Part 9 (1/2)

To indict a whole community was preposterous. Yet, incredible as it may appear, the attempt was made. The Chief went before the Grand Jury at the Fall a.s.sizes, preferring a charge against fifty of the settlers. The Grand Inquest took no notice whatever of the accusation.

Another attempt was this year made by the Chief to ruin Mr. Allan Stewart and Mr. John Campbell (blacksmith). The scheme had been conceived two years before, but it was only now that McNab endeavored to complete it. To keep his own grant of 5,000 acres, or its equivalent in cash value unimpaired, he, in the spring of 1838, surrept.i.tiously obtained a patent for Lot No. 13 in the 7th concession of McNab, the lot upon which Donald Stewart (the father of Allan Stewart) and John Campbell were located, in the name of ”Archibald McNab, a settler under McNab of McNab,” in all confidence imagining that he could easily obtain a transfer from any of the Archibald McNabs then residing in the towns.h.i.+p. There were two of that name from Isla--very illiterate and simple-minded men--old Archibald and his son Archibald McNab, Jr. Having procured the patent on the representation that they had fulfilled their terms of settlement, and had paid them up in full, he, in 1840, procured a conveyance to himself to be drafted, and proceeded to their residence.

He represented to the old man that the patent had issued by mistake, and wished either of them to execute the conveyance to him. The old man having been warned beforehand absolutely refused to do anything of the kind. The son was equally obdurate. The Chief could not get the patent cancelled without going into Chancery and falsifying all the representations he had made to the Government respecting the lot. He was in a dilemma. So the matter stood. Mr. D. C. McNab having heard of the attempt, strongly advised Archibald McNab to execute a conveyance to Donald Stewart. If it was legal for him to convey the lot to the Chief, it was equally legal to transfer it to any other person. The honest old man at once yielded to the claims of justice. He was saving two men from further persecution, and effectually frustrating the inimical designs of the Chief. The conveyance to Stewart and Campbell was executed and registered before the Chief knew anything of the transaction. He only discovered it some months afterwards, when he heard that both Stewart and Campbell had voted at the election of March, 1841, the first election under the ”Union Act.” Then his fury knew no bounds. He consulted his legal adviser. The courts of common law could give him no redress. He pet.i.tioned the Government to cancel the patent, as it had been issued in a mistake. He was met by his own report when the patent was applied for. ”How could it have been a mistake,” exclaimed Lord Sydenham, ”when the McNab himself states in his written application to Sir Francis Head in Council--'Archibald McNab, a worthy old settler, has performed all the settlement duties upon lot No. 13, in 7th concession, and has paid me up in full all the outlay in bringing him to this country--therefore I apply for his patent, and enclose the fee for it.'

The patent must stand.” Some years afterwards, the Chief got the Hon. J.

H. Cameron to bring an action of Ejectment against Allan Stewart and Campbell, on the grounds of a mistake in the deed; but the conveyance was held to be good, and the case was laughed out of court, and the parties, Mr. Stewart and Mr. John Campbell are still in possession, and own the property. Thus his weapons of vengeance were turned against the Laird, and what he meant for evil and injury turned out for the benefit and advantage of the locatees. In August, 1840, Lord Sydenham as before stated, sent the late Francis Allan, Esq., of Perth, an impartial and upright man, as special commissioner to investigate all matters connected with the towns.h.i.+p of McNab. Mr. Allan was, before he undertook the mission, being a strong Conservative, rather biased against the settlers than otherwise, and favorable to the Chief; but when he discovered upon personal inspection how matters stood; when after a month's diligent enquiry from settler to settler, and upon the examination of both oral and doc.u.mentary evidence, ascertained the real state of affairs, his strong integrity of soul, throwing aside all foregoing conclusions, all political bias, all hearsay reports, gave birth to that celebrated report already published which broke the chains of the settlers, and emanc.i.p.ated them from the trammels of feudalism forever. The lands of the settlers were valued at their real worth, and a price fixed on each lot, in the event of their being sold to the people. They had strong hopes that the Government would carry out the original grant in all its integrity, as recommended by Lord Durham's committee.--Their hopes were elevated into bright antic.i.p.ations for the future, on the advent of a special commissioner; but it was not for two years afterwards they knew the result of the investigation, or the decision of the Executive.

CHAPTER XVI. (1840.)

THE CHIEF'S REPLY--PERSECUTION OF MR. PARIS--THE LIBEL SUIT AGAINST MR.

HINCKS.

A copy of Mr. Allan's report was sent to the Laird by the order of Lord Sydenham. He sent a characteristic ma.s.s of answers and explanations which were manufactured for the purpose and had existence only in the fertile imagination of the writer. That they were plausible, any person who has carefully perused the reply in a preceding chapter must at once admit.--But many of the charges were left unanswered, some slightly glanced at, others entirely pa.s.sed over, and some of the graver charges he attempted to extenuate. Lots of land either sold or given away to his friends, or for private reasons not suited now to publish, were set down as grants for carpenter-shops, school inst.i.tutions, ferries, blacksmith shops. Donald Fisher, to whom one of these grants were made or sold, was a tailor and knew about as much about carpentering as the writer does about the literary inst.i.tutions of Timbuctoo. Again, John McCallum received his lot, according to the Chief, for ”erecting a school establishment,” and his acquaintance with erudition was of such a profound nature that he could scarcely spell his own name properly. It is true the people of Goshen built a school-house on another lot about a half a mile from his house. This suggested the scholastic idea to McNab, and he improvised it for the purpose.--David Bremner is stated to have received his land for a ”blacksmith establishment.” Mr. Alex. McDonald for ”putting up an inn,” and McNab himself a lot bounded by the very centre of the roughest rapids of the Madawaska (the Flat Rapid), when in fact Bremner's lot was sold to him by McNab for clearing 40 acres of land at the Chief's White Lake farm, McDonell's for hard cash, and Mr.

Roddy's for a similar consideration. These representations might serve a temporary purpose and hoodwink the authorities at a distance, but Lord Sydenham was not so verdant as the Chief imagined, as his remarks were treated as mere _gasconade_. Mr. Allan's truthful report was made the basis of the future operations of the Government, and was their guide in dealing with the settlers. McNab's aim in making his remarks upon the report was to preserve his 4,000, and to induce the Executive not to curtail it in the slightest. There is one case narrated by both parties of peculiar hards.h.i.+p, and the Government of the present day, late as it is, should make the necessary rest.i.tution. Donald McIntyre had paid upwards of 100 to the Chief for his pa.s.sage money. McNab gave him a bond for his deed. The bond and receipts were placed in Mr. Allan's hands. They were by some unaccountable accident mislaid, and Mr.

McIntyre had a second time to pay for his land (a lot of 100 acres) the sum of $50 and was never remunerated for his loss. We will now dismiss the subject of the report and reply. While the former was all that truth, facts and justice could sustain, the latter was a tissue of wild inventions, fabricated for the occasion, and had as much real existence as the ”slate quarries”--mineral productions never heard of before until their locality was fixed in the Chief's bouncing remarks. Slate is not to be found anywhere in the towns.h.i.+p, and the whole tenor of the reply may be judged from this one a.s.sertion. All the inhabitants know that there is no slate in McNab, and when they read the Chief's remarks they cannot refrain from sending forth e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns of astonishment and surprise. The Chief had completed his saw mill, and had erected it and a portion of his dam on the 4th concession line, in the very place where the main road to Renfrew and Pakenham now pa.s.ses. No one could yet define his object for fixing it in that particular locality. There were plenty of mill-sites on Waba-Brook without interfering with the public highway; but this did not suit his purpose, and he appropriated the public road and made another way round it, which his convenient friend, Manny Nowlan, surveyed. About the time of its completion, Mr. John Paris, a young man from Ramsay, located in the towns.h.i.+p. He had been invited thither by Mr. Duncan McLachlin and a number of the settlers, to erect a grist-mill. The settlers had to travel to Pakenham or to Horton to get their wheat to mill. The Arnprior mill was in ruins, and there was not a single grist-mill in McNab. The inconvenience of the settlers was in this respect very great. Many had to travel between sixteen and seventeen miles to procure flour for their families. At length Mr.

McLachlin induced Mr. Paris to select a site on a clergy-lot near the Lake, over which the Chief had no control. Mr. Paris set to work energetically, and notwithstanding every discouragement and opposition on the part of the Chief, had the mill in operation by the fall. McNab had leased his saw-mill, and he forbade his tenant to sell any boards or planks to Mr. Paris; yet, notwithstanding these obstacles the mill was built, and this great boon was finally afforded to them by the exertions of Mr. Paris. The Chief's enmity did not end here. As soon as the winter had finally set in, he caused fresh planks to be nailed on the dam, so as to prevent the lower mills from getting any water. Fortunately for the country that year the water was high in White Lake and a sufficiency flowed over the dam to drive the grist-mill. The Chief did not stop at this. His persistence in endeavoring to ruin Mr. Paris are the events of a subsequent period; and the persecution on one side, and the resistance on the other culminated in a lawsuit, which will be rendered in its proper place.

The settlers in August of this year drew up a narrative of their sufferings, and the hards.h.i.+ps and injustice they had endured under the Chief. It was prepared by Mr. D. C. McNab, and forwarded to Mr. Hincks for publication in the _Examiner_, at Toronto. Mr. Hincks, with all the ardor of a warm Reformer, not only published it, but called public attention to the towns.h.i.+p of McNab and its grievances in a series of well-written editorials. He entered into the question with commendable zeal and warm-hearted enthusiasm. These articles exposed the whole management of the affairs of McNab at the very seat of Government.

Simultaneously with Mr. Allan's report, it struck the Chief's moral standing as the battle axe of a puissant knight would fell his mailed antagonist, cras.h.i.+ng through s.h.i.+eld and helmet and prostrating the foe.

The Chief now trembled for his position. It is true he had received 1,000, but 3,000 were remaining in the background. The damaging articles in the _Examiner_, were opening the eyes of the Government as well as the people. Even the Family Compact were amazed that such things were permitted under their regime. They hitherto were indifferent--careless of the poor settlers' interests. These searching and vigorous attacks roused them to action. So long the aggressors on popular rights, they were now put on the defensive. No longer able to oppress or to dominate over their fellows, they were now compelled to defend their own acts, which in law and justice and morality were in themselves indefensible.

McNab resorted to his usual weapons. He commenced, by the Hon. H.

Sherwood, one of the princ.i.p.al members of the oligarchy that had for years ruled Canada, an action for libel against Mr. Francis Hincks, the editor of the _Examiner_. If the articles before the commencement of the action were severe, those published afterwards were doubly so. The Chief's private and domestic life was attacked with no sparing hand. The settlers backed up Mr. Hincks, and the trial was fixed for April, 1841.

Mr. Hincks justified the alleged libel; there were eight pleas of justification placed upon the record, and everything was prepared for bringing the issue to trial, when McNab, not being prepared, countermanded notice, and the case was delayed till the Fall a.s.sizes.

All improvements were now stopped in the towns.h.i.+p. The people were awaiting the action of the Executive. Until their affairs were decided, all systematic labor was paralyzed. The spirit of enterprise was chilled, and the stupor and numbness of despair seem to be fast settling over them. They had pet.i.tioned over and over again. Favorable replies were transmitted. A commissioner was sent to investigate their complaints. He had espoused their cause warmly; yet no definite decision had been made. Lord Sydenham was absorbed in const.i.tutional changes. The union of Upper and Lower Canada was occupying all his attention, and towards the close of this year (1840) he had effected his object. The Union was proclaimed. The Chief pressed for a settlement of his claims.

The settlers urged for their final emanc.i.p.ation. At length in May, 1841, they sent another pet.i.tion, praying for a decision; and the reason of the delay is fully explained in the following letter to Mr. Allan Stewart:--

[COPY.]

SECRETARY'S OFFICE, KINGSTON,} 24th June, 1841. }

SIR,--I am commanded by the Governor General to acknowledge the receipt of a pet.i.tion signed by you on behalf of the inhabitants of the towns.h.i.+p of McNab, praying for a decision on their pet.i.tion of June, 1840, preferring complaints against Mr. Archibald McNab, the Towns.h.i.+p Agent.

In reply, I am to inform you that the pet.i.tion alluded to was referred, by command of Sir George Arthur, for the consideration of the late Council of Upper Canada; but it appears that no decision had been come to on the subject previously to the re-union of the provinces. I have, however, been directed by His Excellency to refer your present pet.i.tion to the Hon., the Executive Council, with a request that the matter may receive their early and attentive consideration.

I have the honor to be, etc., (Signed) S. B. HARRISON.

ALLAN STEWART, Esq., } Towns.h.i.+p of McNab. }

CHAPTER XVII.

FINAL DECISION OF THE GOVERNMENT--BURNING OF DUNCAN M'NAB'S (ISLA) HOUSE, BARN, AND PROVISIONS--WATER STOPPED ON MR. JOHN PARIS.

In August the long suspense was ended. The Government had decided. The settlers were free. Mr. Allan's report was adopted, and made the basis of Executive action. An Order-in-Council was pa.s.sed that McNab should immediately give up to the Government all undelivered patents he had drawn up for any of the settlers, and his patent for the timber--that the settlers were to receive their lands at the valuation put on them by Mr. Allan, which they were to pay to the Crown Lands Department in four annual instalments--that all labor they had performed for McNab, and all rents they had paid to him were to be deducted from these payments, and all these to be withheld from the money payable to the Chief, as fixed by the Order-in-Council of September, 1839. Thus McNab's 4,000 was reduced to 2,500, of which he had already received 1,000. Many of the settlers had paid by these means for their lands in full. McNab's receipts for rent were accepted as payment. They now flocked in with their first instalments. Mr. Duncan McLachlin and Mr. Donald Mohr McNaughton were the first two who commenced the joyful expenditure. They were no longer feudal serfs. The lands were their own in perpetuity. No landlord could now lord it over them with arbitrary haughtiness. No Highland Chieftain, his heirs, or successors, could claim their allegiance, or call them ”my tenants.” They felt they were free--that in four years no one could put a trespa.s.ser's foot on their soil. An universal jubilee pervaded the whole towns.h.i.+p. The leaders of the movement, Mr. Allan Stewart, Donald McIntyre, Mr. McNab, and others, were feted to their heart's content. Fresh energies were infused into their labors. The clearances began to increase, and new inroads were made in the forest. Fresh settlers came; New Glasgow and Lochwinnoch were occupied, and all the arable lands taken up. The people had, single-handed and unaided, achieved the victory.--Looked down upon by the neighboring towns.h.i.+ps as rebels, as ungrateful malcontents and as a discontented rabble, from them they received neither advice nor a.s.sistance. All the magnates of Perth beheld them with a holy horror, and did all that lay within the scope of their feeble efforts to oppose them--all but Mr. Hincks and Mr. Malcolm Cameron.--They stood true, but the battle was fought and the victory achieved before these gentlemen came into the field. The spirit of their ancestors--that same British pluck that obtained the Magna Charta, swept away the throne of the Charles's, obtained the Bill of Rights, enthroned William III. and established popular and const.i.tutional government in the old country--animated the settlers in McNab to struggle even against hope, to battle for their rights--and amid poverty, persecution, and imprisonment, win one of the greatest moral victories ever recorded in the historic annals of Canada, or of any other country. They were essentially alone in all these struggles--their triumph was the more glorious, their victory more satisfactory and praiseworthy.

Deprived of his towns.h.i.+p, stripped of his power, the Chief would not forego his revenge. Now that everything had been arranged, a spirit of reconciliation might have supervened and he could have settled down and still lived happily among the people. But no; he still had some power over one or two individuals. The dying struggles of the leviathan of the deep are attended with the greatest peril. The ”flurry” of the whale in its expiring agonies, is most dreaded by its captors. So it was with the Laird. The Judgment in Ejectment against Duncan McNab (Isla) was held in abeyance. Now that the decision of the Government was given, and that, too, hostile and prejudicial to the Chief's interests, which no cajolery could alter, and no persuasion overcome, there was nothing to gain in withholding its execution. The writ of possession was in August placed in the hands of the Sheriff, and his deputy, accompanied by the Chief and a creature of the name of Lipsy, proceeded to put it into force.