Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

THE

HISTORY OF CANADA.

BY

WILLIAM KINGSFORD, LL.D., F.R.S. [CANADA].

VOL. IX.
[1815-1836.]

TORONTO, DOMINION OF CANADA:

ROWSELL & HUTCHISON.

LONDON:

KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO.,

CHARING CROSS ROAD.

1897.

[All rights reserved.]

LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
DAVIS

Entered according to Act of Parliament, in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven, by WILLIAM KINGSFORD, at the Department of Agriculture.

"WITNESS" PRINTING HOUSE

MONTREAL.

PREFACE TO THE NINTH VOLUME.

This volume includes the period from the close of the war in 1815 to the prorogation of the house of assembly by lord Gosford in 1836 the last act in the political life of the legislature of Lower Canada.

These important years had great influence on the fortunes of the province, to the extent that the troubles which followed in 1837 can only be imperfectly understood, unless the times which preceded them are fully appreciated. I have accordingly deemed it a duty to record them at length; and I am not aware that they are elsewhere given in the same thoroughness.

The historical view of those days can never be limited to a matter of opinion, nor can it be affected by misrepresentation. The record of them must be based only on the official documents of the period, sustained by the contemporary evidence which is accessible. Year following year, these documents establish the conciliatory attitude of the home government, after the introduction of the reform bill and it became the law of the land, to enforce a more liberal policy, not only in the mother country but also in the outer provinces. At the same time, we learn the refusal of the majority in the Lower Canadian legislature, who followed the lead of Mr. Papineau, to make the slightest abatement in their pretensions. The claim was specifically made, that all the concessions demanded in the 92 resolutions should be granted. The admission of these demands would virtually have constituted the house of assembly the controlling power in the state, having the right of inaugurating money grants; and would have reduced the authority of the mother country, as represented by the governorgeneral, to a mere cipher, and by no means an ornamental one.

The demands so urgently made for an elective legislative council would have been the commencement of the application of the elective principle into every department. It would have placed the judiciary and the whole civil service at the mercy of any member of the legislature whose personal ill-feeling towards any individual had been awakened. No restraint would have

intervened to protect this class against the vindictive spirit of such an assailant.

The fulness of the contents of this volume may be adduced to shew that the writer has felt it incumbent upon him to relate these events at length, from a sense of the importance attached to them and from the absolute necessity of their being considered in a wide and comprehensive spirit.

The succeeding volume will contain the relation of the troubles of 1837 and 1838 in both provinces, which followed the agitation of the years recorded in these chapters. The MS. is now in the printers' hands, and it is hoped that the volume will appear in April next. The narrative will be continued to the union of the provinces, as carried out under lord Sydenham in 1841. This tenth and concluding volume will also contain the history of the government of Upper Canada preceding the outbreak which disturbed the peace of that community to the close of its establishment as a separate political unit.

As index was given in volume four of the events which took place under French rule; a similar index to the events which happened under British rule will appear in the forthcoming volume.

W. K.

OTTAWA, PROVINCE OF ONTARIO,

CANADA,

9th of November, 1897.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
« ForrigeFortsett »