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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Father of British Canada: A Chronicle
+of Carleton, by William Wood.
+[This is Volume Twelve in the 32-volume Chronicles of Canada,
+Edited by George M. Wrong and H. H. Langton]
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Father of British Canada: A Chronicle of Carleton
+
+Author: William Wood
+
+Release Date: November 11, 2003 [EBook #10044]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FATHER OF BRITISH CANADA ***
+
+
+
+
+This etext was produced by Gardner Buchanan.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHRONICLES OF CANADA
+Edited by George M. Wrong and H. H. Langton
+In thirty-two volumes
+
+Volume 12
+
+
+THE FATHER OF BRITISH CANADA
+A Chronicle of Carleton
+
+By WILLIAM WOOD
+TORONTO, 1916
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+I.    GUY CARLETON, 1724-1759
+II.   GENERAL MURRAY, 1759-1766
+III.  GOVERNOR CARLETON, 1766-1774
+IV.   INVASION, 1776
+V.    BELEAGUERMENT, 1775-1776
+VI.   DELIVERANCE, 1776
+VII.  THE COUNTERSTROKE, 1776-1778
+VIII. GUARDING THE LOYALISTS, 1782-1783
+IX.   FOUNDING MODERN CANADA, 1786-1796
+X.    'NUNC DIMITTIS,' 1796-1808
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+GUY CARLETON
+1724-1759
+
+Guy Carleton, first Baron Dorchester, was born at Strabane,
+County Tyrone, on the 3rd of September 1724, the anniversary
+of Cromwell's two great victories and death. He came of
+a very old family of English country gentlemen which had
+migrated to Ireland in the seventeenth century and
+intermarried with other Anglo-Irish families equally
+devoted to the service of the British Crown. Guy's father
+was Christopher Carleton of Newry in County Down. His
+mother was Catherine Ball of County Donegal. His father
+died comparatively young; and, when he was himself fifteen,
+his mother married the rector of Newry, the Reverend
+Thomas Skelton, whose influence over the six step-children
+of the household worked wholly for their good.
+
+At eighteen Guy received his first commission as ensign
+in the 25th Foot, then known as Lord Rothes' regiment
+and now as the King's Own Scottish Borderers. At
+twenty-three he fought gallantly at the siege of
+Bergen-op-Zoom. Four years later (1751) he was a lieutenant
+in the Grenadier Guards. He was one of those quiet men
+whose sterling value is appreciated only by the few till
+some crisis makes it stand forth before the world at
+large. Pitt, Wolfe, and George II all recognized his
+solid virtues. At thirty he was still some way down the
+list of lieutenants in the Grenadiers, while Wolfe, two
+years his junior in age, had been four years in command
+of a battalion with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Yet
+he had long been 'my friend Carleton' to Wolfe, he was
+soon to become one of 'Pitt's Young Men,' and he was
+enough of a 'coming man' to incur the king's displeasure.
+He had criticized the Hanoverians; and the king never
+forgave him. The third George 'gloried in the name of
+Englishman.' But the first two were Hanoverian all through.
+And for an English guardsman to disparage the Hanoverian
+army was considered next door to _lese-majeste_.
+
+Lady Dorchester burnt all her husband's private papers
+after his death in 1808; so we have lost some of the most
+intimate records concerning him. But 'grave Carleton'
+appears so frequently in the letters of his friend Wolfe
+that we can see his character as a young man in almost
+any aspect short of self-revelation. The first reference
+has nothing to do with affairs of state. In 1747 Wolfe,
+aged twenty, writing to Miss Lacey, an English girl in
+Brussels, and signing himself 'most sincerely your friend
+and admirer,' says: 'I was doing the greatest injustice
+to the dear girls to admit the least doubt of their
+constancy. Perhaps with respect to ourselves there may
+be cause of complaint. Carleton, I'm afraid, is a recent
+example of it.' From this we may infer that Carleton was
+less 'grave' as a young man than Wolfe found him later
+on. Six years afterwards Wolfe strongly recommended him
+for a position which he had himself been asked to fill,
+that of military tutor to the young Duke of Richmond,
+who was to get a company in Wolfe's own regiment. Writing
+home from Paris in 1753 Wolfe tells his mother that the
+duke 'wants some skilful man to travel with him through
+the Low Countries and into Lorraine. I have proposed my
+friend Carleton, whom Lord Albemarle approves of.' Lord
+Albemarle was the British ambassador to France; so Carleton
+got the post and travelled under the happiest auspices,
+while learning the frontier on which the Belgian, French,
+and British allies were to fight the Germans in the Great
+World War of 1914. It was during this military tour of
+fortified places that Carleton acquired the engineering
+skill which a few years later proved of such service to
+the British cause in Canada.
+
+In 1754 George Washington, at that time a young Virginian
+officer of only twenty-two, fired the first shot in what
+presently became the world-wide Seven Years' War. The
+immediate result was disastrous to the British arms; and
+Washington had to give up the command of the Ohio by
+surrendering Fort Necessity to the French on--of all
+dates--the 4th of July! In 1755 came Braddock's defeat.
+In 1756 Montcalm arrived in Canada and won his first
+victory at Oswego. In 1757 Wolfe distinguished himself
+by formulating the plan which, if properly executed,
+would have prevented the British fiasco at Rochefort on
+the coast of France. But Carleton remained as undistinguished
+as before. He simply became lieutenant-colonel commanding
+the 72nd Foot, now the Seaforth Highlanders. In 1758 his
+chance appeared to have come at last. Amherst had asked
+for his services at Louisbourg. But the king had neither
+forgotten nor forgiven the remarks about the Hanoverians,
+and so refused point-blank, to Wolfe's 'very great grief
+and disappointment... It is a public loss Carleton's not
+going.' Wolfe's confidence in Carleton, either as a friend
+or as an officer, was stronger than ever. Writing to
+George Warde, afterwards the famous cavalry leader, he
+said: 'Accidents may happen in the family that may throw
+my little affairs into disorder. Carleton is so good as
+to say he will give what help is in his power. May I ask
+the same favour of you, my oldest friend?' Writing to
+Lord George Sackville, of whom we shall hear more than
+enough at the crisis of Carleton's career Wolfe said:
+'Amherst will tell you his opinion of Carleton, by which
+you will probably be better convinced of our loss.' Again,
+'We want grave Carleton for every purpose of the war.'
+And yet again, after the fall of Louisbourg: 'If His
+Majesty had thought proper to let Carleton come with us
+as engineer it would have cut the matter much shorter
+and we might now be ruining the walls of Quebec and
+completing the conquest of New France.' A little later
+on Wolfe blazes out with indignation over Carleton's
+supersession by a junior. 'Can Sir John Ligonier (the
+commander-in-chief) allow His Majesty to remain
+unacquainted with the merit of that officer, and can he
+see such a mark of displeasure without endeavouring to
+soften or clear the matter up a little? A man of honour
+has the right to expect the protection of his Colonel
+and of the Commander of the troops, and he can't serve
+without it.  If I was in Carleton's place I wouldn't stay
+an hour in the Army after being aimed at and distinguished
+in so remarkable a manner.' But Carleton bided his time.
+
+At the beginning of 1759 Wolfe was appointed to command
+the army destined to besiege Quebec. He immediately
+submitted Carleton's name for appointment as
+quartermaster-general. Pitt and Ligonier heartily approved.
+But the king again refused. Ligonier went back a second
+time to no purpose. Pitt then sent him in for the third
+time, saying, in a tone meant for the king to overhear:
+'Tell His Majesty that in order to render the General
+[Wolfe] completely responsible for his conduct he should
+be made, as far as possible, inexcusable if he should
+fail; and that whatever an officer entrusted with such
+a service of confidence requests ought therefore to be
+granted.' The king then consented. Thus began Carleton's
+long, devoted, and successful service for Canada, the
+Empire, and the Crown.
+
+Early in this memorable Empire Year of 1759 he sailed
+with Wolfe and Saunders from Spithead. On the 30th of
+April the fleet rendezvoused at Halifax, where Admiral
+Durell, second-in-command to Saunders, had spent the
+winter with a squadron intended to block the St Lawrence
+directly navigation opened in the spring. Durell was a
+good commonplace officer, but very slow. He had lost many
+hands from sickness during a particularly cold season,
+and he was not enterprising enough to start cruising
+round Cabot Strait before the month of May. Saunders,
+greatly annoyed by this delay, sent him off with eight
+men-of-war on the 5th of May. Wolfe gave him seven hundred
+soldiers under Carleton. These forces were sufficient to
+turn back, capture, or destroy the twenty-three French
+merchantmen which were then bound for Quebec with supplies
+and soldiers as reinforcements for Montcalm. But the
+French ships were a week ahead of Durell; and, when he
+landed Carleton at Isle-aux-Coudres on the 28th of May,
+the last of the enemy's transports had already discharged
+her cargo at Quebec, sixty miles above.
+
+Isle-aux-Coudres, so named by Jacques Cartier in 1535,
+was a point of great strategic importance; for it commanded
+the only channel then used. It was the place Wolfe had
+chosen for his winter quarters, that is, in case of
+failure before Quebec and supposing he was not recalled.
+None but a particularly good officer would have been
+appointed as its first commandant. Carleton spent many
+busy days here preparing an advanced base for the coming
+siege, while the subsequently famous Captain Cook was
+equally busy 'a-sounding of the channell of the Traverse'
+which the fleet would have to pass on its way to Quebec.
+Some of Durell's ships destroyed the French 'long-shore
+batteries near this Traverse, at the lower end of the
+island of Orleans, while the rest kept ceaseless watch
+to seaward, anxiously scanning the offing, day after day,
+to make out the colours of the first fleet up. No one
+knew what the French West India fleet would do; and there
+was a very disconcerting chance that it might run north
+and slip into the St Lawrence, ahead of Saunders, in the
+same way as the French reinforcements had just slipped
+in ahead of Durell. Presently, at the first streak of
+dawn on the 23rd of June, a strong squadron was seen
+advancing rapidly under a press of sail. Instantly the
+officers of the watch called all hands up from below.
+The boatswains' whistles shrilled across the water as
+the seamen ran to quarters and cleared the decks for
+action. Carleton's camp was equally astir. The guards
+turned out. The bugles sounded. The men fell in and
+waited. Then the flag-ship signalled ashore that the
+strangers had just answered correctly in private code
+that all was well and that Wolfe and Saunders were aboard.
+
+Next to Wolfe himself Carleton was the busiest man
+in the army throughout the siege of Quebec. In addition
+to his arduous and very responsible duties as
+quartermaster-general, he acted as inspector of engineers
+and as a special-service officer for work of an
+exceptionally confidential nature. As quartermaster-general
+he superintended the supply and transport branches.
+Considering that the army was operating in a devastated
+hostile country, a thousand miles away from its bases at
+Halifax and Louisbourg, and that the interaction of the
+different services--naval and military, Imperial and
+Colonial--required adjustment to a nicety at every turn,
+it was wonderful that so much was done so well with means
+which were far from being adequate. War prices of course
+ruled in the British camp. But they compared very favourably
+with the famine prices in Quebec, where most 'luxuries'
+soon became unobtainable at any price. There were no
+canteen or camp-follower scandals under Carleton. Then,
+as now, every soldier had a regulation ration of food
+and a regulation allowance for his service kit. But
+'extras' were always acceptable. The price-list of these
+'extras' reads strangely to modern ears. But, under the
+circumstances, it was not exorbitant, and it was slightly
+tempered by being reckoned in Halifax currency of four
+dollars to the pound instead of five. The British Tommy
+Atkins of that and many a later day thought Canada a
+wonderful country for making money go a long way when he
+could buy a pot of beer for twopence and get back thirteen
+pence Halifax currency as change for his English shilling.
+Beef and ham ran from ninepence to a shilling a pound.
+Mutton was a little dearer. Salt butter was eightpence
+to one-and-threepence. Cheese was tenpence; potatoes from
+five to ten shillings a bushel. 'A reasonable loaf of
+good soft Bread' cost sixpence. Soap was a shilling a
+pound. Tea was prohibitive for all but the officers.
+'Plain Green Tea and very Badd' was fifteen shillings,
+'Couchon' twenty shillings, 'Hyson' thirty. Leaf tobacco
+was tenpence a pound, roll one-and-tenpence, snuff
+two-and-threepence. Sugar was a shilling to eighteen
+pence. Lemons were sixpence apiece. The non-intoxicating
+'Bad Sproos Beer' was only twopence a quart and helped
+to keep off scurvy. Real beer, like wine and spirits,
+was more expensive. 'Bristol Beer' was eighteen shillings
+a dozen, 'Bad malt Drink from Hellifax' ninepence a quart.
+Rum and claret were eight shillings a gallon each, port
+and Madeira ten and twelve respectively. The term 'Bad'
+did not then mean noxious, but only inferior. It stood
+against every low-grade article in the price-list. No
+goods were over-classified while Carleton was
+quartermaster-general.
+
+The engineers were under-staffed, under-manned, and
+overworked. There were no Royal Engineers as a permanent
+and comprehensive corps till the time of Wellington.
+Wolfe complained bitterly and often of the lack of men
+and materials for scientific siege work. But he 'relied
+on Carleton' to good purpose in this respect as well as
+in many others. In his celebrated dispatch to Pitt he
+mentions Carleton twice. It was Carleton whom he sent to
+seize the west end of the island of Orleans, so as to
+command the basin of Quebec, and Carleton whom he sent to
+take prisoners and gather information at Pointe-aux-Trembles,
+twenty miles above the city. Whether or not he revealed
+the whole of his final plan to Carleton is probably more
+than we shall ever know, since Carleton's papers were
+destroyed. But we do know that he did not reveal it to
+any one else, not even to his three brigadiers, Monckton,
+Townshend, and Murray.
+
+Carleton was wounded in the head during the Battle of
+the Plains; but soon returned to duty. Wolfe showed his
+confidence in him to the last. Carleton's was the only
+name mentioned twice in the will which Wolfe handed over
+to Jervis, the future Lord St Vincent, the night before
+the battle. 'I leave to Colonel Oughton, Colonel Carleton,
+Colonel Howe, and Colonel Warde a thousand pounds each.'
+'All my books and papers, both here and in England, I
+leave to Colonel Carleton.' Wolfe's mother, who died five
+years later, showed the same confidence by appointing
+Carleton her executor.
+
+With the fall of Quebec in 1759 Carleton disappears from
+the Canadian scene till 1766. But so many pregnant events
+happened in Canada during these seven years, while so
+few happened in his own career, that it is much more
+important for us to follow her history than his biography.
+
+In 1761 he was wounded at the storming of Port Andro
+during the attack on Belle Isle off the west coast of
+France. In 1762 he was wounded at Havana in the West
+Indies. After that he enjoyed four years of quietness at
+home. Then came the exceedingly difficult task of guiding
+Canada through twelve years of turbulent politics and
+most subversive war.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+GENERAL MURRAY
+1759-1766
+
+Both armies spent a terrible winter after the Battle of
+the Plains. There was better shelter for the French in
+Montreal than for the British among the ruins of Quebec.
+But in the matter of food the positions were reversed.
+Nevertheless the French gallantly refused the truce
+offered them by Murray, who had now succeeded Wolfe. They
+were determined to make a supreme effort to regain Quebec
+in the spring; and they were equally determined that the
+habitants should not be free to supply the British with
+provisions.
+
+In spite of the state of war, however, the French and
+British officers, even as prisoners and captors, began
+to make friends. They had found each other foemen worthy
+of their steel. A distinguished French officer, the Comte
+de Malartic, writing to Levis, Montcalm's successor,
+said: 'I cannot speak too highly of General Murray,
+although he is our enemy.' Murray, on his part, was
+equally loud and generous in his praise of the French.
+The Canadian seigneurs found fellow-gentlemen among
+the British officers. The priests and nuns of Quebec
+found many fellow-Catholics among the Scottish and Irish
+troops, and nothing but courteous treatment from the
+soldiers of every rank and form of religion. Murray
+directed that 'the compliment of the hat' should be paid
+to all religious processions. The Ursuline nuns knitted
+long stockings for the bare-legged Highlanders when the
+winter came on, and presented each Scottish officer with
+an embroidered St Andrew's Cross on the 30th of November,
+St Andrew's Day. The whole garrison won the regard of
+the town by giving up part of their rations for the hungry
+poor; while the habitants from the surrounding country
+presently began to find out that the British were honest
+to deal with and most humane, though sternly just, as
+conquerors.
+
+In the following April Levis made his desperate throw
+for victory; and actually did succeed in defeating Murray
+outside the walls of Quebec. But the British fleet came
+up in May; and that summer three British armies converged
+on Montreal, where the last doomed remnants of French
+power on the St Lawrence stood despairingly at bay. When
+Levis found his two thousand effective French regulars
+surrounded by eight times as many British troops he had
+no choice but to lay down the arms of France for ever.
+On the 8th of September 1760 his gallant little army was
+included in the Capitulation of Montreal, by which the
+whole of Canada passed into the possession of the British
+Crown.
+
+Great Britain had a different general idea for each one
+of the four decades which immediately followed the conquest
+of Canada. In the sixties the general idea was to kill
+refractory old French ways with a double dose of new
+British liberty and kindness, so that Canada might
+gradually become the loyal fourteenth colony of the Empire
+in America. But the fates were against this benevolent
+scheme. The French Canadians were firmly wedded to their
+old ways of life, except in so far as the new liberty
+enabled them to throw off irksome duties and restraints,
+while the new English-speaking 'colonists' were so few,
+and mostly so bad, that they became the cause of endless
+discord where harmony was essential. In the seventies
+the idea was to restore the old French-Canadian life so
+as not only to make Canada proof against the disaffection
+of the Thirteen Colonies but also to make her a safe base
+of operations against rebellious Americans. In the eighties
+the great concern of the government was to make a harmonious
+whole out of two very widely differing parts--the
+long-settled French Canadians and the newly arrived United
+Empire Loyalists. In the nineties each of these parts
+was set to work out its own salvation under its own
+provincial constitution.
+
+Carleton's is the only personality which links together
+all four decades--the would-be American sixties, the
+French-Canadian seventies, the Anglo-French-Canadian
+eighties, and the bi-constitutional nineties--though, as
+mentioned already, Murray ruled Canada for the first
+seven years, 1759-66.
+
+James Murray, the first British governor of Canada, was
+a younger son of the fourth Lord Elibank. He was just
+over forty, warm-hearted and warm-tempered, an excellent
+French scholar, and every inch a soldier. He had been a
+witness for the defence of Mordaunt at the court-martial
+held to try the authors of the Rochefort fiasco in 1757.
+Wolfe, who was a witness on the other side, referred to
+him later on as 'my old antagonist Murray.' But Wolfe
+knew a good man when he saw one and gave his full confidence
+to his 'old antagonist' both at Louisbourg and Quebec.
+Murray was not born under a lucky star. He saw three
+defeats in three successive wars. He began his service
+with the abortive attack on pestilential Cartagena, where
+Wolfe's father was present as adjutant-general. In
+mid-career he lost the battle of Ste Foy. [Footnote:
+See _The Winning of Canada_, chap. viii. See also, for
+the best account of this battle and other events of the
+year between Wolfe's victory and the surrender of Montreal,
+_The Fall of Canada_, by George M. Wrong. Oxford, 1914.]
+And his active military life ended with his surrender of
+Minorca in 1782. But he was greatly distinguished for
+honour and steadfastness on all occasions. An admiring
+contemporary described him as a model of all the military
+virtues except prudence. But he had more prudence and
+less genius than his admirer thought; and he showed a
+marked talent for general government. The problem before
+him was harder than his superiors could believe. He was
+expected to prepare for assimilation some sixty-five
+thousand 'new subjects' who were mostly alien in religion
+and wholly alien in every other way. But, for the moment,
+this proved the least of his many difficulties because
+no immediate results were required.
+
+While the war went on in Europe Canada remained nominally
+a part of the enemy's dominions, and so, of course, was
+subject to military rule. Sir Jeffery Amherst, the British
+commander-in-chief in America, took up his headquarters
+in New York. Under him Murray commanded Canada from
+Quebec. Under Murray, Colonel Burton commanded the district
+of Three Rivers while General Gage commanded the district
+of Montreal, which then extended to the western wilds.
+[Footnote: See _The War Chief of the Ottawas_, chap. iii.]
+
+Murray's first great trouble arose in 1761. It was caused
+by an outrageous War Office order that fourpence a day
+should be stopped from the soldiers to pay for the rations
+they had always got free. Such gross injustice, coming
+in time of war and applied to soldiers who richly deserved
+reward, made the veterans 'mad with rage.' Quebec promised
+to be the scene of a wild mutiny. Murray, like all his
+officers, thought the stoppage nothing short of robbery.
+But he threw himself into the breach. He assembled the
+officers and explained that they must die to the last
+man rather than allow the mutineers a free hand. He then
+held a general parade at which he ordered the troops to
+march between two flag-poles on pain of instant death,
+promising to kill with his own hands the first man who
+refused. He added that he was ready to hear and forward
+any well-founded complaint, but that, since insubordination
+had been openly threatened, he would insist on subordination
+being publicly shown. Then, amid tense silence, he gave
+the word of command--_Quick, March!_--while every officer
+felt his trigger. To the immense relief of all concerned
+the men stepped off, marched straight between the flags
+and back to quarters, tamed. The criminal War Office
+blunder was rectified and peace was restored in the ranks.
+
+'Murray's Report' of 1762 gives us a good view of the
+Canada of that day and shows the attitude of the British
+towards their new possession. Canada had been conquered
+by Great Britain, with some help from the American
+colonies, for three main reasons: first, to strike a
+death-blow at French dominion in America; secondly, to
+increase the opportunities of British seaborne trade;
+and, thirdly, to enlarge the area available for British
+settlement. When Murray was instructed to prepare a report
+on Canada he had to keep all this in mind; for the
+government wished to satisfy the public both at home and
+in the colonies. He had to examine the military strength
+of the country and the disposition of its population in
+case of future wars with France. He had to satisfy the
+natural curiosity of men like the London merchants. And
+he had to show how and where English-speaking settlers
+could go in and make Canada not only a British possession
+but the fourteenth British colony in North America. Burton
+and Gage were also instructed to report about their own
+districts of Three Rivers and Montreal. The documents
+they prepared were tacked on to Murray's. By June 1762
+the work was completed and sent on to Amherst, who sent
+it to England in ample time to be studied there before
+the opening of the impending negotiations for peace.
+
+Murray was greatly concerned about the military strength
+of Quebec, then, as always, the key of Canada. Like the
+unfortunate Montcalm he found the walls of Quebec badly
+built, badly placed, and falling into ruins, and he
+thought they could not be defended by three thousand men
+against 'a well conducted _Coup-de-main_.' He proposed
+to crown Cape Diamond with a proper citadel, which would
+overawe the disaffected in Quebec itself and defend the
+place against an outside enemy long enough to let a
+British fleet come up to its relief. The rest of the
+country was defended by little garrisons at Three Rivers
+and Montreal as well as by several small detachments
+distributed among the trading-posts where the white men
+and the red met in the depths of the western wilderness.
+
+The relations between the British garrison and the French
+Canadians were so excellent that what Gage reported from
+Montreal might be taken as equally true of the rest of
+the country: 'The Soldiers live peaceably with the
+Inhabitants and they reciprocally acquire an affection
+for each other.' The French Canadians numbered sixty-five
+thousand altogether, exclusive of the fur traders and
+coureurs de bois. Barely fifteen thousand lived in the
+three little towns of Quebec, Montreal, and Three Rivers;
+while over fifty thousand lived in the country. Nearly
+all the officials had gone back to France. The three
+classes of greatest importance were the seigneurs, the
+clergy, and the habitants. The lawyers were not of much
+account; the petty commercial classes of less account
+still. The coureurs de bois and other fur traders formed
+an important link between the savage and the civilized
+life of the country.
+
+Apart from furs the trade of Canada was contemptibly
+small in the eyes of men like the London merchants. But
+the opportunity of fostering all the fur trade that could
+be carried down the St Lawrence was very well worth while;
+and if there was no other existing trade worth capturing
+there seemed to be some kinds worth creating. Murray held
+out well-grounded hopes of the fisheries and forests. 'A
+Most immense Cod Fishery can be established in the River
+and Gulph of St Lawrence. A rich tract of country on the
+South Side of the Gulph will be settled and improved,
+and a port or ports furnished with every material requisite
+to repair ships.' He then went on to enumerate the other
+kinds of fishery, the abundance of whales, seals, and
+walruses in the Gulf, and of salmon up all the tributary
+rivers. Burton recommends immediate attention to the iron
+mines behind Three Rivers. All the governors expatiate
+on the vast amount of forest wealth and remind the home
+government that under the French regime the king, when
+making out patents for the seigneurs, reserved the right
+of taking wood for ship-building and fortifications from
+any of the seigneuries. Agriculture was found to be in
+a very backward state. The habitants would raise no more
+than they required for their own use and for a little
+local trade. But the fault was attributed to the gambling
+attractions of the fur trade, to the bad governmental
+system, and to the frequent interruptions of the _corvee_,
+a kind of forced labour which was meant to serve the
+public interest, but which Bigot and other thievish
+officials always turned to their own private advantage.
+On the whole, the reports were most encouraging in the
+prospects they held out to honest labour, trade, and
+government.
+
+While Murray and his lieutenants had been collecting
+information for their reports the home government had
+been undergoing many changes for the worse. The
+master-statesman Pitt had gone out of power and the
+back-stairs politician Bute had come in. Pitt's 'bloody
+and expensive war'--the war that more than any other,
+laid the foundations of the present British Empire--was
+to be ended on any terms the country could be persuaded
+to bear. Thus the end of the Seven Years' War, or, as
+the British part of it was more correctly called, the
+'Maritime War,' was no more glorious in statesmanship
+than its beginning had been in arms. But the spirit of
+its mighty heart still lived on in the Empire's grateful
+memories of Pitt and quickened the English-speaking world
+enough to prevent any really disgraceful surrender of
+the hard-won fruits of victory.
+
+The Treaty of Paris, signed on the 10th of February 1763,
+and the king's proclamation, published in October, were
+duly followed by the inauguration of civil government in
+Canada. The incompetent Bute, anxious to get Pitt out of
+the way, tried to induce him to become the first British
+governor of the new colony. Even Bute probably never
+dared to hope that Pitt would actually go out to Canada.
+But he did hope to lower his prestige by making him the
+holder of a sinecure at home. However this may be, Pitt,
+mightiest of all parliamentary ministers of war, refused
+to be made either a jobber or an exile; whereupon Murray's
+position was changed from a military command into that
+of 'Governor and Captain-General.'
+
+The changes which ensued in the laws of Canada were
+heartily welcomed so far as the adoption of the humaner
+criminal code of England was concerned. The new laws
+relating to debtor and creditor also gave general
+satisfaction, except, as we shall presently see, when
+they involved imprisonment for debt. But the tentative
+efforts to introduce English civil law side by side with
+the old French code resulted in great confusion and much
+discontent. The land laws had become so unworkable under
+this dual system that they had to be left as they were.
+A Court of Common Pleas was set up specially for the
+benefit of the French Canadians. If either party demanded
+a jury one had to be sworn in; and French Canadians were
+to be jurors on equal terms with 'the King's Old Subjects.'
+The Roman Catholic Church was to be completely tolerated
+but not in any way established. Lord Egremont, in giving
+the king's instructions to Murray, reminded him that the
+proviso in the Treaty of Paris--_as far as the Laws of
+Great Britain permit_--should govern his action whenever
+disputes arose. It must be remembered that the last
+Jacobite rising was then a comparatively recent affair,
+and that France was equally ready to upset either the
+Protestant succession in England or the British regime
+in Canada.
+
+The Indians were also an object of special solicitude in
+the royal proclamation. 'The Indians who live under our
+Protection should not be molested in the possession of
+such parts of our Dominions and Territories as, not having
+been ceded to or purchased by Us, are reserved to them.'
+The home government was far in advance of the American
+colonists in its humane attitude towards the Indians.
+The common American attitude then and long afterwards
+--indeed, up to a time well within living memory--was
+that Indians were a kind of human vermin to be exterminated
+without mercy, unless, of course, more money was to be
+made out of them alive. The result was an endless struggle
+along the ever-receding frontier of the West. And just
+at this particular time the 'Conspiracy of Pontiac' had
+brought about something like a real war. The story of
+this great effort of the Indians to stem the encroachments
+of the exterminating colonists is told in another chronicle
+of the present Series. [Footnote: The War Chief of the
+Ottawas.] The French traders in the West undoubtedly had
+a hand in stirring up the Indians. Pontiac, a sort of
+Indian Napoleon, was undoubtedly cruel as well as crafty.
+And the Indians undoubtedly fought just as the ancestors
+of the French and British used to fight when they were
+at the corresponding stage of social evolution. But the
+mere fact that so many jealously distinct tribes united
+in this common cause proves how much they all must have
+suffered at the hands of the colonists.
+
+While Pontiac's war continued in the West Murray had to
+deal with a political war in Canada which rose to its
+height in 1764. The king's proclamation of the previous
+October had 'given express Power to our Governor that,
+so soon as the state and circumstances of the said Colony
+will admit thereof, he shall call a General Assembly in
+such manner and form as is used in those Colonies and
+Provinces in America which are under our immediate
+government.' The intention of establishing parliamentary
+institutions was, therefore, perfectly clear. But it was
+equally clear that the introduction of such institutions
+was to depend on 'circumstances,' and it is well to
+remember here that these 'circumstances' were not held
+to warrant the opening of a Canadian parliament till
+1792. Now, the military government had been a great
+success. There was every reason to suppose that civil
+government by a governor and council would be the next
+best thing. And it was quite certain that calling a
+'General Assembly' at once would defeat the very ends
+which such bodies are designed to serve. More than
+ninety-nine per cent of the population were dead against
+an assembly which none of them understood and all
+distrusted. On the other hand, the clamorous minority of
+less than one per cent were in favour only of a parliament
+from which the majority should be rigorously excluded,
+even, if possible, as voters. The immense majority
+comprised the entire French-Canadian community. The
+absurdly small minority consisted mostly of Americanized
+camp-following traders, who, having come to fish in
+troubled waters, naturally wanted the laws made to suit
+poachers. The British garrison, the governing officials,
+and the very few other English-speaking people of a more
+enlightened class all looked down on the rancorous
+minority. The whole question resolved itself into this:
+should Canada be handed over to the licensed exploitation
+of a few hundred low-class camp-followers, who had done
+nothing to win her for the British Empire, who were
+despised by those who had, and who promised to be a
+dangerous thorn in the side of the new colony?
+
+What this ridiculous minority of grab-alls really wanted
+was not a parliament but a rump. Many a representative
+assembly has ended in a rump, The grab-alls wished to
+begin with one and stop there. It might be supposed that
+such pretensions would defeat themselves. But there was
+a twofold difficulty in the way of getting the truth
+understood by the English-speaking public on both sides
+of the Atlantic. In the first place, the French Canadians
+were practically dumb to the outside world. In the second,
+the vociferous rumpites had the ear of some English and
+more American commercial people who were not anxious to
+understand; while the great mass of the general public
+were inclined to think, if they ever thought at all, that
+parliamentary government must mean more liberty for every
+one concerned.
+
+A singularly apt commentary on the pretensions of the
+camp-followers is supplied by the famous, or infamous,
+'Presentment of the Grand Jury of Quebec' in October
+1764. The moving spirits of this precious jury were
+aspirants to membership in the strictly exclusive, rumpish
+little parliament of their own seeking. The signatures
+of the French-Canadian members were obtained by fraud,
+as was subsequently proved by a sworn official protestation.
+The first presentment tells its own tale, as it refers
+to the only courts in which French-Canadian lawyers were
+allowed to plead. 'The great number of inferior Courts
+are tiresome, litigious, and expensive to this poor
+Colony.' Then came a hit at the previous military
+rule--'That Decrees of the military Courts may be amended
+[after having been confirmed by legal ordinance] by
+allowing Appeals if the matter decided exceed Ten Pounds,'
+which would put it out of the reach of the 'inferior
+Courts' and into the clutches of 'the King's Old Subjects.'
+But the gist of it all was contained in the following:
+'We represent that as the Grand Jury must be considered
+at present as the only Body representative of the Colony,
+... We propose that the Publick Accounts be laid before
+the Grand Jury at least twice a year.' That the grand
+jury was to be purged of all its French-Canadian members
+is evident from the addendum slipped in behind their
+backs. This addendum is a fine specimen of verbose
+invective against 'the Church of Rome,' the Pope, Bulls,
+Briefs, absolutions, etc., the empanelling 'en Grand and
+petty Jurys' of 'papist or popish Recusants Convict,'
+and so on.
+
+The 'Presentment of the Grand Jury' was presently followed
+by _The Humble Petition of Your Majesty's most faithful
+and loyal Subjects, British Merchants and Traders, in
+behalf of Themselves and their fellow Subjects, Inhabitants
+of Your Majesty's Province of Quebec_. 'Their fellow
+Subjects' did not, of course, include any 'papist or
+popish Recusants Convict.' Among the 'Grievances and
+Distresses' enumerated were 'the oppressive and severely
+felt Military government,' the inability to 'reap the
+fruit of our Industry' under such a martinet as Murray,
+who, in one paragraph, is accused of 'suppressing dutyfull
+Remonstrances in Silence' and, in the next, of 'treating
+them with a Rage and Rudeness of Language and Demeanor
+as dishonourable to the Trust he holds of Your Majesty
+as painfull to Those who suffer from it.' Finally, the
+petitioners solemnly warn His Majesty that their 'Lives
+in the Province are so very unhappy that we must be under
+the Necessity of removing from it, unless timely prevented
+by a Removal of the present Governor.'
+
+In forwarding this document Murray poured out the vials
+of his wrath on 'the Licentious Fanaticks Trading here,'
+while he boldly championed the cause of the French
+Canadians, 'a Race, who, could they be indulged with a
+few priveledges which the Laws of England deny to Roman
+Catholicks at home, would soon get the better of every
+National Antipathy to their Conquerors and become the
+most faithful and most useful set of Men in this American
+Empire.'
+
+While these charges and counter-charges were crossing
+the Atlantic another, and much more violent, trouble came
+to a head. As there were no barracks in Canada billeting
+was a necessity. It was made as little burdensome as
+possible and the houses of magistrates were specially
+exempt. This, however, did not prevent the magistrates
+from baiting the military whenever they got the chance.
+Fines, imprisonments, and other sentences, out of all
+proportion to the offence committed, were heaped on every
+redcoat in much the same way as was then being practised
+in Boston and other hotbeds of disaffection. The redcoats
+had done their work in ridding America of the old French
+menace. They were doing it now in ridding the colonies
+of the last serious menace from the Indians. And so the
+colonists, having no further use for them, began trying
+to make the land they had delivered too hot to hold them.
+There were, of course, exceptions; and the American
+colonists had some real as well as pretended grievances.
+But wantonly baiting the redcoats had already become a
+most discreditable general practice.
+
+Montreal was most in touch with the disaffected people
+to the south. It also had a magistrate of the name of
+Walker, the most rancorous of all the disaffected
+magistrates in Canada. This Walker, well mated with an
+equally rancorous wife, was the same man who entertained
+Benjamin Franklin and the other commissioners sent by
+Congress into Canada in 1776, the year in which both the
+American Republic and a truly British Canada were born.
+He would not have been flattered could he have seen the
+entry Franklin made about him and his wife in a diary
+which is still extant. The gist of it was that wherever
+the Walkers might be they would soon set the place by
+the ears. Walker, of course, was foremost in the persecution
+of the redcoats; and he eagerly seized his opportunity
+when an officer was billeted in a house where a brother
+magistrate happened to be living as a lodger. Under such
+circumstances the magistrate could not claim exemption.
+But this made no difference either to him or to Walker.
+Captain Payne, the gentleman whose presence enraged these
+boors, was seized and thrown into gaol. The chief justice
+granted a writ of habeas corpus. But the mischief was
+done and resentment waxed high. The French-Canadian
+seigneurs sympathized with Payne, which added fuel to
+the magisterial flame; and Murray, scenting danger,
+summoned the whole bench down to Quebec.
+
+But before this bench of bumbles started some masked men
+seized Walker in his own house and gave him a good sound
+thrashing. Unfortunately they spoilt the fair reprisal
+by cutting off his ear. That very night the news had run
+round Montreal and made a start for Boston and Quebec.
+Feeling ran high; and higher still when, a few weeks
+later, the civil magistrates vented their rage on several
+redcoats by imposing sentences exceeding even the utmost
+limits of their previous vindictive action. Montreal
+became panic-stricken lest the soldiers, baited past
+endurance, should break out in open violence. Murray
+drove up, post-haste, from Quebec, ordered the affected
+regiment to another station, reproved the offending
+magistrates, and re-established public confidence. Official
+and private rewards were offered to any witnesses who
+would identify Walker's assailants. But in vain. The
+smouldering fire burst out again under Carleton. But the
+mystery was never cleared up.
+
+Things had now come to a crisis. The London merchants,
+knowing nothing about the internal affairs of Canada,
+backed the petition of the Quebec traders, who were quite
+unworthy of such support from men of real business probity
+and knowledge. The magisterial faction in Canada advertised
+their side of the case all over the colonies and in any
+sympathetic quarter they could find in England. The
+seigneurs sent home a warm defence of Murray; and Murray
+himself sent Cramahe, a very able Swiss officer in the
+British Army. The home government thus had plenty of
+contradictory evidence before it in 1765. The result was
+that Murray was called home in 1766, rather in a spirit
+of open-minded and sympathetic inquiry into his conduct
+than with any idea of censuring him. He never returned
+to Canada. But as he held the titular governorship for
+some time longer, and as he was afterwards employed in
+positions of great responsibility and trust, the verdict
+of the home authorities was clearly given in his favour.
+
+The troublous year of 1764 saw another innovation almost
+as revolutionary, compared with the old regime, as the
+introduction of civil government itself. This was the
+issue of the first newspaper in Canada, where, indeed,
+it was also the first printed thing of any kind. Nova
+Scotia had produced an earlier paper, the _Halifax
+Gazette_, which lived an intermittent life from 1752 to
+1800. But no press had ever been allowed in New France.
+The few documents that required printing had always been
+done in the mother country. Brown and Gilmore, two
+Philadelphians, were thus undertaking a pioneer business
+when they announced that 'Our Design is, in case we are
+fortunate enough to succeed, early in this spring to
+settle in this City [Quebec] in the capacity of Printers,
+and forthwith to publish a weekly newspaper in French
+and English.' The _Quebec Gazette_, which first appeared
+on the 21st of the following June, has continued to the
+present time, though it is now a daily and is known as
+the _Quebec Chronicle_. Centenarian papers are not common
+in any country; and those that have lived over a century
+and a half are very few indeed. So the _Quebec Chronicle_,
+which is the second surviving senior in America, is also
+among the great press seniors of the world.
+
+The original number is one of the curiosities of journalism.
+The publishers felt tolerably sure of having what was
+then considered a good deal of recent news for their
+three hundred readers during the open season. But, knowing
+that the supply would be both short and stale in winter,
+they held out prospects of a Canadian _Tatler_ or _Spectator_,
+without, however, being rash enough to promise a supply
+of Addisons and Steeles. Their announcement makes curious
+reading at the present day.
+
+   The Rigour of Winter preventing the arrival of ships
+   from _Europe_, and in a great measure interrupting
+   the ordinary intercourse with the Southern Provinces,
+   it will be necessary, in a paper designed for General
+   Perusal, and Publick Utility, to provide some things
+   of general Entertainment, independent of foreign
+   intelligence: we shall therefore, on such occasions,
+   present our Readers with such _Originals_, both in
+   _Prose_ and _Verse_, as will please the FANCY and
+   instruct the JUDGMENT. And here we beg leave to observe
+   that we shall have nothing so much at heart as the
+   support of VIRTUE and MORALITY and the noble cause of
+   LIBERTY. The refined amusements of LITERATURE, and
+   the pleasing veins of well pointed wit, shall also be
+   considered as necessary to this collection; interspersed
+   with chosen pieces, and curious essays, extracted from
+   the most celebrated authors; So that, blending PHILOSOPHY
+   with POLITICKS, HISTORY, &c., the youth of both sexes
+   will be improved and persons of all ranks agreeably
+   and usefully entertained. And upon the whole we will
+   labour to attain to all the exactness that so much
+   variety will permit, and give as much variety as will
+   consist with a reasonable exactness. And as this part
+   of our project cannot be carried into execution without
+   the correspondence of the INGENIOUS, we shall take
+   all opportunities of acknowledging our obligations,
+   to those who take the trouble of furnishing any matter
+   which shall tend to entertainment or instruction. Our
+   Intentions to please the _Whole_, without offence to
+   any _Individual_, will be better evinced by our practice,
+   than by writing volumes on the subject. This one thing
+   we beg may be believed, that PARTY PREJUDICE, or
+   PRIVATE SCANDAL, will never find a place in this PAPER.
+
+
+
+
+GOVERNOR CARLETON
+1766-1774
+
+The twelve years of Carleton's first administration
+naturally fall into three distinct periods of equal
+length. During the first he was busily employed settling
+as many difficulties as he could, examining the general
+state of the country, and gradually growing into the
+change that was developing in the minds of the home
+government, the change, that is, from the Americanizing
+sixties to the French-Canadian seventies. During the
+second period he was in England, helping to shape the
+famous Quebec Act. During the third he was defending
+Canada from American attack and aiding the British
+counterstroke by every means in his power.
+
+On the 22nd of September 1766 Carleton arrived at Quebec
+and began his thirty years' experience as a Canadian
+administrator by taking over the government from Colonel
+Irving, who had held it since Murray's departure in the
+spring. Irving had succeeded Murray simply because he
+happened to be the senior officer present at the time.
+Carleton himself was technically Murray's lieutenant till
+1768. But neither of these facts really affected the
+course of Canadian history.
+
+The Council, the magistrates, and the traders each
+presented. the new governor with an address containing
+the usual professions of loyal devotion. Carleton remarked
+in his dispatch that these separate addresses, and the
+marked absence of any united address, showed how much
+the population was divided. He also noted that a good
+many of the English-speaking minority had objected to
+the addresses on account of their own opposition to the
+Stamp Act, and that there had been some broken heads in
+consequence. Troubles enough soon engaged his anxious
+attention--troubles over the Indian trade, the rights
+and wrongs of the Canadian Jesuits, the wounded dignity
+of some members of the Council, and the still smouldering
+and ever mysterious Walker affair.
+
+The strife between Canada and the Thirteen Colonies over
+the Indian trade of the West remained the same in principle
+as under the old regime. The Conquest had merely changed
+the old rivalry between two foreign powers into one
+between two widely differing British possessions; and
+this, because of the general unrest among the Americans,
+made the competition more bitter, if possible, than ever.
+
+The Jesuits pressed their claims for recognition, for
+their original estates, and for compensation. But their
+order had fallen on evil days all over the world. It was
+not popular even in Canada. And the arrangement was that
+while the existing members were to be treated with every
+consideration the Society itself was to be allowed to
+die out.
+
+The offended councillors went so far as to present Carleton
+with a remonstrance which Irving himself had the misfortune
+to sign. Carleton had consulted some members on points
+with which they were specially acquainted. The members
+who had not been consulted thereupon protested to Irving,
+who assured them that Carleton must have done so by
+accident, not design. But when Carleton received a joint
+letter in which they said, 'As you are pleased to signifye
+to Us by Coll. Irving that it was accident, & not
+Intention,' he at once replied: 'As Lieutenant Colonel
+Irving has signified to you that the Part of my Conduct
+you think worthy of your Reprehension happened by Accident
+let him explain his reasons for so doing. He had no
+authority from me.' Carleton then went on to say that he
+would consult any 'Men of Good Sense, Truth, Candour,
+and Impartial Justice' whenever he chose, no matter
+whether they were councillors or not.
+
+The Walker affair, which now broke out again, was much
+more serious than the storm in the Council's teacup. It
+agitated the whole of Canada and threatened to range the
+population of Montreal and Quebec into two irreconcilable
+factions, the civil and the military. For the whole of
+the two years since Murray had been called upon to deal
+with it cleverly presented versions of Walker's views
+had been spread all over the colonies and worked into
+influential Opposition circles in England. The invectives
+against the redcoats and their friends the seigneurs were
+of the usual abusive type. But they had an unusually
+powerful effect at that particular time in the Thirteen
+Colonies as well as in what their authors hoped to make
+a Fourteenth Colony after a fashion of their own; and
+they looked plausible enough to mislead a good many
+moderate men in the mother country too. Walker's case
+was that he had an actual witness, as to the identity of
+his assailants, in the person of McGovoch, a discharged
+soldier, who laid information against one civilian, three
+British officers, and the celebrated French-Canadian
+leader, La Corne de St Luc. All the accused were arrested
+in their beds in Montreal and thrown into the common
+gaol. Walker objected to bail on the plea that his life
+would be in danger if they were allowed at large. He also
+sought to postpone the trial in order to punish the
+accused as much as possible, guilty or innocent. But
+William Hey, the chief justice, an able and upright man,
+would consent to postponement only on condition that bail
+should be allowed; so the trial proceeded. When the grand
+jury threw out the case against one of the prisoners
+Walker let loose such a flood of virulent abuse that
+moderate men were turned against him. In the end all the
+accused were honourably acquitted, while McGovoch, who
+was proved to have been a false witness from the first,
+was convicted of perjury. Carleton remained absolutely
+impartial all through, and even dismissed Colonel Irving
+and another member of the Council for heading a petition
+on behalf of the military prisoners.
+
+The Walker affair was an instance of a bad case in which
+the law at last worked well. But there were many others
+in which it did not. What with the _Coutume de Paris_,
+which is still quoted in the province of Quebec; the
+other complexities of the old French law; the doubtful
+meanings drawn from the capitulation, the treaty, the
+proclamation, and the various ordinances; the instinctive
+opposition between the French Canadians and the
+English-speaking civilians; and, finally, what with the
+portents of subversive change that were already beginning
+to overshadow all America,--what with all this and more,
+Carleton found himself faced with a problem which no man
+could have solved to the satisfaction of every one
+concerned. Each side in a lawsuit took whatever amalgam
+of French and English codes was best for its own argument.
+But, generally speaking, the ingrained feeling of the
+French Canadians was against any change of their own laws
+that was not visibly and immediately beneficial to their
+own particular interests. Moreover, the use of the unknown
+English language, the worthlessness of the rapacious
+English-speaking magistrates, and the detested innovation
+of imprisonment for debt, all combined to make every part
+of English civil law hated simply because it happened to
+be English and not French. The home authorities were
+anxious to find some workable compromise. In 1767 Carleton
+exchanged several important dispatches with them; and in
+1768 they sent out Maurice Morgan to study and report,
+after consultation with the chief justice and 'other well
+instructed persons.' Morgan was an indefatigable and
+clear-sighted man who deserves to be gratefully remembered
+by both races; for he was a good friend both to the French
+Canadians before the Quebec Act and to the United Empire
+Loyalists just before their great migration, when he was
+Carleton's secretary at New York. In 1769 the official
+correspondence entered the 'secret and confidential'
+stage with a dispatch from the home government to Carleton
+suggesting a House of Representatives to which, practically
+speaking, the towns would send Protestant members and
+the country districts Roman Catholics.
+
+In 1770 Carleton sailed for England. He carried a good
+deal of hard-won experience with him, both on this point
+and on many others. He went home with a strong opinion
+not only against an assembly but against any immediate
+attempts at Anglicization in any form. The royal
+instructions that had accompanied his commission as
+'Captain-General and Governor-in-chief' in 1768 contained
+directions for establishing the Church of England with a
+view to converting the whole population to its tenets later
+on. But no steps had been taken, and, needless to say, the
+French Canadians remained as Roman Catholic as ever.
+
+An increasingly important question, soon to overshadow
+all others, was defence. In April 1768 Carleton had
+proposed the restoration of the seigneurial militia
+system. 'All the Lands here are held of His Majesty's
+Castle of St Lewis [the governor's official residence in
+Quebec]. The Oath which the Vassals [seigneurs] take is
+very Solemn and Binding. They are obliged to appear in
+Arms for the King's defence, in case his Province is
+attacked.' Carleton pointed out that a hundred men of
+the Canadian seigneurial families were being kept on full
+pay in France, ready to return and raise the Canadians
+at the first opportunity. 'On the other hand, there are
+only about seventy of these officers in Canada who have
+been in the French service. Not one of them has been
+given a commission in the King's [George's] Service, nor
+is there One who, from any motive whatever, is induced
+to support His Government.' The few French Canadians
+raised for Pontiac's war had of course been properly paid
+during the continuance of their active service. But they
+had been disbanded like mere militia afterwards, without
+either gratuities or half-pay for the officers. This
+naturally made the class from which officers were drawn
+think that no career was open to them under the Union
+Jack and turned their thoughts towards France, where
+their fellows were enjoying full pay without a break.
+
+What made this the more serious was the weakness of the
+regular garrisons, all of which, put together, numbered
+only 1,627 men. Carleton calculated that about five
+hundred of 'the King's Old Subjects' were capable of
+bearing arms; though most of them were better at talking
+than fighting. He had nothing but contempt for 'the flimsy
+wall round Montreal,' and relied little more on the very
+defective works at Quebec. Thus with all his wonderful
+equanimity, 'grave Carleton' left Canada with no light
+heart when he took six months' leave of absence in 1770;
+and he would have been more anxious still if he could
+have foreseen that his absence was to be prolonged to no
+less than four years.
+
+He had, however, two great satisfactions. He was
+represented at Quebec by a most steadfast lieutenant,
+the quiet, alert, discreet, and determined Cramahe; and
+he was leaving Canada after having given proof of a
+disinterestedness which was worthy of the elder Pitt
+himself. When Pitt became Paymaster-General of England
+he at once declined to use the two chief perquisites of
+his office, the interest on the government balance and
+the half per cent commission on foreign subsidies, though
+both were regarded as a kind of indirect salary. When
+Carleton became governor of Canada he at once issued a
+proclamation abolishing all the fees and perquisites
+attached to his position and explained his action to the
+home authorities in the following words: 'There is a
+certain appearance of dirt, a sort of meanness, in exacting
+fees on every occasion. I think it necessary for the
+King's service that his representative should be thought
+unsullied.' Murray, who had accepted the fees, at first
+took umbrage. But Carleton soon put matters straight with
+him. The fact was that fees, and even certain perquisites,
+were no dishonour to receive, as they nearly always formed
+a recognized part, and often the whole, of a perfectly
+legal salary. But fees and perquisites could be abused;
+and they did lead to misunderstandings, even when they
+were not abused; while fixed salaries were free from both
+objections. So Carleton, surrounded by shamelessly
+rapacious magistrates and the whole vile camp-following
+gang, as well as by French Canadians who had suffered
+from the robberies of Bigot and his like, decided to
+sacrifice everything but his indispensable fixed salary
+in order that even the most malicious critics could not
+bring any accusation, however false, against the man who
+represented Britain and her king.
+
+An interesting personal interlude, which was not without
+considerable effect on Canadian history, took place in
+the middle of Carleton's four years' stay in England. He
+was forty-eight and still a bachelor. Tradition whispers
+that these long years of single life were the result of
+a disappointing love affair with Jane Carleton, a pretty
+cousin, when both he and she were young. However that
+may be, he now proposed to Lady Anne Howard, whose father,
+the Earl of Effingham, was one of his greatest friends.
+But he was doomed to a second, though doubtless very
+minor, disappointment. Lady Anne, who probably looked on
+'grave Carleton' as a sort of amiable, middle-aged uncle,
+had fallen in love with his nephew, whom she presently
+married, and with whom she afterwards went out to Canada,
+where her husband served under the rejected uncle himself.
+What added spice to this peculiar situation was the fact
+that Carleton actually married the younger sister of the
+too-youthful Lady Anne. When Lady Anne rejoined her sister
+and their bosom friend, Miss Seymour, after the
+disconcerting interview with Carleton, she explained her
+tears by saying they were due to her having been 'obliged
+to refuse the best man on earth.' 'The more fool you!'
+answered the younger sister, Lady Maria, then just
+eighteen, 'I only wish he had given me the chance!' There,
+for the time, the matter ended. Carleton went back to
+his official duties in furtherance of the Quebec Act.
+His nephew and the elder sister made mutual love. Lady
+Maria held her tongue. But Miss Seymour had not forgotten;
+and one day she mustered up courage to tell Carleton the
+story of 'the more fool you!' This decided him to act at
+once. He proposed; was accepted; and lived happily married
+for the rest of his long life. Lady Maria was small,
+fair-haired, and blue-eyed, which heightened her girlish
+appearance when, like Madame de Champlain, she came out
+to Canada with a husband more than old enough to be her
+father. But she had been brought up at Versailles. She
+knew all the aristocratic graces of the old regime. And
+her slight, upright figure--erect as any soldier's to
+her dying day--almost matched her husband's stalwart form
+in dignity of carriage.
+
+The Quebec Act of 1774--the Magna Charta of the
+French-Canadian race--finally passed the House of Lords
+on the 18th of June. The general idea of the Act was to
+reverse the unsuccessful policy of ultimate assimilation
+with the other American colonies by making Canada a
+distinctly French-Canadian province. The Maritime Provinces,
+with a population of some thirty thousand, were to be as
+English as they chose. But a greatly enlarged Quebec,
+with a population of ninety thousand, and stretching far
+into the unsettled West, was to remain equally
+French-Canadian; though the rights of what it was then
+thought would be a perpetual English-speaking minority
+were to be safeguarded in every reasonable way. The whole
+country between the American colonies and the domains of
+the Hudson's Bay Company was included in this new Quebec,
+which comprised the southern half of what is now the
+Newfoundland Labrador, practically the whole of the modern
+provinces of Quebec and Ontario, and all the western
+lands between the Ohio and the Great Lakes as far as the
+Mississippi, that is, the modern American states of Ohio,
+Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
+
+The Act gave Canada the English criminal code. It recognized
+most of the French civil law, including the seigneurial
+tenure of land. Roman Catholics were given 'the free
+Exercise' of their religion, 'subject to the King's
+Supremacy' as defined 'by an Act made in the First Year
+of Queen Elizabeth,' which Act, with a magnificently
+prophetic outlook on the future British Empire, was to
+apply to 'all the Dominions and Countries which then did,
+or thereafter should, belong to the Imperial Crown.' The
+Roman Catholic clergy were authorized to collect 'their
+accustomed Dues and Rights' from members of their own
+communion. The new oath of allegiance to the Crown was
+silent about differences of religion, so that Roman
+Catholics might take it without question. The clergy and
+seigneurs were thus restored to an acknowledged leadership
+in church and state. Those who wanted a parliament were
+distinctly told that 'It is at present inexpedient to
+call an Assembly,' and that a Council of from seventeen
+to twenty-three members, all appointed by the Crown,
+would attend to local government and have power to levy
+taxes for roads and public buildings only. Lands held
+'in free and common socage' were to be dealt with by the
+laws of England, as was all property which could be freely
+willed away. A possible establishment of the Church of
+England was provided for but never put in operation.
+
+In some ways the Act did, in other ways it did not, fulfil
+the objects of its framers. It was undoubtedly a generous
+concession to the leading French Canadians. It did help
+to keep Canada both British and Canadian. And it did open
+the way for what ought to have been a crushing attack on
+the American revolutionary forces. But it was not, and
+neither it nor any other Act could possibly have been,
+at that late hour, completely successful. It conciliated
+the seigneurs and the parochial clergy. But it did not,
+and it could not, also conciliate the lesser townsfolk
+and the habitants. For the last fourteen years the
+habitants had been gradually drifting away from their
+former habits of obedience and former obligations towards
+their leaders in church and state. The leaders had lost
+their old followers. The followers had found no new
+leaders of their own.
+
+Naturally enough, there was great satisfaction among the
+seigneurs and the clergy, with a general feeling among
+government supporters, both in England and Canada, that
+the best solution of a very refractory problem had been
+found at last. On the other hand, the Opposition in
+England, nearly every one in the American colonies, and
+the great majority of English-speaking people in
+Newfoundland, the Maritime Provinces, and Canada itself
+were dead against the Act; while the habitants, resenting
+the privileges already reaffirmed in favour of the
+seigneurs and clergy, and suspicious of further changes
+in the same unwelcome direction, were neutral at the best
+and hostile at the worst.
+
+The American colonists would have been angered in any
+case. But when they saw Canada proper made as unlike a
+'fourteenth colony' as could be, and when they also saw
+the gates of the coveted western lands closed against
+them by the same detested Act--the last of the 'five
+intolerable acts' to which they most objected--their fury
+knew no bounds. They cursed the king, the pope, and the
+French Canadians with as much violence as any temporal
+or spiritual rulers had ever cursed heretics and rebels.
+The 'infamous and tyrannical ministry' in England was
+accused of 'contemptible subservience' to the 'bloodthirsty,
+idolatrous, and hypocritical creed' of the French Canadians.
+To think that people whose religion had spread 'murder,
+persecution, and revolt throughout the world' were to be
+entrenched along the St Lawrence was bad enough. But to
+see Crown protection given to the Indian lands which the
+Americans considered their own western 'birthright' was
+infinitely worse. Was the king of England to steal the
+valley of the Mississippi in the same way as the king of
+France?
+
+It is easy to be wise after the event and hard to follow
+any counsel of perfection. But it must always be a subject
+of keen, if unavailing, regret that the French Canadians
+were not guaranteed their own way of life, within the
+limits of the modern province of Quebec, immediately
+after the capitulation of Montreal in 1760. They would
+then have entered the British Empire, as a whole people,
+on terms which they must all have understood to be
+exceedingly generous from any conquering power, and which
+they would have soon found out to be far better than
+anything they had experienced under the government of
+France. In return for such unexampled generosity they
+might have become convinced defenders of the only flag
+in the world under which they could possibly live as
+French Canadians. Their relations to each other, to the
+rest of a changing Canada, and to the Empire would have
+followed the natural course of political evolution, with
+the burning questions of language, laws, and religion
+safely removed from general controversy in after years.
+The rights of the English-speaking minority could, of
+course, have been still better safeguarded under this
+system than under the distracting series of half-measures
+which took its place. There should have been no question
+of a parliament in the immediate future. Then, with the
+peopling of Ontario by the United Empire Loyalists and
+the growth of the Maritime Provinces on the other side,
+Quebec could have entered Carleton's proposed Confederation
+in the nineties to her own and every one else's best
+advantage.
+
+On the other hand, the delay of fourteen years after the
+Capitulation of 1760 and the unwarrantable extension of
+the provincial boundaries were cardinal errors of the
+most disastrous kind. The delay, filled with a futile
+attempt at mistaken Americanization, bred doubts and
+dissensions not only between the two races but between
+the different kinds of French Canadians. When the hour
+of trial came disintegration had already gone too far.
+The mistake about the boundaries was equally bad. The
+western wilds ought to have been administered by a
+lieutenant-governor under the supervision of a
+governor-general. Even leasing them for a short term of
+years to the Hudson's Bay Company would have been better
+than annexing them to a preposterous province of Quebec.
+The American colonists would have doubtless objected to
+either alternative. But both could have been defended on
+sound principles of administration; while the sudden
+invasion of a new and inflated Quebec into the colonial
+hinterlands was little less than a declaration of war.
+The whole problem bristled with enormous difficulties,
+and the circumstances under which it had to be faced made
+an ideal solution impossible. But an earlier Quebec Act,
+without its outrageous boundary clause, would have been
+well worth the risk of passing; for the delay led many
+French Canadians to suppose, however falsely, that the
+Empire's need might always be their opportunity; and this
+idea, however repugnant to their best minds and better
+feelings, has persisted among their extreme particularists
+until the present day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+INVASION
+1775
+
+Carleton's first eight years as governor of Canada were
+almost entirely occupied with civil administration. The
+next four were equally occupied with war; so much so,
+indeed, that the Quebec Act could not be put in force on
+the 1st of May 1775, as provided for in the Act itself,
+but only bit by bit much later on. There was one short
+session of the new Legislative Council, which opened on
+the 17th of August. But all men's minds were even then
+turned towards the Montreal frontier, whence the American
+invasion threatened to overspread the whole country and
+make this opening session the last that might ever be
+held. Most of the members were soon called away from the
+council-chamber to the field. No further session could
+be held either that year or the next; and Carleton was
+obliged to nominate the judges himself. The fifteen years
+of peace were over, and Canada had once more become an
+object of contention between two fiercely hostile forces.
+
+The War of the American Revolution was a long and
+exceedingly complicated struggle; and its many varied
+fortunes naturally had a profound effect on those of
+Canada. But Canada was directly engaged in no more than
+the first three campaigns, when the Americans invaded
+her in 1775 and '76, and when the British used her as
+the base from which to invade the new American Republic
+in 1777. These first three campaigns formed a purely
+civil war within the British Empire. On each side stood
+three parties. Opponents were ranged against each other
+in the mother country, in the Thirteen Colonies, and in
+Canada. In the mother country the king and his party
+government were ranged against the Opposition and all
+who held radical or revolutionary views. Here the strife
+was merely political. But in the Thirteen Colonies the
+forces of the Crown were ranged against the forces of
+the new Continental Congress. The small minority of
+colonists who were afterwards known as the United Empire
+Loyalists sided with the Crown. A majority sided with
+the Congress. The rest kept as selfishly neutral as they
+could. Among the English-speaking civilians in Canada,
+many of whom were now of a much better class than the
+original camp-followers, the active loyalists comprised
+only the smaller half. The larger half sided with the
+Americans, as was only natural, seeing that most of them
+were immigrants from the Thirteen Colonies. But by no
+means all these sympathizers were ready for a fight.
+Among the French Canadians the loyalists included very
+few besides the seigneurs, the clergy, and a handful of
+educated people in Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec.
+The mass of the habitants were more or less neutral. But
+many of them were anti-British at first, while most of
+them were anti-American afterwards.
+
+Events moved quickly in 1775. On the 19th of April the
+'shot heard round the world' was fired at Lexington in
+Massachusetts. On the 1st of May, the day appointed for
+the inauguration of the Quebec Act, the statue of the
+king in Montreal was grossly defaced and hung with a
+cross, a necklace of potatoes, and a placard bearing the
+inscription, _Here's the Canadian Pope and English
+Fool--Voila le Pape du Canada et le sot Anglais_. Large
+rewards were offered for the detection of the culprits;
+but without avail. Excitement ran high and many an argument
+ended with a bloody nose.
+
+Meanwhile three Americans were plotting an attack along
+the old line of Lake Champlain. Two of them were outlaws
+from the colony of New York, which was then disputing
+with the neighbouring colony of New Hampshire the possession
+of the lawless region in which all three had taken refuge
+and which afterwards became Vermont. Ethan Allen, the
+gigantic leader of the wild Green Mountain Boys, had a
+price on his head. Seth Warner, his assistant, was an
+outlaw of a somewhat humbler kind. Benedict Arnold, the
+third invader, came from Connecticut. He was a horse-dealer
+carrying on business with Quebec and Montreal as well as
+the West Indies. He was just thirty-four; an excellent
+rider, a dead shot, a very fair sailor, and captain of
+a crack militia company. Immediately after the affair at
+Lexington he had turned out his company, reinforced by
+undergraduates from Yale, had seized the New Haven powder
+magazine and marched over to Cambridge, where the
+Massachusetts Committeemen took such a fancy to him that
+they made him a colonel on the spot, with full authority
+to raise men for an immediate attack on Ticonderoga. The
+opportunity seemed too good to be lost; though the
+Continental Congress was not then in favour of attacking
+Canada, as its members hoped to see the Canadians throw
+off the yoke of empire on their own account. The British
+posts on Lake Champlain were absurdly undermanned.
+Ticonderoga contained two hundred cannon, but only forty
+men, none of whom expected an attack. Crown Point had
+only a sergeant and a dozen men to watch its hundred and
+thirteen pieces. Fort George, at the head of Lake George,
+was no better off; and nothing more had been done to man
+the fortifications at St Johns on the Richelieu, where
+there was an excellent sloop as well as many cannon in
+charge of the usual sergeant's guard. This want of
+preparation was no fault of Carleton's. He had frequently
+reported home on the need of more men. Now he had less
+than a thousand regulars to defend the whole country:
+and not another man was to arrive till the spring of next
+year. When Gage was hard pressed for reinforcements at
+Boston in the autumn of 1774 Carleton had immediately
+sent him two excellent battalions that could ill be spared
+from Canada. But when Carleton himself made a similar
+request, in the autumn of 1775, Admiral Graves, to his
+lasting dishonour, refused to sail up to Quebec so late
+as October.
+
+The first moves of the three Americans smacked strongly
+of a well-staged extravaganza in which the smart Yankees
+never failed to score off the dunderheaded British. The
+Green Mountain Boys assembled on the east side of the
+lake. Spies walked in and out of Ticonderoga, exactly
+opposite, and reported to Ethan Allen that the commandant
+and his whole garrison of forty unsuspecting men would
+make an easy prey. Allen then sent eighty men down to
+Skenesborough (now Whitehall) at the southern end of the
+lake, to take the tiny post there and bring back boats
+for the crossing on the 10th of May. Then Arnold turned
+up with his colonel's commission, but without the four
+hundred men it authorized him to raise. Allen, however,
+had made himself a colonel too, with Warner as his
+second-in-command. So there were no less than three
+colonels for two hundred and thirty men. Arnold claimed
+the command by virtue of his Massachusetts commission.
+But the Green Mountain Boys declared they would follow
+no colonels but their own; and so Arnold, after being
+threatened with arrest, was appointed something like
+chief of the staff, on the understanding that he would
+make himself generally useful with the boats. This
+appointment was made at dawn on the 10th of May, just as
+the first eighty men were advancing to the attack after
+crossing over under cover of night. The British sentry's
+musket missed fire; whereupon he and the guard were
+rushed, while the rest of the garrison were surprised in
+their beds. Ethan Allen, who knew the fort thoroughly,
+hammered on the commandant's door and summoned him to
+surrender 'In the name of the Great Jehovah and the
+Continental Congress!' The astonished commandant, seeing
+that resistance was impossible, put on his dressing-gown
+and paraded his disarmed garrison as prisoners of war.
+Seth Warner presently arrived with the rest of Allen's
+men and soon became the hero of Crown Point, which he
+took with the whole of its thirteen men and a hundred
+and thirteen cannon. Then Arnold had his own turn, in
+command of an expedition against the sergeant's guard,
+cannon, stores, fort, and sloop at St Johns on the
+Richelieu, all of which he captured in the same absurdly
+simple way. When he came sailing back the three victorious
+commanders paraded all their men and fired off many
+straggling fusillades of joy. In the meantime the
+Continental Congress at Philadelphia, with a delightful
+touch of unconscious humour, was gravely debating the
+following resolution, which was passed on the 1st of
+June: _That no Expedition or Incursion ought to be
+undertaken or made, by any Colony or body of Colonists,
+against or into Canada_.
+
+The same Congress, however, found reasons enough for
+changing its mind before the month of May was out. The
+British forces in Canada had already begun to move towards
+the threatened frontier. They had occupied and strengthened
+St Johns. And the Americans were beginning to fear lest
+the command of Lake Champlain might again fall into
+British hands. On the 27th of May the Congress closed
+the phase of individual raids and inaugurated the phase
+of regular invasion by commissioning General Schuyler to
+'pursue any measures in Canada that may have a tendency
+to promote the peace and security of these Colonies.'
+Philip Schuyler was a distinguished member of the family
+whose head had formulated the 'Glorious Enterprize' of
+conquering New France in 1689. [Footnote: See, in this
+Series, _The Fighting Governor_.] So it was quite in line
+with the family tradition for him to be under orders to
+'take possession of St Johns, Montreal, and any other
+parts of the country,' provided always, adds the cautious
+Congress, that 'General Schuyler finds it practicable,
+and that it will not be disagreeable to the Canadians.'
+
+A few days later Arnold was trying to get a colonelcy
+from the Convention of New York, whose members just then
+happened to be thinking of giving commissions to his
+rivals, the leaders of the Green Mountain Boys, while,
+to make the complication quite complete, these Boys
+themselves had every intention of electing officers on
+their own account. In the meantime Connecticut, determined
+not to be forestalled by either friend or foe, ordered
+a thousand men to Ticonderoga and commissioned a general
+called Wooster to command them. Thus early were sown the
+seeds of those dissensions between Congress troops and
+Colony troops which nearly drove Washington mad.
+
+Schuyler reached Ticonderoga in mid-July and assumed his
+position as Congressional commander-in-chief. Unfortunately
+for the good of the service he had only a few hundred
+men with him; so Wooster, who had a thousand, thought
+himself the bigger general of the two. The Connecticut
+men followed Wooster's lead by jeering at Schuyler's men
+from New York; while the Vermonters added to the confusion
+by electing Seth Warner instead of Ethan Allen. In
+mid-August a second Congressional general arrived, making
+three generals and half a dozen colonels for less than
+fifteen hundred troops. This third general was Richard
+Montgomery, an ardent rebel of thirty-eight, who had been
+a captain in the British Army. He had sold his commission,
+bought an estate on the Hudson, and married a daughter
+of the Livingstons. The Livingstons headed the
+Anglo-American revolutionists in the colony of New York
+as the Schuylers headed the Knickerbocker Dutch. One of
+them was very active on the rebel side in Montreal and
+was soon to take the field at the head of the American
+'patriots' in Canada. Montgomery was brother to the
+Captain Montgomery of the 43rd who was the only British
+officer to disgrace himself during Wolfe's Quebec campaign,
+which he did by murdering his French-Canadian prisoners
+at Chateau Richer because they had fought disguised as
+Indians. [Footnote: See _The Passing of New France_, p.
+118.] Richard Montgomery was a much better man than his
+savage brother; though, as the sequel proves, he was by
+no means the perfect hero his American admirers would
+have the world believe. His great value at Ticonderoga
+was his professional knowledge and his ardour in the
+cause he had espoused. His presence 'changed the spirit
+of the camp.' It sadly needed change. 'Such a set of
+pusillanimous wretches never were collected' is his own
+description in a despairing letter to his wife. The
+'army,' in fact, was all parts and no whole, and all the
+parts were mere untrained militia. Moreover, the spirit
+of the 'town meeting' ruled the camp. Even a battery
+could not be moved without consulting a council of war.
+Schuyler, though far more phlegmatic than Montgomery,
+agreed with him heartily about this and many other
+exasperating points. 'If Job had been a general in my
+situation, his memory had not been so famous for patience.'
+
+Worn out by his worries, Schuyler fell ill and was sent
+to command the base at Albany. Montgomery then succeeded
+to the command of the force destined for the front. The
+plan of invasion approved by Washington was, first, to
+sweep the line of the Richelieu by taking St Johns and
+Chambly, then to take Montreal, next to secure the line
+of the St Lawrence, and finally to besiege Quebec.
+Montgomery's forces were to carry out all the preliminary
+parts alone. But Arnold was to join him at Quebec after
+advancing across country from the Kennebec to the Chaudiere
+with a flying column of Virginians and New Englanders.
+
+Carleton opened the melancholy little session of the new
+Legislative Council at Quebec on the very day Montgomery
+arrived at Ticonderoga--the 17th of August. When he closed
+it, to take up the defence of Canada, the prospect was
+already black enough, though it grew blacker still as
+time went on. Immediately on hearing the news of
+Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and St Johns at the end of May
+he had sent every available man from Quebec to Montreal,
+whence Colonel Templer had already sent off a hundred
+and forty men to St Johns, while calling for volunteers
+to follow. The seigneurial class came forward at once.
+But all attempts to turn out the militia en masse_ proved
+utterly futile. Fourteen years of kindly British rule
+had loosened the old French bonds of government and the
+habitants were no longer united as part of one people
+with the seigneurs and the clergy. The rebels had been
+busy spreading insidious perversions of the belated Quebec
+Act, poisoning the minds of the habitants against the
+British government, and filling their imaginations with
+all sorts of terrifying doubts. The habitants were
+ignorant, credulous, and suspicious to the last degree.
+The most absurd stories obtained ready credence and ran
+like wildfire through the province. Seven thousand Russians
+were said to be coming up the St Lawrence--whether as
+friends or foes mattered nothing compared with the awful
+fact that they were all outlandish bogeys. Carleton was
+said to have a plan for burning alive every habitant he
+could lay his hands on. Montgomery's thousand were said
+to be five thousand, with many more to follow. And later
+on, when Arnold's men came up the Kennebec, it was
+satisfactorily explained to most of the habitants that
+it was no good resisting dead-shot riflemen who were
+bullet-proof themselves. Carleton issued proclamations.
+The seigneurs waved their swords. The clergy thundered
+from their pulpits. But all in vain. Two months after
+the American exploits on Lake Champlain Carleton gave a
+guinea to the sentry mounted in his honour by the local
+militia colonel, M. de Tonnancour, because this man was
+the first genuine habitant he had yet seen armed in the
+whole district of Three Rivers. What must Carleton have
+felt when the home government authorized him to raise
+six thousand of His Majesty's loyal French-Canadian
+subjects for immediate service and informed him that the
+arms and equipment for the first three thousand were
+already on the way to Canada! Seven years earlier it
+might still have been possible to raise French-Canadian
+counterparts of those Highland regiments which Wolfe had
+recommended and Pitt had so cordially approved. Carleton
+himself had recommended this excellent scheme at the
+proper time. But, though the home government even then
+agreed with him, they thought such a measure would raise
+more parliamentary and public clamour than they could
+safely face. The chance once lost was lost for ever.
+
+Carleton had done what he could to keep the enemy at
+arm's length from Montreal by putting every available
+man into Chambly and St Johns. He knew nothing of Arnold's
+force till it actually reached Quebec in November. Quebec
+was thought secure for the time being, and so was left
+with a handful of men under Cramahe. Montreal had a few
+regulars and a hundred 'Royal Emigrants,' mostly old
+Highlanders who had settled along the New York frontier
+after the Conquest. For the rest, it had many American
+and a few British sympathizers ready to fly at each
+others' throats and a good many neutrals ready to curry
+favour with the winners. Sorel was a mere post without
+any effective garrison. Chambly was held by only eighty
+men under Major Stopford. But its strong stone fort was
+well armed and quite proof against anything except siege
+artillery; while its little garrison consisted of good
+regulars who were well provisioned for a siege. The mass
+of Carleton's little force was at St Johns under Major
+Preston, who had 500 men of the 7th and 26th (Royal
+Fusiliers and Cameronians), 80 gunners, and 120 volunteers,
+mostly French-Canadian gentlemen. Preston was an excellent
+officer, and his seven hundred men were able to give a
+very good account of themselves as soldiers. But the fort
+was not nearly so strong as the one at Chambly; it had
+no natural advantages of position; and it was short of
+both stores and provisions.
+
+The three successive steps for Montgomery to take were
+St Johns, Chambly, and Montreal. But the natural order
+of events was completely upset by that headstrong Yankee,
+Ethan Allen, who would have his private war at Montreal,
+and by that contemptible British officer, Major Stopford,
+who would not defend Chambly. Montgomery laid siege to
+St Johns on the 18th of September, but made no substantial
+progress for more than a month. He probably had no use
+for Allen at anything like a regular siege. So Allen and
+a Major Brown went on to 'preach politicks' and concert
+a rising with men like Livingston and Walker. Livingston,
+as we have seen already, belonged to a leading New York
+family which was very active in the rebel cause; and
+Livingston, Walker, Allen, and Brown would have made a
+dangerous anti-British combination if they could only
+have worked together. But they could not. Livingston
+hurried off to join Montgomery with four hundred 'patriots'
+who served their cause fairly well till the invasion was
+over. Walker had no military qualities whatever. So Allen
+and Brown were left to their own disunited devices.
+Montreal seemed an easy prey. It had plenty of rebel
+sympathizers. Nearly all the surrounding habitants were
+either neutrals or inclined to side with the Americans,
+though not as fighting men. Carleton's order to bring in
+all the ladders, so as to prevent an escalade of the
+walls, had met with general opposition and evasion.
+Nothing seemed wanting but a good working plan.
+
+Brown, or possibly Allen himself, then hit upon the idea
+of treating Montreal very much as Allen had treated
+Ticonderoga. In any case Allen jumped at it. He jumped
+so far, indeed, that he forestalled Brown, who failed to
+appear at the critical moment. Thus, on the 24th of
+September, Allen found himself alone at Long Point with
+a hundred and twenty men in face of three times as many
+under the redoubtable Major Carden, a skilled veteran
+who had won Wolfe's admiration years before. Carden's
+force included thirty regulars, two hundred and forty
+militiamen, and some Indians, probably not over a hundred
+strong. The militia were mostly of the seigneurial class
+with a following of habitants and townsmen of both French
+and British blood. Carden broke Allen's flanks rounded
+up his centre, and won the little action easily, though
+at the expense of his own most useful life. Allen was
+very indignant at being handcuffed and marched off like
+a common prisoner after having made himself a colonel
+twice over. But Carleton had no respect for
+self-commissioned officers and had no soldiers to spare
+for guarding dangerous rebels. So he shipped Allen off
+to England, where that eccentric warrior was confined in
+Pendennis Castle near Falmouth in Cornwall.
+
+This affair, small as it was, revived British hopes in
+Montreal and induced a few more militiamen and Indians
+to come forward. But within a month more was lost at
+Chambly than had been gained at Montreal. On the 18th of
+October a small American detachment attacked Chambly with
+two little field-guns and induced it to surrender on the
+20th. If ever an officer deserved to be shot it was Major
+Stopford, who tamely surrendered his well-armed and
+well-provided fort to an insignificant force, after a
+flimsy resistance of only thirty-six hours, without even
+taking the trouble to throw his stores into the river
+that flowed beside his strong stone walls. The news of
+this disgraceful surrender, diligently spread by rebel
+sympathizers, frightened the Indians away from St Johns,
+thus depriving Major Preston, the commandant, of his best
+couriers at the very worst time. But the evil did not
+stop there; for nearly all the few French-Canadian
+militiamen whom the more distant seigneurs had been able
+to get under arms deserted _en masse_, with many threats
+against any one who should try to turn them out again.
+
+Chambly is only a short day's march from Montreal to the
+west and St Johns to the south; so its capture meant that
+St Johns was entirely cut off from the Richelieu to the
+north and dangerously exposed to being cut off from
+Montreal as well. Its ample stores and munitions of war
+were a priceless boon to Montgomery, who now redoubled
+his efforts to take St Johns. But Preston held out bravely
+for the remainder of the month, while Carleton did his
+best to help him. A fortnight earlier Carleton had arrested
+that firebrand, Walker, who had previously refused to
+leave the country, though Carleton had given him the
+chance of doing so. Mrs Walker, as much a rebel as her
+husband, interviewed Carleton and noted in her diary that
+he 'said many severe Things in very soft & Polite Termes.'
+Carleton was firm. Walker's actions, words, and
+correspondence all proved him a dangerous rebel whom no
+governor could possibly leave at large without breaking
+his oath of office. Walker, who had himself caused so
+many outrageous arrests, now not only resisted the legal
+arrest of his own person, but fired on the little party
+of soldiers who had been sent to bring him into Montreal.
+The soldiers then began to burn him out; whereupon he
+carried his wife to a window from which the soldiers
+rescued her. He then surrendered and was brought into
+Montreal, where the sight of him as a prisoner made a
+considerable impression on the waverers.
+
+A few hundred neighbouring militiamen were scraped
+together. Every one of the handful of regulars who could
+be spared was turned out. And Carleton set off to the
+relief of St Johns. But Seth Warner's Green Mountain
+Boys, reinforced by many more sharpshooters, prevented
+Carleton from landing at Longueuil, opposite Montreal.
+The remaining Indians began to slink away. The
+French-Canadian militiamen deserted fast--'thirty or
+forty of a night.' There were not two hundred regulars
+available for a march across country. And on the 30th
+Carleton was forced to give up in despair. Within the
+week St Johns surrendered with 688 men, who were taken
+south as prisoners of war. Preston had been completely
+cut off and threatened with starvation as well. So when
+he destroyed everything likely to be needed by the enemy
+he had done all that could be expected of a brave and
+capable commander.
+
+It was the 3rd of November when St Johns surrendered.
+Ten days later Montgomery occupied Montreal and Arnold
+landed at Wolfe's Cove just above Quebec. The race for
+the possession of Quebec had been a very close one. The
+race for the capture of Carleton was to be closer still.
+And on the fate of either depended the immediate, and
+perhaps the ultimate, fate of Canada.
+
+The race for Quebec had been none the less desperate
+because the British had not known of the danger from the
+south till after Arnold had suddenly emerged from the
+wilds of Maine and was well on his way to the mouth of
+the Chaudiere, which falls into the St Lawrence seven
+miles above the city. Arnold's subsequent change of sides
+earned him the execration of the Americans. But there
+can be no doubt whatever that if he had got through in
+time to capture Quebec he would have become a national
+hero of the United States. He had the advantage of leading
+picked men; though nearly three hundred faint-hearts did
+turn back half-way. But, even with picked men, his feat
+was one of surpassing excellence. His force went in eleven
+hundred strong. It came out, reduced by desertion as well
+as by almost incredible hardships, with barely seven
+hundred. It began its toilsome ascent of the Kennebec
+towards the end of September, carrying six weeks' supplies
+in the bad, hastily built boats or on the men's backs.
+Daniel Morgan and his Virginian riflemen led the way.
+Aaron Burr was present as a young volunteer. The portages
+were many and trying. The settlements were few at first
+and then wanting altogether. Early in October the drenched
+portagers were already sleeping in their frozen clothes.
+The boats began to break up. Quantities of provisions
+were lost. Soon there was scarcely anything left but
+flour and salt pork. It took nearly a fortnight to get
+past the Great Carrying Place, in sight of Mount Bigelow.
+Rock, bog, and freezing slime told on the men, some of
+whom began to fall sick. Then came the chain of ponds
+leading into Dead River. Then the last climb up to the
+height-of-land beyond which lay the headwaters of the
+Chaudiere, which takes its rise in Lake Megantic.
+
+There were sixty miles to go beyond the lake, and a badly
+broken sixty miles they were, before the first settlement
+of French Canadians could be reached. There was no trail.
+Provisions were almost at an end. Sickness increased.
+The sick began to die. 'And what was it all for? A chance
+to get killed! The end of the march was Quebec
+--impregnable!' On the 24th of October Arnold, with
+fifteen other men, began 'a race against time, a race
+against starvation' by pushing on ahead in a desperate
+effort to find food. Within a week he had reached the
+first settlement, after losing three of his five boats
+with everything in them. Three days later, and not one
+day too soon, the French Canadians met his seven hundred
+famishing men with a drove of cattle and plenty of
+provisions. The rest of the way was toilsome enough. But
+it seemed easy by comparison. The habitants were friendly,
+but very shy about enlisting, in spite of Washington's
+invitation to 'range yourselves under the standard of
+general liberty.' The Indians were more responsive, and
+nearly fifty joined on their own terms. By the 8th of
+November Arnold was marching down the south shore of the
+St Lawrence, from the Chaudiere to Point Levis, in full
+view of Quebec. He had just received a dispatch ten days
+old from Montgomery by which he learned that St Johns
+was expected to fall immediately and that Schuyler was
+no longer with the army at the front. But he could not
+tell when the junction of forces would be made; and he
+saw at once that Quebec was on the alert because every
+boat had been either destroyed or taken over to the other
+side.
+
+The spring and summer had been anxious times enough in
+Quebec. But the autumn was a great deal worse. Bad news
+kept coming down from Montreal. The disaffected got more
+and more restless and began 'to act as though no opposition
+might be shown the rebel forces.' And in October it did
+seem as if nothing could be done to stop the invaders.
+There were only a few hundred militiamen that could be
+depended on. The regulars, under Colonel Maclean, had
+gone up to help Carleton on the Montreal frontier. The
+fortifications were in no state to stand a siege. But
+Cramahe was full of steadfast energy. He had mustered
+the French-Canadian militia on September 11, the very
+day Arnold was leaving Cambridge in Massachusetts for
+his daring march against Quebec. These men had answered
+the call far better in the city of Quebec than anywhere
+else. There was also a larger proportion of English-speaking
+loyalists here than in Montreal. But no transports brought
+troops up the St Lawrence from Boston or the mother
+country, and no vessel brought Carleton down. The loyalists
+were, however, encouraged by the presence of two small
+men-of-war, one of which, the _Hunter_, had been the
+guide-ship for Wolfe's boat the night before the Battle
+of the Plains. Some minor reinforcements also kept
+arriving: veterans from the border settlements and a
+hundred and fifty men from Newfoundland. On the 3rd of
+November, the day St Johns surrendered to Montgomery, an
+intercepted dispatch had warned Cramahe of Arnold's
+approach and led him to seize all the boats on the south
+shore opposite Quebec. This was by no means his first
+precaution. He had sent some men forty miles up the
+Chaudiere as soon as the news of the raids on Lake
+Champlain and St Johns had arrived at the end of May.
+Thus, though neither of them had anticipated such a bolt
+from the blue, both Carleton and Cramahe had taken all
+the reasonable means within their most restricted power
+to provide against unforeseen contingencies.
+
+Arnold's chance of surprising Quebec had been lost ten
+days before he was able to cross the St Lawrence; and
+when the habitants on the south shore were helping his
+men to make scaling-ladders the British garrison on the
+north had already become too strong for him. But he was
+indefatigable in collecting boats and canoes at the mouth
+of the Chaudiere, and at other points higher up than
+Cramahe's men had reached when on their mission of
+destruction or removal, and he was as capable as ever
+when, on the pitch-black night of the 13th, he led his
+little flotilla through the gap between the two British
+men-of-war, the _Hunter_ and the _Lizard_. The next day
+he marched across the Plains of Abraham and saluted Quebec
+with three cheers. But meanwhile Colonel Maclean, who
+had set out to help Carleton at Montreal and turned back
+on hearing the news of St Johns, had slipped into Quebec
+on the 12th. So Arnold found himself with less than seven
+hundred effectives against the eleven hundred British
+who were now behind the walls. After vainly summoning
+the city to surrender he retired to Pointe-aux-Trembles,
+more than twenty miles up the north shore of the St
+Lawrence, there to await the arrival of the victorious
+Montgomery.
+
+Meanwhile Montgomery was racing for Carleton and Carleton
+was racing for Quebec. Montgomery's advance-guard had
+hurried on to Sorel, at the mouth of the Richelieu,
+forty-five miles below Montreal, to mount guns that would
+command the narrow channel through which the fugitive
+governor would have to pass on his way to Quebec. They
+had ample time to set the trap; for an incessant nor'-easter
+blew up the St Lawrence day after day and held Carleton
+fast in Montreal, while, only a league away, Montgomery's
+main body was preparing to cross over. Escape by land
+was impossible, as the Americans held Berthier, on the
+north shore, and had won over the habitants, all the way
+down from Montreal, on both sides of the river. At last,
+on the afternoon of the 11th, the wind shifted. Immediately
+a single cannon-shot was fired, a bugle sounded the _fall
+in!_ and 'the whole military establishment' of Montreal
+formed up in the barrack square--one hundred and thirty
+officers and men, all told. Carleton, 'wrung to the soul,'
+as one of his officers wrote home, came on parade 'firm,
+unshaken, and serene.' The little column then marched
+down to the boats through shuttered streets of timid
+neutrals and scowling rebels. The few loyalists who came
+to say good-bye to Carleton at the wharf might well have
+thought it was the last handshake they would ever get
+from a British 'Captain-General and Governor-in-chief'
+as they saw him step aboard in the dreary dusk of that
+November afternoon. And if he and they had known the
+worst they might well have thought their fate was sealed;
+for neither of them then knew that both sides of the St
+Lawrence were occupied in force at two different places
+on the perilous way to Quebec.
+
+The little flotilla of eleven vessels got safely down to
+within a few miles of Sorel, when one grounded and delayed
+the rest till the wind failed altogether at noon on the
+12th. The next three days it blew upstream without a
+break. No progress could be made as there was no room to
+tack in the narrow passages opposite Sorel. On the third
+day an American floating battery suddenly appeared, firing
+hard. Behind it came a boat with a flag of truce and the
+following summons from Colonel Easton, who commanded
+Montgomery's advance-guard at Sorel:
+
+   SIR,--By this you will learn that General Montgomery
+   is in Possession of the Fortress Montreal. You are
+   very sensible that I am in Possession at this Place,
+   and that, from the strength of the United Colonies on
+   both sides your own situation is Rendered Very
+   disagreeable. I am therefore induced to make you the
+   following Proposal, viz.:--That if you will Resign
+   your Fleet to me Immediately, without destroying the
+   Effects on Board, You and Your men shall be used with
+   due civility, together with women & Children on Board.
+   To this I shall expect Your direct and Immediate
+   answer. Should you Neglect You will Cherefully take
+   the Consequences which will follow.
+
+Carleton was surprised: and well he might be. He had not
+supposed that Montgomery's men were in any such commanding
+position. But, like Cramahe at Quebec, he refused to
+answer; whereupon Easton's batteries opened both from
+the south shore and from Isle St Ignace. Carleton's
+heaviest gun was a 9-pounder; while Easton had four
+12-pounders, one of them mounted on a rowing battery that
+soon forced the British to retreat. The skipper of the
+schooner containing the powder magazine wanted to surrender
+on the spot, especially when he heard that the Americans
+were getting some hot shot ready for him. But Carleton
+retreated upstream, twelve miles above Sorel, to Lavaltrie,
+just above Berthier on the north shore, where, on attempting
+to land, he was driven back by some Americans and habitants.
+Next morning, the 16th, a fateful day for Canada, the
+same Major Brown who had failed Ethan Allen at Montreal
+came up with a flag of truce to propose that Carleton
+should send an officer to see for himself how well all
+chance of escape had now been cut off. The offer was
+accepted; and Brown explained the situation from the
+rebel point of view. 'This is my small battery; and, even
+if you should chance to escape, I have a grand battery
+at the mouth of the Sorel [Richelieu] which will infallibly
+sink all of your vessels. Wait a little till you see the
+32-pounders that are now within half-a-mile.' There was
+a good deal of Yankee bluff in this warning, especially
+as the 32-pounders could not be mounted in time. But the
+British officer seemed perfectly satisfied that the way
+was completely blocked; and so the Americans felt sure
+that Carleton would surrender the following day.
+
+Carleton, however, was not the man to give in till the
+very last; and one desperate chance still remained. His
+flotilla was doomed. But he might still get through alone
+without it. One of the French-Canadian skippers, better
+known as 'Le Tourte' or 'Wild Pigeon' than by his own
+name of Bouchette because of his wonderfully quick trips,
+was persuaded to make the dash for freedom. So Carleton,
+having ordered Prescott, his second-in-command, not to
+surrender the flotilla before the last possible moment,
+arranged for his own escape in a whaleboat. It was with
+infinite precaution that he made his preparations, as
+the enemy, though confident of taking him, were still on
+the alert to prevent such a prize from slipping through
+their fingers. He dressed like a habitant from head to
+foot, putting on a tasselled _bonnet rouge_ and an _etoffe
+du pays_ (grey homespun) suit of clothes, with a red sash
+and _bottes sauvages_ like Indian moccasins. Then the
+whaleboat was quietly brought alongside. The crew got in
+and plied their muffled oars noiselessly down to the
+narrow passage between Isle St Ignace and the Isle du
+Pas, where they shipped the oars and leaned over the side
+to paddle past the nearest battery with the palms of
+their hands. It was a moment of breathless excitement;
+for the hope of Canada was in their keeping and no turning
+back was possible. But the American sentries saw no
+furtive French Canadians gliding through that dark November
+night and heard no suspicious noises above the regular
+ripple of the eddying island current. One tense half-hour
+and all was over, The oars were run out again; the men
+gave way with a will; and Three Rivers was safely reached
+in the morning.
+
+Here Carleton met Captain Napier, who took him aboard
+the armed ship _Fell_, in which he continued his journey
+to Quebec. He was practically safe aboard the _Fell_;
+for Arnold had neither an army strong enough to take
+Quebec nor any craft big enough to fight a ship. But the
+flotilla above Sorel was doomed. After throwing all its
+powder into the St Lawrence it surrendered on the 19th,
+the very day Carleton reached Quebec. The astonished
+Americans were furious when they found that Carleton had
+slipped through their fingers after all. They got Prescott,
+whom they hated; and they released Walker, whom Carleton
+was taking as a prisoner to Quebec. But no friends and
+foes like Walker and Prescott could make up for the loss
+of Carleton, who was the heart as well as the head of
+Canada at bay.
+
+The exultation of the British more than matched the
+disappointment of the Americans. Thomas Ainslie, collector
+of customs and captain of militia at Quebec, only expressed
+the feelings of all his fellow-loyalists when he made
+the following entry in the extremely accurate diary he
+kept throughout those troublous times:
+
+'On the 19th (a Happy Day for Quebec!), to the unspeakable
+joy of the friends of the Government, and to the utter
+Dismay of the abettors of Sedition and Rebellion, General
+Carleton arrived in the _Fell_, arm'd ship, accompanied
+by an arm'd schooner. We saw our Salvation in his Presence.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+BELEAGUERMENT
+1775-1776
+
+When Carleton finally turned at bay within the walls of
+Quebec the British flag waved over less than a single
+one out of the more than a million square miles that had
+so recently been included within the boundaries of Canada.
+The landward walls cut off the last half-mile of the
+tilted promontory which rises three hundred feet above
+the St Lawrence but only one hundred above the valley of
+the St Charles. This promontory is just a thousand yards
+wide where the landward walls run across it, and not much
+wider across the world-famous Heights and Plains of
+Abraham, which then covered the first two miles beyond.
+The whole position makes one of Nature's strongholds when
+the enemy can be kept at arm's length. But Carleton had
+no men to spare for more than the actual walls and the
+narrow little strip of the Lower Town between the base
+of the cliff and the St Lawrence. So the enemy closed in
+along the Heights' and among the suburbs, besides occupying
+any point of vantage they chose across the St Lawrence
+or St Charles.
+
+The walls were by no means fit to stand a siege, a fact
+which Carleton had frequently reported. But, as the
+Americans had neither the men nor the material for a
+regular siege, they were obliged to confine themselves
+to a mere beleaguerment, with the chance of taking Quebec
+by assault. One of Carleton's first acts was to proclaim
+that every able-bodied man refusing to bear arms was to
+leave the town within four days. But, though this had
+the desired effect of clearing out nearly all the dangerous
+rebels, the Americans still believed they had enough
+sympathizers inside to turn the scale of victory if they
+could only manage to take the Lower Town, with all its
+commercial property and shipping, or gain a footing
+anywhere within the walls.
+
+There were five thousand souls left in Quebec, which was
+well provisioned for the winter. The women, children,
+and men unfit to bear arms numbered three thousand. The
+'exempts' amounted to a hundred and eighty. As there was
+a growing suspicion about many of these last, Carleton
+paraded them for medical examination at the beginning of
+March, when, a good deal more than half were found quite
+fit for duty. These men had been malingering all winter
+in order to skulk out of danger; so he treated them with
+extreme leniency in only putting them on duty as a 'company
+of Invalids.' But the slur stuck fast. The only other
+exceptions to the general efficiency were a very few
+instances of cowardice and many more of slackness. The
+militia order-books have repeated entries about men who
+turned up late for even important duties as well as about
+others whose authorized substitutes were no better than
+themselves. But it should be remembered that, as a whole,
+the garrison did exceedingly good service and that all
+the malingerers and serious delinquents together did not
+amount to more than a tenth of its total, which is a
+small proportion for such a mixed body.
+
+The effective strength at the beginning of the siege was
+eighteen hundred of all ranks. Only one hundred of these
+belonged to the regular British garrison in Canada--a
+few staff-officers, twenty-two men of the Royal Artillery,
+and seventy men of the 7th Royal Fusiliers, a regiment
+which was to be commanded in Quebec sixteen years later
+by Queen Victoria's father, the Duke of Kent. The Fusiliers
+and two hundred and thirty 'Royal Emigrants' were formed
+into a little battalion under Colonel Maclean, a first-rate
+officer and Carleton's right-hand man in action. 'His
+Majesty's Royal Highland Regiment of Emigrants,' which
+subsequently became the 84th Foot, now known as the 2nd
+York and Lancaster, was hastily raised in 1775 from the
+Highland veterans who had settled in the American colonies
+after the Peace of 1763. Maclean's two hundred and thirty
+were the first men he could get together in time to reach
+Quebec. The only other professional fighters were four
+hundred blue-jackets and thirty-five marines of H.M.SS.
+_Lizard_ and _Hunter_, who were formed into a naval
+battalion under their own officers, Captains Hamilton
+and McKenzie, Hamilton being made a lieutenant-colonel
+and McKenzie a major while doing duty ashore. Fifty
+masters and mates of trading vessels were enrolled in
+the same battalion. The whole of the shipping was laid
+up for the winter in the Cul de Sac, which alone made
+the Lower Town a prize worth taking. The 'British Militia'
+mustered three hundred and thirty, the 'Canadian Militia'
+five hundred and forty-three. These two corps included
+practically all the official and business classes in
+Quebec and formed nearly half the total combatants. Some
+of them took no pay and were not bound to service beyond
+the neighbourhood of Quebec, thus being very much like
+the Home Guards raised all over Canada and the rest of
+the Empire during the Great World War of 1914. All the
+militia wore dark green coats with buff waistcoats and
+breeches. The total of eighteen hundred was completed by
+a hundred and twenty 'artificers,' that is, men who would
+now belong to the Engineers, Ordnance, and Army Service
+Corps. As the composition of this garrison has been so
+often misrepresented, it may be as well to state distinctly
+that the past or present regulars of all kinds, soldiers
+and sailors together, numbered eight hundred and the
+militia and other non-regulars a thousand. The French
+Canadians, very few of whom were or had been regulars,
+formed less than a third of the whole.
+
+Montgomery and Arnold had about the same total number of
+men. Sometimes there were more, sometimes less. But what
+made the real difference, and what really turned the
+scale, was that the Americans had hardly any regulars
+and that their effectives rarely averaged three-quarters
+of their total strength. The balance was also against
+them in the matter of armament. For, though Morgan's
+Virginians had many more rifles than were to be found
+among the British, the Americans in general were not so
+well off for bayonets and not so well able to use those
+they had; while the artillery odds were still more against
+them. Carleton's artillery was not of the best. But it
+was better than that of the Americans. He decidedly
+overmatched them in the combined strength of all kinds
+of ordnance--cannons, carronades, howitzers, mortars,
+and swivels. Cannons and howitzers fired shot and shell
+at any range up to the limit then reached, between two
+and three miles. Carronades were on the principle of a
+gigantic shotgun, firing masses of bullets with great
+effect at very short ranges--less than that of a long
+musket-shot, then reckoned at two hundred yards. The
+biggest mortars threw 13-inch 224-lb shells to a great
+distance. But their main use was for high-angle fire,
+such as that from the suburb of St Roch under the walls
+of Quebec. Swivels were the smallest kind of ordnance,
+firing one-, two-, or three-pound balls at short or medium
+ranges. They were used at convenient points to stop
+rushes, much like modern machine-guns.
+
+Thanks chiefly to Cramahe, the defences were not nearly
+so 'ruinous' as Arnold at first had thought them. The
+walls, however useless against the best siege artillery,
+were formidable enough against irregular troops and
+makeshift batteries; while the warehouses and shipping
+in the Lower Town were protected by two stockades, one
+straight under Cape Diamond, the other at the corner
+where the Lower Town turns into the valley of the St
+Charles. The first was called the Pres-de-Ville, the
+second the Sault-au-Matelot. The shipping was open to
+bombardment from the Levis shore. But the Americans had
+no guns to spare for this till April.
+
+Montgomery's advance was greatly aided by the little
+flotilla which Easton had captured at Sorel. Montgomery
+met Arnold at Pointe-aux-Trembles, twenty miles above
+Quebec, on the 2nd of December and supplied his little
+half-clad force with the British uniforms taken at St
+Johns and Chambly. He was greatly pleased with the
+magnificent physique of Arnold's men, the fittest of an
+originally well-picked lot. He still had some 'pusillanimous
+wretches' among his own New Yorkers, who resented the
+air of superiority affected by Arnold's New Englanders
+and Morgan's Virginians. He felt a well-deserved confidence
+in Livingston and some of the English-speaking Canadian
+'patriots' whom Livingston had brought into his camp
+before St Johns in September. But he began to feel more
+and more doubtful about the French Canadians, most of
+whom began to feel more and more doubtful about themselves.
+On the 6th he arrived before Quebec and took up his
+quarters in Holland House, two miles beyond the walls,
+at the far end of the Plains of Abraham. The same day he
+sent Carleton the following summons:
+
+   SIR;--Notwithstanding the personal ill-treatment I
+   have received at your hands--notwithstanding your
+   cruelty to the unhappy Prisoners you have taken, the
+   feelings of humanity induce me to have recourse to
+   this expedient to save you from the Destruction which
+   hangs over you. Give me leave, Sir, to assure you that
+   I am well acquainted with your situation. A great
+   extent of works, in their nature incapable of defence,
+   manned with a motley crew of sailors, the greatest
+   part our friends; of citizens, who wish to see us
+   within their walls, & a few of the worst troops who
+   ever stiled themselves Soldiers. The impossibility of
+   relief, and the certain prospect of wanting every
+   necessary of life, should your opponents confine their
+   operations to a simple Blockade, point out the absurdity
+   of resistance. Such is your situation! I am at the
+   head of troops accustomed to Success, confident of
+   the righteousness of the cause they are engaged in,
+   inured to danger, & so highly incensed at your
+   inhumanity, illiberal abuse, and the ungenerous means
+   employed to prejudice them in the mind of the Canadians
+   that it is with difficulty I restrain them till my
+   Batteries are ready from assaulting your works, which
+   afford them a fair opportunity of ample vengeance and
+   just retaliation. Firing upon a flag of truce, hitherto
+   unprecedented, even among savages, prevents my taking
+   the ordinary mode of communicating my sentiments.
+   However, I will at any rate acquit my conscience.
+   Should you persist in an unwarrantable defence, the
+   consequences be upon your own head. Beware of destroying
+   stores of any kind, Publick or Private, as you have
+   done at Montreal and in Three Rivers--If you do, by
+   Heaven, there will be no mercy shown.
+
+Though Montgomery wrote bunkum like the common politician
+of that and many a later age, he was really a brave
+soldier. What galled him into fury was 'grave Carleton's'
+quiet refusal to recognize either him or any other rebel
+commander as the accredited leader of a hostile army. It
+certainly must have been exasperating for the general of
+the Continental Congress to be reduced to such expedients
+as tying a grandiloquent ultimatum to an arrow and shooting
+it into the beleaguered town. The charge of firing on
+flags of truce was another instance of 'talking for
+Buncombe.' Carleton never fired on any white flag. But
+he always sent the same answer: that he could hold no
+communication with any rebels unless they came to implore
+the king's pardon. This, of course, was an aggravation
+of his offensive calmness in the face of so much
+revolutionary rage. To individual rebels of all sorts he
+was, if anything, over-indulgent. He would not burn the
+suburbs of Quebec till the enemy forced him to it, though
+many of the houses that gave the Americans the best cover
+belonged to rebel Canadians. He went out of his way to
+be kind to all prisoners, especially if sick or wounded.
+And it was entirely owing to his restraining influence
+that the friendly Indians had not raided the border
+settlements of New England during the summer. Nor was he
+animated only by the very natural desire of bringing back
+rebellious subjects to what he thought their true
+allegiance, as his subsequent actions amply proved. He
+simply acted with the calm dignity and impartial justice
+which his position required.
+
+Three days before Christmas the bombardment began in
+earnest. The non-combatants soon found, to their equal
+amazement and delight, that a good many shells did very
+little damage if fired about at random. But news intended
+to make their flesh creep came in at the same time, and
+probably had more effect than the shells on the weak-kneed
+members of the community. Seven hundred scaling-ladders,
+no quarter if Carleton persisted in holding out, and a
+prophecy attributed to Montgomery that he would eat his
+Christmas dinner either in Quebec or in Hell--these were
+some of the blood-curdling items that came in by petticoat
+or arrow post. One of the most active purveyors of all
+this bombast was Jerry Duggan, a Canadian 'patriot' barber
+now become a Continental major.
+
+But there was a serious side. Deserters and prisoners,
+as well as British adherents who had escaped, all began
+to tell the same tale, though with many variations.
+Montgomery was evidently bent on storming the walls the
+first dark night. His own orders showed it.
+
+   HEAD QUARTERS, HOLLAND HOUSE.
+   Near Quebec, 15th Decr. 1755.
+
+   The General having in vain offered the most favourable
+   terms of accommodation to the Governor of Quebec, &
+   having taken every possible step to prevail on the
+   inhabitants to desist from seconding him in his wild
+   scheme of defending the Town--for the speedy reduction
+   of the only hold possessed by the Ministerial Troops
+   in this Province--The soldiers, flushed with continual
+   success, confident of the justice of their cause, &
+   relying on that Providence which has uniformly protected
+   them, will advance with alacrity to the attack of
+   works incapable of being defended by the wretched
+   Garrison posted behind them, consisting of Sailors
+   unacquainted with the use of arms, of Citizens incapable
+   of Soldiers' duty, & of a few miserable Emigrants.
+   The General is confident that a vigorous & spirited
+   attack must be attended with success. The Troops shall
+   have the effects of the Governor, Garrison, & of such
+   as have been active in misleading the Inhabitants &
+   distressing the friends of liberty, equally divided
+   among them, except the 100th share out of the whole,
+   which shall be at the disposal of the General to be
+   given to such soldiers as distinguished themselves by
+   their activity & bravery, to be sold at public auction:
+   the whole to be conducted as soon as the City is in
+   our hands and the inhabitants disarmed.
+
+It was a week after these orders had been written before
+the first positive news of the threatened assault was
+brought into town by an escaped British prisoner who,
+strangely enough, bore the name of Wolfe. Wolfe's escape
+naturally caused a postponement of Montgomery's design
+and a further council of war. Unlike most councils of
+war this one was full of fight. Three feints were to be
+made at different points while the real attack was to be
+driven home at Cape Diamond. But just after this decision
+had been reached two rebel Montrealers came down and, in
+another debate, carried the day for another plan. These
+men, Antell and Price, were really responsible for the
+final plan, which, like its predecessor, did not meet
+with Montgomery's approval. Montgomery wanted to make a
+breach before trying the walls. But he was no more than
+the chairman of a committee; and this egregious committee
+first decided to storm the unbroken walls and then changed
+to an attack on the Lower Town only. Antell was Montgomery's
+engineer. Price was a red-hot agitator. Both were better
+at politics than soldiering. Their argument was that if
+the Lower Town could be taken the Quebec militia would
+force Carleton to surrender in order to save the warehouses,
+shipping, and other valuable property along the waterfront,
+and that even if Carleton held out in debate he would
+soon be brought to his knees by the Americans, who would
+march through the gates, which were to be opened by the
+'patriots' inside.
+
+Another week passed; and Montgomery had not eaten his
+Christmas dinner either in Quebec or in the other place.
+But both sides knew the crisis must be fast approaching;
+for the New Yorkers had sworn that they would not stay
+a minute later than the end of the year, when their term
+of enlistment was up. Thus every day that passed made an
+immediate assault more likely, as Montgomery had to strike
+before his own men left him. Yet New Year's Eve itself
+began without the sign of an alarm.
+
+Carleton had been sleeping in his clothes at the Recollets',
+night after night, so that he might be first on parade
+at the general rendezvous on the Place d'Armes, which
+stood near the top of Mountain Hill, the only road between
+the Upper and the Lower Town. Officers and men off duty
+had been following his example; and every one was ready
+to turn out at a moment's notice.
+
+A north-easterly snowstorm was blowing furiously, straight
+up the St Lawrence, making Quebec a partly seen blur to
+the nearest American patrols and the Heights of Abraham
+a wild sea of whirling drifts to the nearest British
+sentries. One o'clock passed, and nothing stirred. But
+when two o'clock struck at Holland House Montgomery rose
+and began to put the council's plan in operation. The
+Lower Town was to be attacked at both ends. The
+Pres-de-Ville barricade was to be carried by Montgomery
+and the Sault-au-Matelot by Arnold, while Livingston was
+to distract Carleton's attention as much as possible by
+making a feint against the landward walls, where the
+British still expected the real attack. Livingston's
+Canadian fighting 'patriots' waded through the drifts,
+against the storm, across the Plains, and took post close
+in on the far side of Cape Diamond, only eighty yards
+from the same walls that were to have been stormed some
+days before. Jerry Duggan's parasitic Canadian 'patriots'
+took post in the suburb of St John and thence round to
+Palace Gate. Montgomery led his own column straight to
+Wolfe's Cove, whence he marched in along the narrow path
+between the cliff and the St Lawrence till he reached
+the spot at the foot of Cape Diamond just under the right
+of Livingston's line. Arnold, whose quarters were in the
+valley of the St Charles, took post in St Roch, with a
+mortar battery to fire against the walls and a column of
+men to storm the Sault-au-Matelot. Livingston's and Jerry
+Duggan's whole command numbered about four hundred men,
+Montgomery's five hundred, Arnold's six. The opposing
+totals were fifteen hundred Americans against seventeen
+hundred British. There was considerable risk of confusion
+between friend and foe, as most of the Americans, especially
+Arnold's men, wore captured British uniforms with nothing
+to distinguish them but odds and ends of their former
+kits and a sort of paper hatband bearing the inscription
+_Liberty or Death_.
+
+A little after four the sentries on the walls at Cape
+Diamond saw lights flashing about in front of them and
+were just going to call the guard when Captain Malcolm
+Fraser of the Royal Emigrants came by on his rounds and
+saw other lights being set out in regular order like
+lamps in a street. He instantly turned out the guards
+and pickets. The drums beat to arms. Every church bell
+in the city pealed forth its alarm into that wild night.
+The bugles blew. The men off duty swarmed on to the Place
+d'Armes, where Carleton, calm and intrepid as ever, took
+post with the general reserve and waited. There was
+nothing for him to do just yet. Everything that could
+have been foreseen had already been amply provided for;
+and in his quiet confidence his followers found their
+own.
+
+Towards five o'clock two green rockets shot up from
+Montgomery's position beside the Anse des Meres under
+Cape Diamond. This was the signal for attack. Montgomery's
+column immediately struggled on again along the path
+leading round the foot of the Cape towards the Pres-de-Ville
+barricade. Livingston's serious 'patriots' on the top of
+the Cape changed their dropping shots into a hot fire
+against the walls; while Jerry Duggan's little mob of
+would-be looters shouted and blazed away from safer cover
+in the suburbs of St John and St Roch. Arnold's mortars
+pitched shells all over the town; while his storming-party
+advanced towards the Sault-au-Matelot barricade. Carleton,
+naturally anxious about the landward walls, sent some of
+the British militia to reinforce the men at Cape Diamond,
+which, as he knew, Montgomery considered the best point
+of attack. The walls lower down did not seem to be in
+any danger from Jerry Duggan's 'patriots,' whose noisy
+demonstration was at once understood to be nothing but
+an empty feint. The walls facing the St Charles were well
+manned and well gunned by the naval battalion. Those
+facing the St Lawrence, though weak in themselves, were
+practically impregnable, as the cliffs could not be scaled
+by any formed body. The Lower Town, however, was by no
+means so safe, in spite of its two barricades. The general
+uproar was now so great that Carleton could not distinguish
+the firing there from what was going on elsewhere. But
+it was at these two points that the real attack was
+rapidly developing.
+
+The first decisive action took place at Pres-de-Ville.
+The guard there consisted of fifty men--John Coffin, who
+was a merchant of Quebec, Sergeant Hugh McQuarters of
+the Royal Artillery, Captain Barnsfair, a merchant skipper,
+with fifteen mates and skippers like himself, and thirty
+French Canadians under Captain Chabot and Lieutenant
+Picard. These fifty men had to guard a front of only as
+many feet. On their right Cape Diamond rose almost sheer.
+On their left raged the stormy St Lawrence. They had a
+tiny block-house next to the cliff and four small guns
+on the barricade, all double-charged with canister and
+grape. They had heard the dropping shots on the top of
+the Cape for nearly an hour and had been quick to notice
+the change to a regular hot fire. But they had no idea
+whether their own post was to be attacked or not till
+they suddenly saw the head of Montgomery's column halting
+within fifty paces of them. A man came forward cautiously
+and looked at the barricade. The storm was in his face.
+The defences were wreathed in whirling snow. And the men
+inside kept silent as the grave. When he went back a
+little group stood for a couple of minutes in hurried
+consultation. Then Montgomery waved his sword, called
+out 'Come on, brave boys, Quebec is ours!' and led the
+charge. The defenders let the Americans get about half-way
+before Barnsfair shouted 'Fire!' Then the guns and muskets
+volleyed together, cutting down the whole front of the
+densely massed column. Montgomery, his two staff-officers,
+and his ten leading men were instantly killed. Some more
+farther back were wounded. And just as the fifty British
+fired their second round the rest of the five hundred
+Americans turned and ran in wild confusion.
+
+A few minutes later a man whose identity was never
+established came running from the Lower Town to say that
+Arnold's men had taken the Sault-au-Matelot barricade.
+If this was true it meant that the Pres-de-Ville fifty
+would be caught between two fires. Some of them made as
+if to run back and reach Mountain Hill before the Americans
+could cut them off. But Coffin at once threatened to kill
+the first man to move; and by the time an artillery
+officer had arrived with reinforcements perfect order
+had been restored. This officer, finding he was not wanted
+there, sent back to know where else he was to go, and
+received an answer telling him to hurry to the
+Sault-au-Matelot. When he arrived there, less than half
+a mile off, he found that desperate street fighting had
+been going on for over an hour.
+
+Arnold's advance had begun at the same time as Livingston's
+demonstration and Montgomery's attack. But his task was
+very different and the time required much longer. There
+were three obstacles to be overcome. First, his men had
+to run the gauntlet of the fire from the bluejackets
+ranged along the Grand Battery, which faced the St Charles
+at its mouth and overlooked the narrow little street of
+Sous-le-Cap at a height of fifty or sixty feet. Then they
+had to take the small advanced barricade, which stood a
+hundred yards on the St Charles side of the actual
+Sault-au-Matelot or Sailor's Leap, which is the
+north-easterly point of the Quebec promontory and nearly
+a hundred feet high. Finally, they had to round this
+point and attack the regular Sault-au-Matelot barricade.
+This second barricade was about a hundred yards long,
+from the rock to the river. It crossed Sault-au-Matelot
+Street and St Peter Street, which were the same then as
+now. But it ended on a wharf half-way down the modern St
+James Street, as the outer half of this street was then
+a natural strand completely covered at high tide. It was
+much closer than the Pres-de-Ville barricade was to
+Mountain Hill, at the top of which Carleton held his
+general reserve ready in the Place d'Armes; and it was
+fairly strong in material and armament. But it was at
+first defended by only a hundred men.
+
+The American forlorn hope, under Captain Oswald, got past
+most of the Grand Battery unscathed. But by the time the
+main body was following under Morgan the British
+blue-jackets were firing down from the walls at less than
+point-blank range. The driving snow, the clumps of bushes
+on the cliff, and the little houses in the street below
+all gave the Americans some welcome cover. But many of
+them were hit; while the gun they were towing through
+the drifts on a sleigh stuck fast and had to be abandoned.
+Captain Dearborn, the future commander-in-chief of the
+American army in the War of 1812, noted in his diary that
+he 'met the wounded men very thick' as he was bringing
+up the rear. When the forlorn hope reached the advanced
+barricade Arnold halted it till the supports had come
+up. The loss of the gun and the worrying his main body
+was receiving from the sailors along the Grand Battery
+spoilt his original plan of smashing in the barricade by
+shell fire while Morgan circled round its outer flank on
+the ice of the tidal flats and took it in rear. So he
+decided on a frontal attack. When he thought he had a
+fair chance he stepped to the front and shouted, 'Now,
+boys, all together, rush!' But before he could climb the
+barricade he was shot through the leg. For some time he
+propped himself up against a house and, leaning on his
+rifle, continued encouraging his men, who were soon firing
+through the port-holes as well as over the top. But
+presently growing faint from loss of blood he had to be
+carried off the field to the General Hospital on the
+banks of the St Charles.
+
+The men now called out for a lead from Morgan, who climbed
+a ladder, leaped the top, and fell under a gun inside.
+In another minute the whole forlorn hope had followed
+him, while the main body came close behind. The guard,
+not strong in numbers and weak in being composed of young
+militiamen, gave way but kept on firing. 'Down with your
+arms if you want quarter!' yelled Morgan, whose men were
+in overwhelming strength; and the guard surrendered. A
+little way beyond, just under the bluff of the
+Sault-au-Matelot, the British supports, many of whom were
+Seminary students, also surrendered to Morgan, who at
+once pressed on, round the corner of the Sault-au-Matelot,
+and halted in sight of the second or regular barricade.
+What was to be done now? Where was Montgomery? How strong
+was the barricade; and had it been reinforced? It could
+not be turned because the cliff rose sheer on one flank
+while the icy St Lawrence lashed the other. Had Morgan
+known that there were only a hundred men behind it when
+he attacked its advanced barricade he might have pressed
+on at all costs and carried it by assault. But it looked
+strong, there were guns on its platforms, and it ran
+across two streets. His hurried council of war over-ruled
+him, as Montgomery's council had over-ruled the original
+plan of storming the walls; and so his men began a
+desultory fight in the streets and from the houses.
+
+This was fatal to American success. The original British
+hundred were rapidly reinforced. The artillery officer
+who had found that he was not needed at the Pres-de-Ville
+after Montgomery's defeat, and who had hurried across
+the intervening half-mile, now occupied the corner houses,
+enlarged the embrasures, and trained his guns on the
+houses occupied by the enemy. Detachments of Fusiliers
+and Royal Emigrants also arrived, as did the thirty-five
+masters and mates of merchant vessels who were not on
+guard with Barnsfair at the Pres-de-Ville. Thus, what
+with soldiers, sailors, and militiamen of both races,
+the main Sault-au-Matelot barricade was made secure
+against being rushed like the outer one. But there was
+plenty of fighting, with some confusion at close quarters
+caused by the British uniforms which both sides were
+wearing. A Herculean sailor seized the first ladder the
+Americans set against the barricade, hauled it up, and
+set it against the window of a house out of the far end
+of which the enemy were firing. Major Nairne and Lieutenant
+Dambourges of the Royal Emigrants at once climbed in at
+the head of a storming-party and wild work followed with
+the bayonet. All the Americans inside were either killed
+or captured. Meanwhile a vigorous British nine-pounder
+had been turned on another house they occupied. This
+house was likewise battered in, so that its surviving
+occupants had to run into the street, where they were
+well plied with musketry by the regulars and militiamen.
+The chance for a sortie then seeming favourable, Lieutenant
+Anderson of the Navy headed his thirty-five merchant
+mates and skippers in a rush along Sault-au-Matelot
+Street. But his effort was premature. Morgan shot him
+dead, and Morgan's Virginians drove the seamen back inside
+the barricade.
+
+Carleton had of course kept in perfect touch with every
+phase of the attack and defence; and now, fearing no
+surprise against the walls in the growing daylight, had
+decided on taking Arnold's men in rear. To do this he
+sent Captain Lawes of the Royal Engineers and Captain
+McDougall of the Royal Emigrants with a hundred and twenty
+men out through Palace Gate. This detachment had hardly
+reached the advanced barricade before they fell in with
+the enemy's rearguard, which they took by complete surprise
+and captured to a man. Leaving McDougall to secure these
+prisoners before following on, Lawes pushed eagerly
+forward, round the corner of the Sault-au-Matelot cliff,
+and, running in among the Americans facing the main
+barricade, called out, 'You are all my prisoners!' 'No,
+we're not; you're ours!' they answered. 'No, no,' replied
+Lawes, as coolly as if on parade 'don't mistake yourselves,
+I vow to God you're mine!' 'But where are your men?'
+asked the astonished Americans; and then Lawes suddenly
+found that he was utterly alone! The roar of the storm
+and the work of securing the prisoners on the far side
+of the advanced barricade had prevented the men who should
+have followed him from understanding that only a few were
+needed with McDougall. But Lawes put a bold face on it
+and answered, 'O, Ho, make yourselves easy! My men are
+all round here and they'll be with you in a twinkling.'
+He was then seized and disarmed. Some of the Americans
+called out, 'Kill him! Kill him!' But a Major Meigs
+protected him. The whole parley had lasted about ten
+minutes when McDougall came running up with the missing
+men, released Lawes, and made prisoners of the nearest
+Americans. Lawes at once stepped forward and called on the
+rest to surrender. Morgan was for cutting his way through.
+A few men ran round by the wharf and escaped on the tidal
+flats of the St Charles. But, after a hurried consultation,
+the main body, including Morgan, laid down their arms. This
+was decisive. The British had won the fight.
+
+The complete British loss in killed and wounded was
+wonderfully small, only thirty, just one-tenth of the
+corresponding American loss, which was large out of all
+proportion. Nearly half of the fifteen hundred Americans
+had gone--over four hundred prisoners and about three
+hundred killed and wounded. Nor were the mere numbers
+the most telling point about it; for the worse half
+escaped--Livingston's Montreal 'patriots,' many of whom
+had done very little fighting, Montgomery's time-expired
+New Yorkers, most of whom wanted to go home, and Jerry
+Duggan's miscellaneous rabble, all of whom wanted a
+maximum of plunder with a minimum of war.
+
+The British victory was as nearly perfect as could have
+been desired. It marked the turn of the tide in a desperate
+campaign which might have resulted in the total loss of
+Canada. And it was of the greatest significance and
+happiest augury because all the racial elements of this
+new and vast domain had here united for the first time
+in defence of that which was to be their common heritage.
+In Carleton's little garrison of regulars and militia,
+of bluejackets, marines, and merchant seamen, there were
+Frenchmen and French Canadians, there were Englishmen,
+Irishmen, Scotsmen, Welshmen, Orcadians, and Channel
+Islanders, there were a few Newfoundlanders, and there
+mere a good many of those steadfast Royal Emigrants who
+may be fitly called the forerunners of the United Empire
+Loyalists. Yet, in spite of this remarkable significance,
+no public memorial of Carleton has ever been set up; and
+it was only in the twentieth century that the Dominion
+first thought of commemorating his most pregnant victory
+by placing tablets to mark the sites of the two famous
+barricades.
+
+As soon as things had quieted down within the walls
+Carleton sent out search-parties to bring in the dead
+for decent burial and to see if any of the wounded had
+been overlooked. James Thompson, the assistant engineer,
+saw a frozen hand protruding from a snowdrift at
+Pres-de-Ville. It was Montgomery's. The thirteen bodies
+were dug out and Thompson was ordered to have a 'genteel
+coffin made for Mr Montgomery,' who was buried in the
+wall just above St Louis Gate by the Anglican chaplain.
+Thompson kept Montgomery's sword, which was given to the
+Livingston family more than a century later.
+
+The beleaguerment continued, in a half-hearted way, till
+the spring. The Americans received various small
+reinforcements, which eventually brought their total up
+to what it had been under Montgomery's command. But there
+were no more assaults. Arnold grew dissatisfied and
+finally went to Montreal; while Wooster, the new general,
+who arrived on the 1st of April, was himself succeeded
+by Thomas, an ex-apothecary, on the 1st of May. The suburb
+of St Roch was burnt down after the victory; so the
+American snipers were bereft of some very favourite cover,
+and this, with other causes, kept the bulk of the besiegers
+at an ineffective distance from the walls.
+
+The British garrison had certain little troubles of its
+own; for discipline always tends to become irksome after
+a great effort. Carleton was obliged to stop the retailing
+of spirits for fear the slacker men would be getting out
+of hand. The guards and duties were made as easy as
+possible, especially for the militia. But the 'snow-shovel
+parade' was an imperative necessity. The winter was very
+stormy, and the drifts would have frequently covered the
+walls and even the guns if they had not promptly been
+dug out. The cold was also unusually severe. One early
+morning in January an angry officer was asking a sentry
+why he hadn't challenged him, when the sentry said, 'God
+bless your Honour! and I'm glad you're come, for I'm
+blind!' Then it was found that his eyelids were frozen
+fast together.
+
+News came in occasionally from the outside world. There
+was intense indignation among the garrison when they
+learned that the American commanders in Montreal were
+imprisoning every Canadian officer who would not surrender
+his commission. Such an unheard-of outrage was worthy of
+Walker. But others must have thought of it; for Walker
+was now in Philadelphia giving all the evidence he could
+against Prescott and other British officers. Bad news
+for the rebels was naturally welcomed, especially anything
+about their growing failure to raise troops in Canada.
+On hearing of Montgomery's defeat the Continental Congress
+had passed a resolution, addressed to the 'Inhabitants
+of Canada' declaring that 'we will never abandon you to
+the unrelenting fury of your and our enemies.' But there
+were no trained soldiers to back this up; and the raw
+militia, though often filled with zeal and courage, could
+do nothing to redress the increasingly adverse balance.
+In the middle of March the Americans sent in a summons.
+But Carleton refused to receive it; and the garrison put
+a wooden horse and a bundle of hay on the walls with a
+placard bearing the inscription, 'When this horse has
+eaten this bunch of hay we will surrender.' Some excellent
+practice made with 13-inch shells sent the Americans
+flying from their new battery at Levis; and by the 17th
+of March one of the several exultant British diarists,
+whose anonymity must have covered an Irish name, was able
+to record that 'this, being St Patrick's Day, the Governor,
+who is a true Hibernian, has requested the garrison to
+put off keeping it till the 17th of May, when he promises,
+they shall be enabled to do it properly, and with the
+usual solemnities.'
+
+A fortnight later a plot concerted between the American
+prisoners and their friends outside was discovered just
+in time. With tools supplied by traitors they were to
+work their way out of their quarters, overpower the guard
+at the nearest gate, set fire to the nearest houses in
+three different streets, turn the nearest guns inwards
+on the town, and shout 'Liberty for ever!' as an additional
+signal to the storming-party that was to be waiting to
+confirm their success. Carleton seized the chance of
+turning this scheme against the enemy. Three safe bonfires
+were set ablaze. The marked guns were turned inwards and
+fired at the town with blank charges. And the preconcerted
+shout was raised with a will. But the besiegers never stirred.
+After this the Old-Countrymen among the prisoners, who had
+taken the oath and enlisted in the garrison, were disarmed
+and confined, while the rest were more strictly watched.
+
+Two brave attempts were made by French Canadians to reach
+Quebec with reinforcements, one headed by a seigneur,
+the other by a parish priest. Carleton had sent word to
+M. de Beaujeu, seigneur of Crane Island, forty miles
+below Quebec, asking him to see if he could cut off the
+American detachment on the Levis shore. De Beaujeu raised
+three hundred and fifty men. But Arnold sent over
+reinforcements. A habitant betrayed his fellow-countrymen's
+advance-guard. A dozen French Canadians were then killed
+or wounded while forty were taken prisoners; whereupon
+the rest dispersed to their homes. The other attempt was
+made by Father Bailly, whose little force of about fifty
+men was also betrayed. Entrapped in a country-house these
+men fought bravely till nearly half their number had been
+killed or wounded and the valiant priest had been mortally
+hit. They then surrendered to a much stronger force which
+had lost more men than they.
+
+This was on the 6th of April, just before Arnold was
+leaving in disgust. Wooster made an effort to use his
+new artillery to advantage by converging the fire of
+three batteries, one close in on the Heights of Abraham,
+another from across the mouth of the St Charles, and the
+third from Levis. But the combination failed: the batteries
+were too light for the work and overmatched by the guns
+on the walls, the practice was bad, and the effect was
+nil. On the 3rd of May the new general, Thomas, an
+enterprising man, tried a fireship, which was meant to
+destroy all the shipping in the Cul de Sac. It came on,
+under full sail, in a very threatening manner. But the
+crew lost their nerve at the critical moment, took to
+the boats too soon, and forgot to lash the helm. The
+vessel immediately flew up into the wind and, as the
+tidal stream was already changing, began to drift away
+from the Cul de Sac just when she burst into flame. The
+result, as described by an enthusiastic British diarist,
+was that 'she affoard'd a very pritty prospect while she
+was floating down the River, every now & then sending up
+Sky rackets, firing of Cannon or bursting of Shells, &
+so continued till She disappear'd in the Channell.'
+
+Three days later, on the 6th of May, when the beleaguerment
+had lasted precisely five months, the sound of distant
+gunfire came faintly up the St Lawrence with the first
+breath of the dawn wind from the east. The sentries
+listened to make sure; then called the sergeants of the
+guards, who sent word to the officers on duty, who, in
+their turn, sent word to Carleton. By this time there
+could be no mistake. The breeze was freshening; the sound
+was gradually nearing Quebec; and there could hardly be
+room for doubting that it came from the vanguard of the
+British fleet. The drums beat to arms, the church bells
+rang, the news flew round to every household in Quebec;
+and before the tops of the _Surprise_ frigate were seen
+over the Point of Levy every battery was fully manned,
+every battalion was standing ready on the Grand Parade,
+and every non-combatant man, woman, and child was lining
+the seaward wall. The regulation shot was fired across
+her bows as she neared the city; whereupon she fired
+three guns to leeward, hoisted the private signal, and
+showed the Union Jack. Then, at last, a cheer went up
+that told both friend and foe of British victory and
+American defeat. By a strange coincidence the parole for
+this triumphal day was St George, while the parole
+appointed for the victorious New Year's Eve had been St
+Denis; so that the patron saints of France and England
+happen to be associated with the two great days on which
+the stronghold of Canada was saved by land and sea.
+
+The same tide brought in two other men-of-war. Some
+soldiers of the 29th, who were on board the _Surprise_,
+were immediately landed, together with the marines from
+all three vessels. Carleton called for volunteers from
+the militia to attack the Americans at once; and nearly
+every man, both of the French- and of the English-speaking
+corps, stepped forward. There was joy in every heart that
+the day for striking back had come at last. The columns
+marched gaily through the gates and deployed into line
+at the double on the Heights outside. The Americans fired
+a few hurried shots and then ran for dear life, leaving
+their dinners cooking, and, in some cases, even their
+arms behind them. The Plains were covered with flying
+enemies and strewn with every sort of impediment to
+flight, from a cannon to a loaf of bread. Quebec had been
+saved by British sea-power; and, with it, the whole vast
+dominion of which it was the key.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+DELIVERANCE
+1776
+
+The Continental Congress had always been anxious to have
+delegates from the Fourteenth Colony. But as these never
+came the Congress finally decided to send a special
+commission to examine the whole civil and military state
+of Canada and see what could be done. The news of
+Montgomery's death and defeat was a very unwelcome
+surprise. But reinforcements were being sent; the Canadians
+could surely be persuaded; and a Congressional commission
+must be able to set things right. This commission was a
+very strong one. Benjamin Franklin was the chairman.
+Samuel Chase of Maryland and Charles Carroll of Carrollton
+were the other members. Carroll's brother, the future
+archbishop of Baltimore, accompanied them as a sort of
+ecclesiastical diplomatist. Franklin's prestige and the
+fact that he was to set up a 'free' printing-press in
+Montreal were to work wonders with the educated classes
+at once and with the uneducated masses later on. Chase
+would appeal to all the reasonable 'moderates.' Carroll,
+a great landlord and the nearest approach yet made to an
+American millionaire, was expected to charm the Canadian
+noblesse; while the fact that he and his exceedingly
+diplomatic brother were devout Roman Catholics was thought
+to be by itself a powerful argument with the clergy.
+
+When they reached St Johns towards the end of April the
+commissioners sent on a courier to announce their arrival
+and prepare for their proper reception in Montreal. But
+the ferryman at Laprairie positively refused to accept
+Continental paper money at any price; and it was only
+when a 'Friend of Liberty' gave him a dollar in silver
+that he consented to cross the courier over the St
+Lawrence. The same hitch occurred in Montreal, where the
+same Friend of Liberty had to pay in silver before the
+cab-drivers consented to accept a fare either from him
+or from the commissioners. Even the name of Carroll of
+Carrollton was conjured with in vain. The French Canadians
+remembered Bigot's bad French paper. Their worst suspicions
+were being confirmed about the equally bad American paper.
+So they demanded nothing but hard cash--_argent dur_.
+However, the first great obstacle had been successfully
+overcome; and so, on the strength of five borrowed silver
+dollars, the accredited commissioners of the Continental
+Congress of the Thirteen Colonies made their state entry
+into what they still hoped to call the Fourteenth Colony.
+But silver dollars were scarce; and on the 1st of May
+the crestfallen commissioners had to send the Congress
+a financial report which may best be summed up in a
+pithy phrase which soon became proverbial--'Not worth
+a Continental.'
+
+On the 10th of May they heard the bad news from Quebec
+and increased the panic among their Montreal sympathizers
+by hastily leaving the city lest they should be cut off
+by a British man-of-war. Franklin foresaw the end and
+left for Philadelphia accompanied by the Reverend John
+Carroll, whose twelve days of disheartening experience
+with the leading French-Canadian clergy had convinced
+him that they were impervious to any arguments or
+blandishments emanating from the Continental Congress.
+It was a sad disillusionment for the commissioners, who
+had expected to be settling the affairs of a fourteenth
+colony instead of being obliged to leave the city from
+which they were to have enlightened the people with a
+free press. In their first angry ignorance they laid the
+whole blame on their unfortunate army for its 'disgraceful
+flight' from Quebec. A week later, when Chase and Charles
+Carroll ought to have known better, they were still
+assuring the Congress that this 'shameful retreat' was
+'the principal cause of all the disorders' in the army;
+and even after the whole story ought to have been understood
+neither they nor the Congress gave their army its proper
+due. But, as a matter of fact, the American position had
+become untenable the moment the British fleet began to
+threaten the American line of communication with Montreal.
+For the rest, the American volunteers, all things
+considered, had done very well indeed. Arnold's march
+was a truly magnificent feat. Morgan's men had fought
+with great courage at the Sault-au-Matelot. And though
+Montgomery's assault might well have been better planned
+and executed, we must remember that the good plan, which
+had been rejected, was the military one, while the bad
+plan, which had been adopted, was concocted by mere
+politicians. Nor were 'all the disorders' so severely
+condemned by the commissioners due to the army alone.
+Far from it, indeed. The root of 'all the disorders' lay
+in the fact that a makeshift government was obliged to
+use makeshift levies for an invasion which required a
+regular army supported by a fleet.
+
+On the 19th of May another disaster happened, this time
+above Montreal. The Congress had not felt strong enough
+to attack the western posts. So Captain Forster of the
+8th Foot, finding that he was free to go elsewhere, had
+come down from Oswegatchie (the modern Ogdensburg) with
+a hundred whites and two hundred Indians and made prisoners
+of four hundred and thirty Americans at the Cedars, about
+thirty miles up the St Lawrence from Montreal. Forster
+was a very good officer. Butterfield, the American
+commander, was a very bad one. And that made all the
+difference. After two days of feeble and misdirected
+defence Butterfield surrendered three hundred and fifty
+men. The other eighty were reinforcements who walked into
+the trap next day. Forster now had four American prisoners
+for every white soldier of his own; while Arnold was near
+by, having come up from Sorel to Lachine with a small
+but determined force. So Forster, carefully pointing out
+to his prisoners their danger if the Indians should be
+reinforced and run wild, offered them their freedom on
+condition that they should be regarded as being exchanged
+for an equal number of British prisoners in American
+hands. This was agreed to and never made a matter of
+dispute afterwards. But the second article Butterfield
+accepted was a stipulation that, while the released
+British were to be free to fight again, the released
+Americans were not; and it was over this point that a
+bitter controversy raged. The British authorities maintained
+that all the terms were binding because they had been
+accepted by an officer commissioned by the Congress. The
+Congress maintained that the disputed article was obtained
+by an unfair threat of an Indian massacre and that it
+was so one-sided as to be good for nothing but repudiation.
+
+'The Affair at the Cedars' thus became a sorely vexed
+question. In itself it would have died out among later
+and more important issues if it had not been used as a
+torch to fire American public opinion at a time when the
+Congress was particularly anxious to make the Thirteen
+Colonies as anti-British as possible. Most of Forster's
+men were Indians. He had reminded Butterfield how dangerous
+an increasing number of Indians might become. Butterfield
+was naturally anxious to prove that he had yielded only
+to overwhelming odds and horrifying risks. Americans in
+general were ready to believe anything bad about the
+Indians and the British. The temptation and the opportunity
+seemed made for each other. And so a quite imaginary
+Indian massacre conveniently appeared in the American
+news of the day and helped to form the kind of public
+opinion which was ardently desired by the party of revolt.
+
+The British evidence in this and many another embittering
+dispute about the Indians need not be cited, since the
+following items of American evidence do ample justice to
+both sides. In the spring of 1775 the Massachusetts
+Provincial Congress sent Samuel Kirkland to exhort the
+Iroquois 'to whet their hatchet and be prepared to defend
+our liberties and lives'; while Ethan Allen asked the
+Indians round Vermont to treat him 'like a brother and
+ambush the regulars.' In 1776 the Continental Congress
+secretly resolved 'that it is highly expedient to engage
+the Indians in the service of the United Colonies.' This
+was before the members knew about the Affair at the
+Cedars. A few days later Washington was secretly authorized
+to raise two thousand Indians; while agents were secretly
+sent 'to engage the Six Nations in our Interest, on the
+best terms that can be procured.' Within three weeks of
+this secret arrangement the Declaration of Independence
+publicly accused the king of trying 'to bring on the
+inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages.'
+Four days after this public accusation the Congress gave
+orders for raising Indians along 'the Penobscot, the St
+John, and in Nova Scotia'; and an entry to that effect
+was made in its Secret Journal. Yet, before the month
+was out, the same Congress publicly appealed to 'The
+People of Ireland' in the following words: 'The wild and
+barbarous savages of the wilderness have been solicited
+by gifts to take up the hatchet against us, and instigated
+to deluge our settlements with the blood of defenceless
+women and children.'
+
+The American defeats at Quebec and at the Cedars completely
+changed the position of the two remaining commissioners.
+They had expected to control a victorious advance. They
+found themselves the highest authority present with a
+disastrous retreat. Thereupon they made blunder after
+blunder. Public interest and parliamentary control are
+the very life of armies and navies in every country which
+enjoys the blessings of self-government. But civilian
+interference is death. Yet Chase and Carroll practically
+abolished rank in the disintegrating army by becoming an
+open court of appeal to every junior with a grievance or
+a plan. There never was an occasion on which military
+rule was more essential in military matters. Yet, though
+they candidly admitted that they had 'neither abilities
+nor inclination' to command, these wretched misrulers
+tried to do their duty both to the Congress and the army
+by turning the camp into a sort of town meeting where
+the best orders had no chance whatever against the loudest
+'sentiments.' They had themselves found the root of all
+evil in the retreat from Quebec. Their army, like every
+impartial critic, found it in 'the Commissioners and the
+smallpox'--with the commissioners easily first. The
+smallpox had been bad enough at Quebec. It became far
+worse at Sorel. There were few doctors, fewer medicines,
+and not a single hospital. The reinforcements melted away
+with the army they were meant to strengthen. Famine
+threatened both, even in May. Finally the commissioners
+left for home at the end of the month. But even their
+departure could no longer make the army's burden light
+enough to bear.
+
+Thomas, the ex-apothecary, who did his best to stem the
+adverse tide of trouble, caught the smallpox, became
+blind, and died at the beginning of June. Sullivan, the
+fourth commander in less than half a year, having determined
+that one more effort should be made, arrived at Sorel
+with new battalions after innumerable difficulties by
+the way. He was led to believe that Carleton's
+reinforcements had come from Nova Scotia, not from England;
+and this encouraged him to push on farther. He was
+naturally of a very sanguine temper; and Thompson, his
+second-in-command, heartily approved of the dash. The
+new troops cheered up and thought of taking Quebec itself.
+But, after getting misled by their guide, floundering
+about in bottomless bogs, and losing a great deal of very
+precious time, they found Three Rivers defended by
+entrenchments, superior numbers, and the vanguard of the
+British fleet. Nevertheless they attacked bravely on the
+8th of June. But, taken in front and flank by well-drilled
+regulars and well-handled men-of-war, they presently
+broke and fled. Every avenue of escape was closed as they
+wandered about the woods and bogs. But Carleton, who came
+up from Quebec after the battle was all over, purposely
+opened the way to Sorel. He had done his best to win the
+hearts of his prisoners at Quebec and had succeeded so
+well that when they returned to Crown Point they were
+kept away from the rest of the American army lest their
+account of his kindness should affect its anti-British
+zeal. Now that he was in overwhelming force he thought
+he saw an even better chance of earning gratitude from
+rebels and winning converts to the loyal side by a still
+greater act of clemency.
+
+The battle of Three Rivers was the last action fought on
+Canadian soil. The American army retreated to Sorel and
+up the Richelieu to St Johns, where it was joined by
+Arnold, who had just evacuated Montreal. Most of the
+Friends of Liberty in Canada fled either with or before
+their beaten forces. So, like the ebbing of a whole river
+system, the main and tributary streams of fugitives drew
+south towards Lake Champlain. The neutral French Canadians
+turned against them at once; though not to the extent of
+making an actual attack. The habitant cared nothing for
+the incomprehensible constitutionalities over which
+different kinds of British foreigners were fighting their
+exasperating civil war. But he did know what the king's
+big fleet and army meant. He did begin to feel that his
+own ways of life were safer with the loyal than with the
+rebel side. And he quite understood that he had been
+forced to give a good deal for nothing ever since the
+American commissioners had authorized their famishing
+army to commandeer his supplies and pay him with their
+worthless 'Continentals.'
+
+From St Johns the worn-out Americans crawled homewards
+in stray, exhausted parties, dropping fast by the way as
+they went. 'I did not look into a hut or a tent,' wrote
+a horrified observer, 'in which I did not find a dead or
+dying man.' Disorganization became so complete that no
+exact returns were ever made up. But it is known that
+over ten thousand armed men crossed into Canada from
+first to last and that not far short of half this total
+either found their death beyond the line or brought it
+back with them to Lake Champlain.
+
+It was on what long afterwards became Dominion Day--the
+1st of July--that the ruined American forces reassembled
+at Crown Point, having abandoned all hope of making Canada
+the Fourteenth Colony. Three days later the disappointed
+Thirteen issued the Declaration of Independence which
+virtually proclaimed that Canadians and Americans should
+thenceforth live a separate life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE COUNTERSTROKE
+1776-1778
+
+Six thousand British troops, commanded by Burgoyne, and
+four thousand Germans, commanded by Baron Riedesel, had
+arrived at Quebec before the battle of Three Rivers.
+Quebec itself had then been left to the care of a German
+garrison under a German commandant, 'that excellent man,
+Colonel Baum,' while the great bulk of the army had
+marched up the St Lawrence, as we have seen already. Such
+a force as this new one of Carleton's was expected to
+dismay the rebel colonies. And so, to a great extent, it
+did. With a much larger force in the colonies themselves
+the king was confidently expected to master his unruly
+subjects, no matter how much they proclaimed their
+independence. The Loyalists were encouraged. The trimmers
+prepared to join them. Only those steadfast Americans
+who held their cause dearer than life itself were still
+determined to venture all. But they formed the one party
+that really knew its own mind. This gave them a great
+advantage over the king's party, which, hampered at every
+turn by the opposition in the mother country, was never
+quite sure whether it ought to strike hard or gently in
+America.
+
+On one point, however, everybody was agreed. The command
+of Lake Champlain was essential to whichever side would
+hold its own. The American forces at Crown Point might
+be too weak for the time being. But Arnold knew that even
+ten thousand British soldiers could not overrun the land
+without a naval force to help them. So he got together
+a flotilla which had everything its own way during the
+time that Carleton was laboriously building a rival
+flotilla on the Richelieu with a very scanty supply of
+ship-wrights and materials. Arnold, moreover, could devote
+his whole attention to the work, makeshift as it had to
+be; while Carleton was obliged to keep moving about the
+province in an effort to bring it into some sort of order
+after the late invasion. Throughout the summer the British
+army held the line of the Richelieu all the way south as
+far as Isle-aux-Noix, very near the lake and the line.
+But Carleton's flotilla could not set sail from St Johns
+till October 5, by which time the main body of his army
+was concentrated round Pointe-au-Fer, at the northern
+end of the lake, ninety miles north of the American camp
+at Crown Point.
+
+It was a curious situation for a civil and military
+governor to be hoisting his flag as a naval
+commander-in-chief, however small the fleet might be.
+But it is commonly ignored that, down to the present day,
+the governor-general of Canada is appointed 'Vice-Admiral
+of the Same' in his commissions from the Crown. Carleton
+of course carried expert naval officers with him and had
+enough professional seamen to work the vessels and lay
+the guns. But, though Captain Pringle manoeuvred the
+flotilla and Lieutenant Dacre handled the flagship
+_Carleton_, the actual command remained in Carleton's
+own hands. The capital ship (and the only real square-rigged
+'ship') of this Lilliputian fleet was Pringle's
+_Inflexible_, which had been taken up the Richelieu in
+sections and hauled past the portages with immense labour
+before reaching St Johns, whence there is a clear run
+upstream to Lake Champlain. The _Inflexible_ carried
+thirty guns, mostly 12-pounders, and was an overmatch
+for quite the half of Arnold's decidedly weaker flotilla.
+The _Lady Maria_ was a sort of sister ship to the
+_Carleton_. The little armada was completed by a 'gondola'
+with six 9-pounders, by twenty gunboats and four longboats,
+each carrying a single piece, and by many small craft
+used as transports.
+
+On the 11th of October Carleton's whole naval force was
+sailing south when one of Arnold's vessels was seen making
+for Valcour Island, a few miles still farther south on
+the same, or western, side of Lake Champlain. Presently
+the Yankee ran ashore on the southern end of the island,
+where she was immediately attacked by some British small
+craft while the _Inflexible_ sailed on. Then, to the
+intense disgust of the _Inflexible_'s crew, Arnold's
+complete flotilla was suddenly discovered drawn up in a
+masterly position between the mainland and the island.
+It was too late for the _Inflexible_ to beat back now.
+But the rest of Carleton's flotilla turned in to the
+attack. Arnold's flanks rested on the island and the
+mainland. His rear could be approached only by beating
+back against a bad wind all the way round the outside of
+Valcour Island; and, even if this manoeuvre could have
+been performed, the British attack on his rear from the
+north could have been made only in a piecemeal way,
+because the channel was there at its narrowest, with a
+bad obstruction in the middle. So, for every reason, a
+frontal attack from the south was the one way of closing
+with him. The fight was furious while it lasted and
+seemingly decisive when it ended. Arnold's best vessel,
+the _Royal Savage_, which he had taken at St Johns the
+year before, was driven ashore and captured. The others
+were so severely mauled that when the victorious British
+anchored their superior force in line across Arnold's
+front there seemed to be no chance for him to escape the
+following day. But that night he performed an even more
+daring and wonderful feat than Bouchette had performed
+the year before when paddling Carleton through the American
+lines among the islands opposite Sorel. Using muffled
+sweeps, with consummate skill he slipped all his remaining
+vessels between the mainland and the nearest British
+gunboat, and was well on his way to Crown Point before
+his escape had been discovered. Next day Carleton chased
+south. The day after he destroyed the whole of the enemy's
+miniature sea-power as a fighting force. But the only
+three serviceable vessels got away; while Arnold burnt
+everything else likely to fall into British hands. So
+Carleton had no more than his own reduced flotilla to
+depend on when he occupied Crown Point.
+
+A vexed question, destined to form part of a momentous
+issue, now arose. Should Ticonderoga be attacked at once
+or not? It commanded the only feasible line of march from
+Montreal to New York; and no force from Canada could
+therefore attack the new republic effectively without
+taking it first. But the season was late. The fort was
+strong, well gunned, and well manned. Carleton's
+reconnaissance convinced him that he could have little
+chance of reducing it quickly, if at all, with the means
+at hand, especially as the Americans had supplies close
+by at Lake George, while he was now a hundred miles south
+of his base. A winter siege was impossible. Sufficient
+supplies could never be brought through the dense,
+snow-encumbered bush, all the way from Canada, even if
+the long and harassing line of communications had not
+been everywhere open to American attack. Moreover,
+Carleton's army was in no way prepared for a midwinter
+campaign, even if it could have been supplied with food
+and warlike stores. So he very sensibly turned his back
+on Lake Champlain until the following year.
+
+That was the gayest winter Quebec had seen since Montcalm's
+first season, twenty years before. Carleton had been
+knighted for his services and was naturally supposed to
+be the chosen leader for the next campaign. The ten
+thousand troops gave confidence to the loyalists and
+promised success for the coming campaign. The clergy were
+getting their disillusioned parishioners back to the fold
+beneath the Union Jack; while _Jean Ba'tis'e_ himself
+was fain to admit that his own ways of life and the money
+he got for his goods were very much safer with _les
+Angla's_ than with the revolutionists, whom he called
+_les Bastonna's_ because most trade between Quebec and
+the Thirteen Colonies was carried on by vessels hailing
+from the port of Boston. The seigneurs were delighted.
+They still hoped for commissions as regulars, which too
+few of them ever received; and they were charmed with
+the little viceregal court over which Lady Maria Carleton,
+despite her youthful two-and-twenty summers, presided
+with a dignity inherited from the premier ducal family
+of England and brought to the acme of conventional
+perfection by her intimate experience of Versailles. On
+New Year's Eve Carleton gave a public fete, a state
+dinner, and a ball to celebrate the anniversary of the
+British victory over Montgomery and Arnold. The bishop
+held a special thanksgiving and made all notorious
+renegades do open penance. Nothing seemed wanting to
+bring the New Year in under the happiest auspices since
+British rule began.
+
+But, quite unknown to Carleton, mischief was brewing in
+the Colonial Office of that unhappy government which did
+so many stupid things and got the credit for so many
+more. In 1775 the well-meaning Earl of Dartmouth was
+superseded by Lord George Germain, who continued the
+mismanagement of colonial affairs for seven disastrous
+years. Few characters have abused civil and military
+positions more than the man who first, as a British
+general, disgraced the noble name of Sackville on the
+battlefield of Minden in 1759, and then, as a cabinet
+minister, disgraced throughout America the plebeian one
+of Germain, which he took in 1770 with a suitable legacy
+attached to it. His crime at Minden was set down by the
+thoughtless public to sheer cowardice. But Sackville was
+no coward. He had borne himself with conspicuous gallantry
+at Fontenoy. He was admired, before Minden, by two very
+brave soldiers, Wolfe and the Duke of Cumberland. And he
+afterwards fought a famous duel with as much sang-froid
+as any one would care to see. His real crime at Minden
+was admirably exposed by the court-martial which found
+him 'guilty of having disobeyed the orders of Prince
+Ferdinand of Brunswick, whom he was by his commission
+bound to obey as commander-in-chief, according to the
+rules of war.' This court also found him 'unfit to serve
+his Majesty in any military capacity whatever'; and George
+II directed that the following 'remarks' should be added
+when the sentence was read out on parade to every regiment
+in the service: 'It is his Majesty's pleasure that the
+above sentence be given out in public orders, not only
+in Britain, but in America, and in every quarter of the
+globe where British troops happen to be, so that all
+officers, being convinced that neither high birth nor
+great employments can shelter offences of such a nature,
+and seeing they are subject to censures worse than death
+to a man who has any sense of honour, may avoid the fatal
+consequences arising from disobedience of orders.'
+
+This seemed to mark the end of Sackville's sinister
+career. But when George II died and George III began to
+reign, with a very different set of men to help him, the
+bad general reappeared as an equally bad politician.
+Haughty, cantankerous, and self-opinionated to the last
+degree, Germain, who had many perverse abilities fitting
+him for the meaner side of party politics, was appointed
+to the post for which he was least qualified just when
+Canada and the Thirteen Colonies most needed a master
+mind. Worse still, he cherished a contemptible grudge
+against Carleton for having refused to turn out a good
+officer and put in a bad one who happened to be a pampered
+favourite. At first, however, Carleton was allowed to do
+his best. But in the summer of 1776 Germain restricted
+Carleton's command to Canada and put Burgoyne, a junior
+officer, in command of the army destined to make the
+counterstroke. The ship bearing this malicious order had
+to put back; so it was not till the middle of May 1777
+that Carleton was disillusioned by its arrival as well
+as by a second and still more exasperating dispatch
+accusing him of neglect of duty for not having taken
+Ticonderoga in November and thus prevented Washington
+from capturing the Hessians at Trenton. The physical
+impossibility of a winter siege, the three hundred miles
+of hostile country between Trenton and Ticonderoga, and
+the fact that the other leading British general, Howe,
+had thirty thousand troops in the Colonies, while Carleton
+had only ten thousand with which to hold Canada that year
+and act as ordered next year, all went for nothing when
+Germain found a chance to give a good stab in the back.
+
+On May 20 Carleton wrote a pungent reply, pointing out
+the utter impossibility of following up his victory on
+Lake Champlain by carrying out Germain's arm-chair plan
+of operations in the middle of winter. 'I regard it as
+a particular blessing that your Lordship's dispatch did
+not arrive in due time.' As for the disaster at Trenton,
+he 'begs to inform his Lordship' that if Howe's thirty
+thousand men had been properly used the Hessians could
+never have been taken, 'though all the rebels from
+Ticonderoga had reinforced Mr Washington's army.' Moreover,
+'I never could imagine why, if troops so far south [as
+Howe's] found it necessary to go into winter quarters,
+your Lordship could possibly expect troops so far north
+to continue their operations.' A week later Carleton
+wrote again and sent in his resignation. 'Finding that
+I can no longer be of use, under your Lordship's
+administration ... I flatter myself I shall obtain the
+king's permission to return home this fall. ... I shall
+embark with great satisfaction, still entertaining the
+ardent wish that, after my departure, the dignity of the
+Crown in this unfortunate Province may not appear beneath
+your Lordship's concern.'
+
+Burgoyne had spent the winter in London and had arrived
+at Quebec about the same time as Germain's dispatches.
+He had loyally represented Carleton's plans at headquarters.
+But he did not know America and he was not great enough
+to see the weak points in the plan which Germain proposed
+to carry out with wholly inadequate means.
+
+There was nothing wrong with the actual idea of this
+plan. Washington, Carleton, and every other leading man
+on either side saw perfectly well that the British army
+ought to cut the rebels in two by holding the direct line
+from Montreal to New York throughout the coming campaign
+of 1777. Given the irresistible British command of the
+sea, fifty thousand troops were enough. The general idea
+was that half of these should hold the four-hundred-mile
+line of the Richelieu, Lake Champlain, and the Hudson,
+while the other half seized strategic points elsewhere
+and still further divided the American forces. But the
+troops employed were ten thousand short of the proper
+number. Many of them were foreign mercenaries. And the
+generals were not the men to smash the enemy at all costs.
+They were ready to do their duty. But their affinities
+were rather with the opposition, which was against the
+war, than with the government, which was for it. Howe
+was a strong Whig. Burgoyne became a follower of Fox.
+Clinton had many Whig connections. Cornwallis voted
+against colonial taxation. To make matters worse, the
+government itself wavered between out-and-out war and
+some sort of compromise both with its political opponents
+at home and its armed opponents in America.
+
+Under these circumstances Carleton was in favour of a
+modified plan. Ticonderoga had been abandoned by the
+Americans and occupied by the British as Burgoyne marched
+south. Carleton's idea was to use it as a base of operations
+against New England, while Howe's main body struck at
+the main body of the rebels and broke them up as much as
+possible. Germain however, was all for the original plan.
+So Burgoyne set off for the Hudson, expecting to get into
+touch with Howe at Albany. But Germain, in his haste to
+leave town for a holiday, forgot to sign Howe's orders
+at the proper time; and afterwards forgot them altogether.
+So Howe, pro-American in politics and temporizer in the
+field, manoeuvred round his own headquarters at New York
+until October, when he sailed south to Philadelphia.
+Receiving no orders from Germain, and having no initiative
+of his own, he had made no attempt to hold the line of
+the Hudson all the way north to Albany, where he could
+have met Burgoyne and completed the union of the forces
+which would have cut the Colonies in two. Meanwhile
+Burgoyne, ignorant of Germain's neglect and Howe's
+futilities, was struggling to his fate at Saratoga, north
+of Albany. He had been receiving constant aid from
+Carleton's scanty resources, though Carleton knew full
+well that the sending of any aid beyond the limits of
+the province exposed him to personal ruin in case of a
+reverse in Canada. But it was all in vain; and, on the
+17th of October, Burgoyne--much more sinned against than
+sinning--laid down his arms. The British garrison
+immediately evacuated Ticonderoga and retired to St Johns,
+thus making Carleton's position fairly safe in Canada.
+But Germain, only too glad to oust him, had now notified
+him that Haldimand, the new governor, was on the point
+of sailing for Quebec. Haldimand, to his great credit,
+had asked to have his own appointment cancelled when he
+heard of Germain's shameful attitude towards Carleton,
+and had only consented to go after being satisfied that
+Carleton really wished to come home. The exchange, however,
+was not to take place that year. Contrary winds blew
+Haldimand back; and so Canada had to remain under the
+best of all possible governors in spite of Germain.
+
+Germain had provoked Carleton past endurance both by his
+public blunders and by his private malice. Even in 1776
+there was hate on one side, contempt on the other. When
+Germain had blamed Carleton for not carrying out the
+idiotic winter siege of Ticonderoga, Carleton, in his
+official reply, 'could only suppose' that His Lordship
+had acted 'in other places with such great wisdom that,
+without our assistance, the rebels must immediately be
+compelled to lay down their arms and implore the King's
+mercy.' After that Germain had murder in his heart to
+the bitter end of Carleton's rule. Carleton had frequently
+reported the critical state of affairs in Canada. 'There
+is nothing to fear from the Canadians so long as things
+are in a state of prosperity; nothing to hope from them
+when in distress. There are some of them who are guided
+by sentiments of honour. The multitude is influenced by
+hope of gain or fear of punishment.' The recent invasion
+had proved this up to the hilt. Then welcome reaction
+began. The defeat of the invaders, the arrival of Burgoyne's
+army, and the efforts of the seigneurs and the clergy
+had considerably brightened the prospects of the British
+cause in Canada. The partial mobilization of the militia
+which followed Burgoyne's surrender was not, indeed, a
+great success. But it was far better than the fiasco of
+two years before. There was also a corresponding improvement
+in civil life. The judges whom Carleton had been obliged
+to appoint in haste all proved at leisure the wisdom of
+his choice; and there seemed to be every chance that
+other nominees would be equally fit for their positions,
+because the Quebec Act, which annulled every appointment
+made before it came into force, opened the way for the
+exclusion of bad officials and the inclusion of the good.
+
+But the chance of perverting this excellent intention
+was too much for Germain, who succeeded in foisting one
+worthless nominee after another on the province just as
+Carleton was doing his best to heal old sores. One of
+the worst cases was that of Livius, a low-down,
+money-grubbing German Portuguese, who ousted the future
+Master of the Rolls; Sir William Grant, a man most
+admirably fitted to interpret the laws of Canada with
+knowledge, sympathy, and absolute impartiality. Livius
+as chief justice was more than Carleton could stand in
+silence. This mongrel lawyer had picked up all the Yankee
+vices without acquiring any of the countervailing Yankee
+virtues. He was 'greedy of power, more greedy of gain,
+imperious and impetuous in his temper, but learned in
+the ways and eloquence of the New England provinces, and
+valuing himself particularly on his knowledge of how to
+manage governors.' He had been sent by Germain 'to
+administer justice to the Canadians when he understands
+neither their laws, manners, customs, nor language.'
+Other like nominees followed, 'characters regardless of
+the public tranquility but zealous to pay court to a
+powerful minister and--provided they can obtain
+advantages--unconcerned should the means of obtaining
+them prove ruinous to the King's service.' These
+pettifoggers so turned and twisted the law about for the
+sake of screwing out the maximum of fees that Carleton
+pointedly refused to appoint Livius as a member of the
+Legislative Council. Livius then laid his case before
+the Privy Council in England. But this great court of
+ultimate appeal pronounced such a damning judgment on
+his gross pretensions that even Germain could not prevent
+his final dismissal from all employment under the Crown.
+
+Wounded in the house of those who should have been his
+friends, thwarted in every measure of his self-sacrificing
+rule, Carleton served on devotedly through six weary
+months of 1778--the year in which a vindictive government
+of Bourbon France became the first of the several foreign
+enemies who made the new American republic an accomplished
+fact by taking sides in a British civil war. His burden
+was now far more than any man could bear. Yet he closed
+his answer to Germain's parting shot with words which
+are as noble as his deeds:
+
+'I have long looked out for the arrival of a successor.
+Happy at last to learn his near approach, I resign the
+important commands with which I have been entrusted into
+hands less obnoxious to your Lordship. Thus, for the
+King's service, as willingly I lay them down as, for his
+service, I took them up.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+GUARDING THE LOYALISTS
+1782-1783
+
+Burgoyne's surrender marked the turning of the tide
+against the British arms. True, the three campaigns of
+purely civil war, begun in 1775, had reached no decisive
+result. True also that the Independence declared in 1776
+had no apparent chance of becoming an accomplished fact.
+But 1777 was the fatal year for all that. The long
+political strife in England, the gross mismanagement of
+colonial affairs under Germain, and the shameful blunders
+that made Saratoga possible, all combined to encourage
+foreign powers to take the field against the king's
+incompetent and distracted ministry. France, Spain, and
+Holland joined the Americans in arms; while Russia,
+Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, and all the German seaboard
+countries formed the Armed Neutrality of the North. This
+made stupendous odds--no less than ten to one. First of
+the ten came the political opposition at home, which, in
+regard to the American rebellion itself, was at least
+equal to the most powerful enemy abroad. Next came the
+four enemies in arms: the American rebels, France, Spain,
+and Holland. Finally came the five armed neutrals, all
+ready to use their navies on the slightest provocation.
+
+From this it may be seen that not one-half, perhaps not
+a quarter, of all the various forces that won the
+Revolutionary war were purely American. Nor were the
+Americans and their allies together victorious over the
+mother country, but only over one sorely hampered party
+in it. Yet, from the nature of the case, the Americans
+got much more than the lion's share of the spoils, while,
+even in their own eyes, they seemed to have gained honour
+and glory in the same proportion. The last real campaign
+was fought in 1781 and ended with the British surrender
+at Yorktown. From that time on peace was in the air. The
+unfortunate ministry, now on the eve of political defeat
+at home, were sick of civil war and only too anxious for
+a chance of uniting all parties against the foreign foes.
+But they had first to settle with the Americans, who had
+considered themselves an independent sovereign power for
+the last five years and who were determined to make the
+most of England's difficulties. No darker New Year's Day
+had ever dawned on any cabinet than that of 1782 on
+North's. In spite of his change from repression to
+conciliation, and in spite of dismissing Germain to the
+House of Lords with an ill-earned peerage, Lord North
+found his majority dwindling away. At last, on the 20th
+of March, he resigned.
+
+Meanwhile every real statesman in either party had felt
+that the crisis required the master-hand of Carleton.
+With Germain, the empire-wrecker, gone, Carleton would
+doubtless have served under any cabinet, for no government
+could have done without him. But his actual commission
+came through the Rockingham administration on the 4th of
+April. After three quiet years of retirement at his
+country seat in Hampshire he was again called upon to
+face a situation of extreme difficulty. For once, with
+a wisdom rare enough in any age and almost unknown in
+that one, the government gave him a free hand and almost
+unlimited powers. The only questions over which he had
+no final power were those of making treaties. He was
+appointed 'General and Commander-in-chief of all His
+Majesty's forces within the Colonies lying in the Atlantic
+Ocean, from Nova Scotia to the Floridas, and inclusive
+of Newfoundland and Canada should they be attacked.' He
+was also appointed commissioner for executing the terms
+of any treaty that might be made; and his instructions
+contained two passages which bore eloquent witness to
+the universal confidence reposed in him. 'It is impossible
+to judge of the precise situation at so great a distance'
+and 'His Majesty's affairs are so situated that further
+deliberations give way to instant decision. We are
+satisfied that whatever inconveniences may arise they
+will be compensated by the presence of a commander-in-chief
+of whose discretion, conduct, and ability His Majesty
+has long entertained the highest opinion.' Thus the great
+justifier of British rule beyond the seas arrived in New
+York on the 9th of May 1782 with at least some hope of
+reconciling enough Americans to turn the scale before it
+was too late.
+
+For three months the prospect, though worse than he had
+anticipated, did not seem utterly hopeless. It had been
+considerably brightened by Rodney's great victory over
+the French fleet which was on its way to attack Jamaica.
+But an unfortunate incident happened to be exasperating
+Loyalists and revolutionists at this very time. Some
+revolutionists had killed a Loyalist named Philip White,
+apparently out of pure hate. Some Loyalists, under Captain
+Lippincott, then seized and hanged Joshua Huddy, a captain
+in the Congress militia, out of sheer revenge. A paper
+left pinned on Huddy's breast bore the inscription: 'Up
+goes Huddy for Philip White.' Washington then demanded
+that Lippincott should be delivered up; and, on Carleton's
+refusal, chose a British prisoner by lot instead. The
+lot fell on a young Lieutenant Asgill of the Guards,
+whose mother appealed to the king and queen of France
+and to their powerful minister, Vergennes. The American
+Congress wanted blood for blood, which would have led to
+an endless vendetta. But Vergennes pointed out that
+Asgill, a youth of nineteen, was as much a prisoner of
+the king of France as of the Continental Congress. At
+this the Congress gnashed its teeth, but had to give way.
+
+While the Asgill affair was still running its course,
+and embittering Loyalists and rebels more than ever,
+Carleton was suddenly informed that the government had
+decided to grant complete independence. This was more
+than he could stand; and he at once asked to be recalled.
+He had been all for honourable reconciliation from the
+first. He had been particularly kind to his American
+prisoners in Canada and had purposely refrained from
+annihilating the American army after the battle of Three
+Rivers. But he was not prepared for independence. Nor
+had he been sent out with this ostensible object in view.
+His official instructions were to inform the Americans
+that 'the most liberal sentiments had taken root in the
+nation, and that the narrow policy of monopoly was totally
+extinguished.' Now he was called upon to surrender without
+having tried either his arms or his diplomacy. With
+British sea-power beginning to reassert its age-long
+superiority over all possible rivals, with practically
+all constitutional points of dispute conceded to the
+revolutionists, and with the certain knowledge that by
+no means the majority of all Americans were absolute
+anti-British out-and-outers, he thought it no time to
+dismember the Empire. His Intelligence Department had
+been busily collecting information which seems surprising
+enough as we read it over to-day, but which was based on
+the solid facts of that unhappy time. One member of the
+Continental Congress was anxious to know what would become
+of the American army if reconciliation should be effected
+on the understanding that there would be no more imperial
+taxation or customs duty--would it become part of the
+Imperial Army, or what?
+
+But speculation on all such contingencies was suddenly
+cut short by the complete change of policy at home. The
+idea was to end the civil war that had divided the Empire
+and to concentrate on the foreign war that at least united
+the people of Great Britain. No matter at what cost this
+policy had now to be carried out; and Carleton was the
+only man that every one would trust to do it. So,
+sacrificing his own feelings and convictions, he made
+the best of an exceedingly bad business. He had to
+safeguard the prisoners and Loyalists while preparing to
+evacuate the few remaining footholds of British power in
+the face of an implacable foe. At the same time he had
+to watch every other point in North America and keep in
+touch with his excellent naval colleague, Admiral Digby,
+lest his own rear might be attacked by the three foreign
+enemies of England. He was even ordered off to the West
+Indies in the autumn. But counter-orders fortunately
+arrived before he could start. Thus, surrounded by enemies
+in front and rear and on both flanks, he spent the seven
+months between August and the following March.
+
+At the end of March 1783 news arrived that the preliminary
+treaty of peace had been signed. The final treaty was
+not signed till his fifty-ninth birthday, the 3rd of the
+following September. The signature of the preliminaries
+simplified the naval and military situation. But it made
+the situation of the Loyalists worse than ever. Compared
+with them the prisoners of war had been most highly
+favoured from the first. And yet the British prisoners
+had little to thank the Congress for. That they were
+badly fed and badly housed was not always the fault of
+the Americans. But that political favourites and underlings
+were allowed to prey on them was an inexcusable disgrace.
+When a prisoner complained, he was told it was the fault
+of the British government which would not pay for his
+keep! This answer, so contrary to all the accepted usages
+of war, which reserve such payments till after the
+conclusion of peace, was no empty gibe; for when, some
+time before the preliminaries had been signed, the British
+and American commissioners met to effect an exchange of
+prisoners, the Americans began by claiming the immediate
+payment of what the British prisoners had cost them. This
+of course broke up the meeting at once. In the meantime
+the German prisoners in British pay were offered their
+freedom at eighty dollars a head. Then farmers came
+forward to buy up these prisoners at this price. But the
+farmers found competitors in the recruiting sergeants,
+who urged the Germans, with only too much truth, not to
+become 'the slaves of farmers' but to follow 'the glorious
+trade of war' against their employers, the British
+government. To their honour be it said, these Germans
+kept faith with the British, much to the surprise of the
+Americans, who, like many modern writers, could not
+understand that these foreign mercenaries took a
+professional pride in carrying out a sworn contract, even
+when it would pay them better to break it. The British
+prisoners were not put up for sale in the same way. But
+money sent to them had a habit of disappearing on the
+road--one item mentioned by Carleton amounted to six
+thousand pounds.
+
+If such was the happy lot of prisoners during the war,
+what was the wretched lot of Loyalists after the treaty
+of peace? The words of one of the many petitions sent in
+to Carleton will suggest the answer. 'If we have to
+encounter this inexpressible misfortune we beg consideration
+for our lives, fortunes, and property, _and not by mere
+terms of treaty_.' What this means cannot be appreciated
+unless we fully realize how strong the spirit of hate
+and greed had grown, and why it had grown so strong.
+
+The American Revolution had not been provoked by
+oppression, violence, and massacre. The 'chains and
+slavery' of revolutionary orators was only a figure of
+speech. The real causes were constitutional and personal;
+and the actual crux of the question was one of payment
+for defence. Of course there were many other causes at
+work. The social, religious, and political grudges with
+which so many emigrants had left the mother country had
+not been forgotten and were now revived. Commercial
+restrictions, however well they agreed with the spirit
+of the age, were galling to such keen traders. And the
+mere difference between colonies and motherland had
+produced misunderstandings on both sides. But the main
+provocative cause was Imperial taxation for local defence.
+The Thirteen Colonies could not have held their own by
+land or sea, much less could they have conquered their
+French rivals, without the Imperial forces, which, indeed,
+had done by far the greater part of the fighting. How
+was the cost to be shared between the mother country and
+themselves? The colonies had not been asked to pay more
+than their share. The point was whether they could be
+taxed at all by the Imperial government when they had no
+representation in the Imperial parliament. The government
+said Yes. The colonies and the opposition at home said
+No. As the colonies would not pay of their own accord,
+and as the government did not see why they should be
+parasites on the armed strength of the mother country,
+parliament proceeded to tax them. They then refused to
+pay under compulsion; and a complete deadlock ensued.
+
+The personal factors in this perhaps insoluble problem
+were still more refractory than the constitutional. All
+the great questions of peace and war and other foreign
+relations were settled by the mother country, which was
+the only sovereign power and which alone possessed the
+force to make any British rights respected. The Americans
+supplied subordinate means and so became subordinate men
+when they and the Imperial forces worked together. This,
+to use a homely phrase, made their leaders feel out of
+it. Everything that breeds trouble between militiamen
+and regulars, colonials and mother-countrymen, fanned
+the flame of colonial resentment till the leaders were
+able to set their followers on fire. It was a leaders'
+rebellion: there was no maddening cruelty or even
+oppression such as those which have produced so many
+revolutions elsewhere. It was a leaders' victory: there
+was no general feeling that death or independence were
+the only alternatives from the first. But as the fight
+went on, and Loyalists and revolutionists grew more and
+more bitter towards one another, the revolutionary
+followers found the same cause for hating the Loyalists
+as their leaders had found for hating the government.
+Many of the Loyalists belonged to the well-educated and
+well-to-do classes. So the envy and greed of the
+revolutionary followers were added to the personal and
+political rage of their leaders.
+
+The British government had done its best for the Loyalists
+in the treaty of peace and had urged Carleton, who needed
+no urging in such a cause, to do his best as well. But
+the treaty was made with the Congress; and the Congress
+had no authority over the internal affairs of the thirteen
+new states, each one of which could do as it liked with
+its own envied and detested Loyalists. The revolutionists
+wanted some tangible spoils. The safety of peace had made
+the trimmers equally 'patriotic' and equally clamorous.
+So the confiscation of Loyalist property soon became the
+order of the day.
+
+It was not the custom of that age to confiscate private
+property simply because the owners were on the losing
+side, still less to confiscate it under local instead of
+national authority. But need, greed, and resentment were
+stronger than any scruples. Need was the weakest, resentment
+the strongest of all the animating motives. The American
+army was in rags and its pay greatly in arrears while
+the British forces under Carleton were fed, clothed, and
+paid in the regular way. But it was the passionate
+resentment of the revolutionists that perverted this
+exasperating difference into another 'intolerable wrong.'
+Washington was above such meaner measures. But when he
+said the Loyalists were only fit for suicide, and when
+Adams, another future president, said they ought to be
+hanged, it is little wonder that lesser men thought the
+time had come for legal looting. Those Loyalists who best
+understood the temper of their late fellow-countrymen
+left at once. They were right. Even to be a woman was no
+protection against confiscation in the case of Mary
+Phillips, sister-in-law to Beverley Robinson, a well-known
+Loyalist who settled in New Brunswick after the Revolution.
+Her case was not nearly so hard as many another. But her
+historic love-affair makes it the most romantic.
+Eight-and-twenty years before this General Braddock had
+marched to death and defeat beside the Monongahela with
+two handsome and gallant young aides-de-camp, Washington
+and Morris. Both fell in love with bewitching Mary
+Phillips. But, while Washington left her fancy-free,
+Morris won her heart and hand. Now that the strife was
+no longer against a foreign foe but between two British
+parties, the former aides-de-camp found themselves rivals
+in arms as well as love; for Colonel Morris was Carleton's
+right-hand man in all that concerned the Loyalists, being
+the official head of the department of Claims and Succour:
+
+Morris, Morgan, and Carleton were the three busiest men
+in New York. Forty thick manuscript volumes still show
+Maurice Morgan's assiduous work as Carleton's confidential
+secretary. But Morris had the more heart-breaking duty
+of the three, with no relief, day after sorrow-laden day,
+from the anguishing appeals of Loyalist widows, orphans,
+and other ruined refugees. No sooner had the dire news
+arrived that peace had been made with the Congress, and
+that each of the thirteen United States was free to show
+uncovenanted mercies towards its own Loyalists, than the
+exodus began. Five thousand five hundred and ninety-three
+Loyalists sailed for Halifax in the first convoy on the
+17th of April with a strong recommendation from Carleton
+to Governor Parr of Nova Scotia. 'Many of these are of
+the first families and born to the fairest possessions.
+I therefore beg that you will have them properly
+considered.' Shipping was scarce; for the hostility of
+the whole foreign naval world had made enormous demands
+on the British navy and mercantile marine. So six thousand
+Loyalists had to march overland to join Carleton's vessels
+at New York, some of them from as far south as
+Charlottesville, Virginia. They were carefully shepherded
+by Colonel Alured Clarke, of whom we shall hear again.
+
+Meanwhile Carleton and Washington had exchanged the usual
+compliments on the conclusion of peace and had met each
+other on the 6th of May at Tappan, where they discussed
+the exchange of prisoners. By the terms of the treaty
+the British were to evacuate New York, their last foothold
+in the new republic, with all practicable dispatch; so,
+as summer changed into autumn, the Congress became more
+and more impatient to see the last of them. But Carleton
+would not go without the Loyalists, whose many tributary
+streams of misery were still flowing into New York. In
+September, when the treaty of peace was ratified in
+Europe, the Congress asked Carleton point-blank to name
+the date of his own departure. But he replied that this
+was impossible and that the more the Loyalists were
+persecuted the longer he would be obliged to stay. The
+correspondence between him and the Congress teems with
+complaints and explanations. The Americans were very
+anxious lest the Loyalists should take away any goods
+and chattels not their own, particularly slaves. Carleton
+was disposed to consider slaves as human beings, though
+slavery was still the law in the British oversea dominions,
+and so the Americans felt uneasy lest he might discriminate
+between their slaves and other chattels. Reams of the
+Carleton papers are covered with descriptive lists of
+claimed and counter-claimed niggers--Julius Caesars,
+Jupiters, Venuses, Dianas, and so on, who were either
+'stout wenches' and 'likely fellows' or 'incurably lazy'
+and 'old worn-outs.'
+
+Perhaps, when a slave wished to remain British, and his
+case was nicely balanced between the claimants and the
+counter-claimants, Carleton was a little inclined to give
+him the benefit of the doubt. But with other forms of
+disputed property he was too severe to please all Loyalists.
+A typical case of restitution in Canada will show how
+differently the two governments viewed the rights of
+private property. Mercier and Halsted, two Quebec rebels,
+owned a wharf and the frame of a warehouse in 1775. It
+was Arnold's intercepted letter to Mercier that gave
+Carleton's lieutenant, Cramahe, the first warning of
+danger from the south. Halsted was Major Caldwell's miller
+at the time and took advantage of his position to give
+his employer's flour to Arnold's army, in which he served
+as commissary throughout the siege. Just after the peace
+of 1783 Mercier and Halsted laid claim to their former
+property, which they had abandoned for eight years and
+on which the government had meanwhile built a provision
+store, making use of the original frame. The case was
+complicated by many details too long for notice here.
+But the British government finally gave the two rebels
+the original property, plus thirteen years' rent, less
+the cost of government works erected in the meantime.
+All the documents are still in Quebec.
+
+Property was troublesome enough. But people were worse.
+And Carleton's difficulties increased as the autumn wore
+on. The first great harrying of the Loyalists drove more
+than thirty thousand from their homes; and about twenty-five
+thousand of these embarked at New York. Then there were
+the remnants of twenty Loyalist corps to pension, settle,
+or employ. There were also the British prisoners to
+receive, besides ten thousand German mercenaries. Add to
+all this the regular garrison and the general oversight
+of every British interest in North America, from the
+Floridas to Labrador, remember the implacable enemy in
+front, and we may faintly imagine what Carleton had to
+do before he could report that 'His Majesty's troops and
+such remaining Loyalists as chose to emigrate were
+successfully withdrawn on the 25th [of November] without
+the smallest circumstance of irregularity.'
+
+Thus ended one of the greatest acts in the drama of the
+British Empire, the English-speaking peoples, or the
+world; and thus, for the second time, Carleton, now in
+his sixtieth year, apparently ended his own long service
+in America. He had left Canada, after saving her from
+obliteration, because, so long as he remained her governor,
+the war minister at home remained her enemy. He had then
+returned to serve in New York, and had stayed there to
+the bitter end, because there was no other man whom the
+new government would trust to command the rearguard of
+the Empire in retreat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+FOUNDING MODERN CANADA
+1786-1796
+
+Carleton now enjoyed two years of uninterrupted peace at
+his country seat in England. His active career seemed to
+have closed at last. He had no taste for party politics.
+He was not anxious to fill any position of civil or
+military trust, even if it had been pressed upon him.
+And he had said farewell to America for good and all when
+he had left New York. Though as full of public spirit as
+before and only just turned sixty, he bid fair to spend
+the rest of his life as an English country gentleman.
+His young wife was well contented with her lot. His manly
+boys promised to become worthy followers of the noble
+profession of arms. And the overseeing of his little
+estate occupied his time very pleasantly indeed. Like
+most healthy Englishmen he was devoted to horses, and,
+unlike some others, he was very successful with his
+thoroughbreds.
+
+He had first bought a place near Maidenhead, beside the
+Thames, which is nowhere lovelier than in that sylvan
+neighbourhood. Then he bought the present family seat of
+Greywill Hill near the little village of Odiham in
+Hampshire. As an ex-governor and commander-in-chief, a
+county magnate, a personage of great importance to the
+Empire, and the one victorious British general in the
+unhappy American war, he had more than earned a peerage.
+But it was not till 1786, on the eve of his sixty-second
+birthday, and at a time when his services were urgently
+required again, that he received it. Needless to say this
+peerage had nothing whatever to do with his acceptance
+of another self-sacrificing duty. It was not given till
+several months after he had promised to return to Canada;
+and he would certainly have refused it if it had been
+held out to him as an inducement to go there. He became
+Baron Dorchester and was granted the not very extravagant
+addition to his income of a thousand pounds a year payable
+during four lives, his own, his wife's, and those of his
+two eldest sons. His elevation to the House of Lords met
+with the almost unanimous approval of his fellow-peers,
+in marked contrast to the open hostility they had shown
+towards his old enemy, Lord George Germain, when that
+vile wrecker had been 'kicked upstairs' among them. The
+Carleton motto, crest, and supporters are all most
+appropriate. The crest is a strong right arm with the
+hand clenched firmly on an arrow. The motto is _Quondam
+his vicimus armis_--_We used to conquer with these arms_.
+The supporters are two beavers, typifying Canada, while
+their respective collars, one a naval the other a military
+coronet, show how her British life was won and saved and
+has been kept.
+
+Carleton was a man of great reserve and self-control.
+But his kindly nature must have responded to the cordial
+welcome which he received on his return to Quebec in
+October 1786. It was not without reason that the people
+of Canada rejoiced to have him back as their leader. All
+that the Indians imagined the Great White Father to be
+towards themselves he was in reality towards both red
+man and white. Stern, when the occasion forced him to be
+stern, just in all his dealings between man and man,
+dignified and courteous in all his ways, a soldier through
+every inch of his stalwart six feet, he was a ruler with
+whom no one ever dreamt of taking liberties. But neither
+did any deserving one in trouble ever hesitate to lay
+the most confidential case before him in the full assurance
+that his head and heart were at the service of all
+committed to his care. And no other governor, before his
+time or since, ever inspired his followers with such a
+firm belief that all would turn out for the best so long
+as he was in command.
+
+This power of inspiring confidence was now badly needed.
+Everything in Canada was still provisional. Owing to the
+war the Quebec Act of 1774 had never been thoroughly
+enforced. Then, when the war was over, the Loyalists
+arrived and completely changed the circumstances which
+the act had been designed to meet. The next constitution,
+the Canada Act of 1791, was of a very different character.
+During the seventeen years between these two constitutions
+all that could be done was to make the best of a very
+confusing state of flux. Not that the Quebec Act was a
+dead letter--far from it--but simply that it could not
+go beyond restoring the privileges of the French-Canadian
+priests and seigneurs within the area then effectively
+occupied by the French-Canadian race. Carleton, as we
+have seen, had faced its problem for the first four years.
+Haldimand had carried on the government under its provisions
+for the following six. Hamilton and Hope, successive
+lieutenant-governors, had bridged the two years between
+Haldimand's retirement and Carleton's second appointment.
+Now Carleton was to pick up the threads and make what he
+could of the tangled skein for the next five years.
+Haldimand had not been popular with either of the two
+chief parties into which the leading French Canadians
+were divided. The seigneurs had nothing like the same
+regard for a Swiss soldier of fortune that they had for
+aristocratic British commanders like Murray and Carleton.
+The clergy also preferred these Anglicans to such a strong
+Swiss Protestant. The habitants and agitators, who were
+far less favourable to the new regime, had passionately
+resented Haldimand's firmness at times of crisis. But,
+despite all this French-Canadian animus, he was not such
+an absolute martinet as some writers would have us think.
+The war with France and with the American Revolutionists
+required strong government in Canada; while the influx
+of Loyalists had introduced an entirely new set of most
+perplexing circumstances. On the whole, Haldimand had
+done very well in spite of many personal and public
+drawbacks; and it was through no special fault of his,
+nor yet of Hope's, that the threads which Carleton picked
+up formed such a perversely tangled skein.
+
+The troubles that now dogged the great conciliator's
+every step were of all kinds--racial, religious, social,
+political, military, diplomatic, legal. The confusion
+resulting from the intermixture of French and English
+civil laws had become a great deal more confounded since
+he had left Canada eight years before. The old proportions
+of races and religions to each other had changed most
+disturbingly. The Loyalists were of quite a different
+social class from the English-speaking immigrants of
+earlier days. They wanted a parliament, public schools,
+and many other things new to the country; and they were
+the sort of people who had a right to have them. The
+problem of defence was always a vexed one with the
+inadequate military forces at hand and the insuperable
+difficulties concerning the militia. The British still
+held the Western forts pending the settlement of the
+frontier and the execution of the treaty of peace in
+full. This naturally annoyed the American government and
+gave Carleton endless trouble. But more serious still
+was the ceaseless western march of the American
+backwoodsmen, who were everywhere in conflict with the
+Indians. The Indians, in their turn, were confused between
+the British and Americans under the new conditions. They
+and their ever-receding rights and territories had not
+been mentioned in the treaty. But, seeing that they would
+be better off under British than under American rule,
+they were inclined to take sides accordingly. There were
+now no openly hostile sides to take. But, for all that,
+the British posts in the hinterland looked like weak
+little islands which might be suddenly engulfed in the
+sea of Indian troubles raging round them. Then, at the
+other end of the British line, there were the three
+maritime provinces to watch over. New Brunswick had been
+divided off from Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island
+had been taken from the direct supervision of the home
+authorities and placed under the command of the new
+governor at Quebec. Thus Carleton had to deal directly
+with everything that happened from the far West to Gaspe,
+while dealing indirectly with the three maritime provinces
+and all the troubles that proved too much for their own
+lieutenant-governors. There was no chance of concentrating
+on one thing at a time. Nothing would wait. The governor
+had to watch the writhing tangle as a whole during every
+minute he devoted to any one kinked and knotted thread.
+
+Fortunately there were some good men in office on both
+sides of the Atlantic. Lords Sydney and Grenville, the
+two cabinet ministers with whom Carleton had most to do,
+were both sensible and sympathetic. Years afterwards
+Grenville, the favourite cousin of Pitt, became the
+colleague of Fox at the head of the celebrated 'Ministry
+of All the Talents.' Hope was an acceptable
+lieutenant-governor, and his successor, Sir Alured Clarke,
+was better still. Francois Bailly, the coadjutor Roman
+Catholic bishop of Quebec, who had gone to England as
+French tutor to Carleton's children, was a most enlightened
+cleric. So too was Charles Inglis, the Anglican bishop
+of Nova Scotia, appointed in 1787. He was the first
+Canadian bishop of the Anglican communion and his diocese
+comprised the whole of British North America. William
+Smith, the new chief justice, was as different from
+Carleton's last chief justice, Livius, as angels are from
+devils. Smith had been an excellent chief justice of his
+native New York in the old colonial days, and, like
+Inglis, was a very ardent Loyalist. He respected all
+reasonable French-Canadian peculiarities. But he favoured
+the British-Constitutional way of 'broadening down from
+precedent to precedent' rather than the French way of
+referring to a supposedly infallible written regulation.
+We shall soon meet him as a far-seeing statesman. But he
+well deserves an honoured place in Canadian history for
+his legal services alone. To him, more than to any other
+man, is due the nicely balanced adjustments which eventually
+harmonized the French and English codes into a body of
+laws adapted to the extraordinary circumstances of the
+province of Quebec.
+
+Besides the committee on laws Carleton had nominated
+three other active committees of his council, one on
+police, another on education, and a third on trade and
+commerce. The police committee was of the usual kind and
+dealt with usual problems in the usual way. But the
+education committee brought out all the vexed questions
+of French and English, Protestant and Roman Catholic,
+progressive and reactionary. Strangely enough, the sharpest
+personal controversy was that between Hubert, the Roman
+Catholic bishop of Quebec, and his coadjutor Bailly.
+Hubert enumerated all the institutions already engaged
+in educational work and suggested that 'rest and be
+thankful' was the only proper attitude for the committee
+to assume. But Bailly very neatly pointed out that his
+respected superior's real opinions could not be those
+attributed to him over his own signature because they
+were at variance with the facts. Hubert had said that
+the cures were spreading education with most commendable
+zeal, had repudiated the base insinuation that only three
+or four people in each parish could read and write, and
+had wound up by thinking that while there was so much
+land to clear the farmers would do better to keep their
+sons at home than send them to a university, where they
+would be under professors so 'unprejudiced' as to have
+no definite views on religion. Bailly argued that the
+bishop could not mean what these words seemed to imply,
+as the logical conclusion would be to wait till Canada
+was cleared right up to the polar circle. In the end the
+committee made three very sanguine recommendations: a
+free common school in every parish, a secondary school
+in every town or district, and an absolutely non-sectarian
+central university. This educational ladder was never
+set up. There was nothing to support either end of it.
+The financial side was one difficulty. The Jesuits'
+estates were intended to be made over into educational
+endowments under government control. But Amherst's claim
+that they had been granted to him in 1760 was not settled
+for forty years; and by that time all chance of carrying
+out the committee's intentions was seen to be hopeless.
+
+Commerce was another burning question and one of much
+more immediate concern. In 1791 the united populations
+of all the provinces amounted to only a quarter of a
+million, of whom at least one-half were French Canadians.
+Quebec and Montreal had barely ten thousand citizens
+apiece. But the commercial classes, mostly English-speaking,
+had greatly increased in numbers, ability, and social
+standing. The camp-following gangs of twenty years before
+had now either disappeared or sunk down to their appropriate
+level. So petitions from the 'British merchants' required
+and received much more consideration than formerly. The
+Loyalists had not yet had time to start in business. All
+their energies were needed in hewing out their future
+homes. But two parts of the American Republic, Vermont
+and Kentucky, were very anxious to do business with the
+British at any reasonable price. Some of their citizens
+were even ready for a change of allegiance if the terms
+were only good enough. Vermont wanted a 'free trade'
+outlet to the St Lawrence by way of the Richelieu. The
+rapids between St Johns and Chambly lay in British
+territory. But Vermont was ready to join in building a
+canal and would even become British to make sure. The
+old Green Mountain Boys had changed their tune. Ethan
+Allen himself had buried the hatchet and, like his brother,
+become Carleton's friendly correspondent. He frankly
+explained that what Vermonters really wanted was 'property
+not liberty' and added that they would stand no coercion
+from the American government. About the same time Kentucky
+was bent on getting an equally 'free trade' outlet to
+the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Mississippi. The fact
+that France Spain, the British Empire, and the United
+States might all be involved in war over it did not
+trouble the conspirators in the least. The central
+authority of the new Republic was still weak. The individual
+states were still ready to fly asunder. Federal taxation
+was greatly feared. Anything that savoured of federal
+interference with state rights was passionately resented.
+The general spirit of the westerners was that of the
+exploiting pioneer in a virgin wilderness--a law unto
+itself alone. There were various plans for opening the
+coveted Mississippi. One was to join Spain. Another was
+to seize New Orleans, turn out the French, and bring in
+the British. Then, to make the plot complete, the French
+minister to the United States was asking permission to
+make a tour through Canada at the very time when Carleton
+was sending home reams of documents bearing on the
+impending troubles. The letters exchanged on this subject
+are perfect models of politeness. But Carleton's answer
+was an emphatic No.
+
+Foreign complications were thickening fast. The French
+Revolution had already begun, though its effect was not
+yet felt in Canada. The American government was anxiously
+watching its refractory states, while an anti-British
+political party was making headway in the South. As if
+this was not enough to engage whatever attention Carleton
+had to spare from the internal affairs of Canada, he
+suddenly heard that the Spaniards had been seizing British
+vessels trading to a British post on Vancouver Island.
+[Footnote: _See Pioneers of the Pacific Coast_ in this
+Series.] This Nootka Affair, which nearly brought on a
+war with Spain in 1790, was settled in London and Madrid.
+But the threat of war added to Carleton's anxieties.
+
+Meanwhile the governor was busily employed with an
+immigration problem. It was desirable that the
+English-speaking immigrants should settle on the land
+with the least possible friction between them and the
+French Canadians. The French Canadians differed among
+themselves. But no such differences brought them any
+closer to their new neighbours on questions of land
+settlement. The French had granted lands in seigneuries.
+The British would hear of nothing but free and common
+socage. French farms were measured by the arpent and were
+staked out in long and narrow oblongs. British farms were
+measured by the acre and staked out 'on the square.'
+Language, laws, religion, manners and customs, ways of
+life, were also different. So there was hardly any
+intermixture of settlements. The French Canadians remained
+where they were. Most of the new Anglo-Canadians settled
+in the Maritime Provinces or moved west into what is now
+Ontario. A few settled in rural Quebec on lands outside
+the line of seigneuries. The Eastern Townships, that part
+of the province lying east of the Richelieu and nearest
+the American frontier, absorbed many English, Irish, and
+Scots, as well as a good many Americans who were attracted
+by cheap land. Ontario, or Upper Canada, received still
+more Americans, who were to be a thorn in the side of
+the British during the War of 1812.
+
+But Carleton's work comprised much more than this. There
+were the Church of England, the Post Office, a refractory
+lieutenant-governor down in Prince Edward Island, two
+royal visitors, and many other distracting matters. The
+only Anglican see thus far established was at Halifax;
+but the bishop there had authority over the whole country
+and the government intended to establish the Church of
+England in Canada and endow it. The Presbyterians also
+petitioned for the establishment of the Scottish Church.
+The fortunes or misfortunes of the Clergy Reserves
+belong to another chapter of Canadian history. But the
+root of their good or evil was planted in the time of
+Carleton. The postal service was surrounded by enormous
+difficulties--the vast extent of wild country, the few
+towns, the long winters, the poverty of the people.
+The question of the winter port was even then a live
+one between St John and Halifax. Each of these towns
+asserted its advantages and promised twelve trips a year
+and connection with Quebec overland by means of walking
+postmen till a bush road should be cut from Quebec to the
+sea. In Prince Edward Island the old lieutenant-governor,
+Walter Patterson, declined to make way for the new one,
+Edmund Fanning. In the end Patterson gave up the contest.
+But the incident, trivial as it now appears, shows what
+a governor-general had to face in the early days when
+each province had queer little ways of its own. Patterson
+had no precise official reason. But he said he could
+not go home to answer charges he did not understand and
+leave an island which had been his very successful hobby
+for so many years! The people sided with him so vigorously
+that time had to be given them to cool down before the
+transfer could be peaceably effected.
+
+A judge whose court is in perpetual session or a commander
+whose inadequate forces are continually surrounded by
+prospective enemies has little time for the amenities of
+purely social life. So Carleton generally left his young
+consort to rule the viceregal court at the Chateau St
+Louis with a perfect blend of London and Versailles. Two
+Princes of the Blood, however, demanded more than the
+usual attention from the governor. Prince William Henry,
+afterwards King William IV, was the first member of the
+Royal Family to set foot in the New World when he arrived
+in H.M.S. _Pegasus_ in 1787. He was the proverbial jolly
+Jack Tar, extremely affable to everybody; and he quickly
+won golden opinions from all who met him, except perhaps
+from Lady Dorchester and sundry would-be partners for
+his duty dances. Philippe Aubert de Gaspe and other
+privileged chroniclers record with slightly shocked
+delight how often he would break loose from Lady
+Dorchester's designing care, long before she thought it
+right for him to do so, and 'command' his partners for
+their pretty faces instead of by precedence. At Sorel
+the people were so carried away by their enthusiasm that
+they insisted on changing the name of their little town
+to William Henry. Happily this name never took root in
+public sentiment and the old one soon came back to stay.
+
+The second member of the Royal Family to come to Canada
+was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, fourth son of George
+III, father of Queen Victoria and grandfather of Prince
+Arthur, Duke of Connaught, who became the first royal
+governor-general in 1911, exactly a hundred and twenty
+years later. The Duke of Kent would have gladly returned
+to Quebec as governor-general, and the people would have
+gladly welcomed him. But he was not a favourite with the
+government at home, and so he never came. There was no
+doubt about his being a popular favourite in Quebec during
+the three years he spent there as colonel of the 7th
+Fusiliers. Nor has he been forgotten to the present day.
+Kent House is still the name of his quarters in the town
+as well as of his country residence at Montmorency Falls
+seven miles away, while the only new opening ever made
+in the walls is called Kent Gate.
+
+The duke made fast friends with several of the seigneurial
+families, more especially with the de Salaberrys, whose
+manor-house at Beauport stood half-way between Montmorency
+and Quebec and not far from Montcalm's headquarters in
+1759. The de Salaberrys were a military family. All the
+sons went into the Army and one became the hero of
+Chateauguay in the War of 1812. But the duke mixed freely
+with many other people than the local aristocracy. He
+was young, high-spirited, and loved adventure, as was
+proved by his subsequent gallantry at Martinique. He was
+also fond of driving round incognito, a habit which on
+at least one occasion obliged him to put his skill at
+boxing to good use. This was at Charlesbourg, a village
+near Quebec, where he was watching the fun at the first
+election ever held. Perhaps, from a meticulously
+constitutional point of view, the scene of a hotly
+contested election was not quite the place for Princes
+of the Blood. But, however that might be, when the duke
+saw two electors pommelling a third, who happened to be
+a friend of his, he dashed in to the rescue and floored
+both of them with a neatly planted right and left. One
+of these men, who lived to see King Edward VII arrive in
+1860, as Prince of Wales, always took the greatest pride
+in telling successive generations of voters how Queen
+Victoria's father had knocked him down.
+
+Like his brother before him the duke was very fond of
+dancing, and kept many a reluctant senior and many a
+tired-out chaperone up till all hours at the grand ball
+given in honour of his twenty-fourth birthday. Also like
+his brother he was inclined to reduce his duty dances to
+a minimum, much to Lady Dorchester's dismay. She had gone
+home with her husband for two years shortly after the
+duke's arrival. But she had seen enough of him, and was
+to see enough again on her return, to make her regret
+the good old times of more exacting ceremony. To her
+dying day, half a century later, she kept up a prodigious
+stateliness of manner. Before meals she expected the
+whole company to assemble and remain standing till she
+had made her royal progress through the room. She was a
+living anachronism for many years before her death, with
+her high-heeled, gold-buttoned, scarlet-coloured shoes,
+her Marie-Antoinette _coiffure_ raised high above her
+head and interlaced with ribbons, her elaborately gorgeous
+dress, her intricate array of ornaments, and her long,
+jet-black, official-looking cane. But she was no anachronism
+to herself; for she still lived in the light of other
+days, in the fondly remembered times when, as the vice-reine
+of the Chateau St Louis, she helped her consort to settle
+nice points of etiquette and maintain a dignity befitting
+His Majesty's chosen representative. How did the seigneurs
+rank among themselves and with the leading English-speaking
+people? Who were to dance in the state minuet? Should
+dancing cease when the bishops came in, and for how long?
+Was that curtsy dropped quite low enough to her viceregal
+self, and did that _debutante_ offer her blushing cheek
+in quite the proper way to Carleton when he graciously
+gave her the presentation kiss? How immeasurably far away
+it all seems now, that stately little court where the
+echoes of a dead Versailles lived on for seven years
+after the fall of the Bastille! And yet there is still
+one citizen o Quebec whose early partners were chaperoned
+by ladies who had danced the minuet with Lord and Lady
+Dorchester.
+
+The two royal visits were not without their political
+significance--using the word political in its larger
+meaning. But the three years between them--that is,
+1788-89-90--formed the really pregnant time of
+constitutional development, when the Canada Act of 1791
+was taking shape in the minds of its chief authors
+--Carleton and Smith in Canada, Grenville and Pitt in
+England. The Loyalists and the English-speaking merchants
+of Quebec and Montreal took good care to make themselves
+heard at every stage of the proceedings. Most French
+Canadians would have preferred to be left without the
+suspected blessings of a parliament. The clergy and
+seigneurs wished for a continuance of the Quebec Act,
+and the habitants wanted they knew not what, provided it
+would enable them to get more and give less. The
+English-speaking people, on the other hand, were all for
+a parliament. But they differed widely as to what kind
+of parliament would suit their purpose best. As a rule
+they acquiesced, with a more or less bad grace, in the
+necessity of admitting French Canadians on the same terms
+as themselves. If Canada, without the Maritime Provinces,
+should be taken as a whole then the French Canadians
+would only be in a moderate majority. If, however, two
+provinces, Upper Canada and Lower Canada, were to be
+erected, then the English-speaking minority in Lower
+Canada would be outvoted three or four to one.
+
+There was a third alternative: no less than the
+establishment of a regular Dominion of British North
+America in 1790, a step which might have saved much
+trouble between that time and the Confederation of 1867.
+William Smith was its strongest advocate, Carleton its
+most cautious and judicious supporter. The chief justice
+was in favour of federating Upper and Lower Canada with
+the Maritime Provinces and Newfoundland into a single
+dominion. Each of the six provinces would have its own
+parliament under a lieutenant-governor, while there would
+also be a central parliament under a governor-general.
+Carleton forwarded the suggestion to the home government;
+but he nowhere committed himself to any very definite
+scheme. His own preference was for keeping the existing
+province of Quebec a little longer, then dividing it,
+and afterwards drawing in the other provinces. The chief
+justice preferred to make a constitution. The governor
+preferred to let it grow. The home government's preference
+could not be stated better than in Grenville's dispatch
+to Carleton of the 20th of October 1789: 'The general
+object is to assimilate the constitution to that of Great
+Britain as nearly as the difference arising from the
+manners of the People and from the present situation of
+the Province will admit. ... Attention is due to the
+prejudices and habits of the French Inhabitants and every
+caution should be used to continue to them the enjoyment
+of those civil and religious Rights which were secured
+to them by the Capitulation or which have since been
+granted by the liberal and enlightened spirit of the
+British Government.' Except for its rather too
+self-righteous conclusion this confidential announcement
+really is an admirable statement of the 'liberal and
+enlightened' views which prevailed at Westminster.
+
+The bill, postponed in 1790, was introduced by Pitt
+himself in the House of Commons on the 7th of March 1791.
+Sixteen days later Adam Lymburner, a representative
+merchant of Quebec, whom Carleton described as 'a quiet,
+decent man, not unfriendly to the administration,' pleaded
+for hours before the committee of the House of Commons
+against the division of the province. All the
+English-speaking minority in the prospective province of
+Lower Canada were afraid of being swamped by the
+French-Canadian vote, and so of being hampered in liberty
+and trade. The London merchants naturally backed Lymburner.
+Fox opposed the bill as not being liberal enough. Burke
+flared up into the speech which led to his final breach
+with Fox. Pitt, the pilot who was to weather far greater
+storms in the years to come, eventually got the bill
+through both Houses with substantial majorities. On the
+14th of May it became law. Quebec and Ontario were parted
+for good, notwithstanding the legislative union of fifty
+years later.
+
+The Canada Act, or, as it is better known, the
+Constitutional Act, cut off Upper Canada. Lower Canada
+was now the old Quebec reduced to its right size, endowed
+with clarified laws and a brand-new parliament, and made
+as acceptable as possible to the English-speaking minority
+without any injustice to the vastly greater French
+majority. Quebec, Three Rivers, Montreal, and Sorel got
+each two members in the new parliament, an allotment
+which ensured a certain representation of the 'British'
+merchants. The franchise was the same in both provinces:
+in the country parts a forty-shilling freehold or its
+equivalent, and in the towns either a five-pound annual
+ownership value or twice that for a tenant. The Crown
+gave up all taxation except commercial duties, which were
+to be applied solely for the benefit of the provinces.
+Lands outside the seigneuries were to be in free and
+common socage, while seigneurial tenure itself could be
+converted into freehold on petition. One-seventh of the
+Crown lands was reserved for the endowment of the Church
+of England. The Crown kept all rights of veto and
+appointment. The legislatures were small in membership.
+The Upper Houses could be made hereditary; though the
+actual tenure was never more than for life during good
+behaviour. Carleton favoured the hereditary principle
+whenever it could be applied with advantage. But he knew
+the ups and downs of colonial fortunes too well to believe
+that Canada was ready for any such experiment.
+
+No one dreamt of having what is now known as responsible
+government, that is, an executive sitting in the legislature
+and responsible to the legislature for its acts. Nor was
+the greatest of all parliamentary powers--the power of
+the purse--given outright. This, however, was owing to
+simple force of circumstances and not to any desire of
+abridging the liberties of the people. The fact is that
+at this time eighty per cent of the total civil expenditure
+had to be paid by the home government. It is frequently
+ignored that the mother country paid most of Canada's
+bills till long after the War of 1812, that she paid
+nearly all the naval and military accounts for longer
+still, and that she has borne far more than her own share
+of the common defence down to the present day.
+
+The new constitution came into force on the 26th of
+December 1791; and, for the first time, Upper and Lower
+Canada had the right to elect their own representatives.
+Assemblies, of course, were nothing new in British North
+America. Nova Scotia had an assembly in 1758, the year
+that Louisbourg was taken. Prince Edward Island had one
+in 1773, the year before the Quebec Act was passed. New
+Brunswick had one in 1786, the year Carleton began his
+second term. But assemblies still had all the charm of
+novelty in 'Canada proper.' Perhaps it would be more
+appropriate to say that Upper Canada experienced more
+charm than novelty while Lower Canada experienced more
+novelty than charm. The Anglo-Canadians in all five
+provinces were used to parliaments in America. Their
+ancestors had been used to them for centuries in England.
+So the little parliament of Upper Canada at Newark passed
+as many bills in five weeks as that of Lower Canada passed
+in seven months. The fact that there were fifty members
+in the Assembly at Quebec, while there were only half as
+many in both chambers at Newark, doubtless had something
+to do with it. But the fact that the Quebec parliament
+was an innovation, while the one at Newark was a simple
+development, had very much more.
+
+There is no need to follow the course of legislation in
+any of the five provinces. As most of the civil and
+practically all the naval and military expenditure had
+to be met by the Imperial Treasury, and as Canada was
+five parts and no whole from her own parliamentary point
+of view, the legislation required for a grand total of
+two hundred and fifty thousand people could not be of
+the national kind. But at Quebec the scene, the setting,
+and the unheard-of innovation itself all give a special
+interest to every detail of the opening ceremony on the
+17th of December 1792.
+
+Carleton was in England, so the Speech from the Throne
+was read by the lieutenant-governor, Major-General Sir
+Alured Clarke. Half of the Upper House and two-thirds of
+the Lower were French Canadians. A French-Canadian member
+was nominated for the speakership and elected unanimously.
+Both races were for the most part represented by members
+whose official title of 'Honourable Gentlemen' was not
+at all a misnomer. The French members of the Assembly
+were half distrustful both of it and of themselves. But
+they knew how to add grace and dignity to a very notable
+occasion. The old Bishop's Palace served as the Houses
+of Parliament and so continued for many years to come.
+It was a solid rather than a stately pile. But it stood
+on a commanding site at the head of Mountain Hill between
+the Grand Battery and the Chateau St Louis. Every one
+was in uniform or in what corresponded to court dress.
+Round the throne stood many officers in their red and
+gold, conspicuous among them the Duke of Kent. In front
+sat the Executive and Legislative Councillors, corresponding
+to the modern cabinet ministers and senators. Their roll,
+as well as the Assembly's, bore many names that recalled
+the glories of the old regime--St Ours, Longueuil, de
+Lanaudiere, Boucherville, de Salaberry, de Lotbiniere,
+and many more. The Council chamber was crowded in every
+part long before the governor arrived. 'The Ladies
+introduced into the House' were 'without Hat, Cloak, or
+Bonnet,' the 'Doorkeeper of His Majesty's Council' having
+taken good care to see them 'leave the same in the Great
+Committee Room previous to their Introduction.' 'The
+Ladies attached to His Excellency's Suite' were admitted
+'within the railing or body of the House' and 'accommodated
+with the seats of the members as far as possible.'
+Outwardly it was all very much the same in principle as
+the opening of any other British parliament--the escort,
+guard, and band, the royal salute, the brilliant staff,
+the scarlet cloth of state, the few and quiet members of
+the Upper House, the many of the Lower, jostling each
+other to get a good place near Mr Speaker at the bar,
+the radiant ladies, the crowded galleries corniced with
+inquiring faces and craned necks, the Gentlemen Ushers
+and their quaint bows, the Speech from the Throne and
+the occasional lifting of His Excellency's hat, the
+retiring in full state; and then the ebbing away of all
+the sightseers, their eddying currents of packed humanity
+in the halls and passages, the porch, the door, the
+emptying street. But inwardly what a world of difference!
+For here was the first British parliament in which
+legislators of foreign birth and blood and language were
+shaping British laws as British subjects.
+
+In September 1793 Carleton returned from his two years'
+absence and was welcomed more warmly than ever. Quebec
+blazed with illuminations. The streets swarmed with eager
+crowds. The first session of the first parliament had
+been better than any one had dared to hope for. There
+was a general tendency to give the new constitution a
+fair trial; and all classes looked to Carleton to make
+the harmony that had been attained both permanent and
+universal. Dr Jacob Mountain, first Anglican bishop of
+Quebec, also arrived shortly afterwards and was warmly
+greeted by the Roman Catholic prelate, who embraced him,
+saying, 'It's time you came to shepherd your own flock.'
+Mountain was statesman and churchman in one. He had been
+chosen by the elder Pitt to be the younger's tutor and
+then chosen by the younger to be his private secretary. The
+fact that the Anglican bishop of Quebec was then and for
+many years afterwards a sort of Canadian chaplain-general
+to the Imperial troops and that most of the leading
+officials and leading Loyalists belonged to the Church
+of England made him a personage of great importance. It
+was fortunate that, as in the case of Inglis down in
+Halifax, the choice could not have fallen on a better
+man or on one who knew better how to win the esteem of
+communions other than his own. This same year (1793) died
+William Smith, full of honours. But the next year his
+excellent successor arrived in the person of William
+Osgoode, the new chief justice, an eminent English lawyer
+who had served for two years as chief justice of Upper
+Canada and whose name is commemorated in Osgoode Hall,
+Toronto. He had come out on the distinct understanding
+that no fees were to be attached to his office, only a
+definite salary. This was a great triumph for Carleton,
+who certainly practised what he preached.
+
+So far, so good. But the third conspicuous new arrival,
+John Graves Simcoe, lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada,
+who had come out the year before, was a great deal less
+to Carleton's liking. Simcoe was a good officer who threw
+himself heart and soul into the work of settling the new
+province. He won the affectionate regard of his people
+and is gratefully remembered by their posterity. But he
+was too exclusively of his own province in his civil and
+military outlook and was disposed to ignore Carleton as
+his official chief. Moreover, he was appointed in spite
+of Carleton's strongly expressed preference for Sir John
+Johnson, who, to all appearances, was the very man for
+the post. Sir William Johnson, the first baronet, had
+been the great British leader of the Indians and a person
+of much consequence throughout America. His son John
+inherited many of his good qualities, thoroughly understood
+the West and its problems, was a devoted Loyalist all
+through the Revolution, when he raised the King's Royal
+Regiment of New York, and would have been second only to
+Carleton himself in the eyes of all Canadians, old and
+new. But the government thought his private interests
+too great for his public duty--an excellent general
+principle, though misapplied in this particular case. At
+any rate, Simcoe came instead, and the friction began at
+once. Simcoe's commission clearly made him subordinate
+to Carleton. Yet Simcoe made appointments without consulting
+his superior and argued the point after he had been
+brought to book. He communicated directly with the home
+government over his superior's head and was not rebuked
+by the minister to whom he wrote--Henry Dundas, afterwards
+first Viscount Melville. Dundas, indeed, was half inclined
+to snub Carleton. Simcoe desired to establish military
+posts wherever he thought they would best promote immediate
+settlement, a policy which would tend to sap both the
+government's resources and the self-reliance of the
+settlers. He also wished to fix the capital at London
+instead of York, now Toronto, and to make York instead
+of Kingston the naval base for Lake Ontario. Thus the
+friction continued. At length Carleton wrote to the Duke
+of Portland, Pitt's home secretary, saying: 'All command,
+civil and military, being thus disorganized and without
+remedy, your Grace will, I hope, excuse my anxiety for
+the arrival of any successor, who may have authority
+sufficient to restore order, lest these insubordinations
+should extend to mutiny among the troops and sedition
+among the people.' That was in November 1795. The
+government, however, took no decisive action, and next
+year both Carleton and Simcoe left Canada for ever.
+
+When this unfortunate quarrel began (1793) Canada was in
+grave danger of being attacked by both the French and
+the American republics. The danger, however, had been
+greatly lessened by Jay's Treaty of 1794 and was to be
+still further lessened (1796) by the transfer of the
+Western Posts to the United States and by the presidential
+election which gave the Federal party a new lease of
+power, though no longer under Washington. Had Carleton
+remained in Canada these felicitous events would have
+offered him a unique opportunity of strengthening the
+friendly ties between the British and the Americans in
+a way which might have saved some trouble later on. But
+that was not to be.
+
+To understand the dangers which threatened Canada during
+the last three years of Carleton's rule we must go back
+to February 1793, when revolutionary France declared war
+on England and there then began that titanic struggle
+which only ended twenty-two years later on the field of
+Waterloo. The Americans were divided into two parties,
+one disposed to be friendly towards Great Britain, the
+other unfriendly. The names these parties then bore must
+not be confused with those borne by their political
+offspring at the present day. The Federals, progenitors
+of the present Republicans, formed the friendly party
+under Washington, Hamilton, and Jay. The Republicans,
+progenitors of the present Democrats, formed the unfriendly
+party under Jefferson, Madison, and Randolph. The Federals
+were in power, the Republicans in opposition. When the
+Republicans got into power in 1801 under Jefferson they
+pursued their anti-British policy till they finally
+brought on the War of 1812 under the presidency of Madison.
+The strength of the peace party lay in the North; that
+of the war party lay in the South. The peaceful Federals,
+now that Independence had been gained, were in favour of
+meeting the amicable British government half-way. When
+Pitt came into power in 1783 he at once held out the
+olive branch. Now, ten years later, the more far-seeing
+statesmen on both sides were preparing to confirm the
+new friendship in the practical form of Jay's Treaty,
+which put the United States into what is at present known
+as a most-favoured-nation position with regard to British
+trade and commerce. Moreover, Washington and his Northern
+Federals much preferred a British Canada to a French one,
+while Jefferson and the Southern Republicans thought any
+stick was good enough to beat the British dog with.
+
+The Jeffersonians eagerly seized on the reports of a
+speech which Carleton made to the Miamis, who lived just
+south of Detroit, and used it to the utmost as a means
+of stirring up anti-British feeling. Carleton had said:
+'You are witnesses that we have acted in the most peaceable
+manner and borne the language and conduct of the United
+States with patience. But I believe our patience is almost
+exhausted.' Applied to the vexed questions of the Western
+Posts, of the lawless ways of the exterminating American
+pioneers, and of the infinitely worse jobbing politicians
+behind them, this language was mildness itself. But in
+view of the high statesmanship of Washington and his
+government it was injudicious. All the same, Dundas, more
+especially because he was a cabinet minister, was even
+more injudicious when he adopted a tone of reproof towards
+Carleton, whose great services, past and present, entitled
+him to unusual respect and confidence. The negotiations
+for Jay's Treaty were then in progress in London, and
+Jefferson saw his chance of injuring both the American
+and British governments by magnifying Carleton's speech
+into an 'unwarrantable outrage.' He also hoped that an
+Indian war would upset the treaty and bring on a British
+war as well. And the prospect did look encouragingly
+black in the West, where the American general Wayne was
+ready waiting south of Lake Erie, while the trade in
+scalps was unusually brisk. Forty dollars was the regular
+market price for an ordinary Indian's scalp. But as much
+as a thousand was offered for Simon Girty's in the hope
+of getting that inconvenient British scout put quickly
+out of the way. Nearer home Jefferson and his band of
+demagogues had other arguments as well. The Federal North
+would suffer most by war, while the Republican South
+might use war as a means of repudiating all the debts
+she owed to Englishmen. This would have been a very
+different thing from the insolvency of the Continental
+Congress during the Revolution. It was dire want, not
+financial infamy, that made the Revolutionary paper money
+'not worth a Continental.' But it would have been sheer
+theft for the Jeffersonian South to have made its honest
+obligations 'rotten as a Pennsylvanian bond.'
+
+The wild French-Revolutionary rage that swept through
+the South now fanned the flame and made the sparks fly
+over into Canada. In April 1793 a fiery Red Republican,
+named Genet, landed at Charleston as French minister to
+the United States and made a triumphal progress to
+Philadelphia. Nobody bothered about the fundamental
+differences between the French and American revolutions.
+France and England were going to war and that was enough.
+Genet was one of those 'impossibles' whom revolutions
+throw into ridiculous power. When he began his campaign
+the Republican South was at his feet. Planters and
+legislators donned caps of liberty and danced themselves
+so crazy over the rights of abstract man that they had
+no enthusiasm left for such concrete instances as Loyalists,
+Englishmen, and their own plantation slaves. Then Genet
+made his next step in the new diplomacy by fitting out
+French privateers in American harbours and seizing British
+vessels in American waters. This brought Washington down
+on him at once. Then he lost his head completely, abused
+everybody, including Jefferson, and retired from public
+life as an American citizen, being afraid to go home.
+
+Genet's absurd career was short, but very meteoric while
+it lasted, and full of anti-British mischief-making. His
+agents were everywhere; and his successor, Adet, carried
+on the underground agitation with equal zeal and more
+astuteness. Vermont offered an excellent base of operations.
+Finding that its British proclivities had not produced
+the Chambly canal for its trade with the St Lawrence, it
+had become more violently anti-British than ever before
+and even proposed taking Canada single-handed. This time
+its new policy remained at fever heat for over three
+years and only cooled down when a British man-of-war
+captured the incongruously named _Olive Branch_, in which
+Ira Allen was trying to run the blockade from Ostend with
+twenty thousand muskets and other arms which he represented
+as being solely for the annual drill of the Vermont
+militia. Thus Carleton had to watch the raging South,
+the dangerous West, and bellicose Vermont, all together,
+besides taking whatever measures he could against the
+swarms of secret enemies within the gates. The American
+immigrants who wanted 'property not liberty' were ready
+enough for a change of flag whenever it suited them. But
+they were few compared with the mass of French Canadians
+who were being stirred into disaffection. The seigneurs,
+the clergy, and the very few enlightened people of other
+classes had no desire for being conquered by a regicide
+France or an obliterating American Republic. But many of
+the habitants and of the uneducated in the towns lent a
+willing ear to those who promised them all kinds of
+liberty and property put together.
+
+The danger was all the greater because it was no longer
+one foreigner intriguing against another, as in 1775, but
+French against British and class against class. Some of the
+appeals were still ridiculous. The habitants found themselves
+credited with an unslakable thirst for higher education.
+They were promised 'free' maritime intercommunication
+between the Old World and the New, a wonderful extension
+of representative institutions, and much more to the same
+effect, universal revolutionary brotherhood included.
+But when Frenchmen came promising fleets and armies, when
+these emissaries were backed by French Canadians who had
+left home for good reasons after the troubles of 1775,
+and when the habitants were positively assured by all
+these credible witnesses that France and the United States
+were going to drive the British out of Canada and make
+a heaven on earth for all who would turn against Carleton,
+then there really was something that sensible men could
+believe. Everything for nothing--or next to nothing. Only
+turn against the British and the rest would be easy. No
+more tithes to the cures, no more seigneurial dues, no
+more taxes to a government which put half the money in
+its own pocket and sent the other half to the king, who
+spent it buying palaces and crowns.
+
+'Nothing is too absurd for them to believe, wrote Carleton,
+who felt all the old troubles of 1775 coming back in a
+greatly aggravated form. He lost no time in vain regrets,
+however, but got a militia bill through parliament,
+improved the defences of Quebec, and issued a proclamation
+enjoining all good subjects to find out, report, and
+seize every sedition-monger they could lay their hands
+on. An attempt to embody two thousand militiamen by ballot
+was a dead failure. The few English-speaking militiamen
+required came forward 'with alacrity.' The habitants hung
+back or broke into riotous mobs. The ordinary habitant
+could hardly be blamed. He saw little difference between
+one kind of English-speaking people and another. So he
+naturally thought it best to be on the side of the
+prospective winners, especially when they persuaded him
+that he would get back everything taken from him by 'the
+infamous Quebec Act.' There really was no way whatever
+of getting him to see the truth under these circumstances.
+The mere fact that his condition had improved so much
+under British rule made him all the readier to cry for
+the Franco-American moon. Things presently went from bad
+to worse. A glowing, bombastic address from 'The Free
+French to their Canadian Brothers' (who of course were
+'slaves') was even read out at more than one church door.
+Then the Quebec Assembly unanimously passed an Alien Act
+in May 1794, and suspected characters began to find that
+two could play at the game. This stringent act was not
+passed a day too soon. By its provisions the Habeas Corpus
+Act could be suspended or suppressed and the strongest
+measures taken against sedition in every form. Monk, the
+attorney-general, reported that 'It is astonishing to
+find the same savagery exhibited here as in France.' The
+habitants and lower class of townsfolk had beers well
+worked up 'to follow France and the United States by
+destroying a throne which was the seat of hypocrisy,
+imposture, despotism, greed, cruelty' and all the other
+deadly sins. The first step was to be the assassination
+of all obnoxious officials and leading British patriots
+the minute the promised invasion began to prove successful.
+
+No war came. And, as we have seen already, Carleton's
+last year, 1796, was more peaceful than his first. But
+even then the external dangers made the governor-general's
+post a very trying one, especially when internal troubles
+were equally rife. Thus Carleton never enjoyed a single
+day without its anxious moments till, old and growing
+weary, though devoted as ever, he finally left Quebec on
+the 9th of July. This was the second occasion on which
+he had been forced to resign by unfair treatment at the
+hands of those who should have been his best support. It
+was infinitely worse the first time, when he was stabbed
+in the back by that shameless political assassin, Lord
+George Germain. But the second was also inexcusable
+because there could be no doubt whatever as to which of
+the incompatibles should have left his post--the replaceable
+Simcoe or the irreplaceable Carleton. Yet as H.M.S.
+_Active_ rounded Point Levy, and the great stronghold of
+Quebec faded from his view, Carleton had at least the
+satisfaction of knowing that he had been the principal
+saviour of one British Canada and the principal founder
+of another.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+'NUNC DIMITTIS'
+1796-1808
+
+Our tale is told.
+
+The _Active_ was wrecked on the island of Anticosti,
+where the estuary of the St Lawrence joins the Gulf. No
+lives were lost, and the Carletons reached Perce in Gaspe
+quite safely in a little coasting vessel. Then a ship
+came round from Halifax and sailed the family over to
+England at the end of September, just thirty years after
+Carleton had come out to Canada to take up a burden of
+oversea governance such as no other viceroy, in any part
+of the world-encircling British Empire, has ever borne
+so long.
+
+He lived to become a wonderful link with the past. When
+he died at home in England he was in the sixty-seventh
+year of his connection with the Army and in the eighty-fifth
+of his age. More than any other man of note he brought
+the days of Marlborough into touch with those of Wellington,
+though a century lay between. At the time he received
+his first commission most of the senior officers were
+old Marlburians. At the time of his death Nelson had
+already won Trafalgar, Napoleon had already been emperor
+of the French for nearly three years, and Wellington had
+already begun the great Peninsular campaigns. Carleton's
+own life thus constitutes a most remarkable link between
+two very different eras of Imperial history. But he and
+his wife together constitute a still more remarkable link
+between two eras of Canadian history which are still
+farther apart. At first sight it seems almost impossible
+that he, who was the trusted friend o Wolfe, and she,
+who learned deportment at Versailles in the reign of
+Louis Quinze, should together make up a living link
+between 1690, when Frontenac saved Quebec from the American
+Colonials under Phips, and 1867, when the new Dominion
+was proclaimed there. But it is true. Carleton, born in
+the first quarter of the eighteenth century, knew several
+old men who had served at the Battle of the Boyne, which
+was fought three months before Frontenac sent his defiance
+to Phips 'from the mouth of my cannon.' Carleton's wife,
+living far on into the second quarter of the nineteenth
+century, knew several rising young men who saw the Dominion
+of Canada well started on its great career.
+
+All Carleton's sons went into the Army and all died on
+active service. The fourth was killed in 1814 at
+Bergen-op-Zoom carrying the same sword that Carleton
+himself had used there sixty-seven years before. A picture
+of the first siege of Bergen-op-Zoom hangs in the
+dining-room of the family seat at Greywell Hill to remind
+successive generations of their martial ancestors. But
+no Carleton needs to be reminded of a man's first duty
+at the call to arms. The present holder of the Dorchester
+estates and title is a woman. But her son and heir went
+straight to the front with the cavalry of the first
+British army corps to take the field in Belgium during
+the Great World War of 1914.
+
+Carleton spent most of his last twelve years at Kempshot
+near Basingstoke because he kept his stud there and horses
+were his chief delight. But he died at Stubbings, his
+place near Maidenhead beside the silver Thames, on the
+10th of November 1808.
+
+Thus, after an unadventurous youth and early manhood, he
+spent his long maturity steering the ship of state through
+troublous seas abroad; then passed life's evening in the
+quiet haven of his home.
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+The Seigneurs and the Loyalists, both closely associated
+with Carleton's Canadian career, are treated in two
+volumes of the present Series: _The Seigneurs of Old
+Canada_ and _The United Empire Loyalists_. Two other
+volumes also provide profitable reading: _The War Chief
+of the Six Nations: A Chronicle of Brant_, the Indian
+leader who was to Carleton's day what Tecumseh was to
+Brock's, and _The War Chief of the Ottawas: A Chronicle
+of the Pontiac War_.
+
+Only one life of Carleton has been written, _Lord
+Dorchester_, by A. G. Bradley (1907). The student should
+also consult _John Graves Simcoe_, by Duncan Campbell
+Scott (1905), _Sir Frederick Haldimand_, by Jean McIlwraith
+(1904), and _A History of Canada from 1763 to 1812_ by
+Sir Charles Lucas. Carleton is the leading character in
+the first half of the third volume of _Canada and its
+Provinces_, which, being the work of different authors,
+throws light on his character from several different
+British points of view as well as from several different
+kinds of evidence. Kingsford's _History of Canada_,
+volumes iv to vii, treats the period in considerable
+detail. Justin Smith's two volumes, _Our Struggle for
+the Fourteenth Colony_, is the work of a most painstaking
+American scholar who had already produced an excellent
+account of _Arnold's March from Cambridge to Quebec_, in
+which, for the first time, _Arnold's Journal_ was printed
+word for word. _Arnold's Expedition to Quebec_, by J.
+Codman, is another careful work. These are the complements
+of the British books mentioned above, as they emphasize
+the American point of view and draw more from American
+than from British sources of original information. The
+unfortunate defect of _Our Struggle for the Fourteenth
+Colony_ is that the author's efforts to be sprightly at
+all costs tend to repel the serious student, while his
+very thoroughness itself repels the merely casual reader.
+
+So many absurd or perverting mistakes are still made
+about the life and times of Carleton, and a full
+understanding of his career is of such vital importance
+to Canadian history, that no accounts given in the general
+run of books--including many so-called 'standard
+works'--should be accepted without reference to the
+original authorities. Justin Smith's books, cited above,
+have useful lists of authorities; though there is no
+discrimination between documents of very different value.
+The original British diaries kept during Montgomery and
+Arnold's beleaguerment have been published by the Literary
+and Historical Society of Quebec in two volumes, at the
+end of which there is a very useful bibliography showing
+the whereabouts of the actual manuscripts of these and
+many other documents in English, French, and German. In
+addition to the American and British diarists who wrote
+in English there were several prominent French Canadians
+and German officers who kept most interesting journals
+which are still extant. The Dominion Archives at Ottawa
+possess an immense mass of originals, facsimiles, and
+verbatim copies of every kind, including maps and
+illustrations. The Dominion Archivist, Dr Doughty, has
+himself edited, in collaboration with Professor Shortt,
+all the _Documents relating to the Constitutional History
+of Canada from 1759 to 1791_.
+
+The present Chronicle is based on the original evidence
+of both sides.
+
+
+
+END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Father of British Canada: A
+Chronicle of Carleton, by William Wood
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+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FATHER OF BRITISH CANADA ***
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