letter of sympathy from Joseph Hume, the great English radical, to Mackenzie, on the occasion of his expulsion from the Assembly, in which the English politician said such proceedings must "terminate in independence and freedom from the baneful domination of the mother country." The whole letter was published in leaded type in the Colonial Advocate. This alarmed Ryerson and the more moderate opponents of the Family Compact, and the Christian Guardian, a newspaper begun by Ryerson in 1829, now fiercely denounced Mackenzie.

This schism in the opposition gave the Family Compact an advantage, but notwithstanding, in the General Election of 1834, the Compact was defeated, and Mr. Bidwell was chosen Speaker by thirty-one to twenty-seven votes in the Assembly, the minority containing five or six Independents. The Assembly immediately appointed a "Special Committee on Grievances," with Mackenzie as Chairman, and in April, 1835, the "Seventh Report of the Grievance Committee " was brought in, and this is the storehouse from which, along with Gourlay's statistical account, the chief materials for the history of the period are drawn.

This famous report called the attention of the Home Government to the lamentable state of the country, and led to Sir John Colborne's recall in 1836, followed, by the coming of that paragon of eccentricity and blundering, Sir Francis Bond Head. Sir John Colborne's last act was one for which he was never forgiven by the Canadian people. Taking advantage of the provision in the Act of 1791, permitting the endowment of rectories out of Clergy Reserve lands, the departing Governor determined to erect fifty-seven rectories. But forty-four of the patents for these were signed, the reason, it is said, having been that a clerk, engaged in preparing the documents, informed Mr. Bidwell, who at once made the matter known, and the enormous wrong was not completed. The time is drawing on apace when the crisis in provincial affairs must come.

As shown in a previous chapter, the conflict for free

government in Lower Canada was intensified by the fact that while the Assembly was chiefly French Ca- Lower nadian, in the Legislative and Executive Coun- Canadian cils there was a British majority. The Earl of Struggle. Dalhousie, who had been for some years Governor of Nova Scotia, arrived in Lower Canada in 1820. Belonging to the class of high disciplinarians, though he had shown himself a friend of education and social progress in Nova Scotia, he was yet, as has been said, a soldier rather than a statesman. The Lieutenant-Governor of Lower Canada, Mr. Burton, was popular, but the French Canadians were never reconciled to the stern commander. Lord Dalhousie was much hampered by the vacillating policy of the British ministry, and as he was a man with whom there was no finesse or intrigue, his position was often unenviable.

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The Lower Canadian Assembly, year after year, passed resolutions declaring their grievances, the people sent monster petitions"; the French Canadian press, and an English newspaper published in Montreal, the Vindicator, constantly excited the populace to discontent. The idol of the French Canadians at this time was Mr. Speaker Papineau, of whom we shall hear more anon.

In the excited state of public feeling, Papineau had given expression to opinions about the Governor which, as proceeding from the Speaker of the Assembly, especially from one who had served as Speaker in six parliaments, were considered disrespectful to the Crown. On the summoning of the new House, in 1827, though it was known that Lord Dalhousie disapproved of him, Papineau was, by a large majority, chosen Speaker of the Assembly. The Governor refused to recognize the agitator. The House persisted in its course, when the old soldier prorogued the Assembly. Lord Dalhousie also deprived a number of the militia officers of their commissions for insolence. In 1827 petitions, largely signed, were presented to the King, asking for legislative control of Lower Canadian affairs. Delegates were sent to lay their requests at the foot of the throne.

In the meantime (1828), Lord Dalhousie was transferred to the command of the forces in India. In the same year the Imperial Parliament appointed a Committee to consider the petitions from Lower Canada, as well as those from Upper Canada. The report of this "Canada Committee" is a most able document, and recommends concessions which, if they had been adopted, would probably have prevented the outbreaks in both provinces. Their recommendation that the "legislative assemblies and the executive government of Canada be put on a right footing," was the solution of the whole difficulty. But the remedy was too late in its application. For several years a chronic case of difficulty tried the Lower Canadian Legislature. Robert Christie, chairman of the Quebec Quarter Sessions, was, in 1829, the object of the French Canadian hatred, for having advised the dismissal of certain French Canadian magistrates, and wrongly influenced Lord Dalhousie. On his subsequent election to the Assembly, as member for Gaspe, he was again and again expelled, to be in each case re-elected.

The Assembly, in the year 1834, spent its time chiefly in the consideration of the famous "ninety-two resolutions," which may be spoken of as their "claim of right." Another Committee of the Imperial Parliament, in 1834, examined Canadian grievances, but without any material profit.

New fuel was added to the flame by a statement of Sir John Colborne to the Upper Canadian Legislature, in his last message, to the effect that the Lower Canadian agitation had filled his mind with deep "regret, anxiety, and apprehension,” and had done injury to the country. The Lower Canadian Assembly repudiated these statements, and in 1836 Speaker Papineau addressed to Mr. Bidwell, Speaker of the Upper Canadian Assembly, a lengthy letter, defending their agitation, and adding certain remarks which were regarded by some as seditious. It was unfortunate that Sir John Colborne, a natural despot, should have been at this juncture appointed to Lower Canada to command the forces.

The evils of oligarchy were not unknown in the Maritime Provinces. Society there was, however, Nova Scotia in a more settled condition on account of the and New

older settlement. The agitations in the upper Brunswick. provinces began to be felt in the lands by the sea, but their struggles took place a few years later, when the rebellions in the upper provinces had done their troublesome work.

CHAPTER XI

THE REBELLIONS AND THE NEW CONSTITUTION

Lower
Canadian
Rebellion,

1837.

Section I.-Sedition in Lower Canada

THE agitation among the French Canadians began to assume a serious aspect. Loud appeals were made for an equality of rights with their British fellow-subjects. The Assembly, which was chiefly French Canadian, threw off all reserve, and by all classes sentiments hostile to Britain were freely uttered from the platform and upon the streets. The cry was that the Legislative Council should be elective, and that the Assembly ought to control the provincial exchequer. The control of the revenue had been, in 1832, given over to the Assembly by the British Government to quiet the clamour. Now it was determined by the Assembly to compel further concessions by refusing to pay the judges and other executive officers.

A British Commission was appointed in 1835 to inquire into the state of Lower Canada, and the possibility that a report favourable to French Canadian desires might be made, led the British people of Montreal, Quebec, and the English settlements in Lower Canada to organize themselves into "Constitutional Associations." The main questions of liberty were now obscured. The leaders of the French Canadians appealed to their following to support the cause of their down-trodden race.

On constitutional questions, such as the Executive Council being responsible to the Assembly, many of the English people of Lower Canada agreed with the French