Part 25 (1/2)
Few of the townspeople have that privilege. ---- has made the fullest enquiries, and tells me that a majority of the men would be glad to get away if they could: they would willingly leave the service and the country. He says they are well-informed, civil and well-behaved, and that for such time as England may be compelled to retain possession of the Canadas by military force, against the wishes of the settled population he would like to have this regiment remain in Toronto. ---- tells me that a few _soups_ have been kept at Queenston during the winter, because if they desert it is no matter: the regulars are all at Drummondville, near the Falls, and a couple of hundred blacks at Chippewa watching them. The Ferry below the Falls is guarded by old men whose term of service is nearly out, and who look for a pension. It is the same at Malden, and in Lower Canada. The regiments Lord Durham brought were fine fellows, the flower of the English army.
”The Banks here tax the people heavily, but they are so stupid they don't see it. All the specie goes into the Banks. I am told that the Upper Canada Bank had at one time 300,000 in England in Commissariat bills of Exchange: their notes in circulation are a million and a quarter of paper dollars, for all of which they draw interest from the people, although not obliged to keep six cents in their money-till to redeem them. All the troops were paid in the depreciated paper of these fraudulent bankrupt concerns, the directors of which deserve the Penitentiary: the contracts of the Commissariat are paid in the same paper as a 10 per cent. shave: and the troops up at Brantford were also paid in Bank notes which the Bank did not pretend to redeem; and it would have offended Sir George [Arthur], who has a share in such speculations (as he had when in VanDieman's Land), had any one asked the dollars. Sir Allan McNab, who has risen from poverty to be president _de facto_, solicitor, directors and company of the Gore Bank, ever since its creation, is said to be terribly embarra.s.sed for want of money. He is not the alpha and omega of the Bank now. He has quarrelled with his brother villains. The money paid to Canada from England to uphold troops to coerce the people helps the Banks.”
In the same number of the _Gazette_ published at Rochester we have an extract from a production by Robert Gourlay himself, who in his old age paid a final visit of inspection to Canada. In allusion to a portion of Gourlay's famous work published in 1822, the extract is headed in _McKenzie's Gazette_ ”Robert Gourlay's 'Last Sketch' of Upper Canada.”
It is dated at Toronto, May 25th. Having just presented one gloomy view, we will venture to lower the reader's spirits a particle more, by giving another. Let allowance be made for the morbid mental condition of the writer: the contrast offered by the Canada of to-day will afterwards proportionably exhilarate.
”What did Upper Canada gain,” Gourlay asks, ”by my banishment; and what good is now to be seen in it? Cast an eye over the length and breadth of the land” he cries, ”from Malden to Point Fortune, and from the Falls to Lake Simcoe: then say if a single public work is creditable, or a single inst.i.tution as it should be. The Rideau Ca.n.a.l!--what is it but a monument of England's folly and waste; which can never return a farthing of interest; or for a single day stay the conquest of the province. The Welland Ca.n.a.l!--Has it not been from beginning till now a mere struggle of misery and mismanagement; and from now onward, promising to become a putrid ditch. The only railway, of ten miles; with half completed; and half which cannot be completed for want of funds! The macadamised roads, all in mud; only causing an increase of wear and tear. The province deeply in debt; confidence uprooted; and banks beleaguered!
”Schools and Colleges, what are they?--Few yet _painted_, though lectures on natural philosophy are now abundant. The Cobourg seminary outstaring all that is sanctimonious: so airy and lank that learning cannot take root in it. A college at Sandwich built before the war, but now a pig stye; and one at Toronto indicated only by an approach. The edifices of the Church!--how few worthy of the Divine presence--how many unfinished--how many fallen to decay. The Church itself, wholly militant: Episcopalians maintaining what can never be established; Presbyterians more sour than ever, contending for rights where they have none whatever: Methodists so disunited that they cannot even join in a respectable groan; and Catholic priests wandering about in poverty because their scattered and starving flocks yield not sufficient wool for the shears. One inst.i.tution only have I seen praiseworthy and progressing--The Penitentiary; but that is a concentrated essence, seeing the whole province is one: and which of you, resident land-holders, having sense or regard for your family would remain in it a day, could you sell your property and be off?”
Some popular Almanacs of a remarkable character also emanated from McKenzie's press. Whilst in the United States he put forth the _Caroline Almanac_, a designation intended to keep alive the memory of the cutting out of the _Caroline_ steamer from Fort Schlosser in 1837, and her precipitation over the Falls of Niagara, an act sought to be held up as a great outrage on the part of the Canadian authorities. In the Canadian Almanacs, published by him, intended for circulation especially among the country population, the object kept in view was the same as that so industriously aimed at by the _Advocate_ itself, viz., the exposure of the shortcomings and vices of the government of the day. At the same time a large amount of practically useful matter and information was supplied.
The earlier almanac was ent.i.tled ”Poor Richard, or the Yorks.h.i.+re Almanac,” and the compiler professed to be one ”Patrick Swift, late of Belfast, in the Kingdom of Ireland, Esq., F.R.I., Grand-nephew of the celebrated Doctor Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin, etc., etc., etc.” This same personage was a contributor also of many pungent and humorous things in prose and verse in the columns of the _Advocate_ itself. In 1834 the Almanac a.s.sumed the following t.i.tle: ”A new Almanac for the Canadian True Blues; with which is incorporated The Const.i.tutional Reformer's Text Book, for the Millenial and Prophetic Year of the Grand General Election for Upper Canada, and total and everlasting Downfall of Toryism in the British Empire, 1834.” It was still supposed to be edited by Patrick Swift, Esq., who is now dubbed M.P.P., and Professor of Astrology, York.
In the extract given above from what was styled Gourlay's ”Last Sketch”
of Upper Canada, the query and rejoinder, ”Schools and Colleges, where are they? Few yet _painted_, though lectures on Natural Philosophy are now abundant”--will not be understood, without remark. The allusion is to an advertis.e.m.e.nt in the _Upper Canada Gazette_ of Feb. 5, 1818, which Gourlay at the time of its appearance thought proper to animadvert upon and satirize in the Niagara _Spectator_. It ran as follows: ”Natural Philosophy.--The subscriber intends to deliver a course of Popular Lectures on Natural Philosophy, to commence on Tuesday, the 17th inst., at 7 o'clock p.m., should a number of auditors come forward to form a cla.s.s. Tickets of admission for the Course (price Two Guineas) may be had of William Allan, Esq., Dr. Horne, or at the School House. The surplus, if any, after defraying the current expenses, to be laid out in painting the District School. John Strachan, York, 3rd Feb., 1818.”
As was to be expected, Dr. Strachan was a standing subject of invective in all the publications of Gourlay, as well as subsequently in all those of McKenzie. Collins, Editor of the _Freeman_, became, as we have seen, reticent in relation to him; but, more or less, a fusilade was maintained upon him in McKenzie's periodicals, as long as they issued.
In McKenzie's opposition to Dr. Strachan there was possibly a certain degree of national animus springing from the contemplation of a Scottish compatriot who, after rising to position in the young colony, was disposed, from temperament, to bear himself cavalierly towards all who did not agree with him in opinion. In addition, we have been told that at an early period in an interview between the two parties, Dr. Strachan once chanced to express himself with considerable heat to McKenzie, and proceeded to the length of showing him the door. The latter had called, as our information runs, to deprecate prejudice in regard to a brother-in-law of his, Mr. Baxter, who was a candidate for some post under the Educational Board, of which Dr. S. was chairman; when great offence was taken at the idea being for a moment entertained that a personal motive would in the slightest degree bias him when in the execution of public duty.
At a late period in the history of both the now memorable Scoto-Canadians, we happened ourselves to be present at a scene in the course of which the two were brought curiously face to face with each other, once more, for a few moments. It will be remembered that after the subsidence of the political troubles and the union of Upper and Lower Canada, McKenzie came back and was returned member of Parliament for Haldimand. While he was in the occupancy of this post, it came to pa.s.s that Dr. Strachan, now Bishop of Toronto, had occasion to present a pet.i.tion to the united House on the subject of the Clergy Reserves. To give greater weight and solemnity to the act he decided to attend in person at the bar of the House, at the head of his clergy, all in canonicals. McKenzie seeing the procession approaching, hurried into the House and took his seat; and contrived at the moment the Bishop and his retinue reached the bar to have possession of the floor. Affecting to put a question to the Speaker, before the Order of the Day was proceeded with, he launched out with great volubility and in excited strain on the interruptions to which the House was exposed in its deliberations; he then quickly came round to an attack in particular on prelates and clergy for their meddling and turbulence, infesting, as he averred, the lobbies of the Legislature when they should be employed on higher matters, filling with tumultuous mobs the halls and pa.s.sages of the House, thronging (with an indignant glance in that direction) the very s.p.a.ce below the bar set apart for the accommodation of peaceably disposed spectators.
The House had only just a.s.sembled, and had not had time to settle down into perfect quiet: members were still dropping in, and it was a mystery to many, for a time, what could, at such an early stage of the day's proceedings, have excited the ire of the member for Haldimand. The courteous speaker, Mr. Sicotte, was plainly taken aback at the sudden outburst of patriotic fervour; and, not being as familiar with the Upper Canadian past as many old Upper Canadians present were, he could not enter into the pleasantry of the thing; for, after all, it was humourously and not maliciously intended; the orator in possession of the floor had his old antagonist at a momentary disadvantage, and he chose to compel him while standing there conspicuously at the bar to listen for a while to a stream of _Colonial Advocate_ in the purest vein.
After speaking against time, with an immense show of heat for a considerable while--a thing at which he was an adept--the scene was brought to a close by a general hubbub of impatience at the outrageous irrelevancy of the harangue, arising throughout the House, and obliging the orator to take his seat. The pet.i.tion of the Bishop was then in due form received, and he, with his numerous retinue of robed clergy, withdrew.
We now proceed with our memoranda of the early press. When Fothergill was deprived of his office of King's Printer in 1825, he published for a time a quarto paper of his own, ent.i.tled the _Palladium_, composed of scientific, literary and general matter. Mr. Robert Stanton, King's Printer after Fothergill, issued on his own account for a few years, a newspaper called _The U. E. Loyalist_, the name, as we have seen, borne by the portion of the _Gazette_ devoted to general intelligence while Mr. Stanton was King's Printer. The _U. E. Loyalist_ was a quarto sheet, well printed, with an engraved ornamental heading resembling that which surmounted the New York _Albion_. The _Loyalist_ was conservative, as also was a local contemporary after 1831, the _Courier_, edited and printed by Mr. George Gurnett, subsequently Clerk of the Peace, and Police Magistrate for the City of Toronto. The _Christian Guardian_, a local religious paper which still survives, began in 1828. The _Patriot_ appeared at York in 1833: it had previously been issued at Kingston; its whole t.i.tle was ”_The Patriot and Farmer's Monitor_,” with the motto, ”Common Sense,” below. It was of the folio form, and its Editor, Mr.
Thos. Dalton, was a writer of much force, liveliness and originality.
The _Loyalist_, _Courier_ and _Patriot_ were antagonists politically of the _Advocate_ while the latter flourished; but all three laboured under the disadvantage of fighting on the side whose star was everywhere on the decline.
Notwithstanding its conservatism, however, it was in the _Courier_ that the memorable revolutionary sentiments appeared, so frequently quoted afterwards in the _Advocate_ publications: ”the minds of the well-affected begin to be unhinged; they already begin to cast about in their mind's eye for some new state of political existence, which shall effectually put the colony without the pale of British connection;”
words written under the irritation occasioned by the dismissal of the Attorney and Solicitor-General for Upper Canada in 1833.
For a short time prior to 1837, McKenzie's paper a.s.sumed the name of _The Const.i.tution_. A faithful portrait of McKenzie will be seen at the beginning of the first volume of his ”Life and Times,” by Mr. Charles Lindsey, a work which will be carefully and profitably studied by future investigators in the field of Upper Canadian history. Excellent portraits of Mr. Gurnett and of Mr. Dalton are likewise extant in Toronto.
Soon after 1838, the _Examiner_ newspaper acquired great influence at York. It was established and edited by Mr. Hincks. Mr. Hincks had emigrated to Canada with the intention of engaging in commerce; and in Walton's _York Directory_, 1833-34, we read for No. 21, west side of Yonge Street, ”Hincks, Francis, Wholesale Warehouse.” But Mr. Hincks'
attention was drawn to the political condition of Canada, especially to its Finance. The accident of living in immediate proximity to a family that had already for a number of years been taking a warm and active interest in public affairs, may have contributed to this. In the Directory, just named, the Number after 21 on the west side of Yonge Street, is 23, and the occupants are ”Baldwin, Doctor W. Warren; Baldwin, Robert, Esq., Attorney, &c., Baldwin and Sullivan's Attorney's Office, and Dr. Baldwin's Surrogate Office round the corner, in King Street, 195.” It was not unnatural that the next door neighbour of Dr.
Baldwin's family, their tenant, moreover, and attached friend, should catch a degree of inspiration from them. The subsequent remarkable career of Mr. Hincks, afterwards so widely known as Sir Francis Hincks, has become a part of the general history of the country.
About the period of the Union of Upper and Lower Canada, a local tri-weekly named _The Morning Star and Transcript_ was printed and published by Mr. W. J. Coates, who also issued occasionally, at a later date, the _Canadian Punch_, containing clever political cartoons in the style of the London _Punch_.
We have spoken once, we believe, of the _Canadian Freeman's_ motto, ”_Est natura hominum novitatis avida_;” and of the _Patriot's_, just above, ”_Common Sense_.” Fothergill's ”_Weekly Register_” was headed by a brief cento from Shakespeare: ”Our endeavour will be to stamp the very body of the time--its form and pressure--: we shall extenuate nothing, nor shall we set down aught in malice.”
Other early Canadian newspaper mottoes which pleased the boyish fancy years ago, and which may still be pleasantly read on the face of the same long-lived and yet flouris.h.i.+ng publications, were the ”_Mores et studia et populos et praelia dicam_,” of the Quebec _Mercury_, and the ”_Animos novitate tenebo_” of the Montreal _Herald_. The _Mercury_ and _Herald_ likewise retain to this day their respective early devices: the former, Hermes, all proper, as the Heralds would say, descending from the sky, with the motto from Virgil, _Mores et studia et populos et praelia dicam_: the latter the Genius of Fame, bearing in one hand the British crown, and sounding as she speeds through the air her trump, from which issues the above-cited motto. Over the editorial column the device is repeated, with the difference that the floating Genius here adds the authority for her quotation--Ovid, _a la_ Dr. Pangloss.
Underneath the floating figure are many minute roses and shamrocks; but towering up to the right and left with a significant predominance, for the special gratification of Montrealers of the olden time, the thistle of Scotland.
Besides these primitive mottoes and emblematic headings, the _Mercury_ and _Herald_ likewise retain, each of them, to this day a certain pleasant individuality of aspect in regard to type, form and arrangement, by which they are each instantly to be recognized. This adherence of periodicals to their original physiognomy is very interesting, and in fact advantageous, inspiring in readers a certain tenderness of regard. Does not the cover of _Blackwood_, for example, even the poor United States copy of it, sometimes awaken in the chaos of a public reading-room table, a sense of affection, like a friend seen in the midst of a promiscuous crowd? The English Reviews too, as circulated among us from the United States, are conveniently recognized by their respective colours, although the English form of each has been, for cheapness' sake, departed from. The _Montreal Gazette_ likewise survives, preserving its ancient look in many respects, and its high character for dignity of style and ability.