Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin Part 7

The Ministry are blamed for not having made adequate provision against these disasters. That they by no means expected that the hostility to the Rebellion Losses Bill would have displayed itself in the outrages which have been perpetrated during the last few days is certain.[3]

Perhaps sufficient attention was not paid by them to the menaces of the Opposition press. It must be admitted, however, that their position was one of considerable difficulty. The civil force of Montreal--a city containing about 50,000 inhabitants of different races, with secret societies and other agencies of mischief in constant activity--consists of two policemen under the authority of the Government, and seventy appointed by the Corporation. To oppose, therefore, effectual resistance to any considerable mob, recourse must be had in all cases either to the military or to a force of civilians enrolled for the occasion. Grave objections, however, presented themselves in the present instance to the adoption of either of these courses until the disposition to tumult on the part of the populace unhappily manifested itself in overt acts. More especially was it of importance to avoid any measure which might have had a tendency to produce a collision between parties on a question on which their feelings were so strongly excited. The result of the course pursued is, that there has been no bloodshed, and, except in the case of some of the Ministers themselves, no destruction of private property.

The pa.s.sions, however, which appeared to have calmed down, burst out with fresh fury the very day on which these sentences were penned. The House of a.s.sembly had voted, by a majority of thirty-six to sixteen, an address to the Governor-General, expressive of abhorrence at the outrages which had taken place, of loyalty to the Queen, and approval of his just and impartial administration of the Government, with his late as well as with his present advisers. It was arranged that Lord Elgin should receive this Address at the Government House instead of at Monklands. Accordingly, on April 30, he drove into the city, escorted by a troop of volunteer dragoons, and accompanied by several of his suite. On his way through the streets he was greeted with showers of stones, and with difficulty preserved his face from being injured.[4] On his return he endeavoured to avoid all occasion of conflict by going back by a different route; but the mob, discovering his purpose, rushed in pursuit, and again a.s.sailed his carriage with various missiles, and it was only by rapid driving that he escaped unhurt.[5]

None but those who were in constant intercourse with him can know what Lord Elgin went through during the period of excitement which followed these gross outrages. The people of Montreal seemed to have lost their reason.

The houses of some of the Ministers and of their supporters were attacked by mobs at night, and it was not safe for them to appear in the streets. A hostile visit was threatened to the house in which the Governor-General resided at a short distance from the city; all necessary preparation was made to defend it, and his family were kept for some time in a state of anxiety and suspense.[6]

For some weeks he himself did not go into the town of Montreal, but kept entirely within the bounds of his country seat at Monklands, determined that no act of his should offer occasion or excuse to the mob for fresh outrage.[7] He knew, of course, that the whole of French Lower Canada was ready at any moment to rise, as one man, in support of the Government; but his great object was to keep them quiet, and 'to prevent collision between the races.'

[Sidenote: Firmness of the Governor.]

[Sidenote: Refuses either to use force,]

'Throughout the whole of this most trying time,' writes Major Campbell,[8]

'Lord Elgin remained perfectly calm and cool; never for a moment losing his self-possession, nor failing to exercise that clear foresight and sound judgment for which he was so remarkable. It came to the knowledge of his Ministers that, if he went into the city again, his life would be in great danger; and they advised that a commission should issue to appoint a Deputy-Governor for the purpose of proroguing Parliament. He was urged by irresponsible advisers to make use of the military forces at his command, to protect his person in an official visit to the city; but he declined to do so, and thus avoided what these infatuated rioters seemed determined to bring on--the shedding of blood. "I am prepared," he said, "to bear any amount of obloquy that may be cast upon me, but, if I can possibly prevent it, no stain of blood shall rest upon my name."'

As might have been expected, the Montreal press attributed this wise and magnanimous self-restraint to fear for his own safety. But he was not to be moved from his resolve by the paltry imputation; nor did he even care that his friends should resent or refute it on his behalf.

So little was he affected by it that on finding, some years afterwards, that Lord Grey proposed to introduce some expression of indignation on the subject in his work on the colonies, he dissuaded him from doing so. 'I do not believe,' he said, 'that these imputations were hazarded in any respectable quarter, or that they are ent.i.tled to the dignity of a place in your narrative.'

[Sidenote: or to yield to violence.]

But if neither the entreaties of 'irresponsible advisers,' nor the taunts of foes, could move him to the use of force, he was equally firm in his determination to concede nothing to the clamour and violence of the mob.

Writing officially to Lord Grey on the 30th of April, when the fury of the populace was at its height, he said:--

It is my firm conviction that if this dictation be submitted to, the government of this province by const.i.tutional means will be impossible, and that the struggle between overbearing minorities, backed by force, and majorities resting on legality and established forms, which has so long proved the bane of Canada, driving capital from the province, and producing a state of chronic discontent, will be perpetuated.

[Sidenote: Tenders resignation.]

At the same time, he thought it his duty to suggest, that 'if he should be unable to recover that position of dignified neutrality between contending parties which it had been his unremitting study to maintain,' it might be a question whether it would not be for the interests of Her Majesty's service that he should be removed, to make way for some one 'who should have the advantage of being personally un.o.bnoxious to any section of Her Majesty's subjects within the province.'

[Sidenote: Approval of Home Government.]

The reply to this letter a.s.sured him, in emphatic terms, of the cordial approval and support of the Home Government. 'I appreciate,' wrote Lord Grey, 'the motives which have induced your Lords.h.i.+p to offer the suggestion with which your despatch concludes, but I should most earnestly deprecate the change it contemplates in the government of Canada. Your Lords.h.i.+p's relinquishment of that office, which, under any circ.u.mstances, would be a most serious loss to Her Majesty's service, and to the province, could not fail, in the present state of affairs, to be most injurious to the public welfare, from the encouragement which it would give to those who have been concerned in the violent and illegal opposition which has been offered to your Government. I also feel no doubt that when the present excitement shall have subsided, you will succeed in regaining that position of "dignified neutrality" becoming your office, which, as you justly observe, it has. .h.i.therto been your study to maintain, and from which, even those who are at present most opposed to you, will, on reflection, perceive that you have been driven, by no fault on your part, but by their own unreasoning violence.

Relying, therefore, upon your devotion to the interests of Canada, I feel a.s.sured that you will not be induced by the unfortunate occurrences which have taken place, to retire from the high office which the Queen has been pleased to entrust to you, and which, from the value she puts upon your past services, it is Her Majesty's anxious wish that you should retain.'

[Sidenote: Support in the colony.]

While awaiting, in his retreat at Monklands, the _contrecoup_ from the mother-country of the storm which had burst over the colony, Lord Elgin found a great source of consolation in the numerous sympathetic addresses which poured in from every part of the province: fortifying him in the conviction that the heart of the colony was with him, and that the bitter opposition at Montreal was chiefly due to local causes; especially 'to commercial distress, acting on religious bigotry and national hatred.' One of these addresses, coming from the county of Glengarry, an ancient settlement of Scottish loyalists, appears to have touched the Scotsman's heart within the statesman's. In reply to it he said:--

Men of Glengarry--My heart warms within me when I listen to your manly and patriotic address.

I recognise in it evidence of that vigorous understanding which enables men of the stock to which you belong to prize, as they ought to be prized, the blessings of well-ordered freedom, and of that keen sense of principle which prompts them to recoil from no sacrifice which duty enjoins.

The men of Glengarry need not recapitulate their services. He must be ignorant indeed of the history of Canada who does not know how much they have done and suffered for their Sovereign and their country.

You inhabit here a goodly land. A land full of promise, where your children have room enough to increase and to multiply, and to become, with G.o.d's blessing, greater and more prosperous than yourselves. But I am confident that no spell less potent than the gentle and benignant control of those liberal inst.i.tutions which it is Britain's pride and privilege to bestow on her children, will insure the peaceful development of its unrivalled resources, or knit together into one happy and united family the various races of which this community is composed.

On this conviction I have acted, in labouring to secure for you, during the whole course of my administration the full benefit of const.i.tutional government. It is truly gratifying to me to learn that you appreciate my exertions. Depend upon it, they will not be relaxed.

I claim to have something of your own spirit: devotion to a cause which I believe to be a just one--courage to confront, if need be, danger and even obloquy in its pursuit--and an undying faith that G.o.d protects the right.

[Sidenote: Debates in the British Parliament.]

In the meantime the unhappy Bill, which had caused such an explosion in the colony, was running the gantlet of the British Parliament. On June 14 it was vehemently attacked in the House of Commons by Mr. Gladstone, as being a measure for the rewarding of Rebels.[9] He, indeed, contented himself with 'calling the attention of the House to certain parts' of the Bill in question; but Mr. Herries, following out the same views to their legitimate conclusion, moved an Address to Her Majesty to disallow the Act of the Colonial Legislature. The debate was sustained with great Vigour for two nights; in the course of which the Act was defended not only by Lord John Russell as leader of the Government, but also, with even more force, by his great opponent Sir Robert Peel. Speaking with all the weight of an impartial observer, he showed that it was not the intention of the measure, and would not be its effect, to give compensation to anyone who could be proved to have been a rebel; that it was only an inevitable sequel to other measures which had been pa.s.sed without opposition; and, further, that its rejection at this stage would be resisted by all parties in the colony alike, as an arbitrary interference with their right of self-government. On a division the amendment of Mr. Herries was thrown out by a majority of 141. And though, a few nights later, a resolution somewhat in the same sense, moved by Lord Brougham in the Upper House, was only negatived, with the aid of proxies, by three votes, the large majority in the House of Commons, and the firm att.i.tude of the Government on the subject, did much to quiet the excitement in the colony.

The news from England (wrote Lord Elgin) has produced a marked, and, so far as it goes, a satisfactory change in the tone of the Press; in proof of which I send you the leading articles of the Tory papers of Sat.u.r.day. ... The party, it would appear, is now split into three; but on one point all are agreed. We must have done, they say, with this habit of abusing the French; we must live with them on terms of amity and affection. Such is the first fruit of the policy which was to bring about, we were a.s.sured, a war of races.

This satisfactory result was also due in part to the wise measures adopted by the Ministry, under direction of the Governor-General, for giving effect to the provisions of the much-disputed Bill.

We are taking steps (he wrote on June 17) to carry out the Rebellion Losses Bill. Having adopted the measure of the late Conservative Government, we are proceeding to reappoint their own Commissioners; and, not content with that, we are furnis.h.i.+ng them with instructions which place upon the Act the most restricted and loyalist construction of which the terms are susceptible. Truly, if ever rebellion stood upon a rickety pretence, it is the Canadian Tory Rebellion of 1849.

[Sidenote: Fresh riots.]

Unhappily the flames, which at this time had nearly died out, were re- kindled two months later on occasion of the arrest of certain persons concerned in the former riots; and though this fresh outbreak lasted but a few days, it was attended in one case with fatal consequences.[10] Writing on August 20, Lord Elgin says:--

We are again in some excitement here. M. Lafontaine's house was attacked by a mob (for the second time) two nights ago. Some persons within fired, and one of the a.s.sailants was killed. The violent Clubbists are trying to excite the pa.s.sions of the mult.i.tude, alleging that this is Anglo-Saxon blood shed by a Frenchman.

The immediate cause of this excitement is the arrest of certain persons who were implicated in the destruction of the Parliament buildings in April last. I was desirous, for the sake of peace, that these parties should not be arrested until indictments had been laid before the grand jury, and true bills found against them.

Unfortunately, in consequence of the cholera, the requisite number of jurors to form a court was not forthcoming for the August term. The Government thought that they could not, without impropriety, put off taking any steps against these persons till November. They were, therefore, arrested last week; all except one, who was committed for arson, were at once bailed by the magistrates; and he too was bailed the day after his committal by one of the judges of the Supreme Court.

All this is simple enough, and augurs no very vindictive spirit in the authorities. Nevertheless it affords the occasion for a fresh exhibition of the recklessness of the Montreal mob, and the demoralisation of other cla.s.ses in the community.

Again on the 27th he writes:--

We have had a fortnight of crisis consequent on the arrests which I reported to you last week; which may perhaps be the prelude (though I do not like to be too sanguine) to better times. A most violent excitement was got up by the Press against M. Lafontaine more especially, as the instigator of the arrests and the cause of the death of the young man who was shot in the attack on his house. A vast number of men, wearing red scarfs and ribands, attended the funeral of the youth. The shops were shut on the line of the procession; fires occurred during several successive nights in different parts of the town, under circ.u.mstances warranting the suspicion of incendiarism.

Upon this the stipendiary magistrates, charged by the Government with the preservation of the peace of the city, represented officially to the Governor that nothing could save it but the proclamation of Martial Law.

But he told his Council that he 'would neither consent to Martial Law, nor to any measures of increased vigour whatsoever, until a further appeal had been made to the Mayor and Corporation of the city.'

[Sidenote: Quiet restored.]

This appeal was successful. A proclamation, issued by the Mayor, was responded to by the respectable citizens of all parties; and a large number of special constables turned out to patrol the streets and keep the peace.

Meanwhile the coroner's jury, after a very rigorous investigation, agreed unanimously to a verdict acquitting M. Lafontaine of all blame, and finding fault with the civic authorities for their remissness. This verdict was important, for two of the jury were Orangemen, who had marched in the procession at the funeral of the young man who was shot. The public acknowledged its importance, and two of the most violent Tory newspapers had articles apologising to Lafontaine for having so unfairly judged him beforehand. 'From, these and other indications (wrote Lord Elgin) I begin to hope that there may be some return to common sense in Montreal.'

[Removal of Government from Montreal.]

My advisers, however (he proceeds), now protest that it will be impossible to maintain the seat of Government here. We had a long discussion on this point yesterday. All seem to be agreed, that if a removal from this town takes place, it must be on the condition prescribed in the address of the a.s.sembly presented to me last Session, viz. that there shall henceforward be Parliaments held alternately in the Upper and Lower Provinces. A removal from this to any other fixed point would be the certain ruin of the party making it. Therefore removal from Montreal implies the adoption of the system (which, although it has a good deal to recommend it, is certainly open to great objections) of alternating Parliaments. But this is not the only difficulty. The French members of the Administration ... are willing to go to Toronto for four years at the close of the present Parliament, but they give many reasons, which appear to have in a great measure satisfied their Upper Canada colleagues, for insisting on Quebec as the first point to be made. Now I have great objection to going to Quebec at present. I fear it would be considered, both here and in England, as an admission that the Government is under French- Canadian influence, and that it cannot maintain itself in Upper Canada. I, therefore, concluded in favour of a few days more being given in order to see whether or not the movement now in progress in Montreal may be so directed as to render it possible to retain the seat of Government there.

This hope was disappointed, and he was obliged to admit the necessity of removal. On September 3 he wrote again:--

We have had, since I last wrote, a week of unusual tranquillity....

but I regret to say that I discover as yet nothing to warrant the belief that the seat of Government can properly remain at Montreal.

The existence of a perfect understanding between the more outrageous and the more respectable fractions of the Tory party in the town, is rendered even more manifest by the readiness with which the former, through their organs, have yielded to the latter when they preached moderation in good earnest. Additional proof is thus furnished of the extent to which the blame of the disgraceful transactions of the past four months falls on all. All attempts, and several have been made, to induce the Conservatives to unite in an address, inviting me to return to the town, have failed; which is the more significant, because it is well known that the removal of the seat of Government is under consideration, and that I have deprecated the abandonment of Montreal.

The existence of a party, animated by such sentiments, powerful in numbers and organisation, and in the station of some who more or less openly join it--owning a qualified allegiance to the const.i.tution of the province--professing to regard the Parliament and the Government as nuisances to be tolerated within certain limits only--raising itself whenever the fancy seizes it, or the crisis in its judgment demands it, into an '_imperium in imperio_,'--renders it, I fear, extremely doubtful whether the functions of Legislation or of Government can be carried on to advantage in this city. 'Show vigour and put it down,' say some. You _may_ and _must_ put down those who resist the law when overt acts are committed. But the party is unfortunately a national as well as a political one; after each defeat it resumes its att.i.tude of defiance; and, whenever it comes into collision with the authorities, there is the risk of a frightful race feud being provoked. All these dangers are vastly increased by Montreal's being the seat of Government.

There were other arguments also of no little force. He was a.s.sured that some Members had declared that nothing would induce them to come again to Montreal; and he himself felt that it must do great mischief to the members from other parts of the Province, to pa.s.s some months of each year in that 'hot-bed of prejudice and disaffection.' Moreover, so long as Montreal retained the prestige of being the Metropolis, it was impossible to prevent its press from enjoying a fact.i.tious importance, not only within the province, but also in England and in the States, where it would be looked upon as the exponent of the sentiments of the community at large.