The acquisition of Louisiana changed the whole attitude of the United States towards Great Britain,[1] as now they would not require her assistance to secure the mouth of the Mississippi and the Floridas. From this time President Jefferson showed a spirit of animosity in his dealing with England.
The short-lived peace of Amiens was drawing to a close. In order to cover up his disasters Bonaparte resolved to renew hostilities in Europe. As an excuse he declared that he would not tolerate the British occupation of Malta. England had refused to give it up without a guarantee from the powers that it would be left in possession of the Knights of St. John. At a meeting of the corps législatif on February 20th, 1803, these words were used: "The French government says with pride that England alone cannot struggle against France." This arrogant statement of course aroused the British lion, and on March 8th, George III sent a message to the House of Parliament, then assembled, that owing to the military preparations of the French he had judged it necessary to take precautions for the safety of his kingdom. On May 16th, 1803, England declared war, a war that was destined to last more that twelve years, and to tax to the utmost the resources of the country.
[1] See "History of Canada," Kingsford, Vol. VIII.
CHAPTER V
UPPER AND LOWER CANADA 1802
The year 1802 was a critical time in Canada, and so it was felt to be by the few who were there to guard it. If Bonaparte had succeeded in his plans on the American continent, and had occupied Louisiana with an army of twenty thousand men, Canada would probably have been immediately the scene of war between Great Britain and France. Another enemy, however, was nearer her borders, although ten years passed before hostilities broke out.
When Brock arrived, Sir Robert Shore Milnes, formerly governor of the island of Martinique, was the lieutenant-governor residing at Quebec. He was not of military rank, so in the absence of Sir Robert Prescott, then in England, General Hunter, the lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, was commander-in-chief of the forces in Canada. The latter was stationed at York (Toronto) which was, therefore, at that time headquarters. The population of Lower Canada in 1801 is given as 160,000. In Haldimand's census of 1784 it was 110,837 of which 108,000 were French Canadians. The towns of Quebec and Montreal were given as containing each about six thousand inhabitants, of which the proportion of French to English was two to one. In country parishes the proportion was forty to one. These were almost exclusively French; for the families of the English soldiers, who after the conquest remained in Canada and married French Canadian wives, had taken the religion and language of the mothers, and were French in all but in name.
The French Canadians
Quebec in the early days of the century remained, as formerly, the centre of society and civilization in Canada. It had then about twelve thousand inhabitants, of whom half were English, including the garrison. The government officials were exclusively English, and, if report be true, formed a rather arrogant and supercilious set. The French residents of the upper class, whose very names smacked of the old régime, were still as gay and brilliant as when Frontenac and de Vaudreuil reigned in the Chateau St. Louis. A glance at a subscription list of 1799 for a patriotic fund to send to England in aid of the expenses of her great war with France, shows, however, that the two races, French and English, dwelt together in amity. Mingled with the names of Sewell, Forsyth, Molson, Osgoode, Pownell and Coffin are those of Taschereau, de Boucherville, de Lotbinière, de Lévis and de Salaberry. The sum of eight thousand pounds was raised and the contributions came, not only from Quebec and Montreal, but from the parishes of Trois Rivières and Sorel. Another proof of the good feeling towards England that existed at the time on the part of the French inhabitants was that Nelson's victory of the Nile was celebrated by a solemn mass, and by a Te Deum which was chanted in the parish churches by order of the bishop. His mandement was:—"Messieurs les curés ne manqueront pas de prendre occasion de cette fête pour faire sentir vivement à leurs paroissiens les obligations qu'ils ont au ciel de les avoir mis sous l'empire et la protection de sa majesté brittannique, et les exhorter tout de nouveau à s'y maintenir avec fidélité et reconnaissance."[1]
Throughout the most trying days of the administration of Carleton and Haldimand, the priests and the seigneurs had remained faithful to British rule. It is probable that the former recognized that under it their church was more likely to hold its ancient privileges than under the sway of the new republic.
The administration of Sir Robert Milnes was not favourable to the continuance of this friendly feeling. He always distrusted the French Canadians and advised that the militia should be disbanded because, he said, it was not proper to arm and train the people of a conquered province. He possibly saw through the eyes of his private secretary, Ryland, an able but prejudiced man who had a most pronounced aversion to French Canadians and Roman Catholics.
Colonel Brock was not long allowed to enjoy the society and comparative comfort of Quebec. His regiment was ordered to the Upper Province where the greater part of it was stationed at Fort George under Lieutenant-Colonel Sheaffe, while he himself remained at headquarters in York.
The long journey from Quebec was accomplished by water, for although a road had been cut in 1799 from the Bay of Quinte, near Kingston, to York, and although in 1803 there was a passable highway from Quebec to Sandwich, a distance of eight hundred miles, yet transport by water was much easier. No steamboat had as yet been launched on the St. Lawrence and even the large Durham boat was unknown, but the bateau, about eighteen or twenty feet long and six feet wide, was in general use. It was capable of carrying about three tons. In ascending the St. Lawrence there were many rapids to pass and portages were long and difficult. To avoid these, Governor Haldimand, in 1784, had designed and built small canals, the first on the American continent, and the forerunners of those magnificent canals which have done so much for the development of Canada. When the river was passed, schooners from Kingston conveyed freight and passengers by Lake Ontario to York and Niagara.
United Empire Loyalists
In Upper Canada there were at this time, 1803, about forty thousand new settlers, for, in addition to the United Empire Loyalists, reckoned in 1791 at ten thousand, there had been an emigration from the north of Scotland and Ireland and also from the United States, the latter being chiefly of Dutch farmers and Quakers from Pennsylvania. The number of regular troops in Lower Canada was a little over two thousand, in Upper Canada about six hundred, scattered at various posts along the frontier. The settlements in the Lower Province were on the banks of the St. Lawrence and its tributary streams. In Upper Canada there were small hamlets on the shores of Lake Ontario, of which Kingston, York and Niagara were the principal, and military training-posts at great distances apart on Lakes Erie and Huron. Trappers, hunters and wandering tribes of Indians roamed through the vast forests that lay beyond.
So scanty was the population of Upper Canada, and so unknown its capabilities, that there had been many protests against the division of the country into Upper and Lower Provinces. The English residents of Lower Canada wished rather for the total repeal of the Quebec Act of 1774 and the retention of the old boundaries, and sent Adam Lymburner, a merchant of Quebec, to represent them in 1791, before a committee of the House of Commons. In his argument he said there was no reason for the division of the province, as Niagara must be the limit of Upper Canada. The country beyond, he represented, could not be of importance for settlement as the falls of Niagara would be an insurmountable barrier to the transportation of the produce of the land. Burke, in parliament, speaking against the passage of the act, had declaimed against settlement in "the bleak and barren regions of Canada."
Lieutenant-Governor Hunter
In the ten years that followed this protest, despite Lymburner's prophecy, trade had much increased on the lakes, and had even found its way west of Lake Erie. Merchandise was brought from Albany by the Mohawk River, Oneida Lake and the Onondaga River to Oswego, and then shipped on schooners for Prescott, York and Niagara. There were ports of entry at Cornwall, Johnstone (Brockville), Amherstburg and Sandwich. York, the infant capital of the province, was, in 1803, much smaller than Newark, or Niagara, the former seat of government. In 1793 there was on its site one solitary Indian wigwam, and although in ten years the solitary wigwam had multiplied into many frame and log dwellings of the rudest description, there were as yet no public buildings of any kind. Lieutenant-Governor Hunter represented to the government in England that the executive had to meet in a room in the clerk of the council's house, and the only place for the meetings of the assembly was a room in a building originally designed as a residence for the governor. The courts of law also held their sittings there. The governor asked for eighty thousand pounds for the purpose of erecting suitable quarters for the legislature, for various public offices and for courts of law. He represented also that contributions from England had been given to erect a Protestant cathedral at Quebec, while the inhabitants of York had subscribed amongst themselves for a church.
Lieutenant-Governor Hunter, who was in command when Brock arrived at York, was a Scotsman of whom but little is known except that he had been governor of Barbadoes. There are few records of his administration, and he is but a shadowy figure in the annals of the time. He seems to have lived, as government house was occupied for offices, in the barracks, which were about two miles west of the town. These barracks consisted of a wooden blockhouse, and some cottages of the same material, little better than temporary huts. Another blockhouse was at the eastern end of the town, and between were jutting points of land clothed with spreading oak trees. The harbour was considered the safest on Lake Ontario. The long peninsula that enclosed the beautiful bay was fringed with trees, whose reflection in the placid waters was said to have been the origin of the Indian name Toronto. The wild grape vine threw its tendrils around them, and in their shade were refreshing springs of water. Wild fowl made its sandy beaches and reedy marshes their home, so that it was a very paradise for sportsmen. There were salmon in the lake and in the rivers that flowed into it, and game of all kinds abounded in the neighbourhood. A road that had been cut through the wilderness north of the town by the orders of Governor Simcoe, led to Cook's Bay, Lake Simcoe, which was thirty-seven miles distant, and by that lake there was water communication of seventy miles north to Matchedash Bay on Lake Huron. Another military highway west of the town led to Coote's Paradise (Hamilton) and thence to New London on the Thames, thus opening up an inland way to Lake Erie. Settlers were slowly hewing out homes for themselves in these remote districts.
[1] Translation.—"The curés will not fail to take the opportunity afforded by this festival to make their parishioners realize the obligations they owe to heaven for having placed them under the empire and protection of His Brittanic Majesty, and to exhort them anew to maintain themselves in it with fidelity and gratitude."
CHAPTER VI
MILITARY POSTS
It was in the year 1796 that England had given up possession to the Americans of Forts Michilimackinac, Miami, Detroit, Niagara, and Oswego, and now at the beginning of the nineteenth century Kingston, York, Fort George, Fort Chippawa, Fort Erie, and Amherstburg were the chief military posts. The very names of the forts take one back to very stirring days in the country, and a glance at their history shows that this new province of Upper Canada had been once the scene of many a struggle for supremacy between the French, the English, and the Indian.
Michilimackinac, or Mackinaw, the island which lies in the strait between Lakes Huron and Michigan, had been for more than a century the resort of North-West traders, where furs were collected and shipped for Montreal. In 1671 it had been a Jesuit mission, and stories of treachery and massacre hover round its shores.
Fort Miami was in the heart of the Indian country on the Maumee River about fifteen miles from Lake Erie, into which the river flows. Lord Dorchester had ordered the reconstruction of the fort, a step to which the United States had objected, deeming it an invasion of their territory. Both the 8th and the 53rd Regiments had been stationed there during the war with the colonies.
Fort Detroit, on the river of the same name, situated about twenty-eight miles above Lake Erie and ten miles below Lake St. Clair, had had a most exciting history. The strait was the key to the upper lakes, and gave Canada the readiest access to the Mississippi. Five times its flag had changed in the century since it was founded by La Mothe Cadillac. Twice it was besieged by Indians, once burned to the ground. In the last days of the eighteenth century it was surrounded by a flourishing little town, with a mixed French and English population.
Fort Niagara
Fort Niagara, like Detroit, had also been the scene of many a conflict when France and England, with varying fortunes, had struggled for its possession. It was in 1678 that La Salle, La Mothe, and Father Hennepin, sailing up Lake Ontario from Fort Frontenac, found, at the entrance of what was afterwards known as the Niagara River, a small village of Seneca Indians. Here they built a stockade of palisaded storehouses, and dedicated it by chanting a Te Deum, and placing within it a large wooden cross. This stockade was burnt in 1680, and afterwards rebuilt of stone by Denonville. It was designed to be large enough to hold a garrison of five hundred men. This fort was abandoned in 1687, and of the hundred men left there by Denonville, all but ten perished by disease or in conflict with the Indians. Charlevoix, the priestly historian, mentions a blockhouse being on the site in 1721, and that in 1726 it was the quarters of some French officers, who strengthened it by adding four bastions. In 1749 it was rebuilt as one of the chain of forts designed to surround the French domain as far as the Gulf of Mexico. In 1759, after an obstinate siege, the fort capitulated to General Johnson. One of the English officers, General Lee, writing at that time to a friend in New York, gives a glowing description of the fort and its surroundings. He ends his letter thus: "I am afraid you will think I am growing romantic, therefore shall only say it is such a paradise and such an acquisition to our nation that I would not sacrifice it to redeem the dominion of any one electoral province of Germany from the hands of the enemy." In 1763 a dreadful massacre took place, near the fort, of an English regiment that fell into an ambuscade of the Indians while marching alongside the river Niagara to Fort Schlosser, above the falls. Only a few escaped to tell the tale, and the spot has since been known as the Devil's Hole. In 1764 peace was made with the Indians, who, to the number of two thousand, met Sir William Johnson at the fort, and agreed to give up to the British four miles on each side of the river from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. In 1783, after the American war, this fort was surrendered by treaty by the British, but on account of unsettled claims of the United Empire Loyalists, whose property had been confiscated, possession was not given up until 1790, when Fort George on the western side of the river received its flag, garrison, guns and stores.
Fort Oswego, on Lake Ontario, almost opposite Kingston, had also been the centre of many a bloody struggle in the eighteenth century, when the French with their Indian allies battled for its possession, knowing well that to the victor belonged the command of the lake.
Of the military posts left to the British in 1803, Kingston was the largest and most populous of the Upper Province. It was founded in 1784 on the site of old Fort Frontenac, and was the main entrepôt between Montreal and the settlements along the lakes. It was three hundred and seventy-five miles from Quebec, one hundred and ninety-five from Montreal, and one hundred and fifty-three from York. Governor Simcoe had designed to make the latter a fortified shipping town, but this had been vetoed by Lord Dorchester who preferred Kingston for this purpose.
Newark or Niagara
Fort George was on the west bank of the river Niagara, about a mile from its entrance into Lake Ontario. It was, in 1803, a low square fort with earthen ramparts and palisades of cedar. It contained very badly planned loop-holed barracks of logs, and mounted no heavier metal than nine pounders. Newark, or Niagara, for it resumed its old name in 1798, by act of parliament, was the village near by, and had enjoyed for a brief period the distinction of being the capital of the Upper Province. It lay directly opposite Fort Niagara where the river is eight hundred and seventy-five yards wide.
Here the first parliament of Upper Canada met in 1792, and to add to the glory of the occasion we are told that a guard of the 26th Cameronians, then stationed at Fort Niagara, was brought across the river to escort Governor Simcoe in state to the opening. Five sessions were held here before the seat of government was removed to York, and during the last years of the eighteenth century Newark was, next to Kingston, the most flourishing place in Upper Canada. It was here at Navy Hall that Governor Simcoe and his wife dispensed their gracious hospitality. Among their distinguished guests were the Duke of Kent, who rode from their house to see the famous falls of Niagara, and the Duke de Rochefoucauld de Liancourt, who wrote a lengthy account of his visit.
The 5th Regiment and part of the 26th Cameronians were then stationed at Fort Niagara, and Butler's Rangers and the Queen's Rangers occupied the barracks at Newark.
The first newspaper in the country, the Upper Canada Gazette, was published here, and there was a public library and a court-house and churches (St. Mark's and St. Andrew's) long before York, its rival and supplanter across the lake, was provided with any public buildings. It was Governor Simcoe who planned Fort George and gave to it its first rough outlines. In 1803 there was a lighthouse on Mississaga Point, at the entrance of the river near where a fort of that name was afterwards constructed. A dockyard where many workmen were employed, was one of the industries of the place, and here was built and launched in 1792 the first Canadian merchant vessel.
It was in 1783 that there landed on the beach the first band of Loyalist refugees who left their homes in the revolted colonies for the sake of king and country, and who were to be the founders of a new nation in this wilderness. For more that two years rations were issued to the poor wanderers from Fort Niagara and Butler's barracks, but by the beginning of the new century the thriving farms in the neighbourhood of Newark showed that the "hungry years" had passed.
Seven miles higher up the river was Queenston, a transport post which had, in 1803, grown to be a village of over a hundred houses with church and court-house and government stores for the Indian department. All the goods for the North-West were landed here from the vessels which brought them from Kingston, and were then sent by portage above the falls to Chippawa.
Erie, Amherstburg, Sandwich
Fort Chippawa, on Lake Erie, a mile and a half above the falls of Niagara, was the end of the carrying place, and was also a transport post. It was sixteen miles from Fort George and it had a blockhouse and quarters for one officer and thirty-six men, enclosed with palisades which were much decayed and useless for defence. Eighteen miles up the lake was Fort Erie. General Hunter, in 1803, had planned a new fort at this place as the old one was in ruins, and had made a report on the subject to Lord Hobart, the secretary of the colonies, but this undertaking was not carried out for some years.
Further west at Amherstburg was another poorly constructed fort. This village was the only British naval station on Lake Erie, and contained over a hundred houses, with a court-house, and stores for the Indian department.
The other military post in this district was Sandwich, nearly opposite Detroit, and sixteen miles distant from Amherstburg. There was a mixed French and English population here, and many American settlers in the neighbourhood who had found their way to this lovely and fertile peninsula—the garden of Canada.
At this time a regiment quartered in Upper Canada was divided into several parts, sometimes hundreds of miles asunder. The posts being on the frontier line, and new roads into the interior of the United States being constantly opened out, every facility was afforded for desertion. The pay of the British soldier was small, the discipline enforced at that time very severe, and by the insidious work of agents from the neighbouring republic, desertions became very frequent.
Soon after Brock's arrival in Upper Canada, six men of a company of the 49th stationed at York, listened to the tempting proposals held out to them, and with a corporal of the 41st who had been left there in charge of some work, set off across the lake for Niagara. The news of their desertion was brought to Colonel Brock at midnight by the sergeant of the guard. With the promptness that always marked his actions he immediately ordered a boat to be manned by a sergeant and twelve privates of the light company, and with them he started on a night journey across Lake Ontario, a distance of thirty miles.
Conspiracy at Fort George
After a hard pull of eight hours they reached their destination and a search along the shore was made. A few miles from Fort Niagara on the American shore, the renegades were found. They were brought back to York and afterwards confined in the prison cells at Fort George. General Hunter found fault with the midnight expedition across the lake, as he thought the risk Brock had taken in crossing in a small open boat was too great. It was not, however, likely that a Guernsey man, inured to the perils of the coast of the Channel Islands, would hesitate to cross Lake Ontario on a summer night. Even if the dangers had been greater, Colonel Brock was not one to shirk his duty.
Once again he was called upon to undertake another expedition to enforce discipline, and again the strong arm and cool brain were needed. This time it was not desertion alone he had to cope with, but a very serious mutiny among the troops quartered at Fort George, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Sheaffe, who, by his severe discipline had rendered himself very unpopular. The plan of the mutineers, as was afterwards discovered, was to place the officers in the cells, then to march to Queenston and cross the river into the state of New York. It was said too that the murder of Colonel Sheaffe was contemplated. The discovery of the plot was accidental. A servant of an officer of the Royal Artillery was met on the common by a soldier of the 49th, named Fitzpatrick, who asked him the hour. On being told Fitzpatrick exclaimed, "Thank God, I will not be too late for roll call; if I were that tyrant would give me knapsack drill for a week, but—" with an oath he muttered some threatening words and ran off to the fort. The servant reported the conversation to his master who immediately told Colonel Sheaffe. Fitzpatrick was sent for and questioned. On examination he showed such symptoms of guilt that he was put in a cell in the guard-room. Another soldier named Daly confessed to the conspiracy, and said that he had entered into it by the persuasion of Sergeant Clarke of the 49th who had told him that he and his wife and children would be much more comfortable in the United States than in the regiment.
Sheaffe sent immediate word of the conspiracy to Colonel Brock, who was then at York. The latter lost no time in hastening to the scene. The mutiny of the Nore in 1796 had taught him that promptness and decision were necessary to prevent an appalling disaster. This was no time for half measures, when the mother country was at war in Europe, and when a wily neighbour was undermining the allegiance of His Majesty's forces in America. Stern and quick must be the remedy. The vessel that brought him the news took him quickly over the lake, and, unannounced, he landed on the beach below the town and walked to the fort. The sentry on duty soon recognized the commanding figure of the colonel and called out the guard, which was commanded, as it happened, by the very sergeant who had been suspected as the instigator of the conspiracy. It was all the work of a few moments. As the guard shouldered arms the sergeant was ordered to come forward and lay down his pike, and to take off his sword and sash. As soon as this was done a corporal named O'Brien was told to bring a pair of handcuffs and put them on the sergeant who was then marched off to the cells. Then came the corporal's turn, for he too was one of those implicated, and in obedience to the stern command his arms and accoutrements were also laid down, and a soldier was ordered to handcuff him and convey him also to the cells. Brock then sent a young officer to arrest the other malcontents. Twelve men in all were put in irons and sent off to York together with the seven deserters who had been arrested some weeks before.
General Hunter directed that their trial should take place at Quebec. They were found guilty and four of the mutineers and three of the deserters were condemned to be shot. The extreme rigour of their commanding officer, Colonel Sheaffe, was the only plea they made in extenuation of their crime. The sentence was carried out on March 2nd, 1804, at Quebec. The unfortunate men declared publicly that had they continued under the command of Colonel Brock they would have escaped their melancholy end.
The sentence
At York, when the letter came announcing the execution, the colonel ordered every man under arms, that he might read to them its contents. He then addressed them and said:—"Since I have had the honour to wear the British uniform I have never felt grief like this. It pains me to the heart to think that any member of my regiment should have engaged in a conspiracy which has led to their being shot like so many dogs..." We are told that the soldiers who saw the glistening tear and heard the faltering voice of their colonel were so moved by the touching scene that there was not a dry eye among them.
After this melancholy affair Brock assumed command at Fort George, and all complaints and desertions instantly ceased. He put into practice the more humane methods of treating the common soldier that he had learned in the school of Abercromby and Stewart. The men were allowed, under proper restrictions, to visit the town freely. It was no longer a crime to fish in fatigue dress, and even the sport of shooting the wild pigeons that were in such abundance was allowed, with the proviso that the men should provide their own powder and shot. Under Colonel Sheaffe's discipline the four black holes were always full, but now under a milder rule complaints were unknown.
Brock's report
The mutiny, however, had made such an impression on Colonel Brock that he sought a remedy for the evils that had occasioned it, and his ideas on the subject were embodied in a report which he subsequently sent to the Duke of York.
During the long winter months of 1803-4 at Fort George he had the opportunity of visiting many of the new settlers in the country. He found that without any special merit, they had obtained large grants of land, although some of them had even taken part against England in the revolutionary war. Land at that time was of so little value that on condition of settling, any person, by paying a fee of sixpence an acre, could obtain a grant of two hundred acres.
In order to improve the prospects of soldiers in Canada, Brock, in his report, recommended the establishment of a corps of veterans, who would by long and faithful service be deserving of the most liberal protection and favour. The men, he thought, might be selected in the first instance from veteran corps already established, and afterwards they might be selected impartially from every regiment in the service. Every year men were discharged who could with propriety be recommended for this corps. Ten companies, each of sixty rank and file with the usual proportion of officers, might be distributed at St. Johns, Chambly, Kingston, York, Fort George and its dependencies, Amherstburg and St. Joseph. Colonel Brock gave a scale of the number of years each soldier should serve in the veteran battalion proportionate to his length of former service. On their discharge he suggested that the men should be located on a large tract of land on the river Credit (west of York) which had been purchased by Lieutenant-Governor Hunter from the Mississaga Indians. He also recommended that they should be furnished with implements of husbandry and rations for a short period. He concluded with these words:—"I have considered the subject only in a military point of view; the advantages arising from the introduction of a number of men into the country attached to government by ties of interest and gratitude and already acquainted with the use of arms, are too obvious in a political light to need any comment. It is highly gratifying to observe the comfortable state of the Loyalists, who, in the year 1784, obtained small tracts of land in Upper Canada. Their conduct and principles form a striking contrast to those practised and professed generally by the settlers of 1793."
There is no doubt that Colonel Brock was right in his estimate of the character of some of the recent settlers in Upper Canada. They had come, not as Loyalists because they wished to live under the English flag, but because of the easy terms on which they could obtain grants of land. They were still at heart citizens of the United States, and openly sympathized with that country. They formed a rather troublesome element in the beginning of the war of 1812, but were gradually weeded out in the struggle that "tried men's hearts."
It was not only in theory that Brock endeavoured to ameliorate the condition of the soldier. He was ever ready with advice and assistance to those under him. One instance may be given in his treatment of Fitz Gibbon, the young sergeant-major of the 49th, in whom he took much interest, and who said he owed everything to him. He tells the story that when stationed at York in 1803, Colonel Brock told him he intended to recommend him for the adjutancy of the regiment, and said: "I not only desire to procure a commission for you, but I also wish that you should qualify yourself to take your position among gentlemen. Here are my books; make good use of them." He often wrote, he said, to the colonel's dictation, and thereby learnt much that was useful to him in after life.
A soldier's dictionary
Another reminiscence of the sergeant-major gives a trait of Brock's character that was predominant throughout his career. One day he asked Fitz Gibbon why he had not carried out some order, and received for answer that it was impossible to execute it. "By the Lord Harry, sir," said the colonel in wrath, "do not tell me it is impossible. Nothing should be impossible to a soldier; the word 'impossible' should not be found in a soldier's dictionary."
Some time after, at Quebec, when the sergeant-major was an ensign, he was ordered to take a fatigue party to the bateau guard, and bring round to the Lower Town twenty bateaux to embark troops for Montreal. The tide had fallen and there were two hundred yards of mud over which it looked impossible to drag the bateaux, which were large, heavy, flat boats. He thought he would return, but it suddenly occurred to him that the colonel would ask: "Did you try?" He therefore gave the word, "Front!" and said to the soldiers: "I think it impossible for us to put these bateaux afloat, but you know it will not do for me to tell Colonel Brock so, unless we try it. Let us therefore try. There are the boats. I am sure if it be possible for men to put them afloat you will do it. Go at them." In half an hour the work was done. Thus the indomitable spirit of the commander was infused into the men who served under him.
CHAPTER VII
PREPARATIONS FOR WAR
In 1805 Brock was again quartered in Quebec. In August of that year, General Hunter, the acting lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada and commander-in-chief was taken ill and died at Quebec, just after the departure on leave of Sir Robert Millies. His death placed both provinces in a peculiar position. There was neither a governor, commander-in-chief, nor lieutenant-governor in the Canadas. Nor was there a chief justice, for Chief Justice Elmsley, who had succeeded Osgoode at Quebec, had died rather suddenly, while Chief Justice Cochrane, who had taken the former's place in Upper Canada, had been drowned with the solicitor-general and other members of the court by the foundering of the Speedy in Lake Ontario. The country was therefore deprived of almost all its leading officials. To meet the emergency Colonel Bowes of the 6th Regiment, as senior officer, had assumed the military authority and Mr. Thomas Dunn, president of the council, had been appointed civil administrator on the departure of Sir Robert Milnes. In Upper Canada, Mr. Peter Russell, senior councillor, called a meeting of the legislative council, and Mr. Alexander Grant, better known as Commodore Grant, was chosen acting lieutenant-governor. Alexander Grant was a native of Inverness, Scotland, and had served in Amherst's army, under whom he had been appointed to command a small fleet on Lake Erie. His home was at Grosse Point, above Detroit.
In October, 1805, Lieutenant-Colonel Brock was made a full colonel and shortly afterwards returned to England on leave. While there he seized the opportunity to lay before the Duke of York, then commander-in-chief, the scheme he had drawn up for the improvement of the army in Canada. The report was favourably received and some of its recommendations were afterwards carried out.
During the absence of Brock in Canada, some changes had come to his family. His eldest brother John, the brevet lieutenant-colonel of the 81st, and a soldier of great promise, had been killed in 1801 in a duel at the Cape of Good Hope. The second brother had long before been killed in service at Bâton Rouge, on the Mississippi. The third brother, Daniel de Lisle, was now a very important man in Guernsey. In 1795 he had been elected a jurat of the royal court and had been sent as its representative to London in connection with the trade and certain ancient privileges of the island. He was afterwards for many years lieutenant-bailiff or chief magistrate of Guernsey. The next brother, William, was a merchant residing in London and engaged in trade with the Baltic. He was married but had no children, and had taken the keenest interest in his brother Isaac's career, advancing the money when it was required for his various steps. Savery Brock, younger than Isaac, was the one whose exploits have been already related. Irving, the next brother, had literary tastes, was a clever translator, and a writer of pamphlets, some of which were of great merit. The two sisters were both married. Elizabeth to John E. Tupper, of Guernsey; Mary to Thomas Potenger, of Compton, Berkshire. Isaac Brock was tenderly devoted to his family as his many letters show, and his sojourn once more among them filled his heart with joy.
Events in Europe, 1804-5
The years 1804-5 had been eventful ones in Europe. In May, 1804, the first consul had been made by "the grace of God and the constitution of the republic," emperor of the French, and henceforth dropped the name of Bonaparte for that of Napoleon. He was crowned on December 2nd at Paris by the Pope, and afterwards at Milan as king of Italy. In England Pitt was once more at the helm as prime minister.
During the summer of 1805 Napoleon had assembled a large force on the shores of the English Channel with a flotilla at Boulogne, and had given to this force the significant name of the "Army of England." The invasion of that country and the plunder of London were confidently talked of among his soldiers.
Austria was in vain remonstrating against his occupation of Italy, while the czar of Russia and Gustavus of Sweden were also protesting against his encroachments on the territory of the weaker powers. A new coalition was now formed against him of England, Russia, Austria and Sweden. Prussia remained neutral. General Mack, who had shown his incapacity in 1798, was unfortunately placed at the head of the Austrian army, while the more capable Archduke Charles commanded in Italy where General Massena led the French army. With one of those sudden coups for which he was famous, Napoleon withdrew his "Army of England" to march to the Rhine and ordered other troops from Holland, France and Hanover to meet them there. This formed what was called the "Grand Army," commanded in person by the emperor. No coalition was able to withstand his victorious progress.
But England held the sea. On October 17th, 1805, General Mack was surrounded at Ulm, and surrendered with two hundred thousand men. The French entered Vienna on November 15th. The Russian army under the Emperor Alexander in person had assembled in Moravia. Being joined by some Austrian divisions it amounted to about eighty thousand men. Then came the great battle of Austerlitz on December 2nd. Both armies were about equal in numbers but the Russians extended their line too much. The slaughter among the allies was terrific and thousands were drowned trying to cross the half frozen lakes in the rear.
"Roll up the map of Europe," said the dying Pitt, when he heard of these disasters, "it will not be wanted these ten years." After his crushing defeat the czar had an interview with Napoleon when an armistice was agreed upon and the Russians were allowed to return to their own country. On December 27th peace was signed between Austria and France, the former giving up Dalmatia and the Venetian provinces to Italy.
While these events were occurring in Europe the feeling in the United States against England was becoming more and more bitter. The news from America was so threatening that Colonel Brock, who was in Guernsey, determined to go back to Canada before the expiration of his leave. He left London, never to return, on June 26th, 1806, and sailed from Cork in the Lady Saumarez, a Guernsey vessel well manned and armed as a letter of marque bound to Quebec. His sister wrote on the 27th, "Isaac left town last evening for Milford Haven. Dear fellow; Heaven knows when we shall see him again!"
At the time of Brock's second arrival in Canada the civil government of the Lower Province was still administered by President Dunn,[1] but as Colonel Bowes of the 6th Regiment had given up his command in order to go on active service in Europe, Colonel Brock succeeded to the command of the troops in both provinces. Eight companies of the 49th were at this time quartered in Quebec under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Sheaffe.[2] The latter had learned a lesson from the melancholy affair of the mutiny at Fort George, and Colonel Brock reported on the good order and discipline that prevailed in the garrison.
Besides the 49th there was quartered in Quebec part of the 100th Regiment, consisting then nearly altogether of raw recruits. The men were mostly Protestants from the North of Ireland, robust, active and good looking, and Brock reported that the order and discipline of so young a corps was remarkable. They were under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Murray. A terrible disaster had overtaken the regiment the year before. On its way to Quebec on October 21st, 1805 (the day that the battle of Trafalgar was fought) it was wrecked off the coast of Newfoundland. Major Bertram, three captains, six lieutenants, the assistant surgeon and about two hundred men perished. Part of the 100th was now quartered in Montreal under Major Hamilton. The 41st Regiment was scattered throughout Upper Canada at Kingston, Fort George, Amherstburg and St. Joseph. Lieutenant-Colonel Procter commanded at Fort George.
The first thing that occupied Colonel Brock's attention in his new position as commander-in-chief was the repair of the fortifications of Quebec. Something had been done to restore them in Sir Guy Carleton's time, and again during the administration of Sir Robert Prescott, but the walls on the western side were old and decayed, and not in a condition to stand a heavy fire. Hospital accommodation was also needed, and Brock wrote at once to the secretary of the colonies, the Rt. Hon. Sir W. Wyndham, representing that the sick had to be placed in hired houses of the most miserable description, unfitted to keep out the cold of winter or the heat of summer. Brock advised the construction of a hospital to cost about three thousand pounds. The quarters then occupied by the various offices of government, both civil and military, were an extensive building on the opposite side of the square to that on which stood the old and dilapidated Chateau St. Louis. The part used by the governors as a residence contained a suite of apartments wherein balls and entertainments were given. The building was of very plain exterior, and formed part of the curtain that ran between the two exterior bastions of the old fortress which covered about four acres of ground. South-west of the Chateau was an excellent and well-stocked garden; for, cold as the winters were, the hot summers ripened quickly all sorts of fruits and vegetables. The monastery of the Jesuits near by had been turned into barracks and was a spacious stone building three stories high. It had been in former years surrounded by large and beautiful gardens. The bishop's palace, too, had been taken over by the government, and was used as offices for the legislative council, the executive council, and the House of Assembly. The latter met in what was once the chapel, a room sixty-five feet long by thirty-six feet wide. Forty acres around Cape Diamond were reserved for military use. A house, once the residence of Chief Justice Elmsley, had been converted into barracks for officers. During the winter of 1806, Brock occupied himself with plans for the fortification of Quebec, and a great deal of correspondence took place on the subject between him and the acting governor, Mr. Dunn. He represented to the latter that the reserves of the Crown were being encroached upon by the inhabitants, and that a great portion of the ground in question would be required for the erection of new and extensive works. He referred particularly to the enclosures and buildings on the glacis in front of St. John's Gate, and said that if these encroachments were permitted, it might at some future day endanger the safety of the place.
Civil or military authority
A long correspondence also took place about a piece of vacant land that was needed as a parade ground for the troops, of which there were then about a thousand in garrison. The ground in question was the garden of the Jesuits adjoining the barracks, and had been seized by the Crown on the death of Father Cazot, the last of the order in Canada. It was a standing grievance with the French Canadians that this property had been appropriated by the government. The correspondence between President Dunn and Colonel Brock was rather a heated one, and the latter laid the case before the authorities in England. He tells the story of how he had asked permission of the president to use this vacant ground for drilling the troops, and how he had cleared it of weeds on the understanding that the president, although he could not officially allow it to be converted into a parade ground, would shut his eyes and not interfere. The troops had paraded there and at first no notice was taken, but a few days afterwards a letter was received from the acting governor, expressing his disapprobation of the proceedings, and denying that he had given his tacit consent to the measure. It was one of the not unusual differences of opinion between the civil and military authorities. Mr. Dunn had lived for a long time among the inhabitants of the country, and had to consider their prejudices.
Brock had his own way, however, for a few years later a writer mentions these once beautiful gardens as a place for the exercise of the troops, and laments the fall of the stately trees that from the foundation of the city had been the original tenants of the ground.
At this time, 1807, Mr. Francis Gore was lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada. He had entered the 44th Regiment as an ensign in 1787 when eighteen years of age, and had been quartered as a subaltern with Isaac Brock, both in Jersey and Guernsey. Fate had once more thrown them together. After the peace of Amiens in 1802, Gore had retired from the army, but when hostilities had broken out again he was appointed inspecting field officer of volunteers with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He succeeded so well in his new position that Pitt made him governor of Bermuda, and from that post he succeeded General Hunter as lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada. He did not, however, supersede Colonel Brock as commander-in-chief, and military returns were sent from the Upper Province to Quebec during the winter by Indians hired for this purpose. Sometimes it took months for communications between the two provinces. There was also some correspondence about Indian affairs, and Colonel Brock announced that although his predecessor, Colonel Bowes, had given directions about the management of Indians in Upper Canada, he intended himself to follow His Majesty's instructions of 1796, and leave the sole control of Indian affairs in that province to the lieutenant-governor.
Strict accounts
As soon as Colonel Brock assumed command of the troops he found it necessary to look into the accounts of the deputy commissary-general. They were in great confusion, a sum of thirty-six thousand three hundred and fifty pounds sterling not being accounted for. The commissary when called upon to explain the large deficit objected to the rank of Colonel Brock, and wrote that he did not think any authority then in Canada was competent to give orders by which his duties and responsibilities under the instructions of the lords commissioners of His Majesty's treasury could be in any manner altered. Colonel Brock looked upon his position as commander-in-chief in a different light, and replied:—"In respect to the last paragraph of your letter, relating to the two characters (the president of Lower, and the lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada), whom you consider as more competent than myself to exercise authority, it will be time to investigate the question when either of them shall express a wish to assume the command, but in the meantime I shall exercise it with promptitude and decision."
There certainly was need for an enquiry, for it was found that no examination had been made in the stores account since 1788, nor in the fuel account since 1796. The enquiry resulted in the retirement of the officer in charge, who was found to be insolvent. Colonel Brock was most careful and precise himself in money affairs, and required all those under him to be rigidly correct in the expenditure of the public money.
He writes in January, 1807, to Colonel Glasgow, president of the board of accounts:—"I have to request the board to continue diligently to ascertain the sufficiency of every authority for expenditure before it sanctions the smallest charge..... When expense is incurred without the most urgent cause, and more particularly when large sums are stated to have been expended in anticipation of services not yet authorized, my duty strictly compels me to withhold my approval to all such irregular proceedings."
There was another and very important branch of the service in Canada which required supervision, namely, the marine department, and it was to Brock's foresight that Great Britain owed her supremacy of the lakes when the war of 1812 broke out. He ordered the building and outfitting of vessels and bateaux for the lakes and rivers of both the Upper and Lower Province. He also directed that an assistant quartermaster-general should be stationed at Amherstburg and another at Kingston, the former to superintend the repairs and stores of the boats on Lake Erie, the latter those on Lake Ontario. Colonel Brock ordered the following number of boats to be kept in constant repair at the several military posts: At Quebec, six; Three Rivers, two; Fort William Henry, four; Montreal, seven; St. Johns, two; Kingston, four; Fort George, twelve; York, three; Amherstburg, four.
In September, 1806, Charles Fox, who had always been friendly and conciliatory in his dealings with the United States, died, and what was known as "The ministry of all the talents" was dissolved. Early in 1807, the Duke of Portland's ministry was formed, of which Spencer Perceval and George Canning were the leading spirits. In France, Talleyrand was still foreign minister, although his influence was waning, and he no longer approved of Napoleon's methods. He had been foreign minister under the Directory when he attached himself to the growing power of the First Consul; and while the great diplomat remained at his side, Napoleon's career was one of continued success. Soon after this date, as Prince of Benevento, Talleyrand disappears from the field of politics.
In America, Jefferson was assisted in his second administration by Madison and Gallatin, while Monroe and Pinkney and Armstrong were his ministers abroad.
The Berlin decrees
News came early in 1807 of Napoleon's further triumphs. The victories of Jena and Auerstadt followed Austerlitz, and on October 27th Napoleon entered Berlin, and from that city on November 2nd issued the famous Berlin decrees against British commerce. They began by charging that England disregarded the law of nations, that she made non-combatants prisoners of war, confiscated private property, blockaded unfortified harbours and considered places as blockaded although she had not a single ship before them.
By the Berlin decrees it was proclaimed that the British Isles were in a state of blockade. Intercourse with them was prohibited. All British subjects within French authority were to be held as prisoners of war. All British property, private and public, was declared prize of war. No British ships were to be admitted to any port of France or her allies. Every vessel eluding this rule was to be confiscated. These decrees not only affected England but struck at the roots of neutral rights and of American commerce with Europe. The motive was obvious. Stung by his repeated defeats at sea, and unable to cope with his great enemy on the ocean, Napoleon had turned his attention to the utter destruction of the trade of Great Britain. At this moment the latter had not one ally on the continent of Europe.
"Leopard" and "Chesapeake"
The treaty with America that had been under consideration for some time, had been signed in London by Monroe and Pinkney on behalf of the United States. It had, however, been repudiated by the president, and the unfriendly feeling towards England had been still further increased by the affair of the Leopard and Chesapeake on June 21st, 1807. This arose from the desertion in March of certain seamen from the sloop Halifax commanded by Lord Townshend, while lying in Hampton Roads, Virginia. One of its boats and five men with a petty officer had been sent on some duty. The men rose against their officer, and threatened to throw him overboard. They then rowed to shore, landed at Norfolk, Virginia, and immediately enlisted on board the Chesapeake. On a formal demand being made for the men to be given up, the municipal authorities refused to interfere, although in similar cases of desertion at Gibraltar and elsewhere, British municipal assistance had been rendered to the United States. Three deserters from H.M.S. Melampus were also alleged to have enlisted on the Chesapeake.
On June 21st, the Leopard, under command of Captain Humphrey met the Chesapeake, under the command of Commodore Barren, and demanded the British deserters who were on board. On the latter's refusal to have his crew mustered, the Leopard fired a broadside doing considerable damage. The Chesapeake, not being in a condition to resist, then struck, and the captain offered to give her up as a prize, which Captain Humphrey refused, saying that he had executed the order of his commander and had nothing more to do. Four deserters were brought as prisoners on board the Leopard, two more were killed by her fire and one jumped overboard. The responsibility for the order rested on Admiral Berkeley, then stationed at Halifax.
Intense excitement was caused by this event and the president issued a proclamation ordering all armed British vessels to depart from the harbours of the United States. In England, Canning, who was then secretary of war, had some correspondence on the subject with Monroe, the American representative. The British minister expressed regret and offered to make reparation if it should be proved such was due. Monroe, in pursuance of his instructions, demanded that the men taken from the Chesapeake should be restored, the offenders punished, that a special mission should be sent to the United States to announce the reparation, and that all impressment from merchant vessels should cease. Canning absolutely refused to consider the latter clause. He also asked whether the proclamation of the president as to British ships of war was authentic, or would be withdrawn on the disavowal of the act which led to it. The nationality of the men seized, he added, must also be considered, not in justification of their seizure, but in the estimate of the redress asked. As to impressment, Canning said, the mode of regulating the practice might be considered, but if Monroe's instructions left him no discretion it was useless to discuss the matter.
Then followed a proclamation by the government regarding the desertion of British seamen. Naval officers were ordered to seize them from merchant vessels without unnecessary violence. All who returned to their allegiance would be pardoned. Those who served on ships of war at enmity with Great Britain, would be punished with extreme severity.
The embargo
Just before this proclamation was issued the Non-importation Act, which had been passed in April by congress, came into force. Then followed the president's embargo on United States vessels,[3] which continued all through 1808. In the meantime Admiral Berkeley had been recalled, though public opinion in England took his side, and recognized the right of search in ships of war for seamen who had deserted in order to enlist in the United States service. As to the Chesapeake affair, Mr. Rose, vice-president of the board of trade, was sent by Canning to negotiate at Washington. He was empowered to state that the three men taken were to be discharged, but the right was reserved of reclaiming from American vessels such as were proved to be deserters or natural born subjects of England. As the attack had been disavowed an allowance would be made to the widows and orphans of those killed who could be proved not to be British subjects; no severe proceedings were asked to be taken against Commodore Barron, but a demand was to be made for the formal disavowal on the part of his government of his conduct in encouraging deserters. Negotiations failed, however, as neither party would yield on several important points, such as power of impressment, the president's proclamation and the disavowal of Commodore Barren's action. The Chesapeake affair therefore remained as an unadjusted national dispute.
All through that year on the borders of Canada the expectation was that muttered threats would turn to blows, and that those who would defend the land must make ready. In Quebec, Brock, who was still in command, aided the administration by zeal and energy, and used all the resources in his power to make the fortress of Quebec impregnable. In August the militia were called out, one fifth to be prepared to march wherever required. In spite of the opinions expressed by some of the English officials, the French Canadians turned out with alacrity. Secretary Ryland, their bitter enemy, was one who expressed himself as doubtful of their loyalty. Colonel Brock wrote in reply that he was not prepared to hear that the population of the province, instead of affording him ready and effectual support, might probably add to the number of his enemies. He was confident that should an emergency arise, voluntary offers of service would be made by a considerable number of brave and loyal subjects. "Even now," he said, "several gentlemen are ready to come forward and enrol into companies, men whose fidelity can be relied on."
French Canadian loyalty
The administrator, Mr. Dunn, also expressed himself as confident of the loyalty of the French Canadians. He wrote this testimony as to their conduct, "The president also feels himself justified in asserting that a more ardent devotion to His Majesty's person and government had never been witnessed in any part of the British dominions." Monseigneur Plessis, the Catholic Bishop of Quebec, was always a staunch supporter of English rule. In common with the majority of the priests and leading Roman Catholics, he probably feared that their church would be more in danger if the "Bastonais" as they were called, became masters of the country than if it remained under England. The Bishop's mandement to his flock emphasized his loyalty:—"You have not waited until this province should be menaced by an invasion nor even until war should be declared, to give proofs of your zeal and of your good-will in the public service. At a suspicion even, at the first appearance of a rupture with the neighbouring states, you have acted as it was your duty to do—ready to undertake anything, to sacrifice everything, rather than to expose yourselves to a change of government, or to lose the inestimable advantage that your present condition assures to you." In every parish, as fathers and sons mustered for service, Te Deums were sung and Psalms were chanted, and all along the banks of the St. Lawrence the people of an alien tongue and race and religion rallied round the standard of the English king.
[1] Dunn used the title of president in virtue of his position in the council. He was at this time acting governor.
[2] A contemporary said of Lieutenant-Colonel Sheaffe:—"He was kind, benevolent and religious, but these sentiments were, in his early days, nearly, if not entirely overruled by his extreme ideas of military authority."
[3] Erskine, the British minister at Washington, wrote officially that President Jefferson's embargo was not intended as a measure of hostility against Great Britain, but as a precaution against the capture of United States vessels by France.
CHAPTER VIII
OLD QUEBEC
Cape Diamond, or the rock of Quebec, rises sheer from the river St. Lawrence to a height of three hundred and forty-five feet. The citadel on its highest point presented in the beginning of the nineteenth century a formidable combination of powerful works, whence a strong wall, supported by small batteries in different places, ran to the edge of the precipice, along which it was continued to the gateway leading to the Lower Town. This gateway was defended by heavy cannon, and the approach to it, up Mountain Street, was both enfiladed and flanked by many guns of large calibre. Thence a line of defence connected with the grand battery, a work of great strength, armed with a formidable train of 24-pounders, and commanding the basin and passage of the river, which was here eighteen hundred and thirty-seven yards broad. From the battery another line was carried on beyond the Hope and Palace Gates, both of which were protected by similar defences to those of the Lower Town Gate until the line formed a junction with the bastion of the Côteau de Palais.[1] In the Lower Town, on the west side of St. Nicholas Street, were, in 1808, the ruins of the intendant's palace, once of much importance. In 1775 its ruin was completed, for when the Americans under Arnold blockaded the city, they established a body of troops in it, but were dislodged from their quarters by shells, which set it on fire and nearly consumed it.
The Castle of St. Louis was of stone, built near the edge of the precipice about a hundred feet below the summit of the cape, and two hundred and fifty feet above the river. It was supported towards the steep side by a solid work of masonry, rising nearly half the height of the edifice, and was surrounded by a spacious gallery which gave a most commanding view of the river and surrounding country. The Château was a hundred and sixty-two feet long, forty-five feet broad, and three stories high. In the direction of the cape it had the appearance of being much more lofty. It was built shortly after Quebec was fortified in 1721, but was neglected for a number of years, suffered to go to decay, and had long ceased to be the residence of the governor-general. At the time when Brock was commandant it was used only for government offices, but in 1808 parliament passed a resolution for repairing and beautifying it, and seven thousand pounds were voted for the purpose. An additional sum of seven thousand pounds was, however, required to complete the work.
Sir James Craig
Sir James Craig was the first who occupied it after its restoration. It was in October, 1807, that this veteran officer arrived in Canada as governor-general and commander-in-chief. He was then about fifty-eight years of age, and had been constantly on service since the age of fifteen, when he entered the army. He had served in Canada in 1775 during the invasion of Montgomery and Arnold, and had been in command of the troops that had pursued the Americans in their disastrous retreat. He had been engaged afterwards under Burgoyne throughout his unfortunate campaign, and in the after events of the Revolutionary War. In 1794 he became a major-general, and was, the following year, at the capture of the Cape of Good Hope. He then did good service in India, and was promoted to be lieutenant-general in 1801. In 1802 he was placed in charge of the eastern district in England, and in 1805 was sent to the Mediterranean, where his health broke down. Believing that he had recovered he accepted the position of governor-general of Canada. In many respects it was an unfortunate appointment, for, experienced as he was in military affairs, he was lacking in tact and political knowledge, and he came to the country prejudiced to an unreasonable extent against the majority of the people he had come to govern. He had an utter disbelief in the loyalty of the French Canadians, and his treatment of them bore bitter fruit in after years. It was owing partly to his mistaken policy that the misunderstandings and ill-feeling arose which led ultimately to the rebellion of 1837. His views were strengthened by the hitherto veiled opinions of most of the official class in Quebec, and the constant daily machinations of Ryland, who filled again, as in preceding administrations, the post of private secretary to the governor, and clerk of the council. Ryland was certainly not a very suitable secretary for the governor of a country whose inhabitants were largely French and Catholic. In one of his letters the secretary wrote that he despised and hated the Catholic religion, for it degraded and embruted human reason, and became the curse of every country wherein it existed. His pet scheme, to which he tried to commit the governor, was to break the power of the Roman Catholic church by taking away its endowments, and by making the priesthood dependent on executive authority.
The newspapers
Late in 1806 a newspaper named Le Canadien had made its appearance in Quebec. It was published in French, and bore for its motto: "Nos institutions, noire langue, et nos lois." There was little or no antagonism between the French and English inhabitants of the province when it was founded, and its constitution simply claimed the freedom of British subjects, or in its own language, "La liberté (d'un Anglais, qui est à présent cellet d'un Canadien." The newspaper, however, appealed to race prejudices. It was the organ of the majority of the legislative assembly, and claimed for that assembly a power that was not given to it by the constitution. The Quebec Gazette, the Quebec Mercury, and the Montreal Gazette had hitherto been the only newspapers in the province, and the editors of all had fallen under the displeasure of the assembly, which had ordered the publisher of the latter to be arrested, while the editor of the Mercury only escaped incarceration by offering an apology. The offence was that these journals had censured the vote of the majority of the popular assembly on a jail tax, which was then a burning question. It was little wonder that the wrath of the Gallo-Canadians was roused, for in one of its articles the Mercury thus expressed its opinion: "This province is far too French for a British colony. Whether we be in a state of peace or war, it is absolutely necessary that we exert all our efforts, by every avowable means, to oppose the increase of the French and the augmentation of their influence. After forty-seven years possession, it is now fitting that the province become truly British."
Sir James Craig's first duty on his arrival was, of course, to consider the defence of Canada, for the hostile feeling in the United States was still growing, and had been increased by the orders-in-council that England had passed in November in retaliation for the Berlin decrees. These orders refused to neutrals the right of trading from one hostile port to another, and bore heavily upon the profitable carrying trade of the United States.
Before Sir James Craig's arrival, Brock had petitioned the government for the means to place the fortifications of Quebec in what he considered a proper condition. He said he would require from six hundred to one thousand men every day for six weeks or two months to complete the defences. From the correspondence it is shown that the president-in-council considered that embodying the militia according to law was all that the civil government could undertake to do. Brock wrote to Colonel Gordon on September 6th, 1807, that he was expecting hostilities to break out at any moment, and that President Dunn had taken no precautionary measures except to order one-fifth of the militia—about ten thousand men—to be in readiness to march on the shortest notice. In spite of the lack of coöperation on the part of the government, repairs and additions had been made to the fortifications under Colonel Brock's superintendence. Amongst other things, he had caused a battery of eight 36-pounders to be raised sixteen feet upon the "cavalier" in the centre of the citadel, so as to command the opposite heights. This was known at first as "Brock's Battery," but the name was afterwards altered by Sir James Craig to "King's Battery." "Thinking," as Brock good-humouredly writes to his brother, "that anything so very preëminent should be distinguished by the most exalted appellation—the greatest compliment that he could pay my judgment."
Military service