to take these prominent men,
having heard that they were secreted at St. Hyacinthe.
Accordingly a young officer and a picked party were told
off, their sleighs without bells being timed to arrive after
dark at the house where the leaders were supposed to be.
The guide brought the sleighs there somewhere near mid-
night, and they found the usual comfortable French
quarters, solid barns with yards and outbuildings. A
chain of sentries was posted round the place and through
the buildings ; a knock brought madame, a most charming
old lady, to the window ; they were very welcome, and she
showed them not only over the house, but she kept them
seeking in many corners they would not have found for
themselves, in cellars where stores of winter vegetables
and fruit lay in rows, cupboards full of treasures, in
cavernous depths beyond rafters which promised a reward
for search, but only revealed much bacon and ham, flitches
" the manifest product of a high-caste gramnivorous pig."

LE GRAND BRULE.

149

But Papineau, on the watch, had had time to get to a
deep ditch which ran back into the fields, whence he made
his way to a small bush near by. From there he escaped to
the States ; but Nelson was taken and lodged in Kingston
gaol. Years afterwards, at an evening party, after his
return from France, the charming, white-haired Papineau
said to a gentleman who had been the soldier so prominent
in the search, " I hear you are the officer who came to

call on me at Madame 's, in '37. You little know

how nearly you took me. . . . You did your work
admirably, for, though we were on the watch, I had only
just time to run away down that wet ditch before your
sentries met." Among the effects then seized were many
papers of value to the captors, one of them a letter from
Papineau, finishing, "Continue to push it (the rebellion)
as vigorously as you can," and another, a schoolboy letter
from Nelson's son, a lad of fourteen, somewhat after the
manner of Tom Sawyer : " I wish that it (the rebellion)
will do well and without any noise, which I hate very
much — except with the other side. I believe that the
prediction of that man Bourgeoi will be accomplished,
which is that the province will be all covered with blood
and dead bodies." A Montreal newspaper deplores " the
fattening of Nelson for the gallows," and considered that
"death on the scaffold was the best example such a
father could give to such a child."

And yet Dr. O'Callaghan could write from over the
border, " If you are to blame for the movement, blame
then those who plotted and continued it, and who are to
be held in history responsible for it. We, my friends,
were the victims, not the conspirators ; and were I on my
deathbed I could declare before heaven that I had no more
idea of a movement of resistance when I left Montreal and

■/.:M^

160

HUMOURS OF '37.

went to the Richelieu River with M. Papineau than I have
now of being bishop of Quebec. And I also know that M.
Papineau and I secreted ourselves for some time in a
farmer's house in the parish of St. Marc, lest our presence
might alarm that country and be made a pretext for rash-
ness. ... I saw as clearly as I now see the country
was not prepared. " Dr. O'Callaghan, the Jidus Achates of
Papineau, the editor of the Vindicator ^ was not likely to
have been as innocent as he afterwards remembered him-
self.

Another who managed to hide safely but nearer home,
after the battle of St. Charles, was George Cartier. With
his cousin Henri he passed the winter at the house of
Antoine Larose, in his native village of St. Antoine, p.nd
the person destined to be his father-in-iaw was in hiding
not far off. The future Sir George, to make sure of a quiet
resting-place, wrote, and had published in a Montreal
newspaper : "George E. Cartier, advocate, a young man of
great ability and talent, was found frozen in the woods by
his father. He might have served his Queen in the
highest councils of his country had he not been brought
up in a line of politics which led to his untimely end."
He read his self-description and epitaph, and handed it to
his cousin, remarking, "At present, my dear Henri, we
can sleep tranquil." But he reckoned, not without his
host, who was incorruptible, but without his host's servant-
maid. The maid had an admirer, and the admirer grew
jealous of the two young men who enjoyed advantages
superior to those granted him, made a scene with his
fiancee, threatened to inform on them and to denounce
M. Larose to the authorities for harbouring rebels. So the
two young men, nephews many times removed of the
celebrated Jacques, had to decamp to the less confined

LE GRAND BRULE.

151

neighbourhood of les Etats Unis. In after years, when
Mackenzie with questionable taste treated the episode of
the rebellion as a comedy, he met M. Cartier, in parlia-
mentary obstructive debate, and twitted him that they
had both been "out" on the wrong side, and that the
Government had shown its appreciation of the comparative
values of their heads. He referred to the price of a
thousand pounds set on his own, and only three hundred
on that of the young man whose sudden demise from
hunger and cold in the woods of Verch^res had spoilt
" une brilliante carri^re."

Naturally, Montreal was now in a highly excited state,
distracted at defeat and elated e.t victory ; openly rejoic-
ing or inwardly chafing, as the ca&e might be. The specie
in the Bank found its way for safe keeping to Quebec,
ammunition, arms and soldiers be^'an to arrive, volunteer
battalions were formed ; the gaol was crowded with
prisoners ; the outlets of the city were barricaded, and a
general hum of expectation was in the air.

Detachments of the 1st Royals under Colonel Wetherall,
of the 32nd and 83rd under Maitland and Dundas, the
Volunteer Montreal Rifle Corps under Captain Leclerc,
and a strong squadron of horse with six pieces of artillery,
fuUy served, under command of Major Jackson, one sunny
day defiled through the streets with colours waving and
bands playing. The field battery, rocket troop and all the
transports were on runners, for it was now the 15th of
December and the snow was deep. The Commander-in-
chief, the generally popular and much-feared hero of
Waterloo and a hundred other fights. Sir John Colbome,
with his richly caparisoned sta£f and escorted by two hun-
dred Dragoons, brought up the rear of this imposing display.

152

HUMOURS OF '37.

They proceeded to the western extremity of the island,
past the ruins of two old forts and the smaller remains of a
larger one, all telling of former war times. At the expansion
of the river, caused, by its narrow outlets, was the Lake of
the Two Mountains, where one of the hills, in summer
clothed with richest verdure to the water's edge, was called
Calvary. Within its shadow lay St. Eustache, St. Benoit,
and Ste. Scholastique ; any of them might have been
named Golgotha, so soon were they to become the place of
skulls. " Le Grand Brul^" was so named before "le vieux
briilot" was to rechristen it with fire and blood, for a
forest fire had swept it at the end of the last or the begin-
ning of this century ; the " Petit Briil^ " was near Ste.
Scholastique — names significant to the dwellers there of a
fate worse than burning by forest fire.

St. Eustache, most picturesque of the early French set-
tlements, was built on a tongue of land. At that day it
consisted of a square of handsome stone houses, comfort-
able and well finished, in which the wealthv but discon-
tented owners lived ; hard by were the manor-house, the
presbyt^re and convent, and in the centre stood the parish
church, its two towers topped by spires as glittering as the
" panoply of war " then in full sight ready for the attack.
The people of this village, between five and six hundred,
were enthusiastic Liberals, disaffected French — traitors,
rebels or patriots, according to the point of view. Sir John
Golborne saw them in strong colours, and was determined
on their downfall, extermination if necessary. The defence
was under Dr. Ch^nier and Girod. The latter, a misguided
Swiss adventurer, had figured in several of the South
American revolutionary wars, and later was a prot^g^ of
Perrault the philanthropist ; his career was one of singular
folly ; he loved to appear in buccaneer style, a£fected the

LE GRAND BRULE.

153

mauner and language of a dictator, and accented hifi doings
by usually riding a fiue grey mara as his charger, which he
had stolen from M. Dumont, a loyal Canadian. The parish
priest, M. Paquin, assisted by his vicar, who read Colborne's
proclamation — a document not to be misunderstood and not
of a cheerful tenor — succeeded in persuading the peasants
to return to their homes in peace, that nothing but dis-
aster awaited them if they persisted, and as a result of such
persuasions but one solitary person was left to represent
an insurgent garrison. But some fifteen hundred from
about the Briil^ soon replaced them, some regularly
armed, but most of them unarmed. M. Paquin now
sent for Gh^nier, expostulated with him and showed
how his undertaking was perilous and hopeless. Gh^nier
was moved to tears, but he maintained that the news of
Wetherall's victory at St. Charles was false ; he was
resolved to die with arms in his hands. He and Girod
turned the ecclesiastics out of their house, making it
another point of defence and the church into a citadel.
Many of the prudent were by now wending their way
towards Montreal ; some arrests followed ; and those who
remained and found themselves unarmed were assured by
Ch^nier, " Be easy about that ; there will be men killed.
You can take their muskets."

A habitant from I'Isle J^su brought word of the
approach of the troops, and soon Sir John Colborne's two
thousand men stood in the valley which looked made but
for the place of peace. The whole force, field pieces,
rocket mortar and train waggons, covered two miles of
roadway. The advance guard would have reached there
with the habitant had not the ice been unsafe, causing the
men to make a detour to Ste. Rose, thereby increasing the
march by six miles. The water had be

open

days

154

HUMOURS OF '.77.

before, but to prove that it would bear, Colonel Gugy —
" a tall, majeMtic-looking gentleman who expreHsed himself
in a beautiful manner" — galloped from shore to shore.
About noon all had arrived, and as they neared the
village and took up position their numbers and character
must have impressed the unhappy people with the hope-
lessness of the coming conflict. The usual desertions
began, until Ghenier, looking at one road full of his
enemies and another full of his retreating countrymen,
addressed the few who remained with him : " My brothers,
behold advancing before you, to burn and destroy your
beautiful homes, the servile mercenaries of the despotic
Government which has enslaved your country." And they
in return cried the old cry, "Liberty or Death." . . .
" We will never desert our wives and little ones." Officers
in charge of divided squads put in a state of defence the
manor house, the presbytere, the convent and one villager's
house, while Chenier, in person taking command of from
sixty to eighty, many of whom were ' still without arms,
went to the church, where the women and children had
already fled. The last, for further safety, he placed in the
vaults underneath. The doors were then barricaded, and
the windows removed to convert the openings into loop-
holes. Thus did they await the coming annihilation,
" nor," said a British officer afterwards, " did they quail as
our overwhelming force approached ; they raised one loud
and shrill terrific cheer, and then all was still as death till
the cannonading and musketry began." The field battery
opened fire ; but there was no reply. At first it was sup-
posed that the place had been abandoned ; but as another
brigade came down the village street a rattling fire poured
from the church. It was evident they meant to show
fight. The howitzers tried to batter down the barricaded

LE GRAND BRULE.

155

„

doors, but without effect. Colonel Jackson, of the artil-
lery, asked for a surrender. The answer " was plucky but
idiotic ; " they pooh-poohed the offer, and among other
preparations took a cannon to the top of the steeple.
Then JackHon set his own gun, blew the steeple and all
that was in it down, and those below who ran out of the
doors were bayoneted. An otficer who went into one of
the empty houses close by upset a stove and placed on the
coals all the combustibles he could find. In a moment the
line of fire lengthened, and under cover of the smoke
Colonel Wetherall and his men came at the double down
the street ; cavalry and still another regiment surrounded
the village to prevent chance of escape, with a further pre-
caution of a corps of volunteers spread out on the ice to
pick off any unfortunate should he get through such a
double line. The envelopment of fire was completed.
The church and houses were now all ablaze. Driven by
the flames the unhappy defenders abandoned one position
for another, only to find the second worse. At tlie back
of the church a small door leading into the sacristy had
been forced, and the soldiers, groping their way through
smoke and darkness, led by Colonel Gugy, were shot at
by the few who remained. Gugy was one of those
wounded. The staircase was gone, and another officer
lighted a fire beneath the altar, got his men out, and the
cessation of shots within told the success of his work.
The simultaneous fire pouring on the French from all sides
was liking boiling water on an anthill. Men half-roasted,
with bullets already lodged in their miserable bodies,
women creeping from the crypt, found that what flame
and bullet had spared the bayonet could finish. Ch^nier
and the few remaining, mad with despair, leaped from the
windows into the graveyard, and fought there anew with

156

HUMOURS OF '37.

all the desperation of a forlorn hope. A ball brought the
leader down ; but rallying his sinking strength he rose, to
be again shot, until, with the fourth bullet, he rose no
more — the blackened semblance of a man. He died
" comme un h^ros digne de la Gr^ce antitjue." In the
mdl^e a few managed to escape, but for a moment only ;
those who made for the ice were picked off there, and those
who fell on their knees and begged for quarter heard
"Jock Weir, remember Jock Weir." By half-p'iPt\ifour
the work was finished. Cannon and musketry had ceased,
but the houses still burned ; the churchyard and the con-
vent were heaped with dead, and the wounded, burning
alive, received now and then a merciful shot or a stab
from a bayonet. The village swine added yet another
horror. " Pshaw," said a Scotch volunteer to a squeamish
comrade, " it's nothing but French hog eating French hog."
Pathos was added to horrors, when it appeared that the
pockets of some of the youngest of the insurgents were full
of marbles — toys turned to missiles.

The air was insufferable, but in spite of it loot and
pillage went on. At Montreal, in the clear atmosphere of
a Canadian December night, the bright belt of illuminated
sky told as plainly as telegraph that the expedition had
been a success. " Such a scene," wrote a correspondent to
the press, " was never witnessed. It must prove an awful
example. The artillery opened fire at half-past one.
Everything was over, except the shooting of a few fugi-
tives, by half-past three."

Quite a different view of the case is found in official
despatches. Sir John Colbome writes to Lord Glenelj.
30th March, '38 : " On the evening in which the troop.^
took possession of St. Eustache, the loyal inhabitants of
that village and neighbourhood, anxious to return to their

•

LE GHAND BRULE,

157

homes and to protect the remainder of their property, fol-
lowed the troops ; and I believe it is not denied that the
houses which were burnt, except those that were necessar-
ily destroyed in driving the rebels from the fortified church,
were set on fire by the Loyalists of St. Eustache and Rivi6re
du Ch6ne, who hod been driven from the country in
October and November." And in a despatch from Glenelg
to Lord Durham, June 2nd, '38, we find : " Having laid
that despatch before the Queen, Her Majesty has com-
manded me to desire Your Lordship to signify to Sir J.
Colborne, that while she deeply laments that any needless
severities should have been exorcised by one class of Her
Majesty's subjects against another. Her Majesty is gratified
to learn, as she fully anticipated, that her troops are in no
degree responsible for any of the excesses which unhappily
attended the defeat of the insurgents at St. Benoit and St.
Charles, but that in the harassing service in which they
were engaged they maintained unimpaired their high char-
acter for discipline and training."

Certainly some of her officers did their best to make up
for "needless severity." Colonel Gugy and Colonel Griffin
afterwards were unwearied, and in a measure successful,
in their mediations between exasperated nationalities.
The former persusuled many at the time to return to their
houses, and priest and layman alike commended him in his
rdle of pacificator. Colborne appointed Colonel Griffin
military magistrate, with civil powers, in the County of
Two Mountains, and in that office he protected the weak,
raised the fallen, and did much to assuage the necessary
horrors of civil war.

When the cur^ Paquin had begged the people to give in,
Ch^nier's wife added her entreaties, saying there was no
disgrace in surrendering to such a superior force. But her

158

HUMOURS OF '.?r.

husband had only fondly kisHed her, repeating that well-
worn sentence, " La garde meurt mais ne se rend pas," bade
her good-bye and sent her to a place of safety. One tradi-
tion has it that a greater ordeal than farewell and death
awaited her. The usual terrors of the law were expended
upon her scorched remnant of a husband ; the mutilated
(juarters lay tossed about in the house of one Anderson,
near the battlefield, and she was not allowed to bury them.
After a burial of some fashion she had the hardihocd to
seek the remains, disinter and secrete them, and when op-
portunity came, in the refuge of a friend's garret, sew the
parts together and have them buried properly. The edge
of romance is dulled when we read that there was more of
the hot head and mulish foot about Chenier than the hero ;
but to the present day there is a local phrase, " Brave commo
Chenier." The day after the battle Colborne's chief offi-
cers declared that they were obliged to despatch Chenier.
A patriot dame standing by said none but an English
soldier wjis capable of killing a wounded man. The Abbe
Pa<iuin declares that the mutilation of the body and the
removal of the heart were incidents in the 'post mortem, held
by the desire of the surgeons, to ascertain the precise
wound of which he died, and the historian De Bellefeuille
corroljorates his assertion. This scarcely accounts for
parading the heart about on the point of a baj'onet, and it
is also pertinently jisked, " Depuis quand ouvre-t-on les
corps des soldats tues sur un champ de bataille pour savoir
de quoi ils sont morts ! "

•

Terrified at the fate of St. Eustache, the inhabitants of
St. Benoit turned out to meet Sir John, a white flag dis-
played from every window. At Ste. Schclastique they
carried their emblems of submission in their hands, white

LE GRAND BRULE.

159

flags and lighted tiipers, sinking on their knees in the
roadway as they presented them. At Carillon they did
the same. Like the three hundred men of Liege, "all in
their white shirts and prostrate on their knees praying for
grace," the crowd through which Colljorne passed pre-
sented the appearance of two distinct assortment of souls,
". . . of the elect and of the damned." There were
but few of the elect in this case. Arrests w_/e made and
the torch was applied, although Christie says " He dealt
with much humanity, dismissing most of them." Of Col-
borne it might be said, " Where he makes a desert, calls
it peace." The Glengarry Highlanders met the troops
at St. Benoit, and in the succeeding burnings, according to
Gore's own words, " were in every case, I believe, the in-
struments of infliction ; " such irregular troops were not to
be controlled. " Many of those who served as volunteers,"
says Christie, " were persons who had been exceedingly ill-
treated by the patriots while in the ascendant."

The ironical Bishop Lartigue now found it well to write
another pastoral. After all the carnage was over the
voices of the clergy generally were uplifted, this time
thanking God that peace was restored. " How now almut
the fine promises made by the seditious of the wonderful
things they would do for you ? " asks this terrible bishop.
" Was it the controlling spirit of a numerical majority of
the people of this country, who, according to the insurgents,
ought to have sway in all things, that directed their mili-
tary operations ? Did you find yourselves in a condition
of greater freedom than before, while exposed to all sorts
of vexations, threatened with fire-raisings, loss of goods,
deprivation of life itself, if you did not submit to the
frightful despotisms of these insurgents, who by violent,
not persuasive means, caused more than a moiety of all the
II

160

HUMOURS OF \37.

dupes they had to take up arms against the victorious
armies of our sovereign V

No sooner had rebellion come to a head and French
blood flowed than France remembered where Canada was,
and quickly learned much about her. People were ask-
ing in wonderment what all the trouble could be. The
Gallican remembered his cousin-several-times-removed, and
set about helping him. One journal advised volunteers
and auxiliaries, and another made the oft-repeated com-
parison between Canada and Ireland. Engraved copies of
Papineau's portrait adorned windows, and biographical
sketches of him appeared in the newspapers. Le Journal
des Dkhat8 did not confine itself to printed sympathy, but
suggested that arms and ammunition should be smuggled
into Canada and volunteers enlisted to go there to help.

This sympathy spread far afield in Europe. At the
Russian Emperor's birthday fete at New Archangel the
Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Naval Forces gave a
splendid banquet, at the close of which " a collection was
made for the unfortunate patriots of Canada." Without
exception, every one present contributed, with a result of
22,800 francs ; and what is more, this sum was forwarded
to its destination by the Admiral himself. We hope he
had more definite geographical ideas than had the nearer
French. Given a letter to post to Quebec, before rebellion
had brought it and its people prominently forward, a post-
office clerk in Paris gravely asked if it should go via
Panama or Cape Horn.

And then France remembered that those who had re-
turned at the time of the Conquest said " it was very cold
over there."

fallows 1}ilL

" Up then, brave Canadians! Get your rifles and make short work
of it."

" Caiuulians, roily round your Head,
2f^or to theie Itase insurgents yield."

*' Sir Francis Bond HemVs entire f/overnnient of Upjier Canada was
one long, earnest, undeviating opposition to the iiuttructions of
H. M. colonial ministers." — Blake.

The winter of 1837, in England, was so severe that the
mails were conveyed in sleighs, even in the southern
counties, a freak of nature no doubt meant to put her in
sympathy with the many million arpents of snow by that
time dyed in patches with good Canadian blotxl. In the
colony it set in stormily ; but iva Deceml)er lengthened it
became mild and open throughout the country, until on
the day of Gallows Hill that month of stonn had almost
turned to the brightness and healthy l)eauty of a '^anadian
June. The brilliant sunlight which was to burnish up
the arras of the men of Gore hjid power to convert the
blackest landscape into a thing of beauty — a scene peculiar
to the land of shield of crystal, golden grain and Italian
sky. Straight from the I^iurentian Hills the sun turned
his roses and purples on the bright tin spires of parish
churches, blazed in small squares of white-curtained habi-
tant windows, where weeping wives and mothers execrated
the Dictator in voluble patois, and glared on the blackened
drama of Le Grand Brule. The snow which made the

162

HUMOURS OF 'S7.

background of that Lower Canadian picture sparkled under
the prismatic colours, and lit up the icy fragments like the
lustres of a chandelier. The mysterious bell of St. Regis
sounded its Angelus through the rosy atmosphere ; the
Caughnawagas, waiting but a word to come forward in
defence of their new Great. Mother, grew a deeper tint as,
turned from the sunk sun, they knelt to their aves.
Farther on it touched on the cabins of Glengarry, where
ninety-nine out of every hundred men were variations of
the name Macdonald, >^ith only a nickname — Shortnose,
Longnose, Redhead or Mucklemou' — to distinguish them ;
all busy furbishing up every available weapon, ready to
follow where they might l)e called. If one /ecord profanes
not their memory some of them went out as infantry, to
return as kilted cavalry ; naught but intervention of stern
discipline prevented Jean Baptiste's herds being in front
of the kilts on the return march ; their genius as linguists
had failed when their Gaelic fell on pat<3ls-accu8tomed ears.
We follow the sun through the Thousand Islands,
where it touched each evergreen crest with glory to
make a crown of isles for the great pirate king. Bill
Johnston, who had a trick of posing, blunderbus in hand,
ready for attack ; to the homes of the Bay of Quinte,
where the descendants of Rogers' Rangers were ready for
defence ; to the winter rainbows of the Niagara and the
opaline ripples in La Traverse of the St. Clair. It tinged
the spiral columns of smoke which singly rose from immi-
grant cabins and, mingling, turned to clouds of sweet-
smelling incense. It sank to rest in Huron, and the vast
country over which it had m r^e its day's journey lay
behind it, angry, sullen, fearing, ancertain, where, of the
two dispensations, one was in throes of birth and the other
feared those of death.

)

GALLOWS HILL.

163

■

Those scattered through this wide region who were in
sympathy with Ijower Canada — ^and they were many — felt
the discouragement of the disaster of St. Charles. Yet
they persevered, and read the results there as an object
lesson in the importance of military leadership. The motto
was, " The strength of the people is nothing without union,
and union nothing without confidence and discipline."
Alas, discipline they had none ; confidence was to fly as
soon as the enemy appeared — what mattered that if tht
enemy fled, too, no one was there to see ; and as for union,
the recriminations of Rolph and Mackenzie, the coldness of
the Baldwin wing, the fighting within camp and without,
all told a tale of dissension. Sir Francis Bond Head's
own letter to Sir John Colborne, in answer to the com-
mander's request for troops, shows how completely that
astute governor played into their hands had they been but
united and ready to take advantage of him. He would
give up even his sentry and orderlies, and by some political
military Euclid of his own invention "prove to the 'people
in England that this Province requires no troops at all,
and, consequently, that it is perfectly tranquil. . . .
I consider it of immense importance, practically, to show
to the Canadas that loyalty produces tranquillity, and that
disloyalty not only brings troops into the Province, but
also produces civil war." There is some key to his Euclid,
all propositions not being fully demonstrated ; for he says,
" I cannot, of course, explain to you all the reasons I have
for my conduct " (things equal to the same thing are o(|ual
to anything). " T know the arrangements I have made are
somewhat irregular, but I feel confident the advantages
arising from them will be much greater than the disadvan-
tages."

Charles XII. was called Demirbash by the Turks — a

164

HUMOURS OF 'S7.

man who fancicH his head made of iron, who may run
amuck witliout any fear for his akull. Hir Francis lost no
opportunity to test the thickness and hardness of his.

His troops gone, the militia disorganized and never out
but for one training day since 1815, he found his forces
consisttnl of about three hundred men, and the work l>efore
him was to overcome a had, l)old plot, " which appears
une<|ualled by any recorded in history since the great con-
spiracy of Cataline for the subversion of Rome ! "

" Must I stand and crouch under thy testy humour ? "
might have cried Sir Francis ; and quick as echo came
the answer, " He's but a matl lord, and naught but humour
sways him."

Search through his literary contemporaries, from Gait,
who calls him the sly, tlownright author of the " Bubbles
of the Brunnens," to the somewhat bilious sketches of
" those dealers in opinions, journalists," confirms Lord
Gosford's saying that one of the essential elements of
fitness for office is to be acceptable to the great body of the
people. Sir Francis had a great reputation for literary
smartness ; he was on excellent terms with himself, and
there are a few other writers of his time who have recorded
things to his credit which are hard to believe in the after-
light of condensed history. But most people never tired
of either abusing or ridiculing him.

" ' Where are you from V asked a worthy but inquisi-
tive landlord of a distinguished traveller, evidently just
from Downing Street, who arrived in Canada at this
solemn juncture. The testy Englishman made a laconic
reply, that he had come from a very hot place. ' And
where are you going?' continued Boniface. 'To the devil,*
roared the traveller. And then they knew he was going
to dine with Sir Francis Bond Head."

! 1

GALLOWS HILL.

165

Phrenology was a popular study then, and it afforded
opportunities to those who ne^^er tired of punning in
doggerel and skits on this Head. The cranium must
have presented a remarkable assemblage of bumps ; for,
according to his many detractors and his few admirers, Sir
Francis was a remarkable man. Not that he required a
Boswell or Anthony Hamilton to say for him that which
he was unequal to say for himself. There are no blushes
on the pages of either " Narrative " or " Emigrant."

Friends and detractors alike agreed that he had a
wonderful faculty for sleep. According to himself, he was
one of those felines who wait for their prey, apparently
soundly off, but in reality with one eye open. When he
came out it was thought the Whig ministry had let loose a
tiger upon the colony. All sorts of stories were rife about
him ; he was placarded as a tried Reformer, much to his
own surprise and nmusement, for he tells us himself his
emotions on seeing the piece of news which looked down
on him from the posters, as he rode to Government House
on his arrival. Was he a Radicalil was he really the
" Galloping Head " ? had he ridden six thousand miles of
the South American pampas, one thousand of them at a
stretch in eight days, and without the comfort of galli-
gaskins ? He himself was at a loss to know why he had
ever received his appointment ; but these questioners at
the recital of his adventures began to think that the post
of lieutenant-governor in Upper Canada was a prize of
sufficient size to attract persons of first-rate abilities. They
required a man of statesmanlike sagacity and diplomatic
shrewdness for a position which was no sinecure, and Lord
Glenelg had sent them a rough rider. " Who shall we
send out as lieutenant-governor to conciliate the discon-
tented inhabitants of Upper Canada ? " asked the Cabinet.

166

HUMOURS OF '37.

The Canadians wanted a governor, and they were sent a
political Puck. They thought it hard to have been given
in Sir John Colborne's phice but a Captain of Engineers.
"Captains of Engineers," said one belonging to the same
order, "are sometimes devilish clever fellows."

And so, in a sense. Head proved himself to be. He
contrived to compress into the two years of his Canadian
life more mischief than could have been accomplished by
ten ordinary men. Rash, impetuous, inordinately vain and
self-conscious, dramatic, he was not only an actor who took
the world for his stage, but he was his own playwright, star,
support, cla(juer and critic ; the stirring up of a rebellion
was a mere curtain-lifter to him ; but, fortunately, if the
vehicle of disjister to the Province, he made his exit from
it ignominiously. This was the man who, at twelve o'clock
on the night of December 4th, was awakened and told for
the third time that the enemy had really arrived and was
knocking at the door.

At one of the stopping-places of his former travels he
had " felt his patriotism gain force upon the plains of
Marathon." It now took the persistent efforts of three
messengers to oust him from a feather bed. Colonel
Moodie had lost his life trying to ride through the rebel
ranks to do this same service, and Colonel FitzGibbon lost
no time in warning all, governor and citizens alike.
When Sir Francis was inquired for at Government House at
ten o'clock, Mrs. Dalrymple, his sister-in-law, reported that
the Governor was fatigued and already asleep. FitzGibbon,
restless and disturlied, feeling that he could never sleep
again, insisted ; and the hero of active service in Spain, the
spectator of Waterloo and Quatre Bras, appeared in his
dressing-gown, concealed his irritation as best he might,
and got back to bed as quickly as possible. " What is all

GALLOWS HILL.

167

thiH noise alxjut," asked Judge Jonas Jones, who also did
not like disturbance ; " who desired you to call nie ?
Colonel FitzGibbon ? The zeal of that man is giving us a
great deal of unnecessary trouble."

About an hour earlier, John Powell, a magistrate who
had been busy swearing in special constables, went on
horseback with some other volunteers to patrol the
northern approaches to the city. At the rise of the Blue
Hill Mackenzie and two others were met, the first armed
with a large horse pistol, the others with rifles. Powell
was not only taken prisoner, but was told " they would let
Bond Head know something before long," that " they had
borne tyranny and oppression too long, and were now
determined to have a government of their own." A fellow-
prisoner told Powell of the death of Colonel Moodie, put
spurs to his horse and managed to escape. Confident that
the city's safety now depended on his own ability to elude
his captors, Powell essayed to do the same, but was told
by one of them, Anderson, he "would drive a ball
through " him. Then followed the incident which has
been described as Anderson's fall from his horse and picked
up with neck broken, as "an atrocious murder," "a victim
to Powell's treachery," and as a self-deliverance from those
whom he believed to be common assassins. When ques-
tioned as to his arms he had replied that he had none, a
denial refuted shortly afterwards when he drew the pistols
giveu him by a bailiff on leaving the City Hall. Mackenzie
had doubted his word, but the statement was repeated.
He replied, " Then, gentlemen, as you are my townsmen
and men of honour, I should be ashamed to show that I
question your word by ordering you to be searched."
Powell, in his account, allows no such quixotic courtesy,
and says lie heard nothing but mutterings of dissatisfaction.

168

'•5

'■i
I!

HUMOURS OF '57.

Then, not two feet from Anderson, Powell suddenly reined
back his horse, drew a pistol and fired. The shot struck
Anderson in the back of his neck ; he fell like a sack — the
spinal cord was severed and death must have been instan-
taneous. To wheel about, ride at a breakneck pace, pass
Mackenzie himself, hear the latter's bullet whistle past him,
turn in his saddle and snap a pistol at Mackenzie's face, dis-
mount when he heard the clatter of following hoofs, to hide
behind a log, while the pursuer passed, to run down the
College Avenue, hugging the shadows as he went, until
Government House was reached, brought him where
FitzGibbon and others, discomfited, had failed to rouse this
phenomenal sleeper. An hour before there had been a
moment's consciousness with the ringing of the Upper
Canada College bell by the energetic hand of a youth
named John Hillyard Cameron ; but on hearing that it
was rung by Colonel FitzGibbon's command, the sleeper,
like a marmot, turned over and went to sl^ep again. Uncere-
moniously shaking majesty in its nightcap, Powell man-
aged to perform what Sir Francis, in his own account of
the a£Pair, calls a sudden awakening. Months })efore, the
Governor had said he awaited the moment when Macken-
should have " advanced within the short, clumsy

zie

clutches of the law," asking Attorney-General Hagerman
to advise him of the moment ; he desired to wait until, in
the name of law and justice, he could " seize his victim."
A warrant of arrest for Mackenzie on the charge of high
treason had so far proved innocuous ; now the mountain was
obliging enough to come to Mahomet, and Mahomet did
not seem inclined to hurry. Next to Bidwell, Mackenzie
had most incurred his enmity, they, with " other name-
less demagogues," being the branches of " that plant of
cancerous growth, revolution," to which he would most

GALLOWS HILL.

169

willingly apply his pruning-knife. And apply it unspar-
ingly he (lid ; but for every twig lopped off he beheld
a dozen hardy shoots springing from the wound. Truly
the colonial tree was a stubljorn growth ; no yew or box-
clipped fancy, its shaping was beyond his skill.

" Up, then, brave Canadians, get ready your rifles and
make short work of it," ha<l l)een the legend on Mackenzie's
hand-bills ; and here he was within a mile of the Governor
and capital.

After a leisurely toilet. Sir Francis entrusted the care
of his family to faithful friends, who put them on board a
boat lying in the bay. Late as it was, navigation was not
closed, and there was no sign of the seals of winter upon
the lake. Yet the air was intensely cold, and the stars
shone like diamonds as the Governor made his wav over
the creaking, lightly snow-covered planks from Govern-
ment House to the City Hall. Every bell in the city
was ringing with all its might.

" Though cracked and crazy I have mettle still,
And burst with anger at such treatment ill. "

The most monotonous and the shrillest note of the Caril-
lon, in Head's own words, proclaimed " . . . Murder y
murder^ murder^ and much worse ! " " What's amiss ? "
"You are, and you do not know it;" or Lady Macbeth
might have been heard calling, " What's the business, that
such a hideous trumpet calls to parley the sleeper of the
house."

The bells were distinctly heard at Gallows Hill. An
occasional shot, fired at random yet startling, pierced
these impromptu chimes. The rumours of the streets con-
densed at rallying points, where people told of the rattle
of Powell's horse's hoofs as he made his mad gallop from

170

HUMOURS OF '.rr.

M>ic'kon/i(> t<» Head; of how liun(in>(ls, mnm thouHtuiclH,
wviv at (iallowH Hill, r<'a<ly to (l(«se(>ii(l upon them ; of
how the city wjw defencclcHH, and would the Hiwaker and
his friend enrol for itH defence or not ; how the generally
Htaid persons of the Chief -Justice and Judges Macaulay
and McLean, unusually excited, were seen with muskets
on their shoulders ; how the third judge, Jonas Jones, was
losing not a moment to get s«mie thirty volunteers to
remain on guard at the toll gate on Yonge Street for the
night ; how such young fellows as Henry Sherwood, James
Strachan, John Beverley Robinson, jun., were galloping
about as aides, appointed in a moment and eager in their
inaster's service ; all were on the alert, keeping vigil to a
day of uproar and excitement.

At the market-house the Governor found assembled the
force on which he had to depend. It was not long before
he was aware that one, at least, was armed. A ball
whistled through the room where he was closeted in
earnest talk with Judge Jones, and stuck in the wall close
l)eside them. Men, brimful of loyalty and agitation, were
seen parading hurriedly in front of the City Hall, a
musket on either shoulder, hungering for an enemy and
afraid that he might come.

At sunrise Colonel FitzGibbon rode out to reconnoitre
the position of the invaders, and reported that they num-
bered some five hundred men, a half-armed rabble without
competent leader or discipline — a fit sequel to that " volume
of shreds and patches," the grievance book ; a set of
stragglers in an unfortified position. At eight. Sir
Francis and his comrades at the City Hall, after a nap
taken on the floor, rose to inspect and to be inspected,
a group almost as sorry in military appearance as the one
reported on by FitzGibbon. The Governor had a short

GAILOIVS HILL,

171

double-brtrrellocl gun in his belt ftnd nnotluT on bin
shoulder ; ns a kind of twin or complement to him, the
Chief-Justice was armed with thirty rounds of bjiU car-
tridge. Sir Francis made a brief but animated address, to
which the assemblage returned three cheers. A few days
l)efore he had " requested an otticer " to strengthen the
fort lying west of the city ; accordingly, ils earthworks
were surrounded by a double line of palisades, the l>ar-
racks were loopholed, the magazine stockjuled, and a
company of Toronto militia lotlged there. But as " a
commander without troops," the market-house— full of
men, with its two six-pounders "completely fillod with
grape shot," furnished with four thousand sUind of arms,
bayonets, belts and ball cartridge, brought from the depot
at Kingston shortly before — was more to Hir Francis' mind
than the empty fort would have l)een. Besides which, he
states in his own account, in the moral combat in which
he was about to engage, he would have been out of his
proper element in a fort. " The truth is," he concludes,
after disposing of many ill-natured remarks made about
him by persons unversed in even the rudiments of war,
" if Mr. Mackenzie had concfucted his gang within pistol-
shot of the market-house, the whole of the surprise would
have belonged to him."

The " officer " who was " requested " to strengthen the
fort was no doubt Colonel Foster, Adjutant-General and
Commander of the Forces for some years l)efore the
Rebellion broke out. His name unaccountably has
been omitted from many of the chronicles of those
times. He began his military career in the 52nd Oxford-
shire Regiment of Foot, and during his colonial service
he enjoyed the confidence of Lord Dalhousie and Sir
John Colborne. When the latter sent his celebrated

172

HUMOURS OF \n.

request for troops, Foster remonstrated, Ji»s it was well
known to him, at any n.te, that a rebellifm in Upper
Canada was imminent. Foster was then left in command
" of the sentries, :«ick soldiers, and women and children
remaining in the fort." A captain in the 96th at Lundy's
I^ane, he was no novice in Canadian requirements, and the
letter (juoted Ironi Sir John Collx)rne shows how he ful-
filled his duty :

"MoNTHEAL, May 18, 1838.

" My Dear Colonel Foster, — I cannot cjuit Canada
without bidding you adieu and rejjuesting thr-t you will
accept my sincere thanks for your constiint attention in
the discharge of thi; dutic^s of your Department during
the seven yeat^ which you pass<ul at my military right
hand in ''pp<':r Canada. I assure you that the little
trouble experienced by me in my militjiry command I
attribute to your arrangements and punctuality.
" With every wish for your happiness,

" Believe me, my dear Colonel Foster,

"Sincerely yours,
• "J. COLHORNE."

Colley Lyons Lucas Foster is descrilnid as a fine-UH)king
man, of commanding presence and thoroughbred manner,
a true geiitleman and a thorough soldier of the Wellington
type. His very cordial intercourse with his beau ideal of
a g<»noral was attested by many letters to him in tln^
(beat Duke's own handwriting.

Hut v/hatever Mackenzie's wishes were, his "gang"
had no notitin (»f getting anywhere so uneonifoitably
near. Yet, if there was to be a fight, what was to be
done ; for it was hard indeed, afcer such prepiiration, if
the enemy would not come, "I will not fight them on

GALLOWS HILL

173

their ground," wiid the Governor ; " thoy niUMt fight me on
Hiine." He would not even uUow the picket guard, with-
drawn by Judge Jones at daylight, to be replaced by
Colonel FitzGiblxm. ** Do not send out a man — we have
not men enough to rJefend the city. I^et ua defend our
posts ; onfl it is my positive onler tliat you do not leave
this building yourself." Notwithstanding which a picket
of twenty-seven, under the command of Sheriff J arvis, was
placed a short distance up Yonge Htreet. Prior to taking
position there, 'I was suggested that a flag of truce should
be sent — some accounts s«y from a humane desi's on the
part of the Governor t<y prevent the shedding of blo<Kl ;
others say to give time in which to allow answers to be
returned to the expresses which he promptly had sent to
Mac Nab in Hamiltcm an<i Honnycastle in Kingst<m. In
the faulty despatch sent to Glenelg relating X\\v episfxle
he represents himself by that whit*' ensign as " pircntally
calling upon them to avoid the fflfusion of lunitMn nlotxl,"
having " the greatest possibl*- i*«'luctance ut tlu* idea of
entering upon a civil war ;" while in his aft<'r justification,
"The Eiiiigrant," he says "The sun set without our receiv-
ing succour or any intiinatitm of its appro.u u." He was no
believer in "the fewer meii tlic gr»'at<'r shani of honour."

The SheriflP had thought to ri«h' out witii the flag, but he
had many sins lai<l against him in the relx') n^pository of
grievance, such as standing iit the polls, riding- whip in
hand, to expedite tin' votes In* approved and <liscount<'nance
others, and it was thought iiiipruch'tit to allow him to take
the »*6ie of mnliator. Mr. Kobcrt IJaldwin, not lonr^
return«'<i from a prolonged wmX to (ireat ihitain, at all
times abovf wUMpK'ion as to loyalty, a Reformer t<» the core,
but as far removed '/r<>iii nlM'llion as the Chief Justiire
himself, together with L>r. Holph — alx»ut whom there were

174

HUMOURS OF '37.

diverse opinionH — were the final choice. Adjured by the
Sheriff, in the name of God, to go out to try " to stop the
proceedings of thcje men who are going to attack us," the
first man who was appealed to had refused ; the act would
lay him open to suspicion. Rolph considered that the
Constitution was virtually suspended, and that 8ir Francis
had no authority to send out the flag. As soon as it
became known that anything so novel was on the t^ipis
excitement in the town merged into curiosity, and all, from
the smallest urchin up, crowded to see the two start forth
on their mission. A question which bids fair to remain as
unsolved as " The Lady or the Tiger " now had its be-
ginning. We can fancy the doctor pondering as he rode,
" Am I politic ? Am I subtle ? Am I a Machiavel ? "
Rather should he have remembered the late counsel of
the Keeper of the Great Heal, that the councillors should
leave simulation and dissimulaticm at the porter's lodge.
The dying testimony of Lount, " Wv gave me a wink to
walk on (me side," that the message should not be heerled,
t!ie counter testimony of others that this took place at the
necond visit of the bearers, have furnished tiieme for pages,
the outct)nie of which is to mar or make whiter thi char-
acter of one of the i.iost prominent, certainly the ablest, of
the dramatis peraonit in that entr'acte of the rebellion,
the Flag of Truce.

The point of the question is not. Did Dr. Rolph wink,
but, FT/wn did he wink. If after his ambaNsiulorial function
was over, the act, according to the rules which govern
flags of truce, could not be taken excepti<m l«). If whilst
an ambassador, the case becomes one not of ordinary man-
ners and morals, but shows him as a double traitor.

Arrived at Gallows Hill — ominous titU% a fitting one,
thought the Loyalists — the three on horseback, " in 8(did

(JALLOirS HILL.

phalanx" Hugh Curmichael, the Ijearer, in the middle,
Dr. Rolph, as H[M>keHnian, aHke<l what the insurgents
wanted, said the Governor deprecated the effusion of
bloofl, and offeret] an Jininesty if they would return to
their homes. The result of the conference which ensued
wtis that no reliance wjis to be felt in the hare word of
Sir Francis ; it must be in writing, that no act of hostility
would be committed in the time allowefl for an answer ;
that they demanded " independence and a convention to
arrange details." Moreover, he was given until two o'clock
only to decide.

The answer of these " infatuated creatures " had a curious
effect. For once Sir Francis declined to taunt with the
license of ink. His ner\'es were nmch stea<lied by the re-
port of undisciplined, unarmed hundreds, instetui of thous-
ands eager for carnage, brought back by the truce party;
and letters stating that volunteers bound for his aid were on
the way enabled him to disregard what in courtesy would
be due to his agents. He curtly told them his refusal,
and they nuwle a third trij) to report him to his enemy.
Baldwin then returned to his wonted retirement, and
Kolph busi(!d himself in preparation for tlu' result of his
juivice — '• Wend your way int<j the city as s<Mm as |M>ssible
at my heels " — by at once seeing the Radicals in town and
instructing them to arm themselves, as Mackenzie was on
the r<»;Mi. "Why clo you stand here with your han^s in
your bre«'ches p«x.*kets ? (io, arm y«»ursel\es how you can ;
Mackenzie will b«* in imnuttliately ! ' — an rvcnt fm- which
he difl not wait. Son>e time iM'fore, .ludge Jonas.Iones hml
said that Dr. Holph liad a vile democratic heart, and ought
to Ik' sent out of the Province. .Mr. lialdwin, ri«ling away,
heard clu^-rs, but <lid i\ot know the cause. Four \ve»'ks
later, writing of the event, he says: "Whether liiidcr the
VI

176

HUMOURS OF '37.

circumstanceH I acted judiciously in undertaking the
mission, I know not. One thing I know, that what T did
I did for the Ytent^ and with the sincerest desire of prevent-
ing as far Jis possible the destruction of life and property."

But Mackenzie was busy setting fire to Dr. Home's
house. Its only guanl was a very large and handsome
Newfoundland dog which formerly had been patrol for
Bonnycastle on the l)each which skirted his isolated cot-
tage on the bay, a l>each much frequented by smugglers
and other idlers. The brule valiantly defended his new
l)eat, but without avail. After a series of capers which
caused some of his followeirs to say that little Mac. was
out of his head and unfit to be left at large, an end was
made of the dog, and the fire was lighted.

A messenger was now sent after the dilatory general by
Rolph, who, like the mother of Sisera, was sick at heart
to know what hindered the wheels of his chariot. The
messenger was a young fellow named Henry Hover
Wright, one of llolph's students, just arrived from
Niagara and full of wcmder at l>eing met on the wharf by
armed men. The only guard he encountered on Yonge
Street was <me man — rebel — armed with a fusil. Wright
passed him, asking why they did not come. The answer
was, " We cannot go until General Mackenzie is ready."
The latter at that moment was busy ordering away
a new-comer, saying, ** I don't know you, and there
are too many friends," and particularly busy in his
end(iavour to get dinner and supper for the men. Mounted
on a small white horse, from which vantage he incessantly
harangued his followers, he told them he would l)e com-
mander-in-chief as Colonel Van Egmond hiul not arrived.
Van Egmond did not arrive until the Thursday, when
Mackenzie, after breakfasting with him, threatened to
shoot him.

GALLOWS HILL.

vir

ExpoHtu latin j; with those who would not aflvance upon
the city in daylight, and exhorting thtwe who ha<J e<|ual
objections to the dark, the h'afler has lieen variously
descrilKHl : "Storming and swearing like a lunatic, and
many of us felt certain he wjvs not in his right senses.
He abused and insulted several of the men without any
shadow of cause, and Lount had to go round and pacify
them by telling them not to pay any attention to liim " —
(the conmiander-in-chief) — "as he was not responsible for
his actions." " If we had h»cked him up in a nK>m at the
tavern," says the naive chronicler, " and could then have
induced Lount to leml us into the city, we should have
overturned the government without any fighting worth
talking about." " Once or twice," says another, " I thought
he was going to have a fit."

No help from outside had as yet arrived in Toronto.
After rc'freshment to the inner relx'l hjwl been successfully
accomplished by the unit<*d efforts of I»unt an<l Mac-
kenzie*, the latter's white mount was exchangc(l for a big
horse taketi from some loyalist prisoner. At that juncture
had the movement been persevered in, with fjount jironii-
nently directing it, there is every reascm to suppose that the
arms, ammunition and money in the town would have be<'n
theirs — also that they would have captured Sir Francis
himself, "unless," indeed, as the London and Wenfminnter
Jievipw Hni(\, "he had runaway." "All who will reflect
on the nature of civil war," it said, " must see the f«'arful
<Khls which a days success and tJio possession of the
capital and its resources w<»uld have given the reheis.
For their not obtaining it we have no reason to thank Sir
Francis Head."

"1 told them," (the men) says Mack(»n/ie in his own
acc'ount of his lirief harangue, "that I was certain there

178

HUMOURS OF \17.

could be no difficulty in taking Toronto, that both in
town and country the people stood aloof from Sir Francis,
that not one hundred men and boys could be got to
defend him, that he was alarmed and had got his family
on board a steamer, that six hundred Reformers were
ready waiting to join us in the city, and that all we had
to do was to be firm, and with the city would so at once
go down every vestige of foreign government of Upper
Canada."

"If your honour will but give us arms," cried a voice
from the ranks before Sir Francis, " sure the rebels will
find the legs."

In the next hour both sides were to find they had their
full complement of these useful limbs.

"To fight and to be beaten," says Dafoe, "is a casualty
common to all soldiers. . . . But to run away at the
sight of an enemy, and neither strike nor be stricken, this
is the very shame of the profession." About sundown the
rebels, between seven and eight hundred strong, began
their march, half of them armed with green cudgels,
cut on the way, the riflemen in the van followed by two
hundred of the pikemen. A score or so had old and rusty
muskets and shot-guns. Most of them wore a white badge
on the sleeve. Three abreast they went, Lount at their
head, " Mackenzie here, there and everywhere." They
moved steadily and without mishap, taking prisoner some
chance wayfarers and an officer of loyalist artillery, until
the head of the column neared a garden, where Sheriflf
Jarvis and his picket of twenty-seven lay in wait for them.
The sheriff" gave tlie word to fire. This his men remained
to do, then speedily sttKKl not upon the order of their going,
but went at once in haste, and lan into the city. The
sheriff" called to them to stop, but they were beyond his

GALLOWS HILL.

179

voice and control ; whereupon he probably thought " I'
faith, I'll not stay a jot longer," and followed them.

It was a random volley, but it spread consternation.
Lount ordered it to be returned, which was done, but in
such fear and trepidation that had the others waited to
receive it they might have been still safe. Lount and
the men in front fell flat on their faces to allow those
behind them an opportunity to fire. But this the latter
had no mind to do, thinking the fall due to the bullets of
the picket. " We shall all be killed," cried the Lloydtown
pikemen, throwing down their rude weapons. In Mac-
kenzie's words, " They took to their heels with a speed and
steadiness of purpose that would have baffled pursuit on
foot." In a short twenty minutes not one of either side
was to be found within range of the toll-bar or of each
other. The one man killed in the affair was a rebel, done
to death from the rear by a nervous and too willing com-
rade. Mackenzie implored, he coaxed and he threatened,
and in such strong language did he treat this retreat that
one man from the north, provoked beyond endurance,
raised his gun to shoot the commander-in-chief, when a
third prevented him.

" I was enabled by strong pickets," wrote Sir Francis
after this, " to prevent Mr. Mackenzie from carrying into
effect his diabolical intention to burn the city."

It was now time to look for some support in answer to
the appeals for help sent by special messengers on the
Monday evening. One messenger went by land ; while
another, to make certain, took the water route.

Bonnycastle, indis^-riminately dultbed captain or major,
was sitting quietly in his home in Kingston, tired after an
afternoon spent at the new fort in providing against fire
or surprise, when some one, in a state of great excitement,

" M'Wt

180

HUMOURS OF '57.

ran into his study to say the steamboat Traveller had
arrived from Toronto with Sir Francis Head and all who
had been able to escape from that city on board ; Toronto
was taken by Mackenzie and burnt. Bonnycastle says he
'' buckled on his armour " and went to consult the com-
mandant of their little garrison — eleven or twelve artillery-
men— as to what was best to bo done in such a dreadful
emergency. Not two steps on his way he was met by a
second breathless messenger, followed by a crowd of eager
neighbours, who took advantage of the open hall door to
come in to hear the news. This second express was to say
that the only cargo on board was a letter for Bonnycastle,
but that a serious outbreak had occurred. The letter was
an order to send stores to Toronto, to arm all loyal persons
in Kingston, and to preserve intact the depot and fortress
— a work which he did so well that it earned him his
knighthood.

Tlie bearer of the duplicate despatch by land had a more
difficult journey. He was narrowly searched and examined
by the rebels en route, but while his companion was being
taken prisoner he sewed his despatch in his sleeve, and by
his activity arrived at his destination the same night as,
but later than, the Traveller. It was two o'clock on the
Monday when Colonel MacNab, in Hamilton, received Sir
Francis' statement, that he, with a few followers, was in
the market place of his capital, threatened by Mackenzie
and his band of rebels. MacNab lost no time in answer-
ing this appeal for help in a way quite consistent with
every other detail of that gentleman's life given to the
public. He mounted his horse, rode to the wharf, seized
the first steamer he found lying there, put a guard on
board her, sent messengers oflF to the farmers and yeomen
on whom he felt he coijd rely, and by five o'clock was

GALLOWS HILL.

181

sailing with his sixty men of Gore ; a thousand of them
had but lately gathered before Sir John Colbome to testify
to their sentiments on Mr. Hume's baneful domination
letter. That letter, calculated to further excite those
already discontented, was a blessing in disguise, since it
had stirred into active life half dormant sentiments of
loyalty, and made brighter those already bright.

But of the thousands then preparing for a tramp to con-
verge at Toronto, through dark forest and over corduroy
and half frozen swale, the market-place and Sir Francis
himself were not, as his writings assert, the objective
points. Many who left wives, families and farms and
who found themselves in the loyalist ranks at Gallows
Hill, had no such loyal intention when they left home.

Sir Francis, sitting forlorn enough in his market-place,
was with his admirers discussing the situation by the light
of a tallow candle, — a Rembrandt picture, from the
shadows of which stand forth many familiar faces, when,
as with Bonnycastle and King Richard III., two or three
breathless messengers burst in upon them to announce
the men of Gore. Steamers and schooners — containing
not only the young and venturesome, but the advanced
in years, as the Honourable William Dickson, then in his
sixty-eighth year — now began to arrive, and the city,
in spite of the motley appearance of some cargoes, seemed
transformed at a stroke from an excited and fright-
ened community into a vast barrack or camp. Pride in
their port, defiance in their eye, there was no longer
need into a thousand parts to divide one man and make
imaginary puissance, for by that time they were so
increased that it became imperative to make an attack.
Their number embarrassed those in command, and it was
difficult to find accommodation for them. At midnight

182

HUMOURS OF 'S7.

Sir FruiiciM put MacNab in charge ; by the following sun-
Het more than twelve hundred armed men were at his
service. A council was held at Archdeacon Strachan's, at
which it was resolved to attack the rebels on Thursday
morning. Evidently with changed circumstances and ad-
visers Sir Francis had changed his mind ; he was no longer
averse to seeking his enemy on the latter's ground. Four
days before this, Attorney-General Hagerman had declared
his belief that not fifty men in the province would attack the
Government ; now he announced that everything depended
on the Government's power of attack.

But the council was not held without its own storm. Fitz-
Gibbon, much MacNab's superior in military knowledge and
experience, his senior in every way, heard, for the first
time, of the other gentleman's midnight promotion, and
advanced his own superior claims with no uncertain voice.
MacNab wanted to make the attack at three in the morn-
ing ; FitzGibbon contended it was impossible " to organize
the confused mass of human beings then congregated
in the city during night-time," that such an attempt
would ruin them, for the " many rebels then in the city
(were) only waiting the turn of affairs to declare them-
selves." The meeting over, another and semi-secret conclave
arranged that MacNab should be relieved and that
FitzGibbon should take his place. " It was now broad
daylight, and I had to commence an organization of the
most difficult nature I had ever known. I had to ride to
the Town Hall and to the garrison and back again,
repeatedly ; I found few of the officers present who were
wanted for the attack. Vast numbers of volunteers were
constantly coming in from the country without arms or
appointments of any kind, who were crowding in all direc-
tions in my way. My mind was burning with indignation

GALLOWS HILL.

183

at the idea of Colonel MacNab, or any other militia
officer, being thought of by his Excellency for the com-
mand, after all I had hitherto done for him. My diffi-
culties multiplied upon me. Time, of all things the most
precious, was wasting for want of officers, and for the
want of most of my men from the Town Hall, whose com-
mander was yet absent, till at length the organization
appeared impossible. I became overwhelmed with the
intensity and contrariety of my feelings. I walked to and
fro without object until I found the eyes of many fix6d upon
me, when I fled to my room and locked my door, exclaim-
ing audibly that the province was lost and that I was
ruined, fallen. For let it not be forgotten that it was
admitted at the conference at the Archdeacon's the even-
ing before that if the attack of the next day should fail
the province would be lost. This, however, was not then my
opinion, but I thought of my present failure after the
e£Ports I had made to obtain the command, and the evil
consequences likely to flow from that failure ; and I did
then despair. In this extremity I fell upon my knees and
earnestly and vehemently prayed to the Almighty for
strength to sustain me through the trial before me. I
arose and hurried to the multitude, and finding one com-
pany formed, as I then thought providentially, I ordered
it to be marched to the road in front of the Archdeacon's
house, where I had previously intended to arrange the
force to be employed. Having once begun, I sent company
after company, and gun after gun, until the whole stood in
order."

Ttie Governor moved his headquarters from the market-
place to the Parliament buildings, and issued his orders
from there. Colonel MacNab, in recompense for his with-
drawal, was given command of the main body.

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23 WEST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

(716) •72-4503

184

HUMOURS OF '37.

The force, drawn up "in order of battle " on the street
and esplanade by the Archdeacon's house, only numbered
some eleven hundred men, and those whom they were about
to attack were considerably less. But the interests at
stake, the results involved, their historical significance,
remove from the affair that ludicrous view attached to it
by unthinking persons as a kind of mimic battle, in keeping
with "the mimic king," the Governor, and "the mimic
Privy Council," the Executive.

About eleven o'clock, his Excellency, surrounded by his
staff, galloped up, and was received with three hearty
British cheers. Immovable in his saddle, he looked with
pride, not unmixed with relief, at the picture before him,
wondering why, now they were so well got together, they
did not proceed, when an officer galloped up and said it was
the wish of the militia that the Governor himself should
give the word of command. He did so, and in the bright
summer-like sunshine, not a cloud in the blue sky above
them, the two bands playing, arms and accoutrements flash-
ing unpleasant signals to those awaiting them on Gallows
Hills, people in windows and on housetops cheering them
and waving small flags and those not in sympathy remain-
ing discreetly silent, they went off at his bidding.

"This," says Colonel FitzGibbon, "was the only com-
mand he (Sir Francis) gave till the action was over."

By now the name rebel was almost as odious as some
others, very high in dignity, had recently been. There is
not a doubt that much of the cheering came from that
ignorance of the point at issue which made Solicitor-General
Blake in after years say, " I confess I have no sympathy
with the would-be loyalty . . . which, while it at all
times affects peculiar zeal for the prerogative of the Crown,
is ever ready to sacrifice the liberty of the subject. That

■

GALLOWS HILL.

185

is not British loyalty. It is the spurious loyalty which at
all periods of the world's history has lashed humanity into
rebellion."

The curious, and those who were anxious to see the
result of the fight as the turning point to decide which
side of their coat of two colours should be displayed,
followed, like the tail of a comet, the vanishing point of
splendour. One militia colonel came prepared to contri-
bute two fat oxen to the rebel cause ; they made equally
good beef for the loyalists. Another colonel presented
the patriots with a sword, pistol and ammunition — a much
worse kind of soldier than the man who wears a uniform
and will not fight. There were the actively loyal, the
actively rebellious, and the connecting link of such as
were passively either or both.

All went merry as a marriage bell, and indeed the
chronicle says one might fancy they were all bound for a
wedding. To what Sir Francis calls " this universal grin "
was added the solemn face of many a minister of religion,
headed by the Archdeacon himself, a man as well fitted by
nature to wear the sword as the mitre.

"Our men are with thee," said the Reverend Egerton
Ryerson ; " the prayers of our women attend thee." The
clergymen withdrew at the first exchange of shots. "They
would willingly have continued their course, but with
becoming dignity they deemed it their duty to refrain."

This was all very real, very serious to us. Yet a Scot-
tish paper said that Canada was still more wonderful than
the Roman state ; that the latter was saved by the cackling
of a flock of geese, the former by the cackling of one.
Who that one was it were unkind to say. The anger of
the Scotch editor is divided between Head, MacNab and
FitzGibbon. "Men eaten up of vanity are they all," he
finishes.

186

HUMOURS OF '87.

At the rebel camp the morning had l^een frittered away
like the preceding day — desertions, hopes of leinforce-
ments disappointed, Mackenzie's plans called stark mad-
ness by Van Egmond, Van Egmond threatened to be shot
by Mackenzie, the Tories reported by friends from town
as ensconced behind feather beds from behind which they
would fire and make terrible slaughter if the Reformers
once got into the streets, new officers appointed — one of
whom was to leave his post the moment he caught sight
of the enemy — false alarms brought in by scouts, until at
last Silas Fletcher rushed up to say that the cry of
" wolf " had ceased, and the wolf had arrived.

"Seize your arms, men ! The enemy's coming, and
no mistake ! No false alarm this time ! " Van Egmond
and Mackenzie mounted their chargers, and soon saw what
seemed an overwhelming force passing the brow of Gallows
Hill. The strains of " Rule Britannia " and " The British
Grenadiers" came wafted in unpleasant bursts of melody.

The bell had rung and the curtain was about to go up.

The most formidable part of the army consisted of the
two cannon in charge of Major Carfrae of the militia
artillery. At St. Eustache the French had thought " Le
bon Dieu est tou jours pour les gros bataillons ; " here, also,
the God of battles, to whose care *• the bold diocesan " com-
mended them, was on the side of those who had most artil-
lery. The day before, a party of rebels on warfare bent
had encountered a stranded load of firewood, which
imagination and the uncertain light turned into a gun
loaded to the muzzle with grape or canister. The
sight of it caused them to skip fences, like squirrels, to
right and left, a dispersion which no effort of their officers
could withstand. Now the real thing began to play, and
the woods rang to its reverberations. The fringe of pine

GALLOWS HILL.

187

trees on the western side of the road suffered if nothing
else did ; huge splinters were torn from them and hurled
here and there, as destructive as any missile. The
hidden men were protected by bushes and brush heaps, but
the rushing of balls and crashing of trees made enough
uproar to cause death by fright. The cannon were then
moved farther up the roadway, their muzzles directed to
the inn ; two round shot, and like bees from a hive the
rebels came pouring out, " flying in all directions into the
deep, welcome recesses of the forest." Their prisoners,
until then kept in the inn, fortunately had been con-
ducted out by the back door some moments before and
given their liberty. It now became a question to preserve
their own.

The right wing of the loyalist force, under command
of Colonel S. P. Jarvis, had meanwhile been moving by
by-ways and fields half a mile eastward, the left, under
Colonel Chisholm, Judge McLean and Colonel O'Hara,
moving westward to converge at Montgomery's.

Young Captain Clarke Gamble, of the latter wing, felt
sure his directions " to proceed until beyond the tavern,
wheel to the right and take it while the column attacked
in front," had been complied with ; he did so turn, and
felt his way through several clearings, examining every
building and shelter himself. He reached a grove of
second-growth pine and other wood when the sound of the
first gun, trained on the doomed tavern, greeted him.
The company had now reached the high rail fence which
bounded Montgomery's property on that side, fencing a
field full of stumps, one of them very large. The young
captain climbed the dividing line, calling on his men to
follow. They were in time to see rebels in front and right
and left of them running from the house just struck,

188

HUMOURS OF '37.

some of them stopping to discharge their rifles at the men
so singularly well displayed for their benefit upon the
fence. From three or four between the rails the fire was
returned, but the shots on each side fell harmless. A man
then ran from Yonge Street, and as he passed the large
stump, squatted behind it, took what seemed to be a very
deliberate aim at Captain Gamble, his eyes and a line of
forehead all that could be seen between the stump and the
top of his cap. One of Gamble's company, a coloured
man named Boosie, sprang forward, saying, " Shall I shoot
him, captain ! " Without waiting for a reply he did so,
reloaded, and called out to a fellow-soldier, young Gowan,
a student-at-law, to bear him out that he " had shot that
rebel." Judge McLean, hearing shots from his position
nearer the tavern, came up with another company at the
double quick, his heightened colour, flashing eye and cool,
erect bearing becoming him better in his soldier dress than
even in his robes of oflice. "Oh, Gamble, that's you, is
it? All right," was all he permitted himself, and dis-
appeared. Between the time of looking into the barrel
of the rifle pointed at him from behind the stump, and
the crack of Boosie's musket, which told of a life taken on
his account, the seconds seemed long to the captain. He
reformed his company, and on passing the dead man,
Ludwig Wideman, the thrifty Boosie said, "Can I take
his rifle, captain 1 " took it, and continued his victorious
march to the inn with a gun on each shoulder, the
proudest and happiest man, white or black, in the force —
"not even exceeded by Sir Francis himself." In the
centre of the dead man's forehead was a pink r'^^ord of
Boosie's good aim. To the captain's surprise he recognized
in Wideman a client who had but lately been in his oflice
and from whom he had parted with a firm shake of the

GALLOIVS HILL.

189

hand. It is more than likely that when Wideman wavS
taking his aim he had recognized Captain Gamble, and in
the hesitation following had given the minute which lost
him his own life and saved his legal adviser's. The proud
negro constituted himself his captain's body-guard for the
rest of that day. " I believe we must leave the killing
out when all is done ; " and this, according to Dent, was
the " death roll " of Montgomery's or Gallows Hill battle.

The full force was too much for the insurgents. The
whole affair was of not more than a half hour's duration,
and after some perfunctory firing, a number of the " em-
battled farmers " standing about inactively and wishing
themselves anywhere but at Thermopylre, the outcome
was confusion to the one side and a well foUowed-up
victory on the other. The wounded were tenderly picked
up and carried off in carts to the hospital ; and Sir Francis,
followed by the flower of his army, went in pursuit of his
flying subjects, to give his second word of command.
Before he could do so. Judge Jones, by now as full of
" over-zeal " as FitzGibbon himself, with a comrade who
was noted as a splendid officer and was known as hand-
some Charlie Heath, was trying to ride in at the open door
of the tavern. MacNab, thinking Jones was some promi-
nent rebel, promptly gave the word to "shoot me that
man." But some one in the ranks, not so zealous, cried,
" Don't fire, it's Judge Jones," and so saved the Judge's
life.

Two prisoners were now brought before his Excellency,
who sat upon his horse by the raised platform at the inn
door. By his account, they were arrantly frightened and
gazed at the adjacent trees wondering which ones they
might be sent to decorate. But the dramatic Sir Francis
was fond of strong contrasts, he was a masterhand at light

190

HUMOURS OF 'S7.

and shade. These two were all that remained of Mac-
kenzie's army. So, after a little homily, he pardoned
them "in their sovereign's name." The unhappy men
nearly fainted, unable at once to take advantage of their
freedom.

The Governor next deemed it expedient to mark by some
stern " act of vengeance the important victory which had
been achieved." He forthwith took a leaf out of his
enemy's book of tactics, and burned what his detractors
call the "houses of private citizens," what he calls the
place "long the rendezvous of the disaflPected;" the floors
of one " stained with the blood of Colonel Moodie," " the
fortress " from which Her Majesty's subjects had been
fired upon.

He gave the order to fire the premises. " The heaps of
dirty straw on which he (Mackenzie) and his gang had
been sleeping " acted as good kindling ; the furniture of
the house, piled with it, soon set fire to the great struc-
ture of timber and planks. The deep black smoke poured
from the windows, and the " long red tongues sometimes
darted horizontally, as if revengefully to consume those
who had created them, then flared high above the roof."
The heat was intense, but to those " gallant spirits that
immediately surrounded it," seated on their horses, was a
"subject of joy and triumph, and ... a lurid telegraph
which intimated to many an aching heart in Toronto the
joyful intelligence that the yeomen and farmers of Upper
Canada had triumphed over their perfidious enemy * re-
sponsible government.' " But it was only scotched.

Sir Francis, by way of balancing aching hearts in
Toronto with a few in the country, now carried the fire-
brand farther afield. He commanded a detachment of

GALLOIVS HILL.

191

forty iiion to ride up Yonge Street to fire t\w. house of a
farmer who was most objectionable to him. On the way
tliey met Colonel FitzGibbon, Captain Halkett and others,
returning after a fruitless pursuit of Mackenzie. The
order did not please FitzGiblx)n, but he was forced to let
them pass. Presently, Captain Strachan, eldest son of the
Archdeacon, came in headlong haste to countermand the
order ; Sir Francis had had a qualm. It passed ; and
reining in his horse, the Govern(^r sent for the Colonel
himself, and reissued his directions. " Already," writes the
latter, "I had seen with displeasure the smoke arising
from the burning of Montgomery's house, which had been
set on fire after I had advanced in pursuit of Mackenzie,
and I desired to expostulate with his Excellency, but he
quickly placed his right hand on my bridle arm, and said,
* Hear me. Let Gibson's house be burned immediately,
and let the militia be kept here until it is done,' exactly
repeating his order ; and then he set spurs to his horse,
and galloped towards town." " It was now late in the
afternoon," continues FitzGibbon, "and the house was
nearly four miles distant. I then commanded Lieut. -
Colonel Duggan to take command of a party which I
wheeled out of the column and countermarched, and see
the house burned ; when he entreated me not to insist on
his doing so, for that he had to pass along Yonge Street
almost daily, and he probably would on some future day
be shot from behind a fence. I said, * If you will not
obey orders you had better go home, sir.' Again he spoke,
and I then ordered him to go home ; but he continued to
express his reasons for objecting, and I said, ' Well, I will
see the duty done myself,' and I did so, for I had no other
officer of high rank near me to whom I could safely entrust

192

HUMOURS OF W.

the performance of that duty ; and with the party T
advanced and had the house and barns burned at sunset."
Mrs. Gibson, the farmer's wife, and her four young chil-
dren, found shelter in the house of a neighbour, and from
there she beheld the soldiers riding about with her precious
poultry and porkers slung across their saddle bows, the
walls of her happy home going up in smoke and flame to
the rosy sunset sky above them, not knowing where her
husband was. She was destined not to see him until she
joined him in Rochester, to which town he, with so many
others, escaped.

In his despatch which related his heroism Sir Francis
tempered his own acts with words likely to cast odium,
where any might arise, on the militia. "The militia
advanced in pursuit of the rebels about four miles, till they
reached the house of one of the principal ringleaders, Mr.
Gibson; which residence it would have been impossible to
save, and it was consequently burned to the ground."

Sir Francis would have done better to stand by his acts
or to have had the prudence to recall and destroy all his
former writings before transcribing anew, since by his
writings is he most condemned.

Meanwhile, more prisoners had been taken, and he was
in time to see and exhort them, and also to see that proper
care was taken of the wounded, insurgent as well as his
own followers. They were placed in carts and taken to
the hospital, and the body of Wideman given to his cousin
for interment. Some of the Loyalists were galloping
about, seated behind the living decorations of their saddle
bows, and others bore the flags taken out of Montgomery's
burning house. One of these, a large red one, had on
one side, "Victoria 1st and Reform," and on the other,
"Bid well and the Glorious Minority, 1837 and a Good

GALLOIVS HILL.

193

Beginning."* It was supposc^d that this ha<l Ihmmi intended
to take the place of the flag flying from Government House
staflj which was not always the same one, for the latter
was thriftily managed to reverse the proverb and temper
the flag to the wind ; large, when it hung motionless in
the burning heat of summer, or was a flag poudre by drift-
ing snows, and reduced to a British Jack no larger than
a lady's pockethandkerchief when there was a high blow.
There were several others in the rel>el group ; tne decor-
ated with stars, another with stripes, and yet another of
plain white, which was useless, since Sir Francis had sup-
plied that article of signal.

Among the men admonished were some as loyal as the
soldiers who arrested them, but the Jidvance guard had
assumed that all they met were rebels, and deprived them
of liberty accordingly. One was a youth named William
Macdougall, who, after the manner of boys, left his uncle's
farm-house, where he happened to be making a visit, so
that he might see whatever was going on. The uncle
tried to break through Sir Francis' exordium with ex-
planations, but that flow, like Iser running rapidly, was
not easily stopped. Sir Francis was sorry to see such a
respectable youth in such company, and directed uncle
and nephew to return to their allegiance. This drew forth
a spirited reply, and the Governor rode away.

Sir Francis tells of a woman whose screams came from
the direction of the militia, where he quickly sought her.

♦This banner, a remnant of an old election, with date ehanye<l, was taken
possession of by Sir Francis and carried to Enjfland as a personal trophy. His
grandson. Sir Robert Hewl, ignorant of the flag's tnie history, exhibitefl it, as
apropos, on the occasion of the lunch given by the National Liberal Club to Sir
Wilfrid Laurier, K.C.M.G., July 9, 1897. The Canadian statesman followed the
spirit of Lord Sydenham's life and utterances in the comment that " in 1837 Cana-
dians were fighting for constitutional rights, not against the British Crown."
Query: By what right \\w the banner left in the possession of Sir Francis?

194

HUMOURS OF '.?7.

His int(>n(le(l kimlnesH only ImHtened the catastrophe.
" For some reason or other, probably, poor thing, because
her husband, or brother, or son had just fled with the
rebels, she was in a state of violent excitement, and she
was addressing herself to me, and I was looking her
straight in the face and listening to her with the utmost
desire to understand, if possible, what she was very in-
coherently complaining of, when all of a sudden she gave
a piercing scream. I saw her mind break, her reason
burst, and no sooner were they thus relieved from the high
pressure which had been giving them such excruciating
pain than her countenance relaxed; then, beaming with
frantic delight, her uplifted arms flew round her head, her
feet jumped with joy, and she thus remained dancing
before me — a raving maniac." He had this sight, and the
sinister blessing invoked on his head by Mrs. Gibson, to
further cheer him.

He fought his battle, came home, and by four o'clock
published his proclamation wherein, after giving much
information on the definition of traitor and loyalist and
bidding them leave punishment to the law, he offered a
reward of JBIOOO to anyone who would apprehend and
deliver William Lyon Mackenzie up to justice, and £500
each for Lount, Gibson, Jesse Lloyd and Silas Fletcher,
with a free pardon to the one who should so deliver his
man, provided he had not been guilty of murder or arson.

If the last should be punished by law, Sir Francis be-
came outlaw by his own proclamation.

But Mackenzie, leaving behind him his carpet-bag of
papers — calculated to assist in the hanging of many
persons — was by that time seeking safety in flight. The
" rolls of revolt,^' and certain criminatory documents found

GALLOWS HILL.

195

with thein, gavo tho iMldrPHs of oveiy iiiHur^cnt and
incriminated many persons hitherto unsuspected.

"So unwilling was Mackenzie," says one eye-witness,
" to leave the field of battle, and so hot the chase after
him, that he distanced the enemy's horsemen only thirty
or forty yards by his superior knowledge of the country,
and reached Colonel Lount and his friends on the retreat
just in time to save his neck." He not only saved his own
neck, but left behind him a directory in that padlocked
carpet-bag to expedite the search for those whom he had
deserted. Small wonder that many women cursed him as
the cause of all their domestic unhappiness.

Standing by the belt of wotxl occupied by his own men,
he heard the word pass that the day was lost. He ran
across a ploughed field, encountering by the way a friend
who inquired how things were going, and Mackenzie's
blanched face gave a direct denial to his hurried " all
right." At the side-line where young Macdougall hap-
pened to be when on his way to the seat of war, his foot-
steps hastened by the sound of cannonading, a horse
stood saddled and bridled, evidently left there as a pre-
caution for someone. Women and children, terrified
enough at what they saw, more so at what they feared,
were hurrying northward, filling the air with their cries.
While Macdougall was trying to explain away their fears
he saw a little man rush down a lane, mount and ride
swiftly away. There was blood on the man's hand, doubt-
less his own from a wound he had given himself on the
Friday night, when trying to extract one of Sheriff Jarvis'
pistol bullets from the toe of a comrade. He had been so
nervous that his shaking hand made him gash himself,
and the cutting out had to be done by Judah Lundy.

196

HUMOURS OF 'S7.

Probably the wound in the hand had reopened when he
was scrambling over the intervening fences and bushes.

*' Oh, God of uiy country ! they turn now to fly —
Hark, the eagle of Liberty screams in the sky,"

says Mackenzie's muse in one place, and before this,

*' Yes, onward they come, like the mountain's wild flood,
And the lion's dark talons are dappled in blood."

Again he says, " I am proud of my descent from a rebel
race, who held borrowed chieftains, a scrip nobility, rag
money and national debt in abomination."

He himself was now the one flying, and the lion's talons
left off dappling in blood to try to get him within their
clutches, while he showed the truth of the third quotation
by returning to first principles and displaying another
Highland indication — petticoats. Earlier in the day a
lady on her way through Toronto to Cornwall had been
in the stage when he stopped it to intercept the news of
Duncombe's rising, and to seize the general contents of the
mail-bags. With a pistol at her head he had possessed
himself of her portmanteau, and in the contents was
enabled later to disguise himself. He was described in
Sir Francis' reward for his apprehension as a " short man,
wears a sandy-coloured wig, has small twinkling eyes that
can look no man in the face. . . ." At the Golden
Lion, about ten miles above the city, he over':ook Colonel
Anthony Van Egmond, and they agreed to make at once
for the Niagara frontier. But the colonel was taken and
only Mackenzie escaped. In those mail bags he had been
made a sorry dupe by Mr. Isaac Buchanan, who antici-
pated that they would be so robbed. The mail contained
two decoy letters from him, representing matters in the

GALLOWS HILL.

197

beleaguered city in a most flourishing condition, letters
which were read by Mackenzie and no doubt helped to
bring about the desired result.

The encouraging terms of the proclamation made many
scour the country at breakneck speed, and it is a marvel
that any escape should have taken place ; Mackenzie's own
recital of it sounds like the tale of the magic ring. The
word was given to save themselves, and in a twinkling the
woods were full of the flying and the hiding ; the beacon,
intended for loyalist eyes in Toronto as one of victory, told
all was lost to the rebels. The hunting parties did not
return empty handed. Many respectable yeomen, some
Reformers but not rebels, others neither of these, were
unceremoniously taken from their farms and work. These
rebels by coercion, and those who had been fugitives, were
bound to a strong central rope and paraded along the high-
way amid the hootings and jeerings of the loyal, in all
to the number of sixty. To keep them company there was
a party, equally mixed, who arrived in Toronto the same
day from the north, with the five hundred men who reached
there too late for battle. The latter were reinforced by
one hundred Indians, all in paint and native splendour,
but burning with as much zeal as any Briton.

The records of the whole affair show that the disaffected
were always of one colour, while the African and the native
were unhesitatingly and to a man for the Queen.

The last-mentioned party, in their march, could see the
flames from Montgomery's and thought the city was on
fire. They were met by many flying northward from there,
who in a twinkling changed their politics and their route
and returned to town among the guards over those un-
happy ones who had been made look like a string of trout.
Powder was taken from stores ; cake-baking and bacon-

198

HUMOURS OF 'S7.

frying were made the business of every house passed ; they
carried the usual medley of gun, pike and rusty sword ;
and each man, to distinguish him from his fellow-man who
was prisoner, wore a pink I'ibbon on his arm.

Naturally, there was renewed sensat'.on when the guards
and prisoners marched to the gaol ; sensation greater still
when Dr. Morrison and three others, who were exception-
ally important, were added, their march preceded by a
loaded cannon pointed towards them. A concourse of
citizens, anxious to see the whole event, followed. Happily
a farmer, detained in town by the impressment of his horses
and waggon in Government service, and who knew the city
well, left the crowd and reached the northern gate of the
market in time to perceive a gunner, with a lighted portfire
in his hand, standing by a cannon which was loaded with
grape. Thinking the approaching crowd was a body of
rebels the gunner was about to apply his light, when the
farmer, with great presence of mind, stopped him. Had
the piece been fired more lives would have been thus sacri-
ficed than were lost during the whole winter.

One of the prisoners was now lying in hospital at the
point of death from a grape-shot wound, and a small
detachment under Captain Gamble was detailed to take
a party of other prisoners from the gaol, to be led before
him for recognition. Among them was Colonel Van
Egmond. The dying man lay on his bed propped up with
pillows, his mangled shoulder and arm slightly covered, his
ghastly face telling his moments were numbered. It was
night-time, and lights were held at the head and foot of
the bed as his fellows were slowly marched before him.
Some he knew, replied to questions, and mentioned them
by name. When Van Egmond's turn came, he must have
intentionally touched the man's foot for when the usual

GALLOWS HILL.

199

question was put, he said : " Why do you push my foot,
Colonel Van Egmond ? I am a dying man ; I cannot die
with a lie in my mouth. You were with us, and were to
have commanded us at Montgomery's tavern, but you did
not arrive in time."

It was a weird scene. The man died that night, and
was followed by the Colonel himself, whose years could not
endure the dampness and many other horrors of his cell,
where the temperature was arctic. Inflammatory rheuma-
tism and a complication of maladies brought him to a cot
in the same hospital, where, with some of his unhappy
companions, he closed his life.

The farce of rebellion, so far as Toronto was concerned,
had been played ; but the tragedy was to follow. Of
the two men who had pitted themselves against each
other, and who have left page upon page of their mutual
opinions — let there be gall enough in the ink, though thou
write with a goose pen, no matter — one was completely
victorious, one completely vanquished. The progress of
the first was attended with enthusiastic cheers ; that of
the other by hunger, cold, fatigue, and by much sympathy,
which meant death to those showing it. Christmas Day of
'37, the year " of one thousand eight hundred and freeze-
to-death," saw the apostles of the " sacred dogma of equal-
ity " of either province, fugitive ; and even Sir Francis
himself recorded of the season, " I cannot deny that the
winter of the past year was politically j»s well as physically
severer than I expected." "Several times," he says, "while
my mind was warmly occupied in writing my despatclies,
I found my pen full of a lump of stuff that appeared
to be honey, but which* proved to be frozen ink." Sir
Francis flatters the Canadian climate. Beautiful, vivifying,

200

HUMOURS OF '-?7.

transforming as it is, it had no power to turn the gall in
that compound to honey. He looked upon himself as the
eminent man who makes enemies of all the bad men
whose schemes he would not countenance ; others looked
upon him as having done more to alienate those whom he
was sent to govern than any other person or set of persons.
" If the people felt as I feel, there is never a Grant or
Glenelg who crossed the Tay and Tweed to exchange high-
bred Highland poverty for substantial Lowland wealth
who would dare insult Upper Canada with the official
presence, as its ruler, of such an ecjuivocal character as
this Mr. What-do-they-call-him Francis Bond Head."

When Sir Francis first arrived he was informed that his
chief duty was to sit very still in a large scarlet chair and
keep his hat on. The first was easy, but the second was
repugnant to his feelings ; and thinking the dignity of the
heswl would lose nothing by being divided from the hat, he
meditated holding the latter between his white gloved
hands. His English attendants agreed with him in this
idea of courtesy. But he quailed beneath the reproof of a
wordless stare from a Canadian who thought this a bid to
democracy ; " What," said the look, " what ! to purchase
five minutes' loathsome popularity will you barter one of
the few remaining prerogatives of the British crown?"
And so he wore his hat.

Of deceptive stature, the governor's presence did not
tally with his militia register. He owed much to a
wonderful personal magnetism ; old and young alike loved
him — when they did not hate him. Seated in that chair
he is described by an eye-witness on his first appearance
in it : " Although too small to fill it, his shoulders and
the poise of his head did much to counterbalance the lack
of nether proportions ; his feet, unable to reach the floor.

GALLOWS HILL.

201

were not allowed to dangle, but were thrust out stiffly in
front and kept in that position, apparently without effort,
during the opening. One of two Americans, in the space
near him reserved for visitors, plucked his friend's sleeve.
That,' said he, ' is a man of determination, and will gain
his point.'

" ' Why do you say so,' said the other. * Because no
other kind of man could or would hold his feet like that.'"

The Governor's opinion of the unaccredited grievance-
monger was more elaborate than the one he gravely records
in his " Narrative " as given of himself — " proclaimed the
d — dst liar and the d — dst rascal in the province." Con-
densed, his opinions amount to a never-ending diatribe
against that book bound in boards of five hundred and
fifty-three closely-printed pages, in which it was calculated
there were three times as many falsehoods as pages, penned
by one who had been "an insignificant peddler-lad."
" Af*- to look me in the face, he sat with his feet not
reac^ang the ground and with his face averted from me at
an angle of about seventy degrees ; while with the
eccentricity, the volubility, and indeed the appearance of a
madman, the tiny creature raved in all directions . . . but
nothing that T could say would induce the peddler to face
his own report."

Perhaps, after all, there was something in the manage-
ment of legs which would not reach the floor.

Yet the aphorism that " Next to victor it is best to be
victim " never had better exemplification.

I ;

Untocxats Hll.

'* It is in vie and nhcUl out."

At about this period of her history Canada threatened
to become that against which Washington had warned his
countrymen, a slave to inveterate antipathies. The mass
of the people were violently for or against each person,
cause or abstract question, in turn ; and naturally, the
times being critical, weak men went to the wall and those
who were by nature autocrats came to the front, and in
their way did the best of work. Sir John Colborne, St.
Eustache notwithstanding, was the right man in the right
place; his severe acts were not committed either thought-
lessly or wantonly. Each was useful in his own way as
circumstances and a narrow orbit permitted. After Sir
John came Prince, MacNab and Drew. None of them hated
in a small, toothy way ; there was nothing of the schemer
about any one of them. It was a word and a blow. And
although at one time it seemed as if ll»e most prominent of
them. Prince and MacNab, had given force to tlie saying
that the man who commits a crime gives strength to the
enemy, the two events in which they figured — as criminals
or heroes according to prejudice — and which nearly caused
a great war, were the means of putting down the rebel-
lion. The Caroline, and the prisoners who were "shot

AUTOCRATS ALL.

20a

accordingly," showed that the iron heel could stamp, that
the iron hand was better without tlio glove.

Following closely upon Gallows Hill came the occupation
of Navy Island and the burning of the Caroline.

"What," asked Canada, "is meant by Neutrality?"
and Jonathan, smoothing the rough edges of iiis meaning
in poesie, replied :

" Excite fresh men t'invade that monarch's shore,
And fill a loyali country with alarms,
And give them men, with warlike stores and arms,
Encourage brigands and all aid supply ;
I guess that's strict, doumriijht Ntatral-l-ty ! "

At the foot of the terrible three hundred and thirty-
four feet of water-leaps takea in the last thirty-six
miles of the river-bed of the Niagar^i, lay Navy Island,
only a mile and a half above the cauldron, and within
three-quarters of a mile of the worst of the mysterious
strugglings and throes of the rapids. This, with several
other small islands, forms a strait and two channels, and
lies within a half-mile row of the Canadian shore. The
Canadian boatman, intrepid as he is, knows the meaning of
that sound, which is ocean at its maddest — a rolling sea
heralding a coming storm that is born in the countless
million tons of clear, deep green water and milk-white
bubble, bubble, toil and trouble, which leap into the
appalling confusion below.

Here, on December 1 3 th, was run up the patriot flag,
with its twin stars supposed to represent *' the Canadas
— two pretty provinces, like two pretty daughters kept in
durance vile by an old. and surly father ; they will either
soon elope, or be carried off nolens volens."

The Provisional Government, set up oa this Juan Fer

204

HUMOURS OF 'S7.

nandez, where Mackenzie hoped soon to be monarch of all
he surveyed, had also its seal, which showed, besides the
twin stars, a new moon breaking through the surrounding
darkness — the Egyptian night of Canadian thraldom —
with the legend, "Liberty — Equality." Luckily, the third
word from their French model was missing, for they did
fall out and scratch and fight in a way to serve any local
Watts with themes. At Gallows Hill nothing would
satisfy Mackenzie but the Governor's head. So now there
was an issue of money, and a proclamation, the latter
offering five hundred pounds for the apprehension of Sir
Francis Bond Head, " so that he may be dealt with as
appertains to justice." " Would you as it were dethrone
him and bring him to the block," had queried Rolph some
time before, in his well-known and clever serio-comic sup-
posititious trial of that dignitary. The commissions issued
were embellished with an eagle and other insignia of
patriotism, the eagle lifting a lion in his claws and evi-
dently about to fly away with him, the legend " Liberty or
Death."

It looked as if the would-be Cromwell, after he had

"Come in with a rout, kicked Parliament out,
Would finish by wearing the Crown."

His coadjutor from the United States was Rensselaer
van Rensselaer. Together, they were dubbed Tom Thumb
and Jack-the-Giant-Killer. Van Rensselaer, a naturally
handsome man, under thirty, looked much older from dissi-
pation, " A lean and bloated dram-drinker, a spectacle his
nose," called by his countrymen Rip van Winkle the Second,
who spent his time on Navy Island in the double occupa-
tion of drinking brandy, of which he always had a bottle
under his head at night, and writing love-letters. By his

AUTOCRATS ALL.

205

own account he spent his days plodding •* four weary miles
through mud and water " round their little republic to
dispose of recruits and to erect defences ; was prostrate,
haggard and careworn, and, when about to partake of a
much-needed meal, would be called away to receive a boat-
load of visitors and leave it untouched. By the account of
others, he bade fair, like Lord Holland in his epitaph, to
be drovrned sitting in his elbow-chair, or properly speaking
camp-stool, for furnishings were meagre on Navy Island.
The New York Courier and Enquirer had the honesty, in
the recapitulatory articles which all border events called
out, to say, " It is idle in this matter to aflfect conceal-
ment of the fact that the present Canadian rebellion
receives its chief impulse and encouragement from the
United States." No wonder then that a Canadian sheet
should say : " Marshals, governors and generals were on
the look-out for patriots ; but one such in charge met a
number of the last en route to Navy Island hauling a piece
of ordnance. 'Where are you bound for?' said the gentle
general. *0h, we are only going to shoot ducks,' said
they, and they were allowed to proceed."

The Attorney-General said that the wording of Marcy's
and other messages deprecated the invasion of Canada in
an " Oh-now-don't " kind of appeal, which, read between
the lines, meant " Go on like good fellows — do just as you
like."

"The doors were opened," writes a patriot, *'and the
patriots told to help themselves." Ten pieces of State
artillery were given up on the strength of the following
note, a fine compliment to General Winfield Scott's liter-
ary reputation — than whom no finer military man in any
service ever stepped :

20G

HUMOURS OF \n.

"Buffalo Hkad Qk., Jan. 18, 1838.
" Col. H. B. Ransom, Commander-in-chief, Tonawanda.

" Pleas sen on those pieces of Canon which are at your
place ; let the same teams come on with them.

" Your in hase,

" W Scott Commander in Chief on the
" Frontier of Niagara."

There was no forgery, for the patriot guard was W.
Scott, afterwards, by the way, a candidate for presidential
honours.

New York papers could not see any similarity between
the Rebellion and the Revolution ; and as to comparing
leaders, " why, it was likening barn door fowls to soaring
eagles." But in case of the pother ending in war, a cor-
respondent of the Toronto Palladium says, " There would
not be a house left to smoke, nor a cock to crow day,
within ten miles of the shore on the banks of navigable
rivers — and a finger-post might be set up, 'Here the
United States was.* "

As for volunteers, they were as plentiful as United
States arms, and comprised all sorts and conditions of
man and boy. Two thirty-six pounders, one eighteen-
pounder, two thousand stand of arms, one hundred cannon
balls, five hundred musket cartridges, is the enumeration of
one contribution; and only the state of the roads pre-
vents one contributor setting out with a six-pound brass
cannon. An old gun is actually sent with the message,
♦' If you want cannon we are ready to cast them for you."
An ex-member of the New York Legislature, with two
certified captains, goes with a letter to Van Rensselaer,
t<i ttl'lk over wh&t measures sentries^ presumably of ai^

AUTOCRATS ALL.

207

arsenal, mi^'ht tako to furnish material without infringing
the law; an;! D. M'Lood writes, "Arms in abundance
can be had fur the asking." Another friend sends
blankets and arms ; one old man, a follower of Murat,
asks a cavalry commission for his son, a lad of nineteen,
adding pathetically, " I am now old and poor, but if you
will grant my request I will send you my son, the last
descendant of a noble line of warlike commanders of
France."

A blacksmith in Buffalo had an order for nine hundred
creepers, other artisans were busy at daggers and bowie
knives, and a Mr. Wilkinson furnished five hundred
pounds of boiler cuttings as a substitute for grape-shot.
Canadians were used to this kind of ammunition. Away
back in 1758 the Highlanders wounded at Carillon had
died of cankered wounds from the broken glass and jagged
metal used instead of *' honest shot."

"An empty hand, a stout heart, and a fair knowledge
of military tactics," blankets, boots and shoes, one hun-
dred and seventeen loaves of bread, eight tons of grape-
shot, two loads of beef, pork, and bread, together with
"some gentlemen well equipped for fight," one hundred
muskets, four loads of volunteers, swell the original
twenty-six men who accompanied Mackenzie and Van
Rensselaer at first, when the frame of a cannon, upon
which Mackenzie had sunk inert and spirit-broken till
aroused by some false alarm, is the only defence men-
tioned. But, undaunted, "Push off!" had been the cry
of this handful. A proclamation was issued, drawing
attention to the country in front which was languish-
ing under the blighting influence of military despots,
strangers from Europe ; an end forever was promised
to the wearisome prayers, supplications and mockeries
14

208

HUMOURS OF '.77.

attendant upon our connection with the lordlings of the
Colonial office, Downing Street, London ; the time was
favourable, owing to the absence of the " hired " redcoats
of Europe ; and ten millions of acres of fair and fertile
lands were at the disposal of the Provisional Government,
to be divided into portions of three hundred acres, which,
added to one hundred dollars in silver, would be the re-
ward of those who would bring this glorious struggle to
a conclusion.

" And though slavery's cloud o'or thy morning hath hung,
Tho full tide of freedom shall l)eam round thee yet. "

Besides Van Rensselaer, the aid was announced of
Colonel Sutherland and Colonel Van Egmond. Alas, the
latter, a good and true man, who was worthy of u better
fate than the one he earned by meddling in misunderstood
politics of a foreign country, was by then suflTering agonies
in Toronto gaol ; and Sutherland — as true-bred coward as
ever turned back — was destined for the tender touch of
Colonel Prince a little later. When proposal was subse-
quently made to exchange Sutherland for Mackenzie, it
drew the following query from an American paper, " What
should they do with him if they had him, and why not
give up Mackenzie to the Canadians in payment for the
custody of Sutherland % " Clearly the possession of Suther-
land was a poor boast ; he was a mark for his country-
men's contempt from the time he paraded the streets of
Buffalo, preceded by a fife and drum, enlisting volunteers,
until he disappears from the scene. The Buffalonian, when
giving a detailed account of thefts committed by the
patriots, from cannon to cabbages, says : " The patriot army
have also robbed an uncommon quantity of hen-roosts.
In these exploits Brigadier-General Sutherland is chiefly

AUTOCRATS ALL.

209

conHpicuous for his gallantry in the attack and skill and
expedition in retreating."

Robert Gourlay, then at Cleveland, Ohio, wrote his
opinion of the fatuity of this course direct to Van Rens-
selaer. Several of his letters are condensed into, " Never
was hallucination more blinding than yours. At a mo-
mf^nt of profound peace, putting on armour, and led by
the little editor of a blackguard newspaper, entering the
lists of civil broil, and erecting your standard on Navy
Island to defy the armies of Britain ! David before Go-
liath seemed little, but God was with him. What are you
in the limbo of vanity, with no stay but the devil ?
Mr. Hume is a little man, and you less." He adds,
alluding to the famous letter, "That his four years of
residence in the United States had let him see things far
worse than European domination. You call yourself a
patriot, and fly from home to enlist scoundrels for the con-
quest of your country. This is patriotism with a ven-
geance."

Mackenzie, like Gourlay, had a great aptitude in calcu-
lating the difficulties they were powerful enough to create.
But neither of them, in his own case, counted on possible
consequences.

At the finish of his proclamation Mackenzie has a pro-
phecy : " We were also among the deliverers of our
country." But he further says, " Militiamen of 1812, will
ye rally round the standard of our tyrants ? I can scarce
believe it possible."

Already that standard was floating before his eyes from
one of the tallest pines, and around it were gathered Mac-
Nab, Drew, and a host of others whose own arms or their
fathers' had been borne in 1812, — two thousand five hun-
dred Canadian farmers, most of them delaying, when called,

210

HUMOURS OF '57

for nothing but the clothing in which they now stood.
Bayonets glittered in the sun, and, on horseback as usual,
Sir Francis trotted up and down, reviewing with pardon-
able pride the troops, white, red, and black, which had
rallied round that flag.

" Canadians, rally round your Head,
Nor to these base insurgents yield,"

had been the cry of a Tory paper.

" I wonder how that rebel crew
Could clap their wings and craw, man,"

says another. But Sir Francis had one discomforting
answer to his appeal for aid against Navy Island. Mr.
Absalom Shade, of Gait, replied that not a few there
declined to enter into any such frontier service; while
many in the Paisley Block, though not allying themselves
with Mackenzie, would have seen " Governor and Gover-
nor's party drowned in the depths of the sea and not a
solitary cry of regret for them."

But Sir Francis had his friends. (Tomi) : Sir Francis
Bond Head — the noble champion of our rights — distin-
guished alike for every virtue which constitutes the gentle-
man and the scholar, whose name adorns a bright page in
the History of Upper Canada. {Tune : " Britons Strike
Home").

Gallows Hill over, the Canadian muse took her lyre in
hand and sang, with a Scotch accent forbye :

•' Oh, did ye hear the news of late,
Which through the Province rang, man,
And warned our men to try the game
They played at Waterloo, man.

AUTOCRATS ALL.

211

All destitute of dread or fears,
Militia men and volunteers
Like lightning flew, for to subdue
The rebel loons and crack their croons.
And pook their lugs and a', man.

Lang life to Queen Victoria,

Our Governor and a', man !

We'll rally round Britannia's flag.
And fecht like Britons a', man."

Sir Francis, in the account he has given us, seems to
have been so taken up with the moral lesson of the
panorama before him, making a book out of the running
brook of Niagara and a moral out of everything, showing
his chemical analysis of the comparative advantages of
monarchical and republican institutions^ speculating on the
mutating effect of hard shot on the latter and the thick-
ness of the hide of the American conscience and the thin-
ness of skin which covered American vanity, that he
forgot to fight. "Waiting calmly on the defensive," he
called it, emulating a commander at Fontenoy, nick-
named The Confectioner, who, when asked why he did not
move to the front, replied, "I am preserving my men."
The usually alert and active Canadian volunteer was occa-
sionally balanced by one more likely to damage himself or
his comrades than the enemy. A young clergyman,
newly ordained, arrived in Canada about the time of the
Rebellion. As he had as yet no charge he tliought it only
proper to take part in the fray, of course on the loyalist
side. A musket was placed in his hands, but he had to
apply to someone wiser than himself to know what should
go in first. He was stationed on the Niagara frontier in
mid-winter, where the beauties of nature made him forget-
ful of all else. Instead of keeping "eyes front "he used
them in star-gazing, fell into the hands of the rebels, and

212

HUMOURS OF '37.

narrowly escaped being shot as a spy. He escaped by the
intervention of a person who happened to know him.

A central blockhouse, several batteries, and most im-
posing earthworks could be seen through the telescope ;
but as the island was for the most part covered with wood
it was hard to approximate its strength. The main camp
of huts was on the other side and on Grand Island — a
large island some ten miles long, belonging to the United
States, and on which a certain Major Noah, of New York,
years before had laid the foundations of the city of Ararat,
intending to raise there an altar. Across the channel was
a portion of the army of sympathisers and the general
hospital, the latter transformed into an ark of refuge.
From this island. United States property, the loyalist
reconnoitering parties sent out in small boats were fired
upon, as minutely recorded by Lieutenant Elmsley, who
also states, " On our coming abreast of Fort Schlosser I
distinctly saw two discharges of heavy ordnance from a
point on the main shore on the American side, not far
from that fort. As soon as our boats had passed the firing
ceased." The two vantage points of the lesser island and
Canadian mainland were near enough for threat or chal-
lenge to be thrown across, and from the Battle Ground
Inn, just opposite Navy Island, such encouraging sentences
as " We'll be over at you one of these days," were wafted
over. An idle threat so far. Chases after the balls of the
enemy as they bounded along, laughter and cheers, made
the place more like a playground than a battle-field, a
state of inaction which continued for a fortnight.

Part of Sir Francis' "moral" inward conflict was
through the very evident desire on the part of his black
militia, many of them scarred and mutilated from their
slave-life, to be up and doing on the land from which they

AUTOCRATS ALL.

213

had made their escape. They were a formidable looking
set of men, powerful, athletic; and as they stood about him,
yellow eyes, red gums and clenched ivory teeth making a
fine combination of colour, terrible possibilities seem to
have crossed his mind. So also with the Indian contingent.
They did not like the Long Knives across the water —
a name not originally Kentuckian, but straight from the
time of good King Arthur. But there was what Sir
Francis calls an unwholesome opinion in Downing Street
that it would be barbarous to use them as allies against
American citizens. It had been said that Canadians
were only a trifle less handy at scalping than the allies
were, and there were still tales extant of scalping scenes
at the time of the Conquest, and later. He managed to
satisfy the Indians, however. The honest red counten-
ances glowed, the feathers on their heads gently waved, as
they communed among themselves, and presently a discon-
certing warwhoop arose, at first like the single yelp of a
wolf, but gathering in volume until every scalp upon the
island must have quivered.

The following extracts from letters sent from Chippewa
by Captain Battersby to his home show how slowly
matters progressed :

"Pavilion Hotel, 26th December. 1837.— MacNab ar-
rived yesterday with a large accession of force. Boats
have been brought up from Niagara and preparations are
making for an attack, which if made at all will, I think,
take place in a day or two. . . .

"Chippewa, 28th December. — No attack has yet been
made, but the preparations are going on. We are procur-
ing boats from Dunnville, St. Catharines and Niagara,
forty or fifty seamen have arrived, and there are two
captains in the navy and four lieutenants, ... so that you

«i'

214

HUMOURS OF '57.

see our means are augmenting fast. We are most deficient
in artillery, but I believe some heavy guns are on their
way. There was some firing yesterday from the island,
but no effect except wounding a hor^. It is said that the
Governor has sent up orders not to attack the island by
boats, but to dislodge the enemy by artillery and bombard-
ment. At any rate I am glad to see that our leaders are
going on cautiously and do not intend making an attack
until they have sufficient force. A part of the 24th Regi-
ment is said to be on its way here, and I shall be very glad
to see them — they will be invaluable as a support and
rallying point to our raw militia. ... I will write again
when I can, but such is the hurry and confusion that it is
difficult to find time and place.

"30th December, 9 p.m. — You will hear before this
reaches you of the burning of the steamboat on the
American side of the river. It took place about midnight,
and was a very gallant enterprise, as those who achieved
it were mostly young, inexperienced lads, gentlemen
volunteers from the militia ; very few of them could even
row decently, and many of the small boats employed had
not even rudders. ... I was in one of the boats, but
owing to not having men who could row, and the boat
being heavy, I lost sight of the others in the dark . . . and
obliged to return. I have no doubt that this affair will
make a great noise in the United States ; in fact I know
it already has at Buffalo. ... I don't think that an
immediate attack is contemplated, though we are going on
with our preparations and shall have boats enough fitted
and ready in two or three days. One company of the 24th
Regiment came in on the morning of the day I last wrote
you. ... To give you an idea of the way we go on,
yesterday night when the boats were manning for the

■

AUTOCRATS ALL.

215

■#•

■

attack a whole squad of people I knew nothing about
came down armed to the teeth, and I really thought at
first they would have attempted to take possession of my
boat by force that they might go themselves.

"January 4, 1838. — The Lieut.-Governor is here and
preparations are still going on for the attack. I have
now, however, no fear for the result, as several heavy guns
have been brought up, two mortars and a large quantity
of Congreve rockets. Our boat force is also increasing
rapidly and will soon be equal to whatever is required.
... I believe two or three companies of the 32nd will
take part in the attack whenever it is made. We are
going to move to-night with the boats two or three miles
above the island, for the purpose of dropping down with
the current when the attack is made.

"January 8th. — The time of attack is as doubtful as
ever. We are going on still with our preparations, but
owing to the paucity of materials and the terrible state of
confusion in which we are, our progress is very slow. There
has been a constant thaw here and some rain for the last
fourteen days, and the roads are in a state absolutely
indescribable. I can safely say that I am floundering in
six inches of mud and water from morning till night. I
cannot ask for leave of absence for a day, for numbers of
the seamen are already discontented and would willingly
seize such a pretext for leaving us. We are living in the
utmost filth and discomfort.

"January 11th. — Here we are still in the same degree
of uncertainty as when I last wrote. . . . More artillery
and troops are expected. ... I think myself that no
attack will take place for two or three weeks, but it is
very likely that we shall endeavour to check their commu-
nications with the United States, by means of armed boats,

216

HUMOURS OF '.57.

'^^

in which case my services would be as necessary as if the
island were attacked. . . . It is now more than a fortnight
since I have had my clothes oflF, night or day. More or
less firing takes place between our batteries and those of
the enemy every day, and though there are always crowds
of gazers on our side, yet to my astonishment only two
men have as yet been hurt, although the shot fall a good
quarter of a mile past our batteries. I think the com-
manding officer very much to blame for allowing such
crowds to put themselves in danger merely to gratify an
idle curiosity. The Buffalo papers state the loss on the
island to have been eleven men since the batteries first
opened. Great numbers of the militia have left and are
leaving this place, at which I am not sorry, as they are
entirely undisciplined and many of them disorderly."

But Sir John Colborne to the rescue. His artillery,
officers, guns, mortars, Congreve rockets and stores
arrived, and a great stir went through the dissatisfied
lines.

The guard standing at Black Creek bridge had a very
bad toothache the night of December 29th, so bad that he
thankfully retired to the barracks at Chippewa, an old,
evacuated tavern, whose big cavernous fire-place, well filled
with blazing logs, gave much comfort to his aching jaw.
The men were lying about on straw, two and two under a
blanket, when in came Nick Thome to ask if any one of
them would help him load up wood from the barrack yard.
Some great doings were on hand ; he had the countersign ;
the wood loads were to be used for a beacon light. Reed,
whose father, a U. E. Loyalist of 1796, had followed Brock
at Queenston, forgot his toothache.

Tb3 Caroline was a copper-bottomed craft, originally
•"■onstructed by the man known afterwards as Commodore

AUTOCRATS ALL.

217

Vanderbilt, was intended to sail in the waters off South
Carolina, and her timbers were of live oak from that State.
She was converted into a steamer and brought up the
canals to Lake Ontario, had been used as a ferry at
Ogdensburg, and was then taken through the Welland
Canal for similar ferry purposes at Buffalo. She was
hired by the patriots on Navy Island to convey stores to
them from Fort Schlosser, an old military position of
French times, where neither fort nor village remained ;
there was nothing but a tavern, which was the rendezvous
of the " pirate force " in coming and going. " Where
are you going \ " queried someone similar to the gentle
general.

" To Dunkirk," answered the Carolivie^a master, Apple-
by.

'* You mean eastward to Navy Island ? " But this skip-
per answered never a word, and a scornful laugh laughed
he.

The three lake schooners, each fitted with a gun and
intended to carry troops to the island when the long
deferred attack should be made, were still inactive. A
loyalist reconnoitering party was sent out to report upon
what proved to be the Caroline^ aXa&t trip. She had landed a
cannon and several armed men, and had dropped her anchor
east of the island. Expecting to find her still there it was
decided to " cut her out " that n'ght. The process techni-
cally known as cutting out is a naval one, conducted with
great secrecy and muffled oars, men and cutlasses, pistols
and boarding pikes, black night and plenty of blood, after
the manner of Marryat ; always a dangerous business, but
in these circumstances, where their chart reported irresisti-
ble currents and not half a mile above the Falls, a most
perilous enterprise. Luckily there was the right kind of

218

HUMOURS OF '.-rr.

material at hand and to spare for it. They had but a few
small boats of about twelve feet in length, each pulling four
oars ; it would be necessary to keep uncomfortably close
to the rapids in order to avoid observation from Navy
Island ; the difficulties, did the men once quail, were so
great that the shortest way was to put them out of mind.
At four o'clock that afternoon Colonel MacNab and Capt.
Drew, R.N., stood on the lookout discussing the situation.
They saw the Caroline performing her duty of conveyance,
the telescope revealing the field-pieces and men.

" This won't do," said MacNab. " I say. Drew, do you
think you can cut that vessel out ! "

" Oh, yes," was the ready answer ; " nothing easier. But
it must be done at night."

"Well, then," was the laconic order, "go and do it."
That order " nearly fired the continent as well as the
Caroline."

To quote the patriot chronicle, it was now that " an
insult, the most reckless, cowardly, and unwarranted that
was ever oflfered to a sovereign people, was given."

Oaptain Drew was a commander on half pay, " elderly,
shortish, and stout," who had settled in Woodstock in
1834 upon a beautiful farm, where he fondly hoped to end
his days in peaceful occupations of wheat-growing and
tree-planting. The Duke of Northumberland, who visited
him there, thqught it the prettiest place he had seen in
Canada ; and indeed Captain Drew and Major James
Barwick may be termed the pioneers of those — the Van-
si ttarts, Lights, De Blaqui^res, Deedes and others — who
formed the far-known aristocratic settlement of Oxford.
The midlands of England held nothing lovelier than these
homes -scattered along the Thames, farms separated by
beautiful ravines, studded and fringed with elms and

AUTOCRATS ALL.

219

noble maples, well built picturesque houses, wherein the
owners entertained after the manner of their class and
kind and spent much money. The stress of wear in very
few years was to wipe out this community of blood, man-
ners and culture ; but Captain Drew's tenure, owing to
the cutting out of the Caroline, was to be shorter still.

The first thing to be done was to call for volunteers.
" Here we are, sir," cried a hundred voices, " what are we
to dol" some of them from the contingent in the Methodist
chapel at Chippewa. " Follow me," was the only answer,
for it was of first importance that no word could possibly
be conveyed to the island, and Drew says the men did not
know their errand until seated in the boats and off from
shore, taking their way via the little canal just above the
rapids. Rumours of any kind were quickly transmitted
to either side; one of the most ludicrous which had
recently come to the ears of the troops was that Mac-
kenzie's people said the Tories of Toronto had managed to
smuggle a black cook into the patriot stronghold opposite,
and that presently all patriots would therefore die of
poison.

Each man of the boats' crews hod to be able to pull a
good oar, a condition not strictly carried out, as we see
from Captain Battersby's letters, but there were some
experts, such as young Mewburn, who writes that he was
doubly manning a bow oar. Each man was furnished
with a cutlass and pistol. Most of them were young
fellows, some from that corps organized in King Street in
Hamilton by MacNab and called by him his " Elegant
Extracts." One, young Woods, a curly-headed laddie,
U.E.L. to the heart's core, good-naturedly gave up his
seat to a friend. Dr. Askin, and then found himself
likely to be left on shore. He appealed to his chief.

220

HUMOURS OF '37.

"Why, you d — d young Bcamp, if you want to be shot
give my compliments to Captain Beer and tell him to take
you in." More easily said than done ; but through
influence, and by being able to hide under a seat, he got
into a boat and lay on a pile of wet sand, with knees up to
his chin, palpitating with excitement, until the final moment
of departure. For time dragged tediously; they had to
give the Caroline an hour or two to settle herself for
the night, and they heartily wished that the moon would
do the same. " Hadn't you better give me another," said
our curly-headed laddie, referring to his pistol. "When
you have used that, you will find that you won't want
another," said his oflicer.

MacNab wished the Caroline to It; brought to
Chippewa; Drew wanted her burnt and done for. By
half after eleven they had started, sent off with three
hearty cheers from those left behind, Thorne, Reed and
the others ready to light the fire which was to answer to
the blaze they intended to make, and, unnecessary precau-
tion, which would also serve as beacon to guide them back.
Once out, the men were told the service they were bent on
and offered the chance to return, the danger not being
burked. But no one took advantage of the offer. Some,
however, nearly had their course altered in spite of them-
selves : " Robert Sullivan, one of the crew, called out,
* Stop rowing, boys, for God's sake — do you see where we
are — we are going straight over the Falls ! ' ' Silence ! '
responded Lieutenant Graham, * or I will blow your brains
out. It is for me, not you, to give orders.* * Oh, very
well,* replied Sullivan, drawing his oar into the boat, * if I
am to go over the Falls, I may as well go without brains as
with them.* Here we all joined in, and after hurriedly
representing to Graham the danger of our position we

AUTOCRATS ALL.

221

began to pull up stream. A little longer and it would
have been too late." The roar of the mighty cataract,
which awed and somewhat terrified them, had been pre-
viously described by a patriot writer as the peal of the
funeral dirge of royalty in Canada.

Shots from Navy Island made the heart beat ; and do
their best they were forced to cross the river diagonally,
" We are going astern, sir ; we shall be over the Falls ; "
but reassured by the light from the doomed steamer, by
which they could determine the drop down stream, they at
length all got together. The moon was yet too bright, and
they rested on their oars, dipping them enough to stem the
current. At last it was dark enough, and they were
alongside. " Boat, ahoy! boat, ahoy! — give us the counter-
sign!" *' Silence!" said Drew, in a confidential tone,
" silence ! don't make a noise, and we'll give you the
countersign when we get on board." Once on deck, he
drew his sword, saying to the three men who were lounging
on the starboard gangway, " I want this vessel, and you
must go ashore at once." Thinking he was alone they
took up their arms and fired at him, not a yard off. A
swing and a cut of the sword, and one patriot dropped at
the captain's feet. Another trigger was pulled, the only
result a flash in the pan ; there was a sabre-cut dealt on
the inside of the man's arm, and the pistol fell. The
captain confesses to expediting this man and another
over the boat's side with an inch of the point of his
weapon.

Meantime, three of the boats had boarded forward, and
a good deal of firing followed, the latter checked at once
by the captain, as he feared that in the dark friend might
be mistaken for foe, a fear soon realized. Returning, he
thought it wise to reconnoitre about the gangway between

222

IWAfOURS OF '.{7.

the bulwark and the raised cabin. Here he was met by a
man who aimed at him a slanhing cut, which he parried
and succesHfully pinned the cutlasH against the cabin bulk-
head. " Holloa, Zealand," said he, recognizing one of his
own men, a fine specimen of an old British tar, " wh&t are
you about ] " " Oh, I beg pardon, sir, I didn't know it was
you ! " said the zealous sailor, who, released, went to seek
legitimate prey. There was a good deal of cursing, clashing
of swords and shouting, and (it is said) a cry of " Show the
rel)els no quarter." On the contrary, as the men fussed
over the lamp, the window sashes and the forgotten
"carcass," trying to coax a fire, one American heard them
say of himself, "What shall we do with this follow?"
" Kill him ! " suggested one ; " No, take him prisoner ! "
said a third ; but their officer's decision was that they did
not want prisoners, and the man was to be put ashore.
And the only person killed in the whole affair, Durfee, lay
on the dock, shot by a bullet which came from the land side.
Wells, the owner of the vessel, finding himself on solid
ground, made some good running, in spite of his assertion
that he was almost cut to pieces.

One tale of the day has it that another life was lost ; a
volunteer was fired at by a patriot, and in retaliation beat
his assailant's brains out ; his own condition and that of
the butt of his pistol corroborated his story on his return
to the Canadian side. The matter for the extraordinarily
sensational accounts given by the American press was
chiefly furnished by Mackenzie.

Lieutenant Elmsley ofHcered a guard on shore while the
vessel was cut from her moorings — not an easy thing to
accomplish, as she was made fast by chains frozen in the
ice; but a young fellow named Sullivan seized an axe,
cleared the chi ins, and set her free. This, Commander

AUTOCRATS ALL,

223

Dpow'm own Mtory, ih denied by a survivor, one of his liouten-
HiitH. A lamp was placed in a Imaket used for carrying
Indian corn, crosH-bars from the windows were torn off
and added to it, and the veHsel was set alight in four
ditferent places. The material especially brought for
this purpose, and known as a carcass, was at first quite
forgotten. Care had been taken to rouse all sleepers, had
any been able to sleep through such a scene ; the invaders
were ordered to their boats; the flames shot out fore and
aft ; and by this time Captain Drew found his stand on
the paddle-box too uncomfortable, as those driven ashore
had recovered from their surprise and the discharge of
their muskets was disagreeably close. It was equally un-
comfortably hot, and his gallant wish to be the last on
board nearly left him there as she drifted down the cur-
rent. He found a companion in a man emerging from
below who declared it too hot to live in there, and together
they got into the boat sent back for them, Drew's shouts
fortunately having risen above the din. Ho far there was
no need for the beacon from the opposite shore ; the
Caroline herself, like a great torch, glided beside them, or
rather they kept in the wake of her gold-dust covered
ripples, a fine target for the island guns ; but the days of
bull's-eyes were not yet. In spite of wounds the men rose
superior to fear of shot, content with the result of their
mission, and anxious to rejoin the cheering multitude that
waited for them on the Canadian shore. The illumination
made by burning vessel and beacon light threw every
pebble on the shore-line into bright relief, Drew's account
states that no human ingenuity could have accomplished
what the Caroline so easily did for herself. When free
from the wharf at Fort Schlosser her natural course would
have been to follow the stream, which would have taken
16

224

HUMOURS OF '31

her along the American shore and over the American
Fall ; but she behaved as if aware she had changed
owners and navigated herself across the river, clearing the
rapids above Goat Island ; she went fairly over the British
Fall of Niagara.*

An extract from one of the songs sung by the Canadian
volunteers will give an idea of the sentiments of the
singers :

" A party left the British shore,
Led on by gallant Drew, sir,
Who set the Yankee boat on fire
And beat their pirate crew, sir.

The Yankees said they did invent

The steamboat first of all, sir,
But Britain taught the Yankee boat

To navigate the Fall, sir."

The Lewiston Telegraph on Saturday set this in type at
6 a.m. :

" Horrible ! Most Horrible ! !

" We stop the press to announce the following horrible
intelligence which has just been communicated by two
gentlemen direct from the bloody scene :

" The steamer Caroline, which was lying at the landing
at Porter's storehouse, was boarded this morning between
the hours of twelve and one by about eighty men, who
came in boats from the Canada side. The Caroline had
on board from fifteen to twenty of our sleeping and
defenceless citizens, who had lodgings on board. They are
believed to have been mostly citizens of Buffalo, who came
as lookers-on, with the expectation of witnessing the attack

* In oppoaitioQ to this account see Dent's " History of the Qftnadiiu) Rebellion."

AUTOCRATS ALL.

225

lan
jed
}he
ish

an
ihe

upon the island. Every individual was butchered except
four, and three of these severely wounded. The engineer,
who was thrust through and put o. shore, says that after
the bloody work Was executed a small boy was found in
a closet, who begged for mercy but found none. The
Caroline was then towed out into the stream and sent over
Niagara Falls. Three cheers were given, and at the same
time beacon lights were raised at Chippewa. Our informant
saw the lifeless body of one person who was shot upon the
shore."

For five years the question hung upon a thread whether
England and the United States should go to war or not.
It is always fair to give two sides of a question, but in the
one given by Clio and Melpomene it will be seen their
poetic license degenerates into something more than the
flowery taradiddle of the average verse-maker :

^le
ro

In
lo

*' Oh, what were the dreams, as they sunk to rest,

Of that devoted band,
Who lay, as a babe on its mother's breast,

On the shores of their native land ?
Breathed they of fire, or of streaming blood.
Or the thundering cataract's whelming flood ?

Strong manhood's godlike form was there,

With his bold and open brow,
And age, with his wearied look of care,

And his floating locks of snow ;
And the agile form of the stripling boy,
With his throbbing pulse of hope and joy.

They dreamed of the happy hours of home,

Of a blessed mother's prayer.
Of the cherished wife in that sacred dome.

Of the lisping prattlers there ;
And the stripling dreamed of his young love's smile
When he left her bound for the fatal isle.

226 HUMOURS OF '37.

Oh, what was that dim, ominous sound,

That struck on the sleeper's ear,
Yet roused him not from his rest profound

Till the unsheathed blade was near ?
And it seemed as the air and the rocks were riven
By the slogan of death and the wild shriek given.

Oh, vain was the strife of the struggling few
With a well-armed murderous band ;

For the gallant barque, with her blood-drenched crew,
Is floating from the strand.

And the young boy's quarter cry it bore

To the purple wave, with his own heart's gore.

On, wildlj onward, sped the craft.

As she swiftly neared the verge ;
And the demon guards of the black gulf laughed,

And chanted a hellish dirge ;
And the booming waters roared anew
A wail for the dead and dying crew.

As over the shelving rocks she broke

And plunged in her turbulent grave,
The slumbering Genius of Freedom woke.

Baptized in Niagara's wave.
And sounded her warning tocsin far
From Atlantic's shore to polar star."

A careful computation from pages of prose, almost as
flowery as the foregoing lines and oftentimes breaking
into rhyme from a very luxuriousness of idea and rhythm,
puts the lives aboard the Caroline at about ninety-nine
in number. Thirty-three were killed and missing ; thirty-
three were towed into the middle of the stream when
the boat was fired, and with her went over the ledge ;
there were also thrilling cries from " the living souls " on
board, plus " wails of the dying," presumably thirty-three

AUTOCRATS ALL.

227

as
le

)ii

cries and thirty-three wails, all gliding down the resist-
less rapids to perish by " the double horror of a fate in-
evitable."

On the day following the cutting out five hundred
men were told off to complete the work by driving the
filibusters off the island, the three schooners, with
boats and barges, being sufficient transport. " But
what shall we do if a shot strikes our boat — we must
either drown or go over the Falls," was a query which
sent Captain Drew off on another hazard. He pulled up
stream in a four-oared gig, within pistol shot of the island,
to see if the enemy's field-piece was equal to hitting a
boat which moved fast through the water. So far the
casualties from the red-hot shot sent skipping along the
Canadian shore were the death of young Smith of Hamil-
ton, who, lying in a barn on some hay, had part of his
thigh carried away and some ribs broken, and an old
sailor named Millar who served Captain Luard's guns,
and had his leg taken off. Millar asked to see his leg,
gave three cheers for the Queen, and died.

A twenty-four pounder, mounted on a scow, battered
the point where the guns of Van Rensselaer were most
active. Drew's expedition brought upon themselves both
musketry and field-pieces, at first innocent of all aim, but
suddenly so improved that one shot made ducks and
drakes on the water, just clearing the gunwale, and pass-
ing between Drew and his strokesraan. This was from
no amateur, but owed its precision to the hand of a
young West Pointer — possibly of the " empty hand, stout
heart, of fair military tactics " letter. Van Rensselaer
has left it on record that the only moments of excite-
ment to him in this episode were when the first gun was
fired from the island, and when this boat's crew, at early

228

HUMOURS OF W.

dawn, made its way in safety round them ; so that Drew's
temerity was not without reward. These patriots had
" kissed their rusty muskets " and vowed they would never
lay them down until '* the redemption of Canada was
accomplished." A " sympathetic " account tells us that
the men so determined to do or die, in order to protect
themselves from temptation had taken the pins out of the
screws of the scows and burned their oars, resolved,

" If sons of Liberty can keep
No resting-place but this,
Then here we'll stand— or madly leap
Into the dark abyss."

The outcome was a hurried departure by night after
they heard of the arrival of the 24th Regiment. The
brisk cannonade of about four hundred rounds from heavy
guns and mortars, and the armed schooners which effectu-
ally kept them within their breastworks, were almost
enough without the rumour of the 24th.

When the Canadian force landed not a soul was to be
seen, and what had appeared formidable defence dwindled.
Apparently a second Gibraltar, it was found in military
parlance to be a bug-bear than which a greater never ex-
isted, a conglomeration of batteries and hovels masked
with wood, a sickening spectacle of "looped and win-
dowed " wretchedness. The vaunted blockhouse citadel,
the barracks and the batteries, were but huts of trees and
sods and ill-constructed embankments ; the only reward
for industry was an abattis of brushwood to prevent boat
invasion.

A man concealed in the woods now came out, white flag
in hand, and from him and two women found in a hut did
the Canadians get an account of life on " the fatal isle "

AUTOCRATS ALL.

229

during the biting storms and pitiless rain of December, '37,
and January, '38. " Peas and beans dank as a dog,"
varied by feasts, the bones of which lay about with re-
mains of bread and barrels of beans yet untouched, had
been their food ; the bushes about were eloquent, with
bits of rag sticking to them, of the quality of clothing ;
these patriots, herded together like swine and sheep, left
behind them evidences of some stores, boots and shoes,
plenty of reading matter of the most virulent kind, all
mixed up with burst shells, splintered wood and dirty
straw. Some boots had the legs cut open, apparently to
strip wounded limbs, some were stained with blood ; and
"a huge pile of unpicked bones, . . . on a rough board
used as a table," and the remains of beds made of pine
branches, gave further evidence.

Sir Francis paid the site a visit on the 17th, a wild and
boisterous day. He had the body of one man exhumed —
shot by a rifle, but his arms were pinioned. He had been
suspected as a spy. ' The susceptible Sir Francis, light as
his heart generally was, saddened at the sight of him.

Songs abounded for every part of the event, dates some-
times making way for rhyme :

" They say he murdered one Durfee,
In December, '39, sir ;
And stole some candles and old boots,
And burnt the Caroline, sir."

On the night of evacuation the soi-disant patriot army
surrendered their arms to the United States authorities and
disbanded their forces. The cannon belonging to the
State were returned in a scow to Fort Schlosser, and in
transit with the men on board came near following the
fate of the Caroline. The scow had fallen far down the

230

HUMOURS OF W.

current and the men had given up their case as hopeless,
when a gale from the north-west sprang up, and, aided by
their blankets extemporized into sails, they were wafted
ashore.

A month before, when they had received these ill-gotten
guns, they slaughtered the oxen which drew them, and
paid for the beef and work by a due-bill on the future
Canadian Republic.

" '' .' sooner was the Caroline in flames than a sudden
exciteinent prevailed ; but it was the excitement of fear.
The women fled from the villages on the coast, people who
had fancied themselves bedridden decamped, and the citi-
zens of BaTalo evinced the greatest possible consternation
for the a'tfttv of i:,heir town."

CaptK n I'nw almost distanced Sir Francis in un-
popularity in ot 't Ml quarters; but like him, among his
ovn wi.-, at om< !iero. At St. George's Day dinner
in Toronto, Captfotn J ••jyat, an old comrade of Drew's,
gave the toast : " Captain Drew and his brave com-
rades who cut out the Caroline.^^ The day after the
cutting-out, Drew, with MacNab, was burnt in ettigy on
the ice at Detroit, and he saw himself advertised for in a
Buffalo newspaper at a reward of $500. He was hanged
in effigy — a compliment kept up on the anniversary for
several years ; active attempts were made to assassinate
him, of so determined a nature that in the end the pleas-
ant Woodstock home was forsaken, and heroism was for-
gotten when, forced to leave the country to preserve life to
wife and family, he found himself in England, where the
preservation of Canada was of interest on a large scale but
the reward of her preservers a matter of no moment.
Captain Marryat's toast brought upon him, too, attentions
similar to those bestowed upon the subject of it. He was

AUTOCRATS ALL.

231

18
S

Imrned in effigy in every town in the United States
through which his journey took him ; his writings were
made into a bonfire in Lewiston, and in St. Louis his effigy
was decorated with a halter round the neck. Cincinnati
was the first place which dared to assert a difference. The
captain, whose mother was an American, had so far looked
on at his own cremation and at that of his child-literary
with calmness, smoking a cigar the while ; but in Cincin-
nati, at the dinner tendered him, he spoke out like a man,
a gentleman, and a person of force and humour, giving his
reasons for his opinions and actions and ashamed of
neither. He said that his motive in refusing private hospi-
tality was that he might leave himself freedom of speech ;
and he finishes his d 'iverance, " If we are to burn all
those who differ with us in opinion, consider, gentlemen,
what a glorious bonfire would be made of the whole United
States."

What touched him most deeply was part of his mail
matter, — five hundred anonymous letters which cost him
on an average fifty cents each to redeem from the post, and
of which he makes bitter though humorous complaint in a
long, published letter, supposed to answer his five hundred
correspondents in one coup-de-main and also his well-
wishers, whose missives followed him so persistently from
place to place, that he began to think it a combined attack
upon his purse from Van Buren and the Postmaster-
General.

The destruction of the Caroline surprised everyone,
Americans, Canadians, even the chief actors ; it let
loose the tongues of ministers and diplomats, and it
gave a great impulse to the outside movement of sym-
pathisers or patriots. The success of Drew's action made

232

HUMOURS OF '37.

the last wary ; but the howl of indignation, which for
a time was allowed to have some show of reason, served
as a cloak under which to add retaliation to what before
had been dubbed patriotism alone. Sugar Island, Bois
Blanc, and the schooner Anne followed in quick succes-
sion ; but the most direct outrage as result of it was that
against the Sir Robert Peel under the management of an
autocrat on the other side of the warfare, handsome and
distinguished looking as MacNab himself, determined as
Drew, uncompromising as Prince, with an air and halo of
romance over all his actions arising partly from his per-
sonality, partly from the romantic beauty of his surround-
ings— the redoubtable Bill Johnston, king of the Thousand
Islands.

General Van Rensselaer, in sash and epaulets, with his
encampment on Navy Island, backed by two or three
hundred vagabonds, making war upon Great Britain, was
a ridiculous person. But Bill Johnston, the buccaneer,
armed to the teeth, actuated by revenge for real injuries,
carrying out his threat to be a thorn in Great Britain's
side, flying from island to island, a price set upon his head,
determined to sell his life at desperate cost, devoted to his
daughter and adored by his children, has a touch of
poetry about him which almost justified what he devoutly
believed himself — that it was a glorious thing to be a
pirate king. It is a come-down to have to admit that one
of his occupations was robbing the Canadian mails, when
he would take the clothes off the occupants of the coach
and beat whoever refused him, tie the coachman to a tree
— as he did between Gananoque and Kingston — and leave
the man there. He once captured a dragoon carrying
despatches, took the man and his horse to the lake shore,
shot the horse, put the despatch-bag in his boat, and let

AUTOCRATS ALL.

233

the man find^hia way on foot to report himself to his
captain.

This was the personage concerning whom Silas Fletcher,
one of the refugees from Gallows Hill, wrote from Water-
town to Navy Island, that he was a man in whom it was
perfectly safe to confide, "a gentleman of intelligence,
equal to fifty ordinary men," recommended for a commis-
sion because he could " greatly annoy the Kingstonians,"
his influence so great that he could raise two hundred as
bold volunteers as ever drew trigger. Some of the sympa-
thizers had a faculty for arousing admiration ; for about
this time a lady in Rochester, who kept a private school
where some Toronto girls were sent, allowed her pupils to
work a silken flag to be presented to the pirate force.

Johnston and his followers had many disguises. In
their attacks on isolated farm-houses it was their pleasure
to adopt the dress of ordinary sailors, and in their expedi-
tion to the island of Tanti — a Canadian possession of
Lord Mountcashel, from which they took much plunder,
and where they left one farmer with three fingers and part
of a hand shot off — the whole miae-en-achie is absurdly
like "H. M. S. Pinafore." From island to island, from
rock to the hidden fastness, keeping in the narrower chan-
nels where inclined planes were cleverly constructed by
which to draw up their fast boats, the only clue to their
haunts was a surprise shot from some ambush or the
expiring embers of a lately deserted bivouac fire, or per-
haps a couple of barrels moored in the narrowest part of
Fiddler's Elbow, innocent-looking infernal machines left
ready for the unwary.

French Creek — A-ten-ha-ra-hweh-ta-re, the place where
the wall fell down — Abel's Island and some other points,
were his favourites ; but Fort Wallace, a small islet at the

234

HUMOURS OF W.

heml of Wells' iHland, wjis his fastness, where, with a
dozen men, he Iwasted he could withstand two hundred.
The number of boats scattered up and down the islands
was popularly supposed to be one hundred, and the popu-
lation of this world of islets some thousand souls, all
under the sway of Johnston. Kinaldo, Robert Kidd and
Robert le Diable seemed centred in him. He could land
at Queenston unarmed and get the guard tipsy, and with
a few companions take off seventy stand of arms. But
his experience as smuggler and trader, and his exploits
when in the employment of the American Government
during the war of 1812, when he roamed all the lakes and
rivers, intercepting despatches, and when, his boat driven
in by a gale on the Canadian shore and his crew captured,
he could cross Ontario — at that point thirty-six miles wide
— in a bark canoe after a fortnight's dodging of British
vessels, made such affairs as came to his hand in '37 seem
bagatelles. In the early days he had at his command a
six-oared barge ; now he and his four sons, the latter all
partaking of his own nature, powers and daring, did their
work in four row-boats of extraordinary speed, each boat
with a crew of eight or ten men and all armed to the
teeth. The boat used by Johnston himself was twelve-
oared, the swiftest of the fleet, twenty-eight feet by four
and a half, clinker-built and gay with paint. Black
bottom, white above, with a yellow streak six inches wide
below the gunwale, inside red, so light in weight that two
men could carry her with ease, but capable of accommo-
dating twenty armed men, this gay-looking craft flew his
own colours.

But for special use in deceiving British vessels a Stars
and Stripes lay ready to hand. Not that he was under
the protection of the latter ; he was harried equally by

AUTOCRATS ALL.

235

United States authorities and Canadian, his capture being
finally made by the former. The most interesting member
of his domestic group was his daughter, wliom his ambition
was to make Queen of the Thousand Isles, a handsome girl of
nineteen, possessed of courage enough to manage her boat
alone, armed like her brothers, and skilful enough to keep
her father supplied with provisions on those exciting
occasions when he had to hide.

Bill Johnston and his followers were of more consequence
than all the men, Provisional Government, generals and
stafi^, on Navy Island ; in the words of an American
newspaper, "This chap seems now to be conducting war
on his own hook." Wells' Island was the scene of his
reprisal for the burning of the Caroline ; for all his own
grievance, such as the confiscation of his property on the
British side in 1812, he felt himself more than avenged.
The island, part of Jefferson county, had not more than
an acre of cleared land upon it, with a wharf used for
wooding the vessels which called there for fuel ; the sole
building was one log shanty. When the Sir Robert Peel
drew in on the evening so important to her. May 29th,
1838, the woodman warned the captain that suspicious-
looking characters were inland. But the warning was
made light of, and the usual fueling programme followed.
All on board went to bed, and about ten o'clock thirteen
of the erstwhile sailors of the island of Tanti appeared in
their new scene as Indians, looking the part to perfection
in black, red and yellow paint. Their number had been
twenty-eight, but they had dropped down the river from
their camp on Abel's Island, on the opposite side to the
wood station, and in crossing fifteen of the band had been
temporarily lost in a swamp. The debate whether this
left too small a number for the attack led to delay, but

286

HUMOURS OF ':i7.

Johnston decided that a baker's dozen was a lucky number,
and that if this opportunity were lost another as favour-
able might not offer itself. So the warwhoop, as good an
imitation as their painted semi-nudeness, was raised. One
discrepancy was the absence of tomahawks, replaced by
guns and bayonets. The woods re-echoed to their howls,
and it was not long until captain, crew and passengers
were on deck.

Colonel Fraser, Mr. Holditch of Port Robinson, and
several others, had enjoyed their evening ; they took wine
together, and then went to bed, their berths in a row.
Soon they heard a noise which they imagined to be a
scufHe among the crew ; but in a twinkling five men stood
by the berths where they still lay, four armed with bayonets
and muskets and the fifth with a sword. At the command
to get up at once Mr. Holditch laid his hand upon Colonel
Fraser's military coat, and the ruffian with the sword,
seeing the colour, called out, " He is a British officer — run
him through ! " A general disowning of Her Majesty's
uniform ensued, but a lively fight took place for possession
of the pocket-book, which contained a large sum of money.
After much kicking and knocking down most of the men
were forced into a small cabin, lighted by a skylight
through which muskets were pointed at them, keeping
them quiet until a panel was broken out of the door and
one by one they were allowed to leave. The women were
all driven on deck in their night-clothes ; their cries were
distressing, but Captain Bullock, formerly of the St.
George, and the stewardess, contrived to mitigate circum-
stances for them. The dramatic Sea-King was not going
to allow such an opportunity for the tragic to escape him.
As he knocked at the ladies' cabin door a courageous
female tried to stop his further entrance, begging time to

AUTOCRATS ALL.

237

dress. " Come with me," said Bomhastes, " come with me
and I will save you — the nations ark at war."

It was a most inclement night, and they took refuge in
the shanty. There one of the brigands remarked that the
occupants of the Peel had got their deserts, whereupon
Captain Bullock knocked him down and dragged him out
by the throat. The amount of booty was not inconsider-
able, and as soon as the vessel was rifled of it she was set
on fire and allowed to drift. The mate must have been a
sound sleeper, as he knew none of the happenings until
rescue was nearly past. His shrieks for help came after
the pirates had departed and the passengers dispersed, but
some of the latter managed to reach him in a skiff. They
were barely in time, for he had to jump into the water so
badly burned that he had to be tended by the half-dressed
passengers all night.

It was supposed to be the intention to thus serve all
British steamers, so that Johnston's whaleboats should
have no interference in St. Lawrence waters thereabouts
in piracy and invasion. Tn this particular instance, one
of the passengers, an Irishiaan, vigorously protested from
the island :

" The divil saze the likes of ye, ye're worse than the
Connaught Rangers, wid yer injun naygur faces."

" Remember the Caroline^ Pat," retorted a pirate.

" Is it Caroline Mahoney, ye mane ? — sure it's not at
the likes of you she'd be after lookin'."

They essayed to get Pat on board, telling him to " come
and get his duds." " Do ye think I'll go aboard and see
myself kilt 1 " he asked. They then tried to get near him,
but with " Bad luck to ye, there's two can play at that, me
darlin'," he sped into the woods. One of the party was a
prisoner from Abel's Island, and he was left to look after

238

HUMOURS OF '37.

II !

Scanlan, one of the crew, who had been badly wounded in
the scuffle. By sunrise, while the Robert Peel still
burned, the pirates were back at Abel's Island, washed
and clothed. The passengers were taken off Wells' Island
by the U. S. steamer Oneida and left at Kingston.
After this the pirate boats were mounted with two and
three-pounders, while Johnston and his followers played
hide-and-seek with his pursuers, managing to elude two
steamboats, one schooner and a number of gunboats which
were doubling and cross-cutting in his wake.

When Governor Marcy, of New York, received infor-
mation of this act, which Johnston himself allowed to be
piracy, he went to the frontier and took active measures
to guard his own border from the retaliation which he
dreaded, and also to combine with the Canadians in
offering a reward for Johnston's arrest. Such banditti,
like the cowboys of the Revolution, argued that it mattered
not who was plundered, provided there was booty to be
found. In the grandiloquent words of their own chronicle,
the Sir Robert Peel was " a burnt-offering to the shades
of the Caroline" As to Canadian reprisals, there was
much talk of firing upon United States vessels wherever
found, an unjust opinion existing that they were at one
with "Admiral" Johnston's crafts. But better sense
prevailed, and as one newspaper says, " Let their steam-
boats depart from our shores in peace." Such a Nunc
DimittiSf opening with an exhortation to high-mindedness,
•* Men of Chatham ! the eyes of Europe are upon you ! "
was penned at Chatham, where the burning of an Amer-
ican vessel was insisted upon as retaliation for a local act
of outrage.

The action taken by Sir George Arthur concerning the
indictment of siroiUr outlaws elsewhere after they wer^

AUTOCRATS ALL.

239

caught, treating them as prisoners of war, exasperated the
Loyalists ; they claimed it was establishing a precedent for
all the Bill Johnstons and marauders, who were either
rebels in their own country or filibusters from the one
opposite : " This is, in fact, a bounty upon invasion, and
taken in connection with Mackenzie's reward of 300 acres
of land, made it easy for a man to hedge with tolerable
assurance of not coming to grief either way." "These be
indeed Liberal times." What Bill Johnston thought of it
all may be seen from his'proclamation, issued immediately,
after he had first openly paraded the streets of Ogdens-
burg with his belt stuck full of pistols, dirks and bowie
knives :

((

To all whom it may concern :

" I, William Johnston, a native-born citizen of Upper
Canada, certify that I hold a commission in the Patriot
service of Upper Canada as commander-in-chief of the
naval forces and flotilla. I commanded the expedition
that captured and destroyed the steamer Sir Robert Peel.
The men under my command in that expedition were
nearly all natural-born English subjects ; the exceptions
were volunteers for the expedition. My head-quarters
was on an island in the St. Lawrence, without the juris-
diction of the United States, at a place named by me
Fort Wallace. I am well acquainted with the boundary
line, and know which of the islands do and do not be-
long to the United States ; and in the selection of the
island I wished to be positive, and not locate within the
jurisdiction of the United States, and had reference to the
decision of the Commissioners under the sixth article of
the Treaty of Ghent, done at Utica, in the State of New
York, 13th June, 1822. I know the number of the island,
16

240

HUMOURS OF \rr.

1 I

I i

and by that decision it was British territory. I yet hold
possession of that station, and we also occupy a station
some twenty or more miles from the boundary line of the
United States, in what was Her Majesty's dominions un-
til it was occupied by us. I act under orders. The ob-
ject of my movement is the independence of Canada. I
am not at war with the commerce or property of the people
of the United States.

" Signed, this tenth day of June, in the year of our
Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.

"William Johnston."

The result of the proclamation, which was published
in the American newspapers, was a reward offered by
Governor Marcy of $500 for the author's arrest, $250
each for that of D. M'Leod and two others, and $100
each for the rest. The Canadian Government offered
£1000 for the conviction of any of them.

But it is a long lane that has no turning. The defeat
at Prescott once more sent the Johnstons, and their fol-
lowers to the same retreats of the river intricacies. An
old soldier of the 79th was given the hazardous mission
to search them out; but the only result was a shot or
two from an unseen and vanishing onemy, and a specimen
of the finest tourmalin to add to his geological cabinet.
Bonnycastle put some of his staff with a band on board
a small steamer, ostensibly to visit the militia garrisons
of Gananoque, Brockville and Prescott, returning by night
in the hope that Johnston would attack them. With
excellent steering they escaped the infernal machines
moored for them, but saw naught of the enemy.

Sir John Colborne, with his one notion of government,
had a large body of sailors and marines forwarded from

AUTOCRATS ALL.

241

our

Quebec harbour, then full of men-of-war, steamboats and
merchantmen drawn there by the arrival of Lord Dur-
ham. A company of the 1st Frontenac Militia went to
the island of Tanti, and the border-town garrisons were
strongly reinforced with picked men. But Johnston only
laughed at them all, and scudded along in his mysterious
boat. About eight feet of the after-part of this craft was
decked, and on this he sat while he steered with an oar, a
red carpet-bag for his cushion seat. In the sight of one
party of pursuers from the steamboat Oswego they openly
pulled for the wreck of the Sir Robert Peel ; when the pur-
suers were within fifteen rods a white handkerchief was
waved and Johnston majestically rose from his carpet-bag,
drew from it the colours of the Sir Robert Peel^ which he
let wave in the breeze and then gravely returned to the
bag. Another craft, evidently one of the fleet, darted up
a bay; the dark blue boat was made fast, and in a moment
the crew could be seen walking through the bushes, Indian
file, each with a large pistol in his right hand. In an in-
terview held at a few boat's lengths with a deputation of
two, who were old acquaintances of his, Johnston said there
was one thing of which they might rest assured — he would
never be taken alive ; that he was a fair mark to shoot at,
but not to dangle in the air. He might have quoted,

"To die for treason is a common evil,
But to be hanged for nonsense is the devil."

He announced that at that moment he had two other
boats well manned and armed within signal view; that he sat
upon the colours of the Sir Robert Peel, and that he meant
to continue sitting on them " till they rotted." The inter-
viewers could see for themselves that his boat was well
stored with muskets and small arms. When told that his

! I

242

HUMOURS OF '37.

son's wharf at French Creek was then patronized for wood
by one of the steamers, " he seemed much affected," reply-
ing, " I am glad to hear of it, or of anything else that can
benefit my family."

At this time Johnston appeared a robust, athletic man,
absolutely fearless, about sixty years of age, a gray headed,
hardy veteran, " a good friend and a terror to his enemies."
He stated that whoever attacked hira must bring his own
coffih, as he himself had no leisure for cabinet-making.

A simultaneous movement was made on him by a party
of British soldiers, and some of the 1st Regiment of Ameri-
can Infantry under Captain Gwynn of the American
army. The men were conveyed in two steamboats, the
Experiment and the Telegraph, and in a gunboat under
Lieutenant Leary, R.N., the Bullfrog. They found two
of the bandits fast asleep in the cave, but on account of
the roughness of the surrounding country the attack was
not well concerted, and the rest of the band, including
Johnston, escaped. A quantity of arms and ammunition
was found in the cave, but a thorough search by the
soldiers, eighty in number and cutlasses in hand, revealed
no trace of them.

At another time. General MacNab with some fifty
United States soldiers, cruising about in search of this
will-o'-the-wisp, found the home but its occupant gone.
It proved to be a spacious cavern, into which they pene-
trated about thirty feet, part natural cavity, part exca-
vated by labour, fit for dwelling-place for a large body of
men, and in the several rooms which it contained there
were signs of recent occupation.

Mr. James, an artillery officer of Ogdensburg, had met
with the loss of a brass six-pounder, pressed into the
patriot service during the excitement of the battle of the

AUTOCRATS ALL.

243

Windmill. At the end of that aflair, so disastrous to the
sympathisers, Bill Johnston suddenly disappeared from
the streets of Ogdensburg. Not long after this Mr. James'
wife was doing her marketing as usual, being one of the
few ladies who were not intimidated by the scare at the
waterfront. While chatting with friends whom she met
in the course of her morning's walk, one said, "If you
knew where your husband is you would not be so full of
laughter." Word had been brought into town that Bill
Johnston was in hiding in the woods near by, and two
parties, hurriedly got together, had gone off in search. One
party was composed of Charles T. Burwell and James, on
horseback, the other of United States soldiers who were
to meet the first at a given rendezvous. On arriving at
the place the two horsemen found young Johnston sitting
by the shore waiting for his father. After some resistance
young Johnston was taken, his boat seized and the oars
hidden. The capture of the father was not so easy. When
he caught sight of the three he rushed to where he ex-
pected to find the boat, warning the townsmen to keep
oflF. Had he thought of it in time it would have been like
him to exclaim, " A boat ! a boat ! my kingdom for a
boat ! " He had a pistol in each hand, but demurred to
use them, as his pursuers were "fellow- Americans." After
considerable parley, when he realized that the second
party, momentarily expected by boat, would put him be-
yond hope, he surrendered. But he stipulated that hi? son
should receive his arms, he himself to retain only four
small pistols and his bowie knife ; he then quietly fell in
with James and Burwell for the return to Ogdensburg. A
very short walk brought them to the other party just
arrived, United States soldiers, a sheriff and deputy
marshal!, to whom Bill Johnston was delivered. In spite

244

HUMOURS OF '57.

I
II

of the large sums offered as reward for his capture, the
testimony is that James' share no more than reimbursed
the latter for the loss of the brass six-pounder, for the
safe custody of which he had been responsible. They
placed Johnston on a steamboat in government employ
under Colonel Worth, and so he disappears.

It was an epoch in the history of the peninsula of
Essex and Kent when Mr. Prince arrived in Canada.
Formerly these counties, " together with as much of this
province as is not included within any other district,"
extended northward to the boundary line of Hudson Bay.
Neighbourhoods were not then congested. Prince was
the first man of fortune who came to the district, which
he did in '33, accompanied by wife, family and servants.
A man of fine presence and most genial manners, an
eloquent speaker, a sportsman and lover of agriculture,
he took to farming like the average Englishman, full of
good intentions and enthusiasm. He imported thorough-
bred stock and kept the finest of dogs. Although much
opposed to the stringent game laws of England he intro-
duced a bill for the preservation of game ; it passed,
but came back amended, one of the additions being that
at no time should any animal be killed on the Lord's Day.
Later, alluding to the discussions induced by his summary
proceedings with rebels and the hot debates on the battle
of Windsor, he never doubted but that the shooting of
such rancorous animals as wolves and Yankee pirates on
the Lord's Day could be justified ; whereat there was
laughter. For Sabbath-keeping in those exciting times
was more after the manner of Gwirzi, whose allowance
was a male and female daily, but who on Saturday night
killed two of each so that he might not profane the
Sabbath.

AUTOCRATS ALL.

245

Prince had the true patriarchal spirit ; was born to be a
leader of men, if withal, like Bottom, he could say, " My
chief humour is for a tyrant." It was a time when a
tyrant or two did not come amiss on the Canadian border,
however unworthily at the metropolis th' oppressor ruled
tyrannic when he durst. Prince came not long after the
time when the Western District gave sentence for man-
slaughter, " to be burned in the hand and accordingly put
in execution before the court." If this was justice in
times of peace there was not much room for the animadver-
sions with which he was covered — but not overwhelmed —
when, the Constitution suspended, revolutionary crimes
could scarce be put down save by revolutionary methods.
"MacNab and Drew, Arthur, Prince, Hagerman and
Robinson, are still alive," said the press ; each one of them
agreed with Blackstone that obedience is an empty word
if every man may decide how far he shall obey. There is
no doubt that the Sandwich-Windsor locality was in '37-38
a seething caldron of unrest, distrust and dissatisfaction ;
but above it all rides this overpowering personality :

" For the brave Prince still lives, and so do his men,
Who triumphed before and can do it again."

" {Toast) ' That brave, intrepid officer whose promptitude of
action turned the revelry of Yankee pirates in the western
frontier into a post mortem examination. May the sad
lesson prove a caution to the followers of filue Beard.'
{Tune— 'The Brave Old English Gentleman')."

" Of politics," said he himself in one of the hundreds of
speeches which did much towards making his fame, " of
politics I shall say but little here. Mine have been before
you and the people of Upper Canada for the last five
sessions. I am in the true sense of the word a Consti-

mBsmmmmmms

246

HUMOURS OF \37.

tutional Reformer." How far Broygham and others of
his old country critics agreed with him shall be seen here-
after. His record in the Canadian House shows that he
was never amenable to party discipline himself, was classed
as " doubtful " by both parties, had hot fits of Liberalism
and Conservatism by turns ; like a stiflF old Englishman,
said he was prepared, as the barons at Runnymede, to
maintain his rights at all risks ; with John Henry Boulton
came out as Independent, was a veritable Thorough in his
opposition to the Rebellion Losses Bill, and capped the
climax of his many-sided character by printing a petition
signed by "many respectable Canadians" to move an
address to Her Majesty praying that Canada might be re-
lieved from her " dependent state and allowed to become
an independent sovereignty." By the time the last trans-
pired it behooved Robert Baldwin to stigmatize the peti-
tion borne by the hero of '37 as " quasi treasonable."

In the neighbourhood of his home, the Park Farm, lay,
for some thirty of forty miles, the French village form of
settlement — the decent church, the pious priest, the civil
habitant ; the French windmill, where habitant and U. E.
Loyalist took their grist in amity, still stood ; the river
road had on its fringed border the pear trees of the Jesuit
fathers, standing like sentinels, to remind of Hennepin and
La Salle, and to keep alive the first explorer's saying,
" Those who in the future will have the good fortune to
own this lovely and fruitful strait will feel very thankful
to those who have shown them the way."

Every one knows how a carpenter, with foot each side
of a log, brings his adze down, first on one side with an
emphatic "Hah!" then on the other, with a second empha-
sis, each stroke on alternate sides getting the same syllabic
ejaculation. In Lower Canada, tight in a box, most

AUTOCRATS ALL.

247

precious of relics, some of the habitants — it is said — had
this most emphemeral of saintly leavings. Whether the
habitant of the Detroit and St. Clair brought with him
from the St. Lawrence the Hah of St. Joseph we do not
know ; but he did bring with him most of the attributes
which make him the pleasant, interesting fellow he is, on
each river ; good Catholic, good friend ; true to his title,
for he came " habiter le pays," no transient dweller he. Nor
does the spirit of " noblesse oblige " ever die. Long after
'37 a court dignitary found himself in a remote St. Clair
neighbourhood where tavern accommodation was not ; his
host for the night was advised of the arrival, and the
dignitary drew up at the door of an unpretending house
whose owner was apparently a small farmer of simple
habit. The hall-door, opened wide in welcome, disclosed
an old man in antique jacket, small clothes and buckles,
whose fine white hair, lying on his collar, was stirred by
the night breeze. The dark hall-way made a fading back-
ground for the old man and his ancient silver candlesticks,
as, with a light in either hand, he bowed profoundly, walk-
ing backwards as his guest entered. The latter remon-
strated at the attention so shown him, but the courteously
spoken answer, in refined French, was, " Sir, I but follow
the custom of my fathers."

Can the people in any part of Canada object to those
who remind them that this country has a history. Mr.
Prince was one of those who thanked Providence the land
was large enough for both. Almost without exception the
St. Clair French were Loyalist, and as sign of their good
faith were upholders of him. " What will the Government
think of us," says Baptiste, in a skit issued during an
election contest, when Prince, an English Protestant, was
opposed by a Canadian Catholic, " when it will be known

248

HUMOURS OF '37.

in Toronto that we preferred any to Prince ! ! ! We shall
all be looked upon as asses, who have selected one of their
own species in preference to any other." When he voted
for Cuvillier as Speaker of the House, Prince trusted the
members of Lower Canada to hold out the hand of friend-
ship ; and in perusing the records of many years* proceed-
ings one finds continually that he seconds or is seconded by
the French members. He had a firm hold on the affec-
tions of the people, the pleasant voice, smooth accent and
manly, handsome presence of more weight as an opponent
than any uniqueness in principle ; his speeches owed as
much to their melody as to their matter.

He was a law unto himself when he came to be a consti-
tutional Reformer in military tactics — not unlike a Lower
Canadian legal contemporary who, told by the presiding
judge to refer to Pigeon, returned, " I do not need to refer
to Pigeon, Perrault " (himself) " ia worth Pigeon any day."
Perhaps, to take even higher comparisons, Prince had a
touch of Durham, and more than a touch of Colborne, in
him.

In the little town of Sandwich, since fitly named by a
local Rip Van Winkle the " City of the Dead," an oldest
inhabitant will point out an unpretentious flat stone raised
from the ground by a few bricks. Underneath it lie the
mangled remains of the man over whose death and the
avenging of it a stir only second to the Caroline was
made.

" Sacred to the memory," says the stone, " of Jno.
James Hume, Esq., staff assistant surgeon, who was inhu-
manly murdered and his body afterwards brutally mangled
by a gang of armed ruffians from the United States, styling
themselves Patriots, who committed this cowardly and
shameful outrage on the morning of the 4th December,

AUTOCRATS ALL.

249

1838, having intercepted the deceaHed while proceeding to
render professional assistance to Her Majesty's gallant
militia engaged at Windsor, U.C., in repelling the inva-
sions of this rebel crew more properly styled Pirates."

During the first year of the rebellion the dwellers
on the St. Clair frontier felt themselves aggrieved, as
not of sufficient interest at military headquarters.
They were particularly open to attacks from those who
were called pirates, brigands, outlaws and robbers,
from across the border, while singularly free from
" rebels " among themselves. They were so convinced that
the punishments meted out to offenders were not heavy or
frequent enough that they emphasized the opinion in
meetings called for the purpose of recording them, en pas-
sant displaying a rich sense of their own heavy sufferings
" both by day and night, which can scarcely be described
and perhaps never be surpassed," and they were incensed
at the respite accorded Theller and Sutherland, the two
aggressors at whose hands they had suffered most. They
were not to be conciliated by Sir George Arthur's answer,
giving legal reasons for the kind of justice dealt to such
prisoners. That Lord Glenelg cautioned that every pre-
caution should be taken against any semblance of retalia-
tion upon the people who by their deeds were brought
within the operation of martial law ; that in courts-martial
regular and not militia officers should preside ; and that
great circumspection be exercised in regard to capital
punishment, had no weight with them. They deemed
their own " the circumstances of peculiar and pressing
urgency " which alone justified extreme measures, in Lord
Glenelg's opinion, and differed from him heartily in " the
extent of punishment to which it may be necessary to sub-
ject them, will be more safely estimated at a distance

250

HUMOURS OF \n.

from the scene of action." Tht^y did entirely concur with
him in that " it was impossible for him at that distance to
j^ive specific instructions." Nor could they agree with Sir
Ot'orge Arthur, that in spite of prearranged plunder, and
spontaneous outrages committed, the rebellion had poli-
tical motives only for its raison d'etre. Those who had
been the plundered and were victims of outrage were for
shooting first and trying after ; and at a public meeting
called to denounce past action of the patriots and lay down
rules for the future it was decided that all invaders —
ruffians who had not even the alleged right of being Cana-
dians who were rebelling for what seemed to them good
reason, but who came to murder, pillage and burn, under
pretence of " liberating " a country unwilling to be liber-
ated—should bo treated as pirates ; no quarter should be
given, and any commander who found himself in such a
position would be more than justified in acting on the
publicly expressed opinion of that meeting. When occa-
sion occurred and the right man for such work was
on the spot a certain portion of those who previously
represented public opinion found they could not endorse
their own words. Attorney-General Hagerman approved ;
but then Lord Brougham said that although he might be
a good soldier the Attorney-General could not have been
much of a lawyer, or he never would have dared to say so.
The truly patriotic citizens of Windsor and Sandwich
recognized that God helps those who help themselves.
When Sir Francis sent all the forces out of the country
they began a good local militia organization, in which Col.
Prince took the lead. No portion of country could hav
been more self-helpful and more patriotic than thi ' *
found itself throughout. At the first meeting o. agia-
trates called, Mr. William Anderton, Collector of Cu Loms,

AUTOCRATS ALL.

251

so.

^ich

Ives.

itry

nis,

was appointed commissary, and to James Dougall wiis
assigned the supervision of ferries. For arms and stores
there were no public moneys, but Mr. Pougall providen-
tially had a large sum put by in the Bank of Michigan to
make English purchase of goods for his next year's trade.
This he freely placed at the public disposal, and Hour and
pork, and all the arms available from Detroit friends, were
brought across, as secretly as might be, but the transport
was discovered just in time to allow Theller and one hun-
dred followers to see the boats move off. Cordwood sticks
were the only weapons available, and these were thrown
freely after the boats, which, however, they failed to
strike.

By December 3rd, '38, the people on the Canadian side
had been for many nights in constant fear of another
invasion; horses were kept harnessed and saddled, arms
lay conveniently near those who dared go to bed, and some
prepared to turn night into day and made it their most
watchful time. The attitude of the whole place was that
of a modern fire-station, alert, ready, apprehensive. The
place was full of the usual internecine squabbles and
jealousies, only kept down by sense of a common danger ;
Colonel Airey had been applied to for a company of
regulars, Major Reid of the 32nd had been sent to Lon-
don, and Colonel Prince in command, while on the alert
himself, thought that too many applications for assistance
savoured of cowardice, and contented himself with night
patrols and sentinels. The watch-fires of the patriots
could be seen at the bivouacs on the farms below Detroit ;
friends, two of whom were to be among the killed, came
across to warn them, and watchfulness was redoubled.

That night was cold and dark, no moon, the very time
for the enemy's purpose, and word was passed from tavern

^rn

252

HUMOURS OF W.

to tavern on the American side to rendezvous at the wharf
— with arms and ammunition, "but to take no heed to
provisions." They expected to find food in plenty. The
captain and crew of the Champlain did not care to violate
the neutrality laws, and kept out of the way ; so a crew
selected from the patriots took the vessel across the river,
through many patches of drift ice, to a point about four
miles above Windsor. The command on landing was that
no noise should be made, the farmers were not to be
wakened, and to make for the barracks^ which were
guarded by only a small force. Patriotic Mr. Dougall,
bank manager as well as trader, writes that he was roused
from his not too sound sleep by the sound of shots, saw
the flames of already burning barracks, hurried his wife
and family to a place of safety, and made his way to the
safe, where $20,000 was locked up. The old-fashioned
receptacle bristled with knobs, three of which had to be
shoved aside before the keyhole could be uncovered. He
shoved every knob on its entire surface and the keyhole
was lost; but eventually he got the money, secured it
about him, seized his gun, and went off towards Sand-
wich. Those who were the dupes among the invaders
believed that once the protection of their presence was
announced the people would rise up to meet their deliv-
erers half-way in the effort to overthrow an obnoxious
form of government. The first man they saw in the early
morning light was hastening towards the barracks, evi-
dently someone from Detroit who had rowed over to give
the alarm. They fired and he fell, but the shot alarmed
the sleeping town, and there was an end to the intended
surprise. After that the old nine-pounder in the barrack
square, opposite St. John's Church, gave a resounding
alarm, and as usual shattered the glass in the church and

AUTOCRATS ALL.

253

rly

Court House windows. In a short time a gallant resist-
ance had been made, and ammunition had given out ;
burning brands were thrust inside the torn siding of the
wooden barracks by the brigands, who served themselves
materially by getting under the eaves of the building and
so out of range from the guns at the loopholes. Many
within made escape by a door at the back unknown to the
invaders, and those whom the heat forced to the other
entrance sold their lives dearly ; some, shot or wounded,
were thrust back into the fire — in all a work of carnage
and atrocity. Four brigands were told off to take burn-
ing brands from the barracks to set fire to the steamboat
Thames^ which lay at the wharf. They did so, to the
slogan of "Remember the Caroline." Never was there so
much trouble in lighting a fire. She was more obstinate
than the Caroline herself, but from bow to stem the flames
shot up, and the four incendiaries ran back to the barracks
to take their stand in the line, which prepared to place
itself in an orchard hard by, under Captains Putnam and
Harvell. Putnam, six feet four and hailing from Middle-
sex, was said to be a grandson of the old general, Israel
Putnam; Harvell was known as the Big Kentuckian, a
man six feet two in height, weighing over two hundred
pounds, and with hair long on his collar ; he was a remark-
able figure as he bore an enormous flag adorned with " a
large white star in a blue field — the lone star of Canada."
The " lone star " is evidently poetic license ; the flag bore
the ordinary two stars and orescent, as described by those
of each side. Those who had chief honour in routing this
band were Captain Sparkes and his company, who, uni-
formed in scarlet, were little inferior to regulars. The
patriots aimed at the bits of bright colour, but in their
trepidation fired too high, and the balls went whistling

254

HUMOURS OF '37.

overhead ; in a moment their own ranks were broken, and
the hundred under the pear trees dispersed in disordei:,
as Captain Sparkes and his men came over an interven-
ing fence to let them taste the bayonet. The huge figure
of the lone star standard-bearer made surprising time
considering his own weight and the cumbersome colours,
which trailed behind him on the ground. "A hundred
dollars to whoever shoots the standard-bearer," shouted
Mr. Jimmy Dougall in great excitement, and more than
one bullet tried for the rewai'd.

Nothing but the gift of second sight can let one account
for the difference between the patriots' tale of the Windsor
affair and the somewhat less hysterical loyalist one. The
latter chronicle says Harvell died at once, as indeed he
had every right to do ; the former, which credits him with
being a veritable Davy Crockett, brave, honest, impulsive
and kind-hearted — very probably all true — says that he
dropped on one knee and fired at his pursuers ; that the
fire was not returned, as no doubt they were anxious to
secure alive so handsome and formidable a foe. When
his ammunition was exhausted he drew a bowie knife, "or
more properly speaking, tremendous butcher cleaver," from
his collar, which he brandished menacingly. This act
brought the order to fire ; he was far too formidable in
appearance to be allowed to live, and he fell retaining his
hold on his staff. The enemy approached, says the patriot
historian, and demanded surrender. " Never ! " said this
modern Fitz-James ; " I have sworn never to fly mine
enemy, and never to surrender my neck to be broke upon
the scaffold. Come on — come one, come all ! " At any
rate, to Ensign Rankin belonged the honour of capturing
the flag ; that seems the one point upon which there is
unanimity of opinion. Many of the actors in this tragi-

T7P

AUTOCRATS ALL.

255

comedy of invasion and war shed their stage properties
as they fled, parting company with arms, accoutrements,
ammunition, even clothing.

Colonel Prince, who had been on the watch at the Park
Farm, passing an anxious night with a terrified and ailing
wife, had by now got word of what was happening. He
made his appearance in fustian shooting-jacket and wolf,
skin cap, no bad dress for the work before him, as he had
not time to assume his ordinary uniform. He at once
ordered the pursuit discontinued, upon which one shamming
dead man got up and ran into the woods. Some stragglers
in the militia fired at and killed him, and one of them, a
negro of a thrifty turn like the Scotchman in Gait, pulled
off the brigand's boots and slung them over his gun ; the
negro, in his turn, was to be taken by straggling pirates,
and again rescued. The retreat did not stop until the
place where the Champlain had been left was reached ;
she had disappeared, and the heroes of the orchard were
constrained to drift about in canoes without paddles like
so many Mrs. Aleshines. They used the stocks of their
guns to sweep themselves ashore on Hog Island. But the
river was full of drifting ice, and Lieutenant Airey and
Captain Broderick, who had arrived from Amherstburg
with some of the 34th, a field-piece and twenty mounted
Indians from the Reserve, soon had the gun trained on
the canoes. Airey himself took aim ; the first ball plunged
at the stern of a canoe, the second took off a man's arm,
and the arm could be seen spinning over the water. One
patriot was killed outright ; his comrades threw themselves
flat, with the exception of the steersman, who, bending as
low as he could, poled the unlucky canoe to shore. They
imagined that the third shot shattered the last canoe,
but itb load was destined to illustrate the value of a
17

^%fe

V ■

^ i-

256

HUMOURS OF '37.

neutrality law. The men in it were captured by the
Brady Guards ; were hailed, fired at and surrounded, in
due order ; dropped their guns overboard and were found
unarmed ; were taken on board the Guards' vessel, dried
themselves, and were questioned by the officer as to what
they did in Canada, who set fire to the Thames —
questions easily evaded ; went through the farce of a
second interrogation, were threatened with confinement,
were called some hard names, answered boldly, were
cheered by the onlookers ; in a stern tone were ordered
ashore, where they were met by "amazingly cordial"
shouts ; were escorted to public places of refreshment by
an ex-Senator, and, in a word, received the freedom of the
city of Detroit. Happy men to be there ; for there was a
terrible retribution going on while their exciting canoe
race and triumphant entry were transpiring.

On the evening before this 3rd of December, a Dr.
Hume, assistant staflf-surgeon — only child of Dr. John
Hume, of Almada Hill, Lanark, Scotland, in whose family
the medical profession was hereditary, the father being in
Egypt under Abercrombie, and a cousin-german surgeon to
the Duke of Wellington — dined at the house of a friend in
Sandwich. He wore his undress uniform, and during the
evening went to the Park Farm, partly to see the Colonel,
as time", were exciting ; partly to give professional advice
for Mrs. Priiice, who was ill to distraction from nervous
fever; partly to prescribe for the Colonel himself, who " was
extremely ill and worn out by fatigue both night and
day;" and chiefly to see the third ill person in this afflicted
family. Miss Rudyard. Hume was a fair-complexioned
fellow, of easy and gentlemanly manner, with a look and
countenance peculiarly n. . i ; altogether a pleasing person-
ality, handsome and distinguished-looking. On the morning

AUTOCRATS ALL,

267

in
le

ed
id

of the attack, he and Commissary Morse directed their steps
from the Park Tavern t^ where the sounds of firing came,
the former to tender his professional services. They rode,
the staff-surgeon still in uniform, and the horse in its
usual military trappings. Someone suggested that to be in
plain clothes might be safer, but he laughingly replied that
no one would touch a doctor. As the incendiaries returned
from burning the Thames they met the two. Hume
mistook them for Loyalists. A woman camo out from her
house and warned him that they were a detachment of
patriots, but she was too late. The patriot account is
that their captain demanded Hume's surrender. To his
question, " To whom shall I surrender ? " came the answer,
"To the Patriots." He then quickly dismounted, with t)ie

uncomplimentary rejoinder, "Never, to a set of

rebels!" Then a dozen bullets pierced him. "Only part
of our force fired — the rest, among whom I was one, think-
ing it quite unnecessary to go to extremes with so brave a
man." The surgeon's body told a different story. Colonel
Prince's official despatch says that, not content wilh firing
several balls into him, the savages stabbed him in many
places with their bowie knives and mangled his body with an
axe. Another Loyalist appears to have been near enough
to call out, " Don't shoot that man — he is the doctor ! "
This interruption and their aVjsurd query, " Then why does
he not surrender ? " enabled him to slip past the corner of
a house under cover of which he tried to reach a friend's.
The first man who fired must have been satisfied with his
aim, for he turned to a companion and said, " You may go
and take the sword, he won't run farther." At any rate,
he retreated, pistol in hand, facing his enemies. The
legends of the time say he was barbarously mutilated,
dismembered, and his heart cut out, and preparations made

258

HUMOURS OF '37.

to skin him, with a view to drumheads. It was said that
these barbarities were committed under the impression
that he was the dreaded Prince himself; this is now
contradicted by many, as are also some of the details of
the atrocities. There are those still alive who say they
saw his quarters hung on the fence pickets by these human
shrikes, and yet others who saw his body intact, as it lay
in Mrs. Hawkins' store. Hume's companion fared better ;
he was shot at, but the balls passed through his hair.

Again to quote from the despatch : "Of the brigands
and pirates, 21 were killed, besides 4 who were brought
in just at the close and immediately after the engagement,
all of whom I ordered to be shot upon the spot, and which
was done accordingly." Over the last thirteen words were
innumerable articles written, controversies begun which
nearly ended in bloodshed ; they led to twelve challenges
to the duello from Colonel Prince to his detractors ; to de-
bates in the Houses of Commons and Lords, where Paking-
ton, Labouchere, Brougham, the Duke of Wellington, Mel-
bourne and Norraanby were to Rght over again the famous
battle of Windsor ; a reward was offered on the other side
of the river, for Prince's body $800, for him alive $1,000 ;
the much beset Colonel had notices displayed on his farm
that none should venture there after dark, as he had
spring-guns and man-traps set to protect himself; and
lastly there was the court-martial.

Naturally such a story, horrible at first, grew as it trav-
elled and as time progressed. " John Bishop of St. Albans,
in a fit of jealousie, shot his wife and then himself,"
once wrote a French newspaper. " Jean, ev^ue de St.
Albans, dans un acces de jalousie a tue sa fcmme," said the
first exchange ; the next editor supposed that a married
bishop must bean Episcopalian— and next "The Protestant

■

AUTOCRATS ALL.

259

bishop of St. Albans has killed his wife and then himself."
In like manner ran the prisoner stories. One unfortunate
was commanded by an onlooker to run for his life, the
order to shoot having been already given. He did so,
with results that are sickening in detail. Before long
the four prisoners had developed into nine, who were
represented as running the gauntlet, Indian fashion, with
additions of further horror.

A prisoner of war is one captured in the course of ac-
knowledged and honourable warfare, and the legality or
illegality of the contest makes him a hero or a ruthan.
Previous to the fourth of December, '38, in connection
with recent affairs a subject of frequent debate in the
Sandwich- Windsor neighbourhood was the hanging on the
spot, without the slightest form of trial, of a gang of
pirates, by Sir Thomas Maitland, in the island of Malta.
However, this summary proceeding on the marooners took
place a couple of days after the battle with them, and
what was sought for by the Canadians was a precedent
for shooting on the field without allowing time for jus-
tice to mellow.

As the " Curiae Canodenses " tells us, formerly

by '37,

" These legal seats of divers ranks
Have limit to St. Laurent's banks ;"

... all beyond, down to Detroit,
Becomes new ground for fresh exploit. "

The exploit of which these debaters, and Colonel Prince
in particular, complained was the decision made under the
" discouraging shade cast by Whig conciliation j " for at the
last court held in Sandwich, when he was prepared to prose-
cute nine prisoners for murder, he found they, through some

260

HUMOURS OF '57.

point of law which he never could be brought to under-
stand, had become dignified as prisoners of war. As to
American citizenship and neutrality laws, it was asked
"What avail the speeches, messages, proclamations and
paper measures of the President, when unprovoked aggres-
sions of his people remain unpunished." It was small
satisfaction to hear their friends in the neighbouring Re-
public term the invaders but the roughscuffs of their
people ; people — they had no people, they were the repudi-
ated of either shore. To term them prisoners of war legal-
ized the cause of the marauders and added hundreds to
their ranks. The Tories upheld Prince in his action anent
the Pelee Island prisoners " who escaped their just deserts
under the nickname of prisoners of war." Never had he
appeared to better advantage than in ,his address to the
court as he declaimed, " I deny also the right of any per-
son of the Executive Council, the right of the Lieutenant-
Governor, the right of even Majesty itself, to step between
the accuser and those accused of murder, and to prevent
the incipient proceeding of an inquiry into the matter by
the grand inquest of the country." But a few hours be-
fore his eyes had been filled with the horror of Hume's
body the young surgeon had been in his house, in
full possession of youth, health, strength and intelli-
gence ; he turned over in the barracks the smoking
remains of what he believed to be his fellow-townsmen ;
he saw the murdered negro; he was distracted with
thoughts of one very dear to him whose reason he feared
would be unhinged ; arson and murder, rifle and torch,
the bowie-knife and axe of those whom he considered bar-
barians, "a cowardly and scampering set of pirates,"
merited but one reward. He was in command^, and he
set about putting his ideas into efiect. The details of the

— r-?-¥^!«^^^p

AUTOCRATS ALL.

261

" shooting " are bo shocking that it is better to omit them
here ; and shocking or entirely justifiable, the tale as told
by historian or eye-witness differs throughout. If more
brutality than the case demanded was exercised, it was
rebuked by the mounted Indians who soon afterwards
brought in seven prisoners from the woods where an es-
cape had been attempted. The first cry was, " Bayonet
them ! " " No," said Martin, the Indian leader, " we are
Christians, we will not murder them — we will deliver them
to our officers t^ be treated as they think proper." When
Prince saw them he ordered the waggon in which they sat
' to be wheeled off the road, and as soon as it reached an
open spot in rear of the barracks, which still smoked, he
ordered that the prisoners should be shot. " For God's
sake, don't let a white man murder what an Indian has
spared ! " was the entreaty, and Colonel Prince yielded
to it.

Head, once controverting the British idea that Indian
warfare was inadmissible in Canada, gave a supposititious
reply : " Our Indians never scalp us, never scalp each
other ; and they have only scalped you because, in defiance
of the laws of nations, you invaded their territory to rob
them of their lands. If you think their habits of war
barbarous, learn in future to leave them in the placid
enjoyment of peace." But the Indians were wiser than
Sir Francis in his rounded periods. The Hurons of Detroit
had seen the ships of Jacques Cartier, and reported great
dark animals with broad white wings spitting out fire and
uttering thunder — their first experience of cannon. The
cross planted at Gasp^ had sent its lesson far inland by
1837, and the warrior in feathers and wampum could teach
the controllers of gunpowder by example.

Harvell, the tall Kentuckian, and twelve others were

262

HUMOURS OF '57.

buried in one grave in the lower corner of Colonel Baby's
orchard ; the body of General Putnam found a grave until
his wife and daughter came, had it exhumed, and took it
away.

Of the survivors who scattered themselves in the woods
some were discovered frozen, sitting at the roots of trees and
evidently famished ere they froze ; some were found round
the miserable remains of a camp-fire, remnants of potatoes,
their only food, scattered about. Many had been wounded,
suffering tortures beyond hunger and cold. Of those taken
alive most were sent to Van Diemen's Tjand, among them
a farmer who had joined the expedition haphazard at the
last moment when he was both drunk and reckless. His
wife and family could not trace what l^ecame of him ; but
after the lapse of twenty years he made his escape to the
South Sea Islands, whence he returned to his former home,
to find his wife again married, his children grown up, and
his estate in due course of law divided among them.
Hardship and old age had so told on him there was small
fear of recognition ; he obtained some small appointment,
never troubled his family, and worked an Enoch Arden
end to an existence spoiled by the sad freak of having
been a pirate for a day. '

Some found shelter with the Irish and French peasants,
for although on the whole Loyalist both these nationalities
had quickly-moved sjrmpathies. One of the escaping
" officers " threw himself on the protection of a big Irish
woman. "Are yez a Patriarch ?" He told her he was a
Patriot. " Thin it's yourself is safe enough ; just hide in
the cellar and kape aisy." It is said her husband was in
Prince's employ to deliver all such up ; " but bad luck to
me if iwir he sets his eye on wan o' thim." This peasant
is said to have kept four such refugees for six weeks, so

AUTOCRATS ALL.

263

h
a
In

lo
It

well cared for that when they arrivofl in Detroit they were
" hale, fat and hearty as porkerH." " Now, my lads," he
remarked to his guests, '*you have a taste of how the
English use us poor Irish." " Bad luck to thim," chimed
in his wife ; " my own dear fader was twelve years hid in
a rock for the fear av thim after the battle of Vinegar Hill,
and it's meself carried his vittles till he died." As for
Baptiste, his fine address was equal to the occasion. One
hunted creature, some troopers in hot pursuit, burst into
a neat little cabin where the Frenchman had risen but
madame had not. Taking in the situation at a glance,
he clapped a night-cap on the patriot's head, popped him
into bed beside the astonished wife, and when the soldiers
entered, with elbows well in and palms extended he
shrugged his ignorance of any rebels — no one but his two
women-kind, les voild ! He gave the searchers directions
towards the bush, and in a short time had his patriot in
a canoe, well out in the river, bound for Detroit.

Next morning a large concourse of people, the officers of
the militia. Captain Sparkes' company and a division of
Captain Bell's under Ensign Powell, all in full uniform and
with arms reversed, preceded the corpse of the murdered
Hume to the churchyard. The Grenadier company of the
34th, drawn up before the Court House, presented arms, so
remaining until the procession had passed. The moaning
of the wind, the naked branches of the trees above the
open grave, the falling snow, were in unison with the
sadness of the onlookers ; " Suffer us not for any pain of
death to fall away from Thee " came with a new meaning
to the hearers' hearts ; the words of the ever beautiful
ritual for the burial of the dead rose and fell from the
rector's lips on the wintry atmosphere ; " dust to dust,
ashes to ashes," a volley of musketry, and the family

264

HUMOURS OF 'S7.

i I

name of Hume was extinct. His fortune of Home X20,000,
derived from his mother, passed to distant rehitives.

The uproar which ensued after this series of tragedies
was not by any means all Loyalist- Rebel, nor yet pure
righteous indignation ; party feeling, private spleen, and
the complexity of motives good and bad which enter into
any similar demonstration where the actors are human,
all had place. A man of extraordinary popularity is gener-
ally a mark for jealousy. Across the river hatred of him
culminated in the action of ''the waddling, twaddling
Theller," who announced that he was coming over at the
head of two thousand men and would wash his hands in the
blood of John Prince. The patriots who hjwi been saved in
the canoes told crowds of " Detroit's most intelligent citi-
zens" the details of their truly thrilling escape, not only by
canoe, but from " the Indian and negro volunteers in the
Royal service, or from the more brutal Orangemen." After
he was taken prisoner on the Anne, this Theller had experi-
enced the weight of Colonel Prince's foot and knew the
measure of his speech. In the middle of what he terms a
refreshing and invigorating sleep he was waked by a kick
from " an individual of the name of John Prince, who had
run away from London, England, with plenty of golden
means to secure himself a retreat in the western wilds of
Canada," where he strove to " imitate the manners of the
artificial nobility of his native land." This individual
Prince " was thirsting for knighthood," was dark, mysteri-
ous, cruel, vindictive, plausible but to deceive, and — herein
lay his greatest crime and was the only item of truth
in Theller's impeachment — spared no time, money, act, to
crush the hopes of the friends of Canadian rebellion. " His
friendly salute aroused me," writes Theller; "ho was
armed to the teeth. A brace of pistols and a tomahawk

' (?

AUTOCRATS ALL.

265

graced his girdle ; on Iiis back was Hlung a doublo-barrelled
gun ; a long cavalry Hword danglc<l at Iuh HJdo, a wide-
mouthed blunderbuss in his right hand. His whole appear-
ance l)etokened malignity and determined vengeance."

Under these circumstances Cohmel Prince must be
excused for using his foot; clearly it was the only free part
of his anatijmy. Some months before this trying pedal
performance, Theller on the dock at Windsor luul taken
upon himself to lecture the Colonel, his " blessed privilege
as an American citizen " so to do, after Prince luid Ixjen
similarly engaged with a French-Canadian whom he sus-
pected of disaffection. Theller knew, "by the restless
brilliancy of his eye, dastardly flashing like the electricity
of an approaching thunderstorm," what he had to expect.
He quietly enough stepped on the ferry remly to leave for
Detroit, concluding, " Thus was I rescued for the first time
from the cherished revenge of this man ! "

Between their last meeting and the battle of Windsor
Theller had made his wonderful leap for life from the
citadel at Quebec and was back in Detroit, ready to
inaugurate more mischief just when the attack was the
theme of every tongue there.

Perhaps the unkindest mention of the battle was the
report given, as the events progressed, by the Detroit
Morning Po8t, fresh from the wonderful spy-glass of the
reporter : "The infantry are evidently citizens and, as near
as we can judge by means of a spy-glass, are like men
employed in an unwilling service. They move at the rate
of two miles an hour, and have several times stopped, as
though irresolute about proceeding."

In his own country Colonel Prince was more of a hero
than ever. His journeys were ovations. Hamilton,
Oakville, Chatham, and London testified to a general

266

HUMOURS OF '57.

! 'II

appreciation. In Chatham " the iticurporate<] companies
saluted him not only with arms, but with hearty cheers ;"
at Lio.idon the Union Jack was run up on his hotel, and fire
balls were throwu about to make the night brilliant ; the
volunteers, under Coicmel Burwell, came out to do him
honour, drawing from him a short, pithy address in which
he announced that should a similar opportunity occur }>
similar result would follow, and his only regret was ho
hjid given the much-talke<l-of prisoners a soldier's death ;
addressi'H, signed b) hundreds of the District's best resi-
dents, testified to approval and continue<l respect ; and by
the time he reached the House of Assembly he w»is greeted
with a burst of enthusiasm which was sup[>()sed to and did
represent the feelings of the majority of constituents as
well as of mcmbcjrs.

" Let the journalists who can in their ct)nsciences vindi-
cate the conduct of Colonel Prince . . . come out
boldly and wiy so," was the challenge of those who did not
approve. It was taken up. The approval became more
emphatic, the friendly sheets were tmly sorry that he had
not shot "every single miscreant of the butch," and it was
propose*! to raise ^.'iO to present him with a sword. The
Park Farm had a New Year visitatit)n from Captain
Ltislie and tin? ofiicers of the Colonel's battalion, Mr. Iloss
carrying the ensign ; healths w(;re drunk, and Prince's
came second only to Her Majesty in f<;rvour, .md continued
three times three. In his response the Colonel told tliem
that the disposition of those who were against him was
resolving itself into a conspiracy upon his fame, but he
meant to treat them as Sir Fran ns Bond Head had treattxi
the rebels — allow them to go the whole length of their
vain, inglorious and ungrat(^ful measures, and " then he
would destroy them. "

AUTOCRATS ALL.

5:67

leir
he

Prince promised not a whit more than it turned out he
was able to [)erforni.

About this time his Excellency Sir George Arthur took
the Erie border towns in one of his tours. Prior to his
arrival in Sandwich it was said that he wjis one of those
who disapprovp'l of Prince. To fire the first shot, the
Colonel drew up the arldress which it was proposed to
present, and, a:tsuming the possibility of fresh trouble,
foreshadowed results : " Certain, instant and inevitable
death at our hands will be their /ate, without any recogni-
tion of them as prisoners of war, or as any other sort of
prisoners.^* Some delay occurnHl in the ti'iie of arrival,
and the address was sent to Tonmto. When the Govrrnor
did arrive, another, expressing very different sentiments,
was presented —which he demurre<l at receiving. The
people found he had nothing prepossessing in app(?arance,
" indeed, he is jir indifferent a l(M)king jx-rson as can Im^
imagined," and all waited to seethe result <»f the interview
with their beloved Colonel.

Immediat<«ly aftt^rwards there appeared in Dc^troit
papers, and in largo, closely printecl Iniid bills, an anony-
m'.vus and detailed narrative called "The HattU^ of
Windsor," written on this side and print^Mi across the
river. A copy signed by a militia colonel and twelve
others was sent to the Governor in Toronto, accompaniiMJ
by affidavits vouching for the truth of the charges tlu^rein
contains). At once a ciurt-martial or court of inquiry
was instituted, composed «»f Lieuterumt-Colonel Airey,
Major Fnuich of the H.'jth, and Major l)ei'd(.'s, of the .Jlth.
Nev»M' did {)eopIe »nore speedily occupy a pit whieh they
had digged for others. The inilitii colonel had been j>rou<l
to proHide at the m(u«ting where suininary measures and no
quarter were pioposed and ratificMJ ; he was now proved to

268

HUMOURS OF '37.

have made bad feeling in the service by his literary com-
position ; to have exaggeratful, and thereby lowered the
charactor of the service ; to have aggravated the feelings
of hostility already rampant on either border — and he was
relieved of his commission. A meeting at once took place
between Prince and one of his late libellers, at

" A gentlemanly distance, but not too near,
If you have got your former friend for foe ; "

shots were exchanged, the Colonel's bullet lodged in his
adversary's cheek, the latter'.s weaptm was discharged in
the air ; and some dozen other challenges ensued. There
was also the duello by correspondence, when sharp things
were {)enned. Prince shook off iiis (juondam friends, and
one of them smartly replied, •' You are at perfect liberty
to cast off your (jUondam friends, as it may sa\ e them the
unpleasant trouble of doing i\w same by you."

The huzzas of the triurn})hant after all this may Ik' easily
imagined. His former townsmen in England set about get-
ting up a testimonial ; he Avas dined in Toronto, and made
his usual triumphal progress home. The S5th were ready
to draw him to the Park Farm, Hul)stituting themselves
for his horses, and imnuHJiate prej)aration was m.'ule to
dine an(^ wine him in Sandwich. A carriagr with the
Dinner Committee w.'is despatched to the Park Farm, [>re-
ceded by another carriage containing a band of music, all
under escort of the l)rav<» and loval l?nd Essex Cavah'V.
The "ihig of our country" and the grec^n and gold colours
of the Windsor voluntei'rs floated over them ; and on their
return with the guest the carriage was brought up by a
perem])tory "Halt ! ' the «'he«'ring i^.Jth .set the horses free,
an<l in the midst trf the shouting ])opulace, and to tln^
inspiriting sounds of "See the Conquering Hero Comes,"

AUTOCRATS ALL.

269

get-
luado
•t'july
»lves
o to
tlio
l>ro-
', nil
iilry.
l»>urs
tlioir
hy a
free,
. th«'
ines,"

took hira to the officers' quarters. Here " God Save the
Queen " was struck up ; and from the officers' (|uarters the
way was h^d to the dinner, set in an arbour of oak boughs.

Then — the Queen, God bless her, nine times nine ; the
Queen Dowager, Lord Hill of the array, and Ixird Minto
of the navy, all lesser fry who had to be content with three
times three. The President called upon a hundred guests
" to fill to the very brim — ivhich was itorie accordingly ; "
John Prince, may long life and prosperity attend hira —
nineteen tiraes nine, and one cheer more.

So far so good ; from Halifax to Araherstburg every
newspaper exploited hira, every mail recorder! fresh
triumphs ; he had only to show himself to \w cheered to
the echo. But he had yet to pass through the hands of
Lord Brougham.

The ex-Chancellor was retwly to fight any numlx?r of
du»'ls, rhetorical or conversational, of black-lettt?r law or
black-mouthed insinuation, upon any conceivable occasion.
He now pounced upon the word outlaw and twist^'d it
through all the raaxe of meaning. The " niealy-inouthed "
Sir George Arthur's opinion and the (>xcul[)ation by court-
martial availed not; nothing but irjsunity could excuse
Colonel Prince, In his opinion he, Prince, was guilty of
murder ; he Iwul nuwU' assurant'e d(»ubly sure by anti<.'i|)a
tion of h'gal proceedings iind results. That IImtc was
great Hup[)ort given C«»lonrl Prince thnuigbout Canada,
advanced as a mitigating cirrumstancr by liOi.l Klh'n-
borough, s<^emed but to justify the ex Chancellor in his
swe«'j)ing condrnmation. Tlu' Duke of Wellington <lrew
att«*nti(>n to the faet that it was not Colonel Prince's corn
mission that was involved, or even his life alone, but the
ccmduct of the Upper- (/anudian ^^overinnent ; that if all
alleired were true, another irallant fri«Ti<l of his. Sir .fohn

270

HUMOURS OF '57.

Colboriie, whose duty it was to have brought Colonel Prince
at once to court-martial and punish him, would have been
remiss, and (evidently) warming to his subject, his Grace
predicted that a system of retaliation would be followed,
that if Her Majesty had not the power to protect her
Canadian subjects the colony ought to be abandoned. " Is
there a single spot," he asks, "except that on which a
soldier stands, in which Her Majesty's authority is
enforced % "

Brougham's r-^putation when travelling was that at
Inverness he was Conservative, but, changing his opinions
as often as his horses, he was downright revolutionary by
the time he reached Dundee ; there at the full, at Edin-
burgh he wanod. By the time the Duke of Wellington
had finished Brougham's sympathies were modified, and
he ends with an opinion that if the Government of the
United Statea had not power to repress such warfare they
could hardly be called a civilized nation.

Upheld by the Duke, with the approval of the
Imperial Parliament, rewarded by a commission in the
Tlst for his son — a gift straight from the hand of the
great man himself — Colonel Prince held his head high for
the rest of his life, took good care to keep out of Detroit,
fought his rt^iiiaining enemies to the last, and might well
have said, " Honour and policy, like unsevered friends, i'
the war do gro>\ together." Always manly, he was ready
to meet his former vilifiers half-way in a reconciliation in
which Sir Allen MacNab, the Rector of Sandwich, Major
Lachlan and John Hillyard Cameron undertook the r6le
of mediators. All reflections contained in the skit upon
the colonel's valour were withdrawn, and on his side he
expressed, in writing, his regret for his many hasty expres-
sions. It was, in fact, a true amnesty, in which each

AUTOCRATS ALL.

271

party had to pay its own costs, for more than one bit of
litigation had begun.

Well might a temperate New York newspaper say,
" With all our hearts we wish those who feel themselves
oppressed in Canada might have the liberty they seek, if
they could get it without resorting to measures endanger-
ing the peace of the whole Anglo-Saxon race."

"Come, Mighty Must !
Inevitable Shall !
In Thee I trust ;
Time weaves my coronal."

the
the
the
for
roit,
well
ds, i'
•cady
on in
lajor
r6le
upon
e he
pres-
each

Duron*s Bge Iberoic.

"Huron, distinguished by its lake,
Where Manitoulin's Rpirits wake,"

before '37 had but one central point, which, to use a
Paddyism, was on the very confines of the still primeval
forest. The mysterious wilderness had a f(nv spots between
Goderich and the other limit of the Canada Company,
Guelph, in which woodmen, thinking solely of the grain
and roots to be grown in the cleared spaces, were uncon-
sciously ameliorating the climate of their continent by the
patches of sunlight their axes were letting in through the
green gothic above.

At the one end Gait, " churning an inarticulate melody,"
with shoulders straight and upright, caught his foot in a
tree root. Pryor, his right-hand man, said, *' Look after
your feet, man, and keep your head out of the stars." In a
moment Pryor hit his head against a branch. *' Man, keep
your eyes frae your feet," rejoined Gait, " or else you'll
damage all the brains you've got."

They jested ; but they made the way of the pioneer.
And the pioneer is the Canadian man of destiny. He is
in a thousand valleys and on a thousand hillsides, some-
times cold and hungry, but he swims on the crest of the
wave, and sees the beginning of a new thing. The spirit of
adventure which bore Columbus, Cab<it, Cartier, and
Champlain into untrodden paths, sustains him and makes

HURON'S AGE HEROIC.

273

him brother to them, even if his scope is but the patch
cleared by his own axe.

The British distinction between Whig and Tory, like the
London fog, was supposed not to cross the ocean with these
pioneers. But in the wilderness of Huron they throve by
'37 with a vigour derived from transplanting. Afttu* the
Oourlay aftair men learned to put bridles on their tongues;
but if, as in Governor Maitland's opinion, all Reformers
were deluded, unprincipled and designing, there were men
in Dumfries, Guelph, and from the Wilmot Line westward,
who coiJld differ from that opinion and yet sing,

** Far from our Fatherland,
Nobly we'll fall or Htand,

For Fngland'B Queen.
In town and forest free,
Britons unconfjuered, we
Sing with true loyalty,

Goil save the Queen."

Dumfries and all about Gait was largely settled by
shepherds from the neighlx)urhood of the Ettrick Shep-
herd, Galashiels, Abbotsford, and thereabouts. If any of
the good Tory sentiments recorded at Ambrose's are to
be believed, the Ettrick Shepherd would have been dis-
mayed had he known what manner of opiniim some of his
fellow-shepherds held in Canarla. Walter Cowan, Imiliff
to Sir Walter, told his master he wanted to emigrate.
" Well, Walter, if you think it liest to go," said his genial
employer, "I'll assist you ; imt if you ever need to give
it up, let me know, and I'll help lining you back to Scot-
land."

But did any ever wish to return 1 "I have never lieen
home again," says one, "although I have often wished to
see the place, and t don't think my sons or other Canadians

274

HUMOURS OF '37.

appreciate it half enough ; hut I never heard of any
emigrant wanting to go back to live. If you have thriven
here, you are too high to have aught to do with them you
left ; and those alxjve you, no matter how you have thriven,
are too high to have aught to do with you."

" I was V)orn at Yarrow," continues a mellow old Radical,
bedridden, Vmt bright as the proverbial shilling, "and I
was naught but a poor shepherd lad ; now, at ninety-three,
I am one of the most fortunate men alive. I am sinking
down to the grave, Ijedridden, but I have all my faculties,
and I do not use spectacles by day or night. I came out
in *.34, and that journey across the Atlantic was my wed-
ding jaunt, for I was married on my way to the ship,
sixty-three years ago the 26th of May it was ; and there
at the foot of my bed they have put tlie picture of my good
lady, where I can see it all day long. In '35 I felt I must
have books, so I said, * Is there anyone in this place will
help me get some together V TheA three men, all cobblers,
came forward, and among us we started what is now the
Mechanics' Institute — three cobblers and a former shepherd
lad ; and that was the first public work I put my hand to
here. When I was naught but a callant at home I mind
how my heart nearly broke because there were no shillings
to buy the books I longed for, and when Mr. Chambers
brought out that journal for the people and we could buy
it for three baubees, I thocht he was the noblest man that
ever lived. On the way out there was a lady who listened
to our talk, and I said I should never be content with-
out a volume of PoUok, on which I had set all my
desires. So when we came through Rochester she bought
the book for a shilling, and made me a present of what I
had so long wanted ; and I thought this must be a fine
country where books could be got for a shilling ! "

HURON'S AGE HEROIC.

276

After the arrival of Sir FranciH, Judge Junes and Colonel
FitzGibbon had their conversation about the bags of pikes
and pike-handles and signs of their immediate use. Said
the Judge, " You do not mean to say these |)et)ple are going
to relx^l?" The Colonel was no Thonrns ; he firmly did
believe. " Pooh-p<X)h," said Jones, turning to Sir Francis,
who wearie<l for his pillow. So Sir Francis, humane man,
atJdressed by what he called "the industrious classes,"
expressed himself in " plain and homely language," with
as much care as if intend(;d for " either branches of the
I^egislature : " " The grievances of this Province nniHt Ik)
correcUnl ; impartial justice tnust be administere<l. The
people liave asked for it ; their Sovereign has ordained it ;
I am here to execute his gracious commands." Nor did
these industrious classes, one time shepherd laddies and
the like, feel more than the Governor himself allowed.

" I was a Scotch Radical, and would have helped Mac-
kenzi(^ all T could — until he drew the swonl. That })roved
to me he was not constitutional, and I wouldna any such
doings. I do know that if by my own puny arm, y(»ung
and without influence as T wjis, T could have got rid of the
Family Compact, I would have done it right willingly. A
few days before the outbreak a neighlxiur told me of the
great doings likely to be in Toronto, and T joked wi' him.
But he said, ' Mind, man, it's no joking matter, and it's
sure ye'll see Mackenzie's men through this way ;' and as I
was a Scotch Radical he seemed to think it would be short
whiles before I was in gaol. So I laughed, and said, 'Well,
if Mackenzie comes this way I'll treat him well, for I have
eight hogs hung in a row, and he shall have the best.' I
would have fed him and his people, for I would have rid
the country of the Family Compact ; but lie didna mend
matters to draw the sword." Even such meritorious

276

HUMOURS OF '37.

work muHt not be done in oppoHitton to the Queen and
country.

"T count <»nly the houi'H that are Herene," is the motto
on an old Venetian Hun-dial. All the Canadian oIocIch
must have stopjKHl and the Hun luiHted not for a space of
years in these exciting days when Cantulians, but one
remove in complexion from al)origines, allowed not toil,
heat, sun, nor isolation to abate the vigour, ingenuity and
resolution l)orn of circumstances.

" William Lyon Mackenzie, hot-temi)ered and impulsive,"
says another old lleformer, "had a keen eye for detection
of a Haw in an argument ; he lived by complaining, an<l had
no thought beyond fonnulating and promoting grievances.
So many years of such a tone of mind tot^Uly unfitted him
for political life. When a practical question was put Ixifore
him for a practical answer, the man was utterly at sea ; his
faculty of constructiveness was obliterated."

Evidently, he who cannot live happily anywhere will live
happily nowhere, and Mackenzie, " yellow and somewhat
dwarfish," bore out the supposed likeness to the Yellow
Dwarf, a violent weekly journal published in London by
an ultra lliulical in 1819 and afterwards. Its editor,
Wooler, set it up without copy, mind and composing-stick
working together.

The Colonial Advocate and Mackenzie's pamphlets did
their work in the country side. Lords Brougham, Mel-
bourne and Glenelg were gibbeted in Toronto and after-
wards burnt on the night of October 22nd, '37, and the
Advocate informed them of it. It also kept up excitement
about the "Kentish drillmaster," corporals MacNab and
Rooinson, and the general system of rack rent ; it stated
that a pound loaf was at a shilling Halifax ; that woe and
wailing, pauperism and crime, were rife in a land never

I/URON'S AGE HEROIC.

277

meant fur the Anit tlirot) ; that many in the new Hottle-
mentH HehJom toHted a morH(;l of breml, and were ghul to
}(naw the hark off the tret's. " But why are want and
misery come among uh? Ah, ye rehels tt) Christianity,
ye deteHt the truth, ye shut your ears against that which
is right. Your country is taxed, |>ri«»st-ri(hlen, sohJ to
strangers and ruiniMl . . Like the hi//aroni of Italy,

ye delight in cruelty and distress, and lamentation and
woe." He apostrophi/tMl the ruling Pact as false Cana-
dians, Tories, jwnsioners, prolligati^s, Orangemen, church-
men, spies, informers, brokers, gamlilers, ixirasites, knaves
of every caste and descriptiim. Tt would be wtmdcrf ;1 'f
each man's grievance couhl not find an outlet with su'^h a
number and variety of scapegtwvts. " N(;ver was n vaga-
b(md rac(5 more prospt;rous," he writes, " never did success-
ful villainy rejoice in brighter visions of the future. Ye
may plunder, rol) with impunity, your feet are on the
people's necks, they are transformed into tamo, crouching
slaves, ready to be trampled on. Erect your Juggernaut
— the people are ready to be sacrificcnl under the wheel of
the idol." It is strange that he did not (juote Culpepper :
" They dip in our dish, thi^y sit by our fire ; we find
them in the dye-fat, the wash-bowls and the powdering
tub. They share with the cutler in his box ; they have
marked and sealed us from head to foot."

When Mackenzie nuule his appearance in Gait in '33
a very partial local critic calls him somewhat of a political
firebrand ; he certainly was full of what in Lower Canada
just then was called "fusees de la rhetoriciue." He spoke
from the south window of the village inn, with the usual
results. One

*• Whose rhetoric could rouse the Olympian host,
And scare into fits poor Demosthenes' ghost,"

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278

HUMOURS OF '37.

was no commonplace figure. Set on steel springs, the
hands opening and shutting, the light-blue eyes sending
keen and piercing glances through the ranks of "these
people " before him, who were already in the best of train-
ing from the local agitator Mr. Bennett, the master of
Liberty Cottage, " this fellow " spoke in a way direct and
easy to understand. His writing was sometimes verbose,
unequal and amateurish ; but in speech " the superlative
littleness of the man " was lightened by gleams of humour,
facial expression and gesture which would not commit
themselves to paper, nor did they hinder the deadly
earnestness that carried conviction to any wavering mind.
Now as he spoke a great clatter arose from an incoming
crowd which bore a blackened, bedizened and hideous
effigy of himself ; the likeness was so good that the sight
of it provoked a smile from the original. He paused in
his speech and looked on in silent and grim amusement.
Had he but known it, the lay figure held almost an
allegory of the real. It was stuffed with gunpowder and
other combustibles, and, as its original was destined to do,
went off prematurely; it knocked down a man or two,
but did no great harm. The figure wore a pair of very
good boots, which someone in the crowd, not so well fur-
nished, begrudged. The man worked his way through,
seized the burnt brogues, and made off with them as fast
as his legs could carry him.

It is marvellous the bandit was not arrested as a sus-
pect ; it took very small evidence to make a case. One
Irish Loyalist, John McCrea, was sent a summons to join
the company then forming in Guelph for the front; he
considered his farm and home duties of more importance,
and was at once reported as "disaffected." Shortly after-
wards he went to the general store kept by Captain

HURON'S AGE HEROIC.

279

Lamphrey, a retired English officer, and was asked, as was
the usual custom, into the parlour for a glass of wine.
To his surprise he there found three others, a bench of
magistrates, who without further ado began to try him.
Why had he not responded to the command to join the
corps ? Because he had private and important domestic con-
cerns on hand. He asked for the name of his accuser and
the specific accusation, but in reply was told he must give
a bond for his good behaviour. This was surely the Star
Chamber, Scroggs and Jeffreys, the secret-service principle
of Mackenzie's written and spoken diatribes, and Mr.
McCrea's justified Irish obstinacy rose as a wall against
the combination. One of the trio offered to become the
bondsman, but the accused contended its acceptance would
be an admission of guilt. Mr. McCrea insisted upon
knowing their authority; they could not furnish it, and
there was an end of the matter.

Captain Lamphrey's treats were full of unexpected
results. One of the loyal, who carried despatches to
Hamilton, went to him one early morning with signs of
too many glasses already apparent and asked for more.
The captain could not refuse, knew the despatch must go,
and saw its safety was already endangered. He took H.
M.'s special messenger to the cellar and drew a glass of
vinegar. " Drink it, man ; down with it ! down with it !"
which was done, and the lately demoralized special mes-
senger was " as sober as a clock."

It was a joke to the Wellington neighbourhood that one
company should be headed by a Captain Poore and another
by a Captain Rich. A brusque Yorkshireman, William
Day, volunteered in Poore's company. The roads were
very bad, food was scarce, and as Day got hungry his
loyalty waned. At last he demanded something to eat.

280

HUMOURS OF '37.

This was flat rebellion; Poore called it insubordination,
and said that instead of comforts Day should have night
guard, and stand upon his feet until the small hours
lengthened.

" So you won't give me anything to eat ? "

" No."

" Then I know where I can get it, and that's at Guelph.
And I'd like to see the man that 'd stand between me an<^
that door."

No one offered to do so, and he'walked back twenty-six
miles, " got his victuals," and so ended his active military
service.

Captain Poore had been endeavouring for two or three
years to form a volunteer rifle company. There was little
time, and less inclination, to play at soldiering ; but by '35,
when agitation among the progressive begot anxiety in the
less progressive, he succeeded in forming a company sixty
strong, which drilled every Saturday in a corner of his own
farm. Many of the settlers were not gushing in their
loyalty to the powers that were, and, while not allying
themselves with Mackenzie, " had the governing party
been dro.wned in the depths of the sea not a solitary cry
would have gone up for them." Even the schoolboys were
keen politicians, and regarded those who dwelt in the
shadow of the Pact as very poor types of humanity.
Those who were of the required age and ordered to meet
for drill every two weeks at the cross roads, but who had
not sufficient courage of their cpnvictions to refuse service,
performed it in a half-hearted manner. The most regular
attendants were the schoolboys. They snowballed the
men and snowballed the captain, made game of the execu-
tion of the various military movements and of Mr.
Hiscock. The latter was the drill-instructor, an old

HURON'S AGE HEROIC.

281

soldier, who dressed partly in military uniform and carried
a cane. Pompously he walked back and forth, contemp-
tuous of the roll-call. One little Englishman, when going
through the required answers, was asked, " Married or
single ?" " Single, sir, but under promise," was the reply.
Great, then, was the excitement when the news came
that " Toronto had fallen.'^ On the day of the engage-
ment at Montgomery's Captain Poore and his men left
Guelph, and Lamphrey, by now a colonel, with Colonel
Young was left in charge of the portion which was to
protect Guelph. The knowledge that Gait and Eramosa
were strongly disaffected did not tend to reassure the home-
guard. It was feared that Guelph, too, might " fall."
For days men busied themselves running bullets, and it
was soothing to know that a quantity of powder lay in the
octagon house should they keep possession of it — such
stores, no doubt, would be seized by the rel)elliously in-
clined once they were in action. In the town of Guelph
itself it was proudly claimed that only one man was dis-
loyal, and that he, poor fellow, was only driven so by too
long and silent study of grievances, "an honest, decent
man otherwise." As the chief evidence against him was
that he went through Preston and other outlying hamlets
to buy up all the lead he could find, it seems rather hard
that when this was reported he should be apprehended,
taken to Hamilton, and lie there in gaol for six or eight
months without trial. Mr. James Peters, maliciously
termed Captain Peters and said to be at the head of fifty
men who were on their way to burn Guelph, was awakened
before daylight on the morning of December 13th by the
entry of sixteen armed men ; the leader drew his glittering
sword by Mr. Peters' bedside and ordered him to get at
once into one of the sleighs waiting at the door. After

282

HUMOURS OF '37.

leaving the Peters' farm these valiant special constables
stopped at the house of a farmer magistrate, who not only
bade them welcome, put up their horses, and gave the
entire party a gotnl breakfast, but delivered an encourag-
ing homily to the magistrate in charge — an officiously
zealous Irishman — saying he was glad to see the latter
perform his duty so faithfully. When they were well
refreshed and ready for the balance of the journey they
took their departure, after arresting the host's son. After
that this farmer was not quite so loyal, nor had he such
exalted views of a magistrate's duty ; moreover, he wished
that he had saved that breakfast. The document upon
which the arrests were founded set forth : " That (those
enumerated) not having the fear of God in their hearts,
but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the
devil, and entirely withdrawing the love, and true and due
obedience, which every subject of our said lady the Queen
should, and of right ought to, bear towards our said
present lady the Queen, and wickedly devising and intend-
ing to disturb the peace and public tranquillity of this
Province ... on divers other days and times, with
force and arms at the township of Eramosa, in the said
district, unlawfully, maliciously and traitorously, did com-
pass, imagine, and intend to bring and put our said lady
the Queen to death." In spite of efforts of judge and
Crown, a jury took eight minutes to return a verdict of
" Not guilty." But in the meantime the building in which
the prisoners were confined at Hamilton had been used by
Government to store fifty kegs of gunpowder, protected by
sand. Early in the morning the seven men, asleep in their
two narrow cells, were roused to the fact that the tinder-
wood building was on fire. They shouted until they were
hoarse, pounded with all their strength, but failed to wake

HURON S AGE HEROIC.

283

the sleeping guards. Exhausted, they threw themselves on
the floor to await the horrible fate which seemed inevi-
table. But an alarm from without at last roused the
guards, who at once set about saving the gunpowder, and
gave no thought to the anxiety and terror of those within
the cells. For long there was a popular idea that the fire
was malicious incendiarism, but there appears to be no
definite ground for such a belief.

To ensure safety, a night-watch was set on the Eramosa
bridge, as well as at one other point. One night a son of
the too well-fed Irish magistrate was on duty. It so hap-
pened that at the witching hour a Scotch miller came across
the bridge with a wee drap in his 'ee — a strong, muscular
fellow, and muscular in his language. His answer to
whither was he going and what his errand, was, without
preliminary words, to seize the guard by his coat collar
and a convenient handful of his trousers, remove him
from his path, and, with some oaths, declare that if inter
fered with he would pitch him into the river.

It did not take much to frighten either guard or pedes-
trian at such times. Not far from the Gait bridge an old
Highlander, who was a bit of a character, successfully tried
for a few "treats" from the regulars whom he saw one night
in the cosy brightness of the village inn. He also made
away with a regular's red coat. Some of the home corps
were on guard that night, and as in the clear atmosphere
they saw him coming toward the bridge they guessed his
double sin. They demanded his business and the counter-
sign, and fired into the air. He fell flat, vowing he was
killed, and never afterwards had he peace in the streets of
Gait.

There are some ludicrous magistrate stories in all districts.
As in the first days of Franco- Anglo-Canada it had not

284

HUMOURS OF '37.

been thought requisite that officials should know both
languages, so in these early provincial days it was not a
sine qua non that magistrates should read and write. A
"dockyment" was brought before one, a blacksmith by
trade. He sat down on his anvil to "execute," looking
ineffably wise while he held the paper head down. " But,
your worship, the document is upside down," said the
humble bailiff. " By the virtue of my office, I hold it
whichever way I d — please," said his worship, stamping
his foot, and convinced ho was as well in his wits as any
man in Middlesex. On the other hand, one western bailiff
never lost a chance to display his knowledge of whatever
language, dead or living, he might opportunely happen to
think. When questioned by his magistrate as to the non-
appearance of an expected prisoner, the bailiff proudly
replied, "Non est comeatibus, c'est in an awful mess,
parceque cum swampibus."

In Huron proper, while the people were devising means
to secure recognition of what they deemed their rights
locally, not one man rebel to his country was to be
found ; indeed, no one who knew his circumstances will
apply that term even to the unfortunate Van Egmond.
" Blame Van Egmond ? I blame the Family Compact a
devilish sight more than I blame him," says one. Sir
Francis Bond Head ought to be considered an authority,
and he affirms the Queen to be the head of this Family.
"And what are we going to fight for?" asked one western
man, with his draft-slip in his hand. "Against Mackenzie ?
Never ! — the only man who dared to speak for us — never !"
These true reformers considered that they were most loyal
to their Queen when loyal to her and themselves too, and the
remembrance of the day which called them to arms carries
with it a regretful thought for Van Egmond.

Km'mimm

HURON'S AGE HEROIC.

286

In Goderich the arms consisted mainly of pitchforks,
scythes and pikes, the latter made for the occasion by
George Vivian, of that place. Each had a cruel crosspiece,
with all points sharpened, to be used either as bayonet or
battle-axe. A few lucky warriors had flintlocks.

One great source of complaint was the class of firearms
supplied. Some relics of one lot of " useless lumber " sent
up under the charge of the present Mr. Justice Robertson's
father are still about the Goderich gaol, and the specimens
extant show the complaint to have been a just one.

There was also "a plentiful crop of captains and colonels."
Drill was held in the large room at Read's hotel, and the
boys who looked on were much edified by such display of
valour and clanking of metal. This regiment has been
handed down to local fame as "The Invincibles," " Huron's
True Blues," "The Huron Braves" and "The Bloody
Useless." When the call to arms came all turned out with
good- will, and the fact that lone fishermen, pigs and ponies
proved to be their only visible enemies can cast no discredit
on the valour of their intention. Their hardships were
many, and the complaints heard few.

Somewhere on the lake border, where the juniper and
tamarack made the best undergrowth, wandered Ryan, a
fugitive from Gallows Hill, the man made famous by the
death of Colonel Moodie. Many miseries were his until
the opening of navigation, and by the time he was taken
off by a friendly American schooner he was reduced to
a skeleton.

It was on Christmas Day, in the rain, that Captain
Hyndman and his followers set out for Walpole Island,
a journey which meant the extreme of roughing it.
Captain Gooding and his Rifles left on the 7th of January,
and were fortunate in being able to return all together

286

HUMOURS OF '57.

when their service was over ; but those who were with
Captain Luard at Navy Island had to get })ack just as
their strength would allow. Captain Lizars and Lieutenant
Bescoby took their men to Rattenbury's Corners, where
they spent most of the winter, thus being saved many
hardships suffered by their townsmen. Edouard Van
Egraond was a most unwilling volunteer, for his ill-advised
father, brave soldier and good pioneer as he had been
proved, was by that time with Mackenzie in Toronto.
Edouard resisted the press ; but his horses were pressed
into service, and their young owner said that wherever
they were he must follow. The Invincibles were evidently
at liberty to display individual taste in uniform, and Major
Pryor took his way to the frontier picturesque in blanket-
coat, sugar-loaf toque and sword ; nor was the line drawn
at the combination of blanket-coat, epaulets and spurs.
The regulars among them did not disdain to be gorgeous,
too, and one tall, handsome Irishman looked particularly
magnificent in a uniform specially procured from England.
He was a truly warlike and awe-inspiring sight, and having
served through the Spanish campaign, and at Waterloo,
had the usual regular's contempt for militia. His charge
was the commissariat from Niagara to Hamilton and
London, and on one occasion, at a certain point on the
Governor's Road, was challenged by a guard. Private
McFadden. His Magnificence merely vouchsafed, "Get
out of my way, you young whippersnapper ! " disgust and
indignation making a strong brogue stronger. McFadden
lifted his musket and was just about to fire, when a mutual
acquaintance opportunely arrived to save the regular from
the volunteer.

Some of the distressing events which centred in the
Windsor neighbourhood had a direct or indirect conil^Ction

HURON'S AGE HEROIC.

287

le
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with Huron names. Peter Green, of Goderich, the garrison
tailor, who lived in a house almost adjoining the barracks,
with his family was shut up in it by the patriots, who
intended to roast them to death. Green, a staunch Mason,
but who nevertheless had given up his Goderich lodge
through his distaste towards a brother Mason (Thomas
Mercer Jones, the Huron exponent of the Family Compact),
put his trust in Providence, and thrusting out his hand
made a Masonic sign. He was understood by one of the
enemy and allowed to leave his burning house. As he
went he was carrying his youngest child ; in spite of
masonry a stab was made at his burden, which Green
warded off at the expense of his own hand. Bad as matters
were, his meml)ership saved him and his from death.
Ronald MacGregor and his family, who had moved from
Goderich to Windsor in '36, were burned out at the same
time, escaping in their night-clothes.

When the Bloody Useless were at the front they saw no
active service ; but their suflferings were not inconsiderable.
Some of them had quarters in a church, where the narrow-
ness of the pews and benches and the scantiness of the
blankets led to much discomfort. But the real hardship
fell to those whose lot took them to some deserted Indian
shanties where filth of all kinds and melted snow on a
clay floor were poor inducements to rest. The snow
shovelled out to the depth of a foot still left enough behind
to be melted by the warmth of the wearied bodies, which,
stretched side by side, were by morning held fast by the
snow-water again frozen. The hearty, cheery spirit of
Dunlop, who doubled the rations, was better than medicine,
or even than his liberal allowance of grog. When they
moped he would order them out for a march, leading
them in his homespun checkered dress and Tarn o' Shanter,
19

288

HUMOURS OF '37.

closely followed by the Fords (*' the sons of Anak," l)ecau8e
they were all six feet six), the Youngs, the Annands, and
other stalwart townslnj) pioneers, not forgetting some
sailors who had been pressed into the service, each man
shouldering a pike ten feet in length. "Ah me, what
perils do environ the man that meddles with cold iron,"
quoted the Doctor ; " in the British army it was understood
that the only use of a musket was supposed to be that it
could carry a bayonet at the end of it." But his own
armament was chiefly that supplied by George Vivian. The
Doctor's hardy frame knew nothing of the sufferings of his
men. On one occasion when he took a company of sixty
from Bayfield, he expected to make Brewster's Mills
easily ; but the men were half tired, and he appropriated
for their rest two shanties by the way. Next day they
went on to the Sable, but the men were completely done
by the time Kettle Point (Tpperwash) was reached. Get
on they must, as many as might ; so the Doctor proposed,
" All of you as are fit, come with me." Of the sixty,
twenty-six went on with him, and one survivor tells that
that march was the hardest work ho ever did ; " but the
Doctor stood it finely." About the same time Dunlop and
his men found themselves dependent for shelter on two
women who had no comforts to offer such a company.
Some of the men grumbled, but the Doctor asked for
whiskey. The women showed him a barrel newly opened ;
whereupon he put a man in charge, and ordered horns all
round. The hostesses were anxious to give a bed to the
Doctor, but he would have nothing that his men had
not. Calling to Jim Young to bring him a beech log, he
disposed himself in his blanket on the floor ; when the log
came he put one end of his blanket over it for a pillow
and slept soundly until morning. " Our fathers ... have

HURON'S AGE HEROIC.

289

lain full oft . . . with n good round under tlioir heads
instead of a pillow. Pillows, said they, were thouj^'ht meet
only for women."

The hopes and the fears, the occasional feasts and
many involuntary fasts, hardened all consciences when a
search for supplies was on hand. In these times even the
future first sheriff' of Huron did not consider house-
breaking criminal nor a raid upon a potato-pit larceny.
Once Colonel Hyndman and some others had three-weeks'
leave and started on their homeward trip by the lake-shore,
some seventy-five miles at the least, and unnecessarily
added to by a false calculation which caused them to
retrace their steps and increase their already long walk by
ten miles. Sergeant Healy was twice nearly lost on the
way ; first by falling in a creek, and afterwards through
exposure to cold — for their tramp led them through a
country covered with two feet of snow. Healy begged
them to leave him to his fate, saying that although he was
an old soldier, and had served his sovereign in all parts of
the world for twenty-one years, he had never suffered as
he was suffering then. Needless to say they did not desert
him, and they got him to Goderich as best they could ; but
he served no more on the Canadian frontier.

The men were much interested in the droves of half-
wild cattle and horses to be seen on both sides of the
Detroit and St. Clair Rivers. The horses were so numer-
ous that it is said strings of them could be seen each way
as far as the eye could reach, and as late as '46 fifty
dollars would buy a good one. In various " Legends of
the Detroit " many interesting stories are told of these
hardy, clever little animals, the direct descendants of one
of the most celebrated of the stock of 1665 — the French
horses called Vjy the Indians the Moose Deer of Europe.

290

HUMOURS OF '37.

The French river settlers cut their fodder in the summer,
stacked it, and turned it over to the ponies in the winter
for them to feed from at will. Water-holes in the ice
were made for the wise little animals, and beyond these
two items they received little attention from their owners.
One of the Invincibles thus describes a raid on our men
by the enemy :

" Skimmings, of Goderich, was on guard, and reported
that he heard the rebels galloping through the bush.
Young told him that that was an impossibility, as they
would have to come from the opposite direction. Skimmings
was sure he heard the trejul and gallop, and was loaded to
the muzzle to receive them. Presently a drove of ponies
appeared, making for their water-holes — and there was
another scare over, and Skimmings never heard the last
of it."

At Colonel Hyndman's quarters on Walpole Island a chal-
lenge was given to three of these inoffensive Indian ponies,
by a sentry who had an infirmity of stuttering. Fearing that
he had not ))een understood, he repeated his challenge ; and
still once again, unwilling that any should perish through
his poor speech. Determined to be merciful in spite of this
contemptuous silence he called out the guard, who were
some time in arriving at a knowledge of the matter, for
between the sentry's fright and his stutter he was unintel-
ligible. The lanterns of the guard revealed the homeless
trio, supplementing their scanty supper by picking up
stray bits of fodder which lay about the camp.

Of the practical jokes most of them were played on
officers, either by their subordinates or brother officers.
Major Pryor was at Sarnia with Colonel Hyndman, and
the latter was very anxious indeed to break the monotony
of the times. His chance came one evening when there

HURON'S AGE HEROIC.

291

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was exchange of sentries, and Pryor had gone off to spend
a convivial hour. Hyndman gave very strict orders as to
the enforcing of the password, and then waited results.
Major Pryor staggered back to the line, very drunk indeed.
When clipllenged he stuttered that he was the f-f-fellow's
major.

" I don't care who jou are — what's the password ? "

" Don't know, b-b-but I'm your Major ! "

" Into the guardhouse with you then, if you don't know
the pass," and the major was ignominiously hurried
off. When he got there he was clear enough to see that
the men knew him.

"Very well, then," said one ; "if you give us an order
on the Commissary for a gallon of grog we'll let you go."

" Give me a p-p-pen then," said Pryor, "and you can have
your g-g-grog."

He duly wrote the order, which one of the men altered
from one to two gallons, and was thereupon set at liberty.

There was little ceremony spent on the furnishing of the
commissariat. When a beast was noticed by an officer it
was decided that that animal must at once be annexed ;
but as far as can l)e learned now there was always a fair
remuneration made to the owner. It was claimed by the
rival messes that equal fairness was not observed in the
distribution of a suddenly acquired dainty. Dunlop had
become possessed of a sheep, and great was the rage of
Pryor when it was found that the former had recjuisitioned
for the whole animal, for they had all been living on pork
for weeks. The Doctor could not resist such opportunity
for jokes, and mutton versus pork caused Pryor many an
irritation. Nicknames, too, grew from the work and doings
of '37 as easily as they were coined by Dunlop at other
times. " Toddy Tarn " was the head of the Commissariat,

292

HUMOURS OF '37.

and Robert Young, of Glasgow, who was butcher to the
Huron militia, was in consequence called Killit-and-Curit.
Thereafter he was best known as Killie Young.

A grand dinner had been the cause of Major Pryor's
guard-house experience. A baker and a butcher had been
sent to ransack the countryside for provisions for it, and
extraordinary success had crowned their efforts. Colonel
Hyndman asked " Toddy Tani " not to serve the major
with any of the new-gotten delicacies until he, Hyndman,
had entertained his fellow-officers at a dinner. And such
a dinner, to men who had been half starved ! Mutton and
turkey boiled and roast, fowls, and pastry of all sorts
and descriptions. " Good God, Hyndman ! " exclaimed
Pryor, " where did you get all that ? "

Hyndman gravely replied that these were his rations.
Toddy Tarn arrived at the head of the stairway just in
time to hear Pryor ht;aping abuse upon him, saying that

" that d fellow, the Commissary, had served him with

nothing but salt pork ever since he game to Sarnia." The
irate major just then caught sight of tlie offender, and
would have thrown him down the stairway but for the
intei'ference of Captains Gooding and Lizars. Careful
management and pre-arrangement on the part of his tor-
mentors lodged the gallant and stuttering major in guard-
house.

On another occasion, when Hyndman was in advance of
Pryor by a day's march, the former halted his men for rest
at Mrs. Westlake's, where comforts and food were in plenty.
Reckoning on the major's usual blustering manner to bear
him out. Colonel Hyndman advised Mrs. W'stlake that
Major Pryor would arrive next day, and that she had
best be on her guard. When Pryor and his men arrived
he at once ordered this and shouted for that, desiring the

HURON' :S AGE HEROIC.

293

rest

|ty.

lear

|iat

)ad

^ed

phe

household to bring him everytliing at once. To his amaze-
ment in marched Mrs. Westlake, a huge pistol in her hand,
who without more ado began the work of converting a
bully into the most civil and astonished of officers. But
with all his faults of manner Pryor had his good points,
and only two days previous to this had sent home his
man-servant and horses, determined to march with his
men and share their hardships.

Doctor Dunlop, " who commanded six hundred and fifty
fine fellows at the front," was much distressed at the lack
of money to pay his men. He was advised that a line of
express horses had been established between London and
Sarnia, and he accordingly detailed Captain Kydd as
messenger with a despatch to Colonel John Askin. Captain
Kydd tried to evade the commission, as his regimentals
were in no trim for appearance at headt^uarters. His
brown moleskin shooting-jacket had seen three sousings in
the Maitland, besides much other hard usage as pillow or
blanket on mud floors ; his Black Hawk cap was too
small and sat awkwardly on his head, and the rest of his
attire was in keeping. However, he went. After many
adventures he reached a statitm where a retired naval
officer and his young and pretty wife were domiciled in a
log hut some eight feet high, which was roofed with bass-
wood troughs and co itained but one room. The kitchen
was a bark shanty, a few feet away. There were no signs
of cattle about, but the frequent ringing of a cow-bell gave
the impression that one must be stabled in the kitchen.
Not so, however. A rope connected the " parlour " with
the second building, the bell in use being an old cow-l)ell,
the ringing of which was the work of the pretty young
wife, who in her own apartment tried, poor soul, to forget
her surroundings by keeping up what semblance she could

294

HUMOURS OF '37,

!!i

of her former state. The bush in tiiose days was full of
such anomalies. When the express equine was brought to
the door he had neither saddle nor bridle, a hair halter,
perhaps provided by his own tail, his only garnishing.
Nothing but the bell-rope could be found to assist in
improvising a harness. Captain Kydd had not the heart
to deprive the hidy of that, and he continued his journey
caparisoned with hair halter alone. His tale of danger and
discomfort, through what seemed an interminable swamp,
can well be believed, — wet, cold and hungry, without sight
of another soul until he reached the next station, where he
« was received and kindly treated by the women relatives of
our own Edward Blake. Those ladies looked at the half-
drowned horse and mud-bespattered man ; and full of pity
for a supposed backwoodsman in dire distress, were ready
to offer him their best hospitality. When he put into their
hands his passport as "Captain Kydd of the First Hurons,
abroad on special service," they did not attempt to disguise
their amusement, but laughed long and heartily. After
a rest of an hour or two, a bath, a rubbing down which
deprived him of his coat of mud, and a hearty appreciation
from himself and his beast of the good fare set before
them, he was ready to pursue his journey. At length
London was reached, and the precious despatch put
into Colonel Askin's hands — but with no result, for there
was neither official money nor credit. Instead of coin.
Colonel Askin gave the messenger a packet addressed to
Captain James Strachan, Military Secretary at Govern-
ment House, Toronto. In vain did Kydd bring forward
his coat and Black Hawk cap as sufficient reason for not
undertaking a further trip; nor yet were his sufferings
from hunger and fatigue on his recent journey allowed to
stand in the way of his undergoing fresh distress. The

HURON'S AGE HEROIC.

295

igs

rhe

best mode of conveyance obtainable was a common farm-
waggon, in which he made his way at a foot pace. He
met many people en route, most of them jus shabby jus him-
self, and Jill talking war to the knife. He arrived in
Toronto late at night on the third day, but waited until
morning to present his despatches at Govelrnment House.
There the much befogged Secretary not unreasonably
looked with disdain Jit the coat and cap of the special
messenger ; the despatch was taken within for Sir Francis'
perusal, with the result that another packet, of large size
and said to contain the necessary money, was put into
Captain Kydd's hands, and an order given him to return
to London by express. Express mejint a dirty farm-sleigh
with a torn cjinvjis cover. His only travelling companion
was a Brant Indian returning to the Reserve, an intelligent,
well-educated man and Ji most plejisant companion. To-
gether they were upset from the sleigh, and together they
righted it and its sail-like cover, to resume the weary
journey. Upon presentation to Colonel Askin, the impor-
tant-looking packet was found to l)e worthless, for the
document bore no signature. Captain Kydd was given his
original Rosinante, witii the same hair halter, and sent
back to Sarnia, while Jinother special messenger was de-
spatched to Toronto for the necessary signatures.

The despatch and its bearer had variations. When
Black Willie Wallace, of Dunlop's Scouts, wjis sent with
one from Clinton to Goderich it took nine days to travel
the twelve miles and pass the various taverns on the way.
The importance of the despatch entered even the childish
mind, and one small daughter, whose father was a bearer,
cried out as the latter rode up to the gate in full regi-
mentals, " Here's fjither with another dampatch." Always
warlike and politicians, these small babes sometimes dealt

296

HUMOURS OF '37.

unpleasant truths to tlie untrue. One Tory atom when
questioned "Where's your father?" replied, " Father gone
to fight the dirty rebels, and brother Dan'el gone to fight
the dirty rebels, too."

Colonel Dunlop swore not a little when Kydd reported
himself empty-handed, but tried to keep up his own hopes
as well as those of his men. Weeks and months went by,
and no money came ; privations were great, and the
mental trial was added of the knowledge of farms at home
going to ruin, families unprovided for, and no prospect for
the future. In March the order for return came ; but
there was no word of any money. The companies were
tpld off for the homeward trip, one day apart, and the
record is of a terrible journey in the broken March
weather, with roads at their very worst. Dunlop remained
behind with others of the officers, for, as he wrote Govern-
ment in terms not to be mistaken, he had become person-
ally liable to the local stores for clothing and necessaries,
and would not leave the place with such indebtedness
unpaid.

" Glory is not a very productive appanage, it is true, but
in the absence of everything else it is better than nothing "
— but these impoverished lads had little or no glory, and
they returned without having seen what was technically
known as active service. Dunlop's illustration of the ne
plus ultra of bad p.ay was Waterloo, where each private
there performed the hardest day's work ever done for a
shilling. Now he thought the brave Hurons in a still
worse plight. By the time pay day did arrive they were
not few who expressed the opinion that the Canadian
rebellion was due to the machinations of a "parcel of
poor rogues and a few, a very few, rich fools, one party
deserving accommodation in the penitentiary and the other

HURON'S AGE HEROIC.

297

lodgings in l)edlani." Dunlop did not allow himself such
free speech in regard to the policy of the Colonial Oflice,
which let numbers be brought to the scaffold or to the foot
of it ; but ho used no circumspection in words when he
dealt with local mismanagement.

" As syllabubs without a head,
As jokes not laughed at when they're said,
As needles used without a thread,
Such are Bachelors,"

says an old song. Now Tiger Duidop might have said,
"And when I fell into some fits of love I was soon cured."
But bachelor as he was, the well-springs of fraternal love
were not dried up in him ; nor were his syllabul)s wont to
be without a head, nor his jokes unlaughed at. When he
spoke others listened, and his dissatisfaction ended in his
resignation, upon which he addressed the following letter
to his brave Hurons :

" CoMRADKS, — When I resigned the command of the St.
Clair frontier in March last I endeavoured to express to
you in my farewell Order my gratitude for the generous
confidence you had reposed in me, and my thanks for the
steady soldier-like conduct with which you had borne every
privation and met every difficulty, I have now to explain
to you the reason why I voluntarily aoandoned a situation
in every respect gratifying to my feelings as the honour-
able command I then held.

" From the day that I resigned the connnand to the
present hour I have, at great expense and total neglect
of my own personal affairs, been travelling from one com-
missariat station to another in order to get something like
justice done you. To the superior military officers my best
thanks are due — Sir John Colborne, Sir F. B. Head, and

298

HUMOURS OF '57.

latterly Sir G. Arthur, Colonel Foster, and our immediate
commanding officer, the Hon. Colonel Maitland, have
treated me with the greatest kindness and you with the
greatest consideration. From men of their rank we might
possibly have submitted to a little hauteur ; on the con-
trary we have met with the most courteous condescension.
The Commissariat, on the other hand, men infinitely
inferior to many of us in birth, rank, and education, have
treated us with the most overweening arrogance and the
most cruel neglect. They have never personally insulted
me, for I am six feet high and proportionately broad
across the shoulders ; but the poor farmers have to a man
complained to me of their treatment by these

Very magnificent three-tailed Bashaws
of Beef and Biscuit. I grudge none of the labour I have
spent, nor any of the pecuniary sacrifices I have made in
your service. My life and my property are my country's,
and I am willing cheerfully to lay either or both down
when my Sovereign may require them, but my honour is
unalienably my own, and I cannot submit to be made, as X
lately unwittingly have been, the instrument of the most
cruel and grinding oppression, to snatch, without remu-
neration, his pittance from the peasant or the bread from
his children's mouths. I have therefore submitted my
resignation, but with no intention of leaving you ; I shall
stand with you in all danger, shoulder to shoulder, but it
shall be in the ranks.

" I have to warn you not to judge of a government by
the meanest of its servants, nor let the upstart insolence
of a body so contemptible alienate your affections from
your Queen and country ; the people of England are both
liberal and just, and were your case fairly represented to
them there is not the slightest doubt immediate steps

HURON'S AGE HEROIC.

299

would be taken to redress your grievances. The Queen,
like other people, has dirty work to do, and must have
dirty fellows do it. The royal chimney-sweepers who
exercise their professional functions in fiuckingham Palace
and St. James's may be very pleasant fellows in their way,
but I doubt much if they are the kind of people that either
you or I would borrow money to drink with, as Shake-
speare's fat Knight says.

" Some little excuse must be had for the poor fellows
after all. That the Commissariat are ' saucy dogs ' we all
must allow, have felt it ; but that they are not too saucy
to eat dirty puddings we know, for cursed dirty puddings
they are obliged to bolt, without even daring to make a
wry face at them. Witness the correspondence which the
House of Assembly last winter elicited l>etween the
arrogant, insolent, empty-headed coxcomb at the head of
that department and the Commissaries at Toronto and
Penetanguishene. To this the poor devils are obliged to
submit for their piece of silver or morsel of bread. It is
natural, therefore, that the people who have studied so
long in the school of arrogant ill-breeding should be
anxious to exhibit the proficiency they have attained when
their turn comes ; and it is possible tiiey may suppose that
a Canadian yeoman, who is afraid of losing all that has
been taken from him by offending their High Mightinesses,
may for a time submit to it.

" A broken head or two might remove this delusion and
convince them that a man is still a man though clad in
a homespun coat, and tliat to get rid of tlieir redundant
bile safely they must make it go as hereditary property
does by law, downwards, and aliglit on the heads of clerks
and issuers, who, living in the hope of one day having it
in their power to abuse their inferiors, will probably sub-
mit with more equanimity.

300

HUMOURS OF '3?

"In applying? to the British Parliament for redress, I
give you warning that the Coinniissariat is the most power-
ful body you can well attack. The Duke of Wellington
and Lord Grey, Lord Brougham and Lord Lyndhurst, Sir
Robert Peel and Mr. Daniel O'Connell may talk, and all,
when in their turn of power, have provided for the sons of
faithful butlers and I'espectable valets in the Commissariat
— a department particularly favourable for the offspring
of the lower orders (the pay being good and the work little
or nothing), the attainments necessary for its duties being
easily acquired in any parish school, they being comptised
in writing a legible hand and a tolerable ac(juaintance
with the first four rules of arithmetic. The experiment,
however, is well worth trying, and T trust will be successful.

"With best wishes for your prosperity and hope that
you may henceforward, under the protecting arm of a just
Government, cultivate your fields in peace, I subscribe my-
self, my comrjuies and fellow-soldiers,

" W. DUNLOP,

" Your late Colonel,
" Commanding the St. Clair Frontier."

This letter found its way into all the provincial journals,
and made no little talk. The Kingston Whi(/ says,
" Among many other endearing epithets he calls Mr. Com-
missary-General Routh an empty-headed, arrogant, insolent
coxcomb. Now the gallant ex-Colonel, according to his
own confession, stands six feet high and is proportionately
broad across the shoulders, and Mr. Commissary is an
aged and feeble man, altogether past the prime of life ;
would a duel therefore be fair between the parties? We
think not ; and yet according to the absurd notions of
modern honour what else can Mr. Commissary do than

nU RON'S AGE HEROIC.

301

fi^ht, unless, indeed, one of his younger and subordinate
officers (Mjually insulted by the gallant ex-Colonel takes up
the cudgels in his own and his chief's behalf." liut there
was no duel. Dunlop had a sovereign contempt for what
he called a lobster-coated puppy, and took his grievances
straight to Colonel Maitland, Coniniandant at I^ondon.
There are always wheels within wheels. The Doctor's
re(juisitions for food and drink had been on a generous
scale ; an assistant commissary had peremptorily brought
things under diff'erent cimditions, with an amount of un-
necessary red tape which aggravated the Doctor beyond
endurance. A stop was put to the whiskey in toto,
not on temperance but on military principles, and that
he could not thole. He reacluKl Londtm at night. Next
morning, instead of reporting himself in an ordinary
way, he arrived at morning parade of the 32nd, and there
accosted the Colonel on horseback. Dressed in his usual
homespun shepherd's plai<l and blue bonnet, the Doctor
is reported to have delivered himself thus:

" Good-mornin' to ye, Maitland. Hoo air yo this
mornin'?"

'« Why, Dunlop, is tliis you 1 "

"Yes, 'tis I myself. I've just come over from Port
Sarnia to lay a wee mather before; ye. T was in command
of the volunteers from my own neighbourluuKl, farmers
and fai'mers' sons, who are in the habit of being well fed
and well found in tluur ain hames, and 1 generally supplied
them in all they needed at Sattiia, and tried to make
things comfortable for them by givin' them phnity to eat
and plenty to drink ; when a Commissary fellow by the
name of Robinson came there, took the math(n' in hand, cut
off pairt o' the supplies and disrtigarded my orders whert
I gave requisitions. Now, Maitland, I am here an old army

302

HUMOURS OF '37.

officer, and I know wliat it is to f(»ed men, and I've come to
lay tliiH mather before you that you may set it right, Iwcause
I've never been in the habit, and I never will be subjected,
to take my orders from a doni pork-barrel." Upon which
the Colonel nearly fell off his horse. He knew the
Doctor, and enjoyed the originality of the whole com-
plaint.

Why should the gofnl Tiger's memory be too heavily
assailed for his fondness and capacity for liquids.
Marechal Saxe, in his halt": youth, could toss off a galhm
of wine at a draught ; and when Wolfe's men reached the
crest of the hill he had grog served out to them, while he
spoke kind and encouraging words after their terrible
climb. Why sliould not Goderich and the Tiger appear in
these tales oscillating between history and myth 1 It was
called a Goderich custom to conceal the glass in the hand
while the li<T|uid was poured in ; but Whiskey Read,
teamster and trader, earned his sobritjuet because his load
to Goderich was so many barrels of the terrible liquid.

In time Dunlop was advised that ten thousand dollars
lay to his credit at the Bank of Upper Canada in Amherst-
burg. Thus were unnecessary miles added to a journey
already delayed and cruelly long. Doctor and aides made
their way there — that place renowned for loyalty, rattle-
snakes and turkeys— astonishing all Windsor on his way
through it by the display of a half-crown piece which had
turned out from some forgotten pocket corner. So much
specie had not been seen there for a long time ; they knew
no money but the wild-cat shin-plaster. From Windsor
they proceeded by water ; and after further adventures,
immersions and escapes, there was the final discovery of
Jamie Dougall in a little low-ceilinged shop, manager of
the Bank of Upper Canada. But there was no money yet

nUROX'S AGE HEROIC.

303

for Huron, and tlu»y must wait Home days for itH possible
arrival. S«>, with as much pati«»nco as inij^ht Im% thoy
established themselves at Hullook's Hotel, and after live
days' waitinj; the m(»ney did arrive. The Doctor in the
meantime had intended to divert an hour by calling U{K)n
the oHieers at Fort Maiden; but tht^ dress suit of claret-
coloured cloth, the coat tails lined with pink silk, with
which he had provided himself, was now all too small, and
when arrayed in it he looked and felt so much like the
letter T, that he called lustily, " Kydd, Kydd, come and lot
me out." Tn his dirty homespun and Tam the visit Iwul to
be mad(>, and the straight-jacket was never stH?n again.

On leaving the village with their precious loml a sudden
panic took the j)ers«m to whose special keeping the sum
had been given, and at the moment of departure he could
nowhere be found. The Doctor could only suppose that
both man and money luul been kidnapped, and, as consola-
tion, luwl recourse to horns with every friend he met. And
the Doctor's friends were many, and the horns were
potent. At length Doctor, money and aides were all
got together and a start was made for Sarnia. Then
followed further adventures, impassable roads, frequent
halts and scanty fare. Just as they were watching the
manamvres of the migrating fish, and admiring the dexter-
ous way in which they helped their passage by hugging the
shore, they came upon an old walnut dug out, abandoned on
account of a crack in its side. The bullion convoy was at
this time enjoying the hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. Suther-
land, from whom they procured rags instead of oakum, and
with pitch made a good job of the canoe. Mrs. Sutherland
provided them with what she called a week's supply of
provisions, and following the example of the fish they
began their coasting journey. The provisions turned out
20

304

HUMOURS OF '37.

to be ample for double the time, fortunately for them,
for it took them all of that to reach the brave
Huron First, by then all at home and anxiously awaiting
the pay so dearly earned on the frontier. At Sarnia the
convoy debarked to pay outstanding dues. At Point
Edward there was a further delay, where the rapids
proved a barrier. Ben Young was left in the boat to fend
it from the shore, while the Doctor, Captain Kydd and
James Young, pulling on a stout rope, did tow work.
No sooner were the rapids safely passed than an
accumulation of half-rotien ice stopped the way, honey-
combed and soft in the centre — "for all the world," as the
Doctor said, " like a woman's l)aking of tea- tarts, with a
spoonful of jelly in the middle." Tliey beached the boat as
best they could, and soon had a roaring fire of drift-wood,
the warmth of which made them forget many discom-
forts. This last delay was too much for. the Doctor's
patience, and by morning it was found that he had struck
off on his way home alone — no doubt feeling independent
when on his feet in these pathless woods, even in the
winter. James Young was sent after him, and the other
three, with the money in their keeping, stuck by the canoe.
Fresh accumulations of ice, storms, a rescue by a party of
five or six men off Kettle Point, were next in the list of
adventure, until, the water journey becoming impossible,
they camped on shore and turned inland for help, the
man with the money being left with the unhappy canoe
and its load of their united belongings. A poor enough
kit it was — dirty blankets and underwear. Mr. Sayers
dnd his two sons entertained them with their best, and
helped shoulder the load as far as Bayfield. There another
stop was made ; and the weary five, with their ten thou-
sand dollars' worth of pay money, reached Goderich the

HURON'S AGE HEROIC.

305

following night. The Companios' pay-lists were then
compared, checked oif, and approved by the Commanding
Officer, and many hearts were made glad after another
fortnight had been spent in settling all matters of detail.

Such delays and martyrdoms to red-tapeism read not
unlike the record of the Crimean campaign. It is not
unnatural that Captain Strachan, the Military Secretary,
should be spoken of with severity by such as remember
those days and hand down the tale, as he was the middle-
man through whom much was suffered.

Meantime, although Goderich had been written of "as
more completely out of the world than any spot which it
has been attempted to settle," it found it incompatible
with dignity and safety to be without a Home Guard. In
the townships there was another class of home guard ; for
the old men and the lame, or lads under sixteen, were left
in charge to cut the wood, water cattle and attend to the
women's chores. This help, such as it was, had to be
spread over a large area, one man, lame or not, having to
attend to several farms.

The remembrance of the Home Guard's duty is that it
was a peaceful performance, a sinecure as far as aggression
or resistance went. Although Goderich was credited by
several governors and military commanders as being a
capital natural vantage for defence, the fortification of
the Baron's Hill never went on, for it was estimated the
point was too far removed from the rest of the world ever
to be attacked.

A Detroit newspaper of June 30th, '38, tells how " on
the night of Tuesday last some thirty of these heroes
(patriots) stole a slo(jp and cruised to Goderich, in Canada.
There they plundered the stores of everything valuable
and came off. The steamboat Patriot was immediately

ii'iH,.

306

HUMOURS OF '37.

manned and sent in pursuit of them, and after a long chase
found them in our waters. The persons on board the sloop
were all armed, but being — as they are — a miserable lot of
cowards, they ran the sloop on to the land, and everyone
on board, with the exception of one man, made their escape.
The sloop was captured and brought down in tow to this
place." Luckily, by July 12th tlie Detroit paper can say
further, " The steamboat Governor Many, under command
of Captain Jephson, has succeeded in capturing eight of the
pirates who robbed the storehouses at Goderich, U. C.
They were brought down from the St. Clair a week since,
and on their arrival were taken before the U. S. judge.
Four were discharged for want of sufficient evidence . . . ;
two were held to bail. . . . Since that time three others
have been brought down . . . and convicted. From the
present appearance in this quarter, I am now of the opinion
that the enlightened portion of the citizens of this section
of the country have seen the error of their ways, and are
now determined to set their faces against the Patriots.
They find that the ' Patriots ' are an unspeakable set of
vagabonds, and that no dependence can be placed in them
— a very wise conclusion, for I assure you that a more
miserable set of beings never existed in any country. The
commander-in-chief of the force in this section of the fron-
tier I have been shown, and met him in a public bar-room.
He stands five feet four inches in his shoes — that is, when
he is fortunate enough to have a pair that can be so called
— not lacking in impudence by any means, and a miserable,
drunken vagabond, as his appearance plainly indicates."
This was Vreeland, who bore the unsavoury reputation of
being "a Judas and a traitor." He was found guilty of
violation of the neutrality laws, and was sentenced by
Judge Wilkins to one year's imprisonment and a fine of
$1,000.

HURON'S AGE HEROIC.

307

of
of

(by

lof

Of his companion, Dr. McKinley, an unflattering silhou-
ette is given by the Detroit editor, " The complete wreck
of all that once constituted a man." Also, " The Patriot
force does not amount to anything like that number (one
thousand), besides which they have not courage enough to
cross the line." The Indians took not a little pleasure in
keeping these marauders on their own shore, and one of
the former gives a spirited account of how " the savages
drove the unfortunate fellows over again " from the St.
Clair mission ; he said they had to watch all night and
sleep all day, wear feathers and tomahawks, " and if the
pirates do not soon mend their ways the red-men will have
to dress themselves so that the invaders will fall dead with
fright, even before hearing the war-whoop and yells. We
are in fear we shall get as savage as our fathers were i'l all
the wars under the British flag." Changed times these
from those of the Indian proverb, "We will try the
hatchet of our forefathers on the English, to see if it
cuts well."

Beborabs of '37.

" Althouyh our laat toast, gentlemen, — Place aux dames, ' The
hand that rock^ the cradle (juiden the State.' "

" ' Madame ! Madame Cornelia, you are not worthy of the name
you bear.'

*' 'Sir, we do not live in the time-i of the Gracchi ; I am not a
Roman matron.'

"In truth, the poor lady was nothing more nor less than a good,
tender mother and excellent wife, not very interesting, perhaps, to
philosophers, hut very acceptable in the eyes of heaven."

During the Seven Years' War the only tillers to be seen
in the Prussian fields were women. Likewise, in 1812, it
was a common sight in Upper Canada to see women at the
plough in place of absent husbands and brothers. Small
wonder, then, that the mothers of 1812, and the daughters
to whom they gave birth under such circumstances, were
what they were in '37.

Small wonder, too, that their neighbours across the line,
who were kin and should have been friends, continued ob-
noxious to them when the representatives of the Stars and
Stripes were such men as Theller and Sutherland. Yet,
allowing for all provocation, the period of first dentition in
the Canadian Infant was unusually scjually ; full of whims,
shy fits, small fisticuffs and wailings.

Like that pattern of all good housewives described by
the prudent mother of King Lemuel, it could be said of
the immigrant's wife, " She layeth her hand to the spindle

DEBORAHS OF '37.

309

and her hands hold the distaff; she seeketh wool and flax,
and worketh willingly with her hands ; she looketh well to
the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of
idleness." And when Madame de L^ry was presented at
the Court of George III. her beauty forced the monarch to
say, " If such are all my new Canadian subjects I have
indeed made a conquest."

The women of '37 combined all these virtues with a few
heroic ones. From the dark days of civil dissensions, when
Canadians, like their sisters of Deborah's time, saw their
husbands obliged to travel by the by-paths because the
high roads seemed Lo each to be occupied by his foes,

*' A company of ghosts steal out
And join their voiceless sobs and cries."

And there is laughter, too ; for when she forgot for a
moment to cry — her tears dropping into her teacup —
Deborah did not disdain to see the humorous side of
affairs. If the survivor be the fittest, then Place aux
dames of the Tory stripe.

" Nay, we would in the title glory,
For every honest man's a Tory,"

is the burden of their song. It is a song which loses half
its thrill without the pointed reply, the little electric
sparkles which run through it. Those who have furnished
the bulk of the following pages shall tell their own
stories :

" I am just that kind of Tory that the only time I went
to the United States I put Canadian earth in my shoes, so
that I might not walk on Yankee soil.

"I do indeed rememl)er '37 and Mackenzie, and how
angry we all were that he escaped in a woman's clothes.

310

HUMOURS OF '37.

* He need not have cheated the authorities by putting on
our clothing,' we said ; it was hard to forgive him that.

" My father had a logic of his own. * Show me a Re-
former,' he used to say, ' and I'll show you a Radical ;
show me a Radical, and I'll show you a rebel ; show me a
rebel, and I'll show you a traitor to his country and hia
Queen ; and a man who is untrue to his Queen is untrue
to his God.' He always declared he could smell a Radical
in the next concession. A sword on one side of his bed
and a gun on the other, and it was death to anyone who
touched either. He always called my mother madame.

* Madame, do you remember so and so ?' * Madame, is
dinner ready?' He v/as a volunteer in 1812, and, like
many other loyal-hearted men, had to leave wife and
family to look after themselves as best they might. He
took part in all the chief battles then, and often was away
for a month at a time. It was during one of these absences
that McArthur's freebooters, infamous marauders, plun-
dered the country, pretending they were a branch of the
United States army. When they got to our house they
first of all removed a baking of bread, taking off the oven
doors to do so ; then they emptied the feather-beds on the
brush-heap, and filled the ticks with cornstalks for fodder ;
they took our best blankets to cover their horses, and stole
the silverware and valuables. They then destroyed what
they could not carry away ; one, more infamous than the
rest, hurled a tomahawk through a large and valuable
mirror. Some time afterwards, a Loyalist, when passing
Colonel Talbot's, saw a little copper tea-kettle hanging in
a tree and a silver spoon with it, and Colonel Talbot recog-
nized the crest on the spoon — a lamb encircled with a
wreath — and the things were returned. My mother had
buried what she could — her own clothes and whatever

mmm

DEBORAHS OF '37.

311

she could manage to secrete — and put brush over the place,
and anything not lucky enough to be buried was taken.
My father's sister was alone when tlie marauders reached
her house, so she called as loudly as she could, ' John, Joe,
Dick, all of you, make haste down — here they are ! ' as if
she was just waiting for them. She was a very resolute
woman. Then she took down an old musket that always
hung on two wooden hooks, rested it on the window-sill
and fired at random ; but random happened to be a good
mark. The leader of the gang was at that moment riding
towards the window, and the charge nearly carried off his
horse's leg ; the animal fell, and remained there till it died.
Then the whole party of these moss-troopers, who were
alarmed as much by her shouts as by the shot, thought
they had to encounter a number of men in the house,
and made off as fast as they could. This was the time that
Colonel Burwell's place was burned and that Colonel Talbot
made such a narrow escape from the same party. Colonel
Burwell was ill with fever and ague ; they took him pri-
soner and sent him to Chilicothe, where they left for him
some time. They burnt his house, but his wife, after send-
ing a message to Colonel Talbot to advise him of their
coming, made her escape on her Indian pony. The
marauders were all masked. She had recognized the
leader, an American from across the border at Fort Erie,
where she was lx)rn. She kept him interested while her
messenger was on his way to Colonel Talbot — no new kind
of work for Mrs. Burwell ; in her old home she had had a
similar experience, during which a small brother had im-
proved the opportunity of the soldiers' absence, while they
ransacked the house, to make a visit to their stacked mus-
kets, take a dipper and fill up every muzzle with water.
When Mrs. Burwell arrived at our house, my mother dug

' 1 ll

I !

iSliliiiil

Pi '

312

HUMOURS OF '57.

up some of her wardrol>e, and as the visitor often said
afterwards, * Whatever should I have done if you had not
given me something to wear ! ' She remained with us till
the next day, and Colonel Talbot in the meantime was
lucky enough to look like a shepherd or labourer in his
homespun smock. He was about to milk his cows, and
would have made a queer figure to grace a triumph. The
marauders had among them some Indians and scouts who
figured at Tecumseh's last battle, and an Indian was the
first to enter on the scene. * You an officer ? ' he said
to Captain Patterson, Talbot's friend and neighbor. * Oh,
yes, big officer — captain.' But this answer did not divert
suspicion, and looking towards the ravine to which Colonel
Talbot was directing his steps, the Indian continued, *Who
that yonder — he big officer, too?' *No, no,' said Captain
Patterson, * he is only the man who tends the sheep.' Not-
withstanding this assurance and the appearance which bore
it out, two guns were levelled at the retreating figure.
Twice thev tried to cover him, but each time were diverted
by the assurance repeated. The Colonel dropped into the
ravine, and their chance was gone. They burned the mill,
they plundered Castle Malahide, in the booty took some
valuable horses, and they drove off the cattle ; but two
quart pots of gold and the plate, snug under the front
wing of the house, escaped.

"The daughters of Joris Jan son Rappelje went through
much the same kind of thing. The father, a descendant
of a Huguenot, had come here in 1810 with a detailed
account of the family farming life, how the Dutch Gover-
nor of the New Netherlands had given a silver spoon to
Sarah Rappelje, the first white child born in the colony —
1635 — and many other items of family interest, closely
written in a fat manuscript volume. His American
experiences had been stirring ones; at Lundy's Lane it was

ipw^

DEBORAHS OF '.?7.

313

no figure of speech to aay they waded ankle deep in blood,
and yet everybody said that the worst scourge of all was
the raid of this band of McArthur's marauders. They
were one thousand strong, mounte<l, and unfortunately the
camp was pitched at the Rappelje farm, wiiere St, Andrew's
Market in St. Thomas now is. By night-time the place
was in a glow of light from the fence-rails burning in
heaps, the shadows of the overtopping trees making gloom
above and beyond. By morning Ilappelje's sheep were all
slaughtered, crops destroyed and the crib emptied of the
corn. When Colonel Talbot tried to hide his valuables he
gave Mrs. Rappelje a specially precious box, which was to
be guarded at all hazards. It had so far been underneath
a bed, a safe enough hiding in ordinary times, but she now
took it out and put it between the beehives, sure that her
lady bees would make good guards. Her young daughter
Aletta would have fought the raiders herself had she been
allowed, but she had to content herself by telling the com-
mander that he was a thief and a scoundrel.*

" When the news of the uprising of '37 reached us my
father was off again, and my brothers too. One of the
boys took down the big poker from the fireplace, the only
weapon he could find, and I cried out to him by way of
encouragement, * Mind you don't get shot in the hack ! '
I and another girl, Margaret Caughill, sat up all night
running bullets, and we had an apronful in the morning.
I turned the grindstone, too, for one of the officers to
sharpen his sword.

"It so happened that Dr. John Ilolph was at my
father's place for three months. He poisoned the minds
of a great many."

In the house of a high Tory, who could smell a Radical

* McArthur raided the neighbourhood twice. After such a lapse of time, nar-
rators doubtless are more interested in incident than in date.

I Ml I

If
If

If
I

I <

314

HUMOURS OF '57.

in tlie next concosHion, the seditious doctor seemed to enjoy
himself and showed a particular fondness for the blood-
thirsty little Tory maid. " Come here, my fair child," he
would say, and when wanted and not to be found her
mother would remark, "Oh, I suppose she is on Dr.
Rolph's knee." She got at his quicksilver once, divided it
with her finger to make it run, investigated the mysteries
of his big watch, and helped him eat the johnnycako
which he insisted her mother should bake in the ashes.
The flaxen-haired, blue-eyed damsel was danced up and
down by the light of the big fire —

'• Send them back to Yankeoland
To hoL'ii.g of their corn,
And wo will oat a johnnycake
While it is good and warm,"

is the song associated with the man of whom his best
biographer records there was no such thing as self-abandon-
ment, never giving himself to frolicsomeness or fun. It is
almost a relief to find him in this out-of-the-way corner
of the wilderness in such homely and off-guard actions.
"What do you think this little one wants — she wants my
money-bags," and up she was on his knee again to examine
the leather money-belt where he kept his guineas.

" He once came to us for flour and lost his way after he
left, got into a brush-heap where he had to remain all
night, and was so tormented by mosquitoes that in a
frenzy, to protect himself, he emptied the flour and drew
the sack over his head. Ho presented himself at the
breakfast table next morning — and my father said he
never saw such a show as the man was when he reached
the house," — "covered, if not with glory, yet with meal."

Another visitor, of very different calibre, was the

DEBORAHS OF '37.

315

famous Ti^'er Dunlop, who would ride the suucy child
uj)on his nmssivo shoulder — which, she said, ought to have
a saddle. He pronounced his a<liniration of egg nog as
made under her father's supervision, *' Ah, your coo gives
good milk ! " There was the usual greed in this neigh-
bourhood for the licjuid which made the egg-nog so uncom-
monly good, and the expedients to get the desired article
were sometimes ingenious. One toper, impecunious and
resourceful, provided himself with a keg partitioned down
the centre, each side seemingly tight ; one contained water
only. He would arrive at the general store with the water
side half-full, get the whiskey side filled, and then say pay-
ment would Ik) made on his next visit. If prompt pay-
ment were demanded he would wax indignant ; " Well, if
you won't trust me, take your old whiskey." Out would
come the water cork and the water would gurgle into the
whiskey barrel ; the owner, showing outraged virtue, would
then march home with the whiskey side comfortably full.

As to the oft-repeated slander that Methodist preachers
were the root of disaffection, scattering the seed of gospel
and rebellion together, these ultra-loyal ladies are dubious.
One says, "It is seldom you find one of them a real
staunch Tory and a good man " — a remark, by the way,
which admits of two meanings. Three loyal dames, one
of them a foreigner, once upon a time attended a revival ;
no doubt the three minds were prejudiced as to the politics
of the preacher. The latter finally came down the aisle,
addressing his questions right and left : " And now, my
good woman,' to the foreigner, " wha,t has the Lord done
for you ? " " By Job alive," said the lady, " I do not tell
my family affairs to everybody ! "

It is hard, even yet, to convince these dames of fixed
feeling that good could come out of certain quarters.

l!'l»l

316

HUMOURS OF 'S7.

"They call thoni lleformerH, — hut what were they else?
He " (a person above general suspicion) " may not have
carried two heads in oiu^ hat, but he was not the true
thimj."

"I would rather be killed by a good Tory bullet than l)e
singed by rebel gunpowder," said this fire-eating slip of
a girl to a crying friend. " What are you crying for —
b(!cause you have no more brothers to send ? " "No, I'm
afraid they'll be brought back dead." "/don't care, pro-
vided mine are not shot in tlu! back."

Of the said brothers, one was in a troop of cavalry and
another met his death, as many did, through the sudden
change from home comforts to campaigning. " Getting up
out of a down bed and sleeping under waggons or on frozen
ground with a carpet-bag for a pillow was a great change,
and he died before he could be got home,"

But another brother seems to have kept his health and
spirits in a marked degree. The absences of the husband
and father were now as long and trying as they had
been in 1812, and the mother, whose name was the good
old-fashioned Betsy, gave voluble tokens of her grief. This
boy imitated his father's handwriting and wrote a long and
sympathetic letter, ending, " Do the best you can, Betsy,
I don't expect to be back till spring." She threw down
the letter, — " If you don't come back till then, you need
not come home at all." The boys were delighted, but the
mother discovered the forgery, and the scribe suffered
severely. It was a custom with the father to give his
daughter a birthday present of a roast of beef, every
added year marked by an added pound of meat. In those
days spinsterhood was not as fashionable a state of life as
nowadays, and the father waxed annoyed : " Now, my
dear," he said, when the roast tipped considerably more

DEIiORAHS OF './7.

317

than twenty pounds, ** if y<ui aro not ^ono off within the
year I shall have to drive in the wliole Inuist."

Arnold somewhere says that according as the New or
Old Testament takes hold of a nation, s(» do what he terms
the relij^'ious humours in it differ. Tt would he hard to
detcrnune from the data procurable just what the influence
in this case was. Home had anxious thoughts as to how
things had "sped" and the division of sj)oil which old and
new dispensations always allow as lawful. One old lady
sent off her son with a blessing to join his corps, but called
him back again to give him a large shawl. " Now, Willie,
take this with you, and when you get to Toronto be sure
to get it filled with the Iw.'st Young Hyson tea. Don't
forget now, antl bring the ])est. By the time you get
there you'll find plenty of it for the taking."

An old farmer ascribed the degeneracy of the times not
to influences broad as Arnold's, but to the "flattery"
understood in the difference of manner toward farmers'
" Wh(.'n 'twere dame and porridge, it were rale

wives.

good times ; when 'twere mistress and broth, 'twere worser
a great deal ; but when it comes to be ma'am and soup, it be
werry bad indeed," and no wonder the country went to the
dogs. He preferred the days when U. E. Loyalist ladies
speared salmon with pitchforks. If dress had aught to do
with it, the change there was great indeed. In the early
days to which he alluded many a U. E. Loyalist l)elle had*
only one garment to her name, a deerskin slip, and men's
buckskin trousers sometimes brought a dollar and a half
after twelve years' wear ; by '37 the following is a descrip-
tion of an evening dress, thought worthy to be sent to
Canada— "Gros royale black ground with flowing pattern,
wide flounces and short tight sleeves, long gloves of feau
roade^ English lace cap with pompous (?) roses, English

^^m^m

318

HUMOURS OF '37.

lace handkerchief, black satin shoes, and one bracelet."
During the good old days so l)emoaned by the farmer, one
U. E. Loyalist girl unfortunately made a neighbourly visit
where she saw the mysteries of the laundry for the first
time. The lesson sank deep in her mind, and at the first
opportunity after her return home, when the rest of the
family had left her in undisturbed possession of the house,
she made her maiden attempt as blanchiseuse on her own
deerskin garment. But as this adaptation from Godiva
laboured, the garment grew less and less. Any woman
who has attempted to wash a glove wrung into a wisp can
appreciate her horror. There was no Peeping Tom, but
the sounds of the returning family precipitated her into
the generous shadow of the i)otato-hole, whence she inter-
viewed them — if, indeed, the attenuated bit of chamois
was not the more eloquent of the two. I'll find a thousand
shifts to get away, has been written ; alas, she could find
not one. She was packed in a barrel and conveyed upon
an ox-sled to a neighbour's where clothes were more
common, and the distressed and shiftless maiden could
truly have said she was in her right mind when again
clothed. The last of the English and the first of the
Canadians were in some points uncommonly alike.

" In our house in my childhood everything was dated
by 1812 — things had importance only as they were affected
by that year and whether they were ' before ' or ' after '.
My father was through the whole of '12 and was with
Brock at the taking of Detroit ; Brock gave him a horse
and all trappings for it and himself, and I very well
remember the bearskin holsters and the pistols — enormous
pistols that we often shot off when we were little.

" General Hull came through our district when he was

DEBORAHS OF '37.

319

was

on his way to Detroit, and every house was searched for
arms of any kind or :^'escription that could be made use of
by the Americans. My father was away from home with
our own troops, .md my mother received the American
officer who came to search our house. He staid an uncon-
scionable time, and mentioned that my father was fighting
his own best friends, the friends who came to offer us
liberty. * Liljerty,' said my mother ; * lil)erty indeed — we
want no more than we have ; we are happy and have good
laws, but your country is one of lawlessness.' My little
brother, who was very small and who thought that when
Yankees were spoken of wild Ijeast and fairy-book crea-
tures were meant, quietly sidled up to the officer and felt
his legs. " Why, mother, mother ! The Yankees wear
trousers just like papa ! '

"All children had nightmarish notions about the
Americans, but they rather enjoyed it all ; saw the excite-
ment and fuss, revelled in the occasional strange circum-
stances, and knew none of the dangers. Once there was
a great scare about the Indians, they were coming to kill
us and burn our goods, and many precautions were taken.
A big hole was made in the ground in the woods and all
our valuables were put in it, and to the same woods we
children were taken to be left hidden there ; we had some
chairs and a few comforts, and we thought it great fun — a
little disappointed when during the night it was decided
there was no more cause for alarm, and we were taken
home again.

"A Mrs. Perry, to whom I went to school, had two
sons away fighting. One day some Indians arrived, several
of them wearing extra long scalp-belts, and one had in his
belt a scalp with long yellow hair. Mrs. Perry said she
knew that was her son's hair ; and anyway the son was
never heard of again, as far as I know.
21

320

HUMOURS OF 'S7.

" On the occasion that the officer came to search for
arms his troop evidently thought he was staying a good
while, for sometimes they would try to approach the house
a little nearer, when he would go to the door and wave
them back. On their tour through the country they
burned every grist-mill, so that the people would be
starved out, and then of course we had to pound our grain
as best we could. My uncle had a grist-mill and a saw-
mill. He also had a daughter of sixteen, a lovely girl.
When they had demolished the grist-mill they turned
their attention to the other, but the girl was determined
to save it, and as fast Jis a man would set it alight in one
place she would pour water on it, until at last they ad-
mired her courage and bravery so much that the officer in
charge ordered a man to help her destroy everything
which would mean the least danger from fire and that the
saw-mill was to be let alone.

" My father was also all through '37, and when the first
troubles came and our streets were full of shouting
mounted rebels he waited for no orders but got supplies
on his own account, trusting that some day the authorities
would repay him, and his regiment was equipped and sent
off without delay ; he was colonel of the 4th Middlesex.
If I had had anything to do with those times there would
have been no question of making prisoners — shoot the dogs
and be done with it. What business had they coming over
here to stir up peaceable people, first in 1812 and then in
1837. Father saw no real fighting in '37, except that in
connection with the taking of Theller and the Anne, but he
was in Windsor at the time of the Hume tragedy. Hume
was skinned, and they said they were going to make drum-
heads out of the skin. When the brigands left his body
hanging on the posts they went to Prince's place, cut the

IP^IPPIP*<*<II^

DEBORAHS OF '57.

321

trees, destroyed the fences, and frightened Mrs. Prince out
of her senses,

" I saw Sutherland and Theller when they passed through
St. Thomas on their way to Toronto for trial. My father
as Colonel was president of the court-martial, and at that
time he received many threatening letters, scores of them,
saying that if any American lives were taken he and .all
his race would Idc killed. He laughed at this, saying that
they evidently knew very little about a court-martial, for
as president he had really less to say than the youngest
officer in the room.

"At the beginning of the troubles in St. Thomas the
Loyalists one day took refuge in an upper room of a big
building, thinking they were going to be surrounded by
rebels below ; they were surrounded, but I don't remember
that anything hostile was intended. One of those in the
upper room threw an axe out of the window and it fell on
a man's head, splitting his face open, and he was carried
home on a stretcher, covered with a white cloth. I sup-
pose he died afterwards. My husband was away with the
militia, and I was terrified at being left alone with a maid-
servant and a servant boy. One day a lot of them came
in front of the house, and furiously began to pull the
palings of the fence down, one of them shouting, ' A Tory
lives here ; we'll not leave a stick for him to see ! We'll
burn the house, too ! ' A magistrate came along just then
and caught the fellow by the throat, calling him a rebel,
had him arrested, and the rest of them left my premises. I
was afraid they would return to carry out their threat,
and got a man to come and watch all night, but they did
not reappear. A party of the rebels were somewhere
near, and our men wanted to catch t!iem, but we were
poorly supplied with ammunition. I was in a shop and

322

HUMOURS OF '37.

heard the proprietor of it talking to another man, lament-
ing the lack of bullets, so I said, ' Give me the moulds,
and give me all the lead you have, and to-morrow you shall
have all the bullets you can carry.' So they did, and I
and my woman-servant sat up the whole of that night melt-
ing lead and running bullets, and when the men came for
them 'next day there was nothing too much for them to say,
and they went away cheering me. The thing got into the
American papers, which said that even tlie Canadian ladies
were so earnest in the war that they sat up all night run-
ning bullets. When my servant and I were making them
we had two moulds, one cooling wliile we filled the other.
After the bullets were emptied into the cold water of
course they were not smooth, and we each had a knife to
cut off the part adhering ; so there we sat in silence that
whole night, filling and cutting, the silly maid weeping
steadily. She was a young Scotch girl just out, and she
cried all througli the night as she worked. I gave the men
their balls, saying, ' Every bullet should find a billet," but
they did not catch their party of rebels.

" Talbot's likeness to William IV. was specially com-
mented on when someone in the neighbourhood received
an English paper with William's picture in it. Talbot
might have sat for the portrait. His usual dinner was
soup, always soup, a plain joint, usually leg of mutton,
vegetables, pancakes — I never saw anything but pancakes
by way of a course to follow the meats at any of the many
times I was there — and the best port wine that ever was
brought into Canada. He imported it for himself direct
from the manufacturers, and often half of it was abstracted
on the way. He was not the boor he was painted, but it
is certain he could be fascinating. I dined there often,
and he was a perfect host, always choosing after-dinner

DEBORAHS OF '37.

323

iner

topics which he thought would be suited to the interests of
his guests. For instance, one evening he told me much
about his mother and sister, and many of the strange and
interesting things his sister's continental life opened to her.
He also explained tliat same evening how ladies of fashion
hire court drosses made in Paris, great news to us Cana-
dians. From another man I heard that this sister, who
had taken vows of celibacy, Colonel Talbot said, but not
vows to relinquish the world, was a political spy in the pay
of the French Government and the Spanish Government.
The story accounted for her regular six months' residence
in Paris and the same in Madrid ; but she must have been
clever to be able to serve two such governments, the
antagonist this six months of the one she had been spying
for in the previous six.

" Once when I was dining there he talked of his mother
and her life at Malahide Castle, and how she managed the
servants. There were plenty of cows and many servants,
but no butter. She asked why, and was told that the
cows were bewitched, and that the butter would not come.
The lady was equal to the emergency, and said that she
gave them just one week to get the cows unl>ewitched, and
if there was not plenty of the best buttec forthcoming by
.that time the whole troop of servants would be replaced by
others. The butter soon came and was of the liest.

" The mother was Roman Catholic and the father a
Protestant, the family to be divided in the way of the sons
following the father and the daughters the mother. Colonel
Talbot was nothing in particular, but when he was away
visiting he would go to whatever church his hosts went to.
I think it was in Toronto once he wjis at the Ilonian
Catholic, when the priest spoke to him after the service
and said he was glad to see him returning to the true faith.

'i I
•mi

324

HUMOURS OF '37.

" Another time he was at church, somewhere in the
country, with Sir Peregrine Maitland's party, and was
wearing the celebrated sheepskin coat which had for a
hood the head of the beast, to be worn in bad weather, the
wearer's face covered and the eyes looking through the
eyeholes. On this occasion the head was turned over the
back of the collar part, in its usual place in fine weather or
under cover. The text was that in which we were told to
beware of a wolf in sheep's clothing, and as the words were
said Talbot got up, gravely shook himself, turned round so
that the sheep's head was in full view, and equally gravely
sat down again.

* His household furniture could not be called furniture
at aU ; enough wooden chairs to sit on, and a table made of
i ' orrple of planks nailed to 'sawhorses' made the dining-
;{« .:, Hinjipment when I knew him; but when the dinner
was stji \ bd the boards were covered with the finest damask,
a white dinner service, good glass and silver. Geoffrey
was as peculiar as his master, and once I heard Colonel
Talbot ask him a question as he waited at table, and
Geoffrey went to the cupboard, got what he wanted, put it
on the table, went to the kitchen and returned again
before answerin^^ his master's question.

*• His nephew, Julius Airey, was disgusted with the place
and his anomalous position in it, brought there as the heir
and no definite understanding arrived at, and he was
kicking his heels in idleness and uncertainty between
nineteen and twenty-four. In one of his letters home
he drew a picture, a dreadful caricature of the colonel,
which afterwards in some inexplicable manner found its
way back to Talbot and decided him not to make Julius
his heir; it showed the dining-room in its bareness, a
wooden hook on the wall bearing a bridle, and his uncle

DEBORAHS OF '37.

325

)lace
heir
was
^een
lome
mel,
its
ilius
3S, a
[ncle

in a chair by the fire, clioosing the mtmient t« depict him
just after a coal had liopped into his uncle's big gaping
pocket and set it afire. Colonel Talbot was very unfair to
Julius, inasmuch as he kept him there all those years and
never told him that he had bettt^r look for his own way in
the world, as he was not to be the heir after all.

" My husband dined with Colonel Talbot once in every
three weeks, and he never saw a badly served or badly
cooked dinner, and only once did he see salt meat on the
table, and that was put on on purpose. Sheriff Parkins, of
London, famous for his championship of Queen Caroline,
came as he said two thousand miles to visit Talbot, but
Talliot couVl not be bothered with him, hence the salt
meat. At dinner Parkins began to abuse Sir George
Arthur ; * Sir George is a friend of mine,' said Talbot, but
Parkins paid no attention to that — went on. ' Sir George
is a friend of mine,' again said Talbot, and Parkins desisted
for a while, but soon returned to the charge. ' Sir George
is a friend of mine,' said Talbot for the third time, 'and I
will not have him so spoken of at my table.' 'Call it
a table ? ' said Parkins as he lifted the damask. * In
my house, then,' said Talbot. ' Call it a house ? It is
nothing but a dog-kennel, and as for your table, I have
seen nothing but salt junk.' 'Geoffrey,' said Tallx)t, 'this
gentleman is ready to go, bring him his horse,' and Parkins
went off in a rage, such a rage that when he reached the
inn he kicked a panel of his bedroom door through with
one blow from his heavily booted foot. The sheriff had
time to tell one good story, that Caroline was so fond of
Sydney Smith, who also befriended her, that she had a
large portrait of him hung on her walls ; when he next
came to see her, her broken English announced that she
had put him among her 'household dogs.'

326

HUMOURS OF '37.

" Geoifrey was a groat character, but he and his master
understood each other thoroughly. They came together in
a characteristic way. One day when Talbot was visiting
somewhere in the Old Country the host found fault with
the footman for bringing in cold plates ; next day the
plates were so red hot that the host first jumped, then
swore, and then dismissed the man. ' That's the man for
me,' said Colonel Talbot, ' I like him for that hot plate
business,' and he engaged Geoffrey on the spot. Whatever
eccentricity his master chose to perpetrate Geoffrey would
second it, and they made a formidable pair. Talbot hated
the Scotch, and once when he saw someone approach who
turned out to be a friend, he excused his first coldness by
saying, ' Oh, I thought you were one of those abominable
Scotch.' Although Irish himself, he had no trace of any
nationality but English. He was English in speech and
prejudice. How he got on so well with Dunlop was hard
to understand, unless it was on the score of mutual eccen-
tricity. And Dunlop was desperately rude. Once in
Toronto a member of Parliament invited my husband and
me to dine at the members' mess, and it happened that in
that big roomful of men I was the only woman. I sat near
one end, at the right hand of our host, and Dr. Dunlop
was at the extreme end of the table, too far off to speak
to. He began to talk at the top of his voice, so that the
whole long table could hear him, and he stated that he had
been in the Talbot settlement, where there was not such a
thing as a gate ; when you came to a fence you had to
straddle it, and that's what they all did, men and women
alike. Now was not that rude, with me at the table ! If
I had been near him I would have given him some of my
mind, I assure you. And besides, it was a great falsehood."

One story told in extenuation of Talbot's business

DEBORAHS OF W.

327

methcxls is that a local Deborah undertook to overcome the
great colonel of whom everyone else was afraid. He went
to her homestead to adjust some land dispute ; their words
waxed high, until she, unable to dispose of him in any
other way, knocked him down, made shafts of the legs of
this descendant of the Kings of Connauglit, and dragged
him to the roadside while his l)ack performed the part
of a Canadian summer sled. In his own words, this
lady was a true Scotch virago. One day as he sat at
dinner her counterpart entered the dining-room, Geoffrey
as usual serving. She announced that she had come for a
horse, to get provisions from the blockhouse. The latter
had been built in the early days at a point midway between
Port Talbot and Long Point, the two extremes of the
infant settlement, where flour, pork, and other provisions
might be imported by boat and then distributed according
to the Czar's judgment. She was told she might have
Bob, a quiet, strong horse ; but she had set her heart on
Jane, the beast kept for the Colonel's own use and ridden
by none else. Most emphatically she was told she should
not have Jane. She seized the carving-fork and threat-
ened " to run it through him ;" so, in his own words as he
told the story to a friend, " I had to holloa to Geoffrey to
give the Scotch devil the mare."

To protect himself as much as possible from intrusion-
he had a window adjusted on the primeval post-office sys-
tem, the pane arranged so that it would open and shut from
within. During the audiences Geoffrey stood behind him
to hand down the maps, and the intending purchaser was
left on the path outside. The inevitable query was,
" Well, what do you want ? " The trembling applicant
made an answer, the land was given or refused as the case
might be, and to speed the parting guest the equally

328

HUMOURS OF '37.

inevitable concluding remark, " Geoffrey, turn on the
dogs," followed. It was destined that his third downfall
should be accomplished by a Highlander. The latter had
several glasses of brandy at the inn near by, and when the
landlord demurred at giving more, " You must let me have
it," said the other, " for I am going to see that old Irish
devil. Colonel Talbot, who took my land from me, and if he
will not give it back I'll give him the soundest thrashing
a man ever got, for I will smash every bone in his body."
He was given the desired extra glass, and somewhat ex-
hilarated reached the historic pane, through which justice,
land, curses and kindness were dispensed according to the
humour of the hour. An Englishman is always supposed
to be in his best mood after dinner ; with the Colonel time
after that function was sacred, and all business had to be
transacted before it. Up came the truculent Highlander
this day, and out came the usual " Well, and what do you
want ? " The grievance was explained ; he wanted his
land back again. The refusal was prompt, and as prompt
the blow that was aimed in return. That ended the affair
for the day ; but on the next, as the Colonel walked down
his avenue, he saw the Highlander waiting for him.

Shaking his fist at him, he cried, "Clear yourself off, you

Heeland rascal — did you not yesterday threaten to break
every bone in my skin ! " But pupil of the Duke of York,
comrade of Arthur Wellesley as he was, the Colonel thought
it wise to seek the seclusion of his own room. A week from
that time his closest friend smilingly said, " Our friend the
Port Talbot Chief has at last met his match in the person
of this Scotchman." The ladies were not counted. Instead
of taking himself off as commanded, the Highlander had
gone into the kitchen and sat himself down with the
Colonel's men at dinner. He did the same at supper, and

DEBORAHS OF \i7.

329

following the men to their long l)e(Jrooni, junii)e<l into btni.
The next morning he was the first at bretikfiiHt, the same
at dinner and supper. This went on for two days.
Geoffrey complained, the Highlander was ordered to the
window, and the Colonel demanded what he meant by
such behaviour. " I mean to live and die with you, you
old devil, if you do not give me back my land." He was
in return commanded to take his land, and conmiended to
a climate less arctic than the one of their mutual choice.
" Never let me see your face again " was the final adjura-
tion from the window. Two Amazons and a Highlander
had conquered the Lion of Port Tallx>t.

It is certain that one of the Deborahs of '37 was Anna
Jameson the Ennuy^e, for if her husband was not quite
like the cypher Lapidoth her memory somewhat over-
shadows his. If we accept her opinions of Toronto as
qualified by the unfortunate circumstances and mishaps
attending her arrival, we still have no wish to alter her
descriptions and impressions elsewhere in Canada. Hhe
was one of the many distinguished visitors to Port Talbot,
and she has left us her view of its master and by inference
his view of her. But those who knew him better contend
that he did not like or admire her. In the first place she
committed the unpardonable sin of borrowing money,
which was not replaced. During her visit he was not
too polite to her, and he did not hesitate to express his
opinion after she had gone.

Of course, a dozen love stories clung round the Colonel's
early days ; there were speculations as to what could have
induced such a self-burial, but they were all of the hear-
say order. One was that he was jilted at the altar, set
sail, and we know the rest. Another, that in the sylvan
court of George III. the young princesses, aides, equerries

330

HUMOURS OF '37.

and courtierH inadu hay together, and, in spite of the Royal
Marriage Act, also fell in love. One of the princesses —
the name does not transpire — it was said cared for the
dapper little lieutenant. Among the never-ending romances,
heartbreaks and silent partings which ha the walls of
royal palaces and the pathways of royal pai n.s, may be the
love story which resulted in the determination — " Here,
General Simcoe, will I rest and will soon make the forest
tremble under the wings of the flock which I shall invite
by my warblings around me."

However, " I never saw but one woman I ever really
cared anything about," was his own admission, '* and she
wouldn't have me ; and, to use an old joke, those who
would have me, tlie devil wouldn't have them." The one
lady was no princess, but owned to the name of Johnstone.
Wiiatever his ideal had been, Mrs. Jame." \ wandering
about the country without a maid and in a ^er-waggon,
as he called it, was not to his taste. She on ner part was
very proud of her contrivances, and unstrapped her mat-
tress to show him how comfortable slie could l)e at all
times when beds were not forthcoming ; but he gruffly
turned his back and muttered something he would not say
aloud.

Mrs. Jameson's observations on Canadian society, as it
was then, are by no means bad, and it is easy to believe
them ; but when she allows such distaste or her own painful
position to overshadow her cheerfulness and express nothing
but regret at seeing Niagara — she would have preferred it
a Yarrow unvisited — she need not be taken altogether at
her own valuation as a prophetess. We can sympathise
with her " By the end of the year I hope, by God's mercy,
to be in England," but no further. But, generally speak-
ing, she must have been a fascinating woman ; plain at first

DEBORAHS OF 'S7.

331

it
iieve
inful
ling
jdit
[r at
Ihise
key,
jak-
irst

sight, her mind, manners and accomplish men ts obliterated
the impression, and the charm was heightened hy beautiful
hands, a sweet voice, and fair hair of a reddish tinge. The
voice she used with great effect in singing, but the hair she
allowed to be seen in curl papers when she receivefl her
callers in the new Canadian London in the year '37, when
en route from the Colonel's to the omega of her " wild
journey," Mackinaw.

Perhaps at no one spf)t in Canada could there l)e found
a larger gathering of Deborahs than at what was called
the Talbot anniversary, a yearly fete instituted by John
Rolph in honour of the day when his friend, the Honour-
able Thomas Talbot, landed his canoe for g(X)d at the
scene of his future life. On each 2l8t May the back-
woodsman left lu.s toil, the spinning wheels were silent,
and arm-in-arm tlie settlers, men and wives, came in to
enjoy themselves and see the faces which, as a rule, they
had no ot''»^r chan»^e to see. The first fete was held at
Yarmouth ifeights, in the grounds and under the super-
intendence of Captain Rappelje. The tables were laid in
a bower of cedar and other sweet woods, and the hepatica,
anemone and violet were the decorations. The two hundred
people who sat down to dinner had come long distances,
some from Long Point and Londcm. The board groaned
under venison, wild turkey and many toothsome edibles,
and when these were disposed of ** The King," " The day
and all who honour it," called forth shouts from lungs
strong as the arms that raised the glasses high. Then the
storm subsided, and the Colonel, still fair but " short, stout,
and showing his hardships and years, rose and made a
speech, short, neat and explicit, ending with * And may
God bless you all.' " The upper story of the Rappelje house
was in one large room, and here the ball was held when

332

HUMOURS OF '37.

m,:;^

the pleasures of the dinner were concluded. Above the
musicians' seat was a large transparency, "Talbot Anni-
versary," a tree with an axe laid at the root as an emblem.
The *' squirrel " was the- Colonel's favourite figure in the
dance, and this night he "led off" Macdonell's Reel with
the mother of the fair-haired miss who had spoken up so
boldly as to his woman-hating. He certainly now made
good his rejoinder that he liked a pretty girl as well as
anybody, for in the succeeding dances he managed to
secure, not only the prettiest girls there, but the prettiest
in the settlement. The room was of course lighted with
tallow candles, but it needed no modern power of elec-
tricity to show the delight of the assembled youth in their
version of the Spanish fandango.

In 1830 the anniversary was held in the St. Thomas
Hotel, when " the prettiest girl in the district" led off with
the Colonel. She was dressed " in a sky-blue poplin stripe"
— a blue satin and a white stripe alternating — " embossed,
trimmed with white satin and white blonde," white flowers
and white gloves ; her shoes she made hersei**, -"^l^^f.insr
Hyndman, the bootmaker, to add fine dancing soles to
them. Any one to whom the Colonel paid his rare atten-
tions at once became an object of interest and perhaps
envy. His complexion won for him several inelegant
comparisons, and the pretty girl was twitted about " that
old turkey-cock," and "folks said she would not leave till
his health was drunk for the last time." In the succeeding
years, as '37 troubles loomed and burnt d and settled into
quiet again, the character of this entej'tainment changed.
The regiment stationed in londcm and St. Thomas con- ,
tributed to the gathering, and the red-coats only too
successfully did by the home-spun as they had done pre-
viously by the " black c*ted laity." They even supplanted

DEBORAHS OF '37.

333

the original toast with " Here's to red wine, red coats, red
face and right royal memories." The red face of the Colonel
was the only relic of former times left. The peasant and
lord of the manor element in the feast changed ; the very
celebration of it was removed from St. Thomas to London,
where it soon died a natural death, the old zest gone, the
raison d'etre of its being destroyed.

For warlike times, these western Deborahs had an easy
billet. Farther east and on the Niagara frontier the
women knew more of what war rejilly meant. There were
short periods of anxiety, as in Gait, when the order came
to muster, and great was the consternation among the
wives. They met in congregation, all crying over the
husbands they might see no more. But the husbands were
returned to them that same night, whole and sound, and
the rejoicing was proportionate. One company told off to
make arrests at different points came across an Atalanta,
who this time used her powers to save a husband. In the
house of one of the suspects an assemblage was found
talking over rebellion matters with great zest and with no
marked admiration of the loyalist side of it. A private
was sent to the oarn where it was hoped the host might be
found, and another was directed to hold this said wife while
others should go over the fields to arrest her husVmnd, who
would be unprepared for them. She dodged the volunteer
and took to flight, the man in pursuit, down the path-
way, over scrub, through fields, through bush, through
briar, over park, over pale— and the advantage lay in the
fences. She, with skilful management of dress, vaulted
the accustomed " snake " like a bird ; he came to grief in
a mixture of rail, ditchwater and mud. This gave her
such a start that by the time he picked himself up she had

334

HUMOURS OF '37.

" ■ li I! i

reached her goal, and man and wife were so safely hidden
that no sign of them could be seen. Of all the party then
taken only one suffered. He was sentenced to be hanged,
but that sentence was commuted to penal servitude, under
which he died.

The isolated farm-houses in the eastern part of Upper
Canada and in Lower Canada suffered severely from the
wanton attacks of rebels and sympathisers ; and as for the
terrors, the woes, the tears of the Lower Canadian women
and children at the hands of the military, what pen can
tell, what tongue describe them. On the island of Tanti a
band of Bill Johnston's marauders attacked the lonely
farm occupied by a family named Preston. The mother, of
truly heroic mould, regardless of numbers and the sentinels
at her doors, contrived to get abroad to alarm her few
neighbours. All her worldly goods, money, provisions,
arms, were taken, one son died of his wounds, and the
husband barely escaped with his life. What could such
islanders do 1 Hickory Island had as its tenant one lone
widow.

On a night early in Novemljer, '38, a rising took place
in Lower Canada at Beauharnois and La Tortu. La Tortu
was a small village near Lti Prairie ; the chief sufferers
were two farmers, Vitry and Walker. The outlying
situations of the farms gave the marauders ample chance
to have their own way, and one " voluntary " contribution
to the patriot cause, at Pointe a, la Mule, was made at the
instance of a party of masked men who emptied the farmer's
savings-box, and comforted him by saying that he had
helped on the Cause. Vitry and Walker were murdered.
The wife of the latter arrived with her child in Montreal
on the following Sunday, the day of the great illumination
and the issue of Sir John's proclamation, in which he

DEBORAHS OF '37.

335

)lace
"ortu
;rers

lance

ition

the

ler's

had

fred.

breal

Ition

announced his intention to destroy every town where rebels
were gathered or where they might be ttiking shelter. The
proclamation added that he would deal with cases of con-
spiracy or rebellion according to martial law, " either by
death or otherwise, as to me shall seem right and expedient."
Like the dreaded Duke of Burgundy, the motto " I have
undertaken it" might be seen in his eyes. Even the
peaceable Lord Durham had just said, deprecating a
renewal of the rebellion, that to those who should succeed
in producing lamentable results like to the scenes of '37
would the responsibility belong. The sight of Mrs. Walker,
literally covered with her husband's blood, and her descrip-
tion of what was evidently her heroic resistance, did not
tend to allay the excitement.

Montreal had now a strong picket guard surrounding it,
two thousand men besides the militia were under arms,
and the times, instead of having a depressing effect, tended
to exhilaration as well as illumination. Agreeably to
orders, the inhabitants placed two lights in every window
to assist the troops in case of attack. It is hard to credit
that the soldiery then in Canada was close upon the num-
ber of the pith of the allied forces at Waterloo.

The rising at Beauharnois has an added interest
through the seigneur, Mr. Ellice, Lord Durham's brother-
in-law, who reigned after the manner of Talbot and Dun-
lop, but not in such dictatorial fashion. He was a man in
affluent circumstances, and while in Canada as one of Lord
Durham's suite had begun new roads, built bridges and
made other improvements on his estate, using therefor
several years' back rents and the benefits which would be
accruing for j^ears to come. With his wife and son he
arrived to receive the affectionate homage of his depend-
ants, with whom he imagined an intercourse full of
22

336

HUMOURS OF

confidence was established. The family had been received
with the customary respect, and were naturally surprised
when, at dead of night, they recognized in the mob a good
many of their tenants. A volley was poured in, the house
invaded, one lady wounded, and the rest of the party
carried oif to be shut up with thirty prisoners from the
Uenry Brougham. From tlie tale recently told by an old
rebel, himself but half willing, it appears that many of
these tenants were brutally coerced into rising by the
patriot body. Ellice's house had been despoiled of four-
teen guns and other arms, and eleven barrels of cartridges,
but not before one servant at least had made a spirited
resistance ; he succeeded in tying up some of the rebels,
for which he was treated severely later on.

The Brougham had been burnt at the wharf, and the
passengers captured ; but the despatches, the things on
board most coveted, escaped. A lady passenger proved
equal to the question as to where they and a large sum in
bank bills which the captain had contrived to keep posses-
sion of but could not hide, should be concealed. " Honi
8oit qui mal y pense " — she rolled them into a bundle and
converted herself into a Bustle-Queen-at-Arms.

That the whole party was not killed was probably owing
to the dispersion of the main body of rebels at Napierville,
another point of simultaneous attack. The household of
a large landowner named Brown, who in himself and his
circumstances was much like Ellice, was treated in the
same way. Some of the Ellice servants escaped, fled to
Montreal, and there told a tale of how the family was con-
fined in a cellar, with other particulars not calculated to
allay popular alarm. Ellice, Brown, and some others were
now separated from the rest and taken to Chateauguay,
where they were put in a room from which daylight was

DEBORAHS OF 'n?.

337

carefully excluded, but which was afterwards lighted by
candles. In it they were well treated by the curt^, M.
Quintal, and nuns, who sent them such comforts from their
laitlers and cellars as compel disbelief in a double Lent.
The prisoners could also send to the village for whatever
they wished tcTSifyT^tVut tliey were not allowe<l to send any
letters unread by the rebels. Presently they were packed
into carts to be conveyed to Napierville, no doubt with
many memories of Jock Weir to discompose them ; but by
the time the seigniory of St. George was reached their
€;scort heaid that the patriots had not only evacuated
Napierville, but in their haste had thrown .away their
arms and were now pursued by cavalry. The escort fled
and the prisoners continued <m their way, even advised by
passing rebel habitants as to the best means to extricate
themselves, and eventually reached Montreal, where their
plight created a fresh sensation. But they retained warm
memories of the cure's kindness, and later presented him
with a piece of plate with thanks for his hospitality.

Meantime .an old Deborah, in the guise of a scjuaw, who
hunted a lost cow in the woods at Caughnawaga, came into
the church where the Indians were at their prayers with
the alarming news that the woods were full of rebels and
that a party was then surrounding the church. The V)nives
turned out, and the chief's flexible glottis turned from the
plaintive melody of Indian hymns to a warwhoop, an ex-
ample which was promptly followed by the rest. The
nearest rebel was seized and disarmed, a panic took the
patriot band, sixty-four were made prisoners, and they were
taken into Montre.al that same Sunday of great excitements.
The lack of a cowliell, warwhoops and daring, hafl paralyzed
a fair-sized, fairly armed force. The Indian appears no
more, but one hopes he got what all Indians so dearly
prize, a medal.

338

HUMOURS OF '37.

After this, fires were seen to break out almost simul-
taneously fi'om the houses of the absent rebels, and soon
Mr. Ellice's flourishing little settlement was in ashes.
For nights the atmosphere of Chateauguay district was
red with reflected light from the " vast sheet of livid
flame." Portraits of Washington, Jefferson, and other
republican heroes, were found in Dr. Cdte's house, and it is
said they were committed by Sir John's orders to a specially
hot corner, with the customary " so perish all traitors."
The regulars, who liad arrived to avenge the Beauharnois
and other disturbances, came in the John Bull — an ominous
name for the peace of poor Jean. This part of the expedi-
ticm was under command of Sir James McDonell, a very
different person from the next McDonell quoted. But
after they had watclied the lights on the enemy's fast-
deserted outposts die, they made a grand haul of curious
literature, patriot documents describing a plan of Canada's
future government, with the names of ministers and heads
of all departments told off- — m.any details interesting to
those who, doubtless, under the new regime would decorate
gallows and occupy cells.

Colonel Angus McDonell of the Glengarries writes
distressedly from Beauharnois : " We proceeded towards
Beauharnois by a forced march, burning and laying
waste the country as we went along, and it was a
most distressing and heart-rending scene to see this fine
settlement so completely destroyed, the houses burned and
laid in ashes, and I understand the whole country to St.
Charles experienced the same fate. The wailing and
lamentation of the women and children on beholding their
homes in flames and their property destroyed, their hus-
bands, fathers, sons and relations, dragged along prisoners —
women perishing in the snow, and children frozen stiff by

DEBORAHS OF

\17.

339

Irites
iards

ing
IS a

fine
land

St.
land

leii

lus-
ts—
by

their side or scattered in black spots upon the snow — half-
grown children running frantic in the woikIs, frightened at
the sight of friend or foe — and such of the habitants as did
not appear, their houses were consigned to the flames, as
they were supposed to l)e rebels." One of the last had gone
the day Ijefore to Montreal on business, and returned to
find the alx)ve condition of things, his home in ashes, his
wife and child missing. Passion and griv^f overcame fear ;
in a frenzy he rushed to an officer — "Ah, you burn my
house, kill my wife — my dear wife — my .'ittle child — me
always good subject — no rebel— «acre British— where ma
fertime — where mnn enfant — oh, Jemi Marie — " and dropped
senseless. He was sent to Montreal, where in a few dtays
he died in prison, still calling on wife and child. When
the former, who had taken refuge with a relative, heard
he was a prisoner, she went on foot to Montreal, her
child in her arms ; she reached the prison the night before
his death, but was refused admittance, and a few days'
further agony ended her troubles also.

It is popularly supposed that the humble habitant wife
was the one who suffered most ; but degree did not save a
woman from gross insult and spoliation, nor was the
gentlewoman lacking in ingenuity. On the morning of the
battle of St. Denis brave Madame Page of that place made
her husband a novel armour, a cuirass of a (juire of i)aper.
It saved his life, for in the melee a l)all otherwise intended
for his destruction got no farther than the fourth fold.
Mesdames Dumouchel, Lemaire, Girouard and Masson were
not exempt when the loyal, the volunteer and the regular
arrived at their doors. The regulars forbade the habitants
to succour any in distress, and when these women were left
almost nude outside their desolated homes they showed won-
derful nerve in surviving the vengeance of ce vieux brulot

340

HUMOURS OF '.?

and his followers. But Mdlles. Lemaire and Masson could
not sustain the shock to mind and body, and one young two-
days' mother died from fright. Madame Mongrain barely
escaped with life and children, and her handsome home
was quickly a wreck under the hands of "ces sauvages,"
who gambolled and skipped in the light of its blaze, to the
playing of thfeir own trumpets and uttering "les cries
feroces." Madame Masson, when adjuring her son. Dr.
Hyacinth Masson, on the eve of his exile to Bermuda, to
be brave in the future as in the past, delivered herself of
Spartan sentiments worthy of any historic setting, con-
cluding her address, " Sois courageux jusqu' a la fin. Je
suis fi^re de toi. Je me consolerai dans ton absence en
pensant que Dieu m' a donn^ des enfants aussi bon patriotes
et dif/nes de moi." No wonder men were staunch when
their mothers exerted an influence which after the lapse of
sixty odd years draws forth from a former Son of Lil)erty-
Chasseur : ** I was vigorous and strong in those days, and
from my mother inherited an ardent love for the country
in which I was born. Her letters so magnetized me with
patriotism that I could willingly lay down my life for the
cause."

Sir John was no novice in dealing with the French
after his governorship in the island of Guernsey. He
made us a link between old and new by bestowing the
name of Sarnia on the St. Clair border, a name written of
as the old classical one of that moiety of England's sole
relic of the Dukedom of Normandy. There the language
of debate and of the Legislature was French, and the
patois of the islander as perverted a language as the
Canadian's.

At the present day there are probably not many Glen-
garries left to tell the tale of their share in that terrible

DEBORAHS OF ';^7.

341

m-
lle

week. One, an Englishman moreover, who Ixicanie a
Highlander through stress of circumstances, rememl)ers
very distinctly the work which he confesses he did faith-
fully but with many heartbreaks for the women and
children. It is unnecessary to say that he is devoted still
to the memory of Sir John Colborne. " We were at the
Prescott windmill, but had only been at work there one
day and one night when we were ordered to Beauharnois,
five hundred of us. Sir John was there before us. There
was a mistake in the time of • the arrival of the troops he
expected — trouble about a boat and difficulties with the
current. We walked all the way to Beauharnois, and
hadn't bite or sup except half a snack at Cornwall, and
the men were all worn out with excitement and work at
Prescott. Sir John, on a little black pony, met us just by
a small bay at the Cedar Rapids. * Now, boys,' says he,
' I'll ride my pony on before you — where I go you can.
Come on ! ' So we broke step and spread, for fear of the
ice breaking, and followed him in safety. When he saw
us five hundred, and thinking of his disappointment about
the regulars, he says, * We can face 'em with that!' Some
of those nearest him objected that the Glengarries had no
band, and a band would be indispensable in a fight. So
a big strapping Highlander steps up and says, ' We'll
make a band of our own.' ' Never mind a band,' says Sir
John. * But I'm a piper, and there are a lot more of us,
and we can be a band,' says the man. ' All right,' says
Sir John, * but anyway those Glengarries would face any-
thing.' Then they got their pipes together and made their
band, and the big fellow says, ' What'll we play, Governor?'
and Sir John says, ' Play what you like, play what you
like.' So they did play, — ' The Campbells are comin', ha —
hah -ha — AaA, and of course the Frenchmen couldn't
stand thai,. Losh, how the people did run ! "

.342

HUMOURS OF '37.

This informant's tale was something after the fashion of
that told of the piper who f(;ll out of the retreating ranks
at Corunna — where Major Colhorne's advancement had
been included in Sir John Moore's dying wishes — and sat
on a log to rest. A l^ear came on the scene just as the
Highlander was eating the remainder of his rations. He
recognized the bear from its picture, and on the policy of
conciliation' so sobn'to l)ecome national propitiated him with
bite about. The bread disappeared all too soon, and the
Highlander cautiously reached for his pipes. At the first
squeal the bear was astonished, at the full blast he fled.
"Oh, ho," said the piper, "if she'd known you liked music
so well she would haf played pefore dinner."

On the present occasion it was the ordinary Highland
music before dinner, for the Glengarries were empty.

" Sir John now told us to lose no time in attending to
fourteen small cannon that were looking down at us from
the top of the incline where the priest's house stood.
Losh ! if they'd fired their one wooden cannon it would
have smothered the half of us. Yes, a wooden cannon it
was, hooped in iron, and if you'd seen the stuff we took
out of it afterwards at Montreal — for Sir John was bound
to keep it and send it to England — horse-shoes, smoothing
irons, nails, balls, and every kind of rubbish. It was a
twelve-pounder, easily handled, and some of the men drew
it to Montreal. Then we were told to feed ourselves.
And we did. We stole right and left, and there
wasn't a chicken left alive ; it was a turkey here
and a duck there ; hens, anything we could catch ;
fence-rails were piled and a camp-fire made. We covered
the geese and fowls with clay, thrust them into the fire,
and when the clay cracked they were ready, for feathers
and skin came off with it. Some would snatch a wing,

DEHOR A US OF W.

343

rs.

others a leg ; and man, there wjus some could stand a
whole bird, inside and out. But hungry as I was, T
couldn't stomach it. Three others and I went to a little
store near by, where we got some brown bread and some
cheese on the counter ; we found a cupboard in the cellar,
and in it a nice ham, a box of bottled ale turiu>d up, and
we took a bottle apiece. Then we went antl sat behind
the house, and had a good English supper of it ; and it had
to last us till we got to Montreal.

*' * Now, then,' said Sir John, when we were all through,
'set fire and burn it.' And we did. He was still thirsting
to revenge Jock Weir. It was Jock Weir here and Jock
Weir there, but he told us to spare the priest's house —
which we did. We were young, and it was a kind of a frolic
to us ; but oh, those women and children ! I wake in the
night and think I hear them yet. Losh ! I'll never forget
it — a woman with a child under each arm, others tugging
at her skirts. But we did them no harm ; we only burnt
everything up. The Colonel told them they needn't be
afraid ; but what was the good of stopping when their
homes were to be burnt ! They went off to the wo(xis,
and, man ! it was terrible — terrible. We got to Beau-
harnois at two in the morning, and we had it afire by six ;
left at eight, and were in Montreal by noon. Here we had
our barracks in the emigrant sheds. Sir John took a
gi'eat notion to us. ^ Vll drill you, you Glengarry men !'
And he did. We were devoted to him, and obeyed
almost before he spoke — when there was anything to do.
So he drilled us that day for about two hours on the ice,
and you should have seen some of those poor kiltie regulars !
You know, Sir John was a (jool man, but he was a rough
'un, and he wanted everything just as he said. But losh,
man, it was a shame to drill them for two hours on the ice.

344

HUMOURS OF 'S7.

11,

I!'

The poor roguen threatont'd tliey would go home — the 93r(l
they were, afterwards in Toronto. They wore kiltH, but
we had trousers, blue with red strij)e ; we did liave red
coats, too, but it's all true about the way we came home
on horseback, and with plug hats, too, and in fact with
anything we could lay our hands on. There was a great
deal of talk about it, I iK^lieve ; but Sir John made us
return the things afterwards. One big fellow, at Beau-
harnois, saw a beautiful sofa going into the fire, so he
seized it and said he would have it. He heaved it out,
but losh, man, when the orders came to march on to
Montreal he didn't know what to do with it, and had to
chuck it into the river. We were two weeks in Montreal,
and we stood guard at the executions. It was a dreadful
sight to see men hung up in a row, all dropped at once.
Yes, there was a ' movable gallows,' and a very tidy thing
it was. It was put up in an hour, and when the execution
was over, the Colonel said, * Go drill those men ;' when we
came back, in an hour, there was no sign of it left. An
attempt at rescue was feared, and they said Papineau him-
self was there to see — a tall, middling stout man, a regular
Frenchman, and they said it was Papineau. We were well
treated, fed whenever there was anything to eat, and pro-
perly paid at the end. So Sir John came to the barracks
one morning, and says he, 'You Glengarries can go now,
for all the good you are !' And that was just whnt we
wanted."

*' The ghost of a gooae is a

A strange enough phanto t best,

but when it is that of a military goose, and li story records
not whether goose or gander, biography becomes delicate
writing. In '37, not only were men warlike and women

DEHOR A HS OF \rr.

345

rds
ite
ken

Hympathetic, hut the very gooso flow to jirms. "Confoun*
a' quoHtioiiH o' dates," says tlio Nitrtes ; contouii' a' ques-
tions o' sex — the goose of the Coldstream Guards must not
1h3 forgotten ; the black-coated laity thought they possessed
many such. This lineal descendant of the fabulous Roman
bird was born and braught up in the citadel at Queljec,
which may be the reason that it despis<Hl the estate of
oie des uumsons and aspired to that of miser rnJicoUiH upon
a battlefield. One day, in its morning walk on that historic
ground, it left the flock forever, steppe<l up to the sentry,
paced back and forth with him on his beat, gravely ducking
at every arch, and when rain came on and he turned into
the aentry-box goosie got in too, poked out her head, and
kept at attention until the corporal came with the relief.
The ensuing ceremony met with her approbation, as did
the new guard ; she gave one last look at the retreating
figure, and began her walk up and down with the new.
Thereafter, the sentry order always finished, " In case of
fire alarm the guard, avid take care of the tjoose."
'Twould offend against taste in ordinary cases

" To toll how poor goosie was put out of pain
(And the plucking and basting we need not explain) ;"

and how this innovation on Follow-the-Drum in after years
made the voyage home with her regiment and continued
her duties in Portman Street barracks, till a military
funeral finished her course, belongs to the history of Her
Majesty's forces. That she was a goose is proved by record
of her characteristics ; anser canadensis is a clamorous bird,
and armed humans underneath his flight are made aware of
his presence by his noisy gabble — if silent he would never
be discovered. It is said the prudent fair ones of the flock
keep a chucky-stone in the mouth during travel, in order

346

HUMOURS OF '37.

to guard against temptation. Therefore, as the Great Grey
Goose of the West was a gander and gabbler, the silent
sentry, the goose militant of the Coldstream Guards, must
have l)een a goose, and is a Deborah.

When we come to the details of Mackenzie's life, his
attitude towards wife and bairr.s and mother and theirs
towards him would disarm even his political critic. There
is the meeting of the two old schoolmates, Isabel Baxter
and Mackenzie, without recognition, the brief courtship,
and a life of mutual devotion. There is baby Joseph
Hume, whose early death saddened the father's life ; and
there is the pathetic entry in his diary, after his rebellion
had entailed banishment : " My daughter Janet's birthday,
aged thirteen. When I came home in the evening we had
no bread ; took a cup of tea without it, and Helen, to
comfort me, said it was no better on the evening of my
own birthday."

They drank the cup of poverty together, father, mother,
grandmother and children. For twonty-four hours at a
stretch there was no food, fire or light ; and after such a
fast the father would go forth shivering to collect a small
due or meet a friend willing to share a sixpence. The
younger children never ceased to cry for food ; the others
suftered in silence. We read of the servant, one of the true-
hearted Irish, and she is content to starve with the rest.
Despite poverty, the father continued to wear a watch,
once the property of his eldest daughter, whom he sincerely
mourned for twelve years with an almost superstitious
veneration. We find him telling his son to cheer up, not
to despond ; that there are green spots in the desert of
life ; that after darknes. comes light. And even in this
dreadful plight there are moments when the tragic becomes

DEBORAHS OF '37.

347

IS
3S

serio-comic. There is a night when the plaintive sounds
from the darkness about him urge him to make one more
assault upon the cupboard that he knows is empty — no,
not quite empty ; there is a book, and by the embers
of their dying fire he reads the title, "The Dark Ages,"
and he and all indulge in a hearty laugh, and then go sup-
perless — nay, breakfastless and dinnerless — to bed.

The family did not follow him into exile immediately,
.:ut his devoted wife reached Na\y Island a few hours
before the dramatic moment when Drew arrived and the
Caroline became a torch. Like Deborah, she, too, might
have said, " I will surely go with thee, notwithstanding
the journey shall not be for thine honour." The general
belief is that, though loyal to him and a staunch Reformer,
she by no means sympathised in his ultra opinions and
corabustive action. She remained for two weeks in that
dreadful place, made flannel cartridge-bags, slept in a
rough log shanty on a shelf covered with straw, where
the walls were poor protection from wet and cold and
but a thin partition from the unholy clamour of the des-
perate crowd about her, and tried to inspire her husband
and his followers by an example of courage and freedom
from fear. Then ill-health obliged her to leave, and when
accompanying her to the house of a friend in Buffalo
Mackenzie was arrested for breach of the neutrality laws.
Scylla and Charylxlis, the devil and the deep sea, a dilemma
with the orthodox number of horns, l(»se all strength as
similes at this point of the small hero's career.

The devotion of Mackenzie's mother, like that of most
mothers, begins at the date of h^p l)irth. She was her
husband's senior by nineteen years and old for a first
experience of motherhood. The hcsband's death followed
soon after, and then came the vows which her Church

348

HUMOURS OF '37.

prescribed for the orphaned infant's baptism, a struggle
with misfortune, and a determination to keep a roof over
their two heads. Strange to say, both grandparents were
Mackenzies, — one Black Colin, or Colin Dhu — and both
Loyalists who fought for the Stuarts.

In 1801 there was a grievous famine, and one of the
earliest memories of " the bright boy with yellow hair —
wearing a blue short coat with yellow buttons," is that of
his mother taking the chief treasure of her kist, a plaid of
her own clan tartan and spun with her own hands when a
girl, to sell for bread. As he lay in his bed and watched
her take it out — not with tears we may be sure, Mrs.
Mackenzie was no crying woman — did this earnest of
future days of want and care shadow the equally heroic
spirit of the child. The priest-grey coat of his father had
to follow. "Well may I love the poor, greatly may I
esteem the humble and the lowly, for poverty and adversity
were my nurses, and in my youth were want and misery
my familiar friends," he wrote later. Divine worship was
held in that family of two, and it was a daily prayer that
the rightful monarch might be set upon the throne, with
the saving clause — prophetic glimpses of a Family Compact
— that he might have able and wise counsellers, added.

Flesh and blood had revolted at the long tasks of
memorizing Scripture, Westminster Catechism, Psalms and
"Baxter's Call to the Unconverted," set him by his parent.
The leader of men was first a leader of boys, and the rebel
of after years began that career by rebelling against his
mother at the ripe age of ten years, leaving home and
setting up on his own account in the Grampians as a
hermit. An old castle perched somewhere near where the
clouds seemed to touch the crags was to have been the
hermitage, but a most carnal need of bread and butter and

DEBORAHS OF '37.

349

el
is
id
a
le
e

a fear of fairies induced a return. Though longing to be a
hermit, young Willie had no taste for the study of polemics ;
but he would read till midnight, and his mother feared
that "the laddie would read himself out o' his judgment."
The first school to which he went was held in an old
Roman Catholic chapel, where the former Holy Water
basin was made the seat of punishment. This very small
boy was early a good arithmetician and made satisfactory
general progress, but he managed to find time to decorate
the backs of his fellows with caricatures in chalk, and to
pin papers to their coat-tails. One day he went into that
sanctum, the master's closet, put on the fool's cap, tied
himself up with the taws, and with the birch for sceptre
took his seat in the holy cup. There was the usual de-
nouement of discovery, a master boiling with rage, the
taws and birch in active use, and a sorrowful small boy.

The mother was extremely small in stature, brunette,
and with dark brown hair which, when it turned white,
remained as long and abundant as ever ; her eyes were
sharp and piercing, generally quiet in expression but under
excitement flashed ominously. The cheek bones were high,
and the small features unmistakably Celtic, the thin-lipped
mouth telling of an unconquerable will which she Ije-
queathed to her only child. The face under the broad
high forehead was seldom allowed to relax into perfect
placidity, the surface always showing more or less of the
inward volcano ; any repose there was due to religious
feeling. In the son we have but a replica of the mother.
She spoke Gaelic, but seldom used it ; she did not reckon
fairies among abolished myths, and she believed firmly in
the Mackenzie death-warning which was always given by
an invisible messenger. The strongest affection existed
between mother and sou, who lived together for the last
seveuteen year? of the former's life.

350

HUMOURS OF '37.

It was but little to the credit of one of his powerful
enemies that, in an effort to equal the Advocate, jeering
remarks upon Mackenzie's aged mother were made in the
public press. But so it was ; and he was advised to mend
his ways as an editor, if he expected to continue to support
his mother and family. The inference, as his biographer
gives it, is that it was not praiseworthy to support an aged
mother. It drew from the son the boast that if he could
keep his old mother, his wife and his family, and avoid
debt, he cared not for wealth.

Speaking in his paper of the spirit of the " faction "
towards the press, Mackenzie indulged in a prophecy of an
event at which the same aged mother was u pained witness.
In connection with the trials of a Canadian editor of a
different political stripe, he says : " By the implied consent
of King, Lords lyid Commons, he is doomed to speedy
shipwreck, unless a merciful Providence should open his
eyes in time, and his good genius prompt him to hurl press
and types to the bottom of Lake Ontario." Mackenzie
lived quite close to the lake, and his evil wishers must have
taken the hint. Every one knows the story of how
noblesse oblige was construed into the necessity for an
invasion of the printing office, at an hour when no man
would be there ; how the raiders, in age from thirty-four
years downwards, were the flower of that "Canadian
nobility " against which the editor never wearied hurling
his radical sayings ; and how Mrs. Mackenzie, then in her
seventy-eightl year, stood trembling in a corner of the
office — for the building was home as well — while she
witnes8e«l, with fear and indignation, the destruction of
her son's property and the means of her own livelihood. As
if the tale could be improved upon, some romancers, telling
of the rise of Canada from barbarism to civilization, have

DEBORAHS OF 'S7.

351

adorned it with gross maltreatment of the aged la<ly by
these gentlemen who, with her only to stay them, were
naturally sans peur. They should also be without this
one reproach, for they were too intent upon pi-ing type
and throwing the contents of the office into the bay to
trouble about her.

Someone says that a good and true woman is like a
Cremona violin ; age but increases the worth and sweetens
the tone. In the words of Disraeli, this wjman's love
had illumined the dark woof of poverty ; fate had it in
store that that love should "lighten the fetters of the
slave " before she died.

The way in which Canadian rebels were treated in
prison is to the reader of their experiences a continual
reproach to the powers which made them thus suffer.
But the American Bastille, according to the records left
by Mackenzie, out-did the Canadian. A steep staircase,
a ladder and a trap-door fastened by bar and lock, led to si
room wherein were the dangling rope and hideous apparatus
of death ready waiting for the next unfortunate ; beyond the
room was Mackenzie's cell. It was only through this pas-
sage-way that mother, children, wife or friends could reach
him, where they had to run the gauntlet of coarse jests from
brutalized men and the worse than brutal remarks of such
women as were prisoners there. The gaoler in this place
deserved to be immortalized by Dickens. Of low stature,
with an exaggerated hook nose, fleshless and fallen-in
cheeks on which nature had begrudged a sufficient skin
covering; round, sunken, peering eyes, feline from long
watching ; nails filthy, like claws forever in the dirt — such
was the gaoler. " You felt in regarding him that if cast
into the sea he would have more power to pollute it than
it would have to purify him." A fee of thirty-six dollars
88

If "1

S52

HUMOURS OF '57.

for three months procured from him the occasional admit-
tance of friends, although the iron doors were freely
opened to those who wished to see a real live Canadian
rebel. Close confinement and miasma broke Mackenzie 'r
health in a short time ; he could no longer eat the food
which his children carried him — it was feared he
might be poisoned by the gaol fare — his wife was in
delicate health, his mother had reached ninety years, and
his mind was torn with anxiety over the illness of a
beloved daughter. The other prisoners were allowed
occasional days of freedom to visit taverns and roam the
town, but no such liberty came to him. " My dear little
girl grew worse and worse, she was wasted to a skeleton.
. . . I had followed four of her sisters and a brother
to the churchyard, but I might not look upon her. One
fine day she was carried ... to the prison, and her
mother and I watched her for forty-eight hours, but the
gaoler vexed us so that she had to be taken home again,
where she was soon in the utmost danger, and when her
poor little sister comes to tell me how she is at dusk .
. the gaoler will tell her to wait in the public place in
the gaol, perhaps for an hour or more, till supper comes, as
he can't be put to the trouble of opening my cage twice."
Then the poor old mother sickens, and he knows her
time has come. He makes every effort to be allowed to see
her, and when he has given up hope writes her a truly
beautiful letter of farewell. In it he thanks her for all
she hiid done for him, all she has been to him, and that if
the wealth of the world were his he would give it to be
at her side. "But wealth I have none, and of justice
there is but little here." He tells her of his hopes to put,
with his coming liberty, the rest in comfort, but " sorrow
fills my heart when I am told that you will not have your

DEBORAHS OF '37.

353

aged eyes comforted by the sight." The majesty of the
law, for offence against which he was suifering, was in-
voked to get him freedom for the desired interview.
Under the shadow of a writ of Habeas Corpus ad respond-
endum, a court at which he was required to appear as a
witness was held in his house, and accompanied by his
gaoler he was allowed to attend. The magistrate was late
in arriving, conveniently cold when he did come, and pro-
tracted his sitting so that the desired interview between
the dying mother and distressed son might have no inter-
ruption, while the sheriff and gaoler waited in the room
adjoining the bedroom. The mother summoned all her
fortitude, pronounced her last farewell, bade him trust in
God and fear not. She never spoke afterwards, and from
the windows of the gaol the political prisoner, in an agony
which any can understand, with which all can sympathize,
saw her funeral pass.

Mackenzie's consideration towards women did not ex-
tend beyond the members of his own family. But an
alert providence arranged that he should usually be well
met. Some hours after Anderson had been shot, a rel)el
named Pool called at the house of Mr. James Scott
Howard, in Yonge Street, to inquire the whereabouts of
the body. Immediately after he left, the first detachment
of the rebel army, about fifteen or twenty men, drew up
on the lawn in front of the house, wheeled at the word of
command, and went away in search of the dead man.
The next to be seen were three or four Loyalists hurrying
down the road, who said there were five hundred rebels
behind them, and as the morning wore on more men were
seen and the sound of firing was heard. At eleven o'clock,
or thereabouts, another detachment of rebels appeared,
beaded by the afterwards well-known figure stuffed out

354

HUMOURS OF '37.

with extra coats to be bullet-proof, on a small white horse.
To enable the pony to enter the lawn the men wrenched
off fence-boards, after which the stuffed man, Mackenzie,
entered the house without knocking, took possession of the
sitting-room, and ordered dinner for fifty. Mrs. Howard
said she could not comply with such an order. Mackenzie
took advantage of Mr. Howard's absence in town to indulge
in much abuse of the latter, saying it was high time some-
one else held the postmastership. Mrs. Howard at length
referred him to the servant in the kitchen, and Mackenzie
went to see about dinner himself. He and his men appro-
priated a sheep in process of cooking in a large sugar-
kettle, a barrel of beef and a baking of bread. The tool
house was made free use of to sharpen their weapons,
which consisted of chisels and gouges on pole-ends,
hatchets, knives and guns of all descriptions. At two
o'clock the rebels took a disorderly departure, leaving a
young West Highlander on guard. Mrs. Howard said she
was sorry to see so fine a Scotchman turn against his Queen,
to which the reply was, " Country first. Queen next." The
fifty rebels had evidently left on account of the flag of
truce proceedings, and at half-past three they all returned,
headed by Mackenzie. He demanded of Mrs. Howard
"where the dinner was," and her coolness of demeanour
and temper exasperated him. He pulled her from her
chair to the window, shook his whip over her, and told her
to be thankful her house was not in the state in which she
saw Dr. Home's. Lount privately told Mrs. Howard not
to mind Mackenzie, as he was quite beside himself. After
they had eaten the much-ordered dinner, the men had some
barrels of whiskey on the lawn and their behaviour during
the night naturally alarmed the family. The one man-
servant had made his escape, saying he feared being taken

•^ 11*1

DEBORAHS OF '37.

355

prisoner by the rebels. The party remained there until
Wednesday ; the true defence of the place lay in Mrs.
Howard's intrepidity. Her troubles did not end with the
departure of the rabble, for her husband, a true Loyalist
of the best type, suffered much at the hands of either
party. Such grinding between the upper and the nether
millstone as he thereafter experienced is a matter of
history.

she
en,
he
of
|ed,
rd
ur
er
er
he
ot
r
e

g
,n-

Nathaniel Pearson, a Quaker, one of the most refined and
gentle of the gentlest sect, an intelligent farmer and
keenly interested in politics, lived in the Aurora district.
Some of his Quaker principles were sacrificed to those of
Reform, and he rode off to join the insurgents on their way
south. He missed them, and to his Quaker mind there was
but one honourable thing to do, and that was to give him-
self up to the Government. During his absence his wife,
possessed of as many gifts and attractions as her husband,
had to go to Aurora on business, with the result that she
was marched to the guard-house between two Loyalist
soldiers. She appealed for help to a man who was their
neighbour, and who often had been kept in the necessities of
life by the Quaker family ; but he turned a deaf ear, even
when she pleaded on the score of her young baby at home.
Her case reached the ears of a man named King, from Orillia,
who at once interested himself in her behalf. " Do you tell
me you have a young baby at home needing you ? Gad, if
they hq,d taken my wife that way, they wouldn't know that
the devil had ever been born before ! " His interest
resulted in her release, and on reaching home she found
that Quaker principles were to be forfeited once more. The
Loyalists were about, searching for food and arms, and the
faithful maid, Betty, determined they should have neither

356

HUMOURS OF W.

at her employers' expense. The one gun in the house was
hidden in a brush-heap behind tlie barn, and Betty hod
barely straightened her back after doing so when she saw
a Loyalist on the fence, watching her. A party entered
the house, demanding food, and were on their way to the
cellar, where a large stock of freshly-cooked provisions was
stored, when the faithful Betty once more forswore her sect,
declared the cellar empty, and saved her master's property.

When Captain P. De Grasse left his home on that ever
eventful night in December to join the Loyalists in the
city he was accompanied by his two daughters, Charlotte
and Cornelia, who wished to see him to the Iwrders of the
town, so that they could report his safety to their mother.
The way lay through uncleared bush, and the time was late
at night. They fell in with Matthews and his party, who
were on their way to destroy the Don bridge, when
Charlotte with great presence of mind suddenly wheeled
to the left, made her pony stamp noisily through the mud,
and thereby averted Matthew's notice from her father and
her sister. They all succeeded in reaching the city about
one o'clock, an exciting ride for two girls under fifteen
years of age. In spite of the commotion and signs of fear
all about, the girls determined to go back to their mother.
The first half of .the return journey was in bright moon-
light, but the second half contained all the terrors of dark-
ness in a section infested by rebels. They reached their
mother at four in the morning, and that same day returned
to town ¥rith information of the proceedings of the rebels at
the Don. Again, on the Wednesday, they crossed the bush
to seek their father at the turnpike on Yonge Street ; he
was not there, and when Cornelia saw the general terror,
consequent upon the report that the rebels were five

DEBORAHS OF W.

367

le
re

thouMand strong at Montgomery's Tuverii, she resolved to
proceed there alone and tind out the truth. As she passed
the rel)el lines all seemed amazed to see a little girl on a
fiery pony come fearlessly among them, ami she could hear
them inquire of one another who she was. She reached
the wheelwright's by Montgomery's without molestation,
inquired in a casual manner as to the price of a sled of
particular dimensions, promised to give him an answer the
next day, turned her horse's head towards town, when
suddenly several men seized the bridle and said, " You are
our prisoner." They kept her nearly an hour while they
waited for Mackenzie, who when he did come, amidst
general huzzaing, announced " Glorious news ! We have
taken the Western Mail ! " In the booty he had the histori-
cal feminine impedimenta which afterwards disguised him
for escape, so captui-ing little girls was (juite in the order of
things. While the rebels congratulated him and crowded
round the coachman and passengers, the doughty Cornelia
saw her opportunity, whipped up her pony and made her
escape, although fired at several times. After ridding
herself of this pai'ty she was fired at from Watson's and
summoned to surrender. This but strengthened her nerve,
and in time she reached the city, to give a true account of
the robbery of the mail and the numl)er and arms of the
rebels.

Meantime the Loyalists were making use of Charlotte as
a despatch bearer on the Kingston Road. She returned
with the answer and then set out for her home. Near a
corner of the bush she was fired at by a large party of
rebels; both she and her pony were wounded, and the fright-
ened beasc jumped the fence; one of the rebels, not to be
outwitted, ran across the angle of the bush, got in front of
her and fired in her face.

358

HUMOURS OF '.97.

Tlie next day Cornolla, onco inurn bent on seeing her
father, reached the city in time to follow the troops up
Yonge Street on their way to Gallows Hill. This daughter
of the regiment was urged by the Chief-Justice to collect
for him all the particulars of the engagement, which, cool
and undaunted — oblivious of thundering of cannon — she
undertook to do, and did.

Her adventures were not yet over, for on her way home
she discovered that Matthews had by this time set the Don
bridge on fire, and she at »mce returned to the city to give
the alarm. While she was thus occupied another heroine,
sometime cook to Sir Francis Bond Head, was engaged in
putting the fire out, a work which she did not accomplish
before receiving a ))ullet in her knee. As by this time i,ho
bridge was useless, Cornelia left her pony in town and set
out on foot on her homeward way at eleven o'clock at
night through a district filled with disp{»rse<l rebels. The
story does not relate the final reunion of this mutually
devoted family, but it is to be presumed Chai lotte went on
calmly cutting bread and butter and Cornelia continued
worthy of the great name she bore.

One Deborah, who did not pose as such, tells a modest
story of what she saw and omits much of what she did.
"I remember that Monday before Montgomery's. I had
been in town for some days, and on that Monday there
was great excitement — no one knew exactly what about.
At first I thought I would go to the Mackenzies' for safety,
even if it was a long time since I had been there ; but
when I got half-way to the house it struck me that as my
father and brothers had turned against him, since he hod
come back from England and was all for bloodshed, I had
better leave the Mackenzies alone. So I went to a friend

tm > I.

ssaa

DEBORAHS OF W.

359

farther east, and found her half crazy with fright, swinging
her Iwiby above her head, and wiying we would take a boat
and row over to the iMhind, oh the re))«lH wouldn't touch ua
there. But I thought if there w»v8 going to \w trouble I
had lietter be with my own people ; so I started to walk
up Yonge Street towards homo. I met no one, but every
now and then a horseman would rush past, or two or three
armed men would be seen together, and by and by I saw
a few farmers going in to offer their services to the Govern-
ment. At Bloor Street T was tired and went into the Red
Lion parlour to rest ; everything wivs in great confusion,
but nob(xly spoke to me. In a little while I went on ; and
at the toll-gate above the Daven[)ort Ho»ul I saw the rebels
coming over Blueberry Hill opposite. The toll-keeper
swung the gates to and ran off to the wocmIs, and T turned
up Davenport Hood a little way ami watched the rebels ;
they were my friends and neighbours, and it was dreadful
to see them. It is said that when they reached the house
that Mackenzie set fire to it was deserted, but I know that
it looked very ordinary when I passed it, smoke coming
out of the chimney, no sign of disturbance. I was
frightened and went on, but I heard that when Mac-
kenzie set to work to build a fire in the cupbojird of that
house some of his supporters were angry, and said they did
not come out to burn houses but to fight for their rights,
and one, when he saw he was not listened to, threw down
his gun and took himself and his sons off to the States.

" When I got home I found father had gone to offer
himself to the Government, and everyone was busy pre-
paring food and baking bretid. We had once been sup-
porters of Mackenzie, and everybody knew we had turned
against him after he came hajck from England. Some
people were, therefore, very bitter against us, and we

360

HUMOURS OF '37.

thought it wise to fill the house with food, leave the place
open, biirn, grain, everything, so that they could get it all
easily, and take the chance of the house therefore not
being burned down. So we left everything ready for
them, and went to stay at a relative's farther back in the
country.

" There are plenty to say that M^Wie was not shot at
all. Some declared that h(» was alive when taken to the
tavern and that he would not give in, and it ended in his
being trampled to death in the tavern.

" Sheriff Jarvis took the news of the rising coolly.
When father was going down Yonge Street to offer him-
self lie met the sheriff, who said, ' Well, John, what's the
news with you to-day T And when father said, 'There's
great news — Toronto will be taken and burnt, if you don't
stop it,' the sheriff said, ' You don't say so ! ' and only half
believed him.

" For a long time before the rising I did not go very
often to the Mackenzies, for they thought 1 would spy on
them, and father thought I haci better leave them alone
anyway. We had supported Mackenzie strongly, like the
rest of the farmers, before he went t j England, and my
father and his friends took their turn in watching him for
fear the Compact people would spirit him away ; but that
was when he was all for reform and agitating fci our rights.
Whatever it was hapf)ened to him in Englaiiii turned every-
thing into fighting, and father wasn't going to fight against
his country. That Mackenzie was the craziest man you
ever did see. He wore a wig, and when he got excited —
he was always excited, for the matter of that — h<» would
throw it on the floor, or throw it at you if he felt extra
pleasant. You've heard of the time he was brought home
with cheering and torches and great doings, and given the

w^m

DEBORAHS OF 'S7.

361

gold chain ?* A fine chain it was, long and thick, and he
was very pleased and worked up. He saw me standing
by, laughing — for I was excited, too — and ho cried at ine,
'A':, Mary ! ' and quick as lightning threw the chain at nie
and the wig on the floor, and then he flung his arms round
his mother's neck and kissed her.

" Every market day, when husine«" was all done, and
before the farmers went home, there would be a crowd
round him as he talked from the top of a waggon. He
made great speeches, I can te'l you. I liappened to be
there cnce through a friend of his, who was staying in his
house and wanted to hear him, and would not go alone.
We turned down by the church, and waited at the market
corner below King Street, where Mackenzie was standing
in a waggon, talking, and you should have seen how the
people listened. Perhaps you know that the Conipact
had a lot of hangers-on who wou-J do anything they were
told for the soup, clothes, and stuff that was given them,
and we used to call them ' soupets,' like the bits of l)read
you put in soup to sop it 'ip. As Mackenzie was talking,
suddenly the vestr}'^ door .vas thrown open, and out rushed
a crowd of sonnets, caught hold of the ttniguc of Mac-
kenzie's waggon, and ran off with him towards the bay.
He just stfMwl there, waiting, I suppose, till the farmers
got over their surprise. But the soupets nearly had him
ducked in the bay before the farmers came to their senses."

However, there were some whose princii)les were not
changed by Mackenzie's l>loodthirstiness; we have one (Mrs.
Dew, then Miss Betty Duflield) who is still proud to tell
the tale of how she pinru>d «»n the white badges. "I was
stiijing with tlie Leonard Watsons, who lived near M<mt-
gotiiery's tiivern, when the tioubles came to a head, and

Presentation of medal and chain, Januar}' 2, 1882.

362

HUMOURS OF '37.

with my own hands I tied t)n the Irndges of white cotton
worn by some of our fighting men. On that Wednesday
morning I saw Mackenzie ride from the direction of the
tavern just as the sound of music was heard coming from
the city. Mackenzie halted near our house and exclaimed,
* Are these our friends ? ' meaning those whom he expected
from the other districts ; but he was soon convinced that
the music belonged to the loyalist militia coming up Yonge
Street. I am sorry to say that while Mackenzie never
could V>e accused of cowardice in so far as his tongue was
concerned, his fighting <(ualities were not so assured, f(;r I
myself saw him fling off his cloak and gallop away.* Mr.
Leonard Watson found it necessary to try to make his
escape. Mrs. Watson and the daughters went to a neigh-
bour's, carrying some of their valuables with them, as they
were afraid the militia would burn the house down. Peter
Watson eventually reached the United States. But I
stood l)y the house, and when the militia came uj) they
riddled it with bullets ; they ransacked ' verytliing, upset
anything tht^y toucluHl, and broke nearly all the furniture.
But part of this damage was probably dtme by rutHans
who had taken the oj)portunity to follow the militia for
th( sake of plunder. Watson's horses were appropriated,
a tall dark man taking one, and a short red headed man
another. Someone proposed burning the lious*' «lown, and
very likely this would have beeii don*' had T not happened
to notice an oflicer riding up. I accosted him, and he
tuined out to be <me of the Governor's aides. He drew
the attention of his superior, who kindly asked me what I
wanted. I said I wanted pi'otection to the property.
He innnediat«-iy told me to get him paper, which

* This cloak was returntil fio Ma4>kei)/ie anonymouslj' when he was in Monroe
County iirison.

^' ■

DEBORAHS OF '37.

363

I did, and handed to him aH he Hat in his H^iddle. He
wrote, " Do no further injury to tliis house," signed his
name, and told me to show it to anyone offering further
molestation. A few days afterwards I went to Darlington
in behalf of the Watson family, carrying money for Peter
Watson to enable him to reach the States from there. I
had to walk part of the way, and I remember when pass-
ing a large l)lock of wo<k1s a man came out and timidly
inquired if I had seen anyone on the road. He looked the
picture of misery and nearly starved. The w(mk1s were
l)eing scoured on each side of the road by men on horse-
back, and I suppose that poor fellow was captured.

" While those taken were in prison they amused them-
selves by carving various articles in W(kxJ, and I have yet
in my possession a small maple box, beautifully made and
finished, presented to me by Leonard Watson. On the
cover is my name, some verses are on the sides, and on the
Vwttom 'April 12th, 1838, alas for Lount and Matthews.'"

" When Sir John's order came for all the troops to be
sent east, Colonel Foster remonstrated ; but the troops had
to go, and he was left in coiniiiaMd of the sentries, sick
soldiers, women and children at the Fort. I nder these
circumstances the militia came t<» the fr(»nt, did their best,
fired anywhere, and wv were more afraid of them than of
the enemy. We were retiring for the niL,'ht when a loud
noise attracted my attenti>)n, and 1 looked out (»f the
window to see Colonel FitzCiibbon on li(>rseb,u'k half-way
uj) dur steps." Fitzdiibbon omitted no chance to warn ami
thus save life ind property. " He called «>ut, ' The rel)els
are upon us, and this is one «*f the houses maiked for l)urn-
ing,' and clatten;d off' again. My husband and his son
were soon on their way to the Fort. Our hou.sohold woa

3G4

HUMOURS OF '37.

jif

I !

left undisturbed, but I had orders to answer the dcx)r
myself should the rioters come ; the servants were not to
show themselves, and as I was young and fearless then I
rather enjoyed the prospect of exf^itement. In fact, I was
distinctly disappointed that nobody did come. For the
next week my husband took what rest he could get on a
gun-carriage at the Fort, and I was never in bed regularly
myself during that pericxl. He canxi to see us once,
and I r'>call my amusement at watching him hungrily
devour the leg of a goose, an utti'rly absurd sight when
one rememlxirs the style of man he was, and the many
courses of his ordinary dinners. T was thankful v/e even
had that leg to give him, as evi^ry bit of meat we could
get might be seized for the hungry militia.

" 1 do not see why unpleasant remarks sh(>uld have
been made on the score of a boat having been prt)vided
for the safety of tlie Governor's family. Larly Head
seems to be menticmed very little in the history of her
husband's administration, no doubt owing to the quietness
of the life she led. But she was extremely pleasant, and
much liked by those who knew her.

" Mrs. Draper and I and some otliers declined to go on
board lue boat in the bay on which a good many families
were hurried for safety. Another boat had been provided
for some citizens' families, but in the middle of the night
despatches came down from Colonel Foster to be sent by
boat to Sir John Colborne, and immediately everything
was haste and dismay. The people and their boxes were
unceremoniously bundled on the wharf, and all was con-
fusion, while the boat went off on its errand. But those
on the Government boat did not omit to make public the
unpleasant predicament of their guard on Ixxird. The
distinguished duty of protecting so many wives and

•aas

isr

DEBORAHS OF '.?7.

305

familieM of officials wjih given to one gentleman. Homo
one on board was not t(K) frightened to have spirit left to
play a practical joke. The i>oor man's clothes wen; re-
moved after he had gone to bed, and then the alarm was
sounded — you may imagine his discomfort of mind and
body."

Articles of apparel were frequently pressed into active
and public service then and later, and Mrs. Ogle Gowan,
notable as a true Deborah, conspicuously contributed her
sliai-e in connecti«m with the Rebellion Flosses' Bill ; her
enthusiasm had not grown cold ni years. Lord Elgin,
ecpially misunderstood with Durham and Sydenham, made
a futile attempt to land at Brock vi lie ; a black flag, bearing
the inscription in white letters, " Down with Elgin and his
rel)el-paying ministry," was hoistefl <»n tlu; dock, a l)anner
known then and ever since as Mrs. Gowan's petticoat, but
it is likely that it merely earned its name because (Unsigned
and made by her. The huly was unconsciously making a
link in the much-discussed history of the jac<|ues, and
illustrated one meaning of her husband's paper, The
Antidote. It is said the paper had as motto, " The
Antidote is set afloat to cure poiscmous treason." Ogle
H. Gowan, staunch Irish-Orange Tory as he wjis, was
a herald of Respcmsible Governinent -and suffered for
it — a prophet as to '37, chief promoter in the first move-
ment which resulted in Canadian volunteers, father and
founder of Orangeism here, and jjlthough a strong sup-
porter of Colborm; was antagonistic to the methcnls of
Francis Bond Head ; in his military career lu* was chiefly
conspicu<»us at Prescott, and carried the !>U(kshot and
bayonet record of that engagement to his gi-ave. '\\t such
a man Mrs. Gowan, a womanly woman of great cultun; and
heroic spirit, was a true helpmeet.

366

HUMOURS OF '37.

il'i

The heroic spirit was patent in many ways. A colonel
prominent in the Canadian service receivtjtl the following :
" Mrs. M. wishes to l)e rememljered to you, and prays that
the day may come when your hands will place the British
standard on the top of the cittulel of Washington, the
capital of the democratic mob."

Early in the century a handsome stranger was an
honoured guest at Quebec mess dinners, so fraternally fond
of the military and military life that the inference is if
fighting were on the cards he too would be ready. But at
one of the dinners the gentleman wjis convicted of being
a lady in disguise. The heroines of Upper Canada in '37
satisfied their warlike projjensities by running their tea-
chest lead into bullets, making a Canadian (juestion de
joupons, or firing a feu de joie at home. When one pretty
girl did the last, cm the return of father and brothers,
Brown Bess unhandsomely kicked h«;r Hat and she found
herself prone on that Sol Canadien, terre cherie, which she
so dearly loved. Mothers in Israel ! Could they have
foreseen a cc^rtain datc^ in '97, the year next prominent to
'37 in the Canadian horoscope, they and Brown Besses in
conjunction might have furnished material for a legend of
the female Brutus. For a certain Tory child of those? days
who has since developed into a renowned statesman lias
said, " My earli(\st memory in life is of the women of my
family casting bullets in the Upper Canadian Rebellion of
1837, T am afraid on the wnmg side."

Mixed politics in <me family often led to strained
relations: "When I wont to my brother John's to ask
him to turn out he was not at home, and his wife said she
did not intentl him to be at ho!ne, and that he would not
and should not go. I then asked her for his arms, for we
were in great need of them, but Mrs. John said she knew

DEBORAHS OF 'S7.

867

nothing about arms. I went into another room for his
rifle, which I could not find, but I saw his sword hanging
by the head of his l>ed. I took it down, but as T did so
my sister-in-law caught hohl of the hilt and jerked it partly
away. To save myself from being stablx^d I was obliged
to pull her close to me, moving towards the door ; I wished
myself clear of her and the sword, but dared not let go
until we got out the door, when I ga>e her a push and
seized the hilt. I walked off with the sword, but instead
of following me she ran into the house, calling for the rifle,
the children after her. tt was a truly ridiculous sight, to
see one of Her Britannic Majesty's officers, armed, running
away from his sister-in-law. But run I did, and she t<»l<l
me afterwards that tht; only reason she did not fire was
that T wjis in motion and she was so greatly excited she
was afraid she might not kill me ! "

lined
) ask
1 she
not

ir we
new

The Canada Museum was a journal much (|uotecl in its
day by domestic and American newspapers ; its editorials
were considered, by editors of both sides of politics, to Ik;
temperate, patriotic and logical. Published in Berlin,
chiefly in German, partly in English, it naturally was an
important influence in Camula West, and its e<litor, Mr.
H. W. Peters(m, hafl an acknowl<;dgefl and deservedly high
standing. He was heartily in lovi; with the Union Jack,
as heartily opposed to the Stars and Strijx's in Canadian
connection, was a Conservative in the true sense of the
word, and aliominated Toronto rule as rtterly as any
so-called reliel. But it appears that the guiding hand of
this influential j)apei i)flonged to a wifo and mother, one
who had mfwie herself mistress of colonial politics and was
eminently (jualified to express herself. One to whom Mrs.
Peterson was best known siiys : " Sne possessed literary
24

368

HUMOURS OF 'S7.

al)iliti(>H of a fine order, with the soundeHt judgment in
every matter. Mr. Peterson, a discreet editor, temperately
supported the Government of the day, conceiving; that
wrongs should be constitutionally redressed by the people
through their representatives, without force of arms.
Mrs. Peterson concurred in all his views ; but while she
deprecated bloodshed and the resort to force, she had a
woman's heart adfled to the courage of her convictions.
Her natural benevolence induced her to state, when dis-
cussing the question of Mackenzie's flight and the reward
offered for him, that if his journey took him through
Waterloo and he called im her for aid and comfort she
would undoubtedly give it, and not disclose the fact of his
presence until he had had time to move on farther. Woman
first, politician afterward, such action would have done no
violence to her Conservative principles ; y)ut it would have
been entirely on her own responsibility, as her husband
was a magistrate and could countenance no charity of that
kind."

A much used saying is not necessarily trite. The gentle
hand which rockeo the cradle could guide the pen when
danger threatened the state.

The Canadian Deborah of '12 or '37 was not learned in
history, nor was she conscious of her part as tenon in that
arc de trioniphe in the history of nations, that mortised arch
of Frank and Saxon whereof the pillars are Hastings and
Quebec. She knew but little, perhaps never heard, of
those countless hordes who swarmed over Apennines and
Pyrenees, nor yet of Clovis, nor of Cedric. She was no
seer and could not foretell the many who were destined,
after conquest of forest, to crowd the valley of the Peace,
make homes on the slopes of our statesman's "sea of

DEBORAHS OF '37.

369

mountainH," and be lost, an equally countless host, who
can tell, in the as yet hidden recesses of the untamed
remnant of a continent.

"Mine all the past, and all tho future mine."

Canadian women, like their famous sisters of Lit'go, held,
and hold, their distaff and their God ; but, with few-
exceptions, unlike the wise ones there, they made no gran<l
bakings of bread in order to be ready for the earliest
comer, friend or foe, in the times when shadows spoiled
the beauty of the Canadian day. No women of Saragossa
they ; but each has for record, " She hath done what she
could."

led in

that

arch

and

'd, of

and

as no

lined,

eace,

;a of

ERRATUM.

On page 171, 8th line from foot of page, for "Colonel
Foster, Adjutant-General," read " Colonel Foster, Assistant
Adjutant-General."

In the Days of the

Canada Company

fh9 Siory of the S§tthmBnt of iho Huron Tract, and a
¥iew of tho Social Life of tkt Period.

TR5:

By Robina and Kathleen Maofarlane Lizart

With an Introduction by Rkv. pRiifOiPAL Grant, D.D., LL.D.
In one volume, 494 pages, freely illustrated, price $2.00*

CONTENTS :— Spirit of the Times— The Father of the Company
— Canada as the Company Found It — The Fuco of ttie Land — From
Champlain to Qooding — The Kings of tho Canada ('onipany — The
Colbome Clique — Gairbraid — Lunderston — Meadowlands — The
The Canada Company vs. The People— The People vs. 'i'he Canada
Company — A Social Pot-Pourri — The Heart of Huron — The Bonnie
Eaatnopes— The Cairn.

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS

" strong lights and shadows flU these pictures of the eurly settlers' day, and
the Misses Lizars, in handling large niasseti of material, have maintained the
balance of their picture so well that it is Romething more than the most forcible
and striliint; piece of word-painting in Canadian literature. The scenes portrayed
in this boolc might be compared with some cinenietographe views lately seen in
the city, for not only are these floMery-waistcoatcd, or red shirted, ancestors, as
the case may be, vivid pieces of brush-work ; thev seem almost possessed of the
miracle of movement. We fancy we hear tliein spt-ak to q», and when Tiger
Dunlop strides across the stage in his extraordinary regimentals— roomy grev
homespun, with a large check, the big .Scotch features surmounted by a shock
of red hair, and guartled by the broadest of bonnets, one can almost hear hia
friendly roar."— Lonc/on Advertiser.

" No more entertaining book has ever been written about early life in British
North America than ' In the Daysof the Canada ConiDany,' by Kobina and Kathleen
M. Lizars. No attempt, the authors tell us, has been made at historical writing ;
their work is certainly not a history book, but it most assuredly is history of a far
more rare and precious kind than the chronological record of events which usually
goes by that name. There wi'l be many histories, and good histories too, given
to the world before another series of such vivid pictures of the very lives of men
and women who made history in a formative period of a country is presented."—
Montreal Daily Witneee.

WILLIAM BRIQOS, - Publisher, - TORONTO, ONT.

Montreal : O. W. OOATU. Halifax : S. F. Uvmm.

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Canadian
Historical Literature*

(PUBLISHED IN J896-97.)

That the impulse of recent years to gather together and
publish the historical records of the various localities has
borne fruit, is amply attested in the following list of publi-
cations, all from our own presses. We commend to Public
Libraries and to all intelligent readers the placing on
their shelves of as many as possible of these valuable
works : —

Canadian lavage Folk. The Native Tribes of Canada.

By John Maclean, Ph.D. Cioth, 641 pages, illustrated. .$2 50

The Cabot Calendar of Canadian History, 1497-

1897> Compiled by Sara Mickle and Mary Agnes Fitz-
Gibbon. Illustrated 0 50

In the Days of the Canada Company. By Robina

and Kathleen M. Lizars. Cloth, 494 pages, illustrated . . 2 00

Ovc^rland to Cariboo. The narrative of an eventful
journey of Canadian pioneers to the gold-fields of British
Columbia in 1862. By Margaret McNaughton. Illus-
trated 1 00

Legislation and History of Separate Schools in

IJpper Canada. From 1841 to the close of Dr. Kyer-
son's administration in 1876. By J. George Hodgins,
LL.D. Paper, $1.00 ; cloth I 25

nianitoba MeniOries. Leaves from my Life in the
Prairie Province. By Rev. George Young, D.D. Illus-
trated 1 00

Review of Historical Publications Relatini? to

Canada (1895-06). Edited by Prof. George M.
Wrong, M.A. Paper, $1.00 ; cloth 1 25

The Forge in the Forest. An historical romance of
Acadia. By Chas. G. D. Roberts. Paper, 60c. ; cloth,
illustrated I 25

Ginadian Historical Literature* — (Continued.)

The Lion and the Lilies. A Tale of tlie Conquest, in
six cantos, and Other Poems. By Charles Edwin Jake-
way. Cloth $1 00

John Saint John and Anna Grey. A Romance of
Old New Brunswick, told in verse. By Margaret Gill
Carrie 1 00

The History of the Dominion of Canada. For

Schools and Colleges. By W. H. P. Clement, B.A.,
LL.B. With numerous maps, portraits and illustrations. 0 50

History of the County of Annapolis. Including

Old Port Royal and Acadia. With biographical and
genealogical sketches. By the late W. A. Calnek.
Completed and edited by Judge Savary. Cloth, 660
pages, with portraits and illustrations 3 25

The Story of the Union Jack. How it grow and

what it is, particularly in its connection with the History
of Canada. W^ith nine colored lithograph plates and
numerous engravings 1 50

The Selkirk Settlers in Real Life. By Rev. R. G.

MacBeth, M. A 0 75

Huinonrs of '3T t Grave, Gay and Grim. Rebellion
Times in the Canadas. By Rol)ina and Kathleen M.
Lizars. Cloth, with map 1 25

History and Historiettes of the United Empire

Loyalists. By Edward Harris. Paper 0 10

Historic Days of Canada. A Calendar for 1898.

Compiled by Sara Mickle and Mary Agnes FitzGibbon.
Drawings by J. 1). and Percy Kelly. Lithographed in
gold and colors. Twelve cards, enclosed in box 0 75

Pioneer Sketches of Lons? Point Settlement.

Norfolk's Foundation-Builders and their Family Gene-
alogies. By E. A. Owen. With portraits. Cloth, 500
pages. (In press) .' 2 00

For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by
the publisher.

WILLIAM BRIGGS,

Richmond St. West, Toronto.
Montreal: C. W. COATES. Halifax: S. F. HUESTIS.

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