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diff --git a/old/10044.txt b/old/10044.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8bcdc8f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10044.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5621 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FATHER OF BRITISH CANADA *** + +***** This file should be named 10044.txt or 10044.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/0/4/10044/ + +This etext was produced by Gardner Buchanan. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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