METEOROLOGICAL REGISTER,

KEPT AT THE OBSERVATORY OF CAPT. W. H. SMYTH, AT BEDFORD.

THE CANADIAN REVOLT:

A SHORT REVIEW OF ITS CAUSES, PROGRESS, AND PROBABLE CONSEQUENCES.

Ir is now pretty generally admitted that this wanton and wicked rebellion was alike unforeseen and unprovided for, both by the local and the metropolitan Governments; and although it may not have required the subtle spirit of a Fouché to fathom the conspiracy, it is but justice towards these authorities to state that until blood had actually been shed, very many of the best-informed men in the colony believed that not all the influence of Papineau and his colleagues-however ir resistible on the hustings, and dominant in the senate-would suffice to rouse his torpid and timid countrymen into armed resistance to the Queen's authority: and yet no doubt is now entertained of the existence -for months previous to any overt act of resistance to the laws-of an extensive, if not a general system of organization, for the avowed object of intimidating the Government into an unconditional compliance with the wishes and demands of the leaders of the "mouvement;" and, finally, if deemed expedient, of overthrowing the Regal Government, and erecting a Republic on its ruins.

There is something so Quixotic in the very idea of a systematic and deliberate trial of strength between the scattered and scanty population of Lower Canada and the colossal power of Great Britain, aided by the great bulk of the British inhabitants of North America, that nothing less than the evidence that late events have furnished could have persuaded us that a race of men were to have been found so insensate and enslaved to the will of a mad and mendacious demagogue, as to rush from the enjoyment of social happiness and the most perfect civil liberty into a blind contest with a parent state, which, step-children as they were, had governed them with lenity and justice, and treated them with kindness and affection: in more instances than one at the expense too of her own legitimate offspring. One would naturally conclude that some sudden and grievous wrongs had driven a people so situated to desperation, and plunged them headlong into the revolting struggle! Yet nothing would be further from the truth than this conjecture, for the habitans of Lower Canada never had a voice in the fearful question, propounded and resolved on in the secret councils of their chiefs. Clanish, credulous, and confiding, grossly ignorant of their political condition, as of the nature and tendency of the changes which were sought for, they implicitly obeyed the mandates of the dark and ruthless traitor to whom they had committed the destinies of their unhappy country.

To the chiefs of the revolt it must be owned that the contest may not have appeared to be of so desperate a character as we have represented it. They had still something to gain: they may have hoped by intimidation from the trimming policy and compliant temper of the Government: they saw the country left to the defence of a very small and widely-dispersed body of troops: they had much to expect from the effects of radical sympathy in England, France, and the United States; and with the democrats of the latter countries they were certainly in communication; and might reasonably expect to find, as they U. S. JOURN. No. 115, JUNE, 1838.

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have found, a treasury and an arsenal, with officers and men in both, ready to support their cause ! They saw the approach of a polar winter, cutting off, as they supposed, all the external resources of the colony, and giving them immense advantage from their numbers and extended plan of operations over a mere handful of troops, ill prepared, and unaccustomed to contend, in active warfare, with the severity of such a climate. In a word, the conspirators could never hope to be again in possession of so fair a field of action as was now presented to them; and in entering boldly on the contest, they calculated confidentlyevents have proved how justly-that the first success would bring them such reinforcements from beyond the frontier as would put their cause out of immediate danger, and eventually drag the States into the quarrel. To her troops and their energetic leader England is alone indebted for the prevention of these disastrous consequences! The sword has again redeemed the errors of the pen, and vindicated the insulted majesty of the laws!

We do not mean by these remarks to hold her Majesty's present Ministers responsible for that mistaken policy towards Canada which has led to such deplorable results. In its general scope and application their policy was substantially the same as that adopted by the last two Tory administrations which preceded them, and which had recently received the sanction and approval of the Imperial Parliament. But to them does assuredly attach the blame of having followed out that system long after it had ceased to hold out a prospect of success, and of having persevered in it until conciliation was mistaken for weakness, and a hostile combination formed, subversive of the sovereignty of the country.

We have for years past watched attentively the progress of events in Canada. We have seen concession after concession made-made unwisely, and in vain to the lust for power of a dominant republican faction-hostile to our laws, our institutions, and our race! We have seen her Majesty's Government, her representative, her people and her Parliament, treated by a knot of factious demagogues with scorn, insult, and contempt! We have seen demands put forth and resolutely insisted on in a British colony totally incompatible with British supremacy and connexion; and it grieves us to add, we have seen these revolutionary and seditious demands gravely entertained and calmly investigated by a British Government! This was carrying conciliation and forbearance far beyond the farthest barrier of the constitution! The result has been a civil war!

Let us take a short review of the several stages of this extraordinary struggle for ascendency between a mild, paternal Government and a people enjoying as much real freedom, and as entire an exemption from the burthens of taxation, as any nation on the globe. It has been said that the seeds of this revolt may be found in the constitutional act of 1791; and it was certainly a bold if not a hazardous experiment to entrust a representative system, upon so broad a basis, to a conquered people, wholly uneducated and untrained to constitutional privileges, brought up in feelings of deep-rooted hostility towards us, and in habits and customs adapted to the despotic rule to which they had been previously subjected. But it was not unreasonably presumed by the great and generous framer of the Canadian “ Bill of Rights" that so noble a concession would for ever conciliate the affections of these new subjects

of the Crown; and but for some of the provisions which accompanied the splendid gift, such as the retention of French laws, language, &c., there is reason to conclude that, under firm and steady government, a measure so worthy of success might have secured the lasting peace and prosperity of the colony. That the system worked well for many years has not been questioned or denied; and the conduct of the Canadians during the last American war might alone suffice to prove that they were happy and contented with their lot. How comes it then that a few short years have worked so dire a change in the feelings of this once loyal people? Their rights or privileges have never been invaded, and their institutions have been expanded, if not improved, to an extent that marks the ready acquiescence of the Government in every wish that might with safety be conceded. But here, as elsewhere, the declamations of a hardened band of political adventurers have been mistaken in Downing Street for the voice of the people, and by pandering to these demagogues an absolute dictatorship was erected in the province-a power above the law, whose will speedily became absolute over an ignorant and infatuated peasantry, and whose inordinate ambition and unrelenting hatred of British dynasty has been gradually preparing the public mind for that crisis, which was to produce the separation of the colony from its kind and too indulgent parent and protectress.

The first serious differences between the local Executive and the House of Assembly grew out of the stoppage of the Parliamentary grants, voted in support of the civil establishment of the province: the application to the Assembly for the means of supplying the deficiency being met by a demand for the surrender of the Crown revenues, which to a certain extent still secured the necessary independence of the judges and the officers of the Government, and over which the House now, for the first time, asserted a right of appropriation and control. From this hour peace and harmony, as well as mutual confidence between the several branches of the Legislature, ceased to exist in Lower Canada; and it may be with truth affirmed that these paltry financial squabbles, in connexion with the provision of a respectable and permanent civil list from colonial resources, have been the fertile source and leading cause of all the troubles and dissensions which have occurred in British North America.

We are not disposed to go into any lengthened examination of the yielding policy that has for some time past obtained in Downing-street, in reference to the casual and territorial revenues of the Crown, which had long been the only, or, at least, the most efficient check upon popular encroachment, and upon the wanton and tyrannical exercise of the ill-understood, and in the hands of ignorant or seditious men, the dangerous power of stopping the supplies, as a means of coercing the two first branches of the legislature.

The right advanced by, and conceded to, the Houses of Assembly, of controlling and appropriating the proceeds of the Royal domain, or, as it is termed, the wild lands of the Crown, appears to us to be as unsound in theory, as it will be found mischievous in practice. Even in the American Union this right has never been conceded to the people who inhabit the territories" of the Republic, until these great portions of the federal association attain a certain population, and, arriving at

maturity, assume the character of "sovereign and independent States." How absurd, then, to grant such privileges to a " dependent colony!" The difficulties of this question are, however, supposed to have been obviated by the stipulation for a moderate permanent Civil List, in exchange for the Crown revenues; but we have seen enough of the temper and proceedings of colonial assemblies to cause some apprehension, that this arrangement, however permanent its nature, however moderate in amount, will not prevent periodical discussions in regard to it, or save the public functionaries, who are dependent on it, from the invidious and painful consequences-wholly destructive of all proper respect towards them-of having their merits, services, and salaries frequently canvassed, with as much warmth and as pernicious an effect as if these salaries were subject to annual revision, and drawn direct from the pockets of the people. Well indeed if worse do not ensue, and the fluctuations of the ceded revenue and its probable ultimate decrease become a new reason for insisting on a corresponding reduction of the Civil List. Be this as it may, the quiet working of our colonial institutions now rests upon the frail security which the maintenance of sound constitutional principles, by popular bodies not being remarkable for wisdom or discretion, may afford. To us it seems that there is one essential distinction between colonial and metropolitan government, which has been wholly overlooked in these financial arrangements; and that in remunerating from local funds a Governor exercising delegated powers, and responsible for his acts only to his Sovereign and the Imperial Parliament, the natural dependence of the colony upon the parent State has been materially impaired. While the Crown revenues remained at the disposal of the Sovereign, this growing evil was kept down: now, wherever they have been resigned, they are considered only as part and parcel of the general income of the colony, upon which certain useless and idle functionaries are suffered to fatten and grow rich.

So far, indeed, has petty parsimony and the retrenching mania been carried, that we see General Officers sent to command the troops on foreign stations whose military sevices are defrayed from the reduced emoluments of their civil appointments. The very reverse of this would have been more befitting the character of England, and more in accordance with her interests. Her General Officers sent to command and govern in her colonies should be paid liberally in their military capacity, and rendered wholly independent of the civil emoluments of office. Had this plan been adopted, and the royal revenues been reserved, we should never, perhaps, have heard of a Canadian rebellion, which promises to swallow up, in a few short months, all the clippings and parings of the last ten years.

The proceedings of the Canada Committee of 1828 are too generally known to require more than a brief notice here. Its Report contained recommendations for the redress of every real and alleged grievance existing in the colony, as submitted to Parliament in a petition from the Provincial Assembly, and sustained by the oral testimony of delegates from that body. This Report was received by the unanimous voice of the Assembly as an infallible guide to the full and satisfactory adjustment of every known grievance existing in the colony, and it was hoped that a safe and sufficient measure had at length been indicated for the removal of every cause of Canadian discontent. Encouraged with