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LORD DORCHESTER

THE MAKERS OF CANADA
LORD
DORCHESTER

BY
A. G. BRADLEY

TORONTO
MORANG & CO., LIMITED
1912

Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada
in the year 1907 by Morang 8r Co., Limited, in the Depart
ment of Agriculture

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I Page
RETROSPECT . - . . .1
CHAPTER II
THE NEW GOVERNOR .... 29
CHAPTER III
THE QUEBEC ACT . . . .57
CHAPTER IV
CARLETONS MARRIAGE ... 75
CHAPTER V
MONTGOMERY AND ARNOLD . . .95
CHAPTER VI
LAST DAYS OF THE SIEGE . . .127
CHAPTER VII
THE EVACUATION OF CANADA . . .141
CHAPTER VIII
ADVANCE INTO THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY . 153
ix

LORD DORCHESTER
CHAPTER IX Page
CARLETON SUPERSEDED BY BURGOYNE . . 171
CHAPTER X
PREPARATIONS FOR PEACE . . .191
CHAPTER XI
DORCHESTER'S RETURN . . . .221
CHAPTER XII
THE CANADA ACT . ... 251
CHAPTER XIII
A NEW SITUATION . . . . .269
CHAPTER XIV
CLOSING YEARS ... .281
INDEX . . , „ -. .313

CHAPTER I
RETROSPECT
BEFORE introducing to the reader the soldier-
statesman who is the subject of this memoir,
it seems advisable to give a short sketch of existing
conditions in the country which he was called upon
to govern. Indeed it is almost necessary thus to
prepare the ground for the advent of our proconsul,
so that the reader may properly understand the
kind of furrow he had to break. One may affirm too
with perfect safety that the great lull which fell
upon Canada at the close of the stir and turmoil of
the Seven Years' War and the downfall of French
power on the St. Lawrence, presents few attractions
to the mind of a reader exhilarated by the glamour
of those dramatic incidents. Most of us, on closing
that page of history which influenced the future of
two hemispheres far more than Waterloo, have felt
little inclination to concern ourselves with the im
mediate fortunes of a few thousand war-sick and
isolated French-Canadians. The historical student
has turned more readily to the greater problems that
so soon began to agitate the people of those British
provinces after their safety had been secured by
the fleets and armies of the mother country. Most
people have a vague, but sufficiently accurate notion,
1

LORD DORCHESTER
that the French-Canadians were left practically un
disturbed in their laws and religion, and that to this
wise and benevolent policy they responded with a
due measure of loyalty and affection. But it is nec
essary here to be a little more precise and to in
dicate some of those complications inevitable to
such new conditions, and the difficulties which beset
the administrators of the conquered province from
its first occupation.
Canada had been surrendered to Amherst by
Le"vis on the fall of Montreal in 1760. But the war
with France in Europe was only closed by the
peace of two years later, when the colony was form
ally ceded to the British Crown. Throughout this
interval Canada was under a purely military rule,
administered by a governor in Quebec with others
nominally subordinate to him at Three Rivers and
Montreal respectively. The chief authority, how
ever, still lay with the commander-in-chief at New
York, a position retained by Amherst. But for all
practical purposes General Murray may be re
garded as the administrator of Canada until the
peace, as he was also its first actual governor sub
sequently to it. Murray had been one of Wolfe's
three brigadiers at the Battle of the Plains. He
had remained in command at Quebec and ably
defended it against the French throughout the
following winter. He was a good soldier and well
versed in the military and civil conditions of North
America, and withal an able, sensible and extremely

WOULD CANADA BE RETAINED
just man with a good knowledge of the French
language. These three years of military rule were, of course,
regarded as a mere temporary expedient. No one
knew positively whether Canada would be retained
or restored at the treaty which would follow the
approaching peace. The country was then regarded
by British colonists as of no value for agricultural
settlement, while its commercial statistics were con
temptible. Its importance seemed mainly strategic ;
it was a foothold whence the dreaded power
of France might menace the western continent.
However, there were a few, how few must always
be the marvel of us moderns, who saw the hand
writing on the wall and who understood the
temper of the average American colonist : his in
tense localism and aloofness from the political and
social atmosphere of the mother country, his grow
ing impatience of every form of restriction — and
some were really galling, originating outside his
own provincial legislature. A few prescient Eng
lishmen, and more Frenchmen, displayed an indif
ference to the possession of Canada for the same
reason, but from opposite motives. With the French
power firmly seated on the St. Lawrence, it is safe
to say that no thoughts of independence would
have germinated to the south of it. But these warn
ing voices were scarcely heard at the time — sig
nificant though they are to read of nowadays in the
light of our later knowledge. 3

LORD DORCHESTER
Murray's temporary government had been merci
ful and successful within its limitations. Both he
and his officers won by degrees the hearts and the
confidence of their late antagonists. They adminis
tered the law fairly and justly and did everything in
their power to mitigate those sufferings, inevitable
at the close of a devastating war, which in this case
had been aggravated by the monstrous frauds and
corruption of Bigot and his gang. Even the British
soldier out of his poor pittance was not backward
with such assistance as he was able to offer. When an
order had gone out, however, hi the autumn of 1761
to the garrisons in North America that the soldier
was to pay four pence a day for his rations, hitherto
provided by government, a serious mutiny broke
out in Quebec. Fearful of the contagion spreading
to other garrisons, Murray and his officers threw
themselves into the breach with fine coolness and
daring, and at the imminent peril of their lives,
quashed a rising among these veteran troops, who as
contemporary accounts tell us, were "mad with rage"
at what they deemed a gross injustice. This inter
vention elicited the special gratitude of the king.
At this time too the great Indian rising known
as " Pontiac's War " broke out. All the western
Indians who had been actively or passively attached
to the French went on the war-path. The old French
forts from Michilimackinac in the far north-west to
the Ohio valley, now mainly occupied by small
British garrisons, had been treacherously attacked
4

PONTIACS WAR
and most of them had fallen. There had been much
massacre and bloodshed. The frontiers of the middle
provinces were threatened as they had been threat
ened after Braddock's defeat. Pontiac was an able
and crafty leader of his race and had opened the
war at Detroit, the defence of which important post
by Major Gladwin is a memorable episode in North
American history.
The French traders and settlers round these re
mote posts had no doubt some hand in fomenting
discontent. The commanding influence and tact of
Sir William Johnson succeeded in quieting the
serious discontent of the Six Nations whose territory
lay between the settlements and the West. If they
had risen the situation would have been serious
indeed. Their grievances were genuine enough, for
the land greed of the British colonists, from highest
to lowest, led to the most unscrupulous and dishon
est methods of acquiring patents to Indian lands,
the most flagrant among which being that of plying
the Indians with liquor and securing their signatures
to deeds when drunk. The provinces were loud in
their claims to manage their own Indian affairs so
long as it was a matter of mere land grabbing, but
when the vengeance this awakened threatened their
frontiers they called to the Crown to protect them
and grudged every shilling and every man they
were asked to contribute. Pontiac's War, however,
had been mainly instigated by the French influence
in the western country and had been further en-
5

LORD DORCHESTER
couraged by the lack of friendly recognition and
attention which the Indian's dignity required as part
of the price of his friendship.
The war lasted for three years and occupied sev
eral British regiments, but was indifferently sup
ported by the colonists whom it chiefly concerned.
The gallant Swiss colonel, Bouquet, of the 60th was
its guiding spirit. His masterly marches through the
Alleghany forests on the track of the unfortunate
Braddock and the heroic Forbes, and yet a hundred
miles deeper into the wilderness than they, his hotly
fought and successful actions with outnumbering
Indian warriors on their own grounds, are among
the best performances of a British officer and British
regulars in the American wars. The war was not
finished till 1765. But when Bouquet had done with
them the western Indians from Michilimackinac to
the Mississippi had no longer any shadow of a doubt
but that King George, and not King Louis, was now
their father. Colonial legislatures passed eloquent
addresses of thanks to the soldier, the gentleman,
and the scholar who had delivered them from their
terrible foes. And they might well have included
Johnson in their eulogies, for his ceaseless efforts
had alone prevented four thousand Iroquois warriors
from joining in the fray. Bouquet was made a brig
adier, but that was the Hmit of recognition a grate
ful king and government accorded him. Though
only forty-six his health would seem to have been
undermined, and death closed his honourable life in
6

THE TREATY OF PARIS
the years of his last and most important service.
He died at his new command in Florida and added
another grave to those of the " unremembered dead"
whose services England overlooked then and has
long forgotten, because they were given not in the
glare of the footlights but on the remote and un
familiar stages where the work of empire has been
so largely done. Students, however, have not for
gotten Bouquet, for many volumes of papers con
nected with his long service in America lie ready to
their hand in the British Museum. He bequeathed
them to his friend and executor, General Haldi-
mand, another Swiss officer of the same famous
corps, who has himself contributed almost as volu
minously to the contemporary literature of the
period. It is surely a curious reflection that to the
literary zeal and foresight of these two loyal, foreign-
born officers, we are indebted for the largest mass of
contemporary evidence left by any persons con
nected with this period in North America.
The Treaty of Paris in 1763 decided the retention
of Canada by Great Britain, and it was immediately
followed at the close of the same year by a procla
mation of George III regarding his new govern
ments in North America. We are only here con
cerned with that of Quebec, which excluding Nova
Scotia and of course Newfoundland, covered the
whole of what was then regarded as Canada. In the
far north the Hudson's Bay Company, then as for a
century later, held its solitary reign. Concerning the
7

LORD DORCHESTER
title to the territory now roughly occupied by the
provinces of Quebec and Ontario, though the latter
was still a wilderness, there was no doubt. But it is
easy to forget that after the cession of Canada the
whole of the western country from Lake Erie south
ward behind the Alleghanies and as far as the New
Orleans settlements up the Mississippi, ceded by the
same treaty to Spain, was included in the king's
new province. French settlement then extended
no farther westward than the Island of Montreal.
Modern Ontario and the vast west behind and to
the south of it was occupied by the Indian nations,
and thinly sprinkled with fortified trading-posts
whose French defenders were now displaced by
British garrisons.
The new ordinance confirmed the French in
habitants, or "new subjects" as they were called,
in the full exercise of their religion as already
promised at the surrender. It directed the sub
stitution of the English criminal code for the more
merciless French usages, an innovation already
practically made and gladly accepted by the mass
of the French inhabitants. In the matter of the
civil code the proclamation was more vague, direct
ing that English law should be followed so far as
was compatible with the nature and customs of the
people. This tentative clause was probably wise
and even inevitable, but it gave rise to much of the
misunderstanding and confusion with which the
earlier governors had to grapple. The proclamation
8

INITIAL DIFFICULTIES
went on to invite English-speaking people, or the
"king's old subjects," to make their home in his
new dominion, promising them, when the time
should be ripe, all the benefits and blessings of
British institutions and representative government.
The French population at this time numbered
nearly ninety thousand. The English for a long
time scarcely exceeded four hundred, entirely con
fined to the two small cities of Quebec and Mont
real, which contained between them a population
of some seventeen thousand souls. The English
settlers were mainly composed of traders and mis
cellaneous people of lower degree, with a few dis
banded soldiers and half-pay officers, who had
followed the army. The majority were from the
American colonies, and their numerical insignifi
cance did not prevent them from at once en
deavouring to establish the axiom that the country
was to be administered entirely by themselves, and
mainly in their own interests.
Murray was now appointed governor and captain-
general of Canada. During his military governor
ship he had already experienced much trouble from
the overweening pretensions of this small faction.
He was now, like his successors, to experience much
more. This difficulty will be so prominent in these
pages that it will be enough to say here that it
was aggravated by the fact of the British residents
being, upon the whole, inferior representatives of
their nation, while among the mass of unlettered 9

LORD DORCHESTER
and reactionary French- Canadians there were several
hundred persons of the seigniorial class, men, gener
ally speaking, of polite manners and sufficient edu
cation, and accustomed to the respect accorded to a
more or less exclusive caste. Murray and his officers
had not unnaturally established good relations with
the leading representatives of this small noblesse,
while with those not immediately in contact with
him, as well as with the religious bodies and the
peasantry the former had earned a general reputa
tion for kindness, justice and integrity of purpose.
In spite of the soreness of recent defeat with its
attendant suffering, British rule was perhaps never
quite so popular as in the days when Murray, who
had won the confidence of the French-Canadians
during his military dictatorship, retained it through
the thornier period which distinguished the inaugu
ration of civil government.
The number of the Canadian noblesse who re
turned to France has been frequently exaggerated.
It seems to have been well under three hundred,
including women and children, and many of these
were actually officers serving in the French army,
who followed their regiments. Amherst at the sur
render in 1760 had granted religious freedom, but
refused French law, and had allowed eighteen
months for all those unwilling to accept such terms
to wind up their affairs and return to France.
The question of civil law is dry enough in the
narration but it was of prodigious importance to a
10

SEIGNIORIAL TENURE
reactionary population wedded to immemorial cus
tom. No wonder royal proclamations were timid of
definition. But the general construction put upon
the ordinance by the English authorities at Quebec
was that of an English code. It was soon found,
however, that to disturb the French laws of land
tenure and inheritance, with which the whole seig
niorial system of the province was bound up, was
to invite chaos. Still more, any attempt at innova
tion was ignored. So the government was virtually
compelled to acquiesce in the old custom so far as
these more vital matters were concerned.
It is possible that there may be readers who need
reminding that the land system of Lower Canada
was of a quasi-feudal nature ; that the country was
partitioned into large estates held of the French
Crown by a resident noblesse created during the
past century and a half for this specific purpose.
These seigniories were occupied by the peasantry
or habitants at trifling rents, with the reservation of
mill privileges and the payment of certain dues to
the lord on sales or succession, and other transac
tions common to feudal or manorial custom. The
seigniors held their estates rather in the sense of
trustees for the people than as military fiefs. Though
they had been the natural leaders of the militia of
the colonies, the " militia captains " responsible for
the force were specially selected persons in various
districts, seigniorial rank not of necessity carrying
military rank. 11

LORD DORCHESTER
If the noblesse bore a partial resemblance, as
was inevitable, to that of older countries, the
peasantry, on the other hand, were more inde
pendent and well-to-do than those of France, as
testified by a score of contemporary writers. A
considerable fraction of the population were occu
pied as coureurs de bois in the fur trade, but the
majority lived under the conditions here briefly
indicated, along the banks of the St. Lawrence
from Montreal to Gaspe". Those seigniors who had
sufficient means, however, seem like their bigger
prototypes in France, and with better reason, to
have spent much of their time at one or other of
the two cities, while many of them in the late
regime had held offices of various kinds in Quebec
or Montreal, which added to their income.
Inadequate as is this slight sketch of a wide and
complex subject it describes the situation sufficiently
to give the reader some notion how widely dif
ferent were the ideas of French and English colon
ists on the subject of land tenure. The latter, then
as now, accustomed to acquire as much land in
actual freehold as he had money to pay for, to buy
and sell, barter or exchange it at a moment's notice,
was confronted on coming to Canada, particularly
if he came from the colonies, with a system that
seemed to his restless and irreverent and material
soul, barbarous and mediaeval. From his office or
shop in Quebec he clamoured for an application of
the English land laws, not because he wanted to
12

THE QUESTION OF CIVIL LAW
become a land owner, but because as a true Briton,
made still more opinionative perhaps by the intol
erant freedom of New England, he thought the
French laws ridiculous and suggestive of tyranny,
just as he considered Roman Catholics as outside the
pale of human justice.
But all attempts to enforce English civil law
in matters connected with property rebounded
from the adamantine walls by which French cus
toms were encircled, leaving scarcely any impres
sion. Murray with his broad sympathies and sound
sense soon discouraged the attempt and a httle
later it was formally abandoned. Two civil officers
were sent out from England, a chief-justice and
an attorney-general, to inaugurate and supervise one
of the most complicated judicial problems that the
wit of man could have been asked to solve. They
were hopeless failures, neither of them knowing any
French or any law, and they were in due course
dismissed. As regards the general government,
Murray had been empowered by royal instruction
to nominate a council of eight members authorized
to make laws and ordinances. This he had done,
including in the number one French-Canadian. The
new courts were formally established in 1764. There
was a court of king's bench holding its sessions at
Quebec twice a year for trying civil and criminal
cases according to English law, — with an appeal to
the governor in council in amounts over three
hundred pounds and to the king in amounts over
13

LORD DORCHESTER
five hundred pounds. There was a court of com
mon pleas, holding bi-annual sessions, to determine
according to equity, having regard to English laws,
and to try cases above the value of ten pounds.
Trial by jury might be resorted to if demanded
by either party, and there were to be no religious
disqualifications. Lastly justices of the peace were
appointed throughout the various districts of the
province. The French in spite of their confidence in Murray
were greatly perturbed at the prospect of a change
to laws they knew nothing of, administered in
the courts in a language they did not understand
and by people who did not understand theirs. Not
one in fifty could read or write and their very
ignorance made them the more fearful. The atti
tude of the handful of British who had come among
them was not of a kind to win their hearts, or wean
them from their old customs. Murray describes them
in one letter to the home government as " men of
mean education, either young or inexperienced, or
older men who had failed elsewhere," in another as
" licentious fanatics." One might suspect even this
shrewd soldier of over-heated language if Carleton
had not in his turn treated his British- Canadian
subjects to somewhat similar flowers of speech in
his confidential despatches.
Here is the first presentment of the grand jury,
the spokesmen of the handful of " licentious fan
atics " who had come in to make money and regen-
14

THE FIRST GRAND JURY
erate Canada at the same time, and the reader may
gather something of their point of view. They called
for the better observance of the Sabbath Day and
declaimed against the ordinary festivities of the
Roman Catholic country they had transferred them
selves to. They furthermore put it on record that a
learned clergy was required to preach the Gospel in
French and English. They demanded that no ordin
ance should be passed by the governor in council
without consultation with themselves, and that the
public accounts should be laid before them twice a
year. They also represented the ordinances of the
governor in council creating courts of judicature in
the provinces as unconstitutional. Having hit at the
government they then fired a shaft at the army, de
claring it unfitting that its officers should exercise
any judicial authority. Finally they protested against
Roman Catholics sitting on juries in their own law
courts, as it was " in flagrant violation of our most
sacred laws and liberties and tending to the entire
subversion of the Protestant religion," etc., etc. They
also referred to Canada, which was as old as Virginia,
as "an infant colony." This piece of presumption on
the part of a quarter sessions grand jury in hector
ing and reprimanding the king's governor and
council, accompanied by pretensions to represent
the colony, took away the breath of the presiding
justices, who snubbed them soundly on every point.
As for Murray he was justly enraged at this irreg
ular attack on his administration. He sent home
Id

LORD DORCHESTER
despatches giving the names of the signatories who
represented, he declared, about two hundred of then-
race and faith in Quebec and Montreal, not ten of
whom were freeholders, and who aspired to absolute
dominion over eighty thousand of the king's new
subjects. Moreover, six French-Canadian grand
jurors who understood no English had been fraudu
lently induced to join in the presentment and now
petitioned the king stating in what manner they
had been deceived. The result of all this was a royal
reprimand to these intolerant busybodies and a
further announcement of His Majesty's intentions
to see complete justice done in every way to his
new French subjects.
Murray now thought it advisable to send a rep
resentative to London to explain the situation to
the British government, and accordingly selected
Cramahe', the most efficient member of the council
— a Swiss by birth but an officer in the British army
by profession. The British merchants countered
this by despatching one of their own number to
propagate their version of Canadian affairs in Lon
don. The British community slowly increased to
between four and five hundred. They gathered all
the trade of the colony into their hands, the French
showing httle aptitude for it, but being persons for
the most part of little or no capital and not many
scruples, such impetus to business as they created
was qualified by the friction they stirred up ; for
they seem to have spared no pains in letting the
16

DISLIKE OF THE ARMY
French know their opinion of their customs, habits
and religion, and on the other hand to have taken
little trouble to acquire the language of the country
they traded in. Their relations with the military
were quite as unfortunate, imbibed apparently from
the American colonies where the troops who pro
tected the country in time of war were flouted in
peace as the pestilent minions of autocratic rule.
No barracks had as yet been built in Canada and
billeting was an unfortunate necessity. The British
merchants, and from example many of the urban
French inhabitants, adopted such a bitter attitude
towards the army that the resentment of the soldiers
was very naturally aroused and a good deal of un
pleasantness evoked. The magistrates were drawn
mainly from the small British civilian class who
were deeply imbued with the new spirit of anti-
military republicanism born of the removal of the
French terror from their borders. They passed severe
sentences on the httle frolics of exuberant privates,
and this with an unctuous malevolence that was
doubtless galling to the men whose devotion alone
had made a career in Canada possible for these eight
eenth century Bumbles. The officers shared in an
odium quite unmerited in their case and not merely
resented by themselves but by the better class
among the French, with whom they seem to have
been distinctly popular. The British community
then went so far as to forward a petition to the
Crown for Murray's recall, signed by twenty-one 17

LORD DORCHESTER
persons. In this precious document they declared
that they had submitted patiently to arbitrary mili
tary rule where they had expected to enjoy the
blessings of British liberty, which in plain English
meant a monopoly of authority over their French
fellow-subjects and a legislative assembly chosen
from themselves alone. A somewhat characteristic
complaint against the much harassed governor was
his remissness in attending church. This petition
was supported by the London merchants for whom
they acted as principals or agents, and whose know
ledge of the complexities of the situation must have
been even less than that of their present day des
cendants, which is saying much. A counter petition
was promptly forwarded by the French seigniors
defending Murray in eloquent language, describing
him as the victim of a cabal, expressing the highest
esteem for his justice and his good qualities, and
praying for his retention. The friction with the
military gave rise to a regrettable incident in Mont
real at the close of 1764, which caused much heat and
excitement throughout the colony, and as its effects
lasted long after Carleton had assumed the gover
norship a brief outhne of it seems necessary here.
It so happened that one Walker, a leading
trader and magistrate in Montreal, English by birth,
but Bostonian by recent habitation, had been ex
tremely forward in securing the severe sentences
passed upon the soldiers. He was a notoriously sour
and bad-tempered person and deeply imbued with
18

THE WALKER OUTRAGE
those feelings of dislike towards everything mon
archical or military then gathering strength in the
province he had come from. The trouble arose out
of a billeting order in the execution of which a
certain Captain Fraser had assigned another officer,
Captain Payne, to rooms in the house of a French-
Canadian, which he himself had just vacated. In this
house it so happened there lodged a magistrate, on
which account the owner claimed exemption ; but
Fraser argued that the exemption applied only to
the actual houses of magistrates, not to those where
they happened to be lodging. Captain Payne, how
ever, positively declined to move, upon which a
warrant was issued against him, and on his proving
obdurate he was summoned before the magistrates
and promptly committed to gaol. After lying there
for some days he applied to the chief-justice of the
province for a habeas corpus and was set at liberty.
But the resentment felt by the garrison at what was
conceived to be an outrage and an insult was pro
digious. Fraser wrote to Murray that unless these
magistrates were deposed he would himself resign.
The justices, however, showing no signs of contrition,
but rather the reverse, the garrison lodged a formal
complaint. Feeling ran very high and Murray sum
moned the magistrates concerned to wait on him
at Quebec ; but before they could start an event
occurred which brought matters to a crisis and
wrought up the whole colony to a high pitch of
excitement. 19

LORD DORCHESTER
Walker was the most active of the offending
magistrates, and a plot was hatched by persons un
known to punish him. One night, while at supper
with his wife, a number of masked men entered his
house and assaulted him in most ferocious fashion,
among other deeds cutting off a piece of his ear.
The incident was of course serious, but the stir it
created through the colony was out of all proportion,
for it seemed certain that it must have been the
work of some members of the garrison, and the
faction opposed to them had an extraordinary op
portunity for vindicating their treasured prejudices.
All contemporary accounts declare that a panic
seized the colony, and that every one expected to
be robbed and murdered in his bed. When a soldier
entered a shop we are told he had a pistol presented
at his head until he completed his purchase. Even
the French-Canadians, mostly neutral in these quar
rels, took alarm. The noise of it reached England
and the Crown offered a reward of a hundred guin
eas with a free pardon for any information leading
to the conviction of the offenders. The victim him
self offered a like sum for the discovery of the de-
spoiler of his ear, while the inhabitants of Montreal
offered another three hundred pounds. These large
rewards were absolutely without effect, and it was
not till two years afterwards, soon after Carleton's
arrival, that anything transpired and a greater stir
than ever was created of which we shall hear in due
course. These events took place at the close of 1764.
20

THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION
In that year the governorship of Montreal and Three
Rivers had been abolished. Haldimand held office
at the latter place and Burton at Montreal, where
he had given, and continued to give, Murray some
trouble by refusing to recognize his authority. In
deed Murray appears to have regarded the disturb
ances there as partly due to lack of a firm hand.
A few weeks after the Walker outrage there
was more friction than ever between the troops and
the magistrates. A number of men of the 28th were
committed to gaol with vindictive harshness, and
feeling ran so high that a mutiny was feared and
Burton deemed it necessary to acquaint Murray.
Upon this the latter at once proceeded to Montreal,
and affirmed that he found the inhabitants in fear
of their fives and that a guard was mounted nightly
at Walker's door. He spent some weeks in the town
endeavouring to restore confidence and harmony and
in prosecuting inquiries into the Walker mystery,
which proved, as already intimated, fruitless. Before
leaving he made arrangements for substituting an
other regiment for the 28th, which was already
under marching orders.
The question of their religion, now that all hope
of restoration to France was over, gave the French-
Canadians many tremors and the British govern
ment much concern. Throughout the British colon
ies the hberal pohcy of the Crown in this particular
had been freely censured, and it became one of the
leading grievances in their indictment of the mother
21

LORD DORCHESTER
country when the colonies began to formulate them.
The government, however, stood firm on this point.
There were many difficulties connected with its
actual settlement. By the terms of surrender in 1760
free exercise of religion was granted "till the king's
pleasure should be known." The king's pleasure
was of course expressed in the treaty of three years
later, and ordained that his new Roman Catholic
subjects might profess the worship of their religion
according to the rights of the Romish Church " so
far as the laws of Great Britain permitted," a con
cession, however, which scandalized the British col
onies and yet did not fully ease the minds of the
indulged Canadians. Clericalism was a weighty force
in the life of French Canada and the last sentence
seems to have frightened its leaders. Moreover there
were some practical difficulties. There had been no
bishop, for instance, in the country since the sur
render. An unqualified refusal had been given by the
Crown to any further introduction of priests from
France, for it was an obvious inference that they
would strive to maintain the bonds of sentiment
between the mother country and its lost colony, and
in case of war would be dangerous agents. There
now seemed to the Canadians some fear of their
supply of priests running out, and Murray reported
that it was the rising generation whose souls they
were mainly anxious about. The leading ecclesiastics
of Quebec petitioned the Crown, suggesting that
priests should be introduced from other countries
22

MURRAY'S DEPARTURE
than France, or that a bishop should be elected by
themselves. After much discussion the latter sug
gestion was adopted and Monseigneur Briand was
selected by the British government from three or four
candidates, and was consecrated in Paris. He arrived
about the time of Murray's departure in 1766.
The Jesuits too about this time were expelled
from France, and the few that were in Canada as
well as their considerable property became the sub
ject of much controversy. Another trouble arose
from the fact that a great deal of the old paper
money issued by the French in the late war was
still held in Canada, and though its redemption was a
condition of the treaty the French government had
shuffled a good deal in the matter and had caused
the Canadians much anxiety and some loss. The
English traders in Canada made considerable profits
in buying up this paper from those who were forced
to sell, though Murray did his best to prevent such
sacrifices by opening an office for registrating the
notes. The total amount of this paper in circulation
was seventeen million livres.
The discontent of the British community with
Murray found expression from time to time in let
ters of complaint to prominent persons in England
which, added to the disturbance in Montreal,
prompted the home government to summon him to
London in an inquiring rather than a censorious
mood, so far as one may learn. He arrived in the
summer of 1766, leaving Colonel Irving, the senior
23

LORD DORCHESTER
member of the council, as his deputy. As it happened
he never returned though he retained his governor
ship for some time longer.
After reaching London Murray published in
August a written report addressed to Lord Shel-
burne. As an account of the colony by the man
who had been responsible for its government for six
years and who had on the whole acted with judg
ment and wisdom, a brief summary of his picture
of it will be no bad introduction to the advent
of his successor.
After an exact enumeration of the statistics of
the country as to land, population, live stock and so
forth, which having been collected by himself shows
much praiseworthy assiduity, he treats of the British
Protestant population, most of whom were "follow
ers of the army, of mean education, or soldiers dis
banded at its reduction. All have their fortunes to
make and I hear few of them are solicitous about
the means where the end can be obtained ; in general
the most immoral collection of men I ever knew and
of course little calculated to make the new subjects
enamoured with our laws, religion and customs, far
less adapted to enforce these laws and to govern."
The Canadians on the other hand, the report
declares, had been accustomed to arbitrary and
military government, and were a frugal and indus
trious, moral race of men who from the mild treat
ment they received from the king's officers who
ruled the country from the surrender of the colony
24

MURRAY'S REPORT
till the treaty of 1763, when civil government was
declared, had greatly got the better of the natural
antipathy they had to their conquerors. Murray
here describes "the numerous noblesse piquing
themselves much on the antiquity of their families,
their own military glory and that of their ancestors,
and though not rich, nevertheless in a situation, in
a country of abundance where money is scarce and
luxury unknown, to support their dignity. Their
tenantry who pay only an annual quit rent of a
dollar for a hundred acres are at their ease and
comfortable. They had been accustomed to respect
and obey their noblesse, their tenancies being in the
feudal manner."
They had shared with the officers the dangers
of the battlefield, and their natural affections had in
creased in proportion to the calamities overtaking
both in the conquest of the country. As they had
been taught to respect their superiors, Murray tells
us, they were shocked at the insults which their nob
lesse and the king's officers had received from the
English traders and lawyers since civil government
was instituted. It was natural to suppose them jealous
of their religion, for it had been the policy of the
French government to keep them in a state of ex
treme ignorance. Few could read, and printing had
not been permitted. Their veneration for the priest
hood was in proportion to their ignorance. The
clergy were illiterate and of mean birth, and now
that fresh recruits from France were forbidden 25

LORD DORCHESTER
Murray considered that the order would gradu
ally sink in quality provided they were not exposed
to persecution. He disclaims there having been any
remarkable disorders in the colony, the Walker
outrage excepted, the full details of which " horrid
affair " he had already laid before the king's servants.
Disorders and divisions, from the nature of things,
could not have been avoided in attempting to
establish a civil government under the instructions
sent him. Magistrates were to be made and juries to
be composed from "four hundred and fifty con
temptible traders and settlers." It was easy to con
ceive how the narrow ideas and ignorance of such
men must offend any soldiers, more especially those
of an army who had so long governed them and knew
the meanness from which they had been elevated. It
would have been unreasonable to suppose that such
men would not have been intoxicated with the
unexpected power put into their hands and not
been eager to show how amply they possessed it.
As there were no barracks in the country the quar
tering of troops furnished perpetual opportunity
for displaying their importance and rancour. The
Canadian noblesse were hated because their birth
and behaviour entitled them to respect, and the
peasants were abhorred because they were saved
from the oppression they were threatened with.
This Murray declares was amply proved by the
presentments of the grand jury.
Another misfortune was the improper choice and
26

MURRAY'S REPORT
the number of the civil officers sent over from Eng
land which increased the disquietude of the colony.
Instead of appointing men of genius and untainted
morals, men of the reverse stamp were appointed
to the most important offices, under whom it was
impossible to give a proper impression of the dignity
of government. As an example, the judge selected
to conciliate the minds of eighty-five thousand
foreigners to the laws and government of Great
Britain had been taken from a gaol and was entirely
ignorant of the civil law and the language of the
country. The attorney -general in the matter of lan
guage had been no better qualified. Such offices as
secretary of the province, registrar, clerk of the
council, commissioner of stores and provost marshal
had been given by patent to men of influence in
England who let them out to the highest bidders,
men ignorant even of the language of the country.
No salary being annexed to these places the holders
were dependent on fees which Murray was ordered
to assess in amount equal to those of the " richest
ancient colonies." The rapacity of these men was
severely felt by the poor Canadians, but they pati
ently submitted to it. Though urged to resistance by
some of the contumacious traders from New York
they cheerfully obeyed the Stamp Act in hopes that
their good behaviour would recommend them to
the favour and protection of their sovereign.
Murray concludes his report by saying that he
glories in having been accused of warmth and firm-
27

LORD DORCHESTER
ness in protecting the king's Canadian subjects and
of doing the utmost in his power to gain for his
royal master the affections of that brave, hardy
people whose emigration, if ever it should happen,
would be an irreparable loss to the empire and
to prevent which he would cheerfully submit to
greater calumnies and indignities, if greater could be
devised than those he has already undergone.
Murray now disappears from these pages.
Whether his language was too warm or not
must be inferred from the experiences on which
his more distinguished successor is about to enter.
As the first governor of Canada the verdict of
history is distinctly in Murray's favour. As a brave
and faithful soldier his heroic though unsuccessful
defence of Minorca a few years later was a fitting
climax to his successful defence of Quebec at a
much more vital moment.

28

CHAPTER II
THE NEW GOVERNOR
GUY CARLETON was the third son of Chris
topher Carleton a landowner near Newry,
County Down in Ireland and was born in 1724. The
family came originally from Cumberland and were
essentially, therefore, members of that Ulster plan
tation settled by emigrants from Scotland and the
English border. The Carletons in short belonged to
that virile Scotch-Irish stock which has given Great
Britain so many great captains of war and industry,
to the United States such a host of hardy settlers
and able citizens, and to Canada a proportionately
valuable contribution. Both these types of Anglo-
Irishmen have in truth produced an extraordinary
roll of distinguished men, and I shall hope to show
in these pages that Carleton is not unworthy to
rank among them.
His father died when he was fourteen and his
mother (formerly a Miss Ball, of County Donegal)
soon afterwards married the Rev. Thomas Skelton
of Newry. To this gentleman's influence and care
has been attributed no small share in moulding the
qualities that made Carleton what he afterwards
became. On May 21st, 1742, he was commissioned an en-
29

LORD DORCHESTER
sign in Lord Rothe's regiment, afterwards the 25th
Foot. Promotion at first came slowly and nine years
later, at the age of twenty-seven, he was only a lieu
tenant in the Foot- Guards, while his friend Wolfe,
three years his junior, had been a captain at twenty.
By 1757, however, Carleton had made up for lost
time and was a lieutenant-colonel commanding the
72nd Regiment. Wolfe first mentions him in 1752
as " my friend Carleton " from whom he had just
received an English news-budget at Paris, and a few
days afterwards speaks of him again, alluding with
gratification to his appointment as mihtary preceptor
to the young Duke of Richmond on a tour among
the fortified towns of the Low Countries. Wolfe it
seems could have had the appointment for himself,
but confides to his mother that not thinking him
self quite equal to it he had immediately recom
mended Carleton of whom, besides his great per
sonal liking, he had professionally a high opinion.
This from the almost hypercritical hero of Quebec
is a significant tribute to his friend's qualities both
of head and heart.
To Wolfe's busy and facile pen too, we are in
debted for the fact that the "patron" at this time of
Guy Carleton and his brother, who was also in the
army, was William Conolly of Stratton Hall, Staf
fordshire, M.P. and privy councillor. This gentle
man was of powerful Irish connection and died in
1754, an event which Wolfe alludes to as "a deadly
blow to the Carletons." Both their fortunes, however,
30

CARLETON AND WOLFE
survived it bravely. When Wolfe was appointed a
brigadier under Amherst for the Louisbourg ex
pedition, both he and his chief were anxious to take
Guy Carleton, by this time a lieutenant-colonel,
with them ; but the king refused and sent him to
the British legion serving under Prince Ferdinand
in Germany. Wolfe was very wroth. " It is a public
loss," he wrote. "The king has refused Carleton
leave to go, to my very great grief and disappoint
ment and with circumstances extremely unpleasant
to him." Carleton it appears had spoken disparag
ingly of the Hanoverian troops, a mortal offence in
King George's eyes. In the next year when Wolfe
was appointed to the chief command against Quebec,
occurred the somewhat well-known incident when
he sent up Carleton's name to the king as a mem
ber of his staff, and His Majesty, still unforgiving,
drew his pen through it. Wolfe would not be denied,
and Pitt in full sympathy with his disappointment
sent the commander-in-chief, Ligonier, back to the
presence to press Carleton's appointment, but the
king remained firm. So did Wolfe, and begged that
it should be represented to His Majesty that a gen
eral who was to be held responsible for a difficult
undertaking should at least have the choice of his
coadjutors. At a third appeal urged in this form
the king relented, and Carleton went out as quart
ermaster-general. We have Wolfe's own words that
he relied chiefly on his friend to supply the lack of
ability among his engineers. 31

LORD DORCHESTER
During the siege Carleton was sent up the river
in command of a force to Pointe-aux-Trembles
where he landed, searched the country for provisions
and brought off some prisoners. Later on, before the
final operations, he was entrusted with the difficult
task of drawing off the troops from the camp at
Montmorency. In the battle on the Plains of Abra
ham he led a regiment of grenadiers and was
wounded, though not seriously. Returning to Europe
he took part, in 1761, in the attack on Port Andro
and was wounded again. In the following year he
became a full colonel and at the siege of Havana
served under Albemarle with much distinction, being
once more wounded in a sortie. We know nothing
more of Carleton but these bare facts till he was
appointed to suceeed Murray at Quebec. To deal
impersonally with the incidents in which he figured
before he began the work by virtue of which his
name fives, would be futile and prodigal of space
which should be better employed. Hitherto he had
been the resolute and efficient agent of other men's
tactics. In future he was to be his own master as
well as oftentimes his own agent. Till 1766 and his
forty-second year it had been his business to obey.
For the rest of his long fife when in active service
it was his lot to command and nearly always,
whether in peace or war, to command under cir
cumstances of exceptional difficulty.
Carleton arrived in Quebec on September 22nd,
1766, and was sworn in the following day. Murray
32

THE NEW GOVERNOR
retained the governorship-in-chief for nearly three
more years and his successor was in actual fact his
deputy. But this arrangement may be left out of sight
for all practical purposes. The holding of a colonial
governorship in those times had no necessary con
nection with its duties and responsibilities. Many
of these officers in North American provinces were
and had been deputies, while the shadowy figures
of their titular chiefs have no place in the local
story. Colonel Irving had of course been merely
a temporary administrator during the short in
terval between Murray and Carleton. The latter
received three simultaneous addresses from the
council, the magistrates, and the traders of both
nationalities, all couched in cordial and respectful
language. To these he returned suitable replies,
declaring among other things that he intended to
make no distinction between classes, but only be
tween the worthy and the unworthy.
I have already described the discontent exist
ing among all parties, and during Irving's brief
administration expectancy of changes to come
had increased the general anxiety. Carleton wrote
home to his government that he was favourably
impressed with the good sense of the reception
addresses. He notes, however, that these separate
addresses were due to the fact of the people, from
mutual jealousies, being unable to act together. The
effect of the Stamp Act, too, was already visible in
Canada, for he writes that there had been some
33

LORD DORCHESTER
objections to the addresses on that account and
many bloody noses. He found enough friction also
in the matter of the Indian trade at the western
posts to call for judicial treatment. One of his earl
iest experiences was characteristic. He had ventured
to consult privately two or three of his council on
some matter in which they had special experience ;
whereupon the remainder sent him a remonstrance
against so unconstitutional a proceeding. Carleton
snubbed them very severely, replying that in any
matter where the formal consent of the council was
not required, he should consult whom he chose,
not merely such members as were best qualified to
give advice on the subject in hand but any persons
outside whose opinion might be considered of value.
¦'¦' The movers of this protest,'' he says, ¦• are Mabane,
who was a surgeon's mate in the army, Murrav, a
strolling player, and Mounier, the solitary French-
Canadian member, an honest trader who will sign
anything his friends ask him to." What made the
rebuff more direct was the fact that Colonel Irving
had signed the protest, at the same time excusing
the governor to his friends on the plea that his
action had been merely an accident Carleton
replied that it was nothing of the kind, and that
he intended always to consult such men as he
could find of good sense, candour and impartial
justice, and who preferred their duty to the king
and the tranquillity of his subjects to unjustifiable
attachments, party zeal and selfish, mercenary laws,
34

HIS DISINTERESTEDNESS
If strict impartiality was quite possible at that
epoch in Quebec those possessing it must have
begun to suspect that they had a governor after
their own heart.
In November the Jesuits, thinking that Murray
had gone beyond the king's wishes in refusing their
reinstatement, petitioned the Crown, de Glassion,
superior in Quebec, forwarding the address through
Carleton. It set forth that the order was established
in Canada by the benevolence of French kings ; that
its chief purposes were: firstly, the instruction of
Indians in the knowledge of God, and secondly, the
education of youth ; and that they had been unable
since the siege of Quebec to carry on their work
from want of teachers and buildings, such of the
latter as were left to them being occupied as
storehouses or officers' quarters. They prayed that
Murray's order against their receiving either Euro
pean or Canadian students be revoked, and that
their buildings be restored with indemnification for
damage. In the same month the new governor gave an
unmistakable instance of the singlemindedness and
high sense of honour which distinguished him
throughout life in relinquishing by proclamation all
the fees and perquisites attached to his office.
Carleton was not a rich man, and no sort of stigma
had ever attached to what were legalized payments.
Indeed Murray took some offence, for he regarded
Carleton's action as reflecting in some sort on him-
35

LORD DORCHESTER
self, an intention which Sir Guy hastened to repudi
ate. He informed his government that he thought
it unbecoming in the governor of a distant province
to receive such emoluments. The province he said
had been impoverished by the war, the frauds of
Bigot and the retreat of many of the richest families,
so that the imposition was burdensome. " There is
a certain appearance of dirt, a sort of meanness in
exacting fees on every occasion. I think it necessary
for the king's service that his representative at least
should be thought unsullied." He thought the fees
for higher licences should be increased for the good
of the people, and he would apply the surplus for
the relief of the distressed noblesse who had hitherto
depended largely on the French Crown.
At this same time too, in Carleton's first autumn,
the Walker affair of two years before, which still
remained a mystery, broke out again, as a witness
had come forward to swear to the persons who
had assaulted the much hated magistrate. He was
in truth a lame sort of pillar on which to rest
a case — a discharged soldier of the 28th Regiment,
named M'Govoch. This man lodged information
against the following gentlemen for participation
in the outrage: Saint Luc de La Corne, a well-
known French officer, Captain Disney of the 44th,
Captain Campbell of the 27th and Captain Fraser,
who, it will be remembered, was the indignant
paymaster, and a Mr. Joseph Howard. All these
persons were arrested in their beds in Montreal and
36

THE WALKER INCIDENT AGAIN
taken to Quebec, Walker objecting to their being
bailed since he declared that his fife would be in
danger. Carleton must have been at some disadvan
tage in dealing with an affair which had been wholly
outside his personal knowledge, though there had
been much talk about it two years before in London
The Walker view of it seemed at that distance the
only possible one to take, besides which the plain
tiff had friends there to suppress his own extrava
gances of temper and pretention, and to represent
him as a normal sort of person and the victim of
unprovoked aggression. Carleton's new chief-justice
was Hey, an able and sensible man to judge from
his writings, and he was distinctly prejudiced against
Walker. Maseres, the attorney-general, had an op
posite bias, from the fact that as a French Hugue
not of a family driven from France in a former
generation he was a bitter opponent of everything
connected with popery, and in this business a some
what aggressive Protestant was ranged against sol
diers who were at this time in general sympathy
with the Canadian noblesse, one of whom indeed
was actually a prisoner. Maseres it may be noted
was a fellow of Clare, Cambridge, and had achiev
ed considerable academic distinction. Walker was
backed by a strong and trenchant letter from Con
way who had been a secretary of state in the pre
ceding March.
The prisoners were now thrown into the common
jail, and were refused bail in spite of urgent petitions
37

LORD DORCHESTER
signed by influential people of all kinds, members
of the council, leading French-Canadians, and of
course the British officers. They were soon after
wards, however, sent back to Montreal and some
improvement in their comfort was eventually made.
Walker wished the trial to be deferred, presumably
that the prisoners' discomfort might be prolonged.
Hey consented, but in such case would admit the
prisoners to bail. This action not commending itself
to Walker the trial proceeded. On the first case,
that of Lieutenant Evans, being thrown out by the
grand jury, Walker let loose the vials of his wrath
in court, which did not increase the public sympathy
for him. Maseres prosecuted for the Crown and
made some unsuccessful efforts to reconstitute the
grand jury upon ancient statutes, which the chief-
justice pronounced to be doubtful and odious. In
short the grand jury, eight of whom were of the
French-Canadian noblesse, threw out the bills against
all but Disney who was now a major. This officer
was tried in March, and after a hearing of eight
hours and the examination of many witnesses was
"most honourably acquitted" having proved an alibi,
the jury taking no more than the time occupied in
reading out the notes of the depositions to come to
that verdict. M'Govoch, the discharged soldier and
chief witness for the prosecution, contradicted him
self so deplorably under examination that the grand
jury presented him for perjury, and he was sent to
prison. There really appears from the voluminous
38

HIS MISSIONS
correspondence on the subject to have been some
thing like collusion between this man and Walker,
or as Hey puts it in a lengthy report, Walker's ani
mus against the military caste had caused him to
forget caution in the kind of character whose assist
ance, as a witness, he called in. One indirect result
of the trial was the dismissal by Carleton of Colonel
Irving and Mabane from the council. Before the
Walker trial they had headed a miscellaneously
organized crowd of petitioners on behalf of the
prisoners, a proceeding which Carleton objected to
in their capacity of councillors. So ended this mys
terious and quite remarkable affair. One grudges
the time occupied in going through the papers re
lating to it only to come to the same conclusion as all
other chroniclers of the period, namely, that though
there must have been many people at the time
who knew or suspected the truth, it is absolutely
hidden from any later student of the voluminous
literature relating to it. It cannot be ignored, how
ever, in the incidents of Carleton's period since i-:
shook Canada from end to end, and it is not
wholly waste of time in the retrospect for it ex
hibits the curious cleavages that just then existed
in Canadian society.
Carleton's first mission, from 1766 to 1778, was to
attach the French and save the colony from the
tremendous magnetism of the American repubhc.
His second, from 1786 to 1796, was to reconstitute
the country when two rival races of about equal
39

LORD DORCHESTER
strength were struggling in unsympathetic and
dangerous fashion for mastery, and the seeds of
future greatness had actually been sown.
The chief domestic question of the colony con
tinues to be its legal code, or rather lack of one.
Against the English criminal law there had never
been a murmur save from a few seigniors who
thought it over lenient. In the civil code, besides
their general aversion to it, the feudal prejudices of
all the upper class caused them to cavil at habitants
being elevated to the dignity of jurymen. It is sup
posed that these latter took as yet very little interest
in the matter, beyond the dull, latent suspicion of
change natural to a class politically and intellect
ually dumb. The discussions and disagreements lay
between the few hundred British and French traders
and Canadian seigniors, notaries and doctors. It is
difficult to say how much of English civil law was
forced upon the French- Canadians, but speaking
generally the struggle to do so was gradually aban
doned, sometimes from weariness, sometimes by
special ordinance. One trouble in regard to land
laws was that when it suited the interests of a
French-Canadian to be guided by English custom
he followed it even after its nominal abandonment,
and there were often persons who adopted such
means only in order to shirk the more beneficent
clauses in the French code. Seigniors for instance
would make terms more advantageous for them
selves than their own laws had allowed, or tenants
40

THE JUDICIAL SYSTEMS
would build wretched houses on smaller areas of
land than was permitted by Canadian custom. In
the conveyance of land also, fines and dues were
shirked on the pretext of this otherwise ignored
English code.
The French chafed at the delays and the costs
of the new courts, their own system having been
quicker and cheaper. The grievance was recognized
and more frequent sittings were given ; French
lawyers were admitted to plead and in their own
language. The salaries too seemed extravagant to
the French, accustomed to a perennial scarcity of
money. The ordinances regulating the courts hav
ing been published in English, the fact that the
English language as well as law was generally unin
telligible made the hostility to the latter stronger
from this very ignorance, while the arrogance of the
small English community bred an unceasing dislike
of the British law simply because it was British.
Carleton himself believed in the English criminal
and French civil law in their respective entirety, but
he had too much sense to set up his own views on
codes and statutes against those of professional jur
ists. He ordered his attorney-general, Maseres, to
draw up a full report, although it was felt that this
honest and able man was hampered by his immov
able prejudices. He made four suggestions to Carle
ton. The first was to draw up an entirely fresh code;
though the technical difficulties, Maseres declared,
were immense, and the erudition required would
41

LORD DORCHESTER
involve the services of the highest lawyers of France.
The plan, however, would have the advantage of
terminating that constant reference to old French
precedents which kept alive the reverence for every
thing emanating from France. The second plan was
that of Carleton's — to retain the French civil law and
abolish the criminal code, which included questions
by torture, breaking on the wheel, and such like
barbarities, and to introduce the habeas corpus. The
third choice was to make English law universal, re
taining only some of the ancient customs which were
harmless ; and the fourth was practically the same,
only stipulating that the reservations in the way of
French law should be distinctly tabulated. These
last two schemes would have satisfied the English
community, but the French seemed to fear the
lack of accuracy and finality about any interference
with their own civil code, though they might have
accepted a new Canadian one if the difficulties of
creating it had not been thought by the attorney-
general to be insuperable.
The validity of Murray's proclamation of 1762
ordaining that English law was to be followed with
certain vague reservations, was being questioned on
the grounds that it emanated solely from the king
and had not the consent of the two Houses of par
liament. In short something like chaos pervaded the
whole legal machinery of Canada at this time, and
compromise was made more difficult by the irritation
between the French and British parties in the two
42

DIVERGENT VIEWS
cities. The British ministry was very anxious to find
a via media, and in June 1767, Shelburne wrote very
strongly to that effect to Carleton, and in December
acquaints him that Mr. Maurice Morgan had been
ordered to Canada to study the legal situation, with
the assistance of the chief-justice of the colony and
other "well instructed persons." The upshot of all
this was much consultation in 1769 between the
legal authorities of the colony, Carleton, and the
home government, with a view to some definite
codification of Canadian laws. It would weary the
reader for little purpose to relate the divergent views
of the various prominent persons concerned in these
transactions which were ultimately welded into the
Quebec Act of 1774, a period we have not yet
reached. A letter from Carleton to Shelburne under
date November 25th, 1767, partly explains his per
sonal adherence to an undiluted French civil code,
and makes it quite evident that he did not antici
pate any numerical increase in the British population
of the province. Ontario, it must be remembered,
was still an unconsidered wilderness and the Ameri
can revolution, with its resulting flood of United
Empire Loyalists, as yet in the lap of the future.
At the same time Carleton was prepared to apply
his views to a country whose western limits were
ill-defined and vast, and which virtually included
what is now known as the middle west of the
United States, and this must be accounted against
him and those who thought with him. 43

LORD DORCHESTER
The letter alluded to is written in reply to a
notification of the British government that the civil
constitution of Quebec was a matter of immediate
concern to them, and it gives a brief sketch of the
province as seen by Carleton. The town of Quebec,
he declares, is the only post in the province with any
claim to be called a fortified place, for the flimsy wall
about Montreal, even were it not falling to ruins,
could only turn musketry. As for Quebec it would
be a good camp for ten or twelve battalions. Its
front is fortified by a bastioned rampart faced with
masonry, built for the most part upon a rock without
ditch or outworks ; its profile slight for a fortress,
though substantial for an encampment ; its parapet
in very bad order. The flanks and rear in 1759 were
closed partly by a thin wall, the rest by great stakes
now carried away on rollers. With a number of men
sufficient for this post, their flanks and rear might
be secured and so guarded as to induce an enemy
to form his attack in front; but in proportion as the
numbers fall short the danger increases of being
stormed with little ceremony, especially when this
line is open in many places as at present. Carleton
goes on to say that the total number of troops now
with him is sixteen hundred and that the king's old
subjects, i.e., the British, if collected from the rest
of the province into Quebec might amount to four
hundred. With two months' hard labour they might
then place the town in a proper state of defence and
he would then have just about one third of the
44

THE NOBLESSE OF CANADA
number requisite for defending it. In view of a war
with France, Carleton points out that the king's
new subjects could put into the field eighteen thou
sand men well able to carry arms, about half of
whom had already served with as much valour, more
zeal, and more military knowledge for American
purposes than the regular troops of France who
acted with them. As the common people are greatly
influenced by their seigniors he encloses a fist of the
noblesse of Canada, showing with tolerable exactness
their age, rank, and present place of abode, together
with such natives of France as had served in the
colonial troops so early in life as to give them know
ledge of the country. This list mentions over a hun
dred officers all ready to be sent back in case of war
to a country with which they are intimately ac
quainted, and who may with the assistance of reg
ular troops stir up a people accustomed to pay them
implicit obedience. " On the other hand," he con
tinues, "there are only some seventy of these officers
in Canada who have been in the French service, but
not one of them has been given commissions in
King George's service, nor is any substantial in
ducement held out to them to support the king's
government. These gentlemen it must be remem
bered have lost their employments by becoming his
subjects, and as they are not bound by any offices
of trust or profit we should only deceive ourselves
by supposing they would be active in defence of a
people who had deprived them of their honours, pri-
45

LORD DORCHESTER
vileges, profits and laws, and in their stead have intro
duced much expense, chicanery and confusion, with
a deluge of new laws unknown and unpublished.
While, therefore, matters continue in their present
state, the most we can hope for from the gentlemen
who remain in the province, is a passive neutrality
on all occasions, with a respectful submission to
government. This they almost to a man have per
severed in since my arrival, notwithstanding that
much pains have been taken to engage them in
parties by a few whose duty and whose office should
have taught them better." The French minister,
Carleton continues, seems to have foreseen this dis
position and to have done his best to attract them to
France where they would be useful in any war with
England. All these officers were assigned quarters in
Touraine. They received, so long as they remained
there, full pay upon a recently increased scale, and
this was offered, together with arrears, to any of those
remaining in Canada who might choose to return
to France.
Having given the disproportionate strength of His
Majesty's old and new subjects in Canada, Carleton
proceeds to indulge in prophetic utterances. "There
is not the least probability" he continues, "that this
superiority of numbers will diminish; on the contrary
it will increase and strengthen daily. The Europeans
who emigrate will never prefer the long inhospitable
winter of Canada to the more cheerful climate and
more fruitful soil of His Majesty's southern prov-
46

TRADE AND POPULATION
inces. The few old subjects at present in this province
are mostly here by accident, and are either disbanded
officers, soldiers, or followers of the army who, not
knowing how to dispose of themselves elsewhere,
settled where they were left at the reduction, or else
they are adventurers in trade, or such as could not
remain at home who set out to mend their fortunes
at the opening of this new channel for commerce.
But experience has taught almost all of them that
this trade requires a strict frugality, which they are
all strangers to, or to which they will not submit.
So that many have left the province and I greatly
fear many more, for the same reasons, will follow
their example in a few years. But while this severe
climate and the poverty of the country discourages
all but the natives, its healthfulness is such that
these multiply daily, so that barring a catastrophe
shocking to think of, this country to the end of time
must be peopled by the Canadian race, who already
have taken such firm root that any new stock
transplanted will be totally and imperceptibly hid
amongst them, except in the towns of Quebec and
Montreal." Of all the Canada that then existed and
that Carleton knew, his forecast was a sufficiently
accurate one. This illuminating letter winds up with
military suggestions for the defence of Canada,
and the building of a proper citadel in Quebec,
proposed plans for which Carleton encloses. His
list of the Canadian noblesse gives one hundred
and twenty-six heads of families, or independent 47

LORD DORCHESTER
bachelors resident in the colony, three fourths of
whom are in the district of Montreal, and seventy-
nine resident in France as officers.
Many private individuals among the English pop
ulation of Canada were in the habit of communi
cating their views on the state of the colony to the
home government, and a favourite burden of their
theme was the dark plots they believed the French
population to be engaged in for overthrowing British
authority and regaining the country for France.
Carleton seems to have thought it worth while to
allay the anxiety thus created in the minds of the
government by one very full letter on this subject
which was transmitted in 1768. In this he says that
since his arrival he has not been able to discover
any signs of such secret assemblies, nor could he
believe that the chiefs of their own free notion in
time of peace would dare to assemble in any num
bers to consult and resolve on a revolt, nor was it
credible that any assembly of military men should
be so ignorant as to fancy they could defend them
selves by only a few fireships against any future at
tack from Great Britain after the experience of '59.
Nevertheless it seemed to Carleton that in spite of
their "decent and respectful obedience to the king's
government hitherto, there was no doubt of their
secret and natural affection for France, an affec
tion that would continue so long as they were
excluded from all appointments in the British ser
vice and they were certain of being reinstated at
48

MILITARY SERVICE
least in their former commissions with a return
to French dominion ; for it was by such employ
ment they chiefly supported themselves and their
families." Considering the vexations in the matter of fees
and the frequent litigation that the Canadians had
been put to, and that their British rulers had never
taken a single step to gain one man in the province
by making it his private interest to remain the king's
subject, Carleton owns that the fact of his never
having discovered any treasonable correspondence
was not proof sufficient that none existed; but if so,
probably very few were entrusted with the secret.
A false report had been sent over secretly to France
in the previous year that the king of England in
tended raising a regiment of his new subjects, and
on its being echoed back to Canada most of the
seigniors in the province had applied to Carleton
to admit them into the king's service, assuring him
that they would take every opportunity of testifying
their zeal and gratitude for "so great a mark of
favour and tenderness extended not only to them
but to their posterity." "When I further consider,"
wrote Carleton, "that the king's dominion here is
maintained by a few troops, necessarily dispersed,
without a place of security for their magazines, for
their arms or themselves, amidst a numerous mili
tary people, the gentlemen all officers, poor without
hopes that they or their descendants will be admit
ted into the service of their present sovereign, I can
49

LORD DORCHESTER
have no doubt but that France as soon as deter
mined to begin a war, will attempt to regain Canada
should it be intended only to make a diversion, while
it may reasonably be undertaken with little hazard
should it fail, and when so much may be gained
should it succeed."
Carleton evidently thought it possible, though
six years were to pass before the Declaration of
Independence, that the American colonies would
attempt to support their views by armed force,
and thus wrote to Lord Hillsborough. In such
case France would probably come to their assist
ance, when Canada would be the principal scene,
so Carleton imagined, of the critical struggle, and
Canada in the hands of France would be no longer,
as of old, the enemy of the British provinces but
their ally and protector. Carleton could not then
realize how anxious, and rightly anxious, the Ameri
cans would be to give France no excuse for re-
occupying her ancient territory. He pointed out the
disadvantage Canada as a British province would be
under in such an eventuality, unless they did some
thing practical to win the allegiance of the French-
Canadians. On the other hand he indicated how
ardently Canada might permanently support British
interests on the American continent, in view of the
fact that she was not united in any common prin
ciple with the other provinces in their already bud
ding opposition to the supreme government. Car
leton indeed is repeatedly admonishing the home
50

THE CORRECTION OF ABUSES
government to the effect that one of these alterna
tives is necessary for the security of the colony in
the course of a war which he already foresees — either
a great force of troops or some method of attaching
the population to the Crown. How true was his
foreboding and how consistent his application of the
latter principle is a matter of history and common
knowledge. In all this secret correspondence both
Hillsborough and the king himself cordially ap
proved of Carleton's recommendations and regarded
them as "of the utmost use in assisting those plans
now under deliberation on the propriety and neces
sity of extending to that brave and faithful people
a reasonable participation in those establishments
which are to form the bases of the future govern
ment of the province of Quebec." But Hillsborough
feared that the clamours and prejudices which at
tacked every measure, however judicious, would
make the question of military service a difficult one,
though personally he quite agreed that the experi
ment should be tried.
Maurice Morgan was all this time investigating
the legal difficulties of the colony with the assistance
of Maseres and others. Carleton viewed with concern
the abuses that were inevitable to the situation and
set himself to cure some that were not so. Among
the last were the scandalous methods pursued by
many justices of the peace to excite litigation
among the people for the sake of the fees accruing
to themselves. Those who prospered in business
51

LORD DORCHESTER
could not spare the time to sit in court, while
such as "from accidents or ill-judged undertakings
became bankrupts sought to repair their broken
fortunes at the expense of the people." These
precious justices employed bailiffs of doubtful char
acter, disbanded French soldiers or deserters, and
virtually entered into collusion with them, dis
persing them throughout the parishes armed with
blank citations. Their r61e was to promote factious
litigation and to catch at every little feud or dis
sension among the people, and encourage suits in
cases which might easily be amicably settled were
the parties left to themselves. The unfortunate
habitants were then mulcted in costs far beyond the
value of the often trifling sums they were incited to
sue for; with ruin as the result in innumerable cases.
Carleton declared "there was not a Protestant
butcher or publican that became bankrupt who did
not apply to be made a justice. They cantoned
themselves upon the country and many of them
rode the people with despotic sway, imposed fines
which they turned to their own profit, and in a man
ner regarded themselves as the legislators of the
province. Three or four hundred families have been
turned out of their houses, land sold for not one
eighth of its value, debtors ruined and debts still
undischarged, fees absorbing everything." Carleton
himself ordered the release of a number of imprisoned
debtors whose liabilities averaged about two pounds
apiece! In one of the many tours he took through
52

USELESS LITIGATION
the country the outcry of the people concerning
these abuses was general and bitter.
Imprisonment for debt was a new experience to
the habitants. A respected and venerable French
captain of militia wrote a letter to Carleton setting
forth the situation in simple but trenchant terms.
"Every day may be seen only suit upon suit for
nothing; for twenty or thirty score suits are entered
which usually amount up to forty, fifty or sixty
livres, owing to the multitude of expenses heaped
on these poor people by bailiffs appointed by the
authority of the justices of the peace. These bailiffs
are instigators of unjust suits. They entice the poor
people who know nothing of the matter to get suits
against each other. These writs the bailiffs carry in
blank, which require only the addition of the name
of the plaintiff and defendant and the date of ap
pearance. I send one as a curiosity for your Excel
lency to judge by of it. It often happens that a
single person has several citations to answer at dif
ferent courts on the same day, and this being im
possible he is condemned by default. Thereupon the
bailiffs seize, carry off and sell everything these poor
men may be possessed of. Frequently when these
alleged bailiffs go to make a seizure should there be
no one in the house and the doors locked they break
open the door to get in; and these manifold rob
beries reduce the poor peasant to the lowest beg
gary. If the goods seized and carried off are not
sufficient to discharge the multitude of costs laid on
53

LORD DORCHESTER
for the travelling costs of the bailiffs and otherwise,
a warrant of imprisonment is obtained, and thus
after having been robbed of all they have and pos
sess in the world, their furniture as well as their
cattle, these persons are finally laid hold of as a
guarantee, that the tyranny may be complete. I
should never finish were I to attempt giving the
whole story of the sad situation in which these poor
people are placed, who are very tractable and whom
I have guided for the space of twenty-five years as
captain and very often as judge."
This was no highly coloured picture. The report
of the government committee on the administra
tion of justice, prepared for the Crown and issued
in September 1769, and approved by Carleton and
his council, amply endorses the old French captain's
evidence, quoting among other instances one where
the expense of collecting a debt of eleven livres
amounted to eighty! It is not surprising that the
blessings of English civil law as administered by
the British community from Quebec and Montreal
were not wholly appreciated by the French-Cana
dians, to the infinite prejudice of many undoubted
benefits of British rule. As a remedy to this iniqui
tous state of things Carleton caused a fresh or
dinance to be passed and approved by the king
early in 1770, the object of which was to give
cheap and honest justice in all such cases. The
power of the magistrates in suits affecting per
sonal and real property was withdrawn or curtailed.
54

A HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
Something similar to the "Homestead Exemption
Act" now in use in the United States was enacted,
protecting the peasant against seizure of certain
necessaries of life and industry, and no execution
was to be issued for sums of less than twelve pounds
against land or houses. Proper courts were instituted
for all these transactions. The ordinance created a
great outcry among British traders and a deputa
tion waited upon Carleton presenting a long table
of objections. But Carleton stood firm in the fact
that more respectable and indastrioas peasants had
been ruined by this chicanery than there were Brit
ish residents in the whole of Canada The outraged
magistrates, among whom Carleton admitted were
some most worthy men, made a violent struggle for
the repeal of the ordinances, and issued handbills
calling a meeting of the people to discuss grievances,
importuning and even insulting some French-Cana
dians because they would not join them.
The agitation for a House of Assembly that had
been so lively in Murray's time was less pronounced
under Carleton, but it never wholly ceased. In 1768
a petition in favour of it was taken round for signa
ture, but the French seigniors, in spite of some
plausible modifications of the Protestant monopoly,
were wholly against it, while the habitant had as yet
not the faintest perception of its meaning. Carleton's
views on the subject may be inferred from his fre
quently written opinioas of the men who would
comprise such a parliament, and need no further
55

LORD DORCHESTER
definition. Even if this fraction of the population
had been of a good representative type in breeding
and education, the absurdity of their attempt to
impose their will on the colony would seem obvious
enough. Nor again, to take a lower motive, could
any colonial governor with ordinary official interest
have been anxious to reproduce on Canadian soil
the wranglings that distinguished the capital of
nearly every American province at that moment.
Carleton, however, conscious of his own integrity,
his knowledge of men and keen desire to be just
and impartial, could scarcely have regarded the
agitation of the British handful in Canada for such
monopoly without contempt. He was always cour
teous, however, even to those who he had reason
to think ill deserved courtesy, and we find few com
plaints of the snubs which the hotter-headed Mur
ray administered to his tormentors.
Morgan and Maseres sailed for England in 1770,
about the same time, with full reports on the state
of the province. Both men were to prove useful in
drafting the new constitution which was to be con
sidered at some length in London.

56

CHAPTER III
THE QUEBEC ACT
CARLETON soon after this returned himself to
England, but in the meantime we have antici
pated somewhat, and must take note of some of the
minor incidents and duties that helped to occupy
the busy hours of his first four years of office in
Canada. His deputy-governorship ended in 1768,
when Murray resigned his titular appointment, a
detail, however, without significance in our story.
The troubles which were seething in the provinces
to the south had affected Canada as yet but little.
The Stamp Act and all that followed was a trifling
matter among the more vital issues which agitated
the Canadians. While the New Englanders were
concerned with the rights of man and splitting hairs
on constitutional questions, they were smuggling
rum into Canada and sorely interfering with the
revenue on wines and spirits which Carleton was
anxious to raise, both on account of his meagre
budget and for reasons moral and sanitary. The two
chief questions, however, which stood out in Cana
dian politics, after the more pressing ones relating to
legal and military matters, were the Church and the
western fur trade with all its Indian complications.
Everything concerning the former was under con-
57

LORD DORCHESTER
sideration pending the settlement of the affairs of
the colony, and in Carleton's opinion it required most
delicate handling. The Jesuits had been constantly
importuning him for the recovery of their property
and influence. The bishop and clergy sent a petition
to England in favour of retaining their services for
the education of youth and. for missions among the
Indians, for which last duties they had been accus
tomed, before the conquest, to receive fourteen
thousand livres a year from the king of France.
The bishop, Briand, was a loyal and quiet living
man, and Carleton writes that far from maintaining
any undue state and pretention, as certain persons
had reported, he had modest quarters at the semin
ary at Quebec, even feeding at the common table.
He had especially repudiated any pomp and cere
mony when he came out, contemporaneously with
Carleton, professing only to be an ordainer of priests
and wearing a plain black gown, to be exchanged in
time, however, for the purple robe and the golden
cross — the usual insignia of the Roman Episcopate.
The Indian war in Murray's time had materially
upset the western trade. The posts had been re-
occupied and secured, but Carleton had constant
troubles in dealing with the complaints of the Mon
treal merchants against the way in which the trade
permits and rules were interpreted by the officers of
the posts. The French-Canadians in the west were
always suspected of intriguing against the British
power, while the interests of Canada were materially
58

REPORT ON MANUFACTURES
opposed to those of New York, Virginia, and Penn
sylvania, whose traders were in a sense her rivals.
Carleton had applied for leave to return to England
on private affairs for a brief period in 1769. The mo
ment, however, not seeming propitious, he had post
poned his departure and it was not till August in
the following year that he left Canada. He went
home nominally for six months but there was much
to be done in framing the new constitution. His ad
vice was indispensable and he remained four years.
His deputy in Canada was the lieutenant-governor
Cramahe', the Swiss officer already frequently men
tioned who had done good work as a councillor
throughout the administrations of both Murray and
Carleton. He had been Murray's secretary and was
most highly thought of by that officer, and as we
know had been sent on a mission to London to re
present the condition of the province to the British
government. He had also been governor of Three
Rivers, the small midway centre of administration
between Quebec and Montreal.
Shortly before leaving his government Carleton
sent home a report on the manufactures of the coun
try. We gather from this that flax was generally
cultivated, but was mainly utilized by the people
for a coarse linsey-woolsey, woven of wool and
thread for the clothing of the men. All caps were
imported from England. A coarse earthenware was
in use and there were some tanneries producing an
indifferent kind of leather; the best leather being
59

LORD DORCHESTER
imported from the British colonies. The forges at
St. Maurice turned out forty thousand weight of bar
iron annually. Edge tools and axes of a serviceable
kind for both whites and Indians were manufactured.
A small business in pearl-ash and potash with a rum
distillery complete the list. Carleton says nothing
of the timber which must have been an article of
trade, masts for the navy being one item of export.
For the next four years Carleton was watching
over the interests of the Canadians, while measures,
momentous in their consequences to the latter,
were being discussed and prepared. The Canadians
at home under the sufficiently able direction of
Cramahe" were awaiting those ordinances which
were to decide their future with a patience arising
from their confidence in a speedy settlement. There
would be little to say of the colony during Carleton's
absence, even were the subject quite relevant to the
title of this book, except that it pursued a tolerably
uneventful life, in spite of the chaotic conditions of
its legal machinery. The British party presented
another petition for a representative assembly and
persuaded a few of their French fellow-subjects to
confer with them on the subject, but the presence
of eight of them at the conference was the limit of
their cooperation. They could not persuade, even
had they wished, any more of their people to evince
an enthusiasm for a parliament chosen from four
hundred British- American Protestants. Ninety-one
of the latter, only five of them being freeholders,
60

PETITION AND COUNTER PETITION
signed the petition, but Cramahe" replied that it
was too important a matter for a lieutenant-governor
to decide. This seems only to have been expected,
and another petition, somewhat more cautiously
framed as regards the exclusion of Roman Catholics,
was sent to the king with one hundred and fifty-
eight signatures, mainly British. The French had
decided to forward a petition of their own. This,
however, bore only about fifty signatures and related
mainly to matters legal and lingual, for it is hardly
necessary to reiterate that the French-Canadians
had little interest in representative government,
though the document advanced a claim for civil and
mihtary employment. It did, indeed, suggest an
assembly, but only on condition of a full representa
tion of the French-Canadians. The desire even for
this was expressed in luke-warm fashion, either from
the lack of political fervour which distinguished
the petitioners at that time, or from a feeling that
such a concession was hopeless from a British gov
ernment. But they evinced no such indifference
regarding the prospect of a Protestant parliament,
for the seigniors were "utterly unwilling to consent
to a House of Assembly from which they should be
excluded." They prayed for their own laws, hinting
at the financial benefit this would be to the govern
ment on account of the feudal dues and profits
accruing to it under the old custom. They prayed
also for the restoration of Labrador to Canada
as well as those portions of the West which
61

LORD DORCHESTER
the country had lost since it became a British
province. Carleton on reaching England found that his own
views, formed on long experience, were practically
identical with those of the home authorities derived
from equity and theory. Yorke and de Grey,
attorney-general and solicitor-general some years
before, had already pronounced in a long and learned
report against "new and unnecessary and arbitrary
rules (especially as to the titles of land, mode of
descent, alienation and settlement) which would
tend to confound and subvert rights, instead of
supporting them." Now in 1772 Thurlow the at
torney-general, and Wedderburne solicitor-general,
argued on the same lines, declaring the French-
Canadians entitled by the jus gentium to their
property, as they possessed it upon the treaty of
peace, together with all its qualities and incidents by
tenure or otherwise. Dr. Marriott, the advocate-
general, was of the same opinion, and agreed with
the others in thinking it inexpedient under the
circumstances to call an assembly. Maseres alone
was somewhat opposed to Carleton, taking the
view that the habitants on the whole were in favour
of English law, as it gave them relief from the
"insolent and capricious treatment of their superiors"
(the seigniors). He thought they would have ex
pressed this opinion freely but from the fear that
their religion would be endangered.
Maseres' strong prejudices as well as his un-
62

THE QUEBEC ACT
doubted integrity and abilities have been already
noticed. He had the honesty, however, to avow in
answer to a query of Lord North's, that he did not
think certain points of English procedure would be
followed even if they were introduced. Chief- Justice
Hey and de Lotbiniere, a prominent French- Cana
dian, also rendered assistance with their advice. Four
years seems a long period for the consideration,
drafting, and passing of the Quebec Act, a measure
which Bourinot calls "the charter of the special
privileges which the French-Canadians have enjoyed
ever since." But it was not till May 17th, 1774, that
the Act was introduced into the House of Lords,
a procedure which offended some members of the
Lower House and gave them an excuse for taking
a brief part in the discussion. But few were quali
fied to share in it, and but a meagre House took the
trouble either to listen or to vote. Carleton was of
course greatly in evidence throughout the whole of
this protracted business and, when the bill came
down to the Commons, was called as the leading
witness, together with Chief-Justice Hey, Maseres,
de Lotbiniere and Marriott.
The delimitation of Canada was the weakest part
of the bill, for it practically followed the old lines of
the French claims extending through contentious
territory, outraging the geographical susceptibilities,
if not the rights, of Virginia and Pennsylvania, and
terminating at the Mississippi, while to the north
ward the Hudson's Bay Company's territory was
63

LORD DORCHESTER
the far away limit to this immense region. Canada
beyond a doubt in matters of constructive legislation
should have been limited to the more immediately
occupied regions, terminating, let us say, at the
eastern end of Lake Ontario. The West, virtually
untouched as yet but by hunters, traders, and gar
risons, should have been retained under temporary
administration to await future lines of development.
The emigration of the United Empire Loyalists a
decade or two later settled this question in a satis
factory but quite unlooked-for fashion. As it was,
those who were hostile to the retention by the French
of their laws and religion had some reason in ob
jecting to their establishment over millions of fertile
acres yet untouched.
The Quebec Act, speaking broadly, gave sanction
and definition to existing usages rather than to new
ones — full freedom of religion to the Roman Cath
olics together with recognition of the ancient means
of collecting dues for the support of its priesthood
from its own community. In all the branches of
civil law the Canadian custom was preserved, while
the criminal code of England being more merciful
and already popular with the French subjects, was
confirmed in perpetual use. An assembly was for the
present withheld, the administration as before to be
continued vested in a governor with executive and
legislative council to consist of not less than seven
teen nor more than twenty-three members.
This was the drift of the Act. The minor clauses,
64

CONTEMPORARY OPINION
conventional or precautionary, are of slight moment
here. There was a great deal of opposition. The self-
interest of a few in England, the religious prejudices
of the many, the wrath of the British- American
colonies, were stirred to the depths. The debate on
the bill continued through the 6th, 7th, 8th and
10th of June. It was carried in committee by eighty-
^hree to forty and on the third reading was carried by
fifty-six to twenty. On June 18th, 1774, it was sent
back to the Lords and immediately passed, though
opposed by Chatham, by twenty to seven votes.
Some of the comments of members and scraps of
the evidence of Carleton and his witnesses merit
notice. Among the former Mr. Dunning remarked
that he would as soon see the country restored to
France at once as that arbitrary government should
be set up at the back of the colonies where people
going in would pass from liberty to despotism.
The liberty-loving Mr. Dunning, however, would
have cheerfully consigned the lives and liberties of
nearly one hundred thousand old inhabitants to the
dominion of a few hundred somewhat ill-qualified
strangers. There was much more logic in his sug
gestion, however foolishly expressed, that the vast
wilderness about to be added to Quebec by a British
Act of parliament would be claimed on that account
by France should a retrocession of Canada ever be
come a question of policy or necessity, and still
more in his criticism of the wide geographical ex
tension of the Act. 65

LORD DORCHESTER
Lord North said that a legislature was withheld
from the lack of eligible people. Mr. Townshend
desired a government for Canada, not a despotism,
a government, that is, by a Protestant faction.
This gives to us of the twentieth century another
curious instance of the mental attitude of the
eighteenth century British Protestant. It is only
perhaps when quite fresh from an excursion into
the century preceding that it is possible to feel such
a measure of sympathy with these people as is un
questionably their due. The error of judging them
from a modern standpoint is too elementary a one
perhaps to call for mention. The French government
had shewn itself to be even less liberal in matters
of religion than our own worst-seeming bigots pro
posed to be. The attorney-general, Thurlow, on the
other hand, thought it unjust to compel the French
to use English laws of property and inheritance.
Sergeant Glyn considered the nation bound to
conform to the generous measures of the king's
proclamation of 1763. Wedderburne, the solicitor-
general, opined that to force English law upon the
Canadians would prove a curse. Fox objected to
the Lords having taken the initiative in introducing
the bill and professed a proper horror of popery.
Two or three members wasted what was really
valuable time as the session was closing in dis
cussing the arrogance of the House of Lords in
this matter, and asked the speaker for his opinion,
whereat that official snubbed them with heat and
66

EVIDENCE AND OPINION
decision. Colonel Barre declared it to be prepos
terous to suppose that the Canadians would fail
to recognize the superiority of good and just (Le.,
English) laws. Another member on the behalf of
Pennsylvania complained that the limits of the new
province cut right through their territory, but he
was assured by North that vested interests would
be protected.
Messrs. Mackworth and Townshend demanded
that the written opinions of the Canadians and
British law officials should be produced, and found
many supporters. It was answered that at so late a
period the delay would be fatal, whereupon Burke
remarked that the delay of a year would be a less
evil than to pass a bill without proper information.
It was urged that the verbal information to be given
by Carleton and other witnesses would be desultory
compared to these opinions. Two witnesses from
Canada were examined on behalf of the London
merchants who affirmed that Canadians as well as
English were anxious for English law and trial by
jury. Carleton then gave evidence to the effect that
Canadians were -willing enough for English criminal
law, but in other respects objected to a code of
which they were ignorant, embodied in a language
they did not understand. They were ready enough
for the latter when it happened to favour their
particular case. As regards an assembly, the French,
said Carleton, felt little interest in it, while the
Protestants were neither numerous enough noi
67

LORD DORCHESTER
sufficiently eligible. A characteristic incident oc
curred during the governor's examination when
North asked him if he knew aught of a certain Le
Brun. "Yes!" said the downright proconsul, "I
know him very well. He was a blackguard at Paris
and sent as a lawyer to Canada, where he gained an
exceedingly bad character in many respects, was
taken up and imprisoned for an assault on a young
girl eight or nine years old, was fined twenty pounds,
but not being able to pay it he was — "
Townshend here interfered and Carleton was asked
to withdraw the statement. Then Lord North ex
plained that Le Brun was sent over to represent
Canadians in favour of an assembly and English
laws, and that it was necessary to know what sort of
a man he was. Carleton had probably said enough.
Hey differed somewhat from his chief, and thought
a blending of the French and English civil code was
the best method. Maseres spoke in somewhat the
same strain. The habitants objected to juries on the
score of expense which could easily be arranged by
a small compensation. Any alteration in the laws of
inheritance or land would be offensive to them.
They could not, however, object to the habeas
corpus, while as regards the assembly they had
but dim ideas of what it meant. De Lotbiniere
said that if their land laws remained untouched he
thought they would be contented enough with the
remainder of the English code. He had never heard
the assembly much discussed but thought they
68

AN APPEAL FROM LONDON
would be satisfied if the noblesse were admitted.
Marriott, the advocate-general, though his written
opinions were clear enough, proved such a sphinx
under examination that Colonel Barre" declared:
"There's no hitting this gentleman."
The corporation of London now appealed to the
king to withhold his signature from the bill, pro
fessing themselves greatly alarmed for the safety
of their Protestant fellow-subjects in the province.
That "wonderful effort of human wisdom," trial by
jury, not being provided for (in civil cases), they
urged that the bill was a breach of the promises
made to the British settlers when invited into the
province and not in harmony with the promises of
His Majesty's declaration of 1763. They deny that
any laws or statutes can be ordained for the said
province other than those in use in England. King
George is reminded of his coronation oath to main
tain the Protestant religion, and that his family was
called to the throne for that purpose to the exclu
sion of the Stuart line, that the Roman Catholic
religion is known to be idolatrous and bloody, and
that the said bill was brought in late in the session
when most of the members had retired into the
country. It does not seem to have occurred to any
of these people that the reconstruction of a com
munity alien in blood and spirit and of ancient
origin could not be achieved after the fashion of
another Georgia or Virginia, and that no such con
ditions as now faced the rulers of Canada had been
69

LORD DORCHESTER
contemplated by those who held these precepts for
British people.
In considering this bill it must be remembered
that two things had to be taken into account : the
troubled state of the American colonies which made
the attachment of the French indispensable, and
the probability that the country would remain
homogeneously French. To judge of this question
by English standards is idle. There is a type of
mind so wedded to popular shibboleths that it
gives but grudging assent to the success of Carle
ton and to the Quebec Act in saving Canada. The
English settlers, mainly traders, had a bad reputa-
tation, and increased slowly, while the French were
prolific. The forecast was justified in providing for
the attachment of a French province, rather than
for a possible inrush of British immigration that
before the war did not seem a likely eventuality.
As for the British colonies, the attitude of the
recently summoned congress towards the new Act
is always one of the most entertaining incidents in
American history ; for in formulating their griev
ances against the Crown, the liberal treatment of
the French in leaving them their religion had been
a burning indictment against king and Commons,
and floods of indignation were poured out against
the Catholic Church. A famous document declared
that the new Act gave legality to a religion which
had flooded England with blood, and had spread
hypocrisy, murder, persecution, and revolt into all
70

COLONIAL CRITICISM
parts of the world. This address was circulated
throughout the American colonies as a useful stimu
lant to resistance, and the injury was coupled in
Philadelphia with that of the closing of the port of
Boston. The reader would not be human who could
regard without a smile the endearing address of
congress in the autumn of 1774 to the French-
Canadians, in which its members recall their joy in
1763, when the King of England granted the
Canadians all the rights of Englishmen, in addition
to the privileges of their "bloodthirsty, idolatrous,
and hypocritical creed," as formerly designated.
The Quebec Act and its indulgences to popish
slaves was even now being used as a stick for King
George's back in New England, New York, and
Philadelphia, by the same men who were shedding
documentary tears of a crocodile nature for the
woes of the French-Canadians. The latter were
treated to a lengthy disquisition, indicating under
various heads the ideals without which they could
neither be free nor happy. The tenure of land
in Canada was a monstrous anachronism, so the
Canadians were told, in complete oblivion of the
fact that this was a concession from, not an im
position by, "this infamous and tyrannical minis
try." They were loaded with sympathy for this
criminal withholding of juries, and the misery of
existence without them; though this very depri
vation was a concession to their own prejudices.
They were told in elaborate and bombastic periods
71

LORD DORCHESTER
what they ought to do, and what they ought
to want, in order to become good Englishmen,
and whether they were or not they ought to be
profoundly miserable, and that their brethren of
the other provinces (who had never before in his
tory had a good word for them), were grievously
moved at their degradation. Without an assembly,
(of Protestants, of course), they would be slaves.
There was no guarantee that even the inquisition
might not be set up among them ! The addressers
knew the liberal spirit of the French-Canadians too
well to imagine that religious matters would pre
judice them against a hearty amity with themselves.
From cajolery the address then proceeded to threats,
reminding them of their insignificance, and asked
them to choose whether they would be regarded as
friends by the rest of the continent or as "inveterate
enemies." This address was translated into French, and cir
culated among the Canadians, a process made easy
by the number of English in Montreal and Quebec
who sympathized with the Americans, of whom
many were already in the province as political pro
pagandists. The Canadians in short were invited to
choose delegates to meet the rest at Philadelphia.
The peasantry might be bamboozled with all this,
and to a great extent were, but the clergy not so.
They had not forgotten the hard words used about
them in 1763, and they were aware of the insults
heaped on their religion within the last few weeks.
72

THE SPIDER TO THE FLY
Above all they had every reason to be grateful to the
British government, and as many reasons to dislike
and distrust the British colonists. The seigniors had
almost as good cause to reject these unblushing
overtures, and did so to a man, as we shall see.
That immortal composition, "Will you walk into
my parlour said the spider to the fly," was written
for another political occasion, and at another period,
but had it been included in the education of the
more instructed French-Canadians of that day, it
would, no doubt, have leaped to the lips of all of
them and been much in vogue.

73

CHAPTER IV
CARLETON'S MARRIAGE
ALMOST immediately on the passing of the
Quebec Act Carleton sailed for Canada and
landed on September 18th, 1774. During his long
stay in England he had married the Lady Maria
Howard, daughter of the Earl of Effingham, who
with her two children born of the marriage accom
panied her husband across the Atlantic. The lady
was less than half Carleton's age, which was now
forty-eight. A family tradition attributes the fact of
Carleton's remaining so long unmarried to an early
disappointment in a love affair with his cousin, Jane
Carleton. The circumstances of his marriage were
somewhat singular, and were given to me by the
present representative of the family. Lord Howard
of Effingham, then a widower, was a great personal
friend of Carleton's, and of about the same age.
On this account and also foreseeing for him a dis
tinguished career, he cordially accepted his over
tures for the hand of his eldest daughter, Lady
Anne. She and her younger sister, Lady Maria,
had seen a great deal of Sir Guy at their father's
house, and doubtless regarded him as a benevolent
uncle rather than a potential lover. In time, how
ever, they became aware that other schemes were
75

LORD DORCHESTER
abroad, and on a certain occasion when Carleton
arrived at the house and was closeted with his Lord
ship it seems to have been pretty well understood
what he had come for. The two young ladies were
sitting together in another apartment with a rela
tive, a Miss Seymour, and when a message came to
Lady Anne that her presence was required by her
father its purport seems to have been well known.
When this young lady returned to her friends her
eyes were red from tears. The others, waiting im
patiently for her news, were the more impatient as
well as perplexed at her woe-begone appearance.
" Your eyes would be red," she replied to their
queries, "if you had just had to refuse the best
man on earth."
"The more fool you," was the unsympathetic
rejoinder of her younger sister, Lady Maria. " I
only wish he had given me the chance."
It appears that Lady Anne was already in love
with Carleton's nephew, whom she afterwards mar
ried and who served under his uncle in Canada.
There the matter rested for some months till
Miss Seymour one day confided to Sir Guy what
Lord Howard's younger daughter had remarked on
hearing of his discomfiture. This so much interested
the middle-aged lover, who, no doubt, had recovered
from a perhaps not very violent passion, that in
due course he presented himself as a suitor for the
younger daughter, who proved herself as good as
her word. Miss Seymour who lived to old age used
76

SECOND ARRIVAL IN CANADA
to tell the story to members of the Dorchester
family who only passed away in comparatively
recent years.
Lady Maria was small and fair, upright and ex
tremely dignified, and was ceremonious to a degree
that in her old age almost amounted to eccen
tricity. She had been brought up and educated at
Versailles, which may be held to account for her
partiality for the French at Quebec, and may pos
sibly have influenced her husband in the same
direction. Soon after landing Carleton wrote to Dartmouth,
now secretary, that he found the king's Canadian
subjects impressed with the strongest sense of His
Majesty's goodness towards them in the matter of
the late bill, and manifesting a strong desire to show
themselves not unworthy of the treatment accorded
to them. Events to the south, however, which were
destined in great measure to upset the governor's
sanguine, and justifiably sanguine, expectations,
were hurrying forward. For while he was still upon
the ocean the first congress had met at Philadelphia
and formulated three petitions: one to the king,
another to the British public, and that other one to
the Canadians already alluded to. Carleton had
come back armed with definite machinery for the
administration of a province which he had already
handled successfully with inefficient weapons. For
good or ill the new instrument had been moulded
in almost exact accordance with his wishes. But a
77

LORD DORCHESTER
war cloud was now rising to the southward which
was destined for the moment completely to obscure
domestic matters of a peaceful kind. The role of
wise but beneficent administrator was not yet to be
that of Carleton, who was soon to find himself com
mitted to a life and death struggle against desperate
odds for the very possession of the colony.
Whatever the wisdom of the Quebec Act, as a
matter of domestic policy there is little doubt but
that it saved Canada to the British Crown, or rather
enabled a resolute commander to perform what at
one time seemed a hopeless task. The French
population as a whole, it is true, quite failed to
justify the reasonable expectations formed of them.
But had the Act been so framed that their grievances
were real and appealed to their enlightened class,
instead of being merely the groundless fears of a
deluded peasantry, things would have been much
worse even than they were, while a better spirit
among the handful of Anglo-American traders
would have been of small account amid the clash of
arms. Almost the first letters Carleton received after
his return were from General Gage, at Boston,
requesting him to despatch there the 10th and 52nd
Regiments, a proceeding which left the governor
with less than a thousand regulars in the colony.
The French subjects, however, took the earliest op
portunity of presenting addresses expressing satis
faction with the Act. Even the British of Quebec, in
78

AGITATION AND INTRIGUE
part at least, followed suit, for partisan feeling was
less bitter and pronounced there than in Montreal,
whose population, by this time numerically equal to
that of the capital, showed little but dissatisfaction.
At Montreal meetings were held for the redress of
grievances; Walker, smarting with the memory of
his recent injuries, being foremost among the fire
brands, which included one Livingstone, of the
famous New York family, who had settled in the
neighbourhood as a merchant. Several of these
malcontents came to Quebec, greatly to Carleton's
disgust, and successfully stimulated the less active
discontent of their co-religionists in that city.
Letters of sympathy poured in from the colonies,
brought in many cases by the hand of political
agents who added their insidious eloquence to that
of the local orators. Town meetings were held after
the New England fashion, while missions for foment
ing discontent among the habitants were privately
organized and conducted with much assiduity under
the cloak of rural trade. Two clauses of the Quebec
Act, well meant as they were, unfortunately lent
themselves somewhat readily to misrepresentation;
namely, the legalizing of the tithe or dime which
had continued by custom rather than law since the
conquest, and the retention of the old French land
laws which left to the seigniors such modified con
trol of their estates as they had hitherto enjoyed.
The first could without serious mendacity be
pressed home upon the habitants as a grievance. As
79

LORD DORCHESTER
to the other matter it was represented that the
seigniors had now acquired more than their ancient
rights and would revive the corvees and other
obsolete privileges with more than their former
vigour. The agitators multiplied the salaries of the
new officials for which the country was to be taxed
by ten and sometimes twenty-fold, and went in and
out of the thatched and whitewashed houses of the
peasantry under the pretense of trade, assuring the
people that they would all be miserable slaves liable
at any moment to be arrested under lettres de cachet,
and that their only hope of salvation lay in allow
ing the American troops a peaceful entry into the
country. The noblesse on account of their preserved
prestige, the notaries who for every reason were
attached to the French civil code, and most of the
few French bourgeoisie were practically secured to
the Crown. The clergy were even more attached to
it by the late bill, and the priests, one need hardly
say, were the most formidable factor whom the
emissaries of sedition among their flocks had to en
counter. Official Canada with Carleton at its head
regarded them as a bulwark of security. It was no
fault of theirs that they proved otherwise. The
bounds of habitant credulity had not yet been
fathomed by the new rulers.
By November the "ancient subjects" of Quebec
had worked themselves, or been worked up, to the
delivery of a petition against the new Act, and
throughout the winter the propaganda of sedition
80

THE FRUITS OF AGITATION
in the country districts was conducted with unabated
zeal and remarkable effect. Dark threats were some
times thrown out by these emissaries of freedom
against a rejection of their gospel, and as an alterna
tive to embracing its blessings wholesale an army of
fifty thousand men was to enter Canada and with
fire and sword lay waste the parishes from Gaspe"
to Montreal
The Act was to be put in force on May 1st, 1775.
In January Carleton received a despatch enclosing
instructions and commissions from Dartmouth, who
hoped that a meeting of council might be held
before the date of formal inauguration to settle the
minor offices, leaving the judicial appointments and
ecclesiastical affairs till the arrival of Hey who was
coming out, though for a short time only, as chief-
justice. Carleton writes to his government that he
has grave fears for the effect on the mind of the
peasantry caused by sedition-mongers who are
moving in such numbers and of set purpose among
them. The gentry, he says, are ready enough to
serve, but do not relish commanding a militia whose
spirit has so obviously changed. As to the peasantry
the government had no longer the same hold over
them as formerly, the feudal and official influence
being greatly weakened. To embody them suddenly
and march them off as a militia, even if they would
march, would give colour to the stories of impend
ing impression so sedulously circulated by British-
American intriguers. 81

LORD DORCHESTER
The Act, Carleton intimates, was after all only a
foundation for settlement ; the whole system of
government had to be cast in a new form.
On May 1st, the date of its inauguration, the
king's bust in Montreal was daubed black and
decorated with a necklace of potatoes, a cross and
placard bearing the inscription, " Voila le Pape du
Canada et le sot Anglais. ." Large sums were offered
for the discovery of the culprit. The French upper
class were especially indignant, one of them offering
a hundred pounds for the arrest of the offender.
Personal encounters arising from the incident took
place in the streets. It was a strange situation. A
clear majority of the British residents — of whom
most, it must be remembered, were of American
birth — were ripe for revolt, while every Frenchman
of the better class was eager to serve the king.
The mass of the peasantry was supine, bewildered,
suspicious, but so far as one may learn, determined
at the moment to stand aloof or to assist the rebels.
During the month of May, 1775, news arrived in
Canada that active hostilities had broken out, Ti-
conderoga and Crown Point, those ancient bases of
attack on Canada, having been seized by the rebels,
together with the armed craft on Lake Champlain.
Carleton in reporting it to the home government
had the melancholy consolation of referring to
letters written by himself to Gage sometime before,
in which he had urged the importance of securing
these posts against all risk of surprise.
82

TICONDEROGA AND CROWN POINT
It was that rude but vigorous Vermonter, Ethan
Allen, one need hardly remind the reader, who
had accomplished this eminently serviceable but
in no way perilous feat. Ticonderoga was garri
soned by an officer and about forty men who were
scarcely alive to the serious state of affairs be
yond the woods and waters to the southward. It
was on the night of May 10th, that Allen with
two hundred and fifty men behind him demanded
admission to the fort, stating that he had despatches
for the commandant. The guard, all unsuspicious,
and moreover acquainted with Allen, whose men
were invisible, opened the gates, whereat the Ver-
monters rushed in and secured the soldiers in
their beds. After this Crown Point, a few miles
away and occupied by a sergeant with half a dozen
men, was summoned and had no choice but to sur
render. A large supply of cannon and ammunition
was here obtained, and the forts were occupied
by provincials. The only armed vessel on the lake
was next seized and Benedict Arnold, making his
first appearance at this early stage of the war
with a colonel's commission, sailed the vessel up
Lake Champlain with an accompanying flotilla of
bateaux to Fort St. Johns on the Richelieu River,
twenty miles above its outlet. The object of this
visit was the capture of an armed sloop, which
Arnold brought away, together with a dozen un
suspecting soldiers who occupied the fort.
Carleton was at Quebec when the news of these
83

LORD DORCHESTER
doings arrived at Montreal by the agency of Moses
Hazen, who had been a distinguished partisan officer
in the French wars and was now farming near St.
Johns. The city was stirred to a high pitch of
excitement. Colonel Templer of the 26th Regi
ment, to which the captured detachments of the
lake forts belonged, was in command, and at once
despatched Major Preston with one hundred and
forty men of the same corps to St. Johns which
was found deserted. Allen himself had occupied it
in the interval, departing only on the approach of
the British. But for the warning of a disaffected
Montreal merchant, one Bindon, Allen and his men
would probably have been cut off. By this same
person Allen sent a request for five hundred pounds
worth of provisions, ammunition and liquor to those
"friendly to the cause" in the city. Bindon, more
over, would have led Preston's detachment into an
ambush but for an accident, for which friendly in
tention the enraged soldiers in Montreal seized and
would have hanged the unfortunate man had it not
been for the interference of their officers.
Templer now called a general meeting, at which
it was decided that volunteers should be raised in
companies of thirty, six prominent Canadians un
dertaking their formation. Fifty French-Canadian
youths of family enrolled themselves at once, and
marched at Preston's request to St. Johns, which
they proceeded to occupy. Carleton, when he re
ceived the news which affirmed that there were five
84

HIS REPORT ON THE SITUATION
hundred provincials on Lake Champlain, and one
thousand five hundred on the way there, despatched
every soldier from Quebec save a few recruits, send
ing them mainly to the chief point of danger and
attack, St. Johns, a poor ill-defended fort, but in a
sense the key of Canada. He himself then hurried
to Montreal, and on June 7th did his official duty,
and at the same time gave vent to his personal
feelings in a letter to Dartmouth. After alluding to
the events above narrated, he proceeded to say that
although the noblesse were full of zeal, neither the
peasantry nor Indians would come forward. The
consternation was universal; the province was un
prepared for attack or defence ; and there were not
six hundred rank and file along the whole course of
the river, nor a single armed ship. The minds of the
people were poisoned with lies, and, but for the few
regular troops, three hundred rebels might have
seized all the provisions and arms in the province
and kept post at St Johns. Within the last few
days, however, the Canadians and Indians had shown
signs of returning to their senses. The gentry and
clergy had been very useful, but both had lost much
of their influence. He proposed to call out the
militia, but doubted if he could succeed in view of
the seditious conduct of the British -American people
in the province, for the Habeas Corpus Act and the
English criminal laws were being used as arms
against the State. He expresses in this letter a
natural longing at this moment for the powers
85

LORD DORCHESTER
possessed in Canada by the old governors, and finally
encloses intercepted letters from Allen and Arnold
to Walker and Morrison in Montreal and to the
Indians at Caughnawaga.
Martial law was now .proclaimed and the militia
called out, a severe test on the allegiance of the
reluctant habitant with the memory of the old
French levies still tolerably fresh within him. But it
was Carleton's only hope, though a slender one
enough it may well have seemed, for the peasantry
of the district had not responded to the less regular
but urgent call of their seigniors and priests, and
had sometimes refused with insolence. The proclam
ation of martial law was fiercely opposed by the
British-Canadian Whigs, if I may so style them,
with the argument that the Americans intended to
let Canada severely alone so long as she remained
neutral, but that every attempt to raise the militia
would be taken as a threat to invade the northern
provinces. This would have been plausible enough
but for the fact that the Americans had secured, and
were well aware of it, the inefficiency of the Cana
dian rank and file even as a defensive force and
never took them into account at all as potential in
vaders. Furthermore the decision to invade Canada,
arrived at in the summer of 1775, was with a view to
prevent the colony from becoming the base of attack
for a fresh British army, and the capture of Quebec,
coupled with wholesale promises to the Canadian
peasantry in their present condition, would have
86

THE CALL TO ARMS
gone far towards achieving this result. Carleton at
any rate had not the slightest doubt of their in
tentions and in his desperate straits had no time
for the sophistries of village lawyers or partisan
pamphleteers. Apart from all other considerations a peremptory
call to arms could not have been other than distaste
ful to a rural people who had experienced more
than enough of fighting under their own monarch,
when native resentment and race hatred had been
a powerful stimulant. As a further deterrent the
once hated Bastonnais were stumping through the
parishes and protesting that the measure of ease and
freedom the habitant now enjoyed was slavery com
pared to the Utopia they were longing to create on
the banks of the St. Lawrence. How could the simple
Canadian peasant know that the only Utopia compre
hended by the Bastonnais was one which meant the
probable destruction of all the traditions, prejudices
and customs that rightly or wrongly he held dear ?
It was in vain that the priests thundered from the
pulpit, that the seigniors waved their swords and
that Bishop Briand invoked their defence of their
king and religion through the agency of every
parish pulpit. A few meagre companies it is true
were scraped together in the rural districts, but even
these, for the most part, melted away through indi
vidual or wholesale desertion. As a class the habi
tants turned a persistently deaf ear to priests, to
seigniors, and to officials. After all, it was a good
87

LORD DORCHESTER
deal to ask of a peaceful farmer that he should leave
his plough, his family and his home, and offer his
breast to bullet and bayonet in a dispute he did not
understand and the issue of which he might well
believe would not materially affect him. Both sides
were foreigners and heretics and it is not difficult to
understand the sullen determination of the mass of
Canadian peasantry to leave these mad Britons to
fight out their incomprehensible quarrel alone.
Carleton was under no delusions, as his frequent
letters to Dartmouth at this period bear ample testi
mony. He had scarcely any troops and very little
money and only hoped the habitants would prove
nothing worse than neutral. The British in Mont
real, as a body, refused point blank to serve. Hey,
however, who had accompanied Carleton thither,
harangued them in such scathing fashion that many
were shamed into the king's service while a few were
always staunch. Guy Johnson too, nephew of the
redoubtable Sir William, arrived from the Mohawk
country about this time with three hundred of the
Six Nation Indians. The Caughnawagas in similar
strength had also been attached, and a grand council
was held at which their services were accepted on
the condition that they were not to fire till first fired
upon. The chief value of the Indians was for scout
ing purposes, and upon this service they were soon
despatched with orders to watch the Americans at
Ticonderoga. In mid-July having done all that was humanly
88

A PERILOUS POSITION
possible in Montreal and leaving Colonel Prescott in
command, Carleton returned to Quebec. The Act
had come into legal force on the first of May, but
practically nothing had been yet done to get it into
working order.
The notary Badeaux, who has written an ac
count of the invasion, tells us that at Three Rivers
the governor was entertained by Tonnancour, a
wealthy Canadian trader, money-lender, landowner
and militia colonel. Perceiving an armed Canadian
promenading outside the window, Carleton inquired
the cause and was told it was a guard of honour,
whereupon he at once went out to the man and
gave him a guinea as the first armed Canadian he
had seen in the district. Tonnancour's son, it may be
noted, raised a company in the locality and was
very active in the British service. The same diarist
tells us that most of the parishes in the Richelieu
country showed a marked sympathy with the rebels.
Some of them supplied a few men to the militia,
while from others not a single combatant could be
secured. The feelings of Carleton as he sailed down the St.
Lawrence to Quebec for the purpose of formally
inaugurating a policy of which he had formed such
high hopes may well claim our sympathy. The very
people in whose interests he had so strenuously
exerted himself had now turned upon him, in a
negative sense at least, and in some districts in
an active one, and had succumbed to the crafty
89

LORD DORCHESTER
intrigue of those who had treated them with tra
ditional contempt and to protect them against whom
he had laboured amid much opposition. That this
was mainly due to their unexampled credulity
made the situation if anything perhaps more gall
ing; for with such people the secret agitator is at a
marked advantage over the highly placed procon
sul, with whom truth and honour count for some
thing, and with Carleton they counted for much.
On his arrival at Quebec Carleton encloses to the
home government among other documents a fresh
American address of sympathy to the Canadians,
commencing with characteristic bombast: "The par
ent of the universe hath divided this earth among
the children of men ; " also a copy of a scrap of paper
thrust under the doors of the habitants throughout
the country,
" Honi soit qui mal y pense
A lui qui ne suivra le bon chemin.
" Boston. "
In truth a somewhat melancholy gathering must
have been this opening of the first legislative council
under the new Act on August 17th, 1775, with so
obvious a possibility of its being the last.
Twenty-two members, including Cramahe" as
lieutenant-governor, met their chief on this depress
ing occasion. Eight of them were French- Canadians,
for the oath of supremacy had been remitted in
favour of an oath to which Roman Catholics could
conscientiously subscribe. The oath of allegiance to
90

ALARMING NEWS
the king was followed by a clause renouncing all
"equivocable mental evasion or secret reservation."
Hey, as before mentioned, was chief-justice and
among the other councillors were Saint Luc de La
Corne, de Contrecceur, Hugh Finlay, Drummond,
Dr. Mabane, Pownall, Allsopp and John Fraser.
But a very few days, however, were permitted to the
peaceful labours of the council, for with the opening
of September imminent dangers from outside ban
ished all thought of internal legislation ; news arriv
ing that the rebels, this time in much greater force,
had crossed the border and were again on the Rich
elieu. Carleton at once hurried back to Montreal
leaving Quebec of necessity as bare of troops as
ever ; but Quebec for the moment was regarded as
secure from immediate danger. Instructions came
from London too, about this time, which must have
provoked the much harassed governor to a bitter
smile. His Majesty, he was informed, relied on the
zeal of his new Canadian subjects, and Carleton was
authorized to raise a force of six thousand men, either
to cooperate with Gage or to act independently,
whichever course should seem advisable. Arms and
money for half the number were already upon the
sea. Whether it was a consolation to Carleton to learn
that the court of Russia had evinced a practical sym
pathy for His Majesty's troubles in America, is prob
lematical; but it was better hearing that a corps of
twenty thousand infantry had been applied for, and
that it was hoped to despatch a considerable number
91

LORD DORCHESTER
of them to Canada in the spring, for Carleton held
that Canada offered the best vantage ground for
overawing the provinces, — an opinion which the
designs of congress amply confirmed.
The king and his government had all this time a
pathetic, if most natural, reliance on their much
indulged Canadian subjects. As they had not even
yet realized the temper or attitude of their own
people in North America the habitant may well
have remained an inscrutable item in their imperial
survey. Carleton had also secret intelligence eman
ating from Governor Tryon of New York that three
thousand troops from the middle and southern col
onies, to be joined by as many more from New
England, were to muster at Ticonderoga. He ac
cordingly sent an urgent application to Gage for a
couple of regiments. The despatch arrived a few
hours after Gage had sailed for England, but Sir
William Howe, now filling his place, promptly or
dered a battalion and two transports to Quebec.
Graves was then in command of the fleet and ap
pears to have been, in spirit at least, a survivor of
the ante-Chatham period when the chief object of
the two services was to thwart each other to the
utmost of their power, for he refused the ships,
under the plea that an October voyage to Quebec
was too difficult and dangerous. This was altogether
too much even for Howe, not himself distinguished
for prompt action in this lamentable struggle. But
he was powerless, and could only vent his indig-
92

A FORLORN PROSPECT
nation in a letter to Carleton and wish him well out
of his scrape.
Carleton, though he saw nothing before him but
ruin, had at least not lost the spirit which had early
marked him out as one of " Pitt's young men." He
had now some seven hundred troops of all ranks at
Fort St. Johns under Preston, including five hund
red of the 7th and 26th Regiments, one hundred and
twenty Canadian volunteers, mostly French gentle
men, and a few artillerymen. There were eighty
regulars too at Chambly under Major Stopford,
while besides the handful at Montreal there were
one hundred men of the Royal Emigrants, largely
recruited from the Highland soldiers who had settled
after the peace on the northern frontier of New
York and at Murray Bay on the lower St. Lawrence,
and became afterwards the 84th Regiment. They
were raised and commanded by McLean, an able and
zealous officer who did yeoman's service throughout
this whole campaign.

93

CHAPTER V
MONTGOMERY AND ARNOLD
IT is generally conceded that the hand of congress
had been somewhat forced by Ethan Allen and
Arnold in their prompt seizure, during the spring of
1775, of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. The inspir
ation at least had in this case been local rather than
federal, and the exploit, which was creditable in a
tactical rather than heroic sense, was at the time not
admitted as having been authorized. Strong profes
sions of reluctance to harass Canada were expressed
at headquarters for some weeks afterwards, and we
must remember that warlike acts during this whole
summer were regarded, officially at any rate, as only
a means to an advantageous reconciliation with the
mother country. As the summer advanced, how
ever, these views entirely changed for the excellent
strategical reason already referred to, and others of
common knowledge.
It was now regarded by Washington as of high
importance that Canada should be occupied, an
achievement which must have seemed at that time
an extremely simple one. Carleton they all knew
had to be reckoned with, and no one underrated
him. His past record was familiar in America and
his name spelled respect. But Carleton was no
95

LORD DORCHESTER
magician ; yet if he was not a Wolfe he was at
least a Montcalm ; for the rest the province lay
bare and open save for seven or eight hundred
regular troops, a few British Loyalists, and a hand
ful of Canadian gentry. Ample evidence had been
secured from innumerable and reliable sources that
the peasantry would remain neutral at the best,
and that they would furnish food and valuable
transport assistance to the Americans even if they
did not take up arms.
Congress, as Carleton had been rightly informed,
had now seriously undertaken the invasion of Can
ada, though even Carleton was unaware that at
the very moment he reached Montreal, Benedict
Arnold with eleven hundred picked men was start
ing for the mouth of the Kennebec with Quebec
itself as the objective point. It was enough for the
present to know that fifteen hundred provincials
were gathered on Lake Champlain awaiting rein
forcements. Of this force Schuyler had taken com
mand, the father-in-law of Alexander Hamilton and
a member of that famous Albany family whose
loyalty and liberal hospitality had been a useful
and picturesque feature in the old French wars.
Temporary business of a diplomatic nature with
the Indians, followed by an attack of illness, re
moved Schuyler from this scene of operations and
Richard Montgomery, of immortal but partly for
tuitous fame, succeeded to his command.
Montgomery was the son of a country gentleman
96

GENERAL MONTGOMERY
and M.P. in Donegal. He was educated at Trinity
College, Dublin, and at eighteen gazetted to the 17th
Foot. He fought at Louisbourg and in those sub
sequent operations under Amherst and Haviland
which completed the conquest of Canada. Later on
as a captain he served at Havana and elsewhere in
the West Indies. After the peace he sold his com
mission, through pique it is said at being passed
over, and repaired to New York, where he bought
a property at Kingsbridge and married a daughter
of Judge Robert Livingstone whose family was
perhaps the most conspicuous among the British
community of the Anglo-Dutch province. The
Livingstones were the leading partisans of congress,
as the de Lancys were of the Crown. One or two of
their name had settled near Montreal and were
active among the Canadian malcontents, and Mont
gomery no doubt fell under their influence. He had,
moreover, all those advantages of stature, good looks
and an engaging manner which, added to other
qualities, make for success. He was sent to the
provincial congress, and being known as a gallant
and experienced soldier was at once employed in that
capacity. He was now a brigadier, having succeeded Schuy
ler with whom he had gone as second in com
mand. Schuyler, during the brief period of his com
mand, had already demonstrated against Fort St.
Johns, received its fire, fought a skirmish in the
woods with Carleton's Indians and stationed a force
97

LORD DORCHESTER
at Ile-aux-Noix with a view to preventing some
armed vessels recently built by the British at St.
Johns from ascending to the lake. Montgomery
before leaving Crown Point had despatched Ethan
Allen with four score Indians to the Richelieu and
the St. Lawrence to cement the friendliness of the
habitants and feel the country. But on meeting with
a small body of provincials under Brown near Sorel,
and fired perhaps with the memory of his bloodless
capture of Ticonderoga, Allen proposed to the other
nothing less than the capture of Montreal. Brown
agreed, but seems to have thought better of it and
deserted his friend at the critical moment. When
the latter appeared with one hundred and fifty men
on the south shore of the river opposite Longueuil he
found much good- will among the natives. The party,
however, was soon discovered, the alarm was given,
and Carleton promptly called in all the ladders out
side the town, a precaution which was met in so
hostile a spirit as to show the temper of the local
peasantry. Allen then sent a messenger to Walker,
who was residing six leagues away, in the full hope
that he would raise his friends in force, but that
gentleman was too wise to stir.
On September 24th, 1775, Allen transported his
men across the river in canoes and occupied some
barns and houses at Long Point, a league from the
city, upon which Carleton sent Major Garden with
thirty men of the 26th Regiment and two hundred
and fifty militia to dislodge him. This operation
98

ETHAN ALLEN'S CAPTURE
took just half an hour. Allen and thirty-five of
his men were surrounded and captured and the
rest driven off, though it cost the life of Carden,
a gallant officer, and Mr. Patterson, the only killed
on the British side. Of the others five were killed
and five wounded. The prisoners were put in irons
and sent to Quebec on the schooner Gaspe, whence
they were shipped to England. Here they were
confined in the high perched castle of Pendennis
so familiar now-a-days to all visitors to Falmouth
in Cornwall. This foolish attempt of a handful
of riflemen to take even a poorly defended city
of eight thousand souls is somewhat characteristic
of the heady Vermonter. It is suggested by one
historian that, annoyed at being sent out of the
way when the siege of St. Johns was impend
ing, he took this alternative of seeking notoriety,
with the hope of assistance from the disaffected
inhabitants, and furthermore that Montgomery re
garded his somewhat raw and egotistical ardour
as unlikely to prove a wholly unmixed blessing in
a siege operation. Allen's mishap had some effect
on the Canadians and brought a few more militia
into the town. With the news of the fall of Fort
Chambly, however, which arrived soon afterwards,
they lost even this small measure of zeal, and
Carleton writes that his Indians were as easily
depressed as his handful of better disposed militia.
More than one seignior who had collected a small
company of men, and was marching to the front,
99

LORD DORCHESTER
was insulted and compelled by force to disband
them. Compromising letters to Walker fell, at this
moment, into Carleton's hands and he sent a file of
men to his house at L'Assomption with orders to
arrest him. Walker and his household, however,
opened fire on the soldiers from the windows,
wounding the officer in command, whereupon the
house was set on fire and the owner with his wife
dragged out of the windows and carried to Mont
real where the former was locked up. Montgomery
who seems to have been fond of delivering bombastic
compositions at his opponents now despatched one
to Carleton upbraiding him for putting Allen and
his followers in irons. For this stringent measure the
governor thus justified himself in his next despatch
to England : " We have neither prisons to hold nor
troops to guard them, so that they have been treated
with as much humanity as our own safety would
permit. I shall not answer Montgomery, not choos
ing to enter into communication with rebels."
During these events Montgomery himself had
not been idle at St. Johns, before which post he had
sat down on September 18th. The fort was some
twenty miles from the foot of Lake Champlain at
the head of the first rapids of the Richelieu, but had
no natural advantages of defence. Schuyler had in
the meantime contrived the defection of the Caugh-
nawaga Indians. So Preston, now shut up in the fort,
was without their badly needed assistance as letter-
100

THE FALL OF CHAMBLY
carriers and scouts. A persistent artillery duel con
tinued into October without results, and Preston had
by that time some reason for confidence, since like
all sieges in the Canadian woods remote from a base
of supplies, the near approach of winter was the
dread of the one side and the hope of the other. To
Preston of course it spelled the latter, so he put his
little garrison on half rations and awaited the com
ing of his frigid ally with something approaching
confidence. But now tidings of such a nature reached
him that hope died in his breast, for Chambly had
fallen. If St. Johns was the key of Canada, so
Chambly was the key of St. Johns and was consid
ered quite secure. It stood on the banks of the
Richelieu some fourteen miles below, and was a
strong stone fort with bastions. It was held by
Major Stopford, a son of Lord Courtown, with over
eighty men and was proof against anything but the
heaviest cannon. It was well provisioned too, and
well supplied with guns and ammunition, but Stop-
pord had tamely surrendered after a thirty-six hour
siege maintained by a small force and one, some say
two, fieldpieces. He had not even preserved suffi
cient wits to throw his stores and powder into the
river which almost lapped the walls. All these and
several guns and mortars were now transferred to
the camp of Montgomery, who stood greatly in need
of them, and Preston's position behind such poor
defences became untenable. There appear to have
been no extenuating circumstances attached to this
101

LORD DORCHESTER
more than "regrettable incident," which directly
caused the temporary fall of Canada and all the
misery thereby entailed. If ever an English officer
deserved to be shot one might well think it was
Stopford ; but he was a peer's son, and there is no
evidence that he was even censured. In days when
a high-born officer cashiered for cowardice in the
field could afterwards become the first minister of
the Crown, anything was possible.
Carleton was known to be making every effort to
raise the siege of St. Johns, but he had sent nearly
all his available men to his subordinates at the front,
and when news came to Preston that his efforts to
reach him had failed, the latter, after some haggling
over terms, was compelled to surrender from short
ness of food and ammunition. Montgomery's un
happy turn of manner in this affair broke out in the
articles of capitulation, which Preston was otherwise
prepared to accept, concluding as they did with
"regrets that so much bravery, etc., had not been
shewn in a better cause." As a king's officer Preston
insisted that this superfluous " improvement of the
occasion " should be expunged, vowing that he and
his men would rather die at their post than subscribe
to a document bearing such an offensive sentiment.
On November 2nd the garrison marched out with
the honours of war six hundred and eighty-eight
strong including eighty wounded, and were sent
prisoners to New Jersey, several of the Canadian
noblesse being among them.
102

REASONS FOR FAILURE
On learning the critical situation of St. Johns,
Carleton had made an attempt to cross the St.
Lawrence at Longueuil with a view to marching to
Sorel and thence up the Richelieu with one hundred
and fifty regulars and a mob of doubtful militia.
But the provincial troops were now swarming in
the country and the governor found the south shore
lined by a strong force of sharpshooters under Allen's
friend and colleague, Seth Warner. An attempt to
land such troops as his in the face of their deadly
fire proved hopeless, and Carleton now despaired of
Montreal, as well he may have. Writing to Dart
mouth on November 5th he gives some of the
reasons for his failure. The construction of a suffi
cient number of new vessels to dispute the passage
of Lake Champlain had failed for want of artificers.
The entrenched camps to be formed near Chambly
and St. Johns were rendered impossible by the cor
ruption and stupid baseness of the peasantry, and
thus St. Johns, which for two months was left to its
own strength, was forced to capitulate. The Indians
had left. The militia from the parishes had deserted
and the good subjects were frightened at the rebels
in arms without and the traitors within. Montreal
must be given up as soon as attacked. The common
people would not act and there were no means to
defend the place, while Arnold was marching on
Quebec which stood unprepared. As a matter of
fact Arnold had practically arrived there on the
very date of this letter. 103

LORD DORCHESTER
Carleton now only awaited a fair wind to attempt
the convoy of his small force from Montreal to
Quebec, the route by land being blocked on the
south shore by Montgomery, and on the north
shore above Quebec by Arnold's men. Of the
latter, while Carleton is spiking his guns and pre
paring to leave Montreal to its fate, something
must now be said.
Benedict Arnold, of sinister but famous name,
first appears in history with Ethan Allen's surprise
of the Champlain forts in the spring of 1775. He
was then thirty-four, a native of Norwich, Con
necticut, and of respectable family, though his
father, a merchant sailing his own ships, had before
his death fallen into poverty and bad habits. Arnold's
great-grandfather, however, had been lieutenant-
governor of Rhode Island, and the young Benedict
had received a fair education, and married into a
respectable family of New Haven, Connecticut,
where he now resided. Carleton alludes to him
casually as a "horse jockey," not quite a fair des
cription of a man who carried on a West India
business which happened to include the shipping of
horses, but the sociology of New England would
hardly be a strong point with a British aristocrat
and governor at Quebec. Arnold's business seems
to have included also occasional trips to Montreal
and Quebec, which proved doubtless of much sub
sequent service to him. He was not regarded as
over scrupulous, but he was popular and high-
104

BENEDICT ARNOLD'S ADVANCEMENT
spirited, a good horseman and a dead shot. He was
captain of one of the companies of "Governor's
Guards," the crack militia corps of Connecticut.
After the Lexington affair he assembled his com
pany, and, re-inforced by a number of Yale students,
broke into the New Haven powder magazine, and
marched to Cambridge fully armed and equipped.
Here he so impressed the Massachusetts committee
that they gave him the commission of colonel, and
accepted his suggestion of seizing Ticonderoga,
empowering him to raise men in their province.
While attempting this he found that Allen had not
only anticipated his scheme, but already had the
men for carrying it out, so Arnold had no choice
but to join him as a volunteer. These two heady
persons clashed considerably after the capture of the
forts, Arnold with his colonel's commission refusing
to take orders from the Vermonter. After the affair
of the forts, Arnold had proceeded to St Johns and
brought away an armed sloop.
The Massachusetts committee seem to have
viewed the strenuous methods of their nominee
with only a qualified approval, at which the latter
took offence, declined further service, and went
straight to Washington's quarters at Cambridge.
That sound judge of men quickly recognized
Arnold's value, and when the invasion of Canada
was projected appointed him commander of the
less important but more hazardous of the two ex
peditions designed for the service. The main at-
105

LORD DORCHESTER
tack by the natural and historic route as we have
seen was confided to Schuyler and Montgomery,
so Arnold was entrusted with the far more perilous
task of leading a force to Quebec through the
rugged north-eastern wilderness which is now
Maine, and thence down the valley of the Chau-
diere. Arnold may possibly have had a share in
suggesting it, but Washington already possessed
a copy of a survey made some years before by
Montresor, a British officer who had traversed the
same line. Eleven hundred of the eighteen thousand
men gathered before Boston were selected, and are
described as "the flower of the colonial youth."
Three companies were hardy Scotch-Irish riflemen
and Indian fighters from the mountain frontiers of
Pennsylvania and Virginia, among whom were the
celebrated partisan leaders, Morgan and Hendricks.
Among the rank and file were many bearing names
notable in New England annals, Bigelow, Thayer,
Hubbard, Colbourn, and Aaron Burr, the future
vice-president, but better known to history as the
slayer of Alexander Hamilton. A sixth of the force
is described as "Irish emigrants," which at that time
usually meant the Scottish Presbyterian colonists
from Ulster. On September 18th, 1775, Arnold and
his men sailed from Newburyport for the mouth of
the Kennebec, and up that river to Fort Western,
the present Augusta and the head of deep naviga
tion, where two hundred bateaux had been hastily
constructed. 106

ARNOLD'S MARCH
On the twenty-fifth they began their march of
three hundred miles through what was then, for
the most part, an uninhabited and shaggy wilder
ness, pushing or dragging the heavy bateaux laden
with supplies and ammunition, against swift, and
as they advanced, often shallow and rocky currents.
Half the distance, broadly speaking, was up the
Kennebec River, the other half along Lake Meg-
antic and down the Chaudiere. About midway
was the long relief of the "Dead River," over
hung by the mountain watershed which parted
the streams, and at the same time Canada, from
the New England provinces. One advantage of
this secluded route was the reasonable prospect it
offered of taking Quebec by surprise in its unde
fended state. The route had been used occasionally
by small war parties of Indians or Rangers, but the
"blaze" on the line of the portages, one of which
was twelve miles long, was in many cases no longer
distinguishable. This march of Arnold's has been traditionally
regarded as a great achievement of courage and
endurance. More than one historian on the British
side, however, has been inclined to make light of
it, but hardly I think with justice, while within
recent years an American author has devoted much
industry to illuminating the truth of the busi
ness by a number of the private journals and
letters of various members of the force; men for
the most part by no means unaccustomed to back-
107

LORD DORCHESTER
woods travel, peril and exposure. In face of such
evidence there can be little doubt that the suffering
and hardship endured by men who refused to flinch
under it and turn back, has justified the pane
gyrics posterity has bestowed on the exploit. If it
had been ultimately successful; had the force
actually surprised and seized Quebec as it nearly
did, this would have been beyond a doubt the great
episode of the Revolutionary War, with Arnold for
its hero.
They were just a month in traversing the wilder
ness between the last settlements on the Ken
nebec and the first clearings on the Chaudiere. An
unusually cold spell, and a freshet of almost un
paralleled violence, transformed an enterprise of
ordinary hardihood and bearable fatigue into one of
peril, semi-starvation and complete exhaustion. The
tangled swamps were flooded, the bateaux des
troyed, and the provisions, of which the wilderness
furnished none, washed away or spoiled. Before
crossing the divide, half the force at the decision of
their officers refused to proceed in the face of what
seemed to them certain starvation. Colonel Enos,
the chief officer responsible for this decision, was
afterwards court-martialed and honourably acquit
ted. The more stubborn half followed Arnold over
the barrier, even carrying several of the bateaux on
their galled shoulders over the wooded and rocky
ridges from whose northern slopes the fountain
waters of the Chaudiere, still in flood, carried them
108

IN SIGHT OF QUEBEC
down to the bosom of Lake Megantic. Food had
now completely given out. A dog was eaten
greedily ; leggings and moccasins were eagerly
chewed, and fifty or sixty men died in their tracks.
Arnold on a rickety raft with four men sped down
the unfamiliar waters at a headlong pace, regardless
of dangers escaped more than once by a hair's
breadth, till he reached the first fringe of Canadian
settlement. Here by good luck he found sympathy
and provisions, and what was more vital, assistance
in conveying them through the woods on the backs
of horses to his starving men. The rest of the
route presented by comparison few difficulties, and
Arnold who had behaved throughout with that
characteristic resolution no one has ever denied him,
eventually brought his men safely to the neighbour
hood of Point Levis on November 8th. Over fifty
had died on the road from various causes. Be
tween six and seven hundred remained, of whom
a sixth were prostrate. Their leader now went for
ward to Point Levis to reconnoitre the situation,
and found that every boat and canoe had been with
drawn to the north shore only a few hours pre
viously, for Cramahe" in command at Quebec had
received notice of the approach of the Americans
through a fortunately intercepted letter that Arnold
had entrusted to an Indian for delivery to Wash
ington. Arnold now held a council of war on the ex
pediency of making an attempt on Quebec as soon
109

LORD DORCHESTER
as practicable. Only one voice was raised against
it, so efforts were at once made to collect canoes
higher up the river and construct scaling ladders, in
both of which enterprises the habitants showed them
selves both willing and useful. The presence of the
invaders was now sufficiently apparent to the garri
son. The frigate Lizard and the war-sloop Hunter
lying in the basin opened fire on them whenever
they showed themselves, and sent forward a boat to
reconnoitre, from which the Americans captured a
midshipman who stoutly refused to give them any
information, and seems on that account to have won
their respect. Arnold wrote on November 8th to
Montgomery congratulating him on the St. Johns
affair and at the same time informing him that forty
Indians had joined his own force, that the Cana
dians were friendly and that he would attack Quebec
if there was the slightest prospect of success. In any
case he would meet Montgomery in his advance
through Canada, and Quebec short of provisions (so
Arnold thought) and ill-defended (which was true)
must inevitably fall.
After a few days devoted to the recuperation of
his men, to the collection of canoes and the con
struction of ladders, Arnold crossed the river in the
small hours of November 13th with most of his
force, and, undiscovered by the British, landed at
Wolfe's Cove. During the day they demonstrated
in front of the city walls, giving three loud hurrahs,
so one of the garrison tells us, and were answered
110

DISSENSION WITHIN QUEBEC
with defiant cheers and a salute of cannon balls. Pro
ceeding across the ridge they took up their quarters
about the General Hospital and in a country house
of Major Caldwell's near the St. Charles River.
Arnold now sent a summons to surrender to Cra
mahe' presenting the usual mixture of cant, bombast,
threats, and bad taste so characteristic of the effu
sions of this generation of American commanders.
Cramahe' would not even receive it. Arnold says he
fired on his white flag, but Cramahe' declared that
this was a fable for use in the American press. After
a day or two of inactivity, relieved by trifling inci
dents or demonstrations of mutual defiance, Arnold
and his officers concluded that the city was invul
nerable to their ill-equipped efforts and for better
security marched their troops to Pointe-aux-Trem-
bles, some twenty miles up the river, there to
await Montgomery.
Within the city there was justifiable anxiety.
"Montgomery's success" writes an inhabitant "had
induced many to show their sentiments and indeed
to act as though no opposition might be shown the
rebel forces. The Republican method of calling
town meetings was adopted and in these noisy
assemblies the mask was thrown off, and there one
could perceive who were and who were not for the
government." Some of the malcontents we are told
had articles of capitulation already drafted for the
Americans, but even thus early a majority of the
militia both English and French behaved very well
111

LORD DORCHESTER
and mounted guard regularly. Besides these volun
teers there were sixty or seventy of the 7th, nearly
all in short of that famous regiment who were not
prisoners in the colonies. Allen McLean, a tower of
strength, arrived on November 13th from Sorel with
his hundred Royal Emigrants, while ninety recruits
for the same corps had just landed in Newfoundland
under Campbell and Malcolm Fraser. These with a
few artillerymen and artificers made up the total of
the regular force. A council of war had been held in
which it was arranged that the two warships now in
the harbour should remain for the winter, and the
crews with their guns, under Captain Henderson,
assist in the defence of the city. On the nineteenth,
"to the unspeakable joy of the garrison," who
feared with good reason he might have been cut
off, Carleton reached the city in safety to assume
the command and create an atmosphere of confi
dence and hope.
Carleton and his handful of combatants did not
leave Montreal till November 10th, when Montgom
ery was actually within a league or two of the city.
Many of the loyal inhabitants accompanied him to
the wharf, and the scene of his departure is described
as a melancholy and pathetic one. Prescott and the
effective garrison, numbering one hundred and
thirty men and officers, embarked with him in a
flotilla of eleven craft and the wind held fair till
they reached Sorel, where the provincials under
Easton had erected batteries to dispute his passage.
112

CARLETON'S ESCAPE TO QUEBEC
At this critical spot, as ill-luck would have it, the
wind veered to the east and the situation became a
precarious one. Easton demanded their surrender,
and a council being held at which the urgency of
Carleton's escape and presence at Quebec was
insisted upon, Captain Belette, commanding one of
the armed vessels, pledged himself to face the
enemy's boats long enough for the governor to get
away. Another skipper, Bouchette, who for his rapid
journeys had earned the sobriquet of La Tourtre,
or the " wild pigeon," guaranteed to get the gover
nor clear of the enemy and out of harm's way.
So on the night of the tenth Carleton put himself
in the hands of this loyal and enterprising French
man who ably fulfilled his promise. They started
with muffled oars and through the narrow passage
of Ile-du-Pas the crew paddled the boat with the
palms of their hands. Lake St. Peter they traversed
swiftly and safely and arrived in due course at
Three Rivers, where Carleton was informed, though
falsely, that there were six hundred congress troops
marching along the north shore towards Quebec,
and more truly that there was a strong force al
ready close to the city. On resuming his journey
he exchanged his faithful pilot's boat for the armed
sloop Fell under Captain Napier, and arrived, as
we have seen, to the great joy of the Quebeckers
on the nineteenth. In the meantime Prescott and
his men had been captured by the provincials,
and their ships proved of the utmost service in
113

LORD DORCHESTER
helping to convey Montgomery and his force down
the river to Quebec, the capture of which city
may well at this moment have seemed to the rebel
general and his friends almost an accomplished fact.
Carleton declared that everything possible under
the circumstances had been done by Cramahe' and
his officers, with one mental reservation. This last
he soon gave expression to by issuing orders that
every man who was not prepared to take his part in
the defence of the city must leave it within four
days, a measure which caused a wholesale exodus
of the timorous, the lukewarm and the disloyal,
and went far in depriving the enemy of their
channels of information.
After this purging, Quebec under the stimulating
influence of Carleton prepared to face the fourth
and last siege in her history. The militia before this
ordinance had included, we are assured by one
defender, numbers of " rank rebels," while Cramahe"
himself wrote Dartmouth that he feared these
traitors within more than the enemy without. The
British muster roll had shown about five hundred
men, and was reduced by Carleton's edict to about
three hundred and thirty. The French on the other
hand were increased by it from four hundred and
eighty to five hundred and thirty-three. Besides the
Lizard and Hunter a dozen or more merchant ships
had been detained, and their seamen and officers, to
gether with the blue jackets and a few mariners, in
troduced a further force of four hundred men into
114

MONTGOMERY'S PLANS
the garrison. The number of souls within the town
during the siege is estimated at five thousand.
Colonel Caldwell, a retired officer of the army
resident in Quebec, commanded the British militia,
while Colonel Voyer led the French. The latter may
be further credited with a company of students and
other less active volunteers, who guarded prisoners
and performed similar useful duties. The complete
roster of French combatants during the siege shows
seven hundred and ten names, that of the British
unfortunately is not extant.
There were provisions in the town for eight
months, but firewood, a vital need, was scarce, and
the country was already covered with a foot of
snow. There was nothing to fear as yet, however,
from the water-front, as it was now full of floating ice,
Carleton well knew that so long as he held Quebec
Canada was not lost, so also did Montgomery. "I
need not tell you," he wrote to Robert Livingstone,
his father-in-law, then attending congress, "that
till Quebec is taken Canada is unconquered. There
are three alternatives, siege, investment or storm.
The first is impossible from the difficulty of mak-
- ing trenches in a Canadian winter and the im
possibility of living in them if we could." As to
mining he was informed that the soil did not admit
of it, and lastly his artillery would be useless for
breaking such walls. As for investment he had not
enough men to prevent a garrison in a familiar
country from getting food and firewood and he
115

LORD DORCHESTER
complains that a lack of specie sadly limits the
number of Canadians willing to enlist, for congress
paper had already begun to stink in their nostrils.
There were, however, fewer objections to storming.
If his force was small Carleton's was not great, the
length of his enemy's works which in other respects
favoured him, would prove to his disadvantage and
assist Montgomery who could select his point in
secret, while the constant strain of expectation on
so mixed a garrison would breed weakness and dis
content among them.
Thus Montgomery summed up his chances in a
frame of mind already much less sanguine than that
in which he left Montreal. From the first, therefore,
he practically decided on the bold venture leading
which in person he so bravely fell. Openly at
least Montgomery was sanguine enough, and his
boast that he would eat his Christmas dinner in
Quebec or hell is a familiar tradition, if not scientific
history. One may suspect that the alternative was
supplied by his enemies.
We are not concerned here with Montgomery's
brief occupation of Montreal nor yet with his jour
ney down the St. Lawrence, both of which were
uneventful. The greater part of his army had been
left under Wooster at Montreal and in various ports
to the south of the river, and it does not seem that
when he joined Arnold at Pointe-aux-Trembles
their united forces amounted to much more than a
thousand men, exclusive of some Canadian militia,
116

THE DEFENCES OF THE CITY
though British accounts both modern and contempo
rary have always rated it as larger. His own troops
were nothing like so good as Arnold's men whose
physique and discipline he regarded with admiration
and surprise. Nor were the defences of the city
"ruinous" as Arnold had somewhat prematurely
described them, but were in a good state thanks to
Cramahe"s forethought and to an efficient engineer,
namely James Thompson who was alive half a cen
tury later to tell stories of that famous winter, and
has moreover left a journal of it which will shortly be
published. The stone walls and bastions and deep
trenches which formed the normal defences of the
city on the landward side were now well furnished
with guns. The interval between the rocky breast of
Cape Diamond and the St. Lawrence was heavily
stockaded to protect the passage into the Lower
Town at this narrow gap, while similar barricades
were erected at the further opening on the banks of
the St. Charles.
With regard to the Lower Town it should be
generally noted that m those days the tide rose and
fell over a considerable area where a»e now wharves
and streets. The familiar spot at the south-west,
however, where Montgomery fell has not materially
altered, but the point of the other and most formid
able attack by Arnold's division, the Sault-au-Mate-
lot, has been greatly changed by artificial reclama
tion from the waters of the river. In those days the
narrow artery from St. Roch to the Lower Town
117

LORD DORCHESTER
by the waterside was only a footway, and had even
to cross the projecting spur of rock which gives its
name to the spot. Here the narrow neck was
guarded by a strong barrier defended by cannon,
and at the further end of the street which began
here and led to Mountain Street, the only ap
proach to the Upper Town, was a second barrier
similarly defended. This stood at the present junc
tion of St. James and Sous-le-Cap Streets where,
as at Pres de Ville, a tablet has recently been
erected in commemoration of the defenders. This
barrier and Montgomery's point of attack at the
extreme western end of Champlain Street were
the only spots where the assailants could enter the
city save by scaling the walls. How the desperate
attempt was made and frustrated will be related
presently. Montgomery who had taken up his quarters at
Holland House, some two miles from the city, pre
faced more active measures by two characteristic
missives, one to Carleton and another to the inhabi
tants. In the first he accused his opponent of ill-
treating himself and of cruelty to his prisoners, but
his own humanity, he said, moved him to give Carle
ton the opportunity of saving himself and others
from the destruction which hung over them. He in
formed him that he was well acquainted with his
situation, "a great extent of works in their nature
incapable of defence manned by a motley crew of
sailors, the greatest part our friends, or of citizens
118

A CHARACTERISTIC LETTER
who wish to see us within their walls, and a few
of the worst troops who ever styled themselves
soldiers," and descanted further on the impossibility
of relief, the want of necessities in the event of a
simple blockade, and the absurdity of resistance. He
was himself, he declared, at the head of troops ac
customed to success, confident in the righteousness
of their cause and so incensed at Carleton's inhu
manity that he could with difficulty restrain them.
More follows in a style which suggests the Buffalo
militia of thirty years later, and when read by the
side of Montgomery's letter to his father-in-law
presents a quite remarkable specimen not only of
unadulterated bluff, but of futile bad taste as ad
dressed to a distinguished and able servant of the
Crown. He winds up by warning Carleton against
destroying stores, public or private : " If you do,"
concludes this inflated document, "there will be
no mercy shown."
Montgomery, rightly assuming from former ex
periences that no letter from him would be received
in the ordinary way, sent this one by an old woman,
and Carleton appears to have seen it, doubtless to
his great entertainment. Several copies of a further
address to the inhabitants were shot over the walls
by arrows, and their contents were not calculated to
conciliate the eight hundred volunteers in arms re
presenting the male portion of the civil inhabitants,
whom he styles "a wretched garrison defending
wretched works." He draws a lurid picture of "a
119

LORD DORCHESTER
city in flames, carnage, confusion, plunder, all
caused by a general courting ruin to avoid his
shame." This one-sided correspondence took place
on December 6th and 7th, the days following his
arrival. The city was now cut off from the outer
world. Many of Carleton's Canadian militia had
been caught outside the walls at St. Roch, and had
been, willingly or unwillingly, disarmed by Jere
miah Duggan, a hairdresser from Quebec, who with
a following of French-Canadians was an active and
useful partisan of Montgomery's. The latter's artil
lery in the meantime had been hauled up from the
river to the Plains of Abraham and a battery of
five twelve-pounders was opened half a mile from
the St. John's Gate, to be quickly demolished, how
ever, by the superior guns of the city. Another
battery of mortars, more securely placed in St.
Roch, behind protecting buildings, though only
two hundred yards from the walls, threw shells into
the city ; but they were small and did little damage.
"Even the women," says a diarist, "came to laugh
at them."
The situation of the besiegers was not an enviable
one, for winter had now set in with rigour. Though
the provincials were largely clad in British uniforms
captured at St. Johns and Chambly they had no
winter clothing, and what was still more serious
smallpox had broken out among the habitants and
soon began to exact its toll of victims in the Amer
ican camp. The garrison from the very first behaved
120

AN ATTACK EXPECTED
admirably and under the cheery firmness and the
confidence of Carleton kept their ordinary watches,
and responded to the not infrequent summons of
night alarms with spirit and alacrity. In these three
weeks of interval pending Montgomery's attack
there was little actual conflict. Carleton's gunners
made effective practice on all attempts of the be
siegers to get their light guns into advantageous
position, though the St. Roch mortars continued, it
is true, to throw showers of almost harmless shells
into the city. Arnold was driven from his headquar
ters in St. Roch Which were riddled with shot, and
Montgomery's horse was killed by a cannon ball
while the owner was seated in his cariole. The
Alleghany riflemen, however, from various shelters
outside the walls and from the cupola above the
intendant's palace carried on a deadly fire, picking
off almost every man who showed his head above
the ramparts.
On December 22nd, Colonel Caldwell's servant,
bearing the significant name of Wolf, arrived in the
city. He had been taken prisoner in trying to save
something from the wreck of his master's country
house which Arnold had burnt, and in company with
a deserter had succeeded in making his escape. They
reported that Montgomery intended to attempt the
city on the next night, and a thousand men were
kept under arms in consequence. They were right,
for another deserter was hauled over the walls the
next day who confirmed the report but gave Wolf's
121

LORD DORCHESTER
escape as the reason for postponement, and declared
that it had been arranged for that very night unless
his own flight to the enemy should again alter Mont
gomery's plans. As a matter of fact the latter had
called a council of war, of which the majority were
for storming the town as soon as a daily expected
supply of bayonets, axes and hand grenades had ar
rived. The general himself was for delay till a further
attempt to open a breach in the walls with artillery
had been made ; but the others were so eager for
immediate action that he finally gave way. The first
design was to assault the walls at four different
points between Cape Diamond and Palace Gate,
three of these movements, however, to be feints, the
one at Cape Diamond alone to be pressed home.
Aaron Burr, Montgomery's aide was very forward
in the affair and was actually assigned fifty picked
men to be drilled in the practice of scaling ladders.
At this moment, however, Antell and Price, dis
affected Montrealers, and the former Montgomery's
engineer, arrived and insisted that the Lower Town
was the right point for attack and would be less
dangerous. As a mihtary move it was the most rash,
for even the capture of the Lower would leave the
assailants at the mercy of the Upper Town. But the
Montrealers' minds ran strongly on politics and they
had persuaded themselves that the inhabitants would
then compel Carleton to surrender in order to avoid
the destruction of their property and warehouses.
But the stormy weather acted as a deterrent from
122

MONTGOMERY LOSES HOPE
day to day, while Montgomery's confidence, though
not his courage, was oozing away. Arnold had so
alienated some of his officers that they refused to
serve under him till urgently appealed to by their
general. Smallpox too was increasing and some of
the New England troops whose period of service
terminated on December 31st, vowed they would
not stay a day beyond that date. The intense cold
and frequent frostbites cooled the ardour of the ma
jority, only warmed from time to time by occasional
sallies from the city for wood, and in the case of the
riflemen by their congenial occupation of "sniping."
The twenty-third passed uneventfully, for the
reasons already given, and so did Christmas Day,
Montgomery eating his substitute for turkey neither
in Quebec nor in the other place, but in Holland
House and in desponding mood. He writes from
there of the factions against Arnold, blaming the
latter not at all but complaining that he himself has
no money, paper being valueless, and Price who had
been an invaluable friend to the cause having ex
hausted his own means of supply. He would resign
if it came to a mere blockade but would make a
desperate effort first. The spirit of the potential slaves
in Quebec and the agility of the contemptuous Carle
ton in escaping his clutches, galled him sorely. The
promise of becoming a successful and living hero
had lately seemed so fair, and now the presentiment
was dark upon him that he could only be one, un
successful and possibly dead. Carleton, during these
123

LORD DORCHESTER
anxious days, each one of which was expected to end
in a night assault, remained cool, vigilant and wary.
His bearing, says an eye-witness, carried no trace of
anxiety though he slept in his clothes at the Recol-
lets'. Every man of the garrison had his post and
when off duty lay by his arms. The once apathetic
French and the erst grumbling British militia now
vied with each other in alertness and eagerly waited
for the attack.
A change of weather, which deserters had spoken
of as the signal for action, came on the twenty-
eighth. But that night passed quietly, as did the
next after a day of " serene sunshine," and again to
the vigilant and shivering sentries on the walls
there came no sign out of the darkness below. On
the thirty-first the thermometer fell again, but the
feeling in the city was strong that the moment
was come. The intuition was correct, for about
four o'clock on the last morning of the year, Cap
tain Malcolm Fraser of the Royal Emigrants, who
was in command of the main guard, and indeed of
all the sentries on the walls, saw strange signal
fires and the flash as of lanterns or torches at vari
ous points from the St. Charles to the St. Lawrence,
while almost immediately two rockets shot up into
the sky from beyond Cape Diamond. The alarm
was now raised, and in a brief time all doubt was
ended by the opening of a sharp fire against the
walls to the south of the St. Louis Gate and to
wards Cape Diamond. Drums beat and bells rang
124

THE ATTACK
wildly out into the now stormy night and in less
than three minutes, says one account, every man
in the garrison was under arms at his post, even
old men of seventy going forward to oppose the
rebels. The plan of attack had in the meantime been
altered. Montgomery was moving quietly along the
narrow strand of the St. Lawrence from Wolfe's
Cove, heading for the barrier which defended the
western end of the Lower Town beneath Cape
Diamond. Arnold with a larger body was to pass
from St. Roch beneath the Palace Gate and attack
the similarly defended barrier already spoken of
at Sault-au-Matelot. The rockets were a signal to
Arnold that Montgomery was on the march. In the
event of success, which achieved in one quarter
would have materially favoured it in the other, the
two forces were to combine in an assault, if such
seemed feasible, on the Upper Town. The firing
heard at the walls in front had been that of Mont
gomery's Canadians led by Livingstone and some
provincials under Brown, and was intended as a
diversion to distract the garrison. It was pitch dark,
and a biting wind laden with fine snow blew from
the north-east directly in the face of Montgomery's
long extended column, and indeed it considerably
deadened both sounds and signals during that first
period of excitement.
In almost the last letter of his life Montgomery-
had alluded to Wolfe's achievement as a series of
125

LORD DORCHESTER
lucky hits. He himself may well have seemed
to be asking a good deal of the fickle goddess
on this somewhat desperate venture as he led his
men along the narrow strand between the gloomy
cliffs and the frozen river. Deep drifts of snow and
slabs of ice forced up by the tide on to the nar
row way seemed to have further impeded the toil
some progress of the column from Wolfe's Cove*
where it had descended to the shore. As Mont
gomery and his leading file arrived within fifty
yards of the barrier the men who were standing
behind it with lighted fuses say that they could just
perceive them pausing for a moment as if in un
certainty. Then one of their number sprang forward,
— Montgomery, no doubt, who according to an
American diarist cried out, "Come on, brave boys,
Quebec is ours !" A small group followed him. At
this moment the battery was fired, and a hail of
grapeshot swept every one of these dimly visible
assailants off their feet. Further discharges with a
sharp musket fire sent the main and invisible part
of the columns flying back into the darkness and
out of action, so far as that memorable night and
day were concerned. " The rest is silence," save that
the groans of dying men were heard by those within
the barrier. All that was to be seen outside it on
the following day by Carleton's search party was one
stark hand above the snow, which falling steadily
for many hours had covered a dozen frozen corpses,
The hand was Montgomery's.
126

Death of Montgomery, 1776

FvoinC. W.

1 1 ic painting by
Ji-llVrys

CHAPTER VI
LAST DAYS OF THE SIEGE
THE little battery of four guns at Pres de
Ville had been thus admirably and effec
tively handled by Captain Barnsfare with an artil
lery sergeant and fifteen sailors. In the blockhouse
above were thirty-five French-Canadians, whose
bullets followed the flying enemy into the darkness.
Strange to say, however, an extraordinary panic
succeeded this doughty deed, apparently caused by
an old woman, who cried out that the rebels had
forced the Sault-au-Matelot, and were upon them
in the rear. One might be permitted to wonder if
this was the same old woman who had taken
Montgomery's insulting missive to Carleton, and
had been drummed out of the town for her pains,
and thus sought revenge. If so she had it, for ac
cording to one account, men actually tumbled over
each other in their superfluous terror.
Arnold's column, too, though in far different
fashion, had by this time already failed in its
attempt. How this came about must now be told.
Whether Arnold saw the warning rockets seems
uncertain, but at any rate he started about four
o'clock on the morning of December 31st to pick
his way through St. Roch in the direction of
127

LORD DORCHESTER
the barricade of the Sault-au-Matelot, which was
his goal. He was followed by six hundred men,
headed by the redoubtable Morgan and his Virginia
mountaineers. Small hope of surprise could have
lingered among his calculations by the time he was
under the Palace Gate, for the bells of the city were
by then clanging wildly, and the sound of heavy
firing from the feigned attack upon the western
walls beat up, though in muffled fashion, against the
storm. As he reached the narrow strip between the
tide of the St. Charles, then nearly at flood, and the
steeps above, his column was fired upon by pickets
above the Palace Gate and the H6tel Dieu. His
men, encumbered with scaling ladders, were ex
posed to view by fire balls thrown from the build
ings above, while he himself was soon afterwards
hit in the leg and put hopelessly out of action.
Morgan now took the command, though not strictly
entitled to it, and attacking the first barrier with
some of his mountaineers and other ardent spirits,
eventually carried it, though the time and energy
expended in the proceeding is a matter of much
disagreement among even contemporary chroniclers.
However that may be, the Americans poured
over the first barrier in spite of the gun and the
guard, and found themselves in a street some two
hundred yards long lined by houses, at the further
end of which was a second barrier protected by
cannon. There would seem to have been some
pause here, and anxious thoughts were cast in the
128

THE REPULSE
direction of Montgomery, who in the event of suc
cess should then have been within the city. But of
him nothing had yet been heard. Carleton had now
learnt that the first barricade had been fired, (Ameri
cans say by a surprise of the guard who were
drinking and in ignorance of the situation), and
he despatched Captain Laws with seventy men by
Palace Gate to take Arnold in the rear. In the mean
time Caldwell, who seems to have moved rapidly
from point to point and grasped the situation,
leaving his own militia to their obviously easy task
on the western walls, led a mixed party that he had
collected down to the Lower Town and to the back
of the second barrier, where he joined Nairne and
Dambourges, who with Voyer and his French-
Canadians were there holding the enemy in check.
Around this inner barrier which overlooked
the Americans now swarming in Sault-au-Matelot
Street and protected the approach to the Upper
Town, a great deal of confused and severe fight
ing took place before the besiegers were finally
overcome. The latter were inevitably crowded in the
narrow street, and suffered much from the raking
of the battery at the end and the fire from some
houses which had been occupied by the defenders.
The barrier itself seems never to have been in
danger. One ladder was placed against it, but was
dragged over the walls by a French-Canadian
militiaman amid a hail of American bullets. Some
of the houses, however, were forced by the Ameri-
129

LORD DORCHESTER
cans, only to be recaptured at the point of the
bayonet by the British. The various accounts of
this hour or two of not continuous but often fierce
fighting give what each man heard and saw in the
blinding snow and darkness, illuminated only by
the flashing of guns and hand grenades. The con
fusion was added to by the British uniforms worn
by most of the Americans, for a paper inscribed,
"Liberty or death" pinned in their hats was a futile
distinction in such a mele'e. But the Americans,
being mostly in the open street, suffered out of all
proportion to their opponents. Morgan and many
others behaved with infinite gallantry, the former
killing Captain Anderson, the only officer who fell
on his side. The hopelessness of the effort, however,
at length became evident, and a retreat was at
tempted. In the meantime Laws, who had been sent out
with two guns by Carleton to take Arnold's men in
the rear, accompanied by McDougall and Fraser with
some of the Royal Emigrants, and by Captain Ham
ilton, of the Lizard, with blue jackets, became en
gaged in St. Roch with a belated company of
Arnold's under Dearborn, which had just crossed
from their quarters beyond the St. Charles. After
some desultory fighting among the houses, the pro
vincials were captured or routed, and, furthermore,
the rebel battery in St. Roch was taken and its
guns carried ofi. Laws and his friends, now heading
for the Sault-au-Malelot, took Morgan's already
130

THE LOSSES
shattered force in the rear, and completed their dis
comfiture. Many of the Americans escaped over
the ice of the St. Charles, a perilous venture for
strangers in the dark. The greater part, however,
laid down their arms. The number of unwounded
prisoners was about three hundred and ninety, of
wounded forty-four. The killed were returned at
thirty-two, but from the number of bodies found
afterwards in the snow and recovered in the spring
when it melted, and from the estimates of Ameri
cans present, the number must have been much
greater. McLean, who as second in command
should be something of an authority, states, in a
private letter, that they buried in all two hundred
and twenty. The British loss was given as one
officer and five privates killed, and a few wounded.
Possibly it was about double that, but in any case
quite trifling. Carleton in a letter to Howe says
that between six and seven hundred were killed,
wounded or captured. The prisoners were paraded
before Carleton in the Upper Town, and after a
good breakfast the officers were quartered in the
Seminary, and the men in the Re'collets'.
Carleton was now urged by some of his officers
to order a sortie on the presumably demoralized,
and certainly diminished, besiegers. But he was
too old and cool a soldier to take any risks with his
heterogeneous and small force, and with but little
chance of any solid advantage. His business was to
hold the city till the spring, not to indulge in futile,
131

LORD DORCHESTER
even if victorious, skirmishes on the Plains of Abra
ham or in the suburbs. He might yet want every
man he had, for there was nothing but the winter
to prevent reinforcements of the enemy from enter
ing Canada. It was not known yet that Montgomery
was dead. But on a scouting party's being sent
through the barrier at the Pres de Ville they col
lected after a considerable search thirteen bodies all
buried, as has been stated, in the newly fallen snow,
Montgomery's hand and forearm alone protruding
from it. One man only, a sergeant, still breathed
and uttered a few words, but quickly died. There
was no certainty about Montgomery's corpse till it
was brought into the town and identified by some
of the prisoners. Carleton, with the humanity that
never forsook him, sent out search parties to the
scene of Arnold's march and attack at the Sault-au-
Matelot, who brought in many wounded, including
some officers. He caused Montgomery to be quietly
buried in a hollow under the St. Louis bastion,
attending the funeral himself with some half dozen
others. Wooster, hitherto in command at Montreal, now
came up to replace Montgomery, for Arnold's
wound kept him out of the field till April, when in
a pet at some fancied slight from his commander he
got himself transferred to Montreal. But their two
enterprising commanders removed and their num
bers reduced to about eight hundred men including
Livingstone's rebel Canadians who were not very
132

AN ESTIMATE OF CARLETON
formidable and whose numbers seem vague and
fluctuating, the besiegers were no longer, for the
present, a cause of serious anxiety to Carleton.
He had ample provisions and could now obtain
firewood with less risk than before ; above all his
garrison were thoroughly pleased with themselves
and with him. Whatever complacency he may him
self have felt he relaxed nothing of his precautions,
and resolutely refused all proposals of his sub
ordinates to adventures in the open field. A smaller
man would have given way before their importu
nities. His inspiring demeanour is thus described :
" General Carleton wore still the same countenance;
his looks were watched and they gave courage to
many; there was no despondency in his features.
He will find a numerous band to follow him in
every danger. He is known, and that knowledge
gave courage and strength to the garrison."
We must not linger here over the minor doings
which mostly filled the four following months till
the arrival of ships and troops from England put a
prompt end to the siege. The day-to-day journals
continue the story in minute detail1 and would be
interesting enough to quote from if this volume
were a record of the campaign and not a life of one
of the chief actors in it.
It was creditable to the spirit of the besiegers
1 There are six different journals extant concerning this siege of
Quebec besides an orderly book, the work of several persons concerned
in the campaign. Though some are fuller than others thay all agree in
substance, and call for no elaboration or notice in these pages,

LORD DORCHESTER
that they held to their posts. The expected re
inforcements came in but slowly, the rigours of a
Canadian winter proving not only a deterrent to the
new provincial troops, but to the equally crude
machinery that was to supply them with the neces
saries of war and existence. The besiegers, however,
persevered. Batteries were opened to be quickly
dismounted by Carleton's guns, save one at Point
LeVis, which proved too remote or too feeble to do
much harm either to town or shipping. The prisoners
in the city made one or two fruitless attempts to
escape, though they confessed to receiving the
best treatment that circumstances afforded. Later
on they were removed to the ships. Ninety-four,
of British birth mostly, had voluntarily enlisted in
the garrison corps, but when a dozen or two had
deserted, Carleton confined the rest on the ships in
the harbour.
Rumours of all kinds were constantly brought
into the city by deserters, among others that large
forces were preparing for a descent on Canada in
the spring, a statement that the evacuation of Bos
ton by Howe made readily credible. But Carleton
had reason to hope that an army from England had
already sailed for the St. Lawrence, though he knew
nothing for certain, and a sole dependence on the
good intentions of a British ministry of that day
might well whiten the hair of a remotely placed
official. By early April, 1776, reinforcements had
brought the besieging force up to two thousand men
134

A COMMISSION FROM CONGRESS
including invalids, and with some heavier guns they
hoped to breach the walls. But the walls mocked
their batteries for the brief period before the de
fenders' fire put them out of action. The habi
tants, too, had become restive under the continuous
demands for provisions and labour in return for
worthless paper money and were changing their
attitude, while the Americans irritated by the cold,
privation and defeat, were no longer always able to
maintain a philanthropic and brotherly mien towards
the peasantry. No thought of another attempt to
storm the city was entertained by Wooster, and
indeed improved defences both in the way of tim
bers and batteries, together with a united and
confident garrison, put it out of the question. The
last diversion of all was on May 3rd after the ice
had broken, when a fireship was sent up the har
bour from the Point of Orleans and caused some
brief anxiety, but ultimately drifted out of harm's
way. Arnold, in the meantime, slighted as he thought
himself by Wooster, had repaired to Montreal cured
of his wound, just in time to meet a commission sent
from congress with full powers to look into the mili
tary situation of Canada and probe if possible the
depths of the habitant's mind. No less a person than
Dr. Franklin headed it, while Carrol of Carrolton,
and his brother, a Roman Catholic priest, afterwards
the first archbishop of the United States, for politic
reasons went with him. There was much sociability
135

LORD DORCHESTER
at Montreal during the visit, the irrepressible fire
brand Walker and his wife doing the honours, and
giving the visitors no doubt their interpretation
of the French-Canadian attitude and of British
tyranny. It may be interesting to note that when the
astute Franklin had done with the Walkers, which
was not till he had reached Albany on his way home,
he made a little entry in his journal which may be
read to-day, to the effect that in whatever place this
worthy couple might set up house he opined that it
would soon become too hot to hold them. The
parenthesis may be pardoned as justifying the strong
language used about this notorious couple in the
despatches of Carleton and Murray, and accounting
for the extraordinary resentment they had aroused
in the breasts of fight-hearted captains and sub
alterns, British and French.
Franklin's commission, however, at the end of
April reported the military case of Canada as hope
less, though occupied at the moment by four thou
sand American troops ; but these were unpaid, ill-
fed, and badly commanded. Wooster came in for
scathing criticism, in which we may detect a trace
of Arnold's influence. Wooster was recalled and
Thomas, of Bunker Hill notoriety, despatched to his
command. The accomplished Maryland priest had
not moved the apathy of the habitants nor touched
the loyalty of the clergy. The commission expressed
infinite sympathy with the treatment of the inhabi
tants by the congress troops, which seems unfair,
136

A SORTIE ORDERED
while the creditable perseverance and undoubted
courage of the besiegers of Quebec met with scant
recognition at the hands of these critical civilians.
The summing up, however, of their report was in
effect that the capture of Canada was hopeless, and
that it would be well for congress to confine itself
to protecting the lake route to the Hudson against
incursions from that inhospitable country.
But we must now return to Carleton whose
deliverance and moment of action had at last come.
Early in the morning of May 6th, 1776, every citizen
still in bed in Quebec rose to join the crowds that
were already thronging the ramparts. A sail was
in sight, and Carleton soon knew that Dartmouth —
by this time, however, superseded, — had not failed
him. The sail proved to be that of the British frigate
Surprise to be followed quickly by the Isis and
a war-sloop. They brought welcome reinforcements,
and the still better news that a fleet and armament
were upon the sea. For the moment there were in
fantry and marines enough for the occasion. These
were soon landed, and Carleton now felt justified
in indulging the long restrained ardour of his faith
ful garrison. "The drums beat to arms," says a joyous
diarist, "and it was ordered that all volunteers in
the English and French militia should join the
sailors and troops to march out and attack the
rebels. Every man almost in both corps was forward
to offer his service."
Carleton placed himself at the head of eight
137

LORD DORCHESTER
hundred men, and the column marched at twelve
o'clock, with McLean, whose conduct in the siege
had been above praise, second in command, and
Caldwell, who was sent to England a day or two
later with the joyful tidings, at the head of his
British militia. The little army extending itself
across the plain made a noble appearance. General
Thomas was now in command of the enemy vice
the disgraced Wooster, but he had made no pre
parations, and a general stampede at once ensued.
Nine hundred Pennsylvanians took ambush for a
brief period in the woods, but they soon joined their
flying countrymen. "They left cannon, muskets,
ammunition, and even clothes," to quote again
from the diary. " We found the roads strewed with
rifles and ammunition, while clothes, bread and pork
all lay in heaps in the highway with howitzers and
fieldpieces. So great was their panic that they left
behind them many papers of consequence to those
who wrote them, and to whom they were writ.
Look which way soever, one could see men flying
and carts driving away with all possible speed."
The small force of provincials who throughout
the spring had occupied Point LeVis and protected
the battery there, on seeing the plight of their
friends on the north shore of the river had nothing
for it but to make their escape as best they could
through the woods. A few days later Carleton, with
the humanity that always distinguished him, ordered
all his militia officers to institute a diligent search
138

CARLETON'S HUMANITY
of the surrounding country for such American
fugitives as might be in distress through hunger or
sickness. These were to be afforded all necessary
relief, and to be brought to the General Hospital
where proper care should be taken of them. This
was made known by proclamation together with
the promise that as soon as their health was re
stored they should have full liberty to return to
their respective provinces.
In the meantime the frigates had sailed up the
river to seize the enemy's craft; the General Hospi
tal and suburbs had been re-occupied, and by night
(May 6th, 1776) all was over. The Americans had
vanished, and peace brooded once more over the
faithful city.

139

CHAPTER VII
THE EVACUATION OF CANADA
THE only criticism to be made upon the
American retreat from Quebec is the ill-
regulated fashion and undignified despatch with
which it was executed, and the loss of material
thereby involved. The surviving troops of Arnold
and Montgomery had at least deserved well of
congress, which had made great and not unsuccess
ful efforts throughout the winter and spring to rein
force them, as the figures already quoted will have
shown. It was beyond doubt of great importance
to the revolutionary leaders that Canada should be
regarded in the colony as a virtually annexed
province for as long as possible, even if the authori
ties knew its retention was impossible. Three Rivers,
under the command of Livingstone, had been the
dep6t whence the constantly arriving men and
supplies had been forwarded to Quebec, while guns
had been cast at the well-known forges in its neigh
bourhood. The main body of fugitives passed quickly
through, leaving only a small force there for a brief
period, and hurried onward to Sorel where General
Thomas had decided to make his chief stand against
Carleton. In this very month of May, too, Arnold who had
141

LORD DORCHESTER
from one to two thousand men with him in Mont
real was threatened from the west by a small
British force under Captain Forster. This officer,
with a small detachment of forty men of the 8th
Regiment and a dozen volunteers from the remote
garrison of Detroit was stationed at Oswegatchie
(Ogdensburg), some fifty miles up the river. On
hearing of the raising, or prospective raising, of the
siege of Quebec before British reinforcements, he
judged that a demonstration before Montreal might
possibly attach sufficient Loyalists and repentant
malcontents to his side to enable him to secure
the city. So feeling his way thither with his own
httle company and two hundred Indians he found
Major Butterfield entrenched at the Cedars with
four hundred men and some guns barring his way.
With the further help of a local Canadian seignior,
de Senneville, and a score or two of followers,
Forster compelled the surrender of the post with
its garrison. A considerable number of Canadians
having joined him, he crossed the western mouth
of the Ottawa to the Island of Montreal and marched
towards the city.
Arnold, however, was on the alert with one thou
sand five hundred men at Lachine, and Forster,
whose venture was more spirited and useful than
vital to British interests, had no choice but to re-
cross the water to VaudreuiL He had scarcely
landed when Arnold arrived on the hither shore at
Ste. Anne, near which there stood and still stands in
142

ARNOLD AND FORSTER
ruin the old fortified chateau of Senneville or Bois-
briant From these posts he advanced in bateaux
over the league of water to VaudreuiL where
Forster with his cannon gave his boats such a warm
reception that he was forced to retire. The fort
night's campaign, including some skirmishes un
recorded here, resulted in Forsters giving up four
hundred and thirty prisoners for a like number to
be exchanged later by congress, a compact which
was scandalously broken on a plea of Indian out
rage which was proved to the hilt to be a web
of fiction. Forster then retired to Oswegatchie, and
Arnold burnt the chateau, which, erected about the
year 1700, still displays its ruins picturesquely set
at the point of a country-house garden which fringes
the shore of the Lake of Two Mountains. It is in
part roof high, flanked by the remains of its once
fortified courtyard, and overhung by forest trees,
and presents the most suggestive relic of remote
frontier warfare, so far as I know, in all Canada
or in the United States, while just above it on a
ridge stands a restored stone tower even older than
the chateau.
But we must return to Carleton, who in spite of
that calm demeanour which was at once the envy
and the solace of those who shared his dangers,
must have been happv enough in his past success
and present relief from so long and arduous a strain.
After completing all arrangements for the govern
ance of the city, and among other precautions having
143

LORD DORCHESTER
ordered that none of the disloyal who had left it at
the beginning of the siege should return without a
permit, he started up the river with the 29th and
47th Regiments, leaving the trusty McLean to re
ceive the still larger reinforcements already ascend
ing to Quebec. At the same time the garrison was
paraded, and the volunteers dismissed to their civic
duties with the thanks they so thoroughly deserved.
The immediate rendezvous of the troops was to be
at Three Rivers. The transports could not actually
reach that point on account of adverse winds, but
Carleton saw them to within a short march of it
and then turned back, leaving Fraser in command to
complete the occupation and await the rest of the
force. The Americans were at Sorel, with a reputed
four thousand to five thousand men on the spot or
within call. Carleton was back at Quebec in time to
receive Burgoyne with the main army on June
1st. In their apparently overwhelming strength
these gay soldiers little foreboded the catastrophe
that was to overtake them within less than eighteen
months. The harbour was now alive with transports, and
the Chateau St. Louis was gay with the resplendent
uniforms of British and German officers, for the
king's birthday, June 4th, which fell on an aus
picious day for Canada, was observed with fitting
ceremony. The 21st, 24th, 29th, 31st, 34th, 53rd,
and 63rd Regiments of the line were all here, to
gether with four batteries of artillery. Of Bruns-
144

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6

THOMPSON ATTACKS FRASER
wickers there were three infantry regiments, includ
ing one of grenadiers, three of dismounted dragoons
and a regiment of Hessians, all under the command
of Baron Riedesel. The latter, an admirable and
tried soldier, was soon to be joined by his coura
geous wife, who faced the later perils of Burgoyne's
campaign, and has left one of the most interesting
records of it. On June 5th, Carleton despatched
Riedesel to Three Rivers by way of the north
shore with a force of English and German troops,
a few Canadian volunteers and three hundred
Indians. Fraser by this time was waiting at Three
Rivers with some of his men in the town and some
in transports just below it. Sullivan who was in
chief command of the Americans at Sorel saw his
opportunity (though, indeed, success would have led
to little), and despatched General Thompson with
about two thousand men to attack Fraser, and if
possible to surprise him. The thirty-five miles he
traversed were mainly represented by the length of
Lake St. Peter, a broad and shallow expansion of
the St. Lawrence. Thompson crossed it near the
upper end, and marched down its northern shore.
He was happily espied by a Canadian militia
captain, and according to another account he was
conducted circuitously by an unfriendly Canadian
guide. In any case Fraser was warned in time, and threw
out the 26th which repulsed Thompson's attack,
while other troops came up to complete his discom-
145

LORD DORCHESTER
fiture. Thompson lost a good many men in killed
and wounded, and in his escape might have been
most severely handled if not actually cut off, but
Carleton, in spite of his deliberate refusal to re
cognize the status of American officers, was strongly
imbued with the humane and conciliatory view of
the struggle, and seems on this account to have been
anxious to drive the rebels out of Canada with as
little bloodshed and suffering to individuals as
possible. That he maintained this attitude and re
tained at the same time the confidence of his officers,
is a significant tribute to his character. The next
morning, leaving a garrison at Three Rivers, the
troops sailed for Sorel, which was found deserted.
Fraser in the meantime had been sent with a force
up the north shore of the St. Lawrence with a view
to crossing it higher up, while Burgoyne with the
troops at Sorel was despatched up the Richelieu to
recover Chambly and St. Johns, as soon as Fraser
should have joined him. Burgoyne marched on June
15th, and found Chambly, the scene of Stopford's
disgraceful surrender seven months previously,
already abandoned by the enemy. Pushing on
twelve miles further to St. Johns, where Preston
had honourably failed, he found this fort also
deserted. The Americans had, in fact, travelled at
a headlong pace and in great disorder. They were
only a few hours ahead of Burgoyne, but when his
scouts reached the head of Lake Champlain there
was nothing whatever to be seen of them, and the
146

THE EVACUATION
evacuation of Canada was complete. General Phil
lips and Riedesel in the meantime had sailed with
a third division up the St. Lawrence towards
Montreal till the wind failed them, when they
marched to Laprairie and thence across to the
Richelieu, joining Burgoyne at St. Johns. Arnold
and the men left with him at Montreal had a narrow
escape, which is described at some length in the
memoirs of his aide-de-camp, Wilkinson, the future
somewhat well-known general. The near approach
of the British seems to have come as a surprise to
this usually alert individual, but he showed his
best qualities in getting his troops across the river
with much despatch and, by a forced march, reaching
St. Johns before Sullivan, and his worst qualities,
according to Wilkinson, by carrying off some mili
tary supplies and selling them for his own benefit
in New York.
So far Carleton's operations had been carried out
with complete success and unlooked for rapidity 5
but now they came to a sudden stop. Canada was
saved, and as it proved, for all time. But the
aggressive movement into the colonies and the
occupation of Crown Point and Ticonderoga, for
which immediate object the army had been sent
from England, presented difficulties insuperable for
the moment. The only route for a large force south
ward to the Hudson and into the colonies was
down the waters of Lake Champlain. But every
boat and craft had been either carried off or de-
147

LORD DORCHESTER
stroyed by the invaders who were now entrenched
at Crown Point and Ticonderoga with a large flotilla
of boats, armed and otherwise. Nor was there at
that time any road through the dense forests that
flourished everywhere to the very verge of the
water, bristling on the rocky bluffs and mantling
still more thickly on the swampy, low grounds.
Carleton's object then was to occupy the above-
named forts, not only for the further security of
Canada but as a base of such operations against the
adjoining colonies as might afterwards appear ad
visable. No distinct plan at this time seems to have
been evolved. The feeling was strong in England
that the mere display of so great a force would pro
bably end the war. Indeed the persistent refusal of
the British government and people at large to
realize the true nature of the American revolt is one
of the strangest features of that epoch. Unfortu
nately for Carleton, as we shall see, and still more
so for the success of the king's northern army,
the most inefficient minister that has perhaps ever
served the nation in this particular capacity, had
during the summer succeeded Dartmouth.
Germain, who as Lord George Sackville com
manding the British cavalry at Minden had gained
unenviable fame for his persistent refusal to charge
at the critical moment, was now the fountain of
honour and authority at a still more critical one in
the nation's history. Unlike so many officers of his
day he had never seen America ; nor did he show
148

AN INEFFICIENT MINISTER
any measure of anxiety to make up for this dis
advantage by acquainting himself with the peculiar
difficulties that country offered to mihtary move
ments. He was haughty, narrow-minded, mean
and revengeful to a degree, and " as bellicose in
council" said a noted wag, "as pacific in the
field." But he had been a good friend to Wolfe
as colonel of his regiment, though rarely favour
ing it, as Wolfe's private letters show, with his
august presence. He had an old grudge against
Carleton for rejecting one of his favourites and no
one believed his protestations to the contrary. Fin
ally, he was self-willed in proportion to his ignorance
and to his utter unfitness to direct a campaign upon
American soil, but unfortunately he had both the
confidence and the ear of the king.
Matters, however, went smoothly at first as there
was no great occasion for friction. Carleton had
urged the inclusion among the supplies sent with
the troops to Quebec of a large number of boats in
sections for immediate use on Lake Champlain. A
few only of these were forwarded, followed later by
others. So while the tedious business of building a
fleet on Lake Champlain was in progress, for which
purpose in the confused state of the country skilled
men were extremely scarce, Carleton set to work
to reduce into something approaching order the
chaos into which Canada had fallen.
It is not worth while to dwell at length on the
reaction which had taken place in the political sym-
149

LORD DORCHESTER
pathies, if so definite a word may be used, of the
Canadian peasantry. That they were heartily tired
of the American occupation is no particular dis
credit to the provincial troops themselves, who,
compelled by necessity and irritated by failure, had
not often been more severe with them than the
urgency of the case required. But this was quite
enough for the simple habitant who had so readily
believed the wondrous stories by which his neut
rality or assistance had been invoked and secured.
The exhaustion of the invader's silver money had
been the first shock in the process of disillusionment,
while the soon-proven worthlessness of paper money,
to say nothing of the occasional exercise of the hated
corvees, finished the business. Districts had differed
much in the measure of their admiration for their
deliverers, but as scarcely any gave willing, and very
few even grudging, assistance to Carleton, the other
side of the question does not call for elaboration.
Incidentally it may be noted that the parishes south
of the river in the Richelieu county, the richest
in Lower Canada, were the most active in the
American interest. The priests, some of whom had
been badly treated by the invaders, soon had their
flocks in hand again though the seigniors never
recovered their former influence, as was perhaps
natural enough.
Carleton moved about the country with much
energy and despatch, now at Chambly and St. Johns,
where the improvement of the defences as well as
150

THE BEGINNING OF FRICTION
shipbuilding was proceeding apace, now at Montreal
receiving deputations of Indians and enduring those
tedious and fantastic ceremonies indispensable to
any appeal for their assistance. The Iroquois, those
ancient allies, once more swore devotion to their
Hanoverian father and his deputy ; but the wes
tern Indians, who also presented themselves and
were equally forward, were accepted by Carleton
only as benevolent neutrals. He also granted to Sir
John Johnson, loyal son of a famous father, the
commission to raise a battalion of Loyalists in his
countiy which was conspicuous afterwards as the
King's Royal Regiment of New York. Early in
August the governor and commander-in-chief was
back at Quebec issuing commissions of the peace,
re-opening courts of justice and filling up the vacan
cies in the legislative council. He received in due
course complimentary letters from Germain ex
pressing a high sense of his services, and in one of
them the first hint is thrown out of detaching
Burgoyne, though under Carleton's orders, to co
operate with Howe. On September 28th we find
Carleton stung into retort by a complaint from
Germain that he had not sent home with his other
despatches his plans for driving out the rebels in
the past spring. The general replies "with ironical
brevity" that the object at the time of writing was
the expulsion of the rebels from Canada, which was
accomplished long before any instructions could
possibly have had time to reach him. 151

LORD DORCHESTER
Burgoyne, Phillips, and Riedesel had come out
as major-generals and there were four brigadiers,
Fraser, Nesbitt, Powell and Gordon. A painful in
cident in July was the shooting and kilfing of the
latter from an ambush as he was riding home un
armed from a social visit in the neighbourhood of
Chambly far within Canadian territory. The per
petrator was a Connecticut lieutenant, Whitcomb,
and Canadians said that the object was the general's
watch and sword. Unfortunately his superiors did
not thus regard it, for he was soon afterwards ad
vanced two steps in rank, to the indignation of the
British and of some even of his own people.

152

CHAPTER VIII
ADVANCE INTO THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY
THROUGH most of August and the whole of
September, 1776, Carleton was among his
troops and shipbuilders. The former were can
toned at various points down the Richelieu from
St. Johns and also along the overland route from
there to Laprairie, while barracks and redoubts
were being constructed at Ile-aux-Noix, fifteen
miles above St. Johns, and not far from the foot
of the lake, the island being intended to serve as
a de"p6t for supplies during the campaign in pros
pect. It was not till October 5th that the newly
constructed fleet sailed lakewards from St. Johns.
Ail the troops, except the few left in the Canadian
garrisons, were now gathered at various points in or
near Point au Fer. Few readers will need to be re
minded that Lake Champlain is a narrow sheet of
water from five to fifteen miles in breadth and
stretching a length of some ninety miles due south
ward from Point au Fer to Crown Point and
thence in a greatly contracted channel to Ticon
deroga Here was a portage of nearly two miles at
a considerable elevation above the shallow con
necting river to the spot whence the navigable but
narrow Lake George reached southwards again to
153

LORD DORCHESTER
the ten-mile road which tapped the Hudson. On the
tenth, the improvised British fleet swept proudly out
past the lie la Mothe before a fresh north wind,
Carleton having hoisted his flag, if the expression be
permissible of a general, on a modest schooner
carrying twelve six-pounders. Like the sea-going
warriors of earlier days, however, he carried a mas
ter mariner with him, in the person of Lieutenant
Dacre, while Captain Pringle of the navy had
charge of the navigation of the whole flotilla. The
latter, besides Carleton's own ship named after him
self, consisted of the Infleocible carrying nearly
thirty guns, the greater part twelve-pounders, the
Lady Maria of fourteen six-pounders, six twelve-
pounders, and two howitzers, besides a gondola
with six nine-pounders. There were also twenty
gunboats thirty feet by fifteen, carrying each a
brass piece of from nine to twenty-four pounds and
four long-boats with a gun apiece serving as armed
tenders. With the fleet went a cloud of smaller boats
carrying troops, baggage, provisions and stores. The
ships were manned by six hundred seamen from the
men-of-war and transports at Quebec, while the
guns were handled by detachments of artillery.
This unconventional armament now sailed out to
wrest from the Americans the naval supremacy of
that mimic ocean, which was, nevertheless, of such
supreme importance in these eighteenth century
wars. On the next day, October 11th, a ship
from the fleet of the enemy was espied making
154

THE ESCAPE OF ARNOLD
for the island of Valcour, just off the modem
Plattsburgh, but fearful of being intercepted her
crew raced her hurriedly on to that island and
were taken off under the fire of Carleton's guns by
the Americans, whose fleet now discovered itself in
the narrow strait between the island and the main
land. The squadron numbered only fifteen armed
craft of divers sorts, but was about the same in
weight of guns as the other and was under the
command of Arnold. The north wind and the chase
of the stranded ship had carried Carleton's larger
vessels so far past the strait where Arnold's ships
lay, that they were unable to beat back in time to
prove of service. Carleton himself, however, got in
with his gunboats and a brisk cannonade was main
tained on both sides for some two hours. The Amer
icans were now in a trap from which it was thought
that they could not escape in the night. But as
no supports came up, and as his ships and gun
boats lacked ammunition, Carleton sheered off,
and the gunboats anchored in a line across the
mouth of Cumberland Bay into which Arnold
had retired.
In spite of the chain of British gunboats and the
fall of the wind, the resourceful Arnold slipped by
them in the night with muffled oars, and before his
enemies were any the wiser was out of sight and
heading for Crown Point. Arnold puts his losses in
killed and wounded at sixty besides two ships, while
others were badly damaged. This feat of getting a
155

LORD DORCHESTER
battered and ill-built flotilla through the British
sentry boats undiscovered was but another instance
of Arnold's resourcefulness and dash. But the
escape was merely for the moment, for the breeze
held fair for the next day and when it dropped
in the night the rowboats towed the sloops and
schooners. Carleton caught him on the follow
ing morning a few miles short of Crown Point.
The fight was soon over. The Washington,
commanded by General Waterbury, was quickly
overpowered. Arnold's flagship, the Congress, which
took the first fire, was so maltreated that he ran
her on shore together with as many of the others
as Carleton's guns and the hurry of the moment
permitted, and set fire to them all. Two or three
gondolas, however, were captured, while only a
schooner, sloop and galley got away in safety.
Though swept off the lake, yet by burning his ships
so promptly, Arnold diminished by so much the
value of the victory. Most of his exploits, however,
seem in a measure dimmed by some rumour calcu
lated to discredit them. There is a story here, for
which Riedesel is the authority, that he left his
wounded men in the burning ships, their cries being
audible to the British on the lake.
Carleton reports ten vessels burned besides those
captured. Arnold in the meantime hurried on to
Crown Point and set fire to every building there that
would burn, and thence proceeded to Ticonderoga
ten miles beyond. There seems to have been no
156

AN IMPORTANT DECISION
British loss in this second action. Carleton took on
with him to Crown Point the American wounded as
well as about a hundred prisoners. The former with
his customary humanity he caused to be well cared
for ; the latter he discharged on parole.
The lake now cleared of every hostile vessel and
the British fronts advanced to Crown Point, the vital
question arose whether the original scheme of the
summer should be carried out at this late date.
Crown Point was the obvious base for an attack on
Ticonderoga ; but the latter was a strong fortress,
in good repair, occupied by Gates with a large force,
well furnished and accessible to reinforcements and
fresh supplies by the Lake George route at its rear.
It would almost certainly be a long siege, and
Carleton at Crown Point would be a hundred miles
from his nearest base of supplies. There were only
five or six weeks remaining before the iron hand of
winter would seal up the lake, and for much of the
interval its surface would be swept by gales of force
sufficient to baffle or hamper navigation. The task
of supplying a large force by rough trails through
the dense snow-laden woods would be a Herculean
labour, even if it were worth the effort, above all in
the teeth of the scouting parties which the Ameri
cans, so efficient in this business, were sure to send
out. Carleton, however, took a survey of the fortress
from the water, a proceeding that only confirmed
his resolution to postpone all further action till the
following spring, when with full possession of Lake
157

LORD DORCHESTER
Champlain there would be few obstacles to immedi
ate success.
It goes without saying that there were ardent
souls present who saw before them only a fortress
which might possibly be captured, and in any case
would provide that honourable form of entertain
ment for which they wore a uniform. But Carleton
knew the northern winter and also the high qualities
of some of the congress troops, and he may well
have hesitated to stultify this experience by attemp
ting an exploit which, even if quickly successful,
would leave him in a situation laborious to maintain
and of doubtful utility. For putting aside these grave
difficulties and granting that the fort were immedi
ately captured and that he could sit down within it
in strength and supply his garrison with ease, a wild
country would still lie between his army and the
settled districts to the south and east of it. Against
these he could not operate during the winter, as
Germain sapiently suggested, without bivouacking
his troops in the open, and to submit European
troops, or indeed any troops but perhaps an odd party
of hardened Rangers, to such a course was to subject
them to certain death. Indeed the notion was too
absurd for comment by any person of North Ameri
can experience. Burgoyne was taken into Carleton's
council and fully agreed with him, so far as his
opinion could be worth anything in a situation
physically outside his knowledge. A letter, however,
from General Phillips to Burgoyne seems to point
158

RETIRES TO CANADA
to the fact that both, though soldiers of too much
experience to think it likely that Ticonderoga could
be captured then, were dissatisfied that nothing in
the way of more active demonstration had been
undertaken. Phillips was discontented because a force was not
left to winter at Crown Point, a seemingly purpose
less proceeding. Phillips was a good officer but may
have been somewhat difficile. We get a glimpse of
him, through Baroness Riedesel's journal, grumbling
at his friend and chief Burgoyne in the same way
and possibly with better reason. But Carleton's
action in this matter was the cause of discontent to
many, which may be accounted for by the fact that
there were several hundred officers in the country
who had never known a Canadian winter, nor as yet
been subjected to serious trials of any kind in the
North American wilderness. Carleton's decision,
however sound, was fraught with ominous signifi
cance, for it was the cause of his supersession by
Burgoyne, and Burgoyne's promotion led to a great
and historical disaster.
So Carleton and his army at the beginning of
November retired to Canada into winter quarters ;
the former to his official post at Quebec and to those
civic duties which the faithful Cramahe' had been
discharging with his accustomed efficiency.
In the meantime the year's operations to the south
ward may be briefly summarized as follows : Howe,
by orders from home, had abandoned Boston in
159

LORD DORCHESTER
Maich as not worth the sacrifice which its retention
would entail Carrying his army by sea he arrived be
fore New York towards the end of June, being there
joined by reinforcements which gave him in all over
twelve thousand men. By September Washington,
who covered and held this city, was after numerous
actions compelled to evacuate it and occupy the
forts without. Driven in time from these he crossed
the Hudson in November and retreated through the
Jerseys to Philadelphia followed by Howe in a
fashion so futile and ineffective as to have fur
nished a wealth of ridicule for the historian. The
latter now retired to New York and to a long
season of social festivities, leaving New Jersey
occupied by his scattered detachments. Though
in overwhelming force, most of Howe's posts were
recaptured by Washington, and one or two severe
defeats, accompanied by surrenders, were inflicted
while the English general busied himself in pro
viding entertainment for the garrison and citizens
of New York. With a force increased to twenty-
five thousand men he allowed the spirits of the
congress party, now at zero, to rise rapidly during
the winter before the cheering spectacle of his own
apathy and the masterly strokes of Washington
with his comparative handful of ill-clad and ill-
fed men. The Loyalists suffered in proportion, and
valuable allies were gradually reduced to rebel
sympathizers or to ruin. Such in brief outline was
the state of affairs while Carleton's army in Canada
160

AN OPINION OF THE CANADIANS
was preparing for a campaign in support, as it turned
out, of this hopeless general, and -while the dismissal
of the best and almost the only good available com
mander was being decided upon by an incapable
minister in London.
There is no occasion to particularize the manner
in which Carleton distributed his army this winter.
St. Johns and the other ports on the Richelieu and
at the foot of the lake were all occupied. Some
troops wintered along the south shore of the St.
Lawrence, while Montreal, Three Rivers and Que
bec had each its garrison. Many of the soldiers
were quartered among the habitants, who seem to
have quite recovered from their republican leanings
and to have received the soldiers in friendly fashion.
Carleton, however, could not overcome his soreness
at their recent defection. " There is nothing to fear
from the Canadians," he writes to Germain, "so
long as things are in a state of prosperity ; nothing
to hope from them when in distress. There are some
of them who are guided by sentiments of honour,
the multitude is influenced by hope of gain, or fear
of punishment"
The merits and demerits of the Quebec Act ceased
for the time to concern men's minds. They were all
full of the part they had just played in stirring scenes
and might yet have again to play. The peasantry
had had enough of politics for the present ; money
was flowing into the country ; markets were brisk.
Gaiety on a scale that even the old French regime
161

LORD DORCHESTER
had never known was stimulated in Quebec and
Montreal by the presence in the colony of several
hundred officers, relieved for the time from the ten
sion of war or the possibility of attack. Lady Maria
Carleton with her children, now increased to three,
had returned and proved a sprightly and popular
young hostess at the Chateau St. Louis. On the
last night of 1776, the anniversary of Montgomery's
attack, Baron Riedesel tells us that the governor
gave a dinner of sixty covers, which was followed
by a public fete and a grand ball, where all social
Quebec danced out the old year which had broken
on them in so dramatic and different a fashion. In
the morning of the same day the archbishop cele
brated a grand mass in the cathedral, and those
citizens who had shown sympathy with the rebels
had to do penance in public. The Church which had
suffered a serious fright breathed again. The seig
niors, whose sustained rights, like those of the
Church, had been so successfully twisted into a goad
for the fears of the peasantry by the enemies of
government, within and without, were more than
satisfied. They were a recognized element now in the
governor's council and the question of an elective
assembly, even an Anglo-French one, had few
charms for men who cared nothing for popular
government, and, as a matter of fact, rather shrank
from the notion of sitting in so mixed an assembly.
Indeed if they had a grievance, it was the minor one
of being liable to serve on the new juries in criminal
162

PLANS FOR NEW CAMPAIGN
cases and sitting cheek by jowl with butchers or
peasants. Preparations for the coming campaign, however,
proceeded as steadily as the season permitted. Carle
ton had sketched out a plan and sent it by Bur
goyne, who went home before Christmas for the
good of his health and better service of his country,
as he puts it with unconscious irony in a letter to
Germain written soon after landing. Another reason
for his return was the serious illness of his wife, to
whom he was deeply attached. Finally, Carleton
wished him to go so that the plans for the coming
season's operations might be thoroughly discussed in
London ; for, as we have said, Burgoyne took with
him Carleton's plans for the campaign, which he
himself had willingly subscribed to and indeed actu
ally urged upon Germain, though without avail. It
has been mentioned that Germain's malevolence
towards Carleton arose from the latter's attitude
towards a protege" of his in the matter of a staff
appointment. Carleton in short had refused to turn
out a good public servant, merely to make way for
a new arrival without any better claim whatsoever
than Germain's personal countenance.
Carleton was now to reap the fruits of this. It was
not till May, 1777, however, that he received the
letter confining his authority to the limits of Canada,
and notifying him of the fact that Burgoyne was
to command in the coming campaign. If Germain
before deciding on this course had already been in
163

LORD DORCHESTER
receipt of Carleton's reply to one or two of his
own futile despatches, his action would be more
excusable. But there is documentary evidence that
he wished him out of the way long before Carleton
had expressed the opinion, in as forcible English as
official etiquette admitted, that he thought the mini
ster not only an ignoramus and a fool but a wholly
mischievous person. Carleton's notice of removal
from all command in the coming campaign had been
forwarded as early as the preceding August, but
the letter had been entrusted to a ship that had failed
to make Quebec and was returned to Germain's
hand. This was now enclosed with another that
filled Carleton with righteous indignation, and left
him with no option as to his procedure. This last
communication was dated March 26th and was
received in the middle of May. The news of the
defeat and surrender at Trenton of eight hundred
Hessians had reached England, and upon the top
of the belated enclosure of August 22nd Germain
heaps the preposterous insinuation that Carleton's
decision against a winter occupation of Ticonderoga
had released enough of its garrison to give material
aid to Washington in achieving this bold stroke
against the Hessians. Putting aside the fact that
three hundred miles intervened between the Dela
ware and Lake Champlain^ Germain by inference
admits that nearly thirty thousand highly discip
lined troops are insufficient for his other general
to protect the environments of New York from
164

AN IRONICAL REPLY
a quarter of the number of ill-provided and ill-
fed provincial militia.
On May 20th Carleton sat down and wrote his
reply, which is a lengthy and pungent one. He re
grets that Germain's first letter of August 22nd,
1776, had not reached him by November 20th as it
might have done, but he had been in no way incon
venienced by the lack of instructions from home at
that period, as he imputed their absence to the rather
widespread opinion that any officer entrusted with
the supreme command ought, from his situation, to
be a better judge of what was most expedient than
a great general at three thousand miles distance !
The irony in this phrase seems somewhat thinly
disguised. Carleton then alludes to the well-known
events of the winter of 1775-6, which had made any
preparations for navigating Lake Champlain notori
ously impossible, but reminds Germain that he had
constantly urged in the spring the forwarding to
Burgoyne's army of a good supply of boats in sec
tions and of artificers. Very few either of the first or
second had been sent, and many even of these
arrrived too late. Seeing the disregard paid to these
pressing matters, Carleton did his Lordship the
credit to suppose that his measures in North
America had been taken " with such great wisdom
that the rebels must immediately be compelled to
lay down their arms and implore the king's mercy
without our assistance." The order contained in the
August letter — which as Carleton points out might
165

LORD DORCHESTER
have reached him in November — for occupying the
forts and thence despatching all his force not needed
for the protection of Canada to operate to the
north of Howe in support of him, as a vague mid
winter expedition is exposed in its naked absurdity.
Carleton then proceeds to rub in the elementary
truth that an army cannot conduct an active cam
paign in that country during the winter season, and
he descends to Germain's level of intelligence by
describing many homely truths and elementary facts
which that exalted personage had been either un
able or unwilling to master.
It is not the ignorance of a private gentleman of
that day concerning North American physical con
ditions which startles us — that would be nothing —
but the sublime effrontery of a man entrusted by
the king with the conduct of a great war still cul
tivating this complacent and deplorable indifference
after months of office. Carleton explains, with a for
bearance not always so evident, that the soldiers
composing this suggested midwinter expedition, as
suming that they were ably led and well provis
ioned, which last would be impossible, assuming
also that the enemy was considerate enough not to
harass them before they got in touch with Howe,
which again was quite unlikely, would never
theless have all perished from cold alone. Indeed
to have attempted the investment of Ticonde
roga in November, would have been, writes Car
leton, a risky and laborious business even had its
166

AN IMPLIED CENSURE
capture then been of great practical utility. " I
regard it as a particular blessing that your Lord
ship's despatch did not arrive in due time," he adds.
With regard to any assistance rendered to Washing
ton by troops set free from Ticonderoga, Carleton
does not seem to think it worthy of argument, but
with justifiable sarcasm calls the attention of Ger
main to the numerical strength of Howe's army,
which, with ordinary precautions, could have easily
prevented such a disaster as Trenton "though all
the rebels from Ticonderoga had reinforced Mr.
Washington's army."
As regards the immediate future, he notes that
General Burgoyne is to have the command of al
most the whole army of Canada for an attack on the
famous fortress and subsequent movements, whereas
he himself is ordered to remain at Quebec through
out a season of the year when no legislative duties
require his presence, and a lieutenant-governor of
tried worth and experience is always in residence.
The censure that this change of plan implies seems
to Carleton as unmistakable as it is unjust, and he
proceeds at some length and in trenchant and lucid
fashion to summarize the events of the last eighteen
months : the critical situations he has emerged from
with success, and the difficulties that he has over
come with scant means, though cut off from all the
world. With regard to the obstacles inevitable to a
large force moving up or down the Champlain
route, he suggests an object lesson to Germain in
167

LORD DORCHESTER
the failure of Amherst in 1759 to relieve Wolfe by
this channel when motives for haste were of extreme
urgency, when opposition was ineffective, and an
officer of high repute was in command backed by a
powerful force and a sympathetic countryside, which
now was hostile.
"But I," writes Carleton, referring to the previous
year (1776), "pent up in this town till May in a pro
vince mostly disaffected and over-run by rebels,
when troops arrived a numerous army to expel, who
in their retreat burned or destroyed all that might be
of use to us. Arrived at the end of those navigable
waters, not a boat, not a stick, neither materials nor
workmen, neither stores nor covering nor axemen I
All must be sought for amidst confusion and the dis
tracted state of an exhausted province. Yet a
greater marine force was built and equipped, a greater
marine force defeated, than had ever appeared on
that lake before. Two brigades were taken across
and remained at Crown Point till November 2nd,
for the sole purpose of drawing off the attention of
the rebels from Mr. Howe, and to facilitate his
victories ; nature had then put an end to ours. His
winter quarters, I confess, I never thought of
covering. I never could imagine why, if an army to
the southward found it necessary to finish their cam
paign and to go into winter quarters, your Lordship
could possibly expect troops so far north to continue
their operations lest Mr. Howe should be disturbed
during the winter ! If that great army near the sea-
168

TENDERS RESIGNATION
coast had their quarters insulted, what could your
Lordship expect to be the fate of a small corps
detached into the heart of the rebel country in that
season ? For these things I am so severely censured
by your Lordship, and this is the first reason assigned
why the command of the troops is taken from me
and given to Lieutenant-General Burgoyne."
A week later, on May 27th, Carleton wrote again
sending in his resignation. "Finding I can no longer
be of use to the king's service on this continent,
either in a civil or military capacity, under your
Lordship's administration, on the contrary, appre
hending that I may occasion no small detriment to it,
for all the marks of your Lordship's displeasure affect,
not me, but the king's service and the tranquillity of
his people, I therefore flatter myself I shall obtain
his royal permission to return home this fall, the
more so that from your first entrance into office you
began to prepare the minds of all men for this
event, wisely foreseeing that under your Lordship's
administration it must certainly come to pass, and
for my own part I do not think it just that the
private enmity of the king's servants should add to
the disturbances of his reign. For these reasons I
shall embark with great satisfaction, still entertain
ing the ardent wish that after my departure you may
adopt measures tending to promote the safety and
tranquillity of this unfortunate province, at least that
the dignity of the Crown may not appear beneath
your Lordship's concern." 169

LORD DORCHESTER
This outspoken arraignment of Germain's attitude
towards him was almost Carleton's last word
on the subject in his despatches which continue
for another year. For though his method of
tendering his resignation to Germain left no open
ing, even though the desire had been there for
combating it, arrangements for filling his place
could not readily be made. Of Germain it is re
lated in Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice's Life of Shel
burne that a contemporary statesman remarked:
" He endured every species of indignity from Sir
Guy Carleton in particular and other officers with
whom he was obliged to correspond. There was a
general diffidence as to his honour and a general
disrespect for his person." Regarding Germain's
rancour towards Carleton, a year previously the king
himself wrote to Lord North: "That there is great
prejudice, perhaps not unaccompanied with rancour,
in a certain breast [Germain's] against Governor
Carleton is so manifest to whosoever has heard the
subject mentioned that it would be idle to say any
more than that it is a fact"

iro

CHAPTER IX
CARLETON SUPERSEDED BY BURGOYNE
CARLETON remained in office another year,
and continued his administration with un
abated zeal. But he was very sore and could not re
sist a dig at Germain from time to time in his
official correspondence. Burgoyne arrived in Canada
almost simultaneously with Germain's letter to
Carleton. There is no reason whatever to suspect
him of disloyalty to his former chief; on the con
trary he had faithfully presented Carleton's plans
for the coming campaign to Germain in London,
and had made his own recommendations freely
and more or less on the same lines. But Germain
had another plan, and Burgoyne seems to have
accepted it uncritically and without reserve. Carle
ton's scheme, agreed to by Burgoyne it will be
remembered, was to occupy Ticonderoga as a base,
and then to act to the southward or more particu
larly against Connecticut and Massachusetts as it
should seem good, having always in view the dis
tance from Howe's army and the very difficult
nature of the intervening country.
Germain's plan was excellent in theory, namely,
to join hands with Howe and hold the natural
artery formed by the Hudson and the lakes, which
171

LORD DORCHESTER
is a straight line from New York to Canada. Bur*
goyne was to push or fight his way to Albany, and
Howe was to send a force up the Hudson to meet
him. This would have cut off the New England
colonies from the rest of the country, and the bare
idea of it thoroughly alarmed Washington, though
his fears may have been modified by his growing ac
quaintance with Howe. Germain, for whom physi
cal geography had little meaning, had not taken any
account of the difficulties of the route to Albany,
which were not, however, insurmountable, and
Burgoyne could not help him. But unfortunately
he omitted to take Howe, the other partner in the
scheme, into his confidence, and that supine, but, in
this particular, blameless commander, knew nothing
whatever about it. As we all know, he was waging
independent war to the south of New York when
Burgoyne was struggling to his fate at Saratoga ;
indeed Howe was actually sailing off to Philadel
phia at the moment that Germain's victim was sur
rendering his army as prisoners of war. The explana
tion of this would be well nigh incredible if it had
not been given on the authority of the minister's
own secretary. It seems that the despatch contain
ing Howe's instructions lay awaiting Germain's
signature, and that the latter, omitting this for
mality in his hurry to get into the country, .forgot
it altogether on his return.
A second expedition on a far smaller scale was
also planned by Germain. This was to follow the
172

FORT STANWIX
old alternative route from Canada to the Hudson by
way of Lake Ontario and the Mohawk valley; in
other words the two sides of the triangle of which
the direct Champlnin route from Montreal to
Albany formed the base. Colonel St. Leger was in
charge of this expedition with some six hundred
men. German chasseurs and Johnson's New York
Loyalists mainly, with a force of Indians. He was to
join Burgoyne on the Hudson after forcing Fort
Stanwix, which lay high up the Mohawk not far
from Lake Oneida, and was now held by seven
hundred congress troops under Ganesvort
After a month's march St. Leger got within touch
of the fort on March 3rd, 1777, and while engaged in
some necessary road cutting heard of a reinforce
ment of eight hundred militiamen marching to re
inforce the garrison. Sending out Sir John Johnson
with all his Indians and eight hundred soldiei's, they
intercepted the colonials, and by means of an
ambush killed or wounded just half their number.
This, however, was the only success. The fort was
impregnable to St. Leger's light guns, and while
engaged in futile attempts upon it news came that
Arnold with two thousand men was ascending the
Mohawk. At this the Indians who had lost heavily
in the skirmish above mentioned, known as the
battle of Oriskany. could not be induced to stay
even by such eloquent partisans as Johnson. Butler.
and Claus. Upon this St. Leger had no choice but
to retreat, which he did in safety, leaving, however,
173

LORD DORCHESTER
his tents, guns, and stores. Though a brave man he
seems to have had no particular qualities of leader
ship. Letters both from Butler and himself to
Carleton on August 11th and 15th, make a good
deal of the fight at Oriskany, and state that St.
Leger on his own responsibility assumed the title
of brigadier. The next letter sets out the hopeless
ness of taking Fort Stanwix, and there is nothing
more till he reports himself at Montreal with most
of his men but without his effects.
This failure in a minor degree encouraged the
armies of congress. Carleton does not appear to
have rated St. Leger highly. During the first three
weeks of June the troops for Burgoyne were col
lected at the foot of Lake Champlain, while the
29th, 31st, and 34th Regiments, together with part
of the 11th and some Germans, were left with Carle
ton for the defence of Canada. Carleton himself was
there to see the last of them and make such final
arrangements with Burgoyne as his command in
Canada made necessary. There was no friction what
ever between the two leaders. Burgoyne declared
subsequently in parliament that if Carleton had
been making preparations for an enterprise of his
own he could not have given himself more assidu
ously to the task. Riedesel has left in writing his
regrets that his former chief was not to be in com
mand. Many must have agreed with him, though
Burgoyne's personal charm must have helped, no
doubt, to give a cheerful feeling to all around him.
174

BURGOYNE
Confidence was hardly required ; every one, all such
at least as were fresh from Europe, looked forward to
a mere promenade, so great was thought to be the
demoralization of the congress party and so strong
the Loyalist element waiting to declare itself.
Burgoyne was a man of good birth. His father, a
dashing captain in the army and second son of Sir
John Burgoyne, had run through his own small and
his wife's considerable fortune, and died on the
King's Bench. Young Burgoyne went from West
minster School into a cavalry regiment, and by
versatile talents, aided by good looks and a winning
manner, he rose rapidly both in military and social
life. At thirty-three he was a brigadier, command
ing a mixed British and Portuguese legion, and,
besides other achievements, covered himself with
glory by the capture of Valentia sword in hand at the
head of his men. He entered parliament in time to
receive as a member the thanks of the House to
himself and his corps for their brilliant services
under Count La Lippe. He furthered his fortunes by
a runaway love match with a daughter of the house
of Derby, whose father forgave them and took him
into favour. Though with some weakness for bombast
he was an able speaker and a formidable opponent
of Clive and the East India Company in the House
of Commons. He was a dramatist and versifier of
considerable reputation, his plays being acted at the
theatres, and his poems very much the vogue in
society. To soldiering, however, he was most at-
175

LORD DORCHESTER
tached, and made a quite exhaustive study of the
chief European armies, which he committed to
writing, and supplied Chatham with considerable
information on the subject. At the outbreak of
the American troubles Burgoyne's sympathies were
mixed, but he had no scruple about using force.
He himself, however, shrank from employment in
America, merely from a soldier's dislike to being
ordered on service against armed civilians. Before
sailing for Boston as junior major-general in Feb
ruary, 1775, he made a long speech in the House of
Commons in which he denied having sought em
ployment in this war, but having been selected for
service by the king felt bound to accept it.
In short Burgoyne was a man of deserved reputa
tion as well as of engaging personality, brave, honour
able, and quite equal to responsible command in any
continental army of the day. He was, perhaps, a
httle vain, and from lack of special experience not
quite suited to this particular campaign, while the
further fact that a general who undoubtedly was
qualified for the task had just been removed from
command, adds another mite of bad luck to the
load which Burgoyne's reputation had to bear.
It was in truth a splendid force of some seven
thousand men that had marched or sailed with
Burgoyne ; not all, however, were well suited to back
woods warfare, particularly some of the German
regiments whose men wore enormous thigh boots
and gigantic hats, and carried sabres of mediaeval
176

THE QUESTION OF RELIEFS
calibre, which three items alone weighed more
than the whole equipment of a British lines
man. But all at least were disciplined and brave,
while the artillery was powerful and the transport
ample. The composition of the force hardly con
cerns us, as we must resist any temptation to follow
its gradually decfining fortunes to the catastrophe of
four months later and two hundred miles away that
in effect decided the fate of North America and in
fluenced the history of the world.
The leave-taking of the officers serving with
Carleton seems, from some of their accounts, to
have been an unusually warm one, and when he
turned his back on the expedition that he ought
to have led, and his face northwards, he had no
thing to reproach himself with if he had much
to regret. Removed from all touch with the stir
ring scenes to the southward, Carleton still had
his hands full of details throughout the summer
and autumn. Burgoyne, though in direct communi
cation with Germain, made from time to time
demands on Canada for detachments of men or
animals. Carleton in his position had no authority
for granting these reliefs, and was always pleased to
remind Germain of that fact, though he forwarded
them whenever possible. Carleton had been strongly
against calling out too many militiamen, as the
peasantry were still in a condition of uncertainty
and suspicion. A dread of the old French military
compulsion, awakened by agitators and quickened
177

LORD DORCHESTER
by the attempted musters of 1775, was still great
within them.
For a further replenishing of Burgoyne's force
after the latter had occupied and garrisoned Ticon
deroga, in July, 1777, Carleton had been compelled
to sanction a corve'e, though with great reluctance,
the habitants being just now in his opinion " more
worthy of compassion than blame." His forebod
ings were right, for the few hundred militia that
were raised with difficulty for Burgoyne deserted
in troops as his prospects of success declined. Car
leton's frequent warnings as to the temper of the
Canadian militia had fallen on deaf ears, and the
British government persisted in the delusion that as
many thousand as were required could be raised by
the simple method of proclamation. The Indians of
whom many hundred started with Burgoyne were
worse than useless, for with at least as much reason
as the French militia they fell away before the
impending disaster even more readily. Moreover,
their employment, heralded by a somewhat in
judicious and bombastic speech of Burgoyne's, gave
a handle to the enemies of the government on both
sides of the Atlantic that proved of inestimable
value, and with more logic alarmed the potential
Loyalists dwelling within the sphere of operation for
the safety of their homes and families. It did not
matter that the other party had enlisted their assist
ance when possible, as in the case of Arnold and
Montgomery, and that in every North American
178

POWELL AT TICONDEROGA
war they had been a recognized and normal factor
in the game, nor again that their interests were as
much involved as those of the European races.
Whether justly, or unjustly, their enrolment now
could be represented with ease and plausibility as a
heinous crime. Here, as elsewhere in this war, they
were virtually useless, save as scouts, while the
occasional outrages inseparable from their employ
ment were trumpeted throughout the world.
Carleton had much correspondence just now with
Hamilton and the officers holding the far western
posts at Niagara and Detroit, for the distant tur
moil of the war and the overtures of the agents of
congress in those parts were bringing out the
western Indians and forcing them to take a hand
with whichever side made them the highest bid.
By September sinister messages were coming to
Carleton from Powell, who was commanding the
force left at Ticonderoga, for a great part of his
garrison was sick, the lines of communication with
Burgoyne, now on the Hudson, were broken, and
continuous attacks were being inflicted on his own
post by Seth Warner, who had twice summoned
him to surrender. Four companies of the 53rd
had also been cut off and captured.
St. Leger had now returned from his repulse at
Fort Stanwix on the Mohawk, and Carleton sent
him on immediately to Ticonderoga, though as he
says with a side thrust at Germain "without any
power to do so." And so the summer and early
179

LORD DORCHESTER
autumn passed away. Domestic concerns were at a
lull pending greater events, and the machinery of
government was mainly occupied with military
affairs. The news from Burgoyne grew worse and
worse, till on October 11th Powell heard he had been
defeated and was retreating. He then wrote urgently
to Carleton, pointing out the hopeless condition
of the fortress in event of a disaster to the south
ward, and begging instructions. Carleton replied he
had no authority over him whatever, but if he had,
seeing his own ignorance of Burgoyne's situation or
intentions, he should leave the matter to Powell's
own judgment, only reminding him that he should
either work on the fortifications at once or abandon
the spot before it was too late.
On October 20th the news of the surrender at
Saratoga reached Powell, and three weeks later he
was at St. Johns with his force and stores intact.
Before abandoning the fortress every wooden build
ing and defence was destroyed, and the brief but
famous story of Carillon, as the French called it,
was finished. Its walls and bastions sank into decay,
though happily their fragments still survive among
the trim scenes of modern life as the most sugges
tive object, perhaps, next to Quebec itself, in all
these northern provinces of ancient and pregnant
strife. Carleton would have been more than human
had he not felt a qualm or two of bitter satis
faction at the retribution which Germain's flout
ing of himself had brought upon that fatuous
180

BURGOYNE'S RASHNESS
minister. But though opposition orators in parlia
ment might openly rejoice at the humiliation of
their country, Carleton was the last man to breathe
one word of ill-placed censure on his supplanter,
the lesser sinner, nay, rather the victim of this
disastrous blunder, nor is there the least note of
triumph in his laconic business-like despatches to
Germain. Almost every one who has dealt with, and prob
ably every one who has studied, this period has
indulged his readers or himself in some measure of
speculation as to what might have resulted if the
cool-headed Carleton with his intimate experience
of local warfare and local conditions and topography,
his wise caution and self-abnegation in critical mo
ments, had been in Burgoyne's place, and above all
had planned the campaign. Burgoyne was infinitely
more sinned against than sinning, but he was with
out American experience and detailed heavily-
accoutred Germans, under officers who could not
speak English, on difficult enterprises into remote
forests where local knowledge and agility were the
chief requisites. He perhaps thought more of his own
reputation than of his country's when prudence
should have warned him to retreat before it was too
late. He refused to turn back when such a move
ment was still possible and many brave officers urged
it as the wisest course, and when he did retrace his
steps his movements were so dilatory as to ensure
disaster. He had wasted time in the advance, he
181

LORD DORCHESTER
wasted more in his brief attempt to retreat, which
was much worse, and his march was accompanied
by a touch of personal frivolity and untimely luxury
at his own headquarters which seemed to some
of those about him to strike a jarring note at this
moment of impending ruin.
Burgoyne, however, made a good case for himself,
insisting that his instructions were explicit to march
on Albany. Not only that, but he pictured Howe
as advancing to meet him and felt that his own
retreat might mean Howe's ruin ; strict obedience
to orders and chivalrous thought for a brother
general were in fact his guiding motives. If Carle
ton had followed his own scheme none of these risks
would have been run; even if he had followed Ger
main's will-o'-the-wisp one cannot imagine that he
would have maintained so blind a faith in the
Howe myth without some sign, or in any case that
he would have allowed himself to be entrapped.
Carleton had neither the contempt for the colonial
troops, nor the exaggerated belief in effective Loyal
ist aid which the king, Germain, Burgoyne, and
even Phillips were possessed of. These are, however,
futile speculations. Perhaps Burgoyne's presence
and Germain's fatuity were a wise dispensation
of Providence in arranging the world's future.
Carleton's interference might perhaps have left
worse legacies for after generations. But in judging
of current events so philosophical an attitude would
be misplaced, and we must regard them from the
182

HALDIMAND NOMINATED
point of view of a British soldier of the time per
forming his duty to his king and country.
Carleton was now weary of his anomalous position.
No fitting successor had as yet been found, till in
October the news arrived that Haldimand had been
nominated. It appears that the new governor when
he reached London from Switzerland, his native
country, heard much talk of Germain's unjust and
foohsh treatment of Carleton and requested that
his own appointment should be cancelled. This was
not accepted and Haldimand sailed in October,
1777, but baffled by contrary winds, was driven
back into port and had to remain in England till
the following season. There was, therefore, no
choice for Carleton but to remain.
The legislative council had not met since its first
session in 1775 had been dissolved by the alarms
of war. The Quebec Act had not yet been put in
operation and the courts of justice placed upon a
proper footing. In 1775 Carleton had been com
pelled to nominate the judges himself, for the coun
try had been left to chaos. No one certainly was
calculated to make a better choice. He had ap
pointed or maintained in their appointments,
Mabane, Dunn, and Panet as the three judges at
Quebec, while Fraser, Marteilhe, and de Rouville
held like positions at Montreal.
A clause in the Quebec Act had annulled all
appointments held prior to it, but Carleton re
garded this as a mere form, though a useful in-
183

LORD DORCHESTER
strument for evicting any public servants who had
failed in capacity, or in their duties. The home
government, however, looked upon it as an admir
able opportunity for foisting proteges on the Can
adian establishment, and this division of opinion
gave rise to a correspondence between Carleton and
Germain as acrid as their letters on matters mili
tary and almost as entertaining. "I should have re
proached myself with an abuse of power and trust if
under the sanction of that clause I had turned out
any of the king's inferior servants who had executed
the duties of their offices with integrity and honour."
"Two judges at Montreal," Carleton goes on to say,
"have been turned out by his Lordship's nominees,
Livius and Owen." Alluding to the former he con
tinues, "'Tis unfortunate that your Lordship should
find it necessary for the king's service to send over
a person [Livius, shortly afterwards made chief-
justice] to administer justice to the people when he
understands neither their laws, manners, customs,nor
their language, and that he must turn out of his place
a gentleman who has held it with reputation for
many years, well allied in the province and who had
suffered considerably for his attachment to his duty
both as a magistrate and a loyal subject." Carleton's
judgment in this case is singularly endorsed by the
fact that the ill-used gentleman went back to
England and in no long time became master of the
rolls and Sir William Grant. Livius, his supplanter,
as a German-Portuguese with a legal experience
184

PLAIN SPEAKING
gained in New England, was not a happy appoint
ment, though he was quite clever enough to make
a good deal of disturbance about his fees and give
Carleton great trouble, "greedy of power, more
greedy of gain, imperious and impetuous in his
temper, but learned in the ways and eloquence of
the New England provinces, valuing himself par
ticularly on his knowledge of how to manage
governors." Carleton, unlike Burgoyne, professed no excep
tional powers of composition, but it must be ad
mitted that he was roused at times by the per
formances of the colonial office into bits of English
that it is a positive pleasure to transcribe. Plagued
by the continual appearance of these placemen,
generally the representatives of backstair influence,
sometimes the inferior deputies of inferior men at
home with political influence who took the lion's
share of the salary, Carleton wrote at another time
to Germain his dread lest the country "should
produce what may be found in others; characters
regardless of the public tranquillity but zealous to
pay court to a powerful minister and, provided they
can flatter themselves with a prospect of obtaining
by this protection advantages under the Crown, are
unconcerned should the means of obtaining them
prove ruinous to the king's service." This, too, is
plain speaking, but Germain was getting used to it
by now and was to hear still worse things when
Burgoyne, and more particulary Burgoyne's friends,
185

LORD DORCHESTER
spoke their minds in parliament at a later date.
Monk, the solicitor-general in Nova Scotia, was
among those nominated, to the exclusion of a well
tried and deserving person. Monk, however, was in
himself a fitting appointment, but Carleton object
ed to an equally efficient native of the province
being passed by. Monk never forgot the quite
just objections of Carleton, as will appear in a
subsequent chapter deahng with much later events.
Carleton's attitude in all these matters is the more
worthy of confidence from the fact that he him
self had nothing to gain in the way of favour or
support. He considered that he had done with Can
ada and was only acting in the interests of the
country and of the successor for whose advent he
anxiously awaited. All this was the more irritating,
as the clause in the Quebec Act annulling all
present offices had been introduced with Carleton's
approval for the express purpose of eliminating un
worthy officers nominated by the pernicious system
in vogue. Carleton's retention of efficient servants
was in keeping with the spirit in which he intended
the Act to be applied. Germain's interpretation of
it, on the other hand, was for the perpetuating of
those very abuses.
A militia bill was passed early in the session which
made every able-bodied man liable to be called out
in defence of his country. This was no hardship
surely then or now, but the habitants regarded it with
great dislike. It was ordained, moreover, that those
186

DREAD OF INVASION
not included in musters should perform the agri
cultural duties of those who were. After Burgoyne's
surrender there was another invasion scare, as well
there may have been. There were nearly four thou
sand regulars in the colony, but the Americans by
now were in considerable part no longer raw militia,
but hardened and experienced soldiers. The Canadian
militia numbered on paper some eighteen thousand
men. In the autumn of 1777, Carleton called out
one-third of the force from the Three Rivers and
Montreal districts under those zealous officers de
Tonnancour, de Longueuil, and de Lanaudi&re.
The muster was successful, but the immediate
alarm of invasion passed away and the men were
disbanded. Some half a dozen persons, too, were
arrested this year for treasonable practices, and
Livius who was sore at the strict limitation of legal
fees which Carleton had managed to secure in the
interests of a poor community, used some of these
arrests as a means of airing his importance and re
taliating on the government. Carleton had also
nominated a few members of the council as a com
mittee to work in immediate accord with himself
during the period of strain and crisis represented by
the years 1776 and 1777. It was a time of urgent
peril calling for instant action. Many of his council
were in the field, and some were prisoners in the
States. Livius was not included, very naturally,
seeing that he was a German-Portuguese who had
recently come from New England as one of Ger-
187

LORD DORCHESTER
main's placemen. There was a kind of opening in
the armour of the peace constitution of Canada
for a pettifogging lawyer to assail, and Livius gave
a good deal of trouble by carrying the matter to
the privy council. After Carleton had arrived in
England the matter was brought to a head when
the council deprived Livius of his office.
Carleton's kindheartedness towards the American
militiamen that fell into his hands is a matter of
history. Here is an address he made to his prisoners
at Quebec when he sent them home, which may be
accepted as typical if not accurate to the letter:
" My lads, why did you come to disturb an honest
man in his government that never did you any harm
in his life? I never invaded your property nor sent
a single soldier to distress you. Come, my boys, you
are in a very painful situation and not able to go
home with any comfort. I must provide you with
shoes, stockings and good warm waistcoats. I must
give you some good victuals to carry you home.
Take care, my lads, that you do not come here
again, lest I should not treat you so kindly." In his
last letter to Germain he told him that if the
character of the men sent to Canada were of no con
sideration to his Lordship, the tranquillity of the
people, and the security of so important a province,
the dignity and the dominion of the Crown, he
hoped, at least, would appear worthy of some atten
tion. "I have long and impatiently looked out for
the arrival of a successor. Happy at last to learn
188

HALDIMAND ARRIVES
his near approach, that into hands less obnoxious to
your Lordship I may resign the important commands
with which I have been honoured. Thus, for the
king's service, as wilhngly I lay them down as for his
service I took them up — the most essential and in
truth the only service in my power to render your
Lordship's administration." These are Carleton's last
words in closing this chapter of his history, and not
unworthy ones.
Haldimand, Carleton's long-looked-for successor,
arrived in Quebec on June 26th, 1778. Carleton re
turned to England on the same vessel after more
than eleven years of service, and nearly eight of
actual residence. He was the only British general
who recrossed the Atlantic during this episode
wearing the laurels of victory, and of all generals
his task had been the hardest. He little thought
then, that ten years later he would be called once
more to the thorny seat of which he had now grown
weary.

189

CHAPTER X
PREPARATIONS FOR PEACE
THE surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in
October, 1781, proved to be the last military
operation of any moment in the War of Independ
ence. The thoughts of almost all Englishmen were
now from different motives turned towards peace,
those of the Tories slowly and reluctantly, those of
the Whigs with a sense of relief in which an inevit
able measure of humiliation was tempered by the
sordid satisfaction of a party triumph. For then as
to-day in England colonial problems, fraught with
fateful issues and understood not at all save by a
mere handful of Englishmen, were used as weapons
of party strife and handled in debate with a com
placent and conspicuous ignorance.
Parliament met two days after the tidings reached
England. After a long series of fierce attacks and a
gradually dwindling majority Lord North's govern
ment, in spite of its changing policy, succumbed
upon March 20th, 1782. Further misfortunes had
contributed to this. St. Eustatius, St. Kitts, Nevis
and Montserrat, and worse than all Minorca, had
surrendered one after the other to the French and
Spaniards. The greater West Indian Islands were
in imminent danger. The serious straits to which
191

LORD DORCHESTER
Washington's army in the north and Greene's in the
south were respectively reduced were not realized in
England, and perhaps fortunately so, since further
bloodshed at this date could only have produced
further calamities. Even prior to North's fall Shel
burne, as secretary of state, had despatched Richard
Oswald, a well informed and very diplomatic mer
chant, to sound Dr. Franklin at Paris with a view
to terms. A week later Rockingham had formed a
new cabinet with Fox and Shelburne as secretaries
of state. Oswald was sent back to Paris and to
Franklin, accompanied this time by Thomas Gren-
ville, who was to treat with Vergennes for a peace
with France on separate lines. This created some
feeling between the French and Americans, and
may therefore be set down to the credit account of
British diplomacy. Germain was the only member
of North's government who had resolutely set his
face against concessions. So, bellicose as ever in
council, he was transferred to the Upper House
where open protest was made against the admission
of a man who had been cashiered for cowardice in
the field.
Clinton was now returning from his command at
New York wearied by five years of work, worry, and
disappointment, and Carleton was to go out and reign
in his stead though with much wider powers; for it
was now the season of propitiation, the promoting
of peace, and the carrying out of such treaties as it
was hoped would shortly be executed. By far the
192

CARLETON'S RETURN
most formidable item in a sufficiently complicated
programme was that of the Loyalists, the colonists
who had fought for the Crown, and the great num
ber of non-combatants, incapacitated by sex or age
from bearing arms but who had passively espoused
the same failing cause. For these and other critical
operations it was essential to send out a man of high
integrity, of stainless honour, of wide experience, a
man trusted by both parties and in both countries,
and for once there was no hesitation and no cavilling
at the choice. Once again Carleton set out to face
a situation bristling with difficulties and to be the
judge and arbiter of conflicting interests under the
guns of a powerful and not yet conciliated foe.
He had spent three quiet years mainly on the
estate he had bought in Hampshire, and now sail
ed for New York in the beginning of April, 1782.
Deliberations of a tentative but hopeful nature were
proceeding in Paris and the suspension of serious
operations in America though mutually observed
was quite informal. His commission was dated
April 4th. " His Majesty's affairs," so run the
instructions, "are so situated that further deliber
ations give way to the necessity of instant decision,
and whatever inconveniences may arise we are sat
isfied will be compensated by the presence of a
commander-in-chief of whose discretion, conduct
and ability His Majesty has long entertained the
highest opinion." Carleton was invested with extra
ordinary powers. He was a commissioner entrusted
193

LORD DORCHESTER
with carrying out the conditions of peace when these
should be formulated and signed. He was also "gen
eral and commander-in-chief of all His Majesty's
forces within the colonies lying in the Atlantic
Ocean, from Nova Scotia to the Floridas, and inclu
sive of Newfoundland and Canada should they be
attacked." His naval coadjutor, with whom it may be at
once stated he worked in perfect harmony, was the
Honourable Robert Digby, " Admiral and Com
mander-in-chief of His Majesty's ships and vessels
employed in North America." It was left to Carle
ton's discretion, in case of attack by the Franco-
American army, whether to fight or to make terms
for withdrawal. The great importance of extricating
the troops for His Majesty's service elsewhere, if
compatible with honour, was duly insisted upon.
Not often we fancy has a British commander been
despatched on a mission at once so critical and
painful in the execution and yet so barren of pros
pective glory. The Loyahst refugees were earnestly
recommended by the king to Carleton's " tenderest
and most honourable care," as well they may have
been, and we may readily guess that a general who
had earned such a reputation for humanity towards
vanquished foes was not likely to fail in his duty
towards gallant friends in their hour of trial and
distress. The safe withdrawal of so large a body of
troops was indeed of much consequence, for though
peace was probable with the Americans it was less
194

A WISER GOVERNMENT
so with France, while Holland and Spain had yet to
be reckoned with, the latter no mean antagonist in
her still familiar and convenient battleground of the
West Indies. " It was impossible to judge," wrote
Rockingham's government to Carleton with a sane
discrimination, rare indeed then and not universal
now, "of the precise situation at so great a distance."
In this case, at any rate, even though driven to it by
despair, the British government may be credited
with sending out the ablest and most experienced
man at their disposal. It is also to their credit that
they loyally maintained, though shaky and shifting
among themselves, their admirable resolves. " The
resources of your mind," wrote these now thoroughly
sobered statesmen, "in the most perplexing and
critical situations have been already tried and proved
successful. At this perilous moment they give hope
to the nation and entitle you to a most honourable
support from His Majesty's ministers of which we
are authorized to give you the fullest assurance."
Carleton arrived in New York on May 9th, 1782,
and received the usual addresses of welcome and
confidence, genuine enough no doubt in his case.
The first despatches which reached him from Eng
land were full of fears for the safety of Halifax in
view of French fleets supposed to be prowling on
the Atlantic coast, and announced the deflection to
Nova Scotian waters of Hessian recruits destined
for New York. But the next told a different story,
for while Carleton was on the ocean Rodney's great
195

LORD DORCHESTER
victory in the West Indies had altered the situation,
and dismantled French battleships were making
their way to Boston for repairs leaving other less
fortunate consorts at the bottom of the sea.
Carleton had found the troops of his command
occupying the city of New York, and the immedi
ately adjacent districts within definite lines. Within
the latter too, besides the provincial Loyahst regi
ments and that part of the civil population who
adhered actively or passively to the Crown, were a
great number of refugees from all parts of the
northern and middle colonies, dependent for the
most part on money and supplies provided by
the British government.
Up the Hudson and in touch with his outposts
lay Washington with the northern army and its
French contingents. The entire open country was
controlled by congress, its officials and its laws.
Those who had befriended the Crown throughout
the whole or part of the seven years of war had been
either driven to one or other of the seaports held by
the British or led the lives of pariahs as they clung
desperately to the wreck of their property, hoping
vainly for some turn of fortune. Of the large
number of Americans in the rural districts, who, to
use a homely modern idiom, "sat upon the fence"
with judgment during the war and descended at the
right moment on the right side, history can never
take count. Military statistics give room for some
approximate inference by the simple process of sub-
196

DISTRIBUTION OF FORCES
traction. The results arrived at seem in keeping with
ordinary human nature and the sparsely settled
condition of so vast a country.
Moreover, unlike most revolutions, this one had
not been provoked by cruelty, suffering or oppres
sion in the ordinary sense of the word. Such terms
would be ridiculously inapplicable. The "chains and
slavery" of Patrick Henry, "whose efficacy" said his
rivals "was wholly seated in his tongue" were meta
phorical. Nor was it wholly a war, as some would
have it, of principles and ideals. There were sub
stantial grievances, commercial mainly, and chiefly
felt and resented by the propertied classes, a strong
element of whom led the common people by whirl
winds of fiery and skilful eloquence.
Leslie at Charleston in South Carolina with
Greene and the army of the South watching him,
occupied a very similar position to that of Carle
ton in New York. SaArannah, in Georgia, a province
both new and weak and still subsidized by Great
Britain, was occupied by a smaller force. The evacu
ation of both these places had been decided upon.
St Augustine again in East Florida was occupied
by a British force, but was scarcely threatened, and
indeed had become a resort of refugee settlers with
loyal views till it passed to Spain at the peace and
necessitated a second flitting.
All these posts and districts were under the com
mand of Carleton, who was almost immediately
confronted with an awkward incident, a legacy
197

LORD DORCHESTER
from Clinton's government, though no fault of his
nor indeed of anybody but the obscure persons con
cerned in the outrage. For it so happened that a
few weeks previously a Loyalist named Philip White
of New Jersey had met a violent death at the hands
of the rival party. This so enraged the Tories that,
acting under the instructions of the associated board
of Loyalists presided over, strangely enough, by Dr.
Frankhn's son, Captain Lippincott of the New Jersey
corps captured and hanged one Joshua Huddy,
a captain in the congress militia. They left him sus
pended to a tree with this inscription pinned on his
breast: " We are determined to hang man for man
while there is a refugee existing. Up goes Huddy
for Philip White." This raised a storm among the
Americans and in congress, and peremptory demands
were made for the punishment of Lippincott. Neither
Clinton nor Carleton, who found the dispute raging,
attempted to extenuate so irregular a proceeding,
whatever the crime that provoked it. Lippincott
was tried by the highest jurists in New York, who
found themselves powerless to convict him for
sufficient but technical reasons irrelevant here.
Washington now demanded that Lippincott should
be handed over to him, and, being very rightly
refused, caused lots to be drawn among the British
officers on parole in Pennsylvania, which resulted in
young Asgill, a lieutenant of nineteen in the Guards,
being placed in arrest as a victim for retaliation. This
unfortunate young man lay virtually under sentence
198

THE ASGILL CASE
of death for six months. It was another case of
Andre', with the same intercessions from powerful
quarters more painfully protracted though more
happily terminated. It was, however, a civil case for
congress, not, as the other, a military affair for Wash
ington. Carleton, of course, sent the earliest re
monstrances both to Washington, who truly replied
that he was powerless, and to congress, who would
be satisfied with nothing but the blood of either
Lippincott or Asgill. The latter was well connected.
His mother wrote pathetic and beseeching letters to
many quarters, which may be read in the State
papers to-day. In despair she wrote to the French
minister Vergennes at Paris, and not only enlisted
his active sympathy but that of the king and queen
of France, who were melted, it is said, to tears. But
congress cared nothing for kings and queens. Ver
gennes now tried more practical arguments, and
pointed out to congress that Asgill was in effect as
much the prisoner of the King of France as he was
theirs, seeing that His Majesty's arms had contri
buted so greatly to the victory of Yorktown where he
was captured. This was unanswerable, or at least sa
voured of a demand, and congress with a bad grace,
for Washington had long since wavered, gave way.
The same dilatoriness, however, distinguished their
completion of this small matter as had driven
Washington again and again to despair in greater
ones, and it was October before the youth who
had borne himself bravely, "a credit to the British
199

LORD DORCHESTER
army" as his colonel writes to Carleton, was actually
released. For a long time, even after Rodney's victory,
Carleton and Digby felt much anxiety on the sea
ward side from some combination of uninjured or
refitted French squadrons. Inland a curious, un
official and even precarious armed neutrality held
the two opposing armies. Carleton had been in
structed among other things to make known to con
gress and the American people generally the pacific
sentiments of the British government and House of
Commons, to acquaint them with everything which
could tend towards reviving old affections and ex
tinguishing late jealousies, and to inform them that
"the most liberal sentiments had taken root in the
nation, and that the narrow policy of monopoly was
totally extinguished, that a bill would pass the
House after the holidays, the consequence of which
would be a fresh commission to treat upon the most
liberal terms of mutual advantage, and to propose
an immediate cessation of hostilities." This must
have been a slightly humiliating task even to a broad-
minded man like Carleton, who had always deplored
this war though he had done such yeoman service
in it. His private opinions he might well have ex
pressed, but to be the mouthpiece of a sovereign and
government who had suddenly executed such a volte-
face was another matter. However, he went through
it with a good grace, and wrote admirable letters in
the strain suggested, both to Washington and to
200

BRITISH PRISONERS
congress, who replied without enthusiasm but with
suitable courtesy. It is interesting to note that Carle
ton's presence created some alarm among American
extremists who feared that the memory of his
lenient treatment of their released prisoners and his
conciliatory tact might prove to their disadvantage
in making terms. But though the sword was virtu
ally sheathed by tacit consent, even Carleton could
do nothing to diminish the gulf that had now
yawned so wide between the two parties. Polite
letters by the score, in connection with ordinary
business matters, passed between the British com
mander on the one hand, and Washington, Living
stone, as president of congress, and Lincoln, as
custodian of the British prisoners, on the other. But
the noble sentiments and general expressions of good
will expressed by one and all were almost invariably
qualified by some reference to regrettable incidents
by subordinates calling for prompt indemnification.
There were now two large bodies of British
prisoners in America, besides several smaller bands
captured on less notable occasions. The former con
sisted of the "convention prisoners?' surrendered
by Burgoyne at Saratoga, and those more recently
taken with Cornwallis at Yorktown. Exchanges had
slightly diminished the rolls of all, but there were
still six or seven thousand prisoners chiefly in Penn
sylvania, Maryland and Virginia. These, in con
nection with their exchanges, treatment and com
plaints, occasioned a vast deal of correspondence to
201

LORD DORCHESTER
Carleton, who made frequent protests on their behalf
to congress and elsewhere. A steady stream of
Loyalist refugees kept pouring into the British
lines — sometimes widows and children of deceased
Tories, sometimes men, the victims of an ever grow
ing ferocity that was by no means always confined
to the patriot side. The department of claims and
succour was under the immediate management of
Colonel Morris, a member of the council of New
York and one of Braddock's aides-de-camp at the
slaughter on the Monongahela seven years previously.
This gentleman is also distinguished as the success
ful wooer of Mary Phillips, who had previously in
flamed the heart but not reciprocated the feelings of
Morris's fellow aide-de-camp, George Washington.
Mary Phillips was a considerable heiress, sister-in-
law of Beverley Robinson, of familiar name in
Canada, and her property was the only woman's
estate formally confiscated. Twenty regiments of
Loyalists at different points were in Carleton's com
mand. There were three battalions of de Lancy's
brigade under Turnbull, three more of Jersey volun
teers under Skinner, Pennsylvania Loyalists under
Allen, and Marylanders under Chalmers, the Loyal
Americans under Beverley Robinson, who also com
manded a corps of guides and pioneers, while Fann
ing, of South Carolina, commanded the King's
American Regiment, the Queen's Rangers raised
and led by Simcoe and Tarleton's noted British
legion. The last three were afterwards placed on the
202

ASKS FOR RECALL
British establishment. The pay rolls of all these
corps may still be read in the State papers for Carle
ton's period, thanks to his indefatigable secretary,
Maurice Morgan, who has contributed to the shelves
of the Royal Institution nearly forty stout volumes
filled with the MSS. correspondence and accounts
for the years 1782 and 1783.
Halifax was regarded throughout this first sum
mer as the likeliest point of attack in Carleton's
command, but the thoughts of the king's govern
ment turned now to recapturing the lost West
India Islands, as well as to annexing those that had
not been theirs to lose, and they were eager to get
troops to those points from the American garrisons.
In August Carleton heard that complete independ
ence was to be ceded by the coming treaty, and he
promptly requested to be recalled. It is worth not
ing that while the king and his ministers had
blustered and vowed they would die rather than
concede anything till the Americans were overcome,
Carleton, whose views had been far more conciliatory
while a hope remained of retaining the colonies, had
firmly drawn the line at independence. His ambition
had been to win back the colonists by every con
cession short of actual separation, and now his
hopes were dissipated. He had no wish to stay
longer in America. He had counted on his position
there as a possible means of yet saving the situa
tion from this uttermost calamity, and the chance
apparently was not in his eyes a desperate one.
203

LORD DORCHESTER
Now, in the first blush of his disappointment, there
seemed no more use for him. But it was not to be.
Communications were tedious in those days. It was
not easy to find a qualified successor, and it ended,
as we all know, by Carleton being the last British
commander to leave the American shore. He had
been busy as usual with his own secret service, col
lecting by means of trusted agents the private
opinions of prominent Americans throughout the
colonies. A vast amount of interesting matter thus
collected remains among his papers. To quote an
example at haphazard — one member of congress
wished to know whether, if relations were resumed
on the principle of no taxation or customs regula
tions, the British government would put the Ameri
can army on the British establishment !
Carleton through all this period had at least
money and supplies. There was no question of half
rations nor of deferred pay for his troops or his
refugees. Washington's army on the other hand had
no pay and was ill supplied, while Greene's troops
who were watching Leslie in the south were, accord
ing to their general, nearly naked. In August the
evacuation of Savannah was accomplished, in July
that of Charleston was achieved without mishap,
though there had been great irritation and some
outpost fighting between the troops of Leslie and
Greene. War in the Carolinas, where the Loyalist
party was especially strong, had been proportion
ately ferocious. Leslie, however, got his people away
204

ROUTINE WORK
to the number of fifteen thousand, of whom about
half were refugees. They filled sixty ships, — joyful
soldiers sick of unsuccessful partisan warfare, and
bound for other scenes and honourable service; des
pondent refugees ruined mostly and bound, some for
England, others for a fresh start in life in the West
Indies ; negroes careless and excited, no doubt, some
free, some accompanying their masters, some taken
by self- constituted masters to be sold by auction in
the West Indies and to raise future troubles be
tween Carleton and congress.
In the autumn Carleton was ordered to Barbadoes
and active West Indian enterprises, and then im
mediately counter- ordered. He had an enormous
amount of miscellaneous as well as routine work on
his hands, as his surviving papers show. Leslie's
Hessians, eleven hundred strong, and seven hun
dred Loyahst soldiers, the remnant of seven regi
ments, now joined his garrison from Charleston.
Occasional incidents due to the mutual hatred of
provincial Whigs and Tories in or about the fines,
once or twice threatened to bring Washington
down upon him, while the chance of a French
attack by sea seems never to have been quite ab
sent, for Digby was weak in ships. But Carleton
was at least not worried by the home government.
"All we can do," wrote Townshend, "is to indicate
objects and choose a fit man like yourself to carry
them out." When the news of the proposed con
cession of complete independence reached New York
205

LORD DORCHESTER
the Loyalists were seized with despair and consterna
tion. Petitions streamed in on Carleton. "If we
have to encounter," ran one of them, "this inex
pressible misfortune, we beg consideration for our
lives, fortunes and property, and not by mere terms
of treaty." These men knew the relentless spirit of
their foes better than the British government. So
by this time did Carleton, who replied that it was
impossible not to sympathize with their fears, and
that he would lay their urgent addresses with all
speed before the king.
As the prospect of peace grew stronger and nearer
there was much correspondence between Carleton
and Washington, the former, with characteristic
warmth, urging consideration towards the Loyahst,
the latter replying in civil but entirely non-commit
tal fashion. Ah intercepted letter from Adams ex
pressed the sentiment that all Tories ought to be
hanged. Another from Washington suggested that
suicide was their only course. Such ebullitions of
feeling give some idea of the situation. To the home
government Carleton writes that some, no doubt,
will try to make terms with the Americans, but
others seem ready to submit to any extremity rather
than to their foes. He is trying, he continues, to
turn their thoughts towards other colonies, for
this was already regarded as the inevitable solution
of the problem, and Carleton had been for some
time in active correspondence with Governor Parr
and others in Nova Scotia regarding lands and
206

A COMMISSION APPOINTED
places for settlement. Haldimand wrote to Carle
ton that he was exchanging his prisoners with Ver
mont on easy terms, in view of the wavering sym
pathies of that martial and heady little province.
The amour propre of this staunch and trustworthy
old gentleman had taken alarm at some report that
Carleton was coming to Canada, which meant the
writer's temporary subordination, in which case he
would certainly go home at once. Carleton soothed
his fears by replying that he had not quitted that
government with any thoughts of ever returning
to it; an eminently unprophetic utterance !
In the meantime congress, ever bellicose and by
this time somewhat decadent, had received the
proposed terms of peace with a bad grace. They
wanted to know the exact nature and extent of
the independence proposed, and passed a resolu
tion to the several states not to remit their exer
tions for carrying on the war with vigour. They
could not be persuaded, however, to pay up the ar
rears due to the officers and men who had conducted
it to the present successful stage. Still they went so
far as to order Washington to appoint a commission
for the exchange of prisoners. Carleton was at a
loss to know whether all this meant that he was to
be attacked ; but in any case he appointed General
Campbell and Mr. Elliott to meet Washington's
commissioners and proposed to that general a de
finite agreement for the suspension of hostilities.
Washington replied that Indian raids— alluding to
207

LORD DORCHESTER
the ever lively Johnsons on the Mohawk — and ma
rine attacks that in a small way on remoter shores
were not infrequent, must in that case be also
stopped, which was only reasonable. Generals Heath
and Knox were nominated as Washington's commis
sioners in the matter of cartels, and the four met
at Tappan, between the lines. The meeting ended
in speedy and farcical fashion, for the Americans
opened the ceremony by presenting a big bill for the
keep of the British and German prisoners. Campbell
and Elliott were amazed. The negotiators were
evidently at cross-purposes so all four returned to
their respective quarters, the British rather sore at
having, as they thought, been brought on a fool's
errand, the Americans on the plea that the others
were invested with no power to treat.
Carleton had now with him nearly eight thousand
Germans, five thousand British regulars, and some
seventeen hundred provincials. Nine thousand of
the regulars were quartered at McGowan's Pass
and about a thousand at Kingsbridge, Paulus
Hook, Staten Island and Long Island respectively.
The provincials were stationed within the city for
obvious prudential reasons. The British regiments
were the 7th, 22nd, 37th, 38th, 42nd, 48th, 54th,
57th and some artillery. The German prisoners
captured with Burgoyne and stationed mostly in
Pennsylvania were also a constant source of trouble
to Carleton, though not through any fault of their
own, poor fellows. But with the Americans food
208

THE PLIGHT OF THE GERMANS
was unquestionably scarce, and the prisoners suf
fered in consequence. The Germans could not be
exchanged and some of the understrappers in the
congress service had notions far removed from equity
or mihtary custom. Some of them certainly displayed
a talent for mean and petty oppression and exaction
that surely surpassed the low average of the Jacks-
in-office of that day in most countries. The poor
Germans, often doubtless for lack of other quarters,
were confined sometimes in wretched gaols, some
times in other squalid buildings, and their complaints
were met even by superior officers with the retort
that the British government was responsible because
it would not pay for their keep ! All such expenses
may well be lumped in a general money compensa
tion to the victor in a long war at a treaty of peace,
but I know of no other case where an army still in
the field was expected to liquidate the board bill of
their comrades in captivity by quarterly remittances.
At this distance of time, when all concerned have
long been dust, and the Americans have earned a
reputation for unexampled hospitality, we may be
permitted to enjoy a httle the humour of the situa
tion. The Germans were told, however, that they might
liquidate their maintenance account and at the same
time secure their liberty by a payment of eighty
dollars. As few of them had eighty pence the pro
position offered small consolation. It proved, how
ever, only a forerunner to a more practical suggestion; 209

LORD DORCHESTER
for plenty of farmers it seems were willing to pay the
bonus in return for a three years' indenture of the
liberated soldier and his services. An alternative pro
position was also pressed upon them with all the elo
quence of a rival scheme, the recruiting sergeants
being empowered to offer them their liberty and a
bounty besides on enlistment in the service of con
gress. From our modern point of view it seems quite
curious how few of these poor men took advantage
of either, and with what indignation the great ma
jority repudiated both offers. These German mer
cenaries are often written of to-day and were then,
among the Americans, usually regarded as oppressed
peasants, torn unwillingly from their homes by
petty princes who fattened on the proceeds of their
nefarious bargain with the British government.
Much of this arises and arose from ignorance of the
mihtary conditions and customs of Europe in that
day — an irrelevant subject here. But one gets from
the attitude assumed and the answers given by
these much pitied mercenaries, a curious glimpse of
how strong among them was the pride of military
caste. Some of the meetings between groups of
these people and the American officials were vividly
described by one or other of their number and for
warded by way of protest to Carleton, and may
still be read among his papers. They scorned the
notion of doing menial work as an indentured ser
vant or "slave" to an American farmer. The
recruiting sergeants quite approved of this and
210

LOYALTY
applauded the repugnance shown by men who
followed "the glorious trade of war" to becoming
"the slaves of farmers" — for this is how these un
blushing republicans actually put it. But when the
latter came forward with their bounty, less no doubt
their own commission, and an offer to pursue the
paths of glory in the continental line, these simple
people found their duty to their own prince and
oath of allegiance to King George an insuperable
obstacle. "Though we are treated not like prisoners
of war but like wretches fallen into the hands of
barbarians," writes one of them, after they had
been addressed on the subject of the above pro
posal, "we replied that every word was thunder in
our ears and were struck dumb with such barbarous
proposals." Such warmth of language to the modern
Anglo-Saxon would appear quite overstrained, while
to prisoners in durance vile the offers might seem
tempting enough, and the transfer of allegiance at
that moment may well have seemed a mere trifle to
an American. But neither they at that time nor we
at this can put ourselves in the place of a Hessian
corporal of the eighteenth century with feudal
superstitions, homesickness, and domestic affections
tugging at his heart strings. The great number of
private men, corporals, and sergeants counting fif
teen and twenty years service strikes one as remark
able in these regiments. Their behaviour upon the
whole throughout the war, whether in quarters or
in the field, had been admirable. 211

LORD DORCHESTER
Early in the winter Carleton received permission
to return home, so soon as Lieutenant-General
Grey, appointed in his place, could relieve him. But
peace now seemed so certain that Grey was withheld
and Townshend wrote to Carleton, " Let me earn
estly entreat you to remain at this important
moment for the evacuation of New York and dis
tribution of His Majesty's troops. So much less
brilliant but none the less difficult and important ; a
great and complicated business, removal and distri
bution of troops, security and disposal of public
property, liquidation and adjustment of accounts,
the care, support and assistance of Loyalists, all
claim your attention. The justice of your claims to
return home are obvious. If His Majesty could
find any man on either side of the Atlantic as
much trusted he would not press this so urgently."
There is no space here for any catalogue of Carle
ton's manifold duties through this busy and anxious
winter of 1782-3. Arrangements were being pushed
forward in Nova Scotia, which then included New
Brunswick, for the reception of Loyalist emigrants,
and Carleton among other things protested with
success against the saddling of uncleared forest lands
with quit rents. At another time we find him restor
ing the bells of Charleston which some fervent re
fugees had included among their baggage, at another
endeavouring to recover six thousand pounds worth
of clothing which American underlings had appro
priated on its way to the prisoners in Pennsylvania
212

CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES
And amid these and innumerable other minor mat
ters, outside the care of a large garrison, the bitter
cry of refugee arrivals was always in his ears.
At the end of March, 1783, arrived the news that
the preliminary articles of peace were signed. The
opposing generals complimented one another, and
Washington issued orders for an absolute cessation
of any hostile acts. But the French government
were ill pleased. The capture of American trade
had been with them a leading object, and as one
means towards it they hoped to secure terms so
favourable for the Loyahsts that they would re
main in the country, assist in its progress, and look
to the French as benefactors. Dr. Frankhn and
Oswald had upset all this and, what was more,
the Loyahsts now learned to their dismay that
any hopes they still cherished of getting some
reasonable guarantees in the treaty were dashed to
the ground. Congress had no power, so it declared,
to take any action in this matter. All it could do
was to undertake that a recommendation should be
made to the different states to show consideration
for their late enemies. The British ministers, who, to
do them justice, had struggled in vain for something
better than this, hoped that even so much might
have some mitigating effect. The wholesale confis
cation of property at the close of a civil war fought
out for a principle between neighbours of the same
race, blood, and faith, was unknown among civilized
people in modern times, certainly among Britons.
213

LORD DORCHESTER
But the Loyalists knew the temper of their people
better and prepared forthwith to depart. On April
17th five thousand five hundred and ninety- three
refugees were embarked for Nova Scotia as a first
instalment. " Many of these," writes Carleton to
Governor Parr, "are of the first families and born to
the fairest possessions, and I beg therefore that you
will have them properly considered."
On May 6th Carleton met Washington and Clin
ton, the governor of New York, at Tappan and
discussed the exchange and liberation of prisoners.
Carleton's vessels were in such demand that it was
necessary to march the prisoners overland to New
York, and the management of this business was en
trusted to Colonel Alured Clarke, whom we shall
meet again later in Canada. About six thousand al
together had to be thus brought by road, some from
as far south as Charlottesville in Virginia. Those
who have read Captain Anbury's journals may well
fancy that they shook the red dust of that now
delectable and always most beautiful Virginia dis
trict off their ill-shod feet with heartfelt relief. A
week later proclamations were sent out by both
governments dissolving the officers' paroles. By the
terms of the treaty the British were to evacuate
New York, the only spot in the country except the
far western posts that they now held, with as much
despatch as possible. Nothing was actually said about
the Loyalists going with them ; but Carleton to his
honour determined to interpret the clause this way,
214

TRANSPORT DIFFICULTIES
and, as time went on and the bitter feeling towards
them more fully revealed itself, his resolution in
regard to this became immovably fixed and proof
against the constant complaints of congress at the
delay. His transport facilities were quite unequal to
the great demands made on them. From the time
that peace was proclaimed fresh refugees, who had
made brief experiments at home of what peace
meant, came thronging in. As fast as any new
supply of transports gave promise of meeting the
demand these refugees increased and occasioned
further delay. The whole proceeding took over six
months, and from July onwards Carleton was con
stantly importuned by congress to fix some precise
hmit to his occupation. He replied shortly, but
always courteously, that he was quite as anxious
as they were to finish the business, that it was purely
a matter of transport, that in the collection of this
his utmost endeavours were engaged and that no man
could do more. To their objections that the Loyahsts
were not included in the agreement Carleton replied
that he held opposite views. In any case he regarded
it as a point of honour that no troops should
embark until the last Loyalist who claimed his pro
tection should be safely on board a British ship. He
requested congress to appoint agents that they
might see for themselves how zealous he and his
officials were in their endeavours. By September,
when there were still numbers to be moved, Carleton
got rather short in his replies to these importunities, 215

LORD DORCHESTER
and at last on being requested to name an outside
date he honestly declared that he could not even
guess when the last ship would be loaded ; but he
was privately resolved to remain until it was. He
informed them, moreover, that the more the uncon
trolled violence of their citizens drove refugees to
his protection, by so much the longer would his
evacuation be delayed.
The American government were greatly concern
ed lest property belonging to their friends should
be included in the Loyahsts' baggage. By far the
most difficult property to classify were the negroes,
mostly refugees like the others. Who of these
were bond and who were free, and if the former
to whom did they belong and what course was the
correct one to pursue, was a problem such as no
fair-minded British commander, except Leslie at
Charleston, has probably ever been confronted with.
The Ethiopian's affidavit, then as now, was hardly
reliable. For that matter few white men would be
willing to swear away their liberty. Then again the
question whether a negro escaping from a rebel
master to a government at the time locally supreme
and who had thus obtained his freedom should be
returned as a chattel, which according to strict
law and the treaty he should have been, was
really a complicated question. It must be remem
bered that the British flag did not legally mean free
dom in 1783 as Canada did half a century later.
Carleton was utterly loath to send these people back
216

NEGROES
to masters who would not unnaturally receive them
with more or less harshness of treatment. He re
quested, therefore, that commissioners should be
appointed to take full particulars of every negro
that was shipped, and wherever there was any case
for compensation it should be registered for after
consideration. This plan was adopted, and elaborate
registers were made of all the identified negroes,
describing their appearance, sex, age and owner.
These may be read to-day among Carleton's papers,
where they are described in hundreds as "likely
fellows," "stout wenches," " hkely lads," " incurably
lazy," "stout fellows," and "wornouts." To any one
familiar with southern life immediately after the
late Civil War, as is the case with the present
writer, these phrases have a curiously suggestive ring,
though the Pompeys, Caesars, Jupiters, Princes, and
Dianas that figure in Carleton's fists had then almost
wholly given way to less classical appellations.
Elaborate lists still remain to us of the officers of
the Loyalist corps put upon half pay, and among the
letters to Carleton from various provincial officers
one is surprised to find that the custom of purchase
apparently flourished even in these locally raised
regiments, three hundred pounds being mentioned
as having been paid for a company, and two hundred
and forty pounds for the quartermaster's berth in a
New Jersey volunteer corps. The most pathetic por
tion perhaps of Carleton's papers consists of letters
from widows of Loyalists whose husbands had fallen,
217

LORD DORCHESTER
explaining their wretched circumstances in detail,
and petitioning for pensions which seem to have been
always allotted to them. Six Loyahst corps num
bering about one thousand five hundred men were
disbanded and settled in Nova Scotia, and several
Hessian officers with small fortunes applied to Car
leton for similar privileges, which were, of course,
granted on the same scale of acreage as that allotted
to British officers. But I must not drift into the affairs
of the Loyalist refugees so voluminously set forth
in the Carleton correspondence, and of such abiding
interest to most Canadians. It will be enough to
say that the bulk of these shipments went to the
Maritime Provinces, including Cape Breton and
Prince Edward Island, whose proprietors had made
considerable, though to them profitable enough,
concessions. A few went to both Upper and Lower
Canada to swell the numbers that then and after
wards resorted thither overland, and these last in
cluded many Americans other than Loyahsts
frightened out of the neighbouring states by the
bogey of taxation which was now provoking dis
turbances all over the country. The number of
Loyalists whom Carleton actually embarked it is
difficult to estimate with any accuracy. The num
ber expected was twenty-seven thousand, but this
was probably in excess of that which actually sailed.
It was the end of November before the last British
drum beat its farewell on the battery, and the last
British red-coat filed into the boats. On November
218

THE LAST DESPATCH
29th Carleton wrote his last despatch on board
the Ceres anchored in the harbour. It supported
a final petition of Loyalist widows for pensions, and
included the fact that "His Majesty's troops and
such remaining Loyahsts as chose to emigrate were
successfully withdrawn on the 25th inst, from the
city of New York in good order, and embarked
without the smallest circumstance of irregularity or
misbehaviour of any kind." Thus dropped the cur
tain on Carleton's second period of laborious and
distinguished service to his country, as it also
dropped on one of the most fateful and pregnant
struggles in the world's history.

219

CHAPTER XI
DORCHESTER'S RETURN
AFTER two years spent in England, which, so far
as we know, were uneventful ones to Carleton
save that he was created Baron Dorchester, he was
offered and accepted the chief-governorship of Can
ada at the beginning of 1786. With the sudden in
flux of Loyahst refugees variously estimated at from
thirty to fifty thousand, a third of whom perhaps
would be in Canada proper, the equilibrium, social,
pohtical and religious of that country, bade fair to be
considerably upset. New cleavages, new issues and
new difficulties were imminent within the province.
Without it France was in a highly electrical con
dition, while one of the two great parties into which
the United States was now divided was actively
hostile to Great Britain, and sore at the failure to
include Canada in their new republic. Indeed the
immediate future of Canada promised to tax the
capacities of the ablest ruler, and the British govern
ment at this crisis seems to have turned naturally to
Carleton. Domestic legislation of a thorny kind and
danger from without was the almost certain lot of
the next occupant of the Chateau St. Louis, and it
would seem that some pressure was put on Carleton
in the matter and that he went out rather from a sense
of patriotism and duty than personal inclination. 221

LORD DORCHESTER
However unemotional his temperament, the feel
ings of Dorchester, as we must now call him, may
well have been stirred as he again beheld the spires
and rooftrees and batteries of Quebec ascending from
the water line to their high protecting fortress, and as
he climbed once more the steep familiar streets,
every turn of which he had such good cause to
know. When eight years previously Haldimand had
arrived to take his place, the two had met in brief
interchange of courtesies. This time Dorchester had
renewed Haldimand's acquaintance in London be
fore sailing, and was received at Quebec by Hope, the
lieutenant-governor, who had acquitted himself with
sufficient credit in the interval. His government
had been marked by comparative domestic peace,
pending the advent of so renowned an arbiter of
Canadian friction. "We must preserve Quebec even
if we have to send Carleton himself," Shelburne had
written with scant courtesy and, one might add, scant
gratitude, to Haldimand, whose biographer in this
series has freed the memory of that excellent official
from a good deal of ill-judged and unmerited censure.
Events of incalculable significance to North
America, and to the world for all time, had happened
since Carleton left Quebec in 1778. A new nation
had arisen to the southward and had thrown off
inadvertently the germ of another. A new and in
vigorated Canada had been born, which through the
crucial fever of racial discord was to emerge at last
into a power of such proportions as few of its most
222

UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS
ardent friends had ever dreamed of; but Dorchester
was among those few.
He had now to face the incipient difficulties
of this upheaval as it affected Canada. The shaggy
wilderness along the Upper St. Lawrence and the
north shore of Lake Ontario, that had been in his
former reign but a forbidding barrier cutting him off
from the western posts, was now gradually opening
to the fight before the axes of the first United
Empire Loyalists. Dorchester's trouble with the ear
lier handful of British Americans in their inequi
table claims to a monopoly of power must have
recurred to him as he looked over the correspond
ence relating to thousands of these men, whereas
before there had been only hundreds. But the latter,
by no stretch of imagination, could have been re
garded as picked men. These others Dorchester,
from his New York experience no doubt, knew well
were persons for the most part of another calibre,
and yet this very fact may have seemed to make
the future problem of Canadian government the
more difficult.
That Dorchester had to report his reception as
a warm one goes without saying. His reputation
had probably increased in his absence, not only by
that automatic process by which time enhances the
virtues of the virtuous and the vices of the vicious,
but by comparison with other rulers who even if
misjudged and underrated were at any rate not
Carletons. He had, moreover, a host of old friends
223

LORD DORCHESTER
in the country, or perhaps having regard to the
popular governor's temperament, admiring acquaint
ances would be the better word. The "friends of
congress," or those advocating the most exclusive
Anglo-Protestant pretensions were doubtless not so
enthusiastic in their greeting.
Dorchester had come out with wider powers than
any previous governor. He was not only the ruler of
Canada, but had chief authority, when called upon
to exercise it, over Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,
and Prince Edward Island. The latter, hitherto
under an administrator directly responsible to the
Crown, was now, though vastly increased in popu
lation through United Empire Loyalist immigrants,
under a lieutenant-governor. New Brunswick, just
created a province, was for the same cause similarly
administered. The Loyalists in the district of
Montreal and those already at Kingston on the
shores of Lake Ontario numbered from five to ten
thousand and were steadily increasing. There was
not now to be another Livius, for this time Dor
chester had brought out his own chief-justice, Wil
liam Smith, son of a New York judge and himself
once chief-justice of that important province. Taking
the loyal side he had retired to England with Carle
ton who held him in high regard. Both of them had
been much in conference while in London with
Lord Sydney, now a secretary of state, as to the
future conduct of Canada, and Dorchester's after
correspondence with that nobleman bears small
224

LEGAL CHAOS
resemblance in tone to the perfunctory and pep
pery despatches that went back and forth between
Germain and himself.
Dorchester was at once confronted with the old
difficulty of the French and English laws in Canada, •,
which the Quebec Act had theoretically settled by
giving the criminal courts to the one and the civil
courts to the other. Some, however, of the ordin
ances of the Quebec Act were not final, and had to
be renewed every two years, which in such cases
gave rise to much discussion. But though the Eng
lish criminal law commended itself to all, English
litigants in matters not affecting land constantly
rejected the French code. This, being a mixture of
the old French and Roman law, with much that
custom alone had improvised and sanctioned, pre
sented a Herculean labour for the English advo
cate to grapple with. French justices it was com
plained still followed French, and English justices
English law, precisely as they chose, to the confusion
of all litigation. Smith showed his predilection at
once for a loose interpretation of the Quebec Act,
and a leaning towards the royal proclamation of
1763, and gave official utterance to it in reversing a
judgment of the Common Pleas that came to him
early in his first term. Indeed the confusion had be
come so great that one of Dorchester's first acts on
calling the legislative council together was to ap
point a committee to inquire into the matter and
report upon it. 225

LORD DORCHESTER
Committees were also nominated to report on
the commerce, the police and the education of
the province. Commerce was almost wholly repre
sented by Montreal and Quebec, both now about
the same size, and each containing about eight
thousand souls. Their merchants, being mostly
British, drew up a report on the confusion of the
existing laws, which Dorchester's committee in turn
strongly recommended to his "most serious con
sideration and reflection." Trial by jury in civil cases
had, since Dorchester's former rule, been introduced
with the limitation that it was optional with the
litigants. Smith now brought a new bill into the
council continuing the ordinance in all civil affairs,
and establishing trial by jury between "merchant
and merchant, and trader and trader," as well as in
the matter of "personal wrongs " proper to be com
pensated in damages, "with certain other clauses in
tended to cure some of the disorders now prevalent
in the courts." This, however, was rejected by the
committee. The opposing party now brought in a
fresh bill, but in the words of one of the others it
merely retained the name of jury lest the advantages
derived from that "glorious institution" should be
wholly lost. The merchants prayed to be heard by
council against the bill, and were so heard through
the mouth of Attorney- General Monk for six hours.
In his peroration Monk exposed such a confused
state of justice that he "astonished the whole audi
ence." These disclosures moved Dorchester to ap
226

EDUCATIONAL CONTROVERSIES
point a committee under Chief-Justice Smith to in
vestigate into the past administration of the laws as
well as into the conduct of judges in the courts both
of Appeal and of Common Pleas. Every leading per
son was examined, and such a state of anarchy and
confusion was shown to exist, says a legal chronicler
who was living at the time, as no other British
province ever before laboured under, "English
judges following English, French judges French
law, and what was worse some followed no par
ticular laws of any kind whatsoever."
The committee called to take evidence on the
schools and education of the province, and to form
an opinion as to founding a university, produced
no definite result, like the others, in view of the
great general changes involved in the division of the
country by the Canada Act of 1791. But it produced
a pretty controversy between Hubert, the Bishop of
Quebec, and his coadjutor Bailly, who was a highly
polished cleric, a persona grata at the Chateau St.
Louis, and had gone back to England in 1778
as tutor in Carleton's family. Their respective re
plies in answer to questions make instructive read
ing. It need only be noted here that the bishop
was in favour of an improved education in theory
only. He enumerated the various seminaries, such as
that at Quebec for the higher education mainly of
priests, and the other at Montreal which was merely
a large free school — besides its college. The bishop
proceeded then to mention the various convents,
227

LORD DORCHESTER
such as the Ursulines, and the nuns of the General
Hospital who gave education free or otherwise
to girls. It seems clear from his manner of reply
that virtue and respect for religion were the main
things imparted to the young ladies at these teach
ing centres, which he considered more than ade
quate. He certainly gives the impression that he
thought nothing else much mattered. But this was
not what the committee were sitting for. Neither
any lack of virtue or religion had caused concern to
the governor and his council, but rather the want of
educational opportunities for all classes. When the
bishop was asked if it were true that only three or
four persons in each parish could read and write, his
Lordship repelled the insinuation as " a wicked cal
umny started by bad men" which had even reached
his own sacred ears. Thirty, he declared, was more
like the average number, but anticipating perhaps
some measure of scepticism on the part of the com
mittee, about half of whom were French, he qualified
the estimate by admitting the larger portion of these
select ones to be women. " The country cure's," he
protested, " do their utmost to spread education in
their parishes." With regard to a university presided
over by men of unbiased and unprejudiced views
he opined that that sort of men had generally no
views of any kind on sacred matters. As to the de
mand for a university, he thought that the farmers
with so much land to clear would prefer, until that
was accomplished, to keep their sons at home to help
228

EDUCATIONAL CONTROVERSIES
to clear it, rather than spend hard-earned money in
sending them to gain education at Quebec.
M. Bailly, the coadjutor, who for various reasons
was on the worst of terms with his ecclesiastical
chief, but who was an abler and broader-minded
person, then proceeded to demolish the bishop's
statements in relentless fashion, under the specious
pretext that some malevolent person had foisted
the paper on the committee as the bishop's with
design to injure him. He sarcastically depicted the
bishop as arguing that till Canada was cleared up to
the polar regions the education of its inhabitants
must be left in abeyance. His further enthusiasm
for non-sectarian education is eloquently expressed
and covers several pages. It was pointed out by
him and others that the new provinces of Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick would contribute stu
dents to such a university increasingly as time
went on.
The finding of the committee was under six heads,
which in general terms may be described as in favour
of free common schools in every parish and a sec
ondary school, to use a modern phrase, in every
town and district, and lastly of a non-sectarian
college from which rehgion was to be rigorously
excluded. As regards the last proposition, this com
mittee of 1787, judged by the light of the inter
vening period, may be regarded as a singularly
sanguine body.
As a Canadian historian has well said, these gen-
229

LORD DORCHESTER
eral inquiries on commerce, law and education, if
they served no other purposes, succeeded in illus
trating in a high degree the passions and prejudices
that distinguished the province at that day. The
income of the Jesuit estates was regarded by most
people as a natural source of revenue for any fresh
educational enterprises. Four aged members of the
fraternity alone survived, and at their death the
property passed away from the order. The balance
of the income, after their frugal wants had been
supphed, had been hitherto devoted to the mainten
ance of the seminary. But another claimant had to
be considered, for the estates had been either grant
ed or promised to Amherst about the time of the
conquest, and he now urged his rights. Perhaps these
had not been formally established or defined ; in any
case the Canadians, as was natural, in view of the
scarcity of money and lack of educational facilities
strenuously objected and presented a petition to the
Crown which Dorchester forwarded early in 1788.
The weakness of Amherst's claim, if otherwise valid,
lay in the fact that the Jesuits held the estates in the
light rather of trustees than of owners, and that the
property was originally given for the education of
Indians and Canadians. The matter was not finally
settled for more than forty years.
Other interests, however, were moving. In his first
year Dorchester was approached by the Vermonters
in the person of Silas Deane, who had been mooting
the subject in London, in regard to an outlet for
230

THE INDIAN QUESTION
their trade by the St. Lawrence. Vermont, not ad
mitted as a state till 1791, as readers of Haldi-
mand's life will know, had been prompted by
various reasons during the war to coquet with
British rule through the medium of Quebec. Now,
however, it was a commercial matter and all above
board. Free trade with Canada had been suggested
long before and the Green Mountain men were now
anxious to combine with the British province in
circumventing the rapids of the Richelieu between
St. Johns and Chambly — for this was then their
natural trade outlet — by a canal. Dorchester, who
had already discussed the matter in London, was
favourable to the scheme. It seemed feasible and
would have promoted friendly relations, a motive
always powerful with Dorchester. But this also fell
through, and was not achieved for fifty years.
What gave the governor most concern, however,
was the critical state of the Indian question in the
far West. The moment he landed this was pressed
upon him by letters from Sir John Johnson who
was in charge of the western districts. These posts,
stretching southwards from Detroit to the Ohio and
northwards up the shores of Lake Huron to Michili-
mackinac, had been retained by Great Britain as
security for certain concessions on the part of
the United States to the Loyalists. The Indians
had been ignored altogether in the treaty of peace
through timidity, or oversight, or a feeling of
helplessness, and those whose hitherto recognized 231

LORD DORCHESTER
territories were being invaded right and left by ad
venturers over whom an inevitably weak congress
had no control, were loud in their protests. The
forts were feebly garrisoned, the Indians were
losing faith in British compacts and friendship,
while something approaching war on a consider
able scale and of a quite lawless kind was setting
the West on fire. The Alleghany frontiersmen, who
mainly composed the vanguard of these new Ohio
settlers and would-be settlers, were a fine and virile
race with a prevalent strain of Ulster or Scotch- Irish
Presbyterian blood. The defenders of the Sault-au-
Matelot at Quebec in 1 775 had felt their courage,
and the sentries on the walls had suffered much from
their deadly aim. But they had their failings, chief
among which perhaps was an impatience of outside
control and a contempt for distant governments,
natural enough to men who had not merely to
carve out, but to fight for their own homes. Histor
ians and contemporary despatch writers speak of
them as Virginians and Pennsylvanians, but such a
definition is purely technical and due to the fact
that they lay at the back of and within the parrallels
of these and other states. They bore indeed slight
resemblance to the normal Virginian or Pennsylva-
nian, had little intercourse with them, and flouted
both them and their governments whenever it suited.
For the weak authority of the much harassed con
gress they had no regard whatever, unless it was
backed by sufficient troops. Some acquaintance with
232

ALLEGHANY FRONTIERSMEN
their descendants still living rude lives in the wilder
portions of their ancient haunts helps one to realize
how hopeless it would have been, except by force,
to impress upon such people the equity of distant
treaty rights and above all the rights of Indians,
whom they held as vermin, though they respected
them as warriors. To hold back men of the type of
Boone or Brady, of Clarke or Logan, of Shelby or
Sevier, to cite familiar names, from the edge of a
boundless wilderness by parchment documents, was
a practical impossibihty even if such treaty rights
had been clearly defined. Behind these born front
iersmen followed clouds of only less hardy and reck
less settlers from the eastern provinces, and soldiers
lately disbanded from Washington's forces. The
Indians' territory was invaded at all points on the
upper Ohio and to the south of the lakes, and san
guinary skirmishes were of constant occurrence. St
Clair, who had commanded and evacuated Ticon
deroga before Burgoyne's advance was sent as gov
ernor to the new territory, and did his best for peace,
but the Indians told him that they could no more
restrain their young men than the Americans could
hold their own wilder spirits. The British agents in
the meantime could give no advice or assistance,
while the small British garrisons on the edge of the
struggle were weak to futility.
The Indians were clamouring to know whether
the British posts were to be given up to "the Yan
kees," and threatened to visit Dorchester at Quebec,
233

LORD DORCHESTER
and get to the root of the matter. Indeed these un
fortunate people may well have fallen into a state
of bewilderment as to who was now their "Father,"
a third claimant having appeared as candidate for
this disinterested relationship. In the meantime they
continued to interchange scalps with the western
frontiersmen who burnt their villages and council
halls, till the American regular troops were called
into the field to the number of two thousand three
hundred and received one severe defeat at the hands
of as many Indians. But this was not till 1791.
It was no desire of wounding British susceptibili
ties or infringing British rights that prompted this
forward movement on the American frontier so far
as the government was concerned. On the contrary,
there was a general appreciation of the advantages
of English over-sea trade after its long cessation,
and the trans- Alleghany people saw that their only
outlet was by the Mississippi through Spanish terri
tory. There was, therefore, a strong feeling that this
magnificent waterway must be opened to them
willingly or unwillingly. The backwoodsman's views
on foreign politics were crude and are sometimes
only less so now. The feelings of Spain would not
have been much considered had the power been
theirs, as the darker schemes of Aaron Burr and
Wilkinson and their unfortunate dupe Blennerhas-
set a few years later give ample evidence.
It was natural for every reason that Dorchester
should wish to visit his sub-governments of Nova
234

PATTERSON'S HOBBY
Scotia and New Brunswick as soon as possible, hav
ing in view the interesting situation and rapid de
velopment brought about by the Loyalist refugees.
Almost immediately on landing he informed Parr,
the lieutenant-governor of the former province, that
he hoped shortly to be with him, and to include the
islands of St. John and Cape Breton in his tour.
The former, at that time scarcely giving promise of
the importance it has since attained as Prince Ed
ward Island, was under a lieutenant-governor named
Patterson, who on being superseded by the home
authorities in the autumn of Dorchester's arrival, re
fused to give up his post to his successor, Fanning,
whom they had sent out. He writes his reasons to
Dorchester, which were in effect that the island had
been his hobby. He had given it its laws, its roads,
its inhabitants, its separate legislature. He had made
his home there and his interests were such that
they could not be managed by another. He could
not go to England to answer charges of which he
knew nothing, as when he was in Europe he ob
viously could not collect evidence in the island. At
present he was condemned unheard and for what he
did not know, so he proposed to remain until
further light was shed upon the matter. His people
were apparently with him, so Mr. Fanning's im
mediate prospects of administering the fertile little
island were poor, though that well known Carolina
Loyalist and the majesty of the law prevailed in the
end. This incident is a fair illustration of the enor-
235

LORD DORCHESTER
mous difficulties which the size of the country pre
sented to its administrators of that day.
Nova Scotia, before its division and the Loyahst
influx, had contained about fifteen thousand inhabit
ants. In a couple of years over thirty thousand had
been added to them. A monthly mail packet was
established from Halifax to England, and Dor
chester set to work to organize a land express from
Quebec to the winter ports. It sounds strange now
that the most effective method of transit was found
to be on foot ! Speaking generally there were two
distinct waves of Loyalist immigration. The influx of
1783 has already been alluded to. It was the im
mediate result of the close of the war and included
disbanded Loyalist regiments as well as people of all
sorts and conditions for whom a residence in the
new republic was either impossible, unsafe or unpal
atable. Later arrivals consisted of those who might
have gone in '83 but were deterred not merely by
the reported rigours of the climate and infertility of
the soil, which was a common impression to the south,
but by their fears of the Quebec Act and of strange
laws, and the absence of representative government
All the Loyahst and militia corps were of course in
the first batch, over six hundred for instance having
been settled by Butler and de Peyster at Niagara, and
about five hundred on the Crown seigniories of Sorel,
and others near Montreal, Chambly and St. Johns.
Nearly four hundred, of whom a considerable part
were Loyalist soldiers and Rangers, were provided for
236

The Loyalist Settlers

From the John Huns Robertson collection

LOYALIST SETTLEMENTS
in the district of which the modern Kingston is the
centre. It was quite obvious that ex- American col
onists would not be satisfied to hold land under
seigniorial usage, and it was necessary to go outside
the line of the seigniories. There was little difficulty
in finding land in the Richelieu country and to
the west of Montreal, and of course, none whatever
in the virgin wilderness up the St. Lawrence to
wards Lake Ontario or on the Canadian shore at
Niagara, nor for the few score families who settled
as far down the St. Lawrence as Gaspe" and the
Bay of Chaleurs. That this large nucleus of settle
ment soon manifested an impatience of those French
laws which still perplexed was not unnatural. Settlers
also kept dropping in from the States, where there
was much friction and discontent, and swelled
the cry for constitutional changes and above all
for that elective assembly which they had been
accustomed to regard as the one thing essential to
the happiness of all freeborn men, except colonial
governors. Dorchester recognized all this to the full, and
warned the home government that fresh conces
sions in this direction were inevitable. But he con
fessed himself at a loss for a plan, so complex had
the matter now become. " In a country," he writes,
"where nine-tenths of the people do not yet under
stand even the nature of an assembly, any such
scheme should be fully explained to them and they
should be given ample time to digest it." 237

LORD DORCHESTER
The organizing activity of the Kingston Loyalists
was early astir. For while they were still petitioning
Dorchester for another supply of provisions pending
the gathering of harvest, they prayed that the Eng
lish and Scottish Churches might be established
among them, and that they should be assisted to
erect a schoolhouse in each neighbourhood. They also
petitioned for a supply of clothes, and it must be re
membered that scarcely any of these people, gentle
or simple, were able to bring much more with them
than they could carry upon their backs. The story
of their fight with poverty and the primasval forests,
with the plague of insects, which then made life
almost intolerable during the summer months, with
sickness beyond reach of doctors or drugs, is both a
pathetic and a noble one, above all when one re
members the physical comforts and social distinc
tion which had been the former lot of so many of
them. But all this has been told elsewhere many
times. Dorchester did what he could. He sent them
food and clothes and such medical assistance as the
province, itself poorly provided in that respect,
could spare. He eventually went to see them him
self, though his visit was delayed for a season by
the arrival of Prince Wilham Henry.
He found them, however, the following year, pro
gressing favourably. Settlers were shortly expected
on the American shore of the St. Lawrence and
Lake Ontario, and the United Empire Loyalists were
influenced by a not unworthy ambition to show them
238

THE LAND DIFFICULTY
that they were finding material as well as sentimental
consolation beneath the British flag. The land ten
ures, however, were still giving much anxiety, for the
owners of seigniories French and English, of which
last there were now a few, objected to the govern
ment selling wild lands in free and common socage.
It contrasted too favourably with the position of
their own censitaires and would thereby tend to de
preciate their own estates. But the division of the
province was already in the air, and settlers from
the south were flocking steadily into it, some at
tracted by the easy terms of land, and others the
objects of ill usuage at home; for the soil of Upper
Canada had proved fertile beyond expectation, and
all could now see that the idea of a virtually hom
ogeneous French Canada under British rule was
shattered. The Quebec Act, which in any case was
not regarded as final, would soon need amendment
under the pressure of developments due to peculiar
causes that no human eye could have foreseen at its
enactment. Still, even a division of the province would by no
means dispose of the land difficulty. The British-
American settlers on the Richelieu and Lake St.
Francis already numbered some thousands and
would absolutely reject the French method of ten
ure and inheritance, as they had already substituted
the acre for the arpent and the square survey for the
narrow strip wherever possible. The Eastern Town
ships of Quebec to-day still in part illustrate the
239

LORD DORCHESTER
contrast between the two races in their ideas of
survey and settlement. Nor again is it realized in
Great Britain, and not fully perhaps even in Canada,
what a large admixture of German blood went in
with these United Empire Loyalists. One entire
German Loyalist regiment settled in the Kingston
district, and on the roster of another corps one finds
a thick sprinkling both of Dutch and German
patronymics. As already mentioned, in the August of 1787
Dorchester's intended visit to the Maritime Pro
vinces was postponed by the arrival of Prince
William Henry, the future King Wilham IV. in
command of H. M. S. Pegasus. With Judge
Prowse's1 entertaining account in mind of the
cheerful and popular manners of the sailor prince
during his long stay in Newfoundland, one can
well beheve that he repaid the enthusiasm with
which the Canadians greeted him in hearty fashion.
De Gaspe" tells us what despair he caused Lady
Dorchester at her balls by choosing his partners
where he listed rather than where ceremony re
quired. On his way up from Quebec to Montreal,
whither the governor preceded him, he stopped at
Sorel where government had encouraged the begin
nings of a town and shipyards. The leading inhabit
ants were so delighted with the friendly young man
that they violated their past and exchanged the old
name of the place for that of William Henry. But
1 Prowse's, History of Newfoundland.
240

FIRST BISHOP OF NOVA SCOTIA
time had its revenge. Sorel, if but a mushroom
townlet then, had graven its name deep in the story
of two wars and after a few years only officials in
public documents remembered its second baptism,
till even they wearied of the farce.
A French marquis on his travels was soon after
wards sent to Dorchester with introductions from
leading Enghshmen, but the governor privately
begged that these visits of foreigners should not be
encouraged, for the political state of the country
made them embarrassing. But a more useful arrival
now put in an appearance, namely, an Anglican
bishop for British North America; the first of a long j
fine of distinguished prelates that have served that
Church on both sides of the border. This was Charles
Inglis, who was to take his title from Nova Scotia
and reside there, but to have jurisdiction over Ang
lican Quebec. He had distinguished himself in New
York both as an earnest churchman and evangehst,
while later as a zealous Loyalist and rector of Christ
Church he had aroused the enmity of the patriot
party by his inconvenient eloquence. He left New
York with Carleton at the evacuation and proceeded
to Halifax, where his abilities gave him the first
claim to the new see. In 1789 the bishop visited
Quebec and ascended the river to Montreal, warmly
welcomed everywhere by officials and Anglicans.
The latter at Montreal had hitherto been indebted
to the courtesy of the Recollets for the use of their
church. Dorchester now granted and had restored
241

LORD DORCHESTER
for them the derelict church of the suppressed order
of Jesuits. In this same August the first Episcopal
conference of the Protestant Church and the first
confirmation was held in the Re'collets' church at
Quebec. It is curious in Sydney's official letters to Dor
chester to read of a notion prevalent in England that
America was going to apply for a monarch of the
House of Hanover ! The minister also deprecates any
idea of contracting a commercial treaty with Ver
mont and represents the London merchants trading
with Quebec as greatly annoyed at the want of gaols
in Canada for the confinement of debtors. In short
the Coutume de Paris seemed to the British mer
chant a monstrous anachronism. The British minis
ter, however, writes that he does not see why the
Canadians should not have their own laws if they
chose. Dorchester in this same year (1788) sent back the
29th, 31st and 34th Regiments and received instead
the 5th, 26th and the first battalion of the 60th, so
he had now, in view of possible complications with
the United States, some two thousand troops spread
over one thousand one hundred miles of frontier,
and an extremely unreliable militia. The late success
of the Americans had undermined British prestige
in the eyes of the Canadian masses. The Canadian
militia, now grown more than ever averse to
thoughts of war, would feel that the regulars sup
porting them were not infallible and were at any
242

POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS
rate under a cloud. During 1788, however, Dorches
ter did his utmost to give efficiency to this service,
and instructed the lieutenant-governors to have the
forces of their several provinces set in order, for even
if peace were maintained with their neighbours, war
with France might break out at any moment. He
sent to England for thirty thousand stand-of-arms
and other war material, which Sydney promised him
by the following spring. The postal arrangements
too were completed at the same time, and it is cur
ious to find, even in these early days, Halifax and
St John worrying Dorchester with their rival claims
as open ports for a quick passage. This was to be
made twelve times a year by a sailing packet and
the Quebec letters were to be delivered by a walk- ;
ing postman till roads could be cut ! The dispute was
settled by dividing these substantial favours alter
nately between the rivals, and Finlay of Quebec as
postmaster-general had to see them carried out.
The expense of forwarding heavy packages may
be gathered from the post-office charges of £28 16s.
on the transport of a petition in a box from Mont
real to Quebec addressed to Dorchester, which the
latter refused to accept on the reasonable pretext
that a continuance of so expensive a correspondence
would be an intolerable burden on all concerned.
Adam Lymburner, a Quebec merchant, and des
cribed by Dorchester as " a quiet, decent man not
unfriendly to the administration " had been already
sent to England with a petition from the Quebec
243

LORD DORCHESTER
merchants for a change in the constitution. But the
Loyalist influx had introduced silent arguments for
this departure far more potent than the somewhat
poor ones hitherto advanced by the old British fac
tion in Quebec.
In the summer of 1788 the notorious and ener
getic Ethan Allen, whose ardour had been in no
wise cooled by his long confinement in a mediaeval
British fortress, again approached in diplomatic
form the personage who had captured him and
had been the means of his unwilling visit to
Europe. His brother had been Dorchester's corres
pondent in the previous year and his letters had
merely related to the free shipment of goods from
Vermont to the St. Lawrence, and those commercial
affairs which Silas Deane, it will be remembered,
had in hand. Ethan Allen certainly bore no malice,
for this curious document is little short of a proposal
to return to the British fold. His hatred of the new
federal government, together with the commercial
advantages of the British alternative, was no doubt
the inspiring motive of Allen and the party he rep
resented. Vermont had not yet become a state and
owing to many causes a considerable party within her
borders had no longer any wish that she ever should.
Her proximity to Canada, wrote Allen, made her
an object of suspicion and jealousy to the new gov
ernment, but if the latter tried to force itself upon
them there were fifteen thousand able-bodied Ver-
monters more than equal to a similar number of
244

VERMONT'S PROPOSALS
United States troops. Their objection to joining the
new confederacy was that it would expose them to
the displeasure of Great Britain, ruin their commerce
and involve them in debt, if not insolvency. The
differences of the confederacy owing to diversity of
climate and their licentious notions of liberty im
bibed in the course of the revolution operated against
successful combination in government. Allen urges
Dorchester not to undervalue Vermont on account
of her geographical limitations. Immigration adds to
her strength, as the people continually coming in
want "property not liberty."
During the last three years of the war Allen
pointed out that there had been practically an alli
ance of neutrality between Vermont and the British.
" If the latter," he declared, " could have afforded
them protection at that time, the Vermonters would
readily have yielded up their independence and have
become a province of Great Britain. Should the
United States now attempt to coerce them they
would doubtless do the same if British policy har
monized with the idea. The leading men of Vermont
are not so sentimentally attached to a republican
form of government, yet from political principles
are determined to maintain their present mode of it
till they can have a better, or until they can on
principles of mutual interest and advantage return
to the British government without war or annoy
ance from the United States." Allen was an able, if
somewhat unscrupulous, man. Schooled by a gene-
245

LORD DORCHESTER
ration or two of partisan warfare against the French-
Canadians the Vermonters were the best irregular
soldiers in the United States, with the exception
perhaps of the Alleghany mountaineers.
While Lymburner was on his way to appeal to the
British government and the House of Commons on
the question of obtaining an elective assembly and
diminishing the scope of French laws, a petition
concluding with sixteen pages of French-Canadian
signatures was presented to Dorchester protesting
against the aforesaid appellant as professing to re
present the new Canadian subjects as well as the old.
The former, they declared, greatly demurred to any
further change in their ancient laws, while as for a
House of Assembly they rather objected to one
than otherwise.
Dorchester's plan for overcoming the inefficient
state into which the militia had subsided was to call
out three battalions for two years service, replac
ing them at the end of the term by others, but
retaining the officers in permanent commission to
take over each fresh corps as it came up. Le Comte
Dupre" was at this time colonel of all the militia of
the town and district of Quebec and we find him
corresponding direct with Sydney, describing his
efforts to put his men on a good footing and asking
for flags, uniforms, etc., and also a salary for himself
as an encouragement to other Canadian officers.
Through the whole of 1788 and 1789 Dorchester
shows his keen interest in the curious drift of Am-
246

AMERICAN POLITICS
erican politics beyond the Alleghanies, in Kentucky,
and towards the Mississippi. The links of the con
federacy were just now dangerously loose, as the
Vermont incident alone would illustrate, but greater
issues seemed at stake in the south-west. The latest
plan reported to Dorchester was for Kentucky to
secede and join Spain, though it was suspected that
her true intention was to declare independence of the
union, seize New Orleans and then look to Great
Britain for assistance. Letters from Kentuckians to
Dorchester are extant speaking even then of the
inevitable separation of the west from the east, the
need of the former for foreign protection with the
right of navigating the Mississippi and the alternative
of an appeal to Spain or Britain. The latter country
was advised to form connections with western men
of influence and capacity. A few weeks later par
ticulars are forwarded to Dorchester from Kentucky
of a scheme to induce France to seize New Orleans
with offers to put Great Britain in her place, to make
Dorchester an active agent in the matter supplying
in his turn arms and ammunition. Any objection on
account of the present peaceful relations with Spain
it was urged might fairly be waived, as that power
had supplied money and material to the rebellious
colonists of Britain. These matters interested Dor
chester and he sent most of the documents to Syd
ney, stating, however, that he had declined to assist
or even to give his opinion on the merits of the
scheme. The French minister to the United States,
247

LORD DORCHESTER
Count Moustier, at this moment asked leave to cross
the border at Niagara and make the round tour
by Montreal and down Lake Champlain, but Dor
chester with all politeness possible felt himself
obliged to decline the honour for reasons politic.
At Christmas, 1789, Dorchester received from
Grenville, who had taken Sydney's place at the col
onial office, the first draft of a new bill for the better
government of Quebec, the object of which was to
assimilate the constitution to that of Great Britain
so far as circumstances would allow. Consideration
for the French, said Grenville, had received great
weight in the adoption of the new plan for dividing
the province. Dorchester himself thought that the
few thousand Loyalists at present settled to the west
of Montreal hardly justified immediate division. He
seems to have underrated, which with his level head
and wide experience is singular, the great influx
there would be from the States so soon as the fear
of French laws and customs was removed. Respect
ing the boundaries of the two provinces, they were
to be left blank in the draft of the Act. Members of
the legislative council were to be honoured with
baronetcies, and perhaps higher distinctions, if suffi
cient wealth flowed in to sustain them. The view of
the Quebec British is expressed in a letter from
Finlay, the deputy postmaster-general, to the home
government. He professes not to know Dorchester's
private opinion. Indeed the latter's reserve was
notable till he came to act ; but the writer gives a
248

THE WESTERN POSTS
receipt for converting the Canadians into English
men — a very old one it is true, and its possible
efficacy at the time is still a matter of speculation, if
a futile one, with some modern writers. The seig
niors would certainly oppose any proposal to change
the old system, and cherished, according to Finlay,
mistaken ideas of their own importance.
Hope, the lieutenant-governor, was now dead, and
Dorchester urged the need of a good sensible man
of some rank to take his place. In answer to this
Grenville offered the succession to Dorchester's
nephew, now lieutenant-governor of New Bruns
wick, but if he preferred remaining there, which for
somewhat obvious reasons he very sensibly did,
Colonel Alured Clarke who had done well in Jamai
ca should be sent, as he ultimately was. Grenville
approved of Dorchester's interest in the Kentucky
movements. He commended his caution but sug
gested certain advantages that might arise from the
threatened split in the confederacy. But the gover
nor's interest in western matters was by no means
an academic one, for the responsibility of the west
ern posts, still held as a point of honour by Great
Britain, to the resentment of the republic, lay
heavily upon him. At any moment the American
troops, traders and settlers, might become involved
in a great Indian war. In such case the weakness of
the posts would invite seizure by American forces
heated with battle and exasperated with losses, and
the seizure of the posts would inevitably lead to the
249

LORD DORCHESTER
very conflict from which Dorchester by all reasonable
means was anxious to save the British government.
Danger came too, in 1790, from another quarter, in
the shape of what is known in the troubled history
of Pacific coast treaties as the "Nootka incident."
The enormous distance which at that period separ
ated Quebec from Vancouver Island may well seem
to have removed this affair completely from Dor
chester's sphere of anxieties. But it had its bearing
on the western posts from the fact that it nearly
provoked war with Spain, and Spain, as we have
seen, was somewhat closely involved with that west
ward movement of the Americans which President
Roosevelt in his notable volumes on the subject has
aptly and euphoniously termed, The Winning of the
West. But Spain, who had seized British vessels
trading from a British post on Vancouver Island
and by refusing all demands for satisfaction had
brought the two countries to the brink of war,
yielded at the last moment when France, being in
no mood or condition for a great war about nothing.
refused her support

250

CHAPTER XII
THE CANADA ACT
LYMBURNER in the meantime had arrived in
England, during the summer of 1789, to repre
sent the views of the British-Canadians and of a
fraction of the French who were against partition
and in favour of an elective assembly. He somewhat
ignored the paucity of his French supporters in urg
ing the wishes of his fellow-colonists on the British
government, but otherwise was a sensible and clear
headed man. Reforms of some kind were impending
and inevitable, and it was only right that his party
should be heard, particularly as many of their claims
had become reasonable through altered circumstan
ces and unforeseen developments. How plainly one
seems to see this old faction-riven Quebec in the
voluminous correspondence of the time — sometimes
preserved in the original handwriting, French or
English, crabbed or ornate, scholarly or illiterate, of
the men who so unconsciously tell us its story, in
terleaved here and there with criticisms on the en
closures or characteristic disquisitions by governors
and lieutenant-governors on the state of the country.
As one follows the arguments of these various
advocates and puts oneself for the moment in their
respective situations, it is sometimes difficult to
251

LORD DORCHESTER
preserve a judicial twentieth century attitude and
stamp them as the mere outbursts of prejudice or
faction. Even those seemingly arrogant all-British
fanatics that Dorchester so snubbed, and the con
gress sympathizers whom in duty bound he treated
still more severely, had some justification. They were
for the most part Americans, to use a convenient and
significant designation. They were accustomed to
democratic usages, such as had spelled prosperity for
the communities that had produced them. Few of
them had basked in the sunshine of those little vice
regal circles which had tempered the republicanism
of a favoured group in each colony. They had been in
vited, under definite promises as they supposed, to
Canada, a province that they had directly or indi
rectly helped to conquer with a great expenditure
of blood and treasure. Eighteenth century conquer
ors had not attained to altruistic ethics, and they
well knew that if the kings of France or their pro
consuls had been in a similar position might would
assuredly have spelled right We may recall
Frontenac's merciless intentions towards New Eng
land and New York, if support of such an unanswer
able argument were needed.
Their case would appear less offensive to us
moderns if they had simply demanded that the
colony should be administered by the governor and
council in the interest of British settlers, till these
last assumed proportions that should make popular
government restricted to themselves seem reasonable
252

AN OPEN QUESTION
to current opinion. But it was the cant cry of pop
ular government, where current figures made mock
ery of the term and only spelled the tyranny of an
ill-instructed few in naked characters, that has put
the would-be-legislators of 1763 and 1787 so hope
lessly out of court with most historians even of their
own race. The downright policy of forcibly anglic
izing the colony would have been at least honest
and logical and not out of harmony with those times,
if distasteful to ours ; but not surely under such a
caricature of popular freedom as their scheme in
volved. It is still sometimes argued, and indeed quite open
to argument, that sixty thousand scattered peasants
might have been turned into freeholders, to their
immediate relief; that some thirty or forty seign
iorial famihes (there were twenty-seven officially re
turned in 1787) of small rent rolls might have been
made permanently happy or at least comfortable,
whether as exiles or otherwise, for a trifling sum in
commutation. Religion might have been left severely
alone, with stringent precautions against external
intrigue through its means — easy enough to effect
in an isolated country with an unhampered govern
ment. British settlers, it is argued, would have
poured in freely. In a few decades a Protestant
parliament would have been at least as representative
of the country as that Protestant assembly dissolved
in 1800 was representative of Ireland, and for
having deprived them of which Irish Catholics
253

LORD DORCHESTER
abuse England in such unmeasured terms. The
effect of such a policy towards the Canadian
peasantry firmly and benignantly administered by
men like Carleton, or approximating to his likeness,
might or might not have saved Canada from the
racial friction that distracted and weakened her for
so long, though at the expense of the French spirit
and nationality which is nowadays such a factor in a
peaceful land. It is quite easy to argue either its
success or failure in convincing fashion. Putting
political morality as we now hold it and race senti
ment out of the question, it is an interesting if futile
subject for reflection. Great Britain, to her credit,
proved superior to the ethics of her day and in ad
vance of the times — in advance indeed of her own
offspring who held themselves to be the vanguard of
political liberty. Happily the retort, possible at
almost any other moment, that Britain in this gen
erous action was influenced by fear of France is
impossible, for in 1763 France was crushed, humili
ated, and bankrupt, and her rival at the very
zenith of her power. Nor does the more enlight
ened French view that Great Britain only did her
duty, though in most creditable fashion, seem quite
adequately to express the measure of her merit. Nor
again should it be forgotten that her first viceroys,
in the teeth of unceasing opposition, acted not only
in the letter but in the spirit of their generous in
structions. But there were cleavages other than racial in this
254

CAUSES OF DISCONTENT
little dominion of Dorchester's, if not such violent
ones. Conflicting views and interests stand out
plainly in the current literature and correspondence
of the time, and contribute to its history. Scarcely
any one, it must be remembered, was rich ; nearly
all were poor. A still infant trade was harassed by
wars and rumours of wars. The incomes of rentiers,
professional men and office-holders were small, and
the struggle for place and position proportionately
keen. Numbers of deserving people had lost much or
all of their property in the invasion of 1775-6. The
seigniors, as we have seen, had lost, as a class, their
hold on the peasantry. A few of them, both before
and after the conquest, had been extortionate in the
matter of rents, to which there was no legal hmit,
and their censitaires proportionately irritated. Lan-
audiere, Dorchester's aide-de-camp, had offered his
seigniory of thirty square leagues to the government
for settlement with freeholders, but the rest opposed
all change in land tenure for reasons already stated.
To the British such obstacles to the free purchase
and exchange of land proved an irritation and incon
venience, but still more they militated against the
development of the country. The seigniories had
been devised to keep a docile peasantry on the land,
to prevent restlessness, and to preserve discipline;
and the seigniors themselves had been instituted as
trustees for the common weal rather than as or
dinary landowners.
A seigniory could be sold only in bulk, but a fifth
255

LORD DORCHESTER
of the purchase money went to the Crown. A tenant
again or censitaire could sell his holding, but was liable
always to the annual rent of a few sous an arpent, the
seigniorial mill rights and, what was more serious
still as an obstruction to ready transfer, liable also to
the lods et ventes — by which a twelfth of the pur
chase money went to the seignior, including of
course a twelfth of the improvements. In the neigh
bourhood of towns these restrictions with many
minor ones almost strangled the sale of land. A pros
perous trader in Quebec, to give an example, could
not buy a country place a mile or two out of town
untrammelled by these curiously belated and un-
American burdens. The inrush of Loyalist settlers
could be accommodated only outside the seigniories,
which not merely pressed them back with their im
provements into less accessible regions but left a vast
amount of available wilderness almost indefinitely
wild. As free and common socage was the only tenure
acceptable to these American or British newcomers,
another set of land laws was required within the pro
vince. The complications were even greater than a
modern reader might suppose, and there is neither
space nor need to elaborate here the many minor de
tails that now confronted the administration. When a
thousand or two townsmen represented and seemed
hkely for some time to represent the British element,
there would have been small wisdom in rooting up the
Canadian land system, seeing that toleration of it had
been tacitly accepted. But now fresh developments
256

IMPORTATION OF PRIESTS
compelled some modification of this archaic survival
and created a situation which may well seem extra
ordinary in a vast and almost virgin country, carry
ing, even in 1791, but some one hundred and thirty
thousand souls. The notaries, it might be added, by
education and identity of interest and a natural
preference for their own laws, were mostly with the
seigniors in their attachment to the system.
The clergy appear to have outlived such little
unpleasantness as the American sympathizers had
stirred up between them and their flocks anent
the legalizing of the dime. There had been some
difficulty too about a supply of priests since the
connection with France had been severed, the local
supply qualified for the more important offices prov
ing short. Importations from old France had been
interdicted for obvious and sufficient reasons, while
permission to introduce priests from the Catholic
provinces of central Europe seems to have been
httle if at all utilized. Bishop Hubert indeed intim
ated to Dorchester that the plan was not agreeable,
though he had recognized as reasonable the veto
against the introduction of ecclesiastics from the
dominions of the House of Bourbon. Those who
most objected to the proposed partition of the prov
ince were naturally the British residents within what
would be the limits of the old one, and who saw
the recent and unexpected addition to their ranks,
with the hopes thus raised, in prospect of being in
great part wrenched away. Lymburner, as we have
257

LORD DORCHESTER
seen, was their eloquent advocate and pleaded their
cause for many hours before a committee of the
House of Commons. Dorchester's objections, already
quoted, to the partition were less fervent and due to
another cause, namely a distrust of the ripeness of
so small a community for self-government. Perhaps
his experiences of the British politicians of Quebec
and Montreal had influenced his judgment.
In March, 1790, however, he sent home a list of
suitable persons for seats in the legislative and ex
ecutive councils of the two proposed provinces of
Upper and Lower Canada. For the former he mainly
relies on the judgment of Sir John Johnson, whose
services entitled him to be its first governor. But
before his letters were received in England Simcoe
had been already appointed. It seems that the home
government considered Johnson's private interests
in western Canada as too considerable for the de
tachment of mind necessary to their representative
in the new province. These details were arranged in
the spring of this year, as it had been intended to
pass the bill through during the session. Dorchester
was anxious to go to London himself, both on private
accounts and for the better conduct of a measure
fraught with so much importance to Canada. But
now as ever, placing his country's interests before his
personal inclinations and convenience, he accepted at
once a hint of Grenville's that it would be acceptable
to the king if he would remain at his post while the
state of the West continued so critical. It is true that
258

SIMCOE'S APPOINTMENT
his agents in the United States, who always kept
him well informed, reported that no attack would be
made on the British posts that year, but then the
Spanish trouble over the Nootka Sound was brewing,
and Dorchester foresaw complications on the west
ern frontier should war break out with that power.
Dorchester did not receive the news of Simcoe's
appointment with complacency. The bill had been
postponed in the session of 1790, and he wrote again
to Grenville in September urging the claims of Sir
John Johnson, his distinguished services, and the
discontent which their non-recognition would arouse
among the Loyahsts of his country. He again urged
that Johnson should be appointed governor of the
new province and colonel of the militia, while Sim
coe could with advantage take charge of the Indian
department. The non-acceptance of Dorchester's
views on this point was the key no doubt to the un
easy terms upon which he stood towards Simcoe
when the latter eventually took office. The former's
views, as communicated at length to the government,
did not approve, as we have seen, of an immediate
concession of popular government. He proposed that
the four western districts should be placed under a
lieutenant-governor, and that a firm and benevolent
government should be established. He had always
rejected the idea of high-sounding hereditary rank
among the colonists. He had strong leanings, how
ever, towards some sort of aristocracy for the new
settlements, and made the proposal so often alluded
259

LORD DORCHESTER
to in modern times that the Loyalist immigrants
should have the right and their children after them
to affix the letters U.E. to their names. But he
objected to all proposals for making the office of
legislative councillor hereditary — knowing better
than the home government the fluctuations of for
tune in colonial life. This plan was adopted, however,
and embodied in the Act, though common sense and
experience endorsed Dorchester's views and kept it
a dead letter. His notions of an aristocracy were of
a wider and less conspicuous kind. He could not
guess how completely Upper Canada, without the
aid of any outward marks of distinction, would
develop his theory, though not altogether perhaps
upon the lines he would have appoved of or with as
much success as he anticipated.
The western boundary of the proposed new prov
ince also perplexed him not a little. To include the
western forts, such as Oswego, Niagara, Detroit,
and Michilimackinac, would be to encroach on ter
ritory ceded to the United States by treaty and pro
voke their hostility at once, while to leave them out
of British jurisdiction involved complications! The
result was that no definitions of the western and
southern limits of the province were included in the
Act at all. In general terms Dorchester held to the
principle that had marked both periods of his ad
ministration. "A considerable degree of attention,"
he wrote, "is due to the prejudice and habits of the
French inhabitants who compose so large a propor-
260

VIEWS OF THE CHIEF-JUSTICE
tion of the community, and every degree of caution
should be used to continue to them the enjoyment
of those civil and religious rights which were secured
to them by the capitulation of the province, or have
since been granted by the hberal and enlightened
spirit of the British government." Every active mind
had some suggestions to make at this important
moment, and Dorchester's chief-justice, Smith, not
always in agreement with his friend and superior, put
his contribution to the literature of the movement in
the governor's hands for transmission to England.
Smith heartily concurs in the partition of the
province but would fain do more than this. As an
old and leading member of the former colony of New
York he dreads the weakness inherent in a group of
democratic assemblies all pulling different ways in
time of danger — for he knew well that nothing but
the fortunate combination of a Washington, the
French alliance and the Germain- Howe insanities,
could have saved the revolting colonies from disaster.
He had seen them recently, at the close of a success
ful war, doing their utmost to stultify its results by
fatuous quarrelling, bickerings and jealousy of each
other and of all authority. Smith, in short, was nearly
a century before his time and advocated nothing
less than a combination of all the British North
American provinces, Newfoundland included, under
a central administration and a federal assembly. "I
am old enough," he writes, " to remember what we
in the Maritime Provinces dreaded from this French
261

LORD DORCHESTER
colony and what it cost to take away that dread
which confined our population to the edge of the
Atlantic." He adds to a long and interesting letter,
partly retrospective and relating to the origin of
our colonial troubles, ten clauses embodying his
scheme as additions to the new Canada Act. Upon
the whole we may credit Chief-Justice Smith with
the gift of foresight in no ordinary degree.
The introduction of the Canada Act had been
deferred on account of the threatened war with
Spain, whose territorial interests were so interwoven
with American western progress. Throughout the
first half of 1791, while the Act was passing through
the British parliament, Dorchester remained in
Canada, though he had been invited by the ministry
to come over in March and assist in the completion
of the bill. Faction and agitation were lulled by
the impending change in the constitution, but it
was a busy enough season for the governor, as his
official correspondence plainly shows. Every matter
of the smallest moment from Detroit to Gaspe"
seems to have come under his notice, and many
matters also which were by no means small. The
constant friction upon the western frontier, the
appeals of traders and Indians, the reports of agents
and officers — full of rumours, false and true, of war
like encounters between Indians and Americans-
were always with him, while the various surveys,
charters, grants, and the infinite minutiae inevitable
to the settlement of thousands of people at widely
262

THE CANADA ACT
scattered points added to the complexity of his
responsibilities. Clerical matters, too, had to come
under his surveillance, both Cathohc and Pro
testant, for the newly organized Church of England
was now concerned with the building of churches
and rectories and the acquisition of lands, while the
chronic question of the Jesuits' estates was always
in the front.
But we must leave Dorchester to these multi
farious duties of no special moment to our story,
and follow as briefly as may be the fortunes of
the Canada Act in its by no means tranquil pas
sage through the British parliament to the royal
desk. On March 7th, 1791, the bill was introduced in
the House of Commons by Mr. Pitt, and on the
twenty-third Mr. Lymburner made the long address
to the members already alluded to. He opposed
the bill in its present form. As representative of
the British Quebec interest he pleaded for a total
repeal of the Quebec Act and against the partition
of the province. He told the story of inefficient
judges and miscarried justice and the general con
fusion in all legal matters which Dorchester's com
mission, it will be remembered, exposed in some
what dramatic fashion. He alluded to the proposed
partition as a " violent measure," and thought that
if the parts were separated any future attempts to
combine them would be hopeless. He was also of
opinion that the country beyond Niagara, which
263

LORD DORCHESTER
in no long time became the garden of Canada,
could never be of much importance on account of
the barrier to transport offered by the Falls. He
was emphatic, where Dorchester was only doubtful,
as to the difficulty of finding sufficient capable men
who would leave the clearing of their farms for
legislative duties. Lymburner being a Scot, not
an American, failed to realize what experience and
talent existed among the United Empire Loyal
ists. Having delivered these and many other de
structive arguments, he then proceeded to the
constructive theories of his party, modified in some
particulars by concessions to the inevitable.
A House of Assembly was naturally in the fore
front, though the admission of Catholics was at last
recognized as unavoidable. Its sessions should be
triennial. There should be a legislative council of
life members. Hereditary seats in it, however, like
every sensible man in Canada, he would have none
of. He advocated the criminal law of England,
together with the same code of commercial law
and the habeas corpus, while in the matter of land,
marriage settlements, dower and inheritance, the
law of Canada might be retained so far as Quebec,
Three Rivers, and Montreal were concerned. In the
rest of the provinces the common law of England
should prevail, and he argued that there should be
power when petitioned for to accept the surrender of
the feudal grants of a seigniory and to re-apportion
the land in free and common socage.
264

BURKE'S SPEECH
Soon afterwards the merchants trading with
Canada presented a petition against the Act, on
the ground that the measure would be damaging
to the commerce of the colony. Fox spoke against
the bill, urging that it was not sufficiently liberal.
Towards the end of April it was in committee.
The attendance, as usual in colonial matters of a
peaceful nature, was scanty, and an adjournment
was asked for and refused by Pitt. Burke took part
in the debate to declare against the division of the
province, and also to air his strenuous views on
the French Revolution, and to provoke the famous
quarrel and final breach between Fox and himself
which here took place. Canada and her affairs were
nearly lost sight of through the irrelevancy of
Burke's peroration, which was made the object of
outcries from the floor, and sharp reminders from
the chair. Indeed, the colony seems to have been
chiefly serviceable to the great orator in this debate
as an excuse for indulging in sonorous adjectives
that invited alliteration, though "bleak and barren"
were not felicitous ones for a country of universal
forest and considerable fertility. That, however, did
not much matter in the House of Commons, nor
perhaps would it now. The opinions of the numerous
private members of parliament who expressed them
selves with much complacency upon a question
which was still a source of some doubt and per
plexity even to Dorchester are of no consequence.
Their votes were, however, of consequence, and the
265

LORD DORCHESTER
Act was carried through both Houses, and became
law on May 14th, 1791.
The intention of the Act was to assimilate the
new constitution of the two Canadian provinces as
nearly as possible to that of Great Britain. The
legislative council of Quebec, or Lower Canada,
was to consist of not less than fifteen members,
its elective assembly of not less than thirty, half of
whom were to form a quorum. The minimum
strength of the council and assembly of Upper
Canada was fixed at seven and sixteen respectively.
The preponderating wealth and intelligence of the
British merchants was partly recognized by the
allotment to the towns of Quebec, Montreal, Three
Rivers, and Sorel of two members apiece. The
provinces were to be divided into electoral districts
based so far as possible on population, and not on
geographical area. The qualification for both voters
and candidates was liberal, providing they were of
age, and either born or naturalized subjects. A
forty shilling freehold, or its equivalent, was the
qualification in the country, and in the town the
ownership of a house worth five pounds a year or
the occupancy of one producing twice that amount.
The Crown withdrew all right to taxation except
as regards such duties as it might be expedient to
impose for the regulation of commerce, the net
produce of the same to be applied in every case to
the use of the province they were collected in.
There was provision, too, for the exchange of the
266

CLERGY RESERVES
seigniorial tenure into freehold on petition. It was
by this Act, too, that one-seventh of the Crown lands
was set apart for the "support of a Protestant cler
gy." This apparently comprehensive term was de
fined in another clause more precisely. This last
empowered the erection of parsonages when required
in each township of the English district "according
to the establishment of the Church of England,"
and endowed them with the reserved lands of that
particular township. In the long disputes which this
measure gave rise to in after years, the first part of
the ordinance was loudly quoted by the non- Angli
cans without its supplement, which leaves no doubt
of the intention of the Act, whatever its wisdom.
The boundary between the two provinces was
virtually the same as to-day. The western bounds
of Upper Canada, however, were left undefined for
good reasons, as we have seen ; those between Que
bec and New Brunswick were deferred for local
settlement. The Crown reserved to itself the full
est powers of veto and appointment. The governors
of Lower Canada, however, still retained as before
the suzerainty, to use a convenient term, over all
the other provinces and their lieutenant-governors,
Upper Canada of course included.

267

CHAPTER XIII
A NEW SITUATION
DORCHESTER sailed for England on August
18th, 1791, leaving Sir Alured Clarke, the new
heutenant-governor, in charge. Clarke had gained
some reputation in the West Indies, and sustained
it by his conduct in Canada. It was his privilege to
inaugurate the first step in constitutional govern
ment, though perhaps of a more apparent than
actual kind, the Act passing into effect with much
ceremony and festivity on December 26th. The
council remained much as before: — Chief-Justice
Smith (Speaker), St. Ours, Finlay, Baby, Dunn,
DeLongueuil, Panet, Mabane, DeLevy, Harri
son, Collins, Lanaudiere, Pownall, de Boucherville,
John Fraser and Sir John Johnson, the first eight
composing the executive. The House of Assembly
did not meet till the following December, 1792,
when fifty members took their seats, two from each
district, or county. The names which Clarke applied
to these newly created countries are not felicitous.
Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Bedford and Surrey
had not been wholly inappropriate to the broad
fields of the once Church and king-loving Anglo-
Virginian squires, and, indeed, in due course acquired
something of the very atmosphere suggested by
269

LORD DORCHESTER
these time-honoured names. But their sudden appli
cation to this northern land of French Cathohc
peasants is something of a shock even to the reader
a century afterwards, though curiously characteristic
of that inartistic side of the British character which
covered the backwoods and prairies of the United
States with embryonic classic cities. How these
amazing designations fared at the hands of the
habitants we may not know — still worse even than
Wilham Henry {vice Sorel) no doubt.
As Dorchester was absent and my space is
dwindling, I must not linger over Clarke's two
years of office ; nor dwell further upon the still
seething dangers of the West, with open war raging
between the Americans and Indians, and disasters
to the former, which increased his correspondence
and kept him anxious and busy. Nor is it possible
to draw any picture of this first mixed assembly
of thirty -four French and sixteen British represen
tatives of the people, with the lingual and other
little difficulties, the one to be perennial, the others
merely those of inexperience. It should be noted
as a social incident that Prince Edward, our late
Queen's father, arrived with his regiment, the 7th
Fusileers, at Quebec just before Dorchester left, and
as a political one that Simcoe, the first lieutenant-
governor of Upper Canada, landed in November,
1791, on his way to his official duties. His first
despatches, a business at which he was notoriously
prolific, do not suggest much political acumen, for
270

DORCHESTER'S RETURN
he had formed the opinion that Hamilton was
anxious for war with England, and he did not him
self think much of Washington's character. But
Simcoe was both an admirable man and a good ad
ministrator, as readers of these volumes know.
War had been declared by France against Great
Britain and Holland some six months prior to Dor
chester's return to Canada. When he landed at
Quebec, after just two years of absence, on Septem
ber 23rd, 1793, it was not before his presence was
required. A new situation had to be faced, for no
one could guess what the attitude of the French-
Canadians would be when Great Britain and their
own mother country were engaged in deadly strife.
That the quarrel was with the government of the
Revolution and not with that of the old regime
might or might not mitigate the situation. Racial
sentiment would be equally powerful in both cases,
but the Church and upper classes would have been
more dangerous in the former, the peasantry in the
latter, as was soon apparent.
Quebec greeted its old and much loved governor
with a general illumination. Bishop Jacob Moun
tain, too, arrived soon after Dorchester to be the
first prelate of the Canadas, for hitherto they had
been in ecclesiastical dependence on the but little
older see of Nova Scotia. Dr. Mountain had been
a fellow of Caius College, Cambridge, tutor and
private secretary to Pitt, rector of a Norwich parish,
and was now to imprint his name worthily and in-
271

LORD DORCHESTER
delibly on Canadian records. There were now about
a dozen Anglican clergymen altogether in the two
Canadas, but in Quebec neither church nor rectory,
service being still held in the chapel of the Re'collets.
The crisis of the Revolution and the fall of the
French monarchy had occurred during Dorchester's
absence. The American repubhc was quivering with
excitement, further stimulated by French agents,
and the ripples of the tumult were being felt in the
heart of the French- Canadian parishes. The old
adage that imitation is the smcerest form of flattery
accounted, no doubt, for part of this exuberance.
The wave of Galhcan sentiment that swept over the
Southern and Middle States is perhaps the most
extraordinary and, in some ways, unaccountable
movement in the history of the country. Carolina,
Virginia and Maryland planters whose only ac
quaintance with privilege and tyranny was such as
they had themselves exercised over their own ne
groes — who were not, by the way, included in this
saturnalia of freedom and license — danced wildly
about crowned with caps of liberty like emancipated
slaves, and exchanged the modest courtesies of
American democratic life for the fantastic crudities
of French sans-culottes.
The notorious and impossible Genet had landed
at Charleston, a few weeks before Dorchester left
England, as minister of the French repubhc, and
executed a triumphant overland progress to Phila
delphia. The exuberant and exotic mummery which
272

GENET IN AMERICA
lined the country roads and dragged the chariot of
this ridiculous Jack-in-office through the towns,
brings a blush to the cheek of the modern American
as he reads of it Never, probably, did a sane and
sensible people give way to such an exhibition of
far-fetched and misplaced banality. Jefferson pulled
the strings of his puppet till the latter's caperings
broke them and left that vain and crafty demagogue
cursing his own lack of discrimination. The leaders of
the Federalists and all sensible men looked on aghast.
Washington and Hamilton did more than look on,
for Genet fitted out privateers in American ports
and seized British shipping actually in American
estuaries. Every one knows how the story ended, and
how after insulting everybody all round, Washing
ton and even Jefferson included, this unique speci
men of a diplomat was sent about his business.
Fearing to go home he became naturalized as an
American, and died in the country forty years later.
With all his feckless effrontery, Genet had been
dangerously active, during the few months he was at
large, in his endeavours to drag America into a war
with England. His agents were in every direction
and were busy intriguing among the Canadians. The
French Revolution was even a better card for such
men to play than the two clauses of the Quebec Act
utilized for the same purpose in 1775. Moreover, on
this occasion it was Frenchmen appealing to French
men, for many of these emissaries were Canadians
who had deemed it prudent to leave the country after
273

LORD DORCHESTER
the 1775-6 troubles, and had gathered much worldly
wisdom in the wider atmosphere of the American
republic. A French Utopia, where everything was
to be had for the asking and vexatious laws and
burdens swept away, presented, moreover, at the
hands of a French fleet or army, was a much more
alluring programme than the more doubtful promises
of the Bastonnais in 1775. France no longer repre
sented the very mixed blessings that its re-adoption
implied in the days of the monarchy. Seigniors,
tithes, taxes, corvees and soldiering had no place in
the new order, so they were told with more grain of
truth than the Bastonnais Utopia had contained.
One need not say what the priests thought of all
this, nor yet the seigniors for whom a red republican
army, even a French one, had small attraction. Some
of the notary and doctor class, themselves derived
from the peasantry and from whom alone in French
Canada pohtical adventurers could spring, seem,
however, to have regarded the new gospel with less
repugnance. Besides all this, one of the two great
parties in America, that of Jefferson and Madison,
crafty and ill-balanced leaders who had never them
selves smelt powder, and the former of whom was
sometimes even credited with a lack of normal physi
cal courage, was breathing fire and slaughter against
England and all belonging to her in senseless and
suicidal fashion. The South, as the more ignorant
section, formed the main strength of their party,
while the provinces bordering on Canada supported
274

THE DUKE OF KENT
Washington, Hamilton and Jay in their efforts to
maintain neutrahty and their predilections for Ang
lo-Saxon ideals with a quahfied friendhness for
Great Britain.
Such was the highly charged atmosphere in
which Dorchester once again found himself, and
now, as ever, with but a handful of troops and an
unreliable militia. One knows nothing definite of
how he had passed his time in England, nor does it
signify. He kept in touch with his deputy at
Quebec and the British government, but otherwise,
no doubt, was taking that well-earned rest which
his advancing years and his labours past and to
come made requisite ; for he was now nearly seventy,
and had hved a strenuous life. He had by this time,
too, a large family, and so far as we know was a
domestic man with no taste for staking his patri
mony at Brookes's, nor for the deep potations of
Fox and Pitt. Nor, again, had his health in Canada
been always of the best.
Prince Edward, afterwards Duke of Kent, was
still at Quebec, and remained there in command of
the 7th Regiment until the January following Dor
chester's arrival. He had made himself extremely
popular with all classes, and only left for active
service in the West Indies. Kent House, above the
Montmorency Falls, still serves to remind us of a
prince who is chiefly interesting, perhaps, as Queen
Victoria's father, though he has some special claim
to notice from the fact that he held commands in
275

LORD DORCHESTER
British North America for seven years, the last four
of them being spent at Halifax. Dorchester had on
this occasion to reply to the many addresses of
regret at the prince's departure which reached
Quebec. The latter had left in a hurry to reach
the scene of action, and while travelling on the ice
over Lake Champlain the sleighs containing all his
personal effects disappeared down an air-hole and
were seen no more. At Boston we are told he had
to ship in a small vessel of six guns, which ran the
gauntlet of the French cruisers and only escaped by
its fast saihng powers, though it received their fire.
The first news Dorchester had to send home was
the failure of the peace conference between the
American commissioners and the Indians, including
both those of the West and the Six Nations, who de
manded that their territory as far as the Ohio should
remain inviolate. On November 11th, he opened the
second parliament of Lower Canada, with Panet
as speaker of the assembly. He urged the necessity
of passing laws for the administration of justice,
and he laid stress on the inadequate means of de
fence against foreign enemies. The finances too
came up, and may serve to show the extraordinary
disproportion between revenue and expenditure, so
great, indeed, as to throw four-fifths of the cost of
government (which was about twenty-five thous-
sand pounds a year, while the revenue was only
five thousand pounds) on the Crown. This con
dition of things contributed to stultify the power
276

THE MILITARY PROBLEM
of the popular assembly. The veto of the upper
chamber and the Crown could be exercised with
out any fear whatever of consequences. The one
effective weapon of a parliament, namely, the with
holding of supphes, was unavailable when the
supplies were mainly furnished by the British
government, while in regard to the legislative
council, though its members held their seats for
life, that very fact inclined them against popular
departures and to sympathy with the governor.
French influence, though not yet aggressively
developed, was naturally in the ascendant from
its great numerical preponderance. Both languages
were used in debate, and the services of an inter
preter were regularly employed. In this first ses
sion of Dorchester's, Panet was made judge and
de Lotbiniere was chosen speaker. In November
Dorchester issued a proclamation in English and
French requiring magistrates, captains of militia,
and all good subjects to seek and secure persons
holding seditious discourses, spreading false news,
or publishing libellous papers. He turned his at
tention also towards improving the defences of
Quebec, and passing a militia bill through the
assembly. Indeed, the military problem was upon him again
in all its seeming hopelessness, and the dangers from
within and without as imminent as ever. He issued
orders for the embodiment of two thousand mihtia;
but though the British, who were now more numer-
277

LORD DORCHESTER
ous than formerly, came forward "with alacrity," the
habitants objected strongly to the service. French
and American intriguers had played upon this
string among others, and had succeeded in con
vincing the peasantry that to be balloted as a militia
man implied mihtary service for life. " Nothing,"
writes Carleton, "is too absurd for them to believe."
The first day they were called out to furnish their
proportion of the two thousand to be enrolled for
service they broke into a mob, and refused to
be balloted for. Two were sent to prison for riot
and the country parishes threatened to rescue them.
The British proportion of mihtia was only seventy
out of two thousand, and this, said Carleton, did
not escape their observation.
Monk, whose voluminous correspondence with
Nepean has been preserved, speaks of the alarm
created among the merchants by Dorchester's
speech in March. He, too, tells of the general spread
of French principles, and speaks of the whole
country as so infested with them that it was found
on calling out the militia that there was scarcely a
hope of assistance from the new subjects. Threats,
he writes, were used by the disaffected against the
few who were found loyal. " It is astonishing to
find the same savagery exhibited here as in France
in so short a period for corruption. Blood alliances
do not check the menaces upon the non-complying
peasants. These include the burning of houses,
death, embowelling, decapitation and carrying heads
278

INTRIGUE
on poles, as the depositions show, besides throwing
off all regard for religion." The intrigues were
traced to Genet and the now numerous French
consuls. Correspondence had been carried on be
tween Canadians in the United States and the
disaffected in Canada, and French emissaries had
been sent in to prepare the people to follow the
example of France. Monk thought that nothing
less than five thousand troops in Canada till the
war was ended would secure the country. An
address entitled, Les Franfais libres a leurs freres
les Canadiens, was read at a church door, and
circulated as a pamphlet. In this the people were
urged to " follow the example of France and the
United States, and to upset a throne so long the
seat of hypocrisy and imposture, despotism, greed,
and cruelty. Their assembly is a mockery, and secret
machinations are employed everywhere to upset
its efforts at better laws. Canadians, arm yourselves,
call your friends, the Indians, to your assistance,
count on the sympathy of your neighbours and
of the French." Everything in short was to be
abolished, and the habitants would find themselves
in the dehghtful position of an independent nation
in league with France and the United States, and
would immediately rise to the blessings of that
hberal education and estabhsh those institutions for
science and the higher arts for which they had been
pining, and the free prosecution of that ocean com
merce to which their genius and inclinations were
279

LORD DORCHESTER
so inclined. Even the habitant, accustomed as he
must now have been to broadsides of uninteUigible
bombast, must have rubbed his eyes at the burning
ambitions with which he was here credited. The
prospect, however, of getting everything for nothing
was plain enough amid the cloud of verbiage, and
to an illiterate peasantry this fact has seldom failed
to appeal.

280

CHAPTER XIV
CLOSING YEARS
IN this war with the French repubhc the situation
was in some respects more serious for British
interests in Canada than it had been when the
former country was actually allied with the Ameri
cans in the revolutionary struggle; for France was at
that time still a monarchy, and her emissaries, even
with the utmost exercise of casuistry, could hardly
make much of the retrospective blessings of the
ancient regime as a stimulant to Canadian discon
tent, while the seigniors and the Church, who
might have been susceptible, had been attached to
the British connection by practical, and to them
beneficent, measures. Washington, too, in those
days, as may be remembered, had been entirely
opposed to a resurrection of French power in Can
ada. Now, however, France was a republic, and
though war against Great Britain was never de
clared by the States it was regarded in 1793-4 as
imminent, and it would have been promoted by a
party that had an almost fanatical affection for its
sister repubhc, short-lived though this affection
proved. Jefferson, Madison and Randolph were possessed
of an insensate hatred of Great Britain and were
281

LORD DORCHESTER
followed in this by their fellow Southerners, the
least instructed and most excitable portion of the
republic in foreign affairs. Moreover, the indebt
edness to Great Britain throughout this section
was much greater than in any other, and the
temptation to wriggle out of these debts by a war
which would be much more keenly felt in the
North was great to a population whose notions
of financial morality make the speeches in the
Virginia assembly of that day instructive reading.
No people more profoundly ignorant of France and
Frenchmen could have been found in the world than
the noisy factions who were then clamouring for a
warlike alliance with her against Great Britain.
Dorchester thought war was certain, and at this
moment he had occasion to harangue the Miami
Indians in a speech which created considerable
excitement in the United States. He remembered
very well, he told them, the line they had pointed
out three years ago, just before his last departure
for England, as the boundary they desired between
themselves and the States, and how he had pro
mised to represent their situation and wishes to
the king, and expressed his hope that all the
grievances they complained of on the part of the
United States would soon be done away with by
a just and lasting peace. Dorchester went on to
say that he had waited long but had not yet re
ceived one word of satisfaction from Americans,
and from what he could learn of their conduct
282

SPEECH TO THE INDIANS
towards the Indians, he would not be surprised if
the English were at war with them during the
present year, and then a line must be drawn by the
warriors. " What further can I say to you ? You
are a witness that on our part we have acted in the
most peaceable manner and borne the language
and conduct of the people of the United States
with patience, but I believe our patience is almost
exhausted." The report of this address having been obtained
by American sympathizers in Montreal, was for
warded to congress and published in the American
papers. Jefferson's party made the most of it, and
appealed to Hammond, the English minister, de
nouncing Dorchester's speech as " hostility itself."
Hammond reported the matter to Dundas, the
secretary, and Dundas wrote to Dorchester in a
tone bordering on reproof, for the treaty which the
Federal party were labouring to make with Great
Britain was now in progress and Jay had made a
favourable impression in London. Nothing was
known, however, of these improved prospects on
the western frontier in the summer of 1794. Re
ports had just come in that Wayne's army to the
south of Lake Erie was two thousand strong, be
sides five hundred more in garrison. Forty dollars
was being paid for scalps, and one thousand dollars
was offered for Simon Girty's, a famous British
scout who had cut some figure in the old French
wars. War with Great Britain was regarded as in-
283

LORD DORCHESTER
evitable, and Wayne was only waiting to advance
against the Indians till their corn was ripe. Dor
chester replied to Dundas's letter expressing a wish
to resign. In another letter, assuming some freedom
of speech as the doyen of colonial governors, he
replied that no secretary was long enough in office
to acquire sufficient knowledge of a colony. He
might well have said more, and to the effect that no
minister in London was qualified to direct every
movement and interfere in every detail in a distant
country whose political, physical and social atmos
phere was so hopelessly outside his vision. Such,
however, was the deplorable custom of that time.
But the Duke of Portland, taking alarm at the
prospect of losing a man who for the apparently
impending crisis was their only hope, wrote deny
ing that any reproof was implied. On the contrary,
he thought Dorchester had been quite right in the
Miami matter.
This affair was by no means confined to Dor
chester's oration, but included the rebuilding of a
fort by Simcoe, with his approval, in the Indian
territory some fifteen miles south of Lake Erie, on
the Maumee. This had been done in the preceding
spring. Indeed the station had been fortified and oc
cupied by British detachments ever since the close of
the war, but a year or two previously, trade having
left it, it had been abandoned. But now with a fresh
war impending, it was rebuilt as a defence to Detroit,
and, under legal guise, as being in Indian territory
284

TROUBLE WITH VERMONT
not yet, at least, surrendered by treaty to the States.
The action, however, made some little stir in the
latter country as an invasion of territory. Dorchester
had much trouble, too, with the posts on Lake
Champlain, occupied just now by small detach
ments. The Vermonters, who at one time had pro
fessed such partiality for British rule, had changed
their minds completely, and had given both Alured
Clarke and Dorchester the utmost annoyance by
petty insults and outrages on their small outposts.
They had even made an offer to congress to conquer
Canada unaided. It may be remembered that heady
Vermonter, Ethan Allen, had undertaken to do the
same with Montreal, and had found his way instead
to a prison in Cornwall. American historians for the
most part insist that the commander of the western
British posts encouraged the Indians in their resis
tance to the United States ! Well knowing that this
meant a general war and almost certain destruction
of these weak isolated forts as well as the probable
conquest of Canada, we are asked to suppose that
Sir John Johnson, Butler, Hamilton, McKee,
Campbell, and above all the less prominent officers
in lonely and remote commands, were nothing less
than madmen. Dorchester's dread of war is con
spicuous in all his western instructions.
The voluminous correspondence of his officers is
eloquent of their precarious position should war break
out. To allege that St. Clair's defeat had not given
them satisfaction would be to write them down as
285

LORD DORCHESTER
less than human, but to picture them as stirring up
a bloody war with France and the United States
combined, is to suppose them men wearied of life,
of liberty, of employment, even of patriotism. One
can only suppose that American writers, who fol
low one another in such statements, have not read
the redundant correspondence that for many years
passed between the western posts and Quebec, and
in these, at least, there was sufficient plain speaking.
Young subalterns and captains may — nay, we know
from these letters they did — reply to the bombastic
defiance of irresponsible Kentucky riflemen under
the walls of their own forts with spirit, but no res
ponsible officer did, or could do, otherwise than dread
a war which would almost certainly have landed
them as prisoners in the United States. To do them
justice, most of their contemporaries in rank on the
American side kept well within the letter of their
instructions, which was to refrain from all offence.
But Wayne summoned Fort Miami to surrender
as being a re-constructed post outside what he con
sidered to be Canadian territory. Major Campbell,
however, refused, and there was some acute corres
pondence between them. The former had just shat
tered the Indian resistance at Fort Recovery, though
at a loss to himself of two hundred and fifty men.
Jay's Treaty was negotiated in the year 1794,
though only ratified in the next, amid the uproar of
the Jeffersonians, then known as the Republican
party. Washington and Hamilton, his good political
286

AMERICA AND FRANCE
genius, if we may say so, were determined to keep
on terms with England and avoid entanglement
with France, whose wrath knew no bounds on pub
lication of the treaty. That England was prepared
to meet them at least half-way, the private corres
pondence of British ministers and their American
and colonial representatives is better evidence than
the noisy turbulence of provincial demagogues,
politicians, and land-grabbers. Under the circum
stances, France may be pardoned her ebullition of
feeling, which sent the American envoys within her
gates to the right about, and treated Americans and
American ships with a harshness that would have
provoked actual war if retahation had been decent
or prudent. But the Federal party, all the more
that their gratitude to the France of 1778 was still
strong within them, saw more clearly the drift of
republican France, and amid the passions of virtual
civil war could not forget that Americans were by
race, blood and language, and every instinct that
guided their pohtical and domestic life, Englishmen
and not Frenchmen. A sanguinary and domestic
struggle could not change their flesh and blood, their
traditions of centuries, nor ally them in anything but
the mere link of friendly treaties to a nation stranger
to them even than to the English of old England.
Hamilton said Talleyrand was " the first American
to divine Europe," and upon the rhodomontade of
hot-blooded but intensely provincial Anglo-Ameri
can farmers and planters, Hamilton looked with the
287

LORD DORCHESTER
disapproval and contempt of a cool-headed and far-
sighted man.
In May, 1794, Dorchester succeeded without
difficulty in getting an Alien Act passed by the
assembly, for all sorts of people were coming and
going in Canada. In spite of the threatened war,
emigrants, from the States chiefly, were pouring
in steadily, attracted by easy terms of land and
favourable reports of its fertility. Many of these no
doubt looked ahead and calculated that Canada in
a short time and without much disturbance would
be included in the republic. There was beyond
doubt, too, an element, particularly in the Eastern
Townships of Quebec, whose motives and senti
ments, without being, perhaps, clearly defined, were
widely different from those of the Loyalists. To
this day the old British population of the Town
ships, in part at least, suggests that ancient affinity
with the frontiers of Vermont from whose overflow
it drew so many of its earlier settlers ; men not at
that time greatly concerned with flags, politics and
boundaries, but with a keen eye for a stretch of
alluvial river bottom and a slope of hardwood
timber facing the sun.
The Alien Act was lengthy and elaborate. It
will be enough to say here that it was enacted
against the danger arising at this inflammable time
from the settlement of persons not British subjects.
Each captain had to give a list of foreigners on
board his ship, while the passengers in their turn
288

PRECAUTIONS
had to prove their identity. In cases of treason or
suspicion the Habeas Corpus Act could be sus
pended, and " assemblages of people, seditious dis
courses, false news " were to be carefully watched,
and if needed the Act was to be suppressed. It was
to be enforced for a year. The time was one of
imminent peril, and no well-intentioned subject,
French or English, was going to split hairs over
such reasonable methods of precaution. They were
not directed at such domestic matters as were then
at issue, for these at the moment were not very
acute and in any case had become of minor conse
quence. Indeed, the attitude of a large part of the
peasantry had become so serious, not merely about
Montreal, which was always the storm centre, but
even in parishes adjoining Quebec, such as Charles-
bourg and Beauport, that prominent men of both
nationalities formed societies for the public safety
and sank their civic differences. Monk, who was
very useful in organizing them, writes to Dundas
that by the suggestions of Dumontier a number of
officials and friends of government had been marked
for assassination in case of a successful invasion.
Arrangements, too, had been permitted for sett
ling refugees from France, and Dorchester found
this used as a vehicle for introducing Frenchmen
of another kind and with other objects. The dis
tinction was not easy to draw. The Due de La
Rochefoucauld-Liancourt visited the colony in the
summer of 1795 and remained for some time as
289

LORD DORCHESTER
Simcoe's guest in Upper Canada. But Dorchester
felt it prudent to forbid him access to the Lower
Province lest his presence should be taken for an
expression of active sympathy on the part of
France for the malcontents.
Dorchester kept in close touch all this time with
the Maritime Provinces, and there was a good deal
of correspondence going backwards and forwards
between himself and his nephew in charge of New
Brunswick, and with Wentworth, heutenant-gov
ernor of Nova Scotia. In the former province a
regiment of six hundred men was raised. In 1795
the cost of government for the year was, in round
numbers, twenty-five thousand pounds, while the
net revenue had risen to ten thousand pounds. The
customs for both provinces were levied in Quebec,
and the estimated proportion, one-eighth, due to the
Upper Province was paid over to it. The crops for
the above year, too, were very short, and it was
necessary to call on England for grain, a proceeding
quite unusual since the old French days when the
necessity was almost perennial. By this year, how
ever, things began to quiet down. A draft of Jay's
Treaty had been forwarded to Canada and copies
were circulated not only in the east but in the west.
It had yet to be ratified, but still the mere fact of
its being drafted had a good effect. The militia,
however, were called out as a test and their reluc
tance to serve well justified the dread of war. It
was not only the intrigues of outsiders that had
290

FEES AND PERQUISITES
brought about this insubordination. What Dor
chester had written ten years before during the
American invasion might have been repeated now
with even greater force : " A people so disused to
military service for twenty-seven years do not wil
lingly take up the firelock and march to the frontier
when their passions are not strongly agitated." The
constitutional associations of the upper classes, how
ever, had done much good, and Dorchester was
able to report an improved condition of affairs.
Moreover, in the course of 1795, Jay's Treaty was
ratified, and it was definitely agreed that the west
ern posts were to be given up in the following
year, peace being made in the meantime between
the Indians and the United States.
Dorchester had waged continual war against those
fees and perquisites which he considered brought
the officials of the province into disrepute, lowered
the dignity of government, and created justifiable
discontent Osgoode, who had been made chief-
justice of Quebec in 1794, received the appoint
ment on the understanding that it no longer carried
any of these emoluments. There was a great deal
of official work going on, too, in connection with the
allotment of lands to the new settlers, and the same
opportunities occurred to unscrupulous officials in
Canada as in a more wholesale and shameless way
were being embraced on the other side of the
boundary. These lapses, however, became more
flagrant, and expanded into more open scandals,
291

LORD DORCHESTER
with their inevitable exposures, in the days of
Dorchester's successor. Fees to the governor would
seem to have been, formerly, quite usual in con
nection with land grants, but Dorchester voluntarily
surrendered his, and was cordially thanked by Port
land for so doing. He felt strongly, too, the iniquity
of men in England being planted on a colony which
they never saw, and having their duties performed
by deputies. It was these absentees who were often
the worst offenders, for they took no interest what
ever in the work done by their deputies, but only
an abiding one in the fees accruing therefrom. In a
letter to Portland, Dorchester regrets that gentle
men in England should look to America for com
pensation for their petty political services. It had
produced a sufficiently evil effect in the revolted
colonies, and would have the same in those that
were still left to the Crown. These persons, he
ventured to suggest, should receive such remunera
tion in their offices as to place them above pecuniary
speculation in the colonies, and Dorchester had
earned the right, if any one had, to speak plainly on
the subject. For though by no means a rich man,
and with a large family, his long rule in Canada
had been distinguished not merely by scrupulous
honesty, but by a self-abnegation in money matters
rare enough in those days.
The treaty with America brought on the question
of settling large numbers of the Indians on British
territory. The details of this distribution, however,
292

FRICTION WITH SIMCOE
fell to Simcoe and his officers, though Dorchester was
insistent for information concerning them, and did
not allow Simcoe to forget that his immediate chief
was at Quebec and not in the British colonial office.
This brings us to the misunderstanding between
these two admirable and faithful servants of the
Crown. It belongs, however, to Simcoe's story rather
than to that of Dorchester, and has been treated at
length by his biographer. A brief summary of the
dispute, and the occasions that lead to it, is perhaps
necessary, since it was partly owing to this unpleas
antness that both of the parties to it resigned their
posts, and left Canada almost at the same time.
Neither conceived himself properly treated by the
home government, but Dorchester's attitude was
indifferent, and his views slightly contemptuous.
Whether right or wrong they were based on the
long experience of an elderly and well-tried public
servant, who had no fear for his reputation, and was
in any case weary of office and anxious for home
and rest. Simcoe's feelings, on the other hand, were
tinged with the disappointment and soreness of a
man still full of work and in mid career. Dorchester
had always been an advocate for a clearly defined
amount of central authority. He considered that
the American colonies had grown into the condition
that encouraged rebellion by the careless manner in
which they had been allowed to drift. The fact that
when rebellion came this very aloofness proved
their chief stumbling-block was not to the point
293

LORD DORCHESTER
Dorchester's mind travelled back rather to the
origin of things, and in the matter of defence
against foreign aggression his experience in the
Seven Years' War was wholly in favour of his
argument. Simcoe found himself in a remote wilderness of a
most promising nature. He was not hampered by the
race question. His people were energetic and mostly
loyal Britons. He himself was of a practical turn of
mind, and took an immense and praiseworthy inter
est in the material beginnings of what was obviously
destined to be a great province. He was a volumin
ous despatch writer, and inclined to forget in certain
matters that Dorchester was his chief. Two or three
Indian appointments were made, not merely with
out consulting the latter but with some attempt
to sustain them in the face of his objections, and
Dorchester was an extremely punctilious person,
exacting in the support of his theories of a limited
but firm centralization. He had never fallen out
with heutenant-governors in New Brunswick or
Nova Scotia, but there was marked friction in
Simcoe's case, though it was purely personal between
the two men ; nor were the causes of disagreement
of a nature, as it so happened, to create material
mischief. Simcoe thought a military post was the
best nucleus for an industrial centre. Dorchester
thought otherwise ; nor could any one nowadays
with the light of a continent's development to guide
him hesitate as to which was right. Simcoe wanted
294

CAUSES OF FRICTION
to create a capital and centre for the western district
of modern Ontario on the spot where London now
stands. Dorchester favoured York (now Toronto),
and insisted upon it. Simcoe thought the latter
should be made the naval base of Lake Ontario ;
Dorchester considered Kingston as at that time the
best point. It would be purposeless here to argue in
favour of the foresight of one or the other. It is diffi
cult for us nowadays to appreciate the arguments
that would have operated in 1794 and 1795 with
either of them. But a more immediate cause for
friction lay in the question as to whether the larger
force of troops was required in Upper or Lower
Canada. Simcoe, in short, asked for more men and
Dorchester would not spare them. They were a
pitiful handful in all, some two thousand three
hundred, to wrangle about At one time Upper
Canada was the most threatened point, but then at
a desperate moment, like the one in question,
Quebec was the key of Canada. So long as she
remained unconquered the colony was not lost.
This was a recognized axiom in North America and
no one had better cause to know it and hold it
than Dorchester. Simcoe though he had done gallant
service in the Revolutionary War as colonel of the
New York Loyalist regiment, the Queen's Rang
ers, had not been at quite such close quarters with
the Quebec theory. But apart from these general
arguments, at the moment when Simcoe was most
sore about the refusal of men from Dorchester's 295

LORD DORCHESTER
slender stock, the danger from the Americans,
which had seemed to lie on the lakes, was being
greatly lessened by the attitude of Jay in London,
unknown to Simcoe, while the danger from France
was somewhat growing on account of the schemes
she was concocting with that volatile factor, the
state of Vermont, of which a few words later.
When the treaty with America was ratified,
Dorchester's intention, as he wrote to Simcoe, was to
bring down most of the troops to Lower Canada,
the danger in the west being at an end, while the
French danger in the east was growing, for reasons
already given. But Simcoe with his pet theories of
developing material prosperity by military posts,
seems to have lost sight of the danger of foreign in
vasion in the more exposed parts of the colony. He
had corresponded directly and voluminously with
Dundas and somewhat overlooked Dorchester, to
whose conspicuous personality, years, and long ser
vice in North America, was due perhaps something
more than perfunctory official recognition. In No
vember, 1795, Dorchester wrote to Portland that the
enclosures turned on the question whether he was
to receive orders from Simcoe or Simcoe from him,
and that the latter must have had expectations of
an independent command in the upper country and
even beyond. The situation of Nova Scotia and its
dependencies did not permit Lieutenant-Governor
Wentworth to extend his control to Quebec, and
according to Dundas's letter regarding Simcoe this
296

A LONG SERVICE
independence of his command was established. "All
command, civil and military, being thus disorgan
ized and without remedy, your Grace will, I hope,
excuse an anxiety for the arrival of my successor,
who may have authority sufficient to restore order,
lest these insubordinations should extend to mutiny
among the troops and sedition among the people."
This is plain speaking enough. Dorchester, who had
already taken umbrage at the reproof in the matter
of the Miamis, felt that this tendency to ignore the
central authority made it impossible for him any
longer to retain office as governor and commander-
in-chief in North America. It will be remembered,
too, that he had been against the division of the
provinces, which were to be re-united in 1841, only
to be separated again when the federal authority
had been established over the whole of British North
America. But the misunderstandings that led to Dorches
ter's retirement are of shght consequence. It was
thirty years since he had first entered upon his task.
He was weary and he was getting old, and had
vastly exceeded in length of service any other
Canadian governor before his day or after it. He
felt, no doubt, that he was getting out of date, or
rather out of tune, with certain phases of adminis
tration, and wholly disapproved of them. But his
work was done, and there was no special reason for
extending still further an already quite exceptional
length of responsible public service. The crisis with
297

LORD DORCHESTER
America and the long strain, which his presence
alone of living Englishmen had tempered on both
sides of the Atlantic with some measure of relief,
were over for the present. What might have followed
had Jefferson been elected in 1797 one cannot guess,
but his defeat by a solid vote of the Northern States
showed unmistakably the sentiments of Canada's
more immediate neighbours, sentiments which they
never wholly abandoned, since the War of 1812
was resented by most of them, and was mainly the
work of Jefferson's party and the South. There
now remained only France to settle with, for Spain
had proved innocuous as a source of strife between
Great Britain and the States, the motives being
conflicting, and the factor of sentiment as in the
case of France being entirely absent; indeed, there
seemed a fine quarrel brewing between France and
the United States, as represented by the Federal
party. The latter, soon to be committed to another
period of power, had already begun to discover
that thirteen states and an ungovernable West
were a sufficiently restive team to handle, and had
abandoned not merely the intention but even the
desire to attach another partly hostile and generally
uncongenial province by force of arms. They had
come to the conclusion that Great Britain on the
St. Lawrence was infinitely preferable to France,
whose not unnatural schemes in that direction were
looked upon with disapproval.
Vermont, however, had been always troublesome
298

VERMONT AGAIN
and restless. The water route from Lake Champlain
to the St. Lawrence, her natural outlet as she re
garded it, and soon to be improved by the canal
that Vermonters had so much at heart, was a source
of dispute which twisted her political sympathies
this way and that, made her factious in her domestic,
and unstable in her outside, relations. She was now
a state. Her ostensible leaders, who had formerly
been quite ready to play the part of Arnold towards
the republic, were now the principal channels of
French intrigue, and could they have done so would
have dragged the neighbouring colonies into war
with Britain, not, however, from political passion or
from broad general principles such as are permissible
to nations, however mistaken, but for mere purposes
of local trade. The Southerners, who sported liberty
caps and sang the "Marseillaise," to the edification of
their own slaves, men who, to quote the words of an
unknown historian, "could not have pronounced
two French words correctly to save themselves
from hanging," were inspired by ignorance and hat
red of the mother country and a further hope of
shuffling out of their debts to her people. The Ver
monters, with Ira Allen at their head, were cool
calculators. As the scheme of gaining their trade
route by remaining British had failed, the alterna
tive was to make Canada either French or Ameri
can, and achieve their object in that way.
Adet, the French minister from the revolutionary
government, was recalled soon after Dorchester had
299

LORD DORCHESTER
left Quebec. His methods and his manners had not
helped the cause of France with the American
government. But what is more to the point, he had
set his heart on regaining Canada for France. He
had engaged the whole new consular service of his
country in this task, and we have seen the trouble
his emissaries had caused Dorchester during these
last years of his government. Though the latter
sailed in July, 1796, he retained his office till the
following April, when Prescott, his successor, was
appointed, and it was during this winter of his ad
ministration that Ira Allen sailed from Ostend in
the Olive Branch with twenty thousand stand-
of-arms, besides artillery and ammunition. The ship
was captured and brought into Portsmouth. Allen
professed that this prodigal supply of arms was for
the militia of Vermont, which it would have provided
four times over; but certain people who were behind
the scenes assured the Duke of Portland that they
were designed for the invasion of Canada. Vermont
at that time had certainly no other use for such a
prodigious armament.
It is perhaps needless to state that the Federal
government had neither cognizance of, nor sym
pathy with, such adventures. Adet, it appears, had
himself written some of the proclamations with
which Canada was deluged during Dorchester's last
two years of office. These were supported by
canards regarding French victories on sea and land
and the immediate approach of French fleets. At
300

FRENCH INTERFERENCE
one time, the precise date at which the French
troops would enter Canada had been injudiciously
fixed. Though the ratification of Jay's Treaty re
moved these enterprises from the domain of such
probability as they ever possessed, they produced a
little crop of arrests in Prescott's first year and the
dramatic hanging and quartering of a certain
weak-minded McLane in the presence of the civil
and mihtary population of Quebec. A month after
the expiration of Dorchester's government about
forty French- Canadians were arrested, most of
whom were convicted on light sentences. There
were also attempts by French emissaries to stir up
the Indians to an attack on Western Canada. A
French agent, Jules de Fer, employed by Listen,
the British minister at Philadelphia, a year later
to sound the feelings of the French-Canadians,
reported that there was a considerable sentiment in
favour of being re-annexed to France, but that few
would move unless success was quite assured by
the landing of a large force. The emissaries of
the directorate, whose ability for intrigue seems
always to have far exceeded their judgment,
reported to their government with characteristic
exaggeration that the French- Canadians were burn
ing to risk life and fortune in the cause. There
is no evidence that any French-Canadians of edu
cation or influence felt anything but repugnance
to a renewed connection with their mother country,
as now remodelled. 301

LORD DORCHESTER
It is melancholy that two such faithful, and in
their different ways capable, administrators as Dor
chester and Simcoe should have embittered each
other's closing years of office. Most of their corres
pondence is very acrid. Simcoe thought the Indian
department should be in his immediate hands and
not in those of a superintendent. The absence of the
latter, Sir John Johnson, in England, no doubt
aggravated certain abuses, usually financial ones,
that created constant scandals in a service which
afforded enormous temptations to dishonesty. The
conflicting views of the two men as to the founding
of provincial capitals and harbours and the methods
of settling a new country have been alluded to.
Simcoe writes : " Stations for the king's troops
judiciously selected is, in my opinion, the only basis
on which towns will arise to the great benefit of
the service." Dorchester replies: " The impolicy of
placing so many troops out of the way, and the
enormous abuses in the public expenditure for
twenty years are not the only objections to this me
thod of encouraging settlements. The principle it
self is erroneous, as evinced by the improvements in
provinces where no extraordinary expenses were in
curred nor troops were employed for civil purposes."
Simcoe poured out his grievances to Dundas and
Portland, while Dorchester curtly intimated more
than once, as we know, that if a divided authority
was to be the method of government in British
North America it was time he took himself off.
302

SAILS FOR ENGLAND
Dorchester had met his last parliament on
November 20th, 1795, and it had continued sitting
till May 7th. Among its duties was the alleviation
of distress, owing to a bad harvest, and the governor
laid an embargo on the exportation of wheat. The
last occurrence during his long term of residence
was the withdrawal of the British troops in June
from the western forts, which were to be form
ally occupied by the Americans in August. Dor
chester sailed for England on July 9th, the lieuten
ant-governor, Prescott, also in command of the
mihtary forces, remaining his representative till
the spring of the following year, when he form
ally took his place as governor-in-chief. Addresses
of affection, respect and regret were presented to
the departing governor by the people both of Que
bec and Montreal, coupled with expressions of
devotion to the Crown and "the happy government
under which it is our glory to live." The high
example set by the private lives of himself and his
family were gracefully alluded to. Dorchester knew
now that he was leaving never to return, and his
feelings of regret mingled with the yearning for
peace and rest inevitable to his now abundant
years and the strenuous fashion in which most of
them had been spent.
Guy Carleton must be judged mainly by his
works. He has left no private correspondence to
help us, for his wife destroyed it all after his death,
nor has the contemporary gossip of Quebec sent
303

LORD DORCHESTER
down to us any very lucid pictures of the man in
his hours of ease among friends or family. Happily
his official correspondence, spread over sixteen busy
years, reveals much of that side of his character
which is most vital to the appreciation of a great
proconsul. His jealousy for the honour of the Brit
ish Crown and impatience of everything mean, dis
honest or unjust that would cast a slur on it, was a
leading note in his career. His kindness of heart was
a byword, while his fair and liberal treatment of the
king's new subjects, in accordance, as he thought,
both with policy and justice, never wavered, though
it often brought him temporary unpopularity with
one side or the other. For this, however, or its oppo
site, Dorchester cared very little. Of strong personal
ity and extreme independence of character, he was
never swayed for a moment by what men might say
or think of him; but his instincts were true and his
heart was sound. Even those who suffered, as a rule
justly, from the first never denied the second. Though
distinctly a grand seigneur and with a reserved man
ner, his qualities of head and heart must have been
all the greater to procure for him the large measure
of affection and esteem with which he was generally
regarded. And this reputation, it should be remem
bered, was steadily maintained through two long
terms of eight years apiece, so widely sundered that
they almost represented two different generations
of Canadians. No cases of undeserved hardship or
neglected merit seem to have been too insignificant
304

HIS CHARACTER
for Dorchester's attention, and when rebuke was
required he cared little for the rank of the trans
gressor, as might be inferred from the candour of
his communications even to secretaries of state.
Against jobbery, whether in the grasping of fees,
or in that odious, and then too common, custom of
foisting incompetent deputies on the colony while
politicians at home shared the plunder, he waged
incessant war. We have plenty of evidence that
the Chateau St. Louis was, during Dorchester's
tenancy, the centre of a graceful and dignified
hospitality. He desired to be fair to the French-
Canadians and thus frequently laid himself open to
the accusation of a bias in favour of that nationality.
But if he ever exceeded equity and prudence in
this particular he was heavily punished by the
ready surrender of the Canadian peasantry to the
wiles of outside intrigue ; for there is no doubt he
felt it bitterly. He unquestionably modified his
earlier views of the British trading community,
probably from the fact that as time went on they
justified his better opinion. They, no doubt, them
selves acquired greater discretion and gradually
absorbed from outside a better and wiser element.
Above all, the trials of 1775-6 divided the sheep
from the goats, and inclined a better feeling
between the educated English and French who
shared a common peril and fought side by side
against a common enemy. It had been Dor
chester's lot to govern Canada through periods of
305

LORD DORCHESTER
great pohtical stress and in some moments of ex
traordinary peril. That he saved her to Great Britain
in those years would alone entitle him to the per
petual gratitude of Canada and of the empire. But
this achievement, conspicuous though it was, is very
far from comprising the whole debt under which he
has laid posterity. It was but a crowning incident
in many years' record of less showy but valuable
service. Mistakes he doubtless made, though it is
not easy to put one's finger on them, amid the per
sonal feelings and faction which distinguish that
little nucleus of a coming nation over which he
ruled and which fifty years later Lord Durham still
called, " Two nations warring within a single state."
Dorchester, however, had to face the further dis
advantage that these domestic distractions were
carried on under the very guns, either active or
threatening, of two powerful enemies.
The frigate Active, which carried Dorchester
and his family from Quebec, was wrecked on the
Island of Anticosti, near the mouth of the St.
Lawrence. Happily no lives were lost, and the party
were conveyed by coasting vessels to Perce' on the
Gaspe shore. A ship was sent for them from Halifax,
and they sailed direct for England, arriving at the
end of September. Dorchester retained his govern
orship for six months longer, when Prescott suc
ceeded him in the titular honours of office as he had
already done in its actual duties. Dorchester was now
seventy-two, and spent the remaining twelve years
306

HIS DEATH
of life left to him in rural retirement, first at Kemp-
shot, near Basingstoke, and later at Stubbings, near
Maidenhead, where he died suddenly on November
10th, 1808. These years, as may be imagined, were
quite uneventful ones. Dorchester left a numerous
family, and his title descended in the male line till
1897, when it became extinct. It was revived, how
ever, in the person of the present Baroness Dor
chester, a cousin of the last lord and descendant of
the governor, and passes to her son, Dudley Massey
Carleton. There are a great number of living des
cendants of the famous governor, and among these,
it may be interesting to note, are several groups
of a family directly descended from him, and well
known to the writer, long settled in Virginia.
Stubbings, where Dorchester died, had been his
first purchase. He bought Greywell Hill, near
Winchfield, in Hampshire, which is now the chief
home of the family, from the trustees of Lord
Northington. Lastly, he bought Kempshot, near
Basingstoke, where he himself chiefly hved, as has
been stated, an uneventful life, interesting himself
much in the breeding of horses, of which he had al
ways been fond. Among other distinguished guests
who occasionally visited him in his country home
was the Prince Regent.
Six of Dorchester's sons died from wounds or dis
ease on active service. The death of the eldest in
1786 was both singular and sad. Dorchester was
actually on the sea, bound for his second term of
307

LORD DORCHESTER
office in Canada, when the youth landed at Ply
mouth on sick leave from the continent Those
were queer times, and though heir to a barony as
he was, this young British officer seems to have
been so friendless and hard put to it for clothes
that he was nearly hanged as a French spy. How
ever, he contrived to reach London, and being at
once taken ill again with camp fever seems to have
been quite stranded in the great city. The only per
son whose name he could think of was Mr. Pitt,
and he applied to that minister, who secured him
quarters in Westminster, where he died.
A picture of the siege of Bergen op Zoom, where
Carleton, it will be remembered, was wounded,
hangs in the dining-room at Greywell Hill. By
a remarkable coincidence another son of Carleton's
met his death there carrying the same sword with
which his father had so distinguished himself on the
former occasion. Among the other treasures here is
the wooden bedstead with curtains which the general
used in Canada and on all his campaigns, and on
which he died. As it is scarcely more than five feet
long, and was curtained all around, it is assumed
that the owner, a tall man, must have habitually
rested in a doubled-up position. There is also pre
served a handsome carved horn, presented by the
Western Indians to the governor while in Canada.
Lady Dorchester lived to a great age, and plenty
of people not long dead remembered her perfectly.
Though a small woman she was awe-inspiring to a
308

LADY DORCHESTER
degree in the extraordinary ceremony she observed
and exacted, and the hauteur of her bearing, her
own family being included in this attitude. When
visiting her son-in-law, Lord Bolton, of Hackwood,
so an eye-witness used to relate to present members
of the family, her entry to the dining-room at meal
hours was a prodigiously solemn affair and never
occurred till all the family and guests were assem
bled. Her hair at this time, 1830, was lifted high
up with lace and scarlet ribbons, her dress costly
and elaborate. She wore scarlet shoes with very
high heels and gold buttons, and carried in her
hand an ebony cane. On entering she would bow
graciously to the assembled company, and no one
thought of sitting down till she herself was seated.
Such was the lady who some fifty -five years before
had come almost as a bride to preside at the Cha
teau St. Louis, Quebec.

309

INDEX

INDEX

Alleghany frontiersmen, their
characteristics, 232
Allen, Ethan, captures Ticonderoga
and Crown Point, 83 ; deserts
Fort St. Johns on the approach
of the British, 84 ; his foolhardy
attempt to capture Montreal, 98,
99 ; taken prisoner and sent to
England, 99 ; his correspondence
in the Vermont negotiations, 244,
246
Allfin, Ira, captured with arms for
the supposed invasion of Canada,
300
Allsopp, memher of the first legis
lative council, 91
Americans, besiege Quebec, 114-26;
the killed and wounded, 131 ;
evacuate Canada, 146, 147 ; battle
for the naval supremacy of Lake
Champlain, 154^7
Amherst, General, Canada surren
dered to, by Levis, 2 ; conditions
of the surrender, 10
Anderson, Captain, British officer,
killed at Quebec, 130
Arnold, Benedict, his parentage,
104 ; marriage, 104 ; business,
104 ; character, 104 ; captain of
the "Governor's Guards," 106 ;
receives the commission of colonel
from the Massachusetts commit
tee, 105 ; joins Allen as a volun

teer in the attack on Ticonderoga,
106 ; captures an armed sloop at
St. Johns, 106 ; resigns the ser
vice of the Massachusetts com
mittee in a huff and enlist9 with
Washington, 106 ; appointed com
mander of the expedition against
Quebec, 106, 106 ; his force, 106;
sails from Newburyport for the
mouth of the Kennebec, 106;
his historic march to Quebec,
107-9 ; arrives at Point Lews,
109 ; holds a council of war and
decides to advance on Quebec,
109, 110 ; congratulates Mont
gomery on the capture of St.
Johns and outlines his prospects
of capturing Quebec, 110 ; lands
at Wolfe's Cove, 110 ; sends a
summons to surrender to Cramahe
which he refuses to receive, 111 ;
moves his troops to Pointe-aux-
Trembles, 111 ; joined by Mont
gomery, 116 ; driven from his
headquarters in St. Roch, 121 ;
on the march to Sault-au-Mate
lot, 127, 128; wounded, 128;
transferred to Montreal, 132,
136 ; repulses Forster at Lachine
but is forced to retire from Vau-
dreuil, 142, 143 ; leaves Canada,
147 ; sells for his own benefit
military supplies obtained in
Canada, 147 ; defeated by Carle*
313

LORD DORCHESTER

ton on Lake Champlain, 166-7 ;
his losses, 165 ; burns the build
ings in Crown Point and pro
ceeds to Ticonderoga, 166
Asgill, Lieutenant, a victim of re
taliation, 198-200
Assembly, House of, the agitation
for, 65, 56, 60, 61 ; withheld for
the present, 64 ; the demand for,
237, 264 ; its first meeting, 269
B
Bailly, M., bishop coadjutor, 227 ;
opposes the bishop's views on
better education, 229
Ball, Miss, wife of Christopher
Carleton, and mother of Lord
Dorchester, 29 ; afterwards mar
ries the Rev. Thomas Skelton, 29
Barnsfare, Captain, in charge of the
battery at Pres de Ville, 127
Barre, Colonel, 67, 69
Belette, Captain, engages the enemy
at Sorel while Carleton proceeds
to Quebec, 113
Boston, evacuated by Howe, 134,
159
Bouchette, skipper, pilots Carleton
from Sorel to Three Rivers, 113
Bouquet, Henry, Colonel of the
60th, his victories in " Pontiac's
War," 6 ; made a brigadier, 6 ;
his death in Florida, 7; be
queaths his papers to Haldimand,
7
Bourinot, Sir John G., quoted, 63
Briand, Monseigneur, appointed
bishop and sent to Canada, 23 ;
his simple life, 58 ; his efforts to
314

rouse the patriotism of the habi
tants, 87
British colonists, their ideas on the
subject of land tenure, 12, 13 ;
monopolize trade and stir up
strife with the French-Canadians,
16, 17 ; forward a petition for
Murray's recall, 17 ; their dis
content with Murray, 23 ; cen
sured by Murray, 24 ; present
petitions for a House of Assem
bly, 60, 61 ; express their satis
faction with the Quebec Act, 78,
79
Burgoyne, Sir John, arrives in
Quebec with troops, 144 ; sent to
recover Chambly and St. Johns,
146 ; finds them deserted, 146 ;
agrees with Carleton in postpon
ing the siege of Ticonderoga,
158 ; returns to England, 163 ;
back in Canada, 171 ; to make a
junction with Howe's army at the
south and fight his way to Al
bany, 171, 172; his birth and
early military life, 175; marriage,
175 ; in the House of Commons,
175 ; a dramatist and versifier,
175 ; as a soldier, 175, 176 ; hia
personality, 176 ; his army, 176,
177 ; defeated and forced to re
treat, 180 ; his mistakes, 181,
182 ; defends himself, 182
Burke, Edmund, takes part in the
debate on the Canada Act, 265 ;
his quarrel with Fox, 265
Burr, Aaron, Montgomery's aide,
106, 122, 234
Burton, Sir Francis, lieutenant-
governor at Montreal, 21

INDEX

Bntterfield, Major, surrenders with
congress forces at the Cedars, 142

Caldwell, Colonel, 111 ; coa»-
mands the British militia, 115 ;
his house burnt by Arnold, 121 ;
leads a company to defend the
second barrier, 129 ; with Carle
ton in his attack on the rebels,
138 ; sent to England, 138
Campbell, Captain of the 27th,
arrested for participation in the
Walker outrage, 36-8
Campbell, General, commissioner
in the matter of cartels, 207, 208
Campbell, Major, refuses to sur
render Fort Miami, 286
Canada Act of 1791, 227 ; the hill
introduced in the House of Com
mons by Pitt, 263; the debate
upon, 263-5 ; becomes law, (May
14th, 1791), 266 ; its provisions,
266, 267 ; comes into effect, (De
cember 26th, 1791), 269
Carden, Major, sent to Long Point
to dislodge Ethan Allen, 98;
killed, 99
Carleton, Christopher, father of
Lord Dorchester, 29; death of,
29
Carleton, Sir Guy, afterwards Lord
Dorchester, his birth and parent
age, 29 ; early military life, 30 ;
military preceptor to the Duke
of Richmond, 30 ; is refused per
mission to accompany Wolfe on
the Louisbourg expedition, 31 ;
after three appeals accompanies

him to Quebec as quartermaster-
general, 31 ; wounded at the
battle of the Plains of Abraham,
32 ; returns to Europe and sees
active service, 32 ; appointed to
succeed Murray at Quebec, 32 ;
his arrival and welcome, 32, 33 ;
an incident of his independence,
34 ; relinquishes all fees and per
quisites attached to his office, 3-5,
36 ; the object of his first mission,
(1766-78), 39 ; of his second,
(1786-96), 39, 40 ; writes to Shel
burne explaining his adherence
to the French civil code, and
gives a sketch of the province,
43-8 ; allays the anxiety of the
home government as to French
plans of revolt, 48, 49 ; foresees
the revolt of the American colon
ies, 60, 51 ; has a new ordinance
passed for the administration of
justice, 54, 55 ; returns to Eng
land in 1770 and remains four
years, 59 ; his report on manu
factures, 59, 60 ; deeply involved
in the drafting of the Quebec
Act, 63, 68 ; the story of his
marriage, 75, 76 ; returns to
Canada (1774), 75 ; receives ad
dresses expressing satisfaction
with the Quebec Act, 78 ; in
structions from Dartmouth, 81 ;
reports the loss of Ticonderoga
and Crown Point to Dartmouth,
85, 86 ; calls out the militia, 86 ;
when returning to Quebec is en
tertained at Three Rivers by
Tonnancour, 89 ; opens the first
legislative council, 90 ; hurries
315

LORD DORCHESTER

back to Montreal on hearing that
the rebels are again on the Riche
lieu, 91 ; his army of defence,
93 ; orders Walker's arrest, 100 ;
makes every effort to raise the
siege of St. Johns, 102, 103 ;
writes Dartmouth; the reasons of
his failure, 103 ; attempts the
convoy of his force from Montreal
to Quebec, 104, 112, 113 ; pre
pares to face the siege, 114 ; re
ceives a letter from Montgomery,
118, 119 ; learns that the first
barricade has been fired, 129 ;
attends Montgomery's funeral,
132 ; receives reinforcements from
England, 137 ; attacks and puts
to rout the rebels, 137, 138 ; his
humanity towards the fugitives,
138, 139 ; meets Burgoyne at
Quebec, 144 ; improves the de
fences of the country, 150, 151 ;
re-establishes courts of Quebec,
151 ; defeats the congress fleet
on Lake Champlain, 154-7 ; re
views the situation and decides
not to attack Ticonderoga in the
face of the coming winter, 157-9;
returns to his civic duties in Que
bec, 159 ; his opinion of the
Canadians, 161 ; gives a dinner
and ball on New Year's Eve, 162;
sends his plans for the coming
campaign to Germain with Bur
goyne, 163 ; superseded in com
mand by Burgoyne, 163, 164 ;
writes Germain, 166-9 ; sends in
his resignation, 169 ; remains in
office another year, 171 ; his
plan of campaign, 171 ; compelled
316

to sanction a corvie, 178 ; re
ceives discouraging messages
from Ticonderoga, 179 ; Powell
applies to, for instructions, his
reply, 180 ; his appointments in
the courts, 183 ; disapproves of
Livius as chief-justice, 184 ; dis
approves of Germain's colonial
appointments, 185, 186 ; calls out
the militia, 187 ; his kindness to
American prisoners, 188 ; last
letter to Germain, 188, 189 ; re
turns to England, 189 ; appointed
peace commissioner, " general
and commander-in-chief, etc.,"
193, 194; sails for New York,
(1782), 193 ; receives addresses of
welcome, 195 ; confronted with
the Philip White incident, 198-
200 ; instructed to propose ne
gotiations of peace with the
Americans, 200 ; asks to he re
called on hearing that complete
independence is to be ceded to
the Americans, 203 ; corresponds
with Washington about the Loya
lists, 206 ; appoints a commission
to meet Washington's representa
tives, 207, 208 ; discusses the
matter of cartels with Washington
and Clinton, 214 ; superintends
the transportation of the Loyalists
and evacuates New York, 214-19 ;
after two years spent in England
returns to Canada as governor-
general (1786), 221 ; created
Baron Dorchester, 221 ; his warm
reception, 223, 224 ; his powers
as governor, 224 ; appoints com
mittees to report upon the legal

INDEX

oode, commerce and education of
the province, 225, 226 ; finds the
Indian question in a critical state,
231 ; establishes a postal service,
243 ; receives a petition from
the French-Canadians protesting
against Lymburner's mission, 246;
his efforts to maintain the effi
ciency of the Canadian militia,
246 ; receives the first draft of a
new bill for the better govern
ment of Quebec, 248 ; his objec
tions to the division of the prov
ince, 248 ; favours Sir John
Johnson's appointment as lieu
tenant-governor of Upper Canada,
258, 259 ; his multifarious duties,
262, 263; sails for England, 269 ;
returns to Canada, 271 ; reports
the failure of the peace negotia
tions between the American com
missioners and the Indians, 276 ;
opens the second parliament of
Lower Canada, 276 ; faces the
militia problem again, 277, 278 ;
harangues the Miamis, 282, 283 ;
correspondence arising from the
event, 283, 284 ; wages war against
fees and perquisites, 291, 292 ;
his misunderstanding with Sim
coe, 293-8, 302; wishes to re
sign, 297; sails for home, 300,
303, 306 ; a summing up of his
character and work, 303-6 ;
his remaining years and death,
307 ; the death of his sons, 307,
308
Carrol, Charles, appointed congress
commissioner to Canada, 135
Carroll, Father, afterwards arch

bishop, accompanies congress
commission to Canada, 135
Caughnawagas, serve with the Can
adians against the rebels, 88 ; de
sert Preston at Fort St. Johns,
100
Chambly, defended by Major Stop-
ford, 93 ; the fall of, 99, 101
Chateau St. Louis, 144, 162, 221,
305, 309
Chaudiere, River, 106, 107, 108
Clarke, Colonel Alured, 214 ; ap
pointed lieutenant - governor of
Quebec, 249 ; left in charge dur
ing Dorchester's absence, 269
Clinton, Governor of New York,
meets Carleton to discuss the
matter of cartels, 214
Clinton, Sir Henry, returns from
his command at New York,
192
Committee on education, appointed
by Dorchester, 226 ; the finding
of, 229
Congress, its attitude towards the
Quebec Act, 70-3 ; matters pre
cipitated by the seizure of Ticon
deroga and Crown Point, 95;
undertakes the invasion of Can
ada, 96 ; appoints a commission
to investigate the military situa
tion of Canada, 135 ; reports it
as hopeless, 136, 137 ; violates a
compact for the exchange of
prisoners, 143 ; controls the en
tire open country, 196 ; called
upon to settle the Philip White
incident, 198-200 ; receives the
proposed terms of peace with bad
grace, 207
317

LORD DORCHESTER

€onolly, William, "patron " of Guy
Carleton and his brother, 30
Contrecoeur, M. de, member of the
first legislative council, 91
Comwallis, Lord, his surrender at
Yorktown, 191
Cramahe, Hector Theophilus, mem
ber of the executive council, sent
on a mission to the British gov
ernment by Murray, 16, 59 ; ap
pointed deputy governor in Car
leton's place, 59 ; attends the
first meeting of the legislative
council, 90 ; in command at Que
bec, 109 ; hears of the approach
of the Americans under Arnold,
109 ; refuses to receive Arnold's
summons to surrender, 111 ; im
proves the defences of Quebec,
117
Crown Point, seized by the rebels,
82 ; Arnold burns all the build
ings in, 156 ; British advance to,
157 ; left unprotected, 159
D
Dambourges, Lieutenant, serves in
defence of Quebec, 129
Dartmouth, Lord, succeeds Lord
Hillsborough as colonial secre
tary, 77 ; sends instructions to
Carleton, 81 ; receives Carleton's
report of the loss of Ticonderoga
and Crown Point, 85, 86 ; re
ceives from Carleton an account
of the reasons of his failure to
raise the siege of St. Johns, 103
Digby, Hon. Robert, Carleton's
naval coadjutor, 194
318

Disney, Captain, of the 44th, ar
rested for participation in the
Walker outrage, 36-8 ; " most
honourably acquitted," 38
Dorchester, Baroness, maintains the
title, 307
Dorchester, Lady, see Howard, Lady
Maria
Dorchester, Lord, see Carleton, Sir
Guy
Drummond, Colin, member of the
first legislative council, 91
Duggan, Jeremiah, a partisan of
Montgomery's, 120
Dunning, Mr., as a witness for the
Quebec Act, 65 E
Easton, Colonel, disputes Carle
ton's passage at Sorel, 112, 113
Effingham, Earl of, father-in-law of
Lord Dorchester, 75
Elliott, Mr., commissioner in the
matter of cartels, 207, 208
Enos, Colonel, refuses to proceed
with Arnold on his march to
Quebec, 108 ; afterwards court-
martialed and honourably ac
quitted, 108

Fanning, Mr., appointed lieuten
ant-governor of Prince Edward
Island in Patterson's place, 235
Finlay, Hugh, member of the first
legislative council, 91
Forster, Captain, stationed at Oswe-
gatchie, 142 ; successfully attacks
Major Butterfield at the Cedars,
142 ; marches on to Montreal but

INDEX

has to retire to Vaudreuil, 142 ;
repulses Arnold and makes a
compact for the exchange of
prisoners which is broken by con
gress, 143 ; retires to Oswe-
gatchie, 143
Fox, Charles James, Right Honour
able, his objections to the Quebec
Act, 66 ; secretary of state under
Rockingham, 192 ; opposes the.
Canada Act, 265 ; his quarrel
with Burke, 265
Franklin, Benjamin, sent as con
gress commissioner to investigate
Canada's military situation, 135 ;
his opinion of the Walkers, 136 ;
interviewed by Oswald in Paris,
192, 213
Fraser, Captain, involved in the
Walker affair, 19 ; threatens to
resign, 19 ; arrested and tried
for participation in the Walker
outrage, 36-8
Fraser, Captain Malcolm, of the
Royal Emigrants, 112, 124, 130 ;
in command at Three Rivers,
144; repulses Thompson, 145, 146
Fraser, John, member of the first
legislative council, 91
French-Canadians, the, a superior
class, 10 ; opposed to English
laws, 14 ; forward a counter peti
tion protesting against Murray's
recall, 18 ; the question of their
religion, 21, 22 ; Murray's flatter
ing description of, 24, 25 ;
rumoured plans of revolt, 48 ;
forward a, petition to the Crown
referring to matters legal and
lingual, 61 ; pleased with the

Quebec Act, 77, 78; enroll as
volunteers, 84 ; eight are elected
to the legislative council under
the new Act, 90 G
Gage, General, requests Carleton
to send him reinforcements at
Boston, 78 ; sails for England, 92
Ganesvort, U.S. officer in posses
sion of Fort Stanwix, 173
Gates, General, occupies Ticon
deroga, 157
Genet, Edmond Charles, French
minister at Philadelphia, his
career in America, 272, 273
George III., his proclamation re
garding his new subjects, 7-9 ;
refuses to allow Carleton to ac
company the Louisbourg expe
dition, 31 ; after three appeals
appoints him quartermaster-gene
ral with Wolfe against Quebec,
31
Germain, Lord George, his career
as Lord George Sackville, 148 ;
character, 149 ; the cause of his
malevolence towards Carleton,
163 ; appoints Burgoyne to super
sede Carleton, 163, 164; Carle
ton's reply to, 165-9 ; receives
Carleton's resignation, 169 ; a
contemporary statesman's opinion
of, 170 ; his prejudice against
Carleton, 170 ; his plan of cam
paign, 171, 172
Gladwin, Major, his defence of De
troit, 5
Glassion, M. de, superior at Quebec,
319

LORD DORCHESTER

petitions the king for the re-in-
statement of the Jesuits, 35
Gordon, brigadier, shot by Lieuten
ant Whitcomb, 152
Graves, Admiral, in command of
the fleet, 92 ; refuses to send
transports to Quebec, 92
Greene, General, 197, 204
Grey, de, solicitor-general, report
of, 62 H
Haldimand, General Sir Fred
erick, bequeathed Colonel Bou
quet's papers, 7 ; governor at
Three Rivers, 21 ; appointed
Carleton's successor, 183 ; arrives
in Quebec, 189, 222 ; exchanges
prisoners with Vermont, 207
Hamilton, Alexander, 106
Hamilton, Captain, of the Lizard,
130
Havana, Cuba, the siege of, 32
Hazen, Moses, 84
Heath, General, Washington's com
missioner in the matter of cartels,
208
Henderson, Captain, assists in the
defence of Quebec, 112
Hey, chief-justice, tries prisoners
accused in the Walker affair, 37-
9 ; renders assistance in drafting
the Quebec Act, 63, 68 ; comes
to Canada as chief-justice, 81, 91 •
shames the British into serving
as volunteers, 88
Hillsborough, Lord, secretary of
state, correspondence with Carle
ton, 50, 51
Howard, Joseph, arrested for par-
320

ticipation in the Walker outrage,
36-8
Howard, Lady Anne, refuses Sir
Guy Carleton and marries his
nephew, 75, 76
Howard, Lady Maria, wife of Lord
Dorchester, 75 ; personal appear
ance, 77 ; returns to Canada with
her children, 162 ; characteristics,
308, 309
Howe, General Lord, evacuates
Boston, 134, 159 ; occupies New
York, 160 ; his futile and inef
fective pursuit of Washington,
160 ; his social festivities in New
York, 160 ; ordered by Germain
to send a force up the Hudson to
meet Burgoyne but never receives
his instructions, 172
Howe, Sir William, appointed to
command in America, 92
Hubert, Roman Catholic bishop of
Quebec, approves of better edu
cation in theory only, 227, 228
Huddy, Joshua, hanged in retalia
tion for the death of Philip White,
198
Hunter, war-sloop, fires on Arnold,
110, 114

Ile-aux-Noix, 98, 153
Indians (see also under names of
tribes and nations), chiefly valu
able as scouts, 88 ; ordered to
watch the Americans at Ticon
deroga, 88 ; forty of them join
Arnold, 110 ; with Forster at the
Cedars, 142 ; at the battle of
Oriskany, 174 ; desert from Bur-

INDEX

goyne's army, 178 ; ignored in
the treaty of peace, 231 ; their
territory invaded by the Alle
ghany frontiersmen, 233, 234 ;
wage war upon the Americans,
270 ; failure of their peace con
ference with the American com
missioners, 276
Inglis, Charles, first bishop of Nova
Scotia, 241 ; has jurisdiction over
Quebec, 241
Iroquois, the, swear allegiance to
Carleton, 151
Irving, Colonel, appointed deputy-
governor in Murray's place, 23,
24, 33, 34 ; dismissed from the
council, 39

Jay's Treaty, 286, 290, 291, 292,301
Jesuits, the, petition the king for
their re-instatement, 35, 58 ; the
claims upon their estates, 230
Johnson, Guy, nephew of Sir Wil
liam, leads the Six Nations, 88
Johnson, Sir John, raises a battalion
known as the King's Royal Regi
ment of New York, 151 ; at the
battle of Oriskany, 173 ; informs
Dorchester of the critical state of
the Indian question in the West,
231 ; his disappointment at not
being appointed lieutenant-gov
ernor of Upper Canada, 258, 259
Johnson, Sir William, quiets the
discontent of the Six Nations, 5, 6

Kennebec River, 106, 107, 108
Knox, General, Washington's com

missioner in the matter of cartels,
208

La Corne, Saint Luo de, arrested
for participation in the Walker
outrage, 36-8 ; a member of the
first legislative council, 91
Lake Champlain, 82, 146 ; its fleet,
149 ; a description of, 153; battle
for the naval supremacy of, 153-7
Lake George, 153, 157
Law, English civil, 10, 11 ; futile
attempts to enforce it in matters
connected with property, 13, 40
Law courts, established in 1764, 13 ;
the king's bench, 13, 14 ; com
mon pleas, 14 ; trial by jury, 14 ;
justices of the peace appointed,
14 ; the first presentment of the
grand jury, 14-16 ; French dis
satisfaction at the delays and costs
of, 41 ; Maseres' four suggestions
for the improvement of the legal
code, 41, 42 ; a new ordinance
passed for the administration of
justice, 54, 55 ; Dorchester ap
points a committee to report upon
the legal code, 225
Laws, Captain, despatched to attack
Arnold in the rear, 129 ; puts
Arnold's men to rout, 130, 131
Legal difficulties in Canada, Mor
gan commissioned to investigate,
43, 51 ; abuses in the administra
tion of justice, 61-4 ; a new ordi
nance passed, 54, 55 ; Dorchester
appoints a committee to report
upon, 225
Legislative council, the first under
321

LORD DORCHESTER

the new Act, 90, 91 ; members of,
269
Leslie, General, at Charleston, 197,
204
Levis, Chevalier de, surrenders to
Amherst, 2
Life of Shelburne, quoted, 170
Lippincott, Captain, executes Joshua
Huddy in retaliation for the death
of Philip White, Loyalist, and the
consequences of his act, 198-200
Livingstone, Robert, Montgomery
writes to, 115, 116
Livius, Mr., appointed chief-justice
at Montreal, 184 ; airs his im
portance, 187; not included in
Carleton's council, 187 ; appeals
to the privy council and is de
prived of his office, 1 88
Lizard, frigate, defends Quebec
against Arnold, 110, 114, 130
Lotbiniere, M. de, renders assistance
in drafting the Quebec Act, 63, 68
Loyalists, the, recommended to
Carleton's "tenderest and most
honourable care," 194 ; refugees
keep pouring into the British
lines, 202 ; regiments of, under
Carleton, 202, 203 ; petition Car
leton for protection, 206 ; ar
rangements for their reception in
Nova Scotia, 212, 214 ; their
transportation to the Maritime
Provinces, 214-19 ; the immigra
tions of 1783 and later, 236, 237 ;
Simcoe proposes that they be al
lowed to affix the letters U. E. to
their names, 260
Lymburner, Adam, Quebec mer
chant, sent to England with a
322

petition for a change in the con
stitution, 243, 244, 251, 257, 258;
pleads for the repeal of the Que.
bee Act and against the partition
of the province, 263, 264
M
Mabane, Adam, dismissed from the
council, 39 ; member of the first
legislative council, 91
M'Govoch, of the 28th Regiment, a
witness in the Walker outrage,
36 ; presented for perjury, 38
McLean, Allen, commands the
Royal Emigrants, 93 ; at Quebec,
112 ; on the number of killed
and wounded, 131 ; with Carleton
in his attack on the rebels, 138 ;
receives reinforcements at Que
bec, 144
Marriott, Dr. , advocate-general, as a
witness for the Quebec Act, 62, 69
Martial law, proclaimed, 86
Maseres, attorney-general, prose
cutes for the Crown in the Wal
ker outrage, 37, 38; his four
suggestions for the improvement
of the legal code, 41, 42 ; investi
gates the legal difficulties with
Morgan, 51 ; sails for England
with reports on the state of the
province, 56 ; his objections to
the Quebec Act, 62, 63, 68
Megantic, Lake, 107, 109
Miami, Fort, rebuilt by Simcoe,
284 ; its surrender demanded,
286; refused, 286
Miamis (Indians), addressed by Dor
chester, 282, 283
Minorca, surrender of, 28, 191

INDEX

Monk, solicitor-general in Nova
Scotia, 186 ; represents petition
ers against jury ordinance, 226 ;
his report on the state of feeling
of the French-Canadians, 278, 279
Montgomery, General Richard, his
parentage, 96 ; education, 97 ;
gazetted to the 17th Foot, 97 ;
takes part in the conquest of
Canada under Amherst, 97 ; sells
bis commission and goes to New
York, 97 ; marries a daughter of
Judge Livingstone, 97 ; personal
appearance, 97 ; succeeds Schuy
ler in command on Lake Champ
lain, 97 ; despatches Ethan Allen
to cement the friendliness of the
habitants, 98 ; upbraids Carleton
for putting Allen in irons, 100 ;
besieges Fort St. Johns, 100-2 ;
leads the main attack on Can
ada, 106 ; receives communication
from Arnold, 110; sums up his
chances of success, 115, 116 ; his
familiar boast that he will eat his
Christmas dinner in Quebec or
hell, 116 ; joins Arnold at Pointe-
aux-Trembles, 116 ; takes up his
quarters at Holland House, 118 ;
his letters to Carleton and the
inhabitants, 118-20; hio plan of
attack, 122; spends Christmas
Day in Holland House, 123 ; the
plan of attack altered, 125 ; on
the march from Wolfe's Cove,
125 ; the attack, 126 ; his death,
126, 132; buried in a hollow
under the St. Louis bastion, 132
Montreal, its surrender in 1760 ; 2,
population of, 9 ; meetings at,

for the redress of grievances, 79 ;
riots in, on the inauguration oi
the Quebec Act, 82 ; Ethan Al
len's attempt to capture it, 98,
99 ; gaiety in, 162
Morgan, Captain, assumes com
mand in attack on Quebec when
Arnold is wounded, 128 ; his gal
lantry, 130
Morgan, Maurice, commissioned to
investigate the legal situation in
Canada, 43, 51 ; sails for England
with reports on the state of the
province, 56 ; his contributions
to the archives as Carleton's sec
retary, 203
Morris, Colonel, head of the depart
ment of claims and succour, 202 ;
his marriage, 202
Mountain, Jacob, first Anglican
bishop of Canada, 271 ; early
career, 271
Murray, General, as governor of
Canada, 2, 4, 9 ; quells a mutiny
among the troops, 4 ; his trouble
with the English settlers, 9 ; es
tablishes friendly relations with
the French-Canadians, 10 ; dis
courages the attempt to enforce
English civil law, 13 ; empowered
to nominate a council authorized
to make laws, 13 ; sends Cramahe'
to explain to the British govern
ment the state of affairs in Can
ada, 16; his recall asked for by
the British settlers, 17, 18 ; goes
to Montreal to quell the riots be
tween the troops and magistrates,
21 ; summoned to London, 23 ;
publishes a report of the colony,
323

LORD DORCHESTER

24-8 ; his heroic but fatal defence
of Minorca, 28 ; his proclamation
of 1762, 42 N
Nairne, Captain, serves on defence
of Quebec, 129
Napier, Captain, of the Fell, 113
New York, evacuated by Washing
ton and occupied by Howe, 160 ;
evacuated by the British, 214
"Nootka Incident," the, 250, 259
North, Lord, on committee of the
Quebec Act, 63, 66, 68; defeat
of his government, 191
O
Oriskany, battle of, 173, 174
Oswald, Richard, sent to Paris to
interview Franklin with a view to
terms, 192, 213
Oswegatchie (Ogdensburg), 142, 143
P
Palace Gate, Quebec, 122, 125,
128, 129
Parr, Governor, of Nova Scotia, 206;
receives the Loyalists, 214, 235
Patterson, lieutenant-governor of
Prince Edward Island, refuses to
resign, 235
Payne, Captain, committed to jail
by Walker, 19
Phillips, General, joins Burgoyne
at St. Johns, 147 ; disapproves of
leaving Crown Point unprotected,
159
Pitt, William, introduces the Can
ada Act in the House of Com
mons, 263
Point au Fer, 153
Point Le'vis, 134, 138
324

Pointe-aux-Trembles, 32 ; Arnold's
troops at, 111, 116
" Pontiac's War," 4 ; its cause and
duration, 5, 6
Portland, Duke of, approves of
Dorchester's action in the Miami
affair, 284 ; hears Simcoe's griev
ances, 302
Powell, Brigadier-general, in com
mand at Ticonderoga, 179 ; writes
to Carleton for instructions,
180 ; abandons Ticonderoga and
reaches St. Johns in safety, 180
Pownall, George, member of the
first legislative council, 91
Prescott, Colonel, in command at
Montreal, 89, 112 ; leaves with
Carleton, 112 ; captured by the
provincials, 113
Prescott, Robert, appointed gover
nor-general in Dorchester's place,
300, 303, 306
Pres de Ville, 118 ; the battery at,
127, 132
Preston, Major, despatched to St.
Johns, but finds it deserted, 84;
in command at St. Johns, 93;
defends the fort against Mont
gomery, 100, 101 ; forced to sur
render from shortness of food and
ammunition, 102, 146
Price, a disaffected Montrealer, 122,
123
Prince Edward, Queen Victoria's
father, visits Canada, 270, 275,
276
Prince William Henry (King Wil
liam IV) visits Canada, 238, 240
Provincials, the, occupy Crown
Point, 83 ; swarming in the coun-

INDEX

try, 103 ; clad in British uni
forms, 120, 130; their hardships
during the siege of Quebec, 123 ;
put to flight, 138

Quebec, population of, 9 ; its fourth
and last siege, 114-26 ; last days
of the siege, 127-39 ; the killed
and wounded, 131 ; regiments at,
144 ; gaiety in, 162
Quebec Act, the, introduced in the
House of Lords, 63 ; its delimi
tation of Canada faulty, 63, 64 ;
sanctions existing usages rather
than new ones, 64 ; the debate
and passage of, 65 ; opinions for
and against, 65-71 ; French and
British settlers express their sat
isfaction with, 78, 79 ; two clauses
of, misrepresented by the mal
contents, 79, 80 ; comes into
force on May 1st, 1775, 81 ; riots
on the day of its inauguration,
82 ; the clause annulling all ap
pointments held prior to it causes
friction between Carleton and
Germain, 183, 184
R
Regiments, 10th and 52nd sent to
Gage at Boston, 78 ; 7th and 26th
at St. Johns, 93 ; 26th with Major
Carden at Long Point, 98 ; 7th
at Quebec, 112 ; 8th with Forster
at the Cedars, 142 ; 29th and 47th
with Carleton, 144; those sent
back to England, 242 ; others
brought out, 242
Riedesel, Baron, arrives in Canada
in command of the Brunswick

troops, 146 ; despatched to Three
Rivers, 145 ; joins Burgoyne at
St. Johns, 147
Rodney, Admiral, his victory in the
West Indies, 195, 200
Royal Emigrants, afterwards the
84th Regiment, 93 ; at Quebec,
112

St. Johns, Fort, 83, 84 ; deserted
by Allen, 84 ; reinforced, 85 ;
under Preston, 93 ; its position,
100 ; the siege of, 100, 101 ;
forced to surrender, 102 ; its gar
rison marches out with the hon
ours of war and is imprisoned in
New Jersey, 102
St. John's Gate, Quebec, 120
St. Leger, Colonel, his unsuccessful
siege of Fort Stanwix, 173, 174 ;
retreats to Montreal, 174 ; des
patched to the assistance of Ti
conderoga, 179
St. Louis Gate, Quebec, 124
St. Maurice, the forges at, 60, 141
St. Roch, suburb of Quebec, 117,
120, 125, 127 ; its rebel battery
captured, 130
Sault-au-Matelot, attacked by Ar
nold, 117, 125, 127 ; severe fight
ing at, 129, 130, 132
Savannah, evacuated, 204
Schuyler, General, takes command
of the forces on Lake Champlain,
96 ; through illness is forced to
resign, 96 ; during his command
demonstrates against Fort St.
Johns, has a skirmish with Car
leton's Indians, and stations a
325

LORD DORCHESTER

force at Ile-aux-Noix, 97, 98;
with Montgomery leads the main
attack on Canada, 106
Seigniorial tenure, 11, 255, 256
Senneville, M. de, joins Forster in
his attack on the Cedars, 142
Seven Years' War, closed by the
Treaty of Paris, 1
Shelburne, Lord, (Marquis of Lans-
downe), Murray's report addressed
to, 24-8 ; sends Morgan to Can
ada to study the legal situation,
43 ; receives a sketch of the prov
ince from Carleton, 43-8 ; sends
Oswald to interview Franklin in
Paris, 192
Simcoe, John Graves, appointed
first governor of Upper Canada,
259 ; arrives in Canada, 270 ; his
misunderstanding with Dorches
ter, 293-8, 302
Six Nations (Indians), their griev
ances and discontent, 5 ; led by
Guy Johnson, 88
Skelton, Rev. Thomas, stepfather
of Lord Dorchester, 29
Smith, William, chief-justice of
Quebec, 224, 225 ; introduces a
new bill in relation to the legal
code, 226 ; appointed to investi
gate the legal administration of
the province, 227 ; his views on
the division of the province, etc.,
261, 262
Sorel, 112, 141, 145, 146 ; changes
its name to William Henry, 240 ;
its second baptism soon forgotten,
241
Stamp Act, the, 33, 57
Stanwix, Fort, its position, 173 ; St.
326

Lager's unsuccessful siege of, 173,
174
Stopford, Major, at Chambly 93;
his surrender after a thirty-six
hour siege, 101, 102, 146
Sydney, Lord, secretary of state,
224 ; his letters to Dorchester,
242 T
Templer, Colonel, in command at
Montreal, 84 ; despatches Major
Preston to St. Johns, 84; calls
for volunteers, 84
Thomas, General, takes command
in Wooster's place, 136 ; routed
by Carleton's army, 138 ; makes
a stand against Carleton at Sorel,
141
Thompson, General, U. S. officer,
attacks Fraser at Three Rivers,
145, 146
Thompson, James, engineer, 117
Three Rivers, Carleton arrives at,
113; a depot of supplies, 141;
rendezvous of the troops, 144
Thurlow, Lord, attorney-general,
renders assistance in drafting the
Quebec Act, 62, 66
Ticonderoga, seized by the rebels,
82, 83 ; occupied by Gates, 157 ;
in command of Powell, 179? at
tacked by Seth Warner, 179;
abandoned, 180
Tonnancour, Colonel, entertains
Carleton, 89
Townshend, Charles, his comments
on the Quebec Act, 66, 67, 68 ;
his confidence in Carleton, 205 ;
requests Carleton to remain until
peace is declared, 212

INDEX

Treaty of Paris,
Years' War, 7

closes the Seven

Vergennes, French minister, 192,
199
Vermont, approaches Dorchester in
regard to an outlet for its trade
by the St. Lawrence, 230, 231,
299 ; admitted into the Union as
a state, 299 ; threatens to invade
Canada, 300
Voyer, Colonel, commands the
French militia, 115 ; at the de
fence of Quebec, 129
W
Walker, a leading trader and
magistrate in Montreal, 18 ; the
billeting episode, 19-21 ; brought
up for trial again, 36-9 ; refuses
to join Ethan Allen in an attempt
on Montreal, 98 ; arrested by
Carleton's order, 100 ; entertains
the congress commission, 136
Warner, Seth, heads a band of
sharpshooters, 103 ; attacks Ti
conderoga, 179
Washington, General, anxious to
occupy Canada, 95 ; appoints Ar
nold to command the expedition
against Quebec, 105, 106 ; evacu
ates New York, 160 ; retreats to
Philadelphia, 160 ; recaptures
most of Howe's posts, 160; cor
responds with Carleton about the
Loyalists, 206 ; appoints a com
mission for the exchange of pris
oners, 207, 208 ; issues orders for
a cessation of all hostile acts,

213 ; meets Carleton to d'scuss
the matter of cartels, 214
Wayne, Anthony, congress general,
summons Fort Miami to surren
der, 286
Wedderburne, solicitor-general,
renders assistance in drafting the
Quebec Act, 62, 66
Wentworth, lieutenant-governor of
Nova Scotia, 290, 296
Western Indians, wage war under
Pontiac, 4, 5
West Indies, British losses in, 191
Whitcomb, Lieutenant, U.S. officer
shoots Brigadier Gordon, 152
White, Philip, Loyalist, his violent
death and its consequences, 198-
200
Wilkinson, Arnold's aide-de-camp,
147, 234
Wolf, manservant of Colonel Cald
well, escapes from prison and
brings word of Montgomery's pro
posed night attack, 121
Wolfe's Cove, Arnold lands at, 110
Wolfe, General, his friendship with
Carleton, 30 ; the king refuses
his request to take Carleton with
him on the Louisbourg expedition,
31 ; after three appeals has him
appointed quartermaster-general
on the Quebec expedition, 31
Wooster, General, U.S. forces, in
command at Montreal, 116 ; re
places Montgomery, 132 ; re
called, 136, 138

Yorke, attorney-general, report of,
62
327

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
"What was he then? Whence, how? And what did he achieve and
suffer in the World ? " — Carlyte.

THE MAKERS OF CANADA
SIR FREDERICK
HALDIMAND

BY
JEAN N. McIL WRAITH

TORONTO
MORANG & CO., LIMITED
1912

Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada
in the year 1904-, by Morang & Co., Limited, in the
Department of Agricvltwre

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I Page
A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE  1
CHAPTER II
WITH THE ROYAL AMERICANS  11
CHAPTER in
HALDIMAND GOES TO CANADA  SI
CHAPTER IV
MILITARY RULE AT THREE RIVERS  41
CHAPTER V
SLX YEARS IN FLORIDA  63
CHAPTER VI
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AT NEW YORK . ... 83
CHAPTER VH
FROM NEW TO OLD ENGLAND  101

CONTENTS
CHAPTER VIII Page
THE GENERAL . . . .121
CHAPTER IX
THE UPPER POSTS ... 146
CHAPTER X
THE GOVERNOR . . . . .173
CHAPTER XI
THE VERMONT AFFAIR .... 197
CHAPTER XII
AUTRES TEMPS, AUTRES MCEURS . . .219
CHAPTER XIII
THE LOYALISTS .... 249
CHAPTER XIV
HIS EXCELLENCY'S ENEMIES . . .273
CHAPTER XV
HIS FRIENDS ..... 293
CHAPTER XVI
HIS RELICS . . . . .319
INDEX ...... 848

CHAPTER 1
A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE
ONE hundred and ten years ago there died in
Switzerland a gentleman who had been born
there some seventy odd years before, and who had
come back to end a life more varied and eventful
than most, within sight of the lakes and mountains
of his native land. This was Sir Frederick Hal
dimand, sometime lieutenant-colonel in the Royal
American regiment, military governor of Three
Rivers, commander of the southern district in
North America, commander-in-chief at New York,
and governor-general of Canada.
To have an ancestor with the prefix HonnSte to
his name is no mean distinction, for the soubri
quets " prudent," " learned," " magnificent," " very
honourable," "generous," "much feared," etc., so
plentifully besprinkled throughout European no
menclature of the eighteenth century had generally
some foundation in fact. That Frederick Haldi-
mand's grandfather should be known as "straight
forward" bespeaks for himself a patient hearing.
He may be prolix, he will never be untrue.
There is a tradition that the family was originally
French Huguenot, driven into Switzerland by
religious persecution; but of certainty it is known
1

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
only that Honngte Gaspard Haldimand migrated
from Thun, and on April 1st, 1671, took up his
abode at Yverdun, a tiny town directly north of
Lausanne, at the southwestern corner of Lake
Neuchatel. He was charged fifteen florins a year
merely as resident, and not at once admitted to
the full dignity of citizenship. Swiss communities
then, as now, did not bestow their municipal
privileges excepting upon those able to pay for
them, with the further requirement that applicants
be of good character. After a residence of twenty-
three years, Honnete Gaspard having demonstrated
his right to his name, paid down two thousand
florins and wine, was received as a citizen, and
his descendants inherited the distinction without
question, wherever they might live or die.
He had four sons, Francois-Lois, the father of
our Sir Frederick, Barthelemi, Jean-Lois and Gas
pard, junior. We may say adieu to Frederick's
uncles, as he did himself at an early age, remarking
only that Lieutenant Barthelemi was a bachelor
and a philanthropic fighting Calvinist, while Sieur
Gaspard travelled in foreign lands and was a person
of importance, or his lady wife would not have been
given "the pew which she desired in the church
near the clock tower, in which to sit with her
daughters." To Francois-Lois Haldimand and Marie Made-
laine de Trytorrens, his wife, there were born four
sons. Emmanuel, Frederick, Jean- Abraham, Fran-
2

A SWISS TOWN
cois-Louis, and one daughter, Justine. Frederick
was born on August 11th, 1718, in the Canton
of Neuchatel, and by the time he was ten years old,
his father, a notary, was justice of the peace in
Yverdun, and continued in that position till 1737.
Vaud in the eighteenth century was not an
independent canton, but subject to Berne and the
Vaudois gentry, and thus shut out from the civil ser
vice, cultivated science, art and literature. Lausanne
became a centre for savants, a peaceful cosmopolitan
resort where men like Gibbon, Fox, Raynal and
Voltaire, inspired by the glorious scenery, could
evolve ideas destined to move the world.
Yverdun was but a small place of two thousand
inhabitants and about three hundred houses, but its
upper classes exhibited the culture, hospitality and
refined manners characteristic of the canton, and
doubtless many distinguished foreigners found their
way there in Frederick's boyhood. The French
language and French fashions prevailed, but he had
no love for the French nation, and was never found
fighting under its banner. Neuchatel, his native
canton, had been forced to place herself beneath
the protection of Prussia as a defence against the
encroachment of Louis XIV., and the early an
tagonism thus instilled may have been one reason
that Frederick was drawn into the army of his
royal namesake.
The Haldimand family must have been of good
standing or the youth could not have obtained 3

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
a commission in any European army. There would
be no other career open to him at that time and in
that country, unless he chose to follow the example
of his cousin Samuel, Jean-Lois' son, a student at
Leyden, who died in Paris while on his way home
from the university. But Frederick preferred an
active life. With an elder brother to leave at home,
why should he not launch out upon the unknown ?
He must have had the early education and training
of a gentleman, for such is not to be gained in
camps, though frequently forgotten there.
Is it an ignoble thing to embrace the military
profession from any other motive than love of one's
own country ? The Swiss and the Scotch High
landers, rivals in patriotism, have not thought so.
Kilted regiments of the British army have left their
mark upon every quarter of the globe, while Swiss
mercenaries in the eighteenth century formed a
vital auxiliary to almost every army in Europe.
Switzerland showed wisdom in permitting and
encouraging her sons to take service with her
powerful neighbours, and thus gain military experi
ence at their expense. There she was, hemmed
in on one side by France, on the other by Austria,
with Sardinia on the south, and on her northern
borders those restless German states, not yet dream
ing of consolidation into an empire. The central
parts of Europe were being moved about like
chessmen in the hands of royal players. Who could
tell when Switzerland's turn for dismemberment
4

EARLY MILITARY SERVICE
would come ? When it should arrive she could recall
her wandering soldiers to her standard, not rustics
from the plough, but veterans, trained by the best
masters of the time.
Frederick Haldimand was fifteen years of age
when, after comparative tranquillity for a generation,
the continent began to seethe with the wars that
continued throughout his life, the peace of 1748
being only a truce. There is no evidence to show in
what military service he first engaged, but it is
generally supposed he entered as a cadet into the
army of Charles Emmanuel, king of Sardinia,
whose Italian possessions lay directly to the south
of Switzerland. Like his fellow-countryman and
life-long friend, Henry Bouquet, it is possible he
enlisted with the States General of Holland, and
passed thence into the Sardinian service.
" An adventurous, fighting kind of man," Carlyle
calls Charles Emmanuel, but he was also a man of
ability, and successfully directed the operations of
the fine army left him by his father, bringing it
into a further state of efficiency, and turning its
face this way or that, according as Sardinian inter
ests dictated. In the war of the Polish succession,
he began by siding with the Bourbons against
Austria, but when he feared Spain was growing too
powerful in Italy and he was likely to be left at her
mercy and that of France, he adroitly turned his
back on his allies and joined Maria Theresa in her
fight for her kingdom. The " door-keeper of the
5

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
Alps," he was called, and who more fitted to serve
under him than Swiss mountaineers ?
Henry Bouquet was a year younger than Fred
erick Haldimand, and they would likely be lads of
seventeen and eighteen when they began their
military career ; the latter mentions that he was an
officer at twenty-one. Henry went from Sardinia
back to Holland, but his friend is next heard of in
the army of Frederick the Great. Young Haldimand
was present at the battle of Mollwitz in 1741, an
eye witness to the terrific onslaught of thirty
squadrons of Austrian horse upon Frederick's ten,
and of the resulting panic and retreat of the
Prussian right wing. He would see the day, that
was seemingly lost, won for the king of Prussia by
the infantry his father had trained for him, standing
like a stone wall to receive the Austrian fire, and
the " bottled whirlwind " of their cavalry charge,
giving back five shots for one.
Subalterns are not prone to enter deeply into the
right or wrong of the struggles in which they
engage, and Haldimand would not be likely to
criticize the ethics of Frederick's Silesian campaign;
but he had a great admiration for him, both as
monarch and man, and to the end of his life spoke
affectionately of the king of Prussia as " my old
master." He may have been with him from his
accession till the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, by
which time Prussia had emerged from obscurity
into the position of a first-class power whose army
6

EARLY MANHOOD
was looked upon as the best fighting machine in
Europe. Sardinia too had lost nothing but gained
much during her protracted contest, and from both
his royal teachers the young soldier would learn
that the end often justifies the means and that an
amiable despot is an altogether admirable sort of
ruler. His early manhood fell upon a time when old
things were rapidly passing away and all things
were becoming new. The voice of the people, then
beginning to be heard, was to grow in volume and
fierceness till it became the wild scream of the
French revolution. Kings were turned reformers
and for their chief support they looked past the
aristocratic classes to the army, and the army was
drawn from the masses. While Frederick the Great
was adding Silesia to his domains, Holland was
having internal troubles which terminated in 1747
with a revolution that overthrew the aristocratic
party and placed William of Orange at the head of
affairs. The new Stadtholder never rested till he
had secured the succession to his son ; and with the
view of protecting himself from the republicans,
should occasion arise, he incorporated a regiment of
Swiss Guards.
"Why Swiss, instead of your own nationality?"
we may ask of the Prince of Orange, as of King
Louis in the French revolution. The answer comes
from the mercenaries who defended the Tuileries in
1792, and after the escape of their royal master
7

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
were massacred to a man: — "We are Swiss, and
the Swiss never surrender their arms but with their
lives."1 Steadfast, trustworthy, not to be caught on the
wave of any sudden revolution, small blame to the
Stadtholder, with uneasy seat on his throne, who
wanted Swiss guards at the Hague. This was the
corps in which both Haldimand and Bouquet were
registered in 1750, as captains commandant, with
the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and they may have
joined at its formation, two years before.
A change it would be from the stirring marches
and counter marches with the Great Frederick,
from the high countries to the low ; and Haldimand
was a nature-lover. Did he ever tire of the flat
fields, the canals and windmills of Holland and
sigh for his mountains, or did he lead the ordinary
life of a gay young officer at the Dutch court?
Who shall tell us ? Certainly not Bouquet, up to
his eyes in the study of mathematics and all that
pertained to the science of warfare. What Henry is
1 Haldimand's diary, May 29th, 1790 :— " Met Sir Henry Clinton
with whom I took a walk. He told me that the Duke of Gloucester was
much inclined that England should take Swiss troops into its service.
I showed him the inconvenience which would arise from the capitula
tion of Swiss troops, which he did not know, etc."
May 16th, 1787. "The Count de Linden .... wished to convince
me that Duke Louis was an enemy to the Swiss and wanted to persuade
the members of the republic to dismiss them in order to take German
troops in their place as they would be cheaper, but that the Dutch had
too much confidence in the Swiss to give in to these ideas, which would
fill Holland with German princes and counts.''
8

THE ROYAL AMERICANS
known to have done, it is probable his friend Fred
erick did also, and neither would be likely to lose
any opportunity for adding to his professional
knowledge. Just before the beginning of the Seven Years'
war, when England was preparing for her final
struggle with the Bourbons for colonial and com
mercial supremacy, the attention of her ministers
was directed to the number of Swiss and German
Protestants who had taken up lands in her colonies
of Pennsylvania and Maryland. They had not
mixed with their neighbours, nor even learned the
English language, but numbered many strong,
hardy young fellows, admirably adapted by hered
itary feeling for fighting the French. A fine regi
ment they would make, and though the colonel
must be a natural born subject of Great Britain,
the subordinate officers should be foreign Protes
tants of tried metal, familiar with the German
language. The Duke of Cumberland was interested in the
scheme, and to him his former aide-de-camp, Sir
Joseph Yorke, then British minister at the Hague,
recommended as the best men he knew for com
mands in the new Royal American regiment, Lieu
tenant-Colonels Frederick Haldimand and Henry
Bouquet. The two hesitated about accepting the
offered positions, as the colonel under whom they
were asked to serve in America held lower rank
than their own in Europe, but the representations 9

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
of Sir Joseph Yorke, that they would be placed on
an equality with the colonel commandant, carried
the day.
In 1754, the two Swiss soldiers of fortune were
transferred from the service of the Prince of Orange
to that of his father-in-law and ally, George the
Second. They induced subordinate officers to ac
company them and set sail for America, buoyed up
by the hope of getting once more into active ser
vice after the stagnation at the Hague, and of
seeing for themselves that wonderland of the west,
full of possibilities for active and ambitious men.

10

CHAPTER II
WITH THE ROYAL AMERICANS
IT is recorded that upon June 15th, 1756, there
were forty German officers landed at New
York to take commissions in Lord Loudoun's
regiment of Royal Americans, which it was pro
posed should number 4,000 men, divided into four
battalions. Colonel Haldimand's command was at
Philadelphia, a town already showing symptoms of
the spirit which was to reach its height a score
of years later. The colony of Pennsylvania was
nearer than her neighbours to independence, dis
posing of her public monies as she saw fit, grudging
the support of her royal governor, and refusing to
establish militia or to vote funds for the proper
maintenance of frontier garrisons. Loudoun's letter
to Pitt is ominous: "The majority of the assembly
is composed of Quakers ; whilst that is the case they
will always oppose every measure of government,
and support that independence which is deep-
rooted everywhere in this country. The taxes which
the people pay are really so trifling that they
do not deserve the name ; so that if some method
is not found by laying on a tax for the support of a
war in America by a British act of parliament,
it appears to me that you will continue to have
11

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
no assistance from them in money, and will have
little in jnen if they are wanted."
A marvellous sect these "trembleurs " must have
seemed to our soldiers of fortune. Monks shut
up in a monastery they could understand, but not
men who could go about their daily business,
decfining to take up arms for the government which
sheltered their homes, and refusing to provide
a shelter for those who were hired to do the duty
for them. It was a herculean task to recruit for the
Royal American, or any regiment in which the
soldiers were regarded as no better than negroes, and
their officers treated as fair game for extortion. Lord
Loudoun did not mend matters by demanding with
a high hand winter quarters for the troops, and
to his subordinates fell the disagreeable task of
securing them.
It was Haldimand's first experience of a people
who dared to object to anything a military com
mander should propose to do. Bouquet wrote that
he would rather make two campaigns than quarter
his soldiers in any of the American towns, but what
else could be done when the assemblies refused to
build barracks for them or to pay for their keep ?
The chief cause of ill feeling between the inhabi
tants and the British troops was the order which
the military had received to keep settlers off the
lands secured to the Indians by the Treaty of 1763.
Pennsylvania's foreigners not being numerous
enough to complete the muster roll of the Royal
12

FIRST DUTY IN AMERICA
Americans, Haldimand was ordered to Albany in
September to continue his recruiting, and thence to
Georgia and the Carolinas on the same errand.
Bouquet was meanwhile in command at Charles
ton, having his own troubles with the assembly,
which had decreed that no soldier should ever
be billeted among the people. The governor's veto
had no effect, and only the good temper and
tact of the colonel prevented the whole province
from rising in revolt.
The country had not yet recovered from the
panic of Braddock's defeat, and the assembly of
Pennsylvania was moved to the point of voting
£50,000 for military purposes. It was all needed, as
the failure to take Fort Duquesne from the French
had emboldened their Indian allies in harassing the
British, and the protection of the frontiers from their
raids was the first duty the regiment of Royal
Americans was called upon to perform. Haldimand's
work lay in Pennsylvania, Bouquet's in Carolina.
The size of these colonies bordering on the Atlantic
and stretching out into No Man's Land would
make the European countries they had left appear
insignificant in size, and how to protect an ill-
defined frontier with an insufficient number of
troops, and a sparse population from which to
recruit, was the problem that engaged their at
tention. Of the progress made by Haldimand and his
second battalion there is little evidence, but the
13

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
letter-book of Colonel Bouquet throws many side
lights upon the state of affairs at the time. Princi
pally has he to complain of the ill will shown to his
men by private citizens, whose " genteel proceed
ings" have cured him of any inclination towards
falling in love with South Carohna. Half the soldiers
lost through sickness and desertion would have
been saved had the inhabitants taken them in,
which he thinks they could have done with httle
trouble. The assembly voted £1,000 for barracks
for 1,000 men, but would give nothing towards
bedding, and they charged duty on provisions
for troops that were there solely for the defence of
the province. In one of Bouquet's letters there is a
request that his correspondent will " tell the people
living near Loudoun who refused to help the
sick soldiers at a time when they themselves were
in want of protection from those very troops they
have so inhumanly used, that if they want assist
ance they shall be the last of His Majesty's servants
to receive it, as they have made themselves un
worthy of any favours by acting more like savages
than Christians."
To Governor Ellis he writes on December 10th,
1757, that he has had enough of America and if he
could once get away from it nothing would induce
him to return. But he had already taken stakes in
the country and must have felt more at home in it
than Haldimand, through his better knowledge of
English. All Bouquet's letters are written in that
14

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS
language, while those of his friend, until he employs a
secretary, are in French, and his superior officer uses
the same in writing to him. for a considerable time,
so that Haldimand could not have had any great
command of English when he came to America.
Both the friends were endowed with the na
tional thriftiness and had saved money at the
Hague, which they now invested in real estate in
Bedford county. Pennsylvania, and also in Mary
land. They were already highly esteemed by their
seniors, as well as the juniors with whom they were
brought in contact, and never wanted for warm
friends in their own profession. Both had the
thorough German genius for details, and it ere long
became known that any programme entrusted to
either would be faithfully carried out
Haldimand's face in the picture that has come
down to us, has a decided suggestion of his con
temporary, George Washington, in the high square
forehead, the shape of the nose and the arrange
ment of the hair, but the mouth is quite different,
being small and thin-hpped, with a prim and some
what severe expression that is belied by the genial
kindliness of most beautiful brown eyes. Bouquet
does not look nearly so distinguished, but shows an
honest, good-humoured, double-chinned face that
might pass for a Dutchman's. The two colonels, as
well as the younger officers they had brought with
them from Holland proved to be splendidly adapted
to the service required of them. 15

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
In the records of Cumberland county it is stated
that in September, 1757, Colonel Haldeman, to
whose name the German settlers gave their own
spelling, inspected the camp of his regiment at
Carlisle and reported upon its lack of ammunition
and other necessaries. Different indeed from Euro
pean warfare was this following up of elusive bands
of savages who rarely attacked the forts but de
vastated remote farmhouses or lay in wait for their
occupants going to and from their work in the
fields. There was no marching to meet the enemy
with unbroken front and glittering arms as at the
battle of Mollwitz. The Royal Americans must
endeavour to hide their red coats behind the trees,
and George Washington wrote to Bouquet suggest
ing that he and his men adopt the Indian costume.
Savage methods would have to be used in fighting
savages, as European commanders had learned from
General Braddock.
"We shall know better how to deal with them
another time," he had said on his death-bed, and
that other time came within the ken of Henry
Bouquet, who, as second in command to the
invalid General Forbes, took the long, road-build
ing march with his troops over the mountains
and triumphantly made a Fort Pitt out of Fort
Duquesne. While the plan of campaign for 1758 was still
in abeyance, it was proposed to place Haldimand
in command of the Ohio district, and there was
16

AN EXCHANGE
further talk of his sailing for Louisbourg to take part
in Lord Loudoun's "cabbage-planting" expedition,
but in the meantime he was ordered to make up
for the neglect of the Maryland assembly by keep
ing a watchful eye on Fort Cumberland, to see
that it was not left unprotected through the pro
vincial troops going home. Eventually he received
a letter from General Abercromby, who had probably
crossed the Atlantic on the same ship with him, say
ing that though he would not be offended at a refusal
he would be highly pleased to have Haldimand in
command of one of his battalions for the expedition
into Canada by way of Crown Point. The offer
was accepted and the colonel exchanged from
the second to the fourth battalion of the Royal
Americans. Before he had been two years in the country a
nephew and namesake from Switzerland had joined
him, a boy about fourteen years of age. Abercromby
remarked on his small size when bestowing upon
him a commission as ensign, at his uncle's request.
This little Frederick was the second of the seven
sons of Jean- Abraham Haldimand, the colonel's
younger brother.
By the month of June, Haldimand was at Sara
toga busied with setting in motion the lumbering
teams of oxen with their loads of provisions des
tined for Fort Miller. As protection must be
secured for them there, Abercromby directed his
colonel to superintend the building of a block-house 17

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
and stockade and to employ the provincials who
would work at it like giants.
Every preparation was being made for the con
quest of Canada which was confidently expected
that summer, since fifteen thousand men, the largest
army that had yet undertaken the task, were now
marching to its completion. How General Mont
calm stopped them at Carillon, is best told in a
couple of letters written by an eye witness from
Lake George, dated July 10th, 1758 :
"The 5th inst. the whole Army Embarqued on
board Battoes and the 6th in the morning Landed
without opposition at the French advance guard.
The same day in the afternoon as our Army was
advancing to Ticonderoga our Advanced Guard was
attacked by 350 of the Enemy, few of whom
escaped to carry intelligence back. 140 of the party
was killed on the spot and 152 was taken prisoners.
Our loss in this attack did not exceed 30. Un
fortunately the Brave Lord Howe was killed in the
beginning of this Brush. Our Army got dispersed in
the woods in the pursuit, therefore it was thought
proper to return to the place where we first Landed.
There we was all right. Next morning, the 7th,
at Day Light the whole army Marched and in the
afternoon took possession without Opposition of the
French Second Advance guard or Mills. The morn
ing of the fatal eighth, Broadstreet with an engineer
was sent to reconoitre the French lines. They soon
returned with the following Acct That the Enemy
18

CARILLON
was Encamp'd on rising ground about half a mile
from the Fort but not fortified, only a few Logs laid
one on another as a breast work. Upon this intelli
gence it was thought proper to attempt storming
the enemy's fines without loss of time and immedi
ately the whole Army Marched and began the
Attack about 9 a.m. I have not time to give
you the order of Battle, therefore let it suffice that
our Army was repulsed thrice and as often returned
to the Charge in the space of four hours. They
were obliged to retreat at last with the loss of 2,000
of our best men and officers. This is only my
own opinion, no return being made as yet. Our
Intelligence was bad for the French had a regular
Entrenchment faced with Logs. Their Trench 20
foot broad and Parapet in Proportion. No Regt. has
suffered so much as the Highlanders, part of which
got upon the top of the french Lines every time an
Attack was made and drove the french from where
they entered. As a return is not made I am not
able to give you a fist of the officers killed and
Wounded only that every officer of Distinction
except the two Generals and Gage are either Killed
or Wounded."
The same writer continues two days later : — " I
just arrived at the Army time enough to have a
share in the misfortune of the 9th. Oh what a
glorious prospect on the morning of that day after
we had beat all their Out Posts and taken so many
prisoners we had nothing in view but Glory and
19

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
Victory with sight of the French Fort, and yet by
experience, I, to my Grief, find how httle depen-
dance one must make on all worldly Expectations.
in short is all a Chimera, by Attacking a French
intrenchment without Cannon, we lost all our fine
views, however I hope we will soon have at them
again. Never was there in the world Troops behaved
with greater coolness and resolution than ours in
spite of all their disadvantages nor never was there
in the world such a piece of ground to fight on. It
was so very bad that after we were within gunshot
the enemy might easily fire ten Rounds before we
got up to the length of their intrenchments and
that in the face of such a fire of smallarms, wall
pieces and musquets as I never saw before (and
I think I have seen the smartest that happened all
last war) but also after we came to the trenches we
found them above six foot high without a possibility
of getting in and we had the same fire to stand
in coming back.
" This work might have lasted about four hours
during which time the six regular regiments lost
1,526 Men besides 97 of our best officers Killed and
Wounded. I am far from being surprised that
we lost so few for such a damnable fire no man
in this army ever saw before, the provincials lost
very few except the York Regt. who lost some.
True indeed the provincials were never Engaged.
They came up to sustain us but they began to fire
at such a distance they killed several of our men.
20

CARILLON
Yet upon the whole they behaved extremely well.
Our principal officers lost are Ld. Howe, Coll.
Beaver, Coin. Donaldson, Major Rutherford, Major
Proby. Well we are beat but I hope we'll soon have
at them again. Ld. Howe's death was a bad affair
but he exposed himself too much. Weil wait here at
the Lake till there are some officers made, the
destruction of them is so great that we have no
officers to do duty in the line. Another have at the
dogs again. The Engineer Clark is in a dying
condition. The first Brigade is most terribly shat
tered as you may see from Ld. John Murray's
highlanders who were the first Regt. of that Brigade.
The Indians we had with us who viewed the affair
at a distance, allowed us more bravery than the
French, but say we are not half so cunning. We
breathe nothing but revenge. A flag of Truce going
tomorrow to Ticonderoga."
Lists of the officers killed and wounded are
enclosed and the first name upon the latter is
"Coll. Haldiman," of whom another account says:
"Major Proby who was killed commanded the
pickets who made the first attack, supported by
the Grenadiers commanded by Colonel Haldimand
(slightly wounded)."
Abercromby was recalled at the end of the
season and his place supplied by General Amherst
who also became colonel commanding the Royal
American Regiment. To Colonel Haldimand he
wrote a polite note in French, announcing the fac\
21

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
and the subsequent letters that passed between
them indicate mutual friendliness. The Swiss col
onel was also by this time in correspondence with
General Gage, long his superior officer, whose first
letter had reached Haldimand in the early spring at
Half- Way Brook, so-called from its position be
tween Fort Edward on the Hudson and the new
Fort George which Amherst caused to be built on
the site of Fort William Henry.
Gage writes: "I am very sorry we are so far
separated this winter as not to be able to cultivate
the acquaintance began last Summer, which I shall
take every opportunity of doing, and hope next
Campain will furnish me with the means of estab
lishing a Friendship with a person for whom I have
a great esteem."
The intercourse between the two continued by
correspondence and in due time Haldimand knew
English well enough to appreciate the reading matter
Gage sent him, as well as his letters, to which,
however, he always replied in French.
The winter of 1 T^S-9 Colonel Haldimand was in
command at Fort Edward, a dangerous post, for
what was to hinder the victorious French from
pushing their way onward even to Albany? Only
the fact that Montcalm was without the men or
the means for such an undertaking. His Indian
allies, confirmed in their allegiance, prowled about
the British post, eager for the scalps of hunters and
wood-cutters. 22

AT FORT EDWARD
The colonel was constantly called upon to settle
disputes between regulars and rangers. The latter
had no real army rank but were as touchy as
Indians and required to be humoured since they
were indispensable for scouting duty. There were
not enough of them, so Haldimand drilled about
two hundred of his own men to go out in parties
with the rangers and learn their methods. These
silent-stepping scouts on snow-shoes explored the
neighbourhood of Ticonderoga, even to the moun
tain on the east side, which Gage regretted had not
been done before — and with reason. Had Broad-
street and his engineer inspected that height which
commanded the fort, the slaughter of July 9th
would have been averted.
The New York climate was much more severe
than that of the central colonies from which most
of the Royal Americans had been drawn and they
suffered greatly from the cold, getting their feet
frozen and being obliged to cut up their blankets in
which to wrap them. Haldimand's nearest neighbour,
as well as his commanding officer, was General
Gage at Albany, who sent him instructions con
cerning the storehouses and other works that were
to be constructed at Fort Edward in the spring,
which seemed desperately long in coming. By way
of consolation Gage wrote February 15th, 1759, in
quite a facetious tone : —
"Nature is ever indulgent to the necessitous, and
tho' she offers you nothing but Ice and snow upon
23

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
her surface she will supply you with brick-clay
underneath the snow which I have seen used in
many villages of Europe. Tho' Fort Edward should
be most ungrateful, Lake George, however, will be
more kind and furnish you both stone and lime
besides the bricks of the many chimneys that were
built there, and I think with such materials your
men may rub thro' the Winter as well as their pre
decessors or even those that pass it a c6U desjolies
femmes." He had been apprehensive about the sup
ply of hay and provisions at Fort Edward but says
to Haldimand, "You have managed so dextrously
with both that my fears are over  I have some
old magazines scarce worth reading. They are at
present lent out but I will send them to you by
some other opportunity."
Why did he not name these periodicals and
thus gratify a present-day public, curious to know
exactly what were the well-thumbed pages sent
from post to post to beguile the tedium of a lonely
winter? There would be the Gentleman's Magazine
of course, and perhaps the London, Westminster,
Scots or Universal; perchance one of the more
solid quarterly reviews, Dr. Johnson's Rambler, or
another literary journal. With no illustrations, little
current news and many a high-flown treatise, they
would yet receive a welcome which no modern
magazine can gain from the satiated readers of
to-day. The long-looked-for summer came with a leap at
24

ON THE MARCH
last and the garrison at Fort Edward gladly re
ceived its marching orders — to advance by way of
the Mohawk river, Oneida lake and Oswego river
to the shore of Lake Ontario. The first view of a
fresh-water sea stretching to the horizon would be
another astonishment to the Swiss colonel whose
ideal of lakes had been formed from those wherein
the Alpine ranges were reflected. These sandy
shores, relieved in places by low bluffs were not his
model of the picturesque, but the voyage to the
mouth of the Oswego river had not been under
taken in search of scenery. The fortress there, for
years an important stronghold of the British, had
been destroyed by Montcalm in 1756, but General
Amherst wished it rebuilt and this was the duty
that fell to the lot of Colonel Haldimand. Further
to the westward was Fort Niagara, held for the
French by a garrison in command of Captain
Pouchot of the regiment of Beam.
It was during this summer that Wolfe was
besieging Quebec, and Amherst building forts and
fleets on Lake Champlain, instead of hastening to
his assistance. To General Prideaux's army had been
entrusted the task of clearing the enemy from Lake
Ontario, and Niagara was the chief point to be
attacked. Captain Pouchot called for help from the
western posts and it came — nearly twelve hundred
colonial regulars, coureurs de bois, and Indians,
from Presqu'ile, on Lake Erie, Forts Le Boeuf and
Venango where they had been mustering with the
25

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
design of transforming Fort Pitt once more into
Fort Duquesne. As the need of Niagara was
greater they responded to Pouchot's appeal but
never reached him, being met by the British in
overwhelming numbers and defeated.
After a siege of seventeen days Niagara surrend
ered and the proud man to take possession of the
fort was Sir William Johnson, as General Prideaux
had been killed by accident at the very beginning
of the attack. Haldimand's brother officers regretted
that the honour had not fallen to him, but he had
been left behind at Oswego with 500 or 600 men,
and was given a lesser chance to distinguish him
self there.
Before the British had time to entrench them
selves on the site of Fort Ontario, they were
attacked by a large body of Canadians and Indians
under the partisan officer, La Corne de St. Luc.
Colonel Haldimand, though taken by surprise,
promptly ordered his men to shelter themselves be
hind the barrels of flour and pork, of which a suffi
cient supply had been brought to provision the whole
expedition. The loss of this fort would have entailed
the abandonment of Niagara also, but the British
fire came so fiercely from behind the impromptu
barricade that the French retired in chagrin and
the colonel could congratulate himself on having
held his important post with a loss of but two
killed and eleven wounded. M. Douville, in charge
at Toronto, heard the cannonading at Niagara and
26

SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON
evacuated his post, so that the British gained their
end in having possession of Lake Ontario.
Upon the death of General Prideaux the com
mand devolved upon Haldimand as next in rank,
but to the dismay of the subordinates, Sir William
Johnson arrogated it to himself, and sent orders to
the colonel to join him at Niagara. Haldimand
came and claimed the leadership, but Sir WiUiam
refused to yield it, and the other was too much of a
gentleman to quarrel with him, though he could
see for himself that he had not been misinformed
regarding the confusion that reigned in the camp.
Haldimand wrote to Amherst saying he would
serve under Johnson temporarily sooner than make
trouble, and the general in reply praised him
for his prudent conduct, saying how essential it
was not to offend Sir William, the only man
capable of keeping the Six Nations faithful to the
British, who could not carry on the campaign
without them.
An entry in Sir William Johnson's diary reads :
"August 1st, 1759, I went to see Niagara Falls
with Colonel Haldimand, Mr. Ogilvie, and several
officers, escorted by three companies of fight in
fantry. Arrived there about 11 o'clock."
No doubt the sublimity of the scene, unmarred at
that time by the hand of man, would help to soothe
Haldimand's irritation, and the next day his party
returned to Oswego in two whale-boats, primed
with minute directions from Sir William as to what
27

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
was to be accomplished before his own arrival two
days later.
On the 16th General Gage came to take the chief
command, showing orders from General Amherst
that included an attack upon the French post
at La Galette (Ogdensburg) on the St. Lawrence.
If General Wolfe should be defeated at Quebec,
which seemed not unlikely, the French, freed from
the siege of their capital, would swarm up the river
and they must at any cost be kept from regaining
their foothold on Lake Ontario.
Gage and his subordinates had frequent discus
sions as to whether or not it was practicable to
attempt the expedition. Haldimand voted against
it, but Johnson was keen for it, if only to give
employment to his Indians who had gathered about
Oswego in large numbers, and who, if not started on
the war-path, would go home in disgust and be un
willing to turn out the next time they were wanted.
Sir William pleaded that it was at least possible to
capture and destroy La Galette ; but Haldimand's
more conservative counsels prevailed and the baro
net had to content himself with humouring his
Indians by fitting out various scalping parties for
the neighbourhood of the French post.
The news reached Oswego that Amherst was
building a large five-sided fort at Crown Point
with five redoubts, which it would take him the
rest of the season to complete, and his subordinate
officers criticized without reserve the slowness of
28

WINTER QUARTERS
his procedure. Why should they be in haste to
reach Quebec if he was not ? They employed them
selves with the re-erection of Fort Ontario, varied
by a httle fishing and duck-shooting. Johnson's
journal tells us he dines with the general on a
Michaelmas goose, and that on October 4th he
had Gage, Haldimand and other officers to dinner
with him in his tent. On the 8th one of his
scouting parties returned with "the agreeable news"
that Quebec had surrendered, and the next week
Sir William dismissed his Indians and went home.
By November Gage too withdrew into winter
quarters at Albany, and Haldimand was left with
the 4th Battalion of the Royal Americans in com
mand of the new Fort Ontario.

29

CHAPTER III
HALDIMAND GOES TO CANADA
OSWEGO is an Indian word meaning "rapid
water," while Ontario signifies "pretty lake,"
and neither term is a misnomer. The river, rein
forced by the waters of inland lakes to the south
and east, came rushing downward in swift full-
heartedness to its desired haven, the union with
Ontario. That blue, boundless lake lost its summer
prettiness in winter-time, taking on a deeper, colder
tint, and the ice-bound river-mouth made a bridge
for the travellers to and from the post upon its eastern
bank. The snow settled down about Fort Ontario,
the lake froze out from the shore and the garrisons,
there and at Niagara, sickened with scurvy of a
sort prevalent among seamen, for which the damp
air was blamed. Lime juice, vinegar, cider and
other refreshments were sent as alleviations and
there was some jealousy between the two posts as
to which was entitled to the bulk of these supplies.
Far removed from the rest of the world, the
officers would be thankful for the magazines Gage
continued to send — the last he had received from
England, which he hoped would make amends for
his own sterility of amusing matter. He had given
written instructions to Haldimand regarding one
81

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
part of his duty: — "You will protect all Indian
traders who produce proper passes provided they
trade in a fair and honest way; such as shall be
convicted of Frauds and Impositions, or, contrary to
your orders, sell Rum to Soldiers or Indians whereby
the good order and discipline necessary to be kept
up in your Garrison shall be interrupted you will
banish immediately from your Fort giving notice
thereof to the Posts above that they may be sent
back to the Inhabited country and not suffered to
remain on the communication. The Indians may
carry away any quantitys of Rum but the traders
must not retail it here."
Haldimand had block-houses built to protect the
righteous traders and also the boat-landing, as
Amherst's orders were to begin the construction of
ten or twelve galleys as soon as navigation opened.
He was to use his best endeavours also to preserve
the Mississauga, almost the only schooner on Lake
Ontario, for which purpose sailors and ship car
penters no longer needed on Lake Champlain were
sent him; but eventually only the rigging was pre
served. The smaller craft too had suffered much
damage. Evidently old Ontario was not to be
trifled with.
So much sickness and so many deaths among
the soldiers under his care made the colonel
ardently long for the planting- time when he could
sow the seeds sent him, in the large gardens he had
caused to be prepared at both Niagara and Oswego.
32

SPRINGTIME, 1760
He knew the value of outdoor employment for
his men, besides the benefit to be derived in their
enfeebled condition from a diet of fresh vegetables.
Having lived in Holland, the headquarters of scien
tific floriculture, it was probably there that he ac
quired the tastes which have caused him to be
remembered as one of the earliest experimental
gardeners on this continent.
The mid-season between summer and winter,
one cannot call it spring, Haldimand would find
the most trying. For a few weeks, while the sun
was warm overhead, the melting snow would
render the roads impassable and the ice still lingered
on the lake borders. On March 9th Gage wrote : —
"The snow went off before I could send you the
molasses which must now go up by water when
the Rivers and Lakes are navigable. Your men will
get better of their distemper when fresh herbs
spring up."
The air grew balmy overhead and the evenings
bright with the bonfires of burning brush that had
to be cleared away from the front of the fort. The
sick soldiers crept out to bask in the strong sun
shine and by the middle of April the lake had
shaken herself free from her icy bondage. There
was much activity both within and without Fort
Ontario that spring of 1760, for the commander-in-
chief was expected to bring his main army there
by way of the Mohawk and Oswego rivers, to
carry out the campaign arranged the year before,
33

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
General Wolfe alone had fulfilled his part of it,
and died in the doing. General Murray, who had
manfully held Quebec with a handful of soldiers
through the winter, ventured without its gates and
was defeated by General Levis at Ste. Foye, on
April 28th. This was the news brought by the
Onondaga Indians who had been sent out from
Oswego on purpose to capture some intelligent
prisoner, so that the fate of the capital might be
ascertained. "I am apprehensive," wrote Amherst, "that un
less our fleet arrive soon, Mr. Murray may be
obliged to retreat to the island of Orleans, which
is his intention in case it does not." The ships
came in time to secure possession of Canada's
capital, but till the last remaining French post
was captured and the whole country subjugated,
Amherst's work was not done. General Le"vis and
the survivors of his gallant troops of the line still
held out at Montreal, and there the British decided
to descend upon him from three directions: Mur
ray was to bring one army up from Quebec,
Haviland another by way of Lake Champlain and
the Richelieu, while Amherst himself was to come
with the largest force down the St. Lawrence from
Lake Ontario.
He arrived at Oswego on July 9th and thoroughly
approved of the work that Haldimand had accom
plished there. It was fully a month before the whole
army was assembled, though it is written that the
34

OPERATIONS AGAINST FORT DE LEVIS
general reviewed the troops on the third of August.
He was a deliberate sort of man, anxious to do his
duty but without the genius of Wolfe to enable
him to "seize the moment flying."
The journal of Sergeant John Johnson contains
some contemporary information worthy of note : —
"General Amherst's army being assembled at Os
wego and joined by a body of Indians under the
command of General Sir William Johnson, he
detached Colonel Haldimand with the Light In
fantry, Grenadiers, and Montgomery's regiment of
Highlanders, to take post at the bottom of the
lake to assist the armed vessels in finding a passage
to La Galette, as also in pursuance of his plan
he had ordered two armed vessels to cruise on the
Lake Ontario." These would be the Onondaga and
the Mohawk, classed as "snows," a kind of craft
unknown to modern navigators but in common use
for merchant service upon the lakes before and
after revolutionary times. They had two masts like
the main and foremast of a ship, and a third,
smaller, near the stern, which carried a try-sail. An
officer and thirty men were put on board of each
and directed to sail across the lake to Frontenac,
where they could challenge the French ships in
harbour to come out and give battle.
Haldimand's command sailed safely through the
island-blocked mouth of the St. Lawrence and by
August 18th was ordered to row down close to
the river's southern shore and take up a position
35

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
opposite the French fort, but out of range of its fire
Captain Pouchot, the brave defender of Niagara,
was there, and some of his former antagonists gave
him a cheer in passing. He had left the mainland
and established himself upon an island in the river
with respectable entrenchments which he called
Fort de LeVis. There with undaunted front he
watched the arrival of the whale-boats and batteaux
— over eight hundred of them — containing his foes,
to whom he gave a hot reception with his well-
aimed cannon. But Pouchot knew he could not
ultimately prevail against such numbers with artil
lery in proportion ; all he hoped to achieve was the
delay of Amherst's army in its descent upon Mont
real, so that Governor Vaudreuil and General Levis
might gain time to deal with Murray and Haviland
separately. Amherst's own division had dropped
further down the river than Haldimand's, but the
latter was instructed to join him through the night.
His battery was ready for action before the gen
eral's, but by the 23rd all were prepared and the
desultory cannonading of the three previous days
became a steady roar. The French captain, having
succeeded in diverting the enemy's attention for a
whole week, saw that his tiny island fortress would
soon be battered to bits, and surrendered.
But there were worse foes than Pouchot and his
three hundred to be met and vanquished before
Amherst could join forces with his generals around
Montreal. The great river of Canada seemed herself
36

RUNNING THE RAPIDS
to have taken up arms in defence of the nation
whose voyageurs had been wrestling with her rocks
and currents for more than a century. What did
the invading British know of steering through
swirling eddies, of marking by its colour where the
deep water ran ; of the swift turn of a paddle in
a steady hand that could bring a boat in safety
through one after another of the rapids of the St.
Lawrence ? Pilots had been found among the sur
rendered Canadians, but it was impossible to have
one in each boat, and though they tried to follow
one another, there were not enough cool heads and
quick eyes, capable of controlling the craft when
actually caught in the maddening whirl of tossing
waters. The smaller rapids were passed in safety,
but in the Long Sault, four soldiers, three of them
Highlanders, lost their lives. That was on Septem
ber 1st, and on the 4th, during the passage of the
Cedars and Cascades, forty-six boats were totally
wrecked, many others damaged, and eighty-four
men were drowned.
With ardour damped by this disaster, the army
disembarked at Lachine, marching thence to Mont
real, three leagues distant, where they found Havi
land facing the town upon the southern mainland,
and Murray encamped on the east of the island
itself. The time for the final capitulation of Canada
had come. Levis with but 2,200 regulars could not
hope to hold out behind slim walls, against a
37

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
united army of 18,000 men. He asked that his
soldiers who had made so good a fight for Canada
might be allowed to march out with the honours of
war, carrying their arms, but to this request General
Amherst replied: — "I am fully resolved, for the
infamous part the troops of France have acted
in exciting the savages to perpetrate the most
horrid and unheard-of barbarities in the whole
progress of the war, and for other open treacheries
and flagrant breaches of faith, to manifest to all the
world by this capitulation my detestation of such
practices." How much this refusal meant to troops of the
line civilians cannot estimate. From LeVis down,
every French officer bitterly resented the indignity
put upon him, but Amherst was firm and the
capitulation was signed on September 8th. To
Governor Vaudreuil he wrote: — "I have just sent
to your Excellency, by Major Abercrombie, a
duplicate of the capitulation which you have signed
this morning; and in conformity thereto, and to
the letters which have passed between us, I likewise
send Colonel Haldimand to take possession of one
of the gates of the town, in order to enforce the
observation of good order, and prevent differences
on both sides. I flatter myself that you will have
room to be fully satisfied with my choice of the
said colonel on this occasion." The defeated gov
ernor was fully satisfied, since no one could have
discharged the delicate duty entrusted to him with
38

MONTREAL CAPITULATES
more tact than the chosen emissary — courteous in
his bearing, and speaking French as his native
tongue. With a corps of grenadiers, light infantry and a
twelve-pounder, Colonel Haldimand took posses
sion of the city of Montreal, and his orders were to
let no person pass out or in except the guards and
civil servants of whom he was given a fist. Accord
ing to established custom, he demanded the restor
ation of any British flags captured during the war,
as well as the surrender of the colours of the French
regiments. These last were not forthcoming, though
they had been recently seen, and Amherst directed
Haldimand to tell Vaudreuil they must be pro
duced or all baggage would be searched. It was
whispered ere long that LeVis had caused the flags
to be burned in order that they might not fall into
the hands of the English, but he denied the charge,
although all the standards never came forth to
clear him. He and his troops laid down their arms,
agreeing not to serve again during the war and
were sent home to France. Amherst assured the
French officers that every arrangement would be
made for their comfort, and as the surest means to
that end he placed the provisioning and embarka
tion in the hands of. Colonel Haldimand. But no man
can make bricks without straw, and the scarcity
of vessels to convey so large a number of persons
across the seas made the problem of shipping the
military, and the noblesse with their families who
3d

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
desired to go with them, difficult of solution. Since
enough good ships were not available, Amherst
chartered some that proved unseaworthy, notably
the Auguste, which was wrecked in the gulf.
Of the 150 souls aboard but six were saved, includ
ing Haldimand's old opponent at Oswego, La
Corne de St. Luc.
General Amherst, as commander-in-chief of the
British forces in North America, took up his head
quarters in New York, but Haldimand remained
for nearly two years in Montreal, under General
Gage, who had been appointed governor of the
town and district. The soldiers in his care, fac
ing a wintry climate more severe than any they
had yet experienced, must have been in want of
many comforts and even necessaries. A charitable
society in London took cognizance of the fact and
Colonel Haldimand was charged with the distri
bution of its timely gifts. That the Swiss soldier of
fortune was favourably impressed with Canada is
evident from a letter written from Montreal to
Colonel Bouquet, now stationed at Fort Pitt,
wherein he described himself as being thoroughly
satisfied with his position and advised his friend not
to leave the service.

40

CHAPTER IV
MILITARY RULE AT THREE RIVERS
HOW to govern a newly conquered country, of
different laws and language from their own,
is a problem that has faced several European lands,
and England's solution, though not entirely satis
factory, has never yet been improved upon. A
certain amount of discontent among the new sub
jects is inevitable, and different experiments may
be made before the best course is discovered, but
patience and a convincing desire to benefit the
governed will ultimately have their reward.
For four years after the conquest Canada was
under martial law, which sounds like despotism,
but was not so in this case. To upset the customs
and traditions of an ignorant people by forcing new
regulations upon them at the outset would have
been cruel and unwise, and as few changes as
possible were made. The rulers were told to adapt
themselves to the people, who grew to feel that
they were being freed from bondage instead of
coming under it. Sir Jeffrey Amherst, commander-
in-chief at New York, was also the nominal gover
nor of Canada, but the actual duties fell upon his
lieutenant-governors, James Murray at Quebec,
Thomas Gage at Montreal, and Ralph Burton at
41

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
Three Rivers, and these were men whose personal
character inclined them to the prescribed policy of
conciliation. Not while they were military gover
nors would the French Canadians be subjected to
annoyance or ill treatment either from British sol
diers or from the unprincipled pack that began to
come in from the other colonies. Governor Murray
described these immigrants as being of low birth,
uneducated, and the most immoral men he ever
knew, while the Canadians were frugal, industrious
and moral. The best of feeling existed between the
habitants and their seigniors, while the priests,
though illiterate, were highly respected by parish
ioners still more unlearned.
England at this time was at war with Spain, and
Governor Burton being called upon to join his
regiment in the projected siege of Havana, the
Cuban capital of the Spanish West Indies, Colonel
Haldimand was ordered to Three Rivers to govern
that district in his absence. He went in May, and
in June there came to him a welcome letter from
Sir Jeffrey Amherst: — "By this Packett I have
received a fist of officers who are Promoted to the
Rank of Colonel in the army, and it gives me pleas
ure to find your name amongst them." Hitherto
he had held that position in America only, and he
now took steps to become also a British subject,
since an act had been passed naturalizing all foreign
officers who had served in the Seven Years' War.
Three Rivers, his new scene of action, named
42

AT THREE RIVERS
from the triple outlet of the River St. Maurice into
the St. Lawrence, was founded by Laviolette in
1634. It had been a famous trading post for the
Hurons and the Algonquins, among whom the
Jesuits laboured for twenty years (1640-1660), until
the Iroquois scattered their flock. At the conquest
the population was 6,612, with an auxiliary of five
hundred christianized Abenaquis and Algonquins
settled in the villages of Becancour, St. Francois
and Point du Lac. Haldimand divided the govern
ment into four districts, Champlain and Riviere du
Loup on the north shore, St. Francois and Gentilly
on the south. There was in each of these a "cham
ber of audience," wherein was stationed a corps of
militia officers, presided over by a captain, and to
them were brought for settlement all civil cases,
which were judged according to the long estab
lished laws of the country. Thieves, murderers,
criminals of any kind, alone were tried by court
martial. As there was still some danger from the French,
peace having not yet been declared, Murray had
war sloops cruising in the river, while he trusted to
Haldimand for reinforcements should they be re
quired. The latter held five companies in readiness
to march to Jacques Carrier and Deschambault,
but he believed the enemy's manoeuvres in the St.
Lawrence were only a feint to cover their real
designs upon Newfoundland, whereon they hoped
to obtain a foothold which would enable them to
43

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
claim fishing rights in the approaching treaty of
peace. He proved a true prophet, and when the
news came of the taking of St. John's he was
pleased to remark that it had no disturbing effect
upon the people of his government. On the con
trary, he was firmly convinced that a return of
the French would fill the inhabitants with despair,
as they valued their increase of liberty, and desired
only to be let alone to get in their harvest. Some
restriction had to be placed upon their disposal of
grain, for they were inclined to seek the larger
prices of the larger markets now to be had in the
English colonies. To ship it all out of the country
would be to court famine at home. Exportation
was therefore forbidden in the winter time, except
in seasons when the price of wheat in Quebec was
less than three shillings and four pence a minot.
There was a fire in Three Rivers that summer,
and one the next; both large, considering the size
of the town, for we read that five whole houses
were burned at once. The soldiers worked hard as
firemen, a r61e which taxed their energies to the
utmost, as the houses were all of wood and there
were no fire-engines, even of the most primi
tive description. The governor issued a proclama
tion, calling for aid to be given to the burnt-out
families as a thank offering from those who had
escaped, and he appointed certain priests to receive
the donations. Those who could not give money
were asked to contribute planks, beams, or other
44

HIS PROCLAMATIONS
material suitable for rebuilding, and he authorized
a lottery for the same purpose. On October 2nd he
issued a special notice on the subject of fires and
how to prevent them, as the inhabitants took no
precautions, having scarcely even a ladder available.
Now there was to be one in every house.
Haldimand's official proclamations would interest
the seeker after local colour. The public is warned
to be on the look-out for two German servants who
have deserted from Montreal ; anyone harbouring a
certain individual under arrest will be subjected to
corporal punishment ; cattle are to be kept fenced
in, and it is forbidden to buy pickaxes or shovels
from the soldiers, as these are His Majesty's prop
erty. The primitive character of the local govern
ment is indicated in the placard announcing that
the administration of justice will be suspended
from August 7th till September 15th, to allow the
administrators to go home and attend to their crops.
The governor was invited to a horse race in
Quebec, and perhaps he went and perhaps it was
then he made up his mind that before the winter
set in the king's highway must be improved. At
any rate in the autumn he proclaimed that the
road between Montreal and Quebec in certain
places within the government of Three Rivers was
so narrow that couriers and voyageurs were retarded
whenever several carriages met, while lakes and
sloughs were formed by heavy falls of rain or snow.
It was therefore ordered that " le grand chemin de
45

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
Roy," leading from Montreal to Quebec should be
made thirty feet wide between the enclosures or
the woods, and that in order to drain the waters
there should be a ditch at all necessary places, three
feet wide and two and a half feet deep, in digging
which the earth was to be thrown into the middle
of the road proper, so as to give it a gentle slope
towards the ditch. A writer of the time describes
this highway: — "The road from Quebec to Mont
real is almost a continued street, the villages being
numerous and so extended along the banks of the
River St. Lawrence as to leave scarce a space with
out houses in view; except where here or there
a river, a wood or a mountain intervenes, as if to
give a more pleasing variety to the scene."
The journey between the two towns was gener
ally made by boat in the summer time, a three
days' excursion, with a nightly landing to dance at
the houses of the seigniors, if there were ladies in
the party.
The very first proclamation issued by the new
governor of Three Rivers had reference to the
prohibition of persons hunting upon the seigniory
of St. Maurice, three leagues from the town, or
around the forges there, without permission. The
existence of these mines, which were considered of
sufficient importance to claim a special clause in the
capitulation of Canada, was first made known to
Intendant Talon in 1666. He sent a couple of
engineers to investigate them, but it was 1730-36
46

THE ST. MAURICE FORGES
before they were worked by a private company, and
King Louis reclaimed their ownership in 1743.
The St. Maurice forges would be the first thing
to attract Colonel Haldimand's attention when he
assumed the governorship, and on May 24th he
sent General Amherst an estimate of the probable
expense of smelting a quantity of worn-out guns
and bombs that were in store. The commander-in-
chief was pleased to approve his scheme for "con
verting all the old cast-iron into bars of serviceable
and good iron," "as well as getting the room that
all that useless stuff takes up."
If Three Rivers iron could come into use for the
navy, Haldimand undertook to keep up the supply.
Thirty-three thousand pounds of pig iron were
smelted in one month, and before the end of
August he had three million pounds of good iron
in bars. Montreal and Quebec both sent their old
metal to be worked over, and the profits of the year
amounted to $1,770.84. This was not a large amount
according to modern ideas, but the ruinous state of
the forges must be taken into account, as well as
the deficiency of tools and skilled mechanics.
The colonel had to keep a close eye upon the
works himself with but little encouragement from
the inhabitants, who were not sufficiently far-seeing
to consider what a mighty difference the success of
the forges would make in the development of their
district. Why this energetic governor should wish
to rebuild them and should advance money out of
47

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
his own pocket to keep them going was what they
could not understand.
Ore was collected and the work went on under
the direction of a Swede called Nordberg, who
knew his business. Why should he not? When
Pierre Kalm, the Swedish naturalist, visited the
forges in 1749, he observed that they were worked
upon the system employed in his country and was
curious to account for the fact. The reason reached
back to the time of the French minister Colbert,
who in 1674 had sent artisans to learn their trade
in Sweden, and they had taught the workmen who
afterwards came to Canada. Dr. Laterriere who
was inspector of the forges from 1775 to 1780,
reports them making a profit of fifty louis a day at
that time and employing 400 to 800 persons.1
It was during his first term at Three Rivers that
Haldimand made the acquaintance of that erratic
priest, Pere Roubaud. The Re"collet Fathers had
been recommended to him by General Gage as
honest, obedient men of simple manners, with no
desire to stir up ill-will by mixing in cabals or
intrigue. But this man was a Jesuit. When he went
to Quebec without a passport, the Father Superior
agreed to hold him fast and shut him up in the
seminary as his conduct was a disgrace to the
1 Of the district he says : — " Le pais est plat, le terrain (un sol
jaune et sablonneux) est plein de savanes et de brules, oil se trouve la
mine par veines, que l'on appelle mine en grains ou en galets, de coul-
eur bleue; quoique le mineral contienne du soufre et des matieres
terreuses, il rend en ge'ne'ral 33 pour 100 de pur et excellent fer."
48

PERE ROUBAUD
order; but he was not easily restrained. Amherst
wrote that Pere Roubaud was not to be allowed to
rove about, but on his return to Three Rivers he
asked leave to go with some Indians in search of
new mines, and Haldimand let him depart, though
he had small faith in the result of his travels. The
French might not be very good farmers, but as
explorers they had not left anything of moment
unmarked. The unworthy Father came back destitute, and
Haldimand supplied his wants, giving him also
some writing to do. He was a clever scamp, this
Roubaud, and the spurious letter of Montcalm,
predicting far too circumstantially the revolt of the
British colonies, has been attributed to him. At his
final appearance during Haldimand's regime at
Three Rivers, he was suffering from an attack of
tertian fever and it was a month before he was well
enough to be removed to the care of his brethren
in Quebec.
When the colonel assumed his new command,
there had appeared to be danger of friction between
him and Governor Murray, whom he credited with
a desire to assert the supremacy of Quebec over
Three Rivers, which caused Haldimand to insist
upon the independence of his government. The two
ultimately became good friends and General Mur
ray exerted himself to further the advancement in
the army of his colleague's nephew.
Frederick Haldimand, junior, had been with his
49

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
uncle in the 4th battalion, Royal Americans, at
Montreal, but now he was put upon surveying
duty. Besides drawing sectional maps of the pro
vince he was required to send in historical accounts
of the towns and governments of Three Rivers and
Montreal. He had also to collect contemporary
details of administration, no easy task, as the col
onel explained to General Murray, whom he ran
the risk of offending through the excuses he made
for his young relative.
He had wished his nephew to serve as an en
gineer for nothing save experience, but Murray
gave him a year's pay and suggested that he settle
his debts therewith. The lieutenant "seemed so un
easy" at this proposal that the general told him he
had better place himself under his uncle's protection.
The boy had no vices, it appeared, but some very
expensive tastes which his guardian was not rich
enough to gratify. He hoped the tradesmen would
teach Frederick a lesson by pressing him hard, as
they were to blame for having given him credit.
That the colonel was much attached to his
young namesake there is abundant evidence. It was
with a view to settling him upon it that he bought,
in 1765, the seigniory of Grand Pabos, a part of the
Gaspe" peninsula on the north side of the Chaleur
Bay, where now is a township of the same
name. It was not a popular part of the country
among farmers, who preferred the banks of the
great river, or of the Richelieu. German settlers
50

AN EXPENSIVE POST
were tried, but they lacked experience and needed
too much assistance, difficult to give in such a
remote quarter; so Haldimand was advised to trans
port some of the expatriated Acadians who would
in all probability gladly accede to the liberal con
ditions offered.
He had property too in Shipody, Nova Scotia,
but the first cost of land anywhere was little in
comparison with the amount that had to be ex
pended in getting it cleared and settled. Three
Rivers was proving an expensive government for
an honest man, and Haldimand would gladly have
resigned it at the end of six months. The twenty
shillings a day allowed him was not sufficient to
maintain his position, and he had even to furnish
money for the needed repairs to government house.
Colonel Burton had left his family at Three
Rivers in charge of Colonel Haldimand, and he
was expected back by the end of October, but it
was December ere he arrived in New York, and he
remained there for some time in order that the
transition from the Cuban summer to the rigorous
climate of Canada might not be too sudden. Al
ways looking for his return, the substitute made
the best of things as they were, and even tried
to better them. He found the Canadians at Three
Rivers, as elsewhere, a litigious lot, and endeavoured
to the best of his ability to persuade them to settle
their differences by amiable arbitration, instead of
by perpetual lawsuits. 51

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
The most troublesome class with whom he had to
deal were the wearers of that coveted decoration,
the Cross of St. Louis, who lived upon the glamour
of their past exploits, chiefly in " the little war "
with savage allies. Poor and proud, there were
not more than a dozen of them left in Canada, but
some who had gone to France returned, embittered
by their reception in the mother country, and
by their losses through the paper money of M.
Bigot, for the repose of whose soul, Haldimand
judged, there would be a lack of masses. Gage
wrote him upon this subject : " I am glad to hear
that your Croix de St. Louis talk so loudly against
the French, tho' I don't believe their treatment
in France was so bad as they represent; they were
put upon the same footing as all the other French
troops, but these gentlemen expected to be put
upon an extraordinary footing. I hope they will
behave with that decency and obedience to their
new monarch under whose protection they enjoy
their liberty and estates which becomes their situa
tion. They are of a busy temper and hardly to
be restrained from meddling in all affairs."1
The clergy and noblesse refused to believe that
Canada would ever be ceded to England, and when
the Treaty of Paris placed the country finally under
British rule, a second exodus took place, though
1 L'abbe Raynal is quite of this opinion — " La colonie n'auroit-elle
pas beaucoup gagne" a etre debarrassee de tous ces nobles orgueilleux
qui y entretenoientle mepris de tous les travaux ?"
52

CHANGES IN COMMANDS
smaller than was expected. A number of the
intending emigrants had meanwhile become satisfied
with the new regime. "I am persuaded," wrote
Haldimand, " that they would be in despair were
they to see a French fleet and troops arrive in this
country in any number whatever ; they begin to
taste too well the sweets of liberty to be the dupes
of the French ; they are now engaged at their
harvest peacefully and it is a good one this year."
Those who thought of returning to France were
given eighteen months to make up their minds, and
Haldimand was sure that twenty would not depart
from his government, nor even ten. He was justified
in his confidence, for when the time came, two
women, two children and a servant were all that
sailed away.
Burton arrived in the spring of 1763, and Haldi
mand yielded to him the reins of government,
returning to Montreal ; but within a year he was
back in Three Rivers, for there had been another
change in commands. Sir Jeffrey Amherst's retire
ment promoted Gage to his place in New York,
while Burton took that of Gage in Montreal.
Murray was made governor-general, and that there
was by this time good feeling established between
him and Haldimand is witnessed by the latter's
willingness to serve under him. The colonel's finan
cial circumstances were such that it was necessary
for him to retain some appointment if he wished to
remain in America, and he calculated that he could
53

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
by his management of the St. Maurice forges save
the king an amount equivalent to the pay of a
lieutenant-governor. His economic abilities were
highly appreciated at a time when the British
ministry had discovered that the revenue from the
whole of the colonies did not cover the cost of its
collection, and that more stringent measures must
be adopted for the suppression of contraband trade.
There were no fisheries at Three Rivers, but
plenty of timber : pine suitable for masts on the
north side of the river, oak on the south. The main
stay of the town, however, and the country round
about it, was the trade with the T£tes de Boule,
who every May or June came paddling down
the St. Maurice with furs collected through the
winter in the vast northern regions which it drains.
The ending of the war had increased the number
of traders, and as competition became keener, some
of them would slip quietly away up the river to
meet the Indians coming down and secure their
choicest furs at lowest rates. To this traffic Haldi
mand firmly put an end, proclaiming that the Tetes
de Boule were to be allowed to bring their wares
into the public market at Three Rivers. Notice
of their arrival was given by the town crier, so that
all the inhabitants might have an equal chance
to trade, and the Indians run no risk of unfair
treatment. The governor regulated also the distri
bution of ammunition and of liquor, allowing it only
to traders he could trust to supply the aborigines.
54

DEALINGS WITH THE INDIANS
It was a time for dealing cautiously with the
savage tribes, because, as Murray remarked, "a
truce with the Indians is always a summons to
vigilance." They had not been consulted about the
Treaty of Paris, nor had the English taken pains to
preserve their friendship once the French rivalry
was removed. One, called Pontiac, in the far west
was demonstrating what could be done by a union
against these white men whom they accused of
usurping their rights. The Indians were slow to
realize that France was no longer a leading power
on the continent, and there were not wanting
coureurs de bois to convince them that King Louis
was but asleep, and would soon awake to drive the
English back to the sea-board. Haldimand's only
encounter with this spirit was among the Abena-
quis of St. Francois, who demanded of him rights
they had never before possessed; but he delayed
replying to their petition until he should visit their
village in person and make an effort to find out the
Frenchmen whom he suspected of being at the
bottom of the trouble.
The fear of a general Indian uprising was so
great that the English became specially desirous of
having a corps of three hundred French Canadians
to serve with the regulars in order that the red
men, seeing their former allies fighting under the
banner of Great Britain, would be constrained to
believe that the old regime had verily passed away.
Montreal and Quebec were each asked to enlist
55

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
two companies, and Three Rivers one, who were to
serve only for the campaign. They were to get
twelve piastres in silver and a capot, two pairs of
moccasins and a pair of mittens, besides their food,
arms and ammunition. The pay was to be six
pence a day, and a priest was to accompany the
contingent; but the Canadians, accustomed to serve
for nothing under French rule, were suspicious of
the offered terms, thinking that it meant they
were to be enlisted for life, or draughted off into
the English colonies whence they would never
return. Colonel Haldimand doubted his ability to raise
the sixty recruits required of him, and Burton was
having difficulty in Montreal, but Murray was
positive he could get 1,000 more than he wanted
in Quebec. The governor-general told his lieuten
ants to draught men from the militia without
scruple, though these were not supposed to be sent
out of the province without the king's special
command. It was comparatively easy to pick up a
number of idle men in town, but the country
people did not present themselves with the same
alacrity. Burton had the best chance of recruiting,
Montreal being full of voyageurs at that season,
but in the end it was Haldimand only who com
pleted his company in the allotted time by volun
teers, who, he wrote, would be able to march as
soon as the roads were practicable. He was even
able to send to Quebec ten supernumeraries to
56

INTEREST IN AGRICULTURE
replace those General Murray had been obliged to
press into the service.
The much talked-of corps never had a battle,
and its members returned to their homes at the
end of the summer quite satisfied with their treat
ment, but their enlistment had had the desired
effect, since General Gage wrote on May 2nd,
1764: — "The news of the march of the Canadians
has already astonished the savages, and Sir William
Johnson says it will have a better effect to convince
them of their folly than anything he can say or do
that there is no assistance to be expected from
that quarter. Mais ne dites rien de tout cela en
Canada." Gage's letters to Haldimand during this
period are of increased importance, since the writer,
as commander-in-chief, had his finger upon the
public pulse in the English colonies. It was evi
dently beating high, and would beat higher still
when the Pontiac uprising was finally quelled.
Gage was pleased to learn that the Indians of the
Three Rivers district disapproved of the conduct
of their brethren in the upper country.
Writing to the British minister, Lord Halifax,
about the same time, Haldimand said that his
people were showing more assiduity and care in
improving their lands than they had done for a
considerable time, and he only wished some men
who had studied agriculture would emigrate to the
country and set an example. The Canadians, he
continued, were so accustomed to being deceived
57

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
that they had little hope of the paper money given
them before the conquest being ever redeemed,
and were therefore all the more grateful to His
Majesty's most gracious probity in that respect. He
had kept warning them since his first assumption
of the government not to let their paper money go
for little or nothing, as it would sometime be re
deemed — and so it was, but not till 1768.
In March, 1764, Gage wrote to Haldimand: —
"Your friend, Colonel Bouquet, is here, and is very
impatient to know what he is to do, which I can't
tell him till the province of Pennsylvania shall
finally determine whether they will grant supplies
of men or not." By the month of May that pro
vince seems at length disposed to grant an aid of
troops, but "all the Colonys are in great wrath
that they are to pay their proportion of the ex
penses of State. They are all to be taxed by a vote
of the British parliament, and will contribute to
pay the Troops and Fleet on the American Service."
Later came the cheering news that Colonel Bou
quet had won a couple of victories against the
Indians at Bushy Run and been publicly thanked
by the king. Haldimand hoped that the compli
ment would make his friend forget his exile, but a
promotion that entailed further banishment proved
fatal to the gallant Swiss. In 1765 Bouquet was
made brigadier and placed in command of the
southern district, with headquarters at Pensacola.
There he died the next year, and Haldimand, his
58

MILITARY LAW ABOLISHED
heir and executor, mourned for him most sincerely.
The sole American link with his own early life was
broken. When the year and a half limit after the Treaty
of Paris had expired, and all the French indisposed
to remain peaceably under British rule had presum
ably embarked for France, it was deemed time to
yield to the number of English in the community,
do away with military law and apply the ordinary
civil code of the governing country. M. Garneau,
the modern French Canadian historian, voices the
sentiments of his ancestors upon this change: —
"Their king, by his sole authority, without parlia
mentary sanction, abolished those laws of olden
France, so precise, so clear, so wisely framed, to
substitute for them the jurisprudence of England
— a chaos of prescriptive and statutory acts and
decisions invested with complicated and barbaric
forms, which English legislation has never been
able to shake off, despite all the endeavours of its
best exponents." This is strong language from
the writer who has just been exclaiming against
the martial system adopted in Canada by which its
people were denied the rights of British subjects —
but undoubtedly they were averse to changes of
any description. Murray states that the Canadians
had become reconciled not only to British rule, but
to the military form of government, and now they
saw their militia officers supplanted by lawyers,
settlers and traders, who knew no French, insulted
59

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
the noblesse and hated the habitants. No wonder
they considered themselves oppressed by the intro
duction of civil government. On the other hand the
English merchants sent to the king a petition
against the tyranny of General Murray, whose only
fault, according to Garneau, was sympathy for the
Canadians, and the seigneurs sent a counter peti
tion praising the justice of his military rule.
There were not enough Protestants in the dis
trict of Three Rivers to make the requisite number
of judges, and therefore in 1764, its government
was temporarily divided between those of Quebec
and Montreal. The St. Maurice on the north and
the Godefroy on the south of the St. Lawrence
formed the dividing line. General Gage compli
mented Haldimand on having chosen prudent and
discreet justices of the peace who would ensure
public tranquillity. " The other magistrates," he
wrote, "seem to have thought they had power
given them to tyrannize and distress rather than to
do justice and see order put in the country. All the
noise and misunderstanding are due to this."
Haldimand remarked that the busybodies who
reigned at Quebec and Montreal were rendering
the country every day more disagreeable, but the
contagion had not yet reached Three Rivers. It
came in time, and as the inconveniences of the situ
ation increased, he became more and more anxious
to turn his command over to the civil authorities
and lead a quiet life elsewhere. On April 29th,
60

HIS NEPHEW'S DEATH
1765, he wrote to his superior officer, in French as
usual : — "It would seem perhaps to be my fortune
to stay in this country, but I have suffered from so
many disagreements on the right hand and the left
and I foresee so many more that I see myself forced
to sacrifice my interest to my repose ; if a neutral
part be the most honest it is not the most advant
ageous in a place where one is almost sure to make
enemies who become irreconcilable."
Gage was his very good friend and promised to
see that he was reimbursed for the extraordinary
expenses of his government, but still it was the
summer of 1765 before he relieved him of his
harassing command and granted him leave of
absence to visit England.
The colonel had not been in good health during
his last winter at Three Rivers and he was glad to
seek a kindlier clime. Governor-General Murray
wrote to him from Quebec in April, 1765, con
gratulating him on his promotion to the rank of
brigadier and promising to issue grants of land for
his nephew, Frederick, as soon as he knew those
selected. But the grants were never needed because
young Haldimand was drowned at Louisbourg in
1766. He was of age by that time, but the colonel's
New York agent, Mr. Hugh Wallace, thought
only of the boy who had come to America so full
of hope and ambition seven years before, when
he wrote : — "Very sorry I am for the unhappy fate
of dear little Frederick, your nephew." 61

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
It was a great grief to the uncle, for his
young kinsman had brought him " forward-looking
thoughts." He had planned his exchange with Con
rad Gugy, a Swiss who came to Quebec with
General Wolfe and was Haldimand's secretary at
Three Rivers, but had now turned land-owner.
Gugy went to settle upon the fief he had bought at
Machiche, and Frederick's commission as lieutenant
was on its way out from England, when he met
his death. Writing from London in June, Haldi
mand declared that since he left Canada he had lost
what he held dearest — Bouquet and his nephew.
His personal advancement would be poor con
solation, especially as he had asked to command in
the northern district of North America and was
sent to the southern instead. It was in December
that he received the appointment and by the spring
he was settled in his new abode.
The government house he had left at Three
Rivers was turned into a barrack and his cherished
mines were, in 1767, leased for sixteen years to
Christopher Pelissier and others, by Sir Guy Carle
ton, General Murray's successor at Quebec.

62

CHAPTER V
SIX YEARS IN FLORIDA
BRIGADIER BOUQUET died at Pensacola
of a broken heart, it was rumoured, since his
lady love, Miss Willing, of Philadelphia, had taken
unto herself a husband while her Swiss lover was
off at the wars. He seems to have had a more
emotional, impulsive temperament than Haldi
mand; he was given to fits of depression, which,
aggravated by a trying climate, would be apt to open
the way to disease. His friend, who deeply lamented
his death, was appointed to the melancholy duty
of occupying his place as commander of the south
ern district. The tomb that he caused to be built
for Bouquet on the shore of Pensacola Bay has
long since disappeared, the surrounding earth hav
ing been undermined by the waves rushing in from
the Gulf of Mexico, while the bricks of which it
was composed were probably stolen by Spanish
marauders.1
1 Extract from letter of R. L. Campbell, Pensacola, to Kingsford the
historian : — "There is no sign above earth of a single one of the
English population who must have died in Pensacola during the
British rule of twenty years. Of their place of burial there is satisfac
tory evidence. It was situated on a bluff in the bay, not many feet
above the water-level. The spot was gradually undermined by the
waters of the gulf and towards 1870 several skeletons became exposed."
63

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
The Florida of that time was not only the
peninsula which goes by the name to-day but
included the counties next the gulf in the present
states of Alabama and Mississippi, and its western
boundary reached the Mississippi river. Originally
a Spanish settlement, it had been handed over to
England at the Treaty of Paris in exchange for
Havana. Louisiana, on the west of the " Father of
Waters," with indefinite northern boundaries, had
been secretly transferred by France to Spain.
At Three Rivers Haldimand had governed a peo
ple recently brought under a new master, but they
were of one nationality ; now he was called upon
to deal with Spaniards, French and newly-come
Britons, of one mind only in their greed for gain.
He was a man who never entered lightly upon new
responsibilities, but believed in preparing himself,
as far as it was possible, by securing advance
information. In this case he took means to find out
how the Spanish governor of Louisiana was treat
ing the French ; what were the annual exports and
imports of New Orleans, and how much British
trade was done there ; the disposition of the French
and Acadians towards the Spanish, and how the
latter behaved to the Indians ; the state of the
boats at the different posts that would come under
his control, and the general nature of the Floridan
soil and productions. It was a flat sandy place, by
all accounts, where oak and pine trees sheltered an
abundance of game and wild animals.

FIRST DAYS AT PENSACOLA
Bouquet had died so soon after his arrival at
Pensacola that his predecessor, Brigadier Taylor,
had not taken his departure when Haldimand came
on March 24th, 1767. The dilapidated appearance
of the place was in keeping with the account
Taylor gave of his squabbles with Governor John
stone, whom he blamed for the non-erection of
suitable accommodation for the troops, though
there were no houses in which they could be
quartered. Haldimand had reigned alone at Three
Rivers and he was of the opinion that a military
government would have been better in Florida
where the French and Spanish could neither under
stand nor appreciate English civil law ; but the
governor was there and he must do his best to live
at peace with him. This was not easy when he
found the civil ruler installed within the fort in
a house that had been yielded to him out of polite
ness by the military commander, as a temporary
accommodation. Johnstone not only refused to
move, but asked for a stockade to be built between
his abode and the barracks. Haldimand had to find
quarters for himself and his officers elsewhere and
pay the exorbitant prices asked for them. More
over, his presence in the fort led the governor to
believe he was in command thereof, and being a
man of violent temper, it was difficult to undeceive
him. The people were often in doubt whom they
should obey, and Haldimand was to have a siege of
a most wearing kind — hard work under constant
65

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
unfriendly surveillance. But he set himself reso
lutely to the tasks before him which were multi
tudinous. The fort was in a scandalous condition, the store
houses for ammunition being made of material
so combustible that by the least accident, or by
treacherous Indians throwing in a burning arrow,
the whole would be blown up. There was no hospi
tal, though the soldiers sickened and died by scores,
especially those who came in the summer season
from the north, to find themselves removed from
every convenience. A whole detachment from Eng
land was laid low at once with "putrid fever."
Haldimand blamed the water which was drawn
from a neighbouring swamp, and he tried sinking
wells, but without good results. Dr. Lorimer,
whom he consulted persistently upon methods for
improving the health of the troops, advised mixing
rum with their drinking water, but General Gage,
commander-in-chief at New York, objected on the
score of economy, and said he knew also the evil
effects of opening "a sluice of rum." He recom
mended the making of spruce beer instead, and sent
kettles for the purpose, so that the air was soon
odorous with sassafras; but Haldimand stuck to
his opinion that rum was better for the soldiers in
hot weather. If they did not get it pure in their
supplies, they would poison themselves by drinking
a variety made in New England to be had at the
shops. 66

IMPROVEMENTS AT PENSACOLA
The Brigadier's progress in his work as well as
his improvement in writing English is evidenced
by a letter to Captain Ross of the 31st regiment,
dated Pensacola, August 6th, 1767 : —
"Dear Sir, — I was favour'd with your kind letter
of the 24th Mar. and heard with the greatest
pleasure of your safe arrival in England where no
doubt you will indemnify yourself for what pennence
you have made here. I am much obliged to you for
the newspapers you sent to Capt. Warlo for the
bennifit of the garrison, we are in want of everything
to comfort and amuse us, altho' our situation is
much altered for the better you may immagine how
I was surprised at my first entering this place to see
the Misery people lived in, being pent within heigh
rotten Palissados, built for Spanish convicts, de
prived of air and particularly of the Sea Breeze the
only comfort nature seems to intend for this place.
. . . We have in about tow months time removed
the Stockade at a great distance, built Storehouses,
enclosed a large piece of ground for gardens, built
an hospital, magazines, Sheds, and begin a ditch to
drain the swamps behind the town and bring fresh
watter into the Garrison. ... I whish you all joy
and happiness, but don't forget your friends in
distress." Before the end of May the heat was so great that
work had to be stopped in the middle of the
day, but still it went on. Ninety-two in the shade
could not blight the energy of a man like Haldi-
67

Sm FREDERICK HALDIMAND
mand, and he had the satisfaction of seeing his
soldiers improve in health through his betterment
of their condition. They should, he thought, have
fresh beef oftener, but pasturage was poor, and
though an order had been issued against the ex
portation of cattle, the civil government was not
strong enough to enforce it.
Batteaux and vessels of all kinds were in as bad
condition as everything else; and repairs were expen
sive from the scarcity of all kinds of skilled labour.
Five white carpenters were worth more than a whole
squad of negroes who did " little and cost much."
The best of them would not cut more than four
cords of wood in a week and it was three dollars a
cord, so it became a question whether it would not
be cheaper to import coal. General Gage was con
stantly urging economy upon his subordinates, when
flour in Florida was fourteen dollars a barrel and
other things in proportion. The expense of Haldi
mand's living far exceeded his pay, but it vexed him
more to see his soldiers running into debt for
necessaries. They were completely at the mercy
of the masters of vessels, who charged what they
chose for their cargoes.
A ship laden with bedding for the troops and
much-needed tools of all sorts, as well as provisions,
was lost at sea, and the winter found the garrison
at Pensacola ill-prepared to meet it. If the com
mander felt the cold as much as he had ever
done in Canada, what must the privates have
68

CONFLICT WITH THE GOVERNOR
suffered, sleeping on bare boards, with neither beds
nor blankets, while the storms from the gulf
threatened to blow their rotten barracks about their
ears, and the winter rains beat upon their leaky
roof? One cause of dispute between Governor John
stone and Brigadier Taylor had been a war with the
Creeks, which the former favoured and the latter
opposed, while Haldimand had difficulties of the
same kind with Johnstone's successor. The military
commander found it hard to please savages accus
tomed to the pomp of a civil governor coming
among them laden with presents and holding a
mimic court where the red men could gaze in
wonder at his gorgeous escort. "These pleasure
parties called Congresses," he wrote, "are held at an
annual cost of thousands of pounds," and yet he
was being censured for the amount of his expendi
ture in the public service. "Meanwhile I am ruinning
myself in Expectation," he wrote to Captain Marsh,
"and God knows if people don't imagine I am
making monny; you know who tender I am upon
this article, and I hope you will undeceive anybody
who would entertain sush false notions, and let me
know without flatery what they realy think of me
and of my services . . . my chiny almost gone,
want a supply of 24 comon plates and 6 small
disches." The governor wished to have new posts estab
lished for the benefit of himself and friends, and
69

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
argued that the Spaniards were doing the like upon
the Mississippi, but Haldimand did not befieve
in taking up positions that could not be maintained,
and was more disposed to evacuate forts he deemed
useless, like those of Tombechbe, Bute and Natchez.
He would rather open a road to Mobile, but Gage
decided that was a work for the civil government.
The population of the town was increasing, folk
being drawn thither by the hope of a Spanish trade,
but many were doomed to disappointment. Pensa
cola had improved in health, but Mobile was still an
hospital and Haldimand sent Dr. Lorimer there to
report on the causes and suggest cures. The settlers
who were being coaxed to come in must be advised
upon the best means to prevent sickness, and
warned against going inland to make trouble with
the Indians.
The Chickasaws were a brave tribe, who would
become good friends if the Spaniards let them
alone, but the warlike Creeks and the treacherous
Choctaws were best employed fighting one another,
since both hated the English. Each complained
that ammunition had been given to the other, and
Haldimand had to exercise much diplomacy to
keep himself from becoming embroiled with them.
The accounts of Florida sent northward had been
far too flattering in respect to its facilities for agri
culture. As for commerce, the people lacked enter
prise, and the harbour was so full of worms it
was useful only as a port of refuge. Nevertheless
70

TRADE AND AGRICULTURE
Haldimand wrote Admiral Parry at Jamaica, asking
him to come to Pensacola for the good of his health
and saying that the country was not so bad as it
had been represented. He sent him magnolia plants
and seeds, and told him how delighted he would be
to see his flag in the bay. To another friend Haldi
mand wrote that his district was no more unhealthy
than any other southern colony, and need have no
terrors for a temperate man. No doubt he was
homesick sometimes, not for Switzerland only but
for the many friends he had made since leaving it,
and for the sort of life to which he was accustomed.
His one comfort was his garden.
What a change from the flora of Canada to
the semi-tropical vegetation of Pensacola 1 Haldi
mand had much pleasure in the success of his
experiments, both with native plants and with
seeds sent from New York, though many of the
latter having come from England were too old for
sprouting before they were put into the ground.
The governor and council would have granted
lands up to the glacis of every fort in Florida,
but the brigadier claimed three square miles of
open country to be left around each, and he had
large gardens laid out for the use of the soldiers.
He encouraged them also to raise crops, to fish and
to keep chickens, thus providing a change from
their salted food. The Indians brought wild turkeys
and venison to the garrisons occasionally, but they
demanded as much of other provisions in return. 71

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
. A great believer in the civilizing power of agricul
ture, Haldimand wished to give ploughs and oxen
to the Illinois and Natchez, instead of establishing
among them the military posts which the Indian
traders wanted for their own nefarious traffic, the
cause of all disorders. In March came Spanish vessels
bringing dye-wood, cotton, and other articles to
trade, which revived the hopes of the merchants, but
most of the Floridans were fonder of law-making
than of soiling their fingers with indigo. A lazier set,
Haldimand, with his thrifty Swiss rearing, had never
encountered, and he spoke of the service as the
most disagreeable he had yet experienced.
After the death of Frederick, he had asked
his brother, Jean- Abraham, to let him have another
of his sons, and accordingly Pierre Haldimand,
a young man of twenty-two, joined his uncle at
Pensacola during the summer of 1768. A commis
sion was sought for him from General Gage, but six
months later the brigadier wrote to the commander-
in-chief, " the boy is sick and fears he cannot enter
the service," while to the boy's brother, Antoine
Francois, in England, he wrote that Pierre wished
to return to London and might go into business.
Meanwhile the lad was sent north where a cor
respondent of Haldimand described him as " a very
discreet and prudent young man." He spent the
winter of 1769-70 in Maryland, though his uncle
would rather he had gone to Quebec, and to
Canada he finally went, being placed in charge of
72

FRICTION WITH CIVIL AUTHORITY
the seigniory at Pabos which had been bought for
his deceased elder brother.
Though the brigadier deplored being still in
"this villainous country" as he called Florida, he
was beginning to dread a return to the northern
winter, but must have thought well of America, for
he advised a cousin in London who had sent him a
present of champagne to take up land on this side
of the Atlantic rather than the other and promised
him introductions all over the country should he
see fit to come out.
Gage had written, " As for the Factions carrying
on amongst the civil part of the Province, I hope
they will not part the Military part who can't have
much to do with their partys, and the King has
lodged sufficient power with you to carry on the
military service," but each new governor seemed to
bring fresh trouble in his train. Haldimand wished
to be empowered to accede to the request of Don
Ulloa, the Spanish governor at New Orleans, for a
cartel, if only to regain deserters, "vermin who
may slip in among the Indians, and do harm."
Most mortifying then was it to see the civil governor
set off upon a mysterious embassy to the Louisian-
ian capital, probably for the arrangement of this
very matter. He called engineers and store-keepers
to his council and clerks to his assembly, so that
the military commander was left with but a mini
mum of power to carry out the improvements upon
which his mind was bent. 73

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
Haldimand was disgusted with a service " so ex
pensive and ill rewarded, where one is liable to be
attacked by the malice of people more dangerous
than wild beasts." He had been pressing his claims
for a brigade and had hoped for different treatment,
but Florida was out of the way and a man was apt to
be overlooked who stayed there many years. To his
friend Thomas Willing, in Philadelphia, he wrote
of the country as " a Purgatory where we qualify
ourselves for the happiness of leaving (sometime
hereafter) amongst you I have patience, whishing
sincerely it may be soon." But despite his own dis
comforts, he rejoiced in the better state of his
garrison, which could soon claim to be as healthy as
any on the continent. He belonged to an age when
the individual counted for more than the machine
gun. "I know the worth of a brave soldier," he
said, "and think it one of my principal duties to
preserve them to their country."
Gage declared that the keeping up of Fort
Pensacola cost more than the whole of West
Florida was worth, and there were constant dis
putes between governor and commander as to who
should pay the piper. In his desire to make ends
meet, the latter instructed Mr. Hugh Wallace,
his New York agent, to mortgage his lands at
Shipody, Nova Scotia, or to sell the seigniory of
Pab6s; but neither could be done, and Haldimand
was obliged to borrow £500 through his nephew in
London, giving his house as security.
74

A FRIENDLY LETTER
Brigadier Taylor was more fortunate in his com
mand at St. Augustine where he too had a governor
to fight against A friendly intercourse was kept
up between the two commanders, and, under date
of April 28th, 1768, even Mrs. Taylor was honoured
by an epistle in Brigadier Haldimand's quaint Eng
lish: — "Captain Jenkins' return to St. Augustine
furnishes me with the opportunity madam of pre
senting to you my respectful compliments and
thanks for your kind remembrance. I flattered my
self that I would be able to pay them in person as
soon as the Court Martial should be over, but other
unavoidable business detains me here and will
oblige me to visit the Lakes, and perhaps the Mis-
sissippy, so that I could only trust upon our ap
pointment at cannon hill where I sincerely whish
to find Mrs. Taylor in perfect health and happily
returned amongst her friends. The pilgrimage we
undergo in this new and disagreeable part of the
World will qualify us the more for the enjoyment
of Old England. Mrs. Pylot tells me she wright
you a long letter with all the news of this place,
Mrs. Indy good fortune will surprize and please
you, and you will be at a loss Madam to form an
Idea of her Conqueror. I hope Haldi behaves well
and is faithfuil to you, if not I beg you will give
him another name for fear he should give you a
false impression of my way of thinking. Captain
Jenkins will tell you Madam how Roses familly is
taken care of and how it has increased. 14 are born
75

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
within this ten days all very pretty, I purpose
sending them all to you by the 1st opportunity, he
will likewise give you a description of our farms and
gardens, of the success of a silk manufaction I have
established here, etc., but I must apprays you Madam
that he being very partial in favour of East Florida,
great allowance is to be made on our side, at my
return from the Mississippy I will take the liberty
to give you the description of that Paradys ; many
people are going thither with the Lieut. -Governor
at their head, all expecting to form large estates
but only a few have money to begin with. Give me
leave Madam to assure you of my sincere whishes
for the success of all that may contribute to your
happiness, having the honour to be with respect
Madam your most obedient humble servant."
He was quite a ladies' man in a courtly, dignified
fashion that appealed to gentlewomen like Mrs.
Gage, to whom he often sent compliments and
thanks for apples or other favours received. In a
letter to Captain Ross, of August 10th, he notes
the arrival of a Mr. Blackwell at Pensacola whose
wife is a pleasant addition to a small society: —
"Half a dozen more such agreeable ladies would
enable us to form an Assembly and sometimes to
forget our situation, but at present, having so few
objects to divert our minds, we are apt to represent
this place much worse than it is." Another lady,
Mrs. Moultrie, remembers him "with great pleasure
and esteem," and of still another he writes, "my best
76

SURVEYS MOBILE RIVER AND BAY
respects and thanks to Mrs. Sowers for the large
Collection of Good Pickels she was so kind as to
send me. It would give pleasure had I anything to
present worth her acceptance in return, but what
can a poor West Floridan offer more than good
Wishes which he sincerely prays may constantly
attend you. P.S. I thank you for the Reeding glass
it answers werry well and if you'll be so good to
appley to Mr. Hugh AVallace he will pay for it."
He found the Spaniards troublesome neighbours,
with designs upon the British forts on the Missis
sippi. The French hated their rule and there was
much dissatisfaction at New Orleans of which the
brigadier was advised to take advantage by luring
French settlers into Florida, the only hope for that
country. It would be greatly to the advantage of
the English if they could make an entrance to the
Father of Waters without passing New Orleans,
and one of Haldimand's projects was to see if the
purpose could not be effected by deepening the
Iberville river and joining it with a canal to the
Mississippi. He went on a voyage of inspection in
person with Mr. Sowers, the engineer.
Any day it was expected that Louisiana might
rise in revolt against Spain to place herself under
British protection, and the commander at Pensacola
was just the man to be on the alert for such a con
tingency; but in the meantime his orders from Gage
were to have as little as possible to do with New
Orleans. According to a modern American historian,
77

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
the survey Haldimand caused to be made of
the Mobile river and bay is " the most important
act of the British occupation of Florida that has
come down to us."
There was a great outcry among the inhabitants
of West Florida when it was decided to remove
nearly all the troops to St. Augustine, though
the evacuation of the outposts was explained to the
Indians as being for their advantage. The lives and
properties of the settlers were in no danger, but
they preferred to make money out of the soldiers
rather than till their lands, of which not fifty acres
were under cultivation, though the soil was excel
lent a short distance inland. The people of Pensa
cola sent a petition to the king, entreating him
not to ruin his "Emporium of the West," but the
soldiers went to St. Augustine nevertheless. There
was even talk of taking them to Charleston to be
ready for a sudden call northwards in case Boston
should continue the agitation over the Stamp Act,
but two regiments from Ireland were sent to New
England instead.
Before leaving Pensacola, Haldimand paid a visit
to New Orleans, ostensibly for the purpose of dis
posing of provisions not to be taken with the troops,
and it is also on record that he bought a negro
slave who escaped and was returned to him in
irons ; but no doubt his chief aim was to see for
himself the state of affairs between the French and
the Spaniards. A few weeks later it culminated in a
78

REVOLUTION IN LOUISIANA
revolution, Don Ulloa was banished and the French
flag raised. The Mexican method, it appeared, would
not do for Frenchmen, and Haldimand contrasted
Spain's attempt to govern the people of a different
nationality most unfavourably with England's, in
stancing the French Canadians, who he said were
thoroughly contented and learning to speak the
language of their conqueror.
It had been decided to erect barracks at St.
Augustine, with bricks from Charleston, S.C., "the
best on the continent," but when Haldimand real
ized the scarcity of labour he judged it might be
better to have them built of wood in New York or
New Jersey and sent to St. Augustine ready to be
put up. He bought a farm in that district and
called it Mon Plaisir, but he was ordered back to
Pensacola within a year and it was left in charge of
a soldier and his wife who sowed corn but reaped
none and did not raise fowls enough to pay for
their feed. "A master's eye often does more than
twenty other eyes and hands besides," his corres
pondent wrote, but his indigo planting proved a
success and gained a better price at a London sale
than that from Carolina. Finally a Prussian officer
was settled on Mon Plaisir.
General Gage was concerned about the revolu
tion in Louisiana, and in the spring of 1769, ordered
the brigadier to inform himself upon the best
methods of attacking that country. It would be
easy to conquer at present, Haldimand answered, 79

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
though Spain could protect it with 500 or 600
troops if the inhabitants who knew the country
were her friends, but they were not, and would
gladly embrace British rule. By November of that
year, however, the Spaniards had sent reinforce
ments to New Orleans under Count O'Reilly, and
a counter revolution was effected. Haldimand's 3,000
men were no more than were necessary to keep the
peace within the borders of Louisiana, but Gage
deemed it advisable to send Haldimand back to
take up the deserted posts in West Florida, though
that officer maintained the fleet to be the best pro
tection of British interests.
It was in February, 1770, that Haldimand once
more made Pensacola his headquarters, dividing his
troops between that post and Mobile. St. Augustine
had been a livelier place, if one may judge by the
concerts, assemblies and private dancing parties
given there, though an officer writing to Haldimand
after he had left declared that they now lived like
hermits and prayed for the return of some of his
company that they might not utterly lose them
selves in the fields of indigo and rice that had
sprung up with astonishing rapidity. Haldimand
was advised to sell out his northern property, invest
in negroes and turn planter in East Florida, but
West Florida was again his lot, with its trouble
some civil governor.
The brigadier had the strongest objections to
building a new government house within the fort
80

RUMOURS OF WAR
though Gage had said, the precedent having been
established, it would be hard to find a governor
who would live anywhere else. Haldimand and
Chester wrangled about it until the king sent
orders that the house was to be built, when Haldi
mand did it with a good grace, and in the end
made a friend of the governor, practically yielding
him the command of the fort and retaining to him
self only the direction of the troops.
It was at length decided that the long-talked-of
barracks should be built at Pensacola, and besides
preparing plans for them, Haldimand busied himself
improving the defences of the harbour, till he
declared that when he obtained the extra field-
pieces he wanted they would be the strongest on the
continent. In a letter marked secret and confidential
Gage told him that war with Spain was impending
and Louisiana must be the first point of attack ; to
which Haldimand replied that it would not be hard
to take New Orleans and suggested the best means
to be adopted.
Rumours of war continued throughout the next
winter and in March the West Floridan comman
der was warned to be on his guard against invasion
either from Louisiana or from the Spanish posses
sions in the West Indies, but by May the scare
was over though the brigadier judged the calm to
be only temporary. Spain did recover her ancient
colony of Florida in 1781, but by that time Haldi
mand had been removed to far different scenes. 81

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
While in Canada Haldimand had had little or no
occasion to speak English, but his knowledge of the
language was much increased during his stay in
Florida, though he still corresponded in French with
General Amherst, to whom, on March 12th, 1773, he
wrote from Pensacola as follows: — "During the six
teen years that I have been in this country, I have
always been employed in services exacting expenses
which exceeded my revenues ; however, sir, I assure
you I have never drawn any advantage from the
service beyond my pay; I have despised and I hope
that I always will despise all other advantage of
whatever nature it may be ; you may judge from
this, sir, that my situation is not easy ; and that as
those who have supported me awaited this epoch
to be reimbursed for the advances they have made
me, I am left with no other resource than to place
myself in a retreat where, by sustained economy, I
shall have power to begin to pay my debts."
But the English ministry, whatever other mis
takes it might make, valued the services of an
honest man and refused to dispense with those of
Frederick Haldimand.

82

CHAPTER VI
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AT NEW YORK
WHEN General Gage obtained leave of absence
and went to England for a year to attend
to his private affairs, he recommended Haldimand
as his successor to the command at New York, and
his advice, joined to that of Sir Jeffrey Amherst,
was accepted by the British ministry, though Lord
Barrington inforrned Haldimand he owed his pro
motion to the king alone. A ship was despatched
to Florida to bring northward the new major-
general, a naturalized British subject, and colonel
commandant of the 2nd battalion of his old regi
ment, now the 60th foot. He was welcomed by an
officer's guard on landing, while a salute of seventeen
guns was fired from the fort. Haldimand hated par
ade of any kind, but Gage had left instructions that
he was to be received with due ceremony, it being
necessary at that time to omit none of the customary
means for upholding the honour of the Crown.
Bronzed with his six years in Florida, satisfied
with the work he had done there, but pleased
to escape another summer in the south, the general,
now a man of fifty-five, found himself fronting
difficulties of far greater magnitude than those he
had left behind him, though they did not appear so
83

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
at the first. All this commotion over paying a
trifling tax upon tea could not appeal to the sym
pathy of a Swiss soldier of fortune whose youth had
been spent in lands where the people were taxed as
a matter of course for the prosecution of wars
in which they had no interest except that their
strong young men were taken away, to be returned
maimed and helpless, or not at all.
Frederick Haldimand was no democrat. He saw
the British colonists already grown rich and pros
perous beyond the middle classes of any European
country he knew, and he could echo the opinion of
Governor Hutchinson of Massachusetts: — "The
prevalence of a spirit of opposition to government in
the plantation is the natural consequence of the
great growth of colonies so far remote from the
parent state, and not the effect of oppression in the
king or his servants, as the promoters of this spirit
would have the world to believe."
Whatever the cause, the ferment was there, and
six months after the change of command at New
York it came to a head in Boston on December
16th, 1773, when a band of sixty men, half of them
disguised as Mohawks, went on board three vessels,
burst open 380 chests of tea, which they flung into
the harbour. This " Indian caper " Haldimand be
lieved was not generally approved by the people of
Massachusetts. Plymouth had sent in a strong
protest against the proceedings and many were
of the opinion that the city should pay the East
84

THE DAWN OF REBELLION
India Company for the tea. He decided it was not
his duty to enforce acts of parfiament, and resolved
to look on in silence at the " follies of a spoiled and
ignorant people " till the civil power called upon
him to interfere, when he would do so in accordance
with the constitution. Such were his instructions
from the British minister, -who praised his temper
and prudence in not placing the tea under the pro
tection of the soldiery, as it might have been the
cause of contention between populace and military.
Lord Dartmouth was striving merely to enforce
the principle of the supremacy of parliament. Once
acknowledged, he was willing to let it be ignored,
and to give the Americans all the liberty they
craved; but there were in the cabinet others less
wise, headed by King George himself, weak and
stubborn, bent upon asserting his own authority and
putting an end to "unwarrantable pretensions in
the colonies." Haldimand had written to England,
stating his doubts upon the wisdom of closing
the port of Boston, and anticipating the effect
of isolating that city. As he had foretold, the other
provinces drew closer to Massachusetts, and the
first step towards a general union was taken. The
same mail that brought news of the government's
intentions concerning refractory Boston brought
private letters disapproving of the same, from men
of character and property in the mother country,
thus confirming the Americans in their " chimerical
ideas." The military authorities, doing their best to
85

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
avoid an open rupture, were not encouraged in their
thankless task by the receipt of newspapers from
London voicing a popular sympathy with the
movement against colonial taxation, nor by the
tone of the local press, which grew every day bolder
and more independent.
There had been no strong feeling in New York
against the landing of the tea consigned there until
Boston set the example, but now the whole town
was on the qui vive over what was to happen when
the ships should arrive at the Hook. Luckily
for Haldimand, they were kept away by contrary
winds till he had time to receive his instructions.
" Happy will be this Province," he wrote, " if it can
avoid the imprudence of its neighbours."
It was a time of hoping for the best and preparing
for the worst. The commander-in-chief was the type
of man who could remain unmoved in the midst of
turmoil and dissension. He showed no anxiety,
refused to change the disposition of his troops, but
quietly saw that the artillery and stores were put in
a place of safety at Governor's Island. His appear
ance, tall, stately and handsomely dressed, as he
rode about the town or drove in his carriage was
enough to inspire with confidence the wavering
loyalists who could rest assured that no mob would
ever gain the upper hand in New York so long
as General Haldimand commanded the troops. He
had his own private troubles, apart from those
of the provinces. Not the least of these was his
86

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES
financial embarrassment. This was no time to econo
mize in anything that supported the dignity of his
position, and he found his expenses mounting far
higher than he had expected. Florida had been
a dear place of residence, but it had not been
essential to keep up the same style of living there
as in New York. He was sure that neither king nor
ministry wished him to ruin himself in the perform
ance of his duties, but it was exceedingly difficult
for a proud man and a foreigner to appeal upon
such a subject to men who were engrossed and
perplexed with matters of so much larger import.
Sir Jeffrey Amherst, a rich man, had not charged
the government for his firing and lodging while in
New York, though his predecessors had done so,
and his successors could not afford to be so liberal.
By selling some of his property in Maryland, Haldi
mand gained temporary financial relief.
It was during this year, 1773, that he paid a visit
to his relatives in Pennsylvania, whether the first or
not it is impossible to state. Jacob Haldeman (1722-
1783), his cousin, like himself a lineal descendant of
Honnete Gaspard, though not born in America,
had been there for fifteen years when Frederick
came out Jacob had owned land in Rapho town
ship, Lancaster county, since 1741, when he would
be but nineteen years of age. According to tradition
the general proposed taking one of his cousin's
sons with him to New York, but the offer was
refused, perhaps from political reasons, since the
87

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
Pennsylvania Haldemans were prominent on the
popular side.
The general contented himself with advancing
the sons of his younger brother, Jean Abraham,
"burgess of Yverdun, merchant and banker of
Turin," who had seven sons and one daughter. Of
these Antoine Francois (1741-1817), the London
merchant, was the eldest, and Louis Haldimand
perhaps the youngest. At any rate, while endea
vouring to interest General Amherst in 1773, the
uncle remarks that " Louys," " who was born since
I came to America," is now sixteen years of age.
The general probably recommended military school
ing in England, for the arrival of the lad from
Switzerland was noted the next year, and in the
following spring Sir Jeffrey wrote that Ensign
Haldimand had made good progress in the academy,
bore an exceedingly good character, and should go
to his uncle. A month later a passage was taken
for Louis to America, and the general must
have been eager to see him, as a correspondent
in London had written : "He is so exceedingly
well-looked, and from every appearance is what you
could wish. There is a smartness in his air not unlike
the brother that I knew." Uncle and nephew may
have passed one another on the Atlantic, since the
general was in London by the time the ensign
arrived in Boston.
Having had experience of the disagreeable friction
so common between civil and military authorities,
88

HALDIMAND WITHOLDS TROOPS
the commander-in-chief was careful to keep on good
terms with Governor Tryon, whose vanity he criti
cizes in a letter to Gage. There was sufficient
occasion for quarrelling as the governor more than
once requested troops to be sent where the general
deemed it unnecessary, and the former wagered
that he would have his way. "Brag is a good dog,
but Holdfast is a better" Tryon discovered when
he had Haldimand to deal with. The soldiers were
not marched off to quell Indian disturbances upon
the frontiers for which the colonists were to blame,
nor were they despatched against the New Hamp
shire rioters, who disputed the rights of settlers
from New York on the east side of Lake Champlain.
In a letter to Governor Tryon dated September
1st, 1773, the commander gave his reasons: — "I
have just received the honour of your letter of
this day's date, with the minutes of the Council
therewith sent, on which I beg to make the fol
lowing observations. That in the present circum
stances of affairs in America, it appears to me of a
dangerous tendency to employ Regular Troops where
there are Militia Laws and where the Civil Magis
trates can at any time call upon its trained inhabit
ants to aid and assist them in the performance of
their office, and the execution of the Laws in force
against Rioting, and for the protection of the lives
and property of His Majesty's subjects. That the
idea that a few lawless Vagabonds can prevail in
such a Government as that of New York, as to
89

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
oblige its governor to have recourse to the Regular
troops to suppress them, appears to me to carry
with it such reflection of weakness as I am afraid
would be attended with bad consequences, and
render the authority of the Civil Magistrate, when
not supported by troops, contemptible to the Inhab
itants." The king himself supported the general's
view and gave orders that the regulars were not to
be called out except in cases of absolute and un
avoidable necessity.
In his own elevation Haldimand did not forget
the hardships of those above whom he had risen. In
one of his first letters to the ministry after his
appointment at New York, he asked that the pay
allowed for Crown Point and Fort Pitt, both
destroyed, might be given to the commanding
officers in Florida, but the request was refused. His
old comrades in arms must have been gratified,
however, by the active interest of the commander-
in-chief, his pleasure at the news of harmony exist
ing at length between them and the civil authorities,
his desire that recruiting parties should be sent
to England to fill the gaps in their ever-thinning
ranks, and they became the more anxious to carry
out his orders for the speedy and economical
completion of the works he had planned at Pensa
cola. Florida was not so forlornly out of the world
since Haldimand had departed thence to the head
of affairs.
Whatever may have been his personal opinion of
90

INDIAN TROUBLES
Governor Tryon, it did not influence his conduct
As that gentleman journeyed northward, the general
sent instructions to the officers in command at
Albany and Montreal to treat him with fitting
honour, and give him aU the assistance in their
power. When the governor's house in New York
was burned by rioters on almost the last night
of the year 1773, and he himself was forced to
return to England, the commander-in-chief gave a
grand fareweU ball in his honour.
Dancing and feasting went on in the city though
there was trouble enough brewing beneath the
surface there, and much of it always in evidence at
the outposts. Haldimand had seen much of the
Indians both in the west and south, and was disin
clined to believe in the stories told of their unpro
voked attacks upon the frontiers. When he heard of
two Georgia families having been slain by the
Creeks he was almost certain that other settlers
were at fault, and wished that he could visit the
locality himself for investigation. It was ever his
impulse to obtain a thorough personal knowledge
upon every subject before forming an opinion, but
as he rose in his profession he was obliged to
become more dependent upon the testimony of
others. A commander-in-chief could not leave his
post and move about the country with the uncere
monious ease of a subaltern. He knew that Indian
disorders were chiefly caused by the determination
of settlers to push their way into Indian territory
91

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
though they should leave miles of uncultivated
country in the rear, and he knew too that the
eagerness of the south for troops arose from the
desire to make money out of them. So he declared
that the provinces of Virginia and Georgia must
protect their own borders, as the whole of their
frontier inhabitants were not worth an Indian cam
paign. To take the side of the Indian was not a common
trait among British commanders at that time, and
Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, wrote the general
an extremely sharp letter, blaming him for having
told Lord Dartmouth, without consulting him,
about the outrages upon some Indians in his prov
ince who had kiUed several white vagabonds. It was
hard to please everyone, but so far as can be judged
by his correspondence, Haldimand had a sincere
desire to deal justly and to act rightly towards all
men. His abilities were well tested in helping to decide
what should be done about the settlers at Post
Vincennes and on the IUinois, a subject that Lords
North and Dartmouth found embarrassing in the
extreme. They did not think the pioneers in those
parts should be driven from their homes for want of
a suitable government, but it was not so easy to
determine what form that government should take.
A memorial was presented to Haldimand by some
of the inhabitants requesting the establishment of
civU rule, which, however, part of the people did
92

EXTREME PUNISHMENT
not want, and he himself was of the opinion that a
military government was better than none. By
the passage of the Quebec Act in 1774, the boun
daries of that province were extended so as to
include the whole of the territory in question —
from the northern and western borders of Pennsyl
vania, thence along the Ohio to the Mississippi. The
establishment of French law and the Roman
Catholic religion over so large a tract of country,
was naturally displeasing to the British colonists,
both east and west, but the settlers from Canada
were satisfied, particularly those about Vincennes,
who were also relieved to know that too close
enquiry was not to be made into the titles of their
lands acquired from the Indians.
"A perfect judge of every muitary matter,"
Haldimand was caUed, but his sympathy with
soldiers never interfered with his sense of justice,
and he directed that misdemeanours escaping the
notice of the civU law should not on that account
evade the military. That the civil law could be
sufficiently severe is testified by the punishment
meted out to a deserter found guilty of burglary.
He was cropped, whipped, branded on the forehead,
and then turned over to the military authorities,
who would probably shoot him. Truly the common
soldier of that day had no easy punishment if he
transgressed, as some of the records of courtmartial
bear witness. Five hundred lashes were meted out
to the man who stole wampum from an Indian, and
93

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
1,000 apiece to some rioters of the Royal Ameri
cans. When a soldier received 500 lashes for firing
at a deer or a pigeon without orders, he could
imagine the extent of his punishment should he
venture to fire at a human being before the word of
command was given; but it must have been des
perately hard for many a high-spirited private to
endure with patience the insults and bodily injury
often inflicted by city rioters without having re
course to the retaliation within his power. A discip
line of lashes is not calculated to develop the finer
feelings of men, and when the hands of these were
unloosed by actual war, they were apt to revenge
past wrongs upon nearest heads, though innocent.
General Murray writing from tranquillity in
Mahor, expresses his horror of civil war and is sure
that Haldimand does not intend to settle American
troubles by force of arms, there being so much
more glory to be gained by a conference than by a
battle. He sends a present of olives and anchovies
to his old friend whose honourable conduct while
in Canada had made the deepest impression and
should ever make him wish for further opportuni
ties of showing his affectionate regard. Gage too,
safe in England out of the turmoil, wrote upon the
all-important subject of the tea that "had put the
whole continent in commotion." He hoped it might
be introduced at least into one province from which
the others could be supplied and the smugglers
undersold. Haldimand's reply (in French) dated
94

RIOTING IN NEW YORK
New York, May 4th, 1774, reads: — "I am charmed,
sir, to see by your last letter that the affairs of the
House wiU be examined by both chambers of par
liament. I await with impatience what the result
wiU be and it is very fortunate that you wiU be at
hand to explain the difficulties that present them
selves in a country where the laws have lost their
force and where one can find no magistrate who is
wiUing to support the dignity of the law and help
the military. I understand well the evil conse
quences caused by precipitate measures among a
nation always given to blaming the military."1
When the long-delayed tea ships came sailing
into the harbour of New York in the month of
May, fancying their tedious voyage was ended,
they were sent sailing out again, and one captain
who had landed eighteen chests with his other
cargo, had the chagrin of seeing them made into a
bonfire upon the shore. The governor had agreed
to protect the unloading with the militia, but when
the time came he was afraid to entrust the duty to
them, having been told that they had agreed among
themselves that the tea should not be landed. For
1 Haldimand's private diary, January 17th, 1786 : — "When General
Paterson set out for Boston, he had express orders from the minister
to report the state of things. He did so without reserve. The letter was
shown to the King, who, preoccupied with what General Gage had
told him, paid no attention to that letter, saying that Mr. Gage having
spent so long a time in America must know that country and the
character of the inhabitants better than General Paterson." The latter
had been present when Gage "told the King (speaking of Boston) that
he had sufficient troops to bring these people to reason."
95

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
this the commander-in-chief thought they should
be disbanded. A staunch lover of law and order, he
blamed all that was done upon the "mob'' and was
ever ready to believe that the respectable portion
of the inhabitants was upon the king's side. In his
opinion firmness only was needed to bring the way
ward back to their duty.
In April Gage wrote that the people of Boston
had at length tired out their strongest friends. As a
native born Briton it was considered best that he
should resume the chief command, now that war
seemed inevitable, but Haldimand was to remain
on his staff as major-general. He continued in
charge at New York during the summer of 1774,
while Gage was in Boston.
Exactly two years before the virtual declaration
of independence Haldimand wrote to his superior
officer that there was popular talk of the colonies
forming a general congress, and hoped that govern
ment would take steps to interfere, but government
was powerless in the matter and the congress be
came an accomplished fact. Deputies from all
quarters coUected at Philadelphia, those from the
south arriving in carriages drawn by six horses,
quite in oriental style, and there ensued the passing
of what Haldimand called "disagreeable resolu
tions." General Gage was given a brilliant reception
upon his return to Boston but he would have pre
ferred more evidence of submission to authority.
96

GATHERING STORM CLOUDS
It did not look promising to find the governor,
chief justice and many of the leading citizens quar
tered at the island fortress, Castle WiUiam, where
they had taken refuge from the fury of the mob.
Mr. Adams had threatened the tarring and feather
ing of those who dared to sign the address of
welcome to the general, and the assembly had
applied for a fast instead of a feast.
The New Yorkers, Gage hoped, would not be
fools enough to bring about the closing of their
port also, as they knew what it meant, and a few
weeks would probably suffice to bring the Boston-
ians to their senses. The "hot-headed gentlemen"
of Virginia had been passing some treasonable reso
lutions in their assembly, but these were not likely
to affect the north. On July 3rd he wrote to his
major-general: — "I rejoice that you conduct your
selves with so much discretion at New York, and
that PhUadelphia inclines to follow your example,"
whue Haldimand wished Gage were as fortunate
in his surroundings.
There had been a burning of Lord North in
effigy at New York, despite the mayor's efforts at
prevention, but no serious results were feared be
yond the further encouragement to Boston. Every
where there was talk of calling upon the troops for
aid, but Haldimand hoped rebellious action might
be avoided, though it warj daily expected in Massa
chusetts, and unless the first uprising were promptly
crushed, the worst effects were to be feared in
97

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
the other colonies. Already the stubborn Bostonians
had been joined by the people of Connecticut, and
erelong New York was threatened with absorption
into the New England States, if she refused to join
them, since Virginia purposed to be one of two
republics, with the Delaware for her northern
boundary. Once upon a time, no further back than 1766,
bands had been forbidden to play upon the city
streets while passing a church during public worship,
but now there was no peace to be found even
within the congregations. The Episcopalians and
the Presbyterians feU to wrangling that summer,
but as Haldimand assured Gage both were equaUy
opposed to government, the latter hoped it was
true that they had had a battle, though it was
no great matter which party won. These sects were
safest employed in fighting one another, like the
Creeks and Choctaws, whose wars Gage regarded
as a blessing in disguise "since they would never
bear with the behaviour of our people."
The state of public affairs made property holders
exceedingly anxious, and Haldimand being one, he
wrote to his friend, Thomas WUling, of Pennsyl
vania, to ask if his grants in that province had been
taken up. Willing, he observes, soems to harbour
iU-feeling towards the mother country, but for
himself he has only regret "for the rash enthusiasm
of his neighbours on the north, and fears that
this fine continent wUl be plunged into civil war,
98

DOMESTIC FORESIGHT
through their imprudent conduct preventing what
moderation, equity and temper are more likely
to obtain."
In view of the threatened non-importation, the
general asks Mr. WiUing to be kind enough to
send him another pipe of the exceUent Madeira he
spared before, and had he known old Omar he might
have added,
" Waste not your Hour, nor in the vain pursuit
Of This and That endeavour and dispute ;
Better be jocund with the fruitful Grape
Than sadden after none, or bitter Fruit"

99

CHAPTER VII
FROM NEW TO OLD ENGLAND
BY the middle of September things were looking
very serious indeed for General Gage in Boston,
there having been a county-meeting at Suffolk
whereat it was resolved that obedience was owed to
the king only so long as he kept his part of the
contract in preserving the chartered rights. There
was a general call to arms in defence of these,
cannon had been taken for the Charleston Battery,
and the New Englanders believed that they alone
could fight old England, since they could not count
upon the support of New York or Philadelphia.
" AU who wiU not promise to join and contribute,
or are obnoxious to the demagogues are drove into
Boston, where many from comfortable homes have
little ready money and are in great distress," wrote
Gage to Haldimand. The passage of the Quebec
Act, confirming the French Canadians in the use of
their language, laws and religion had been a cause
of offence to the New England clergy, who affirmed
that the king and his general were both Roman
Catholics. It was no easy task to keep so large
a body of troops within the bounds of civil law,
but Gage was determined "to wait tiU we receive
the first blow, that no act of ours may serve to
101

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
encourage rebeUion by giving it the name of de
fence." He was impatient for the arrival of his major-
general, whom he had summoned, not only for the
reinforcement of his troops, but for the support
of his presence and advice. Haldimand's departure
from New York was delayed by the difficulty
of securing transports, owing to the LU-wiU of the
people, and the autumn was weU advanced before
he joined his chief. They spent the winter together
in the hot-bed of rebeUion, and hoped at times for a
reaction in pubfic sentiment, though they were not
encouraged by the belated news that reached them
from London of how American affairs were viewed
by the king and his ministers. In an era preceding
the steamship and the telegraph it was impossible
for the best intentioned government to keep abreast
of events in distant colonies, and the orders sent to
its servants in command were often found to be
inapplicable to existing conditions at the time they
were received.
Congress sitting at Concord passed resolutions
stamped with bravado, in Haldimand's opinion, but
the New York assembly was being hard pressed to
agree with them, and Maryland and Pennsylvania
had already ordered 100,000 men to be armed against
the government. Each side was determined not
to strike the first blow, and the British generals sat
with folded hands, surrounded by rebels drilling for
war. But it was some satisfaction to know that their
102

PERSONAL LOSSES
own troops were behaving weU in spite of much
provocation. Haldimand wrote to Amherst that "the evUs
threatened proceed from Great Britain which has
nothing to gain by the struggle." While Sir Jeffrey
was flattering himself that the news from America
was so favourable, that the people would " return to
their duty and avoid the necessity of using force,"
force had actually been used, and Haldimand was re
ported to have been kiUed in the skirmish at Lexing
ton, on April 19th. As a matter of fact he was not
there at aU, nor did he know anything of the battle
till he heard of it from the barber who came to shave
him. In a letter to Captain HoUand, which that
gentleman displayed in New York, and which was
much commented upon, Haldimand openly dis
claimed aU responsibility for the affair at Concord.
He was more concerned about the property he
had left behind in New York, now that aU friends of
government had left the city and mob rule seemed
to be paramount. Being the sort of man who
coUected an establishment about him wherever he
went, he had had a house of his own for his short
term in New York, horses, poultry, and of course a
garden. On his removal to Boston a gardener was
left in charge who being given to liquor presented
no formidable front to the encroachments of would-
be plunderers, and the general's friends wrote him
that everything he owned was being stolen or
destroyed. This was unpleasant news for a gentleman
103

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
who had a womanish fondness for his possessions.
He was not even flattered to learn that the rebel
commander-in-chief had shown appreciation of his
taste in residences. " Washington has taken up his
summer quarters at your house on Richmond HiU."
Haldimand was perturbed too about the fate
of his good house in Pensacola that he hoped to seU
for a governor's residence, if the populace would
spare it till time showed whether or not there were
to be any more royal governors.
Once the hope of a peaceful settlement of affairs
was dispelled, the general's letters took a sterner
tone. "Yield" was not a word in his vocabulary.
He had been reared in a rigorous school and all
his fife never learned to give way except in matters
that concerned only himself. No palliative pubfic
measures for him ; they but indicated weakness, and
he congratulated the ministry that the necessity for
nipping American treason in the bud had arisen at
a time when their hands were comparatively free
from European complications. He suggested the
employment of the proffered Russian troops, if Eng
land had not enough of her own, to abolish the
New England governments, and recommended the
closing of aU the ports from Halifax to Florida, so
as to stop exportation entirely and set up the
country against the towns. Though Boston had
begun the trouble, he considered Philadelphia even
more obstreperous and warned the government
that its colonies were becoming more dangerous
104

RETURNS TO LONDON
than a hostile foreign power. No doubt he often
pictured to himself what Frederick the Great would
do under the circumstances, but he was now in the
service of George the Little, from whom no Crom-
wellian measures were to be expected.
General Gage was now more than sixty years
old and had never been of an active temperament.
Since hostilities had actually commenced, he was
likely to retire, in which case the chief command
would again devolve upon Haldimand. The minis
try, preferring to have a natural born subject, re-
caUed the Swiss general in the summer of 1775.
He left Boston at short notice and it was rumoured
he was leaving the service for good, whereat the
sentiment of the soldiers was expressed in the letter
of one subordinate to another: — "The regret and
good wishes of ye whole army follow him, his
experience, his great abilities, his integrity and dis
interestedness will never be forgot by them."
Surely it was a welcome change from the hard
winter in Boston where he had been reviled and
pointed at as one of the "boiled crabs" whose
presence affronted a liberty-crazed populace, to
return to London in the month of June, there to
be heartily thanked by the king and his ministers
for the skilful execution of his late arduous duties.
Sir Jeffrey Amherst wrote to Anthony Francis
Haldimand in London, asking to be immediately
informed of his uncle's arrival in order that he
might come up to town from the seaside to
105

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
interview him before he made his bow to the
king. At court and in the drawing-rooms of the great
the general was equaUy well received. America
was on every man's tongue and there was none
who did not eagerly seize an opportunity of hearing
the very latest about those incomprehensibly strong-
wiUed colonists from one who had just returned
from living among them. His advice was asked
officiaUy also and it would not tend to incline the
ministry towards conciliation. Who knows what the
effect might have been upon the measures adopted
and upon the ultimate result of the whole contest
had Haldimand, who spoke with authority, given
different counsel? But that was impossible for a
man of his character and upbringing. His private
belief was that Chatham was the one statesman
who could have satisfactorily surmounted the diffi
culties, but now it was almost too late to hope for
a pacific settlement. The change of rule in America,
sooner or later, was as inevitable as the change of
seasons, or as the breaking away from the nest of a
covey of young ducks as soon as they can swim
alone in rough water. That Canada did not break
off too was evidence merely that she was not of the
same brood, but a foundling in the flock, slower in
growth, an ugly duckling that might one day turn
out to be a swan.
Haldimand had an easy and enjoyable life for
the next three years and was in no haste to accept
106

FURTHER REWARDS AND HONOURS
further commands abroad. In September, 1775, he
was appointed inspector-general of the forces in the
West Indies, but as there is no record of his
ever having gone there, the office was doubtless
a sinecure. Some indemnity was owing to him for
his ill-paid services in America, of which Lord
George Germaine, the new colonial secretary, sent
a summary to Lord Barrington, stating that Haldi
mand had been subjected to great expense the year
he was in New York and had received no additional
pay. He had gone to Boston and set up an estab
lishment there, thinking he was to stay, and his
expenditure had not been "wantonly incurred by
means of an empty or unnecessary parade," but
was unavoidable in his position. When recalled, he
had left the bulk of his effects behind him, includ
ing two houses, one in Boston and one in New
York, for which he would have to pay rent in the
spring. It was bad enough to be taken away from
the scene of action without having "very consider
ably impaired his fortune."
The war office at once awarded £3,000 to Haldi
mand in acknowledgment of his financial outlay
as commander-in-chief, and on January 1st, 1776,
he was promoted to the rank of general in America,
and lieutenant-general in the whole army. To a
man whose profession was the chief thing in life
these honours must have been exceedingly gratify
ing and they would serve to inspire him with a stiU
more ardent desire to serve the Crown. Of the
107

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
British nation as a whole he knew but little. The
language and constitution were alike foreign to him
and he was unfitted to read aright the signs of the
times either in England or America, but that did
not prevent him from making warm friends among
the men with whom he came in contact, both in
higher and lower positions than his own.
With aU the entertainment and lionizing he
received, his mind could not immediately detach
itself from the drama in which he had taken a
leading part, and the American mails would be of
supreme importance. They brought letters from
Wallace, his New York agent, telling of the affair
of June 17th, near Charleston, of the resolutions
passed in congress which bordered on a declaration
of war, of the loss at Bunker's HiU, of the want of
energy displayed by General Gage, the massing of
provincial troops in rebeUion and the report that
General Haldimand was to return to the scene of
action in command of a large body of mercenaries
from Hanover.
More interesting stiU were the letters of Major
Hutcheson, his late secretary, who wrote from
Boston, not long after Haldimand's departure: —
"There are a number of your friends of the
Lower rank of officers Remember you with the
greatest Respect and Esteem, and I wish every
General Officer who may leave this country may be
as truly Respected and their absence as much
regretted. I hope, Sir, you wiU not forget pushing
108

NEWS FROM BOSTON
early for some reward for your long and faithfuU
Services. The promises of the great are not to be
depended on and the sooner you are independent
of them the better."
Ensign Louis Haldimand had arrived in Boston,
and of him Hutcheson wrote that he liked his pro
fession and would make a good soldier:—" Miss
Leechmore and Miss Birch have undertaken to
teach him English and give him Tea, as often as he
has leisure to attend them and he promises much
to himself from their Instructions." Mrs. Fairchild,
the general's housekeeper, who had been left in
charge of his Boston dwelling, was in the habit of
giving the major and the nephew "a little dinner in
the parlour" when they were not engaged else
where. The dinings-out were few, as provisions were
becoming too scarce in Boston to aUow the people
to entertain. They had no money to spend upon
luxuries of any kind, but Hutcheson managed to
seU a gun and some watches, though he found diffi
culty in disposing of the general's tea urn, and was
sending to him in England his "sUver Epergne,
as nobody wiU buy it, as times go." Of public
affairs he wrote : — "I wish we could find the people
of England as unanimous in support of their just
rights, as we are to defend them. There has not
been a Man of War from England since you saUed
nor have we heard from New York since my return,
we are entirely ignorant of what's doing at home or
on this Continent, except that we are ourselves
109

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
surrounded by a Considerable Army, entrenched
for fifteen mUes round us, with redoubts fuU of
men on every hiU near this Place. Washington has
his head Quarters at Cambridge."
The major was most anxious to learn what was
thought in England about the Lexington affair.,
and found it hard to be so long without hearing.
Gage's recaU and the arrival of Howe to take com
mand was the next news of importance: — "The
dependents of the present Commander-in-Chief
down in the mouth ; the court being paid to the rising
sun." The worthy major, having taken Louis Haldi
mand under his wing in the absence of his uncle,
thought that neither he nor the ensign received the
attention that was their due, but by December of
that year the lad was promoted to be lieutenant.
Erelong he developed an orthodox number of
expensive tastes, and another of Haldimand's cor
respondents advised him to bring his nephew under
his own eye. Mrs. Fairchild took leave of Boston that
winter, and sailed for England in a returning trans
port. With the spring came word of the troops
leaving for Halifax, accompanied by many loyalist
families reduced to the extremity of destitution.
The British marched out of Boston, whUe Wash
ington marched in, and a general confiscation of
Tory property followed. So late as July 10th, 177S,
Major Hutcheson believed that nine out of the
thirteen provinces preferred to keep up the British
connection, and six months later a correspondent
110

AFFAIRS IN CANADA
of Haldimand in St. Augustine wrote him that
1,000 men backed by the navy were all that was
necessary to dissolve the union.
A new regiment, to be caUed the Royal High
land Emigrants, was being raised in Canada by
Lieutenant-Colonel AUan MacLean, but there was
little other good news from that quarter. A letter
from Quebec dated July 20th, 1775, states: —
"There is not yet a single Canadian raized, nor is
there any appearance of it, these people have lost
aU their Spirit and seem indeed very averse to
fighting, nor can Mr. Carleton get a single Regi
ment of militia to embody, they are aU frightened
out of their Witts, and the most violent of them
only talk of defending their own Province, many
of them would lay down their Arms to the Yankies
did they but appear, in fact the Seeguneurs have
no influence nor can they command out a single
man." Better things in the future are hoped for by
the writer, but the winter brought only tidings of
the surrender of the forts on Lake Champlain and
Montgomery's capture of Montreal. Would Que
bec faU too?
Haldimand had a personal interest in Canada, as
his nephew, Pierre, was stationed upon his seigniory
at Pabos, and he had solicited for him the good
offices of Lieutenant-Governor Cramahe', but the
accounts received were not favourable. Apparently
there was no profit to be made out of the fishing
resources of the place, since that business was
111

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
governed by a couple of monopolizing capitalists;
nor was the lumber outlook any brighter. Pierre
Haldimand thought he would have to go into
trade, but there was nothing to be done on the
coast. He had not seen Governor Carleton while in
Quebec, and so feared he would not find a situation
before the spring.
In February came the news of General Carle
ton's opportune arrival in Quebec, his success in
holding out against the rebel attack, the death of
General Montgomery, and Colonel Benedict Arn
old's repulse the same night by MacLean and his
Emigrants. Major Hutcheson wrote that the king's
speech and the addresses of parliament had no
effect on the rebels, whom nothing but a good
trimming would serve, and the defeat at Quebec
was likely to be more efficacious. Governor Carle
ton, to whom the victory was due, did not find
favour in the sight of Lord George Germaine, who,
historians agree, was not a proper person to be at
the helm of colonial affairs in England during a
crisis. He was a stupid man, to say the least of it,
and one instance of his stupidity was the appoint
ment of General Burgoyne, a court favourite, to
command the troops allotted for the defence of
Canada, thus deposing Carleton, who was hence
forth to be the civil governor only. The governor-
general of Canada had been the commander-in-chief
of the army both before the conquest and after
wards; therefore Carleton resigned at once, though
112

GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA
he remained at his post and gave the new com
mander aU the help in his power until his own
successor was appointed. Burgoyne's disastrous cam
paign is a matter of history, and has naught to do
with the career of Frederick Haldimand, excepting
that upon Carleton's resignation he was appointed
governor-general in his place.
The news reached him at Yverdun, where he
was visiting his fairuly, and it is likely that he had
passed the whole summer in Switzerland, travelling
with friends and recruiting his health. It was in
August that he received and accepted the appoint
ment, and a month later he was in London, anxious,
as usual, to be thoroughly posted upon his new
duties. There he learned of the injustice done to
Carleton, and though he declined to enter into the
quarrel between him and Germaine, he feared that
the general might suppose he was taking advantage
of the situation. Haldimand asked that his own
commission might be annuUed, and Lord Barring-
ton complimented him on the handsomeness of his
letter, which, he said, he would show to the king.
But Carleton had considered Lord Germaine's dis
approval of his military tactics tantamount to a
dismissal, and he agreed to stay in Canada only
until the arrival of Haldimand, whose appointment
he had approved. The new governor was to return
to the established rule in commanding the forces
also, and one of Carleton's last official letters was to
the Prince of Hesse, stating that he "recommended 113

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
the German troops to the care of his successor,
who will show every consideration for them."
The army of Great Britain at that time amounted
to less than one hundred thousand men, and by
the end of 1776 more than half of them were in
America. For reinforcements she had caUed upon
her ancient allies, the north German states, and
during this war employed over twenty thousand of
their troops in her colonies. Foreign legions were
to be found in every army of Europe, and these
particular mercenaries were not deserving of the
contempt heaped upon them by narrow-minded
provincials. As a class they were above the average
of the regular soldier of the time, not only in valour
and discipline, but in habits of thrift and economy,
sending home many thousands of thalers out of the
liberal pay they received from the British.
It was the troops from Brunswick that came to
Canada, and the journal of their commander, the
Baron Riedesel, contains many interesting details
of his first impressions of the country in 1776. At
Isle aux Coudres he noted the habitant dress, much
like that of the Indians, he thought, but suited
to the climate : " Over their shirts, which are fre
quently made of coloured linen or of printed calico,
they wear smaU waistcoats of different stuffs ac
cording to the season of the year. Over this again
they wear a long jacket of white wooUen cloth
reaching down to the knees. This is ornamented
with aU kinds of coloured ribbons, which serve
114

HABITANT COSTUME
in the place of buttons. Around the waist they wear
a scarf which keeps the waistcoat, or capote, as they
style it close together. This scarf is made of different
coloured yarn and makes quite a display. In the
winter they wear longer capotes of cloth, or the
skins of the porpoise, which they understand per
fectly how to prepare for this purpose, having
learned it from the Indians. Pantaloons are worn by
aU the men, summer and winter, with the exception
of those who go about a great deal with the
savages. "On the outside (of the leggings), where our
splatterdashes have buttons is a piece of cloth
or fringe, about as broad as a hand, which runs
down to the foot and keeps flying round their legs
as they walk. This superfluous piece is partly
for ornament and partly for use against snakes, who
if not noticed wiU generaUy bite this piece of cloth,
leaving their poison in it For the same reason we
shall have the long wide sailor pants introduced in
our army. The scarcity of hats causes most everyone
to wear red woolen caps, nor if the Canadian wishes
to be dressed up wiU he wear any other colour.
"Agriculture is carried on in the same manner as
with us, but no winter grain can be raised in
Canada. They raise wheat, barley, oats, and a little
Indian corn or maize. Everything is sown in the
beginning of May and harvested after four months.
Peas, beans, lentiles, vetches, aU kinds of cabbage,
onions and potatoes are also raised. 115

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
" The farm houses have no pretensions to archi
tectural beauty. They are generally built of long
beams cut square, and laid on top of one another
and joined at the corners. The inner waUs are
covered with boards of cedar or pine " and the roofs
shingled. They are "but one story high, but are
divided into many rooms and are generaUy very
neat. An ordinary peasant's house is capacious
enough for our whole family. The inhabitants are
remarkably civil and obliging, and I hardly think
that under similar circumstances our peasants would
behave as weU."
Haldimand was ordered to depart immediately
for the scene of his new labours, and that he did
embark in the autumn of 1777 is verified by a letter
to his intimate friend, General de Bude", written on
board ship on October 9th, in which he says that
instead of being off Labrador or Newfoundland, he
is only at Plymouth. The winds are contrary, and
there seems to be no sign of a change. As weU try to
get to the moon as to Quebec. If the wind refuses
to favour him he wiU go back to London in a very
bad humour — and back he went. The St. Lawrence
had shut her icy door in his face for that season. It
was an ill wind that blew nobody good, as he was
free to return to Yverdun for the winter, to take
the baths there and to make little journeys with
friends for health and recreation combined. He
knew there was no pleasant position awaiting him
in Canada, but he was not the man to turn his back
116

ARRIVAL AT QUEBEC
upon a duty that promised to be disagreeable. He
would be happy should he succeed in doing it, but
appearances were unfavourable.
The Quebec Gazette of July 2nd, 1778, has
this notice of his arrival at his command: — "On
Friday last His Majesty's frigate, the Montreal,
Stair Douglas, Esq., Commander, arrived here,
having on board his ExceUency General Haldimand
and his suite, and on Saturday noon his ExceUency
landed. On this occasion the streets from the
landing place to the Chateau were lined by the
British and Canadian militia and the troops of the
garrison. On leaving the frigate the General was
saluted by the ships in the river, and on his landing
by the garrison. On his arrival at the Chateau he
was met by the members of the Legislative Council
and by them conducted into the councU chamber,
where his Commission was read and the usual oaths
administered to him."
Things were looking better than he had expected,
he wrote to Bude\ though he was being over
whelmed with ceremony. The Gazette published
both the address presented to him and his reply : —
"We, His Majesty's faithful and loyal British
Subjects, the Gentlemen, Merchants and Citizens
residing in Quebec, beg leave to congratulate your
ExceUency on your safe arrival in this City. Permit
us to assure your ExceUency that we feel the
highest satisfaction in having a Gentleman of your
conspicuous Abilitys and extensive Knowledge as
117

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
a Successor to our late most worthy Governor,
convinc'd that it requires the utmost Exertion of
Military Talents and Skill to preserve the public
Tranquility at a time when we are so much exposed
to Depredations from the unhappy Spirit of Rebel
lion which so universaUy prevaUs amongst His
Majesty's Subjects in the neighbouring Provinces.
You may rely on our utmost endeavours to Effec
tuate any measures which may be adopted by your
ExceUency for the Preservation and Security of the
Province; and being truly sensible of the Blessings
derived from the glorious Constitution of Great
Britain, and sincerely attached to our most gracious
Sovereign, we are ready on all Occasions to support
with our Lives and Fortunes his Royal Person,
Family and Government."
"I return you many thanks for this very oblig
ing Address; the handsome mention you make of
my worthy Predecessor, your offer of Assistance in
the Measures I may find necessary to pursue for
the security of the Province, and your determined
Resolution to Support His Majesty's Royal Person,
Family and Government, are perfectly agreeable to
me; relying upon Dispositions so commendable,
and convinced of what you can do by what you
have already done, I entertain Sanguine Expecta
tions of seeing the Tranquility of the Province
fully established, and the Happiness of its Loyal
Inhabitants, of every Denomination, secured upon
a solid and lasting foundation."
118

SIR GUY CARLETON
Greetings of the same sort awaited him in Mont
real, but, far more than these formal speeches, he
would appreciate the genuine kindliness of the
retiring governor's welcome, his desire to give the
best help in his power to his successor. In a letter
introducing Sir Guy Carleton to General Bude,
Haldimand told his friend not to be repeUed by the
cold manners of this new acquaintance, that he was
a perfect gentleman and one of the best officers in
the service. Of himself he wrote that he was reso
lutely setting himself to the task of keeping the
Canadians from foUowing in the footsteps of their
neighbours to the southward, and he hoped his
efforts would be seconded by the ministry in Eng
land, but in any case he would faithfuUy serve
King George as long as there were four drops of
blood in his veins.

119

CHAPTER VIII
THE GENERAL
IT was Haldimand's destiny never to play a drama
tic part but a more difficult one. He was not
present at the siege of Quebec to share in the glories
won by Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham ; his lot was
cast with the slower, plodding Amherst. As fate had
favoured Sir William Johnson in giving him the
chance to take Niagara, whUe Haldimand stayed
behind at Oswego, so she denied the latter any
special glory in Florida beyond that of being "a
meritorious sufferer for the public benefit." In New
York and Boston, because he was not British born,
he had to come second to General Gage, a man
much inferior to himself in energy and intelligence ;
and finaUy he was sent to Quebec after the pictur
esque r61e of defeating the actual invaders of Canada
had already been taken by Sir Guy Carleton.
To remain on the defensive was ever the duty
assigned him, and how much that meant in the
present instance can only be approximately esti
mated. When the inhabitants of a country are
united in their determination to expel the enemy
from her borders, it is wonderful what even a sparse
population can accomplish with the help of a few
regular troops. In the war of 1812, French and
121

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
English Canadians fought shoulder to shoulder
against superior forces of American invaders and
repeatedly drove them back to their own side of
the line, but the situation of affairs was entirely
different in 1778. The British method of govern
ment had not yet passed its experimental stage.
Middle-aged Canadians could talk to the growing
boys of the famous campaigns in which they had
fought with Montcalm or Levis, while old men in
the chimney corner could recall the glorious days
of le grand monarque. As the faults of the family
sinner are generaUy buried with him and naught
but his good points remembered, so the hardships
undergone during the French regime were soon
forgotten. The forced labour without pay, the
dreary shoveUing of earth to form embankments,
the long marches upon empty stomachs, or poor
food, the worthless card money given in return for
hardly garnered grain — these weighed light as
feathers in the scale with brief battles separated by
months or years of monotonous toil. Brave stories,
handed from father to son, had a preponderating
influence in a country whose acquaintance with
printing was so extremely slight and recent that
not one man in five hundred could read. A scholar
with this accomplishment would be the hero of the
hour one Sunday in the autumn of 1778, when
through some hidden agency there was nailed up
outside of every church door in the different parishes
a Declaration, adressee Au Norn du Roi, a tous
122

ADMIRAL D'ESTAING'S APPEAL
les anciens Francois de TAmerique Septentrionale
and signed Estaing. What a whispering and a
gesticulating this document created when its fuU
meaning permeated the duUest understanding 1
"You are French," it began, "you cannot cease
to be so." Would parricidal hands be raised against
the mother country and her American allies ?
"As a nobleman of France, I need not say to
those among you born to the same rank that there
is but one august house under which a Frenchman
can be happy and serve with pleasure. . . . Could
the Canadians who saw the brave Marquis (Mont
calm) faU in their defence be the enemies of his
nephews, fight agamst their ancient leaders and
arm themselves against their relations? At their
very name the weapons would faU from their
hands 1" A speciaUy insidious appeal was made to
the clergy and the whole people was assured that
"sooner or later jealous and despotic sovereigns
would treat them as 'the conquered.' "
It is possible that Admiral d'Estaing exceeded
his commission in the wording of this proclamation,
for France had bound herself not to seek any per
sonal advantage in America through the war, but
Washington's suspicions were aroused and he re
fused to sanction any invasion of Canada in which
his allies should take a leading part. With his
customary sagacious foresight, he wisely avoided
the possibility of establishing another European
power in the place of England, especiaUy one which
123

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
might prove a worse neighbour and would certainly
lay claim to the great west.
But Haldimand knew naught of this and could
only act upon information received, such as the
following dated November 29th, 1779, from Hali
fax: — "About six weeks ago a Spanish Pacquet
under the care of an officer was brought into New
York by a Privateer belonging to that place and by
a very clever behavior on the part of the Master of
that Vessel, the Mail and other papers were secured
and I am informed that upon examination of its
contents an authentic copy of a Treaty was found
which had lately been signed at Paris between the
courts of France and Spain, and Franklin, the
American Agent on the part of Congress. And by
one of the articles of this Treaty, the Congress
binds themselves to deliver up by June 20th, 1780,
the two Floridas into the hands of Spain and the
Provinces of Canada and Nova Scotia to the French
King." Tidings of this nature merely served to rouse the
general to strenuous exertions for the defence of
the province. One of his first labours was the
establishment of a post at the entrance of Lake
Ontario into the St. Lawrence, where the traders
could store the goods brought from Montreal in
canoes or batteaux, ready for transhipment to
Niagara. The secure harbour necessary was found
at Carleton Island, where fortifications and a bar
racks were begun under the direction of Twiss of
124

ERECTING FORTIFICATIONS
the engineers, while Schank of the navy was to
superintend the building of gun boats for Lake
Ontario. "We are at the same time," Haldimand wrote
the minister, "busily employed upon the works at
the Isle aux Noix and St. John's, on the communi
cation with Lake Champlain, and the situation of
Sorel, on the River of that name at its conflux with
the St. Lawrence, where ships of Burden approach
without difficulty, being very favourable to our
Magazines, we are engaged in erecting the neces
sary Storehouses and the Barracks to lodge a Body
of Troops to cover them, and to remain in readiness
for aU emergencies. While these works have been
carrying on, two of the armed vessels have been
constantly kept cruizing upon the Lake up to
Crown Point, and I have employed discovering
parties wherever anything was to be apprehended.
Many families and the Wives and ChUdren of
some of the Loyalists already with the Army have
come into this Province lately, having been driven
from their places of residence, after having all their
Property seized, by a Law of the Rebels for that
express purpose. The Distress of those poor people
is so great that 1 take it for granted the expense
which must be incurred by relieving them will be
judged unavoidable and be approved of."
Lord Germaine exhibited his geographical ignor
ance by remarking that with 6,200 troops Haldi
mand ought not to be badly off, but should be able
125

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
to demonstrate that neither France nor Spain could
make England abandon her loyal subjects. In 1780,
he no longer saw the necessity for even so large
a force in Canada, since Washington had but 8,000
under his immediate command, and the British
fleet was sweeping the seas. He did not consider
that every man in the old colonies was turned
soldier for the defence of his property, whatever
might be the number with the commander-in-chief,
whfle the Canadians served with reluctance even
as seamen on the lakes. The best of the forces in
Canada were three British regiments, which lacking
their grenadier and light infantry corps amounted
only to 1,200 men. The Germans proved not to be
adapted to the work required of them. In a country
where soldiers are expected to turn their hands to
anything, these Europeans objected to duty not
strictly military in character, and being indifferent
to the issue of the struggle they were too much
inclined to desert to their countrymen in Pennsyl
vania. The Indian contingent was a very uncertain
quantity, but at most the Six Nations could con
tribute only 600 fighting men, and the Seven
Nations of Canada, as they were caUed, still fewer.
The most efficient troops were sent to guard the
upper posts, while the Germans remaining in Que
bec were mostly invalids left behind from Burgoyne's
expedition. In case of invasion the general wrote
that he could not put more than 2,500 men in the
field nor keep them there for more than two months,
126

THE ALLEGIANCE OF THE CANADIANS
and he feared that many would desert to the
enemy. In a winter campaign the rebels had the
advantage because used to such warfare, but Haldi
mand sent out his troops in detachments to practise
walking on snow-shoes, to learn how to make huts
in the woods and to live in them for eight or ten
days at a time. He resolved also to attach some
Canadians to each British regiment and to gain
their confidence by favouring their noblesse and
keeping up the rank-distinctions on which they set
such store, though at times he felt it was hardly
safe to trust them with arms. Should French
soldiers make their appearance with rebel troops,
the Canadians would give them provisions and
serve as guides, if they did not actuaUy join them
in an attempt to conquer the country.
The inhabitants had been largely neutral during
the invasion under Montgomery and Arnold. If
they did not come wiUingly forward to fight for
Great Britain, neither did they care to fight against
her, as the weight of clerical and seigniorial influence
was upon her side. The more intelligent classes were
weU aware that neither their church nor their
estates had aught to gain from absorption into
a republic, but reunion with the mother country
was a different matter. A report was even circulated
that the pope had issued a buU absolving from
their oath of aUegiance to England all who would
return to that of France, while the Indians were
reminded of their hypothetical promise to return to
127

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
fight for the French against the English whenever
the former should reappear. Bishops in France were
better informed upon the political situation than their
Canadian brethren whom they censured soundly for
their leanings towards the rebel cause.
Haldimand says on the subject: — "However
sensible I am of the good conduct of the clergy in
general during the invasion of the Province in the
year 1775, I am weU aware that since France was
known to take part in the contest, and since the
address of Count D'Estaing and a letter of M. de la
Fayette to the Canadians and Indians have been
circulated in the Province, many of the Priests
have changed their opinions,, and in case of another
Invasion would, I am afraid, adopt another system
of conduct."
An example was made of one Sulpician so open
and violent in his advocacy of a return to the
old regime that the head of his seminary agreed to
his banishment, with the further injunction from
the general that he should "restrain his ordinary
vivacity and take care of what he says and does
before leaving." Pere Valinere's fate served as a
warning to his brethren against the open promul
gation of treason, but only one curd was sufficiently
loyal to send to the authorities the seditious procla
mation from his church door.
The governor had good reason for complaint that
he was generally the last person informed as to
what was passing either in his own province or
128

DIFFICULTY OF COMMUNICATION
in the rebel colonies. It was of the utmost import
ance that he should have some inkling of the
designs of congress, and he had been ordered to
keep up a close communication with the royal com
mander at New York, but his messengers going by
Lake Champlain were often intercepted, and the
trail by the Kennebec or the Penobscot, though
shorter, was stiU more unsafe. The lieutenant-
governor of Nova Scotia wrote that the best way to
forward despatches to him was via Fort Howe,
at the mouth of the St. John river, opposite
Annapolis, thence to Halifax, only a month's
journey. The sea route to either coUeague was
no more satisfactory, as the gulf was fuU of rebel
privateers, bent on destroying the fisheries, and
watching for merchant or mail vessels. They made
a practice of flocking into the St. Lawrence in the
early spring to try to intercept news coming from
England, and were often successful, as Haldimand's
earnest entreaty for more help from the fleet had not
been granted. "What can we do for you," the ad
miralty asked him, " when every day we are looking
for French ships to make a landing upon the coast
of England, and straining every nerve merely to
hold our own on the high seas against the combined
navies of France and Spain?"
Not a ship could the governor get to winter in
the river, though some were willing to wait as late
as October 25th to act as convoy to the merchant
vessels going home. If the French fleet should
129

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
winter at Boston, it would be on hand in good
season to safl up the St. Lawrence to Quebec
before the English could cross the Atlantic. Ac
cording to his habit of making the most of the
means at his disposal, the general issued letters of
marque to local craft, permitting them to prey
upon the rebel shipping, and he employed swift
sailing sloops of war to keep watch in the gulf. His
plan was to station "a ship of force" at Bic, and to
delay the departure of the faU fleet until the middle
of November, so that with the help of a frigate in
the gulf and the smaUer armed craft that could be
spared, the lower parts of the province might be
protected until nearly the close of navigation.
Secret agents of congress penetrated every part
of the country. A man caUed Moses Hazen was
reported to have made four trips from Albany to
St. Francis in one summer, and he had scouts at
work forming a weU-defined traU between the two
places in order to keep himself posted upon the
strength of St. Johns and Montreal, as weU as to
open a way for the advance of rebel troops. Hazen
persuaded twenty-six Canadian prisoners in Albany
to take up arms for congress, and for a long time
Haldimand's scouts could find neither his spies nor
his road, though they blazed tracks hither and thi
ther through the forest, to the confusion of the next
seekers. Resident Jesuit missionaries were suspected
of securing the sympathies of the Caughnawagas for
congress, and some mischief-maker got in among
130

CORRESPONDENCE WITH CLINTON
the Indians of St. Regis and the Lake of the Two
Mountains, whose work had to be undone by sta
tioning loyal subjects there.
The savages were not pleased that on their scout
ing expeditions they were charged to take no
scalps, only prisoners; and there were others in the
province who soon found that the new governor
was a man to be obeyed. Before he had been a year
at his post he wrote to a London friend that he
was surrounded with enemies and knew not whom
to trust. His sense of justice was ever stronger than
his love of approbation, but he was not sufficiently
caUous to public opinion to enjoy living in an
atmosphere of suspicion. With Sir Henry Clinton,
commander at New York, he could have worked in
harmony had the difficulties of communication been
less. Haldimand sent him a "trial letter" by each
new route to see if it would reach him safely, and
all epistles had to be duplicated, even triplicated, if
there was to be any likelihood of their delivery. For
six months of one year the Canadian governor did
not hear from Clinton at aU, though he sent him
nineteen letters; and during that time he had to
rely upon scraps of information from the rebel
newspapers that occasionaUy found their way to
Quebec. He improved the mail service with Eng
land by the establishment of a line of fast packets,
sailing from either side of the Atlantic once a
month as regularly as could be arranged.
WhUe the fortifications at the mouth of the
131

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
Richelieu were in progress, the governor spent
much of his time at Sorel, and thence he wrote to
Lord George Germaine, that "gentleman at his
desk" who planned a number of absurd campaigns
in America. He was the minister to whom Haldi
mand was bound to make his report, though
Germaine's replies, when at last they came, must
frequently have been irritating to such an able man
as the general. The foUowing is an excerpt from
one of his reports, written from the camp at Sorel
on October 15th, 1778:—
"I have in another letter given a general Account
of the Business in which I have been engaged since
my arrival, but I have reserved, as I thought it
would be most agreeable to Your Lordship, the
more particular information necessary to lay before
you for a separate letter.
" AU the accounts which I have received from the
Rebel Colonies agree that the Reduction of Canada
is looked upon there as so essentiaUy requisite to
them before they can consider themselves secure,
that it has been declared to the People from the
Congress, as I make no doubt Your Lordship has
seen, that they are not to expect Peace tUl they
shall have accomplished this indispensable work.
Haun [Hazen?] and a famous Canadian Rebel
named Traversier, who I informed Your Lordship
in my letter of the 28th of June, I had received
intelligence were come towards this Province, have
been in St. Francois, and I am sorry to say returned
132

A DESPATCH TO GERMAINE
in spite of the assiduity and vigilance of several
persons who were employed there to look out for
them. These men have left word with their Friends,
who are but too numerous there and who take care
to spread the mischief imparted to them, that they
wiU certainly return in a short time in Force. Some
People in this Province who were taken by Priva
teers in their passage with the Fleet last Spring
and just lately back by Land, report that it was
the language of the Country, wherever they passed,
that an Army would soon make its appearance in
Canada. "The Capital Approach to this Province being
by Lake Champlain, it is to be wished that we
could accomplish the Erecting of such Solid and
respectable works as are requisite for its Defence,
but aU we can hope to effect this year is, at the
Isle aux Noix, to contract the old French works, so
as to adapt them better to the smaU number of
men which I can spare for them. At St. John's, to
complete a temporary outwork to possess a rising
ground on the West Side and near the Fort, so
caUed, being nothing more than a line of Pickets,
with a Banquette within and an inconsiderable
Ditch without, covering the Barracks and Store
Houses, erected between the two old Earth Re
doubts upon the River, which are miserable works
and in a very bad condition, the whole, with the
Ships which they are meant to cover in the winter,
when they must be laid up, can be expected in
133

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
their present state only to frustrate the sly and
desultory attempts, but wiU be by no means capable
of resisting any Formidable and supported Attack
of an enemy. Plans of these works shaU also be
sent to Your Lordship. Chamblie is only a Fortified
Barrack, affords even no shelter against cannon,
and is entirely surrounded by a high ground at a
smaU Musket Shot.
"I judge it unsafe in our present defensive Plan
to have any stores so high up as Any of the Places
above mentioned, or at Montreal, and have with
drawn them therefore, except such as were required
there, to this Post, where I shaU be able this year
only to erect some Temporary Redoubts, and to
lodge but a part of the Body of Troops I mean to sta
tion there, where the convenience of communicating
so easfiy with aU parts of the Province by water
carriage, gives it singular advantage, either for
advancing or retreating, and where it is absolutely
necessary to have as considerable a corps as possible,
as it covers both the Avenue of Lake Champlain
and that of St. Francois, which has been very
much used by the Rebels, their Settlement ap
proaching much nearer to those of the Canadians
on that part, than on any other of the Colony,
and this communication is the more dangerous to
us as there is a Tribe of the Domiciled Indians
upon that River that are lately become very un
governable, and 'tis feared attached to the Rebels.
It is my intention therefore, if time and circum-
134

LOYAL CANADIANS
stances favour me, to make Sorel a place of strength
with Permanent Works, as the importance of it
deserves. The Seigneuriere of this Place is vested
in Merchants residing in England, and the Inhabit
ants of it, people remarkable for their courage and
resolution, have distinguished themselves verv much
by their attachment to Government even at the
time the Rebels were Masters of that Country, in
which account I think it would serve the King's
interest to bestow some Public mark of favour upon
them, such as remitting them the Quit rents which
they pay for their lands to the Seigneur and the
Seigneuriere being to be sold, and the Purchase
would not exceed £3.000, having been offered for
that sum, I submit to Your Lordship whether it
would not be best to give orders to treat immedi
ately with the Proprietors, Messrs. Greenwood and
Wigginson, Merchants in London, both for enab
ling me to effect the purpose above mentioned, and
for securing to Government at a reasonable rate
the lands whereon the works wiU be situated, and a
great quantity of wood which the Seigneurie furn
ishes, fit for building and other uses thereof, upon a
spot which nature makes so important, as that it
becomes highly indispensable to avail ourselves of
the best manner possible of such a situation, and
therefore in a very short time, if Your Lordship
does not by the means I here propose prevent it,
the Prices for what Government shall have occasion
to occupy of the land and to take of the wood wiU
135

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
be infinitely enhanced, and many other obstacles
wiU be opposed to the completion of the Design.
"I employ aU methods to become acquainted with
the intricate and secret Paths, by which I find the
Rebel Emissaries stiU gain Access into the Parishes
on the St. Francois, and others on the South Shore
where they have obtained but too much interest
with both the Canadians and Indians. I have now
some Canadian Officers of Trust exploring that
River, and I mean to establish a Post as high up as
wiU be prudent, as soon as I shall find the best
place upon it for interrupting their dangerous inter
course, and I am in hopes of breaking it off, pro
vided we have time given us, but we have too
many works on hand to be able to proceed so
rapidly as the case seems to require, particularly as
by the necessary disposition of the Troops to keep
the Parishes in order, the Germans become entirely
useless in these respects.
"I have a Detachment of Loyalists and a Com
pany of the 34th Regt. upon the Chaudiere at the
Upper part of the settlements on which we have a
picketed Fort and are building a Block House.
"The Company of the 8th Regt. which was at
Oswegatchie, where I have for the present placed a
Detachment of Thirty men from the Troops here,
for keeping up the communication and for scouting.
That Compy., as well as a Detachment of the same
Regiment, which had been sent from Niagara to
protect the Merchandise forwarded from here to
136

A PREDATORY EXPEDITION
the Island, where I have reported to Your Lord
ship a Fort is now buUding, has been sent to join
their Regiment, part at Niagara and part, in conse
quence of the irruption of the Rebels into the
Illinois, I thought proper to order to Detroit. The
Difficulty of subsisting Troops in that part of the
world where nothing is to be procured, but what is
sent there with so great labour and expense, puts it
out of my power to send any greater reinforcement
this year to the Upper Posts, which the future
interest of Great Britain, not less than the present
concerns of the Province would require to be in a
much more respectable state and condition.
"I informed Your Lordship in my letter of the
28th July that I had sent a Party to destroy the
Harvest in the Rebel Settlement nearest to our
Frontiers. Owing to a disagreement between the
Indians and the Loyalists Compy. composing the
Party before they came near the spot where they
were to act, they returned without fuUy answering
the purposes intended, having only destroyed some
Barns and a couple of mills upon the lower part of
the Onion River, which, however, has obliged the
People to abandon those parts and the Detachment
suffered no loss. I mean stiU to prosecute this
design, as there are some settlements upon the
Borders of Lake Champlain, Otter Creek and about
Tyconderoga and Crown Point that may furnish
many conveniences and necessaries which would
facilitate the approach of an enemy. I propose to
137

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
send a respectable party, which wiU be covered by
some of the ships and Gun Boats, and that it shaU
be as late as possible in going out as the Damage it
may then do to the enemy wiU be irreparable this
season. The showing ourselves stiU on that side
may probably have the effect of keeping up the
difficulty which the Rebel Government is not with
out finding in enforcing obedience (an effect which
is but too sensibly felt by us here, even from the
insinuations of a few Agents of RebeUion) and the
appearance of Invasion from where perhaps they do
not expect it, may break or retard the measures of
those People for carrying it to where they intend it.
"I have informed Your Lordship in another
letter of several Families from the neighbouring
Provinces having come into this for Protection and
Relief. To diminish the expense of lodging them
about the country among the Inhabitants and to
avoid the inconvenience which might possibly result
from too general a communication between any of
these People, that I have found come here under
false pretences, and the Canadians, I have ordered
Houses to be built for their Women and Children
and some old and sick on a spot in the Parish of
Machiche where they wiU be separated and by
themselves. "Considering the inconvenience and even Acci
dents to which the Troops dispersed all about the
Country among the Inhabitants in their Winter
Quarters are liable to, I have begun to establish
138

TEMPORARY BARRACKS
Temporary Barracks in some of the Parishes by
fitting up vacant houses which have been found
therein, where they can be lodged in Bodies and
contiguous. And I shaU as far as possible adopt for
aU the Parishes in which it is necessary to have
Troops the same plan, and where Houses as above
are not to be found, buUd them for the purpose,
which I judge equaUy requisite for the Preservation
of Discipline among the Troops, for making them
respected by the Inhabitants, for better enforcing
the obedience of these two ordinances and for com
pliance with orders which the Conjuncture of
the Times may make necessary to issue to them
and for the Expeditious assembling of the others
upon sudden Emergencies. Lest, however, the Ex
pense Attending these Regulations should alarm
you, I think it right to acquaint Your Lordship
that by cutting the Logs of which these Buildings
are Constructed from the lands upon which the
Crown has rights and by their being Executed in
part by the People, it wUl be confined to a very
moderate sum, considering the number of Houses
required and their utility when completed.
"I have done nothing yet about Canadian Corps,
waiting for the time when the men who are em
ployed in the Trade to the Country above and the
Fisheries below, and who are of the most Robust
and active of the Young men, shaU return, which is
late in the FaU, when I intend to Embody Three
Compys. beginning with these few and extending
139

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
the levy if I shall see it likely to succeed, and that
His Majesty's service would be benefited by it.
We have received some assistance from the Coun
try by Corvies without which the Transport of
Provisions between Montreal and Carleton for the
Upper Posts would be impracticable, but in the
present disposition of the People, I have judged it
highly requisite to observe the utmost Caution, not
to make Demands that from exciting murmurs might
lead them to a Declaration of sentiments which the
French Alliance with the Rebels has undoubtedly
raised in numbers of them, who in regard of the
RebeUion were unquestionably attached to Govern
ment and received in the others, the symptoms of
which change in the Canadians is everywhere mani
fest and the more dangerous as multitudes are but
too sensible of our inability with the Troops we
have in an entire open country to control them, if
any fortuitous circumstances should unite their
resolutions as their inclinations are but too much
already. Wherefore I cannot conclude this subject
without hazarding my opinion to Your Lordship,
that this Province cannot be preserved should the
Rebels exert their efforts against it, which it is
evidently not less their inclinations to attempt than
it is their interest to prosecute at all rates the
success without a much superior Body of Troops
than is at this time here. Such a Body of Troops as
besides sufficient Garrisons for all our Posts would
afford Eight Thousand Men to take the Field,
140

THE BRUNSWICK TROOPS
which, commanding the resources of the Country,
would push on the different works at Posts neces
sary to Possess, to a speedy Completion when we
might expect to draw from the Country itself such
assistance from the consequent obedience of the
Inhabitants as would repay these Extraordinary
Exertions to procure it.
"The remaining Troops of the Duke of Brunswick
have been formed by orders sent from their Prince
into Three Battalions of Four Companies each,
instead of Fives, which the Brunswick Battalions
consisted of by the Treaty, and the Battalion of
Prince Frederick, which came back here entire,
is now put on the same footing as the other two
formed from the Detachments of aU the Corps left
behind and that have come back, the number of
men now in each Company being much greater
than they were before, while that of the Officers is
less, and I must say so insufficient as scarcely to
have been serviceable independent of these Detach
ments having been the refuse of the Corps they
belonged to, and therefore it is a matter which wUl
require Your Lordship's interference about with
the Duke of Brunswick. The clothing of these
Troops, which I learn has been since some time
past in England, has been neglected to be sent
over, and the Troops are likely to suffer very much
for want of it during the Approaching Winter.
There is likewise a Detachment of the Regiment of
the Prince of Hanau left in Canada, of near Two
141

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
Hundred men, and only Three Officers, one of
which I have been obliged to take to command the
Company of Artillery which I have acquainted
Your Lordship I had formed out of them and the
ArtiUerymen remaining so that the Detachment
has only a Captain and a Subaltern to serve with it
and therefore I apprehend something ought to be
done to bring this Corps into a more sensible state.
"It wiU be absolutely requisite to occupy and
establish a Post at Oswego, or somewhere in that
neighbourhood, otherwise we must expect to lose
entirely the remaining faithful part of the Five
Nations Indians. They have already repeatedly
demanded that Government should take that step
in favour of them, in order that their Families
might have a secure place to retreat while their
warriors were employed upon Expeditions against
the Rebels, and I am of opinion that it is impos
sible, consistent with His Majesty's Interests, to
reject their solicitations, although it must occasion
a further heavy Expense of Provisions and other
Articles which they wiU expect to be supplied
with, and whUe the Transport of so far must cost
very large sums.
"I have in this letter Communicated to Your
Lordship very much at length An Account of the
Measures I am pursuing and those I think most
immediately necessary to pursue for the Defence
and Security of this Province entrusted to my care,
in doing of which I have unavoidably fallen into
142

END OF THE DESPATCH
prolixity, which I pray Your Lordship to excuse
and impute to the earnest desire I am actuated by
of making my Zeal for His Majesty's Service mani
fest and of meriting Your Lordship's approbation
of my conduct"

143

CHAPTER IX
THE UPPER POSTS
THE frontier forts were one and all an endless
source of anxiety to the governor at Quebec,
beginning with the most northerly MichUfimakinak,
at the narrows between the two great inland seas
Huron and Michigan, coming down to Detroit,
in the straits leading to Lake Erie, and thence to
Niagara and Carleton Island, the door-keepers of
Lake Ontario. With an insufficient number of
troops to defend the nearer portions of his province,
it was impossible for the general to spare garrisons
large enough to enable the outposts to withstand
the ever expected rebel attacks. Their distance
from one another, as weU as from Quebec, and the
slow and insecure method of communication made
it desirable that each should be self-reliant, but
they were dependent on one another, like links in a
chain, and aU at the mercy of the surrounding
savages whose good-wUl could be secured only by a
constant distribution of presents.
Once more the Indian saw himself of political
consequence between two white races at war, both
seeking his alliance, and he made the most of the
occasion, taking gifts from either side when it
could be safely done. Why weary himself with
145

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
hunting to feed and clothe himself when there
was a weU-stored fort within reach? If the Brit
ish would have him go upon the war-path, they
must feed his family while he was gone. Often
on his return from one of these "diversions" his
squaw would tear the clothes off his back that
he might present himself at the fortress in a con
dition calling for rehabiliment. Most of aU did he
crave "the pernicious article of rum," and there
were always plenty of vagabond traders about to
induce him to buy it from themselves, contrary to
law, or to plague the chiefs and interpreters into
getting it for him.
An inventory of the merchandise for Indian
presents in one of the king's stores includes such
articles as "shirts, plain linnen and ruffl'd; caUi-
manco bed gowns, 36 scarlet coats, laced ; finger
rings, Jew's harps, watch chains, shoe buckles,
scalping knives"; whUe "arm-bands, 3 inch broad,
French manufacture; 400 ear- wheels, 1,000 pair
large ear-bobs, Black wampum," etc., are wanted.
In a letter to De Peyster, the Detroit commander,
July 6th, 1780, Haldimand says : — "Long habits of
indulgence have created wants with the Indians
which otherwise they would never have experi
enced, such as fine saddles and many luxuries
carefully exhibited to their view by the aU-grasping
Trader. I think it would be cruel to deny these
poor people who are employed by us such mark of
our attention and regards as are necessary to their
146

HIS INDIAN POLICY
comfort Every shilling beyond this is superfluous
to them and a Joss to Government, nor is it in a
Political view necessary, for however they may
threaten to forsake us, we must know it is im
possible they can exist without our aid, the Rebels
not having necessaries sufficient for their own
wants, and consequently to supply theirs."
The general had a long acquaintance with Ind
ians, had fought with and against them in the
Seven Years' War, had been the official protector of
northern races at Three Rivers, of southern at
Pensacola and while in command at New York
had been in receipt of reports from Indian agents
aU over the country. With none of the modern
sentimentality concerning the noble red man, he
was yet determined to claim respect for his rights
as a feUow creature. Some of the LU-wiU he brought
upon himself was due to his rigid enforcement of
the laws relating to the sale of Indian lands, the
English government having decreed that no pur
chase of property from an aborigine should be valid
unless made in the presence of the governor of the
district and the Indian superintendent.
General Haldimand did not agree with General
Gage that knocking them on the head was the only
way to deal with Indians ; he knew they could be
punished through their love of gain. Therefore he
directed his agents to use some discrimination in
their bestowal of presents and reward those alone
who were "hearty" in the king's cause. Of these
147

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
the most conspicuous were the Five Nations, who
had now become six by the incorporation of the
Tuscaroras, a southern sept of the same Iroquois
clan. The Oneida tribe of the confederacy con
stantly wavered in their aUegiance, although they
sent their women and chUdren to be fed at Niagara
with the intent it was said of lessening the supplies
at the fort The Hurons, too, were suspected of
craft in watching the fluctuations of the war and
taking care to keep always upon the winning side,
whUe none of the western nations were to be de
pended upon except the Sioux, who offered to
attack the faithless Ottawas, Chippewas and Potta-
wattamies. The last were described as credulous, fickle and
timid, swearing to remain neutral when the rebel
agents bade them stay at home, taking up the
hatchet in return for British presents, but easUy led
off by treacherous traders into the peaceful employ
ment of gathering ginseng. That aromatic root
which the old Jesuits used to ship to China, where
it brought five doUars a pound, proved a sore
temptation also to the Mississaugas on the northern
shore of Lake Ontario. They were faithful and
weU-disposed to their neighbours on Carleton Is
land, but always clamouring for goods and rum,
which they often found could be more quickly
gained in the ginseng trade than by going to war.
The Mohawk tribe of the Six Nations could not
at first be trusted to fight against their erstwhile
148

SCOUTING PARTIES
friends, the English colonists, and the province had
no security against the approach of an enemy
through their country until the autumn of 1778,
when Major Carleton, brother of the ex-governor,
made a clean sweep of the settlements on either
side of Lake Champlain. Two years later he captured
Fort Anne and Fort George. AU the Loyalists
had been expeUed from the district and their lands
given to rabid revolutionists upon whose sup
port an army for invading Canada could rely, but
Carleton's raiders destroyed provisions enough to
have supplied 12,000 men for four months. They
penetrated past the abandoned Fort Ticonderoga
as far as Otter Creek and brought back over thirty
captives to sweU the numbers destined to fiU Can
adian prisons to overflowing.
Where did they aU come from ? One need only
read the records of these "scouts" as the parties
were caUed, to become amply informed. In Febru
ary, 1780, it is a matter for congratulation that the
Delawares have been to Wyoming, kiUed seven
persons and made six prisoners ; another scout has
returned from near Ligonier with twenty-six pris
oners and scalps ; another has been to Woodcock
VaUey, Bedford county, Pennsylvania, where they
burned seven houses, the same number of barns,
kiUed cattle and horses, destroyed a block-house
and put to death ten rebels whom they would have
preferred to bring in as prisoners, but the Indians
were not to be restrained. In no sense were the
149

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
savages reliable if sent upon a scouting expedition
alone. There was always the danger of their being
bought over by the rebels, and the fidelity even of
the Six Nations rested largely upon the number of
British troops accompanying them. The general
directed his abhorrence of acts of cruelty to be
impressed upon every Indian in the service, but
they were so barbarously treated by the rebels
when taken captive that it was most difficult to
restrain them from retaliation.
Chiefly for the protection of the convoys of pro
visions on their way to Carleton Island, there to be
stored for shipment via Niagara to the upper lakes,
a smaU fort was maintained at Oswegatchie (Og-
densburg) on the St. Lawrence, but the officer in
charge complained that he had only men enough
to line one face of the works. His garrison was
worn out with excessive scouting duty, being con
stantly on the move to discover the projects of the
enemy against Carleton Island or their design to
take possession of the abandoned works at Oswego.
What, for instance, was the meaning of the thous
and batteaux being built at Schenectady? They
might be meant for New York, but Canada was the
more likely destination. An Oswegatchie party
brought home twenty-eight prisoners who had been
mowing near Fort Stanwix, and kiUed nobody but
two sentries ; another sent to "amuse the people on
the Mohawk" burned twenty houses and a like
number of barns ; the same was done at Conajoharie
150

THE WYOMING EXPEDITION
and Dayton, the only regret being that Ellice's
miU was stiU standing and a scout was planned to
destroy it. By thus "teasing" the people of the
German Flats, the commander at Oswegatchie
hoped to drive them out, in which case Fort Stan
wix must foUow. It did foUow in course of time,
the garrison setting it on fire and beating a quiet
retreat in 1781. Schenectady was in truth becoming
the rebel frontier.
With the idea of preventing an expedition against
Niagara, Major John Butler, in command of 500 of
his famous Rangers, together with 600 Six Nations
Indians, attacked the district of Wyoming with the
desired result of its complete demolition — one thou
sand dwelling-houses, eight forts, mills, etc. But the
leader is careful to state: "I can with truth inform
you that in the destruction of this settlement not a
single person has been hurt of the inhabitants, but
such as were armed ; to those indeed the Indians
gave no quarter."
It was the savages who suffered in return, for
General John Sullivan with 6,000 troops of con
gress, in spite of some slight resistance made by
Butler's Rangers at Newton, marched into the
Iroquois country and laid waste eighteen villages
with the surrounding corn-fields. Haldimand was
utterly perplexed for want of proper information
regarding the destination of the expedition, and it
was to him a source of great vexation that he had
left his allies to their fate without lifting a finger
151

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
to help them. Some of the warriors refused to for
sake their lands, lest the enemy should say they
were afraid, and gleaned what they could from
their desolated plantations; but the summer was
over and the majority of the homeless became
a burden upon the British posts.
Including refugee Loyalists, there were three
thousand "useless people" to be fed and sheltered
at Niagara during the winter of 1779-80, and the
general, though protesting against a needless in
crease in the number of dependents at aU the upper
posts, sent up the necessary provisions, even at the
risk of a famine in Quebec. With so many hungry
mouths expecting food from him, it is no wonder
that he watched anxiously for the arrival of the
"victuaUers" and breathed more freely when he
heard of their having escaped the dangers of ship
wreck or capture and being actually in the river.
He asked that they might set sail earlier from Eng
land, in the end of March or beginning of April, so
as to be in the St. Lawrence by the opening of
navigation; whUe a second fleet, he thought, might
begin the voyage about the middle of July.
In the end of June, 1779, the general ordered a
number of Sacs and Foxes, then in Montreal, with
whom the rebels had been "tampering" in their far
western homes, to be brought down to Quebec and
impressed with a sight of the British fleet. A depu
tation from the Six Nations was detained six weeks
at the capital for the same purpose and made to
152

JOSEPH BRANT
observe that there were no French ships among the
arrivals from Cork or London. In dismissing them,
the general said he had sent reinforcements to
Detroit, Niagara and Carleton Island to march to
the relief of his Indian aUies, since "the Great
King, your father, is not sparing of his troops, nor
lets you fight your battles by yourselves."
Niagara was the post which stood in most danger
of capture ; the enemy had already laid waste the
country within eighty miles, and should it faU,
Detroit and MichiUimakinak would be cut off from
the base of supplies and must surrender also. The
avenue to Niagara was therefore closely watched
and it lay along the Mohawk vaUey where stores
were known to be coUecting for the advance of a
rebel army. To that region therefore scouts were
frequently sent and often they were commanded
by Joseph Brant, the most civilized savage of his
time, though a past master in the art of conflagra
tion. His operations on the Mohawk included the
burning of a village of the renegade Oneidas, forts
at Minnisink, as weU as twenty houses at Schoharie,
one hundred at Kleysburg, also a church, two forts,
horses, cattle, etc., and he always returned with a
goodly supply of prisoners and scalps. Haldimand
wrote to Germaine that the success attending the
border warfare was chiefly due to Joseph Brant,
" whose attachment to Government, resolution and
Personal exertion make him a character of very dis
tinguished kind, and I humbly consider him entitled
153

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
to some particular mark of the King's favour." He
received the "particular mark," being made a colonel
of Indians, and continued his depredations, though
it is upon record that his parties harmed no woman
or chUd.
In expressing his personal approbation of Joseph
and his brethren, His ExceUency wished them to be
assured that their course of action, "if steadily
pursued, cannot fail to reinstate them in their
domestic enjoyments and to add to their renown in
Indian and in English history." But care had to be
exercised in honouring Brant, for there was his
rival, Butler, equally deserving as a partisan leader,
and there was Butler's right hand man, Schender-
atchta, king of the Senecas, brave and prudent, a
hater of the French, and firmer in his aUegiance to
Great Britain since France had joined congress.
Among the loyal Indian chiefs Colonel Brant was
considered "not so great a warrior as some, and
therefore not so high in his tribe as others." These
would be jealous if too much favour were shown
him by the British, since they already knew that
he was in their pay.
A rather troublesome ward of the nation was
"Miss MoUy," sister of Joseph Brant, and by the
Indians regarded as the widow of Sir WiUiam
Johnson. She had more influence with them than
any of the chiefs, and though her large family
made her somewhat unreasonable in her own de
mands, she checked the insatiable exactions of her
154

GUY JOHNSON
neighbours. Despite objections weU-nigh insur
mountable to being separated from her children,
she at length consented to leave two of them at
school in Montreal for a winter while she went to
Niagara to give valuable aid in keeping her tribes
men loyal ; but her violent temper made her presence
not an unaUoyed blessing. EventuaUy, she was
settled in a house of her own at Carleton Island,
next to one buUt for her brother Joseph, and was
granted a pension of £100 a year.
The death of Sir William Johnson in 1774 had
been a national loss. His nephew, Guy Johnson, who
was also his son-in-law, was in no way competent
to fiU his place, having neither the heart nor the
brain of his uncle. The younger man had far less
influence with the Six Nations than "Mrs. Mary
Brant," and he left his duties as Indian agent to be
performed by his deputy, Major Butler, for a couple
of years, though anxious to secure to himself the
credit for anything of importance which was done
during that time. Refusing to look upon his posi
tion as civil only, he wrote to Lord George Ger
maine recommending the enlistment of certain
corps and other impracticable measures entirely
out of his province. As it was marked "On His
Majesty's Service," Haldimand opened this letter
in Quebec and forwarded it open to England,
which he need not have done since he knew it
would bring down upon himself a reprimand from
the minister. Lord Germaine's censure even ex-
155

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
ceeded his expectations, and the general, from this
solitary instance, has been stigmatized by posterity
as a person who opened private letters.
Colonel Johnson acknowledged that he had been
infringing upon the rights of the commander-in-
chief, and Germaine agreed with Haldimand that
he was not a proper person to be at the head of
Indian affairs. He was superseded by his cousin,
Sir John Johnson, Sir William's son. This gentle
man had not the genial open-heartedness of his
father, but being a most bitter Tory became of
good service to the British by raising and com
manding "The King's Royal Regiment of New
York." He spread desolation about that part of the
country wherein had lain his own possessions before
they were confiscated by the rebels, burned the
traitorous village of Caughnawaga, and made beacons
of many farmhouses, besides bringing in a number
of prominent rebels as prisoners. Like Joseph Brant,
he had personal wrongs to revenge, and unlike
his cousin, Guy, Sir John stood at his post though
the confused state of his private affairs caUed
for his attention and he had been granted leave of
absence. The general reports: — "It would be end
less and difficult to enumerate to Your Lordship
the Parties that are continuaUy Employed upon the
back Settlements. From the Illinois Country to the
Frontiers of New York there is a continued suc
cession. I must do Colonel Johnson and the officers
who have the direction of this Service the Justice
156

RAIDS AND FORAYS
to acquaint Your Lordship that they have paid
great attention to it."
Major Ross, of the 34th Regiment, was another
champion of this sort of warfare, and the account
of his forced march towards the nest of rebels at
Warrensborough, twelve miles from Schenectady,
through heavy rain in the autumn of 1781, his
burning of over seven miles of settlement, includ
ing one hundred farms, three miUs, a large public
granary, and his destruction of cattle and stock of
aU kinds, is hardly rendered agreeable reading in
our day by the statement that he harmed no woman
or child. Ross was pursued by 1,200 Continentals
and militia, but defeated them, though his men,
almost exhausted with fatigue and hunger, had to
five upon captured horses before they reached Carle
ton Island. Early in the spring of 1782, before the
ice had left the lake and rivers, Major Ross led
a party up Lake Ontario, presumably for Niagara
but in reality to take post at Oswego. The destina
tion was kept secret for fear the rebels should
forestall them. The expedition was successful, and
the restoration of the fort, so long delayed by the
difficulty of transporting provisions to it, gave great
satisfaction to the Indians, who declared that the
good old times of Sir William Johnson had come
again. Beset as they were by foes on every hand, the
general was most anxious that his subordinates
should keep on good terms with one another, but
157

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
he had often to play the peacemaker, as between
De Peyster at Detroit and Sinclair at MichiUi-
makinak for example. To the former he wrote
August 10th, 1780: — "I am persuaded you aU
think too fiberally to suffer any little differences of
opinion (if such there is) to lead you from that
sense of duty which distinguishes the perfect officer
from the lukewarm crowd. You would therefore do
weU to lay open to Lieut. Gov. Sinclair whatever
reports of the kind may have reached you, whether
by Letter or otherwise, with the names of those
who have circulated them, and I shaU desire him
to do the same for your information, by which
means these Disturbers of Tranquillity and of the
Public Service may be brought to fight and dis
couraged." To another he says: — "Nothing can
more conduce to the Reputation of Officers than to
relinquish fittle personal considerations when neces
sary to promote the public service." He could give
a royal snub to a presumptuous subordinate. Of
one such he writes: — "As to his criticisms on the
regulations of Indian affairs at the posts, they were
not formed to gratify the vanity of commanders
but for the benefit of the service." Jehu Hay, lieu
tenant-governor of Detroit in 1784, inadvertently
let slip the remark, in one of his letters to head
quarters, "Much less can I boast of having realized
25 or 30 thousand pounds at the Expense of my
Country." He was pounced upon immediately — did
he mean to insinuate that anyone else had done so?
158

QUESTIONS OF PRECEDENCE
Hay had to explain that he was referring to himself
alone. Not only were there disagreements between offi
cers at different posts, but frequently those at the
same station could not dwell in unity. The Indian
superintendent was naturaUy inclined to think him
self of more importance than the officer in com
mand of the garrison, since he had by far the larger
number of warriors at his disposal, and he would
try to claim superior army rank. The burning
question of precedence affected every branch of the
service. At the change of rulers, Captain Schank,
of the navy, wrote to Carleton that he was un
willing to serve on the lakes unless a particular
recommendation and a fuU explanation of his rank
were left for the new governor, as he was afraid that
his banishment to fresh water might hinder his
advancement on the sea.
Captain Fraser, of the Royal Highland Emi
grants, had apparently a goodly store of the na
tional sensitiveness to slights, and complained of
juniors being put over his head while he was left
to be governed by boys, sutlers and mechanics.
He pushed his grievances somewhat too far, and
though he affirmed that in his twenty-six years of
service he had never needed a reproof from a
superior, he found, as is shown by a letter of July
13th, 1780, that General Haldimand could break
the rule: — "My wUling Approbation upon aU oc
casions of your Zeal and attention to the King's
159

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
Service ought to have spared me the necessity of
taking notice of a Passage in your letter of the 2nd
Instant, where, Complaining of the bad Behaviour
of the Mississaugas, you say that were you to use
much Reproach to them you might afterwards be
accused of adding them to our Enemies. While
I observe to you that this is a very improper
Allusion to my Letter of the 12th Feb. (where it is
mentioned as a Consequence likely to foUow the
usage of harsh measures with Indians, in our
present weak State, and applicable to Myself alone)
I wish to acquaint you that it is only expected of
officers to whom I may have occasion to write
letters upon the subject of the King's Service,
readily and punctuaUy to execute their Contracts,
without reflecting or remarking upon them except
when the Service may receive benefit therefrom, in
which Case I shaU always be happy to receive
Information, and shaU expect it as a duty from aU
officers to suggest to me whatever may appear to
them necessary."
He was a rigid disciplinarian, this governor-general,
but not unkind to youthful offenders whose faults
arose from mere ignorance of army rules, as may be
gathered from the aUowances which he made in the
case of Lieutenant Glennie of the Royal Engineers.
There was always a lack of good surveyors at the
upper posts, and Haldimand, being assured of this
lad's ability and industry, put in a strong plea
for him when he was brought before a court martial
160

AT MICHILLIMAKINAK
for insubordination, advising that he be sent to
some post where his talents and application would
atone for his contempt of superior officers less
learned than himself.
There were no disagreements at Carleton Island
during the winter of 1780-81, reported Captain
Fraser, though the garrison had been " of aU nations,
colours and professions," and one may guess at the
restraint put upon tempers when good order was
kept among Highlanders, Germans, French, Eng
lish and Indians penned up in a fort. The Cana
dians were considered the best workers, "though
many of them are lost to a sense of their duty and
much inclined to favour the plans of the Enemy."
Fifteen hundred of these doubtful subjects were
settled about Detroit, and "the Indians," said Major
de Peyster, " are perfect Free Masons when en
trusted with a secret by the Canadians, most of
them being much connected by marriage."
Off by itself in the northern wilderness, MichiUi-
makinak was the most difficult post to control, as
weU as the most expensive to maintain, and the
bills sent in by its commander would make the
governor-general feel like a modern pater-familias
with an extravagant household. He sanctioned
Sinclair's plan for moving his post from the main
land to an adjacent island, but would not agree to
his calling it anything but Michillimakinak, though
the fort might be shortened to " Makinak." " I have
never known any advantage result from changing
161

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
the names of Places long inhabited by the same
People." The English ministry never ceased to find fault
with the enormous cost of supporting the frontier
posts, and His ExceUency passed on the complaints
to the officers in charge of them, though he fully
sympathized with their difficulties. Innumerable
opportunities for dishonesty never faU to raise up
innumerable people ready to take advantage of
them. As MacLean in command at Niagara stated
it, there was a rule "long adopted in this part
of the world, that whatever can be got from govern
ment is weU got, where no censure can ensue."
Haldimand not only decreed that no official
should be ever so slightly interested in trade, but he
forbade the purchase of stores from local merchants
and arranged that aU necessary goods should be
bought in England or Quebec. Often through
carelessness in packing, the Indian presents were
damaged before they were seen by the recipients,
and the food spoiled so as to be unfit for use. If
stores could have been taken direct to their various
destinations, there would have been less risk as weU
as less expense, but after the tedious Atlantic
voyage the St. Lawrence had to be ascended in
small boats. Flat-bottomed, sharpened and tilted
fore and aft, square-sailed, with five rowers and a
helmsman, these batteaux had to be lightened at
every portage and towed through the rapids, the
crews helping one another.
162

DANGERS OF NAVIGATION
From the storehouse at Carleton Island the goods
were shipped in a larger vessel up Lake Ontario to
the long Niagara portage, which had to be traversed
before Lake Erie and Detroit could be reached.
The Ontario, a newly-buUt, armed "snow," em
ployed in this service, sailed from Niagara in No
vember, 1780, with the commander of that post,
Colonel Bolton, on leave of absence, one of his
lieutenants, and a detachment of the 34th Regiment,
as weU as other travellers. The vessel was last seen
near a place caUed Golden HiU, thirty miles below
Niagara, but she foundered in an autumnal gale,
and no trace of captain, crew or passengers was ever
discovered. There were three gun-boats on the
upper lakes, besides a row gaUey for carrying
despatches. Stores for MichiUimakinak were sometimes sent
by way of the Ottawa and French rivers, an
arduous journey of 251 leagues with 34 carrying
places. Lieutenant-governor Sinclair tried to find a
shorter route from his post to Niagara by way
of Lake Huron and Lake Simcoe, portaging thence
to Toronto. Traffic did not end at MichiUimakinak
but continued via the Great Portage at the western
end of Lake Superior. This interior trade was esti
mated at 40,000 pounds annuaUy, and 500 men
were employed in it. The general made many
suggestions for reducing expenses at the posts — the
employment of prisoners in farming, the encourage
ment of soldiers to supply themselves with fresh
163

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
fish and game instead of the salt pork they con
sidered a luxury, the raising of cattle, the cultivation
of vegetable gardens around the forts — even to
the saving of powder by stopping the practice
of vessels saluting one another. To Lord Germaine
he wrote: — "Retaining the Indians in our Interests
has been attended with a very heavy expense to Gov
ernment, but their attachment has, alone, hitherto
preserved the Upper Country, and the Devastation
they have made upon the Susquehanna and Mohawk
rivers has distressed the Enemy prodigiously, their
settlements in these parts have been entirely broken
up, their stock of every kind destroyed, and the
inhabitants driven for subsistence into the interior
parts of the country."
Such valuable irregular troops must be fed or
they would desert, and then a far larger number
of regulars would be needed to hold the posts. But
it was essential to make the Indians understand
that they owed their living to the king, not to the
trader. The commanding officer who did his duty
in this respect was certain to be abused, and Haldi
mand himself incurred the enmity of the mighty
army of traders by enforcing the regulations con
cerning passes for the upper country and limiting
the number. Neither boat nor individual could leave
or enter the region without a permit, not even
Madame Langlade, seeking the smaU pleasure
excursion of travelling in a canoe from Montreal
to join her husband at MichUlimakinak. The gen-
164

FEARS OF INVASION
eral granted her request but advised her to defer
her journey tUl more peaceable times. The officers
in charge of the posts were directed to detain aU
suspicious parties for a season and to send notice of
their appearance and probable intentions to the
next station. Some merchants to whom passports
were refused went so far as to make their com
plaints direct to Lord George Germaine, whose ear
was ever open to such communications. Placed upon
the defensive, Haldimand, on October 25th, 1780,
replied to the minister : — " From every intelligence
that could be procured, the Indian country in gen
eral, and military Posts in particular (which are the
resorts of the traders) have been menaced by In
vasion these 3 yrs. past and these reports have
proved to have been weU founded. The inconsider
able number of Troops, thinly Distributed among
the Posts and (until lately) their weak state of
Defence rendered imprudent to risk the large
quantitys of goods which the Clamour of the
merchants obliged me, contrary to my judgment,
to acquiesce in their sending up — the Capture of
which must have essentiaUy militated against the
King's Service."
With the sole idea of doing his duty he had
acted entirely upon the reports received from offi
cers at the upper posts, on whom alone he could
"confide with any degree of safety to the King's
interests — " and he had ever enjoined them to be
just. So great a demand for passes since the war
165

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
began, and since the Indians were engaged in fighting
and not in the fur trade, had led him to suspect that
the merchants were covertly supplying the rebels
with goods and the justice of his suspicions had
been proven. StUl the clamour for passes continued,
as the traders were careless of their country's
danger so long as their own fortunes were being
made. The general asked Lord Germaine to give
him the names of the aggrieved persons that he
might enquire into their complaints, adding, "It is
most painful to me that Representations should
reach Your Lordship without a possibUity of Ex
plaining them fuUy to you, ignorant whence they
originate." To a London merchant he wrote that though
individuals might suffer in his schemes for defence,
the end would be for the general advantage. It was
certainly to the advantage of the king, his master,
that he should discover the rascality of a certain
Niagara firm and in one single item save £5,000 for
the Crown. He thought it good policy to repay
Indian services by granting them the rebel lands
they should win, "provided they make such con
quests without any expense to His Majesty and
that it does not interfere with any rights or
claim of the Five Nations or any other nation of
Indians." The year before Haldimand came to Canada as
governor, it had been decided that the lawless
district northwest of the Ohio, nominaUy a part of
166

EXPEDITION TO THE WABASH
Quebec province, should be under the jurisdiction
of the lieutenant-governor of Detroit, who had
proceeded to occupy the chief post, Vincennes
on the Wabash. On his recall a year later, no
garrison being left, the French inhabitants were
easily won over to congress, chiefly through the
instrumentality of one Pere Gibault, who absolved
them from their aUegiance to King George. On
August 27th, 1778, Haldimand wrote to Henry
Hamilton, then lieutenant-governor at Detroit: —
" I must therefore desire that you wiU immediately
and by the safest and most expeditious conveyance,
acquaint me with your idea of the practicabfiity of
recovering possession of the IUinois and of the
means .... you should advise to be employed for
that purpose with a probability of success."
But HamUton did not wait to consult ways and
means with his superior officer. He was one of
Lord Germaine's correspondents and felt himself at
liberty to act upon his own responsibility. In Sep
tember he announced to Haldimand that he had
planned an expedition to the banks of the Wabash
where he said : — "The Spanish are feeble and hated
by the French ; the French are fickle and have no
man of capacity to advise or lead them ; the rebels
are enterprising and brave, but want resources and
the Indians can have their resources but from the
English, if we act without loss of time in the fav
ourable conjuncture." The suddenness of the move
alarmed the governor-general, to whom had been
167

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
given no opportunity to send orders, nor to plan for
reinforcements. What might happen at Detroit
whence HamUton had withdrawn aU the people who
could manage the Indians, what might happen to
Hamilton himself so far from support were anxious
questions to the commander-in-chief. Nor were his
fears unfounded, for the next letter he received from
his subordinate was dated August 26th, 1779, Wil-
liamsburgh gaol, where he had been for seventy-
five days and was to be for many more.
How he had set out from Detroit in October of
the previous year with his band of French Cana
dians, British regulars and Indians vying with one
another in the courage and patience with which
they surmounted the difficulties of the long ton-
some journey by way of Lake Erie and the Maumee
River, portaging thence to the head waters of a
tributary of the Wabash; how he had taken peace
able possession of Vincennes, causing its 400 in
habitants to renew their oath of allegiance ; how he
had spent the winter at the post, and had at last
been treacherously betrayed into the hands of the
rebel leader, George Rogers Clark, who had treated
him and his few remaining faithful foUowers with a
barbarity conspicuous even in barbarous times — all
this was most unpleasant reading for the governor
in far Quebec. He classed the expedition as "a
second tour de Bourgoyne," and remarked that had
the 2nd Company of the 14th Regiment — which he
had placed in the district while he was in command
168

RETALIATION
at New York — been left there, the unfortunate
episode would never have occurred.
He sent an urgent letter to General Washington
calling for Hamilton's release from his irons and
his loathsome dungeon, lest he himself should be
obliged to resort to similar extremities with the
American officers then in his power; but it took
time to effect an exchange, and the adventurous
Heutenant-governor remained in his pitiable plight
for more than a year. Brant retaliated upon a
portion of Clark's army under Colonel Lockerby in
October, 1781, when sixty-four out of one hun
dred were taken prisoners, the colonel and five
officers kiUed. In the spring of the same year the
settlement at Bowman's Creek was destroyed, and
likewise the rebel fort in Cherry VaUey, a district
by no means so Arcadian as its name would suggest.
What did he think of it aU, this stern, elderly
gentleman, directing affairs from his Chateau of
St. Louis, watching the growth of his own vine
and fig-tree and decreeing that those of others
should be uprooted? He was not responsible for the
system of border warfare, any more than he was
responsible for the war itself. He had found the
evU principle of retaliation by force supreme in the
world when he came into it, and the special Ameri
can variety fully established when he stepped upon
the continent. He was aware that the only way to
preserve the great western country and its remuner
ative fur trade for the king, his master, was to
169

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
drive back the advanced settlers. Since it was the
Indian lands they were taking, he used the Indians
as a scourge, but that he often wearied of the
weapon is apparent from one of his letters to Lord
Germaine in which he says that an exaggerated
importance has been given to smaU and harassing
excursions which merely serve to exasperate the
rebels. As allies he came to despise "the copper-
coloured gentry": — "In all excursions undertaken
by the troops in this war, there has not been a single
instance where the Indians have fulfilled their en
gagements, but influenced by caprice, a dream, or a
desire of protracting the war to obtain presents,
have dispersed and deserted the troops."
After the Cherry VaUey expedition, when Brant's
foUowing was praised for its moderation, it is re
ported that His ExceUency refused to receive
Major Butler, but he wrote him concerning the
conduct of his Indians that "such indiscriminate
vengeance taken even upon the Treacherous and
cruel enemy they are engaged against is useless and
disreputable to themselves, as it is contrary to the
disposition and maxims of their King whose cause
they are fighting." The raids might be necessary in
order to keep in good humour savage allies to whom
neutrality was impossible, but from the very be
ginning of his rule Haldimand encouraged them
to make permanent settlements about the forts,
bought hoes and seed corn to coax them into tilling
the ground, and had grist and sawmiUs erected at
170

A MORAVIAN MASSACRE
Niagara. At one time there were 4,000 Indians
clustered about that post, but they were gradually
drawn off to form viUages at Buffalo Creek, and
Kadargaras, forty miles above Fort Erie, where
refugees from Virginia betook themselves.
At the cessation of hostilities in 1783, Haldimand
observed that the Indians would make the United
States feel the difference between a war carried on
under the restraint of English troops and one con
ducted in their own way. Already they objected
bitterly to the truce: — "Upon our agreeing to obey
the orders of the General, the perfidious rebels have
taken advantage of our inactivity and have come
like thieves in the night, when the Shawanese
warriors were out at their Hunting Grounds, sur
rounded one of their towns, and murdered all their
women and chUdren. . . . We are persuaded there
is no reliance to be had in the faith or promises of
the rebels, whose unparaUeled cruelties lately de
stroyed the poor Moravian Indians, their near
neighbours, who never went to war agamst them or
any other people ; yet under the cloak of friendship
they murdered them in cold blood, and reduced
their bones to ashes that the murderers might not
be discovered."1 The wholesale massacre of these
Christian converts was horribly revenged upon the
chief agent therein, Colonel Crawford, and his rebel
party, an "unhappy event" which no one regretted
1 Extract of speech to MacLean at Niagara by warriors of the Six
Nations, December 11th, 1782. 171

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
more than General Haldimand. When we consider
the treacherous attack on the Shawanese at Stand
ing Stone ViUage; the horrible cruelties practised
upon some of Butler's Rangers made prisoners; the
murder by the Virginians of friendly Delawares
near Fort Pitt; the good cause red men had for
complaint that despite their kindness to ailing or
helpless prisoners, captured Indians were uniformly
treated by the rebels with the utmost barbarity —
there is no reason for either Great Britain or the
United States to reprobate one another about the
conduct of border warfare

172

CHAPTER X
THE GOVERNOR
WHEN Frederick Haldimand returned to Can
ada in 1778 as governor-general, the Quebec
Act had been four years on trial, and was proving
no more satisfactory to the ever-increasing number
of English-speaking residents than the previous ten
years' attempt at the introduction of British civil
law had been pleasing to the French. The latter
disliked trial by jury because to their understanding
it meant that the jurymen decided the law as weU
as the value of evidence in all cases. They were
"averse to taxation, from their narrow way of
thinking and attachment to money"; to the Eng
lish regulations respecting tithes and rents; and to
the rules of primogeniture which deprived them of
their time-honoured custom of dividing and sub
dividing their farms among their chUdren.
"No people in the world," said Haldimand, "are
more bigoted in their laws and usages." He ap
proved of the establishment of the Roman Catholic
religion, of the restoration of the French laws and
the maintenance of the French language, as meas
ures expedient for the state of affairs at the time,
believing that "the Quebec Act alone has prevented
and can in any degree prevent the emissaries of
173

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
France and the rebels from drawing over the Cana
dian clergy and noblesse." There were some of the
French who objected to the act on the very ground
that it enforced duties to the church and to seigniors
which had been optional since the conquest, but
the majority were fairly weU satisfied, and it was
decreed that there should be a Canadian judge on
the bench in each district. As Haldimand had fore
told, delegates from the minority were sent to
England to pray for the repeal of the Quebec Act,
"aU under the pretence of promoting Public Utility,
though too often in the mean and interested views
of Private advantage." He told the "old subjects"
that they need not try to force their wiU upon the
"new subjects." His own instructions were, in
effect, "if a majority throughout the Province say
House, grant their desire; if they say no House,
the British parfiament wUl not force that form of
Government upon them." Those who strove for the
establishment of a House of Assembly claimed it
on the ground "that His Majesty's protestant sub
jects in the Province are sufficiently numerous to
summon an assembly," knowing fuU weU that the
necessary oaths would exclude the Roman Catholics
as effectually as they were at that time excluded from
the British House of Commons. Those who op
posed it advised that "before any change is made,
be sure it is agreeable to the land-holders. . . . Not
a Canadian land-owner in fifty ever once thought
on the subject, and were it to be proposed to him
174

OPPOSITION TO THE QUEBEC ACT
he would readily declare his incapacity to judge of
the matter. Although the Canadian peasants are far
from being a stupid race, they are at present ignor
ant from want of instruction. . . . Let the Curate of
each parish read to the people a paper, clear and
plain, as to the nature of representative Govern
ment, and then find out if they want it. There
should be a free school in every parish with English
masters, if the Canadians are to be English, though
they can be Roman Catholics if necessary. The
Quebec Act gives power to CouncU to make laws,
and if the people are not free and happy the Council
is to blame, not the Act."1
Haldimand found himself caUed upon to govern
with the aid of a legislative body, appointed by
the king, and limited to twenty-three members,
but even among these he found opponents of the
Quebec Act. One caUed AUsopp headed the opposi
tion, and exerted himself to make matters as un
comfortable for the present governor as he had done
for his two predecessors. It was not untU 1783
that Haldimand had him suspended for sedition.
The colonial secretary under the French regime
had found it profitable to keep governor and inten-
dant at sword's points, so that the one might act as
a check on the other, but the British minister
encouraged private individuals to recount their
grievances directly to himself. Thus Haldimand was
surrounded with spies who knew that their calum-
* Finlay, to Nepean, October 22nd, 1784.
175

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
nies would always obtain a hearing if presented in
a manner flattering to the home government. No
mean judge of men, the governor soon lost con
fidence in the attorney -general, and had such
grave doubts of the loyalty of some of his coun
cillors that he wrote to Germaine that he might be
obliged to act more than he could wish upon his
own responsibility.
In his judgment it seemed unwise to lay before
the councU certain orders he had received from
England relating to alterations in the laws of pro
perty, calculated to favour the old subjects at the
expense of the new, for he said: — "A happier
moment than the present is to be wished for
undertaking this business." He tried to form a
privy council with members he could trust, but the
opposition wrote to the minister that His Ex
ceUency was withholding his instructions, and Ger
maine forthwith notified the governor that his
civU proceedings could not merit the approval
that had been given to his military measures. The
merchants, it was true, had no complaints against
him on the ground of partiality, but the councU
had a right to object if anything that the king
wished them to know was not placed before the
whole body. The purity of his motives and the
uprightness of his intentions were unquestioned,
but such disobedience, if persisted in, could not be
passed over.
Being thus debarred from forming a smaU execu-
176

SCARCITY OF FOOD
tive, the governor laboured on with the whole wrang
ling set, though it seemed ridiculous to bring before
them measures for regulating the price of wheat
when half of the council were dealers in that com
modity. In his address to them in January, 1780,
he said: — "I should hardly have caUed you together
had not the high price of the first necessary of Life,
circumstanced as we are, commanded my attention,
and required my asking your advice and assistance
in providing against accidents, while the American
Troubles continue, and preventing as much as in us
lies His Majesty's good subjects in this province
suffering from either Scarcity or Want." He did not
think it expedient to put up public granaries until
a time of greater tranquillity, but suggested non-
exportation, since the merchants declared that fixing
the price would be iUegal and as bad as taxation.
There was a demand for wheat in New York, and
speculators in Canada had no love for the governor
who prohibited "for a limited time the exportation
of wheat, peas, oats, biscuit flour, or meat of any
kind, also of horned cattle." Nor did the habitants
relish the ordinance: — "That aU grain, cattle, etc.,
must be ready at short notice to leave farms to be
put under military protection in case of an attack
by rebels." Few of those forced to use substitutes
for flour (because the severe weather prevented the
grinding of wheat) realized that their governor was
anxiously seeking a means for the immediate reduc
tion in the cost of provisions. He had finaUy to buy
177

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
flour at a high price to feed the poor, and his
own name heads one subscription list with twenty
pounds for their relief. He directed the captains of
militia to discover, if possible, who was holding the
wheat, of which there was known to be plenty in
the country. The matter was a serious one for the
commander-in-chief of troops that had to be fed,
instead of feeding themselves out of their pay, as in
England, and there seemed to be a wide-spread
inclination to make money out of the government.
On July 26th, 1781, Lord Germaine complimented
Haldimand on his having "found means to subsist
the troops without subjecting the public to the exac
tions of interested individuals."
CounciUors AUsopp, Cuthbert, L'Eve"que and
Grant, all wheat-dealers, gathered about themselves
a loud if not large party to cry out against the
tyranny of the new ruler, even in his endeavour to
lessen legal and official fees, which he declared to
be generally "far too high, and more than the
people of the province can bear." A foe to monopo
lies of every description, whether in the fish trade
or in the hiring of post horses and carriages, he
soon had the liquor-dealers against him, for there
was a "ring" in rum as weU as in wheat, and he
broke it by decreeing that "the pernicious article"
was to be brought from England, since the revenue
suffered by its non-importation.
One of the governor's few friends, Dr. Adam
Mabane, was head of the military hospital, but it
178

HIS RESOLUTIONS
was abolished, much to Haldimand's chagrin, not
only on his friend's account, but because his soldiers
would justly dislike the promiscuity of the other
institutions. Asylums for the insane were, of course,
unknown, and we read of a baker's wife, who had
been a grass widow for two years, asking to have
refunded the board money she had paid out for a
lunatic in the general hospital, of whom she prayed
the government would in future take charge.
Some interested persons strove to make it appear
that according to the Quebec Act the estates of
the LTrsuline nuns at Three Rivers had become
vested in the king, but the governor interfered in
their behalf, and he befriended the same order in
Quebec by gaining for them and for their sister
communities exemption from the payment of quint
and other dues on account of their poverty and
care of the sick. The lady superintendent of the
general hospital had to thank His ExceUency for
eight casks of flour sent to her during a hard
winter in Quebec, and there is abundant other
evidence that he was not unmindful of any of the
resolutions he had jotted down in his journal upon
assuming his charge: "To give protection and to
have much regard for the orders and religious
houses ; to be always polite and obliging but also to
be always watchful ; not to be adopted by either
party ; to ask time to consider things of any im
portance, but also to make it an inviolable rule
to do whatever has been promised ; not to become
179

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
heated in conversation, rather to leave the room
under any pretext, as was the case with a bishop,
who prayed in order to give time for his blood
to cool ; to return immediately, to listen with
patience and take time for defiberation ; to favour
commerce and distinguish the merchants who de
serve it; to have respect for the officers which is
due them, to associate with them at table and
in parties with the Canadians, and to require
from them good conduct and the regulation of then-
expenses ; to have good manners and show confi
dence in the chief justice and the procureur general
and to consult them as occasion arises ; to treat
in the same way the Catholic clergy and make
known to them the danger that their religion
and their rights will be in if the rebels, and especi-
aUy the Bostonnais, gain the upper hand, for it
is these last who are the most interested in the
reduction of Canada in order to people it with their
own kind, assure their independence, and make
themselves masters of commerce ; their intolerance
should be made known, the cures should speak of it."
He might have added that these "perjured sub
jects " had placed "the act of the British parfiament
for shutting up the port of Boston " beside the
heinous offence of passing " a bill for establishing
popery and arbitrary power in Quebec."
Even the more intelligent classes in Canada dis
played what Haldimand deemed a shocking want
of sagacity in being so blind to their own interests
180

ECCLESIASTICAL DIFFICULTIES
as not to see that if " enslaved " by the Americans
they would be entirely shut out from commercial
concerns. By a vigilant watch over the clergy
he kept them within the limits of duty, " at least
within those of decency," but had ever to combat
their "attachment to France, concealed under their
zeal for the Preservation of their Religion." The
bishop was under the influence of the Jesuits, whom
he feared as rebel sympathisers, but there were now
so few of them in Canada, and these were such old
men, that the governor did not think it worth whUe
to interfere with them. But he set down his foot
upon the introduction of any more priests from
France, and sent back two that came out from the
seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris to join their order
in Montreal, judging the relations between the two
institutions to be already over close for the safety of
the province. The four priests from Savoy whom he
was bringing out to fiU Canadian vacancies were cap
tured by the enemy en route, and landed in Europe,
but the governor asked for their return, or for
others of the same nationality, since it was necessary
they should be able to speak French.
The people did not care what order of priests
celebrated mass, so that they were allowed to enjoy
the ceremonies of their religion, but the heads
of the church were displeased, though the general
gave frequent instances of his resolve to support
their authority. When the inhabitants of Riviere
OueUe complained against their cure', he referred
181

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
them to the bishop, and sharply censured the
captain of militia for obeying the people in warning
their priest to leave. To keep the house of Bourbon,
Britain's foe, from gaining an incalculable influence
in Canada through her clergy was his leading idea,
and for a vacancy in the bishopric he recommended
M. de St. Hubert, sometime missionary to the
Illinois. Another cause of complaint against Haldimand's
civU rule were the corvees, as if he had invented
them. Apparently this was one of their ancient laws
and usages which French Canadians did not care to
perpetuate, though in the old days they had been
paid nothing for their labour, but ever since the
conquest had been given wages at current rates.
Whether the service required was sawing and chop
ping wood for the garrisons, buUding huts for
Loyalist refugees, improvement of roads, manning
vessels to protect the fisheries, or transporting pro
visions to the upper posts, Haldimand exercised the
greatest care to see that it did not bear too
heavily upon any one section of the community.
" Thorough " was the qualifying adjective that
might be applied to every department of his rule,
whether frontier raids or corvies, secret service, or
public works. He did not create systems, but he
employed those already in existence with a consci
entious energy so unprecedented as to bring down
upon himself the accusation of tryanny that stiU
clings to his name.
182

QUEBEC CITADEL
There was much hauling of timber and many
labourers required for the building of barracks and
storehouses at Sorel, where the government, in
1780, accepted Haldimand's advice and bought the
whole seigniory with a view to having a stronghold
against the expected rebel advance by way of the
River St. Francis. The fortifications of Quebec
itself scarcely deserved the name, being of wood,
now in a rotting condition, and it was their com
manding height alone which preserved them from
attack, since the guns were only eighty-one cannon
and a few mortars brought up from old frigates.
The governor decided to take steps towards the
building of a citadel of permanent character in
stone, " in such a situation as, assisted by the
Engineers, I shaU be able to judge is most ad
vantageous." The wrong tools were sent out in the
first place, and that he should ask for a corps of
artificers merely surprised the home government,
but he did what he could without them, employing
Loyalists on the works, and was well satisfied with
his engineers, headed by Captain Twiss. Secrecy
seemed to be necessary in this as in every branch of
the service. The governor issued instructions that
the timber required for the works should be secured
as quietly as possible, " to prevent the inferences of
curious people and the enhancement of the price."
Without efficient miners and quarriers it would
be the work of years to carry out the proposed
plans upon the rock of Quebec, but meantime
183

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
every possible advantage was taken of the ground,
and detached redoubts were placed here and there
on Cape Diamond. It was not safe to send the
citadel designs to England during the war, lest they
should faU into improper hands, and when Captain
Twiss took them over himself in 1784, he reported
that Lord Townshend showed no interest therein.
Haldimand's course of action always met with the
approval of the king and his ministers when he had
conquered his difficulties without their aid or en
couragement. Knowing what it meant in his own
case to receive no sympathy from masters he was
faithfuUy serving, he never grudged it to those
working under him for the good of the public.
The letters of Captain Twiss clearly show that
he counted upon the governor's active interest in
aU he had to teU him, even about the marveUous air
baUoons he had seen in London, and the discovery
of the new planet "Georgium sidus." This was the
man to whom was entrusted the construction of four
small canals on the St. Lawrence, the first in America.
Colonel Haldimand witnessed the distressful loss
of life in the rapids whUe descending the Great
River with Amherst in 1760, and he had since been
forcibly impressed with the Immense cost and labour
of transporting provisions to Carleton Island. Ob
stacles, in this man's mind, did not caU for surrender
but for removal, whether they consisted of rebel
sympathisers or rocks in the river. His engineer
began operations by attacking the jutting points so
184

EARLY CANALS
hard to circumnavigate in that part of the St
Lawrence lying between its enlargements, Lakes
St. Francis and St. Louis. By the end of the season
of 1779, the canal at Coteau du Lac could be used,
though its waUs were made of timber and by
no means waterproof. Captain Twiss resolved to
rebuUd them in 'stone, and as the work of blasting
difficult rocks could be continued aU winter, he was
able to write to his commander in June, 1780, " I
wish Your ExceUency could see this post, as I am
persuaded it wiU be formed into locks as useful
to navigation as any in the world."
The governor did visit the works in person, and
buoyed up by his advice and support, the engineer
refused to be discouraged by the want of skiUed
workmen. In February, 1781, he reported that the
canal at C6teau du Lac was " very complete and in
good order, and so situated that it cannot possibly
receive the least damage from the ice, but many
difficulties still remain in the navigation about the
Cedars, where a little labour, properly conducted,
would be of great advantage to the public." The
first canal had three locks, with a depth of two and
a half feet on the mitre siUs, and was 900 feet long
by 7 wide.
The exertions of 1782 were designed to conquer
the long portage at the Cascades, and for this
purpose channels were cut at Faucille, Split Rock
and Trou du Moulin, six feet in width, one of them
400 feet long, the others 200 feet each, and these7
185

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
with a later enlargement of locks, did duty untU
superseded by the Beauharnois Canal in 1845. The
western traders being as great gainers as the govern
ment through this improvement in navigation,
gladly agreed, at a public meeting caUed for the
purpose, to contribute to the cost of construction
and maintenance of the canals by the payment
of tolls. An average of 260 batteaux a year, con
tributing twenty-five shUlings each trip, brought in
an annual revenue of £325; the government boats
could pass free.
The governor-general visited Montreal the sum
mer of his arrival in Canada, and it is on record that
he was present at a representation of The Sacrifice
of Abraham, in the CoUege of St. Raphael, 1778 ;
that he gave 100 guineas to the establishment and
50 to the city hospital. The coUege so honoured
was at that time located in the Chateau VaudreuU,
which used to stand on the corner of St. Paul street
and Jacques Carrier square, but was burned at the
beginning of the nineteenth century. On the same
occasion His ExceUency decided to purchase for a
government house the Chateau de Ramezay in Notre
Dame street, belonging to WiUiam Grant, which
he thought might be made strong enough to serve
as a citadel in case of insurrection. He was in
Montreal again for three months, March 15th to
June 15th, 1782, and during that time paid one
visit at least to Captain Twiss to see how he was
getting on with his canals.
186

PRISONS
In 1784, "the citizens and burgesses of Notre
Dame de Bon Secours " petitioned him to aUow
the widening of their street by the removal of
a postern which prevented the passing of vehicles.
Since the " imbecUe " walls of Montreal had proved
no defence against invaders, there was no objection
made to the removal of the gate in question. The
previous year His ExceUency had authorized a
lottery to raise funds for the buUding of a prison,
there being no suitable place of detention for
the numbers of rebels brought to Montreal by
the frontier raiders, together with those captured
on privateers. Many of the Americans being left at
large broke their parole and made their escape.
It was their comrades who had to suffer for their
breach of faith, since the governor, however wiUing,
could grant no more privUeges.
Quebec also was short of prison accommodation,
as the old French gaol was too insecure to detain
even the wives of soldiers and saUors taken up for
selling liquor without a license. The house of the
RecoUets was examined for its fitness as a debtors'
prison, but was pronounced unsatisfactory. There
were but 1,500 houses in the whole place at this
time, Carleton during the siege of 1775-6 having
puUed down 500 that he could not defend.
As the war wore on towards its termination,
another attempt was made in Montreal to get
Parisian priests into the seminary, by a M. Brassier,
who tried also to make the people believe that the
187

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
Quebec Act would be repealed at the peace, that
the council would no longer have power to make
laws and therefore the Americans would kiU Can
adian commerce.
Even while peace negotiations were hovering in
the air, Lord Shelburne wrote secretly to the
governor — April 22nd, 1782 — that a large fleet was
preparing at Brest, and should it escape the watch
ful British squadron, Quebeckers might expect to
hear of its arrival in the gulf, adding that although
there was no doubt of his zeal and ability success
fully to defend the capital, "so great is the deter
mination to retain Quebec, Carleton himself wiU
be sent there, if necessary."
Here was a compliment to a man who had
worked as hard as Haldimand to maintain the
charge entrusted to him ! He wrote at once to
Carleton, who had succeeded Clinton in command
at New York, stating that he was ready to leave
whenever he came, and began to prepare for de
parture ; but Sir Guy replied that he had not left
Canada with the intention of ever returning. His
decision did not heal the wounded feelings of the
governor, who wrote to Townshend in November :
— "I have been 43 years an officer, a Stranger
to Politics and to a Language which does not
proceed from the Heart. My situation is a most
painful one, considered as commanding here only
until a junior officer shaU find it necessary or con
venient to supercede me." He fancied his foreign
188

DREAD OF FRENCH INFLUENCE
birth to be the cause. "I never imagined that the
Consideration which with Propriety influenced the
Conduct of the King's Ministers in the year 1775,
could after four years' service be revived to my
mortification, in the year 1782, when the state
of Public affairs is so materially altered." To Sir
Guy Carleton he had written on July 29th : —
"I shall neglect nothing which can contribute to
the success of this unfortunate war of which I con
fess to you I could have wished to see the termina
tion, but the circumstances in which I find myself,
added to an indisposition which requires resources
that this country does not afford, leaves me less
regret in quitting." Urged to remain at his post, he
consented to wait through the winter, but asked to
be aUowed then to retire to Europe.
The fleet in question had been intended for
Canada, but Lord Rodney met and vanquished
both French ships and Spanish. Less successful
were the land operations, and galling was it to the
governor to hear of Canadians, led by Caughna-
waga Indians, going off to see the French fleet and
army at the Chesapeake. He sent out parties to try
to intercept them on their return and thus prevent
exaggerated accounts of French superiority, French
victories, and French plans reaching eagerly credu
lous ears. England's defeats evidently gratified her
new subjects and though they came duly "to
render Fealty and homage to His Majesty, accord
ing to the Antient Laws, Customs and Usages of
189

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
this Province, as they stood and were observed
before the year 1760," the governor reported: —
"It is with much Concern I acquaint Your Lord
ship that I have myself perceived Secret Pleasure
from the hope Strongly marked in the countenances
of many who make their Bows to me."
StiU he laboured on for the good of an ungrateful
people. He forwarded Canadian timber to the navy
yard, was proud to receive the king's thanks for
the Nova Scotia masts for his ships and offered to
supply the same at Gibraltar. He sent Surgeon
Blake, "to investigate, report and use remedial
measures in respect to the St. Paul's Bay disease,"
a contagious trouble of an ulcerous character that
affected the country districts during the whole of
his regime. He caused a census of the province
to be taken, wherein the militia officers were to be
caUed upon to assist the parish priests, and they
counted 113,012 in the more thickly settled dis
tricts, Montreal, Three Rivers and Quebec, so that
the total number of people was estimated at about
120,000. To Haldimand belongs also the credit of
having founded the first public library in Canada,
which had an existence of ninety years, and in 1869
was merged into that of the Literary and Historical
' Society of Quebec. He may have wished to provide
reading other than the British newspapers which so
often contained political discussions and articles in
sympathy with the rebels. Even the Quebec Ga
zette, the first paper in Canada, founded in 1764
190

THE FIRST LIBRARY
by Messrs. Brown & Gilmour, from Philadelphia,
had to submit to censorship, and on one occasion
some accounts of treasonable associations in Ireland
which might have proved too suggestive to Cana
dian malcontents were cut out. It was written of
this local sheet: — "When the printer gets a cup
too much, which is not seldom, he inclines to the
popular cause."
To General Bude", on March 1st, 1779, the
governor wrote that Quebec's few resources and
its people's ignorance had suggested to him the
scheme of opening a public library and that the
bishop and the head of the seminary had both pro
mised to assist. Many priests, most of the English
and a few of the Canadians had signed the subscrip
tion-list, agreeing to pay five pounds at entrance and
two pounds annuaUy. In order not to aUow their zeal
to cool, he asked the directors to prepare a list of
desirable books, up to the value of £500. In Sep
tember he wrote to his friend, Richard Cumberland,
the playwright, knowing his taste for letters, and
asked him to select works for the proposed library,
which he hoped would serve as a bond between old
subjects and new; and assured Mr. Cumberland
that any favour shown to this enterprise would be
considered as personal to himself. In 1780 the
books began to arrive, welcomed heartily in some
quarters no doubt, though a contemporary says,
"There are two ladies in the province, I am told,
who read, but both of them are above fifty and
191

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
they are regarded as prodigies of erudition." Never
theless, the Canadian women were better educated
than their brothers, many, even of the seigniors,
being unable to write their own names. The pro
clamations issued by the governor at different
times, cast a curious side light upon the period : —
"It is ordered that the Shilling loaf of Brown
Bread do weigh 5 pounds, 8 ounces, and the Shill
ing loaf of White Bread do weigh 3 pounds three
quarters and that Bakers do mark their Bread with
the Initials of their names."
House-holders are obliged to make a foot-path in
front of their dweUings, four feet wide, level with
their neighbours, and no horse-back riding is allowed
thereupon. The street in front of each house is also
to be kept clean by the tenant in summer and he
must level it free from cahots in the winter-time.
" AU persons bringing provisions, provender, fire
wood or anything in a sleigh for the supply of
Quebec, shaU carry a hoe and shovel that he may
use it in levelling cahots at any distance within
three leagues of the town, under a penalty of five
shillings. "It is ordered that aU posts placed in any of the
streets of Quebec be immediately removed on pain
of 20/.
"No horses or hogs are to be suffered to stray in
the streets. If one of the latter be found the BeU-
man is to proclaim the fact at once and the finder
wUl return it to the owner upon payment of ten
192

THE POSTAL SERVICE
shillings and aU charges, but if the hog be not
claimed within two days the finder is at liberty
to keep it.
"No person shaU clean fish upon the public streets,
especially large sturgeon, nor throw dust, ashes,
water, soot or filth of any kind upon the thorough
fare. In lower town, rubbish is to be placed upon
the beach at low tide, and the upper town refuse is
to be disposed of in the same way upon the beach
outside Palace Gate, near the intendant's palace.
"No one shaU beg without a license, nor shoot
partridge between March 15th and July 15th."
The inefficiency of the postal service is indicated
in the foUowing public notice from the deputy post
master: — "The Mart of Letters sent from hence
last faU by the ship London, are now returned into
this Office; those Gentlemen who are desirous of
having their letters again are requested to give in
the Subscriptions, and impressions of the Seals, in
order that the right Owners may receive them."
June 4th, 1782.
A man-carrier of Montreal "begs leave to ac
quaint the Pubfick that he is obliged to pay for aU
Letters delivered to him the Day after he receives
them ; he therefore is under the necessity of request
ing that aU persons wiU in future pay for their
letters on delivery, otherwise he must return them
to the office, and as change is difficult to be pro
cured, their own Pons or notes wiU be taken in
payment." 193

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
The governor of the province was obliged to
depend chiefly upon his scouts for news of the
outside world. He suggested that they always
appear dirty, as if they had been long in the woods,
and advised them to make use of a hoUow tree for
the reception of rebel newspapers. One of Major
Carleton's expedients to get possession of rebel
letters, supposed to be passing to and from the
house of a certain madame in the country, was to
send a smart young lad to court her servant girl.
AU intercepted papers were delivered to the gover
nor sealed, along with their bearer under a strong
guard, as he wished no news to be made public
tUl it was authenticated.
Haldimand hated the necessary evU of constant
espionage, and the man who said he encouraged
informers was arrested and made to eat his words.
To a correspondent the governor wrote one winter
that he was buried under a mass of papers which he
hoped to reduce to order before spring. Method and
exactness characterized aU the workings of his clear
brain, and with the help of his secretaries he plodded
patiently through the mass of documents, dictating
the necessary replies to the British ministry, to
commanders at distant posts, to secret intelligence
agents everywhere.
As it was the king's express desire, he consented
to remain in Canada tiU the peace negotiations were
concluded, though weU aware that he would have
to renew his wrestling with agitators bent on seizing
194

AN ELECTIVE ASSEMBLY
the opportunity for a change in the form of govern
ment. It was his own opinion that alterations in the
Quebec Act might now be made with prudence,
but though easy to repeal, it would be hard to
replace. Knowing the men who were clamouring
for a legislative assembly, he could not credit them
with disinterested motives, nor did he believe that
the establishment of such a body would justify the
annual expenditure of the £12,000 necessary for
its subsistence. If an elective body had been at
the head of affairs in 1775, he was convinced that
Canada would now have been a fourteenth state.

195

CHAPTER XI
THE VERMONT AFFAIR
HALDIMAND'S first encounter with the trou
ble among the settlers in that part of the
country lying between the Connecticut river and
Lake Champlain was during his term as comman
der-in-chief at New York, when he refused the re
quest of Governor Tryon to send troops to disperse
certain rioters in that region, who, in his judgment,
would be more fitly dealt with by the civil authori
ties. The difficulties had arisen years before that,
even as far back as 1749, when the governor of
New Hampshire began to give grants of land in
the territory claimed also by New York. A decision
in favour of the latter colony was made by the
king's ministers, when the matter was referred to
them in 1764, but the people of the New Hamp
shire Grants stoutly declined to be governed by
New York or to yield their farms to the claimants
whom she was sending in. Two parties displaying
legal titles to the same property are liable to come
to blows, and when local riots had resulted a
majority of the dweUers in the debatable land
resolved to have a government of their own. Why
should not a new state called Vermont be received
into the confederation ? Ethan AUen and his Green
197

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
Mountain Boys defied the sheriff of Albany to
settle real estate squabbles, and they showed their
mettle likewise by the capture of the forts on Lake
Champlain at the beginning of the revolutionary
war. When it was weU under way, the embryo
state of Vermont made, on January 15th, 1777, an
individual declaration of independence: — "Whereas
the Honourable the Continental Congress did on
the 4th of July, last, declare the United States in
America to be free and independent of the Crown of
Great Britain; which declaration we most cordiaUy
acquiesce in. And whereas by the said declaration
the arbitrary acts of the Crown are null and void in
America. Consequently the jurisdiction by said
Crown granted to the New York government over
the people of the New Hampshire Grants, is totaUy
dissolved." New Hampshire, Connecticut and Massachusetts
were at first not unwiUing to recognize Vermont as
a state, but the southern members of the confeder
acy were averse to disturbing the balance of power
by the admission of another northern constituency
and deemed it dangerous also to establish a precedent
whereby their own back settlements might any day
form themselves into states. New York's steady
opposition caused her to be regarded by the aspirant
as "a more detested enemy than Great Britain,"
but the continental congress supported her, decree
ing: — "That the government attempted to be
established by the people of Vermont could derive
198

OPENING NEGOTIATIONS
no countenance or justification from any act or
resolution of Congress."
The United States now present so strong a
front to the world that one is apt to forget the
weak and disjointed units of which they were com
posed. So fierce had been the rivalry among the
colonies ever since their foundation, that it was a
matter of surprise that they could unite for any
purpose and the stability of their union was ques
tionable throughout the revolutionary war.
"The province of Georgia is ours," wrote Sir
Henry Clinton to Haldimand, in 1779, and the
foUowing year it was currently reported that South
Carolina had returned to her aUegiance. That
Vermont should do so was considered extremely
probable — in England — and on March 3rd, 1779,
Lord George Germaine directed Clinton, the Brit
ish commander at New York to open negotiations
with her. To Haldimand also he wrote: — -"The
drawing over the Inhabitants of the country they
caU Vermont to the British Crown appears a matter
of such vast importance for the safety of Canada,
and as affording a means of annoying the northern
revolted Provinces, that I think it right to repeat
to you the King's wishes that you may be able to
effect it, though it should be attended with consider
able Expence." Haldimand replied that he would do
his best to reclaim the people of Vermont, though
he considered them "a profligate banditti."
How Sir Henry progressed he told in a letter to
199

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
the Canadian governor, dated September 9th, 1779:
"Another object stUl remains of the greatest im
portance, I mean my expectations respecting E. A.
whom I have already mentioned to you by several
messengers — I saw the moment for tempting him
and I befieve my offers have been accepted."
The message from Ethan AUen was a verbal one,
that gentleman being ever chary of committing
himself to writing : — "Upon my promise to use my
interest with Government that his District should
be a Separate Province, he would join us with at
least 4,000 men."
Haldimand was not given to hasty judgments,
nor was he of so sanguine a temperament as his
coUeague to whom he wrote in cipher the next
summer: — "I have taken much Pains, by Prisoners
and intelligent Loyalists to discover if anything
might be effected with AUen and the people of
Vermont — I am assured by aU, that no dependence
can be had in Him — his character is weU-known
and his Followers or dependents are a collection of
the most abandoned wretches that ever lived, to be
bound by no Laws or Ties. AUen formed Connec
tions in this Province when he first invaded it, and
I make no doubt has Emissaries here now — if you
can bring Him over and that he proves faithful,
it wiU be a great Event, but you have every
thing to suspect from his character — in aU events
if he should be able to coUect about 4,000 Men,
I do not think it would be advisable to trust
200

ETHAN ALLEN
Him with Them in this Province in its present
weak and disaffected Situation (it being impossible
for me to coUect in any one Situation half that
number to oppose Him) for under a Pretence of
joining the King's Troops he may watch his oppor
tunity and with the assistance of the Canadians, or
upon the appearance of a French flag, seize upon
the Province."
The redoubtable Ethan found another tempter
in the person of Beverly Robinson, colonel in the
Royal Regiment of New York and himself an
American, anxious for the relief of his distressed
country, in which he desired to know whether Mr.
AUen was willing to join in the way that had been
reported to him. Most of the Vermont people, he
understood, had refused to support "the wild and
chimerical schemes" of American independence and
should a reunion with Great Britain be approved, a
separate government would be formed, and any regi
ments raised would be commanded by officers of Mr.
AUen's choosing. This communication being made
known to Governor Chittenden, of the state unrec
ognized by congress, he was emboldened to write to
the President of congress on July 25th, 1780: — "If
the United States have departed from the virtuous
principles upon which they first commenced the
war with Great Britain and have assumed to them
selves the power of usurping the right of Vermont,
it is time, high time, for her seriously to consider
what she is fighting for, and to what purpose she
201

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
has been more than five years past Spilling the
Blood of her Bravest Sons. This Government has
dealt with severity towards the Torys, confiscated
some of the Estates, imprisoned some, banished
some, hanged some, etc., and kept the remainder in
as good subjection as any state belonging to the
Union. And they have likewise granted to worthy
Whigs in the neighbouring states some part of
their unappropriated lands, the inconsiderable avaUs
of which have been faithfully appropriated for the
defence of the Northern Frontiers."
Congress took no notice of this epistle and in the
autumn Chittenden wrote to Haldimand proposing
an exchange of prisoners. To meet the British com
missioners — Captain Justus Sherwood and Dr.
George Smyth, both American Loyalists — Chit
tenden appointed Colonel Ira AUen and Major
Joseph Fay, who were empowered "to transact
such other business as may then be judged proper."
The Canadian governor agreed "that this nego
tiation should cease and any step that leads to it be
forgotten, provided the Congress shaU grant the
State of Vermont a Seat in their Assembly and
acknowledge its independency." He gave orders
that during the negotiations no scouting parties
should be despatched to the east of the Hudson
river nor to any part of the country claimed by
Vermont. Ethan Allen stipulated at first that there
should also be a cessation of hostilities "against any
of the northern posts and frontiers of the State of
202

PROGRESS OF NEGOTIATIONS
New York," but a month later he withdrew the
proviso, saying that the cartel was to be with
Vermont only, as she was having too much trouble
with her usurping neighbour to ask any favours on
her behalf. In writing to congress, however, Mr.
AUen took credit to himself for the four weeks
armistice he had secured to a government which
had "but little claim to my protection."
Colonel Beverly Robinson, having received no
reply to his letter of the previous year, feared it had
gone astray and wrote again, whereupon Ethan AUen
in March, 1781, laid the two epistles before congress,
a proceeding for which he excused himself to the
British emissaries by saying it was known to the
country people that such letters had been received
and an appearance of openness would disarm suspi
cion concerning the real nature of the negotiations.
To congress he wrote: — "I do not hesitate to say I
am fuUy grounded in the opinion that Vermont has
an indubitable right to agree for terms of cessation of
hostilities with Great Britain, provided the United
States persist in rejecting her application for a
union with them ; for Vermont of aU people would
be the most miserable were she obliged to defend
the Independence of the United Colonizing States
and they at the same time at fuU liberty to over
turn and ruin the Independence of Vermont. I am
persuaded when Congress consider the circum
stances of this State, they wiU be more surprised
that I have transmitted them the enclosed letters,
203

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
than that I have kept them in custody so long ; for
I am as resolutely determined to defend the inde
pendence of Vermont, as Congress that of the
United States, and rather than fail, wiU retire with
the hardy Green Mountain Boys into the desolate
caverns of the mountains and wage war with human
nature at large."
No further information was vouchsafed to con
gress that year, though there was much going
on at the north of Lake Champlain which would
have been of intense interest to that body both
individuaUy and collectively. The signals AUen
arranged with the British to mark the approach of
his messengers were "three smoakes on East side
of Lake opposite shipping, and at the middle
smoake a smaU white flag hoisted on a staff." When
these tokens were observed the British commander
had orders to take the messenger on board at once
without asking his business.
Ira Allen, Ethan's brother, remained in confer
ence with Sherwood at Isle aux Noix from May
8th to 25th, 1781, but made no particularly good
impression, since the British emissary wrote to his
chief: — "He has such a cautious and suspicious
kind of reserve in aU his conduct that I must
confess it gives me reason to believe that his
journey is only to alarm Congress." And again: —
"Col. AUen's Dark and intricate manner of pro
ceeding in a negotiation to which one of His
Majesty's oldest and ablest generals has, in the
204

SUSPICION OF THE ALLENS
most Humane, Frank and generous manner, con
descended to open a door, obliges me to sometimes
view him with contempt and always with suspicion,
much strengthened from his coming alone, while I
weU know they have men much more capable from
age and Experience to transact a business of this
nature." So strong was the feeling of distrust con
cerning him that an agent was sent in advance of
Colonel Allen's return among his own people, to
gather what report he should give them of his
mission to Canada. Major Dundas, the British
officer whose province it was to attend to the
exchange of prisoners which actually took place,
formed his own opinion of the "shuffling business";
declared Ira AUen's errand to be a sham; and that
he was scheming for delay to see how congress and
the "claiming states" would act on the news getting
abroad that Vermont had sent a flag on her own
responsibility. Suspicion of the Aliens was not confined to the
British. General Schuyler of New York State had
spies at work watching their movements, and
Washington himself was reported to have said
that "the People of Vermont, after behaving well
in the war, was now Endeavouring to unite with
Britain, which, if they persisted in, he would turn
his back on the common Enemy and lead his whole
force against that State and destroy it Entirely.
But if Vermont would stand by him in the Com
mon Cause tUl the close of the War he would
205

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
ensure them to be a 14th State." This would have
been entirely satisfactory to the Vermont leaders
had they perfect assurance of what the end of the
war was to be, but Colonel AUen for one was
"determined that Congress shaU not have the par
celling of his lands to their avaricious minions.
Should Britain by some d  d turn of Fortune
gain a victory over the combin'd Fleets, aU Europe
would not be able to contend with her, and he
would give aUmost his Fortune to be able at this
time to know what wUl be the fate of America."
Schuyler wrote to Washington: — "I heard AUen
declare to one Harper that there was a north pole
and a south pole, and should a thunder gust come
from the south they would shut the door opposite
that point and open the door facing the north."
MeanwhUe the exchanging of prisoners went
briskly forward. On one occasion 117 men, women,
and children were delivered up to the Vermont offi
cer at Skenesborough (now Whitehall, N.Y.) in re
turn for twenty-three famUies of Loyalists. It was
surprising how many of the captives in British pos
session claimed to be from Vermont, and Haldimand
reported to Lord Germaine that "some Inhabitants
of the neighbouring States begin to retire there for
safety." It was dangerous for any of the adjoining
countrysides to express sympathy with the trials of
Vermont, as the districts to the left and right of her
found when she included them within her borders,
another shrewd stroke, for by claiming territory as
206

VERMONT DIPLOMACY
far as the Hudson river the neutral zone was
extended; and if she asked more than congress
would ever grant, there was the more likefihood that
the limits would be conceded to which she was
with some justice entitled. Upon Ira AUen's dip
lomacy Haldimand reported to Clinton, June 6th,
1781: — "He adduced the Extension of their Juris
diction as a necessary Preparation to a Reunion, as
weU to strengthen them against the power of Con
gress as to aid in reconciling the people to our
views, many of the new subjects being weU disposed
to Government. This is plausible if not sincere.
The business is transacted with the utmost Precau
tion and Secrecy by a Man weU acquainted with
their Arts, and in whom I have perfect Confidence."
Colonel AUen sent the Canadian governor an
account of the June meeting of the Vermont
assembly, whereat he had been asked to produce
papers relative to his negotiations with the British.
These he had purposely left at home, but he made
a speech which he was assured had been satisfactory
to spies both from the other states and from
Canada. His idea was to demand from congress
terms which he knew could not be accepted, and
then it would be represented by people in favour
of government that congress meant to settle noth
ing tUl the end of the war, when she would divide
Vermont among the various claimants. After the
new election he judged that more officers leaning
towards the British connection would be placed in
207

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
power, "and then the advantage of another denial
by Congress, and having the reins of Government
in their hands, they will make a resolution so long
wished for by many."
Haldimand looked upon the various pretexts for
delay with the utmost suspicion, but in the mean
time he was glad to have one of his carking cares
removed — the fear of an invasion by way of Lake
Champlain. "Nothing can be done against this Pro
vince without the help of Vermont," he wrote to
Clinton, and none knew better than he that should
the fortunes of war turn towards Great Britain,
Vermont would be profuse in offers of assistance
no longer needed, but if the scale showed signs of
swinging the other way, she would hasten to make
her peace with congress. In six months he judged
she would be a valuable acquisition to either side.
He told Lord Germaine that the Vermonters, "if
once united with Congress, would be very formid
able Enemies, having been from their Early Con
tests with their neighbouring Provinces continuaUy
in Arms. They are in every Respect better pro
vided than the Continental Troops, and in their
principles more determined. These considerations,
with the impossibility of acting from this Province
except in great Force (owing to their inhabiting
that part of the Country bordering upon Lakes
Champlain and George, Hudson and Connecticut
Rivers, ready to a man to turn out upon the first
alarm with provisions upon their Backs, and pos-
208

HATRED OF NEW YORK
sessed of a Strong Country where they can attack
and harrass a Corps in the most advantageous Situ
ation), have always made me anxious to prevent the
Union they seem so bent upon accomplishing."
The persistent refusal of the Vermont delegates
to commit themselves in writing was one evidence
of bad faith, and they had shown no symptoms of
their professed desire to overcome the "violent
prejudices" of the people of their state against the
British connection. Ethan AUen wrote General
Schuyler "that notwithstanding the late reports, or
rather surmises, of my corresponding with the
enemy to the prejudice of the United States, it is
totaUy without foundation"; while to the British
he declared "that the people of Vermont were not
disposed any longer to assist in establishing a
government in America which might subject them
and their posterity to New York, whose govern
ment was more detested than any other in the known
world." Ira seconded the sentiment: — "Sooner than
submit to it they would see Congess subjected to
the British government, provided Vermont could
be a distinct colony on safe and honourable terms."
Major Fay, the other Vermont emissary, was no
more trusted by Haldimand's agents than Colonel
AUen was, though his letters were suavity itself: —
"I wish it was in my power to remove every
suspicion you may have against the good intentions
of the People of Vermont, but I can only assure
you of my own and that I have not the least Doubt
209

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
you may rest equaUy assured of such of the others
as are made acquainted." The number "made ac
quainted" was necessarily few, since it would have
been an arduous task to explain the subtle policy
of these "honourable men" to a scattered popula
tion of 30,000, from whom the Tories had been
well weeded, leaving a remainder who believed
congress to be "next to God Almighty both in
Power and Perfection." "Such is the Enthusiasm
of the Vulgar for their Idol, Independence," said
Haldimand, "that nothing but unavoidable necessity
wUl ever induce them to relinquish it."
For the justification of the chief Vermont agent,
should his actions be caUed in question by his
countrymen, the council of the state gave him a
paper, signed by half a dozen of the leading men,
to this effect: — "Whereas Col. Ira AUen has been
with a Flag to the Province of Quebeck for the
purpose of settling a Cartel or Exchange of Pris
oners, and had used his best Policy by Feigning or
Endeavouring to make them believe that the State
of Vermont had a desire to Negotiate a Treaty of
Peace with Britain, thereby to prevent their imme
diate Invasion or Incursion upon the Frontiers of
this State .... we are of the opinion that critical
circumstances this state is in, being out of union
with the United States and thereby unable to make
that vigorous Defence we could wish for— think it
to be a Necessary Political measure to save the
Frontiers of this State."
210

SKIRMISH AT CROWN POINT
To Sir Henry Clinton, Haldimand wrote on
October 1st, 1781: — "The Leading men in our
interest advise, as a last resource, my issuing a
Proclamation, confirming to Vermont the late
assumed territory and other privileges, thinking
that from the late refusal of these by Congress the
people may be inclined to accept of terms from
Government. This Proclamation they desire may
be foUowed by a force equal to support the friends
of Government who wait for opportunity to declare
themselves and to awe those in opposition."
Colonel St. Leger was sent with 1,000 men to
occupy Crown Point; and to luU the suspicions of
the Vermont people a force under their own gen
eral, Enos, was stationed across the lake. The
two commanders knew that they were not to
come to blows, but their subalterns not being in
the secret, a skirmish took place in which a sergeant
of the local troops was killed. Colonel St. Leger
returned to General Enos, with an apology, the
prisoners taken on the occasion, sending also the
clothing of the slain soldier with the message that
he would be given decent burial, and any of his
friends who wished to be present at the same would
be permitted to cross the British lines. "What is
the meaning of this astounding courtesy?" the
people demanded of Ira AUen, and he replied,
"Ask St. Leger," who was on the eve of responding
with Haldimand's proclamation when disastrous
news came from the south — Comwallis had surren-
211

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
dered. Here was the excuse for further delay that
Colonel Allen wanted. He notified the Canadian
governor that everything had been going on weU
until the British reverse was reported, but he hoped
the general would have patience till the spring,
when the number of people who dreaded the
arbitrary measures of congress would be greatly
increased. CornwaUis capitulated on October 19th, but it
was the middle of November before the news was
confirmed in Quebec. Haldimand wrote to the
British ministry that it was now out of the question
to dream of reclaiming the Vermonters, who were
"rioting in the excess of licentious exultation," but
Lord Shelburne advised him to get their confidence
and make them remain neutral by "open and hon
ourable Dealings, avoiding the least appearance of
Insidiousness." To Clinton, Haldimand wrote in
the spring of 1782: — "The crisis is arrived when
coercion alone must decide the part Vermont will
take, and that measure should be determined upon
from the minute the troops, directed by Lord
George to appear upon their frontiers, shaU take
post, and must be carried into execution as far as
possible, after giving them sufficient notice, by
laying waste their country, if they do not accept
the terms offered."
On the first day of the same year, General
Washington had written to Thomas Chittenden : —
"I will only add a few words upon the subject of the
212

WASHINGTON'S VIEWS
negotiations which have been carried on between you
and the enemy in Canada and in New York. I wiU
take it for granted, as you assert it, that they were
so far innocent that there never was any serious
intention of joining Great Britain in their attempt
to subjugate your country; but it has this certain
bad tendency: it has served to give some ground to
that delusive opinion of the enemy, upon which
they in a great measure found their hopes of
success. They have numerous friends among us,
who only want a proper opportunity to show them
selves openly, and that internal disputes and feuds
wiU soon break us in pieces; at the same time the
seeds of distrust and Jealousy are scattered among
ourselves by a conduct of this kind."
The conduct had to be continued, however, and
the Aliens must plunge deeper than ever into
double dealing to have any hope of impressing
their sincerity upon General Haldimand. At the
beginning of the negotiations they had declared
openly their preference for congress should she
grant as good terms as Great Britain ; but despairing
of getting them, Ethan AUen wrote to the Canadian
governor: "It is Liberty they say they are after, but
wiU not extend it to Vermont." His state should be
a neutral republic and already were the people so
roused against congress that he believed if a vote
of the assembly were taken the majority would vote
for British connection. As for himself he was wiUing
to wait upon His ExceUency at any part of Lake
213

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
Champlain where his own life would not be in too
great danger, adding in conclusion : "There is a
majority in Congress, and a number of the principal
officers of the Continental army continuaUy plan
ning against me. I shall do everything in my power
to render this state a British Province."
Ira AUen went further stiU in proposing that
Haldimand should enter into a secret treaty " to be
signed and ratified by Governor Chittenden, General
AUen and the Council, declaring Vermont a British
Province." He had been sent by these rulers "to
negotiate a reunion, and privately authorized to
engage in behalf of Vermont that the authority and
most of the populace in that state are desirous to
become a British state on the conditions proffered
by Your ExceUency. They have likewise promised
to abide by any engagement I shall enter into
for them, provided the same be kept a profound
secret until the British government can protect and
assist them, and provided they shaU not be obliged
to go out of Vermont to make war with the other
states. They wiU receive the king's troops and
garrisons and wiU join them to oppose any troops
or forces that wiU invade Vermont to prevent her
reunion with Britain. They have likewise promised
never to take arms again in opposition to British
government, nor to assist Congress on any pretence
whatever." To answer for " the populace " was a bold saying
even for Colonel Allen, since the body of the people
214

PUBLIC OPINION IN VERMONT
undoubtedly thought themselves very well off in
the existing state of affairs. This unaccountable
truce with Great Britain had kept their borders free
for two years from the raids that had devastated
other states, and they were in no haste to be
taken into the union and share the burden of the
war debt.
Mr. Cossitt, a Loyalist clergyman, who had caUed
upon Ethan Allen, reported that gentleman's profes
sions of fealty to the British government to be some
what overdone, in view of the fact that the minutest
detaUs of his negotiations with His Excellency were
now being laid before congress, while Dr. George
Smyth wrote that Washington wanted to keep
open the cartel door, and had agreed to furnish
prisoners for that purpose. But General Haldimand
wished to gain time no less than the other party
did — time to get instructions from the new British
Cabinet as to how long "the interesting pursuit of
reclaiming Vermont" was to be kept up.
The state of affairs (reported to Haldimand's
agents) in 1783 was that one-third of the ruling
men in Vermont were for government on sound
principles ; one-third for attachment to their own
state and hatred of New York; the other third
would be governed by the fortune of war. The
common people would willingly accept any govern
ment except that of New York ; the AUens were
firm for the Crown, and Chittenden would be
led by them. In reality New York was bound that
215

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
Vermont should not be a state, and the latter
was bound that she should, though she had to fight
her way in, opposed by the whole thirteen colonies.
Early in 1783, the preparations being made at
Albany for a professed attack upon the advanced
British posts on Lake Champlain, were said to have
the ulterior design of subduing Vermont. She cer
tainly roused the ire of Washington by persisting
in trading with Canada, though Haldimand said he
could not sanction free traffic tUl he received his
instructions from England. He told Ethan AUen,
however, that he would admit no trade that would
militate against his interests, and a letter of Joseph
Fay, dated September, 1783, returns thanks to His
ExceUency for the opportunity to dispose of cattle
belonging to Colonel AUen and himself. The former
stated his resolve to do nothing in future respecting
political matters but under the direction of General
Haldimand, whom he considered the " Guardian of
the People."
Troublesome wards His ExceUency found them,
and Lord Germaine was no prop : " I am really at
a loss what instructions to convey to you at present
respecting the conduct you are to observe towards
the people of the state of Vermont, as much will
depend upon the reception their propositions shaU
meet with from Congress. The language they have
held to you has, to be sure, been somewhat extra
ordinary. I do not see how it is possible for us, con
sistently with the Treaty of Peace, openly to
216

THE NEGOTIATIONS CLOSED
interfere in their disputes, and on the other hand I
think it difficult to refuse to take them under
our protection should they be determined to become
subjects of Great Britain. The matter in a great
measure must therefore be left to your judgment
and discretion." Haldimand decided to stop the
intercourse. In 1791, the claims of New York against her
territory having been settled by purchase, Vermont
became a fourteenth state. She may weU be proud
of her leading men so far as their devotion to herself
is concerned, and the average citizen is disinclined
to enquire too closely into the moral quality of
actions performed by state heroes, provided they
accomplished the ends in view.
" AU is fair in war," it is said, but looking upon
these nine large volumes of manuscript letters
merely as character studies, the unbiased reader
closes them with a strong impulse towards the
reversion of popular verdicts in Vermont and
Canada. Cannot a few superfluous laurel leaves of
the AUens be claimed for the gentleman of Switzer
land who fulfihed the promise he made at the
outset of the negotiations, and acted always "with
the sincerity of a soldier, unpractised in deceits and
chicane " ?

217

CHAPTER XII
AUTRES TEMPS AUTRES MCEURS
"TMHE Canadians talk continuaUy to their horses
J- when whipping them — ' A lions, mon Prince;
Pour mon General,' or oftener, 'Fi, done, Madame.'
I thought they meant me, and I said, 'Plait-ilV
'Oh,' replied the driver, T only meant that little
rogue, my horse."
After this manner has the Baroness de Riedesel
recorded in her diary various quaint episodes of her
adventurous journey into Canada with her three
children — four, two years, and ten weeks old — to
join her soldier husband. A brave fittle lady she
was, head and shoulders above any modern heroine
of revolutionary romance as her writing is above
that of the romancers, because true ; but it is
with her Canadian experiences alone we have to do.
"Whenever we met peasants they made me their
obeisance, crying, 'the wife of our good General'
and carried me almost on their shoulders. It gave
me great joy to perceive that my husband had
made himself so acceptable and to hear them say,
'How pleased he will be 1 ' "
She found the country people very hospitable,
living in good houses with three or four spacious
rooms and curtained beds in each. The annual
219

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
application of whitewash "gives to the Canadian
villages an appearance of great neatness and makes
them visible from a considerable distance. The
space around each house is successively filled up by
the settlements, which the young people, on their
marriages, make around their parents. They caU
themselves, on that account, 'habitants' or settlers,
and not peasants. Each habitation has its own
stables, garden and pasturage scattered along the
banks of the St. Lawrence, they contribute much
to the romantic aspect of the scene." Each had its
little orchard also, and the hogs and cows were
driven into the woods for pasture, returning to be
milked and fed. The lady thought the swine would
surely die if shut up in sties, as in Germany, and
she found them a fine breed, partly wild and partly
tame. A cheerful folk, the habitants, singing and
smoking the whole day. "Many of the women have
wens or goitres, but generally the Canadians are
a healthy people and live to a great age. It is not
rare to find among them a great-grandfather who
dweUs with his descendants and is the object of
their kindest attention. After a journey of about
two months from the time we had left New York,
we reached Quebec in the middle of September,
1781." Another lady writer, the wife of an English
officer, gives a less flattering picture of the habi
tants, describes them as being poor farmers, too
lazy to do more than turn fightly over the clods of
220

THE HABITANTS
earth before throwing in the seed, and scorning the
use of manure, which they throw into the river. She
thinks the numerous festivals of religion incline the
people to idleness, and remarks that they never
walk, as every man owns a horse. Undoubtedly,
they lived up to the advice given by the Indians to
their forefathers — "to use dancing, mirth, cheerful
ness and content, as the best remedies against
the inconveniences of the climate." "Never was
there such a race of dancers," says the same author,
"I have seen daughter, mother, and granddaughter
in the same French country dance."
Her account of a baU in Quebec at which there
were three hundred persons present and three
quarters of them men, draws a sigh from the
modern wall-flower. How the vivacious French
Canadian beUes coquetted with the British officers,
how they sauntered on the summer evenings "on a
particular battery which is a kind of little MaU,"
how upon New Year's Day they sat "dressed in
form to be kUled," awaiting the arrival of the usual
gentlemen caUers who drove up looking "like so
many bears in their open carioles aU wrapped in
furs from head to foot," with nothing exposed but
the tip of the nose, is entertaining reading and so is
the lady's description of the opening of navigation :
— "From the time the ice is no longer a bridge on
which you see crowds driving with such vivacity
on business or pleasure, everyone is looking eagerly
for its breaking away to remove the bar to the con-
221

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
tinually wished and expected event of the arrival of
ships from that world from whence we have seemed
in a manner excluded."1
The opening of the river was always viewed from
Cape Diamond by crowds of both sexes and aU
ranks, but none would watch for it more anxiously
than the governor from his Chateau of St. Louis.
To General Bude" he wrote one March 1st, "Dur
ing our sequestration from the rest of mankind our
time is spent in enjoyment and dancing, hoping for
good news in the first days of May."
It is recorded that he gave a grand baU and sup
per at the Chateau on January 18th, 1784, in honour
of the Queen's birthday, and it may by some be
attributed to the fact of the evening being a Sunday
that there was a terrific snow-storm and gale from
the northeast which carried away the cross on the
steeple of the parish church or cathedral. Chimneys
were blown down and the steeple of the RecoUets
was thrown into their garden with a dreadful crash.
There had been an earthquake on the 2nd inst. and
another on the 12th, but no damage was done and
gaiety went on.
Admission to the Quebec theatre was one doUar,
and the public was requested to have the even sum
or tickets ready, as no change would be given. The
upper classes dined at two and so were ready for
the evening's diversions. The doors of the play
house opened at five o'clock in summer for a day-
1 "The History of Emily Montague."
222

WINTER AMUSEMENTS
light performance, as in Shakespeare's time, but in
winter they opened an hour later. Such dramas
were presented as Miss in Her Teens ; High Life
Below Stairs; Love a la Mode; The Upholsterer;
The Fashionable Lovers; and even Macbeth. The
plays were often varied with singing or other music.
The succession of festivities in Montreal was
almost overpowering. Walter Butler of the Rangers
said it was harder work than scouting, and he had
to keep himself in form by a snow-shoe tramp
around Mount Royal with a comrade every other
day. The defeat of the congress troops in their attempt
to take Quebec was celebrated in the ancient capital
every 31st of December by "an elegant Entertain
ment" given to the governor and his suite by the
gentlemen of the British militia; and His Excel
lency always held a brilliant assembly on the King's
birthday, June 4th. On one occasion at least this
was supplemented by "fireworks outside St. Lewis
Gate, to the entire satisfaction of a numerous con
course of spectators."
Besides the balls at the Chateau, there were
subscription dances held regularly at Menut's house
on St John street, and there was another place of
entertainment kept by one James Park out on the
Ste. Foye road. Mr. John Frank's long-room wit
nessed a celebration of the Queen's birthday, " by
the Gentlemen of the Army and the Merchants of
this city. The company was numerous and brilliant
223

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
notwithstanding the extreme badness of the night.
The dancing began at seven o'clock and continued
tiU one, when the company sat down to a magnifi
cent and sumptuous supper, where after drinking a
few general toasts the dancing was resumed and
continued till seven o'clock next morning. The
whole was conducted with such just propriety and
decorum, that it reflects the highest honour on the
managers of it."
An elegant entertainment was given Lieutenant-
Governor Cramahe on his departure for Europe,
and indeed the lively Quebec people never ceased
to seek occasion for jollity. As one of them writes:
— "It may not be unworthy of remark, that whilst
the more intelligent statesmen are busied in pre
dicting the fall of Nations, and the vast similarity
between the state of Britain and Carthage, a
remote province of the Empire has exhibited an
Entertainment, the expense, profusion and elegance
of which may vie with the most celebrated repasts
of Appicus. On the 18th was given a Conversa-
zatione" by the harmonious conjunction of civil and
military. The dancing commenced at eight, after the
necessary prelude of Tea and Coffee, and was con
tinued with that gaiety and apparent satisfaction,
the ever concomitant attendant of the amusements
and diversions of this metropolis."
Of course there wras plenty of war talk, some of
which reads strangely in altered conditions. One man
remarks that if the revolted colonists realized that
224

AN ANXIOUS YEAR
they were merely being used by the French and
Spanish for their own purposes, "they would hide
themselves with their native Brethren, Squooks.
.... If an Earthquake would swallow up America
I apprehend the Powers of Europe would keep
their balance without a groan."
The year 1781, was a particularly anxious time
and the inhabitants both of Quebec and Montreal
took occasion to present loyal addresses to the
governor, assuring him of their services in case
of expected rebellion. The other side was in no less
straits, if the Quebec Gazette of April 19th is to
be believed: — "The following accurate Copies of
Original Letters are part of a Rebel Mail lately
intercepted by several of His Majesty's Loyal
Subjects. And as they give a lively description of
the opposite interests of the Congress and the
Leaders of the Rebel Army — Of the embarrass
ments of the latter in respect to supplies, etc. — Of
the depreciated state of their paper currency —
Of the depressed condition of the Rebel Marine —
And contain the most decisive proof of a concerted
scheme to establish a Military, upon the ruins of a
Civil government, they are given to the public for
their information and amusement."
Two of these letters are from Richard Langdon,
son of the President of Harvard College; others
from Generals Green, Parsons, Knox, Glover, Pat
erson, Huntingdon, etc., and one from Col. HamU
ton, aide to Washington. 225

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
The Gazette was forbidden to meddle in politics,
but no objection could be taken to sublime instruc
tion imparted in the Poet's Corner : —
AMERICA
AN ELEGY
Where, where alas, are fled the blissful hours,
Which parent fondness all indulgent gave,
When blest obedience own'd superior pow'rs,
And British Freedom crossed the Atlantic wave ?
Blest times ! When Royal Brunswick's hallow'd name,
Rude nations heard with reverential awe ;
And souls assenting to Britannia's fame,
The charms of liberty with transport saw.

And hark ! from yonder slowly-pacing cloud
Some vocal shade informs the raptur'd muse
"America with lineal worth endow'd
"Again shall rise to Albion's lofty views.
"Here Cultivation shall resume her toils,
"Pair fields around each Hybla Village shine
"And Sons of Freedom reap the golden spoils
"Which Fraud and Faction impiously decline."
"Hail, unborn Freedom ! unborn Glory, hail !
"And hail ! prophetic thoughts of future days.
"When Britain's prodigals, with duteous zeal,
"Shall crown the parent with immortal praise."
Nor could any exception be taken to the publi
cation of "A comparative View of the different
circumstances of the People of America in the
years 1773 and 1778 in respect to (1) their gov
ernment which could stand no comparison with
that of Great Britain, having the seeds of perpetual
226

EXTRACTS FROM THE GAZETTE
dissension and incessant discord sown in the Con
stitution ; (2) Protection, which no other nation but
England was either willing or able to give ; (3) Laws,
the present code being made without a model and
therefore surpassing the most arbitrary edicts in
rankest despotism ; (4) Religion — Nothing had been
gained by disestablishment since the Presbyterians'
democratic form of worship, their hatred of Popery
and talk of themselves as the Elect were to blame
for the revolution. In fact under the new regime
there was no security either for person or property,
for Agriculture or Manufactures. Commerce was
ruined by the war and taxes were being levied by
'mushrooms' from the dunghill."
How the colonies could continue on their mad
career after such a presentation of plain truth is
surprising 1 Benedict Arnold's "Address to the
People of America" was published in the Gazette,
and therein were stated the reasons for his some
what peculiar course of action. He had imagined
the war to be one of defence only, until the French
joined it, and he was heartily disappointed that the
United States did not end the strife after Great
Britain had given them all they asked for. He pre
ferred to trust England rather than France who
"is too feeble to establish your Independency, so
perUous to her distant dominions ; the enemy of
the Protestant faith, and fraudulently avowing an
affection for the liberties of mankind, while she
holds her native sons in vassalage and chains." 227

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
Of far more interest to the Quebeckers would be
the letter to the printer, dated December 6th, 1781,
on the burning question of the smaUpox: — "I
learnt a few days ago that a Surgeon of Eminence
in this City had imported from England, some
infectious matter for the purpose of introducing
the SmaUpox by Innoculation, and that he pro
posed to make an experiment on two children to
try the quality of it. That the favourable Success of
the Practice of Inoculation hath highly recom
mended it throughout Europe I will readily aUow.
But what are the Reasons of its being so useful
there ? In aU Kingdoms of Europe the SmaUpox
prevails naturaUy ; and few arrive at any age with
out having been infected with it ; and aU are liable
to receive an unfavourable sort, at a time when
their Bodies are not in a proper State for its
Reception  Here the malady prevaileth not
naturally and thousands of grown Persons have
never had the infection. It is now arrived from
3,000 miles distance ; it is taken from we know not
what Subject, and is sent by, we know not whom.
In this case, therefore, one of the principal Ends of
Inoculation is not answered, viz., the Certainty of
a favourable Infection. But the Doctor intends
trying the Quality of the Infection on two children
and to inoculate no others tiU the Quality be there
by ascertained. I am of opinion he has not explained
his Intention to the Parents of those Children,
because I think no Parent would permit him to
228

INOCULATION FOR SMALLPOX
execute it  If it turns out a bad sort Infection
wiU spread, but even if good how few can receive
the Infection by Inoculation ?"
Poor people, he argues, cannot pay a surgeon
and this one has not offered his services gratis.
Bodies that are not well nourished are not fit for
the purpose, as the disease may take a more virulent
form in them and the contagion spread. A medical
writer of great repute has said that more harm than
good is done by inoculation, but for himself he is
no enemy to it though he should like to have the
choice of saying whether his chUdren shall take the
smaUpox naturally or be inoculated.
There were many others in a like case, some
mothers wishing to have it over and done with,
while the fathers objected, or vice versa. From
Three Rivers came the report (Sept. 9th, 1783)
that "there is strong Desire for it in aU the English
Inhabitants and in many of the Canadian families."
Surgeons were coming from distant parts of the
country to get matter for inoculation, but none had
been given nor would be given without the gov
ernor's orders. The great argument against it in
Canada was the number who had not had the
disease " but by Discouraging that useful Practice
and great improvement in Physic the number wiU
be every day increasing and make the Danger of
the Disease in the natural way so much the more
alarming." Surgeon Barr believed in the encouragement 229

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
of inoculation, so as to have the disease always
in the country, as in England, and Haldimand
had no objections, provided the people wanted
it, but he was decidedly averse to having experi
ments made at the upper posts, and this letter
was sent from headquarters to the commander of
one of them, on November 2nd, 1783 : — " His Ex
cellency, the Commander-in-Chief, having learned
that Mr. Gill, Mate of the General Hospital, has
been so imprudent as to take from Montreal to
Carleton Island Small Pox matter for the purpose
of Inoculation, I am directed to signify to you His
Excellency's positive Command that he may not be
permitted to make use of it, but that it may be
taken from him, and that you wiU Yourself, see
it buried so deep under Ground as to prevent a
possibility of its having any Effect — and if unfortu
nately, any use should have been made of it before
you receive this His ExceUency desires you wiU
send the Parties infected to the most remote part
of the Island, with a Guard to prevent aU Com
munication with them — for should the disease get
amongst the Indians the consequences to them and
to the King's Service would be very fatal. In aU
events the Intention must be carefully concealed
from the Indians for if the Infection should by any
Accident make its way from Hence to them it
would infaUibly be attributed to that cause."
The letter did arrive in time, its instructions
were carried out and the captain was able to write
230

SLAVES AND SERVANTS
to his chief that though there was sickness at his post
it was nothing more serious than the measles. After
the peace, in 1784, the governor told Sir John
Johnson he must be held responsible for the ex
pense if he continued to supply with provisions
the Indians who were bringing their children to
Montreal for inoculation.
To have had the smaUpox was considered a
recommendation for a servant, as weU as a means of
identification for escaping bondsmen. At the census
taken in 1784, there were 212 slaves in Montreal,
four in Three Rivers, and eighty-eight in Que
bec. There frequently appeared in the Gazette the
cut of a stumpy negro in African dress accompany
ing the advertisement for runaways, whether men
or women, though their costumes varied. The
Mulatto Negress BeU for whose return a reward of
four doUars was offered, was barefooted and wore
a striped woolen jacket and petticoat, whUe "a
Mulatto FeUow call'd Jacob about eighteen years
of age, had on when he went away a light brown
fustian Coat, white cloth Waistcoat and Breeches
and a round hat."
Apprentices were almost as much the master's
property as slaves. Four guineas were offered for the
return of one, while the recovery of a negro rarely
earned more than fifty shiUings. For several weeks
this advertisement appeared: "RUNAWAY from
his BaU an indentured servant Christian MiUer,
a taUor from Germany, middling long black hair,
231

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND •
has very much the cut and behaviour of a sham
beau, formerly servant to a Hessian officer, a
variety of cloathing viz. a Maroon Coat, a brown
ditto lined with fight blue silk, the one Gold, the
other Silver buttons, a brown Great Coat and a
variety of Waistcoats and Breeches." Five guineas
reward for return to his master in Montreal. There
is a hero for a novelist.
To be a servant of any kind was no sinecure
in those days, if one is to judge by the requirements
called for: — Wanted "A single man, middle age,
steady, honest, sober, that can comb Hair, — cut
wood — dress a beef-steak occasionally — receive mes
sages — in short wanted a Servant that can live
always at home and undertake the management of
his Master's affairs and give him as little trouble as
possible." Occupations were often combined which in our
time caU for specialists. Tryphina Cameron's busi
ness card teUs of her proficiency as a "Clear Starcher,
Milliner and Mantua Maker." One Agnes Galbraith
from Edinburgh who states that she has served an
apprenticeship to millinery and has been also for
several years governess in a genteel boarding school,
takes in clear starching and opens a boarding and
day school for young ladies, where particular atten
tion wiU be paid to morals and the pupils instructed
in white and coloured work, tambour, embroidery
Dresden work, besides being taught millinery, drawn
work, and the making of gimps and fringes. By
232

EARLY EDUCATORS
other advertisements it appears that "every useful
and ornamental branch of needlework " and " ex
terior Deportment and Behaviour," were the chief
departments in women's education, though the
ladies who kept a boarding and day school at the
corner of the Grand Parade mention that the little
ones wiU be instructed in "Reading and Spelling."
To Mr. John PuUman's advertisement for male
pupils in Montreal there is this annex : — "N.B. The
young ladies wiU be taught in a separate Apart
ment. Funerals compleatly furnished on the most
reasonable Terms and on the Shortest Notice." Ad
vocates for co-education might cite this as vital
evidence in support of their views.
The Grey Sisters of the Congregation taught
demoiseUes in the country to read, write, and knit
stockings. A boarding school at Clapham Common
tried to wile the English girls of Canada across
the Atlantic for their education, but many were
weU content with the schools of the Ursuline
nuns at Quebec and Three Rivers. There they
learned to speak French, a first requisite for the
British minority and in itself a means of cul
ture which old country people were quick to ap
preciate. Admiral Sir Charles Douglas wrote to Governor
Haldimand in June, 1784, from aboard the Assist
ance just arrived at Halifax, that he had brought
out with him half a dozen young gentlemen with a
Scottish tutor who were to be boarded in separate
233

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
houses where only French was spoken and were to
meet only on Sunday for a Church of England
service. Sons of earls and admirals, how they fared
among the Canadians history sayeth not.
Mr. J. TansweU, the most enterprising school
master of Quebec, advertised the teaching of
French "after such a method that the most Com
mon Capacity, with very moderate application may
with ease become master, both in Theory and
Practice of that Ornamental and Necessary Lang
uage." The same gentleman had classes for young
ladies where they were taught " reading with pro
priety," English and French grammar, writing,
arithmetic, geography and history, either at his
own house or in his academy in Parlour Street,
near the Bishop's Palace. He had a dancing school
three nights a week, with monthly assemblies to
which a limited number of parents and friends were
admitted, and stiU he craved employment for his
"leisure hours," if he was to continue his educa
tional efforts. Apparently His Majesty's Royal
Quebec Academy was not a paying institution.
Mr. TansweU petitioned the governor in 1784 for
leave to draw three years' salary for his services, in
order to meet expenses resulting from bad debts,
etc. He stated that he had "spent the first twenty
years of his life in acquiring a universal education";
that he was assistant in English schools, at the
head of one in London for seven years, and in
1772, was prevailed upon by certain gentlemen
284

THE REVEREND JOHN STUART
of Nova Scotia, "to cross the Atlantic in order
to plant the liberal Arts and Sciences in that
Country." Five years later he had left Halifax
for Quebec at the request of Sir Guy Carleton.
In 1778, John Grout applied for a license to set
up a school in Three Rivers ; and the same year the
Loyalists at Machiche chose for their preceptor
a Mr. Cass, and it is to be hoped they were able to
treat him more liberally than the next incumbent,
John Adams, whose wife petitioned the governor
for "a continuance of the aUowance or that her
husband be relieved from teaching school gratis, so
that he might employ himself to obtain support for
his family."
None of the schools were self-supporting and
government grants were always in demand, though
the people of St. Johns raised subscriptions to give
forty-eight pounds a year to their teacher, the Rev.
George Gilmore. Clergymen were frequently found
in the profession, the Rev. John Stuart for example,
Virginian by birth, but ordained in England, who
came to Montreal from Albany where he had left
behind him a "bondsman" for whose relief he
prayed that an exchange might be effected. He
started a school in connection with a Mr. Christie
who proved incompetent and the partnership was
dissolved. The governor played the censor on their
advertisement: — "I directed the words 'principally
intended for the children of Protestants' to be left
out, as it is a distinction which could not faU to
235

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
create jealousies, at aU times improper, but more
particularly so at present."
A town plot at Cataraqui (Kingston) was marked
out for Mr. Stuart in 1784, as he longed to minister
unto his fellow Loyalists there, but Haldimand ad
vised him not to give up his Montreal academy tiU
the other position was secured. In 1786, he opened
a school in the new settlement and became rector
of the parish in which the garrison was situated.
For this reason he thought the government should
build him a house, but he was told that he must
erect his own dweUing, though Major Ross would
lodge him in the fort tiU it was done. This Reverend
John Stuart was the forerunner of the Episcopal
Church in Upper Canada.
Besides being guardian of the people at large,
His ExceUency exercised a fatherly care over his
officers, too often led into extravagance, for Quebec
was "an expensive quarter." None of them could
marry without his sanction and perhaps as a bach
elor himself he was not always ready to bestow it.
There was Captain Schank of the navy wanting to
marry a widow who wrote herself to the general
asking permission, but was told that he did not
approve of his officers marrying during such active
service. The enamoured captain probably perser-
vered in his suit, for a month later he received
a letter from headquarters saying that the whole
time of an officer was required for the duties of his
department, and as his "other engagements" seemed
236

MARRIAGES AND DEATHS
to interfere with their performance he was requested
to send in his accounts that a successor might be
appointed. But the general must have been con
ciliated, for the banns of marriage between Schank
and the widow were published at Three Rivers in
the autumn and the captain was still on the gen
eral's staff the foUowing spring.
A lieutenant who wants to wed sends a recom
mendation from his colonel ; a captain is told that
he must get permission both from the bride's father
and Sir John Johnson ; while even the surgeon has
to propose to the governor, after the lady, or per
haps beforehand. In the face of these difficulties
thrown in the way of hymeneal rites, it is interest
ing to observe the laudation of the brides usuaUy
appended to the marriage notices: — "The many
virtuous, amiable qualities, which this young lady
so extensively possesses are strong presumptions in
favour of the parties enjoying every happiness the
married state affords."
Deaths are similarly commented upon : — " On
Friday last, the 2nd inst, was interred the most pious,
most respectable and most virtuous Ann-Lucy-
Magdalen Becher, spouse of Lieu-Gen. Thomas
Clarke, Colonel of the 31st Regt. The Clergy, the
NobUity and Citizens zealously attended her Funeral
being aU of them actuated by a principle of love,
respect and gratitude. It would seem as if Provi
dence had delayed her departure, by fixing it for
the day after her death, in order that our Province
237

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
might be honoured with her precious remains;
which after admiring her virtues, esteems itself
so happy in being the depository of them, that
its tributes of love, respect and veneration can only
cease with the lives of its inhabitants. General
Clarke's embarkation deprived his very humble
servants of the opportunity of waiting on him with
their compliments of condolence and of wishing him
a happy voyage. It is pleasing to reflect that
the tenderness he had for the Lady is an authentic
proof of the virtues she practised in a religion
different from his own."
The governor was ever strictly impartial in his
dealings with his officers, would not allow any
to advance by favouritism over the heads of others,
and extended his system into the militia. Two
captains of the local troops at Kamouraska were
told that they were to be placed on a perfect
equality, and that the seat of honour at church was
to be common to both. He censured an officer
for carrying a debtor away from his creditors, as it
was customary for either civil or military persons
about to leave the province to put a notice to that
effect in the local paper: — "Mr. David Cairns now
at Quebec, who some days ago resigned his com
mission in the Royal Highland Emigrants, requests
those in the Province who have any demands upon
him to make them without delay, that such as
are just may be paid ; and those in possession of any
of his Drafts to present them to the persons on
238

PROVENDER
whom they are given, for payment before his
departure." August 4th, 1778.
Travelling had more than a spice of danger as a
variety. Madame de Riedesel says she went to
Montreal one day by sledge on the river and on the
next a ship came sailing up. She is our best inform
ant upon the housekeeping of the time, though
much of her account is applicable to-day, such
as the manner of freezing fish and fowls to keep
them all winter. Most of the Quebec supplies
came from the weU-tUled Island of Orleans. Meat
was plentiful, but fruit and vegetables scarce, so
madame cultivated her garden, under the able
direction of General Haldimand. She was highly
entertained by the Canadians fishing for tommy-
cod through holes in the ice, and by their expedi
tions into the spring woods with pots and kettles to
" make what they caU maple sugar."
"The soups they eat are very nourishing, and
generaUy consist of fresh meat, vegetables and pork
aU boUed together, but they have no second dish."
Sometimes they made soup out of the wild pigeons
that came in great flocks and were prepared for the
table in fricassees, "dressed with a cream sauce and
smaU onions."
Black, red and gray foxes were abundant, their
skins bringing good prices on the Quebec market,
but few deer were seen except in winter when they
crossed on the ice. General Riedesel remarks on the
ptarmigan, which he caUs a white partridge, the
239

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
snipe, wild ducks and geese, and a black and yeUow
bird, the size of a canary, so sweet a singer that the
habitants call it rossignol du pays.
The Canadians then, as now, were fond of music,
hence the advertisement of the arrival of "5 Elegant
piano fortes" on the last ship. The importer agrees to
take pupils for the instrument as for the " Guittar,
Violin, Flute," and to teach also " Singing, French
and English at 24 lessons for one guinea and
one guinea entrance." Everything comes from
London, from "fine old red port" to a "neat and
fashionable assortment of gauze ribbons, white,
black and blond lace, MarseiUes quUting ; muslin
and muslin patches ; Serge-de-nim and caUimanco
ladies' shoes; men's black, green and white hats;
gentlemen and ladies' beaver gloves, lined with
flannel ; Spanish whitening ; fine Florence oil; thyme
and penny royal ; camomile flowers ; universal,
political, town and country magazines; Mogul,
Henry and Merry Andrew cards ; scented and plain
hair powder ; cephalic snuff, etc."
The baroness has somewhat to say on the dress
of the period : — "The Canadians of the lower classes
wear large cloaks of scarlet cloth; the wealthy
ladies have cloaks of the same size but of silk,
and they never go abroad without that article of
dress. The latter wear, besides, a covering for the
head, with large knots of different colours, which
may be considered as a sign of nobUity, and upon
which the ladies of rank pride themselves so much,
240

COSTUMES
that they could find it in their hearts to tear it from
the head of the plebeian woman bold enough to
wear it. The large cloaks cover sometimes very
ordinary and mean dresses. The female garb consists
besides of gowns and jackets, with long sleeves and
(for the street) large hoods, which not only cover
the head, but almost the whole face, and which
in winter are stuffed with down." Men at the same
season wear " entire coats of beaver and casques on
their heads like knights." Gentlemen were by no
means confined to the sober garb of to-day, as
we see by a glance at the Gazette advertising
column of articles for sale September 10th, 1781 : —
" Rich black and new fashionable colour'd silk for
vests, Genoa and Moloshskin Velvet for Breeches,
variety of figur'd silk velvet for winter vests ;
an elegant assortment of the most fashionable but
tons. Broad cloths with suitable trimmings ; second,
middling, hunters and forest cloths; superfine and
other Rateens ; Beaver and Bath coatings ; fine
white buff and new fashion colour'd Casemirs ; fine
India Dimities Sattinets, Jenets, pillow Fustians,
Thicksets, Corderoys; best silk and super fine
worsted Breeches pieces ; silk, cotton, thread and
worsted hose ; neat Shoes and Pumps ; best Beaver
middling and low-priced hats ; gloves of aU sorts ;
gold and sUver lace, ditto epaulets ; hat-bands
and frogs for Gentleman's cloaths ; great variety of
gold, silver, pearl, steel, gilt, plated and other
buttons." 241

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
How novel it would be to drop into an auction
sale of household furniture, including : — "Mahogany
dining, tea and night tables, a large mahogany
four-post Bedstead with green Harceleen furniture,
Windsor and other chairs, looking glasses, a set
of elegant Prints framed and glassed, a large double
Carron Stove, Carpets, a large Mahogany Bureau,
window Curtains, feather Beds and Bedding, a good
Jack, etc."
A milliner advertises, "Elegant caps, Laces, hats,
cloaks, silk shoes and slippers ; stays of aU kinds in
the most fashionable tastes ; beautiful Lutestrings ;
Sattins, Sarsnets and Persians, silk and leather
gloves, perfumery, etc. ;" whUe a goldsmith and en
graver in the Parade Quebec "has received from
London a general and genteel assortment of Goods
such as: Double gilt Hangers, silver-mounted ditto,
Steel ditto, polished steel hooks for ditto, Morocco
belts with Swivels, elegant Paste Shoe and Knee
buckles ; Lockets, Pearl, Garnet, Paste, etc., with
shirt buckles of the same quality ; Mason's Medals
and Broaches ; Rings, Snuff boxes, double gilt
Canes, best plated Candle sticks, Porter Cans with
covers, Quart and Pint, ditto without ; Inkstands,
castors, best Rowel Spurs, bottle Tickets, Japann'd
Bread basket, Tea trays, etc."
Our ancestors were nothing if not " genteel." A
house to be sold is " weU-calculated for a private
Genteel famUy." " Genteel and elegant assortment
of Dry goods too tedious to mention, to be sold for
242

ROMANCE UNDER DIFFICULTIES
ready money or short credit." A young man wants
to earn his living by attending in a shop, "or in
some other tolerable genteel way." A friend of
General Haldimand hopes the latter wiU give good
advice to a young man he is sending to Quebec,
whose faults are aU of a genteel kind, " lude women,
strong liquors, and indeed all the fashionable vices
in general."
" On Sunday morning last about nine o'clock
His Majesty's 44th Regt. of foot (now in Garrison
here) was review'd on the heights of Abraham
by His ExceUency General Haldimand, on which
occasion the genteel appearance of officers and men
gained them great applause."
Colonel de Tonnancour, commander at Three
Rivers, often sent the general a fine bass, tongues,
rnouffles, or other choice portions of moose or elk,
but one springtime he wrote upon a very different
matter. An impertinent surgeon's mate had dared
to engage the affections of his daughter Manette.
Would it please His ExceUency to remove the
obnoxious medico to a distant post ? Haldimand
knew the name, Thomas Prendergast, as belonging
to one who had been arrested for insubordination a
couple of years before, but there was much sickness
at Three Rivers just then, and he could not be
spared. The governor agreed to send Prendergast
away as soon as convenient, but the autumn found
him stiU at Three Rivers and M. de Tonnancour
wrote twice to His ExceUency urging the fulfilment
243

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
of his promise. In the spring came a letter from
Manette herself, giving her side of the story, telling
the governor of her affection for Dr. Prendergast
despite the opposition of her relatives. The summer
passed and again mademoiseUe on behalf of her
lover implored the assistance and protection of His
Excellency, whose reply has not been preserved.
A romance with an ending is that of Horatio
Nelson, captain of the Albemarle, whose presence
in Quebec in 1782 is certified by a letter from him
to Haldimand asking for a pilot. He needed one by
land as by sea, according to the story that is told
of him. To give bis men a chance to recover from
the scurvy, Nelson had remained a month in port,
and he wrote to his father: — "Health, that greatest
of blessings, is what 1 have never truly enjoyed
until I saw Fair Canada. The change it has
wrought, I am convinced, has been truly wonder
ful." Quebec had other charms than that of climate
for the young captain, who had faUen desperately
in love with one of its beUes. The Albemarle was
ordered to New York, and on the eve of setting
saU, Nelson had bidden fareweU to his lady love,
but at the last moment he came ashore again,
vowing that sooner than part with Mary Simpson
he would let the ship sail without him. Tradition
has it that he was on his way to her house when he
was met by a friend who had him carried by force
on board his vessel. Nelson lived to fight another
day — so did the young lady. She afterwards mar-
244

SHOP-BREAKING
ried Major Mathews, the governor's secretary, who
rose to the rank of colonel, and at his death was
governor of Chelsea Hospital.
Paul Jones is another distinguished seaman who
stalks through the general's correspondence, where
tragedy and comedy walk side by side, as in the old
Gazettes: — "Saturday night about twelve o'clock
the window of a shop in the lower town was broke
open and a few of the most handy things carried
off. . . . How amazing it is that notwithstanding
the very recent melancholy example of the most
condign capital punishment inflicted for crimes of
this nature, that yet they should still persist in the
practice of them." Better to repent now than "to
express great sorrow and contrition at the whipping
post or under the gaUows." A long exhortation
foUows to the thieves "dancing on the edge of a
precipice," with a concluding injunction to house
holders to fasten their doors and windows.
Haldimand considered the Canadian horses re
markable only for draught, a good one for the
saddle being rare, as they were mostly too thick in
the shoulders and apt to trip. Curiosity is excited
concerning the quality of the mares that Mrs.
Butler, wife of the famous ranger, used to drive in
her chaise. We do not feel so far removed from the
eighteenth century when we see a reward offered
for the recovery of a "New Yellow Oil-cloth Urn-
breUo, lent and not returned ; name inside near the
middle," nor as we read, "Reward offered of £100
245

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
for detection of any one committing the Infamous,
Scandalous, Injurious and Shameful practice of
Clipping, Mutilating and Debasing the currency."
A recipe for making potato bread and another for
"Softening the hardest female heart" appeal to
men and women of the present, who are no less fond
of experimenting with patent medicines than were
their ancestors. A certain "Attenuating Tincture"
proved a sovereign remedy for rheumatism, sciatica
and kindred Uls in the case of one eighteenth
century dame who used only half a bottle. The
domestic servant problem loomed as large upon
that horizon as upon our own: — "Mr. R. Gray, at
New Gardens, near Quebec, having two likely,
healthy, negro women, both brought up to house
work, the one aged about thirty and the other
about eighteen years, is desirous of disposing of one
of them as they disagree together. They have both
had the smaUpox, and can be weU recommended."
Books were of more value then, as a reward of
two doUars each is offered for the return of the first
volume of Langhorn's "Plutarch" and a couple of
others missing. The Gazette has every week a prose
essay of high moral tone upon such subjects as
"The Influence of Taste upon Manners," "On
Gaming," "Politeness," "Thoughts on Prejudice,
Flattery and Virtue," "Definition of Beauty and
Means of Preserving it." The last was the produc
tion of a local writer, but most of the matter was
borrowed. Poems on "Winter," "Wealth," "Ode
246

ESSAYS AND POEMS
to a Red Breast," "On Time," "Modern Heroes, by
an Enemy to Duelling," "An Old Bachelor's Re
flections on Matrimony," "The Dance of the Hea
vens or Music of the Spheres," acrostics and so on
could always find space for themselves, but the
encouragement to local talent was scanty in view
of lines like these "To the Quebec Poet, On his
late inimitable Performance": —
Desist ! Vain pedant, crack no more your head ;
Thou wast not born to write poetic lays,
To poize the scales and retail skeins of thread
Is yours, but not to wear a crown of bays.
Your verse I view'd with an impartial eye,
Explor'd the meaning with a critic's care,
But sorry am my judgment can't descry
One line of sense, one verse of measure there.
Let me advise (if in the Mufti line)
Resume your ells and measure out your stuffs ;
If you're a pedagogue I pray decline,
Nor hurt our senses with such peurile puffs.
Montreal, February 10th, 1783.

247

CHAPTER XIII
THE LOYALISTS
ON August 12th, 1775, General Gage, penned
up with his troops in Boston, received an
unappreciated honour in the shape of a letter
signed "George Washington." Complaint was made
therein of the treatment given to members of the
continental forces whom the fortunes of war had
placed in British hands, no attention being paid to
the fact that the sick and officers were thrown into
the common gaol as felons. Gage denied the charge,
said that his prisoners were treated with care and
kindness, but begged leave to caU General Wash
ington's attention to the abuse of His Majesty's
loyal subjects who had either to die of hunger or
take up arms against their king. If this was done in
retaliation for his behaviour to prisoners, it was
"barbarity founded on falsehood."
The American commander-in-chief afterwards
went further and ordered that those wno refused to
bear arms in the revolutionary cause should be put
to death. The Canadian governor said of forty men
who had taken refuge in his province, yet did not
wish to serve it, that he could not "think of putting
them into confinement leaving them no other alter
native than to serve contrary to their inclinations. 249

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
Some means must be found to employ them, as it
would be certainly improper and perhaps unsafe to
let them go about the country, though their im
prisonment would discover a harshness very dis
couraging to men who profess loyalty."
Washington and Haldimand had many char
acteristics in common: the same patience under
difficulties, the same lofty ideal of duty; but the
attitude of the former towards Loyalists to whom
he could recommend only suicide, is in striking
contrast to the latter's kind treatment of rebel
prisoners. He was speciaUy thanked by General
Schuyler for his care of the men, women and
children brought to his door by frontier raiders, and
we have his own letter of instructions to the officer
in command at Montreal to let a number of those
unfortunates proceed to their friends as soon as the
weather moderated sufficiently for them to travel.
Parties from the revolted colonies who wished to
remain under British rule were told to report them
selves at Sackett's Harbour, Oswego and Niagara,
where large numbers were fed and sheltered. The
armed boats upon Lake Champlain were kept busy
transporting refugees to Isle aux Noix, and no
smoke, flag or other signal of their presence along
the shores was disregarded, though naval officers
and men ran great risks of being decoyed into land
ing under false pretences and being cut off from
return. The crimes agamst inoffensive people committed
250

THE LOYALISTS
in the name of patriotism were enough to make an
honest lover of his country choose another word
for its expression. The Loyalists were no less
patriotic than their neighbours. Like the more sane
and better balanced party that controUed events at
the beginning of the French revolution, they be
lieved the rights of the people could be gained by
constitutional measures without recourse to mob
law, leading on to individual persecution, anarchy
and the guiUotine. The Conservative party in any
state has not usuaUy been considered by broad-
minded historians to be lacking in patriotism ; on
the contrary, the very dislike to change which leads
its members to bear the Uls they have rather than
fly to others that they know not of, has, time
and again, proved a saving brake upon the wheels
of the more progressive party.
Past record should count for something, and had
Britain shown herself, through every change of
ministry, determined to tyrannize over the colonies,
there would not have been found therein so many
inteUigent people ready to trust to her ultimate
righting of wrongs which pressed as heavily on
them as upon any other class of the community.
During the Seven Years' War, French and English
officers were very fond of exchanging civilities when
opportunity offered, and neither nation grudged the
other the credit due for the bravery of its troops;
but in a civU war, angry passions fiU the whole
heart, leaving no room for the common instincts of
251

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
humanity. As soon as the war between the Northern
and Southern States was ended, there was a neces
sity for healing the breach, if the two were to live
together in union, and every means was taken to
gain that end ; but in the revolutionary struggle, no
less a civU war, permanent division between parties
was the outcome and there was no necessity for
acknowledgment of the possible virtues of the los
ing side. It is only in our own day that American
historians are beginning to take wider views of the
subject and to disavow the teaching of their ances
tors regarding the Tories who were " to be avoided
as persons contaminated with the most dreadful
contagion and remain as their just demerits, vaga
bonds on the face of the earth."
Laws were passed by congress, as weU as by
separate states, for the furtherance of this laudable
end, and individual enmity found ample scope in
the popular practices of tarring and feathering,
ducking, rail-riding, and other pleasing sports at
the expense of their betters.
British officers who wished to sail for England
after the peace went by New York at the risk of
insults from the populace. The commander-in-chief
in Canada highly resented this conduct and to one
of his subordinates who wished to sojourn for a
time across the border he wrote : — "Situated as we
stiU are with the Americans, it is with great reluc
tance I permit any officers to pass through their
country, but I cannot allow that any of them
252

TORIES IN ARMS
should go into the States for the purpose of remain
ing there upon a visit."
The Jacobites of Scotland, whose sufferings were
in behalf of a far worse monarch than George the
Third, have received more than their due at the
hands of poet and novelist. A fresh field, no less
harrowing incidents, and a like amount of devotion
to a hopeless cause can be found in the Loyalist
records of any state in the original thirteen. Men
who escaped the hangman and skulked in the
woods to see their wives and chUdren banished
from the homes they had laboured long to make
for them ; to know that their stock was driven off
and their household goods put up at auction, their
lands sold to strangers — not family estates as a rule
but ground of which they had cleared every square
yard by the sweat of their brows — men like these,
non-combatants at the outset, came to Canada
by hundreds and asked to be enlisted against the
tyranny that had robbed them of their all. Some
disguised as Indians went on scouting expeditions
to familiar neighbourhoods, though certain to be
hanged if caught.
Sir Guy Carleton began the formation of a
Loyalist corps and General Haldimand continued
the enlistment, tiU in 1779, there were reported to
be more men in these companies than in Washing
ton's whole army. During the war no less than
twenty-five thousand Tories took up arms for the
maintenance of the British connection. 253

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
A recital of the persecution endured by helpless
women, children and old people, before their final
expulsion to take up the long and toilsome traU to
Canada, was enough to melt a heart of stone and
General Haldimand's was not of that material. The
abstracts of the archive reports bear witness to the
number of petitions that poured in throughout his
rule. For example: — "John Macdonnel, loyalist,
74 years of age, and his wife 67. Stating that he
has nine sons, seven in the army, and two on the
King's works. The persecutions he has suffered;
being reduced to poverty from the losses he has
sustained, prays for relief." (1781)
"Mary Rogers, widow of a loyalist. Praying for
subsistence, her husband having been hanged for
his loyalty, by the rebels in 1777, she herself
stripped of everything and obliged to fly for shelter
to her relations. That not satisfied the rebels or
dered her to leave the country." (1782)
One of the governor's first labours was to succour
those he found in the province on his arrival and
to prepare for the reception of the multitude ex
pected. Some were sheltered at Riviere du Loup,
near Three Rivers, tUl a more permanent settle
ment could be formed at Machiche in the same
neighbourhood under the direction of Conrad Gugy,
a Swiss who had been Haldimand's secretary while
he was governor at Three Rivers. Bedding, fuel,
utensils and provisions were sent there from Que
bec, and by December Gugy wrote that there was
254

LAND ALLOTMENTS
stiU room for forty in the houses he had put up at
Machiche. Having full confidence in Haldimand's judgment,
as weU as his knowledge of the country, the
British ministry left to him the distribution of the
Loyalists, with the suggestion that the important
district of Sorel be settled as soon as possible with
old soldiers, in order to form a barrier at that
entrance of the province. To ensure the district's
being thickly populated, the lots were made small,
only sixty acres, but each settler was to have a
town lot in addition, as soon as a site was fixed
upon, and the remainder of his aUowance would be
granted him either on the Chaleur Bay or at
Cataraqui, now Kingston.
The governor enforced the strictest impartiality
in the bestowal of lands, and would not grant to
officers the choice of front lots at Sorel, as they
requested, but said they must take their chances in
drawing, on an equality with the men. The aUow
ance for aU was sufficiently liberal — 5,000 acres to
a field officer, 3,000 apiece to the captains, 2,000 to
subalterns, 200 to each non-commissioned officer or
private, with an extra grant of fifty acres more for
his wife and each chUd. Arrived at the age of
twenty-one, every son or daughter of a Loyalist was
given 200 acres in addition. Military settlers were
numerous, through the disbanding at the peace of
such regiments as the Royal Highland Emigrants
(84th) the King's Royal Regiment of New York
255

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
and Butler's Rangers. The last named took up
land along the Niagara frontier, where, in 1784,
there were over seven hundred acres cleared by less
than fifty settlers.
At Sorel had been made the earliest efforts for
the propagation of the Protestant religion in Can
ada, but the cause did not advance under the
ministrations of "the irreverend Mr. Scott," as a
contemporary caUs him. This gentleman acted as
chaplain to the 34th Regiment, but proved a constant
source of annoyance to its colonel, Barry St. Leger,
of whom he made so many unjust complaints to
the commander-in-chief that he was told that no
more such scurrilous epistles would be received,
and he was forbidden to exercise the functions of a
clergyman in the province. His successor (1782),
the Rev. John Doty, was to have lodgings in the
barracks, and he asked also for the use of a govern
ment buUding in which to hold services, as the
French church had hitherto been used for Protes
tant worship.
As usual the native tribes were not consulted
in the peace negotiations between two white races,
and the commander at Niagara reported how the
tidings of them were received: — "The Indians, from
the surmises they have heard of the boundaries,
look upon our conduct to them as treacherous and
cruel; they told me they would never believe that
our King could pretend to cede to America what
was not his own to give, or that the Americans
256

THE INDIAN CLAIMS
would accept from him what he had no right to
grant. They added that many years ago their an
cestors had granted permission to the French King
to buUd trading-houses or smaU forts on the water
communication between Canada and the Western
Indians, in the heart of their country, for the con
venience of trade only, without granting one inch
of land but what the forts stood upon, and that at
the end of the last war they granted leave to Sir
William Johnson to hold these forts for their aUy,
the King of England, but it was impossible from
that circumstance only to imagine that the King of
England should pretend to grant to the Americans
the whole country of the Indians lying between the
Lakes and the fixed boundaries as settled in 1768,
between the colonies and the Indians, or that any
part of it could be claimed by the Americans or
granted by the English to them. . . . They would
not be the aggressors, but they would defend their
own just rights, or perish in the attempt to the last
man; they were but a handful of smaU people, but
they would die like men, which they thought pre
ferable to misery and distress if deprived of their
hunting grounds."
General Schuyler, it seemed, had been threaten
ing the Six Nations, and it took all Haldimand's
diplomancy to keep them from reprisals. He told
the Indians it was as much to the interest of
the Americans as to their own to five at peace,
whatever they might say. The Six Nations thought
257

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
he should take up their quarrel with the United
States, but this, of course, he could not do, though
he promised lands under his own rule to aU who
chose to emigrate. So from the banks of the Ohio
and the Wabash, from the shores of the lakes in
New York State, caUed by the tribal names, came
other mournful bands of exUes to begin the popula
tion of what is now the province of Ontario. They
settled first at Cataraqui, but it was considered
wiser to send them further west where there were
no white men, and where they could make alliances
with other native tribes and possess their hunting
grounds in peace. By the advice of Joseph Brant
a district twenty miles from the head of Lake
Ontario was fixed upon and the deed of gift was
issued: — "The said Mohawk nation and such of the
Six Nations as wish to settle in that quarter, to
take possession of and settle upon the banks of the
river commonly called the Ouse or Grand River,
running into Lake Erie, aUotting to them for that
purpose six miles deep from each side of the river,
beginning at Lake Erie and extending in that pro
portion to the head of said river." (Oct. 25th, 1784.)
In aU his dealings with the Indians, Haldimand
was a worthy representative of the government
that has never permitted its subjects to impose
upon them. Land was wanted for the Loyalists
upon which the St. Regis Indians thought they had
a claim. WhUe the governor did not agree with
them, he ordered it to be recognized, and £1,500 was
258

VISIT OF BARON STEUBEN
paid to the Mohawks to satisfy their demands,
though it was characteristic of His Excellency
to bind them down not to tell what they had
received lest other Indians should put in similar
claims. He believed in keeping his left hand in
ignorance of what his right hand was doing —
from economical motives. The commander at Mich
iUimakinak talked of appropriating a certain large
district for the Loyalists, but was told that his
chief did not approve "of making encroachments
upon the interests of the Indians in their lands, so
much the practice of the Americans, and so alarm
ing to the Indians."
Knowing what Pontiac had done after the last
war, he was most unwilling to unsettle the savages
by giving up the frontier posts untU there seemed
some likelihood of amity between the Indians and
their new masters. When the Baron Steuben came
as ambassador from congress to demand the sur
render of the western forts, he met the general
at Sorel, where he was sojourning at the govern
ment cottage he had built as a summer retreat.
Haldimand had written to Lord North from Que
bec, August 6th, 1783:— "I will leave this place
to-day as I think it best that Major-General
de Steuben should not come further than Sorel —
and should have as little opportunity as possible of
making observations in this country where there
are so many people from a variety of reasons
dissatisfied with the Provisional Treaty." 259

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
The baron went away duly impressed with the
general's courtesy but also with his determination
not to yield the posts without special instructions
from his government, which so far had ordered
merely a cessation of hostilities. Haldimand advised
the ministry to grant nothing further untU congress
upon its side showed some disposition to have the
articles of the Treaty relating to the Loyalists
fulfilled. Not yet had there been any slackening in
their persecution, nor were there evidences of a
disposition to restore their confiscated estates or to
do them any manner of justice.
Haldimand wrote Major de Peyster that Niagara,
Detroit and MichiUimakinak were to be defended
at all costs, and if necessary reinforcements should
be sent to Oswego, since holding the posts meant
holding the Indians. " Whatever the result, it is our
duty to persist in our endeavours to conciliate their
minds and prevent a return of the calamities of
war, in which I hope the Americans wiU be equaUy
studious, when the violence of party has a fittle
subsided." The general had another argument for refusing
to yield possession of the upper posts — they were
absolutely necessary to the protection and mainten
ance of the fur trade. Of Canada as a commercial
country he had no great opinion, and counseUed
Great Britain against too large an outlay in her de
fence. The northern situation and the unprogressive
French population would work against her value as
260

THE NORTH WEST COMPANY
an English colony, and the influx of Loyalists who
would not blend with the Canadians might only
lead to future complications with the United States.
There was only one paying business in Canada, and
that was the fur trade. To protect this was the
governor's object, not to make money out of it
himself, as so many of the French rulers had done.
With the Hudson's Bay Company he had nothing
to do, its headquarters being in England and the
scene of its labours being reached by the vast
inland sea from which it took its name, but
during the winter of 1783-4 a rival company was
started by Montreal merchants, and to them Haldi
mand felt bound to give every assistance in his
power. The North West Company they caUed
themselves, and they became the merchant princes
of the time, carrying on a trade of mighty con
sequence both to Canada and the mother country.
Suspecting that the boundary line between Canada
and the States would run directly through their
canoe route by the Rainy lake and river to Lake
Winnipeg, Benjamin and Joseph Frobisher on be
half of the company proposed attempting the dis
covery of a new passage entirely in Canadian
territory; and they petitioned the governor for
an exclusive right to the use of such, if discovered,
for at least ten years, during which time passes to
the Grand Portage at Lake Superior should be
refused. Haldimand was unable to grant their re
quest, but he did better in advising " that at present
261

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
it would be most prudent not to express any doubt
respecting the boundary line, or to propose a survey
of it, for whenever that happens it must be a
mutual business and will give the Americans an
opportunity of acquiring an equal knowledge with
us of the advantage of the fur trade, of which they
are at present but iU-informed."
He quietly gave instructions to the commander
at MichiUimakinak to have surveys made and a new
post within the Canadian lines selected in case
he should be obliged to move from the present one.
Point aux Pins was one of the places suggested and
Thessalon another, whereat the 84th would have
been pleased to take up land. EventuaUy the gov
ernor's diplomacy prevailed and the upper posts
were not surrendered tiU 1796.1
The North West Company was aUowed to build
a smaU vessel at Detroit for use upon Lake Superior,
but other private craft upon the lakes wrere for-
1 Private diary of General Haldimand, London, May 31st, 1790, —
" Was at Mr. Grenville's office at noon. He asked if I believed that bj-
giving over the posts in Canada the Indians would lose mm \, and if by
fortifying posts opposite them that trade might be secured. He wished
in giving up the posts that a communication with the Mississippi might
be obtained from the Americans. I told him that with respect to the
trade a part would certainly be lost, but that this loss would perhaps be
made up by the goods that our merchants would sell to the Americans,
and further, I believed that if the Americans insisted on having the
posts a merit should be made of giving them up ; that if determined to
have them, they were so numerous they could take them when they
thought proper ; that I did not believe Great Britain would undertake
a war to defend them. I showed him what posts it would be proper t"
take to form a communication, etc. He asked me to put in writing nr
ideas on the subject."
262

PROGRESS. OF THE LOYALISTS
bidden, in order to prevent the smuggling of furs
into the States. AU merchandise must be trans
ported in the king's vessels.
The Nor 'Westers were active in the establish
ment of a route between Lakes Ontario and Huron
by way of Lake Simcoe and the Toronto Portage.
Extensive surveys were made for the benefit of
Loyalists, in the same region as weU as between the
Ottawa and the St. Lawrence, and in Nova Scotia,
which at that time included New Brunswick.
Thither came thousands of refugees — from the sea
coasts of the States, even as far south as the
Carolinas, exiles as worthy of pity as any Acadians,
but as yet unidealized by a poet of world-wide repu
tation. A road through the forest to St John was
begun in 1783, and upon the shores of the Cha-
leur Bay barracks and huts were pushed forward
at a rate only possible for men " working for them
selves in view of a pinching winter."
A letter from Halifax, January 16th, 1784, de
scribes the situation : — " The increasing population,
buUding and improvements in Nova Scotia are
reaUy amazing. Large towns arise in 7 or 8 months
that exceed Halifax in inhabitants. Shelburne on
the harbour of Port Roseway has 9,000 people and
more under roof, many in good houses. On St.
John River, Carleton and the town opposite are
stiU more populous. In the Bay of Fundy numerous
towns are begun, Annapolis is rebuilt and aug
mented. The old settlements from Cape Sable
263

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
to Halifax are revived with new inhabitants, and
from this place to the Eastern limits of the province
aU the harbours wear an aspect of business and
inhabitancy." Roman Catholic settlers were not required to
take the oath of supremacy, merely the oath of
aUegiance, but their number was small in compari
son with the vast body of Protestants upon whose
arrival the priests of Canada looked with alarm,
fearing that the influence of their religion would be
diminished. The habitants foresaw that the new
comers for whose reception they were forced to
labour would not be long in calling for the repeal of
the Quebec Act.
Lord North was of the opinion that the district
we now know as the Eastern Townships, lying
between the St. Lawrence and the States, would
be a suitable country for military settlers, but
Haldimand thought differently, judging it impru
dent to bring recent combatants to close quarters.
He deemed it wiser to leave the region uncultivated
for a time, and then to settle it with French Cana
dians who would serve as a buffer against the
restless New England States. The upper country
bordering upon Lake Ontario and the Ottawa was
what he favoured for early settlements, predicting
that it would in time " become a granary for the
lower parts of Canada, where crops are precarious
and liable to be engrossed by a few designing
and interested traders."
264

SUPPLYING THE LOYALISTS
Forty miles of land were purchased from the
Mississaugas on Lake Ontario, and Cataraqui was
the chief settlement. A "medley of people " gathered
there, Royal Highland Emigrants, Rangers, Hes
sians, besides settlers from every one of the thirteen
States. A few of the Six Nations Indians could not
be persuaded to foUow the majority to the Grand
River, as their chiefs chose to retain their im
portance by governing a smaUer body upon the Bay
of Quintd. The Reverend Mr. Stuart was asked to
use his influence towards their removal, with the
representation that union was strength, and he
visited periodicaUy the main Mohawk settlement to
report upon the education of the Indian youth, for
whom a schoolmaster was engaged at £25 a year.
A church, grist and sawmills were put up at
Cataraqui erelong, and the Loyalists, turned farm
ers perforce, were assisted by seed wheat which the
government purchased for them in Vermont and
also in the vaUey of the Mohawk. No other trade
with the United States was aUowed. Grindstones,
axes, ploughs, hoes and other implements were
brought from England for the settlers, who were fed
and clothed at the expense of government for three
years, or untU able to support themselves, but
some of them grumbled that they were not given
stock also. How to meet the enormous expense
incurred was a question that taxed to the ut
most the energies of the governor-general. He
wrote to Lord North for definite instructions as to
265

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
the extent of the assistance to be given, but while
awaiting an answer he could not let the people
starve, and so took upon himself the responsibility
of supplying their more pressing wants. Even when
half rations were ordered, he continued the fuU
measure at his own risk and was a little disap
pointed that the recipients were indifferent to his
sacrifices on their behalf.
His liberality made still more urgent the neces
sity for economy in other directions, and he ordered
a prompt decrease in the Indian presents which
had been largely increased in quantity and quality
during the war. Of the latter there is evidence in
the fact of a sUversmith in Quebec requesting that
he should be aUowed to supply the sUver plate
wanted for the Indians. Gifts might stUl be given
to widows, orphans, men disabled in the service, or
for any cause speciaUy deserving, but a stop must
be put to indiscriminate bestowal upon the greedy
hordes who flocked to Montreal, merely for "frivol
ous purposes." The chiefs were of course alarmed at
the diminution of presents which indicated a loss of
their own importance, but Haldimand was another
Frontenac in the firmness as weU as the fairness of
his deafings with them, and they knew it was of
no use to protest.
Several of the characters whose acquaintance we
made through the Vermont affair reappear as
Loyalists. Mr. Enos wants to settle two Canadian
townships with weU-to-do people who wiU need
266

DIFFICULTIES OF SETTLEMENT
naught but the land, whUe the Rev. Mr. Cossitt
writes on behalf of his parishioners who have not
bowed the knee to Baal, and crave room in His
Majesty's dominions only for the protection of his
laws against the gathering storm of persecution
likely to burst upon their heads. Captain Sherwood
is one of the many who hope that Haldimand wiU
not leave Canada tUl affairs are in a more settled
condition, since in him the Loyalists wUl lose their
sole benefactor. He is of those who would fain
settle near Missisquoi Bay, but the general refuses
to break the rule for him, believing it to be
"impossible that Dispositions so opposite from
principle, aggravated by violent persecution and
loss of property can be suddenly reconcUed." The
captain went off upon government surveys, but
there were others less obedient who persisted in
taking up their abode upon the boundaries, being
urged thereto by circulars from interested parties,
and when one lot after another had been banished,
the governor decreed that the next settlers in the
prohibited border-land should have their houses
burned. Much has been written of the sufferings of the
Loyalists, but who wiU say a word of the trouble
they gave this benevolent governor-general, in bad
health himself, wishing for his recaU to England,
but sticking to his post and never letting his
personal aUments interfere with his attention to
duty? He tried, as far as possible, to find out the
267

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
previous condition of this multitude of refugees
thrust upon him in so short a space, and adapted
his relief accordingly. A list was made of the young
women, as weU as the young men, accustomed
to earn their living by manual labour, and the
former were given washing to do for the volunteers
"at four coppers a shirt and other things in propor
tion." Coloured people who came from the colonies
had to be speciaUy protected, as they ran the risk of
being sold for slaves in Montreal, and so confused
and crowded was the manner of arrival of most
of the Loyalists that it was found necessary to
prevent imposition by deferring the distribution of
clothing untU a general muster could be arranged.
"Everyone pretends to supreme command," wrote
one of the distracted commissioners, who had his
hands full in dealing with aU sorts and conditions
of men. Haldimand said himself on this subject:
"The true spirit of a refugee loyalist, driven from
his country by persecution is to carry arms, but
there is no end to it if every man that comes in
is to be considered and paid as an officer."
" Some are loyal from principle ; many from
interest, many from resentment," was General
Howe's estimate of the Tories, and these distinc
tions remained among them after their emigration.
Besides emigrants eminently desirable, there was
a proportion of undesirable ones — land-jobbers who
sold their lots and went back into the States with the
money ; idle feUows, who had done no good there
268

LOYALISTS AND LOYALISTS
and hoped to live at the expense of the British
government; sick people who brought smaUpox
and measles with them and made an outcry at the
closing of the Sorel hospital after they were cured.
The doctors had pronounced against the herding
together of smaUpox patients who could enjoy the
luxury of inoculation at their own homes, and the
continued complaints from the new subjects were
said to arise "chiefly from a want of Brotherly love
among themselves."
Haldimand found that the best way to settle
disputes in his troublesome family was to stop
the supply of provisions, or to issue rations of
salt beef to the ringleaders. Some who did not find
Canada all they expected, hearing that the enmity
against the Tories was relaxing, wanted to return
to the States, and the governor told his officers
to wink at their departure, since the country was
better without them if they did not wish to stay.
Others had a rage for recruiting over the border
which had to be discouraged, and some went off
land-hunting on their own account, leaving wives
and chUdren to be fed in their absence. It grew
necessary to insist upon families travelling in com
pany to enforce an early settlement, even though
husbands and fathers should make complaint that
they had not seen the lands they were to occupy.
Among the multitudinous prayers for assistance
Haldimand received, it is unusual to find one like
that of Hugh Monro, who asks for employment, as
269

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
he is ashamed to receive help and do nothing in
return. Thus struggling against land monopolists ; against
settlers within the American lines who contrived to
draw rations in Canada ; against grumblers who per
sisted in demanding tools that could not be given to
aU ; against iU-disposed persons who fiUed the minds
of the more credulous with the idea that they were
to be enslaved in Canada, and that injustice presided
over the distribution of lands and provisions, the
governor proceeded with his benevolent duty of
finding homes for the outcasts. To control the
labour and expense involved in making surveys and
transporting settlers into an unbroken wUderness
required executive ability of no mean order. The
circumstances of the Loyalists were hard enough,
but how much worse they would have been had
there been a less able and resolute governor to
relieve them. His generosity in caring for them on
their arrival, the good judgment he displayed in
fixing upon their location, bore fruit not in his time
but long afterwards.
If Haldimand had acted differently in the crisis,
Upper Canada would not have been made a strong
British province, able to defy not only absorption
into French Canada, but the invasion of her south
ern neighbours in 1812. With a weaker man at the
helm, one who would have yielded to the exactions
of some of the Loyalists, there would have been
confusion worse confounded. He controUed them
270

RESULTS OF HIS POLICY
and he controlled his own agents so that everything
was done decently and in order, without serious
friction either between the newcomers and the
French Canadians or between Loyalists and the
dweUers in the land they had left. In so far as the
first settlers partook of his thrift and his tireless
patience in overcoming difficulties, are they worthy
to be classed with Haldimand, the founder of
Ontario.

271

CHAPTER XIV
HIS EXCELLENCY'S ENEMIES
THE man who is a strong partisan wiU be
defended by those of his own way of thinking
unto the third and fourth generations, but he who
tries to do justice to both sides is almost certain to
be abused by both and by their chUdren's chUdren.
This has been Haldimand's fate and it rests with
the disinterested student of history to search for the
cause of his unpopularity. Undoubtedly he never
sought public favour; to the king and his min
isters he owed an account of his stewardship and
them alone he sought to please. What the masses,
the ignorant people he was sent to govern, thought
of his measures in their behalf was of but little
consequence to General Frederick Haldimand. He
knew better than they did themselves what was
good for them, and by his interpretation of the
Quebec Act he was enabled to play the part of
an amiable despot.
His hardest task was not the repulsion of actual
rebel attacks upon the frontiers, but the discovery
and suppression of the subtle means employed to
undermine the aUegiance of the French Canadians.
A few natives of old France were the arch-plotters,
and the lengthy imprisonment of several of these
273

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
was the chief cause of the outcry against Haldi
mand's administration upon which the changes
have been rung even unto our own day.
"The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones."
One of the governor's fiercest foes was a certain
seignior who objected to the cutting of wood for
the Sorel garrison upon his property, though weU
paid for it, and likewise to the building of a bridge
over the river Berthier since it put his profitable
ferry out of service. The modern French Canadian
idea of Haldimand is that of a stern-faced gaoler
turning the key upon hundreds of innocent persons
to whom he has refused the reasonable satisfaction
of knowing the cause of their incarceration. As
a matter of fact, he imprisoned nineteen persons for
reasons of state and some of these were detained
but a few days. From a letter to Brigadier de Speth
it appears that His ExceUency was by no means
anxious to add to their number: — "I am favoured
with your letter of the 19th inst, reporting the
taking into custody of the 5 suspected inhabitants
of Montreal, agreeably to my desire and likewise
the 4 Canadians upon information of the rebel Cap
tain Vroman — as this is done it becomes more
necessary that Vroman should be particularly cir
cumstantial in his charges against them, otherwise
we shaU have our prisons fiUed upon trifling sus
picions or from private pique. The liberty of the
subject being by our laws very sacred it is neces-
274

REBEL SYMPATHISERS
sary that suspicion should be well founded to
justify imprisonment Except in cases where the
service shall require immediate decision it wiU be
necessary in future that you wait for my particular
directions as civil governor to apprehend any sub
ject for state crimes."
"But he suspended the Habeas Corpus Act," cry
his detractors. He could not suspend that which
was not in operation during his regime, though he
took measures for its establishment before he left
the country. In any case the laws that hold good
in time of peace are frequently upset in war-time,
and Lord Germaine had written Haldimand that it
was not in his power, as governor of Quebec, to
pardon treason. It is greatly to the general's credit
that he did not follow military methods nor con
demn a single person to death. If but from economic
motives, he was averse to having more captives
than he could accommodate. Every gaol in the
province was so full of prisoners of war that
numbers were allowed at large on parole which
many broke and escaped to their own country.
This they could not have done without help from
the habitants, but Haldimand was never hard upon
the humbler sympathisers with congress, not even
upon the good wives of Ste. Therese who had
supplied food to the rebel scouts. They were dis
missed with a warning.
The governor was informed that His Majesty
was loath to have suspects imprisoned, being
275

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
desirous of giving proof of his conciliatory disposi
tion, but Haldimand was to use his own judgment
in the matter, which told him to secure the ring
leaders at any cost. There was Fleury Mesplet, for
example, proprietor of the first printing press in
Montreal, and the publisher of its first books,
a couple of religious works in French. He had
come in 1776 from Philadelphia, where two years
before he had had the printing and translating of the
address of congress to the Canadians, and he was
chosen to accompany the commissioners sent to
Montreal to confer with General Arnold after the
failure of his attack upon Quebec. One of their
plans was to start a French newspaper under the
direction of Mesplet, but the time was unpropitious
and when the rebel army withdrew from Montreal
only the printer remained. He began business in
the custom house square, St. Paul street, and was
the originator of the Montreal Gazette, issued every
Wednesday on and after June 3rd, 1778, at the
rate of ten coppers weekly or two and a half
Spanish doUars a year. The first volume was in
French and English, a harmless production accord
ing to. the prospectus: — "I propose to fiU a sheet
with publick advertisements and other affairs, im
mediately concerning trade and commerce, to which
wiU be added some diversified pieces of Literature.
I dare flatter myself, as I hope, Gentlemen, you
wUl encourage this, my feeble beginning, that you
wiU in a short time see with satisfaction not only a
276

FLEURY MESPLET
great variety of Notices and Advertisements but
also a coUection of facts both entertaining and
instructive. I wUl endeavom' to procm-e a choice
coUection of the Newest Pieces, and I don't doubt
but this wiU stir up the genius of many who have
remained in a state of inaction, or could not com
municate their productions without the help of the
Press. I wUl insert in the above Paper, or Gazette,
everything that one or more gentlemen wiU be
pleased to communicate to me, provided always no
mention be made of Religion, Government, or News
concerning the present affairs, unless I Avas author
ized from Government for so doing, my intention
being only to confine myself in what concerns
Advertisements, Commercial and Literary affairs."
M. Mesplet and his editor, M. Jotard, did not
succeed in adhering to these admirable resolutions,
but sent forth a scurrilous sheet caUed Tant pis,
tant mieux, the first French journal published in
America, "defaming aU the King's officers and try
ing to throw the colony into confusion/' They were
arrested and ultimately banished for presuming, as
Dr. Laterriere puts it, to criticize the sage policy
of the English government and the despotism of
the "cruel, hard and wicked Swiss."'
M. Laterriere was no friend of theirs, but he sur
passed them in hatred of "the inhuman," "the
infernal " General Haldimand who had the effront
ery to imprison a gentleman of France like himself.
What if pickaxes, petards and cannon-baUs from
277

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
the St. Maurice forges had found their way into
the hands of the late rebel party besieging Quebec
— was he, the inspector, to blame ? It could not
be proved of him that he had ever encouraged the
desertion of Canadians, or made preparation for the
reception of an invading army, though his instincts
were aU emancipating and hospitable. In short, a
more innocent, much-wronged, and withal clever
and light-hearted character never left behind him
romantic fiction under the title of Les Memoires de
Pierre de Sales Laterriere et de ses traverses.
Another of the same profession, in every sense,
Surgeon PUlon, practised treason as weU as physic
in the Quebec suburbs of Montreal, where he held
unlawful consultations with rebel emissaries. Haldi
mand had fuU proof of his correspondence with
Washington and Lafayette for some time but post
poned his arrest in the hope of discovering his
accomplices. At length in September, 1780, the
governor gave orders that PUlon should be seized
at daybreak as quietly as possible and sent in irons
to Quebec in the hold of a provision ship. Among
his papers was found ample evidence of the promises
he had made the rebel leaders to secure provisions for
their army in case of an invasion, as weU as to join
them immediately with thirty-eight men, a number,
he said, likely to be increased enormously, as three-
fourths of the province were in favour of congress.
Another gentleman of France put out of the way
of mischief for a time was Francois Cazeau, a man
278

CAZEAU AND HAY
of means with many friends whose seizure was to
be given at least the appearance of legality. He
was known to be in correspondence with General
Schuyler and to have been instrumental in pervert
ing the Indians. Charles Hay, a prominent Scot,
was a Quebec member of the same clique, but he
was blessed with a devoted and mtelfigent wife who
"crossed the ocean to plead for him," presenting a
lengthy memorial to the secretary of state for the
colonies in February, 1782. Her husband, she said,
was a cooper in the timber trade, dealing also in
wine and rum, spending his whole time in "Trade
and Industry, an employment very different from
the Machinations of Treason or Plots against the
State." Two years had he been in prison without a
trial and without being told for what he was held,
as "his enemies have fatally made a deep impression
on General Haldimand who continues as unrelent
ing as ever." The lady's remonstrances moved Lord
Shelburne to request an explanation from the
governor, who replied with the satisfactory evidence
he had for locking up, not Hay alone, but the
wealthiest and wiliest of the confederates, M. Pierre
Du Calvet
Haldimand had been slightly chagrined that
Brigadier MacLean, acting upon information ob
tained in PUlon's papers, had been so precipitate
in his arrest of the last-named gentleman, as it
rendered fruitless "any inquiry which I might have
thought proper to have made into his conduct at
279

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
Quebec and into the motives of his journey," which,
according to Major Carleton, had been undertaken
for the purpose of obtaining plans of the new
fortifications. M. Du Calvet was stopped at Three
Rivers by an officer sent after him by MacLean,
the Montreal commander acting on his own re
sponsibility, as he judged that in so doing he was
"erring on the right side," since Du Calvet would
escape over the border as soon as he heard that
PlUon's papers were secured. "Many people in
Canada," the governor wrote to the minister, "are
attached both to France and the revolted Colonies.
I have contented myself with diligently preventing
Effects of their bad Example and bad designs, and
pretending ignorance of them, but on these two
occasions the circumstances were too public for me
not to interfere and to use authority." These men
had sown in the minds of the people hopes of an
invasion. "I hope the Whole Conduct and Tenor
of my Life frees me from a Suspicion of Cruelty or
Persecution, and be assured, my Lord, that I wait
with Impatience for that Moment when it wiU be
in my Power to release them, for notwithstanding
the Injurious Misrepresentations contained in their
Complaints, I never had, nor can have, the least
Personal Animosity agamst them. I have only to
add that Messrs. Hay and Du Calvet are both
mentioned in the List of enemies of the King's
Government and Adherents of the Rebels which
Sir Henry Clinton sent me from New York." Sir
280

DU CALVET'S ACTIONS
Henry's informant was no less a person than Bene
dict Arnold, to whose sins need not be added the
crime of plotting against the liberty of Frenchmen
in Canada, who were nothing to him.' Another
witness testified to having heard Du Calvet send a
message to the rebels concerning the amount of
wheat and flour he had in store for their advancing
army. He had supplied the troops that held Mont
real in 1775, and boasted in after years that he was
the only creditor congress ever paid. Written proof
of his designs was also forthcoming. Besides his
commission as ensign in the Canadian regiment to
be commanded by Colonel Moss Hazon in 1776,
there was "Intelligence wrote in Milk in the inter
mediate Spaces between the lines of a french
Song," which witnesses on oath swore originated
with Du Calvet.
One of his emissaries was captured whUe on the
way to the colonies, and upon being brought before
Major Carleton he agreed to teU aU he knew if he
were set free and not betrayed to his employers.
The promise given, he confessed that he had thrown
away in the woods the walking stick contain
ing his despatches, and on being taken to the
spot where he was arrested the same was found.
The major cut into the stick far enough to discover
that there reaUy were papers within, released the
emissary, who swore that he was employed by
M. Du Calvet, and sent the walking stick just as it
was to the governor-general. An eye-witness has
281

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
described His ExceUency's examination of the
letters hidden in the hoUow of the stick, and his
remark that unfortunately for himself, M. Du
Calvet had signed his own death warrant But he
was not hanged, nor did the general make public
the condemning evidence he had received, pro
bably from a nice sense of honour regarding the
promise given to the man who had put it into his
possession. He even directed that his prisoner's pro
posal to seU Indian goods to the government should
be accepted, if his terms were fair, since he did not
wish him to suffer financially "from his present
una voidable situation."
Unavoidable it was in the estimation of the
governor, who being moraUy certain of the man's
guilt was unwilling to bring him to trial until the
agents he had employed to coUect evidence had
found sufficient to convict him, for an acquittal
would have given enormous encouragement to rebel
sympathisers. Du Calvet, a man of violent passions,
totaUy unrestrained, would never credit the possi
bility of anyone having positive proof against him
and not producing it. From different sources can
be gleaned instances of his vindictiveness and un
truthfulness, yet it is mainly upon his testimony
that the slur has been cast upon Haldimand's char
acter and administration. If these men were set at
liberty, His ExceUency was confident he would
soon have to confine many others. He judged that
he had secured the ringleaders and broken the
282

DU CALVET RELEASED
chain of rebel correspondence, from the fact that
intercourse was less frequent and the minds of the
people not so often alarmed by reports of invasion
by rebel fleets and armies. The Canadians were
giving their assistance with less reluctance in the
services he had a right to require from them, but
the disaffected would become insolent and even
criminal were the prisoners set free.
The governor released them at the earliest peace
negotiations, before he received instructions from
the ministry, and M. Du Calvet at once repaired to
England to enter a lawsuit against His ExceUency
for false imprisonment. The book that he published
in French and in English affords an admirable
opportunity for the public to estimate the plaintiff's
pugnacity, also his lack of veracity. He contradicts
himself in his tale of the motives that brought him
to America in the first place, nor wUl history
endorse some of his statements concerning his early
adventures. The man was hypnotized from having
gazed too long at the unimpeachable brightness of
his oppressor's character, and for the rest of his fife
could see nothing but his own wrongs magnified
out of all proportion to the reality by brooding
upon them whUe in confinement
Without a doubt he believed in himself and in
the righteousness of his cause, else he could not
have gone the lengths that he did; but egotism,
lashed by passion, often amounts to insanity, though
not so called in the eighteenth century. His attacks
283

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
upon the public men of Canada had made him
notorious for more than twenty years, and yet he
can dictate to his translator: — "StiU it wiU be
asked, perhaps, how such a man as Mr. Du Calvet
has been here represented could ever have any
enemies ? The answer to this question is 'That
uncommon honesty and uprightness, accompanied
with a freedom of speech in declaring one's senti
ments of pubfick men and measures, though with
out the smaUest mixture of the love of satire and
calumny, are often the causes of envy, jealousy, and
aversion in men of different character, and more
especially of persons in office and of high station.'
And this seems to have been the cause that made
Mr. Du Calvet obnoxious to some persons of power
in Canada."
This sounds strange after the evidence he has
just been giving of his readiness to take offence
where the impartial reader cannot but suspect that
none was intended. General Haldimand he caUs a
weathercock for the capriciousness of his behaviour
to himself and others. The governor had been on
the point of setting him at liberty after three
months' imprisonment, but he took offence at the
freedom of tone in an expostulatory letter which
Du Calvet had written him "in the agony of his
soul and the consciousness of his perfect innocence."
The justification which Laterriere pronounces
"tres supe'rieurement raconte"' is thus epitomized: —
" To The Right Honourable Lord Sydney, His
284

DU CALVET'S MEMORIAL
Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the
Home Department : — The memorial of Peter Du-
Calvet, Esquire, of Montreal, in the Province of
Quebeck, humbly sheweth, That your Memorialist
has been settled in the province of Quebeck form
erly caUed Canada, ever since the year 1758, and
that some time after the peace in 1763, he sold his
patrimonial estate in the south of France, in order
to carry over the produce thereof into the said
province, and enjoy the benefits of the British
Government, as it was there established by the
King's proclamation of October, 1763, and the
commission to Governour Murray made in pur
suance of it : — That he executed the office of
a Justice of Peace in the said province with the
fairest reputation and the entire approbation of the
governours of the province, from the year 1766 to
the year 1775 : — That he has always acted as a
faithful and loyal subject to His Majesty, and
during the late war with the revolted provinces
in North America (now acknowledged by Great
Britain as the Thirteen United States in North
America), he always avoided entering into the
smaUest connection or correspondence with any
persons in the said provinces, or in any degree or
manner abetting their revolt .... But that, never
theless, he was arrested on the 27th day of Septem
ber, 1780, by Captain Lawes of the 84th regiment
of foot, called 'the Royal Emigrants,' in consequence
of a verbal order of Brigadier-General MacLeane
285

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
and carried as a prisoner to Quebeck and there put
on board the Canceauoc sloop of war, as a prisoner,
on the 29th of September, 1780, by a written order
issued by General Haldimand, the governour of the
province, but signed only by his private secretary,
Captain Matthews. — That he was detained on
board the Canceaux, as a prisoner in the harbour of
Quebeck from the 29th of September to the 14th
of November, 1780, and kept on salt provisions and
musty biscuit without being permitted to send any
person on shore to buy fresh provisions for him
with his own money ; — That then he was removed
to the military prison of Quebeck, and detained
there from the 14th day of November to the 13th
day of December, 1780, in the custody of MUes
Prenties, the Provost Martial of the army, in a very
nasty room, which he was not permitted to cause to
be cleaned at his own expense ; — and that after
wards, from the 13th of December, 1780, to the
2nd of May, 1783, he was detained as a prisoner in
the convent of the Re'coUets Monks, with circum
stances of great hardship and unnecessary severity,
which have greatly impaired his health ; — and that
throughout this tedious and unmerited confinement,
he never had any charge or accusation brought
against him, or could procure from General Haldi
mand a declaration of the cause of his imprisonment.
"Your Memorialist further sets forth, That, dur
ing this long and severe imprisonment by General
Haldimand's military power, he repeatedly desired
286

THE MEMORIAL CONTINUED
to be dealt with as the law directed, by either
being brought to a trial, if he was thought to have
been guilty of any offence, or being set at liberty,
either freely and absolutely, or at least upon giving
security for his future good behaviour and to
answer any charge that might be brought against
him ; and that Mr. L'Eveque, a very respectable
merchant of Quebeck, and who is a member of the
Legislative CouncU of the province, had offered
General Haldimand to become bound for him
in these respects ; but aU these proposals had been
refused. — And that after the refusals of these pro
posals, he had offered to make over aU his landed
and other property in the province (which was
considerable) to such persons or trustees, as Gen
eral Haldimand should appoint, to be kept in the
hands of such trustees untU the end of the late
unhappy war, as a security for his loyal and faithful
conduct during the remainder of it ; or, if that was
not thought sufficient, he desired to be sent to
England even as a prisoner rather than continue
in the nasty and unwholesome confinement in
which he was then kept: but that these proposals
likewise were refused.
"For this cruel and iUegal imprisonment your
Memorialist humbly hopes that the laws of Eng
land (under which he wishes to five and die) wUl
give him such a reasonable compensation as can
now be afforded him. For as to the damage done
to his health by the hardships he has gone through,
287

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
that, he fears, can never be repaired. But as Gen
eral Haldimand cannot be sued in the province of
Quebeck, so long as he continues governour of it ;
his high office of governour placing him above the
jurisdiction of the courts of the said province, he is
likewise out of the reach of the courts of justice of
Westminster Hall, whose jurisdiction does not
extend beyond the island of Great Britain. — Your
Memorialist humbly hopes that, in order to prevent
a faUure of justice arising from these circumstances,
your Lordship wiU advise His Majesty to com
mand General Haldimand to repair to England,
with aU convenient expedition, in order to answer
such complaints before His Majesty's courts of
justice here in England, as may be brought against
him by your Memorialist and the many other
persons who conceive themselves to have been
oppressed and injured by him in his office of gov
ernour of the said province of Quebeck.
"And your Memorialist, as in duty bound wiU
ever pray for your Lordship's welfare and pros
perity. . . . (signed) Peter Du Calvet."
In opposition to this must be noted the state
ment of Captain Schank relative to his fare on
board the Canceaux, where according to the gov
ernor's express command he was treated as a
gentleman, lodged in the same state-room His Ex
ceUency had occupied on board the same ship, slept
on the captain's bedding, dined with the officers at
their own table "and if he got salt meat, it must
288

HIS OPINION OF DU CAL VET'S BOOK
have been dressed on purpose for him at his own
desire, as the whole ship's company had fresh meat
twice a week." Captain Schank assured His Ex
ceUency that the prisoner "had fresh and corned
meat, poultry, fish, pudding, etc., drank wine,
spruce beer or grog.*' After a perusal of that unique
production "The Case of Pierre Du Calvet" the
captain remarked "it appears that Mr. Du Calvet
just wrote what things came into his head to draw
compassion from the world."
Much more indignant wras Father de Berey's
denial of the charges against the Recollets of
Quebec, which he sums up as a "compound of
abusive lies, gross falsehoods, atrocious impostures
and black calumnies, supported only by terms and
expressions natural to a pupU of washerwomen and
fishwives." Haldimand's criticism of the remarkable volume
was, "the violence and abuse manifested in it wiU,
I make no doubt, prevent the malicious intention
of publishing it from making any impression on
Liberal minds or such persons as have had oppor
tunity to be acquainted with the circumstances
which gave rise to his confinement, but as the
Majority of mankind is in neither of these predica
ments " he sends his papers explaining his course of
action, to be published. (July, 1784).
The costs of the suit on Haldimand's side were
borne by the British government, which thereby
testified its approval of bis procedure, while Du
289

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
Calvet found an influential supporter in the Baron
Francis Maseres, his co-religionist, who had been
attorney-general of Quebec province in Carleton's
time, and figured as a Protestant opponent of the
Quebec Act. But the Canadian plaintiff wore out
all his friends, even the dissolute ex-Jesuit, Pierre
Roubaud, whose career would interest the seeker
for curios. He had been a thorn in the flesh to
Haldimand during his military rule at Three Rivers,
but was seen some years afterwards by General
Gage at an English race meeting, clad in a blue
frock coat with embroidered buttons. He held the
position of preceptor to a young gentleman of
famUy, for whose morals the governor trembled.
The unworthy father turned Protestant, married,
went on the stage and directed abUities of no mean
order to playing the spy upon friend and foe alike —
such was the "facility of his disposition." His
estimate of Du Calvet displays both insight and
moderation. Crediting him with "a restless, shuffling
disposition," he yet believed that his covetousness
and fear of losing his property had been sufficient to
keep him from any outward act of disloyalty to the
British government, though undoubtedly disaffected
and "of the most vindictive nature, which knows
not of any forgiveness, and once provoked he foUows
his revenge night and day, spares no pain, searches
and precautions."
General Haldimand discovered this to his cost,
but he would hardly have credited it had he been
290

DU CALVET AS A PATRIOT
told that for more than a hundred years what
this man had said in his wrath would colour the
statements of reputable historians regarding himself.
Du Calvet posed as a patriot when he found that
his personal grievances did not meet with merited
attention in London, and he employed an agent at
Beauport to try to get certificates from the habi
tants that they had not been paid for their corvees.
Messrs. Powell, Adhe'mar and Delisle were sent as
ambassadors to London to plead for Canadian re
forms, but M. Bibaud says that they being only
"simple citizens" failed to get a hearing from
anybody but Baron Maseres. M. Du Calvet made
a louder outcry than them aU for a legislative
assembly, for the extension of the Habeas Corpus
to Canada, for trial by jury, for the liberty of
the press, the permanency of judges and counciUors,
and other reforms that came to pass naturaUy in
the course of a few years after the end of the war.
Haldimand held the country at the most trying
and critical period of its existence, and even the
French historians grudgingly admit that " to him
were due the first modifications of British policy in
favour of the Canadians " (Garneau) ; that he sup
ported the authority of the church (Tetu) ; that
several of the ordinances passed under his adminis
tration advanced the commerce and agriculture
of the country (Bibaud) ; that he acted with rigour
against the French, not the Canadians, but should
have proclaimed the Habeas Corpus, and even in
291

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
time of trouble should not have imprisoned without
the consent of his council (Suite). None of these
doubt the sincerity and disinterestedness of the
governor's intentions ; they merely find fault with
his judgment, which the ministry that employed
him considered exceUent. In another hundred years
posterity will probably concur in that opinion.
It is a thousand pities that Du Calvet, who came
out to Canada again, presumably to coUect evidence
for his case, was drowned at sea on the voyage from
New York to London, for the general had his
papers ready for him, and the whole truth must
have come out at the trial.
Haldimand was proud to defend the country, but
too proud to defend himself, while Du Calvet's
dramatic end to a dramatic career stimulated the
imagination of French Canadians, even of M. Louis
Frechette, who penned the lengthy lines beginning,
" Personne na connu ta tombe, 6 Du Calvet!" The
gentleman is hailed as a hero and a martyr, the
founder of latter day Canadian liberty, while the
governor-general must needs content himself with
the scant justice of F. X. Garneau, the historian: —
"Now that we retrospectively view Haldimand's
leaden tyranny without prejudice, now that we dis
cern what was his master thought, few of us perhaps
wiU refuse to pardon him for his rough but honest
absolutism, out of regard for his efforts to preserve
intact a portion of the soil reclaimed by aliens, which
had been gained to civilization by our ancestors."
292

CHAPTER XV
HIS FRIENDS
THE general did not preserve his official corres
pondence with the idea of setting himself right
with posterity. It would never occur to him that
such justification might be necessary, and aU the
more valuable, therefore, is the evidence scattered
throughout the mass of papers he left behind him,
concerning what manner of man he was. These
letters of thanks for personal kindness — from Sowers
of the Engineers when shot through the head
at Oswego ; from the vicar at Three Rivers to
whom His ExceUency " is charmed to have found
means to give pleasure and a little more ease " ;
from grateful fathers whose sons he has helped ;
from the religious communities as well as private
individuals he has benefited ; from the officers of
the German legion in behalf of themselves and
their troops, expressing " their unalterable and
most heartfelt acknowledgments of His Excel
lency's constant goodness and generous kindness " —
aU these are not in accordance with Laterriere 's
picture of the avaricious, vindictive governor who
loved to make humanity suffer.
Pardons to condemned criminals, charges against
hasty decisions, directions about giving to certain
293

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
deserving widows or to old naval officers public
money that he might justly have pocketed — in
stances abound in the correspondence both of his
goodness of heart and soundness of judgment. In
one of his reports to Lord Germaine he said : — " At
the departure of Lieut. -Col. Maclean the command
of his Battalion feU to a Captain Nairne, a very old
officer, who distinguished himself very much at the
Siege of Quebec, on which Account and to prevent
the Mortification to him of being commanded by
Majors of Provincials, I have given him the nominal
rank of Major tiU further orders."
The general's nephews caused him no little
anxiety. Of the three who had come to America to
be under his guardianship, Frederick, the first to
arrive, was drowned in 1766, and Peter, who came
out two years later, took charge of the Pab6s estate.
The young man did not succeed there, and in 1779
his uncle secured for him the post of Ranger of the
Woods. He died the next year at Nicaragua, and
the general asked that his place as Inspector might
be. given to his younger brother, Louis Haldimand,
the lieutenant who had been in charge of Major
Hutcheson at Boston, 1775. To his old friend
Prevost, Haldimand wrote in 1780 that he was dis
appointed in his nephews and would spend no more
on them. He thought of sending Louis back to
Switzerland, since he was £700 in debt, besides
what had been paid for him already. It was doubt
less a great temptation to young men to live beyond
294

COLONEL ST. LEGER
their means when they had so generous an uncle at
their backs, and the kin of the commander-in-chief
would always get long credit.
Besides the help given to his own relations, the
general was ever found buying a commission for
this one or that, or paying the debts of young men
who had no claim upon him whatever — aU for the
good of the service. Colonel St. Leger knew his
man when he wrote the foUowing letter from
Montreal, July 16th, 1783: — "I have the honour
to request that your ExceUency wiU add one more
very essential favour to those you have already so
kindly conferred upon my son. I make no doubt
that since your connexion with the British army you
have but too often observed and as often lamented
the want of general and liberal education in our
young officers, and I am sorry I am obliged to own
not one in one hundred has the least suspicion of
tactical information. Our Government not being
of a Military turn there is no provision made for
the attainment of the latter, and for the former —
being whipped thro' the school of some pedagogue
tUl we are tired of him and his instructions and at
fourteen launched into the army, with all our
ignorances upon our heads is the fate of most of us,
I wish to do aU in my power to prevent the young
man whom your ExceUency has so obligingly pro
tected from being one of this number. In Canada
there is no information of any kind to be procured,
nor in England any suited to his walk of life ; but
295

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
on the contrary many vices to be learned, which
for the sake of his reputation I hope he may never
know. I have turned my thoughts to the new
coUege of Brunswick under the immediate pat
ronage of the Prince, whose institutions I am
acquainted with, and which, to my knowledge, has
fashioned in a wonderful manner some of our
unlicked cubs, and am now to request your Excel
lency's indulgence of two years' absence from his
duties to accomplish this most important point. . . .
I wiU take the liberty so far to anticipate your
Excellency's goodness as to bring him down myself
before I can have your answer to this, least the
Troops should be ordered to saU before the neces
sary previous equipments can be made for him."
No doubt the lad went off rejoicing with the
returning Germans, under the wing of Brigadier
de Speth, who had agreed "to set him down at
Brunswick." His ExceUency accepted the invitation to stand
as sponsor to Lady Johnson's Infant, and he stood
in the same relationship to America Riedesel.
When he meets with an accident to his leg, anxious
enquiries stamped with sincerity proceed from high
and low, from General Riedesel, stationed at Sorel,
to the Widow Duffy or Du Foy of Montreal, who
regrets the failure of her orchard, and her conse
quent inability to supply His ExceUency with
apples, but sends him a box of ginseng, that infaU-
ible barrier against fatigue and old age.
296

BARON DE RIEDESEL
The Baron de Riedesel wras twenty years younger
than Haldimand, but there wras great sympathy
between them as foreign servants of Great Britain,
and as men of sterling character with the same high
sense of duty. Their correspondence has more of
the friendly and less of the purely official tone than
the bulk of that which has been preserved; they
exchanged visits, newspapers, young fruit-trees,
garden seeds, and ideas with equal facility. Current
events in Europe as weU as in America are discussed
in their letters. Riedesel congratulates Haldimand
upon Rodney's victory, and condoles with him
upon the humiliating character of the royal mes
sage granting American independence after so great
an expenditure in men and money, but "Destiny
favours the Revolt." The governor appreciates the
baron's "heartiness" in his work, and says that
though the defeat of Comwallis is a crushing blow,
they two must not lose hope, but preserve, if
possible, the country committed to their care. Their
next effort in that direction was the discovery and
suppression of the placards distributed among the
Canadians after the Yorktown disaster, advising
their adherence to the winning side. Riedesel had
strong block-houses of logs put up in different
places for the interception of rebel spies; and sus
pected inhabitants of the country were closely
watched by privates and non-coms, of the army.
Haldimand had lists of the people made, with each
man's political leanings inserted after his name, but
297

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
he warned Riedesel not to make arrests except upon
weU-founded suspicions, as the prisons were fuU.
Riedesel thinks the outlook for Canada is very
discouraging, but "the military arrangements made
by His Excellency will cost the enemy dear." The
utmost watchfulness is necessary, since it has been
his experience that "the spot neglected by Wash
ington is the one he means to attack." On the
boundary decisions the baron says the English
have given the Americans more than they really
asked for, and he thinks it a great pity that the
former have not such good geographers as Dr.
Franklin, for instance, who is weU aware of the
boundaries that will best serve the colonies.
In his memoirs, Riedesel says that Haldimand
had but little intercourse with the inhabitants of
Quebec, living mostly in the company of his offi
cers; and another of the German legion corrobor
ates this with the remark that His Excellency was
not fond of state functions, but enjoyed a good
dinner and liked to smoke a pipe with a friend. A
third considers him one of the most deserving
officers he has ever met, and, indeed, whatever his
political opponents have had to say about the
general, not one has a stone to throw at his private
fife, which they would have been only too ready to
fling had there been occasion. His simplicity put
them aU to shame.
It must have been an agreeable change for the
governor to sojourn for a time at Sorel, where he
298

THE RIEDESEL FAMILY
had exerted himself to provide more comfortable
quarters for the Riedesel family. Madame furn
ished a room specially for him in her new cha
teau. He was godfather to another little daughter,
Louise Augusta Elizabeth Canada, who died before
she was a year old. The baroness herself had to
undergo a serious operation, which one shudders to
think upon in those days preceding anesthetics.
But the brave little lady recovered, and through
her diary we can draw more closely to Haldimand
than he aUows us elsewhere. Somewhat morose, her
husband acknowledged that he was, but his dejec
tion was doubtless due to Ul health, since he "was
often troubled with the stone, from which at times
he suffered intensely." "If I was very sick," he said
to Riedesel, "and needed assistance in the service of
the King, you may, dear sir, rest assured that you
would be the first officer on whom I would call."
The baroness describes their first meeting: — "Sev
eral persons endeavoured to make us distrustful of
him, but instead of listening to such insinuations
we behaved toward him with openness and frank
ness, and this pleased him so much the more as he
rarely met with such behaviour. The governor's
house, which had been like a barrack, was now
furnished in the English style, and though General
Haldimand had been in Quebec but five years, his
gardens were already fuU of fruit trees and exotic
plants, which it would have been impossible to
preserve in that climate had he not judiciously 299

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
chosen for them a place where they had the benefit
of a southern exposure. The house was seated on
an eminence, and quite on its summit. . . . The
deficiencies of our social pleasures were in some
measure compensated by the invitations we received
from General Haldimand during both winters we
spent in Canada to pass some time in Quebec,
where we remained at each time 6 weeks at the
house of Dr. Mabane, one of the General's intimate
friends, but always dined with the General. The
General spent the evenings at our house, played at
cards, and often remained until 10 o'clock; but he
had from the beginning begged me to retire when
ever it was convenient to myself. I never saw a
man who was so kind and obliging to his friends,
in the number of which he soon included us. The
next spring he invited us to meet him at Montreal,
whither his duties caUed him, and he assured us
upon that occasion, that he never spent his time
more agreeably than in our society."
The lady speaks of supplying His ExceUency
with vegetables from her garden, and of being
proud to have shown him, as weU as other Cana
dian friends, how to pickle cucumbers. She had the
pleasure of meeting Joseph Brant at the table of
the governor, by whom he was highly esteemed.
Her own descriptions need no condensation: —
"We spent some weeks, during the summer of
1782, very agreeably at Quebec. A house had been
built for General Haldimand upon the top of a hUl
300

MONTMORENCY HOUSE
which he caUed Montmorency House, after the
famous faU of that name. He invited us to pay him
a visit in this his favourite residence, which, indeed,
was most charmingly situated. The river precipitates
itself from a height of one hundred and 63 feet
with a terrible noise, into a chasm between two
mountains. When we first went to see that sub
lime scene I happened to say to the General that
it must be delightful to have a little dwelling
opposite to it. Three weeks afterwards we accom
panied him thither a 2nd time, and after having
climbed up the steep ascent and the detached rocks,
which were connected by smaU bridges and which
reminded me of some descriptions of Chinese gar
dens, we at last reached the top, where the General
begged my hand to show me into a smaU house
which was as it were suspended upon the cataract.
He wondered at my courage when I foUowed him
without hesitation. The foundations of the house
consisted of eight strong beams laid athwart, be
neath which the cataract hurried down with tre
mendous velocity. The situation of this house
afforded an awful but majestic sight. The noise was
so tremendous that it was impossible to remain
long within it. . . . In the summer of 1 783, General
Haldimand, with a view to diverting me from my
sorrow [the loss of her child] expressed a wish to
see me in Quebec." Her husband was anxious to go
home, and General Haldimand, who also wished
himself back in England, had already written to
301

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
his government for leave. "We often canvassed the
ways and means of making the voyage together."
Riedesel declared that the happiest time he had
spent in America had been on Haldimand's staff,
and he would have been highly gratified to have
been presented to the king by the general under
whom he had served with so much pleasure. "Walk
ing one day with him in his garden," says madame,
"we observed on a sudden a great number of
vessels enter the bay, and a beautiful one cast
anchor at the foot of the mountain. The General
said, 'These vessels are surely come to convey you
and your troops to Europe. Perhaps we go in com
pany.' My Frederica, who stood near me, exclaimed,
'WeU, if we go, wiU you give me that fine ship
there?' 'My dear child,' replied the General, 'if it is
a transport ship you shaU have it; but what would
the king of England say if I occasioned him such
an expense?' 'Oh,' returned she, 'the king loves his
wife and children, and surely he will not grudge
my father the pleasure of conveying his famUy
home in safety. And wiU you not be glad to have
your little wife in a good ship?' (The good General
always caUed my fittle Augusta his wife.) He
smiled, and said, 'Well, we wiU attend to it'
"Two days afterwards he came and told me, with
evident emotion, that we must soon part; that our
wishes were fulfilled but that he must remain, and
that he should ever regret our absence. He had
found, he said, my husband to be a man worthy of
302

RIEDESEL'S DEPARTURE
aU confidence, and met in every individual of his
family a friend ; he had fondly indulged the hope of
retiring to Europe, in company with us, but that
the king directed him to remain and he must obey.
Remembering what my daughter had recently told
him, and wishing by every means in his power
to render the voyage safe and commodious, he had
himself examined the ship on board of which we
were to embark, but that it did not answer his
expectation ; that which had so much pleased my
daughter was, on the contrary, as good a one as we
could wish but was not of the number of those
which were destined for the transportation of the
troops. He took it, nevertheless, upon his personal
responsibility, to freight it and to have it arranged
according to our wishes. He begged me to look
at it and give directions for our further accommo
dation ; strict attention would be immediately paid
to them, orders to that effect having been already
issued. . . . He hoped, he said, that he should
enjoy, on our return to Quebec, our society, as
much as we could indulge his wishes in that respect.
He then went away deeply affected. How could
one avoid feeling for such a man the most sincere
friendship ? . . . On our return to Quebec we were
informed that our ship was nearly ready, and that
General Haldimand had several times looked at the
progress of the new arrangements which were
making in its interior for our accommodation. By
his directions a cow had been bought to supply
303

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
us with milk. In a suitable part of the deck seeds of
salad had been sown in a layer of vegetable earth.
. . . My husband presented the General with his
favourite mare and her fine foal, and in return
the General begged my acceptance of a splendid
muff and tippet of sable as a memorial of the
country where we had so long resided. Furs are
among the most important productions of Canada.
. . . After the troops had been embarked we yet
passed some hours with the good General. After
supper he accompanied us to the vessel where at
last we took a hearty and affecting fareweU of him
and many other friends."
The lonely old general would toil up Mountain
HUl again to the Chateau of St. Louis, and from
his consolatory garden watch the sails of the Quebec
slip from sight along the Isle of Orleans before
he could once more take up the heavy cares that
ever lay in wait for him. Constant watchfulness
reacts upon the character. Had the governor had a
wife of his own like Madame de Riedesel, and
charming little children such as hers to relax those
firmly closed lips of his, he might have been a
happier man, and would certainly have been a
more popular one — but stiU he had Mabane.
The doctor, an Edinburgh man, and cousin to
Thomson, the poet, had come to Canada at thirty,
but was now nearing the age of fifty without showing
abatement in the strength of his opinions or gaining
policy in the expression of them. Like the governor
304

HIS SECRETARIES
himself, he worked for the country's good rather
than for party interests, and they had many enemies
in common. From doctor he became Judge Adam
Mabane, a member of the legislative council and
one of the few whom His ExceUency could trust.
Haldimand often spent an evening out at SiUery
with his friend, on his estate of Samos, or Wood-
field. Du Calvet blamed Mabane for influencing the
governor against himself, just as others blamed the
Baron Maseres for spurring on Du Calvet against
the general.
He seems to have had a friendliness for the
Scotch, this Swiss soldier, perhaps from something
akin in their national characteristics. The secretary
who took charge of his French correspondence was
Louis Genevay, of Switzerland. He had joined the
Royal Americans as a volunteer in 1756, and may
have come out with Haldimand, in whose regiment
he remained tiU 1763. The secretary for English
work was a Scot, Robert Mathews, who had a
profound attachment for his chief, as indeed every
one had who was brought into close relations with
him. A hard worker himself, he was not given
to sparing those under him, but they profited both
by his sympathy and his example, and the secretaries
laboured on at their duplicates and triplicates of
letters with right good-wiU. In war-times with
uncertain postal service, it was necessary to keep a
copy of each letter sent, and this accounts for
the quantity of Haldimand's own epistles in his
305

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
coUection. Of those received, the majority are
written in the formal terms of subordinate officers
to the commander-in-chief, but some show a greater
degree of intimacy both with governor and secretary.
Such, for example, are the productions of Brigadier
AUan MacLean, he who raised the Royal Highland
Emigrants and defeated Arnold with them before
Quebec in 1775. As a subaltern he had served with
distinction in the Scotch Brigade in HoUand, being
speciaUy mentioned for bravery at Bergen-op-Zoom,
in 1774.
Should the life of Haldimand ever be dramatized,
Allan MacLean would supply the humour of the
piece, beginning with his request for clothing for
his regiment, one hundred jackets and waistcoats,
"breeches not wanted." He had the Highland apti
tude for standing feuds, especiaUy with other Macs,
and the general had some difficulty in keeping the
peace between him and Captain John Macdonnell.
MacLean puts in a plea for the French Canadians
overburdened with corvee in his district, and he
advises the enlistment of the numerous "real or
pretended" Loyalists who are wandering about the
country. His argument for the non-retention of the
women and children among the rebel prisoners
at Montreal is that they are "destroying" a large
quantity of provisions, and he is the gentleman who
implores Haldimand to send up an English regiment
to make a little society. He also asks whether the
Jesuit's old vestibule may not be used " to set up a
306

ALLAN MACLEAN
theatre in earnest," modeUed on the old Edinburgh
one. There is a dearth of women performers, but
no lack of vocal and instrumental musicians. An
ambitious attempt is made at the production of
Moliere's play Les Fourberies de Scapin.
Later, whUe in command at Niagara, AUan Mac-
Lean's opinions of the enemy are expressed with
considerable force : — " It is a cruel thing for men of
honour to have to do with such worthless and faith
less people as the rebels, for while I was busy
in using every means in my power to prevent
the Indians from going to war, they were preparing
to cut the throats of the Indians. I was forced
to send three solemn embassies to stop four large
parties last week only. However, please God, we
shaU be prepared for the worst." He speaks of the
"designing, hypocritical Americans" having "the
impudence to come here without dread," and de
clares that the farmers in the Niagara neighbourhood
are in great alarm over the boundary rumours lest
they should find themselves upon the wrong side of
the line. Sooner than live among the Americans
they would go to Japan, or retire beyond Hudson
Bay, and MacLean cannot blame them, since : — " I
do not believe the World ever produced a more de
ceitful or dangerous set of men than the Americans,
and now they are become such Arch-Politicians
by eight years practice that were old MatchiaveU
afive, he might go to school to the Americans
to learn Politics more crooked than his own." 307

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
The Brigadier's criticisms of individuals are in the
same original vein. Joseph Brant is a good feUow,
but troublesome because " he knows too little and
too much." His presence at Niagara is not desired
during anxious times, nor is that of Sir John
Johnson, as a puncheon of rum would have more
effect on the Indians than aU his eloquence. Not
that MacLean has any favour for the beverage: —
" It is a pity such a cursed liquor as rum was ever
found out. We have more plague with rum than
with aU other business. The seamen must have
it, for it is part of their wages, and they wUl desert
or mutiny if they do not get it." Other officers
observed that a little rum was necessary on short
scouts, but for longer distances their men were
better without it.
When a new commissary is wanted at Niagara,
MacLean asks that the one sent may not be too
much of a gentleman, as the pay will not maintain
one of that kind; and for himself he requests leave
of absence to look after some private affairs, or
he will be left with only eight shillings and sixpence
a day to support himself and his famUy. His per
sonal expenses are naturaUy heavy " in this desert
country where there is no public house but that
of the commandants, and they have to keep a table
for passengers." He gets his leave of absence, his
pay is continued throughout by Haldimand's in
fluence, and we hear no more of the warrior tiU the
general has himself taken fareweU of Canada.
308

HIS DEPARTURE
The detaUs of his departure are given in the
Quebec Gazette :—- On Tuesday last His Ex
ceUency, General Haldimand, embaiked on board
His Majesty's ship Atlanta, His ExceUency was
received on the Grand Parade and saluted by
the troops under arms. The streets were lined
by the troops in garrison, and His ExceUency was
accompanied to the water side by His Honour the
Lieut -Governor, the members of His Majesty's
CouncU for the Province, by Brigadier General St
Leger the Commandant, other officers of the garri
son, judges and others, who bid him an affectionate
and respectful adieu. Upon his setting off from the
shore His ExceUency was saluted by the guns
of the garrison, which the Atlanta returned, and
immediately set saU with a fair wind for England.
John Schank, Esq.. Captain in the Royal Navy and
late Commissioner of the Marine Department in
this Province, and Robert Mathews, Esq.. Major of
the 53rd regiment and late ncufitary Secretary to the
Commander-in-Chief, went also in the Atlanta with
the Governor."
The absence of the clergy having been remarked
at the general's leave-taking, the Bishop of Quebec
hastened to explain that he and his brethren had
been misinformed as to the date of His ExceUency 's
departure ; no disrespect was intended.
"A fair wind for England " sounds hopeful, but
what reception awaits the returning governor is
told in a letter from AUan MacLean brought
309

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
on board to his secretary at Plymouth. M. Du
Calvet it appears, "pushed on by the General's
enemies," intends to serve a writ against him
immediately upon his arrival. "This is done with
a view to put the highest affront and indignity
Possible upon him, before he sees the King. . . .
It wUl be very Easy for the Capt. of the At-
talanta to prevent any water Bailiffs coming on
Board, and tho' I doubt not but he could easUy
find baU at Portsmouth, yet it would be great
means of rejoicing to his miscreant enemies to
publish the adventure in aU the Newspapers, as an
affront to him, with comments. I should therefore
think it best for him to take a good Portsmouth
wherry and with the first tide of flood run up to
Southampton, where you may take post chaise
directly and come to London in spite of Calvette
and his nefarious Protectors and advisors. A Baron
Mezier of the Exchequer is his great ostensible
protector. I wish you both safe and weU on Eng
lish Ground for the weather has been very stormy
and I hate your nasty sloops of war."
The story goes that Haldimand did escape
his pursuers at Portsmouth but was arrested in
London just as he was buckling on his sword to
go to court, but his own diary has no word of it : —
"Left Quebec on the 16th November, 1784, in the
Atalanta, Captain Frelyn. Anchored at Spithead
the 8th January, '85. Arrived in London on the even
ing of the 9th, 10th saw C, dined at Lord Sydney's
310

HIS NEPHEW ANTHONY
saw General Lord Amherst. Tuesday 11: Brigadier
MacLean, Captain CuUen came to see me and
Davison. Was presented to the King on Wednesday.
On Thursday invited and presented to the Queen."
If it be true that he was arrested, it is also true
that his nephew, Antoine Francois Haldimand
went baU for him — but one of the many services he
was proud to perform for his distinguished uncle.
This is the nephew in whom there was no dis
appointment and probably the happiest hours of
the time which the general passed in England
were in his house at St. Mary Axe, Hampstead.
Mr. Anthony, who was the founder of the banking
house, Morris, Prevost & Co., looked after his
uncle's money investments and was in every respect
a son to him in his old age, one upon whom the
retired governor could lean with the greatest con
fidence. He took as much interest in the settlement
in life of Anthony's daughters as if they were his
own grandchUdren, though he says, "they have an
ascendency over the mind of their father which
it would be useless to oppose."
Besides Anthony Francis and the three who
came to America, Jean-Abraham Haldimand of
Turin had two other sons, Bertrand and Henry,
and with these also the general concerned him
self, as we read in his diary when Anthony shows
him " a letter from his brother, Henry, on which
we must think seriously. It wiU never do for him
to vegetate at Turin." 311

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
The young man went into partnership with
Francois Long, but despite the help given to him
self and the firm by his prosperous London brother,
he got into difficulties and sought a way out of
them by suicide at Turin in 1789.
The general's care for his kin extended to a stiU
younger generation, as in the case of his grand-
nephew, Frederick Devos, son of Francois-Louis
Haldimand's daughter. This young man went out
to the army in Canada, in 1789, but he kept up the
reputation of his predecessors for extravagance,
drawing upon both his great-uncle and Mr. Antoine
Francois Haldimand tiU the former declared he
would let him vegetate as a subaltern if he did not
mend his ways. Nevertheless he made excuses for
Lieutenant Devos, saying that he did not know the
value of money, and was relieved to learn, " he has
been spending freely but behaves honourably."
Frederick the younger doubtless did improve with
years, as in 1791 he wrote repentant letters to his
great-uncle, whom he copied in remaining a bach
elor, and he rose to be a colonel in the English
army. Captain Louis Haldimand's debts pursued his
uncle to London, but other and more welcome
letters came from Canada with every returning
traveUer, often over two months on the way. The
general sent also by hand some of his own com
munications, as weU as books and newspapers, to
the friends he had left across the Atlantic, and used
312

PROMOTION
the same method to pay his debts: — Journal, June
14th, 1790, "I asked Captain Schank to carry ten
guineas to Mrs. Cramahe' for four dozen of Madeira
which Cramahe' had lent me on my arrival in
Quebec, and which my servant had neglected to
replace." A portrait of Brant's wife and a view of Niagara
Falls were sent him, as weU as sincere congratu
lations on his "success over his traducers" who
would be confounded at his being invested with the
Order of the Bath. The honour was somewhat
costly, one observes, by marking the memorandum
in Sir Frederick's note-book. The fees amounted to
£418-7-7, besides, "Fees at instaUation £69-17-6;
for a plume £15-15 ; Dinner to the Knights £9-19-6 ;
Subscription for the instaUation of Knight £250 "
making a total of £763-19-7 sterling.
On January 1st, 1776, he was promoted to be
general in America, and on the 11th, colonel-
commandant of the first battalion, 60th Foot, form
erly the Royal Americans. He had been a major-
general in America since May 25th, 1772, and on
August 29th, 1777, was made lieutenant-general in
the whole army. He had not, it was supposed,
left his post for good and indeed there is a notice in
the Gentleman's Magazine for October 7th, 1785 : —
"This day Sir Frederick Haldimand took his final
leave of the King previous to bis going to Canada
of which he is appointed governor." That he did
not return may have been the result of the commo-
313

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
tion which Hay and others continued to raise
against him. In Major De Peyster's opinion the
general's friends had but one quarrel with him —
that he had not hanged Du Calvet.
Henry HamUton had been made lieutenant-gov
ernor of Quebec, chiefly as an indemnity for his
sufferings in the Vincennes affair, whUe Barry
St. Leger took Haldimand's place at the head of
the troops ; but the two of course did not agree, and
Hamilton was shortly superseded by Brigadier-
General Hope. This gentleman took up bis abode
in the Chateau St. Louis, and would have been
pleased to retain Haldimand's housekeeper, Mrs.
FairchUd, but she preferred to go to England if the
general was not coming back. It was October,
1786, before she embarked, on a merchant ship, as
Major Mathews wrote, "she would be overcome if
she had to saU on a transport with riotous soldiers
and their stUl more riotous wives."
By that time Sir Guy Carleton, now Lord
Dorchester, had arrived as governor-general, and
later, according to Captain Freeman, he and his
lady became extremely unpopular from their "high,
reserved, and distant conduct." Dr. Mabane, Haldi
mand's chief correspondent, was represented as
standing "like a Rock, unshaken by surrounding
storms, with Roman virtue."
The new governor had new counciUors, the prin
cipal one being Chief Justice Smith, whose influ
ence over Lord Dorchester Mr. Jenkin Williams,
314

HIS CORRESPONDENTS
and, indeed, aU of Haldimand's correspondents,
deplored. They thought he was the most unsuitable
person that could have been sent to Canada. He
was keeping the French Canadians in hot water in
his endeavour to anglify everything, and was him
self a rebel at heart Quebec was becoming "a little
Boston."1 Besides the Canadian letters, the general was in
correspondence with a Captain Traytorrens on the
continent, perhaps a relation of his own, as the
name was his mother's. There was also Major
Augustin Prevost, who wrote from Montgomery,
Pennsylvania, where he was exerting himself to
procure settlers for Sir Frederick's lands in Bedford
county that were in danger of being sold for taxes.
Prevost proposed that Swiss or German colonists
should be sent out, as the Americans were friendly
to such, and advised the expenditure of about ten
guineas on each famUy for seed corn, a cow, and a
couple of low-priced horses. He would himself
attend to their reception — "My gratitude towards
you alone dictates on this occasion, and shall think
myself happy if any of my time can be devoted to
1From the diary. June 11th, 1787. — "Met Lord Sydney, who was
coining from his office. I acquainted him with the contents of the
letters I had received from Quebec. He said he had never had a good
opinion of Smith, but that Lord Dorchester had asked for him, and had
made Timnaflf responsible for his conduct. He told me further that
everyone except Maseres and a person who was no longer in the
country spoke well of Mabane ; that Lord Dorcherter. although he did
not speak so highly of him as I, spoke well of him, although he did not
believe him to know much. "
315

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
your interest." The ex-governor had no such good
friend to look after his lands in West Florida, nor
his house at Pensacola. General Augustin Prevost,
the major's father, was a countryman and a very
old friend of General Haldimand. Upon his death,
after the latter had returned to England, it was Sir
Frederick who exerted himself on behalf of the
widow and her five young children, giving sym
pathy, advice, and practical assistance in securing a
pension for her from the king. He extended a
helping hand to the major's son. "The young man,
having lost General Prevost, his grandfather, is
much embarrassed. I must look after his interests."
But he inquired into the character and amount of
the debts before he paid them.
A friend of Haldimand, born the same year as
himself, was Lord Heathfield, better known as
General EUiot, the heroic defender of Gibraltar.
After a paralytic stroke at the age of seventy-two,
he took it into his head to marry again, and it was
to Sir Frederick that the king appealed to use his
influence to stop him.
The Swiss must be clannish, like the Scotch, if
one is to judge by Haldimand's intimates. General
de Bude" was a native of Vaud Canton, and had
been likewise in the service of the Prince of Orange
and the King of Sardinia. Though nearly twenty
years his junior, he gave Haldimand advice upon
official affairs, as weU as "the effect of cherry- water
on headaches arising from the stomach." Bude" and
316

HIS FRIENDS
M. de Salzas, also a native of Switzerland, were
men of fine attainments, entrusted with the educa
tion of princes and with other high offices of state.
Both were Haldimand's friends, and "a man is
known by the company he keeps."

317

CHAPTER XVI
HIS RELICS
THERE are in the archives at Ottawa two
hundred and sixty-two large volumes of manu
script letters, the greater part known as the "Haldi
mand CoUection," the smaUer as the "Bouquet
CoUection." The latter consists of thirty volumes
containing Brigadier Bouquet's official correspond
ence for the last ten years of his life. Haldimand was
Bouquet's heir; he kept his papers as he kept his
own, and both sets were copied for Canada from the
original documents in the British Museum, through
the public spirit and energy of the late Douglas
Brymner, LL.D., Dominion Archivist. The service
done by that gentleman to all future writers of
Canadian history can be estimated only by a care
ful study of his reports for the years 1884 to 1889,
wherein he has epitomized every letter in each
collection. No longer can complaint be made of the dearth
of records concerning the epoch of our national life
when it was doubtful whether we should have
king or congress for our future ruler. To quote
from the report on Canadian archives for 1889 : —
"The information contained in these papers relates
to an immense extent of territory on the Ohio;
319

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
the Mississippi ; the IUinois ; the Wabash ; in the
Floridas ; on the lakes from Superior and Huron
eastward ; in the frontier posts to the north and
south ; MichiUimakinak, Detroit and Niagara ; on
Lake Ontario, with its fortified posts on the main
land and islands ; on both sides of the St. Lawrence
above and below Montreal to the Gulph and on
wards to Nova Scotia; on the Richelieu, Lake
Champlain, the Mohawk Valley, the Hudson. In
fact there is scarcely a locality bordering on, ap
proaching to, or whose interests might affect the
future of Canada, respecting which there are not
more or less minute detaUs to be found in this mass
of correspondence, which fills no less than 232
volumes and covers a period of thirty-three years
of public service."
Haldimand was a coUector, and in Dr. Brym
ner he found a kindred spirit to appreciate the
value of the documents he preserved. The years
the archivist spent in arranging the letters accord
ing to date and to subject, the fine judgment he
displayed in the terse completeness of his abstracts
entitled Dr. Brymner to speak with authority, and
he said: "I must confess that I have derived from
the study of the correspondence a high idea of the
abilities of Haldimand and of the moderation he
showed in the exercise of almost unlimited power
at so critical a period, when a calm and sober judg
ment was needed to restrain passion and to enforce
repression without having recourse to violence."
320

THE PRIVATE JOURNAL
"Example is the mildest form of command" may
be given as a free translation of the Latin phrase
upon his commemorative tablet. The governor had
learned to control himself, and was therefore fitted
to control others.
Not the least of Dr. Brymner's public ser
vices was the translation into English of Haldi
mand's private diary from the original jottings in
old-fashioned French, written in a small, indistinct
hand. The entries are made irregularly ; sometimes
daily for a month or more ; sometimes with a
gap of a year or two, but they are admirably
suggestive not only of the general's personal char
acter, but of the life he lived in common with
other men of his age and station. The memoranda
begin on January 1st, 1786, and are aU written in
London, where the general seems to have had a
large circle of friends and acquaintances. In this
popular diner-out and whist-player, there is no
trace of the "sour-looking, morose man of unsoci
able disposition," described by Quebec critics. The
portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds which the Queen
herself said resembled him perfectly, will admit
no doubt as to the fineness of his face; and according
to his contemporaries he had a taU, weU-built figure
and most agreeable manners. Had he not been a
courtly old gentleman, he would not have been so
weU received at court.
" You are always a soldier and always right," said
the king upon one occasion, and another entry
321

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
reads, "The King did me the honour of speaking
to me for a long time in the presence of Lord
Sydney. The Duke of Hamilton was to be created
Knight of the Thistle. I remained to see the cere
mony and was extremely surprised at the little
order observed on an occasion which should be
solemn ! No ribbon was prepared, and the King
was obliged to enter the cabinet to find it himself.
Negligence of this kind is unpardonable. . . . When
I had the honour of receiving the Order of the
Bath, everything passed with much more decorum,
and I have reason to believe that order had been
given that the ceremony might be conducted in
such a manner as to flatter me. The King, in hand
ing me the ribbon, told me that he could not give
it to any one with more pleasure and when I kissed
the King's hand he held it to me with affection.
AU the Knights who were at my reception appeared
in the robe of the Order, and all the ceremony in
general passed with much propriety."
Her Majesty was equally gracious: "The Queen
spoke to me for a long time and with much kind
ness. She spoke in high terms of the two Swiss
young ladies whom she had had with the prin
cesses." "The Queen asked me at what time
I arrived, I answered that I had been more than an
hour and a half on the road and that at last I had
been obliged to leave my carriage in the middle of
St. James Street and take a sedan chair. That in
spite of this, it was with great difficulty I had
322

A CONNOISSEUR
reached St. James' at three o'clock. The court was
crowded and it seemed to me that I had never seen
so many beautiful women there."
He is a connoisseur in good looks : — "One of
the prettiest faces I have seen in England"; "Her
ladyship must have been a very fine woman, she
stiU has the remains and she seems to be entirely
the mistress"; "a beautiful and amiable woman" ;
" Lady Chatham I found very pretty." The wife of
Admiral Digby "is not pretty but amiable and
even tempered"; "spent the evening at Mrs. Robert
son's, where there were only old women." The
general probably enjoyed more the evening he
stayed with the last named lady while her husband
was at court and she made him the confidant of her
grievances. "At last she acknowledged that what
she most wished for in the world was that her hus
band should obtain the ribbon, but if I told any one
this she would never forgive me. I joked a good
deal with her on the subject." He is quite a beau
it appears, "The hairdresser has begun to fit me";
an acquaintance comes to borrow "my lined coat
from PaUison to have his made in the same style."
A man of taste in pictures, too, one judges by
his remarks upon the different exhibitions he visits
as weU as the private coUections such as Dr.
Adair's : — "I did not find a single poor one among
them. He showed me a smaU picture in mosaic,
which the Pope had presented to him and which he
valued at 6,000 guineas. It is certainly the finest
323

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
genre picture I have seen." "CaUed at Somerset
House Exhibition which I thought very bad," but
M. des Enfants' gallery pleases him. "Went to
see a collection of antiquities with which I was
delighted. I then saw some pictures in needle work
which were very well done."
His reading was mostly on mUitary subjects: —
"Paid Helmlay 3 guineas and a half for the
two volumes of Marshall Turenne's portfolio " ; "I
read with pleasure the last campaign of the King
of Prussia " ; " Read St. Louis' Expedition into
Egypt." But he kept up with the current news
of the continent: — "Paid for Leyden papers and
for L 'Esprit des Journaux for the year ended 31st
Dec, 1786."
Undoubtedly a music lover, he speaks very often
of going to the Baron Alvensleben's concert, which
seems to have been a weekly affair, and he criticizes
another entertainment, thus : — " Spent the evening
at Lady Amherst's, where there was a bad concert
and a crowd, and several persons grumbled that
there was no card-playing." Probably the general
himself was inwardly one of the grumblers, for
he dearly loved a game, and most of his evenings
were spent at the card-table. He had the neces
sary qualifications of method and memory for a
good whist-player, augmented by his training in
public life that led him to follow his own rule, "Say
nothing, but make observations." The stakes were
never high, nor the hours what we, should consider
324

LATE HOURS
late — half-past nine, ten and eleven. "Played a
rubber with Lady Albemarle, Lady Essex and
Bude" ; won two guineas " ; " Bude" dined with me,
and we went to spend the evening at Mrs. Morri
son's, where I lost a guinea"; "Went to Mrs.
Robertson's where were many pretty women. Played
a rubber, won two guineas and went home at half-
past eleven."
It must have been the beauties that kept him
so late that night. The Queen herself dined at half-
past four, and at the inauguration of the American
Club, of which Sir Frederick was sometime presi
dent, he " hoped the old fashion would be followed
of having dinner served precisely at five and finished
at eight."
Alas for good resolutions 1 " Dined at the Club ;
we were 24 ; aU in good humour ; stayed there tiU
half past one in the morning."
From one party where there was " dancing before
and after supper," he did not get home till two
o'clock, and at another " crush " he was detained
tiU half-past three in the morning, but these were
exceptions. Had he been twenty years younger one
of the beautiful women he so often comments upon
would have set her cap for him, but he admires
them en masse and is quite grandfatherly in his
appreciation of a younger generation at "Lady
Sydney's baU where I found 22 couples of chUdren,
the prettiest imaginable."
The Amherst entertainments were not so pleasing.
325

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
" From there we went to Lady Amherst's, where
there were many people who aU looked bored " ;
and at a large dinner His Lordship gave, " I asked
for a bottle of old Madeira because it was offered to
us with a bad grace." Whatever respect Haldimand
may have had for Amherst as a superior officer does
not stand the test of closer acquaintance. " I com
plained to Lord Amherst that no regard had been
paid to us [General Prevost and himself ] and our
services, that we had relied on the protection we
had deserved in every respect, but that he did
not protect us. He only made an evasive answer.
He is a man who never uses his credit for any one,
and who certainly does not like foreigners." " I could
see that he was playing the flunky to Lord Am
herst, and that the latter (who never does a good
turn to any one) wanted to make use of us without
himself appearing."
Lord Sydney, on the contrary, acted a friendly
part to the general throughout. He dined with His
Lordship "almost en famille," upon numerous
formal occasions also, and it was to him he applied
when any favours were wanted for his numerous
protege's. "The fine feelings and the nice shades" are per
ceptible in the social life of the time. " The Duke
of Northumberland received me very weU "; " Was
at Mr. Pitt's levee, who was very gracious " ; "Lord
Morton always receives me weU " ; " Lord Lucy
accosted me familiarly"; "Lord Sydney received
326

COLONIAL VISITORS
me with aU the affability possible " ; "I have every
reason to regret not having paid my court to Wey
mouth " ; " Lady Amherst was polite enough " ;
" The Duke of Richmond spoke to me more
graciously than he had ever done " ; " Sir Joseph
Yorke seems rather stiff" ; " Visited the Archbishop
of York, who received me weU." Twice is Sir
George Yonge mentioned as being cool, and Sir
Frederick himself teUs of meeting La Naudiere,
"to whom I gave a cold reception."
Not many of his Canadian acquaintances received
the same at his hands. He kept an open door
for the traveUers from over the water — Dr. Barr,
Deschambault, whom he took to court; Colonel
Butler, Major Scott, Major Jessup, Captain Twiss,
and many others, including Joseph Brant and the
Indian agent, Claus. Joseph, who "showed me a
copy of the speech he made to Lord Sydney, which
I found weak and shallow and much below what I
expected from him. I don't wish to be any longer
mixed up with these people." Nevertheless, he super
intended the painting of Joseph's portrait by Rigaud
and made some valuable suggestions about it.
" Captain Foley, Brigadier MacLean and Colonel
CuUen dined with me, and we sat longer at table
than I could have wished." Was the brigadier
at his best, might one enquire, and did he hold the
company speU-bound, or was Sir Frederick's old
port too much for them aU ? He looked sharply
after his cellar and made memoranda of its contents
327

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
at different times. " My nephew sent me my Ma
deira, 11 cases of 12 large bottles each, and a pipe
weU filled. I put the whole (except one case) in my
ceUar under the church." " There are fifty dozen
empty bottles under the kitchen stair."
He is kind to his servants and pays them liber-
aUy, but expects good attendance in return. "My
servant Francois was insolent. He must go." An
other is dismissed for telling a lie, and upon the
departure of another the master of the house re
marks: "I shaU lose a good cook, but shaU at the
same time get rid of a bad lot." One, Ernest, he
observes, has been weeping. "I asked Mrs. Fair-
child the cause, who said she had seen him crying
in his room, but he said nothing on the subject
except that he was always unhappy. A little
patience will find out the reason." The reason seems
to be jealousy of his feUow servants, especiaUy of
the head one, Tuckfield, whose zeal in his master's
service exceeds his tact in the management of his
subordinates. The general's trials with his domestics
are reminiscent of his Canadian cares, and now, as
then, he consults his chief counseUor. "General
Bude" dined with me, and advised me strongly to
take an English housekeeper; to have, in addition,
a chief servant, who would take care of the sUver
plate, the table, and the door; a chamber maid to
keep the house tidy, and a cook. These four persons
would always remain at my house in London
whUst I was absent at any time. A man servant
328

DOMESTIC SERVICE
also wiU be needed to attend to the horses and go
behind the carriage, besides a coachman and a
groom. That would make seven servants to main
tain the whole year."
Evidently Mrs. FairchUd was not English — pro
bably Swiss, as her correspondence is aU in French,
and she tells the general of a niece in Geneva,
"who had a great wish to come to see her, but it
seemed to me that she did not want to have her,
and I think she is right." Mrs. Fairchild, who had
kept the general's house since the Florida days, may
have come from the south with him, as she had
property in that locality. Sir Frederick would
not be so likely to take Bud^'s advice about house
keepers as in other matters. In dismissing a man
servant he says: "He is weU pleased with me, but
complains of Mrs. Fairchild. He is a fool of whom
I am glad to be rid." "Paid five guineas and a half
for two gowns and linen for two chemises for Mrs.
FairchUd." Another jotting typical of the time reads: "Was
at Spence, the dentist, to fasten my tooth. He said
when I was leaving for the continent he would put
in a stronger thread which would last for a year."
Lord Barrington, in 1778, had promised Haldi
mand that although his pay as inspector-general of
the forces in the West Indies was to cease while he
was governor in Quebec, it would be resumed at his
resignation of that appointment. This arrangement
was not adhered to, though he was granted instead
329

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
the pay of lieutenant-general — four pounds a day — ¦
which rank, he thought, should have entitled him
to aides-de-camp, but these were refused. "Colonel
Marsh told me that the ministry had the intention
of bringing our battalions into Great Britain, and
that two regiments would be formed from them ;
that my battalion would be the 60th and Prevost's
the 61st. I told him that I did not see that by this
step any great favour was done to us, and that at
the best it would be at the expense of our income.
He did not appear to understand it in that light,
and believed it would be a great advantage for us.
(Effect of National vanity.)" "General Robertson
told me he would show me what Sir Henry Clinton
received in America as commander-in-chief ....
and made me understand what a fool I was not to
have taken aU the emoluments which should have
come to me."
Before Sir Guy Carleton was appointed his suc
cessor the two frequently met in London. "He
imagined I had saved money, because Clinton had
brought back a large amount from America. I
made him understand that our pay had been very
different; that besides, Clinton had drawn aU his
provisions from the King's magazines and aU his
supplies from the Barrack Master General's stores."
"The more I know of this country the more I see
that it is the height of foUy to trust to the gener
osity of the nation. Services are forgotten the
moment there is no longer need of us." "Was at
330

LORD DORCHESTER
court, which was very brilliant. I found Sir Guy
Carleton there, and told him that when he should
go to Canada he would find there my carriages,
post chaise, and twelve horses, which would be
much at his service. ... I offered him the house at
Montmorency, but he said Lady Carleton would
not take it at any price on account of her chUdren."
Haldimand had bought aU Carleton's furniture
when he succeeded him; had also employed his
servants and staff, but the newly created Lord
Dorchester was not willing to copy his courtesy,
though with the idea of a possible return to Que
bec the general had left many things he valued
behind him. There was a clock, for example, that
foUowed him to London in pieces "for want of
being properly packed. N.B. — When leaving a place
not to return, nothing should be left behind, nor
should any one be trusted."
Sir Frederick was most anxious to obtain a posi
tion of some kind for his late secretary, Major
Mathews, whose work for himself was done, and who
talked of going back to Canada to cut staves for a
living. A visitor whose interest in the major is to
be encouraged is General Murray. "He made great
protestations of friendship for me, but I found him
still the same." "General Bude" appears to be inter
ested in Mathews ; I will try to draw some ad
vantage from it." He takes his ex-secretary to
court. "Neither the King nor Queen spoke to
Mathews. I was told that according to etiquette
331

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
they did not speak to Majors." The general be
came responsible for a loan from his nephew to his
protege', and eventuaUy the king offered to make
Mathews lieutenant-governor of Antigua, entirely
on Haldimand's account he wished the latter to be
told, though not designing thereby to detract from
the major's merits. When Lord Dorchester at last
agreed to take Mathews to Canada as his aide-de
camp, Sir Frederick jots in his journal: "I am
myself delighted, because he may watch over the
Doctor's (Mabane's) conduct, and prevent his head
strong politics." In June, 1787, the major went to
Detroit as lieutenant-governor, and a couple of
years later he sent his former chief a bark canoe,
probably intended for use upon Lake Neuchatel.
Sir Frederick's breeding would not permit him
to give outward expression to his estimate of the
people he met, but if some of them could have had
a peep at his diary they would have asked him
to dinner no more. " I was weU received by My
Lord and My Lady, and dined very agreeably. His
son seemed to me to have very fittle sense. Home
at half past eight." General Gage "seems to get
leaner every day"; Amherst "exhibited his usual
fussiness " ; " I noticed that Robertson and OgUvy
took every opportunity to flatter his Lordship, and
that he accepted it willingly " ; "After a quarter of
an hour's conversation in which there was not a
word of good sense," etc. One gentleman is " an
eternal talker " and another " as stupid and siUy as
332

POLITICAL GOSSIP
usual." " Lady Holderness appeared more cheerful
than usual " ; " The Baron always positive when
politics were touched on."
Even royalty cannot escape: — "The Prince of
Wales is obstinate in his opinions " ; " The King
does not correct his children and when the Queen
leaves the room they behave most improperly " ;
" The company believed that the Prince of Wales
is married to Mrs. Fitzherbert, and anticipated from
it the most fatal consequences to the State." His
own opinion of the lady is recorded elsewhere : —
" Mrs. Fitzherbert has fine eyes but a very common
air." " I saw Mrs. Fitzherbert, whom 1 did not
think beautiful nor handsome. She is what is caUed
une bonne piece." (A sly piece).
The general was not above a bit of gossip about
individuals of lower rank, the incomes of certain
widows, for example; but his interest in public
matters never waned and European politics were
often discussed in his company. " It appeared to us
that we are and shaU for a long time be the dupes
of France." Of that country's rulers in 1786 he
writes, "The King appears to be absolute, the
Queen a coquette, and both fittle esteemed."
" FinaUy it is with France, as with us, everything
is done by party spirit and by the influence of a few
persons in power."
Bude" dines with him and tells him of Lord Gren-
vUle's plan for placing him (Bude-) in the famUy of the
Duke of York. " This opened a long conversation, 333

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
during which I had reason to be convinced how dan
gerous it is to be beside Princes, and how necessary
is prudence to gain and preserve their confidence."
Herschel's discovery of two satellites to his new
planet, the Georgium sidus, which we now know as
Uranus, is noted in the journal with the remark : —
"No astronomer in France or elsewhere had been
able to see them, and the French especiaUy were
greatly piqued that our instruments so much sur
passed theirs."
In the current war in Europe the Turks are
proving themselves, "not so contemptible as I
thought," and the general's opinion carries weight
even with His Majesty, who " would speak with me
respecting the second Bohemian war, in which
Marshal Tour commanded the Austrians."
" January 1st, 1787. Went to pay a visit to Lady
Sydney at Frogmore, who received me weU, as did
the family. I left at two o'clock and arrived home
at four, after having been obliged to walk more
than five miles before my carriage could join me,
my servants having gone to breakfast in a tavern.
2. Tuesday. Awoke with a bad cold, which obliged
me to keep my room. . . . Gave my servants for
their new year gifts ; Mrs. FairchUd, 6 guineas ; W.
Tuckfield, 2 g. ; Ernest, 1 g. ; Francois, 1 g. ; coach
man, \ g. ; groom, \ g. ; cook, 1 g. ; Jany, 1 g. ; 13
guineas. 3. Wednesday. My cold has increased ; I
have not slept, had fever and rose with a bad head
ache. ... 4. Thursday. Took a whey posset on
334

ILL-HEALTH
going to bed"; but neither this remedy nor the
" emulsion to promote expectoration with the help
of bran tea with linseed " was immediately effectual
" I sent for Dr. Browne, who advised honey as good
for gravel. Took bran tea with honey and lemon
juice. Cold almost gone but stiU a weight on me."
He complains towards spring of swelling in his
ankles, burning pains in his legs, and was no doubt
looking eagerly forward to a sojourn with his own
people in Switzerland. Every visitor from his native
land is warmly welcomed, and some of the items
they impart are jotted down. " He said that every
thing was quiet in Switzerland, but that they were
tired of the French, who were introducing play and
dissipation. It is an abominable race everywhere."
Another friend proposes to go with him to Dept-
ford, where he can see aU sorts of yachts and select
one suitable for the lake at Yverdun.
"June 1st. I caUed on the wagon maker, who
promised to be at my house on Wednesday next to
meet the boat builder, to devise a carriage suitable
for transporting a boat in Switzerland. June 3rd.
Poor General Gage died yesterday after having
lingered a long time. Lady Fawcett was surprised
I had not spoken to her about the remedy she had
offered me. I must no doubt have been in a bad
humour." The general's kmdfiness is evident whether
he is prescribing "ginseng root" for an emaciated
friend or playing the peacemaker: — "The two
brothers do not live in harmony together. The
335

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
eldest is getting old, dreamy and melancholy. I
must try to bring about a reconciliation." "CaUed
on Mrs. Munster, who politely reproached me for
having neglected her."
"Was at the levee which was numerously at
tended ; the King asked me where I was going in
spring. I told him that I would go to Switzerland
by the middle of May or June ; that I might
perhaps go to Italy where I had been in '49. He
told me that should I go to Naples I must take
care not to bring back the plague. I told him
that having escaped in my youth I ran little risk
now, etc. I remarked that after the Queen had
spoken to me she looked at me several times very
attentively and with a kindly air, believing that
I had been iU. The King hoped that I would not be
as long absent from England as I had been from
Switzerland, and that I should establish my domi
cile here."
The entries for the year 1787 cease at the end of
June and there are no more untU his return to
London in the end of May, 1789. A letter from
Captain Freeman, March 17th, 1789, teUs how he
is missed: — "He (Bude"), as weU as aU Your other
most respectable Friends, who He says are making
daily enquiries after you, think the happy recovery
of our beloved Monarch wUl be a powerful induce
ment to You to come over and join the rest of his
devoted Friends in the personal and heartfelt con
gratulations each seems most forward in testifying
336

IN SWITZERLAND
on the providential and joyful occasion. You wiU
not find the roads difficult— nay, upon the whole, as
You Sir are not fond of much warmth and do not
fear fresh weather I think you wiU find traveUing
at this season no way inconvenient, if you don't
make too long stages. Your House is fitted up
in the nicest manner, and were I to take upon
me to construe the ideas of every one of your
acquaintance as weU as the above mention'd Friends
it wou'd be ' that you ought not to put off coming
over.' . . . Mrs. Fairchild is very weU, and quite
anxious to see Switzerland, that happy, happj
Country, would to Heaven ! my Dear General,
I had wherewith to fix myself in it and cultivate to
my latest breath that kindness and affectionate
Friendship I so unreservedly experienced from you
and Your respectable amiable Relations. Pray pre
sent me to them one and aU in every grateful and
tender recoUection that can be acceptable from, Sir,
Your ever obliged and most sincerely attached
obdt. humle. Servt, Q. I. Freeman."
" Arrived in London on the 31st of May, 1789.
Visited on the 1st June Lord and Lady Amherst,
Lord and Lady Sydney, Sir George and Lady
Yonge, Lady Holderness, Mrs. Molisson, General
Bude", the War Office, Lord Sydney's office, the
Duke of Northumberland, Baron Alvensleben,
General and Lady Fawcett, Lord Hopetown, the
Duke of York, Lord Dover, Sir J. York, Mrs.
Robertson." 337

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
This looks as if Sir Frederick had returned from
his native heath with all his old-time energy; but
the diary jottings for the next two years are shorter
and show less intellectual vigour: "Scribbled over
the paper the whole afternoon without being able
to write the Chevalier Grau a letter which seemed
presentable." "August 11. Tuesday. My birthday," he writes,
but he does not mention that he has now completed
his seventy-first year. The dinners and the card
parties are resumed with not quite their former
zest, and he often speaks of spending the day
arranging old papers, those records of a busy past,
now forever behind him. Probably he destroyed
anything of a personal nature that he did not wish
to pass to his heirs. In the Haldimand CoUection we
find none of the letters mentioned on February 4th,
1786 : — "Spent the day in reading letters from Bq.
[Bouquet] and Prevost of 1755 and '56 and some
from Monette which reawakened my old friendship
to her. I must write her or see her on my way to
the continent." This is the only hint of a possible
romance in the whole of the general's papers. No
one shaU publish his love letters.
He comments upon his servants and his cellar as
before, but not so much upon his acquaintances.
"March 24th, 1790. My nephew came to see me
to inform me of the death of my sister Justine."
She was his only one, and though not the man to
express his deeper feelings on paper, one may guess
338

A NEW FRIEND
at his grief, for he had been recently renewing his
acquaintance with aU of his family.
London paUs upon him, though he may not
realize that the weight of three score years and ten
has aught to do with it
There is no word now of his riding in the park,
though he mentions a walk there occasionaUy, and his
memoranda are more trivial "Brought butter and
fruit from Hampstead." "Took a walk with General
Smith ; went to the tinsmith's, from there to Du-
bosk's, bookseUer, Gerard Street, and then to a
German's where we purchased a ham, beans and
lentiles." "How to cook a ham:" the recipe fol
lows. "Bought a gold snuff-box for which I paid
eighteen guineas."
Sir Frederick makes a new acquaintance, one
Colonel Miranda, whom he finds "always more
interesting" and repeats the fact with elderly gar
rulity. Apparently a soldier of fortune, Miranda's
European talk would make him an agreeable com
panion to the old general for a dinner or a trip to
VauxhalL The social functions continue and he speaks of
playing "commerce" and "quadrille," but attends
no more dances. "Dined at CoL Wilfiamson's,
played vingt-et-un nearly two hours. I was greatly
fatigued, especiaUy in the knees and legs which
were much swoUen." "June 4th. King's Birthday
which was very brilliant Dined at Lord Amherst's
in uniform ; home at half-past nine." 339

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
During the summer of 1789, Bertrand Haldi
mand, his nephew, had written from Yverdun
concerning the building of a house for the general
at Champetit. "February 25th, 1790. Was at court
which was not very fuU. The Queen asked me if
my house in Switzerland were finished. I answered
no, but I thought of having it finished in the
spring." The spring found him stiU in London,
however. "April 22nd, 1790. Took General PoweU
to the Drawing Room. The Queen told me that
she wished very much to see Switzerland which she
prefers to Italy."
Dr. Mabane wrote on June 9th, 1791 : — "You
had set off for Switzerland about the latter end
of March," but before the letter crossed the
Atlantic, his friend had set off upon a longer jour
ney. The diary jottings come to an abrupt con
clusion on August 12th, 1790.
Of Haldimand's death, which occurred at the house
of his brother in Yverdun, on June 5th, 1791, we
have no particulars; but knowing the sort of man
he was and the kind of life he had led, it is safe
to surmise that he would not go "Like the quarry
slave at night, scourged to his dungeon," but
" Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."
His will was entered and translated on June 21st,
1791 :—
"In the name of God Amen. I, Sir Frederick
Haldimand, Knight of the Order of the Bath and
340

HIS WILL
General in the Service of His Brittannick Majesty,
thinking proper to dispose of my property Do by
this present Will name my dear nephew, Anthony
Francis Haldimand, settled in London, for my
Universal Heir of all the property which I shall
possess at my death, as well in Europe as in
America, and of what nature soever such property
may consist without being obliged to render any
account thereof to any one of the family under any
pretence, the whole upon the following conditions,
that he shaU pay aU my just debts and the legacies
hereunder mentioned.
"I leave to my sister in Law Corn Low the sum
of twenty thousand Livres, Swiss money.
" Item to my four nieces, Henrietta Haldimand,
Mesdames Newlett, Aubergeaunoix and Bertram
to each the sum of twenty thousand Francs, Swiss.
"Item to my Great Nephew, Lieutenant Devos,
the sum of Thirty thousand Francs, Swiss.
" Item to my Great Nephews and Nieces, that is
to say to the six chUdren of my nephew Anthony,
to the five of my niece Newlet (including therein
Lieutenant Devos) to the two of my niece Auber
geaunoix, and to the four of my niece Bertram,
making seventeen in number, I leave to each of
them the sum of Ten thousand Livres, Swiss, on the
express condition that my nephew Anthony (whose
generosity and prudence I know) shaU have fuU
power to keep in his hands aU the sums above
mentioned or any part thereof, and as long as he
341

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
shaU judge convenient for the advantage of the
above named, paying them interest at four per
cent, per annum without being obliged to pay the
principal on any pretence.
"I leave to the Parish of St. George, Hanover,
my Parish, eight hundred Livres, Swiss.
"Item to the Hospital of Yverdun, to the Direc
tion of the Poor and to the Library of that place,
sixteen hundred Francs each.
" I leave to Mr. Adam Maben, Judge of the
Common Pleas of Quebec ; the sum of Ten thou
sand Livres, Swiss, revertable to Mrs. Elizabeth
Maben, his sister, in case she survives him, but in
case they shaU both happen to die before me this
Legacy shall not be of any validity as to their
Heirs. "I beg of Major Mathews, Mr. Jenkin WiUiams,
Solicitor General at Quebec, Captain Lewis Gene-
vay, and Captain Freeman of the 24th Regt., to
accept of sixteen hundred Francs, Swiss, each as a
mark of my remembrance and esteem.
" I also beg of Mr. de Salzas and General Bude
to accept of my two gold snuff Boxes.
" My nephew shaU pay to each of my servants a
year's wages, none of them being at liberty to
Claim any of my wearing apparel.
" FinaUy I annul and revoke every other wUl
which I have made before the date hereof and
willing that this may have a fuU effect I have
written the same with my own hand and have
342

DESCENDANTS OF HIS FAMILY
hereto affixed the seal of my amis at London, 30th
March, 1791. Fred. Haldimand (L.S.)
"N.B. A pound sterling shaU always be valued
at the rate of sixteen Livres Swiss money."
Of the nieces mentioned. Henrietta, and Mes-
dames Aubergeaunolx and Bertram were daughters
of Sir Frederick's youngest brother, Francois-Louis
Haldimand. The trusted Anthony Francis had a no less
reliable son, WUliam Haldimand (1784-1862), dir
ector of the Bank of England, member of parlia
ment, and friend of Charles Dickens, who, in
"Pickwick Papers," made copy out of bis election
experiences. A bachelor like his great-uncle, and a
distinguished phUanthropist, WUliam Haldimand
settled near Lausanne in 1828, and died there. He
had inherited Sir Frederick's papers, and five years
before his death presented them to the British
Museum. His sister, Mrs. Marcet, made a name
for herself by her educational writings, and her son,
Professor Marcet, who died in 1883, was noted for
his scientific achievements.
The Haldemans of the United States have also dis
tinguished themselves in science and literature, prov
ing in their search for truth that they were worthy
descendants of Honnete Gaspard, the grandfather of
Sir Frederick. Professor Samuel Steman Haldeman
(1812-1880) exhibited the family thoroughness in
researches along many divergent lines, from conchol-
ogy and entomology to phUology and archaeology. 343

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
On May 5th, 1784, General Haldimand had laid
the foundation stone of an addition to the Castle of
St. Louis, which was caUed the Chateau Haldi
mand in his honour. It consisted principally of a
large assembly-room for use upon state occasions.
The building was not completed for three years
after the general had left Quebec, but it was said
to have the finest dancing floor in Canada, and
objections were made to gentleman guests marring
it with their "creepers," despite the orderlies set to
watch the feet of all who came in. While the
workmen were building this wing, under Haldi
mand's direction, they had occasion to level the
courtyard, and in so doing came upon a curious old
stone bearing a shield with a gilt Maltese cross upon
it and the date, 1647. His ExceUency ordered the
relic to be placed "in the cheek of the gate of the
new building, in order to convey to posterity the
antiquity of the Chateau St. Louis." The original
castle was burned in 1834, but the Chateau Haldi
mand was used as a normal school in connection
with Laval University until 1892, when it was
pulled down to make room for the handsome hotel
which now crowns the historic summit. The south
west wing of this "Chateau Frontenac" covers the
site of Haldimand's castle, as weU as that of the
old powder magazine built for Fort St. Louis in
the sixteenth century, the substantial casements of
which were disclosed when the walls of Haldi
mand's wing were razed. The Maltese stone, now
344

MEMORIALS IN CANADA
inserted in the waU above the parte cochere of the
hotel, rivals in historic interest the chien d'or of
the post-office.
Montmorency House was a white elephant upon
Haldimand's hands for many a year, as he could
not sell it; but the royal situation found regal
admirers in time. Prince William Henry feU in
love with the place when he was in Quebec,
and the Duke of Kent, Queen Victoria's father,
who was in Canada from 1791 to 1794, made it his
residence. The modern tourist has found the spot
to his taste, and the sometime Haldimand House
— Kent Lodge — is now a summer hotel, where aU
the world may go to be thriUed by the might of
Montmorency's rushing waters that have lost none
of their impetuosity since the days when Madame
Riedesel wandered and wondered in their neigh
bourhood. The park at the corner of Dorchester and St.
Urbain streets, Montreal, was a burying-ground one
hundred years ago, and until the nineteenth cen
tury was more than half over, tombstones were stiU
standing there. Two of these held in remembrance
gentlemen who had been partners in the St. Maur
ice Forges, and previously, at different times, secre
taries to their countryman, General Haldimand: —
HONBLE CONRAD GUGY
Captain 60th Regiment
Member Legislative Council Lower Canada
Died 10 April 1786.
art: 56 345

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
JEAN FRANCOIS LOUIS GENEVAY
Deputy Paymaster General for the District of Montreal.
Died 23 April 1803, art: 66 years.
He was a native of Switzerland but served
King George 44 years.
Haldimand HUl stiU keeps fresh in Quebec city
the memory of the governor, whUe a county of
Ontario reminds the descendants of Loyalists who
it was that planned their settlement.
In the chapel of Henry VII, Westminster Abbey,
there is a brass plate bearmg a coat of arms in
colours, with the circular motto, Tria juncta in uno,
on a shield supported by an Indian at either side,
whUe at their feet is a scroU, Mitius Jubetur Ex-
emplo, and beneath is the inscription: — "Du Cheva
lier FREDERICK HALDIMAND, General
et Colonel d'un Regiment d'lnfanterie au Service
de sa MajesU; cy-devant General Commandant en
chef dans L'Amdrique Septentrionale; Gouverneur
de la Province de Quebec; Inspecteur G6nefral des
Troupes dans les Isles Occidentales, et Chevalier du
tris honorable Ordre du BAIN: Installe le 19me
Jour de May MDCCLXXXVIII."
This is a smaU reminder to Englishmen of the
man who saved Canada for the empire. Had he
been British born or bred, had he been a French
man and won back New France to Old, had he
even belonged to the revolutionary party in the
United States, he would now be revered as a
patriot somewhere in the world, but love of coun-
346

HIS SERVICE
try was not the stimulating motive in his public
career. With no famUy of his own to spur him on
either to gratify ambition or to make a fortune,
Haldimand lived for others if ever man did. Art
for art's sake is its own reward, but work for work's
sake is seldom so eminently satisfying, unless one
is trying to live down a private grief, and there was
nothing of that sort in the general's Life, so far as
can be discovered. His heart was given to Switzer-
land, but as a soldier of fortune in foreign service
he surpassed in devotion to his chosen profession
the majority of those who were fighting for their
own country. His zeal for the interests of King
George exceeded that of His Majesty's native-bom
subjects. Duty was the key-note of his conduct,
and in the doing of it he was never daunted by
difficulties that had staggered many a one animated
by the variable glow of patriotism.
A pessimist concerning the future of Canada, he
yet accomplished more for the firm establishment
of that future than any one of her optimistic gover
nors. Modern Canadian historians state that no
events of consequence occurred during Haldimand's
rule, but to him belongs the credit that they did
not occur.
" Happy the country that has no history."
A disaffected province, a weak colonial minister,
caUed for a strong man, able to use strong measures
on his own responsibility. Indian ferocity needed
a restraining hand, but Indian rights must be
347

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND
respected. The Vermont negotiations would have
belittled Great Britain, if not conducted with hon
our and dignity, while the homeless Loyalists ap
pealed to sympathy that had to be tempered with
the nicest judgment. The manner in which Fred
erick Haldimand fulfilled aU these requirements
entitles him to a greater meed of imperial grati
tude than he has yet received, and to a far higher
place than has yet been accorded him among the
makers of Canada.

348

INDEX

Allen, General Ethan, communi
cates with British, 200-3; writes
Schuyler, 209; his correspondence
with Haldimand, 213, 216 ; pro
posed signer of a treaty with Great
Britain, 214 ; interviewed by a
Loyalist, 215 ; true to Vermont
only, 217
Allen, Colonel Ira, Vermont com
missioner in British negotiations,
202, 204; suspected of double
dealing, 205, 206, 207, 209, 211,
212 ; upheld by Vermont council
of state, 210; proposes secret
treaty with England, 214; true
to Vermont only, 21 7
Amherst, General Sir Jeffrey, after
wards Lord, succeeds Abercrom
by, 21 ; erects Fort George, 22 ;
builds forts and fleets on Lake
Champlain, 25, 28 ; praises Hal
dimand's forbearance at Niagara,
27 ; at Oswego, 34, 35 ; receives
surrender at Montreal, 38, 39 ;
commands at New York, 40,
41, 42, 47, 49 ; retires, 53 ; cor
responds with Haldimand, 82,
88, 103 ; Haldimand's intercourse
with in England, 105, 311, 325,
326, 332, 337, 339
Arnold, Colonel Benedict, 112, 127,
227, 276, 281 B
Barbington, Lord, 83, 107, 113,
329
Bouquet, Henry, Brigadier-General,
early friend of Haldimand, 5, 6 ;
in Swiss Guards at the Hague, 8,
9; colonel in Royal American

Regiment, 12-16; at Fort Pitt,
40 ; victorious at Bushy Run,
promoted and transferred to Pen
sacola, where he dies, 58, 62, 63 ;
certain of his letters destroyed,
338
Boston, tea party at, 84 ; its port
closed, 85 ; Gage in, 96-98 ; Hal
dimand's connection with, 103,
105, 107, 108, 121
Brant, Joseph, Indian chief, 153-6,
169, 170, 258, 300, 308, 327
Bude, General de, letters of Haldi
mand to, 116, 117, 119, 191, 222
Burgoyne, General, supersedes
Carleton, 112; his disastrous
campaign, 113, 126 ; Hamilton's
expedition compared to his, 168
Butler, Colonel John, 151, 154, 156,
170, 172, 256, 327

Carleton, General Sir Guy, leases
St. Maurice Forges, 62 ; tries to
enlist Canadian militia, 111 ;
his quarrel with Germaine, 113 ;
Haldimand's opinion of, 119 ; at
siege of Quebec, 121, 187 ; Cap
tain Schank writes to, 159; raises
Loyalist corps, 253 ; proposal to
have him supersede Haldimand at
Quebec, 188, 189 ; loes so, 314 ;
meets Haldimand ii London, 330,
331 ; (See also Lord Dorchester)
Carleton, Major, 149, 194, 280, 281
Caughnawagas, the, 130, 156, 189
Champlain Lake, Canada to be
attacked by way of, 34 ; trou
ble among settlers on, 89, 197 ;
guarding against invasion from,
125, 133, 134, 137, 149 ; messen-
349

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND

Champlain Lake — Continued
gers intercepted on, 129 ; forts
taken on, 198 ; Vermont nego
tiations held upon, 204 ; fear of
rebel approach by, 208, 216 ;
Ethan Allen offers to meet Hal
dimand upon, 214 ; Loyalists on
shores of, 250
Chittenden, Thomas, 201, 202, 212,
214, 215
Clergy, Canadian, 42, 44, 52 ;
change of views in, 128, 174 ;
Haldimand's resolution with re
gard to, 180 ; French priests not
wanted in Canada, 181, 182 ; their
interest in the establishment of
public library, 191 ; the Protes
tant, 235, 236 ; Roman Catholic,
alarmed at inroad of Loyalists, 264
Clinton, Sir Henry, 8 (note), 131,
188, 199, 200, 207, 208, 211,
212, 280, 330
Congress, United States, meets at
Concord, 102 ; rumour of French
and Spanish treaty with, 124 ; its
designs against Canada, 129, i30,
132 ; its attitude towards Ver
mont, 198, 199, 201-209, 211,
214-216 ; defeat of its troops
celebrated in Quebec, 223 ; its
interest and that of army op
posed, 225 ; passes laws against
Loyalists, 252; sends ambassador
to Canada, 259 ; is slow to fulfil
treaty, 260; addresses Canadians,
276; possible ruler of Canada, 319
Comwallis, General, 211, 212, 297
Corvies, during French rule, 122 ;
transporting provisions to upper
posts, 140 ; complaint against
Haldimand for, 182, 291 ; Mac-
Lean asks for decrease of, 306
Council, legislative, greets Haldi
mand on his arrival, 117 ; com
position of, 175 ; its power said
to be dependent upon the Quebec
Act, 188 ; a member of it upholds
Du Calvet, 287 ; sees Haldimand
depart, 309 ; change of member
ship at change of governor, 314
850

Cramahe", Lieutenant-Governor, 111,
224, 313
Creeks, the, war with, 69 ; charac
terized, 70 ; their raids in Geor
gia, 91 ; Gage's opinion of, 98
Crown Point, 17, 28, 90, 126, 137,
211 D
De Peyster, Major, 146, 158, 161,
260, 314
Detroit, 137, 145, 146, 153, 158,
161, 163, 167, 168, 260, 262, 332
Dorchester, Lord, Governor-Gen
eral of Canada, 314, 315 (note),
331, 332; (See also Sir Guy
Carleton)
Du Calvet, Pierre, imprisoned by
Haldimand, 279, 280 ; evidence
against him, 281 ; his character,
282-284, 290; his lawsuit against
Haldimand, 283, 310 ; his book,
284-289; upheld by Maseres,
290; as a patriot, 291, 292;
blames Mabane, 305

Five Nations, the, allies of the
British, 148 ; their rights re
spected, 166 ; (See also Iroquois
and Six Nations)
Florida, under British rule, 64-82 ;
Haldimand comes north from,
83, 87; officers left there, 90;
suggested closing of ports to,
104 ; Haldimand's career there,
121 ; proposed disposition of, 124;
Haldimand's property in, 3i6
French Canadians, characterized, 42,
51, 52, 161, 173, 221 ; enlistment
of, 55-57, 139 ; object to introduc
tion of English civil law, 59, 60 ;
contented with new rulers, 53,
79 ; favoured by Quebec Act, 101,
173 ; disinclination to serve in
revolutionary war, 111, 126-128 ;
costume of, 114, 115, 240, 241 ;
prisoners in Albany take up arms
for congress, 130; fear of them

INDEX

French Canadians — Continued
communicating with rebels, 134,
136, 140, 174, 297 ; restricted in
disposal of produce, 177 ; ap
pealed to by D'Estaing, 123;
Haldimand's attitude towards,
119, 180, 182, 264, 273, 283;
their attitude to the Loyal
ists, 264, 271 ; their opinion of
Haldimand, 274 ; disloyalty to
England, 189, 276, 280; ad
dressed by congress, 276 ; Mac-
Lean pleads for, 306; attempt to
anglify, 315
Frontier Raids, 13, 16, 38, 89, 149,
156, 157, 169-172, 187, 210, 250

Gage, General, at Ticonderoga,
19 ; writes to Haldimand, 22, 23 ;
commands at Oswego, 28, 29 ; at
Albany, 31, 33 ; at Montreal, 40,
41 ; his opinion of the Cross de
St. Louis wearers, 62 ; comman
der-in-chief at New York, 53, 57,
68, 60, 61, 66, 68, 70, 72, 73, 77, 79-
81 ; leaves for England, 83 ; letter
of Haldimand to, 89; his letter to
Haldimand, 94, 95 (note) ; in
Boston, 96-98, 101, 105, 108,
121 ; superseded by Howe, 110 ;
Indian policy of, 147; receives
letter from Washington, 249 ;
his death, 335
Garneau, F. X., French Canadian
historian, quoted, 69 ; approves of
General Murray, 60 ; gives some
credit to Haldimand, 291, 292
Gazette, Quebec, first newspaper in
Canada, 190
Gazette, Montreal, founding of, 276
Germaine, Lord George, English
colonial secretary, 107 ; charac
terized, 112, 113, 125, 132 ; Hal
dimand's earliest despatches to,
132-143, 163; Haldimand re
proved by, 155, 156; letters of
Haldimand to, 164-166, 294;
Hamilton writes directly to, 167 ;

his further correspondence with
Haldimand, 170, 176, 178; dir
ects Clinton and Haldimand to
win over Vermont, 199 ; Haldi
mand reports progress to, 206,
208 ; his replies to Haldimand,
216, 275
German troops in Canada, the
Brunswick legion, 114, 126, 136,
141, 265, 293, 296, 298
H
Habeas Corpus Act, Haldimand's
suspension of, 275 ; Canadian de
mand for, 29i
Haldeman, the family in the United
States, 343
Haldimand, Anthony Francis,
nephew of Sir Frederick, 72, 88,
105, 311, 312, 332, 338, 341, 342
Haldimand, Bertrand, nephew of
Sir Frederick, 311, 340
Haldimand Collection of documents,
319, 338
Haldimand, Francois-Louis, brother
of Sir Frederick, 3 ; his grand
son, 312 ; his daughters, 343
Haldimand, Frederick, nephew of
Sir Frederick, 17, 49, 60, 61, 72,
294
Haldimand, General Sir Frederick,
birth, 3 ; early military service,
4-8 ; enters British army, 9 ; goes
to America, 10; recruits for
Royal American Regiment, 11-13;
wounded at Ticonderoga, 21 ; in
command at Fort Edward, 23-25 ;
victorious at Oswego, 26 ; takes
possession of Montreal, 38 ; at
tends to shipment of troops to
France, 39; military governor
of West Florida, 65-81 ; com
mander-in-chief at New York,
83-99 ; with Gage in Boston, 102-
105 ; in London, 105, 106 ; sails
for Canada as governor-general,
116; arrives in Quebec, 117;
formal reception at Montreal,
119 ; his preparations for defence
851

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND

Haldimand, General Sir Frederick
— Continued
of province, 124-131 ; his de
spatch to Germaine, 132-143 ;
correspondence with commanders
at upper posts, 146, 147, 154, 158-
162 ; improves mail service with
England, 152 ; accused of open
ing private letters, 155 ; extracts
of his letters to Germaine, 128,
153, 156, 164-166 ; his opinion of
Hamilton's expedition to the Wa
bash, 168 ; of frontier raids, 169,
170; of the Quebec Act, 173;
his trouble with councillors, 175-
178 ; his resolutions on taking
office, 179 ; has Quebec citadel
rebuilt, 183 ; causes first canals on
St. Lawrence to be constructed,
184-186 ; proposes to resign,
189 ; has census of the province
taken, 190 ; starts first public
library in Canada, 190, 191 ; his
official proclamations, 192, 193 ;
he is promoted, 42, 61, 83, 107,
113, 313 ; negotiates with Ver
mont leaders, 199-217 ; his social
life in Quebec, 222, 223, 298,
300 ; his views on the smallpox
question, 230 ; his treatment of
rebel prisoners, 250 ; enlists Loy
alist corps, 253 ; his care for Tory
refugees in Canada, 138, 254,
255, 258, 266; his refusal to
yield the upper posts to congress,
260, 261 ; assists the North West
Company, 261, 262 ; sends settlers
to Upper Canada, 264, 270 ; im
prisons prominent Canadians sus
pected of intercourse with the
rebels, 273-282 ; Du Calvet's at
tack upon him, 283-292 ; his
house at Montmorency, 301, 331,
345 ; sails for England, 309 ;
knighted, 313, 332; quotations
from his diary, 321-340 ; his will,
340-343 ; tablet to his memory in
Westminster Abbey, 346
Haldimand, Henry, nephew of Sir
Frederick, 311, 312
352

Haldimand, Honnete Gaspard,
grandfather of Sir Frederick, 2,
17, 72, 311
Haldimand, Jean- Abraham, brother
of Sir Frederick, 2, 17, 72, 311
Haldimand, Jean-Lois, uncle of Sir
Frederick, 2, 4
Haldimand, Justine, sister of Sir
Frederick, 3, 338
Haldimand, Louis, nephew of Sir
Frederick, 88, 109, 110, 294, 312
Haldimand, Pierre, nephew of Sir
Frederick, 72, 111, 112, 294
Hamilton, Henry, lieutenant-gover
nor at Detroit, his foolhardy
expedition to the Wabash, 167-
169 ; lieutenant-governor at Que
bec, 314
Hazen, Haun, or Hazon, Moses or
Moss, rebel spy, 130, 132
Howe, General Sir William, 110, 268
Hutcheson, Major, 108-110,112,294

Indians, their lands secured by
treaty, 12 ; allies of the French,
13, 16, 21 ; rangers touchy as,
23 ; come to help of Pouchot at
Niagara, 25 ; Sir William John
son's following of, 28, 29 ; traders
forbidden to sell rum to, 32 ;
fears of an uprising among, 55 ;
in Florida, 66, 71, 73; Haldi
mand's treatment of, 89, 91-93,
131, 147, 150, 153, 259, 347;
uncertain allies, 126, 137, 170;
rebels tampering with, 127, 128,
134, 136 ; like British posts and
presents, 145, 146, 157, 266 ; not
consulted at treaty-making, 256,
257; British control of, 260;
attempt to pervert from British
allegiance, 279; American cruelty
towards, 307 ; (See also Caughna-.
wagas, Creeks, Iroquois, Mo
hawks, Oneidas, Six Nations)
Iroquois, the, 43, 1 51 ; (See also Five
orSix Natious, Mohawks, Oneidas)
Isle aux Noix, 125, 133, 204, 260

INDEX

Jesuits, their mission at Three
Rivers, 43 ; an unworthy member
of the order, 48 ; engage in the
ginseng trade, 148 ; suspected of
sympathy with rebels, 130, 181 ;
their vestibule turned into a
theatre, 306, 307
Johnson, Colonel Guy, 155, 156
Johnson, Sir John, 156, 231, 237,
296, 308
Johnson, Sir William, takes posses
sion of Niagara, 26, 27 ; wants to
attack La Galette, 28 ; retires for
the winter, 29 ; leaves Oswego
for Montreal under Amherst, 35 ;
his opinion on the enlistment of
Canadian corps, 57; his Indian
widow, 154 ; his death a national
loss, 155 ; his son, Sir John, 156 ;
references to him, 121, 167, 257
E
King's Royal Regiment, of New
York, formation of, 156 ; a colonel
in, 201 ; disbanded, 255
Kingston (See Cataraqui)

La Corns de St. Luo, 26, 40
Lafayette, Marquis de, 128, 278
Laterriere, Doctor, inspector of
Forges at Three Rivers, his
memoirs, 278 ; his defence of Du
Calvet, 284, 287 ; his opinion of
Haldimand, 277, 293
Levis, General de, 34, 36-39, 122
Library, first public, in Canada, 190,
191
Loyalists, the, coming into Canada,
125 ; houses being built for, 138,
182 ; military service of, 136,
137, 253, 268 ; at Niagara, 152 ;
helping to build Quebec citadel,
183 ; mixed up in the Vermont
affair, 200, 202, 206; at Machiche,
235 ; at Cataraqui, 236 ; rebel
treatment of, 249-262; Haldi

mand's care of, 254, 255, 266;
the Indians as, 2.58 ; at Michilli-
makinak, 269 ; congress unre
lenting towards, 260 ; lands al
lotted to, 263, 264 ; the trouble
they gave Haldimand, 267-270,
306, 348 M
Mabane, Dootob Adam, 178, 300,
304, 305, 314, 315 (note), 332,
340, 342
MacLean, Brigadier Allan, 111,
112, 162, 171 (note), 279, 280,
285, 294, 306-311, 327
Martial law, 41, 43 ; abolished in
Canada, 59 ; better than civil rule
in Florida, 65 ; and at Vincennes,
93 ; its severity in the case of
soldiers, 93 ; not severely en
forced by Haldimand, 275
Maseres, Baron Francis, 290, 291,
305, 310, 315 (note)
Mathews, Major, Haldimand's sec
retary, 245, 286, 305, 309, 314,
331, 332, 342
Mesplet, Fleury, publisher of first
books in Montreal, 276, 277
MichiUimakinak, situation of fort,
145, 153 ; quarrel between com
manders there and at Detroit,
158 ; the great expense of main
taining, 161 ; transporting pro
visions to, 163; talk of settling
Loyalists near, 259 ; not to be
yielded to congress, 260 ; another
site chosen, 262
Mohawks, the, 84, 148, 258, 259,
265
Montcalm, General, at Carillon, 18;
unable to take advantage of his
victory there, 22 ; had destroyed
fort at Oswego, 25 ; « forged
letter of, 49 ; his memory green
with Canadians, 122 ; mentioned
by D'Estaing, 123
Montgomery, General Richard, 111,
112, 127
Montreal, Levis still holds out at,
353

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND

Montreal— Continued
34 ; Amherst on his way to sur
round, 36 ; English march there
from Lachine, 37 ; Haldimand
takes possession of, 39 ; he stays
there with Gage, 40 ; martial law
at, 41 ; Haldimand improves the
highway between it and Quebec,
45, 46 ; change of command at, 63 ;
enlistment of Canadian troops in,
65, 56 ; difficulties of government
in, 60 ; Tryon at, 91 ; surrenders
to rebels, 111 ; trade with upper
lakes, 124, 140; rebel spies in,
130, 274, 278; Sulpician priests
from Paris deported from, 181 ;
Haldimand visits, 186 ; the census
of taken, 190 ; postal service
in, 193 ; its people present
loyal addresses, 225; schools of,
233, 235, 236; rebel prisoners
at, 187, 250 ; North West Com
pany founded at, 261 ; Indians
in, 266 ; first printing press of,
276 ; the Riedesels at, 300 ; Mac-
Lean at, 306 ; old burying-ground
in, 345
Murray, General James, in com
mand at Quebec, 34 ; advancing
against Montreal, 36 ; governor
at Quebec, 41-43, 49, 50 ; gover
nor-general of Canada, 53
N
New Orleans, 64, 73, 77, 78, 80, 81
New York City, Amherst commands
at, 41 ; Gage in command, 53 ;
Haldimand in command, 1, 83,
86,87, 90, 96, 102, 121 ; rioting in,
91, 95, 97 ; Haldimand's property
in, 103, 107; Haldimand's com
munication with, 129 ; animosity
against British in, 252
New York, colony or State of, pro
posal to build Florida barracks
there, 79 ; slow in joining revolt,
98, 101 ; Vermont's dispute with,
198, 203, 209, 215, 217 ; Indians
migrate from, 268"
354

Niagara, Fort, in French hands, 26;
taken by British, 26 ; garrison
at, 31, 32 ; its late commander,
36 ; shipment of goods to, 124,
136, 150, 163 ; its position, 145 ;
Indians at, 148, 171, 256; ex
peditions in its defence, 151, 153;
Loyalists take refuge there, 152,
250 ; MacLean in command at,
162, 307, 308 ; peculation of a
firm of traders at, 166 ; Haldi
mand's refusal to relinquish, 260
North, Lord, 92, 97, 259, 264, 265
O
Oneidas, the, one of the Six Na
tions, 148, 153
Oswego River, British post at
mouth of, 25 ; battle there, 26,
40, 121 ; Haldimand returns there
from Niagara, 27 ; Indians about,
28 ; derivation of name, 32 ; Am
herst expected at, 33 ; he arrives,
34, 35 ; fort to be re-established,
142 ; fear of rebels taking post
there, 150 ; British occupy site
once more, 157 ; Loyalists there,
250 ; fort to be held after peace,
260

Pensacola, Florida, Bouquet at, 58,
63 ; Haldimand arrives there, 66 ;
his labours to improve, 67, 68,
70 ; watching the Spaniards from,
77 ; troops removed from, 78 ;
ordered back there, 79, 80 ;
barracks being built at, 8i, 90;
Haldimand's house there, 104, 316
Pitt, Fort, 16, 26, 40, 90
Pontiac, uprising of, 55, 57, 259
Postal service, Haldimand improves
the, 131 ; its inefficiency, 129,
193, 312
Prevost, General Augustin, 294,
315, 316, 330, 338
Q
Quebec Act, extends bounds of

INDEX

Quebec Act — Continued
province, 93 ; objections to in
New England, 101 ; its repeal
wanted, 174, 175, 179, 180, 264 ;
not wanted, 173, 188 ; Haldi
mand's opinion of, 195, 273
Quebec city, Wolfe before, 25 ;
Amherst delays en route to, 29 ;
Murray in, 34, 41 ; road between
it and Montreal, 45, 46 ; its con
nection with Three Rivers, 47, 49 ;
enlistment in, 65, 56; Haldimand's
arrival at, 117 ; Indians brought
to, 152 ; the citadel of, 183 ;
prisons in, 187 ; defence of, 188 ;
its census taken, 190 ; old cus
toms of, 192, 221-224 ; the Ried
esels at, 220, 300-304 ; education
in, 233-235 ; food supply of, 239 ;
Nelson at, 244 ; rebel sympathizers
in, 279 ; Du Calvet at, 286, 287 ;
Haldimand's life at, 298 ; he sails
from, 310 ; a street called after
Haldimand there, 346
R
Recollets, priests of the order of,
48, 187, 222, 286, 289
Riedesel, Baron de, 114, 239, 296-
299, 302
Riedesel, Baroness de, 219, 220,
239, 299-304, 345
Royal American Regiment, after
wards 60th Foot, Haldimand
lieutenant-colonel in, 1, 9, 11 ;
recruiting for, 12 ; George Wash
ington suggests change of uni
form for, 16 ; Haldimand ex
changes from 2nd to 4th Battalion
of, 17 ; at Oswego, 29 ; at Mont
real, 50 ; discipline in, 94 ; one
of Haldimand's secretaries he-
longed to, 305 ; Haldimand made
colonel-commandant of 2nd Bat
talion, 83 ; of 1st Battalion,
313
Royal Highland Emigrants, or
84th Regiment, raised for defence
of Quebec, 111, 112, 306 ; dis

banded, 255 ; as settlers, 262,
265 ; Du Calvet arrested by cap
tain of, 285 S
St. Johns, Quebec, fortified, 125,
130, 133 ; people of, pay a school
master, 235
SC Leger, Colonel Barry, 211, 256,
295, 309, 314
St. Louis, Chateau of, governor's
residence at Quebec, 169, 222,
304, 314 ; balls at, 223 ; wing
built to it by Haldimand, 344
St. Maurice Forges, 46-48, 54, 62,
278, 346
Schank, Captain, 125, 159, 236,
237, 288, 289, 309, 313
Schuyler, General, 205, 206, 209,
250, 257, 279
Sherwood, Captain, British com
missioner in Vermont negotia
tions, 202, 204, 267
Sinclair, Lieutenant-Governor, 158,
161, 163
Six Nations, or Five Nations, the, too
few in number to be important as
allies, 126; postat Oswego must be
re-established for benefit of, 142;
their raid on AVyoming, 151 ; a
deputation held at Quebec to see
English fleet, 152 ; Molly Brant's
influence with, 155 ; their rights
Srotected by Haldimand, 166 ;
eputation of, wait on MacLean
at Niagara, 171 ; threatened by
Schuyler, 257 ; settled on the
Grand River, 258 ; some remain
at Bay of Quinte, 265 , (See also
Iroquois, Mohawks, and Oneidas)
Sorel, 125, 132, 135, 183, 255, 256,
259, 269, 274, 296, 298
Spaniards, in Florida, 63-65 ; at
New Orleans, 78, 80 ; trouble
some neighbours, 70, 77 ; on the
Wabash, 167 ; Rodney's victory
over, 189
Sydney, Lord, British minister, 284,
310, 315 (note), 322, 326, 327, 337
355

SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND

Taxing American colonists, Lou
doun's letter to Pitt about, 11 ;
colonial objections to, 58 ; Haldi
mand's opinion of, 84 ; London
feeling against, 86
Taylor, Brigadier, 65, 69, 75
Three Rivers, Haldimand military
governor at, 1, 42-51 ; referred to,
66, 60-62, 64, 65, 147, 179, 190,
229, 231, 233, 235, 237, 254, 280,
290, 293
Townshend, Lord, British minister,
184 : Haldimand's letter to, 188
Tryon,' Governor, 89, 91, 197
Trytorrens, or Traytorrens, Marie
Madelaine de, Haldimand's
mother, 2 ; a correspondent of
the same name, 315
Twiss, Captain, 183-186, 327

Vaudreuil, the last French gover
nor-general of Canada, 36, 38, 39
Vermont, aspires to be a State, 197;
makes its own declaration of
independence, 198 ; British com
manders told to attempt retention
of, 199 ; Haldimand's opinion of
the people of, 199, 200, 208 ; its
negotiations with the British, 201-
217 ; emissaries reappear as Loy
alists, 266
Vincennes, Post, on the Wabash,
92, 93, 167, 168, 314

W
Wallace, Hugh, Haldimand's New
York agent, 61, 74, 77, 108
Washington, George, compared
with Haldimand in personal ap
pearance, 15 ; in character, 260;
advises change in British uni
forms, 16 ; occupies Haldimand's
house on Richmond Hill, 104;
his headquarters at Cambridge,
110 ; objects to his French allies
invading Canada, 123 ; small size
of his army, 126, 253; Haldi
mand demands Hamilton's release
from, 169 ; his disapproval of
Vermont, 205, 216 ; Schuyler re
ports to, 206 ; writes to Chitten
den, 212 ; wants to keep up
exchange of prisoners through
Vermont, 215 ; letter to his aide
intercepted in Canada, 225 ;
writes to Gage, 249 ; his advice
to Loyalists, 250 ; Riedesel's opin
ion of his tactics, 298 ; Pillon's
correspondence with, 278
Wolfe, General, before Quebec, 25,
28, 34 ; Amherst compared with,
35 ; mentioned, 62, 121

Yorke, Sir Joseph, 9, 10, 327, 337
Yverdun, early home of Haldimand,
2, 3 ; he revisits, 113, 116 ; dies
there, 340 ; its institutions re
membered in his will, 342

356

I
it

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